If Mamdani Sinks the Democrats, So What?

Posted on July 18, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

What’s wrong with New Yorkers electing Zohran Mamdani mayor? Seriously. He’s a socialist, isn’t he? He’ll wreck New York City, you say. But didn’t that process start with Bill DeBlasio? Do you think that process ends electing Andrew Cuomo or Eric Adams? Perennial candidate Curtis Silwa is a savior? Hasn’t socialism been the road Democrats have been traveling for decades? When Mamdani’s socialist experiment crashes and burns, maybe it’ll persuade New Yorkers to abandon Democrats. Maybe independents decide to swing Republican.

JFK-style liberals began vanishing after Kennedy’s assassination. Mamdani’s election would make it obvious what should be obvious. Liberalism, progressivism — call it whatever — is a ruse. The Democrat Party tilts full Left. Trends are making it more so. Mamdani will pursue an agenda that’s part utopian drivel, Soviet-style top-down, and plenty of Cuban incompetence leading to dysfunctional public services, higher costs, and increasing scarcity. Dead Russians and living Cubans can testify to what glorious utopia brings.

A broken Democrat Party is a public necessity. Big failure means bigger brokenness. Let’s not hear nonsense from “good government” Republicans that a healthy two-party system profits the nation. Life isn’t a civics class. Franklin Roosevelt didn’t give a damn about anything other than healthy Democrat dominance. Jacksonian Democrats and Lincoln and McKinley Republicans believed no differently. When did Republicans go softheaded?

Let dogmatic Democrats stumble in the wilderness for a generation or more. A Trumpian sea change completes in two ways: the president keeps racking up Ws and Democrats continue to misgovern, driven by extreme policies. (Senator Dave McCormick’s energy and AI summit held at Carnegie Mellon University this past week showcased more huge wins for the president. Colossal benefits are expected for the economy, regionally and nationally.)

A busted Democrat party isn’t just about narrow partisan advantage. Clearing out Democrats is pivotal. MAGA is about the nation returning to its core values… about building a freer, more prosperous America.

Smarter Democrat operatives see their party teetering.

From The Hill, July 14:

“Sadly, Democrats are still stuck in the same mud that they were in six months ago,” Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said. “We are still as unpopular as we were when Trump was inaugurated in January.”

An unnamed strategist went further, stating:

“This is a nightmare scenario for the Dems right now,” the strategist said. “We better pray long and hard that the country is going to be in a f‑‑‑ing depression, because I don’t know how else we find ourselves out of this mess.”

Mamdani is running mask off. Give the guy credit. Indoctrinated young left-wingers proclaim socialism is the future. How many times before have we heard that? Plenty of these cultists live in the Big Apple.

Posted former college professor Newt Gingrich at X, July 15:

Mamdani’s supporters are not the well educated young the media describes. They are the well brainwashed young. The more elite the school you went to the more likely you are to be brainwashed rather than educated. They could vote for Mamdani to turn New York City into Caracas and they would have no idea how much damage they will have done. As Mark Twain said “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” Welcome to Mandani land[.]

Newt, these young are social inbreds. Their parents’ money has insulated them from life’s grittier realities. U.S. history has been spoon-fed to them by radical leftist teachers and professors. America is evil. Light-lift liberal arts degrees from high-dollar universities impart the illusion of being elite on merit. Ivy League alumni take care of each other. Life in Manhattan and Brooklyn — NYC’s priciest boroughs — is easier with mommy’s and daddy’s credit cards handy. Entry-level jobs are for public college grunges.

The newer brand of Democrats are stepping off college campuses as bold radicals. Consider the life issue. Not long ago, pro-abortion advocates went to great pains to call themselves pro-choice. Now, most of them proclaim that they’re pro-abortion. Killing a baby in the womb up to birth has acquired trophy status. Women must be empowered, they shout. Sleeping around and career fulfillment rank higher than a baby’s life. We’re only now seeing the consequences to older women who bought the tripe. They’re spouseless and childless. Do cats and chardonnay fill voids?

Mamdani’s platform is pretty darn red. The redder the platform, the greater the disaster in the offing. That’s good because an epic implosion is needed. The platform is packed with the same garbage that “progressives” peddle in Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Austin, and Los Angeles — six cities that are in various stages of ruin.

DEI and woke twaddle and more carveouts for 3% of the population that’s drowning in the delusion called “LGBTQIA+” are platform worthy. Any room for better policing along the lines of Giuliani’s and Bloomberg’s highly effective broken windows policies? Nope. Instead, criminals require intervention and therapy. Mamdani proposes a “Department of Community Safety,” which other blue cities mirror in some fashion. New Yorkers, if you think crime is bad now, just wait.

Mamdani means to enact an all-in, go-for-broke socialism in the Big Apple.

Remarked ex-congressman Dean Phillips (D-MN) on CNN, July10:

“Anyone who talks about seizing the means of production or opening government-run grocery stores is at great odds with most of the country[.]”

That’s an affirmative, Dean. That may be why New York’s business movers-and-shakers skipped a meet-and-greet with Mamdani.

As Charles Gasparino reported, New York Post, July 15:

The list of New York City-based CEOs that declined the [NYC] Partnership’s invitation includes Jamie Dimon, the nation’s top banker and chief of JP Morgan, the nation’s largest bank; Steve Schwarzman, the CEO of private equity powerhouse Blackstone; Brian Moynihan, the head of Bank of America, the nation’s second largest bank; Larry Fink, the CEO of Blackrock, the worlds largest asset manager; and David Solomon, the CEO of investment banking giant Goldman Sachs.

Gasparino continued:

Most business leaders I know are looking for an exit strategy rather than a strategy to deal with a mayor Mamdani.

Mamdani vows to hike taxes on “corporations and the 1%.” Wait for the deafening sound of money rushing out of NYC next year. Governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis must be licking their chops.

FBI deputy director Dan Bongino — a native New Yorker — has said that things won’t change for the better in New York until things get worse. Electing Mamdani would be worse.

The Big Apple is headed for a helluva a rough ride if polls are true. That’s too bad for New Yorkers who have no easy exit. But Mamdani’s election and the city’s subsequent fall will provide a searing lesson for voters everywhere. Not only is socialism a pox, but Democrats are the carriers.

Mamdani’s election might spark a chain reaction. Blue state and city elected leaders will probably try to out-socialist Mamdani. Then, as havoc spreads, watch the out-migrations accelerate. People will be tripping over themselves to flee dysfunctional communities. Let’s hope that migrants leave their politics behind. Whatever. Independent voters matter more. Working folk and middle-class wage-earners are in tune with Trump’s policies. Hispanics increasingly so. And some blacks.

Democrats, mired in the La Brea Tar Pits of socialist dogma, and mucking up everything, coupled with more Trump victories, are the recipe for a new majority dedicated to — you guessed it — making America great again.

About the Big Apple, Frank Sinatra once crooned,

“If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.
It’s up to you, New York, New York.”

It certainly is up to you, New York, New York. More about how you survive Mamdani. Good luck with that.

J. Robert Smith can be found at X. His handle is @JRobertSmith1. At Gab, @JRobertSmith. He blogs occasionally at Flyover.

Image: AT via Magic Studio

Related Topics: Democrats, New York, Leftists

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A Threat to Humanity — for Sure

Posted on July 18, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

Making millions under capitalism and then supporting world socialism AFTER you have acquired your wealth does not make you an economist, and does not make you virtuous.

It makes you a fat, ignorant, big-mouthed tyrant.

Demanding the confiscation of guns for law-abiding citizens while hiring a private police force to protect your home and grotesque family does not make you rational.

It makes you a buffoon, and a carnival-barking hypocrite.

Donald Trump understates the case when he calls Rosie O’Donnell a threat to humanity.

She really should be deported to Iran — a country whose terrorists she loves — and forced to learn first-hand the power of willfully vicious ideas.

Michael J. Hurd

Is Islam Irreconcilably Anti-american ?

Posted on July 18, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

Like all forbidden questions, it must be asked. For if Islam is irreconcilably anti-American, we had better be prepared to act before, not after, its ascendancy in American politics places it in a position of unconstitutional political power.

Our nation was founded on the principle of liberty. Prominent among our freedoms is that of religion. The Founders were religiously diverse, but not so diverse as to include, among themselves, religions outside the Jewish and Christian traditions.

Hindu-Buddhist writings had no influence on the authors of the Federalist Papers. More than that, today’s exotic interpretations of religious freedom were not written into the founding documents. Yoga, Wicca, and even native American (Indians) traditions contributed nothing substantial. Most importantly, anti-Christian philosophies such as vehement atheism were anathema. No doubt, the very suggestion of Satanism would have been abhorred had it been raised.

It is one thing to permit false religions, but it is a very different thing to allow them to infect the culture and our political structures. Even though Satanism is permitted, no practice of human sacrifice, no matter how sincerely held as a religious belief, is permitted. Even polygamy as a religious doctrine is forbidden, and the territory of Utah was not admitted as a state until its Mormon inhabitants relinquished it.

There is no precedent for permitting any and all claimants to be licensed under the First Amendment. What about Islam?

Few Americans understand the central doctrines of the Muslim religion. Those doctrines include certain teachings that would be illegal to practice in the United States. Polygamy is one, and the tenets of sharia law introduce many more.

Beyond the official doctrines of Islam, however, there are cultural practices that are unambiguously un-American. An underreported practice involves arranged marriages, which, if a small child refuses to obey, often result in the murder of the child by her own parents and brothers. In the Middle East, these murders may be committed in public, to the applause of onlookers, without legal penalty.

According to a Fox News report, two Muslim parents of a seventeen-year-old girl are accused of trying to send her to Iraq to marry an older man whom she has never met, or failing that, to kill her.

Ihsan Ali, 44, and his 40-year-old wife, the victim’s mother, Zahraa Ali, are charged with second-degree attempted murder, second-degree attempted kidnapping, first-degree attempted kidnapping, and second-degree domestic violence assault in Thurston County [Wash.].

Robert Arvay, American Thinker

Planned Parenthood Will Close Two Abortion Centers in Ohio

Posted on July 18, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

Thanks to the new federal law defunding America’s biggest abortion business, Planned Parenthood has announced it will close two abortion centers in Ohio.

“Today, Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region announced the upcoming closure of its health centers in Springfield and Hamilton, a direct result of the federal Reconciliation Bill passed earlier this month, which bars health care providers that offer abortion services from participating in the Medicaid program,” the abortion company said in a statement.

“Make no mistake: this was not a decision made by Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region,” said Nan Whaley, President & CEO of the abortion giant. “We took every possible step to keep these centers open, but the devastating impact of state and federal political attacks has forced us into this very difficult position.”

Planned Parenthood will close the centers August 1st and said it did not expect to have additional closures.

A leading local pro-life group celebrated the news.

“Cincinnati Right to Life is encouraged by the news that Planned Parenthood will be closing two of its Southwest Ohio locations. As the nation’s largest abortion provider continues to lose ground, this marks a hopeful shift toward a culture that values life and true healthcare,” the group told LifeNews in a statement.

Laura Strietmann, Executive Director of Cincinnati Right to Life shares, “Every time a Planned Parenthood closes, lives are saved and fewer lies are told. Ohioans do not need this preborn child-killing business. Women need love, support, and true healthcare at one of the hundreds of other Federally Qualified Health Centers or from one of Ohio’s many free pregnancy centers. We have always shared the truth: abortion is not healthcare. Maybe the world will wise up and start to unnderstand and agree with this truth.”

Both of these soon-to-be shuttered facilities had routinely referred mothers to the Planned Parenthood abortion center in Cincinnati or to the abortion center in Kettering, making it so that they facilitated abortions even though they were not done on site.

The pro-life group said it continues to fight abortions at those locations:

Since the tragic passage of Ohio’s Issue 1 in 2023, the Auburn Avenue facility has seen a disturbing exponential increase in traffic and the number of abortion-minded mothers entering its doors.

For over a year, Cincinnati Right to Life has deployed full-time sidewalk advocates and an ultrasound van in front of Planned Parenthood on Auburn Ave. These trained and extroidinary volunteers are reachinig vulnerable mothers and fathers before they make a devastating decision to poison, suffocate, or dismember their son or daughter at the hands of violent abortionists in Planned Parenthood.

Cincinnati Right to Life also extends heartfelt thanks to Ohio U.S. Senators Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted, as well as Congressman Warren Davidson and every other member of Ohio’s congressional delegation who voted to defund Planned Parenthood through the One Big Beautiful Bill. Their leadership and commitment to protecting life at the federal level are helping shift resources away from the abortion industry and toward authentic, life-affirming care.

We thank God for this victory and for every faithful supporter of the pro-life movement who continues to stand for truth and love in a culture of confusion and death.

Today’s announcement of the pending closures are yet another reminder that Ohio does not need Planned Parenthood—and never did. These are not healthcare centers; they are outposts of destruction disguised in the language of care. And with their closure, life wins another small but significant victory.

Steven Ertelt, Life News

How Alcohol Influenced the Rise of Ancient Societies

Posted on July 17, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

Alcohol may have done more than just fuel celebrations in ancient societies. A study led by Václav Hrnčíř from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology suggests that indigenous fermented drinks helped ancient societies grow in size and complexity.

The study, published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, draws a link between alcohol and the rise of structured governance.

Researchers analyzed data from 186 traditional societies worldwide. They found that communities producing their own alcoholic drinks, like fruit wines or cereal beers, often showed higher levels of political organization.

The team focused on societies that existed before industrialization and widespread colonial influence, ensuring that the alcohol used was locally made and not introduced by outside cultures.

Fermented drinks linked to complex political structures

The link between alcohol and political complexity held up even when researchers accounted for other possible explanations, such as farming, environment, and shared ancestry. While the effect was modest, it was consistent.

Grecian Delight supports Greece

Societies with native alcohol traditions were more likely to have layered political systems, meaning they had organized leadership beyond simple village groups.

The researchers tested the so-called “drunk” hypothesis, which argues that alcohol helped people cooperate on a large scale. Drinking lowered social barriers and boosted group bonding, especially during communal feasts.

These gatherings weren’t just about pleasure. They helped form alliances, mobilize labor, and reinforce social roles. Leaders often used alcohol to reward loyalty and strengthen their power.

New dataset focuses on pre-industrial societies

To test this idea, Hrnčíř and his team built a new dataset. Since existing cross-cultural databases lacked detailed information on alcohol, the researchers reviewed ethnographic sources to document where indigenous drinks were present.

They focused on non-distilled fermented beverages, which have a lower alcohol content and fewer harmful effects than modern liquors.

Using Bayesian statistical models, the team measured how much alcohol influenced political development. In the simplest models, the presence of alcohol showed a strong link to higher political organization.

But when they included other variables—especially agriculture—the alcohol effect became smaller. Farming clearly played a larger role in shaping early societies, but alcohol still appeared to give cooperation a social boost.

Agriculture played a stronger role, but alcohol still mattered

The study’s findings suggest that alcohol helped make early state formation easier, though it wasn’t the sole driver. It offered a social “glue” that made it easier for people to live and work together in bigger groups. In some places, the need for alcohol may have even encouraged the first efforts at farming.

But alcohol had its limits. The effects were weaker in models that considered farming and the environment. Still, researchers found that fermented drinks were more common in complex societies than in simpler ones. Alcohol, then, may have been one of several tools—along with agriculture, religion, and trade—that supported the growth of civilization.

Despite the positive group effects, the study notes that alcohol could also spark conflict. In some societies, drinking parties often ended in arguments. Yet in well-integrated cultures, social drinking usually took place during rituals, feasts, or after work. It wasn’t seen as a problem unless drinking became solitary or excessive.

Abdul Moeed, Greek Reporter

Parents, Watch Out: Here’s What the Obamas Want for Your Sons

Posted on July 17, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

Matt Margolis

In the latest episode of the “IMO” podcast — the same one where Barack Obama appeared alongside Michelle to help shut down rumors of a looming divorce — the former first couple shifted the conversation to the topic of boys and fatherhood.

But what started as a seemingly harmless discussion quickly veered into unsettling territory. What was framed as a conversation about raising well-rounded young men ended up sounding more like a rejection of traditional family and fatherhood, as well as a subtle push for ideological reprogramming. Obama didn’t just downplay the importance of fathers; he openly advocated for embedding young boys to be groomed by members of the LGBTQ community.

The message was that traditional masculinity isn’t enough, and boys need to be groomed — ideologically, emotionally, and socially — by progressive role models.

“That’s one of the things that I think a lot of times boys need,” Obama said, “not just exposure to one guy—”

“One dad,” Michelle interjected.

“One dad,” Barack agreed. “No matter how good the dad is.”

Michelle echoed the point: “He can’t be everything.”

What exactly are boys supposed to be missing out on from their fathers? According to Obama, it’s the leftist worldview delivered through the kinds of adult relationships that sound more like social reengineering than genuine mentorship.

“One of the most valuable things I learned as a guy was, I had a gay professor in college,” Obama recalled. “Who became one of my favorite professors and was a great guy, and would call me out when I started saying stuff that was ignorant.”

“You need that,” he insisted. “To show empathy and kindness.”

That might sound benign on the surface, but it was only the beginning. Obama then spelled out what he really meant: the normalization of LGBTQ ideology in young boys’ lives, even before they’ve figured out who they are. “You need that person in your friend group so that if you then have a boy who is, who’s gay or non-binary or what have you, they have somebody that they can go, ‘Okay, I’m not alone in this.’”

The implication here is disturbing. Obama is essentially suggesting that fathers aren’t enough, that young boys need LGBTQ adults embedded in their personal circles — not just to offer “perspective” but to steer them ideologically.

This is grooming, plain and simple. It may not be grooming in the criminal sense (I hope) but in the broader cultural one — planting seeds, breaking down traditional roles, and promoting identity confusion as a form of development.

This isn’t about preparing kids for the real world. It’s about reshaping them into foot soldiers for the left’s gender ideology. The nuclear family? Insufficient. A strong father? Too narrow-minded. Instead, a curated circle of leftists who are ready to “correct” their thinking and guide them toward gender and sexual identity exploration should mold young boys, whether they’re asking for it or not.

This kind of rhetoric would’ve been unimaginable from a former president just a few years ago. Yet here we are — Barack, with Michelle nodding along, telling America that fathers aren’t enough and that boys need gay men to help define who they are. Wrapped in buzzwords like “inclusion” and “empathy,” this isn’t parenting advice; it’s a blatant attempt to inject identity politics into the most personal parts of a child’s development.

This is grooming dressed up as mentorship. It’s a calculated push to erode the role of the traditional family and replace it with a leftist ideology that treats children as blank slates for activists to mold. Obama isn’t talking about tolerance; he’s advocating for ideological exposure at a vulnerable age, and that should set off alarm bells for every parent in America.

This isn’t guidance; it’s indoctrination.

If that segment made your blood boil, you’re exactly who PJ Media VIP was made for. In a world where legacy media cheer this dangerous narrative, we bring you relentless facts and fearless opinions. You deserve the full truth. Unlock our best columns, podcasts, and lively comment sections — use the code FIGHT for 60% off. Protect your rights. Support journalism that refuses to back down and isn’t afraid to call out the groomers.

“He’s a great columnist. I think he’s terrific.” – Mark Levin

Matt Margolis is a conservative commentator and columnist. His work has been cited on Fox News and national conservative talk radio, including The Rush Limbaugh Show, The Mark Levin Show, and The Dan Bongino Show. Matt is the author of several books and has appeared on Newsmax, OANN, Real America’s Voice News, Salem News Channel, and even CNN.

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Loomer delivers searing warning: Epstein could ‘consume’ Trump presidency

Posted on July 17, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

Right-wing activist Laura Loomer warned that President Donald Trump’s handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein threatens to “consume his presidency” in an interview on Wednesday, a dramatic rebuke from a presidential confidante that illustrates the growing rupture in the MAGA coalition.

She likened it to the intense media interest in ties between Trump’s first White House campaign and Russia, saying “I don’t want it to consume his presidency.”

Obviously, this is not a complete hoax given the fact that Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving 20 years in prison in Florida for her crimes and activities with Jeffrey Epstein, who we know is a convicted sexual predator,” Loomer told POLITICO. “This is why I said, and I’ll reiterate it again, the best thing that the president can do is appoint a special counsel to handle the Epstein files investigation.”

The debacle over a new government review of evidence relating to Epstein, the notorious sex offender, has blown up in recent days, causing a schism within Trump’s MAGA movement over his administration’s approach to the case.

Trump has sought to move on from the Epstein saga, defending Attorney General Pam Bondi as she faced attacks over the report and going so far as to blast his own “past supporters” on Wednesday, calling the entire thing a “hoax.”

Senior Trump administration officials had previously built up significant fanfare around the release of a supposed Epstein “client list,” which has long been a focal point for conspiracy theories as many right-wing media personalities posited that the billionaire convict was murdered in prison as part of a cover-up of a sprawling government conspiracy.

After hyping the promised release, a joint FBI and Department of Justice report last week said they had found no evidence of a list — or that Epstein, who died by suicide in his prison cell in 2019, had been murdered — prompting outcry from within MAGA circles.

Still, Loomer — the onetime Trump whisperer — wasn’t prepared to split entirely with the president over the case.

“I’m not going to dogpile the president,” she said, adding “he can’t allow for all of his focus and attention to be on the Jeffrey Epstein files. Do I think this has been handled poorly? Absolutely.”

And in a post-interview post on X, Loomer reiterated that “that it is a distraction from the incredible work President Trump is doing to Make America Great Again” and she “fully support[s] Trump.”

As Bondi faces heightened scrutiny for her repeated attempts to dodge questions about the Epstein files, Loomer also teased that “there are people in the White House who agree with me that Pam [Bondi] spent too much time on Fox News and her statements were inconsistent and undermined what messaging is today about the Epstein files.”

Other prominent MAGA-aligned supporters of the president have also warned that Trump could see significant damage to his standing among his base if he does not change course.

Sixty-three percent of voters in a Quinnipiac University national poll released Wednesday said that they disapproved of Trump’s handling of the files. Republicans were also nearly split. Just 40 percent said they support how he’s handled the files, with 36 percent disapproving and another 20 percent not offering an opinion.

Mike Flynn — who briefly served as Trump’s national security adviser in his first term — wrote in a lengthy X post on Wednesday that Trump needed to “gather your team and figure out a way to move past this.”

“The roll out of this was terrible, no way around that,” Flynn wrote. “Americans want America to be successful, therefore, WE NEED YOU TO BE SUCCESSFUL.”

Still, Loomer — the onetime Trump whisperer — wasn’t prepared to split entirely with the president over the case.

Other prominent MAGA-aligned supporters of the president have also warned that Trump could see significant damage to his standing among his base if he does not change course.

And former Trump adviser Elon Musk — with whom the president had a blowup fight last month in which Musk accused Trump of being named in the Epstein files — criticized his former boss for trying to paint the whole situation as a hoax.

“He should just release the files and point out which part is the hoax,” Musk wrote on X Wednesday.

The MAGA meltdown over Epstein “could be his Afghanistan going into the fall,” Mark Mitchell, head of polling and operations at Rasmussen Reports, told Steve Bannon Tuesday on his “War Room” podcast.

“People are trying to say this isn’t a big deal,” Mitchell said. “People are trying to say nobody wants this Epstein information out. It’s an absolute misdirection. This is horrifying. And if it isn’t corrected, it threatens derailing Trump’s agenda, getting rid of his political capital.”

“This is not about a guy who died in 2019, this is about a representation of two-tier justice and about unaccountable government,” Mitchell told Bannon.

On Wednesday, conservative political commentator John Solomon told Bannon that he had interviewed the president, and that Trump supported the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate elements of the Epstein case as part of a broader look into a supposed deep state conspiracy to punish the Republican Party.

“I think he’s frustrated by all the social media chatter by people who don’t really know what’s in the Epstein files,” Solomon said. “He was very pointed about that, let’s stay focused on the things that matter to the American people. ‘I want the answers to Epstein like everyone’, he said, so let the prosecutor do that.”

The Epstein fiasco also prompted Speaker Mike Johnson to split with Trump on Tuesday, calling for the Department of Justice to release all the information it has on the sex offender in the name of “transparency.”

“It’s a very delicate subject, but you should put everything out there, let the people decide it,” Johnson told conservative commentator Benny Johnson, adding that Bondi should explain her previous claims of having the elusive Epstein “client list.”

Just a day prior, the Louisiana Republican had defended Bondi, choosing to defer to the Trump administration instead of criticizing the attorney general.

But Trump appears to remain unmoved despite growing rebellion within his MAGA cohort.

In the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump repeated his claims that the whole ordeal was a “hoax” peddled by Democrats and once again defended Bondi’s handling of the case.

“She’s done very good. She says ‘I gave you all the credible information,’ and if she finds any more credible information, she’ll give that too. What more can she do than that?” Trump said, adding that he had “lost a lot of faith in certain people” over their outcry on the administration’s approach to the issue.

Politico

Senate Passes $9B DOGE Cuts, Sends It Back to House

Posted on July 17, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

The Senate early Thursday approved President Donald Trump’s plan for billions of dollars in cuts to funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting, handing the Republican president another victory.

The Senate voted 51-48 in favor of Trump’s request to cut $9 billion in spending already approved by Congress.

Two of the Senate’s 53 Republicans – Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine – joined Democrats in voting against the legislation. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had voted Tuesday against proceeding to the bill, forcing a Vice President JD Vance tiebreaking vote, but ultimately voted for the package Thursday morning.

Most of the cuts are to programs to assist foreign countries suffering from disease, war and natural disasters, but the plan also eliminates all $1.1 billion the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was due to receive over the next two years.

Trump and many of his fellow Republicans argue that spending on public broadcasting is an unnecessary expense and reject its news coverage as suffering from anti-right bias.

Standalone rescissions packages have not passed in decades, with lawmakers reluctant to cede their constitutionally mandated control of spending.

The $9 billion at stake is extremely small in the context of the $6.8 trillion federal budget, and represents only a tiny portion of all the funds approved by Congress that the Trump administration has held up while it has pursued sweeping cuts, many ordered by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

As of mid-June, Trump was blocking $425 billion in funding that had already been appropriated and previously approved by Congress, according to Democratic lawmakers tracking frozen funding.

However, Trump and his supporters have promised more of the “rescission” requests to eliminate previously approved spending in what they say is an effort to pare back the federal government.

The House of Representatives passed the rescissions legislation without altering Trump’s request by 214-212 last month. Four Republicans joined 208 Democrats in voting no.

But after a handful of Republican senators balked at the extent of the cuts to global health programs, Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said on Tuesday that PEPFAR, a global program to fight HIV/AIDS launched in 2003 by then-President George W. Bush, was being exempted.

The change brought the size of the package of cuts to $9 billion from $9.4 billion, requiring another House vote before the measure can be sent to the White House for Trump to sign into law.

The rescissions must pass by Friday. Otherwise, the request would expire and the White House will be required to adhere to spending plans passed by Congress.

Republican ‘No’ Votes

Murkowski and Collins joined Democrats in voting against the legislation.

“You don’t need to gut the entire Corporation for Public Broadcasting,” Murkowski said in a Senate speech.

She said the Trump administration also had not provided assurances that battles against diseases such as malaria and polio worldwide would be maintained. Most of all, Murkowski said, Congress must assert its role in deciding how federal funds were spent.

Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., called Trump’s request a “small, but important step toward fiscal sanity.”

Democrats scoffed at that, noting that congressional Republicans earlier this month passed a massive package of tax and spending cuts that nonpartisan analysts estimated would add more than $3 trillion to the nation’s $36.2 trillion debt.

Democrats charged Republicans with giving up Congress’ constitutionally mandated control of federal spending.

“Today, Senate Republicans turn this chamber into a subservient rubber stamp for the executive, at the behest of Donald Trump,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said.

“Republicans embrace the credo of cut, cut, cut now, and ask questions later,” Schumer said.

The cuts would overturn bipartisan spending agreements most recently passed in a full-year stopgap funding bill in March. Democrats warn a partisan cut now could make it more difficult to negotiate government funding bills that must pass with bipartisan agreement by September 30 to avoid a shutdown.

Appropriations bills require 60 votes to move ahead in the Senate, but the rescissions package needs just 51, meaning Republicans can pass it without Democrat support.

Newsmax

Hunter: Dems Lost Due to Not Staying Loyal to my Father

Posted on July 17, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

Hunter: Dems Lost Due to Not Staying ‘Loyal’ to My Dad

Democrats lost in the past November election because it broke from former President Joe Biden and “did not remain loyal to the leader of the party,” according to Hunter Biden.

“You know what, we are going to fight amongst ourselves for the next three years until there’s a nominee,” Hunter Biden told former DNC Chair Jaime Harrison’s podcast, The Hill reported Wednesday. “And then with the nominee, we better as hell get behind that nominee.”

“And I will tell you why we lost the last election. We lost the election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party. That’s my position,” said Hunter Biden.

Democrats “melted down” by not respecting then-President Biden and the power of incumbency, he added.

“We had the advantage of incumbency, we had advantage of an incredibly successful administration, and the Democratic Party literally melted down,” he said.

Hunter Biden’s remarks come as his pardon has come into question over use of the autopen, but Biden was “consciously aware” of the autopen pardons, and The New York Times reported that the son’s pardon was the lone lame-duck period pardon to be signed by the president’s own hand.

The remarks also come just days after the one-year anniversary of the shooting of then-candidate Donald Trump that ultimately forced Biden out of the presidential race, handing the Democrat nomination to then-Vice President Kamala Harris without winning a single primary elector in the constitution’s democratic process.

Biden did personally sign his letter stepping out of the race nearly one year to this day, and he would ultimately endorse Harris being crowned his successor as the DNC nominee — along with handing over the hundreds of millions of campaign financing.

But, as opposed to the Hunter Biden position of having abandon the democratically elected nominee, Democrats still argue Joe Biden should have stepped out of the race sooner. Harris was stuck with just a couple of months to put together a campaign to remain in the White House, albeit at the reported cost of more than $2 billion.

It was the most ever spent on a presidential campaign, including Trump’s winning campaign, and it was in just 15 weeks and not 15 months.

Eric Mack ✉

Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.

Trump embraces special prosecutor for weaponization probe and Epstein, vows new declassifications

Posted on July 17, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

President Donald Trump on Wednesday embraced the FBI’s decision to open a conspiracy probe into a decade of alleged intelligence abuses and weaponized law enforcement, suggesting it could be led by a special prosecutor and even delve into “credible evidence” in the Jeffrey Epstein case in order to give Americans a greater dose of transparency and accountability.

He also vowed to declassify two highly sensitive pieces of intelligence to help further the prosecutor’s efforts.

“Well, I’m happy that they did that,” Trump said during a wide-ranging interview with the Just the News, No Noise television show when asked about the FBI’s decision a few weeks ago to open a probe that examines abuses from 2016 to 2024 by Democrats and government officials as a continuing criminal conspiracy. “I don’t know much about it, but it deserves to be done.”

It was a disgrace what happened, what happened in 2016 and what happened in 2020. It’s a disgraceful situation,” he said. “And our voting has to be straightened out. I always say if you don’t have borders, if you don’t have fair and free voting, you don’t have a country.”

Unprompted, Trump then volunteered on his own that a special prosecutor – if one is appointed by Justice – to look at weaponization could also delve into “anything credible” on Jeffrey Epstein and his files to make sure Americans have a full accounting.

“I think they could look at all of it. It’s all the same scam. They could look at this Jeffrey Epstein hoax also, because that’s the same stuff that’s all put out by Democrats,” Trump said, when asked what he’d most like to see the FBI investigate.

When pressed whether he was comfortable with a special prosecutor on weaponization also looking at Epstein, he answered, “They’ve already looked at it, and they are looking at it, and I think all they have to do is put out anything credible.”

The Trump administration vowed to release all remaining evidence in the now-deceased financier’s sex scandal and prosecutions, but its early efforts were hampered by missteps by Attorney General Pam Bondi, which created distrust in the MAGA base.

Trump has defended Bondi in the face of heavy criticism but it hasn’t silenced the outcry. In fact, when the FBI and DOJ sent out a memo concluding Epstein did commit suicide in prison and did not leave behind a ledger/client list of the people whom he entertained with young female escorts, many prominent conservatives openly cast doubt and derision on the findings. Now Democrats have joined the chorus.

While Trump opened the door for Bondi to appoint the prosecutor and include Epstein in the scope, Trump also blasted MAGA conservatives who have obsessed about Epstein for weeks with speculation on social media, saying it only gave oxygen to Democrats to distract from the administration’s priorities.

“You know, some of the naive Republicans fall right into line, like they always do. They just don’t have the sustainability. … There’s something they don’t have, that stick to it like glue,” he said. “The Democrats, you know, they have bad policy, they have bad candidates, they have bad everything, but they stick together. The Republicans don’t do that.”

“But they ought to look into the Jeffrey Epstein hoax too, because that’s another hoax that’s frankly, put out by the Democrats pushing, pushing the Republicans, and put out by the Democrats,” he added.

Trump said he fears prior officials inside the FBI and intelligence agencies may have doctored files about Epstein to either protect Democrats or harm Republicans.

“I can imagine what they put into files, just like they did with the others. I mean, the Steele dossier was a total fake, right? It took two years to figure that out,” he said. “So I would imagine if they were run by (former FBI director) Chris Wray and they were run by (former FBI director James) Comey, and because it was actually even before that administration, they’ve been running these files, and so much of the things that we found were fake.”

He finished by assuring the MAGA base that he has no desire to prevent further investigation or transparency and hopes the idea of a special prosecutor who can look at both weaponization and Epstein satisfies Americans’ concerns. “So frankly, you know, I think I love that they’re looking at all this stuff. If they are, I hope they are.”

Trump also flatly stated he would declassify two long-secret intelligence files to help the prosecution. The first is a classified annex to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report into the FBI’s mishandling of the Hillary Clinton email scandal. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has been pressing for the release of that evidence, saying it will show U.S. intelligence received new evidence of possible criminal wrongdoing before then-FBI director James Comey cleared Clinton and the bureau never investigated it.

“I would do that. Absolutely. I think it should be looked at,” he answered. “The whole thing was a scam, yeah. And I would do that gladly.”

The second piece of evidence is a classified annex to Russiagate Special Prosecutor John Durham’s final report called the “Clinton Plan intelligence,” which was a U.S. intelligence intercept suggesting Hillary Clinton had personally approved a plan to concoct a Russia collusion scandal against Trump. That intercept was captured before the FBI opened up its Russia probe, and lawmakers and Durham have suggested it would provide damning evidence to any prosecutor.

“I will absolutely declassify it,” he said when asked about the annex.

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Hunter: Dems Lost Due to Not Staying Loyal to my Father

Eric Mack ✉

Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.

Trump embraces special prosecutor for weaponization probe and Epstein, vows new declassifications