It is fitting that President Trump aims to sign the Big Beautiful Bill by July 4

“This wasn’t a Pentagon operation. This was a Donald Trump operation. He came up with the PR. He chose the plans. He chose the day.” That’s a quote from news site Axios of a reportedly senior administration official about President Donald Trump’s role in conducting the operation to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities on Sunday. Lost in debates about what American policy should be toward Iran, Israel, and the Middle East was a reminder about the need for executive leadership in handling foreign policy crises. It’s a demonstration of the danger the previous White House put the country in by not having a commander in chief with his wits about him. Not only was this episode a demonstration of Trump’s individual abilities as a president, but it’s also a lesson in the difference between a presidency directed by individual initiative and accountability versus a presidency by committee. While plenty of commentators on the Left and seemingly as much on the Right were critical of Trump’s decisions from moment to moment, what seemed clear is that Trump had a larger strategic plan and executed on it. Trump has been, even before his political career began, consistent about his belief that Iran should not get a nuclear weapon. A document released in February practically telegraphed his position of applying “maximum pressure” on the government of Iran to get it to abandon its nuclear ambitions and stop supporting terrorism. He then went on a major “commerce, not chaos” campaign in the Middle East to ensure friendly, cooperative relations with Iran’s neighbors. Trump gave Iran a 60-day window to change its ways. When that didn’t happen, he was happy to let a regional ally strike the country while at the last minute of a short and decisive campaign, the U.S. military dropped some very big bombs on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Now, despite a few initial hiccups, it appears we have a ceasefire and hopefully the end of Iran’s nuclear program for a while. There were a lot of ways this timeline could have gone very badly. But Trump not only managed the difficult diplomacy of the strikes, he also staved off many concerns about the possibility of another American “forever war” in the Middle East that the American people have rightfully become deeply weary with and wary of. Not to mention, after some drastic changes at the Pentagon in the first days of his second term, he trusted the U.S. military to get a limited but challenging job done. Whatever one can say about the wisdom of striking Iran or of the president’s larger foreign policy strategy, it’s hard to say this is anything other than a success. Trump’s style of leadership couldn’t be more different from Joe Biden’s, well, “leadership.” The contrast between Trump’s “12-day war” and the previous administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan is a good place to start. Both Trump and Biden had publicly expressed the desire to leave Afghanistan for years leading up to the withdrawal. America’s continual presence in that country two decades after 9/11 had become deeply unpopular. Biden set a final day for departure long in advance to coincide with the anniversary of 9/11, telegraphing to any enemies in Afghanistan the moment they should strike. But as the operation took shape, it became apparent that the Taliban had a better plan for our departure than we did. As the catastrophe unfolded, Biden was seemingly missing in action. Unlike Trump, who was constantly taking to social media and media to explain his position and actions on Iran, Biden was silent as Afghanistan plunged into chaos and U.S. service members were being killed. As the catastrophe unfolded in Afghanistan, members of the Biden administration focused more on optics than the operation. On both ends, they failed. When Biden finally did appear from the shadows, he made a speech saying that “the buck stops with me,” then proceeded to blame everyone else, including Trump. It was a disaster. Even if the withdrawal was the correct call in general, its horrendous execution almost certainly emboldened America’s enemies abroad. Were our enemies intimidated by an America that couldn’t handle its business; had an exhausted, uncreative, and witless commander in chief; and was being guided by a directionless foreign policy blob? No. Biden’s feeble threats weren’t scaring anyone. So, that failed Afghanistan operation was followed up by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel. In neither of those conflicts did Biden project leadership nor give the American people clear-cut goals of how these crises would be resolved. The operations carried on with obviously a lot of U.S. involvement but without an explanation about how they would serve American interests or what the end game would be. And even if they did have a clear plan, Biden was simply unable to communicate it to the American people. Biden was a human gaffe machine whose obvious physical and mental decline only revealed the emptiness of his presidency. But he was carefully managed by staff and given cover by most of the media to avoid the “Big Lie” about his health and his personal life. This eventually blew up in their faces when a catastrophic debate revealed that the president was barely an empty suit. No wonder our enemies were on the march. Clearly, decisions were made by a kind of behind-the-scenes politburo. It’s funny now given the emergence of the boomer liberal “No Kings” protests against Trump. Biden very much behaved like an out-of-touch Old World king at the end of the age of monarchy. He took naps and ate ice cream while his advisers went wild and acted more imperiously than Lord North. On the other hand, Trump has acted like a chief executive. Executive branch by committee under the Biden administration put the country at extreme risk. It felt as if the U.S. was sleepwalking into a large-scale conflict without any plan other than a vague commitment to the “liberal international order.” America has presidential leadership now, and we can never afford another autopen presidency. The post Trump’s Iran Strike a Lesson in Executive Leadership Versus Autopen Presidency appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Friday’s weekly news recap featuring PBS News Hour host Amna Nawaz, Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart, and New York Times columnist David Brooks preferred to talk about the conservative reaction—or more accurately, Nawaz’s cherry-picked conservative reactions—to socialist Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral primary win than Mamdani’s actual positions and history. Nawaz began, “Mamdani’s 33 years-old, he’s a self-described democratic socialist, and his win, we should point out, has fueled a hateful response from some on the right. There’s a major MAGA voice named Charlie Kirk, who posted this: ‘24 years ago a group of Muslims killed 2,753 people on 9/11. Now a Muslim Socialist is on pace to run New York City.’     She also highlighted, “Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles actually called for Mamdani, who was born in Uganda, as a naturalized U.S. citizen, to be denaturalized and deported. Jonathan, what does Mamdani’s win tell us about Democrats and their message, if anything, and what does the response tell us about Republicans and theirs?” Mamdani should not have his citizenship revoked, and Republicans should not help him develop a reputation as a persecuted victim who uses that status to avoid talking about his actual beliefs. Republicans must be able to, however, simply tell the truth about him. The truth is Mamdani pals around with 9/11 sympathizers, seeks to “globalize the intifada,” and posted on his own Twitter account that New York City needed a communist mayor. Of course PBS wasn’t interested in any of that, as Capehart agreed with Nawaz, “Well, the response, I’ll start with the Republican response. It’s shameful, it’s hateful, it’s disgusting. It also tells me that Republicans are deathly afraid of their prospects in the 2026 midterm elections. Especially if they are going after a guy who simply won the primary in a municipal election.” Capehart noticeably avoided any endorsement of Mamdani’s views, but also tried to suggest New York City isn’t all that liberal: The other thing folks need to understand, the reputation of New York City is of a liberal bastion, but—and it’s a city where there is a six-to-one Democratic registration advantage over Republicans. And yet this city that has a reputation of being a liberal bastion, elected Rudy Giuliani twice and Mike Bloomberg three times, the first time as a Republican, the next two times as an independent. And so, what I take from Mamdani’s win, above all else, is he went out there and asked New Yorkers for their votes. He did not do a Rose Garden strategy. He asked people for their votes, and he gave them something to vote for, and that’s something Democrats should emulate. Ask people for their votes. Bloomberg left office over a decade ago, but Nawaz moved on and asked Brooks the same question, “What do you make of Mamdani’s win and the response we’ve seen so far?” Brooks was more succinct, “Yeah, people hate the establishment these days, and the Republicans have found a way to tap into that, and now Mamdani has found a way for Democrats. And so if moderate Democrats who don't think the party should go democratic socialist want to win, they should be as bold as he was, as much vision, as vibrant as he was. He ran a great campaign, and the problem with the more mainstream Democrats is they’re looking old and tepid these days, so be more like Mamdani without the socialism.” Mamdani is more of a Marxist than a jihadi, and while Republicans should be clear about that, the media should report on Mamdani’s actual history because behind the smiley-faced promises of free bus rides is a guy who clearly does not know how economics works or who history’s bad guys are. Here is a transcript for the June 27 show: PBS News Hour 6/27/2025 7:52 AM ET AMNA NAWAZ: Mamdani’s 33 years-old, he’s a self-described democratic socialist, and his win, we should point out, has fueled a hateful response from some on the right. There’s a major MAGA voice named Charlie Kirk, who posted this: “24 years ago a group of Muslims killed 2,753 people on 9/11. Now a Muslim Socialist is on pace to run New York City.” Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles actually called for Mamdani, who was born in Uganda, as a naturalized U.S. citizen, to be denaturalized and deported. Jonathan, what does Mamdani’s win tell us about Democrats and their message, if anything, and what does the response tell us about Republicans and theirs? JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, the response, I’ll start with the Republican response. It’s shameful, it’s hateful, it’s disgusting. It also tells me that Republicans are deathly afraid of their prospects in the 2026 midterm elections. Especially if they are going after a guy who simply won the primary in a municipal election. The other thing folks need to understand, the reputation of New York City is of a liberal bastion, but—and it’s a city where there is a six-to-one Democratic registration advantage over Republicans. And yet this city that has a reputation of being a liberal bastion, elected Rudy Giuliani twice and Mike Bloomberg three times, the first time as a Republican, the next two times as an independent. And so, what I take from Mamdani’s win, above all else, is he went out there and asked New Yorkers for their votes. He did not do a Rose Garden strategy. He asked people for their votes, and he gave them something to vote for, and that’s something Democrats should emulate. Ask people for their votes. NAWAZ: What do you make of Mamdani’s win and the response we’ve seen so far? DAVID BROOKS: Yeah, people hate the establishment these days and the Republicans have found a way to tap into that, and now Mamdandi has found a way for Democrats. And so if moderate Democrats who don't think the party should go democratic socialist want to win, they should be as bold as he was, as much vision, as vibrant as he was. He ran a great campaign, and the problem with the more mainstream Democrats is they’re looking old and tepid these days, so be more like Mamdani without the socialism.

If a California elected official calls for gang violence against federal agents tasked with enforcing immigration law but it wasn’t reported on the legacy network newscasts, did it really happen? This seems to be the stance over at the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening newscasts with regard to the vice mayor of Cudahy, California’s call to ganbanger insurrection. Here’s a sample of coverage of the call to gangbanger arms on Fox News’ Outnumbered: FOX NEWS OUTNUMBERED 6/25/25 12:45 PM HARRIS FAULKNER: The vice mayor of a Los Angeles county town is currently under federal investigation after she allegedly posted a video calling for gang members to defend their territory against immigration officials. It starts with, “dude…” CYNTHIA GONZALEZ:  Not for nothing but I want to know where all the cholos are at in Los Angeles. 18th Street, Florencia. Where is the leadership at? Because you guys are all about territory, and this is 18th Street, this is Florencia, you guys tag everything up, claiming hood. And now that your hood is being invaded by the biggest gang there is, there ain’t a peep out of you. (VIDEO SWIPE) If you are not showing up right now trying to like help out and organize, I don't want to hear a peep out of you once they’re gone, trying to claim this is my block. This was not your block. You weren't even here helping out. So whoever is the leadership over there, just (bleeped) get your members in order. FAULKNER: Al right. A compelling video for any day drinker wanting a mentor. Now DHS is responding with this statement on X. "The comments made by the Vice Mayor of Cudahy, CA Cynthia Gonzalez, are despicable. This kind of garbage has led to a more than a 500% increase in assaults against our law enforcement officers.” “Secretary Noem has been clear. If you assault a federal officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” One can only imagine the howling across the dial had a Republican official called for violence against federal agents. We’d hear cries of insurrection, Congressional correspondents would be shoving a microphone in front of the face of every Republican member, demanding a reaction.  With this actual call to gang violence against ICE agents, we get nothing from ABC, CBS, NBC. Anna Wintour’s stepping down from Vogue was just too consequential a story to bump for literal insurrection. The only network evening newscasts to carry the disturbing remarks were Univision and Telemundo, in keeping with their practice of exposing things that are harmful to their immigration advocacy.  ABC, CBS, and NBC took the opposite approach.  Click “expand” to view the full transcripts of the aforementioned reports as aired on their respective evening newscasts on Wednesday, June 25th, 2025: NOTICIAS TELEMUNDO 6/25/25 6:35 PM ARANTXA LOIZAGA: In California, masked ICE agents have arrested 1,618 undocumented immigrants in the last 16 days, according to DHS figures. The vast majority have no criminal record. Faced with this reality, the deputy mayor of Cudahy, California, urged gang members or cholos to confront immigration agents. The police union is now demanding her resignation, as Edgar Muñoz reports. CYNTHIA GONZALEZ (IN SPANISH): You cholitos are all quiet, all quiet… EDGAR MUÑOZ: The vice mayor of Cudahy, Cynthia González, in a shocking social media post, called on gang members to oppose immigration raids. GONZALEZ: I wanna know where all the cholos are at in los Angeles. 18th Street, Florencia, where- where is the leadership that? Because you guys are all about territory. And this is 18th Street, and this is Florencia. You guys tag everything up claiming hood, and now that your hood’s being invaded by the biggest gang there is, there ain’t a peep out of you. MUNOZ: The Department of Homeland Security says the comments are despicable. This type of garbage has led to a more than 500% increase in attacks against our ICE agents, DHS claims. ALBERTO MELENA: It's not a (literal) 18th Street, it's a group called 18th Street. MUNOZ: Alberto Melena has been working with gang members like the 18th Street gang for decades. MELENA: I don't think this call to action is going to result in gangs arming themselves and attacking officers. GONZALEZ: We're out there like fighting- our turf, protecting our turf, protecting our people. MUNOZ:Although the video has since been deleted from social media, the city of Cudahy maintains that the deputy mayor's comments reflect her personal views and do not represent the city's official position. Meanwhile, residents are divided. RESIDENT:The violence looks worse because she's embracing them. Then they get emboldened. RESIDENT: Maybe I would accept that we do it because we also want this to change completely, because we don't want this to continue any longer. RESIDENT: I think she's wrong, because I don't think it's the way to express herself. MUNOZ: The Los Angeles Police Union has already called for the resignation of Deputy Mayor Cynthia González, who has not yet commented on the matter. In Cudahy, California: Edgar Muñoz, Noticias Telemundo. NOTICIERO UNIVISION  6/25/25 6:34 PM ILIA CALDERÓN:The deputy mayor of a small Southern California city is at the center of controversy for posting on social media a call to so-called "cholos" to defend their neighborhoods from immigration raids. Jaime García tells us about the controversy surrounding the official. CYNTHIA GONZALEZ: Be very quiet, very quiet... JAIME GARCIA: This is the controversial video published on X by Deputy Mayor Cynthia González, in which she asks where the cholos are, as gang members are called in Southern California, and asks them to go out and resist the immigration raids. GONZALEZ: And now that your hood’s being invaded by the biggest gang there is, there ain’t a peep out of you. CHRISTIAN WECKER: We want her to resign from her position in the government. GARCÍA: The Los Angeles police union spokesman believes the deputy mayor's message is a call to violence against two dangerous gangs. WECKER: They have a long history of violence against officers. GARCIA:On the same platform, the Department of Homeland Security stated: “Deputy Mayor González’s comments are despicable. She encourages criminal gangs to commit violent acts against ICE agents. HILDA SOLÍS: All theThe people in that area are shocked because the residents are very afraid and these raids continue. GARCIA:The Cudahy city government, which is home to 22,000 people, 96% of whom are Hispanic, distanced itself from its deputy mayor, saying in a statement: "These comments reflect her personal opinions and not the position of the city." SOLÍS:As elected officials, we have a lot of responsibility. Right? And we should not say things that people won't understand.one. GARCÍA: This afternoon, no one answered the door at the residence registered in the deputy mayor's name. Deputy Mayor González also did not respond to an interview request we sent her, but she removed the controversial video from social media last night. That's the story. We'll be back with you, Ilia. CALDERÓN: Thank you very much, Jaime.  

A couple I know well has a Millennial daughter. I’ll call her “Marsha.” For years, she claimed to suffer from a severe case of self-diagnosed gluten intolerance. That fad eventually passed, though Celiac disease is real, and it appears to be on the rise. Nevertheless, Marsha recovered and went back to eating pasta and bread without any problems.But she and her children have since fallen into a far more dangerous trend.The transgender fad will fade away. But unlike the gluten fad, innocents are being disfigured for life and denied the pleasures of a normal adulthood — all in service to a runaway social experiment. Her tween daughter now lives as a trans-identifying boy. And Marsha regularly dresses her preschool-aged son in little girls’ clothes.These aren’t isolated choices. Marsha has once again been swept up in a social contagion — a phenomenon especially common among her age group. The gluten craze ended with little more than inconvenience. But the transgender trend leads to lasting harm. It encourages confusion, medicalization, and, in many cases, the sterilization of children.At the height of her gluten obsession, Marsha treated every meal as a kind of dietary emergency. At restaurants, she would lecture the waitstaff about keeping all traces of bread and pasta away from her plate. If a dinner roll appeared by mistake, she wouldn’t just set it aside — she’d demand a completely new entrée, claiming the first had been “contaminated.”She spoke and acted as if gluten carried radioactive properties. Today, her delusions have grown worse.Marsha now believes her daughter is her son — and more tragically, she has convinced the child of the same. This is not just a personal fixation. It’s a mind virus, and it’s spreading. And it’s doing real, irreversible damage. Legitimizing a ‘mind virus’Elite academic and scientific institutions, now fully aligned with the political left, refuse to entertain any discussion of “rapid onset gender dysphoria” or its potential as a social contagion. Scientific American openly celebrates efforts to silence dissent. The American Psychological Association, joined by 61 other organizations, condemned any researcher who dares suggest that rapid onset transgender identification is real or that it’s affecting children.When studies present data showing that “transitioning” may harm children’s health, the scientific establishment doesn’t engage with the findings. It demands retractions.Compare this to the response a few decades ago, when anorexia and bulimia surged among young women. At the time, scholars rightly identified the trend as a social contagion. No sane person would have suggested that someone could be “assigned anorexic at birth.” And no ethical observer would have urged friends or family to support anorexic behavior by celebrating starvation as self-expression. That would have been seen not as compassion but as cruelty — and possibly a sign of mental illness in its own right.Marsha’s pattern — first falling for the gluten fad, then embracing transgender ideology — shows why this trend deserves the same scrutiny. The signs point to another social contagion. Only this time, the cost is higher. RELATED: Matt Walsh’s crusade pays off: SCOTUS protects Tennessee kids from gender mutilation Photo by Jason Davis via Getty ImagesMarsha’s parents seek to maintain a presence in their grandchildren’s lives. They want to help those children keep a foothold in reality while monitoring that no permanent damage is being done to their grandchildren. Puberty blockers and sex-change operations on minors are illegal in the state where Marsha and her children live. Many people are praying that Marsha’s current obsession won’t result in irreversible, lifetime bodily harm to her children.Victimhood carries cachetMany describe the transgender craze as a “woke mind virus” for good reason. It targets people like Marsha — white, straight, and desperate for meaning in a culture that elevates victimhood. In an era where claiming oppression earns social status, Marsha fits nowhere. So she compensates. Over the years, she has loudly backed every progressive cause that allows a straight, white savior to feel virtuous: gay rights, Black Lives Matter, and whatever comes next.But the need to feel oppressed is powerful. During the 2020 race riots, Marsha took to social media to tell her followers she felt “shaken” and “scared.” She claimed someone had stolen a BLM flag from her front porch in the dead of night. According to Marsha, her home security camera caught the grainy image of a figure — white, male, roughly 6', wearing a mask and baseball cap. By sheer coincidence, her compliant husband also happens to be white, male, roughly 6', and never puts up a fuss.Now, with a “transgender” child, Marsha has finally secured what eluded her: a place near the top of the victimhood hierarchy. She eventually recognized that rainbow-flag-waving white allies had become punchlines in the very activist circles they tried to impress. But a trans child? That’s a ticket to credibility — admittance to the club, with VIP status.Unlike gluten hysteria, the transgender fad won’t end with harmless dietary quirks. It leaves children scarred, sterilized, and denied the ordinary joys of adulthood. Marsha may see herself as a kind of brave victim. But she’s a willing carrier of a destructive social contagion — and her children will suffer the lasting damage.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been dominating headlines ever since their highly publicized departure from the royal family. And while much of their actions depict a couple who have cast themselves as the victims in their story — the public doesn’t seem to be buying it.In fact, they appear to despise Prince Harry’s choice in wife.Journalist Jessica Reed Kraus of House Inhabit, who has intensely covered their evolving story, believes the public is right in their assessment.“I think it’s justified, because I do watch them so closely, I watched how it happened, and I saw mistake after mistake being made on their end,” Kraus tells BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey on “Relatable.”“There’s a lack of self awareness there,” she continues, noting that to “publicly drag the family into that whole drama of the racism claims” was just “really messy.”Markle became the center of tabloid drama across the world after sitting down with Oprah Winfrey for an interview and telling her that a member of the royal family expressed "concerns" to Harry about the color of her unborn child’s skin.Winfrey responded with an astonished, “What?”“I think that sort of set a really bad tone, where it’s like they were trying to break free, but they looked miserable while they were doing it. Like you want privacy, but then you actually want documentaries and podcasts and all these things, so I think nothing about them seems genuine, and when you don’t seem genuine at all, people don’t take you seriously,” Kraus says.Markle also went viral recently for a video taken of her dancing in the hospital room while pregnant, where many viewers pointed out that her baby bump didn’t look natural, speculating that it could be fake.“I don’t mind the criticism of her, but sometimes I’m like, OK, people are just looking for things to come up with,” Stuckey tells Kraus.“Not all these conspiracies I like. I don’t like the fake pregnancy stuff, that was definitely her pregnant in the hospital to me, I thought it was sort of cringey,” Kraus says, adding, “because again, they made such a big deal about privacy, but now you’re releasing your most private home videos for the internet to see.”Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Though best known as a musician for being a bass man, his signature as a melodist is his use of piano on "Let It Be," "Hey Jude" and this one. The post Paul McCartney’s Memorable ‘Band on the Run’ B-side appeared first on Best Classic Bands.

There's not long left to wait until we delve into the criminal underbelly of 1900s Sicily in Mafia: The Old Country. So, what better way to prepare for the next Mafia game's Friday, August 8 release date than to play through (or replay) the Mafia trilogy? Thanks to Humble's latest bundle, you can do just that for a huge discount. Humble's 2K Classic Trilogies: Mafia X Bioshock Bundle packs in the Mafia Definition Edition trilogy and the Bioshock trilogy for as little as $18 / £13.44 – making each game just $3 / £2.24. Whether you want a refresher on the series before the next game, you've not played the excellent definitive editions before, or you've never played a Mafia game, Humble's bundle offers the perfect chance to prepare for Mafia: The Old Country for a welcome discount. Continue reading Before playing Mafia The Old Country, grab the original trilogy at 89% off MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Check out the latest Humble Bundles, Browse the latest Humble sales, Get Humble Choice

Only one game made me scream in panic at Summer Game Fest, and that’s Mistfall Hunter. Sure, during my time in LA, I squeaked a few times at tricky soulslike bosses, oohed at beautiful pixel art, and chortled with glee at some zombie mashing. But my most audible (and embarrassing) reaction was to Bellring Games’ extraction soulslike RPG. Cornered by a shambling miniboss while extremely low on health, it takes a final lumbering swing at me. Knowing that this will be the end of my loot, a panicked yelp escapes me. While the majority of my 30 minutes with Mistfall Hunter was a lot less stressful, this moment shows how Bellring has managed to fuse the challenge of FromSoft-style combat with the high stakes of an extraction game. Continue reading Mistfall Hunter turns Dark Souls into Escape From Tarkov, and it made me scream MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best RPGs, Best multiplayer games, Best soulslikes

Dear Abby: Trump Calls Out CNN NewsNight Host Online in Real-Time for Pushing 'Fake News'