Tag Archives: Hot Air

How Fake News Works

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On Tuesday, Hot Air posted an article illustrating how the mainstream media can manipulate an ordinary event into a full-blown crisis or racial incident.

This was the X post that began the incident:

The implication is that it has to be President Trump’s fault and this proves that he is a racist (regardless of awards for promoting racial harmony he won before becoming a Republican).

Well, not so fast.

Hot Air reports what actually happened:

Newsweek blasted out a headline implying the Trump administration “quietly removed a memorial” for Black WWII soldiers.

But — shocker — when you scroll all the way down, buried under piles of narrative-fluff, they finally admit the truth:

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 “𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥.”

𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩.

That’s it. That’s the scandal.

They manufactured a racial outrage story out of a museum rotation schedule.

And they were counting on people not reading past the headline — because that’s how the media plays the game.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐲, 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 — 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 “𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐥𝐬.”

And if you still trust the press at face value after stunts like this… you’re not paying attention.

You don’t hate the media enough.

That is only one example of the things the media reports that are largely responsible for the “Trump Derangement System” we currently have in our country despite the amazing accomplishments of President Trump. Would you rather live under the Biden economy?

Once A Tyranny, Always A Tyranny

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In 2005, Israel totally withdrew from Gaza. The Palestinian Authority was elected by the people in Gaza to govern. In 2006, Hamas took over the government. There was an election involved, but the circumstances are a bit sketchy. That was the last election. One of the first things that people in Gaza did in 2005 was dismantle the greenhouses the Israelis had built that fed Gaza and Israel and provided employment and income for the residents of Gaza. The people of Gaza used the plumbing tubes from the greenhouses as rocket tubes. The rocket attacks against Israel that had been going on since 2001 continued. Gaza has been a brutal terrorist state from the beginning.

Things haven’t changed. On Tuesday, Hot Air reported:

As the Israelis withdrew from the Gaza war zone, Hamas terrorists needed somebody to shoot, so they decided to turn their fire on their fellow Palestinians.

The article quotes The U.K. Telegraph:

Much of the intra-Palestinian violence in recent days has taken place around the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza City, where, according to Hamas-affiliated social media, the group carried out a widespread “security campaign” against rivals, believed to be the powerful Dormush clan.

Hamas is also said to have moved against the Abu Samra family in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and called for the death of Khan Younis militia leader Housam al-Astal, who was interviewed by the Telegraph last week, and Yasser Abu Shabab in Rafah. Both men are believed to have collaborated tactically with Israel and accepted material support.

‘Dragged to the execution site’

The execution video showed Hamas fighters moving a large crowd out of the way so as not to be hit by bullets before the killings took place. Some of the prisoners were shirtless and some were dragged to the execution site while being beaten.

Separate footage, bearing the insignia of Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades, showed armed militants riding in the back of an SUV with dead bodies at their feet.

I am not posting the videos.

The following was posted on X by Ahmed Al-Khalidi:

As a Palestinian who openly opposes Hamas and rejects the glorified myths our society keeps repeating, I can’t stay silent about the sheer hypocrisy I see from many Western liberals.

How can you defend a movement that executes its own people, by shooting them in the street, without trial, for merely disagreeing or being labeled “collaborators”? How can you call that “resistance” while those very scenes mirror the barbarism you’d condemn anywhere else in the world?

You claim to stand for liberal values, for human rights, for justice. But your empathy collapses when the victims are Palestinians murdered by other Palestinians, when it doesn’t fit the neat narrative of oppressor and oppressed.

What does that say about your values, really?

If you can overlook public executions and rule by terror just because the perpetrators shout “liberation,” then maybe your solidarity isn’t rooted in morality but in ideology.

A X post included in the article asks the question:

Has a single member of the “ceasefire now” brigade in Congress condemned Hamas carrying out public executions over the last few days?

The article concludes:

The whole “peace” movement has always been a farce. It was never about saving lives; it was always about backing anti-Israel terrorists.

Pulling An Ace Out Of A Hole

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The one thing that the Congressional Democrats are really great at doing is not understanding the consequences of their actions. They do not understand that many of today’s Republicans are not as willing to roll over and play dead as their former Congressional members. The attempt to blackmail Americans by planning to shut down the government if budget cuts are not restored may not work out the way Senator Schumer wants it to.

On Thursday, Ed Morrissey posted the following at Hot Air:

The deadline for a government shutdown is fast approaching, and Schumer tried to play hardball this week. He and Hakeem Jeffries demanded a meeting with Trump to negotiate, which Trump initially accepted, but canceled after the pair demanded a massive list of concessions before the meeting took place. Schumer then told the press that Trump was “chicken” and that any shutdown would be his fault — even though the House had already passed the clean CR that Schumer had demanded when Joe Biden was president-ish.

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported:

The White House’s budget office directed federal agencies to draw up plans to permanently reduce their workforces if there is a government shutdown next week, raising the specter of mass firings on top of the customary furloughs during a lapse in funding. 

The new memo sent by Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought sharply raises the stakes for funding talks and increases the pressure on Senate Democrats, who are demanding that Republicans restore hundreds of billions of dollars in healthcare spending as a condition of their support for keeping the government funded.

…The OMB memo instructs agencies to design reduction-in-force plans for employees who work for programs that have no current funding and have no outside funding source, and that are “not consistent with the President’s priorities.” This would be in addition to any temporary furloughs that happen during a government shutdown. 

The memo from Vought says that any cuts made after the funding deadline would be permanent.

Never play checkers with someone who plays three-dimensional chess!

Look For This Man On The 2028 Presidential Ticket

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It is very likely that JD Vance will be the Republican candidate for President in 2028. The Democrat candidate field is a lot more complicated. To name a few possible candidates, I expect to see Gavin Newsom, Mark Kelly, and Josh Shapiro. However, there is someone else quietly making moves who would be a much more viable candidate.

On Sunday, Hot Air reported the following:

One month later, another survey by the Journal showed that people are losing faith that they will achieve the American dream in their lifetime — and worse, they fear it will even be further out of reach for their children and grandchildren. This sentiment should concern leaders in both parties but in particular the Democrats, who have bottomed out with appealing to the middle-class voter.

No Democrat cringes more at those stats than former Illinois congressman, White House Chief of Staff and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Twenty years ago, he led the Democrats’ takeover of the House, and he is widely rumored to be considering a run for his party’s nomination for president in 2028.

Many smart Republicans will tell you privately that of all the folks throwing their name around as possible contenders, it is Emanuel, a brilliant political animal and tactician, whom they fear the most. Why?

Well, there is likely an entire generation of Democrats and journalists who might not know this, but his 2006 midterm election strategy of picking centrist candidates to run for the House in states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and Tennessee in Republican-leaning districts gave his party the gavel for the first time in a dozen years.

Emanuel said in our interview that the survey numbers from the Journal told him a few important things but one above all: that Democrats really need to start addressing that it is unacceptable for the American dream to be inaccessible to so many.

Rahm Emanuel is a political force to be reckoned with. He is quietly preparing a path to the Democrat nomination for President. He is presenting himself as less radical than the other candidates and attempting to bring the Democrats who have defected to President Trump and Vice-President Vance back into the party. Actually, he is as radical as anyone in the current Democrat Party. Remember, he was a major player in the Obama administration that laid the foundation for a lot of the problems we have now–he was part of the group that enabled the government takeover of healthcare. He will bring back the days of racial division and unequal justice. Be aware that he is on the hunt for the nomination.

Cleaning Up Another Major American City

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On Monday, Hot Air reported that the Trump administration is beginning a major effort in Chicago to deport illegal aliens. The operation is being dedicated to a young woman who was killed by an illegal alien who was driving while drunk earlier this year.

The article quotes The Washington Post:

Chicago city leaders and immigrant advocates said federal law enforcement officers began making arrests Sunday and had taken at least five people into custody, including a well-known flower vendor and people waiting at a bus stop and on the sidewalk. The activists said there had been “an escalation” in enforcement actions and several reported sightings of ICE vehicles.

“We believe this operation signals the beginning of ICE’s full escalation in Chicago and Illinois,” said Rey Wences, senior director of deportation defense for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Notice that the article at The Washington Post refers to the illegal aliens simply as immigrants. That is very misleading. Immigrants go through the process to come to America legally. The people arrested broke the law in coming here, and in many cases are not interested in assimilating into American culture or following America’s laws.

There have been protests in various areas of the city against the actions of ICE in rounding up people who are here illegally. That makes no sense to me. Why are the residents of Chicago protesting actions that could possibly bring down the crime rate? I guess my answer is that they are protesting for the same reasons there are protests in Washington, D.C. about the use of the National Guard. The people doing the protesting are not in the areas where the crime rates are highest or the areas where misconduct by illegal aliens is a problem. What we are seeing is a total disregard for the safety of their fellow citizens and a total disregard for the rule of law.

Putting Space Force Where It Belongs

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The center of rocket science has always been Huntsville, Alabama. Soon, Space Force will join the rocket scientists. Actually, that makes perfect sense.

On Tuesday, Hot Air reported:

Space Force should have always been in Huntsville with the rest of the rocket scientists, and now, at long last, it will be.

It has always made sense, which is why it was the no-brainer choice for its home originally. The proximity to so many of NASA’s extended agencies already physically in Huntsville, many of them safe and sound behind the guarded walls of Redstone Arsenal. The Marshall Space Flight Center, which is NASA’s ‘lead center for the development of rocket propulsion systems and technologies,’ is way cool to drive past. I had no idea it was up there on my first visit to Huntsville.

…Not only because of what was already in the area, contractor-wise and NASA assets, but because the location is perfect. Right on I-65, a centrally located north-south main interstate, just a short run to the Port of Mobile for trucked-in, shipped, or rail parts. Easy access to the Houston Space Center and any tie-ins with SpaceX that might be in current development. 

If they need to head east to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center, they turn left when they hit I-10 instead of right, and off they go. Or, for that matter, if they have to send folks down to work with Central Command in Tampa. It’s all within a day’s drive – granted, a long one, but the most important feature of Huntsville is, as we always say, ‘You can get there from here.‘

Switching the Space Force headquarters to Colorado Springs was a bitter, vindictive political move by the incoming Biden administration to pull a justifiable defense placement asset away from a red voting state and hand it off to a blue one. 

The article notes:

For the ignorant and uninitiated, Huntsville, AL is ‘Rocket City,’ birthed by the very man who started it all for the United States. Werner Von Braun even had the foresight to ensure that a museum would be founded to preserve and document the space history being made in Huntsville.

I wonder how much money this will save the government in travel expenses and other expenses that are the result of putting the Space Force headquarters in Colorado.

This is another step toward making the government cost efficient. The government will probably never be cost efficient, but at least we can make steps in that direction.

What The News Media Failed To Mention

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A young girl in Scotland has been charged with possession of a knife after viral footage showed her and another minor being approached and filmed by at least one foreign man. Much of the media has shown the picture of the girl without asking too many questions as to why she had a knife and who was filming the incident.

On Thursday, Hot Air posted an article that added some context to the story.

The article reports:

A 14-year-old girl in Scotland has been charged with possession of a knife after viral footage showed her and another minor being approached and filmed by at least one foreign man.

The girl brandishes a knife and an axe before walking away from the scene.

The incident occurred on Saturday evening in the Lochee area of Dundee.

“She will be reported to the relevant authorities,” said a Police Scotland spokesperson.

She was arrested, of course, because she brandished weapons in self-defense. Lots of pious liberals complained that she was the aggressor, and we really shouldn’t be prejudiced and assume that the migrant was a genuine threat.

This is the same Great Britain that has been dealing with migrant r@pe gangs for decades, with the government covering up the problem and arresting the victims and not the perpetrators.

It certainly appears that the “victim” began filming when she started fighting back, presumably in an attempt to get her arrested. In that he succeeded–he obviously knows the two-tier justice system well, as all migrants do now.

The article includes a report of the incident by the girl’s mother:

So first of all, the reporting got the names of the girls mixed up. There were 3 girls who were there who were accosted and attacked by the migrants.  

Lola – Lola is the hero from the video. She’s the one with the axe defending her sister from the migrant attackers 

Ruby – Lola’s older sister who was attacked and hospitalized 

Mayah – Ruby’s best friend who was with them and went to call the police after Ruby was attacked by the migrants  

Here’s the summary of what happened from Mayah’s mother:  

“Yes. So what happened was the girls where out just walking and the man in the picture made comments to lola(the younger girl) calling her sexy and other sexual remarks then the girls started to tell this man to leave them alone and stop following them and making sexual remarks to them. After that the man’s sister (also in the picture) came around the corner and physically attacked ruby(the older sister) she grabbed her hair dragged her to the floor started to punch her then both the man and woman where kicking her in head while she was on the floor. At this point my daughter (mayah) called the police so my daughters account after that is all abit blurry.  But that is when lola had the weapons she pulled them out to protect ruby. After that the man came back at lola recording her making sure she showed the weapons to the camera and antagonising her. Ruby was hospitalised after the attack with a severe concussion a tennis ball sized lump to the back of her head aswell as lots of bruises.”

The article notes a very uncomfortable truth:

Yeah, well, look at Scotland and the UK now. Rates of sexual assaults are off the charts, governments are protecting the offenders, and 14-year-old girls are defending themselves and their sisters from predators, and getting arrested for it.

The Rule of Law in Britain is gone.

Rerouting Money To Good Use

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On Sunday, Hot Air posted an article about some of the changes being made in the way the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spends its money.

The article quotes an article at The Center Square:

“VA staff will now get to spend more time with Veterans, VA facilities can focus on treating Veterans, and VA can manage its staff according to Veterans’ needs and national security requirements, not union demands,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said. 

Earlier this month, Veterans Affairs canceled its contracts with most unions on Wednesday, saying the unions fight against the best interests of veterans. VA said the move follows President Donald Trump’s executive order from March to do away with public employee unions at the federal level after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a preliminary injunction that previously stopped 21 agencies from implementing the executive order.

Before 1962, federal employees did not have the right to collective bargaining. On January 17, 1962, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10988 that granted federal employees the right to collective bargaining.Theoretically, an Executive Order by a President can be reversed later by a different President. This could get interesting.

The article at The Center Square reports:

When VA canceled those contacts, it cut the number of VA bargaining unit employees from about 375,000 to about 7,000. Trump’s executive order exempted public safety employee unions, so employment contracts covering VA police officers, firefighters and security guards represented by unions will remain in place.

VA is redirecting nearly $45 million per year in federal funds from unions to America’s Veterans by ending taxpayer-funded union time, reclaiming federal office space used for public union activities, and getting back federal IT equipment.

Ending taxpayer-funded union time is expected to save the most money. In 2024, VA spent $39.75 million to allowed 1,961 VA employees to spend nearly 750,000 hours working on behalf of government unions rather than VA beneficiaries. After ditching the union contract, the agency no longer has to allow union employees to do union work on taxpayer time. 

VA officials said that vast majority of these employees are back working full time for VA in the positions they were hired to do rather than doing work on behalf of the union. This includes more than 1,000 employees serving in direct patient-care roles.

VA also reclaimed more than 180,000 square feet of office space worth about $5.4 million that had been provided to unions free of charge. The space will be repurposed to serve VA beneficiaries, including expanded administrative and clinical services in several facilities across the country.

Our veterans deserve the best healthcare available.

The Impact Of President Trump’s Energy Policies

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On Saturday, Stephen Moore posted an article at Hot Air discussing the impact of President Trump’s energy policies.

The article notes:

Well, so much for the vaunted renewable energy “transition” to save the planet. This was always a fable. We get 80% of our energy from fossil fuels, and with Donald Trump now in the White House, that ratio is rising, not falling.

A Reuters headline from recent days tells the real story: “US crude production to hit record 13.41 million (barrels per day) in 2025 before falling.”

The data from the International Energy Agency tells the same story about clean natural gas: We’re producing more of it than ever before. Why shouldn’t we? The U.S. has greater access to clean, cheap, reliable and made-in-America natural gas than any other nation. Natural gas is far cheaper and less land-intensive than ugly wind and solar farms that industrialize America’s natural landscape beauty.

All told, American energy in the ground is a $50 trillion treasure chest right under our feet. The commercial value of this abundance is — nearly enough to pay off our entire national debt. We would be lunatic to leave it in the ground.

The rapid revival of America as an energy superpower under Trump should come as no surprise. This is continuation of a 15-year trend thanks to the fracking and horizontal drilling revolution that has nearly tripled U.S. annual production.

The principle of supply and demand applies to fossil fuels.

The article notes:

Crude was over $100 in 2022 and generally ranged between $70 and $85 for the rest of Biden’s term. At $100 a barrel, drillers will search for oil in your backyard. If it were not for Biden’s environmental regulations and the cancellation of vital energy infrastructure, such as the Keystone XL pipeline, we would have produced far more oil under Biden. Gas wouldn’t have gone up to $5 a gallon.

What’s impressive about the Trump oil production spike is that it’s happened even as the global spot price of oil has fallen. In other words, we’re getting the best of both worlds: made-in-America energy AND low prices at the pump. The Energy Information Administration reports forecasts that gas prices will keep falling to below $3 a gallon by next year. That is, unless you live in California, where gas still costs above $5 a gallon.

Let’s not forget the national security benefits from this pro-drilling strategy. More U.S. drilling means less profits for Iran, Russia and other enemies of freedom. It weakens Vladimir Putin’s hand and drives him to the negotiating table since the Russian economy is dependent on natural gas exports for survival.

As I have previously stated, when the crude oil price comes down to $55 a barrel, the Ukraine war will end. It won’t have anything to do with anyone’s negotiating skills–it will be the result of the economic situation in Russia caused by falling oil and gas prices.

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 Hate Group?

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On Tuesday, Hot Air posted an article about the group Moms for Liberty. The group was formed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when schools remained closed and required students to wear face masks late into 2020 and 2021, and when remote learning allowed parents to see what the schools had been teaching their children.

The article reports:

Is Moms for Liberty a “hate group” on the order of the KKK?

The Massachusetts Municipal Police Training Committee thinks so. Not even the infamously anti-sanity NGO, the Southern Poverty Law Center, which never saw a conservative-leaning group it didn’t despise, has gone so far as to label Moms for Liberty a hate group, although they do call them “extremist.”

…When even the SPLC can’t conjure up enough evidence to indict you as a hate group, your worst crime is loving puppies and kittens. After all, PragerU and Focus on the Family make it into the hate group category. 

Yet police officers in Massachusetts are told to be on the lookout for moms who don’t like drag queens fondling their kindergarten children. They may be armed and dangerous. 

…Moms for Liberty’s crimes? Asserting their Constitutionally protected rights. Seriously. And the police training center cites this as proof that they are anti-government, because sitting down, shutting up, and doing what you are told by insane government officials is every citizen’s duty. 

The article concludes:

Now, Moms for Liberty supporters have to worry that every police officer in Massachusetts has been trained to look at them as dangerous extremists. This is not just insulting–it is physically dangerous to them. When police officers are put on heightened alert, bad things can happen to the targets.

In Massachusetts, under Maura Healey’s leadership, the Municipal Police Training Committee isn’t backing down. They have fired a shot across the bow, and the next shot may be literal and aimed at a mom or dad just trying to get their kid a decent education.

The goal is obvious: create a climate of fear that forces opponents of the leftist agenda to remain silent and submit. With the censorship complex under attack by Donald Trump, Blue cities and states are using even more repressive tactics to shut people up.

When my children were in school back in the age of dinosaurs, teachers welcomed parental involvement. Now it is seen as a threat. Parents need to know what their children are learning, and parents need to be involved in their local schools.

Doesn’t Anyone Remember That Israel Was The One Attacked?

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Almost two years ago, Israel was brutally attached by its neighbors living in the Gaza Strip. In 2005, Israel left the Gaza Strip, forcibly removing the Jews that lived there, and fully turning the area over to its Arab residents.  They allowed the residents to work in Israel if they could not find jobs in Gaza. These are the same Arab residents of Gaza who on October 7, 2023, brutally murdered the people who had helped them and took over 200 people hostage. Israel had no choice but to attack and attempt to rescue the hostages. Because the war has dragged on (partially because Israel has been so careful to avoid civilian casualties), public pressure on Israel to stop defending itself has increased. A few nations have begun to recognize a so-called Palestinian state, not realizing that the terrorist state behind October 7th was essentially a Palestinian state.

On Friday, Hot Air reported:

As lily-livered Western countries go wobbly on supporting Israel–The Arab League supports Israel’s policies more than Britain, France, or Canada–Israel is threatening to cut intelligence ties with its faithless “allies.”

…Diplomatic sources have told The Times that Binyamin Netanyahu’s government is examining the response as one of a range of options if Britain presses ahead with Palestinian recognition next month.

An official warned that Britain and other countries considering diplomatic recognition should “carefully consider” the consequences of such a move.

Another diplomatic source said: “London needs to be careful because Bibi [Netanyahu] and his ministers have cards they could play too. Israel values its partnership with the UK but recent decisions mean it is coming under pressure and the UK has a lot to lose if Israel’s government decides to take steps in response.”

Israel has reacted furiously to the decision by Starmer, accusing him of handing Hamas a “prize for terror” by going ahead with recognition outside of a peace process and before the remaining hostages are released. Starmer has said Britain will recognise the state of Palestine next month unless Israel allows more aid into Gaza, stops annexing land in the West Bank, agrees to a ceasefire and signs up to a long-term peace process.

All you need to end the war is for Hamas to release the hostages and surrender. Why are you calling for the victim of the attack to surrender rather than the attacker?

Cheating To Get A Lower Mortgage Rate

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On Wednesday, Hot Air reported that the Department of Justice was opening an investigation into Congressman Adam Schiff for potential mortgage fraud.

The article reports:

Democrats created the lawfare model. Adam Schiff enthusiastically promoted it. Now the model has turned on them, and on Schiff specifically.

According to Fox News host Laura Ingraham, the Department of Justice has opened a criminal probe into potential mortgage fraud involving Schiff. The allegations have floated for months, similar to those surrounding New York Attorney General Letitia James, that Schiff claimed primary residency in Maryland for personal gain while representing California in Congress:

The article quotes msn:

The investigation comes a month after a story broke about the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sending a criminal referral to the Department of Justice (DOJ) alleging that Schiff, in multiple instances, falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms.

In a 2011 affidavit signed by the then California congressman, Schiff certified that a property in Montgomery County, Maryland is his primary residence.

Schiff also owns a condominium in Burbank, California, which he has also claimed as his primary residence as recently as 2023, during his campaign for Senate.

The article notes:

Beege wrote about this last month, so be sure to click through and read the background on the case. This doesn’t just involve potential mortgage fraud, by the way, but could also involve tax fraud in either California or Maryland. States offer lower property tax rates for primary residences (homesteads) in exchange for the benefits communities receive when owners occupy their own properties. If Schiff claimed and received homestead benefits in both states at the same time, both states could file civil or criminal claims of tax fraud. 

Neither California nor Maryland will be likely to do that — to a Democrat, anyway. But the possibility still exists.

It is quite possible that the statute of limitations has run out as Schiff changed the Maryland property to a secondary residence in 2020, but that doesn’t change the fact that he broke the law.

What Is Journalistic Responsibility?

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Just for the record, I don’t consider myself a journalist. I am a blogger. My goal is to point out stories that the mainstream media might not have carried and to shine light on shenanigans in the press and elsewhere.

Recently,  The New York Times posted a very misleading article about children starving in Gaza. Anyone who has investigated this claim understands that Hamas holds food hostage (as well as people). The humanitarian aid that comes into Gaza is sold at exorbitant prices to raise money to buy weapons. That is documented in various places. That is why Israel has taken to doing food drops–in an effort to get food directly to the people. There was a picture included in The New York Times article of a child who was obviously suffering from malnutrition. It turns out that the child shown has a genetic health problem that is causing the malnutrition.

On Monday, Hot Air reported:

The New York Times ran a photo on its front page that was a visual lie. 

The point of that lie was to back the claims made in their article that Israel was intentionally starving Gazan children, but apparently, there were no photos available that would back the claims made in their story. 

No doubt they believed the story that their reporters were feeding them, not that any reporter who was not a Hamas toady would dare set foot in Gaza–but in the circular logic of the Times they assumed that nothing printed in their paper could be false.

We know that they knew the photo was false because there are internal Times emails that show they did. In fact, the editors had rejected a different photo because they knew that printing a photo of a child suffering from a genetic disease did not back their story, and demanded it be replaced.

…Uh, maybe they would use a photo like that because there IS a dearth of photos of otherwise healthy children dying of starvation. Did they consider that?

Of course not.

We already know that The New York Times employs a reporter who openly expresses his admiration for Hitler and defends him against accusations of bias. Nazis can be fair, too, you know. His work is published in the Times, so it must be true.

As I said, I am not a journalist, but it seems to me that even if they had only put a note on the picture that said ‘file footage’ at least that would have been partially honest. When are they going to post the video of the hostage being forced to dig his own grave?

Buyers’ Remorse

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On Friday, Hot Air posted an article about the city fathers of Nantucket’s regret at allowing the developers of the Vineyard Wind project to construct a large-scale offshore wind farm 15 miles from the island town.

The article reports:

The Nantucket City Council and Nantucket residents are suffering from buyer’s remorse, like everybody who decided to buy a Yugo based on the marketing that it was a great car at an amazing price. 

We told you so. It’s as if liberals see common sense and choose to do the opposite of what it tells them. No amount of sage advice will dissuade them because some “expert” with dollar signs in their eyes can talk them into anything as long as they whisper magic words like “renewable energy.”

The article includes a quote from The Washington Free Beacon:

If they could go back in time, officials in Nantucket, Massachusetts, wouldn’t sign the legal agreement that helped bring the nation’s first large-scale offshore wind farm 15 miles from the island town’s picturesque shoreline.

That was the common sentiment expressed during a Nantucket select board meeting this week about the August 2020 community benefit agreement the town entered into with developers of the Vineyard Wind project, which is currently under construction. “These wind turbines are bigger, brighter, and much more impactful than we ever thought—and not to mention the environmental hazards from failures,” said Dawn Hill, the chairwoman of the select board, which serves as the town’s executive body.

The agreement represented Nantucket’s formal endorsement of the project and satisfied Vineyard Wind’s legal responsibility to consult with the town. Because Nantucket is a federally designated national historic district, regulators and developers must consult with the town on new projects that may threaten its protected status.

“Hindsight is 20/20,” added Greg Werkheiser, an attorney who represents Nantucket. “Every lawyer in the world wishes 5 or 10 years into a negotiated contract that they could take the knowledge they have, fly back in time, and renegotiate—but communities make the choices they have with the information they have at the time.”

North Carolina take note! There is a group pushing for wind farms off the North Carolina coast.

Remember this event:

Tensions between Nantucket and Vineyard Wind reached a boiling point in July 2024 after a football field-sized blade on one of its wind towers fell apart during construction, sending 50 tons of fiberglass and industrial-grade foam into the ocean, forcing the island’s beaches to close. Project developers waited until debris washed ashore three days following the failure before they informed Nantucket about the incident, sparking fury from officials, businesses, and residents.

In the 12 months since the blade failure, the developers haven’t provided the town with information about changes to the construction timeline or the progress of environmental reviews related to the blade failure. As of this week, Vineyard Wind’s leadership remains in “hiding,” according to Mohr. Alas, Vineyard Wind issued its most recent press release in October, and its only public update this year appears to have come during an earnings call held last week by one of its developers, the Spain-based energy firm Iberdrola.

“They were not uninformed. Local groups were informing them five years ago that they should not do this deal and gave them all the reasons why they now regret it,” said Dave Stevenson, the director of the Center for Energy Competitiveness at the right-leaning Caesar Rodney Institute. “The folks in the town didn’t fight, they didn’t look at all the negatives, they just didn’t listen.”

Don’t let that happen here!

Are We Willing To Go Back To The Nineteenth Century?

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On Tuesday, Hot Air posted an article about several decisions by various international courts. The combined affect of these decisions is to make fossil fuels illegal. Hang on to your gas stove!

The article reports:

It’s a piece in The New York Times–for him, it was the international version with a different headline–that argues that several decisions by various international courts amount to outlawing the extraction and use of fossil fuels.

It’s hard to argue with their conclusion because I am not an international lawyer, but let’s assume that the claim is true, as it appears to be on its face.

Rulings by the International Court of Justice, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea all suggest that the climate harms resulting from the burning of fossil fuels violate international law.

The New York Times article states:

The I.C.J.’s unanimous opinion reinforced these conclusions and broadened their reach, stating that countries must protect citizens from the “urgent and existential threat” of climate change. When a country fails to curb greenhouse gas emissions — whether by producing or consuming fossil fuels, approving new exploration to find them or subsidizing the industry — it may be held liable for “an internationally wrongful act,” the court’s 15 judges said.

This makes it much harder for any government or company to say that rules don’t apply to them or they don’t have to act. Read together, these three landmark legal rulings leave no doubt that continuing fossil fuel production and use, let alone expanding it, violates the law. It is a cease-and-desist notice to fossil fuel producers.

This isn’t the dumbest thing I have ever heard, but it’s close.

Never forget:

On March 30, 2016, I posted the following (here):

Have doubts? Then listen to the words of former United Nations climate official Ottmar Edenhofer:

“One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with the environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation or the ozone hole,” said Edenhofer, who co-chaired the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working group on Mitigation of Climate Change from 2008 to 2015.

So what is the goal of environmental policy?

“We redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy,” said Edenhofer.

Whenever you see someone claiming global governance and talking about climate change, consider the above quote.

Meanwhile, follow the link above to read the entire article at Hot Air.

Green Acres, Here We Come!

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You might have to be over a certain age to understand that headline.

On Friday, Hot Air posted an article detailing some changes that are coming to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). A common-sense decision has been made that will be both good and bad news for the people who work in the agency.

The article reports:

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced this morning that she is reducing the Washington D.C. area workforce by more than half, and hopefully not through a reduction in force. Sec Rollins hopes to relocate as many current employees who are willing to do so to five different hubs across the country. They’ll be landing in states and cities where agriculture happens. That puts the USDA where the farmers are and saves the government a ton of money in expenses for employee overhead at the same time.

Theoretically, this will allow those in the Department to be able to hear the concerns of farmers–not bureaucrats and lobbyists.

The article notes:

…But several USDA staffers told POLITICO that the move will further hurt morale.

“This administration [isn’t] interested in supporting staff or even really in the jobs we do,” said one employee granted anonymity in order to speak publicly without fear of repercussions. “If they cared about either of those things, if they cared about serving farmers and ranchers, they wouldn’t have taken away all the staff, tools, and resources we use to serve them.”

A second employee, also granted anonymity to speak candidly, warned that relocating staff out of the Washington area would make oversight more difficult.

“[This] is just going to create an inner circle of powerful employees with access to people in high places and send everyone else out to ‘hubs,’” they said. “They are concentrating power and want fewer witnesses to what they are doing.”

The second employee suggested that moving would be costly for employees and for USDA, and it could force some workers to make the difficult choice to quit.

Swamp creatures enjoy the swamp. What they don’t seem to understand is that their cost of living is about to drop like a rock, their commute is going to be much easier, and their surroundings much more enjoyable. There is also the fact that the employees who own a house in the Washington suburbs (if they are able to sell that house) will be able to afford a mansion in middle America.

A Statement That Makes The Deep State Tremble

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The Federal Reserve is a misnamed sketchy operation. There is a book and a YouTube video called “The Creature From Jekyll Island” that explains the dirty tricks involved in the creation of the Federal Reserve and its true purpose. The Federal Reserve is neither federal nor a reserve. Auditing the fed is a really good idea that the fed has avoided for years.

On Monday, Hot Air posted an article quoting CNBC:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday suggested a review of the Federal Reserve that would go beyond the current controversy over building renovations and look at its overall function.

“What we need to do is examine the entire Federal Reserve institution and whether they have been successful,” Bessent said during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “Has the organization succeeded in its mission? If this were the [Federal Aviation Administration] and we were having this many mistakes, we would go back and look at why has this happened.”

The article also quotes Senator Rand Paul:

Dr. Rand Paul (R-KY) has reintroduced the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, famously known as “Audit the Fed” legislation to require a full audit of the Federal Reserve’s operations and increase congressional oversight of its decision-making. In conjunction with the bill’s reintroduction, Senator Paul also released the latest edition of his Waste Report, which exposed the Federal Reserve’s $600 million cost overrun on renovations to its Washington, D.C. headquarters—now projected to cost taxpayers $2.5 billion in total. The report underscores the lack of transparency and accountability at the Fed, which remains exempt from a full audit by Congress or the Government Accountability Office.

“No institution holds more power over the future of the American economy and the value of our savings than the Federal Reserve,” said Dr. Paul. “It’s long past time for Congress to stop shirking its duty and hold the Federal Reserve accountable.”

“It is Congress’ duty to hold the Fed accountable,” said Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). “For too long, the Federal Reserve has operated behind closed doors while making decisions that impact the American economy. Throughout my service in Congress, I have worked to audit the Fed, and this legislation is necessary to shine a light on the Fed’s operations and provide transparency to Congress and American taxpayers.”

The year 1913 was a horrible year for the Democratic Republic of America. That year gave us the federal income tax, the federal reserve, and the direct election of U.S. Senators. All three of those things need to go away.

A Definite Step In The Right Direction

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On Thursday, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posted an article about Health and Human Services using the rule-making process to prevent the federal government from directly funding sex-altering procedures on minors. Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), National Review currently fund these procedures.

The article quotes The National Review:

The Department of Health and Human Services will soon begin the rule-making process to prohibit the federal government from directly funding sex-trait modifications for minors through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), National Review has learned.

The White House is in “the final stage of review for a new rule that would make it a condition of hospitals participating in Medicare or Medicaid that they not provide sex trait modifications to minors,” according to an administration official. The prohibition will apply to hospitals that provide puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender-transition surgeries to minors.

The groundbreaking decision by the White House to use the power of the executive to ban federally funded gender-transition services for minors follows an unsuccessful attempt by congressional Republicans to ban federal funding for such practices through the budget reconciliation process. The Senate parliamentarian ruled that the legislative language included in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” did not clear the Byrd rule, prompting GOP lawmakers to spike the language from the final bill that passed earlier this month.

The article explains the significance of using the rules process for this item:

How do we know this will happen? Using the rules process practically ensures it. Most administrations make the mistake of skipping over these steps in haste to make their point, but courts take the Administrative Procedure Act very seriously. An executive order does not overcome the APA in matters such as these. The use of the rulemaking process will slow this down, but it will also ensure that the changes will be legally bulletproof, or as bulletproof as activist district courts allow them to be. 

The article concludes:

…If providers are defrauding Medicare and Medicaid to get paid directly for pediatric sex-change therapies, their CMS funding can stop immediately. HHS has the authority to enforce its rules by suspending or excluding providers engaged in fraud from federal repayments, and the DoJ can and often does take up those cases on a criminal basis as well. 

The best part of this will be the rethinking it will require. The UK has already cut its support for pediatric sex-change therapies after the Cass Review determined that puberty blockers did nothing to address pediatric gender dysphoria while essentially sterilizing children. Another major study on the issue here in the US got suppressed last year for allegedly coming to the same conclusion. Both HHS and the DoJ are already investigating several cases of detransitioners who claim now to have gotten pressured into life-changing surgeries and therapies by providers who also receive CMS funding.

HHS sent a warning signal in May over the lack of sound scientific or medical evidence for pediatric sex-change therapies. This is just the next shoe dropping on radicalized providers pushing fad medicine and maiming children for virtue signaling. It won’t be the last. 

This is child abuse and needs to be stopped. Cutting off the federal funding is a good first step in that direction.

Why I Would Never Retire In Rhode Island

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Rhode Island is a beautiful state. My husband was stationed there in the late 1960’s, and I fell in love with the state. However, I would never retire there. Partially because of the taxes, but more importantly because of some of the insanity of the state’ politics.

On Wednesday, David Strom at Hot Air reported:

ICE apprehended a known MS 13 gang member with a history of trafficking fentanyl, and Rhode Island politicians exploded in rage that they did so.

The perp, Ivan Rene Mendoza-Meza, had benefited from the catch-and-release policies that are so prevalent these days–after all, you wouldn’t want ICE to be able to deport dangerous criminals, right?–so ICE was forced to track him down and apprehend him.

They did, and all hell broke loose. Providence politicians insanely held a press conference vowing to track down any evidence that Providence police might be involved, and promised to get to the bottom of this potential scandal.

The last thing you want is the police helping arrest a known gang member who is selling poison to the public. It’s Nazism to do that!

Ensuring that he couldn’t get outflanked on the left, a Rhode Island State Representative (State Representative Enrique Sanchez of Providence HD-9) went on a crusade (is it racist to say “crusade?”) against ICE. They were oppressing a “neighbor” of his constituents. They “kidnapped” him! 

The article concludes:

It’s not only striking that these politicians would hop in front of the cameras to express outrage that a violent criminal who poisons children was arrested, but that they can be certain that their constituents will applaud them for doing so.

This is the power of Critical Theory brainwashing.

Rhode Island is a beautiful state in need of some serous reforming to keep its children and its citizens safe.

This Was Predictable

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On Friday, Hot Air posted an article about the rebuilding of the Pacific Palisades area in California that was destroyed by fire in January of this year. There is a strong possibility that rebuilding the areas as it was will never take place.

The article reports:

…But the process is still slow. As of midday July 1, 2025, the LA County Permitting Progress Dashboard showed 890 rebuild applications in the Eaton Fire area, but only 44 building permits have been issued, taking an average turnaround of about 10 weeks to get through the process.

And speed matters. A survey of fire victims found that the longer it takes to rebuild, the more likely it is people won’t move back.

“So even folks that fully intend to move back today, if this process, either through permitting or financing or insurance, takes more than three years, the percentage of people that want to move back drops to like 50%,” Kawahara says.

The article notes the government’s desire to change the character of the neighborhood:

Six months after the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires, California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled $101 million in funding Tuesday for “multifamily low-income housing development” that will “contribute to a more equitable and resilient Los Angeles.” The priority is for “geographic proximity to the fire perimeters of the Eaton, Hughes, and Palisades fires.” 

Earlier this year, The Center Square broke news that California state law and a local Los Angeles ordinance require fire-destroyed rent-protected housing — which includes all apartments in the city built before October 1978 — be replaced with low-income housing. Because the affordability requirements use county-level income data, not more local incomes, definitions for “low” and “very low” income housing reflect much lower incomes than the norm for the affluent Palisades community. 

“Thousands of families – from Pacific Palisades to Altadena to Malibu – are still displaced, and we owe it to them to help,” said Newsom in a statement. “The funding we’re announcing today will accelerate the development of affordable multifamily rental housing so that those rebuilding their lives after this tragedy have access to a safe, affordable place to come home to.”  

And some people wonder why Californians are moving out of the state. I believe that the property rights of the homeowners in Pacific Palisades are not being honored. That does not bode well for the economic success of the state. In 2010, I wrote an article discussing the correlation between property rights and prosperity (article here). Ignoring that relationship is not a good policy for any state or federal government.

Sore Losers Can Be Dangerous

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On Tuesday, David Strom at Hot Air posted an article detailing some of the plans of the deep state. We are now at the point where the deep state is not only admitting that it is real, it is telling us its plans.

The article reports:

The irony is thick, but these federal employees–some former, some current–have told NOTUS (News of the United States) that they are turning their color revolution skills to taking down the President of the United States.

The following is from NOTUS:

“Take it from those of us who worked in authoritarian countries: We’ve become one,” said a currently employed federal official, who spoke to NOTUS on condition of anonymity. “They were so quick to disband AID, the group that supposedly instigates color revolutions. But they’ve done a very foolish thing. You just released a bunch of well-trained individuals into your population. If you kept our offices going and had us play solitaire in the office, it might have been safer to keep your regime.”

The former officials tell NOTUS they’re holding workshops on a tactic called “noncooperation.” They’re building a network of government workers willing to engage in even minor acts of rebellion in the office. And they’re planting the seeds of what they hope could become a nationwide general strike.

Some in the informal network of Trump opponents are sharing an old CIA pamphlet with allies who still work in the government: It’s called “Simple Sabotage.”

They wanted to simply have their offices continue even if they sat there and played solitaire all day. They doesn’t sound like any respect for sound fiscal policy in America.

If they truly believe that we have become an authoritarian country, why are they choosing to ignore the results of the last election? It seems to me that honest elections (which I believe we had) would be the actual antidote to authoritarianism and that refusing to cooperate with the results of that election would be moving toward authoritarianism. Evidently these people think that regardless of the election, they should be in charge, and they are willing to make trouble to bring that about. I think they belong in jail.

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.

A Very Good Question

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On Saturday, Legal Insurrection posted the following headline:

If Illegals Aren’t Receiving Federal Medicaid Benefits, Why Are Blue States Suing to Protect Their Data?

The article reports:

Democrats have consistently maintained that while some illegal immigrants receive state-level Medicaid benefits, they do not receive federal Medicaid benefits. If that’s true, then why are Democratic attorneys general from blue states suing the federal government to prevent Medicaid data from being used for immigration enforcement? Are they genuinely concerned about potential violations of privacy laws, or more likely, are they attempting to protect those undocumented immigrants who may, in fact, be enrolled in federal Medicaid programs?

Led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, 20 blue states have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging that the Trump administration “violated federal privacy laws when it turned over Medicaid data on millions of enrollees to deportation officials last month.”

Among the plaintiffs in the case are Illinois, New York, Minnesota, and Massachusetts, along with fifteen other states. Defendants include Health and Human Services Department Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The article quotes an article at Hot Air:

HotAir’s David Strom states it plainly:

Democrats are playing a verbal shell game, pointing to federal law to say that Medicaid dollars can’t legally go to illegal aliens, so there is no money to be saved by cutting those funds off. At the same time, they are suing to hide the legal status of recipients to prevent them from facing ICE deportations–in other words, they are illegally spending Medicaid dollars for illegals and want to hide them from the feds.

The narratives don’t have to be consistent, right?

If you were to sit down and analyze what Democrats say to make their arguments on various issues, you would see narrative fails like this all the time. But because the issues are discussed in different contexts, the contradictions don’t stand out to many people.

Viewed from another perspective, if Medicaid benefits for undocumented immigrants are truly only a state issue, then why did this become a matter for the Senate Parliamentarian during consideration of a major federal spending bill? And why was it included in the Senate’s vote-a-rama on Monday, as I discussed here?

As Strom concludes, “The story is always changing to fit the desired result.”

It doesn’t have to make sense. Because they’re Democrats.

Whatever happens with this lawsuit, deportations of illegal criminals will save American taxpayers money.

As Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman once stated, “It’s just obvious you can’t have free immigration and a welfare state.”

Changing The Dynamic On Vaccines

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Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is known to be somewhat skeptical on vaccines–very skeptical on the Covid-19 vaccine. In the end, that may be a good thing for America’s children.

On Thursday, Hot Air posted an article about one possible impact of Kennedy’s tenure as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The article reports:

I have an unusual perspective on RFK Jr. I think that his skeptical approach to the current vaccination schedule will turn out to be a good thing, not because he will enhance skepticism about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, but because it will do the opposite–for safe and effective vaccines.

The current establishment chant is that any and all vaccines are an unalloyed good for everyone, always. To put it mildly, that simply cannot be true. It is a mantra, not a scientific conclusion, and the reason why the mantra is repeated so persistently is that public health officials are so scared that people will mistrust vaccines that they feel the need to force a unified message and brainwash people.

That was made obvious during COVID. You can even go read the transcripts of meetings within the CDC and FDA discussing the pros and cons of the mRNA vaccines, and the officials kept talking about ensuring that all messaging was simplified and unified. No nuance, no discussion, no informed consent. The belief was that keeping people UNinformed was crucial.

That’s why the FDA’s top two vaccine officials eventually bolted–right in the middle of the pandemic. The propaganda being put out was so deceptive that they couldn’t stand behind it.

The article notes:

Between birth and six years old, children are supposed to receive at least 30 different vaccinations, excluding the multiple mRNA COVID-19 shots. What is the likelihood that there are no downsides, side effects, interactions, immune system effects, or other unintended consequences? It’s an interesting question, and one that isn’t really studied in a systematic way. Many of these vaccines are barely tested before being rolled out.

My suspicion is that the safety and effectiveness vary quite a bit among the various vaccines out there, and I am absolutely certain that the vaccine schedule is unlikely to be suboptimal at the very least.

The article explains the upside of Kennedy’s skepticism:

Everybody who is worried that RFK, Jr. is undermining faith in vaccines seems to have missed the fact that people have lost trust in public health officials for very good reasons. We demand that it is the skeptics, not the pro-vaccine fanatics, who examine the evidence and tell us the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Do I assume RFK, Jr. is right about his opinions about vaccines? No. But it’s not like he has ripped all the vaccines off the market–he’s hired good scientists to delve into the evidence and report to all of us what they find. Inform us. I suspect that the answers will differ from vaccine to vaccine, and that each vaccine has different risk and benefit profiles.

I am looking forward to those answers.