U.S. holding the line

American drones hit two Iranian tankers in Hormuz under Trump's new retaliatory policy

U.S. forces struck two Iranian government tankers anchored off Iran's coast on Tuesday and hit roughly 100 additional targets across the country, the first use of President Trump's "tanker for tanker" policy after Tehran attacked commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

American drones fired missiles into the engine rooms of both vessels, which sat north of the U.S. blockade line, while a broader CENTCOM operation hammered air-defense batteries, radar installations, maritime facilities, mine-laying equipment, and communications sites from one end of Iran's military infrastructure to the other.

The independent tracking firm TankerTrackers.com reviewed CENTCOM footage and assessed that both tankers were empty at the time of the strikes, though their precise ownership had not yet been confirmed.

The operation marks a sharp escalation in Washington's posture toward Tehran. For months, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has harassed and attacked commercial vessels transiting the strait, the narrow chokepoint through which a huge share of the world's oil moves every day. 

A pair of IRGC strikes on tankers carrying Saudi crude finally triggered the new policy, which President Trump approved to answer every Iranian attack on a commercial ship with a direct hit on an Iranian one.

Forty commercial ships moved through the strait while U.S. forces held the line.

Even as missiles and drones flew, roughly 40 commercial vessels transited into or out of the Persian Gulf on Tuesday, carrying millions of barrels of oil under the security umbrella American forces maintained over the shipping lanes.

That detail alone illustrates what the operation was designed to prove: the United States can keep global energy markets open while punishing the regime responsible for threatening them.

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Two Democrats vote with Republicans

Jeffries threatens consequences after two Democrats rescue Republicans on key House vote

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries vowed a "serious response" after two centrist Democrats crossed party lines to save a failing Republican procedural vote, a move that forced nearly 200 Democrats into a politically painful floor vote on socialism.

Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington broke ranks on Tuesday to back a GOP procedural rule that was about to collapse under Republican defections. The rule passed 210, 208, and Democratic leadership wasted no time calling the move a betrayal. Without Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez, the measure would have failed, freezing the House Republican agenda for the week.

Jeffries, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar released a joint statement that left little room for ambiguity. As the New York Post reported, leadership declared:

"The decision by two of our colleagues to blindside the entire House Democratic Caucus and join with the Republican majority to pass a procedural rule on the brink of failing represents a significant breach of trust."

Both defectors pointed to the same justification: the Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act, a bill bundled into the legislative package the rule unlocked. The bill delays the implementation of new fishing regulations aimed at protecting whales until 2035. It passed the House 219, 196 on Tuesday.

When 192 House Democrats would rather go on record refusing to condemn socialism than let two colleagues vote their districts, the leadership problem is not with the two who broke ranks.

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Threat against the life of Benjamin Netanyahu's son

Yair Netanyahu evacuated from U.S. after Shin Bet identified 'significant threat' tied to Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's oldest son was urgently pulled out of the United States after Israel's domestic intelligence agency confirmed a credible threat against his life, a threat the prime minister blamed squarely on Iran.

Yair Netanyahu, 35, had been living in Miami since 2023 when Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, roughly equivalent to the FBI, assessed that the threat against him was serious enough to warrant an immediate extraction. The agency diverted security personnel from New York to assist in the operation, the Washington Examiner reported, and returned him to Israel along with his protective detail.

Shin Bet confirmed the evacuation but offered little beyond a terse statement. "There was a significant threat to harm Yair Netanyahu, and in light of this and after an assessment, a decision was made to urgently extract him along with his security team and return him to Israel," the agency said. No further details about the nature of the threat were disclosed.

The elder Netanyahu had already pointed a finger at Tehran. During a televised appearance on Israel's Channel 14 on August 24, the prime minister said Iran had gone after his family directly.

When a hostile regime can reach into the United States and force the emergency extraction of a protected person, the question is not just whether Israel's security services responded fast enough. It is whether America's own defenses are keeping pace with the threat.

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Defending America from Cartels

White House touts record drop in cartel-inflicted U.S. casualties as military boat strikes pass 200 killed

Senior administration officials say President Trump's lethal military campaign against drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific has produced the steepest decline in cartel-caused American casualties ever recorded, a claim built on 68 strikes that have killed 227 suspected narco-terrorists.

On a press call Tuesday, unnamed White House officials laid out the numbers behind what they described as the first time a president has directed sustained military force specifically to defend the homeland from cartel networks.

The Department of War executed the strategy, officials said, and U.S. Southern Command carried out the strikes, including a recent hit on a go-fast boat along a known Caribbean trafficking route that killed four suspected smugglers. SOUTHCOM released video of that strike.

The campaign has drawn scrutiny, but the administration is not hedging. Officials framed the results in blunt terms: a 65 percent reduction in illicit maritime activity in the Western Caribbean, a 60 percent drop in the Eastern Caribbean, and a nearly 50 percent decrease across key regions of the Eastern Pacific.

Those figures, if accurate, represent a dramatic shift in the operating environment for seaborne drug networks that have funneled narcotics toward American shores for decades.

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Morning Clouds 9-3-26

DSA taking over the Democrat Party

Crime City of Lake Worth Beach

BURGLARY VEHICLE
Incident #: 26090771
1200 BLOCK N DIXIE HWY | 9/2/2026 @ 3:31 PM
Palm Beach County Sheriff


BEVERAGE VIOLATION
Incident #: 26090731
600 BLOCK S DIXIE HWY | 9/2/2026 @ 2:19 PM
Palm Beach County Sheriff


BEVERAGE VIOLATION
Incident #: 26090727
600 BLOCK S DIXIE HWY | 9/2/2026 @ 1:59 PM
Palm Beach County Sheriff


VANDALISM
Incident #: 26090646
200 BLOCK S E ST | 9/2/2026 @ 10:03 AM
Palm Beach County Sheriff


BURGLARY VEHICLE
Incident #: 26090598
200 BLOCK S K ST | 9/2/2026 @ 6:28 AM
Palm Beach County Sheriff


BURGLARY VEHICLE
Incident #: 26090590
1300 BLOCK 3RD AVE S | 9/2/2026 @ 4:06 AM
Palm Beach County Sheriff

Evening Sky 9-2-26

Hey media: Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it. Somehow they can fact-check Trump but the First Amendment protects them from being fact-checked.

Enter into the fray Welker. She got her facts wrong. A Trump endorsement assures a candidate the nomination 97% of the time. It’s like a Hallmark card (“When you care enough to send the very best”) or a hickey from Kenickie.

Rather than apologize and correct the error, NBC said, “Kristen is one of the best in the business and we stand by her.” Trump said fine. He has asked the FCC to correct her.

The results are not mixed. He endorsed 260 candidates who went on to win Republican primaries and only 9 losers. That’s a .967 batting average rounded off to 97%.

This year, Trump did something no other president had done. He primaried a sitting senator. In fact he primaried two: Bill Cassidy in Louisiana for voting to remove him from office, and John Cornyn for refusing to get the SAVE Act passed. [Don Surber]

Good Night, Patriots!

Delcy Rodriguez and Venezuelan Oil Deal

Ted Cruz Says 'Significant Concerns' Over Venezuela Oil Deal

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is raising "significant concerns" about the Trump administration's massive new Venezuela oil agreement, warning that it should not legitimize acting President Delcy Rodríguez or delay free elections in the country.

Speaking on his latest "Verdict with Ted Cruz" podcast, Cruz said the agreement is a "big deal" and that giving U.S. interests access to an estimated 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil could ultimately benefit American jobs, the economy, and consumers. Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves.

But Cruz said the still-opaque arrangement also raises serious political and economic questions.

"This is a deal that was cut with Delcy Rodríguez, who is the interim president of Venezuela," Cruz said. "She was Nicolas Maduro's vice president. She is a communist. She is a Marxist. She has a long history of being viciously anti-American."

Read Newsmax

Resolution to condemn socialism

4 House Democrats move to condemn socialism, DSA in resolution

The Democrats proposed replacing a Republican resolution with language condemning socialism and the Democratic Socialists of America while removing provisions related to election security and the SAVE America Act.

The amendment — offered by Democratic Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Hillary Scholten of Michigan, Jared Moskowitz of Florida, and Tom Suozzi of New York — targets H. Res. 1490, introduced Aug. 27 by Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colo.

Crank’s resolution condemns socialism and the DSA while also calling for enactment of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, known as the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo identification to cast a ballot.

The Democratic amendment would strike the Republican resolution’s preamble and replace it with language detailing historical failures attributed to socialist and communist regimes, including the Soviet Union, China under Mao Zedong, and Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge.

“I keep hearing people like Hakeem Jeffries and others in Congress saying that they oppose the DSA,” Crank told Fox News Digital in an Aug. 28 interview. “I want to see if they’re willing to vote for a resolution that would oppose them.”

Crank’s office said the resolution comes as DSA-affiliated candidates have competed in more than 100 elections across at least half of the states since the November 2025 election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist.

Democrats will NOT support The Save Act--Voter ID.

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FBI approached Eric Swalwell at SF Airport

FBI agents confront Eric Swalwell at San Francisco Airport, seize electronics in sexual misconduct probe

Newly released security footage captures the moment FBI agents surrounded former congressman Eric Swalwell at a San Francisco Airport departure gate, executing a federal search warrant tied to sexual misconduct allegations from at least four women.

Swalwell, 45, was waiting for a flight home to California on August 15 when multiple FBI agents approached him at the gate. Dressed in a baseball cap, hoodie, and sneakers, the former seven-term Democrat was escorted away from the terminal, down an escalator, and through a hallway marked "restricted area" into a private room, the Daily Mail reported.

There, agents seized his white Apple iPhone, an Apple MacBook Pro, a charging cable, and a wall charger, all catalogued in a warrant that had been filed two days earlier, on August 13.

The warrant was filed under Section 242 of Title 18 of the United States Code, a federal statute that prohibits officials from using their authority to deprive someone of constitutional rights. How that law applies to Swalwell's case remains unclear, but its invocation signals that federal prosecutors are examining whether the former congressman leveraged his office in connection with the alleged misconduct.

The confrontation at the airport was only the beginning. The following day, FBI agents arrived at Swalwell's residence in northeast Washington, D.C., armed with additional court-approved search warrants. Neither Swalwell nor his wife, Brittany Watts, 41, was home.

The New York Post reported that agents seized additional undisclosed potential evidence from the home. The warrant from the airport encounter was signed by FBI Special Agent Kyle R. Biebesheimer, who certified the inventory under penalty of perjury.

Read about Swalwell...

United States Space Academy

Donald Trump Just Did Something No President Has Done Since Dwight Eisenhower

Four American heroes flew to the far side of the moon four months ago – and Jen Psaki used to laugh at the branch of the military that made it possible. Now Trump just answered that mockery with the biggest move in American space history since 1954. The last time America built something like this, Dwight Eisenhower was president and the Korean War had just ended.

Trump just signed the order at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston – the same room where the Artemis II crew received their Congressional Space Medal of Honor after flying 252,756 miles into space, farther than any human had traveled since Apollo 13.

Think about that.

Those four astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen – flew around the far side of the moon in April and came home to a country with no dedicated pipeline to train the people who do that for a living.

Trump fixed it Friday. The United States Space Academy will train the next generation of Space Force guardians, NASA engineers, and civilian space operators under a full-scholarship, taxpayer-funded program with mandatory service commitments.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman – the man who called Artemis II "the greatest adventure in human history" – will chair the Presidential Commission tasked with designing the academy from scratch. They have 120 days.

Read about it...

Maria Corina Machado

Machado Calls for Free Elections in Venezuela, First Remarks Since Trump Oil Deal

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado used an appearance at the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia on Monday to make one message unmistakably clear: Venezuela's political transition must end with free and transparent elections — and it should happen as soon as possible.

Machado's remarks were her first public comments since President Donald Trump announced Friday a sweeping new oil agreement with Venezuela that gives U.S. interests majority control over more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves.

Yet Machado did not directly address the controversial agreement in her Bled speech. Instead, she focused on the political condition she has long argued must precede Venezuela's economic reconstruction: the restoration of democracy through legitimate elections.

"For democracy to be fully restored in Venezuela, free and transparent elections must be held as soon as possible," Machado said, arguing that only respect for the popular will guarantee peace and stability.

Read about it...

Machado is an industrial engineer with a master's degree in finance and began her political career as a founder of the vote-monitoring organization Súmate which was established in January 2002 as a non-governmental organization to defend the electoral and constitutional rights of all Venezuelan citizens.

Minnesota - Vote in a new Attorney General

Crime City of Lake Worth Beach

DISTURBANCE IN PROGRESS
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2200 BLOCK 10TH AVE N | 9/1/2026 @ 7:48 PM
Palm Beach County Sheriff


SHOPLIFTING
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Palm Beach County Sheriff

Evening Sky 9-1-26

Secret Chinese Buyer Purchased Farmland Near U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fighter Jet Hub--More than 1,500 acres belonging to a potentially CCP-linked buyer.

A corporation the U.S. Department of Agriculture classifies as Chinese-owned paid $21.2 million in cash for more than 1,500 acres of California farmland roughly 16 miles from the Navy’s principal West Coast fighter-jet base, according to federal and county records reviewed for this article.

The buyer, Long Feng International, Inc., acquired 1,513.18 acres in Kings County in November 2024, USDA’s foreign-landholding database shows. The department lists the investor’s country as “CHINA” and identifies Long Feng as a U.S.-created corporation whose primary interest is held by a Chinese owner.

Don't we have a law? There is no single federal law that completely stops foreign nationals or Chinese entities from buying private American agricultural land. Executive and congressional pushes: The Trump administration announced a National Farm Security Action Plan to restrict future purchases and evaluate existing holdings by foreign adversaries. Lawmakers have also introduced bipartisan bills like the Protecting U.S. Farmland and Sensitive Sites from Foreign Adversaries Act to close federal oversight gaps.

Good Night, Patriots!

Iranian al-Hami died during his speech

US Launches Surprise Attack on Iran as Senior IRGC Candidate Dies on Live TV

The United States launched what was described as a surprise attack on the Iranian regime Sunday, setting off a rapid chain of events across the region.

According to Iranian expert Tousi, the US strike was a preemptive move. The report says American officials received information that Iranian forces were preparing to launch an attack against US interests in Jordan.

The story also focuses on a dramatic moment during a regime rally. Senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps member and candidate Naemat al-Hami reportedly suffered a fatal heart attack in the middle of his campaign speech.

Al-Hami had been speaking before the event suddenly ended. The account describes the incident as an unusually striking moment because it unfolded in front of a live camera. The report argues that while propaganda can be carefully managed, a sudden medical emergency on live television is much harder to control.

The clip was circulated online with claims that al-Hami died during the speech.

See the video

Celebrated under Biden, now a National Security Threat

Under Trump, now on the Terror Watchlist and barred from the U.S.

Biden administration honored Iraqi finance minister later placed on U.S. terror watchlist and stripped of visa

The Biden administration once celebrated former Iraqi Finance Minister Taif Sami Mohammed as a champion of anti-corruption, but she has now been placed on the U.S. terror watchlist and barred from the country, a reversal critics say exposes dangerous lapses in White House vetting.

Taif Sami Mohammed Al Shakarchi, once hailed by American leaders as a “frontline leader against corrupt practices,” is now at the center of a national security controversy after the State Department revoked her U.S. visa and placed her on the government’s terror watchlist.

Just two years ago, she was honored at the State Department’s International Women of Courage ceremony, where both Jill Biden and Antony Blinken praised her as a model reformer in Iraq.

The State Department confirmed that Mohammed’s visa was revoked “this week,” though it did not release the specific date or publicly detail the evidence behind the watchlist designation.

In a sharply worded statement, Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs Dylan Johnson contrasted the Biden administration’s approach with that of its predecessor, saying, “While the Biden State Department shamefully celebrated and awarded foreigners who threaten our nation, the Trump State Department revokes their visas and ensures these individuals are removed from our country.”

This stunning about-face marks a rare instance where an individual celebrated by top U.S. officials, including the first lady and the secretary of state, was later classified as a national security threat. Breitbart News reported that the 2022 award cited Mohammed’s “purported role in fighting corruption and her advocacy for gender equity.”

Read about it...

Ballroom will proceed

Supreme Court lets Trump’s White House ballroom project press on as legal fight simmers

The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to let President Trump continue building his privately funded White House ballroom despite fierce legal opposition, keeping construction on track while the case plays out in lower courts.

President Donald Trump’s ambitious White House ballroom is moving forward after the nation’s highest court handed his administration a narrow but crucial win. In a contentious split decision, the Supreme Court allowed construction to proceed even as preservationists and liberal justices raised alarms about the project’s legality and process.

The emergency order, issued by a 5-4 majority, replaced an earlier temporary hold from Chief Justice John Roberts, who joined the liberal bloc in dissent. 

The order comes in the middle of an intense legal fight, with lower courts previously attempting to halt the work, and preservation groups like the National Trust for Historic Preservation pushing lawsuits to stop the demolition and construction at President’s Park, home to the White House complex in Washington, D.C.

Trump, for his part, celebrated the court’s intervention. In a Truth Social post, he declared the ballroom was “totally funded by Great Patriots and Corporations and, therefore, is a Gift, At no cost to the American Taxpayer.”

He called the lawsuit against the project “baseless,” and described the planned space as a “magnificent Ballroom and Military Complex,” claiming it would be “one of the Greatest ever constructed in Washington, D.C.” Trump projected the project would be completed by summer 2028, describing it as “something that the entire Country is very proud of.”

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Another Crook from Blue State

New Jersey councilman Anand Shah pleads guilty, banned from public office over gambling ring with mob ties

New Jersey has fallen into the abyss

Anand Shah, a Prospect Park councilman, has pleaded guilty to racketeering and money laundering for his role in an illegal gambling operation linked to the Lucchese crime family, forcing his resignation and a lifetime ban from holding public office in New Jersey.

Shah’s downfall came after prosecutors revealed he ran an illegal gambling ring across several New Jersey counties, pocketing nearly $1 million over six years. The operation, which spanned Morris, Passaic, and Bergen counties from 2017 to 2023, relied on backroom poker games and a network of subagents, with Shah collecting over $900,000 in “rakes”, the cut taken from each game.

Authorities said Shah didn’t just break the law for personal gain. He used a significant portion of the proceeds to fund his own political campaign, even forgiving gamblers’ debts in exchange for campaign contributions. As a result, Shah pleaded guilty to racketeering, money laundering, and official misconduct, resigned his council seat on Friday, and is now permanently barred from ever holding public office in the state.

The charges against Shah came as part of a sweeping crackdown on illegal gambling, one that officials say exposed deep ties between local politicians and organized crime.

According to the New York Post’s reporting, the state’s investigation uncovered $4.79 million in suspected criminal proceeds, led to charges against 42 people, and resulted in 38 guilty pleas, with only two defendants still facing charges.

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