Zero Rss

These Restaurant Chains Won The Social Media War For Gen Z's Attention

Millennials and Generation Z spend a disproportionate amount of time on social media, swiping left, right, up, and down, making growth in interactions an increasingly important measure of brand relevance. For restaurant chains seeking to attract younger consumers, social media platforms have become critical advertising tools for building brand awareness and, ultimately, converting that attention into restaurant visits or online orders through viral campaigns.

In a review of which U.S. restaurant chains won over younger generations in the second-quarter social media wars, UBS equity research analyst Dennis Geiger, who specializes in the U.S. restaurant industry, said McDonald's, Starbucks, and KFC dominated restaurant engagement on Instagram, while Wendy's, Chipotle, and several casual-dining chains recorded some of the strongest growth.

The restaurant chains that won social media advertising wars in 2Q:

Social media trends indicate rising momentum for select QSRs & casual diners

Using UBS Evidence Lab's Instagram (> Access dataset) and TikTok (> Access dataset) data, we assessed how brands performed on social media platforms in 2Q26. We analyzed followers, posts, and interactions to better understand brand visibility, sentiment, and consumer reactions to recent brand developments. We believe that brands with strong online communities and committed followers are better positioned to drive visit frequency and improve consumer interaction, supported by research indicating a correlation between views and traffic. Select QSR brands delivered strong Instagram interactions and likes growth y/y in 2Q26, including: Chipotle, McDonald's, Starbucks and Wendy's. Several casual dining brands also posted strong y/y TikTok follower growth, including LongHorn (+167%), Applebees (+103%), and Outback (75%), among the leaders.

Recent earnings commentary highlights benefit of effective social media

Social media is increasingly relevant for connecting with customers, building brand affinity and driving visits. Several restaurants highlighted effective social media strategy and contribution in recent earnings calls, including: CAKE, CMG SBUX, CBRL, CAVA, SHAK, SG, BROS, WING, & YUM, among others. Brands highlight social media as a lever to expand the reach at the top of the marketing funnel, stay culturally relevant (ie world cup, viral trends), engage directly with consumers, and maximize awareness for strategic initiatives (events, promotions, partnerships). Several brands have also gained significant attention from user-generated content and word-of-mouth across social media which might not be reflected in the brands' own account metrics. In 2Q26, several brands had viral moments online including: 1) Cheesecake Factory's Linda's Chocolate Cake, Eggroll sampler, and Chicken Costoletta 'menu hack' went viral and contributed to strong sales results for the brand, w/ CAKE's own social media content playing into these trends; 2) 'My ___ Order' video trend for Taco Bell (YUM), SBUX, CMG, WING, and WEN; 3) continued popularity of the Chili's (EAT) Triple Dipper cheese pull trend; and 4) user- generated content for new menu items at Taco Bell, SG, & SHAK.

Instagram engagement increased y/y for select QSR brands in 2Q

• Chipotle's interaction growth (54%) likely reflects posts for the brand's free entrees promo during the NBA Finals, 'Wear a Soccer Jersey' BOGO, Father's Day, National Burrito Day, Chipotle Honey Chicken, and Jarritos partnership.
• Wendy's interaction growth (162%) is likely from posts for the return of the Sweet and Sour sauce, Minions & Monsters menu, Ice Spice Spicy Chicken Sandwich campaign, merch and rewards drops, the Cookie Dough Frosty Fusion, the Wendy's look-alike contest, and the new Chief Tasting Officer.
• McDonald's interaction growth (45%) is likely from posts for KPop Demon Hunters collaboration, Stranger Things Tales from '85 Happy Meal, new beverage lineup, Nike Book 2 shoe collaboration, and the world cup meal w/ collectible cup and happy meal (Squishmallows).
• Starbucks' interaction growth (43%) likely reflects posts for the new energy refresher lineup, Unicorn Frappuccino at Coachella, S'mores Frappuccino return, Devil Wears Prada 2 collaboration, new flavors (mango cream, tropical butterfly refresher, iced horchata, blue coconut), and world cup beverage sleeves.
• Jack in the Box's interaction growth (31%) is likely from posts for Smashed Jack Sliders & Hot Ones Munchie Meals, April fools, and collectible pins.
• Wingstop's interaction growth (25%) is likely from posts for April Fool's, new Citrus Mojo flavor, Wrestlemania collab, Wingstop Hot Box, PopUp Bagels collab, Club Wingstop, and new chamoy sauce collab with Tajin.
• Sweetgreen's interaction growth (13%) is likely from posts for the wrap lineup, summer menu, chicken sesame crunch, and partnerships with influencers.

Instagram engagement increased across select casual-fine dining brands in 2Q

• LongHorn's interaction growth (26%) is likely from posts for the Steak Master Series, Father's Day, and consistent food posts.
• Applebee's interaction growth (17%) is likely from posts for $15.99 all-you-can-eat deal, Busch Light Apple re-release (i.e. BApplebees), 2 for $25 deal, Father's Day Dollarita deal, Poolio with Don Julio drink, and posts about Applebee's | IHOP dual-brand locations.
• Chili's interaction growth (2%) is likely from posts for Margarita of the Month, Chili's Food Court collab with Trisha Paytas, Spire Motor Sports collaboration, Triple Dipper, and skillet cookie + molten chocolate cake menu hack.
• Cheddar's interaction growth (170%) is likely from posts for NASCAR sponsorship and partnerships with influencers.

Other notable Instagram/TikTok takeaways from analysis (data inside):

1. The Instagram total interactions leaderboard includes MCD, KFC, SBUX, Burger King (QSR), Taco Bell (YUM), BROS, CMG.
2. The TikTok total followers leaderboard includes MCD, Burger King (QSR), KFC (YUM), DPZ, SBUX, Taco Bell (YUM), CMG, WING.
3. Brands with the most Instagram follower growth in 2Q include PLAY, BROS, CMG, Popeyes (QSR), and CAVA.
4. Brands with the most TikTok follower growth in 2Q include Cheddar's (DRI), LongHorn (DRI), Applebee's (DIN), Popeyes (QSR), and Outback (BLMN).
5. DPZ's June interaction growth (89%) is from posts for a 50% off LTO, world cup videos showcasing DPZ menu items around the world, and the new slice sauce.
6. Outback Steakhouse's June interaction growth (137%) is from posts for Father's Day, Aussie JAWSsie drink w/ hammerhead shark, their Propa Good Steak, joint posts with influencers, world cup, and the Down Under Trio.
7. LongHorn's 167% TikTok follower growth in 2Q could be attributed to strong interactions across the brand's Steak Master Series posts and consistent food posts.
8. Applebee's 103% 2Q26 TikTok follower growth can be attributed to strong interactions on posts for Busch Light Apple and value deals (incl. 2 for $25, all-you-can-eat for $15.99).
9. 2Q26 Instagram interactions were down y/y for Olive Garden (-78%) and Cava (-63%) due to lapping of viral posts from 2Q25.

Instagram Analysis - 2Q26

The big takeaway is that one viral social media campaign can capture younger consumers' attention and instantly translate online engagement into a surge in restaurant traffic and delivery orders. 

Really seems like Olive Garden's social media team needs a revamp. 

Professional subscribers can find more consumer trends here at our new Marketdesk.ai portal. It's just one search away. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/10/2026 - 06:55

Bitcoin 'Red Team' Says AI Is Finding 100s Of Critical Exploits Across Core Projects

Authored by Jason Nelson via Decrypto.co,

A volunteer security initiative says it used frontier AI models to scan 150 Bitcoin repositories and found more than a dozen vulnerabilities as developers increasingly use artificial intelligence to audit blockchains.

In a post on X earlier this week, AnchorWatch CEO Rob Hamilton said the group has spent about $20,000 on AI services while building a "Bitcoin red team" platform.

“We have been working around the clock, with ~$20,000 of spend up to this point across different services,” he wrote.

“Funding is secured, I appreciate all the gestures for donations but it is not necessary. The bill is taken care of.”

A red team refers to cybersecurity professionals who test software from an attacker's perspective, probing for vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.

According to Hamilton, the Bitcoin red team uses Kimi K3 alongside OpenAI’s GPT Sol, Anthropic’s Claude Fable and Opus models, and Z.ai’s GLM 5.2 to identify vulnerabilities and generate supporting documentation.

“We also have been connected with OpenAI for some help so I could manage getting the Cyber Harness running as well,” he wrote.

“It's a much more expensive scan, but well worth it for load-bearing portions of the Bitcoin ecosystem and has already yielded good results.”

Pseudonymous Bitcoin developer Calle said the initiative has built multiple AI-powered review systems targeting wallets, cryptographic libraries, infrastructure, and other Bitcoin projects.

"We're averaging on the order of one critical exploit per hour per person,” Calle wrote on X.

“We've reported critical vulnerabilities to several projects in the last 12 hours. Thankfully, this is a very expensive exercise. We're burning through $10,000 per day."

According to Calle, in the first 29.8 hours of its operation, its team has found 4,962 potential issues across 390 projects.

As many as 720 of them are considered high- or critical-level issues.

So far, 21.4% of findings have been able to be reproduced. 

The team did not disclose which projects were affected or provide details of the vulnerabilities.

The announcement comes as AI is playing a growing role in finding security flaws across the crypto industry.

Earlier this year, researchers using Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.8 uncovered a four-year-old flaw in Zcash that could have allowed attackers to create unlimited counterfeit ZEC. In August, Coinkite said it believes attackers used AI to identify the Coldcard wallet vulnerability, while Bitcoin bridge Boltz suspended its swap service after saying attackers were using AI to identify vulnerabilities faster than its team could patch them.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/10/2026 - 06:30

"We're Here To Destroy The White Race": Democratic Socialist Of America Hero Declares War On West

Marxist streamer Hasan Piker has emerged as an increasingly visible, if unofficial, spokesman for the Democratic Socialists of America's rapidly expanding political action network. He campaigned for Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong while cultivating close ties with socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

From an electoral-risk perspective, Piker is becoming a liability for Democrats. His far-left, anti-American rhetoric provides Republicans with what we called "a gift" last week. Even Hillary Clinton warned on Friday that the GOP's "anti-communist messaging is very effective."

💥NEW: Hillary Clinton: "It's not just about Michigan — but the Republican messaging is: 'communist, socialist.' It's gonna be a VERY effective attack." pic.twitter.com/PS6ObKoZli

— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) August 7, 2026

The Democratic Party's failure to formally denounce Piker and distance itself from his agenda...

Piker calls on his followers to "kill capitalists":

Hasan Piker calls on his followers to kill capitalists:

“Yeah kill them! KiII those motherfuckers and murder those motherfuckers in the streets. Let the streets soak in their fucking red capitalist blood, dude.”

Democrats are campaigning with him. pic.twitter.com/YiZxGgRkgc

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) April 9, 2026

Piker: "We want more immigrants to come into your countries and then they're gonna f**k your sisters and then your daughters. We're here to destroy the White Race, Bitch."

Hasan Piker says he wants to FLOOD illegals into the United States so they can "f*ck your sisters and daughters" to "destroy the white race"

I am demanding the Democratic Party voice PUBLICLY that they denounce Hasan Piker's comments.

If they don't, let this post be proof…

— Jack (@jackunheard) August 7, 2026

Piker: "Overall, my favorite flag is Hezbollah." 

Hasan Piker, sitting at a table with an LGBTQ+ flag, says: “Overall, my favorite flag is Hezbollah.”

He’s actively campaigning with Democrat senate and gubernatorial candidates. pic.twitter.com/9QrtKqMKnl

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) August 4, 2026

Piker: "America deserved 9/11. I do not support the United States of America." 

Hasan Piker: “America deserved 9/11. I do not support the United States of America.”

Currently campaigning with Abdul El-Seyed. pic.twitter.com/LDjizrQgVN

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) August 4, 2026

Piker: "I don't have any sort of patriotism in my heart for America."

Hasan Piker: "I don't have any sort of patriotism in my heart for America."

This is the same guy who praises Communist China every chance he gets, and he's now the face Bernie, AOC, and El-Sayed want fronting the Democrat Party. Scary stuff. 😳 pic.twitter.com/Dr4enTuIhC

— 🇺🇸 David J. Urban 🇺🇸 (@DavidJUrban) August 7, 2026

...deserves considerable scrutiny.

🚨 Hasan Piker quotes:

✅ America deserved 9/11

✅ Go back to Auschwitz

✅ Let the streets run red with capitalist blood

✅ Racist comments about blacks and Asians

✅ Supports China, Russia, Cuba

✅ Supports Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis

— 🇺🇸 Jason Curtis Anderson (@JCAndersonNYC) August 8, 2026

Piker's close proximity to DSA-aligned candidates, combined with anti-American rhetoric and revolutionary Marxism that is hostile to America's political and capitalist system, has federal investigators examining the possibility that revolutionary activity is being supported by foreign subversion networks:

• Hasan Piker Says Quiet Part Out Loud, Maps Radical Left NGO Network To China-Based Marxist Financier
• Feds Subpoena Hasan Piker, CodePink Cofounder Over "Humanitarian" Trip To Communist Cuba
• Feds Nab Alleged Member Of "Sprawling" Cuban Communist Subversion Network Linked To Hasan Piker's Havana Trip
• "Americans Deserve To Know": State Dept. Report Details Cuban Espionage, Subversion, And Role In Rise Of Far Left

Piker is becoming such a liability for America's left that a potential inflection point may have been reached.

JNS reports that the University of Washington has decided to cancel a scheduled Piker event. This taxpayer-funded institution offers extensive coursework shaped by Marxist, feminist, and other far-left frameworks while placing limited emphasis on capitalism. If even one of America's most progressive universities now views Piker as a liability, it may signal the beginning of a broader retreat from America-hating communists who spread hateful and violent rhetoric among America's youth.

"I'm happy that the University of Washington, for literally the first time ever, has made the correct decision to not have an America-hating communist spread his hatred and terrible ideology to young people at our taxpayer-funded universities," Travis Couture, a Republican state representative, told JNS.

"Obviously universities are a place for First Amendment free speech, but someone who said that America deserves 9/11 and that capitalist blood should spill in the street should not be someone we are promoting with our tax dollars," Couture said.

"Every elected official and taxpayer-funded organization should be asked to condemn socialism, communism and Democratic Socialists of America people like Hasan Piker," Couture told JNS. "If they will not condemn those people, actions and extreme ideology, then they should be disqualified from serving the people of Washington state."

The cancellation suggests that his political toxicity may now outweigh his usefulness in mobilizing socialist and Marxist candidates who campaign on positions that denounce America and capitalism and are deeply unpopular with mainstream voters.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/10/2026 - 06:11

"Chuds" Rejoice As Woke Video Game Studio Bethesda Crushed By Mass Layoffs

From around 2014 through 2023 nearly every aspect of western pop culture from movies to television to comic books to video games to marketing was invaded by what seemed like a highly coordinated horde of far-left activists.  This subversive coup in entertainment launched what many now refer to as the "woke era" in western politics, giving birth to the infamous concepts of "cancel culture" and "DEI".  

The movement was incredibly well supported with billions in funding through ESG lending and government subsidies.  Politicians protected them from legal consequences and helped to censor their opponents.  Mainstream journalists lavished them with praise and ran propaganda to tear down critics. 

NGOs funneled easy cash into any organization that declared its fealty to the progressive multicultural agenda.  True beleivers were planted into every level of every media industry.  Those companies that did not immediately comply were extorted into conformity with threats of mob harassment, accusations of "bigotry" and potential boycotts. 

    

Numerous corporations fully embraced and enabled the spread of the woke mind virus.  Even though the political left often claims they are "fighting against the elitist class", their entire movement owes its existence to corporate and government support.

The battle against the woke takeover had been bubbling under the surface for many years as a rebellion was waged by a small but scrappy alternative media.  However, at that time, the public was largely unaware of the psy-op that was targeting them.  There was nowhere near enough popular momentum to stop the coup.  All the political left had to do was deny that any such an agenda existed.  It was "all in people's heads" and a product of "conspiracy theory." 

Then, leftist activists hijacked video games and video game journalism, injected the industry with woke messaging and pissing off millions of gamers.  After that, everything changed. 

"Gamergate" was born and the anti-feminist, anti-DEI movement exploded like wildfire.  What Gamergate accomplished, mainly, was forcing the issue into the mainstream and forcing the establishment media to acknowledge that a coordinated invasion was taking place.  Journalists went from denying the existence of the agenda to openly defending the agenda as a good thing. 

One game development studio that stood at the forefront of the woke mob and aggressively engaged in the culture war against traditional western storytelling was Bethesda Softworks, a subsidiary of Microsoft.  Once a legendary studio famous for the "Fallout" franchise, the company ultimately reveled in the subversion of their largely straight, male audience and sought to "teach the Chuds a lesson" by destroying everything they held dear. 

Asmongold reacts to Bethesda employees being forced to tear down a memorial for laid off coworkers

"Yesterday's layoffs at Bethesda cut 14 layers of management, we lost dozens of programmers, artists, designers and testers, many of whom worked on BGS for decades"

"Apparently… pic.twitter.com/Df7iygAMXF

— Asmongold Daily (@Asmongold_Daily) July 10, 2026

Simultaneously, Bethesda was engaging in political support for activist projects like Black Lives Matter and LGBT pride.  The virtue signaling was off the charts.  The fight with the studio hit a crescendo with the release of "Starfield", an open world sci-fi game that seemed to focus more on DEI and pronouns than creative storytelling.  The game was meant to be Bethesda's crowing achievement, but it failed due to gamer boycotts.

Starfield, which cost around $400 million to produce, was met with a mediocre reception and within a few months player numbers crashed by 90%.  Evidence suggests the game never actually made a profit.  The ongoing failures of Bethesda contributed to the wider cuts by Microsoft/X Box and studio was hit particularly hard. 

In 2026, the Chuds are rejoicing over the collapse of studios like Bethesda, and rightly so.  Gamers tried to warn them but they refused to listen.   

Last month, Microsoft announced a financial "reset" which led to structural layoffs.  As a result, Bethesda has now fired an estimated 30%-40% of employees with a large number of developers being kicked to the curb.  It should come as no surprise that most of these employees look exactly as you might expect: A gaggle of socialist circus freaks.    

Seeing these former employees all together in one place makes it perfectly clear what caused Bethesda to implode.

Some analysts theorize that the Microsoft culling is actually meant to rectify mistakes from the woke era and purge activist troublemakers from their payroll.  A large number of corporations have been doing the same thing in recent years after realizing there is no market for DEI in media.  Having the faintest smell of social justice propaganda in their products leads to collapsing sales. 

By extension, woke activist employees are notorious for creating problems from thin air and litigating against their employers.  There's really no downside to firing them.    

The delusion these former developers suffer from is embarrassing.  They seem convinced that their projects were financially successful, but if that was the case they would not be losing their jobs en masse.  The event is yet another example of the entitlement mentality that has infected corporate employees today; they treat any firing as if it is a violation of someone's civil rights.  If a worker believes that a company is supposed to value their livelihood above making a profit, that person is not mentally equipped to function in the real world.

Remaining workers at the company staged a mock memorial for their fired comrades, as if they had died in the line of duty.  It's more evidence for why their hands should never come near media content ever again. They should be serving overpriced coffee at Starbucks, not influencing $400 million media projects.

For the conservatives who still don't understand the importance of pop media and video games when it comes to the greater political conflict in the west, just know that it doesn't matter if you don't get it; just know that the political left does get it.  They almost successfully pirated the entire western world by taking control of entertainment media and saturating it with woke indoctrination. 

If it's important to them, it should damn well be important to you.  

Politics is downstream from culture.  Win the culture war, win the west.  It's that simple.  Video games represent the biggest slice of the media industry by far and this is where younger generations are going to congregate and form their collective views.  Luckily, they saw the takeover coming and moved to intercept before it was too late. 

At least greater populist movements are more aligned with the importance of the culture war and what it represents in recent years.  There are still numerous problems with getting everyone on the same page, but compared to a decade ago, the improvement has been dramatic.  The fact that "Get Woke, Go Broke" has become a rule rather than a mantra is a bit of a miracle.    

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/10/2026 - 05:45

He Just Bought It From A Shop...

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

A young British man walked out of a Manchester shop with a brand new baseball bat still sealed in its factory plastic packaging. Within moments, multiple police officers were on him, treating the purchase as a weapon and detaining him in full view of the street.

The footage, which spread rapidly on Sunday, captures the absolute state of policing in modern Britain. Officers challenge the lad, physical contact follows, backup including motorbike units arrives, and he ends up in a police van.

The bat's plastic covering remains clearly visible throughout. No claim has emerged that he brandished it, threatened anyone, or used it for anything other than carrying it home after a legitimate purchase.

Meanwhile in Manchester ??

A British lad just bought a brand new baseball bat from a shop and is POUNCED upon by MULTIPLE police officers immediately after leaving the store.

The officers accuse him of "carrying a weapon" even though the bat was clearly brand new and just... pic.twitter.com/FNZGRQnYy5

— BRITAIN IS BROKEN ?? (@BROKENBRITAIN0) August 9, 2026

Under the Prevention of Crime Act 1953, officers can stop and check items that could be used as offensive weapons in public if there is no clear reasonable excuse. A brand-new bat still in its shop packaging, purchased moments earlier, is the definition of a reasonable excuse for any ordinary person. Yet the response was immediate and multi-officer.

This incident does not stand alone. It fits a documented pattern that has played out repeatedly under the current climate of policing.

In early July, footage from Birmingham showed a white teenager who had just been attacked by a group of black males. A female officer moved in, shielded the aggressors, and directed force at the victim.

Multiple officers then swarmed the white lad, used foul language including "You're going to walk to the car you fucking dick," forced him into a police car the wrong way, and dragged him back out.

A bystander trying to explain that the white teenager was the victim was ignored. The attackers left without consequence. West Midlands Police were reported to have discouraged further sharing of the footage rather than addressing the conduct on camera.

That same period produced further examples. South Yorkshire Police officers were filmed shoving, baton-wielding and pointing Tasers at teenage girls during a dispersal in Rotherham. The force itself described the short clip as appearing "nothing short of shocking."

Rotherham, of course, remains the site of the long-running grooming gangs scandal in which authorities failed for years to protect native British girls. Officers have also been captured manhandling a five-year-old boy, slamming a man's head into a metal bollard, and using heavy force against a military veteran simply sitting on a wall filming while stating he was doing nothing wrong.

The following days brought another layer of absurdity. Officers were filmed confronting people for standing around in public squares doing nothing, threatening arrest for filming in public on the grounds that presence "might" wind someone up and lead to a breach of the peace, and even entering a pub to warn a man over a critical tweet about a local councillor.

One Merseyside officer was caught calling a man legally filming a "nonce." Resources that should have been directed at actual violence were instead spent inventing pre-crime justifications against ordinary citizens exercising basic rights.

Meanwhile the daily reality on Britain's streets continues without pause. People are being stabbed and assaulted hour after hour, day after day. The endless stream of reports is dominated by migrants and feral gangs.

Knives, machetes and random street attacks fill the crime logs and the local news. Strangely, the videos of white British lads roaming around smashing people with baseball bats remain vanishingly rare.

The cameras and the officers somehow never seem to catch that particular threat in action. Yet a sealed bat bought from a shop is enough to trigger an immediate multi-officer response.

The common thread is selective aggression. Native British people going about lawful business - buying sports equipment, filming in public, standing still, or simply existing as the victim of an assault - face rapid, multi-officer responses.

Patterns of violence involving other demographics frequently receive a lighter touch or none at all. The Henry Nowak case remains the most egregious recent illustration: the white student handcuffed while dying after his killer falsely claimed racial abuse, while the actual attacker was not restrained in the same way.

Police chiefs have denied the existence of two-tier policing while acknowledging that the public perception is widespread. Anti-racism guidance that instructed officers not to treat everyone "the same" has been under review precisely because of the damage it has done to trust. The result on the ground is what the Manchester bat video shows: a young man treated as a threat for carrying a sealed item out of a shop.

Equal treatment under the law is not optional. When officers prioritise optics, ideology, or fear of certain accusations over consistent application of the rules, public confidence collapses.

A brand-new baseball bat in plastic is not a public order crisis. Treating it as one while real threats are managed with kid gloves is the crisis. Britons are watching these clips in growing numbers. The pattern is no longer deniable.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/10/2026 - 05:00

Trump Says "We Are Low Keying It" With Iran As Options For Walking Away Have Drastically Narrowed

Iran's IRGC is holding the line, reiterating that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen to international shipping only after the United States accepts all of its conditions, which we outlined previously. Also, on Saturday Iran's army spokesman Amir Akraminia stated that Iran's new protocols in the Strait of Hormuz are "irreversible" and shall not be thwarted by the US. "The United States has no choice but to accept the existing situation; otherwise, it will incur costs far greater than those it has faced in the past," Akraminia said. 

On Sunday, a fresh report in The Wall Street Journal states the obvious - that President Trump has fewer and fewer options and is being squeezed, with any opportunity to declare 'victory' and make swift exit more elusive than ever, given Washington would have to make huge compromises, including lifting sanctions and paying war compensation to Tehran. Nearly six months ago when the war started, many non-interventionist critics accurately predicted the quagmire and catch-22 the US now finds itself in. 

"For weeks, President Trump had been laying the groundwork to declare victory in the Iran war should Tehran fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, even floating the idea privately to senior aides that he’s willing to walk away without a nuclear deal, U.S. officials said," WSJ writes.

AFP/Getty Images

"But that scaled-back objective became more difficult when Iran insisted Saturday on its highest price yet for permitting the free flow of traffic in the waterway, seeking billions of dollars in U.S. payments, the removal of American troops from the region and an end of the U.S. naval blockade, among other things," the report adds.

In a parallel vein to this scaled-back, lower grade conflict, President Trump has freshly told Axios in a brief interview that "We are low keying it" in the Persian Gulf. This comes after a week ago he called off 'planned' 'harder' attacks on Iran, which may have been just a bluff all along. Tehran didn't blink, and it continues to press for maximal demands - as if to put 'maximum pressure' right back on Washington.

"We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money," Trump claimed. According to more from Axios:

• He stressed that Iran "is in very bad shape" economically and has no money to pay its troops. The U.S. naval blockade has exacerbated the Iranian regime's economic crisis, Trump said.
• At the same time, Trump said that with oil down to slightly over $75 a barrel, U.S. consumers are feeling less pain from the war.

Ironically, this is simply a return to administration talking points which defended the early days and weeks of a war that officials constantly touted would be 'swift' and limited.

The US hope was that Iran and its economy would just collapse from within, the masses would take to the streets, and the government of the Ayatollah would be overthrown. This has proven delusional time and again.

Instead, what we see happening is Washington being forced to move its bases back from front line areas in the Gulf, and officials including Trump himself constantly retreating from stated goals, objectives, and red lines. This is on display once again in the Sunday Axios interview:

Axios acknowledges that the new list of Iranian demands have gone from being the prerequisite for a nuclear deal to a prerequisite to opening the Strait. Trump now says the US is “low keying it” and focusing on economic pressure. In other words: the Strait will not be opening. https://t.co/AweQabOB8W pic.twitter.com/3TMsxXcfh7

— barry with the NED (@bonzerbarry) August 9, 2026

In the meantime, there have been various op-ed moments throughout the conflict where The Wall Street Journal has cheer-led Operation Epic Fury. But now that political desperation has set in, and the Iranians smell blood in the water - knowing they can play hardball and extract a bigger cost from the US - even the WSJ has been forced to drastically change its tune:

Iran’s ability to essentially choke off the waterway through sporadic missile and drone attacks has proven to be powerful leverage for the country, stalling commercial traffic and roiling global oil markets. Trump has declared repeatedly in recent weeks that the Strait of Hormuz was already fully open, but each of those promises has proven premature.

Now, with less than three months until the midterm elections and the price of gasoline still much higher than it was before the war started in late February, Trump has been looking for ways to tell the American public that the war is won.

It will be quite the spectacle if eventually a desperate Trump White House is forced to lift sanctions and hand over some form of war compensation. WSJ notes further, "One major complication for the Trump administration is money."

"Iran is seeking billions of dollars in war reparations in addition to an agreement to unfreeze the country’s assets around the world," the report adds. "Trump has said the White House wouldn’t allow any taxpayer money to go to Iran, although a deal appears unlikely without the U.S. unfreezing some assets, possibly with conditions attached."

Trump should have listened to the non-interventionists and he wouldn't have put himself and the American people in this mess. American troops would not have been caught so flat-footed and directly in harm's way (given what was clearly lack of proper US military planning and preparedness for Iran to fight back as fiercely as it did), and hundreds of Iranian civilian lives - including massacred schoolgirls - would have been sparred.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/10/2026 - 04:55

Sensitive Information Keeps Going To 'No Reply' Emails, And One Man Gets It All

A couple of security researchers have discovered that one of the internet’s most boring conventions, the fake “no reply” email address, can accidentally become a massive pipeline for private information, according to Wired.

Wired writes that security researcher Cory Solovewicz owns the domains noreply.net and noreply.us. Instead of being digital dead ends, the domains have been flooded with emails that companies apparently assumed nobody would ever receive. Since late 2024, noreply.net alone has collected roughly 400,000 messages, including more than 28,000 with attachments.

And this isn't ordinary spam. Solovewicz has received everything from government injury reports and repair orders to school account information and login credentials. In some cases, companies appear to be sending automated messages to addresses such as companyname@noreply.net under the assumption that the messages simply disappear.

“I created an accidental honeypot,” Solovewicz said. What began as a personal email experiment eventually turned into an effort to warn organizations that their own systems were leaking information. He has avoided publicly identifying the affected companies and has been contacting them about the problem.

Another researcher, Mike Sheward, stumbled onto essentially the same problem after spending about $15 on deleteduser.com. Within an hour, emails from three different organizations had already arrived. Since then, messages from at least 100 organizations have landed in domains he controls, including hotel reservations containing customers' names, vacation approval requests, Zoom invitations from a UK government agency and even information about Viagra orders.

One particularly troubling example involved an AI company that monitors industrial workers in the Middle East. Sheward says its systems mistakenly sent him thousands of CCTV images. The obvious concern is that researchers aren't the only people capable of buying these domains. Criminals, extortionists or foreign intelligence services could do exactly the same thing.

The two researchers have now purchased more than 30 domains in an effort to keep them away from malicious actors. Solovewicz also tested more than 7,000 potential placeholder domains and found 328 configured with catch-all inboxes, suggesting the problem could extend far beyond what they've already uncovered.

The frustrating part is that the problem is largely avoidable. Companies can use internal addresses or domains specifically designed not to resolve rather than assuming a random “noreply” or “deleted user” address goes nowhere.

As Solovewicz put it, companies need to stop assuming these domains are unmonitored: “You guys need to fix your systems.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/10/2026 - 04:15

Poland's Conservatives Propose Deporting Unemployed Ukrainian Men Of Military Age

Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

Poland’s opposition Law and Justice party (PiS) has proposed deporting Ukrainian men of military age who are living in the country without legal employment.

The measure was presented by PiS MEP Tobiasz Bocheński during the party’s “Towards a New Government” policy conference and would be pursued if PiS returned to power.

“It is not about deporting everyone, only those who are here, do not work legally and are of military age,” party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński told journalists, as cited by Do Rzcezy.

PiS has defended the policy by arguing that men who are not working legally in Poland should return to Ukraine, where they could contribute to the country’s defense and ease pressure on its armed forces.

“This is helping Ukraine in terms of mobilization,” Kaczyński said, claiming Kyiv faces a serious shortage of military personnel, and should Russia seek to mobilize further after legislative elections in September, Ukraine must be prepared.

PiS spokesman Rafał Bochenek said similar proposals were being discussed elsewhere in Western Europe.

“Men who don’t work in our country should work and be active on the front lines, because that’s where their homeland is,” Bochenek said.

“It’s not Poles or other nationalities who should be sent to the front lines, but Ukrainians who should defend their homeland.”

Relations between Poland and Ukraine have deteriorated over Kyiv’s commemoration of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and nationalist figures linked to the massacres of Poles in Volhynia during World War II.

In June, Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, of the Order of the White Eagle after Ukraine named a military unit in honor of the “heroes of the UPA.”

Zelensky later announced plans for a National Pantheon that could include Ukrainian nationalist figures connected to the Volhynia massacres.

Ukraine’s parliament subsequently backed draft legislation supporting the project.

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/10/2026 - 03:30

Megacities Are Booming

The number of people living in megacities has been growing significantly for decades, rising from 2.5 percent in 1950 to 16.4 percent of city dwellers in 2020.

As Statista's Katharina Buchholz details below, according to UN projections, this figure will continue to rise slightly before stabilizing at around the current level by 2050.

You will find more infographics at Statista

At the same time, living in smaller cities is becoming less widespread.

The share of the urban population living in places with between 50,000 and 500,000 inhabitants fell from 50.8 percent to 38.6 percent during the same period.

This development reflects the global trend of urbanization.

Economic opportunities, better infrastructure and in some cases political instability in the countryside have been driving the growth of large metropolitan areas.

However, this increasing concentration has also been exacerbating challenges that are typical for urban centers, for example housing shortages, overcrowded transport and an increased strain on the environment.

Another challenge for city planners are so-called heat islands, where urban concrete jungles act as heat reservoirs and exhibit much higher temperatures than less dense areas with more vegetation and other natural features. The prevalence of tall buildings and narrow streets can also reduce wind speeds, meaning it takes longer for accumulated heat to dissipate. This additional heat stress, combined with the higher levels of air pollution observed in many cities, compounds negative impacts on human health.

However, the UN anticipates that the growth of the largest cities will slow down in the future. While the share of city dwellers living in megacities is expected to rise to 17 percent by 2030, it is then projected to stagnate and decline slightly by 2050 to 16.3 percent. At the same time, the development of medium-sized cities – those with populations of 5 to 10 million – is expected to speed up, hosting a share of 10.6 percent of city inhabitants by 2050.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/10/2026 - 02:45

UK Intelligence Suddenly Warns Of 'Civil War' Plot Against Migrants... Convenient Demonization?

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

Intelligence officials are warning that a group of Republican extremists in Ireland, known as the New IRA, is preparing a campaign of violence to drive migrants out of the country, complete with talk of civil war and 24-hour ultimatums.

The claims, amplified across major outlets this weekend, arrive at a moment when frustration with mass migration and the crimes linked to it has reached boiling point on both sides of the border.

Whether the threat is as advanced as portrayed, or whether the timing serves to tar ordinary opposition to open borders with the brush of terrorism, remains an open question.

New IRA terrorists plan to drive migrants out of Ireland with campaign of violence, intelligence officials reveal https://t.co/EJsYzQtnfb

— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) August 8, 2026

Security sources told the Mail on Sunday that the New IRA has two aims: Irish independence and "all migrants out."

One source stated: "The New IRA have been very active this year in the North in attacks against the Police Service of Northern Ireland, at Lurgan police station and a car bomb at Dunmurry. They have two aims: Irish independence and all migrants out. We believe it is part of a power struggle going on between factions within the group of the old IRA, the Real and the New IRA, with the new incarnations advocating a campaign of violent intimidation."

A video circulating on a far-right platform featured an unidentified man declaring: "They will take control, and they will give an ultimatum, not to politicians but to the illegal migrants who are in the country."

UK on alert as New IRA 'hatches civil war plot to drive migrants out of Ireland'
https://t.co/1p95lMFMFQ

— GB News (@GBNEWS) August 9, 2026

He added: "It is now going to be time for civil war, and that is exactly what these guys are going to be doing and can you blame them? This will be a major wake-up call for the authorities. These guys will show them how it's done and give them 24 hours to leave."

UK officials are said to be on alert that any such campaign could push migrants north across the open land border into Northern Ireland and then into Great Britain. The Home Office offered its standard line: "We have a close and collaborative working relationship with Ireland on migration and border security. This includes a mutual commitment to protect the Common Travel Area from abuse, delivered through joint work to identify and tackle migration trends as they emerge."

The New IRA has been active this year. In July, 25-year-old law student Isobella Perrie Sullivan was charged with possessing explosives after a device was found in a vehicle in the Republic.

The group maintains social-media links with Scottish nationalist circles. Yet the sudden prominence given to its alleged anti-migrant turn sits against a backdrop of repeated, graphic failures of the migration system that the same authorities have struggled to address.

In June 2026, the stabbing of Stephen Ogilvie in Belfast, allegedly by Sudanese asylum seeker Hadi Alodid, triggered serious disorder. Earlier that month an African migrant was filmed in a north Belfast street attack, straddling a local man and attempting to saw his head off with a Stanley knife. Bystanders had to stop him. Official descriptions reduced it to a "stabbing."

The previous summer saw three nights of anti-immigration riots across Northern Ireland after alleged sex crimes involving non-native teenagers in Ballymena. Homes burned, more than thirty officers were injured, and residents marked doors with Union flags simply to avoid being targeted.

Footage of two-tier policing continues to surface. In Dungannon, a group of armed foreign youths appeared in a Protestant area carrying knives and sticks. A local man picked up a stick. Police ran past the armed group and arrested him.

Against this record, the rapid elevation of a New IRA "civil war plot" risks collapsing legitimate public rejection of mass migration into the same category as paramilitary activity.

The framing is neat. It allows officials and media to present the choice as between "terrorists" and the status quo, while the underlying drivers of anger remain largely untouched.

That pattern sits inside a wider set of warnings that have been issued for years. Professor David Betz of King's College London has stated that many European countries are already in a pre-civil war condition. "Europe is on track for civil war," he has said, adding that societies are "past the tipping point."

Retired Colonel Richard Kemp has been equally direct. He has predicted "not just civil unrest but civil war in the UK in the coming years" because governments lack the will to confront the causes. "The people will feel they have no option than to take action into their own hands," he has warned.

Elon Musk told an interviewer that civil war in Britain is "inevitable" once a large, rapidly growing population holds beliefs antithetical to Western norms. "If you have a large and growing, rapidly growing, group of people whose beliefs are antithetical to western beliefs, at some point there will be a reckoning," he said.

Meanwhile the British state continues practical preparations. Households have been urged to stockpile food, water and medicines. Major home-defence wargames are scheduled for 2027. Official explanations point to hybrid threats and Russia. Analysts note the overlap with the internal risks Betz and others have described.

Britain's path has not been accidental. Decades of elite-driven demographic change, two-tier enforcement and refusal to maintain borders have produced the conditions now being exploited.

The sudden focus on a New IRA anti-migrant campaign allows the conversation to shift from those failures to the more comfortable territory of "extremism."

Ordinary people who simply reject the scale and consequences of mass migration find their concerns quietly folded into the same narrative.

The Common Travel Area once symbolised cooperation. Combined with uncontrolled inflows it has become a pressure valve. Violence or intimidation in one jurisdiction simply moves the problem into the other. Carefully worded assurances about "joint work" do not reverse the changes already locked in.

What is unfolding is not solely a republican revival. It is one more indication that the open-borders experiment has broken the social contract. When street-level reality includes beheading attempts, sex attacks and selective policing, while official messaging pivots to paramilitary threats against migrants, public trust evaporates further.

The New IRA may be small. The decision to elevate its alleged new focus at this precise moment still serves a useful purpose: it reframes resistance to mass migration as something darker than simple self-preservation.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/10/2026 - 02:00

Globalism Must Be Vanquished

 Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker,

Today’s internationalists were yesterday’s imperialists...

Some politically charged words become part of our common vocabulary almost overnight.  “Globalism” is a timely example.  Ten or fifteen years ago, calling someone a “globalist” didn’t have much effect.  Today, it is well understood as a pejorative that highlights someone’s allegiance to international institutions over those created within a nation state.

Although the term has been used in various academic circles for more than a century, it didn’t become part of our common political parlance until anti-Establishment conservatives in the United States and Europe found it a useful taxonomic description of their ideological opponents.  In hindsight, it is surprising how long the word “globalism” remained dormant and hidden away in the context of political speech and debate.

During the Cold War, however, the world was divided between the Soviet Union and the United States, between communism and freedom, between closed economies and open markets.  To the extent that nationalism and globalism were distinguished from each other, academics and political leaders did so under the umbrella of the Cold War contest between East and West to gobble up as many nation states as possible.  Both sides embraced a “domino theory” of geopolitics in which partisans fought for global domination, one nation at a time.

There was, however, an intentional, albeit rarely described, linguistic shift from the 1950s forward.  In newspapers and scholarly essays of the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, “nationalism” and “patriotism” were largely used interchangeably.  Following WWII, “nationalism” increasingly acquired a negative connotation until eventually becoming a proxy word for “fascism” or “Nazism.”  In our current age, prominent political and academic leaders speak of “nationalism” as if it were a virulent form of racism, imperialism, and authoritarianism rolled into one malevolent philosophy.  In contrast, until rather recently, “patriotism” retained a positive meaning, even though its Greek roots describe a person’s connection to “fellow countrymen” and the “fatherland.”  If only one of these two words — “nationalism” or “patriotism” — were to survive WWII unchanged, a reasonable person might have wagered that “nationalism” seemed more innocuous and less “problematic” for contemporary sensibilities and therefore more likely to endure with its politically neutral meaning intact.  “Patriotism,” on the other hand, with its emotional appeal to the “fatherland,” might have appeared more objectionable.  Instead, “nationalism” was eventually demonized for its semantic connection to the “national socialism” of the Nazi Party, while “patriotism” was embraced as an essential quality for Western citizens fighting the Soviet Union’s communist expansion during the Cold War.  This was not a historical accident.

After WWII, there was a concerted effort among political and intellectual leaders in the West to use the destruction from two catastrophic global wars as a profound moral argument for charting a new course for humanity.  Framing the carnage of those wars as the natural result of unbridled “nationalism,” architects of the post-war world put their faith in international institutions.  The United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the European Union all emerged immediately after WWII but so did a thousand new international bodies constructed to do everything from standardizing industrial production in factories around the world to regulating the movement of people and goods across borders.  “Internationalism” was sold as an antidote to war and therefore became almost synonymous with “peace.”  The dichotomy between “nationalism” and “internationalism” was much easier to advance publicly than a contrast between patriotic love of country and an unpatriotic hatred for one’s countrymen.  The United Nations decided that patriots could be internationalists.  Nobody asked out loud whether internationalists could be patriots.

This paradigm has remained attractive for its simplicity but never made much sense.

For starters, German Nazism, Italian fascism, and Japanese imperialism (in which an absolute monarch was worshipped as a deity) were not inherently dangerous because their proponents organized power through national governments.  They were dangerous because they were totalitarian in nature and compelled citizens to sacrifice themselves completely in the interest of the State.  Had the Germans, Italians, and Japanese strongly believed in limiting government power and maximizing personal freedom, respect for individual rights would have kept expansive authoritarianism in check.

It is illogical to assume that international forms of government are somehow more humanitarian or philanthropic than national forms, just as it is illogical to assume that national forms of government are more just and capable of representing citizens than local municipal governments.  One might ask what the difference is between the Green Party in Germany demanding total civilian obedience to “global warming” mandates and a group of international ambassadors demanding the same thing through the Paris Climate Accords.  Are the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change somehow less totalitarian because international bureaucrats are regulating the behavior of both Germans and non-Germans alike?

Would we not describe the great empires of the past as “globalist” or “international” in nature?  Did Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, or Cecil Rhodes not swallow up entire nations when they expanded the territorial dominions of their respective empires?  How does one distinguish those global empires from modern equivalents such as the European Union or the United Nations?  Surely the average European, Asian, or African finds it just as difficult to object to an edict coming from the E.U. or U.N. as it would have been for Europeans, Asians, or Africans of the past to resist imperial edicts from faraway capitals.  Had Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, or Queen Victoria described their empires as “united nations,” would their conquests have been considered more just and peaceful?

In other words, have we not simply rebranded imperialism as “internationalism” and pretended that the rhetorical distinction represents “progress”?

This brings us to the current day, when we are finally having a meaningful debate regarding the merits of “nationalism” versus “globalism.”  As has become all too evident in recent years, globalists really do wish to dispense with the nation state.  But they are not content with merely replacing national governments with international institutions.  Decades of open borders policies in North America and Europe reveal globalism’s true goal: to eradicate the vestiges of culture and history that bind a nation’s people together.  In the United States, it is quite common to see immigrants flying their “home” flags in sports stadiums, while mainstream news pundits describe the American flag as a form of “white supremacy.”  Across the United Kingdom, government officials are cracking down on citizens who wave British flags.  On both sides of the Atlantic, globalists berate citizens for not embracing “multiculturalism.”  We have finally reached a point when “patriotism” is demonized just as much as “nationalism.”

Without nations or patriots, where does that leave us?  It leaves us with continental landmasses filled with strangers.  Instead of people bound by common history, culture, religion, values, language, and family, North America and Europe are being transformed into spaces defined by absolutely nothing.  America’s new immigrants want to do away with the political ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.  Europe’s new immigrants insist on replacing all the Christian churches with mosques.  Both continents are heading for a future when tribes of distinct peoples will fight for political power within turbulent territories that remain nations in name only.  Does anyone really believe that they will put aside their disagreements and obey the international proclamations of the United Nations or the European Union?

Eighty years of “internationalism” have destroyed the most natural political order that has ever existed: the nation state.  Now entire continents are filled with immigrants whose incompatible cultures ensure future conflict.  And instead of recognizing how destructive their policies have been across the West, globalists have the audacity to ridicule nationalists as threats to peace.  

The most important lesson from WWII was not that nations are bad but that totalitarian government is evil.  

Globalists sacrificed the former and embraced the latter.  

Westerners will now have to defeat globalism, too.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 23:20

Netanyahu Rejects Gaza Plan: Israel Won't Withdraw Until Hamas Is 'Genuinely Disarmed'

Authored by Tom Gantert via The Epoch Times,

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu restated on Aug. 9 that Israel has rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's Board of Peace's plan for Gaza and will not withdraw until Hamas is fully disarmed.

Palestinians walk past the rubble of residential buildings destroyed during the war, at Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on Aug. 5, 2026. Mahmoud Issa/Reuters

Trump posted on Truth Social in July that an agreement had been reached for the complete disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza.

Trump said the agreement is part of his plan that will be implemented in phases. As disarmament takes place, Israeli forces would withdraw, while an International Stabilization Force and a new Palestinian police force would assume responsibility for security.

Gaza would ultimately be governed by a new Palestinian government working with the Board of Peace.

The Board of Peace is an international organization chaired by Trump that seeks to promote stability, establish lawful governance, and secure lasting peace in areas affected by conflict. Its founding members include the United States, Israel, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and more than 20 other countries committed to international peace-building efforts, according to its website.

Speaking at the start of a government meeting on Aug. 9, Netanyahu said disarmament must include all of Hamas's weapons and must be genuine rather than "fictitious."

He said Israel is discussing the issue with the United States and that some U.S. proposals are acceptable to Israel, while others are not.

Netanyahu also said Israeli forces would continue acting against threats to Israeli troops and civilians.

He rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state.

"As for the Gaza Strip: First and foremost, I wish to clarify the main point: As long as I am Prime Minister, a Palestinian state will not be established, neither in Gaza nor in Judea and Samaria," Netanyahu said in a statement.

He also addressed Iran and Lebanon, pledging to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and saying Israel is conducting an important military operation in Lebanon aimed at eliminating threats.

Israel has been conducting operations in Lebanon.

Two Israeli reservists were killed and four others were seriously wounded during operations recently in southern Lebanon, according to the Israeli military. Lebanese authorities said an Israeli strike also killed one person and wounded 12 others in the town of Tibnin, Lebanon.

Israel gave an evacuation warning to residents before the strike.

The incidents come as the United States conducts talks aimed at reducing hostilities along the Israel-Lebanon border and advancing a broader peace agreement. U.S. officials said the discussions include the disarmament of Hezbollah and other Iran-backed threats, the redeployment of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, and the implementation of a pilot zone process transferring security responsibilities to the Lebanese army.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 22:10

"Narco-Socialist Rats Better Start Running": Colombia's Trump-Backed "El Tigre" Launches Major Offensive Against FARC

Trump-backed Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella wasted no time putting his law-and-order agenda into high gear, launching a major military offensive against Marxist FARC dissidents days after taking office on Friday. 

"The new government's kinetic approach is already underway in southwestern Colombia," local outlet Colombia One wrote on Sunday. 

The report continued, "A military operation is currently unfolding against the FARC dissidents led by alias' Ivan Mordisco' in the department of Cauca. The combats are heavily concentrated in the rural area of El Tambo, where initial reports indicate that at least five members of the dissident structure have been killed." 

De La Espriella announced on Sunday evening that Colombia and the United States are strengthening their strategic alliance: 

Colombia and the United States strengthen their strategic alliance. Following the inauguration of President Abelardo De La Espriella, the United States announced its intention to allocate USD 1 billion for a new security package for Colombia, which must be processed in coordination with the U.S. Congress. The new bilateral agenda seeks to bolster the capabilities of our Public Force, intensify the fight against drug trafficking and transnational crime, regain territorial control, and expand technological and intelligence cooperation. A new stage in the relationship between Colombia and the United States, based on shared objectives: security, prosperity, and defense of our nations

Colombia y Estados Unidos fortalecen su alianza estratégica.

Tras la posesión del presidente Abelardo De La Espriella, Estados Unidos anunció su intención de destinar USD 1.000 millones para un nuevo paquete de seguridad para Colombia, que deberá ser tramitado en coordinación… pic.twitter.com/cUN28Lg5em

— Presidencia Colombia 🇨🇴 (@infopresidencia) August 9, 2026

Footage of the offensive:

🚨 | URGENTE:

Avanzan los operativos para capturar o eliminar al criminal guerrillero FARC Alias Mordisco, no descansan los héroes de la patria, y menos, nuestro mandatario, el tigre Abelardo.

¡Llegó la Patria Milagro! pic.twitter.com/cB24KU9vWN

— Santiago Alvarán (@SALVARANM) August 9, 2026

🚨 #ÚltimaHora | Máxima tensión en El Tambo, Cauca. Fuertes combates entre el @COL_EJERCITO y las disidencias de las FARC (frente Carlos Patiño) dejan al menos 5 criminales abatidos en la vereda El Recuerdo y el cerro Santana.

La población civil permanece confinada por el fuego… pic.twitter.com/wp3brB4g0Z

— Revista Político (@RevistaPolitico) August 9, 2026

Esto es diciendo y haciendo: Comenzaron los operativos contra las Farc en Cauca. Las ratas narcosocialistas a correr y el glorioso Ejército a cumplir su deber constitucional.

Vamos a ver cuánto tiempo se demoran los alcahuetas de los terroristas es salir a berriar por esas… pic.twitter.com/BRkSEqqyZ2

— Carlos Ayala.Ozarco (@AyalaCarlOzarco) August 9, 2026

🇨🇴🇧🇷‼️COLÔMBIA: Pelo menos 4 caças Kfir da Fuerza Aeroespacial teriam decolado da base de Tolemaida com destino à Amazônia.

Segundo informações preliminares, o alvo seria a localização de alias Iván Mordisco, líder das dissidências das FARC (EMC).

O movimento ocorre logo após a… pic.twitter.com/o3S2ygiFGS

— Conservatism And Elegance 🇺🇲 (@ThayzzySmith) August 9, 2026

🚨🇨🇴| En este momento se desarrolla una fuerte ofensiva militar contra las disidencias de la guerrilla de las FARC de alias Iván Mordisco, en la Zona rural de El Tambo, Cauca. Al menos 5 disidentes abatidos. ¿Apoyas la MANO DURA de Abelardo de la Espriella contra los criminales? pic.twitter.com/ZftyMPSvua

— Eduardo Menoni (@eduardomenoni) August 9, 2026

¡ATENCIÓN COLOMBIA!
¡En Nariño se escriben páginas de gloria!
El valiente Ejército Nacional está librando duros y contundentes combates contra las estructuras criminales del ELN. Nuestros soldados, con coraje y profesionalismo, están golpeando con fuerza a quienes siembran terror…

— Jhonf Fonseca (@Jhonffonseca) August 9, 2026

La moral de nuestro Ejército volverá a ser la de antes: firme, honorable y leal a Colombia. 🇨🇴🇨🇴 pic.twitter.com/sy8OeqLOcD

— 𝕲𝖚𝖘. 『X』 (@CapGusXMan) August 9, 2026

🇨🇴 Colombia’s army just captured a FARC dissident commander known as “Menor” as armed groups intensify attacks across the country.

The 29th Brigade detained the mid-level leader of the Dagoberto Ramos structure during a raid earlier this month.

At the same time, one of the… pic.twitter.com/aljOl6h6jE

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) August 9, 2026

Otro escuadrón de la JUNGLA acaba de salir de una extracción caliente en plena selva de coca. Por fin Colombia tiene un gobierno que no solo habla, sino que actúa. Golpea donde duele a los narcotraficantes y trabaja de verdad por los colombianos. Esto no es un operativo más: es… pic.twitter.com/bK5nx48I5p

— Jhonf Fonseca (@Jhonffonseca) August 9, 2026

Here's our coverage of De La Espriella's inauguration and the broader political realignment sweeping across the Americas, where a growing red wave has sent the region's far-left and socialists into panic mode. 

• Trump-Backed "El Tigre" Takes Power In Colombia As Right-Wing Wave Sweeps Americas

Visualize the political shift across the Americas:

Marxists are not happy: they have launched numerous car bomb attacks against De La Espriella:

• Marxist Terror Group Responsible For Colombian Truck Bomb Attack

With Colombia strengthening ties with the Trump administration, El Colombiano's Alberto Sierra wrote on X that FARC dissidents and other far-left terror networks could soon confront the uncomfortable reality of US-made MQ-9 Reaper in the skies. He effectively warned that there may soon be nowhere left to hide: 

Take a good look at this machine. Because it represents more than just military technology.

It is the MQ-9 Reaper, one of the most advanced aerial surveillance platforms used in operations against armed organizations and criminal networks.

Colombia is preparing to incorporate this capability.

The difference?

Hours of surveillance. Real-time information. Tracking of movements. Identification of targets. Greater capacity to anticipate enemy operations.

In a country where the geography allowed armed groups to vanish among jungles, mountains, and rivers for decades, this changes the rules.

The goal is not to turn technology into propaganda. It is something much simpler: to make the State see.

Because whoever controls the information controls the initiative.

And when the enemy knows that it can be located even in the places where it once felt safe, its margin for maneuver begins to shrink.

○ Miren bien esta máquina. Porque representa algo más que tecnología militar.

Es el MQ-9 Reaper, una de las plataformas de vigilancia aérea más avanzadas utilizadas en operaciones contra organizaciones armadas y redes criminales.

Colombia se prepara para incorporar esta… pic.twitter.com/LNLvFEz0he

— Alberto Sierra (@AlbertoSierrave) August 8, 2026

"In just 24 hours, the Colombian army has captured and taken down several narcos, extortionists, and guerrillas, and now the left has come out crying about human rights—typical of lefties, defending criminals," X user Escuela Austriaca de Economía said. 

What is unfolding in Colombia appears to be part of the Trump administration's broader effort to restore order across the Western Hemisphere after years in which socialist and Marxist governments allowed narco-terrorist networks to expand amid widespread lawlessness.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 21:35

Arizona, California Score Separate Court Wins Over Election Rules

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times,

Election officials in Arizona and California won separate court victories Friday in disputes over voting rules, with a federal appeals court upholding key provisions of an Arizona voter-registration law and a California judge temporarily blocking a local election overhaul.

Arizona Voter Registration Law

In Arizona, an 11-judge en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously ruled that voting rights organizations lacked standing to challenge two provisions that dictate how counties should maintain their voter rolls.

The Arizona law, enacted in 2022 as Senate Bill 1260, requires county recorders to cancel a voter’s registration after receiving confirmation from another county that the person has moved and registered there. Another provision makes it a felony to knowingly provide a “mechanism for voting” to someone registered in another state.

The Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans, Voto Latino, and Priorities USA sued the Arizona attorney general, secretary of state, and the state’s 15 county recorders in 2022, arguing that portions of the law violated federal voting law and constitutional protections.

The groups argued, among other things, that the cancellation provision could improperly remove eligible voters from the rolls and that the felony provision was vague enough to expose organizations conducting voter registration and education activities to prosecution.

A federal district court initially issued a preliminary injunction blocking the cancellation and felony provisions. A three-judge Ninth Circuit panel later reversed that order, finding that the organizations lacked standing to challenge the cancellation provision and were unlikely to prevail in their challenge to the felony provision.

The plaintiffs successfully sought review by the full court, but Friday’s en banc ruling reached the same conclusion.

The groups argued that they were forced to spend extra time and resources educating voters about the law and helping them cancel prior registrations. The court, however, concluded that this did not count as a concrete injury needed to prove standing.

“Because the organizations have not clearly shown that the cancellation provision affects or interferes with their voter-registration and voter-education efforts, they have not established an injury-in-fact,” U.S. Circuit Judge Anthony D. Johnstone wrote for the court.

The court also rejected the organizations’ request to block the felony provision pending the litigation.

“Although the stand-alone phrase ‘mechanism for voting’ arguably encompasses voter registration and education, the full text and statutory context of the Felony Provision show that it likely does not criminalize those activities,” Johnstone wrote.

California Court Blocks County Measure

Also on Friday, a California judge temporarily blocked Shasta County from implementing a voter-approved measure that would dramatically change how elections are conducted in the Northern California county.

Measure B, approved by about 56 percent of voters in June, would require government-issued photo identification for voter registration and in-person voting, restrict vote-by-mail and early voting, require ballots to be counted by hand, and establish a county voter-registration system separate from California’s statewide system.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber sued to block the measure, arguing that Shasta County’s status as a charter county does not mean it can adopt its own election rules conflicting with those of the state.

State officials had sought an expedited ruling, since election preparations were already underway for November and the county’s 116,000 registered voters needed certainty about how they would cast their ballots.

On Friday, Shasta County Superior Court Judge Benjamin Hanna sided with the state in granting the preliminary injunction, meaning the county will conduct the Nov. 3 general election under existing California election laws while the lawsuit proceeds.

A Shasta County official confirmed that the measure’s provisions would not be implemented unless the court issues another order.

“Following a preliminary injunction by the Shasta County Superior Court regarding a proposed amendment to the Shasta County Charter titled, Measure B, Voter ID, Hand-Counted Ballots, and Absentee Voting Limits Initiative, the election and voting policies described in Measure B will not be implemented for the November 3, 2026, General Election, unless further order of the court,” the county said in a statement.

Bonta welcomed the decision, saying it would provide clarity for voters ahead of the election.

“Today’s ruling prevents Measure B from taking effect while our litigation proceeds, providing certainty that the November election will be conducted under California’s established election laws,” he said. “We will continue fighting to permanently strike down the measure.”

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 21:00

Your Tax Dollars At Work: 20 Port Authority Workers, 17 Cops, Make Over $400,000

Apparently, one of the best ways to make $400,000 a year in the New York area is to work for the Port Authority, according to the NY Post.

Twenty Port Authority employees, including 17 cops, cleared $400,000 in total compensation last year as the agency's payroll sailed past $1.2 billion. And much of the magic came from everyone's favorite government money fountain: overtime.

According to payroll data obtained by the Empire Center for Public Policy, 323 employees collected at least $100,000 in overtime alone. Of those, 189 were Port Authority cops. Eight top earners managed to rack up more than $200,000 each in OT. Police Lt. Nicholas Federico won the unofficial jackpot. His $180,691 base salary came with another $215,717 in overtime, helping push his total compensation, including benefits, to $466,775.

Detective sergeants Dewan Maharaj and Robert Zafonte Jr. weren't exactly eating ramen either. Both finished around $448,600, with Maharaj collecting nearly $148,000 in overtime and Zafonte adding about $139,000. The NY Post writes that the overtime crown belonged to chief maintenance supervisor Reginald Bowers, who piled up $231,916 in OT and finished with $421,041 in total compensation.

Chart: New York Post

And this wasn't just a few employees discovering the cheat code.

Of the Port Authority's 8,356 workers, 5,711 received overtime last year. That's 68% of the workforce. Altogether, overtime cost the agency $196 million, representing about 16% of its entire payroll.

Port Authority police accounted for $85 million of that OT bill. The agency's 1,968 cops averaged $184,949 in pay, while 68 of its 100 highest-paid employees worked in the Police Department.

Perhaps the funniest comparison is at the top. Richard Cotton, who was actually running the Port Authority before retiring in January, earned $327,918. Ninety-four people working underneath him made more.

The Empire Center says taxpayers may get the privilege of paying for all of this more than once.

“Taxpayers are getting fleeced twice,” President Zilvinas Silenas said, arguing that taxpayers first fund the salaries and overtime and can later get stuck with pension costs influenced by those earnings. He also warned that rising payroll expenses could eventually show up in higher tolls and fees.

Which would be particularly charming considering those are already going up. The Port Authority raised bridge and tunnel tolls 3% in January while eliminating some off-peak E-ZPass discounts. PATH fares have also increased, with more hikes scheduled in the coming years.

The agency says the compensation reflects the enormous security demands involved in protecting airports, bridges, tunnels, rail systems and other critical infrastructure.

“Keeping the people we serve safe is non-negotiable and our highest priority,” spokesman Seth Stein said, noting that many Port Authority facilities remain potential terrorism targets. The agency also pointed out that it has added hundreds of police officers in recent years and said average police overtime actually declined 9% between 2024 and 2025.

So yes, overtime is apparently improving. It just happens to be improving at a place where hundreds of employees are still making six figures in overtime and 20 workers are clearing $400,000. Progress.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 20:25

No Hikes For You

By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

Much of the country is facing extreme heat and humidity this weekend. It makes it difficult to read and get ready for the week, let alone write something for this week, so we will keep this one short and focus on charts.

The markets started and ended the week with a bang. We continue to keep a close eye on the stocks and sectors most affected by Situational UnAwareness (last weekend’s T-Report). The Nasdaq 100 had an insanely strong Tuesday, gave up some gains Wednesday and Thursday, only to claw back those gains on Friday, primarily after the weak employment report hit the tape (Houston We Have a Data Problem). At what point will we spend the money to totally revamp how we collect and process data? “Surveys” seem incredibly “old school” when so much real-time information is available. We will see if the worst is behind us on the AI spend story.

• We continue to like buying the bonds being issued to fund data centers and AI. We’ve been writing about this with increasing frequency. It was almost amazing to see Alphabet do such a massive bond deal on a Thursday in August. The size of the order book is indicative of how prepared the market is to absorb the expected supply, which is why I think the surprise will be for a rapid move tighter than ongoing weakness (all we need is one company to discuss potentially slowing their spend given all the hurdles we have been writing about for the past few weeks).

We touched on a lot of these issues on Bloomberg TV on Thursday, in case you prefer to watch/listen, rather than read (our segment starts at the 1 hour 43 minute mark).

No Hikes For You

According to the Bloomberg WIRP function, the market went from pricing in a full hike in September, as recently as July 24th, and is now back below a 50% chance (which I think is still too high).

• JOLTS was mixed. The employment component of ISM Services was below 50. ADP was better than NFP but left a lot to be desired (44k jobs). It is reasonable for the Fed to question the strength of the job market.
• Inflation. Let’s examine Truflation a bit more closely.

We include “frozen” which is the time series as originally published with no attempt to revise it as more information is available. The “unfrozen” version is effectively a “revised” time series.

The pink line is 2.49%, because 2.49% rounds down to 2% if we are using only whole numbers (that may seem like “cheating” but I think Warsh, in particular, thinks more “in the vicinity” of 2% rather than 2.0%).

The beauty of this data is that it makes sense to me. Just a quick glance at this data seems to “jive” with what we’ve been experiencing (and notice it is all below 2.49%).

In this chart we explore the difference between Truflation and CPI.

Truflation was much higher for 2021 and 2022 than CPI. Honestly, that seems correct! While the barbaric way in which shelter is calculated for CPI played a big part, it is not entirely to blame. Now CPI is higher than Truflation. Why? Because maybe it is just catching up? Imagine if the Fed was focused on Truflation rather than CPI in 2021 and 2022. Would they have hiked sooner? Would they have continued with QE as long as they did? We will never know, but treating CPI as a “gold” standard and dismissing metrics like Truflation seems nonsensical to me.

This is also why I’d argue that we have an “affordability” issue more than an “inflation” issue. The problem isn’t so much in today’s price moves, it is that the price moves we were hit with back in 2021 and 2022 were not properly reflected in the data! (Yes, this is a hill I’m prepared to defend). Not saying Truflation is perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it is pretty easy to see a policy path that is very different than the one we’ve taken if they looked at more types of data.

I’ve always thought the Fed liked core PCE as their favorite metric, because it was almost always below 2%! It was “convenient” that their “preferred” metric was never above 2%. Literally, from 2008 to 2020 it was almost never above 2%. Maybe I’m being a bit too cynical, but I think the Fed liked to point to this measure because it gave them the flexibility to be more dovish, rather than because it was so much more useful, relevant, and accurate than other bits of inflation data we get.

If you can agree that other data might tell a good story and that this pedestal that Core PCE has been set upon doesn’t make sense, then maybe we should be cutting? It isn’t like Truflation Core is “always” below PCE (which is why we put in the nice green oval), but it is certainly much lower now! And the rate of decline (inflation) actually makes more sense to me than the PCE numbers. The large price shocks are behind us in the real world, but unfortunately they are still appearing in the data world the “old Fed” looked at. I am pretty sure I still have a HP-12C lying around (anyone on Wall Street from the last century knows how ubiquitous they were on trading desks), but I cannot remember the last time I thought about using it!

Warsh was basically put in charge to cut. He will deal with the hand he has been dealt (the renewed conflict in Iran isn’t helping), but his bias is to cut, not hike.

While it is unclear where we stand in Iran at the moment, it seems like we are on the verge of getting some sort of agreement between Oman and Iran to re-open the Strait in some capacity. It seems as though they are negotiating something that will be agreed to by the U.S.? It all seems a bit weird, and goes against the military successes, but it seems to be headed in that direction. If the Strait is opened AND the US encourages Iranian oil sales (like we did at the start of the MOU) then Warsh’s job of steering the Fed to a cut gets a lot easier (and the hawks may have to change their tune rapidly).

Bottom Line

The long end of the yield curve is likely to remain under some pressure as the global supply of sovereign and corporate debt continues to soar.

The front end will start pricing out fewer hikes. Probably far too early to price in cuts, but the hiking story is crowded, and I think wrong. It will require more people to break years of tradition and base decisions on the same set of data, regardless of being aware of the inherent flaws in the data!

Credit spreads should do well, though I like the AI/Data Center plays even more on an all-in yield basis than just spread. It is cheap and positioning has corrected itself to where the move to tighter spreads/lower yields seems to be the more likely path.

With chatter of investors looking to put money into the hands of the fund manager that ran Situational Awareness, those sectors could do well. I’m neutral there, as I think there is another round of AI “doubt” creeping into the narrative which will hurt valuations (while supporting the credit side of the story).

On the rest of the equity markets, I’m biased towards ProSec globally. Across the globe, energy, electricity production, smelting, processing, and refining will do well. I’m both surprised and happy that Australia committed to its first new refinery in 60 years! Each country (or region) will need to prioritize their efforts, but we see this happening.

• Look for the government wallet to be used to direct these developments and projects. Not just by direct involvement in projects (which will happen) but also by putting conditions on what the government will buy, to the extent that it makes projects economical, where they otherwise wouldn’t be. Low cost is taking a back seat to National Security – globally!
• The ProSec Hierarchy will vary across the globe. Some regions will need to focus on food and water. Others (Europe) will need to focus on military production. (I’d create an Airbus for Drones if I were Europe). Chips, AI, and compute will need to be prioritized. (I’m increasingly concerned that there is a danger of Cheap China Compute hitting us far sooner and harder than we’d previously thought!).
  • The President “kicked the hornet’s nest” on global supply chains. The intention was clearly to grow U.S. exports. That can happen, but increasingly, there is a “domestic” intent globally, providing a real opportunity in other markets that embrace that mantra!

With weather forecasts sounding right up Adrian Cronauer’s alley, it seems like a good time to conclude with the most useful advice I can give - Stay Cool My Friends!

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 19:50

Watch: 'Privileged Idiot' DSA Co-Chair Has Absolute Porridge For Brains

The Democrat party has been freaking out about the Democratic Socialists of late - despite striking similarities between their policies - because while Democrats are happy to sweet talk voters into socialist ideas that signal maximum virtue, they don't actually want to enact policies that would make blue-city budgets even more dire than they are. 

In short, the party is panicking because the voters they radicalized are electing radicals... 

So what better way to let progressives see what they're voting for? Trot out a co-chair of the DSA with maybe two brain cells to rub together, ask her simple questions, and watch her implode. 

Megan Rromer 'Velociraptor Claw', Screenshot via Stephen Miller 

To wit: co-chair Megan Romer was given a softball interview by New Yorker editor David Remnick, in which he asked Romer "What does ‘taxing the hell out of them’ mean?" in regards to a core DSA position of 'taxing the rich.'

Romer stumbled hard... 

Romer: Uh, yeah, you know, again, I don’t have like a solid…

Remnick: But shouldn’t you? If you’re the co-chair of the DSA, shouldn’t you be more specific than ‘taxing the hell’ out of something? What exactly do you mean?

Romer: Um, that’s a good question. "So again, it’s democracy, right? And we have to look at what we have to spend and what we need. We don’t want to depend on the existence of millionaires because that means people are still getting exploited."

Watch:

DSA Co-Chair Megan Romer says "We believe in taxing the hell out of millionaires."

She then struggles to explain what that actually means:

Remnick: "What does 'taxing the hell out of them' mean?"

Romer: "Yeah. You know, again, I don't have, like, a solid…"

Remnick: "But… pic.twitter.com/JMKW1egLM9

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) August 7, 2026

"They went to campus and had their heads filled with junk and have never been challenged on any of this for their entire life, by anyone," said commentator Stephen Miller, adding "An entire generation of privileged idiots."

Going to be using this one a lot pic.twitter.com/9hSxZP7CYc

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) August 8, 2026

Romer was then asked about open borders - and once again, cogent answers left the chat...

DSA Co-Chair Megan Romer is asked to explain the DSA position on 'open borders.'

The slightest ask for explanation or scrutiny placed on these nonsensical positions results in this rhetorical gobbledygook:

"They're all part of this long term goal where we are putting huge… pic.twitter.com/RpLmWdcfed

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) August 8, 2026

She was also asked the very loaded question about whether DSA believes Israel 'has a right to exist.' 

And instead of something about how Palestinians also have a right to exist, asymmetric warfare, or Israel using the US to fight a proxy war in Iran based on decades of being 'two weeks away' from a nuke - Romer once again failed to formulate anything resembling a response one might expect from a DSA honcho (or not, nevermind). 

The New Yorker’s David Remnick asks DSA co-chair Megan Romer whether “Israel has a right to defend itself.” pic.twitter.com/UFNgcRiODN

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) August 7, 2026

Just wow...

I cannot get over the constant miming with her velociraptor claw.

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) August 9, 2026 Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 19:15

Don Lemon Seeks Dismissal Of Federal Charges Over Minnesota Church Protest

Authored by Savannah Hulsey Pointer via The Epoch Times,

Former CNN host Don Lemon has asked a federal judge to dismiss the charges brought against him in connection with an anti-immigration enforcement protest at a Minnesota church.

The January protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations interrupted a worship service at the church. Lemon, who was charged with violating federal civil rights laws, argued that he was not participating in the protest but was there only to document the events.

Lemon’s attorneys filed a motion on Aug. 7 claiming the indictment against their client was the result of “vindictive prosecution.” The filing called the charges “flagrant and blatant efforts to punish a journalist for his protected conduct warrant further discovery into the government’s motive and an evidentiary hearing.”

They cited President Donald Trump’s previous negative comments about Lemon as evidence of bias.

On Jan. 18, Lemon attended a protest at Minneapolis Cities Church at the height of ICE action in Minneapolis. He was arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles on Jan. 29.

He and eight other defendants were charged with one count of “conspiracy against the right of religious freedom at a place of worship” under 18 U.S. Code § 241 in February of this year.

The defendants are also charged with one count of injuring, intimidating, or interfering with the right of religious freedom at a place of worship under 18 USC § 248.

Together, the charges carry a fine of up to $20,000 and a maximum of 10 1/2 years in prison.

Lemon pled not guilty in February, denying any wrongdoing. The YouTube creator argued that the protests were an exercise of the demonstrators’ federally protected rights and were not in violation of any laws.

Federal prosecutors announced in early June that dozens of anti-immigration enforcement protesters who interrupted the Minnesota church service will not face state criminal charges.

However, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is continuing to pursue criminal civil rights charges against 39 people, including Lemon.

Footage of the event shows demonstrators in the aisles, chanting anti-ICE slogans, and the indictment alleges they hindered those in the church from exiting, even allegedly harassing children.

Demonstrators were seen chanting “Justice for Renee Good,” referring to a woman fatally shot by federal agents in connection with anti-ICE protests.

The DOJ eventually charged dozens in connection with the church protest. St. Paul City Attorney Irene Kao commented on the decision not to charge some of the protesters, saying a review of the footage and other evidence available to criminal prosecutors caused her office to determine that not all those involved should be prosecuted under Minnesota statutes.

“Current evidence is insufficient to meet that standard for criminal charges under Minnesota state statutes,” Kao said, adding that the decision not to prosecute “should not be interpreted as an endorsement of unlawful behavior or public disorder.”

The decision not to charge some of the protesters was criticized by one of the pastors of the church where the protest took place.

“According to the St. Paul City Attorney’s logic, it is perfectly fine for agitators to invade a mosque, a cathedral, or a temple, intimidate the families and children inside, and shut down their religious gathering. Just call it a ‘protest,’” Cities Church lead pastor Jonathan Parnell said in a statement.

Lemon’s livestream was at the center of the investigation, and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon responded to the video on X, quoting Lemon, saying that a house of worship isn’t a forum for public protest.

“It is a space protected from exactly such acts by federal criminal and civil laws!” Dhillon, who leads the Office of Civil Rights, said in a Jan. 18 post. “You are on notice!”

The DOJ did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 18:40

Harris Renews Calls To Pack The Court Despite Poll Showing Most Americans Agree With Its Decisions

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Kamala Harris is again promising the radical wing of her party that she will pack the Supreme Court. Pete Buttigieg and others have done the same to pander to the extreme left. These calls are increasing among Democratic leaders despite a recent poll showing that the Court remains the more popular institution vis-à-vis Congress, and that the majority of Americans agree with its major decisions.

The Marquette Law School poll shows that the Court remains slightly underwater in popularity (47% favor, 53% disfavor), but it is still much more popular than Congress or the two political parties. Moreover, that popularity is increasing, not decreasing, as a result of recent decisions. It was at 44% in 2025.

The mantra to pack the Court is premised on the false claim that the Court is ideologically robotic and partisan. That claim has always been disconnected from the actual voting record of the Court. Forty-four percent of cases are decided unanimously by the Supreme Court. When nearly unanimous cases (8-1 and 7-2) are included, that figure jumps to over 60 percent.

The liberal justices themselves have pushed back on the Democratic narrative. Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor have all contradicted these claims. Justice Kagan recently spoke publicly on these claims, “rejecting claims that the high court’s conservative majority is in President Donald Trump’s corner.”

The most recent poll shows that Americans agree with most of the major decisions in the last year.

The poll highlights a disconnect with the logic of court packers.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) has called for packing the Court because it does not follow her views and those of “widely held public opinion.”

I have pushed back on that rationale given the Court’s function to be a countermajoritarian institution. However, this poll even challenges the flawed rationale for court packing.

Even the most controversial decisions break at around fifty percent.

Notably, the opinion that Harris repeatedly denounces as an attack on democracy (barring racial gerrymandering) is supported by a majority of the country.

Yet, Democratic leaders and the far left continue the false claim that the Court is out-of-step with America and captured by the Administration. The reason is simple. The DSA and far left are threatening establishment candidates. They are throwing institutions such as the Supreme Court to the mob in an attempt to use them to regain power. It is not just tragic but pathetic. These establishment figures are unlikely to be safe from the mob. Hakeem Jeffries can call the Supreme Court “illegitimate” and brandish a baseball bat on social media, but the mob is still chanting “you’re next” when he appears on the screens at rallies.

For its part, the far left knows that the full agenda of changes that it wants to make to our constitutional system cannot occur without control of the Supreme Court. Law professors and deans are joining them in calling for the trashing of our Constitution and “radical changes” to our system. They will need control of the Court to achieve many of those changes.

So the American people may support the Court and favor its decisions, but it still needs to be packed with a liberal majority.

Harris and Buttigieg consider trashing the Supreme Court to be a small price to pay for their own election.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 17:30

"Lie To People Who Want To Be Lied To": How To Make A Political Fortune As A Far-Left Democrat

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

A financial journalist once offered simple advice: “Lie to people who want to be lied to, and you’ll get rich…Tell the truth to those who want to be lied to, and you’ll go broke.”

That axiom appears to have been taken to heart by radical Democratic candidates who this week issued transparent denials of past outrageous comments. Their calculus is clearly that the last thing that voters want to hear is the truth about their past views.

Certain cultural touchstones are considered inviolate in some states, such as beef in Texas.

In 2022, Talarico said he was reducing his meat consumption as part of climate-related efforts.

Texas Democratic Senatorial candidate James Talarico was roasted after a video surfaced of his calling to reduce meat consumption and “I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non-meat campaign. We are only buying vegan products from our local vegan businesses.”

The backlash was so great that Talarico has been eating whole cows to prove that he is not all-hat and no cattle.

Obviously, lying about your positions is hardly a phenonmon confirmed to the far left.

Many Republican candidates have also made painfully transparent pivots. However, the spins this week threaten to knock the planet off its axis.

In Wisconsin, Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong seems to be coasting to a primary win despite radical views such as defunding police.

In an episode of “Pod Save America,” Hong was asked about her 2020 statements declaring “police exist to uphold white supremacy” and “I support defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police.”

Hong responded with a convoluted spin: 

“My views have only become stronger in that I’m serious about public safety and I will not abolish the police.”

Hong’s views on Thanksgiving takes the axiom to a whole new level. Hong previously stated:

“Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621. If it takes a worldwide pandemic for us to realize we should stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed Indigenous folx and women so be it.”

That did not go over well in Wisconsin, only slightly better than coming out against cheese.

Hong did not deny her 2021 statement for weeks, including when confronted on CNN by host Kaitlan Collins. Asked directly if she still hated Thanksgiving, Hong seemed to morph into Chauncy Gardner from Being There with her now much-ridiculed “I’m a chef” response, stating that, as a chef, she works to “bring more people to the table.”

Hong seemed to morph into Chauncey Gardner from Being There in offering non-sequiturs of being a “very serious gardener.”

When that interview fell flat, Hong decided to lie and claim that she was just joking in 2021 and “loves” Thanksgiving, her now “favorite holiday.”

No one reading her quote or her later interviews would believe that it was a joke. It was not a joke for weeks until her responses became a joke.

Abdul El-Sayed skipped the transitional period and went straight to the lie in his controversy this week when a video surfaced of his saying how he hates the iconic Mackinac Island. 

Growing up in Chicago, one of my favorite things was to go with my family to the island, which is the quintessential small American town. I actually have never met anyone who hated Mackinac Island…until now.

In the video, El-Sayed states “I hate Mackinac so much. It’s funny cause, like, if we win, this is gonna be, like, the summer home. Every time I’ve ever come here I’ve hated it.”

El-Sayed was clearly informed that declaring that you despise the most popular tourist location in Michigan is not a vote getter. So, El-Sayed simply told his supporters what they wanted to hear: you cannot believe your lying eyes and ears.

His campaign issued a bizarre statement that sought to turn the controversial into his being opposed to the elite and privileged class, saying that he was actually Mackinac Policy Conference which is simply an annual nonpartisan forum for public policy discussions.

El-Sayed claims that he was referring to conference as being like a summer home for governors. He maintains that he was referring to a conference as the entire island.

El-Sayed knows that it does not matter. He could have claimed that he was referring to hating Mackinac Island Pizza Company. It does not matter. His supporters do not want the baggage and he simply needed to unload it

With the election in November, the next predictable step will be for Hong to join El-Sayed on Mackinac Island for a public Thanksgiving dinner. Talarico will be on hand to carve the bird with enthusiasm.

The real problem is that these individuals spent years throwing red meat (or, in the case of Talarico, tofu) to the far left. These statements were not considered extreme or controversial until they found themselves speaking to a wider audience. Then they sounded just crazy.

Moreover, some lies are unlikely to register with voters who may prefer to live in delusion. The fact that the Mamdani markets will ultimately sell the most expensive produce in New York is an inconvenient fact that is best ignored.

The model for far-left politicians appears to be Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger who ran as a moderate and then governed from the far left. Spanberger, for example, pledged not to gerrymander districts to eliminate all Republican districts and then immediately moved to do so. Many voters likely did not believe her on gerrymandering, taxes, or other broken pledges before the election. They just needed her to say it. So, you might have to visit Mackinac or feign enjoyment at Thanksgiving or barbeques for a few weeks. Then you can do a Spanberger.

Abraham Lincoln may have said “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

However, the fact is that you do not have to fool all of the people all of the time, just enough to win over the course of a few weeks.

Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 16:20