"Days after military strikes on Iran began, the Trump administration is attempting to thread the needle by degrading the regime enough to spark a regime change from within, without being directly responsible for the regime change. Instead, the administration has outlined its primarily military goals and hopes that the theocratic regime will fall as a byproduct, not directly at the hands of the U.S. military, public statements from the president and other administration officials show.

"'This is not a so-called regime change war,' Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told reporters in a briefing on Monday, the first from the Pentagon since aerial strikes against Iran began over the weekend. However, at the same time, he also echoed President Trump's earlier calls for the Iranian people to rise up against the Islamic Republic, saying 'now is your time.'

"Later in the day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. would 'love' for the Iranian people to overthrow the government but that this was not the objective of the mission."

Read the entire article here.

"President Donald Trump's decision to launch a surprise military strike against Iran is constitutional and not in violation of federal law, Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Sunday on Newsmax while rejecting claims from 'dead wrong' critics that the action amounts to an illegal war.

"'The Constitution gives the president of the United States the sole authority to be commander in chief of the army, the naval forces, but Article I says declaring war is within the power of Congress,' Dershowitz told Newsmax's Greta Van Susteren during special coverage of the strikes on Iran.

"Dershowitz said that tension has fueled a longstanding debate over the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of military action. ...

"The U.S. has not formally declared war since June 1942, when it declared war on Romania during World War II.

"Since then, presidents of both parties have initiated military actions without formal declarations of war, including in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq."

Read the entire article here.

"Most Americans don't think about electricity until the monthly bill arrives.

"It comes once a month, often quietly, but lately it's landed like a thud. Heating your home now costs hundreds more a month than it did just a few years ago. You use the same appliances. You flip the same switches. Nothing in your daily life has changed -- except the price.

"Why?"

Read the entire article here.

"California Attorney General Rob Bonta hoped to earn his anti-fossil fuel credentials when he filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil in 2024, alleging the company was engaging in deceptive practices related to its 'advanced recycling' program.

He probably didn't expect that the company would fight back the way it has."

Read the entire article here.

"President Trump delivered the first official State of the Union address of his second term on Tuesday.

"The speech came with the president beset by low approval ratings, especially on the economy, but seeking to rally his party ahead of November's midterms.

"Trump also gave his address, which clocked in at just short of an hour and 50 minutes, during a time of rising tension with Iran. The president has dispatched two aircraft carrier groups to the region."

Read the entire article here.

"New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani received a wave of criticism for the identification requirements for an emergency snow shoveler program he announced ahead of Sunday's winter storm. To 'register for an appointment' to be hired, prospective shovelers needed multiple forms of identification, a stark contrast to the identification necessary when voting in the city's election. The shoveler requirements also ran counter to Mamdani's stated position on voter identification, currently a hotly contested topic in U.S. political discourse."

Read the entire article here.

"Abigail Spanberger, the new governor of Virginia who has been tapped to deliver the Democrats' State of the Union reply Tuesday night, is the perfect avatar for her party's deception.

"With her long blond bob, minimalist makeup, pinched face and brisk air, she looks like the sort of competent working mom you'd encounter at school drop-off in any affluent suburb. In other words, she seems like somebody you instinctively trust.

"But don't be fooled by appearances. Spanberger is an expert at subterfuge, having spent eight years as an undercover CIA case officer, aka a spy, under Barack Obama and John Brennan, in the era when Democrats turned national security back on itself.

"Like Joe Biden, she posed as a moderate to fool willfully gullible voters and then showed her true colors the minute she took office."

Read the entire artilcle here.

"The pivotal question of what will follow the crack-up of the liberal international order dominated the highest levels of European politics last week.

"Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave his own, forceful answer at the 2026 Munich Security Conference. Following Vice President JD Vance's provocative speech last year, Rubio delivered an equally spirited address that issued an ultimatum: rationalizing collapse and weakness is no longer the policy of the United States -- and it should no longer be Europe's policy either. America has no 'interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West's managed decline,' he stated forthrightly.

"Instead, Rubio urged a reformation of the 'global institutions of the old order' to defend and strengthen the key pillars of Western civilization."

Read the entire article here.

"Could it really come to pass that no Democrat appears on the November general election ballot for governor in California? Despite handwringing from liberals and excited optimism from Republicans, it's unlikely. But the fact that such an outcome is even possible underscores the absurdity of California's voting procedures -- and casts a spotlight on rampant corruption and shadiness in the Golden State's elections.

For those unfamiliar with California politics, 16 years ago, the state exchanged its partisan primaries for a single June 'jungle' primary in which every candidate appears on the same ballot. Then, the two candidates who garner the most votes -- regardless of party -- compete against one another in the November general election for the ultimate prize.

The whole scheme was clearly devised to help Democrats, who dominate the state. Specifically, the idea was that instead of choosing between a Republican and Democrat in a general election, voters could choose between a radical left Democrat and an even more radical left Democrat.

So, what's the problem now? Well, there are twelve candidates in the race -- nine Democrats and three Republicans. The most recent polls show two GOP candidates leading the pack -- meaning that if the polls are accurate and the primary election were held today, Republicans Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton, commanding 15 percent and 13 percent support, respectively, in the latest RealClearPolitics average, would advance to the November general election.

In short, the next governor of California, which hasn't elected a GOP candidate statewide since 2006, would be guaranteed to be a Republican, despite Republican candidates winning combined less than 30 percent of the overall vote share in the jungle primary."

Read the entire article here.

"'The bottom line is this: voter ID is not controversial in this country,' Harry Enten, the chief data analyst for CNN, recently reported. Nor is it controversial in virtually any other country in the world. Yet despite massive support among both Democrats (71%) and Republicans (95%), only one Democratic member of the House and one in the Senate are supporting the SAVE Act. Unless seven more of the 47 Senate Democrats step forward, their filibuster will kill the bill.

"Democrats argue that requiring free voter photo IDs -- even when the ID itself costs nothing -- harms eligible voters by creating practical barriers to casting a ballot. They contend that blacks would be especially hard hit. Interestingly, every country in Africa requires government-issued identification to vote. ...

"While 83% of American adults support requiring government-issued photo identification to vote, support is also strong among the very groups Democrats claim would be harmed: 82% of Hispanics and 76% of black Americans favor the requirement. Those figures suggest that most black and Hispanic Americans do not view obtaining a photo ID as the obstacle Democrats describe. Ten U.S. states have similarly strong photo ID requirements.

"Democrats claim that women are disproportionately disenfranchised by voter IDs, but women are also strongly supportive of IDs and have exactly the same level of support as men."

Read the entire article here.