A Senator From Hamas?

A Senator From Hamas? | Power Line 

 So one is torn between cheering El-Sayed’s win as a break for the Republican Party, and bemoaning the sad state of today’s Democratic Party.

"The far-left Abdul El-Sayed has narrowly won the Democratic primary for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat. The moment has historical significance, in that El-Sayed embodies in a single person the alliance between socialists and Islamic extremists that now dominates the Democratic Party.

“'Socialist” may be too mild a characterization of El-Sayed. He wants to enact socialized medicine, end enforcement of immigration laws, put a 7% annual wealth tax on billionaires, have the government seize control of AI companies, make college “free” for everyone, and adopt a universal basic income. At the same time, like so many Democrats these days, he is a bitter anti-Semite.

"And it turns out that quite a bit of his financial support comes from the pro-terrorist Council on American-Islamic Relations. For those who may not remember, CAIR was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case, the biggest criminal prosecution of supporters of terrorist groups:" . . .  More...

Mike Rogers Begins Outreach to Michigan Democrats Who Don’t Support El-Sayed   . . . "It was a smart move to make, as there were warning signs weeks before the primary that centered around rumors that Jewish Democrats in the state would not only be voting for Rogers in the general election if El-Sayed won the primary, but that they would also fundraise for him:

"Several Jewish Michigan Democrats admitted Tuesday they or people they know will be backing Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers in the upcoming election if Abdul El-Sayed becomes the Democratic nominee." . . .With the exception of Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, my party’s leaders have sought to appease the dangerous faction rising in our midst. Weak, timid figures like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are spouting empty clichés — “We are a big-tent party” — while abdicating their moral and political responsibilities." . . .

What If Nobody Wants To Run Mamdani’s Grocery Stores?

Issues & Insights  

"Our question is, what is Mamdani’s plan if no above-board private company is dumb enough to accept these terms?" 

Daily Bo Snerdley

"New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist dream of government-run grocery stores is off to a bad start. He’s issued confusing statements about whether shoppers will have to show proof of residency to shop there, admitted that he will have private grocery companies — not the city — run the stores, and said the stores won’t all be open until 2029.

"But Mamdani is likely to face an even bigger problem if no legitimate grocer wants to get into bed with him.

"The “request for proposals” tacitly admits that his idea of government-run stores was stillborn, since he wants bids from private companies that have extensive experience running grocery stores, that have “existing supply chains,” and will “leverage an in-house merchandising organization.”

"The RFP says the city aims at “reducing prices in ways the private market alone cannot.” But it does so entirely through taxpayer subsidies. Companies running the stores won’t have to cover the cost of construction, pay rent and taxes, and can tap into taxpayer-funded “affordability payments” to cover a store’s losses. Who couldn’t reduce prices with those perks?

"So what’s the city’s role, other than heavily subsidizing existing private grocery companies?

"Ah, there’s the rub. Because in exchange for those subsidies, any company that signs up will become a ward of the city.

"According to the RFP, to win a contract, companies must not only be in the grocery business already, but meet requirements such as:

• Have “strong reputations within their communities for delivering on public policy priorities of health, sustainability, community involvement, culturally responsive merchandising, and local and diverse sourcing.”
• Show how they will “engage local suppliers, small businesses and suppliers meeting high sustainability, labor, and health standards.”
• Figure out how to, “in a fair and equitable manner,” prevent customers from emptying the shelves of the “core” goods being sold at 30% below market prices.
• Work only with subcontractors who will “work with NYCEDC (New York City Economic Development Corporation) to establish appropriate [minority and women-owned business] participation goals and make good faith efforts to achieve them.”
• “Collaborate with NYCEDC to finalize the expected wages, benefit packages, labor practices and working conditions.”
• “Demonstrate experience maintaining labor peace.”
• Get approval from the city to open a store in a privately owned site, including “alignment with the Project’s affordability and operational requirements.”
• “Regularly report” to the city about how it’s complying with all the above." . . .

More...

Looks Like the WNBA's Absurdity Is About to Sink the Entire Transgender Movement

  PJ Media

"Rush Limbaugh would be proud of these guys. Illustrate the absurd through absurdity. But what makes it all truly absurd is the amount of reality involved here. Both Royce White and Enes Freedom are simply following the rules the left has created, and in the process, they can legitimately claim to have a shot at getting a roster spot in the WNBA." 

Conservative Political Cartoons

"In other words, you have to take the left’s premise to its ultimate conclusion to more fully see just how messed up it is.

That would be a perfect description of how the WNBA is totally blowing its current men-in-women's-sports crisis." . . .

. . . "Reports are that the league is now reaching out to its teams to address, as US News and World Report reports, “ongoing discussions around transgender athletes in women's basketball.”

"WNBA Commissioner Cathy Englebert said, “I know many of you have received questions in recent weeks regarding transgender athlete participation in women’s basketball, and I expect this topic will continue to receive significant attention….I wanted to reach out to share how we are approaching these conversations at the league office and to thank those of you who have responded to questions from the media with thoughtfulness and professionalism.”

"According to reports, a task force of team presidents and general managers will take this issue up in the near future.

"This comes on the heels of flare-ups on the same issue, most recently sparked by Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham, who said loudly and proudly that she’s against men playing in the WNBA. For some reason, this was received by the WNBA as a controversial statement, even though the league wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for the “W” in its name, which stands for “Women's,” obviously.

"In an ESPN article on Cunningham that was published on July 21, Cunningham said: “I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I'm like, 'I never once said that.' I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn't have to go against biological men.”

"While you can be sure that the powers that be in the league made it clear to her that what she said is not the company line, unlike so many celebrities in her position, she refused to follow the apology template.

"It goes something like this. First, the athlete speaks a universal truth. Then the athlete gets backlash from the woke left, which can’t accept the truth. Third, the athlete or the celebrity gets threatened with consequences if he or she doesn’t change their tune. Right after that, the celebrity walks the original comment back and apologizes “to anyone who may have been offended by my thoughtless comments.”

"Cunningham didn’t do any of that. Instead, she doubled down, framing her position not as anti-trans but rather just “common sense.'” . . .More...

More absurdity in this Parody: Bigotry Rears Ugly Head As WNBA Refuses To Allow This Stunning, Beautiful Woman Into League | Babylon Bee

. . . "LGBTQ rights groups have forcefully condemned the WNBA for its decision, blasting the league for openly discriminating against trans players. "I have not stopped crying for 78 hours straight," said activist Starlight MacIntosh. "The WNBA has actually murdered the precious identity of Enes Kanter. Why is everyone so afraid of this breathtaking trans woman? Clearly, these women are a bunch of second-rate athletes who are scared of real competition." . . .

Big Tent, Small Space: Democratic Leaders Embrace the “Fine People” of the DSA as Radicals Call for Purges

JONATHAN TURLEY  

"You can’t be out here saying like, ‘Oh, I’m a centrist Democrat. And I think Abdul is a bridge too far.’ That must be punished.'”

"Nothing says “Big Tent Party” like a good Communist pogrom.

"Hasan Piker, a close ally of Abdul El-Sayed, is calling for “Marxist-Leninist” punishment for those who criticize Michigan’s Democratic senatorial candidate. As radicals and anti-Semites like Piker flood the Democratic Party, establishment figures are struggling to justify their alliance with extremist candidates.

"Ironically, Democrats are now fulfilling the false narrative that they used against President Donald Trump after the Charlottesville protests. They are maintaining that there are “many fine people” in the DSA despite their seeking to destroy our constitutional system, open our borders, defund the police, and embrace virtual anarchy. Now, some of these fine people are calling for moderates to be purged as radicals take over the Democratic Party.

"In 2017, the media manufactured a controversy by suggesting that Trump had praised neo-Nazis and Klansmen in 2017 as “fine people” in Charlottesville. It was demonstrably false, but became the accepted truth in the media. In reality, Trump condemned the neo-Nazis, and the statement about “fine people on both sides” was in reference to the people on both sides of the debate over the removal of historic statues.

"That narrative took on an added hypocrisy when some of the loudest voices later endorsed a candidate with an actual Nazi tattoo who allegedly assaulted women, mocked wounded veterans, and praised terrorists. However, he promised to deliver Maine and bring figures like Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren back to power.

"Anti-Semites and communists are not “fine” additions to any party. Hasan Piker is not a “fine person” in any universe. He has said that the United States deserved the terrorist attacks on 9-11 and prominently displays a picture of the collapsing Twin Towers. He has downplayed the murders and rapes of innocent Israelis on Oct. 7th and called one Jewish man who challenged him a “bloodthirsty, violent pig dog.”

"Figures like Harris and Buttigieg brush off El-Sayed’s allies, including Mohammad Baqer Qazwini, a prominent Muslim cleric who gave a sermon that called for followers to vote for El-Sayed while also calling upon them to pray for the death of President Donald Trump and to celebrate the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham.

"Then there is the Democratic House candidate in New York, Darializa Avila Chevalier, a prison abolitionist who boasted how she wiped her hands on the American flag in lieu of a napkin." . . .

Biblical Archaeology Confirms the Reality of Jesus, Pontius Pilate, and Caiaphas

 Dinesh D’Souza  

"Helena pulled down the pagan monument and built a church on the revered location. It was later replaced by another church built in the Crusader period. Today the Church of the Holy Sepulchre occupies the site, and remarkably we can see underground the outlines of rock-cut tombs."

"The power of biblical archaeology is that it proves the historicity of the Bible. It also confirms the presence of the Jews in their ancestral homeland. And it supports the founding pillars of America — such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution — and also of Western civilization.

"The philosopher Leo Strauss said the West was built on two pillars: Athens and Jerusalem. Athens represents classical reason, free speech, and democracy. Jerusalem represents the idea of divine creation and a divine source for rights, the Exodus as a model of liberation from tyranny, and the Ten Commandments and the teachings of the prophets as a code and recipe for the good life.

"Athens, in a sense, needs no defense, but Jerusalem does. And yet the West is no less dependent on Jerusalem than on Athens. To consider just America, where would this nation be without Jefferson’s tracing of our fundamental rights to our Creator? Why, if not for their divine source, are our rights “unalienable”?

"How immeasurable is the impact of the Exodus narrative on black slaves anticipating their freedom? How much inspiration and knowledge have we gained from the great figures of the Bible, such as Abraham and Moses, from the Hebrew prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, and from the Jewish messiah named Jesus? And how much more chaotic our society would be without the guiding influence of the Ten Commandments, the Psalms, and the wisdom literature of the Bible?

Archaeology and Biblical Historicity

"Since the Enlightenment, and even more since the 19th century, the Bible has come under fierce attack. Skeptics insist the Bible was written long after the events it describes, and that much of it is based on myth and fable. Archaeology refutes that attack by confirming the historicity of the Bible. Biblical archaeology is not concerned with the miracles or the theology, but if the people, places, and events of the Bible are shown to be true, that increases the credibility of the narrative as a whole.

"My new book, The Stones Cry Out, covers the entire sweep of biblical history, from the patriarchs who lived around 2000 B.C. to Moses who lived around 1500 B.C. to the Hebrew prophets who lived from the eighth to the fourth centuries B.C. to the life, ministry, and death of Jesus and also the first-century A.D. movement of early Jewish and Christian followers of Jesus the messiah." . . .More...

WNBA to meet to decide what its 'W' stands for

"The more I hear of the WNBA, the more I realize there is no intelligent life here on this planet." 

 Eric Utter 

"I’m a man. And yet I would not allow my daughter to be taken advantage of like this … no matter what, so help me God. No power on earth could compel me to do so."

AfterMath - Home

"Here is a recent headline, one that should be an excellent example of a Babylon Bee headline, but that isn’t a Babylon Bee headline, but a real one from Townhall -- an actual news outlet:

WNBA to Hold Meeting to Discuss What the ‘W’ Stands For.

"The more I hear of the WNBA, the more I realize there is no intelligent life here on this planet. Beam me up, Scotty. Please.

"The league is actually going to hold a meeting in an attempt to define what it thinks the definition of a female should be. And thus what kind of a female should be allowed to play in the league.

"The league’s Commissioner, Cathy Engelbert (hump-her-dink?), recently sent a memo to teams that addressed ongoing discussions around transgender athletes in women’s basketball. It read:

“I know many of you have received questions in recent weeks regarding transgender athlete participation in women’s basketball, and I expect this topic will continue to receive significant attention. I wanted to reach out to share how we are approaching these conversations at the league office and to thank those of you who have responded to questions from the media with thoughtfulness and professionalism.”

"The memo noted that the topic would be discussed further by a task force of team presidents and general managers at a previously scheduled meeting in the coming days.

"Though the league’s collective bargaining agreement clearly states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,” it does not include any more specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth, according to The Gateway Pundit. Uh-Oh." . . .More...

WNBA ought to remember Magic vs. Bird - American Thinker

. . . "The favorable attention that Clark and Cunningham have brought to the league is being thrown away by these race-obsessed fools. I don’t know if it is even possible for these women, but if they want to continue to have a league to showcase their talents and earn a pretty good living, they had better behave and start acting like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. They would be stupid to cut off their nose because they don’t like the color of their face."

UPDATE: WNBA Commissioner Weighs in on Transgender Participation in New Memo – RedState

. . . "Cunningham had previously spoken out against biological men playing in women's sports, saying it was just "common sense." That earned her some protesters at games. Then Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, male former NBA players, said they would be declaring for the WNBA draft. That prompted the WNBA Players Association to issue a statement saying they embraced "inclusion," but they would not be "used as political pawns." . . . 

Pete Hegseth Just Watched America Burn a Drone With a Laser and Everything Is About to Change

 Deplorable Daily  

The Pentagon has simultaneously awarded contracts to Lockheed Martin and nLight worth up to $847 million for the Joint Laser Weapon System – targeting cruise missile defense for Trump's Golden Dome – with systems scaling from 150 kilowatts up to 500 kilowatts.

   The Army is on the verge of fielding its first operational laser weapon system — a directed-energy platform designed to shoot down enemy drones at the speed of light without burning through expensive interceptors.

The service is nearing a contract award for the enduring high… pic.twitter.com/Yl3Ukspxsh

— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) August 6, 2026

"Pete Hegseth stood at White Sands and watched a laser weapon kill a target.

No defense secretary had ever done that before – and China has been doing it for years.

Now the Army is weeks away from the contract that gives US soldiers their first operational laser weapon in history.

Obama and Biden Burned Billions and Got Nothing

The Pentagon has been chasing laser weapons since the 1970s.

Every decade brought a new program.

Every program brought the same result: canceled before fielding, billions burned, nothing in soldiers' hands.

The Airborne Laser – killed.

The Self-Protect High Energy Laser for fighter jets – killed.

The Air Force's High-Energy Laser Weapon System – years of Air Force testing, then scrapped without a fielding commitment.

More...

A Defense of the President’s Strategy in Iran

  The American Mind

"The Iranian regime’s strategy today is simple. Fight a war of attrition against the United States. Maintain strategic, military, and economic relationships with Communist China and Russia to keep the economy afloat and the arsenal of drones and missiles replenished. And wait for the day when President Trump is out of office, trusting that his successor will lack his resolve. The mullahs believe time is on their side. Every American president before President Trump taught them to believe it."

. . . "To understand the war, one must first understand the Iranian regime.

"'The mullahs who rule Iran look on the Iranian people—whose attendance at Friday mosque services ranges from a high of 12% to perhaps as low as 1.0%, the lowest in the Middle East—with contempt. They regard themselves as the faithful remnant, determined to fulfill an apocalyptic worldview, whatever the cost to the nation they rule. The Iranian people are expendable instruments of that destiny.

"Herein lies our central challenge: we Americans value human life. We do not wish to kill the Iranian people, the vast majority of whom do not share the anti-Western fanaticism of the Islamic Republic. But because the Iranian people do not have guns, they are poor candidates to overthrow the regime that oppresses them. Any serious effort at regime change would require continued economic warfare, the arming of various factions within the country, and the separation of the Iranian military from the theocratic leadership. These are not quick or easy steps, and no one should pretend otherwise.

"Let us be clear: in this war we play by different rules than our enemy. If Iran had the capability to launch an array of thermonuclear weapons against the United States—whether from long-range ballistic missiles or from medium-range, ship-launched ballistic missiles, the latter delivery system well within their capability—they might well do so. It would not matter to them that the response would be the nuclear annihilation of Iran. For the mullahs, such a cataclysm would fulfill their apocalyptic worldview. A regime that hates its own people will not be deterred by the promise of their destruction.

"This is the reason President Trump believes Iran cannot have nuclear weapons. It is not a position he arrived at recently, nor one supplied to him by the so-called Israel Lobby or the military-industrial complex. He has held this view for more than a quarter century, as I’ve previously argued." . . .More...

Fresh Humiliation for Abigail Spanberger As Fiddlers' Convention Boos Her Off the Stage

 RedState

"If the Democrat Party cares at all about rural voters, they might want to think twice about the possibility of Abigail Spanberger being a vice presidential contender for their '28 ticket. If this is how a so-called "moderate" Democrat is treated when she tries to mingle with rural Virginians, imagine how well that sales pitch is going to play in small towns and rural communities across the rest of America."

"Whatever in the world possessed Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger's staff to think this was a good idea? For some inexplicable reason, they scheduled the Democrat to appear at a Saturday fiddlers convention in rural southwest Virginia. 

"Needless to say, this was not her crowd, and they let her know it." . . .

. . . "It's the latest in a long line of humiliations for Spanberger, who garnered the lowest early-term approval ratings of any Virginia governor in recent memory, got slapped down in her party's aggressive gerrymandering push (for which she put her smiling mug front and center), and watched her gun grab agenda get kneecapped by the courts before she could turn her party's anti-gun wish list loose on the rest of Virginia." . . . More...

BREAKING: Netanyahu Rejects Trump’s Board of Peace 15-Point Gaza Plan: ‘No Withdrawal Until Hamas Fully Disarms’

 Gateway Hispanic

"Israeli PM also vows no Palestinian state in Gaza or West Bank while he is in office

"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday firmly rejected a 15-point plan for Gaza put forward by President Donald Trump's Board of Peace, declaring that the Israeli military will not make “any withdrawal” from Palestinian territory until Hamas is completely and genuinely disarmed.

"Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Netanyahu made Israel's position crystal clear: "Israel rejects the 15-point Gaza document proposed by the Board of Peace. The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed."

"He stressed that any disarmament must be real—covering heavy weapons, lighter weapons and all weapons—not a “fictitious” arrangement. Israeli forces will continue to act against threats to soldiers and civilians, he added.

"Netanyahu went further on the question of a future Palestinian state, stating: "As long as I am prime minister, there will be no Palestinian state, not in Gaza and not in Judea and Samaria. Neither 'Fatahstan' nor 'Hamastan.'"

"The Israeli leader noted that talks with the Trump administration are ongoing.

“'They have ideas, some of which are acceptable to us and some of which are not, and we know how to stand up to these things,” he said. “We have proven this in the past and we are proving it today.” . . .

. . . "Separately, long-running claims that Israel “funded Hamas” refer mainly to earlier Israeli coordination of Qatari cash transfers into Gaza for civilian salaries, fuel and humanitarian needs under Hamas rule.

"Critics have argued that those transfers ultimately strengthened Hamas. Israeli officials, however, maintained that the money was intended to prevent the collapse of Gaza's civilian infrastructure and maintain calm, while Hamas's primary military support came from Iran and other sources" . . .  More...

Media Fawning of Senate Candidate Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed Begins

The Last Refuge  

"Extreme leftists and white, female, overeducated, urban communists have one primary prism: how Obama-ish is their candidate? 

"Both El-Sayed and Barack Obama are supported by the Muslim Brotherhood directly. Both El-Sayed and Barack Obama campaigned for Senate in the mid-term election (BO ’06, ES ’26), and both Barack Obama and El-Sayed planned to run for higher office in 2nd year of their freshman term as senator.

"The media now begin their fawning endeavor as the Muslim Brotherhood backed Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed tries to moderate himself in the image of Barack Hussein Obama.  I find it a little revealing that El-Sayed’s wife is a doctor who refuses to treat Medicare and Medicaid patients (cash only), as El-Sayed campaigns on Medicare for all.  Of course, don’t look for the media to point this out during questioning.

"Notice also the Middle East nations that El-Sayed criticizes (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Pakistan) are the Mid-East nations who have pushed back or banned the Muslim Brotherhood.  This is very revealing for those who walk the political deep weeds.  By the way, he’s a paper doctor; a Phd, not an MD.  WATCH:" .  . .More...

UPDATED: Abdul El-Sayed Is an American Tragedy – PJ Media

. . . "If El-Sayed really wants to "change the world," the place to start is Cairo, Khartoum or Damascus, not Ann Arbor. As the writer Hussain Abdul Hussain retorted, changing America is "a nightmare, one that I left behind and came to America to live the American Dream, as a proud Arab who believes in America, not in changing it." . . .

The impeachment elephant in the room

"There’s absolutely no question RINOs will impeach Trump if given the House. None. Zero. They will do it.  But that’s not even sufficiently cynical" ...

 M. Walter - American Thinker   

"And Thune would loooove to shiv Trump.  Trump has been increasingly brutal on him, and I don’t think he’s done.  I think it’s going to get worse: . . ." 

"Byron York has a piece at the Washington Examiner titled “What if Republicans Lose Both the House and the Senate?” which was good, as far as it went, but it didn’t go far enough.

"He writes:

…What if Democrats win? Although there is some internal party debate on this question, there’s a real possibility that a new Democratic majority in the House would impeach Trump for a third time.

"Mr. York is likely referring to some postural grumblings the Democrats would like us to think are “debate,” but there is really no debate at all.  

"There’s absolutely no question they will impeach Trump if given the House. None. Zero. They will do it.  But that’s not even where he was insufficiently cynical.

"Let’s continue. York also writes:Losing the Senate, on the other hand, would be damaging to Trump…

"Aaayup. 100%.  But why?  Why does Mr. York believe it would be damaging?

… because he needs to have his nominees — for the courts and his administration — confirmed. A united Democratic majority in the Senate could stop all that cold, and probably would, given the state of today’s politics." . . .

M. Walter blogs at www.mwalterwriter.com where you can find The Lunatic Left Series, a daily snapshot of Democrat words and deeds so you can see what they’re up to without having to go hip-deep in their toxic brew. You’re welcome