Pilots of a Delta flight that crashed spectacularly at Toronto’s Pearson Airport last month received a critical warning of a rapid descent less than three seconds before slamming onto the runway and flipping upside-down in a fiery wreck, new findings reveal.

The dramatic crash occurred Feb. 17 when Delta Air Lines Flight 4819 – operated by regional carrier Endeavor Air – made a catastrophic landing at Pearson after arriving from Minneapolis, according to a preliminary report by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB).

All 76 passengers and four crew members managed to survive the terrifying incident, though 21 were injured and hospitalized. Miraculously, everyone was released within days.

Investigators revealed Wednesday that the plane’s ground proximity alert system sounded a frantic warning just 2.6 seconds before touchdown, registering an alarming descent rate of 1,100 feet per minute – above Transport Canada’s maximum allowable rate of 1,000 feet per minute for commercial landings.

The aircraft was hurtling toward the runway at roughly 250 kilometers per hour (136 knots) just moments before disaster struck.

Upon impact, the plane’s landing gear collapsed, ripping off a wing and triggering a dangerous jet-fuel leak that instantly ignited, engulfing the craft in flames as it skidded violently down the runway. The plane then rolled sharply onto its right side and flipped upside-down, shearing off a significant portion of its tail.

“The flight crew had to exit through the emergency hatch located on the ceiling of the cockpit,” TSB lead investigator Ken Webster revealed in a chilling video update.

Seconds after emergency responders cleared the plane of all passengers, a powerful explosion erupted near the left wing. Investigators are still probing its mysterious cause.

Initial inspections uncovered no obvious mechanical defects or issues with flight controls. The TSB’s continuing investigation will focus on metallurgical analysis of the damaged wing, pilot training, landing protocols, cabin safety procedures, and passenger evacuation.

“This investigation will take some time, as many questions remain unanswered,” Webster admitted, adding “The TSB will continue to work toward determining the full sequence of events that led to the accident.”

In response to the harrowing ordeal, Delta has offered survivors $30,000 each in “no strings attached” compensation. But the drama doesn’t stop there—at least two lawsuits have already been filed stateside, with a Canadian law firm reporting multiple passengers have hired them seeking further damages.

The TSB’s investigation—backed by the FAA, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, Delta’s incident response team, and Mitsubishi (the aircraft’s manufacturer)—continues, promising more explosive revelations in the weeks to come.

Authored by Selena Zito via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Small businesses have been the backbone of the United States since its founding. The Hotel Saxonburg, which has also been known as the Vogeley House, the Belvedere House, the Laube House and the Central Hotel, opened in 1835 and has lasted most of our nation’s existence.

Yesterday, the new owners abruptly closed the hotel after purchasing it two years ago. This not only shuttered the historic restaurant and hotel that served as a cultural touchstone for nearly 200 years, but it also caused people to lose their jobs.

Because the business was small, those job losses, likely around 50 people total, were a statistic that didn’t gain attention from the national press. However, when you consider that more people in the U.S. work for small businesses than any other sector, those numbers start to add up.

According to the Small Business Administration, which draws its data from the U.S. Census Bureau, over 60 percent of U.S. businesses are small businesses. They range from employing a handful of people (think your favorite food truck) to 100 people (think a local machine shop).

Before 2020, most Americans worked for small businesses that employed under 500 people. The last four years have upended that number. Now, only 53 percent of Americans work for businesses with 500 or more workers.

In short, the U.S. is no longer a nation of small businesses. In February, the Business Dynamics Statistics from the Census Bureau showed that shift. It also showed that the biggest change of all has been the increase in the number of people working for companies with 10,000 or more workers and the decrease in the number of people working at firms with under 100 workers.

Case in point: Last year, there was a story about a local independent grocery, Ferri’s, that closed after 70 years in a snowball effect that began with the unexpected shuttering of the small independent pharmacy located inside the grocery.

The beloved family grocery posted a note on the building’s large glass front windows and on Facebook, saying they were closing “with a heavy heart” after serving as “a cornerstone of our community and … fostering connections that have spanned generations.”

Ferri’s general manager, Gary Silvestri, said the loss of rent and traffic from the pharmacy had a significant impact, as it was 20 percent of the grocer’s business.

Another factor was the economic pressure of Target being located a couple of miles to the east, Walmart a few miles to the west, and Giant Eagle, a massive local grocery store chain, within a half mile of Ferri’s. All three of those companies employ well over 10,000 people and have the buying-power advantage to lower prices over a mom-and-pop grocery.

Jeff Hastings of Wholesale Central, the leading publisher of content for the wholesale merchandise industry, wrote that ever since the dawn of the big-box store in 1962, the year Walmart, Kmart and Target all opened their doors, small local businesses, from hardware stores to clothing and shoe stores to pharmacies and groceries, have struggled to compete.

He cited the 2006 Walmart move into the west side of Chicago as an example. Eighty-two local stores went out of business and cost an estimated 300 retail jobs in neighboring ZIP codes.

It isn’t just groceries, restaurants or hotels that are falling to larger entities with 10 to 100 employees. Small local gas stations, clothing stores and even small insurance companies that either close or merge with larger companies are also losing ground as big companies expand.

Locals in Saxonburg were sad that the hotel closed and that people lost their jobs, but they also felt confident that someone would come along and revive the historic hotel and restaurant as a gathering place for the community and visitors.

The good news for small businesses, and why many economic experts expect a turnaround, is the surge in construction, manufacturing, retail, and service industries in January of this year. Optimism levels exceed the 51-year average, according to the latest Small Business Economic Trends survey from the National Federation of Independent Business Research Center.

That quarterly report revealed that the overall small business population is signaling renewed confidence despite persistent economic challenges. That just might turn around this current trend.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA,

Two MSNBC hosts were forced to eat their own words on Tuesday after blindly repeating a now-retracted AP report about Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard supposedly referring to President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin as “very good friends.”  

MSNBC set the record straight last night and corrected false reporting about DNI Tulsi Gabbard. pic.twitter.com/b7MZEW1zwj

— Alex Pfeiffer (@Pfeiffer47) March 19, 2025

The AP had to walk back its demonstrably false report, as it was revealed Gabbard had been talking about Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle, the insufferable anchors of The Last Word and 11th Hour, respectively, were left scrambling after parroting the AP’s debunked claim in a desperate attempt to smear the Trump administration. 

As reported by the Daily Caller, Velshi said his show had “reported on excerpts of an interview between the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and an Indian TV news network in which she said that Trump was good friends with the world leader.” 

He added, “Now we said that world leader was Vladimir Putin, but the full interview was subsequently released and it showed that Gabbard was referring to Donald Trump and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.” 

Ruhle echoed Velshi’s retraction nearly verbatim, which was likely written by attorneys to avoid legal repercussions.  

“Last night, we reported on excerpts of an interview between the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard and an Indian TV news network in which she said that Trump was good friends with a world leader,” Ruhle said, according to the Caller. 

“Now we said that world leader was Vladimir Putin, but the full interview shows that Gabbard was referring to Trump and Indian Prime Minister Modi. We cleared that up,” she admitted. 

The AP itself issued a press statement retracting its false claim: 

“The Associated Press has withdrawn its story about U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard saying President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘are very good friends.’ Gabbard was talking about Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The AP will publish a corrected version of the story.” 

Alexa Henning, Gabbard’s spokesperson and seasoned Republican communicator, minced no words in response to the AP, scolding their reporting as “total trash.” 

“This is why no one trusts the maliciously incompetent and purposefully bias media,” Henning said. 

“If this isn’t a clear example of pushing a solely political narrative, then nothing is.” 

Trump on banning the AP from the Oval Office & Air Force One:

“That’s the way life works. Thank you for the question.” 🤣 pic.twitter.com/U9tSEe0pCP

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 18, 2025

The AP scandal comes just weeks after Trump revoked the news outlet’s special access to the Oval Office, citing their misleading and false reporting.

The wave of terrorism fueled by far-left groups aligned with the Democratic Party has spread internationally and is potentially linked to another incident in which dozens of Teslas were damaged at a showroom in Ontario, Canada, this week.

Canadian news channel CP24 reports that 80 Tesla vehicles in Hamilton, Ontario, were vandalized at Canada’s largest Tesla Service Center at CF Lime Ridge Mall, 999 Upper Wentworth Street.

Here’s more from the media outlet:

Hamilton police say they are investigating a “series of mischiefs” after dozens of Tesla vehicles were damaged at a local dealership this week.

According to police, officers were called to a Tesla dealership, located at 999 Upper Wentworth Street, on Wednesday for a report of damage to some of the store’s inventory.

Police arrived to discover that “upwards of 80” Tesla vehicles parked outside had sustained damage, including deep scratches and punctured tires.

“Police are currently reviewing CCTV camera footage and are asking the public for their assistance in solving this crime,” investigators said in a news release issued Thursday.

A separate report from Tesla blog Drive Tesla provided more color on additional Tesla attacks across Canada: 

While this is the largest incident of vandalism involving Tesla vehicles, it’s far from the first. In recent weeks, Teslas have increasingly become targets of vandalism and attacks. One of the most significant incidents occurred in Nanaimo, British Columbia where a Tesla Supercharger station was deliberately set on fire last week.

A similarly shocking event took place in London, Ontario, just a few days later when a Tesla Model S was intentionally set on fire at CF Masonville Mall.

Yesterday, climate activists targeted a Tesla store in Montreal, spray painting the facade of the building in a protest against Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

In the US, the unhinged Democratic Party has waged a massive assault on Tesla. Far-left anarcho-terrorists have firebombed Tesla vehicles and Supercharger networks, while leftist NGOs target showrooms with rent-a-protesters. 

DEVELOPING: Video provided to the Review-Journal shows several @Tesla vehicles engulfed in flames after Las Vegas police say they were set on fire by an individual early Tuesday morning.
UPDATES→ https://t.co/sZQr9j1E5A pic.twitter.com/uXeLsdpTVl

— Las Vegas Review-Journal (@reviewjournal) March 18, 2025

Unhinged Radical Democrat Congresswoman Jasmine Crocket…

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO:

Tonight, Radical Democrat Congresswoman @JasmineForUS Jasmine Crockett spoke on a CALL TO ACTION call organized by the @Tesla Takedown organizers who have been vandalizing and attacking @elonmusk’s Tesla Showrooms and charging stations across the country and all… pic.twitter.com/eqbPsseIhJ

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) March 20, 2025

Soro is gearing up for color revolution operations.

Rogue Soros-Funded NGO Plots Multi-City Assault On Tesla As Domestic Terrorism Escalates https://t.co/fWK6bxZTfg

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 20, 2025

Failed 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee wished death on the American company.

If you need a little boost during the day, check out Tesla stock 📉 pic.twitter.com/KBEh6pOZLW

— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) March 19, 2025

TDS infects Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson. 

Rick Wilson, 2015: Put a bullet in Donald Trump.

Rick Wilson, 2025: Kill Tesla.

Rick Wilson knows exactly what he’s doing. pic.twitter.com/KRv99ujJkR

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) March 19, 2025

Democrats are doubling down with Communist revolutionary tactics in their effort to try to kill an American company. It looks pretty miscalculated for the imploding party polling at record-low levels with voters. This type of revolutionary behavior by the left should further energize the common sense/center-right. 

What’s particularly alarming is the incident in Canada, which appears to be a foreign group inflicting harm on an American company. Unacceptable.

Authored by Kimberley Hayek via The Epoch Times,

Major corporations are choosing to not sponsor San Francisco’s 2025 Pride parade and street fair, the event organizer said.

“This year, many long-time corporate sponsors have withdrawn their support, leaving a critical gap in funding,” said Suzanne Ford, executive director of San Francisco Pride, in a statement on the organization’s website.

Scheduled for June 28 and 29, the 55th Pride celebration is part of an annual event that hosts “the largest LGBTQ+ parade in the world.”

Companies including Comcast, Anheuser-Busch, alcoholic beverage company Diageo, Benefit Cosmetics, and wine company La Crema have decided not to sponsor the event this year, Ford told local Fox affiliate KTVU in an interview published March 15.

While the businesses cited a lack of funds, Ford suspects the real reason is the country’s political climate under President Donald Trump, KTVU reported.

In January, Trump rolled back diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and programs and declared that the federal government would recognize only two sexes.

He also directed the military to exclude individuals with a gender identity inconsistent with their sex from service, which was blocked in a preliminary injunction on March 18 by a federal judge.

Ford told KTVU the five companies’ donations accounted for approximately $300,000 of the $1.2 million fundraising goal. 

Pride organizers are now scrambling for new sponsors for this summer’s festivities, which include parties, concerts, and the parade.

The Epoch Times reached out to the companies and San Francisco Pride and did not hear back by publication time.

The first installment of San Francisco Pride took the form of a small march on Polk Street and a gathering in Golden Gate Park in June 1970.

Major companies that participated in the 2024 parade include Hilton, Visa, Apple, IKEA, Merck, eBay, and Amazon, according to the organizer.

Earlier this month, the Pride organization also announced that it had terminated its relationship with Meta, the Menlo Park-based company that owns Facebook and Instagram, after company representatives made it clear they no longer wanted to be involved, Ford said.

“I’m both proud and sad that we don’t have a relationship with Meta,” Ford told ABC7 on March 4. “That was discontinued last year. So, at this moment, and I don’t see it being rectified, Meta will not be included.”

A federal judge Thursday issued a two-week temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing personally identifiable information from the Social Security administration.

US District Judge Ellen Hollander of Maryland also ordered DOGE to delete any personally identifiable data they may possess. The ruling come after labor unions and retirees asked for an emergency order limiting DOGE access to the agency and its vast troves of personal data, AP reports.

“The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion,” wrote Hollander, an Obama appointee.

The order still allows DOGE to access ‘redacted or anonymized data and records of SSA.’

According to the Trump administration, DOGE has a 10-person team of federal employees investigating the Social Security Administration, seven of whom have been granted read-only access to agency systems or personally identifiable information. The government has argued that DOGE access doesn’t significantly deviate from normal practices inside the agency whereby employees can search databases.

*  *  *

Down to our last few green Waxed Canvas Hats!

*  *  *

Established via executive order on January 20, 2025, DOGE aims to cut federal spending, reduce the size of the federal workforce, and modernize government technology.

In mid-February, acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Michelle King, resigned after a standoff with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) over access to sensitive government records.

Today’s ruling follows a string of judicial DOGE-blocking – as their access to records across the federal government have prompted disputes with senior officials at various agencies. Perhaps most prominently, the highest-ranking civil servant at the US Treasury Department quit after similarly refusing to grant Musk’s team access to the Bureau of Fiscal Service, which manages over $5 trillion in annual payments.

On February 8, 2025, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer in New York blocked DOGE from Treasury records after 19 states, led by NY AG Letitia James, sued over cybersecurity threats. Subsequent rulings, like Judge Deborah Boardman’s February 24 TRO on Education and OPM data, reinforced limits on DOGE’s reach. These cases established that DOGE’s “need-to-know” basis for PII access was unproven.

The same day that King quit, Musk posted what he says could be the ‘biggest fraud in US history‘ in which millions of ‘people’ over the age of 100 are collecting payments.

According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE!

Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/ltb06VX98Z

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2025

King – who worked at the agency for over 30 years, left her position this weekend after refusing to give DOGE staffers access to sensitive information, such as the fraudulent payments to ‘vampires’ – with at least one recipient being older than the United States itself.

To that end, DOGE has removed the names of 3.2 million individuals from the Social Security database, many of whom were listed as 120 years of age or older. The agency has now marked them as deceased.

“For the past two weeks, @SocialSecurity has been conducting a major cleanup of its records. Approximately 3.2 million number holders, all listed as age 120+, have now been marked as deceased. More work remains to be done,” the agency posted on X.

Musk shared the post, responding “Cleaning up the dead people database.”

Cleaning up the dead people database https://t.co/KtVUpshpvl

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 18, 2025

The Supreme Court Needs To Step In

In response to the spate of Democrat judges blocking just about every Trump move of import, investor Joe Lonsdale hopes that “The Supreme Court’s going to step in and make some sound rulings here and stop activist judges from violating the Constitution by their interference. It is going to be a big issue.”

.@JTLonsdale: Supreme Court Must Correct Activist Judges’ ‘Interference’ Against DOGE

“I’m glad you mentioned it because it was so ridiculous. The ruling was so misguided that it thought Congress had created USAID, which is not correct. It was actually created by executive… pic.twitter.com/flMw6Xplvm

— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) March 20, 2025

Update (1630ET): As expected, President Trump is holding an event Thursday afternoon at the White House centered on his plans to overhaul the Education Department.

🚨 TRUMP: “I will begin eliminating the federal Department of Education once and for all.”

“We’re pleased to be joined by [the] LAST Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon.” @EDSecMcMahon

LET’S GO!! pic.twitter.com/gxxv4k6Jv1

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 20, 2025

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said all the critical functions of the Department of Education will remain, ahead of President Trump signing an executive order to dismantle the federal agency.

“The Department of Education will be much smaller than it is today. As you know, the president’s executive order directed Linda McMahon to greatly minimize the agency. So, when it comes to student loans and Pell Grants, those will still be run out of the Department of Education,” she told reporters at the White House, referring to McMahon, the Education secretary. 

“The great responsibility of educating our nation’s students will return to the states. Any critical functions of the department … will remain,” Leavitt added.

Leavitt’s comment comes as the president said he wants the department completely eliminated, but that would require an act of Congress, which is unlikely to happen since 60 votes would be needed in the Senate.

In her first comments on the executive order, obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller, McMahon explains that the department “will continue to support K-12 students, students with special needs, college student borrowers, and others” while working with the states to give them control over education.

“Closing the Department does not mean cutting off funds from those who depend on them — we will continue to support K-12 students, students with special needs, college student borrowers, and others who rely on essential programs. We’re going to follow the law and eliminate the bureaucracy responsibly by working with Congress and state leaders to ensure a lawful and orderly transition,” McMahon says in her statement.

“With today’s action, we take a significant step forward to give parents and states control over their children’s education. Teachers will be unshackled from burdensome regulations and paperwork, empowering them to get back to teaching basic subjects. Taxpayers will no longer be burdened with tens of billions of dollars of waste on progressive social experiments and obsolete programs. K-12 and college students will be relieved of the drudgery caused by administrative burdens — and positioned to achieve success in a future career they love,” she continues.

The executive order does not abolish the department, but rather sizes it down as it calls for “uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”

*  *  *

As Zachary Stieber detailed earlier, via The Epoch Times, President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on March 20 that will facilitate the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education, taking a step toward fulfilling a campaign pledge.

The order, which has been under preparation for weeks, will be signed at a White House event with several Republican governors and state education commissioners in attendance, as confirmed by the White House. The plan was first reported by USA Today.

Trump will direct his recently confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take all required steps to prepare for the closure of the Education Department and transfer its authority to the states, according to a White House fact sheet obtained by NTD TV, sister media of The Epoch Times.

According to the fact sheet, the order also aims to ensure that, throughout the process, there is no disruption in the delivery of services, programs, and benefits that Americans rely on.

The order also instructs that any programs or activities receiving remaining Department of Education funds will not promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) or gender ideology.

The Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

McMahon, confirmed by the Senate on March 3, said in her first message to employees—titled “Our Department’s Final Mission”—that her “vision is aligned with the president’s: to send education back to the states.”

She added, “Our job is to respect the will of the American people and the President they elected, who has tasked us with accomplishing the elimination of bureaucratic bloat here at the Department of Education—a momentous final mission—quickly and responsibly.”

The Department of Education employed about 4,200 workers before its recent termination of around 1,300, and the buyout of another 600.

The agency’s current form stems from a 1979 law that made it independent by splitting it from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

The federal government’s role in education, according to the White House, has failed students, parents, and teachers.

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores demonstrate that student achievement has not improved, despite more than $3 trillion invested since the Department of Education’s inception in 1979, according to the fact sheet.

Trump promised on the campaign trail to abolish the Department of Education, alleging it is responsible for indoctrinating America’s youth.

Continue reading at The Epoch Times

*  *   *

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Hillary Clinton always has a knack of popping up just when you’re about to forget she exists to remind everyone what kind of hell we’d be living in had she not lost to Trump nine years ago.

Here she is in Germany at the “World Forum” this week once again calling for her side, in whatever form that comes in, to have the authority to control how people think, ironically in order to, she asserts, stop “autocrats” from taking over society.

“Information determines how we think”: At the World Forum in Berlin, an irate @HillaryClinton warns about technology being “weaponized” to enable the spread of unapproved information.

“Where there are no facts that are agreed upon, that happen right before your eyes, & you have… pic.twitter.com/gudgeR97K6

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 19, 2025

Hillary asserted “We now have a government in the United States that has thrown in its lot with the autocrats, which has made a choice to support those who wage war, not peace, who have given enormous power to the men who control the information flow in our world, who have all pledged allegiance to the continuation of algorithms that not only addict us, but poison us with hatred and fear.”

“Information determines how we think, and how we think determines what we say, and what we say determines what we do,” said Clinton

Sounding like something straight out of Orwell’s 1984, Clinton further stated “Where there are no facts that are agreed upon, that happen right before your eyes, and you have leaders telling you to ignore it, that Putin did not invade Ukraine, that Ukraine somehow brought it upon itself, where there are no facts, there cannot be truth, and where there is no truth, there cannot be trust, and where there is no trust, there cannot be democracy and peace.”

What facts would they be? The ones you decide are true?

…Clinton immediately turned to the need to control information which “controls what we think.” She insisted that there must be a protection for “facts” : a chilling message from one of the most outspoken champions for censorship and speech regulations.

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) March 18, 2025

…Clinton is the perfect personification of the goal to crate “A New World Order: Based on European Values”. It is American values that are a bit more of a challenge for a leader who called on the EU to use the Digital Services Act to censor Americans.

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) March 18, 2025

Here’s the full six minutes, which she probably got paid millions for.

Hillary has long been on this crusade against freedom of speech, lamenting that if globalists lose control of the social narrative their entire house of cards comes crashing down.

What genuinely sickens me is that the modern Left has repeatedly rejected and even scoffed at the idea of objective truth, introducing scare quotes for the very idea of “truth,” and now they’re furious that they can’t simply require us to believe in their “truths.”

— Southpaw Patrol (@SouthpawPatrol) March 19, 2025

What a repulsive thing for her to say. Un-American, in fact.

— Kelkat (@Tweetytweeter63) March 18, 2025

The Democrats would love to decide what information is approved and censor the rest of us.

— Ellie A (@EllieGAnders) March 19, 2025

Autocracy is only ok when they do it!

There is an inverse relationship between the amount of time Hillary is on camera and is actually heard speaking and her popularity. I hope she continues to give speeches around the United States. It would be hard for the Republican Party to buy better advertising.

— Harmonicminer (@harmonicminer) March 18, 2025

What is the end game here?

They are trying to set the stage for large scale invalidation of elections because of “manipulation” by social media

— Cadessbor (@Cadessbor) March 19, 2025

*  *  *

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

MSNBC analyst and former Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill has long been criticized for unhinged rhetoric. 

That was evident on “Morning Joe” recently when McCaskill said that the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members was akin to Putin “disappearing” people. 

It is not the first such analogy by McCaskill, who has called those opposing the censorship under the Biden Administration “Putin lovers.” 

However, just for the record, Putin does not generally disappear people by putting them on flights back to their countries. He tends more toward nerve agents than immigration agents to remove people.

McCaskill’s comments have been echoed by others on the left, even before the election.

On ABC’s “The View,” Whoopi Goldberg told viewers how Trump is already committed to being a dictator who will “put you people away … take all the journalists … take all the gay folks … move you all around and disappear you.”

I have expressed concerns over the alleged failure to comply with the order of U.S. District Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg in his order to stop such flights and return those in transit. 

To the extent that the White House is arguing that this is a non-justiciable matter, that is an argument to raise on appeal.

I have criticized some judges for intrusion into areas of presidential discretion. However, the Trump Administration would only undermine such cases by defying court orders.

Trump struck the perfect tone after coming into office by pledging to comply with opposing court orders while appealing them. That is what he did in his first term with considerable success.

Nevertheless, the analogy of McCaskill is the latest example of the rising hysteria on the left. She stated on MSNBC:

“We’ve got to make sure that people cannot be picked up and disappeared like his buddy Putin does. Like his buddy. He does like his buddy Xi does, like his biddy Kim Jong Un does. They do this? 

They disappear people and many times murder them. 

So we’re not going to go down that road. I don’t care how much the president screams irresponsibly about impeachment, there’s no way.”

McCaskill tends to paint those with opposing views as Nazis or Putin sympathizers. After one hearing (where I also testified against the censorship system under the Biden Administration), McCaskill appeared on MSNBC to denounce the witnesses (Sen. Chuck Grassley, Sen. Ron Johnson, and former Rep. Gabbard) as “Putin apologists” and Putin lovers. She exclaimed, “I mean, look at this, I mean, all three of those politicians are Putin apologists. I mean, Tulsi Gabbard loves Putin.”

She has also said that Trump is “more dangerous than Hitler” — a person who committed the genocide of millions and triggered a war killing tens of millions. Yeah, that Hitler.

The problem with the escalating rhetoric is that there is nowhere to go from here. You jumped the shark. What is left after saying that Trump is more dangerous than Hitler and is disappearing people like Putin? That leaves only Ebola and cholera.

There is a danger to such “rage rhetoric” when it gives a license to others to take violent action, including attempting to assassinate a justice or a president. Indeed, once the left hit the maximal level of panic politics, you cannot ratchet down without being yourself subject to attack from the mob. You have to keep the rhetoric at a DEFCON 1 level.

There is another possibility worth considering. Every administration has come into power with sweeping changes. They are hashed out in the courts. If history is any guide, it is likely that Trump will win many but also lose some of these cases. That includes challenges to the authority of courts.

You can criticize these moves without reaching for the Hitler and Putin analogies. We have the most stable, most successful constitutional system in the history of the world. This is no constitutional crisis. We have this. Our constitution and courts will resolve any conflicts and we will continue as a free people. The only thing likely to “disappear” are the ratings and viewers of networks who traffic in rage rhetoric and panic politics.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

New York’s highest court has decisively rejected a controversial New York City law allowing migrants living in the US illegally to vote in local elections, dealing a major blow to progressive activists in the Big Apple.

The Court of Appeals, the state’s top judicial body, struck down the measure in a clear 6-1 ruling Thursday, – as the court’s progressive majority sided overwhelmingly with Republicans who argued the law violated New York’s state constitution, Politico reports.

The now-defunct law, pushed through at the end of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s tenure and passively approved by his successor Mayor Eric Adams, would have allowed over 800,000 migrants living in the US illegally to vote in municipal elections—including critical contests like mayoral races.

Republicans, who challenged the law, pointed to clear language in the state constitution stating that “every citizen shall be entitled to vote,” arguing this explicitly excludes noncitizens from casting ballots. Democrats on the City Council claimed the wording represented only a minimum standard and argued local governments had the power to expand voting rights beyond citizens.

But Chief Judge Rowan Wilson didn’t buy it. Writing for the court’s majority, Wilson shredded the Democratic interpretation, highlighting the potential absurdity of their position.

“Under that interpretation, municipalities are free to enact legislation that would enable anyone to vote—including … thirteen-year-old children,” Wilson wrote, adding “It is plain from the language and restrictions contained in [the state constitution] that ‘citizen’ is not meant as a floor, but as a condition of voter eligibility: the franchise extends only to citizens whose right to vote is established by proper proofs.”

Joe Borelli, former Republican minority leader of the City Council and a plaintiff in the suit, called the decision predictable. “We file some lawsuits that are stretches,” he admitted. “This one was, from the beginning, an open-shut case.”

Assemblymember Michael Tannousis (R-Staten Island), another plaintiff, celebrated the ruling as an affirmation of voting as a “sacred right” reserved solely for U.S. citizens.

“As the son of immigrants who came to New York for the American dream and worked hard to become naturalized citizens, I am content with today’s ruling,” Tannousis said.

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