“People are tired of legacy media, they want change, and that change starts on January 26.” The California Post will be available on web at californiapost.com, in your app store, print and all social channels " . . .
"A new era of common sense and accountability arrives in California on January 26.
"That is the launch date of the California Post — the brand new, seven-days-a-week digital and print newspaper for the Golden State.
"The sister publication to the New York Post brings all the hard-charging, plain-spoken journalism of The Post to the West Coast.
"In announcing the date, California Post editor-in-chief Nick Papps said, “It’s time to hold the powerful to account and start fighting for hard-working Californians.
"“The California Post will be a game-changer across news, sports, opinion and entertainment,” Papps said." . . . More...
. . . "What I predicted was that the ruling regimes, both Iran and Venezuela, would go by the boards, and the benefits coming to everybody in America not affiliated with the Democrat Party would be manifold.
"Iran, I noted, is going to collapse on its own, mostly because the ayatollahs are so incompetent at the basic functions of government that they’ve allowed the reservoirs which supply water to the 15 million people who live in and around Tehran to go almost completely dry. And with a pretty rough drought hitting that country, they’re now talking about moving Iran’s capital and relocating — assumedly by force? — most of the population elsewhere. (RELATED: Unmasking Iran’s Hidden Footprint in the Americas)
"This is quite possibly the single most pronounced confession of governing failure in world history. Especially in light of all the money wasted by the Iranian regime on utterly idiotic things like Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and a nuclear program that American and Israeli airstrikes reduced to ash last year. The desalination plants and water pipelines Iran desperately needs could easily have been built over the course of the past couple of decades, and everyone knows it. (RELATED: Trump’s Declawing of Iran Is Reshaping the Middle East)
Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has a back-up plan to flee the country should his security forces fail to suppress protests or desert, according to an intelligence report shared withThe Times.
Khamenei, 86, plans to escape Tehran with a close circle of up to 20 aides and family, should he see that the army and security called on to quell the unrest are deserting, defecting, or failing to follow orders.
“The ‘plan B’ is for Khamenei and his very close circle of associates and family, including his son and nominated heir apparent, Mojtaba,” an intelligence source toldThe Times.
Beni Sabti, who served for decades in Israeli intelligence after fleeing the regime eight years after the Islamic revolution, toldThe Timesthat Khamenei would flee to Moscow as “there is no other place for him.”
Nationwide protests triggered by economic hardships have gripped cities across Iran, including in the holy city of Qom, over the last week.
Protesters accuse anti-riot forces — made up of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Basij militia, the police and the army — of using violent means including live fire, tear gas and water cannons to suppress the demonstrations.
The forces are under the total command of Khameini, who is the supreme source of power in the Islamic republic, overruling the army, courts and media. He relies on the IRGC to enforce his bidding as a central source of power.
The escape plan will be activated should Khamenei feel his security forces are not following orders. Desertion and defection are not easily undertaken, with Khamenei protecting loyalists, controlling key appointments and their safety, according to a psychological profile of the leader done by a western intelligence agency and seen byThe Times.
But the same assessment said Khamenei was “weaker, both mentally and physically” since last year’s 12-day war with Israel. He has barely been seen in public and, notably, has not been seen or heard from during the last several days of protests. For the duration of war, Khamenei holed up in a bunker, avoiding the fate of several other high-level IRGC officials and feeding his “obsession with survival.” . . . More...
. . . "In Europe, where collectivist anti-fossil-fuels “green” policies have been enacted in the name of combating a conjured-up climate emergency, many people get dangerously cold in the winter. So far, this hasn’t happened on a large scale in America, where the climate collectivists have not been as adept in imposing their lethal program as their European counterparts. Freer markets keep people warmer in winter.
"Zero-sum thinking, which is at the heart of socialism, also has a knack for creating a frigid attitude toward one’s fellow man. When you believe that one person’s gain is another’s, perhaps your loss, you don’t view your successful neighbor with warmth. The victims of Stalin’s collectivist famine in Ukraine in the 1930s, some of whom were driven to cannibalism to survive, probably did not regard their neighbors or even their family members benevolently. Envy, suspicion, and hostility were characteristic of other places where ostensibly well-meaning rulers condemned selfishness and imposed various forms of collectivism. The death toll beggars belief. Some remain in denial about it. We can be certain that those catastrophes did not befall those tens of millions of innocent victims because they were deprived of a chance to vote on which clueless bureaucrats would administer society’s central plan, as Mamdani and his “democratic” socialist followers suggest." . . .
"If it sounds ominous, it's because it is. We Americans like to make our own destiny, chart our own course. The only "warmth" in collectivism is when we all gather around the last lump of coal, hoping it lasts through the night as our leaders take refuge in their mansions. Or the warmth that comes from the flesh of those being burned at the stake for crimes against the collective."
"Zohran Mamdani is a dangerous communist who is likely to DESTROY NYC through his dedication to communist ideology. Let’s be clear: COMMUNISM HAS FAILED everywhere it has been tried. NYC will be no different,"[Rep.Lisa McClain] asserted in a post on X."
"Every collectivist project begins with promises of warmth, care, and justice. It ends with scarcity, repression, and power concentrated far from the people it claims to serve."
. . ."Collectivism is not a metaphor. It is a governing philosophy with a long and bloody record. In the twentieth century alone, regimes organized around collectivist principles – whether socialist, communist, or their hybrids. – were responsible for the deaths of at least one hundred million people. That figure is not polemics; it is the consensus of serious historians. Mao’s China, Stalin’s Soviet Union, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, Castro’s Cuba, Kim’s North Korea, Chávez and Maduro’s Venezuela – the list is not obscure, and the outcomes are not ambiguous.
"When Mamdani speaks of the “warmth” of collectivism, he is not offering a novel moral insight. He is recycling the oldest fantasy of modern politics: that coercive systems can be redeemed by benevolent intent, and that the concentration of power becomes humane if wrapped in moral language.
"The American constitutional order was built in conscious rejection of that idea. It begins with the premise that individuals possess inherent dignity and moral agency, and that power – especially when centralized – requires limits, friction, and accountability. Liberty was never understood as isolation from others, but as the precondition for moral responsibility within a plural society. That framework is not cold. It is sober – and hard-earned.
"Mamdani’s formulation relies on a false dichotomy as crude as Ayn Rand’s, just inverted. Individualism is caricatured as selfish, antisocial, and morally barren. Collectivism is romanticized as humane, solidaristic, and just. Neither caricature survives contact with reality.
"American individualism has never meant atomized isolation. It has always existed within a dense web of mediating institutions: families, religious congregations, unions, charities, neighborhoods, and voluntary associations. Markets operate within this moral ecosystem. They are not a substitute for community; they are a mechanism that allows diverse communities to flourish without coercion. Calling this tradition “rugged individualism” is not analysis. It is a smear.
"By contrast, collectivism does not generate warmth. It centralizes responsibility—and in doing so drains moral life of choice, obligation, and meaning. Care becomes bureaucratic. Solidarity becomes mandatory. Dissent becomes selfishness. The individual is treated not as a moral agent, but as raw material for a collective project.
"This is not abstract theory. It is the lived experience of societies that have subordinated the person to the collective in the name of justice or equality.
"Defenders of Mamdani’s rhetoric will inevitably gesture toward Scandinavia. But the Nordic countries are not collectivist societies in the ideological sense Mamdani invokes. They are market economies with strong property rights, high levels of social trust, robust civil society, and cultural norms that long predate their welfare states. They succeed not because they rejected individualism, but because they rely on it – tempered by social cohesion that cannot be legislated into existence." . . .More warmth here...
"If they get their way, what's Trump supposed to do? Send Maduro back?" Are they saying Trump needs to take him back? . . . The Maduro era is coming to an end and while it's not done yet, it's going to be done. Freedom is coming and Venezuelans are going to remember who their friends were."
"Gonzalez has, you know, won comfortably here," Van Hollen continued. "And so this is clearly an effort to deny the will of the people. Maduro lost.""He is trying to cling on to this claim of legitimacy that he won, when all the evidence shows otherwise," Van Hollen said. "So this is why Secretary Blinken did...the right thing, recognizing the real winner here, Gonzalez. And this is why the United States is now going to use its leverage and influence to push for negotiations to transition to the truly elected leader, Gonzalez. We know Maduro and his cronies do not want to go quietly into the night. The United States needs to work with our partners and allies in the region to ratchet up the pressure on behalf of the Venezuelan people."
"The United States has said that Mr. González is the president-elect of Venezuela and has urged Mr. Maduro to step aside.
"The Biden administration also announced that it was extending protections for roughly 600,000 Venezuelan migrants living in the United States with temporary protected status. The measure allows those who apply to stay for an extra 18 months.
John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said the decision to raise the bounty on Mr. Maduro was part of “a concerted message of solidarity with the Venezuelan people,” meant “to further elevate international efforts to maintain pressure on Mr. Maduro and his representatives.”
"South Florida is home to the largest Venezuelan diaspora within the United States. Roughly 40% of the residents in Doral, Florida — a city west of Miami — are of Venezuelan descent."
"Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a South Florida Democrat with a sizable Venezuelan population in her district, bucked her party Saturday to praise President Donald Trump’s capture of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro.
"Wasserman Schultz said the U.S. military operation removing Maduro from power is “welcome news” for the millions of Venezuelans living in exile, though she argued Congress should have been informed. Conversely, a chorus of congressional Democrats immediately slammed the successful military operation as illegal and contrary to American interests.
“ 'The capture of the brutal, illegitimate ruler of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, who oppressed Venezuela’s people is welcome news for my friends and neighbors who fled his violent, lawless, and disastrous rule,” Wasserman Schultz wrote on X Saturday morning.
So said Eric Swalwell
"The South Florida Democrat, who notably chaired the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2011 to 2016, also called for a “liberated Venezuela” featuring democratic rule, arguing “cutting off the head of a snake is fruitless if it just regrows.”
“ 'This action offers beleaguered Venezuelans a chance to seat their true, democratically elected president, Edmundo González,” Wasserman Schultz continued." . . .
"Many Florida lawmakers enthusiastically backed the seizure of Maduro and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores, who wereindictedSaturday on federal charges in the Southern District of New York.
“Maduro’s narco-dictatorship has ENDED,” Rep. María Elvira Salazar, who represents a South Florida district covering downtown Miami,wroteon X. “The narcoterrorist who poisoned our children, exported crime to our neighborhoods through the Tren de Aragua, and turned Venezuela into a State of terror will now face the justice of the United States.”
"In an “age of rage,” the most irate and irrational reigns supreme.
"Fromdemanding that any Democratic nominee pledge to demolish the new Trump ballroom toopposing parental rights in schools, Swalwell has struggled to find traction with far-left California voters.
"However, he is now promising to violate the Constitution. That did not take long. We do not even have a clear idea of who will be the frontrunners in the election. It is like a game of chicken where Swalwell immediately drives off the cliff before anyone gets into their cars.
"Ironically, it is precisely what he has accused Donald Trump of doing: disregarding the Constitution when it suits his political agenda.
"In case it matters to anyone left in California, he cannot do this. Seizing federal agents sort of went out of constitutional style after the Civil War. The “immense powers as governor of California” do not include dictating what federal officers can wear on their faces or bodies.
"The first tiny barrier to Swalwell’s antebellum policies is the Supremacy Clause, which prevents states from “interfering with or controlling the operations of the Federal Government.”United States v. Washington(2022). Since McCulloch v. Maryland in 1819, the Supreme Court has consistently struck do wn state laws that impede federal enforcement." . . . More yet! Eric Swalwell's Backward Priorities: Arrest ICE Agents, Keep Illegal Aliens in California's Farm Fields
"In the end, Swalwell is a legend in his own mind; a peevish little man forever auditioning for the role of Serious Leader, while in reality he's just another grandstanding backbencher."
Adam Schiff on X: "Nicolás Maduro was a thug and an illegitimate leader of Venezuela, terrorizing and oppressing its people for far too long and forcing many to leave the country. But starting a war to remove Maduro doesn’t just continue Donald Trump’s trampling of the Constitution, it further erodes America’s standing on the world stage and risks our adversaries mirroring this brazen illegal escalation.
"For months, as the Trump administration massed American servicemembers and firepower in the Caribbean, and used military force to destroy vessels and kill those on board, I and others in the Senate forced bipartisan votes to stop the illegal misuse of our armed forces. We warned that the true motive was not drugs, but regime change in an oil-rich nation. Despite all of the administration’s false denials, those motivations are now clear.
"Acting without Congressional approval or the buy-in of the public, Trump risks plunging a hemisphere into chaos and has broken his promise to end wars instead of starting them. And in conjunction with his continued saber-rattling around the world and dropping approval ratings at home, the American people should be concerned that this is not the last time he will break that promise.
"The President has vowed that this is not the end of our engagement in Venezuela, saying that ‘we'll be involved in it very much.’ Congress must bring up a new War Powers Resolution and reassert its power to authorize force or to refuse to do so. We must speak for the American people who profoundly reject being dragged into new wars."
"California Governor Gavin Newsom did not directly response to the attacks. He zeroed in on a comment Trump made about the L.A. fires during the news conference.
" 'Unless Trump is finally delivering the federal aid survivors need to rebuild after the horrific fires — nearly a year after California first requested it — he should keep Los Angeles out of his mouth," Newsom's office says on social."
"The explosions in Caracas are not just a military operation; they are the sound of the 21st century finally arriving."
"In the early hours of Saturday morning, the world watched as American fire hit the heart of Venezuela. From Fuerte Tiuna to La Guaira, the strikes ordered by President Trump have done more than just dismantle the infrastructure of a narco-state—they have shattered the last remaining illusions of Western diplomacy.
"In this deep dive, Douglas Murray explores the "why" that the mainstream media is too afraid to touch. This isn't just about narcotics or a personal vendetta between a strongman and a dictator. It is about the terminal decline of a "rules-based order" that preferred profitable decay over the difficult necessity of order.
"As the USS Gerald R. Ford sits in the Caribbean and smoke rises over La Carlota, we face a brutal truth: power has once again become the only currency that trades. Why did the West wait decades to find its spine while a civilization-rich nation was looted into a graveyard? And what happens to the common man when the "comfortable slogans" of the elite finally collide with the reality of force?"
Obamaembraced the US drone programme, overseeing more strikes in his first year than Bush carried out during his entire presidency. A total of 563 strikes, largely by drones, targeted Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen during Obama’s two terms, compared to 57 strikes under Bush. Between 384 and 807 civilians were killed in those countries, according to reports logged by the Bureau.
"Do they recall Obama's actions in Libya that went on for months without Congressional approval? They even had ABC questioning his actions. Can anyone forget this?" . . .
"Which is rich. The low-I.Q. Wine Mom who defended the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which infamously resulted in the death of 13 U.S. service members and wounded dozens more, specifically because the Biden-Harris administration had no coherent plan, has some thoughts on troop risks and exit strategy.
"Thank goodness this woman is not sitting in the White House right now.
" 'America needs leadership whose priorities are lowering costs for working families, enforcing the rule of law, strengthening alliances, and — most importantly — putting the American people first," she concluded.
"Harris, of course, was part of an administration that did the exact opposite of every talking point in that last sentence.
"Aside from the vapid response, Kamala has a slight issue in the previous administration to contend with. While she's out here condemning Trump for capturing Maduro, it was former President Biden who, in one of his last moves in office, announced a $25 million bounty for information leading to the arrest of Maduro." . . .
Somali Corruption and the Mainstream Media . . . "Look, for example, at the mainstream media coverage of Minnesota’s massive Somali corruption, with attitudes being wholly transformed in real time. There’s a clear process for the media to follow:
The mainstream media hides the story, hoping it will go away.
Eventually, after enough video exposure, enough press conferences by federal investigators, and enough arrests, the media covers both sides, acknowledging the corruption while also giving equal time to the accused, trying to give the impression that it might just be a witch hunt, or an undue focus on a tiny corrupt sample that doesn’t really reflect badly on the entire group, and it can only be racism/sexism/bigotry/partisanship to claim it is.
Then, finally, they have to admit it. They cover the story that they should have discovered years ago, to defend their honor as journalists, while still praying it will go away quickly so it doesn’t reflect badly on them, on their issues, or on their party.
And now that they have an article or two to point to, showing that they did indeed cover the undeniable story, they never mention it again, and they return to their normal process of denying that there’s any real substantial corruption in their beloved Democrat Party or in any of its corrupt subsidiaries, programs, and acolytes. . . .
. . . "Across five exchanges, Rubio was not defending recklessness but correcting mischaracterizations. The throughline was clear. The media was less interested in understanding the operation than in rhetorically boxing it in.
That Rubio was able to dismantle those premises so methodically does not excuse the need for the exercise. It simply underscores how deeply ingrained the bias has become, and how routinely officials are required to argue against narratives that never should have framed the conversation to begin with."
The Federalist"If it felt like 2025 was just one big psyop orchestrated by the Democrat Party and its accomplice media stooges, that’s because in many ways, it was.
"Learning nothing from the political and ratingsbeatings they took in 2024, the left and its corporate media allies doubled down on twisting the truth during the first year of Trump 2.0. Here are the top 25 lies of 2025:" . . Merely a couple of samples below with toons added by TD.
"10. SAVE LiesNearly every House Democrat voted against a bill requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. Dems insist there is no need for the SAVE (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) Act because federal law already makes it a felony for a noncitizen to vote in federal elections. But that’s a flawed honor system, to say the least. Noncitizens are showing up on state voter rolls across the country. Dems made their usual specious claims that the SAVE Act would disenfranchise voters and be a hardship, in particular, for recently married women who have changed their names. Their disinformation campaign was readily assisted by the Pravda Press.
"2. Lies About ICE Liberals and their corporate media water-carriers have been caught in myriad lies about Immigration & Customs Enforcement operations. As The Federalist’s Jordan Boyd reported in tracking the lies Dems and the media are peddling to demonize ICE, CBS News did some serious spinning. The network news outlet reported a U.S. citizen was “forcibly removed from her car” and temporarily held in custody. CBS had to acknowledge that the woman was detained after she “refused to present her driver’s license and roll down her window when stopped.” And DHS clarified that she “was driving her illegal alien boyfriend’s car (who had been arrested prior)” and “refused to comply with law enforcement’s repeated lawful orders to identify herself.”
Maduro will be featured in the 2027 version of this article.
"21. The Fallacy of Mahmoud Khalil "The left has depicted the America-hating and Palestinian political organizer as a free speech casualty after the Trump administration ordered his deportation. Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student, has spent much of his collegiate time agitating on campus. He was a big player in the riotous and antisemitic “pro-Palestine” demonstrations that paralyzed Columbia. The Department of Homeland Security says Khalil led “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” As the New York Post reported, “Khalil and Columbia United Apartheid Divest, which has vowed to escalate its tactics ‘until the empire crumbles,’ were among those taking part in the campus takeover at the start of the school year.” Columbia United Apartheid Divest “sympathizes with terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah,” according to the outlet."
"As the apostle Paul warned believers in Ephesians 4:22–24: “Put off your old self … and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?” — James 2:14 (ESV).
"Last week, OnlyFans creator Lily Phillips, the British adult-content personality who went viral for saying she had sex with more than 1,100 men in 12 hours, shared video of herself being rebaptized, calling it a moment of spiritual renewal bringing her “closer to God.” Phillips said the baptism was a way to “reinstate my relationship with God,” telling Us Weekly that a personal hardship drove her to reconnect with faith after drifting away from regular practice. She said she still prays, but rarely attends church, and wants to “make religion more of a priority.”
"That said, Phillips has not committed to ending her career in the adult industry. In fact, she says she hopes to connect with other Christian creators in that industry and believes her faith can coexist with her lifestyle.
"Reactions on social media were mixed:
“As far as I’m aware, her OF site is still up, so I’m leaning toward this being a publicity stunt. With that said, I hope she does have a true change of heart and seeks to follow the Lord faithfully,” posted one Reddit user.
"Others paraphrased a foundational Christian caution: Do not judge heart motives — but do judge fruit. (Matthew 7:16–20)
"A central tenet in Christian theology is that baptism traditionally follows genuine repentance — a turning away from sin and toward Christ." . . . More...
"Perhaps we must just accept that conservative women will never get a fair shake in the media. But overt displays of bias like that in Vanity Fair make it more obvious to the public that their journalistic endeavors are anything but that. It seems they are merely the jealous screechings of woke harridans who peaked in high school."
Flickr-DonkeyHotey
"The media spinning narratives against a Republican presidential administration, particularly one led by Donald Trump, is nothing new.
"But the recent controversial article in Vanity Fair did more than just operate the typical ploy to paint a picture of chaos and rancor among the Trump cabinet. The article’s photographer, Christopher Anderson, visually attacked the physical appearance of most of Trump’s cabinet, particularly that of press secretary Karoline Leavitt. It was a subtle attack that only the most highly trained high school “mean girls” could really master.
"Leavitt, who is undeniably beautiful and, like most women in positions of power in D.C., has had cosmetic work done on her face, is photographed in an extremely close-up position, displaying every wrinkle, makeup smudge, and most notoriously, signs of her lip injections. Those who are laughing about it would never wish to have a similar photograph taken of them and then posted all over social media.
"Anderson is a man and admittedly photographed other members of the Trump administration in a similar fashion. But it is difficult to deny that the publication knew exactly what it was doing with Leavitt’s photo in particular, which is plastered all over X at the time of this writing. The media – liberal media included – still feeds on the idea that women should maintain a perfect appearance at every angle and stage of life, while the standards for men are more forgiving in that regard. Anderson undoubtedly knew what he would ignite with that particular photo, and the comments from disgustedliberals have not disappointed the aims of Vanity Fair’s journalism." . . .More...
This article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal.
