MINNEAPOLIS, MN — After a raid on her home by federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar has expressed regret over hiring an immigration attorney from the Quality Citizeship Center.
"Omar, who represents an area of Minnesota with a large Somali population, may have gotten herself into legal trouble when she relied on a fraudulent enterprise to represent her against accusations that she committed fraud. Her first misgivings about the legal counsel from Quality Citizeship Center reportedly came when her lawyer told her to put all her assets in her brother's name because "Federal authorities can't prosecute a brother and a sister for the same crime."
"'Are you sure?," asked a skeptical Omar according to witnesses. "That doesn't make any sense."
"After her home was raided, those first intuitions of mistrust grew into full blown regret.
"'How could this have happened to me?" asked a tearful Omar in a video posted on TikTok. "Quality Citizeship Center promises that all their lawyers come from best 'lawyer learing centers' in the state."
"Omar released the video to her supporters asking for donations to help with her legal defense fund, which Quality Citizeship Center is now telling her will cost more money than initially anticipated.
"'This has been a very challenging time," continued Omar. "These attorney fees are getting very, very expensive, so please join the fight against fascism by donating to my legal defense crowdfunding campaign. Even just $5, $10, or $20 can go a long way as we fight Trump together."
"At publishing time, Omar was looking into finding better legal counsel down the street at the Quality Migratio Center."
"Mileage-based user fees restore the users-pay, users-benefit relationship disrupted by electric vehicles by charging drivers based on the miles they actually drive."
"The fuel tax remains an exceptionally efficient revenue stream, collected at the wholesale and distributor level at a range of 1% to 5% of revenue, but its base is eroding.
"The fuel tax remains an exceptionally efficient revenue stream, collected at the wholesale and distributor level at a range of 1% to 5% of revenue, but its base is eroding.
"Average new vehicle fuel economy in the United States has increased by nearly 19% in two decades, and states are starting to feel the impact on their transportation budgets. States that have indexed their fuel tax rates to inflation or other variables have slowed but not stopped that decline. Electric vehicle adoption removes the relationship between road use and fuel tax payments entirely for a share of the fleet that grows each year, allowing electric vehicles to degrade roadways through use without paying for road maintenance, repair, and construction.
"A mileage-based user fee (MBUF) restores that users-pay/users-benefit relationship by charging drivers based on the miles they actually drive. The design challenge is no longer finding a replacement; it’s making the replacement viable financially.
"The Congressional Research Service estimates current mileage-based user fee programs cost anywhere from 5% to 13% of collections. None of the four permanent programs evaluated in this study have demonstrated administrative cost parity with the fuel tax, but the patterns these programs have shown can help lower the costs still. Scale lowers per-vehicle administrative cost, simpler mileage reporting options (MROs) require less back-end administration and cost less to replace, and programs that leverage existing touchpoints rather than building new infrastructure start from a lower cost base.
"The next decade of operating data from Utah, Oregon, Virginia, and Hawaii will determine whether mileage-based user fees can meet the standard the fuel tax has set, or whether collection costs remain the central obstacle to making them a viable replacement.
"The four permanent MBUF programs in the United States have, collectively, just over two decades of operating data. Three of the four programs have been running for five years or fewer. That is a thin base to draw definitive policy conclusions from, but the patterns that have emerged over those years of operation are consistent enough to guide states that are designing their own permanent MBUF programs or looking to evaluate best practices for reforming existing ones." . . . More.
But first: New York Post Columnist Miranda Devine throws shade at former president Joe Biden, crashing his wife Jill’s book talk to bizarrely ask her who she loves the most in a cringe-inducing moment.
"“Really, what was the most pathetic was he made a point, seems like this was why he got up, to say that his book comes out in September,” Ms Devine told Sky News host James Morrow.
“The Bidens are grifters; they got a reported $30 million for both their books.
“The last thing they [Democrats] need before the midterms is for Americans to be reminded of how disastrous Joe Biden’s presidency was.”
"We all know Jill Biden was a terrible first lady, given that she hid from the country the fact that her husband had cognitively lost it. But a new book from the left argues that her awfulness as first lady goes beyond concealing her husband’s decline from the country. This is not a matter of not being progressive enough for their tastes. The book (gently) goes after her for being a self-interested coward who cares for no one but herself and her husband.
"Most first ladies have a cause. Michelle Obama was all about childhood obesity and gardening. Laura Bush focused on childhood literacy. Melania has “Be Best,” which is concerned with the well-being of children, but it’s admittedly vague. But Jill Biden had nothing. She didn’t care to bother even attempting to have a cause. (RELATED: Jill Biden: The Worst First Lady Ever)
"All Jill cared about was, in the words of Moaveni, “propping up Joe.” Jill, she said, “never pursued a distinct project.”
"“With time it would become clear that Jill’s choices — the events she attended, the strategy behind her travel schedule, the projects she took up, her interventions and her silences — were all fanatically devoted to propping up Joe.
”As Moaveni described it: “She stood steadfastly by her man and squeezed herself into such a narrow, Joe-centric persona that public opinion about the two of them essentially merged.” . . .
The best form of remembrance … reminding ourselves that the war with Iran didn’t begin this past February 28th with the decapitation strikes on Iran’s fanatical leadership
"On Oct. 23, 1983, shortly after 6:00 a.m. local time, a hijacked Mercedes stake-bed truck carrying approximately 6 tons of TNT-equivalent explosives smashed through a series of inadequate barriers and sentry posts and detonated at the building near the Beirut airport serving as the main barracks for peacekeepers from the first battalion of the 8th Marine Regiment. The four-story building collapsed on its occupants. Two hundred and forty-one American servicemen died: 220 Marines, 18 sailors, and three soldiers.
"Not quite 10 minutes later, a second truck bomb struck some four miles away at the building housing a contingent of French paratroopers, also present as peacekeepers deployed to help bring an end to the Lebanese Civil War. This time, 58 French soldiers died in the blast.
"For many days afterward, rescuers struggled valiantly to search for survivors trapped in the rubble, which proved to be largely a forlorn effort. The U.S. and French governments promised that they would honor their dead by staying the course and completing the mission and, briefly, their respective contingents were reinforced. But soon, and quietly, the withdrawal began. The U.S. would continue for a while to maintain a “rapid response force” situated on landing ships offshore, and the French conducted airstrikes.
"Most dramatically, the battleship New Jersey arrived and bombarded “terrorist associated targets” in Lebanon and Syria, pounding the Bekaa Valley with hundreds of 2700 pound 16-inch shells. Eventually, the New Jersey would also be withdrawn, along with the rapid responders, to no very great long-term effect.
"During the period following the bombing, the U.S. intelligence community generated significant evidence that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had been behind the bombings. Retaliatory strikes against Iranian targets were debated vociferously, but quietly, within the Reagan administration, but in the end no such action was taken.". . .
. . . "Today, we mark the anniversary of the Beirut bombing. By all means, take the time to remember and reflect, to honor those who died so horrifically. But please, in your moment of reflection, remember that they were the casualties of a war we’re still fighting, a war we never wanted, a war not of choice but a war inflicted upon us. I would like to think that the dead from that day would appreciate the fact that, all these years later, we’re finally fighting back.
James H. McGee is a retired nuclear security and counter-terrorism professional. His most recent novel, The Zebras from Minsk, was featured among National Review’s favorite books in 2025. His next novel, The Cathedral of Sorrows, will directly focus on the plight of Africa’s Christians.
"New California State is a new state in development forming from the State of California. New California State is exercising its God Given Rights as declared in the 1776 United States Declaration of Independence and as ratified in the 1789 United States Constitution under Article IV Section 3. "
‘The high speed rail project has just stubbornly refused to die despite it costing California so much’ By Evan Symon, January 7, 2025 1:52 pm
. . . Transportation industry accountant Derrick Clark also noted to the Globe on Tuesday that “The high speed rail project has just stubbornly refused to die despite it costing California so much. But, the problem for advocates is that there is still time to cut losses, and many are banking on the Trump administration to take away enough funding and add in enough federal pressure to end it. This is why everyone is rushing to get as much done now as fast as possible.
“We’ve seen it with so many transportation and infrastructure projects. There’s a big project that has gone overbudget, a big delayed project or a white elephant project that is in danger of being shut down, so everyone scrambles to get to a point and try to claim that they have gone past the point of no return. For high-speed rail advocates, that is the Bakersfield to Merced stretch. And the rail ceremony on Monday was, in addition to being a legitimate milestone, also a hopeful checkpoint for them.”
More high-speed rail actions are expected to be announced later this year, including a possible removal of federal funds by the incoming Trump administration.
Bibi "hijacks"? Israel cannot catch a break from the press, and the journalism schools that shape them. TD
Youtube"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted that unrest in France could trigger political change and improve relations with Israel, citing shared security concerns. He criticised President Emmanuel Macron’s calls for diplomacy in Gaza, warning that Hamas could threaten European cities.
"France has witnessed protests over living costs, fuel prices and public education, with violence reported in several cities. The unrest has intensified pressure on Macron ahead of the 2027 presidential election, amid worsening diplomatic tensions between Paris and Tel Aviv."
"Don't believe the polls. Go vote. Don't let them discourage you from voting. That is their goal."
"MS NOW's Katy Tur thinks Democrats are putting the cart before the horse celebrating a Talarico win in Texas. She's been on the ground and she isn't getting winning vibes for Talafreako." . . .
. . . "She believes the polls are overstating Talarico's strength in Texas and with all of these stories of fake polls coming out, that would be less than surprising." . . .
"A host from MS NOW isn't saying that to blow smoke. It's very clear from the look on her face she doesn't have much hope for turning Texas Blue. She's been in Texas recently. That means if Republicans and sane Independents vote, Republicans will win." . . .
You may recall Ms. Tur's father Bob Tur who, through surgery, became Zoey Tur in this threatening incident with Ben Shapiro:
MechFront"In the gun turret of a Grumman Avenger, the gunner sat facing the tail, inside a glass ball with armor plate and a heavy machine gun swung by electric motors. There was no room in there for his own parachute.
"This is the turret from the inside, in the order its gunners met it: gunnery school, the climb in from underneath, the catapult ridden backward, the cold, the armor, the torpedo run, two hundred rounds in one can, the fighters, a dead intercom, the parachute he could not wear, the water, the deck coming back, and the turret's first battle, at Midway on June 4, 1942, when six new TBF-1 Avengers flew out and one came back.
"It is told from the men who sat there and the papers they were trained from: the Navy's 1944 Aircrewman's Gunnery Manual, the memoirs of turret gunners from the Franklin and the Enterprise, Harry Ferrier's own account of Midway, the Naval History and Heritage Command's histories of the Midway detachment and of George Bush's shootdown over Chichi Jima, and the Navy's wartime combat statistics." More.
"Former President Barack Obama endorsed radical-left and antisemitic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, and the two will continue trashing Israel on the campaign trail (“Embracing an Israel-Hater,” Editorial, Oct. 21).
It looks like Obama isn’t the soft-spoken and empathetic Christian many thought he was.
Will Graves Winter Park, Fla.
Michael Goodwin’s column failed to include one critical element that sheds light on the origins of Obama’s longstanding animus toward Israel and Jews (“Obama spurred Dem Israel hate,” Oct. 21).
For 20 years, Obama attended the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, whose pastor, the notorious Israel-hater Rev. Jeremiah Wright, frequently lashed out against Jews and Israel, and was an associate of the infamous Louis Farrakhan.
When sermon clips went viral, Obama issued a weak apology and canceled his membership. But he was a member of the church for two decades. Why didn’t he ever speak out against Wright or Farrakhan before political pressure mounted?
Mitchell Schwefel Barnegat, NJ
What Obama said is not just anti-Israel; it’s purely antisemitic. The land-grab accusation is just another way to express the old antisemitic trope that Jews love money and power.
Svetlana Shapiro Brooklyn
Obama uses being a former president to lie about Israel, accusing it of stealing Arab land.
Jews have lived in the area for a millennium, and Israel has offered land for peace multiple times. His animus toward the Jewish state does not justify lying to bolster his claims. Mel Young" . . .
"The anti-Israel mob wants ‘Zionist’ – the belief that the Jewish people have the right to self-determination in their historic homeland – to be a word people whisper. Over the past week or so, more and more people have been typing it out loud."
"Among posts found on October 4 were broader declarations such as, “I’m not Jewish, but I am a Zionist.”
"By October 5, however, users had begun inserting their national identity into the declaration. One early example read, “I’m not Jewish. I am Irish, and I am a Zionist.”
"An October 6 post similarly stated, “I’m English, I’m not Jewish, but I am a Zionist.'”
. . . "The timing of his remarks matters. This week he will rally in Detroit for Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, who has accused Israel of “genocide” and “apartheid,” called it “bloodthirsty” and a “rogue state,” and, when asked three times on CNN whether Israel has a right to exist, refused to say yes. Mr. Obama is free to campaign for whomever he chooses. But when he, the most trusted voice in the Democratic Party, misrepresents Jewish history and then shares a stage with Mr. El-Sayed, Jewish Americans can be forgiven for hearing one message. Perhaps it is not the one he intends. That is precisely the point about words." . . .
. . . "Going deeper into Obama’s misrepresentation of the Israeli-Arab conflict, Wiesel challenges Obama’s narrative that the Jews were “oppressed in Europe and then arrive somewhere else and took too much.” But the Holy Land belonged to the Jews for centuries before the Arabs arrived. Read the Bible. God gave it to them in perpetuity.
"The “West Bank” is a modern geographic invention for what the Bible calls Judea and Samaria — the Holy Land. Wiesel quotes his father’s 2001 words on the territorial question: “To compromise on territory might seem, under certain conditions, imperative. [...] But to compromise on history is impossible.”
"Wiesel also notes that the auditorium at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, which opened this past June, is named for his father.
"Wiesel closes with a passionate and moving challenge, calling on Obama to change his mind. He writes: “Mr. Obama’s place isn’t with those who call Jewish survival excessive. His place is with the murdered of Hebron and of Oct. 7, and with a people that has been waiting, since 1947, for someone across the table to stop choosing hate.”
"I would extend Wiesel’s call to all Americans and to people of common decency everywhere.
"Too often today, anti-Zionism is morphing into antisemitism or serving as camouflage for it." . . .
"This is narcissism on full display. Americans who work actual jobs, who turn on sports to feel inspired, do not relate to petulant millionaires who cannot be respectful to our country for two minutes of their day."
"A disclaimer is in order before we delve into the ongoing chronicles of "Why the WNBA Sucks and Nobody Watches It."
"When I say there is a "revolt" against watching the WNBA, that means among the trifling sliver of the population that gives a damn about the sport, there are lots of fans miffed about it.
"It is thus a bit of a head-scratcher why a sport that piqued general sports' fans interest with colorful characters like Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham, and budding rivalries with the likes of Angel Reese, would squander any possibility of good will and viewership with petulant, crybaby, leftist politics.
"There was a kind of WWE-NBA heroes and villains theme brewing, but the league is blowing it with braindead woke activism.
"The latest installment came on Wednesday when the league management showed once again that it will defend leftist policies at the expense of their potential viewership.
"As RedState's Bob Hoge regaled us in a trenchant post::
Thetwo teams playing in the WNBA Finals game Wednesday, the Who Cares and the I Don't Knows, once again walked off the court while the national anthem was being played.
Naturally, the clown show of an association has said nothing, even though this is the third time in a row. That would be enough to keep me from ever watching their side hustle — basketball, allegedly — forever, but it wasn’t the only thing that went down at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
Enes Kanter Freedom’s hilarious bid to join the league was shot down by Commissioner Cathy Engelbert in a letter to House Republicans that was released Tuesday because he and his fellow would-be draftee Royce White are “both men.” Evidently, the League knows what men are, but still couldn’t come up with a definition for what a woman is in their statement. " . . .
Kyle N.A. Becker is a podcaster, independent journalist, and RedState columnist. He previously worked as a writer for Fox News’ top-rated show and as Director of Viral Media at a leading news-and-politics website. He is the author of the highly rated fantasy book "Hypernea: The Cursed Kingdom."
Trump-LeBron Feud Heats Up After Latest Anthem Diss . . . "Despite being a certain Hall of Famer who’s won four championships, James has never enjoyed the almost-universal love that the LA Lakers' Kobe Bryant and the Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan — who won five and six championships, respectively — did, partly because he wasn’t primarily associated with one team during his career, like they were, and partly because he regularly spouts out leftist political talking points and behaves like a buffoon during America’s national song."
"I liked the comment about if medical personnel were not needed that would be returned. An American nurse in WW 2 that was on an air evac flight that ran into flak was taken prisoner. She worked in a POW hospital camp where wounded Americans were treated while the commandant made the arrangements to send her back. Once the plans were in place she was given a traveling suit, donated by the camp commandant's wife, currency, a rail ticket and travel documents so she could go to Switzerland."
"My mother was a U.S. Navy nurse and officer, initially commissioned an ensign, and later promoted to lieutenant (junior grade). She had attended nursing school at the Medical College of Virginia, hoping to become an airline stewardess (an RN certification was required at the time). Instead, she was invited to join the Navy's nursing corps after graduation in May 1941, and upon completion of her officer training, she was assigned to the naval hospital at Norfolk Naval Station. She would spend virtually the entire American portion of the war working in the burn ward of the Norfolk naval hospital, treating severely burned U.S. Marines, sailors, Allied sailors, merchant mariners, and the occasional German prisoner. Most had horrific burns received in the war. My mother was a chatty woman, but she never really talked about her wartime work; it hurt too much to remember the young men she served. Like so many of the men of her generation, she could never really open up about her experiences -- too much loss, too much sorrow, too much trauma; it was easier to bury it and do their best to move on with their lives after a 10-year depression and a 4-year war in which almost every family suffered some form of loss or trauma.
"These German women may have served the enemy regime in Europe, but I have nothing but admiration for the POW nurses who continued to nurse German and Allied wounded while they were prisoners. At the end of their lives, I hope they all found peace and some semblance of happiness."
Captured German Nurses Didn't Know Where the Americans Were Taking Them. It Was the Front Line."On Sunday, July 2, 1944, American ambulances drove eight captured German nurses out of Cherbourg. Nobody had told them what the Americans meant to do with them. By evening they were riding in two ambulances with sealed windows, past the last American outposts near Caumont, toward the German lines. For thirty minutes the guns on that stretch of the front went silent.
"The fall of Cherbourg and the German naval hospital; the 1929 Geneva Convention rule on medical personnel; nurse Herta Wist of Karlsruhe; the radio messages to the German side; Captain Quentin Roosevelt and Captain Fred Ghercke on the road between the lines; the second handover of July 9 and Lieutenant Kenneth Calligan; and the night Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. died."
Emmanuel Macron’s [Bidenish,Carterish]milquetoast response to the worst riots in years does not bode well for the future. What the French need is a leader who loves France, its history, and its values, and most importantly, understands what’s at stake.
"Early last week, I participated in my first protest march in France. Well, technically, I didn’t really protest. I was on one side of the street and had to cross to the grocery store on the other side, pushing through tens of thousands of protesters between me and there. So I had to wade into the crowd and walk with them for about a block to make it to the other side without being trampled.
"The group was mostly kids in their late teens to mid-twenties, but there were more than a few Boomers. There were cardboard signs, Che Guevara shirts, and Palestinian flags. Nonetheless, everyone was chatting and smiling and seemed to be having a great time. A few people wore black and balaclavas, but not many.
"Later that evening, I heard a couple of faint explosions. I didn’t really think much of it because there’s construction around. Only later, when I was on X, did my feed start to fill with the chaos. There were videos of a line of cops running toward a bunch of rioters. On closer inspection, I noticed it was literally on the very street I'd been on a few hours earlier, a block away. I was a bit surprised because the crowd that I had made my way through had been so...well...happy and polite.
"But that’s the way things seem to work here. You have protesters who may or may not have legitimate grievances—honestly, usually not, but everyone loves a good protest march that gets them out of school or work—followed by the violent thugs.
"And that’s exactly what they are. These thugs were throwing rocks at the police, breaking windows of stores of every kind—never bookstores—and stealing everything inside—except the ham from supermarkets. They attacked police, started fires in trash bins, broke the glass of bus stops, and set bikes and cars on fire." . . .
"The (relative) hellscape I saw in Paris on Sunday is an omen of things to come. From shattered windows to shattered lives, the red/green alliance can and will destroy everything in its path, and as history has shown, agitators only get more brazen the more they’re coddled."
America's press will make manifest the crimes in the streets! MSNOW should pretty much do as MSNBC did once.
Nothing to see here! MSNBC reporter mocked mercilessly for downplaying riots as building burns. . . “There is a deep sense of grievance and complaint here, and that is the thing. That when you discount people who are doing things to public property that they shouldn’t be doing, it does have to be understood that this city has got, for the last several years, an issue with police, and it’s got a real sense of the deep sense of grievance of inequality,” Velshi added.
"The ridiculous take caused swift reaction on social media." . . .
. . . "And on occasions when right-wing extremists commit acts of violence, nobody in the mainstream media plays the “well, you criticized them when the Tea Party protested peacefully, what did you expect?” card. You could say the same about pro-life protests (ask Nick Sandmann how eager the media was to defend him and his classmates for being “mostly peaceful”).
"The thing these outlets always forget is that everybody can see what you’re doing. You’re not fooling anyone."
