02 U.S. Politics

Blurb:

The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced Thursday that it has determined four sham charities are directly bankrolling Hamas’s military wing and enabling its operations.

According to the Treasury Department, Hamas is hiding its revenue-generating activities behind civilian organizations, under the guise of humanitarian work, to support the group’s terrorist activities.

Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent was quoted in a press release yesterday, saying,  “Hamas continues to finance its military wing by exploiting sham charities to support terrorist operations. The Treasury Department will not allow Hamas to misuse the charitable sector for its violent aims, and we will continue to target these networks wherever they operate.”

Four separate charities are accused of channeling cash to the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, which are suspected of carrying out some of the group’s most heinous terrorist activities.

Blurb:

 

President Donald Trump on Monday repeated his call to nations to help unblock the Strait of Hormuz, and complained that some were not very enthusiastic about providing help ​to Washington.

Trump ‌wants nations to help police the strait after Iran responded to US-Israeli attacks by ⁠using drones, missiles and mines to effectively close the channel for tankers that usually transport a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas.

“Some are very ‌enthusiastic about it, and some aren’t. Some are countries that we’ve helped for many, many ⁠years. We’ve protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren’t that enthusiastic. And the level of enthusiasm matters to me,” Trump said at an event at the White House.

Blurb:

Virginia Democrats are pushing ahead with more gun control. It is a reminder that the Democratic Party’s gun control agenda targets law-abiding gun owners and lets criminals completely off the hook.

The gun control proposals flowing through the Virginia legislature to Gov. Abigail Spanberger‘s (D-VA) desk are the typical incoherent Democratic talking points: banning the arbitrary category of “assault weapons,” banning “large capacity” magazines, and waiting periods for purchasing guns. Two of the most onerous requirements, as Jay Caruso wrote for the Washington Examiner, include requiring “a state-issued permit to purchase firearms, which would oddly extend to renting a firearm at a shooting range,” and “mandatory storage requirements” that restrict a gun owner’s ability to access his or her firearm in a timely manner in his or her own home.

None of this will do anything to solve gun crime. It is lost on Democrats, but criminals do not follow the law. They will acquire illegal “assault weapons” or magazines regardless of what you legislate. A Justice Department report from 2019 detailed how around 91% of gun criminals acquire their firearms through illegal means or from another person. Storage requirements won’t stop people who are already reckless enough to leave their guns around the house where small children can reach them, either.

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Jeff had the story earlier today: there were reports that the now-dead Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was not happy about his son succeeding him. We might understand why: there are reports suggesting he could be gay. Once again, the rumor mill is spinning rapidly because it’s likely that his son, the new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, is in a medically induced coma. He was severely wounded in an airstrike, which might have cost him one or both of his legs. He has no idea his dad or a large part of his family are dead, nor is he aware of the regional war happening right now.

Still, the memes to this news have been gold. Some we can’t share for obvious reasons, but they’re amazing nonetheless:

Blurb:

President Donald Trump announced Monday that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer but will continue serving in her role while undergoing treatment.

Trump shared the news in a post on Truth Social, praising Wiles for immediately confronting the diagnosis while remaining committed to her responsibilities at the White House.

“Susie Wiles is an incredible Chief of Staff, a great person, and one of the strongest people I know but, unfortunately, she has been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, and has decided to take on this challenge, IMMEDIATELY, as opposed to waiting,” Trump wrote.

Blurb:

Pregnant mothers are facing a profound and troubling exception to the principle of bodily autonomy unfolding in their delivery rooms.

While competent adults in virtually every other medical context retain the absolute right to refuse treatment, pregnant women face a starkly different reality. In certain states, including Florida, courts have carved out a unique legal pathway allowing hospitals to seek emergency orders compelling cesarean sections against a woman’s clearly expressed wishes. These interventions transform what should be a collaborative medical decision into a state-enforced procedure in which the mother’s informed refusal is overridden.

A ProPublica/CNN investigation into court-ordered C-sections in Florida detailed how Cherise Doyley, a seasoned birthing doula with three prior children, found herself in labor at University of Florida Health in Jacksonville in September 2024. What should have been a moment of joy turned into a nightmare when hospital staff, deeming her desire for a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) too risky, initiated an emergency court hearing in her delivery room.

“It’s a real judge in there?” Doyley asked the nurse at the beginning of what would be a three-hour hearing. “Now this is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Blurb:

Ecuador began two weeks of operations against drug traffickers with support from the U.S., deploying thousands of police officers and soldiers on March 15.

The two-week campaign will target criminal gangs in several dangerous provinces, including Guayas, Los Rios and Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas, according to the Washington Examiner. The U.S. will provide material support. Officials have imposed curfews from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. in coastal regions until March 30.

“We’re at war,” Ecuadorian Interior Minister John Reimberg told locals in several provinces, the BBC reported. “Don’t take any risks, don’t go out, stay at home.”

He announced that Ecuador was deploying over 75,000 soldiers and police officers for the campaign, according to the outlet. Reimberg also wrote that 35,000 police officers were deployed in Guayas, Los Rios, El Oro and Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas in a post on X. “To the mafias: your time is up. Nothing can stop us,” the post said.

Blurb:

Can Democrats take “Yes” for an answer?

As the Senate weighs the SAVE America Act, Republicans should help Democrats overcome their objections to this bill.

Racist Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., complain that black folks lack photo ID. Democrats insist that expecting supposedly witless or listless blacks to show poll workers photo ID is “Jim Crow 2.0.”

Democrats never offer to give IDs to these invisible legions of undocumented blacks. Imagine if Democrats handed photo ID to these poor, benighted souls: Blacks and others of color could cash checks, jet across America, get paid to shovel snow in New York City, and even vote in states with photo ID rules.

Democrats also attack SAVE for requiring birth certificates to register to vote. “Got one of those handy with you, in your purse?” Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., prodded a congressional correspondent. “I doubt it.”

So, Senate Republicans should open the SAVE America Act proceedings by making Democrats vote first on legislation that I would call The Voting Documents for All Act.

• Any adult US citizen could visit his state’s DMV office and receive a free photo ID card (not a driver’s license).

• The federal government would reimburse states for the cost of each free photo ID card, plus 10%, to encourage their assistance. This would be a funded mandate.

Blurb:

President Donald Trump is pressing U.S. allies to send warships to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz after Iranian forces shut down large swaths of commercial traffic through the region.

In a Saturday post on Truth Social, the president noted that countries “who are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait” would be sending ships to the area “to keep the Strait open and safe.”

He explained that while the U.S. has “already destroyed 100% of Iran’s Military capability,” it is “easy for them to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close range missile somewhere along, or in, this Waterway.”

He said he hoped China, France, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and others would also lend their naval support to the effort to reopen the Hormuz Strait.

Blurb:

The leadership shrug is a remarkable new political gesture.

Members of Congress who declared their opposition to Lyndon Johnson’s most important legislative priorities tended to be woken by phone calls in the middle of the night from an angry president. Johnson was fond of physiological imagery, so members of his party who declared their independence would hear that he planned to cut their throats or alter their sexual anatomy. In profane rants, holdouts learned that federal spending for things like highways was about to become quite scarce in their district or their state, and everyone back home was going to know who had caused the sudden money drought with his stupidity.

In person, the “Johnson Treatment” – “an incredible, potent mixture of persuasion, badgering, flattery, threats, reminders of past favors and future advantages” – was known for its physical aggression, as the 6’4″ president leaned forward and shoved his face into deeply uncomfortable proximity with men who weren’t getting with the program. When he met with members of Congress, Johnson wasn’t asking.

Last week, Senate Republicans announced that they just don’t have the votes to pass the SAVE America Act, an election security bill with measures that Republican voters have strongly supported for years. “That’s just a function of math, and there isn’t anything I can do about that,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said. This is how Republicans are pretending that Congress works: Leaders ask every member what they feel like doing, and then the members all say how they want to vote, and then leadership accepts their decision and the conversation ends. A caucus is a counting mechanism, and can’t be anything else. Thune’s “there isn’t anything I can do about that” is a gesture of make-believe helplessness that defies 250 years of legislative history.

 

Blurb:

OIL SLIPS ON BESSENT SHIPPING COMMENTS

Despite the turbulence, oil prices, which had been above US$100 a barrel, fell sharply and stocks rallied after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC the US was “fine” to let some Iranian fuel vessels sail through the strait, and believed Indian and Chinese tankers had also passed through.

Ship-tracking data showed a Pakistan-bound oil tanker had passed through the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, indicating that some countries are able to negotiate safe passage for their vessels.

On Sunday, Trump had demanded that countries relying heavily on oil from the Gulf should help protect the strait, and said he hoped China, France, Japan, South Korea, Britain and others would participate.

However, many – including Germany, Italy, Greece, Japan and Australia – said they would not send warships.

Blurb:

President Donald Trump said his administration will continue pursuing tariffs through alternative legal authorities after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a major portion of his administration’s tariff program earlier this year.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump criticized the ruling but emphasized that the decision did not eliminate his ability to impose tariffs through other laws.

“The Court knew where I stood, how badly I wanted this Victory for our Country, and instead decided to, potentially, give away Trillions of Dollars to Countries and Companies who have been taking advantage of the United States for decades,” Trump wrote.

Blurb:

 

The attack on an ROTC class at Old Dominion University could have been a lot worse. Luckily for everyone there, the cadets weren’t easy prey, with one of them stabbing and killing the jihadist gunman.

But that’s not how things usually go. Instead, most of the time, people die, and for Virginia Democrats, that’s just fine.

I mean, what else can you get from this diatribe, anyway?

Blurb:

Abortion polling is notoriously deceptive and known to strategically skew and misrepresent public opinion to favor abortion activists’ radical agendas. Pew Research Center’s latest survey appears to be no different.

In its 2026 American Trends Panel analysis, Pew uses its January 2026 survey of more than 8,500 U.S. adults to assert that a majority of Americans, 60 percent, “continue to say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.”

Pew suggests that number means states’ attempts to use the post-Dobbs v. Jackson era to outlaw or limit abortion are unpopular and out of touch. The research center’s write-up of its newly retrieved data even notes, in bold, that “In recent years, the public has become more likely to say obtaining an abortion in their area would be difficult.”

Blurb:

A Planned Parenthood official falsely asserted that the abortion pill is “safer than many over-the-counter medications — including Tylenol.”

Never mind that that claim has been repeatedly refuted.

a fundraising email responding to legislation introduced by pro-life Senator Josh Hawley and his bill to take the dangerous abortion drug off the market, Sarah Taylor-Nanista, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado, defended the drug’s safety.

“This bill is built on false claims that the medication is ‘inherently dangerous,’ despite decades of scientific evidence showing that mifepristone is safer than many over-the-counter medications — including Tylenol,” Taylor-Nanista wrote.

Blurb:

National Public Radio is still in hot pursuit of the supposed sins of GOP Islamophobia, while anti-semitism from Muslim Democrats is never news. NPR made not just one but two stories out of Barbara Sprunt’s reporting, which consisted of her acting horrified about Republicans saying mean things about Islam without being punished.

The first story aired March 13 on All Things Considered: “Unlike past eras, anti-Muslim GOP rhetoric draws little pushback from party leaders.” Yes, the good old days when Republican leadership called out offensive comments by Republicans – and got no credit for it from the elitist media, which still called every Republican presidential candidate a racist.

AILSA CHANG, HOST: In recent days, several Republican lawmakers have drawn condemnation for using anti-Muslim rhetoric. It’s not the first time that the party has had to confront hateful language from within its own ranks, but unlike in past political eras, these comments have faced little pushback from Republican leaders. NPR congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt joins us now….let’s start with this tweet from Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles. This was from earlier this week, right? He posted, quote, “Muslims don’t belong in American society.”

NPR doesn’t care if antisemitic comments from Democrats like Rep. Ilhan Omar receive “little pushback from Democrat leaders.” Being Muslim means you’re “marginalized,” so you’re in a different rule book. Sprunt went on to say:

SPRUNT: ….There’s been a lot of posts about Sharia Law. There’s a Sharia-free America Caucus that now has 50 Republican members. Sharia refers to rules devout Muslims follow in life, like praying five times a day, avoiding pork. It’s a religious framework, not a plan to replace the Constitution. And if you listen to the rest of what Johnson said, he added that this isn’t about Muslims as people. But critics say by framing this answer around Sharia law, it gives cover for bigoted language.

Blurb:

Massive march in NYC, backing the Trump Administration’s strikes on Iran.

The Democrat media axis is lying to you. About everything.

Blurb:

Normally, drug dealers go to jail. But in Washington, the state’s own Department of Corrections (DOC) could become the cheapest dealer on the block. Its poison of choice? Deadly chemical abortion pills.

In February, the Washington state legislature approved legislation that would allow its DOC to sell its stockpile of abortion pills below cost, and last week, the state’s House speaker signed the legislation — Democrat Gov. Bob Ferguson is soon expected to sign the bill into law.

If enacted, the legislation would let the DOC essentially give away its abortion pills (more than 155,000 doses worth) at as low a price it wants, setting it up to become what one Republican state senator described as the “free-abortion-pill provider for the entire country.”

Blurb:

On March 7, a throng of left-wing counter protestors met with a small right-wing protest outside Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D). From within the crowd, 18-year-old Emir Balat threw a homemade bomb and yelled “Allahu akbar.” Balat and his friend Ibrahim Kayumi were arrested for the attack, and law enforcement later determined that the two were ISIS sympathizers.

All of the above information was publicly available by the afternoon of March 7. By 2:00 p.m. ET, several videos of Balat throwing the bomb were already circulating on social media, in which he could clearly be heard yelling the well-known Islamist slogan.

Despite all of that information being readily available, The New York Times’s first headline about the incident read: “Homemade Bomb Thrown at Protest Near N.Y.C. Mayor’s House, Police Say” — a summary so vague that it almost seemed to pin the bomb-throwing on the right-wing protestors.

Blurb:

Since February 14, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been largely shut down after funding lapsed because Democrats demanded changes to President Trump’s deportation policies, leaving government workers such as TSA agents to work without pay and turn to food banks.

A Media Research Center study found that, since the start of the DHS shutdown, only eight percent – or 125 seconds – of the 26 minutes and 22 seconds on the shutdown across the flagship evening newscasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC have brought up the fact that the long lines at airports are because of the left’s obstructionism.

MRC analysts examined every mention of the DHS shutdowns and its effects (mainly at America’s airports) by journalists, starting on February 14 on ABC’s World News Tonight, the CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News and tallied both the total coverage and allusions to Democratic demands to reopen DHS.

Blurb:

For decades, my colleagues and I have been up against an immense machine— a wildy rich, axis of media, entertainment, and cultural power that made dissent a form of professional suicide. A form of murder – the systematic killing of a person’s good name, reputation, and livelihood.

And when we pointed out the sharia-compliant media ecosystem that enabled it, the punishment only intensified. We were smeared, deplatformed, shadow-banned, and algorithmically buried—until many of us were effectively disappeared from the public square, leaving the megaphone almost entirely in the hands of far-left demons.

Liel Leibovitz of Tablet looked at the New York Times’ piece on the terror attack outside of Mamdani’s residence titled “At 13, He Was Selling Sneakers. At 18, He’s Facing Terror Charges.” Leibovitz: This is not a bug. It’s a feature. We can mock it all we want, writing cutesy headlines like “at 20, he was an aspiring Viennese painter; at 56, he was facing the Allies in a bunker in Berlin.” But the truth is deeper and more troubling. What we’re seeing here is the result of the left’s near-total command of everything we’re allowed to know, say, and think…. When a perfect machine that includes the Democrat party, mainstream media, intelligence agencies, Big Tech, and corporate America comes together and runs an intel operation on you, this is what reality starts to look like. And it’s not something to be merely laughed at; it’s something to be crushed, which means making very significant changes to how you live your life, who you trust, and what you value (Liebovitz).

Blurb:

President Trump put fire under the broader community of concerned nations: the Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help — A LOT! The U.S. will also coordinate with those Countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well. This should have always been a team effort, and now it will be (Truth).

That message continued through the weekend. New York Sun: President Trump pledged Saturday to quickly reopen the Strait of Hormuz with help from a multinational naval coalition, even while claiming to have “destroyed 100%” of Iran’s military capability in a two-week campaign that has disrupted global oil supplies and raised fears of a broader regional confrontation. “Many Countries, especially those who are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending War Ships, in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social. He called on China, France, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom to contribute vessels, saying those nations have been harmed by what he described as “this artificial constraint” (New York Sun).

Blurb:

Authorities in Missouri arrested a woman who allegedly planned to assassinate President Donald Trump with a firearm she stole from her father.

Johnetta Parsons allegedly stole the gun back in December, transported it to St. Louis, and left the weapon in her friend’s vehicle, according to a criminal complaint, Newsweek reported.

Parsons’ father reported on Dec. 8 to the Ozark County Sheriff’s Office that Parsons had stolen his firearm, a SCCY CPX-2 9mm.

The Columbia Police Department found the gun on Jan. 3 in a vehicle driven to the Greyhound station, with two people in the vehicle saying they had taken Parsons to St. Louis.

Blurb:

The New York Times has caught a lot of justified flak the last few days for how softly it has framed its profiles of the Islamic perpetrator of an anti-Jewish attack on a Michigan synagogue. “The Michigan Synagogue Attacker Was a Quiet Restaurant Worker.” At least Sunday’s print headline was better: “Recalling Attacker’s Last Days Before Driving Into Synagogue.”

Critics faulted the terrorist-sympathetic framing of the story, like another headline: “Family Members of Michigan Synagogue Attacker Died in Airstrike in Lebanon.” The story initially included insistence from sources that members of the man’s family killed in an Israeli air strike there were not members of Hezbollah.

As confirmation of the man’s Hezbollah links emerged, that denial was quietly excised.

Blurb:

Former President Barack Obama long ago surpassed the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton as America’s most influential race hustler. The country got a reminder when Obama spoke at Jackson’s funeral, even though Jackson’s son urged the speakers “not to bring their politics” to the service.

Obama said: “Every day you wake up to things you just didn’t think were possible. Each day, we’re told by those in high office to fear each other, and to turn on each other. And that some Americans count more than others.” Same old Obama.

In his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech, he famously declared, “There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America—there’s the United States of America.” It was the line that launched him and made millions across party lines believe he could bridge divides.

Blurb:

An estimated one billion sensitive identity records may have been exposed after a major OD verification company left a massive global database unsecured online, according to cybersecurity researchers.

The exposed records reportedly include personal details such as names, home addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, national identification numbers, and other sensitive information commonly used to verify a person’s identity.

Researchers say the database was tied to IDMerit, a company that provides online identity verification services to financial institutions and technology firms.

Blurb:

We have been told for years that there is no need for stricter identification requirements in American elections. The Left has claimed that our elections are secured, and that the Right has simply lied about the issue, or they want to put up restrictions on women or minorities voting by instituting measures to prove citizens and identity before casting a ballot. When put on the record, it seems that those on the Left are finally telling the truth about the matter: illegals are easily able to vote in American elections.

Blurb:

One thing the Iran War has demonstrated is that the overwhelming majority of journalists and commentators on the war are blindingly ignorant of the basics of military operations, they are unacquainted with the staff process, and they are so eaten alive by the all-devouring TDS virus that they have lost the ability to reason when Trump is involved.

The purpose of this post is not to declare victory, but to demonstrate that President Trump is leading a top-shelf strategic team put together by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. He is getting good advice, he’s listening, and he’s making good decisions.

Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported what I think is a blindingly obvious example of how command and staff relationships work and how the commander-in-chief handles those relationships, and tried to portray it as a scandal or an example of recklessness.

Before the U.S. went to war, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told President Trump that an American attack could prompt Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz.

Caine said in several briefings that U.S. officials had long believed Iran would deploy mines, drones and missiles to close the world’s most vital shipping lane, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

Trump acknowledged the risk, these people said, but moved forward with the most consequential foreign-policy decision of his two presidencies. He told his team that Tehran would likely capitulate before closing the strait—and even if Iran tried, the U.S. military could handle it.

Now, two weeks into the war, Iran’s leaders have refused to back down, and the Strait of Hormuz has emerged as Tehran’s most potent leverage point.

Blurb:

Despite CNN being forced to walk back their fake news over the weekend where they suggested the U.S. military and the Trump administration didn’t have a plan to protect the Strait of Hormuz, ABC News program The View still pushed it during their Monday episode. The news show then went on to encourage people to vote for Democrats in the November midterms.

Chronically aggrieved co-host Sunny Hostin pushed the false claim there was no plan for dealing with Iran’s efforts to close the Strait, then suggested the national average price of gas was $8-per-gallon because of it:

I can’t believe that the president didn’t know that Iran’s response to this would be to close the Strait of Hormuz and not allow tankers in. And now our energy prices are going off the rails, $8 for gas.