The Democrats’ nomination of Zohran Mamdani, a hard-left member of the Democratic Socialists of America, for mayor of New York City should be front-and-center in every Republican campaign in Virginia’s 2025 elections. It is now crystal clear: The center of gravity of the Democratic Party is the radical Left. Virginia gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger can play moderate all she likes, but the radicals run her party. Because alongside Spanberger, Virginia Democrats also nominated Sen. Ghazala Hashmi for lieutenant governor, with her history of anti-Israel activism and opposition to merit-based admissions to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.  Mamdani and the progressive leftist engine now powering the Democratic Party are fundamentally at war with the West and Western values, mores, and social compacts.  For all his posturing as being uniquely representative of and attuned to non-Western cultures and values, Mamdani, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Barack Obama before him, is the banal bourgeois product of elite Western education. He grew up the son of a Columbia professor and Hollywood filmmaker and attended elite private secondary schools, Bronx High School of Science, and Bowdoin College. Despite his elite education, like AOC and Obama, he was chronically underemployed before running for office. Mamdani’s redistributionist war on billionaires and batty anti-capitalist ideas like rent freezes and government-owned grocery stores are warmed-over ‘70s socialism popular with over-credentialed but undereducated and callow progressive Democrats. Mamdani and his ilk cannot create value, so they must obtain what they believe is their due through force.  But Mamdani is, at heart, an identity politics entrepreneur, leveraging his largely ancestral ties to non-Western nations to gain political power. He may hate capitalism, but he knows that being anti-Western is good for business.  Like so much of the anti-Western Left, he is institutionally antisemitic, refusing to condemn explicitly genocidal slogans like “globalize the intifada” and energetically supporting the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement. For progressive Democrats, Israel—plucky, tiny, Western-oriented survivor of genocidal wars waged by non-Western regimes, whose achievements in just 77 years of existence are a standing rebuke to failed Third World states—is simply the most active front in a wider war on the West. Progressive Democrats will never criticize Islamist massacres of Christians in Nigeria, Chinese genocide of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, or the violent persecution of minorities in Iran, because to do so would be to criticize non-Westerners. Progressive Democrats will never take sides against the family.  Hashmi is cut from the same cloth as Mamdani. As a state senator, she blocked Northern Virginia education advocate Suparna Dutta’s nomination to the State Board of Education. Dutta’s championing of returning to merit-based admissions to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology was unacceptable to Hashmi—just as Mamdani wants to do away with merit-based testing for New York’s magnet schools. And Dutta’s advocacy of the U.S. Constitution—one of the canonical documents of Western civilization—in Board of Education meetings was a bridge too far for Hashmi and her comrade, board member Anne Holton (wife of Sen. Tim Kaine).  Hashmi’s history of anti-Israel activism is well-known. She supported the post-Oct. 7 anti-Israel protests on Virginia campuses, claiming the protesters were simply people who cared “deeply about human rights.” And as chair of the Senate Committee on Education and Health, she held a hearing “to investigate the events on Virginia university campuses following October 7, 2023” without notifying any Jewish community organizations, Jewish campus organizations, or law enforcement agencies about the hearing in advance or allowing committee members to ask questions. Republican Sen. Tara Durant bluntly called the hearings “a sham.” Make no mistake, Mamdani, not Spanberger, embodies the modern Democratic Party. Spanberger is part of a breed of weak-kneed Democrats that don’t know how to handle the progressive radicalism in their midst and, in due course, will bow to it or be swept away by it. It’s up to our statewide candidates and the Republican Party of Virginia to remind voters of this at every turn. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post NYC Veers Hard Left: What It Means for Virginia appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Left has long looked to unelected bureaucrats and judges, rather than elected legislators, to get its way. Having failed to elect a Democrat president or Congress, they are hoping Democrat-appointed judges will block executive orders and statutes that they don’t like. Rogue judges participating in this scheme are eroding the judiciary’s integrity and undermining public confidence in the courts. In Phase I of this strategy, activists went to judicial districts in heavily blue states, asking Democrat judicial appointees to issue injunctions against Trump executive orders. Those judges complied, blocking enforcement not only against the parties challenging them but against everyone everywhere. On June 27, the Supreme Court pulled the plug on these so-called “universal injunctions.” District judges have only the power that the Constitution and Congress, which created them, provide. Neither has given judges the power to provide remedies, such as injunctions, that go beyond the particular parties that bring cases to court. With Phase I coming up short, activists have moved to Phase II: targeting Congress. On July 4, 2025, Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law. Among that act’s provisions is Section 71113, which prohibits any federal funds from being paid to a “prohibited entity,” defined as a medical facility that provides abortions, for the next year. Federal law has long prohibited directly funding abortion procedures. But the government’s funding of other services at those same facilities through programs like Medicaid means taxpayers end up indirectly subsidizing abortion. Planned Parenthood, which receives more than one-third of its budget through this Medicaid shell game, sued in the federal district court in Massachusetts—the source of many of the politically motivated universal injunctions. Their argument that the funding restriction violates several provisions of the Constitution is premised on the claim that Section 71113 “specifically targets Planned Parenthood…and its member health care providers.” Way down in paragraph 133, the complaint concedes that Section 71113 “does not identify Planned Parenthood by name,” but still insists that it was drafted “specifically to target Planned Parenthood.” They make the bizarre argument that this makes the funding restriction a “bill of attainder” prohibited by the Constitution. A bill of attainder is a legislative act that condemns an individual or seizes his property without a trial. Planned Parenthood claims that not allowing Medicaid reimbursement for certain medical services somehow amounts to an unconstitutional “punishment.” It doesn’t. It’s just Congress exercising its own power to tax and spend. Planned Parenthood claims that Section 71113 violates the Equal Protection Clause by treating medical facilities that provide abortions differently from those that do not. In case merely stating that argument is not enough to refute it, consider that the Supreme Court has held for more than half a century that the Constitution does not require the government to subsidize abortion. The Court stuck to that position even while pretending that the Constitution protects the right to abortion itself. The rest of the complaint is a similar flight of fancy. Enter Judge Indira Talwani, appointed in 2014 by President Joe Biden. It took her only a few hours to issue a temporary restraining order giving Planned Parenthood everything it asked for. Don’t bother searching for Talwani’s reasons for blocking this provision of a duly enacted law. Her order amounts to about a page of double-spaced text and says only that she issued it upon “finding good cause shown.” There’s no way Talwani had time to read the complaint and do any legal analysis or research at all. Her order said nothing about Planned Parenthood’s allegations or arguments, nothing about the standard that district court judges must use for temporary restraining orders or how that standard applied in this case. Her order simply says that Planned Parenthood wants a temporary restraining order and that, therefore, she’s granting it. This was the judicial version of a fast-food drive-through. This is an even more extreme example of judicial overreach than the universal injunctions that the Supreme Court stopped. While the Constitution never gave judges that authority, it does give Congress the power of the purse—authority Congress properly used to enact this new law. By blocking a statutory provision that prohibits specific spending, Talwani is effectively requiring Congress to engage in that spending, authority judges do not possess. It’s no wonder that polls show declining respect for the judiciary. Americans increasingly believe that judges base their decisions on politics rather than the law. The Left’s strategy to use the courts to fight their political battles will only make that worse. The post Judge Tries To Require Planned Parenthood Funding appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Trump: 'No Amnesty' -- But ...

The illegal alien gangster convicted in the vicious slaying of beloved nursing student Laken Riley may get a new trial after a shocking ruling from the same judge who found him guilty.On Thursday, Judge Patrick Haggard ruled that Jose Ibarra must undergo a mental health evaluation. Ibarra's appeals attorneys had claimed in court documents filed last month that Ibarra has a "congenital deficiency" and a diminished "mental capacity" that could have affected his ability to make decisions during Riley's murder and the subsequent trial.'This court has found it appropriate for an evaluation to be conducted at the public expense.'Ibarra is "suffering from congenital deficiency which could render the client incapable of preparing a defense and standing trial," the lawyers wrote, according to the New York Post.They added that Ibarra "lacks the mental capacity to understand the nature and object and proceedings and [counsel] believes that this was in existence at the time of the offense and at the time of the trial."RELATED: Trump signs Laken Riley Act, marking the first law of his new administration Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty ImagesLast fall, Ibarra waived his right to a jury and instead opted for a bench trial. On November 20, Judge Haggard found Ibarra guilty of malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, aggravated battery, obstruction of a 911 call, tampering with evidence, and peeping Tom. The judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.Ibarra's appeals attorneys argued that his alleged mental deficiencies may have impacted the decision to opt for a bench trial instead of a jury trial, noting that his trial attorneys did not have his mental health evaluated. They even claimed a "language barrier" may have exacerbated these alleged concerns.Prosecutor Sheila Ross responded to the motion about a mental health evaluation by noting that nothing presented at trial indicated that Ibarra suffered from mental incompetence."There were no challenges or concerns about Defendant’s competency to stand trial during the pretrial and trial proceedings. Moreover, there is nothing in the trial record that would suggest that Defendant was not competent during his trial," Ross wrote in a June 25 motion obtained by Blaze News.She also dismissed the "language barrier" allegation, pointing to the "court-certified interpreter who is fluent in both Spanish and English" who assisted Ibarra at pretrial and trial proceedings. However, Ross ultimately did not oppose an evaluation, leaving the decision up to Judge Haggard."The mental competence of [Ibarra] has been called into question, and this court has found it appropriate for an evaluation to be conducted at the public expense," Haggard wrote in his latest ruling.Haggard demanded that Ibarra be given a "prompt evaluation" by the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities either at a Georgia Department of Corrections facility or at a hospital, Fox News reported.Whether any evaluation has yet been scheduled is unclear. Should authorities determine that Ibarra was mentally unfit, he may be granted a "trial redo," the Post indicated.The Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia declined a request for comment from Blaze News, citing ongoing litigation.RELATED: MSNBC legal analyst pens sympathetic portrayal of Laken Riley's murderer — prompting severe online backlash Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesOn February 22, 2024, Ibarra attacked Riley, 22, in broad daylight while she was jogging near the campus of the University of Georgia. He ambushed her and attempted to rape her. After she fought back, he brutally bashed her skull with a rock, according to prosecutors. His DNA was discovered under Riley's fingernails.Ibarra, 27, and two of his brothers stole into the United States from Venezuela during the border crisis of the Biden administration. Days before his conviction in November, sources within Biden's Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Ibarra is a member of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.At least one of Ibarra's brothers is a suspected TDA associate as well. Both brothers have had run-ins with the law since breaking into the U.S., pled guilty to possessing a fraudulent document, and are slated for deportation as part of Operation Take Back America under President Donald Trump.Jose Ibarra was also arrested for other alleged crimes in New York City prior to moving to Georgia.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Transgender economist Brian Riedl, who now goes by “Jessica,” claims that his brain scans prove he’s neurologically female.“Typical male and female brains contain subtle but real differences. And because our genes contain a full blueprint for both male and female development, it is possible even for some people with XX or XY genes to experience chemical changes in the womb that alter some of the gender development signals, particularly to the brain,” Riedl wrote in a post on X defending his transgenderism.“I knew from age 4 that something was off with my gender, and later participated in several gender medical studies that confirmed a more female brain chemistry/architecture/functioning, hormone levels, and other biological characteristics,” he continued. “Most people who transition are merely aligning the rest of their body with other observable biological gender aspects (mostly in the brain) that emerged before birth.”BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey is disturbed that even some conservatives are falling for Riedl’s claims.“This idea that brain scans can prove that you have a female brain — that’s just not true, and it’s not possible,” Stuckey says on “Relatable.” “Now, it could be possible that someone has true, true gender dysphoria.”“But the remedy for that is to help someone accept their biological reality, not to get them to reject their biological reality, to try to change their outward appearance and try to force everyone else to accept something that will never be true, that a man can become a woman or a woman can become a man,” she continues.“All of us have different kinds of things wrong with our brain or wrong with our thinking or ways in which our thinking is incongruent with reality. But we don’t try to bend reality to try to fit what our brain wrongly thinks,” she adds.Riedl also claims that his family life with his wife and children hasn’t changed at all since he transitioned, but Stuckey isn’t buying it.“I don’t believe you,” she says. “You have two young children, and you think that they accept this. They miss their dad, and this is sowing confusion in their lives. And you are sacrificing their stability on the altar of your desire, and that is the height of selfishness.”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.

While emergency officials continue to search for bodies and survivors from the devastating and lethal flooding in Texas, the Daily Beast is using the occasion to bash a Republican senator.At least 108 people have died from the natural disaster at latest count, including many children who were staying at Camp Mystic when the floods rushed through Kerr County.'In the first few hours of this flood, I was on the phone with Governor Abbott, was on the phone with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick.'On Monday, the Daily Beast published a report claiming that Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was on vacation in Athens, Greece, as the rescue operations continued in Texas. Cruz and his wife were spotted at the Parthenon on Saturday, according to the report, about 24 hours after reports of the flooding started to surface.Macarena Martinez, the communications director for Cruz, excoriated the outlet in a statement on social media."A bulls**t piece published by a bulls**t rag outlet with no credibility, and with no regard for the tragedy in Texas. The Senator is on the ground in Texas and arrived as fast as humanly possible," Martinez wrote."I explained all of this to their two-faced reporter," she added.The Daily Beast updated its article with the statement from Martinez. The report documented that Cruz returned to Texas by Sunday and indicated at a press conference about the flooding that he was on the phone with emergency officials within hours of the first report of flooding.“In the first few hours of this flood, I was on the phone with Governor Abbott, was on the phone with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. I was on the phone with Nim Kidd, the head of the Texas Department of Emergency Management, and then I called President Trump,” said Cruz on Monday.RELATED: Brian Stelter suggests media partly to blame for 'warning fatigue' amid tragic flood deaths “He was having dinner at the time, it was still early in what was transpiring, and I wanted him to know," he continued. "I said, 'Mr. President, from everything we’re hearing right now, this appears to be bad, really bad.'"Blaze News reached out to the Daily Beast reporters who worked on the article for comment. Political correspondent Farrah Tomazin had no comment but directed Blaze News to a statement from the Daily Beast's executive editor. "You asked to go off the record when we asked for comment, which we agreed to believing it was a good faith request," wrote Hugh Dougherty to Martinez on social media. "So yes you did explain it, but you didn’t want [to be] quoted by name and omitted to mention that in this post," he added. "Now that’s changed we have updated our story."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Tech giant Microsoft has denied media reports that it has replaced American workers with those from other countries through visa programs.It has been just two months since Microsoft cut 7,000 employees, or roughly 3% of its workforce, in May, including almost 2,000 in Washington state. Last week, Microsoft wasted little time before implementing another round of mass layoffs.'We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success.'On Wednesday, Microsoft announced another round of cuts that affects 4% of the workforce, which totals around 9,000 employees losing their jobs, according to CNN.A spokesperson from Microsoft told CNN that the cuts are simply a case of reducing managerial layers while becoming more productive through new technologies."We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace," the statement claimed.With the last formal count of Microsoft workers from 2024 standing at 228,000, some are speculating that the thousands upon thousands of layoffs — including 10,000 in 2023 — are made possibly by the use of artificial intelligence. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella even said in April that as much as 30% of the company's code has been written by AI.This does not paint the whole picture, however, as figures from the Department of Labor suggest that Microsoft is relying heavily on foreign labor for large numbers of its workforce in the United States.RELATED: 'Doing her best': ICE agents mass-arrest illegal employees at 'family-owned' manufacturer in North Carolina Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty ImagesAs first noted by WorldNetDaily, statistics from the Office of Foreign Labor Certification showed that Microsoft has requested thousands of foreign workers through the temporary specialty occupations program.In total, the company filed 14,181 Labor Condition Applications to sponsor foreign workers for temporary employment visas through initiatives like the H-1B program.Also according to WorldNetDaily, the May layoffs, which included 817 software engineers, coincided with Microsoft submitting over 6,000 H-1B requests for software engineer roles that matched the same job titles and locations as those of the American employees who received their marching papers.In a statement to Blaze News, however, Microsoft rejected the implication of these reports."It’s wrong to suggest our H-1B applications are in any way related to the recent job eliminations in part because employees on H-1Bs also lost their roles," Microsoft's David Cuddy explained. "This data far exceeds the actual H-1B petitions we filed the past 12 months, and 78% of those were extensions for existing employees and not new employees coming to the U.S."RELATED: Don’t let rural America become the next New York City Image via Department of LaborBlaze News asked the Department of Labor to explain the statistics and clarify whether the number in question included visa extensions, previously existing visas, and more. The federal department did not respond.Blaze News also asked investor David L. Bahnsen of the Bahnsen Group about the DOL statistics, and he stated that the vast majority of foreign contributions to "high-end aspects" of the U.S. labor market "come in specialized sectors where the U.S. talent pool lags far behind Indian and Asian contributors (math and science)."The investor also advocated for an increased number of H-1B visas from the federal government.The Microsoft Corporation filed the third-most requests for H-1B, H-1B1, and E-3 visas in the second quarter of 2025, according to the Labor Department. This placed the company behind NVIDIA, which requested a massive 27,244 foreign workers, while Amazon had even more at 31,817.Cisco and Oracle were lower on the list, along with three divisions of Goldman Sachs and Amazon Web Services.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The 63 recordings on 3 CDs include unique performances by a wide-ranging group of artists including Nilsson, Cher, Johnny Winter, Melanie, the Byrds, the Association and more. The post I Shall Be Released: Covers Of Bob Dylan 1963-1970 Album Due appeared first on Best Classic Bands.

Truth, Justice, and the (Un)American Way? Actor Sean Gunn Politicizes 'Superman' Movie (WATCH)

Stacey Abrams' Rant Explaining Trump's EVIL PLAN to Stay In Power FOREVER Is Nuttier Than a Squirrel's BM