Tag Archives: President Trump

Facing Trial

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On Sunday, Just the News reported that the trial of Ryan Routh, who is accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump during the last campaign season will begin today in a Florida federal courtroom.

The article reports:

Routh is defending himself, with court-appointed lawyers nearby and on standby. Judge Aileen Cannon is on the bench of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Fort Pierce.

Prosecutors say the suspect was going to attempt take the life of Trump, eventual winner of the presidency over then-Vice President Kamala Harris, as he golfed on a Sunday afternoon. The Sept. 15 incident came 65 days after a shooter on a roof struck Trump’s ear with a bullet in Butler, Pa.

Security agents for Trump encountered Routh prior to the golf group reaching the area. Routh is accused of raising a rifle, leading to a shot from agents, a short vehicle chase and the suspect’s apprehension.

Cannon in July granted Routh the ability to defend himself at trial. She laid out logistics, including attire and movements, on Tuesday. Routh has filed court documents challenging the president to a round of golf and a fight while in shackles; for the former, he said if he loses Trump can execute him.

Jury selection is Monday and the trial with four weeks reserved on the calendar is expected to begin on Thursday.

The article concludes:

Routh pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations. His past includes barricading himself from officers in Greensboro in 2002 after eluding a traffic stop and owning a warehouse in 2010 where police found more than 100 stolen building supply items.

Sentences previously did not include jail time.

A tragedy was avoided because of a very good Secret Service Agent. However, the whole situation might have been avoided if he had been held accountable for his past crimes. But we don’t know if he was convicted of a crime in relation to the warehouse full of stolen goods–he could have claimed that he rented it out.

The Real Roadblock

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I am not a fan of Senator Thune. I firmly believe he only does the right thing when it is in his best interest. Otherwise, he is a tool of the Washington establishment. A recent article in The Federalist confirmed my opinion.

On Wednesday, The Federalist reported:

Senate Majority Leader John Thune wants GOP voters to believe that Senate Republicans have no ability to speed up confirmation of the more than 140 Trump nominees languishing in the upper chamber. But that isn’t entirely true.

After returning from Congress’s month-long August vacation, Thune took to the Senate floor on Tuesday to pin the blame for the continued confirmation delay of the president’s appointees squarely on the shoulders of Senate Democrats. Verbally wagging his finger at his leftist colleagues, the majority leader said that “their historic obstruction cannot continue.”

“All it takes is a little behavioral change and a willingness to acknowledge President Trump won an election, the American people voted for him, and they expect him to be able to populate his administration with the people that he wants to serve in many of these positions,” Thune said. “The Democrats can play ball — the way every Democrat and Republican Senate have, going back as far as we can find in the annals of history — or things are going to have to change around here. It’s as simple as that. And the ball, I would say, Mr. President, is in the Democrats’ court.”

Except, the ball is not in Democrats’ court — it’s in Thune’s. Contrary to his persistent narrative about Democrat obstruction, the Senate majority leader has always possessed the power to hold the upper chamber in session until confirmation of Trump’s nominees are complete.

The article concludes:

Of course, the key phrase in Bovard’s remarks is “willing.” Like when it comes to fulfilling issue-based promises they campaign on, many Republican senators have shown little to no appetite for doing what’s necessary to get the president’s nominees across the finish line. And that’s especially true for Thune, who has seemingly recanted on his pledge — which he made a day after Trump’s inauguration — that Senate Republicans “are ready to work as long as needed to confirm President Trump’s nominees,” including “Nights. Weekends. Recesses.”

The bottom line is that Thune and the Senate GOP are not going to act out of the goodness of their hearts. It’s going to take vocal, consistent, and continued pressure from Trump and Republican voters to get them to actually do their jobs.

The article explains that there are ways to break the logjam, but the Republican elites are not interested in breaking the logjam. Somehow the idea of Republican unity and working toward a common purpose was thrown out the window by the Republican establishment when President Trump was elected.

The Only Solution For New York City

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Back in the age of dinosaurs (the 1960’s), I spend two years in school in New York City. I rode the subways, took buses, wandered around Penn Station and Grand Central Station. I felt relatively safe. I ate affordable lunches at the Automat and the various restaurants in and around Grand Central Station. Under John Lindsay, the city was relatively safe. I would not feel safe enough to do any of that now.

On Tuesday, Michael Goodwin at The New York Post posted an article about the upcoming election for Mayor of New York City and one of its former Mayors.

The article reports:

Whew, better late than never!

That was my first reaction to the news that President Trump intends to give Rudy Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The announcement followed the serious weekend car crash in New Hampshire that sent the 81-year-old Giuliani to the hospital.

Thankfully, his injuries, said to include a broken vertebrae, are not life-threatening and he has been released from the hospital.

A likely result is Trump’s presentation will focus almost exclusively on Giuliani’s greatest achievement: His stellar tenure as New York’s mayor.

Although he later served as Trump’s pugnacious lawyer during the disputed aftermath of the 2020 election, it was during Giuliani’s two terms as Gotham’s fearless leader that he proved he is fully worthy of America’s highest civilian honor.

The article notes the current condition of New York City:

Giuliani was succeeded by Michael Bloomberg, a fellow Republican whom Rudy endorsed, and their combined five terms over two decades ushered in a new Golden Age in Gotham.

The city was never better, a fact that has made the subsequent years of decline a bitter pill for many and a lesson in the power of leadership, and why elections matter.

Unfortunately, the city is once again consumed with doubts as a mayoral campaign offers little hope.

Indeed, the current crisis is driven home by the fact that Bill de Blasio, who succeeded Bloomberg, took the city backward for the better part of eight years.

And now de Blasio, known as Mayor Putz in my book, is endorsing socialist Zohran Mamdani, and claiming Mamdani has “the right ideas.”

In fact, Mamdani, an anti-cop socialist and an antisemite, has all the wrong ideas for New York.

His election would take the city in the wrong direction, to a version of the bad old days that Giuliani and Bloomberg overcame.

The article includes some well-deserved praise for both Rudy Giuliani and President Trump:

Ah, but that’s not to say that the Rudy model has vanished.

In fact, a certain president was a close witness to Giuliani’s operatic performance and the changes he brought about in his hometown.

Although Trump was never accused of being a shrinking violet in the business world, I’ve long believed that he was largely inspired by Rudy’s take-no-prisoners approach to politics, and realized it was a viable path for him to follow as he, too, crashed the ­political establishment.

Trump, of course, personalized that approach to twice capture the White House, surpassing Rudy and his own dreams of sitting in the Oval Office.

Even now, the similarities between the two men remain striking.

In both of his terms, Trump has been, like Rudy, a perpetual motion machine who rarely sleeps and is always ready for the next fight.

He, too, has an endless stream of big ideas in the works, waiting their turn in the limelight.

Both are New Yorkers to the core, and were born to lead.

Fortunately for the rest of us, they chose public service.

I hope New York City voters realize the danger they are in if they elect Zohran Mamdani.

Restoring Confidence In Our Elections

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On Sunday, The Epoch Times posted an article about President Trump’s plan to restore confidence in America’s elections. States have authority over how to hold their elections, but they are required to comply with federal prohibitions.

The article reports:

President Donald Trump said on Aug. 30 that he has decided to issue an executive order to request that federal elections require the presentation of voter ID in order to cast a ballot.

“Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. No exceptions!” Trump wrote on a post on Truth Social. “I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!!”

The president did not give a timeline for his order. The midterm elections will be held on Nov. 3, 2026.

…The president also repeated his opposition to the widespread adoption of mail-in ballots and the use of electronic voting systems, although this time he didn’t say they would be the subject of any executive action.

“Also, No Mail-In Voting, Except For Those That Are Very Ill, And The Far Away Military. Use paper ballots only!!!” he said.

Earlier this month, Trump had pledged to issue an executive order ahead of the 2026 midterm elections to end the use of mail-in ballots and return to the use of paper ballots instead of voting machines.

It would be possible to count paper ballots by counting ballots in individual precincts. It would be tedious, but it would be accurate.

In 2005, former President Jimmy Carter created the Commission on Federal Election Reform. The Commission made 87 recommendations that would improve election integrity. The Commission noted that one of the places most vulnerable to election fraud was mail-in ballots.  

What Has Changed In The Streets Of Washington, D.C.?

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It’s been nine days since President Trump brought in the National Guard to help the police in Washington. Obviously, the National Guard is not the entire answer–policies in place for dealing with criminals need to be examined and possibly changed. But the impact of simply bringing in the National Guard has been significant.

On Sunday, Townhall reported:

As of this week, Washington, D.C. has now gone nine consecutive days without a single murder — a striking and rare milestone in a city long plagued by violent crime. While the left-wing media hesitates to give credit where it’s due, the facts are clear. This sudden drop in violence follows directly on the heels of President Donald Trump’s decisive federal crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital.

…Since the crackdown began, arrests have surged. Hundreds of criminals, including repeat offenders and undocumented individuals with lengthy records, have been taken off the streets. Violent crime has dropped dramatically. Carjackings, robberies, and assaults are down. And for over a week now, not a single person has been murdered in a city that has too often accepted daily violence as the norm.

This outcome is not a coincidence. It is what happens when leadership stops making excuses and starts enforcing the law. For years, progressive policies and soft-on-crime prosecutors have turned a blind eye to criminal behavior, emboldening gangs and repeat offenders while everyday citizens suffered. The Trump administration’s willingness to step in and do what local leaders refused to do has made an immediate difference.

The article concludes:

President Trump recently announced that Chicago could be the next city to see a federal intervention similar to his crackdown in Washington, D.C., telling reporters, “I think Chicago will be our next,” and adding, “And then we’ll help with New York.” His remarks signal an escalation in his national law-and-order agenda, targeting crime, homelessness, and illegal immigration in major Democrat-led cities. The response from Illinois officials was swift and critical. Gov. JB Pritzker (D), Mayor Brandon Johnson (D), and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D) condemned the plan as unnecessary, politically driven, and potentially illegal, pointing out that Chicago has already seen significant declines in violent crime, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) echoed those concerns, stating that Trump lacks the legal authority to deploy troops in Chicago without a formal request from the state.

Cleaning up Washington, D.C., could easily have been done without the intervention of President Trump. At some point, you have to ask yourself why the Mayor didn’t do it. That same question should be asked of the Democrats who objected to cleaning up Washington and seem to be objecting to cleaning up other major cities. If you don’t want the President to clean up your city, do it yourself!

What Exactly Are You For?

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On Wednesday, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posted an article about the loss of Democrat party supporters and members.

The article reports:

…The New York Times’ Shane Goldmacher did a deep dive into the trends of partisan affiliation, partnering with data firm L2 to determine those ebbs and flows. (Full disclosure: L2 partnered with me on my book Going Red gratis and allowed me to use their powerful database.) If Goldmacher’s data is accurate, the census may be the least of Democrat worries.

They are in the middle of a bleed-out that may have no end in sight. They are losing ground in literally every corner of the country:

…In fact, for the first time since 2018, more new voters nationwide chose to be Republicans than Democrats last year.

All told, Democrats lost about 2.1 million registered voters between the 2020 and 2024 elections in the 30 states, along with Washington, D.C., that allow people to register with a political party. (In the remaining 20 states, voters do not register with a political party.) Republicans gained 2.4 million.

On Thursday, Victor Davis Hanson posted an article at American Greatness that might partially explain what is happening to the Democrats.

The article at American Greatness notes:

The Pavlovian Left goes berserk at the mere prospect of each new Trump initiative.

Its escalating reactive venom and hysteria are calibrated to the success of Trump’s latest policy.

Yet the new hard-left Democratic Party offers no counter-agenda to explain its furor.

Still less do Democrats attempt bipartisan efforts to craft shared legislation.

Take foreign policy.

Democrat senators trashed the recent Trump-Putin Alaskan summit as a failure. Then they became depressed when, just days later, an entourage of European leaders and President Zelensky of Ukraine suddenly flew to the White House.

The Euros praised Trump for offering some sort of negotiated pathway to peace after over three years of war and some 1.5 million dead, wounded, missing, and captured on both sides—on Europe’s doorstep.

So why did Democrats object to such negotiations by Trump?

Was the reason that no such thing occurred during the Biden administration, when Putin invaded Ukraine, after his earlier invasions during the Obama era?

What is the left’s alternate plan? The old Biden idea of supplying Ukraine with enough money and arms to keep fighting and dying, but with no path to either victory or a negotiated peace?

Would they prefer a fourth, fifth, or sixth year of war, or an additional one million casualties?

That is just one of many examples listed in the article. We know what the Democrats are against (anything President Trump is for), but what are their policies? Until Americans see solutions rather than griping from the Democrats, they will continue to lose support. We need action, not complaining.

A Reality Check

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On Monday, The Federalist posted an article about the ongoing negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. The article reminds us that neither Russia or Ukraine can actually win the war decisively.

The article reports:

President Donald Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday didn’t yield the ceasefire deal Trump was hoping for, but there was apparently enough progress made that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and top European leaders are meeting with Trump in Washington today to discuss the possibility of peace negotiations and a deal to end to the war for good.

What might such a deal look like? Simply put, it would consist of territorial concessions in exchange for security agreements. Ukraine would cede portions of Russian-occupied territory in Crimea and the eastern provinces in exchange for a security alliance with the United States and European powers. Trump himself has alluded to this, mentioning “land swaps” ahead of his meeting with Putin on Friday.

Russia’s main goal has always been a warm-water port. The land Russia has currently seized from Ukraine would provide that port. If Ukrainian President Zelensky would make territorial concessions to give Russia a warm-water port, the war would end. However, the corruption that has provided a lavish lifestyle to the ruling class in Ukraine would also end. That is probably one of the major sticking points in the negotiations.

The article concludes:

And here we come to heart of the difference between Biden and Trump’s view of the war, and of foreign policy broadly speaking. The establishment foreign policy experts that ran things during Biden’s term (and Obama’s) think the world operates according to theories and abstractions rather than solid realities like history and geography. They thought they could simply invoke something like sovereignty, without grappling with the possibility that sovereignty and territorial integrity, given Ukraine’s history and its untenable borders, might be mutually exclusive.

That mindset is representative of an entire class of policymakers in Washington who fail to grasp that the outcome of a war — any war — is far more likely to be decided by something as unmovable as a mountain range or a warm-water port than vague invocations of sovereignty. Likewise, a common language or a shared 1,000-year history between warring peoples are going to be more important factors than the bureaucratic minutiae of a multi-lateral security agreement drafted in Brussels.

After years of attrition warfare between Ukraine and Russia, bankrolled largely by western powers, the underlying factors in the conflict have not changed — and they never will. An adjustment of Ukraine’s borders, together with security guarantees from the U.S. and Europe, is actually in everyone’s best interests, not just Russia’s. Ukraine as it’s currently constituted is indefensible, as events have shown. Lasting peace will require grappling with the history of Ukraine’s borders and adjusting them to reflect solid realities — not some hazy platitudes about democracy and sovereignty. Those kind of abstractions are a big reason we’re in this mess, and rejecting them is the only way we’re going to get out of it.

It’s time that western nations stop funding this carnage.

Do We Really Need To Continue To Fund This

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On Monday, The Washington Free Beacon reported that the funding for The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) will need to be reauthorized by the United Nations at the end of August. After the total failure  of UNIFIL to avoid Hezbollah from arming southern Lebanon, I don’t think their mission should be reauthorized. The article notes that UNIFIL receives between $400 million and $500 million each year, with the United States shouldering roughly 30 percent of the burden.

The article reports:

Trump administration officials are closely assessing UNIFIL’s expenditures and activities before awarding fresh U.S. cash to the force, the sources told the Free Beacon. Those activities include a host of DEI initiatives UNIFIL has publicly promoted in recent months that run counter to President Donald Trump’s ongoing push to eradicate taxpayer spending on progressive ideological projects.

UNIFIL in July of this year, for instance, initiated a training session on “gender mainstreaming in military operations” alongside the agency’s “gender unit” after a request from the Lebanese Army.  But the agency’s focus on gender issues did not begin with that training session.

The agency employs a “Military Gender Advisor” who discussed hiding in a bunker in October 2024 when Israel retaliated against Hezbollah, the terrorist organization UNIFIL is meant to prevent from attacking Israel, in a videotaped interview. Its navy boasts a “Gender Task Force,” founded in 2022 “to boost women’s role in peacekeeping.” And UNIFIL maintains “gender-sensitive accommodations” at its bases, featuring its facilities online amid a 2023 push “for more diverse and efficient operations.”

UNIFIL member Major Rajinish Pandey said in a May 2023 video diary that his “job is to maintain gender diversity and conduct all civic activities planned in the area of responsibility.” In another May 2023 X post, UNIFIL touted Lt. Cmdr. Suzanne van Opstal, a “Military Gender Adviser at @UNIFIL_” whose job it was to emphasize “gender perspectives in military ops.” A similar post from March 2024 explained how “more gender-balanced, diverse and inclusive security institutions is vital to promoting peaceful and inclusive societies.”

Somehow their goals don’t mention keeping southern Lebanon free of Hezbollah weapons.

The article concludes:

“This campaign to renew UNIFIL is a last ditch effort by the French government and their supporters in the State Department ‘Deep State,'” a senior congressional staffer briefed on the efforts to renew UNIFIL’s mandate told the Free Beacon. “They’re trying to undo President Trump’s DOGE-ing of foreign assistance, his global campaign to dismantle wokeness and DEI, and his crackdown against Iranian terrorists.”

UNIFIL’s recent bid to integrate Chinese forces along Israel’s northern border has also driven opposition to renewing the agency’s mandate. Chen Chuandong, China’s ambassador to Lebanon, announced earlier this week he was “briefed by Major General Diodato Abagnara, Head of Mission and Commander of UNIFIL of its operation.” During that sit down, Chuandong “pledged China’s continued support” to the agency.

I really would like to get rid of the United Nations, but in the meantime, let’s stop funding its corruption.

The Quest For Honest Elections

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On Monday, The Daily Caller reported the following:

President Donald Trump said in a Monday Truth Social post that he will lead the movement to get rid of mail-in ballots and “inaccurate” voting machines ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Trump wrote that he plans on signing an executive order on the matter to help bring “honesty” to the upcoming midterm elections. The president added that elections “can never be honest” if they include mail-in ballots.

Getting rid of mail-in ballots is not a new idea. In April 2020, The Wall Street Journal reminded us:

‘Absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.” That quote isn’t from President Trump, who criticized mail-in voting this week after Wisconsin Democrats tried and failed to change an election at the last minute into an exclusively mail-in affair. It’s the conclusion of the bipartisan 2005 report of the Commission on Federal Election Reform, chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker III.

There are times when mail-in ballots are necessary, and allowances need to be make for those times–military personnel stationed away from their home states, people who are not physically able to make it to the voting places, etc. However, in some instances in recent elections, the number of mail-in ballots was greater than the number of eligible voters in an area. That should never happen.

It’s time to get back to elections we can trust.

What A Difference Leadership Makes

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Do you suppose that one day Americans will be able to walk down the streets of Washington, D.C., safely, day or night? We seem to be aiming for that goal.

On Wednesday, Fox News reported:

Law enforcement officials in Washington, D.C., have arrested more than 100 people since Aug. 7, Fox Digital has learned, as President Donald Trump cracks down on crime in the city. 

Law enforcement officials have arrested a total of 103 individuals as of Wednesday morning since Aug. 7, which includes 43 who were arrested Tuesday, a White House official told Fox Digital Wednesday morning. The arrests are part of Trump’s March executive order, which established the Making DC Safe and Beautiful Task Force, ahead of Trump’s Monday announcement federalizing the D.C. police department. 

“President Trump’s bold leadership is quickly making our nation’s capital safer,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Fox Digital. “In less than one week, over 100 violent criminals have already been arrested and taken off of the streets in Washington, D.C. President Trump is delivering on his campaign promise to clean up this city and restore American Greatness to our cherished capital.” 

The article notes:

Tuesday’s sweep of the city included 1,450 law enforcement participants, according to the White House, including roughly 30 National Guard troops and 750 uniformed D.C. police officers. 

Tuesday’s arrests included: one arrested on suspected homicide, seven related to narcotics charges, 33 for alleged firearm offenses, 10 related to warrants, as well as the arrests of 23 illegal immigrants. Law enforcement recovered a total of 24 firearms on Tuesday, according to the White House. 

The first phase of the crime crackdown Monday resulted in 23 arrests, FBI Director Kash Patel revealed on X Tuesday. 

It should be noted that Washington, D. C., has very strict gun laws and numerous gun-free zones. Obviously they are not working.

When The Facts Disprove The Narrative

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When President Trump took office, he instituted policies to level the playing field in trading between America and other countries. The tariff system that was in Place when President Trump took office was not beneficial to America. The mainstream media immediately began clutching their pearls and claiming that the tariffs were going to send inflation through the roof. Funny, they never said much about inflation going through the roof when President Biden was in office.

On August 17, Zero Hedge reported the following:

Update (1020ET): President Trump rage-posted about the lack of inflation amid all the tariff-fearmongering…

“Trillions of Dollars are being taken in on Tariffs, which has been incredible for our Country, its Stock Market, its General Wealth, and just about everything else.

It has been proven, that even at this late stage, Tariffs have not caused Inflation, or any other problems for Country, other than massive amounts of CASH pouring into our Treasury’s coffers.

Also, it has been shown that, for the most part, Consumers aren’t even paying these Tariffs, it is mostly Companies and Governments, many of them Foreign, picking up the tabs. “

Then took direct aim at Goldman Sachs:

“But David Solomon and Goldman Sachs refuse to give credit where credit is due.

They made a bad prediction a long time ago on both the Market repercussion and the Tariffs themselves, and they were wrong, just like they are wrong about so much else.

I think that David should go out and get himself a new Economist or, maybe, he ought to just focus on being a DJ, and not bother running a major Financial Institution.”

Ouch!

The article includes a number of graphs explaining exactly what items have increased in price and by how much. Please follow the link to read the article.

The North Carolina Senate Race

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I love President Trump, but I am not convinced he truly understands North Carolina politics. He has thrown his support behind Michael Whatley in the 2026 North Carolina Senate race. I firmly believe that choice does not line up with the wishes of the average Republican in North Carolina. There is another Republican candidate in the race that I believe would better represent the views of the average North Carolinian–Don Brown.

On Monday, The Daily Haymaker reported:

A lot of folks are fast-forwarding this US Senate campaign to November 2026. Many folks are saying: “Hey, Whatley is the man.  Trump has blessed him. Bring on Cooper.”

Lest we forget that there is a Republican primary in March.  Mike Whatley – a native of Watauga County and current resident of Gaston County – will face off against Washington County native and current Union County resident Don Brown. 

Michael Whatley has been groomed and well-taken care of by the Thom Tillis political operation and the rest of the NCGOPe.  He managed to get himself hired as the General Counsel of The Republican National Committee despite having an inactive law license for over six years. 

Meanwhile, Whatley’s opponent in the March primary, Don Brown, has been putting his law license to good use. The UNC-Chapel Hill and Campbell Law grad served as an active-duty member of the Navy’s JAG Corps – made famous by a long-running hit TV show. Brown also served as a special assistant US attorney before moving on to work for Raleigh’s Maupin Taylor Ellis & Adams.  (Firm partner Tom Ellis gained fame as a senior adviser to the late US Senator Jesse Helms.)

Michael Whatley is part of the political machine that gave us Thom Tillis. He is President Trump’s choice, but President Trump will only be in office for three more years. I would rather have a Senator that represents the grass roots than one who is appointed by someone who does not live in the state.

Rejecting Peace

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On Saturday, Breitbart reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated that he will not cede any land in a peace deal.

Breitbart London tweeted:

Zelensky Publicly Rejected Trump’s Peace Plan, Preferring Push For Maximalist Total Victory Scenario

The article at Breitbart reports:

Ukraine won’t give up land to Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned early on Saturday, hours after Washington and Moscow agreed to hold a summit in a bid to end the war.

Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will meet in the far-north US state of Alaska, near Russia, on August 15, to try to resolve the three-year conflict, despite multiple warnings from Ukraine and Europe that Kyiv must be part of the negotiations.

Announcing the summit on Friday, Trump said that “there’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both” Ukraine and Russia, without providing further details.

“Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier,” Zelensky said on social media hours later.

“Any decisions against us, any decisions without Ukraine, are also decisions against peace. They will achieve nothing,” he said, adding that the war “cannot be ended without us, without Ukraine”.

Three rounds of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine this year have failed to bear fruit, and it remains unclear whether a summit would bring peace any closer.

So who wins as the war continues? As long as there is no actual accounting for the money being funneled into Ukraine by America and other countries, there will be corruption. As long as weapons are being funneled into Ukraine by America and other countries, the military-industrial complex will be funded and defense stock prices and earnings will grow. This is the nightmare President Eisenhower warned us about.

I don’t want to see the country of Ukraine totally taken over by Russia, but if a peace treaty is not signed, that will eventually happen. It may happen anyway. President Zelensky needs to wake up and smell the coffee. His corruption will not be allowed to continue indefinitely, and now is the time to make peace.

Why President Trump Is Asking For A New Census

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On Thursday, The Federalist posted an article explaining the need for a new census and the reason President Trump is asking that it be done before the mid-term elections.

The article reports:

President Donald Trump announced Thursday he instructed the Commerce Department to begin working on a census that does not include illegal aliens. It’s a long-overdue correction to a system that Democrats have exploited for years to tip the balance of power in Washington.

“I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024. People who are in our country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump said.

Trump previously signed a memo in 2020 that barred illegal aliens from being counted in the census. The memo was challenged and made its way to the Supreme Court, which ultimately did not rule on the merits as to whether all residents — regardless of their legal status — must be counted and if the president has the authority to exclude nonresidents.

The high court however did rule in the 1976 decision Mathews v. Diaz, a case regarding the Social Security Act, that while illegal immigrants are entitled to due process protections under the Fifth and 14th Amendments, they are not entitled to the benefits of citizenship. 

The article concludes:

NBC News’ Alexandra Marquez says not counting illegal aliens would be “contrary to the Constitution.”

But that is a suspect conclusion drawn by the propaganda press. The Framers likely would not support the position that illegal aliens who invaded the nation should be counted in apportionment to determine representation. In fact, prior to the ratification of the Constitution, most northern states advocated for no slaves to be counted in the apportionment proceedings so that slaveholding states, some of which had slave populations as high as 43 percent of their total residents, would not have an unfair amount of representation compared to their actual voting weight.

Yet, we’re supposed to believe Axios, NBC News, and NPR that illegal aliens would have been counted in the census?

Counting illegal alien in the census skews congressional apportionment and the electoral college — and the American citizen pays the price in diluted representation and misallocated resources.

I would like to see some of the people who support rights reserved for American citizens being bestowed on illegal aliens go to another country and try to claim the rights of that country’s citizens. It would be interesting to see what happens next.

Putting The Blame Where It Belongs

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On Saturday, The Daily Caller posted an article about the problem of rising energy prices under President Trump. As the expression goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” President Trump has been in office for less than six months, he is still dealing with the multi-dimensional mess he walked into.

The article reports:

The corporate media is suggesting that President Donald Trump and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) are responsible for rising electricity prices rather than the aggressive green energy policies of Democrats and former President Joe Biden, who himself presided over a major spike in prices.

Several major corporate media outlets have linked Trump’s OBBBA to climbing energy prices, despite data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showing that electricity bills were already on the rise, shooting up during the middle of the Biden administration. Energy experts, grid watchdogs and operators have long warned that the Biden-era green energy push threatens grid security and drives up electricity costs, as power demand also surges from the booming artificial intelligence (AI) sector.

“Electricity prices have been increasing since the grid became burdened with unreliable and expensive wind and solar. The problem has recently worsened as electricity demand has increased because of the explosion in AI-driven data center energy needs that wind and solar just can’t meet,” Steve Milloy, senior policy fellow at the Energy and Environment Legal Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Demand will likely continue to increase and will only be satisfied by more fossil fuel and nuclear baseload power. The BBB will make more baseload power possible by discouraging utilities from adding more unreliable and pointlessly expensive wind and solar.”

The article concludes:

“Democrats committed arson on electricity prices and now they have the nerve to accuse Trump of playing with matches. In Trump’s first term, electricity prices rose by less than 1% per year. Under Biden, electricity prices rose 22%. I think the American people will trust President Trump’s energy policies more than hypocritical Democrat finger-pointing,” James Taylor, president of The Heartland Institute and the founding director of Heartland’s Arthur B. Robinson Center for Climate and Environmental Policy, told the DCNF.

The Department of Energy (DOE) warned in its July 7 report that blackouts could increase by a factor of 100 by 2030 if the U.S. keeps retiring power plants without adequate replacements, the grid will be unable to meet the soaring demand from energy-hungry data centers in the coming years. It continued to single out wind and solar as key contributors to declining grid stability and argued that dispatchable generation from sources like coal, oil, gas and nuclear are vital to meet American power needs.

Like it or not, the economy and infrastructure of the globe runs on fossil fuel. Until the free market invents something considerably more reliable and ecologically sound from start to finish, our reliance on fossil fuel will continue. Wind and solar at this time are simply not practical.

Common Sense Comes To Windmills

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On Tuesday, The Department of the Interior posted a Press Release detailing the Department’s changing policy on wind energy.

The Press Release states:

Today, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced four policy measures to advance President Donald J. Trump’s commonsense approach to affordable, reliable energy development in America.

In alignment with President Donald J. Trump’s directives, the Department of the Interior is ending special treatment for unreliable energy sources, such as wind. This includes evaluating whether to stop onshore wind development on some federal lands and halting future offshore wind lease sales. The Department will also study how constructing and operating wind turbines might affect migratory bird populations.

These changes are part of a broader America First energy strategy focused on affordability, reliability, and accountability for the American people. As part of efforts to support a stable power grid and elevate local voices, the Department will improve consultation with tribes, local communities, and the fishing industry regarding offshore wind projects. The latest reforms aim to ensure that energy development reflects local land-use priorities and community values.

“These policy changes represent a commonsense approach to energy that puts Americans’ interests first,” said Secretary Doug Burgum. “Leveling the playing field in permitting supports energy development that’s reliable, affordable, and built to last. We’re also making sure tribes and local communities have a real seat at the table. This move is about responsible energy growth that works for every American.”

These are the highlights of the Press Release:

Stopping Preferential Treatment for Wind Projects

Restoring Congress’s Mandate to Consider All Uses of Our Public Lands and Waters Equally

Enhancing Stakeholder Engagement for Offshore Wind Development 

Reviewing the Consequences of Developing Wind Turbines on Migratory Birds 

Wind energy is another concept that was not fully thought out before it was implemented. The impact of offshore windmills on whales and other marine life that uses sonar to navigate and the consequences of a blade malfunctioning or disintegrating have not been fully considered. The impact of onshore windmills on eagles and other birds has also been ignored. Let’s get back to a level playing field in terms on energy generation and let the free market prevail.

General Flynn Speaks Out

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General Flynn has a Substack website where he posts articles about current happenings.

On July 29, he posted the following headline, “The Hunted Have Become the Hunters The Truth is Rising.” I agree. In the article he lists recent events that have uncovered the truth about the continuing attacks on President Trump and his past and present administrations.

The article reports:

The recent declassifications from DNI Tulsi Gabbard weren’t coincidental. They were a strategic disclosure of evidence and laid the groundwork for follow-on prosecutions.

Here’s what those documents confirm:

Barack Obama knew in December 2016 that there was no Russia-Trump collusion. He also knew Hillary Clinton’s campaign was manufacturing the narrative, yet he allowed it to proceed anyway. Why…Because globalism and communism were the end goals. Obama was not just transforming America, he was weaponizing the entire federal government to destroy a duly elected successor.

This wasn’t politics, this was a coup that they nearly got away with.

How Do We Know?

Let’s look at five confirmed, documented facts that expose this Deep State playbook:

1. Illegal surveillance of the Trump campaign via FISA warrants—later ruled invalid. The DOJ’s Inspector General found at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Carter Page FISA applications (Horowitz Report, 2019).

2. Unmasking of Gen. Michael Flynn by dozens of Obama-era officials. According to DNI declassifications, 39 officials made 53 unmasking requests involving Flynn, including Biden and Obama’s Chief of Staff.

3. Despite its unverified status, Senator John McCain hand-delivered the Steele Dossier to James Comey, and it later became the basis for FBI surveillance.

4. AG Bill Barr claimed “no election fraud” within days of the 2020 election despite hundreds of affidavits, video footage, and ongoing court challenges.

5. The FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago authorized with “deadly force” authority in the execution order (as confirmed by court filings in 2024).

Why 2020 Was Critical

2020 wasn’t just about beating Trump, it was about silencing him before he could uncover and expose their crimes. The Deep State’s strategy is to run out the clock since the federal statute of limitations for many offenses is five years.

But there’s one catch: a conspiracy investigation resets the clock and opens up new venues for prosecution. The Deep State’s favorite Washington, D.C. courtrooms can no longer protect this corruption-Florida is now in play and that changes everything.

A New DOJ — A New Battlefield

This marks a new chapter beyond the Barr–Wray–Durham era. The president has appointed a talented team of leaders and assigned them clear responsibilities and expectations to ensure accountability.

From the FBI’s new investigations to Tulsi’s precise declassifications, every piece of this operation is moving in sync. You don’t declassify sensitive intel unless ready to act on it. You don’t flip the DOJ unless you plan to prosecute.

This is not the Trump of 2017. This is 2025 Trump, deliberate, battle-tested, and backed by a trusted inner circle.

Please follow the link and read the entire article. It is time for justice.

Peace Breaks Out Again?

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On Monday, Fox News reported that President Trump has announced that Thailand and Cambodia have reached a ceasefire deal.

The article reports:

Thailand and Cambodia reached a ceasefire deal “through trade,” President Donald Trump announced Monday, ending a burgeoning conflict that displaced 260,000 people. 

The declaration from Trump comes after he said over the weekend that he had spoken to the leaders of Cambodia and Thailand, urging a ceasefire, adding the U.S. would not get back to the “trading table” with the southeast Asian countries until fighting stops. 

The fighting began Thursday after a land mine explosion along the border wounded five Thai soldiers. Both sides blamed each other for starting the clashes that have killed at least 35 people and displaced more than 260,000 people on both sides. 

The article notes:

“I said, ‘I don’t want to trade with anybody that’s killing each other.’ So we just got that one solved. And I’m going to call the two prime ministers who I got along with very, very well and speak to them right after this meeting and congratulate them. But it was an honor to be involved in that. That was going to be a very nasty war. Those wars have been very, very nasty,” Trump also said.

“By ending this War, we have saved thousands of lives. I have instructed my Trade Team to restart negotiations on Trade. I have now ended many Wars in just six months — I am proud to be the President of PEACE!” Trump added in a post on Truth Social.

As part of the ceasefire deal, military commanders from both sides will begin to hold talks Tuesday to defuse tensions while Cambodia will host a border committee meeting on Aug. 4, according to Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

As I have stated before, President Trump knows how to use economic leverage. America is the big kid on the block, and we don’t have to bully anyone. However, we can use our economic position to bring peace where it is needed.

Something That Would Help Bring Down The Crime Rate In Some American Cities

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On Monday, Breitbart posted an article about a recent statement by President Trump regarding cashless bail. Some of our major cities have policies of releasing criminals without charging bail if the crime was not violent. Some cities release the criminals even if the crimes are violent. Not only does this put a criminal back on the street instantly, it provides no incentive for a criminal to stop committing crimes.

On Monday, Breitbart reported:

President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to demand the elimination of cashless bail, saying the policy has failed and is endangering public safety.

“Crime in American Cities started to significantly rise when they went to CASHLESS BAIL,” President Trump posted on Monday. “The WORST criminals are flooding our streets and endangering even our great law enforcement officers. It is a complete disaster, and must be ended, IMMEDIATELY!”

Trump’s message echoes concerns he has voiced repeatedly on the campaign trail. At a Bronx rally in May of last year, Trump decried “radical left pro-crime policies” that he said have “destroyed” cities like New York.

“You know the names of these lunatic policies: No cash bail… defund our great police, sanctuary cities, release violent repeat offenders from jail,” Trump asserted at the time. He pointed to the tragic death of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller — fatally shot during a traffic stop in March by a suspect with 21 prior arrests — as a direct consequence of these policies. “These dangerous and violent repeat offenders should never have been on our streets. Jonathan should be alive today, but they were released again and again and again,” he stated.

The state of New York eliminated cash bail for most non-violent offenses in 2019. In Illinois, the Democrat-controlled legislature and Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) abolished cash bail entirely in 2023, despite warnings from prosecutors that it would create chaos. McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally observed the new system produced “absurd” and “incoherent” outcomes on day one.

Eliminating cash bail removes any respect criminals might have had for the law. When there are no consequences for breaking the law, there is no reason to stop breaking the law.

The Pivotal Dates

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On Tuesday, Representative Jim Jordan posted an article at MRCTV listing the three key dates in the Russiafor Collusion Hoax.

The article lists the three dates:

“Never forget there are three key dates here,” Jordan said, beginning with a meeting Pres. Obama had with his top intelligence, CIA and FBI officials the month after Trump’s election in November of 2020:

  1. December 9th: “They had this meeting in the White House: Clapper, Brennan, McCabe, Comey, the president. They’re all there and they say, ‘Okay, we’re not going to accept the intelligence community assessment; we’re going to change that.’”
  2. January 3rd: (Democrat Senator) Chuck Schumer goes on one of the Sunday shows and says – talking about then President-Elect Trump – he says, ‘If you mess with the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday of getting back at you.”
  3. January 6th: “They all go up to Trump Towers to give Pres. Trump what he believes is his incoming defensive briefing as the new president-elect. He thinks he’s getting the normal defensive briefing. Instead, it’s a set-up.”

The purpose of the briefing is to give credence to the idea that Russia meddled in the 2016 election.

The article notes:

Jordan explained how Obama’s officials knowingly used false claims from the infamous Steele Dossier, deception and leaks to the media in their set-up of President Elect Trump:

“They go up there, talk to him about this and then Comey tells him about the dossier – the dossier that they already know is baloney. They know it’s not true, came from the Clinton campaign and everything else.

“But, they brief him on it so that, when that information gets leaked, it has added credibility because, now, it was so important that the FBI talked to the president-elect. The press has got to report it – and off and running goes the Russia Collusion false narrative for the next two years.”

“It was all to undermine President Trump and his presidency,” Rep. Jordan concluded, adding that he hopes the Justice Department gets to the bottom of the conspiracy:

I don’t wish anyone ill, but the actions of President Obama and his cadre do not represent the smooth transition of power. They need to be held accountable for what they did.

Slowly Getting Judicial Confirmations Done

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On July 10th, The New York Post posted an article about Whitney Hermandorfer, the first of President Trump’s judicial appointments to be confirmed this term.

The article reports:

The Senate on Thursday cleared the way to confirm the first judicial appointment of President Trump’s second term, marking a slower tempo than at the same point of both his first term and that of President Joe Biden’s.

By a 51-43 party-line vote, the Senate moved to conclude debate on Whitney Hermandorfer’s nod for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, teeing up an expected vote next week.

At this stage of Trump’s first term, the Senate had already confirmed two court nominees — Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and Sixth Circuit Judge Amul Thapar.

By next week, that figure will shoot up to three, including US District of Idaho Judge David Nye, who was confirmed in July of 2017.

Meanwhile, former President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats had already wrangled through 14 judges at this stage of 2021.

The Democrats have decided to fight President Trump’s agenda through the courts and are probably going to drag their feet in confirming the President’s judicial nominees. This is one of many reasons that the Republicans need to gain Congressional seats in the mid-term elections.

The article notes:

In the past, confirmations used to be more cumbersome because they had to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to break a filibuster from the minority party. In 2013, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) used the nuclear option to eliminate that in most instances.

Republicans won back the Senate the following year.

Reconfiguring the ideological composition of the judiciary has been a key goal of administrations from both political parties. But the GOP-led Senate has been busy with other priorities as well.

Harry Reid was warned that using the nuclear option would come back to bite him in the future. It did. The Democrats were so used to being in the majority that they couldn’t envision losing that majority.

Money Talks, But Can It Bring Peace?

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President Trump seems to have a gift for understanding economic leverage. This is becoming very obvious in the Middle East. He has essentially given a number of Middle Eastern Countries a choice–do you want to be economically successful or do you want to continue supporting terrorism? There will be countries that will attempt to play both sides of the fence–traditions and generational hatred are hard to overcome–but the people who rule countries understand they tend to stay in power longer if their country is prosperous. It may come down to a ruler having to decide whether he values his position enough to forgo some of his hatred toward Israel.

As I write this on Monday, the news from the Middle East is that five of the most prominent Arab sheikhs in Hebron—yes, Hebron, the heart of biblical Judea—just declared that they want to join the Abraham Accords, recognize Israel as the Jewish state, and break away from the Palestinian Authority. This is according to a Jewish News Syndicate article posted on Sunday. This might be taken as an indication that Hamas no longer has the power it once had and that Iran is no longer in a position to support Hamas. It is also being reported that Qatar (a major supporter of terrorism) has told the Hamas leaders in Qatar to lay down their weapons. Even Qatar wants peace.

Before we get too excited over this, there is something we all need to take into consideration. It is the Islamic concept of “hudna” defined as a tactical pause intended only for rearmament.

We need to remember that when we are dealing with the Islamist population of the Middle East, we are dealing with generational hatred and indoctrination. In Gaza, the indoctrination begins with telling very young children that they should be martyrs in the quest to retake Jerusalem. Overcoming this indoctrination will take time and will not be easy.

Memri.org, one of the most reliable sources for information on current events in the Middle East, recently reported that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed gave an interview to Fox News in which he called for the release of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, for the formation of a government in Gaza that does not include this movement, and for the establishment of calm there.

Living with constant terrorism and war does not make for a stable government, and many Middle Eastern leaders want to maintain their positions. If that means joining the Abraham Accords to create prosperity in their countries and to create longevity for their rule, they may be willing to do that.

I Saw It In The News, It Must Be True–Not!

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On Saturday, PJ Media posted an article about FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino’s reply to a New York Times article claiming that Trump’s “politicized FBI” has “made Americans less safe.”

The article reports:

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino wrote a scathing response to the article, calling it “precisely why hard-working Americans simply do not trust the media.” Bongino’s tweet, which quickly gained traction online, took direct aim at what he described as a “poorly thought out hit piece” that misrepresented the sweeping reforms he and Director Patel have implemented at the Bureau.

Bongino’s frustration was palpable as he laid out his case point by point, lambasting the Times for what he saw as a glaring lack of evidence to support their central claim. “The conclusion of the piece is so ridiculous that a child could debunk it,” Bongino wrote. He noted that the article’s authors “comically assert that you are ‘less safe’ because Kash and I have aggressively reformed the FBI. Yet, they produce NO evidence whatsoever to backup that claim. And the reason they don’t produced any evidence, is because the numbers tell the opposite story.”

Backing up his rebuttal with a barrage of statistics, Bongino offered a “small snippet of data points” that he says prove the effectiveness of the FBI’s new direction. Among the highlights, he touted the Bureau’s violent crime initiative, “Summer Heat,” which he notes has the murder rate “trending to be the lowest in U.S. history by a longshot.” He promised that “Summer Heat is coming to a city or town near you soon as we assist your community in removing criminal predators from the streets.”

Bongino didn’t stop there. He detailed that the FBI’s renewed focus on violent crime has led to the arrest of 14,000 violent criminals—a 62% increase from the same period last year. “We rescued over one hundred children from being preyed on, while arresting over 825 violent child predators, and 140 human traffickers,” he added.

It’s amazing how much the FBI can accomplish when it stops going after parents who attend school board meetings or attend the Catholic church.

Just another reason not to trust the mainstream media.

A Prelude To The End Of The War?

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On Thursday, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posted an article about the rapid changes happening in the war in Gaza. Hamas is in an awkward position now that a lot of the leadership in Iran has been removed. It is not clear how much funding Hamas continues to get from Iran. Evidently other countries in the Middle East have taken note of the recent actions against Iran.

The article reports:

Symbolic? Maybe, maybe not. If true, Hamas leaders didn’t just get a soft ultimatum from Donald Trump this week. 

Yesterday, Trump warned Hamas that the final deal for a cease-fire in Gaza was on the table, and that all other options would get “MUCH WORSE.” Qatar may have decided to raise the stakes to something more personal for Hamas’ billionaire clique in Doha:

Doha-based senior Hamas leaders have been told to lay down their arms as part of the efforts to reach a ceasefire deal with Israel, according to a Thursday morning report from The Times newspaper. …

The Times stated that those told to lay down their weapons were “the most senior Hamas leaders outside Gaza,  including the lead negotiator Khalil al-Hayya and other key figures.”

One of the key figures reportedly included Hamas political ­bureau member Zaher Jabareen, “a founder of the group’s military wing in the West Bank.”

An additional bureau member told to lay down weapons was Muhammad Ismail Darwish, who had “met the leaders of Iran and Turkey this year while shuttling between Cairo and Doha for indirect negotiations with Israel,” the report said.

The Times credits this as a “symbolic reflection of Hamas’ interest in the ceasefire proposal,” but that doesn’t make much sense. If Hamas wanted to send that kind of signal, their Qatar contingent would have voluntarily and unilaterally disarmed. They wouldn’t have needed the Qataris to order them to disarm.

That makes this sound like a much different kind of signal. The Qataris are likely as tired of playing the Hamas Hokey Pokey as everyone else, for one thing, while their leadership fattens up on “aid” meant for Palestinians. However, it may mean more than that, especially after the strike on Fordow by Trump and the B-2 bombers. That didn’t just send a signal to Tehran, but to Doha as well — and the rocket fire on Qatar afterward probably didn’t help, either.

This is definitely a wait-and-see moment. It is very possible that the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities may have had a larger impact than initially realized.

The Big Beautiful Bill Has Passed The Senate

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Breitbart reported on Tuesday that the Big Beautiful Bill has passed the Senate. Vice-President J.D. Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. The bill now goes back to the House of Representatives where the first procedural vote is expected to happen on Wednesday.

The article reports:

The bill includes an enormous assemblage of Trump’s campaign promises on border security, energy, national security, spending cuts, and taxes. The bill also includes Medicaid reforms and an increase in defense spending.

It didn’t come easy.

“Tensions have been high at times, but we’re at the end now,” Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), the Budget Committee Chairman, said with enthusiasm through bloodshot eyes during the final vote series.

…At 10:12 am EST, Senators were instructed to make their way to the Floor and plan to be in their seats in 15 minutes. Over an hour later, a large group of Senators was still huddled at the dais negotiating with the help of Senate staff, including Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth McDonough.

Eventually an agreement was reached, and the Senate, anxious to end the marathon session, breezed through the final votes.

Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Rand Paul (R-KY), who voted against proceeding to the bill, voted against its passage. They were joined by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), whose amendment to raise taxes on billionaires to pay for a fund for rural hospitals was soundly defeated – her amendment received a bipartisan smattering of 22 votes.

Sen. Lisa Murkowksi (R-AK) required a last minute agreement on a Medicaid carveout for her state after the Senate parliamentarian ruled the prior agreement violated the much ballyhooed Byrd rule which governs what can be included in reconciliation bills.

The article concludes:

The path ahead is arduous.

The big, beautiful bill now heads to the House, where a handful of moderates have protested the Medicaid reforms, and a large block of spending hawks, mostly consisting of House Freedom Caucus members, want more spending cuts in line with the version of the bill the House sent to the Senate.

The first procedural vote is expected Wednesday morning at 9 am.

Yet Trump’s July 4 deadline remains in reach. And Trump is likely to lobby, cajole, threaten, and twist arms – or whatever else is necessary – to secure his signature legislative achievement.

This is not a perfect bill, but it is a beginning. Now it’s time for Congress to start voting on spending cuts.

H.R.4 – Rescissions Act of 2025 has already passed the house. This bill rescinds $9.4 billion in unobligated funds that were provided to the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), various independent and related agencies, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The rescissions were proposed by the President under procedures included in the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Under current law, the President may propose rescissions to Congress using specified procedures, and the rescissions must be enacted into law to take effect.

For further information on this bill, go to Congress.gov and put “H.R.4” in the search engine.

It is possible to cut spending–we just need a Congress willing to do it.