by John Mac Ghlionn, opinion contributor – 08/15/26 1:00 PM ET
Comments:63

Researchers at the Marquette Law School Poll recently identified a sharp generational decline in trust across the United States. Americans born before 1960 still hold onto a baseline assumption that their neighbors will not rob them, given half a chance. They are the most trusting demographic in the country.

The numbers worsen with each successive generation. The cohort born in the 2000s registers the highest levels of distrust ever recorded by the project. A significant portion of young adults operate under the functional premise that everyone else is a threat.

The situation gets significantly uglier from there. A comprehensive 25-country survey published by Pew Research Center earlier this year found that Americans do not merely distrust one another. Increasingly, they see their fellow citizens as morally bankrupt. American citizens are far more likely to view their fellow countrymen as fundamentally evil than citizens of the other surveyed nations.

Specifically, 53 percent of U.S. adults explicitly stated that the average American has bad morals and ethics. This matters enormously. A society cannot thrive when most people no longer believe their fellow citizens are fundamentally decent.

Morality is the basic, invisible software that prevents human primates from tearing each other apart over grocery store parking spaces. It establishes the rules of engagement. When a population loses faith in that shared software, the entire social contract converts into a hostage situation. Viewing the opposing political or cultural faction as mistaken allows for regular political debate. Viewing them as beyond redemption eliminates the possibility of finding common ground. You do not negotiate with a monster. Instead, you try to destroy it before it destroys you.

This moral panic created an environment of pure, unadulterated contempt. For more than ten years, tracing back to President Trump’s rather surreal 2015 escalator descent, America’s dominant political emotion has evolved from anger into deep, structural disgust.

Relationship expert John Gottman spent decades analyzing why marriages fail, famously identifying contempt as the single greatest predictor of divorce. Gottman described contempt as a toxic mix of hostility and ridicule that involves placing oneself on a higher moral pedestal than the other person. In his research, once a couple begins communicating through eye-rolls and mockery, the relationship is clinically dead.

A nation is nothing more than a vast network of interpersonal relationships. It is a giant marriage between millions of people who never chose to live together but have to share the same house. Right now, the American marriage is in the absolute final stages of a Gottman-style disaster. The partners are sleeping in separate bedrooms, hurling insults, and actively wishing the other would slip on a patch of ice.

The primary reason this trajectory will likely worsen is that the incentives align perfectly with animosity. Media algorithms, political fundraising operations, and cultural gatekeepers generate billions of dollars in revenue by validating this exact contempt. A peaceful, trusting populace is economically useless to the current infrastructure. Modern America has built a business model out of demonizing the person next door. To keep the money flowing, people must stay angry enough to click, donate and hate.

The institutional elite discovered that rage scales infinitely better than unity. A divided populace creates highly predictable voting blocks and captive consumer markets. This calculated division ensures that the industry of outrage remains fully funded and sustained. Every political campaign relies on the explicit premise that the opposition intends to dismantle civilization — either forcing you into communism or fascism, neither of which, if we are being honest, sounds particularly appealing.

The current generation entering adulthood has never experienced a society in which cooperation was the default setting. They grew up watching the adults in the room treat the opposing political party as an existential threat to survival. To see the Marquette data as an anomaly is a mistake. In truth, it is a preview of the next 30 years. The country is locked into a cycle where distrust breeds contempt, contempt destroys relationships, and destroyed relationships ensure that the next generation doubles down on the disdain. The country is settling into a permanent, highly profitable state of mutual loathing. For much of its history, the United States has been united more in name than in reality. Now, it’s a nation divided not only by borders, but by an unbridgeable psychological gulf.

John Mac Ghlionn is a writer and researcher who explores culture, society and the impact of technology on daily life.

Add as preferred source on GoogleTags America John Gottman pew research center

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1. Comment by Gregory Martin.GMGregory Martin48 min agoWas there a need for this article before trump took office?🫪Not in my lifetime….reply 0 0sharereport
2. Comment by Richard Windsor.RWRichard Windsor52 min agoRepublicans hate Democrats because they are told to everyday.Democrats hate Republicans because they’ve destroyed America by turning it over to the top .01%The two sides are quite differentreply 0 0sharereport
3. Comment by Frank X.FXFrank X1 hr agoAmericans hate each other like high school clicks hating one another. Jocks hating the nerds, princesses hating the goths, preps hating the poors. We all sit in the lunch atrium in our corners. High School. Trump just ‘class president’ as typical sided with one of the factions and doesn’t care about the others. Typical high school during lunch time.Thus the problem: there’s no adults in the room.reply 1 0sharereport
4. Comment by Jack.JaJack1 hr agoGrifters , Reivers and liars.stesling every nickel.Thankfully November is soonreply 1 0sharereport
5. Comment by dbhsound.dbdbhsound1 hr agoThe State of Hate was created by Trump, but it wouldn’t be resolved if Trump were to suddenly disappear tomorrow. The Trump Taint is endemic in government now and will take a long time to fix. When our long national nightmare of “President Trump” is over, America will have to be de-MAGA-fied.reply 6 0sharereport
6. Comment by Bob Strayer.BSBob Strayer1 hr agoThe country is divided between anti fascist and oto fascist.reply 2 0sharereport
7. Comment by jwags31972.jwjwags319722 hrs agoOur Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.John Adamsreply6 replies 2 3sharereport44 older repliesshow older replies
   • Reply by jwags31972.jwjwags3197223 min agoReply to Bob StrayerHe would know. He helped write it.reply 0 0sharereport
   • Reply by jwags31972.jwjwags3197220 min agoReply to dbhsoundI dont consider any current politicians as moral or religious. Civic duty has been corrupted by power and greed.reply 0 0sharereport
8. Comment by JamesDuncan.JaJamesDuncan2 hrs agoIndependents flipped 40 points against Trump.Even white non-colleg males flipped 17 points against Trump.Everyone is uniting against Trump.reply2 replies 11 1sharereport
   • Reply by Imho.ImImho1 hr agoReply to JamesDuncan🤞🤞🤞 And, more importantly, his enablers come Novemberreply 1 0sharereport
   • Reply by Callix C.CCCallix C53 min agoReply to JamesDuncanAgain. They did this the last time in 2020 after the disasterous first term.What I can’t understand is, they promptly forgot everything they hated about him, turned around and voted for him again.If another charismatic takes the stage, they will fall right in line and vote them in again.I’m afraid though, we might be too late to save the day this time. They’ve had a decade to lay the groundwork and two years to implement whatever sneaky plans the heritage foundation has and I wonder if a Democrat will ever win an election again.Read morereply 0 0sharereport
9. Comment by Aaron Levitt.ALAaron Levitt3 hrs agoBottom line: In the past, leaders of both parties worked, albeit imperfectly, to bring Americans together. Trump pours his energy into splitting us apart: divide and conquer.reply1 reply 12 0sharereport
   • Reply by oled.ololed45 min agoReply to Aaron LevittBlind to the antics of Pelosi, Schumer, and Comey and their allies in the press to stop Trump from upsetting the USAID and ‘opened borders’ gravy train, I guess. The venom started with the Obama-ites.reply 0 0sharereport
10. Comment by rla1000.rlrla10003 hrs agoTrump the Uniter? Please, just go away, Donnie.reply 3 0sharereport

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Opinion by Mark Dubowitz, Richard Goldberg

The reality is that the combination of Operations Midnight Hammer and Epic Fury upended the regime’s hopes of turning Hormuz into a permanent hostage.

Its ruling clerics will now pay the price for activating a blockade without their most important insurance cards — perhaps sooner than they think.

President Donald Trump attends the Patriot Games at Spire Academy in Geneva, Ohio, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

Had the regime in Tehran followed late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s plan — weaponized its nuclear program, built an arsenal of thousands of ballistic missiles and drones and assembled its regional proxies into an even more formidable force — then its blockade of Hormuz would likely be permanent.

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That kind of potency would have deterred American and Israeli action and rebuilt Iran’s economy into a formidable global energy power.

Instead, after several months of airstrikes by the US and Israel, Iran’s nuclear and missile programs are badly damaged, and its economy is collapsing from a blockade and sanctions.

Flowing elsewhere

Its terrorist allies around the region, from the Houthis in Yemen to Hezbollah in Lebanon, are no longer the threat that they were on Oct. 7, 2023 — the day of the deadly invasion of Israel by Iran-backed Hamas.

STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE LATEST NEWS BY SUBSCRIBING TO MORNING REPORT NEWSLETTER

Simply put, a weakened Iran played its Hormuz card too soon.

Each day that goes by leaves its regime more vulnerable to punishing military and economic pressure.

The results are already becoming visible.

According to US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, an average of 9 million barrels of oil are passing through Hormuz daily, while between 5 million to 7 million barrels are reaching consumers through “newly upgraded pipelines and export facilities.”

A sculpture overlooking the Strait of Hormuz is seen along the seafront in the port city of Bandar Abbas, in southern Iran on Monday, August 10, 2026. AFP via Getty Images

Wright’s figures have been disputed by oil industry analysts and other commentators, who.

Many of them insist that the true number of barrels is much lower, arguing as well that the febrile situation in Hormuz means that oil exports will continue at a trickle instead of a flood.

Related video: Why Iran became so difficult to defeat (Beyond Walks)

about:blank

Beyond Walks

Why Iran became so difficult to defeat

stared at glowing radar screens as the Middle East moved

But what that ignores is that the many ships moving covertly through Hormuz with US assistance, going uncounted by analysts who rely solely on open-source data.

It also ignores the spectacular transformation of the oil export route that’s currently underway.

The United Arab Emirates is fast-tracking a new west-east pipeline to Fujairah, which will allow exports to bypass Hormuz at minimal cost lies outside the strait.

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company announced in May that construction was about 50% complete, with operations expected to launch next year.

This means that the UAE can soon bypass Hormuz at minimal cost.

The Saudis are moving in a similar direction, seeking to add 1 million to 2 million barrels per day of capacity to their east-west network running to the Red Sea.

The United States should now actively work with its Gulf allies to eclipse Iran even further.

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The US Development Finance Corporation, which possesses $205 billion in investment capacity, is uniquely capable of facilitating export routes that avoid Hormuz.

It can also demand a significant share of the equity in this burgeoning consortium, with the benefits passed on to American US taxpayers.

Stay the course

The situation further afield works to America’s favor too, as well with the United States continues to set records for oil and gas production and exports.

Venezuela’s oil exports reached approximately some 1.16 million barrels per day in July, with roughly 786,000 of those heading to the US — the highest US-bound volume in seven years.

As in the Gulf, further investment here could increase production considerably.

The real loser here is not the United States but China, which relies on Middle Eastern oil far more than the US does.

Alternative routes out of the region coupled with non-Middle Eastern oil will bolster US dominance of energy markets while reducing the leverage of both China and Iran.

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All the noise around Iran’s supposed stranglehold on oil supplies transiting through the Strait of Hormuz is missing the point.

The reality is that the combination of Operations Midnight Hammer and Epic Fury upended the regime’s hopes of turning Hormuz into a permanent hostage.

Its ruling clerics will now pay the price for activating a blockade without their most important insurance cards — perhaps sooner than they think.

President Donald Trump attends the Patriot Games at Spire Academy in Geneva, Ohio, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

Had the regime in Tehran followed late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s plan — weaponized its nuclear program, built an arsenal of thousands of ballistic missiles and drones and assembled its regional proxies into an even more formidable force — then its blockade of Hormuz would likely be permanent.

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Acorn Stairlifts·Sponsored

That kind of potency would have deterred American and Israeli action and rebuilt Iran’s economy into a formidable global energy power.

Instead, after several months of airstrikes by the US and Israel, Iran’s nuclear and missile programs are badly damaged, and its economy is collapsing from a blockade and sanctions.

Flowing elsewhere

Its terrorist allies around the region, from the Houthis in Yemen to Hezbollah in Lebanon, are no longer the threat that they were on Oct. 7, 2023 — the day of the deadly invasion of Israel by Iran-backed Hamas.

STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE LATEST NEWS BY SUBSCRIBING TO MORNING REPORT NEWSLETTER

Simply put, a weakened Iran played its Hormuz card too soon.

Each day that goes by leaves its regime more vulnerable to punishing military and economic pressure.

The results are already becoming visible.

According to US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, an average of 9 million barrels of oil are passing through Hormuz daily, while between 5 million to 7 million barrels are reaching consumers through “newly upgraded pipelines and export facilities.”

A sculpture overlooking the Strait of Hormuz is seen along the seafront in the port city of Bandar Abbas, in southern Iran on Monday, August 10, 2026. AFP via Getty Images

Wright’s figures have been disputed by oil industry analysts and other commentators, who.

Many of them insist that the true number of barrels is much lower, arguing as well that the febrile situation in Hormuz means that oil exports will continue at a trickle instead of a flood.

Related video: Why Iran became so difficult to defeat (Beyond Walks)

about:blank

Beyond Walks

Why Iran became so difficult to defeat

stared at glowing radar screens as the Middle East moved

But what that ignores is that the many ships moving covertly through Hormuz with US assistance, going uncounted by analysts who rely solely on open-source data.

It also ignores the spectacular transformation of the oil export route that’s currently underway.

The United Arab Emirates is fast-tracking a new west-east pipeline to Fujairah, which will allow exports to bypass Hormuz at minimal cost lies outside the strait.

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company announced in May that construction was about 50% complete, with operations expected to launch next year.

This means that the UAE can soon bypass Hormuz at minimal cost.

The Saudis are moving in a similar direction, seeking to add 1 million to 2 million barrels per day of capacity to their east-west network running to the Red Sea.

The United States should now actively work with its Gulf allies to eclipse Iran even further.

Day Of The Dead 2 Oz Silver 3D Bar – Sugar Skull, Marigold (Any Color) – .999 Pure

Money Metals Exchange·Sponsored

The US Development Finance Corporation, which possesses $205 billion in investment capacity, is uniquely capable of facilitating export routes that avoid Hormuz.

It can also demand a significant share of the equity in this burgeoning consortium, with the benefits passed on to American US taxpayers.

Stay the course

The situation further afield works to America’s favor too, as well with the United States continues to set records for oil and gas production and exports.

Venezuela’s oil exports reached approximately some 1.16 million barrels per day in July, with roughly 786,000 of those heading to the US — the highest US-bound volume in seven years.

As in the Gulf, further investment here could increase production considerably.

The real loser here is not the United States but China, which relies on Middle Eastern oil far more than the US does.

Alternative routes out of the region coupled with non-Middle Eastern oil will bolster US dominance of energy markets while reducing the leverage of both China and Iran.

1 Ounce Silver Bar – .999 Pure (Secondary Market)

Maine’s far-left Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Troy Jackson is facing explosive new allegations of domestic violence just weeks after Democrats scrambled to install him as their candidate against Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

Kim McBreairty, an Allagash man who has known Jackson for decades, told The Maine Wire he personally witnessed the progressive logger open-hand slap his longtime partner, Lana Pelletier, outside a pub in neighboring St. Francis years ago.

Kim McBreairty said he was approaching the entrance one evening when he saw Jackson standing with Pelletier. “He just open-hand slapped her beside the head,” McBreairty recounted.

The force of the blow, he said, caused her head to tilt and her hair to fly. She turned and walked toward their vehicle. Jackson followed. Neither entered the pub.

McBreairty emphasized it was an open hand: “Just whacked her.” The Maine Wire noted it has not independently corroborated the account.

The allegation lands as Jackson already faces scrutiny over a 1988 Fort Kent police report obtained by the Bangor Daily News.

At age 19, Jackson kicked in a door at a home around 2 a.m., grabbed a man by the throat, and punched him in the face hard enough to cut him with his glasses, over Pelletier, described in the report as his then-ex-girlfriend.

Jackson told the man to “stay away from Lana Pelletier or else.” The misdemeanor assault was resolved with a $50 fine. Jackson does not dispute punching the man.

The same police report states that Pelletier told the responding officer Jackson had “pushed her around” after the assault and that she planned to seek “cease harassment papers.”

No record shows she followed through. Both Jackson and Pelletier now deny any violence toward her. Pelletier says she has no memory of making the statement and that it is “not accurate.” Jackson insisted: “I have never been violent with my partner Lana, or any other woman.”

Pelletier is Jackson’s longtime partner of roughly 40 years, the mother of his two adult children, and, according to reporting, his second cousin. They are second cousins.

Jackson was rushed into the Democratic nomination in late July after Graham Platner’s campaign collapsed under sexual assault allegations from an ex-girlfriend. Democrats needed a replacement who could still excite the party’s left flank.

Jackson fits the bill: he supports Medicare for All, has called for abolishing ICE, backs ending U.S. military support for Israel, and has drawn support from the Democratic Socialists of America orbit and figures like Bernie Sanders allies.

This is the same Troy Jackson who once threw a water bottle during a heated 2021 argument with a female state senator (witnesses said it did not strike her).

Now, new claims of striking his partner surface just as he tries to introduce himself to voters statewide in one of the most consequential Senate races of 2026.

Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit

I asked Grok how the red states and blue states performed economically between 2000 and 2026. It only gave me up until 2024, but if trends continued, the red states have continued to close the gap and may actually be higher income economies than blue states.

Approx. Real GDP CAGR 2000–2024 Yearly Red-leaning group ████████████████ ≈ 2.3–2.6% Blue-leaning group ██████████████ ≈ 1.9–2.2% U.S. overall ███████████████ ≈ 2.1%

Approximate cumulative real GDP growth (total multiplicative increase)

These are simple compounds of representative average annual rates over 24 years:

Red-leaning group (~2.4% average annual): Growth factor ≈ 1.77 → ~77% total cumulative real growth.

Blue-leaning group (~1.9% average annual): Growth factor ≈ 1.57 → ~57% total cumulative real growth.

U.S. overall (~2.1%): Growth factor ≈ 1.65 → ~65% total cumulative real growth.

Slightly higher/lower averages shift the totals meaningfully because of compounding:

2.5% annual → ~81% cumulative. 2.3% annual → ~73% cumulative. 2.0% annual → ~61% cumulative. 1.8% annual → ~53% cumulative.

Today

Liberal Democrat Governor Maura Healey signs bill allowing babies to be aborted all the way up to birth.

Fox News says, “Democratic Gov. Maura Healey was met with applause and smiles as she signed away Massachusetts’ gestational limits on abortion, making the deep-blue state the 10th to permit the procedure up to birth.

Under the Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act, health care workers will have greater discretion in determining whether to perform an abortion later in pregnancy, without facing legal penalties under the state’s previous restrictions. Massachusetts is now the tenth state to allow this kind of de-humanizing law.”

Healey said the law is intended to ensure families facing medical complications late in pregnancy can abort their babies in Massachusetts rather than having to travel out of state. Those complications can include maternal health complications and fatal diagnoses”

Like most progressive women, Healey equates abortion with healthcare and safety rather than cruelty and murder.

What Does the Giver of Life Say to those who Disregard the Life of the Innocent?

So much has been written on this subject that it hardly matters if we add just another whole article. Perhaps all we need is one single simple verse of scripture that implores the hearer to wise up, get human, have a heart, stop lying to yourself.

See it for yourself.

“But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Mt. 18:6

We Just Don’t Want To Talk About It

One of America’s most outspoken and powerful anti-abortion sites, LifeSiteNews, reveals the outcome of a recent poll that concluded that only one-third of all Americans care to even raise the issue of abortion.

Life Site says, “A new quarterly poll from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) revealed a troubling climate for free expression in the United States, with only 32% of Americans saying they feel “very comfortable” sharing their views on abortion rights without fear of reprimand.”

It may be the fear of getting fired from work, kicked off social media, or just general disdain among peers, but some of the free and the brave do not want to make waves.

A Place to Speak Up for Those Who Cannot Remain Silent

It turns out that LifeSiteNews not only keeps up a good fight against abortion, but it provides a place for those who want their voices to be heard. The site recently posted a news item entitled “Sign the Petition: Governor Must be Excommunicated for Approving Abortion Until Birth.”

They have created a petition urging the Archbishop of Boston to declare the excommunication of Governor Maura Healey.

Sign the petition.

Would The Pilgrims Still Be Prideful?

This author has had the pleasure of roaming through the former Plymouth Plantations, now referred to as Plymouth Patuxent Museums. As a boy, I spent a great deal of time in and around the famous Plymouth Rock and the beaches of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

When I heard what Governor Healey had signed into law, I cringed, remembering not just the village and how it indicated the willingness of people to undergo great hardship to produce a new nation. They were proud of every advancement they made in spite of hardship and difficulty to create a land of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

According to author Samuel Francis Smith editor of the Baptist Missionary Union, it is why he referred to the pilgrims as having pride.

My country, ’tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims’ pride,
From ev’ry mountainside
Let freedom ring!

How would Samuel Smith pen this famous line today? Perhaps thusly.

Land where our unborn died,
Land of the loss of pride

“So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord.” Dt 21:9

Michael Bresciani

NewAmericanProphet.org

It’s not what AOC wants you to think it is.

Readers familiar with Dr. Seuss’s classic, The Cat in the Hat, will remember the twin chaos agents Thing 1 and Thing 2. “‘These Things are good Things,’” the Cat reassures the children whose mother has inexplicably left them under the supervision of a fish. “‘They are tame. Oh, so tame! / They have come here to play.’” The Things briefly feign innocence, then quickly reveal themselves to be marauding imps, knocking over nightstands and ruining the linens. “I do not like the way that they play!” says the son of the house.

Now here comes Woke 1 and Woke 2. “Woke 1 was crazy,” said U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, quoting an unnamed city councilman in a viral interview for ABC. The congresswoman sheepishly acknowledged that Americans did not like the way Woke 1 played out, while also implicitly announcing that there will soon be, or already is, a Woke 2. And it will be tame. Oh, so tame!

There is, in fact, a new version of wokeness in the making. But just as Thing 2 was fundamentally identical to Thing 1, Woke 2 will not be any different in essence from Woke 1. They are both here to upend the furniture. Wokeness in all its forms is grievance politics. Its central idea is that an injustice lies at the heart of America and must be corrected to atone for the historical misery inflicted on groups of innocents.

What is changing in Woke 2 is the account of who those innocents are, and how they have been wronged. Woke 1 was founded on the notion that black women are the most oppressed, and therefore most righteous, of all people. “I’m thinking,” said Kamala Harris in her vice presidential victory speech, “about the generations of women—black women.” She mentioned many other kinds of women, of course, but the list began and ended with “the black women—who are too often overlooked, but so often prove that they are the backbone of this country.”

This approach had rhetorical power, up to a point. It traded on the successes of second-wave feminism and the reality of black slavery in America’s past. But it ran into some problems. Third-wave feminism, as worked out by theorists like Judith Butler, made it basically impossible not to affix the prefix “trans-” wherever the word “woman” appeared. So the flag of Woke 1 became the complicated and confusing progress pride flag—a gay rainbow with black and trans colors intruding from the left.

To make matters worse, the legacy of slavery did not actually touch all the racial minorities that Democrats wanted to bring into their fold. Most Nigerians, for example, had not experienced segregation in the United States. Nor had the millions of unvetted South and Central Americans streaming across the border. They were certainly “people of color.” But so were Chinese, Japanese, and Indian Americans, whose typically enviable life outcomes fit awkwardly into the narrative that the country was built on a ruthless caste system.

The contradictions heightened as Woke 1 faced a series of embarrassments such as Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, the 2023 Supreme Court case in which Asian students complained that admissions officers were discriminating against them in favor of black applicants. Then there were the notorious Trump ’24 ads that pinned Harris to her previous support of taxpayer-funded gender surgeries for federal prison inmates. Placing black women at the center of the moral universe created an unexpected and electorally unworkable set of obligations to illegal immigrants and queer felons.

Clearly, the coalition needed shuffling. And so rearranging the order of priorities in the grievance hierarchy is what the reinvention of woke has actually been about. In place of the black trans woman who defined Woke 1, Woke 2 has chosen as its ideal victim the dispossessed Palestinian liberationist, fighting with Hamas against Israel. This has a number of interesting strategic advantages.

First, the racial argument has been neatly streamlined. Rather than implausibly analogizing every racial group in America to the victims of Jim Crow, Woke 2 presents the black American story as just one instance of a global fight for justice carried out by minorities everywhere and epitomized in the intifada.

In 2023, on a panel for the Democratic Socialists of America, future New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani claimed that “when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF.” He was outlining the blueprint for Woke 2, which takes its cues not from Judith Butler but from post-colonialist Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth (1961). “Between colonial violence and the insidious violence in which the modern world is steeped,” wrote Fanon, “there is a kind of complicit correlation, a homogeneity.” Therefore, “The colonized, underdeveloped man is today a political creature in the most global sense of the term.”

Recently, in an intriguing interview with The New Yorker’s David Remnick, Democratic Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed put forward an argument that connects Fanon’s global struggle to America’s domestic economy. He claimed that pro-Israel politicians are allowing “the money that should be spent taking care of our kids to be sent to a military that has done a genocide.”

In other words, Woke 2’s new order of priorities allows its proponents to suggest that white or white-coded (read: Jewish) oppressors are funneling money away from America’s working poor to fund a worldwide campaign of mass slaughter. Distant as this account is from reality, it is much more ruthlessly focused as a line of woke reasoning. It emphasizes foreign policy and the economy, where the public’s real anger lies, and deftly mutes the discredited claims of LGBTQ extremists.

In practice, any woke administration of any variety will end up imposing pretty much the same bizarre sexual priorities on the country once elected. But for purposes of advertisement, Woke 2 will try to keep its trans members less conspicuous than Woke 1 did, for at least as long as it takes to re-establish national power. Replacing the progress pride flag with the Palestinian flag will distract from the ravages of queer excess while infusing socialist revolution with the moral self-righteousness of anti-white resentment.

Whether this tactic succeeds with voters is another matter. If it does, though, Americans will discover that both Woke 1 and Woke 2, like Thing 1 and Thing 2, only play nice until they can start pitching over tables. If we want to avoid a rerun of the early 2020s, then—to paraphrase Seuss—we will have to get rid of Woke 1 and Woke 2.

Spencer Klavan, American Mind

US officials investigating suspected covert Chinese support for Code Pink and its activities in the UK and links to groups involved in pro-Palestinian protests.

Israel National News

The British Telegraph reported that US officials are investigating suspicions that funds originating from a network linked to China reached organizations involved in pro-Palestinian protests in the UK.

According to the report, American lawmakers investigating allegations of covert Chinese support for the left-wing organization Code Pink are examining the group’s activities in the UK as part of a broader inquiry into foreign interference. Code Pink has encouraged activists to participate in large pro-Palestinian marches and organized demonstrations outside the British Ministry of Defence and at the London offices of a weapons manufacturer.

The investigation is focusing on businessman Neville Roy Singham, a US millionaire who lives in Shanghai and is married to Jodie Evans, one of Code Pink’s founders. A US congressional committee has alleged that the organization appeared to be “funded and influenced” by Singham and the Chinese Communist government. At this stage, however, the claims remain allegations and suspicions under investigation and do not establish that the Chinese government directly financed the protests.

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Suspected: Chinese money used to support pro-Palestinian protests | Israel National News

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• Suspected: Chinese money used to support pro-Palestinian protests

Suspected: Chinese money used to support pro-Palestinian protests

US officials investigating suspected covert Chinese support for Code Pink and its activities in the UK and links to groups involved in pro-Palestinian protests.

Israel National News

• 2 minutes

  Aug 14, 2026, 4:53 PM (GMT+3)

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The British Telegraph reported that US officials are investigating suspicions that funds originating from a network linked to China reached organizations involved in pro-Palestinian protests in the UK.

According to the report, American lawmakers investigating allegations of covert Chinese support for the left-wing organization Code Pink are examining the group’s activities in the UK as part of a broader inquiry into foreign interference. Code Pink has encouraged activists to participate in large pro-Palestinian marches and organized demonstrations outside the British Ministry of Defence and at the London offices of a weapons manufacturer.

The investigation is focusing on businessman Neville Roy Singham, a US millionaire who lives in Shanghai and is married to Jodie Evans, one of Code Pink’s founders. A US congressional committee has alleged that the organization appeared to be “funded and influenced” by Singham and the Chinese Communist government. At this stage, however, the claims remain allegations and suspicions under investigation and do not establish that the Chinese government directly financed the protests.

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According to The Telegraph, a British company with ties to Code Pink received more than $250,000 in 2020 and 2021 from entities suspected of belonging to Singham’s network. In 2024, the same company received an additional $94,950 from a fund that, according to the report, is also suspected of being part of the network. The payment was reportedly made for “consulting services.”

The suspicions surrounding Singham are not new. In July, CBS News reported that a federal grand jury in New York was conducting a criminal investigation into him. According to the report, the investigation initially focused on allegations of violations of the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act before expanding to include tax issues and the transfer of funds through nonprofits under his control.

Republican Senator Tom Cotton has also previously called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Code Pink. In a November 2025 letter, Cotton alleged that the organization had received more than $1.4 million since 2017 from sources linked to Singham. He said the amount represented roughly one-quarter of the organization’s total funding during the period under review.

The Telegraph also noted that Code Pink’s position on China has changed over the years. While senior figures in the organization previously criticized China’s human rights record, in recent years Code Pink has warned against a U.S. confrontation with Beijing and sharply criticized Washington’s China policy.

Singham has previously denied acting on behalf of China. He has said that he is not a member of any political party, does not act on behalf of any government, and that his views are based on his personal beliefs. Code Pink has likewise rejected allegations that it receives Chinese government funding. Co-founder Medea Benjamin has said that the organization does not receive money from the Chinese Communist Party.

The investigation comes amid broader concerns in the West over efforts by foreign powers to exploit political and social divisions and deepen polarization within Western democracies. According to The Telegraph, there are growing calls in the UK for a thorough examination of possible foreign funding or influence involving protest movements operating in the country.

What is it with Democrats and their fake supporters, fake accents, fake backgrounds, fake accomplishments? Is it because they think voters are that shallow and stupid? Or because they don’t want anyone to know how incredibly out of touch they are with regular Americans?

This week, to cite just the most recent example, a group of “Republicans for Talarico” disbanded after it turned out that they were actually just a bunch of lifelong Democrats in disguise, but not before MS NOW gave them some free airtime.

“The people that [Talarico] had come out and say that they were on his team have been proven to be basically Democrat, liberal activists that have been supporting Democrat candidates for 10-plus years,” Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters told Fox News Digital.

The Talarico campaign distanced itself from these folks after their cover was blown. But everything about Talarico is as fake, from his Christianity to his barbecue photo op.

Around the same time, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, last seen trying out a fake southern accent at an event in Memphis, was trying to pretend that she’s not a crazy leftist despite being a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, which wants to defund the military, close prisons, open the borders, eliminate the Senate, the presidency and the Supreme Court, and nationalize various industries.

When ABC News’ Jonathan Karl asked about her past statements, she laughed that “woke 1 was crazy,” and blamed COVID because “I think that, you know, during lockdown, of course, rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today.”

When asked in July by Fox News specifically about the DSA’s call to abolish the Senate, she responded with a word salad for the ages.

Even the DSA’s “workers deserve more” pitch is a ruse. As the New York Times was forced to admit, the DSA’s leadership and voting base is made up almost entirely of well-educated, entitled, white elitists. (Only 4% of its members hold a blue-collar job.)

The list goes on.

Zohran Mamdani – whose mother is a Bollywood film director and father a tenured Columbia professor — pretended to be a child of a poor immigrant family.

“Dr.” Abdul El-Sayed calls himself a physician but has never held a medical license, completed a medical residency, or sat for board exams to practice clinical medicine.

When Graham Platner was acting as if he knew nothing about his Nazi tattoo, he was playing the role of an oyster farmer — it was described as “a key part of the 41-year-old candidate’s biography” — until it came to light that his mother was his only customer.

“Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz lied about serving in the war, his National Guard retirement rank, using IVF in the conception of his children, his 1995 DUI conviction, the length of time he kept children out of school pursuant to COVID-19, ad infinitum,” wrote David Catron in AMAC.

Walz also exaggerated his coaching credentials (which were easily debunked) and his experience with firearms (undermined by his comic mishandling of a shotgun).

Kamala Harris pretended to have worked at McDonald’s to grant herself working-class cred and faked accents depending on her audience. And who can forget Hillary Clinton’s cringeworthy attempts to fit in? She once told churchgoers in Selma, Alabama, that “I ain’t no ways tired.”

Are there Republicans who’ve doctored their resumes? Sure. But faking your past, or your views, or the sound of your voice seems to be a job requirement for Democratic politicians these days.

Our best guess is that Democrats are more likely than Republicans to do this because for most Democrats, their only interest is getting and keeping government power. They love government and want to control its every lever. And if that means pretending to be a normie for the rube voters, so be it.

But, shucks, whadda we know? We’re just a buncha gosh-darn banjo-pickin’ hillbillies from yonder flyover country.

Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the top US priority in the Iran war was keeping oil and gasoline prices low for Americans, with preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon ranking second.

The remarks contrasted with President Donald Trump’s repeated framing of the fight: that entering the war had the sole objective of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, even if that meant short-term economic sacrifices for Americans.

Vance’s comments also underscored the growing reality that the war now centers on control of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has forced to the top of the negotiating agenda.

“I know that oil is down today and it’s way down from the highs in the early days of the conflict,” Vance said on Fox News. “That’s goal number one – keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over our country.”

“And then obviously goal number two is ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon,” he added.

The vice president has been among the members of the administration most skeptical of the offensive launched against Iran in late February.

His latest remarks, however, appear to confirm the more cautious approach now favored by the US president, which involves maintaining strong economic pressure on Iran while a military standoff in the Strait of Hormuz persists.

“Sometimes we’re focused on the energy piece of it because we want Americans to be able to afford the price of oil and gas. Sometimes we’re obviously focused on the military… on the nuclear program,” Vance also said.

Vance added that Trump was “at the height of his authority with a lot of tools — diplomatic, military and economic.”

The decision to focus on economic pressure comes as the diplomatic path appears blocked, with both Washington and Tehran sticking to their conditions for reopening the strait.

Regarding his military options, U.S. media report that Trump must contend with rapid depletion of stocks of certain missiles and drones.

Newsmax

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight” on Thursday that President Donald Trump inherited an economic “mess” but has engineered an economic turnaround that’s “working.”

Bessent told host Rob Schmitt that Trump’s policies are already delivering lower inflation and improving purchasing power for American workers — a recovery he portrayed as remarkable given the damage he said the administration inherited.

Bessent’s interview came as new federal data showed prescription drug costs saw their biggest decline in 60 years after Trump made lowering prices a national priority.

Bessent said Americans have legitimate reasons to remain frustrated after years of elevated prices.

“People should be upset,” Bessent said, arguing the Biden years left households facing a substantial loss of purchasing power, with working Americans hit especially hard by higher costs for automobiles, insurance, and rent.

But Bessent said Trump’s policies are working.

“We’ve applied the right medicine, and things are getting better slowly,” he said, comparing the economy the administration inherited to an emergency-room patient who had been “backed over by a truck.”

Bessent pointed to inflation as evidence of the turn.

The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed core inflation — excluding volatile food and energy costs — was 2.5%, moving closer to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

When Trump left office, core inflation was 1.4%. Bessent argued that Biden administration spending policies drove it higher, reaching 6.6% in September 2022.

The latest report also showed grocery prices declined 0.1% in July, prescription drug prices fell 0.8%, and motor vehicle insurance dropped 0.3%. Energy prices fell 1.5% for the month, although they remained 14.7% higher than a year earlier.

“I’m very confident we are going to get to a good place,” Bessent said.

The broader growth picture has remained positive under Trump.

Real gross domestic product grew 2.1% in 2025, driven primarily by consumer spending and investment, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

GDP then expanded at a 2.1% annual rate in the first quarter of 2026 and 1.5% in the second quarter.

The Congressional Budget Office expects full-year real GDP growth to accelerate from 1.9% in 2025 to 2.2% in 2026, in part because of increased consumer spending and private investment stemming from the 2025 reconciliation law.

CBO, however, has also warned that tariffs and lower immigration could restrain longer-term growth.

Bessent said the administration is also confronting the federal deficit, telling Schmitt it inherited a deficit approaching 7% of GDP and wants to bring the figure below 4% before Trump leaves office.

Independent CBO figures put the fiscal 2025 deficit at roughly $1.8 trillion, or 5.8% of GDP, and project a $1.9 trillion deficit — also 5.8% of GDP — for fiscal 2026.

Bessent said combating fraud could produce hundreds of billions of dollars in additional savings.

That assertion has backing from the Government Accountability Office, which estimates federal fraud losses at between $233 billion and $521 billion annually based on 2018-2022 data.

Still, Bessent said Americans should increasingly “feel the turn” as inflation moderates and administration policies work through the economy.

“There is light at the tunnel.”