Far-left Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state has admitted to undermining the embargo against Cuba, which some interpreted as a serious criminal violation.

The Trump administration has forbidden oil tanker shipments to the Communist-ruled island after the daring military arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro in early January.

She called the humanitarian situation in Cuba a ‘crisis beyond imagination’ due to the US embargo.

Jayapal admitted that she attempted to orchestrate oil shipments despite the embargo while on a congressional delegation to Cuba.

“As many of you know, I traveled to Cuba as part of a congressional delegation last month,” she said during remarks in Seattle recently. “It is part of my role to see how U.S. foreign policy is actually affecting the people in the countries where that policy is being implemented.”

She called the humanitarian situation in Cuba a “crisis beyond imagination” due to the U.S. embargo.

“I was in conversations with the ambassadors from Mexico and some other places … trying to figure out how to get oil there,” Jayapal said after returning to the U.S.

She went on to say she met with various political officials, including Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

When her comments went viral on social media and many accused her of violating U.S. law, she replied by justifying her actions.

“Breaking news: Members of Congress meet with ambassadors of other countries every day. That’s literally our right and responsibility,” Jayapal wrote sarcastically.

She has not been charged or investigated over the accusations.

RELATED: Democratic Rep. calls for ‘reparations’ for migrant kids separated from families at the border

Some suggested she was violating the Logan Act, a 1799 restriction against U.S. citizens negotiating with foreign countries that are in conflict with the U.S.

Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy said that prosecuting Jayapal under the Logan Act was unlikely and that she should face political accountability instead.

“There has never been a conviction under it — in fact, there have only been two indictments, the last one about 174 years ago,” he told Fox News Digital.

“There would be no criminal case,” he added, “unless it can be shown that she took some action that violated, or aided and abetted a violation of, the sanctions.”

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​Rep. pramila jayapal, Logan act violation, Us embargo on cuba, Woke squad member, Politics 

Jia Bei Zhu, the Chinese national linked both to the secret California biolab discovered in 2022 and the biolab discovered earlier this year in Las Vegas, is finally reaping the whirlwind for his crimes on American soil.

The Justice Department announced on Wednesday that a jury has convicted Zhu on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, eight counts of substantive wire fraud, two counts of distributing adulterated and misbranded medical devices, and one count of making a false statement to the Food and Drug Administration.

‘He flouted the lawful authority of the FDA and deliberately deceived the public.’

While he now faces the possibility of decades in prison, Zhu has evaded justice for at least a decade.

The British Columbia Supreme Court determined in 2016 that Zhu and several companies he controlled had conspired to steal confidential technology from a Colorado-based company, partly with the intention to sell said technology in China.

Facing over $270 million in damages and prison time, the IP-stealing fraudster fled Canada in 2015, then entered the United States — “unlawfully,” according to the DOJ — where he continued to rip off Americans.

The jury in the Chinaman’s latest trial was presented with evidence that, once stateside, Zhu founded a company in California with his romantic partner, Zhaoyan Wang, called Universal Meditech Inc.

With the help of employees hired through the Fresno County Economic Development Corporation who “would not ask any questions,” Zhu, Wang, and others at UMI conspired from August 2020 through March 2023 to import faulty COVID tests from China — the origin of the disease — then sell those faulty tests to Americans based on numerous false representations, prosecutors claimed.

RELATED: CCP BLOCKS $2 billion American takeover of Chinese-founded AI company

Las Vegas Metro Police Department footage screenshots

They falsely claimed that the tests were authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, were made in the U.S., were made in connection with a certified medical lab, and worked.

Zhu managed to rake in nearly $4 million selling over 1 million malfunctioning COVID tests.

According to the DOJ, Wang was charged in connection with the scheme but evaded arrest by fleeing to China.

Zhu’s scheme first came to light when one of his victims filed a civil lawsuit in 2022, prompting an inspection of UMI’s Fresno facility — an inspection which the DOJ said not only demonstrated UMI’s inability to properly manufacture COVID tests but proved the company to be nothing more than “an unsanitary warehouse that was far below established quality standards for facilities that house medical devices.”

Once again, Zhu attempted to escape justice, moving UMI from Fresno to Reedley and changing its name to Prestige Biotech Inc.

When the FDA began investigating him, Zhu lied about his immigration status and identity, claiming to be Qiang “David” He. Zhu also said he knew nothing about UMI or PBI.

The discovery of Zhu’s Reedley biolab in early 2023 ushered in the end of the Chinaman’s years-long grift.

Months after a code enforcement officer noticed a hose sticking out of a supposedly vacant warehouse in the heart of Reedley — a clear violation of the municipality’s building code — local officials executed a search warrant on March 16, 2023.

Inside, they found lab equipment, trace narcotics, roughly 1,000 mice that were genetically engineered to mimic the human immune system, and faulty medical devices subject to an FDA health embargo along with “blood, tissue, and other bodily fluid samples and serums; and thousands of vials of unlabeled fluids and suspected biological material,” according to a congressional report.

Zhu was arrested on Oct. 19, 2023.

While in custody, police raided another one of the Chinese national’s properties, this time a Las Vegas residence managed by an Israeli national currently in the U.S. on an E-2 visa. The FBI said more lab equipment was discovered at the scene, including a “bio-safety hood, a bio-safety sticker, a centrifuge, multiple refrigerators, red-brown unknown liquids in gallon-sized containers, and refrigerated vials with unknown liquids.”

Eric Grant, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, said that the verdict in Zhu’s case “holds the defendant accountable for actions that exploited a public health crisis for his own gain. He flouted the lawful authority of the FDA and deliberately deceived the public by repackaging low-quality, foreign-made test kits at a time when accuracy and reliability were critical.”

Grant added, “This conduct, tied to the unlawful operations uncovered at the Reedley laboratory, put lives at risk.”

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party has confirmed that Zhu is a Chinese citizen associated with communist regime-linked companies as well as with Chinese military-civil fusion entities.

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​China, Chinese communist party, Chinese national, Covid tests, Fda, Food and drug administration, Fresno county, Immigration status, Jia bei zhu, Justice department, Las vegas, Medical devices, Wire fraud, Zhu, Public health crisis, Communist, Chinese, Reedley, Biolab, California, Radical, Fugitive, Politics 

The powerful Virginia Democrat at the center of a federal raid operation issued a defiant statement accusing the Trump administration of political persecution.

Numerous law enforcement vehicles were seen outside the dispensary owned by Democrat state Senate President pro tempore Louise Lucas as well as her offices in Portsmouth on Wednesday.

Many outlets reported that the investigation related to political corruption allegations as well as the possible sale of illegal marijuana products.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said only that agents were serving a “court-authorized search warrant.”

Lucas has not been charged but issued a statement posted to social media.

“I am not backing down, and I will keep fighting for the people of Portsmouth and the Commonwealth of Virginia,” the 82-year-old said.

“What we saw fits a clear pattern from this administration: when challenged, they try to intimidate and silence the voices who stand up to them,” Lucas added in part.

“I have never been afraid to stand up to Donald Trump or anyone else that has tried to undermine our democracy.”

Many outlets reported that the investigation related to political corruption allegations as well as the possible sale of illegal marijuana products.

Lucas opened the Cannabis Outlet near her offices in 2021. The shop sells CBD and hemp products.

She also implied that the raids were political payback for her support of a redistricting effort in order to boost Democrats’ control of the U.S. Congress. The referendum is in legal limbo after being challenged in court.

Contrary to her assertion that the law enforcement action was politically motivated, the Associated Press reported that the investigation began under former President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Democrat Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger was asked whether she stood by the senator, but the governor offered only a vague statement.

RELATED: MASSIVE fed operation under way to CRUSH cartel’s ‘notorious open-air drug market’ in LA

“Well, certainly I am aware of the law enforcement action that occurred in Portsmouth, and I am awaiting more details to become public before weighing in with any strong public comment,” Spanberger said. “And as more information becomes available, I look forward to making further comment.”

Virginia House Speaker Don Scott (D) cautioned against hasty conclusions.

“Right now, there is far more theatrics and speculation than actual information available to the public,” Scott said.

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​Fbi raids, Marijuana dispensary, Top virginia democrat, Redistricting battle, Politics 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) is going all in on taxing the rich.

The governor recently proposed a new pied-à-terre tax as a matter of “fairness.” The tax, which would affect nonresident owners of high-end New York City properties, is a surprising reversal in support of a tax proposal by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D). Hochul had previously rejected the proposal.

While the rhetoric around this tax may resonate politically, the policy itself is a textbook case of how populist tax schemes can undermine investment, distort housing markets, and ultimately leave the city worse off.

Albany’s ingenuity in thinking up new modes of taxation is unparalleled.

“Those who benefit from the city without living in a full-time capacity should contribute to the costs that it takes to run the city: public safety, world-class parks, amenities, the roads, the subway system,” Hochul says in the video.

She continues, “I believe it will protect working New Yorkers and ensure that everyone who has an address in New York City is investing in its continued success.”

Hochul may be well attuned to the clamor of politics, but she is tone-deaf to sound economics.

Nonresident owners of New York City real estate already pay taxes — roughly $45,000 to $65,000 on a pied-à-terre with a market value of $5 million — while hardly benefiting from the public services their tax dollars fund. They also pay consumption-based taxes and fees when in New York City.

Nonresidents who own a business in the city also contribute revenue to the city budget.

The pied-à-terre tax has obvious defects in that it is arbitrary, distortionary, and status-dependent. It will likely lead to valuation challenges and maneuvers to keep properties below the $5 million threshold.

Applied only to nonresidents, it would create strong incentives to avoid the tax by altering residency status or otherwise manipulating the property title to obscure de facto property ownership.

For the most expensive real estate, the tax will lower property values — and thus property-tax liability — even though, certainly, “that effect gets distorted when the future tax burden on the property depends on the identity of the purchaser,” notes City Journal.

Taxing these nonresidents into calling New York City home is a poor welcome from the governor. Nevertheless, it suggests that her zeal to tax “New Yorkers,” unlike Mamdani’s, has subsided.

RELATED: Mamdani is moving from one failed promise to another

kena betancur/AFP/Getty Images

New York State already has the least competitive tax structure in the nation and the nation’s highest state and local tax collections per capita. From its “tax benefit recapture” provision to taxing many remote nonresidents under its “convenience of the employer” rule, Albany’s ingenuity in thinking up new modes of taxation is unparalleled.

The latest data shows that New York lost $9.9 billion in adjusted gross income (AGI) between 2022 and 2023 — a net loss of taxable income not readily evident from migration trends. Specifically, Manhattan, while gaining tax filers on net, lost $922 million in AGI.

In 2023, the top 1% (about 93,000 people) contributed roughly one-third of state tax revenue, supporting 20 million residents, according to Empire Center. With the nation’s third most progressive state tax system, New York has paved its own road to insolvency by chasing out high-net-worth taxpayers.

Sobered by plain budget facts, Hochul has begun pleading with wealthy New Yorkers to “go down to Palm Beach and see who you can bring back home.” She has opposed Mamdani’s “tax the rich” surtaxes on high-earning city residents and corporations, but not the city’s fiscal indulgence.

New York City spending has grown by more than 50% over the past decade — roughly 12% to 14% after inflation — even as the city’s population has declined slightly. This year, New York City’s spending is about $10 billion higher than that of the entire state of Florida.

Gov. Hochul misunderstands the core problem underlying the city’s fiscal plight. Rhetoric alone will not convince current and former wealthy New Yorkers that the state’s political leadership recognizes they have paid their fair share after all.

​Kathy hochul, New york governor, Property ownership, Taxation, Taxes, Taxing the rich, Economic disaster, New york city, Piedaterre tax, Opinion & analysis 

Britney Spears’ days of making surreal headlines appear to be far from over, as the pop icon has now pleaded out of a DUI charge — which has now been downgraded to a legally murky “wet reckless.”

The plea keeps Spears out of more serious trouble for now, but with a year of probation and restrictions on drug possession, BlazeTV hosts Stu Burguiere and Dave Landau aren’t convinced she’ll stay out of trouble.

“I would love to know what a ‘wet reckless’ is,” Dave comments.

“My understanding, Dave … is that it is basically a DUI except they don’t want to call it a DUI,” Stu explains.

A report from TMZ explains that there are “conditions to the plea,” which include her being “placed on 12 months’ probation” and “cannot possess drugs without a valid prescription.”

“Again, this could be a problem,” the article reads. “As we reported, Britney has gone to Mexico more than once to get Adderall.”

However, Dave points out that “technically, no one can do that.”

“I feel like it was just police officers screwing with TMZ because they know they don’t know anything about the law. Just like, ‘ Yeah, it’s a wet reckless,’ and she can’t have drugs without a prescription. No heroin without a prescription now for Britney,’” Stu jokes.

“Basically, everybody likes the videos of her half naked in her house juggling knives, so they don’t want to put her in jail,” Landau adds.

The pair also point out that it’s a little ridiculous for Spears to go all the way to Mexico to get Adderall.

“You really should just talk to your doctor and say that you need to focus. And if they don’t need proof, you could just show your entire life as being Britney Spears, and they might agree with you,” Landau jokes.

“Seriously, that’s not a real excuse. You don’t go to Mexico to get Adderall,” Stu agrees.

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​Adderall prescription, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Blazetv hosts, Britney spears, Dave landau, Drug possession, Dui, Dui arrest, Dui charge, Pop icon, Probation, Stu and dave do america, Stu burguiere, The blaze, Tmz report, Wet reckless 

A Florida mother is accused of kicking a youth football player on the field during a game, and she actually screamed, “I’m the one who got hit!” during her arrest.

Lee County Sheriff’s Office deputies on Saturday responded to the game at Brooks Park in Fort Myers after they “became aware of a large brawl located in the middle of the field,” NBC News reported, citing Detective Nicholas Cittadino’s arrest report.

‘They said you hit a kid!’

Parents ran onto the field to intervene, and a witness reported seeing a woman repeatedly kicking a juvenile male, NBC News said, citing the report.

The news network added that, according to the report, witnesses “quickly identified a white female who was leaving the area to have been a suspect of a battery on a juvenile.”

Renee Lynn Lambert, 34, was booked on suspicion of cruelty to a child without great bodily harm and resisting an officer, the news network said, citing the report.

The sheriff’s office identified Lambert as a “mother” who was “interfering with a Pop Warner youth football game and kicking a juvenile player.”

RELATED: Florida HS football coach of ‘significant size’ accused of fighting several students at once

Sheriff’s office bodycam video of Lambert’s arrest shows her arguing with deputies.

“So you’re mad at them for hitting me?” Lambert, dressed in a football jersey, asked.

“I’m mad at an adult for attacking a kid,” a male, presumably a deputy, responded. “Stop! You’re detained right now!”

“No, I’m not,” Lambert replied. “Goodbye.”

An apparent struggle ensued, and Lambert is heard on video hollering, “Get your hands off me! I’m the one who got hit!”

Lambert appeared to identify her attacker as a player wearing a No. 9 jersey.

“So where’s No. 9? Go get No. 9!” Lambert argued, presumably about one of the football players.

As Lambert is led away in handcuffs, the male speaking behind the bodycam video is heard telling her, “They said you hit a kid!”

But Lambert shot back, “And the kid hit me!”

RELATED: Brawl erupts after 200 ‘rowdy’ teens gather at shopping mall carnival; teen jumps on cop’s back, another elbows cop in head

The sheriff’s office said that while Lambert “claimed a child hit her with a helmet prompting her to fight back,” officials added that her claim “was later disproven.”

NBC News, citing the arrest report, said at least one witness, identified as Andre Valdes, backed up a player’s allegation that he was on the ground when Lambert kicked him in the leg.

The news network said Lambert couldn’t immediately be reached for comment at publicly listed phone numbers and email addresses associated with her.

RELATED: Parents of fighting students actually enter Philly HS and get physically involved in the fracas, forcing hour-long lockdown

Renee Lynn Lambert. Image source: Lee County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office

Lambert’s jail records indicate she was booked Saturday at 8:47 p.m. and released Sunday at 12:20 p.m.

There was no bond information, but her next hearing is scheduled for June 1, jail data shows.

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​Adult female attacks child, Arrest, Bodycam video, Cruelty to a child, Florida, Fort myers, Lee county sheriff’s office, Pop warner, Renee lynn lambert, Resisting arrest, Youth football game, Crime 

The actor famous for portraying a sci-fi hero cast himself as a villain with his latest anti-Trump post and got nailed with fierce backlash.

On Wednesday, Mark Hamill posted on BlueSky, the progressive social media platform, a denunciation of President Donald Trump with an image of the president lying in a grave.

‘This kind of rhetoric is exactly what has inspired three assassination attempts in two years against our President.’

“If Only — He should live long enough to witness his inevitable devastating loss in the midterms, be held accountable for his unprecedented corruption, impeached, convicted & humiliated for his countless crimes,” Hamill wrote.

“Long enough to realize he’ll be disgraced in the history books, forevermore,” the “Star Wars” actor added with the hashtag “Don the con.”

The image appeared to be an outdated death wish from 2024 and was immediately excoriated on social media.

“Mark Hamill is one sick individual. These Radical Left lunatics just can’t help themselves,” reads a statement from the White House Rapid Response team. “This kind of rhetoric is exactly what has inspired three assassination attempts in two years against our President.”

“I think Mark Hamill belongs in jail. He is using his notoriety to wish harm on the President. That only bolsters the crazed lunatics, who might act upon such a wish,” one user responded on the X platform.

“Damn in this photo Trump looks as dead as Mark Hamill’s career has been for the last 30 years,” another reply reads.

“He is a sick individual. So sad to see a movie hero turn into such an ugly soul,” another detractor said.

The tone-deaf post from Hamill comes at a time when Washington, D.C., is still reeling from an attempt on the president’s life at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and a shooting at the National Mall after the vice presidential motorcade drove by.

RELATED: George Lucas strikes back at woke critics of Star Wars

Hamill also recently appeared in a video with former President Barack Obama promoting his presidential library in Chicago.

“A Star Wars-themed ad for the Obama Library — a library which looks like a fragment of the Death Star,” one commentator joked.

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​Star wars actor mark hamill, Trump death wish, Actors vs trump, White house lashes out, Politics 

In our modern world, it is very common to conflate motives we do not understand with some form of mental illness. This is understandable when it comes to horrific crime. A serial killer is so violent and twisted that it is hard for us to comprehend his actions, and there is certainly a fair amount of mental illness that is a factor.

Today, however, people often use this explanation when it comes to political disagreements. Abortion, hatred of Christians, the mutilation of children — these beliefs are so horrible that they can only possibly be explained by a malfunctioning brain. But that is not the only explanation. The other option is that some people have a very different set of values that drive them to pursue goals we view as evil.

Our differences are not based on mental illness but fundamental beliefs about right and wrong.

The average American would like to avoid this truth, because it comes with an unnerving conclusion: Your political enemies are not crazy; they are sane people who hate you and want to hurt you.

As sophisticated and modern people, we tend to avoid language that implies some form of objective metaphysical truth. Evil is a concept that conjures up images of old churches, judgmental Sunday-school teachers, and medieval peasants trying to explain a drought.

We have the technology and understanding to explain everything in the world around us. Explanations that call on unseen forces or divine intervention are no longer required. In this thoroughly materialistic view, humans are simply animals with more sophisticated brains. Any undesirable behavior, therefore, can be understood as a malfunction of that brain.

There is no evil; there is only mental illness.

Modern Americans are universalists in a very strange sense. We assume that our values, beliefs, and customs are the default for all humans everywhere. Americans believe that all our assumptions about the way life ought to be lived are arrived at through individual human rationality, so if another person has a functioning brain, he will, of course, come to the same conclusion.

When we are confronted with someone who has very different understandings or goals, it is assumed that something has happened to his faculties of reason.

We try to argue with these people in hopes that rational debate will help them see the error of their ways. If debate does not work, we begin diagnosing the dissenting individual with all kinds of pathologies that explain why he doesn’t see the world the way we do. The explanation for divergent morals or goals is always a defective mental process, never a genuine difference in how we view the world.

The obsession with material explanations accounts for half of this phenomenon, but the other half is explained by our desperate need to avoid real conflict.

One of the major selling points of liberalism was the reduced need for violent conflict by removing existential questions from the political arena. Who is right about God? What is the ultimate good? To what end should we orient our society? These are all important but dangerous questions. The answers are exclusive and all-encompassing.

These are the things that people are willing to kill and die for, so better to make them off-limits and focus on something everyone can agree on — making more money and increasing the standard of living.

RELATED: The liberal guide to committing national suicide

Blaze Media Illustration

The desire to end the terrible wars that were fought over religion or identity is entirely understandable, and it is difficult to argue that the focus on economic cooperation did not produce significant benefits, but this was always a trade-off that could never last.

We may like to pretend that we are too advanced and sophisticated to get hung up on these primitive concerns, but under the surface, they continue to define us. Those conflicts do not disappear, and when they re-emerge, you have stripped your civilization of the tools needed to identify and address them, which is exactly what we are seeing now.

Americans no longer have the moral language to discuss good and evil, so they simply apply a clinical diagnosis to their opponents instead. Believing a radical leftist is mentally ill is far easier than addressing the alternative. If the progressive is a perfectly sane person and still wants to take your son if you do not chop off his genitals, then the calculus for what must be done changes radically.

Differences of opinion can be navigated as long as two parties share the same moral assumptions and the same goals. But if there is a fundamental difference in what is considered good or evil — if two groups seek radically opposed outcomes — then no amount of rational debate will ever resolve the core issue.

If our differences are not based on mental illness but fundamental beliefs about right and wrong, then a disturbing conclusion emerges. When rational debate is no longer an option, then the only solution left is the same one our unsophisticated ancestors came to for centuries — one group must win and the other must lose.

In the best scenario, this means an exercise of power from the winning side that allows it to rule over the other, forcing its way of life upon the defeated foe. In the worst scenario, this means violence and war until one side is no longer willing to fight to defend its way of life.

In either case, this is a return to an existential understanding of politics. The stakes are no longer higher taxes or lower taxes, but survival.

It should be said that mental illness is real and can be a factor in some political trends, but the idea that half of Americans are crazy because they do not share your political views is absurd. The truth is much darker: We are at least two societies, with mutually exclusive understandings of morality and purpose, trapped in one country.

The theoretical neutrality of the liberal system allowed this drift to occur under the surface, but the differences have become too extreme to ignore. Both sides have their own internally consistent understanding of the world, but they are entirely incompatible with each other.

One side is going to win, one side is going to lose, and the winning side is going to impose its way of life on the other. There is no way to avoid this reality, and obscuring the truth with comforting fictions about mental illness only ensures that you will be the side that loses.

​Mental illness, Political disagreements, Radical leftist, Americans, Good and evil, Liberalism, Politics, Political enemies, Opinion & analysis 

A newly released Department of Justice task force report is confirming concerns that religious Americans — particularly Christians — were unfairly targeted by their own government. And Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon has seen it herself.

“We’ve been compiling this stuff for a while now, and I experienced this type of anti-Christian and really anti-religious bias as a lawyer in private practice over the last several years,” Dhillon tells Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck on “The Glenn Beck Program.”

“I’ll just give you one example. Our government, not just the DOJ but, you know, various aspects of the government, viewed people seeking religious accommodations to not have to get the COVID vaccination if they were government employees as not legitimate,” she explains.

“They basically internally labeled all of those accommodation requests illegitimate,” she adds.

The Supreme Court Bostock ruling, Dhillon explains, “basically made it illegitimate for any person employed by the government to have a Christian viewpoint on gay marriage and issues like that, which are very much spiritual and religious in nature.”

“And so, there was just a complete lack of respect for the Christian,” she adds.

Dhillon explains that according to a FACE Act weaponization report, “disparaging remarks were made by DOJ prosecutors in [her] department” regarding “a magistrate judge being a Catholic, keeping people of faith off of juries, and going after and seeking sentences that were more than double for Christian protesters outside abortion clinics than for really domestic terrorists going after pro-life centers in Florida.”

“So these disparities were marked, they were open, they were written down in emails. And thank goodness that we have a president today who is not just dedicated to changing that but to also documenting what happened so that people should feel ashamed to do this to other people of faith in our country because our country is founded on faith,” she continues.

“And specifically,” she adds, “on the Christian faith.”

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​The glenn beck program, Abortion clinics, Antichristian bias, Assistant attorney general, Biden, Bostock ruling, Catholic, Christian protesters, Christian viewpoint, Christians, Covid vaccination, Department of justice, Domestic terrorists, Face act, Faith, Gay marriage, Harmeet dhillon, President, Prolife centers, Religious accommodations, Religious americans, Spiritual issues, Supreme court, Task force report, Weaponization report 

The Justice Department is holding the feet of a weak-on-crime Democratic prosecutor to the fire over an apparently discriminatory policy that requires special treatment for criminal noncitizens when making charging and plea decisions.

Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano, elected to office in 2019 with the help of backing from a pair of George Soros-funded organizations, has developed a reputation for failing to bring illegally present suspects to justice, in at least one instance with deadly consequences.

‘That’s a perversion of justice.’

For instance, Descano’s office dropped a felony charge last year against Wilmer Osmany Ramos Giron, an illegal alien from Guatemala who was accused of abducting and strangling the mother of his child.

Owing to a sweetheart plea deal agreed to by Descano’s office, Ramos Giron — who was previously deported on multiple occasions and arrested repeatedly on gun-related charges — served only two months at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.

The light-touch from Descano’s office has also set the stage for tragedy.

Abdul Jalloh is an illegal alien from Sierra Leone who, according to the Department of Homeland Security, has been arrested over 30 times on charges of rape, malicious wounding, assault, drug possession, identity theft, trespassing, larceny, firing a weapon, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and pick-pocketing.

After Descano’s office dropped numerous cases against Jalloh — including two involving malicious wounding charges and another involving an assault and battery charge — the convicted felon allegedly stabbed to death an American citizen, 41-year-old Stephanie Minter of Fredericksburg, on Feb. 23.

RELATED: The homicidal empathy of the left’s immigration policies

Abdul Jalloh (l), Wilmer Osmany Ramos Giron (R). Fairfax County Police Department and U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, respectively

The Victims Rights Reform Council said in a complaint filed last month on behalf of the victim’s mother, Cheryl Minter, that police repeatedly warned Fairfax County prosecutors about Jalloh’s behavior prior to the stabbing, noting that he demonstrated a “blatant disregard for human life” and was a “danger to the community,” WJLA-TV reported.

A Fairfax County police major reportedly wrote to one of Descano’s underlings, Fairfax County Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Jenna Sands:

I wanted to bring Mr. Jalloh’s release to your attention, because Mr. Jalloh is one of the repeat (and violent) offenders we discussed when we met. I wanted to get your background on why he is out so soon and ask if his prior suspended sentence (of I believe 5 years) was pursued by your office? Unfortunately, based on MTV Station’s numerous dealings with him, it is not a question of if, but rather when he will maliciously wound (or worse) again. My role of keeping the public safe, prompts me to follow up on his status.

Jalloh was convicted of a malicious stabbing in 2023. Although sentenced to seven years in prison, he had five years suspended.

In a letter on Wednesday, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon notified Descano that she has authorized a full investigation to determine whether his office has “engaged in unlawful discrimination in violation of Title VI and the Safe Streets Act and whether [his office] is engaged in a pattern or practice of law enforcement misconduct that deprives persons of rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”

Dhillon said the investigation centers on a policy requiring special treatment for illegal aliens that was authorized by Descano and adopted by his office in December 2020.

The controversial policy, titled “Guidelines for Plea Bargaining, Charging Decisions, and Sentencing,” requires that assistant attorneys consider:

“Immigration consequences where possible and where doing so accords with justice”; “The collateral immigration consequences of the specific crime(s) the defendant is charged with”; and”The detrimental impact that deportation/removal has on the families and communities those removed or deported leave behind.”

This policy was hardly a secret.

Descano vowed on a recently scrubbed page of his website not only to provide a “safe place for everyone, regardless of their immigration status,” but to “take immigration consequences into account when making charging and plea decisions.” He added, “If two people commit the same crime, but only one’s punishment includes deportation, that’s a perversion of justice and not a reflection of the values of Fairfax County.”

While some Virginians — like Cheryl Minter — might prefer to see Descano prioritize throwing murderers, rapists, and other criminals in prison, the Democratic attorney noted that “avoiding the unnecessary destruction of [migrant] families and communities will be a top priority.”

Descano — who believes “tough-on-crime policies are short-sighted” — confirmed his receipt of Dhillon’s notice on Wednesday and stated, “My policies are fair, legal, and reflect the values of my community.”

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Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a 73-year-old Republican who has been in office for three decades and is presently running for re-election, revealed in an interview this week with News Center Maine that she suffers from a nervous system disorder.

Collins — shown in two recent polls to be trailing radical Democrat candidate Graham Platner by at least 27 percentage points — indicated, however, that the disorder has not interfered with her job.

‘I have had it for the entire time that I have served.’

“What I have is an extremely common condition that is called a benign essential tremor,” Collins explained.

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, an essential tremor is one of the most common movement disorders. It causes uncontrollable shaking or trembling in various parts of the body. While usually affecting the hands and arms, it can also affect a person’s head, voice, and legs.

Studies have reportedly shown the disorder to be accompanied by a mild degeneration of the cerebellum.

“It tends to slowly get worse over time,” Rees Cosgrove, chief of the division of functional neurosurgery at Mass General Brigham in Boston, told News Center Maine. “It’s not associated with other neurologic impairments. So it’s not associated with cognitive decline or memory decline. It’s not associated with Alzheimer’s disease. It’s not Parkinson’s disease.”

RELATED: Why Democrats are willing to overlook Graham Platner’s Nazi-tattoo scandal

Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Cosgrove emphasized that an essential tremor is not a mental condition.

“I have had it for the entire time that I have served in the United States Senate,” said Collins. “It has absolutely no impact on my ability to do my job or on how I feel each day.”

The Republican said that she has never missed a Senate floor vote and is confident in her ability to serve for another six years, adding, “If you talk to anybody in Washington, they will tell you that I am the hardest-working person that they have ever worked with.”

Platner, who was the likely Democrat candidate to face Collins in the Senate race even before Gov. Janet Mills (D) threw in the towel last month, apparently has health issues of his own.

Platner — who previously identified as a communist, branded rural white Americans as racists, suggested that service members worried about being raped should buy “Kevlar underwear,” smeared all police officers as “bastards,” mocked Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and adorned himself with an apparent “totenkopf” tattoo reminiscent of the skull image popularized by Adolf Hitler’s Schutzstaffel elite guard — said in an interview last year that he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and has “a couple herniated discs.”

The Democrat, a Marine who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, recently told News Center Maine that he receives nearly $5,000 a month from Veterans Affairs, having apparently been given a 100% disability rating. He has cashed those disability checks in recent years while working as an oyster farmer and the harbormaster for the town of Sullivan.

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A 51-inch robot was welcomed into a brotherhood of South Korean monks on Wednesday.

The ceremony was equal parts bizarre and promotional, as the robot was draped in traditional robes and beads before being asked to pledge its allegiance to the order.

‘Robot monk, please reply with palms together.’

The new robotic monk was named Gabi during an initiation period for the Joye Order of Korean Buddhism, a group that is allegedly more than 1,200 years old, has governed more than 1,700 temples, and boasts nearly 10 million adherents.

Around 10 a.m. on Wednesday, the monks showed the robot off to the public in the courtyard of Daeungjeon Hall at Jogyesa Temple. As reported by the Korean Herald, the robot was dressed in the traditional robe called the kasaya and joined the monks in prayer for Buddha’s birthday.

“Robot monk, please reply with palms together, ‘Yes, I will devote myself,'” a voice is heard telling the machine.

“Yes, I will devote myself,” it seemingly replied.

RELATED: The FCC just banned foreign-made routers — here’s which ones might be stealing your data

– YouTube

The ceremony is known as the “sugye,” a formal initiation that requires one to pledge his devotion to Buddha, his teachings, and the monastic community.

Along with the first-of-its-kind ceremony was the “yeonbi,” a ritual practice in which new monks are typically burned with incense on their arms. Instead of burning the robot — which is expensive, around $13,500 — the monks chose instead to place a lotus lantern festival sticker on its arm and prayer beads around its neck.

The five precepts of Buddhism were also modified for the occasion. Typically they include not killing, not stealing, not misusing sex, being honest, and not using intoxicants.

These were amended to include protecting life; refraining from damaging other monks, robots, or property; respecting and obeying humans; and conserving energy by not overcharging. The only rule to remain the same was for the robot to avoid being deceptive.

RELATED: Video: Why is a Chinese robot chasing wild boars in Poland?

Chris Jung/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Unfortunately for the Korean monks, they have welcomed a Chinese robot that is likely capable of spying on them. The Unitree G1 robot, currently the most advanced humanoid bot available to the public, is also capable of a remote takeover.

As Return previously reported, Congress has warned of a “direct national security threat” through Chinese robots.

Research has also showed that Unitree previously pre-installed backdoor access into its G01 robot dogs, which allowed them to surveil their customers across the globe.

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Rosie Speedlin-Gonzalez was elected in 2018 as a Democrat to serve as a judge on Bexar County Court at Law No. 13 in San Antonio.

The county’s first openly homosexual judge wasted no time evidencing her activistic intent and radicalism, erecting, for instance, a Pride flag behind her bench and alongside the U.S. and Texas flags during formal court proceedings in 2019, then later keeping the imperial non-straight colors hoisted at the entrance to her chambers.

‘Judge Speedlin-Gonzalez shall be forever disqualified from judicial service in the State of Texas.’

After multiple accusations of judicial misconduct and run-ins with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, Speedlin-Gonzalez’s time as a judge in the Lone Star State has finally come to an end.

The leftist ex-judge — who the San Antonio Express-News reported in a 2023 puff piece “concedes to being a rebel” and who was admonished in 2020 for congratulating attorneys on winning in her court — was criminally indicted in January in connection with a December 2024 incident in which she allegedly ordered a bailiff to handcuff a female defense attorney and toss her in the jury box.

Speedlin-Gonzalez, the 2021 recipient of the Texas Diversity Council’s LGBTQ+ Individual Leadership Award, was charged with one count of unlawful restraint by a judicial officer — a second-degree felony — and one count of official oppression, a class A misdemeanor.

On the basis of the indictment, the SCJC suspended Speedlin-Gonzalez without pay on Feb. 5.

The leftist — who ran for re-election to the Bexar County Court but was overwhelmingly rejected by voters in the March Democratic primary election — agreed late last month to accept a lifetime ban from the judicial service in order to settle the outstanding misconduct complaints against her and to avoid further disciplinary action.

RELATED: Judge APOLOGIZES to suspected would-be Trump assassin — and compares him to Jan. 6 defendants

PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images

Speedlin-Gonzalez signed a formal agreement on April 17 stating both that she has “officially and formally resigned her judicial duties” and that “Judge Speedlin-Gonzalez shall be forever disqualified from judicial service in the State of Texas, including: (a) sitting or serving as a judge, (b) standing for election or appointment to a judicial office, and/or (c) performing or exercising any judicial duties or functions of a judicial officer, including the performance of wedding ceremonies.”

In the preamble, the document notes that Speedlin-Gonzalez was not only slapped in recent years with a complaint over the December 2024 incident but with other complaints, including for having allegedly: “exhibited unprofessional demeanor toward a criminal defendant” and failing to “timely proceed on a motion to modify bond conditions and two writs of habeas corpus”; and abusing her judicial authority “by issuing a ‘no contact’ order via email prohibiting staff of Bexar County’s Reflejo Court and County Court at Law No. 13 from communicating with former specialty court team members and employees of the court.”

The agreement notes, however, that the ex-judge, by her execution of this agreement, doesn’t admit guilt, fault, or liability regarding various misconduct claims leveled against her.

Following the agreement’s filing, special prosecutor Brian Cromeens of DeWitt County filed a motion to dismiss the criminal charges against Speedlin-Gonzalez, reported KSAT-TV.

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