CALIFORNIA VOTES REJECT LIBERAL NEWSOM’S BAN ON SELLING NEW GAS POWERED CARS-HOW STUPID IS THAT SOON TO BE GONE GOVERNOR’S ORDER???

Californians Crush Newsom’s Gas Car Ban in Massive Poll Reversal

Gavin Newsom just got the message loud and clear from the people who actually have to live under his rules. Nearly two-thirds of Californians want nothing to do with his 2035 ban on new gas-powered cars.

According to the latest Public Policy Institute of California survey, 66 percent of adults and 65 percent of likely voters oppose the governor’s executive order that would outlaw the sale of new gasoline vehicles. Only 34 percent still back it. That is a 17-point jump in opposition since 2021, when the state was split down the middle.

Republicans reject it by a staggering 91 percent. Independents sit at 69 percent against. Even Democrats have collapsed into a near-even split. The climate cult is losing its own base.

This is not some abstract preference poll. Californians are staring at their utility bills and gas pumps and deciding the green dream is not worth the cost. Sixty-three percent now call energy costs a big problem in their part of the state. The same share says current gasoline prices are a major problem. Both numbers have climbed sharply in just one year.

Electricity in California already runs nearly twice the national average. Residential rates hover around 35 cents per kilowatt-hour, the highest among the contiguous states. Newsom’s answer? Force everyone into electric cars that cost more upfront, take longer to “refuel,” and depend on a grid that struggles to keep the lights on during heat waves.

The same poll shows only one in five Californians is extremely or very confident the state will build enough charging stations. Nearly half say they have little or no confidence at all. People are not stupid. They know what happens when politicians promise infrastructure they never deliver.

Scripture has a word for this kind of planning. “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” (Luke 14:28).

Newsom never counted the cost for ordinary families. He counted the applause from coastal elites and climate NGOs.

The governor and lawmakers just threw another $135 million at EV rebates. First-time buyers of cheaper new electric cars can get $3,500. Used ones get half that. Automakers are supposed to split the bill. Anyone who believes those costs will not land on consumers has never watched how California works.

Meanwhile, the federal $7,500 EV tax credit expired under President Trump and a Republican Congress. California is left holding the bag for a transition its own residents increasingly reject. The state still leads the nation in EV registrations, with about 1.3 million on the road.

That has not stopped the backlash. People who already own them are one thing. Mandating the rest of the population into them is another.

Californians still say they support broad climate goals. Nearly two-thirds back the net-zero emissions target by 2045. Majorities favor carbon taxes on corporations and renewable electricity requirements. The difference is simple. Abstract targets cost nothing today. Forcing working families out of reliable, affordable cars does.

This is what happens when ideology collides with the grocery bill. Newsom’s marquee climate policy has become a political liability in the bluest big state in the country. The people who have to pay for it are done pretending.

The New York Post called it a gut punch. That is polite. It is a rejection of the entire top-down climate regime that treats citizens as subjects to be managed rather than free people who count costs for themselves.

Newsom is term-limited. His successor will inherit this mess. The question is whether California’s political class finally learns that reality has a way of interrupting the sermon.

ANTHONY FAUCI EXPOSED AS A MEDIA HOG AND MORE

Fauci Diary Exposes Cozy Media Ties, Trump Tensions and Celebrity Fixation [WATCH]

Newly released diary entries from Dr. Anthony Fauci are giving Americans a rare look behind the curtain at the man who became the government face of the COVID 19 era, complete with media chatter, celebrity encounters and internal White House drama.

The records were released by Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R Ky., just days before Fauci is set to testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee after being subpoenaed by Paul.

The diary details Fauci’s daily role during the pandemic through meetings, calls and personal notes, showing how quickly public health policy turned into a mix of politics, television management and celebrity culture.

For Americans who remember the lockdown years, the entries add another layer to a familiar story.

The experts lectured the country about sacrifice while Washington insiders and media favorites appeared to orbit one another quite comfortably.

Early entries show Fauci describing a warmer relationship with President Donald Trump than many might expect.

Fauci wrote that Trump repeatedly sent questions his way during White House meetings and called him “the smartest person in the world.”

Trump also told Fauci, “We are counting on you,” according to the diary.

Fauci later wrote that Trump appeared “enamored” with him as his national profile exploded during the pandemic.

That relationship did not stay smooth as the pandemic dragged on.

Fuci’s notes describe mounting friction inside the White House, especially with then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Fauci wrote that Meadows threatened to keep him off television and pushed him to soften his public messaging.

In one entry, Fauci described Meadows as “screaming” over comments Fauci had made in public.

The diary paints then White House communications director Alyssa Farah in a much more favorable light from Fauci’s perspective.

In a May 2020 entry, Fauci said Farah admitted White House staff had been “holding me back” and that the situation had “gotten out of hand.”

According to Fauci, Farah promised to begin approving his television requests again.

In Washington, access to a camera can apparently become its own form of oxygen.

Other communications figures did not fare as well in Fauci’s private notes.

Fauci took sharp aim at then HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Michael Caputo, accusing him in crude terms of publicly backing his media appearances while privately blocking them.

The diary also shows how deeply television journalists figured into Fauci’s pandemic world.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper appears repeatedly in the entries through calls, texts and even dinners at Tapper’s Washington home.

Fauci wrote that Tapper privately checked whether a CNN interview had caused trouble for him with the White House.

When The Atlantic’s Peter Nicholas suggested Fauci had been “humiliated” over a canceled Tapper interview,

Fauci responded with a blunt and vulgar dismissal in his notes.

CNN’s Dana Bash also appears in the diary after Fauci’s heated exchange with Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.

Fauci wrote that Bash texted him that he was “a better man” and relayed that Wolf Blitzer joked nobody would have blamed him for telling Jordan off.

The next day, Fauci said Bash texted him again, this time pointing him to a Vanity Fair headline mocking Jordan’s performance at the hearing.

The cozy media club always seems to know when to send flowers and when to sharpen knives.

The entries also include billionaire Oracle co founder Larry Ellison, who became part of White House discussions about using Oracle technology during the pandemic. Fauci described Ellison as “a bit of a loose cannon.”

Then there is the celebrity parade. Julia Roberts hosted Fauci on Instagram Live, sent him flowers and later presented him with an award, while Anna Wintour, Trevor Noah, Steph Curry, Sean Penn, Matt Damon and Lil Wayne all show up in the broader Fauci orbit.

The diary reads at moments less like a public health record and more like a guest list for the political class during crisis mode.

Americans were told to stay home, stay quiet and trust the science, while the science was apparently fielding celebrity messages.

The final notable cameo comes from the 2022 Kennedy Center Honors.

Fauci wrote that he hugged Hunter Biden, who joked the internet “would explode” if someone photographed them together because they were both “being attacked by the far right GOP.”

Paul’s release lands as Fauci prepares for another round of scrutiny on Capitol Hill.

For many conservatives, the diary will only fuel questions about whether pandemic leadership was driven by sober public health judgment, political instincts or a taste for fame.

The country is still living with the consequences of decisions made during those years.

Fauci’s own words now offer a revealing glimpse into the power circles, media friendships and celebrity fascination surrounding one of the most controversial government figures of the pandemic.

he Real MOU: What Trump’s Iran Agreement Actually Says – Truth Thursday | EP 677

CREEPY LOOKING JACK SMITH WAS A LIAR…ALWAYS..

Jack Smith Hit With Criminal Referral for Lying to Congress About Spying on Lawmakers

The special counsel who spent years trying to put Donald Trump in prison just got referred for criminal investigation himself. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan dropped the hammer Wednesday, accusing Jack Smith of willfully lying under oath about how deep his team dug into private text messages from members of Congress.

This is not some technical dispute over paperwork. This is about a prosecutor who told Congress one story under oath, then got caught by documents showing something else entirely.

During his closed-door deposition on December 17, 2025, Smith was asked whether he sought a search warrant for the content of any text messages from members of Congress. His answer: “No, I don’t recall that.” He insisted his team only pulled toll records—the kind that show when a message was sent, not what it said.

Jordan’s referral letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche lays it out plainly. Those answers “gave the impression that neither Mr. Smith nor his team had access to the content of Members’ privileged text messages.” Then the records landed.

“We now know this to be false,” Jordan wrote.

Newly released Justice Department material handed over to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley shows Smith’s investigators directly accessed the actual content of text messages involving more than 40 members of Congress. The messages ran between lawmakers and White House staff from October 2020 through January 20, 2021. The list included both Republicans and Democrats. Jordan himself was on it. So was Grassley. So were Steve Scalise, the late Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins, and even Cory Booker.

Worse, Smith’s team bypassed its own Filter Team—the internal safeguard designed to keep investigators from reading privileged or constitutionally protected communications. They went around the gatekeepers and looked anyway.

Jordan’s letter calls this “strong evidence” of false statements under 18 U.S.C. § 1001. He argues Smith’s testimony was not a fuzzy memory problem. It was an intentional effort to obstruct congressional oversight.

“His conduct can only be understood as an effort to thwart the Committee’s inquiry by intentionally making false statements and representations before Congress.”

Democrats, predictably, are howling. Ranking Member Jamie Raskin called the referral “laughably weak and vindictive,” claiming Republicans are upset that Smith did not volunteer information they failed to ask for. That defense requires believing that a seasoned prosecutor somehow forgot his own team had read dozens of lawmakers’ private messages while investigating a former president. It also requires ignoring the constitutional Speech or Debate Clause protections that cover official legislative communications.

This is the same Jack Smith who treated the Justice Department like a personal weapon against the leading political opponent of the Biden administration. He obtained phone records of Republican lawmakers. He chased theories about 2020 that collapsed under scrutiny. Now the documents show his team was reading the actual words elected officials were sending to the White House—and then he told Congress he never sought the content.

Scripture is not silent on this kind of deception. “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.” That is Ephesians 4:25. Public officials who swear an oath and then shade the truth to protect their own power are not serving the public. They are serving themselves.

The Justice Department under the current administration has confirmed receipt of the referral and stated it “will investigate all evidence of criminal conduct.” Whether that investigation produces an actual indictment remains to be seen. But the pattern is hard to miss. The man who spent years demanding accountability from one side of the political aisle is now being forced to answer for his own statements under oath.

Americans were told for years that Jack Smith was the impartial guardian of the rule of law. The records say otherwise. So does the criminal referral now sitting on the Acting Attorney General’s desk.

AI IS TRANSFORMING HEALTHCARE-IT MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE!

Amid the broader debate over artificial intelligence’s economic disruptions, the healthcare sector is quietly demonstrating some of the technology’s most concrete applications. Rather than the job losses feared in other industries, hospitals report AI augmenting physicians, streamlining routine tasks and accelerating innovation in ways that could improve outcomes while controlling costs.

At the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, roughly 150 AI models are now in use. A tool called Record Time helps internists distill hundreds of pages of external medical records into searchable summaries, saving five to 30 minutes per patient, according to CNN.

“AI can step in and do a lot of the tedious work that very specialized doctors or medical professionals do to speed up that process – get to more accurate diagnoses, faster so you can treat more people,” Jason Droege, CEO of Scale AI, said.

Mayo is also testing AI for early pancreatic-cancer detection, potentially years ahead of conventional diagnosis, and for identifying atrial-fibrillation risks that could prevent strokes. The clinic partners with Microsoft and other firms to train models on its vast trove of patient data.

Radiology, once predicted to be AI’s first casualty, tells a similar story of augmentation rather than obsolescence – though the most-cited evidence comes from an interested party. A report from Build American AI – a nonprofit advocacy arm of Leading the Future, the $100 million pro-AI super PAC backed by Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI executives – finds the U.S. radiologist workforce in Medicare-affiliated practices grew 17.3% between 2014 and 2023. At Mayo itself, the group says, the number of radiologists expanded 55% since 2016. The organization does not disclose its donors and lobbies for federal preemption of state AI rules, so the figures warrant independent checking against Medicare provider data.

Utah recently became the first state to allow an AI system from Doctronic to renew prescriptions for chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. In the pilot’s first five months, the AI recommended approval in 72% of cases, with physicians concurring 91% of the time; it escalated the rest when complications appeared, Forbes reports. The program targets established medications, maintains human oversight and bars controlled substances.

Tampa General Hospital estimates that an AI-enabled sepsis-detection system it built with Palantir has helped save 886 lives since August 2022, cutting early sepsis deaths by 68%. The figure is the hospital’s own assessment of a system developed with a commercial partner.

In drug development, AI’s impact may prove most transformative. A TD Cowen survey of biopharma leaders found executives expect the technology to compress preclinical costs and timelines by as much as 70%, powering in-silico modeling that simulates thousands of experiments rapidly, Axios reports. Respondents expect new drug programs to expand more than 10% in the coming years.

Yet inside the very institutions championing AI, opposition is already brewing.

Mayo Clinic’s former Director of Research Operations Traci Tamiko Eto sued the hospital earlier this month, alleging she was retaliated against for raising privacy and oversight concerns around some Mayo AI systems. Mayo Clinic spokesperson Andrea Kalmanovitz said the hospital doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation but underscored that it is “committed to the responsible development and deployment of AI, with privacy, security, transparency and compliance embedded throughout our processes.”

“Our research and clinical innovation are conducted in accordance with applicable laws and regulations and we remain steadfast in upholding the trust patients place in us and respecting their privacy,” Kalmanovitz said in a statement.

COVID VIRUS ORIGINS COMING TO LIGHT, HOW EVERYONE WAS FOOLED!

Rand Paul Exposes Covid Scientists Who Privately Doubted Lab Origin While Publicly Denying It

The same scientists who looked America in the eye and declared a lab origin for COVID-19 “implausible” were privately assigning it a 30 percent chance. Senator Rand Paul just dropped the Slack messages that prove it.

On Tuesday, the Kentucky Republican released internal communications among the authors of the March 2020 Nature Medicine paper “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2.” That paper became the scientific gospel used by Anthony Fauci, the mainstream media, and every public health bureaucrat to shut down any discussion of a Wuhan lab leak.

Kristian Andersen, Robert Garry, Eddie Holmes, and Andrew Rambaut told the world the virus showed no signs of laboratory manipulation. Privately, they were not nearly so sure.

Andersen put the lab origin probability at 30 percent. Holmes started at 20 percent and later edged it down to 10 percent. Either number is a far cry from the paper’s public confidence that the idea was off the table. By June 11, 2020, Andersen was still wrestling with the gap between what they published and what the evidence actually allowed:

“The part I’m really struggling with is that, at the end of the day, we really don’t have any hard evidence one way or the other — and especially given some of the recent evidence, we also can’t rule out that somebody actually put it in there. That’s obviously not to say that somebody did, but we can’t rule it out. Our paper was pretty strong in saying ‘there’s no way,’ but I have less confidence in that statement at this stage.”

Read that again. The lead author admitted the paper overstated the case against a lab origin, then kept quiet while the world treated their work as settled science. These men received large multimillion-dollar grants from American taxpayers. Paul put it plainly: “This level of dishonesty, I think, needs to be exposed. These are people who get large, multimillion-dollar grants from our country, and we shouldn’t be giving money to people who lied to us.”

The messages also show the authors debating the furin cleavage site—the very genetic feature that has always raised the sharpest lab-leak questions. Andersen spoke of “smoking(ish) guns” that left him uncomfortable. They coordinated with NIH leadership and elements of the U.S. intelligence community while publicly defending conclusions they privately doubted.

They even turned on Ralph Baric, the prominent coronavirus researcher, suspecting him of leaking peer-review details to a journalist and labeling him their own “Deep Throat.”

This is not an isolated academic spat. It sits inside a larger pattern of institutional protection that Paul has been systematically exposing. Just a day earlier he released documents showing Customs and Border Protection agents prepared to question EcoHealth Alliance president Peter Daszak—central figure in the Wuhan research pipeline—upon his return from the WHO origins investigation.

The FBI stepped in and told them to stand down. Fauci himself is scheduled to testify before Paul’s committee this month under subpoena. The cover-up machinery is still grinding.

Scripture is clear on the matter. “These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates” (Zechariah 8:16).

When scientists paid by the public choose narrative over evidence, when they publish certainty while privately admitting doubt, they are not practicing science. They are practicing deception. And deception of this scale, on a question that determined lockdowns, school closures, vaccine mandates, and the erosion of basic liberties, is not a technical error. It is a moral failure that cost lives and shattered trust.

The Proximal Origin paper was never the dispassionate scientific consensus the media pretended. It was a political document written by men who knew the lab possibility remained open and chose to close the door anyway.

Paul’s release of these Slack messages does what the scientific establishment refused to do: it forces the truth into the light. The question now is whether the same institutions that elevated these authors will finally hold them to account, or whether the American people will once again be told to move on and forget.

We should not forget. Truth still matters. And those who buried it while cashing government checks should answer for it.

BILLIONAIRE AMBASSADOR TO ITALY SHOWS OFF HIS YACHT

As Trump Scraps With Meloni, His Envoy to Italy Is at Sea

Tilman J. Fertitta, the U.S. ambassador to Rome, is summering on his superyacht as President Trump squabbles with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy.

In recent weeks, while President Trump was locked in an unusually testy standoff with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, the United States ambassador to Rome was on a monthslong tour of Italy’s coastline aboard his $450 million superyacht.

As the leaders’ spat escalated over the Independence Day weekend, the ambassador, Tilman J. Fertitta, moored the 384-foot, seven-deck yacht off Palermo in Sicily to host a phalanx of Sicilian dignitaries.

The visitors could gawk at the boat’s pools, hot tubs, spa that offers facials and pedicures, movie screening room, putting green, multiple bars and two helicopters. They sipped wine, nibbled antipasti and posed for the ambassador’s Instagram feed — shoeless, as footwear is forbidden on the yacht — in rooms decorated with fluorescent artwork, varnished wood, crystal sculptures and chandeliers.

Mr. Trump was about to roast Ms. Meloni, posting on social media that he needed to take out a “restraining order” against her, two weeks after he claimed she had “begged” him for a photo at a gathering of world leaders. Mr. Fertitta, 69, seemed unconcerned by the political fracas, telling me that weekend on the yacht that he had talked to Mr. Trump and Ms. Meloni “in the last couple of weeks.”

“I listened to ’em both,” he said, speaking in his heavy Texas twang. “And they both make sense to me.”

A crowded sandy beach with colorful umbrellas on the sand and people in the blue water. A large white yacht is visible in the distant ocean. — Mr. Fertitta’s yacht off the coast of Cefalù, Sicily.

Mr. Fertitta and Daniele Tumminello, the mayor of Cefalù, both wearing light-colored suits as they shake hands and smile. They stand by water, with a town and mountains behind them. — Mr. Fertitta meeting Daniele Tumminello, the mayor of Cefalù, where some of his ancestors lived.

The president is “upset with Giorgia Meloni,” Mr. Fertitta conceded in the 90-minute interview as he spread his arms across the back of a large couch and rested his white-socked feet on a coffee table. “And so he lets the world know it.”

“It doesn’t affect my relationship or the American-Italian relationship,” he added.

There are those who feel Mr. Fertitta is not practicing much diplomacy during the worst public feud between American and Italian leaders in living memory. Mr. Trump is furious at Italy’s decision not to support the war in Iran, and Ms. Meloni has lashed out at Mr. Trump, saying he picked a fight with the pope.

“It sounds like something that comes from a movie, from an Italian comedy, like the guy who wants to cruise around the coast,” said Michele Masneri, a novelist and columnist at Il Foglio, an independent newspaper. “The job of an American ambassador, I’d say, is like 60 percent being a high-scale tourist,” Mr. Masneri added.

His sailing has also attracted criticism for its cost to the Italian state. An opposition lawmaker has called for a government inquiry into how much Italy is spending on providing a police escort to secure the yacht. The Italian government declined to comment.

Mr. Fertitta, the owner of a restaurant and casino empire as well as the Houston Rockets basketball team, says it is all worth it.

“How many people ever get to come on a boat like this?” Mr. Fertitta said of Boardwalk, the sixth yacht that he has given that name. “People love successful people. Everybody wants to be successful. And anybody who says they don’t is just lying to you.”

The way Mr. Fertitta sees it, giving Italians a glimpse of how the 0.1 percent live helps to make the kind of people-to-people connections that ambassadors are supposed to foster. Even if — or perhaps especially if — relations between the leaders of his home country and his host nation have deteriorated.

By and large, though, the guests he hosts aboard the yacht come from a narrow band of Italian society. The mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, attended a reception on the yacht last month. “The people I met on the ship,” he said, “were the people who represent the city’s ruling class.”

A group of people stand behind a metal barrier, some of them in hats and sunglasses. Some hold camera phones aloft. A police officer stands to the left. — Onlookers watching the visit.

People in suits walk down steps to a sandy beach. Many people in swimwear relax on the sand, some holding up phones. — Mr. Fertitta on a tour of Cefalù.

Mariangela Zappia, Italy’s former ambassador to the United States, said she saw value in Mr. Fertitta’s approach because the yacht tour relegated the personal agita between the two leaders to “the background.” Mr. Fertitta, she said, can “demonstrate village by village, port by port, that this relationship is in fact very lively and thriving.”

Mr. Fertitta was not specific about how often he spoke to Italian officials, but Antonio Tajani, Italy’s foreign minister, said in a statement that the ambassador had helped “when we need to understand something.”

A Bipartisan Political Donor

Even among politically appointed ambassadors, who are often selected in part as a reward for campaign donations, Mr. Fertitta stands out.

Based on Forbes’s billionaire rankings, which estimate his worth at $11.1 billion, he is by far the richest envoy appointed by the Trump administration. When he first arrived in Rome last summer, Mr. Fertitta said, he spent about $3 million of his own money renovating the private living spaces at Villa Taverna, the official residence of the U.S. ambassador.

Although he identifies as conservative, he is a political chameleon who has donated to both major parties, sometimes during the same electoral cycle. Recently, he has generally given more to Republicans, but he hosted fund-raisers at his Houston home in the 1990s for President Bill Clinton and calls the Democratic senator Mark Kelly a friend.

In the run-up to the 2024 race, he donated $13,200 to President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s re-election campaign and gave roughly $500,000 to Mr. Trump’s political action committees, according to public filings.

He explained that rather than hewing to strict partisan affiliations, he is “a loyal American.”

Mr. Fertitta and with Lauren Fertitta, his wife, on a curved gray sofa. A small dog stands next to Mr. Fertitta, whose arms are stretched across the back of the sofa. — Mr. Fertitta and his wife, Lauren Fertitta, aboard the yacht. Ms. Fertitta spotted the village of Acciaroli, prompting the family to land there on short notice.

A small swimming pool on the deck of a boat. — A swimming pool and a hot tub on the $450 million superyacht.

A narrow coffee table between two curved banks of cushioned seats covered in throw pillows, underneath a low ceiling with decorative lighting. — A seating area on the 384-foot, six-deck yacht.

In a nod to the flexibility of his politics, Mr. Fertitta said that Italian officials were “smart enough to know” that they would not necessarily have to deal with Mr. Trump forever. “Just because one president and one administration wants to do things one way, that doesn’t mean that two and a half years from now another president isn’t going to do things different,” he said.

Indeed, Mr. Fertitta first started to muse about the ambassadorship to Italy while raising money for Mr. Clinton, he said.

At the time, though, Mr. Fertitta was too busy trying to expand his business, he said. Several of his associates in Houston said that even this time around, they did not expect him to actually want the job.

John Whitmire, the Democratic mayor of Houston, called Mr. Fertitta “as big a name as we’ve got in Houston in terms of networking” and said he was surprised Mr. Fertitta wanted to leave his business empire for the job in Rome. Now, though, “I think he’s enjoying the importance of the job of the ambassador,” Mr. Whitmire said.

Mr. Fertitta’s great-grandparents emigrated from Sicily more than 130 years ago, and he has for years tried to maintain a relationship with the country. In 2021, he tried to buy A.C. Milan, an Italian soccer team once owned by Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister who died in 2023. Mr. Fertitta’s bid was roughly $200 million short of the winning offer. “Because I was stupid,” he said.

Italy was the only country he would consider for a diplomatic posting, he said, although he does not speak the language. At an Independence Day party at the ambassador’s residence in Rome this summer, he had trouble pronouncing the names of some of the cabinet ministers whom he introduced as friends when they joined him onstage.

The Sailor-Ambassador

Mr. Fertitta’s maritime itinerary is sometimes determined as much by whim as by diplomacy, scrambling the Italian police escorts that accompany him.

While sailing toward Sicily, he and his wife, Lauren Fertitta, spotted the village of Acciaroli in Campania. “I said, Look at this cute little town,” Mr. Fertitta recalled. “Let’s stop there.”

Several people on a small white boat, wearing sunglasses. A large white yacht is in the distance. — Mr. Fertitta and members of his family and crew rode a speedboat to his yacht.

A police officer in a dark uniform and white cap stands next to a black police car. White buildings, a beach and green hills are in the background. — A police officer in Cefalù waited for Mr. Fertitta’s arrival. An Italian lawmaker has called for a government inquiry into how much Italy is spending to secure the ambassador’s trip.

The mayor of Acciaroli, Stefano Pisani, said the consulate in Naples gave him about 15 minutes to prepare for the ambassador’s impromptu visit. Despite the short notice, the mayor was delighted to help, taking the ambassador on a three-hour tour and hosting him for a meal.

Such visits can feel like the arrival of a small expeditionary force.

On July 4, with more notice, Boardwalk anchored outside the storied port of Cefalù, Sicily. Mr. Fertitta’s entourage motored in on two skiffs, including his wife, his youngest daughter, two of his adult sons and a group of friends, Italian security agents and yacht staff members.

Curious bystanders, standing knee-deep in the water to snap photos, did not seem to know who Mr. Fertitta was, although one man raised his fist in the air and said, “Viva Trump!”

Dressed in a linen shirt and formal sneakers, Mr. Fertitta joined the Cefalù mayor for a walk through the city, where his great-grandfather lived before setting sail in 1887 for the United States.

At City Hall, Mr. Fertitta presented Italian editions of his book, “Shut Up and Listen!,” to the mayor, met with more than 15 distant relatives, posed for photos and hailed “truly one of the most special days I’ve ever had.” Giuseppe Marciante, the bishop of Cefalù, showed Mr. Fertitta marriage registries that traced his family ties to the city to the 16th century.

Later, the ambassador presented the bishop with an engraved silver dish. “This has my name on it,” he said. “I don’t want you to forget me.”

Mr. Fertitta holding a framed document as a man in a green, white and red sash points to it. A red banner, a crucifix and other people are in the background. — At Cefalù’s City Hall, Mr. Fertitta hailed “truly one of the most special days I’ve ever had.”

The ambassador presenting Giuseppe Marciante, the bishop of Cefalù, with an engraved silver dish.

Back on the yacht, I asked him if he was having fun in his job.

He looked puzzled. “I don’t really look at anything as fun,” he said. Still, he added, “It’s a very enjoyable job.”

In fact, he said, he would consider returning to Italy as ambassador for a second term, even under a different administration.

“It wouldn’t matter to me who the president was,” he said.

Still, he said, he had “no desire” to run for elected office himself. “Because there’s no job that I could hold and I could be on this boat,” he said.

Green trees and houses with orange roofs along the sea. A large white yacht is on the water. — Mr. Fertitta’s yacht off the coast of Sicily.

TINY NATIONS OFFER CITIZENSHIP!

E.U. tells Caribbean nations: Stop selling citizenship or we’ll require visas

The bloc is giving five nations two years to phase out citizenship by investment or lose visa-free travel to the 29-country Schengen area.

July 18, 2026 at 5:00 a.m. EDTToday at 5:00 a.m. EDT

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Basseterre Bay in Saint Kitts and Nevis. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group/

The European Union is giving five nations in the Eastern Caribbean two years to end their lucrative citizenship-by-investment programs or lose visa-free travel to the bloc, their leaders say.

The nations — Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia — generate significant revenue through their programs. Foreigners who invest in their economies, buy real estate or pay their governments directly gain passports that allow visa-free travel to more than 140 countries and territories, including much of Europe. Costs begin at $200,000.

Each of the five received a letter from Brussels last month advising that new E.U. rules make the existence of such programs grounds for suspending visa-free access, according to the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States. The bloc gave them until June 1, 2028, to phase out their programs.

Their prime ministers are coordinating a “collective response,” they said in a statement. After meeting last week in Dominica, they are planning “a high-level mission to Brussels” at the “earliest appropriate opportunity” to meet with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa and other senior E.U. officials.

E.U. officials did not respond to requests for comment. The bloc has long been wary of citizenship-by-investment programs. Critics say insufficient vetting of applicants can enable money laundering and terrorist financing and increase the risks of identity fraud and illegal immigration.

Several E.U. member states offer residence-by-investment programs that can lead to citizenship. President Donald Trump last year introduced a $1 million “Trump gold card” promising a direct path to U.S. citizenship within weeks “for all qualified and vetted people.” (As of May, one person had been approved, the Department of Homeland Security said in a legal filing.)

“Investment migration is a well-established global practice, not a Caribbean peculiarity,” Didacus Jules, director general of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, told The Washington Post. “More than half of the world’s states offer some form of access to residence or citizenship through investment.”

The European Commission acknowledged in December that the five nations had taken steps “to strengthen due diligence and information-sharing,” but said the programs “continue to raise concerns due to high volumes, short processing times and low rejection rates.”

Together, the five have issued more than 100,000 passports, according to the commission. Prospective citizens generally are not required to be present in the country to apply; only Antigua and Barbuda requires them to ever visit. Passports are typically issued within a year, and rejection rates are typically in the single digits.

Such programs have long suffered a “bad image,” said Jean‑François Harvey, an attorney whose multinational firm specializes in business immigration.

Harvey Law Group serves more than 100 clients seeking Caribbean citizenship each year. Some want to live there, Harvey said, “but the vast majority … want a second citizenship for estate and tax planning, and for safety.”

Hugh Jorgensen, program lead for corrupt money flows at Transparency International, said such programs can also be exploited by criminals. The main risk, he said, is that “what is being sold is not the actual citizenship in the country itself, it’s what the citizenship offers in getting access to other countries.”

Citizens of the five nations enjoy visa-free travel to the Schengen area, which includes 25 of the 27 E.U. member states. The majority of applicants to at least four of the five in 2024 came from countries for whom the bloc requires visas (Grenada released only partial data), the commission reported. They included China, Syria, Iraq and Nigeria.

Criminals can use citizenship by investment to “launder their proceeds in these countries, or simply escape their own jurisdiction where they are facing criminal charges or at risk being arrested,” Jorgensen said.

“Many countries have tried these in the past and brought them to a conclusion because it’s not worth the risk,” he said. “This is not a long-term economic solution.”

Harvey said his firm turns away applicants who have undisclosed criminal convictions or are unable to explain the source of their funds. “At least a dozen times a year, we refuse clients because we’re not comfortable representing them,” he said. “Sometimes, clients have a bad profile.”

Jules of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States defended the integrity of the five nations’ programs.

“Investment migration, in its various forms, is a widespread and legitimate instrument of economic policy,” he said in written responses to The Post’s questions. The region’s programs “are distinguished less by what they offer than by their fiscal significance for small island developing states — and, increasingly, by the depth of the regulatory architecture that governs them.”

He noted that citizenship by investment in the Eastern Caribbean predates the visa deal with the Schengen area. The programs were established, he said, “as sovereign economic development tools to attract investment, diversify economies, and generate non-tax revenue. Visa-free access has enhanced their attractiveness, but it is not the foundation upon which they were built.”

Revenue from the programs made up an average of about 6.5 percent to the nations’ gross domestic product between 2019 and 2023, according to the International Monetary Fund. Dominica’s program generated more than 30 percent of its GDP in 2022.

ANOTHER GOVERNMENT PROJECT WASTING MILLIONS AND NOBODY IS IN JAIL!

Unfinished mortars seen lined up before being painted© Aimee Dilger/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

A Pentagon watchdog report found that in the roughly two years since it was built, an ammunition plant in Mesquite, Texas, has not produced any parts for 155mm artillery rounds, hindering the Army’s goal to help backfill stocks of ammunition provided to Ukraine after Russia invaded in 2022.

In a report released Monday, the Defense Department inspector general found that as of March 2026, the plant had not produced any metal projectile parts that met the specifications laid out in the contract and the “the Army’s expenditure of $469 million to establish the Mesquite facility could have been used to address other Army or [Department of Defense] priorities.”

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Over the past four years, the Pentagon depleted its inventory of 155mm artillery by 3.6 million rounds, according to the report. The report does not note how many rounds are in the stockpile.

More than 3 million rounds were given to Ukraine through weapons packages committed by the Biden administration. Roughly 112,000 rounds were used for training and testing, and another 218,000 were sold to other countries.

Based on the consumption in Ukraine and anticipated foreign military sales, the Army in 2024 set a goal to ramp up production of 155mm artillery from 14,000 rounds per month to 100,000 by Oct. 2025 and invested in the Mesquite plant in Texas to help produce specific parts.

That plant, which is operated by General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, opened in May 2024.

As of March 2026, the Army was producing about 36,000 rounds per month, still far short of the 100,000 goal, in part because the facility in Mesquite failed to produce any of the 30,000 projectile metal parts it was expected to make each month, according to the report.

An Army spokesperson confirmed to CBS News this is still accurate as of this month.

In a statement, a spokesperson for General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems said “GDOTS and our U.S. Army customers have reached an agreement on a path forward for the Mesquite facility, which includes additional GDOTS investment to complete the project.”

According to the report, officials involved with the Army’s ammunition program said that with only three facilities producing the required projectile metal parts, the Pentagon will “reach only 71,000 rounds per month, or 71 percent of its monthly production capacity goal” by September 2026.

The gap, the report concluded, occurred because Army officials “accepted the risk” with the contractor’s plan to procure equipment which had not been tested. According to a timeline in the report, the Army contracting office requested the plant stop work in Aug. 2025 while the government evaluated if it could meet its obligations and work to resolve the production issues.

The demand for artillery has diminished somewhat, since the war in Ukraine has altered its approach and is now more reliant on drone warfare, rather than the trench fighting of a few years ago. Still, the initial expenditure rate highlighted issues with the defense industrial base’s ability to produce weapons quickly.

Recently, there have been concerns about the more expensive and technologically advanced weapons, like interceptors for Patriot air defense systems and Tomahawk missiles, that have been used in the war with Iran. The Pentagon this year asked for more than $70 billion in its budget to help procure missiles and related equipment, a nearly three-fold increase compared to last year.

SOCIALISM ALWAYS BECOMES COMMUNISM, AND IT NEVER WORKED; INVENTED BY AN UNEMPLOYED GERMAN LOSER NAMED KARL MARX

Socialism is Always a Move Towards Communism — with the Same Results

Communism and socialism have terrible records.

Tragically, we face today burgeoning support for socialism, largely because the U.S. socialist-inspired public schools have intentionally avoided teaching the system’s evil ways and disastrous results everywhere on earth it’s ever been attempted. As red flags go, they don’t come much bigger. Or redder.

I have a long-time family friend, who should know better. He’s a lifelong business journalist who even for a while wrote for the conservative Wall Street Journal. Nevertheless, my buddy insists “socialism” is quite different from communism, and that in fact many socialist countries, such as in Scandinavia, are quite happy with the “benefits” of socialism.

He may be right that many people are happy in Sweden, whose major political party is the Swedish Social Democratic Party. But the happy faces in Sweden and its Scandinavian neighbors can be explained by the fact that many people find pleasure in receiving benefits paid for by other people. As U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher so coyly noted in 1976 before she became prime minister, “The problem with socialism is that eventually they run out of other people’s money.”

The difference between those happy-faced socialists and actual communists is just a matter of degree. As those benefiting from seizing other people’s wealth and income taste the fruits of their government-enabled theft, their appetite only grows for more. When was the last time you heard a socialist demanding less of other people’s money?

As Karl Marx, the unemployed German who came up with the idea of communism, spelled out in detail in his Das Kapital, Communist Manifesto, and other writings, socialism is not a goal. It is an essential step toward the goal.

That means even those enjoying short-term benefits by living off the sweat of others, in fact are nudging their nations closer and closer to the communist goal, whether they realize it or not. Today’s socialist is tomorrow’s communist; that’s the plan. Don’t think otherwise.

Vladimir I. Lenin, who in 1917 established the planet’s first socialist state in Russia, said the international movement to bring communism to all nations is aided and abetted by what even his followers apocryphally called “useful idiots.” That describes people who don’t see beyond their immediate conditions and don’t realize the path they trod is intended to take them to communist Utopia.

Advocates for socialism excuse the failure of Russia’s 70-year experiment with socialism by claiming it failed only because it wasn’t done right. Or done enough.

The lesson they claim to have learned is that if we just do it right, the more of it we do, the better will be the outcome.

Again, this excuse plays well among people who enjoy living off wages earned by other people. The late American economist Walter E. Williams wrote that legalizing theft doesn’t make it right. It just makes it legal.

Thatcher no doubt agreed with Williams when he wrote, “I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn. Do you disagree? Well then tell me how much of what I earn belongs to you — and why?”

Whatever their motive, today’s advocates for socialism, wittingly or unwittingly, lead directly to what Lenin and Marx said is necessary to achieve communist utopia.

Find me a socialist who wants less socialism. Find an advocate for socializing anything for the government to pay for and you will find an advocate for more. It’s habit-forming. Maybe someone else can find an exception, but in the history of governments that have adopted socialist tactics, I’ve found that they always grow. Never shrink. At least until they go broke.

Only when governments teeter on the brink of bankruptcy do they entertain suggestions that perhaps they should scale back their socialism. Many are reluctant to trim the socialist sails even when it’s apparent that they have become fiscally untenable. Examples include communist China, Great Britain, and any number of impoverished third world states.

If economic reality isn’t enough to dissuade our current gaggle of socialist wannabes, perhaps they should turn their attention to the brute force, often brutal force, that socialist governments inevitably resort to.

It’s not likely that most of today’s useful idiots even consider Nazi Germany to have been socialist. They seem to have missed the Second World War. How they did that is probably no mystery, even though it was in all the newspapers. But honest portrayals are increasingly rare in America’s socialist-endorsing public school system.

The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazis) was as socialistic as Joseph Stalin’s Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Same economic scheme of taking money that belongs to someone else to give to people it doesn’t belong to – after the state takes its entirely arbitrary cut. Same authoritarian thuggery. Germany’s flavor of socialism was national. Russia’s had worldwide ambitions.

It should be obvious from the outside that socialist nations must resort to force or the threat of force to raise the money they want, which may include giving the masses some degree of economic improvement. But tragically, many in socialist nations don’t realize what that force looks like until the government begins to apply it in earnest to take their wealth and ensure their compliance with the glut of myriad rules and regulations inherent in controlling large populations’ every economic move.

But even Stalin couldn’t steal enough from the Russian breadbasket of Ukraine to feed Moscow’s favored residents and other preferred populations. As he stole ever more, he killed or sent to Siberia anyone who resisted. The Holodomor, a catastrophic famine, resulted in from 3 million to 11 million deaths from 1932-1933. Most knowledgeable claims estimate about 4 million Ukrainians starved to death, including families cannibalizing their dead kin. The USSR’s secret police, the NKVD, recorded cases of cannibalization, which was a crime. But Western researchers found that the government had covered up the actual numbers. Again, that’s standard operating procedure for authoritarian governments who don’t share the ugliest sides of their socialist enforcements.

If socialism has one unifying trait it is that governments practicing it must resort to such authoritarian diktats to enforce what most people recognize as the unjust redistribution of private wealth.

It’s also instructive that in every socialist society, the people in charge always live much higher on the hog than do the masses. As British author George Orwell, who was a disillusioned wanna-be socialist, noted in his book Animal Farm, “All animals are equal,” in the eyes of the government, “but some animals are more equal than others.”

Our nation’s current most popular socialist, Bernie Sanders, the senator from Vermont, garnered headlines by calling for outlawing millionaires and billionaires. Since becoming a millionaire, however, Sanders has modified his demand and now insists that only billionaires be eliminated. On his $174,000 annual Senate salary, Sanders’ net worth is $3 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. He owns two houses with a combined value of about $1 million, according to Yahoo! Finance, and a third home he sold in 2021 for $422,000, $40,000 less than he paid for it 14 years earlier.

If all this doesn’t discourage chasing socialist utopia (which happens to be communism), consider this: In the 20th century, communist countries which claimed to practice communism-lite, a.k.a., socialism, killed more than 100 million of their own people.

Those weren’t people killed fighting foreign wars. Those were citizens of their own countries who opposed the socialism imposed on them. You could look it up in the Black Book on Communism, which documents the horrific history of socialist and communist China, Germany, Russia and all the rest.

PRESIDENT TRUMP RELEASES HIS 2025 INCOME!!!

Trump’s annual financial disclosure shows more than $580M in crypto-related income

Key Points

President Donald Trump’s annual financial disclosure report was released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
Trump’s crypto-related income included about $515 million from the sale of tokens released by World Liberty Financial, and $65 million from sales of equity in WLF’s holding company.
Trump disclosed he received $635 million in royalties from “Celebration Coins.”
The president reported more than $290 million in income from golf and club properties.
The ethics office also released Vice President JD Vance’s annual disclosure, which totaled 17 pages, compared to 927 pages for Trump.

President Trump raked in at least $2 billion in 2025

President Donald Trump’s annual financial disclosure report was released on Tuesday by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, revealing income of hundreds of millions of dollars from proceeds of crypto tokens and holdings of hundreds of individual company stocks.

Trump’s disclosure report for 2025, which was the first year of his second non-consecutive term in the White House, totals 927 pages.

The report reveals that Trump’s crypto-related income included about $515 million from the sale of tokens released by the firm World Liberty Financial, and $65 million from sales of equity in WLF’s holding company.

WLF is the Trump-linked crypto company co-founded by members of his family that issues the WLFI governance token and USD1 stablecoin.

Trump, who first made his name in business with real estate developments in New York, also disclosed that he received $635 million in royalties from what were described as “Celebration Coins.” It was not immediately clear what those coins are. The Bloomberg news service reported that the royalties were related to CIC Digital LLC, Trump’s memecoin business.

Trump’s golf and club properties continued to generate major revenue, according to the disclosure.

The president reported more than $290 million in income related to revenue from his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, his Trump National Doral golf property, his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, his Jupiter Golf Club and Trump National Washington, D.C.

One of the largest bursts of stock buying by Trump detailed in the disclosure occurred on Aug. 18, 2025.

The document shows three successive purchases of some of the biggest names in technology — Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia — with each trade valued at between $5 million and $25 million. The values of Trump’s holdings are given in dollar ranges, not in absolute amounts, as is normal for U.S. government ethics filings.

The trades were among the largest individual stock transactions in the disclosure.

The Nvidia purchase came exactly one week after Trump announced that Nvidia and AMD had agreed to give the U.S. government 15% of their H20 chip sales to China in exchange for export approval. That deal reopened a key China revenue stream for Nvidia.

Apple also announced an additional $100 billion in U.S. investment on Aug. 6, bringing its total planned U.S. commitment to $600 billion.

The filing also shows that Trump purchased Amazon stock worth between $500,000 and $1 million on Sept. 23. That was the same day a trial began in Seattle federal court for a lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission, which alleged Amazon duped customers into paying for Prime memberships.

The trial ended two days later after Amazon agreed to settle the suit by paying a $1 billion civil penalty to the FTC and refunds totaling $1.5 billion to an estimated 35 million customers.

Trump also reported receiving a total of more than $86 million in settlements of legal disputes from media companies including ABC, CBS, Meta, YouTube and X.

The massive filing is peppered with eye-opening assets, some of which are highly valued.

One line, on page 157, discloses an investment in gold bars valued at between $500,000 and $1 million.

Trump also disclosed receiving gifts totaling more than $370,000, primarily tickets to sports events.

They included 10 tickets to the FIFA men’s World Cup worth $15,000 from FIFA President Gianni Infantino, 10 Super Bowl LIX tickets from New Orleans Saints owner Gayle Benson, 15 tickets each to two UFC events from UFC CEO Dana White as well as tickets to other NFL, MLB, NCAA and golf events.

He disclosed that a statue from Sticker Mule CEO Anthony Constantino depicting Trump with his fist raised after an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, was worth $250,000.

The disclosure also reveals a bevy of royalty deals that paint a picture of just how exhaustively Trump has been able to capitalize on his name and political brand since entering political life.

The royalty income includes: $4.7 million received through a licensing agreement for “Trump Watches” with The Best Watches on Earth LLC; a deal related to the publication of “The Greenwood Bible,” a collaboration with “God Bless the USA” singer Lee Greenwood, netting $208,486; a licensing deal for “Trump Sneakers & Fragrances” for $67,634; an endorsement of a ”’45′ Guitar” for $35,920; and publishing agreements for “Letters to Trump,” “Save America” and “A MAGA Journey,” for $590,730, $1,893,965 and $552,685, respectively.

Another line item shows Trump received a $200,000 speaking fee for a fundraising event in Naples, Florida, in December 2022.

The disclosure says the income from the watches and the sneakers-and-fragrances deal was “inadvertently omitted from” Trump’s prior financial disclosure, as was the balance he was owed from the 2022 speaking event.

The president’s disclosed liabilities included civil trial verdict judgments in favor of the writer E. Jean Carroll, who had accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a New York City department store in the mid-1990s, and of defaming her after she went public with those allegations in 2019. The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear Trump’s appeal of a jury verdict awarding Carroll $5 million for sexually abusing and defaming her.

Trump is still appealing another jury’s verdict, which awarded Carroll $83.3 million in that case for defamation. Trump denies sexually assaulting Carroll.

The disclosure also includes asset and income information for first lady Melania Trump — including $10.7 million in net proceeds through a license agreement related to her self-titled documentary film, “Melania.”

A separate license agreement with the film’s publisher, Skyhorse, netted her an additional $521,161 in income.

Melania Trump also reported $6,011,259 in income from a separate license agreement “for the sale of NFTs and other collectibles,” the form shows.

Trump’s annual disclosure was filed after he received a 45-day extension and does not appear to have triggered a late fee for the annual report itself.

But the filing says he paid late filing fees for transactions that had not previously been reported on required periodic transaction reports. The disclosure does not specify the total amount paid. The Office of Government Ethics’ standard late filing fee is $200.

The ethics office also released the annual financial disclosure report of Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday.

Vance’s report is a mere 17 pages.

The vice president’s report details earnings from his book, the firm Narya Capital, which he founded, the Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, where he had served as managing partner, and bitcoin holdings valued at between $250,000 and $500,000.