From a stumbling economy to soaring crime, France has plenty of problems. But, judging by recent events, the government seems to have another threat in mind: social media. Earlier this month, prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into Elon Musk’s X, alleging foreign interference through algorithm manipulation, while also condemning the platform for spreading “hateful” content. This followed a police raid on the headquarters of the National Rally, France’s leading opposition party, after the launch of yet another dubious investigation into campaign financing.
The Fifth Republic is far from alone here. For Western democracy is under threat — not from “foreign adversaries”, or “far-Right populists”, but from its own elites. Whether in Britain, Germany or Ireland, censorship has become routine across Europe and beyond, even as dissent is increasingly criminalised and legal systems are weaponised to suppress opposition. In recent months, these trends have escalated into direct assaults on the basic institutions of democratic governance. In Romania, to give one example, an entire election was annulled because it delivered the wrong outcome, while other countries contemplate similar measures too.
In theory, all this is being carried out in the name of defending democracy. In truth, the purpose is clear: to help ruling elites maintain their grip on power in the face of a historic collapse of legitimacy. Whether they will succeed in doing so remains to be seen. What is clear, though, is that the stakes are enormous. If elites manage to entrench their control through increasingly authoritarian means, the West will enter a new era of managed democracy — or democracy in name only. If they fail, and in the absence of a coherent alternative, the resulting vacuum may give way to deepening instability, social unrest and systemic crisis.
DeGeneres, 67, moved to the Cotswolds with her wife, Portia de Rossi, 52, and has no intention of returning.
The “comedian” explained the reason for the move while speaking to Richard Bacon at the Everyman theatre in Cheltenham over the weekend.
“We got here the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis, and I was like, ‘He got in’.’ ‘And we’re like, ‘We’re staying here,’” DeGeneres confessed.
DeGeneres claimed that back in the US, “The Baptist Church in America is trying to reverse gay marriage.”
They’re trying to literally stop it from happening in the future and possibly reverse it. Portia and I are already looking into it, and if they do that, we’re going to get married here,” she said. “I wish we were at a place where it was not scary for people to be who they are. I wish that we lived in a society where everybody could accept other people and their differences.”She continued, “So until we’re there, I think there’s a d place to say we have huge progress.”
The Daily Mail reports:
Back in 2020, Ellen was embroiled in controversy after being accused of creating a toxic work environment – and later issued an apology.
After nearly two decades of being on the air, The Ellen Degeneres Show also came to an end just two years later in 2022.
She previously told The Hollywood Reporter, ‘I have to just trust that whatever happened during that time, which was obviously very, very difficult, happened for a reason.
‘I think that I learned a lot, and there were some things that came up that I was shocked and surprised by. It was eye-opening, but I just trust that that had to happen.’
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard set off fireworks on Friday when she accused former president Barack Obama of organizing a coup d’état against his successor. Summarizing the damning evidence in her possession, Gabbard concluded, “These documents detail a treasonous conspiracy by officials at the highest levels of the Obama White House to subvert the will of the American people.”
Treason is a capital offense with no statute of limitations. So consider how explosive Gabbard’s allegations are. The senior official in charge of all American Intelligence is stating unequivocally that Obama and his loyal subordinates sabotaged the peaceful transfer of presidential power in 2016, betrayed the American people, and made war against the legitimate government of the United States. Gabbard just dropped the “Mother of All Bombs” on Obama’s White House syndicate, the Intelligence Community, and the globalist Deep State.
General Michael Flynn, President Trump’s short-lived National Security Advisor, assessed the situation succinctly: “This is surreal.” As a target of the Deep State’s treacherous lawfare operations, General Flynn views the workings in Washington, D.C., with supreme clarity: “This is why [Gabbard] was attacked so relentlessly over the past few weeks and months. They knew if there were anyone with the guts to investigate the attempted coup, it would be her.” Obama loyalists in the Intelligence Community and Obama’s propaganda allies in the corporate news media succeeded in removing General Flynn from his NSA position at the beginning of Trump’s first term. Perhaps learning from Flynn’s experience, Gabbard has worked quickly to expose the conspirators before they could take her out, too.
Who exactly formed this conspiracy to overturn the 2016 election and topple President Trump’s administration? DNI Gabbard says that “intelligence was politicized and weaponized by the most powerful people in the Obama Administration to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President [Trump].” Furthermore, “Obama officials immediately leaned on their allies in the media to advance their falsehoods. Anonymous IC sources leaked classified information to the Washington Post and others that Russia had intervened to hack the election in Trump’s favor.”
Ezra Cohen, an Intelligence official who has served President Trump in various positions, highlighted the list of principals who conspired to blame Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election loss on the Russians. In a pivotal National Security Council meeting chaired by Susan Rice, attendees included John Brennan, James Clapper, Andrew McCabe, John Kerry, Loretta Lynch, Victoria Nuland, Mary McCord, Avril Haines, Lisa Monaco, Ben Rhodes, and Maher Bitar (an Obama official who immediately went to work for liar Adam Schiff). That’s a “Who’s Who” list of Russia Hoax plotters.
Truth-tellers at American Thinker and elsewhere have been trying to tell this story for nearly ten years. No matter how compelling the evidence or persuasive the arguments, the corporate news media have called us “conspiracy theorists” and buried anything that might tarnish Obama’s legacy. No doubt the national propagandists that disseminate approved “narratives” for the globalist Deep State will continue to do so. Still, it is satisfying to see this headline at Breitbart: “Declassified: Obama Admin Manufactured Intelligence to Push Fake Trump-Russia Collusion Narrative.”
In other words, Obama and high-ranking members of his administration — including the Intelligence chiefs responsible for safeguarding the nation from foreign and domestic threats — fabricated evidence meant to convince the American people that Russia stole the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton. Furthermore, this cabal of conspirators fabricated evidence meant to incriminate President Trump, convince Congress to remove him from office, and perhaps even convince a future jury to convict him for espionage and treason.
Obama and his people damaged America’s reputation in the world by pretending that Russia “hacked” the 2016 election. Along with Hillary Clinton and her campaign (the original plotters who paid for the Steele Dossier and its public dissemination), the Obama administration defrauded the American people by squandering time and resources on a figment of their seditious imaginations.
Consider how many thousands of government agents from the Department of Justice, Department of State, and broader Intelligence Community were ordered to waste years on the job chasing ghosts conjured by Clinton, Obama, Rice, Brennan, Lynch, Comey, Clapper, and their many co-conspirators.
Consider all the real foreign and domestic threats that were entirely ignored because the U.S. government was dedicating substantial resources to an Intelligence operation meant to frame President Trump as a Russian spy.
Consider how much harm Obama, Clinton, and their allies in government offices and corporate newsrooms caused to America by fomenting social division and political strife based on abject lies.
The Obama administration and Clinton campaign essentially conducted a “color revolution” against the United States. It was their intention to instigate a mass public uprising that would force President Trump from office. They conspired to overthrow the U.S. government and install a new one more amenable to their interests. What these “untouchable” elites did was textbook treason and sedition.
We will never have a full accounting of the toll Obama and Clinton’s lies had on America. It seems reasonable to assume that their lies cost lives. How many terrorist attacks could have been prevented if Intelligence agents had been working on things that mattered? Who really murdered Seth Rich? How many Republicans have been bankrupted in courtrooms while defending themselves against malicious prosecutions arising from the Russia Collusion Hoax? All of the treasonous criminals who perpetrated this fraud upon the American people made the United States weaker, more divided, and more vulnerable. That’s Obama’s real legacy.
No-one should minimize the seriousness of these crimes. Unfortunately, even in conservative circles, it is common to hear someone describe the Russia Collusion Hoax as a Democrat Party “dirty trick.” This was not a “dirty trick.” This was treason!
A “dirty trick” might aptly describe social media satirist Douglass Mackey’s trolling humor when he posted a joke encouraging Hillary Clinton’s supporters to vote by text in 2016. Even though Mackey’s absurd suggestion has been used as a funny meme by both Democrats and Republicans for many election cycles, Hillary actually blamed Mackey for her loss, and Biden’s (in)Justice Department successfully convicted Mackey for engaging in a conspiracy to spread false information. Thankfully, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously voided his preposterous conviction and ordered the district court to enter a judgment of acquittal.
While Obama-Biden prosecutors were happy to go after meme-makers for engaging in fake conspiracies to spread “misinformation,” they completely ignored the Obama-Clinton conspiracy to manufacture the Russia Collusion Hoax. Unlike Mackey’s harmless “dirty trick,” the repercussions of the Obama-Clinton “color revolution” were very real.
Setting aside the fact that President Trump’s first term was undermined by a two-year special counsel investigation run by Democrats, when the departing Obama administration decided to blame Russia for Hillary’s 2016 loss, the conspirators compounded tensions between the world’s two dominant nuclear powers for purely political reasons.
As the meeting records from Gabbard’s declassification show, Obama’s National Security Council principals “agreed to recommend sanctioning of certain members of the Russian military intelligence and foreign intelligence chains of command responsible for cyber operations as a response to cyber activity that attempted to influence or interfere with U.S. elections.” Before Obama left office, he expelled Russian diplomats and left incoming President Trump with a diplomatic hornet’s nest.
As Internet sleuth MAZE points out, shortly after Obama’s scapegoating of Russia, Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Amy Klobuchar traveled to Ukraine and later held a press conference during which they claimed that “Russia attacked the USA by hacking the 2016 election.” Obama and his co-conspirators advanced an Intelligence operation that could have instigated a direct U.S.-Russia war. That’s no “dirty trick.” That’s deadly treason against the United States and the American people.
Now more than ever, the ability to speak our minds is crucial to the republic we cherish. If what you see on American Thinker resonates with you, please consider supporting our work with a donation of as much or as little as you can give. Every dollar contributed helps us pay our staff and keep our ideas heard and our voices strong.
Watching leftists endlessly promote the same catastrophic policies is tiresome. Some quotations come to mind:
““It isn’t so much that liberals are ignorant. It’s just that they know so many things that aren’t so.” — Ronald Reagan
“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” — Soren Kierkegaard
Since so many of the worst cities in America are run by Democrats, one would think that their voters would eventually catch on. Those who do and are able, move away. Some take their failed ideas with them and, like cancer cells, infect their new environs with the same diseased ideas that caused them to flee. The phrase, “Once bitten, twice shy eludes them, as does the old definition of insanity.
At one time, our schools taught actual history. Since Howard Zinn’s books have hit the market, we’re now seeing entire generations of Americans who can’t find China on a map, don’t know who America fought in World War II, and can’t name the three branches of our government.
Throughout history, people have gained great power by making promises to the poorly-educated and instead brought only misery and oppression. The same policies promoted by today’s Left have resulted in hundreds of millions of deaths worldwide. Some died from famine and disease, others were slaughtered by their own government.
The Soviet Union’s economy was characterized by central planning, where state-controlled production, distribution, and prices, leading to inefficiencies and shortages. Agriculture was collectivized, resulting in significant declines in agricultural productivity, contributing to famines. The Bolsheviks murdered Russian citizens on a scale never before seen.
In China, Mao initiated the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, which were aimed at rapid industrialization and ideological purity, producing instead economic disaster and widespread famine. The atrocities committed by the Red Guard are the stuff of nightmares. China’s one-child policy (1979-2015) produced an aging population and pronounced gender imbalances.
North Korea also emphasizes state control over all aspects of life. As in Russia and China, collectivized agriculture and state-run farms led to inefficiencies and food shortages. Their military is prioritized over civilian needs, diverting resources from essential services and economic development. The country’s isolation from the global economy has produced chronic scarcities and lack of technological advancement.Fidel Castro’s government likewise nationalized major industries and implemented extensive social programs, including universal healthcare and education, which strained the economy. In the 1960s, the U.S. imposed a trade embargo that limited Cuba’s access to goods and markets and also contributed to economic hardship and shortages. In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba introduced limited market reforms which has allowed some private enterprise and foreign investment. Cuba’s “free” health care has been praised by some U.S. celebrities, but the everyday reality tells a different story.
Loose monetary policies, including excessive money printing contributed to the economic collapse of Argentina. Annual inflation sometimes exceeded 211% and over half the population lived in poverty despite subsidies and social programs. Large fiscal deficits accompanied by borrowing or printing money led to unsustainable debt and lack of investor confidence. Crippling regulations and interventionist policies discouraged foreign investment and stifled growth. Many citizens rely on government assistance, creating generational dependency and limited incentives for economic participation. Javier Milei’s administration is seeing some success in addressing these issues through radical economic reforms.
What have the leftists learned from these events? Nothing, apparently. The Democrat Party has been taken over by the extreme far left, which is promoting the same disastrous policies that destroyed every country in which they’ve been tried. Zaohran Mamdani, the New York City Democrat mayoral nominee, has proposed an additional 2% tax on individuals making over $1 million annually, raising concerns of potential wealth flight. He’s also suggested freezing rents, thereby discouraging new housing construction. While he hasn’t yet proposed defunding the NYPD, he is prioritizing community-based solutions (social workers?) to control crime. He wants “free” public transit, “free” childcare for children aged six weeks to five years, and state-run grocery stores.
We’ve heard the same sorts of proposals from the likes of AOC, Liz Warren, and Bernie Sanders for years. Socialist and communist policies, centralized planning and interventions into the free market have not, cannot, and will not produce robust economies. They are simply excuses for control of the population and wealth redistribution.
However, what Donald Trump and Javier Milei are doing works and the evidence is incandescently obvious. In the first month, Milei slashed spending by 30%, balanced the budget, cut half of the federal ministries, and ended fake currency controls. Result? Inflation, poverty and housing prices are dropping, the economy is growing, and investment is returning. Similarly, Donald Trump’s first six months in office are said to be the most significant since FDR.
“This is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields.” — Ecclesiastes 5:9
A proper government doesn’t try to micromanage society. It simply promotes the conditions necessary for the citizens to work and flourish.
Now more than ever, the ability to speak our minds is crucial to the republic we cherish. If what you see on American Thinker resonates with you, please consider supporting our work with a donation of as much or as little as you can give. Every dollar contributed helps us pay our staff and keep our ideas heard and our voices strong.
Fidel Castro’s government likewise nationalized major industries and implemented extensive social programs, including universal healthcare and education, which strained the economy. In the 1960s, the U.S. imposed a trade embargo that limited Cuba’s access to goods and markets and also contributed to economic hardship and shortages. In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba introduced limited market reforms which has allowed some private enterprise and foreign investment. Cuba’s “free” health care has been praised by some U.S. celebrities, but the everyday reality tells a different story.
Loose monetary policies, including excessive money printing contributed to the economic collapse of Argentina. Annual inflation sometimes exceeded 211% and over half the population lived in poverty despite subsidies and social programs. Large fiscal deficits accompanied by borrowing or printing money led to unsustainable debt and lack of investor confidence. Crippling regulations and interventionist policies discouraged foreign investment and stifled growth. Many citizens rely on government assistance, creating generational dependency and limited incentives for economic participation. Javier Milei’s administration is seeing some success in addressing these issues through radical economic reforms.
What have the leftists learned from these events? Nothing, apparently. The Democrat Party has been taken over by the extreme far left, which is promoting the same disastrous policies that destroyed every country in which they’ve been tried. Zaohran Mamdani, the New York City Democrat mayoral nominee, has proposed an additional 2% tax on individuals making over $1 million annually, raising concerns of potential wealth flight. He’s also suggested freezing rents, thereby discouraging new housing construction. While he hasn’t yet proposed defunding the NYPD, he is prioritizing community-based solutions (social workers?) to control crime. He wants “free” public transit, “free” childcare for children aged six weeks to five years, and state-run grocery stores.
We’ve heard the same sorts of proposals from the likes of AOC, Liz Warren, and Bernie Sanders for years. Socialist and communist policies, centralized planning and interventions into the free market have not, cannot, and will not produce robust economies. They are simply excuses for control of the population and wealth redistribution.
However, what Donald Trump and Javier Milei are doing works and the evidence is incandescently obvious. In the first month, Milei slashed spending by 30%, balanced the budget, cut half of the federal ministries, and ended fake currency controls. Result? Inflation, poverty and housing prices are dropping, the economy is growing, and investment is returning. Similarly, Donald Trump’s first six months in office are said to be the most significant since FDR.
“This is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields.” — Ecclesiastes 5:9
A proper government doesn’t try to micromanage society. It simply promotes the conditions necessary for the citizens to work and acquire wealth.
On Friday, director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard released “overwhelming evidence” that former president Barack Obama and other top Cabinet and Intelligence Community (I.C.) members conspired to “subvert the will of the American people” after President Trump won the 2016 election. The newly declassified Russiagate documents show that Obama and other high-level officials allegedly did everything they could to “delegitimize President Trump’s victory” with false claims and “countless smears.”
According to Gabbard, the newly released documents further prove a conspiracy that would perpetrate a “years-long coup” against President Trump. She also stated that those involved reportedly hoped to destroy the mandate and legacy “bestowed upon him by the American people.” It may well be one of the biggest political crimes in U.S. history.
Gabbard’s release decisively obliterates the longstanding claim that Moscow swung the 2016 election for Donald Trump. It also marks the first time a senior Trump administration official has directly implicated former president Barack Obama as an active participant in the alleged conspiracy.
Together, they make three things unmistakably clear:
The Intelligence Community (I.C.) repeatedly concluded — before and after Election Day — that Russia lacked both the intent and capability to alter U.S. vote totals. A September 12, 2016, I.C. assessment found that “foreign adversaries do not have and will probably not obtain the capabilities to successfully execute widespread and undetected cyber‑attacks” on election infrastructure.
Those conclusions were suppressed or overwritten at the direction of senior Obama officials and probably Obama himself after Trump won. Talking points drafted for DNI James Clapper on December 7, 2016, stated flatly, “Foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on election infrastructure to alter the U.S. Presidential election outcome,” yet the president’s daily brief containing those conclusions was killed hours later.
Below is an example of one of the emails provided, suggesting that the I.C. knew that Russia “was not and will not try to influence the election via cyber means.”
A hastily ordered Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), released January 6, 2017, relied in part on the since‑discredited Steele dossier and became the cornerstone of years‑long investigations and impeachment efforts — despite internal dissent warning it was “politicized intelligence.”
31 Aug 2016 — DHS tells then‑DNI Clapper there is “no indication” of a Russian plan to manipulate vote counts.
2 Sept 2016 — FBI asks that a forthcoming pre‑election assessment be “softened” because bureau analysts are “uncomfortable” implying Russia intends to disrupt the election.
12 Sept 2016 — I.C. publishes the cyber‑threat ICA concluding adversaries cannot covertly overturn the vote.
7 Oct 2016 — ODNI/DHS press release blames Russia for DNC hacks but omits that FBI and NSA had “low confidence” in that attribution.
7 Dec 2016 — Draft PDB reiterates that Russia did not tamper with election infrastructure; FBI abruptly withdraws, and a senior official quashes the product.
8 Dec 2016 — I.C. officials plan to publish the PDB the next day due to “high administration interest,” knowing Russian actors “did not impact recent U.S. election results.” Hours later, the FBI withdraws, announces it will draft a dissent, and a senior PDB editor cancels the brief “based on new guidance.”
9 Dec 2016 — Obama convenes National Security Council principals — including John Brennan, Susan Rice, Loretta Lynch, and Andrew McCabe — and orders a new ICA. That same day, two “blatantly false leaks” reach The Washington Post, alleging that Russia hacked the vote and that the CIA concluded that Moscow had intervened to elect Trump.
14 Dec 2016 through late Dec 2016 — Leaks continue claiming Vladimir Putin was “personally involved.” Obama continued to push the narrative that Russia could be involved. Asks Putin to “knock it off.” An ODNI whistle‑blower who challenges the narrative is sidelined and pressured to accept the finding that Russia preferred Trump, a position he writes he “could not concur with in good conscience.”
6 Jan 2017 — The unclassified ICA is released, asserting that Putin ordered an influence campaign to help Trump — contradicting months of I.C. reporting and relying in part on the Steele dossier.
Two years later, in September 2019, while assisting with a FOIA request on the Obama‑era ICA, the same ODNI whistleblower was asked to locate records tied to the Steele dossier because, the whistleblower was told, the dossier “played a role” in that assessment. The request stunned the whistleblower, who had long been told that DNI Clapper considered the dossier unreliable, and no one on the National Intelligence Council had ever suggested that it was a credible document.
Gabbard’s press release shows that Obama administration officials knowingly “manufactured” the Steele Dossier and allegedly misrepresented Russia’s role in influencing the election. She added that the newly released assessment exposes the fact that “this was politicized intelligence that was used as a basis for countless smears seeking to delegitimize President Trump’s victory.”
Because of the Russia Hoax, she notes that Trump suffered two ill-conceived congressional impeachments, and tensions were heightened with Russia. Former national security adviser to President Trump, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, had to resign and then endured years of costly litigation and reputational harm. Many others connected with the Trump administration suffered mightily because of the conspiracy.
Notably, in both her press release and her July 18 X post, Gabbard alludes to her commitment to fully investigate, prosecute, and deliver accountability “to the fullest extent of the law” to the American people and to President Trump and his family.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Sorry for being a one-note orchestra, but I’m consumed with Obama’s involvement in the Russia hoax case.
Most important jobs require training. We have to pass a test to drive; accredited education is required for health professionals, yet there is no testing process to prepare parents for the enormous responsibility of raising moral and well-adjusted kids. To that end, I’ve assembled ten helpful points for raising a mentally healthy child.
Don’t assume they know. Kids are not born with knowledge that we adults take for granted, e.g., that they should eat healthy food, or that they must think before they act. Even so, they should be held responsible for their actions. If you don’t correct them for lying, hitting or whatever, how else will they know that these behaviors are wrong?
Keep perspective. Your child doesn’t disobey just to irritate you. Childhood is a learning process, so don’t take it personally when they test your limits. It’s an opportunity to teach them right from wrong.
Permissive vs. restrictive: Permissive parents reason with their children but don’t punish them. Restrictive parents punish their kids but won’t reason with them. Give your kids the reasons why they should act a certain way. Children are more likely to follow rules if you let them ask questions and give them reasonable answers. Use punishment only if reason fails.
Constructive feedback: Incentives are often more powerful than punishments. But don’t reward a child for doing the bare minimum, such as going to school or being minimally civil. Save the rewards for extraordinary actions such as acting on their own judgment rather than peer pressure. Positive feedback is crucial for building confidence!
You have the final say! A family is not a democracy. But always explain and discuss, not just command. If a child makes a logical point that proves you wrong, be an adult and stand corrected. This will teach your child that it’s healthy and affirming to ask questions, and that reason can create solutions.
All kids are different. A difficult child needs consistency. Resist the temptation to control everything. Instead, choose your punishments. Pick out the most important offenses and punish consistently for them. Holding your ground on one issue can often lead to success in other areas, because whatever respect for you that’s developed can generalize to other behaviors. Respect can be more effective than warm fuzzy feelings.
Don’t fall for labels! Popular disease labels such as “attention deficit disorder” or “conduct disorder” (many of which are currently being debunked) distract from the fact that your child is capable of making choices and being responsible for them. Help him make better choices, rather than blaming laziness or nastiness on some made-up illness. Even if pills, such as Ritalin, appear to improve behaviors, they don’t change the fact that kids make choices. In the end, no pill can make her do her homework — or choose her core values.
Encourage self-interest. If you tell your child to not be “selfish,” you’re implying he should not act in his own self-interest. How far does that go? He should NOT study hard in school? She should NOT treat her friends respectfully? All of these actions are in their self-interest. Explain why it’s to her benefit to respect the rights of others, etc. This is more motivating than just, “Put others before yourself.” Respect for oneself and the rights of others does not mean sacrifice of one’s privacy, property, and happiness.
Don’t discourage thinking. Don’t punish a child for what she thinks or feels. You can express disapproval, but punishing thoughts and feelings discourages independent thinking and encourages repression which can lead to psychological problems.
Promote reality! Reasonable punishment does not damage self-esteem. It demonstrates the nature of reality. Adults have to make rational choices, but a child is not born with a grasp of these principles, and won’t learn them unless he or she is taught to think logically and to accept responsibility.
Challenge kids to think critically. Withhold support when they behave irrationally. Don’t count on teachers and day-care workers to communicate these virtues. You must do the bulk of the work if your kids are to grow into healthy and happy adults.
“The issue I am raising is not a partisan issue,” CIA Director Tulsi Gabbard said in her announcement, backed up by a highly redacted, declassified report posted online. “It is one that concerns every American. The information we are releasing today clearly shows there was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of our government … As such, I am providing all documents to the Department of Justice to deliver the accountability that President Trump, his family, and the American people deserve.”
Does this mean treason charges against Barack Obama and all connected to him in this case? Nothing less will satisfy millions of Americans who actually still love liberty, justice and the American republic.
Until leftists are afraid, the rest of us cannot feel secure in our freedom. Obama is part of the head of the snake. Make him afraid and miserable, President Trump. You are our last chance for real justice.
When the CIA Director says a former President is guilty of treason, it’s big news. When that former President is in an orange jumpsuit or facing the penalty for treason, that’s REALLY big news.
Bring it on.
Follow Dr. Hurd on Facebook. Search under “Michael Hurd” (Charleston SC). Get up-to-the-minute postings, recommended articles and links, and engage in back-and-forth discussion with Dr. Hurd on topics of interest. Also follow Dr. Hurd on X at @MichaelJHurd1, drmichaelhurd on Instagram, @DrHurd on TruthSocial. Dr. Hurd is also now a Newsmax Insider!
It may be time for the federal government to step in and liberate California.
There’s not much democracy in California. Between ballot harvesting, top-down control and a state so gerrymandered that 41% of the Republican voters have virtually no representation, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he’s preparing a plan to abolish what’s left of democracy in California. The goal is to reduce Republican representation from 9 seats to 4 or 3.
Now remember this is in a state where Trump won 38% of the vote, but where Republicans have only 17% of the seats, which Newsom would like to bring down to 5% or 7%.
Newsom does have a ‘democratic’ problem here. An actual democratic problem in that Proposition 11, a move backed by Schwarzenegger, liberals and various liberal ‘sorta Republicans’ (and violently opposed by Pelosi and the Dems) created a semi-independent redistricting commission. The commission doesn’t work very well, but it’s better than the alternative.
And to executive his dream map, Newsom now needs to sideline or bypass the commission which is illegal, but legality is a minor point when you control the political and judicial system. The current plan is to try and convince ‘voters’ to set aside the commission or just ignore the commission and redraw the districts anyway so that over 40% of the state is reduced to 5% representation.
At that point, what really distinguishes California from Venezuela except better beaches?
If Gov. Newsom goes ahead with his plan to politically disenfranchise half the state, it may be time for the federal government to step in and to treat California like the third world Communist dictatorship it aspires to be… and liberate it.
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
It’s hard to come to any other conclusion when, in the face of the open defiance and violence against these agents, Hawkins drops a bill in the Massachusetts Legislature that would force those federal agents to unmask so they can be identified by hostile mobs.
House Docket No. 4886 would apply to all “local, state, or federal law enforcement” agencies (except for SWAT officers) and make it a crime for them to “wear any mask or personal disguise while interacting with the pubic in the performance of their duties.”
Hawkins has tried to justify his interference with, and endangerment of, federal agents by claiming that “police officers never wear masks and they are dealing with much more dangerous situations. They’re dealing with gunfire, with violent people, and they don’t wear masks.” Really?! Has Hawkins not been watching and reading the news lately?
Attacks on ICE agents are up 700% over last year. While the rest of us were celebrating Independence Day, an armed group ambushed ICE agents and local police at a detention center in Alvarado, Texas, wounded an officer, and sprayed anti-ICE graffiti. On the same day, violent protesters in Portland, Oregon, hurled incendiary devices at ICE officers and tried to burn down a government building. Only three days later, a Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas, was shot at, and two agents and a staffer were injured.
Two days later, ICE agents in California were physically attacked and blocked from enforcing federal immigration laws. There has been massive mob violence in Los Angeles, so severe that federal troops had to be called in to restore order and protect federal agents and facilities.
Democrat politicians and organizations are supporting and encouraging this defiance and violence.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has praised these agitators as “profoundly courageous,” while her “squad” cohort Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota calls ICE agents “deranged.” Boston City Councilor Kendra Lara has celebrated the occupation of ICE buildings while Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts has vilified ICE and lauded illegal obstruction of federal law enforcement.
They sound a lot like Southern Democrats of another era, who declared that state officials and state governments had a right to nullify federal laws and resist their enforcement.
In addition to his obliviousness to this violence, Hawkins (a former teacher, no less), along with the 16 other constitutionally ignorant state legislators who signed on to sponsor his bill, are apparently unaware of the supremacy clause in Article VI of the U.S. Constitution.
The supremacy clause provides that the “laws of the United States” are “the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.” In other words, neither Hawkins nor the state of Massachusetts can impose state requirements on federal law enforcement agents, nor prosecute them for supposedly committing a state crime when acting within the scope of their federal duties.
The U.S. Supreme Court threw out the prosecution, ordered the marshal’s release from jail, and held that a state cannot prosecute an official or agent of the federal government for discharging his duties as an officer of the United States. This also means that neither Hawkins nor any state government can impose requirements or restrictions on federal law enforcement officials, such as ICE agents, on how and when they carry out their duties. Period.
Hawkins might want to read the well-known 1890 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, In re Neagle, which has facts like something out of a Hollywood movie. In that case, California tried to prosecute a U.S. marshal for murder when he shot and killed a state Supreme Court justice who, upset over a judgment against his wife, was attempting to kill a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court who was in California riding the circuit.
If Hawkins and his fellow Democrats go to the Boston Common, they will find the bronze sculpture of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The 54th was the gallant, all-Black Union regiment that fought in the Civil War to end slavery and the defiance of Southern state governments to the Constitution and laws of the United States.
Perhaps that sculpture will remind them that we settled the question of whether state officials like Hawkins can defy federal law in 1864. Back then, the state of Massachusetts was on the right side of this issue. Hawkins’ political party was not.
Trump intelligence chief accuses ex-president and others of ‘treasonous conspiracy’ for alleging Russian interference
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, has called for Barack Obama and former senior US national security officials to be prosecuted after accusing them of a “treasonous conspiracy” intended to show that Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election win was due to Russian interference.
She said Obama and senior officials in his administration had “[laid] the groundwork for … a years-long coup” against Trump after his victory over Hillary Clinton by “manufacturing intelligence” to suggest that Russia had tried to influence the election. That included using a dossier prepared by a British intelligence analyst, Christopher Steele, that they knew to be unreliable, Gabbard claimed.
The post-election intelligence estimates contrasted with findings reached before the election, which indicated that Russia probably was not trying to interfere.
In extraordinary comments calling for prosecutions, she added: “The information we are releasing today clearly shows there was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of our government.
“Their goal was to subvert the will of the American people and enact what was essentially a years-long coup with the objective of trying to usurp the President from fulfilling the mandate bestowed upon him by the American people.
“No matter how powerful, every person involved in this conspiracy must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. The American people’s faith and trust in our democratic republic and therefore the future of our nation depends on it.”
Clapper is one of several officials named by Gabbard as apparently implicated in the supposed conspiracy. Others include John Brennan, the former CIA director, John Kerry, the then secretary of state, Susan Rice, the national security adviser at the time, Andrew McCabe, the then deputy FBI director, who later fell foul of Trump, and Obama himself.
The attempt to return the spotlight back to the Russia investigation – long derided by Trump as a “hoax” – comes as the US president finds himself in the maelstrom of the lingering scandal over the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in his prison cell in 2019 while awaiting prosecution on sex-trafficking charges.
The Trump administration has come under mounting pressure from the president’s make America great again (Maga) base to release files on the case, including a supposed list of Epstein’s influential clients.
Trump, in response, has variously dismissed the existence of such files or said they were invented by Obama and members of his administration, including James Comey, the former FBI director, and Joe Biden, vice-president in the Obama administration.
Commentary accompanying a series of Obama-era memos published by Gabbard’s office uses terms characteristic of Trump and his most ardent supporters to paint an alleged conspiracy to discredit his 2016 win.
Following a meeting on 9 December 2016 of Obama’s most senior national security team, the document – entitled the Russia Hoax – says: “Deep State officials in the IC [intelligence community] beg leaking blatantly false intelligence to the Washington Post … claiming that Russia used “cyber means” to influence “the outcome of the election.
“Later that evening, another leak to the Washington Post falsely alleges that the CIA “concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened” in the election to help President Trump.”
On 6 January the following year, the document continues: “The Obama administration shares the unclassified ICA [intelligence community assessment] with the public. It falsely alleges, based in part on ‘further information’ that had ‘come to light’ since the election, that Putin directed an effort to help President Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. This ‘further information’ is later confirmed to be the Steele dossier.”
The assessment “suppressed” previous pre-election assessments that Russia lacked the intent or means to successfully hack the poll, Gabbard’s report alleges.
The Steele dossier, which contained salacious details of “kompromat” allegedly held by Russian intelligence on Trump, formed part of the basis for a lengthy investigation conducted by Robert Mueller, who was appointed as special counsel into the Russia affair. Mueller’s subsequent report concluded that Russia interfered “in sweeping and systematic fashion” in the election campaign but “did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated” with the Russian government’s activities.
Gabbard’s nomination as national intelligence director was one of Trump’s most contentious. It drew criticism because of her lack of previous intelligence experience, having never even served on a congressional committee on the subject, and a track record of supportive comments about Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and repeating Kremlin talking points on the war with Ukraine.
THE ARTFUL DILETTANTE 