Progressive Watch
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Inside Iran, the BBC has been speaking to people struggling with the impact of the war.
The authorities have imposed an internet ban, but using trusted sources, special correspondent Fergal Keane has been hearing from those traumatised by conflict and government repression.
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Last week, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) announced it had gathered more than 1.5 million signatures—nearly double what it needed—to put a sweeping new wealth tax on California’s November ballot. The initiative is called the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act.
The name is designed to make you stop reading. Don’t.
SEIU has spent months positioning itself as the champion of nurses, teachers and caregivers. What it has actually done is run a $24 million campaign to put a measure on the ballot that could eventually be used to tax virtually any Californian who owns assets—with no return trip to the ballot box required.
The woman behind the Virginia special election to effectively eliminate 4 GOP U.S. House seats is now under FBI investigation. Virginia’s State Senator L. Louise Lucas saw her offices raided, along with other businesses connected to her.
So far, only anonymous sources are cited as claiming this is connected to a corruption investigation directly linked to her. She is considered the main driver of the Virginia gerrymander election plan that is currently under legal scrutiny.
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Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) publicly confessed to working with foreign governments to undermine U.S. policy in Cuba.
She declared, “I was in conversations with the ambassadors from Mexico and some other places, other countries in Latin America trying to figure out how to get oil there. I’ve called these sanctions an economic bombing of the infrastructure of Cuba.”
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Democrat Gov. Tim Walz is facing mounting scrutiny after Vice President JD Vance confirmed that federal authorities are investigating whether Minnesota officials failed to properly respond to massive fraud allegations tied to taxpayer-funded programs across the state.
The investigation follows a sweeping federal operation carried out across the Minneapolis area late last month.
FBI agents and federal investigators executed more than 20 search warrants targeting businesses connected to child care services, autism treatment programs, and other publicly funded operations.
Federal officials say the probe centers on allegations involving fraudulent Medicaid reimbursements, abuse of state and federal child care assistance programs, and broader misuse of taxpayer dollars.
Trump administration officials have suggested the total amount under investigation could ultimately reach into the billions.
“[Minnesota is] under investigation by our great vice president,” President Donald Trump said Wednesday.
“They’re finding a lot.”
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Turning Point USA Frontlines reporter Savanah Hernandez has filed a civil lawsuit against Christopher, DeYanna, and Paige Ostroushko after they were caught on video violently attacking her at an anti-ICE protest in Minneapolis, while the journalist was covering the event.
The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota, accuses the Ostroushko family of assault and battery stemming from the April 11 protest outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis. According to the complaint, Hernandez was “viciously and repeatedly attacked” while reporting on demonstrations connected to what organizers called “National F*ck ICE Day.”
Hernandez announced the civil suit on X, writing, “I promised to use every legal avenue to hold the Ostroushkos responsible and will be working with @MurdockJDF as we continue to pursue justice.”
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“We gonna have to resist with every fiber in our body. We gonna have to take this system on at every election.”
Democratic Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson compared the ongoing redistricting efforts in Southern states to a “second Civil War” as his state considers congressional map changes that could potentially eliminate his district. This follows the Supreme Court’s ruling that creating congressional districts based on the racial composition of its resident is unconstitutional.
“This is equivalent to a second Civil War,” Thompson said during an appearance on Al Sharpton’s MS NOW “PoliticsNation.”
“We’re gonna have to get our act together,” he added. “We gonna have to resist with every fiber in our body. We gonna have to take this system on at every election.”
Thompson later shared a clip of his remarks on social media, writing, “I don’t care what they say; we are committed to fighting this redistricting no matter what. There are more at stake than meets the eye, and we’ve come too far to ever turn around!”
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The Biden administration’s Department of Justice and FBI were aware that the Southern Poverty Law Center was paying “informants” in the KKK — and according to former Obama official Norm Eisen, that apparently means donors have nothing to be upset about.
The SPLC (which has spent years demonizing conservatives, including The Federalist) was indicted by a federal grand jury last month for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. The SPLC allegedly funneled millions of dollars it received via donations to pay “a covert network of informants” who were part of “violent extremist groups” such as groups like the KKK. The press release for the indictment alleges that SPLC did not disclose to its donors that “some of their donated money was being used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website.” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement that SPLC was “manufacturing racism to justify its existence.”
But during a virtual press conference Wednesday held by Democracy Defenders Fund, Eisen suggested the SPLC defrauding donors by funding the KKK could not have been wrong because Biden’s justice agencies were aware of it.
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The ruling by U.S. District Judge Alan D. Albright demands documents on donors giving $5,000 or more over the past decade, including foreign sources, plus recipients of CAIR’s larger donations and itineraries for Executive Director Nihad Awad’s trips to nine Middle Eastern countries from 2019 to 2023. The order stems from CAIR’s lawsuit challenging Abbott’s November 2025 proclamation labeling CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations under Texas law, which bars them from buying land in the state. Abbott called the decision progress in his legal fight, while the case highlights debates over transparency, terror allegations, and civil rights protections, with discovery still ongoing.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott made enormous strides in his legal fight against CAIR. Abbott declared CAIR a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
The terror group sued to block it. So he demanded CAIR give turn over its donor list and details for Nihad Awad’s travel to nine countries hosting Islamic terror.
A federal court granted his request.
For those of working to expose this terror tied group for decades, this is a major victory.
🚨 JUST IN: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has DEFEATED Islamic terror organization CAIR in the courts — the group must now TURN OVER
1. Donor list
2. Donee list
3. CAIR chief Nihad Awad’s travel records to 9 countries hosting Islamic terrorLFG! CAIR should be FULLY BANNED in America!… pic.twitter.com/Gy5bSaCz1Q
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- Justice Department launches civil rights probe into prosecutor in Virginia The Washington Post
- Dept. of Justice investigating Fairfax County’s top attorney over handling of cases involving immigrants WTOP
- DOJ probes Fairfax prosecutor over alleged bias involving undocumented immigrants FOX 5 DC
- Justice Department launches investigation in Fairfax County prosecutor Steve Descano WJLA
- BREAKING: DOJ investigating Fairfax prosecutor over policy on immigrant defendants FFXnow
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You knew this was going to happen, despite evidence that contradicts the story about the FBI raid being politically motivated: federal agents searched the home of Louise Lucas, President pro tempore of the Virginia Senate, who was strongly supporting the gerrymandering effort that gave her party a 10-1 advantage in congressional apportionment.
So, you can see where the idiots would go with this, even though The New York Times reported that the investigation into Lucas started under the Biden administration. It is related to her involvement with a cannabis business. It’s a corruption probe. Yet, when you invite disgraced former FBI official Andrew McCabe and Adam Kinzinger to weigh in, you know a mountain of BS is coming. Curtis Houck of Newsbusters clipped this exchange:
Tapper: “The FBI will not say on the record why they executed the search warrant at the offices and businesses of the Virginia state Senator, Louise Lucas. What was your reaction to the news?
McCabe: “You know, it’s shocking, Jake. And it — it raises a couple of really interesting points. First, of course, this is a search warrant. It’s not an indictment. She hasn’t been charged with anything. She certainly hasn’t been convicted of any wrongdoing. Every search warrant is accompanied by an affidavit. That’s the facts that are presented to the judge, upon which the judge determines that there’s probable cause to believe there’s evidence of a crime inside that location. We don’t see those facts. We don’t typically see those affidavits. They are sealed until that person is — is charged and brought to court.
The U.S. is allegedly paying a CCP-connected firm to help identify potential stealth risks from embedding Chinese technology into the U.S. military. This claim is coming from the Washington Times; they cite anonymous military tech analysts within the industry.
Democrat Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota is under investigation for suspicion on fraud by the state of Minnesota. She failed to meet a deadline to turn over documents related to that investigation.
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There’s no doubt that the fraud revelations that rocked Minnesota in late 2025, and into 2026, marked a mind-blowing scandal.
What do you mean Minnesota’s leadership somehow missed blatant — and costly — fraud happening right under their noses? That’s preposterous!
And yet, if you are a particularly disillusioned cynic, your response to the entire scandal might’ve been, “It’s a deep blue state run by Democrats. What did you expect?”
Well, Ohio is decidedly not a deep blue state — let’s call it nominally red or purple, for now — and yet the state and its Republican governor apparently missed some massive red flags that strongly suggested fraud in the Buckeye State.
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The Turning Point USA chapter on UVU campus has been targeted by these left-wing groups.
It has been revealed that left-wing groups at Utah Valley University have been celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk, targeting the campus Turning Point USA chapter, and called on activists to obstruct the federal immigration enforcement. UVU is where Charlie Kirk lost his life to a killer on Sept. 10, 2025.
A report from The Cougar Chronicle, a student-run newspaper at Brigham Young University, reveals screenshots from Discord chats and materials showing a network of left-wing students that have often engaged in extremism.
In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, a left-wing group on campus was formed called “The Civil Disobedience Club” (CDC). The Chronicle was able to obtain screenshots of messages shared in the group chat reveling in Kirk’s assassination.
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Virginia Democrats are clearly panicking. Rachael Bade, co-host of The Huddle, elaborated on what former Democratic Party operative and fellow co-host Dan Turrentine mentioned this week about the fate of the Old Dominion’s new congressional map. It grants Democrats a 10-1 advantage, but the state Supreme Court refused to dismiss the challenge to the map, setting the stage for serious intra-party battles.
The legal warnings were reportedly repeated endlessly, but to no effect. Now, Democratic leaders at both the Virginia and national levels could face a heavy setback if the maps are invalidated. Bade outlined the criteria the court could use to strike down the maps. Sure, the map might get approved, but if the Virginia Supreme Court sides with just one of these points, the map is cooked:
AND THE KNIVES ARE OUT FOR SOME BIG NAMES. Per Dan’s reporting, Governor ABIGAIL SPANBERGER’s staff is quietly sniping at state Senate majority leader SCOTT SUROVELL and state Senate kingmaker LOUISE LUCAS — two lawmakers who pushed back hardest on the legal warnings last fall.
[…]
If this effort goes down, those quotes won’t age well. “People are lining up behind the scenes to go public, I think, very quickly if this does not go through,” Dan foreshadowed.
BUT HERE’S THE THING — Pointing fingers won’t let Spanberger off the hook, which we discussed at length on the show. Yes, she may have privately raised concerns about the effort early on. But she’s the one in the ads. She’s the face of this thing. As our other co-host SEAN SPICER put it bluntly: “She ate the political cookie on this one.”
The other name in the crosshairs if this goes down? House Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES. Dan is already hearing from some Virginia Dems who say the Democratic leader pushed too hard despite legal concerns. (Though, let’s be fair to Jeffries — he would have been slammed by the party if he hadn’t leaned in, and his team would likely wear such criticism as a badge of honor.)
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HBO’s John Oliver went on an especially nasty rant against Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight for his recent majority opinion in Louisiana v. Callais. Oliver declared that Alito’s claim that the South isn’t as racist as it was in the 60s is “obviously horseshit” and suggested Alito supports segregation multiple times.
Oliver teed up a clip of a report from ABC’s Rachel Scott by claiming, “That ruling basically gutted Section Two of the VRA, which prohibits race-based discrimination when it comes to voting, including drawing election maps that dilute minority voting power, and in writing the opinion for the majority, Justice Alito took a bold swing.”
John Oliver claims it “obviously horseshit” that America, and especially the South, have made strides in fighting, in Justice Sam Alito’s words, “entrenched racial discrimination.” He says Alito has “‘This school dance wasn’t supposed to be integrated’ energy” and calls him… pic.twitter.com/laUAelx2zL
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) May 5, 2026
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CT Mirror celebrated a gubernatorial bill signing May 4, claiming it would require federal agents to display their names or badge numbers — facilitating the already out-of-control doxxing against ICE — persecute ICE for defending themselves with lethal force, and prevent arrests at schools and churches. It appears that Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont might have made his disgusting accusations at his bill signing, when he claimed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are “brutal,” criticized Trump for referring to criminal illegal aliens as “criminal aliens,” and compared immigration enforcement to the historical Know-Nothing party, anti-Catholic laws, and “Jim Crow laws.” “Never before…has it been led by the White House,” he pontificated, ignoring the numerous Democrat presidents who explicitly aligned themselves with the KKK and political violence.
DHS was quick to respond to Lamont’s propaganda with a list of the despicable illegal alien criminals who were living in — and quite possibly receiving taxpayer-funded benefits in — Connecticut before ICE arrested them. The aliens’ crimes include murder, pedophilic sexual assault, and child abuse.
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Americans do not care about the climate crisis, only economic issues: That’s the message some wonks have put forth in the past year, as the Trump administration has dismantled environmental protections. But the shift away from climate is misguided, an influential group of progressives is arguing.
“The climate crisis is a core driver of the cost-of-living crisis and instability we see across the economy,” says a new policy platform from left-leaning think tank Climate and Community Institute (CCI).
The proposal, “Stop Greed, Build Green,” outlines a framework for what its authors call “green economic populism.” Decarbonization should be understood not as competing with affordability, but as a potential tool for achieving it, says the group, which has written federal bills for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and was behind a groundbreaking New York public power law.
Raymond Chandler III of Alleghany County, PA was Democrat U.S. Senate candidate until he was arrested for threatening to murder President Trump. His plan was to threaten a U.S. Senator’s daughter if the Senator didn’t walk into the oval office and assassinate President Trump.
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The federal government paid out more than $338,000 to settle allegations of sexual harassment on behalf of House members or their offices since 2004 — far more than had been previously known — according to Rep. Nancy Mace and a person granted anonymity to describe data provided to the House Oversight Committee.
The panel subpoenaed the information detailing the government payouts after a March committee vote, seeking a full accounting of secret payouts made before the settlements were ended in 2018. Some of the payments have been previously reported, but not all.
Mace (R-S.C.) released a list of offices that had been implicated in the settlements, including former Reps. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.), John Conyers (D-Mich.), Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) and Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) — all of whom have been previously publicly implicated in misconduct.
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The Trump administration has launched an investigation into New York City Public Schools over allegations that pro-Hamas activism by educators may have crossed the line into anti-Semitic instruction targeting Jewish students.
The probe was launched over allegations that teachers sought to sow “hatred toward Jewish students” during classroom instruction.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights confirmed it opened the probe after receiving complaints that teachers were promoting political messaging in classrooms and portraying Israel supporters as “genocidal white supremacists.”
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The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is at it again — anointing preferred candidates in hotly contested 2026 primaries and being accused, by their own party, of openly “putting its thumb on the scale” to protect establishment candidates.
Which is a fancy way of saying they’re being called out for rigging the primaries.
Shocker, I know. The party that feigns being warriors for ‘saving democracy,’ but then installed Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton when their voters chose Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, respectively, is at it again.
In the latest round of “Red to Blue” endorsements, the DCCC jumped into multiple tight Democratic primaries to boost candidates they have unilaterally decided can win in the general elections. Some of those candidates are trailing their opponents in both endorsements and fundraising.
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A staffer for Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who was arrested last year for bringing a pistol into the Capitol without a license, saw the charges quickly dropped and walked away from the incident without further consequence, despite lingering questions.
This is quite a surprise, especially given how radical the Democratic Party is about gun regulations, the Second Amendment, and gun-free zones.
In an article published last week, Politico reported the Justice Department recently discovered that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia chose not to prosecute Kevin Batts in April 2025, about two weeks after his arrest.
Timothy Lauer, a spokesperson for Booker’s office, said in a statement that Batts didn’t face criminal charges because he had an active New Jersey retired law enforcement carry permit.
Batts is a retired Newark police detective and reportedly serves as a special assistant and driver for Booker.
U. Michigan Commencement Hijacked By Anti-Israel Prof.– legalinsurrection.com
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A faculty commencement speaker at the University of Michigan used his spot to slam Israel. The president of the university said that those remarks deviate from the remarks submitted in advance:
@UMich Professor Derek Peterson shoutouts terrorist sympathizers during this morning’s commencement. Unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/gaGIKDklGr
— Benny Shaevsky (@brshaevsky) May 2, 2026
I spoke about this on the Laura Ingraham show tonight: