Remember the reluctant MAGA converts who assured us Donald Trump would moderate his tone and pivot to pragmatism after the election(s)? Well, he didn’t do any of that. They failed to account for the fact that Trump will never change.

Whether they like it or not, Democrats are in the same boat. Rosy-eyed party elites have convinced themselves that their voters and candidates will readily discard the “woke” nonsense that normal Americans cringe at.

Bless their hearts, the poor things.

“They’re never going to change,” writes Patrick Ruffini, a veteran pollster whose firm, Echelon Insights, recently assessed the willingness of Democratic voters to relinquish their wokeness.

Needless to say, the bitter clingers are winning. Just 35 percent of Democrats said the party should distance itself from the “woke” politics of recent years, while 42 percent preferred to stand their ground. The rest were unsure.

Younger Democrats were particularly keen to see the party stay woke. Among voters under 50, half said Democrats should stay the course, compared to 32 percent who said otherwise. “Very liberal” Democrats, who are typically most likely to vote in primary elections, were the most emphatic. They favored wokeness by a whopping 62-20 margin.

There is plenty of real-world evidence to back up these findings. Woke left-wing candidates who voiced support for defunding the police and abolishing prisons have enjoyed remarkable success in Democratic primaries this cycle.

Darializa Avila Chevalier is all but assured a seat in Congress next year after knocking off an establishment-backed opponent in New York. She has achieved an elite-level wokeness that regards interracial romance as a form of colonialism. She once bragged about using the American flag as a napkin, and is still undecided as to whether convicted murderers should go to prison.

Francesca Hong nearly won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Wisconsin despite an impressive array of deranged pronouncements to her name. She wanted to cancel Thanksgiving because it symbolizes violence against “Indegenous folx. [sic]” She lamented the “proximity to whiteness” that comes with having a biracial son, and recalled fleeing a restaurant with “too many old white people” to avert a panic attack.

Before the Obama Presidential Center could open its doors in June, attendees were called upon to acknowledge the “original inhabitants” of the stolen land on which it stands. So were the Democrats who gathered in February 2025 to elect a new DNC chairman and vice chairs—two of whom were subsequently stripped of their titles for violating the committee’s gender diversity mandates. More recently, Democrats have started invoking the “stolen land” argument to make the case against data center construction.

There is little evidence to suggest that Democrats will ever budge from their wildly unpopular support for transgender participation in women’s sports.

Rep. Seth Moulton (D., Mass.) is a perfect example. He tried to adopt the position shared by more than two-thirds of Americans. “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that,” he told the New York Times days after the 2024 election.

Moulton is seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate this year, so naturally he reversed course. In a primary debate earlier this month, he apologized to the trans community for heartlessly prioritizing his daughters’ safety. “I deeply recognize your trauma, and I’m sorry if my comments hurt you,” Moulton said.

Abdul El-Sayed, the terrorist-adjacent woke candidate who upset an establishment rival in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, recently went on Fox News and defended his support for child sex-change operations by comparing them to circumcision. “It’s a problem that you think you get to decide what happens between a parent, a doctor and a patient,” El-Sayed told Fox host Jesse Watters. “I’m just saying that, yes, circumcision is surgery on a kid’s ding-a-ling.”

More than 70 percent of Americans support a ban on so-called gender-transition surgery for minors, according to a Marquette Law School poll released in July 2025.

Good luck to all!

Washington Free Beacon

The people who live and breathe politics often talk as if the upcoming election is the most important election of all time. As they see it, we are in an unprecedented historical moment and the choices we make today will determine the fate of the nation. I understand their perspective and a younger version of me occasionally slipped into that mindset. However, far from being unprecedented, the core challenge facing America today was described more than 2,000 years ago by an ancient Greek philosopher.

Plato, a student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle, imagined prisoners chained inside a dark cave, facing a blank wall. They could not see what was going on behind them, but were able to see shadows cast on the wall, illuminated by a fire.

Naturally, they tried to figure out what was going on by interpreting the shadows. The problem was that the shadows reflected reality but the prisoners came to believe they were reality. In this setting, it’s easy to imagine competing groups of prisoners arguing about how each movement of a shadow should be interpreted.

In our 10-10-80 nation, the comparison to America’s Political Class is chillingly obvious. The ten percenters, imprisoned within their ideological bubbles, have little to no understanding of the 80 percenters they want to rule. Since they don’t know what it’s like in the real world, they misinterpret reality based upon shadows like news coverage, social media firestorms, and low-turnout election results.

The shadows seen by political activists have some basis in reality, of course. Something caused the shadows. But shadows are often distorted in size and shape until they bear little resemblance to the reality behind them.

A good example is current Political Class uproar about former male NBA players wanting to play in the WNBA. To the fringe minority who talk politics daily, this is a really big deal. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of them are following news of the story very closely. However, to the vast majority who discuss politics no more than once a week, only 4% are paying that much attention to it.

A similar thing happened last year with Sydney Sweeney’s “great jeans” ads for American Eagle. Half of the politically obsessed fringe followed that story very closely. Among the more normal Americans, hardly anybody paid attention. Additionally, in both cases, the views of those in the political class were wildly different than the rest of America. A plurality (49%) of people who talk politics daily believe biological males who identify as women should be allowed to play in the WNBA. Among the larger group who tune out politics, only 10% agree.

With Sydney Sweeney, opinion was divided as to whether the ad was a racist nod to white supremacy or just a normal ad. Outside that bubble, however, America shrugged. By a six-to-one margin, these politically disengaged Americans dismissed the controversy, seeing nothing more than an attractive actress in a denim ad.

In other words, the ten percenters were latching onto shadows to fight their own ideological battles. They had little understanding of or interest in the reality that created the shadows.

It’s obviously problematic that those fighting to control the enormous power of government don’t understand the nation they want to rule.

What makes it even worse is the second part of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. In his story, one of the prisoners escapes and finds out that the real world is nothing like what the prisoners had envisioned. Their interpretation of the shadows was way off base.

However, upon learning from someone who had actually seen the reality that was causing the shadows, the other prisoners didn’t change their perspective. Instead, they continued to believe their interpretation of the shadows represented reality.

Sadly, many of the ten percenters today are just as resistant to reality. They routinely chuckle about how voters hate Congress but love their own representative. In reality, half of all voters believe their own representative in Congress trades votes for cash. Few believe their rep is the best person for the job.

Similar misunderstandings can be found on issue after issue touching every aspect of politics and government. Recently, shadows cast by very low-turnout elections created a myth about the rise of Socialism in America. As I’ve recently explained, there has been no real world increase in support for socialism over the past decade. In fact, only about 6% of voters support Socialism as that term is understood by those inside the political bubble.

This particular misunderstanding highlights how dangerous the ten percenters are to America. If ten percenters on the left convince themselves that the American people really want Socialism, they will use the power of government to implement very un-American policies. At the same time, the ten percenters on the right won’t know what to do about it.

The good news is that the 80 percenters continue to embrace our nation’s noble founding ideals of freedom, equality, and self-governance. The challenge before us is to help the ten percenters understand reality and make our government more responsive to people outside the political cave.

Scott Rasmussen, The Lyceum

President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Wednesday to share a list of grievances on how Republicans are “f*cking up” their midterm chances. Trump shared a July 14 post from influencer Matt Van Swol, which included a long list of things the president has touted as accomplishments, including “negative net migration” and fentanyl trafficking being down, in his second term and then Swol’s lengthy post.

“I don’t think the GOP fully grasp how badly they are ….. up right now,” Swol wrote in his post about people being “pissed off” at Republicans because they are not seeing major reforms they expected.

His message reads:

They are not seeing the major reform they thought would happen and are REALLY MAD about it.

No true accountability. No true mass deportations. No meaningful decrease in the deficit. Lots of very long vacations and no work. No bills being passed that REDUCE the government involvement in their lives.

I’m very worried the GOP is sleepwalking toward a midterm reckoning they don’t see coming.

People are pissed off that they voted Trump into office and then the GOP continues to slow-walk every reform people want.

Where are all the DOGE cuts that were promised? Where is the SAVE ACT? Why haven’t we defunded the Taliban yet?

Why are bills passing the House and then disappear in the Senate?

Why are the GOP still funding Left-wing NGOs that target and hate MAGA Republicans?

Why are members of the GOP pushing for mass amnesty instead of mass deportations?

People are waking up and they aren’t happy about it.

People believed they were voting for the Trump agenda. and instead, many feel like they’re getting the same old Washington.

If Republicans in Congress don’t start producing tangible results, they’re going to discover that frustration has consequences…

…And by the time they realize how deep-seeded that frustration is, it may already be too late.

Trump also took a dig at Republicans in an interview this month with Punchbowl News. While the president is facing his worst polling ever, he insisted that the public is not “angry” with him, but they are angry with Republicans.

“They’re angry at Republicans, but they’re not angry at me,” he said.

Trump said he hopes Republicans vote in the midterm elections, but he understands they’re “very angry.”

I don’t think the GOP fully grasp how badly they are fucking up right now.

I’m talking to people who normally have ZERO interest in politics who are legitimately pissed off.

They are not seeing the major reform they thought would happen and are REALLY MAD about it.

No true…

— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) July 14, 2026

“The question is will they vote because a lot of them are very angry at Republicans,” he said.

Trump has expressed frustrations with GOP lawmakers on a number of issues.

Most recently, he’s lashed out at Senate Republicans for not passing the SAVE America Act, legislation that would put new restrictions on mail-in voting and require proof of citizenship to vote, something lawmakers have expressed concerns over with the midterms just weeks away.

Zachary Leeman, Mediaite

Obama says there is no “silver bullet” or quick fix solution for bringing down gas prices.

This may be true — but does this mean there’s no solution?

First of all, it isn’t the government’s job to bring down (or drive up) gas prices. The government’s job is to stay out of the market. Right now, the government interferes in the market in numerous ways. The most glaring way is that government stands in the way of oil production in the United States. Obama has refused

to permit additional oil drilling — or really any oil drilling at all — in the United States. As a result, there’s less oil on the market, supply is low relative to demand, and prices are higher than they otherwise would be.

Allowing for drilling is not a quick fix, either. But it’s the only rational step government can take, and it’s an example of why government should stay out of the way. Remember that the most dysfunctional parts of the marketplace are the ones where government interferes the most. Education is a mediocre mess — because government controls and subsidizes most of it. Health care is a growing mess — because government has regulated and subsidized it for decades, and is becoming more involved all the time. On the other hand, technological growth — computers, gadgets, smart phones — and the Internet have been much less regulated than these other sectors of the economy. As a result, customer needs come first and prices have been mostly coming down, not going up.

Obama may be a fool, but he’s not stupid. He knows all of this. He’s obviously not being honest. He says he wants gas prices to come down. If he did, he would immediately get out of the way so that oil producers could do their thing. He hasn’t, and he won’t. This is because he believes Americans should be forced to convert to a different form of energy — energy he considers more pure, and more appropriate. The problem is, there is no such energy that can compete with oil. Obama knows this, too. But all he can say to himself is, “Too bad.” That’s what he’s really saying when he claims, “There’s no silver bullet.” What he means is: “Oil and gas too expensive? Too bad.”

Why “too bad”? Because he wants to force Americans to change. If oil becomes more and more expensive, then Americans (Obama hopes) will be forced to consider alternative fuels. At present, manufacturers cannot sell “green energy” on the market, at least not on any wide scale, because there’s little or no profit to be made from it. But if gas prices go through the roof, that will change. By curbing and (best case, to Obama) destroying the market for gasoline and oil by making it too expensive for most people to afford, Obama thinks he can make people opt for things like wind, solar and other alternative forms of energy.

Imagine if the government had taken this stance back in the 1800s. Imagine if the government had decided that the horse and buggy should be replaced with something better, cleaner and more efficient. Could government have passed laws to make the manufacture and purchase of horses and buggies so expensive that people would gradually stop using them? If government had done this, would the automobile have come about much sooner? If so, then maybe government should restrict everything it doesn’t like. This will make human beings come up with better things. Clearly, this is insanity. But this is the premise implicit in all of Obama’s policies.

Obama’s error is the error of Communism, fascism and every form of force. Obama thinks that force will make people produce. He doesn’t think the profit motive is enough. For example, he doesn’t think that the desire to make a big profit is always a compelling reason to come up with a better, cheaper and cleaner form of energy to ultimately replace oil as the primary one. He thinks people will respond better to force than to profit. He probably thinks that force is more moral than profit. And we all know he certainly does not like profit. He has made that clear whenever he condemns those who make profit, saying they should be taxed at a higher rate, that their wealth should be “spread” around, and that America was made a great place by the poor and the middle class, and least of all by the wealth producers.

A government’s job is not to reinvent the wheel, and a government’s job is not to discover or invent a new fuel source. Governments don’t do this kind of thing, and cannot do this kind of thing. Only minds motivated by financial profit and/or a quest for knowledge ever discover or produce anything. People need to stop looking to government to do this for them, and stop waiting for government. People simply need to demand that government get out of the way and let profit-makers and innovators do the best they possibly can. Leave the best and the brightest unimpeded by self-anointed community organizers who don’t know much of anything.

Obama may think there’s no “magic bullet” for bringing down oil prices, but he surely believes government can come up with a magic bullet for replacing oil with an alternative form of fuel. Yet if such a market existed on any major scale, it would be on the marketplace by now, because there would be profit to be made in it. America elected a man as President who has no remote understanding of how business and markets work, and — more deeply — how the human mind works. Unfortunately, people will pay a higher price for gas and an even higher cost in lost innovation because of their support for this man.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman might want to trade in his black hoodie for an elephant badge if he wants to keep his seat in the Senate: New polling suggests that he could find friendlier terrain on the Republican side of the aisle than among the Democrats who elected him.

According to a shocking poll from The New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Siena College, Fetterman has become a complete outcast in his own party. The survey reveals Fetterman is underwater at a brutal -41 approval rating with Democrats, while boasting a staggering +52 favorability rating with Republicans.

The jaw-dropping numbers come as Fetterman continues a high-profile, scorched-earth streak against his own party’s hard-Left wing, positioning himself as a moderate willing to lock arms with Republicans on key national security, energy, and foreign policy battles.

Fetterman’s rift with the Left was on full display when he slammed “AI doomsdaying” last week, aligning himself with President Donald Trump’s aggressive stance on artificial intelligence and data centers to counter China. Fetterman publicly rejected “political pandering and hyperbole over data centers,” taking aim at Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who wants a stop on AI development, which Fetterman blasted as a “China First” policy.

Fetterman has also ripped into Sanders over his support for controversial figures. In July, he referred to Sanders’ support for former Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, snapping, “I would really call Bernie Sanders to apologize for pushing this kind of predator — more than anyone he helped [to] elect — and now apologize to the victims, especially the woman that she claimed that he raped her, so I don’t know why you want to keep pushing these kinds of people. Maybe he should consider [sitting] a few out and stop pushing these kinds of communists, and now people like P. Hustle. Now he has been credibly accused of rape — and that’s fairly recent, too, that was only less than five years ago.”

Fetterman’s willingness to cross party lines isn’t new. He previously made waves by backing Republicans in carving out the filibuster to end a government shutdown. Fetterman also noted that Left-leaning networks like MS NOW stopped booking him once he began speaking out against his party’s consensus, while conservative outlets welcomed his no-nonsense style.

The biggest breaking point, however, remains foreign policy. Appearing on Fox News’ “Hannity,” Fetterman declared there was one thing that could push him straight out of the Democratic Party: if anti-Israel hostility officially becomes part of the party platform. Fetterman warned that “rank antisemitism” is being allowed to flourish on the far-Left and on college campuses. He remains the only Senate Democrat to vote against every Iran war-powers resolution this year.

In July, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) was asked, “Senator Fetterman has indicated that if Democrats officially become anti-Israeli, he would leave the party. Have you had any conversations with him about maybe joining the GOP conference, and would you welcome him if he were to follow that path?”

Thune replied, “Yes, we would welcome him. I haven’t talked to him recently. I have had conversations with him in the past, as have many of my colleagues, about the challenges he faces in his caucus. There are many of us who I think would welcome the opportunity to have him join the Republican conference but you know ultimately that’s a decision that’s left up that’s up to him.”

“I mean, this is a party that’s moving further and further, more radically, and to the more extreme Left on a lot of issues,” Thune added. “And I think people like John Fetterman, who have views that probably reflect a more moderate or at least historically moderate Democrat position, are really kind of people without a home. So if he ever comes to the conclusion that he’s ready to move, we would certainly welcome it.”

The U.S. government is working at full speed to reindustrialize the country.

Thomas Kolbe | August 26, 2026

The U.S. government is working at full speed to reindustrialize the country. With tax cuts, deregulation, and hard-nosed tariff policy, German companies are also being persuaded to engage in the United States. And when persuasion is not enough, U.S. investors go shopping.

For the left and the German media mainstream, Elon Musk is the proverbial “Lord, help us.” An entrepreneur who takes a political stand. For many Germans, the free world ends right there, especially since the voices of entrepreneurs have largely disappeared from public view as soon as things become politically uncomfortable.

Despite all the disputes, Elon Musk still stands firmly behind U.S. President Donald Trump, another persona non grata in the German public sphere. Trump is pursuing perhaps the most aggressive form of reindustrialization policy we have seen since the German economic miracle after the end of the Second World War. With tariffs, deregulation of energy policy, and tax cuts, Trump is getting to work, and the numbers speak for him: Private-sector investment is rising by between 8 and 10 percent year-on-year. The U.S. economy is growing steadily at an annual real rate of 3.5 percent, roughly in line with the increase in labor productivity.

The situation in Germany is different. Here, private-sector investment, after depreciation, slipped into negative territory around the turn of the year. Labor productivity is stagnating or even eroding slightly. In Germany, the economy is now being held together only precariously by the debt hammer and the construction of a domestic war economy. Nothing economically innovative can emerge in such an environment. The consequence is that next year, once the municipal deficit and the special funds are included, the debt burden will rise by more than 5 percent, measured as a share of GDP.

In the United States, the trend is moving in the opposite direction. Despite being largely ignored by the German press, the Trump administration has at least managed to reduce the budget deficit from 6.9 percent under his predecessor Joe Biden to probably around 4.7 percent in the current year. It would not be surprising if the Americans managed to break the dynamics of debt altogether.

To initiate growth, the Americans are relying above all on massive investment in their energy grids, nuclear power, artificial intelligence, and robotics. But traditional industrial sectors as well — from the automotive industry and aluminum production to the steel sector — are to be dragged back to the United States through the blunt-force argument of high import tariffs.

Elon Musk plays a significant role in this. Alongside numerous major projects such as the space company SpaceX and the automaker Tesla, his latest project, the chipmaker Terafab, could make economic history in the United States.

Terafab was announced in March 2026 and is to be built in Texas as a joint project between Tesla, SpaceX, and chipmaker Intel. The facility is ultimately planned to cover up to 9.3 million square meters and thus become the largest building in the world. Depending on the stage of development, investment is estimated at between $16.8 billion and $119 billion. In the long term, Terafab is intended to provide more than one terawatt of annual AI computing capacity.

The facility is to manufacture customized AI logic chips and memory chips, primarily for Tesla’s Optimus robots, autonomous vehicles, and Cybercabs, as well as SpaceX’s planned space-based data centers. In the long term, production of up to 100 to 200 billion of these AI and memory chips per year is envisioned. Musk is therefore not simply trying to build another chip factory, but to bring the entire value chain — from manufacturing and memory to packaging and testing — under one roof. Step by step, the Americans are making themselves less dependent on chip production by Taiwanese giant TSMC and are slowly but surely pushing themselves back into pole position in the competition with China.

Good economic policy removes infrastructure bottlenecks while otherwise largely staying out of economic affairs. Germany’s energy policy should be proof enough of the damage that ideologically driven delusion and persistent intervention can cause.

German industry is playing an increasingly important role in the reindustrialization of the United States. In 2025 alone, U.S. investors acquired stakes in or control of 76 German industrial and manufacturing companies worth around $29.5 billion — double the figure recorded in 2022. By August 19, 2026, another $23.9 billion had already been added. Prominent cases include Viessmann and a stake in Aixtron, as well as the acquisition of fan manufacturer EBM-Papst by Madison Air for $5.4 billion and further transactions in mechanical engineering, automotive suppliers, energy, and manufacturing.

Across industrial sectors, know-how and technologies protected by German patents are therefore flowing into the United States — strengthening its industrial base and the competitiveness of its economy. German policymakers apparently do not seem concerned. Quite the contrary: The German chancellor once again underlined his priorities at the beginning of the week — the fight against CO2 emissions; energy policy, he said, should not change.

Germany’s deindustrialization therefore appears increasingly unstoppable. It is becoming increasingly irreversible.

Which brings us back to Elon Musk. Good entrepreneurs are what the country needs to turn the ship around. Visionaries who open up markets and thereby create prosperity. True elites are needed. But being part of the elite also means standing by one’s country and by values such as performance, individual and social responsibility, and the fight for civil liberties — values that are considered outdated nonsense and taboo in the political mainstream.

Where are Germany’s Elon Musks hiding? Where have the courageous representatives of the Mittelstand retreated to? Why are so few willing to step into the public arena and criticize the growing state economy, dangerous censorship, and the ideological rampage of the obsessive world-improvers that has paralyzed the country?

In Germany, 188,000 businesses were abandoned last year. Just 24,000 of them disappeared as a result of insolvency.

Many German entrepreneurs are throwing in the towel these days. They sell up and take their profit — whether to Americans, Chinese, or competitors in other successful locations no longer matters. What unites them all, what everyone in the country can feel, is this: Entrepreneurs, young and ambitious academics, independent minds, and friends of freedom are no longer welcome in Germany in 2026.

German mainstream media, the political class, and the left-green establishment that sustains it cultivate an aggressive, one-dimensional socialism that turns against anyone who dares to disturb the subsidized paradise of perpetual recipients with criticism.

A Washington state public school district is facing a federal lawsuit after officials allegedly searched a Christian child’s backpack for religious materials, confiscated her Bible and later told her she had “no choice” but to participate in school programming that violated her family’s faith.

The American Center for Law and Justice says the dispute involving Highline Public Schools began in 2022, when J.H. was a second grader at North Hill Elementary School.

School officials repeatedly searched the girl’s backpack and confiscated her Bible and Gospel tracts because she had been talking about her Christian faith with classmates, according to the ACLJ. The legal organization says the district ultimately acknowledged the conduct was wrong and promised in writing that J.H. would be allowed to exercise her faith.

“It is abundantly clear that school officials must be able to affirmatively establish that they have a substantial reason to interfere with a student’s First Amendment rights, and stating ‘because it is upsetting parents’ as the reason certainly does not meet this constitutional threshold,” ACLJ said in a statement.

But the controversy did not end there.

Now a sixth grader at Sylvester Middle School, J.H. was allegedly pulled from class earlier this year after distributing Gospel tracts during lunch. The lawsuit alleges a vice principal told the child that students could share “opinions” at school, but not religious beliefs.

Then came a mandatory May 29 “Inclusion Assembly.”

The ACLJ says J.H. became visibly upset when the presentation addressed subjects that conflicted with her Christian beliefs. She quietly asked to leave and explained why.

A teacher allegedly responded, “They aren’t forcing their belief on you, but they are informing you about this.”

When the girl again objected, she was allegedly told, “You have no choice,” and sent back into the gym, where the ACLJ says she sat crying.

The ACLJ filed suit July 8 in federal court on behalf of J.H. and her father, Jonathan H. Local news outlet The Highline Journal reported that Highline Chief Communications Officer Tove Tupper initially said the district had not yet received the lawsuit and would review it once served. The allegations have not been proven in court.

The district’s own published student-rights policy states that students “possess the constitutional right to the free exercise of religion” and should not be pressured to choose between participating in school activities and their religious beliefs.

The ACLJ argues the incidents demonstrate a continuing pattern of religious discrimination.

“Three separate incidents. Three separate violations. The same student. The same district,” the organization said.

Back in 2022 a school district spokesperson told CBN News that sometimes the district must restrict student expression.

Highline Public Schools Chief Communications Officer Catherine Carbone Rogers disputes the ACLJ’s account of what happened. She tells CBN News, “The student was not banned from discussing her Christian faith with classmates, she was asked to invite classmates to talk about her faith and honor their wishes if they chose not to. This came after several students reported being scared by her talk of Satan and Hell, and multiple parents complained about their children coming home with religious pamphlets.”

Rogers told CBN News that the school contends the little girl was also standing dangerously on a playground table while sharing her faith and her words reportedly made other children cry. She says school district staff informed her that she can’t tell other children they’re going to hell and that the little girl must stop distributing what the school considers to be unacceptable religious materials.

“As reflected in its policies and procedures, the Highline Public Schools agrees with the core principles raised in the ACLJ letter of governmental neutrality to religion, avoidance of discrimination against religious viewpoints, and allowing students to express themselves at school, including potentially through the distribution of written materials. At the same time, we must sometimes restrict student expression to avoid undue interference or disturbance—especially at the elementary school level,” Rogers stated.

Todd Starnes

America stands at a decisive moment. 

Joseph Ford Cotto | August 25, 2026

Artificial intelligence (AI) is not some distant experiment reserved for Silicon Valley giants. It already reshapes Main Street.

Far from ushering in Armageddon, AI gives small business owners the power to cut costs, serve customers better, and compete against anyone in the world.

Republicans who recoil from this reality are handing the future to Beijing. They also embolden a Democrat party now captured by hard-left forces that despise the very foundations of this country. 

Roger Williams, congressional Republican from Texas, is chairman of the House Committee on Small Business. He recently convened a hearing titled “AI on Main Street” that laid out the plain facts.

Nearly three-quarters of small enterprises already use some form of AI. Generative tools help retailers source products more cheaply, restaurants manage inventory, and service businesses handle routine work so owners can focus on growth. A skincare company in California’s Coachella Valley used these tools to find lower-cost suppliers. It avoided passing higher prices to customers.

AI adoption is strong among tech and entertainment companies, yet even half of traditional brick-and-mortar operations have begun to apply the technology. The holdouts are not rejecting the idea out of principle. Many simply lack trained workers, face regulatory confusion, or still do not understand how AI tools fit their daily operations.

Clear national rules on data privacy and targeted training programs, such as those advanced by US House Republicans, are essential. After all, every Main Street proprietorship deserves to move forward with confidence.

President Donald J. Trump understands this. He has directed federal agencies to accelerate approvals for large AI data centers and open suitable federal land. He strips away layers of unnecessary review, while ensuring that ordinary households and small firms do not subsidize the electricity needed for new AI infrastructure.

Large operators must pay the full cost of added power generation. More than 200 utilities, developers, and states have already joined a Ratepayer Protection Pledge. It covers 80 percent of the power delivered to American homes and businesses.

Energy capacity in the United States has barely grown since the 1970s, while China has raced ahead. Only a determined “build” approach closes that gap and keeps the decisive economic and military advantages on this side of the Pacific.

Yet public resistance has grown loud.

Protests have targeted hundreds of proposed AI data center sites. Local bans and freezes have appeared in dozens of jurisdictions. Polls show majorities in both major parties favor at least a temporary nationwide pause. The stated concerns are water use, noise, traffic, and fear of higher bills. These are real enough for some communities.

Deeper still is anxiety that AI will replace human jobs. Young workers in highly exposed occupations have already seen employment decline. Nearly two-thirds of Americans expect fewer jobs over the next two decades. That fear is understandable. It is also fatal if it becomes national policy.

Global investment in AI more than doubled in a single year. Private capital poured into the sector, with generative tools leading the surge. American private investment dwarfs China’s by a factor of more than 20. The economic value American users already extract from AI has climbed sharply. The technology is not optional. It will expand whether Americans like it or not.

The only question is whether the data centers and the rules that govern them will fly the American flag or the Chinese one.

Some of the most organized opposition carries a darker pedigree. The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is a Marxist-Leninist group with documented ties to China. These come through leadership overlap and fiscal networking. The PSL has helped organize campaigns that delayed or blocked more than $20 billion in proposed AI investment across multiple states. Under federal law, the PSL need not disclose its issue-advocacy donors.

While the Chinese communist party (CCP) builds its own AI capacity without hesitation, it benefits when Americans choke off their own. That same party has sunk deep roots into American institutions that shape future leaders.

A joint investigation by House committees revealed that Harvard created a special nonprofit vehicle to accept foreign money when the university itself could not. Its public-health school hosted sessions that appear to have included participants from a Chinese paramilitary force sanctioned for involvement in the genocide of Uyghurs. Harvard officials worried first about damaging relations with Beijing rather than about American law or human rights.

University researchers have co-authored papers with entities tied to China’s defense apparatus on dual-use technologies. One former professor who accepted Chinese talent-recruitment funds later rebuilt his lab in China. He now works on brain-computer interfaces with clear military applications.

The pattern is consistent: Chinese money flows in, standards erode, and sensitive research flows out.

The influence does not stop at Harvard Yard. Community organizations linked to the CCP’s United Front Work Department have directed the overwhelming majority of their political donations to Democrats for decades. In New York alone, the imbalance has been stark. Executives tied to firms under CCP influence have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the blue team in this midterm cycle alone.

In California, individuals and employees of companies flagged for close collaboration with the Chinese military have poured substantial sums into the campaign accounts of leading Democrats. These blue “public servants” hold office at every level of government. Senior staff, at businesses the Pentagon believes are intertwined with China’s military, have directed millions of dollars to blue coffers since 2020.

The Chinese Communist Party cultivates influence where resistance becomes weakest. The Democrat party is today’s marshmallow target.

Hard-left forces trafficking in third-worldism, racial grievance, and open hostility to Western civilization now define the blue team. Anti-Western, anti-white, and antisemitic attitudes, dressed up as “democratic socialism,” surge through its ranks. Avowed communists are no longer obscure. They increasingly set the tone.

Should Democrats capture the House, the Senate, or both this November, they will move aggressively to cripple the Trump administration. Investigations that expose Chinese influence will be shut down. Efforts to restrict Beijing’s reach will be slowed or blocked. Simultaneously, Democrats will create every possible obstacle for Republican presidential contenders as the 2028 cycle starts.

The result will be paralysis where resolve is required and surrender where strength is essential.

Republican voters who stay home this November choose to place America last. The progress already made in exposing Chinese penetration of elite institutions, and in advancing American AI leadership, deserves protection. The country should continue to be led with strength. Not handed over to forces of race-communist, democratic-socialist carnage.

Artificial intelligence is the future for small businesses and for the nation. Data centers are the foundation of that future. President Trump is right to endorse them. Anyone who stands in the way, whether from misplaced fear or deliberate sabotage, serves Beijing’s interest and weakens the United States. The choice in November is unmistakable.

Show up and vote to defend America herself.

Dr. Joseph Ford Cotto is the creator, host, and producer of News Sight, delivering sharp insights on the key events that shape our lives. He publishes Dr. Cotto’s Digest, sharing how business and the economy really impact us all. During the 2024 presidential race, he developed the Five-Point Forecast, which accurately predicted Donald Trump’s national victory and correctly called every swing state. Cotto holds a doctorate in business administration and is a Lean Six Sigma Certified Black Belt.

A prominent election-integrity activist has uncovered bombshell evidence suggesting that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s 2025 election victory may not have been legitimate.

Marly Hornik, the founder of RealAmerica.Vote and NY Citizens Audit, has suggested that the 2025 election included large numbers of unqualified or nonexistent voters. But that’s only part of the problem.

“I actually don’t know whether Mamdani won the mayoral race, and I’m not here to say that he didn’t,” Hornik said during a July 22 interview on New York radio station WABC’s “Sid & Friends in the Morning” program

“The problem we uncovered is that the New York City and the New York State Boards of Elections have no idea if Mamdani won the mayoral election either. And that’s where the rubber meets the road here.”

After examining 1 million of the total 2.2 million voters who participated in the election, her organization discovered that 7  percent were nonexistent in records, 6 percent had fake Social Security numbers, and 10 percent didn’t even live in NYC.

In total, they identified 230,000 illegal votes, which exceeded Mamdani’s 207,000 vote margin of victory over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent.

And this was despite Hornik needing to still review the remaining 1.2 million voters.

“So out of 2.2 million voters, we studied about a million of them, and we found more votes that are apparently illegal than his margin of victory,” she told host Sid Rosenberg.

“Again, the issue is not whether or not Mamdani won. The issue is whether or not the boards of elections in New York are actually counting fair elections so that we are properly represented as we are constitutionally granted.”

During a July 19 interview on WABC appearance, she suggested that the boards of elections may even be guilty of misconduct:

These statistics that we discovered … they implicate both in New York City and the New York State boards of elections in potential very serious misconduct, because we could not find 7 percent of the voters,” she said. “They don’t exist.”

“We were unable to verify any of their critical information as provided by the, by the boards of elections — their name, their date of birth, their voting address. They don’t exist. They’re fake people,” she added.

Asked what she intends to do with her findings, Hornik said she’s already forwarded them to federal authorities.

“This is in the hands of federal investigators and prosecutors right now, because again, when our right to choose representatives is diluted or harmed, injured in any way, that is a serious crime in America,” she said. “It’s not a minor thing, especially when you’re talking about 7 percent of the vote.”

Her findings have also piqued the attention of best-selling author and journalist Naomi Wolf — who served as political adviser to the campaigns of former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore. Wolfe who used to be a liberal Trump hater until she woke up:

In the post above published to the social media website X, she referred to an earlier allegation from June in which she’d purported to have identified over 100,000 blank ballots on the New York City Board of Elections website that were improperly included/counted.

V. Saxena is a seasoned conservative news writer and commentator with a decade of experience in the industry. When not at work, he can be found working out or tending to his popular bird feeder.

Iran-backed Houthis claim to target crucial Yanbu oil port amid flare-up; Israel, Jordan down drones near Dead Sea as Iraq also reports attacks, officials don’t identify source

Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Iraq reported drone attacks in their territory Monday amid a lull in US air strikes against Iran, after nearly two weeks of fighting between both sides.

The Israel Defense Forces said Monday morning that it shot down two drones over the Jordan border, near the Dead Sea, adding that the drones did not cross into Israeli territory. Their origin was under investigation, the army said.

Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry, meanwhile, said it shot down drones aimed at petroleum targets, some in its eastern province and others in the capital Riyadh. It said the drones had been launched from Iraq by Iran-backed militias, and it reserved the right to respond.

Satellite imagery circling on social media appeared to show damage caused to Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq oil processing facility in the country’s east. Separate footage showed a large plume of smoke rising, purportedly from the facility, following the attack.

Iran-backed militias in Iraq have not claimed any attacks in the region since the resumption of hostilities between the US and Iran this month, after an April ceasefire broke down, but Saudi Arabia was repeatedly targeted by the groups at the height of the war with Iran that erupted in February.

Separately, Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen said they had targeted transit sites carrying oil west to Saudi Arabia’s main Red Sea oil port of Yanbu, in retaliation for what it said were Saudi drone incursions into Yemeni airspace.

Riyadh did not immediately comment on the Houthis’ claims, which came after several days of strikes traded between the two sides. The fighting rekindled when the latter announced a blockade of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry in the Red Sea, sending oil prices even higher.

Saudi Arabia responded with airstrikes on what it said were Houthi military facilities in Yemen’s Hodeidah port, saying it would protect shipping.

The latest flare-up between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis marked the first time in years that the two sides have traded blows, threatening a 2022 truce that has held despite expiring.

Jordan also reported that its forces shot down two drones, and Iraqi security sources reported a series of drone attacks on camps housing Iranian opposition Kurdish forces in northern Iraq.

Neither Jordanian nor Iraqi officials identified the sources of those drones.

Jordan and northern Iraq were the locations where four US service members were killed during the two-week air campaign, which US President Donald Trump suspended abruptly over the weekend after his top brass advised him that the strategy had run its course.

Iran has said it will pause its own attacks for as long as Trump’s self-imposed ceasefire continues. But it also said it was still in control of the contested Strait of Hormuz, and was not seeking to resume peace talks with the US.

The US and Israel on February 28 launched a joint bombing campaign on the Islamic Republic in a bid to destabilize the regime and destroy its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

But the spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghaei, said in a televised press conference on Monday that Iran had not asked to resume peace talks with the US.

Messages were still being passed between the sides through mediators and Iran had not forsaken diplomacy, but “reports about Iran requesting negotiations with the US are fabricated,” Baghaei claimed. “This is not in our DNA.”

Tehran also indicated it was still in control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Help us report truthfully on social media

As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.

This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.