The Artful Dilettante is a native of Pittsburgh, PA, and a graduate of Penn State University. He is a lover of liberty and a lifelong and passionate student of the same. He is voracious reader of books on the Enlightenment and the American colonial and revolutionary periods. He is a student of libertarian and Objectivist philosophies. He collects revolutionary war and period currency, books, and newspapers. He is married and the father of one teenage son. He is kind, witty, generous to a fault, and unjustifiably proud of himself. He is the life of the party and an unparalleled raconteur.
Leftists attacked anyone who questioned Biden’s cognitive capacity while President. At the time, they called you the usual names if you suggested Joe didn’t know what he was doing: racist, white supremacist, etc.
Now they act shocked and surprised at the “new” evidence which proves Biden didn’t have a clue about his dead son or the day of the week — and had cancer, to boot. When Breitbart and Newsmax reported on Biden’s incapacity in 2023 and 2024, it was racist. When MSNBC reports the same thing in 2025 — why, it’s suddenly true!
These chattering fools have no concept of how juvenile and unsophisticated they look. Many of them are wealthy (often unearned wealth through political connections, not business skill); and many of them hold Ivy League credentials (often unearned, such as the Obamas, who achieved credentials based on their race via DEI, not any real achievements). The elite chattering fools only talk to each other and never see themselves objectively. It’s absolutely incredible that the least morally qualified and least intellectually capable form the elite of American culture. It’s no wonder we are rotting away, like a termite-ridden foundation of a house. Look at the people we consider the experts and authorities on medicine, government, morality, and culture!
Trump is great, his second term is a monumental blessing, and MAGA is magnificent. But our problems are deeper than political. We have to eradicate the media and intellectual elites from our frame of reference. In short: ignore them. Start over, and think for ourselves.
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Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told Newsmax on Thursday he wants to see a major investigation into whether people covered up former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline.
“There should be an absolutely comprehensive investigation of who knew what and when,” Giuliani told “Finnerty.” “He was demented.”
Giuliani said his research has shown that people around Biden knew he had cognitive issues as far back as 2019, and he said he spoke to two doctors who observed the same. He said he believes people could go to jail for covering up Biden’s issues.
His doctor is a prime candidate,” Giuliani said. “His doctor went over the top … [and said] he had a few little problems. His doctor told us he was in fine health and he was perfectly sharp. Cognitive abilities not affected. I looked at that doctor and I said, ‘How come they don’t grab his license?’ My God, I wouldn’t want to go to him. What a disgrace he is.”
The former mayor also said Biden’s wife, Jill Biden, is “the prime villain.”
“She had to have known how bad her husband is and didn’t care how she embarrassed him, made him look like a fool, made him look like an idiot. Any loving wife would take her husband and take care of him.”
Republicans proved in less than two years during President Donald Trump’s first administration that they could bring about the “greatest economy in the history of the world,” and by passing the “one, big, beautiful bill” Thursday, even more will be achieved, House Speaker Mike Johnson told Newsmax’s Kilmeny Duchardt.
“We’re going to do that again on steroids,” Johnson said, shortly after the House voted to pass the budget bill that the president said will push his America First agenda.
The legislation is called “one, big, beautiful bill” for a reason, Johnson said. “It’s everything from ensuring border security to restoring American energy dominance. We’re going to prevent the largest tax increase in U.S. history, so the equivalent here is probably the largest tax cut in the history of the country. We’re going to get the economy going again by cutting regulations, cutting down on the permitting time for things to get the economy going again.”
, R-La., said the vote comes after a lengthy “bottom-up, member-driven process” to deliver legislation to the Senate that will have far-reaching effects for the United States.
“Everybody’s exhausted, but it’s been a long year, really,” Johnson said. “We started working on this in March of last year, and all of our committees and all of our members were all hands-on, sleeves rolled up, getting it done.”
As a result, “we squeezed so much into this,” Johnson said. “You’ll begin to see all these pieces, from peace through strength, I mean, everything in the domestic agenda and the foreign agenda as well, the secure border, prosperity again, security for the people. This is a big thing. We’re really proud of it.”
Now that the bill is heading to the Senate, House Republicans will continue on their one-team effort between the chambers to get it passed, said Johnson.
He said he’s been working closely with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., including speaking with him Wednesday night and helping him whip another vote in the Senate on the bill.
Republicans are united on Capitol Hill and nationwide, and that’s a “great thing,” Johnson said.
The man accused of fatally shooting two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington outside a Jewish museum told police after his arrest, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” federal authorities said Thursday in announcing charges in the killings they called a targeted act of terrorism.
Elias Rodriguez, 31, shouted “Free Palestine” as he was led away after his arrest, according to charging documents that provided chilling new details of the Wednesday night shootings in the nation’s capital that killed an American woman and an Israeli man who had just left an event at the museum. They were set to become engaged.
The stunning attack prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security and lower their flags to half-staff. It came as Israel pursues another major offensive in the Gaza Strip in the war with Hamas that has heightened tensions across the Middle East and internationally, and that law enforcement officials have repeatedly warned could inspire violence in the U.S.
Rodriguez faces charges of murder of foreign officials and other crimes and did not enter a plea during a perfunctory court appearance. Additional charges are likely, prosecutors said, as authorities continue to investigate the killings as both a hate crime against the Jewish community and terrorism.
“Violence against anyone based on their religion is an act of cowardice. It is not an act of a hero,” said Jeanine Pirro, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. “Antisemitism will not be tolerated, especially in the nation’s capital.”
The two people killed were identified as Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Milgrim, an American. They were a young couple about to be engaged, according to Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Those who knew them paid tribute to the pair Thursday as warm, vibrant and curious, dedicated to promoting peace and aspiring to bridge cultural and religious divides.
“Sarah and Yaron were stolen from us,” said Ted Deutch, the chief executive of the American Jewish Committee, which organized the event. “Moments before they were murdered, they were smiling, laughing and enjoying an event with colleagues and friends. We are in shock and heartbroken as we attempt to process this immense tragedy.”
An FBI affidavit made public Thursday presents the killing as calculated and planned, with authorities alleging that Rodriguez flew to the Washington region from Chicago on Tuesday with a handgun in his checked luggage. He purchased a ticket for the event about three hours before it started, the affidavit said.
The couple were leaving the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect, who witnesses said had been behaving suspiciously by pacing outside, approached a group of four people and opened fire. Surveillance video showed Rodriguez advancing closer to the two victims as they fell to the ground, leaning over them and firing additional shots. He even appeared to reload before jogging off, the FBI said.
After the shooting, the suspect went inside the museum and stated that he “did it.” He was no longer armed by the time he was taken into custody, according to the affidavit.
“I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza, I am unarmed,” he spontaneously said. He also told detectives that he admired an active-duty Air Force member who set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in February 2024, describing the man as “courageous” and a “martyr,” court documents said.
Investigators said they were still working to corroborate the authenticity of writings purported to be authored by Rodriguez, an apparent reference to a document circulating online that expressed outrage over Israel’s conduct in the war. The FBI is also contacting associates, family members and co-workers.
Rodriguez appeared in federal court in Washington in a white jail suit and listened impassively as the charges and possible punishments, which include the death penalty, were read. At a home listed in public records for Rodriguez’s mother in suburban Chicago, a sign taped on the door Thursday afternoon asked for privacy.
The shooting followed the Jewish advocacy group’s annual Young Diplomats reception at the museum, which the couple had attended.
Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots, and a man came inside looking distressed. Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realizing he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a red kaffiyeh, the Palestinian headscarf, and repeatedly yelled, “Free Palestine,’” Kalin said.
“This event was about humanitarian aid,” Kalin said. “How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.”
Milgrim, from Overland Park, Kansas, was “warm and compassionate, committed to peace building and passionate about sustainability and people-to-people relations,” Deutch said.
A former youth director at Congregation Beth Torah recalled her as a brilliant girl with a perpetual smile and a sense of purpose.
“She had a passion for Judaism and for Israel, and she wanted to do some good,” said Marcia Rittmaster, the former youth director. She recommended Milgrim for a Jewish leadership internship upon the young woman’s graduation from high school.
Lischinsky grew up partly in the German city of Nuremberg and moved to Israel at 16.
“He was a Christian, a true lover of Israel, served in the (Israel Defense Forces), and chose to dedicate his life to the State of Israel and the Zionist cause,” said Ron Prosor, who taught Lischinsky at Israel’s Reichman University. Lischinsky earned a master’s degree in government, diplomacy and strategy there. “He embodied the Judeo-Christian values and set an example for young people worldwide.”
A friend, David Boskey, recalled Lischinsky as someone unafraid to broach hard questions in order to interrogate his own convictions. He met Lischinsky in 2017 in Jerusalem at a Messianic Jewish congregation, where they would often end up talking together about life and faith, Boskey said.
“He was looking to see where he was going to go in life, asking questions about calling and about identity and about what he was going to study, where he was going to work,” Boskey said.
On Instagram, his bio included a yellow ribbon symbolizing the struggle to free the hostages taken by Hamas during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that ignited the war in the Gaza Strip.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out on Thursday night at world leaders for spreading “Hamas’s propaganda” that Israel is starving Palestinian children, which culminated in the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C.
“A few days ago, a top U.N. official said that 14,000 Palestinian babies would die in 48 hours. You see many international institutions are complicit in spreading this lie,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on X.
“The press repeats it. The mob believed it. And a young couple is then brutally gunned down in Washington,” the premier said, referencing victims Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, who were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington on Wednesday night.
Addressing the starvation accusations, Netanyahu stressed that “Since Oct. 7, Israel has sent 92,000 aid trucks into Gaza. That’s right. Ninety-two thousand aid trucks. That includes 1.8 million tons of aid. 1.8 million tons of aid — more than enough food to feed everyone in Gaza.”
The problem, however, was that Hamas stole it, he continued.
The Hamas terrorist group “took a huge chunk for themselves. The rest they sold at exorbitant prices to the Palestinian population. And then they used the money they stole to recruit new terrorists to continue their war against Israel,” Netanyahu noted.
“Our goal from the start was to get food to Palestinian civilians, not to Palestinian terrorists,” he said.
Israel’s longest-serving prime minister described Jerusalem’s latest plan to ensure that supplies enter Gaza without reaching Hamas:
The new “mechanism” will use American companies to distribute food in designated “safe zones” guarded by the Israel Defense Forces, Netanyahu said.
“Ultimately, we intend to have large safe zones in the south of Gaza. The Palestinian population will move there for their own safety, while we conduct combat in other zones, and receive humanitarian aid there without Hamas interference,” the prime minister added.
No army in the world has ever gone to such lengths to provide aid to the civilian population in the midst of intense combat,” Netanyahu said.
He thanked President Donald Trump and the American people for their “forthright stand” with Israel and with the Jewish people, and vowed that civilization will triumph over barbarism.
Meanwhile, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit emphasized on Thursday that “there is no food shortage in Gaza at this time.
“In recent days, hundreds of trucks have entered Gaza, including significant quantities of baby food and flour for bakeries. Part of this aid has been collected by U.N. agencies,” the Defense Ministry body said.
COGAT slammed U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher, saying that his “false claims… represent a cynical political manipulation,” adding that the “U.N. continues to amplify Hamas-driven, false narratives.”
On May 20, Fletcher said that 14,000 babies could die in the next 48 in Gaza due to a lack of supplies, speaking during an interview with the BBC.
On Monday, five United Nations trucks carrying aid, including baby food, entered the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom Crossing, the Israeli military said.
The transfer followed the recommendation of IDF officials and was carried out under the directive of the political echelon.
On Wednesday, more than 100 trucks entered the Strip, according to Netanyahu.
On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) declared that it is “absolutely absurd” to accuse Harvard of fostering violence and antisemitism and also argued that the Trump administration “essentially, is using antisemitism as a pretext to crack down on Harvard’s academic independence and freedom” by barring the school from enrolling international students.
Blumenthal said, “[W]hat they’re doing, essentially, is using antisemitism as a pretext to crack down on Harvard’s academic independence and freedom. And the secretary of Homeland Security said, very explicitly, this is a fair warning to all universities and colleges. It’s a fair warning that they are going to interfere with hiring and with curriculum, with admissions, and that academic independence is at stake here.”
He continued, “And they accused Harvard of fostering violence and antisemitism and coordinating with the Communist Party of China, absolutely absurd. But it is in retaliation for Harvard standing up to them and asserting its independence and the kind of retaliation that we’re seeing here and the attack on independence and freedom of expression extends to law firms. It extends to other institutions of the country that have the temerity to stand up.”
So now we learn not only that Joe Biden has Stage Five prostate cancer, but that starting in February 2021, the POC/LGBTQ committee that was operating Biden like a Muppet concealed, then downplayed the risk of heart disease from the COVID vaccines.
It’s funny how we find out all this dirt, within 48 hours after the committee’s announcement about Joe’s cancer. Because he’s got a few months to live, he’s now officially the “Fall Guy.”
Everything bad can be blamed on him, if it can’t be blamed on Trump. All the Muppeteer committee members can pretend they’re innocent and resume their White House and Cabinet posts on January 20, 2029 if the Democrat party Deep State (DPDS) steals another presidential election.
According to the report from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, officials knew as early as February 2021 that the vaccines were associated with myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and pericarditis (inflammation of the thin sac surrounding the heart). Still, they waited to warn the public until June as they pushed the vaccine on Americans.
The report concludes that U.S. health officials “knew about the risks of myocarditis,” “downplayed the health concern,” and deliberately “delayed informing the public about the risk.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who chairs the committee and will lead a hearing on it later this afternoon, told The Daily Wire that Biden officials delayed reporting the side effects because they were concerned about “vaccine hesitancy.”
“But in being concerned about that, they violated the inviolable principle of informed consent,” Johnson said.
Here is the full subcommittee report. This report never would have been prepared if Democrats had kept control of the Senate last fall. The Subcommittee on Investigations would have been launching new bogus investigations into Team Trump instead.
Spearheaded by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the official diktat of the DPDS was that the vaccines were “safe and effective.” They knew better. The Israelis had started distributing Pfizer vaccines several weeks before we did. So they knew that vaccinated patients were getting myocarditis with alarming frequency, months before we did. They were warning Joe’s Muppeteer committee, but that committee wasn’t passing on this warning to the American people.
This is another one of Fauci’s many crimes against humanity, the most evil being his funding of gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, using our tax dollars. That’s how COVID was unleashed upon the world, causing the deaths of 2 million people worldwide, including a million Americans.
Very few government figures in recent history — Hitler, Stalin, Chairman Mao and Pol Pot, for example — have killed more of their own countries’ people.
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I was almost one of them. I spent a month in the hospital, including 72 hours comatose on a ventilator. Then I had to learn how to walk again, because I’d spent so much time on my back in bed. This was very difficult at my age.
Millions of Americans, and millions more around the world, suffered terribly from this disease without dying. Thank you, Dr. Fauci. Your blanket pre-emptive pardon by the Muppeteer committee’s Autopen evidently shields you from civil liability as well. How convenient.
PRO TIP: Check the increased numbers of “excess deaths” and excess disabilities in the past four years. Insurance companies keep careful track of such things.
There was a slow, gradual increase until 2020. Then both started going up sharply, through the roof and into orbit. And the graphs didn’t level off very much after the pandemic was officially declared over by Joe Biden himself, so that he could cancel Trump’s Title 42 public health order and let in millions of illegal aliens even faster.
What did we start doing differently in March 2021 that would cause all these deaths and disabilities after the pandemic was officially over? Joe’s Muppeteer committee was pushing the vaccine like a bulldozer, and concealing the devastating side-effects.
“Correlation is not causation,” but as we now know, COVID vaccines cause myocarditis and other debilitating and fatal diseases. These diseases cause heart attacks, which are often fatal. Even if the patient survives, the result is a massive scar on the heart muscle, which reduces blood flow. The disease survives, however, and can cause subsequent heart attacks. The cumulative effect of surviving multiple heart attacks, or even one, is a weakening and crippling of the patient due to reduction of oxygen flowing to the muscles.
Eventually, one of these heart attacks will probably kill the patient. Sadly, that’s the prognosis for patients with these heart diseases. If the patient is 12, or 25, or 46, or even 100, crippling him like this is aggravated battery. Many states call these specific circumstances “medical battery.” And if the patient dies, it’s called ”wrongful death.”
Correlation is not causation,” but as we now know, COVID vaccines cause myocarditis and other debilitating and fatal diseases. These diseases cause heart attacks, which are often fatal. Even if the patient survives, the result is a massive scar on the heart muscle, which reduces blood flow. The disease survives, however, and can cause subsequent heart attacks. The cumulative effect of surviving multiple heart attacks, or even one, is a weakening and crippling of the patient due to reduction of oxygen flowing to the muscles.
Eventually, one of these heart attacks will probably kill the patient. Sadly, that’s the prognosis for patients with these heart diseases. If the patient is 12, or 25, or 46, or even 100, crippling him like this is aggravated battery. Many states call these specific circumstances “medical battery.” And if the patient dies, it’s called ”wrongful death.”
Crippling thousands of patients like this — along with the excess deaths — is Dr. Fauci’s crime against humanity. But he’s got a blanket pardon. Thanks, Autopen operator, whoever you are.
Why did the Muppeteer committee decide to conceal and legally immunize all of this? Well, a lot of Democrats and RINOs in Washington, D.C. have been bought and paid for by Big Pharma. So Big Pharma now has total immunity from product liability, for almost anything COVID-related.
Mask and vaccine mandates? The Democrats also seem to like totalitarianism when they’re the ones in power.
Their party is controlled by a tiny elite, many of whom are over 70 and a few in key positions who are over 80 (Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Bernie Sanders, for example). A study very early in the pandemic by an Italian hospital — Europe was hit early and hard by the virus, like New York — had revealed that the average age of a COVID fatality was 85.
So senior citizens who got annual check-ups (such as Biden, Pelosi, Sanders, Chuck Schumer, and dozens of other Democrat congressmen) got dire warnings from their doctors.
Also, their party elites wanted to be able to get their hair done at their favorite salons (Pelosi) and dine in fancy French restaurants (Gavin Newsom) without wearing a mask.
Several of the DPDS elites had been caught flaunting their own mask mandates — Pelosi and Newsom were just two of them — and they didn’t want their “rules for thee but not for me, peasants” hypocrisy to be exposed anymore by Fox News. So they wanted to bulldoze us into herd immunity as fast as possible and declare the pandemic over.
Personally, I had to pass up a job offer for 50% more than my current salary because the new employer was insisting that I get vaccinated. I provided a medical exemption. Enforcing the mask and vaccine mandate with an iron fist, the employer said, “Take the vaccine or we’ll find someone else.”
Of course, it was a downtown Chicago law firm — very left-wing, and heavy on all the DPDS dogma. I was willing to navigate it for all that money, but I drew the line at risking my life. I’d already been working for a similar firm for years, navigating left-wing dogma in an office right across LaSalle Street, and I still work there. But their solution was to have everyone work from home. Imagine that.
So far, in addition to my temporarily crippling case of COVID, Big Pharma and its DPDS minions (such as Dr. Fauci) have cost me over $150,000 in lost wages. And as we know, the cumulative economic damage worldwide was in the trillions. Over 100,000 small businesses in America closed their doors forever, including several of my favorite small-town restaurants.
But both Big Pharma and all its DPDS minions have absolute immunity, or (in the case of government minions who weren’t pardoned by the Autopen) qualified immunity. Since they were following Fauci’s protocols, they qualify for immunity. Fauci himself has absolute immunity from his pardon.
The way things stand right now, none of them will pay one dime in damages, or spend one minute wearing handcuffs. See how this works? Here in Chicago, we have a proverb: “In the Democrat party, one hand washes the other.”
Jim Davis is an I.T. specialist and paralegal, with degrees in political science and statistical analysis, the underpinning of all science. His work has appeared in Newsmax and Daily Caller. You can find him as RealProfessor219 on Rumble.
In April, there were 9 Republican mayors in America’s 50 biggest cities. In May, that number fell to 8.
Democrats are celebrating Omaha’s mayoral election win as proof that Republicans are out of step with America, when it’s really evidence how the nation’s cities have fallen out of step with America. There was a time when America’s cities were symbols of progress, but they have long since become sinkholes of decline, clinging to a handful of industries that employ a tiny fraction of their population as evidence of their relevance.
When Americans think of big cities, they think of tall buildings and social problems.
The Democratic Party’s stranglehold on major cities isn’t evidence of hope, but of despair. It’s not a triumph for democracy, but a sign that democracy no longer operates in major cities where elections are determined by networks of taxpayer-funded community groups, unions and other organizations that act as voter turnout operations for the Democrats in exchange for power and money.
America isn’t a democracy but a constitutional republic designed to limit majority rule and protect individual rights. This distortion enables narratives that label dissent as dangerous, especially in portraying Trump as a “threat to democracy” — a claim pushed by institutions caught spreading falsehoods about him. What appears as consensus is actually assigned opinion enforced by media and political power, as “conspiracy theories used to silence dissent are proving to be true.
What follows is not just a list of lies — it’s a pattern of systemic deception that reveals where the real threat lies.
The Concealment of President Biden’s Cognitive Decline: A Betrayal of Voters
For years, concerns about Joe Biden’s mental acuity were dismissed as partisan attacks or “conspiracy theories.” The White House physician declared him fit for office. Staffers claimed he “ran circles around them.” Meanwhile, public appearances were tightly controlled, questions were pre-approved, and scripted answers were passed off as spontaneous.
But in 2024, the dam broke. Biden’s debate performance made his decline undeniable. Millions had already cast primary ballots for a man clearly unfit to serve — yet instead of outrage over the scale of the deception, voters watched passively as Kamala Harris stepped in as the de facto candidate.
It was an unconstitutional transfer of candidacy that the media refused to acknowledge. This wasn’t spin — it was a deliberate, coordinated effort to deceive the American public about who was actually running the country.
All while, the same media complex screamed that Trump was the dictator.
If truth and transparency are foundational to democracy, then this widespread concealment — and the resulting erosion of informed consent — should outrage every American who values honest governance.
COVID-19: From “Conspiracy” to Consensus
When Trump suggested the virus originated in a lab, the idea was branded “xenophobic” and “debunked.” Today, both the Department of Energy and FBI assess a lab leak as probable. This pattern repeated across masks, school closures, natural immunity, and vaccine efficacy.
The CDC quietly redefined “vaccine” to accommodate products that didn’t stop transmission, contradicting officials’ earlier claims. Education leaders denied coordinating with teachers unions on prolonged school closures despite evidence proving otherwise, devastating children’s mental health and education.
Throughout, Trump was vilified as “anti-science” for questioning narratives that later collapsed — demonstrating how the “threat to democracy” label silences legitimate dissent.
Border Security: Denial Amid Crisis
While Trump was called xenophobic for demanding border security, his policies effectively curbed illegal crossings without new legislation. In contrast, Biden officials dismantled these effective policies while insisting only Congress could solve the problem.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Congress the administration had “operational control” of the border — while record-breaking illegal entries, overwhelmed facilities, and surging cartel activity told a very different story.
They claimed to be addressing the “root causes” of migration, yet crossings exploded to historic levels. They blamed Trump’s policies as inhumane while ignoring the actual consequences of their own: trafficking increased, fentanyl poured into American communities, and untold lives were lost in the chaos.
Common sense was discarded. Hatred for Trump outweighed concern for national security and human suffering. While illegal immigrants were given free housing, food, and healthcare, American veterans went neglected, seniors faced rising medical costs, and cities buckled under homelessness and resource strain.
These are not partisan talking points — they are 90/10 issues that should unify Americans regardless of party. But the public was instead gaslit into believing that caring about your own country’s sovereignty is xenophobic or cruel.
The Russia Investigation and Intelligence Abuses
The Trump-Russia narrative — foundation for claims that Trump threatened democracy — collapsed when Mueller found no evidence of conspiracy. Later revelations proved more damning: FBI lawyer Clinesmith falsified evidence for a FISA warrant; the Steele dossier contained deliberately false information paid for by Trump’s opponents; exculpatory evidence in the Michael Flynn case was concealed.
The great irony here is staggering: while Trump was accused of being a threat to democratic institutions, those very institutions were being weaponized against him in unprecedented ways. The real undermining of democratic norms came not from Trump, but from those who claimed to be defending democracy against him.
Media Collusion and Information Control
Today’s media no longer informs — it enforces. The New York Post was banned for reporting verified facts about Hunter Biden. Trump’s “very fine people” comment was maliciously edited to hide his explicit condemnation of neo-Nazis. His reference to a new technique for sterilizing blood was twisted into a narrative that he told people to “inject bleach.”
These aren’t mistakes but engineered falsehoods meant to dehumanize political opponents. In a genuine democracy, media checks power; instead, American media has become a propaganda arm defending institutional power while demonizing challengers.
Government Institutions as Political Weapons
Government institutions have been weaponized for political ends while accusing Trump of authoritarianism. Under Obama, the IRS targeted conservative groups. The DoJ labeled concerned parents at school board meetings as potential terrorists. Security clearances and FISA warrants were politically manipulated.
Classified document cases reveal a two-tiered justice system: aggressive prosecution for Trump versus leniency for Biden and Clinton. January 6th defendants faced harsh treatment compared to 2020 rioters who caused far more destruction.
Federal agencies have colluded with social media to suppress dissent — raising serious First Amendment concerns. The January 6th Committee’s selective editing of evidence and exclusion of exculpatory information about Trump exemplifies how “defending democracy” shields undemocratic behavior.
Media Collusion and Information Control
Today’s media no longer informs — it enforces. The New York Post was banned for reporting verified facts about Hunter Biden. Trump’s “very fine people” comment was maliciously edited to hide his explicit condemnation of neo-Nazis. His reference to a new technique for sterilizing blood was twisted into a narrative that he told people to “inject bleach.”
These aren’t mistakes but engineered falsehoods meant to dehumanize political opponents. In a genuine democracy, media checks power; instead, American media has become a propaganda arm defending institutional power while demonizing challengers.
Government Institutions as Political Weapons
Government institutions have been weaponized for political ends while accusing Trump of authoritarianism. Under Obama, the IRS targeted conservative groups. The DoJ labeled concerned parents at school board meetings as potential terrorists. Security clearances and FISA warrants were politically manipulated.
Classified document cases reveal a two-tiered justice system: aggressive prosecution for Trump versus leniency for Biden and Clinton. January 6th defendants faced harsh treatment compared to 2020 rioters who caused far more destruction.
Federal agencies have colluded with social media to suppress dissent — raising serious First Amendment concerns. The January 6th Committee’s selective editing of evidence and exclusion of exculpatory information about Trump exemplifies how “defending democracy” shields undemocratic behavior.
The Inversion of Reality: Who Truly Threatens Democracy?
Logic dictates a simple conclusion: if nearly every major anti-Trump narrative — from Russian collusion to COVID origins to Biden’s cognitive health — has collapsed under scrutiny, what basis remains for believing Trump threatens democracy?
The aftermath is equally clear: if the institutions aligned against him — intelligence agencies, media conglomerates, and political operatives — have repeatedly misled the public, their credibility to define “danger” is null. The louder they sound the alarm, the more they reveal about themselves: suppressing information, weaponizing government agencies, manipulating elections, and discarding due process when politically convenient.
And yet, instead of acknowledging the obvious, many Americans now defend manufactured narratives that make intelligent people sound irrational. Reasonable citizens abandon common sense — not because the facts changed, but because the media relentlessly promulgates assigned opinions that demand emotional loyalty over objective thought. Issues that should unite 90% of the public — like stopping child trafficking, securing borders, or caring for veterans — become polarizing, not on principle, but because they’re associated with the “wrong” political figure.
Restoring Sanity, Reclaiming Sovereignty
Democracy cannot function without informed citizens. And citizens cannot be informed when they are being systematically lied to — by government agencies, media platforms, and political leaders who view the truth as a threat to power.
The real crisis in America isn’t Donald Trump. It’s the normalization of institutional lying, the abandonment of due process, and the transformation of journalism into narrative enforcement.
Until we reject assigned opinions and return to objective truth and transparency, we will remain ruled not by reason, but by illusion. Meanwhile, those who shout loudest about “threats to democracy” conceal their actions in shadows — while figures like Trump operate in full view. If this inversion continues, “government by the people” will be reduced to a hollow phrase — masking a system of manipulation, not representation.
The time has come for Americans across the political spectrum to acknowledge the pattern of deception and demand better. Our constitutional republic depends on it.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress on Tuesday that the US assesses the new al-Qaeda-linked Syrian government could collapse within weeks and that the country could descend into “full-scale civil war.”
Rubio made the comments at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, where he explained the administration’s rationale for engaging with Syria’s new de facto leaders, who the US helped put in power, despite their al-Qaeda roots.
Rubio recently met with Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, Syria’s new foreign minister, in Turkey. According to Turkish media reports, Shibani was a founding member of the al-Nusra Front, Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate that eventually rebranded into Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group that led the offensive against former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and took power in Damascus in December 2024.
“The bad news is that the transitional authority figures, they didn’t pass their background check with the FBI. They’ve got a tough history and one that we understand,” Rubio said.
“If we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we did not engage them, it was guaranteed that it would not work out,” he added. “In fact, it was our assessment that, frankly, the transitional authority, given the challenges they’re facing, are maybe weeks, not many months, away from potential collapse.”
Rubio said that a collapse would lead to “a full-scale civil war of epic proportions. Basically, the country splitting up.”
Rubio’s testimony came after President Trump announced he planned to lift sanctions on Syria and met with the country’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who was previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who was the leader of the al-Nusra Front and later HTS.
Syria has also faced heavy airstrikes from Israel since the regime change, and the Israeli military has invaded and seized territory in southern Syria. Sharaa has signaled that he’s willing to normalize relations with Syria to obtain sanctions relief from the US, but Israel appears more interested in continuing its occupation and bombing campaign in the country.
Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.
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