Tag: politics

Democrats renew government shutdown threat as tensions flare with Trump

Senate Democrats are raising the threat of another government shutdown in late January as tensions with President Trump escalate over a series of recent maneuvers by the White House that Democrats say need a forceful response from Capitol Hill.

Senate Democrats walked away from a potential deal to fund a broad swath of the federal government, including the departments of Defense, Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services, which make up roughly two-thirds of the discretionary budget, before Congress adjourned for the Christmas recess.  

Democrats cited Trump’s threat to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., a leading government-funded center for atmospheric and climate research, as the reason they couldn’t advance a five-bill spending package before Christmas.

Had the legislation passed the Senate this past week, it would have given Congress a good chance of funding up to 85 percent to 90 percent of the federal government through September of next year and taken the threat of another shutdown off the table.

Instead, the shutdown threat remains very much alive, even though Democrats aren’t yet revealing their strategy ahead of the Jan. 30 government funding deadline.

Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), who was involved in negotiations to get the spending package through the Senate, said that Democrats want to preserve their “leverage” by keeping the threat of another shutdown on the table.

“They want some leverage for the end of January,” Hoeven told The Hill, adding that he got the sense that Democrats weren’t ready to pass the funding package, even if funding for the atmospheric and climate center in Colorado didn’t blow up into a major issue.

Senate Democratic progressives aren’t ruling out the possibility that they will attempt to use the next funding deadline to demand major concessions from Trump.

“I’m not going to speculate,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who added that Democrats want to pass the regular appropriations bills but will wait to see what happens over the next several weeks.

A Democratic senator who requested anonymity to talk about the likelihood of a shutdown said that passing the five-bill spending package, which stalled in the Senate Thursday, would be critical to avoiding a shutdown.

The failure to advance the measure is a red flag warning that the chances of a shutdown are growing, lawmakers say.

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Democratic Despotism: The American Left Moves From Censored To Compelled Speech

More than five years ago, I wrote in these pages of a growing trend on the left toward compelled speech – the forcing of citizens to repeat approved views and values. It is an all-too-familiar pattern. Once a faction assumes power, it will often first seek to censor opposing views and then compel the endorsement of approved views.

This week, some of those efforts faced setbacks and challenges in blue states like Washington and Illinois.

In Washington state, many have developed what seems a certain appetite for compelled speech. 

For example, Democrats recently pushed through legislation that would have compelled priests and other clerics to rat out congregants who confessed to certain criminal acts.

Despite objections from many of us that the law was flagrantly unconstitutional, the Democratic-controlled legislature and Democratic governor pushed it through.

The Catholic Church responded to the enactment by telling priests that any compliance would lead to their excommunication.

U.S. District Court Judge Iain D. Johnston enjoined the law, and the Trump Administration sued the state over its effort to turn priests into sacramental snitches. Only after losing in court did the state drop its efforts.

In the meantime, the University of Washington has been fighting to punish professors who refuse to conform to its own orthodox values. In 2022, Professor Stuart Reges triggered a firestorm when he refused to attach a prewritten “Indigenous land acknowledgement” statement to his course syllabi. Such statements are often accompanied by inclusive and tolerant language of fostering different viewpoints in an academic community. However, when Reges decided to write his own land acknowledgment, university administrators dropped any pretense of tolerance.

Reges was not willing to copy and paste onto his syllabus a statement in favor of the indigenous land claim of “the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip, and Muckleshoot nations.” Instead, he wrote, “I acknowledge that by the labor theory of property, the Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land currently occupied by the University of Washington.”

His reference to the labor theory is a nod to John Locke, who believed in natural rights, including the right to property created through one’s labor.

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“I Have a List in My Head” – Anonymous Deep State Prosecutor Admits DOJ will Retaliate Against Trump Admin Officials as Soon as Democrats Take Back the White House

A DOJ prosecutor admitted the Justice Department will retaliate against Trump Administration officials as soon as Democrats take back the White House.

The New York Times gave sixty disgruntled DOJ lawyers a platform to attack the Trump appointees who have overhauled the Department.

The piece, titled “The Unraveling of the Justice Department,” describes the ‘turmoil’ in the DOJ after Trump appointees took over.

“President Trump’s second term has brought a period of turmoil and controversy unlike any in the history of the Justice Department. Trump and his appointees have blasted through the walls designed to protect the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency from political influence; they have directed the course of criminal investigations, openly flouted ethics rules and caused a breakdown of institutional culture. To date, more than 200 career attorneys have been fired, and thousands more have resigned. (The Justice Department says many of them have been replaced.)” The New York Times said.

More than 200 Deep State prosecutors have been fired this year, and thousands have resigned.

The New York Times interviewed 60 disgruntled former DOJ lawyers who got axed by the Trump Administration.

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A Bipartisan Push to Revive a 1930s Law Could Make Grocery Prices Even Higher

Groceries, like almost everything these days, are seeing prices rise. Millions of Americans have tempered some of these hikes by purchasing bulk goods at wholesale prices at warehouse club retail stores such as Costco, Sam’s Club, and BJ’s Wholesale Club. But these savings could soon cease. A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers is looking to crack down on wholesale prices by reviving a nearly 90-year-old antitrust statute.

In the weeks leading up to Congress’ winter recess, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R–Iowa) solicited the signatures of fellow Senate Republicans on a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson asking them to investigate supply practices that hurt small businesses, particularly grocers. Reason has acquired a copy of the letter, which calls on Bondi and Ferguson “to utilize all federal laws…to bring enforcement actions against any discriminatory conduct that you may discover in violation of…the Robinson-Patman Act.”

The Robinson-Patman Act (RPA) is a 1936 antitrust law that bans discrimination “in price between different purchasers of commodities of like grade and quality…where the effect of such discrimination may…tend to create a monopoly in any line of commerce.” After a period of strong enforcement in the mid-20th century, recent decades have witnessed a marked decline in federal RPA cases: Before the FTC, under the leadership of Chairwoman Lina Kahn, sued Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits for selling alcohol to larger retailers at lower per-unit prices in December 2024, it had been more than 20 years since the federal government filed an RPA suit. Then–FTC Commissioner Melissa Holyoak dissented from Khan’s complaint, which she characterized as “elevating the interests of competitors over competition” in a way that was “at odds with the plain text” of the RPA.

Grassley argues that the statute recognizes certain forms of price discrimination as harming competition, but he doesn’t acknowledge that the RPA allows price differentials that reflect “differences in the cost of manufacture, sale, or delivery resulting from the differing methods or quantities in which such commodities are to such purchasers sold or delivered.”

Grassley claims that a lack of competition is forcing independent grocers “to accept increasingly discriminatory terms and conditions for their products, including less favorable…price terms”—even as he rightly describes the grocery business as “experienc[ing] high turnover and low margins.” Such phenomena are textbook indicators of a competitive industry, not a monopolized one.

Grassley also claims that “independent businesses are often the only source of groceries, consumer goods, or pharmaceuticals in many small towns and urban centers.” If this were true, such small businesses needn’t worry about larger firms receiving bulk price discounts; they wouldn’t be competing with them at all.

Of course, the opposite is true. Local businesses face intense competition from Amazon, Walmart, Target, FreshDirect, CVS, Walgreens, and the myriad other firms that ship groceries, goods, and drugs directly to consumers. These large firms enjoy bulk discounts and attract customers by passing on part of their savings to them in the form of lower prices.

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The Swalwell Files: Fake News Reuters Scrambles to Save Swalwell, Still No California Address, Still Dead Broke

California Congressman Eric Swalwell has accumulated an extraordinary record of controversy: his well-documented association with the Chinese intelligence asset known as “Fang Fang,” his removal from the House Intelligence Committee over national-security concerns, and his unforgettable on-air incident during a 2019 Hardball with Chris Matthews interview.

These episodes alone raise questions about judgment. But recent disclosures expose something even more fundamental.

Eric Swalwell appears unable to meet the basic legal, financial, and residency requirements of the office he now seeks, Governor of California.

As I reported in The Gateway Pundit (‘DISQUALIFIED! – Congressman Eric Swalwell Names Washington DC Home as ‘Principal Residence’), Swalwell’s own mortgage filings designate his Washington, D.C. property as his principal residence.

Under Article V, Section 2 of the California Constitution and California and Elections Code §349, that admission alone disqualifies him from running for governor.

Five years of residency prior to an election is a constitutional requirement, and Swalwell’s Deed of Trust in D.C. and lack of any California address disqualify him.

The situation escalated when Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte referred Swalwell to the Department of Justice for potential mortgage fraud.

Swalwell responded by filing a civil lawsuit against Pulte and FHFA, absurdly claiming in the lawsuit that his mortgage listed on the public database mytax.dc.gov was private, while falsely claiming he included an affidavit with his mortgage claiming it was only his wife’s home.

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Mayor of Massachusetts City Needs a Translator During Hearing Due to Apparent Inability to Speak English

Mass migration has caused one city in Massachusetts to resemble a foreign nation, as even its own mayor seems unable to speak or understand a word of English.

As The Eagle-Tribune reported, Lawrence Mayor Brian DePena testified earlier this month during a hearing in support of former acting police chief William Castro’s appeal against revoked credentials from a 2024 traffic incident.

According to WCVB, Castro “engaged in a motor-vehicle pursuit in violation of the policies of the Lawrence Police Department.” Moreover, he was “untruthful” regarding the chase while he and his superiors failed to investigate the incident independently.

Video has now emerged showing that DePena demanded a translator during the hearing because his English is so pathetic. DePena’s native language is Spanish.

The judge denied DePena’s request to have his personal assistant act as his translator because he and others involved in the case were unable to speak Spanish. Too much could get lost in translation.

According to reports, an official interpreter was used instead.

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Flushing Chicago’s Future When Rhetoric Replaces Revenue

It’s a sound we all dread: the toilet keeps running long after the handle drops. Water drains, money slips away, and the bill still comes. Anyone standing there nodding, pretending the noise signals progress, must live in Chicago politics—ignoring the damage quietly spreading beneath the floor.

A Mayor at War With Arithmetic

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson keeps insisting he likes business while governing as though payroll offends his values, despite policies that act like our running toilet: employers leave, investment slows, and taxes rise to plug holes, all while policies are openly hostile to growth.

Revenue is treated as an abstraction by leaders rather than wages earned by people who can still pack up and go. Budgets never care about slogans, because when employers exit, residents pay the difference. No matter how well-written, no speech fixes arithmetic.

A City Built on Strength, Undermined by Control

Once, in a time that seems like a galaxy far, far away, Chicago once stood for grit, industry, and upward mobility. Railroads, stockyards, steel, and trade rewarded their leaders’ effort and risk. Governance, consolidated power, and narrow decision-making did something that should never happen: they flushed that spirited grit away, leaving a political structure that rewards insiders and punishes independence.

It’s a script that never changes: predictable election outcomes, concentrated turnout that allows the machines to endure. Leaders hostile to growth arrive preselected rather than challenged.

When Rhetoric Replaces Revenue

The latest version of leadership talks endlessly about equity while ignoring flight. Taxes increase not by choice but by necessity after revenue leaves. Businesses respond to pressure the same way families respond when their neighborhoods become dangerous.

They move.

When each person or entity leaves, their departure tightens the vise on those left behind. Leadership talks endlessly about equity while ignoring flight. Taxes rise not by choice, but by necessity after revenue leaves. 

Businesses respond to pressure the same way families respond to unsafe neighborhoods. They move. Each departure tightens the vise on those left behind. With rising property taxes, multiplying fees, and already-weakened services, officials scold rather than adjust, blaming greed rather than reading the trail they’re leaving.

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Democrat and CONVICTED Child Molester Runs for Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island

A Democrat with a documented conviction for child molestation has quietly entered the 2026 mayoral race in Providence.

According to reporting by the Providence Journal, the upcoming Providence mayoral contest currently includes incumbent Mayor Brett Smiley, state Rep. David Morales, and a third, lesser-known challenger: Michael English.

What voters are only now learning is that English is not merely an outsider candidate, he is a convicted child molester who served multiple prison sentences stemming from sexual crimes involving a 13-year-old girl.

English, now 54, acknowledged in a campaign announcement that he had been incarcerated, vaguely referring to “immature decisions” that derailed his life.

What he did not initially disclose is that those “decisions” resulted in four felony counts, including first-degree and second-degree child molestation, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

According to the Providence Journal, then 26-year-old English engaged in sexual acts with a minor between January and March of 1997, meeting the girl at various locations across northern Rhode Island, including the Lincoln Mall. In 1998, he pleaded no contest to the charges.

Despite prosecutors recommending a 40-year sentence, a Superior Court judge handed English a 20-year sentence with more than 90 percent suspended, meaning he served just 15 months before being released early for “good behavior.”

If that were not disturbing enough, English later violated a court-ordered no-contact order involving the same victim. In 2009, the victim reported that English drove to her home and attempted to initiate contact.

He was found guilty and sentenced to five more years, ultimately serving nearly two additional years behind bars before being placed under house arrest.

Yet today, English is not listed on the Rhode Island Sex Offender Registry, thanks to a court ruling that limited his registration requirement to ten years, which expired in 2007.

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Former Top Virginia Democrat Official CHARGED with Distributing Child Pornography — Court Documents Reveal Disturbing Evidence

A former top Democrat Party official in Virginia has been charged federally with the distribution of child pornography, according to newly unsealed court documents filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Randon Alexander Sprinkle, a former finance chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party and former treasurer for the Metro Richmond Area Young Democrats, is accused in a criminal complaint of possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), including videos involving infants and very young children.

The criminal complaint, obtained by National Review, was filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and sworn out by an FBI special agent assigned to the Richmond Field Office’s Child Exploitation Task Force.

According to the filing, FBI Richmond executed a federal search warrant on October 16, 2025, at Sprinkle’s residence in Richmond, Virginia. Federal agents seized multiple electronic devices, including an iPhone and laptop computers.

The affiant states that, following forensic extraction and review, investigators identified multiple archived files constituting child pornography, including videos and images involving minors.

The complaint further alleges that at least one video recovered depicts sexual abuse of an infant, a detail explicitly cited in the court record to establish probable cause.

The case stems from an FBI undercover operation conducted in May 2025, in which a task force officer operating online allegedly engaged with a user later identified as Sprinkle on a dating application and subsequently on Telegram.

Court documents allege that the account linked to Sprinkle shared explicit child sexual abuse material and expressed interest in the exploitation of minors.

The complaint states that investigators later linked Sprinkle’s online identities to his personal devices, phone number, email address, and IP address, tying the communications directly to him.

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House Oversight Chair James Comer DESTROYS “Dollar Store Obama” Hakeem Jeffries After “Malignant Clown” Attack in Defense of Tim Walz and Somali Fraudsters

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) came out swinging on House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in response to a recent press conference where Jeffries called him “a joke, an embarrassment, an unserious individual, and a malignant clown.”

This comes after the House Oversight Committee launched an investigation earlier this month into the widespread welfare and social services fraud perpetrated by Somali aliens, who stole billions of dollars from the state and federal government.

“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating reports of widespread fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs. The Committee has serious concerns about how you as the Governor, and the Democrat-controlled administration, allowed millions of dollars to be stolen. The Committee also has concerns that you and your administration were fully aware of this fraud and chose not to act for fear of political retaliation,” James Comer wrote in a letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison.

“The Committee therefore requests documents and communications showing what your administration knew about this fraud and whether you took action to limit or halt the investigation into this widespread fraud.”

Additionally, as The Gateway Pundit reported, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has launched his own investigation into the money trail and potential ties to terrorism.

On Thursday, a reporter asked Jeffries if he thinks Walz and Ellison should cooperate with the Committee’s investigation and whether or not he’s worried about the billions of stolen tax dollars in Minnesota.

But instead of even addressing the question, Jeffries went on a baseless attack against Comer and sounded like a bigger retard than Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

“James Comer is a joke, an embarrassment, an unserious individual, and a malignant clown,” Jeffries said before overconfidently pointing to another reporter.

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