02 U.S. Politics

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Something happened to John Bolton. He turned…. hard. It was such a hard pivot, I imagined someone or some entity was blackmailing him with it, maybe something to do with all his extracurriculars  in Qatar.

This raid does not surprise me. Bolton has lost the plot. Utterly. And with it, his mind, it seems.

Forced to resign under Bush, Bolton stood by the RINO President. Despite their policy disagreements, Bolton would describe his loyalty to the spineless, gutless Bush, saying, “I serve at the pleasure of the President.” And yet he afforded no such pleasure to the President who gave him his most senior position. And how badly, how desperately, he wanted to be part of the Trump administration. What a rat.

I thought I knew him. I was wrong. He’s a small, narcissistic thirst monster. His betrayal is nothing short of shocking.

“Bolton may be in hot water as FBI investigation expands beyond controversial book,” by Ashley Oliver, Fox News, August 26, 2025:

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Now, the Democratic Party is for elite, college-educated women angered by President Donald Trump and MAGA, such as the white-haired Virginia woman who went viral last week with a racist protest message against black GOP Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.

“As a party of mostly college-educated females, they’re drastically alienating everyone else,” Cygnal pollster Brent Buchanan said this week, alluding to his latest survey showing the Democratic image sinking, now twice as bad as the Republicans.

He suggested that it’s the issues the Democratic base is choosing that are driving away its core. For example, the base is angered at Trump’s efforts to boost safety in cities by deploying the National Guard, but others aren’t worked up about it.

“It’s college-educated women driving the ‘threats to democracy’ increase in ‘top priority,’” Buchanan said. “The Left has become an echo chamber out of touch with the majority of the country.”

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MSNBC will lose the peacock logo and be rebranded as “MS NOW” ahead of its spinoff from Comcast’s NBCUniversal, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

The details were shared with staff members by Mark Lazarus, who will run NBCUniversal’s new public company, Versant, as CEO. Lazarus addressed the rebrand as well as the logo change.

“As we all know, the peacock is synonymous with NBCUniversal, and it is a symbol they have decided to keep within the NBCU family,” he said. “This gives us the opportunity to chart our own path forward, create distinct brand identities, and establish an independent news organization following the spin.”

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Permitless carry is the law, to some degree or another, in 29 states. In the South, only Virginia and North Carolina still require permits. Virginia is a state that swings harder than a screen door in a tornado, but North Carolina tends to be a little better than that.

Earlier this year, they passed permitless carry. The state’s Democratic governor, unsurprisingly, vetoed it. Now, they’re using their power to balance the authority of the executive branch to overturn that.

Gun safety advocates gathered last week to highlight the threat of constitutional carry ahead of a potential veto override of Senate Bill 50 from the state legislature, a bill allowing concealed carry without permits.

Senate Bill 50 would allow North Carolinians above the age of 18 to carry concealed, loaded handguns without a permit, a change from the current system that requires background checks, safety training, and live-fire training.

Democratic Gov. Josh Stein vetoed the measure on June 20. But when the Senate returned to Raleigh in July, lawmakers overrode Stein’s veto.

In order to override a veto, three-fifths of each chamber must approve.

Now, it’s all up to the House, where Republicans are one vote short of a supermajority. With legislators coming back to town on Tuesday, SB 50 remains on the calendar and it’s possible the lower chamber will take up the bill if Republicans think the votes are there to override Stein’s veto.

On Friday, North Carolinians Against Gun Violence and concerned community members spoke at Strategic Tactics Of Protection LLC (STOP) against the bill.

“More people will die in NC if the House overrides Gov. Stein’s veto. The Senate already has,” Becky Ceartas, executive director of North Carolinians Against Gun Violence, said. “We cannot let this happen. Too much is at stake. Lives are on the line.”

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For years, Washington, D.C.’s sanctuary city laws barred local police from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. However, a recent order from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi effectively nullifies many of these rules—so long as President Donald Trump retains federal control of the district.

Two weeks ago, Trump declared a crime emergency in the nation’s capital and federalized the Metropolitan Police Department for 30 days—the maximum period allowed for a state of emergency before an authorization from Congress is required to lengthen it.

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Friday, a federal judge in Florida ordered the famed “Alligator Alcatraz” detention and deportation center for illegal aliens closed and dismantled. My colleague Brad Slager had that story:

Judge Kathleen Williams, late Thursday evening in a Miami courtroom, issued a temporary restraining order requiring the state to refrain from bringing in any additional detainees, and declared that in 60 days the facility needs to be cleared of all of those being held, and the process of hauling out the installed infrastructure begins to take place.

Williams, a Barack Obama appointee, stated that an environmental impact assessment was to have been conducted prior to installing the new structures and other operational needs. She noted that no such advance research was conducted by the defendants, although the state did argue with a reference to a “Preliminary Ecological Assessment” that was conducted in late July. While that study alluded to several species possibly endangered, the state asserted that installations around the facility were erected to shield those in the surrounding area.

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A federal judge on Tuesday denied Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan’s motion to dismiss charges against her for helping an illegal immigrant evade ICE agents.

Last month, a federal magistrate judge ruled that Hannah Dugan is not entitled to dismiss her federal case based on judicial immunity.

“Dugan moves to dismiss the indictment under Fed. R. Crim. P. 12(b) on the grounds that she, as a judge, is immune from criminal prosecution for judicial acts, that her prosecution violates the limits of federal power under the Tenth Amendment, and that the indictment could be dismissed under the canon of constitutional avoidance,” magistrate judge Nancy Joseph wrote.

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In a striking turn of events, several senior banking executives have broken their long-standing silence, revealing that political coercion, not just regulatory prudence, steered decisions about whose bank accounts to close and services to deny.

Their admissions come on the heels of President Donald Trump’s executive order, Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans, issued on August 7, 2025, which explicitly outlaws politicized or unlawful debanking and prohibits the nebulous use of “reputational risk” as justification for denying service.

Until now, institutions like JPMorgan, Bank of America, CitiGroup, and PNC have staunchly defended their practices, insisting that account closures rested solely on objective criteria. But in an extraordinary shift, these same banks through unnamed executives quoted by Fox News Digital have now voiced concerns about the “very, very real” pressure they felt from federal regulators under the Obama and Biden administrations.

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Illinois Democrat Gov. JB Pritzker signed two new laws Friday to further aid the abortion industry, one spreading abortion pills on college campuses and another solidifying the state as a “safe haven” from pro-life laws.

HB3709 makes abortion and contraception pills available on Illinois college campuses and removes “approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration” from the definition of “emergency contraception.” HB3637 shields abortion providers from out-of-state prosecutions for helping facilitate abortions in pro-life states.

“At the end of that movie (2019’s Avengers: Endgame), all the women of the Avengers come together for the final battle. That’s how I feel about the women here today, and the women in the General Assembly who have led this fight,” Pritzker said at a signing event, The Center Square reported. “Our job right now is to protect Illinois and its residents from the onslaught coming from Washington and neighboring states, and to provide a safe haven for women across the country seeking to have their rights protected.”

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The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has poured $15 million into paying off debt from the failed presidential candidacy of former Vice President Kamala Harris.

The organization faces a shortfall after the Harris campaign spent $1.5 billion in her doomed 15 weeks as the Democrat hopeful, Breitbart reported.

Harris was crushed in the 2024 presidential election, and now a record-setting debt has forced the DNC to shell out millions in the first half of the year.

This figure comes as the Republican National Committee (RNC) is working with a cash surplus of $80 million after President Donald Trump’s historic win.

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You knew this line was going to be dropped about President Trump’s executive order creating specialized National Guard units to curb urban unrest and rising crime, a not-so-subtle warning to Democrat-run cities that federal troops could be coming soon to a theater near you (via NYT):

President Trump directed the Defense Department on Monday to take a larger role in domestic law enforcement, including by “quelling civil disturbances,” as he threatens to broaden deployments of the National Guard in cities run by his political enemies.

The executive order, released by the White House on Monday morning, also formalizes the creation of specially trained National Guard units in the District of Columbia and all 50 states that can be mobilized quickly for “ensuring the public safety and order.”

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The Cracker Barrel brouhaha has ended the only way it possibly could… with Donald Trump involved. Once the president of the United States says your new logo is stupid, it’s time to bend the knee while waving the white flag of surrender. The restaurant did. Uncle Hershal is back. Now the truth is being told about the decision-making process. Spoiler: The people responsible were told fans would hate it, but they didn’t care.

To recap Tuesday, in the morning, Donald Trump was all like:

Then in the afternoon, Cracker Barrel was all like:

Here’s where the story takes a hilarious turn. When CEO Julie Felss Masino announced her strategic plan to transform the brand, an investor spoke up and warned her that everything she wanted to do was stupid and would be rejected by people who actually like Cracker Barrel, as opposed to the people Masino was attempting to impress.

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You would have thought that the Bud Light, Target, and other woke corporate fiascos would have been lesson enough, but moooooo....

And the CEO Julie Felss Masino and her board knew. They ignored warnings last year from investor Sardar Biglari that her “strategic transformation plan” and rebrand was “obvious folly.”

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‘IT’S VERY, VERY SERIOUS WHAT I HAVE IN MIND’: Despite being rebuffed at every turn, President Donald Trump is still holding out hope that Russia will come to the table to negotiate an end to the more than three-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine.

At a marathon broadcast Cabinet meeting that ran more than three hours, Trump indicated that despite his frustration, he’s ready to wage economic warfare against Russia to increase the pressure on Vladimir Putin. “It’s very, very serious what I have in mind, if I have to do it. But I want to see it end,” Trump said. “We have economic sanctions. I’m talking about economic. Because we’re not going to get into a world war.”

“Over the last couple of weeks, over 12,000 people died in, like, in two weeks,” Trump said. “They were Russian, they were Ukrainian, they weren’t American. So, a lot of people would say, ‘What do you care? They’re not American.’ I care. They’re 12,000.”

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Fulton County BOC Members who refuse, under Court order, to appoint the GOP Nominees. From Left to Right: Commissioners Marvin Arrington Jr, Mo Ivory, Dana Barrett

Last week, a judge ordered the Fulton County Board of Commissioners to seat two Republican Party nominees: Jason Frazier and Julie Adams.  The two were nominated in May but have yet to be seated.

Two of the Democrat members, Dana Barrett and Mo Ivory, were able to thwart Commissioner Bridget Thorne’s motion to confirm the two Republican appointees.  Because of the absence of three other members on the seven-member board, the motion was blocked in a 2-2 vote.

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United States President Donald Trump has announced his government will seek the death penalty in every murder case that unfolds in Washington, DC, as part of his crackdown on crime in the country’s capital.

Trump made the announcement in the midst of a Labor Day-themed meeting of his cabinet on Tuesday as he discussed a range of issues, from weapons sales to the rising cost of living.

“Anybody murders something in the capital: capital punishment. Capital capital punishment,” Trump said, seeming to relish the wordplay.

“If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, DC, we’re going to be seeking the death penalty. And that’s a very strong preventative, and everybody that’s heard it agrees with it.”

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Most rational human beings who know anything about American history believe that the practice of slavery was one of the United States’ original sins, and that it was allowed for too long. Untold millions suffered due to the enslavement of human beings across generations in a way that still has very real lingering effects.

Which makes slavery the most bewildering topic for Republicans to want to explore the upside of.

President Donald Trump made clear on Tuesday that he doesn’t like all this negative talk about slavery, and complained that the Smithsonian museums are too “woke.”

“The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future,” Trump bleated on Truth Social.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has made himself the face of the Democratic change in tactics when dealing with Trump and his party, but there is a broader sense that the urging of the elite consultant class that Democrats needed to move in Trump’s direction has been rejected and the party has unified on a strategy to fight and fight hard.

While Gavin Newsom was doing podcasts with Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries had been sounding the alarm before Trump came into office and trying to drag congressional Democratic leadership into fight mode.

After Chuck Schumer was nearly run out of the party for caving to Trump on government funding, the tide seemed to shift. When Trump moved on trying to rig the midterm election, it seems that Democrats at all levels got on the same page.

Leader Jeffries put the Democratic strategy into words with a new twist on a Michelle Obama quote.

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The California Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a petition filed by state Republican legislators seeking to halt Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) plan to redistrict California’s congressional map.

“Petitioners have failed to meet their burden of establishing a basis for relief at this time under California Constitution article IV, section 8,” reads a brief order posted to the docket.

Newsom has hit back at Republican redistricting efforts in Texas by pushing for a special election this November to get voters’ approval on a more favorable House map for Democrats in California in time for the 2026 midterms.

The ruling paves the way for the California legislature to proceed with voting as soon as Thursday on a package that would set up the special election.

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WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday (Aug 26) that the federal government will begin seeking the death penalty in homicide cases in Washington DC, expanding his law-and-order push and federal control over the capital.

“If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington DC, we’re going to be seeking the death penalty, and that’s a very strong preventative,” Trump said at a White House cabinet meeting. “We have no choice.”

The move underscores Trump’s efforts to exert power over the Democratic-leaning capital, where violent crime has fallen from a 2023 spike but remains a flashpoint in political debate. He has already declared an emergency, deployed National Guard troops and sent federal law enforcement to back up local police.

Trump has also threatened to extend such measures to other cities, including Chicago.

Washington is unique in that it falls under the jurisdiction of Congress, though residents elect a mayor and council under the 1973 Home Rule Act. The city has abolished the death penalty for local crimes, but it remains possible for certain offences under federal law.

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Constitutional scholars use the “autocratic signaling” when leaders test public tolerance by “just wondering” if dictatorship might be preferable. Trump did exactly that today when he complained about Illinois Governor Pritzker’s resistance to his plans for a military takeover of Chicago. — Read the rest

The post “A lot of people are saying maybe we’d like a dictator” — Trump suggests Americans are in the mood for fascism appeared first on Boing Boing.

Full quote – https://www.tiktok.com/@dailymail/video/7542552886669102349

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Maryland Gov. Wes Moore came out swinging over the weekend, rejecting a plot by President Donald Trump to deploy federal troops to Baltimore, the largest city in Moore’s home state.

Trump has deployed federal law enforcement and the National Guard to Washington, despite a recent drop in crime. He has also threatened to repeat the process with other major cities with large Black populations. In response, Moore sent a letter to Trump on Thursday, inviting him to go on a safety walk in Baltimore to see how crime-prevention efforts have improved the situation there.

As part of our broad approach to public safety, I regularly join community advocates and elected officials to walk through the neighborhoods most affected by violent crime,” Moore wrote. “I would like to formally invite you to attend our next public safety walk in September, at a date of your choosing.”

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National Guardsmen patrol near the US Capitol, Friday, Aug. 22, 2025, in Washington.Rahmat Gul/AP

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President Donald Trump’s DC takeover has proven to be broadly unpopular among residents and seemingly counterproductive.

But the president has never been deterred by facts—and he is now setting his sights on additional cities where violent crime has already been falling.

The Washington Post first reported on Saturday that the Pentagon has for weeks been developing plans for potential troop deployments in Chicago. The report came a day after Trump hinted at such a move himself, calling Chicago a “mess” and Mayor Brandon Johnson “incompetent.” Citing officials familiar, the Post reports that the plan could include mobilizing a few thousand members of the National Guard to take to Chicago’s streets by next month.

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As if Republicans didn’t have enough problems trying to hold on to the House majority, along comes Utah to give them a whole new problem.

Republicans once again tried to ignore the will of the people and the state’s constitution, and the matter went to court.

The Campaign Legal Center explained what happened:

The court determined that the Utah state legislature violated the people’s right to alter or reform their government when they repealed Proposition 4, or Prop 4 – a ballot initiative that aimed to prohibit partisan gerrymandering by establishing the Utah Independent Redistricting Commission and creating fair, neutral criteria and procedures for adopting district maps.

Prop 4, which was passed by Utah voters and unconstitutionally repealed by the legislature, is now the law again. The current gerrymandered congressional map passed by the legislature may not be used in future elections. The Utah state legislature now has a chance to pass a new, fair map that complies with Prop 4, and if it does not, the court will order a new map, which will be used for the 2026 election.

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Ed Martin, the director of the Department of Justice Weaponization Working Group, joined Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” for an explosive interview about ongoing investigations into government abuse of power. Martin confirmed that his office is reviewing criminal referrals involving Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), New York Attorney General Letitia James, and matters tied to the Russia hoax and January 6 investigations.

 

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A bombshell revelation is brewing in Washington. According to a high-level source inside the Trump administration, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is now reviewing a secret dossier on the December 6, 2024 coup d’état in Romania—one that points directly to former Biden regime officials.

The file reportedly names three top Biden operatives: disgraced Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, his assistant James O’Brien, and U.S. Ambassador to Bucharest Kathleen Kavalec. Their fingerprints, according to the source, are all over Romania’s election annulment.

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Harjinder Singh made a U-turn from the right lane to go through an “official use only” turnaround spot on the Florida Turnpike.

The illegal immigrant truck driver who has been charged with vehicular homicide in the deaths of three people in Florida has been revealed to have crossed the US border illegally into California in September 2018 and was given a commercial driving license by California under the state’s sanctuary laws.