NEW: NYC Comptroller demands Mayor Eric Adams submit ‘contingency plan’ to run city or face removal | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com Source Link
DOJ to pay Portland anti-cop militant $7.65 MILLION over injury during 2020 riot outside federal courthouse after he threw gas grenade at police | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com Source Link
Just one major leftist organization highlights the alleged ways that USAID has funded the dramatic spreading of “wokeness” into American’s everyday lives. One organization, The Organized Crime Corruption and Reporting Project, was funded by both USAID and George Soros’ Open Society Foundation. This organization has sued republicans in office and produced a report that led to President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.
USAID’s Troubling Ties to the Woketopus– www.dailysignal.com Source Link Excerpt:
… USAID and Open Society Foundations jointly funded the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project—an organization that attacked conservatives for criticizing Soros and that published the report that sparked the first Trump impeachment. USAID’s connections to the project raise uncomfortable questions about whether the agency was trying to oust Trump.
The Organized Crime Corruption and Reporting Project also attacked Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J.; Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah; and Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation. These conservatives made the mistake of noticing that the U.S. Embassy to Macedonia had selected Soros’ Open Society Foundations as the main implementer for USAID projects in the Eastern European country.
According to Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., USAID awarded a $2.54 million contract to Open Society for training in “civic activism,” “mobilization,” and “civic engagement” in Macedonia in February 2017.
The East West Management Institute—which has long listed Open Society Foundations as a donor and implementing partner and which received $31.2 million from USAID in the last full fiscal year ending on Sept. 30—launched court changes in Albania that critics allege resulted in the prosecution of Albanian opposition leader Sali Berisha, silencing the opponent of the country’s socialist prime minister.
As for its role in the Woketopus, Open Society Foundations or its partners, the Open Society Policy Center, the Open Society Institute, or the Foundation to Promote Open Society have funded:
the American Civil Liberties Union (which pushed open borders in the Biden administration)
the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Southern Poverty Law Center (which pushed the weaponization of federal law enforcement agencies against conservatives)
the Human Rights Campaign (which pushed gender ideology)
the Sierra Club (which pushed climate alarmism)
The Tides Foundation
USAID has awarded more than $27 million in grants to the Tides Center, which forms part of the Left’s dark money network I expose in “The Woketopus” along with its sister groups the Tides Foundation and Tides Advocacy.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance stood before world leaders in a Munich, Germany speech in which he challenged Europe’s resistance to free speech. He highlighted the arrest of a British citizen for silently praying outside an abortion clinic.
Vance stated, “I can tell you plainly: There can be no security if you are afraid of the voices, the opinions, and the conscience that guide your own people. What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values.”
JD Vance rebukes anti-free speech, anti-Christian discrimination in Munich speech – The Christian Post Source Link Excerpt:
Delivering a speech in Germany, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance criticized European governments for suppressing free speech and discriminating against Christians. He urged leaders across Europe to reverse the ongoing crackdown on conservative voices and religious freedoms.
In his address at the Munich Security Conference in Munich on Friday, Vance noted that conservatives have been investigated, arrested, prosecuted or fined for protesting abortion and posting views on social media.
He also criticized attempts to exclude populist parties from political collaboration, saying they pose a threat to democracy.
Last month, the European Union introduced fresh measures to enforce the Digital Services Act, which limits American speech on social media platforms. While EU lawmakers claimed the initiative was to target “foreign interference” and “illegal content,” it raised concerns among free speech advocates in the U.S. The Act compels social media companies to remove “illegal content” or face penalties of up to 6% of their global annual turnover.
Paul Coleman, executive director of the legal advocacy group ADF International, warned at the time that a “new bipolar order of speech” was unfolding. “On the one hand, Europe is doubling down on censorship, while the U.S. is recommitting to its free speech heritage.”
“I can tell you plainly: There can be no security if you are afraid of the voices, the opinions, and the conscience that guide your own people,” Vance said in Munich. “What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values.”
In what could be seen as a symbol of the death of cancel culture, former DOGE staffer Marko Elez saw his promising career cut short because of racist tweets from the past, only to be restored by two acts that could serve to blunt the social power of “cancellation.” First, Vice President VD Vance called for Elez to be restored, then Musk vowed to bring him back.
Elon Musk shows us how to kill cancel culture once and for all– www.theblaze.com Source Link Excerpt:
Earlier this month, a member of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team, Marko Elez, resigned after the Wall Street Journal reported that the young DOGE staffer once posted “to a deleted social-media account that advocated racism and eugenics.” The story primarily focused on the DOGE’s efforts and offered little evidence to support the serious accusation, giving readers only two examples.
For liberals angry over the DOGE’s mission to uncover and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars, the story proved to be confirmation that Musk is operating a rogue campaign with immature and inexperienced loyalists.
A watershed moment?
What happened after Elez’s resignation may prove to be a turning point that erodes cancel culture.
It began when Vice President JD Vance spoke up.
“Here’s my view: I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life,” Vance said. “We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back. If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.”
That prompted Musk to promise Elez’s return — for an important reason.
“He will be brought back,” Musk vowed. “To err is human, to forgive divine.”
CBS News saw the anchor of its show “Face the Nation” espouse the assumption that free speech is what gave rise to Nazism. The counter is that Nazis did NOT, in fact, allow free speech, but she MIGHT BE claiming free speech BEFORE Hitler gave rise to Hitler. However, while the Weimer republic ended a lot of press censorship, they still had many anti-free-speech laws, including hate speech laws.
The host, Margaret Brennan, made this claim to Secretary of State Rubio: “Well, (Vice President Vance) was standing in (Germany) where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide, and he met with the head of a political party that has far-right views and some historic ties to extreme groups. The context of that was changing the tone of it. And you know that.”
Nazis ‘Weaponized’ Free Speech to Conduct the Holocaust– www.breitbart.com Source Link Excerpt:
CBS’s “Face the Nation” anchor Margaret Brennan said Sunday on “Face the Nation” that Nazis “weaponized” free speech to conduct the Holocaust during an interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about what happened in Munich, Germany, at the Security Conference. Vice President Vance gave a speech, and he told U.S. allies that the threat he worries about the most is not Russia, it is not China. He called it the “threat from within,” and he lectured about what he described as censorship, mainly focusing, though, on including more views from the right. He also met with the leader of a far-right party known as the AfD, which, as you know, is under investigation and monitoring by German intelligence because of extremism. What did all of this accomplish, other than irritating our allies?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Why would our allies or anybody be irritated by free speech and by someone giving their opinion? We are, after all, democracies. The Munich- Munich Security Conference is largely a conference of democracies in which one of the things that we cherish and value is the ability to speak freely and provide your opinions. And so, I think if anyone’s angry about his words, they don’t have to agree with him, but to be angry about it, I think actually makes his point. I thought it was actually a pretty historic speech, whether you agree with him or not. I think the valid points he’s making to Europe is, we are concerned that the true values that we share, the values that bind us together with Europe, are things like free speech and democracy and our shared history in winning two world wars and defeating Soviet communism and the like.
These are the values that we shared in common, and in that cold war we fought against things like censorship and oppression and so forth, and when you see backsliding, and you raise that, that’s a very valid concern. We can’t tell them how to run their countries. We are- he simply expressed in a speech his view of it, which a lot of people, frankly, share. And I thought he said a lot of things in that speech that needed to be said. And honestly, I don’t know why anybody would be upset about it. People are- you know, you don’t have to agree on someone’s speech. I happen to agree with a lot of what he said, but you don’t have to agree with someone’s speech to- to at least appreciate the fact they have a right to say it and that you should listen to it and see whether those criticisms are valid. I assure you, the United States has come under withering criticism on many occasions from many leaders in Europe, and we don’t go around throwing temper tantrums about it.
BRENNAN: Well, he was standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide, and he met with the head of a political party that has far-right views and some historic ties to extreme groups. The context of that was changing the tone of it. And you know that. That the censorship was specifically about the right–
RUBIO: — Well I have to disagree with you. No- I have- I have to disagree with you. Free speech was not used to conduct a genocide. The genocide was conducted by an authoritarian Nazi regime that happened to also be genocidal because they hated Jews and they hated minorities and they hated those that they- they had a list of people they hated, but primarily the Jews. There was no free speech in Nazi Germany. There was none. There was also no opposition in Nazi Germany, they were a sole and only party that governed that country. So that’s not an accurate reflection of history. I also think it’s wrong- again, I go back to the point of his speech. The point of his speech was basically that there is an erosion in free speech and intolerance or opposing points of view within Europe, and that’s of concern because that is eroding.
That’s not an erosion of your military capabilities, that’s not an erosion of your economic standing, that’s an erosion of the actual values that bind us together in this transatlantic union that everybody talks about, and I think allies and friends and partners that have worked together now for 80 years, should be able to speak frankly to one another in open forums without being offended, insulted, or upset. And I spoke to Foreign Ministers from multiple countries throughout Europe. Many of them probably didn’t like the speech or didn’t agree with it, but they were continuing to engage with us on all sorts of issues that unite us. So again, at the end of the day, I think that, you know, people give all- that is a forum in which you’re supposed to be inviting people to give speeches, not basically a chorus where everyone is saying the exact same thing. That’s not always going to be the case when it’s a collection of democracies where leaders have the right and the privilege to speak their minds in forums such as these.
Court Rejects AFL-CIO Demand For Temporary Restraining Order Against DOGE Access at DOL, HHS, CFPB– legalinsurrection.com Source Link Excerpt:
There are dozens of cases filed against Trump administration policies and procedures, particularly those centered around DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency). These cases sometimes are couched in terms of privacy and sometimes around whether DOGE has authority to act. At their core, these are political cases by a vast Democrat apparatus established last fall to swamp the administration with lawsuits.
We are in the early stages, but there have been some troubling Temporary Restraining Orders issued by some court. TROs by nature are short term, but tying the hands of the executive branch from being able to run the executive branch is still serious, even if for only a week or two.
It’s hard to keep track of them all, so we will post about particularly signigicant decisions as they come down.
On February 14, 2025, Judge John H. Bates of the U.S. District Court in DC, rejected a request for a TRO that would have barred DOGE from access at the Department of Labor (“DOL”), the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”). It’s a very technical analysis, here’s some key parts of the Memorandum Opinion and Order (full embed below):
Labor unions, a think tank, and two nonprofits move to temporarily restrain [DOL, HHS, CFPB,] the United States Digital Service (now known as the United States DOGE Service), and the United States DOGE Service Temporary Organization, from providing any person outside the three agencies—namely, DOGE personnel—with access to records systems containing personal information or data. As it said previously, the Court has serious concerns about the privacy concerns raised by this case, and those concerns are all the graver now that the data includes information on all Americans who rely on Medicare and Medicaid, as well as countless consumers. However, on the record before it, the Court does not conclude that plaintiffs are entitled to the extraordinary relief of a temporary restraining order.
U.S. secretary of state says Hamas rule must end in visit to Jerusalem – The Spokesman Review Source Link Excerpt:
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas must not remain the ruling force in the Gaza Strip at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.
“As long as (Hamas) stands as a force that can govern or administer or a force that can threaten by use of violence, peace becomes impossible,” Rubio said, emphasizing that Hamas must be destroyed.
Speaking after their meeting in Jerusalem, Netanyahu and Rubio reiterated that Iran must not be allowed to develop or possess nuclear weapons and accused Tehran of stoking instability.
“Behind every terrorist group, behind every act of violence, behind every destabilizing activity, behind everything that threatens peace and stability for the millions of people that call this region home is Iran,” Rubio said.
They also called for the disarmament of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. At the same time, Netanyahu emphasized that Israel was committed to the ongoing ceasefire in Lebanon.
European Leaders Call Emergency Meeting: “We Need To Respond” to President Trump– wltreport.com Source Link Excerpt:
With all that is happening in Europe, you would think the need to buck against a legitimate push for peace might take a backseat to a few higher priorities.
But apparently President Trump’s big moves and bold tactics in addressing the war in Ukraine is ruffling a few feathers among the upper crust of Europe’s leaders.
Top administration officials from the United States are preparing to sit down with their Russian counterparts in a serious bid to stop the fighting.
But instead of getting behind President Trump’s push, European leaders seem more fixated on continuing the status-quo of the conflict.
Or, at best, they are intent on pushing their own plans for Ukraine simply because they don’t like President Trump’s big decisive methodology.
Kamala Harris Is Leading Choice Among Democrats for California Governor in 2026, Polls Shows– slaynews.com Source Link Excerpt:
Failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris is leading the pack of Democrat hopefuls for the 2026 California governorship, polling shows.
Speculation has begun about a suitable replacement for the state’s Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is term-limited, Breitbart reported.
Harris crashed and burned in the 2024 presidential election with her spectacular loss to President Donald Trump.
In a stunning development, Democrats are rallying behind Harris to be the executive of the Golden State.
A recent poll from Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics/The Hill indicates that Harris is far and away the leading gubernatorial candidate for the Democrats.
