Posts on Saturday, April 5, 2025

The West needs to recognize the intentions of Iran's rulers. The regime has made it clear that it has no plans to abandon its nuclear or ballistic missile programs. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has openly stated that Libya's Muammar Gaddafi made a fatal mistake by giving up his nuclear program. Each time Iran's regime finds itself under pressure, it calls for talks. The goal, however, is never to reach a real agreement. The goal is to delay. Tehran knows that once talks begin, the focus will shift from its nuclear violations to the negotiation process.

Journalist Amie Parnes of The Hill recently appeared on CNN with Jake Tapper and said that the Democratic party is still a mess and in even worse shape than they were right after their massive loss in the 2024 election. Parnes suggests that there is still tons of infighting among members of the party and that some strategists on the left want to ‘burn the house down’ and start over. Democrats still have no leader, no message and no ideas on how to solve these problems. Transcript via Real Clear Politics:

Trump on Friday shared video of a recent airstrike on Houthi rebels, writing, "They will never sink our ships again." "These Houthis gathered for instructions on an attack," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Oops, there will be no attack by these Houthis! They will never sink our ships again!" The black and white aerial footage appeared to show a group assembling before a massive blast leaves nothing but a crater. The Trump administration has been conducting daily airstrikes on the Iranian-backed rebels for the last 20 days

A North Carolina appeals court has ruled that more than 60,000 voters who voted in the state’s Supreme Court election in November 2024 must verify that they are eligible to vote. The ruling from the appeals court ordering “more than 65,000 voters” to prove their eligibility comes after Judge Jefferson Griffin, who ran against North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs in November, challenged the results of the election, according to NBC News. Per the outlet, voters “now have 15 business days to provide state elections officials with the necessary proof of identity that would verify their votes,”

Barack Obama made a shockingly honest admission about the state of his marriage to Michelle Obama. “I was in a deep deficit with my wife,” Barack, 63, told Hamilton College President Steven Tepper in a conversation Thursday, according to the Daily Beast. “So I have been trying to dig myself out of that hole by doing occasionally fun things.” The former president of the United States has previously suggested that his back-to-back terms in office from 2009 to 2017 took a toll on his relationship with the former first lady.

As we previously wrote, during the executive order signing event in the Rose Garden on Wednesday, President Trump announced a swath of reciprocal tariffs on imports from every country, including the People's Republic of China. Then as my colleague Mike Miller wrote on Friday morning, China lashed out with a 34 percent tariff on all U.S. goods entering the Middle Kingdom. Later on Friday morning, Trump shared on his Truth Social account that the administration is extending its reprieve of the U.S. ban on TikTok via a revised executive order, expressing hope of a "deal" being struck for the social media platform with connections to the Chinese

Another week has come and gone in the nation’s capital, which means congressional Republicans are either doing nothing productive, wasting taxpayer money, or losing major policy fights. In the case of this week (and many others), it’s all of the above. On Americans’ dime, the GOP-run House was all but forced to abruptly end work on its legislative agenda on Tuesday for the remainder of the week amid efforts led in part by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., to allow representatives who are new parents to vote by proxy. [Snip] ...Luna took an oath to represent her constituents on a full-time basis.