"Lie To People Who Want To Be Lied To": How To Make A Political Fortune As A Far-Left Dem

 by Jonathan Turley,

A financial journalist once offered simple advice: “Lie to people who want to be lied to, and you’ll get rich…Tell the truth to those who want to be lied to, and you’ll go broke.”

That axiom appears to have been taken to heart by radical Democratic candidates who this week issued transparent denials of past outrageous comments. Their calculus is clearly that the last thing that voters want to hear is the truth about their past views.

Certain cultural touchstones are considered inviolate in some states, such as beef in Texas.

In 2022, Talarico said he was reducing his meat consumption as part of climate-related efforts.

Texas Democratic Senatorial candidate James Talarico was roasted after a video surfaced of his calling to reduce meat consumption and “I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non-meat campaign. We are only buying vegan products from our local vegan businesses.”

The backlash was so great that Talarico has been eating whole cows to prove that he is not all-hat and no cattle.

Obviously, lying about your positions is hardly a phenonmon confirmed to the far left.

Many Republican candidates have also made painfully transparent pivots. However, the spins this week threaten to knock the planet off its axis.

In Wisconsin, Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong seems to be coasting to a primary win despite radical views such as defunding police.

In an episode of “Pod Save America,” Hong was asked about her 2020 statements declaring “police exist to uphold white supremacy” and “I support defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police.”

Hong responded with a convoluted spin: 

“My views have only become stronger in that I’m serious about public safety and I will not abolish the police.”

Hong’s views on Thanksgiving takes the axiom to a whole new level. Hong previously stated:

“Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621. If it takes a worldwide pandemic for us to realize we should stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed Indigenous folx and women so be it.”

That did not go over well in Wisconsin, only slightly better than coming out against cheese.

Hong did not deny her 2021 statement for weeks, including when confronted on CNN by host Kaitlan Collins. Asked directly if she still hated Thanksgiving, Hong seemed to morph into Chauncy Gardner from Being There with her now much-ridiculed “I’m a chef” response, stating that, as a chef, she works to “bring more people to the table.”

Hong seemed to morph into Chauncey Gardner from Being There in offering non-sequiturs of being a “very serious gardener.”

When that interview fell flat, Hong decided to lie and claim that she was just joking in 2021 and “loves” Thanksgiving, her now “favorite holiday.”

No one reading her quote or her later interviews would believe that it was a joke. It was not a joke for weeks until her responses became a joke.

Abdul El-Sayed skipped the transitional period and went straight to the lie in his controversy this week when a video surfaced of his saying how he hates the iconic Mackinac Island. 

Growing up in Chicago, one of my favorite things was to go with my family to the island, which is the quintessential small American town. I actually have never met anyone who hated Mackinac Island…until now.

In the video, El-Sayed states “I hate Mackinac so much. It’s funny cause, like, if we win, this is gonna be, like, the summer home. Every time I’ve ever come here I’ve hated it.”

El-Sayed was clearly informed that declaring that you despise the most popular tourist location in Michigan is not a vote getter. So, El-Sayed simply told his supporters what they wanted to hear: you cannot believe your lying eyes and ears.

His campaign issued a bizarre statement that sought to turn the controversial into his being opposed to the elite and privileged class, saying that he was actually Mackinac Policy Conference which is simply an annual nonpartisan forum for public policy discussions.

El-Sayed claims that he was referring to conference as being like a summer home for governors. He maintains that he was referring to a conference as the entire island.

El-Sayed knows that it does not matter. He could have claimed that he was referring to hating Mackinac Island Pizza Company. It does not matter. His supporters do not want the baggage and he simply needed to unload it

With the election in November, the next predictable step will be for Hong to join El-Sayed on Mackinac Island for a public Thanksgiving dinner. Talarico will be on hand to carve the bird with enthusiasm.

The real problem is that these individuals spent years throwing red meat (or, in the case of Talarico, tofu) to the far left. These statements were not considered extreme or controversial until they found themselves speaking to a wider audience. Then they sounded just crazy.

Moreover, some lies are unlikely to register with voters who may prefer to live in delusion. The fact that the Mamdani markets will ultimately sell the most expensive produce in New York is an inconvenient fact that is best ignored.

The model for far-left politicians appears to be Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger who ran as a moderate and then governed from the far left. Spanberger, for example, pledged not to gerrymander districts to eliminate all Republican districts and then immediately moved to do so. Many voters likely did not believe her on gerrymandering, taxes, or other broken pledges before the election. They just needed her to say it. So, you might have to visit Mackinac or feign enjoyment at Thanksgiving or barbeques for a few weeks. Then you can do a Spanberger.

Abraham Lincoln may have said “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

However, the fact is that you do not have to fool all of the people all of the time, just enough to win over the course of a few weeks.

Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/lie-people-who-want-be-lied-how-make-political-fortune-far-left-democrat

F-16 jets intercept aircraft over Trump's golf club

 

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said F-16 fighters intercepted two general aviation aircraft over Bedminster, New Jersey, due to suspected violations of flight restrictions in the area. Bedminster hosts Trump National Golf Club, where US President Donald Trump has been attending an event on Sunday afternoon.

It remains unclear, however, whether the US leader was present at the golf club during the time of the incident. NORAD clarified that the jets successfully escorted the intruding aircraft from the area.

There has been no additional information about the incident.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/F-16-jets-intercept-aircraft-over-Trump's-golf-club/66883992

Harris Renews Calls To Pack SCOTUS Despite Poll Showing Most Americans Agree With Its Decisions

 by Jonathan Turley,

Kamala Harris is again promising the radical wing of her party that she will pack the Supreme Court. Pete Buttigieg and others have done the same to pander to the extreme left. These calls are increasing among Democratic leaders despite a recent poll showing that the Court remains the more popular institution vis-à-vis Congress, and that the majority of Americans agree with its major decisions.

The Marquette Law School poll shows that the Court remains slightly underwater in popularity (47% favor, 53% disfavor), but it is still much more popular than Congress or the two political parties. Moreover, that popularity is increasing, not decreasing, as a result of recent decisions. It was at 44% in 2025.

The mantra to pack the Court is premised on the false claim that the Court is ideologically robotic and partisan. That claim has always been disconnected from the actual voting record of the Court. Forty-four percent of cases are decided unanimously by the Supreme Court. When nearly unanimous cases (8-1 and 7-2) are included, that figure jumps to over 60 percent.

The liberal justices themselves have pushed back on the Democratic narrative. Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor have all contradicted these claims. Justice Kagan recently spoke publicly on these claims, “rejecting claims that the high court’s conservative majority is in President Donald Trump’s corner.”

The most recent poll shows that Americans agree with most of the major decisions in the last year.

The poll highlights a disconnect with the logic of court packers.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) has called for packing the Court because it does not follow her views and those of “widely held public opinion.”

I have pushed back on that rationale given the Court’s function to be a countermajoritarian institution. However, this poll even challenges the flawed rationale for court packing.

Even the most controversial decisions break at around fifty percent.

Notably, the opinion that Harris repeatedly denounces as an attack on democracy (barring racial gerrymandering) is supported by a majority of the country.

Yet, Democratic leaders and the far left continue the false claim that the Court is out-of-step with America and captured by the Administration. The reason is simple. The DSA and far left are threatening establishment candidates. They are throwing institutions such as the Supreme Court to the mob in an attempt to use them to regain power. It is not just tragic but pathetic. These establishment figures are unlikely to be safe from the mob. Hakeem Jeffries can call the Supreme Court “illegitimate” and brandish a baseball bat on social media, but the mob is still chanting “you’re next” when he appears on the screens at rallies.

For its part, the far left knows that the full agenda of changes that it wants to make to our constitutional system cannot occur without control of the Supreme Court. Law professors and deans are joining them in calling for the trashing of our Constitution and “radical changes” to our system. They will need control of the Court to achieve many of those changes.

So the American people may support the Court and favor its decisions, but it still needs to be packed with a liberal majority.

Harris and Buttigieg consider trashing the Supreme Court to be a small price to pay for their own election.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/harris-renews-calls-pack-court-despite-poll-showing-most-americans-agree-its-decisions

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Iran's-Rezaei-appointed-security-council-head/66883946

Alito is locked and loaded for another term

A month after National Public Radio’s Nina Totenberg announced that Sam Alito was retiring (a story NPR later had to retract), the 76-year-old jurist told the Wall Street Journal in an interview, “Obviously, I’m here for another term.”

Looking at the docket for the coming term, it is easy to see why. Even after overturning Roe v. Wade and other historic opinions, Alito still has unfinished business. An example can be found in two cases involving bans on semiautomatic rifles like the AR-15 that are now awaiting argument in the October term.

Many of us have been frustrated by the Court’s failure to address these laws barring AR-15s and other weapons. Just last year, the Supreme Court declined review of such a Maryland law. Alito and Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch indicated that they wanted to hear the case, failing just one vote short of granting certiorari.

Notably, the required fourth vote could have come from Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who called the Fourth Circuit’s ruling in Snope v. Brown “questionable” and added that the Court “should and presumably will address the AR-15 issue soon, in the next Term or two.”

Now, it will.

Democrats are moving in various states to ban the nation’s most popular rifle (the AR-15) and its most popular handgun (the semiautomatic 9mm). Some of us view these laws as presumptively unconstitutional.

In 2008, the court declared in its opinion in Heller that gun ownership is an individual right. The court emphasized how these weapons were in common use and not the type of dangerous or unusual weapon that would fall outside of the Second Amendment. Handguns, the opinion reads, “are the most popular weapon chosen by Americans for self-defense in the home, and a complete prohibition of their use is invalid.”

In 2022, the Court held in the Bruen case that the government bears the burden of demonstrating that any restriction upon the right to keep and bear arms “is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

The bans on Glock handguns and semiautomatic rifles are efforts to achieve indirectly what the Supreme Court barred directly. In Virginia, Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) immediately moved against gun rights after her election. Ironically, her election not only spurred a massive surge in gun purchases, but she then supplied the lead line of briefs challenging the law. Spanberger admitted that the state law she signed would ban commonly used hunting guns.

In what is known as the court’s “clean-up conference,” the justices granted review in Illinois and Connecticut cases challenging bans on semiautomatic rifles.

In Viramontes v. Cook County, the Seventh Circuit relied on an earlier ruling that gun owners had failed to show “that the covered firearms materially differed from machine guns and military-grade weaponry, which the Supreme Court instructed can be banned under the Second Amendment.”

In Grant v. Higgins, the Second Circuit upheld a similar ban after agreeing with the state that the law imposes “a burden comparable to historical antecedents that regulated other unusually dangerous weapons unsuitable for and disproportionate to the objective of individual self-defense.”

Notably, in the Illinois case, Cook County argued that these are not just unusually dangerous weapons, but that the challengers cannot offer “even a single instance in which assault weapons were ever used in lawful self-defense.”

That is a highly dubious claim. Since 1990, there have been an estimated 32,091,000 Modern Sporting Rifles in circulation. These are semiautomatic models, which means they fire a single bullet and then automatically load another cartridge into the chamber. The AR-15 is the most popular model, and there are estimates that it has as many as 25 million owners.

The popularity of the AR-15 is due to the fact that it is modular, with some models allowing one to swap out barrels, bolts and high-capacity magazines, or add a variety of accessories. It is also not the most powerful gun; many guns have equal or greater calibers.

There is roughly the same number of Glock pistols in circulation. That means perhaps 40 million Americans currently possess weapons that Democrats are trying to ban as unusually dangerous and completely unprotected.

With the granting of these cases, Virginia’s ban on new sales of the AR-15 rifle and other guns will have to await the final decisions. 

These gun bans are not the only cases involving politically popular, legally dubious legislation. The first case to be argued will be Suncor Energy v. Commissioners of Boulder County, a challenge to state laws imposing damages on fossil fuel companies for climate change.

With a docket like that, one can see why Alito is not going anywhere.

Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”

https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/6017848-alito-not-retiring-yet/

Presler Warns GOP Senators on SAVE America Act: ‘You Either Deliver or We Are Going to Get Rid of You’

 Early Vote Action founder Scott Presler sharply criticized Senate Republicans during a Breitbart News Saturday interview, arguing the party’s majority has failed to act with sufficient urgency on election integrity legislation while calling on conservative voters to pressure lawmakers through primaries, town halls, voter registration, and grassroots organizing.

Presler told Breitbart News Saturday host Bradley Jaye that it is “very disingenuous” for senators other than Mike Lee (R-UT), Rick Scott (R-FL), “and a few others” to claim they are fighting to protect elections, pointing to what he described as illegal aliens on voter rolls in Pennsylvania who were “actively registered” and voting, while adding, “We’re finding them in Michigan and Arizona.” “This is an existential crisis. This is a constitutional crisis,” Presler said.

Presler said Republican activists face a difficult argument when asking voters to support the party while, in his words, Republicans are “the majority controlling all three branches of government” but have not delivered on campaign promises. “How do I make the case as a conservative activist trying to drum up support for Republicans when, as the majority controlling all three branches of government, we are incapable of delivering the very campaign promises that elected the majority we have today?” he asked. “How do I make the case to elect Republicans when our Senate majority leadership won’t deliver what 84% of Americans want?”

Despite his criticism, Presler said he does not intend to abandon his organizing work. “I promise, I’m not going to stop. I’m going to continue,” he said, adding that Early Vote Action is continuing its efforts in Pennsylvania. Presler said Republicans are “25,811 active voters from flipping the state” and argued that “just because the Senate is derelict in its duties doesn’t mean that activists like myself are going to give up the responsibility.”

Asked what the SAVE America Act would do, Presler said the legislation “only provides for two things: proof of citizenship and photo voter ID.” He explained that already-registered voters would not have to register again but would instead go through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, database.

Presler said the SAVE database is used in connection with HUD and government housing and asked why it should not also be used for voter registration. “Why are we not using the same database to ensure that only eligible, lawful American citizens are registered to vote, or for SNAP, or for other ‘quote unquote’ entitlements?” he said. Presler argued the system would help “clean the voter rolls” and “ensure that only Americans are voting in our elections.”

Presler said he believes part of the disconnect between Republican senators and voters is that lawmakers are isolated from public sentiment. “There is such a bubble in D.C. that these senators truly need to go out, touch grass, and talk to the voter,” he said. He predicted senators who return home after failing to act would “get a peaceful earful from the American people.”

He also argued that incumbent lawmakers can become too comfortable in office. “They feel invulnerable. They really do. They feel untouchable,” Presler said, pointing to incumbent lawmakers who lost primary contests as evidence that voters can remove officeholders. “We need to do a better job of being active, engaged voters in our primaries,” he added.

Presler called on dissatisfied Republican donors to use their financial support as leverage, saying lawmakers “care about money and they care about power.” He encouraged listeners to seek WinRed refunds from senators they had donated to, while citing Rick Scott and Mike Lee as exceptions.

Looking ahead to 2028, Presler singled out Sens. John Thune (R-SD), John Barrasso (R-WY), Tim Scott (R-SC), and James Lankford (R-OK) as senators he said activists should be prepared to challenge. “They need to know if you do not deliver what 84% of Americans want, we are coming for your seats peacefully,” Presler said, adding that activists should be prepared to “take you out” electorally as he said voters had done in Louisiana and Texas.

Presler said one of the most important actions voters can take is to approach their senators directly at town halls and other public events. “How many of you guys show up to town halls?” he asked. “When they’re at fairs and festivals, I want you to peacefully approach them. I want you to go up to them. Why haven’t you delivered for us?”

He rejected the argument that Democrats make election-integrity legislation impossible to pass, listing several procedural approaches he believes Republicans could pursue. “We can nuke the filibuster. We can do a talking filibuster. We can do budget reconciliation 3.0,” Presler said. “I just gave you three viable pathways to give us proof of citizenship and photo voter ID. It’s not good enough to blame the Democrats.”

Presler also argued that Republicans might already have a 60-vote Senate majority had election-integrity legislation been enacted years earlier. He pointed to Mike Rogers’ narrow 2024 loss, what he described as a narrow 2024 loss involving Tammy Baldwin’s Wisconsin seat, as well as losses in Arizona and Nevada, where he said Laxalt lost by 8,000 votes in 2022. “It is disingenuous for any Republican senator to say that we don’t have the votes when we could have the votes had we simply passed election integrity,” he said.

Presler cited figures concerning noncitizen voter registrations as evidence for his concerns, asserting that “6,600 non-citizens” were registered in New Jersey and that 400 voted, before invoking the 2000 presidential election. “Please look me up. Fact check me. Bush v. Gore was decided by 537 votes,” he said. Presler further claimed there are “250,000 non-citizens on the voter rolls in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Nevada.”

“This is a constitutional crisis,” Presler said. “This is the single most important issue the American people care about.” He urged listeners to “get angry peacefully,” attend events, make their voices heard, and tell senators that “you either deliver or we are going to get rid of you.”

Asked what citizens could do beyond attending town halls, Presler emphasized participation in Republican primaries. “I would ask the listener how many of you are registered to vote as a Republican for your primary,” he said, acknowledging that some conservatives may be “disenchanted” with the party but arguing that primary participation is necessary to influence which candidates reach the general election.

“Unless you are voting in primaries, you are allowing for the destruction of our country by not ensuring that we have the most conservative candidate, Senate choice, or member of Congress choice going into the November election,” Presler said. He also called for more voter-registration work, asserting that “30% of our beautiful Christians are not registered to vote” and that “42% of hunters in Pennsylvania” are not registered.

Presler argued that conservatives need to become more aggressive in organizing, while distinguishing that approach from adopting the political left’s ideology or policies. “We must become more like the left in terms of advocacy because they are running circles around us,” he said. Presler added that he believes there is particular urgency to act while Republicans hold the majority, arguing that “our Senate is not giving the urgency that is required while we have the majority.”

Presler also detailed Early Vote Action’s efforts in Pennsylvania and encouraged Breitbart News Saturday listeners nationwide to participate. “I actually don’t even receive a dime from my organization,” he said, adding that he is “very proud” of that.

Presler promoted the Early Vote Action app for Android and iPhone, which he said allows supporters regardless of where they live to text inactive Republican voters in Pennsylvania and encourage them to update their registrations. “If you want to help me flip the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from blue to red, no matter what state you live in, you can help text inactive voters,” he said.

He asked supporters to send 20 messages per day through the app. “Give me one minute of your time pressing the text button 20 times over once a day using the Early Vote Action app,” Presler said. “That’s something that you can contribute.”

Presler said Early Vote Action also welcomes help from Pennsylvania and neighboring states, including Ohio and Maryland. “We’d love your help,” he said, adding that people from Ohio and Maryland have traveled to Pennsylvania to assist.

Presler said he is “all in” on helping Republicans retain Scott Perry, Ryan McKenzie, and Rob Bresnahan, whom he identified as three members of Congress in Pennsylvania needed to help Republicans keep the House for President Donald Trump and, in his words, “ensure that in 2028 we have the ability to win.” “That is how you can make a national impact, even from Oregon, Washington, California,” Presler said. “Download the Early Vote Action app. Send 20 text messages a day, please.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/08/08/exclusive-scott-pressler-warns-gop-senators-on-save-america-act-you-either-deliver-or-we-are-going-to-get-rid-of-you/

Syria, Russia reach bases deal

 Russia and Syria have reached a memorandum of understanding to reorganize the Russian military presence in the Middle Eastern country, Syria's Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

Under the memorandum, Russian civilian facilities on the coast would be transferred to the Syrian state, while military bases would be converted into joint training centers. In particular, the document seeks to formalize the status of the Tartous and Khmeimim bases, used by the Russian military during the rule of Syria's former President Bashar al-Assad.

The transfer has a three-month deadline, after which the new deal would officially take effect.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Syria-Russia-reach-bases-deal/66883683