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Trump Clings To Solid Ratings For Leadership, Despite Dems’ Ongoing Negative Views: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

Posted By on June 30th, 2025

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/06/30/trump-clings-to-solid-ratings-for-leadership-despite-dems-ongoing-negative-views-ii-tipp-poll/

President Donald Trump’s eventful presidency continues to leave most Democrats and independents unimpressed, but he gets top grades from Republicans, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows. Can he build on recent policy successes to improve his standing with non-GOP voters, or will Trump’s strong personality, offhand remarks, and bold leadership style alienate them?

Each month, I&I/TIPP asks voters to gauge presidential favorability, leadership, and performance. In the just-finished national online poll of 1,421 adults taken from June 25-27, Trump’s grades from voters remain little changed.

Asked to gauge his leadership, 44% of voters gave the second-term president “favorable” ratings, while 45% gave him “unfavorable” ratings. The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.7 percentage points.

But major voting blocs, based on party affiliation, region, and gender, remain sharply split over how they view Trump’s leadership.

Democrats, for instance, give Trump a 77% unfavorable rating, with just 16% calling his tenure so far favorable. Independents are only marginally less harsh: 55% unfavorable, 30% favorable.

Republicans remain happy, if not ecstatic, with Trump’s leadership, giving him 80% favorable to only 12% unfavorable.

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‘Obliterating’ Iran’s Nuclear Sites Is Not Enough by Khaled Abu Toameh

Posted By on June 30th, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21708/obliterating-iran-nuclear-sites-is-not-enough

“The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose.” — Henry Kissinger, Foreign Affairs, January 1969.

Iran’s regime may have lost its nuclear sites, but it has not lost its appetite to kill Jews and wipe Israel off the map.

Would the Allied forces have left the Nazi Party as the rulers of Germany after World War II?

Ideally, such a campaign should be spearheaded by the Iranian people themselves with the backing of Western countries, including the US, and Arabs and Muslims who oppose the Iranian regime and view it as a direct threat to their national security. These countries include Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states in addition to the recognized governments of countries home to Iran’s current and former proxies: Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. They will cooperate once they see that the US is serious about standing against, not appeasing, those who threaten the security and stability of the Arab countries.

With China, Russia, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran and its proxies, Trump may be underestimating the intensity of their desires.

With an enriched Iran, freely selling its oil to China, the temptation to rebuild a war machine might be hard to resist.

The weakening or removal of the Iranian regime can only facilitate the mission of obliterating Hamas and PIJ in Gaza, and freeing all the Israeli hostages they hold.

It is time for the Trump administration and its Western allies to understand that there can be no genuine deals or compromises with either Sunni or Shiite jihadists who consider America and Israel as the big and small “Satans.”

If the US and the West do not want to be directly involved in bringing about regime change in Iran, they should at least encourage and back any opposition individuals or groups working to topple Iran’s Islamist regime. Reinstating economic sanctions on Iran could help accelerate the downfall of the mullahs and their terror proxies. That is the only way to bring peace and stability to the Middle East and prevent further violence and bloodshed. When your enemies say they want to eliminate you, you have every right to eliminate them first.

Iran’s regime may have lost its nuclear sites, but it has not lost its appetite to kill Jews and wipe Israel off the map. Would the Allied forces have left the Nazi Party as the rulers of Germany after World War II? 

The United States and Israel have, according to reliable sources, “obliterated” or “severely damaged” Iran’s nuclear installations, but so long as the regime and its terror proxies continue to exist, the mission remains unaccomplished.

“The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose,” Henry Kissinger observed in 1969.

MY SAY: Comments turned off

INTERMISSION-FAMILY WEDDING

Posted By on June 28th, 2025

BACK ON MONDAY JUNE 30TH

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

The Looming Threat to Our Homeland It has never been greater. Jeff Cruere

Posted By on June 27th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-looming-threat-to-our-homeland/

After the successful completion of “Operation Midnight Hammer,” in which 125 U.S. military aircraft bombed three Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities, the threat to our homeland has never been greater.

President Donald Trump only authorized America’s first military attack on Iran after repeated diplomatic efforts failed to convince the Iranian government to end its nuclear weapons program. Trump called the operation a “spectacular military success,” which “completely obliterated” the three Iranian nuclear enrichment sites.

In the area of national security, Trump has great latitude and, as Commander-in-Chief, he can use military resources to respond to imminent threats, such as the Iranian nuclear weapons program. Unfortunately, his ability to implement homeland security changes has proved to be much more limited.

Every move the President makes is challenged in court by leftwing Democrats who do not want to protect our homeland from recognized threats. This is the political party that delivered open borders during the administration of President Joe Biden. According to Vice President J.D. Vance, Biden allowed approximately 20 million illegal immigrants to enter the country during his disastrous term in office.

Illegal immigration was already a severe problem before the start of the Biden administration. In 2018, a Yale University study discovered 22.1 million illegal immigrants living in America. This is why Trump was so determined to build a wall and close the southern border. He made tremendous progress during his first term, using creative methods to fund the border wall that Congress refused to authorize.

Unfortunately, all of Trump’s progress was halted when Biden took office, and a genuine problem turned into a five-alarm fire for the nation. Biden stopped construction of the border wall and allowed illegal immigrants from more than 160 countries to enter the country.

With the new Trump administration, the border has been effectively closed once again. In May, the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) apprehended only 8,725 illegal aliens in the Southwest region, an astounding 93% decrease from the previous year.

Nationwide, there was a decrease of 88% of “border encounters” from the last year of the Biden administration. Even more remarkable, last month zero illegal aliens were released into the country by USBP.

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Zohran Mamdani’s progressive intifada will be a disaster for New York His Democratic mayoral primary win speaks to a party and a city in terminal decline. Joel Kotkin

Posted By on June 27th, 2025

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/06/26/zohran-mamdanis-progressive-intifada-will-be-a-disaster-for-new-york/

Whoever is elected New York City mayor in November, Zohran Mamdani’s impressive win this week in the Democratic mayoral primary marks a breaking point in the party, the city and US society as a whole.

New York, where my family settled 120 years ago, is special. It is America’s capital of intellect, art and, most importantly, capitalism. New York’s financial elite have largely tolerated the ‘progressive’ excesses of the Democrats in recent years, but the prospect of a self-described ‘socialist’ running the city may be a bridge too far. We can expect them to renounce the Democrats altogether or join the mass migration south.

Yet while the financial elites might be reeling from the result, Mamdani’s win was no working-class uprising or revolt of the lower orders. His main rival, former New York state governor Andrew Cuomo, did best in heavily black and ethnic white enclaves, many of them quasi-suburban, as well as some elite precincts in Manhattan. Mamdani won most convincingly in the far-from-impoverished hipster belts of Brooklyn, Queens, the Upper East Side and Lower Manhattan. These precincts now dominate a Democratic Party once driven by white ethnics and working-class African Americans.

The key element here is the younger, mostly white, economically marginalised new proletariat – sometimes called the ‘precariat’. They are most lured by Mamdani’s propositions like frozen rents, free buses and childcare – all funded by higher taxes on the wealthy. Their angst reflects the realities of today’s New York, which works for the wealthy elites but suffers very high levels of inequality. Job growth has been weak and concentrated in low-wage sectors like hospitality and tourism. While incomes for most have stagnated, housing costs have not – rising to record levels this year.

The New York these young people have inherited is no longer the epicentre of economic opportunity. It flourishes largely as a hub for trustafarians, top-tier professionals, globe-trotting elites and cultural creators. While New York’s overall population has declined, the number of ultra-wealthy residents has continued to grow. There’s nothing like the job prospects that earlier generations of New Yorkers had – neither in manufacturing nor in business or financial services.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

RFK Jr. Axes ALL Funding For Bill Gates’ Global ‘Vaccine Alliance’ Benjamin Bartee

Posted By on June 27th, 2025

https://pjmedia.com/benbartee/2025/06/27/rfk-jr-axes-all-funding-for-bill-gates-global-vaccine-alliance-n4941219

Whereas the general modus operandi in legacy media is to smear RFK Jr. as an “anti-vaxxer” within the first sentence, the Washington Post courteously waited until the second paragraph to label RFK Jr. a “vaccine misinformation” spreader on its way to condemning him for cutting federal funding to Bill Gates’ global “vaccine alliance,” GAVI.

Via Washington Post (emphasis added):

The United States will halt its contributions to Gavi, the global alliance that works to expand access to vaccines for children in some of the world’s poorest countries, said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Wednesday — a move that public health experts said would have deadly consequences.

Kennedy, who has a history of spreading vaccine misinformation, announced the decision in video remarks made to a Gavi summit in Brussels, during which he accused the group of neglecting “the key issue of vaccine safety.”…

In his remarks, Kennedy cited a study linking the DTP vaccine — for diphtheria,a highly contagious bacterial infection that kills 5 to 10 percent of those affected, as well as tetanus and pertussis — to increased child mortality. Kennedy also said Gavi should “consider the best science available,” and “re-earn the public trust.”

The Bezos paper didn’t actually cite or quote the DTP study referenced by Kennedy, so I went and found it.

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Successors to Khamenei A tyranny’s move to survive. by Christine Williams

Posted By on June 27th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/successors-to-khamenei/

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei has declared that Iran “isn’t a nation that surrenders”:

Those very words from Khamenei are reflected in the regime’s move to survive, as it now seeks likely candidates to succeed Khamenei. “Iranian officials consider removing Ali Khamenei in plot to replace supreme leader – report,” Jerusalem Post, June 22, 2025:

Iranian officials are considering removing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the Supreme Leader of Iran after the country endured airstrikes by Israel and the United States, two sources involved in the discussions told The Atlantic in a report published on Sunday.

The plot to replace the supreme leader is being planned by a group of businessmen, military and political figures, and relatives and high-ranking clerics, the report said.

“Ours is just one idea,” a source told The Atlantic. “Tehran is now full of such plots. They are also talking to Europeans about the future of Iran. Everybody knows Khamenei’s days are numbered. Even if he stays in office, he won’t have actual power.”…

Discussion about Khamenei’s ill health, ability to rule and whom his successor would be were happening well before the recent escalation, pointing to a likely longstanding determination by the regime to install a successor. A few days ago, The Atlantic reported about an inside plot to remove Khamenei as the Supreme Leader after the debilitating airstrikes by Israel and the US. The plotters, comprised of businessmen, military and political figures, and high-ranking clerics “agreed that a leadership committee consisting of a few high-ranking officials would take over running the country and negotiate a deal with the United States to stop the Israeli attacks.” Of course Iran must never be trusted to make any lasting deal; it only manipulates to buy time.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Dem Congressman Tells Jewish Stephen Miller to Go Back to ’30s Germany This is who the Democrats are. by Mark Tapson

Posted By on June 27th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/dem-congressman-tells-jewish-stephen-miller-to-go-back-to-30s-germany/

To paraphrase the late Freedom Center founder David Horowitz: scratch a tolerant, inclusive, compassionate “liberal” and just underneath the surface you’ll find a raging, totalitarian racist and antisemite. Wisconsin Democrat Congressman Marc Pocan is the latest example of this ugly truth.

On Wednesday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller tweeted in regard to New York City Democrats embracing Muslim socialist Zohran Mamdani, a Ugandan immigrant, as the city’s mayoral candidate: “NYC is the clearest warning yet of what happens to a society when it fails to control migration.”

In response to Miller’s suggestion that America needs to quit importing people who are actively seeking to undermine our nation and civilization, Rep. Pocan, 60, tweeted this intemperate message: “Racist fuck. Go back to 1930’s Germany.”

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Blue-State Socialism: You Wanted It, Now You Get It … Good And Hard

Posted By on June 27th, 2025

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/06/27/blue-state-socialism-you-wanted-it-now-you-get-it-good-and-hard/

Faced with the failure of their policies, far-left and outright socialist Democrats in blue-state America are doubling down. Whether it’s New York, California or midwestern leftist havens Minnesota and Illinois, the socialist model will bring only more failure and misery to its citizens. And, because they voted for it, they’ll get what they deserve.

We’re not gloating here. The Democratic Party was once a serious political group that based its popularity on appealing to centrist blue-collar working class Americans and moderate urban liberals. The extreme left was largely, though not entirely, marginalized.

Today, that’s sadly no longer true. Take California.

Los Angeles is run by Mayor Karen Bass, an unabashed follower of deceased Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, while California governor and presidential-wannabe Gavin Newsom and the California state legislature are both far left.

They’ve distinguished themselves by their inept response to last winter’s wildfires and this summer’s riots, which required federal intervention in the form of National Guard troops.

Under its leftist leadership, California is losing hundreds of thousands of its most productive citizens, not to mention hundreds of its most innovative firms. All are fed up with the state’s insane DEI culture, heavy regulations, and super-high taxes.

But the real topic du jour is in New York City, The Democratic mayoral primary just delivered a radical democratic socialist, the global-intifada supporting Zohran Mamdani as the desired candidate. It wasn’t as if New Yorkers didn’t have a choice: Mamdani handily defeated the seasoned, centrist alternative, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in what Politico called a “stunning primary.”

NATIONAL SECURITY AND DEFENSE Comments turned off

Why U.S. Intelligence Has Been So Wrong About Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program A leaked DIA report downplaying Iran strike damage is the latest example of politicized intel, aimed at undermining Trump and shielding Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. By Fred Fleitz

Posted By on June 27th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/06/27/why-u-s-intelligence-has-been-so-wrong-about-irans-nuclear-weapons-program/

he recent Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment claiming that the U.S. bombing of Iran set the country’s nuclear weapons program back only a few months was irresponsible and probably intended to undermine President Trump’s foreign policy. This assessment was written to be leaked to the press and reflected a long pattern of politicized intelligence analysis to undermine Republican presidents.

The DIA assessment was not credible because a battle damage assessment of the bombing of Iran’s Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear sites will be complicated and probably take weeks or months of intelligence collection and analysis by dozens of experts and other intelligence agencies. A low-confidence assessment, like the DIA analysis issued 24 hours after the bombings, was a fraud and an abuse of intelligence to produce a high-profile assessment that deliberately misrepresented the outcome of the U.S. attack and helped the president’s political adversaries use the bombings to hurt him politically. Not surprisingly, this assessment was quickly leaked to the press.

The DIA assessment followed similar efforts by U.S. intelligence agencies and the left to deny that Iran had a nuclear weapons program.

Last weekend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio did an extraordinary interview with Margaret Brennan on CBS’s Face the Nation that hinged on the misleading way U.S. intelligence agencies have long framed Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Brennan demanded that Rubio tell her what intelligence the Trump administration had indicating that Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei ordered the construction of nuclear weapons. She claimed the U.S. Intelligence Community had not seen such intelligence and that this was a crucial element of its analysis of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Rubio dismissed Brennan’s question as irrelevant because Iran’s extensive nuclear weapons-related work indicates it intends to make nuclear weapons. Rubio told Brennan, “We have intelligence that they have everything they need to build a nuclear weapon, and that’s more than enough.” He cited nuclear weapons activities such as enriching uranium to 60%—a level with no peaceful purpose—and building a uranium enrichment facility deep inside a mountain.

Prior to 2007, the U.S. Intelligence Community had assessed that Iran had a nuclear weapons program. But in November 2007, fearing that President Bush might order an attack on Iran’s nuclear program, a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) was published by the National Intelligence Council that found Iran’s nuclear program was halted in 2003 and Iranian leaders had not made a decision to resume weaponization efforts and construct a nuclear weapon.

The NIE’s conclusion was a deceptive argument. It is true that Iran’s nuclear weapons program was slowed in 2003 after the U.S. invasion of Iraq and some weapons activities were suspended. However, other critical nuclear weapons work was conducted in secret. Dual-use nuclear activities with plausible peaceful purposes were continued, such as uranium enrichment. In addition, Israel learned from documents it stole from Iran in 2018 on the Iranian nuclear weapons program that Tehran began an aggressive program in 2003 to deceive the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors about its covert nuclear weapons effort.