Tag: politicians

US Condemns Prosecution of Finnish Lawmaker Over Bible Verse Tweet

Finland’s prosecution of Päivi Räsänen has drawn sharp condemnation from the US State Department, which labeled the charges “baseless” and included a Bible verse in a rare public gesture of support.

This comes as Finland’s Supreme Court prepares to hear a case widely regarded as a test of whether expressing religious beliefs can be treated as a criminal act in a democratic nation.

The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor made its position clear on X, stating: “In a democracy, no one should face trial for peacefully sharing their beliefs. The case against Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen, which accuses her of hate speech for simply posting a Bible verse, is baseless, as two courts have unanimously found.”

The post included a verse from Matthew 5:11: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”

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“I’m So F**king Sick Of Watching Politicians Get Rich While They’re In Office…”

Ilhan Omar: Preaching Socialism, Practicing Capitalism 

I am so f**kng sick of watching politicians on both sides of the aisle get rich while they’re in office. But when politicians rail against millionaires and billionaires while quietly joining their ranks, it’s even worse, because it’s hypocrisy dressed up as virtue.

Few examples are as glaring as Rep. Ilhan Omar’s latest financial disclosure.

Just months ago, Omar dismissed rumors about her personal wealth as “ridiculous” and “categorically false,” insisting she was just a working mom with student loan debt.

Now, according to filings reported by the New York Post and Washington Free Beacon, Omar and her husband, Tim Mynett, are sitting on a net worth of up to $30 million. That’s a 3,500% jump in a single year.

Either her financial situation changed at the speed of light, or her earlier denials weren’t worth much. And the hypocrisy runs even deeper when it comes to those who spend their careers railing against capitalism, wealth, and inequality. Which is to say nothing of Omar’s critiques of the U.S., calling it “one of the worst countries” in a recent interview.

Her net worth didn’t come from thriftiness on a congressional salary. It came from her husband’s businesses: a California winery and a Washington, D.C.–based venture capital firm, Rose Lake Capital.

The winery was valued at a measly $15,000 to $50,000 last year but is now worth up to $5 million. Normal.

Rose Lake Capital went from essentially worthless to being valued between $5 million and $25 million, while the company boasts of managing a staggering $60 billion in assets.

Not bad for a family that supposedly embodies the struggles of everyday Americans.

And lets just say Omar’s net worth surge was legitimate for a second. She married into wealth — or her husband is just a resounding success — that’s not what bothers me.

What bothers me the most is that Omar has built her career thundering against the wealthy and declaring capitalism a system rigged against the little guy. She lectures about inequality, demonizes people who accumulate fortunes, and paints millionaires as morally compromised. Yet here she is, supposedly reaping the rewards of venture capital and luxury wine—two industries not exactly known for their devotion to socialist ideals.

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More US lawmakers publicly blame Israel for starvation, deaths in Gaza

U.S. lawmakers who may have been silent for the last 22 months are now speaking out publicly and blaming Israel for the starvation and famine conditions in the Gaza Strip.

On CBS’s Face the Nation this Sunday, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and long-time Israel supporter, slammed Jerusalem for Gaza’s growing humanitarian crisis, declaring that “Israel is starving Palestinians with impunity.” Gazans are “systematically being starved to death because Israel is refusing to allow in the humanitarian aid that people need to keep alive,” Shaheen said.

When Brennan asked whether Shaheen should have spoken out earlier she replied, “We should be doing more and we should have done more… not just democrats, but also Republicans.”

Going further than Shaheen, 14 U.S. lawmakers have called Israel’s war on Gaza a genocide to date, including 13 Democrats and one Republican.

Those lawmakers are Reps. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), Al Green (D-Tex.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.).

To that end, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — the first Republican to do so — has been front and center.

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to pay for genocide in a foreign country against a foreign people for a foreign war that I had nothing to do with,” Greene said on X on Saturday. “And I will not be silent about it.”

While stopping short of calling Israel’s actions a “genocide,” others have also turned up the heat and have called for halting U.S. weapons aid to Jerusalem until it reverses course.

“Israel’s actions in the conduct of the war in Gaza, especially its failure to address the unimaginable humanitarian crisis now unfolding, is an affront to human decency,” Rep. Angus King (I-Maine) declared in a statement at the end of last month. He said he would no longer support aid to Israel, “until there is a demonstrable change in the direction of Israeli policy.”

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Indian Politician Defends Indian U-Turn Trucker

India’s government should oppose a U.S. government crackdown on the 150,000 Indian drivers in the U.S. trucking industry, said an Indian politician whose district includes many of the drivers’ families.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal represents a district in the Punjab region, which is home to many members of the Sikh ethnic group who work illegally or legally in the U.S. trucking industry. They include the Indian truck driver, Harjinder Singh, who is facing homicide charges after killing three Americans in a turnpike U-turn.

Badal was formerly a cabinet minister in India’s federal government, and used Twitter to ask India’s foreign minister to intervene in U.S. politics to protect the Sikh truck drivers:

More than [150,000] Punjabi truck drivers in the US shud not be discriminated against due to Harjinder [Singh]’s mistake & their livelihood shud not be snatched from them by denying them work visas & making it more difficult for them to drive [U.S.] trucks by bringing in new language proficiency rules.

A crackdown would “have a detrimental effect on [the left-behind] families” in India that depend on the wage remittances sent home by Indian migrants, said Badal, who is a Sikh.

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Scheming politicians made utilities their energy bagmen— and we’re all paying the price

Electric utility bills have exploded in New York: As of May, the average monthly residential rate had jumped 13% over the previous year, and a whopping 54% since May 2019.

Headline-hungry politicians have found the culprit: the utility companies.

Press releases excoriate greedy executives and their heartless shareholders: Why, these rascals even installed special machines in our homes to decide how much to charge us!

It turns out, though, that Albany pols aren’t just using the utilities as a fall guy for their political theater.

They’ve also pressed them into service as state government’s bagmen, collecting for various climate programs that we’d otherwise recognize as tax hikes. 

The black cables go back to the electric company, but the trail of green leads straight to the state Capitol.

Decades ago, monthly electricity bills were based on your usage and two added factors.

The first was supply cost: Electricity is a commodity sold on a competitive wholesale market, where its price fluctuates based on supply and demand.

About half of New York’s electricity is generated with natural gas, so fluctuations in gas prices translate into electricity-price changes.

The second factor is the utility company’s charge for delivering that electricity.

These rates are tightly regulated by the state Public Service Commission, which requires gas, electric and water companies to account for literally every dollar they collect from ratepayers, and every dollar they spend.

The PSC then sets the profit they’re allowed to keep, decided by a formula.

But, as state officials discovered in the 1990s, that utility-bill system is a fabulous way to tax electricity customers without taking the blame.

Utility companies had no choice but to play along.

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Another Mexican Politician Facing U.S. Federal Fraud Charges

A Mexican politician is out on bond as he faces federal fraud charges in Texas for allegations that he used COVID-era loans to buy cryptocurrency. The politician, his wife, and various other South Texas business owners are accused of obtaining fraudulent loans during the COVID-19 pandemic, which were intended to support failing businesses, but were instead used for personal gain.

Court records revealed that 46-year-old Bernando Gomez Jr. and his wife, 42-year-old Lesley Chavez, allegedly took out nearly $200,000 in Paycheck Protection Program loans during the COVID-19 pandemic and then used them for personal expenses, including buying cryptocurrency. Gomez, who lives in Edinburg, Texas, is a sitting city councilman in the Mexican City of Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas, where he serves as a close advisor to local Mayor Miguel Angel Almaraz.

Court documents indicate that Gomez and Chavez own several entertainment and service businesses, including a wedding planning service, a rental company, and a print shop.

Federal prosecutors allege that in June 2020 and May 2020, they obtained a series of government loans through the Small Business Administration aimed at helping businesses survive the COVID-19 Pandemic. The government then forgave those loans after the business owners allegedly filed documents claiming that the money had been used for legitimate purposes such as paying employees and other similar expenses. After receiving those three loans, totaling $150,000, $40,800, and $20,800, they transferred the funds to different accounts, which they then used for personal expenses and, in the case of Gomez, to purchase cryptocurrency.

After their arrests, both Gomez and Chavez went before U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker, who set their bonds at $100,000. Both have been released as they await trial.

Gomez is currently a member of Mexico’s National Action Party (PAN), one of the major opposition parties in Mexico that has been at odds with the current ruling party, MORENA.

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Leftists Admit They Can’t Win Without Rewriting The Constitution

Seldom does a headline simultaneously proclaim impotency and promise utter destruction, but The New York Times managed it: “Abolish the Senate. End the Electoral College. Pack the Court.”

To be fair, this was not an opinion piece per se but a partial transcript of an episode of Ross Douthat’s Interesting Times podcast, where Douthat interviewed Osita Nwanevu, a contributing editor at The New Republic, a columnist at The Guardian, and a research fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. The occasion was Nwanevu’s first book, The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding.

Nwanevu’s book is free of original argumentation. His example of why the Senate is “anti-democratic” is that California, a state that could be “one of the 40 largest countries in the world,” only has two senators, which gives a state like Wyoming “about 60, or more than 60, times the representation than people in California.”

And don’t try to say California’s 52-member delegation in the House of Representatives — the largest in the House by far — evens things out: “The Senate shapes the judiciary, it shapes the executive branch, and obviously, it’s a veto point for the passage of even ordinary legislation.” Thus, Nwanevu argues, “we have a fundamental piece of our system that flouts basic democratic principles.”

Never mind that the House originates all monied bills, or that all impeachments must originate in the House, or that House and Senate must both pass a bill before it sees the president’s desk.

His ideas for “saving democracy” are just as moldy. Create new states (his nominees, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., are the usual suspects). Stuff the Supreme Court. Have a national, popular vote for president. The same ideas the left has been repeating for years now. Nwanevu is just the latest parrot to sing the same song for the choir.

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Rhode Island AG Aide Caught on Bodycam Threatening Cops During Arrest

Video recorded last Thursday night shows Rhode Island Special Assistant Attorney General Devon Flanagan being taken into custody by Newport police after an incident outside a restaurant.

Police arrested Flanagan for alleged trespassing following a call about an “unwanted party” at the Clarke Cooke House on Bannister’s Wharf, according to News Channel 9.

The footage shows officers engaging with Flanagan and another woman before escorting Flanagan into a police cruiser.

In the video, Flanagan is heard saying, “you’re going to regret this,” while resisting being placed in the vehicle.

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‘Our Aim… Lobby for Somalia’: Ohio State Rep. Ismail Mohamed Urges Support for Somali Causes in Non-English Video

Ohio state Rep. Ismail Mohamed (D), one of the first Somali Muslims elected to the Ohio General Assembly, spoke entirely in Somali in a recently posted video in which he thanked Somali National TV and discussed efforts to honor a Somali historical figure, organize Somali American political representation, and lobby on behalf of Somalia.

Mohamed appeared in a video posted online in which he spoke exclusively in Somali, with English captions providing a translation. Mohamed, elected in 2022 as one of the first Somali Americans to serve in the Ohio General Assembly, addressed viewers in the video.

According to the English captions, Mohamed began by thanking Somali National TV and its management before describing two “historic achievements” in Ohio, particularly in Columbus. The first, he said, was naming a street after Sayid Mohamed Abdullah Hassan, whom he called “the father of Somalia whose dignity and honor is unequaled by any other Somali throughout the history” and “worthy enough to have a street named after him.” When discussing the street naming, the video showed a photo of Mohamed standing beside a street sign bearing Hassan’s name. Mohamed explained, “I’ve pioneered the idea of commemorating a monument even before I got elected.”

He went on to note the presence of “20 or more different political representatives,” including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) at the federal level, and more than ten Somali American representatives serving at city and state levels. Mohamed described a “tight-knit organization” of Somali American officials who communicate in a group chat. “Our main objective is to discuss things that concern Somalia. It’s our country and our people. Our aim as a united front is to lobby for Somalia, helping waive Somalia’s national debt and maritime crisis,” the captions read. Mohamed called on residents of Columbus to “please vote,” adding, “We need your support. We want you to knock doors.”

This is not the first video of its kind. Minnesota state Sen. Omar Fateh (D), now a candidate for mayor of Minneapolis whose platform is similar to that of New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, posted a campaign video directed at Somali voters in which his only English-language phrase was “rental assistance program.”

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US Plan To Copy UK’s Disastrous Online Digital ID Verification Is Winning Friends in the Senate

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is moving forward in the US Senate with 16 new co-sponsors as of July 31, 2025, reviving a proposal that copies the same type of provision found in the UK’s controversial Online Safety Act, which has caused much backlash across the Atlantic.

In Britain, that measure forces online platforms to implement digital ID age checks before granting access to content deemed “harmful,” a policy that has caused intense resentment over privacy violations, the erosion of anonymity, and government overreach in the realm of free speech.

Now, US lawmakers are considering a similar framework, with more senators from both parties throwing their support behind the bill in recent weeks.

Marketed as a way to shield children from harmful online material, KOSA has gained prominent backing from Apple, which has publicly praised it as a step toward improving online safety. Yet beyond the reassuring branding, the legislation contains provisions that raise serious concerns for free expression and user privacy.

If enacted, the bill would give the Federal Trade Commission authority to investigate and sue platforms over content labeled as “harmful” to minors. This would push websites toward aggressive content moderation to avoid liability, creating an environment where speech is heavily filtered without the government ever issuing direct censorship orders.

The legislation also instructs the Secretary of Commerce, FTC, and FCC to explore “systems to verify age at the device or operating system level.” Such a mandate paves the way for nationwide digital identification, where every user’s online activity could be tied to a verifiable real-world identity.

Once anonymity is removed, the scope for surveillance and profiling expands dramatically, with personal data stored and potentially exploited by both corporations and government agencies.

Advocates of a free and open internet warn that laws like KOSA exploit the emotional appeal of child safety to introduce infrastructure that enables ongoing monitoring and identity tracking. Even with recent changes, such as removing state attorneys general from enforcement, these core concerns remain.

Senator Marsha Blackburn defended the bill, stating, “Big Tech platforms have shown time and time again they will always prioritize their bottom line over the safety of our children.” Yet KOSA’s structure could end up reinforcing the dominance of large tech firms, which are best positioned to implement costly verification systems and handle the resulting data.

The bill’s earlier version stalled in the House after leadership, including Speaker Mike Johnson, questioned its impact on free speech. Johnson remarked that he “love[s] the principle, but the details of that are very problematic,” a sentiment still shared by many who view KOSA as a gateway to lasting restrictions on online freedoms.

If this legislation moves forward, it will not simply affect what minors can view; it will alter the fundamental architecture of the internet, embedding identity verification and top-down content control into its design.

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