We previously reported on a House Homeland Security Committee hearing that took place on Wednesday and which focused on the failures of the Biden administration on border security matters, specifically as it related to “How NGOs Facilitated the Biden Border Crisis.”

The witnesses who were invited to testify did not mess around, with Blaze National Correspondent Julio Rosas, a veteran of reporting on border-specific matters, going off on the Democrats on the committee for “fearmongering” over the recent ICE immigration sweeps, which have taken violent illegals off the streets and have rescued children from forced child labor and alleged sex offenders on California weed farms.

“They’re content with keeping us as that servant underclass, and that is why it is disgusting to see them criticize that recent raid in Ventura County, where they found unaccompanied minors working alongside convicted sex offenders at a cannabis farm,” Rosas stated.

READ MORE: Julio Rosas Torches Homeland Security Committee Democrats

Another witness who was there to testify was Mike Howell, who is president of the Oversight Project and who is also a Heritage Foundation visiting fellow. Howell is also an advisor to the National Immigration Center for Enforcement, so naturally, he had a lot to say on the subject of border security on Biden’s watch.

But he, too, also took aim at Democrats on the committee, pleading with them to stop the incendiary rhetoric that has put the lives of federal immigration enforcement agents in danger to the point it has led to attempts on their lives.

Naturally, this triggered Democrats, prompting ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-MS) to attempt to shut him down, alleging his testimony was “outside the scope of the hearing.” Republicans disagreed and ultimately allowed Howell to continue.

But the real highlight of the hearing came when Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) condescendingly questioned Howell. 

This led to him putting on a master class in not only how not to accept Democrat premises during the course of a debate/discussion, but how to not let them get away with lying about or mischaracterizing your position by demanding they show receipts – which Ansarai couldn’t do and which essentially proved Howell’s implied points about her utter cluelessness:

Not that it’s exactly breaking news that Democrats aren’t sending their best and brightest to Capitol Hill, but it’s worth documenting for the record all the same.

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WASHINGTON, DC — Bahrain Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa announced that Bahraini companies are investing $17 billion in the United States during a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday.

Trump and the crown prince met with reporters in the Oval Office ahead of a private meeting, where Trump said they would discuss a range of topics, including trade and the strikes on Iran. The president spoke glowingly of his relationship with the country.

“We’ve had a tremendous relationship — I have personally with Bahrain over the years, and it has been a fantastic ally. And anything they needed, we helped them, and anything we needed, they helped us,” Trump said.

The crown prince shared that they would discuss security issues and trade, and touted billions in investment into the U.S. from Bahraini companies.

“We’re very happy to be announcing $17 billion worth of deals that are coming to the United States. And this is real… These aren’t fake deals. These are real deals,” he said, to which Trump joked, “You don’t have to borrow the money.”

“It only builds upon a legacy that we’re very proud of,” Al Khalifa said. “We have had a relationship in the civil side between our two countries since 1893 and formally since 1948, so may it long continue, and we look forward to many, many more years of productive partnership,” he added.

The investment announcement comes a day after Trump attended Sen. Dave McCormick’s (R-PA) inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, where McCormick shared that more than $90 billion in investment was pouring into the state thanks to Trump.

Trump said on Monday that the United States has attracted $15 trillion in investments since he took office.

“There’s never been anything like that. In the history of our country, there has not been anything like it or even close,” Trump said.

Prices paid to American businesses for goods and services held steady in June, defying predictions that tariffs would create inflationary presssures in the U.S. economy.

The producer price index was unchanged in June compared with the previous month, the Department of Labor said Wednesday. Economists had expected a rise of 0.2 percent after a 0.3 percent rise in May and a 0.3 percent decline in April.

Compared with a year ago, the producer price index (PPI) is up 2.3 percent, a significantly slower rate of inflation than the 2.5 percent forecast and the 2.6 percent reported in May.

PPI for final demand measures the prices paid to American businesses for goods and services. It includes sales to consumers, households, businesses, and foreign purchasers, a broader array of customers than is measured by the consumer price index. Although it is sometimes referred to as a “wholesale” price index, it is not an index of wholesale prices.

Goods prices rose by 0.3 percent in June but these increases were offset by a 0.1 percetn decline in the much larger services sector.

Core PPI, which excludes food and energy prices, was also flat for the month. Compared with a year ago, core PPI is up 2.6 percent, a significant slowdown in inflation from the prior month’s 3.0 percent annual increase.

So-called “super core” PPI, which also excludes a measure of business margins known as “trade services,” was also flat. Compared with a year ago, it is up 2.5 percent, down from the 2.7 percent gain recorded in May.

Core goods prices rose 0.3 percent in June, led by higher costs for communication equipment, manufacturing capital goods, and durable consumer products such as electronics and appliances. These gains reflect strong domestic demand and investment rather than broad-based inflationary pressure. The data offer no clear evidence of tariff pass-through, suggesting instead a shift in relative prices driven by sector-specific supply and demand dynamics.

The Labor Department’s PPI survey also includes data on intermediate demand prices, which reflect what businesses receive from sales to other businesses for goods and services that are used to produce products for final demand. Processed goods for intermediate demand ticked up 0.1 percent and unprocessed goods rose by a sharp 0.7 percent. Prices for intermediate services fell 0.1 percent.

Democrats and the media continue to be on the wrong side of the issue when it comes to immigration sweeps, as evidenced by their hysterical reactions to things like operations that are conducted in gang/drug-infested parks in states like California, as well as the deportations of violent criminal illegal immigrants arrested across the country.

We’ve seen it, too, in their hyperventilating over Alligator Alcatraz in Florida, where the media hit pieces are fast and flowing, with the allegations against it taking a rather interesting turn after a group of Democrats recently toured the facility.

“They essentially get their drinking water and they brush their teeth where they poop,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) proclaimed, apparently not realizing that there are similar setups in many American households.

SEE ALSO –>> ‘Jig Is Up’: Dems Hardest Hit After Details Released on Worst of the Worst at Alligator Alcatraz

The latest example comes courtesy of a bust that was made in the state of Rhode Island, with ICE agents taking an illegal immigrant and allegedly “self-admitted” MS-13 gang member into custody in what turned out to be an intense series of events. After the arrest made headlines, it prompted the following response from woke Rhode Island state lawmaker Enrique Sanchez (D):

The Nazi Gestapo ICE thugs kidnapped another of our neighbor in Providence this morning. This time on Alverson st.  

The ICE thugs damaged a couple cars that belonged to residents as well. They think they are above the law. I strongly condemn this act of terror and will- be demanding answers and seeking action tomorrow. I am tired of this sh**. Providence doesn’t want ICE thugs in our city.

ICE, however, pushed back on Sanchez’s story of the arrest of his “neighbor,” Ivan Rene-Mendoza Meza, detailing the circumstances around his arrest and shredding Sanchez’s priorities in a statement provided to Fox News’ Bill Melugin:

ICE was targeting a Honduran known MS-13 gang member, IVAN RENE-MENDOZA MEZA, who had pending local charges in RI for fentanyl trafficking and had been released from local custody with ICE’s detainer ignored due to sanctuary policies. I’m told it was the 6th District Court in RI that ignored ICE’s detainer. 

When ICE agents attempted a traffic stop to arrest MENDOZA MEZA, he struck ICE vehicles before bailing out of his car and running into an apartment. He was surrounded and eventually surrendered. I’m told it was ICE vehicles and his own car that were damaged.

Here’s the statement ICE issued to Fox News:

Mr. Sanchez thinks so little of his community he refers to ruthless MS-13 as “neighbors”. What say you, Providence? The only thugs we see are the illegal terrorist gangbangers we are trying to remove from the neighborhoods of Providence.

Incredibly, in the face of all the evidence against Mendoza Meza, which was verified by local news outlets, Sanchez stood behind his words:

“I’m willing to accept my mistake or my error of maybe you know not mentioning that, or defending someone who was dealing with drug trafficking, but in the meantime, I can’t stay quiet about this [I.C.E. presence in Providence],” said Sanchez. “I don’t hold back my words on how I label the ICE officials….If you choose to not believe history, or watch history, or read history, then that’s your problem. But when you do the compare and contrast of the situations in the 40s to what we’re dealing with now, it’s the same thing.”

Previously, he announced he was willing to get “prosecuted and arrested” if it meant stopping ICE operations in Rhode Island (language warning):

The only arrest he’s had so far, however, stemmed from an alleged drunk driving incident back in February. And in 2023, Sanchez introduced a bill he hoped would give illegal immigrants the right to vote in Rhode Island:

When an officer asked Sanchez if he would take a field sobriety test, he asked if he could order an Uber if he refused. An officer told him he would not be able to order an Uber, and he refused to take a field sobriety test at the scene. 

In an initial court appearance on the day of his arrest, Sanchez pleaded not guilty to driving while intoxicated, and has since pleaded not guilty to lesser civil charges of refusing a chemical test and failure to obey traffic control devices.

[…]

In 2023, Sanchez filed RI H5461, a bill to give illegal immigrants the right to vote in the state. 

Sounds like a real winner you have on your hands there, Rhode Island Democrats. Keep up the good work.

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Democrats are counting on a big victory in 2026 to bring their party out of political purgatory, but things aren’t exactly going according to plan. CNN’s data guru, Harry Enten, offered a “reality check” on Wednesday, citing the current polling numbers compared to what we were seeing in 2018. 

Traditionally, out-of-power parties have an advantage across multiple fundamentals in midterm elections. That’s not materializing, though. Not yet, anyway, and as I’ll discuss, that’s a big problem for Democrats for one simple reason. 

ALSO SEE: New Poll Shows Democrats Are Committed to Losing in 2028

I have to wonder how much Enten is liked over at CNN, given his job often becomes quashing the unbridled narratives of his left-wing colleagues. Regardless, 2006 isn’t a very interesting comparison, in my opinion. George W. Bush’s presidency had completely collapsed by that point, and a Republican wipe-out was written into the stars long before voters went to the polls. 

2018 is a bit different in that Trump still enjoyed broad support from his base and party as a whole, something Bush had lost, yet Democrats were able to clean up with independents. If Democrats want to feel good about 2026, they need to start seeing the trends look like 2018, but the generic ballot is only showing a minor shift, a shift that could easily be explained by the same type of polling error we saw in 2024. 

Enten goes on to point out, the seat-by-seat analysis isn’t favoring Democrats either, and that situation could get a lot worse for them very soon. As RedState reported on Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called a special session with the express intent to redraw the state’s congressional districts. The expectation is for Republicans to pick up at least four seats, if not five. That alone could be decisive in 2024. 

All of this is terrible news for Democrats for one simple reason: They’ve got very few, if any, cards left to play to dramatically change the political environment. 

They’ve already lost their minds over Trump in two dozen different ways. There’s only so many times you can mumble “fascist” before voters roll their eyes and tune it out (and we are way past that point). Likewise, they are losing the narrative battle over illegal immigration because the results don’t lie. The economy isn’t going gangbusters yet, but it’s not tanking either, something Democrats were counting on to make their case. In other words, it seems like they’ve shot all their shots and are still neck-and-neck with Republicans in a scenario where they need to be well ahead. 

So what now? More CNN hits? More crying about Trump being a “threat” to democracy? These numbers are a bad sign for Democrats, though never underestimate the ability of congressional Republicans to figure out a way to lose. 

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Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said the Trump administration needs better “transparency” regarding the Jeffrey Epstein case, shortly after President Donald Trump doubled down on calling the files a “made-up” hoax orchestrated by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and other Democrat leaders.

Speaking with reporters on the steps outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, Roy appeared to stumble over his answer when asked if he thinks the Department of Justice (DOJ) has “been transparent enough when it comes to the Epstein matter,” but ultimately called for the administration to “address” the situation:

“Uh, look, I’ll let the, you know, Department of Justice continue to carry out what they need to do, I do think there needs to be more transparency,” he said. “I do think that all needs to move forward, and I think that the administration needs to address that. But we’ll keep, you know, talking to them about what they’re going to do.”

When further asked if the DOJ’s controversial memo claiming there was no evidence of an Epstein sex trafficking “client list” and that the billionaire criminal had committed suicide in his New York City prison cell was “good enough” for him, Roy replied, “We’ll see. We want to see more information out of that.”

The congressman’s call for “more information” regarding the case came shortly after Trump told reporters outside the White House that the “files” associated with Epstein were “made up by [former FBI Director James] Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden [administration].”

“And we went through years of that, with the ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ hoax, with all of the different things that we had to go through — we’ve gone through years of it,” he continued. 

Referring to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump said, “She’s handled it very well, and it’s going to be up to her. Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release.”

Trump’s latest statement on the subject followed a few days after a long Truth Social post claiming that the Epstein files were “written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, [former CIA Director John] Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration.”

After listing other priorities he believes the DOJ should focus on, including “investigating Voter Fraud, Political Corruption, ActBlue, The Rigged and Stolen Election of 2020, and arresting Thugs and Criminals,” the president said Americans should “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.”

The administration’s assertion that there is no “client list” of people who procured underage girls from Epstein has contradicted what even some of Trump’s most senior officials have said in the past, including Vice President JD Vance.

“What possible interest would the US government have in keeping Epstein’s clients secret? Oh…” Vance wrote when he was running for Senate in 2021:

“If you’re a journalist and you’re not asking questions about this case you should be ashamed of yourself. What purpose do you even serve?” he wrote in a follow-up:

Trump himself chided a reporter for asking about the case last week after the DOJ’s memo dropped, saying, “I can’t believe you’re asking a question on Epstein at a time like this”:

Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram. 

President Trump has reportedly given Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the go-ahead to strike targets deep inside Russia using U.S. weaponry.

According to the report, the conversation took place during a telephone call between Trump and Putin on July 3, which left Trump feeling that Putin wasn’t very interested in any peace plan that did not involve reducing Ukraine to a Russian vassal state. In that call, Putin made it clear that he intended to pursue Russian war aims.

The following day, Trump and Zelensky reportedly had a call in which Trump urged Zelensky to “make them [the Russians] feel the pain.”

Two people familiar with the conversation between Trump and Zelenskyy said the US president had asked his Ukrainian counterpart whether he could hit military targets deep inside Russia if he provided weapons capable of doing so.

“Volodymyr, can you hit Moscow? . . . Can you hit St Petersburg too?” Trump asked on the call, according to the people.

They said Zelenskyy replied: “Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons.” 

Trump signalled his backing for the idea, describing the strategy as intended to “make them [Russians] feel the pain” and force the Kremlin to the negotiating table, according to the two people briefed on the call.

The White House issued some mild pushback on the story that, in my view, amounts to a non-denial denial.

The White House insisted in a statement to The Post that the comments should not be taken out of context, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushing back on the Financial Times’ framing of the call, which suggested Trump encouraged Zelensky to step up strikes deep into Russian territory.

“The Financial Times is notorious for taking words wildly out of context to get clicks because their paper is dying,” Leavitt told The Post.

“President Trump was merely asking a question, not encouraging further killing. He’s working tirelessly to stop the killing and end this war.”

Note that the White House response is missing either a denial that the call took place or that Trump told Zelensky to “make them feel the pain.” Instead, we’re supposed to assume that “feel the pain” meant calling the Russians bad names or blocking them on Instagram and not striking deep targets.

The events of the past few days have added more details to the events. When NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte visited the White House on Monday, Trump issued a 50-day deadline for Putin to come to the bargaining table. This was a change from the non-operative two-week deadlines that preceded it on at least two occasions (April 27 and May 14). Not only did Trump threaten Putin’s Russia with punishing secondary sanctions, which have so far been off the table, he also changed direction on Pentagon weapons sales from the, in my view, ill-advised Pentagon decision to discontinue sending arms to Ukraine.

The new method of arming Ukraine by selling weapons to the Europeans for donation to Ukraine, or to fill European stocks, while sending older equipment and munitions to Ukraine, gives a fig leaf to the Pentagon architects of weapons moratorium rather than open repudiation. The Europeans buying our weapons does nothing more to relieve the shortages of ammunition cited by the Pentagon than sending them to Ukraine directly. As any transfer of U.S. weapons and munitions requires our approval, we are still openly arming Ukraine.

READ MORE: Trump Reveals How His Latest Phone Call With Putin Went, and It’s Not Good

Russian Officials Smugly Dismiss Trump’s ‘Theatrical Ultimatum’ on Ukraine Ceasefire Deal 

This followed an announcement on Friday that Germany would fund the production of long-range missiles based on a design developed in Ukraine. 

Ukraine will begin receiving hundreds of domestically produced long-range weapon systems by the end of July under a German-financed agreement, German Major General Christian Freuding told the German ZDF news channel on July 11.

The weapons will be supplied in a “high triple-digit quantity,” he said, referring to a deal between Ukraine’s Defense Ministry and local arms producers that Berlin agreed to fund in late May.

“We need weapons systems that can reach far into the depth of Russian territory — to hit depots, command centers, airfields and aircraft,” Freuding said, adding that Germany is “ready to provide such systems.”

The statement likely refers to the Neptune R-360 missile, which has a range exceeding 600 miles and has seen combat use.

In the past, Germany has refused to provide Ukraine with any weapon system that the U.S did not match. Where Britain and France have transferred their Storm Shadow and SCALP EG cruise missiles to Ukraine, Germany resolutely refused to release Taurus even after the U.S. gave ATACMS to Ukraine.

Even though Trump seemed to give Putin a deadline, one which the Russians ruthlessly mocked, I’d point out that the Axios report of Trump’s July 3 call with Putin has Putin saying he has a 60-day offensive plan in which he hoped to take the administrative boundaries of the four Ukrainian provinces he has annexed. Putin’s 60 days and Trump’s 50 days are about 10 days apart (July 3 and July 14).

Whether Trump’s suggestion to Zelensky marks a new combativeness in a strangely docile Trump as it relates to Putin, or it is part of a negotiation scheme to convince Putin to come to the table, remains to be seen. We’ll only know that when Trump’s 50-day deadline expires and the war is still going full bore, and he has to either deliver on his ultimatum or follow the Tik-Tok model and give Putin more time.

Editor’s Note: This article was updated post-publication for clarity.

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Investigative journalist James O’Keefe and his O’Keefe Media Group (aptly shortened as “OMG”) are at it again. O’Keefe made his name first with Project Veritas and later with his newer outfit by catching politicians and big company executives saying things on undercover video that they really wish they hadn’t.

Now, one of his reporters captured a “Lead Scientist in Regulatory Affairs” at pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson saying the company did not test its COVID vaccine properly and that it wasn’t actually effective.

Color me shocked. Actually, I’m not in the slightest.

“We didn’t do the typical tests,” said Joshua Rys… [who] revealed on hidden camera that the typical clinical process was abandoned for the COVID-19 vaccine, knowingly bypassing standard testing protocols under pressure from the U.S. government and public demand. He added, “This was just, ‘let’s test it on some lab models… and just throw it to the wind and see what happens.’”

He acknowledged that the public wasn’t informed about the shortcuts, asking, “Do you have any idea the lack of research that was done on those products?” Rys claimed, “People wanted it, we gave it to them.”

Ok, so they didn’t test it properly. But it would at least stop you from getting the virus, right?

Not according to Rys:

While public officials claimed the vaccines were “safe and effective,” Rys pushed back. “There’s no proof. None of that stuff was safe and effective,” he said, adding that the industry relies on a benefit-risk tradeoff to justify product launches.

Watch:

READ MORE: RedState Reports From the Red Carpet at Premiere of James O’Keefe’s Powerful New Film, ‘Line in the Sand’

James O’Keefe Releases Shocking Video of NSC Advisor Admitting Biden Is Far Worse Off Than We Know

I knew back in 2021 that the J&J vax was junk for two reasons. You see, I took it—I did not want to, but it was the only way I would be allowed to see a seriously ailing close relative—and the very next day the government issued a temporary pause on its use due to concerns it could cause blood clots. That sure made me feel good.

Not too much longer after that, I came down with COVID. Some vaccine. Months later, Joe Biden was still telling us that if you got the jab, you wouldn’t get the Wuhan Flu. That, to put it mildly, was simply not true, just like so much else of what they sold us.

READ MORE: Five Years Ago, Something Happened That Forever Changed the World—and Me (VIP)

Fauci: I Made It All Up

Needless to say, I refused all “boosters” and thankfully never got a dose of the experimental mRNA shots that were being peddled by Pfizer and Moderna. Raise your hand if you know someone who got addicted to getting boosted endlessly but seemed to come down with the virus once a month.

Rys also pointed to the immense pressure the company was under as people wanted a solution to the global crisis. “The government is like, ‘We need help… You’re solving this problem,'” he said. “People panic, so they try to solve it in whatever way they think is good.”

Unfortunately, we cannot know how much truth is being told here, because sometimes in these undercover situations, the unwitting subjects can boast, try to impress a date, make themselves sound more important at their companies than they really are, etc.

Nevertheless, I am still looking forward to hearing what J&J has to say about these remarks. Rys was confronted on camera by O’Keefe about his comments, but quickly clammed up and tried to get away as fast as he could. 

OMG ends their article with: “Stay tuned for part two.” That should be interesting indeed.

Joe Biden, Anthony Fauci and Co.’s response to COVID was one of the biggest unconstitutional power grabs of all time.  

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The Lone Star State has boosted tax incentives for Hollywood to $300 million every two years, with guaranteed funding for ten years.

According to my public school math, that’s $1.5 billion in corporate welfare for an industry that hates Texas, hates Texans, and opposes tax cuts for everyone else.

Why do this?

Texas has two reasons, per the far-left Los Angeles Times…

Well, first off, Texas believes Hollywood business boosts other businesses — hotels, restaurants, etc.

Okay, but what business doesn’t boost other businesses? Nothing makes film, TV, and advertising uniquely special in this regard.

Here’s what drives me insane about this rationalization to give taxpayer-funded handouts to people who hate taxpayers, especially Texas taxpayers. First is that the government, including state government, should not be picking winners and losers. Well, the entertainment industry deserves a tax break, but not any other industries. That is no way to run a state or country. Some guy with eight employees is trying to keep his printing company afloat, while a bunch of left-wing multinational corporations live off the fat of the land? That’s bullshit.

Then there’s the hypocrisy. The entertainment industry is as far left as any industry in America. It’s an industry that props up socialist Democrats who detest any tax break for any American or any American business not called PBS or Planned Parenthood.

What’s more, movies and TV shows relentlessly push propaganda against corporations, they still slander Reaganomics and attack tax cuts of any kind as evil… And yet, here Hollywood is with its big, fat, wealthy, progressive hand out looking for a handout funded by everyday working people.

If Hollywood were in favor of tax cuts for everyone, if Hollywood would admit that Reaganomics works (not just for the entertainment business), I still wouldn’t like corporate welfare. Still, it would remove the gall of the shameless hypocrisy.

The second reason Texas is offering all this corporate welfare is…

“We are not trying to make Texas the next Hollywood — we don’t like Hollywood. We want to export Texas values,” said Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick,” reports the Times, who describes Patrick as a “staunch conservative who has relentlessly opposed legalized marijuana, gambling, and abortion.”

Nevertheless, Patrick has vowed to “make Texas the Film Capital of the World.”

That seems pretty naïve to me. Back in the Golden Age, during the Studio Era, when Hollywood was mostly a Republican town, it was because of where the people who found and ran the industry came from, which was all over the country. Not just the executives, but also the stars. Back then, no one was to the manor born. They were merchants, farmers, hustlers, businessmen, and mostly products of Middle and Small Town America.

That’s all changed now. Hollywood is a cesspool of leftism mostly because of where the people who populate it come from, who are to the manor born: both the nepotism of growing up in a show business world and the provincialism of being raised in Southern California. Plus, there’s the conservative blacklist to keep the entertainment industry culture ideologically “pure.”

You want to import that into Texas?

“The bill, which supports the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Fund (TMIIF) program, offers tiered grants up to 25% for projects spending $1.5 million in the state,” the L.A. Times adds. “Faith-based films and those that shoot in historic sites or employ a percentage of crew who are Texas-based military veterans can push grants up to 31%.”

The bill also gives the governor’s office “broad discretion over which projects receive funds.” These funds can be denied if it’s decided that the “material… portrays Texas negatively or contains ‘inappropriate’ content.”

I still remember this single example…

“In 2010, then-Gov. Rick Perry’s administration yanked funding for the Robert Rodriguez film Machete over concerns that the movie portrayed Texas negatively.”

Ya think?

No one should receive special tax cuts or credits, especially an industry devoted to increasing everyone else’s taxes.

John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.