On August 6, 2024, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell unseated incumbent Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush in the Democratic Party primary for Missouri’s 1st congressional district. Bell…

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Vice President Kamala Harris was brimming with excitement Tuesday morning when she discovered, like most Democrats, who her VP pick was on MSNBC’s “Morning Mika.” “Just like…

On Friday, after CNN Anchor Brianna Keilar implied that Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance was exaggerating his military record, the Senator slammed the media personality for her “disgusting”…

Aren’t those on the Left the ones constantly calling out ‘misinformation!’ And yet, we have Mr. Stephen King, who tweets an easily debunked claim that Trump doesn’t like to be photographed with…

Hello 'Pot Meet Kettle' was the first thing that popped into our heads when we saw this insane post from Barbra Streisand.Why does the press let Donald Trump get away with not answering their questions?—…

He's an outspoken Australian Tennis ? Player - good on him.... This is a follow up to the video I posted on fwit Stiller yesterday where he was promoting Kamala Harris and also wished he was a Black Jew....

Starting in style. The post Who plays the opening guitar solo on ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’? first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

There is something very “Lumberjack Song” about the campaign to make Tim Walz into John Wayne. That Monty Python song starts with a promising message of hard work and cutting down trees but ends with buttered scones, skipping, and recreational transvestitism. Does the Tim Walz trajectory end with us finding out that he crochets? Right now Democrats imagine him the way everyone else sees Chuck Norris: The dinosaurs looked at Tim Walz the wrong way once—you know what happened to them. Okay, so that’s a bad Chuck Norris joke that somebody else came up with. But, it sums up the current Democrat delusion. (READ MORE: This Time, We ALL Have Dodged a Different Kind of Bullet) The headlines tell the story, er, the narrative: “Tim Walz is giving MAGA a masterclass in manhood” (MSNBC), “Masculinity’s check-engine light is on. Let Tim Walz have a look” (Washington Post), and “Tim Walz at the Minnesota State Fair redefines BDE: Big Dad Energy” (Vanity Fair). Democrats Are Learning from Donald Trump Who better than Derek Guy to assure us that Tim Walz is a guy’s guy — or wants others to see him that way? The Politico writer informs that for a Harris rally, “the governor showed up in a pair of Carhartt work pants, rugged work shoes and a camouflage cap decorated with the U.S. Special Forces crest,” for a Biden event “he wore a tan canvas, corduroy-collared L.L. Bean barn coat with blue jeans and a ball cap that read ‘Minnesota Grown,’” and that for party retreats he “sports quarter-neck zip fleeces under what appears to be a buffalo-plaid Filson Mackinaw Cruiser, a classic among Midwestern hunters and outdoorsmen.” The epiphany finally struck Democrats when that bullet struck Donald Trump: He appeals to men in part because his best traits coincide with the best about the best men. He did not hide under the stage, wet his pants, or start crying after an assassin shot him. He raised a fist, mean-mugged, and shouted “fight.” At that moment, Democrats knew they needed not just to change their nominee but to change their messaging as well. This is why Democrats falsely claimed that JD Vance wears eyeliner, why a U.S. senator falsely claimed on CNN that the former Marine never served, and why Democrats concocted a nonexistent passage from Hillbilly Elegy maintaining its author copulates with living room furniture (it’s all very I-can-see-Russia-from-my-house dishonest). (READ MORE: Will Big Media Give Walz the Vance Treatment? Don’t Bet On It.) This is why Democrats portrayed Trump as chickening out by not initially agreeing to debate the Democratic candidate on yet another left-wing network and Harris uses the “say it to my face” line. This is why White Dudes for Harris, Win with Black Men, Dads for Kamala, Men for Harris, and other such identity-politics groups suddenly, and not very spontaneously, popped up. Let’s just face it,” a source familiar with Harris’s running mate decision-making process told NBC News. “There’s a lot of sexist, racist white dudes out there in America who don’t like Trump but just need a little extra validation.” Democrats Don’t Understand Men. Tim Walz is Proof. Leave aside that they hate the voters whose ballots they chase, they clearly do not understand men. Men, at least the kind Tim Walz currently identifies as, do not need “validation.” They also do not sit around discussing manliness, machismo, or masculinity provided that they do not lack it. The people who struggle to tell you what a woman is know a man when they see one: Tim Walz. We should trust their judgment why? Like the “Lumberjack Song,” this all ends in disappointment. Voters eventually find out that Governor Walz signed a “Trans Refuge Bill” that allows underage kids to travel to Minnesota to get castrated. His “Lumberjack Song,” which begins by stressing his bona fides as a dad, football coach, and enlisted man, ends with him touting the virtues of mastectomy, penile mutilation, tampons in the boys’ restrooms, and puberty blockers for kids not unlike the ones he once taught. (READ MORE: Tim Walz’s Message on Murdering Babies: ‘Mind Your Own Damn Business’) One can almost see Kamala Harris wearing a ribbon in her hair with her pride turned to shame, exclaiming through tears: “Oh, Tim and I thought you were so rugged.” The post Tim Walz Is a Lumberjack and He’s Okay appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Kamala Harris was dismissed by her party in 2020 before she had stood in even one primary. Her attractiveness had proven shallow and brittle, and the same was demonstrated of her mind when the doughty Tulsi Gabbard KOed her live on air in the Democratic primary debates.  The 2020 Dem strategy was to make the election about Trump and associate him in the guts of the voters with the chaos of COVID, the endless riots of that summer, and the four years of political chaos that they themselves had organized. To succeed, they needed a candidate who would seem ordinary, non-controversial, and could be plausibly marketed as a uniter. (READ MORE: Five Quick Things: Is Trump Suffering From the Assassin’s Veto?) Kamala didn’t fit that bill. She was rated by GovTrack as having the most liberal (here meaning left-leaning) 2019 voting record of all the 100 senators, including Bernie Sanders. That rating placed Harris outside of the emerging strategy — her public record didn’t jibe with anything remotely sellable as uniting. She was also widely seen in a video clip speaking with Stephen Colbert about the violent demonstrations, in which she said: “They’re not going to stop before election day in November, and they are not going to stop after election day. And everyone should take note of that on both levels. That they’re not going to let up. And they should not, and we should not.” Even though these demonstrations were accompanied consistently by large-scale lawbreaking, including about 40 deaths, property damage into the billions, injuries to hundreds of police officers, arson of a federal courthouse, and more, Harris made no qualifications in announcing her support for them on nationwide TV. (Contrast the qualifications that Trump included when addressing problematic demonstrations in his support.) This kind of record made her a liability for the strategy of pinning America’s chaos entirely on Trump. Lipsticking a Pig One More Time Harris never recovered the glitter she had at the beginning of that primary campaign. As a candidate for vice-president (and then later as veep), when the president himself was a mere front for the Obama-ites and others who still had fully functional minds, Harris gave identity-politics cred to the ticket, something for which talent and merit were unnecessary. As loyally left-leaning as the media is, it still couldn’t help but comment on the never-ending chaos on her Harris’ staff when she took office as veep. It reported faithfully on each new task she was publicly assigned, most memorably, what the media dubbed her role as “Border Czar” (yes, Winston Smith, those articles have been shoved down the memory hole since Old Joe was buffaloed into quitting his campaign). Embarrassingly, there were never any triumphs to report. None of this helped her reputation within her party. But now, following Biden’s implosion in the debate, with the green curtain being pulled open by Toto, the media and the Dems (same folks, different hat) have tried to put everything into one last massive attempt to pull off their old magic, and lipstick a pig one more time. Now we have the new Kamala magically reborn with every virtue imaginable, so perfect that she can never be allowed a moment off-script, let alone to sit down for anything other than a fawning celebrity interview. (READ MORE: This Time, We ALL Have Dodged a Different Kind of Bullet) To be sure, as a Hall of Famer sings, we all need second chances. To be sure, it is a pillar of the biblical tradition and therefore of Western civilization that we can and must change for the better and we are not stuck in our failures unless we choose to refuse change. If there is anything worth conserving for a conservative, it is the ever-open possibility of meaningful moral change in Ezekiel’s challenge: “Have I any desire that the wicked should die? declares the Lord God; it is rather that he should return from his path live.” Second Chances Require Real Change But the return that is being asked of us is not an image makeover. It is not one more coverup, one more scam, just better executed. What is required is actual change. The medieval rabbi, physician, author, jurist, and community leader Moses Maimonides encoded what the measure of true return is in his magisterial code of law: What constitutes return to God? That a sinner should abandon his sins and remove them from his thoughts, resolving in his heart, never to commit them again… [He must reach the level where] He who knows the hidden will testify concerning him that he will never return to this sin again… He must verbally confess and state these matters which he resolved in his heart. When hurt has been done to others, furthermore, only confessing to God is not enough. Sins between man and man — for example, someone who injures a colleague, curses a colleague, steals from him, or the like — will never be forgiven until he gives his colleague what he owes him and appeases him. The change that we must accept, that we must welcome, is not a PR coup. It must meet the stringent test of the real world. We must give evidence of the change by acting differently when in the same circumstances. I’m ready to accept real change. How will we heal as a nation? How will we heal as a world without it? But let’s have it set out and testable by those who suffered from her incitement to riot — through her championing the weakening of law enforcement and the desertion of duty by prosecutors that have devasted the great cities in the one-party states of Washington, Oregon, and California or from her cheerleading radical transgenderism’s mutilation of children, ensuring that they will be infertile and unable to have sexual pleasure and that they will be condemned to a lifetime of hospitalizations to deal with impossibly complex reconstructive surgeries — this might do for a credible beginning.  If only. We can only hope. But real change requires hard, bright accomplishment, moral courage, owning up to mistakes, and clear evidence of change.  Harris Hasn’t Changed. She’s Merely Been Rebranded. The evidence so far is, instead, for more of the same. Ms. Harris’ PR people are trying hard to toss down the memory hole all evidence of Kamala’s extremism. Case in point – here is Fox reporting on the sudden disappearance of GovTrack’s radical evaluation of Sen. Harris’ voting record: The self-described “government transparency website” scored Harris as the “most liberal compared to all senators” in 2019, outranking Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren at the time.  But the web page with the ranking, which was widely covered in news reports during the 2020 election, was recently deactivated. The link now displays a “Page Not Found” message. The Internet Archive shows the page was deleted sometime between July 10 and July 23, with some on X claiming the page was still up on July 22. Hiding the truth, constructing something else in its place. Forgetting that committing to the truth would create its own publicity.  But those who do not trust in truth and would rather not change will double down on manipulation and control and hope always to evade the consequences of the pain and the injury the policies they espouse inflict on others. (READ MORE: Kamala Harris and the Civilizational Jihad of Democratic Street Thuggery) Campaigns ideally reveal who the candidates are. But if we aren’t paying attention, the revelation will be missed. Look well and see. Reward the truth. Hope for real change. And when the failure of the manipulators makes its own publicity, let it change our politics for the better. The post Has Harris Undergone Real Change or Just Rebranding? appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Once again, Gavin Newsom has a disaster of epic proportions on his hands. This time it’s California’s fast-food minimum wage law, which went into effect on April 1. The union-backed law mandates a shocking $20-an-hour minimum wage, the equivalent of a $41,600-a-year salary. In the months since its implementation, it has become increasingly clear that the law is having the exact opposite of its intended effect. Fast-food workers, who were told that they would benefit from the legislation, are facing layoffs, reduced hours, and business closures. (READ MORE: Gavin Newsom Is on Top of the World) The number of harmed workers is quickly adding up. The owner of a franchise of pizza parlors, Round Table Pizza, announced the elimination of 73 driver positions as a result of the law. Two Pizza Hut franchisees also laid off 1,200 delivery workers because of their inability to employ those workers at the increased minimum wage. Rubio’s Coastal Grill — known for serving a California specialty: fish tacos — shuttered 48 California restaurants due to the “rising cost of doing business in the state.” Other companies have slowed hiring, decreased worker benefits, accelerated the use of automation and AI, and stalled expansion plans. The California Business and Industrial Alliance, a business advocacy organization, said in June that 10,000 fast-food jobs have been lost as a result of the law.  This week, a new survey found that 90 percent of California fast-food restaurants have decreased employee hours following the law’s implementation. The survey, which was conducted in June and July by the Employment Policies Institute, surveyed 182 fast-food restaurants. In addition, 73 percent of fast-food locations said they have reduced overtime opportunities or employee shift pickups. Another sure sign of the law’s disastrous impact is the fact that the state government has exempted itself from having to follow it. This spring, Newsom signed a law to spare fast-food restaurants on state property that have government concession agreements from the $20-an-hour requirement.  The fast-food minimum wage law echoes the debacle that was Assembly Bill 5, Newsom’s 2019 law that essentially outlawed contract work, barring many exceptions. Assembly Bill 5 — much like the fast-food minimum wage law — was a heavy-handed attempt to dictate how businesses compensate workers. Both initiatives were driven by powerful union activists in California. And both failed spectacularly in their missions. (READ MORE: Will California Voters Finally Rebuke Newsom?) After the passage of Assembly Bill 5, it immediately became obvious that forbidding contract work severely harmed the workers who chose this type of employment — often because this type of arrangement is best suited to their personal situation or skills. Those who were most acutely harmed included musicians, translators, independent truck drivers, artists, personal trainers, consultants, and freelance writers. The public took special notice of the plight of freelance writers, perhaps because these workers were able to vocally register their discontent. Under Assembly Bill 5, freelance writers were arbitrarily limited to writing 35 articles per publication per year. The harsh reality Assembly Bill 5 presented to these workers was well-illustrated by the irony of Vox Media’s decision to fire 200 California freelance sports writers as a result of the law even though Vox, one of its publications, had called the law “a victory for workers everywhere.” Assembly Bill 5 caused so much consternation for California workers that, when the California Legislature reconvened after the law’s implementation, it immediately set upon fixing the law — by undoing much of it. No fewer than 34 bills were proposed in the new session to address the damage caused by Assembly Bill 5. The whole situation was a total embarrassment for Newsom. He had rolled out a transformative law but all he had succeeded in doing was harming California workers, particularly those with low incomes. Even his own former deputy chief of staff, Yassar Ali, labeled Assembly Bill 5 “one of the most destructive pieces of legislation in the last 20 years.” Newsom’s signature on the bill to undo much of Assembly Bill 5 illustrates the insider influence that characterizes his governance. Newsom signed the bill only after Willie Brown, the former speaker of the California Assembly and mayor of San Francisco, complained to the governor that Assembly Bill 5 was preventing him from submitting a 36th column that year to the San Francisco Chronicle. Brown is Newsom’s political godfather: After San Francisco’s 2003 mayoral election, the Associated Press referred to Newsom as “Mayor Willie Brown’s hand-picked successor.” According to Politico, after Newsom signed the bill, he texted Brown, “I signed the bill, write the damn column!” (READ MORE: Gavin Newsom Wants to Be an Emperor) Such insider influence may likewise be necessary to repeal California’s fast-food minimum wage law. In fact, there is evidence indicating that Newsom worked to advance the interests of his political allies through the drafting of this legislation. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that Newsom had pushed for an exemption in the law for businesses that bake bread and sell it as a standalone item. The exemption, Bloomberg said, would benefit billionaire and longtime Newsom donor Greg Flynn, who owns dozens of Panera restaurants in California. Newsom’s staff, however, denied that Panera had been purposefully exempted and said that the bakery restaurant was not exempt from the law. Flynn said in a statement that he had suggested that bakeries and bagel shops should not be included under the law, but that he had not asked for “special considerations.” ***** Newsom’s attempts to micromanage businesses have resulted in catastrophe for California workers. Despite a national trend toward higher average earnings, workers in California have witnessed a decline in their earnings. In May, leisure and hospitality workers in California faced a 2.6 percent decrease in average weekly earnings compared to the previous year, contrasting with the 3 percent increase seen nationally. Several red states boasted even higher rates of growth than the national average, with Texas achieving a 5.2 percent year-over-year increase in real wages. And, according to a new survey by the Employment Policies Institute, 73 percent of fast-food restaurants surveyed said that the minimum wage law would make them “significantly less likely” to grow in California, while 74 percent said there is a “greater likelihood” that they would shut their restaurants down.  Newsom’s attempt to create a progressive utopia serves only to promote his own image as a liberal trailblazer. Just like with Assembly Bill 5, California workers are pleading for Gavin Newsom to just leave them alone and to let the free market set their salary.  Ellie Gardey Holmes is the author of Newsom Unleashed: The Progressive Lust for Unbridled Power.  The post Gavin Newsom’s Fast Food Minimum Wage Law Is AB 5 All Over Again appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.