Posts Tagged ‘Tom Homan’

LinkSwarm For June 12, 2026

Friday, June 12th, 2026

More California fraud! More Minnesota fraud! Ukraine continues pounding Russia! Murder still illegal!

Personally, this week has been an exercise in frustration, mainly due to trying to replace an old, cracked car keyfob where the results were my car refusing to turn on. Which means I’m behind on all my errands. Solved now, but it was a pain. Also, for some reason Bluehost has crapped out 429 errors more than usual today.

It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

  • “New House Oversight Report Claims Walz, Ellison Were Aware of Fraud in 2019. “These fraudulently obtained funds likely funded international terrorist networks among other bad actors, while vulnerable populations were harmed and whistleblowers were ignored, sidelined, and retaliated against.”

    Following a months-long investigation, the House Oversight Committee released a report Monday accusing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison of knowing about rampant fraud in the state’s federally funded social services programs as far back as 2019, and turning a blind eye.

    The investigation also draws on testimony Walz and Ellison provided during a March hearing before the committee.

    The 205-page report, titled “The Cost of Doing Nothing: How Tim Walz and Keith Ellison Fueled Minnesota’s Fraud Explosion,” states that Walz and Ellison:

    Possessed the legal and procedural authority to stop payments and ban fraudulent providers from participating in these programs, but repeatedly failed to act. As a result, billions of American taxpayer dollars were potentially paid to fraudulent actors. These fraudulently obtained funds likely funded international terrorist networks among other bad actors, while vulnerable populations were harmed and whistleblowers were ignored, sidelined, and retaliated against.

    Testimony and documents obtained to date establish a consistent pattern: fraud warnings were elevated to the most senior levels of the Minnesota state government, meaningful corrective action was delayed or avoided, and payments continued long after credible signs of fraud emerged.

    Senior officials in Governor Walz’s office and Attorney General Ellison’s office were aware of credible, systemic fraud concerns in social services programs as early as 2019 within the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) and by April 2020 within the state Department of Education (MDE), despite later public statements by Governor Walz suggesting otherwise.

    The committee concluded that Minnesota officials had ample authority to suspend payments to providers suspected of fraud but repeatedly failed to do so. Investigators found that state agencies continued funding Feeding Our Future even after identifying serious deficiencies, allowing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to flow to fraudsters until federal authorities intervened.

    Of course they were aware. It was a major conduit for lining the pockets of the left!

  • “California Gets 80% Of All Federal Cash For Illegal Immigrant Families.”

    California is home to the lion’s share of illegal immigrant families in the United States with children who received federal welfare assistance in 2024, according to a federal report published on June 10.

    More than 80 percent of all nationwide cash assistance allocated to such households was spent in California. The report tracked $759 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) spent in 2024 on families headed by a parent living in the country illegally.

    In those cases, the child qualified for federal welfare, even though the parent was excluded from the federal program because of immigration status.

    “These cases receive relatively little public attention, yet … data show that they are far from a negligible part of the program,” wrote authors David Swegle, director of the Office of Family Assistance at the Administration for Children and Families under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Alex J. Adams, assistant secretary at the Administration for Children and Families, in the report.

    Nationally, the federal government paid 85,000 households with qualifying children receiving assistance who were living with their illegal immigrant parents in the U.S. in 2024.

    “Although the benefit is formally paid on behalf of the child, it still supports a household that includes an immigration-status-ineligible parent,” the authors stated. “The significance of these cases therefore cannot be judged solely by the fact that the adult is not the formal recipient.”

    The cases are also significant because they don’t have to adhere to the TANF rules requiring work expectations, such as regularly applying for jobs, and the payments aren’t limited to the federal 60-month lifetime limit, according to the report. The illegal immigrant families, therefore, can receive federal welfare until the child turns 18 years old.

    Low-income American families are held to the federal welfare restrictions that require work participation and are restricted to a 60-month lifetime limit, the authors said.

    The number of TANF cases involving an illegal immigrant parent reached nearly 850,000—or 10 percent of all cases—in 2024, up from nearly 6 percent in 2001.

    Of those, nearly 78,000 households—or about 91 percent—also received federal food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the report revealed.

    Most of the illegal immigrant parents—over 106,000—identified as Hispanic, while 5.3 percent were White, 4.3 percent were Black, and 2 percent were Asian, the report stated.

    Here’s an idea: California doesn’t get any more cash for illegal aliens, period, until they repeal all the sanctuary city declarations, allow federal auditing of all their welfare programs, and implement SAVE Act compliant measures to ensure only citizens vote.

  • More Cali fraud: “Federal Government Pauses Funding To Los Angeles Homeless Agency Citing Fraud Allegations.”

    The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on June 11 suspended federal funding to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), cutting off millions of dollars to the L.A. region, over allegations of fraud and widespread mismanagement.

    It’s superbly managed to line the pockets of leftists.

    HUD Secretary Scott Turner testifies before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development about his department’s proposed FY2026 budget in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 14, 2026. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    HUD action to suspend federal funding comes in the wake of an investigation into LAHSA, Secretary Scott Turner announced Thursday, adding that the agency has “uncovered evidence of LAHSA’s false statements and its irresponsible actions and failures,” including a lack of financial management and lack of safeguards against conflicts of interest.

    The Los Angeles Continuum of Care (CoC), led by LAHSA, has received nearly $1 billion in taxpayer dollars over the last five years. Despite federal assistance, L.A. remains the epicenter of the nation’s “drug-fueled” homeless crisis, according to Turner.

    “Under President Trump’s leadership, HUD will fund results, not corrupt failure or the homeless-industrial complex,” Turner said in a statement. “Year after year, hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars were funneled to LAHSA with little accountability. Meanwhile, homelessness skyrocketed. Taxpayers will no longer bankroll an organization that puts its own self-interests ahead of the Americans it was created to serve.”

    HUD stated in a letter to LAHSA that suspension of funding will be final if the agency does not contest the notice by requesting a hearing. LAHSA must file a written hearing request within 30 days of receipt of the notice.

    The Homeless Industrial Complex maw is insatiable.

  • California hit by another huge fraud bombshell as thousands of claims for $4 BILLION in taxpayer-funded compensation meant for sex crime victims are FAKE.” I guess they had to steal from sex crime victims because there just wasn’t enough money in stealing toys for crippled orphans. All of California’s welfare state programs need federal audits of proctological intensity. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
  • A possible reason for my continued unemployment? “Of the 369,000 jobs the Labor Department says were created since the start of Trump’s second term, nearly all — 348,000 of them — went to women, with only 21,000 going to men.” I wonder if Kurt Schlichter would be interested in filing a class action lawsuit on behalf of myself and other men…
  • Amazingly, murder is still illegal in the United States.

    One year after Frisco high school student Karmelo Anthony was indicted on murder charges over the fatal stabbing of [Austin Metcalf], his trial concluded with the jury’s verdict that Anthony is guilty of murder.

    During their sentencing deliberations, the jury considered a “sudden passion” claim, but eventually rejected it and decided that Anthony would face a 35-year prison sentence.

    He will be eligible for parole after 17 and a half years.

    Like Kyle Rittenhouse’s not guilty verdict, this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who doesn’t view the world through social justice-tinted glasses.

  • “Whistleblower vindicated: Biden officials invented loophole to impose gender identity, flout court. Leaders ‘actively engaged in efforts to thwart at least one regional office from following the plain and unambiguous meaning’ of the injunction against their gender identity reading of Title IX, Department of Education concludes.”

    High-ranking Biden administration officials conspired to violate a 2022 court order against their interpretation of Title IX as covering “gender identity” within the definition of “sex,” and may have also tried to conceal those efforts through coercion and intimidation, according to a Department of Education report made public Wednesday after lengthy outside review.

    The U.S. Office of Special Counsel told President Trump the department “fully substantiated the allegations” by whistleblower Timothy Mattson, who now leads the department’s Office for Civil Rights’ regional office in Kansas City, recommending sanctions against current and former officials and compensation for Mattson for the risk he took coming forward.

  • “Trump just attached the SAVE America Act to the Senate’s next budget vote to force Republicans to actually DO SOMETHING.” I don’t know enough about the Senate’s labyrinth budgeting rules to know if this will actually work or not.
  • You know the giant Democrat tantrum over ICE funding? We won.

    Democrats put everything they had in their effort to shut down President Donald Trump’s border control plans. And what exactly have they achieved for their often-infantile antics?

    Well, let’s see. This week, the House passed a bill that funds ICE for three years. Deportations are near all-time highs. Oh, and it looks like Trump’s border wall will be completed next year.

    On Tuesday, the House passed a “budget reconciliation” bill that provides enough money ($38 billion) to fund ICE for the rest of Trump’s term, plus $28 billion for the Border Patrol, and another $5 billion for border security technology and screening.

    And what did Democrats get for shutting down all or part of the government for nearly four months?

    Bupkus. Zilch. Nada. Nichts. Niente. 没有什么.This has to be one of the most embarrassing political defeats in history.

    (Hat tip: Mark Tapscott.)

  • “Homan Warns Hochul: Thanks to Your New Law, You’re About to Get ‘More ICE Than You’ve Ever Seen.'”

    If Border Czar Tom Homan is intimidated by the Left’s endless anti-ICE rhetoric and threats, he’s not showing it. In fact, on Monday, he announced he’s doubling down on illegal immigrant operations in New York City and plans a surge in the very near future. This is a direct “in your face” move to counter Gov. Kathy Hochul’s efforts to kneecap federal enforcement in the Empire State.

    He spoke as ongoing violent anti-ICE protests continued throughout the weekend at Delaney Hall, a detention facility in nearby Newark, New Jersey.

    It’s coming, he told Fox & Friends:

    Trump border czar Tom Homan revealed Monday that the administration has already drawn up an operational plan and warned Hochul before she signed legislation late last month restricting ICE activities and banning masked immigration agents in New York.

    “You’re going to see more ICE than you’ve ever seen in New York City, and it’s coming,” Homan said, according to Bloomberg. “I just reviewed an operational plan. I’m not going to tell you exactly when it’s going to happen, but it’s coming.”

    (Hat tip: Director Blue.)

  • Maine Democrats obeyed The Will of The Party and lined up yo vote for the Nazi.”

    Graham Platner, the scandal-plagued progressive veteran, will win the Democratic primary for the Maine Senate race, according to a projection by the Associated Press.

    Maine Governor Janet Mills suspended her own Senate primary campaign on April 30, effectively handing the nomination to Platner.

    Platner has painted himself as an outsider to the Democratic establishment since his fiery campaign launch last fall. In line with those of other progressive and populist candidates, Platner’s political bid has focused on working-class issues, including affordability, universal health care, and labor union relations.

    He will advance to face Republican incumbent Senator Susan Collins in November. Collins is seen as a moderate Republican, often crossing party lines to vote with Democrats. However, because Collins appeals to a more moderate, centrist bloc of voters, she has received backlash from her supporters on several occasions for voting with her own party, including her vote to advance the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018.

    The Senate campaign has been rocked by controversies since last year. In October, CNN and several other outlets uncovered Platner’s past Reddit posts and comments, which included offensive comments about police and sexual assault survivors. He’s since been ensnared in a number of other scandals, including those involving his Nazi tattoo, his marital infidelity, and his past treatment of women.

    Remember all that self-serving “when they go low, we go high” blather Democrats mouthed to further the laughable illusion of their moral superiority? They never meant it.

  • U.S. launches military strikes on Iran in response to downing of helicopter.” Yeah, should have covered this more, I just ran out of time this week.
  • Ammo Depot Destroyed at St. Petersburg: BIG Ammo Cookoffs!”
  • Another Ship Hit at Kronstadt Naval Base Near St. Petersburg? Big Fire After Drone Strike.”
  • “Ukraine Hits 50 Truck Convoy in Crimea and Multiple Bridges.”
  • HUGE Explosion in Belgorod As Russian Ammo Depot Detonates!” This may not even have been a Ukrainian strike, just the usual russiuan incompetence.
  • “Flamingo Missiles Hit VNIIR Progress Electronics Plant in Cheboksary.” This seems to be a much more on-target hit than the previous strike on the same target.
  • Grushovaya Oil Depot at Novorossiysk Hit By Drones.”
  • Chongar Bridge Damaged by Drones & Attack Reported on Kerch Bridge By Neptune Missile.”
  • Two Russian Ships Hit! Buyan Corvette Destroyed After Drone Strike! Svetlyak Patrol Boat Also Hit.”
  • Has Russia withdrawn from the Kinburn Spit?
  • “Trump ally Nikol Pashinyan wins Armenian election, paving way for US-backed peace deal.”

    Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s party won a majority in the country’s parliamentary elections, marking a victory for Donald Trump after the president endorsed him.

    Pashinyan first took power in 2018 in the so-called Velvet Revolution, then won again in the 2021 snap elections triggered by his crushing loss of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War against Azerbaijan. Armenia held its first regular election since he first took power in 2018 on Sunday, during which he won reelection with a vote total far above his closest rival.

    The latest preliminary results on Monday gave Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party 49.82% of the vote, the Associated Press reported, with the pro-Russian Samvel Karapetyan’s Strong Armenia bloc coming in second with 23.28% of the vote. The Armenia Alliance bloc led by former President Robert Kocharyan is hovering around 10%, while the rest of the splintered opposition remained in the mid to low single digits.

    He beat three pro-Russian parties, another black eye for Putin.

  • Thanks to Florida redistricting, Debbie Wasserman Schultz is having to go up against a field of black candidates in a heavily black congressional district.
  • Two “independent” Senate candidates aren’t.

    Two independent candidates for U.S. Senate have fundraising profiles on ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s key fundraising platform, raising questions about the candidates’ true political independence as they look to capture two long-held Republican seats this fall.

    ActBlue allows independent candidates to fundraise on its platforms on a “case-by-case basis,” based on whether a Democrat is in the race, the candidate has an endorsement from the Democratic Party, or the candidate has demonstrated alignment with the Democratic Party’s ideals and policy goals.

    But both independent candidates — Seth Bodnar in Montana and Dan Osborn in Nebraska — are running against Democrats, as well as Republicans. While the Nebraska Democratic Party has endorsed Osborn, Bodnar has not received an official Democratic endorsement.

  • Speaking of ActBlue shenanigans: “Clinton-Appointed Federal Judge Bars Texas AG Paxton’s Lawsuit Against ActBlue.”

    A federal judge has barred Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton from pursuing his state court lawsuit against ActBlue, a major Democratic online fundraising platform.

    President Clinton-appointed U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns ruled Thursday that the case represented no more than a retaliation campaign for ActBlue’s political activities supporting Paxton’s opponent in the 2026 U.S. Senate race.

    Stearns issued a preliminary injunction preventing Paxton from pursuing the Texas case. The judge found the lawsuit attempted to undermine protected political speech and therefore violated the First Amendment.

    “The truth is plain and captured in Paxton’s own declarations: The lawsuit was filed in retaliation for (and in an attempt to suppress) ActBlue’s efforts to fund Talarico’s campaign,” Stearns wrote in the ruling.

    Neither Paxton’s office nor ActBlue immediately returned a request for comment.

    Paxton filed the initial lawsuit in April in Texas state court as he campaigned as the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat.

    The suit singled out ActBlue, a Massachusetts-based fundraising platform that claims to have raised billions for Democratic candidates and causes since its founding in 2004. It sought civil penalties and an order blocking ActBlue from accepting certain gift card donations.

    The Texas attorney general alleged that ActBlue employed deceptive practices after the fundraising platform resumed gift card and foreign prepaid debit card donations after informing Congress that it had ceased conducting the transactions. Paxton alleged the practices could empower foreign nationals to hide their identities while making political contributions, potentially in violation of state law.

    Under Sterns logic, no Republican could ever sue ActBlue for breaking the law because they ran against Democrats using the platform to raise money.

  • “Muslim Running For Mayor In Texas Says Military Vets Didn’t Sacrifice Anything For His Freedom.” More: “I want to make that clear. I do not support the U.S. military. No, I do not support the United States. I look down on both entities.” You may remember Zul Mohamed from such previous hits as “I just pled guilty to election fraud.”
  • Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, whose term expired, declared that he would just stay in power. I bet you can guess how well that went over.

    Helpful illustration of Somali politics via History Matters.

    “Maryland ‘teens’ tried to rob this Marine vet at gunpoint and it did not go well for them.”

  • SpaceX IPO makes Elon Musk a trillionaire. Maybe he could give me a million to run an anti-Social justice Warrior center here in Austin…
  • Basic Health Fixes Doctors Know Work But Can’t Make Money From.” I do own dogs and cook at home for all but one meal a week, but only do strength training once a week.
  • “How Japan Finally Made It Impossible to Make Babies.” Women in the workforce + culture of overwork + high Tokyo prices = shrinking population. And the rest of the west faces similar (if less currently less severe) demographic problems.
  • “Quentin Tarantino Slams Modern Hollywood as a ‘Flavorless Sausage Factory.'”
  • Pitch meeting for The Mandalorian and Grogu.
  • Red Lobster’s CEO Damola Adamolekun says he’s going to transform the chain into ‘the most AI-forward restaurant company that exists.’ Please don’t…
  • “After Mail-In Ballots Tallied, Joe Biden Wins L.A. Mayor Race With 81 Million Votes.”
  • “Playskool Introduces ‘My First Hobo Camp‘ For California Children.”
  • “California Officials Pleased With Voter Turnout Of 250 Percent.”
  • A compilations of happy dogs:

    I hope none of those are AI. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)

  • I’m still between jobs. Feel free to hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.





    LinkSwarm For February 6, 2026

    Friday, February 6th, 2026

    More fraud in California, Homan declares victory in Minnesota, Virginia declares war on lawful gun owners, a lefty drops the N-Word on a black ICE agent, Musk shuts off bootleg Starlink to the Russian army, NOPD hires an illegal alien, and Illinois declares that no Democrat can express #WrongThink about trannies.

    It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

    I did get that second check from my closing 401K, so I have a few months worth of food and utilities in the bank.

  • California’s Hospice Fraud Explosion: Billions Drained From Taxpayers.”

    The massive hospice fraud racket thriving under California’s lax oversight is finally getting the spotlight it deserves, as the Trump administration’s CMS chief Dr. Mehmet Oz hits the streets of Los Angeles to call out the billions in stolen taxpayer dollars.

    With organized crime rings, including Russian-Armenian mafia elements, infiltrating the system through ghost patients and fake companies, the scam highlights how globalist policies have opened the door to foreign exploitation of U.S. resources. As fraudsters traffic beneficiaries like commodities, real Americans suffer denied care while the deep state looks the other way.

    Los Angeles County alone accounts for 18% of the entire country’s home health care billing, a staggering figure that screams foul play.

    One California physician billed the government $120 million in a single year, claiming to oversee 1,900 patients—a workload that defies logic and reeks of corruption.

    The county boasts almost 2,000 hospice agencies, more than 36 states combined and 30 times the number in Florida or New York.

    Dr. Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, was forthright during his on-the-ground tour: “Hospice is crazy here… You’ve got hospice that’s grown seven-fold in the last five years. They represent about three and a half billion dollars of fraud, we believe, just in LA County.”

    California Attorney General Rob Bonta has admitted the problem’s scale, calling it “an epidemic in California, specifically in the greater Los Angeles area.”

    The fraud operates through recruiters who lure seniors with freebies like walkers or cash, harvest their Medicare numbers, and sell them to providers for $1,000 to $3,000 each. Providers then bill the feds $260 per day per patient, often for nonexistent services, while shuffling enrollees between sham outfits to evade detection.

    In LA’s San Fernando Valley, particularly Van Nuys, the density is absurd: 210 agencies crammed into one square mile, with one building listing 112 hospices showing no actual operations.

  • “Vance To Lead Sweeping Anti-Fraud Task Force Investigating California.”

    Vice President JD Vance is poised to chair a new White House task force aimed at rooting out potential fraud and abuse in government programs in California, according to CBS News.

    Andrew Ferguson, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, is expected to serve as the task force’s vice chairman and handle day-to-day operations, CBS News reports. President Donald Trump is anticipated to issue an executive order in the coming days to formally establish the group, the news outlet said.

    The White House task force would operate separately from a related Justice Department effort led by Colin McDonald, a Trump nominee for a new fraud-investigation role at the department. McDonald is expected to also probe fraud in Minnesota uncovered by YouTuber Nick Shirley and other independent journalists.

    California has long grappled with documented issues of waste, fraud, and weak oversight in state and federally funded programs. State auditors have for more than a decade flagged problems including persistent cost overruns, inadequate internal controls, and unimplemented reform recommendations across various initiatives, CBS News reported last month.

    California’s Employment Development Department faced acute criticism during the pandemic, when unemployment-insurance fraud resulted in an estimated $20 billion or more in improper payments, while many eligible claimants endured lengthy delays in receiving benefits, according to NPR News.

    Separately, federal officials have recently scrutinized fraud risks in hospice and home-health services, particularly in Los Angeles County. Last week, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz visited the area to draw attention to the issue, citing the rapid proliferation of hospice providers and potential billions in improper billings.

    See above. Given the vast scale of graft Democrats rake in from various fraud schemes, I can only imagine they’re experience quiet panic at the prospect…

  • Tom Homan declares victory, says city and state officials in Minnesota will now cooperate with ICE and turn over illegal aliens. Just think of the deaths that could have been avoided if they had only done this in the first place.
  • California Democrats go all in on voter fraud.

    California Democrats are taking a victory lap, celebrating the fact that their election system has no way of verifying that the people who are casting votes are legitimate, registered voters.

    The Supreme Court of California effectively struck down Huntington Beach’s voter ID law, refusing to review a lower court decision that blocked the law. The city argued that it could impose a voter ID requirement for citywide elections, but California Democrats passed a law in 2024 banning localities from requiring voter ID in elections. California law not only does not require you to prove you are who you say you are when you vote, but it actively prevents cities and localities from having that requirement in place at all.

  • Trump Takes a Sledgehammer to Deportation Process and Sets Up a Court Fight With Another Activist Judge.”

    The Trump administration will publish a notice in the Federal Register on Friday that will demolish the slow-moving process of deporting illegals. The proposed rule aims to streamline the current process and reduce the backlog of cases that has nearly brought the system to a screeching halt. That said, we know it faces an uphill fight as federal judges, acting without jurisdiction, will certainly declare the changes improper at some point.

    The Federal Register notice titled RIN 1125-AB37, Appellate Procedures for the Board of Immigration Appeals, extensively overhauls the current process that could lead an immigration case to the Supreme Court.

    The first part of the system seems to remain intact. An apprehended illegal is brought before an Article 2 Immigration Judge and given a hearing. The judge either lets them stay or tells them to go home. If ordered deported, a removal order is entered. As we’re seeing from the cases popping in the news, it is not uncommon for an illegal apprehended today in Minneapolis, perhaps a contractor working for the Quality Learing Center, to have a removal order dating back two decades.

    Breaking the logjam at the Board of Immigration Appeals is the target.

    The filing lays out how Trump 1.0 tried to fix the problem.

    Among other changes, the Appellate Procedures NPRM proposed: (1) simultaneous briefing schedules for both detained and non-detained appeals before the Board; (2) shortening the reply brief deadline; (3) limiting briefing extensions; (4) harmonizing the 90- and 180-day Board adjudication timelines to both start from when the record is complete; (5) limiting the Chief Appellate Immigration Judge’s ability to hold a group of cases while awaiting certain outside actions; and (6) removing the process for Immigration Judge review of proceeding transcripts.

    Snip.

    The new regulation will “change the deadline for filing an appeal with the Board from 30 to 10 days, except for cases involving certain asylum applications.” This is not as trivial as it could appear. The current filing fee for the BIA is $1,030. There are provisions for filing “in forma pauperis.” This requires jumping through more hoops to prove you are indigent. The illegal now has 10 days to find representation and prepare an appeal, as well as pony up money. Historically, claiming you are broke is a good way to get the next flight back home.

    Once you appeal, there is no requirement that the BIA will hear the case. Rather, “the default will be summary dismissal unless a majority of current Board members vote to consider the appeal on the merits.” There is an expedited hearing process that will “require simultaneous briefing within 20 days of the Board setting the schedule in all cases not summarily dismissed, with no reply briefs and limited extensions.”

    Plus, there are deadlines for the BIA: “the Board shall dispose of all cases assigned to a single Board member within 90 days of completion of the record, or within 180 days of completion of the record for all cases assigned to a three-member panel.”

    So an appeal is no longer a way to buy time before a final decision is rendered. The 10-day window makes it difficult prepare, and the BIA will focus on “selecting decisions for review that present novel issues warranting the Board’s attention.” If you are lucky enough for your case to be heard by the BIA, it has no more than 180 days to render a judgment. There is still an appeal to a federal appeals court; however, this requires representation and a $600 filing fee.

    Faster, please.

  • Texas State Attorney General Ken Paxton “Launches Investigation Into Alleged H-1B Visa Abuse by Texas Businesses.”

    Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced a wide-sweeping investigation into alleged abuse of the federal H-1B visa program by Texas businesses, issuing civil investigative demands to three North Texas companies suspected of operating sham enterprises to fraudulently sponsor foreign workers.

    Paxton said his office has issued the demands—known as Civil Investigative Demands, or CIDs—seeking documents identifying company employees, records detailing the products or services provided, financial statements, and communications related to business operations.

    Standing outside a single-family home listed as the office address for one of the companies highlighted in recent reporting, Paxton credited BlazeTV and Texas Scorecard personality Sara Gonzales with prompting the investigation.

    “Thanks to you, we’re here today,” Paxton said during an interview with Gonzales. “We’ve started an investigation of three different companies that we think might be scamming people with these H-1B visas.”

    Paxton did not publicly identify the three companies that received CIDs. However, his office said the investigation includes “entities identified in videos that were widely circulated online.”

    A portion of Paxton’s interview with Gonzales was filmed outside a residential home listed as the office address for 3Bees Technologies Inc., a location that Gonzales reported appeared vacant, despite the company’s sponsorship of multiple H-1B visa holders.

    According to Paxton’s office, reports indicate that businesses under investigation may have created sham companies featuring websites advertising nonexistent products or services while listing residential homes or unfinished buildings as offices. Despite those irregularities, the companies allegedly sponsored numerous H-1B visas in recent years.

    “Any criminal who attempts to scam the H-1B visa program and use ‘ghost offices’ or other fraudulent ploys should be prepared to face the full force of the law,” Paxton stated. “Abuse and fraud within these programs strip jobs and opportunities away from Texans.”

    (Previously.)

  • Paxton also sued Bexar County for funding legal defense for illegal aliens facing deportation.

    Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking a court to shut down Bexar County’s taxpayer-funded deportation-defense program for illegal aliens, arguing it violates state law and the Texas Constitution.

    The Bexar County Commissioners Court voted on December 16, 2025, to allocate $566,181 in county funds to provide legal services to individuals unlawfully present in the United States through the county’s Immigration Legal Services fund.

    Paxton’s office noted that, with additional commitments, total spending on the program could ultimately exceed $1 million.

    The money is earmarked to pay lawyers to represent illegal aliens in federal deportation proceedings—a role typically handled either by private counsel or nonprofit organizations, not county governments. Paxton’s lawsuit names Bexar County, the Commissioners Court, and multiple county officials as defendants.

    Paxton’s petition argues that subsidizing deportation-defense work for people in the country unlawfully “confers no public benefit,” serves “predominantly private radical interests,” and falls outside any lawful power granted to counties under Texas law.

    He framed the program as an attempt by local officials to interfere with federal immigration enforcement while using statewide taxpayers as the funding source.

    “Leftists in Bexar County have no authority to use taxpayer dollars to fund their radical, criminal-loving agenda,” Paxton said in a statement, adding that “state funds cannot underwrite deportation-defense services for individuals unlawfully present in the country.”

  • Virginia’s radical Democrats declare war on the Second Amendment, ban high (i.e. normal) capacity magazines, making even possessing them a crime. I can’t imagine the courts are going to let that stand… (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
  • The New Orleans police department hired an illegal alien with an active deportation notice and no work authorization to be a cop. ICE took care of him…
  • Remember all those decades when lefties assured us that The N-Word was The Worst Word In The World? Evidently that doesn’t apply when a tranny protestor is cussing out a black ICE agent. (Hat tip: Ed Dricoll at Instapundit.)
  • Not just Minnesota: “HS Reports More Than 180 Vehicle Attacks On Law Enforcement.”

    Immigration officers have faced 182 vehicular attacks since President Donald Trump took office last year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a Feb. 3 statement.

    Out of the 182 attacks between Jan. 21, 2025, and Jan. 24, 2026, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers faced 114, up by 124 percent from the 51 attacks during the same time period the previous year. The remaining 68 attacks were faced by officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Attacks on ICE are up by 3,300 percent from two assaults previously, according to the DHS.

  • Supreme Court rules that gerrymander the hell out of their state, previous law be damned.
  • So part of the huge Epstein data dump includes a conversation with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak from 2014, discussing bringing Russians (I assume Russian Jews) to Israel. Weirdly, I think it makes it less likely Epstein was Mossad (or at least current Mossad). In 2014, Barak’s left wing (Labor/One Israel/etc.) had been out of power for a while and Benjamin Netanyahu was in the midst of a long run as Prime Minister, despite Obama’s best efforts. It just seems unlikely that a Mossad asset would just be shooting the shit with a former PM of an out-of-power party. (Of course, maybe he was team Barak/Barack.) And the message “Goyim were born to only serve us,” that’s so outlandish it could have come from The Protocols of Elders of Zion. Like the LARP Nazis chanting “Blood and Soil!” at Charlottesville, it reeks of someone trying too hard to fit in with a culture they’re largely ignorant of.
  • The Epstein revelations might indeed topple one world leader: Keir Starmer.

    Already-struggling UK Leader Keir Starmer is facing mounting pressure to step down over the latest scandal involving his former ambassador to America’s shocking close links to Jeffrey Epstein.

    The prime minister, whose popularity was already at a near-record low since his 2024 election, faced revolt even from his own party over the fresh revelations about former diplomat Peter Mandelson, who was even seen in his underwear with an unknown woman in photos in the latest Epstein files.

    Starmer went into a desperate damage-control mode Thursday, accusing his one-time close ally of “deceit” — even though Mandelson’s friendship with the now-deceased pedophile was well known when Starmer gave him the cushy role as the UK’s ambassador to Washington in December 2024.

    Starmer is indeed a nasty piece of work, but the sad truth is that any replacement Labour PM is likely to be every bit as committed to importing unassimilated illegal alien Islamic rapists as Starmer is.

  • “Panama Supreme Court Boots China From Canal Control.

    It took almost a year, but the White House finally chalked up its first objective in implementing the newly revitalized Monroe Doctrine. Or, as we call it, the Donroe Doctrine.

    Its very first manifestation came almost immediately after Donald Trump’s inauguration. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Panama president Jose Raul Mulino and told Mulino in no uncertain terms that the US would not allow China to control ports on the Panama Canal any longer. On February 3, 2025, Muloino repudiated Panama’s Belt and Road Initiative agreements with China and would force the sale of control of those ports. China began a two-front strategy to reverse that decision, with parallel diplomatic and legal tracks. Diplomacy gave way to trade negotiations, which ultimately proved fruitless.

    Late yesterday, so did the legal challenge. Panama’s top court annulled the country’s contracts with China’s CK Hutchinson to operate both ports, effectively severing China from control of the Panama Canal.

    (Hat tip: Instapundit.)

  • Perhaps transsexual madness has peaked now that it’s costing people money.

    A woman who received a double mastectomy at the age of 16 under the guise of transgender-related healthcare was just awarded $2 million in the first successful medical-malpractice lawsuit brought by a detransitioner.

    Fox Varian sued her New York-based psychologist and plastic surgeon for facilitating her gender-transition double mastectomy in 2019, independent reporter Benjamin Ryan who attended Varian’s recent trial, said. Although a host of detransitioners have sued doctors who rush to “affirm” gender confusion with life-altering surgeries, Varian’s is the first known successful lawsuit.

    Claire Deacon, Varian’s mother, was led by her daughter’s psychologist to believe that breast removal was the only way to heal Varian’s gender dysphoria, she told the jury. At first Deacon told Varian’s psychologist Kenneth Einhorn that top surgery was “never gonna happen” if she could help it.

    “This man was just so emphatic, and pushing and pushing, that I felt like there was no good decision,” she said, according to an Epoch Times report. “I think it was a scare tactic: I don’t believe it was malice, I think he believed what he was saying … but he was very, very wrong.”

    Let a thousand lawsuits bloom.

  • Oppose transsexual madness? You’re not allowed to register as a Democrat in Illinois.

    Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender opposes the Democratic Party’s general elevation of gender identity over sex in public policy, especially subjecting gender-confused people to the lifelong consequences of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgical interventions so they more closely resemble the opposite sex.

    The nonprofit’s leaders could allegedly be fined or go to prison in Illinois if they register as “Democrats” without the state party’s permission.

    The Land of Lincoln’s bespoke “party name provision” in its 40-year-old General Not for Profit Corporation Act, which Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias repeatedly invoked to deny DIAG’s applications to solicit charitable contributions in the state, is the target of a First Amendment lawsuit on DIAG’s behalf by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

    “Not only would they likely face an uphill battle in getting approval from the Illinois Democratic Party, they refuse on principle to seek permission from the very party they plan to criticize,” a flagrantly unconstitutional condition on protected speech, said FIRE, which also filed a motion for preliminary injunction.

    While the state party officially supports so-called gender affirming care as “health care,” without age or other restrictions, DIAG opposes throwing “gay, lesbian, and gender non-conforming/gender-distressed children and vulnerable adults under the wheels of a regressive ideological bus” through “predatory medical harm.”

    It portrays the standard Democratic position on medicalized gender transitions as pseudoscientific and harmful to both physical and mental health.

    The Illinois Democratic Party told Capitol News Illinois it hadn’t received a request from DIAG, but “the fact that they’re proudly anti-transgender does not align with the Democratic Party of Illinois’s values” of “progress and inclusivity.”

    Evidently men who believe they’re women have replaced black people in the Democrat Party’s Victimhood Hierarchy.

  • Minnesota Club Cancels Comedian’s Sold Out Show Over Good Joke.”

    Canadian comedian with a solid international fanbase just watched six sold-out shows vanish in Minnesota. Ben Bankas lost his gigs at Laugh Camp Comedy Club in St. Paul after clips of his routine on Renee Good’s death blew up online – the routine hit raw nerves in a city still reeling from the January 7 shooting.

    Club owner Bill Collins cited threats, media frenzy, and street chaos as the reasons for the cancellation.

    Snip.

    Bankas opened his bit by calling for a moment of silence for Good, then pivoting to say he hoped “that dog’s okay…and her pet,” a reference to Good’s dog, who was in the car with her, and her wife, Becca, who had been in the vehicle but left shortly before she told Renee to drive off while the agent was in front of her car.

    “That’s what you don’t want when you’re dealing with the police — your lesbian wife saying ‘drive, baby, drive,’” he told the crowd. “Her last name was Good; that’s what I said after they shot her in the face,” he continued. He then backed off slightly, saying, “I’m not a liberal, so I don’t celebrate the death of people that I… I didn’t hate her, I didn’t know her, but now that I know her, I hate her”.

  • Old and busted: Leftists demanding police bodycams to prove they’re killing innocent black people. The new hotness: Leftists demand we stop using bodycams because they’re showing police shootings are justified.
  • Democrat backs gang leaders over ICE. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
  • “Abbott Adds Chinese Tech Firms to Texas’ Prohibited Technology List Over Cybersecurity Concerns.” The brands are TP-Link, Hisense, and TCL.
  • “Couple Sentenced After Fake ID Bust by Dallas ICE. According to ICE, the manufacturing of fake identification documents by the couple took place from August 2020 until their arrest in February 2025.
”

    A Mexican couple living in Oklahoma has been sentenced for manufacturing fake identification documents for illegal aliens, a scheme uncovered by ICE Homeland Security Investigations in Dallas.

    Karina Garcia-Salazar, 47, was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release for Conspiracy to Transfer Identification Documents and Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Use or Transfer Five or More Documents.

    Her partner Jorge Augusto Prieto-Gamboa, 41, was sentenced in December to 15 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release following conviction for Conspiracy to Possess Five or More Documents with Intent to Transfer.

    The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma reported that Garcia holds a Lawful Permanent Resident card, while Gamboa has been living illegally in the U.S. since 2002.

    Sounds like authorities have reason to strip Garcia of their green card and deport them.

  • Winning: “Texas A&M Ends Women’s & Gender Studies Programming. The university cited low enrollment as the reason for the decision.”
  • A HIMARS strike knocks a Belgorod power plant offline.
  • A fuel trained derailed and exploded in Tambov, Russia. It may or may not be Ukraine-related.
  • “Ukraine says Starlink terminals used by Russia deactivated.

    Ukraine said last week it was working with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to block the use of Starlink terminals used on Russian attack drones and was trying to compile a “white list” of all Ukraine’s terminals so the Russian ones could be turned off.

    “Starlinks included in the ‘white list’ are working — Russian terminals have already been blocked,” Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who took office last month, wrote on Telegram, adding that the list was still being updated.

    SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk said on Sunday that moves by SpaceX to stop the unauthorised use of Starlink by Russia seemed to have worked.

    Russia used to be home to space-faring superpower capable of launching its own communication satellites. Now its dependent on western COTS technology that can be turned off by Elon Musk.

  • Russian GRU military intelligence General Vladimir Alexeyev shot in assassination attempt in Moscow. No word if Ukraine or internal enemies attempted the hit. Alexeyev is a nasty piece of work with several planned assassinations and war atrocities laid at his feet, so he’s exactly the sort of person Putin would assassinate if he feared internal dissent.
  • Washington Post to layoff over 300 employees. John Nolte has thoughts:

  • Follow-up: Louis Rossmann’s war against Austin paying for AI cameras in its parks has paid off in the form of a new proposal. “If you go down to item 61, approve a resolution directing the city manager to return to council with an ordinance regulating the city’s use of surveillance technology. Mayor Pro Tem Jose Cheto Vela, Council Member Mike Siegel, Council Member Vanessa Fuentes, Council Member Krista Laine, Council Member Jose Velasquez are involved and sponsors of this.”
  • YouTuber makes horror film for $3 million, kicks Hollywood’s butt.  
  • Even Critical Drinker likes it.
  • Heh. “William Shatner’s fiber commercial is on pace to get more views than the woke new Star Trek show.”
  • Adobe screws animators by cancelling a program they depend on, then immediately walks it back. Sort of.
  • It’s not just employers who are flaky: “The new hire who showed up is not the same person we interviewed.”

    John” accepted the offer and started last week!

    Except … it’s not the John my husband remembers. My husband was confused and said the following things were odd:

    – John has different hair and now wears glasses.

    – John is talking extensively about working in a garage because his three children and wife are home. In the interview, he made references to being single and was visibly in an indoor desk area.

    – John can’t answer a number of questions that they previously discussed in the interview, things pretty pivotal to the position.

    – Husband describes John as being aloof and pretty timid whereas John was confident and articulate when they interviewed him.

    He is convinced this is not the person they hired.

    Snip.

    They heard back from legal … who are less than thrilled about the situation! They approved HR to have a conversation with John regarding what has been reported (more in the vein of “there’s been some concerns about performance and you overselling abilities” and less of the We Think You Are a Liar route).

    Snip.

    As soon as HR got on the call with him, before they could get through their first question, John said the words “I quit” and hung up the calls. He has since been unreachable!!

  • YouTuber WhistlinDiesel was once again daring to register a vehicle he bought in Tennessee in another state. Sounds like Special Agent Curtis Richie has a vindictive vendetta against him. “Don’t buy cars in Tennessee anymore. I cannot recommend enough just moving to another state.”
  • When various WWII tanks were finally retired…and a couple of types are still in service.
  • Speaking of ancient military equipment: “Hospital evacuated after 8-inch WWI artillery shell discovered in patient’s butt.”
  • “Damning Photos Surface Of Clippy On Epstein Island.”
  • “Roomful Of Pedophiles Protests ICE Deporting Pedophiles.”
  • “Tim Walz Emerges From Den To Declare 6 More Weeks Of Rioting And Fraud.”
  • “If They Can Arrest Don Lemon For Something As Simple As Breaking The Law, Imagine What They Can Do To You.”
  • “Experts Warn Arresting Journalists Could Be Slippery Slope To Arresting Politicians And Other People Who Deserve It.”
  • “Suspicious: Voter ID Bill Defeated In Senate By Vote Of 7 Million To 53.”
  • I’m still between jobs. Feel free to hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.





    LinkSwarm For June 20, 2025

    Friday, June 20th, 2025

    Israel continues to pummel Iran’s nuclear program, President Trump sets a deadline, illegal alien border crossings are down radically, Democrats are bankrupt (financially, not just morally), more horrifying sex offenders, and a new face for the Texas Democrat Party.

    It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

  • Israel has complete command of the skies over Iran and continues to hit military and nuclear targets at will.
  • Jim Geraghty covers a lot of the most important angles on the Israel-Iran War:

    The big news of Wednesday, reported in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere: “President Trump told senior aides late Tuesday that he approved of attack plans for Iran, but was holding off to see if Tehran would abandon its nuclear program, people familiar with the deliberations said.” This feels like a strategic leak to reinforce to the Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that he faces the choice of giving up his country’s nuclear weapons program or war with the

    There’s an important distinction between approving the attack plan and ordering the attack plan. Our military forces are poised to strike, but at least as of Tuesday, no U.S. fighters are in Iranian airspace, according to Pentagon officials.

    “I don’t know how much longer it’s going to go on,” Trump said. “They’re totally defenseless. They have no air defense whatsoever, totally captured. We totally captured the air.”

    There’s that “we” again. One of the reasons people keep wondering if the U.S. is covertly helping Israel in an offensive manner as well as the revealed defensive manner (helping shoot down incoming ballistic missiles) is that Trump keeps using “we” to describe Israel’s actions in the war. “We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran.” “We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.”

    I know, I know, everybody’s obsessed with which pronouns you use these days.

    Yesterday at the White House, Trump continued:

    Q: What does unconditional surrender mean?

    Donald Trump: Well, you know what it means, unconditional—

    Q: Can you explain—

    Donald Trump: Two very simple words, very simple: unconditional surrender. That means I’ve had it. Okay, I’ve had it, I give up, no more. Then we go blow up all the nuclear stuff that’s all over the place there. They had bad intentions. For 40 years, they’ve been saying death to America, death to Israel, death to anybody else that they didn’t like. They were bullies. They were schoolyard bullies and now they’re not bullies anymore, but we’ll see what happens. Look, nothing’s finished until it’s finished. War is very complex, a lot of bad things can happen, a lot of turns are made. So, I don’t know. I wouldn’t say that we won anything yet. I would say that we sure as hell made a lot of progress and we’ll see. The next week is going to be very big, maybe less than a week, maybe less.

    Snip.

    The Economist has a scoop about the Israeli intelligence that spurred its decision to launch this military operation:

    We understand that the information presented by Israel includes a detailed account of a recent, more urgent, push by Iranian scientists towards “weaponization”, or the creation of an explosive nuclear device. The dossier provides two key pieces of reported evidence for this claim. The first is that an Iranian scientific team has squirrelled away a quantity of nuclear material, of unclear enrichment status, that is unknown to the monitors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a UN watchdog (on June 9th the IAEA assessed Iran had official stockpiles of over 400kg of highly enriched uranium). The second piece of reported evidence is that the scientists have accelerated their work and were about to meet commanders of Iran’s missile corps, apparently to prepare for the future “mating” of a nuclear warhead with a missile. . . .

    In a report published on May 31st, the IAEA noted that in 2003 Iran had planned to conduct what the Institute for Science and International Security, a think-tank, calls a “cold test” — a simulated nuclear weapon which uses natural or depleted uranium rather than weapons-grade uranium. . . .

    The Israeli intelligence dossiers also contain information that, if correct, is genuinely new. They suggest that roughly six years ago the scientists formed a secret “Special Progress Group”, under the auspices of the former AMAD director, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. This group’s aim was to prepare the way for a much quicker weaponisation process, if and when a decision was made by Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, to rush for a bomb. Mr Fakhrizadeh was assassinated by Israel in November 2020. On June 13th in the first hours of the war, the Israeli government published slides describing this backstory. But we have been told that it also shared further assessments with allies that suggest the Special Progress Group stepped up its research at the end of last year. Iran had a new incentive to advance to a bomb. It was reeling from the limited impact of its missile attacks on Israel, and the depletion of its air defenses by Israeli strikes in October 2024. And it was facing the collapse of its proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, in Gaza and Lebanon.

    Bonus:

    Israel secret services used a fake phone call to trick the top commanders of Iran’s air force into gathering at a single location before taking them out in a targeted strike, an Israeli Channel 12 commentator has said.

    In a statement confirmed to the JC by Israeli sources, Amit Segal told the Call Me Back podcast on Monday: “What Israel did was create a fake phone call for 20 members of the air force senior staff an calling them to a specific bunker in Tehran.”

    This meant there was no one to give the order to fire the initial salvo of 1,000 ballistic missiles as Iran had previously threatened to do, he added.

    According to sources familiar with the operation, Mossad initiated a targeted disinformation effort days before the strike.

    Using falsified communications through Iranian channels, they triggered what appeared to be an emergency meeting.

    The ruse successfully drew the entire senior leadership of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force, including Commander General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, his deputies, and key technical personnel, into a fortified bunker outside Tehran.

    Moments before the strike began, that bunker was hit in a precision airstrike, eliminating Iran’s top missile command.

  • Suchomimus examines the damage from Israel’s very precise strikes on Iran.
  • Trump47 demonstrates how easy it is to secure the border when you actually try.

    Border Czar Tom Homan dropped a bombshell on X Tuesday night that should have every American asking why we tolerated four years of Biden’s border catastrophe.

    “In the last 24 hours the Border Patrol encountered a total of 95 illegal aliens across the entire southern border,” Homan posted. “That is the lowest number EVER recorded. Compare that to the Biden administration, who surpassed more than 10,000 per day.”

    Read that again. Ninety-five. That’s not a typo. For the first time in recorded history, we’re seeing double-digit border encounters. Meanwhile, Biden’s administration was routinely processing more than 10,000 illegal crossings daily. The contrast couldn’t be more stark or more damning for the previous administration.

    “Since taking office, my administration has launched the most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history. And we quickly achieved the lowest numbers of illegal border crossers ever recorded,” he said. “The media and our friends in the Democrat party kept saying we needed new legislation, we must have legislation to secure the border. But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.”

    But here’s where it gets even worse for Biden’s defenders. Homan revealed that the Biden administration released the “vast majority” of illegal immigrants back into American communities. How many were released under Trump in May? “Zero,” Homan revealed.

    The numbers are staggering. In May 2024 alone, Biden released 62,000 illegal aliens into the country. Let that sink in: 62,000 people who crossed illegally were simply turned loose on American streets in a single month. This wasn’t immigration policy; it was an authorized invasion.

    (Hat tip: Charlie Martin at Instapundit.)

  • Nearly 1 million illegal immigrants have ‘self-deported’ under Trump, which has led to higher wages.”

    While ICE arrests and deportations have grabbed headlines, President Trump is also running a separate but complementary “mass deportation” program — one that encourages aliens here unlawfully to go home voluntarily.

    And if reports are correct, that plan is more successful than anyone could have imagined.

    Based on government data, my organization, the Center for Immigration Studies, has conservatively estimated there are about 15.4 million illegal aliens in the United States, a 50% increase over the four tumultuous years of the Biden administration.

    That’s no surprise, given how Biden and his Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ignored congressional detention mandates and ushered millions of illegal migrants into the United States.

    Trump rode a wave of concerns about the costs those migrants are imposing on schools, hospitals, housing, and essential government services in cities and towns across the United States to a second term.

    Now that he’s back in the Oval Office, it’s up to him, “border czar” Tom Homan, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to drive the unauthorized population down and restore credibility to our immigration system.

    They’ve implemented a two-track plan to tackle this onerous task.

    One of those tracks relies on arrests and deportations of aliens unlawfully here, which at the outset has focused mainly on criminals (the “worst first” strategy).

    The other track is more subtle but also cheaper for taxpayers and arguably much more effective —encouraging illegal migrants here to self-deport.

    It began with an Inauguration Day Trump directive requiring DHS to ensure all aliens present in the United States — legal and otherwise — have registered with the federal government, and to prosecute those who don’t comply.

    By late February, Noem had implemented that registration program.

    DHS next launched a multimillion-dollar ad campaign warning migrants not to enter illegally or, alternatively, to leave voluntarily now and possibly “have an opportunity to return and enjoy our freedom and live the American Dream.”

    Noem also rebranded the notorious CBP One app — which the Biden administration used to funnel hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants into our country — as “CBP Home,” which aliens can use to “notify the U.S. Government of their intent to depart.”

    That rebranding coincided with an offer of financial incentives for aliens who leave voluntarily, a stipend of $1,000. That’s in lieu of costly physical deportation, which can cost taxpayers $17,100 per person on average.

    How effective has self-deportation been?

    One way to track the program is by checking employment numbers. One financial whiz cited by the Wall Street Journal calculated a decline in the immigrant population of 773,000 in the first four months of Trump II.

    The Washington Post claims “a million foreign-born workers have exited the workforce since March.” The Post frames this as “a sign of the weakening labor supply.” Yet the paper also notes, “Average hourly wages accelerated, rising by 0.4 percent over the month, to $36.24 in May, as earnings continue to beat inflation in a boost to workers’ spending power.”

    In other words, with fewer illegal immigrants, businesses have had to raise wages to attract workers.

    Win-win-win for everyone except Democrats, illegal aliens, and the businesses addicted to cheap, illegal labor.

  • ICE raid nabs more than 100 illegal aliens at a meat packing plant. Americans applying for jobs ensues. The “jobs Americans won’t do” canard was always a lie.
  • Of course they didn’t want to secure the border: 148 Democrats vote against preventing non-citizens from voting. (Hat tip: Sara Hoyt at Instapundit.)
  • “FBI director gives Congress evidence that China created mail-in ballot scheme to help Joe Biden win 2020 election.”

    Kash, who just shared the documents with Congress, then shared the accompanying article from Just the News to shed more light:

    Officials who have seen the documents told Just the News the FBI had a relatively new confidential source who provided information in summer 2020 that the Chinese government was manufacturing and exporting fake U.S. driver’s licenses as part of a plot to create voter identities for Chinese residents living in the United States so they could vote with fake mail-in ballots.

    The intelligence source claimed the plot was specifically designed to benefit Biden, officials said.

    Wait, you’re telling me that China wanted “10% for the Big Guy” Joe Biden, a man whose family made money by peddling political influence with Chinese businessmen, to be the US president?

  • Two Big Ukrainian Drone Strikes on Oil & Chemical Plants: One Nearly 1,000km Away.”
  • Did Russia have a BM-21 Grad missile launcher loaded with chemical weapons?
  • Hmmm. “The U.S. Navy now has five guided-missile destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean, according to U.S. defense officials. This is a significant increase. Earlier this week, the U.S. had just one in the eastern Med.” (Previously.)
  • Even God has taken a crack at Iran. “A 5.2 magnitude earthquake has just struck Central Iran as Israel continues its attack on Tehran. The quake’s epicentre was just outside the city of Semnan, around 210km east of the capital.”
  • The Democrat Party is sucking even harder than we suspect.

    The Democratic Party is struggling. In every way a political party can be dysfunctional, the Democrats are careening toward an implosion.

    Riven by poisonous factionalism, running out of cash, and devoid of purpose and plan, the oldest political party in the Western World is falling apart right before our eyes.

    How bad is it? When the New York Times gives space to a 1,800-word, five-alarm article giving excruciating detail about your party’s travails, you know it’s not time to pop the champagne cork and celebrate.

    To make matters worse for the Democrats, on the same day the Times aired the party’s soiled panties for all to see, the other Democratic Party house organ, Politico, laid 1,600 words of criticism on party chairman Ken Martin.

    The media couldn’t be quiet about it. With 17 months to go before the 2026 midterm elections, the Democrats find themselves in an existential crisis. Half the party wants to abandon the radical left, while the radical left wants to give the heave-ho to anyone to the right of Karl Marx.

    Let’s start with Ken Martin as a point of contention. Barely four months into the job, he’s already made plenty of enemies. Worse, those enemies aren’t going quietly into that good night. They are sniping at him from the sidelines, drawing blood with criticisms no party chair has ever heard before.

    David Hogg section skipped. Judging by Kolby Duhon (see below), Hogg really was too masculine for the DNC.

    “This is worse than some high school student council drama,” said Wisconsin Democrat Representative Mark Pocan. I’d say that’s right on the mark.

    One DNC member told Politico that Martin looked “weak and whiny,” and another said he has been “invisible.” Similar sentiments were expressed by other DNC members.

    These aren’t Republicans talking about their leaders. It’s the supposed leadership caste of the Democratic Party.

    Awesome, isn’t it?

    Snip.

    The biggest blow to the party may have been the recent exit from the DNC of American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and AFSCME President Lee Saunders. Together, they represent millions of members and tens of millions of dollars in contributions.

    “The DNC is weaker than I have ever seen it… They have shown zero ability to chart a post-24 vision for Democrats,” a Democratic strategist with close ties to labor unions, told Politico.

    Weingarten and Saunders couldn’t “in good faith continue to rubber-stamp what was going on with the DNC,” the strategist said.

    Instead of developing a strategy for 2026 and preparing the battlefield for 2028, Martin and the DNC are bogged down in the minutiae of organizational warfare. There’s no plan, no purpose behind the DNC’s pronouncements. Martin is too busy putting out political brushfires and soothing bruised egos to get anything organizationally done.

    No one is going to wave a magic wand and put the party back together.

    Unspoken in this piece: The Social Justice hard left would literally rather kill the Democrat Party than give up control of it. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • The Supreme Court upheld the state of Tennessee’s ban on irreversible transgender procedures for minors, a major victory for parental rights advocates and those seeking to protect distressed children from harmful operations. The justices ruled 6-3 in United States v. Skrmetti, with all of the conservative justices opting to allow Tennessee’s ban to remain in place and the liberal justices dissenting. The ruling will likely allow similar bans in more than 20 other red states to be upheld in the face of legal challenges.” Decision by decision, the transsexual madness is finally being beaten back.
  • Minnesota assassin arrested.

    The man suspected of assassinating a Minnesota Democratic state lawmaker and attempting to kill another is being brought up on federal murder and stalking charges and could face the death penalty, prosecutors said Monday, hours after he was arrested following a days-long manhunt.

    Acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Joe Thompson said during a press conference that Vance Luther Boelter went to the homes of four Minnesota lawmakers with the intent of killing them….

    Boelter, 57, is facing six federal counts: two stalking charges, two firearm offenses for the non-fatal shooting of State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette, and two murder charges for the killing of former State House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark. He faces anywhere from 20 years in prison to a potential death sentence for the federal murder charge.

    The case had a lot of weird aspects to it, from him being a Tim Waltz appointee to the suspect’s wife being stopped with cash and passports in her car to the supposed anti-abortion motive to the No Kings flyers in his car to the murdered lawmaker being the only Democrat to vote for repealing taxpayer frunded illegal alien health care. A bunch of things don’t add up, especially how quickly the story seemed to disappear off news radar…

  • Finally. “Feds Crush Violent Antifa Uprising Outside Portland ICE Facility.” Now the feds need to start looking into RICO charges against Antifa funders…
  • Speaking of antifa behaving badly, they just attacked two more journalists, Cameron Higby and Brandi Kruse.
  • “DOJ charges another Chinese researcher with smuggling ‘biological materials’ into US. The new case accuses Chinese researcher Chengxuan Han of trying to smuggle packages containing concealed biological material related to round worms into the country by sending multiple packages that contain the material to a lab in the U.S.” It looks like we need to check the lab of every Chinese national studying biology in the U.S. for possible biological warfare material. Indeed, given these arrests, we may already be doing so. (Hat tip: TPPF.)
  • “FBI Dallas Announces 109 Children Rescued, 244 Offenders Arrested in Child Exploitation Investigation.”
  • Conservatives are happier than liberals across all age, sex, race, and income groups.
  • “New Law Protects Property Owners, Assists in Removing Squatters.” Good to see Texas getting ahead of the issue.
  • We don’t cotton to cop killers in Texas. “El Salvadoran Illegal Alien Receives Death Penalty for Murder of Harris County Deputy. Oscar Rosales never disputed that he killed Deputy Corporal Charles Galloway in a January 2022 shooting.” El Salvador, eh? Maybe we can pay El Salvador to keep him in CECOT while his appeals play out, then fly him back to execute him…
  • Trigger warning: Another case of two gay men adopting a baby and raping it to death.
  • National outlets have already jumped on this one, but behold who Texas Democrats have made their their new vice chair for finance.

    That’s the face (and haircut) Democrats want to put forward as representing their party.

    Over the weekend, Texas Democrats elected Kolby Duhon as their new vice chair for finance. The position is responsible for a variety of duties related to the party’s raising and spending of money.

    Duhon filled a vacancy that opened when the previous vice chair, Kendall Scudder, was elected party chairman in March.

    His X feed reveals his radical views.

    Duhon describes himself as a “pansexual.” Advocates claim “pansexuals” do not take gender or sexuality into account when choosing a partner. In 2020, Duhon tweeted his admiration for State Rep. Mary Gonzalez (D–San Elizario) and claimed she inspired him to run for a position with the Texas Young Democrats on an “openly Pan” platform.

    By “pansexual” I assume he strikes out with both men and women. And what self-respecting gay would want to be seen with someone with that hairstyle?

    Duhon uses “they/he” pronouns and helped found the Socialist Caucus of the Texas Young Democrats in 2017.

    Beyond his lifestyle choices and political affiliations, Duhon has expressed views on subjects including Israel, policing, and racism that place him on the far-left end of the political spectrum.

    Duhon has repeatedly posted in favor of pushing gender confusion on so-called “trans kids.”

    Of course he has.

    Here’s the perfect face for the modern Democratic Party: A freakshow all the way down…

  • More signs of the decline of the Democratic Party in Texas. “Tarrant County Democratic Party Chair Resigns Months After All Staff Laid Off. [Crystal Gayden] will continue as chair until July 7 when an election will take place to decide her successor.”

    Just a couple months after laying off all of its paid staff, the Tarrant County Democratic Party will need to find a new party chair as incumbent chair Crystal Gayden announced her resignation at the beginning of June.

    Gayden, who became party chair back in July 2023, stated in her announcement that she had overseen the strengthening and re-energizing of the party, which had expanded its precinct chair network, prioritized turnout in local elections, grown its supporter base, and increased party visibility, among other things.

    For those outside Texas, Tarrant County is home to Ft. Worth and is the third largest county in the state, so the Democrats having no staffers there is a kind of big deal.

    As far as “prioritizing turnout,” it’s certainly not visible in national elections. Biden’s recorded vote total in Tarrant County in 2020 was 411,567, edging Trump by just under 2,000 votes. In 2024, it was 384,501 votes, or more than 40,000 votes under Trump’s total. Some triumph of turnout…

  • “State Sen. Kelly Hancock has officially entered the race for Texas Comptroller with the backing of Gov. Greg Abbott, resigning from the Senate and being sworn in as chief clerk of the agency by outgoing Comptroller Glenn Hegar.”

    The move is designed to sidestep a 2002 legal opinion from then-Attorney General Abbott, which held that a sitting state senator cannot be appointed to a position requiring Senate confirmation during the term for which they were elected.

    By resigning and taking on the role of “chief clerk,” Hancock avoids triggering the Senate confirmation process while still stepping into the agency’s top position for the remainder of Hegar’s term—through January 2027.

    Hegar, who will officially take over as chancellor of the Texas A&M University System on July 1, praised Hancock as his successor.

    Snip.

    In 2023, Hancock was one of only two Republican senators who sided with Democrats to attempt to remove Attorney General Ken Paxton from office following his impeachment trial. During this most recent legislative session, he was one of seven Republican senators who voted to water down Senate Bill 19—intended to ban taxpayer-funded lobbying—by supporting an amendment that exempted organizations like the Texas Association of School Boards from the ban.

    Snip. Don Huffines:

    “The political elite are manipulating the system to install another go-along-to-get-along lap dog as State Comptroller, because they know President Trump’s DOGE-style transparency would expose everything. But they don’t just fear me. They fear you—the taxpayers, the grassroots. And they should. The conservative base in Texas is wide awake, fed up, and ready to take back control. And they know we will win,” said Huffines, pointing to endorsements from U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Charlie Kirk, Riley Gaines, Ron Paul, and a majority of the State Republican Executive Committee.

    Another declared candidate, current Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick, responded by pointing to her statewide record.

    “No matter who else enters the race, I’ll put my record up against anyone,” said Craddick. “I’m the only candidate in this race with statewide experience and a proven record running one of Texas’ most important agencies, cutting red tape, generating billions in revenue from oil and gas, and delivering results that fund our schools, roads, and first responders.”

  • Been a while since we had a juicy crazed poisoner story, so here’s one. Did it not occur to to supergenius (accused) perp that two former lovers both being poisoned by cyanide was pretty handily going to mark him as a suspect?
  • “Israel is having a mostly peaceful protest in Iran.”
  • “Good Guy 1, Bad Guy 0.” Bonus: The least manly spray-and-pray you’ll ever see.
  • Paste without formatting should be the default.” Preach, brother, preach…
  • Elio: “The worst Pixar film ever made.”
  • How many of these classic prog rock intros can you name? Harder than you might think, though I got “The Musical Box” off Genesis’ Nursery Crime on the very first note…
  • “Do You Have Experience In Nuclear Engineering? Check Out These Exciting New Job Openings In Iran.”
  • “Texan Republicans Tip Off State Department That Austin Has Nuclear Weapons.”
  • “No Foul Called After Caitlin Clark Crushed By Anvil.”
  • Nosy neighbors, indeed.

    (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)

  • I’m still between jobs. Feel free to hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.





    LA Riot News Roundup

    Wednesday, June 11th, 2025

    Just like in 1992 or 2020, another bout of “mostly peaceful protest” in a Democrat-run city has turned into a multi-day spree of rioting and looting. So here’s a roundup of leftwing riot news from the pro-illegal alien felon riots in Los Angeles and elsewhere:

  • LA’s ineffectual hard-left mayor declares a curfew.

    The mayor of Los Angeles is imposing a nighttime curfew to curtail the continuing anti-ICE riots and combat looting and vandalism amid the chaos.

    L.A. Mayor Karen Bass (D.) announced a curfew beginning at 8 p.m. Pacific time in downtown Los Angeles and lifting at 6 a.m. She warned violators that law-enforcement officers would arrest them.

    “I issued a curfew starting tonight at 8pm for Downtown Los Angeles to stop bad actors who are taking advantage of the President’s chaotic escalation,” Bass said.

    “If you do not live or work in Downtown L.A., avoid the area. Law enforcement will arrest individuals who break the curfew, and you will be prosecuted.”

    Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom (D.) have faced criticism for allowing the riots against Immigration and Customs Enforcement to get out of hand and for taking a soft-handed approach. Both Democrats have attacked President Trump and his administration for quickly sending in the National Guard to quell the violence after local law enforcement was overwhelmed.

    “If I didn’t ‘SEND IN THE TROOPS’ to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great City would be burning to the ground right now,” Trump said Tuesday morning on Truth Social.

    Trump and Newsom have exchanged heated rhetoric over Newsom’s handling of the rioting and Trump’s decision to quickly intervene. Newsom has cast Trump as an authoritarian, wannabe dictator for mobilizing the National Guard to stop the violence.

    How dare Trump enforce public order and deport illegal alien felons?

  • Jim Geraghty on why LA is burning yet again.

    In the coming days, you’re going to see an enormous effort by the Democrats and large swaths of the media to declare that if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had never tried to enforce immigration law in Los Angeles, the city would not be beset by so much widespread violence and unrest this past weekend. Implicit in that argument is the idea that Los Angeles city and county are so primed for violence, such a powder keg of anarchic malcontents, that the U.S. government must simply throw up its hands and concede that it cannot enforce immigration law there. You see, this reflects how the likes of Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass approach governing — when a task is too difficult, they just don’t even make the attempt.

    In the minds of the progressive Democrats who run the city and county of Los Angeles and the state of California, ICE efforts to arrest and deport those who have entered the country illegally are unpopular among their constituents and, therefore, must be illegitimate.

    That is not how it works, of course.

    I sometimes think that news organizations in Los Angeles don’t want to give their audiences and readers a clear picture of what’s actually happening in their city. Here’s the opening sentence of an article published online by the Los Angeles NBC affiliate Friday afternoon: “A group of people were seen outside of a business named Ambiance in the Fashion District of downtown Los Angeles.”

    Hey, remember those basics of journalism, the who, the what, the when, the where, the why, and sometimes the how? Are we just not doing any of that anymore?

    The next sentence reads, “Essayli tells NBC4 that the FBI was working along with other federal agencies to serve a search warrant, which were [sic] signed by a judge, because they have probable cause to believe this employer is using fictitious documents for some of its workers.”

    There’s nothing indicating to readers that “Essayli” is Bilal A. “Bill” Essayli, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, the chief federal prosecutor for the region.

    Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement Friday afternoon declaring, “We received reports of federal immigration enforcement actions in multiple locations in Los Angeles. As mayor of a proud city of immigrants, who contribute to our city in so many ways, I am deeply angered by what has taken place. These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city. My office is in close coordination with immigrant rights community organizations. We will not stand for this.”

    Throughout the day, Bass issued one statement after another that kept referring to “immigrants” — refusing to even acknowledge the distinction between legal immigrants and illegal immigrants.

    California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a statement Friday contending, “continued chaotic federal sweeps, across California, to meet an arbitrary arrest quota are as reckless as they are cruel. Donald Trump’s chaos is eroding trust, tearing families apart, and undermining the workers and industries that power America’s economy.”

    What makes these law enforcement actions “chaotic” and “reckless”?

    The following morning, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons contended that an angry crowd of Los Angeles residents had assaulted federal agents, and the Los Angeles Police Department had an inexplicably delayed response:

    As rioters attacked federal ICE and law enforcement officers on the L.A. streets, Mayor Bass took the side of chaos and lawlessness over law enforcement.

    Our brave officers were vastly outnumbered, as over 1,000 rioters surrounded and attacked a federal building. It took over two hours for the Los Angeles Police Department to respond, despite being called multiple times. The brave men and women of ICE were in Los Angeles arresting criminal illegal aliens including gang members, drug traffickers and those with a history of assault, cruelty to children, domestic violence, robbery, and smuggling.

    The protest was outside the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building. The headquarters of the Los Angeles Police Department is three-tenths of a mile away, an eight-minute walk.

  • DataRepublican took a deep dive into who is funding the LA riots. Let me pull out the relevant orgs for tagging:
    • Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights (CHIRLA)

    • Party for Socialism and Liberation
    • International ANSWER
    • Billionaire socialist Neville Roy Singham
    • People’s Forum
    • SEIU
  • The Daily Caller fingers more lefty organizations helping organize and fund the riots.

    Unión del Barrio and Centro CSO

    Another downtown Los Angeles press conference on Friday featured speakers from Unión del Barrio and Centro CSO, Facebook video shows. Unión del Barrio’s Ron Gochez told his audience about the need to resist ICE “by any means necessary.”

    “If we organize, we can kick their asses out of every single ghetto, every single barrio, anywhere where our people are,” Gochez said, drawing applause.

    “Who gives a damn about legality, when these people have their boot to our neck,” Gochez said, referencing immigration law. “We have … every single obligation, moral, historical, we have every reason to defend our people, to defend our community, to defend our families by whatever means necessary.”

    Unión del Barrio describes itself as “entirely self-financed through membership dues, community contributions, and local fundraising” on its website, while Centro CSO says it is a member-funded grassroots group. The organizations did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
    Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)

    The Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) helped spread SEIU’s graphic about CHIRLA’s Friday press conference on X. “Citizens who know their rights can disrupt and slow ICE incursions, as well as pressure local authorities to take action,” another Friday X post from the group reads. The DSA chapter did not respond to a request for comment.

    Snip.

    The 50501 Movement, formed in response to the second Trump administration, promoted the protests on Bluesky throughout the weekend, including the Friday 4 p.m. gathering. 50501 National Press Coordinator Hunter Dunn posted about being personally among the protesters.

    (Hat tip: Director Blue.)

  • LAPD did the meme and called the leftwing arson and looting sprees “mostly peaceful.”
  • More mostly peaceful: “Illegal alien charged with attempted murder for throwing Molotov cocktail at officers in LA riots.”
  • The Other McCain looks at the left’s current love for illegal alien criminals, and reaches back into history to remember Sweden-Kampuchea Friendship Association.

    Voters elected Donald Trump for a reason, and if Chris Van Hollen, Will Bunch or anyone else thinks they’re going to fool the electorate into sharing their sympathy for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, they’re simply delusional. But we have often seen the Left enthralled by such delusions.

    Jan Myrdal, Marita Wikander, Gunnar Bergström and Hedvig Ekerwald were Swedish socialists who enthusiastically supported Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, a widespread sentiment in Sweden at the time:

    The Indochinese revolutionary movements enjoyed widespread support in Swedish society, particularly among supporters of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. When the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh [in April 1975] and expelled its inhabitants, 15,000 Swedes greeted their victory by spontaneously celebrating in the center of Stockholm.

    The arrival of Year Zero in Democratic Kampuchea was, as we now know, the beginning of one of the most murderous tyrannies in all human history. The best estimates are that Pol Pot’s communist regime killed about 1.5 million people, nearly 25% of the country’s population.

    The first widely noticed account of the ongoing massacre in Cambodia was published by the Reader’s Digest in February 1977, and immediately sparked widespread controversy. The Left, having embraced the Communist regime in Cambodia, denounced the Reader’s Digest account as “propaganda.” To quote Wikipedia:

    According to Joel Brinkley, “Khmer Rouge apologists [among Western academics] easily outnumbered those who believed a tragedy was under way.” . . .
    [H]uman-rights activist David Hawk . . . claimed that the West was indifferent to the atrocities taking place in Cambodia due to “the influence of anti-war academics on the American left who obfuscated Khmer Rouge behavior, denigrated the post-1975 refugee reports, and denounced the journalists who got those stories.”

    In the prevailing worldview of the intelligentsia, the Communists must be good, because America was bad. Therefore, reports about atrocities in Cambodia (based on accounts from those who had escaped) must be false or exaggerated. Such was the background of the August 1978 trip to Cambodia by Myrdal, Wikander, Bergström and Ekerwald as a delegation from the Sweden-Kampuchea Friendship Association (SKFA). They spent two weeks as guests of the Khmer Rouge, even having dinner with Pol Pot, and “returned to Sweden where they undertook a speaking tour and wrote articles in support of the Democratic Kampuchea regime.” Bergström expressed the belief that, under the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia could become “a very special model for the third world … an ideal society with no oppressors.” And this, keep in mind, was a brutal regime that killed a higher percentage of their national population than any known dictatorship in all human history. Among the victims were Marita Wikander’s husband. She had married a Khmer Rouge diplomat, who returned to Cambodia in 1977. During the SKFA trip to Phnom Penh in 1978, she asked to see her husband. The request was denied. It wasn’t until years later that she learned he had been executed by the regime shortly after his return to Cambodia. Such an “ideal society“!

    The analogy to current liberal politics is obvious enough. Viewing Trump as the Sum of All Evils, liberals reflexively attack any policy advocated by Trump. Therefore, if Trump wishes to deport criminal illegal aliens, liberals must defend criminal illegal aliens: “Free Kilmar!”

  • It just wouldn’t be a “mostly peaceful” leftwing riot without widespread looting:

  • Evidently looting Apple stores is now so common that iPhones now have a store setting that sets alarms and tracking off if stolen, rendering them useless to looters:

  • Democrats always seem to have a pathological need to lie about the riots and looting happening on their watch.

    Los Angeles is grappling with a wave of violence and destruction that has left local business owners reeling, as captured in a viral TikTok video from NewsNationNow, posted on 10 June 2025.

    The video features a furious LA business owner, Monty, owner of Bargain2Perfumes, whose store was ransacked during protests against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. ‘This is ridiculous.

    This doesn’t look like they’re protesting ICE or anything… Just looting the stores,’ he told NewsNation, echoing sentiments shared across X posts.

    Yet, California Governor Gavin Newsom has repeatedly called these events ‘peaceful protests,’ a stark contrast to the reported £80 million ($107 million) in property damage since 6 June 2025, including looted stores, torched vehicles, and vandalised buildings.

  • Once again, President Trump is on the right side of another 80/20 issue in which Democrats have taken a widely unpopular position.

    So President Trump chose criminal deportation, law and order, and tough on crime.

    California Democrats Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass chose lawsuits and states’ rights.

    Who do you think won this latest round? I’d say Mr. Trump 10, Democrats zero.

    It’s just hard to believe that removing illegal alien criminals who have committed sexual assault and murders would be attacked by one of our two major political parties.

    But that’s the state of play among Democrats. Shame on Governor Newsom in particular.

    And good for Senator Fetterman for being just about the only Democrat to stand up and say that peaceful free speech is good, but violent protest is not. And Democrats should not be defending violent protests.

    And Mr. Trump’s border tsar, Tom Homan, is absolutely right that Mr. Newsom and Ms. Bass should be thanking ICE for making California a safer place.

    In an interview with Greta Van Susteren, Mr. Homan said, “What angers me the most” is that “people aren’t looking at the facts. ICE arrested significant public safety threats in the last few days in L.A. We arrested a murderer — a Vietnamese national who murdered teenagers at a graduation party.”

    He added that “we arrested several sexual predators — child sexual predators — we arrested people convicted of armed robbery, arrested people for domestic violence and all sorts of public safety threats.”

    And as protesters and trouble makers turn to violence to oppose ICE’s safety actions, remarkably the Democrats chose to support the rioters committing arson, and looting, smashing police cars, throwing rocks at ICE agents, spitting on the American flag and setting it on fire, and spray-painting “Death to America” graffiti on government buildings.

    Mr. Trump’s rapid action to protect public safety and avoid a truly vast insurrection by bringing in the National Guard and Marines was a stroke of genius.

  • Not just LA:

    The chaotic anti-ICE riots aren’t just confined to California; anti-ICE agitators have taken their lawlessness to the East Coast. On Saturday, New York City joined Los Angeles in becoming a flashpoint for radical protests, as demonstrators clashed with law enforcement after a mob of nearly 150 people tried to block federal officials from conducting an immigration raid in Manhattan.

    More than 20 anti-ICE protestors were arrested after interfering with immigration authorities trying to carry out lawful operations. The activists were actively obstructing the removal of criminal illegal immigrants. At one point, the mob attempted to block a white van from exiting the area. It successfully forced it back into the building’s parking garage after agitators threw themselves at the vehicle. The New York Police Department (NYPD) arrived and started pushing protesters back onto the other side of the street. Authorities warned protestors to disperse or get arrested

  • Even here in Austin, protestors were demonstrating the usual left-wing idea of “peaceful”:

    While the Austin protest was largely peaceful, it ended with a dozen arrests and a standoff between demonstrators and state and local police who deployed tear gas and pepper ball projectiles against a smaller group of protesters after they graffitied a federal building and threw rocks at officers.

    Snip.

    Laiba Khan, an organizer with the Austin chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, said the group organized the protest specifically because of the Trump administration’s response to the LA demonstrations.

    Quoting that not because it’s important, but just so I have the tags ready the next time these Austin commies burn something else down.

  • Trace Gallagher on Fox News sums out just how bad these riots look for Democrats:

    “If the goal is to lose elections in perpetuity, they have devised the perfect plan.”

  • The Babylon Bee appreciates illegal alien rioters making things easier for ICE:

  • Remember to stay away from riot areas, and make sure your carry gun is properly oiled and loaded…

    LinkSwarm For May 2, 2024

    Friday, May 2nd, 2025

    Trump’s first hundred days, a Ukraine mineral deal at last, Democrats choose rapists over women (again), employment numbers are up (unexpectedly!), Josh Hawley names and shames PELOSI, Reform UK wins big, Spain blacks out (and not from Sangria), a sneaky local Williamson County election tomorrow, and the return of the Worst Gun of All Time.

    It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

  • Larry Kudlow celebrates Trump47’s first 100 days in office.

    After President Trump’s first 100 days, what stands out to me is his straightforward trademark phrase — “promises made, promises kept.”

    He was elected on November 5 to transform the country in a completely different direction from the failed presidency of Joe Biden.

    And that is precisely what Mr. Trump has done.

    He is a disruptor. He is a change agent. He is fighting the entrenched elites and their institutions. He’s not afraid to use shock and awe. He is also a master dealmaker. He is also a man chockful of common sense.

    None of this is going to be easy, nor will it come without glitches. But the political reality of his first 100 days is that Mr. Trump has kept his word to the American people.

    So, 142 executive orders later, Mr. Trump has secured the border, restored safety, and is making great progress on the deportation of criminal illegal aliens.

    For every one new regulation, Mr. Trump is abolishing ten others.

    He is cutting taxes across the board to launch a blue-collar boom, while reducing prices with the production of more goods.

    He has reopened the energy spigots, and will profitably deploy America’s abundant resources.

    He is eliminating federal waste, fraud, and abuse. He is shrinking the size of the federal government.

    And he has launched a reciprocal fair-trade initiative.

    So, pulling all of this together, in his first 100 days Mr. Trump has fundamentally restored hope for faster growth and greater affordability.

    And, as tough as it may be, he is working to restore peace in Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran.

    Culturally, he has stopped the Democratic woke march to DEI — diversity, equity, and inclusion.

    He has fought hard for religious freedom, an end to government censorship, and has stopped the weaponization of justice.

    Mr. Trump has gone after the elite universities for their failure to stop antisemitism.

    And, indeed, for all of Mr. Trump’s pro-growth economic initiatives, and his ‘peace through strength’ foreign policy, his determination to restore a more traditional, cultural, and spiritual country is one of his greatest accomplishments in the first 100 days.

    #Winning.

  • Finally: “U.S., Ukraine Sign Minerals Deal in Major Breakthrough for Peace Talks.”

    U.S. and Ukrainian officials have signed a long-anticipated deal that gives the U.S. access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals in exchange for a promised security guarantee to protect Kyiv from future Russian aggression, signaling President Donald Trump’s commitment to ending the war.

    The deal was signed Wednesday afternoon on Trump’s 100th day in office by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, as the latter visited Washington, D.C., to finalize the details. The Treasury Department confirmed the signed deal, called the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund.

    “This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump Administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term. President Trump envisioned this partnership between the American people and the Ukrainian people to show both sides’ commitment to lasting peace and prosperity in Ukraine,” Bessent said in a statement. “And to be clear, no state or person who financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine.”

    The minerals deal grants the U.S. access to Ukraine’s natural resources, including aluminum, graphite, oil, and natural gas, according to Bloomberg. It also lays out details about the economic partnership between the U.S. and Ukraine.

    With that deal finally done, Trump finally has the excuse he needs to keep supporting Ukraine, especially if Russia refuses Trump’s demands to come to the negotiating table.

  • U.S. payroll growth totals 177,000 in April, defying expectations.” (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
  • More proof that the Democrat Party is objectively pro-rape: ‘California Dems Vote To Keep Male Sex Offenders In Female Prisons.”

    Democrats on the California Senate Public Safety Committee shot down a bill on Tuesday that would have kept male sex criminals out of female prisons.

    The committee, which includes far-Left Senator Scott Wiener, voted down a proposal from Republican Senator Shannon Grove to protect women from males who are registered sex offenders from being able to be housed in women’s prisons. The bill also would have given women privacy in sleeping arrangements and showers, meaning that they would be protected from males who have taken advantage of California’s lax laws that allow men to be placed in women’s prisons.

    “Today I am here on behalf of incarcerated women in California prisons who are dealing with the unintended consequences of allowing transgender inmates to be housed in women’s correction facilities,” Grove said at the committee hearing. “Everyone agrees that we need to keep inmates safe and provide additional protections.”

    She noted that she had received a letter from a female inmate discussing how males were being housed in her prison. The letter included a condom that had been distributed by prison staff.

    “Why is the state of California paying for condoms in women’s prisons?” Grove asked the committee.

    The only lawmaker to support the bill was Senator Kelly Seyarto, the lone Republican on the committee.

    Grove’s bill is seeking to address problems created by SB 132, a bill sponsored by Wiener that said that inmates should be housed according to their “gender identity.” Her legislation would “establish a secure facility at each women’s prison to house transgender women, in order to protect the security needs of biological women at birth in sleeping and other intimate areas” and prohibit male sex offenders from being eligible to be assigned to female prisons.

    “SB 132 created a preference for transgender individuals. If you are a woman serving in the women’s prison and a transgender self-identified check-the-box person comes in and goes, ‘I want to house with you,’ the woman in that cell has no recourse. They can’t say no because that’s considered discriminatory,” Grove told The Daily Wire on Monday.

    Grove said that she was told before the hearing that the committee planned to kill the bill. She said that the California Democrat supermajority had a “preference for predators versus victims.”

    Democrats are at war with biology, reality, and basic human decency.

  • Along the same lines, Maine Democrats have censured state Republican Rep. Laurel Libby for standing against men in women’s athletics, including stripping her right to vote on bills. Boy, Democrats sure seem unclear on this whole “democracy” thing…
  • “Trump signs order ending taxpayer funding for NPR and PBS.” Good. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • He also moved to revoke Harvard’s tax exempt status. Also good.
  • Dwight reports on some New York state shenanigans.

    Up until yesterday, Matthew Bruderman was the chairman of Nassau University Medical Center. A couple of weeks ago, Mr. Bruderman announced he was cooperating with the FBI and Department of Justice in an investigation. Specifically, Mr. Bruderman claims that New York state and Long Island have stolen at least $1 billion from the organization.

    Bruderman said he believes the officials’ ultimate goal was to financially strangle the public hospital, paving the way for state and local leaders to shut it down, take over the land currently owned by the public-benefit corporation that runs it and have it redeveloped for profit.

    Wednesday night, Mr. Bruderman’s house was burglarized. However, the only thing allegedly taken was…documents tied to the investigation.

    Bruderman wasn’t home at the time of the robbery and only found out after police called to inform him they had recovered a binder with his name on it in a car driven by an unidentified couple, he said.

    “I was confused because that was the binder I had on my desk when I left,” he said.

    Bruderman said he later found his backdoor pried wide open.

    The binder, he said, contained “sensitive” materials related to the ongoing federal investigation, including documents and records tied to the financial misconduct he claims to have uncovered while reviewing hospital finances and state reimbursements.

    Snip.

    At the heart of the alleged scheme is a little-known federal program called the Disproportionate Share Hospital Fund — meant to help keep afloat struggling hospitals such as NUMC, which treat large numbers of low-income patients on Medicaid and Medicare.

    Under the program, the federal government agrees to give hospitals tens of millions of dollars in funding as long as their state matches the investment.

    According to [Bruderman’s] review of internal financial records, previous hospital leadership allegedly “borrowed” what was supposed to be the state’s matching share from an offshore account tied to a Cayman Islands trust, originally set up to cover the medical center’s legal bills.

    That money would be temporarily transferred into the hospital’s general fund just long enough to fool the feds into thinking New York had paid its share — unlocking the federal portion of the funding, he claimed.

    But once the federal funds cleared, the state’s contribution would allegedly be moved right back offshore.

    That would mean those matching funds vanished into the shadows in a conspiracy that could’ve included top officials.

    Seems plausible to me. Oh, also: “Mr. Bruderman was fired on Thursday.”

  • Blue state governance in action: “Washington state now gives $120,000 ‘forgivable loans’ for new homebuyers. But only if they’re not white.”

    As part of the covenant homeownership program, the department shall contract with the commission to design, develop, implement and evaluate one or more special purpose credit programs to reduce racial disparities in ownership in the state by providing down payment and closing cost assistance… The contract must authorize the commission to use up to one percent of the contract to provide targeted education, homeownership counseling, and outreach about special purpose credit programs created under this section to black, indigenous, and people of color and other historically marginalized communities in Washington state.

    Forgivable means they’re giving your tax dollars to other people to buy a home based on their skin color. I think this violates all sorts of civil rights and equal protection causes, and Pam Bondi’s DOJ should sue.

  • “Sen. Josh Hawley Introduces PELOSI Act to Stop Insider Trading.”

    Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) has reintroduced the “Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments” (PELOSI) Act that would prohibit members of Congress and their families from trading stocks while in office.

    The name of the act is a direct nod in the direction of 20 term Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) whose net worth has soared from $160,000 when she was first elected in 1987 to more than $140 million in 2024.

  • 12 of 100 ‘Worst of the Worst’ Criminal Illegal Aliens Arrested by Texas ICE.”

    A dozen of the White House’s (WH) newly-published list of 100 of “the worst of the worst criminal illegal immigrants” arrested since President Donald Trump took office in January were apprehended by Texas branches of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

    In a news release titled “In the First 100 Days, the Trump Administration Has Taken Killers Rapists Off Our Streets,” images of the 100 detainees were listed online in chronological order by the date of their arrests — as well as displayed on the White House lawn — prior to a press conference held by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Border Czar Tom Homan.

    Six of the illegal immigrants included in the “worst of the worst” list were arrested by Houston ICE authorities, five by Dallas ICE, and one by Austin ICE.

    One of the arrests made by Houston ICE was of a 70-year-old Indian national, Raju Varughese Vayechaparampil, convicted of “aggravated sexual assault of a child” in Harris County. With a similar conviction also in Harris County for “indecency with child sexual contact,” Che Xol Norberto was arrested on March 18. Osvaldo Diaz, a Cuban national, was arrested by the same ICE branch for convictions of “Trespassing and Sexual Assault Child/Battery Child” while in Florida.

    Another arrest made by ICE Houston was a 64-year-old citizen of Honduras, Eduardo Garcia-Cortez, convicted of murder in California.

    “God bless the men and women of ICE who strap a gun to their hip every day … To not only secure our border and protect our national security but … they’re removing public safety threats and national security threats every day,” Homan said during the presser.

    “While you’re all sleeping, at two or three in the morning, there are men and women out there, enforcing the law, making this country safe again. And we’re going to keep doing that, full speed ahead,” he addressed the WH press pool.

    ICE Austin’s arrest was of Humberto Ruiz-Zapata, who has convictions of murder and Driving While Intoxicated. He is a citizen of Mexico, with a prior “final removal date” of May 12, 2017.

    ICE Dallas arrested Tay Myint, a citizen of Burma, on March 3. Myint was sentenced to prison for 12 years due to “aggravated sexual assault of a child” in the City of Cactus.

  • Check out this “Denver Dad” deported by ICE.

  • The Trump Administration is crowing about Mercedes and several other car manufacturers announcing plans to shift manufacturing to the U.S..
  • “6 Days After Celebrating ‘100% Renewable Power’, Spain Blames “Rare Atmospheric Phenomenon” For Nation’s Largest Blackout In History.

    As Michael Shellenberger writes at PUBLIC, this wasn’t just a Spanish blackout. It shook the entire European grid.

    …none of this should have been a surprise. The underlying physics had been understood for years, and the specific vulnerabilities had been spelled out repeatedly in technical warnings that policymakers ignored.

    As countries replaced heavy, spinning plants with lightweight, inverter-based generation, the grid became faster, lighter, and far more sensitive to disruptions. That basic physical reality was spelled out in public warnings as far back as 2017.

    Although political leaders promised that renewable energy would provide stable, affordable power, in practice, Spain grew more reliant on the remaining nuclear and natural gas plants to sustain inertia — even as the government pushes them to close.

    Despite all these warnings, political and regulatory energy in Europe remained focused on accelerating renewable deployment, not upgrading the grid’s basic stability. In Spain, solar generation continued to climb rapidly through 2023 and early 2024.

    Coal plants closed. Nuclear units retired.

    On many spring days by 2025, Spain’s midday solar generation exceeded its total afternoon demand, leading to frequent negative electricity prices.

    The system was being pushed to the limit.

    And today, at 12:35 pm, it broke.

    Spain’s blackout wasn’t just a technical failure. It was a political and strategic failure.

    Unless Spain rapidly invests in synthetic inertia, maintains and expands its nuclear fleet, or adds some other new form of heavy rotating generation, the risk of future blackouts will only grow worse.

  • Nigel Farage’s Reform Party racked up big gains in UK local elections.
    It has won over 630 council seats from around 1,500 declared so far, with results from a further 100 or so still to come in. Reform has seized control of six authorities from the Conservatives after elections on Thursday, including Tory heartlands such as Kent and Staffordshire. The party has also won control of Doncaster council from Labour, and taken control in Durham, where Labour was the largest party.

  • At least the UK isn’t trying to ban a suddenly popular, outsider party. Unlike Germany. ” Germany’s Intel Agency Designates AfD Party as ‘Extremist,’ Paves Way for Possible Ban. AfD officials made “xenophobic, anti-minority, Islamophobic and anti-Muslim statements,” spy agency cites as reason for the ‘extremist’ designation.” Eveidently the powers that be in Germany feel that notcing the baleful effects of unlimited, unassimilated Muslim immigration is “extremism.”

    Germany has designated the country’s leading opposition party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), as ‘extremist,’ paving the way for a possible ban. The decision to classify the party was taken by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency Verfassungschutz, which operates under the country’s Interior Ministry.

    “Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has designated the Alternative for Germany, the country’s second-largest political party, as a right-wing extremist group, a controversial step that could lead to the organisation being banned altogether,” the Belgian news website Euroactiv reported.

    Good thing Germany banning political parties has never had any negative effects in the past…

  • California’s government in action:

    Palmdale to Gilroy is about 300 miles. In 20 years. Or about 15 miles of track a year. Or, counting 260 work days a year, that’s an astonishing .0587 miles of track a day, or a whopping 300 feet a day. By the way, the 1,911 mile transcontinental railroad was built in six years, largely by hand. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • You know the Wisconsin judge arrested for helping an illegal alien evade deportation? The Wisconsin Supreme Court has suspended them.
  • “USDA Secures Water Delivery Agreement With Mexico for Texas Farmers. Mexico has failed to meet the demands of a water treaty with the U.S. for the past few years.”
  • Not good news: The Texas House approved Dade Phelan’s stupid anti-meme bill. Hopefully this unconstituional idiocy dies in the senate.
  • This was unexpected: “Donald Trump Endorses Speaker Dustin Burrows, All Pro-School Choice Texas House Republicans
    The endorsement was relayed by Abbott in a closed-door meeting on Tuesday.”

    President Donald Trump has endorsed Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) and every House Republican who voted for education savings account legislation earlier this month, according to Gov. Greg Abbott.

    Abbott relayed the news to a meeting of House Republicans on Tuesday morning before the chamber gaveled in for the day’s business, The Texan reported.

    The endorsement goes to the 86 House Republicans who voted for Senate Bill (SB) 2 on April 16. It comes for the 2026 midterms, and for Burrows himself, it’s also an endorsement for re-election as speaker. Trump told the caucus the morning of April 16 in a closed-door meeting that he would endorse them if they voted for SB 2. All but two Republicans, former Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) and state Rep. Gary VanDeaver (R-New Boston), voted for it.

    Passing school choice was indeed an accomplishment, but Burrows is still the latest in the Straus-Bonnin-Phelan cabal who have kept Democrats in a power-sharing agreement and thwarted conservative priorities for over a decade. burrows himself has presided over a House that has slow-walked conservative bills long after they sailed through the senate. This may be case of President Trump seeing things at a very high level and not being aware of the details. And speaking of Republican dissatisfaction with the Burrows Speakership…

  • “Conservative Lawmakers Warn Texas House Is Running Out of Time To Pass GOP Priorities.

    With just over a month remaining in the 2025 legislative session, a group of conservative Texas House members gathered for a press conference to issue a stark warning to their leadership: time is almost up to deliver on Republican priorities.

    “Today is day 107 of our 140-day legislative session,” said State Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R–Arlington). “In 12 days, every House bill that is going to pass must be reported by its committee. The clock is ticking, and our Republican voters are looking for the Republican majority they elected to the Texas House to deliver.”

    Immigration and Border Security

    State Rep. Mike Olcott (R–Aledo) said border security remains the number one priority for both the Texas GOP and voters across the state. He outlined four key policy targets: mandatory use of E-Verify, ending in-state tuition for illegal aliens, requiring local law enforcement cooperation with ICE, and addressing Colony Ridge.

    On E-Verify, Olcott noted that “Senate Bill 324 was approved on second reading just yesterday, and we anticipate it will pass over to the House this week.” But in the House, he warned, progress has been sluggish.

    “So far in the Texas House, the only legislation that’s been heard in committee on E-Verify is House Bill 323 … which only requires E-Verify for new local government employees, which is noble, but does not come close to turning off the employment magnet driving illegal immigration into this state.”

    Snip.

    Banning Social Transitioning of Minors

    State Rep. Steve Toth (R–Conroe) focused on protecting children from social transitioning in schools. He said that while Texas banned gender mutilation surgeries in the last session, the House still hasn’t acted on legislation to prevent social transitioning.

    “The good news is that we now have a great bill, House Bill 2258, to protect these kids,” Toth said. “Even better news is, it’s on its way to the governor’s desk … Bad news is, it’s not the governor of Texas. It’s the governor of Arkansas.”

    Despite support from some members in the State Affairs Committee, the bill remains stuck.

    “Chairman King won’t give it a hearing,” Toth said. “Texans will not forgive our massive Republican majority if we fail to protect children from groomers.”

  • Former Abilene Preschool Teacher Sentenced to 30 Years for Producing Child Porn. Mark Eichorn admitted to paying two boys to produce child sexual abuse material.”
  • “The female Army [helicopter] pilot who crashed into the American Airlines jet ignored warnings from her male co-pilot.”
  • Polygon lays off almost the entire staff following a sale.

  • Williamson County has local elections tomorrow. I’m not in a locale that’s having an election, but Michelle Evans of the Wilco GOP wrote to say they’re endorsing Mike Snyder for Hutto Mayor, Shannon Quicksall for Taylor City Council District 4, Cyndi Hauser for Liberty Hill ISD Trustee Place 7 and Ben Butler for Georgetown City Council District 3.
  • Bad news for Floridians: Alligators learn to ring doorbells. (Hat tip: 357 Magnum.)
  • BeardMeatsFood meets his nemesis: Bagels.
  • Critical Drinker thought that Thunderbolts would be merely mediocre, but found it “surprisingly shit.”
  • Brandon Herrera fires the worst gun of all time: The Zip 22. (Previously.)
  • And speaking of Things that Are The Worst, here’s some YouTube bad movie reviewers enduring the pain that is After Last Season. (Previously.)
  • “Bad Timing: Kilmar Abrego Garcia Honored With MS-13 ‘Employee Of The Month’ Award.”
  • Shedeur Sanders Drafted By McDonald’s In 3rd Round.”
  • “Player Drafted By Cleveland Browns Decides To Just Retire Instead.”
  • “Man From Pennsylvania Under Impression He Has Eaten Mexican Food.”
  • I laughed:

    (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)

  • I’m still between jobs. Feel free to hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.





    Colony Ridge Swept For Illegal Alien Criminals

    Tuesday, February 25th, 2025

    Remember how three illegal aliens were arrested in Colony Ridge for carrying 350 pounds of meth in last week’s LinkSwarm? That, and the Trump Administration’s crackdown on illegal alien felons, finally seems to have prodded authorities into launching a crackdown on illegal alien and cartel-infested Colony Ridge.

    Gov. Greg Abbott announced that federal authorities and state law enforcement would be targeting criminal illegal aliens in the Colony Ridge development north of Houston.

    Abbott said the operation had been in the works with President Donald Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan for several months.

    It’s great to have an administration willing to work with Texas to enforce the law, rather than break it.

    “Texas DPS Troopers & Special Agents are assisting Homeland Security Investigations, with an operation in Colony Ridge this morning. They are targeting criminals & illegal immigrants,” wrote Gov. Abbott on X.

    The Colony Ridge development has been the subject of controversy, with critics accusing the developer of attracting a large population of illegal aliens by advertising in Spanish on social media and offering predatory loans that require no social security number.

    As of publication, the extent of the enforcement action is not clear. DPS vehicles were visibly patrolling and conducting traffic stops in the area.

    Numerous criminal illegal aliens have been arrested in Colony Ridge in recent years as the settlement has exploded in size. Last December, an illegal alien smuggler was arrested there for his role in the deaths of 50 people.

    The Biden Administration just brought in the very best people.

    Last month, an illegal alien was sentenced to 50 years in prison for his role in the murder of 16-year-old Emily Patricia in Colony Ridge.

    That Colony Ridge was allowed to metastasize as a crime-ridden illegal alien settlement for so long, despite the Texas Public Policy Foundation sounding the alarm all the way back in 2020, is no credit to the state political establishment. But now that the State of Texas is aware of it, and Trump is back in the White House and ready to do what it takes to control the border, the problem is finally being addressed.

    Let a thousand deportations bloom…

    Follow-Up: The Texan reports that 118 people were arrested in the raid.

    Trump’s Border Control Blitzkrieg

    Thursday, January 23rd, 2025

    Developed between World War I and World War II by both the German and British armies, what came to be known as “blitzkrieg” (or “lightning war”) was a maneuver warfare doctrine in which the attacking force moves so fast that the enemy has a “nervous breakdown” because they’re always reacting too late to events that have already changed.

    Trump is carrying out an executive order blitzkrieg, issuing so many executive orders so quickly to undo the damage of the Biden (and Obama) years. Today I want to highlight just a few related to border security and deporting the millions of unvetted illegal aliens the Biden Administration deliberately let into the country.

  • “On his first day in office, President Donald Trump began undoing the damage at the southwest border. Some of his first executive orders included declaring a national emergency at the border, establishing a process to designate cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and protecting America from invasion.”
  • When will border czar Tom Homan’s illegal alien roundups and deportations start? They’ve already started.

    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested at least 308 illegal immigrants on President Donald Trump’s first full day in office, border czar Tom Homan announced Wednesday.

    On Tuesday, immigration authorities began arresting hundreds of illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes, including murder and rape. Over 1.4 million immigrants residing in the U.S. illegally will be prioritized in the early days of Trump’s second term.

    “We’re concentrating on the worst first,” Homan told Fox & Friends host Lawrence Jones Wednesday morning, noting ICE is focusing on arresting “public safety threats” and “national security threats” as Trump promised.

    “Some of them were murderers. Some of them were rapists. Some of them raped a child. Some sexually assaulted a child,” the border czar said of the 308 detainees.

    National Review contacted DHS and ICE for comment on additional details of the arrested criminal aliens.

    “ICE is doing their job” and “performing excellently right now out in the field,” Homan added.

    On Monday, Trump declared a national emergency to secure the southern border and halt the historic surge of illegal immigrants that proliferated under former president Joe Biden for four years.

    About 11 million immigrants were living in the U.S. illegally as of 2022, according to an April 2024 report from the Office of Homeland Security Statistics. That figure is likely higher now due to record border crossings under Biden.

    Immigration raids in metropolitan cities are part of the new administration’s overarching vision for tackling illegal immigration.

    Though it was initially reported raids would start in Chicago on Tuesday, the sanctuary city hasn’t seen much federal activity yet. Bracing for the expected raids, Chicago residents are largely staying inside, causing foot traffic in the city’s shopping district to drop by half.

    Posing logistical challenges, the mass deportation operation needs detention centers to house illegal immigrants before they can be deported. ICE operates about 200 detention facilities across the U.S., but more may be needed. Large-scale deportations are expected to start as soon as this week.

    Moreover, Trump authorized the deployment of up to 1,500 additional active-duty troops to the southern border on Wednesday. There are already roughly 2,200 troops in El Paso, Texas, the site of numerous border crossings in recent years.

    Speaking with Fox News, Homan revealed there were 766 total apprehensions at the southern border in the last 24 hours since Trump took office. The border czar called the drastic shift in immigration policy a “game-changer.”

  • Trump has reinstated his highly successful remain in Mexico policy.
  • The CBP One app that the Biden admin used to fly over one million illegal aliens into America on domestic flights has been shut down. I wonder if the people who approved and developed an app that breaks federal immigration law can be charged.
  • Trump DHS Repeals Mayorkas Memo Imposing Limits on ICE Agents, Orders Review of Parole Process.”

    On Monday, the new Trump Administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) repealed a crucial memorandum from former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that imposed severe limits on the capabilities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to deport illegal aliens.

    According to Fox News, the now-repealed memo from Mayorkas designated certain “protected areas” where ICE was not allowed to enforce immigration law, including the arrest and deportation of illegals. The order dictated that ICE was not allowed to interfere with illegal aliens’ “access to essential services or engagement in essential activities.” These “protected areas” included schools, churches, healthcare facilities, and food banks, among others.

    “In our pursuit of justice, including in the execution of our enforcement responsibilities, we impact people’s lives and advance our country’s well-being in the most fundamental ways,” said Mayorkas at the time his original memo was issued. “As a result, when conducting an enforcement action, ICE and CBP agents and officers must first examine and consider the impact of where actions might possibly take place, their effect on people, and broader societal interests.”

    “Going forward, law enforcement officers should continue to use that discretion along with a healthy dose of common sense,” the new Trump Administration memo declared. “It is not necessary, however, for the head of the agency to create bright line rules regarding where our immigration laws are permitted to be enforced.”

    The order will allow ICE agents to go anywhere illegals may be, including schools and churches, for the purpose of apprehending and deporting them swiftly. President Trump has vowed to carry out the largest mass deportation operation in American history, with Border Czar Tom Homan admitting in an interview that ICE raids are already occurring across the country.

    In addition to the expedited deportation efforts, a second memo from the Trump Administration’s DHS ordered a review of the use of “humanitarian parole,” which the Biden Administration used to allow hundreds of thousands of illegals into the country with no vetting.

  • Trump is sending 1,500 active duty troops to help secure the border.
  • It’s not just Mexico that’s agreed to take back illegal aliens. India is taking back 18,000 as well.
  • Democrats, of course, are making all sorts of noises about the raids are “illegal” and “unconstitutional,” issues they never seemed to raise while Biden was breaking the law flooding the country with illegal aliens.

    The next steps should be adopting universal implementation of E-Verify for employment, and completely defunding all NGOs helping import illegals into America, including those involved in child sex trafficking.

    Tom Homan: We’re Deporting Venezuelan Illegal Aliens. Venezuela: We Don’t Want Them Back. Homan: Tough.

    Tuesday, January 7th, 2025

    The incoming Trump Administration is serious about deporting illegal aliens, and isn’t about to let any failed socialist dictatorships stop them.

    President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming border czar, Tom Homan, said during an interview over the weekend that the administration will be deporting illegal aliens from Venezuela regardless of whether or not Venezuela takes them back.

    Homan made the remarks during a Sunday interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation” with Margaret Brennan, when asked about countries like Venezuela that are not accepting deportations back from the U.S.

    “Well, first of all, we got President Trump coming to the Oval Office, and he’s proven during his first administration, his leadership on illegal immigration was a game changer, because, for instance, El Salvador wouldn’t take back MS-13 members when I was the ICE Director,” he said. “It took President Trump 48 hours to get El Salvador to take back their criminal aliens into their prisons.”

    “And Mexico didn’t want to do the Remain in Mexico program,” he continued. “But President Trump was able to get Remain in Mexico established in Mexico. He was able to get Mexico put military on the southern and northern border.”

    Homan noted that President Joe Biden was so weak that countries simply refused to take their criminal illegal aliens back and the administration never “forced these countries to take them back.”

    “If for instance, Venezuela don’t take their people back, there’s other ways we can do it,” he said. “There’s other countries be willing to accept them. We’re hoping that President Trump will work with Venezuela and like he did with Mexico and El Salvador, and get these countries take them back. If they don’t, they’re still gonna be deported. They’re just gonna be deported to a different country.”

    “We’re not gonna be held up on removing public safety trust in this country,” he continued. “We gotta put the safety of the American people first. We’ve had too many young women murdered and raped and burned alive by members of Venezuelan gangs. They need to be a priority under this administration. They’re gonna be a priority starting day one, and they will be deported.”

    One of those Venezuelan gangs is Tren de Aragua, which we’ve talked about here, here, here, here, here, and here.

    Just a week ago, four Tren de Aragua members were caught trying to sneak into Texas.

    Homan says he’s going to send them all back, no matter what the Caracas commies say.

    It’s funny what you can accomplish when your biggest concern is protecting the American people rather than currying favor with transnational political elites, or trying to advance the electoral chances of the Democratic Party…

    LinkSwarm For December 27, 2024

    Friday, December 27th, 2024

    Congratulations on making it to the end of a difficult but exhilarating 2024, and I hope you had a Merry Christmas! Christmas week is always slow, so this will be a smaller LinkSwarm than usual, and thank goodness for that. More Biden misdeeds, lots of Russian stuff blows up, two horrible gay pedophiles go to prison forever, and Democratic judges going out of their way to punish the victims. Let’s dig in!

  • “Biden Continues the Student Loan Gravy Train on His Way Out the Door.”

    President Joe Biden is transferring more student loan debt onto American taxpayers with only weeks left until he departs the Oval Office.

    The Biden administration announced Friday that it is giving $4.28 billion of student debt relief to almost 55,000 more public service workers including teachers, nurses, and law enforcement officials.

    “From Day One of my Administration, I promised to make sure that higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity,” Biden said in a statement.

    “Because of our actions, millions of people across the country now have the breathing room to start businesses, save for retirement, and pursue life plans they had to put on hold because of the burden of student loan debt.”

    The Department of Education is forgiving the debt through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, a policy that permits the forgiveness of remaining student loans for public employees who have made 120 monthly payments.

    Federal bureacurats are simply more equal than mere citizens…

  • Remember how Biden commuted and pardoned some of the worst people in the world earlier this month? Well, he found worse ones still.

    President Joe Biden on Monday commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row, reclassifying their sentences to prevent President-elect Donald Trump from allowing their executions when he returns to office in January.

    The 37 men were all convicted of murder. Their sentences will be reclassified from execution to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the White House.

    The men whose sentences are being reclassified include Shannon Agofsky, who murdered a bank president, dumped his body in a lake, and then killed another man in prison; Brandon Basham and Chadrick Fulks, who escaped from prison and killed two women while on a 17-day crime spree; Ricky Allen Fackrell, a white supremacist who killed a prison inmate; and Daryl Lawrence, who killed a police officer during a bank robbery.

    “Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden said in statement. “But guided by my conscience and my experience, . . . I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”

    Biden only left three men on federal death row: Robert Bowers, the gunman who shot and killed eleven worshipers at the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue in 2018; Dylann Roof, a white supremacist who killed nine people at a black church during a Bible study in 2015; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 2013 Boston Marathon bomber.

    Biden’s so opposed to the death penalty he only refused to commute sentences for those criminals the public would pay attention to…

  • Do blue state Democratic officials think they can defy the federal government on deporting illegal aliens? A hard rain is gonna fall.

    Hoover Institution senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson said Thursday that incoming border czar Tom Homan is starting with Democratic Chicago to deport illegal immigrants in order to set a precedent for other cities threatening to block his efforts.

    Since President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Homan as border czar, the former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting director has warned Democratic mayors to step aside as some have threatened to refuse cooperation with ICE on mass deportations.

    Snip.

    Hanson argued that Homan’s focus on Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson will set a precedent, emphasizing that the incoming border czar is listening to Democratic constituents concerned about illegal immigration in their city.

    Snip.

    I know the most obnoxious, the most crazy, the most nullification advocate in one of the second or third largest cities is Chicago, that crazy Mayor Johnson,’” Hanson continued. “‘So we’re going to tell him first, you try to stop the federal government and you think you’re South Carolina 1832 or you think you’re firing on Fort Sumner. You’re going to regret it because you were breaking federal law and we have a lot more federal laws that you would want us to follow in your interest than you do federal laws to break.’”

    “That’s going to be interesting because what Homan is basically doing is talking over the mayor’s head to the black constituencies of Chicago and saying, don’t worry, your mayor doesn’t, he’s going to break the law, but I’m going to follow it and I’ll put him in jail for your benefit so that you don’t have to worry about Venezuelans and Colombians shooting you or taking over your social services,” Hanson added.

  • Lawrence O’ Donnell of MSNBC can’t decide whether whether Elon Musk follows Trump like a puppy or whether Musk is Trump’s boss. But the patronizing condescension and contempt remains the same in both cases…
  • The online consensus seems to be that a Russian SAM system hit Azerbaijan Airlines Flights 8243, damaging the control systems so badly that it crashed upon attempting to land, killing at least 38 people aboard.
  • Russia attacks Ukrainian positions with cars and pickups. That goes exactly as well as you would expect…
  • Russian cargo ship heading to Syria sinks off the coast of Spain.
  • Trump plans to continue US military aid to Ukraine after inauguration.

    U.S. President-elect Donald Trump plans to continue military support for Ukraine, the Financial Times reported on Dec. 20, citing undisclosed sources.

    Three officials familiar with discussions revealed that Trump intends to keep supplying US military equipment to Ukraine after his inauguration.

    Trump’s foreign policy team also informed European officials that he plans to push NATO allies to raise their defense spending to 5% of their GDP. NATO member states currently follow a goal of allocating 2% of their GDP to defense spending.

  • Gay pedophile ring sentenced.

    A Georgia couple was sentenced to 100 years in prison without parole after adopting two boys and sexually abusing them.

    William and Zachary Zulock will each spend the rest of their lives behind bars, after pleading guilty to aggravated sodomy, aggravated child molestation, incest, and sexual exploitation of children. Each were sentenced on Dec. 19.

    Hell is too good for them…

  • Another part of the Democratic Party’s war on common decency: California judge orders rape victim not to “misgender” her rapist. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
  • Looks like crypto currencies have yet another use: letting Russian banks evade sanctions.

    Sanders said he first encountered some of these services while investigating Kremlin-funded disinformation efforts in Ukraine, as they are all useful in assembling large-scale, anonymous social media campaigns.

    According to Sanders, all 122 of the services he tested are processing transactions through a company called Cryptomus, which says it is a cryptocurrency payments platform based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Cryptomus’ website says its parent firm — Xeltox Enterprises Ltd. (formerly certa-pay[.]com) — is registered as a money service business (MSB) with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC).

    Sanders said the payment data he gathered also shows that at least 56 cryptocurrency exchanges are currently using Cryptomus to process transactions, including financial entities with names like casher[.]su, grumbot[.]com, flymoney[.]biz, obama[.]ru and swop[.]is.

    These platforms are built for Russian speakers, and they each advertise the ability to anonymously swap one form of cryptocurrency for another. They also allow the exchange of cryptocurrency for cash in accounts at some of Russia’s largest banks — nearly all of which are currently sanctioned by the United States and other western nations.

    An analysis of their technology infrastructure shows that all of these exchanges use Russian email providers, and most are directly hosted in Russia or by Russia-backed ISPs with infrastructure in Europe (e.g. Selectel, Netwarm UK, Beget, Timeweb and DDoS-Guard). The analysis also showed nearly all 56 exchanges used services from Cloudflare, a global content delivery network based in San Francisco.

    “Purportedly, the purpose of these platforms is for companies to accept cryptocurrency payments in exchange for goods or services,” Sanders told KrebsOnSecurity. “Unfortunately, it is next to impossible to find any goods for sale with websites using Cryptomus, and the services appear to fall into one or two different categories: Facilitating transactions with sanctioned Russian banks, and platforms providing the infrastructure and means for cyber attacks.”

  • Wells Fargo Exits Net-Zero Banking Alliance After Texas Probe Into Anti-Energy Policies Attorney General Paxton has ended a review of the bank and allowed state governmental entities to do business with Wells Fargo again.”
  • Another day, another fake hate crime hoax. “A Tennessee college revealed that racist messages found written on campus were fabricated by a student in an apparent attempt to make Donald Trump supporters look bad. Rhodes College confirmed to Fox News Digital that a student had admitted to leaving the messages strewn about campus that were found over Thanksgiving break and were being investigated as a hate crime. Instead, it turned out to be yet another race hoax.”
  • Georgia woman arrested for evicting squatter from her house. And then the judge scolded her for her “privilege.” Sounds like a whole lot of people need federal equal protection lawsuits filed against them. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
  • Despite his newly purchased pub being packed, Jeremy Clarkson says it’s it’s nearly impossible to turn a profit in Keir Starmer’s UK.
  • Critical Drinker raves about Robert Eggers’s Nosferatu.
  • “Representatives Upset Spending Bill Killed By The People They Represent.”
  • Luigi Mangione To Host Next Week’s Episode Of ‘SNL’.”
  • California Announces Mass Deportation Of U.S. Citizens.”
  • Hide and Seek. Difficulty level: Golden Retriever.

    (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)

  • Will Democrats Allow Illegal Alien Criminals To Be Deported?

    Tuesday, December 10th, 2024

    The incoming Trump47 administration has made it clear that they intend to start deporting illegal aliens with criminal illegal aliens.

    Incoming Border Czar Tom Homan revealed that ridding the United States of violent criminal organizations like Tren de Aragua and MS-13 is going to be a “major priority” of the incoming Trump administration.

    “So this is going to be a huge operation,” Homan said in a Fox News interview. “I’m looking forward to getting it started. I haven’t started the operation yet, but I have already worked with the Texas governor on the plans and the Texas border czar.”

    Homan also argued that sanctuary cities should allow immigration officials to enter jails and conduct removals of violent criminals already in captivity, rather than waiting until the criminal is released back onto the streets.

    “So let us in the jail,” he said. “It’s safer for everybody and it’s the right thing to do.”

    In addition to meeting with Texas officials, Homan said that he has discussed plans with New York Mayor Eric Adams as well as hundreds of sheriffs across the country.

    “The National Sheriffs Association is ready to go to work with us. So, January 20, game on,” he concluded.

    I think that deporting criminal illegal aliens is a strategy pretty much all sane Americans agree with. Unfortunately, the woke-led Democrats are not sane. The Biden Administration refused to deport illegal alien felons despite the widespread unpopularity of that position, and to social justice warriors, national borders and law and order are both part and parcel of “white supremacy.” Notice how the left raged a law-abiding citizens like Kyle Rittenhouse and Daniel Penny daring to defend themselves against murderous criminals.

    The Law and Order issue is one that has bit Democrats on the ass again and again, from the 1988 Presidential race to the 1993 New York City mayoral race to a whole lot of 2024 DA races. Slightly saner Democrats like New York City Mayor Eric Adams have recognized and changed course on illegal alien criminal deportations. But while the radical left, Democrat/Soros-backed soft-on-crime policies are deeply unpopular with the American electorate as a whole, they’re still a key tenant of the poisonous woke ideology that animates the ideological core of the Democratic Party.

    There’s majority approval for deporting illegal aliens, and overwhelming support for deporting criminal illegal aliens. Will Democrats heed the will of the American people, or their woke radical activists?