The US unleashed targeted strikes on Iran’s critical Kharg Island on Tuesday — as President Trump chillingly declared that “a whole civilization will die tonight.”

Roughly 50 strikes were carried out on military targets on the Islamic Republic’s oil-critical stronghold, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing senior US officials.

Kharg Island, which is one-third the size of Manhattan and located in the Persian Gulf, controls roughly 90% of Iranian crude oil exports.

Iran has also used Kharg as a jumping off point to monitor and impede oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. While all the NATO countries clutch pearls over what is going on, and won’t lift a finger or deploy their military to protect their own oil interests, our military is turning Iran’s military fortifications into dust. 

Meanwhile the left is whining about how evil Trump is for his very blunt Truth Social warning last night. 

Moments later, he took to Truth Social to warn Iran that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if the regime does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz by 8 p.m. ET Tuesday.

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?” he said.

Does he WANT to kill every Iranian? No. Seriously folks, take a step back and touch grass. He issues that warning and then goes after Kharg Island. 

He issues that warning but doesn’t go after mainland power plants, nor were any of the oil installations on Kharg targeted. *Side note, I’m surprised any power plants in Iran are actually working since Iran’s leadership has spent more money on terrorist activities and of killing anyone who dares to protest against the government. Two more young men were hanged this week because they protested against the regime. 

That isn’t stopping the left from whining about Trump and any moves he makes. That isn’t stopping the left from choosing Iran’s terror regime over freedom for Iranian citizens.

You have no clue what our people are actually living through.
You are out here clutching your pearls over the words “stone age” while our people are literally stuck in one, total internet blackout, no connection for over a month. I haven’t even seen my family’s faces in weeks.… https://t.co/QMR8HqQ1dz

— ثنا ابراهیمی | Sana Ebrahimi (@__Injaneb96) April 6, 2026

Her entire post reads:

You have no clue what our people are actually living through.
You are out here clutching your pearls over the words “stone age” while our people are literally stuck in one, total internet blackout, no connection for over a month. I haven’t even seen my family’s faces in weeks.

Meanwhile you sit with unlimited internet, lecturing us because a desperate nation is fighting for the freedom you were born with. They’ve already spilled blood for it, and now they’re welcoming bombs on the people trying to kill them.

All you want is to talk over us and shut our voices down. And guess what? You did it, Dave.

I’m too exhausted to even argue back.
Congrats. You successfully spoke over an entire population that can’t even log on to respond. While the ones cheering you on are the regime-approved accounts who actually get internet access to push their narrative.

What an accomplishment.

And a leftist who commented on her X post was just totally owned by Sana.

You stupid woman who has never even set foot in Iran,
There are regions in my country where people have zero clean water, no schools, families living in extreme poverty, and children walking barefoot in the dirt.
There’s already a severe water crisis in Iran because this regime… pic.twitter.com/kAC1ix00dc

— ثنا ابراهیمی | Sana Ebrahimi (@__Injaneb96) April 7, 2026

They are choosing terror over a regime that has ordered their youth to form human chains around power plants. 

Iran called on its youth Tuesday to form human chains around its power plants – after President Trump threatened to decimate the Islamic Republic’s energy infrastructure if it fails to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“Power plants that are our national assets and capital, regardless of any taste or political viewpoint, belong to the future of Iran and to the Iranian youth,” Alireza Rahimi, secretary of the Supreme Council of Youth and Adolescents, said in a video aired on state TV.

Government officials have called on students, artists, and athletes to form the human shields from 2 p.m. local time.

Guys, that’s not a voluntary call. That’s an order. If they don’t comply, the consequences could be prison or death.

As an Iranian, let me tell you what @POTUS is talking about here:

In Iran, if you protest, you die. Not metaphorically. Snipers on rooftops shoot people in the head and chest. In January, the regime massacred thousands in the streets, many of them young people whose only crime… https://t.co/kRokYKyq0I

— Nima Ebadi (@nmebadi) April 7, 2026

Read it all. THAT is how Iran’s regime has operated for the last 48 years. The order may ‘read’ volunteer, but the reality is, those kids don’t have a choice. 

The absolute cowardice of this cannibalistic regime is on full display for the entire world to see.

Right now, the senior commanders of the Islamic Republic and their families are cowering in deep underground bunkers.

But what are they asking of their followers?

They are… pic.twitter.com/C7VyaReH0g

— Decado (@ItsDecado) April 6, 2026

Indeed. The leadership is either cowering in bunkers, or is hiding out in other countries. They’ve kept a total internet blackout across the country for months now. The only way some are able to get news out or see news of the outside world is due to Starlink being smuggled in and turned on. 

Let’s talk desperation for a minute. Iran’s gambit now, along with ordering kids to become human shields, is to promote the idea that Congress will offer up reparations if there’s a ceasefire. Yes, really. 

Furthermore, it’s looking like there are cracks in the regime as reports come out of in-fighting between the Iranian President and senior rabid IRGC Guard commanders. 

One can only hope that is the case. 

Keep in mind, while the left whines about how blowing up bridges and power plants is a war crime, remember that the same left hasn’t said a word about the 30-40,000 Iranian citizens murdered by the regime this year for protesting against their government. So you can darned well bet they will be radio silent on Iran ordering kids to become human shields. 

Feature Photo Credit: Iran hands protest human shield via iStock, cropped and modified

The post U.S. Attacks Kharg Island While Iran Orders Kids To Become Human Shields appeared first on Victory Girls Blog.

From NYC.gov:

The Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan is the first governmentwide racial equity framework in the city’s history, outlining data-driven agency goals, strategies and indicators to address long-standing disparities across public policy, services and practices. The True Cost of Living Measure, spearheaded by the Mayor’s Office of Equity & Racial Justice in collaboration with the Urban Institute and the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity, provides a clear picture of what New Yorkers need to meet essential needs and achieve foundational economic security.”-NYC.gov

The Mayor’s Office of Equity & Racial Injustice or MOERJ. Dismantling explicit and implicit bias and “other tools of oppression” one step at a time. The conclusion here?

Together, the two reports make clear that New York City’s affordability crisis is deeply tied to its history of racial inequity. Patterns of disinvestment, exclusion from homeownership, unequal access to health care and employment and concentrated environmental burdens have shaped who has resources, who faces the greatest costs and who remains most economically insecure today.”-NYC.gov

So groundbreaking, though. The Racial Equity Plan (REP for short), was the “first time any New York City administration has required major city agencies to examine their work through a racial equity lens and identify and eliminate disparities”. The goal? Wealth distribution? Sounds illegal…

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani engages in discriminatory behavior, yet again.

He’s rolling out a “racial equity plan” that starts with a “true cost of living” measure, explicitly AIMED at helping ONLY “black and brown New Yorkers,” who he claims are “hit the hardest.”

This is what… pic.twitter.com/UNCZlbA5EK

— Liberacrat (@ViralVideos) April 6, 2026

The REP is discrimination dressed up as “equity”. Personally, I cannot wait for the white, Bushwick, blue-haired trust fund babies who voted for this craptastic spectacle to be on the receiving end of this “plan”. Yes, we know you all like that cushy work-from-home job, but NYC’s Equity Office think it’s about time for you to give up your cool flat and live in the projects for a bit. Why? Because it’s unfair and someone else of a race our office deemed to be “less advantaged” than yours needs your opportunity. I cannot wait to see them crying in their $13 dollar beer. Bring on the next Summer Scavenger hunt!

You all matter. Until you don’t. Except Jews. Jews in Mr. and Mrs. Mamdani’s views don’t matter. We need to keep in mind who this BS is actually appealing to.

In the minds of his voters, the free-free-freebies Mamdani is promising — frozen rent, free buses, cheap groceries — are not for New York’s least fortunate. It’s also for… themselves.

Mamdani’s base are disproportionately young, educated and white, and live in trendy areas of Brooklyn. A great number are well-compensated Zoomers and Millennials who truly believe they are New York’s downtrodden.

They live in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. They’ve never been to Brownsville or Mott Haven.

Theirs is a world of fusion tapas bars and indie coffee shops. Hey, $20 lychee martinis and $7 lattes with cashew milk can, indeed, make a dent in a starting salary.”-Rikki Schlott, NY Post

The whip on that cashew milk latte? The mastermind of this Racial Equity Plan grew up in a well-off family. The engineer of this “plan” never had to want for anything. He was pushed through private school and college.

All while drug igloos and trash lined the NYC streets in winter. And now, as we enter the springtime of love, NYC’s “unhoused” or “home-free”, in Mamdani’s beloved Astoria, drink and have sex on sidewalks in the city. Yep, gives new meaning to Sex and The City, doesn’t it? Cannot wait for the tatted-up septum ring beauties to give up their domiciles. Wait, what? They want free rent and us to pay for their liberal arts degrees, too?

Step aside, Little Karen.

Frank Sinatra said it best. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. I have said it before and I will say it yet again. New York City was built on the hard work of immigrants from everywhere. My ancestors, for starters, came over on a boat with just the clothes on their backs and (maybe) shoes on their feet.To say some are worthy of more than others without knowing the family histories of what brought (we’ll say white, European) immigrants through Ellis Island and into the city to build lives for themselves is simply ignorant. It’s also a ruse for a more sinister cause. Bringing on Socialism and eventual Communism involves changing the rhetoric. And this, my friends, is indeed what Zohran Mamdani and NYC are doing.

It’s up to you, New York, New York.

Featured Photo: Original Artwork by VG, Darleen Click

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For the sane, rational members of the United States population, we felt relief for the downed airmen, pride in those who choose to serve, relief that the operations were successful and grateful for the Easter miracle, as our Darleen discussed last night. The press conference was spectacular, since we almost never hear from CIA Director Ratcliffe.

I should not have been surprised by the Reuters ugly take on Trump and our winning. From the article:

President Donald Trump was on the verge of a crisis in the Iran war, faced with the rare instance of an American airman shot down and stranded ​deep inside enemy territory.
Then, the airman’s daring Easter weekend rescue gave the U.S. president the chance to quickly flip the script.

Standing ‌before cameras on Monday, Trump recast the perilous operation as a providential military triumph, leaning in to its cinematic elements to project strength and command of a five-week-old war that remains deeply unpopular with U.S. voters.

I know this is going to be difficult for Trevor and the rest of the Left to comprehend but even training exercises are dangerous in the military. That is why members do them over and over and over again. Meanwhile, the fuming Left was spreading LIES:

While President Donald J. Trump was in the Oval Office and Situation Room commanding one of the most daring, complex military search-and-rescue missions in modern American history, the Radical Left revealed the true sickness rotting their souls.

This weekend, as America’s elite warriors executed an operation from deep behind enemy lines in Iran — with the lethal precision and unmatched might of the greatest fighting force the world has ever known — deranged leftists were spreading vicious, fabricated conspiracy theories about a nonexistent “health crisis” at the White House.

Fueled by unhinged fringe accounts on social media garnering millions of views, collapsing liberal outlets turned internet gossip into front-page “news,” dishonestly framing it as a full-blown scandal — all while completely ignoring President Trump’s ironclad leadership and the triumphant success of our troops.

The White House had the receipts. Here is one:

BREAKING – UNCONFIRMED

There are some reports, some speculation and unconfirmed info coming in that Trump has been taken to Walter Reed Hospital – it is currently reported that roads around the hospital have been closed, and the White House announced that the President will not… pic.twitter.com/wcqx8kUEYw

— DR JANE RUBY (@RealDrJaneRuby) April 4, 2026

Meanwhile, Mr. Trump was in the White House in communication with all of the relevant authorities and not at Walter Reed.

Back to Trevor at Reuters:

It was the second time in less than a week that the president had scheduled time to directly deliver ​his message on Iran to the public, taking on the role of executive producer and chief publicist of his ⁠presidency in his uniquely Trumpian way.
He has struggled to explain his rationale for the bombing campaign, including during a muddled prime-time address last week. His profanity-laced tirade ​on social media on Easter Sunday further pushed past the normal bounds of presidential communications and prompted questions from reporters about the 79-year-old president’s mental ​fitness.

The Left never questioned Biden’s mental fitness. More:

The scene in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on Monday offered a familiar display of Trump’s political instincts: seizing a high-profile moment to tell the story on his terms and using it as a unifying rallying cry to win support from war-weary Americans.

He detailed an intricate rescue mission that he conceded was bolstered ​by luck. Trump administration officials, normally loath to discuss internal deliberations, over the weekend helped reporters write vivid accounts of the stunning operation.
Trump described a ​bleeding officer who evaded capture in Iran for two days, and search-and-rescue teams scaling mountains and trying to lift aircraft out of wet sand before destroying machinery that ‌might otherwise ⁠fall into enemy hands.
“Hundreds of people could have been killed,” Trump told reporters, noting that some military officials advised him against the operation.

Here is a free hack: Life is bolstered by luck. About that profanity-laced tirade:

Biden left 13 in Afghanistan. Trump would not leave one behind. I’d rather have an F bomb than a nuclear bomb. The rescue mission was an example of our mighty military. God bless the USA and God bless our military.

— Debbie Lobaito (@DLobaito93771) April 7, 2026

Amen! I don’t want to hear a feckin’ thing about cursing with all of the uncomfortable and cringe cursing the Left has been doing.

Then, there is this:

Though Trump seemed to revel in the details of the military’s prowess – suggesting at a separate White House event earlier on Monday that the rescue might someday be depicted in a ​movie – he also threatened to jail a journalist at an unnamed news outlet who first reported that one airman ​had been successfully ⁠rescued before the second missing airman was found.

Hollywood will fight to make this movie. It will star Will Smith and Kristen Stewart as the airmen and Glenn Close as President Trump. Black-hearted idiots.

Featured Image: Facebook/cropped/Public Domain

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VG’s Nina wrote yesterday of the first reports after the miracle mission was completed. A heart-pumping exercise poised on the knife-edge of catastrophe. And today we learned a lot more.

The shot-down Air Force weapons officer, who was “injured quite seriously,” scaled a cliff more than a mile up and treated his own wounds while hiding in a crevice in an area “teeming with terrorists” — before US forces miraculously flew him to safety even after their aircraft nearly got disastrously stuck in wet sand, Trump said. (snip)

The pilot of the F-15E jet downed overnight Thursday into Friday had been quickly located and rescued south of Isfahan in Iran. But the colonel had landed a “significant distance” away from the pilot and could not be easily tracked, Trump said.

The seriously wounded airman had to remain alive while the US launched “one of the largest, most complex, most harrowing combat searches … ever attempted by the military,” the president said.

There were several surprises revealed by the President for us watching the presser … not just the CIA’s critical role in locating the men, but in helping to deceive and confuse the Iranian enemy. And that was aided by the tremendous military response by putting duplicate military rescue responses in several other locations in Iran to make them guess where the real rescue was happening.

In total, 155 military aircraft including four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers and 13 rescue aircraft were deployed for the mission, Trump said.

“A lot of it was subterfuge,” the president explained. “We wanted [Iranian forces] to think he was in another location.”

We heard from CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. All added to the extraordinary story of the Leave No Man Behind miracle.

Not that any of that mattered to some of the reporters in the room.

JUST IN: President Trump just PUMMELED the fake news New York Times

REPORTER: Deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure violate the Geneva Convention and international law.

TRUMP: Who are you with?

REPORTER: I'm with the New York Times.

TRUMP: *Chuckles* FAILING. The… pic.twitter.com/vhc6x8YJyt

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 6, 2026

And that’s the underlying issue that has existed since the first strike on Iran on February 28th. Regardless of the devastation wrought by American and Israeli forces against the Iranian military — destruction of Navy, Airforce, the government leadership, — the drumbeat from the American Left has been that Trump has lost the war. We’ve gone from the Left-induced talking point that “Trump is a coward” to “Trump is a warmongering madman”. A 180 flip so rapid the energy produced could power Los Angeles for a month. We’re not getting mere pessimism from ostensible “anti-war” types, it is actually rooting for American (and Israeli) defeat.

This is not "defeatism," it's defeat. America Lost. Iran Won. Trump Shat the Bed. https://t.co/plaKQH2ntc

— Mona Charen (@monacharen) April 2, 2026

The European Swells have sneered at provincial America for decades, not the least of which due to a strange amalgamation of a sense of cultural superiority and moral inferiority. They demand the American taxpayer keep paying for their defense but won’t allow US military to even fly over their countries to Iran. And they are at a real loss at why we would ever send anyone to save a downed pilot when it means a loss of equipment.

When President Trump asked at his SOTU speech for those representatives who put the American citizen first to stand, Democrats showed conclusively they do not “love” America unless they are in charge. The response to the Easter weekend miracle rescue shows conclusively who is still committed to American and Western values of honor, duty and the worth of the individual.

Judge accordingly.

featured image of F-15E Strike Eagle, cropped, Adobe Stock, standard license, editorial use only

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Amanda Lynn Tully spent her teenage years as a ward of the State of Colorado and believed a college degree was her ticket to a better life.

So, when she graduated in 2017 with a master’s degree in historic preservation from the University of Oregon, $65,000 in federal student loans and no job offers in the conservation field, she felt misled.

“I was never financially stable because I was never taught to be financially stable,” Ms. Tully, 37, said.

Less than a year after graduating, Ms. Tully made a drastic decision: She moved to Prague, where she had completed an internship, and defaulted on her loans. She hasn’t made a payment in over seven years.

Stop and read that again. Never mind the issue of what her degree is in. She states that since she wasn’t taught to be financially stable, it was fine to decide to move to Prague and default on her loans. Any idea that she could take classes and TEACH herself to be financially stable has evidently never crossed her mind. 

How much were her monthly payments? 

Tully said she was on an income-based repayment plan, which would have allowed her to have the remaining debt forgiven after 20 years of making qualifying payments.

Her repayment was just $60 a month, but she complained that even this amount was “psychologically burdensome,” the Times reported.

“The payments weren’t even paying off the interest, so it was frustrating,” Tully said.

SIXTY DOLLARS. And she claims it was “psychologically burdensome” to budget for those payments. Which also means the thought budgeting an amount to pay on the principal never even crossed her mind. 

These are the people Joe Biden wanted to bail out. He and his Administration did end runs around the Supreme Court so that leeches like this could skate on their debt, and gloat about it. 

Tully is 37 years old. DEFINITELY old enough to figure out how to manage her finances, or talk to and learn from someone versed in financial and debt management. Moreover, at 37 years old, she is capable of changing direction and learning to code. 

What she and the rest of those profiled are ignoring is that this debt will not go away, and defaulting is truly a stupid choice. 

“The psychological weight of carrying debt is a really widespread issue, even if it seems financially manageable,” she said. “It’s not necessarily ‘I can’t afford it.’ It’s sometimes ‘It feels like I had no other choice but to go to college and I had to take out loans to go, and now I’m going to be stuck with this,’ which can define people’s lives in a way that feels very unfair and harmful.”

She couldn't afford $60 a month but could afford Beats by Dre. pic.twitter.com/JJ6Wf4GtTn

— André Meyer's Ghost (@capitauxprives) April 4, 2026

Those run between $130 and $350, depending upon the version she bought. That’s 2-6 loan payments right there. But we are supposed to feel sorry for the mental burden their debt has placed upon them. And applaud a guy who specifically moved overseas and renounced his citizenship so he could default on his loans. 

“I thought about it one day and was like, ‘Am I really going to be doing this until I’m 50 or 60?’”

His primary concern was the parent PLUS loan. “If I left and didn’t pay it, they would be forced to,” he said of his family. After working for three years and making timely payments, he refinanced the loan into his name with a private lender. Within months, he moved to Southeast Asia to teach English and continued making minimum payments while applying for citizenship in his new country. He stopped paying when it was secured.

Mr. Cooper defaulted on his loans in 2019, changing his email and phone number, never alerting debtors to his new address.

OR, Cooper could’ve adjusted his budgeting and, if given a raise or moved into a higher paying logistics job, then budgeted his loan repayment plan accordingly. But no, let’s just skip the country, gain citizenship there, and quit paying. 

There are over 8 million borrowers, that we know of, who have defaulted on their student loan debt, to the tune of millions of dollars. As in $1.6 TRILLION in outstanding debt.

The outstanding federal student loan balance is $1.693 trillion; 42.8 million student borrowers have federal loan debt.
Federal student loan debt represents 90.9% of all student loan debt; 9.13% of student loan debt is private, including $29.7 billion in refinance loans.

The average federal student loan debt balance is $39,547, while the total average balance (including private loan debt) may be as high as $43,333.

10.0% of federal student loans dollars were delinquent as of 2025’s fourth financial quarter (2025 Q4); 1.62% of private student loans were in default as of 2025 Q3.

We taxpayers are bearing the burden of this debt, yet are supposed to feel sorry for those who made the very calculated decision to default on their loans by moving to another country. 

No. I am not playing their games. They signed a contract and should be held accountable no matter where they are.

Feature Photo Credit: student loan, money via iStock, cropped and modified

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There are actually two things of interest in noting the continued failure of the construction of high-speed rail in California. First, that “60 Minutes” covered it, and directly pointed the finger at California government officials for this absolute screw-up of a project.

I guess this is the Bari Weiss effect at work, because even the mention that President Trump cut $4 billion in federal grants to this project barely raises an eyebrow when reporter Jon Wertheim confronts the current state secretary of transportation, Toks Omishakin, about the $126 BILLION that he would like to see committed to this project, but that it still would leave them with a shortfall of $90 BILLION. What are the odds that a “60 Minutes” report about this project before Weiss became editor-in-chief would have emphasized the $4 billion denied over the $126 billion projected cost with a still-huge funding gap?

The project was approved with $9.95 billion initially earmarked for it, with the final cost expected to be around $33 billion. But nearly two-decades of delays have sent that price tag soaring.

California High Speed Rail Authority board member Anthony Williams — a former legislative affairs secretary for California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) — told Wertheim the project is now expected to cost around $125 billion.

“It wasn’t. Let’s be real,” Williams said when asked if the financing was there to complete the project when it first launched.

“I don’t think the voters fully understood — and neither did we in the public sector — what it was going to take to actually get this project delivered,” California Secretary of Transportation Toks Omishakin said.

Wertheim noted the train’s projected $126 billion price tag is “more funding than Amtrak has received in its history, and still leaves a shortfall of roughly $90 billion.”

“That’s a big gap to fill,” Wertheim told Williams.

BREAKING: California doesn't have enough money to finish building a high speed rail system to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles and now they want $125 BILLION MORE!

"The entire amount of money we need is not there…"

And now they want more money than Amtrak has EVER… pic.twitter.com/CBe2heU0MK

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 5, 2026

And it’s no surprise why this project had cost overruns before even one mile of track was laid.

When California voters approved a bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2008, the estimated price tag was $33 billion, with a target completion date of 2020. Nearly two decades later, the California High-Speed Rail Authority is preparing to lay its first tracks to connect Bakersfield and Merced — a portion of the original route — with a target completion of 2033.

Rep. Vince Fong, a Republican representing California’s Central Valley, sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He says that when California voters first approved high-speed rail, the promise and price tag were more of a marketing campaign than a realistic projection.

“We’re now in 2026. There are no trains. There’s no track laid,” he said. “It was a complete bait and switch.”

To get the necessary political buy-in from the whole state, the plan called for the train to run inland, threading the farmland of the Central Valley. But at the time, the California High-Speed Rail Authority hadn’t answered basic questions, like precisely where it could lay down its tracks, the public and private property the route would traverse — what’s known as right of way.

So far, the state has had to negotiate roughly 3,000 parcels of land to run its train through the Central Valley leg, Omishakin said.

California’s environmental regulations have also slowed the process. Those regulations have triggered years-long reviews, lawsuits and delays — which, combined with the relatively high cost of labor and construction in the U.S., have also added to the price tag.

In short, the money disappeared into a black hole of environmental studies, legal wrangling, and the increasing costs of labor and materiel, and now the route will go literally nowhere that anyone wants to go. Bakersfield to Merced is not what was sold to the public, but California Democrats – who control the state – have apparently bought into the sunk-cost fallacy.

Here is the other interesting thing about this “60 Minutes” story. Governor Hair Gel, Gavin Newsom, is nowhere to be found. And not because Jon Wertheim didn’t ask.

In 2019, with costs ballooning and the timeline years off schedule, bipartisan political pressure mounted.

“Right now, there simply isn’t a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to L.A.,” Gov. Gavin Newsom, who inherited the project, said at the time.

Under Newsom, who didn’t respond to repeated interview requests, California decided to focus on completing that initial Central Valley segment. It’s a route few are likely to ride, according to the Rail Authority’s own projections. The ultimate goal remains connecting northern and southern California.

Newsom was elected as governor in 2018, following two terms as lieutenant governor. He has spent the last 16-plus years at the very top of California state government. And he refused to give an interview about this colossal failure that he has the power to STOP because it has wasted enough time and money. So why won’t he stop it?

My personal opinion is that Newsom has given up caring about what happens next in California. He is term limited out after this election, and his entire focus is now on running for president. He’s too afraid to endorse a successor, because he’s worried about losing political allies in the future. And the last thing he needs is to pull the plug on a construction project that has paid lawyers, government officials, and union employees quite well up until now. He needs all of those groups to support him in future campaigns. Stopping California from going off a financial cliff to pay for pet projects is not on Newsom’s list of things to do.

And yes, California is in financial straits. That $125-126 billion won’t even get the line finished, just that Bakersfield to Merced chunk. That other $90 billion needed is just a projected shortfall for the REST of the project – and that is money that California does not have, as the Hoover Institution pointed out in 2024.

California’s budget went from an assumed $98 billion surplus, in which there was so much cash in state coffers that Gov. Gavin Newsom was giving away $50,000 to randomly selected individuals to get a COVID-19 vaccine, to a projected $73 billion deficit in only about two years.

Much of this could have been avoided if, in 2022, California hadn’t made obvious, enormously unrealistic revenue assumptions for future years that falsely painted far too optimistic a fiscal portrait for the state. In a nutshell, here is what happened: in fiscal year 2021‒22, state tax revenues rose around 55 percent—about $70 billion—over the previous fiscal year. This revenue windfall significantly reflected taxpayers realizing capital gains, particularly high-income taxpayers who were facing a marginal tax rate of 13.3 percent at the time.

However, Newsom’s budget staff assumed that the revenue bonanza from 2021 would not just continue but would grow to an even bigger bonanza in future years. These revenue assumptions were patently unrealistic, particularly with the long-standing history of capital-gains revenue crashes following booms and with the stock market declining considerably in real time during the first half of 2022.

Despite this, Newsom’s staff predicted revenues for fiscal years 2022‒23 and 2023‒24 that were roughly $80 billion higher than what was realized.

To put the 2022‒24 revenue prediction errors in perspective, New York is the only state that had a general fund budget at that time exceeding this error.

Chalk this up as yet another reason why Gavin Newsom is a very weak Democratic presidential candidate. Any reasonable Democrat with half a brain, and the ability to do math on a calculator, should be able to tear him apart during a primary. But Newsom’s potential future campaign failure won’t help California now. Someone is going to have to have the political willpower to pull the plug on this project, or rescale it significantly to something that will actually attract riders. If Eric Swalwell becomes the next governor, nothing will change. It seems California is determined to run the gravy train straight into the ground, and who knows who will be left to pick up the pieces after that.

Featured image via zheng2088 on Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license

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It wasn’t nearly enough for the Left to bedevil Donald Trump and his family with lawfare. It wasn’t enough for Maxine Waters and her ilk to try to chase the Trump team out of restaurants. It’s not enough for the No Kings crowd to try to thwart the will of a PRESIDENT elected by the will of the people.

The Left is for darn sure not going to let Trump get away with building that Big Beautiful Ballroom at the White House. Or to upgrade and refurbish the Presidential Bunker underneath the Ballroom.

A bunker to protect Donald Trump, underneath his massive and vulgar ballroom? NOOOOOO!

ABC News's The View just learned the White House has a bunker, claim Trump will hold out there when he refuses to leave https://t.co/wOu9ZjWz6S

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) March 31, 2026

From the Washington Post:

A federal judge ordered a halt to construction of President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom, ruling that Trump lacks authority to fund the estimated $400 million project through private donations.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon disagreed with the Trump administration’s argument that the president has broad authority to make changes to the White House without congressional approval, including projects on the scale of his planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom.

“The President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!” Leon wrote in a 35-page ruling issued Tuesday afternoon.

“No statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have,” he wrote.

Leon, an appointee of President George W. Bush, also wrote that Trump has not identified a law that allowed him to demolish the White House’s East Wing last year without congressional approval.

He stayed his order for two weeks and ruled crews could continue construction necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House.

Within hours, the Trump administration notified the court it would appeal Leon’s decision, which the White House called “egregious.”

The Big Beautiful Ballroom goes with the neoclassical style of the White House. The bunker underneath is being redone. It’s been there since Franklin Roosevelt’s day.

’ —

Trump confirmed Sunday night aboard Air Force One what critics scrambling to kill his White House ballroom project…

— M.A. Rothman (@MichaelARothman) March 30, 2026

From Wikipedia:

The Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC, PEE-ock) was a bunker underneath the site of the East Wing of the White House complex. It served as a secure shelter and communications center for the president of the United States and others in case of emergency.

The original White House bunker was built during World War II to protect President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the event of an aerial attack on Washington, D.C. It was continually upgraded during its operational life.[1]

The PEOC space had modern communications equipment, including televisions and phones to coordinate with outside government entities. During a breach of White House security, including violations of the Washington, D.C., Air Defense Identification Zone (P-56 airspace), the president and other protectees were to be relocated to the executive briefing room, next to the PEOC. The PEOC was staffed around the clock by joint-service military officers and non-commissioned officers.

snip–

In 2025, CBS reported that the PEOC was planned to be upgraded by the White House Military Office.[7][8]

In January 2026, CNN reported that the PEOC had been demolished in October 2025, along with the rest of the East Wing, to make way for a new PEOC with more modern technology. Little is known about the upgrades, but White House director of management and administration Joshua Fisher stated at the National Capital Planning Commission that the project will deliver “resilient, adaptive infrastructure aligned with future mission needs.”[9] While the technology inside the original PEOC had been upgraded throughout the decades, the infrastructure still dated to the 1940s.

I don’t care who the President is, he should be protected. End of story. I have been in the Legislative bunker underneath the Greenbrier Resort. You do go down a long road through to a tunnel to go into the bunker. When we finished the tour, we went out through the cooking school dining room. The guide showed us where the blast proof doors were hidden in plain sight.

It was so awesome. Here is more from Elle Decor:

While Trump has not been shy about sharing architectural renderings and scale models for the above-ground portions of the neoclassical ballroom, which is being designed by architect Shalom Baranes, little is known about the new bunker. However, Trump confirmed that the project will house a new super-secure facility. “The military is building a massive complex under the ballroom, and that’s under construction, and we’re doing very well,” Trump told reporters on Sunday while aboard Air Force One, before Judge Leon put the project on hold.

The Secret Service has also weighed in, testifying that completing the project was a “necessity,” per the Times. Regardless, Judge Leon ruled that the project be paused. “While I take seriously the government’s concerns regarding the safety and security of the White House grounds and the president himself, the existence of a ‘large hole’ beside the White House is, of course, a problem of the president’s own making!” he wrote in the ruling.

Any other details, such as which branches of the armed services are involved, remain unanswered. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt gave a brief response when asked about the bunker on Monday. “The military is making some upgrades to their facilities here at the White House, and I’m not privy to provide any more details on that,” she said.

I know it won’t be possible but I would like to tour this bunker, too. We don’t deserve Donald Trump or his plans.

TDS sucks.

Featured Image: G. Edward Johnson/Wikimedia Commons.org/cropped/Creative Commons 4.0

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Please pass the popcorn.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, has recently come under fire for his moderation on transgender policy, despite having positioned himself as a staunch LGBTQ+ ally throughout his tenure and signing dozens of bills aimed at increasing protections for LGBTQ+, and specifically, trans Californians.

Last year on his podcast, Newsom spoke with right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk, saying that letting trans women and girls compete on sports teams reflective of their gender identity is “deeply unfair.” He’s since defended and repeated this sentiment.

This is Salon, of course, squarely in the Leftwing corner and refusing to understand that women and girls’ sports are not a consolation prize for mediocre male athletes. And while the social contagion of “Trans” lead to grifters, perverts, and ideological radicals capturing a good chunk of the culture, it turns out that when kids are harmed, normies take notice.

Ruh-roh.

Newsom’s rightward creep on trans rights stems from that existing strategy for Democrats, one that’s quickly failing the party, said John Neffinger, a Democratic strategist and political consultant at Democracy Partners.

“For years, Democrats’ messaging on transgender rights was either evasive — which suggested there was some problem there Democrats couldn’t deal with — or accusatory — which suggested Democrats thought anyone who had concerns about how transgender issues were being handled was ignorant or bigoted,” he told Salon. “Running away from problems and looking down on people are not what people want from their government.”

Make no mistake, Democrats “moderating” their stance of Trans rights supremacy in the law is calculated, not sincere.

Democrats in the Senate last month blocked an amendment of the contentious voting identification bill, the SAVE America Act, that sought to bar transgender athletes in women’s sports.

We witnessed the spectacle of KY Gov. Andy Beshear proclaiming that the medical mutilation and sterilization of children in the name of Trans is God-like compassion.

So, no. Democrats haven’t had an epiphany that maybe Drag Shows for kids and lopping the healthy breasts off 16-year-old girls might not be a good thing. They’re just gaslighting for the votes. To put the icing on the cake …

Republican attacks of transgender rights issues, then, are “more about Democrats than they are about transgender people,” (John Neffinger) added. “No amount of Republican spending or campaigning will make most non-trans Americans feel that transgender rights policies are important to their daily lives.”

We are back at this isn’t really happening stage in Leftwing gaslighting. You only notice because those dastardly Republicans are blowing this up all out of proportion! Trans policies aren’t important to normies — don’t notice when boys take girls’ athletic records, female inmates are raped by trans-identifying males in women’s prisons, and please don’t notice mass shootings done by trans.

Nope, doesn’t affect your daily life at all, normie. Not.one.bit.

That’s the ticket.

Democrats are stuck with the Trans madness. Remember in November.

featured image, cropped and modified, by Darleen Click. Adobe Stock standard license

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An Air Force officer whose fighter jet had been shot down in Iran was rescued by U.S. Special Operations forces in a risky Saturday night mission that took commandos deep into enemy territory, President Trump said on social media early on Sunday.

The rescue followed a life-or-death race between U.S. and Iranian forces that stretched over two days to reach the injured airman, who is a weapons system officer, current and former U.S. officials said. In the end, Navy SEAL Team 6 commandos extracted the officer in a massive operation that involved hundreds of special operations troops and other military personnel.

There were no U.S. casualties among the rescue team, Mr. Trump said. All the commandos and the weapons officer returned safely, a senior U.S. military official said. Rescue planes flew the injured airman to Kuwait for medical treatment.

There are several outstanding things about this entire operation. First, it definitely involved the use of propaganda and major misdirection from the CIA and likely other intelligence assets. Which had Iranian forces (IRGCC) looking in the wrong direction for the WSO. 

Secondly, he only had a pistol with him to defend himself. Keep in mind, this was 200 miles deep into Iran, and even though there were villagers hostile to the Iranian government, his life was definitely in danger. 

The pilot and co-pilot were forced to bail out of the F-15E Strike Eagle, a two-seater plane, after it was shot down Friday over Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, near Iraq.

The search for the missing American unfolded as Trump — who stayed in Washington for the Easter weekend — warned Iran it would face “hell” if it didn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping by the president’s deadline.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has claimed it shot down the high performance fighter, and the Iranian government dangled a $60,000 reward for the crew member’s capture – while urging local villagers to find them first.

That bounty is more than an Iranian family would make in ten years or more, so finding our Air Force officer was of the highest priority. 

Leave No Man Behind 

That mantra played out over this weekend. Even more so when you consider that the WSO was injured. 

The unnamed officer hid out in the mountains and managed to climb a 7,000-foot ridge in order to evade capture while American MQ-9 Reaper drones pounded nearby Iranian forces with missiles if they got close to his position, according to reports.

“He evaded up a 7k ridge. They’ve been schwackin’ dudes chasing him all day. Was nuts,” a source told Toby Harnden, the veteran war correspondant and author.

He was injured, wasn’t sure if he could count on the villagers he came across while carrying only a pistol, and STILL managed to get himself UP a 7,000 foot mountain ridge to keep from being captured. Between that and the guys manning the drones who kept “schwackin’ (LOVE that word!) Iranian bad guys before they could get to him plus the CIA misdirection, thankfully it all came together! 

From Abu Ali Express… simply brilliant detail:

“Details about the rescue operation according to American and Iranian media:

The American pilot hid on an elevated ridge in the mountainous and forested area where he landed. He moved on foot away from the point where he…

— Mor Edge Insight (@MorEdge_Insight) April 5, 2026

Read it all, the details regarding his evading capture and the rescue are a terrific read. And there’s more here.

We did, however, lose a couple of planes. The Daily Mail couldn’t help but whine that we almost lost a ton of American lives because ‘how dare we rescue ONE soldier??!! 

However two transport planes and one helicopter became stuck in the mud and unable to take off, leaving more military personnel stranded behind enemy lines as Basij fighters closed in on their botched rescue site.

Three more transport planes were flown in to evacuate the downed airman and the rescue party, as they were evacuated under gunfire from the advancing Iranians.

Miraculously, the forces escaped unharmed in what is being hailed as the most daring US special operation in history.

As they left, the Americans were forced to ‘blow up’ their own stricken planes and helicopter, to prevent them falling into the hands of the Iranian military.

Guess what guys? It wasn’t “botched.” We have our guy back home as are the rest of the forces involved in the rescue effort. 

A couple of folks have sent this along. As I was saying. https://t.co/nwDd20DmrH

— Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) April 5, 2026

They obviously do not get what Leave No Man Behind means. Moreover, unlike Joe Biden’s truly botched Afghanistan withdrawal, today’s military is taking ZERO chances that Iranian terrorists can get their hands on our military equipment. 

As for those in the cheap seats who’ve been insisting that President Trump is either on death’s door, or he is working to kill our soldier instead of rescue him….

At the time of this post from DropSite (the Soros-funded pro-terror propaganda outlet) promoting a regime lie that we had abandoned our pilot and were trying to kill him, we were in the middle of a successful recovery operation.

I hope this wakes people up to the fact that this… https://t.co/V1scSWI704

— AG (@AGHamilton29) April 5, 2026

They, especially Joe Kent, can take all the damned seats. Joe was knowingly reposting IRANIAN propaganda as our own drones were “schwackin’ the ever loving crap out of Iranian terrorists in order to keep our WSO alive until rescue. 

And I completely agree with this. 

The phrase that comes to mind is, "America, Fuck Yeah." https://t.co/auhsJ6qrTX

— Northern Barbarian (@xnoesbueno) April 5, 2026

Major congratulations to our Seal Team, rescue forces and pilots, the intelligence officers for their sneaky misdirections, our drone operators and everyone else involved.

Happy Easter and GOD BLESS AMERICA!!

Feature Photo Credit: fighter jets and American flag via iStock, cropped and modified

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Happy Sunday, dear friends! And the blessings and promise of Easter to you all. The first quarter of 2026 is now in history books, can you believe it? Of course, I’ve got a wonderful brunch laid out for you appropriate for the holiday — from “choose your omelet” to challah bread (Pesach Sameach!) filled in with bacon, sausage, lox, bagels and oodles of chilled champagne. I hope you got to see the Artemis 2 launch. I was but a young teen when America set foot on the moon and 54 years has been way too long a break until this. Let’s toast to the astronauts and, of course, to all our brave men and women in uniform and then get it. L’Chaim!

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Our Betters telling us how they really feel

YOU are the problem, what with your free speech and stuff.

British MP Max Wilkinson: @x is a "massive problem" because it allows critics of mass immigration to "have their voice heard in a really easy way that they couldn't in the past". pic.twitter.com/Q114ChV5y3

— Aylmer (@AylmerTH) March 30, 2026

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When “Catholic” becomes a skinsuit

There’s that old saw from David Burke (aka Iowahawk) that talks about the Left taking over an institution, gutting it, then wearing the carcass as a skin suit while demanding respect. Looks like the Left’s BFF, Islam, has learned the strategy well.

The Catholic News Herald, “Connecting Catholics in North Carolina”, bragged that the refugee case coordinator for the Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte, had been recently honored.

His name? Ashir Haji-Mohamed. The latter part of the name meant that he had made a pilgrimage to the Islamic holy city of Mecca.

Haji-Mohamed, a former Somali refugee, had previously been in the news for helping resettle Syrian Muslims, as well as Jordanians and Turks, in North Carolina. After the Biden retreat, Catholic Charities of Charlotte had also worked to bring Afghans to North Carolina. (snip)

Catholic refugee groups aren’t just bringing Muslims to America, they’re also transporting them to local mosques and even providing leaders for those mosques being set up in America.

How did this happen? Why is it still happening?

The story of Hekmatullah Latifi, an Afghan who used to work for USAID, is instructive. Latifi went from working for Catholic Charities at the Arlington Diocese to becoming the Assistant Director at the Resettlement Academy in D.C. for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Biden administration’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), the engine for the mass invasion of the United States, signed a $65 million contract with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to resettle ‘refugees’. Among other programs, PRM funded the Refugee Resettlement Academy. The Director of Recruitment for the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of D.C. is Afghani Barakzai who used to work as a senior administrator at USAID and worked at a USAID funded program for Afghanistan.

Ah! USAID and all that lovely “free” money.

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When did Charles become a Muslim?

Londonistan seems the least of the issues in today’s UK.

King Charles won't give an address for Easter, but he'll give one for an Islamic holiday

The UK has fallen. https://t.co/wORBWD6ZcV pic.twitter.com/wKUnHG4mUi

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 2, 2026

It’s also Passover, another holiday Charles ignores.

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Why are Democrats supporting fraud?

Creating a loyal dependency class of voters, including illegal aliens …

it hasn't sunk in for most people. we already live in a post-scarcity society. UBI is already here.

basic package: disability, medicaid, food stamps etc

bonus package: literally getting paid for staying at home and hanging out with your relatives

extra bonus: if you are… https://t.co/nRuO8Wr6nC

— nic carter (@nic_carter) March 30, 2026

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Tag this under the category of “Cognitive Dissonance”

Claiming to be for “No Kings” while promoting totalitarianism.

NOW: "There is only one solution – Communist Revolution" chants as group with communist flags march among the NO KINGS protest in NYC pic.twitter.com/fzZCOwi0qZ

— Oliya Scootercaster (@ScooterCasterNY) March 28, 2026

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Sunday palate cleanser I

A wonderful thing happened on X this last week. Automatic translation now includes Japanese and all of a sudden Americans and Japanese were all talking to each other about things like BBQ, music, and having a grand time making new friends. Enjoy!

Everyone in Japan knows "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver.

We cover it all the time so I hope our American friends can appreciate it. pic.twitter.com/ldIEfGZLBW

— 鈴森はるか 『haruka suzumori』 (@harukaawake) March 29, 2026

The upside of social media! More, please.

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Sunday palate cleanser II

YES! Score!!!!

NEW: San Francisco police trap 85 bicyclists on an offramp who were seen taking over the road, swerving around cars, & riding the wrong direction.

The bike gang tried turning around after they were blocked on the ramp by SFPD & CHP, but quickly realized they were trapped.

All… pic.twitter.com/33CIqNjlaB

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 30, 2026

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Your Sunday smile

Oh dear, a bit dusty in here.

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Time for me to pass you the doggie bags … and don’t be shy! I made sure there was enough to go around. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and see you next week. Cheers!

featured image original graphic by Darleen Click

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