Aggregator

Scroll through to see all the snaps from the expo.

Well, we know the Jets offense can move the ball on the Buccaneers backups, even with their second-string quarterback. 

A hateful lunatic barged into a Manhattan synagogue on Friday evening, assaulting a congregant and headbutting a security guard in a deranged antisemitic attack, police said.

Escobar: The New Great Game, Revisited

Authored by Pepe Escobar via 'Geopolitics Prime' substack,

It took only a few Yemeni missiles on Saudi refineries to wake up “leadership” vectors of the Ummah; not over 100,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza by the death cult.

The Mecca Sunni NATO pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan remains a puzzle. Or dodgy sub-standard theatre – complete with photo ops and sparse intel sharing. The full text has not been released. Everything is quite vague, only stressing “collective deterrence”.

Against whom, it’s in the eyes of the beholder. All options – Eretz Israel, US-Israel, India (in case of attacking Pakistan) – might apply. The operative concept is “might”. Add to it Turkiye’s myriad NATO constraints: a viper’s nest in itself.

Significantly, Turkiye informed Iran before signing the Mecca deal. Extra layers of spin even promote Iran joining the deal in a later stage, as Riyadh in theory rejects military strikes on Tehran, and Iran might be covered by Pakistan’s nuclear umbrella.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, flanked by Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, right, signing a joint defence agreement in Mecca, on August 7, 2026

Geography, once again, will dictate matters. Turkiye will remain in NATO – because Turkish elites are essentially Atlanticist. Saudi Arabia would have to perform miracles to extricate itself from the US security umbrella – and Indian labour. Pakistan’s priority is China and the New Silk Roads, plus the IP gas pipeline from Iran. Mecca is essentially Deterrence Theater.

A different, more intriguing scenario would point to the instrumentalization of Greater Turan – a key Turkiye objective – to the benefit of the US/Zionist combo. That would point to a neo-Ottoman remix, now reconfigured as the leadership of comprador Arab affairs. As in Ankara recreating the Ottoman hierarchy with itself at the center – as a matter of “saving” Zionists and Salafis from themselves.

It seems that the Mecca spark came from MbS himself (no one really knows, as things in Riyadh are so opaque). As Riyadh is being deprived of exporting oil via the Red Sea by Yemen – and might even lose their oil wells if things get rough – why not bet on benign neo-Ottomanism?

Why the US can never lift sanctions on Iran

Oil export routes through and around the Strait of Hormuz. Source: International Energy Agency, February 2026.

Meanwhile in Iran, under a revamped – by Leader Mojtaba Khamenei – Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), the solidified consensus is that Tehran will never compromise, especially under the current “no war, no peace” status.

Washington would have to meet a set of very harsh conditions before the Strait of Hormuz reopens, including:

1. The end to US threats and “insults”;

2. Permanent end to US wars against Iran and its allies in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq;

3. Lifting of the American naval blockade and withdrawal of all US forces;

4. No less than $300 billion in compensation for war damages;

5. Lifting of all sanctions;

6. Unconditional release of all frozen assets;

7. Iran’s right to charge up to 7% on cargo transit;

8. A ban on US and Israeli vessels;

9. A 20% violation toll on ships if conditions are breached.

Call it an intimation for a US surrender: a capitulation on every front – from “follow the money” to military expulsion, end of sanctions and total Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz.

Even grains of sand across the Old and New Silk Roads are aware that humongous US debt is avid for new mechanisms to be fed with control over natural resources – from oil and gold to rare earth minerals. And these natural resources must be priced in US dollars and the petrodollar.

Iran – the key crossroads of Eurasia – has absolutely everything the US needs. Yet it’s sovereign, independent and intimately aligned with the Russia-China strategic partnership.

So this has all the makings of a Forever War. Washington will never lift sanctions on Iran. That’s politically – and geoeconomically – impossible. And Washington, whoever is in power, will never accept Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz, administrative fees included, because that seals, in practice, the imperial failure to use economic sanctions as its “diplomatic” tool of choice.

The result is that some of the serious consequences of the war unleashed on February 28 are already quite clear. Those include the possible financial destruction of the GCC, complete with the collapse of their ruling regimes; Yemen’s nearly inevitable geographical expansion; virtually complete international isolation of the death cult; a massive global economic crisis in tandem with a US financial crisis; and Iran’s accession to the status of prominent West Asia power, prominent Eurasia power, and prominent Global South power.

All that implies a massive geoeconomic game-changer facilitating a much faster rise for BRICS – and BRICS+ – complete with the solidification of Shanghai as the ideal solution for Global South capital to secure their savings.

Watch out for the “Eurasian Axis”!

The Empire of Chaos, Lies, Plunder and Piracy will not take any of that lying down. So the chessboard will continue to be destabilized even in nodes that in theory are controlled by the Sovereign Independents.

Enter the Caspian Sea – a key node of the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), one of the premier connectivity corridors of 21st century pan-Eurasia trade, linking BRICS members Russia, Iran and India to Central Asia while bypassing Western sanctions and NATO-controlled maritime chokepoints.

Hybrid War in the Caspian perfectly fits the imperial scenario of provoking negative systemic fallout expanding beyond Russia and Iran all the way to China and Europe. After all China regards the Caspian as a key connectivity channel between Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects and Central Asia and Europe.

So the Caspian could become the apex of a geopolitical divide near the center of Eurasia, contraposing Washington/Tel Aviv/Kiev to the BRICS/SCO Sovereign Independent civilization-states.

Enter, once again, Turkiye – now as the possible missing link in the Zionist axis drive to connect both wars (NATO on Ukraine, US/Israel on Iran): after all they are the one and same war from the beginning.

Still it will be a hard sell to seduce Sultan Erdogan to go after Russian and Iranian strategic assets in the Caspian, even indirectly via Azerbaijan. An even more complex replacement would be Kazakhstan, which for all of its “multi-vector” policies is a full SCO member, a full Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) member and a BRICS+ partner.

Turkiye’s actions should be ultimately measured by the official drive to strengthen the Organization of Turkic States (OTS; Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are both members) and what they might come up with to try to choke Iran’s geopolitical maneuvering.

Leaders of the Organization of Turkic States at an informal summit in Turkistan, Kazakhstan, May 15, 2026

Once again: it’s all about how they will play the Greater Turan card across the Caucasus and especially Central Asia, with their vast reserves of oil, uranium, lithium and critical minerals.

Moscow is carefully observing it all, with extreme discretion. Incidentally, last November Kazakhstan became the first Central Asian “stan” to join the Abraham Accords, in connection with a massive US-Kazakhstan minerals deal.

History Repeating is always quirky: we’re back to the original, late 19th century Russia-Britain Great Game. MI6 after all fully supports Greater Turan – as a premier counterpunch to the Three Sovereigns, Russia, Iran and China. Or what Trump has recently defined, for the first time ever (Elbridge Colby whispering in his ear?) as the “Eurasian Axis”.

At the National Museum in Astana, Kazakhstan, there’s a flashy panel representing all Turkic peoples, over 40 ethnic groups. Uygurs are in the mix, as well as Kazakhs and Azeris. But to translate that into Turkiye moving as a great player across Eurasia – complete with support from fake mythological narratives – is a whole new ball game.

The whole drive is not more sophisticated than creating a market for outright Turkic nationalism, with the Central Asian “stans” incorporated at best as junior partners.

Mecca as a Hail Mary pass

As the imperial pressure over The Three Sovereigns won’t relent, interlocked signature moves make all the difference. For instance: China investing in the Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan as an extra road to reach Iran.

The Wakhan Corridor at Afghanistan’s eastern edge, where a proposed highway would create a direct land connection with China.

It’s The Great Game all over again: the Wakhan Corridor came out of nowhere at the end of the 19th century to “protect” British India from Russia’s advances in Turkestan. It connects with China’s Xinjiang for only 70 km or so, as I saw during my Pamir Highway travels before Covid.

This is one of the most high-altitude strategic borders on the planet. Only 5 months ago, Beijing came up with a new county in Xinjiang, Cenling, overlooking the border. Everything in this mountain wilderness is run from Kashgar, where the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) begins.

Translation: on top of the China-Iran railway – previously bombed during the war on Iran by the Americans – this is an extra overland path from China to Iran bypassing the maritime routes, susceptible to Trump’s blockades.

China, in trademark win-win mode, will go all the way betting on both options simultaneously: CPEC, via Pakistan, and the Wakhan, via Afghanistan.

To round up our travels across selected spots of the New Great Game: in the end everything will be decided in West Asia. And that brings us back to the Mecca Sunni NATO pact.

This sharp analysis points to Mecca as a Hail Mary pass linked to the current sore lack of petrodollar recycling by the petro-monarchies – the mechanism propping up that monster, unpayable US debt; the pyramid of derivatives; and Wall Street’s solitary AI mega-bubble.

And this is what’s really driving the imperial desperation to settle something, anything with the Persians.

Because Iran has defined the prime geoeconomic battleground for the RICs (Russia, Iran, China, the new Primakov triangle), much more efficiently than endless BRICS discussions: the collapse of the GCC petrodollar racket.

Without this racket, a financialized neo-colonial empire run by remote control is absolutely impossible.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/14/2026 - 23:25

A Hollywood actor is now facing 24 felony charges after investigators say he exploited online casting calls and filmmaking projects to gain access to underage victims.

MSG said in a statement that the claims were dismissed by the court “in their entirety.”

Keannu Benton will remain in Pittsburgh for the foreseeable future.

Three takeaways from the Jets' 24-16 preseason opener loss to the Buccaneers on Friday night at MetLife Stadium.

Where The World Is Burning In 2026

As of August 1, 2026, wildfires and landscape fires have burned 112.3 million hectares of land across the globe, an area roughly the size of South Africa.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Sofie Gilbert, uses data from the Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS) via Our World in Data to show where that burning is concentrated in 2026 as of August 1.

The data includes prescribed burns, agricultural burns, and uncontrolled wildfires.

Africa Is the Epicenter of Global Fire Activity

More than half of the world’s burned land so far in 2026 is in Africa.

The data table below shows the land area burned for every country as of August 1, 2026:

RankCountry or TerritoryArea Burned in Hectares
(YTD to Aug 1, 2026)ShareRegion 1🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of Congo13,611,12612.1%Africa 2🇦🇺 Australia11,801,65010.5%Oceania 3🇦🇴 Angola7,473,0346.7%Africa 4🇸🇸 South Sudan6,955,0226.2%Africa 5🇨🇫 Central African Republic6,017,8815.4%Africa 6🇲🇲 Myanmar4,325,7023.9%Asia 7🇮🇳 India4,029,7043.6%Asia 8🇷🇺 Russia3,335,0293.0%Europe 9🇬🇳 Guinea3,250,9922.9%Africa 10🇿🇲 Zambia3,213,6872.9%Africa 11🇻🇪 Venezuela2,977,4662.7%South America 12🇳🇬 Nigeria2,807,2002.5%Africa 13🇹🇭 Thailand2,669,5502.4%Asia 14🇱🇦 Laos2,641,3212.4%Asia 15🇺🇸 United States2,371,2072.1%North America 16🇨🇳 China2,265,0572.0%Asia 17🇨🇦 Canada2,031,7541.8%North America 18🇧🇷 Brazil2,030,2091.8%South America 19🇪🇹 Ethiopia1,851,1311.6%Africa 20🇬🇭 Ghana1,763,3951.6%Africa 21🇰🇭 Cambodia1,525,3121.4%Asia 22🇲🇱 Mali1,490,6981.3%Africa 23🇨🇲 Cameroon1,435,3731.3%Africa 24🇹🇩 Chad1,309,1551.2%Africa 25🇲🇽 Mexico1,264,8231.1%North America 26🇸🇩 Sudan1,203,1581.1%Africa 27🇸🇳 Senegal1,187,5911.1%Africa 28🇹🇿 Tanzania1,048,6630.9%Africa 29🇨🇴 Colombia891,9850.8%South America 30🇲🇿 Mozambique787,0660.7%Africa 31🇿🇦 South Africa784,6470.7%Africa 32🇸🇱 Sierra Leone731,5350.7%Africa 33🇲🇬 Madagascar687,0860.6%Africa 34🇨🇬 Congo677,3540.6%Africa 35🇧🇫 Burkina Faso553,7190.5%Africa 36🇧🇴 Bolivia546,4900.5%South America 37🇦🇷 Argentina545,3040.5%South America 38🇺🇬 Uganda519,6010.5%Africa 39🇮🇩 Indonesia488,3650.4%Asia 40🇨🇮 Cote d'Ivoire451,5270.4%Africa 41🇰🇿 Kazakhstan429,5200.4%Asia 42🇵🇾 Paraguay405,6690.4%South America 43🇧🇯 Benin343,4160.3%Africa 44🇭🇳 Honduras320,8840.3%North America 45🇨🇱 Chile304,9830.3%South America 46🇻🇳 Vietnam283,6380.3%Asia 47🇵🇭 Philippines237,1680.2%Asia 48🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea228,4400.2%Oceania 49🇹🇬 Togo208,9050.2%Africa 50🇳🇮 Nicaragua205,3060.2%North America 51🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau198,4970.2%Africa 52🇿🇼 Zimbabwe191,3330.2%Africa 53🇨🇺 Cuba181,7210.2%North America 54🇪🇸 Spain179,6770.2%Europe 55🇬🇹 Guatemala171,3980.2%North America 56🇧🇼 Botswana170,8550.2%Africa 57🇱🇷 Liberia170,4280.2%Africa 58🇳🇵 Nepal156,2150.1%Asia 59🇺🇦 Ukraine154,2020.1%Europe 60🇳🇦 Namibia145,0110.1%Africa 61🇧🇩 Bangladesh143,9820.1%Asia 62🇮🇷 Iran119,4920.1%Asia 63🇬🇦 Gabon103,4190.1%Africa 64🇨🇷 Costa Rica98,0350.1%North America 65🇩🇿 Algeria97,9850.1%Africa 66🇬🇲 Gambia97,6640.1%Africa 67🇫🇷 France96,0500.1%Europe 68🇳🇪 Niger87,0000.1%Africa 69🇵🇰 Pakistan80,4850.1%Asia 70🇮🇹 Italy69,0500.1%Europe 71🇮🇶 Iraq65,8260.1%Asia 72🇰🇪 Kenya62,4590.1%Africa 73🇲🇳 Mongolia60,4470.1%Asia 74🇲🇼 Malawi57,6400.1%Africa

Much of this reflects deliberate seasonal burning. Across sub-Saharan Africa, fire is a long-standing tool for clearing land, managing pasture, and preparing fields for planting. Even so, the scale is striking: Africa has recorded roughly 26 times as much burned area as the United States so far in 2026.

The Democratic Republic of Congo leads all countries with 13.6 million hectares burned, an area roughly the size of England. Angola follows at 7.5 million hectares, South Sudan at 7.0 million, and the Central African Republic at 6.0 million.

Major Fire Seasons Beyond the Global Leaders

Burned-area totals alone do not measure wildfire severity or risk, particularly because the GWIS dataset includes agricultural and prescribed burning. Still, several countries outside the global leaders have experienced significant uncontrolled wildfires in 2026.

Spain has experienced one of the year’s most severe fire seasons. Driven by extreme heat and drought, wildfires had scorched approximately 180,000 hectares as of August 1, an exceptionally high total for this point in the season. A massive fire in Ávila became the largest in Spanish history, and with simultaneous fires raging across France, combined evacuations across both countries surpassed 300,000.

Canada has recorded 2.0 million hectares burned as of August 1, with fires active across multiple provinces. The 2026 season follows the country’s record-breaking 2023 season, which burned approximately 15 million hectares according to Natural Resources Canada, seven times the historic national annual average.

The United States has recorded 2.4 million hectares burned, with Oregon and Washington experiencing some of the most severe ongoing fires. More than 100 large wildfires were actively burning as of early August, driven by drought conditions affecting more than a quarter of the country’s land area.

As four decades of U.S. wildfire data show, the number of fires has declined over time while the total land burned has increased, pointing to fires that are fewer but more intense.

Australia Stands Apart in the Southern Hemisphere

Outside Africa, Australia has recorded the largest burned area at 11.8 million hectares. That ranks second globally behind the Democratic Republic of Congo and accounts for nearly all of Oceania’s 11% share.

The data table below shows a regional breakdown of land area burned in 2026 so far:

RegionArea Burned in Hectares
(YTD to Aug 1, 2026)Share Africa61,870,30055.1% Asia19,733,18217.6% Oceania12,061,71410.7% South America7,813,3777.0% North America6,804,9056.1% Europe3,992,4043.6% World112,275,880100%

Asia accounts for 18% of global burned land. Myanmar leads the region at 4.3 million hectares, followed by India at 4.0 million. Thailand, Laos, and China each add between 2.3 and 2.7 million hectares.

South America contributes 7% of global burned land, led by Venezuela at 3.0 million hectares and Brazil at 2.0 million. Europe accounts for just 3%, with Russia responsible for most of the region’s 3.3 million-hectare total.

If you enjoyed this graphic, check out How Much CO2 do Wildfires Contribute Globally? on Voronoi.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/14/2026 - 23:00

“Mary isn’t seeking endorsements from anyone from the Lower 48 — her focus is and always will be Alaska,” a Mary Peltola campaign spokeswoman said.

Tyrese Haliburton thinks his return should be a bigger deal.

All ICE Enforcement Officers In Maine Equipped With Body-Worn Cameras, Sen. Collins Says

Authored by Owen Evans via The Epoch Times,

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Friday that all Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Maine have been given body-worn cameras and trained how to use them.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents walk outside the Ventura County Government Center in Ventura, Calif., on July 27, 2026. Blake Fagan/AFP via Getty Images

Acting ICE Director David Venturella announced on Aug. 8 that federal agents would be equipped with body-worn cameras by the end of the month in a move to increase "transparency and accountability."

The cameras are a key measure that congressional Democrats demanded during a months-long dispute earlier this year over funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

In an Aug. 13 post on X, Collins said that she was pleased that as of 2 p.m. on Thursday, all ICE officers in Maine "have been equipped with body-worn cameras and trained in their use."

Collins said that when she spoke to Venturella last month, he committed to deliver body-worn cameras to ICE agents across the country by the end of August.

"I urged him to prioritize Maine, and they have arrived more than two weeks ahead of schedule," she added.

Democratic lawmakers have demanded that ICE be reformed following the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens by federal agents during operations in Minnesota earlier this year. Alex Jeffrey Pretti and Renee Good were both shot and killed by ICE agents in January.

According to a notice published by the DHS on Aug. 10, ICE plans to spend up to $20 million on gloves that can deliver electric shocks for its agents.

The devices, known as CTG-5 G.L.O.V.E, or Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, are expected to be delivered by March 31, 2027, according to the notice.

The notice refers to the gloves as "conductive distraction and de-escalation" devices, which ICE seeks to buy for Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement Removal Operations officers and agents.

The device manufacturer, Compliant Technologies, stated on its website that the devices were designed "to supplement existing tools for law enforcement, corrections, security, EMS [Emergency Medical Services] and the military."

The devices must be applied directly to a person's skin and are ineffective when applied through clothing or hair, according to the user manual. No more than two gloves should be used at a time, with each application lasting not more than 15 seconds, it stated.

A DHS spokesperson told The Epoch Times by email at the time that ICE aims to ensure its officers have the tools and equipment they need to safely arrest and remove "criminal illegal aliens" from the country.

"Every decision is made with careful consideration and appropriately reviewed to ensure that any technology ICE utilizes is consistent with all applicable law enforcement policies and standards," the spokesperson said.

In an Aug. 7 statement, ICE said it arrested more than 1,200 illegal immigrants across Georgia under Operation Safe Community-Atlanta, which targeted illegal immigrants with criminal histories, including charges of aggravated assault, sex crimes, assault and battery, and crimes against children.

The Trump administration is also imposing heavy fines on illegal immigrants.

In a July 23 statement, DHS said that more than $84 billion in civil fines have been imposed on such individuals. This includes a $998-per-day charge levied on any illegal immigrant who does not leave the country despite a final order for removal.

"Under President Trump and Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin, DHS is working faster than ever before to remove criminal illegal aliens from our country," assistant secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement at the time.

"Our message to illegal aliens is clear: LEAVE NOW. If you don't, you will face the consequences, including fines, arrest, and deportation. Illegal aliens have a choice," she added.

Tom Ozimek, Troy Myers, Jack Phillips, and Aldgra Fredly contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/14/2026 - 22:35

Satou Sabally never really wanted to get into the details of the aftermath of the concussion she suffered in Game 3 of last year’s WNBA Finals.

Fat Sal’s has never been known for subtle sandwiches, but its Big Fat Fatty takes things to another level.

The Cardinals are sending one of its top prospects to the big leagues for the final stretch.

"Billy the Kid" and "Billy the Goat" have returned home after their now-viral fare-evading antics abord a Portland bus Tuesday.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are getting reinforcements to the starting rotation sooner rather than later. On Friday, Tyler Glasnow made his second rehab start for the Oklahoma City Comets. While he didn’t reach four innings, he retired 11-of-13 batters he faced. Tyler Glasnow has made only seven starts for the Dodgers this season after being...

The place that served as the Yankees’ house of horrors last year delivered a nightmare of a throwback inning on Friday night.

Forget Reminding Young People About 'Boat People': South America's Rejection Of Socialism Is Happening In Real Time

Andy Laperriere, Piper Sandler's head of US policy research in Washington, wrote in a note on Thursday that explained both parties are moving left on economic policy as populist measures gain support across the political spectrum. His big-picture view is that "hard-left and socialist candidates" are damaging the Democratic brand primarily through deeply unpopular positions on open borders, defunding the police, and transgender politics. In effect, the party's socialist class is willing to sacrifice broader electoral viability to defend nation-killing policies that most voters reject.

Policies with cross-party support include a $15 federal minimum wage, a temporary 10% cap on credit card interest rates, restrictions on Wall Street's purchases of single-family homes, and expanded government intervention lowering drug prices.

Even Republican voters back several of those proposals by wide margins, suggesting the post-election policy threat to markets will extend beyond Democratic control of Washington.

Here's where the numbers are striking: About 80% of Republicans support banning large institutional investors from buying single-family homes, 79% favor capping credit card rates, and 75% back a $15 minimum wage. Across all voters, 63% support higher taxes on corporations and billionaires, while 59% favor government-provided health coverage.

Laperriere pointed out that President Trump and JD Vance have helped move Republicans away from Milton Friedman-style free-market economics by framing trade, corporate power, and economic transactions in increasingly zero-sum terms.

Laperriere said Democrats face a different kind of problem, noting that the party's socialist and progressive economic proposals are often popular, but its positions on policing, immigration, and gender remain deeply unpopular. Only 29% of voters support abolishing ICE, 24% back transgender athletes competing outside their biological sex, and 11% favor abolishing the police.

Laperriere noted that two-thirds of Democratic voters now hold a favorable view of socialism, partly because younger folks have no lived memory of Soviet bread lines, the Berlin Wall, or the Vietnamese "boat people" who fled communism.

Furthermore, as we've outlined, the failed socialist experiment in South America has resulted in a once-in-a-generation shift to common-sense right-wing leaders, with Trump-backed Abelardo de la Espriella taking power in Colombia just a week ago. 

The political shift has extended far beyond Colombia. In recent years, voters across Bolivia, Peru, Honduras, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, and El Salvador have either rejected socialist governments or moved decisively against far-left parties.

Laperriere argues that younger Democratic voters lack any living memory of the "boat people" and therefore have little historical context for understanding how socialist and communist systems fail. But the warning signs are not confined to the Cold War era; rather, years of left-wing governance in South America that have coincided with currency crises, persistent inflation, capital flight, institutional deterioration, and rising crime that resulted in failed states, such as Venezuela and Cuba, are more than enough to show youngsters that socialism has failed - yet again. Latest figures show that there are nearly 800,000 illegal aliens from Venezuela in the US - and we wonder why ... 

More from Laperriere:

We want to make two related points in today's piece. First, voters across the political spectrum are more open to progressive/populist economic ideas than perhaps most investors think – and both parties (if Vance is the GOP nominee) are going to increasingly offer the voters leftof-center economic policies. The hard left and socialist candidates are not swimming upstream when they call for higher taxes on the wealthy, price controls, and more government entitlements. It's their ideas on the police, the border, and gender identity that will hurt them politically. Second, Democratic voters are fed up with their own establishment for two main reasons: a sense their leaders are feckless when it comes to challenging Trump and the fact that a significant and growing share of the Democratic voting base is hostile to Western civilization. 

We argued in our recent piece, A Policy Bear Market, that both parties increasingly evince an open hostility or at least a wariness to free markets. As we noted in that report, JD Vance is running against Milton Friedman and market fundamentalism. President Trump has tapped into a growing sense that the system is rigged – and over time has convinced more Republicans this is true. He has a zerosum view of economic transactions in which one side is, in his words, getting screwed. It's true there has always been economic populism on the right, and as we often noted you could call it 'populism' because it's popular. It's popular to say we won't touch your benefits, to make the other guy pay higher taxes, and to scapegoat other people for the price you have to pay for drugs, gasoline, or anything else. But as the table below shows, a lot of ideas we generally associate with the left end of the political spectrum enjoy broad or at least considerable support among Republican voters. The move to the left on economic policy isn't limited to Democratic voters.

And of course there has been a seismic shift to the left among Democratic voters. We noted in a recent piece that two-thirds of Democratic voters have a favorable view of socialism. Part of the reason is it has been a long time since ordinary voters have seen socialism in practice. Ask a group of people who grew up in the 1970s or 1980s what 'boat people' means and most of them will be able to tell you it's people who got on leaky boats (or put their children on them) to flee communism and seek a better life. It's most associated with immigrants from Vietnam but also Cuba and other places. See President Reagan's brief 1982 Christmas radio address for a moving story of US Navy sailors rescuing some Vietnamese in a desperate situation to get a sense of the phenomena. 

During the Cold War, socialism didn't have much purchase with voters because images of desperate people fleeing communism, the bread lines in the Soviet Union, and the fact that the guns mounted on the Berlin Wall pointed inward were there for all to see. There were a few exceptions (like Bernie Sanders, who honeymooned in the Soviet Union), but it was obvious to most voters that socialism doesn't work.

But the Berlin Wall fell more than 35 years ago and socialism is rarely practiced anywhere in the world today. Ask a younger group of people what 'boat people' means and you get blank stares. A whole generation of people have grown up having seen nothing of the kind. Instead, a generation of young people has been taught in many schools (especially elite ones) that America (and Western civilization more broadly) is racist and rotten. This view is held disproportionately among young and highly educated white voters. 

This is the coalition that is fueling the insurgent campaigns that have taken out most Democratic House incumbents who have lost their primaries this year. They hold not only progressive or even socialist economic views; they are hostile to Western civilization. They view borders and the police as the vestiges of racism. As the table above shows, these views (in contrast to some of their economic views) are wildly unpopular. Francesca Hong, who narrowly lost the Wisconsin Democratic primary for governor this week, posted a few years ago that we should cancel Thanksgiving because it is "celebrating colonialism." We couldn't find a poll result for cancelling Thanksgiving, but imagine defending that in a general election. 

Nonetheless, she received more than 38% of the vote this week. That may be roughly the share of the Democratic primary electorate (which is much smaller than the Democratic general electorate, but nonetheless picks the candidates) that is hostile to Western civilization. Along with frustration with their leaders for being ineffective at challenging Trump, Democratic voters have been in a mood to vote out incumbents. The chart on the following page shows that 10 incumbents have been defeated in primaries this year, the most in a non-reapportionment year (in which incumbents end up running against each other or in territory they haven't represented before) going back to the 1950s. Most of the incumbents who have lost were Democrats who lost to younger, more left-wing candidates. The turmoil in the Democratic Party has a lot of similarities to the forces that propelled Trump to the Republican nomination in 2016. 

As a quick aside, of course there are other explanations for the shift to the left on economic issues. Corporate profits account for a larger share of GDP. Wealth is increasing faster than incomes, and that disproportionately benefits the wealthier people who hold assets. A decade of zero rates – and the return to more normal rates – has priced many younger people out of the housing market. There was the spike in inflation. There has been a steep decline in manufacturing employment during the past several decades (though not manufacturing output). And so on.

Regardless of the causes, the bottom line for investors is both parties are moving to the left on economic issues. The socialists and the progressive left have taken unpopular positions, but it's their social agenda that is likely to sink them politically. Many of these more left-wing economic policies are popular (including among many Republicans) and may be become law down the road.

Yet the nonprofit ecosystem of billionaire-backed foundations, far-left NGOs, Democratic Socialists of America activists, and progressive corporate media has little incentive to highlight the political shift across the Americas. The political backlash undermines the core narrative that capitalism is inherently destructive and that socialism will succeed if implemented correctly next time.

The Trump administration could exploit that vulnerability by expanding its messaging around Latin America's rightward turn. The objective would be to remind younger voters that socialism has miserably failed, and that its consequences always end in disaster: inflation, currency crises, capital flight, institutional decay, soaring violent crime and rising insecurity.

Related read: South America Just Rejected Socialism. So Why Is North America Buying It?

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/14/2026 - 22:10

Any game that invokes optimism for the 2027 Mets rather than dismay regarding the 2026 version is a good game for the franchise.