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Massie was never simply an independent-minded Republican. He repeatedly positioned himself against President Trump on some of the most important fights of Trump’s second term.

He opposed Trump’s major legislative agenda, fought the president on foreign policy, and built a strange political alliance with Democrats such as Khanna.

Khanna tried to frame Massie’s downfall as the result of courage. He claimed Massie was taken out because he worked to release the Epstein files and opposed the war in Iran.

But the real reason was much simpler: Massie went against Trump and the America First movement too many times.

When President Trump pushed the One Big Beautiful Bill as one of the defining legislative achievements of his second term, Massie opposed it.

When Trump moved forward with his foreign policy agenda, Massie joined Democrats in trying to limit the president’s authority. When Massie had the chance to stand with the Republican Party’s voters, he repeatedly chose the side of the Washington opposition.

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Shane Morgan

May 21 at 9:50 PM

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On January 6th I followed the crowd into the Capitol and shouted. Police stood by the whole time, hanging out with us and sometimes directing us places.

At one point near the House Chambers I was walking downstairs when a trio of some special section, secret service looking men started pointing guns in my direction.

Confused and annoyed, I walked the other way and when I saw a normal police officer asked him why they were doing that.

He informed me a protestor (Ashli Babbit) had been killed, and advised me to leave the building.

I walked towards the exit and after a short rest on the bench I left.

I harmed nobody and damaged no property that day and complied with all police orders.

What I received for that was a pre-dawn raid at my parents house, where my 1 month post-partum wife and I were staying, on Biden's first day in office. His DOJ had signed the order to arrest me 3 hours after his inauguration.

In the subsequent weeks I received death threats online and harassing phone calls, something that would be ongoing for the next few years.

I was banned from Meta and Paypal. My wife and I were both debanked by PNC and banned from Airbnb. My wife was detained at the airport for hours with our newborn daughter.

I was charged with 4 misdemeanors and the 1512 unconstitutional felony. The government offered to drop the misdemeanors if I pled to the felony. The felony was a lie, so I refused and went to trial.

At trial the prosecution for 2 days straight was allowed to show footage to the jury of things that occurred around the Capitol I wasn't present for "for context." When we asked to put forward footage that contradicted the prosecution's "context" we were not allowed. They could show what they wanted, we could not.

Police officers were then put on the stand for the next 2 days who cried about their experiences. I had no idea who they were. They admitted they never saw me or interacted with me.

Nevertheless like every other J6er, I lost, and was sentenced to 4 years and $22k in fines and restitution. Yet even after the Supreme Court overturned the felony, the judge would not let me out until my misdemeanor sentences of a year were maxed out. Because she can't count she actually kept me in longer - to the extent she intervened at the last minute to make the prison release me on a Sunday, something that is against BOP rules. My family sat outside the prison gates the Friday before practically the whole day waiting in vain because of this pettiness.

But the government wasn't satisfied with their pound of flesh: after my release they took me back in for resentencing, to attempt to have me resentenced after the fact to my misdemeanors consecutively, so I'd be taken from my family again and have another 1.5 years behind bars. This time I won, as they had no legal precedent and it skirted on violating double jeopardy since I had served my full prison time. Even still, it cast a cloud over the holidays and cost me another 20k my family couldn't afford.

People ask whether prison was bad, and yeah of course prison sucked. It was a hard and violent place. I was present for a stabbing, and was lucky to avoid two fights and a race war.

But dealing with Biden's DOJ and the DC Judiciary was the real trauma - they would grind down your spirit by weaponizing the legal system and use the endless procedure to bankrupt you. I had nightmares for months after release that I had somehow been hit with new charges.

By the time I was pardoned by President Trump, I had spent literally every single day of Biden's presidency either in prison or under some form of supervision. I had incurred over $300k in legal fees and over $1 million in lost business.

It was a reign of terror, and yet it was a mere foreshadowing of what they had planned for anyone else who opposed them under Kamala. The country should never forget it.

- Pat Stedman See less

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Robert Onfray Writer

May 21 at 2:28 PM

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Another round of "penguins are facing extinction from climate change!” stories has just appeared in the press, all based on a new paper by Peter Fretwell. If you only read the headlines, such as those from the ABC, you’d think Emperor Penguins are on the brink of disappearing because the Antarctic sea ice is suddenly melting due to global warming.

But the real story is far more complicated and far less catastrophic.

Peter Fretwell is not a zoologist. He’s a cartographer with the British Antarctic Survey who became involved with Emperor Penguins when satellite imagery allowed him to detect colonies from space, not by counting birds directly, but by spotting large stains of guano on the ice. His mapping work was genuinely valuable because before 2009, we didn’t know how many colonies existed, or even where some of them were. Thanks to satellites, colonies were discovered in places where no scientist had ever set foot.

However, the jump being made now is that a recent decline in several colonies must be the result of climate-driven melting. The media swallowed this eagerly, presenting the loss of sea ice in 2022 as proof that the long-predicted climate crisis is finally hitting penguins.

Except the evidence simply doesn’t support that conclusion.

As scientist Jim Steele points out, Antarctica is so cold that surface melt ponds are rarely observed, and Emperor Penguin breeding failures are usually caused by fast-ice breakouts, not melting. When the sea ice breaks apart before the chicks have moulted into waterproof plumage, they can’t survive.

More importantly, the colonies Fretwell cites as proof of climate disaster don’t behave like a simple melt narrative. For example, some colonies (like Pfrogner Point and Verdi Inlet) were only discovered a few years ago, so long-term comparisons are impossible.

Other colonies, such as Rothschild Island, had no breeding failure in the same year.

Populations at Smyley Island have always fluctuated wildly, long before the current climate storyline existed.

What actually explains the sea-ice variation in 2022 is well known in Antarctic science, namely natural pressure and wind systems, especially the Amundsen Low, which shift sea ice dramatically depending on seasonal strength and position. These variations are also linked to El Niño and La Niña cycles, not CO₂.

So instead of a continent-wide climate collapse, what we have is natural year-to-year variability, regional ice breakouts driven by wind patterns and selective interpretation turned into global doomsday headlines.

Once again, normal wildlife struggles, which are part of the natural ecology of Antarctica, have been weaponised to push a climate narrative that the data does not justify.

It’s a pattern we’ve seen many times. Predictions from the early 2000s claimed Emperor Penguins would be disappearing by 2010. Instead, satellite surveys discovered more colonies than we ever knew existed.

The real crisis here isn’t with the penguins. It’s with how science is reported.

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The expenditures have been enormous. According to our review of state funding records, since Newsom took office, California has granted massive contracts for migrant-related services: more than $250 million to Catholic Charities; $85 million to Jewish Family Services; $12 million to Centro Legal de la Raza; $23 million to the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area; and more.

Many nonprofits benefiting from these funds are shockingly radical. Al Otro Lado, a nonprofit that has been awarded more than $2 million from California since Newsom took office, helps migrants enter the United States—hence the group’s name, "to the other side.” On social media, Al Otro Lado touts its efforts to provide "freedom of movement” to migrants. In addition to providing legal guidance, the group deploys volunteers to "remote migration routes to leave water, food, and essential supplies.”

According to its own materials, Al Otro Lado is anti-borders and openly hostile to the American nation. In one Instagram video, the group’s litigating attorney Diego Teixeira clumsily summarized the view: "I honestly just believe that there’s no reason for why we should have borders.” In another video, the group shows off books from its library, such as Undoing Border Imperialism, that "remind us that the U.S. is [sh*t].” The organization, which did not respond to our comment request, is currently suing the Trump administration to prohibit the government from turning away certain migrants at the border.

[...]

Other groups focus on ideological subpopulations. Oasis Legal Services, another taxpayer-funded group, has worked on helping "queer and trans immigrants navigate immigration relief and benefits.” In a recent report, the group boasted that "the odds of winning an asylum case go up to 99% for clients when they are represented by an Oasis team member.” (The group denies that it encourages the entry of immigrants.)

Adam Ryan Chang, Oasis’s executive director, believes that "homosexual audacity” is his "superpower,” and he has framed his work with the nonprofit as part of a broader left-wing campaign of "liberating” the "LGBTQ+ community.” In a recent annual report, the group highlighted its work of apparently representing migrants with a sexually transmitted disease. In 2024, the report said, "one in six of new clients is living with HIV and the rest are all at significant risk of contracting HIV.” In 2025, the proportion increased to one in five.

In response to a request for comment, Chang said people "living with HIV are not barred from entering the United States on that basis.”

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Retail giants Target and Walmart reported higher sales for the fiscal first quarter this week, but offered a cloudy outlook amid signs of strain in the low-income segment of the consumer market.

Target reported $25.4 billion in sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, which ended on May 2, up by 6.7 percent from a year earlier. Comparable sales rose 5.6 percent, led by a 4.4 percent rise in traffic and strong growth across all six core merchandise categories.

Gross margin came in at 29 percent, up by roughly 80 basis points year over year, driven by productivity and supply chain gains, higher-margin revenue, and lower price markdown rates.

Management also noted that consumer sentiment has been declining and that the company is "keeping a close eye on their spending behavior,” with guidance pointing to "more challenging cost headwinds in the first half of the year that are expected to moderate in the second half.”

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It (the indictment) alleged that Abrego and his co-conspirators obtained financial payments from the undocumented individuals for unlawfully transporting them into and around the United States.

The indictment also alleged Abrego was "a member and associate of the transnational criminal organization ... [known as] MS-13,” which it describes as "a criminal enterprise engaged in ... acts and threats involving murder, extortion, narcotics trafficking, firearms trafficking, alien smuggling, and money laundering.”

Abrego "used his status in MS-13 to further his criminal activity” over the life of the criminal conspiracy during which he and co-conspirators "knowingly and unlawfully transported thousands of undocumented aliens ... many of whom were MS-13 members and associates,” according to the indictment.

U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. granted Abrego Garcia’s motion to dismiss, saying "the objective evidence here shows that, absent Abrego’s successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the Government would not have brought this prosecution.”

Within days after the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Abrego from El Salvador, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reopened the closed investigation of a Nov. 30, 2022, traffic stop of Abrego in Tennessee. Less than a month after that, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Abrego and brought him back to the United States to answer the indictment, the judge said.

Senior DOJ official Todd Blanche, who is now acting U.S. attorney general, had made public statements indicating that the federal government started investigating Abrego after a judge in Maryland questioned the government’s decision to deport him. The court previously held that Blanche’s "remarkable statements could directly establish that the motivations for Abrego’s criminal charges stem from his exercise of his constitutional and statutory rights,” and that Blanche directly tied the investigation "to Abrego’s Maryland suit,” Crenshaw said.

The reopening of the concluded investigation "is the source of the vindictiveness,” he said.

Quoting a prior legal precedent, the judge said a prosecutor’s "exercise of coercive power must be impartial ... evenhanded, [and] applied without favoritism or bias.”S.

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After pledging to convert an ICE detention center into a prison for Zionists, Texas’s 35th congressional district Democratic primary candidate Maureen Galindo faced backlash from critics within her party and assured that her position did not mean putting all Jews into internment camps.

In a Thursday social media post, Galindo promised to write legislation that proclaimed Zionism antisemitic, and promised to turn the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center into a prison for "American Zionists and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.”

"It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists,” Galindo added.

She explained in the same Instagram post that ICE officers and Zionists would be imprisoned because they controlled human trafficking in South Texas, and rejected any claims of antisemitism against her because Zionists were fake Jews committing against the indigenous Jews, "the Semites.”

Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy Garcia responded in a video statement on Tuesday, saying that comments about jailing based on their beliefs and targeting Jewish community members had no place in the Democratic Party. He accused a Republican PAC of funding Galindo and called on Republicans to take ownership of her comments.

"We should be bringing people together, not spreading hate, division, or dangerous rhetoric that pushes people away from our party and our communities,” said Garcia.

"They run the Epstein networks, and they control DHS, because that was the whole point of DHS and ICE – for the Israelis to occupy America with a domestic military,” the politician said in a May 8 Instagram post.

Journalists contacting the politician about her remarks were part of a "billionaire Zionist” media network that also controlled drug and weapon trafficking in Texas, she said on May 12.

Galindo has defended herself from accusations of antisemitism by repeatedly claiming that Zionist Jews were not real Jews. Zionists are European colonizers, according to Galindo, in contrast to the "indigenous people to the Middle East and Northern Africa Region,” whom she dubbed Semites.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of intentionally targeting civilians after a "terrorist" overnight drone attack on a school that left six dead and scores of young people wounded.

At least 39 were injured and counting, amid ongoing rescue efforts after a school complex was torn apart on the multi-drone strike attack. It happened at a school dormitory in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region. Over a dozen victims are still missing, including children, reports say.

Large-scale destruction was observed at the academic building and dormitory of the Starobelsk Professional College, which teaches students aged 14 to 18. Over 80 students were at the complex at the time of the attack.

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Yes, a huge majority say Americans have too much freedom and think they should be ruling the country. Oh, and they are fine with cheating to keep control.

Worse still are the "Politically Active Elites," members of that same elite class who engage with politics daily. In what may be the most alarming polling result I've ever seen, 69% of these Politically Active Elites would rather see their side cheat to win than accept the judgment of voters.

That is not merely offensive. It is a direct affront to the core American ideals of self-government, political equality and freedom. It’s a scandal that they play such an important role in driving the nation’s political dialogue.

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