Blog

Dem Infighting Worsens as Fingers Start Pointing in Heated California Governor’s Race

The warm California summers have nothing on the flaring tempers within the state’s crowded gubernatorial race.

And most of that bickering is coming from just one side of the political aisle.

As Democrats vie to get past the state’s unique primary system — wherein neither major political party is guaranteed to have a candidate in the final two — tensions are rising significantly between them.

As the New York Post pointed out, one of the contenders, California Rep. Katie Porter, is now trying to reframe one of her biggest campaign blunders as an indictment against a fellow Democrat.

Porter told CNN that she was “confident” that the unflattering videos that began circulating in October 2025 of her screaming at various aides and acting in other uncouth manners were ultimately leaked by billionaire gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer.

“I am confident that is the case,” she said.

Steyer’s campaign has denied this allegation.

Keep reading

Blue Cities Like Portland Prioritize the Antisocial Over the Law-Abiding

Like many of America’s once-great metropolises, Portland, Oregon, has seen better days. Drug-addled homeless continue to ravage the streets, and businesses have begun packing their bags for greener pastures, following the thousands of city residents who have had enough.

The reason Portland has become such a disaster is simple: It prioritizes the needs of its most destructive residents over those who follow the law. A story from last week exemplifies this perfectly.

Portland resident Chris Bolton tried to get the city to deal with a festering homeless camp outside his home. After spending months begging the city to come sweep the camp, Bolton was stunned to receive a visit from the Portland Bureau of Transportation, claiming he was the problem due to an overgrown hedge that would block a proposed stop sign.

The city then threatened Bolton with fines and liens if he didn’t deal with the hedge, all while drug paraphernalia, deserted vehicles, and biowaste accumulated nearby. Bolton and some neighbors trimmed the hedge and even cleaned up some of the homeless’ trash. The city then tried to punish Bolton for doing what the city failed to do.

Bolton’s experience reveals the logic increasingly common in progressive governance: The law-abiding are regulated aggressively, while chronic disorder is accommodated indefinitely. In Portland, those who follow the law are targets, not just of the lawless, but of the city itself.

By contrast, the lawless are free to do as they like—someone else will deal with the mess later. The vagrants outside of Bolton’s house left mountains of trash that he was eventually forced to clean up. No consequences for them, just for Bolton.

And when the natural consequences of the government’s failure to act in the interest of its citizenry come home to roost, that same government seeks to punish the law-abiding even more.

It’s no surprise, then, that Portland’s downtown is hollowing out in the wake of lax enforcement and a hostile political climate. The city’s office vacancy rate sits at a record high of almost 30%, one of the highest rates of any city in the country.

Why would any business choose to invest in Portland? The city has proven that it refuses to deal with the myriad problems preventing businesses from thriving. Fentanyl zombies prowl unabated, causing anemic foot traffic. Unrestricted shoplifting ensures that retail consistently operates at a loss. All that paired with a tax rate rivaled only by New York City, and investing in Portland looks like a losing proposition.

Rather than enforce the law, city leaders respond by seeking to punish the few remaining businesses. Portland authorities are considering a vacancy fee that would punish business owners whose properties remain empty for too long.

That same punitive philosophy shapes Portland’s drug policy.

Keep reading

Trump Asks DOJ to Launch Investigation Into Maryland After 500,000 Mail-In Ballots Were Sent Out in “Error”

President Trump on Monday afternoon asked the Justice Department to investigate Maryland officials for sending out “500,000 illegal mail-in ballots.”

Last Friday, Maryland election officials said they will be issuing 500,000 new ballots after a vendor made an error in sending out the first batch of ballots for the state’s gubernatorial primary election.

Statement from the Maryland State Board of Elections:

In order to maintain the highest level of confidence and accuracy in mail-in voting, SBE is working with the vendor to send replacement mail-in ballots. While it is possible only a small number of voters received the wrong ballot, and most voters received the correct ballot, all voters must be issued a replacement ballot. This action of resending ballots maintains the integrity and security of mail-in voting.

This error affects only voters who were mailed a ballot before May 14, 2026. If a voter requested and received their mail-in ballot by web delivery (Print at Home ballot), their ballot will not be affected. All affected voters will be notified.

“We are diligently working to address this error and provide clear instructions to those affected as quickly as possible,” said Maryland State Administrator of Elections, Jared DeMarinis. “The State and Local Boards of Elections remain committed to running an election that is verified, secure and accurate. Mail-in voting is an integral facet of the electoral process. With over
500,000 voters requesting mail-in ballots, we want to eliminate any doubt in its integrity or accuracy that is why I have arranged the sending of replacement ballots.”

On Monday, Maryland election officials insisted the first batch of ballots would be sequestered and voided.

President Trump said Maryland sent out illegal ballots.

Keep reading

Fury as Trump gets $1.8 billion taxpayer-funded payout from his own government: ‘Stunning act of corruption’

Donald Trump has struck a $1.8 billion deal with his own IRS to funnel taxpayer money to victims of ‘lawfare’, including January 6 rioters and his political allies, in a settlement that Democrats are calling the most corrupt presidential act in history.

The President, his sons Don Jr and Eric, and the Trump Organization filed suit against the Treasury and IRS in the Southern District of Florida federal court after the leak of their tax returns.

They agreed to drop their suit Monday, as well as two claims, including for damages resulting from the raid on Mar-a-Lago in 2022 and the Russian election interference probe, in exchange for the government’s creation of the ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund.’

The $1.776 billion fund will have the power to issue formal apologies and monetary relief owed to claimants. It will be governed by a five-member commission appointed by the Attorney General, with Trump given the power to remove any member. 

While Trump is barred from directly receiving payments from the fund, entities associated with him are not explicitly prohibited from filing additional ones.

The settlement drew immediate fury from Democrats, among them Senate Finance Committee member Ron Wyden, who said it represented a brazen new level of corruption. 

‘Even by his standards, the move he’s trying to get away with now is a stunning act of corruption,’ said Wyden.

‘What Trump wants is a $1.7billion slush fund for right-wing political violence and subversion, and if he follows through, it will be the most brazen theft and abuse of taxpayer dollars by any president in American history.’ 

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said: ‘The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again.

‘As part of this settlement, we are setting up a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.’ 

The extraordinary arrangement comes despite the misgivings of the judge in the case, Kathleen Williams, who was investigating a potential conflict of interest as Trump sued his own government.

Trump himself conceded last October that ‘it’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself.’

However, the judge has limited legal authority to halt any settlement deal. 

Minutes after Trump’s legal team announced it was dropping the suit on Monday, almost 100 House Democrats submitted a ‘friend-of-the-court’ brief accusing Trump of ‘blatant self-dealing’ as they seek to put legal blocks on the fund.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement: ‘This case is nothing but a racket designed to take $1.7 billion of taxpayer dollars out of the Treasury and pour it into a huge slush fund for Trump at DOJ to hand out to his private militia of insurrectionists, rioters, and white supremacists, including those who brutally beat police officers on January 6, 2021, and sycophant accomplices to his election stealing schemes.’

The Trump administration claims that the fund is non-partisan and that anyone can file a claim if they believe they were mistreated by Biden’s DOJ.

Keep reading

Stacey Abrams Says the Quiet Part Out Loud After Democrats Lose Districts Following the Supreme Court’s Blockbuster Ruling on Racial Gerrymandering

Twice-failed Democrat Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said the quiet part out loud after the Supreme Court issued a ruling on racial gerrymandering.

Abrams appeared on MSNOW on Sunday to discuss the redistricting wars following longtime Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen’s decision to end his reelection bid after Tennessee Republicans erased his district with a newly drawn congressional map.

Tennessee Republicans recently passed a new congressional map that eliminated Cohen’s Memphis district.

Tennessee became the ninth state to approve a new congressional map amid the redistricting wars following the Supreme Court’s blockbuster ruling on Louisiana’s racial gerrymandering.

The case, State of Louisiana v. Phillip Callais (and the related Press Robinson v. Phillip Callais), stems from Louisiana’s woke lawmakers caving to left-wing judges and creating a second “majority-minority” congressional district.

Abrams has cried racism for years and even started a nonprofit aimed at ‘getting out the black vote.’

Recall that in 2013, Abrams created The New Georgia Project, a nonprofit to get out the black vote.

Keep reading

How America’s Recycling Program Failed—and Scarred the Environment

In March 2019, The New York Times ran a shocking story exploring why many prominent US cities were abandoning their recycling programs.

“Philadelphia is now burning about half of its 1.5 million residents’ recycling material in an incinerator that converts waste to energy,” Times business writer Michael Corkery reported. “In Memphis, the international airport still has recycling bins around the terminals, but every collected can, bottle and newspaper is sent to a landfill.”

Philadelphia and Memphis were not outliers. They, along with Deltona, Florida, which had suspended its recycling program the previous month, were just a few examples of hundreds of cities across the country that had scrapped recycling programs or scaled back operations.

Since that time, cities across the country have continued to scrap recycling programs, citing high costs.

“The cost of recycling was going to double, and the town wasn’t going to be able to absorb that cost,” said Dencia Raish, the town clerk administrator for Akron, Colorado, which ended its program in 2021 and now sends “recyclables” to a landfill.

While many Americans likely are distraught about America’s failed recycling experiment, a new video produced by Kite & Key Media reveals that abandoning recycling—at least in its current form—is likely to benefit both Americans and the environment.

Keep reading

Woman Caught on O’Keefe Undercover Camera Illegally Paying People to Register to Vote on Skid Row Federally Charged

A woman who was caught on O’Keefe Media Group’s undercover camera illegally paying people to register to vote on Skid Row in Los Angeles, California, has been federally charged.

The Justice Department on Monday announced that Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong was charged with one felony count of paying another person to register to vote. She is facing a max of five years in federal prison.

“False registrations undermine Americans’ faith in elections – even more so when payoffs are involved,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

“This Justice Department is committed to ensuring that all U.S. elections are fair and free from illegal meddling – so that all Americans can accept the results with confidence,” she said.

Keep reading

BBC’s Former News Director Says Trans Bias and ‘Progressive Madness’ Drove Her Out

The BBC’s grip on impartiality continues to slip as one of its former top news executives publicly confirmed what critics have long argued: activist capture from within has turned the state broadcaster into a vehicle for narrow ideological agendas.

Fran Unsworth, director of BBC News from 2018 to 2022, has broken her silence, claiming she was effectively driven out by trans activists and the “progressive madness” dominating the corporation.

In a candid interview, she described an environment of bullying where editors avoided critical reporting on trans issues for fear of attacks from their own colleagues.

“Just dealing with the progressive editorial issues and the bullying around them all. It was incredibly difficult,” Unsworth said. She added that the atmosphere extended beyond trans topics, with staff no-platforming dissenting views and pushing “safe spaces” over open debate.

Unsworth’s remarks paint a picture of a newsroom where challenging the prevailing narrative on ‘culture war’ issues carried professional risks. Programme editors reportedly steered clear of stories that questioned aspects of the trans agenda, wary of backlash from activist-aligned staff.

This self-censorship contributed to what a leaked internal memo later described as “effective censorship” on the topic.

Keep reading

Sen. Graham Urges Trump to Renew US Strikes on Iran

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Sunday called on President Donald Trump to renew U.S. military strikes on Iran, arguing that a stalled ceasefire and a closed Strait of Hormuz are strengthening Tehran while inflicting economic pain at home.

“I think the status quo is hurting us all,” Graham told NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” framing continued military pressure, not negotiation, as the faster route to ending the war.

Graham’s appeal landed at a stalemate.

U.S.-Iran talks, mediated by Pakistan, have been suspended since both sides rejected each other’s latest proposals, and no permanent peace deal has been reached since the two countries announced a ceasefire last month.

Graham said the impasse only benefits Tehran.

“The longer the [Strait of Hormuz] is closed, the more we try to pursue a deal that never happens, the stronger Iran gets,” he said.

The senator, a leading proponent of Trump’s military campaign, urged the president to “weaken them further.”

He credited the administration’s strikes as “amazing, militarily.” But, he said, “there’s more targets to be had.”

Graham added that nothing in the conflict so far suggests Iran’s leadership has abandoned what he called the regime’s goal “to terrorize the world, destroy Israel, come after us.”

The closed strait, which before the war carried more than a fifth of the world’s energy supply, has driven oil prices rising higher since the conflict began on Feb. 28.

As of Friday, the average U.S. price of unleaded gas was above $4.50 a gallon, up 51% since the war started.

Graham argued that pressure would ease with force, telling moderator Kristen Welker, “Gas prices will come down when you put Iran in a box.”

Tehran has signaled little appetite for compromise.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday that Iran has “no trust” in the U.S. and would negotiate only if Washington is serious, citing “contradictory messages” from American officials.

The diplomatic freeze coincided with Trump’s return from a multiday summit in China, where he met President Xi Jinping.

Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier he had not asked Beijing for help on Iran. “If he wants to help, that’s great, but we don’t need help,” Trump said, adding that accepting help invites obligations in return.

The dispute carries domestic political stakes.

Keep reading

US Treasury Extends Temporary Waiver for Vulnerable Nations To Access Russian Oil Stranded at Sea

More oil as the war drags on.

As the fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran still holds, with ‘serious negotiations’ being held, the effects of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz are still affecting oil prices and the energy security of many countries.

Today (18), Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the Donald J. Trump administration will extend for another month a waiver that allows the sale of Russian crude that is already loaded on tankers.

Politico reported:

“The move is aimed at keeping more oil on global markets and tempering crude prices as the war in Iran, now nearing its third month, continues to choke off shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. But critics have blasted the waiver as allowing Russia to profit from elevated oil prices and enriching Moscow’s war machine.”

“The general license from Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control allows any country to purchase Russian oil already on the water for another month. It extends the sanctions relief, first issued in March and renewed in April, for a third month.

‘This general license will help stabilize the physical crude market and ensure oil reaches the most energy-vulnerable countries’, Bessent said in an X post. ‘It will also help reroute existing supply to countries most in need by reducing China’s ability to stockpile discounted oil’.”

Keep reading