The Artful Dilettante is a native of Pittsburgh, PA, and a graduate of Penn State University. He is a lover of liberty and a lifelong and passionate student of the same. He is voracious reader of books on the Enlightenment and the American colonial and revolutionary periods. He is a student of libertarian and Objectivist philosophies. He collects revolutionary war and period currency, books, and newspapers. He is married and the father of one teenage son. He is kind, witty, generous to a fault, and unjustifiably proud of himself. He is the life of the party and an unparalleled raconteur.
Americans may dislike the word “socialism,” but when asked whether government should solve their problems, many still place their faith, incorrectly, in the hands of government.
A new CBS News/YouGov poll found that 46 percent of Americans view capitalism positively, compared with 35 percent who view socialism positively. When “capitalism” is replaced with “the free market,” support becomes much stronger: 66 percent say the free market is good for the U.S. economy.
But those numbers become more complicated when voters are asked about specific policies. Many Americans appear to support free markets in theory without fully understanding what a free-market system entails in practice. When the poll asked about price controls, the overwhelming majority, including of Republicans, said they actually favored them.
While 72 percent of Republicans said they had a positive view of capitalism, only 46 percent opposed price controls. That means 54 percent of Republicans supported them, alongside 62 percent of independents and 75 percent of Democrats. The results reveal an uncomfortable reality, that Americans may reject the label of socialism, but are still willing to embrace the government intervention that makes it possible.
The problem is multifaceted. It is not only a failure of education; it also reinforces a point Vice President JD Vance made last week: repeating free-market dogma is not the same as actually practicing free-market principles. A real free-market agenda requires Republicans to place more faith in the dispersed knowledge, judgment, and adaptability of individuals than in a powerful centralized government.
It means embracing supply-side economics, deregulation, lower and simpler taxes, the elimination of wasteful subsidies, and an end to protectionist policies that insulate domestic producers from competition. It means making it easier to build homes, start businesses, develop energy, hire workers, and bring new technologies to market. It means treating the economy not as a government jobs program, but as an engine of prosperity, innovation, and technological advancement.
That also means refusing to adopt socialist diagnoses for economic problems.
Housing is not expensive simply because of “greedy corporations;” it is expensive because housing supply has been constrained by zoning, permitting delays, building restrictions, and local opposition to development. Gas is not expensive because oil companies seek profit; it is expensive because of government imposed taxes, production limits, refinery constraints, and regulatory barriers. Healthcare is not unaffordable because doctors, insurers, or pharmaceutical companies are uniquely greedy; the costs are primarily shaped by government-driven distortions, limited competition, licensing barriers, and an insurance system that separates consumers from the prices of the care they receive.
The same ideas apply elsewhere. High college tuition is not solved by more subsidized loans that allow schools to charge more. Grocery prices are not lowered through price controls that discourage production and lead to shortages. Low wages are not fixed by treating every business as an enemy.
Free markets must become more than an economic system we regard as simply “better than socialism.” We must understand, and teach, the why. We must practice what we preach: put our faith in individuals’ freedom to make intelligent choices, stop demonizing industry, embrace competition and technological innovation, and get government out of the way.
One more shoe has dropped in the Hasan Piker saga (by the time this is finished, we’re gonna need Zappos’ entire inventory). It seems that some Democrats have convinced themselves that Piker’s entire existence is evidence of a global conspiracy to destroy the Democrat Party.
A workable basic outline of the theory can be found in this clip, courtesy of Asmongold. The stated thesis is: “Imagine your goal is to ratf**k the Democratic Party and American democracy as much as possible.” Details follow: The plot was triggered by Piker’s “rich uncle” who “owns a media company” (this apparently refers to Cenk Uygur). The goal is to “target left-leaning audiences” and move them to “anti-left views” in order to hamper “electoralism, activism, and even the social inclusive values” of the party.
And what is the major force behind the conspiracy, the unmoved mover that sits in darkness and moves all the pieces one after another? Why, of course, it’s China (I mean, what would any conspiracy theory be worth without the Chinese?), which is “counting on” Piker to….
Wreck the Democrat Party? Really? Are you sure?
The critical thing here is not the plausibility of the theory itself, which, for obvious reasons, hovers just above zero. It’s the fact that the theory is making the rounds at all, and has convinced some Democrats. Any organization or system that has gone unstable and has slipped into a tailspin eventually goes through a phase in which the membership, ill-informed and very likely being lied to by their leaders, begins relying on conspiracy theories to provide an explanation as to why things have gone wrong. It occurred in France in the early days of the revolution, and in Russia just before the Romanovs were overthrown. It generally happens very late in the day, when rationality has been all but abandoned and the rank and file are grasping at straws. It’s a sign of desperation at best.
It’s interesting that these theories have targeted Piker. It clearly shows how little he’s trusted by the people he claims to speak for. It calls to mind the story of the revolutionary lounging in a Paris café in 1848 who sees a shouting, agitated mob running past and races out after them saying, “I have to get in front of them! I’m their leader!”
Only in this case, the mob has turned around and is chasing Piker.
And just think – it’s still only August. Another two and a half months until the election.
Florida’s higher education reforms have exposed a discipline already in decline.
No state matches Florida in higher education reform. Its landmark Senate Bill 266, passed during the 2023 legislative session, abolished DEI offices. It also requires general education reform in state universities and colleges.
Few reforms simply implement themselves. The rubber of implementation started hitting university roads in 2023. Florida’s Board of Governors (BOG), which oversees the entire university system, put forward a rule to remove Sociology 1000: The Principles of Sociology as part of general education reform. Final BOG approval came in early 2024. Then Florida’s college system removed Sociology 1000 from its 28 schools in April 2024. Beginning in Fall 2024, Sociology 1000 would not be in Florida’s general education core. Anywhere.
Sociology 2000 remained to fulfill general education requirements. But then, earlier this year, Florida sociologists bragged about how they were defying the state “restrictions on race and gender.” In response, Florida’s BOG removed Sociology 2000 from the general education core in March.
“Sociology as a discipline is now social and political advocacy dressed in the regalia of the academy,” said Ray Rodrigues, chancellor of the State University System’s BOG, as the BOG cut Sociology 2000. Sociology, as I have argued, is unfit for general education. Others think sociology has descended into woke parody. Sociology indeed, as another insider writes, has committed intellectual suicide.
Sociology as a discipline has been bleeding students for more than a decade. Now, in Florida, sociology must compete for students without the assistance of being in general education, where departments can generally count on some enrollment because students must meet some requirement. Sociologists know that their jobs are on the line if enrollments do not stay sufficiently robust. Leaving the general education system may lead to program review, shrinkage, or elimination. Sociology as a discipline has been bleeding students for more than a decade.
Florida’s reforms, most likely, make a bad enrollment situation for sociology in Florida worse. The changes initiated in Fall 2024 have already had a dramatic effect on sociology enrollments. The changes so far are harbingers of even bigger changes.
Indeed, the drop in the number of sociology majors in Florida’s State University System has been dramatic. According to BOG numbers, Florida departments of sociology awarded a total of 778 bachelor’s degrees in 2019-2020, but only 499 in 2023-2024. Florida’s 36% decline in sociology majors is nearly twice the national average of approximately 20%. That was before the general education reform.
The number of sociology majors at University of Florida fell from 492 in Fall 2020 to 284 in Fall 2025, a 42% decline. Florida Atlantic University (FAU) went from 123 to 55 majors in Fall 2024. FIU from 96 to 19. FSU from 131 to 83. Florida A&M remains in the teens.
Remarkably, only the University of Central Florida has defied the trend, growing slightly from 2020 to Fall 2024. However, as the general education reforms come online, UCF will soon look more like the rest of Florida. . After all, lower division courses are pipelines to upper-division courses and majors. Evidence from UCF suggests that the pipeline is getting narrower. According to data acquired through a public records request, the number of students in introductory classes at UCF was 1,101 before the reforms in 2023 and had tanked to 609 in 2025—over a 43% decline in just two years. Lower-division numbers may crater more when Sociology 2000 is removed in Fall 2026.
Declines in the upper division are also happening at UCF. UCF Sociology produced 8,503 upper division SCH in Fall 2020, but only 5,717 in Fall 2025, nearly a 33% decrease. Soon upper-division SCH will decline more and then majors will decline dramatically.
UCF’s Sociology Department has, according to its website, six full professors, including three that list their personal pronouns; six associate professors (three with personal pronouns); four assistant professors; and several lecturers and adjuncts. That level of staffing may not survive the marked decline in enrollments and the upcoming declines in the number of majors.That level of staffing may not survive the marked decline in enrollments and the upcoming declines in the number of majors.
Like UCF, FAU saw dramatic dips in overall credits. The number of students in sociology’s introductory classes went from 556 in 2023 to 401 in 2025, according to data from the public records request. Sociology’s total SCH went from around 23,500 in 2020-21 to 10,749 in 2025-26, over a 50% decrease in just six academic years. FAU’s around nine tenured and tenure-track faculty may also face cuts if such trends continue.
According to the public records request, enrollments in sociology’s introductory classes across the system declined markedly from 2023 to 2025. Florida A&M went from 278 to 120; Florida Gulf Coast from 398 to 195; Florida State from 479 to 361; University of South Florida from 771 to 652; West Florida from 160 to 100. Only Florida International and University of North Florida defied the trends, a remarkable fact requiring some investigation as to whether they are adhering to the law (FIU’s number of sociology students in introductory classes went from 407 in 2023 to 614 in 2025).
Steep enrollment drops, when combined with sociology’s inherent corruption, make program review an inevitability. Program reviews are usually conducted at universities with budget problems. Committees are formed. Metrics guide evaluations. Underperforming departments that do not also meet the special needs of the university mission are forced either to shrink or are eliminated. University of Wyoming has, over the years, provided classic economic program reviews. Other universities have as well. Many more will be doing so as schools approach the demographic cliff.
Florida’s SB 266 from 2023 imagines a much more expansive, missional element to program review. Florida’s BOG to “periodically review the mission of each constituent university and…review existing academic programs for alignment with the mission” with special focus on programs that are “based on theories [that] systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States.” If, as Chancellor Rodriguez says, “sociology as a discipline is now social and political advocacy dressed in the regalia of the academy,” BOG has the predicate to initiate something much wider and more decisive than traditional program review. Sociology, like gender studies, must be on the chopping block. In fact, sociology presents a combination of enrollment decline and ideologically-corrupt disciplinary standards.
In fact, sociology presents a combination of enrollment decline and ideologically-corrupt disciplinary standards. As enrollments in Florida’s university system grow, sociology’s decline has accelerated. Its removal from general education is bound to accelerate that acceleration. Its faculty have, in some respects, been unapologetic in their defiance of state program standards. The BOG knows that disciplinary standards are corrupt and that the faculty are defiant. The BOG has been willing to take all the preliminary steps to remedy the situation. The big gun, program review, is the next logical step.
When Gov. DeSantis became governor in 2019, no one would have imagined that his tenure in office could mean the demise of sociology as a discipline in Florida’s university system. Perhaps, when he leaves office after two successful terms, woke will still be on the run and woke sociology will have gone to die too.
More salutary would be if other states pick up the mantle of general education reform. Legislatures have plenary power over requirements, and they should use it like Florida and reap the benefits.
Scott Yenor is director of the Kenneth B. Simon Center for American Politics at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington Fellow at the Claremont Institute, and a professor of political science at Boise State University.
Iran has decided to shift its policy from defensive to “fully offensive” due to the deadlock in efforts to agree on a permanent end to its war with the United States, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday.
Progress towards peace talks and a resumption of oil tanker traffic through the strategic Strait of Hormuz has ground to a halt, with no sign that the warring parties are moving towards ending the conflict that the US and Israel launched on February 28.
“Iranian entities must be prepared to escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and wider region, as Iran will be ready to make decisions and take action on difficult decisions,” the Iranian official said, adding that Tehran would conduct a “timely and precise” military attack to break the US naval blockade if diplomacy failed.
Monday marked the day by which Iran and the United States were expected to reach a final deal under a memorandum of understanding agreed in June and aimed at ending the war.
Signed on June 17, the MoU set a 60-day timeframe, extendable by mutual consent, for Washington and Tehran to reach an agreement covering broader issues such as the fate of Iran’s nuclear program.
The MoU, which declared the immediate and permanent cessation of military operations on all fronts, quickly unraveled, however, due to a dispute over control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran to set deadline
Tehran said point 5 of the MoU gives it the right to manage the waterway, while Washington rejected that interpretation. Hostilities resumed as Tehran began firing on vessels it said were trying to sail through the waterway on an unapproved route.
US President Donald Trump said on July 7 that the pact was “over.” Tehran has repeatedly accused Washington of consistently violating its commitments.
“Within the short period of a few weeks set by Iran, all the agreement’s provisions must be implemented by the US. This is a precondition for further negotiations with the US,” the Iranian official told Reuters, adding that mediators would share Tehran’s deadline with Washington and regional states.
Both Iran and the United States have stepped up rhetoric over the past week.
Trump steps up rhetoric
Trump warned Americans in a speech at a rally on Friday to prepare for continued high fuel prices as a result of the war, while also saying that “after we finish defeating Iran … pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.”
Earlier on Monday, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform: “The number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon,” repeating one of his stated rationales for the war.
Kristi Noem, the former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and Corey Lewandowski, her former top adviser, are reportedly facing a criminal investigation.
The homeland security inspector general has launched an investigation into Noem and Lewandowski over allegations that the agency awarded billions of dollars in no-bid contracts, the Daily Mail reports. Sources told the outlet that the inspector general has sent notices to dozens of people who were allegedly involved in approving a “wide range” of contracts, including ad campaign contracts.
No crimes have been alleged in the ongoing investigation, according to the Daily Mail.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump tapped then-Sen. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican, to replace Noem following reports that the president was “furious” with her over her testimony before the House and the Senate.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., pressed Noem on her department’s large ad campaign aimed at discouraging illegal immigration.
“The president approved ahead of time you spending $220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently?” Kennedy asked Noem during the hearing.
“Yes,” Noem answered.
While Noem said Trump approved of the ads, the president later told Reuters he did not sign off on the campaign.
Trump has appointed Noem to serve as the special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, a new security initiative focused on the Western Hemisphere. Noem thanked Trump in a post on X on Tuesday for allowing her to serve as homeland security secretary.
“In one year, the patriots at DHS delivered the MOST secure border in American history, 3 million illegal aliens have left the U.S., located 145,000 unaccompanied children, delivered disaster relief at a 100% faster rate, ushered in the golden age of travel, saved the American taxpayer $13 billion, and revitalized the U.S. Coast Guard,” Noem wrote.
“I look forward to standing shoulder to shoulder with the 260,000 outstanding DHS employees and their families to keep our nation safe,” Mullin wrote on X.
The new secretary says his first priority is to “end the partisan fighting and reopen the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as a
During Dr. Anthony Fauci’s appearance on Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, we witnessed one of the most astonishing things we’ve seen recently in Washington, D.C.—perhaps in decades.
No, it was not the smug and cowardly Fauci pleading the Fifth 111 times. Washington does smug and cowardly the way Ocean City does suntan lotion.
It was not Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., methodically working his way through Fauci’s countless deadly contradictions between his public statements and private musings. Paul’s had Fauci’s number almost since the days of the Rolodex.
It was not Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, dropping coarse language the way Caitlin Clark drops 3-pointers. It certainly wasn’t a string of Democrat senators loving on Fauci almost as much as he loves himself.
It was the brief statement of Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. Bucking his own party (again), and bucking the theatrics of the day, Fetterman, in his slow, halting way, did something almost unimaginable in politics. He showed contrition.
True, Fetterman, thanks to his stroke, is still sometimes harder to follow than a James Joyce novel. But through his heart and his tone, Fetterman made his meaning clear: I question my own actions and those of Pennsylvania during COVID-19 and failed the public by putting partisanship over the people.
(It’s worth noting that, thanks to “Admiral” Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania is one of the blue states that shoved elderly COVID-19 patients back into nursing homes to catastrophic effect.)
2 Minutes of Self-Critique
Fetterman only spoke for two minutes, which itself may be a record in Washington. He also put aside his iconic black hoodie and wore a suit, a statement perhaps on how somber the day should have been given the millions of souls lost and tens of millions of lives shattered.
The senator opened by saying he wasn’t there to attack Fauci or defend him. (What? Then what’s the point of all those cameras?)
He noted with a heavy heart that he’d had many family members die of COVID-19 and that he also grieves for those who lost their businesses through the pandemic. “Their lives have never been the same.”
Then he reaches the heart of the matter, with a finger pointed squarely at himself.
“During the pandemic, I was the lieutenant governor, and we were in the middle of all of that maelstrom, trying to find the right balance between protect life and protect the economic of all of that. And I’m not sure if we got it all right, or got it all wrong, but without a doubt I can continue to question myself.”
Like crying in baseball, there’s no second-guessing in politics. But here is Fetterman laying himself bare.
“But one, it’s not so much more about your regrets, but I have one. Early on, there was the theory that the virus could have emerged from the lab. And early on, that became like a ‘right-wing’ kind of theory. And I thought seemed to make sense. Now there was a really advanced lab that was close by. And you have this unknown virus out.
But that became a very partisan thing. And it seems now it’s more and more an emerging theory that that would have come from the lab.”
He closed with a truth that is both self-evident and utterly absent from today’s partisan politics.
“Now, I hope that the next time our nation’s facing something like this, we do not become, as I might have been, blinded by the partisan idea that maybe the truth might come from a side that’s different than you are.”
Who’s the Real Ogre?
Have you heard any government official, be it an elected leader or public health “expert,” express more contrition, self-reflection, and wisdom over what was done to this nation during COVID-19 than Fetterman in those two minutes?
Fauci, who more than anyone on the planet should be flogging himself for his actions, has shown less concern over the lives lost and damage done than a backyard zapper does for flies. He should be on his knees begging forgiveness. Instead, he’s on his front doorstep accepting flowers and the continued adoration of a complicit media.
He’s the one who should be donning a hoodie and pulling the hood over his face in shame.
A few days before the hearing, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed compared Fetterman to an ogre.
On Wednesday, Democrats not named Fetterman labeled Fauci a hero.
History—and I believe God—will harshly judge which is the ogre. And in my book, at least when it comes to COVID-19 accountability, Sen. John Fetterman is a hero.
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.
Darializa Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old Afro-Latina Muslim convert, ousted five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the Democrat primary for New York’s 13th Congressional District Tuesday.
She has adopted radical big-government policies, called for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and enjoys support from a bevy of leftist groups. Chevalier has invited controversy for some of her previous postings on X.
Here are four things to know about Chevalier.
1. Anti-Israel Rally on Oct. 8
On Oct. 8, 2023, one day after Hamas militants invaded Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, Chevalier attended an anti-Israel rally. Signs at the event declared that “Resistance is Justified when People are Occupied.”
The New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America distanced itself from the event after promoting it on social media. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who endorsed Chevalier, did not attend the rally and condemned it shortly afterward.
Brad Lander, who won the Democrat primary for New York’s 10th Congressional District, also condemned the rally, saying that he canceled his DSA membership after the party advertised the “heinous” rally that “spoke about Hamas in ways that I thought were just vile.”
If states require ID to vote, it’s a “threat to democracy!” If moms and dads oppose racially divisive lessons in school, they’re abetting “white supremacy.” If we don’t want to pay more in gas prices, we’re contributing to the “climate crisis.”
The DSA brings these woke arguments to their logical conclusion. The result is horrifying, but it’s also revealing.
If Americans are rightfully proud of our country and its history on this 250th anniversary, we must reject the ideology that animates the DSA. We must dedicate ourselves to limited, constitutional government. We must remember the virtues of capitalism. We must oppose the leftist ideology seeping through so much of the legacy media, Hollywood, and academia.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, America was founded on the premise that our rights come from God, not government. Socialism, however “democratic” it may claim to be, rejects that fundamental premise. Americans must emphatically reject it, especially at this historic milestone.
Let’s celebrate the 250th anniversary, and throw such a big party that even those DSA haters can’t help but wish they could join us.
Far-Left Economic Policies
Chevalier has endorsed leftist economic policies that will arguably harm America’s free-market system.
Her campaign website calls for “Medicare for All,” the slogan for single-payer health care. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has driven support for the policy, and he endorsed Chevalier.
A Heritage Foundation analysis found that a government-run health care system would leave most households financially worse off, as such a system would cost more in taxes than it would offset in health insurance costs for most working families. Analysts have noted that the Left has yet to produce a workable legislative proposal.
Chevalier also calls for a $15 per hour minimum wage and “housing as a human right.” Minimum wage increases may sound nice, but studies suggest they not only increase inflation but also drive employers to eliminate minimum-wage jobs, replacing them, in part, with automation. The idea of government ensuring that all people have housing also sounds nice, but it would amount to a massive intervention into the free market, with seismic effects on wealth, choice, and opportunity.
3. Abolish ICE?
Chevalier’s website calls for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of her goal to “abolish the deportation machine, expand pathways to citizenship, secure free legal representation for immigrants, and more.”
She even opposes all deportations, period.
When asked about her previous X post claiming that “all deportations are wrong,” the socialist told Vox, “Yes, I still believe that all deportations are wrong.”
When asked if the deportation of people who violated U.S. criminal law is wrong, Chevalier again said, “Yes.”
“To subject someone who has committed a crime to both a criminal system and then additionally to an immigration system that also detains them … and then be deported and ripped away from everything they know and love, that is also punishment,” the socialist said. She argued that deportation of illegal alien criminals would constitute “double jeopardy,” punishing someone twice for the same crime.
As a legal argument, that fails because immigration enforcement is considered a civil matter, but it’s a revealing claim. After President Joe Biden oversaw the entry of more than 10 million illegal aliens, President Donald Trump is attempting to deport them. Chevalier’s hardline stance against all deportations would exacerbate the immigration crisis.
In August 2024, the group posted a statement on Instagram declaring solidarity for protesters in Bangladesh but also advocating the end of Western civilization.
“We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization,” the now-deleted post read. “We stand in full solidarity with every movement for liberation in the Global South. Our Intifada is an internationalist one—we are fighting for nothing less than the liberation of all people.”
After an American airstrike in February killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the group posted “Marg bar Amrika,” which translates to “Death to America” in Persian. While the group later removed the post from X, the group later stated that “the sentiment still stands.”
Columbia University Apartheid Divest did not respond to a request for comment about the anti-American messaging.
Chevalier’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
In August 2024, the group posted a statement on Instagram declaring solidarity for protesters in Bangladesh but also advocating the end of Western civilization.
“We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization,” the now-deleted post read. “We stand in full solidarity with every movement for liberation in the Global South. Our Intifada is an internationalist one—we are fighting for nothing less than the liberation of all people.”
After an American airstrike in February killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the group posted “Marg bar Amrika,” which translates to “Death to America” in Persian. While the group later removed the post from X, the group later stated that “the sentiment still stands.”
Columbia University Apartheid Divest did not respond to a request for comment about the anti-American messaging.
Chevalier’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Does This Dem Want the ‘Total Eradication of Western Civilization’? 4 Things to Know About Darializa Chevalier
Read the first chapter of The Woketopus right now for FREE
Today, even with President Trump’s victory, leftist elites have their tentacles in every aspect of our government.
The Daily Signal’s own Tyler O’Neil exposes this leftist cabal in his new book, The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.
In this book, O’Neil reveals how the Left’s NGO apparatus pursues its woke agenda, maneuvering like an octopus by circumventing Congress and entrenching its interests in the federal government. You can read the first chapter of this new book for FREE in this eBook, The Woketopus: Chapter One using the secure link below.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci has declined another Senate appearance, this one a voluntary, transcribed interview before Sen. Ron Johnson’s investigative subcommittee.
Johnson (R-WI) chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is conducting a separate investigation into the federal COVID-19 response. The inquiry includes the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines.
The refusal came from Fauci’s attorney, David Schertler. He argued that forcing Fauci to appear again after the July 29 hearing would “impermissibly harass or degrade Dr. Fauci for political purposes.”
Johnson posted Schertler’s response on X on Aug. 14.
Dr. Fauci’s attorney has just notified us that Fauci refuses to appear for a private transcribed interview.
The American people deserve answers to legitimate questions regarding our miserably failed response to COVID-19. Some of those questions can only be answered by Dr. Fauci.…
“The American people deserve answers to legitimate questions regarding our miserably failed response to COVID-19. Apparently, he has a lot to hide.”
Johnson said his staff will continue collecting Fauci’s records and interviewing his former colleagues. The subcommittee is also reviewing its legal options.
Fauci was on Capitol Hill less than three weeks earlier, although calling it testimony is generous. He appeared under subpoena before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on July 29. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) chairs that committee.
In his opening statement, Fauci reminded senators that he had testified or briefed congressional committees more than 200 times. He also accused Paul of an “unhinged” campaign to put him behind bars.
When Paul began asking questions, Fauci gave senators the answer they would hear for most of the afternoon:
“Under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.”
He basically gave that answer over 100 times during that first hearing.
Schertler tried to speak for Fauci at one point. Paul reminded him that he was not the witness, and Capitol Police later escorted the attorney from the room.
On Aug. 6, the committee voted 8-7 to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress and refer the matter to the Justice Department.
Paul argues that former President Joe Biden’s preemptive pardon removed Fauci’s risk of federal prosecution, leaving him without a valid reason to invoke the Fifth Amendment. Fauci’s attorneys disagree and maintain that the privilege still applies.
Johnson’s subcommittee already has a copy of Fauci’s pandemic-era government cellphone. The broader committee also received more than 1,000 pages from his personal diary before the July hearing.
Some of those entries have aged poorly.
In January 2020, Fauci wrote that the Wuhan wet market “was not the source” of the virus but “the amplifier.” Days later, he recorded that 10 of 12 virologists on a call thought “deliberate insertion was possible.” By May, Fauci was writing about his “explosive” fame.
Paul’s separate document release showed that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intercepted undeclared biological materials linked to a network of American and Chinese coronavirus researchers in 2018. The records also showed the FBI directing CBP not to stop Peter Daszak at JFK
The worst possible outcome for America? Conventional Democrats and outright Communists will become the choice. Option A or Option B. It will be a choice between literal totalitarians and totalitarian-lite, in the slow lane to authoritarian control. MAGA will get marginalized because without Trump the movement cannot sustain itself, and without sufficient clarity on the needs for economic freedom as well as individual freedom of speech, religion and association, the country will devolve into a battle between the “moderate” Democrats (who are actually to the left of Obama’s era of Democrats) and the real deal with the gulag, prison camps and everything. In such a battle, the more consistent side (the Communists) will win and win quickly, as was always the case in semi-free, slightly capitalist countries like Venezuela and Nazi-era Germany, who (when presented with such a terrible choice) voted totalitarians into power (as New York City has already done).
We had better hope the choice post-Trump isn’t “moderate” Democrats vs. Communism. If so, that’s the end for the American experiment. What we really need is a free market, hard core individual rights movement along the lines of the first American Revolution. Something that will devour (and forcibly remove from office) the totalitarians gaining ground and political office as we speak. I fear we’re not going to see that in the remaining two years of Trump’s final term. And, to be fair, if enough Americans (especially young Americans) will not support it, then how can freedom regain the upper hand?
Luigi Mangione, the man whose assassination of a health insurance executive turned him into a folk hero to many on the left, shocked the country on Friday when he finally admitted to the killing and changed his plea to guilty.
I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan. I understood that my actions would place him in fear of death of bodily injury. I knew what I was doing was illegal,” Mangione told the judge. He admitted to stalking his victim, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, in the weeks before he gunned him down. The guilty plea locks in a consequence few outside the courtroom seemed to notice at first: a state court can no longer try Mangione for murder.
Mangione had spent more than a year cultivating an image as a martyr willing to fight the system to the end. So why did he suddenly fold and admit everything?
According to Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley, the answer has nothing to do with a guilty conscience. Turley discussed the plea with host Charlie Hurt on Fox & Friends Weekend on Saturday, and argued the move was a calculated legal gamble aimed at avoiding a life sentence rather than any sign of remorse.
Mangione pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges connected to Thompson’s murder. He still faces a separate state trial in New York scheduled for September. That’s where things get interesting, because the two cases carry sharply different stakes. The federal charge carries a possible sentence of life without parole. New York’s state system has no such option available.
The New York case is the case that involves the murder charges, but it is also the case and is the case that has a lower potential ceiling for the sentencing,” Turley said.
Turley described the plea as “something of a Hail Mary throw,” suggesting Mangione is hoping a judge eventually reduces his sentence enough to allow release at an advanced age rather than locking him away for life without parole. The real target, Turley explained, is the state murder case itself. The defense wants it dismissed entirely on double jeopardy grounds, and New York’s double jeopardy standard is easier for a defense to clear than in most other jurisdictions.
“The odds are in his favor, if you look at past cases, that that may in fact be dismissed,” Turley said.
If Turley is right, a man who executed a father of two on a Manhattan sidewalk in broad daylight could walk away from the murder charge entirely on a technicality, having already secured the lighter of his two possible sentencing outcomes.
Turley also had sharp words for Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, who stood outside the Manhattan courthouse after the plea and told reporters the system had treated her client unfairly, pointing to his chronic back pain and laying blame on the healthcare industry. Turley noted that the judge overseeing the case has already faced heavy criticism for dismissing key charges against Mangione before trial. Grandstanding to the cameras, he suggested, made little strategic sense.
I don’t think it helps to go in front of her courthouse and say, ‘My client’s a victim and has been unfairly treated in the system,'” Turley said.
A guilty plea usually means accountability. In Mangione’s case, it looks more like a legal chess move by a defendant hoping the math works out in his favor.
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Matt Margolis
He’s a great columnist. I think he’s terrific.” – Mark Levin
Matt Margolis is a conservative commentator and columnist. His work has been cited on Fox News and national conservative talk radio, including The Rush Limbaugh Show, The Mark Levin Show, and The Dan Bongino Show. Matt is the author of several books and has appeared on Newsmax, OANN, Real America’s Voice News, Salem News Channel, and even CNN. You can also subscribe to his newsletter for free!
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