Donald Trump Won the Iran War

The maximalists wanted regime change, the minimalists wanted nothing, and the doubters see only waffling. Carafano’s answer: the victor gets to define victory — and everywhere you look, the region is moving Trump’s way.

The maximalists wanted regime change, the minimalists wanted nothing, and the doubters see only waffling. Carafano’s answer: the victor gets to define victory — and everywhere you look, the region is moving Trump’s way.

Iran War Turns into Trump Middle East Triumph: We are about to see the biggest reshaping of the Middle East since Moses led the Jews out of Egypt. 

Like the pharaoh, who missed every warning sign up to the parting of the Red Sea, the critics and questioners of Trump’s tug-of-war with what’s left of the Iran regime seem obtuse to the prophetic truth that the region will never be the same again—in a good way.

Maximalists. They would only be happy if Trump fought the war they wanted, arguing that nothing less than overthrowing the regime would do. Anything else is a defeat and a humiliation. That’s a perversion of the president’s more limited goals to eliminate the regime’s capacity to bully and destabilize the region—objectives largely accomplished. 

Minimalists. They would only be satisfied if America did nothing, contending, “Trump has dragged the United States into a needless war with Iran—and one with no clear end,” ignoring that the regime building a nuclear arsenal; constantly threatening its neighbors; plotting the assassination of U.S. officials; and engineering the horrific October 7 attacks on Israel were clear and present dangers, and that Trump demolished these threats in a way that no other American president ever came close to even denting. 

MORE – Donald Trump Lost the Iran War 

Procrastinators. They are impatient and confused by what they see as Trump’s waffling, vacillating between negotiating and punishing the regime, overlooking the deep conviction behind his strategy, a sincere humanitarian streak which abhors needless loss of life—ours and theirs. Since he has largely accomplished our war aims, Trump can take a more measured approach to get to the end-state he wants without unnecessary loss of life and needless destruction. Instead, he is “de-risking—every time the Iranians fail to meet their obligations or retaliate, he takes more capabilities and assets of Iran off the table.” Rest assured, worriers, that while the war may only be over when the enemy quits—the truth is that the enemy has already lost, and now the only prospect they face is that the more they fight, the more they lose. 

Theory of Victory

The victor gets to define victory.

Every war leader, in every war, has their detractors. Commanders-in-chief need a better metric to judge their efforts than taking the counsel of discontented doubters. 

A good fight has a “theory of victory,” a logical, feasible, suitable, and acceptable means to justify calling a win in war. That guidepost is the best measure of success.

For Trump, a win is to squash Iran’s capacity to destabilize the region, creating space for regional collective security, reconstruction, and economic resilience, providing a long-term deterrent against a resurgent regime. From the Abraham Accords to the work of the Board of Peace, and major economic initiatives like IMEC and Tripp, the expectation is that the real measure of Iranian defeat is if these initiatives flourish. That’s the theory of victory.

The real test of “is Trump winning” is if there are signs that the long-term peace structure the president is seeking to replace the overshadowing threat of Iran is emerging. Everywhere you look in the region—the answer is yes.

Energy Resilience. Only a year ago, the Iranian regime could threaten to shut down up to a third or more of the world’s oil exports. Even today, while fighting in the Strait of Hormuz still lingers, that is no longer true. Regional exports are rebounding, by some estimates up to two-thirds of pre-war levels. The UAE, for example, is already exporting at 85% of pre-war levels.

Nor is oil rocketing toward $ 200 a barrel like the IRGC hoped. In fact, prices are bobbing below wartime highs. Part of this is because the region is rapidly developing redundant and resilient means to move product through new cooperative initiatives, including potentially a Saudi-Israeli pipeline. The prospects that Iran can hold the flow of the world’s energy hostage are now nil. 

Trump Won the Iran War

So, here is the reality check—the inconvenient truth the doubters don’t want to talk about.

If Trump were losing his war, none of these initiatives would be happening. Instead, what is being witnessed is increased American influence, increased partnerships, and more momentum for the framework Trump envisions to bring long-term peace and stability to the region. These are not signs of defeat, but regional transformation on an unprecedented scale. 

The spin doctors can spin whatever the damn well please, but the historians are going to write that Trump is the most consequential force in reshaping the Middle East in modern memory. 

About the Author: Dr. James Jay Carafano 

James Jay Carafano is a national security expert and a 25-year Army veteran. His most recent books are Cold Combat: Mountain Warfare in Italy and the Battle of San Pietro, 1943, and Digital Dominance: Winning in a Socially Networked World. He is a 19FortyFive Contributing Editor.

North Carolina elementary school is facing backlash after parents discovered a transgender music teacher was educating students while wearing a dress, causing a bitter divide. 

Middle Creek Elementary School in Apex, near Raleigh, went back to school on July 30, where students were met with a new music teacher, who is a ‘transgender biological male, who dresses as a woman,’ State Representative Erin Paré said in a statement. 

At a school board meeting on Tuesday, many parents said they were unaware of the new hire, with many finding out via social media, after popular creators, such as Libs of TikTok, posted about the teacher. 

Heagarty said the district is ‘following the guidance of the United States Constitution and our US courts system,’ which dictated that school dress codes ‘must be gender neutral and non-discriminatory.’ 

Many parents and board members spoke in support of the teacher, including board member Jennifer Job, who accused parents of using the educator to propel their political agenda. 

‘People online and in this room are willing to sacrifice this person’s love for their job for their culture war,’ she said at the meeting. 

Many parents and community members said the addition of a transgender teacher promoted diversity, and attacking the educator was only showing children to discriminate based on appearance and identity.  

‘We have a responsibility as a county to serve students of all diverse backgrounds and their families,’ Anna Crollman, who formerly taught in the district, said at the meeting, according to The Observer. 

However, some parents have formed a coalition called Middle Creek Parental Rights, which is led by Aaron Driver and his wife. 

The group is demanding the school release the hiring records for the transgender teacher and said parents should not have found out about the educator via social media. 

He said young students have come home with ‘big questions’ about gender identity. 

ChatGPT

Arecent article in City Journal by Heather MacDonald argued that street homelessness is fundamentally an addiction and mental health crisis disguised as a housing shortage.

I’ve been saying the same thing for a number of years. The romance of the poor homeless on city sidewalks being there because of capitalism, unfair equity practices, poverty, or racism is over. Yet the Left continues to pursue this romantic fiction, despite it being a lie.

Once, there was an element of truth to this myth. The phrase, “Lift them up!” was a favorite among Philadelphia homeless activists.

The truly homeless — people not addicted to drugs who want to get off the streets as soon as possible — are able to obtain housing and move on. But the men and women who make the streets their home, cannot be said to be “homeless.” They are vagrants, 100% of them victims of addiction. Many are superficially “nice” people who panhandle, shoplift, and even rob their fellow vagrants for one reason only: to get money for drugs.

When chronic vagrants are offered housing, they refuse it. They cannot manage the housing application process because their addiction to Xylazine (or tranq), mixed with Fentanyl, keeps them unconscious half the day. They nod out in the street as fellow vagrants go through their pockets and steal what little they own.

The housing process means rules; it means forced rehab; it means giving up the freedom of the streets, where one can roam, score, panhandle, steal, or shoplift. Bicycles are a major theft item. The vagrants hunt for unlocked bicycles in front of convenience stores, or tucked away on city porches.

A charitable soul might give vagrants warm blankets, heat up milk and feed it to them in a bottle, wash their hair, give them a hundred dollars, cook them dinner or take them out to Applebee’s, but in a few hours’ time, they’ll be right back where you found them: drugged out, broke, and looking as if they are on the verge of death.

MacDonald describes a scene in New York City:

The [homeless outreach] workers leap from their van, arms piled with blankets and jackets and food, and race toward her, painfully eager to please.…She declines an appointment for free medical and psychiatric care: ‘I’m bad at keeping time. I’m bad at adulting.’

MacDonald describes a scene in New York City:

The [homeless outreach] workers leap from their van, arms piled with blankets and jackets and food, and race toward her, painfully eager to please.…She declines an appointment for free medical and psychiatric care: ‘I’m bad at keeping time. I’m bad at adulting.’

The new vagrants do not want a house; they want your untethered bicycles, Amazon packages, and… copper wire.

The street affords them the freedom to cut almost endless amounts of copper wire from streetlamps, old Verizon telephone poles, abandoned factories, and underground tunnels, where the wire can be as big around as octopuses.

The underground wires will rake in thousands of dollars from a local scrapyard. The amoral scrapyards will take anything, no questions asked, although some have rules allowing only scrappers driving vehicles to cash-in; walk-ins with shopping carts are prohibited. The scrappers on foot, however, often pay the guys in vehicles a percentage to take in their stuff.

The scrapyard dealers are often a lot like the corner drug dealers/cartels in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood—no qualms about who they’re doing “business” with.

With the neighborhood cartels, the police may orchestrate a newsworthy raid and arrest a bunch of criminals. While the raid may make the national news, within 24 hours all of the arrested dealers will be replaced by new dealers. Think of an endless series of Russian Nesting Dolls. In this way, the police never get at the root of the problem. They make one big arrest, get a fabulous news story, but the problem remains unsolved.

Cutting wire and then stripping it to cash-in the copper underneath is big business among vagrants. Women are typically not involved in copper wire extractions because it is dangerous. A basic daredevil approach to electricity is necessary. A first-timer could easily be electrocuted. Recently, in the city’s Port Richmond area, there was a news report of a man setting himself on fire.

The news account mentioned no details; it was up to the reader to guess the facts, but a vagrant I interviewed—and with whom I sometimes share a coffee—told me the man in question was a regular panhandler at the local Wawa who was cutting wire for the copper but cut a live wire by mistake and it blew up in his face. He survived, but was badly burned.

He needed the copper wire, not to save for a house, but to take to the scrapyard to get money for Xylazine and Fentanyl.

I haphazardly “follow” the lives of four or five addicts in my neighborhood.  Sometimes I’ll buy them a coffee or something to drink. They are constantly dehydrated; they can’t go one hour without something to drink. They drink endless quantities of milk and soda.

All of them say they like living in the street. Some have even told me, “Once you get used to it, living on the street is fine and you’ll never want to go into a shelter again.”

These men shoplift compulsively, mostly at the local Wawa where the security guards aren’t paid enough to engineer a confrontation. They rationalize their thefts from stores as affecting heartless corporations, rather than hurting individuals.

“I would never steal from a person, especially an old lady,” I’ve heard many say. “Wawa means nothing to me. The dollar store throws out much of its merchandise anyway; it winds up in dumpsters behind the store.”

Given the liberal policies of Democrat Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner, Wawa security guards look the other way as vagrants help themselves to large coffees, cold sandwiches, two or three cold drinks, and walk away while normal customers stand in long checkout lines.

Sometimes for effect, a guard will yell, “Hey you!” but it ends there. They’re not paid enough to go chasing after them. The vagrants also hit the local dollar store, where they take whatever they want, then walk out.

The dollar store employees watch them steal but don’t do anything. Like the guards at Wawa, they are not paid enough to get involved. Sometimes a manager will chase a shoplifter through the parking lot, but this is more theater than actual police tactic.

The real police want nothing to do with this sort of petty crime. They rarely prosecute. Nobody seems to care, except of course those drug cartel neighborhood dealers, who expect you to have the right amount of cash for drugs, will accept no change during the transaction, and who will hunt you down mercilessly if you cheat them in any way.

Living on the street is an intentional lifestyle, rooted in criminality, and it’s time we stop confusing it with genuine homelessness.

Image generated by ChatGPT.

Thom Nichols, American Greatness

Related Topics: Homelessness, Drugs

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Progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed — beloved by the now blossoming Democratic Socialists of America — won his primary Tuesday night against the more moderate Democrat in his Michigan race, one many consider a pivotal shift for the party. He faces off against Republican Mike Rogers in a seat Democrats could fork over to Republicans in a year when they hope to take the Senate.

But El-Sayed isn’t the only far-left candidate taking the country by storm, and neither is socialist Zohran Mamdani, the handsome New York mayor trying to figure out how to run a government grocery store. Adorable young Democratic Socialists are gaining traction from coast to coast as Democrats face a civil war within their own ranks.

Some Republicans have watched the rise of socialist candidates across the country with a grin from ear to ear. Certainly this means demise for Democrats come November, right? The Senate is secure! Even with the Iran war and Tucker Carlson’s rebellion, maybe the House can be saved, or so they think.

Each socialist young face that pops up seems more ignorant and more radical — than the last. They quite literally are talking about seizing the means of production, impoverishing the middle class, and abolishing the Senate. The Democratic Socialists of America platform goes on at length about “queer liberation” and “fully abolishing the police and prison system.” Any Baby Boomer in my home state of Texas or political staffer at a happy hour in Rosslyn, Va. is tempted to chuckle and smile knowingly at the Democrats’ coming demise this November. Those policies certainly can’t win…

The Monkey’s Paw But I would urge caution for those Republicans. While the rise of socialist candidates likely means better electoral prospects for Republicans this November, it demonstrates a profound shift in the views of our nation. Can this really go on forever without consequences?

We are the last great hope for Republics. Remember Federalist Paper 39? We are the first and likely the last experiment of self-government. A city on a hill. Remember all that? How can a population enchanted with socialism that has forsaken pious faith possibly bear the heavy mantle of American Republican Society? The foundations are being destroyed, and the righteous should weep, not cheer. John Rogers, a top pollster at Cygnal, raised similar concerns in his segment this week on “Washington Watch”:

“I think this is kind of a monkey’s paw scenario where I think we need to be careful about what we wish for, right? I mean, people like Hasan Piker are dangerous, dangerous people, and we don’t want their ideas mainstreamed. In Michigan, in particular, it probably does mean that Mike Rogers, who is going to be the Republican nominee, it will probably improve his chances on winning that Senate seat if El-Sayed is the nominee. … So if Republicans were able to pick off this Senate seat in Michigan, it would be huge for this election cycle. But the rise of the Democratic Socialists and people like El-Sayed is not a good thing for the country.”

Not good at all.

Admittedly, this view presupposes that the rise of socialism is a long-term trend, not a short-lived political moment. I discussed this question with veteran investigative reporter Mark Tapscott and FRC Action Director Matt Carpenter on a recent “Outstanding” podcast, and we all agreed it’s here to stay. The data backs it up. A recent CNN poll found that a third of Democrats identify as Democratic Socialists. On top of that, many Democrats and some non-political Americans are being won over by socialist candidates as the taboo around the “S word” is evaporating at an astonishing rate.

We can, of course, make the case that the socialist-style intervention and subsidization destroys productivity and increases the cost of any industry with which it entangles itself all while running up the federal debt (see university education and health care in America). And we can point to Venezuela, a tropical country that has to ration food, or Cuba, where abject poverty is the norm and corruption is rampant. We can point to the brutality and the failure of the Soviet Union.

But for many, for whatever reason, these arguments fall on deaf ears. Prices are rising faster than wages. They have student debt. They will never be able to buy a house. If they can’t build wealth over time, what do they have to lose? Sadly, they are building the political machine that will devour them. Maybe it is fitting given Silicon Valley is doing the same with AI, but that is a conversation for another article.

Careful What You Wish For Now, I’ve made the point that cheering socialism is bad because it’s bad for the country, and because in some real sense to do so is to take pleasure in the dysfunctional response to real suffering felt by our fellow countrymen, many of them of the younger generations.

But beyond that, celebrating the rise of socialist candidates could be a strategic mistake for Republicans. Remember how Democrats greedily promoted then-candidate Donald Trump leading up to the 2016 election? The leftist media knew he was good for ratings, said outrageous things, and was “certain” to lose to Hillary Clinton.

The most viral example of this may be in 2013 when liberal John Oliver, while guest hosting “The Daily Show,” famously begged Trump to run, repeatedly saying “please” as the audience roared with laughter. Hillary Clinton even famously encouraged this rhetoric in her “pied piper” strategy, thinking Trump would be an easy foe. Soon, Democrats’ dream came true, but it quickly became a nightmare as Trump trounced Clinton.

If Republicans aren’t careful, this election or next, or maybe the one after that, they may wake up with the same dumbstruck shock Hillary Clinton voters felt on Wednesday, November 9, 2016. That won’t feel good. And it will feel even worse once the socialist policies begin gutting the country of its wealth, its identity, and its legacy.

Let’s innovate to solve the economic problems faced by the less wealthy in our country instead of riding their misery to the ballot box.

Casey Harper, Washington Stand

If you care so much about immigrants, maybe we should discuss your time at HHS, Xavier’

Hey Cal Chamber, how do you feel about your endorsement of Xavier Becerra for Governor now?

“Candidate for California Governor Xavier Becerra is prioritizing illegal immigrants over legal residents’ investment in brick and mortar businesses. Every policy he actually addresses favors people who are here illegally,” the Globe noted on X.

Candidate for CA Governor @XavierBecerra is prioritizing illegal immigrants over legal residents’ investment in brick and mortar businesses. Every policy he actually addresses favors people who are here illegally. https://t.co/WfgZOI1JVd

— Katy Grimes (@KATYSaccitizen) July 22, 2026

In June, the Cal Chamber announced they were endorsing Xavier Becerra in the November general election for governor. Immediately I pictured the Cal Chamber board of directors cowering under their conference room table.

The California Business & Industrial Alliance (CABIA) even took out a full-page ad in the California Post that slammed the California Chamber of Commerce’s misguided endorsement of Xavier Becerra for Governor, the Globe reported.

The ad highlights that the Cal Chamber endorsed Becerra for Governor alongside Big Labor, including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and United Food & Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW). It’s a slap in the face to California business owners who have been targeted by harmful union-backed policies like the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) and a $20 minimum wage for fast-food workers.

The ad points out that even former president Joe Biden didn’t endorse “Embarrassment” Becerra after his incompetent tenure in the Biden administration.

Isn’t the California Chamber of Commerce “the largest broad-based business advocate to government in California, working at the state and federal levels for policies to strengthen California?” Don’t they work hard “to make sure lawmakers and regulators hear about the impact of proposals on business and the state’s economy?”

Becerra may have thought he was being cute when he said “If you’re in California and want a street taco, I have one piece of advice: Look for the little street cart. That’s where you’ll find the real thing.”

Becerra is promoting illegal immigrants and their taco carts, over restaurant owners operated and owned by legal residents who pay taxes, pass health inspections, hire employees, pay for insurance, Workers Comp, pay into the EDD, federal income tax, FICA taxes (Social Security + Medicare), California state income tax, and State Disability Insurance.

“This is how you show your ‘solidarity’ to immigrants? Really? If you care so much about immigrants, maybe we should discuss your time at HHS, Xavier,” Steve Hilton replied.

You’re mad because something was addressed as it’s called on a menu?

This is how you show your “solidarity” to immigrants? Really?

If you care so much about immigrants, maybe we should discuss your time at HHS, Xavier. pic.twitter.com/ME4H3o5gYi

— Steve Hilton For Governor (@TeamSteveHilton) July 21, 2026

Taco carts are unregulated vendors who skip permits and safety standards, and in doing so, undermine legitimate businesses – and possibly your gastrointestinal system.

Taco carts and trucks often park illegally, in front of other businesses, and are not subject to health inspections. Who knows where the food is made, or how clean or not the cart operator is.

The backlash against Becerra underscores tensions in many cities across California over street vending, where carts lack permits amid ongoing debates between cultural authenticity and mandatory business compliance.

Unsurprisingly, Becerra has not directly responded as the discussion continues.

“Cal Chamber going along with Becerra is learned helplessness, given that California has the worst business climate,” Candidate Steve Hilton said in June at a press conference in response to the Cal Chamber’s endorsement. “It’s a display of utter cowardice on behalf of the Cal Chamber.”

Any governor of California must represent all citizens, business owners, employees, vendors and workers. Becerra has made clear many times recently that his priority are those who are in the state illegally. And that should infuriate every legal California resident.

As Spencer Pratt commented, “The next Governor of CA just told everyone to avoid CA Mexican restaurants like Tito’s Tacos and Don Antonio’s and instead go to an illegal street vendor who doesn’t pay taxes nor follow any health codes. And he thought ‘yeah let’s post that on main.’”

“CA is so screwed.”

Should we turn California into a third world hell hole in exchange for street tacos on every corner? Xavier Becerra already told us his preference.

Katy Grimes, California Globe

5:50:49 AM by Bill Russell, Free Republic

Yesterday, the President signed new Executive Orders expanding the definition of who is excluded from Birthright Citizenship. While there is an absolute likelihood that all those really smart attorneys and other people in the Executive branch came up with the updated policies independent of anything I floated here, in the blogosphere, and through indirect channels, I will take it as a win. Even if independently arrived at by others, the ideas floated here definitely appear to have been ground into the sausage making process of the new policies.

Never underestimate the impact of Free Republic on national debates! — Back in 2008, when I was a completely unknown congressional candidate running against one of the most corrupt and powerful congressmen in US history and did not even know what FreeRepublic was, it was a Freeper (Hope you are still out there and in good health, Rusty!) who elevated my campaign on this forum and got the attention of Michelle Malkin and other members of the national press, enabling my campaign to give John Murtha a run for his money. With that history in mind, here are the links to the original article on July 19, 2026, and the new Birthright Citizenship Executive Orders:

Mitigating the Birthright Citizenship Threat from Communist China and Other Nations https://freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/4388975/posts?page=1

The Pride Month event also featured a drag queen with the provocative name ‘Sedonya Face’

James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian running for U.S. Senate from Texas, headlined an LGBTQ festival that featured “the absolute cutest & youngest of our drag performers,” an 11-year-old boy “drag queen” who goes by the stage name Kween Kee Kee.

Taylor PRIDE, a group in the town of Taylor, Texas, held the June 26, 2021, event to raise money to help “rural LGBTQ communities.” The Pride Month festivities included a series of pro-LGBTQ speakers, live music, a “drag story hour,” and adult drag performers such as Brianna Brinxx and the provocatively named Sedonya Face.

Talarico and Kween Kee Kee, a local preteen named Keegan, were the biggest attraction for Taylor PRIDE organizers. “[Taylor PRIDE] will be hosting numerous speakers such as State Rep. James Talarico, talented musical guests such as Venus Loves Mars, the absolute cutest & youngest of our drag performers Kween Kee Kee,” the group wrote in promotional materials.

“Not only … will this amazing pre-teen be performing a number at Texas Beer Company but they will also host Kee Kee Storytime … where children will find lots of PRIDE inspired craft activities,” Taylor PRIDE wrote of Kween Kee Kee in a post publicizing the event.

Talarico, running against Texas attorney general Ken Paxton (R.), is seen in photos speaking to the audience and posing with attendees at Texas Beer Company, which hosted the festival. Kween Kee Kee, sporting a shimmery blue dress, heavy eye makeup, and a platinum blonde wig, performed a drag routine as part of the group’s “Youth Drag Show,” event photos show.

One attendee posted a video on social media of Kween Kee Kee doing the splits.

Taylor PRIDE lamented afterwards that an unnamed conservative organization “ridiculed & protested” the event “for being sexually explicit and exploitation of a child,” an allegation the group denied.

“You tell us if that rings true,” the group wrote in a Facebook post with photos of Kween Kee Kee and adult performers Sedonya Face, a short-haired blonde man with a tattoo visible on his chest, Belladonna Dior, and Felecia Enspire, whose photo was captioned with “Hot Mama.”

Talarico’s attendance at the festival—in a small, conservative town almost 50 miles from the liberal enclave of Austin—underscores how his positions on social issues, including exposing children to sexually charged subject matter, may differ from the views of the broader Texas electorate. Republicans have hammered Talarico, elected to the Texas Legislature in 2018, over a litany of far-left remarks on gender and religious issues. Talarico testified at a State House hearing that “God is nonbinary,” and at a sermon at his Austin church in 2022, Talarico referred to women as “our neighbors with a uterus.”

It was an inspiration to watch,” said Talarico, whom Republicans have dubbed “Talafreako” over his non-mainstream views. Talarico has also voted and spoken out against a Republican bill to criminalize drag shows when children are present.

“We produce some of the best drag performers in the nation,” Talarico, a member of the Texas House’s LGBTQ+ caucus, said in 2023. “We didn’t want to hurt them.”

Talarico has distanced himself from some of those remarks since his Senate primary victory in June. He called his remarks about God’s being nonbinary “cringey” and scrubbed his campaign website of references to Republican attempts to “bully trans children,” the Washington Free Beacon reported. Talarico has tried to combat allegations that he is out of touch with traditional Texan culture. In one example, Talarico posted a photo of himself eating a giant barbeque turkey leg while wearing a Texas flag shirt. That was a response to the release of a 2022 clip of Talarico pledging to make his campaign vegan.

Taylor PRIDE stoked controversy months after the drag event when it sponsored a float at the city’s annual Christmas parade. Felecia Enspire and Sedonya Face, two of the drag queens who appeared months earlier at the Talarico event, manned the group’s float, angering town residents.

Talarico’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Chuck Ross, Free Beacon

They probably mean well – and you know what the road to h*ll is paved with – but a new move by the University of Michigan is going to backfire spectacularly because coddling young adults is never the right thing to do.

UMich recently announced that they’re going all-out to “curb” mental health issues in the incoming freshmen class, and they will do that by abolishing the first-semester grades for those enrolled in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts. And that’s likely going to be a good number of kids in the class of 2030 because that encompasses students who have yet to pick a major.

Now, the college is parsing this much differently, claiming they will “cover” the grades from the students. The grades will still count, but the kids will never see them and they won’t be a part of their first-semester GPAs.

The University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) will stop reporting traditional letter grades on first-semester transcripts for incoming freshmen beginning in Fall 2027, replacing them with “pass” or “no credit” designations as part of a pilot program aimed at reducing student stress and curbing a “mental health crisis”.

Students will still earn letter grades and receive instructor feedback in every course. However, those grades will remain internal, will not appear on official transcripts, and will not affect first-semester GPAs.

The college is apparently convinced that shielding freshmen from their grades will help the students as they transition to living away from home and adjust to the challenges of campus life. You know, that thing that millions of us have done before that didn’t kill us? (Although, having to fess up to your parents about your very first college GPA could scare the life out of you.)

We believe that covering grades will help students start strong and curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals,” the LSA policy page states, according to Campus Reform’s report. 

This will not produce the desired results. Kids who arrive on campus mentally unwell will remain mentally unwell despite their GPAs. Kids who get sad at having to adjust to a new way of life are not mentally unwell, they’re just sad. They’ll get over it. The “sink or swim” principle works every time.

You know what will cause mental illness? Kids with expensive college degrees that are wholly unprepared to compete in the real world because some university administrators – and you just know they’re all liberal white women – opted to baby them instead of educating them. 

There’s nothing worse for one’s mental health than being an adult loser.

Michigan can hide the grades, but it won’t be able to hide the consequences. Sooner or later, these students will be out in the world and will get smacked in the face by reality – and they won’t know what to do. But, hey, it won’t be the college’s responsibility anymore, they’ll be too busy scheming ways to infantilize the next incoming class.

Teri Christophe, Red State

The year is 2019 and, after almost a full term in office, Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government of right-wing and religious parties heads to a general election. Opposing him is a former IDF chief of staff heading a new centrist party which quickly soars in the polls, making him the main challenger for prime minister.

That challenger was Benny Gantz. Gantz formed alliances, fought elections and got caught up in the paralysis of Israel’s 2019-20 governing crisis in which nobody was able to form a coalition. Facing the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic, Gantz agreed to a deal with Netanyahu where they’d take turns at being prime minister – with Netanyahu going first, of course. Nobody except Gantz believed his turn would come.

It is August 2026 now and, after a full term in office, Netanyahu’s coalition government of right-wing and religious parties is heading to a general election. Opposing him is a former IDF chief of staff leading a new centrist party as the main challenger for prime minister. It’s a cliché to say this time it’s different. It’s always different. But Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s main electoral rival, has a compelling background, a moving personal story and is now leading the polls.

Outside of Israel, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the only ethnic divide that matters is between Jews and Arabs. Within Israeli Jewish society, though, the most significant distinction is between Ashkenazim, Jews of European origin, and Mizrachim, Jews from Arab and Muslim countries.

Historically, the local Jews in the region were Arabic-speakers who initially resented the poor, low-status European Ashkenazi immigrants of the early 20th century. When a huge wave of Jewish immigrants from Arab countries arrived in the late 1950s, fleeing anti-Semitism at home, they were often shunted into transit camps and treated as second-class citizens.

This divide carried over into politics too. David Ben-Gurion’s Labor party became associated with Ashkenazi cronyism, low-level corruption and background racism. Menachem Begin rode to victory for Likud in 1977 with masses of working-class Mizrachi voters.

Since then, Mizrachi identity has become associated with authenticity, tradition and supporting right-wing parties, while Likud figures attack “white” Ashkenazi left-wing elitists. Mizrachi culture, food and music have gone from being marginal to the Israeli mainstream. But Israel has never had a prime minister who wasn’t Ashkenazi. Despite his Germanic-sounding last name, Eisenkot is Mizrachi, the son of working-class Moroccan immigrants; a marked contrast from Netanyahu, the nepo-baby son of a politically connected Ashkenazi college professor. Eisenkot joined the traditionally Mizrachi Golani Brigade when he was drafted into the IDF, where he rose through the ranks. (According to the British historian Max Hastings, a young Netanyahu once joked that Golani was “OK as long as they’re led by white officers.” Netanyahu denies this.)

Eisenkot became commander of Golani and then military secretary to prime ministers Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon – both former generals themselves. He became something of a problem-solver, a safe pair of hands: he led the IDF’s response to West Bank terrorism during the Second Intifada and then took over Northern Command to reshape it after the failures of the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

When a scandal created an unexpected vacancy for IDF chief of staff in 2011, Netanyahu reportedly offered the job to Eisenkot; he refused, saying that the deputy chief of staff, Benny Gantz, should get the role instead. Eisenkot became Gantz’s deputy and eventual successor.

The path from chief of staff to politics is well-trodden. Six of Eisenkot’s seven immediate predecessors made the jump from uniform to the Knesset. As soon as he retired, the major parties started to court Eisenkot as a candidate. He ended up going with his old boss, Benny Gantz, running in the 2022 election on his National Unity ticket.

National Unity didn’t have a great election, and neither did the rest of the anti-Netanyahu parties. Bibi returned to office and Eisenkot joined the opposition. That all changed after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023. In an effort to live up to its party name, National Unity joined the coalition and Eisenkot and Gantz became members of a six-person war cabinet.

A few weeks later, tragedy struck. Eisenkot’s son Gal was killed in a tunnel in Gaza during a mission to retrieve the bodies of hostages. Eisenkot and Gantz became increasingly frustrated with the war cabinet’s refusal to make plans and eventually resigned, accusing Netanyahu of allowing “outside considerations and politics” to interfere with the conduct of the war with Hamas. But Eisenkot also lost patience with Gantz, his party leader, and resigned from the Knesset a year ago, making it clear he was planning a comeback at the election later this year.

A few months ago, the leading opposition candidate to replace Netanyahu was Naftali Bennett, who was briefly prime minister a few years ago at the head of a short-lived rainbow coalition.

Eisenkot faced pressure to join up with Bennett or another centrist challenger, such as Yair Lapid. In the end, Bennett and Lapid joined forces, leaving Eisenkot out. That decision doesn’t seem to have harmed him at all. Going it alone, Eisenkot’s Yashar (“straight,” in the moral, not sexual, sense) party is now leading in the polls.

But what does Gadi Eisenkot stand for? That’s not such a simple question. His campaign focuses on his story and character: working-class Mizrachi boy made good, bereaved father of a fallen hero, honest and against corruption, security-conscious but focused on solutions.

A major issue roiling Israel has been military service by Haredim, ultra-Orthodox Jewish men. Since their service exemption was struck down by the Supreme Court, the Netanyahu government has been desperately legislating to appease its Haredi coalition partners, passing giveaway legislation to try to restore the exemption and “compensate” them with policy benefits and wodges of public cash.

Eisenkot, like most of the country, supports the Haredi draft. And yet, the Haredi parties aren’t ruling him out as a coalition partner; Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, spiritual leader of the Shas party, declared that Netanyahu will never “repent” and become an observant Jew, but that he still has hope for Eisenkot. Perhaps the Haredi parties are bluffing, seeking more leverage with Netanyahu. Or perhaps they can tell which way the wind is blowing and don’t want to be locked out of power.

The Yashar party, and Eisenkot, are notably vague on the Palestinian issue. He says now isn’t the time to discuss the two-state solution, opposes annexing the West Bank and wants a Palestinian-run (but Hamas-free) Gaza. All fairly mainstream positions, but perhaps lacking in vision: in opposition, it’s easy to wave away questions about a Palestinian state as a future problem; a leader is supposed to move the country toward that future.

And that’s a bit of a theme with Yashar. The party platform hits all the usual notes – education, fighting crime, cutting corruption, lowering prices – but there’s little in the way of structural reforms or ambitious plans.

We get some hints from Eisenkot’s approach to military strategy. On the one hand, he was one of the pioneers of the Dahiya Doctrine, which supports the use of massive force against civilian neighborhoods that play host to terror groups. On the other, he developed the IDF’s “Campaigns between wars” strategy, using constant low-level military operations to keep foes deterred or, failing that, degraded. These suggest an approach of trying to manage continual conflict, combined with a readiness to hit hard when necessary.

The attacks against Eisenkot from the right fit a familiar pattern. Netanyahu and his supporters claim he’s a gruff, uncharismatic novice, with poor English and no charm. They say that he, too, will betray his voters to the Haredi parties, so why not stick with the devil you know?

Those attacks, though, cut both ways. Voters might be done with polished, charming candidates like Netanyahu, and be drawn to Eisenkot’s humble origins. The Haredi claim also neuters one of the other charges against Eisenkot: that he’s a far-left plant who’ll rush to do a deal with the Arab parties. Something about Eisenkot’s background and style has created a permission structure for center-right voters to feel like he’s “safe” to support.

Much like Donald Trump in the United States, Netanyahu has reshaped politics around himself. To support Netanyahu is to be right-wing; to oppose him, even ostensibly from the right, is often enough to be considered a leftist traitor. Beyond left and right, the two major political camps in Israel are “Only Bibi!” and “Anyone but Bibi!”

The “Anyone but Bibi!” camp has had an array of leaders: Isaac Herzog, the son of a one-time president of Israel who ended up in the top job himself (with Netanyahu’s support); Yair Lapid, the media-star son of a Knesset member; Bennett, a multimillionaire startup founder; and Gantz. All men, all Ashkenazi, all somewhat well-connected. Two ended up prime minister, albeit briefly, but Netanyahu found his way back.

This time it’s different, and not just because of Eisenkot. Netanyahu will be 77 on election day, 82 at the end of his term if he’s reelected. He has a pacemaker and secretly underwent treatment for prostate cancer last year. And, of course, he’s the sole political survivor of the October 7 disaster. If Netanyahu loses this time, he’s probably not coming back.

And Likud’s other elected representatives, however much they back Bibi in public, are getting tired of waiting for a vacancy at the top.

On October 27, the voters will have their say. But in Israel, that isn’t the final word; an election triggers months of deals, threats, bribes and horse-trading to win over enough Knesset members to form a government. These weeks are where Netanyahu’s wheeler-dealing often gives him the edge. In the past few weeks, though, the polls have shifted ever so slightly in Eisenkot’s favor, giving him the easier-looking path to power.

David Bitan, an outspoken Likud representative, complained to the media that it’s unfair. Eisenkot, he said, is “both a bereaved family and Moroccan – and that gives him a very interesting advantage in these elections.” He might be right.

Arieh Kovler is a political analyst and writer based in Jerusalem.

In a moment that surprised approximately no one, President Donald Trump recently complained that oil companies are making too much money, and they ought to give some of it back. Left unsaid, of course, is that oil companies are making money because of increased prices for the product they sell. Those increased prices are a direct result of a conflict that the companies did not start and almost certainly would rather not have.

This follows on the president’s order to the Justice Department in June to investigate big oil companies for not bringing gasoline prices down fast enough, as crude oil prices temporarily dropped. For context, the average U.S. retail gasoline price is now north of $4 per gallon, up from less than $3 per gallon before the United States launched attacks against Iran in February.

The American Petroleum Institute gave it the old college try, noting that prices are the result of global supply and demand, and continued uncertainty around the Strait of Hormuz. In other words, the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.

The good news is that if the current administration is concerned about gasoline prices, there is a simple, immediate solution: Suspend the ethanol mandate (also known as the Renewable Fuel Standard). That mandate requires refineries to blend an amount of ethanol and other bio-based fuels into the gasoline supply equal to about 10% of the total fuel consumed each year.

It will probably not surprise you to discover that this government mandate, like all government attempts to “manage” the marketplace, increases costs and reduces performance. According to some, the ethanol mandate costs drivers and their families about 45 cents per gallon, or, if you like big numbers, the total annual economic cost is projected at about $88 billion.

Washington Times