US men’s soccer team and what sports should be

 Christian Vezilj - American Thinker   

The U.S. soccer team did exactly that. Regardless of how far they go in the tournament, Americans should be proud of these young men. They took their responsibility seriously. In a time when sports have too often been used to divide, the U.S. soccer team chose to unite. 

These...

"What once served as a shared national pastime — a place where families gathered, where rivals shook hands, where excellence was celebrated for its own sake — slowly became another battleground in the country’s cultural and political divide. From Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem to entire leagues adopting ideological messaging, sports drifted away from their purpose. Fans who simply wanted to watch great athletes perform at the highest level found themselves pulled into debates they never asked for. The flag, the anthem, and the shared rituals that once united stadiums became contested symbols. The joy of the game was overshadowed by politics.

"That is why what we witnessed from the U.S. soccer team during the World Cup felt so refreshing. After their victory, individual players gave thanks to God on the field, acknowledging the source of their talent and the blessings that allowed them to compete on the world stage. As a team, Mark McKenzie led the U.S. Men’s National Team in a post-game prayer during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. They gathered in a circle and offered a prayer of gratitude. No theatrics. No ideological signaling. No attempt to divide. Just humility, reverence, and appreciation.

"In that moment, they reminded the country of what sports can be at their best.

"These young men came from different backgrounds — different families, different hometowns, different levels of privilege. Some grew up with plenty, others with very little. Some were raised in strong faith traditions; others found their way later. Yet despite these differences, they understood one thing clearly: wearing the jersey of the United States of America is an honor. It is not a platform for personal politics. It is not a stage for ideological performance. It is a responsibility — one that demands gratitude, humility, and respect." . . More...

...not this; "Look at me, everybody!"

Birthright Citizenship: Three Liberal Justices Stuck Together And Won While Conservatives Splintered

 Legal Insurrection  

"But it’s disheartening, particularly in the light of the absolute invasion of our country that took place under the Biden administration" 

Uncle Paul's Parodies

"The Supreme Court’s Birthright Citizenship ruling today was a full-throated constitutional endorsement that the children of mothers here illegally or temporarily are “citizens at birth.”

No doubts there.

It was conventional wisdom that birthright citizenship would be upheld, but what was so shocking is that it was done on the backs of the three liberal members of the court who stuck together while the so-called conservatives splintered in numerous directions. So on the core constitutional endorsement, it was 5-4 with the majority being the three liberals (Sotomayor, Kagan, KBJ) plus CJ Roberts and Barrett. (Kavanaugh would have found the Trump EO invalid because it conflicted with an immigration statute, but he rejected the constitutional holding.)

Think about it. The three liberals prevailed on ideological core of the single biggest case of this term, one that defines who were are as a nation and whether we have sovereignty or are at the mercy of people who sneak across the border, overstay visas, or are here as birthright tourists.

“Disheartening” and “demoralizing” is how I described it in an appearance on the Tony Katz live stream today, but perhaps “infuriating” would be a better term.

The core constitutional decision was that children born here to illegal parents, who are here illegally or temporarily, are citizens at birth under the 14th Amendment. That’s the core. And there were five votes for that reading. And only two of those five votes on that court, the sweeping constitutional ruling, were so-called conservatives, Coney Barrett, and the Chief who wrote the opinion joined by the liberal block.

And I thought that that was very interesting, that such a sweeping decision on the Constitution in a supposedly conservative Supreme Court, that most of those were the liberal justices.

Buckle Up: A Key Figure in the Swalwell Revelations Sets Her Sights on Graham Platner

 Sister Toldjah

.It's unclear as to when or even if these allegations will see the light of day. But if they do, expect them to hit sometime after July 14th, which is the last day Platner has to drop out and for Maine Democrats to be able to legally replace him with another nominee.

 BS daily political cartoons: From JFK to Nipple Nazi. Good job Dems. - The Daily Bo Snerdley: 

 . . "Another poll released this week, which had Platner up by two, also contained some big warning signs for his campaign, indicating his extensive baggage is starting to catch up with him to the point that it has cost him support - even among voters who say Democrats winning back the Senate is a top priority.

"A majority of surveyed voters said his string of controversies has either called into question their support for him or made them disavow him entirely," The Politico noted. "And Collins is winning 10 percent of voters who would prefer Democrats take control of the Senate."

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READ MORE: New Poll in Maine Senate Race Shows Big Warning Signs for Graham Platner

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"And as Platner continues to try to weather the storms brought about in part by revelations about the Nazi tattoo, the sexting scandal, and the domestic abuse allegations from a former girlfriend, we're learning that a woman who was a key figure in getting the word out about the sexual harassment/assault allegations against Eric Swalwell - which led to his resignation from Congress - now has her sights on Platner:

Cheyenne Hunt, an attorney and progressive social media influencer who previously endorsed Platner, is now working with multiple women who had prior personal relationships with him, NBC News reported. Hunt is helping the women navigate press attention, while her organization, Reckoning Action, is providing pro bono legal counsel, according to two people who spoke with Hunt about her plans, as cited by NBC. NBC also described Hunt as an early Platner supporter who backed him in last year’s Senate primary before later becoming involved in an effort opposing him.

The involvement of Hunt suggests that the storm currently brewing just over the horizon for Platner will be harder to fend off than the allegations published in the New York Times.      

More...

Dems’ ‘big tent’ excuse will lead to their doom — and maybe the country’s too

 Washington Examiner

"There has always been radicalism on the American left. But Democrats didn’t invite the Black Panthers or the Weather Underground into their party in the 1970s.In the 2020s, though, Democrats invited communists into their tent. Now the communists are taking over."

"Members of Democratic Socialists of America want to abolish the police, prisons and borders and “seize the means of production,” as the future congresswoman from New York’s 13th congressional district, Darializa Avila Chevalier, once argued.

"The co-founder of a group that called for “nothing short of the total collapse” of the “American empire,” with the goal to “eradicate America” and “Western civilization,” Avila Chevalier doesn’t deny she’s a communist.

"And why should she?

"There’s a temptation to dismiss and whitewash the rise of the socialists. We shouldn’t.

"Sure, the DSA is still constrained by the constitutional order — but it isn’t constrained by Democrats.

"“The roof is collapsing on the Democratic Party establishment tonight,” Van Jones warned on CNN as he watched the New York primary results come in.

“This is a battle between the establishment and this insurgency.”

"What battle? The establishment has surrendered to the DSA’s hostile takeover on every front.

"Establishment Democrats like Nancy Pelosi had the chance to sideline Squad members when they first appeared, yet the former speaker eventually coddled them, perched them in important committees and appeared on magazine covers celebrating their ascendency.

"If Democrats were unwilling to sideline illiberal bigots like Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) back then, what makes anyone think they’ll stand up to the socialists now?

"Top Democrats virtually tripped over themselves to endorse Nazi SS tattoo man Graham Platner in Maine, a Mamdanista in all ways save the flannel shirt." . . . More...

David Harsanyi is a senior writer at The Washington Examiner

Remember in the cold war years when the Soviet Union was America's avowed enemy, costing us mega billions in defense to ward off their threats? Israel stood by us for years as our faithful ally. And America stood by Israel in their establishment of a Jewish homeland, a place to live in freedom from those whose stated goal has always been to wipe every Jew off the face of the earth. You know: Genocide

Democratic reality check: Left in denial as California’s blue model crumbles

Washington Examiner    

"At the state level, Shapiro has taken the neoliberal lead by espousing policies such as reducing the state corporate tax rate; restarting Three Mile Island; converting former coal-fired power plants into natural gas facilities; streamlining the process of businesses obtaining permits, licenses, and certifications; and offering taxpayer-funded school vouchers."

"Fareed Zakaria’s recent op-ed in the Washington Post takes the Democrats to task for spending the past quarter-century mismanaging California’s public sector and economy. He cites multiple governance failures: a ballooning but unproductive government sector, a regulatory system that creates sky high housing costs by not allowing for the issuance of an adequate number of new housing permits, an expensive public education system that does not deliver for its students, declining private sector employment, and net negative immigration as the high cost of living drives its residents out of the state, among others.

"This is not news, but what is new is his observation that the state’s voters are finally starting to take notice and are not happy with the results. If so, this should be a reality check for Democrats who believe that they can easily take back control of our nation’s federal, state, and local governments by making President Donald Trump the sole issue in the November elections or advocating the government-interventionist and anti-capitalist policies of the Democratic Socialists of America. Regarding the latter, these policies may energize the Democratic base in New York City, but the rest of the country, especially those who live outside deep-blue areas, will not be so aroused.

"Zakaria does not provide an explanation for the Democratic Party’s governance failures in California. Here, it is argued that it is the result of Democrats becoming ossified in their thinking about how government should work. " . . . More...

Yes, They’re Communists, and Yes, They’re Lying About It. For Now.

 The label promises reform. The ideology points toward something far more radical.

The American Spectator

"Who is Chevalier? She’s a 32-year-old democratic socialist and community organizer backed by New York’s Muslim communist mayor Zohran Mamdani and the DSA. What qualifies Chevalier for Congress? What achievements has she managed in her 32 years?"

. . . "If they’re “democratic socialists” and that’s different from communism, then why are these people always shilling for Cuba? Why do they soft-sell China? Those are communist countries.

"Well, China is considerably more fascist than communist now, at least in the sense that fascism’s founders intended to run an economy nearly exactly like China runs its own.

"What’s the difference between democratic socialism and communism? Time. That’s all.

"Listen to these people long enough, and what they want is to use a period of democratic socialism to usher in the communist state. They want to abolish private property altogether. "Listen to Zohran Mamdani and he’ll tell you that government can solve any problem, no matter how big, and that no problem is too small for government to take on. Then he fails to shovel the snow in the winter and demands New York City residents keep their thermostats at 78 in the summer.

"They’ll call that democratic socialism. When they start arresting you for setting the thermostat at 74, that’s communism. Or when they’ve run all the landlords in New York out of business and turned the entire city into a giant public-housing slum, so that they can evict you for setting the thermostat at 74, or when there is no thermostat and you get what Zohran Mamdani gives you, that’s also communism." . . . More...

 . . . "Because the Democrats and Republicans are not flip sides of the same coin. They haven’t been for a long time. "And the Democrats aren’t political adversaries anymore. They’re now enemy agents. And they’re not quiet about it. Act accordingly, and vote these bastards down as best you can, because your country is at stake."

Watch Pollster's Face as He Realizes How Much Worse It Just Got for Democrats   "Dave Rubin of "The Rubin Report" shares a DM clip of CNN's Harry Enten sharing new polling data that should scare the Democratic establishment and Chuck Schumer as even more incumbent Democrats face potential losses in their primaries to Democratic Socialists."

Terrorist Torn Between Going On Violent Jihad Or Getting Elected As Democratic Senator Babylon Bee parody

. . . "At publishing time, Abdullah bin Khalid Al-Makki had decided to put away his bazooka and give the Democratic politician thing a go, knowing that he always had terrorism to fall back on."

California man pleads guilty to sending fake ransom note in Nancy Guthrie case

 Washington Examiner

"A California man pleaded guilty on Thursday to sending a fake ransom note to the family of Nancy Guthrie, who went missing just over five months ago.

"Derrick Callella, 42, faces two felony charges related to transmitting a demand for ransom in interstate commerce and utilizing a telecommunications device with intent to abuse, threaten, or harass a person. He entered a guilty plea on both counts.

"The defendant allegedly texted two members of the Guthrie family in February shortly after the 84-year-old woman disappeared. She is believed to have been abducted due to the existence of ransom notes, though authorities are starting to believe they're fake.

"'Did you get the bitcoin were waiting on our end for the transaction," Callella allegedly texted to Guthrie's oldest daughter, Annie, and her son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni.

"The suspect sent the message after the Guthrie family released the first video message pleading with the alleged kidnappers and offering to pay for their relative's release, according to investigators.

"Callella is set to be sentenced on Sept. 10, after which he will start serving 10 years of probation for the crimes.

"The case has resulted in very few substantive leads since Guthrie went missing at her Arizona home on Feb. 1." . . .

Dred SCOTUS -

  Ann Coulter    

"It’s one thing for Roberts to forget the Civil War. Liberals do that all the time, quickly turning the 14th Amendment into an instrument for the advancement of gays, immigrants, lesbians, the disabled, etc. —wait, what were you saying about slavery?"

"Obviously, the Supreme Court’s ruling on anchor babies in Trump v. Barbara is ridiculous. Chief Justice John Roberts, along with the Papist nut and the three witches, has apparently decided the “FREE MONEY” sign on our border was not good enough. We need to give the third world an even bigger incentive to flock here. Henceforth, we will lure illegal aliens with the guarantee of American citizenship for any kids they give birth to on U.S. soil. Welcome Hamas! (And you thought Democratic primaries were already wild!)

"Inasmuch as no one on TV seems to have bothered reading the opinions, here are a few highlights.

"1) Justice Clarence Thomas’s dissent is a tour de force. It will go down in history with Justice Benjamin Curtis’s dissent in Dred Scott and Justice Frank Murphy’s dissent in Korematsu. (It’s also a good primer for snowbirds, who plan to avoid state taxes by moving to Florida, on the vital importance and clear legal meaning of “domicile.”)

"By contrast, Roberts’s opinion for the court will go down with Justice Neil Gorsuch’s opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County, finding that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination against transgender employees—a ruling that was so embarrassing it was immediately ignored by everyone, including Gorsuch. That was clear this week, when, for the fourth time since Bostock, the court rejected similar claims by transgenders.

"2) I’m sorry to mention that, inasmuch as Gorsuch was on the right side of the anchor baby case. Which reminds me, could the conservatives confidently informing us that anchor babies are required by the constitution (Bill O’Reilly, John Yoo, The Wall Street Journal, etc.) cite a single other case with Roberts on one side and Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on the other, where Roberts was right? How about that terrific Obamacare ruling, deeply grounded in the text of the constitution?

"3) Thomas’s central point—appalling to liberals, but true nonetheless—is that the purpose of the 14th Amendment was to overrule Dred Scott, which held that black Americans were not citizens and therefore could not sue in federal court."   

"Black slaves and freedmen alike, Thomas writes, “were unambiguously Americans. They were not foreigners. They were not aliens. They owed no foreign allegiance.” He quotes Frederick Douglass’s plea for the citizenship of blacks: “We address you not as aliens nor as exiles … We are Americans.'”

More...

SCOTUS Citizenship Decision Demands Legal System Overhaul

That a court with six Republican-appointed justices could hand down such a patently un-American decision is an indictment of America’s rogue legal system.

. . . "This nation has tens of millions of anchor babies and their descendants, up to one-quarter of the next generation. Millions more could be created tomorrow given how many foreigners are here illegally and legally. Under birthplace citizenship, all fraudulently obtain not just lifetime welfare but also voting abilities. That’s well more than enough to tip elections not just into the future but going back decades.

"Those in leadership positions who are not ready to defend the country in response to this reality should resign, or be forced to.". . . 

Joy Pullmann is executive editor of The Federalist and the researcher and host for The Federalist's forthcoming lawfare podcast series, "Overruled." Her latest book with Regnery is "False Flag: Why Queer Politics Mean the End of America." 

Ben Shapiro Blames ‘Useless White People’ for Socialism

The American Conservative   

"In last year’s mayoral election, the moderate Gov. Andrew Cuomo won a majority of whites, yet the Ugandan-born, Indian-American DSA candidate Zohran Mamdani dominated the election thanks to overwhelming support from foreign-born residents, who make up around 37 percent of the city’s population."

"The Daily Wire podcaster supported policies that boosted the hard left in New York.

"The Democratic Socialists of America won big in New York’s Democratic primaries last Tuesday. By the time the ballots were tallied, conservative media had identified a scapegoat: white people.

"Specifically, “overeducated, useless white people,” in the words of the Daily Wire podcaster Ben Shapiro.

"Batya Ungar-Sargon—a pro-Trump leftist—wrote a Substack essay with this imperious headline: “Stop Calling Them ‘Socialists.’ They’re Over-Credentialed White Gentrifiers Driven by Resentment Ousting Working-Class Candidates.”

"For those not in the know: “White gentrification” is when white people move into an area and make it nicer, “white flight” is when they move away, making it worse, and both phenomena prove how evil white people are.

"Ungar-Sargon has some expertise in the evils of white people, having authored a PhD dissertation at U.C. Berkeley that examined “how rape and colonialism contributed to the development of modern English fiction,” according to Wikipedia. So, next time your mom’s snuggled up with a book by Jane Austen, let her know that rapey colonialism made the reading experience possible.

"The New York Post also did some white-bashing after the shock elections. “The Young and the Clueless,” blared the cover headline on Thursday, above a photograph of triumphant-looking young people with fists in the air. The subheadline: “Just 7% of voters, mostly white and under 30, pick Israel-hating radicals to represent Dems.”

"I’m trying to imagine Shapiro calling out “useless Hispanics,” Ungar-Sargon lamenting “Jewish gentrifiers,” or the Post doing a cover story on “mostly black” street criminals.

"I can easily imagine Shapiro hating on Muslims. In fact, I don’t need to imagine. “Israelis like to build. Arabs like to bomb crap and live in open sewage,” Shapiro once wrote on the hellsite formerly known as Twitter.

"It’s pretty rich of Shapiro to blame white people for DSA victories. Any sentient being can see that the Democrats and hard left benefit from the country’s ongoing demographic transformation, i.e., from its becoming less white. Well, anyone but Shapiro can see that. “I don’t give a good damn about the so-called ‘browning of America,’” he wrote in 2017. “Color doesn’t matter. Ideology does.”

"At least, that’s how Shapiro conceived of the relationship—or in his view, non-relationship—between ethnicity and nationhood in America. For Israel, things are different. “If you believe that the Jewish state has a right to exist, then you must allow Israel to transfer the Palestinians and the Israeli-Arabs from Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Israel proper,” Shapiro wrote two decades ago. “It’s an ugly solution, but it is the only solution.”

"Some might even call it the final solution.

"While Shapiro’s rhetoric about Muslims may have softened, his views don’t seem to have changed. “I think Israel should have gone harder and faster in Gaza,” Shapiro told Vanity Fair in a profile of him published this week. Should have gone harder and faster in Gaza. Those repulsive words should disqualify Shapiro from ever again opining on U.S. foreign policy." . . .

More...

Andrew Day is the senior editor of The American Conservative. He has a PhD in political science from Northwestern University. 

Jordanian Immigrant Gets One Year in Jail For Killing a Jewish Man at Pro-Hamas Protest

Twitchy    

"Judge Derek Malan Should be removed from office and disbarred as an attorney of law. A gross miscarriage of justice. Federal hate crime charges should be upgraded." Comment to the post.

‘There Are No Words’: The Daily Caller

"Remember the 2023 incident in which a 69-year-old Jewish man holding an Israeli flag at a counter-protest was hit in the head with a bullhorn and died the next day from blunt-force trauma? Jordanian immigrant Loay Alnaji last month pleaded guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter and battery. The attack wasn't prosecuted as a hate crime, and Alnaji faced up to one whole year in jail. You'll be glad to know he got the maximum sentence of one year in county jail."

Judge Derek Malan Should be removed from office and disbarred as an attorney of law. A gross miscarriage of justice. Federal hate crime charges should be upgraded. pic.twitter.com/L8AM5lTG92

"Not only that — he was a Moorpark College professor.

"He gets probation."....More...

Not just NYC: Anti-Christian AG, socialist barista who got fired from lawyer job because she loves Hamas win CO Dem primaries

 Not just NYC: Anti-Christian AG, socialist barista who got fired from lawyer job because she loves Hamas win CO Dem primaries for gov, rep

"Elect the third world, become the third world" Siraj Hashmi

"If you think idiotic Democratic socialism is going to stop within the confines of the five boroughs of New York City, Tuesday should have offered you a wake-up call.

"In Colorado, two major upsets in the Democratic primaries again put rabid revolutionary candidates at the top of the ballot in November.

"In the gubernatorial race, Attorney General Phil Weiser -- known for aggressively pursuing Christian individuals and organizations that maintain that marriage is between one man and one woman, among other non-woke faux pas he believes constitute legally actionable issues -- beat out the more moderate candidate, Sen. Michael Bennet, who has represented the state in the upper chamber since 2009 and ran for president in 2020.

"Current Democrat Gov. Jared Polis was term-limited and ineligible to serve again.

"Meanwhile, in the state's First Congressional District, socialist barista Melat Kiros, who was fired from her job as a lawyer in New York City after writing an anti-Israel, pro-terrorist screed that whitewashed the history of the Israel-Gaza conflict in terms that made the Palestinian Authority look like veritable angels -- just one month after the atrocities committed by Hamas and its associated terror groups against thousands of innocent Jewish people who were slaughtered, raped, or kidnapped -- beat longtime U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, who has served the Denver-based district for almost 30 years." . . .   more...

Dave Portnoy says 'welcome to communism' as Zohran Mamdani makes urgent NYC heatwave plea    . . . "Portnoy, the Barstool boss, has been a loud opponent of New York City's mayor, often taking the time to send jabs the 34-year-old's way. In particular, the 49-year-old Portnoy has taken offense to many of Mamdani's policies, believing the mayor has enacted directives detrimental to New York.

Now, Portnoy posted a message on X in an attempt to take down Mamdani, seemingly equating his plea to save energy to "communism" - months after blasting the mayor as a "moron."

"78 degrees??? Welcome to communism people! Hope you enjoy!" Portnoy wrote on X in response to a post on Mamdani's account on the social media platform.