Comrade Mamdani addresses terror attempt

New York City's shiny new socialist Mayor Zohran "Smiley" Mamdani finally found a moment in his busy schedule to address the little incident outside his official digs. It only took him a full day after protesters were yelling "Allahu Akbar" and chucking a couple of homemade devices into a crowd. Devices that the NYPD bomb squad later confirmed were, surprise, actually lethal.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch dropped the official word on Sunday: "The NYPD Bomb Squad has conducted a preliminary analysis of a device that was ignited and deployed at a protest yesterday and has determined that it is not a hoax device or a smoke bomb. It is, in fact, an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death."

So it turns out that this jihadist and his buddy were seriously trying to kill people.

Tisch added that the second one was still getting the full lab treatment with "further analysis" needed.

Then came the gratitude portion of the program: "Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi were arrested on scene yesterday and are in custody in connection with this matter. The NYPD is working on this investigation with our partners at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the FBI through our Joint Terrorism Task Force. I want to again thank the brave members of the NYPD who ran towards the danger without hesitation and quickly apprehended the suspects."

Meanwhile, Comrade Mamdani released his own statement, which managed the impressive feat of moral equivalencing the guys who threw bombs at people with the people they were throwing bombs at.

"Yesterday, white supremacist Jake Lang organized a protest outside Gracie Mansion rooted in bigotry and racism," Mamdani complained. "Such hate has no place in New York City. It is an affront to our city’s values and the unity that defines who we are."

The leftist mayor kept going: "What followed was even more disturbing. Violence at a protest is never acceptable. The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are. I want to thank the brave men and women of the NYPD who acted quickly to keep New Yorkers safe. Our officers ran toward danger without hesitation, demonstrating once again the courage and dedication it takes to protect this city every single day. My administration is closely monitoring the situation and I remain in close contact with our Police Commissioner."

Yeah, sure.

For context, there were two dueling protests in front of Gracie Mansion. One was a tiny gathering of less than two dozen folks led by January 6 defendant Jake Lang, billed as "Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City, Stop New York City Public Muslim Prayer." The other side pulled in over 100 people under the banner "Run the Nazis out of New York City, Stand Against Hate." [They forgot to add: Death to Israel; death to America.]

Cops kept them separated, but things still got ugly. Someone from Lang's group hit counter-protesters with pepper spray and got arrested. Then tensions boiled over further when Balat and Kayumi got nabbed for the homemade bombs.

In the grand tradition of progressive mayors who love to lecture about unity while carefully avoiding any mention of who actually tried to blow people up, Mamdani's response was a master class in deflection. The bombs were bad, sure, but let's not forget to lead with the real villain: the guy with the offensive protest sign. Classic gas lighting.

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Mojtaba Khamenei better not shop at Target because that's what he has become: next Supreme Leader in the crosshairs

Ali Khamenei's kid popped into the world back in 1969 and the U.S. has had him on the sanctions naughty list since 2019 for playing mini-dad and representing the old man in official regime business.

President Donald Trump confirmed that the mullahs' new brain trust has already reached out to talk turkey following the death of bushy bearded Ayatollah Khamenei, because nothing says "we're serious about change" like begging the guy who just helped turn your supreme leader into handy bite-size pieces.

Iran's Assembly of Experts, an oxymoron if there ever was one, has now crowned Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the country's shiny new supreme leader, per Iranian state television. He better not go shopping at Target. Actually, he'd be smart to have his flunkies go shopping for him rather than being out in fresh air, 

Mojtaba, 56, is the second-eldest spawn of Ali Khamenei. His toddler years lined up perfectly with his father's glow-up from dissident cleric to anti-Shah revolutionary rock star.

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution flipped the script, Ali Khamenei traded protest signs for power suits, grabbing plum gigs like deputy defense minister. The family packed up from Mashhad and headed to Tehran, where young Mojtaba enrolled at Alavi High School where he starred in the stone toss. That's the go-to academy for Iran's future political and religious VIPs, aka terrorists.

Mojit, as his mom calls him, got the full package there: regular classes plus heavy religious indoctrination, and he walked the stage in 1987. Then, in 1989, after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini checked out to the great goat pastures, Ali Khamenei scored the supreme leader job.

That same year, Mojtaba kicked off his official clerical training in Tehran, studying under his dad and Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, who would go on to become Iran's chief justice.

Over time, Mojtaba was glued to his father's side and built a reputation as the shadowy power broker pulling strings from behind the curtain.

In an Axios interview last week, when pressed on chatter that Mojtaba was about to take the throne, President Donald Trump said: "Khamenei's son is unacceptable to me. We want someone who will bring harmony and peace to Iran." He doubled down with, "They are wasting their time. Khamenei's son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy [Rodriguez] in Venezuela."

Back in 2019, the U.S. slapped sanctions on Mojtaba under Executive Order 13867. The Treasury Department explained that he had been "representing the supreme leader in an official capacity despite never being elected or appointed to a government position aside from work in the office of his father."

They also noted that dear old dad had handed off chunks of his leadership duties to the boy wonder. Mojtaba worked hand-in-glove with IRGC Quds Force commanders and the Basij thugs, making him a major player in Iran's domestic crackdowns and overseas mischief.

So there you have it: another generation of Khamenei family rule locked in, complete with U.S. sanctions and Trump basically saying, "Not on my watch, pal." The regime's idea of progress is apparently just handing the keys to the same dynasty. Color me unsurprised.

THIS JUST IN: Mojtaba Kamenei has been eliminated by the IDF.

Just kidding. He hasn't left his confines yet, but Israel has him in their crosshairs.

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Chicago area store owner given 4-year sentence in WIC fraud sceme

A federal judge just slammed the door on yet another welfare fraud scheme that preyed on the very people the program was meant to help.

Hassan Abdellatif, the owner of several Chicago-area convenience stores, has been sentenced to four years in federal prison for his role in ripping off the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program. This federally funded initiative is supposed to deliver nutritious food to low-income kids, pregnant women, breastfeeding moms, and those in the post-partum phase. Instead, Abdellatif and his crew turned it into a cash cow.

From 2010 to 2018, Abdellatif allegedly teamed up with eight other convenience store owners or workers across the Chicago area to fraudulently redeem WIC checks. They knowingly let customers use those checks to buy ineligible items, often jacking up the prices in the process. In total, the ten stores wrapped up in this racket redeemed more than $19 million in WIC benefits.

A federal jury convicted the 37-year-old Chicago resident on all five counts last year: two counts of wire fraud, one count of fraudulently obtaining government benefits, and two counts of willfully failing to file corporate tax returns. 

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jorge L. Alonso handed down the four-year prison term and ordered Abdellatif to cough up more than $8.8 million in restitution to the government.

As Assistant U.S. Attorney Raman laid out in the government's sentencing memorandum, "Hassan Abdellatif and his co-schemers engaged in conduct that was extremely serious, complex, and wide-ranging in scope." Raman added, "Vulnerable communities are impacted when individuals steal from those programs."

This is the kind of brazen abuse that hits hardest at the people who can least afford it. Programs like WIC exist to support families in need, not to line the pockets of schemers who game the system for years. Four years behind bars and millions in restitution might be a start toward justice, but it won't undo the damage done to those vulnerable communities.

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LA "Marathon" allows runners to get medals for identifying as finishing

Everyone gets a medal: you get a medal, and you get a medal . . .

In the grand tradition of human achievement, where men and women once pushed their bodies to the very edge of endurance to claim the honor of finishing a full 26.2 miles, the organizers of the Los Angeles Marathon have decided to introduce a touch of modern compassion, or, depending on your perspective, a gentle surrender to the elements.

They've made the head-scratching decision to reward runners "who have had a tough day" after a mere 18 miles of the course.

Yes, you read that correctly. Participants in this noble test of will and endurance now have the option to receive their finisher medals at the 18-mile marker, sparing themselves the final 8.2 miles without ever having to cross the actual finish line. In other words, they don't need to be marathoners, but can identify as marathoners.

"If you're having a tough day and want to end your race before 26.2, you can choose to take the turn at Mile 18 and head into the finish line early," The McCourt Foundation says on its website. "You do not need to notify anyone of your decision and can opt to take this route at any time."

The organization hastens to add that this generous provision is only for this year, because apparently next year the sun might behave itself.

The decision has drawn some predictable mocking on social media, as one might expect when the ancient rite of the marathon gets a participation-trophy upgrade.

The race was set to begin on Sunday with temperatures climbing as high as 88 degrees in the Los Angeles area, conditions that, in saner times, have prompted marathon organizers to cancel events outright or shift start times to spare runners from turning into human jerky. But not the City of Angels--if Pheidippides could do it, anyone could do it, although the first Greek marathoner died at the end because he had inferior training and running shoes.

"You will still receive your finisher medal and any challenge medal you’ve earned, and your official race results will be updated at a later date to reflect your time and mileage," The McCourt Foundation added. "There is no shame in making a smart decision for your body."

Smart, perhaps. But one wonders if the word "finisher" loses a little something when the finishing part has been quietly abbreviated.

Meg Treat, owner of Treat Public Relations (which is handling the race's PR, naturally), explained to Runner’s World that the weather was very much on their minds.

So cancel the race for better weather.

"Our weather conversations have been ongoing… We start actively monitoring it with the LA Fire Department who partners with the National Weather Service 10 days before the race," she told the outlet.

"This was earlier this week that the team was alerted about the warmer temperatures . . . [and] we communicated to our runners about how they could have a safe race day."

Safety is paramount, of course, no one disputes that. But in a world already awash in diluted meanings and softened edges, it's hard not to feel a pang for the old, harder truths: that a marathon finisher medal meant you had finished the marathon, every punishing step of it, heat or no heat.

Call me old-fashioned, but there's something almost poignant about the idea that true victory might still require going the full distance, even when the sun is trying to cook you alive.

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Unrelenting Trump critic says why he was wrong to eliminate the bushy bearded, now dead guy and his pals in Iran

Chennai, India-born Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) attacked President Donald J. Trump's decision to attack and quickly eliminate the bushy-bearded Shi'a cleric and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with other Islamic Republic Guard Corps (the 's' is silent) in Iran.

"Trump killed the religious and spiritual leader of Iran," Rep. Jayapal said, carefully leaving out the President's title. "He seemed nice with his cute hat and bushy beard. I don't understand why Trump had him eliminated."

The congresswoman defended her Iran War Powers vote:  "Congress alone has power to declare war," warning of long-term consequences and adding it "shouldn’t be partisan." 

The last time Congress formally declared war was on June 4, 1942 and Jayapal asked, "Isn't it about time Congress did again? We do so little during the year it's about time we earned our money legally."

Since the United States was formed back in 1776, Congress has formally declared war 11 times across five conflicts since the Constitution adoption in 1789:

War of 1812: Great Britain (1812)
Mexican-American War: Mexico (1846)
Spanish-American War: Spain (1898)
World War I: Germany (1917) and Austria-Hungary (1917)
World War II: Japan (1941), Germany (1941), Italy (1941), and Bulgaria/Hungary/Romania (1942)

The House voted on a Democrat-led Iran War Powers Resolution designed to limit President Trump's  [aka The Commander-in-Chief] military authority in Tehran. This brings to the forefront once again, the issue over executive powers and what level a president must consult with the loose-lips of members of Congress before waging military strikes. 

If passed, Trump would have to end the use of U.S. troops against Iran and thus allow the regime to continue killing Iranian civilians, as it currently appears to be the case.

Republicans, meanwhile, maintain that the White House is acting within its authority in the best interests of the country and of the remaining Iranian people who have not been killed for protesting the theocratic dictatorship they live under.

And while Jayapal is consistent in her efforts to give Congress the power that Commanders-in-Chief had in the past, others like Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) supported former President Joe Biden's attack on Syria.

For those keeping score, here is a short list by Grok of past presidents who bypassed Congress to use military force: 

Harry S. Truman (1945–1953): Korean War (1950–1953) — Truman committed US troops under UN auspices to repel North Korea's invasion of South Korea, without a declaration of war (often called a "police action").

Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969) and Richard Nixon (1969–1974): Vietnam War escalation (major US combat from 1965–1973) — Johnson used the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964) as authorization to deploy hundreds of thousands of troops; combat continued under Nixon.

Ronald Reagan (1981–1989): Invasion of Grenada (1983, Operation Urgent Fury) — Troops deployed to restore order and protect US citizens after a coup.

George H.W. Bush (1989–1993): Invasion of Panama (1989, Operation Just Cause) — Troops sent to depose Manuel Noriega and protect US interests. Also initiated Operation Desert Shield/Storm (1990–1991 Gulf War) — Large-scale deployment to liberate Kuwait from Iraq, authorized by Congress and UN.

Bill Clinton (1993–2001): Interventions in Somalia (ongoing from Bush era but combat under Clinton), Haiti (1994, Operation Uphold Democracy), Bosnia (1995 NATO bombing/air campaign), and Kosovo (1999 NATO bombing campaign) — US forces engaged in combat roles, often under NATO/UN frameworks without new congressional war declarations.

George W. Bush (2001–2009): War in Afghanistan (2001–2021, Operation Enduring Freedom) — Invasion to oust Taliban and pursue al-Qaeda post-9/11, authorized by 2001 AUMF. Iraq War (2003–2011, Operation Iraqi Freedom) — Invasion to remove Saddam Hussein, authorized by 2002 AUMF.

Barack Obama (2009–2017): Escalated drone strikes and special operations in multiple countries; 2011 Libya intervention (NATO-led air campaign with US combat role); expanded operations against ISIS in Iraq/Syria (2014 onward, under 2001 AUMF).

Other presidents (e.g., Eisenhower, Kennedy, Ford, Carter, Biden) authorized combat in limited contexts (e.g., Lebanon 1958/1982–1983 under Eisenhower/Reagan, or ongoing counterterrorism under Biden), but often smaller-scale or continuations of prior conflicts. 

None of them asked for permission.

So there you have it--hypocrisy on the Hill. 

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IDF's surgical strike takes out IRGC Quds Force leaders at Beirut hotel

The Israel Defense Forces carried out a surgical strike that targeted Quds Force's Lebanese Corps commanders, part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC ) operating in a Ramada ["You do your thing. Leave the rest to us"] hotel in formerly beautiful Beirut.

The IDF reported that the commanders [aka terrorists] were planning to advance terror plots against, you know, the Jews in Israel from Lebanese territory.

The military said the Quds Force’s Lebanon Corps acts as a liaison between Iran’s IRGC and the Hezbollah terror organization, supporting Hezbollah's military buildup.

As is their practice, the IDF took calculated steps to minimize civilian casualties, unlike the IRGC who take calculated steps to maximize civilian casualties. They used precision munitions and aerial surveillance prior to the strike.

“Prior to the strike, steps were taken to minimize the chance of harm to civilians,” the military said, and added that it will continue targeting Iranian regime commanders operating in the region.

Rumor has it that US forces in the region are considering naming the next operation "Operation Fafo."

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Tucker Carlson keeps flaunting his anti-Semitism

In yet another episode of his show loaded with attacks on Judaism, newly-minted, anti-Israel/anti-Semitic podcaster Tucker Carlson is now pinning the ancient Jewish hope of rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem squarely on the Chabad Hasidic movement.

Carlson, with his bizarre giggle and high-pitched voice, went full throttle Thursday in ripping into core traditional Jewish beliefs, zeroing in on the concept of the Third Temple in Jerusalem.

On the latest installment of "The Tucker Carlson Show," the 56-year-old ex-Fox News host dove into what he insisted were "Israel’s true motives" in the ongoing war with Iran.

With no references given, nor how he concluded his delusional "facts," Carlson flat-out predicted that Iran won't fold under joint Israeli-American strikes. Unless President Donald Trump pulls the plug on U.S. involvement in the next 48 hours, he warned, the whole thing spirals wildly out of control.

"This thing takes a life of its own," Carlson said. "The Iranians are not going to surrender. They are not going to stop popping off missiles."

But Carlson didn't stop there. He argued that Israel has every incentive to keep the war raging, purely as cover for bigger plans: blowing up the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.

"So, in that environment when you can’t really know what’s going on, it’s thousands of miles from here, all of a sudden the Al Aqsa complex is just vaporized. 'Oops, the Iranians did it'," Carlson pontificated without a scrap of evidence other than his hatred of Israel.

His theory is straight out of the debunked playbook that's floated around Arab and Muslim circles for decades, ever since Israel reclaimed the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967.

To back it up, Carlson pointed to a viral clip of an IDF soldier flashing a patch tied to the Third Temple.

"Beit HaMikdash," Carlson said, with a slight Middle East accent. "That's the Hebrew term for the Temple, the Third Temple." He claimed the soldier's words and that patch prove the IDF and Israeli government are dead set on razing the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque.

"We are doing this so we can rebuild the Temple," Carlson continued. "Now, you'll notice he's pulling off patches from his IDF uniform. These are not civilian clothes. This is the uniform of the government of Israel, of its military."

Look, belief in eventually rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem sits at the heart of traditional Judaism. It's right there in the Book of Ezekiel and got locked in as a fundamental principle in the Babylonian Talmud some 1,600 years ago.

But Carlson spun it differently. He insisted this push comes largely from the Chabad movement. Chabad, a Hasidic dynasty that ramped up global outreach to secular Jews after the Holocaust, has long promoted classic Orthodox teachings, including faith in the future rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.

"This has been going on a long time in public through, in part, the efforts of a group called Chabad. And you may know people who give money to Chabad or run Chabad. Super nice people engaged in all kinds of charitable activities . . . "

"But what is Chabad exactly? Well, Chabad, you can look it up, is a very old organization, about 250 years old, and it's a branch of Hasidic Judaism. It's an organization that was overseen for many years by a guy [how disrespectful Carlson is--his Jew hatred is obvious] called Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, who was famously in Brooklyn, considered the Messiah by some of his followers, who was a friend of presidents or certainly someone presidents visited, a very powerful man in the Orthodox and his Hasidic community. Chabad has been pushing in a pretty subtle way, unless you look carefully, for the reconstruction of the Third Temple. And it seems like from the reading we did recently, that those patches actually came from Chabad. Well, in any case, Chabad is pushing for the building of the Third Temple."

"But it's not just Hasidic groups from Brooklyn, and it’s not just IDF soldiers. There are amazingly a lot of American evangelical leaders, Christian Zionists, whose main point is rebuilding the Third Temple."

Christian perspectives on the Third Temple and related biblical prophecies differ wildly, but Carlson branded those who buy into it as outright heretics.

"That’s more than apostasy," Carlson said.

Just days earlier, Carlson dropped a video rant calling Jews and Christians who hold to the Third Temple idea "deranged and demonic." You can see his videos on YouTube but I refuse to plug them here.

"I'm not going to go into the theology of it, which is deranged and demonic, actually. But it is a fact that people want this. And that is the beginning of really the end of the world as we know it."

Tucker Carlson is a disgusting sellout.

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Tehran's top cop airstruck and is out of luck

According to multiple reports exploding across X and other platforms today (March 7, 2026), Brigadier General Abbas-Ali Mohammadian, commander of Tehran's police force (فرمانده انتظامی تهران بزرگ), has reportedly been blown to smithereens in joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes hammering Iran.

These claims are blasting out from pro-Israel accounts, anti-regime voices, and freedom-loving patriots on X, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit, complete with those glorious "ELIMINATED" graphics and zero sympathy for a guy accused of ordering the slaughter of protesters. 

We're talking the 2022 Mahsa Amini uprising and the fresh waves of unrest where his forces allegedly racked up hundreds (some say thousands) of dead and injured Iranians just trying to breathe free.

The man was already sanctioned up the wazoo by the U.S., EU, and others for human rights abuses tied to crushing demonstrations. Before Tehran, he ran the show in Alborz province, overseeing more of the same violent crackdowns that left bodies in the streets.

This fits the bigger picture of escalating U.S. and Israeli operations targeting Iranian military brass, security heavies, and command structure, IRGC bigwigs, defense minister-level figures, and higher have been in the crosshairs too.

Posts are framing it as straight-up justice or good riddance, with a lot of folks tying it to the regime's collapsing grip after massive leadership losses. 

But here's the latest skivvy: As of this moment, nothing confirmed from major Western outlets, Iranian state media, or official channels on Mohammadian specifically. 

Tehran has admitted heavy hits from the strikes and big casualties among top ranks, but they're mum on this one. In hot war zones like this, social media moves at warp speed, sometimes with fog-of-war misinformation, so treat these reports as preliminary and explosive until rock-solid independent verification drops.

If official word or more details break (and in this fast-moving chaos, it could happen any minute), the picture will sharpen quick. Stay sharp, folks.

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Joe Biden claims to be 'a hell of a lot smarter' than most Democrats

Former alleged President Joseph Robinette Biden, in what can only be described as vintage Sleepy Joe fashion, decided to drop this gem on the mourners at Rev. Jesse Jackson's funeral service Friday: "I'm a hell of a lot smarter than most of you."

He was speaking primarily to a crowd of Democrats and civil rights figures, and while Snopes didn't actually rate the remark "Mostly True," it sure feels on-brand for the guy who can't help but remind everyone he's the sharpest tool in the shed, even when the shed is a memorial service.

This oddball line came while Biden was reflecting on his childhood stutter, a topic he's brought up countless times. He noted how people mocked him for it, assuming it meant he wasn't bright. "If I told you I had a cleft palate or clubfoot, none of you would have laughed," Biden said. "But it’s OK to laugh at stuttering. … It’s the one place where people think you’re stupid."

Then came the zinger: "Oh, really? I’m a hell of a lot smarter than most of you," he added, before quickly pivoting back with, "But all kidding aside, it makes you feel really small."All kidding aside, folks, Joe Biden remains a walking gaffe machine.

And every event he makes about himself.

The memorial took place at the House of Hope arena in Chicago, where hundreds gathered to honor Jackson's life and his massive left-leaning legacy. Former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton were there, along with Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Rev. Al Sharpton, and other big Democratic names. They praised Jackson for founding the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, running for president in 1984 and 1988, boosting Black voter turnout, and reshaping the party's coalition.Biden, who often talks about overcoming his stutter, tied his remarks to resilience and the pain of being ridiculed as a kid.

Later in his speech, Biden veered into another classic tangent, declaring that "the continent of Africa is going to be the largest continent in the world" in terms of population by 2050. He recalled telling Jackson about a trip to see Nelson Mandela in South Africa: "I remember telling Jesse that I knew a guy, in South Africa," former President Biden recalled. "I was going to go see name is Nelson Mandela. And, I'm Jesse saying, how are you going? You guys actually see him, by the way? You know, the continent of Africa is going to be the largest continent in the world in terms of population of the year 2050, the largest in the entire world. Watch, man. Watch."

Joe's "Deer in the Headlights" look

The "smarter than most of you" line has already joined the ever-growing Biden gaffe hall of fame, and social media lit up with reactions. Under one repost from Libs of TikTok, a commenter nailed it: "That’s a strange line to deliver at a memorial service."

Another user summed it up perfectly: "Never ending comedy from this guy. So happy he’s back in public."

Outside Biden's head-scratchers, the service stayed focused on Jackson's enduring impact as a civil rights icon who built bridges, championed marginalized communities, and helped modernize the Democratic Party's approach to inclusion and participation.

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NYC leftists hold vigil for slain Ayatollah Khamenei and punches fly

A bloody fight broke out Friday afternoon during a New York City vigil for the former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed Saturday in an Israeli military strike in downtown Tehran. 

Chaos erupted in Washington Square Park in Manhattan as a vigil mourning the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei descended into violence Friday. Video showed a man trying to pull down a poster of the dictator, killed last week in an Israeli airstrike, when a man wearing a SpongeBob sweatshirt punched him in the face, sending him to the ground.

Others jumped in and began fighting, prompting New York City Police Department intervention.As the brawl unfolded, the crowd could be heard shouting profanity.

Multiple people were captured on video being detained by police.

The vigil featured a makeshift memorial table covered with Palestinian keffiyeh scarves, candles and photos of Khamenei. One observer described the scene as the "People’s Republic of New York."

Meanwhile, nearby counter-protesters waved Iranian, American and Israeli flags while chanting "U.S.A."

In a flyer announcing the event, organizers called Khamenei's death an "assassination by U.S. government forces."

Saturday's downtown Tehran strike that killed Khamenei and other regime leaders was carried out by the Israeli military.

U.S. officials have denied any involvement.

"Throughout his life, Khamenei defended the dignity of the Iranian people and stood firmly against zionism [sic] and the criminal American regime," organizers wrote on the flyer. "Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 overthrew the U.S.-backed puppet government, the Iranian people have resisted Western domination and the exploitation of their land, labor, and resources.

"In that time, Iran severed all ties with the zionist [sic] regime and was the first country to host a Palestinian embassy on its soil, all while materially supporting Palestinian resistance and national liberation movements across the world."

Among Khamenei's supporters were a group of counter-protesters who slammed the vigil while holding American flags and pre-1979 Islamic Revolution Iranian Lion and Sun flags.

"We're here to show everyone that Iranians don't like the regime," a man at the vigil told Fox News contributor Nicole Parker on Fox News' "Hannity."

"My family is in Iran, but all of them are fighting against the regime," another woman told Parker. "They're happy about this, they want this war - this war is not about [the] Iranian people, this war is against the Islamic Republic."

Look, this is the kind of unhinged scene you'd expect in parts of Manhattan these days. A vigil for a brutal theocratic dictator turns into a street fight complete with SpongeBob-punching action, anti-American chants, and counter-protesters waving Old Glory and the pre-revolution Iranian flag. The regime loyalists are out there mourning their supreme leader like he was some freedom fighter, while actual Iranians show up to say the regime's days are numbered. Classic New York chaos, but with a heavy dose of Middle East politics thrown in. The quotes from the counter-protesters say it all: Iranians want freedom, not this oppressive mess.

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CNN has panic attack caused by Iranian political prisoner

Kian Tajbakhsh showed up on CNN the other night to talk about the Iranian operation. No fireworks, no shouting matches like you get from the usual suspects, Scott Jennings barking, Kevin O'Leary pontificating, Ben Ferguson thundering. Tajbakhsh just laid out the plain facts, cool as you please. And why wouldn't he? The man spent time as a political prisoner in Iran; he's seen the regime up close and personal.

We chewed over how the liberal crowd is now trying to paint Operation Epic Fury as some fresh quagmire, another endless war cooked up in Washington. Nonsense. Iran has considered itself at war with the United States since the mullahs took power in 1979. Tajbakhsh was right there when their officials said it outright, we've been in a cold (and sometimes hot) war with the Islamic Republic ever since the Revolution.

But what really sent the producers scrambling was what came next on the Obama Iran nuclear deal. That’s when Abby Phillip hit the panic button and cut to commercial. You could almost hear the tires screeching.

Here's Tajbakhsh, straight and unvarnished:

TAJBAKHSH: "What happened with President Obama, I'll just say this very quickly.'"And I was in the State Department in the 2000s when we implored the Bush administration not to restrict the engagement with Iran simply to the nuclear file."

"What happened with president Obama is that, for better or worse, and I'm not going to litigate that here, he decided that given the four big problems that have always been on American objectives with Iran, that is enrichment, ballistic missiles, proxies and democracy inside Iran, that he would put all the last three aside and focus only on the nuclear deal."

"Now, I'm not going to say that was good or bad. I don't think it was a great idea, but what we have seen and this is also maybe controversial and I think a lot of my liberal friends are going to hate me for this…"

"Is that unfortunately you can draw a straight line from the 2015 nuclear deal to October 7th.”“I think that what the Trump administration is--"

PHILLIP: "We . . . we . . . we do have to go to a break here."

TAJBAKHSH: "Okay."

And poof, gone to break, smoke screen deployed, retreat in good order. Classic CNN when the narrative takes a direct hit.

Operation Epic Fury has laid bare what a disaster the Obama nuke deal really was. Naïve doesn’t begin to cover it. Handing the world’s premier state sponsor of terrorism billions in cash and sanctions relief, while conveniently ignoring the missiles, the proxies, the whole apparatus of terror, that wasn't diplomacy; it was wishful thinking bordering on delusion. The mullahs were never going to play straight; anyone with a shred of realism could see that. You don't need a PhD from Harvard or Foggy Bottom experience to understand you can’t trust fanatics who chant "Death to America" as a national pastime.

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The Democrats, bless their virtue signaling souls, have a perfect record on foreign policy: always wrong, usually catastrophically so. They got played like a cheap fiddle here. Obama's domestic crown jewel, Obamacare, is a rolling catastrophe. Now his foreign-policy masterpiece lies in ruins—and worse, those billions may well have helped subsidize the October 7 massacre.

No wonder the network bolted for the exits. Some truths are just too inconvenient for prime time.

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Mamdani's wife "Likes" Hamas on Instagram

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's wife, Syrian-American artist Rama Duwaji, decided to spend some quality time on her personal Instagram account "liking" multiple posts that enthusiastically cheered on the barbaric Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023.

The scoop from Jewish Insider yanks the curtain off the "moderate" mask Mamdani has been polishing for public consumption. While the mayor now insists he unequivocally condemns Hamas, his wife was out there clicking those little heart buttons on photos of bulldozers smashing through the Israeli border and terrorists joyriding in captured IDF vehicles. 

One anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic gem she liked, courtesy of an outfit called "The Slow Factory," casually reframed the slaughter of 1,200 people as nothing more than "breaking the walls of apartheid."

The timing makes it sting even more. 

Back when Mamdani was still just a state assemblyman, he went public criticizing a pro-Hamas rally in Times Square for "making light" of the massacre. Meanwhile, his then-girlfriend was apparently cozy at home, digitally high-fiving the very same crowd. Duwaji reportedly hearted posts from the "People’s Forum," you know, that node in the network tied to Maoist moneybags Neville "Roy" Singham, which proudly ran the genocidal chant "from the river to the sea" and hailed the Oct. 7 atrocities as a "human right."

When cornered for comment, Duwaji went radio silent. The mayor's office, predictably, turtle-upped into full defensive crouch mode and spat out a boilerplate statement reaffirming Mamdani's "consistent" condemnation of Hamas. 

They somehow forgot to mention whether the mayor shares a dinner table with someone who sees the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust as a glorious moment of "collective liberation."

Right after the October 7 Hamas massacre of 1200 Israelis, Mamdani (then a state assemblyman) dropped a statement that mostly aimed its fire at Israel: "I mourn the hundreds of people killed across Israel and Palestine in the last 36 hours. Netanyahu’s declaration of war, the Israeli government’s decision to cut electricity to Gaza, and Knesset members calling for another Nakba will undoubtedly lead to more violence and suffering in the days and weeks to come. The path toward a just and lasting peace can only begin by ending the occupation and dismantling apartheid."

Fast-forward to the second anniversary of the October 7 massacre, and Mamdani took to his X account with another statement. This time he accused Israel of perpetrating "genocide" in Gaza, leaned on fatality figures straight from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, and wrote, "In the aftermath of that day, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli government launched a genocidal war.” He branded Israel’s actions “war crimes," took shots at the Trump administration, and added, "Our government has been complicit through it all. This must end. The occupation and apartheid must end. Peace must be pursued through diplomacy, not war crimes, and our government must act to end these atrocities and hold those responsible to account."  

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IDF destroys 6 Iranian missile launchers right before launching toward Israel

The IDF reported Friday that the Israeli Air Force totally destroyed six Iranian ballistic missile launchers "just minutes before they were intended to be launched toward" Israel on Thursday [not the launchers themselves, just ballistic missiles].

The Intelligence Directorate guided the action, according to the IDF, and said that three advanced Iranian defense systems were also made into scrap metal.

"The combined effort to deepen the impact on the Iranian regime’s firing and defense capabilities has been conducted systematically since the beginning of Operation Rising Lion," the IDF said.

Also, for some reason Hezbollah warned Israeli residents to leave towns within 3.11 miles of the border in a message posted on its Telegram channel on early Friday morning. Like Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Iranian regime, Israelis are never given a warning to evacuate as civilian men, women, and children are targeted by these terrorists.

The IDF, for its part, conducted strikes on Hezbollah targets in the Dahiyeh area of Beirut on Thursday night. The military announced this minutes after sirens were triggered throughout Israel by Iranian missile launches.

[Sung to the tune: "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" by Peter, Paul and Mary]

Where have all the mullahs gone, long time passing? 

Where have all the mullahs gone . . . long time ago? 

Where have all the mullahs gone?

Gone to graveyards every one.

When will they ever learn? When will they eeeeever learn?

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A lot of Trump insiders delighted Noem was canned

Joy, celebration, and even happy tears swept through Department of Homeland Security agency offices on Thursday afternoon as word came down that President Donald Trump had finally removed Secretary Kristi Noem from her post.

Trump administration insiders, including senior DHS officials, told the Washington Examiner they were stunned by the president's sudden decision to replace Noem at the helm of the third-largest federal department. This came after several months of scandal and relentlessly negative press.

But let's be real: the shock didn't last long. Relief and outright joy quickly took its place among those who had worked under Noem and even alongside her adviser, special government employee Corey Lewandowski.

“People in the office are actually crying out of happiness,” said one person.

Noem had served in her post for more than 13 months. She helped the White House carry out its mass deportation operation. She was frequently in front of the cameras, visiting DHS employees nationwide and starring in flashy social media videos. But behind closed doors, senior officials in Washington and in the field said her team made their jobs incredibly difficult.

“We’ve seen fake news and calls for resignation. I usually sympathize with the principle and instinctively, and actually, know the stories of their behavior are overstated or inaccurate. I cannot say that today,” a senior DHS official wrote in a text message Thursday afternoon. “Her actions have led to the reputational loss of the DHS. Her continued hobbling of the component heads leads to more negativity regarding law enforcement pros. I suspect this is hard for POTUS, he deserves better!”

Another source, a senior administration official, at first responded with an emoji of a smiling face with a halo, suggesting pure joy at the announcement.

That official pointed out that Lewandowski, though a special government employee legally bound to work fewer than 130 days per year, played a significant role in day-to-day operations across DHS. Lewandowski’s future remains to be seen, but all who spoke with the Washington Examiner were hopeful that he would depart along with Noem.

“The leaders of CBP and ICE will be able to do their job without constant interference and harassment by Corey Lewandowski,” the official wrote in a text message, optimistic that Lewandowski would also depart soon.

In January, the Washington Examiner was first to report that Noem and Lewandowski were waging an internal campaign to force Trump’s hand-picked commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Rodney Scott, to resign. This was because Scott had pushed back over the DHS’s aggressive approach to deportations and Lewandowski’s legal authority to continue working.

Sources said the lengths that the two took to push Scott toward the exit were “evil.” They even forced his top staff members to take random jobs across the department in various parts of the country to make his work unpleasant. Noem and Lewandowski were said to be eyeing Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks to replace Scott, though Scott has refused to resign.

Noem and Lewandowski had also tapped Border Patrol’s El Centro, California, chief Greg Bovino to singlehandedly lead Border Patrol operations in the interior of the country, assisting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

After descending on several cities in mid-2025 through early 2026, the operations had devolved into a chaotic state in Minneapolis. Noem was forced to remove Bovino from his job overseeing the at-large operations as public support in polls declined swiftly following the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens.

White House border czar Tom Homan was dispatched to Minneapolis for several weeks. He has since steered the operation into a single, focused effort that targets specific violent illegal immigrants, not approaching or arresting illegal immigrants in public. Homan, the former acting director of ICE, also streamlined one chain of command for ICE operations, aided by other federal agencies.

Given Lewandowski’s heavy-handedness in immigration operations behind the scenes, the second person was doubtful that Lewandowski would depart.“Corey will endure, and he should be investigated and condemned for his malicious influence,” the official wrote.

A fourth person, a senior DHS official, said Lewandowski “should be gone too, but it wouldn’t hurt for some folks to ask openly and make sure that happens!”

A fifth person, a former senior official, stated in a text message, “Hopefully we have seen the last of Corey,” adding that “he is not a good person.”

In addition, Noem has accumulated a mountain of personal and professional problems in recent months. These ranged from her department’s issuance of noncompeted contracts, an alleged extramarital affair with Lewandowski, her portrayal of events of two police-involved shootings in Minnesota, and other concerns that lawmakers voiced in oversight hearings this week.Democrats, even some Republicans, on the House and Senate’s judiciary committees grilled Noem over the allotment of a $220 million DHS contract for advertisements that prominently featured the secretary.

Trump was upset Wednesday and Thursday over Noem’s claim on Capitol Hill that she had discussed the massive contract with him and had his support for moving forward with the expenditure, Punchbowl News reported. Hours later, Trump posted on Truth Social that Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) would replace Noem and that Noem would move into a new administration position.

The DHS did not respond to a request for comment on when Noem will officially depart the department, but Trump said Mullin will step in as her replacement on March 31.

Noem will lead a Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, a new security initiative in the Western Hemisphere slated to be rolled out in Doral, Florida, this weekend, according to Trump.Look, this is the kind of shake-up that conservative voters have been waiting for in the second Trump term. Noem's tenure was a mess from the start, riddled with drama, alleged affairs, shady contracts, and internal sabotage that undermined the very border security mission the administration promised. The tears of joy in those DHS offices say it all: finally, someone is clearing out the dead weight so the real pros can get back to deporting criminals and securing the border without the constant interference. Trump deserves better, and so do the American people. This move is long overdue.

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Miami GOP head calls for GOP party official to resign

Florida Republican leaders are demanding that Miami GOP Secretary Abel Alexander Carvajal resign immediately after explosive revelations emerged about his involvement in a conservative group chat riddled with vile racial slurs, antisemitic statements, and other disgusting content.

Miami-Dade County Republican Party Chairman Kevin Cooper declared that "anyone associated with this chat should resign immediately." Meanwhile, Republican state Rep. Juan Porras directly called on Carvajal to step down on Wednesday, blasting the messages as "deeply disturbing and completely unacceptable."

Carvajal launched the group chat last fall, mainly for conservative students at Florida International University. Leaked messages revealed participants unleashing a barrage of racial slurs targeting Jews and Black people. Among the worst offenders were Dariel Gonzalez, then the College Republicans' recruitment chairman, and Ian Valdes, the Turning Point USA chapter president. Carvajal chimed in occasionally, deleted some messages, but never shut the chat down, according to the Miami Herald.

In one exchange, Gonzalez wrote, "You can f*** all the ks you want. Just don't marry them and procreate," warning about the danger of having "a little k running arounddddd." Valdes shot back, "I would def not marry a Jew." [The k abbreviation apparently stands for the disgusting antisemitic slur that rhymes with 'bike'.]

In another antisemitic moment, Valdes renamed the group chat "Gooning in Agartha," a reference to crude slang for male masturbation combined with the mythical underground civilization pushed by Heinrich Himmler, Adolf Hitler's right-hand man. Valdes called Agartha "esoteric nazism essentially," and Gonzalez described it as "Nazi heaven sort of."

Elsewhere, Valdes pushed, "We need to have a moratorium on immigration temporarily unless it's someone from a first world country….Yeah I obviously mean whites."

The chat also featured plenty of misogynistic trash talk about women, along with repeated use of the n-word and violent, hateful comments against Black people. Gonzalez sneered, "Ew you had colored professors?!" adding, "I reguse [sic] to be indoctrinated by the coloreds." He later insisted, "Avoid the coloreds like the plague."

Another exchange reported by the Floridian Press included a user spewing violent fantasies about wanting to "exterminate ns in the gas chamber" and "eat ns," among other sickening rants. Gonzalez's response? "How edgy."

Carvajal, the Miami GOP secretary who created the chat, once he was caught claimed, "had I known and had I seen some of these messages, I would have called the police." When pressed on whether he would resign, he shot back, "Of course not … for a chat where the messages that were stated were not mine."

Porras made it clear that Carvajal's failure to shut down the chat and take decisive action as a leader is indefensible. The state representative, who also serves as a Miami-Dade GOP state committee member, stressed that "Hatred toward Jewish Americans, racist rhetoric, calls for violence, all these ideas have no place in our party, our state, or our country."

"Leadership carries responsibility," Porras added. "When someone in a leadership role engages in this kind of behavior, it damages the trust placed in our party by voters across Florida. The Republican Party stands for law, order, and respect for every American. We believe in the dignity of every person."

Cooper, as the first Jewish chairman of the Miami-Dade Republican Party, said he was "shocked" by the WhatsApp messages.

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This kind of toxic garbage has no business in the Republican Party. Leaders are right to demand accountability and swift action to protect the party's integrity and the trust of Florida voters.

And while the Democratic Party continues to accept anti-Semites like Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and the rest of the so called Squad, at least the Republicans take an active stance against this garbage.

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GOP stands with Trump over Senate challenge regarding Operation Epic Fury

Senate Republicans closed ranks on Wednesday, delivering President Trump a solid victory on his use of force against Iran, This came despite the usual lingering questions about America's role in the Middle East mess.

The Senate decisively shot down a resolution from Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) that sought to limit Trump's military actions in Iran. This followed days of speculation about whether any Republicans would break ranks, as some have done in the past, to slap the president on the wrist.

The administration went all-in to rally support for Operation Epic Fury. They held multiple briefings with Congress to lay out the case. It worked, at least for the moment. It convinced some wavering Republicans to stick with continued military action against the regime.

President Donald Trump confirmed the U.S. launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, 2026.

Only Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) voted for Kaine's resolution. On the flip side, Sen. Jon Fetterman (D-Pa.) was the lone Democrat to cross over and support the president's position.

Democrats tried to frame Trump's moves as yet another case of him blowing past Congress's authority on military force. They complained about no clear strategy ahead and accused him of breaking another campaign promise.

"It's time for the president to keep promises, not break them," Kaine said ahead of the vote. "That's why I'm so glad that we're going to put everybody on the record … Nobody gets to hide and give the president an easy pass or an end run around the Constitution."

Democrats also hammered the administration for refusing to take ground troops off the table."They refuse to take off the table the insertion of ground troops," said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). He warned the conflict could balloon beyond air and naval ops. "This is going to make the operations in Libya look like child’s play."

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced a war powers resolution to rein in President Donald Trump's military action in Iran.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who once backed a similar resolution to curb Trump's war powers in Venezuela, made it clear he opposed this one.

But like before, he noted that any ground operation would need congressional approval."I’ve always said that committing ground troops would be something I think would require immediate congressional authorization, but that doesn’t appear to be on the immediate horizon," Hawley said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) claimed the administration kept moving the goalposts, which he called proof positive that "a strategy is missing."

Republicans fired back that the president was squarely within his constitutional authority as commander in chief. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) dismissed the War Powers Act as "an unconstitutional shift of authority from the president." He pointed out that Congress can always pull the funding plug if it really disagrees with the action.

"We don’t need 535 commanders in chief," said Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), tearing into the legislation.

There was also clear fatigue in GOP circles over Kaine's habit of repeatedly pushing these congressional power plays in every conflict.

Republicans huddled privately on Tuesday to hash out the strikes and the looming war powers vote. This came ahead of their briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan "Raizin" Caine, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio looks on during a meeting with oil and gas executives in the East Room of the White House, Jan. 9, 2026.

A source familiar with the closed-door session told Fox News Digital that some Republicans who might have been persuadable were fed up with Kaine's nonstop use of the Senate floor to limit Trump's war authorities.

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) highlighted that this was Kaine’s fifth resolution targeting Trump’s war powers since he returned to office last year. That tally accounts for nearly half of all war powers resolutions in U.S. history.

"These resolutions have been used only 11 times in 50 years," Barrasso said. "The senator from Virginia alone accounts for nearly half of them. Yet Senator Kaine introduced zero war powers resolutions when Barack Obama and Joe Biden were president."

Rubio told reporters after Tuesday's all-senators briefing that the administration had complied with the War Powers Act, even though it views the law as unconstitutional. He added that congressional leaders got notified before the strikes.

Rubio had earlier floated that the U.S. acted in Operation Epic Fury because Israel was set to strike first, though he later dialed that back.

"If you tell the President of the United States that if we don't go first, we're going to have more people killed and more people injured, the president is going to go first," Rubio said. "That's what he did. That's what the president will always do."

Meanwhile, U.S. forces have hammered more than 2,000 targets in Iran so far, zeroing in on the regime’s air defenses and missile stockpiles. Six American service members have been killed in the operation, along with nearly 50 top Iranian leaders.

The Iranian government claims at least 1,045 people have been killed across the country during the campaign.

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Newsom disses Israel and Netanyahu, says Trump's strikes due to his 'grift'

In a vicious attack on President Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the longstanding U.S.-Israel alliance, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom called for a serious rethink of American support for Israel, smeared the Jewish state as an apartheid regime, and took vicious swipes at Trump, 

The comments came during an appearance with former Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor at an event promoting Newsom's autobiography, "Young Man in a Hurry." When asked whether Democrats should reconsider U.S. military aid to Israel given Netanyahu's leadership, Newsom didn't hold back.

"Well, he's making that easy right now," Newsom began, launching into an attack on Netanyahu. "The issue of Bibi is interesting. Because he's got his own domestic issues. He's trying to stay out of jail. He's got an election coming up. He's potentially on the ropes. He's got folks, the hard line, that want to annex the West Bank."

Newsom then channeled the notoriously anti-Netanyahu New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman to push the tired leftist falsehood that Israel is heading toward "an apartheid state," adding, "For two years, they haven't even been able to solve the Hamas question in Israel."He went on to imply that Trump's actions against Iran were driven purely by Israeli influence.

"In so many ways, that influence in the context of the conversation of where Trump ultimately landed on this is pretty damn self-evident," said Newsom. "When you bring two aircraft carriers out there and you assemble the kind of military force that Trump did over the last few weeks, it didn't surprise me ultimately that they moved that direction."

When directly asked, "Do you think, looking down the road, that the United States should consider, maybe, you know, rethinking our military support for Israel?" Newsom feigned heartbreak.

"It breaks my heart because the current leadership in Israel is walking us down that path where I don't think you have a choice but that consideration."

He then pivoted to what he called "the grift and the corruption" tied to regional politics, dragging in Trump family members by name, including Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner. 

"The fact that we are in this now, a regional war. All these proxies and all the grift and the corruption that also marks a huge part of this," he said. "And that's a real conversation we need to have, this Board of Peace. In the piece that the Witkoff family is getting, in the piece that Kushner is getting, in the peace that Trump Jr. is getting."

Newsom's remarks represent the predictable anti-Israel turn from a Democrat desperate to signal virtue to the progressive base, even as he wraps it in crocodile tears about a broken heart. The governor's willingness to echo smears of Israel as an apartheid state while questioning aid amid ongoing threats shows just how far the party has drifted from its once-stalwart support for America's closest Middle East ally. And throwing in baseless jabs at the Trump family for good measure? 

That's just par for the course in the current Democratic playbook.

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