ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Real Election Reform At Last?

Posted By on March 28th, 2025

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/03/28/real-election-reform-at-last/

Lost amid a flash flood of recent news, President Donald Trump’s executive order to make American elections more fair and less likely to be corrupted by ideology-driven election officials is possibly a game-changer. If Trump’s order withstands the inevitable onslaught of legal and political challenges it will face, it will make a huge difference in future elections.

The ink had barely dried on Trump’s reform than the New York Times, setting the tone for the national media, ran this headline: “Trump Is Trying to Gain More Power Over Elections. Is His Effort Legal?”

So what does Trump’s order, dubbed “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” actually do?

Mainly, it seeks to ensure that those who vote are indeed American citizens – as required by current law, which states ignore or routinely fail to enforce – and that votes received after Election Day don’t get counted, since such votes are highly susceptible to cheating.

To do this, anyone filling out a federal voter registration form will need “documentary proof of citizenship” (for virtually all people, this requires doing nothing, since they are already recorded as U.S. citizens in federal databases).

It will require states to clean up their voter rolls, or lose federal funding for their elections, and encourages sharing of information across databases with the federal government.

It (again) bans foreign contributions to federal, state, or local elections, a law that already exists on the books but is rarely enforced.

It also requires, and this is important, paper ballots, or “a voter-verifiable paper record,” and bans voting systems using barcodes or QR codes, which can be tampered with, for vote data.

And it also reverses a number of Biden executive actions (“Bidenbucks,” anyone?) that, essentially, “turned federal agencies into Democratic voter turnout centers.”

Or, as our buddies over at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity put it: Trump Orders Clean Elections – What a Concept.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Brendan O’Neill Why are there more protests against Hamas in Gaza than Britain?

Posted By on March 28th, 2025

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-are-there-more-protests-against-hamas-in-gaza-than-in-britain/

You’re more likely to see a protest against Hamas in Gaza than in London. For brave, spirited agitation against this army of anti-Semites that murders Israelis and oppresses Palestinians, forget Britain’s activist class – they’re too busy frothing about the ‘evil’ Jewish State morning, noon and night. Look instead to the bombed-out Gaza Strip itself, where, finally, fury with Hamas is bubbling over.

If Palestinians vented their Hamas criticism in Britain, they would get an earful from ‘progressives’

Hundreds of Gazans took to their rubble-strewn streets to register their disdain for Hamas. Around a hundred gathered in Beit Lahia in the north of Gaza, brandishing placards saying ‘Stop War’ and ‘Children in Palestine want to live’. Some chanted ‘Hamas out’ and even ‘Hamas terrorists’. The ‘people are tired’, said one attendee. They’re tired of war, so they want the people who started this war – Hamas – to go.

There were protests in Jabalia, also in the north, and in Khan Younis, one of the big cities in the south. Marchers hollered ‘Down with Hamas’. Others made a simpler cry: ‘We want to eat.’ The valiant dissenters may have numbered in the hundreds, rather than the thousands. But their demand that Hamas stop denying them the two essentials of life – food and freedom – should echo around the world. Let’s hope these are the first stirrings of a larger revolt.

It is extraordinary to me that it seems less risky to protest against Hamas in Gaza than in Britain. Yes, these protesters will likely be chided by their ruthless Islamist rulers. One Gazan said he saw Hamas security forces ‘in civilian clothing’ breaking up a protest. But I reckon you’d get a far speedier roughing-up if you were to hold up a sign saying ‘Hamas terrorists’ on the streets of London.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

What’s It All About, Carlson & Rogan? Pondering the Big Platforming of Darryl Cooper by Diana West

Posted By on March 28th, 2025

https://dianawest.substack.com/p/whats-it-all-about-carlson-and-rogan

One of the more interesting things Darryl Cooper revealed while ensconced on the massive Joe Rogan platform last week concerned his appearance on the even more massive Tucker Carlson platform last summer. It was the night before the Carlson interview, Cooper recalled, and he and Carlson were having dinner, talking about the upcoming show. Carlson informed Cooper that he was going to introduce him as America’s greatest living historian. Cooper says that he demurred, having explained to Carlson that he was no historian, did no original research, published nothing; rather, that he was someone who recorded stories about what he had read.

Carlson was having none of that. He was dead set on tagging Cooper with this nonsensically extravagant accolade and told him just to roll with it during the taping the next day. If you go back and watch Tucker’s opening of the Cooper show, you will notice that no blush, no gulp, and barely a muscle move across Cooper’s face as Tucker coats him with this syrupy wash of words — “the most important popular historian working in the United States today.” But even that wasn’t enough for Tucker: “I want people to know who you are, and I want you to be widely recognized as the most important historian in the United States today because —”

Yes, yes … why? Tell us why!

“— because I think that you are.”

If Carlson’s motives remain opaque, we are now at least privvy to the calculation, the Barnum-esque decision, to dress up the podcaster as this “greatest,” this “most important” historical expert in the whole of these United States.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

‘Hamas doesn’t want peace’ Jonathan Sacerdoti on the end of the Gaza ceasefire. Brendan O’Neill

Posted By on March 27th, 2025

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/03/27/hamas-doesnt-want-peace/

When the ceasefire in Gaza broke down last week, Israel was roundly accused of escalating the violence. World leaders called for ‘restraint’ and condemned the resumption of the war as ‘unjustifiable’ and ‘intolerable’. But, typically for this conflict, this isn’t the full picture. From the off, Hamas showed it is not a good-faith partner for peace. It paraded hostages in grotesque ceremonies, flagrantly lied about which hostages were alive or dead, and used the pause in fighting to rearm and prepare for more attacks.

Writer and broadcaster Jonathan Sacerdoti joined The Brendan O’Neil Show last week to discuss why the ceasefire was always doomed to fail. What follows is an edited extract from that conversation. Listen to the full thing here.

Brendan O’Neill: What do you make of the resumption of hostilities between Israel and Hamas?

Jonathan Sacerdoti: Israel found itself trapped in an untenable situation. Active combat had largely ceased, and Hamas was regrouping and strengthening its position. At the same time, Hamas wasn’t releasing any more hostages, because phase one of the agreement had ended. Humanitarian aid intended for the citizens of Gaza was, once again, being taken control of by Hamas.

Hamas appeared very comfortable with that position. It miscalculated, assuming that internal political disputes within Israel would stop decisive action.

It also perhaps misinterpreted US diplomatic engagement. The US had sent Adam Boehler, its special envoy for hostage response, to negotiate directly with Hamas. Hamas leaders might have seen that as a sign of America’s willingness to tolerate them. So, from Hamas’s perspective, everything seemed good.

In effect, that added up to Israel deciding to resume the war. It was a strategic decision. Israel took out quite a few senior Hamas leaders in the first night of air strikes.

O’Neill: Hamas clearly hasn’t been a serious partner in peace. Why should Israel have to live next door to an existential enemy?

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

The Alien Enemies Act, ‘Public Safety,’ the Separation of Powers, and That Little Word ‘Or’ by Lawrence Kadish

Posted By on March 27th, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21508/alien-enemies-act-public-safety

The only matter about which there seems no dispute in President Donald J. Trump’s administration having officially designated Tren de Aragua and Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, is that they are a threat to public safety.

The text of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, written 10 years after the Constitution was ratified, states:

§21 Restraint, regulation, and removal

Whenever there is a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion OR predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or government, and the President makes public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies. The President is authorized in any such event, by his proclamation thereof, or other public act, to direct the conduct to be observed on the part of the United States, toward the aliens who become so liable; the manner and degree of the restraint to which they shall be subject and in what cases, and upon what security their residence shall be permitted, and to provide for the removal of those who, not being permitted to reside within the United States, refuse or neglect to depart therefrom; and to establish any other regulations which are found necessary in the premises and for the public safety.
(R.S. §4067; Apr. 16, 1918, ch. 55, 40 Stat. 531. Emphases added)

The decision to deport alien enemies when a “predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened,” is clearly mandated to the president, who recently ordered deportations of members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, and Latin America’s MS-13.

If anyone was deported unjustly, he can file from abroad for a writ of habeas corpus, to protest having been unjustly imprisoned.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Gazan Civilians to Hamas: Stop Fighting Israel, Get Off Our Backs What happened to the “pro-Palestinian” narrative? P. David Hornik

Posted By on March 27th, 2025

https://pdavidhornik.substack.com/subscribe?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=email-subscribe&r=

So, in what appears to be an intensifying phenomenon, Palestinians in Gaza are now demonstrating angrily against…Hamas (reports here and here).

“Pro-Palestinians” on US campuses are not marching in sympathy with the protesting Gazans. If anything, they’re suffering a bout of cognitive dissonance. What’s happening in Gaza now does not fit their narrative of demonic Israelis and innocent Palestinian victims.

In the real Gaza this week, thousands of Gazans are showing up to vent frustration at the ones more and more of them see as the culprit—Hamas. They’re demanding that it stop waging—futile—war on Israel and give up its power.

In Shejaiya, a neighborhood in Gaza City considered a Hamas stronghold, protesters are shouting, “For God’s sake—Hamas out!”

In Beit Lahiya, a town in northern Gaza, there are cries of “The people want the fall of Hamas!” and “Hamas out, out, Hamas is a terrorist!”

On Tuesday last week Israel launched a new offensive in Gaza, aimed at stopping Hamas’s rearmament and pressuring it to stop stonewalling on the issue of the Israeli hostages. Again Gazans hear the bombs exploding and the Israeli warnings to evacuate neighborhoods.

In a video in Hebrew and Arabic released on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz urged Gazans to step up the protests. Saying the IDF would soon launch a new round of attacks, he told Gazans they would have to

leave the combat zones for your protection.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Carney’s Snap Election — And Trump Saw It Coming By Sonia Bailley

Posted By on March 27th, 2025

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/03/carney_s_snap_election_and_trump_saw_it_coming.html

Mark Carney’s snap election is a globalist power grab disguised as leadership, continuing Trudeau’s agenda with a more polished image. But Donald Trump saw this coming — and he may be the only one ready to stop it.

Mark Carney’s sudden rise to power isn’t a win for democracy — it’s a globalist takeover in a Canadian suit. Recentlyinstalled as Prime Minister of Canada without a single vote, Carney now leads both the country and the Liberal Party just months before a federal snap election that he called. This isn’t about Canadian politics — it’s about global control. 

But Canadians have seen this movie before. Carney is former prime minister Trudeau’s spiritual twin: polished, elitist, and devoted to the same globalist networks. The only difference? Carney doesn’t wear blackface — he wears a central banker’s smile. If you think you’re voting for a nationalist in Carney, think again. You’re voting for a globalist in a Canadian suit.

Trump saw it coming long before most Canadians did. His unapologetic stance against Trudeau wasn’t just bluster — it was a strategic masterstroke. When Trump floated the idea of annexing Canada, it wasn’t a real policy proposal. It was a provocation designed to rattle the status quo — and it worked. Trudeau’s image crumbled under the weight of his own hypocrisy, incompetence, and allegiance to foreign interests. Trump exposed him on the world stage without firing a shot.

Now, Trudeau is gone — but the machine that backed him is not. Mark Carney stepped into power not through a democratic vote, but by appointment: unelected, unaccountable, and even more dangerous than his predecessor. A longtime insider of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, and the UN’s climate finance movement, Carney is not a nationalist. He is a globalist operative tasked with keeping the Liberal regime alive and Canada under elite control.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Is Tren de Aragua a Military Incursion? You Bet! Judge Boasberg blocks Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Tren de Aragua, despite intelligence linking the gang to Venezuela’s government and acts of sabotage in the U.S. By Bart Marcois

Posted By on March 27th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/03/27/is-tren-de-aragua-a-military-incursion-you-bet/

As President Trump fulfills his campaign promise to deport criminal illegal aliens, a blatantly corrupt judge is trying to stop him. Judge James Boasberg, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, has abandoned all pretense to fairness. I will leave it to others to focus on his conflicts of interest (the FISA Court, his wife, his daughter) and his double standard of justice.

This article is based on an intelligence briefing and refutes Boasberg’s central argument—that it is inappropriate for President Trump to apply the Alien Enemies Act against Tren de Aragua (TdA). Boasberg said TdA is not a foreign government against whom the United States has declared war. But that is a deliberate misreading of the text of the law. The law is quite simple. Here it is, in its entirety:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever there shall be a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion shall be perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States, by any foreign nation or government, and the President of the United States shall make public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being males of the age of fourteen years and upwards, who shall be within the United States, and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed, as alien enemies. [Emphasis added]

The law states clearly that the predicates for invoking the Act include “any invasion or predatory incursion attempted … by any foreign nation or government” and that “the President shall make public declaration of the event.” Are those conditions met?

The president made the required declaration. On March 15, he issued the official proclamation: “I find and declare that TdA is perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States. TdA is undertaking hostile actions and conducting irregular warfare against the territory of the United States both directly and at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime in Venezuela.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

From Profanity-Chic to Terrorist-Porn Democrats, reeling from electoral losses, embrace profanity-laced rhetoric, street-theater activism, and veiled support for political violence, alienating voters and hastening their own decline. By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on March 27th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/03/27/from-profanity-chic-to-terrorist-porn/

The Democratic Party is polling about 27 percent approval—and sinking.

In 2024, it lost the White House, the House of Representatives, the Senate, and both the popular vote and the Electoral College, 312-226.

In 2024, Trump won over 46 percent of the Hispanic vote, including a majority of Hispanic men. Trump also likely captured 26 percent of the black male vote, doubling his 2020 total.

In 2024, Trump increased his 2020 vote total in every single state. And he won 89 percent of all the counties in the United States.

On every issue, Democrats sided with strident leftist movements rather than the majority of Americans.

They supported globalism over nationalism, high-priced green energy over lower gas and electricity prices, and an open border and 12 million unaudited illegal aliens over security and legal-only immigration.

They seem unconcerned with our $36 trillion debt or the deterrence lost abroad that led to two theater-wide existential wars.

Democrats stay mum about unfair trade and budget deficits. They prefer the Black Lives Matter fixation on the color of our skin rather than Martin Luther King’s emphasis on the content of our character.

They support allowing biological men to overpower women in female sports events—in opposition to 80 percent of the electorate.

Democrats faced choices after their catastrophic defeat last year.

One, they could have stopped the hemorrhaging of their base of 18-30-year-olds, black men, Hispanics, and Independents by moving toward the center.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Adam Zivo There’s No Such Thing as a “Safer Supply” of Drugs Sweden, the U.K., and Canada all experimented with providing opioids to addicts. The results were disastrous.

Posted By on March 27th, 2025

https://www.city-journal.org/article/drugs-harm-reduction-safer-supply-opioids-denver-sweden-uk-canada
Adam Zivo is director of the Canadian Centre for Responsible Drug Policy.

Last August, Denver’s city council passed a proclamation endorsing radical “harm reduction” strategies to address the drug crisis. Among these was “safer supply,” the idea that the government should give drug users their drug of choice, for free. Safer supply is a popular idea among drug-reform activists. But other countries have already tested this experiment and seen disastrous results, including more addiction, crime, and overdose deaths. It would be foolish to follow their example.

The safer-supply movement maintains that drug-related overdoses, infections, and deaths are driven by the unpredictability of the black market, where drugs are inconsistently dosed and often adulterated with other toxic substances. With ultra-potent opioids like fentanyl, even minor dosing errors can prove fatal. Drug contaminants, which dealers use to provide a stronger high at a lower cost, can be just as deadly and potentially disfiguring.

Because of this, harm-reduction activists sometimes argue that governments should provide a free supply of unadulterated, “safe” drugs to get users to abandon the dangerous street supply. Or they say that such drugs should be sold in a controlled manner, like alcohol or cannabis—an endorsement of partial or total drug legalization.

But “safe” is a relative term: the drugs championed by these activists include pharmaceutical-grade fentanyl, hydromorphone (an opioid as potent as heroin), and prescription meth. Though less risky than their illicit alternatives, these drugs are still profoundly dangerous.

The theory behind safer supply is not entirely unreasonable, but in every country that has tried it, implementation has led to increased suffering and addiction. In Europe, only Sweden and the U.K. have tested safer supply, both in the 1960s. The Swedish model gave more than 100 addicts nearly unlimited access through their doctors to prescriptions for morphine and amphetamines, with no expectations of supervised consumption. Recipients mostly sold their free drugs on the black market, often through a network of “satellite patients” (addicts who purchased prescribed drugs). This led to an explosion of addiction and public disorder.