But what's a Dem to do, if not fail upwards?

Gauche...

'You are making a very scary argument to Americans'

'Harvard needs to fully come into compliance with Title IV'

A New York judge Monday blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from entering Rikers Island, setting up a major battle between Mayor Eric Adams and the liberal-dominated New York City Council. State Supreme Court Judge Mary Rosado has temporarily barred Adams’ office and the city Department of Correction from moving forward with an executive […]

'Save America from JB Pritzker'

The Trump administration may “soon” institute a plan for illegal immigrant farm workers to leave the country then return legally to work, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said Monday.  “The president at his Cabinet meeting, the one about a week and a half ago, brought that up, and he really fully understands and realizes that our dairy producers, our row croppers, our citrus producers, they have to have labor to be able to feed America, and food security, and America is national security, so it’s incredibly encouraging,” Rollins told The Daily Signal. “He realizes that, but at the same time realizing that you have to secure the border, you’ve got to have an immigration system in place that makes sense for America and puts America first.” “So I believe it will be soon,” she added, “but we’re working through all the details.” Trump may "soon" institute a plan for illegal farm workers to self-deport then return legally to work, per @SecRollins.Trump knows farmers need "labor to be able to feed America."?"But at the same time… you've gotta have an immigration system in place that makes sense for… pic.twitter.com/vQH3dRIltj— Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell (@TheElizMitchell) April 21, 2025 Rollins hopes deals will be “struck pretty quickly” with foreign countries facing Trump administration tariffs so bailouts to farmers will be unnecessary.  “The economy has already begun to realign around putting America first, so that’s the goal,” Rollins said. “But if the assistance is needed, similar to what [former Agriculture] Secretary [Sonny] Perdue and President Trump did in the first term, we’re already getting ready for that.” “So if we need to move quickly, we can,” Rollins continued, “but we just won’t know a number, because we just don’t know what the potential economic consequences could be until really harvest comes, which will be later this summer.” How much in assistance will farmers get due to tariffs?.@SecRollins: "Well, hopefully it isn't needed. Hopefully these deals are struck pretty quickly."?"But if the assistance is needed…we're already getting ready for that." @DailySignal https://t.co/zaWuKjAzEu pic.twitter.com/8q9WnczX7R— Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell (@TheElizMitchell) April 21, 2025 Rollins does not think tariffs will affect egg prices significantly, though she said it will depend on how quickly the deals are struck and how many eggs the U.S. brings in from other countries. “Most of our eggs are produced here in America,” she said. “The ones that we’ve begun to import to bring the prices down, that was just a short-term fix, and the egg layers are coming back online.” The Department of Agriculture’s five-point plan to lower egg prices “seems to be working,” Rollins said. The plan includes bringing more hens in to repopulate flocks; removing red tape to help the industry grow; considering temporary egg imports; testing vaccines that protect chickens; and helping farmers prevent the bird flu. Rollins enjoyed interacting with egg farmers on Monday who donated 30,000 eggs to the annual  White House Easter Egg Roll, she said. “We have so many egg farmers who are there who are sort of showing the world that their trade and how they feed the world and how important eggs are to a good, nutritious diet,” she told The Daily Signal. “So we’re going to keep fighting for all of our farmers and all of our ranchers and all of our egg producers,” Rollins continued. “We’re going to bring up, hopefully, an impressive level of prosperity to rural America, where all our farmers and ranchers reside.” The post Trump Administration Will Provide Illegal Immigrant Farm Workers Pathway for Reentry ‘Soon,’ Brooke Rollins Says appeared first on The Daily Signal.

On April 2, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced in parliament that the country will invest €25 billion as part of a 12-year defense strategy in the “most drastic transformation in the history of the country’s armed forces.”   Greece has decided to enhance its high-tech warfare technologies, including an overhaul centered on a new anti-aircraft defense system called “Achilles Shield.” Defense Minister Nikos Dendias stated that Greece aims to reduce reliance on conventional fleets and shift to a high-tech, networked strategy focused on mobile, AI-powered missile systems, drone technologies, and advanced command units.  The Greece—Turkey dispute  One of the most significant internal threats among NATO member states is the long-standing territorial dispute between Greece and Turkey. The two countries continue to disagree over maritime boundaries in the Mediterranean Sea and territorial claims in the Aegean Sea. According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, territorial waters may extend up to 12 nautical miles, while exclusive economic zones can extend up to 200 nautical miles.   Currently, both Greece and Turkey enforce territorial waters up to six nautical miles. However, Greece argues that it is entitled to extend its territorial waters to the full 12 nautical miles, a claim that Turkey strongly opposes. Tensions are further heightened by Turkey’s exploration for oil and gas in contested waters, as well as its obstruction of an electricity cable project intended to link the power grids of Greece, Cyprus, and Israel.  These overlapping claims have led to increased hostility and occasional military standoffs between the two neighboring NATO members, resulting in a significant military buildup in the Aegean Sea. These conflicts have also strained Turkey’s relations with the United States, particularly after the country was removed from the F-35 fighter jet purchasing program in 2019 following its purchase of the Russian-made S-400 missile defense system.   Achilles’ Shield  The Achilles’ Shield is the most significant initiative within Greece’s rearmament program and is expected to be operational by 2027. It consists of a multilayered air defense system designed to counter a wide range of threats, including aircraft, ballistic, cruise missiles, UAVs, naval platforms, and submarine-based threats. Athens is currently negotiating with Israel to acquire the €2.8 billion defensive dome system and is increasingly strengthening its relationship with Israel amid rising tensions with Turkey.   Although Israel remains the leading contender, Greece has also initiated consultations with other NATO member states to explore complementary or alternative systems for both the Achilles’ Shield and the broader air defense overhaul. These efforts represent a decisive investment in strategic autonomy, reduce reliance on outdated systems, and will significantly bolster the defense of NATO’s eastern flank.  Among the few planning to boost defense spending  Dendias emphasized that this modernization effort represents a “complete shift” in the country’s defense approach. Currently, only five NATO member states—including the United States, Greece, Poland, Estonia, and Latvia—allocate more than 3.0% of their gross domestic product to defense. While an increasing number of members are reaching the 2.0% defense spending guideline agreed upon at the 2014 NATO Wales Summit, not all have done so.   In response to evolving security challenges, President Donald Trump has called on NATO allies to raise their defense spending to 5.0% of GDP, an even more ambitious target than during his previous term.   The post Greece Unveils Ambitious Modernization of Its Armed Forces appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Someone Forgot to Lock the Gates of Vienna Behind Them

Appearing as a guest on Thursday's The Source with CNN host Kaitlan Collins, border czar Tom Homan called out the media's liberal slant on illegal immigration as the two debated the deportation of alleged MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to his home country of El Salvador. After Homan gave his opinion that the order of withholding that had previously prevented Garcia from being sent back to his home country became "meaningless" after MS-13 was declared a terrorist organization by the Donald Trump administration, Collins followed up: I'm glad you brought that up because that withholding of removal order essentially said the one place he can't go is El Salvador, where he's from. He claimed he was concerned he could be persecuted if he was returned. Why not simply have him return to the U.S., detain him, and then deport him to a third country. Wouldn't that be in accordance with the law? Noting that he is not an attorney and was merely giving his opinion from his experience as a law enforcement officer, Homan reiterated that he believed that it was appropriate to ignore the order of withholding after MS-13 was declared to be a terrorist group, and also argued that, unlike in 2019, El Salvador is a much safer country now so that Garcia would no longer have a legitimate claim of being in danger from rival gangs. Undeterred, the CNN host followed up: "But why not make that argument in court? If you think that you can make the argument that he is fine to go back to El Salvador, why not -- why not just make that argument and try to terminate that order that said that the one place that he couldn't go to was the one place that he was sent to?" Homan soon called out the media's double standard in demanding that illegal aliens be vetted before they are deported but not pressing President Joe Biden to vet them when he was allowing millions to enter the country illegally: No one asks these questions about the proper vetting of the millions of people the Biden administration pushed across the border and released into this country illegally. No one was concerned about the vetting then, and, all of a sudden, now everybody wants to be concerned about the vetting about the people that are going to be deported. I mean, it seems like a one-sided show. But I stand by the fact that I think things were done right with this case. He's an MS-13 gang member, he has a final order of removal, he is designated terrorist, and anything beyond that we'll let the courts settle on it. After Collins kept pushing on the same issue, making Homan have to repeat himself, he finally declared: Again, again, we keep going back and back, but, again, that was years ago -- country conditions were different. That gang no longer exists in El Salvador. He had been designated a terrorist at that time. Two different federal judges said he was an MS-13 member, a police department said he's an MS-13 member, ICE data says he's an MS-13 member, El Salvador says he's an MS-13 member. It is noteworthy that CNN has admitted that El Salvador is a much safer country now than it was five years ago, thus undermining the argument that Garcia would need to be protected from gangs in his home country. Transcript follows: CNN's The Source with Kaitlan Collins April 17, 2025 9:06 p.m. Eastern TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: And the order of withholding that everybody keeps talking about -- order of withholding you set aside because he's a designated terrorist which means the order of withholding it meaningless, I believe, according to the attorneys. And, look, even if we -- even if he came back, people think he's going to be released and go back to -- no, he's going to be detained, and he's going to be removed as per the order of removal either to El Salvador or another country. So this person has an order of removal, he's seen two different immigration judges, and he's been ordered deported, and that's exactly what happened. COLLINS: I'm glad you brought that up because that withholding of removal order essentially said the one place he can't go is El Salvador, where he's from. He claimed he was concerned he could be persecuted if he was returned. Why not simply have him return to the U.S., detain him, and then deport him to a third country. Wouldn't that be in accordance with the law? HOMAN: I think we're in accordance with the law. I mean, I'm not an attorney. I'm not at DOJ fighting this case, but my opinion, in the years that I spent doing this job, he is now designated a terrorist -- the withholding order is set aside. And we've got to remember, the withholding was issued years ago. Things have changed. El Salvador is one of the safest countries in the region because of the stuff President Bukele did. You know, the gangs are no longer operating on the streets of Venezuela. That's why he built that prison. So I don't think the gang danger that they once thought was there is even there anymore, so the situation has changed. This is much like temporary protected status -- the TPS. That's only temporary. When the conditions of the country have changed, TPS can be ended, and they can be removed to the country. COLLINS: But why not make that argument in court? If you think that you can make the argument that he is fine to go back to El Salvador, why not -- why not just make that argument and try to terminate that order that said that the one place that he couldn't go to was the one place that he was sent to? HOMAN: Look, again, I'm not litigating the case. The DOJ -- I think DOJ is continuing to litigate the case, but I think we're in a good stance. I think we're in a good place. (...) HOMAN: No one asks these questions about the proper vetting of the millions of people the Biden administration pushed across the border and released into this country illegally. No one was concerned about the vetting then, and, all of a sudden, now everybody wants to be concerned about the vetting about the people that are going to be deported. I mean, it seems like a one-sided show. But I stand by the fact that I think things were done right with this case. He's an MS-13 gang member, he has a final order of removal, he is designated terrorist, and anything beyond that we'll let the courts settle on it. (...) COLLINS: But this administration has admitted in court that he was mistakenly deported -- that he should not have been deported. HOMAN: Look, they said there's an administrative error, but if you look at the case -- if I look at the case as a non-attorney, just an enforcement officer, I think things were done right. Again, they're talking about, "Well, it might have been paperwork error with the withholding," but if we look at the case that he's designated as a terrorist, I think that withholding has been set aside. That is my opinion. But, again, we'll let DOJ fight it out. COLLINS: Well, I mean, the solicitor general -- who is the third in the chain of command at the DOJ -- has said that this was an error. HOMAN: Then I'll let them deal with it. I'm giving you my opinion. I said I'm not going to get in the middle of what DOJ is arguing in court. I'm telling you, from my stance, what we've done, I believe, is correct, and that's why DOJ is standing by the fact that what we did was right. COLLINS: You know, I've seen some people -- they're worried that the stance of this -- this administration, when it comes to this, is that, if someone is deported by accident, that they have no responsibility for them once they are in the custody of another -- a foreign government. What would you say to that? HOMAN: Well, they're in the custody of El Salvador. He's an El Salvadoran national. He was born in El Salvador. El Salvador has him in custody, and El Salvador decides what's going to happen to him. I mean, again, the El Salvadoran president made it clear he's not going to release him. So, again, I'm going to go back to DOJ -- they can fight this out in the courts -- I'm not a part of that. I'm not an attorney -- I'm not a prosecutor. So we'll let the courts decide what the next steps will be. COLLINS: Even though it was a U.S. immigration judge who said, "The one place he can't go is El Salvador." I mean, he could have been deported literally anywhere else, and there would not have been a fight. HOMAN: Again, again, we keep going back and back, but, again, that was years ago -- country conditions were different. That gang no longer exists in El Salvador. He had been designated a terrorist at that time. Two different federal judges said he was an MS-13 member, a police department said he's an MS-13 member, ICE data says he's an MS-13 member, El Salvador says he's an MS-13 member.