ASTROTURF ALL THE WAY DOWN:

NAILED IT:

The cause is always the same: Other people’s money.

GOODER AND… WAIT, WHAT? Mamdani Did the Right Thing on Crime and the Left’s Reaction Is Priceless. “What do you call it when a mayor does the right thing concerning policing, resulting in tangible results for his city’s most vulnerable? Well, this is New York City and the mayor is an avowed socialist, so you have to call it ‘mounting frustration’ from so-called reform advocates and the people who voted for him.”

AND BLEND RULES, AND REFINERY CLOSURES, AND DRILLING BANS:

INCENTIVES MATTER: With no options left, a Venezuelan family living in Colorado walks into ICE custody, seeking to go back home.

Cecilia stood outside a federal immigration field office in Centennial, chewing her lip and weighing the few choices left to her. Behind her, piled in a car, was what remained of her family’s life in the United States.

It was early May, and a few feet away, her three sons took turns sticking their shoes into old prairie dog holes in the dirt, the youngest’s Crocs breaking through cobwebs. As the boys looked from the ground to their mother, she explained that if she returned to the office the next day, immigration agents had promised to detain the family and arrange their return to Venezuela.

The Centennial office building was similar to one into which her husband and the boys’ father had disappeared late last year. But unlike Ronald, who’d been arrested at what he thought was a routine appointment, Cecilia arrived that day hoping that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would take them away.

She and her three children — ages 12, 9 and 6 — had walked for three months to get to the United States in 2024, crossing notorious expanses of jungle and mountains for the prospect of a stable future and a reunion with Ronald, who’d come earlier that year. But like other families split by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, they now found themselves struggling to make ends meet in a single-parent household, with no regular paycheck and few options.

That was quite a struggle. Next time, do it without breaking our laws.

BOMB CANADA, THE CASE FOR WAR:

(Classical reference in headline.)

I DID NAZI THAT COMING:

GREAT MOMENTS IN MULTICULTURALISM: AOC’s Former Chief of Staff ‘Threatens’ a Fellow Dem (Who’s Jewish) for Refusing to Back a Nazi *Popcorn*.

In a move that perfectly captures the modern left’s priorities, former Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaign manager Saikat Chakrabarti is melting down because Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Jake Auchincloss dared to call out a Nazi tattoo on Graham Platner as personally disqualifying—and suggested voters might feel the same way.

Well, maybe Nazi-adjacent or certainly willing to look the other way at those who were. Here’s a flashback to Chakrabarti’s sartorial excesses in 2019: AOC chief of staff criticized for wearing shirt touting Nazi collaborator:

Chakrabarti’s choice of apparel is receiving a fresh round of criticism after Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, positively quoted Nazi sympathizer Eva Perón, the former first lady of Argentina.

Saikat Chakrabarti, the chief of staff for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, came under scrutiny for having worn a T-shirt that featured Nazi collaborator Subhas Chandra Bose.

In December 2018, following his boss’s congressional victory, Chakrabarti did a video with NowThis News, titled “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Chief of Staff on Acting Fast in Congress,” in which he wore a T-shirt with Bose’s face.

As I wrote last year, before Chakrabarti explicitly endorsed Platner, “If he wins and takes office at the beginning of 2027, I assume Chakrabarti would want to pack in as much legislating as possible before it’s too late (possibly working with potential Senator Graham Platner, another enthusiast of Germany’s post-Weimar era, if he’s elected as well). While Chakrabarti was serving as AOC’s ghostwriter, she assured us all that the world would be coming to an end in 2030.”

Related: Dave Portnoy EMBARRASSES Graham Platner’s Team for Thinking He Would ‘Play Footsy with a Nazi’ (Emails)

ALLIES:

Translation: “Poland has received preliminary approval from the U.S. Department of State to produce PAC-3 missiles for Patriot systems in its domestic defense industry – Deputy Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk announced. In addition to Patriot missiles, Poland plans to also produce missiles for HIMARS systems as well as Hellfire. The production is to be joint in nature, benefiting both Polish and American companies. This is an important step toward reducing dependence on foreign supplies.”

21ST CENTURY DATING: The terrifying rise of schoolboys making AI girlfriends.

New research has revealed that one in five boys aged 12-16 is either in or knows of a boy their age who is in a romantic relationship with an AI companion. A report carried out by men’s organisation Male Allies UK and published last month spoke with more than 1,000 boys aged 12-16 in focus groups in 37 schools – public and state, grammar and comprehensive, and across a range of Ofsted ratings – up and down the country. Peer-to-peer focus groups were set up where boys could speak freely, with the aim of diving into their behaviour and attitudes, and it was the boys who wanted to talk about AI technologies. The findings make stark reading: eight in 10 boys (85 per cent) have had a conversation with a chatbot, with 43 per cent saying they talk to bots so they can ask questions without feeling embarrassed. More than a quarter (26 per cent) say they like the attention and connection over real-life equivalents, and (36 per cent) admitted that they prefer speaking to AI chatbots rather than to their family and friends at times.

The most popular apps for creating these AI “companions” are Character.AI (which has 50 million downloads), Replika (30 million downloads), Candy AI (tagline: “Your smart and emotionally aware AI companion”, with 50 million registered users) and OurDream AI (“Create your dream AI girl”; 36 million monthly visits).

This stuff isn’t for kids.