Links - 21st March 2026 (2 - Pro-Crime Policies [including Public Transit])

Meme - meatball times @meatballtimes: "wait this graph is crazy. BART installed anti-fare-hopping gates and the amount of station maintenance and cleanup they had to do went to basically zero. strong evidence that the poor condition of public transit is fairly easy to fix + caused by a very small group of people"
BART @SFBART: "And there are other real benefits such as fewer corrective maintenance requests and time spent cleaning and fixing things.
Next Gen Fare Gate Successes. Hours spent on patron related Corrective Maintenance (CM) within the paid area of stations reduced significantly after NextGen Fare Gate (NGFG) installations"
Left wingers want to make public transport free. This suggests that there're many hidden costs to that (assaults on staff is another)

Crémieux on X - "I think it bears repeating that BART installed tall gates to enter the subway and they're gaining $10m in revenue a year plus the need for maintenance is down by *95.7%* Passengers who were unwilling to pay a few bucks were causing 96% of the public cleanliness problems!"

dandelion georgism 🔰🏗 on X - "I cannot tell you how many gun cases I worked on started with the perp jumping a turnstile. Turns out, “do you have the impulse control to not commit petty theft while carrying a loaded unregistered firearm” is a really good filter for bad behavior!"
big_pedestrian on X - "It is not progressive to let a very small group of highly dysfunctional people to occupy and degrade the public realm. They should be helped, treated and housed. But severe mental health and drug addiction result in wildly antisocial behavior that cannot be tolerated or indulged."
Garrett Langley on X - "Incredible example of a pattern we see all the time - simple rules, when enforced, improve public spaces across the board. Shopping malls that push back on shoplifting tell us the same thing."
Thread by @sivori on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "The frustrating thing about many of our social issues is that we merely lack the will to solve the problems.  We are shouted down by lunatics who want to live like pigs in filth so that the outer world matches their inner world of chaos and disorder.  “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity” while we sink into the abyss. Life will not improve until sober moderate people are making the decisions while the hysterics are treated for the unserious people they are."
Social chaos is a choice - that left wing elites make on everyone's behalf

SDL on X - "Cars kill 40,000 people a year. Homicide kills 20,000 people a year, ~90% among people who know each other. Not strangers on the bus. In New York City's worst year, it had 10 subway murders in ~1 billion rider-days. The average is 3. NYC has ~200 fatal car crashes per year."
HowlingMutant on X - "You guys burned cities down over a single black junkie overdosing in proximity to a police officer"
Right Wing Dice Squad on X - "Not even. He was alive when he got to the ER."
Time to force even more people to use public transport

Natalia Antonova 🇺🇸🇺🇦 on X - "“I care abt the sick and disenfranchised! This is why I think they should live like animals, urinating on public transport, and scaring little children!”"
constans on X - "A big resentment of the left is that society relies on participation of the middle class to have a functional society. You can’t fund schools unless they’re good enough that middle class people want to attend them. You need transit the middle class will use or they’ll just drive"

𝔽eral ℙawg ℍunter on X - "every six months left twitter debates whether people should tolerate riders smoking crack and pissing on the subway where one person meekly raises a concern and then they get dog piled by people calling them a reactionary"
constans on X - "The modern left has a noble savage view of criminals and the homeless and thinks they can serve as the vanguard of the revolution and feel that the working class has betrayed the cause because they see transit as a way to get to work that should be safe and orderly"

daniela on X - "My husband was on a crowded train yesterday when a homeless woman got on, pulled down her pants, and peed all over the train in front of everyone. He hasn’t stopped talking about it for the past 24+ hrs. It is the single most traumatizing thing that’s happened to him in nyc."
Kate Willett on X - "The other night I moved train cars bc of someone’s bodily functions and I managed to do it without becoming a fascist. Lived another day to keep fighting for housing as a human right too, if anyone needs inspo."
Thread by @constans on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "“Fascist” for you means “ wanting the person not on the train”  Your problem ultimately is that you’re anarchist who wants to attack and destroy the lives of the working class and you hipe that the homeless & lumpenproletariart will assault and harm quality of life for workers. The arguments being made are that the working class has allied with the bourgeois and that they have to be punished for not trying to destroy the capitalist system. The homeless and criminals are the instruments of punishment who you believe are “pure” for refusing to conform. You guys all hate transit workers and working New Yorkers and like to watch them suffer disorder and crime on transit because you think they’re “squares” who didn’t become anarchists allying with criminals"

mindy🌷 on X - "agree that this probably isn’t the single most traumatizing thing someone could see in a city but it’s still not normal or OK and the left shouldn’t act like it is. we all deserve to live in functioning cities where public displays of anti social behavior are not tolerated"
Alexander McCoy on X - "Having a baby really changed my mind about this stuff (unwell people experiencing episodes on public transit). I went from “whatever, look the other way” when I was just a sturdy adult man on my own, to being like “fuck fuck this guy is gonna kill my baby strapped to my chest.”"
Danie ❤️ you on X - "“Having a baby made me fascist” is a real phenomenon. That’s why we must abolish the nuclear family Homeless ppl have children too, homeless ppl are sometimes children. And instead of thinking of them as human, you’re falling into racist and classist anxieties"
This is a good reminder that you can't take left wingers seriously when they go on about "fascism"
This is why left wingers are anti-natalist

Cassie Pritchard on X - "Like on the left we fundamentally don’t care about ‘crime,’ it’s morally uninteresting to us—it’s just a thing that happens in the world, like the weather, so we are willing to excuse mentally people for theft, violence, etc."
indy5432 on X - "The weather analogy is very telling of the underlying fallacy here. Unlike weather, crime is in fact very responsive to policy choices, and a society that wishes to be civilized should choose wisely."
Ironically, left wingers obsess about climate change and think they can change the climate

ℜ𝔞𝔢 on X - "People in the replies think that leftists would start to care about crime if they were personally victimized, but this is a misunderstanding of the leftoid psyche. For many leftoids, their politics are a projection of self harm onto society. They fundamentally don’t value their own lives. They want to hurt. This makes them incredible ideological soldiers — unlike many rightoids (who have families they care for and cherished possessions), these people have no attachments and nothing to lose. It’s a mistake to model them with anything resembling a healthy, normal mind"

Wilfred Reilly on X - "If your "cognitive, emotional, neurological limits" make you less than human, we should put you down like any other mad dog, to save real people. Also....why exaaaaaactly would this horrible logic apply to the serial rapists and IQ 79 gang shooters she's explicitly defending, but NOT to moderate bigots?   I say: sanction all bad behavior, some with fire and some with a light slap on the head. But, what IS her argument for sanctioning any? "Being poor white in a trailer park in 2025 MADE me say all that 'bout mah Spanish ex-bi*ch!!!"  Gee, Officer Krupke!"

Meme - Covfefe Anon @CovfefeAnon: ""Keep your eyes on the ball guys - look at how much worse we've made everything over decades of *slowly* eroding public life while controlling media reports about it to not allow complaints. By going mask off like this you're endangering our ability to keep making society worse in the name of progress!""
Jill Filipovie: "l am begging leftists and liberals to not do this again. It is normal and smart to be nervous and on high alert when someone behaves in a profoundly anti-social way (peeing on the subway) and/or a threatening way (screaming on the subway). The more cities tolerate this, the fewer people ride public transport, the worse that transport gets, and eventually it gets to a breaking point and people wind up voting for right- wing politicians who come in and crack skulls and way over-police. It is possible to nip these problems in the bud early and using more human measures. "Toughen up" is a bad and strategically stupid answer."
welcome to our trash revolution @trash_panda97: "i've been on the subway with homeless people that peed, screamed, all sorts of stuff. it was mildly uncomfortable but truly didn't impact my day in any way. maybe your husband needs to toughen up"

shoe on X - "“clean, safe cities and social order is fascism” every normal person ever:"
"Oh wow, that sounds great. You told me that's fascism? Err, waiter, more fascism please"

Yeerk.P 🦆 on X - "Leftists are now arguing that women with little babies are "fascist" and have to be "abolished" so vagrants can piss on public transport in peace"

Toronto engineer turns commuter frustration into site that exposes TTC delay data - "The engineer says she was also surprised to find out that disorderly patrons were actually the number one cause of delays, and that track fires are a persistent problem, causing significant disruptions."
Too bad it's fascism to do anything about it

Thread by @Chris_arnade on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Yes it’s statistically true you probably wont be set on fire while riding the Blue line — but man oh man does American cities not get it. If you want Abundance — lots of people living close together having to share stuff like subway cars, parks, and neighborhoods - then you first need foundational safety. That is you need citizens who can fully trust their neighbors, and that means you need zero tolerance for antisocial behavior, including having someone walking around with a rap sheet that should have long ago eliminated them from free access to public spaces.
You know who has an abundance agenda? China, and I’m guessing America won’t accept that level of surveillance, anti-liberal policies, and authoritarianism. Also, Japan, but again, America doesn’t seem to want (or enact) their level of personal responsibility, immigration restrictions, and self control"

Max on X - "I think we underestimates how much all the ideological insanity today is solely a function of modern life being too easy. There is literally just no selective pressure against retarded ideas anymore. If you were this much of an idiot even a century ago, you died. Today we have so much safety net that these people just stack up at “basic sustenance” and then continue on their merry retarded way."

End Wokeness on X - "Nassadir Tate punched a 55 year old on the NYC subway 2 days ago. The man died. Nassadir got a misdemeanor ticket. He's already out of jail."
WPL (subscribe on YouTube) on X - "In America you’re just allowed to kill people if you’re black, there’s no consequences anymore."

Nate Fischer on X - "Leftists want the state to replace Jesus as the source of salvation. Thus—instead of removing a criminal to protect law-abiding citizens—they look for every excuse to give him another chance, every theoretical path to rehabilitation. Category error on the role of the state."
Bama Chan on X - "Yes. Tax the rich to care for the poor, rather than the church doing it. Universal healthcare instead of the church helping the sick. Food stamps instead of the church feeding the hungey. Government is God. It's terrible."
Relentless_Dissent on X - "Everybody wants to be the savior. But they want someone else to hang on the cross."
This is a more profound aspect of secular religion - the State becoming God. This also ties into how left wingers believe that government intervention is the solution to all problems

ZUBY: on X - "Many people are OK with crime as long as it isn't affecting them PERSONALLY. The same people often consider themselves 'compassionate'."

Daniel Concannon on X - "Remember the 2021 shooting in Oregon, where a drunk Black man attacked a White man and his White fiancée, was shot by the man he attacked, and then the White male victim went to prison? Last month, the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed the decision and remanded the case for a new trial. Here's a refresher on what's transpired:
~ Barry Washington (Black man) gets drunk at bar, hits on Allie Butler (White girl)
~ Allie tells Washington she's not interested
~ Washington pursues Allie outside, continues to knowingly make unwanted advances
~ Allie's fiancée, Ian Cranston (White man), tells Washington "move along, she's taken"
~ Washington becomes belligerent, shouts "fuck you White boy," and smashes Cranston in the head twice, resulting in a mild traumatic brain injury
~ A face-off ensues between Washington, with 3 male friends, and Cranston, with a male friend and his girlfriend
~ Allie begins recording, at which point Washington strikes her, attempts to knock her phone away, and then lunges at Cranston, who he's already violently assaulted
~ At this moment, Cranston shoots a single round at Washington in self-defense, killing him
~ Anti-White justice systems charges Cranston, the victim, with second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, and second-degree manslaughter
~ Jury finds Cranston guilty on both manslaughter charges, which then merge into the higher (first-degree manslaughter) charge
~ During trial, Shitbag judge Beth Bagley refuses to inform the jury that, in the State of Oregon, Ian Cranston had no duty to retreat
~ In October of this year, the appeals court reverses the decision due to shitbag Beth Bagley's withholding of information from the jury
~ Ian Cranston, the White victim, remains locked up, awaiting the state's inevitable petition to review the rejection of the verdict, which will result in either restoration of the original verdict, or Cranston being tried yet again
For four years, Ian Cranston has been locked away - all for defending himself and his girlfriend from a violent, drunken attack. While the decision from the appeals court is good news, there remains a hell of a long road ahead. At best, Ian, now 31 years old, will have to endure yet another trial. At worst, the original decision will be reinstated upon state's petition and the recent reversal will prove inconsequential. Defending oneself while White remains a high crime in the United States of America, but we see here a rare chance for a (singular) course correction. Justice would dictate Ian Carroll exiting his prison cell and "Judge" Beth Bagley being led in, but hopefully we'll see the part where Ian walks free sooner than later."
J͎Λ͎Y͎ on X - ">Black guy keeps hitting on a White guy’s fiancée, refuses to back off
>Gets aggressive, punches White guy hard enough to cause a TBI
>Comes at him again, gets shot and killed
>White guy is convicted of second-degree murder and manslaughter after judge intentionally withholds  from jury (despite being explicitly asked) that he had no duty to retreat
>Years later, appeals court overturns the conviction (due to judge misleading the jury), but White guy’s still in prison while the state decides what’s next
Judges are anti-White terrorist scum"

memetic_sisyphus on X - "If you search for this judge there is nothing but ethics complaint after ethics complaint. She is constantly using her position to rule in favor of those she has personal connections to. She’s had serval cases overturned or she has been forcibly removed from cases for not disclosing conflicts of interest. In one lawsuit she was presiding over, she was going to be called as a witness due to direct pertinent communications she had with the subjects of the lawsuit."

Covfefe Anon on X - "The number of delusions that make up the progressive world-view is astonishing. "Funding" for "mental health services" has (of course) gone nothing but up everywhere - "funding cuts" always exist in the progressive mind as a catch-all excuse for the results of their policies not being what they pretend to believe they would be. "Education" is another area - every education fad is only ever undermined by "funding cuts" - when every year there is nothing but more and more funding for "education". "Mental health services" don't actually stop "violence" - they're an excuse for leftists to unleash evil people who should be executed ("we can't punish him for hurting people because he just can't help it and will always hurt people"). The murderer in this case is not meaningfully "mentally ill" - he's a lifelong criminal who should have been executed years ago or imprisoned for life at minimum but that was stopped by people progressives. Absolutely no one on the left was begging for there to be more people locked in mental institutions - the idea has always been that saying someone is "mentally unfit to stand trial" is a way of getting him out of prison. Trump literally addressed this with an executive order and leftist pro-crime groups (naturally) fought it. I would say that everything these people believe is contrary to reality but actually, these people don't even believe this - it's just a nervous tic of "the only reason for progressive failure is insufficient progressivism" as an excuse but in reality, all of these progressive policies are working as intended to create the crime and disorder these people crave because they are driven by spite and envy"

I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 on X - "🚨NEW: Just-released chilling video footage—previously withheld from the public by Chicago officials—shows the brutal “Loop Puncher” attack on an Illinois mother that took place two months ago.  The video captures Kathleen Miles walking home from work with a friend when she is randomly assaulted by William Livingston, a career criminal with more than a dozen prior arrests since 2012 for battery and aggravated assault.  Livingston can be seen running, placing himself between two women and punching Miles without warning, knocking her to the ground. Disturbingly, he remained at the scene, casually watching her lie unconscious in the street as bystanders rushed to help. The footage, which lasts over 10 minutes, shows Livingston calmly observing the aftermath of his attack.  Miles sustained multiple facial fractures, a black eye, and a concussion.  Records show that Livingston has a long history of similar violent attacks. Despite repeated arrests, he has benefited from progressive policies that downgraded felony charges to misdemeanors and from lenient rulings by activist judges—allowing him to be released time and time again to reoffend, targeting women."

SaltyGoat on X - "On November 7, 2025, 40-year-old James Bowman III was arrested in Maryland for assault after punching a woman in the face. A District court commissioner released him with NO BAIL! One hour later, he returned and assaulted her AGAIN while she held her child, a toddler. NO BAIL NEEDS TO BE COMPLETELY ABOLISHED!!"

Driver who killed Grammy-nominated musician walking his dogs had been arrested over 100 times - "The driver, 41-year-old Shannon Godbout, hit multiple objects, including two telephone poles, before striking MacLeod as he walked on the shoulder of the road with his dogs."
A Gene Robinson on X - "See this filthy savage?  She killed a man in Rhode Island this weekend.  Now here’s the part that should make every sane American furious…  She wasn’t a first-time offender. Not a second-time offender. Not even a tenth-time offender.  She had been arrested… over 100 times.  Let that settle in… 100 arrests… 82 warrants… 40 traffic citations… And she was still free to get behind the wheel long enough to take an innocent man’s life.  This isn’t compassion… this is engineered chaos. This is what happens when a system protects predators and punishes the people they victimize. This is what happens when ideology replaces accountability. This is what happens when criminals are treated like “misunderstood citizens” instead of what they are… dangers.  A man is dead because a repeat offender was cycled in and out of a justice system that refuses to deliver justice.  You want to know why America is breaking? Because too many in power would rather virtue-signal than safeguard human life.  This didn’t have to happen… But when you design a society where consequences don’t exist, tragedies like this become inevitable.  You know what makes this worse?  There are thousands of people just like her walking our streets right now… scott-free… dodging accountability… stacking arrest after arrest… released again and again as if innocent lives don’t matter.  Ask any cop in America… they’ll tell you the truth. The same five percent of offenders commit most of the violence, most of the theft, most of the destruction… yet they’re the ones the system keeps protecting.  Meanwhile… law-abiding citizens are left to bury their dead.  We are being governed by people who think consequences are “harsh,” but body bags are not.  You want engagement? This is the formula. This is the truth people feel in their bones.  #SilentMajoritySpeaks #AStoneGroove"

Nobody Rioted for Iryna Zarutska / Teresa Stokes Conflict of Interest

"nobody rioted for this immigrant
*Iryna Zarutska cowering after she's stabbed*"

"RELEASED FOR THE 14TH TIME BY JUDGE TERESA STOKES.
REPEATEDLY SENT TO PINNACLE MENTAL ILLNESS RECOVERY CENTER.
Teresa Stokes She/Her. Magistrate Judge
Experience
Magistrate Judge
State of North Carolina - Full-time
Apr 2023 - Present . 2 yrs 6 mos
Co-Owner
PINNACLE RECOVERY SERVICES Self-employed
Feb 2015- Present 10 yrs 8 mos
GUESS WHO OWNS PINNACLE, AND GOT PAID EVERY TIME?"

Time to abolish private prisons because of conflicts of interest and judges sending convicted criminals there!

Links - 21st March 2026 (1 - Migrants: US - Renee Nicole Good/Alex Pretti)

ICE agent who shot Renee Good suffered internal bleeding, officials say - "The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good last week in Minneapolis, Jonathan Ross, suffered internal bleeding to the torso following the incident... Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, previously acknowledged that Ross was taken to the hospital after the shooting and was released the same day. She said he was recovering from his injuries, describing him as an experienced law enforcement officer who believed he was defending himself and fellow agents. "The officer was hit by the vehicle. She hit him. He went to the hospital. A doctor did treat him. He has been released," Noem told reporters on Jan. 7... U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino told CBS News in an interview Sunday that Ross "has had several threats against his life," adding, "he's in a safe location. He's recovering from those injuries, and we're thankful that he's recovering.""
Weird. Left wingers keep telling us he wasn't hit by the car, despite all the video evidence

Bodycam shows struggle after suspect grabs NYPD officer's gun and shoots 2 cops - "A Brooklyn ex-con grabbed an NYPD officer’s gun and shot two cops when a routine domestic violence call erupted into a harrowing fight for survival, body camera footage released by police shows.  The footage of the Jan. 16 encounter, caught on the officer’s body-worn cameras, shows the officers trying to take Melvin Butler into custody for misdemeanor assault before he resisted and started brawling with Police Officers Samuel Acevedo and Timothy Brennan on the floor of a Brownsville apartment on Bergen St. near Saratoga Ave. just after 3 p.m.  Body-worn camera footage from the incident was released on the NYPD’s YouTube page Thursday afternoon.  “He’s got my gun! He’s got my f—–g gun!” Brennan screams before Butler fires off three shots from the officer’s pistol as the cops try to pin his gun hand to the floor."
District of Columbia | U.S. Attorney’s Office Concludes Investigation Into Fatal Police Shooting of Justin Robinson | United States Department of Justice - "On September 1, 2024, at about 5:20 a.m., Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Officers received a radio run for a vehicle that had crashed into the side of the McDonald’s located at 2529 Marion Barry Avenue in Southeast D.C. MPD Officers and D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Service (DCFEMS) members responded to the scene and observed an unresponsive individual, later identified as Justin Robinson, sitting in the driver’s seat of the vehicle. Mr. Robinson had been sitting inside his car in the drive-thru of the McDonald’s, unresponsive, for around an hour before it moved forward and crashed into the building. When the MPD Officers arrived, they observed a firearm in plain view in Mr. Robinson’s lap.              As the officers were devising a plan to remove the firearm from the vehicle, Mr. Robinson woke up, prompting multiple officers to scream at Mr. Robinson to put his hands up and not to touch the gun. As an MPD officer reached into the car and attempted to retrieve the gun from Mr. Robinson’s lap, a struggle ensued, during which Mr. Robinson refused to relinquish control of his own gun and grabbed the firearm of that MPD Officer. MPD officers instructed Mr. Robinson to take his hand off the gun. After this warning, as Mr. Robinson continued to struggle, two MPD officers discharged a total of 11 rounds from their service pistols at Mr. Robinson, striking him."
Tyre Nichols video: What the footage of police beating shows - "The officers then force him to the ground as he protests his innocence... A scuffle appears to ensue in which Mr Nichols breaks free of the officers and flees on foot."
Left wingers claimed, for some reason, that the fact that multiple law enforcement agents were holding Pretti down was proof that he was a victim of police brutality, even before the shooting. Not to mention they always pretend that "unarmed" criminals should never be shot, because there is no chance they can grab law enforcement's gun and shoot them

Meme - "THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF 2 RETARDS. PRETTI GOOD. A TALE INSPIRED BY REAL EVENTS. AN HECKLER'S MEMES PRODUCTION"

Meme - "The fact that an idiot is willing to die to protect illegals, doesn't mean that illegals magically get to stay. It just means an idiot died for nothing. They still gotta go."

Amy Klobuchar on X - "The fire set at Renee Good’s memorial, a site where many have gathered to grieve and heal, is heartbreaking and unacceptable. Renee was a mother of three loved by many, and we stand with those honoring her memory."
Daniel Friedman on X - "When rioters burned the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct in 2020, Amy Klobuchar said nothing. When rioters burned down 1000 Minnesota businesses, including Uncle Hugo’s, a beloved independent bookstore, Klobuchar called it “righteous.” But this, she condemns."
Wilfred Reilly on X - "Never forget that the BLM Riots were far crazier, even in optics terms, than The Very Worst Thing of All Time.....Jaaaannnnuuaaarrrry Siiiiixxxttttthhhhh.  At one point, following a medieval street battle that injured dozens, rioters BURNED DOWN AN ACTIVE POLICE STATION - the Old 3rd Precinct in Minneapolis. Portland saw 120 days of attacks on government buildings. The Mag Mile in Chicago was looted. $2,000,000,000 in damage was done.   A city-state was established in Seattle, and seven (?) people died in it. Etc."

Insider Wire on X - "#BREAKING: Renee Good was a member of the 612 Minneapolis ICE tracking Signal chat."
The Dank Knight 🦇 on X - "sHe WaS jUsT dRopPiNg hEr cHiLd oFf aNd gOt cOnfuSed aNd aCciDenTalLy bLocKeD tRafFiC"
Of course, this won't stop left wingers from continuing to lie about her not being a trained agitator

Carpe Donktum🔹 on X - "Valid reasons for getting shot according to the libs
✅Running for president
✅Speaking at a college campus
❌Trying run over an officer
❌Pulling a gun on an officer"
The US seems to be the only country in the world where people regularly attack law enforcement, then pretend to be victims

Meme - "In case you haven't kept track
The people who said Renee Good didn't hit the agent
Also said
ICE detained a 5 year old
Somali daycares are legit
Arresting Maduro was illegal
Protesters aren't being paid
ICE isn't law enforcement
Mark Kelly wasn't being seditious
The Navy is sinking fishing boats
Charlie Kirk had it coming
Bombing Iran would start a war
They are also the same people who claim Trump is a pedo, that MAGA are stupid, inbred hicks and they have superior intellect"

CrimeWatchMpls on X - "SE Minneapolis - Engine 19 is being delayed by protesters on University Ave SE while trying to get to a medical patient with chest pain on Malcolm Ave SE. Protesters/rioters are on site actively vandalizing and breaking windows at a hotel. 21:55"
AG on X - "The anti-ice “protestors” are now blocking ambulances trying to get to people having a possible heart attack. That’s after vandalizing a hotel because they suspected ICE agents were staying there. Local police nowhere to be found."
Weird. Left wingers insist ICE murdered Renee Good by blocking the road

Meme - *Venn diagrams*
"Carrying a firearm, Protesting, Impeding law enforcement
Carrying a firearm, Protesting: Risky
Protesting, Impeding law enforcement: Illegal
Carrying a firearm, Protesting, Impeding law enforcement and Carrying a firearm, Impeding law enforcement: *Skull and crossbones/deadly*"

Video shows physical clash between Alex Pretti and federal agents 11 days before he was fatally shot | CNN - "New video has emerged showing a physical clash between Alex Pretti and federal agents over a week before he was fatally shot by Customs and Border Protection agents. A representative for Pretti’s family confirmed to CNN that the man in a video posted Wednesday is Pretti."
Besides the cope that this is a fake AI video, another is that this proves that ICE killed him in a targeted revenge killing (nevermind that it was Border Patrol)

'Spitting, hitting car': New video shows Alex Pretti in scuffle with federal agents days before fatal shooting - "New videos of the Minneapolis protest that emerged on social media show a scuffle between Alex Pretti and federal immigration agents 11 days before his fatal death.    The video, which was shot on January 13, showed Pretti spitting, shouting an expletive at the federal officers and struggling with them. His winter coat comes off when he is on the ground, and he either breaks free or the officers let him go...   As the SUV begins to pull away, Pretti kicks the vehicle's taillight twice, shattering the red plastic casing on the second strike and leaving it hanging. In response, the rear door of the vehicle opens, and an immigration officer—equipped with a gas mask and helmet—steps out and begins to approach Pretti."
Of course left wingers were calling this "character assassination". So much for the truth having a liberal bias
Just a few days before this, left wingers were crowing that he was a saint and no one would be able to dig up any dirt on him. Of course, one cope is that spitting at federal agents is not wrong. The Other 98% was cheering this on, as were many followers
Even BBC Verify and Snopes say it's genuine

Matt Walsh on X - "This is the way it always goes with the Left's martyrs. They start by telling us this entirely fictional biographical story where the martyr was a benevolent and humble servant of the oppressed. Then when it turns out -- as it literally always does -- that he was actually a violent unhinged degenerate weirdo, they will immediately pivot and insist that his character and personal life don't matter actually."

Western Lensman on X - "Warnock: Being at Pretti vigil site was like “standing on holy ground." Un. Real."
When politics becomes your religion

Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ on X - "The Left’s “Maryland dad” turned out to be an MS-13 gangster. Their “Minnesota neighbors” turned out to be Somali fraudsters. And their “peaceful nurse” turned out to be an Antifa-style agitator. The Left always lies."

Meme - "Laken Riley was a Nurse too. There were ZERO Democrats Protesting in the streets for her."

Alex Pretti was 'known' to feds, and had rib broken in anti-ICE protest a week before he was killed by Border Patrol - "Alex Pretti was known to the feds and suffered a broken rib in a violent confrontation with agents a week before Border Patrol officers killed him in Minneapolis, according to a report.  Pretti, an ICU nurse, told a pal he saw ICE agents chasing what he described as a family on foot, and stopped his car during the earlier incident around a week before he was shot... He said he pulled over in his car and began shouting and blowing on a whistle, at which point he was tackled by five agents...   Pretti claimed that one of the agents had left him with a broken rib after leaning on his back, the friend told CNN.   “That day, he thought he was going to die,” the source said, adding that Pretti had been released by agents at the scene.
Who recovers from a broken rib in a week?
Seems like he really had a death wish
One cope I've seen is that this proves that his killing was targeted, in revenge

Meme - "I took the concealed carry class in Minnesota. it was 7 hours of don't do what Alex Pretti did."

Meme - Zonie @PHXAZ1852: "Alex Pretti reaching for his gun.. Case closed."
The fact that even when people can pore over videos and stills in minute detail and disagree on what happened demonstrates that in the moment, you can't blame law enforcement for shooting an armed assailant who resists arrest (as Graham v Connor 1989 reminds us), especially with all that damn whistling going on
Keywords: Alex Pretti tried to draw his gun, Alex Pretti tried to draw his weapon

Graham v. Connor | 490 U.S. 386 (1989) | Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center - "Our Fourth Amendment jurisprudence has long recognized that the right to make an arrest or investigatory stop necessarily carries with it the right to use some degree of physical coercion or threat thereof to effect it. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. at 392 U. S. 22-27. Because "[t]he test of reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment is not capable of precise definition or mechanical application," Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U. S. 520, 441 U. S. 559 (1979), however, its proper application requires careful attention to the facts and circumstances of each particular case, including the severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and whether he is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight. See Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. at 471 U. S. 8-9 (the question is "whether the totality of the circumstances justifie[s] a particular sort of. . . seizure").  The "reasonableness" of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight. See Terry v. Ohio, supra, at 392 U. S. 20-22. The Fourth Amendment is not violated by an arrest based on probable cause, even though the wrong person is arrested, Hill v. California, 401 U. S. 797 (1971), nor by the mistaken execution of a valid search warrant on the wrong premises, Maryland v. Garrison, 480 U. S. 79 (1987). With respect to a claim of excessive force, the same standard of reasonableness at the moment applies: "Not every push or shove, even if it may later seem unnecessary in the peace of a judge's chambers," Johnson v. Glick, 481 F.2d at 1033, violates the Fourth Amendment. The calculus of reasonableness must embody allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments -- in circumstances that are tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving -- about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation."
Clearly, this Supreme Court ruling means that law enforcement are not allowed to defend themselves, or they will be the gestapo carrying out executions, being judge, jury and executioner

Meme - "Kyle is smart. Kyle was carrying a rifle in a riot. When the police arrived, Kyle put his hands up. Be like Kyle"
As usual, left wingers are sharing misleading comparisons and thinking this proves some point about hypocrisy

Meme - Alex Pretti profile picture: "Staying home saves lives"
Ironic.

18 U.S. Code § 111 - Assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees | U.S. Code | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute - "Whoever— (1) forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates, or interferes with any person designated in section 1114 of this title while engaged in or on account of the performance of official duties... shall, where the acts in violation of this section constitute only simple assault, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both, and where such acts involve physical contact with the victim of that assault or the intent to commit another felony, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 8 years, or both. Whoever, in the commission of any acts described in subsection (a), uses a deadly or dangerous weapon (including a weapon intended to cause death or danger but that fails to do so by reason of a defective component) or inflicts bodily injury, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both."
Of course, left wingers are claiming Trump is against the Second Amendment for saying "you can't walk in with guns". Nobody is above the law - unless it impedes the left wing agenda

Alex Pretti: Protests in Minneapolis after man shot dead by immigration agents - "Videos from the scene show the scuffle between federal officers and Pretti."
Left wingers keep insisting he didn't resist arrest and get violent with law enforcement despite the clear video evidence. Time to denounce the BBC for being fake news

What Trump officials claimed about Alex Pretti — and what the evidence actually shows | CNN Politics - "Various footage shows him... stepping in front of an agent to intervene as the agent shoved a woman to the ground; Pretti appeared to make momentary contact with the agent with his right arm and left hand."
Witness video of CBP killing a Minnesota man contradicts Trump administration's narrative - "Pretti steps between the officer and the person. The deadly tussle begins."
Weird. We're told he never interfered with law enforcement. And this is just his actions involving physical contat

Meme - *Armed right wing protesters*
Soyjak: "Lol, fatass Gravy Seals! Look out guys, it's Meal Team 6! Compensating much?"
*Armed left wing protesters*
Soyjak: "OW! Heckin strong comrade, ready to fight fashies! See, the 2nd Amendment is for everyone! (But also please ban that gun, nobody needs anything like that, you can't hug your children with those kinds of arms)"

Kyle Rittenhouse 🇺🇸 on X - "You CAN believe all of these things at the same time:
✅ ICE Messed up
✅ Pretti should've stayed home
✅ You SHOULDN'T impede law enforcement
✅ You CAN carry at a protest
✅ ICE should CONTINUE DEPORTING ILLEGALS
✅ Communists are creating chaos to push their agenda"

Meme - "*Kyle Rittenhouse*
Soyjak: He had NO business bringing a GUN to a violent protest!
*Alex Pretti*
Soyjak: He's an American citizen! He has every right to bring a GUN to a protest and start a fight armed federal agents!"

Meme - AnarchoChristian @AnarchoXP: ""THE PARTY TOLD YOU TO REJECT THE EVIDENCE OF YOUR EYES AND EARS. IT WAS THEIR FINAL, MOST ESSENTIAL COMMAND" -GEORGE ORWELL, 1984" *Drawing of Alex Pretti protecting woman as he's sprayed*
Uri Kurlianchik @VerminusM: "Said he and posted a drawing..."
Naturally, left wingers are easily propagandised and deny Renee Good hid Jonathan Ross with her car and that Alex Pretti got physical with Border Patrol, despite the videos

Clay Travis on X - "Democrat hero nurse Alex Pretti screaming, “Fucking assault me motherfucker, fucking trash,” before spitting on ice agents and kicking out their tail lights. This guy was not emotionally well, may well have been psychotic, and was begging to be attacked:"
Left wingers claim that this doesn't mean he deserved to be "executed", ignoring that this suggests that on the day he was killed, he was trying to get them to kill him, i.e. suicide by cop

FischerKing on X - "Two Hispanic patriots kill a violent white communist who gave his life to protect Somalians engaged in massive daycare and healthcare fraud. Somehow this all benefits GDP I’m sure."

Lou Perez on X - "Latinos cannot murder white people. Murder is killing plus power."

Meme - Kangmin Lee | 이강민 @kangminjlee: "Liberals are now using "YOU ARE BROWN AND GAY" as an insult.  Total chud victory"
Secular Talk (KyleKulinskiShow@bsky.social) @KyleKulinski: "So Alex Pretti got killed by a Hispanic guy desperately trying to be white and the world’s most obvious closet case"

TMZ on X - "Alex Pretti's shooting death officially ruled a homicide. Details: https://t.co/kJUDAGKJuI"
9mmSMG on X - "We know. You can tell by the bullet holes in him. Homicide is when one human kills another, legally or illegally. Your headline is to trick people into thinking he was unjustly murdered. Big difference."

Meme - Jewels22 @JAG2822: "I am so sick of seeing Ashli Babbitt trend. If she had stayed home she would still be alive...but she didn't. Case closed." - Sep 21, 2021
Crawling through a broken window deserves a death sentence but not trying to run law enforcement over with your car or fighting them when you have a gun

Wilfred Reilly on X - "He...died because he illegally intervened in an active arrest/confrontation situation, involving a federal agent and a radical activist from a group organized specifically to disrupt federal operations.   Pretti himself was armed, with a semi-automatic handgun and two spare magazines. This was his third hyper-violent confrontation with the feds in a week. He was not even shot at this time, but later, when his gun likely discharged while being removed-from-scene.   Tragic case, but this guy was not killed for 'being too good for this dark Age,' or what not. And, it is broadly interesting to think about why that second narrative is needed. Post-modern city kids who have rejected the saints of the past seem absolutely desperate for new ones."

Meme - "Pretti was a VA Nurse and Jetirey Dahmer Was an Army medic."

Meme - "Saint Tail Light, the newly canonized saint and role model of Democrats fighting to keep child molesters and other dangerous illegal aliens in his neighborhood. That's his legacy. *Alex Pretti in scrubs kicking tail light and spitting on black car*"

Links - 20th March 2026 (2 - Zohran Mamdani)

Marc J. Randazza 🇺🇸 🇮🇹 🇧🇷 on X - "NYC's annual budget is twice Tokyo's, and Tokyo's quality of life is about 100 times better than NYC. Tokyo has twice the people. NYC's budget is $120b per year, GREECE spends $85 billion per year and they have A FUCKING ARMY AND A NAVY."

DeSantis Takes Victory Lap as NYC’s Mamdani Eyes Tax Surge, Contrasts Florida’s Fiscal Model - "DeSantis highlighted Florida’s population edge and leaner spending, noting the state now has nearly 4 million more residents than New York while maintaining a smaller budget. “Florida now has almost 4 million more residents than NY, yet their budget is over TWICE AS LARGE as Florida’s!” DeSantis said in remarks that gained traction among conservative commentators and Florida Republicans.  He pointed out that New York City, with roughly 8 million residents, operates a budget larger than Florida’s entire state allocation, despite Florida delivering what he described as superior infrastructure, roads and services.  “New York City with 8 million people has a larger budget than the entire state of Florida and yet our infrastructure is better, our roads are better, services are better,” DeSantis stated.  “These are CHOICES,” he added. “They don’t respect the taxpayers in these places and people have rebelled now.”   The comments come amid Mamdani’s recent preliminary budget proposal for fiscal year 2027, which totals around $127 billion — a figure that has drawn sharp comparisons to Florida’s approximately $117 billion state budget despite the vast population difference (Florida at over 23 million residents versus New York City’s 8 million-plus).  DeSantis linked the criticism to broader New York issues, including ongoing homelessness and crime challenges in certain areas.  “It’s not just taxes. You have homeless problem. You obviously have had crime problem in some of these areas for a number of years,” he said...   DeSantis’ remarks align with ongoing narratives of migration from high-tax states like New York to Florida, with recent population estimates showing Florida surpassing 23 million residents compared to New York’s roughly 20 million."
Time to mock red states again

Jeffery Mead on X - "NYC wants a 127 billion dollar budget. The entire state of Florida runs on about 117 billion. NYC has 8.8 million people. Florida has around 22 million.  And now NYC is staring at a deficit because Mamdani wants to increase spending even more.   About 40 percent of NYC’s budget goes to the Department of Education and the city still doesn’t outperform Florida in education.."

Mamdani Needs to Close a $10 Billion Budget Gap. He Should Start with Schools - "New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani faces a $10 billion budget gap next year. In addition to seeking a tax hike from Albany, Mamdani has committed to identifying savings in the current budget to help fill the gap. If he wants to find inefficiencies, he should begin with the New York City Department of Education, which accounts for 40 percent of the city’s budget and presents significant opportunities for improved efficiency.  The number of students enrolled in city schools has shrunk by 10 percent since its peak in 2010. Despite this, the DOE’s budget has grown by more than $1 billion yearly since 2019, reaching $40 billion this year. As a result, projected per-pupil spending will exceed $42,000 per child this year—the highest among major districts nationwide and about $10,000 more than in the 2021–22 school year... the mayor should consider the suggestion of Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, that he ask Albany to pause the class-size law, which could save the city $1 billion. This law—capping classroom sizes at 20 for grades K–3, 23 for grades 4–8, and 25 for high school—primarily benefits wealthier, higher-performing schools at the expense of instability and increased costs.  The law has proved crippling for many schools. Those that have not reduced class sizes—about a third of city schools—face challenges hiring additional qualified teachers or finding adequate space. This month, the Center School, a middle school in the Upper West Side, learned that it might be relocated due to building overutilization related to the class-size law. Other schools facing similar problems include the Salk School of Science, which could relocate to the West Village, and Brooklyn Technical High School, which might need to construct a separate annex for ninth-graders.  Nor can schools escape the law’s constraints by limiting enrollment. Last November, New York City Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos told public school principals that reducing enrollment was “not an approved strategy for individual schools to increase compliance with smaller class sizes in the 2025-26 or 2026-27 school years.”"
Clearly, he can close the budget gap and provide all the free stuff he promises by "taxing the 'rich'"

Network Contagion Research Institute on X - "NCRI assesses that the Democratic Socialists of America acts as an unregistered foreign agent inside the United States. We assess that DSA coordinates with hostile foreign states through delegations and joint activity, receives undisclosed material support such as in-kind benefits and luxury travel, and fails to report this support on required tax filings. We further assess that DSA imports the narratives and tactics developed abroad into the United States and deploys them to drive protests against ICE, law enforcement, and other domestic institutions, creating a direct pipeline from foreign coordination to domestic unrest"
Jason Curtis Anderson on X - "The DSA now has 250+ elected officials nationwide, including Zohran Mamdani. If you spend all day warning that Trump is compromised by Russia but ignore concerns about DSA ties to regimes like Cuba, China, or Venezuela, you’re not defending democracy, you’re playing favorites."
Left wingers just pretend he's unconnected to the DSA despite him being a member

Jon Levine on X - "Top Zohran Mamdani advisor Drashti Brahmbhatt is also a defund the police radical who has called for abolishing the NYPD"
memetic_sisyphus on X - "Zohran said in response to a man getting shot charging at cops with a butchers knife in hand that “no family should have to go through this.” This wasn’t a mistake. They don’t view use of force as legitimate, even when that force is used to save an innocent civilian from being stabbed. They should never have political power."

Laura Loomer on X - "BREAKING:  NYC’s Muslim Communist Mayor @NYCMayor  @ZohranKMamdani  just called on New Yorkers to look to Islam and the Prophet Mohammed when it comes to immigration.  “I consider my own faith, Islam, a religion built upon a narrative of migration.”  “The story of the Hijrah reminds us that Prophet Mohammed, was a stranger too, who fled Mecca and was welcomed in Medina,” he said.   He’s even speaking Arabic while addressing New Yorkers, as he forces Americans to embrace the fifth pillar of Islam, Hajj (Pilgrimage).   Mamdani is Islamifying New York, just as I said he would, and he is using Islam to justify mass immigration and his policies in opposition to ICE.  @DHSgov    This is why it should be ILLEGAl for Muslims to hold office in America!  These Muslims literally want to take over our country with mass Islamic immigration."
Gazelle غزاله شارمهد on X - "Everyone who has escaped jihadist occupation felt a chill hearing this 😳  Mamdani is casually invoking “Hijra” — the historical turning point scholars identify as the moment Islamic movement shifted into a political-military project, when militants aligned with armed factions in Medina and Islamic  “migration” became a strategy of invasion of the entire Middle East and occupation of our homelands.  That reference is not benign.  Mamdani is not merely a Muslim — he is, de facto, an Islamist, and what he just did is dangerous.
There is a clear distinction between:
•Muslims, whose private faith is legally protected;
•Jihadism, the violent doctrine of imposing Sharia and a caliphate;
•Islamism, a form of political warfare that facilitates and normalizes the path to jihad.
Islamization is not faith.  Islamization is a deliberate political warfare strategy: infiltration of institutions, harassment and intimidation, disinformation, propaganda, front organizations, lobbying networks, lawfare, and gradual policy capture — all designed to normalize Islamic supremacy inside secular systems until resistance is labeled “illegal” or “racist.”  No, we cannot ban Muslims from holding office @LauraLoomer  . That would violate the Constitution and international human rights law.  But when a public official uses Islamic doctrine, religious pillars, or clerical narratives to shape American public policy, he is not expressing faith — he is weaponizing religion as a political tool.  That is not protected belief. That is subversion of constitutional order.  Islamist power is backed by state sponsors, billions in funding, global networks, militias, kidnappers, assassins, and a long, documented history of undermining democracies from within before force is ever used.  By injecting Islamic ideology into American governance, Mamdani crossed a constitutional and national-security red line.  This is not speech. This is abuse of office.  He should be removed from office — not for being Muslim, but for advancing a foreign ideological project fundamentally incompatible with a secular republic and American values.  Private belief is protected. Islamization is not — and must not be tolerated."
It was only theocracy and a violation of the First Amendment when George W Bush talked about a "crusade"

Scott Jennings on X - "After a police officer was stabbed while on duty in New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited the hospital... Not to check on the officer, but to comfort the ATTACKER! That is your Democratic Party in 2026."

David J Harris Jr on X - "New Yorkers BLAST Mayor Mamdani as snow covered sidewalks remain unusable days after the storm.🔥 Sadly, they voted for his incompetence."

The Uri on X - "As an Israeli, I was always amazed from how well a city like New York deals with snow and extreme winter conditions, as we Israelis can’t even handle a little bit of rain. It took only one month with Zohran MamdaNazi to turn the great NYC into a third world city"

Meme - Matthew Murphy @Matt_Murphy_: "On the left is Jack Pritchard, the most decorated firefighter in FDNY history. He also holds the department's highest honor for valor. On the right is an obese, severely out of shape, non-binary lesbian with mental health issues and CPR training. Guess who the communist Mamdani chose to lead the FDNY?"
I remember when left wingers were gushing over Justin Trudeau's first cabinet, because a lot of them looked like they fit the job

Shame: Zohran Mamdani heckled after mother Mira Nair's Epstein link emerges - "Newly elected New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani faced backlash after his mother, filmmaker Mira Nair, was mentioned in the latest Epstein-related emails released by the Department of Justice, with some of his supporters heckling him outside his official residence, Gracie Mansion.  Videos captured a group of people outside Mamdani's residence shouting "shame" and "you lied to us" through a megaphone.

Hans Mahncke on X - "While there is no evidence that Zohran Mamdani is Jeffrey Epstein’s son, the fact that his mother appears in the Epstein files highlights a much broader and deeper problem, which is the incestuous nature of elite networks. At a certain level, everyone seems to know everyone, work for everyone, or is connected through some opaque web of professional and personal ties.  A supposedly random figure from the squalor of Uganda rises all the way to mayor of New York, only for it to later emerge that his mother is deeply embedded in elite circles. The same pattern shows up again and again. James Comey’s daughter just happened to be a lead federal prosecutor on the Epstein case. The judge who presided over the trial of Hillary Clinton’s lawyer, the one who helped seed the Russiagate hoax, is married to Lisa Page’s lawyer. Page, of course, was involved with Peter Strzok, who is one of the central figures in that same hoax. And to complete the circle, Merrick Garland officiated their wedding.  None of this requires conspiracy theories. It requires only acknowledging how small, closed, and self-protecting these elite worlds are. Fix elite incestuousness, and a lot of other problems will disappear on their own."

NYC cops, sanitation workers ordered to stop taking down homeless encampments weeks before 10 found dead in deep freeze - "Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration ordered city cops and sanitation workers to stop tearing down homeless encampments just weeks before 10 people were found dead outdoors during the Arctic deep freeze... Under Mamdani, cops are only allowed to help if someone in the tent has a medical emergency.  Even if there are safety issues that could put someone’s life at risk, officers on the ground have been told they need to run the concern up the chain of command to a supervisor, sources said.  Workers in the Department of Sanitation have also been ordered not to touch any encampments...   “We have below-zero temperatures at night, but the administration is taking a smiley, milquetoast approach to Code Blue enforcement,” Ariola said. “It may sound nice to his idealist progressive supporters when he says he won’t enforce homeless sweeps, but the reality is that these sweeps get people indoors and out of the elements. Some people need that kind of tough love for their own good.”"
Time to blame "Capitalism"

Sean Fitzgerald (Actual Justice Warrior) on X - "Mamdani specifically ended homeless sweeps because he thought it was more empathetic to ask mentally ill homeless people to make a rational choice to go to a shelter rather than force them & save their lives. This may be the 1st instance of Homicidal Empathy as public policy"

NYC's socialist mayor who attended private schools will shut down 'gifted and talented' program - "Danyela Souza, vice president of Community Education Council 2 in Manhattan, told the New York Post the decision could spark an exodus from the city public school system.  'Mamdani is eliminating opportunities for low and middle income students to access an advanced education,' Souza said.  'He's taking away opportunities from families who are not as fortunate as his family. It's going to accelerate families leaving the city public school system.'"

Ian Miller on X - "America is such a horrible, racist country that Zohran Mamdani pretended to be black to increase his odds of getting into a prestigious university"
wanye on X - "The last 15 years of racial discourse in the US has been like “We did an experiment where we gave job applicants stereotypically black names and then we used a sophisticated voice analysis model to detect subtle changes in affect when hiring managers spoke to those applicants” Vs. “They wrote down that they won’t hire white men”"

How Mamdani’s Democratic Socialists Sought Ties With Chinese Officials - Newsweek - "Members of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Democratic Socialists of America have been cultivating ties with officials of the Chinese Communist Party and agreeing to take pro-China positions, according to extensive minutes of internal meetings seen by Newsweek.   The minutes of the DSA meetings show participants discussing contacts with officials from China’s ruling party in the name of "anti-imperialism," with some members saying the organization should avoid topics that are sensitive for Beijing, such as China's threats to invade Taiwan, its security crackdown in Hong Kong and abuses of the Uyghur Muslim minority. They also discuss visits to China. Chinese officials did not take part in the meetings themselves but met with members in China and encouraged the DSA to set up exchanges, according to the minutes. "China wants to interface with the DSA," one New York-based political activist told a meeting on October 8 last year of the China Working Group of the DSA's International Committee, which helps set policy and advises leaders. "If we develop a killer two-week itinerary, hire locals, and develop further connections with the CPC [Communist Party of China], then we're golden," says the person, whose name is redacted... Mamdani’s victory in the mayoral election last year highlighted the rise of the Democratic Socialists as a political force and particularly in New York, where China has long sought to influence the leadership of a city with one of the largest Chinese populations outside China. It has used lobbying and campaign donations from dozens of local groups linked to the Chinese Communist Party... While the minutes of the DSA meetings do not indicate any wrongdoing, they do raise new questions over the extent of Chinese influence within the group and more broadly in the United States. They are also an indicator of how China’s Communist Party seeks to build ties with influential political groupings in the United States. The DSA’s website describes the group’s New York chapter as “Zohran’s political home” and says his victory would not have been possible without it... the minutes show that not everyone agreed on the approach to China.    One member—whose name was redacted—tried to push back against the consensus, voicing concern about the group not debating the rights of Chinese people: "Saying we can't talk about their rights until we defeat American imperialism doesn't work for me," the person says.   But that person was contradicted and described as unkind. "In the future let's try to have conversation that encourages debate," another person tells them. The objector apologized."

Raylan Givens on X - "🚨 Mamdani’s NY: The planned show of Israeli stand-up comedian Guy Hochman, who also served as an IDF soldier in Gaza, was canceled at the last moment, following an extensive and organized pro-Palestinian protest that blocked the entrance to the Broadway Comedy Club. Posters with his name were painted red, with the words: “I am coming to conquer Gaza,” and calls for a boycott and to “blow up” the show were spread online.  Hochman himself wrote on Instagram: “Sons of b*tches are blocking the entrance to the club, and the police decided not to approve the show.” NYPD officers who arrived at the scene determined there was a risk to public safety and an inability to maintain order, and ordered the immediate cancellation of the event."

Mamdani gets dinged by New York Times for lack of Black deputies - "New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani,  one of the most progressive elected officials in America, has a diversity "problem" on his hands.  The New York Times published a report on Thursday headlined, "None of Mamdani’s Deputy Mayors Are Black. It Has Become a Problem," which says some Black and Latino leaders are concerned that "they are being denied access to power" under the new mayor, who ran on a hard-left platform and was celebrated in the press for being the first Muslim and first south Asian mayor in the city's history... Described as a "well-known Black political consultant," Tyquana Henderson-Rivers told the paper that Mamdani "doesn’t have the best relationship with the Black community" and "it seems like he’s not interested in us because there’s no representation in his kitchen cabinet." The Times then touted the staffs of former Mayors Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio for being more diverse... Kirsten John Foy, the president of the civil rights group Arc of Justice, told the Times that Mamdani is "tone deaf to the cries of Black and Latinos in the city for access to power." The Times also noted that Mamdani has chosen two Black people for high-profile gigs, schools chancellor and director of intergovernmental affairs, but "leaders say those appointments do not constitute the level of diversity they had expected" from the far-left mayor... The spokesperson told the Times that of 32 appointees so far, 18 have been Asian American, Latino, Middle Eastern or Black. The administration told the Times it plans to make "six high-level commissioner or director appointments, five of whom are expected to be Black or Latino." Many took to social media to mock the notion that Mamdani is not "woke" enough, with one commentator saying, "It must be so exhausting being a lib.""
When you push tribalism: "now it's our turn to eat"

Universal Childcare Could Hurt New York’s Kids - "Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced an ambitious, multiyear plan to make childcare free for all children under five in New York City. The multibillion-dollar proposal would phase in a universal “2-Care” program for Gotham’s two-year-olds, further fund the city’s existing 3-K program, and provide “additional support to ensure truly universal Pre-K for all four-year-olds in the State.”  Governor Hochul claimed that the plan would make New York State and City “the best places in the nation to . . . raise a family.” But evidence suggests that universal childcare is often unsustainable and leads to worse outcomes for children. New York is not the first to try such a scheme. Beginning in the late 1990s, the Canadian province of Quebec rolled out one of North America’s most comprehensive childcare systems. While the program increased the number of parents in the workforce, it also yielded negative impacts on children’s behavior and self-reported health, increasing children’s anxiety and aggression by about a tenth of a standard deviation.  Evidence from Bologna, Italy, points in the same direction. There, children entered public daycare according to enrollment rules that, by design, allowed researchers to measure how early childcare affected otherwise similar children who entered at different ages. In Bologna, some children entered daycare as toddlers while others stayed home longer.  In that study, children who spent more time in daycare later scored lower on cognitive tests and had more negative personality traits. For children who would have received consistent attention and exposure to language at home, daycare replaced a superior option.   Young children need time, stability, and one-on-one interaction. Even the best childcare systems struggle to replicate those conditions once they expand beyond a limited scale. Scale problems are particularly acute in the public sector. Because staff-to-child ratios and supervision are key to program success, childcare doesn’t scale well. When programs expand quickly, they stretch their existing resources by hiring faster, reducing training, and relying on less experienced staff."

Chris Sommerfeldt on X - "Both Mayor Mamdani and Comptroller Levine say NYC faces a $2.2B shortfall for the current fiscal year and an eye-popping $10.4B gap for the next FY, which starts in July. They blame Mayor Adams' admin. Mamdani says this underscores the need to increase taxes on millionaires."
Maria Danzilo on X - "“Raising taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers and corporations” is a matter of defining what is meant by “wealthy”.   In Mamdani’s view,  evil middle class  home owners are the ones who need  to be obliterated and brought to heel  so if you are a homeowner ( including owners of cooperative apartments and condominiums), you should brace yourself for significant tax increases. His housing expert Cea Weaver targets “white” homeowners specifically as the enemy. Both she and Mamdani see a future where private property ownership is abolished in favor of government and corrupt NGO owned housing.    Property tax increases are the most pernicious. Increases can be implemented  without the voters even realizing it, and in a city where renters outnumber owners, and owners are not well organized, such increases may not receive significant push back.   The sad thing about this of course is that high property taxes will make owning even less possible and out of reach for so many people who live in New York City. They will be deprived of the opportunity to build wealth and housing security for themselves and their families. Working and middle class families and people of color who don’t have equity will be the hardest hit.   Socialists like  Mamdani and Weaver do not want people to build wealth. This is directly opposed to their extremist ideology where only the state ( and those who control the state) can get rich.   @OneCityRisingNY   @KennyBurgosNY  @TheRealSPONY"

Women's Stupid Questions

"Let me tell you something. If your girlfriend asks you what you would do if she was a worm or if she was a puddle of water or anything, stupid like that, you just tell her exactly what she wants to hear because she's never gonna be a worm. Tell her what she wants to hear, what is the point in actually bringing logic to something like that? She's gonna hurt her feelings"
"So are you saying that logic hurts women?"
"No. One time I asked the guy that I was seeing if he would still like me if I was a puddle of water. And he said, no"
"What?"
"And I got so sad, that hurts my feelings"
"Wait, so he's supposed to lie"
"I wanted him to say: I would put you in a mason jar and put you in my pocket and then take you everywhere and travel the world"
"So chat, what have we learned, guys?"
"That women are stupid?"

Links - 20th March 2026 (1 - General Wokeness [including Olympics Hockey & Alysa Liu])

USA Men’s Hockey Gold Win Was Apparently Too Much for Sports Writers to Bear | National Review - "The conventional wisdom within our illustrious sports media this morning seems to be that Eileen Gu, who skis for China, is an estimable American role model, whereas the USA men’s hockey team, which plays hockey for America, is an international disgrace... The charge against the men’s team seems to be four-fold. First, that, having won the gold, its members declined to address the “tide of fascism in the United States” and instead said gauche hyper-nationalistic things, such as, “This is all about our country right now,” “I love the USA,” “I’m so proud to be American today,” “This is for every American,” “It’s the greatest country in the world,” and “Everyone better be wearing the red, white, and blue for as long as they can.” Second, that during a post-game phone call with a rollicking President Trump, the players didn’t band together on the spot to push back against his supposedly sexist jokes — or apologize later for their complicity. Third, that the team subsequently agreed to go to the White House to celebrate their victory — and, even worse, that it seems excited by that prospect. Fourth, that the FBI director, Kash Patel, went over to Italy to watch the game and then chugged beer with the team in the locker room. Together, the sporting press is keen to inform us, these decisions have “sullied” the USA’s victory and ruined the reputations of its architects for all time. What nonsense this all is. What narrow, monomaniacal, outlandish, freakish guff. I had a low opinion of sports writers before the last 48 hours, but good grief do I now want to throw the entire corps into a lake. The USA men’s team wins the gold for the first time in 46 years, and the news cycle following that achievement is stocked with fringe, politicized crap. I am reminded in this moment of Margaret Thatcher, berating the press after the recapture of South Georgia during the Falklands War. “Just rejoice at that news,” Thatcher said, “and congratulate our forces and the Marines.” Amen, Maggie. Just rejoice, and congratulate our team. I promise you’ll live through the ordeal. Not everything has to be a campus psychodrama. Not all stories need to “surface the nuances of” this or that. Not every incident that tangentially involves Donald Trump requires his elevation to the star of the tale. It’s okay to be happy that the United States won something, without finding 100 other reasons to be sad, angry, indignant, or confused. There really is no need to stretch to canonize a woman who represents another country when we have our own heroes before our very eyes. Rejoice! Journalists are not politicians, and there is no need for them to be perfectly representative of the nation. But it might be a good thing for our culture if they weren’t all massive weirdos. If you were to stop 100 people on the street at random and ask them about the USA’s victory on Sunday, how many do you think would fixate on the supposed jingoism of the team, or on President Trump’s phone call and White House invitation, or on Kash bloody Patel?"

USA Men’s Hockey Gold Win Was Apparently Too Much for Sports Writers … : r/NewsWorthPayingFor - "They sure are upset over at r/hockey
https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/1rdc6px/jack_hughes_addresses_the_pateltrump_phone_call/
Related: "r/hockey stands with LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and AAPI."
Should I point out that this is offensive to Canadians? They prefer "2SLGBTQI" (see: https://www.canada.ca/en/women-gender-equality/free-to-be-me/2slgbtqi-plus-glossary.html)
SOTU Update late 2/24:
Trump introduced the team and announced that Connor Hellebuyck will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Naturally r/hockey lost its collective mind.
https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/1re0uve/president_trump_introduces_the_mens_team_usa/"
"Sports "journalists" are, as a rule, as Ameriphobic and as commie as their colleagues in the Left stream Media are. Of course, this is their take on an amazing game."

Melissa Chen on X - "Is the NYT ok? They're making it sound like the US ice hockey team shouldn't have accepted an invite to meet Hitler after winning the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Very strange that this attitude about how "this isn't a neutral climate," doesn't apply to Eileen Gu. They could've just as easily written: "This isn't a neutral climate. This isn't a neutral country. And in a world this polarized, the proximity to China carries weight whether Eileen Gu is being intentional or merely naive." But no. They write this about the gold-winning US hockey team taking a congratulatory call from President Trump and accepting the invitation to appear at Trump's State of the Union instead. I understand how hating America is virtually a job requirement for being a journalist these days, but even a sports journo? C'mon man!"

Alise Mills on X - "Let me say this about the @globeandmail 's decision to run this lede. What the editors at The Globe and Mail chose to print wasn’t edgy. It wasn’t clever. It wasn’t even sharp. It was lazy, inflammatory, and grotesquely irresponsible. To describe the “state of the union as a zoo” and the U.S. men’s hockey team as “the monkeys” is not satire, it is dehumanization. Full stop. “Monkey” has a long, ugly history as a racialized slur. It has been weaponized to demean, to belittle, and to strip people of their humanity. Any newsroom with even a passing familiarity with language, history, or basic decency knows this. This is not obscure. It is not subtle. It is not debatable. And this wasn’t some rogue tweet fired off at 1am. It was edited. Approved. Published. That means multiple "adults" in a professional newsroom looked at that wording and thought, “Yes, that’s fine.” That failure is institutional. If the paper intended metaphor, they failed. If they intended provocation, they succeeded but at the cost of their own credibility. If they intended humour, they should consider a different line of work. A national newspaper carries influence. It sets tone. It signals standards. When it chooses language that echoes dehumanizing tropes, it lowers the bar not just for itself, but for public discourse more broadly. And at a time when media organizations constantly lecture the public about civility, standards, and responsible speech, the hypocrisy is glaring. Criticism of American politics? Absolutely. But equating human beings with animals — especially in a context loaded with historical baggage is beyond the pale. An apology would be the minimum. A serious internal reckoning about editorial judgment would be wiser. Because if this is what passes for commentary at one of Canada’s flagship publications, then the real circus isn’t on the ice."
This won't stop left wingers claiming they are centre-right
Dehumanising white men is good

Geoff Russ: There is nothing morally superior about a silver medal at the Olympics - "Too many Canadians are comfortable with second place, even to the point of celebrating it. In the final showdown of the men’s ice hockey tournament at the Milano-Cortina Olympics, the United States beat Canada in overtime to take the gold medal... A normal, mature country would recognize the game as a painful defeat, a source of short-term anger, possibly long-term bitterness, and a cause for self-reflection. Some Canadians did that, but others tried to pretend that a silver medal was some sort of moral victory for the country. “I’d rather be a Canadian with a silver than an American with a gold,” a quote that Bruce Croxon, a former CBC presenter, approvingly posted on X, as he tried to turn second place into a sort of deranged sacrament. Let us be serious. Taking pride in being the runner-up is reserved for underdogs. As a wintry nation that led the gold medal count at the 2010 Winter Olympics, we are not meeting the expectations we set for ourselves 16 years ago... Our public culture has a terrible habit of thinking that second place can be a personality trait. Sentimentalizing resignation to defeat is certainly not an instinct for our athletes, but it is for many of those who fancy themselves as the stewards of our official narratives. This losing energy infects our politics, our economy, and the most intimate decisions of middle-class life. One Canadian who does not exemplify this is Wayne Gretzky, the greatest hockey player who ever lived, and a winner in every sense of the word. Now he is booed because he will not condemn U.S. President Donald Trump with the same vitriol as bitter men like Globe and Mail columnist Doug Saunders. Upon learning that some rabid Canadians had booed Gretzky at a sporting event, Saunders sneered that it was “ a small win ” on X. It hurts petty people to be reminded that Gretzky exemplifies true excellence of the sort that scares those who pathologise mediocrity... Gretzky will provoke their rage for the rest of his life, because our cult of second place cannot tolerate the presence of a man whose entire public identity was built around winning. If you are psychologically invested in settling, excellence is anathema. This same instinct is applied to our economy, especially in Western Canada. For too long, the risk-taking, entrepreneurial West has been treated like a fiscal sponge and cast as morally suspect. Alberta is the country’s top financial lifeline, with a productive culture of enterprise, yet it is constantly villainized as being too “ American ” when they try to reform healthcare to allow private-sector participation, for example. If people want to stick it to the U.S., this is not the way. Competitors are not defeated by kneecapping the productive and demonising winners. We can silence critics by building and celebrating our own without punishing them out of a sense of paranoia masquerading as patriotism. Being satisfied with less is a mental disease. For example, in a country rife with unaffordable housing, Canadians are now urged to rationalize becoming lifelong renters. One writer even urged Canadians to celebrate eternal renting and to disregard the “ cult ” of home ownership... Canadian anti-American energy often manifests in the worst ways, such as spitefully attacking national heroes, scapegoating fellow citizens, and morally posturing about coming in second. We should strive to outdo other countries, in sports and living standards. I certainly do, and am fatigued by my fellow Canadians seeking superiority by symbolism instead of performance."

Auston Matthews booed in Toronto when Leafs announced him as a gold medallist for Team USA
Being a sore loser is good when it pushes the left wing agenda

Meme - Steve Byrne @stevebyrnelive: "We live in a country where you can win Gold for China and end up on the cover of Time magazine but win Gold for US and have your own press turn on you."
"President Donald Trump and the USA hockey team dust up explained"
"Eileen Gu"

Hans Mahncke on X - "I think almost everything that can be said about Eileen Gu and Alysa Liu has already been said, but when I step back and look at the full picture, I keep getting blown away by how reality handed us a script far more perfect than anything fiction could invent.  On one side, you have the cold, elitist “I’m the most decorated” athlete, raised in one of the wealthiest and most exclusive neighborhoods in the country, Sea Cliff, who gladly sold out the country that gave her everything in order to became the PR face of a brutal dictatorship in exchange for a few suitcases of cash. On the other side, you have the happy-go-lucky, “That’s what I’m fucking talking about” girl from working-class Richmond, coerced by Communist Party operatives, refusing to bow to them, and proudly representing the United States. And that does not even begin to touch on the tortuous path Alysa’s father had in getting to the United States, compared with the easy route taken by Eileen’s mother, or the many other layers of this story.   And then, perfectly, one wins both her competitions and the other loses both. If anyone tried to make a movie out of this story, no one would believe it."

Meme - *Alysa Liu Nazi salute vs Elon Musk Nazi salute*

Oilfield Rando on X - "You see one refugee became a good figure skater so now we have to import 5 million Congolese DoorDash drivers"

Meme - PoliMath @politicalmath: "It's so weird to see the narrative shift from "MAGA wouldn't love Alysa Liu if they knew her politics" to "We hate the American hockey team for no reason whatsoever except that our political enemies like them""
The Athletic @TheAthletic: "It's nice to be feted as a winner, as the U.S. men's Olympic hockey team has been. But who's celebrating you - and why they're doing it - matters more. Athletes would be wise to recognize that, in this climate, celebration is easily repurposed into political capital."

Meme - Griffin Maxwell Brooks @Griffi...: "So confused by right wing accounts trying to claim her as if she isn't clearly a woke bisexual zoomer"
MAGA Voice: "l am in tears. Alysa Liu just did another beautiful skate at the Olympics. No political agenda, just having fun representing America going for GOLD. I LOVE THIS"
Jacob M. Wright: "If this is true then I have even more respect for her because she didn’t make the Olympics a soapbox to virtue signal her ideologies and bash America on the world stage like a brainwashed leftist cult member but instead checked them at the door and proudly represented America and let all of America root for her.  The left thinks that an athlete has to belong to a specific ideological side before we can root for them to win for America. We love Alysa because regardless of whatever she believes, she loves America and is proud to represent it. She held the American flag with immense pride.  Her story is uniquely American. A father fleeing a Communist regime to find a haven in the freedom America offers and raising her daughter to love and proudly represent the country. She is allowed to be young and dumb in whatever beliefs she will likely grow out of, but she doesn’t make it her entire identity to the point of needing to rant about it on the world stage.  A side doesn’t claim her. America claims her."
Of course, left wingers were claiming (without proof as usual) that MAGA hated her

Bizlet on X - "The thing is ‘right wing’ or ‘left wing’ is simply vibes at this point. It’s not about a coherent ideology. Everyone knows despite being a California liberal this girl represents the ‘right wing’ from her fun non bitchy demeanor and refusal to be ashamed to be an American."

Kangmin Lee | 이강민 on X - "Leftoids can't understand why conservatives cheer a girl like Alysia Liu because their worldview demands total ideological conformity and purity. Mildly disagree on one issue, and you're not just wrong, you're subhuman, unworthy of any admiration or basic respect, someone whose life must be utterly and completely destroyed. Conservatives can disagree with someone's politics yet still celebrate her talent, especially when she wins gold for Team USA, drapes herself in the flag, and openly expresses her love for America. One side hates everyone to their right across the board, the other can celebrate a cute American figure skater even when she doesn't check every box. The divide between left and right in America is between people who hate America and want to destroy it vs. those who love America and want to preserve it. It's that simple."
Of course, left wingers are claiming, without proof as usual, that MAGA hates her

The Alysa Liu discourse perfectly captures what’s wrong with modern progressivism : r/TrueUnpopularOpinion - "For anyone who didn’t know, Alysa Liu won gold in U.S. figure skating. She has received overwhelming praise from virtually everyone for her skating. On X (Twitter) a lot of right-leaning people and pages have also praised her for being the archetypal immigrant success story (since her dad came here from China and became a lawyer, and now she’s a world champion athlete) - as well as just generally being happy that an American won gold and feeling patriotic about it.  This has been met with scathing mockery from a lot of progressives who are quick to point out that she is progressive and “woke” and likely hates most of the conservatives who are praising her.  This is the problem with progressives. People on the right are happy to see her succeed. They’re happy that her dad came here through the legal immigration process, has contributed and been successful, and now she’s done the same thing in turn. They overwhelmingly don’t care about her politics especially because she hasn’t used the Olympics as a megaphone to broadcast her political beliefs. She’s just done what she was there to do.  Obviously, if the situations were reversed, you’d have a completely different reaction. If it came to light that she was a MAGA supporter, progressives would relentlessly bash and shame her, they wouldn’t praise or promote her performance, and they’d largely only care about her political views.  Anyone with common sense who has been alive for the last decade knows this is true because we’ve seen it happen over and over again. This is why so many people can’t stand modern progressivism. No matter what you do or achieve or what kind of person you are overall, the wrong political views are a completely overriding nonstarter.  This is not the case for conservatives which is why progressives are confused and think it’s a gotcha to point out that she’s a progressive. It’s not. None of them care.  Watching this play out in real time has been fascinating. It really encapsulates the problem with modern progressivism."

American-born skier competing for China says she feels like a punching bag after JD Vance’s comments - "People might be more reserved in their criticism if Gu refrained from discussing politics altogether. But she doesn’t. She opines on abortion and Black Lives Matter and President Donald Trump while instantly shutting up when questioned on China’s human rights abuses. Not to mention the fact that China is one of the United States’ primary geopolitical rivals... Americans are entitled to their opinions, yes. Opinions are more harshly regulated in countries like China, which Gu has represented since 2019."

Meme - "Tyler 31
Casual sex is dead. I just want to feed you, support you emotionally, do cute shit, and make out a lot. Anti-racist. Anti-fascist. Pro-Crunchberies. Unashamed superliker. Life's to short to feign disinterest. RACK, GGG. ACAB. Dissent in the streets, consent in the sheets. He/him/his. Vaccinated as fuck. Get ready for some OVER SHARING ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH"

The Inverse Rule of Civilization - "the more prosperous and advanced a civilization becomes, the more likely it is to destroy itself. I have long argued that progressivism is a disease born of prosperity because prosperity distances people from the hard realities of life... members of a prosperous society slowly forget what it takes to maintain the health and operation of their culture. They think less about how they arrived where they are and what must be done to sustain it. Instead, they fixate on perceived deficiencies in a system they have always known and assume the underlying foundation will simply always be there because it is the only baseline they have ever experienced. The longer a civilization remains prosperous, and the more insulated it becomes from hardship, the greater the detachment from reality it begins to accept as normal... We have stopped rearing children with any rational perspective of hardship, of what survival requires, and of how fragile complex systems truly are when, like our complex socioeconomic system, they are often subject to single points of failure. We caught a glimpse of civilizational strain during the COVID panicdemic. Supply chains faltered, social cohesion fractured, and fear replaced confidence. When it came time to absorb the lesson, however, we failed the test and chose not to reflect on what those uncomfortable months really represented. Instead, we doubled down on comfort and distraction and as a result, we ceded power to a generation of soft, sophomoric adult children unable to comprehend real pain or delayed gratification. These adult babies are idealistic and ideological yet bereft of knowledge about natural law, economic reality, or the requirements of living in a productive society, and they are living in an illusion of reality, not reality itself. Daniel J. Boorstin was right when he said that “We risk being the first people in history to have been able to make their illusions so vivid, so persuasive, so ‘realistic’ that they can live in them.” History records many civilizations that fell through revolution or war, but rarely does it record one that had not already rotted from within. Decay precedes collapse. When cultures pause to enjoy extended affluence, they often produce generations of ne’er-do-wells, foppish and self-indulgent classes who mistake comfort for permanence. Societies begin navel-gazing, self-recrimination, and endless moral posturing. Forward motion stops, and weak links form in the chain of progress. Leaders who appease those weak links as indulgent parents once did often accelerate the decline. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing inherently wrong with affluence. Success is not the problem; however, danger arises when prosperity is not paired with a deeply rooted, society-wide drive to achieve, improve, and compete. Capitalistic, free societies function as engines of progress precisely because they are externally focused and growth oriented. They understand that achievement is temporary and must be renewed. America, by contrast, has become internally focused. Significant portions of our academic culture wallow in self-loathing, dwelling on national mistakes as if there is nothing to learn from America’s unparalleled success."

Michelle Yeoh Avoids U.S. Politics Question in Berlin, Focusing on Cinema - "Michelle Yeoh declined to speak about U.S. politics during a press conference at Berlin Film Festival, saying it’s “best not to talk about something I don’t know about.” When asked by a reporter if she had any comment as an international actress on the current state of the U.S. — likely meaning Trump’s ongoing ICE raids, though that was not specified — Yeoh said: “I don’t think I am in the position to really talk about the political situation in the U.S., and also I cannot presume to say I understand how it is. So, best not to talk about something I don’t know about.” Yeoh, who is Malaysian and primarily lives in Switzerland, added that she wanted to “concentrate on what is important for us, which is cinema.” “We hear, ‘Oh, cinema is not going to survive because there’s so many other things happening, the attention span is getting shorter.’ But I truly don’t believe that,” she said. “Because I believe when we go to the cinema, that is time for you. You know, you switch off your phones and you’ve chosen to watch something that you want. And that is the time when you can open your heart and free your mind and have time to yourself. Cinema is a place where we all come together and laugh and cry, we celebrate, but it’s always important to keep that tradition alive. And I hope that is what we are here to do.”"

The Play's the Thing - "An interesting aspect of the AWFUL culture — including the male Karens — is the heavy involvement of people who are affluent, college-educated, and living in safe suburban environments, yet possess absolutely zero commonality or lived connection with the groups they aggressively champion. They are not merely sympathetic observers. They become rabid foot soldiers, sometimes even risking arrest or physical harm, to demonstrate how much they “care.” This phenomenon is not new. Many of the white activists of the late 1960s came from wealthy or professionally prominent families. Their parents were often community leaders, executives, professors, or political figures. Yet these young activists aligned themselves with revolutionary Marxists, violent radicals, or black nationalist groups whose goals — and frequently whose stated hatred — did not include them. The connection was emotional and symbolic, not experiential. What I’ve come to understand is that modern Americans who are anti-ICE, pro-Palestine, or pro-ANTIFA — and who are not illegal migrants, Gazans, or members of those groups themselves — are not actually supporting those causes in the literal sense. They are recontextualizing them. They are repurposing them as instruments for their own social positioning, turning the output of these movements into moral currency. The activist does not gain material benefit, but they gain status: moral superiority, belonging, and identity. In a society where traditional markers of meaning — religion, community obligation, and civic responsibility — have weakened, political activism fills the vacuum. It becomes a performance of virtue. The cause itself matters less than the signaling attached to it. In this way they resemble an army of modern Don Quixotes, charging into battle against enemies that largely exist in narrative form. The windmills must be giant dragons because the activist requires epic battles against giant dragons. Without dragons, the urgent moral drama collapses. Quixotic politics has become the stock-in-trade of the American left during the Trump era. Trump is not without flaws — far from it — but his opponents have elevated him from a political adversary into a mythological villain. The Trump presidency has been rhetorically transformed into Custer’s Last Stand, the Stonewall riots, the killing of George Floyd, and Auschwitz all rolled into one continuous moral emergency because once politics becomes existential theater, proportion disappears. Every policy disagreement becomes oppression, every enforcement action becomes fascism, and every election becomes the last election. Trump is planning to cancel the 2028 election and simply stay in the White House. Blacks will be returned to slavery, women will live the Handmaid’s Tale, and January 6th will be successful this time. The narrative demands consequences of not acting so disastrous that compromise becomes betrayal, ordinary civic disagreement becomes immoral. One is either with the movement or against the movement, there can be no middle ground. Trump himself has been converted into a symbolic tyrant — a straw-man Nicolae Ceaușescu, the Romanian dictator who ruled from 1965 until his execution in 1989. The comparison is historically absurd, but emotionally useful. If the villain is a dictator, then any resistance becomes justified. Why, by definition, opposition is positively heroic. As Hamlet said, “The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” These activists are not reacting to reality; they are constructing a moral stage on which they can play the role of liberator, the causes they attach themselves to function as props. Immigration enforcement becomes apartheid. Foreign conflict becomes personal guilt. Law enforcement becomes occupation. The facts are secondary to the utility of the narrative. The suburban protester shouting revolutionary slogans is not expressing solidarity so much as seeking meaning and because there is no rational basis for their opposition, it explains why debate or persuasion rarely, if ever, works. Their activism is not about solving a problem; it is about sustaining their identity. If the problem were solved, the identity would disappear with it. Since one cannot fact-check a psychological reward system, the windmills must become dragons, and the dragons must remain.Contemporary activists do not want victory in the traditional sense, largely because they can’t define what victory looks like and even worse, success ends the crusade. Instead, they need perpetual crisis, because crisis provides purpose and satisfies their vanity. This mentality has resulted in the “Omnicause”, their use of intersectionality to seamlessly slip from one “cause” to the next, an Alinsky outlined process of discarding one cause when it becomes a drag and adopting another that stokes the fires once again. Quixotic AWFULS and male Karens will keep charging, convinced they are saving the world when they are primarily saving themselves from the terrifying possibility that their lives might otherwise be wasted or ordinary. To me, it seems as if this is the culturally approved version of having an extramarital affair – it’s all the thrill without the downside of getting caught.heroi"

Nigel Farage urges US to oppose UK on free speech laws - "Nigel Farage has urged US politicians and businesses to tell the British government "you've simply got this wrong" on freedom of speech rules, as he compared the UK to North Korea... Citing the cases of writer Graham Linehan and a woman who was jailed over a racist tweet, Farage spoke about what he called "the really awful authoritarian situation that the UK has sunk into". During the session he was heavily criticised by some Democratic members of Congress, including Jamie Raskin who labelled him a "Putin-loving free speech impostor". Responding to Farage's appearance at the committee, Labour's Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: "Jetting off to another country and hyping up the prospect of the UK's trade with our closest allies being hit is about as anti-British as you can get." Earlier in the day Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer accused Farage of having "flown to America to badmouth and talk down our country""
Weird. Left wingers used to tell us that criticising your own country is patriotic. Of course, they only love free speech when it can be weaponised to destroy the West