We Are Winning Even If It Does Not Always Seem That Way

posted by Kurt Schlichter at Townhall 

We’re in the midst of a massive leftist counterattack that desperately seeks to distract us not just from the fact that one of their own, the trans/furry-tapping pervert, murdered Charlie Kirk, but from the fact that America is indisputably getting better. They’re scared. They’re really scared because they didn’t know this was going to happen, and they didn’t expect this to happen, and even now, they don’t fully understand the implications of either Trump’s success or of what their freakish ally did when he lit the fuse by pulling the trigger. The Charlie Kirk memorial was incomprehensible to them, with its patriotism, Christianity, and flagrant cisgenderism, but even their reptile brains sensed a threat. What we’re seeing now is a huge attempt to retake the initiative, with everything from casting Jimmy Kimmel as a free speech icon (when he isn’t cheering other people being suppressed) to Tom Holman supposedly getting bribed (I wonder why the Biden DOJ, which was known for being super-cool to conservatives, never charged him) to whatever narrative they just fired up in the last 15 minutes, they’re throwing everything they’ve got at the wall.

And they can’t even see that it’s not sticking.

Let’s examine where we are, because if you look at social media, you’re going to be under the impression that there’s this overwhelming backlash against Donald Trump and our movement. There isn’t. Check out the polling. The reliable polling ranges from Trump being slightly underwater to Trump being slightly ahead. As for the midterms, which are not for 14 months, the consensus seems to be that the Democrats are slightly ahead. But the “slightly” is the important part – usually, midterm elections are a wipeout for incumbents. Historically, if you believe the polling – and you should sooner believe tales of sexual conquest told by Brian Stelter, who is a potato – the current scenario isn’t that bad. But even if it were, it wouldn’t matter. Again, we have over a year to the midterms. A lot can happen in a year, and will.

A lot has happened already, and that track record of success over the last nine months is shaping the future in ways that are almost certain to be positive. Some of the results are manifesting already. Inflation is way down, though the regime media is eagerly trying to convince us that the absence of deflation, where prices themselves shrink rather than the rate of increase shrinking, is significant. But if you take time away from listening to Democrats screaming that “Trump is a fascist, no, now we really mean it, and before we were just kind of saying it, but now it’s totally true” and check out your 401(k), you’re going to be pleasantly surprised. The market is setting new records. Now, let’s not pretend that a good stock market means the economy is perfect, but it’s a big deal for the boomers who’ve got a lot of stocks and who always vote, and if they’re doing really well, that’s good news for Donald Trump. Right now, they’re doing fantastically. Hell, maybe I’ll go buy a walk-in humidor.

Look, there’s a lot going on that the regime media is totally missing. The most important stuff has to do with young people, something the left missed from the Charlie Kirk memorial as they were focused on trying to link it to Nuremburg. Trump is listening to young peoples’ cries for help, while the Boomer geriatrics over at the Democrat Party are paying attention only to the Boomer geriatrics who show up to scream like idiots at congressional town halls. They didn’t see the young people coming in 2024, nor will they see them coming this time. And they are coming, because a lot of Trump policies are aimed directly at them.

First, there’s peace. We’re not at war with anybody. Well, we’re blowing the crap out of occasional drug dealer dinghies, but pretty much everybody thinks that’s kind of funny and cool. The thing is, there’s no real war, and that’s pretty important to the guys who the jerks in Washington expect to go out and fight these dumb conflicts.

Next, Trump is doing things that are going to address some of the big problems faced by young people. Charlie Kirk was listening to young people and their concerns. He wasn’t just talking about Jesus, though there’s a major religious revival going on that only Salena Zito seems to have noticed. Instead, the regime media is out there interviewing each other over the greatest atrocity in human history, which is Jimmy Kimmel not appearing on a late-night talk show for a week, and missing this massive story. 

But besides faith, Charlie Kirk was talking about how young people feel hopeless and how the American dream seems to be getting away from them. The last text exchange I had with him was trying to coordinate getting him on a radio show I was guest-hosting to talk about the state of young Americans (Always the class act, the last thing he texted to me was “Thank you” for inviting him). I encourage you to go and find his many podcast appearances where he talks about young people. It’s kind of mind-blowing, especially for a lawyer who was born the last week of the Baby Boom. I grew up optimistic and managed to do a bunch of cool things; they see a bleak future where the game is rigged against them at every turn. The good news is that Donald Trump is taking steps to address their problems. If he succeeds, he locks that generation in for the Republicans, not just in 2026 but forever.

He’s getting rid of DEI, which has been a huge barrier to hiring for many millions of young people, primarily males. Did you see how he just put a $100,000 price tag on any H-1B visa going forward? That’s because so many of the young men and women we told to go study STEM could not get jobs because the big corporations instead used shady brokers to import Indians and others to toil for pennies as quasi-slave laborers. By opening up the job market, Trump is betting on America’s future. By catering to the boomers, the Democrats are betting on America’s past.

And don’t forget housing. One of the big things Charlie Kirk was pushing lately was something that doesn’t sound traditionally conservative to guys like me who literally started in this under the great Ronald Reagan. He was saying that one of the most important things Republicans can do is ban hedge funds and big corporations from buying up single-family homes. Hallelujah. It’s about time we sided with our own people instead of rich people who hate us. It’s a new Republican Party where we’re not on the side of BlackRock; let the Democrats carry their bespoke sparkling water. What did those bastards ever do for us except turn on us the second Obama and the wokesters demanded it? Freeing up real estate for young families is a huge power move that we should embrace. Let’s push that in 2026 and see who wins the midterms.

Here are the facts. The Democrats are still in chaos. They can’t back off their psychotic policy prescriptions, like trans perversions, importing illegal aliens, and hugging criminals. Those are electoral poison. We must use those to beat down their positives. But we must build up our positives by continuing an agenda that combines peace and prosperity, with a special focus on young people and helping them get their own grip on the American dream. That’s why I’m optimistic about 2026. Donald Trump and his folks see the future is the young, not the crusty/commie, and hopefully Trump can convince, cajole, or compel the remaining Republican Fredocons to bring it in for the big win a year from November.

Podcast thread for Oct 2nd

 

Really off day.

Rejecting Civilization

American  Thinker 

In his address to the General Assembly of the United Nations, President Donald Trump claimed that “the UN has such tremendous potential” but was not using it. What did this mean? The UN officially is a member’s organization, a meeting place for diplomacy. Did Trump want to go beyond this and see a UN as a powerful organization operating on its own? The UN has grown into a massive bureaucracy, with over 130,000 people. Secretary-General António Guterres speaks for the UN as if it were the prototype for a world government. Autonomous UN agencies like the International Criminal Court, World Trade Organization, and International Seabed Authority already behave as if they are global governing bodies able to act against national states. As a nationalist, Trump could not have been calling for the UN to further expand to fulfill its ‘potential.”

The UN is a sanctuary for third-ratestaffers and pseudo-intellectuals from around the world on the lam from reality. A giant, well-funded faculty lounge. Trump mentioned how the UN is “creating new problems for us to solve.” By supporting mass migration, “the United Nations is funding an assault on Western countries and their borders... every sovereign nation must have the right to control their own borders.” And on the climate issue, “I’m telling you that if you don’t get away from the ‘green energy’ scam, your country is going to fail.”  

The “climate crisis” seemed to give the UN an issue larger than the perennial conflicts of traditional geopolitics. An issue that could give the UN global authority to fix. It created the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 to “save the planet” and “equitably” share the benefits of “sustainable” (i.e., limited by Green regulations) development. This mission would give the UN control of the global economy (climate includes everything) and thus the power to rule the world.

Coinciding with the opening of the General Assembly, Climate Summit 2025 was held as the major UN event leading to the annual Conference of the Parties that claims (without merit) to set “legally binding” rules for the global economy. The 30th COP will open November 10 in Belém, Brazil. It will likely fare no better than the previous 29 meetings, and not just because the Trump administration rejects everything about it. I have discussed COP27,  COP28and COP29 elsewhere, which all failed even with the support of the Biden Administration. Suffice it to say, national interests still dominate over the globalist dreams at the UN. And the most important national interest is improving the living conditions of citizens within countries that are secure and sovereign.

At the Climate Summit, only one-third of nations representing half of global greenhouse emissions output have submitted their national goals or targets for 2035, and these have been called inadequate. Firm pledges have only come from 53 countries accounting for 14% of emissions. The big news was China announced a target of a 10% cut in emissions by 2035, but still would not reach net zero until 2060, a meaningless date for the world’s largest emitter (29% of the world total) who is still building a new coal-fired powerplant every four days, along with nuclear and solar to meet its rapidly expanding energy needs by every means possible.

The Green agenda runs contrary to national goals. It is the creation of ideology not science. Its anti-capitalist rhetoric and socialist policies are obvious, but its Marxist content is only the tip of the iceberg. The Left hates capitalism because it creates wealth, not just at the top but throughout society. It’s the rise of an affluent middle class that includes most of the working class (indeed, anyone who is productive) that most inflames their hatred. The Left has long sought ways to draw people away from the idea of progress and thus away from an economic system that generates progress. They denounce advertising for creating false wants among consumers who should be happy with less. The appeal of “hippie” culture did not last. Gen Z fears it will not live as well or have the opportunities that were available to its parents. Around the world the young protest limits on growth in power and water resources, health care, and education even when mouthing Green slogans that block growth.

A no-growth economy would require a government to “fairly” distribute what resources were available. That is the socialist hope within a Green New Deal. The unlimited growth of capitalism driven by human innovation and the desire for a better life cannot be argued away. People will not voluntarily give up their dreams, so they must be told that those dreams are impossible. The first attempt was the “limits to growth” notion, particularly in regard to energy. But innovation solved those problems. But to the Left there are no legitimate technological solutions. Consumption must be reduced, and ultimately human and animal populations as well. Everything modern civilization does contributes to the “climate crisis.” We will literally burn as in Hell if we don’t’ abandon our sin of progress. It is a secular word of God that must be obeyed on penalty of planetary death. If you can’t win an argument, draw a gun.

This does not come from Marx. The German radical is but the ugly stepchild of the real French Devil who created today’s Left, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His most famous quote is “Man is born free but is everywhere in chains.” This is not merely a criticism of the monarchial governments of his time, but of civilization itself.

In his Discourse on Inequality, he disputed Thomas Hobbes’ claim that in the state of nature, life was “nasty, brutish and short” because of a lack of civilization with its laws and social behaviors that made both freedom and progress possible. Rousseau believed that the state of nature was peaceful and idyllic, free of the false desires that led to competition and violence, or simply to being chained to employment. People would be much happier living in harmony with nature, dancing with joy through a simple existence like the North American Indian tribesmen who had no real government or indoor plumbing.

This is the school of anarcho-primitivism that is the real heart of the modern Left. In this ideology, the Industrial Revolution was the opening of the Hellmouth. The Green agenda is one of deindustrialization, the abolition of the division of labor and specialization (more chains of hard work), the abandonment of large-scale organization (business and state) and all technology that merely enslaves us further in the corrupt web of a soul-killing prosperity.  

This concept of the “noble savage” is not just seen in Green circles. The protests against Israel as a “settler state” in a Middle East where Israel has existed since ancient times reflects the anti-civilization narrative that runs through leftist academic circles. The Left hails “indigenous people” as a better model than the Western nations that built global empires, creating advanced nations like the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, kickstarting progress throughout Latin America, and spreading not only technology and liberal values across the world but introducing the very idea of progress. To make this claim, they have to admit that the narrative has to shift from “improvement and reform” to the embrace of primitive culture. We must “decolonize” history to free ourselves for regression. We cannot enjoy our affluence and freedom because it was attained by immoral means.

Yet, I bet we will continue to enjoy life and continue to strive for more and there is nothing the UN or Harvard can do to change that elemental drive of humankind. That’s a core belief of modern conservatism.

Guns of October

American  Thinker 

Once again, it feels as if we’re tiptoeing toward an official war between the United States and Russia — as opposed to the  that has endured for three and half years between Russia and NATO-backed Ukraine. 

Although President Trump has downplayed the “rare and urgent” meeting of top military commanders from around the world at Quantico, Virginia, on Tuesday, the event has generated intense speculation.  The Pentagon says that secretary of War Hegseth merely wants to deliver a speech on the “warrior ethos” and make sure that military leaders are all walking in the same direction.  The president  the focus of the gathering in general terms: “We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how we’re doing.”  Still, to gather the highest-ranking members of the U.S. military in one location for a chat with the president and secretary of War leaves the impression that something of significant importance will be discussed.

On Monday morning, ZeroHedge  from several sites that analyze open-source intelligence to predict military engagements.  Those sites were all tracking a large deployment of U.S. aerial refueling tankers crossing the Atlantic on their way to Europe.  A social media  that tracks pizzerias near the Pentagon showed a spike in orders late Sunday night.  The last time these sources noted a wave of air tankers leaving the United States and increased carryout orders from restaurants near the Pentagon, the U.S. military was preparing to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities.  When these open-source data points are viewed alongside the unusual meeting of top military commanders in northern Virginia, it is difficult not to conclude that a potentially significant military operation is imminent.

Notably, there has been a shift in public messaging from high-ranking government officials.  U.S. special envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg  Fox News on Sunday that President Trump has authorized NATO to use U.S. missiles in direct strikes against Moscow.  In a  on Truth Social one week ago, the president stated, “I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form.”  Trump’s rhetorical departure from months of effort directed toward peace came right after a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky at the United Nations in New York City.  While answering reporters’ questions at the U.N., Trump said that allies should shoot down Russian aircraft that enter into the airspace of NATO nations.  Marveling at the president, Zelensky  Trump a “game changer.”

In a separate interview on Fox News, Vice President Vance  that the administration might provide Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles.  Noting that President Trump would make the “final determination” on whether to equip Ukraine with weapons that can strike Moscow, Vance’s assessment of the situation nonetheless suggested that U.S.-NATO is about to take a more aggressive posture in the region.

While signs indicate greater U.S. involvement in the Ukraine-Russia conflict in the near future, the Russian foreign ministry has been highlighting uncorroborated  claiming that the Ukrainian military intends to use captured Russian drones in staged “false flag” attacks on logistics hubs in Poland and Romania.  There are no hard facts to back this assertion, but numerous media reports coming from Hungarian sources have repeated the claim in recent days.  Should Poland or Romania be attacked, President Trump’s recent comments suggest that there would be a swift U.S.-NATO response.  As is always the case in war, propaganda and misdirection make it almost impossible to analyze this information.  

Ukraine has an obvious motive to undertake an operation against its allies in an effort to drag U.S.-led NATO into a larger war.  Over the last three years, the Ukrainian military appears to have been involved in several attacks on NATO interests — including the sabotage of Nord Stream pipelines supplying Russian energy to Germany and the more recent attack on pipeline networks supplying oil from Russia to Hungary and Slovakia — as part of an overall strategy to separate Russia from European Union economic partners.

At the same time, it is entirely logical for Russia to flood the information space with allegations of a looming “false flag” attack while carrying out an actual attack of its own.  If something were to occur in Poland, Romania, or Moldova in the next few days, both Russia and NATO will accuse the other of spreading disinformation.  These competing “narratives” ensure that confusion will reign — ratcheting up the prospect of retaliatory attacks and perilous escalation.

I do not like where this is heading.  The issue of U.S.-NATO support for the Kyiv government in its fight against the Russian Federation has divided American conservatives.  Some Americans view Russia with such hostility that they almost appear eager for a direct U.S.-Russia confrontation.  I believe that such a conflict has the potential to kill millions of people and put us on the path toward long-term global instability.

Those who rush to defend Ukraine’s territorial borders routinely ignore that the eastern territories in dispute belong mainly to Russian-speaking peoples who have repeatedly allied with the Russian Federation.  When NATO and Kyiv deny people the natural right to determine their own future in the name of Ukraine’s national “self-determination,” I find the argument for war ludicrous.  

This has always been a civil war involving historically Russian areas, and bloodshed began only after Obama’s State Department and European Union emissaries decided to expand NATO’s territorial grip right up to Russia’s doorstep by sacrificing Ukraine in a proxy war.  Of all the reasons that U.S. and European politicians provide for the necessity of defending Ukraine, the idea that Russia’s invasion was entirely “unprovoked” is most laughable.  

Ukraine is not a member of NATO.  Ukraine has directly attacked property belonging to NATO nations.  Nonetheless, NATO appears ready to protect a country that has attacked its members and to attack a country that has not.

This has always felt like another expedient “bankers’ war,” meant to put money into the hands of the world’s wealthiest financial institutions while stealing the lives and tax dollars of Western citizens.  Over at The Conservative Treehouse, Sundance framed the issue aptly:

The reason why the EU member states of NATO want escalated war with Russia is financial and economic.  Through policy and ideology, the EU/NATO members have walked themselves into an economic dead end.  They are out of assets to leverage.  The only way out for the EU/NATO leadership is to create a war to erase debt, expand assets and reset the economics.

While BlackRock, J.P. Morgan, and other World Economic Forum heavyweights divide up Ukraine’s assets and manage control over the Ukraine Recovery and Reinvestment Bank, international financial interests will turn wartime spending into a money machine.  At the same time, all the self-inflicted economic damage caused by “green” energy regulations and central bank money-printing propping up the expansive European welfare state can be blamed on “Russian aggression.”  Should the whole financial system near collapse, the perfect rationale will exist to implement central bank digital currencies and mandatory digital identities for Western citizens.  Once again, governments will manufacture potentially catastrophic problems in order to justify “solutions” that nobody wanted in the first place.

In this case, however, the problem that NATO governments are creating comes with the certain loss of numerous lives and the inherent risk of cataclysm.  I don’t like this game, and I wish that wiser heads would succeed in preventing this violent calculus from reaching its ever deadlier conclusion.

Right now, however, all signs point to madness.  It looks as if a wider war with Russia will coincide with Antifa’s war against Americans at home.  Prepare accordingly.

🎭 𝐖𝟑𝐏 𝓓𝓐𝓘𝓛𝓨 𝓗𝓾𝓶𝓸𝓻, 𝓜𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬, 𝓐𝓻𝓽, 𝓞𝓟𝓔𝓝 𝓣𝓗𝓡𝓔𝓐𝓓

 

Welcome to 

The 𝐖𝟑𝐏 𝓓𝓐𝓘𝓛𝓨 𝓗𝓾𝓶𝓸𝓻, 𝓜𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬, 𝓐𝓻𝓽, 𝓞𝓟𝓔𝓝 𝓣𝓗𝓡𝓔𝓐𝓓 

Here’s a place to share cartoons, jokes, music, art, nature, 

man-made wonders, and whatever else you can think of. 

No politics or divisive posts on this thread. 

This feature will appear every day at 1pm mountain time. 

Amicus Brief Asks DC Court To End ‘Unethical, Un-American’ Persecution Of Jeff Clark

‘Ethics complaints motivated by partisan animosity are unethical, un-American, and detrimental to the profession of law and the pursuit of justice to which our profession is committed,’ the brief states.

The  Federalist 

America First Legal (AFL) has filed a brief supporting Trump 45 Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark against persecution from the corrupt D.C. bar and its weaponized attempt to strip his law license.

The 29-page amicus brief, obtained by The Federalist, lays out multiple arguments for why the proceedings against Clark, whose alleged wrongdoing consisted of drafting a letter that was “never signed, never sent, and never acted upon,” should immediately be thrown out of court.

Clark currently heads the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) at the White House.

“We are proud to stand beside Jeff Clark as he faces an unquestionably weaponized
disciplinary process,” AFL President Gene Hamilton told The Federalist. “There is no place in a free society for thought police. And there is certainly no place in our democratic republic for a local bar to attempt to regulate the provision of legal advice to the President of the United States.”

In 2020, Clark wrote a legal opinion in a draft letter regarding potential irregularities in Georgia’s presidential election, and suggested that the state legislature take steps to investigate it. Although the letter was never sent, it was “illegally leaked,” and that is the only reason the D.C. Bar even knows about it.

Regardless of the issue with leaking, the D.C. Bar’s lawfare campaign against Clark asks the court to effectively dictate the kinds of advice a lawyer can give to his client (the president of the United States), under threat of sanction if the notoriously left-wing bar does not agree with the political outcome.

“To be clear: Impeding the President’s ability to exercise core constitutional powers is the purpose of this proceeding,” the brief states. “Political (and policy) disagreement is no excuse for discarding the separation of powers that allows the Executive Branch of our government to function.”

AFL argues that Clark is protected by absolute immunity per the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States, stating, “the President is absolutely immune from criminal prosecution for conduct within his exclusive sphere of constitutional authority.”

Further, AFL says that Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution (which states that the president “may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices”) “necessarily requires that senior executive officers be empowered to offer opinions and carry out their duties without fear of later retribution.”

“Punishing a senior official like Jeffrey Clark for privately advising the President is an attack not only on his own livelihood, but on the Presidency itself,” AFL counsel Ryan Giannetti told The Federalist. “The Constitution requires fearless, unfiltered counsel inside the Executive Branch, and our system of justice requires that lawyers have the leeway to zealously advocate for their clients, regardless of the clients’ politics. We will continue to defend that principle, the separation of powers, and the rule of law. Politicized lawfare at the hands of Bar Associations nationwide is a threat to the Constitution, to the legal profession, and to our system of justice. It must be eradicated, and it starts here.”

AFL notes that even if the court did not extend absolute immunity from Trump v. United States to lesser executive officials like Clark, he is still protected by qualified immunity because of the “separation of powers principles, ‘the need to protect officials who are required to exercise their discretion[,] and the related public interest in encouraging the vigorous exercise of official authority.’”

The amicus brief comes after three former U.S. attorneys general also submitted a brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals defending Clark and calling out the bar’s “political retribution,” while even citing significant differences with Clark’s underlying conclusions in the letter. The reality remains that Clark, and other similarly positioned executive officers, need to be able to deliberate without being under duress from a bar that already disagrees with their political positions, even showing deep disdain for them.

“Ethics complaints motivated by partisan animosity are unethical, un-American, and detrimental to the profession of law and the pursuit of justice to which our profession is committed,” the brief states.

“In recent years, our political culture has taken a dark turn away from persuasion and into compulsion. The political left has adopted tactics designed to intimidate opponents into silence or acquiescence,” the brief continues. “Most relevant here, organizations like the 65 Project and the Legal Accountability Center have built a cottage industry out of, as they put it, ‘creating a system of deterrence’ against lawyers willing to represent conservative causes, politicians, or organizations by filing frivolous ethics complaints without firsthand knowledge of the events complained of.”

Ultimately, the D.C. Court of Appeals will have the final say as to Clark’s law license.

It Turns Out The Military’s Biden-Era Recruitment Crisis Was A Leadership Problem After All

For first time in a long time, service members have leaders who actually give a damn about the mission and their well-being.

The  Federalist 

America’s propaganda press have wound up with egg on their faces a few many times over the past several years. And that could not be truer than when it comes to the military recruitment crisis that helped define Joe Biden’s failed presidency.

On Monday, the Associated Press published a report revealing that the U.S. Marine Corps has reached its recruiting targets for the 2025 fiscal year. The achievement follows in the footsteps of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, all of which hit their FY2025 goals months ahead of schedule.

Naturally, the AP’s Konstantin Toropin seemingly did everything he could to downplay the Trump administration’s turnaround of the Biden-era recruiting crisis, pinning blame for the disaster on “complications from the COVID-19 pandemic, tight job markets and a growing generation of young Americans struggling to meet fitness and academic standards.” While noting how “the uptick [in recruitment] began well before President Donald Trump won office again in November,” he also “conveniently” omitted the fact that several of the branches axed traditional standards recruits were expected to meet to qualify for service under Biden.

It’s not hard to see why the AP and other media outlets are so eager to make excuses for the befuddled ex-president and his team’s failure to bring in qualified talent to the military. To do so would force them to admit that U.S. leadership does, in fact, matter to those seeking to serve their nation in uniform.

For four years under Biden, lethality and efficiency were traded in for so-called “diversity” and “inclusion.” Left-wing military leadership directed their sights on targeting what they made out to be “extremism” in the force (aka mainstream conservative beliefs), while America’s real adversaries were allowed to expand their geopolitical footprints virtually unchallenged.

From the very beginning, the Biden Pentagon’s message to patriotic Americans was clear: You’re not welcome here.

Contrast that despotic vision with the one painted by Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth in their remarks to U.S. generals and other high-ranking officers at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia on Tuesday. Both leaders made it unequivocally clear that the military’s past embrace of failed leftist dogma is a thing of the past and that the No. 1 priority for the service moving forward will be winning wars.

“No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division, distraction, or gender delusions. No more debris. As I’ve said before and will say again, we are done with that sh-t,” Hegseth said.

As hard as leftists may find it to believe, young men don’t want to join a military whose commander-in-chief pushes racist DEI ideology, fires them for not taking an experimental shot, and keeps checking his watch as the bodies of their brothers and sisters in arms arrive home in flag-draped coffins — a tragedy which Biden himself is responsible for. They want leaders who love America as much as they do and will stand with them when their backs are against the wall.

That’s why the military is experiencing the surge in recruitment it’s witnessing today. Not because Covid is over or the services suddenly discovered some magic potion to make recruits fit and smart; but because for the first time in a long time they have leaders who actually give a damn about the mission and their well-being.

And there is no amount of media spin that is going to change that.

DOJ Sues LA Sheriff for Blocking Gun Permits: ‘Second Amendment Is Not a Second-Class Right’

Townhall 

The Civil Rights Division filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department due to their practice of infringing the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens seeking concealed carry weapons (CCW) permits. 

On March 27, 2025, the Division initiated a Second Amendment investigation due to numerous complaints of unreasonable delays in CCW permitting decisions by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. 

After analysis of data and documents spanning over 8,000 CCW permit applications, the Division today filed suit seeking relief on behalf of law-abiding applicants.

ECF1!2!25_cv_09323 - USA v. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept-2 by scott.mcclallen

Between January 2024 and March 2025, defendants received 3,982 applications for new concealed carry licenses. Of these, they approved two—a mere 0.05% approval rate that cannot be explained by legitimate disqualifying factors alone. 

"This is not bureaucratic inefficiency; it is systematic obstruction of constitutional rights," the lawsuit said.

“The Second Amendment protects the fundamental constitutional right of law-abiding citizens to bear arms,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Los Angeles County may not like that right, but the Constitution does not allow them to infringe upon it. This Department of Justice will continue to fight for the Second Amendment.”

After Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon was sworn in to lead the Civil Rights Division, numerous complaints received by the Division revealed inexplicable delays well beyond California statutory requirements and in violation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. 

Almost two months after receiving notice of the Division’s investigation, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department provided data and documents that revealed only two approvals from over 8,000 applications, and that the Sheriff’s Department set out interviews to approve licenses as far as two years after receiving the completed application. The lawsuit is filed within the Federal Central District of California.

“The Second Amendment is not a second-class right,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “This lawsuit seeks to stop Los Angeles County’s egregious pattern and practice of delaying law-abiding citizens from exercising their right to bear arms.”

This investigation was conducted by attorneys at the Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorneys within the Central District of California’s U.S. Attorney Office.

“Citizens living in high-crime areas cannot afford to wait to protect themselves with firearms while Los Angeles County dithers,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California. “The right to bear arms is among the founding principles of our nation. It can and must be upheld.”

If you or someone you know has applied for a concealed carry permit in Los Angeles or any jurisdiction within the United States and have not received a reply or decision within four months after applying, please email Community.2ndAmendmentCA@usdoj.gov. The mailbox is monitored by attorneys assigned to protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.

USCIS Release Results from “Operation Twin Shield”

Information from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as they conducted an operation from September 19th through September 28th in Minneapolis, St Paul. Stunning immigration fraud.

MINNEAPOLIS – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, in coordination with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, conducted Operation Twin Shield, the first of its kind targeted surge of fraud detection and deterrence activities across Minneapolis-St. Paul and surrounding areas Sept. 19 to 28 —immigration officers discovered suspected fraud in 275 cases in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

The effort focused on site visits and targeted verifications for applicants and petitioners with pending immigration benefits who matched specified risk criteria. The operation aligns with Executive Order 14161, Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threat. The types of applications for immigration benefits investigated included marriage and family-based petitions, employment authorizations, and certain parole-related requests.

Operation Twin Shield was a resounding success: USCIS officers focused on more than 1,000 cases that had fraud or ineligibility indicators, conducted over 900 site visits and in-person interviews, and found evidence of fraud, non-compliance, or public safety or national security concerns in 275 cases—44 percent of cases interviewed. USCIS coordinated with our ICE and FBI partners, who provided valuable assistance during the operation. As of today, USCIS issued Notices to Appear (NTAs) or referred aliens to ICE in 42 cases, and 4 aliens were apprehended. USCIS expects data on NTAs, referrals to ICE, and adverse adjudicative actions to increase as more administrative investigations are completed.

Operation Twin Shield uncovered many lies. For example, one alien admitted to fabricating a death certificate from Kenya for $100 to falsely claim the termination of a marriage—the spouse in question is alive, residing in Minneapolis, and is the mother of five of his children. In another case, an alien is the son of a known or suspected terrorist, he also overstayed his visa, and was previously found to have engaged in marriage fraud that resulted in the denial of several immigration benefit requests. In another case, a petitioner admitted to officers with Operation Twin Shield that she commited marriage fraud; this was only a few hours after swearing that her marriage was bona fide during an interview at our Minneapolis office. In another case, an alien engaged in marriage fraud by taking advantage of an elderly U.S. citizen spouse, including subjecting the spouse to elder abuse and exploitation. This is a small sample of the immigration fraud USCIS officers across the nation combat every single day.

“USCIS is declaring an all-out war on immigration fraud. We will relentlessly pursue everyone involved in undermining the integrity of our immigration system and laws. With help from ICE and the FBI, USCIS’ Operation Twin Shield was a tremendous success—hundreds of bad actors will be held accountable,” said USCIS Director Joseph B. Edlow. “Immigration fraud undermines the integrity of our lawful immigration system, harms those who follow the law, and poses risks to national security and public safety. Under President Trump, we will leave no stone unturned.”

Operation Twin Shield is the first time USCIS dedicated resources on this scale in a single geographical area. Unlike during the Biden administration, USCIS immigration officers are now empowered to thoroughly vet aliens as required by law, and to pursue immigration fraud wherever it’s encountered. (SOURCE)

An Amazing Act of Charity: LDS Church Members Raise Over $150,000 for the Family of Their Attacker

RedState 

Now and then, a group of people can just stagger one with an amazing act of kindness and charity. One such event has arisen, quite literally, out of the ashes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan, which, after suffering a horrendous attack by a man driven by irrational hatred, has raised over $150,000 for the family of their attacker.

We must note that the donations are not just coming from Grand Blanc, or even from Michigan, but from members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around the country. This is an amazing act of charity, and one that I suspect few people would emulate.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have collectively raised more than $150,000 for the family of Thomas Jacob Sanford, the shooter who killed four people in an attack on a church in Michigan. 

The GiveSendGo campaign, as of Wednesday morning, has reached at least $152,000. On Sunday, Sanford opened fire at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township before setting the property ablaze. 

"One of the families that suffered a terrible loss on that day was the family of Thomas Jacob Sanford, the shooter. Sanford leaves behind a wife and children who must be grieving," wrote David Butler, the organizer of the fundraising effort. 

Butler described himself as an "ordinary member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," with no connections to either Sanford or Grand Blanc Township. Those who recently donated identified themselves as LDS church members from states including Missouri, Hawaii and Utah.

That's amazing and inspiring.

Granted, as of this writing, there's no evidence that Thomas Jacob Sanford's family had anything to do with his planning and carrying out the attack. All indications are that they are innocent and, in some ways, victims themselves of this madman.

David Butler, though, is carrying out one of the more remarkable acts of charity and forgiveness. I've ever seen. I doubt I could be so generous. To this, I can only respond with the words of Rudyard Kipling: You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.

Mr. Butler continues:

"[Sanford’s family] will face financial hardship and psychological trauma as a result of this week's horrifying events. On top of that, one of the Sanford sons deals with serious medical challenges that require ongoing care, treatment, and specialized support," Butler added. "In the past, the family attempted to raise funds for him, but with limited success." 

"Every donation will go to help provide for the Sanford family daily needs, provide for ongoing medical treatment, and create some stability in a time of heartbreak and upheaval," he also said. 

That's a generosity of spirit all too uncommon today. 

It's acts like this that give one a little hope for humanity. It's acts like this, whether taken in the name of religion or just human decency, that make one think that there may be some redeeming qualities in mankind. It's not only an expression of charity and forgiveness, it's a moral act, one group of victims helping another. They aren't relying on government, not waiting around for someone else to do something; they saw a need, and took care of it themselves.

That's the inklings of a silver lining behind the big, dark cloud of what happened last Sunday, in Grand Blanc, Michigan.