IDF seizes huge Iran terror axis arsenal but the fingerprints on them are damning

Israel’s capture of a vast arsenal from Iran’s terror proxies reveals an axis with the most unexpected originsAmong the weapons taken from Hezbollah was a Nazi-era MG-34 machine gunFox News Digital was granted rare access to the Israel Defense Forces’ Tzrifin Base in central Israel. There, stored in careful order, lies a formidable collection of rockets, grenades, drones, sniper rifles, automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers, mortars and assorted firepower seized from Hezbollah and Hamas.

This arsenal, manufactured in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Russia, China, and by local workshops in Lebanon and Gaza, and even including a relic of the Nazi era, formed the machinery with which Hamas and Hezbollah waged war against Israeli civilians and the IDF after the October 7, 2023, massacre. 

The IDF notes that Hezbollah directed some of the same weapons against Lebanese civilians as well. Both groups belong to Iran’s so-called “axis of resistance.” Together they have killed more than 300 American citizens, according to available reports. 

At the height of the conflict Israel fought a multi-front war against Iran and its proxies. Tehran fired these weapons into civilian areas, including Tel Aviv and Be’ersheva. Days after the joint American-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February, the regime launched a ballistic missile into Beersheba, wounding 19 people.

To the untrained eye the small Nazi swastika emblem on a German Second World War MG-34 machine gun, recovered from a Hezbollah compound in Lebanon, is almost invisible. 

For Lieutenant Colonel (reserve) Idan Sharon-Kettler, commander of the IDF’s Captured Equipment Evacuation Unit, identifying such markings is routine. “The German MG-34 has the markings of an eagle carrying a swastika stamped on it,” he explained. The gun, he told Fox News Digital, appears to have served “propaganda or for morale” among the Iranian-backed terrorists in Lebanon. A second Nazi-era weapon, the MP 44 (also known as the StG 44), was likewise taken from Hezbollah.

Hamas and Hezbollah, both designated terrorist organizations by the United States, showed particular ingenuity in converting ordinary vehicles into instruments of high-intensity attack. Dual-use technology, equipment that serves civilian purposes one day and military ones the next, is their stock in trade. 

“Motorcycles like these took Israelis hostages,” Sharon-Kettler said, indicating an Egyptian Halawa Motors motorcycle captured inside Israel on 7 October. That day Hamas murdered more than 1,200 people, among them more than 40 American citizens, and abducted over 250 others. 

The IDF also recovered rockets belonging to Palestinian Islamic Jihad that had been employed as “propaganda dummies” in Gaza parades directed against Israel. From Hezbollah in Lebanon came all-terrain vehicles designed to carry rockets and fighters. One such ATV was fitted to hold six rockets complete with launchers. “You can sit on top of a hill and control a road that goes underneath. And with six anti-tank rockets you will stop almost any vehicle that passes,” Sharon-Kettler observed. 

In the broken, hilly terrain of southern Lebanon the vehicles offered obvious tactical advantages. 

Iranian-made mortars were found in quantity. “We found hundreds” in Lebanon, Sharon-Kettler said. Drones, including decoy models, were seized as well. Some of Hezbollah’s drones, according to Sharon-Kettler, exist chiefly “to make noise” and thereby “divert [IDF] resources.” 

Dozens of Iranian-produced cannons were taken from villages in southern Lebanon, the organization’s heartland. “In many houses the canons were pointing out of windows,” he reported. One of the captured pieces was of Russian manufacture. The storage halls also contain Russian AK-47 assault rifles in various configurations, together with more recent AK-103 and AK-104 models recovered in southern Lebanon. “Light sniper rifles, some made in Iran, some Russian, are very common with Hezbollah and Hamas,” Sharon-Kettler noted. 

Among the more unexpected finds was a highly decorated Turkish hunting rifle used by Hezbollah, as well as sophisticated Austrian Steyr sniper rifles, including the Steyr HS .50-calibre model. An Iranian-made replica of the Steyr was also displayed. Sub-machine guns of Chinese and Russian origin, and anti-tank launchers produced in Russia and Iran, completed the collection of small arms and support weapons.Uniforms manufactured in Syria, China and Lebanon, helmets, anti-shrapnel vests and medical kits further illustrate the professional and guerrilla equipment amassed by these groups. 

Both Hezbollah and Hamas embed their fighters among civilian populations, placing them inside residential neighborhoods, hospitals, schools and mosques. This is how these terrorists operate, but it seems the Left doesn't like to discuss this situation.

Sharon-Kettler offered a blunt assessment of Israel’s continued presence in Lebanon. “Even after the agreement we had with the Lebanese army and government, once we entered Lebanon again, we kept finding everything that is here. For me, it means, if we are not doing the work to clean Lebanon from military entities targeting are civilians, nobody else is doing that.” He referred to the November 2024 ceasefire arrangement between Lebanon and Israel that was meant to end the fighting begun when Hezbollah joined Hamas’s war on 8 October 2023.

A State Department official, speaking on background, recently informed Fox News that the American-led effort to secure the disarmament of Hezbollah by the Lebanese government and a phased withdrawal of IDF forces from southern Lebanon continues. The next round of talks is scheduled for early September in Rome. “We feel good about the trajectory,” the official said, adding, “We are not naive about the difficulties. . . "

Hezbollah, of course, is trying to sabotage the process.  

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Texas Airports Discover the Shocking Concept of Religious Neutrality

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R-of course) has apparently committed the unforgivable sin of asking whether government-owned airports should be in the business of providing religion-specific amenities.

Abbott ordered a review of state funding for airports across Texas after learning about Islamic ablution facilities at two of the state's largest airports. The question is fairly simple: If government is supposed to remain religiously neutral, why is it providing specialized facilities for the practices of one particular faith?

“These ablution facilities appear designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion. That is illegal,” said Abbott.

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport plans to install separate foot-washing stations for men and women so Muslims can perform wudu, the ritual washing conducted before Islamic prayer. The project was originally listed as privately funded, with an estimated price tag of $300,000 and an August 31 start date.

Apparently, however, the phrase "privately funded" was experiencing a brief identity crisis.

DFW later told the Dallas Express that the facilities would actually be paid for with airport funds. The airport blamed an outside design firm, which mistakenly selected "non-publicly funded" on a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

“That was an error and it should have indicated that airport funds would be used projects. We are putting in firm erroneously selected no dollars for its operation to prevent that kind of error in the future,” said DFW.

This is reassuring. Nothing makes taxpayers sleep better than learning that hundreds of thousands of dollars in airport spending may have been accurately described as private funding due to an unfortunate encounter with a dropdown menu.

Abbott's review could result in existing state grants being revoked and future funding denied to airport operators, including DFW and George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

He has also asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to investigate both airports for possible religious discrimination.

While DFW is still deciding whether to install its ablution facilities, IAH [George Bush International Airport] already has one connected to a prayer room.

“Both airports are government-owned facilities,” said Abbott. “The federal and state constitutions prohibit government from facilitating this sort of discrimination.”

Abbott also asked Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to have the Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration review the facilities and take corrective action if necessary.

Both airports receive federal funding and are required to comply with federal laws prohibiting religious discrimination. Which raises an awkward question for the modern bureaucracy: If government cannot favor one religion over another, how exactly did taxpayers wind up underwriting religious foot baths?

Surely this is all just a misunderstanding.

Perhaps tomorrow the airports will announce that Christians can receive complimentary baptismal pools, Jews can get kosher ceremonial washing stations, Hindus can receive a taxpayer-funded purification room, and atheists can be provided with a comfortable chair where they can contemplate the absurdity of the entire arrangement.

DFW's explanation does little to calm the situation. According to the airport, the outside design firm selected the wrong funding designation on the paperwork.

Apparently the airport's religious neutrality was not the problem. The checkbox was.

X users backed Abbott's move, with some calling for similar scrutiny of other airports.

At this rate, the next great airport security breakthrough may not involve detecting explosives. It may involve detecting whether the government has accidentally decided to become the facilities manager for someone's religion.

And somewhere, a taxpayer is still waiting for the airport to build a special foot-washing station for him.

He just hasn't figured out which religion gets one yet.

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Graham Platner returns like a boomerang on a rope: Dems pissed

Graham Platner was supposed to be yesterday’s problem. Fat chance.

Instead, the former neo Nazi Maine Senate candidate has apparently decided to become the Democratic Party’s version of that mysterious brown stain on the carpet that refuses to disappear no matter how much everyone insists the room has been cleaned.

Platner was forced out of the Senate race after his disturbing social media history, Nazi tattoo, domestic abuse allegations, and a credible rape allegation became impossible for Democrats to ignore. There’s damaged goods, and then there’s Graham Platner, who somehow managed to make damaged goods look like a luxury product.

Naturally, like an ugly puss pimple on a hot date, he’s back.

Comrade Platner is now scheduled to headline a Labor Day rally in Maine, prompting Democrats who had desperately hoped to move on from the controversy to react with gastroenteritis and flatulence.

According to the Bangor Daily News, Democrats are confused and frustrated that activists in Hancock County announced the rally featuring this alleged sexual abuser. The event comes as the party attempts to rally behind its new Senate nominee, former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, who is trying to build a national campaign against five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

Jackson has his own Platner-ish problems, but that's a story for another time. I'll just say, not only is he married to his second cousin, he's alleged to be abusive toward her.

Republicans have already spent weeks trying to tie Jackson to Platner. So naturally, the last thing Democrats need is for Platner to grab a microphone, step onto a stage, and remind everyone why they spent so much time trying to make him disappear.

“I don’t know what they were thinking,” former Maine Democratic Party Vice Chair Peggy Schaffer said. “He’s not an elected official, not a union member, and he’s an accused rapist.” [She left out alleged domestic abuser.]

"And this one is my Totenkopf. Nice, right?"

Jordan Wood, who ran for the Senate and House earlier this year and is working to elect Jackson and other Democrats, was equally concerned.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Wood said. “I think it’s important for the many Democratic campaigns to move on from that. Highlighting him at an event is unproductive and unhelpful for those campaigns.” Because when you pull the curtain back, you see the slime bucket this guy is.

That seems like a fairly straightforward message: Please stop inviting the controversial former candidate to Democratic events.

Unfortunately, Democrats have never been particularly good at following their own advice when a politically useful ally is accused of sexual misconduct.

Just ask Bill Clinton, Anthony Weiner, Eric Swalwell, Al Franken, or Andrew Cuomo,.

Platner’s alleged victims are not laughing.

Jenny Racicot and Lyndsey Fifield, who have accused Platner of rape and domestic abuse respectively, released a statement condemning the decision to give him another public platform. And they are Democrats!

"Last month, we came forward at great personal cost to tell the world who we knew Graham Platner to be. We shed light on some of the darkest, most painful days of our lives and detailed the toll – physical and emotional – that his abuse took on each of us. Neither of us wanted to be forced into the spotlight, but we came forward because we believe in building a future where no other woman has to endure what we did.

"In the weeks since we spoke out, Graham Platner has had every opportunity to take accountability for the pain he has caused. Instead, he has continued to double down – discrediting us and telling blatant lies about his past. And now, he’s trying to sweep the truth under the rug and pretend things are back to normal.

"While Graham’s behavior sucks, it’s hardly surprising. What is surprising is that there are people who are still willing to give him a platform despite his refusal to take any accountability for his actions. It’s a slap in the face, not just to us, but to survivors everywhere. Our message to Mainers: stand with survivors and refuse to platform abusers."

Cheyenne Hunt, executive director of Reckoning Action, also demanded that Democrats reconsider the invitation.

“Continuing to give Graham Platner a bully pulpit is irresponsible, reckless, and antithetical to the direction we should be headed as Democrats. If we want to be a party that supports survivors, we cannot also be a party that continues to platform abusers. Full stop.

"We call on the Hancock County Activists to rescind his invitation to speak, and we call on Democrats everywhere to stand with survivors.”

At this point, the Democratic Party appears to have created the political equivalent of Frankenstein’s monster, only to discover that the monster keeps showing up at Labor Day rallies demanding a microphone.

Democrats wanted Platner gone.

Platner apparently had other plans. Perhaps his oyster farm isn't doing so well. 

And now the party that desperately wants voters to forget about him is being forced to explain why its own activists are putting him on stage.

There are political candidates who refuse to die.

Then there is Graham Platner, apparently rolling toward the next campaign event like der Fuhrer's Panzers in the Ardennes, leaving Democratic campaign strategists behind him frantically searching for the political equivalent of an anti-tank weapon.

He's a fool, but a dangerous fool. Maybe, however, he'll open the eyes of Democrats who finally realize how far their party has gone over the edge and they'll switch to the Grand Old Party.

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Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao's home raided by FBI and woo hoo, it's interesting

Sheng Thao is the former mayor of Oakland, California (2023–2024), the first Hmong American to lead a major U.S. city. She was narrowly elected in 2022, recalled by voters in 2024 amid crime concerns and other issues, and faces an ongoing federal bribery and corruption case with a trial scheduled for October 2026.

Background and rise to office

Thao was born in 1985 in Stockton, California, the daughter of Hmong refugees who fled Laos. She grew up in poverty, experienced domestic violence, and was homeless for a time in her early 20s (including living in her car with her infant son). She later earned degrees from Merritt College and UC Berkeley.

She worked as a staffer for Oakland City Council member Rebecca Kaplan, then won election to the Oakland City Council (District 4) in 2018—the first Hmong American on the council. She served as president pro tem. In November 2022, she narrowly defeated fellow councilmember Loren Taylor in a ranked-choice mayoral race (by roughly 682 votes) and took office in January 2023 as Oakland’s 51st mayor. She emphasized addressing crime, homelessness, and affordable housing, with goals including building tens of thousands of new housing units.

Mayoral tenure and recall

Her time in office was turbulent. Early on, she fired Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong. The city faced ongoing challenges with crime, business closures, homelessness, and budget issues (including deficits). Crime later declined in some metrics, and she pointed to efforts on housing, violence prevention (including a ceasefire strategy), 911 improvements, and other initiatives.

A recall campaign gained traction, driven by frustration over public safety and questions about her leadership. The Oakland police union called for her resignation. On November 5, 2024, voters approved the recall with about 60.6% in favor—the first successful mayoral recall in Oakland history. She left office in mid-December 2024 after results were certified.

Federal investigation and charges

In June 2024 (shortly after the recall petition was certified), the FBI raided Thao’s home as part of a corruption probe. In January 2025, a federal grand jury indicted her, her longtime partner Andre Jones, and father-son businessmen David and Andy Duong (associated with California Waste Solutions, Oakland’s recycling contractor, and related housing ventures such as Evolutionary Homes).

Prosecutors describe an alleged “pay-to-play” scheme. They claim that around the 2022 election and afterward, the Duongs provided campaign support (including financing roughly $75,000 in negative mailers against Thao’s opponents) and payments to Jones for a “no-show” job (about $95,000 of a promised larger amount), in exchange for Thao using her influence to help their businesses—such as with recycling contracts, city purchases of modular/container housing, favorable appointments, and other favors. Additional allegations in court filings have included claims of sharing sensitive information, creating fake employment records, and other actions.

All four defendants pleaded not guilty. Related figures, including political operative Mario Juarez (a key alleged participant/informant) and former San Leandro Councilmember Bryan Azevedo, have pleaded guilty in connected matters and are expected to be witnesses. Prosecutors have listed dozens of potential witnesses (including city staff, officials, and others).

Recent developments (as of August 2026)

The case remains active with a jury trial set to begin around October 19, 2026 (jury selection earlier that month). On August 14, 2026, Thao appeared in federal court in Oakland for a pretrial motions hearing. New court records include allegations that she pressured the Duongs to pay about $10,000 to a reporter’s associate to suppress a potential story about alleged drug use and sexual conduct during a 2023 Vietnam trip funded by California Waste Solutions. Prosecutors also reference claims involving secret recordings or materials of politicians held by one of the businessmen. Defense teams have sought to exclude various evidence; the judge is reviewing those issues.

Thao has maintained her innocence through counsel. The case is being closely watched in the Bay Area as it involves local politics, city contracts, and allegations of influence-peddling.

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The Southern Poverty Law Center Discovers That Fighting Extremism Can Be Extremely Profitable

Heidi Beirich

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has spent decades warning Americans about the terrifying threat of extremism. It has compiled hate maps, labeled conservative organizations as hate groups, and portrayed itself as one of the nation's great guardians against the forces of intolerance.

Now, according to federal prosecutors, the SPLC has found an innovative way to fight extremism: allegedly give millions of dollars to extremists. It's kind of reminiscent of the auto glass store owner sneaking around the neighborhood breaking car windows. It's great for business.

On April 21, 2026, a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama, indicted the SPLC on 11 counts involving wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. A superseding indictment followed in June, with additional developments in August.

Prosecutors allege that the SPLC secretly diverted more than $4 million in donor funds to informants associated with extremist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, National Alliance, and National Socialist Movement.

Some of that money allegedly helped fund such wholesome anti-hate activities as recruiting members, purchasing KKK robes, and acquiring materials for cross-burnings.

Apparently, the SPLC's definition of "fighting hate" comes with a rather generous expense account for the hate groups that give them credibility for their own existence.

The alleged operation also reportedly involved a collection of shell accounts established under wonderfully ordinary names such as "Fox Photography," "Rare Books Warehouse," and "Tech Writers Group." Having a mysterious bank account belonging to a fake photography company is about as transparent as a brick wall.

Federal prosecutors contend that donors were led to believe their money was being used to combat extremism, rather than quietly financing people inside extremist organizations.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel have described the allegations as a scheme involving the "manufacturing racism."

Which raises an uncomfortable question for the SPLC: If you are allegedly paying extremists to manufacture the very material you use to warn people about extremism, are you fighting the fire, or operating the fire department?

The controversy became even more awkward on August 12, when former SPLC Intelligence Project director Heidi Beirich was charged in a superseding indictment. Prosecutors allege she oversaw payments to informants and had a romantic relationship with one key source, identified as "F-9," who was linked to the neo-Nazi National Alliance.

According to prosecutors, fraulein Beirich and the informant shared a home and joint bank accounts, with roughly $140,000 in SPLC donor money allegedly flowing into those accounts between 2015 and 2021. Prosecutors say the informant received approximately $1.2 million from the SPLC over the years.

That certainly gives "donating to the cause" a rather different meaning.

The SPLC denies wrongdoing. Of course it does. It has pleaded not guilty and insists that the prosecution is politically motivated retaliation by the Trump administration for its civil rights work and hate-group designations. In fact, they believe Trump is controlling the entire planet and his next move might be the moon.

The organization says its informant program was a legitimate intelligence operation that gathered information, reported threats to law enforcement, and "saved lives." On the contrary, the organization has created racial divide and may have even contributed to racial violence.

The SPLC also says the case "will not shake our resolve."

Fair enough. Federal indictments apparently do not shake the resolve of an organization that has spent years telling everyone else they should be shaken.

On August 7, U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks rejected the SPLC's attempt to have the case dismissed on grounds of vindictive prosecution, finding insufficient evidence of prosecutorial animus connected to the decision to charge the organization.

So for the moment, the SPLC's preferred explanation remains political persecution, while prosecutors' preferred explanation remains fraud.

It is an unusually stark disagreement over what happened to millions of dollars.

The irony is difficult to miss. The SPLC has built an enormous public reputation by warning Americans about organizations it considers dangerous. It has helped create a culture in which being placed on an SPLC list can carry enormous reputational consequences.

Yet now the organization itself stands accused of secretly funneling millions of dollars to people connected to some of the very extremist groups it publicly condemns, and one of the organization's leaders has allegedly 'slept with the enemy.'

And this is hardly the first controversy to land on the SPLC's doorstep. 

In 2019, co-founder Morris Dees was fired amid allegations involving workplace misconduct, racism, and sexism. The organization has also faced years of criticism over its practice of labeling mainstream conservative and religious organizations as "hate groups." The only serial haters seems to be the SPLC.

The SPLC has always maintained that its classifications are necessary to expose dangerous extremism, but this turned out to be balderdash [aka BS].

Now prosecutors are asking a rather inconvenient question: What happens when the organization doing the exposing allegedly becomes part of the story?

The SPLC insists it was conducting undercover intelligence work, but the FBI was unable to find evidence of intelligence among the leadership.

Critics see something much darker: an organization allegedly financing the extremists whose existence helps justify the organization's fundraising, influence, and political relevance. In other words, their entire existence.

If the allegations are proven, the Southern Poverty Law Center may have achieved something remarkably efficient. It allegedly found a way to fight extremism, fund extremism, identify extremism, fundraise off extremism, and then blame conservatives for noticing.

That is not merely a hate map.

That is a business model.

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Curtis Sliwa Tells 9/11 Families to Stop Being ‘Sore Losers’ Over Mamdani

Happy faces

Apparently, the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks now comes with a new rule: You are allowed to remember the nearly 3,000 Americans murdered by Islamist terrorists, but apparently not to complain about the Islamist mayor attending the ceremony.

Former mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa told relatives of 9/11 victims Thursday to “stop being sore losers” after some families launched a petition urging New York City Mayor, comrade Zohran Mamdani, to stay away from this year’s Ground Zero commemoration.

“He’s the mayor. Stop being sore losers!” Sliwa told reporters Thursday. “You knew this is Zohran Mamdani. He was never a fake, phony, fraudulent, fugazi like a lot of politicians. He told you who he was.”

That is certainly one way to put it. 

Some relatives of the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have backed a petition asking Mamdani not to attend the ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the attacks, which killed 2,977 people.

Giovanni Galante, whose 29-year-old wife, Grace Catherine Galante, was killed on 9/11 and who helped organize the petition, accused Mamdani of failing to “meaningfully acknowledge the horror” of the attacks and associating with people who have minimized them. 

[In fact, on the day of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Mamdani's wife, Rama Sawaf Duwaji, like a post from The Slow Factory account that included images from the assault. It showed a bulldozer breaching the Gaza-Israel barrier and terrorists on a captured IDF vehicle. An overlaid text of the image said: "Resisting apartheid since 1948," and "Systemic change for collective liberation." The next day, she like posts from The People's Forum (associated with Times Square protests involving Democratic Socialists of America and their buddies.) These promoted standing with "Palestinian resistance," along with the "from the river to the sea" slogan. In February 2024, after a NY Times investigation into sexual violence during the attack, Duwaji liked a post referring to reports of Hamas rapes as a "mass rape" hoax that was "fabricated" by The Times. Mamdani never condemned his wife's words.]

Cheri Sparacio, whose husband, Thomas, was also killed on 9/11, pointed to Mamdani’s association with left-wing scum-streamer Hasan Piker, who said in 2019 that “America deserved 9/11” before having to later apologize.

Mamdani has said he plans to attend the September 11 ceremony anyway, his way of doxing them.

Sliwa, who ran against Mamdani and former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo as the Republican candidate in last year’s mayoral election, said families have every right to dislike the mayor, but apparently the mayoral chair now comes with a complimentary halo.

Sliwa called the petition effort ridiculous. Sliwa is wrong.

“Once he got elected, you should have known he was going to be there at 9/11,” Sliwa said. “Now, if you choose to turn your back on him, I don’t want to ever tell family members what they should be doing on this holiday, not holiday, but this solemn occasion, that’s your choice.

“But I believe you respect the office,” he continued. “He’s the mayor. He’s representing the city.”

Why? Why must we 'respect the office' if the person in office is a socialist-Islamist who apparently plans to ruin the city's economy with his communist ideas? Maybe respecting the office means going after the person who is degrading the office. 

Sliwa also revisited an embarrassing moment from the closing days of the 2025 mayoral campaign involving Cuomo and radio host Sid Rosenberg.

Rosenberg joked with Cuomo, who was running as an independent, that Mamdani would cheer for the terrorists if another September 11 attack occurred while he was mayor. Cuomo chuckled before replying, “That’s another problem.”

Sliwa said the remark hurt Cuomo at precisely the moment when his campaign had begun gaining momentum.

“He was gaining traction, and then he made that stupid remark and then didn’t handle it well,” Sliwa said. “And then Zohran exploited the hell out of it, as he should.”

“That was Islamophobic,” Sliwa added.

So, in the strange political universe of New York City, the 9/11 anniversary has somehow become a referendum on Islamophobia, mayoral etiquette and whether grieving families are sufficiently respectful of the office.

Meanwhile, the families who actually lost loved ones on September 11 apparently get to choose between keeping quiet and being labeled “sore losers.”

What a country. What a crazy take by a guy who's lost my respect.

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Luigi Mangione Seeks Plea Deal, Apparently Discovering That Revolutionary Courage Has Its Limits

Luigi Mangione, the alleged cowardly assassin who became an unlikely folk hero for parts of the online left, is reportedly looking for a plea deal with federal prosecutors. 

Apparently, declaring war on capitalism from behind a gun is one thing. Facing the federal justice system is another.

Mangione, who is charged with the cowardly 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is reportedly in “serious negotiations” with federal prosecutors, according to a new report. An unexpected hearing has been scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m. in Manhattan federal court, less than a month before his federal trial is scheduled to begin on September 8.

Mangione cowardly shoots Brian Thompson in the back, allegedly

According to TMZ, a potential deal could involve Mangione pleading guilty to murder in an open plea, leaving his sentence entirely up to the judge without a recommendation from prosecutors.

The federal case is going to be presided over by U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garrett, Southern District of New York. She was nominated by President Joe Biden in 2023, recommended by Sen. Chuck 'Nostrils' Schumer (D-NY), and confirmed by the Senate on a largely party-line vote (49-46, with nearly all Democrats supporting and nearly all Republicans opposing).

the left's angry heart-throb 

Her professional background includes long service as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, roles in the New York State Attorney General’s office, and serving as New York City Department of Investigation commissioner. Federal judges are officially nonpartisan, but her appointment by a leftist vegetable of a president is the primary public indicator of association.

The state case is being presided over by Justice Gregory Carro, New York Supreme Court. He was appointed by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliana, a Republican.  

By having Judge Garnett presiding and deciding the sentence, it could give the cowardly Mangione an opportunity to present mitigating factors at sentencing, including his views about healthcare, corporate greed and whatever arguments his attorneys believe might explain how those grievances supposedly contributed to the killing.

In other words, the revolutionary who allegedly decided that society needed a violent dose of his personal ideology may now be hoping the court will consider his feelings before deciding how long he should spend in prison.

And based on how the left is adjudicating crime, he may get a medal of valor for the cowardly murder of Brian Thompson.

Such a deal could potentially result in a sentence of less than life in prison and could also raise double jeopardy issues in the state case. Mangione faces additional charges in New York and Pennsylvania. Judge Gregory Carro previously dismissed the defense's double jeopardy argument as premature.

The sudden hearing follows reports that plea negotiations took place in June before stalling. Mangione's top lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, accused federal prosecutors of attempting to “prejudice” public opinion against her client.

“This information attributed to ‘anonymous sources’ is part of a troubling, deliberate pattern by prosecutors and law enforcement to prejudice Luigi, manipulate public opinion, and violate his constitutional right to a fair trial and impartial jury. Every defendant in America is presumed innocent until proven guilty, including Luigi, who has to fight the same charges twice.”

Of course, every defendant is entitled to the presumption of innocence and a fair trial. That is precisely why civilized societies have courts, judges and juries instead of allowing angry political ideologues to decide who deserves to live or die.

Brian Thompson's family

Mangione's case has nevertheless attracted an unusual amount of attention, particularly from people who appear to regard an alleged murderer as a symbol of resistance against corporate America.

On Tuesday, a judge ruled that jurors in the trial will remain anonymous because of concerns about intimidation and harassment involving witnesses and jurors. The judge also approved an overflow room for media and spectators, with both audio and video permitted.

More than 80 news organizations are expected to attend if the trial proceeds as scheduled.

For now, the alleged revolutionary has apparently reached the stage of his grand crusade where lawyers, judges and sentencing guidelines matter quite a bit.

The man who allegedly wanted to send a message to corporate America may soon be sending one to the judge instead: Please, sir, may I have less than life?

What a coward. Do you agree?

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'Habibi City,' New York Magazine's salute to anti-SemitismZai

Zaina Arafat

New York Magazine, an evil rag, has just published a special package in its issue of 10 August 2026, under the title “Habibi City,” also presented as a celebration of SWANA New York. The piece of crap sets out to applaud the rising cultural presence of Southwest Asian and North African [SWANA] communities across the city: the parties, the restaurants, the artists, the comedians, the bookstores, all led by a younger generation that has decided the moment is theirs.

The cover photograph shows a gathering at Laylit, held at Elsewhere. The principal essay is the work of the execrable Zaina Arafat. 

Critics, most prominently John Podhoretz writing in the New York Post, have described the cover and its accompanying package as the “evil ‘Habibi City’ cover.” Similar language has appeared elsewhere. They contend that the issue advances an anti-Israel and anti-Zionist outlook, treats Jewish New Yorkers with marked coolness or as an unwelcome presence, resorts to formulations such as “the land mass currently called Israel,” and rearranges the events after 7 October so that the sense of threat is inverted. 

All of this, they note, unfolds against the political backdrop of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s New York. 

The magazine itself presents the exercise as a cheerful affirmation of SWANA cultural influence and community spirit. The word “evil” is the critics’ own. The dispute is only a few days old, yet it has already provoked considerable objection both online and in the opinion pages. 

Arafat [no relation to Yassar] is a Palestinian-American writer who makes no secret of her strong anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic convictions, although she never has covertly mentioned the latter hatred in public. She describes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in terms that a range of Jewish organizations, the New York Post, The Free Press and others regard as antisemitic or as adding fuel to an antisemitic atmosphere.

In the lead essay she informs readers that SWANA New Yorkers continue to confront “xenophobia, Islamophobia, and Zionism.” Zionism is thereby placed on the same plane as racial prejudice or anti-Muslim hostility. 

She further presents the SWANA cultural flowering as “born out of the pain of the genocide in Gaza” and speaks of people “living under the threat of annihilation” in the period after 7 October.

The wider package, of which her essay is the centerpiece, employs the phrase “the land mass currently called Israel,” an expression critics have called an erasure of Jewish history and of any legitimate claim to the region. Coverage of Jewish and Israeli chefs and restaurants has been criticized as something closer to a hit piece.

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