A bittersweet ending for the Mars Candy embezzler

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The good news for Paul Steed is that the house he purchased with stolen money at 40 Howard Road, listed at $4.495 million, is reported pending and, more good news, he’s been provided alternative housing for the next five years, courtesy of the federal government. The bad news is that that same government is apparently planning to keep the sale proceeds. Don’t you hate when that happens?

Thunder Mountain sale

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28 Thunder Mountain Road has sold for $6.550 million, 202 days after its owners began at that price and never retreated; good for them, I suppose, and they’ve done well — certainly better than this property’s previous owners. Its builder tried for $6.495 in 2006 before finally selling it for $5.650 million in 2008. Those buyers, in turn, listed it for $5.995 million in 2012 and settled for selling it to these now-former owners for $4.825 in 2014.

Get Trump: It's war on all fronts

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Trump’s $400M White House ballroom project halted by fed judge

A gloating, jubilant judge — his opinion is littered with exclamation points — has demanded that that construction of the White House ballroom be stopped. The building is gone, the new foundations poured, and the steel superstructure is being erected. Does’t matter, according to this little man in a black robe: "Unless and until Congress blesses this project through statutory authorization, construction has to stop!"… "But here is the good news. It is not too late for Congress to authorize the continued construction of the ballroom project."

“With Congressional approval, the legislative branch would "retain its authority over the nation’s property and its oversight over the government’s spending." 

"The National Trust’s interests in a constitutional and lawful process will be vindicated," he continued. "And the American people will benefit from the branches of government exercising their constitutionally prescribed roles."  

"Not a bad outcome, that!"

The opinion is here.

Excerpt:

r,r 78, 81. Demolition work has been largely completed, and work on "footings and belowgrade structural concrete" began in February 2026. Deel. of John Stanwich ("Stanwich Deel.") [Dkt. #14-6] ,r 20. "Above[-]grade structural work" is "anticipated to begin" in April 2026. Id. Indeed, President Trump has stated that ballroom construction is "ahead of schedule." Pl.'s Renewed PI Br. at 23 (quoting Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Truth Social (Feb. 10, 2026, at 1 :41 PM ET), https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump /posts/116047799547098230). According to the parties' filings, the ballroom plans are in the final stages of the design approval process. The Commission of Fine Arts approved designs on February 27, 2026. See T. Luebke to J. Fisher, CFA 19/FEB/26-1, https://perma.cc/CV2F-VE6M (cited in Suppl. Deel. of Heather Martin ("Martin Suppl. Deel.") [Dkt. #52-2] ,r 6). The National Capital Planning Commission has reviewed detailed "final" plans for the ballroom and is scheduled to vote on the design on April 2, 2026.

The plan here, the one that will “benefit the American public”, is to stop Trump; stop the project; tear out everything that’s been built so far, and leave a hole in the ground until the Democrats can regain control, possibly as early as November and set about establishing a commission to design and build something like the J.Edgar Hoover building on the taxpayers’ dime at ten times the cost of this privately-funded project and with an completion date of 2026 2036 2126 — or longer, once the various interest groups: beautification, Native American, BLMers, Code Pinks , etc. make their demands and are satisfied; environmental studies are conducted, sued over, and appealed, and on and on and on. That’ll teach him!

This will make some people unhappy, but not me

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A little too hyperbolic for my taste, but the story seems significant

The numbers don’t add up, and I've seen similar reports from other medical school residency programs. Toss in (or out) the various unqualified “equity” students, and we’re all gonna DIE

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Foreign grads sideline US-trained doctors in coveted programs, bombshell complaint alleges

The filing claims some programs had little to no US-trained doctors in recent cohorts, with hiring patterns that could trigger federal scrutiny

Three internal medicine residency programs are being accused of favoring foreign-trained doctors over American-trained doctors, with more than 90% of the most recent cohort of residents across the three programs coming from overseas, according to a civil rights complaint.

Medical watchdog Do No Harm filed a complaint Tuesday with the Department of Health and Human Services against healthcare providers Corewell Health, Texas Tech University and HCA Healthcare, raising concerns over the demographics of their internal medicine residency programs.

>>>>

The complaint revealed that at the internal medicine program at Corewell Health in Dearborn, Michigan, just one of the 33 residents attended an American medical school. In fact, 84% of those residents earned their medical degrees in just a handful of countries abroad: nine trained in Sudan, eight in Pakistan, and four in Jordan, with others coming from places such as Palestine, Bahrain, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The current director of the program attended medical school in Lebanon.

At Texas Tech University, 95% of the 39 internal medicine residents were also trained at foreign medical schools. Similar to Corewell, these doctors hail from a concentrated set of countries in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Eight trained in Pakistan, five from Bangladesh, two each from Egypt, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, and others from Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Syria. Both directors of the residency program attended medical school in Iraq, according to Do No Harm. 

The internal medicine program at HCA Healthcare’s Brandon Hospital in Tampa does not have a single doctor who graduated from an American school in its most recent cohort, the complaint stated. Of its 58 total residents, 70% graduated from foreign medical schools, with a majority of them from the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The HCA Brandon program is led by Mohammad Said Saad, who completed his medical education in Egypt, and Syed Zaidi, who trained in Pakistan, Do No Harm said. 

"Indeed, these programs reveal a consistent pattern," the complaint read. "Each has excluded practically all American-trained physicians from their residencies. Each has filled their cohorts almost exclusively with residents trained in a small set of foreign countries. And each is headed-up by directors that mirror the residents they choose: foreign-trained physicians educated in the small set of foreign countries from which these residencies fill their ranks."

Iran update: keep bombing, and focus on the IRGC (as long as you’re in the neighborhhod)

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Countdown to Disaster

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I often find PJMedia’s Matt Margolis a bit too histrionic for my taste, but if anything, I think he’s being understated here.

What Happens If Democrats Regain Power?

As I’ve previously mentioned, the midterms are still months away, but the indicators aren't trending in Republicans’ favor. There's time to course-correct, but that window isn't open forever. What should concern every American right now isn't just the prospect of a Democratic majority. It's what Democrats have openly said they plan to do with it. And they haven't exactly been subtle.

The damage they’ve done as the minority party has been bad enough. The Department of Homeland Security has gone unfunded. Long lines at airports weren’t even the worst of the problem. In the weeks since Democrats cut funding for DHS, there have been four terrorist attacks on American soil.

“If Dems are willing to shutdown DHS just to prevent President Trump from enforcing our immigration laws, I think it's reasonable to ask: How far will they be willing to go if they come into power?” asked CNN’s Scott Jennings on X on Monday

It’s a great question, and we pretty much know the answer.

Last month, the former Obama official Susan Rice made clear that a Democratic return to power won't come with any grace period or healing rhetoric. "This is not going to be an instance of forgive and forget," she warned. "The damage that these people are doing is too severe to the American people and our national interests." She also told corporations they'd better start preserving documents and bracing for subpoenas. "Companies already are starting to hear they better preserve their documents, they better be ready for subpoenas," Rice said. That’s a threat and a promise if I’ve ever seen one.

The retribution agenda will be significant, I guarantee it. A Democrat majority in the House would mean impeachment hearings, weaponized investigations targeting Trump, his administration, and everyone aligned with them. ICE agents — the men and women actually enforcing the law — would face prosecution.

They’ll call it oversight, but it's payback.

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The Democratic Party isn't hiding what it wants. It wants power back and revenge. The only real question is whether enough voters are paying attention to realize that Democrats don’t care about them, just their anti-Trump crusade.

Just a sampling:

Eric Swalwell vows retribution against people who work ...

History will remember': Dems Sen. Ted Lieu] vow vengeance after GOP's ...

Ex-Biden official [Susan Rice] faces backlash over thinly veiled warning ...

NY Magazine: The Next Democratic Presidency Means Payback for Trump

“Retribution”, of course, is almost the least of what’s coming; every wild-eyed communist scheme proposed by the new “socialists” — proposals that even a few years ago would have never made it out of committee — will be whooped through Congress, and smashed over the heads of Americans. I’d suggest stocking up on popcorn and prepare to enjoy the show, but, (a) there will be a shortage of popcorn, and (b) there will be nothing enjoyable about the show.