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.

Reuters via Jerusalem Post

Virginia Allen•   March 25, 2026

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.

Trump swore Mullin in on Tuesday as the ninth homeland security secretary.

“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

Al Perrotta•   August 3, 2026

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. 

Al Perrotta | Contributing Editor

Al Perrotta is a contributing editor for the Daily Signal.

Tyler O’Neil•   June 25, 2026

New York Democrats didn’t just elevate open “Democratic” socialists in the primaries Tuesday, but one of these socialists started an anti-Israel organization that said it is fighting for “the total eradication of Western civilization.”

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.”

Chevalier reportedly “point-blank refused” to condemn Hamas during a meeting with a leftist group, though she later told WNYC, “Yes, I do condemn Hamas.”

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

Tyler O’Neil•   June 25, 2026

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Tyler O’Neil | Senior Investigative Reporter

Tyler O’Neil is senior investigative reporter at the Daily Signal and the author of two books, “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center” and “The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.”

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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.
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Fauci Ducks Second Senate Panel After Taking the Fifth

“The American people deserve answers to legitimate questions regarding our miserably failed response to COVID-19. Apparently, he has a lot to hide.” 

Posted by Ben SmithSunday, August 16, 2026 at 05:00pm23 Comments

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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.…

— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) August 15, 2026

“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?

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Matt Margolis 

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.

ICYMI: This Might Be the Most Brutal Diagnosis of AOC You’ll Ever Hear

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!

He doesn’t read the comments section. You can send news tips, praise, hate mail, and media inquiries to tips@mattmargolis.com.

Like a psychotic toddler, no one in Gaza can be trusted with guns—or to keep promises.

Susan Quinn | August 16, 2026

Despite President Trump’s lauding the 15-point agreement that was supposed to bring peace to Gaza, ending the conflict looks more distant every day. The world likes to blame Israel for the delays in the process because Israel makes a popular punching bag, but it’s important to remember key points that support the Hamas and Israel positions.

Let’s remember how this disaster began: Hamas perpetrated the October 7, 2023, attack. Although Hamas likes to blame its actions on Israel’s occupation of Gaza, Israel turned Gaza over to the Palestinians nearly 20 years ago.

There is no occupation.

The next point to make about Hamas is that Israel, the United States, and the European Union have designated Hamas a terrorist organization bent on the destruction of Israel. Can it “change its stripes” and suddenly become not only peaceful, but also willing to agree to peace with Israel?

In earlier negotiations, Hamas repeatedly changed the terms of agreements that were supposedly settled. Why does anyone think it is serious about making a firm commitment at this time?

If we look at the terms of the most recent agreement presented by Trump, there are clearly problems with executing it.

First, Hamas is choosing to interpret the agreement in a totally unsatisfactory way. It is demanding that Israel withdraw its troops while Hamas is “handing over its weapons” (that is, before it even disarms). Hamas has specified that it should be allowed to keep certain types of weapons. There is no way that Netanyahu will allow Israel to become vulnerable unless Hamas relinquishes all of its weapons first:

https://da0ea8da42fc446c57ef836c535a2d5f.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-45/html/container.html

The group has avoided using the term ‘disarmament.’ It says it agreed to hand over its weapons for storage under a US-backed Palestinian technocratic administration that would govern Gaza under the supervision of the Board of Peace.

Does “handing over weapons for storage” sound anything like relinquishing the weapons to you? No Palestinian group should be trusted to take custody of those arms; there will be plenty of pressure on it to give them back to Hamas.

Hamas also demanded that Israel pull back behind the yellow line when the disarming begins. But the Board of Peace issued a couple of clarifications:

After the Board of Peace meeting with the Israeli government, the Board of Peace issued a statement seemingly clarifying that sequencing problem.

‘Contrary to inaccurate reports, we note that the withdrawal of the IDF beyond the Yellow Line will take place only once decommissioning is complete, as Hamas committed to the mediators,’ it said.

‘This applies to light weapons, heavy weapons, and the tunnels alike.’

It’s no surprise that Hamas is already trying to change the terms of the agreement.

Yossi Kuperwasser, a brigadier general in the IDF reserves and the director of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, made another significant point:

‘There’s one point missing in these points of the new agreement. The first article of the [October 2025] 20-point plan was that Gaza is going to be de-radicalised. There’s no reference to de-radicalisation here.

‘So we are left with a radical Hamas governing Gaza and still very forceful, capable of rearming itself.

‘If we withdraw from Gaza under these conditions Hamas is going to be on the footstep, on the doorstep of the same villages and communities that it attacked on October 7th.’

Identifying strategies to de-radicalize will be a difficult task. At the very least, Hamas schools should be required to change their curriculum so that children are not taught that their goal is still to destroy Israel.

Some people accuse Netanyahu of getting caught between the radicals in his government and Israeli election issues when it comes to resolving these matters. But his decision, for starters, to refuse to act until Hamas completely disarms is understandable.

It could be a matter of life and death.

Image created using AI.

Related Topics: Israel, Gaza

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About the Author

Susan Quinn

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BECOME A M

I lived in Massachusetts for a number of years and even at one time owned a home there. The home was in a town called Cotuit, on the Cape, a small, pretty town that recalled the atmosphere of the television show Lost or the novel Lord of the Flies. There was an equivalent feeling of desolation and desperation and the strange notion that cannibal zombies ran the town. We determined that it was not the place we wanted to spend our free time, even though I have to say that the clam strips were delicious.

When I was a student, I lived in the Boston area, and that was a different feel, more of what we can find in our Blue American cities today. I have to say that Cambridge was ahead of its time. When I worked on the student janitorial crew, my boss, one of the wisest men in Boston—a dyed-in-the-wool Bruins, Red Sox, and Patriots fan and Vietnam vet—comforted me one day as we sat together on the steps in Radcliffe Yard. Bob said to me, “Donnie, the thing you need to know about this place is that it’s basically an insane asylum where the inmates would never think of leaving.” It is a fact of my life that the best advice I have ever received has not come from professors or academics, and certainly not lawyers, but working people.

As effed up as Massachusetts is, even I was stunned to see the spectacle of the governor signing what, in my view, amounts to infanticide into law while a bunch of cackling celebrants stood around her clapping. This finally even got a rise from the local Catholic bishops, not a frequent event because God forbid they should lose parishioners. Clearly, I have more fieldwork to do in Massachusetts to understand the delirious reaction of women to removing legal restrictions on aborting their own children at an advanced stage of pregnancy. But I suppose we can take solace in knowing that this lunacy—which was once largely confined to university campuses—is now active throughout the country, and especially in America’s major cities.

So, I think it is time we took a tour of some of our major cities and important organizations so we can show the fecundity of choices that we have in terms of where to live in the relevant blue states. I believe that it’s only fitting that we begin in the “Big Apple,” where a thirty-something, self-declared democratic socialist with no experience running anything is currently mayor of the world’s leading financial center.

New York City

Mamdani’s rhetoric and positions have struck many people, including many Jews, as openly hostile to Israel and even antisemitic, so it only makes sense that Jewish people would line up to vote for him. I’ve written about this before, and we are always reminded of the heartwarming stories of German Jewish and Hungarian leaders urging Jews not to panic and to work together with the Nazis. But the difference is that the Jews who support Mamdani today have university degrees, so they know better. And just because they elect a guy who has been reluctant to condemn calls to “globalize the intifada”—a phrase many Jews understand as a call for violence—or the destruction of the Jewish state doesn’t mean he’s not a swell guy. He cares.

He caps this off nicely with a piss-poor understanding of economics. Since we have unlimited money—don’t we?—we can have fare-free buses and city-supported grocery stores because the government runs everything so efficiently, and frozen rents because I suppose we want to make it completely undesirable for developers to build new housing structures. But the best part is that Mamdani wants to finance all this with higher taxes on corporations and wealthy people who actually provide jobs and fuel the development of the city. He appears to be shocked by the fact that rich people might leave New York City and take their jobs and development plans elsewhere.

Mamdani’s dream city is rounded off by his history of supporting the “defund the police” movement. Of the many super-dumb ideas that American socialists and communists have put forward, this may be the dumbest. It is, in fact, so dumb that it has been repeated in blue cities like Boston, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. It is usually accompanied by dim-witted announcements from social scientists that there are “social causes” for crime and no real criminals, and then followed up with an appeal to shut down the jails.

Boston

But let’s continue our tour and mosey on up the East Coast to the city of Boston. The socialist mayor, Michelle Wu, has called for the abolition of ICE, a mantra repeated in many blue states and cities, and does not seem all that concerned about drug trafficking and human trafficking associated with illegal immigration. After all, she needs every last vote to stay in power. Logically, she has supported noncitizens voting in local elections, along with many similar lunatics in the Boston City Council. She is also a big backer of rent control, something the state eliminated in 1994. But bad ideas, like cockroaches, don’t go away, and she seems determined to employ fallacious economic theory in the laboratory she calls Boston.

But before we leave Boston, we should say a word about the Massachusetts governor. Governor Maura Healey has now signed legislation removing the state’s previous set of specified conditions for abortion after twenty-four weeks and replacing them with the “best medical judgment” of the physician. The law no longer supplies a clear gestational boundary of its own. Not being stupid, let’s understand that this makes it possible to forum-shop for a doctor willing to supply the necessary medical judgment to terminate a pregnancy very late in the process. In Rome and Sparta, they were courageous enough to call this infanticide. Here we refer to this as “health care.” Although I’m not sure that unborn children, if they could express an opinion, would agree with that assessment. And I’m not sure that female unborn children would find this as liberating for women as Governor Healey does.

Seattle

Let’s continue our journey and take a 3,000-mile journey across the country and visit Seattle’s Mayor Katie Wilson. Mayor Katie is hardly an economic success story, but then that doesn’t matter if you are a socialist. One of the controversies during the campaign involved financial assistance from her parents, including more than $10,000 in campaign-related childcare expenses that were not properly reported, for which her campaign paid a fine. But this fits nicely with all the other socialists living in their parents’ basements. In America these days, it’s not necessary to have a job, know anything about American history or the Constitution, or even believe there is such a thing as right or wrong in order to vote. Katie tapped heavily into this voter base in winning her election.

Katie has also demonstrated a command of economics sufficient to out-Mamdani Mamdani. When she was confronted with the very real scenario of wealthy people leaving Washington because of the state’s aggressive taxation proposals, she famously said, “Bye.” This is the same woman who left college in her final year six weeks before final exams because she wanted to “burn a bridge to the conventional professional world.” Now, if she had perhaps crossed the bridge, she would have seen that even socialist utopian projects like the ones dancing in her head require tax revenue. And tax revenue comes from people who make money—some of whom are millionaires. She is a perfect fit for Seattle, whose residents have gone out of their way to turn one of America’s most beautiful cities into a trash heap.

Katie didn’t just talk the talk; she also walked the walk. She campaigned on a citywide capital-gains tax designed to target wealthy residents. All of her favorite programs—subsidized transit and universal childcare—need to be paid for, and so she expected to be able to ask wealthy residents for money the same way she asked Mom and Dad. It never occurred to her that these are not her parents and they don’t have to stay around Seattle and give her money.

Katie has also fallen in line with the sanctuary-city rhetoric of not distinguishing between American citizens and people who are here illegally and making use of our resources. She has courageously directed her law-enforcement authorities not to cooperate with ICE, because why would you ever want to alienate future voters? Illegal gangs, drug and human trafficking be damned.

Chicago

But we really need to go to the Midwest to enjoy the full panoply of socialist woke delights. In one sense, we have to hand it to Chicago’s Brandon Johnson in that he not only stuck around for final exams but went on to get a master’s degree from Aurora University. The bad news is that he taught social studies and not economics. This was obvious from his support for reviving a “head tax” per employee on large businesses as part of his effort to close the enormous budget gap in Chicago. Brandon helped create that budget gap by spending outrageous sums of money on newly arrived migrants, to the detriment of actual legal residents. This created waves of outrage amongst residents who were not even receiving basic services. So, perhaps being contrite over destroying the economic infrastructure of the city, he felt that he could offer a solution by chasing businesses out of the city. Like other socialist geniuses, he made it his goal to bleed high-income earners and businesses to fund his sanctuary-city resistance.

Well, he may not have wanted to do much about drug and human trafficking carried out by Central American gangs, but at least he made up for it by reducing portions of the police budget and calling for the abolition of ICE. See how smart that is? Brandon’s rhetoric about white people and “white supremacy” has also been inflammatory. He does not consider this to be much of a problem in a city where white people happen to live, because he seems to see them mostly as an endless tax base to fund his permanent revolution.

Brandon doesn’t seem to have won over the nonwhite voters either. Polls have placed his approval rating between 23 and 30 percent, and one survey found that fewer than one in seven voters wanted him to run for reelection. He has accomplished nearly the impossible in making himself even less popular than his predecessor, Lori Lightfoot, currently of Harvard University.

Los Angeles

I would be remiss if I did not include my hometown mayor, Los Angeles’ Karen Bass, in this whirlwind tour. Karen, after deploying the usual defund-the-police rhetoric, actually discovered that police do play an important function in restoring order, and her later budgets called for hiring more of them. But she has displayed the same fiscal prowess as her fellow blue mayors and governors. Her budget shortfall is only about $1 billion. In her first couple of years, Los Angeles spent billions on programs to combat homelessness. Homelessness didn’t meaningfully improve, the money disappeared into a network of agencies and contractors, and questions were buried. But Mayor Bass has a distinction that her fellow progressive mayors do not share. On her watch, her own city burned down.

Mayor Bass has a tremendous record of placing incompetent wokesters into key positions. The Santa Ynez Reservoir serving Pacific Palisades was empty and offline when the fire began, and hydrants lost pressure during the emergency. Her fire-prevention leadership included committed wokesters who seemed to make up in woke rhetoric what they lacked in practical preparation. Her fire chief was on camera after the Pacific Palisades Fire had eaten half of the oceanfront communities, complaining about not having resources. One of the fire chief’s senior officials had previously made strange comments suggesting that 

resources. One of the fire chief’s senior officials had previously made strange comments suggesting that someone needing rescue might object to being carried out of a fire by a woman who looked like her. But this was better than Mayor Karen, who was in Ghana at a presidential inauguration. And she was better than Governor Brylcreem, who had taken to disappearing altogether—when he wasn’t falsely assuring residents that he was working with President Trump to resolve the problem.

Bass had plenty of warnings and can be blamed for presiding over a government that was catastrophically unprepared for it. The empty reservoir, loss of hydrant pressure, inadequate pre-deployment, and later controversy over the after-action report all belong to the government she led. It may be hyperbole to say she burned her own city down. But, in the eyes of many who lost their homes, it doesn’t seem like it.

Like all her pals on the blue team, Mayor Karen is also soft on crime, anti-ICE, and, as a bonus, seemingly anti-fire prevention. This is hardly surprising given her history on the radical Left and her work in her youth with a pro-Castro organization. Like her socialist and communist pals, she is also an unwavering supporter of abortion, earning a 100 percent score from NARAL Pro-Choice America. So, we need to ask, if we burn the homes down of all the wealthy residents, chase all of the Hollywood studios out of Los Angeles, and make it unreasonable for anyone with a business to stay or relocate to Los Angeles, where are you going to get your tax revenue? And she seems to also want to take care of the next generation by joining in the effort that has resulted in nearly 1/3 of Generation Z disappearing through abortion.

As we take our tour of American hellholes, we cannot help but think of Margaret Thatcher’s words: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” Between scaring off job providers and denying any rights to unborn children, there is not going to be a lot of money—or many people—around to fund the Leftist utopias of the future. Some of these Leftists may even have to do the unthinkable and get real jobs working construction, digging holes, building shelters, and growing crops, rather than dictating to the rest of us how we should live our lives. But for the moment, as they celebrate chaos in the streets and cheer on infanticide, this is their shining moment. Let them enjoy it, because it won’t last much longer.