Blog

Zohran Mamdani Boasts ‘Free’ NYC Bus Plan Would Cost $700 Million a Year

New York City mayoral candidate and state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani defended his proposal to make all city buses free during Wednesday night’s final mayoral debate, estimating the initiative would cost roughly $700 million annually and arguing it would ultimately benefit the city’s economy and environment.

Mamdani said the proposal “addresses the fact that today, in the wealthiest city, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, one in five New Yorkers cannot afford the bus fare.” He described the measure as both an economic and social investment, explaining that “It could cost $700 million a year to make the slowest buses in the country fast and free,” but claimed the city would “generate more than double in economic revenue for New Yorkers across the city.”

He added that eliminating fares would “reduce assaults on bus drivers,” “increase ridership on those buses,” and “actually have environmental impacts as fewer New Yorkers would drive their own car or take a taxi and would instead get on the bus.” Mamdani stated he was confident in the plan’s feasibility because, as a state assemblyman, he “delivered it as the state assembly member who won the first free buses in New York City’s history.”

The cost projection drew comparisons to other cities that have experimented with fare-free transit, most notably Kansas City, which became the first major U.S. city to eliminate bus fares in 2020. After several years, city officials moved to reinstate fares amid ongoing financial and operational challenges. According to an April 2025 KCUR report, the Kansas City Council voted to bring back $2 fares and reduce route frequency after the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority warned that, without new funding sources, it could be forced to cut 13 of its 29 routes. The council’s six-month plan allocated $46.7 million to keep the system running through October while the agency seeks additional funding to sustain operations in the long term.

Mamdani’s comments come as his economic platform continues to draw attention for its sweeping government-led initiatives. The democratic socialist has previously proposed city-run grocery stores and increasing property taxes in “richer and whiter neighborhoods,” as well as backing measures to buy private housing for communal use. Polling reported by Breitbart News shows Mamdani leading the mayoral race with 43 percent of support citywide, bolstered by strong backing from foreign-born voters and younger residents.

Keep reading

Deep State Prosecutors in Maryland Claim DOJ Doesn’t Have Strong Enough Case to Charge Adam Schiff with Mortgage Fraud in Latest Leak to Media – Todd Blanche Responds!

Deep State prosecutors in Maryland are defending Adam Schiff amid an investigation into his mortgage fraud.

Democrat Senator Adam Schiff (CA) is under investigation for mortgage fraud, specifically occupancy fraud.

The Gateway Pundit’s Joe Hoft was first to report on Schiff’s mortgage fraud back in April 2023.

Fox News’ Laura Ingraham over the summer exclusively reported that the US Attorney’s Office in Maryland is investigating Schiff for possible charges involving mortgage fraud.

In 2000 Schiff was elected to Congress and has served as a US House member from the state of California ever since. Schiff reportedly purchased a home in Maryland with his wife in 2003 stating they would occupy this home for 12 consecutive months as their “primary residence”. Despite this claim, Schiff continued to vote in California.

Schiff refinanced his home in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013 claiming the Maryland home was his primary residence. In 2009, a House Ethics investigation claimed that Schiff did this and Schiff claimed it was an error and he repaid the exempt taxes to the state of Maryland.

Maryland prosecutors are now defending Schiff by anonymously leaking to the media and claiming that there is no evidence to charge the Democrat Senator with crimes.

Over the summer, President Trump called for Adam Schiff to be prosecuted and dropped receipts on the Democrat Senator’s mortgage fraud.

“Adam Schiff is a THIEF! He should be prosecuted, just like they tried to prosecute me, and everyone else — The only difference is, WE WERE TOTALLY INNOCENT, IT WAS ALL A GIANT HOAX!” President Trump said on Truth Social.

Keep reading

Failed Democrat Candidate Is Accused of Stealing Georgia Power Trade Secrets

A Democrat former Public Service Commission (PSC) candidate was accused Tuesday of stealing trade secrets from Georgia Power.

Patty Durand was arrested and charged with felony theft, Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) reported Wednesday.

A hearing was held regarding “Georgia Power’s request to add two Plant Vogtles’ worth of new power, mostly for data centers,” the outlet said, adding that Durand opposes such centers and rate hikes and operates the watchdog group known as Georgia Utility Watch.

Video footage taken the day of the hearing allegedly shows Durand, in a brown jacket, walk up to a desk and pick up a booklet. However, she puts it back down and moves to the other end of the room.

Moments later, Durand approaches another desk and appears to pick up another booklet before allegedly placing it inside her bag and leaving the room.

The GPB article said:

Durand criticized the lack of transparency in Georgia Power’s agreements with data centers in an interview with GPB in August.

“The Public Service Commission allows very heavy redactions and trade secrets,” she said. “So the contracts between Georgia Power and the data centers are also redacted and trade secreted. So no one will know what they actually charge data centers.”

It was unclear what officials believed Durand was going to do with the material she allegedly stole, and Georgia Power is working with authorities on the case, Fox 5 reported.

According to an article by the Georgia Recorder, “This week’s PSC proceedings were held to consider a request from Georgia Power to add nearly 10,000 megawatts to the state’s power grid. About 60% of the energy requested would come from expanding or building new gas plants, while 40% would come from renewable energy.”

Keep reading

It Didn’t Start With Trump

“What do you expect when you sue the president?”

Hearing that comment, some people may guess the comment was made by someone addressing one of President Trump’s political opponents who has been targeted for federal prosecution.

That quote, though, is much older.

It is from an IRS agent addressing officials of a conservative organization that was being audited during Bill Clinton’s presidency.

This illustrates that the use of federal agencies to punish presidents’ enemies did not start with President Trump.

The administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt used tax investigations against political opponents.

Targeted individuals included publishers of newspapers that were highly critical of Roosevelt’s domestic and foreign policies.

President John F. Kennedy used the IRS and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to drive his conservative critics off the radio.

President Lyndon Johnson also used the IRS and the FCC to silence conservative critics.

One tool that was used to silence conservatives was to accuse broadcasters of violating the “fairness doctrine” by favoring conservative commentators.

President Richard Nixon used the IRS to target political enemies.

The Nixon administration also threatened television and radio companies with revocation of their broadcast licenses unless they provided favorable coverage of the administration.

During the Clinton administration, the IRS not only targeted conservative and libertarian organizations it audited Paula Jones after she sued President Clinton for sexual harassment.

During the George W. Bush years, the IRS targeted organizations critical of the Iraq War. When Barack Obama assumed the presidency, the tax agency turned its attention back to conservative and libertarian groups, with a focus on organizations associated with the Tea Party.

The Department of Homeland Security also issued a warning that those with pro-liberty bumper stickers — including supporting the Libertarian Party or my presidential campaign — might be violent extremists.

During the Biden administration, many Americans received harsh sentences for being present at the Capitol on January 6 even if they did not commit any violent acts.

Keep reading

Special Prosecutor Launches Investigation into Disgraced Democrat Virginia AG Candidate Jay Jones After Allegedly Faking 1,000 Hours of Court-Ordered Community Service Following Reckless Driving Conviction

A special prosecutor has been appointed to investigate how disgraced Democrat attorney general candidate Jay Jones allegedly satisfied 1,000 hours of court-ordered community service following his reckless driving conviction for going 116 MPH in a 70 MPH zone.

Jones, already under fire for past politically violent rhetoric in which he expressed a desire to kill his GOP rival, faced devastating scrutiny when incumbent Attorney General Miyares opened last week’s debate by reminding Virginians of Jones’s 116-mph joyride down Interstate 64.

Earlier this month, Miyares wrote on X, “Jay Jones was caught recklessly driving 116 miles per hour on I-64. Then, he tried to claim campaign work for his own PAC counted as community service to avoid jail. Jay Jones is too soft-on-crime — including his own.”

Jason Miyares:
The reality is that Jay Jones was in court for going 116 miles an hour on Interstate 64. Four people were in court that day, all going roughly the same speed. Three of those four people got suspended or active jail sentences. But Jay Jones is a politician, and he asked the court not to give him any of that—to give him community service.

And instead, we now know he misled the court. That community service wasn’t done for a charity; it was done for his own political action committee that he controlled.

According to the New Kent County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, a circuit court judge approved a motion assigning the case to Special Prosecutor Nathan Green, Commonwealth’s Attorney for Williamsburg and James City County, WJLA reported.

The move follows weeks of mounting scrutiny over whether Jones falsified or misrepresented his community service documentation to avoid the penalties typically faced by others convicted of similar offenses.

Keep reading

The Pandemic That Broke Our Faith in Modeling

Several incidents in the COVID pandemic’s first two years forced me to confront the uncomfortable reality that American society had cracked apart, fleeing the comfort and safety of accepted knowns to float untethered from logic in a foreign ether far from planet Earth. Welcome to Mars.

But prior incidents had already trained and prepared my mind to expect a coming derangement. During the Persian Gulf War and the Northridge Earthquake, I had near-death experiences that lingered for years in memory, forever shaping my future actions. Just as scary as thinking I was about to die were the frightening behaviors I witnessed in those around me. During the Gulf War, a soldier in my division came across an Iraqi mine. Instead of calling for engineers to destroy the device, he decided to flip it away from himself, blowing off his own head. After the 1994 earthquake stopped shaking my condo so hard the refrigerator fell over and the walls seemed close to caving in, I stepped outside to smell gas leaking from the major pipeline that ran beneath our complex and a nervous neighbor lighting a cigarette to calm his nerves.

Terrified someone we couldn’t see might be lighting up a smoke elsewhere in the condo complex, my roommates and I fled for safety, driving through a surreal cityscape of gas line fires, while I rode in the backseat with a loaded pistol.

Both wars and natural disasters upend the laws and rules that govern our normal existence. Experience has taught me that such tectonic shifts in society’s rules leave many unprepared to adapt and navigate a new ecosystem. My safety and survival, I’ve learned, sometimes depend on putting my back against a wall to watch those around me whose thinking refuses to acclimate.

The rules are changing dramatically, I posted on Facebook, back in the summer of 2020. And some people won’t be able to adapt. You’re gonna see people you have long trusted and respected lose their absolute minds, drop trou and show the whole world their entire ass. Be careful.

I knew crazy was coming. I did not expect that crazy to destroy so much trust in our government, media, and social institutions.

Keep reading

Smoke, Mirrors, and the Pfizer Deal

Iam a mother. I have never been vaccinated myself. I believe deeply in informed consent. And I want to say clearly that I am hopeful about Bobby’s leadership at HHS. I want to believe that he can bring real transparency and accountability to a government that has too often cozied up to the corporations it is supposed to regulate.

But when I read the headlines about Trump’s “landmark” deal with Pfizer, I don’t feel hopeful. I feel misled.

We are told that Pfizer has committed $70 billion to research, development, and production here in the United States. That sounds impressive, like a historic victory for the American people. But the truth is, Pfizer already spends billions every year on research and development. That is simply the business they are in. Without that constant pipeline, they do not survive.

So what is really new here? Nothing at all. It is the same budget they were already going to spend, repackaged and sold as a bold new commitment. The difference now is that Pfizer gets something in return: tariff relief, political cover, and a government-backed direct-to-consumer program called TrumpRx.

That is what makes this deal so frustrating. Pfizer is not changing its behavior. They are not suddenly sacrificing profits or doing more for patients. They are being rewarded for business as usual, only now with added advantages that strengthen their market position even more. And we are being asked to celebrate it as if it is some great victory for ordinary families.

Every producer wants to cut out the middleman. I know this from my own life. As a meat producer, I do not want to pay one. As a vegetable producer, I do not want to pay one. As a content creator, I do not want to pay one. Nobody does. And now Pfizer, of all companies, is getting the official blessing of the US government to do exactly that.

This is the same Pfizer that misled the public during Covid. That is not a rumor, it is documented. Whistleblowers from trial sites described falsified records, patients who were not properly followed up after adverse events, and unqualified staff handling sensitive data. State attorneys general have accused Pfizer of downplaying serious risks, including heart inflammation in young men and pregnancy complications in women. 

Kansas has even claimed the company hid internal studies that showed risks while telling the public something different. And the most central promise of all, that the vaccines would stop transmission, simply was not true, even though the marketing never caught up to that reality.

Keep reading

NATO Jets Scrambled Over Lithuania After Russian Aircraft Breach Airspace

NATO member Lithuania on Thursday alleged that a pair of Russian jets violated its sovereign airspace, in what the government quickly condemned as a breach the country’s territorial integrity.

“This evening, Russian military planes violated Lithuanian air space. This is a blatant breach of international law and territorial integrity of Lithuania,” the country’s President Gitanas Nauseda said in a statement.

Alluding to recent EU plans to create a joint aerial defense and drone shield to protect European airspace from Russian incursions, he added: “Once again, it confirms the importance of strengthening European air defense readiness.”

Nauseda further announced that his foreign ministry will be summoning Russian diplomatic representatives, to lodge formal protest against the “reckless and dangerous behavior”.

Lithuania’s military said it scrambled jets in response to the brief incursion. It said:

Today, Russian military aircraft briefly entered Lithuanian airspace. Our forces acted quickly with NATO jets on patrol. Lithuania remains strong and ready. Every inch of our country is protected.

Initial reports say that two Russian military planes violated the airspace for a mere 18-seconds.

Baltic and Eastern European countries, including Poland, have for several weeks been complaining of Russian aerial incursions. This month Denmark hosted a summit where a ‘drone wall’ was the focus:

Fortified by intense security measures after a wave of drone incursions above airports and sensitive sites, two high-stakes summits in the Danish capital offered a mounting sense of collective clarity — and a possible solution that sounds like science fiction: a “drone wall.”

“There is only one country that are willing to threaten us, and it is Russia,” Danish President Mette Frederiksen told reporters on Wednesday, adding that Europe was in the middle of a “hybrid war.”

“I think we are in the most difficult and dangerous situation since the end of the Second World War,” she added. “I want us to rearm. I want us to buy more capabilities. I want us to innovate more.”

Likely Thursday’s event happened off Lithuania’s coast over the Baltic Sea, where Russian and NATO planes frequently patrol.

Keep reading

ACLU distributes mailer clearly favoring Dem Jay Jones in Virginia AG race despite policy of not endorsing candidates

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently paid for and distributed a left-wing mailer in Virginia regarding the state attorney general race, using language that clearly favors Jones as the candidate, despite the organization having a policy against endorsing or opposing political candidates as a nonprofit organization.

The mailer, which was delivered to multiple locations in Virginia, stated, “The ACLU does not endorse or oppose candidates, but we do want voters to make an informed choice” under a table showing the positions of Jones on Miyares on the topics of abortion, voting rights, federal funding, and Medicaid.

Although the flyer did not explicitly endorse Jones, the ACLU provided multiple direct quotes from the Democrat, who was recently revealed to have wished for the death of GOP politician Todd Gilbert as well as his children. In the portion dedicated to Miyares, no quotes from the GOP politician were cited and the ACLU used left-wing phrasing such as that Miyares wanted to “take away the federal constitutional right to abortion” and painted the AG candidate in a negative light. 

On federal funding cuts, the ACLU characterized Miyares negatively, saying that the Virginia AG did not join a wave of left-wing Attorneys General who “challenged federal layoffs that gutted civil rights enforcement and impacted thousands of Virginians.”

Conversely, the ACLU pulled a direct quote from Jones, which was not only a talking point in favor of Jones, but also an attack on Miyares. “While our current AG enables Trump’s attacks on our workforce, I promise to use every tool to protect Virginia federal workers,” the ACLU cited as Jones’ position on federal funding.  

One individual reported getting the mailer in Virginia, and posted a video to X, shredding the flyer with the caption, “The only thing to do with the ACLU’s pro Jay Jones mailers.”

Keep reading

Why Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Sewer Socialism’ Won’t Help Poor People

New York City is poised to elect a Jew-hating, jihadi-loving, police-defunding socialist for mayor. But New York Times contributor E.J. Dionne thinks that this is fine, because Zohran Mamdani wants to be a “sewer socialist.” Which is to say that “he is far more interested in the practical task of being a successful mayor than in the impossible dream of turning a single city into a socialist paradise.“

Dionne is the sort of self-described Catholic Democrat who prefers the party platform to the catechism of his church, and so he is a willing mark for Mamdani’s efforts to reassure voters that he isn’t a dangerous radical. Per Dionne, Mamdani understands that the best advertisement for socialism is success, and he therefore seeks to revive a tradition of socialist mayors who eagerly worked on “the grubbiest of urban amenities because doing so underscored their aim of running corruption-free governments that did whatever they could to improve the lives of working-class people.” 

That sounds nice. It would be good for the Big Apple if Mamdani delivered on this ideal. Indeed, if the Democrats who run our nation’s cities focused on good government, it would be good for their constituents, their party’s political fortunes, and the nation as a whole, which is harmed when Leftists such as Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson run our cities into the ground. But an outbreak of good government via urban socialism is not going to happen, no matter how much credulous liberals such as Dionne want to believe.

The first barrier is ideological. Socialism has changed since the early 20th century days that Dionne pines for. It is not about taking from the haves to give to the have-nots anymore (if it ever was). Rather, today’s socialism is an amalgamation of woke ideology, from intersectionality to anti-colonialism. Its advocates don’t care about sewers in working-class neighborhoods nearly as much as they do about climate change and letting sex offenders into the girls’ locker room. Today’s Left will enthusiastically take food from poor kids to pressure schools into implementing the rainbow agenda.

The result is an incoherent agenda that will hurt those whom Mamdani claims to want to help. For example, because socialism views excellence with suspicion, he wants to eliminate gifted programs for young public-school students. This will do nothing to advance the interests of the working class; it will only sabotage the chances of bright kids whose parents cannot afford private school tuition. Likewise, his antipathy toward law enforcement will undermine his signature initiatives, such as free busses. It is not just that “free” busses will, by his own estimate, cost taxpayers billions, but that people will avoid them because the Left refuses to enforce the laws that keep public spaces safe.

Keep reading