Conservative Voices
Conservative Voices

Conservative Voices

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Trish Regan unpacks 'unbelievable' details of alleged Somali fraud scheme: 'Lot of questions'
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Trish Regan unpacks 'unbelievable' details of alleged Somali fraud scheme: 'Lot of questions'

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'THIS IS DANGEROUS': New video faces swift backlash
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'THIS IS DANGEROUS': New video faces swift backlash

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Are They Illegal? Because If They’re Illegal, That’s Why They’re Getting Arrested

As many of our readers know, the month of December has brought on Operation Swamp Sweep, which is a joint effort by several federal agencies to clear as many illegal aliens, and in particular criminal illegal aliens (before you offer up all your semantic objections, we’re using “criminal illegal aliens” to refer to people who not only broke the law to get here but also committed crimes while here or had criminal records back home), out of southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi. It might not have been a bad idea, given the reaction of the professional Left and the local media, to call it Operation Clown Sweep. (RELATED: Meet the Criminals Anti-ICE Protesters Are Fighting to Shield) And the specific operation in New Orleans is being called Operation Catahoula Crunch, which is pretty snappy in and of itself. What’s happening in New Orleans is about as perfect an illustration of the activist-media complex that has destroyed local politics in every blue city in America as you’ll ever see. Here’s an example… pic.twitter.com/qMi7ZIxul4 ?? | Una ciudadana estadounidense fue perseguida hasta la puerta de su casa en Marrero, Louisiana, por agentes federales del ICE. Su padrastro salió a confrontar a los agentes mientras ella corría a refugiarse.#EFGD #EEUU #ICE #Migracion — El Frente Global (@EFGDigital) December 7, 2025 This made the rounds for several days as an example of the abusive practices that the Border Patrol and ICE are unleashing on the citizenry. (RELATED: Abusing Border Patrol Agents: Echoes of Vietnam) Except as it always happens, there’s a bit more to the story. It turns out that the screaming escapee is, in fact, an American citizen who happens to look a lot like a criminal alien that the officers were looking for. She was walking on the sidewalk, and the officers rolled up on her and asked to speak to her. Rather than show ID and sort the situation out, she ran. When you run from the feds, it’s exceedingly common that they will chase you. But you’ll notice in the video that they stopped at the sidewalk when she ran into the front yard of the house. And when her stepfather came out and engaged them, and they were satisfied she wasn’t who they were looking for, they left. What he was angry about, and summoned the local media to turn this bad example of how to engage with law enforcement into a national story every leftist in America can be performatively outraged over, was that the officers didn’t apologize. Which the TV stations and New Orleans’ pathetic excuse for a newspaper decided was significant enough to merit a full-on media blitz over. And ever since, we’ve had a chance to witness the performative stupidity of the activist-media complex… Imagine a couple of dozen people blowing whistles on a street corner being elevated to national news. But the Associated Press wasn’t done there. They reviewed 38 case files of arrestees ICE brought in during the first few days of the operation and found that most of them didn’t have criminal records… Interesting. So these guys didn’t carry their arrest records with them on the way from Venezuela and Nicaragua? You’re supposed to take the AP at their word that they didn’t cherry-pick the case files and that those are a representative sample of what ICE has reeled in. The media coverage of the operation makes it seem like a catastrophe for New Orleans. For example, here’s WDSU, the NBC affiliate in New Orleans, claiming an economic apocalypse for local businesses… Some NOLA businesses struggling without Hispanic workers; after many stop working amid ‘Operation Catahoula Crunch’:https://t.co/iFfLpZz0eM — Shay O’Connor (@SHAYOCONNORWDSU) December 8, 2025 Seems like there’s an easy answer to be had here, though, right? Hire Americans! That way, the ice can come from the machine of your restaurant rather than through the front door. There’s another aspect of this which somehow got lost. But a local building contractor provides that (if you’ll forgive a little not-safe-for-work language as he gets a bit torqued up during the presentation)… Construction company owner says he is seeing a difference ever since ICE has been in Louisiana. “No immigrants want to go to work … and it is so amazing. I’ve gotten more calls in the last week than I’ve gotten in the last 3 months.” pic.twitter.com/sCn6ck6IL0 — ICE of TikTok (@ICEofTikTok) December 7, 2025 But the professional protesters are everywhere attempting to gin up the perception that the whole New Orleans area is outraged over what ICE is doing, and there are scenes like this… NEW: Large crowd of Anti-ICE Protesters are continuing to gather in Kenner, Louisiana to protest the immigration enforcement blitz dubbed “Operation Catahoula Crunch” Not a single American flag in sight pic.twitter.com/yxRCYBWqCH — James Klüg (@realJamesKlug) December 7, 2025 Which is even getting disseminated by social media influencers who generally lean right… ?? MASSIVE ANTI-ICE PROTEST ERUPTS IN KENNER, LOUISIANA Crowds are flooding the streets near New Orleans, blowing whistles and chanting in protest after recent arrests by Border Patrol during the “Catahoula Crunch” operation. The protest comes just days after ICE detained… pic.twitter.com/Pih4yPxsFv — Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) December 7, 2025 Greg Bovino, who’s in charge of the ICE operation, is at least fighting back against the complex. ICE is aggressively defending itself on social media with posts like this… ANOTHER RAPIST LOCKED UP As part of New Orleans Catahoula Crunch, DHS law enforcement arrest and process Jorge Vierra-Serrano: a Cuban national convicted of FORCIBLE RAPE and BURGLARY in Louisiana. If you’re a criminal illegal alien, it does not matter where you’re from — we… pic.twitter.com/iuYTxfrgtG — Homeland Security (@DHSgov) December 4, 2025 ? CRUNCH TIME IN THE CRESCENT CITY! ? Operation Catahoula Crunch just brought the hammer down in New Orleans, making the “Big Easy” a little tougher for those who prey on the vulnerable! Our dedicated agents apprehended an aggravated felon whose disturbing history includes:… pic.twitter.com/aglyMcpdpB — Commander Op At Large CA Gregory K. Bovino (@CMDROpAtLargeCA) December 8, 2025 Perhaps the best reporting of what’s actually happening comes from Julio Rosas of TPUSA… OPERATION CATAHOULA CRUNCH: Frontlines reporter @Julio_Rosas11 embedded with U.S. Border Patrol in Louisiana for Operation Catahoula Crunch, led by U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino But despite federal agents targeting illegal… pic.twitter.com/70sDYWz0q8 — FRONTLINES TPUSA (@FrontlinesTPUSA) December 7, 2025 The most interesting part of this is that the local law enforcement agencies in the New Orleans area, not counting the New Orleans Police Department, are eagerly cooperating with ICE and the Border Patrol. Kenner, which is a suburb of New Orleans west of the city with the highest concentration of Hispanic residents, is the focus of most of the Catahoula Crunch activity. Its police chief, Keith Conley, has called the crackdown a godsend — because ICE and the Border Patrol are scrubbing his city clean of a criminal element he doesn’t have the resources or justification for getting rid of on his own. (RELATED: When Sanctuary Policies Hit the Highway) The Louisiana State Police has been deployed to escort ICE and the Border Patrol when they need it, thanks to the state’s governor, Jeff Landry, taking a diametrically opposed point of view to that of, say, Illinois’ governor J.B. Pritzker. But New Orleans’ mayor-elect Helena Moreno, who was born into privilege in Mexico and at one point was a news presenter on a local TV station in the Big Easy before going into politics, has treated Catahoula Crunch as an opportunity to engage in performance art by making demands of the feds… That gave Louisiana’s Attorney General Liz Murrill occasion to come down like a ton of bricks on NOPD for its position that it has nothing to do with immigration enforcement — a position Murrill isn’t particularly impressed with… I recommend that Superintendent Kirkpatrick immediately direct NOPD officers and staff to fully cooperate with @ICEgov and @CBP. Because we have a common interest in the safety and security of all New Orleans residents, I look forward to working with her and @NOPDNews to ensure… pic.twitter.com/oY7i5vytaJ — Attorney General Liz Murrill (@AGLizMurrill) December 5, 2025 Make no mistake about it, the vast majority of the people in the affected area — and I would go so far as to say even the vast majority of the Hispanic population of the New Orleans area — are fully in support of Swamp Sweep and Catahoula Crunch. They’re a very significant net benefit to public safety and quality of life in the area. But you’d never know that based on the asinine coverage from local and national media and the funhouse-mirror presentation they’re offering. READ MORE from Scott McKay: Five Quick Things: Traitors, Traitors Everywhere Nashville Hates You Back, Aftyn Lane Kiffin to LSU Is a Massive Win for College Football

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Gooder and Harder, New York

Last week, New York City’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced that he would end his predecessor’s policy of clearing homeless encampments in the city. On social media, this announcement was greeted by strong language which would not bear repeating here, but reminded me of H.L. Mencken’s timeless aphorism: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” Maybe the best explanation of what’s gone wrong in the Big Apple is simply hubris. Never has anyone more deserved this kind of democracy, gooder and harder than do the voters of New York City. Life in the city is already very bad — it’s been a steady downhill slide since Rudy Giuliani left the mayor’s office in December 2001 — but the decline has accelerated in recent years, and many observers are interpreting Mamdani’s election as the omen of an impending apocalypse. Maybe the best explanation of what’s gone wrong in the Big Apple is simply hubris. Figuring that their city has somehow managed to survive the blunderings of Mike Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio, and Eric Adams, perhaps New York voters looked at Mamdani’s avowed radicalism and thought, “Why not? How could it possibly get worse?” (Snake Plissken could not be reached for comment.) (RELATED: Why Do Bad Economic Ideas Persist?) Screenwriters seeking inspiration for dystopian thriller scripts are likely to get lots of ideas from real-life events in New York City over the next four years. The nightmare scenario has been foreshadowed by the long-term trend of an increasing Democratic Party stranglehold on the politics of both the city and state. (RELATED: The Anti-Colonial Shadow Over Mamdani’s Socialism) It has been more than four decades since any Republican carried New York state in a presidential election, when Ronald Reagan got 54 percent of the statewide vote in his 1984 landslide reelection. More recently, Barack Obama twice received over 60 percent of New York’s votes, Hillary Clinton got 59 percent in 2016, Joe Biden got 61 percent in 2020, and even the woestruck Kamala Harris easily won New York by a double-digit margin last year, with 56 percent to Donald Trump’s 43 percent. The permanent nature of the Democratic majority in New York — now a de facto one-party state — is made even clearer by gubernatorial elections. New York hasn’t elected a Republican governor since 2002, when incumbent Gov. George Pataki won a second term. Since then, despite twice having incumbents driven from office by sex scandals (Eliot Spitzer in 2008 and Andrew Cuomo in 2021), Democrats have held the governor’s office with relative ease. Cuomo got nearly 60 percent of the vote in 2018, and his successor, current Gov. Kathy Hochul, was reelected in 2022 with 53 percent. In addition to having a lock on the governor’s office, Democrats in New York face no effective opposition in the legislature, controlling both the state assembly and state senate by 2-to-1 margins. (RELATED: Mamdani Is NOT a New Phenomenon: He’s the Center of the Democrat Party) How is it that the Democratic Party has managed to increase its control of New York to the point of political monopoly? Any serious investigation of this trend must lead the researcher eventually to what is known as “The Curley Effect”: In Boston during the first half of the 20th century, Mayor James Michael Curley built a political machine by strategically shaping the electorate — taxing well-heeled ‘Brahmins’ heavily and redistributing the proceeds to poor Irish immigrants. This not only bought Irish votes but chased the old Yankees out to the suburbs, further tilting the political playing field in Curley’s favor. By enacting policies that punish their targeted enemies, Democrats literally drive political opponents out of their jurisdictions. Taking their inspiration from Satan (“Better to reign in Hell, than to serve in Heaven”), Democrats pursue a worse-is-better approach to governance, increasing misery and disorder to the point that no honest or intelligent person would wish to live under Democratic control. The departure of honest and intelligent voters strengthens the power of the Democratic Party, dependent as it is upon the votes of corrupt and stupid people. (RELATED: The Faulty Idealism of the Anti-Wealth Brigade) If some readers think this verdict on the electorate of New York is too harsh, let them consider a few facts. In 1984, when a majority of New Yorkers voted to re-elect President Reagan, the state had 36 electoral votes; in the 2024 election, New York had only 28 votes in the Electoral College — a 22 percent reduction. And it is predicted that, after the 2030 census, New York will have only 26 electors. This precipitous decline in the erstwhile Empire State’s influence on national politics is, to a great extent, the result of a “Curley Effect” strategy of making New York terra incognita for the kind of decent, hard-working people who vote Republican. Every year, tens of thousands of ex-New Yorkers relocate to Florida. Among this exodus of refugees in recent years was New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz, who departed for the Sunshine State in 2021 amid the COVID lockdowns that she blamed for driving her out of what she had once called “the greatest city in the history of the world.” The insanity of New York’s response to the COVID pandemic — e.g., closing schools in November 2020, months after schools had reopened in most of the rest of the country — was typical of the quasi-totalitarian policy approach favored by Democrats. The fact that many people choose to leave New York rather than to live under these policies is seen by Democrats as a blessing, because why would they want any Trump voters to remain in their state? It should go without saying that most voters in New York City are in the throes of Trump Derangement Syndrome. In the 2024 presidential election, Harris got 81 percent of the vote in Manhattan (New York County), 72 percent in the Bronx, 70 percent in Brooklyn, and 61 percent in Queens. The only one of the city’s five boroughs that went for Trump was Staten Island (Richmond County), where 64 percent voted for the Republican. Citywide, counting all five boroughs, of the nearly 2.8 million votes cast in New York City, Harris got 68 percent, a more than 2-to-1 margin over Trump, whose campaign slogan was “Make America Great Again.” Democrats in New York hate Trump, and they hate America, too. Democrats in New York hate Trump, and they hate America, too. Analysis of polls in the mayoral election showed a curious anomaly. Among those born in the United States, only 31 percent supported Mamdani, who was favored by 62 percent of immigrant voters. After Mamdani won, exit polls showed that he got only 34 percent of the vote among those who had been born in New York City, but 83 percent among those who had lived in the city for five years or less. It’s said that “The Great Replacement” is a racist conspiracy theory, but in New York, it’s an accurate description of the Democratic Party strategy for victory — drive out the native-born population and replace them with immigrants who vote for Democrats. Is it merely a coincidence that the avowed socialist Mamdami, born in Uganda to a Muslim father and a Hindu mother, is the new poster boy for the Democratic Party’s “progressive” agenda? Certainly not. Nor is it coincidental that Mamdami’s policy proposals are in direct opposition to those favored by Americans who voted for Trump. Mamdami’s declaration that the city will no longer remove homeless encampments was typical of this polar antithesis of Trumpism: The Democratic Socialist flatly told reporters … that he would stop all sweeps of makeshift settlements come the new year when he is sworn in as mayor. “If you are not connecting homeless New Yorkers to the housing that they so desperately need, then you cannot deem anything you’re doing to be a success,” Mamdani said of the Adams policy, which has faced criticism for not getting those homeless people into permanent homes after the sweeps. “We are going to take an approach that understands its mission is connecting those New Yorkers to housing,” Mamdani said. “Whether it’s supportive housing, whether it’s rental housing, whatever kind of housing it is, because what we have seen is the treatment of homelessness as if it is a natural part of living in this city, when in fact, it’s more often a reflection of a political choice being made.” The young incoming mayor, though, offered up no specifics on how he planned to address scores of complaints about the homeless camps around the city. According to 311 data, city officials received more than 45,000 complaints for encampments in the first 11 months of 2025. There are several points to be made about this. First of all, it can be demonstrated that the main contributors to the homelessness problem are substance abuse and mental illness. To talk about a desperate need for housing ignores this reality. There are homeless shelters in New York, so why aren’t the people camping on the sidewalks already in shelters? Because they can’t (or at least won’t) follow the rules of shelter residency, that’s why. Mamdani’s rhetoric about “supportive housing” is not going to turn gibbering schizophrenics and thievish crackheads into desirable tenants, no matter how “affordable” the rent may be, and they’d rather be sleeping under a tarp in a park than put up with the rules in homeless shelters that would prevent them from doing as they please. However, even if you are the kind of hopeless fool who believes Mamdani’s rhetoric about “connecting homeless New Yorkers to the housing that they so desperately need,” you cannot evade the second point: How the heck is New York supposed to pay for this housing? The city is already spending some $400 million a year on “rental assistance” and $150 million annually for its homeless shelters, and Mamdani will take over as mayor with an annual budget deficit of at least $5 billion (that’s billion with a “B”). Whatever other miraculous powers Mamdani may think he possesses, he cannot conjure into existence money that doesn’t exist, and the overwhelming likelihood is that his policy will result in homeless encampments proliferating in New York City. This is the exact opposite of the kind of “quality of life” policy that helped Giuliani make the city livable 30 years ago, reversing decades of decline. Because Mamdani is only 34, he knows nothing of the David Dinkins era, the previous nadir of misrule at Gracie Mansion. Just as the disaster of Joe Biden’s White House tenure elevated Jimmy Carter from his prior status as Worst President Ever, Mamdani is likely to outdo even Dinkins when it comes to inflicting misery on the inhabitants of New York. “Worse than Dinkins?” some old-time New Yorkers might be muttering to themselves. “How could anything be worse than Dinkins?” Even if it seems impossible, however, Mayor Mamdani can be expected to rise to the challenge, forging new frontiers in urban policy failure. Karol Markowicz and other New York refugees now residing in Florida can expect lots of new arrivals in the months and years ahead, as the writing on the wall of Mamdani’s city becomes legible to everyone. As much as anyone may lament the forthcoming destruction of New York City, it’s what the Democratic majority there has voted for and, as Mencken said, they deserve to get it good and hard. READ MORE from Robert Stacy McCain: The Dangerous Delusion of ‘Equality’ Dots and Patterns: What History Can Teach Us Demons and Demonization

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Trump, the Political Rocky

Talk about a match! There on a Kennedy Center red carpet in Washington D.C., was President Donald Trump honoring Rocky himself — his “Ambassador to Hollywood” Sylvester Stallone. (RELATED: Can Trump Make Hollywood Great Again?) Stallone, famously, shot to fame from being a relatively unknown actor and writer to being the creator of the immortal Rocky Balboa. When Stallone had managed to corral the financial support for his screenplay, so the story is told, he insisted, over the objections of the studio, on playing the title role himself. He did. And the rest, as they say, was movie history. (RELATED: Hollywood Unraveling: The Idiot Savant) Remind you of another underdog tale, this one in the real life of American politics? The film, which perfectly captured the plight of a fighting underdog who scores an unexpected split-decision in a boxing match with the much-established heavyweight champion Apollo Creed, wound up not only winning countless awards but winning the hearts of movie-goers around the globe. Remind you of another underdog tale, this one in the real life of American politics? A story in which a New York businessman with no previously held political office and who is an outsider to the insiders club of the American political establishment comes out of a primary pack of insiders to capture, first, the Republican presidential nomination and then goes on to win the presidency? Then this audacious Outsider proceeds to change the world for the good, settling regional wars, securing the border, using tariffs to, as the White House says, level the economic playing field for American workers. He brings thousands of manufacturing jobs back to America, rescues American hostages held by hostile regimes, unleashes America’s energy resources, and launches a bid for global peace beginning in Gaza and ending the craziness of forcing women to compete against men in sports. That would be, of course, the story of President Donald Trump. A decidedly real-life story that, yes, reminds me of a real-life version of Stallone’s Rocky. So the other night, there was America’s presidential Rocky with Hollywood’s Rocky, the two paired as President Trump gave Kennedy Center awards to not only Stallone but country music star George Strait, singer Gloria Gaynor, TV’s Kelsey Grammer, The Last Rodeo star Neal McDonough, and KISS lead singer Gene Simmons. Clearly, it was quite the night. It was a clarion reminder that America and its freedom give Americans the opportunity to live their own dreams and make them a reality, which is very much the inspiring story of both Rocky and his creator, Sly Stallone. It is very safe to say that President Trump himself understands the importance to Americans of the American Dream. He has lived it himself, coming out of working-class Queens to build first his own dream of an international real estate empire and then going on to win election as president of the United States, bringing dreams of peace and prosperity to reality around the globe. As America and the world head into the Christmas holiday, mindful of the call to bring peace on earth and goodwill to men, the Kennedy Center celebration and its hosting of those honored by President Trump — honored for both their talent and the excellence of their work in bringing those talents to fruition — it is certainly a good time to both thank the honorees for their work as well as President Trump for both his own accomplishments as well as honoring theirs. And a Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah it should be. READ MORE from Jeffrey Lord: Hegseth War Crimes Charge By Dems: What About Obama? Trump and Hegseth Defending America From Drug Traffickers Thanksgiving Is More Than Turkey