politics

Useless. Time for the Social Democrats to form their own party.

The New York Young Republican Club (NYYRC) has called on the federal government to strip Zohran Mamdani of his citizenship and deport him.

On Tuesday evening, Mamdani, a 33-year-old self-described democratic socialist, declared victory over Andrew Cuomo, former governor of the state of New York, in the Democratic primary for the 2025 New York mayoral election.

The outcome, one of the first major Democratic primaries since Donald Trump returned to office, is being considered as a barometer for the party's potential recalibration nationally, at a time when it remains ideologically divided about its future.

“As a Christian, I don't think you can be both MAGA and Christian,” one person wrote in the comments of the video.

Two weeks ago, Jen Hamilton, a nurse with a sizable following on TikTok and Instagram, picked up her Bible and made a video that would quickly go viral.

“Basically, I sat down at my kitchen table and began to read from Matthew 25 while overlaying MAGA policies that directly oppose the character and nature of Jesus’ teachings,” she told HuffPost.

In the comments of the video ― which currently has more than 8.6 million views on TikTok ― many (Christians and atheists alike) applauded Hamilton for using straight Scripture as a way of offering commentary. Others picked a bone with Christians who uncritically support Trump.

Some of the seven Democrats who voted for Noem say they'd now oppose her in the wake of Trump's aggressive deportation plans and last week's incident involving Sen. Alex Padilla.

Five days after Donald Trump's inauguration, seven Senate Democrats voted to confirm Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

Nearly 5 months later, most of them are critical of her, with some going as far as to say they regret their votes.

"I'm very disappointed. I'm very disappointed in her," Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told NBC News this week. "If I were voting on her today, I definitely wouldn't vote for her."

Freshman Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., also said he would vote differently and oppose her nomination if he could do it again.

The general rule of transparency is to make you look good and strong, not like a feeble-minded limp dick.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, ripped Donald Trump for his military attack against Iran on Saturday, saying the move is "absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment."

Ocasio-Cortez ripped the president's action on X, formerly Twitter, and wrote, "The President's disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers. He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment."

On the other hand, Senator John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, came to Trump's side and wrote on X, "As I've long maintained, this was the correct move by @POTUS. Iran is the world's leading sponsor of terrorism and cannot have nuclear capabilities. I'm grateful for and salute the finest military in the world."

Tulsi Gabbard left no doubt when she testified to Congress about Iran’s nuclear program earlier this year.

The country was not building a nuclear weapon, the national intelligence director told lawmakers, and its supreme leader had not reauthorized the dormant program even though it had enriched uranium to higher levels.

But Donald Trump dismissed the assessment of U.S. spy agencies during an overnight flight back to Washington as he cut short his trip to the Group of Seven summit to focus on the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran.

“I don’t care what she said,” Trump told reporters. In his view, Iran was “very close” to having a nuclear bomb.

Donald Trump ripped into Iran and Israel for violating a ceasefire deal within hours of his triumphant announcement.

“You basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f--- they’re doing! Do you understand that?” he told reporters Tuesday morning on his way to the NATO summit in The Hague.

Donald Trump has said that he will withhold funding for New York City if presumptive Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani becomes mayor after November’s general election and doesn’t do the “right thing.”

The novel and untested approach has been introduced by Democratic lawmakers in at least four states.

Democratic legislators mostly in blue states are attempting to fight back against Donald Trump’s efforts to withhold funding from their states with bills that aim to give the federal government a taste of its own medicine.

The novel and untested approach — so far introduced in Connecticut, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin — would essentially allow states to withhold federal payments if lawmakers determine the federal government is delinquent in funding owed to them. Democrats in Washington state said they are in the process of drafting a similar measure.

These bills still have a long way to go before becoming law, and legal experts said they would face obstacles. But they mark the latest efforts by Democrats at the state level to counter what they say is a massive overreach by the Trump administration to cease providing federal funding for an array of programs that have helped states pay for health care, food assistance and environmental protections.

Mike German, an ex-FBI agent, said immigration agents hiding their identities ‘highlights the illegitimacy of actions’

Some wear balaclavas. Some wear neck gators, sunglasses and hats. Some wear masks and casual clothes.

Across the country, armed federal immigration officers have increasingly hidden their identities while carrying out immigration raids, arresting protesters and roughing up prominent Democratic critics.

It’s a trend that has sparked alarm among civil rights and law enforcement experts alike.

Mike German, a former FBI agent, said officers’ widespread use of masks was unprecedented in US law enforcement and a sign of a rapidly eroding democracy. “Masking symbolizes the drift of law enforcement away from democratic controls,” he said.

a direct source

DHS does not deny strong-arming tourist into letting them into his phone, only that agents sent him home because of a meme

The story circulating online — first in Norwegian newspaper Nordlys and then picked up by British tabloids — claims that during Mikkelsen's encounter with the Department of Homeland Security, agents took his phone and found a meme depicting Vance as a bloated, smooth, bald man staring off into the distance.

Mikkelsen claims that the officials threatened to fine him $5,000 or send him to prison for five years if he refused to provide them with his phone password. The tourist ultimately agreed to hand over his information, allowing agents to look through his phone.

The reports picked up enough steam in headlines and on social media to justify CBP putting out a statement denying parts of the story.

Donald Trump was unhappy with his sparsely attended military parade over the weekend and blamed it on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, biographer Michael Wolff revealed.

Wolff told The Daily Beast Podcast that Trump wanted a “menacing” show of force to celebrate the Army’s 250th anniversary and his 79th birthday on Saturday—but got a “festive” parade instead.

“He’s p---ed off at the soldiers,” Wolff said. “He’s accusing them of hamming it up, and by that, he seems to mean that they were having a good time, that they were waving, that they were enjoying themselves and showing a convivial face rather than a military face.”

This analysis came out earlier this month, and it's the mother of all wake-up calls. Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" would appropriate $200 billion to ICE, which the Cato Institute has called an "unimaginable sum." Some relevant quotes:

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the bill will direct an astounding $168 billion of the budget to immigration and border law enforcement, and there is even more for agencies that indirectly support immigration law enforcement.

The $168 billion is, by itself, an unimaginable sum. Without H.R. 1, Congress had already appropriated twice as much money to America’s border police as all other federal law enforcement combined. In FY 2025, immigration and border enforcement accounted for at least two-thirds of all federal law enforcement.

In FY 2025—again, before H.R. 1—Congress allocated nearly $34 billion to immigration and border enforcement agencies. That’s 36 times more than what is provided for tax and financial crimes enforcement (IRS-Treasury), 21 times more than funding for firearms enforcement (ATF), 13 times more than drug enforcement (DEA), and 8 times more than the FBI budget to enforce effectively everything else. The level of border police spending is already so extreme that it has swamped nearly all other criminal law enforcement priorities for the federal government.

The House plans to distort this wildly out-of-whack law enforcement system beyond recognition. H.R. 1 appropriates $168 billion to agencies whose primary purpose is immigration enforcement. It adds $1.2 billion to all other law enforcement for the Secret Service. This sum comes on top of the $33 billion, meaning that if this bill passes, about $200 billion will be made available for immigration enforcement starting in FY 2025.

$200 billion dollars is equivalent to 1/5th of our entire military budget ($960 billion). It's more than Russia's entire military spending in 2024 ($149 billion). To say that Trump would be creating a 7th branch of the military operating on US soil would be neither an overstatement nor a conspiracy theory.

For context, this article was published by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank originally founded by Charles Koch (among others). The fact that these guys are ringing the alarm bell should be a warning unto itself. You can read the full text of the bill (H.R. 1) here.

https://archive.ph/pfuB6