Tag: politics

The New York Times Is Trying To Rebrand Venezuela’s New Dictator as a Serious Thinker

The New York Times has depicted Nicolás Maduro’s successor—Venezuelan dictator Delcy Rodríguez—as a pragmatic technocrat, a market-friendly reformer, and a “cosmopolitan” who helped to stabilize the Venezuelan economy. The Times claims that Hugo Chávez’s socialist revolution has evolved into a “brutal capitalism” under Rodríguez’s purview. “A relative moderate,” Times reporter Anatoly Kurmanaev wrote, “Ms. Rodríguez is the architect of a market-friendly overhaul that has stabilized the Venezuelan economy after a prolonged collapse.”

In a series of articles bylined or co-authored by Kurmanaev and Simón Romero, Rodríguez is credited with heading “a market-friendly overhaul which had provided a semblance of economic stability.” One article states that “hyperinflation was halted and economic growth returned” under her watch. The Times’ reporter Pranav Baskar has underscored Rodríguez’s credentials and style, writing that she presents “herself as a cosmopolitan technocrat in a militaristic and male-dominated government.” Romero and Kurmanaev have contrasted her “technocratic, numbers-heavy communication” approach with Maduro’s “folksy style.”

The article that provoked the most outrage in Venezuela’s expat community was published last September and bylined by Times reporter Julie Turkewitz, who was granted “a rare visa for foreign journalists” and traveled to Caracas for an interview with Rodríguez. The resulting article featured a portrait of the now-dictator, stylishly dressed, looking introspective and calm, as she peered through a window, casting a gentle glow on her face.

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House Vote Keeps Federal “Kill Switch” Vehicle Mandate Despite Privacy Concerns

A Republican attempt to cut off federal funding tied to vehicle “kill switch” enforcement failed in the House this week, leaving intact a law directing the Department of Transportation to develop mandatory impaired-driving prevention systems in new vehicles.

The proposal, led by Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, sought to bar the government from spending money to advance or enforce the measure, formally known as Section 24220 of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The amendment was added to a broader spending bill, H.R. 7148, but was defeated 268 to 164. According to the House Clerk’s official roll call, 160 Republicans supported it, joined by four Democrats, while 57 Republicans and 211 Democrats voted against it.

Massie’s measure would have “prohibit[ed] the use of funds made available by this Act to implement section 24220 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, including any requirements enabling or supporting vehicle ‘kill switch’ technology.”

His goal was to block any federal action that could force automakers to install technology capable of monitoring driver behavior and intervening when impairment is detected.

Following the vote, Massie wrote on X: “Unfortunately, the amendment I offered to defund the federally mandated automobile kill switch did not pass. 57 Republicans joined 211 Democrats to defeat it.”

The Kentucky lawmaker has led several efforts on this issue, including the “No Kill Switches in Cars Act” introduced in early 2025, which would “repeal a requirement for the Secretary of Transportation to issue certain regulations with respect to advanced impaired driving technology.”

Although the technology has not yet been required in any vehicle, the 2021 infrastructure law compels the Department of Transportation to develop regulations mandating its use. The legislative text refers broadly to systems that can “prevent or limit motor vehicle operation” if impairment is detected, but it leaves the technical design and privacy boundaries to regulators.

Four Democrats, Representatives J. Luis Correa of California, Val Hoyle of Oregon, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, joined most Republicans in supporting Massie’s amendment. The final tally recorded 164 in favor, 268 against, none present, and four not voting.

Those opposing the amendment argue that the technology could prevent thousands of deaths caused by drunk driving.

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Zohran Mamdani Announces That Children of Illegal Aliens Will be Included in City’s ‘Free’ Childcare Program

New York City’s new Democratic Socialist (communist) Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently made it clear that the children of people in the country illegally will be included in the city’s new ‘free’ childcare program.

He went on to reaffirm New York’s status as a sanctuary city and pushed lies about ICE arresting people without showing warrants.

It’s amazing that New York City is going down this road just as a daycare centered fraud scandal is on the verge of unseating the governor and attorney general in Minnesota.

FOX News reports:

Mamdani clarifies NYC won’t check immigration status for universal childcare enrollees

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani clarified Friday that the city wouldn’t check the immigration status of children enrolling in his administration’s universal pre-K and 3-K programs.

“Just to put it very clearly, these are programs for every single New Yorker,” Mamdani, who took office at the beginning of the year, said in a media roundtable discussion. “These are not programs that are going to ask the immigration status of any one of the children.

“All of those children are New Yorkers. They should all be enrolled in 3-K and pre-K, no matter where they were born or where they come from. And we are also proud to be a sanctuary city.”

He said that means ICE agents are denied access to schools, hospitals and city properties “unless those ICE agents can present a judicial warrant signed by a judge. We know that the vast majority of the time, ICE agents are not presenting that kind of documentation. If they’re presenting any kind of documentation, it tends to be an administrative warrant. And, a lot of times, there isn’t any kind of documentation provided.”

The mayor said earlier that the program is open to any New Yorkers who have children turning 3 or 4 anytime in 2026, adding the program could save New Yorkers tens of thousands of dollars a year “by providing them with free childcare.”

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Millionaire Stephen Colbert Asks Millionaire Bernie Sanders ‘Why Is Socialism Cool Again’

CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert welcomed self-professed socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders onto his show and asked the aging leftist “why is socialism cool again?”

The gushing Colbert invited Sanders on for his 19th visit to the late-night show and the pair guffawed while Sanders talked about how terrible the United States is.

Colbert, whose show has been cancelled and will go off the air in May, went straight to the claim that “socialism is cool.”

“Why is socialism cool again, Bernie?” Colbert asked, to which Sanders replied that it is because America is a terrible place to live.

“I think people are looking at this country today and they’re seeing incredible greed. And they’re seeing that in the richest country in the history of the world, so few have so much, and so many have so little,” the multi-millionaire Senator exclaimed.

“There is, you know, Steve, I get around the country,” he continued, “I just did a virtual program at Zoom with some workers in nursing homes. They’re working 80 hours a week taking care of their patients. You have people working crazy hours for horribly low wages, people can’t afford housing.”

“When I was a kid, the American dream was you are, at some point, going to be able to own your own house,” said the socialist politician who owns three multimillion-dollar homes. “Young people today no longer believe that is possible. In fact, many of the young have a lower standard of living than their parents.”

“So, I think the young people are looking out there and they’re saying ‘Why?’ With all this technology, with all of this wealth, why are we not doing better for ordinary Americans than we are?” he exclaimed.

“And what the Democrats are lacking now is a vision for the future and that gets back to a corrupt campaign finance system, the unwillingness to take on the greed of big money interests. And that is, I think, what young people perceive,” concluded the 84-year-old who has never had a real job in his life.

During another segment of the show, Sanders praised recently sworn in communist New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani for “taking on the establishment” and yet still winning his race.

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Mamdani Pressed on ‘The View’ Over Appointee Who Labeled Homeownership ‘Weapon of White Supremacy’ 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was confronted on national television Tuesday over controversial past statements made by one of his appointees, as well as other members of his administration, during an appearance on The View, as reported by Fox News.

The exchange centered on comments made by Cea Weaver, whom Mamdani appointed as director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.

Weaver has drawn attention for prior social media posts criticizing homeownership and calling for communist electoral victories.

During the interview, co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin raised concerns about the message sent by the mayor’s staffing decisions.

“Some appointees have come under fire for past social media posts, this often happens when new administrations come in,” Griffin said.

“Your new chief equity officer made several now-deleted comments disparaging liberal White women. Your tenant advocate tweeted that homeownership was a weapon of White supremacy and called to elect more communists, among other posts. What message do you think this conveys to New Yorkers, and how would you push back on this?”

Mamdani responded by directing attention to his own public statements and priorities as mayor.

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Leftists Call For Political Purge Of MAGA If They Return To Power

You might have thought it wasn’t possible, but leftist activist rhetoric has become even more unhinged than usual in the past month as ICE agents try to do their lawful jobs in Democrat controlled sanctuary cities like Minneapolis. 

During the Obama Administration, ICE carried out millions of deportations of illegal aliens without a peep from progressives.  Suddenly, under Trump these same operations are now being called “fascism” and grounds for insurgency.  The reason these arrests have led to more violence today is not because of ICE, it is because NGO paid and trained activists are getting in the way.

First, impeding law enforcement officials, blocking roads, sabotaging vehicles and physically assaulting agents is not a legal form of protest. 

Second, the American public voted for mass deportations to happen; not just for migrants who break the law after they sneak into the US, but for all migrants who sneak into the US.  Democrats and a radical minority of activists are therefore attempting to disrupt the democratic process and prevent the Trump Administration from carrying out the will of the people.

But it doesn’t stop there. 

A narrative is building among Democrat politicians and NGO activists alike which is essentially calling for a political purge of conservatives if progressive leaders return to government power in the next few years.  Multiple blue city mayors, governors and police administrators have already threatened to “arrest ICE agents” for carrying out deportations within sanctuary city jurisdictions. 

Jacob Frey and Tim Walz made thinly veiled threats suggesting that local police could intervene.  Walz called on residents of Minneapolis to film all ICE agents so that they could be “prosecuted later.”    

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Jay Jones Sworn in as Virginia Attorney General, Despite Leaked Texts Fantasizing About Children of Conservatives Being Murdered

Jay Jones was sworn in as Virginia’s new attorney general on Saturday at the state Capitol in Richmond after winning the race despite leaked texts in which he fantasized about the children of conservatives being murdered.

Jones was sworn in at the inauguration of Democrat Governor Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA agent.

President Donald Trump had called for Jones to drop out of the race after the texts were made public, but Democrats rallied behind him.

In one shocking exchange, Jones fantasized about putting “two bullets to the head” of then-Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert in a hypothetical scenario comparing him to dictators like Hitler and Pol Pot.

Jones didn’t stop there; he went even further, expressing a twisted wish that one of Gilbert’s children would die in a school shooting to change Gilbert’s stance on gun control.

“I wish one of his kids would get shot up at school and die. Then maybe he’d change his mind,” Jones wrote, adding grotesque details about imagining the child “lying lifeless in their mother’s arms.”

Vice President JD Vance also called for Jones to step aside.

“The Democrat candidate for AG in Virginia has been fantasizing about murdering his political opponents in private messages,” Vance wrote in a post on X during the election season. “I’m sure the people hyperventilating about sombrero memes will join me in calling for this very deranged person to drop out of the race.”

At the inauguration ceremony, the judge asked, “You ready?”

“Yeah, baby,” Jones responded, before being sworn in.

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Articles of impeachment announced against Gov. Tim Walz

Amid fraud allegations and a continuing ICE presence in the North Star State, articles of impeachment have been announced against two-term DFL Governor Tim Walz.

The articles, introduced by Rep. Mike Wiener (R-Long Prairie), outline four separate charges against Walz:

  1. Article one alleges Walz violated his oath of office “by knowingly concealing or permitting the concealment of widespread fraud within Minnesota​ state administered programs, despite repeated warnings, audits, reports, and public indicators of​ systematic abuse.”
  2. Article two alleges Walz violated his oath of office by “actions and omissions that interfered with lawful oversight, investigation, or corrective​ action related to fraud in Minnesota state agencies.”
  3. Article three alleges Walz violated his oath of office by “placing political consideration above lawful administration, thereby breaching the​ public trust.”
  4. Article four alleges Walz violated his oath of office by “failing in his constitutional duty to faithfully execute the laws of the State of Minnesota, particular laws governing stewardship of public funds.”

“We are stewards of the public dollar,” said Wiener. “They put their faith in us to take that money and spend it wisely. And when we see this massive amount of fraud that’s been taken place, and we’ve known this for years, it’s not anything new. It’s been going on for quite some time. I take that very seriously.”

Wiener said he has been working on these articles of impeachment for two months. He was going through the state constitution when he “kind of stumbled” across the process.

“When I looked at the articles of impeachment, I thought this is a way that the legislators can, through the process, through our state constitution, hold the governor accountable for the massive amounts of fraud that have taken place in the state,” said Wiener.

While he said the articles are broad, Wiener believed they cover the broadest aspects of what was going occurring in Minnesota.

According to the Article VIII of the Minnesota State Constitution, only certain state officers can be subject to impeachment “for corrupt conduct in office or for crimes and misdemeanors.” Those offices include:

  • Governor of Minnesota
  • Secretary of State
  • State Auditor
  • State Attorney General
  • Judges of the Minnesota Supreme Court
  • Judges of the Minnesota Court of Appeals
  • Judges of Minnesota District Courts

Similar to the U.S. Congress, the Minnesota House of Representatives has the power to impeach an elected official through a simple majority vote. If passed, the process then moves to the state Senate, where it takes a two-thirds majority to convict.

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Mamdani Housing Czar: ‘White, Middle-Class Homeowners are a Huge Problem’

Cea Weaver, the ‘tenant advocate’ and housing czar of the Zohran Mamdani administration, was in the news a few weeks ago when it was first revealed that she believes in collectivized housing. Now we are learning more about what she believes.

In the clip below, she describes white, middle-class homeowners as a problem. This is the sort of insane ideology you might hear on the campus of Bryn Mawr College, which Weaver attended. The point is that this woman sees home ownership as an obstacle to progress.

The people Mamdani is surrounding himself with are insane and dangerously stupid. Home ownership is one of the most basic ways that average people can build real wealth.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

‘White, Middle-Class Homeowners Are a Huge Problem’: Mamdani’s Communist Housing Czar Called To ‘Undermine the Institution of Homeownership’

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s (D., N.Y.) top housing official, Cea Weaver, bemoaned “white, middle-class homeowners” during a 2021 podcast appearance. Her goal as an organizer, Weaver said, is to “undermine the institution of homeownership.”

“White, middle-class homeowners are a huge problem for a renter justice movement,” Weaver said in previously unreported remarks on the Bad Faith podcast in September 2021, hosted by Briahna Joy Gray, a former press secretary for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) who was fired by the Hill after rolling her eyes at the sister of a hostage in Gaza who urged Gray to believe Israeli women whom Hamas had raped. Also on the podcast was activist Arianna Afeni Evans, most famous in the D.C. area for being arrested at a metro station for fare evasion in 2025.

“Unless we can undermine the institution of homeownership and seek to provide stability in other ways, I don’t know—it’s a really difficult organizing situation we find ourselves in.”

During the podcast episode, Weaver laid out a plan to use the government to attack landlords and prevent them from evicting tenants, in addition to fighting against homeownership.

“We need a national movement to pass universal rent control to limit landlords’ ability to endlessly profit on our homes, to give tenants the right to form a tenants’ union where they live, and to really block evictions,” she said. “But rent control is not enough: People need money. We need to tax billionaires and transform that into cash assistance for renters. And we need to chip away at homeownership, and that means—that means Medicare for All, that means, like, a deep investment in real social service programs.”

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Mamdani Appoints Woman Named ‘Afua Atta-Mensah’ As Chief Equity Officer

Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani named Afua Atta-Mensah as the city’s new Chief Equity Officer and commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Equity & Racial Justice on Thursday.

Mamdani, a 34-year-old Ugandan-born, Indian-descent avowed socialist, was sworn into office on Jan. 1 and has been appointing allies to key posts since taking power. In a social media post, Mamdani announced appointing Atta-Mensah and said she built her career serving communities that rarely gain access to decision-makers. He tasked her with carrying that focus across city government.

“Afua has dedicated her career to serving the New Yorkers who are so often forgotten in the halls of power. In this new role, she will advance that mission across our government and deliver a more equitable city for all,” Mamdani wrote. “That work starts with finally fulfilling the city’s promise of a Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan and embracing the diverse fabric that makes our city special.”

By the time Mamdani announced Atta-Mensah’s appointment Thursday, her X account had been deactivated, the New York Post reported. City Hall said the administration does not require newly appointed officials to delete their social media accounts.

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