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Trump’s Federal Budget Cuts Could Boost Marijuana Legalization Efforts As States Seek New Revenue, Congresswoman Says

A Democratic congresswoman says the Trump administration’s push to make states pay a larger share for public services such as food assistance and health care amid his efforts to cut federal spending might ultimately “push them in the direction of legalizing marijuana” so they can offset those costs with cannabis tax revenue.

In an interview on the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) Voice of Cannabis podcast that was released on Thursday, Congressional Cannabis Caucus co-chair Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) commented on a wide range of marijuana policy issues—including bipartisan legalization legislation, stalled action on federal reform and the destigmatization of cannabis use in her state after enacting an adult-use marijuana market.

One of the “only good things that comes out of the policy of the White House is that they are pushing more things to the states to pay for—like [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)] and like Medicaid—and so states may be looking for additional sources of revenue,” Titus said. “That may push them in the direction of legalizing marijuana, to some extent, so they can get that tax revenue generated.”

Titus said the lawmakers who back reform were initially “optimistic” about the prospects of a federal policy change under President Donald Trump because of comments he made on the campaign trail in favor of rescheduling, industry banking access and a Florida adult-use legalization ballot initiative left the impression “he was going to be supportive.”

“Now we’ve seen that kind of stall, and we have this crazy secretary of [the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)] that I think is on drugs,” the congresswoman said, referencing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “I don’t know where he’s coming from, and so it’s hard to read what the administration is going to do and if they’re going to make it a priority and if they’re going to weigh in. So that’s another element of the politics that we have to keep in mind.”

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Mexico Is Complicit In The L.A. Riots, And There Should Be Consequences

There’s a lot to say about the rioting and mayhem underway in Los Angeles right now, including the striking prevalence of Mexican flags among the rioters. Iconic images have been circulating online for days of masked men waving Mexico’s flag amid burning vehicles and wreckage, giving the riots a decidedly sinister flavor, as though all this is at least partly the work of foreign powers attempting to undermine the sovereignty of the United States.

In fact, that’s partially true, and it deserves some unpacking. Much of the debate and commentary in recent days has centered on the Trump administration’s response to the crisis, deploying the National Guard and the Marines to restore order in parts of L.A., and the reactions of California Democratic leaders like Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. mayor Karen Bass, who are essentially arguing that law enforcement itself is the problem. Others have speculated on various leftists groups that are in all likelihood funding and organizing these riots, similar to how BLM organized in the summer of 2020, in hopes they will spread to every major city.

But there’s another political player in this drama that’s gotten much less attention: the Mexican government’s ruling MORENA Party under the leadership of President Claudia Sheinbaum. 

The first thing to understand about MORENA and the Mexican political establishment is that it’s essentially a criminal enterprise that has, over the past decade, merged with the country’s major cartels. Mexico essentially lost the drug war that began in 2006, and since at least 2013 the state has been so thoroughly infiltrated by the cartels, particularly Sinaloa, that today it’s difficult to tell where one stops and the other begins.

The cartels of course are not just drug-trafficking organizations anymore. During the Biden administration they figured out how to monetize illegal immigration, which became a major source of income for their organizations and networks. Those networks now include elements of the Guardia Nacional and Instituto Nacional de Migración, the country’s federal immigration authority, both of which were key players in the cartels’ migrant-trafficking operations.

All of that is by way of brief background. On Sunday afternoon, responding to the riots over the weekend, Sheinbaum said Mexican nationals living in the U.S. are “heroes” and denounced President Trump’s attempts to enforce federal immigration law.

“We disagree with this approach to the migration phenomenon,” Sheinbaum said Sunday during a press conference, as reported by the Daily Mail. “It’s not about raids or violence, but rather working on a comprehensive reform that takes into account the Mexicans on the other side of the border,” she added. “That is our position, always a call for peace, to not exacerbate any form of violent protest.”

Sheinbaum added that Mexican nationals in the U.S. are “not criminals” but “good, honest men and women who left to seek a better life for themselves and to support their families.”

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Gavin Newsom And His Cruel Notion Of ‘Cruel’

Recently, Gov. Newsom weighed in on the Trump administration’s efforts to undo the last four years of border destruction, when an estimated 10-12 million illegal aliens entered the U.S. unlawfully—among them thousands with criminal records.

Of the recent Los Angeles efforts of ICE to detain those who entered and reside here illegally, the governor proclaimed:

“Continued chaotic federal sweeps, across California, to meet an arbitrary arrest quota are as reckless as they are cruel. Donald Trump’s chaos is eroding trust, tearing families apart, and undermining the workers and industries that power America’s economy.”

Dissect that statement, and almost everything Newsom said was either not factual or misleading.

“Chaotic?” What is chaotic is allowing 12 million unaudited migrants into the U.S. ahead of those waiting years for background checks and legal permission.

The current antidote to a truly chaotic, nonexistent border was to bring some legality and order back to immigration—and not to perpetuate a wild-west border, drug smuggling, cartel profiteering, and child trafficking and abandonment, which were the Biden-era norms.

Chaotic is 1,000 rioters in southern California swarming ICE officers, endangering their safety and lives—and then being contextualized, excused, or even supported by the governor of the state, who supposedly is an upholder of our laws and their enforcement.

Each time Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom side with violent protests and the intimidation of ICE officers, the greater the chance that an officer will be seriously injured or killed—and the violence will spike. Apparently, both think they are riding a wave of public support, when in fact the latest CBS poll found 54 percent of Americans support such deportations.

California’s elected officials seem clueless that the optics of illegal immigrants torching autos, attacking law enforcement, or pelting bystanders, while waving Mexican flags, are terrible. What is the logic of waving the flag of the country to which one is violently opposed to returning, while assaulting the officers and infrastructure of the very nation in which one is demanding to remain?

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US To Formalize Military Presence In Syria In Deal With AQ-Linked Govt

The US is working to formalize its military presence in Syria by signing a deal with the new al-Qaeda-linked government, according to a report from The New Arab.

The report was published Friday and said that a high-level US military delegation was expected to meet with Syrian officials in the coming days with the goal of shifting the US military presence from an illegal occupation to a formalized, legal partnership.

The report comes as the US has been drawing down its forces in northeastern Syria and handing over some bases to the Kurdish-led SDF. The US is expected to maintain only one base in Syria, the al-Tanf Garrison in the south, which is situated where the borders of Syria, Iraq, and Jordan converge.

From al-Tanf, the US helped its proxy militia, known as the Syrian Free Army (previously known as the Revolutionary Commando Army), join in on the offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on December 8, 2024.

A formal deal on al-Tanf would signal that the US is planning a long-term or even potentially a permanent military presence in Syria. The Pentagon has said that it’s currently working to reduce its forces in Syria to fewer than 1,000 troops in the country. According to the latest reports, approximately 1,500 US troops are currently stationed in the country.

The US has embraced the new Syrian government that’s led by HTS despite the group still being listed by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization due to its al-Qaeda roots.

President Trump recently met with HTS’s leader and Syria’s de facto president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, and praised him as a “young, attractive guy” with a “very strong past.”

Sharaa got his start with al-Qaeda in Iraq, where he fought an insurgency against US troops before being imprisoned from 2006 to 2011. In 2012, he traveled to Syria and formed al-Qaeda’s affiliate in the country, the al-Nusra Front.

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Former Dem ‘super mayor’ pleads the Fifth after failing to produce public records in court

A Chicago suburb’s former Democratic “super mayor” is facing yet another legal hurdle after failing to produce public records from her time in office after being held in contempt of court earlier this month.  

In a hearing on Friday, Tiffany Henyard’s attorney Beau Bridley pleaded the Fifth on his client’s behalf after she was ordered to hand over public records from her time in office.

“The smear campaign against Tiffany Henyard, which began while she was in office, continues even now that she is out of office,” Bridley said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Bridley conceded that the former mayor does not have the requested document, with an Illinois judge allowing Henyard’s legal team to submit an affidavit in its place. 

“The mayor has no document that the plaintiff seeks,” Bridley said. “This matter is going to be resolved with a simple affidavit. The whole hearing was much ado about nothing.”

The hearing stems from a lawsuit filed by the Edgar County Watchdogs Inc., after the organization sued Henyard and the Village of Dolton for failing to produce financial records after the documents were requested under the Freedom of Information Act. 

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NY state Senate approves doctor-assisted suicide bill, sends it to Hochul’s desk for approval

State Senate Democrats passed highly controversial legislation that would allow terminally ill people to take their own lives with the help of doctors in a razor-thin vote Monday — leaving it up to Gov. Kathy Hochul whether to sign it into law.

“This is one of the great social reforms of our state,” state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal (D-Manhattan), the bill’s sponsor in the upper chamber, touted at a press conference earlier in the day Monday — putting the measure on the same tier as the legalization of gay marriage.

“This is about personal autonomy, this is about liberty, this is about exercising one’s own freedom to control one’s body,” Hoylman-Sigal continued.

The measure passed 35 to 27, with six Democrats – Senators April Baskin, Siela Bynoe, Cordelle Cleare, Monica Martinez, Roxanne Persaud, and Sam Sutton – voting against it. 

“The governor will review the legislation,” a spokesperson for Hochul said.

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Peter Thiel’s Palantir Aims Military Grade, Central Intelligence Surveillance Weapons at Americans

In March, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the federal government to share data across various agencies, a move that has not been publicly discussed since but is being implemented with Palantir’s assistance.

This executive order lays the groundwork for Palantir’s involvement, as reported by Raw Story. Palantir’s Gotham software, already used by defense and intelligence agencies, will now profile domestic behavior, detect fraud, and identify risky individuals or patterns.

The Economic Times reported that Palantir is building “the most expansive civilian surveillance infrastructure in U.S. history,” integrating real-time data and AI. As stated in the article:

“Palantir isn’t just improving old databases—it’s building what some experts are calling the most expansive civilian surveillance infrastructure in U.S. history. Instead of scattered files and spreadsheets, the platform will use real-time data integration and artificial intelligence to profile behavior, detect fraud, and identify individuals or patterns deemed risky by the system.” – The Economic Times

This development underscores the scale and potential impact of Palantir’s involvement in domestic surveillance. Raw Story further highlighted the deployment of Palantir’s Foundry platform, noting:

“The push has put a key Palantir product called Foundry into at least four federal agencies, including [the Department of Homeland Security] and the Health and Human Services Department. Widely adopting Foundry, which organizes and analyzes data, paves the way for Mr. Trump to easily merge information from different agencies, the government officials said. Creating detailed portraits of Americans based on government data is not just a pipe dream.” – Raw Story

This expansion into multiple agencies amplifies concerns about privacy and data security. Additionally, the Trump administration seeks access to hundreds of data points, including bank accounts, student debt, medical claims, and disability status.

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REPORT: LA Rioters Now Distributing American Flags After Realizing the Horrible Optics of Waving Foreign Flags for Days

In the four days of rioting in Los Angeles, you may have noticed that there is not an American flag in sight, unless it is being burned or spat upon.

What you mostly see is the flag of Mexico, the Palestinian flag, and even the Communist symbol flag.

Someone must have gotten into the ears of the rioters and told them how absolutely horrible this looks for them because they are now reportedly distributing American flags to rioters in an effort to change their image.

What they don’t realize is that it’s too late. Everyone has seen the foreign flags for days.

They really think this is going to work? Not a chance.

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Anti-ICE Protests Spread to Texas, San Francisco as L.A. Riots Continue

As anti-ICE riots began over the weekend in Los Angeles, involving people throwing objects at law enforcement officials, spray-painting and vandalizing vehicles, and looting businesses, protests have spread to Austin and Dallas, Texas, and San Francisco.

A protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents with “dozens of people” started on “Dallas’ Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge” on Monday night, according to Fox4 News.

KXAN News reported that as of 10:08 p.m. (CDT), protesters in Austin had torn “down construction barriers, scooters and other equipment” and were “throwing it in the middle” of the street as they walked.

Prior to this, law enforcement officials in Austin had warned protesters to “get off the street” around 9:31 p.m., according to the outlet.

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Urban NYS Dems want to limit how many cows dairy farms can own in latest green push — sparking upstate-downstate beef

This new cow law is total bull.

State lawmakers from the Big Apple want to limit the number of cows on dairy farms in their latest green push – a proposal that opponents argue would cripple the industry.

The legislation, whose backers include members of the Democratic Socialists of America, would prohibit new or expanding dairy farms from reaching or exceeding 700 cows, a measure supporters said would improve the environment and help smaller family farms across the Empire State.

But the proposed moo-ve has sparked an upstate-downstate beef between lawmakers from rural and urban districts — with even Gov. Kathy Hochul viewing the bill as “insane,” according to a source close to the Democratic leader.

“Let’s be clear: this bill makes no sense,” Sen. Mark Walczyk (R-Jefferson) said in a statement.

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