Friday, April 25, 2025

What Is Democratic Legality? ~ VDH


Since 2021, the left has waged a veritable war against the American legal system in a variety of ways.

One serial target of Democrats and the Left has been the Supreme Court.

In 2020, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., spoke to an angry throng of pro-abortion protestors assembled at the very doors of the court chambers.

He threatened two of the justices, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, by name. Schumer yelled to the volatile crowd that the justices' views would make them "reap the whirlwind," and the two would not know what "hit" them.

In the ensuing months, protestors mobbed some of the conservative justices' homes -- likely committing felonies. The sympathetic Biden Justice Department chose not to follow the law, and so did nothing -- although eventually a would-be assassin turned up.

Former President Joe Biden himself bragged that he would try to ignore the Supreme Court ruling banning his arbitrary cancellation of billions of dollars in student loans. Indeed, he boasted, "The Supreme Court blocked it, but that didn't stop me."

In response, no one on the left ever complained about endangering the "rule of law" or Biden as "a dictator."

For three years, four local, state, and federal prosecutors warped the law to neuter Donald Trump. Most of the charges had never been brought against other political figures in similar circumstances.

The vast majority of the 93 weaponized indictments backfired on the liberal prosecutors, who had contorted the legal system for political purposes and now face their own ethical or legal quagmires.

The federal prosecutor Jack Smith belatedly reported accepting $140,000 in free legal services.

Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis was removed from the Trump case and fined, and is now under further investigation.

New York prosecutor Letitia James is now facing allegations of falsification of documents and loan fraud.

Federal immigration law prohibits the illegal entry into and residence within the United States. Yet the Biden administration deliberately violated the law by allowing somewhere between 10-12 million illegal aliens to cross the border. Thousands had criminal records.

No one on the left decried any of these various affronts to the legal system.

In polls, by overwhelming majorities -- above 70 percent -- the public wants the Trump administration to close the border, begin deportations, and start with criminals or those with violent histories and gang ties.

The recent deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal alien from El Salvador, to the vast majority of Americans seems to fit that profile.

Garcia entered the U.S. illegally and was later found consorting with members of M-13 -- a State Department-designated terrorist organization -- who were selling drugs. Informants reported that he was a gang member. His own tattoos likely confirm those accusations.

Two prior immigration judges found such evidence sufficient to allow deportation proceedings. In 2019, a third judge allowed Garcia to stay temporarily, but only on the grounds that hostile gangs might harm him should he return to El Salvador.

Garcia was pulled over for speeding without a driver's license -- but with eight illegal aliens who reportedly all lived at the Garcia residence. The officer released him, despite suspicions that Garcia was engaged in human trafficking.

Garcia's live-in girlfriend, now wife, was physically assaulted by Garcia on two occasions, suffered injuries, and initially sought restraining orders against him.

The left claims Garcia is a "Maryland man" without an arrest record.

But he is not a U.S. citizen or a legal resident of Maryland. Instead, Garcia is in legal limbo and remains what he always was -- a citizen of El Salvador with gang ties and formerly residing illegally in the U.S.

Garcia is now back home on El Salvadorian soil and was mistakenly sent to a high-security prison. But his own government in El Salvador will ultimately decide how involved Garcia is or was with M-13 gangs. And then, as a sovereign nation, it will act according to its own policies about its own citizens' associations with that terrorist organization.

The left has demanded that Garcia be returned to the U.S. He has become a cause celebre as a purported victim of the supposedly fascist Trump. Returning Garcia is seen by leftists as a performance art-act to derail the Trump agenda, which otherwise they have neither the power nor public support to thwart.

The left also ignores its own hypocrisies and ironies.

Those who weaponized the court system and destroyed the border now rail that Trump is acting unlawfully by not returning an illegal alien, an M-13 member, and a domestic abuser with a propensity to ignore our laws.

How ironic that those who rail about colonialism now sound like 19th-century Yankee imperialists.

Democrats do not own El Salvador -- although they act like it when dictating to its government that El Salvador cannot detain one of its own citizens on its own soil for its own reasons.



X22, And we Know, and more- April 25

 



The Pete Hegseth Red Herring and the GOP's Foreign Policy Civil War


Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth finds himself under fire again -- this time from political skeptics or foes across the political spectrum. But just as the case was during the recent presidential transition period, when Trump opponents resuscitated the discredited 2018 Brett Kavanaugh/Christine Blasey Ford playbook in an attempt to derail Hegseth's nomination, the stakes now are much higher than Hegseth's job security helming the Pentagon.

When he was up for the nomination, Democrats and their corporate media allies went all in in an attempt to destroy Hegseth. Like the anti-Kavanaugh campaign in September 2018, when the then-pending Supreme Court nominee was accused of everything from sexual assault to gang rape, the recent anti-Hegseth operation accused the two-time Bronze Star-decorated veteran of recurring alcoholism, having a ruinous Bill Clinton-esque libido, and yes, rape. But the concerted effort to sink Hegseth's nomination was not actually about Hegseth: It was an attempt to chum the waters, demonstrate Trumpian vulnerability and sabotage the incoming administration before it even took office. Thankfully, the cynical effort failed. And military recruitment, perhaps Hegseth's single most important Day One priority, has already greatly benefited.

Fast-forward a bit. Hegseth was one of the main Trump administration officials caught in the crosshairs of last month's "Signalgate" group chat controversy, which saw sensitive military information about the United States' attack plans on the Yemen-based Houthi terrorists inexplicably delivered to the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg. The contents of the leaked chat revealed a Trump administration that is internally divided on matters of foreign policy -- in particular as it pertains to the Islamic Republic of Iran and its regional proxies, such as the Houthis. Iran doves and anti-Israel provocateurs tendentiously seized the opportunity to attempt to excise a convenient "neocon" scalp -- whether that be Hegseth or national security adviser Michael Waltz. But both Hegseth and Waltz kept their jobs.

Since "Signalgate," there have been two additional Hegseth-related developments. Last Sunday, The New York Times reported that Hegseth had shared sensitive information about the Houthi attack plans in a second group chat that included his wife and brother, among others. Hegseth admitted to this second chat's existence but claimed no harm was done. Around the same time, three high-ranking Department of Defense officials -- Deputy Chief of Staff Darin Selnick, longtime Hegseth friend and confidante Dan Caldwell, and the chief of staff to the deputy defense secretary, Colin Carroll -- were first placed on leave, and then fired, amid an ongoing Pentagon leak investigation.

The cashiering of Caldwell is notable because of his longstanding relationship with Hegseth. The dismissal suggests that Hegseth is committed to leaving no stone unturned and is willing to go scorched earth on one-time allies, if need be, to regain operational control of his leak-addled Pentagon. But the reaction to the firings, and Caldwell's immediate conduct afterward, are highly telling. What the Pentagon firings aftermath reveals, in short, is the same thing last month's original leaked Signal chat revealed: a Trump administration deeply divided on issues of foreign policy, especially pertaining to Iran.

Caldwell, who spent his immediate pre-administration years working for various Koch-funded isolationist outfits, is an Iran dove. In the earliest days of the Biden administration, Caldwell even went so far as to praise Robert Malley -- Biden's execrable choice for special envoy to Iran, and previously the chief American negotiator for former President Barack Obama's 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Shortly after being fired from the Pentagon, Caldwell promptly went on the popular show of the nation's best-known Iran dove, Tucker Carlson -- a man who just referred to Iran hawks as "enemies" of the United States -- to tell his side of the story. Caldwell's narrative was pure victimhood: He argued that his Pentagon tenure threatened "established interests," and he dismissed leak accusations. Given that his old ally Hegseth fired him and is now recommending he be prosecuted, Caldwell's tale doesn't pass the laugh test.

But the entire saga is illuminating.

At a time when the liberal Times was yet again trying to get Hegseth fired, Carlson decided to use his platform to glorify an Iran dove Pentagon leaker, thus necessarily calling into question Hegseth's leadership. Truly, one must wonder why supposed allies of President Donald Trump would decide to capitalize on the Times' reporting and throw Hegseth under the bus at such a vulnerable moment. Shouldn't outside "allies" have followed the lead of Vice President JD Vance and Trump himself and defended Hegseth to the hilt? One of Carlson's lesser-known acolytes, the unctuous American Conservative Executive Director Curt Mills, said the quiet part out loud: "The reality is operational -- Hegseth is just not up to this."

The backdrop for all this high drama, adding yet another twist to this elaborate puzzle, is the administration's ongoing Iran nuclear negotiations, which are led by Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff. Those negotiations will resume this weekend in Oman. Witkoff is a billionaire real estate investor with no particular knowledge of the Middle East. In 2023, Witkoff sold his Park Lane Hotel in New York City to the Qatar Investment Authority for $623 million, and perhaps not coincidentally, in January he went on TV to praise Qatar for "doing God's work." In the Carlson/Caldwell interview, Caldwell referred to the generally clueless Witkoff as a "godsend," and Carlson hailed him an "instrument of peace." Carlson, notably, recently hosted the prime minister of Qatar and praised him for seeking to stop military action against Qatar's chief regional ally, Iran.

One starts to see what is really going on here.

The good news is that Trump himself is clear-eyed on matters pertaining to Iran. So too, it seems, is his secretary of defense. One must thus conclude that Hegseth's right-leaning detractors are simply frustrated that the president is not as pro-Iran as they are. That would explain why these Trump "allies" are teaming up with the Times in yet another attempt to destroy Hegseth.



Columbia vows to tear down tent encampments, have disruptors arrested as school braces for renewed anti-Israel protests

Columbia vows to tear down tent encampments, have disruptors arrested as school braces for renewed anti-Israel protests

Columbia University has warned students to brace for the return of tent encampments on campus after the Ivy League school became aware of anti-Israel protesters’ plans to stage demonstrations.

“We have been made aware of possible plans to establish encampments on Columbia’s campuses,” the school’s public safety unit blasted out in an email to students and staff on Wednesday.

“We want to clearly communicate that camping and encampments on Columbia’s campuses are prohibited by university policy.”

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators, including celebrities Claus Norreen, Gabriela Lena Frank, Simone Manuel, Antonio Silva, gathering inside and outside the gates of Columbia University under a tent.
Columbia University is warning against the return of tent encampments to campus. LP Media

The school, which quickly became the epicenter of violent anti-Israel protests last year, vowed to immediately tear down any tents that pop up on the Morningside Heights campus and threatened to have disruptive protesters arrested.

“We value free expression and the right to protest,” the email continued. “These activities must be conducted in accordance with university rules and policies to ensure the safety of our community and that academic and other campus activities can continue unimpeded.”

The alert came after roughly 100 people held a secret planning meeting in Brooklyn earlier this week about setting up the encampment on Thursday and Friday, NBC News reported.

“When we take over the lawn, our goal is to unify the space and make it our own,” one of the organizers said, according to a recording of the meeting.

Protestors gather at an anti-Israel encampment on the lawn of Columbia University after a deadline was issued on Monday, April 29, 2024 in New York, N.Y.
Protesters gather at a pro-Palestinian encampment on the lawn of Columbia University after a deadline was issued on Monday, April 29, 2024, in New York, NY. James Keivom

The ringleaders, who refused to use their real names and wore face coverings, urged those who planned on attending the protest not to arrive on campus wearing masks because it would tip off campus security.

“Any action that we do will bring police, will bring repression and we thought about that deeply and we’re aware of that,” one of the organizers said.


Here is the latest on the Barnard College and Columbia University student protests


Group of people gathering at a pro-Palestinian encampment, with tents and signs, on the lawn of Columbia University
Columbia vowed to immediately tear down any tents that pop up on campus and threatened to have disruptive protesters arrested. James Keivom

“And we’re stuck in this situation where inaction is also violence.”

The planned protests come a year after anti-Israel agitators forced Columbia into lockdown when a similar tent encampment descended into chaos — resulting in dozens of arrests and destruction.

At the height of the mayhem, dozens of masked rioters smashed their way inside Hamilton Hall in a violent takeover.

The violence served as the catalyst for the Trump administration yanking roughly $400 million in grants and contracts from the elite school last month over its failure to stamp out antisemitism on campus.

Columbia subsequently caved to a list of Trump’s demands by agreeing to a slew of policy changes, including a mask ban and allowing campus cops to arrest students or boot them off when deemed appropriate.

The flurry of new campus reforms also now requires protesters and demonstrators to identify themselves when asked or else face disciplinary action.


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Has the 'Biden Effect' Poisoned the Democrat Party?


Bob Hoge reporting for RedState 

It must be tough to be a Democrat these days. They’re in the minority in the House and the Senate, and they lost the White House in crushing fashion in November. Their approval rating has sunk below the Mariana Trench. One of their most powerful senators, Illinois’ Dick Durbin, announced Wednesday that he will not be seeking reelection. As Kamala Harris said in her most recent fundraising email, “it’s not great” for the Democratic party right now, and donations across the country have dwindled.

There’s plenty of blame to go around: the Democrats went increasingly left in the last four years, pushing extreme gender ideology, open borders, boys playing girls’ sports, supporting deported gangbangers instead of American citizens—the list goes on.

But if there’s one poster boy for everything that’s behind the Democrats' malaise, it’s a guy who’s not even in power anymore: former President Joe Biden. Has the “Biden Effect” poisoned the Democrat party? (Answer: yes.)

"This is fallout from the 'Biden Effect,'" said Rutgers University political scientist Ross Baker. "It contaminated old Democrats."

Durbin, 80, and Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., 78; Tina Smith, D-Wis., 67; and Gary Peters, D-Mich., 66, as well as Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., 83, all announced their exit in 2025.

Prior to Biden's infamous debate, several 2024-cycle Democrats — now-former Sens. Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, 81; Tom Carper of Delaware, 78; Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, 74; and Democrat-turned-independent Joe Manchin of West Virginia, 77 — all declared their exits.

Although it’s mostly older Dems that are on that list of folks heading for the exits, RedState’s Nick Arama wrote about how younger voters aren’t impressed with the congressional Democrats either and give them a dismal 23 percent approval rating:

What group of voters do Democrats have left that they can feel secure about? Older, leftist hippies? When they age out, who will they have left? 

That's not a good look for the Democrats' future and it couldn't be more deserved. We previously reported on the Gallup poll showing confidence in Democrat leadership in Congress stood at a record-low 25 percent, which was nine points below the previous low of 34 percent in 2023. Democrat approval in multiple polls is at record lows. 

There are many, many facets to the Biden Effect and the tainted legacy of his presidency:

Even Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)—who has seemingly been in Congress since the Stone Age—is feeling the effects, as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has hinted at a primary challenge. 

Meanwhile, there’s tension in the ranks:

A renewed push for older Democrats to pass the torch came when Democratic National Committee vice chair David Hogg launched a project to recruit and bankroll primary opponents for older Democratic incumbents.

"Today’s party politics has an unwritten rule — if you win a seat, it’s yours for life. No one serious in your party will challenge you. That is a culture that we have to break," Hogg, 25, wrote on his political website, Leaders We Deserve.

The repercussions of Biden’s legacy will be felt for years to come, especially when it comes to the millions of illegal aliens he let in. Although Trump is trying to do something about that, it’s not going to be solved overnight.

But Ole Joe also graced the Democrats with a parting gift as well: he has left them adrift, arguing with each other, and completely lacking a coherent vision. The Biden Effect appears to be real—and I have no problem with that.



The Fentanyl Triangle: How Chinese Brokers, Mid-East Mafias, and Mexican Cartels Use U.S. Towns in Deadly Trade

 A $30 million laundering indictment in South Carolina reveals how fentanyl profits were funneled through electronics exports to Hong Kong and Dubai


SOUTH CAROLINA — Chinese money brokers in Georgia worked with Middle Eastern mafia cells in South Carolina to launder fentanyl cash collected across American cities for the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels, converting the fatal drug proceeds into electronics goods shipped to Hong Kong and Dubai. The scheme formed part of a transnational pipeline that reveals a disturbing nexus between Chinese, Mexican, and Middle Eastern threat actors, an explosive indictment unsealed yesterday shows.

The global patterns revealed here—involving China-based laundering networks believed to have ties to the Chinese state, Mexican drug syndicates, and Middle Eastern cells, all operating through trade-based money laundering structures—reflect a convergence of illicit finance that U.S. and Canadian experts have warned about in recent years. These poly-drug laundering operations, blending fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, and cannabis profits, funnel narcotics cash into “legitimate” global trade via electronics and other consumer goods.

A federal grand jury in Florence, South Carolina, has indicted three individuals in what officials describe as a sprawling transnational network connected to hundreds of millions in dirty cash. On April 22, the grand jury charged brothers Nasir Ullah, 28, and Naim Ullah, 32—both of Sumter, South Carolina—along with Puquan Huang, 49, of Buford, Georgia, with conspiring to launder at least $30 million in proceeds from the trafficking of fentanyl and cocaine.

Huang, with ties to China-based money launderers, reportedly fulfilled the role of organizing cash collection for Middle Eastern mafia cells, reflecting the system that senior U.S. and Canadian investigators have explained to The Bureau—in which Chinese professional money brokers bid for contracts to warehouse and clean drug proceeds from global narcotics players across North America.

These Chinese underground banks are often ultimately directed by Triad bosses in China, Hong Kong, Vancouver, Toronto and New York City. As reported by ProPublica, U.S. investigators have even documented Chinese diplomatic links to American diaspora crime leaders involved in these narco-laundering networks.

Buford, Georgia—a small city with a population of just over 17,000, located about 40 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta—seems an unlikely hub for a global narco-finance operation. But according to U.S. investigators, it fits a broader pattern: Chinese state-linked illegal cannabis growers, drug traffickers, and money brokers increasingly use small towns along the Eastern Seaboard as operational bases, exploiting anonymity and proximity to major highways. U.S. Homeland Security documents say this Chinese network stretches from Maine to Miami, relying on the I-95 corridor as a major narcotics and cash trafficking route.

In this case, officials identified one fugitive co-conspirator—Mohammad Azam Khan, the Ullah brothers’ father—now believed to be residing in Dubai.

The indictment, unsealed April 24, alleges the trio provided laundering services to major Mexican drug cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel Jalisco Nueva GeneraciΓ³n. Acting U.S. Attorney Brook B. Andrews described the network as “one of the largest professional money laundering operations in state history,” adding that the defendants “offered their services to drug dealers across the Southeast.” According to prosecutors, the laundered funds trace directly to narcotics trafficked into the United States via Mexico and were funneled to China and the Middle East under the guise of international trade.

Court documents also reference hundreds of millions of dollars seized during multiple traffic stops in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina between July 2021 and November 2024. Police traced the money to the sale of fentanyl, cocaine, marijuana, and heroin—underscoring the poly-drug nature of the laundering network.

The scale of the narcotics trade supported by this scheme was enormous. According to the DEA’s Atlanta Field Division, one intercepted cash haul of approximately $177,000 could have financed up to 7 kilograms of raw fentanyl—enough to press between 3.5 and 7 million counterfeit pills. Officials estimate the broader network helped traffickers move proceeds that would fund the purchase of hundreds of kilograms of fentanyl, cocaine, cannabis, and other illicit drugs over several years—fueling addiction and violence far beyond South Carolina.

The investigation culminated in January 2025, when police and federal agents raided two commercial properties and two homes in Sumter. During these raids, Nasir Ullah, Naim Ullah, and a third man were arrested. Officers seized $230,000 in cash, three vehicles, 11 firearms, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in luxury jewelry. Subsequently, Puquan Huang was arrested in Georgia and is expected to be extradited to South Carolina.

Federal investigators say the money laundering network led by the Ullah brothers and Huang relied heavily on trade-based laundering methods—converting drug cash into consumer electronics and other high-value merchandise that could be exported overseas. The crew allegedly collected bulk cash from dealers across multiple U.S. states, purchased electronics with those funds, and shipped the goods to China, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates. Once abroad, the goods were resold, and cartel operatives received their profits in sanitized form—as earnings from commercial trade rather than narcotics.

Court documents state that communications with co-conspirators in China were key to coordinating this scheme. Huang, identified as a Chinese national with cross-border business ties, allegedly served as the broker between the Ullahs and PRC-based underground bankers. These brokers, operating outside China’s official financial system, helped convert dollars into yuan using informal exchanges and false invoices—a classic shadow banking technique.

The indictment also details how Middle Eastern organized crime cells formed a crucial node in the laundering circuit. According to court filings, electronics purchased with drug proceeds were shipped to Dubai, where they were sold to further obscure the illicit cash and convert it into usable assets. Mohammad Azam Khan—the father of the two South Carolina-based defendants—is believed to have coordinated the Hong Kong-to-UAE segment of the laundering chain from his base in the Gulf.

This configuration—a laundering network bridging China, Mexico, and the Middle East through U.S. cash collection hubs—mirrors patterns seen in prior DEA investigations. The same financial nodes—Hong Kong, Dubai, and Mexican border cities—feature prominently in Chinese and Iranian state-linked underground banking operations with deep ties to Vancouver and Toronto.

The Bureau’s review of the notorious Altaf Khanani case—alongside the conviction of former RCMP intelligence boss Cameron Ortis—shows how these networks exploit Canadian cities to clean drug proceeds and obscure terror financing. Ortis, convicted of leaking classified Five Eyes intelligence to money laundering syndicates with ties to Hezbollah, compromised U.S. and Australian operations targeting figures like Khanani, whose global laundering empire moved billions in narco and terror cash through Hong Kong, the Gulf, and North America. The methods now surfacing in South Carolina—where cartel fentanyl profits were laundered through Chinese brokers and Middle Eastern mafias—follow the same financial geography and trade-based tactics.

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