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“I can promise there will be no weapons funding for you,” Luna, who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote.” “We are not your piggy bank,” she added, urging Zelensky to “negotiate for peace” instead.”

Democrats are rethinking ways to recapture voters they’ve lost to President Trump in recent election cycles, and they may have been offered an important lesson in the New York mayoral primary.In various post-mortems and focus groups done on the heels of their devastating 2024 election loss, Democrats have thoroughly examined exit polls and voter demographics in search of the gaps in their party’s appeal. But Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha, who served as a senior adviser on Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) presidential campaign in 2020, said Democrats are “overthinking” the solution by analyzing the voters who flipped sides or skipped voting...

This one really takes the biscuit: the mask is now fully off. It's official: the whole 'proscribed terrorist' routine is nothing but a bad political pantomime. It's completely insane. So as far as the British state are concerned, Al-Qaeda & ISIS are now paragon of democracy and 'Arab reform' - all thanks to Israel's trusted pair of hands in Westminster, Secretary Lammy, gleefully giving the western stamp of approval on the head-chopping self-appointed Caliph in Syria. Unreal....

With the crazy weather we have been having (fires, floods, heat, etc). I thought it would be nice to start to a thread with recommendations for the sake of preparedness.RecommendationsBest Overall App: AccuWeather for its balance of accuracy, usability, and short-term forecasts.Best for Storm Chasing: RadarScope for professional radar data.Best Overall Weather Radio: Midland WR400 for reliable, localized alerts and home use.Best Portable Radio: Sangean MMR-88 for emergencies or outdoor activities.Best Budget Radio: Kaito Voyager KA500 for affordability and versatility.

A police officer was shot outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Texas late Friday night and several armed people were taken into custody, the authorities said.The shooting took place outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.The detention center, which is about 28 miles south of Fort Worth, holds people who are awaiting deportation or are accused of violating immigration laws.Around 11 p.m. on the Fourth of July, officers from the Alvarado Police Department responded to a call about a suspicious person outside the detention center and saw...

With U.S. tariffs on steel, aluminum and light-duty vehicles continuing to batter the Canadian automobile industry, the CEOs of Canada's big three automakers are asking for a break. They met with Prime Minister Mark Carney this week to lobby for the elimination of the Liberal government's zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate. Maintaining it, they say, will cripple their companies and put thousands of jobs at risk. Carney cancelled Canada's digital services tax last weekend to keep trade negotiations going with the U.S. Could the ZEV mandate also be removed to help an auto industry bleeding from the trade war? And what...

I find Suchet's reading so engaging; I feet like I am listening to someone who was there when events unfolded. :DI created this thread to store any observations or comments made by those of us listening David Suchet's narration of the Bible. Prior threads of this series are listed in post #1 below. This week's book is available in a few different formats. Below the video image, I linked Bible Gateway's convenient hub offering David Suchet and many others providing audio readings of the books of the bible.Here is the YOUTUBE link for the book of Romans.NIV BIBLE | Romans...

It was about 1 a.m. on the Fourth of July when the facilities manager at a central Texas summer camp saw water from the Guadalupe River steadily rising amid a deluge of rain.Aroldo Barrera notified his boss, who had been monitoring reports of the storms approaching Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly, a recreation destination where an intercultural youth conference had been called off early just hours earlier.Despite an absence of warning by local authorities, camp officials acted quickly on their own, relocating about 70 children and adults staying overnight in a building near the river. With the kids safe, camp leaders including...

A young New Orleans police officer has died days after undergoing a Brazilian butt lift and complaining of “extreme pain” following the risky cosmetic procedure... Rosa — who was also a US Army Reservist who had just come back from deployment in Kuwait — had her pre-operative blood work done at Prestige Plastic Surgery Clinic in South Florida on March 19, and the following day, doctors removed fat from 12 areas around her body and injected it into the buttocks... The Miami-Dade medical examiner ruled her cause of death as a pulmonary embolism from blood clots associated with cosmetic surgery,...

SummaryIn his feud with Trump, Musk announces "America Party" Musk plans challenges to Republican incumbents Trump calls third party "ridiculous," says US is built for two-party system Investment firm delays launch of Tesla ETF WASHINGTON, July 6 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump called Elon Musk's plans to form a new political party "ridiculous," saying Musk could have fun with his new project but that the United States functions best under a two-party system.A day after Musk escalated his feud with Trump and announced the formation of a new U.S. political party, the Republican president was asked about it before boarding...

Democratic socialist nominee Zohran Mamdani is the front-runner to win the general election for Big Apple mayor but could be vulnerable if anti-Mamdani voters coalesce around one opposition candidate, a new poll released Thursday claims. The American Pulse survey shows Mamdani with the support of 35% of general election voters, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo with 29%, Republican Curtis Sliwa with 16% and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams at 14% and another independent candidate, Jim Walden, at 1%. “Mamdani has an early lead and a clear message, but deeper scrutiny may erode enthusiasm among general election voters,” said American Pulse pollster Dustin Olson....

Former Vice President Kamala Harris faced backlash after sharing a July Fourth photo on social media that conveyed a bleak outlook for America's future—and appeared to crop out former President Joe Biden. Rather than celebrating America and its freedoms, Harris portrayed a bleak view of the country, claiming it is in a difficult place due to President Donald Trump’s leadership. “This Fourth of July, I am taking a moment to reflect. Things are hard right now. They are probably going to get worse before they get better,” Harris posted on X. “But I love our country — and when you...

Dr. Joseph Giordano, the surgeon credited with saving President Ronald Reagan’s life after a 1981 assassination attempt and remembered for one of the pithiest comebacks ever uttered in an operating room, has died at the age of 84. Giordano’s family announced this week that he passed last month at a hospital in Washington, DC, from an infection caused by a lengthy illness. Giordano was in charge of the George Washington University Hospital (GW) trauma team that worked on the president after he was shot by would-be assassin John Hinkley Jr. on March 30, 1981, as the president emerged from the...

President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County, Texas, which has been hit with major floods that have killed at least 69 people, including 21 children."I just signed a Major Disaster Declaration for Kerr County, Texas, to ensure that our Brave First Responders immediately have the resources they need. These families are enduring an unimaginable tragedy, with many lives lost, and many still missing," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. "The Trump Administration continues to work closely with State and Local Leaders. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was on...

Former CIA top dog John Brennan is the poster child for the catastrophically widespread corruption of our intelligence apparatus, or at least of our intelligence apparatus before Donald Trump became president again. If this were indeed a land of impartial justice, and not one in which the prosecution of high-profile leftists would bring so much hysteria that Trump is a fascist dictator-in-the-making, that the firestorm could interfere with the implementation of his agenda, Brennan would be in prison today. That is the assessment of one of his former employees at the CIA, Bryan Dean Wright. Wright wrote in Fox News...

In politics, good news is rarely treated as news at all. For the past seven years, the Trump tax cuts have been maligned, distorted, and largely ignored, especially when the data didn’t fit the preferred narrative. Yet here we are in 2025, with President Donald Trump making a triumphant return to the campaign trail, promising a “big, beautiful” expansion of his 2017 tax reform. And frankly, he has every reason to double down. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 wasn’t just a win for corporations and the wealthy; it was a massive boost for working Americans, middle-class...

They entered the stores with shopping bags already full and left empty-handed, sometimes counting cash. Watching the transactions unfold in downtown Los Angeles were plainclothes detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, who suspected the stores, Quickmart and Big Apple, were buying and reselling stolen goods, according to a search warrant affidavit reviewed by The Times. When deputies raided the stores in February, they found allegedly shoplifted shaving cream, sunscreen and mouthwash — and $1 million inside a safe, said Det. Yesenia Olvera, who led the investigation. Lawyers for the store owners, a married couple, denied wrongdoing and argued...

**SNIP** A study released this week by GOBankingRates calculated the amount of money that a "comfortable" retirement would require without income from Social Security factored in and the associated yearly expenses a retiree would face in each U.S. state. **SNIP** Alabama ($70,492 cost of living per year): $1,409,839 Alaska ($110,457 cost of living per year): $2,209,137 Arizona ($100,281 cost of living per year): $2,005,627 Arkansas ($67,502 cost of living per year): $1,350,045 California ($155,117 cost of living per year): $3,102,333 Colorado ($114,744 cost of living per year): $2,294,882 Connecticut ($105,428 cost of living per year): $2,108,563 Delaware ($94,392 cost of...

Trump has largely shut down the southwest border by ending asylum programs and deploying troops. But those moves have shrunk the pool of easy-to-deport migrants.TIJUANA, Mexico — When President Donald Trump pledged to launch the “largest deportation operation in American history,” this border city swung into action. The local government declared a state of emergency. Federal authorities built a shelter for up to 2,600 deportees, complete with beds, showers and white-coated chefs. It was, one local official said, the “zombie apocalypse scenario.” But five months after Trump took office, the shelter is nearly empty. So few deportees have arrived —...

While Charles de Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws was an oft-cited source during the federal convention of 1787, his observations weren’t limited to the balance of powers in government. He also touched on the nature of educational systems in republics and despotisms. Parents and educators form our first impressions. They prepare people for civil life in republics and for servitude in despotisms. From previous chapters, Montesquieu had explained the springs, the forces which propel nations. Public Virtue is the propellant in republics, while the bayonet of fear prods despotisms. Education in despotic countries debases the mind. The mind of...