▶️ VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: THE IRAN WAR AT THE CROSSROADS
⭐️ HelloKitty’sGotAHairTrigger
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: THE IRAN WAR AT THE CROSSROADS
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e are now in Stage III of the Iran War: the familiar monotony of bomb, talk, bomb. It is now the liberal consensus that the war has failed, if not been won by Iran. Hardly. It will likely take a decade for Iran to recover and rearm. Iran’s rulers are not playing to win the war today—they are playing to survive long enough to fight another one tomorrow.
Russia has been sidelined in the Middle East. China is losing its influence with the Iranian theocracy. Nor is Beijing riding high; instead, it is grappling with trade, demographic, energy, and food challenges.
The Gulf states are more pro-American than they have been in decades. Israel is stronger than ever and has humiliated an enemy that, for nearly 50 years, remained on a war footing while enjoying a population ten times larger. But what’s next?
We could be entering the war’s final stage, marked by an effort to escalate decisively before disengaging.
We know the tired Iranian strategy by now. We might call it “theocratic rope-a-dope.” For the theocrats and their terrorist proxies, survival means outlasting Trump, waiting for the next cash-laden Democratic administration, and using “moderates” to play good cop while haggling away months.
The mullahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps feign indifference even as their half-century, half-trillion-dollar investments in what is now essentially a vaporized military-industrial-nuclear complex continue to be destroyed.
The war has finally revealed the full extent of Iran’s vast conventional arsenal, nuclear program, and missile and drone industry.
These munitions proved far more numerous and deadlier than experts had imagined. The regime had poured much of its GDP into conventional arms, missiles, drones, and its nuclear program in hopes of dominating the Gulf, holding Israel beneath a nuclear sword of Damocles; and eventually bringing European cities within range of nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.
The Islamic government shows no real concern for the attendant suffering of its own 93 million people. In the theocrats’ view, it matters little whether 1,000 civilians die as collateral damage from allied bombing or 36,000 are murdered by their own government. All that concerns these corrupt grandees is preserving their own comfort amid the rubble.
The Iranian zealots are counting on the Trump Administration to withdraw, thereby avoiding a two-year-long impeachment and lawfare circus while preserving the Republican House majority. Yet doing so also requires relative calm in the Gulf, a denuclearized Iran, an open Strait of Hormuz, oil prices between $60 and $70 a barrel, and gasoline prices of roughly $2.50 to $3.00 a gallon; all conditions the Iranian theocrats believe they can control.
So what would best accomplish the Trump Administration’s objectives, both militarily abroad and politically at home?
We may see another week or two of intensive strikes against Iran’s dual-use infrastructure. At some point, the United States may also seal Pickaxe Mountain and any other remaining sites suspected of storing or producing enriched uranium.
The United States has already severed many of Iran’s rail and maritime links to China, Russia, and their allies. It can reopen the Strait of Hormuz by force and convert frozen Iranian assets into a maritime insurance fund to compensate any foreign tanker damaged by Iranian attacks.
Then, by mid-August, the United States could disengage, leaving a small naval flotilla and regional air bases to coordinate Gulf and Israeli retaliation against Iranian missile and drone attacks while maintaining all sanctions and embargoes until Tehran ends its attacks on the Gulf and shipping through the Strait.
One reason, among many, that the Shah fell in January 1979 was that the Ayatollah Khomeini spent 13 years in exile in Iraq, where he built a veritable shadow theocracy. As resistance to the Shah mounted, Khomeini moved in 1978 to the more visible and media-friendly setting of Paris for four months before returning to Tehran to hijack the revolution and seize control of the country.
Iranian anti-clerical dissidents should reverse that model by establishing their own provisional government in exile, pledged to oversee a transition to consensual rule once it assumes power. Western governments should recognize it, transfer frozen Iranian assets to finance its media and outreach, help arm it, and negotiate exclusively with it while shunning all contact with the theocratic prevaricators.
Its agenda should entail a comprehensive plan to replace the theocracy with the help of seized Iranian assets and Western military and financial support.
Unlike the Obama Administration’s haphazard and incoherent intervention in Libya, the United States could make any direct assistance contingent on a viable provisional government presenting a concrete plan for national unity, a realistic timetable for elections, demonstrable support within Iran, and a determination to prevail.
The Iranian people remain pro-Western. They will likely eventually regain their determination to rid themselves of their corrupt, mass-murdering rulers once the bombing stops. Then the full extent of the damage will become clear, and the theocracy will try once again to rebuild its garrison state and subsidize Arab terrorists abroad—at the expense of an already destitute Iranian people. ✪
▶️ JB SHURK: THERE IS NO JUSTICE IN MINNESOTA
⭐️ HelloKitty’sGotAHairTrigger
JB SHURK: THERE IS NO JUSTICE IN MINNESOTA
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ast week, a Minnesota jury convicted Shiloh Hendrix of disorderly conduct for using a racial slur against a Somali man who was harassing and recording her. The “crime” occurred in a public park last year after Hendrix caught a Somali child stealing from her handbag. Hendrix had her hands full with her own toddler at the time, and her protective maternal instincts kicked in.
Black Lives Matter (a domestic terror group the Democrats and Mitt Romney enthusiastically support; even after BLM caused more property damage during the 2020 George Floyd riots than any other event in American history) demanded that Hendrix be charged with a crime. Minnesota prosecutors complied. And anti-American, open borders Democrats got their scalp. Hendrix was found “guilty” for saying a naughty word.
This is the same state that has done nothing while Democrat-aligned domestic terrorists attack Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. During those encounters, black and Hispanic officers are called horrendously racist names. Similarly, when Islamic supremacists march through Minneapolis calling for Israel’s eradication, they use the most offensive language to intimidate Jewish-Americans.
Because corrupt Governor Tim Walz sympathizes with these dangerous leftwing fanatics, their use of the “n-word” is treated as protected free speech. As soon as a young, white mother uses the same word to push back against a stalking Somali migrant, Minnesota’s Democrat cowards decide that language must be punished more vigorously than anti-ICE terrorists who use their vehicles as murder weapons.
Just to put this betrayal of the First Amendment in perspective, this is the same Minnesota criminal “justice” system which permitted state employee Dylan Bryan Adams to vandalize Teslas around the Minneapolis area last year and cause tens of thousands of dollars in damage without suffering any real consequences. Adams engaged in that crime spree because he was angry Elon Musk was using his DOGE team to identify government fraud. Democrats love to launder taxpayer dollars into the bank accounts of NGOs and special interest groups, so they encouraged their army of Democrat domestic terrorists to set Teslas on fire across the country. State employee Adams got the message and did his part. Minnesota’s Democrat prosecutors thanked him for his service by declining to press charges.
In order to appreciate how unjust the decision not to prosecute Adams was, consider this: At the same time that Minnesota’s Democrat prosecutors rewarded Adams for his “politically correct” animus toward Elon Musk, they charged a nineteen-year-old woman with no criminal record with first-degree felony property damage for keying a coworker’s car. Because her vandalism had nothing to do with attacking Elon Musk or President Trump, she did not receive the Dylan Bryan Adams special treatment. Because Democrats considered Adams’s crime spree a noble exercise in “political speech,” he was even rewarded with a promotion and pay raise for his criminal behavior.
In order to understand just how corrupt and politicized Minnesota’s criminal “justice” system has become, it is worth taking a closer look at Sharmake Omar, the Somali who followed and recorded Shiloh Hendrix as she attempted to leave the park while carrying her child in her arms. The same Minnesota authorities who prosecuted Hendrix dismissed rape charges against Omar “in the interest of justice” one month before he filmed Hendrix and her child and uploaded the video to TikTok.
In 2022, Omar was charged along with another Somali for allegedly raping a teenage girl who had run away from her foster home. The girl identified the pair in a photo line-up. In her statement, she alleged that Omar and his friend offered her a place to stay, took her to a trailer, stole her shoes so that she couldn’t leave, and raped her for several days. The juvenile girl escaped in a pair of oversized rain boots, reached a public phone, and called a previous foster care parent for help. The former foster parent immediately reported the rape to the police and took the child to a Minneapolis children’s hospital. Omar was arrested.
Just before Omar was scheduled to stand trial, Minnesota’s prosecutors inexplicably dropped the charges. A month later, Omar turned into a BLM poster boy by racking up tens of millions of views for his TikTok video of Hendrix. Can you imagine the aberrant personality and temperament of someone who, having just recently avoided standing trial for raping a child, felt emboldened enough to harass a young mother on a playground? Minnesota authorities have coddled Somalis so obsequiously (Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey gave his victory speech in Somali, for goodness’ sake!) that accused child rapists aren’t the slightest bit afraid of being caught filming children in parks.
This is the abysmal state of criminal “justice” in the leftwing nuthouse of Minnesota. Black Lives Matter arsonists burn down homes and businesses across the Minneapolis area (while leaving plenty of unsolved homicides in their wake), and Governor Tim Walz applauds the Democrat Party’s favorite domestic terrorists as “civil rights heroes.” Anti-ICE domestic terrorists obstruct the arrests of foreign murderers, rapists, and pedophiles, and Minnesota Democrats lionize individuals who threaten the lives of cops. Those same anti-ICE domestic terrorists scream profanities (including the “n-word”) at black law enforcement officers every time they try to do their jobs by protecting ungrateful Minnesotans from their deadly “sanctuary city” policies. Minnesota not only lets state employee Dylan Bryan Adams off the hook for causing tens of thousands of dollars in property damage but also rewards his criminality because he chose to target fellow Minnesotans for driving Democrat bogeyman Elon Musk’s Teslas. Minnesota’s Democrat prosecutors drop child rape charges against Sharmake Omar “in the interest of justice” and then, one month later, turn him into a star witness against a young, white Minnesota woman who used a bad word while an alleged child rapist followed and recorded her.
There is no “justice” in Minnesota. Those who do not belong to a protected class; Somali, domestic terrorist, rapist, pedophile, etc., should get the heck out of the North Star State. Minnesota won’t be safe until its suicidal tendencies succeed. Only after foreign and domestic criminals have robbed, raped, and murdered enough Minnesotans to break through the leftwing delusions of brainwashed “progressives” will Minnesota have a chance to restore sanity.
Even then, however, the state’s survival will depend entirely upon whether Minnesotans finally realize that responsible, no-nonsense lawmen are the only kind of people who might save them. The Somalis will not lift a finger to stop violence in Minnesota. The anti-ICE, Antifa, and BLM domestic terrorists thrive on violence. Only virtuous law enforcement officers who are willing to put their lives on the line for strangers can stop this madness and resurrect Minnesota. Unfortunately, those are the very people whom Governor Tim Walz and his fellow Democrat goons vilify every single day.
Given how broken Minnesota has become under Democrat Party rule, prosecuting a young mother for her angry words seems poisonously symbolic. Minnesota authorities refuse to protect citizens from criminal illegal aliens. Minnesota authorities refuse to protect citizens from domestic terrorists. Minnesota authorities have given Minnesota’s criminals general amnesty. Yet citizens who dare to violate “politically correct” commandments are punished with the full force of the law. The First Amendment is dead in the North Star State. Justice is dead there, too. ✪
▶️ OBAMA IS THE FATHER OF TODAY’S MARXIST DEMOCRAT PARTY
OBAMA IS THE FATHER OF TODAY’S MARXIST DEMOCRAT PARTY
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ith the rise of the Mamdani-style communists has come a widespread narrative that the sudden rise of more openly radical politicians means the Democrats of the last few years or decades are somehow moderate. Depending on who’s telling the story, it’s a harrowing tale about Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries trying to stave off the DSA Marxists; or the “far left” floundering because it doesn’t have its own Fox News; or the party needing a storybook journey home to the moderation of Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
These are all tall tales, of course. Schumer and Jeffries are engaged in a power struggle, but it’s an intramural contest among fellow radicals. Leftists “far” and near have numerous Fox News-scale allies such as CNN, ABC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and so on and so forth. Biden is anything but moderate; and Obama has arguably done more than anyone to create the radicalism that is now pervasive on the Left. Barack Obama is no moderate and neither is his party.
This hasn’t stopped a host of commentators from presenting Obama as a beacon of the political center. In one recent example, former President Obama’s friendly interaction with WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark went viral in the wake of anti-Clark backlash that included a USA Today op-ed accusing her of sparking racial lynching-level violence … by complaining about referees’ foul calls.
“You’re fantastic!” Obama told Clark. “Don’t let all this nonsense get you down.” His conversation with Clark had all the warmth and rizz that made Obama an effective politician, and his avuncular advice reads like a Solomonic proverb compared to this kind of raving lunacy: “It seems there is a white nationalist faction to Clark’s fandom that is deeply, deeply problematic, made even more so because the WNBA is made up predominantly of Black women, many of them queer.”
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Lunacy aside, however, Obama’s sanity in the smile-wave-and-kiss-the-babies campaign trail moment doesn’t erase a tidal wave of evidence that he more than anyone else is the patriarch and pioneer of today’s Democrat Party and Zohran Mamdani’s rising Islamocommunism. Arguing that he’s moderate is similar to saying he’s the most humble man on the face of the earth because he didn’t blurt out “Me!” like Michelle did in this interview:
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That tidal wave of evidence begins with the legislation that (unofficially) bears his name, Obamacare, which Obama rammed through in the biggest government takeover of healthcare in U.S. history. Did he succeed in establishing the single-payer universal health care system; complete with MAID services when the government runs short of cash, which Mamdani and Co. dream about? Not quite. However, he did force insurance companies to cover individuals with preexisting conditions, destroy health care as Americans had known it, and essentially make it a crime not to be insured.
Health insurance premiums have nearly doubled since the passage of the “Affordable Care Act,” and taxpayers are stuck subsidizing a socialistic monstrosity which Obama promised wouldn’t add “a dime” to the national debt. Speaking of other so-called “moderates,” Nancy Pelosi was there every step of the way, explaining that “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.” And boy, have Americans found out.
Another hallmark of the DSA Marxists that purportedly sets them apart from the “moderates” in the Democrat Party is their associations with other radicals. Mamdani proudly hobnobbed with an imam who called for “jihad” and was alleged to be a co-conspirator in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Adam Hamawy, a New Jersey congressional candidate likely headed to Washington, D.C., reportedly “once testified on behalf of the mastermind” behind the 1993 attack. DSA member Darializa Avila Chevalier helped start a Columbia University group which had the stated goal of destroying Western Civilization.
However, one might argue these leftist politicians are simply following in Obama’s footsteps. He notoriously had a relationship with Bill Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground, which the FBI designated a domestic terrorist group. Ayers has said that “he does not regret setting bombs, he does not consider what he did to be terrorism, and he believes that his conduct wasn’t ‘extreme enough in fighting racism,’” according to Influence Watch. The sketchy connections hardly stop with Ayers. Obama took a chummy photo with and was endorsed by Louis Farrakhan and was a 20-year member of the church of Jeremiah Wright, notorious for his “God D-mn America” sermon and blaming the U.S. for the 9/11 attacks — just as DSA candidate Melot Kiros has done. Obama only separated from Wright as his presidential campaign gathered steam.
Speaking of Wright and Farrakhan highlights the reality that Obama harbored a poorly disguised contempt for his country even as he inflamed the racial tensions on which he would base that contempt; just as the Mamdani Marxists do. He made a point of bashing America in front of other world leaders for “showing arrogance” and being “dismissive, even derisive.” He campaigned on “fundamentally transforming the United States of America,” much in the same vein as Mamdani’s contention that “America is exceptional because here, nothing is fixed into place.”
Michelle Obama echoed her husband’s position, asserting, “We’re going to have to change our traditions, our history; we’re going to have to move into a different place as a nation.” After his election, she said that “for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country,” a comment she would later walk back. In similar statements Barack would characterize the Constitution as “stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery” and berate Americans who purportedly “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
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Obama was also a forerunner of the DSA socialists when it came to weaponizing race for political gain. In 2009 he quickly weighed in on the mistaken arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., smearing the Cambridge Police for “acting stupidly” and implying racial profiling had occurred, despite “not seeing all the facts.” Three years later he inserted himself in the case of Trayvon Martin, a black teen shot by George Zimmerman, purportedly in self-defense. Obama said, “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon,” a comment that had no bearing on the charges against Zimmerman, who was found not guilty of second-degree murder.
Most notably, when police fatally shot Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old, in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, Obama called the ensuing riots “understandable.” He also opined that “the law too often feels like it’s being applied in a discriminatory fashion” despite evidence justifying law enforcement’s use of force in the shooting. The incident helped launch the Black Lives Matter movement which would cause so much destruction six years later.
Race weaponization and anti-Americanism aside, Obama blazed the trail of far-left, Marxist radicalism on a host of additional issues, such as government bailouts, the trans agenda, abortion, taxing the rich, same-sex “marriage,” lawfare, and mass immigration. Further, Obama’s radicalism is wildly popular on the Left, both now and when he left office. Nearly 90 percent of self-described liberals viewed him favorably, according to a June 2026 CNN poll. Among members of the Democrat Party, that number rose to 96 percent, a point higher than when he left office. Put another way, Democrats don’t see him as too moderate or not radical enough.
Which helps explain both why the Democrat Party politicians have been hot on his heels long before the DSA communists appeared and why the narrative about geriatric Dems straining to hold the fort against Gen Z communists is false. Those with memories lasting longer than five seconds will recall Democrats didn’t need Mamdani radicals to help them nix constitutional rights during Covid, declare that men are women, and open America’s borders, often in an effort to replicate Obama’s political success. They were radical enough for the “far left” then, and they’re radical enough now, thanks in large part to their spiritual patriarch, Obama.
The “new” Marxists like Mamdani, Avila Chevalier, Kiros, and Claire Valdez are simply following in his footsteps; and those of the “moderate” Democrats. Are they more blatant and less calibrated to a national campaign? Certainly. Does Obama know his craft well enough to cosplay as moderate and morph as expediency requires? Absolutely.
But make no mistake: Barack Obama is no moderate and neither is his party. There is no war between radicals and moderates; it’s simply a battle over which radicals will rule the party Obama created. ✪
▶️ THE MYTH OF FREE HEALTHCARE IN CANADA
THE MYTH OF FREE HEALTHCARE IN CANADA
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ith the rise in popularity of the Democratic Socialist movement in the United States, one of the promises being made to voters is “free healthcare.” Advocates frame healthcare as a human right, pointing north to Canada as the example of universal coverage.
The slogan is simple, powerful, and politically effective: Canadians enjoy free healthcare. The belief that Canadian healthcare is free stems from the fact Canadians do not pay at the point of service. Yet the question remains: Is it truly free, and what does “free” actually mean?
Anyone applying basic logic and common sense quickly realizes a system as complex as healthcare, involving doctors, nurses, hospitals, equipment, pharmaceuticals, and administrators, cannot exist without someone paying for it. The real question is not whether money is paid, but how it is collected, who controls it, and how the system functions behind the scenes.
Canada’s healthcare system is often described as universal, equitable, and accessible. However, beneath the surface lies a prepaid tax‑funded model controlled almost entirely by government. The mechanics of this system are not widely understood by the average Canadian consumer, largely because the costs are hidden within layers of taxation rather than presented as a monthly insurance premium or deductible.
In Canada, healthcare funding flows through a combination of federal transfers (CHT), provincial taxes, employer payroll taxes, and individual income‑based health premiums. These mechanisms create the illusion of “free” care because the consumer never sees a bill at the doctor’s office. Instead, the costs are embedded in the tax structure, quietly deducted long before the patient ever steps into a clinic.
One of the most significant components of Canadian healthcare funding is the Employer Health Tax (EHT)—a payroll tax applied to businesses based on total compensation paid to employees. In provinces such as Manitoba and Quebec, this tax can reach over four percent of payroll.
While the tax is levied on employers, its economic burden does not remain there. Businesses inevitably pass these costs on to consumers through higher prices, reduced wages, or slower hiring. Canadians may not see a healthcare bill, but they pay for healthcare every time they buy groceries, fill their gas tank, or purchase consumer goods whose prices have quietly risen to absorb payroll taxes.
Beyond employer taxes, individual Canadians also contribute directly through provincial health premiums and income‑based surcharges. Ontario, for example, includes a “Health Premium” on its tax return that can reach up to $900 per year depending on income. Other provinces embed healthcare funding within general income tax brackets, meaning a portion of every paycheck is siphoned into the healthcare system without explicit labeling.
This is why many Canadians believe they pay nothing for healthcare; because the payment is hidden inside broader taxation rather than itemized as a healthcare expense. In reality, most middle‑income Canadians contribute between $400 and $800 annually through these mechanisms, in addition to the indirect costs they incur due to higher consumer prices.
The Canadian model is therefore best understood as a government‑controlled prepaid system. The consumer pays in advance through taxes, and the government redistributes those funds to hospitals, clinics, and physicians.
Doctors and nurses are not volunteers; they are paid through government reimbursements funded by taxpayers. Hospitals do not operate on goodwill; they rely on government budgets funded by taxpayers. Medical equipment is not donated; it is purchased through government allocations funded by taxpayers. The system is not free; it is simply structured so that the consumer does not see the transaction.
The universal model applies only to medically necessary physician and hospital services. It does not include prescription drugs outside hospitals, dental care, vision care, physiotherapy, mental health counseling, or a wide range of ancillary medical services. Canadians must pay out of pocket or purchase private insurance plans to cover them, just as Americans do.
A Canadian needing glasses, dental work, or regular medications faces the same financial reality as an American: these services cost money, and the consumer pays out of pocket. This gap in coverage further exposes the illusion of “free” healthcare. The system covers the core medical infrastructure but leaves significant portions of everyday healthcare expenses outside the universal umbrella—reminding us once again that “free” is a political slogan, not an economic truth.
Contrast this with the United States, where the government does not control both the flow of money and the healthcare system. Instead, the U.S. operates a mixed‑market healthcare model dominated by private insurance companies. Americans typically pay monthly premiums, deductibles, and copays, all of which are visible and itemized. Consumers see the money leaving their bank account and deducted from their paycheck as a healthcare deduction, creating a perception of cost that Canadians do not experience. Yet the U.S. system is also prepaid; just prepaid through private insurers rather than government taxation.
For Americans without employer‑provided insurance, programs like Medicare and Medicaid provide coverage funded through payroll taxes and federal spending. In these cases, Americans do see the money being paid into the system, whether through FICA deductions or through visible government budget allocations.
The transparency of the U.S. model; where consumers see premiums, deductibles, and payroll taxes, creates a perception of cost that Canadian consumers do not experience. But the underlying reality is the same: both systems require substantial funding and rely on prepaid mechanisms.
The difference lies in who controls the money. In Canada, the government collects, allocates, and distributes healthcare funding. In the United States, private insurance companies perform this role for most consumers. Advocates of government‑run healthcare argue public control ensures fairness and universality. Critics argue that government control leads to inefficiency, long wait times, rationing, and reduced innovation. Conversely, supporters of private insurance argue that competition drives quality and speed, while critics argue that profit motives can lead to inequity and high costs.
Yet when comparing outcomes, one fact remains clear: Americans generally receive faster, more immediate care. The U.S. system, despite its flaws, offers quicker access to specialists, shorter wait times for surgeries, and more rapid diagnostic testing. Canada’s system, constrained by government budgets and rationing mechanisms, often requires patients to wait weeks or months for non‑urgent procedures. This is the tradeoff inherent in government‑controlled healthcare: universality comes at the cost of speed.
There is no such thing as free. Someone must pay. The question becomes: Who do you trust more to run your medical system, the government or private companies? Each model has strengths and weaknesses, but one truth remains constant: Americans receive better, faster care with access to the world’s most advanced technologies. No other country in the world can make this claim. ✪
▶️ DISLOYAL CAREERISTS STILL HAUNT THE PENTAGON’S HALLS
DISLOYAL CAREERISTS STILL HAUNT THE PENTAGON’S HALLS
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have served alongside government civilian employees for more than 40 years in varying capacities and watched too many good people in uniform and the civil service choose to not speak out instead of putting the mission first.
Mission first is the standard. What we saw from Pentagon employee Brandon Newsom is a good example, and he is not an isolated case.
Newsom, a 16-year Pentagon employee and Director of Business Operations in the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, was caught on hidden camera by James O’Keefe admitting he intended to stay in place precisely so he could “undo whatever’s been done” by the Trump Administration once the political winds shifted.
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Newsom said:
“I have the influence… I can undo whatever’s been done. When the election changes… I want to stay and stick it out so that when the time comes, I can undo whatever’s been done.”
He openly dismissed the President as a “textbook narcissist” and called U.S. policy toward Iran “completely stupid … driven on one man’s ego.” He even targeted the voluntary monthly prayer service held by Secretary Pete Hegseth and the policy that allows senior officials to be held accountable and removed.
This is not policy disagreement. This is calculated resistance by a career government employee who views the elected leadership of the United States as an inconvenience to be waited out and then reversed.
Newsom admitted he lacked formal authority but planned to use the influence of his position to slow-roll or reverse lawful directives. That is the textbook definition of the “disloyal government employee problem” which has plagued the Pentagon and the broader federal bureaucracy for years.
Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao did the right thing by placing Newsom on administrative leave immediately. Accountability must follow. Suspension is the minimum. Removal should be the outcome.
Anyone who takes an oath to support and defend the Constitution, then plots to undermine the policies of the duly elected commander-in-chief because they personally dislike them, has no business drawing a taxpayer paycheck inside the Department of War.
I have seen this mindset before. Careerists who treat the Pentagon as their permanent fiefdom rather than an institution that serves the American people and the warfighters who put their lives on the line. They wrap their resistance in the language of “institutional knowledge” or “continuity,” but the reality is often personal ideology and self-preservation.
They stay, they slow-walk, they leak and they wait for the next administration that better matches their preferences. Meanwhile, readiness suffers, lethality is diluted and the troops pay the price.
Civilian control of the military is not optional. It is foundational. Government employees, whether uniformed or civilian, do not get a veto over the voters. They execute lawful orders or they leave. Period.
The idea that a GS-15 or SES can sit in the Pentagon for 16 years and openly scheme to reverse the policies of an elected administration is corrosive. It destroys trust, invites more of the same, and signals to our adversaries that America’s defense establishment is divided against itself.
Secretary Hegseth and the Trump Administration have made clear they intend to restore war fighting focus, cut bureaucratic bloat, and hold people accountable. That mission cannot succeed if the building is still full of people who view those changes as temporary inconveniences to be undone the moment the political calendar turns.
Root them out. Use the tools already available, and strengthen them if necessary, to ensure loyalty to the Constitution and the chain of command, not to personal agendas or Beltway orthodoxy.
I spent more than three decades in uniform because I believed in the mission and the country. Most of the men and women still serving feel the same way. They deserve leaders and civilian counterparts who share that commitment, not careerists waiting for their chance to “undo” the will of the American people.
Fire them. Replace them with people who understand that service means executing the policies of the elected government, not subverting them. Our national security depends on it. ✪
▶️ MORE FRAUD VOTES CAST THAN MAMDANI’S MARGIN OF VICTORY
MORE FRAUD VOTES CAST THAN MAMDANI’S MARGIN OF VICTORY
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prominent election-integrity activist has uncovered new bombshell evidence suggesting New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s 2025 election victory may not be legitimate.
Marly Hornik, the founder of RealAmerica.Vote and NY Citizens Audit, has suggested that the 2025 election included large numbers of unqualified or nonexistent voters. However, that’s only part of the problem.
“I actually don’t know whether Mamdani won the mayoral race, and I’m not here to say that he didn’t,” Hornik said during a July 22 interview on New York radio station WABC’s “Sid & Friends in the Morning” program:
“The problem we uncovered is that the New York City and the New York State Boards of Elections have no idea if Mamdani won the mayoral election either. And that’s where the rubber meets the road here.”
After examining 1 million of the total 2.2 million voters who participated in the election, her organization discovered seven percent were nonexistent in records, six percent had fake Social Security numbers, and ten percent didn’t even live in NYC.
In total, they identified 230,000 illegal votes, which exceed Mamdani’s 207,000 vote margin of victory over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent. And this was despite Hornik needing to still review the remaining 1.2 million voters.
“Out of 2.2 million voters, we studied about a million of them, and we found more votes that are apparently illegal than his margin of victory,” she told host Sid Rosenberg.
“Again, the issue is not whether or not Mamdani won. The issue is whether or not the boards of elections in New York are actually counting fair elections so that we are properly represented as we are constitutionally granted.”
During a July 19 interview on another WABC appearance, she suggested the boards of elections may even be guilty of misconduct:
She added:
“These statistics that we discovered … they implicate both in New York City and the New York State boards of elections in potential very serious misconduct, because we could not find 7 percent of the voters. They don’t exist. We were unable to verify any of their critical information as provided by the, by the boards of elections — their name, their date of birth, their voting address. They don’t exist. They’re fake people.”
Asked what she intends to do with her findings, Hornik said she’s already forwarded them to Federal authorities.
“This is now in the hands of Federal investigators and prosecutors; because again, when our right to choose representatives is diluted or harmed, injured in any way, that is a serious crime in America,” she said. “It’s not a minor thing, especially when you’re talking about 7 percent of the vote.”
Her findings have also piqued the attention of best-selling author and journalist Naomi Wolf; who served as political adviser to the campaigns of former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore. Wolfe who used to be a liberal Trump hater until she woke up:
The post above was published on X. She referred to an earlier allegation from June in which she’d purported to have identified over 100,000 blank ballots on the New York City Board of Elections website which were improperly included/counted. ✪
▶️ THE LAST AMERICAN IN AN IRON LUNG FROM POLIO DIES AT 78
THE LAST AMERICAN IN AN IRON LUNG FROM POLIO DIES AT 78
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artha Ann Lillard, the last known American to rely on an iron lung after contracting polio, has died at the age of 78 in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
Lillard celebrated her fifth birthday on June 8, 1953, with a party at Joyland, an amusement park in Kansas. On June 17, 1953, she woke up with a sore throat and pain in her neck. Her family took her to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with polio.
Later, she spent six months in the hospital in a negative pressure ventilator informally called the iron lung, to help her breathe. In the end, she chose to use the iron lung for the rest of her life to help her sleep nightly. In an NBC News interview in 2012, she said that when she was first put in the iron lung, “it was a huge relief.” She said of the ventilator, “That’s what kept me healthy. That’s what healed me. That’s what allowed me to breathe the next day.”
Polio, short for poliomyelitis, is a highly contagious virus which is primarily spread through contaminated food and water; as well as contact with unwashed hands or surfaces. Before vaccines eradicated the disease in the United States, outbreaks sparked widespread fear across the country. Polio in the 1940s and 1950s paralyzed and killed hundreds of thousands of people worldwide each year
An effective polio vaccine was developed by virologist and medical researcher Jonas Salk in 1954. It went through one of the largest clinical trials involving nearly two million children; and in 1955, was declared “safe, effective, and potent.” Salk’s breakthrough saved countless lives, with polio cases plummeting more than 90% in two years.
When Lillard contracted the virus as a young child she became paralyzed mostly in her arms and legs. She had to teach herself how to walk again and spent decades relying on the iron lung to help her breath. During healthier periods of her life, she was able to spend short periods of time outside the machine.
Lillard spent much of her time alone. She painted, watched old Hollywood movies, and took care of her beagles. Lillard was homeschooled for most of her childhood and unable to participate in most extracurricular activities, but did remember she wanted to go camping with her siblings. She could not have children or hold a steady job because of her physical limitations. However, she did marry twice.
The United States has been free of indigenous wild polio transmission since 1979. However, survivors like Lillard continued to live with the effects of the disease. ✪
▶️ SEVEN MORE COUNTIES CONSIDER LEAVING DEMOCRAT ILLINOIS
SEVEN MORE COUNTIES CONSIDER LEAVING DEMOCRAT ILLINOIS
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oters in seven Illinois counties have a chance to join 33 others which approved referendums to consider forming a new state apart from Cook County.
Those measures will be on the ballot this November in Coles, Gallatin, Hamilton, Henderson, Macoupin, Monroe and Saline counties.
State Rep. Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, said citizens are frustrated with what’s happening in Springfield.
They don’t see that anything’s going to change for the positive, and when I speak about that, you know, it’s the SAFE-T Act, it’s the Protect Illinois Communities Act, the other social issues,” Halbrook said.
Halbrook said Gov. J.B. Pritzker has added over 60 new taxes in eight years. “Billions of dollars have been transferred from citizens, from businesses into state budgets or into the state treasury.”
Halbrook proposed a resolution which goes farther than the ballot measures and urges Congress to declare 101 of Illinois’ 102 counties the 51st state in the U.S.
The Indiana legislature has also advanced bills to consider bringing Illinois counties into the Hoosier State. Last year, an Iowa state lawmaker proposed a bill to bring several western Illinois counties into the Hawkeye State.
This follows a trend in other parts of the country where voters in several eastern Oregon counties have also approved ballot measures in recent years which favor a merger into Idaho: but statewide proposals to change state lines have failed to advance. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has referred to the prospect of Illinois counties leaving as a political stunt.
Halbrook said separation from Cook County would be an uphill battle, because Democrats in the super majority will not allow his resolution move forward. Halbrock said:
“We need to have a conversation at a minimum. I think that’s what’s important. Why do people want to do this? Why do they not want to stay here in the state of Illinois? What we’re seeing this spring and summer in real time, even the Chicago Bears are discussing moving to a neighboring state of Indiana. Why is that happening?”
When asked about trying to effect change in Cook County instead of pushing for separation from Illinois, Halbrook said the dynamic would change if legislation changes.
“That’s not the priority of the super majority. We’re seeing their priorities, which lead to these higher costs, these many other things that we’ve discussed here,” Halbrook said. ✪
▶️ THE DAMAGE CAUSED BY ANTHONY FAUCI’S LIES IS INCALCULABLE
THE DAMAGE CAUSED BY ANTHONY FAUCI’S LIES IS INCALCULABLE
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nthony Fauci’s testimony – or lack thereof – in front of the Senate Homeland Security Committee was a disgraceful new chapter in one of the great scandals in modern history. Fauci’s repeated invocation of his Fifth Amendment right over 100 times was a telling and shameful response to a critical inquiry; and he deserves to be held in contempt for failing to cooperate. For a man who once described himself as “Science” incarnate, what could he possibly have to hide, and why would he not wish to share his knowledge with the American people?
The reason is simple, and well-established by the evidence collected over the past six years. Dr. Fauci and his close associates at the NIH deliberately misled the American people about numerous matters in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic – including the origins of the virus itself.
As Secretary of State, I was one of many in the government who strongly suspected that the virus came from the CCP-run Wuhan Institute of Virology, given what we knew about the lab’s well-known coronavirus research program, as well as the gain-of-function research conducted at that facility. (“Gain-of-function” refers to the dangerous practice of altering viruses to make them more virulent and contagious for the ostensible purpose of developing more effective vaccines. Thankfully, President Trump’s second Administration has prohibited federal funding for this kind of research.)
As early as January 2020, Fauci wrote in his private diary that the virus appeared not to have been transmitted directly from animals to humans in a Wuhan wet market, saying, “We know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier.” Early emails between Fauci and his colleagues in government and close collaborators in the field of virology show that they were fully aware that this risky research was going on, and that a lab leak was entirely plausible.
But suddenly, the direction of inquiry took a sharp turn away from hypotheses outside of animal-to-human transmission. At Fauci’s prompting, a group of scientists published a research paper in March 2020 dismissing the lab leak theory and asserting the zoonotic transmission theory; a paper subsequently cited by Fauci and his allies as Gospel.
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Aided by a compliant and politically biased press, Fauci and his partners colluded to suppress any credible discussion of the lab leak hypothesis. They dismissed anyone who sought to investigate the lab leak theory as conspiracy theorists – from Senator Tom Cotton (AR) to eminent experts in the field – and declined to push for answers from his Chinese counterparts.
As Secretary of State (and facing serious headwinds from the NIH), we conducted our own investigation, and in my final days in office put together a fact sheet based on those assessments. We did not claim to know with certainty whether the virus had leaked from a lab or not, as we did not have access to the CCP’s closely guarded case data and information surrounding the virus. But we gave the American people the transparency they deserved: laying out the facts, encouraging continued investigation by the incoming Administration, and demanding transparency from the Chinese Communist Party.
However, as soon as President Biden took office, that investigation was shut down; but the effort to get to the truth continued in the House and Senate. Over the past six years, the accumulated evidence has not only validated our position, but it also has become increasingly clear Fauci and his allies had more mendacious reasons for suppressing discussion of the lab leak hypothesis. Emails revealed Fauci not only knew the Wuhan lab was conducting gain-of-function research on coronaviruses, but that this very lab was also receiving funding from the NIH without proper oversight.
As one of his final acts as President, President Biden issued a pardon of Anthony Fauci covering the years 2014 to the date of his pardon in January 2025. Why would such a measure be necessary if the good doctor’s conduct was above board, as his defenders have always insisted? Could it have anything to do with the substantial documented evidence indicating that Dr. Fauci knowingly and intentionally suppressed information relating to the origins of this virus and the NIH’s funding for dangerous gain-of-function research in China on his watch?
The damage caused by Fauci’s lies and hubris to our children and to our society is incalculable. Trust in public health institutions has cratered and will take years to rebuild. What’s more, critical evidence which would aid us in holding those responsible for this devastating pandemic – and preventing the next one – has either been suppressed or destroyed.
The American people deserve answers & we must not rest until we get them. ✪
▶️ CENTRAL FLORIDA TOURISM GENERATES $98.6 BILLION IN 2025
CENTRAL FLORIDA TOURISM GENERATES $98.6 BILLION IN 2025
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entral Florida’s tourism industry generated a record $98.6 billion in economic impact in 2025, supported by increased visitor spending, employment and tax revenue, according to a study released Thursday.
The total represented a 4.4% increase from 2024, according to Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company. The study was commissioned by Visit Orlando, Experience Kissimmee, Seminole County and the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association.
Visitors directly spent $62.9 billion across Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties in 2025, a 5% year-over-year increase. That amounted to more than $172 million in daily spending at hotels, restaurants, attractions, retailers, transportation providers and other businesses.
Orange County accounted for 85% of visitor spending, followed by Osceola County at 12% and Seminole County at 3%.
Tourism also generated $35.7 billion in indirect and induced economic activity. Indirect activity includes purchases made by tourism-related businesses from suppliers, while induced activity reflects spending by workers whose wages are supported by visitor activity.
The report follows Visit Orlando’s announcement that the region welcomed a record 76.7 million visitors in 2025.
Tourism supported an estimated 476,541 jobs across the three-county region, representing more than 37% of total employment. More than 294,659 of those positions were directly tied to tourism, including jobs at hotels, restaurants, attractions and entertainment venues.
The broader economic activity also supported employment in construction, transportation, engineering, financial services and other industries. Tourism-related wages totaled a record $29.1 billion in 2025.
The industry generated an estimated $7.1 billion in state and local tax revenue, up 4.8% from the prior year. The report said the revenue helped offset the average Central Florida household’s tax burden by approximately $7,690. The estimated offset was $10,705 per household in Orange County.
Tourist development taxes on hotels and short-term rentals accounted for about 7% of the total tax revenue attributed to visitors, with the remainder generated through sales and other taxes. ✪
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