AOC Warns America Could Be Invaded By Reading Section She Didn't Read

On Tuesday, Rep. Alexandria Obviously-Commie (Comrade-NY) once again reminded Americans that confidence and comprehension are not necessarily traveling companions.

The latest episode began after the Bronx-born, Yorktown Heights raised, socialist took to social media to denounce the pending National Defense Authorization Act. She declared that one provision in the bill was an “existential threat to American sovereignty and democracy” that would “merge parts of our military with the IDF.”

Unfortunately, she is a dolt. The actual legislation refused to cooperate with her interpretation.

Within hours, critics, lawmakers, and legal experts pointed out that Section 219 has nothing to do with AOC's verbiage.

Rather than placing American troops under Israeli command or having Marines report to Tel Aviv before breakfast, the provision simply formalizes ongoing cooperation between the United States and Israel on research, technology development, missile defense, artificial intelligence, and counter drone systems. Let me say that important word again: COOPERATION.

In other words, it describes the sort of defense partnership Washington has maintained with allies for years, making it a rather disappointing script for those hoping for an international military takeover.

EPA Chief Lee Zeldin suggested the New York Democrat spend less time inventing geopolitical thrillers and more time brushing up on reading comprehension and critical thinking.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) was even less charitable. “Good grief, you are either obtuse or intentionally lying,” he wrote on X.

Legal scholars also struggled to locate the imaginary constitutional apocalypse AOC described. They noted that joint defense projects such as Iron Dome and David's Sling have been staples of U.S. policy for decades under bipartisan administrations, including laws signed by former President Barack Obama. As constitutional crises go, Congress passing legislation through Congress ranked surprisingly low on their list.

For longtime observers, the episode felt less like breaking news and more like a rerun. AOC has repeatedly delivered sweeping pronouncements about Israel before discovering that the facts stubbornly refuse to endorse them.

Her most memorable performance came during a 2018 appearance on Firing Line, where she labeled Israel "occupiers" before admitting she was “not the expert on geopolitics” after being asked to explain the issue.

Since then, she has continued courting her activist base with increasingly uncompromising positions, including promising at a Democratic Socialists of America forum never to support military aid to Israel, even defensive systems like Iron Dome that exist to intercept rockets aimed at civilians.

By week's end, Americans were once again left wondering whether AOC's greatest legislative talent is transforming routine defense cooperation into an Avengers crossover event. The only thing that actually merged was another social media panic with another elementary misunderstanding of the bill she was criticizing.

I want to thank you for following Brain Flushings. Please take time to simply check out the sponsors on this page--it's one way to support my work and you don't need to purchase anything to do so. Of course, you can Buy Me A Coffee if you want to support me directly. And finally, don't be afraid to subscribe if you enjoy the blog--it's free, and worth the cost.

Tweet

Gov. Hochul releases convicts from prisons after firings of officers during shortage

New York Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul fired thousands of correction officers after they went on strike over dangerous work conditions, and now, after she has created the shortage, she's releasing hundreds of convicts. In other words, she created the problem and now has created another one to handle the problem she created.

New York State Department of Corrections (DOCCS) Commissioner Daniel Martuscello released a memo on Monday, ordering prison superintendents to start figuring out which inmates qualify for early release, per new rules. Who are they to release: those who only killed one person? Those who have been convicted only four times of DUI? Domestic violence offenders? Politicians?

“In view of the current staffing crisis, and in order to have the appropriate balance between safety and well-being of those working and residing in DOCCS Correctional Facilities and public safety, it is appropriate that I, as Commissioner, exercise my authority pursuant to … move individuals from the Department’s general conferment facilities, into Residential Treatment outcount status,” the memo states.

Hochul, hoping to put a bandaid on an arterial bleed, approved the memo, with the governor’s spokesman Matt Janiszewski saying that her “top priority is the safety and well-being of all New Yorkers.” And if you believe that, you might think Jimmy Hoffa is buried below home plate in Yankee Stadium.

“The Governor is aware of Commissioner Martuscello’s memo and supports his efforts to safely address staffing shortages and personnel concerns,” Janiszewski added.

You knew it was coming. Citing staffing shortages — caused by the governor’s firing of 2,000 guards — the state of New York is releasing convicts from prison. pic.twitter.com/NVteaO6USI

— Bob Lonsberry (@BobLonsberry)

Hochul was criticized for the move, especially considering the debacle is her fault. 

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) called Hochul’s decision to back the early release of some inmates “a dangerous misstep that puts all New Yorkers at risk.”

But decisions like Hochul's rarely if ever affect the politicians who make them. 

“Albany Democrats’ pro-criminal policies, like the HALT Act, have crippled our prisons, leaving them understaffed and unsafe while crime surges in our communities,” Lawler’s statement said. “We need leaders who will tackle tough problems head-on, not resort to quick fixes that compromise the safety of law-abiding citizens. New Yorkers deserve better than policies that prioritize criminals over victims.”

pic.twitter.com/C1Cc6oIa4J

— Mike Lawler (@lawler4ny) April 1, 2025

“Kathy Hochul closed prisons and fired prison guards and now — citing overcrowding and insufficient staff — is releasing convicts from prison, just in time to buy favor with pro-criminal Democrats in the Assembly and Senate,” Rochester-based journalist and radio host Bob Lonsberry reacted. “What a funny coincidence.”

Any crimes committed by any of the releasees is on Hochul's empty head.

"I pour my heart into these posts, and if they’ve sparked something for you, I’d be thrilled if you’d treat me to a coffee over at Buy Me a Coffee – totally optional, of course!"

Tweet

Here are some of the insane things USAID funded

The House Republicans exposed the insane spending at this week's "USAID Betrayal" hearing. It highlighted the gargantuan waste and abject abuse of our tax dollars for projects that fit the woke agenda, and even supplied funding for our enemies and those of our ally, Israel. [H/T Townhall.com]

Thanks to Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) a majority member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, we now see where our hard-earned USAID taxpayer dollars go.

USAID spent $11,750,000 on measuring the effectiveness of DEI promotion efforts in Nepal (Award ID #AID367C1500001). How many Americans can even find Nepal on a map, I wonder. 

While USAID did not directly gift Hamas a cement factory, in 2016 they invested $310,000,000 in a Palestinian cement factory. The project was managed by the Sanad Construction Resources Company, a publicly traded operation on the Palestinian Stock Exchange. And while the project was meant to be a private venture to establish cement mills and factories, there have been reports and allegations that claim the factory had been diverted to construct Hamasshole tunnels and military infrastructure in Gaza.

Does that possibility sound far-fetched?

It seems that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is a very big deal to USAID--they spent $750,000 on Princeton University's DEI survey in the Middle East (Award ID# 7200AA21C00087); another $859,000 on hiring DEI 'specialists' at USAID headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Award ID #720BHA23S00034); and $23,000 on hosting DEI recruitment seminars in San Martin, Iquitos, and Lima, Peru (Award ID #72052723P00066).

Yes, DEI is a big deal to USAID and it turns out that it's also a big deal to the Trump administration where it has been shown to be a program not based on one's ability to get the job done right, but on the immutable characteristics and the sexual preferences of the people applying for the job.

Here's more on USAID's drunken sailor's payouts:

$558,000 on "emergency" DEI support 

$1 million on hiring an LGBT advisor for USAID's U.S. Personal Services Contractor program 

$15,500 on a DEI staff retreat in Nigeria

$100,000 to conduct a DEI survey in Ghana 

$50,000 on the establishment of a DEI fellowship in Uzbekistan 

$30,280 on "DEIA-facilitated conversations" in Senegal 

$23,300 on purchasing promotional materials for an upcoming DEI retreat 

But wait, there's more, and if this doesn't get your blood pressure soaring, nothing will:

$5.5 million to "improve the lives of LGBT individuals" in Uganda 

$37.67 million for providing "services" to prostitutes, their clients, and "transgender"-identifying people 

$65.7 million on vasectomies in the Congo ["bongo bongo bongo I don't want to leave the Congo"--see video]

$6 million on the "social inclusion of LGBTQ+ people" in countries around the world 

$4.3 million to provide "services" for men who have sex with other men in South Africa 

$14.9 million to "enhance the leadership" of LGBT leaders in Cambodia 

$3.5 million for "empowering LGBT Colombians" to take part in the political process 

$1.3 million to "create a comfortable environment for LGBTQ people" in North Macedonia 

$3,9. million to "strengthen equality and democracy" for the LGBTQ+ population in the Western Balkans 

$18,800 to help LGBT individuals vote in the 2021 Honduras elections [which tells us how USAID thinks of the LGBT community]

$108,700 on "strategic approaches" for advancing LGBT rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina [as if anyone knows anyone in Herzegovina]

$1.1 million on "empower[ing]" the LGBT community in Armenia 

$595,000 to "empower" Uganda's LGBT community to "push back against anti-LGBT legislation" 

USAID also funded circumcisions around the world via a boatload of awards.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) revealed that since 2022, USAID made payments to an organization led by an anti-Israel rapper who has written, produced, and performed several anti-Semitic songs, in which he called Israelis "cannibals" and "animals" and compared Gaza to Auschwitz. Anyone with a functioning cortex can see how absurd such a comparison is.

American-born rapper Raffoul Saadeh's LinkedIn profile says he's the executive director of a Palestinian NGO called Tomorrow's Youth Organization, which received $3.3 million in funds from USAID for a Middle East Partnership for Peace Act (MEPPA)-affiliated program that trains female entrepreneurs, per grant records.

Lawler cites 3 songs "Scars of Gaza," "From the Ghetto," and "Tears over Palestine," that support anti-Semitism and said that Saadeh "advocates for Jew hatred in his music," [if one considers rap actual music].

"[W]e need to get to the bottom of why the Biden administration was funding Jew hatred," Lawler urged. Is it possible the Biden administration, as well as the former alleged President himself, hates the Jewish people? Who knew?

USAID also doled out massive sums of foreign funding for Sesame Street programming in the Middle East, including:

$20 million to create a Sesame Street program in Iraq 

$4.1 million to establish a Sesame Street program in Bangladesh [bet you that Bert and Ernie are depicted as straight]
$5.2 million to start a Nigerian Sesame Street pilot program 
$3.9 million to teach "essential life skills" through Bangladeshi Muppets 
$100,000 on Sesame Street Japanese dubbing a.k.a. translated voiceovers 
$300,000 on a second season of Sesame Street in Kenya

Of course we can't end this without tipping our hats to some other ridiculous expenditures:

$4.5 million to teach individuals in Kazakhstan "how to fight back against internet trolls" 

$200,000 on a Lebanese organization addressing vaccine misinformation with "an inoculation chatbot" in Uzbekistan [will Dr. Fauci be guest speaker?]
$31.5 million to help USAID employees with counseling, "organizational resilience," wellness, and work-life balance 
$22 million to increase tourism in Tunisia and Egypt 
$29 million to diversify crop agriculture in Georgia [not our Georgia, the other one]
$850,000 on a so-called "transgender job fair" in Bangladesh 
$12,000 for pushing abortion as a method of family planning in Africa [actually, it's not planning for a family but a way to kill unborn family members]
$715,000 on "digital solutions for access to labor justice" in Mexico 

Well there you have it--your USAID tax dollars spent and mostly accounted for. It looks like now is a good time to end this program once and for all or the next thing we'll hear they spend on might be something like a study exploring why Persian cats can't throw frisbees.

Tweet

Anti-Semitism fight making progress in the USA

Jew-hatred, that most protean of hatreds, has a way of shape-shifting through the ages, but the response in Congress, it seems, is finally evolving with it. Consider the journey of the Antisemitism Awareness Act (AAA).  Back in December 2016, it passed the Senate by unanimous consent - a voice vote so anodyne it hardly ruffled a feather. Fast forward to last year, and then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish, wouldn't even allow a standalone vote, fearing it might split his party down the middle. So, despite passing the House 320-91 in May, the AAA went nowhere.

But last week, a quartet of Representatives - Mike Lawler (R-NY), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Max Miller (R-OH), and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) - reintroduced the bill, giving Congress another chance to do the right thing. Yet, with so much misinformation swirling around this legislation, it's crucial to grasp its content, its implications, and the concerns of its detractors.

The AAA essentially codifies into law President Donald Trump's 2019 executive order on antisemitism. It adopts the widely accepted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition to adjudicate complaints of anti-Jewish discrimination at educational institutions under the U.S. Department of Education.

Pastor John Hagee, the founder and chairman of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), who describes antisemitism as "a sinful abomination," told me, "You cannot defeat what you will not define."

The Jewish community agrees - having a standard definition is vital. The AAA is backed by Jewish organizations from across the political divide, from the left-leaning Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee to the right-leaning Republican Jewish Coalition and Zionist Organization of America.

Mark Goldfeder, CEO of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, pointed out, "Because Jewish identity is so multifaceted, without a standard definition for authorities to reference, it is too easy for antisemites to hide behind this ambiguity, commit heinous acts with impunity, then claim it was not antisemitism because it was not based on this or that characteristic." He further added, "The Office of Civil Rights [at the Department of Education] has been operating slowly, and there is a need to make sure that those who are trying to re-muddy the waters and create carve-outs for their favourite kinds of antisemitism cannot do so."

Now, to the opposition. Last year, 70 House Democrats and 21 House Republicans voted against the AAA. Both parties raised free speech concerns, but Democrats were particularly uneasy about the IHRA's characterization of anti-Zionism as antisemitism, while some Republicans had issues with IHRA's stance on "claims of Jews killing Jesus."

Goldfeder clarified, "The bill explicitly does not, in any way, restrict or prohibit speech of any kind, including hate speech, and of course religious speech. Every person is free to think, or believe, or say whatever they want, however abhorrent, about Jews and/or the Jewish state. Nor does the bill add any new crimes, classes, punishments, or enhancements." He continued, "AAA simply defines a term within the context of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which regulates behavior — not speech — and ensures that already existing laws will be consistently applied as intended."

Concerned Democrats should note that Schumer has now flipped and supports the bill.

On the Republican concern about Jesus, Pastor Hagee offered, "The Word of God says 'No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily' (John 10:18). Accordingly, if you're a Christian who believes the Bible is true, then we believe that Jesus Christ willingly laid down His life. If you believe that any one group is responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, save and except God Almighty, then you do not believe in the sacrificial and substitutionary death of our Saviour." He added that CUFI supports "AAA because it's right, and it is never the wrong time to do the right thing."

Luke Moon, executive director of the Philos Project and another Christian supporter of AAA, remarked, "There is a unique hatred of the Jewish people. I believe it is because the Jews were the people through who God brought his moral revelation into this world, and the world hates them for it. I believe Christians should stand with Israel and the Jewish people because we affirm that same moral revelation."

One can only hope that members of Congress are hearing these messages from their constituents. After all, Americans are overwhelmingly supportive of their Jewish neighbors, and the AAA merely seeks to make Trump's first-term policy on antisemitism in educational settings more durable.

Tweet

Georgie Santos vows to file 'sour grapes' ethics complaint against several lawmakers after he got the boot

Former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) had a hissy-fit on X and vowed to file a number of ethics complaints next week against several of his former colleagues. This comes just hours after the lying former congressman was kicked out of the House of Representatives.

On Friday night the ex-congressman went on social media and said he would be filing ethics complaints Monday against four House members: Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Mike Lawler (R-NY). Nick LaLota (R-NY) and the son of Bob Menendez, Rob Menendez (D-NJ). Santos alleges they committed campaign finance violations (as he is alleged to have committed), stock trading, and other sundry alleged ethics violations.

Santos was expelled from the House by a vote 311-114. He has not yet been convicted of a crime, but there is a boatload of evidence and he has been indicted on 23 counts related to wire fraud, identity theft, falsification of records, credit card fraud, and he even is accused of using campaign funds to purchase luxury goods and botox treatments. 

He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Still, he has not yet gone to trial but it looks as if Congress is fed up with him and his lies.

As for the complaint against Malliotakis, Santos said it will prioritize "her questionable stock trading since joining the Ways and Means committee this Congress."

"Let’s talk about hypocrisy. Can someone ask Nicole MalioStockTips when did she become a savant in stock trading?" Santos wrote in a post on X.

"The signature bank trades she did REEKS of insider trading much like Paul Pelosi’s every trade!" he added, referring to the husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, (D-CA).

"Before joining the committee the congresswoman didn’t have an active trading habit or a high volume stake," Santos continued in remarks about Malliotakis. "The question is, what set of information is she trading with?"

The complaint against Lawler, according to Santos, deals with the congressman "engaging in laundering money" by funneling campaign funds through a company he owns stake in. Lawler was closely involved in the resolution process to get Santos out of the House.

"The concerning questions are; is Mr Lawler engaging in laundering money from his campaign to his firm then into his own pocket?" Santos wrote in one post. "I will let the Office of Congressional Ethics be the judge of that."

As for LaLota, Santos questioned whether the Empire State lawmaker was a "no-show" at his local board of elections position during his tenure in law school. Of course LaLota was paramount in writing the resolution that finally got Santos booted from the Hill, so there seems to be a bunch of sour grapes involved in the attack.

"Did Rep Lalota no-show to his tax pay funded job while going to school and if so he can potential have stolen public funds form the tax payers of NY," Santos wrote in another post. "I will let the Office of Congressional Ethics determine the validity of this grave allegation raised in his local media."

Will Kiley, a LoLota spokesperson, told The Hill that Santos "is just mad the congressman has three actual degrees, while he lied about one."

George Santos in drag

Santos also called into question Rob Menendez's relationship with his father, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who has been federally charged for allegedly participating in a bribery scheme. Santos specifically raised concerns over what Menendez may have known about his father's crimes, asking "what did he know and when did he know it."

"I think it’s a fair point to make sure we weed out the doubt surrounding Rep. Menendez and his business associations with his father," Santos added.

In a statement to The Hill, Menendez spokesman Michael Zhadanovsky poo-pooed Santos' threat.

"George Santos is neither Rep. Menendez’s colleague nor a constituent, so we will not expend any energy responding to his Botox-fueled fits of rage," Zhadanovsky said.

The House's vote against Santos made him the first House lawmaker to be expelled in more than 20 years and the first gay Republican to get the boot. 

Expelling a member of Congress takes a two-thirds majority vote. 

Tweet