Claude Monet The Pond at Montgeron 1876
.@StephenM: "Nobody has done more to rebuild and save the Republican Party than Donald Trump since Abraham Lincoln himself. President Trump inherited a broken shell — a hallowed out husk — of a political party after the Bush years, after the Ryan years, after the sellout years,… pic.twitter.com/oomPDHJE9S
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 7, 2026
Just like Starbase and Tesla factories, Terafab will be incredibly inspiring to come to work! https://t.co/PVX56o4bt3
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2026
Joe Rogan asks Harvard scientist David Sinclair if someone could "inject something in your coffee" to age you decades overnight.
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) August 7, 2026
His answer: "We know how to do that."
SINCLAIR: "We found that that happens largely due to DNA damage… We could use this to rapidly age a mouse,… pic.twitter.com/oZtm0qnaON
🚨David Sinclair: “The first potential human age-reversal technology is in people right now.”
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) August 7, 2026
ROGAN: “What is the current state of science as applied to longevity treatments?”
SINCLAIR: “We have a human clinical trial.”
ROGAN: “If people get old and we understand the… pic.twitter.com/RQQtShAdK5
🚨David Sinclair: “AI helped us do 160 years of biology work in two months.”
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) August 7, 2026
ROGAN: “What?!”
SINCLAIR: “We’re looking for molecules, a single molecule that can replace this cocktail… You need a molecule to do three or four activities in the cell. Finding one activity is what… pic.twitter.com/PD2j0HWMr5
Charlie Kirk was right, and now JD Vance e is saying it
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) August 7, 2026
Young people are turning to socialism because our country has been sold out to foreigners and now the middle class has been wiped out and can’t afford to live
JD Vance says it can be fixed
“A lot of Americans look at this… pic.twitter.com/Pw6CCaA2bY
“.. mounting pressure on President Trump to disengage the US armed forces from his failing, five-month war on Iran “
In other news today:
Iran’s Economy Is In Shambles..
Trump Has Already Won in Iran..
• Joint Chiefs Chair Pushing For Iran War Off-Ramp (ZH)
In another sign of mounting pressure on President Trump to disengage the US armed forces from his failing, five-month war on Iran, America’s top general has been carefully working with other Trump advisers to communicate that continued depletion of the Pentagon’s arsenal is unlikely to alter Iran’s stance, while escalation is likely to backfire, CNN reported on Friday evening, citing “sources familiar with the matter.”Read more …
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine has been using side conversations with cabinet officials — including CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance — to ensure they have a shared, clear picture of the military situation before they meet with Trump, CNN’s sources say. Summing it up, one said, “Caine is looking for an off-ramp.”
In a July congressional hearing, Caine said “airpower has its limits.” Nicknamed “Razin Caine,” the general said to be reiterating that caution in his behind-the-scenes discussions with likeminded officials who think a major escalation of US attacks on Iran could cause disastrous fallout for the region and US interests.“There really isn’t much else to hit since it is whack-a-mole with drone and missile sites. Bombing power plants would be publicly a lot more significant,” one source said. Others said hitting Iranian infrastructure would likely rally the country’s citizens around the government — even more than the war has done already
Last weekend, the US military seemed poised to carry out Trump’s threat to unleash “the biggest attack since World War II,” but he called it off, at least in part because of profound concerns raised by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Iran had promised to wreak havoc up and down the Gulf. “The only ones in favor of the operation were elements of CENTCOM,” said one source, referring to the Pentagon’s Central Command, which is responsible for action in the Middle East. The source also pointed out that Israel also wants escalation of the war.
The U.S. Intelligence Community assessed this & consistently briefed it. Unfortunately, it was the Israeli government & their lobbyists who convinced the President that Iran would be as easy as Venezuela. https://t.co/C1Vw7L06OH
— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) August 7, 2026“I think it is just his way of protecting the military,” a source said about Caine’s cautionary campaign. In addition to squandering the lives of at least 18 US service members and wounding more than 600 more, the five-month Trump-Netanyahu war on Iran has severely depleted the US arsenal. Referring to Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM), two sources this week told Reuters that “Washington has used virtually all of these weapons,” further substantiating earlier media reports and think tank studies that sounded alarms over dwindling munitions. It’s not just offensive weapons that are running out: Low air defense missile supplies are also of grave concern, particularly to Gulf states that would face what would likely be a devastating Iranian backlash to a major new US assault on Iran.
Earlier this year, one source criticized Caine for failing to pointedly counsel Trump on the pitfalls of taking on such a well-equipped and geologically-protected adversary. “He’s definitely pulling punches,” the source said then, adding that Caine was much more candid with fellow military officers than with his commander-in-chief. Now, Caine is apparently intensifying his approach. Though warning of the dwindling arsenal, Caine is said to have assured Trump that, if he does order a major escalation, the Pentagon could manage to cause plenty of destruction across Iran. However, it probably wouldn’t put a crack in Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, much less substantially affect the nuclear situation that was fraudulently advanced as the casus belli — for decades:
🇮🇱 NEW: CNN compiled a series of clips showing Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu warning since 1996 that Iran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon. pic.twitter.com/HSyWkoj6OB
— GBC (@GBC_Press) August 4, 2026
“What was once a geopolitical lever is being engineered into irrelevance. Bessent gets it: markets don’t absorb coercion; they arbitrage it away.”
• Bessent Outlines Capital Markets Making the Strait of Hormuz Irrelevant (CTH)
Secretary of State Scott Bessent gets it. When asked about the Strait of Hormuz, Bessent notes that yes, things will likely never return to the way they were before; however, there is a distinction that must be applied. Even if Iran completely acquiesced to all of the most stringent terms and conditions requested by President Trump, they will never again recapture the position they held with the Strait of Hormuz as a chokepoint.
Capital markets respond to risk in the medium and long term; risks are always mitigated. With the Strait now identified as a strategic risk, the emphasis will be on forever neutralizing that risk and avoiding the issue in the future. As a consequence, Iran’s strongest point of leverage is disappearing now and will continue to disappear. WATCH (prompted):
As further explained by James Thorne on X: “By repeatedly signaling its willingness to disrupt the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran hasn’t strengthened its hand, it has accelerated the market’s exit. Capital does not tolerate chokepoints; it routes around them. Saudi Arabia is expanding its East-West pipeline. The UAE has already built out Fujairah as a bypass. Iraq is revisiting overland export corridors. Every marginal dollar now flows toward redundancy, not reliance. What was once a geopolitical lever is being engineered into irrelevance. Bessent gets it: markets don’t absorb coercion; they arbitrage it away.
Energy markets are not static, and they are not sentimental. The shale revolution already diluted OPEC’s grip. LNG has globalized gas. Now infrastructure is doing the same to maritime risk. Once these pipelines are built, they don’t get unbuilt. Volume shifts become permanent. Pricing power follows. Tehran’s miscalculation is classic: overplay a scarce asset, and the world invests to make it abundant. The more Iran rattles Hormuz, the faster it erodes the very leverage it seeks to exploit. In the end, this is not deterrence. It’s substitution and substitution, once funded, is irreversible. Iran is underwriting its own marginalization.“
A 40-year generational problem is being resolved forever!
But: “.. his failing, five-month war on Iran..” Yeah Yeah
• Iran’s Economy Is In Shambles As War Takes Its Toll (ZH)
Despite the bluster from Iranian officials on social media, it should come as no surprise that the country is not doing well economically. From the beginning of the conflict to current day, Iran has been dealt an estimated $270 billion to $300 billion in total damage due to a steady barrage of strikes, including numerous infrastructure targets from bridges, highways, railways, airports, etc. The three-month-long US blockade on Iran’s oil exports have also taken a toll, with national oil output dropping from 2.2 million bpd to less than 300,000 bpd. It is likely that there has been some long term damage to the regime’s oil wells and they have lost approximately $6 billion in oil revenues so far.Read more …
With a general information blackout in place, getting a proper estimation of the damages can be difficult. However, in recent months many Iranian leaders and media sources have indicated a dangerous shift in the stability of the country. The situation has become so volatile that citizens are reportedly turning to theft in order to get their hands on basic necessities including food. Iranian newspaper Jahan-e Sanat has reported increased theft of basic groceries over recent months, with store workers linking the trend to rising poverty. Related reports say meat is in short supply, there is reduced consumption of staples, subsidy shortfalls, and broader poverty pressures.
Analysts note that while full state collapse or famine has not yet occurred, the combination of high food inflation, currency weakness and job losses is placing severe strain on households. Iran’s President, Masoud Pezeshkian, seemed to confirm the decline last week when he noted that the country was facing economic “difficulties and problems,” while claiming the enemy was trying to provoke protests. At Iran’s 33rd Conference on Monetary and Banking Policies (around June 2026), he questioned why people wake up to find their purchasing power has fallen and stated there are “hundreds of ways to overcome the economic impasse.” He noted that policymakers take people’s money and “return it with reduced value.”Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati presented a recovery roadmap and acknowledged an ongoing GDP contraction. He stated that “the combination of war and cruel sanctions has posed serious challenges to the country’s economy. Most importantly, people’s livelihoods have been severely affected because various sectors of the economy have been impacted by sanctions.” He also cited inflation at around 53%, which appears to be a underestimation of the real currency destruction taking place. Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani has discussed infrastructure damage (e.g., bridges, tunnels, gas and electricity capacity losses), adjustments to gasoline rations, and challenges with subsidy payments disrupted by banking issues or cyberattacks.
These admissions are often wrapped in claims of resiliency despite the crisis, but the biggest danger (inflation) has yet to fully play out. SCI data for the Persian month of Khordad (ending ~June 21, 2026) showed overall year-on-year inflation of 88.6% (up from pre-escalation levels around 50%). Food inflation reached 134%, with oils/fats at 278%, red meat/poultry at 178%, and bread/cereals at nearly 139%.The rial hit record lows of around 1.5–1.9 million per USD at various points during the war. This has amplified import costs and eroded purchasing power.
Crippling infrastructure damage and currency devaluation might help to explain Iran’s desperate insistence on charging tolls in the Strait of Hormuz. If their oil industry is facing a multi-year setback and damage to infrastructure is extensive, tolls on shipping through the strait may be their only source of economic recovery.
Iranian citizens turning to theft to make ends meet is a far more profound issue than a similar trend would be in the US or Europe. In Iran, punishment for a first offense for theft of food is three months to one year of incarceration and up to 74 lashes. Multiple thefts can result in the amputation of fingers, life in prison or execution. The point is, stealing is no small matter in Iran and for people to turn to theft suggests extreme economic derailment.
Even if the war ends this week as negotiations reportedly carry forward, Iran faces a long and arduous road to recovery. It is likely that a collapse of the existing system is inevitable. Whether or not this actually leads to civil unrest as the regime fears is anyone’s guess.
“Trump has a win, gang — a real one, with real barrels of oil and real dollars behind it and real peace being made, not a rhetorical win built on vibes and cable-news handwringing. ”
• Trump Has Already Won in Iran, by Any Definition That Matters (Eric Florack)
Ask ten people whether America is winning the Iran war, and you’ll get twelve different answers — not because they disagree on the facts, but because they’re quietly answering completely different questions while pretending to answer the same one. This war has now run past five months, with day-by-day tracking putting us at day 161 as of this week, and depending on which yardstick you grab, the exact same set of facts spits out wildly different verdicts.Read more …
And here’s what irritates me every single time: the people screaming “Trump has lost” have a very specific, very consistent full-time job — casting literally anything this president does as a failure, regardless of what actually happened on the ground. These aren’t analysts weighing evidence. They’re activists working backward from a conclusion they picked out months and years ago, before the first bomb was dropped. Politics isn’t a factor in their assessment. Politics is the entire assessment. Now let’s look at what actually happened, instead of what certain people needed to happen.From a military standpoint, the United States and Israel can make a genuinely strong claim to success, and no amount of ill-motivated reasoning changes the scoreboard. The opening strikes on February 28 killed Ali Khamenei along with a swath of Iran’s senior military leadership, and the campaign flattened a long list of military and government targets outright. Israel has flown over Iranian airspace with relative freedom ever since. If winning means “we accomplished our stated objectives,” the tactical ledger tilts hard in this direction. Iran’s ability to bully its neighbors doesn’t come close to the muscle it flexed a year ago, and that gap isn’t closing anytime soon.
Then there’s the “ammunition” whining. Critics keep insisting we’ve drained our munitions stockpile down to dangerous levels, as if that’s supposed to land as some kind of gotcha. Here’s the part they conveniently skip: with Iran sitting in the wreckage it’s currently sitting in, our actual operational needs have dropped right alongside theirs. We don’t need what we needed on February 27, because the threat we needed it for doesn’t exist in the same form anymore. And every single time Iran fails to meet Trump’s demands, more of its remaining capability gets vaporized. Every time Iran’s rulers expose some new attempt at violent enforcement of their will, Trump takes it off the table, permanently, usually within hours.
Resolve in this case means making the victory we’ve already won permanent. That approach burns far less ammunition and spares far more lives than any alternative anyone’s seriously proposed. Funny how that detail never makes it into the wordy whines of “quagmire.”It comes down to this, plain and simple: The victor gets to define victory, and that’s us, not the people rooting against us. A year ago, Iran held the ability to yank over a fifth of the world’s energy supply off the table whenever it felt like throwing a tantrum. It can’t do that anymore. Full stop.
Look at what that actually means on the ground. The UAE, which watched its exports crater to 1.9 million barrels a day when this war opened, is now pumping close to 4 million barrels a day — past prewar levels, not just back to them. Regional flows overall have clawed back to roughly three-quarters of where they stood before Iran decided to play chokepoint games with the global economy. And the $200-a-barrel oil apocalypse every panic-merchant in the financial press was confidently predicting back in March? Never happened. Didn’t even come close. Crude settled back down near prewar territory instead, because the workarounds held and Iran’s leverage evaporated right along with its air defenses.
None of that happens by accident, and none of it happens without the campaign that put Iran in the position it’s currently in. Every barrel moving through Fujairah instead of getting held hostage in the Strait of Hormuz is a direct, measurable consequence of degrading Iran’s ability to make good on its threats. You don’t get to claim the oil markets stabilized in spite of the war. They stabilized because of it.
I’ll grant the critics one thing, since I try to play fair even with people who don’t return the favor: The polling on this war is genuinely ugly, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. Approval numbers are underwater, allied publics aren’t thrilled, and nobody enjoys watching a war grind into its sixth month. But polling measures how a war feels while it’s happening. It doesn’t measure what the war actually accomplished. Those are two different questions, and only one of them matters five years from now, when historians are writing the actual ledger, instead of pollsters chasing this week’s mood.
And who is pushing the polling? Yeah, maybe that deserves some closer scrutiny. By and large, people who have been desperately trying to snag the president on any minutiae they can are selling them to us. Remember, these are the same inDUHviduals who claimed Trump had no chance of winning elections. You may recall how that turned out. Expecting a fair reading on these matters from that crowd is kinda like expecting gasoline to taste good.
Trump has a win, gang — a real one, with real barrels of oil and real dollars behind it and real peace being made, not a rhetorical win built on vibes and cable-news handwringing. And the naysayers, the Democrats wringing their hands on cable news and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) counting its losses back in Tehran, and the press alike, have exactly nothing of substance to say about it. Watch how fast the subject changes the next time someone brings up the actual numbers, instead of the force-fed poll of the week.
The guy is pining for the fjords. But they need a religious leader. Let’s see what they come up with.
• Iran Releases Video of Supreme Leader For ‘First Time’ – Except It’s Old (ZH)
Update(2210ET): Iran’s state Mehr has purported to release video of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei for the ‘first time’ since the start of the war, and since he was wounded in a US-Israeli airstrike in the opening days of the attacks of over five months ago. The state-released footage is titled “First Images of the Leader” – and shows the Ayatollah addressing students, after months of speculation over his status, or whether he is even alive. He has not been seen or heard from directly since the war began, amid conflicting reports and accounts. The video has no date or location given. It appears to be in response to recent Israeli media reports alleging his deteriorating health.Read more …
However, analysts – as well as social media users in Iran – were quick to identify the footage as old material from his past lectures in Qom. This has in turn resulted in accusations of a cover-up, and that Tehran is in damage control concerning his status. For example, one hawkish US-based think tank researcher and pundit, Jason Brodsky, has commented on the released footage as follows: “This footage is old, from before the war. It was first circulating in March. It’s telling Iran’s regime’s Mehr News feels the need to circulate old video of Mojtaba.”Foreign press reports, including Russian and Chinese state channels, have been reporting the footage soon on the heels of Iranian state media circulating it…
#LATEST Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, appeared in a video recording of a lesson released by Mehr News Agency on August 8. pic.twitter.com/SjebyaGVm8
— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) August 8, 2026Proof that it is actually archived footage and not in reality recent ‘proof of life’ imagery…
:See here. Iranian media first started circulating it in March.https://t.co/mQae3nqjZp
— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) August 8, 2026
Is an interview a better format for him?
• The Republic Will End in 2032 (Martin Armstrong)
Read more …
Two dozen of them.
• Long Before Trump Elected, Two Dozen Dem State AGs Plotted To Sue Him (JTN)
Nearly two dozen state attorneys general banded together as early as April 2024 to plot litigation against President Donald Trump long before he was reelected, according to a confidential document obtained by The Center Square. The document was signed approximately three months before President Joe Biden exited the race and Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee for president. It was signed nearly seven months before Trump was reelected by 2.3 million more votes than Harris, almost nine months before he was inaugurated.Read more …
State attorneys general have sued the Trump Administration nearly 100 times since January 2025. The coordinated effort appears to have a nickname: the “Project for Federal Accountability.” Former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who was a Republican when he was in office but now often votes for Democrats, said he believes the timing was unusual. He described signing similar documents during his tenure from 2001 through 2013, but not for any hypothetical lawsuits planned so far in advance of government action.“That’s not normal at all,” Shurtleff said. “It’s a big selling point now. I get lots of emails from people running for attorney general, lots of texts and emails saying, ‘We’ve got to stop President Trump’ or ‘We’ve got to work together as state attorneys general. That’s why you need to give me money!’ and vice versa. It goes both ways… I don’t think that’s the best use of an attorney general’s time.”Not all of the lawsuits have been joined by each attorney general, and some offices take the lead on different cases. At last count, California Attorney General Rob Bonta has participated in 82 lawsuits. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has joined at least 75 lawsuits.
Washington State Attorney General Brown has joined 70 lawsuits. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has joined 46 lawsuits. At a news conference on Tuesday, Bonta stated the lawsuits are “apolitical.” He announced the lawsuits have cost California taxpayers $19 million and that he will continue to file them as needed. “If (Trump) doesn’t want to get sued, all he has to do is follow the law,” Bonta said. “I don’t think our cases are likely to be dismissed… Trump shows no sign of slowing down, so we will continue to sue him.”
So far, 11 cases have been closed in favor of the plaintiff and four cases dismissed in favor of the federal government, according to Just Security — a nonpartisan digital law and policy journal at New York University.The document, titled “PRIVILEGED & CONFIDENTIAL COMMON INTEREST AGREEMENT,” also incorporated plans to withhold some information from the public surrounding the lawsuits, indicating the parties “wish to pursue their common interest concerning Federal Accountability issues and litigation(s) addressing such issues, while avoiding any waiver of the confidentiality of those privileged materials.”
At least 22 Democratic attorneys general appear to have signed the common interest agreement. Zero Republican attorneys general appear to have signed it. Three Democratic attorneys general — in Oregon, Virginia and Wisconsin — have declined to say whether they signed the agreement. The Virginia Attorney General’s Office flipped from red to blue in January 2026. One year earlier, Pennsylvania went the opposite direction. Voters elected a Republican to succeed a Democrat in January 2025. Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday has not responded to questions asking whether his state remains part of the common interest agreement.
When attorneys general have sued prior administrations, it was typically after the administration took action — not before. For example, Shurtleff pointed to a 2012 lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) after its passage in March 2010. He was one of 22 Republican attorneys general who signed onto the case, which ended with a partial victory and partial defeat before the United States Supreme Court.
Seven attorneys general signed the common interest agreement on April 28, 2024, with District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s signature appearing first. California’s signature was left undated, and 13 other attorneys general joined in May or June 2024. Hawaii Attorney General Anne E. Lopez was the last known signatory on Nov. 12, 2024 — seven days after Trump won a second term. Trump secured enough delegates to become the presumptive Republican nominee in March 2024.
The majority of attorneys general who signed the agreement have declined to comment or answer questions. Some have downplayed the timing of the agreement or otherwise minimized the extent to which they had been preparing for litigation against the Trump Administration. “There is nothing particularly significant about that date,” wrote Richie Taylor, communications director for the Arizona Attorney General Mayes’ office. “The office has common interest agreements with Republican AG’s as well as Democratic AG’s depending on the litigation.”
Former Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who is now the state governor, announced one day after the election that his office had already been preparing potential litigation against Trump for “months.” “We knew from our extensive experience during his first term that we would need to be prepared from day one if he was reelected,” Ferguson said at the time. “My team has gone line-by-line through Project 2025 and has been tracking remarks by Trump on the campaign trail… A concern I have is that Donald Trump, I believe, and his administration, may well be better prepared on their end.”
The Center Square reached out to Ferguson’s office requesting an interview for this story but did not receive a response. Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said the planning began “as soon as it was clear that Trump was going to get the nomination.” “We’re pleased that we responded before January 2025,” Brown told The Center Square in an interview. “We talked through a host of possibilities, and we wanted to be prepared, not to get caught off guard.” Brown said none of the lawsuits were filed before the 2024 election, and the attorneys general were not circumventing the will of voters.
“I don’t think we were going after him, or any AG was, because he hadn’t been elected (yet),” Brown said in an interview. Prominent Democrats who were not state attorneys general have supported the actions. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, described the planning efforts more simply and with more partisanship. “Look where we are now,” Kaine told The Center Square in an interview at the Capitol. “(The Democratic attorneys general) did what Republican attorneys general did with President Obama’s stimulus plan in 2009: ‘everything he’s for, we’re against.’”
“Lie to People Who Want to be Lied to”
• How to Make a Political Fortune as a Far-Left Democrat (Turley)
A financial journalist once offered simple advice: “Lie to people who want to be lied to, and you’ll get rich…Tell the truth to those who want to be lied to, and you’ll go broke.” That axiom appears to have been taken to heart by radical Democratic candidates who this week issued transparent denials of past outrageous comments. Their calculus is clearly that the last thing that voters want to hear is the truth about their past views.Read more …
Certain cultural touchstones are considered inviolate in some states, such as beef in Texas. In 2022, Talarico said he was reducing his meat consumption as part of climate-related efforts. Texas Democratic Senatorial candidate James Talarico was roasted after a video surfaced of his calling to reduce meat consumption and “I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non-meat campaign. We are only buying vegan products from our local vegan businesses.”
The backlash was so great that Talarico has been eating whole cows to prove that he is not all-hat and no cattle. Obviously, lying about your positions is hardly a phenomenon confirmed to the far left. Many Republican candidates have also made painfully transparent pivots. However, the spins this week threaten to knock the planet off its axis. In Wisconsin, Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong seems to be coasting to a primary win despite radical views such as defunding police. In an episode of “Pod Save America,” Hong was asked about her 2020 statements declaring “police exist to uphold white supremacy” and “I support defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police.”
Hong responded with a convoluted spin: “My views have only become stronger in that I’m serious about public safety and I will not abolish the police.” Hong’s views on Thanksgiving took the axiom to a whole new level. Hong previously stated: “Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621. If it takes a worldwide pandemic for us to realize we should stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed Indigenous folx and women so be it.” That did not go over well in Wisconsin, only slightly better than coming out against cheese.
Hong did not deny her 2021 statement for weeks, including when confronted on CNN by host Kaitlan Collins. Asked directly if she still hated Thanksgiving, Hong offered her now much-ridiculed “I’m a chef” response, stating that, as a chef, she works to “bring more people to the table.” Hong seemed to morph into Chauncey Gardner from Being There in offering non-sequiturs of being a “very serious gardener.”
When that interview fell flat, Hong decided to lie and claim that she was just joking in 2021 and “loves” Thanksgiving, her now “favorite holiday.” No one reading her quote or her later interviews would believe that it was a joke. It was not a joke for weeks until her responses became a joke. Abdul El-Sayed skipped the transitional period and went straight to the lie in his controversy this week when a video surfaced of his saying how he hates the iconic Mackinac Island. Growing up in Chicago, one of my favorite things was to go with my family to the island, which is the quintessential small American town. I actually have never met anyone who hated Mackinac Island…until now.
In the video, El-Sayed states “I hate Mackinac so much. It’s funny cause, like, if we win, this is gonna be, like, the summer home. Every time I’ve ever come here I’ve hated it.”El-Sayed was clearly informed that declaring that you despise the most popular tourist location in Michigan is not a vote getter. So, El-Sayed simply told his supporters what they wanted to hear: you cannot believe your lying eyes and ears. His campaign issued a bizarre statement that sought to convert his controversial comments into his opposition to the elite and privileged class, saying that he was actually referring to the Mackinac Policy Conference which is simply an annual nonpartisan forum for public policy discussions.
El-Sayed claims that he was referring to the conference as being like a summer home for governors. He maintains that he was referring to a conference as the entire island. El-Sayed knows that it does not matter. He could have claimed that he was referring to hating Mackinac Island Pizza Company. It does not matter. His supporters do not want the baggage and he simply needed to unload it. With the election in November, the next predictable step will be for Hong to join El-Sayed on Mackinac Island for a public Thanksgiving dinner. Talarico will be on hand to carve the bird with enthusiasm.
The real problem is that these individuals spent years throwing red meat (or, in the case of Talarico, tofu) to the far left. These statements were not considered extreme or controversial until they found themselves speaking to a wider audience. Then they sounded just crazy. Moreover, some lies are unlikely to register with voters who may prefer to live in delusion. The fact that the Mamdani markets will ultimately sell the most expensive produce in New York is an inconvenient fact that is best ignored.
The model for far-left politicians appears to be Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger who ran as a moderate and then governed from the far left. Spanberger, for example, pledged not to gerrymander districts to eliminate all Republican districts and then immediately moved to do so. Many voters likely did not believe her on gerrymandering, taxes, or other broken pledges before the election. They just needed her to say it. So, you might have to visit Mackinac or feign enjoyment at Thanksgiving or barbeques for a few weeks. Then you can do a Spanberger.
Abraham Lincoln may have said “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” However, the fact is that you do not have to fool all of the people all of the time, just enough to win over the course of a few weeks.
“..no one forced El-Sayed to appear with a Holocaust-denying, traitorous imam who holds vigils for terrorists and asks Allah “to grant victory to our brothers in Iran.”
• Abdul El-Sayed Is an American Tragedy (David Harsanyi)
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Democratic Senate nominee, grew up in an affluent suburb of Detroit. The median household income in his hometown of Rochester Hills, named after Revolutionary War hero Nathaniel Rochester, is roughly $120,000. Not bad. By the time El-Sayed graduated from the local high school, well over 95% of his classmates were also headed to college. At the University of Michigan, an institution co-founded by the Catholic priest Gabriel Richard and Presbyterian minister John Monteith, El-Sayed excelled, graduated with high honors, and delivered his class’s commencement speech.Read more …
After receiving a full scholarship to the University of Michigan Medical School, El-Sayed won a Rhodes Scholarship, a prestigious academic award named after Cecil Rhodes, a diamond mining magnate and champion of the British Empire. He then attended Oriel College — “The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” to be exact — at the University of Oxford, ultimately earning a Doctor of Medicine degree from Columbia University, a school named after the great Italian explorer Christopher Columbus.Born into a society of unprecedented wealth built on American work ethic, capitalistic imagination, Christian ethical and communal norms, and liberal freedoms, El-Sayed won the generational lottery. Every step of his impressive career was sustained by foundational institutions of Western culture and American exceptionalism. El-Sayed didn’t adopt Third World Marxism because of his color or his circumstances. He is one of the luckiest people to ever live. He is an extremist by choice.Our meritocratic system, imperfect as it may be, offered El-Sayed the opportunity to parlay prodigious intelligence into a very good living, advancing Western medical science or caring for his community. Instead, he’s chosen to degrade the nation.
El-Sayed’s movement, the people who support him most vociferously, want to abolish not only constitutional governance, eliminating virtually every institution, but also to get rid of our capitalistic system, and import Third World bigotry and violence. Marxists and the Islamists share a deeply illiberal and anti-Christian outlook, but they also share a near-universal antisemitism. In virtually every Islamic majority nation, even ones where there are no Jews, over 90% of the population is antisemitic.A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 44% of American Muslims expressed a favorable opinion of Hamas, a group that has murdered dozens of Americans.
This is the culture El-Sayed fosters. Virtually every day, the candidate spreads some medieval conspiracy about the “genocidal,” “bloodthirsty” and “evil” disposition of world Jewry.Yet, at the same time, El-Sayed won’t take a public stand on the death of America’s enemy, terrorist leader and mass murderer Ali Khamenei, for fear of insulting his constituents. If this is true, and we have no reason to believe otherwise, there is something deeply wrong and un-American happening in this country. Judging from his friends, there is something deeply wrong with El-Sayed, as well.
After all, no one forced El-Sayed to appear with a Holocaust-denying, traitorous imam who holds vigils for terrorists and asks Allah “to grant victory to our brothers in Iran.” No one forced El-Sayed to closely ally with Hasan Piker, a man who believes 3,000 innocent Americans deserved to die on 9/11, who wants the streets to “soak in red capitalist blood,” and who says he holds no patriotic feeling for America but celebrates mass murderers such as Mao Zedong. At this point, even if El-Sayed condemned Piker, which he hasn’t, no one should believe it.
Of course, when El-Sayed empathizes with an American Islamic terrorist who attempted to murder a kindergarten filled with Jewish children in Michigan — “hurt people hurt people” — he gives the game away. The truth is that El-Sayed’s Islamic background makes him especially appealing to the Democratic Socialists of America wing of the Left. But he isn’t a first-generation immigrant worth celebrating. Indeed, he should know better. In his commencement speech at Michigan, El-Sayed claimed that one of the hallmarks of the “American dream” was an “audacity to believe we can change this world.”
If El-Sayed really wants to “change the world,” the place to start is Cairo, Khartoum or Damascus, not Ann Arbor. As the writer Hussain Abdul Hussain retorted, changing America is “a nightmare, one that I left behind and came to America to live the American Dream, as a proud Arab who believes in America, not in changing it.” Like El-Sayed, and millions of others, I also won a generational lottery. My parents fled European socialism and fascism. While I may or may not be hopelessly wrong on a host of issues, I have zero interest in importing any of the detestable, failed philosophies or ancient prejudices of the wider world.
That, however, seems to be El-Sayed’s mission.
Watch out!
• The Money Trail Behind Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed (CTH)
Some people have started looking at the Muslim Brotherhood network similarities behind Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in 2026 and the former Illinois Senate candidacy of Barack Hussein Obama. Indeed, if you look at the political timeline, there is a comparative similarity between a mid-term senate race (Obama in ’06) and El-Sayed in ’26; with politically higher aspirations for 2028.In this video, Promethean Action PAC’s Barbara Boyd looks at the money behind the New York mayor and the Michigan senate candidate. Strong ties to the Brotherhood.Read more …
“He held up the envelope and indicated it contained a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad. The chamber erupted in frantic attempts to stop him opening it.” “..the West should resist Islam “in the strongest terms on free-speech grounds alone.”
• Oxford Union Debate Debacle Exposes Real Limit Of Free Speech In Britain (MN)
In the heart of the Oxford Union, a supposed bastion of open debate, a single brown paper envelope triggered pure panic. Commentator Laurence Fox stood to argue that the West is right to be suspicious of Islam. He held up the envelope and indicated it contained a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad. The chamber erupted in frantic attempts to stop him opening it. Rules were suddenly invoked. Relevance was questioned. Respect was demanded. The Muslim president of the Union interjected that her very presence should have been enough to persuade Fox that Muslims believe in free speech.Read more …
Best clip from the Oxford Union in a long time. A speaker suggests that he is about to display a cartoon of Muhammad to prove that Islam has a problem with free speech.
— Champagne Scar (@champagne_scar) August 6, 2026
People scramble frantically to stop him: It is against the rules, unnecessary, irrelevant, disrespectful, and… pic.twitter.com/oRJ6MCXQOz
“My wife asked me not to show this for fear of repercussions for my family,” Fox said. “But I told her that if I did not, I would have submitted to Islam.” He continued that the West should resist Islam “in the strongest terms on free-speech grounds alone.” Fox opened the envelope and revealed a cartoon of Rees-Mogg. Laughter and applause followed. The fear that had gripped the room evaporated the instant it became clear the image did not depict Muhammad. In that moment the argument was settled more effectively than any speech could manage.The debate took place under the motion “This House believes the West is right to be suspicious of Islam.” Speaking for the motion were actor and free-speech campaigner Laurence Fox, Tommy Robinson, and writer Jonathan Sacerdoti. Against them stood Oxford Union president Arwa Elrayess, a 20-year-old Muslim of Palestinian heritage from Gaza, Rees-Mogg, and others. Outside, left-wing protesters tried to block entry. Inside, the atmosphere was already charged.
Fox made free speech the centrepiece of his case. He cited polling showing that 78 percent of British Muslims believe no publication should print pictures of Muhammad, rising higher among some groups. He noted that Britain had long abandoned its own blasphemy laws. Then he produced the envelope. Jacob Rees-Mogg, speaking against the motion, reached for procedure, recalling that as a former Union librarian he believed props were against the rules. Others in the audience scrambled for any technicality that might prevent the image from appearing. The chair eventually ruled that props were permitted.
Jonathan Sacerdoti, who spoke alongside Fox that night, later described the episode in The Spectator. The opposition and their guests, he wrote, “squirmed in discomfort, terrified at the very suggestion a drawing of Mohamed might soon be unveiled.”When the real image appeared, the relief was palpable. “It seems we had found the limit of free speech they had all denied existed. That limit was Islam.” Elrayess had positioned herself as a defender of open debate by inviting the motion and the speakers in the first place. She told the chamber:
“Free speech and debate is not something I do despite being a Muslim, it is something I do because of it.” Yet when the practical test arrived – the possibility of a Muhammad cartoon – the institutional machinery of the Union moved to stop it. The title of president was offered as proof of principle even as the principle itself was being restricted in real time.
Fox’s point lands without further explanation: the taboo is real, the fear is real, and the clever arguments about compatibility evaporate the moment the cartoon is threatened. This is not an abstract philosophical dispute. Britain has already seen teachers driven into hiding for showing Muhammad cartoons in classrooms. Publications and individuals face credible threats for the same act. The Oxford Union, with its historic claim to be a last redoubt of free speech, demonstrated in real time that the same constraint operates even among those who insist no such constraint exists.
Fox closed his demonstration with a clear declaration. “So it is in that spirit that I will not submit. I show you this as an Englishman who believes in free speech. I will not submit. I will not bow down.” The image he actually showed was of a British politician. The image that produced terror was the one everyone understood could not be shown.
The motion was defeated in the chamber that night. The larger argument was not. Free speech that collapses the moment it risks offending one particular religious sensitivity is not free speech at all. It is a managed privilege granted on condition of silence. The Oxford Union’s panicked reaction to a piece of paper proved the case more cleanly than any speech could. The West has every reason to notice when its most elite institutions flinch.
THERE IT IS 🚨 Senator Rand Paul says the reason Anthony Fauci was given a pardon beginning in 2014 was because that’s when Fauci started funding the Wuhan lab
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) August 7, 2026
“Interestingly, the pardon starts in 2014. That's when the funding of the lab in Wuhan started”
Senator Rand Paul… pic.twitter.com/wGVihAoMGC
🚨 TESLA INVESTOR ROSS GERBER DEMANDS ELON MUSK STEP DOWN
— Private Reports™ (@PrivateReports) August 7, 2026
Gerber Kawasaki CEO Ross Gerber publicly called on Elon Musk to step aside as Tesla's CEO, claiming that Musk's political involvement and public statements have damaged the company's brand and alienated core customers.… pic.twitter.com/mLvnXIWCKP
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2026
I don’t think most people understand the massive scale of investment Tesla & SpaceX are making in Texas right now.
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) August 7, 2026
Everything the two companies are/going to build across the state:
• Terafab (Grimes County)
• Gigasat factory (in Bastrop, currently under construction)
•… pic.twitter.com/y7neGjVrSL
Elon Musk: "I think it's always good when thinking about something that you're afraid of, when thinking about fear, look fear straight in the eye, and it will disappear,
— Elonogy (@ElonogyX) August 7, 2026
The nature of fear is that people don't look at it. Look at it directly and it will be gone" pic.twitter.com/3bKhU0x98K
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