'The designated safe zone would include field hospitals, water pipelines...'

President Donald Trump’s greatest achievement within six months was simply ending illegal immigration as we had once known it—without “comprehensive immigration reform” or any other rhetorical trickery. It remains difficult to find, much less deport, the 10 to 12 million illegal aliens who entered in the last four years. Those who helped break the law, by design or indifference, now believe it was moral to destroy federal immigration law but immoral to uphold it. And it is still unclear whether former President Joe Biden’s handlers deliberately sabotaged their own border for political and demographic purposes out of sheer orneriness or utter incompetence. Many of the Left’s cherished totems—massive Green New Deal subsidies, the diversity/equity/inclusion industry, biological males competing in women’s sports, and the U.S. Agency for International Development revolving door—are either comatose or in their death throes. The historic drop-off in military recruitment reversed shortly after Trump took office. Republican voter registration is up, and Democrat registration is down. Abroad, Trump finds remarkable successes. For now, there are pauses in the fighting between India and Pakistan, Egypt and Somalia, Cambodia and Thailand, Rwanda and Congo, Serbia and Kosovo, and Armenia and Azerbaijan. Much credit is due to Trump for brokering ceasefires. Iran will not get a bomb in the next four years—as seemed likely when Biden left office. The Middle East’s current most grotesque terrorist cadres and states—Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis—are far weaker than they were when Trump entered office in January. There is at least some engagement in envisioning the outlines of a ceasefire in Trump’s inherited Ukraine War. The rub is finding the degree of ordnance necessary to convince Putin that increasing Russia’s casualties to more than one million will endanger his own dictatorship sooner than destroy Ukraine. Breaking up the new three-billion-person China/India/Russia nexus hinges on ending the war. The economy is still strong. Gas prices are at historic lows. Increases in all types of energy production proceed full bore. Current gross domestic product, inflation, unemployment, and the stock market—all at one time or another said to be in a crisis state—remain strong. Talk of an impending recession or hyperinflation is mostly muted. No one quite knows either the full effects of Trump’s tariffs—especially given the injunctions issued by left-wing district justices—or of the promised over $10 trillion in foreign investments. Much of Trump’s agenda will hinge on whether interest rates are lowered, Republicans survive the midterms, and the degree to which unelected left-wing lower-court justices can be stopped from hijacking the Constitution and de facto running the country. As for the Democrat opposition, there is no counter agenda, no shadow government responsible leadership, and no willingness to craft bipartisan legislation. Instead, the Left’s strategy is that of the kamikaze: to destroy Trump at the cost of destroying the Democratic Party. Otherwise, Democrats seek to prove so obnoxious in demonizing Trump that they create such mass hysteria that the weary electorate figuratively lies down, closes its eyes, covers its ears, and screams nonstop, “Make them all go away!” Former foul-mouthed vice presidential candidate Tim Walz is now reduced to a ghoulish status. He recently boasted to an audience that rumors of Trump’s death—who survived two assassination attempts last summer—will thankfully one day prove true. The top of the failed ticket, Kamala Harris, wanders aimlessly without an office, constituency, audience, or ideas. To remain viable, she knows she must continue touring and speaking. But Harris accepts that the more anyone hears her word salads, the more they will remember her 2024 train wreck. Head of the Democratic Party, Ken Martin, now screams that Trump is a fascist. But by what standards does he judge? Did Trump try to take his rivals off state ballots? Does he advocate for destroying the filibuster, the Electoral College, and the 156-year-old nine-justice Supreme Court, or packing the Senate by admitting two new states? Are local, state, and federal prosecutors—a la Bragg, James, Smith, and Willis—coordinating with the White House and the Justice Department to indict Trump’s current chief adversaries, such as Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, or Josh Shapiro? Did Trumpers hire a foreign spy to concoct a fake hit dossier on Democrat grandees? Are his subordinates now spreading it to the media? Are 51 conservative former CIA contractors and retired spooks swearing that Newsom or Harris is working with the Russians, Chinese, or any of our enemies? The greatest Democrat fear? That it has so institutionalized excessive executive orders, ad hominem lawfare, lower-court usurpation, state nullification of federal law, and federal intervention in higher education, the energy industry, and the nation’s open spaces that their own legacies empowered Trump and now will boomerang upon themselves—as the public applauds the karma. (C)2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Trump Astride at 7 Months appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Moral Panic?

The Doors formed in Los Angeles in 1965 and quickly became known for their psychedelic sound, rowdy audiences, and onstage obscenity. The post 33 Striking Photos Of The Doors That Reveal The Tumultuous History Of The 1960s Rock Band appeared first on All That's Interesting.

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Our solar system is filled with rocky debris tumbling around the sun, most of which is the same age, but sometimes you find something much older.

It is a cold, crisp, afternoon in Paris. The year is 1793. A young woman is brought before the guillotine, her hands bound behind her. She wears a plain white gown- not her usual Rococo style but times have changed. Once the apple of the French people’s eye, their opinions of her have soured. Her fate sealed by the court of public opinion. Her official crime was treason. Her real crime is being a woman in power.From her birth to the high life at Versailles, to her inevitable beheading, Marie Antoinette was set up to rise high — and fall even further. This article re-examines how a woman who dared to be outspoken and powerful in a world that demanded her silence became a symbol of excess and corruption – a French queen condemned by a society that shaped her through power she never asked for. Yet what if Marie Antoinette’s downfall reveals more about the world she lived in than about the woman herself?Sophie Riley explains. Marie Antoinette with a Rose by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1783.From Princess to Political PawnBorn into a life of luxury in 1755 Vienna, Maria Antonia, the youngest of the Habsburg House was never intended to rule.  However, her strict education directed her to use her body, charm and fertility to secure not only an heir to the throne but to strengthen the already established Franco-Austrian alliance.Her fate was sealed long before her marriage to the future King of France, Louis XVI, in 1770. Fourteen years earlier, the first Treaty of Versailles had set the terms of this diplomatic union. Her marriage was not one of love but of statecraft. From the beginning, her body and identity served political ends far beyond her control. Vienna to VersaillesAt the age of fourteen, Maria Antonia crossed the border of Vienna into France and was transformed into Marie Antoinette. From that moment on, nothing Austrian could remain- not in her name, appearance or manners.At Versailles, she was subjected to a strict schedule governed by expectation and constant scrutiny from Louis’s family and the French court, whose approval she was expected to gain. As the Dauphine of France, she was expected to embody obedience, fertility and femininity.However, her foreign roots isolated her as she was continuously misunderstood and mocked by the French Court. Seeking comfort, Marie Antoinette secluded herself within her private apartment surrounding herself only with a small circle of trusted companions. Her self-imposed isolation excluding in her early years of power would later fuel the backlash that she endured as Queen of France.  A Queen Under FireIn her early years at Versailles, Marie Antoinette was adored by the public.  Thousands flocked to Paris in 1773 to see the young Dauphine and Dauphin. Admiration, however, soon turned to suspicion as rumours circled about her love of fashion and false claims were made about her gambling habits at her home in the Petit Trianon.Branded Madam Deficit, she became a symbol of excess despite her continuous donations to charities across France. Whether these rumours were true or not was irrelevant- the people deemed her guilty. This marked the beginning of her downfall.The most damaging attacks came not from court whispers but from a powerful, growing force of anonymous writers outside the palace known as the press. Pamphlet WarfareCenturies before social media and the tabloids, scandalous pamphlets known in French as Libelles emerged as a powerful tool of political propaganda against Marie Antoinette. These widely circulated texts would turn Marie Antoinette from a foreign fashion icon to a symbol of moral corruption.Sensational titles like Les Nouvelles de la Cour (1775) insinuated that the Dauphine’s close relationship with Princess Lamballe was far more deviant and intimate than they presented publicly. Seemingly innocent outings and friendships were reframed as scandalous. Furthermore, the late consummation of their marriage further fuelled the vicious rumours of Marie Antoinette causing the Kings impotence.At the height of their fame libelles entitled L’Autrichienne en Goguettes ou l’Orgie Royale (“The Austrian Woman and Her Friends in the Royal Orgy,” 1789) implied that the Queen was insatiable, manipulative and unfaithful.  These pamphlets portrayed her as a corruptor of children, seducing the King and engaging in orgies in the Petit Trianon.  Though entirely manufactured their impact was profound. In the eyes of the French people, she was now Madam Deficit a symbol of excess and moral corruption. The libelles did not just damage her reputation beyond repair but painted her as the monster Queen, the one who would face the guillotine two decades later. The Scandal She Never CommittedIn 1785, Marie Antoinette was wrongly accused of defrauding the Crown Jewellers of a diamond necklace that cost 1.6 million livres.  In reality her signature had been forged by con-woman Jeanne De la Motte- Valois who exploited the Queen’s fragile reputation to carry out fraud.Although she was pardoned by Parliament, Marie Antoinette’s reputation never recovered. Pornographic pamphlets painted her as sexually immoral and corrupt- the perfect villain for a country on the brink of bankruptcy. Many people were quick to find her guilty as the libelles created an image that fitted her perfectly. For France it was entirely believable that the foreign Queen would spend money furiously while ordinary Parisians struggled to afford bread. Her acquittal would reinforce that because of her status she was above the law; she was also shielded by privilege and therefore dangerous. The whole affair became less about truth and more about the power of public perception. The case confirmed to her critics that she was a symbol of corruption and a woman who could not be trusted — the perfect villain for a nation on the brink of revolution. The Price of Being Marie AntionetteShe is remembered by a phrase that she never uttered “let them eat cake.” Her spending exaggerated beyond recognition and her personality reduced to a caricature of frivolity.The reality, however, is far more complex.  Marie Antoinette paid the ultimate price with her life- not because she was corrupt, but that she was dominant woman in a society that expected her to remain submissive. Her people refused to see her as a young woman trapped by duty in a judgemental patriarchal society.She was not just a Queen; she was a powerful woman who was turned into a symbol and ultimately the perfect scapegoat. And what if that same question still applies today: do women in power reveal more about themselves — or about the societies that judge them? Did you find that piece interesting? If so, join us for free by clicking here.

High-ranking Biden administration officials privately raised concerns about the former president's sweeping use of pardons and heavy reliance on an autopen during his final months in office, according to internal emails.

[View Article at Source]President Trump has signed a new executive order that will give some countries an exemption from U.S. tariffs if they already have a trade deal with us. This move is focused on…