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Did Biden Send the Bahamas Straight to Beijing?

Let’s take a little trip to the Bahamas and explore what a little Joe Biden-era neglect will get you.  

A little over a week ago, officials from the island nation broke ground for a new speciality hospital, calling it a “new era for healthcare.”  It’s supposed to take 30 to 36 months to complete. 

The project will sit on 50 acres on New Providence Highway in Nassau. The hospital will have 200 beds with “emergency and intensive care services, modern diagnostic labs, and even the country’s first national reference morgue,” which will ease pressure on nearby overcrowded facilities. It will also have have access to state-of-the-art technology and equipment that Health Minister Dr. Michael Darville says “will reduce the need for patients to seek care abroad, and it will allow our healthcare professionals to operate in an environment that supports the level of care that they’re trained to deliver.” 

Sounds like a good thing for the Bahamas, right?  

Maybe it would be if China wasn’t footing most of the bill. Because when China foots the bill, there are always more strings attached than last year’s tangled Christmas tree lights. The reality is that it’s more of the textbook debt-trap Chicom diplomacy that plagues the Western Hemisphere, only this time it’s happening in a nation that’s closest point is literally just 50 miles from Florida. Oh, and the Biden administration apparently just handed it over on a silver platter.   

The healthcare system in the Bahamas isn’t awful compared to some other similar nations, but it is no longer adequate enough for the aging population, and there is plenty of room to improve it. It’s overcrowded, people are often faced with long wait times, and it’s outdated with crumbling infrastructure and various equipment shortages. The Princess Margaret Hospital, which is currently the main facility in Nassau, was built in the 1950s. Patients often come to the United States for specific procedures, and nurses and other trained medical staff often move abroad to take better-paying jobs. 

So, back to this New Providence Specialty Hospital. The framework for a deal between the Bahamas and China was signed last summer, and in January of this year the loan was locked in. But, as China does, this wasn’t just a loan. 

It was a concessional loan, meaning the terms were soft: a 2% interest rate over a 20-year period, after a 5-year grace period with no interest. Often managed by the Export–Import Bank of China, these loans are handed out as an act of “goodwill” and diplomacy, but the reality is that China uses them to build its own infrastructure, exploit natural resources, and expand its geopolitical influence.   

And the Bahamas had to agree to more than just cash. First, the loan and any other financing is governed by Chinese law. That means any disputes must go to Beijing, not the Bahamas and not an international court. The country is essentially welcoming Chinese law onto its own soil, which could end up having a negative effect on its sovereignty down the line. 

Second, there’s a clause that says the state-owned China Railway Construction Corporation Ltd. must be the main contractor on the project. That company is currently on the United States Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)’s restricted investment list due its links to China’s military-industrial complex.    

Third, there’s a 50-50 labor clause, meaning that half of the workers on the project must be Chinese. 

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US “Being Humiliated” by Iran’s Leadership, German Chancellor Merz Says

A seemingly ever-widening rift between Europe and Trump’s America is emerging as the war with Iran drags on, exposing not only strategic confusion but growing skepticism among America’s closest allies.

What began as a show of force has increasingly come to resemble a costly stalemate—one that critics, of whom there is no shortage, argue lacks both clarity and direction. At the center of the latest criticism leveled at the direction of Trump is German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has sharply questioned his administration’s handling of the conflict.

Speaking publicly to students in Germany, Merz, who leads the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), warned that the United States appears to have entered the war without a viable endgame. “The Iranians are clearly stronger than expected and the Americans clearly have no truly convincing strategy,” he said.

“An entire nation [the United States] is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards,” the German Chancellor said, adding that he “hopes that this ends as quickly as possible.”

Merz’s comments reflect a broader unease across Europe, where leaders are now grappling with the economic fallout of a conflict they did not initiate. Energy prices have surged, supply chains have tightened, and the costs are being passed directly to European taxpayers.

Additionally, such language signals a dramatic shift from earlier European support for the campaign. While some leaders initially aligned with Trump’s stated objectives, the prolonged conflict and lack of measurable progress have eroded that backing.

It’s worth noting that Merz was one of the liberal-globalist EU leaders that initially baked Trump’s moves in the Middle East. The disruption of the Strait of Hormuz has proven particularly damaging. As one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints, its partial closure has driven oil prices above $100 per barrel, intensifying inflation across already fragile European economies.

Merz did not mince words about the consequences. The war, he said, is “costing us a great deal of money,” underscoring the growing frustration among European leaders who feel sidelined in decisions with global repercussions.

At the same time, diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict appear increasingly chaotic. Planned negotiations between American and Iranian officials have repeatedly stalled, including a high-profile meeting in Islamabad that was abruptly abandoned.

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Shorter Pritzker: Trump Deserved It, and I’ll Justify It by Completely and Hilariously Wrecking Myself

J.B. Pritzker’s contemptible reaction to the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner was about as bad as one can imagine, but things devolved into a complete and hilarious self-own when Pritzker’s “Trump started it” rationale was lost in the blur of his own memory. 

Only long-time, discerning readers of PJ Media will appreciate that the joke was on Pritzker.  And, I must say, it’s hard to write when you’re laughing at him so much. I’ll bravely press on, however.

Pritzker was interviewed on CNN Monday — that’s a day-and-a-half after the crazed leftist TDS-afflicted Democrat would-be killer attacked the White House Correspondents Dinner, where Trump was a featured speaker. That means the dieting Pritzker had plenty of time to compose and lose his thoughts in one of his fat rolls before he even thought to fact-check them. 

That’s a lot of time in politics. 

But here was Pritzker, urging CNN’s Manu Raju to adopt his premise that it was all Trump’s fault because he started it. And besides trying to get Raju to ignore all the times the Democrats have called for, organized, and fundraised for political violence, he spectacularly beclowned himself with the following exchange.

“Remember that it’s been Donald Trump and the Republicans that have called for political violence,” Pritzker straight-facedly told Manu Raju. And then, beckoning Raju to take his thought-journey with him, said, “You know, Donald Trump from the very beginning — remember when he talked about a protester at one of his rallies, that they should just beat him up, punch him…

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Harmeet Dhillon Announces DOJ’s Big Win Defending xAI from Colorado DEI Law

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon announced a major win for American artificial intelligence (AI) dominance after her department intervened in a lawsuit challenging a new Colorado law that prohibits “algorithmic discrimination” during an interview on Breitbart News Saturday.

Speaking with Breitbart News political editor Bradley Jaye, Dhillon revealed details on the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) recent success at getting the state of Colorado to agree not to enforce SB24-205, which requires AI developers and deployers to satisfy certain disclosure, reporting, and prevention requirements when creating algorithm products designed for services like mortgage lending, student admissions, and job-candidate selection. 

The bill’s text included an explicit carveout for discriminatory algorithms designed to advance “diversity” or “redress historic discrimination,” and AI company xAI filed a lawsuit against the statute on April 9, alleging it is unconstitutional.

Marking the first time that the DOJ has intervened in a case challenging state regulations on AI, Dhillon’s team joined the case on behalf of xAI on Friday. Together, they argued that “embedding AI with state-mandated discrimination is a recipe for disaster.”

Emphasizing that the Civil Rights Division at the DOJ is meant to “protect American citizens, and even American companies, from discrimination on the basis of impermissible racial, gender, et cetera criteria,” Dhillon told Jaye that Colorado had attempted to require companies and municipalities to “look at outcomes and then racially balance and adjust their algorithms to produce outcomes that reflect the demographic population.”

“This is not required by law. In fact, it’s prohibited by federal law,” she stated. “And you know, worse, the statute actually carved out if people or companies are doing discrimination to remedy past discrimination, that’s okay. All of this is just nonsense, and it stifles innovation, and it’s illegal under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

In addition to violating the Fourteenth Amendment, Dhillon noted that xAI also has First Amendment arguments against the bill, “because, effectively, the state is compelling it to utter certain speech in furtherance of these DEI goals.”

“We’re not arguing that because the government doesn’t have that obligation, but we’re stepping in to protect American citizens and American companies,” she explained, before revealing the success of her efforts on Friday. 

“We had a great result yesterday,” Dhillon announced, recounting how Colorado “agreed to not enforce the law against xAI” within just a couple of hours of the DOJ intervening. 

“And by the evening, before we went to bed, we had Colorado agree to not enforce it against anybody until they send it back to the legislature to fix it,” she explained. “So it’s pretty much a total win for American consumers and companies, and the first instance of the United States Department of Justice stepping in on an AI case to really protect this innovation and protect Americans from discrimination by AI algorithmic manipulation.”

Highlighting why civil rights work should be “important” to people on the right side of the political aisle, Dhillon told Jaye that conservatives “have come to look at civil rights as something that’s been weaponized against Americans, but civil rights are for all Americans.”

“So what we’re doing in the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is exactly that — we’re standing up for all Americans, like in this xAI case.”

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Tim Walz Gets Nuked by Scott Jennings and Others for Claiming to be Against Political Violence After WHCD Shooting

After the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner this weekend, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz published a tweet claiming that he is against political violence.

He could have fooled us.

Just last week, Walz attended a far left conference in Barcelona, Spain and bashed President Trump as a fascist. Greg Gutfeld later accused Walz of treason for doing this.

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“You Don’t Have the Right to Say Climate Change is a Hoax!”- Purple-Haired Democrat LOSES IT as Lee Zeldin Schools Her on Two Landmark Supreme Court Cases

Congress’s purple-haired congresswoman had a near-complete meltdown after EPA administrator Lee Zeldin completely embarrassed her during an an exchange on ‘climate change’ and the law.

On Monday, Zeldin testified before the House Appropriations Committee regarding President Trump’s 2027 budget request. As The Washington Examiner notes, the proposed budget would cut the agency’s budget in half if approved by Congress.

During the hearing, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) angrily attacked Zeldin for “appeasing polluters” and ignoring Americans under “the false flag of economic growth.”

Zeldin responded by explaining that he’s following the law, pointing out that it says nothing about fighting climate change.

Then, he asked DeLauro if she was familiar with the Loper Bright Supreme Court case.

Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo is a landmark Supreme Court case in 2024 which overturned the long-standing Chevron doctrine, fundamentally altering the balance of power between the judiciary and federal agencies.

The Chevron doctrine, established in the 1984 case Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, has long been a source of contention. It granted deference to federal agencies in interpreting ambiguous statutes, effectively allowing unelected bureaucrats to make laws through their regulatory actions.

However, by a 6-3 majority, SCOTUS declared that such power is unconstitutional and goes against the principles of democratic governance.

DeLauro had no clue what Zeldin was talking about and went berserk:

“You do not, excuse, you don’t have the right to say climate change does not exist, that it’s a hoax!” she yelled at the EPA Administrator.

The exchange got even worse for DeLauro when Zeldin exposed her for not knowing about another landmark Supreme Court decision: West Virginia Vs. EPA.

In this 2022 case, The Court determined by a 6-3 margin that Congress did not authorize the EPA to compel existing power plants to combat climate change using the Clean Air Act, thereby curbing the agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from them.

All DeLauro could do was yell at Zeldin and finally snapped completely by saying, “I don’t have to listen to this BS!”

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America: Land of the (Not Really) Free

Last week, President Donald Trump commemorated income tax payments being due by having DoorDash deliver food from McDonald’s to the White House. The delivery was intended to highlight the first year of tax-free tips. Removing tax on tips was part of the 2025 Big Beautiful Bill (BBB).

As the sponsor of the first No Tax on Tips legislation introduced in Congress, I was obviously pleased to see this change in tax laws included in the BBB. The bill also included other good tax changes such as removing tax on overtime and extending the 2017 tax cuts. Unfortunately, the bill also increased federal spending and debt.

Supporters of the income tax implicitly endorse the idea that our rights are gifts from government and, thus, can be revoked by government at the will of our rulers. Adoption of the income tax signified the abandonment of the belief that individuals have inalienable rights granted them by the Creator.

Therefore, those who believe in natural rights must reject income taxation. It is also a violation of the people’s rights when the central bank reduces the value of the dollar, and thus the people’s purchasing power, via the hidden inflation tax.

The income tax system’s rejection of natural rights is exemplified by withholding that gives government first claim on an individual’s earnings. The government then may return, via what it calls a refund, some of what was taken. However, a normal refund is when a business returns a customer’s payment because the customer is dissatisfied with the good or service he received, not when a thief returns some of what the thief stole.

Withholding was implemented during World War Two as a “temporary” wartime measure. Yet, it is still with us decades later.

Milton Friedman, as a young economist, played a role in the US government’s development of withholding. Of course, Friedman went on to become a leading advocate for free markets. He also redeemed himself for his work on withholding by becoming a prominent advocate for ending the military draft.

The draft is the worst example of how the government has rejected the principles of the Declaration of Independence. The draft gives government power to force young men (and possibly young women) to join the military and kill or be killed in a war. Contrary to the beliefs of some progressives, support for the draft is not justified by allowing individuals to choose between serving in the military or performing some other form of mandated “service.”

While the US does not have a military draft, the infrastructure for the draft remains in place via Selective Service registration. A provision in this year ‘s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) allows Selective Service to automatically register all men between the ages of 18 and 25. This makes it easier than ever for government to reinstate a draft.

Income taxes, along with the military draft and other types of mandated “service,” are incompatible with a free society and should be opposed by all who value liberty and peace. As Ronald Reagan said in a statement that could be modified to apply to income taxes, the draft “rests on the assumption that your kids belong to the state…. That assumption isn’t a new one. The Nazis thought it was a great idea.”

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Ilhan Omar’s Brain Fart Resurfaces: Congresswoman Reads “World War II” as “World War Eleven”

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), the Somalia-born radical who somehow landed on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has once again proven why America’s enemies are laughing all the way to the bank.

A viral video from her past presser last year on the Alien Enemies Act has resurfaced, showing the congresswoman solemnly declaring that the last time the law was invoked was “during World War Eleven.”

She apparently skipped right past the greatest generation’s fight against actual Nazis and fascists and jumped straight into some alternate timeline where Hitler had eight more shots at world domination.

“Last time the Alien Enemies Act was invoked it was used to detain and deport German, Japanese, Italian immigrants during World War eleven.”

The clip, which has racked up hundreds of thousands of views across X and Instagram, shows Omar quickly correcting herself with a sheepish “oh two, sorry,” but the damage was done.

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Apple Adds Age Verification to Digital ID in Wallet, Moves Beyond TSA Airport Checkpoints

Apple just turned on the next phase of its Digital ID rollout and the framing in the company’s support documentation is almost casual. The passport-derived credential in Apple Wallet can now be used to confirm a user is over 18 when creating an Apple Account, updating iOS, adjusting safety settings, or downloading apps rated 18+. No press release accompanied the change, by the way.

The understated rollout undersells what is actually happening. Apple, like Google, Meta, Discord, and every other consumer-facing platform of significant size, is racing to operationalize digital identity infrastructure to meet a wave of age-verification mandates landing across the US, UK, EU, and Australia.

The companies did not invent this demand; lawmakers did, but the response is arriving faster than the laws themselves, and the architecture being built right now will outlast any specific statute that prompted it.

The UK’s Online Safety Act is already forcing platforms to verify ages with documented credentials.

Discord attempted its own age-verification rollout earlier this year, paused after backlash, and has continued reworking the system. State laws in the US are moving in the same direction with Texas, Louisiana, Utah, and a growing list of others passing mandates that target app stores, social platforms, and adult content sites.

Federal proposals keep recycling similar models. The European Union is preparing its own age-verification framework. Australia has already legislated a social media ban for under-16s.

The platforms doing the verifying have a choice. They can build the credential infrastructure themselves, license it from third-party vendors who upload your passport to their servers, or hand the job to the operating system that already lives on your phone. Apple’s Digital ID, and Google’s parallel work on digital credentials in Android, are bids to be the third option. They are also bids to be the default option, because once an OS-level identity wallet exists, regulators tend to treat it as the natural place to plug in.

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Recording of Phone Call Reveals Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass Was Warned About Danger of Wildfires Before Her Trip to Ghana

A newly resurfaced recording of a damning phone call has revealed that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was warned about the potential for the dangerous and destructive wildfires that swept through southern California more than a year ago.

She had all of this information before she left the country for a trip to Ghana. She went anyway.

It’s just another reminder of how incompetent Bass is as a mayor. The people of Los Angles were doomed before the fires even began.

PJ Media reports:

In the leaked audio, Bass was reportedly talking to John Alle, a local resident and property manager in the Santa Monica and Westlake areas. Alle himself confirmed this here.

Reports are that Elle called Bass on Jan. 4, 2025, warning her about the risks tied to the weather, the wind, and dry conditions. In the call, Alle said he tried to convince Bass not to leave for Africa, but in the secretly recorded audio, she told Elle she had no intention of canceling her trip in spite of all his warnings.

To be sure, we have not been able to verify with 100% certainty the validity of this leaked audio, but it is worth noting that neither Bass nor her office has disputed the call’s authenticity and the content of the audio.

This is the transcript of the call:

Bass says, “The situation is very dangerous, and I would never do… I will take the criticism before I do a publicity stunt, and frankly a press conference at this point in time would just be publicity.”

Elle interrupts with, “I think my neighbors, property owners, and the residents – 41,000 people live within a square mile here. Two families share a one-bedroom apartment…”

Bass then says, “But they wanna hear that something is gonna be done.”

Elle replies, “They want to know it’s recognized.”

Bass then gets creepily cryptic, “Exactly, but if I have a choice between that and compromising something, I just have to go along with it. It’s not my area of expertise. I wanna make sure that you are safe. And hopefully you can read in between the lines. But I would just appreciate… and it’s hard for me to tell you this, but um, hold tight. You will understand soon.”

The two then indicate they now understand each other, and Bass then adds, “And when I am able to talk, I will be happy to go into great detail.”

Elle reminds Bass, “You’ve got me on the street, and you’re welcome to call me at any time, I’ll call you right back.”

On the matter of her plans to travel to Ghana in the midst of this crisis, Bass tells Elle, “Just in terms of my trip, just so you know I’m missing two work days. That’s it. And if President Biden extends an invitation, I took it.”

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