Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested that Elon Musk would make a bigger impact by using his resources to convince at least 34 state legislatures to ratify a balanced budget constitutional amendment rather than creating a new political party. “When you do another party, especially if you’re running on some of the issues that he talks about, that would end up, if he funds Senate candidates and House candidates in competitive races, that would likely end up meaning the Democrats would win all the competitive Senate and House races,” DeSantis explained. “We do have a problem in the Republican Party with these D.C. congressmen, they always run saying there’s out of control spending and they’re going to spend less and they never do it,” he continued. “Elon was doing DOGE and a lot of Congress didn’t want anything to do with actually adopting the DOGE cuts,” the Republican governor noted. “The way you do that is expose that in a primary and show that there’s another way forward. Honestly, if you’re concerned about the debt, I wouldn’t even worry about that because I don’t think just electing a few better people is gonna change your trajectory,” he continued. “The incentives in Washington are going to lead to these outcomes really regardless of the outcome of elections at this point,” he added. “You need to do a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and you can do that through the states. You can do it through Article 5. We’ve got 28 states that have approved this. There’s another four or five that are on the docket. Once you hit 34, then you write an amendment and then the states are able to ratify that,” he noted. DeSantis said if Musk wanted to weigh in on that and work on state legislatures, he would have a “monumental” impact. Watch the clip: BREAKING: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis calls on Elon Musk to put his resources toward a BALANCED BUDGET and TERM LIMITS FOR CONGRESS amendment, says that would be FAR more successful than a new political party. "You need to do a BALANCED BUDGET amendment to the U.S.… pic.twitter.com/bLLDmwrXcI — Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 7, 2025 Florida’s Voice noted: Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested Elon Musk could make a bigger impact by putting his resources into persuading up to 34 state legislatures to ratify a balanced budget amendment and call a convention, rather than funding a new political party and a handful of congressional candidates. During a press conference, DeSantis warned that starting another party could backfire. “We need a balanced budget amendment and term limits for Congress,” DeSantis said. We need a balanced budget amendment and term limits for Congress. pic.twitter.com/TglkId8Bjb — Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) July 7, 2025 “Backing a candidate for president is not out of the question, but the focus for the next 12 months is on the House and the Senate,” Musk previously said. Backing a candidate for president is not out of the question, but the focus for the next 12 months is on the House and the Senate — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2025 “One way to execute on this would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts. Given the razor-thin legislative margins, that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people,” Musk said upon announcing his intent to form a new political party. One way to execute on this would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts. Given the razor-thin legislative margins, that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 4, 2025 Musk said the party would focus on the 2026 midterm elections. BREAKING: Elon Musk says the America Party will contest the 2026 midterm elections. pic.twitter.com/VyVh3jGwU8 — DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) July 5, 2025 USA TODAY described the difficulties of starting a third party: Trump criticized the new party announcement on social media July 6, writing Musk has gone “off the rails” and that third parties “have never succeeded in the United States.” The United States has maintained a two-party system through most of its history, dominated by the Republican and Democratic parties. While candidates of third political parties have never won a U.S. presidential election in the 20th and 21st centuries, they have had some level of influence in elections over the years. The two largest third parties in 2025 are the Libertarian and Green Parties, though neither is registered in all 50 states. That presents a considerable barrier in efforts to compete with the Democrats and the GOP. The Federal Elections Commission and individual states have their own sets of rules and requirements for a political party to register in elections, a system that can make formation of new parties difficult. Oftentimes, third parties have acted as vote siphons that threaten either Republican or Democratic candidates’ ability to reach a majority, or have mobilized attention over voter issues. The last time a third party candidate made headway in a presidential race was in 1968, when American Independent Party nominee George Wallace won electoral votes from five Southern states. In 1992, Ross Perot of the Independent Party ran for president, and in 2000 Ralph Nader did the same representing the Green Party, but neither won any electoral votes.

Celebrate 50 years of Iron Maiden with the inaugural issue of Metal Hammer Italy – also featuring Ghost, Sleep Token, Machine Head and more

The radical Antifa who riot for the Democrat Party, are violent anarcho-communists. Some have been trained in foreign countries by jihadists and others by cartels. They seek the overthrow of the United States. Ten heavily-armed Texas Antifa were arrested on attempted murder charges. They had multiple AR rifles, pistols, ammunition, radios, body armor, leftist anarchist […] The post 10 Antifa Charged in Attempted Murder of Federal Officers appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee, denied the Justice Department’s motions to dismiss Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawsuit over his deportation to El Salvador, calling one of the government’s motions “meritless.” The basis of the lawsuit is that the deportation was a mistake which the DoJ admitted. Xinis did not immediately rule on Abrego […] The post Judge Xinis Okays Abrego Lawsuit Against the US Government appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

The DOJ and FBI say Jeffrey Epstein did not have a client list, and there is no evidence of blackmail or proof that he was murdered, much to the disillusionment of many conservatives. President Donald Trump pressures Israel to accept a ceasefire in Gaza. And a scathing CIA review reveals how Obama’s top intel chiefs pushed the “Russia collusion” narrative against Trump — even after the Steele dossier was discredited. It’s Tuesday, July 8, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:     If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:     Epstein… Killed Himself? Topline: Jeffrey Epstein killed himself, according to a new report from the Trump Justice Department. This week, the DOJ released nearly 11 hours of footage from the common area of the “Special Housing Unit” in the detention facility where Epstein was held. In a memo, the FBI says that “anyone entering or attempting to enter” Epstein’s cell “could have been captured by this footage.” Since footage shows no one entering Epstein’s cell during that window, the bureau concluded that Epstein committed suicide. There’s been controversy surrounding Epstein’s death from the beginning – many people believe he was murdered as part of a cover-up. They believe Epstein blackmailed high-profile people who had sexual intercourse with the women he trafficked, and that the evidence is being suppressed to protect the powerful people implicated in the crimes. The FBI says there’s no evidence of Epstein’s “client list,” nor any “credible evidence…that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.” But, that contradicts statements previously made by senior members of the Trump administration, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, who acknowledged earlier this year in an interview with Fox News that Epstein’s client list, which her department now claims does not exist, was “sitting on my desk right now to review [per] a directive from President Trump.”  The video released appears to be missing about a minute of footage just before midnight. According to the New York Times, “The digital clock on the screen jumps from 11:58:58 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Officials did not immediately have an explanation for the apparent gap.” “The Trump administration is committed to truth and transparency,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in a briefing on Monday. “That’s why the attorney general and the FBI director pledged, at the president’s direction, to do an exhaustive review of all of the files related to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes and his death.” Lisa Bryant, director and executive producer of the Netflix documentaries “Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich” and “Ghislane Maxwell: Filthy Rich,” told The Daily Wire that the memo is not going to be the end of the story. “Epstein’s door is not in the camera’s field of view in this video. So exactly how does [the tape] prove he committed suicide?” Bryant said. She also pointed to details in Epstein’s autopsy, which some experts claim match a homicide more closely than suicide. “The evidence that [Dr. Michael Baden, who was present at the official autopsy] saw, he says points to homicide by strangulation rather than suicide by hanging…Epstein had numerous visible injuries, including this very key broken hyoid bone, which is kind of around your Adam’s apple in his neck, something which [Baden] said that he has never seen in 50 years as a result of a suicide by hanging… I call BS.”   Trump Talks War & Peace With Netanyahu Topline: As the war between Israel and Hamas continues, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House on Monday for a high-stakes sit-down with President Trump. Many people ease into their first workday after vacation. Trump apparently didn’t get the memo, as he hosted Prime Minister Netanyahu just after the Independence Day weekend for his third White House visit in six months.  First, Trump and Netanyahu took a victory lap of sorts, celebrating their successful strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, which they say set the regime back years in its pursuit of a nuclear weapon. President Trump has warned Iran that he’d be willing to strike them again if they restarted efforts to enrich uranium, but he’s also signaled a willingness to a long-term nuclear deal to avoid future conflict. “We have scheduled Iran talks and they want to talk. They took a big drubbing.” From what we’ve been told, Trump — who famously loves dealmaking — has been using his action in Iran as leverage with Netanyahu, essentially saying, ‘I helped end your war with Iran, now it’s time for you to end things with Hamas.’  The two sides have been negotiating in Qatar over the last few days and, by all accounts, are making progress. At the moment, the terms include a 60-day ceasefire, during which Israel would allow for increased levels of humanitarian aid in Gaza, while Hamas would release the fifty or so remaining hostages in their possession.  But the main holdup is that Hamas says it will only free the hostages if Israel agrees to fully withdraw from Gaza and end its military operation. Netanyahu has made clear from the start that he won’t stop until the terror group has been dismantled or surrenders and hands over all of its weapons.    Russiagate Retrospective Topline: The CIA has finished a probe into the Obama administration’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump win. The spy agency’s review found that the Russia investigation was “markedly unconventional” and potentially corrupt from the start. Nine years since it was first put forward, ‘Russiagate’ continues to be a story, even though its core claims have been thoroughly discredited. President Trump ordered this review of the Russia collusion investigation on his first day in office as part of a broader push to “correct past misconduct by the Federal Government related to the weaponization of law enforcement and the weaponization of the Intelligence Community.”  Last week, the CIA declassified a memo that provides an overview of the agency’s findings. Investigators determined that, in the initial stages of the probe, the process to finish the assessment had “multiple procedural anomalies.” Those anomalies included “a highly compressed production timeline, stringent compartmentation, and excessive involvement of agency heads,” which, according to the memo, hurt the integrity of the CIA. The Steele Dossier – a report on unsubstantiated rumors about Trump and Russia, as well as the 2016 election – provides an excellent, concrete example. Despite the lack of any substantiating evidence backing the dossier’s sometimes outlandish claims, then-CIA Director John Brennan pushed for the dossier to be included in the 2016 report on Russia’s alleged interference. He even overrode concerns voiced by two top CIA officials that raised significant questions about the dossier’s reliability. According to the newly-released report, Brennan “appeared more swayed by the Dossier’s general conformity with existing theories than by legitimate tradecraft concerns.” Brennan was backed up in his decision by then-FBI Director James Comey and then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. According to the new report, former President Barack Obama, who ordered Brennan, Clapper, and Comey to investigate Russia’s alleged role in the election, pushed to have the assessment finished six weeks before his presidency was over, which caused the intelligence chiefs to cut a lot of corners. For example, according to the memo, they excluded 13 of the then-17 intelligence agencies from reviewing their work.

A new report details how the perpetrators of the Hamas-led massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023, had a “systematic and premeditated” plan for the brutal sexual assault of Israeli women. The report from the aptly-named Dinah Project — in the Bible, the Biblical patriarch Jacob’s daughter was raped by a prince of a nearby region — delineates the savage treatment in the rape and murder of the Israeli women by the Palestinians who were either members of Hamas or the Gazan population. Rape. Genital Mutilation. Hamas used sexual violence as a weapon of war – on October 7 and well after. This was not random. It was systematic. An intentional tactic of terror. A war crime. The July 8 Dinah Report demands accountability. We will not stop fighting for… pic.twitter.com/YXpesuK9aH — Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) July 8, 2025 “This report represents a call to action: to acknowledge the sexual violence that occurred on October 7 as crimes against humanity, to hold the perpetrators responsible, and to ensure that the tactical use of sexual violence by Hamas as a weapon of war receives the international condemnation and response it demands,” the report states. According to the report, the sexual assaults themselves were systematic and premeditated, thus attesting to the weaponization of sexual violence and its utilization as a tool of war. A report from the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) of the UN had already noted, “across multiple locations of the Gaza periphery, a pattern of victims, mostly women, found fully or partially naked from the waist down, with their hands tied behind their back and/or tied to structures such as trees and poles, and shot. … There are further accounts of individuals who witnessed at least two incidents of rape of corpses of women.” “One should bear in mind that the vast majority of those who were sexually assaulted were among the 1,166 who were murdered in the attack and therefore silenced forever,” the report reminds its readers. “Many of those who did survive are likely to be too traumatized to be able to recount their experience.” “The threat of forcibly marrying the female hostages is a recurring theme,” the report explains. “The intention to marry off the female hostages, which was reported by six of the returned hostages, reveals a plan to engage in an act of raping and possibly impregnating them.” “Five witnesses reported four or five separate cases of gang rapes; two witnesses reported one possible case of gang rape,” the report notes. “Thus, in total, there are at least four accounts of gang rapes, and possibly six such accounts, all occurring during the October 7 attack. … In most cases, the rape victims were murdered during or immediately following the assault. … The accounts of mutilations are corroborated by the descriptions of first and second responders.” The report noted the following actions taken by the perpetrators: Bodies with objects inserted into their private parts; bodies with signs of shooting or other mutilations in the area of the genitalia, and bodies of naked women cuffed to trees. “All of the first responders who were at the Nova festival site described the same scenes: Dozens of female bodies naked or partially naked from the waist down, many of them bleeding from the genitalia as a result of gunshots,” the report states.

The Trump administration is moving to end the requirement that passengers remove their shoes when going through airport security, according to multiple reports. The much-hated shoe removal mandate, which has been in place since 2006, is being gradually phased out in the coming weeks, according to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents who have told multiple news outlets. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the news on Tuesday morning.  The phase-out began at Baltimore/Washington International Airport, Fort Lauderdale International Airport, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Portland International Airport, Philadelphia International Airport, and Piedmont Triad International Airport in North Carolina, CBS News reported.  On Tuesday morning, Leavitt posted, “Big news from [the Department of Homeland Security]!” in response to an X news post on the policy change.    Big news from @DHSgov! ✈️? https://t.co/GJjd2UQMki — Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) July 8, 2025 “TSA and DHS are always exploring new and innovative ways to enhance the passenger experience and our strong security posture,” a TSA spokesman told the New York Times on Monday. “Any potential updates to our security process will be issued through official channels.” The news was first reported by Gate Access on July 4, which stated that the TSA had begun circulating the updated shoe guidance. Before the change, visitors enrolled in the TSA PreCheck program were permitted to keep their shoes, belts, and jackets on and were not required to remove laptops or liquids from their bags.  Some conservative commentators praised the move from the Trump administration. “Rejoice, you no longer have to take your shoes off to go through TSA airport security. Always a moronic rule that didn’t seem likely to make any of us safer. But this removal is likely to make airport security lines run way smoother,”  Outkick founder Clay Travis said. In December 2001, a month after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, airline passenger Richard Reid attempted to ignite explosive devices hidden in his shoes while on a flight from Paris to Miami. Still considered a threat years later, the shoe removal policy was first instituted in 2006 as a way to screen airline passengers for explosives. Reid, known as the shoe bomber, had homemade bombs containing 10 ounces of explosive materials hidden in his shoes that the FBI said would have blown a hole in the plane’s fuselage if detonated successfully. After pleading guilty to eight terrorism-related charges, Reid was sentenced to life in prison. 

'Serious tension with the First Amendment'