Mayor DePeña Discovers the Two Official Languages of American Politics: “No Comment” and “God Bless You”

Lawrence Mayor Brian DePeña is apparently having a difficult week.

First, the mayor was arrested over allegations that he misused more than $1.5 million in COVID-19 small-business relief loans. Then, when reporters tried to ask him about it, they apparently encountered a serious language barrier. Yes, he was elected mayor of a Massachusetts town and doesn't speak English.

Not between English and Spanish, mind you. Between English and “no comment.”

DePeña’s lawyer helpfully explained the situation.

"He doesn’t speak English. No comment," the attorney said.

Meanwhile, DePeña smiled at reporters and repeatedly offered the one English phrase he apparently had available for emergency situations: "God bless you," aka Dios te bendiga.

This is certainly one way to handle allegations that you used federal pandemic relief money for your mayoral campaign and personal debts. Why answer difficult questions when you can simply smile, wave, and outsource your constitutional right to remain silent to your attorney?

The video quickly went viral, leaving social media users wondering how someone who has served as mayor of an American city since 2021 somehow managed to conduct the job without speaking English.

Conservative influencer Libs of TikTok summed up the public reaction rather efficiently.

"OMG," the account wrote on X. "How is this real."

Conservative radio host Mike Gallagher was similarly impressed.

"‘He doesn’t speak English, no comment’ says the assistant of the mayor of an American city," Gallagher posted on X. "Our melting pot has completely melted."

Journalist Miranda Devine offered a modest suggestion that apparently needs to be controversial in 2026.

"English fluency should be a basic prerequisite for holding public office," Devine posted on X.

Then came another detail that really put the icing on this particular cake.

Shortly after the press encounter, video surfaced appearing to show DePeña's vehicle crashing into a parked car while attempting to leave.

So, to recap: allegedly questionable use of $1.5 million in federal COVID loans, a lawyer announcing that the mayor doesn't speak English, a mayor repeatedly saying "God bless you," and then an apparent parking lot incident.

At this point, the only thing missing is a federal investigator asking whether the parked car was also somehow eligible for an EIDL loan.

DePeña, 61, was born in the Dominican Republic and was elected mayor of Lawrence in 2021 before winning reelection in 2025. He previously served on the Lawrence City Council. DePeña has also acknowledged that he was once an "undocumented immigrant," saying he came to the United States "without papers," before eventually becoming a U.S. citizen.

Federal prosecutors allege DePeña applied for the pandemic loans on behalf of Tenares Tire Services Inc., his Lawrence tire shop, and then used some of the money for purposes unrelated to helping the struggling business.

U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley wasn't laughing.

"Mayor DePeña was elected to be a leader for the City of Lawrence," Foley said. "He was looked up to and trusted by his constituents, but he betrayed that trust through his alleged corruption and lies. Today’s arrest is just another example of our determination to root out fraud by anyone, even public officials, and hold elected officials accountable."

And if convicted, DePeña faces up to 30 years in prison.

Or, as they might say in Lawrence, la cárcel.

At least that phrase apparently doesn't require a translator.

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Seattle socialist mayor mocked for ‘irony’ as residents build walls to stop out of control shootings

Seattle democratic socialist Comrade Mayor Katie Wilson is being mocked online over the "irony" of residents in the blue-run city erecting barrier walls in a desperate attempt to stop out-of-control shootings.

Just months after Wilson took office in Seattle, terrified residents in the city’s Aurora Avenue corridor decided to take matters into their own hands to address near-nightly shootings believed to be connected to criminal turf wars, prostitution and illegal trafficking. After weeks of gang-related shootings and high-speed car chases, some residents spent Memorial Day weekend blocking off their own streets using metal planters, dirt, gravel, logs and chunks of concrete. The barricades were set up to block at least three streets leading into the neighborhood.

Though such artifices could incur fines, one resident named Peter Orr told KTVB 7, "It’s either this, or bullets in my neighbor’s houses."

News of the neighborhood barricades in Seattle has garnered scorn for Wilson’s policies online.

Among these was conservative commentator Paul Szypula, who wrote on X, "The Irony is Undeniable."

"When progressive policies result in neighborhoods literally barricading themselves off… that says everything," he wrote, adding, "What should Seattle leaders be doing so residents don’t feel forced to do this?"

Popular conservative account Libs of TikTok mocked, "Seattle residents are now building WALLS on their blocks to keep out criminals."

Commentator Eric Daugherty posted, "Furious blue city residents in Seattle are now building their OWN BARRICADES to BLOCK streets because shootings are so high Omg. This is MADNESS."

"The socialist mayor is IGNORING IT," he added. "BLUE CITIES ARE COOKED!"

Constitutional analyst Jonathan Turley wrote, "Nothing says socialism more than citizen barricades."

He mocked, "In this case, Les Miserables are seeking to protect their property. After electing a mayor who once called for the defunding of police, Seattle neighborhoods are reverting to self-help measures."

Wilson, who was sworn into office this January, wrote in a 2020 opinion piece about the defund the police effort that "there’s never been a better time to try."

In the piece, Wilson posited "there’s a strong argument for simply disbanding police departments and starting over," reasoning that "institutional culture change is hard."

"Leaving aside debates on the left about whether police abolition is possible under capitalism, or at all, let’s stick with the current movement demand of cutting the SPD [Seattle Police Department] budget by half. That’s a lot of officers. It may sound alarming, until you realize that U.S. police perform numerous functions for which armed personnel, trained for violent conflict, are unnecessary or unsuited — and often, unsurprisingly, cause harm," she wrote.

As mayor, however, Wilson has not moved to cut the police by half. She has responded to recent shootings by launching a "multi-pronged gun violence strategy," in which she convened a panel of experts to help the city reduce retaliatory shootings, address youth violence and coordinate efforts between police, schools and community groups. Somehow they need to stop those nasty guns to stop shooting people.

Wilson has paused expansion of the city’s CCTV surveillance and license plate reader programs pending a privacy audit, while maintaining existing police camera systems in high-crime areas, including the Aurora Avenue corridor.

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Kathy Griffin pitifully seeks relevance with anti-Trump image

ready for Halloween

Well, it looks like Kathy Griffin is back at it, reminding us all why she’s the gift that keeps on giving, if by “gift” you mean a migraine that won’t quit. 

This weekend, the former comedian and self-proclaimed provocateur decided to spice up her TikTok with a little arts-and-crafts project: a video showcasing severed heads of four billionaires, including President Donald Trump. Yes, you read that right. Severed heads. Because nothing screams “edgy comedy” like fake blood dripping from the necks of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Trump. 

The video, which I will not show here, ends with Griffin tilting her head, smirking like she just invented irony, and text overhead that reads: “That’s all.” 

Subtle, like Porky Pig subtle, Kathy. The fine folks at Libs of TikTok weren’t exactly popping champagne over this one. They reposted the video and sounded the alarm, writing, “Kathy Griffin apparently posted this video which appears to be decapitated heads including Trump. This should be investigated.@FBI.” 

She really sounds like she's losing it. Perhaps a thorough psych eval would tell us something useful.

I mean, it’s not like depicting the president’s severed head might raise a few red flags or anything. If this feels like déjà vu, it’s because Griffin’s been down this road before. Back in 2017, she thought it would be funny to pose with a mask styled like Trump’s decapitated head, because she's an idiot. 

The backlash was swift, and Griffin ended up issuing a mea culpa after the internet lit her up like a Christmas tree. Her attorney at the time, Lisa Bloom, tried to clean up the mess, saying, “Griffin never imagined that it could be misinterpreted as a threat of violence against Trump. That was never what she intended. She has never threatened or committed an act of violence against anyone.” 

Sure, Lisa, and I never imagined my chocolate bar was actually a laxative, but here we are. 

The fallout was brutal. CNN gave her the boot from their New Year’s Eve gig because nothing says “festive” like a severed-head controversy. And Squatty Potty, a company that sells, uh, toilet stools, decided they didn’t need Griffin’s brand of charm to move product. 

You know you’ve hit rock bottom when the poop-stool people want nothing to do with you--no offense to the poop-stool folks; I'm sure they're decent people.

So, you’d think Griffin might’ve learned her lesson, right? Not one bit. 

Here we are in 2025, and she’s doubling down with this latest stunt. Conservatives, predictably, are losing their minds. One X user summed it up nicely: “How is she still not in jail?” Fair question. Meanwhile, her hypocrite defenders are out here waving the “freedom of expression” flag, because apparently, depicting political violence is just performance art now. 

Newsflash: calls for political violence aren’t protected speech in the U.S., no matter how many TikTok filters you slap on it. Obvioisly, Kathy’s gotta keep the outrage machine humming to stay relevant. But maybe, just maybe, it’s time to retire the severed-head bit. Try juggling, or better still, become a mime. 

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PINO Biden urges his supporters to "beat the hell out of" Republicans

"Punch 'em, kick 'em, hit 'em in the mouth. Do it for democracy"

PINO Joseph R. Biden urged his progressive supporters on Tuesday to "beat the hell out of" Republicans in the November election. "Don't let them scare you like Cornpop tried to do when I was saving lives at the pool. Stand up to them and if they try to get past you to vote, you know what you need to do to save democracy," he mumbled, and then turned to shake hands with his uncle Ambrose J. Finnegan Jr. who was supposedly eaten by cannibals in Papua New Guinea during the Second World War.

Biden, who pretended to call for calm after former President Donald J. Trump was nearly assassinated in June, is back to using violent rhetoric at his first public appearance with his word-challenged Vice President, Kamala Harris. This was their first public appearance since Biden was un-democratically removed from office and replaced with Harris, in spite of him receiving all the electoral votes for the nomination.

Both Nancy "Dancing Dentures" Pelosi and Barack "Pooch-eater" Obama had no comment on this issue.

“Let me tell you what our Project 2025 is: beat the hell out of them,” the alleged president told the crowd during an event in Prince George’s County, Maryland. As the audience cheered this idiot, he shouted, “I mean it!” rather than shouting "no joke!" as is his go-to sentence concluder. 

His reference to Project 2025 was his plagiarizing the Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025" which is their conservative planning of transition policies when Trump wins the election. The left tries to link Trump to this plan, but he has rejected the association and correctly labeled it a “pure disinformation” campaign.

The call for people to “beat the hell out of” their political rivals did not sit well with some on social media, especially those who think such calls for violence is wrong.

Biden instructs the audience to "beat the hell" out of Republicans — a month after the assassination attempt against President Trump. Disgusting! pic.twitter.com/MpxSGBsu4h

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom)

“Is this a call to violence?” asked the Libs of TikTok account on X that is operated by Chaya Raichik. a

Anyway, it's easy to see how the media is moist for the left and will never criticize them even when they call for violence.

Remember this: 

But the media would never allow a conservative or MAGA Republican to get away with the crap they allow the left to skate by with. 

“If Trump said this, it would be wall-to-wall coverage on MSNBC for the next three weeks,” responded Collin Rugg, who has an X account with 1.4 million followers. He also quipped that The Washington Post “would be putting the ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’ banner up.”

Trump trounced Biden in the June debate on the Comedy News Network. It was so bad that the people behind the curtain pulling Biden's strings had to find someone else to run against Trump, even though to do so was a severe violation of the democratic process. Biden had every one of the delegates caste their support for him, which translates to the Democratic Party supporting Biden. Obviously that didn't matter to whoever has their hand up Biden's skivvies, whether it was Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, or both.




Trump faced Biden in a June debate hosted by CNN. In the weeks after Biden’s fumbling performance during that face-off sparked a crisis of confidence among his allies, the president stepped aside under pressure and Harris took the top spot on the Democratic Party’s ticket.

Biden is expected to speak at the Democratic National Contention in Chicago next week, along with former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State and failed 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, are slated to accept their nominations and deliver remarks.

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National MS Society fires 90-year-old for asking about pronouns: has to walk it back

Fran Itkoff: what's not to love about this woman?

Fran Itkoff, a sweet 90-year-old woman was forced to step down from her volunteer position, a position she held for 60 years, after she asked for clarification about the use of pronouns. Seriously.

Ms. Itkoff had led the Lakewood/Long Beach Self-Help Group that is affiliated with the National MS Society but was kicked out after her “failure to abide by our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion guidelines.” I'm not kidding.

'Unfortunately, based on the situation, we have made the difficult decision to have you step down from your volunteer position, effective immediately,' the email reads.

This gentle woman who obviously cares deeply about people and won many awards for her and her late husband's work with the organization, didn't understand after she saw others in her group sign their emails and letters with their names and their chosen pronouns.

“I was confused, I didn’t know what it was, what it meant,” Itkoff told the social media account Libs of TikTok. “I’ve seen it on a couple of letters that had come in after the person’s name they had the pronouns, but I didn’t know what that meant.”

C'mon, the woman is 90 and probably spends little, if any time on the internet.

Ms. Itkoff was left stunned and confused when she was fired on January 19 following an exchange with a colleague who asked her to use her pronouns in email signatures.

The non-profit doubled down on its decision, saying it acted with the 'best of intentions' despite a tidal wave of angry backlash where supporters threatened to withhold their funds--and that is key.

On Wednesday, the organization announced it was rolling back on its stance, admitting it 'fell short' and offering a groveling apology to Itkoff because they value money more than life itself.

Here's the letter the MS dolts sent her after she went public on Libs of TikTok and exposed the organization leaders for who they are:

Grovel much?

There is nothing more detrimental to organizational competency than DEI, from Boeing aircraft door makers, to US vice presidents, to doctors, professors, and so on. DEI limits choice and that inhibits quality and excellence.

The National Multiple Sclerosis Morons say in the letter that they acted with "the best intentions." How is that so? How is firing a volunteer who has given you 60 years of service even after the loss of her husband who also volunteered his time, a freaking best intention?

"We realize now that we made a mistake, and we should have had more conversations with Fran before making this decision," the letter states [and I hope you will read it in its entirety]. They even say that it really isn't so much about the best intentions, but more about the "lack of protocol" that was the real problem.

No, you don't need to have more conversations with Fran, you need to learn from her.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is a tool being used by Marxists who see everything in terms of oppressors versus the oppressed, and that is not healthy for any society. In fact, it has led to open and acceptable racism and anti-Semitism.

It's unclear if Ms. Itkoff will rejoin the organization, but I hope she doesn't and I hope she creates a boatload of followers in her wake.

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Irony Alert: 'Angry and bitter' MI school board racist says 'Whiteness is evil'

Hates White people

Some people are just too angry and racist to see themselves for who they are. Kesha Hamilton, a member of the Jackson County School Board is the poster-cretin for that brand of racist who sees all people of a particular skin color as the same and said so publicly on Tuesday.

Hamilton's tweets were shared by Libs of TikTok and shows her saying "These White women are the stupidest" and describing "Whiteness" as "evil."

"Whiteness is so evil.. it manipulates then says, I won't apologize for my dishonesty and trauma inducing practices and thinks you should applaud it for being honest about its ability to manipulate and be dishonest. #Deceitful #Perfidous," the racist woman said.

She also claimed last month that White people are more dangerous than animals:

"The last thing you have to worry about is an animal - though that could be a very real threat.. more dangerous are any whites you may see on the trail.. be safe!" 

Fox News Digital reached out for comment to Hamilton who said, "Whiteness defined is ‘white racialized identity (which) refers to the way that white people, their customs, culture and beliefs operate as the standard by which all other groups are compared."

Naturally, she did not supply a shred of evidence for her racist remarks and seems like a miserable, bitter person.

"Whiteness is a construct, a normalization with a foundation in white supremacy, recent examples of the normalization of whiteness with a foundation of white supremacy are the murder of George Floyd, the massacre of Black residents in Buffalo, NY, the attempted kidnapping of MI Governor Whitmer, the attack on our Democracy on January 6th, 2021, inconsistencies of our criminal justice system, etc."

Well, isn't this the best example of blind racism--taking one event perpetrated by one person and attributing all people in the same group [in this case, White people] and claiming all people in this group are the same. 

This is a perfect example of blind hatred.

The danger of being in the woods tweet … "refers to the challenges Black people in the United States continue to face when attempting to establish and protect their right to freedom of movement…. The United States has a longstanding history of efforts aimed at keeping Black people from enjoying freedom of movement and restricting them from entering spaces that have been racialized as white."

WTF? 

If Black people continue to be so oppressed, why do some non-Black people pretend to be Black on their school and job applications? And what in the world is she saying about 'freedom of movement'? Give one example, lady, in which this is true, other than prison, where skin color has nothing to do with crime rate.

"Someone in her influential position must be held to a high standard. She must be a representative for all students in the JPS system," a parent named Gina Hastings said.

She also called Hamilton "angry and bitter."

"Her racist comments should not be condoned. How can all kids feel safe when physical characteristics over which they have no control are being call evil and dangerous," Hastings said.

And what is this person teaching the children? Hate people who are different than you? Hate yourself if you happen to have been born White?

It's time for all of us to take a stand against racism, no matter where it comes from.

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Twitter Files: Adam Schiff's office asked Twitter to suspend journalists they didn't like

The latest release of "Twitter Files" shared on Tuesday uncovered posts that revealed California Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff's office asked the tech giant to suspend certain accounts that were critical of the left.

Substack journalist, Matt Taibbi reported that Twitter "received an astonishing variety of requests from officials asking for individuals they didn’t like to be banned." In other words, those journalists who refused to slant their reporting to favor the Democrats should be silenced because that's how banana republics operate.

You may recall that Schiff publicly lied about former President Donald Trump regarding so called Russian collusion. He never admitted the lie nor apologized for spreading it, because, as Saul Alinsky said, "The most effective means are whatever will achieve the desired results." 

And that obviously includes lying.

An example Taibbi shared was a request sent to Twitter in November 2020 by Schiff's office. Schiff hoped the company would do something about  "alleged harassment from QAnon conspiracists" against Schiff's staff. One of the targets for removal was aide Sean Misko.

"Remove any and all content about Mr. Misko and other Committee staff from its service- to include quotes, retweets, and reactions to that content," the request to Twitter read. "Suspend the many accounts, including @GregRubini and @paulsperry, which have repeatedly promoted false QAnon conspiracies."

The office also asked Twitter to "stop the spread of future misinformation on Twitter" regarding committee staff and  "label and reduce the visibility of any content."

Taibbi wrote that the company initially declined to go along with Schiff's request saying "we don't do this," but noted that Sperry was later suspended.

It was also revealed that when Musk initially took over Twitter, the so called "Twitter Files" were vetted by the company's deputy general counsel Jim Baker. It was done without Musk's knowledge and involved the Hunter Biden story, which Baker covered up under the guise that " . . . we need more facts to assess whether the materials were hacked," adding, "it's reasonable for us to assume that they may have been and that caution is warranted."

So the story got buried and Baker got fired.

Additionally, Taibbi reported, "Although several sources recalled hearing about a ‘general’ warning from federal law enforcement that summer about possible foreign hacks, there’s no evidence - that I've seen - of any government involvement in the laptop story." 

The second installment of the "Twitter Files" was published by The Free Press editor Bari Weiss. The posts revealed Twitter's "blacklisting" of prominent conservatives, including Fox News' Dan Bongino, Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk, as well as Stanford University's Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who opposed the COVID lockdowns and the groupthink during the pandemic.

One of the most egregious banning on the platform was the popular account Libs of TikTok, which never violated its "hateful conduct" policy but were suspended several times for allegedly doing so. The only thing that Libs of TikTok was guilty of was reposting the posts of idiots on the Left, thus showing the public how crazy the Left is.

Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter testified under oath to Congress in 2018 that the company did not censor or shadow-ban conservatives. He has never been indicted for lying.

Third, fourth and fifth installments of the "Twitter Files" focused on Trump's permanent suspension from the platform over the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in 2021. Taibbi wrote about how Twitter circulated tweets related to the election that were "flagged" by the FBI as being problematic. 

Independent reporter Michael Shellenberger wrote that Dorsey was "phoning it in" while on vacation at the time when his deputies were pushing to de-platform Trump. His former head of trust and safety [an oxymoron] Yoel Roth was leading the charge to get Trump thrown off Twitter and censor others over tweets about the 2020 election.

It was discovered that Roth met on a weekly basis with the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the office of the Director of National Intelligence in the weeks leading up to the election.

Why the hell were the FBI and NIA getting involved in politics? And worse, why the hell are they violating the First Amendment rights of citizens? 

It seems like the only 'problematic' information they want to censor is the information that's a problem for them. Trump's tweets from Jan. 6 didn't violate any Twitter rules and staffers seemed to recognize that. But it was Vijaya Gadde, then-Twitter's head legal chief, who suggested that Trump's posts could be "coded incitement to further violence." 

Soon thereafter, Twitter's "scaled enforcement team" suggested that based on how Twitter interprets Trump's tweets, it could violate the violence incitement policies.

It's time for Adam Schiff and his band of Schiff-heads, to resign. Congress has no legal authority to make demands of the free speech of private companies.

That's bananas.

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