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The French Revolution should be a case study in a class on how good intentions can lead to disastrous results. 

Instead, it is widely celebrated–a national holiday in France–and the French Revolution became the model for leftist politics. Not every subsequent political disaster can be traced to the malign influence of the Jacobin experiment in utopianism, but a good fraction of them can be. 

Today is Bastille Day, a French national holiday that commemorates the Storming of the Bastille in 1789.

The crowd busted down the doors of the prison fortress to free French guards they believed had been imprisoned for refusing to fire on the people, but instead only found… pic.twitter.com/UCQejwgpyC

— Flappr (@flapprdotnet) July 14, 2025

The crowd busted down the doors of the prison fortress to free French guards they believed had been imprisoned for refusing to fire on the people, but instead only found seven prisoners – four counterfeiters, two mentally ill men and a sexual deviant imprisoned at the behest of his own family.

The fall of the Ancien Régime was inevitable, and rightly so. It was morally and financially bankrupt, and whatever complaints the colonists in the 13 colonies had paled in comparison to what the French endured in the badly mismanaged and corrupt kingdom of France. 

But while France badly needed to rationalize its regime and model it more along the American or even British styles of government, what they wound up with was mob rule and the Terror–and a world war that set Europe on fire in the name of “liberty.” About 2.5 million people died in the Napoleonic Wars, which began as France’s attempt to spread their revolution, and all the horrors of communism have their origins in the French Revolution, on which communist regimes relied as a model. 

The American experiment is 250 years in, while the French are on their Fifth Republic. 

The American left has picked up the banner of the sans-culottes and the Jacobins. On this Bastille Day, you can even get a nice discount on the left-wing Jacobin Magazine’s subscriptions. 

The current explosion of violence on the left is rooted in the same ideology as the Jacobins, who believed that the current order needed to be wiped away–including all those “bad” people whose only crime was disagreeing with them. The terror began by wiping out the old regime, but continued because utopia was always just one more round of murder away.

Taylor Lorenz on Luigi Mangioni: “Here’s this man who, who’s a revolutionary, who’s famous, who’s handsome, who’s young, who’s smart — he’s a person that seems like a morally good man, which is hard to find.”pic.twitter.com/jnlnOAfqkP

— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) April 13, 2025

We are seeing the same impulses today. An “assassination culture” has sprung up in America, with leftists celebrating Luigi Mangione, crowing when people in Texas died in the floods, and constituents demanding that Democratic Congressmen give them blood in the streets. 

“There needs to be blood”: Democrats’ voters tell them to “get shot” in Trump resistance push https://t.co/tqOWVnFshu

— Axios (@axios) July 7, 2025

Rutgers University did a survey of Americans, only to discover that more than half of Democrats thought that assassinating Donald Trump would be at least “somewhat justified.” Is it any wonder that two assassins took their shot at glory?

SURVEY: 55% Of Self-Identified Leftists Say Killing Trump Is Justifiablehttps://t.co/fCCPuBbCLR

— The Federalist (@FDRLST) April 7, 2025

Leftists are trying to recreate their version of Bastille Day to kick off a modern American Revolution along the lines of the French Revolution. 

That one didn’t end well, and neither would this one. 

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There was a kind of hilarious article last week that I had up in our headlines section. I forget what sort of snarky comment I’d added to the headline for it, but what it boiled down to was pissy progressives packing up and moving to the Netherlands because TRUMP.

Number Of ‘Trumpugees’ Leaving America Continues to Rise

A week ahead of a crucial Supreme Court decision which delivered yet another blow to the United States’ transgender community on Monday, Grover Wehman-Brown was in the midst of packing ahead of their big move to Europe.

Since President Donald Trump’s first electoral victory in 2016, Wehman-Brown, a transgender writer and consultant, had noticed that things were changing in the country: the public opinion on LGBTQ+ rights was quickly turning. In the months leading up to November last year, they became sure: the U.S. was no longer a country where their nontraditional, LGBTQ+ family could thrive, or even feel welcome.

In the days leading up to their planned move to the Netherlands came yet more confirmation of their fears. With a 6-3 vote, a majority of the Supreme Court justices ruled on June 18 that Tennessee could bar trans youth from accessing puberty blockers and hormone therapy. On June 30, the court ruled to throw out judicial decisions that favored transgender people in cases from North Carolina, West Virginia, Idaho and Oklahoma.

Yes, life is so intolerable here that the Netherlands is the only viable alternative to hell on Earth.

I recalled this article this morning with another round of smirking when I read the latest news out of the woke af Netherlands, and I do hope all the Trumpugees, as they’ve dubbed themselves, have a whale of a good time living in what is basically the California of Euorpe…only without a decent beach.

A big investigative series by the Financial Times dropped about the state of the Dutch electrical grid, and I hope the Trumpugees brought candles, thick bankies for that damp, cold winter, and solar lanterns to read The Atlantic by.

They’re going to need them.

Netherlands RATIONS electricity as country struggles to cope with turning away from gas

The Netherlands is rationing electricity as its overloaded power grid buckles under the pressure of rapid electrification and ambitious climate goals.

More than 11,900 businesses are stuck in a queue for access to the network, alongside public buildings including hospitals, schools and fire stations. 

Thousands of new homes are also waiting to be connected, with some areas warned they may have to wait until the 2030s.

The crisis has emerged as the country scrambles to cut carbon emissions. 

And now experts are warning that Britain, as well as Belgium and Germany, are all ‘in trouble.’

Three years ago, I was already telling you how the Dutch grid was in such dire shape that the government was asking residents to limit their showers to five minutes, while keeping the fall and winter thermostats during the day to  66°F and the nighttime temperature at 59°F.

All of this at the same time that the Dutch government was shutting down the largest natural gas field in Europe, the Ukraine War, Russian gas cut-off, energy blackouts, or no.

The climate cult uber alles.

The Groningen gas field in the Netherlands is vast. It’s the largest in the European Union, and one of the 10 biggest in the world. Its available reserves of about 450 billion cubic meters are equivalent to all the EU’s needs for one year.

It’s exactly the kind of precious (if non-renewable) economic resource that would normally be front and center in an energy crisis like the one afflicting the region today. Every molecule of gas counts at a time when Europe is scrambling to cut its ties to Russia — source of about 40% of the EU’s gas consumption — by chasing new suppliers, investing in renewables, curbing demand and wringing existing sources dry.

But that’s not what’s happening. Groningen production is actually being wound down with a view to halting it next year, part of a long-standing pledge to address earthquake risks and environmental damage. (Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij BV, a venture of Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp., operates the field and is bound by current production limits. The Dutch state is a co-owner.)

More windmills have not been the answer, surprise. Not that the Dutch government hasn’t tried to get some up offshore. It’s that no one wants to buy the leases or build them at the moment.

For all the gobs of billions of dollars in the industry, there’s not enough money in it to take the chance on another project, even in green-grift-addled Europe. They’re going to try to have another lease offering in October since the one this spring fell through with no takers. The government will, of course, have to sweeten that pot. So weird how that works.

…The deteriorating market conditions require a Government that helps the market through this phase. The Government is therefore working on an action plan for offshore wind energy that can improve the investment climate for offshore wind and at the same time the investment climate for electrification by its customers. For the period from 2027 onwards, financial support instruments will also be considered, such as a minimum and maximum price guarantee (Contract for Difference).

The pace-setting Dutch Green government is all about the wind industry and not a thing about the Dutch consumer.

Which is what has gotten them between a rock and the proverbial hard place – aka reality.

…Dutch infrastructure struggles under electrification pressure. The Netherlands moved fastest among European nations to electrify critical economic sectors after ending production at its Groningen gasfield in 2023. More than 2.6 million Dutch homes now feature solar panels on rooftops, while companies accelerated their transition away from gas following the EU’s energy price crisis in 2022. The rapid shift exposed infrastructure vulnerabilities that had developed over decades of gas dependency.

“The country had been so used to relying on its gas resources that power grid upgrades had not kept pace,” Tennet, the national power grid operator, acknowledged. The resulting bottlenecks create some of the highest electricity costs in western Europe, with monthly prices roughly €30 per megawatt hour higher than France this year.

Investment requirements reveal the scale of the challenge. The Dutch government estimates €200 billion in investment for cables and new substations through 2040. Some funding will come from Tennet’s German power grid sale to private investors, valued at approximately €20 billion. However, the majority must be covered through asset amortization, with consumers bearing the cost through tariff increases averaging 4.3% to 4.7% annually until 2034.

Yay! Consumers get boned again!

It’s not like Dutch utility rate payers weren’t also well out ahead of their European peers in the pay-through-the-nose-for-less category.

Nice of their rulers to keep them that way.

The first country in Europe has begun to ration electricity, and this may soon become the norm for other countries.

Thousands of businesses and homes are waiting to be connected to the Dutch system.

Forcing rationing of power. Slava EU pic.twitter.com/pDyG4cHD4x

— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) July 13, 2025

All of these countries are vying for the AI centers, and none of them remotely have the power or potential to even begin to take advantage of the technology and the data center explosions coming with it. And, Lordy – who wants to pay that tab?

…Connection queues reveal system strain. The Netherlands faces up to 10-year wait times for new data center connections, the longest among surveyed jurisdictions. Germany experiences up to 7-year delays, while the United Kingdom faces 5-7 year queues. Ireland has paused new data center connections in Dublin until 2030. These delays reflect broader European infrastructure limitations as AI demands accelerate.

Grid congestion costs multiply across markets. Between 2019 and 2022, congestion management costs tripled in Germany, the United States, and Great Britain. The Netherlands experienced a sixfold increase during the same period. Despite decreasing natural gas prices reducing some costs, congestion volumes continue increasing across European markets.

Natural gas prices have fallen, but when your grid is unreliable renewables-dependent, that doesn’t help you, does it?

Great planning there while you save the world.

As far as the current rationing, Dutch authorities are on top of the situation.

…Officials are responding to the issue in the Netherlands, as usual, by tinkering around the edges—for example, by asking consumers to charge their electric bikes and cars outside of peak times.

That should help. ‘Peak times’ is when everyone is home and the only time they’d have to charge their scooter, so…yeah.

In a desperate move, the government has legalized those itty-bitty, kid-sized scooters, and the Dutch are not happy with it. 

The first mini electric scooters, known as “steps” in Dutch, have been licenced for use on Dutch roads and are already being spotted in Amsterdam, the Parool reported at the weekend.

So far, only e-scooters from one brand have been cleared for use by the vehicle licencing authority. Users must be over 16, the scooters may not exceed 25kph, and helmets are not compulsory. Each scooter must also be fitted with a blue number plate.

The Dutch capital is unhappy about the arrival of the scooters on Amsterdam’s bike lanes and roads, and city transport chief Melanie van der Horst said she is looking into measures to keep them out.

“In Belgium, someone is taken to a hospital emergency department every eight hours because of an accident involving a scooter,” she told the Parool. “That is not something to look forward to here.”

Hey! You’re saving the planet! Kwicher bitchin’!

Now, follow along with me here. The gobsmacking thing is that you don’t have to wear a helmet on these tiny death mobiles, but they’re licensed for the road. Which is something – the actual pavement – your entire body is very close to as you’re balanced on one of these as cars go zipping by.

What if – this is a hypothetical, of course – it’s just one more Malthusian-inspired, globalist plan to rid the world of a few more unwanted, resource-devouring bodies?

Don’t need a shower if you’re dead.

Nah.

Forget I mentioned it.

They’d never think that way.

Welp – hope those turncoat wussy Yanks are lovin’ it there.

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You might be forgiven for believing that Hamas did nothing to provoke Israel’s war on it if your only source of information about the conflict were the United Nations. 

After a comprehensive investigation spanning a year and a half, the NGO has concluded that the culprit for all the death and destruction is…capitalism and settler colonialism. 

A recent U.N. Human Rights Council report engages in Ivy League grad student-level idiocy to blame the war in Gaza on capitalism. https://t.co/Zs45i4x24J

— reason (@reason) July 14, 2025

This conclusion, by now, is pretty standard fare within our intellectual and cultural elite, who can’t seem to wrap their minds around the fact that some cultures (other than those inhabited by white people) are sick beyond measure. 

We can rest easily, folks: The inaptly named United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has closely examined the aftermath of Hamas’ attack on Israel and found the culprit: It was settler colonialism and capitalism what done it! In a masterful mishmash of leftist gibberish, the report assumes Israel’s culpability and combines antisemitism with hostility to free markets. The report should make Americans happy that the U.S. has disengaged from the UNHRC and bears no responsibility for its actions.

Forget Hamas, It’s All About Settler-Colonialism and Racial Capitalism

“The role of corporate entities in sustaining the illegal Israeli occupation and its ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza is the subject of the present investigative report, which is focused on how corporate interests underpin the Israeli settler-colonial twofold logic of displacement and replacement aimed at dispossessing and erasing Palestinians from their lands,” asserts Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, in the introduction to the July 3 report. The document concludes, in part: “The enduring ideological, political and economic engine of racial capitalism has transformed the Israeli displacement-replacement economy of occupation into an economy of genocide.”

The name “Hamas” does not appear in the executive summary of the report, nor in the report itself. I am not joking–you can read the report yourself. 

It is insane, but then again, this is the United Nations Human Rights Council, which inhabits a universe in which Iran is considered a proper judge of how human rights should be implemented. 

Albanese and her staff elide any events during October 2023 that might have precipitated a change in policy by Israel towards Gaza, and they wave away any possible hostility towards Jews. Of course, Albanese herself was the subject of a 2024 report from Geneva-based watchdog group UN Watch that found she is ill-disposed towards Israel and most of its inhabitants. Titled Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing: Why Democracies Should Sanction UN Rapporteur Francesca Albanese For Propagating Antisemitism and Supporting Terrorism, that report documented a series of concerning facts about Albanese. These include her accusation that the United States has been “subjugated by the Jewish lobby”; that her husband, who compares Palestinians to Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, formerly worked for the Palestinian Authority; that in her role as a U.N. official, she told attendees at a Hamas-organized conference “you have a right to resist this occupation”; and that she responded to Hamas’s October 7 atrocities by insisting “today’s violence must be put in context.”

Based on her conduct, statements, and connections, the UN Watch report found that “Francesca Albanese knowingly supports Hamas and other terrorist groups.”

That Francesca Albanese was named the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 tells you everything you need to know about how corrupt the United Nations is. She is a virulent antisemite, sympathetic to terrorists, and speaks like a professor from Columbia. 

Here’s the introduction of the report, just to give you a flavor:

Colonial endeavours and associated genocides have historically been driven and enabled by the corporate sector, Commercial interests have contributed to the dispossession of Indigenous people of their lands  – a mode of domination known as “colonial racial capitalism”.

The same is true of Israeli colonization of Palestinian lands, its expansion into the occupied Palestinian territory, and its institutionalization of a regime of settler-colonial apartheid.

After denying Palestinian self-determination for decades, Israel is now imperiling the very existence of the Palestinian people in Palestine. The role of corporate entities in sustaining the illegal Israeli occupation and its ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza is the subject of the present investigative report, which is focused on how corporate interests underpin the Israeli settler-colonial twofold logic of displacement and replacement aimed at dispossessing and erasing Palestinians from their lands. 

The Special Rapporteur discusses corporate entities in various sectors: arms manufacturers, tech firms, building and construction companies, extractive and service industries, banks, pension funds, insurers, universities, and charities. These entities enable the denial of self-determination and other structural violations in the occupied Palestinian territory, including occupation, annexation and crimes of apartheid and genocide, as well as a long list of ancillary crimes and human rights violations, from discrimination, wanton destruction, forced displacement and pillage to extrajudicial killing and starvation. Had proper human rights due diligence been undertaken, corporate entities would have long ago disengaged from Israeli occupation. 

Instead, post-October 2023, corporate actors have contributed to the acceleration of the displacement-replacement process throughout the military campaign that has pulverized Gaza and displaced the largest number of Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967. 

While it is impossible to fully capture the scale and extent of decades of corporate connivance in the exploitation of the occupied Palestinian territory, the present report exposes the integration of the economies of settler-colonial occupation and genocide. In it, the Special Rapporteur calls for accountability for corporate entities and their executives at both the domestic and international levels: commercial endeavours enabling and profiting from the obliteration of innocent people’s lives must cease. Corporate entities must refuse to be complicit in human rights violations and international crimes or be held to account.

Did you notice anything missing? By this account, Israel–out of the blue–started destroying Gaza for no reason other than its evil capitalist desire to steal the land, and corporations apparently wanted their piece of the action. 

Hamas released a video showing them digging up Gaza’s water pipes and electricity lines—to turn them into rockets.

If you’re upset about Gaza’s lack of power or water, direct your outrage where it belongs: at Hamas. pic.twitter.com/bcW6n5EsWi

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) July 12, 2025

In response to Albanese’s ridiculous report, Marco Rubio did something amazing: slapped sanctions on her. 

After Albanese’s latest mischief, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded, “Albanese has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West.” He noted that “she has recently escalated this effort by writing threatening letters to dozens of entities worldwide, including major American companies across finance, technology, defense, energy, and hospitality, making extreme and unfounded accusations and recommending the [International Criminal Court] pursue investigations and prosecutions of these companies and their executives.”

Rubio’s statement imposed sanctions on Albanese of the sort detailed in an earlier executive order. They include “blocking of property and assets, as well as the suspension of entry into the United States.” Were Albanese a garden-variety bigot and hater of free markets, sanctions would be an excessive reaction to hateful speech. But she’s a U.N. official: Her pronouncements help shape government policy. The sanctions, then, are a matter of conflict between the U.S. government and a hostile state actor.

Good. But not quite enough. The United States should withhold funds from the United Nations until it repudiates efforts to bully US corporations to do its will. If the United Nations is hostile to capitalism and threatening US corporations, we should return the favor by cutting off its funds to do so. 

The US is the largest contributor to the United Nations, funding 22% of its general operating funds and 26% of its peacekeeping operations. 

Turnabout is fair play. 

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After a week of vacation on an Alaskan cruise out of Vancouver, my adorable wife, along with two other  couples that are very good friends returned to Southern California Sunday. We had not seen a lick of news, the first time I’ve unplugged like that in years. We saw orca whales, humpback whales, dozens of otters, a leopard seal feasting on the remains of one of the first salmon returning home to Ward Creek in Ketchikan, three glaciers, one that was calving a little bit, and all sorts of fun and food. 

We spent most of the day Saturday back in Vancouver waiting for the flight home, and hadn’t had a burger all week. So I Googled the best burgers in the city, and the top two were immediately ruled out. They were both hotel restaurant brunchy burgers, not a true burger joint. In third place was DownLow Burgers in a joint called the American Hotel. If there was a hotel there, I didn’t see it. It looked like a pool hall that made burgers to help wash down the beer. But we decided to be adventurous and took the Sky Train a couple stops east, and walked a couple blocks. We definitely were on the seedier side of town, but kept our eyes on the prize. And we hit paydirt. The burgers were out of this world, our waitress was absolutely adorable when we told her we came all the way from California to try these burgers. She was astounded, until I admitted truthfully it was the burgers…and an Alaskan cruise. 

On the way back to the train, we passed a couple cannabis dispensaries, which seemed to be the congregation point of some of Vancouver’s residents without access to either housing or bathrooms. Urine has a familiar smell in all seasons, but takes on a special pungency above 70 degrees, which is normal for the city this time of year. We meandered over to the Gastown district, featuring the world’s first steam-powered public clock by the waterfront, and noticed that it was also not as gentrified as previously advertised, because of the predictable results of the ubiquitous cannabis stores on every other street.

Which brings me to California. The societal decay from the legalization of pot is on display in the Golden State, along with every other state that has decided to legally partake, despite what federal law has to say about it. There is simply no place in America that has legalized pot that can honestly report that crime, drug use, and homelessness has gone down. It hasn’t. In the decade preceding legalization of pot in California, homelessness statewide decreased from 140,000 to 110,00. But post-2016, when the Golden State began going up in reefer smoke, there has been a 42% increase in people living on the streets. Mental illness cases have skyrocketed, and there are 53% more emergency room visits that are cannabis-related. Youth use of pot has increased, and the black market legalization was intended to wipe out has more than doubled. It’s been a disaster everywhere you look by any measure, unless you’re Governor Gavin Newsom and the Democrats. It’s been pretty good for business and political donations. 

When Border Czar Tom Homan began appearing on television during the transition period of President-Elect Trump in late 2024, he promised he was going to do three things beginning on January 20th – he was going to close the border, he was going to round up and deport the most violent and dangerous of the illegal aliens Joe Biden let wander all across the country, and he was going to begin to locate the hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors the Biden administration lost. Many of those minors were feared absorbed into the illicit sex trade, while others were being used as forced child labor. Here’s what Homan said was coming back in December. 

Homan has already accomplished the first mission. The border is closed as tight as Sheldon Whitehouse’s club membership committee. And felons by the planeloads are being returned to countries of origin, third-party countries willing to accept them if their home countries won’t take them, or to prisons domestically until their path out of the country can be arranged. 

On Friday, a national story out of a couple marijuana fields in Camarillo put a face on the rescuing children part of the operation. With warrants in hand after a federal investigation, Glass House Farms was raided Friday, with as many as ten minors here illegally working the fields. 

Gavin Newsom was pissed. Okay, he was in South Carolina, one of the three early primary states in 2028, running for president. But he was still angry, and posted this video in a desperate move to frame the government as coming there to seize the children. 

The problem, of course, is that the feds were not removing kids from their poor mothers in the fields. They were rescuing kids smuggled into the country that somehow had became slave labor. Even under California’s very relaxed marijuana laws, there still is a law on the books that says you cannot work in this industry under the age of 21. Some of the kids rescued were as young as 14. 

Newsom, along with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and most of the other elected Democrats in this state, have been at the forefront of resistance against enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws. They demand, and continue to encouraging protests, to maintain the Golden State’s sanctuary status. Democrats continue to F around, and now they’re finding out. And so are we.

Let me put on my shocked face to discover that the owner of the child labor camp growing and harvesting pot, Graham Farrar, is a major donor to both Newsom and Democrats up and down the state.  You have to ask the question, if Newsom was this exposed to such an obvious violation of child labor law, and yet he still poked the bear, believing he was going to out-bully the President of the United States, what did he think would end up happening? 

Donald Trump has now added another notch to the belt of things I did not believe he could get Democrats to do. Now, they’re in favor of keeping the status quo on cannabis farms. They are defending forced child labor. This is Oxnard Mayor Luis McArthur:

Jimmy Gomez is a Democrat Congressman from Los Angeles, currently serving on the House Ways and Means Committee.

Tom Homan reminded people that kids were being saved here, and it’s not the first time some of Biden’s missing children have been found. 

“Look, we’re looking for over 300,000 missing children. We’ve already found 10,000 Have you heard that anywhere?”—Tom Homan on the weed farm raid and finding 8 unaccompanied children.

Credit: @KarluskaP pic.twitter.com/4Db7AqZhw1

— Libby Emmons (@libbyemmons) July 11, 2025

Remember former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her mission for the children…that is, those children that don’t get aborted on demand up to the point of delivery? 

Nancy Pelosi: “My whole mission in politics is about the children.”

pic.twitter.com/zBIvjKbI8N

— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) May 23, 2025

It’s always about the children for her. 

Nancy Pelosi calls to vote no on the OBBB — “and throw a punch for the children.” pic.twitter.com/UR5Var2Yvp

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) July 2, 2025

Unless, of course, they’re not out in the fields picking buds where they belong and harshing her mellow in front of a TV camera.

Nancy Pelosi ELBOWS the little daughter of new GOP Congresswoman Mayra Flores — what a witch. pic.twitter.com/nTLrUhEJbp

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 26, 2022

Pelosi in a 2020 House COVID recovery bill defended her cannabis carveout as “therapy”. 

PELOSI on cannabis provisions in House coronavirus bill:

“I don’t agree that cannabis is not related to this.”

House Democrats are continuing to try and push unrelated COVID-19 wish-list items. All of them should be taken out. pic.twitter.com/3yYf8QSv0r

— Senate Republican Communications Center (@SRCC) July 31, 2020

I suppose she doesn’t see these unaccompanied minors being forced to work the pot crops as child labor. She sees them as generational therapeutic facilitators. 

There you go. Democrats are now the official sponsor of child labor camps. They refuse to dignify the term illegal with a response, so legal child labor, illegal child labor, what difference at this point does it make? How long before Democrats become the conduit for Uyghur relocation from China’s Xinjiang Province to the States so that we can pick up the slack in the Mary Jane supply chain? 

I’m sorry I came back from Alaska. Oh, sure, the politics up north are just as goofy as down here in the lower 48, and they have their share of problems from loco weed fallout as well. But it’s such an enormous state that the stupidity index, like their population, is much less dense. Alaska is just not as concentrated in dumb as it is in Southern California.

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… or else it’s going to get personal as well as financial. Donald Trump has shifted on his approach to the Russian invasion of Ukraine after six months of attempting to incentivize Vladimir Putin into honest talks to end the war. Over the last couple of weeks, Trump has reinstated weapons shipments previously held up to Ukraine and spoken in clearly unhappy terms with Putin’s refusal to work toward an end to hostilities, and he’s been getting more vocal about it of late.

Today, he made his personal displeasure known:

Trump on Putin:

“I go home and I tell the First Lady, ‘you know I spoke to Putin today, we had a wonderful conversation,’ she says ‘oh really? Another [Ukrainian] city was just hit.’” pic.twitter.com/pj6C7oEWor

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) July 14, 2025

Trump had put a lot of effort into claiming that he could talk Putin into peace. These remarks strongly suggest that Trump has taken offense at Putin’s refusal to meaningfully engage, and Trump has decided enough is enough. Not only will the US retaliate with sanctions and tariffs, Trump declared today, but the US will supply NATO with both defensive and offensive weapons that NATO can then give to Ukraine, if they so choose:

President @realDonaldTrump: “We are very, very unhappy with [Russia], and we’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100%.” pic.twitter.com/A4buqgu27a

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) July 14, 2025

President Trump threatened new tariffs on Russia and turned up the pressure on two of America’s largest trading partners. U.S. stocks were little changed.

The U.S. will impose tariffs of up to 100% on Russia if it doesn’t agree to halt hostilities in Ukraine within 50 days, Trump said Monday.

Separately, the European Union said it would hold off on retaliatory tariffs after Trump threatened to slap 30% tariffs on EU and Mexican goods. EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said he intended to speak with his U.S. counterparts Monday.

The US does not do a lot of business with Russia, especially since the start of the war. Most American businesses pulled out of Russia in 2022, and trade between the US and Russia is relatively low. Retaliatory tariffs by the EU would be more significant, especially given Russia’s need for hard currency and Europe’s need for cheap energy. The much bigger problem for Putin will come with the renewed and intensified arms transfers to Ukraine, via proxy or not:

President Donald Trump announced Monday that NATO allies will finance the purchase of air defense systems and other weapons for Ukraine, his most significant move yet to support Kyiv in a war with Russia he’s long hoped to end.

The weapons, worth “billions of dollars,” will be built by the U.S. defense industry and financed by European countries, Trump said.

“We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons and they’re going to be paying for them,” Trump said, noting that NATO would coordinate the weapons transfers. “They feel strongly about it and we feel strongly about it, too. But we’re in it for a lot of money and we don’t want to do it anymore.”’

This arrangement is likely designed to mollify Trump’s more isolationist base, which has seen Ukraine as more of a corrupt part of the Biden family business, fairly or not. It gives the US a different orientation to the conflict, in which we act more as a paid supplier than an aid supplier, so to speak. It allows for increased production in the US — and new jobs as a result — while we more or less claim hands-off on the decision to send those systems to Ukraine. Of course, the US is the key leading nation of NATO, so Putin will likely see this as a distinction without a difference. 

That’s not the only risk Putin will run, either. Trump is talking about sending systems that Ukraine has not had in the past, including defensive systems like the Patriot anti-ballistic missile system. However, Trump is also readying offensive weapons that the US has held off on allowing Ukraine to use:

President Trump will announce a new plan to arm Ukraine on Monday that is expected to include offensive weapons, two sources with knowledge of the plans tell Axios.

Why it matters: Sending offensive weapons would be a major shift for Trump, who had until recently been at pains to say he would provide only defensive weapons to avoid escalating the conflict.

U.S., Ukrainian and European officials hope the weapons will shift the trajectory of the war and change Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calculations regarding a ceasefire.

Putin is likely to respond to that with his usual strategy of “escalating to de-escalate,” just as he often threatened while the Joe Biden Regency occupied the White House. At times, Putin hinted that he might use tactical nukes if Ukraine used offensive weapons that could reach Moscow, and that he might retaliate against the US and NATO. However, Putin has already been escalating over the last few months, using drones in massive waves to attack civilian targets in the Ukrainian rear. 

Now, of course, Putin is dealing with Trump, the author of Operation Midnight Hammer, not the authors of the Kabul bug-out. Trump just made clear that he will exercise American power to protect American interests without apology or even much of an explanation. He did that after giving Iran a 60-day deadline and waited twelve more days to drop the “midnight hammer,” which underscores the seriousness with which Trump takes his deadlines. Trump won’t use military action as part of his 50-day “or else,” but if Putin tries military retaliation as a response, Trump will clearly react in ways that Putin can’t afford. Trump’s decision to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities within months of taking office again sent a very clear message that has long been absent in US policy about the consequences of fooling around for very long. 

“Or else” finally means something again. Putin knows it, too. 

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2.1 million people live in Gaza, and a new judicial ruling in France gives every single one of them the right to move to France. 

If I were Bibi Netanyahu, I would buy every single one of them a plane ticket and wave goodbye as they took their free trip to Paris. If I were a Gazan, I would accept that free ticket and get on the first plane, hoping that the free room and board will allow me to enjoy my time there. 

Judge rules all Palestinians living in Gaza are eligible for asylum in Francehttps://t.co/prVXtxk2AB

— Human Events (@HumanEvents) July 14, 2025

The decision is absurd, of course, but perfectly consistent with the law. 

France’s top asylum court has ruled that all Palestinians living in Gaza are now eligible to apply for full refugee status, overturning a previous decision.

The National Court of Asylum (CNDA) issued the decision in response to an appeal from a Palestinian woman whose initial asylum request had been denied by France’s refugee authority, OFPRA.

The court found that Israeli military actions in Gaza meet the threshold for “persecution” under the 1951 Geneva Convention, qualifying the applicant—and by extension all Gazans—for refugee protection, according to JFEED.

While OFPRA had rejected the woman’s claim based on the absence of direct, personal persecution, the CNDA ruled that the conduct of war in Gaza is serious enough to constitute persecution on a group level.

This is Merkelism at its finest. Angela Merkel, we must admit, had a valid moral argument for opening the floodgates to accept the stream of refugees fleeing war in the Middle East. The danger to the refugees was real, unlike most of the asylees who have been admitted into the United States, just as it is undeniable that the war in Gaza has rendered some areas of Gaza unlivable. Whoever you blame–Israel or Hamas–the facts on the ground confirm that Gaza is a terrible place to live right now. 

Yes, but… 

French court rules all Gazans can seek asylum in France.

France’s National Court of Asylum (CNDA) has ruled that all Palestinians living in Gaza are now eligible to apply for full asylum status in France after ruling they are facing “persecution.”

This is how Gazans… pic.twitter.com/BtbPaEPMx2

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) July 14, 2025

The abstract arguments do not jibe with the realities of importing hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of refugees from a culture that has been plagued by war for generations. One that is steeped in antisemitic and genocidal ideology, has social norms that are grossly incompatible with Western Culture, and whose population is undeniably filled with sexual predators who will threaten French women. 

Not to mention the enormous financial cost that French taxpayers will be forced to pay. 

Syrian refugees have turned out to be a plague on Europe. That sounds harsh, and perhaps even racist–although I would contend that it is not race that is the problem, but the culture of the Middle East. Just as Pakistanis are disproportionately likely to commit sex crimes in Great Britain, other Middle Easterners are similarly inclined on the continent. 

Everybody knows this, but the governments of Europe work diligently to cover up the facts. The grooming gangs scandal in Britain went on for decades, and only did so because nobody in power wanted to confront the problem. 

Finland put this PSA out as a means of countering sexual assault from migrants.

I’m serious. You are to PoMo dance away the rape. 😵‍💫👶 Why is western society being led by braindead narcissists? pic.twitter.com/IoKyLOJ7dv

— Theo Jordan (@Theo_TJ_Jordan) April 18, 2024

Refugees are tearing European countries apart. Governments are raiding citizens–even throwing them in jail–for complaining about the problem. Muslims are marching in the streets calling for Sharia law, and crime is shooting through the roof. 

The elite want more of this for some reason. I can understand why the transnational elite dislike the hoi polloi; what I cannot understand is importing a hostile population to replace them. Do they really believe that their countries can remain wealthy and relatively peaceful when they import the entire Middle East into their midst?

Even the hostility toward Israel is a reflection of this suicidal impulse. European leaders, with few exceptions, blame Israel for not going quietly into the night. It is their responsibility to sit there and take it as homicidal maniacs rape, murder, and terrorize their citizens. 

I suppose you could applaud Europeans for practicing what they preach by offering themselves up for similar human sacrifice. 

A better solution is to recognize the reality that some cultures are incompatible with our own. The Muslims recognize that–this is why they want to establish Sharia law in European countries and are agitating to make it happen. 

Civilizations are much more fragile than we assume. They are built over centuries, and while they can be resilient to self-inflicted wounds, they aren’t so much when invaded from the outside. Turkey used to be Greek. The Roman Empire fell when the Germanic tribes became the dominant force in the region. Or, if you want to be anticolonialist about it, look at what happened when Europeans came to the Americas. 

It’s just a fact. You can be moralistic as you like about it, but the facts don’t lie. 

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The breaking news yesterday was grim again and involved a church, again.

In this instance, however, it wasn’t the religion being targeted; it was a specific individual who was supposed to normally be in the congregation of the tiny Baptist chapel on any given Sunday.

…”This church was a small church and the majority of the individuals there are biologically related in some way or another. If not, they’ve been friends for many, many years,” Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn said during the press conference. “They’re a very tight-knit group of people.”

The first reports were really chaotic, as you’d expect, but they shook out after just a few hours.

A Kentucky state trooper pulled over a vehicle near Lexington, Kentucky, on Terminal Drive near the airport. The trooper had gotten a license plate reader alert, and while talking to the vehicle occupant on the side of the road, the trooper was shot, and the driver fled.

…Larissa McLaughlin, who was at the airport with her husband, witnessed the beginning of the carnage while dropping off a rental car.

“It looked routine. He was outside talking to him through an open window,” McLaughlin told Lex 18. “And as we were driving by, I heard, ‘pop, pop’ and I knew it was gunshots.”

Shortly afterward, the driver carjacked another vehicle, and somehow officers were able to track that car to the Richmond Road Baptist Church, where arriving officers found that a number of churchgoers had been shot and grievously wounded. 

The officers on the scene immediately confronted the gunman and took him out.

At first, everyone thought from the scanty reports available that no one but the gunman had been killed and that he randomly dove into this little rural church for shelter from pursuit.

Sadly, both were proven horribly wrong.

There were two church ladies murdered at the scene. The deranged criminal fleeing police had come specifically to THAT place, knowing another of their relatives would be there, who was the mother of his children.

When it turned out she wasn’t, and he took his insane anger out on her mother and sister.

The gunman who killed two people and wounded three during a shooting rampage at a rural Kentucky church chillingly said, “Someone’s gonna have to die,” when he discovered the mother of his three children wasn’t there.

Beverly Gumm and her daughter, Star Rutherford, were in the basement of Richmond Road Baptist Church in Lexington on Sunday afternoon, preparing lunch for their congregation, when the shooter barged in demanding to speak with one of Rutherford’s sisters, the mother of his three kids, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

Rutherford and her mother told the gunman, identified as Guy House, that she wasn’t there.

The deranged shooter then told them, “Well, someone’s gonna have to die then,” and opened fire, Rutherford told the outlet.

Gumm — a 72-year-old mother of eight — was able to avoid the first shot by ducking out of the way, but was then struck in the chest by the second shot, killing her.

He then exited the church and shot and killed Rutherford’s other sister, Christina Combs, 34, outside.

He then shot the pastor and Mrs Combs’ husband, critically injuring both men before arriving law enforcement was able to neutralize him and end the carnage.

There is some speculation that it was over a custody dispute, with Mrs Rutherford and her daughters working to protect her daughter and her family by concealing their whereabouts, earning the murderer’s enmity.

We’ve heard about these sorts of situations before, and they tear your heart out.

But what really got my goat was wondering what this guy was doing rampaging across the countryside to begin with. Why wasn’t he in prison?

He was a felon with active warrants and gun three years ago, when he pulled this stunt.

Part of North Broadway just before the exit onto the I-64/ I-75 interchange in Lexington was shut down Sunday for several hours. It has since reopened.

A police spokesperson says just before 2 p.m. officers observed a subject known to have active warrants near the Ramada Inn on North Broadway.

When they attempted to make contact he was seen with a firearm and then fled into a wooded area at the intersection of North Broadway and I-75.

Several police units, including Lexington Police, Kentucky State Police and SWAT officials were on scene including a police helicopter flying overhead in the area. Negotiators were also called out and a perimeter was established.

Oh, yes. The same murderous Mr. House scampered around the area of the interstate interchange in Lexington, causing the entire freeway system to be shut down for almost five hours, and you can imagine the massive backup thanks to it.

When police finally caught up to and had him boxed in, they had to negotiate before he would surrender.

We now know the name man who police say caused a major backup on Interstate 75 on Sunday.

According to arrest citations, Guy House II is facing a long list of charges.

Police say they tried to arrest House around 2 p.m. Sunday near the Ramada Inn on North Broadway for outstanding warrants. When they made contact, they say officers saw he had a gun.

Officers say he ran off into a wooded area near North Broadway and the interstate. They shut down that area.

It took officers hours to negotiate with House. The roadway reopened just before 7 p.m.

House’s charges include possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and wanton endangerment of a police officer. House’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for this Friday, September 16.

I did not know some cities had a ‘Wanted of the Week’ award, but in Lexington, this scumbag was it. The local Fox station cuts off the report just as they began rattling off all of his previous run-ins with law enforcement.

‘

How was this guy not in prison for the weapons offense as a multiple convicted felon?

I mean, these booking shots go back to 2016 and they may have missed a couple. There are tons of probation violations and ‘record removals.’ I’m not sure what that means in legal terms – deals struck with prosecutors? 

As I said, I don’t know. 

But I do know he was already a convicted felon caught with a gun in 2022, who was able to murder two women only three years later.

Now, if you’re on X or any of the social media pouncy sites, there are as many purported photos of the turd in a keffiyeh as there are of him in a Confederate t-shirt, or with framed Trump/Vance portraits behind him.

I’m not falling for any of that crap, not even 24 hours later, and frankly, it’s beside the point. 

Two innocent women are dead, and others are critically injured, because the state of Kentucky and/or the local authorities in the Lexington area couldn’t put a psychotic animal behind bars for repeated offenses with a dangerous weapon.

If ever there was a ‘he was on our radar’ asshat, this guy’s been lighting up the screen for years.

But it’s your guns they want to take every single time they allow these creatures to kill.

Sure would be interesting to hear why the man was still walking and stalking the streets.

Beege ADDS:  I can’t find much about Fayette County District Attorney Angela Evans (tiniest bit on her ‘background in social work and government’ mentioned here), but I do see who endorsed her, which gives me the heebie jeebies. I can’t find any Soros connection yet.

In 2022, there was also quite a happy thrill running up the progressive legs in the Lexington area as they went on an equity tear through local government. They seemed really proud of it.

‘We’re opening doors.’ Lexington’s top 3 criminal justice jobs now held by people of color.

Lexington and the state of Kentucky took a long overdue step forward on Monday, when Gov. Andy Beshear appointed Kimberly Henderson Baird as Fayette Commonwealth Attorney.

…It’s an exciting if overdue moment for a city and state once ruled by Jim Crow segregation, particularly because Lexington’s top three criminal justice positions are now held by people of color: Angela Evans won the Democratic primary for Fayette County Attorney and starts Oct. 3, while Police Chief Lawrence Weathers has been in the job since 2018.

It’s important because we need more than white, male perspectives in all facets of our society, but particularly in a criminal justice system long plagued by racial inequities and discrimination.

…These jobs were filled by appointment, hiring and by election. Evans, notably, won the primary by a large majority over longtime incumbent Larry Roberts. Voters were clearly motivated by many issues, including Roberts’ prosecution of peaceful protesters from the Black Lives Matter marches of 2020. City leaders were motivated by those protests about racial injustice in many sectors of Lexington to create the Racial Justice and Equality Commission.

While robberies and assaults have been ticking up, murders in Lexington have been dropping over the past couple of years.

I don’t know if the deaths of these two poor ladies will ruin their count. I don’t know if the church is outside the city limits or not.

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Today’s deep answer: Of course not. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detains and arrests people, including those obstructing their legitimate enforcement actions. Neither the media nor the administration at a California state college can tell the difference, apparently.

Southern California TV station KTLA reported on the objections raised after the arrest of a Cal State Channel Islands instructor at a violent attempt to impede ICE’s raid of the Glass House Farms marijuana facility. KTLA reports that Jonathan Anthony Caravello was “detained,” while the California Faculty Association claimed he’d been “kidnapped”:

California State University Channel Islands is calling for the immediate release of one of their professors who was detained during a protest on Thursday.

The demonstration sprung up while federal officials conducted a raid at a Glass House Farms marijuana grow facility in Camarillo, not far from the CSUCI campus.  

At some point during the protest – which saw tear gas being deployed and dozens being handcuffed – Professor Jonathan Anthony Caravello was detained and taken from the scene.  

According to a social media post published Friday by the California Faculty Association, Professor Caravello was “kidnapped” by federal agents who didn’t provide any information to demonstrators.

It’s difficult to put into words how idiotic this excerpt is. Caravello was more than “detained”; he was arrested because he attacked ICE agents during the raid. US Attorney Bill Essayli made that clear later in the day, which one only finds out in the second-to-last paragraph of KTLA’s report. Essayli responded on Twitter:

Professor Jonathan Caravello was not “kidnapped” by federal agents. He was arrested for throwing a tear gas canister at law enforcement. He is charged with a violation of 18 USC 111 and will have a court appearance tomorrow. https://t.co/QrIivjrthd

— U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) July 13, 2025

For those who aren’t aware, interfering with law enforcement in nearly any way can be charged as a felony. That can be as simple as attempting to distract officers making arrests or conducting investigations. The statute in this case, 18 USC 111, is a far more serious charge because of the violence allegedly directed at ICE agents by Caravello. The base charge carries a maximum penalty of eight years in federal prison, but note well the “enhanced penalty” clause, emphasis mine:

(b)Enhanced Penalty.—

Whoever, in the commission of any acts described in subsection (a), uses a deadly or dangerous weapon (including a weapon intended to cause death or danger but that fails to do so by reason of a defective component) or inflicts bodily injury, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

Does tossing a tear-gas canister at ICE agents count as a “dangerous weapon”? YMMV, but I’d bet Essayli charges it as such to at least get the “enhanced penalty” on the table. Caravello won’t get a 20-year sentence, and likely not an eight-year sentence either as a (presumably) first offender, but he’d get some prison time if convicted. 

Get ready for even more stupidity about free speech and “authoritarianism,” but violent obstruction is not free speech. Americans have the right to protest government at all levels and all of its aspects, but only within lawful bounds. Those bounds do not include impeding law enforcement, and especially doesn’t include violent attacks on law enforcement. Even outside of a political demonstration, those acts will land people in jail and prison. Despite what the Left keeps claiming, violence and rioting are not “speech” and are actionable at all times, even though the previous administration rarely took action at all … except with the January 6 protesters/rioters. 

As a Cal State alum, it’s pretty disappointing to find out that the faculty association can’t make that distinction. Or doesn’t want to. Both options are pretty depressing. 

And let’s not forget why ICE showed up at the Glass House Farms operation in the first place. They found hundreds of illegal aliens violating the law by working at the farm, which they clearly anticipated when they got the criminal warrant for the raid. They also discovered at least 14 minors working the farm, which strongly suggests that they had been trafficked for labor purposes. But that’s not all ICE and Customs and Border Patrol found:

ICE and CBP arrested violent and dangerous criminal illegal aliens during the operation who were working at the marijuana site, including:

• Roman Izquierdo—an illegal alien from Mexico—who has been convicted of kidnapping, attempted rape and attempted child molestation. ICE previously deported him in 2006.
• Juan Duarte-Velasquez—an illegal alien from Mexico—who has been convicted of rape and a DUI.
• Jose Orellana—an illegal alien from El Salvador—who has been convicted of a DUI and a hit-and-run with property damage.
• Adriana Gonzalez-Gonzalez—an illegal alien from Mexico—who has been convicted three times for burglary and a DUI.

So Caravello was attacking law enforcement to protect child-labor trafficking, a couple of rapists, two drunk drivers and one of those also a thief, as well as a child molester. Oh, and just to put the cherry on top of the media/Left hyperbole, the child molester actually did kidnap someone and got convicted for it.  

When will KTLA report that? And when will the Cal State faculty start showing some concern about the kidnappers, rapists, and child molesters that ICE is trying to arrest and prosecute? 

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

Help us hold these leftists accountable and expose their obstruction. Join Hot Air VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.

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There is something really twisted about the way that many liberals think. 

I know that sounds harsh to my liberal friends, just as most of my conservative readers will say, “Well, duh.” 

But unlike many of you, who are even more cynical than I am, I still believe that most liberals are good people who trust the Pravda Media so much that they allow them to assign opinions to them about what they should care about, and why. 

A great example was the Tren de Aragua controversy during the campaign. Martha Raddatz thought she had a killer argument about why Trump was lying about the gang problem in Aurora: “Only a handful of apartment complexes” were taken over by gang members terrorizing residents. 

New meme format just dropped:
“Martha, do you hear yourself?”pic.twitter.com/UdMRCSBJlW

— Wasson Watch Co. (@WassonWatch) January 29, 2025

Believe it or not, many liberals actually agreed with her. Raddatz, after all, is an “influencer” with them and is taken seriously. 

Now that the campaign is over, even The New York Times is admitting that Trump was right–any conservative knew that already because we saw the evidence on tape, but whatever. Now that it doesn’t matter, it is old news to liberals and they will go back to Martha and the Times for their next assigned opinions. 

The @nytimes says Trump was right about the migrant gangs in Aurora.

Democrats Denied This City Had a Gang Problem. The Truth Is Complicated. https://t.co/dIF8d3MqkY

— Tyler Shasteen (@TylerShasteen) July 11, 2025

The same thing is happening with the controversial ICE raid at a pot farm in California. It was not, as the Democrats keep saying, an immigration raid, but rather the service of a criminal search warrant searching for victims of human trafficking. Those victims were found–8 migrant children working in what amounts to slavery to grow pot for one of Gavin Newsom’s contributors. Seven of those children were unaccompanied minors that the Biden administration just handed over to unrelated adults who put them to work. 

Tom Homan: “I see the media saying ‘well it was an ice raid’. No, they were serving criminal search warrants as part of a criminal investigation involving child trafficking and child labor. I think there was a total of 11 children that were found on that farm.” pic.twitter.com/tx6HZ6NEZz

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) July 13, 2025

Democrats are OUTRAGED, and despite the fact that the ICE agents were violently attacked and shot at, they are out there defending…the trafficking of children. 

Honestly, they have gone there. 

@abbydphillip So youre telling us that you are ok, if it was a bunch of black kids working in the field? That is what you are advocating for. I think it is wrong in both sense. But seems a bit racist once you flip the race to you? If so that makes you a racist for sure.

— Dan Gager (@DanielGager) July 13, 2025

Any normal person would at least stay away from this issue if they couldn’t find it in their hearts to condemn the trafficking of children for the purpose of putting them to work on a pot farm. But no, Democrats are marching onto TV shows to condemn ICE for rescuing children, and doing their “I don’t approve of violence, but…” song and dance about ICE agents getting shot at. 

NEW MEDIA SPIN JUST DROPPED

“ICE forcefully raided a California farm and arrested farmers.”

REALITY: It was a WEED farm exploiting child labor, and ICE agents had rocks thrown and a gun fired at them

You don’t hate the media enough. pic.twitter.com/QwJIXjNQNB

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 11, 2025

The Pravda Media is doing its normal spin cycle–they write their headlines to minimize the offenses and maximize outrage at ICE. Since most Americans can see that putting trafficked children to work on a pot farm is not what our immigration system exists for, they might be on ICE’s side. 

If I ran a news agency, I’d think (1) this being a raid at a marijuana grow-farm and (2) one of the illegals firing shots at an American officer would be central to the reporting. But that can’t help make conservatives look wrong and the left be The Moral, so CNN gives us this.👁 pic.twitter.com/SjPQ7W4P76

— Theo Jordan (@Theo_TJ_Jordan) July 11, 2025

So they spin the events out of recognition. 

AFL President @GeneHamiltonUSA on @foxandfriends about the discovery of illegal alien children working at a marijuana farm in California:

“Here we have 8 who were working on a marijuana farm . . . These are just 8 of 500,000 UAC that Joe Biden let into the country.” pic.twitter.com/9Ktb3faKJb

— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) July 12, 2025

Still, I guarantee you that die-hard Blue voters will mirror the outrage they are instructed to feel. They have been told that ICE is bad, that it’s Trump’s fault that law enforcement officers are getting shot at, stoned, doxxed, harassed, and compared to the Gestapo. 

Dana Bash asks Padilla if incendiary rhetoric by Democrats is escalating the violent attacks against ICE.

Jose flails, trying to blame Trump admin rhetoric for the attacks (!) then refuses to say Democrats calling ICE agents “gestapo” is a problem.

They’re not going to stop. pic.twitter.com/CBmgZLIJJ2

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) July 13, 2025

This reminds me of the Democrats UPPING the rhetorical fire after the Butler assassination attempt a year ago. After less than a week, they were hurling the same incendiary accusations against Trump. And, lo and behold, there was a second assassination attempt. 

Chat, what type of strawberries are these? https://t.co/Rpjhbp85NZ pic.twitter.com/GElGWBtFb3

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) July 13, 2025

This illegal alien was apprehended at the CA marijuana facility. Turns out he had been sentenced to 7 yrs for kidnapping & attempted rape, w/ a prior conviction for attempted child molestation.

And this felon was working at the same farm as 10 kids – one being 14 yrs old. https://t.co/lfi55Zj7u1 pic.twitter.com/Eg34hXSelU

— CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott (@CBPCommissioner) July 12, 2025

I get why the Democrats and the Pravda Media go down this road–the Democrats have nothing but hate to motivate their voters, and the media sold its soul to the Democrats decades ago. But I can’t understand why there has yet to be a breaking point with liberals who are not down with a French Revolution-style insurrection. 

Maybe you were denied entry because you are doing things like doxxing ICE officers to violent rioters? https://t.co/7hJVpaO2gp

— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) July 13, 2025

Rep. Salud Carbajal was part of a violent mob of protestors attempting to obstruct federal law enforcement as they executed a criminal search warrant at a marijuana facility. He cites “peaceful” protestors, when in fact these rioters were launching rocks at officers, injuring at… https://t.co/yPNkcXOqkC

— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov) July 13, 2025

Is it brainwashing? Intellectual laziness? Misplaced trust in people who are gaslighting them every second of the day?

I understand disliking Trump. I understand opposing his policies. I understand people wanting vague, undefined “nice” compassionate policies. I can imagine a ton of reasons for opposing Republicans. 

But honestly, if you are siding with human traffickers using children as slaves because you want to be nice, it’s time to reconsider your life choices. 

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left’s lies, new legislation wasn’t needed to secure our border, just a new president.

Help us continue to report the truth about the president’s border policies and mass deportations. Join Hot Air VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.

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When you’ve lost the New York Times …

Joe Biden wants us all to know how offended he is over suggestions that he didn’t make all the decisions in his presidency. The umbrage Biden had taken turned out to be great enough for him to grant a telephone interview to the Gray Lady to refute all suggestions otherwise. But even if the Old Gray Mare ain’t what she used to be, even the NYT can’t quite reconcile the sheer volume of autopenned clemency actions with the idea that Biden approved all of his pardons and commutations personally and knowingly.

The NYT leads with — and headlines — Biden’s pushback:

In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Biden said that he had orally granted all the pardons and commutations issued at the end of his term, calling President Trump and other Republicans “liars” for claiming his aides had used an autopen to do so without his authorization.

“I made every decision,” Mr. Biden said in a phone interview on Thursday, asserting that he had his staff use an autopen replicating his signature on the clemency warrants because “we’re talking about a whole lot of people.”

Not too long ago — say, before June 27, 2024 — the NYT would have accepted that at face value. Biden said it, good enough for us, we have no notes — or need of corroborating sources. Their coverage would then have focused on pouncing Republicans, childhood stutters, “cheap fakes,” and how many times GOP presidents used autopens for Christmas cards. 

These days, however, Biden’s word as a Biden gets pretty much the value it truly always had. The NYT did some digging through e-mails that the National Archives sent to the Department of Justice as part of its probe on Biden’s cognitive status and capacity to make these decisions at all. Those internal e-mails suggest that Biden got coached on these decisions, and that his aides actually made the final decisions on the clemency actions, and didn’t personally sign many of them … if any at all:

The full picture of what Mr. Biden did on pardon and clemency decisions, and how much he directed those decisions and the actions of his staff, including the use of the autopen, may come down to tens of thousands of Biden White House emails that the National Archives has turned over as part of the investigation by the Trump White House and the Justice Department. Those emails contain keywords like “clemency,” “pardon” and “commutation” from November 2024 through Jan. 20, 2025, according to people familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.

The Times has reviewed several dozen of those emails, which discussed each of the major grants of clemency that were recorded by an autopen near the end of Mr. Biden’s term. But The Times has not seen the full extent of the emails, so it is impossible to capture the totality of information they contain or what else they might show about Mr. Biden’s involvement in the pardon and clemency decisions.

But those that were reviewed by The Times show that that the Biden White House had a process to establish that Mr. Biden had orally made decisions in meetings before the staff secretary, Stefanie Feldman, who managed use of the autopen, would have clemency records put through the signing device.

In fact, the NYT practically makes the case that the pardons and other clemency actions may be invalid:

Mr. Biden did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people, he and aides confirmed. Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence.

Even after Mr. Biden made that decision, one former aide said, the Bureau of Prisons kept providing additional information about specific inmates, resulting in small changes to the list. Rather than ask Mr. Biden to keep signing revised versions, his staff waited and then ran the final version through the autopen, which they saw as a routine procedure, the aide said.

And that, to quote Biden himself, is “a big f***ing deal.” It is permissible to issue pardons to classes of offenders; Jimmy Carter most famously did it with draft dodgers from the Vietnam War, many of whom chose self-exile to avoid being arrested and tried. However, Carter didn’t use the autopen, and Carter didn’t have aides sticking individuals on the list after the conceptual decision was made, either. Carter’s amnesty was very specific about a precise violation of a specific law.

The biggest legal problem this reveals is delegation. Put simply, presidents have no legal authority to delegate their clemency power; it has to be exercised personally and knowingly by presidents. Aaron Worthing has written extensively about this at Twitchy, and followed up late last night:

First, only the president can issue a federal pardon. This is a duty he cannot delegate.

Second, an autopen can be used to do any act that requires the president’s signature, but only if the president consents to his signature being placed on the document.

Third, if that consent wasn’t given, then as a matter of Constitutional law no pardon was issued. 

So if Trump declares one of Biden’s pardons to be null and void for that reason, he isn’t revoking that pardon. He is saying none was issued in the first place.

Read all the way through this analysis, but Aaron and I have agreed on the key point here: agency, or consent, as Aaron puts it. Did Joe Biden really have any agency for these pardons? Did he have the capacity to give full consent to every one of these clemency actions? There has been a traditional method to establish such agency and knowing consent: presidential signatures rendered in the moment and specific to the acts.

And that’s why we have come back to the autopen. Administrations of both parties have used autopens for ceremonial purposes for decades. Only in recent times have presidents used it for more official acts. George W. Bush actually asked the DoJ in 2005 whether such signatures satisfied the constitutional requirement for presidential signatures on legislation; the answer was that the agency/consent mattered most, but Bush was leery enough about the potential consequences that he decided against its use. Barack Obama used the autopen for the first time on legislation, first on the Patriot Act renewal in 2011, and later on two budget bills in 2011 and 2013.

So why is it a big deal now? No one questioned Obama’s competency, agency, or clear intent to approve those acts. The use of the autopen in two of the three cases was intended to ensure that a presidential signature got affixed in time to comply with the constitutional limits as Obama was overseas in those instances. Biden wasn’t overseas for any of these clemency actions, so it raises questions about consent and agency when aides processed these requests through a mechanical device rather than present Biden with the acts for his personal signature. And especially after June 27, 2024, everyone has reason to question Biden’s competence and agency, especially in the last months of his presidency. Even the New York Times smells a rat.

With that said, overturning the autopen-signed clemency actions is going to be difficult. Anyone ordered back into prison or reverting back to felon status will challenge such actions, and courts will put the burden of proof on those arguing that the pardons are invalid in every individual action. The most controversial of the pardons — those of the Biden family and Biden’s top aides — seem clearly intentional by Biden, and he defended them publicly at the time the pardons were issued. 

However, we need to make sure that this doesn’t arise again. The autopen should be considered invalid for anything other than the most ceremonial of presidential duties and proclamations. If a president can’t affix his personal signature to any substantive action, then we should assume incapacity exists and act accordingly.