Republican News

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Will Donald Trump get a clean sweep in the US Senate for all of his submitted nominees? 

Let’s hope not. 

Trump has made some surprising choices for his cabinet positions. Pete Hegseth brings a rank-and-file perspective and a return of the warrior culture to the Pentagon, even if his qualifications may look light. Tulsi Gabbard would not have been my pick as Director of National Intelligence, but she brings the necessary skeptical approach to the status quo for this administration — and John Ratcliffe as CIA Director will keep a reliable hand on the rudder as a partner. I still don’t support Robert Kennedy as HHS Secretary; I understand the need to reward the political alliance, but RFK would have been a better fit at the Food and Drug Administration. At least RFK has the same skeptical approach to the establishment elite as Trump desires, and has pledged to subordinate his agenda to Trump’s. (We’ll see.)

That’s not true of Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Chavez-DeRemer has no record of taking on the establishment clique and looking for reform. Chavez-DeRemer is the establishment, someone who not only has a clear bias to Big Labor, but also to Planned Parenthood and a host of other alliances that are aligned far more with the bureaucratic state than with Trump’s constituents and constituencies. 

How did Chavez-DeRemer get this appointment? As with RFK, Trump understandably feels the need to reward Teamsters president Sean O’Brien for remaining neutral-ish in the election. O’Brien spoke at the Republican convention, and got frozen out of the Democrat convention for it. Unlike RFK, O’Brien didn’t endorse Trump, but he certainly made it clear that Trump didn’t bother him. In small-d democratic politics, taking that kind of political risk creates a chit that can get called in after the election. 

The objection to Chavez-DeRemer doesn’t just rest on O’Brien’s efforts to get her this appointment. O’Brien is a staunch Big Labor figure who nevertheless engages with others and looks for compromises. That is very much not the case with Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers and the main figure in locking children out of schools during the pandemic. This was how Weingarten reacted in November to Trump’s pick:

It is significant that the Pres-elect nominated Rep. Chavez-DeRemer for Labor. Her record suggests real support of workers & their right to unionize. I hope it means the Trump admin will actually respect collective bargaining and workers’ voices from Teamsters to teachers.

— Randi Weingarten 🇺🇸💪🏿👩‍🎓🟣 (@rweingarten) November 23, 2024

Randi Weingarten is a rabid progressive and part of the “deep state” that Trump wants to demolish. If Weingarten endorses Chavez-DeRemer, Trump should take that as a warning that her appointment will undermine the work Trump insists that he will accomplish.

And it’s not just that Weingarten likes the cut of her jib, either. My PJ Media colleagues Stephen Kruiser and Catherine Salgado remind their readers that Chavez-DeRemer was one of only three House Republicans to vote for the PRO Act, which would have led to Big Labor control over federal labor policy and enforcement, as well as a massive expansion of federal jurisdiction:

The PRO Act is a sop to Big Labor that got its start with California Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) back in 2018. AB5 was a major effort to upend the freelancer-driven gig economy — specifically rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft, which had long been targets politicians who are funded by labor unions. My Townhall Media colleagues in California would have been adversely affected by AB5 as well. The bill was so noxious that the left-leaning California electorate passed a proposition in 2020 that carved out exceptions to AB5. 

AB5 was one of the worst ideas to come out of California’s progressive fever dream, and the PRO Act seeks to make a version of it federal law. 

The PRO Act is the latest attempt in Big Labor’s years-long effort to do away with secret ballots in union voting and do things via an insidious process called “card check” which, per the Wall Street Journal, will implement “a coercive process whereby organizers confront employees individually and relentlessly, at work and at home, until they sign a petition card. If the union can collect cards from half of the workforce, it gets certified without a vote.” In other words, it legalizes union thuggery. 

Card check was one of the big issues that we were fighting against back in the Tea Party days. It remains such a high priority for the unions that they’re still working on making it law over a decade later.

This is the opposite of “draining the swamp.” Chavez-DeRemer wanted to create an entirely new swamp and allow Weingarten and other radical labor leaders to run it. As Labor Secretary, Chavez-DeRemer would have enough power to create nearly the same amount of damage, and mainly in the regulatory dark where Republicans in Congress could do little to stop or reverse it. 

And that damage will come just as worker freedom is finally gaining ground in Washington:

Today, I am proud to introduce the National Right to Work Act, which protects workers in all 50 states from being forced to pay dues to a labor union as a condition of their employment. I look forward to working with Mark Mix and @Right2Work to get it passed.

Read more:… pic.twitter.com/wsfqw77bX5

— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) February 12, 2025

President of the National Right to Work Foundation, Mark Mix, appeared with Rep. Wilson in the below video and said in an email release, “Anyone who truly stands with workers and against the union boss special interests that seek to force workers to pay union dues should support Senator Paul and Congressman Wilson’s bill.”

The nomination of Chavez-DeRemer should get rejected by the GOP caucus entirely. Chavez-DeRemer is no “brokenist,” and certainly does not have a “creator” mentality to dismantle the corrupt status quo in the Department of Labor. Chavez-DeRemer is an establishmentarian that will side with the bureaucratic state every single time over workers and their liberty. 

Send Chavez-DeRemer back to the White House, and let Trump choose a nominee that fits the moment and the opportunity. 

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Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan held a hearing to decide whether or not to grant a request for a temporary restraining order on DOGE, limiting its access to several government agencies. The request was part of a lawsuit brought by Democratic AGs in 14 states. However, at yesterday’s hearing it appeared the judge wasn’t convinced a TRO was needed.

The judge said that in order to issue such an urgent temporary restraining order, the states would have to prove a threat of “extreme” and “imminent harm” that “can’t be undone” — and although having to “scramble to rehire” laid-off employees might be difficult and challenging, it can be done.

“I’m not seeing it so far,” she said of the harms the plaintiffs are claiming.

The judge promised to issue her decision with 24 hours and today, as expected, she denied the request.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected a request for a temporary restraining order sought by 14 Democrat-led states as they pursue a challenge to Musk’s actions. The states have argued that Musk, who the White House said is categorized as a special government employee, has unchecked authority and is violating the Constitution’s Appointments Clause.

The effort to stop DOGE or at least slow it down by restricting its access to several agencies was one of the biggest ones Democrats have undertaken thus far so today’s decision represents a setback for their efforts.

The decision by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan is an early blow to efforts by a group of Democratic state attorneys general to hamstring Musk and DOGE as they undertake efforts to upend the federal workforce.

The attorneys general sued Musk last week, arguing that his role in the government is a violation of the Constitution’s Appointments Clause, which gives presidents the power to appoint officials who must then be confirmed by the Senate.

As mentioned, the Democratic AGs tried to force the Trump administration to submit Musk’s name to the Senate for confirmation a move which would give them a platform to attack him and be seen opposing him in a very public setting. The lawsuit was led by the AG for New Mexico, Raul Torrez, who announced it with a public Zoom meeting full of the usual whining about an “unelected billionaire” and the “threat to democracy” he represented.

“Empowering an unelected billionaire to access Americans’ private data, slash funding for federal student aid, stop payments to American farmers and dismantle protections for working families is not a sign of President Trump’s strength, but his weakness,” said New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez. “Despite his claim to be operating under a mandate from the American people, the President seems afraid to get Congressional approval for his ‘move fast and break things’ approach to the Presidency.” 

“The founders of this country would be outraged that, 250 years after our nation overthrew a king, the people of this country—many of whom have fought and died to protect our freedoms—are now subject to the whims of a single unelected billionaire,” said Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. “Allowing one individual to flout the law without consequence threatens our entire constitutional system. We cannot allow our democratic processes to be hijacked by immense wealth and privilege.”…

“There is no greater threat to democracy than the accumulation of state power in the hands of a single, unelected individual,” said AG Raúl Torrez. “Although our constitutional system was designed to prevent the abuses of an 18th-century monarch, the instruments of unchecked power are no less dangerous in the hands of a 21st-century tech baron.” 

But the Justice Department responded that Musk was not exercising any authority of his own but merely acting as an advisor to President Trump.

Justice Department lawyers wrote in a court filing that the states’ claim that Musk has the authority to make decisions for the government is “wrong,” and “rests entirely on conflating influence and authority.”

“An advisor does not become an officer simply because the officer listens to his advice. And stripped of their lengthy rhetoric, the states do not actually cite a single example of where Elon Musk (or anyone at USDS) has been given formal authority to exercise the sovereign power of the United States,” they wrote, referring to the U.S. DOGE Service, the entity’s formal name.

I suspect Democrats really thought this was going to be a gimme given that they got this lawsuit before Judge Chutkan who previously was in charge of the criminal case Jack Smith brought against President Trump. The New Republic was salivating over the prospect just a few days ago.

Chutkan gained the national spotlight as she refused to accept arguments from Trump’s legal team at nearly every step in the January 6 case. She infuriated Trump when she placed a gag order on him in October 2023 and said that his presidential candidacy did not give him “carte blanche” to vilify public servants “who are simply doing their job.” Trump lashed out at the judge, calling her “the most evil person” as she seemed unwilling to bend to the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.

Now Chutkan will preside over a pivotal lawsuit that will determine the future of the U.S. government and the second Trump administration. The suit directly attacks Musk as a “21st century tech baron,” claiming that “the scope and reach of his executive authority appear unprecedented in U.S. history.”

Of course this was just the preliminary part of the case involving the TRO. Judge Chutkan could still turn out to be a friend to Democrats in the case itself. We’ll have to wait and see how that plays out.

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As most of you know, I’m a sucker for history, so when I saw this Xweet earlier this morning…well…it was well nigh irresistible.

HOLY SMOKES

Yes, it’s a real article. https://t.co/WeWEbjhNIn

— 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐠 (@WaywardGreg) February 18, 2025

I mean, it had VURT DA FURK written all over it, not the least of which was the fact that it was on CNN’s website.

Now, I get that the network’s been on a crusade about the trans since Trump’s executive orders about women in sports and pronouns, etc. Why, they’re running a sob story right now about a trans athlete whose ‘identities’ are a ‘target,’ whatever that means. And how he’s ready to ‘challenge’ Trump’s ban on trans athletes.

“Each of my identities is a target, especially in America.”

Trans athlete CeCé Telfer tells @AmandaDCNN why she is ready to challenge President Trump’s ban on trans athletes.

Read more: https://t.co/6plAs26e0O pic.twitter.com/fm1FId5wdt

— CNN Sports (@cnnsport) February 18, 2025

STUNNING, BRAVE

Which is not a ban on trans athletes like him. He can run anywhere he wants. It’s a ban on him – and like-minded fellow males – competing against the opposite sex disguised as one of them.

This guy is an underperforming male who turned to stealing women’s thunder. That’s all there is to it.

CeCe Telfer has the distinction of being the first male to win a women’s NCAA Championship. Telfer took first place at the 2019 NCAA Division II Women’s Track and Field Championships in the 400-meter hurdles. 

Telfer had an unsuccessful athletic career competing against men, ranking 390th in 2017 among all Division II male athletes. That’s when Telfer decided to “become” a woman and compete against females, ultimately becoming the top athlete in the women’s division after one year of hormone therapy. 

Like many trans athletes, Telfer suggested that the athlete was actually at a “disadvantage” competing against women because of the testosterone level. But the results – winning an NCAA championship, particularly after a poor career competing against males – directly contradict that ridiculous claim. 

“I have no benefit. I’m on hormone suppression, it doesn’t help. It’s another disadvantage. Cis women are producing more testosterone than the average trans female,” Telfer said in 2019. 

Unreal. Male athlete CeCe Telfer goes on CNN and arrogantly explains that the NCAA can’t vacate Telfer’s title, in women’s sports, because “that’s not how history works.”

History will not be kind to males stealing accolades from women. https://t.co/TWkDdjdeq1

— Dan Zaksheske (@RealDanZak) February 18, 2025

I see the problem here – it’s Trump and the people who voted for him. This is basically where a race/trans-baiting CNN article about a cross-dressing black man in Memphis, TN, in *checks notes* 1866 comes in.

Meet ‘Frances Thompson.’

On a Friday in June, Frances Thompson swore an oath before a congressional committee and began to testify about what she’d experienced during a race riot in Memphis one month earlier.

She told the committee how seven White men, including two police officers, forced their way into her home and stole her money and all her meager belongings before sexually assaulting her and her teenage housemate.

In sharing her harrowing experience, Thompson quietly made history. She is believed to be the first Black transgender woman to testify before Congress.

Thompson’s testimony in 1866 came at a critical time, as the nation weighed whether to expand equal constitutional protections to newly freed Black Americans. But it also came at a great personal cost – a decade after her landmark testimony, Thompson was cruelly outed, arrested for cross-dressing and forced to work in an all-male chain gang.

Historians and advocates tell CNN they draw parallels between all that Thompson experienced as a Black trans woman and today’s anti-transgender political climate after President Donald Trump signed numerous executive orders targeting trans American minors’ right to access medical treatment and participate in school sports teams aligned with their gender identities..

See how this is shaping up already?

That’s just in the first, what? Five paragraphs?

Where do the reviled ‘conservatives’ of the somewhat inflammatory headline come into the story?

The sad tale of Mr Thompson took place during the race riots in post-Civil War Memphis (New Orleans also experienced a vicious bout). Thanks to the horror visited on the city by the explosive mix of angry, defeated Southern loyalists, a burgeoning, volatile influx of black veterans and a new Irish immigrant population, and President Andrew Johnson’s relinquishing control of Reconstruction efforts back to ex-confederate state governments, it was a dangerous, ghastly time. [Beege adds: The following is from an article on The Freedmen’s Bureau Report on the Memphis Race Riots of 1866]

…The situation in Memphis was volatile for months before the riots. The city’s free black population had quadrupled following the end of the Civil War in April 1865, creating pressure for jobs and housing. Many new black inhabitants were Civil War veterans living in South Memphis near Fort Pickering. They refused to accept second-class citizenship after contributing to the Confederacy’s defeat. Almost simultaneously, the city’s immigrant population was exploding, mostly from recent Irish immigrants, who also needed jobs and housing. Many of the Irish found employment as policemen and firemen, while blacks found jobs in manual labor. Blacks resented the Irish being in a position of authority, and the Irish cops exhibited racial bias toward blacks.

The report also considered national politics. The Memphis riots, as well as those in New Orleans twelve weeks later, occurred during a political battle over Reconstruction policy. Radical Republicans in Congress called for a more punitive approach to the former confederates. In contrast, President Andrew Johnson’s policy accepting ex-confederate control of reconstructed southern state governments suggested to many Americans that the president’s policies were failing. Radical Republicans argued that the riots called into question the Freedmen’s Bureau ability to protect black people in the South. They therefore wished to maintain and strengthen the federal military presence in the region.

From the official report, Republicans wanted the military to remain in the cities in order to protect the blacks.

Not quite sure where these ‘conservatives’ are yet.

As part of the investigations into the riots, Mr Thompson didn’t go to Washington to testify about the trauma he endured. Federal agents and members of the ‘Freedman’s Bureau’ came to them to take their testimony..

…In the days that followed, Congress dispatched federal agents and members of the Freedman’s Bureau – which had been founded to help the formerly enslaved transition into citizenship – to interview survivors and document what had occurred.

Frances Thompson was “one of many women who got up that morning and walked to the congressional hearing and told her story,” historian Hannah Rosen said.

The 14th Amendment was also in the throes of being ratified at the time of the riots, and the author of the piece ties Thompson’s testimony to shifting the national mood towards ratification.

…Rosen credits the bravery of Thompson and the other women who testified with helping to shift the national sentiment around the 14th Amendment.

“Her impact isn’t direct, but she was part of the large numbers of people in Memphis … who showed enormous courage showing up to tell their story to congressional leaders who were not necessarily sympathetic,” Rosen said.

Tenuous at best.

Then we go off the deep end.

THEN CONSERVATIVES BEGAN ATTACKING HER IDENTITY

…Despite her bravery, Thompson was later forcibly outed as a transgender woman – and her life would ultimately end in tragedy.

…A decade after the end of the Civil War, the gains made during Reconstruction had already started to wane. Many Black residents had fled Memphis after the massacre, and the state took over the Memphis police department, Rosen said, because the officers “were seen as out-of-control ruffians … who had obviously been a key source of the violence.”

In 1876, Thompson was still living in South Memphis when rumors began circulating that she was “cross-dressing,” a violation of a local ordinance.

She was arrested and conservative newspapers – which had been instrumental in sowing discord before the massacres – reported that Thompson had been subjected to a medical exam and was “pronounced a member of the male sex.”

Multiple articles used Thompson’s identity to try to undermine her testimony to Congress about the Memphis Massacre. But she remained defiant – even as officers forced her to take mugshots in both men’s and women’s clothes.

Mr Thompson got hit with a substantial fine after a round of public mockery and was forced to work on a male chain gang after being unable to pay it.

Sadly, once released, neighbors found him ill and although they got him to a hospital, Mr Thompson passed away.

In 1876, Tennessee was solidly Democratic territory and I can imagine local politics were even more so.

But somehow a ‘cross-dressing’ black man’s tragic story is the fault of ‘conservatives’?

And parallels today’s mores? Precisely how?

…The historian said in many ways, 160 years later, the country appears to be echoing the same backlash that occurred after Black Americans made modest gains towards equality following Reconstruction – and vulnerable people, like trans Americans, are once again bearing the brunt.

“History is repeating itself,” Rosen said, adding that she sees parallels in the “vilification of Black trans women in order to denigrate one’s political opponents,” and what Thompson experienced.

Like the resistance to Reconstruction, Rosen said she believes the backlash we’re witnessing today is “a reaction to the very brief window of commitment to racial equality” that followed the 2020 murder of George Floyd.

But if Thompson’s life story proves anything, Bryanna Jenkins said, it’s that trans people always have and will continue to be at the forefront of the push for civil rights in the United States.

I can only assume kicking black male athletes out of women’s sports is the ‘vilification’ this nutcase is referring to. It’s not like there aren’t any white male pretenders losing their schweet gigs either…oh, but wait. There are.

And pushing back on males in women’s sports is the exact same as the violent race massacres during Reconstruction?!

Only in their twisted, progressive fever dreams. GAWD, these people are sick.

And gaslighting ‘conservatives’ in the headline? That’s on CNN because nowhere in the article is the word ‘conservatives’ other THAN?

THEN CONSERVATIVES BEGAN ATTACKING HER IDENTITY

You guessed it – the headline.

[Beege adds: Thank you to comments] And one note about ‘conservative newspapers.’ What were THOSE in a Southern city during Reconstruction? Hmm.

History sucks for progressives of the professional victimhood-grifter class. It always bites them in the asterisk.

What a load of horse poopie this entire exercise is, and CNN, had they the capacity, should be ashamed. 

Maybe the network should made to parade through town with ‘race-baiting gaslighter’ signs hung around their necks. 

I don’t blame the author for writing this load of horsecrap – hey, if you can get someone to swallow it, have at it. 

I blame CNN for publishing it.

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The fight over DOGE is both entertaining and instructive. 

Entertaining because we get to see Democrats go crazy doing backflips to explain why USAID funding underwater basket weaving in Algeria is vital to the projection of American power and saving the lives of starving children, and instructive because we get to see what really motivates politicians who have hidden behind platitudes for decades. 

This video put together by Newsbusters captures the reality of what Democrats are doing perfectly. 

When you use AI to replace every mention of “our democracy” with “our bureaucracy,” everything starts making a lot more sense. pic.twitter.com/XZ65HXfN9H

— Bill D’Agostino (@Banned_Bill) November 5, 2024

Democrats have been “weaponizing” the term “democracy” against Republicans for a long time now. It is a word that sounds good to most Americans because they (not quite rightly) think that is our proper form of government. Defending “democracy” definitely sounds good, so Democrats say it. 

But of course they don’t like Democracy; they like money and power, and the money and power they mostly control is through the government bureaucracy. The video works because with one simple trick you can decode the Democrat spin. 

David Sacks put it well:

Although this started as a meme, it’s the single most important thing to understand about our politics. When Democrats say that DOGE is a “threat to democracy”, what they really mean is that it’s a threat to bureaucracy. When Democrats say that they want to “protect democracy”, what they really mean is that they want to protect the bureaucracy. 92% of Washington DC voted for Kamala Harris. The Democrats are the party of bureaucracy, and they use that bureaucracy to fund aligned NGOs, media groups, and ultimately themselves. Their goal is to make the bureaucracy immune from democratic transparency and accountability. The last thing they want is to see corruption exposed because it can only lead back to them.

DOGE is a mortal threat to the bureaucracy, and as such, it is a mortal threat to the money and power the Democrats have controlled since the New Deal. 

Most Democrat politicians–not all, but most–are utterly indifferent to the results of any particular project or program. The ideal model for a government program would be the California high-speed rail project, which spends billions on autopilot, feathering beds for generations. That a train never gets built is a feature, not a bug. The only reason anybody actually DOES anything at all is that they need an excuse to keep the money spigot turned on. 

The longer it goes, the less efficient it is, and the more waste that can be generated, the better. 

Homelessness in California serves the same purpose. Homelessness was a problem in the 1970s. The 1980s. The 1990s. The 2000s. The 2010s. And so on. Political fortunes have been made by promising to end homelessness. We are now in the 20-somethingth year of Gavin Newsom’s 10-year plan to eradicate homelessness in San Francisco. 

This year marks year 16 of Gavin Newsom’s “10 year plan to end homelessness.”

$24 Billion later homelessness has actually managed to get WORSE in California.

Californians, do yourselves a favor and stop voting for this clown. pic.twitter.com/eMK5V22pQ5

— FRΞΞ PRINCΞ (@tyrannideris) July 22, 2024

Billions have been spent. Lots of NGOs have fed lots of NGO bureaucrats’ families off these promises. And more people are dying on the streets than ever. 

It is a grift. Government exists for the bureaucrats and the NGOs. The “programs” are just excuses to tax and spend, go to conferences, and climb the government/nonprofit ladder. 

Government and NGOs are to the Democrats what startups are to the tech industry: the source of wealth. The difference is that government can compel you to “purchase” their product and startups actually have to provide some value or fail. 

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Why not? I guess the Protection Racket Media has tried everything else to derail Donald Trump. Perhaps gagging themselves would work!

It would work for me, anyway.

This brilliant plan to boycott Trump comes from Jim Acosta, late of CNN, who floated the idea over the weekend. In that same weekend, current CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins tried explaining why she posted a defense fund website for chicken-s*** back-shooting assassin Luigi Mangione, which gives you an idea of the quality of ideas coming from that organization and its alums. Collins, by the way, is one of the people that Acosta wants to convince to walk out of the White House briefing room.

Acosta claims that the decision to boot the Associated Press violates the organization’s constitutional right to, er, a seat on Air Force One:

The Trump White House placed unconstitutional restrictions on the Associated Press last week, when it barred the AP from the Oval Office and Air Force One over the outlet’s policy of continuing to call the Gulf of Mexico by its actual name, clearly violating the news organization’s First Amendment right to freedom of the press.

Er … what? The First Amendment does many wonderful things. One of the things it does not do is guarantee a news organization a seat on AF1 or in the White House briefing room. Denying either or both does not, in fact, negate the freedom of the press; the AP is still free to publish whatever it wants, even actionable defamation, although (as CNN just discovered again) that could cost them money down the road. To claim that denying the AP either or both of those two seats is “unconstitutional” is as absurd as, well, most of Acosta’s career … which is one of the reasons he’s on Substack rather than on the air these days. 

Freedom of speech and freedom of the press means speaking and publishing. It does not confer a right to access or an audience. If every American news organization had a constitutional right to be on AF1, it would never get off the ground.  

Is the Gulf of America née Mexico fight with the AP petty? Yes. Is it provocative? Sure. Is it stupid? I wouldn’t go that far, but of all the issues on my priority list, the “Gulf of America” ranks around 14,383rd, its estimated top depth. (That’s from the Encyclopedia Brittanica, which wisely uses both names in its listing. Maybe they can take the AP seat on the plane!) But then again, I’m not the president, and 77,300,000-plus people didn’t choose me for that job. And I didn’t spend the last nine years with the Protection Racket Media slinging mud at me, either. 

Rather than Fisk the rest of Acosta’s lead-up to his Big Plan to force Trump to bend the knee to the mainstream media, let’s just get to the proposal itself:

Reporters and their bosses, however, need to do more. For starters, the AP should consider challenging the White House harassment of its reporters in court. News outlets then must rally to the cause, by offering supportive statements to the court hearing the case, writing op-Ed’s backing the AP, and, if necessary, refusing to cover presidential movements in solidarity, until Trump backs down.

Ahem. In an environment where Trump has become more popular than ever and the electorate ranks their trust in media below that of politicans and used-car salesmen, Acosta’s brilliant strategy is to [checks notes] make the media even more irrelevant to their erstwhile consumers.

Perhaps sensing just how stupid this is, Acosta then engages in a little projection:

Trump may respond by inviting only sycophants and right-wing hacks to chronicle his daily decrees. Fine. Let the American people soak that in – the image of an aspiring autocrat and his servile propagandists.

We spent the last four years soaking that in, pal. The mainstream media spent that time covering up Joe Biden’s obvious senility and pretending it didn’t exist, even with the access to the White House and AF1 they had. Not only did they refuse to ask questions about the obvious cognitive and physical decline, they propped up the actual autocrat and attacked anyone who dared suggest that Biden wasn’t “Sharp As A Tack®”! The media, CNN definitely included, actually argued that we shouldn’t believe our own lying eyes during Biden’s aphasiac moments, calling the videos “cheap fakes,” a term the servile propagandists in the media regurgitated from White House cover-up participants that handed it to them. 

And as long as we’re discussing “access,” how much access did the servile media propagandists get from Biden and his team? Trump has held more free-form press conferences in a month than Biden did on the campaign until his dementia got exposed in that June 27 debate. I’d venture a guess that Trump has given the press more extemporaneous access and engagement than Biden did in his entire presidency. And yet the media never bothered to point out that Biden was hiding from them most of his presidency, and when he did take questions, he had to rely on note cards to read off the answers. 

Why? Because the American media industry has become little more than propagandists for Democrats and progressives. That’s why its consumers rate the industry just a skosh north of pond scum, and it’s one big reason why Trump has returned to the White House, too.

So what would happen if the Protection Racket Media used the Acosta plan for utter irrelevance? As he suggests, the White House would simply find other news orgs to engage, on AF1 and elsewhere. They would likely shift their main thrust to direct communication to the electorate, however, using Twitter/X and streaming platforms to make their arguments. That would transform the striking media outlets to secondary or tertiary status, reporting what everyone already knew from direct engagement. There may not be a better recipe for utter irrelevance, which Acosta has more or less achieved recently anyway. 

The Protection Racket Media might be corrupt, but they’re not that suicidal. But if they surprise me and try this out, there won’t be enough popcorn in the world to pass while they self-immolate on the Acosta Career Flame-Out Plan. 

Addendum: Want to prepare for that self-immolation and stick it to the Protection Racket Media? There’s no better time to sign up for our VIP, VIP Gold, and VIP Platinum memberships! As David wrote earlier, we aren’t getting gold bars at taxpayer expense to keep our operations afloat as the Protection Racket Media does, nor do we want it. (I don’t even want a seat on Air Force One!) We keep fighting to keep independent voices and dissent alive in the face of enormous pressure, and our members are right there on the front lines with us. 

Please join the fight! Become a HotAir VIP member today and use the code GOLDBARS for 50% off and get the media deal of a lifetime!

Addendum II – Credit Where Due Boogaloo: Critical Drinker uses The Fifth Element laugh clip often in his reviews, and Beege used it recently in one of her posts. 

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Everyone is still howling about DOGE. Although with as many seemingly good things and astonishing finds coming out of them, it looks to be harder and harder for the opposition to come up with objections that will work anyone up into a lather over what the teams are doing.

For instance, the acting head of the Social Security Administration stepped down after butting heads with a DOGE team and a request for access to information she would have rather not granted.

The top official at the Social Security Administration, Michelle King, stepped down from her position this weekend after she refused a request from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to access sensitive government records at the agency, according to two sources familiar with the situation.

The agency oversees the management of payments for more than 70 million Americans. President Donald Trump has vowed not to enact cuts to retirement benefits.

One of the sources familiar with the situation, Nancy Altman, the president of Social Security Works, a left-leaning group focused on protecting and expanding Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, told NBC News she learned of the situation after speaking with several current officials at the agency. Altman said some of the information involved in the dispute included Americans’ bank information, social security numbers, earnings records, marital statuses, dates of birth and in some cases, medical records if a person has applied for disability benefits.

Ah, another principled freedom fighter vanquished, as the various news reports are painting it. Keeping the snoopy DOGE noses out of information they have no business being in.

King resigned the day after Musk revealed his team had found some 20M dead Social Security recipients still in the roles. A few of them were almost 200 years old, and according to a whack and ancient SS dataset, some of them might still be getting checks – but who knows?

Supplements – I tell you. Is there anything they can’t do?

But he never said they were receiving benefits…

cc @WelbornBeege pic.twitter.com/cyHI29NoIo

— Cardio NP (@CardioNP) February 18, 2025

Not only that, but an Inspector General’s report came out about the same time, and, as this gobsmacked MSNBC crew admits, the $72B+ in waste they found without using high-tech forensic accounting skills kind of makes the case for what DOGE is doing.

It ain’t chicken feed – and that’s only in one department. One!

MSNBC is making the case for DOGE even though they can’t stand Trump and Elon Musk…

An audit of Social Security found that they made over $71.8 billion in improper payments over 8 years.pic.twitter.com/s083RqiOll

— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) February 18, 2025

Still, the kicking and screaming about the DOGE teams, security clearances, and billionaires rummaging through your personal information, fed by hysterical elected Democrats… 

My refund was delayed last year because someone filed taxes with my wife’s social security number, something you said doesn’t happen.

I’ll take my chances with Elon. https://t.co/7yqEhcRxzl

— Dr Strangetweet or How I Learned to Love the RT (@lone_rides) February 13, 2025

…and hyperventilating ‘news’ personalities is just out of control. Ermagerd – do they ever listen to themselves?

ELON’S HENCHMEN

That includes so-called ‘experts’ who say the daffiest, damndest things.

…The breakneck upheaval of federal agencies spearheaded by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has needlessly politicized the issue and could make it harder to enact the real changes needed to root out improper spending, five good-government experts said.

“Elon Musk is saying we’ve got shocking amounts of fraud, and you’re right, we do. No one’s really cared until now,” said fraud prevention expert Linda Miller, a former senior staff member for Congress’ independent Government Accountability Office during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.

“But the examples they’re bringing are silly, made-for-TV red meat, made for people to be amazed and horrified and shocked,” Miller continued, pointing to some diversity, equity and inclusion-related arts projects on the White House’s list of objectionable U.S. Agency for International Development programs, some of which weren’t actually funded by the agency. “It makes the government sound like it’s a mockery.”

None of that made any sense. The only word missing was ‘weaponization.’

I have noticed a subtle dig in many of the stories online lately that is a dead giveaway to the author’s political leanings and/or the site it’s published on. It’s a sly delegitimizing of the DOGE efforts, even as an article might grudgingly report on either a successful result or a court victory.

Somewhere in the body of the piece will be buried the phrase:

DOGE is not an official government department

Like this example:

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has caused uproar almost since its inception.

Despite its name, DOGE is not an official government department. Only Congress can create new departments. But DOGE is an effort by President Trump and Musk to radically reform and reduce the size of government.

Musk once suggested it was possible to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget. More recently, he has indicated that half of that figure would be more realistic.

But even accomplishing $1 trillion in cuts would require massive cuts to government services and its payroll.

Here’s one today about a court order that went DOGE’s way about student loan info. Well, yes, the author says, the court did say there wasn’t any proof of harm to students so far, but then, you know, DOGE isn’t really real either…

A US judge temporarily refused on Monday to block Elon Musk’s government efficiency team from accessing Education Department student data, in a minor legal victory for the world’s richest man in his blitz on public spending.

The drive by Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to slash outgoings deemed wasteful or contrary to US President Donald Trump’s policies has run up against multiple legal challenges.

The University of California Student Association had sought to block DOGE from accessing students’ data including social security numbers, loans and tax information.

But federal Court Judge Randolph D. Moss said in his order on Monday that potential harm to students was “entirely conjectural” and that their lawsuit “provides no evidence beyond sheer speculation” that Musk’s team would “misuse or further disseminate this information”.

The order allows both sides time to gather more evidence about Musk’s handling of the data, before Judge Moss rules on whether to allow the lawsuit to advance.

DOGE is not an official government department but has sought to access data from several federal bodies.

See how they’re doing this? Just the News has a piece on that same court decision and, oddly enough, treats DOGE as any legit government entity going about its business.

A judge on Monday evening ruled not to block the Department of Government Efficiency from gaining access to data from the Department of Education on student borrowers. 

The request to the court to block the department was made in a lawsuit by the University of California Student Association that argued DOGE having access to such data would be a violation of privacy laws. 

Judge Randolph Moss, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled the plaintiff failed to show sufficient irreparable harm to receive such immediate relief.

DOGE is not an official government department is this week’s version of the ‘constitutional crisis’ from last week and ‘the price of eggs’ the week before that.

You’ll notice you haven’t heard much about those in the past few days.

The sad fact for detractors is that DOGE is very real and very legit. As attorney Tom Renz laid out in an epic thread I will excerpt here, the Trump team had their ducks in a neat little legal row when they renamed an already existing, funded Obama-era executive agency ‘DOGE.’

You see Trump has power to set priorities for Executive branch departments but there are limits. In the case of DOGE, Trump clearly had a team of lawyers looking at ways to accomplish this goal legally.

USDS was already there and funded for the specific purpose. 44 USCS Chapter… pic.twitter.com/mDdj2FtLYq

— Tom Renz (@RenzTom) February 5, 2025

…The USDS was an Obamacare office created to make government software better. They were essentially software development for the bureaucracy. Trump renamed the United States Digital Service (USDS) the United States DOGE Service which even kept the acronym the same. Not only did repurposing an appropriate existing department allow Trump to ensure there was funding for DOGE without having to fight with Congress – he also ensured its legality.

That isn’t the only thing the order did. To bring in Elon and Vivek, Trump referenced a statute giving the executive branch authority to ‘create a temporary organization.’ That covers Elon’s group for 18 months legally and provides cover from lawsuits (Xweet below).

…To do this Trump referenced another law 5 USC 3161. This law governs the creation of and staffing for what is known as a “temporary organization” in the government. This group will focus on pushing the DOGE agenda and will exist for 18 months (though their work will survive). By including this group as temporary, Trump dodged several potential lawsuits as he may not have been able to create his own new administrative entity on a permanent basis without Congressional approval.

Besides reorganizing USDS as DOGE, the EO also mandated that DOGE employees/teams were to become members of every administrative branch department. They are to become kind of in-house active watchdogs.

Trump also ordered that DOGE teams be hired in every administrative branch agency. These teams are to include a team lead, a lawyer, an HR person, and an engineer. These teams work for USDS (DOGE) but work with and within various agencies. While all this is part of a “software… pic.twitter.com/eCVgDbTPfb

— Tom Renz (@RenzTom) February 5, 2025

…Trump also ordered that DOGE teams be hired in every administrative branch agency. These teams are to include a team lead, a lawyer, an HR person, and an engineer. These teams work for USDS (DOGE) but work with and within various agencies. While all this is part of a “software modernization initiative,” looking at the software and how things are managed is a great way to find out where there is waste – particularly when part of the mandate it to ensure efficiency.

So sadly – but not unsurprisingly – for the theme of the week…

DOGE is not an official government department

…it appears that DOGE is very much an official government department, no matter how often they say it’s not.

What’s worse for them is the more the American people see those “silly, made-for-TV red meat, made for people to be amazed and horrified and shocked” examples that the different DOGE teams keep finding, the more they warm up to Big Balls and his buddies rifling through the receipts.

Elon Musk is bringing receipts to substantiate his claims of large-scale fraud in the American government, undermining claims from detractors as he rides a wave of popular support for President Donald Trump and a government overhaul.

…Over the first month of the Trump presidency, DOGE has torn through federal agencies seeking instances of fraud, waste, abuse and other non-necessary expenditures hoping to dramatically reduce the scope of the federal government. The department has yet to post a comprehensive list of savings, but its website currently promises “receipts coming over the weekend.” So far, however, the department has already shown hard documentation of apparent fraud and waste via its X account.

…DOGE has embraced the notion of a popular mandate for its efforts, highlighting on its website that “the people voted for major reform.” Indeed, some data seems to suggest that the public backs DOGE as part of the Trump administration’s efforts. A recent Trafalgar/InsiderAdvantage poll found that 49% approve of Musk’s performance at DOGE while 44% disapproved.

A recent Newsweek focus group, moreover, found overwhelming support among participants for the new department’s efforts. “These swing voters are delighted by Musk’s Trump-endorsed government housecleaning. The prospects of a looming constitutional crisis is completely inconceivable to them,” Engagious President and focus group moderator Rich Thau said.

And the more we can expect the Democratic freak to continue and continue to ask, ‘How can they be so frickin’ dense?’

NOW – Palantir CEO on DOGE: Critics of Elon Are Fighting Progress—And It Will Destroy Them |

“I just view this as yet another example of the progressive left boxing themselves in into a suicide dance.”

Alex Karp, CEO of American software behemoth Palantir, is taking aim at… pic.twitter.com/ScG5L1AsP1

— Overton (@overton_news) February 18, 2025

But we are delighted they are.

DOGE literally has individual websites listing what they’ve found for every department. No underwear drawer was left undumped on the national floor in front of God and everybody.

Now that the DOGE website is filled with receipts, the Democrat Party looks like complete and total morons.

Even the staunchest Democrat supporter going through that website will feel their blood boiling.

Absolutely terrible strategy to go after Elon and DOGE.

— Farzad (@farzyness) February 18, 2025

We probably should start a book on what next week’s wig-out phrase will be.

Although, honestly – it’s hard to make this any more fun than it already is.

This post was originally published on this site

It needed to be said, given how much outrage there is over the still modest cuts that DOGE is making to the federal budget. 

Not that I blame DOGE. The federal budget is a beast of unimaginable size, but with over $7 trillion in spending, the savings of $55 billion so far are minuscule. 

Not that you can tell from all the howling in the Pravda Media. Those $55 billion and counting are THEIR money to spend as they like, so every dollar cut is an existential crisis for the transnational elite. 

But for the rest of us who are getting ripped off and watching our country go bankrupt, the speed at which this is happening is still too slow. 

“Cut. Cut. Cut.” Kevin O’Leary told a CNN panel that he supports DOGE’s efforts to eliminate waste in government and anticipates even deeper and more cuts ahead.

“This is a concept in private equity: when you take over a bankrupt company, you go in, cut 20% more than your… pic.twitter.com/fSnZcGPQEa

— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) February 18, 2025

So Kevin O’Leary said the quiet part out loud: CUT CUT CUT! The alternative is to cut too little at a time when the country is headed toward bankruptcy. 

One of the frustrations I have talking to my more liberal friends and family is that they assume that things can keep going on like this indefinitely. Sure, a few bucks are wasted, but think of the children! 

Yeah, well, that is insane. Our country has been speeding toward a cliff and is about to jump off into the void like Thelma and Louise. If we don’t hit the brakes, the children will die along with the rest of us in the car. 

Ed wrote about the divide between those of us who understand that everything is broken and those who believe the status quo can continue. If you think the status quo is sustainable you are rightfully frightened by what Elon Musk is doing. He is destroying something that works well, if not perfectly!

The truth is that the system is horribly broken and needs radical surgery, and the only solution is to cut cut cut as Kevin O’Leary says. 

As Ed rightly points out, this is the real political divide in the country: those who think this can continue indefinitely and those who know it can’t. Trump’s election and popularity is entirely based on enough people seeing that the system is broken. 

Plenty of people who dislike Donald Trump on a personal level are thrilled by what he is doing–because they know the system is broken:

🚨NEW: @FrankLuntz says former Biden, Clinton voters who flipped to Trump in 2024 “love” how fast he’s moving 🚨

“They love the pace of change. They were very fed up over the last four years. They wanted action … results. They looked at prices … affordability …… pic.twitter.com/oTl0EDs3mx

— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) February 17, 2025

The solution? 

Cut cut cut cut cut! They aren’t cutting enough yet. The barbecue has barely begun to render that fat out of the budget. 

The Democrats are in full freakout mode, and many people who still think the current system can be saved are freaked out along with them. 

Elon Musk has your Social Security #! Uh, yeah, so? The Chinese hacked that a long time ago. Elon is in the Treasury! Hey, folks…the Chinese were in EVERY DAMN SYSTEM long ago. The Democrats didn’t care about China seeing our books, just our own auditors. 

Chinese hackers infiltrate US Treasury in major cyberattack, officials tell Congress https://t.co/zwzhQMDg63 pic.twitter.com/m4ZZADhmL2

— New York Post (@nypost) December 30, 2024

Democrats are right about DOGE being a “five alarm fire” for the status quo. But they don’t care that the status quo is the path to national destruction. 

As long as they get their cut of budget, they are fine with that. 

This post was originally published on this site

I’ve written a couple of times about this group of mostly trans rationalists who have been connected to a number of murders. It’s difficult to briefly summarize the group’s long and strange history but their leader is a trans woman who was born Jack Amadeus LaSota who became trans sometime after college and began going by the name “Ziz.”

Ziz attracted a group of other trans people who were associated with a movement called rationalism which was developing in the Bay Area, especially around Berkeley. Though highly educated, Ziz and members of his group seemed to want to live off the grid without being burdened by the need for careers or even regular jobs. Initially they intended to create a flotilla of boats captained by rationalists and they bought an old tug boat in Alaska and sailed it to California.

The old boat eventually became too much for them and they abandoned it. The new plan was to create a fleet of box trucks in which the group’s members could live. Initially they lived on rented land in Vallejo, California but they soon stopped paying rent. The owner of the land, Curtis Lind, planned to have them removed by law enforcement at which point members of the group attempted to murder him. He survived, despite being run through with a samurai sword, and managed to shoot and kill one of his attackers. 

Ziz was not charged in that crime though he was found to be at the scene despite having previously faked his own death. The other two members of the group who attacked Lind are awaiting trial. Lind was supposed to be the main witness against them but last month another person connected to the group murdered him, apparently to prevent him from testifying. A suspect in that case, Maximilian Snyder, has been arrested and is also facing trial.

Snyder had at one point taken out a marriage license with another member of the group named Teresa Youngblut, though it seems they never married. Youngblut is one of two people who attacked and killed a Border Patrol agent in Vermont a couple months ago. The agent had pulled over Youngblut and a trans math whiz named Felix Bauckholt. They were both armed and opened fire on the agent. Baukholt was killed in the shootout but Youngblut survived and is awaiting trial.

The guns used by Bauckholt and Youngblut in that deadly shootout were registered to another member of the group, Michelle Zajko. Zajko’s wealthy parents were shot execution style in their Pennsylvania home two years ago. She was a suspect in the case but no one has been arrested for that murder

Yesterday, Ziz, Zajko and another member of the group were found hiding in a remote area of Maryland. They were all armed.

Jack LaSota, 34, who goes by “Ziz” and has espoused the dangers of artificial intelligence, was taken into custody Sunday in Frostburg, a rural area roughly midway between Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., Maryland State Police said in a statement.

LaSota, of Berkeley, California, also faces a firearms charge and obstructing and hindering, according to the statement. Two other people — Michelle Zajko, 32, of Media, Pennsylvania, and Daniel Blank, 26, of Sacramento, California — were arrested on similar charges…

In January 2023, the parents of Michelle Zajko — the woman arrested Sunday — were found dead in their Pennsylvania home. Both had been fatally shot. LaSota was charged with obstructing the investigation into their deaths and was released from jail after having posted $10,000 bail.

A bench warrant for LaSota’s arrest was issued after she failed to appear in court. Her whereabouts were unknown as recently as earlier this month.

Andy Ngo, who was covering this story before anyone else, has some additional details on the arrest.

The trio were found in Frostburg after a property owner called police. They drove two white box trucks and had several firearms. The “Ziz” group believes in living off-the-grid in box trucks that function as mobile homes. According to a court filing, Zajko had a loaded Sig Sauer pistol on her waistband. A rifle and a second pistol were found in one of the box trucks. 

LaSota and Zajko refused to identify themselves, but the three were identified with internal FBI photos. Members of the group have a history of providing law enforcement and the courts with false identities and having their surrogates tell the courts they died in an effort to get cases closed. Zajko refused to cooperate in the arrest and had to be taken down to the ground in order to be handcuffed, according to the criminal complaint.

Ngo has also been collecting photos of the group’s members.

“Ziz” Trantifa terror member Daniel Arthur Blank was arrested alive and well along with Jack LaSota and Michelle Zajko in a rural Appalachian area of Maryland on Feb. 16.

Blank had been missing from his family since late 2022. There were rumors he had died but this was another… pic.twitter.com/wa3P4WLuP7

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) February 17, 2025

A new Allegany County, Md. booking photo of Trantifa terror member Michelle Zajko has been released after she pretended to be dead in her first photo. (Jack “Ziz” LaSota also pretended to be dead when he was arrested in Pennsylvania in 2023.)

I can exclusively confirm that Zajko… pic.twitter.com/95KEzFq0dz

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) February 17, 2025

Ziz is apparently claiming innocence.

Feb. 18 update: “I shouldn’t be here, I haven’t done anything wrong,” Jack LaSota, the leader of the trans terror group, said at his first court hearing in Allegany County, Md. He appeared remotely, as did his co-defendants.

He has been denied bail, even though currently he is… pic.twitter.com/Kgoy1mHP4s

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) February 18, 2025

Another update from the courtroom.

Feb. 18 courtroom update: At her first court hearing, Trantifa terror cult member Michelle J. Zajko said, “I’m not a man, I’m not a man” after she was misgendered by her public defender.

Zajko is a biological female who identifies as trans nonbinary. She recently shaved her… pic.twitter.com/BtCtlUpKPX

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) February 18, 2025

Will they all remain silent or will someone start talking and implicate the others? Now that the whole group has been rounded up we’ll hopefully begin to see some movement on these criminal cases.

The most amazing part of this story may be that these intelligent, highly educated people consider themselves rationalists. If this is what rationalism looks like, I’ll pass.

This post was originally published on this site

Despicable. And yet, it tells us nothing about Hamas that we didn’t already know after October 7, or for that matter, the previous two decades in Gaza. 

Hamas and Israel have agreed to expedite the exchange of hostages in Gaza for prisoners in Israel today, in an attempt to build some basis for ongoing Phase 2 negotiations in the cease-fire. At the same time, though, Hamas again claimed that Shiri Bibas and her two babies are dead and plan to send their bodies as part of the next exchange.

Understandably, her husband and the rest of her family refuse to take Hamas’ word:

The Bibas family says it is “in turmoil” after Hamas’s announcement that the bodies of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir will be returned to Israel on Thursday.

However, the family stresses that it has not yet received an official update from Israeli authorities confirming that their loved ones are no longer alive.

“Until we receive definitive confirmation, our journey is not over,” the family says.

“We ask the media and the public to respect our privacy and refrain from contacting us about this matter,” the family adds.

Hamas claims that their deaths are Israel’s fault, as they say the Bibases died in an IDF srike on their position. That, however, ignores the fact that they should never have been kidnapped in the first place. Hamas and Gazans seized unarmed civilian men, women, and children in contravention of all rules of war, and then used them as human shields and negotiating bait. That’s on top of the 1200+ Israelis they brutally murdered, most of them also civilians, and conducted a grotesque rampage of rape and torture in the process. 

 We knew all of that. But this heartbreaking revelation of the murder of innocent babies — even if it follows a number of such stories from October 7 — should remind everyone of the nature of terrorism, and of the nature of Hamas and their patrons in Tehran. 

The better news is that six living hostages will return this weekend, including two who have been held for a decade:

The families of Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov, Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed announce that they have been informed by Israeli authorities that their loved ones are slated to be released by Hamas on Saturday.

Al-Sayed and Mengistu have been captive in Gaza for over a decade, after entering the Strip of their own accord. All the others were abducted on October 7, 2023.

What led to this acceleration of the schedule? First, there are time pressures coming from Donald Trump to get all of the exchanges complete ASAP, or else. Hamas also wanted some of the Shalit-exchange prisoners who had been recaptured out of prison again. Mainly, they want some heavy equipment to deal with the destruction Hamas has wrought on Gaza by launching the war sixteen months ago:

The reason for this was Hamas’s interest in advancing the release of Palestinian prisoners who had been released in the 2011 deal that saw the release of Gilad Schalit and were since imprisoned again, according to the source. 

In addition, if this were to happen, Israel would allow caravans and heavy machinery to enter Gaza.

Later on Tuesday, an Israeli official noted that as part of the framework of the deal, Israel was committed to allowing caravans and heavy engineering equipment into Gaza after following inspection.

The source added that subject to Hamas’s compliance with the deal, Israel would begin to allow the entrance of such tools in a gradual and controlled manner.

At this point, one would expect Phase 2 negotiations to commence, now that all of the living hostages in Phase 1 will have been released — assuming that actually happens. The Hamas Hokey Pokey may hit the stage again, though, because Israel has not yet authorized any Phase 2 negotiations. The security cabinet discussed it yesterda, the Jerusalem Post notes, but didn’t even take a vote on an authorization. They will likely wait to see how this latest arrangement proceeds before bothering to discuss Phase 2, especially after Hamas tried to throw sand in the gears last week on Phase 1. 

Meanwhile, Arab nations have generated a new plan for post-war Gaza to counter Trump’s proposal to seize it and expel the Gazans. Egypt has a consortium willing to invest in Gaza’s reconstruction under a government that excludes Hamas, and are also willing to let Trump and Israel help decide how to spend their $20 billion:

The Arab proposal, mostly based on an Egyptian plan, involves forming a national Palestinian committee to govern Gaza without Hamas involvement and international participation in reconstruction without displacing Palestinians abroad.

A $20 billion contribution from Arab and Gulf states towards the fund, cited by two sources as being a likely figure, maybe a good incentive for Trump to accept the plan, Emirati academic Abdulkhaleq Abdullah said.

“Trump is transactional so $20 billion would resonate well with him,” Abdullah said.

“This would benefit a lot of US and Israeli companies.”

Sounds good in theory, but this is entirely fanciful in practice. How exactly will Egypt guarantee that Hamas has “no involvement” in a post-war government without expelling the Gazans? Will Egypt and the other Arab states occupy Gaza to ensure that Hamas goes into permanent exile — and if so, where? This sounds like every other Gaza-rebuilding proposal that has come before, all of which ended up going into Hamas tunnels and fortifications so that they could launch their next war against Israel. 

Trump is transactional, but he’s not an idiot. Neither is Benjamin Netanyahu. And now everyone will have the Bibas children to remind them of the costs of idiocy.

This post was originally published on this site

USAID is/was an octopus, with tentacles extending everywhere. 

What did those tentacles do? First and foremost, they extended into the taxpayers’ pockets to extract tens of billions of dollars a year, transferring those dollars to organizations and agencies favored by the transnational elite. The projects could be anything from overthrowing a government or two to putting some spending money into the pockets of the favored elites. 

A grain or two of rice might be given to some starving people for appearance’s sake, but that was hardly the point. The grift and the power were. 

A perfect example is the case of Rory Stewart, a former Member of Parliament in the Conservative Party, a staunch “Remainer” with a rather plummy background that included everything from the Eton to Oxford to MI6ish stuff best not spoken of to politics to academia track. His father was literally a colonial official, and Stewart styles himself an adventurer akin to the Victorians. He has taught at Yale and Harvard and hosts the most popular political podcast in the UK. He almost replaced Theresa May after she was displaced. 

Stewart is big mad because USAID funds were cut, and you will be delighted that he is after you watch this. 

If this doesn’t make your blood boil, nothing will.
Thank God for Elon Musk and DOGE! pic.twitter.com/yGmiWwArL6

— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) February 18, 2025

The HORROR! His wife’s cushy nonprofit that, to be honest, pretty much exploits Indigenous artists around the world by purchasing their products for pennies and selling their wares online at outrageous prices, is losing its next installment of a million dollars because of mean old Donald Trump. 

Where, oh where, will Rory get his spending money from, if not the American taxpayers? (Actually, Rory is pulling in around £70,000 a month from his podcast, so he is doing fine). 

Rory Stewart yet another elite sneering at the little people. pic.twitter.com/ZqkAu3xRiG

— BJBarnack (@barnack1) February 16, 2025

Stewart expects people to be appalled that the gravy train has been cut off, not realizing that almost nobody knew or cared about the money flowing into his pockets until he whined that it stopped. 

Now that we know, we want the rest of it back. Teaching Afghan women about Dadaism is not how we expected our foreign aid money to be spent. 

Sending money to Turquoise Mountain is hardly the worst thing USAID ever spent money on. I wish it were, because then I wouldn’t have to worry about the hundreds of millions we sent to Hamas, or al Qaeda, or ISIS. 

But it may be the most symbolic. 

Spot on: “The raid of USAID is liberating foreigners from America’s ideologies, and liberating America’s workers from having to fund the globalisation of their ruling class’s faddish beliefs.”https://t.co/KoYqnrxnuk

— Joanna Williams (@jowilliams293) February 13, 2025

USAID was the mad money for the transnational elite. It was a giant pool of cash into which they could dip their hands and extract whatever amount was needed to slake their thirst. 

$10.6M is the entire lifetime tax contribution of 20 Americans – frittered away by USAID so that Rory Stewart’s Wife can do basket weaving classes in Kabul

Structurally, taxation by a central government into a giant money pool is a bad idea and really has to stop. https://t.co/d6FcaEc7GW pic.twitter.com/KUO4mXhDEW

— Roko 🐉🤖😇 (@RokoMijic) February 14, 2025

Want to overthrow a government? USAID can help! Want to create a Narrative™? USAID has bought and paid for journalists and a censorship arm to help with that too!

Want to start an arts and crafts company? The US taxpayer will make it happen!

The absolutely crazy thing is that nobody knew about Rory Stewart’s wife’s extreme grifting until the midwit announced she was due to lose her next million – her next million! – on his high profile podcast. As well as being insufferably smug, he’s as bright as 3 in the morning.

— David Moore (@belfastDGM) February 18, 2025

One has to wonder just how many bits of USAID money have flowed through Stewart’s life? His globe-trotting, intelligence-adjacent history, political and academic career, and his foray into broadcasting all suggest that lots of opportunities were there for the taking. 

I have neither the time nor the skills to dig through his income flow and history to see how many times his life has intersected with USAID generosity, but at least $10 million has flowed his direction just through Turquoise Mountain. 

No wonder he is upset. Wouldn’t you be if some Bad Orange Man and Crazy Rocket Man dammed up the flow of free money into your pockets? 

The wonder of it all is that so many of his listeners are as horrified as he is at Trump for doing this.