Posts on Saturday, January 25, 2025
When President Gustavo Petro took office in 2022, he aimed to bring about comprehensive peace in Colombia. But this now seems a remote dream amid the latest violence. DW presents questions and answers on the situation. Since January 16, the guerilla group ELN and offshoots of the former militant organization FARC have been fighting each other in the Catatumbo region in the northeast of Columbia near the border to Venezuela. At least 80 people have died so far in the violence.
At least 20 more people have been killed in clashes in the Amazonas region in the south of the country between rival splinter groups of FARC.
A prominent Hollywood talent manager believes that Kamala Harris’ loss to President Donald Trump in November shows that Hollywood no longer drives the culture as it once did since the plethora of celebrities who endorsed Harris failed to alter the outcome of the election.
“Hollywood doesn’t matter as much as it thinks it matters,” the unnamed talent manager with A-list clients told Vulture. “You had the biggest stars in the world support Kamala Harris. She couldn’t have drawn more powerful advocates. And it didn’t move the needle. What does that tell you? It’s unsettling because the people and things you hold in high esteem don’t drive the culture.
President Trump greenlit the delivery of thousands of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, according to a report.
As many as 1,800 MK-84 bombs will be shipped off to the Jewish state in the coming days — reversing a Biden administration hold on the explosive supply, Israeli officials told Axios.
The Israeli government was reportedly notified by the Pentagon about the release on Friday, the day before Hamas released four hostages as part of the cease-fire agreement. The massive bombs were held in storage since May, when Biden decided to hold off on a delivery out of concern Israel would cause significant civilian devastation by unleashing the weapons in densely populated areas of Gaza.
Rev. Al Sharpton leads Costco ‘buy-cott’
in support of company’s controversial
DEI commitment replies
in support of company’s controversial
DEI commitment replies
Rev. Al Sharpton and about 100 of his followers descended on an East Harlem Costco Saturday in support of the company’s commitment to controversial diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
“We’re supporting those who are not rolling back DEI,” Patrice Perry, crisis director for Sharpton’s nonprofit, the National Action Network, told The Post.
“It’s very important to be here,” Perry added.
(Photo) The demonstration was in response to President Trump’s crackdown on DEI initiatives this week, which put federal employees working on such initiatives on paid leave and shuttered offices dedicated to it.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) told Breitbart News Saturday that Senate Republicans will hold the Senate in session nights and weekends to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominees.
Barrasso spoke to Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle after the Senate confirmed Pete Hegseth on Friday night to become the next Department of Defense secretary and right before Senate Republicans voted to make Kristi Noem the next Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary. Also on Saturday the Senate will vote to advance Treasury Department Secretary nominee Scott Bessent.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is inviting President Donald Trump to address a joint session of Congress on March 4.
SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON: EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD ROOT FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP'S SUCCESS
In a letter first obtained by Fox News Digital, Johnson wrote to the new president, "Thanks to your strong leadership and bold action in the first days of your presidency, the United States is already experiencing a resurgence of patriotism, unity, and hope for the future." (Photo) "Your administration and the 119th Congress working together have the chance to make these next four years some of the most consequential in our nation’s history," the speaker wrote.
President Donald Trump is demanding the return of a staggering $7 billion in U.S. military gear left behind during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan under the Biden administration. In a move that’s drawing both support and criticism, Trump has called on the Taliban to recover the equipment, which includes advanced weapons, vehicles, and other critical resources. The request has sparked debate over accountability and the handling of the withdrawal, with Trump arguing that the gear should never have been abandoned in the first place. However, the Taliban is refusing to give it back to its rightful owners.
In a banana republic, when people go against a criminal political order, demanding an investigation, protesting election chaos, and an apparent coup d’état, the government that stole the election takes a hard stand. But this was no banana republic.
In order to 'legitimize' their power base and conceal their complicity, the Democrats had to show the world how serious and 'illicit' the opposition was. They made them look as guilty as possible, imprisoning scores of people, many in solitary confinement without trial, erecting steel fencing around the Capitol building, and conducting investigations of sorts. The Democrats, along with the FBI and numerous toadies, were complicit in one of the
The corrupt ANC government just starved dozens of black miners to death to gain control over the diamond trade. The regime suffered a massive decline in popularity forcing it to cut deals even as it hiked welfare spending and taxes. [SNIP] President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday signed the Expropriation Bill into law.
In a statement, the Presidency said the Bill allows for local, provincial and national authorities “to expropriate land in the public interest for varied reasons that seek, among others, to promote inclusivity and access to natural resources”.
CIA now says Covid DID come from Chinese
lab in stunning reversal after years of
denial under Biden replies
lab in stunning reversal after years of
denial under Biden replies
The CIA has today revealed its belief that COVID-19 was likely leaked from a Chinese lab after years of denial under the Biden administration.
A spokesperson for the agency said on Saturday that they now favor the lab theory.
Officials said that there is no new evidence behind their shift in opinion - it is based on the same evidence they have been mulling over for months.
'CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on the available body of reporting.
Donald Trump speaks about his proposal for no taxes on tips in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday, January 25.
The event will cap off a whirlwind first week of activity for the 47th president’s second term.
In his first week, Trump issued hundreds of executive orders, began arrest and deportation operations against illegal aliens, pardoned thousands of January 6 prisoners and multiple pro-life activists targeted by the Biden administration, spoke to the World Economic Forum, visited North Carolina and California, and had several nominees confirmed including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth Friday night and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem earlier Saturday morning.
Pete Hegseth was sworn in Saturday morning as Trump’s Secretary of Defense following a nailbiter vote on the Senate Floor.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, the Senate voted on confirmation of Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary Friday night.
RINO Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) on Thursday voted against advancing Hegseth’s nomination to a final floor vote.
RINO Mitch McConnell (R-KY) then joined his fellow RINOs voting against Hegseth Friday, teeing up a tiebreaker vote by Vice President JD Vance. Vance was the tiebreaker, voting in favor of Hegseth’s nomination.
Stephen A. Smith is dunking on his own party.
The ESPN star shocked “Real Time” audiences Friday night by eviscerating Democrats and praising President Donald Trump during a discussion with Bill Maher.
Smith, 57, who voted for Kamala Harris in the November election, conceded that Democrats appeared uninterested in the concerns of a majority of voters, saying they instead focused on “issues that pertain to less than 1% of the population.”
“The man was impeached twice, he was convicted on 34 felony counts,” Smith began. “And the American people still said ‘He’s closer to normal than what we’re seeing on the left.”
Pete Hegseth squeaked through his Senate confirmation on Friday and became America’s new secretary of defense, but he needn't thank Republican senators Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins. For all three long-time establishment and anti-Trump senators, the main objection to Hegseth stepping into the top Pentagon job was that they believe he lacks the prerequisite experience to run the mammoth organization. [Snip] Never mind that Hegseth was educated at Princeton and Harvard...served more than a decade in the U.S. Army infantry...rose to the rank of major while serving tours in Afghanistan...is a published author who has led veteran advocacy organizations.
An arrest has been made in the fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol agent during a traffic stop in Vermont, according to the FBI, as bizarre details of the suspects' movements beforehand have been revealed in the arrest affidavit.
Teresa Youngblut, 21, of Washington state, was arrested on Friday and charged with assault on a federal law enforcement officer, according to a statement from the FBI.
The affidavit unsealed by investigators reveals some new details about the movements of the two individuals who were involved in the fatal shooting of Border Patrol agent David Maland.
The Department of Education announced Friday that it had eliminated the Biden-created office of "book ban coordinator" and the supporting office. This office was created in June 2023 in response to many school districts removing age-inappropriate and sexually explicit books from school libraries (The White House Is Weaponizing the Department of Education Against Your Children – RedState). Biden's Department of Education was naturally in favor of keeping soft-core porn and LGBTQQIP2SAA (did I miss anyone?) recruiting materials in the reach of elementary school kids;
President Trump bashed MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and described her network and CNN as the “enemy of the people.”
“Wow! Rachel Maddow has horrible ratings. She’ll be off the air very soon. MSNBC IS CLOSE TO DEATH. CNN HAS REACHED THE BOTTOM. This is a good thing. They are the Enemy of the people!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. (Photo) The 1:05 a.m. post came hours after Trump held court at a contentious roundtable in California with Democrats, where he slammed their response to the catastrophic wildfires.
“You have emergency powers, just like I do, and I’m exercising my emergency powers. You have to exercise them also,” Trump scolded
President Donald Trump dismantled Democrat Representative Brad Sherman’s defense of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), arguing that state governments, not federal bureaucracy, should take matters into their own hands rather than waiting for federal incompetence. (Photo) President Trump did not mince words about FEMA’s shortcomings during a press conference on Friday with Los Angeles officials after touring the damage caused by the wildfires.
Pres. Trump:
I do have to say FEMA is a big disappointment. We had it working well. We had great people, but FEMA is not good anymore. What FEMA did in North Carolina.
Kristi Noem successfully passed 50 votes in the GOP-controlled Senate to become the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security on Saturday, placing the Republican governor in charge of President Donald Trump’s plans to curtail illegal immigration.
The upper chamber voted 59–34 to confirm Noem midday Saturday, followed by a vote to advance Trump’s Treasury secretary nominee, Scott Bessent.
The vote comes after all Republican senators, joined by eight Democrats, broke a filibuster
President Trump summarily dismissed 17 agency inspectors general Friday night in a move that caught official Washington by surprise.
The inspectors general were dismissed via emails from the White House Presidential Personnel Office, with no notice sent to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who have pledged bipartisan support for the watchdogs, in advance of the firings, the person said. The emails gave no substantive explanation for the dismissals, with at least one citing “changing priorities” for the move, the person added.
Are the L.A. wildfires — which have razed more than 38,000 acres (57 sq. miles), the equivalent of a midsize city like Minneapolis — a chance outbreak? Or is there a design behind this Firepocalypse? More specifically, is it part of a concerted attempt by the global elite to use fire, floods, and fear to push so-called “sustainable” goals for the Great Reset? [snip] Governor Gavin Newsom’s offer to waive building and environmental regulations to help rebuild after the wildfires, and L.A.’s dalliance with programs such as C40, the Livable Communities Initiative (LCI), and SmartLA2028, cast suspicion of a link to the policies of the elitist
Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine are hinging their opposition to the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, on their alleged concern that he is not fit to handle the pressures of the Pentagon job.
Their paragraphs-long attempts to justify why they are going against the will of their GOP voters, however, pale in the face of their voting records for a cabinet member who abandoned his post twice without notifying Congress. (snip) Both Murkowski and Collins helped Senate Democrats confirm President Joe Biden’s Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, without blinking an eye.
Many Trump supporters believe that Trump won the 2024 election because, this time, the vote for Trump was “too big to rig.” Others dismiss the concern about “stolen elections” because Trump won the popular vote in addition to the electoral vote, plus a GOP majority in the U.S. House and Senate. The reality is that elections are still corruptible. While Democrats didn’t rig the presidential race this time around, the narrow congressional majority probably means that down-ballot races were still manipulated...something Democrats can and will do again.
“Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid.” --Ronald Reagan
For those of us who grew up not giving much credibility to evil, the last nine years have been a serious wake-up call.
From the moment Donald Trump came down that escalator in June 2015, the left went to work to destroy the man.
Why?
The most obvious reason was that he was an outsider to the uniparty establishment. He had rebuilt the skyline of New York and was friends with, donors to, a long list of Democrats and Republicans, Americans of every color and creed, from Oprah to Mike Tyson, from Dana White to Linda McMahon.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had good qualities. He pushed through Trump’s judicial nominees during the first presidency, got his tax cuts passed, and is a noted legislative strategist and tactician. It doesn’t mean he always bats a thousand, but McConnell got key portions of the Trump agenda passed after the 2016 election. Now, he’s erased all that goodwill with this dastardly vote against Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense. McConnell’s defection, plus that of Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME), led to Vice President JD Vance performing his constitutional duty to break the tie.
Diplomacy, negotiations, or a new "deal," have no hope of limiting the regime's plans either for a nuclear weapons breakout or for "exporting the revolution" after Trump has safely left office.
"There's a one in trillion chance you'll degrade the Iranian nuclear program through diplomacy. There's a 90% chance you'll degrade it through military action by Israel, supported by the United States." — US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Politico, January 19, 2025.
An empowered, nuclear-armed Iran would no doubt increase its support for its terrorist proxies, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, as well as most likely triggering the mother of all nuclear arms-races.
Trump and Vance join March for Life anti-abortion
activists in celebrating the movement’s gains replies
activists in celebrating the movement’s gains replies
Washington—President Donald Trump vowed to support anti-abortion-rights protesters in his second term as tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied in Washington on Friday for the annual March for Life.
“We will again stand proudly for families and for life,” Trump declared in a prerecorded video address.
Protesters had come to the capital for decades to call for the repeal of Roe v. Wade, which affirmed a constitutional right to an abortion. Now, with the repeal of Roe in 2022, they are now on the inside rather than the outside. With Trump’s return to the White House and Republicans in control of Congress, the activists want to build on their victories.
Four female Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from a southern military base 477 days ago were freed Saturday in the second hostage exchange under the ongoing Gaza cease-fire deal.
The women — Karina Ariev, 20; Daniella Gilboa, 20; Naama Levy, 20; and Liri Albag, 19 — were received by the International Committee of the Red Cross, who coordinated with Hamas to secure the handover.
Their release comes six days after Israel received the first three hostages released once the initial phase of the cease-fire deal went into effect, bringing fighting in the brutal 15-month war to a halt.
In exchange for the soldiers’ release, Israel is expected
Pete Hegseth was confirmed as Secretary of Defense in a late night confirmation vote on Friday night.
Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote on Friday after toxic RINO Senators McConnell, Murkowski and Collins voted “no.”
WATCH: (Video) It was already known that GOP Senators Murkowski and Collins were going to vote against Hegseth on Friday evening, so all eyes were on McConnell after Fox News’ Chad Pergram said the Kentucky Senator might defect.
President Trump has not so much hit the ground running as performed an Olympics-level sprint flattening all obstacles.
Hardly had he arrived in the Oval Office than he started signing dozens of executive orders fulfilling the promises he’d given the American people to push back against the forces destroying the country.
It was an astonishing example of how leadership can change a mood and a set of presumptions.
The black clouds of coerced conformity started to roll away.
People stifled by years of vilification for wanting to live in an America they recognized suddenly dared to believe they could breathe again.
Above all, Trump’s arrival in office has overturned years of talking America down
President Donald Trump fired 17 independent watchdogs at multiple government agencies on Friday, a person with knowledge of the matter said, eliminating a critical oversight component and clearing the way to replace them with loyalists.
The inspectors general at agencies including the departments of state, defense and transportation were notified by emails from the White House personnel director that they had been terminated immediately, the source said on condition of anonymity.
The dismissals appeared to violate federal law, which requires the president to give both houses of Congress reasons for the dismissals 30 days in advance.
Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, has expressed that he likely would have been diagnosed with autism as a child, if assessed today. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, ahead of the release of his memoir Source Code, the 69-year-old shared insights into his childhood behaviours that he now recognises as characteristics associated with autism. Gates explained, “This whole thing of Asperger's or on the spectrum is a fairly new thing, you know? It used to be autism had a fairly narrow definition that was you know clearly identifiable,” he said.
After President Donald Trump visited Hurricane Helene-devastated areas in western North Carolina and pledged massive support along with executive orders to address FEMA's myriad failures, he headed to California to see the wildfire-impacted parts of Los Angeles.
As we reported, Trump and the state's Democrat governor, Gavin Newsom, have been engaging in a cross-country war of words well before Trump's inauguration over Newsom's atrocious handling of the Golden State's money, manpower, and natural resources.
Trump has, in a nutshell, accused "New-scum" of doing a terrible job, while Newsom went whining to then-President Joe Biden about Trump allegedly spreading "misinformation,"
Mitch McConnell is still the senior Senator from Kentucky, but the 82-year-old—who has been serving since 1985, when Wham's "Careless Whisper" was the top song—stepped down from his role as Senate GOP Leader in November. He’s also experienced several health scares, including two disturbing “freezing” episodes in July and August of 2023, as well as a concussion from a fall.
Throughout Donald Trump’s first term and during Biden’s presidency, he’s been a dubious ally. While he garnered some acclaim for his relentless pushing of conservative justices for confirmation, he’s been an unreliable backer of “45” – now “47.”
Hegseth Squeaks By
replies
When the Senate voted 51-49 yesterday to advance Pete Hegseth’s nomination as Secretary of Defense, I assumed he was in. But I learned earlier today that there was grave doubt about his confirmation, because two more Republican senators–in addition to Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski–were likely to vote No.
So tonight’s vote held plenty of suspense. Only when Thom Tillis of North Carolina announced that he was a Yes did Republicans breathe a sigh of relief. Mitch McConnell was the other potential turncoat, and he did, indeed, vote No, along with Collins and Murkowski. So the tally was 50-50, and JD Vance broke the tie in Hegseth’s (and Trump’s) favor.
One of the reasons for public disgust with government today at all levels is the obvious incompetence of government today. Governments are proving themselves increasingly incompetent at basic tasks, like preserving social order, preventing crime, defending borders, or building public works projects (like California’s high-speed rail, to pick a spectacular example of incompetent excess), while thinking they have the competence to control the planet’s temperature, and make everyone equal by controlling language and setting up endless official ministries of equity.
This one leaves me reeling.
Target, the super-liberal upper-middle class mecca where you can buy eggs, TVs, garden implements, and tuck-friendly bathing suits for children, is dropping its DEI program AND its--ahem--target of increasing suppliers based on racial demographics. Tarjaayy, as we jokingly call it due to its pretensions of being a much classier version of WalMart, has been about as liberal a corporate citizen (I hate that term, but it is very Target) as they come. If there is an alphabet cause it can latch onto, it will. Well, another one bites the dust.
Target TGT 0.94%increase; green up pointing triangle, one of the most full-throated corporate supporters
Democrats in Washington are definitely on the back foot this week and they know it. It's obvious to anyone who is paying attention that Democrats are barely showing up.
As President Trump pushes aggressively to reshape the federal government, Democrats have retreated into a political crouch that reflects their powerlessness in Washington.
Far from rising up in outrage, the opposition party’s lawmakers have taken a muted wait-and-see approach as Mr. Trump tries to end birthright citizenship, halt diversity programs in the federal government, undo foreign policy alliances and seek retribution against his perceived political enemies....