Well, it’s official, folks. Instead of an America-First patriot like Rick Scott, Senate Republicans have just elected Trump-hating career politician John Thune as the next Senate Majority leader. John Thune won against John Cornyn by  29-24. Rick Scott received 13 votes in the first round, after which, he was eliminated from the race. Let that sink in… Your senators, who are supposed to be representing the will of the people, just swapped out one RINO for another. If this makes you angry, you’re not alone. Here’s what people are saying about the breaking news: BREAKING: Well-known Trump critic Sen. John Thune of South Dakota chosen as new Senate Majority leader, winning 29 votes. Same old, tired faces making the same old, tired moves. Instead of a leader who’ll actually put America First, we get a career politician who’s spent more… pic.twitter.com/yhZNJyvoQ8 — Hank (@HANKonX) November 13, 2024 Never-Trumper John Thune has been elected Senate Majority Leader. The people wanted Rick Scott. We are off to a bad start when current elected Republicans feel that they still do not have to listen to the will of the people. Shameful! pic.twitter.com/4rZCD1xgSp — Jaimee Michell (@thegaywhostrayd) November 13, 2024 #BREAKING: John Thune WINS the vote for Senate Majority Leader over John Cornyn 29-24 The Senate has BETRAYED Americans. pic.twitter.com/crnKrzBuX0 — Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) November 13, 2024 This is the man that Senate Republicans just elected to lead them: John Thune hates President Trump’s guts. Any Republican who votes for him to be Senate Majority Leader is a traitor to America. pic.twitter.com/PLfLK80lSz — George (@BehizyTweets) November 11, 2024 What a betrayal of the people. More from The Wall Street Journal: Republican senators chose John Thune of South Dakota as their first new leader in nearly two decades, as they enter an era defined by the populist energy that propelled President-elect Donald Trump back to the White House. Thune, 63 years old, emerged as the winner in the secret ballot, beating John Cornyn (R., Texas) and Sen. Rick Scott (R., Fla.). Thune and Cornyn have both served as top lieutenants to outgoing leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and were seen as providing continuity for the party while promising to listen closely to colleagues on the direction of the chamber. Scott, who is close to Trump, was seen as a long-shot candidate but had the backing of a faction of GOP senators who have clashed with McConnell and his top-down style. Prominent Trump allies including Elon Musk had endorsed Scott in recent days, with some pointedly criticizing Thune and Cornyn, but senators said the pressure campaign did nothing to sway the race. In the first round Wednesday, the vote was split 23 for Thune, 15 for Cornyn and 13 for Scott, with all candidates short of the needed majority. In the second and final round, with Scott eliminated, Thune beat Cornyn 29 to 24. The new majority leader will guide the Senate as Republicans work to pass tax cuts, consider Trump-nominated judges and cabinet officials and navigate battles over government spending, foreign aid and the debt ceiling. He will also have to manage Trump, who has had a tense relationship with McConnell. “This Republican team is united behind President Trump’s agenda, and our work starts today,” Thune said in a statement. The Hill added: Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) has been elected Senate majority leader, setting the stage for him to replace retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who has held the top Senate GOP leadership job for the past 18 years. Thune has served as Senate Republican whip, the No. 2-ranking position in the Senate GOP leadership, since 2019, and largely managed operation of the Senate floor after McConnell suffered a concussion from a fall in 2023. Thune beat Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) by a vote of 25 to 24, according to two sources familiar with the vote. Thune led after the first ballot. He won 25 votes while Cornyn won 15 votes and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) collected 13 votes. “I am extremely honored to have earned the support of my colleagues to lead the Senate in the 119th Congress, and I am beyond proud of the work we have done to secure our majority and the White House,” he said in a statement after the vote. “This Republican team is united behind President Trump’s agenda, and our work starts today.” Thune is well liked among his Senate Republican colleagues, and his affable, humble approach to managing the conference has earned the trust and confidence of fellow GOP senators. Americans are not happy about the Republicans’ choice, not at all. And, rightfully so. Take a look at these reactions: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. — Dalton Sutton (@daltonsuttonio) November 13, 2024 Nobody’s happier today than Mitch McConnell. — Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) November 13, 2024 Time to PRIMARY every single LOSER who voted against Scott. This is a DISGRACE. — – Josh – (@WEAPONFORTRUTH) November 13, 2024   Chuck Schumer, on the other hand, couldn’t be happier. Watch this: SCHUMER: CONGRATULATIONS TO THUNE ON BEING THE NEXT REPUBLICAN LEADER “We’ve done many bipartisan things here in the Senate together, and I hope that continues.”pic.twitter.com/grr0bDKQrz — Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) November 13, 2024 As for John Thune, he released a statement claiming that Republicans are “united behind President Trump’s agenda.” Honored to serve as the next U.S. Senate majority leader. pic.twitter.com/zq9XLrPDUr — Senator John Thune (@SenJohnThune) November 13, 2024 Let us pray that’s true. Charlie Kirk said it best: John Thune is Senate Majority Leader. He has a short window to show us he will support President Trump, fill his cabinet, confirm his judges, and pass his agenda. If he does, we will support him. If he doesn’t, we will work to remove him. — Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 13, 2024 If Thune turns out to be as big of a disappointment as we expect, then you know who to blame (and who to primary out!):   These are the senators who came out publicly in support of Senator Rick Scott for Senate Leader. Sen. Ted Cruz Sen. Mike Lee Sen. Ron Johnson Sen. Marsha Blackburn Sen. Rand Paul Sen. Bill Hagerty Sen. Marco Rubio Sen. Coach Tommy Tuberville — Hank (@HANKonX) November 13, 2024

The billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times announced that he will be overhauling his “very left” editorial board after deciding to refrain from publicly endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris via the progressive outlet.

Argentina’s Federal Cassation Chamber has upheld the conviction of former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in relation to her fraud case. 

On Wednesday, French prosecutors demanded right-wing leader Marine Le Pen receive a jail sentence and be banned from public office for five years over charges she embezzled European Parliament funds. What is striking is that wherever the right wins elections or starts to take the lead in some ‘democratic countries,’ the leader gets hit with […] The post Prosecutors Want Le Pen Imprisoned, Banned from Running for Office appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

On Tuesday, President-elect Trump rolled out Pete Hegseth, the author, Army veteran, and Fox News host, as his choice for secretary of defense. And the usual suspects are going absolutely insane. My favorite response came courtesy of Politico, which lost it over the fact that Hegseth is an outsider. They published a piece saying defense industry lobbyists were very upset. They wrote: One assessment was more blunt. “Who the fuck is this guy?” said a defense industry lobbyist who was granted anonymity to offer candid views. The lobbyist said they had hoped for “someone who actually has an extensive background in defense. That would be a good start.” Here’s the problem: The people who have been running our defense apparatus for nigh on two decades at this point have done a horrendous job. The Department of Defense has been signally responsible for the worst botched pullout in American history in Afghanistan, a completely failed response to terrorism by the Houthis in the Red Sea, and an unbelievably weak response to Russian invasion of Europe. That’s what the Department of Defense has done. They’ve burdened the Department of Defense with a bunch of woke nonsense. Additionally, they have not actually built to spec, meaning that they are not interested in preparing for the next war. They just keep building for the last war. There needs to be a tremendous overhaul inside the Pentagon, and Pete Hegseth is the guy to do it. You can sense it from all of the wailing and gnashing of teeth from all the right people. WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show Elizabeth Warren, who is super upset, tweeted, “A Fox & Friends weekend co-host is not qualified to be the Secretary of Defense. I lead the Senate military personnel panel. All three of my brothers served in uniform. I respect every one of our servicemembers. Donald Trump’s pick will make us less safe and must be rejected.”  I would like to point out that Warren says that her qualification to lead the Senate military personnel panel is that she has siblings who served in the military. To Ms. Warren might it be said: Hegseth is an Army major and was in the National Guard. He served in both Iraq and Afghanistan and was awarded the Bronze Star twice. I know Pete Hegseth. He’s awesome. He’s going to break all the right brains. He’s going to go in and clean house. Pete is a young 44-year-old go-getter. He is obviously very bright. He went to Harvard and Princeton. Plus, there’s his military record. He’s literally writing the book on how to clear the military of all the deadwood. I interviewed him just a few months ago about his brand-new book, which is all about cleansing the military of woke ideology. He explained what he thought America’s foreign policy should be like: It goes all the way back to we’re not even declaring wars anymore because no one wants, they’re so politically untenable as to what way they’ll go. So no one actually wants to invest in them or is willing to. And so you get these forever wars, which is a bad phrase because they’re not forever wars, but it’s the way it ends up being described because there is no actual end state. Tell me what the end state is in Ukraine. I could tell you what the end state is in Israel. And what’s the only thing the American military and the American diplomats are doing right now? Trying to stop Israel from finishing the fight. There’s one thing that Israel could do: kill every last one of those Hamas mother***ers now and then the war stops. And by the way, Israel didn’t start it. That’s how wars end. That’s how peace breaks out for thousands of years, somebody actually wins the war. And when they win the war, then there’s a new reality, a new geopolitical reality. We don’t fight that way. We let the lawyers lead. We let international institutions have too much say and it percolates. I tell stories directly as a platoon leader down to: Can you shoot? Can you not shoot? Our guys being criminalized after the fact, put in jail. Donald Trump pardoned a bunch of guys I advocated for in his last couple of years in office. They killed the right guys in the wrong way, according to somebody. I’m done with that. We need to fight total war against our enemies when we do. You don’t kill civilians on purpose, but you kill bad guys, all of them: You stack bodies. And when it’s over and you let the dust settle, you figure out who’s ahead. It turns out we’re the ones with the big guns right now.  I am all in on this. All in. I like this. This is great. In regards to reforming U.S. military leadership, Hegseth said: Any general that was involved, general, admiral, whatever, that was involved in any of the DEI woke s*** has got to go. … That’s the only litmus test we care about. You got to get DEI and CRT out of military academies. … Whatever the combat standards were, say, and, I don’t know, 1995, let’s just make those the standards. And as far as recruiting to hire the guy that, you know, did Top Gun Maverick and create some real ads that motivate people to want to serve. That is right. That is correct. More young men will join the military with Hegseth as secretary of defense. Why? Because people who are joining the military look at that and think, that dude is a bad***. And that’s somebody who I want heading up the Department of Defense. It’s hilarious because the entire Left is bringing out clips of Hegseth, and every time they do, supposedly showing him as terrible, all I can think is, “Stop. I’m already supporting him. You can’t make me support him any more than I already do. It’s not possible.” Some of them brought out a clip of him talking about how women should not serve in frontline combat positions. What’s controversial about that? Is their idea here that women should be in frontline combat positions next to the big bulky Navy SEALs and guys like that? That’s their proposition? Keep bringing out more clips of Hegseth. Every new clip makes me more adamant on my support. MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+ Trump is deliberately going outside the system of the military structure. He’s apparently pursuing a draft executive order that would create a board to purge the woke generals. I know a lot of people who are serving in America’s military. Everyone will say the biggest obstacle to military success in the United States military is the political generals, the people who’ve kissed enough a** to make their way to the top of the heap. That’s not every general, but there are some who have made their way to the top of the heap by playing the game. That military bureaucracy is what prevents the United States military from adapting, from innovating, from being quick and responsive. Wiping all of that out would be great. Am I supposed to listen to people who think that Rachel Levine ought to be an admiral? They’re the people I’m going to listen to about military policy? These are  people who believe the way that you recruit people to the United States military is by waving rainbow flags. That is not how you recruit people to the military. We have a massive shortfall in the number of people who want to join the military. We have a massive shortfall in terms of the military technology we actually have to develop. It’s a rough world out there. And Pete Hegseth knows that better than anyone who is being looked at for this position.

Former CNN host Don Lemon said the time has come to leave social media platform X as he claimed it’s no longer a place for “honest” debate after President-elect Donald Trump won, with the support of X owner Elon Musk. In two now-viral posts he made on Wednesday, Lemon wrote and then said in a video that he has “loved connecting with all of you on Twitter and then on X for all of these years, but it’s time for me to leave the platform.” “I once believed that it was a place for honest debate and discussion, transparency and free speech, but I now feel it does not serve that purpose,” he added, without explaining further. He then pointed to changes in terms and services on X that will become effective on November 15, which states that “all disputes related to These terms or the Services” that arise between users and X as a company “shall be brought exclusively in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, or state courts located in Tarrant County, Texas…” My statement on leaving Twitter pic.twitter.com/9tYcfqHhhC — Don Lemon (@donlemon) November 13, 2024 Lemon claimed that these new terms put all disputes on the platform “in courthouses that are a hub for conservatives, which experts say could make it easier for X to shield itself from litigation and punish critics.” “I think that speaks for itself,” Lemon wrote, pointing to where followers could find his content like YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, etc. Hollywood star Jamie Lee Curtis also joined him in announcing on Instagram that she had left the X platform, without giving a specific reason she made the decision following Trump’s victory. MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+ “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,” Curtis wrote on Instagram. “Courage to change the things I can. And the wisdom to know the difference.” The U.K. news outlet The Guardian also announced on Wednesday that it would no longer be posting on the platform due to its “often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism,” without providing any further information. “The U.S. presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse,” the news outlet added. Following news that Trump had indeed won reelection last week, outspoken leftist activist actress Bette Midler deleted her account. TV host Piers Morgan appeared to mock the grand announcements from stars like Lemon and Curtis and instead announced that he would be staying. “ANNOUNCEMENT:  I am not leaving X,” Morgan wrote in a now-viral post.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) mocked Vice President Kamala Harris this week over her failed presidential campaign, saying that it was like the Fyre Festival. Cruz made the remarks during the most recent episode of his “Verdict” podcast with co-host Ben Ferguson while talking about the disastrous campaign that Harris ran, including how her campaign ended up $20 million in debt. “Kamala Harris ran the Fyre Festival of campaigns, and it points out that Trump’s campaign spent roughly $488 million, and Kamala spent more than a billion,” Cruz said. “So, she outspent Trump more than two-to-one, and Kamala campaign ended up $20 million in debt.” The Fyre Festival is the name of a hyped festival that was supposed to take place in 2017 that ended up falling so far below what was expected that the term “Frye Festival” is now a meme for something that is an epic disaster. “Where did that money go? Well, one of the things that it went to is they paid many of [the] ‘celebrities’ who supported her,” Cruz noted, adding that they were given “significant sums” of money. MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+ “Look, I’m a fiscal conservative, damn it,” Cruz said. “If you want to be there and you believe in saving the country, stand up and save the country, and if not, get the hell out.” “Like, what is it with these lefties who, ironically, they want to put socialists in office who make it impossible for people to earn a living, and yet they’re such capitalists that they’re like, show me the money to do it. I mean, there is an intense hypocrisy on this,” he added. LISTEN: After she spent millions bribing celebrities to endorse her, Kamala Harris’s campaign is millions of dollars in debt. This is going to deeply demoralize Democrat donors. It is outrageous that donors gave their hard-earned cash to enrich celebrities.https://t.co/Et7wlOPde5 pic.twitter.com/UhImgKVSAl — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 13, 2024