Conservative Blogger
Monday, September 21, 2026
CNN, MS NOW, Politico Suing Over Denied WH Access
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CNN, MS NOW and Politico said Monday they’ve notified President Donald Trump’s administration that they’re filing a lawsuit over being denied White House access. Reporters from the three major news organizations were blocked from the White House on Saturday, a day after Trump said he was barring them because of reporting he found to be “fake news.” The actions were a clear escalation of Trump’s long-running efforts — in the courts and through administrative action — to restrict news coverage by journalists he finds objectionable and were the latest test of First Amendment protections in the United States. Trump had said Friday he would ban all three outlets because of coverage he disliked. White House reporters from the two cable networks — Betsy Klein of CNN and Akayla Gardner of MS NOW — went live to report they’d been turned away, their press badges deactivated, when arriving for their jobs at the White House. Soon after, Politico said its White House reporter Cheyenne Haslett was also denied entry and had her badge confiscated. All three news outlets had hinted at legal action, saying they would vigorously defend their First Amendment rights. “Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists' credentials because it objected to our reporting,” the outlets said in a joint statement posted on X. “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public's right to independent journalism free from government interference.” In his second term, Trump and his Republican administration have upped the ante and punished certain media outlets, both in the courtroom and through regulatory action. Trump has also lashed out at individual reporters in person or over social media, sometimes in strikingly personal terms — insulting them in briefings or in his recent speech at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. The WHCA’s president, Jacqui Heinrich, called on the Trump administration to immediately restore the three outlets’ access. “The implications extend beyond these organizations: a standard used to exclude one news outlet because of its coverage could be applied to any outlet in the future,” Heinrich said. “The American people, through a free and independent press, must be able to scrutinize those elected to power, regardless of whether government officials view it favorably.” Credit: newsmax.com
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The Essex Files: Josh Shapiro’s Medicaid Red Tape Hurts Pennsylvania’s Truly Disabled
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Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration has drawn a lawsuit over Medicaid rules that advocates say make life harder for people with genuine disabilities and the families who care for them. The dispute centers on how the state decides who qualifies for certain long-term services and support. Critics argue the standards and processes are so rigid or poorly calibrated that they risk denying or delaying help to those who need it most while the system continues to face pressure from questionable claims. Medicaid is the primary public program that funds home and community-based care, personal attendants, and other supports that allow people with serious disabilities to live outside institutions. When eligibility rules tighten, or documentation demands grow without corresponding improvements in accuracy, the people who suffer first are those with clear, documented conditions and the relatives who provide unpaid care around the clock. Families already stretched thin must navigate extra paperwork, appeals, and uncertainty. That is not efficiency. It is a barrier. Public programs have finite resources. Every dollar spent on someone who does not meet the medical or functional criteria is a dollar unavailable for someone who does. States have a duty to protect the integrity of these programs. Fraud and exaggerated claims drain budgets and erode public trust. Yet the remedy cannot be rules that effectively ration care away from legitimate recipients. The goal should be precise verification that distinguishes real need from abuse, not blunt instruments that punish the vulnerable in the name of fiscal caution. The Pennsylvania lawsuit claims the current approach does exactly that. Advocates for people with disabilities say the standards create obstacles that delay or deny services even when medical evidence is strong. Caregivers, often parents or spouses, absorb the cost in lost work hours, physical strain, and financial stress. These are not abstract policy trade-offs. They are daily realities for households already managing complex medical needs. Conservative principles favor limited, effective government that protects the truly needy while rejecting open-ended entitlements. That means rigorous eligibility reviews, better data matching, and consequences for false claims. It does not mean designing systems that treat honest applicants as presumptive risks. When Democratic-led policies expand or restructure benefits without equally strong safeguards against abuse, the predictable result is pressure to control costs later through tighter rules that fall hardest on people with little political voice. Pennsylvania is not unique. States across the country wrestle with rising Medicaid long-term care costs and the difficulty of verifying disability in a system that relies heavily on self-reported limitations and provider documentation. The answer is better tools for distinguishing permanent, severe impairments from temporary or mild conditions, plus consistent enforcement against those who game the system. Protecting the program’s finances is necessary. Doing so at the expense of people with genuine disabilities and their caregivers is a failure of both compassion and competence. Shapiro’s administration should respond to the lawsuit by clarifying standards, speeding legitimate approvals, and strengthening fraud detection without adding new hurdles for the disabled. Taxpayers deserve accountability. People with real disabilities and the families who care for them deserve a system that puts their needs first rather than treating them as residual claimants after the budget is protected. Clear rules, honest verification, and priority for proven need are the only sustainable approach. Credit: https://redstate.com |
Yikes: How Did a California Freeway Sign Get Hacked With an Iranian Regime Death List?
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A digital sign on a Los Angeles freeway was hijacked and used to point drivers to an Iranian regime-linked website that publishes personal details of dissidents living in the city. The Caltrans (California Department of Transportation) sign displayed the address for goorkan.info, a site that bills itself as a campaign to “identify and punish traitors to the homeland.” That site, according to the California Post, has been linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the United States designated a foreign terrorist organization in 2019. A new revamp of the home page features a section called “The Burn List," which shows ominous imagery of individuals' faces being scanned for recognition and a threat that their "everyday chats" and other sensitive information "is locked on our servers." Iranian-born real estate broker Payam Shiravi spotted the message on Sept. 8 and said he was shocked to see people he knows from anti-regime protests were on the page. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing on the sign. I drove by a couple of times to make sure it was real,” he told The California Post. “It’s disturbing. People that I know, who I protest with, are on the website. It’s putting a target on these innocent people.”
Emel Karsaz, an Iranian-born critic of the regime, later found her name, photo, and personal details on the site and filed a report with the FBI’s Los Angeles field office on Sept. 9. She told the Post she panicked and no longer felt safe in America, especially after social-media threats aimed at her appearance. Caltrans said it was not alerted to the unauthorized message until Sept. 15. Shiravi had already seen the board on Sept. 8. The agency told the contractor to restore the sign and said it is reviewing the message and access history.
The FBI has warned that Iranian state cyber actors are targeting dissidents, activists, and journalists worldwide, but it would not confirm to the Post whether it is investigating this freeway hack. The 405 incident is not isolated. In March, a separate breach hit LA Metro, knocking out rider-information and payment systems and exposing at least 700 GB of files. Israeli researchers later tied that intrusion to hackers linked to the Iranian state. In June, an Iranian hacking crew separately claimed it had broken into water utilities that serve multiple California cities. Who is actually behind the Caltrans sign hacking is still in question. Anyone could have promoted a website to create chaos. That doesn't necessarily mean the IRGC-backed site itself was responsible. Still, a California highway sign being used to advertise a regime burn list in the largest Iranian community outside Iran warrants serious investigation. Credit: https://redstate.com/ |
Bill Maher's Face Is Priceless When a Guest Said Dems Aren't Crazy As the GOP
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Bill Maher thought that Jessica Tarlov was kidding. She was not. Being one of the few liberals employed by Fox News, Tarlov insisted that her side isn’t as nuts as the Republican Party — they’re “less crazy.” It took a second, but Maher realized she wasn’t kidding and launched into a lecture on how her side has lost the plot. “They’re communists who think the Islamists are the good guys,” he said. “Are you kidding?! Less crazy?!”
But the Fox News liberal also revealed something later in the show that isn’t shocking, and that is that our side is more accepting of her than the Left. She admitted that the Left eats its own was gross hyperbole. It’s not. Maher noted that both have similar experiences with the left, and that being liberal isn’t good enough. Tarlov was at Crooked Con, which was hosted by Pod Save America, and she was aghast at how far left the activist class had become.
“Kooky” was the word she used. They feel, and Maher hit it on the head, that if you differ from them on anything, you’re bad and should be punished. They also think the 77 million who voted for Trump and the president are one and the same, and that’s just a ridiculous, sloppy, immature take that only authoritarians live by. Last Note: Maher eviscerated Macklemore's latest concert antics, rightly claiming that no one is looking for political lectures when you’re drunk and high at these venues.
Credit: Matt Vespa |
The Last Stand of Rove, Cornyn, and the Establishment Frauds
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Twenty years ago, people would’ve thought you were crazy if you told them that Karl Rove would be welcomed onto the pages of the regime media to announce that his powerful principles require him to vote for a Democrat who believes you should carve up little boys and girls to conform to the trendy gender delusions of their Munchausen mommies. But in 2026, when he did that, nobody was surprised. Nobody was shocked. After all, betrayal is the old Republican establishment’s brand. Rove and his ilk claim that taking sides against us is mandated by their principles. What principles? We understand what the principles of our alleged betters in the conservative (sic) movement really are. They’re not a set of rigid standards that must be adhered to at all costs and hazards; they’re a joke, a ploy to manipulate the rubes, moral Calvinball for people who demand our respect and obedience yet hold us in utter contempt. But of course, Karl Rove isn’t alone. The doddering has-been is just emblematic of a particularly pernicious political type that those of us who actually believe in something beyond our own prosperity, prestige, and power have been trying to exile from the GOP for decades. All this stuff about the gentlemen of the Republican Party, the compassionate conservatives, the sensible adults in the room, has been revealed to be a lie, but it was always a lie. It was always a scam. When they speak of principles, they’re talking about arbitrary and amorphous guidelines that they impose from on high to control you. But those principles never apply to them. Why, the idea that they should be bound by any guardrails is profoundly insulting to them. They are beyond such common limitations. You, however, are absolutely bound to them, like a serf to his master’s fields. And here’s the not-so-surprising part. Those principles they always talk about? Somehow, those principles always end up reinforcing the power of the failed GOP establishment at the expense of the GOP base. And those principles always require that we give up our interests, our rights, and our prosperity. Pretty convenient, huh? Tell me one establishment GOP principle that helps us in the base at the expense of those at the peak of the pyramid, and I’ll show you a unicorn. There’s no such thing as a unicorn. Why are they taking this opportunity to ostentatiously demonstrate to the people who hate them that they are dissociating themselves from us at the same time the Republican Party faces a very tough midterm? After all, all that’s on the line are the myriad conservative achievements of the Trump administration. It’s no biggie. And what was the catastrophic outrage of outrages that forced them, almost against their will, to take sides against their own party in this time of crisis? Well, an obscure Republican candidate for an obscure Texas political office sent an inartful tweet referencing the anxiety of many Americans about the demographic change in the country that they were never consulted about. That earth-shaking political tsunami of a tweet, according to their principles, requires them to help the Democrats destroy everything we’ve done to save this country. You know, because of Muh Principles. Uh, no. This was just a convenient excuse for them to do what they wanted to do anyway, which is to slap back at the people who dared not to genuflect to them anymore. Do you think Karl Rove would be doing this if anyone at the White House took his calls? Their phony outrage is a convenient excuse. The issue isn’t whether it was a nice tweet or not; the issue is that they didn’t have to trash their own party, but they chose to do it anyway. You can choose what you’re outraged about. And moreover, this is an opportunity for them to tell you you’re not allowed to talk about the issue of demographic change. They think they should define what is acceptable discourse. One of the big reasons they hate Trump is that Trump started talking about immigration, and they didn’t like that. They had decreed you’re not allowed to talk about it, and then this guy did. How dare he! But Trump spoke for us when no one else in the GOP would. They didn’t want our input because our input wasn’t going to be what they wanted. Guys like Karl Rove and his boss, George Religion of Peace Bush, decided that what America needed to do was change, and what they didn’t need to do was ask us about it. They just did it without asking, just like they sent our jobs overseas, because they knew better. Because they were smarter. More moral. Our betters. The Tea Party and Donald Trump were largely a reaction to these guys, and we’ve been fighting and largely winning that war ever since. We were once an insurgency; now we are in power. There are far fewer of these throwbacks than there used to be. But the fight continues. They are still out there, popping their little weasel heads up out of their holes to bitterly nip at our ankles. Oh, it’s not just Karl Rove. Senator John Cornyn (“R”-Nowhere) is part of this imbroglio too. He is big mad that Texas voters rejected him. He must be pretty humiliated right now, which is good, because he deserves it. He wouldn’t be in this situation if he didn’t have such profound contempt for his own voters. For five years of his Senate terms, he would be back in Washington, DC, clinking glasses at the Palm and helping Democrats with things like gun control and amnesty. And in the sixth year, he would come back to Texas, throw on a cowboy hat for the benefit of the yokels, and pretend he was a conservative interested in conserving something other than his own sinecure. But Ken Paxton, whom the allies of Cornyn, Rove, and Bush tried to frame in a bogus impeachment, ran on a platform of actually doing what the people of Texas wanted. And the Texas GOP drop-kicked Cornyn through the goalposts of failure. It’s not surprising that the tofu crew is now actively pushing Democrats. They haven’t come right out and endorsed that blasphemous communist imp, James Talarico, but everyone knows they want Pete Buttigieg’s Mini-Me to win. We must be punished for our uppity defiance. The old establishment doesn’t care about the Republicans or this country. It cares about itself. The last few weeks have proven that so conclusively that a Lindsay Clancy juror would vote guilty. These guys are exactly who we thought they were. Hell, they’re actually worse. At least the snobs and stiffs of a century ago had some sort of sense of noblesse oblige. George H.W. Bush may have been so remote from real people that he didn’t understand a supermarket scanner, but at 19 years old, he jumped in a plane in the Pacific to fight for his country. You don’t see that anymore among our GOP ruling class. His loser son’s Air National Guard service that kept him out of Vietnam required us to come to his defense when Dan Rather presented that infamous fake memo. We had his back even when he wouldn’t defend himself because he was too much of a gentleman to respond to them calling him Chimpy McBu$hitlerburton. And he returned the favor by sticking a knife in our collective back when we chose Donald Trump over his fat brother. We were told to please clap as he palled around with his new buddies, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton; standing up for the icky GOP voters who stood up for him would’ve made for uncomfortable conversations at the country club. And we were equally stunned the other day when news broke that George Will was likewise promoting the Democrat candidate in South Carolina. Of course, what stunned us the most was that George Will still exists. His decline to bitter establishmentarianism started long ago, which is when we stopped listening. It’s hard to understand how influential he was decades ago, although George Will was always like Peggy Noonan without the testosterone. People used to actually think of him as the touchstone of conservatism, but time has made clear that the performative Republicanism of these guys was just that – a performance. It was an act, a mask, a brand. So it’s not surprising that their principles were, ironically, totally bereft of any principles. Consistency, patriotism, loyalty – oh, they evoked these concepts endlessly, but only when they’re haranguing us to obey. We were told we had to vote for the incumbent Republican no matter what, swallow whatever they gave us, take whatever they chose to give. Vote for someone who actually wants to do the things we wanted to do? No, that was too dangerous. We might lose in the general if we run a candidate who actually believes in something! No, we had to have the back of Senator Stickuphisrear even though the guy, given the chance, was going to vote with the Democrats to import the entire Third World, disarm us, and give a free hand to their crony capitalist corporate donors. Principles require us to compromise. But principles never required them to do anything. After decades of dealing with these losers, it’s clear that it was never about us. We poor slobs in the Republican base were all just a means to an end. And the end was them being able to be called “Senator.” It was never about the conservative policies they promised us at election time. They knew it was a lie, and when we figured out it was a lie and picked people who actually do what we wanted done, well, we had to be punished. Do you think Karl Rove or John Cornyn gives a damn what some rando GOP candidate in the Lone Star State thinks about the demographic composition of the UT-Austin Longhorns cheering section? It’s a pretty safe bet that both of them live in neighborhoods that make a Romney family reunion look like the United Nations General Assembly. Their newfound diversity principles are as fake as everything else about them. They’re not supporting the Democrats because of some moral imperative. They’re doing it to hurt us because we rejected them, because we withheld the respect they believe is their due from their lessers. This latest old GOP establishment treachery isn’t about principles. This is about being pissed off at the people who told them to talk to the hand. And now, as far as we’re concerned, they can talk to the finger. Credit: Kurt Schlichter |
Trump says 'magnificent' Triumphal Arch in D.C. will also be ‘top grade’ weapons base for drones and snipers
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| An image and model of President Donald Trump’s proposed triumphal arch to commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary are displayed during a public meeting of the Commission of Fine Arts at the National Building Museum on April 16, 2026 in Washington, DC. The Commission of Fine Arts voted unanimously to move forward with a proposed 250-foot arch informally dubbed the “Arc de Trump” that would sit in a roundabout near Memorial Bridge on the Arlington, Virginia side of the Potomac River between Arlington Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) President Donald Trump announced that his proposed Triumphal Arch in Washington, D.C., will double as a high-security military base equipped with drones and sniper ammunition. The monument is part of his broader initiatives to celebrate America’s 250th birthday and “beautify” the nation’s capital. In a Truth Social post on Sunday, President Trump stated that the new 250-foot arch Triumphal Arch will not just be for looks, but will also house a “top-grade military complex” at the request of the armed forces 
Originally proposed in April, construction on the 250-foot monument was expected to break ground near Arlington National Cemetery. However, the plans have been met with critics expressing worry that the massive arch will block views of major D.C. landmarks and the Arlington National Cemetery. Concerns have also been raised about its close proximity to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). Nonetheless, FAA cleared the arch on Friday, stating that it would not pose as a hazard to incoming or departing flights into DCA, according to CBS News. Credit: https://www.oann.com/ |
President Trump Returns After Houthi Strikes as State Dept Warns
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President Trump cut his weekend at Camp David short and returned to the White House as the State Department issued a regional security alert for Americans in the Middle East. The warning came after Houthi forces launched missile and drone strikes that Saudi officials say included an attempted ballistic missile toward Riyadh. This cluster of events arrived days after President Trump told Axios he is weighing whether to “annihilate” the Iranian regime — a line that made everyone sit up and stare. What happened: Security alert, Houthi attack and presidential movementThe State Department’s TravelGov advisory told Americans in the Middle East to “exercise heightened vigilance” and warned of “potential flight cancellations, airspace closures, and travel disruptions.” At the same time, Saudi authorities and the Saudi‑led coalition reported that air defenses intercepted a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis, who claim they struck “sensitive targets,” including energy sites. Video and schedule updates show President Trump returning to the White House earlier than planned, though the White House has not publicly explained why. Context — and a blunt line from the presidentPresident Trump told Axios he is “approaching a critical juncture” on the Iran conflict and asked, “Do I want to go in and annihilate them [the Iranian regime] or do I not? It’s a big decision. Anything could happen with me.” That kind of blunt talk matters. It can deter foes, reassure allies, or raise the temperature in a region already on a hair trigger. Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Pentagon leaders say forces remain positioned to respond if needed. In short: the risk of miscalculation is real. Did the security alert prompt the presidential return?We don’t have a public answer yet. Reporters noted the president’s sudden return, but the White House has not tied it directly to the TravelGov advisory or the Houthi strikes. That silence leaves room for rumor and media spin — and Americans deserve clarity. If the move was precautionary, say so. If it was diplomacy, say so. If it was both, say that too. Leadership is not supposed to be a suspense thriller. What Americans should expect — and what leaders should doTravelers in the region should heed the State Department’s call for heightened vigilance and be ready for disruptions. Politically, Washington needs clear public signals: firm posture to protect U.S. interests, support for our allies, and honest explanations for decisions that affect American lives. President Trump’s tough language may be strategic. But tough talk without clear plans and calm communication risks turning a contained flare into a bigger fight. That’s a gamble no one should cheer for. Credit: https://patriotpowerednetwork.com/ |
Federalist Society: Congress Can End Birthright Citizenship
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The Federalist Society’s recent webinar made one thing plain: the fight over birthright citizenship didn’t end with the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Barbara. Legal heavyweights told a live audience that Congress still has tools to push back, and they named the likely routes. That matters because if lawmakers don’t act, the status quo that rewards “birth tourism” will keep rolling along — much to the frustration of millions of Americans who want clear, sensible rules about who becomes a citizen at birth. Federalist Society panel: Congress has the power to respondOn the webinar, Gene P. Hamilton blasted the Court’s ruling as “outcome‑oriented,” saying it ignored the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Steven J. Menashi disagreed with some of Hamilton’s history lessons but agreed on the practical point: Congress can pass laws to limit or clarify who gets automatic citizenship. That’s the news here — top conservative lawyers and jurists openly urging Congress to use its power to force the issue back into the courts or change the law outright. Kavanaugh’s concurrence and the legislative pathwayJustice Brett Kavanaugh’s separate opinion in Trump v. Barbara is the roadmap they cited. Kavanaugh said Congress could amend the federal statute that recognizes birthright citizenship — 8 U.S.C. §1401(a) — without running afoul of the Court’s constitutional holding. Lawmakers already have a clear vehicle: bills like the Birthright Citizenship Act (H.R. 569) would rewrite the statute to exclude certain classes of noncitizen parents. That means the debate can move from constitutional hair-splitting into plain, messy politics — where it belongs. White House actions and the inevitable legal clashThe White House didn’t wait. The President issued executive actions in August aimed at curbing “birth tourism” and carving out categories the administration says shouldn’t produce automatic citizenship. Predictably, those orders are being challenged in court. Panelists at the Federalist Society were frank: any serious change — whether legislative or executive — will trigger lawsuits and eventually bring the issue back before the Supreme Court. That’s not a bug; it’s the plan. Use the law to create a case, then let the courts sort it out. Why Congress should stop watching and start legislatingHere’s the blunt takeaway: if you’re tired of the legal limbo and the policy games, you should want Congress to act. The Supreme Court’s majority stuck with a territorial reading of the Fourteenth Amendment. Kavanaugh and others handed lawmakers a statutory fix they can pursue. Republicans who campaigned on border control and rule of law should move H.R. 569 or a similar bill to the floor, hold hearings, and force a clear choice. If the Court won’t deliver the result conservatives want, then Congress must do its job — even if that means sparking another courtroom showdown. After all, democracy was designed to have several checks, not just one nine-person panel deciding everything. Credit: https://patriotpowerednetwork.com/ |
Sunday, September 20, 2026
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We’ll discuss her bizarre press conference later this morning, but New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill wants to shift focus away from the thousa...
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U.S. President Donald Trump dances after speaking at General Motors’ Milford Proving Grounds on July 27, 2026 in Milford, Michigan. Trump i...
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There was a horrific shooting at the Bite of Seattle food festival over the weekend. On Sunday, two suspects reportedly engaged in a gun ...
