Aggregator

El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells, who has held the top job for more than 12 years, will face labor organizer and former educator Alexander Kraft in the Nov. 3 election.

Hasan Piker said American Jews could face violence if they continue to be seen as strongly supporting Israel.

You Know Things Are Bad When This Has To Be Referred To The DOJ...

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is escalating the fight against what he calls discriminatory religious facilities at two of the state's busiest airports.

After DFW Airport scrapped plans for more Islamic ablution stations under pressure, Abbott has referred both Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport to the U.S. Department of Justice, demanding investigation and corrective action over existing foot-washing stations and an adjoining prayer room.

"These ablution stations single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion," Abbott said. "They are not interfaith chapels open to all. They exist to benefit the Muslim population alone. Government-owned airports cannot favor one religion over all others."

? JUST IN: TX Gov. Greg Abbott has referred Islamic foot washing stations at Dallas-Ft. Worth and Houston Airports to the DOJ for INVESTIGATION and ENFORCEMENT

Abbott calls the wudu stations "DISCRIMINATORY"

"These ablution stations single out one subset of the population for... pic.twitter.com/YQAAtmEuWY

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 21, 2026

In his letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, Abbott noted that DFW has two such stations already operating and that IAH installed one facility plus an interconnecting prayer room stocked with copies of the Quran, prayer rugs, prayer beads, and a turbah.

He previously referred the airports to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, directed a review of state grants for possible revocation, and warned that if the facilities sit on city-owned property, Texas will pursue litigation for religious discrimination at taxpayer-funded sites.

"Airports can no more offer Muslim-only bathroom spaces than they can maintain white-only bathrooms," Abbott wrote. DFW abandoned plans for additional stations in Terminal D after the initial threat. Airport officials said they accelerated review due to public attention and determined the anticipated benefits might not materialize.

?Here Are The Ritual Muslim Foot Washing Stations Inside the Dallas Ft. Worth Airport...

Yes, they are real, this is not fake news.

I'm at DFW right now and went to the interfaith chapel near Gate D40. Two massive showers greet you when you enter the small chapel. But they're... pic.twitter.com/xkpXNaauOl

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 20, 2026

Houston Mayor John Whitmire defended the IAH facilities, saying they are open to all travelers regardless of faith and were funded by fees from international airlines rather than direct taxpayer grants.

Critics of Abbott's move, including the Texas chapter of CAIR, called it an anti-Muslim political stunt. Abbott and Texas leaders frame the issue differently: government-owned airports receiving public and federal funds cannot create spaces designed around one faith's ritual requirements while ignoring others.

This latest action fits a clear pattern of pushback against what many Texans see as the steady advance of parallel Islamic institutions and preferential accommodations across the state.

Residents in McKinney recently packed City Hall and voiced fierce opposition as the council approved a major expansion for the McKinney Islamic Association. The 5.5-acre site plan includes a large sanctuary, classroom building, and gym.

More than 150 speakers signed up for the marathon session that stretched past midnight. An Iranian Christian refugee told the council, "I'm a Sharia law survivor from Iran, and I'm here to tell you, this is a dangerous ideology you're allowing in the country."

U.S. Rep. Keith Self warned of risks including child marriage and honor killings under political Islam, stating the freedom to choose one's faith "does not exist in political Islam." The council still voted 7-0 to approve after staff confirmed the plan met zoning rules.

Public schools have also drawn outrage. Students from Humble ISD's Kingwood High School and Atascocita High School were bused to Centro Islamico, operated by IslamInSpanish in the Houston area, so they could "experience Islam."

The visit included a tour, halal lunch, observation of prayer, and presentations. Parents and online commentators noted the absence of similar taxpayer-funded trips to churches or other houses of worship, calling the episode one-sided indoctrination.

Congressman Keith Self has repeatedly highlighted existing Muslim-only enclaves operating as parallel societies. He pointed to the East Plano Islamic Center, which has functioned for years adjacent to police facilities, and a similar pattern in Irving.

"Sharia is alive, well, and operating in Plano, Texas," Self said. "This is not a hypothetical or future threat. It is here, now and operational."

NEW: 'Muslim City' in Texas gets legal win after a judge ordered that the state must comply with developers.

The East Plano Islamic Community (EPIC), which has now been rebranded to The Meadow, will feature 1,000 homes, a mosque, schools, and more.

Texas leaders are worried... pic.twitter.com/HoSvNeV307

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 30, 2026

He described these as de facto Sharia enclaves situated next to the law enforcement facilities meant to protect communities, calling the proximity a form of intimidation.

Texas authorities have also moved against unauthorized institutions. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, at Abbott's direction, issued a cease-and-desist order to Texas American Muslim University (TexAM) in the Dallas area.

The school was operating without required state approval, marketing degree programs that included mandatory Islamic studies courses, and using the term "university" illegally.

Abbott stated Texas will not allow illegal educational institutions to operate and that legal action would follow noncompliance.

Taxpayer-funded venues have faced similar scrutiny. Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark in Grand Prairie, built with public sales tax money, advertised a private Eid event initially promoted as "Muslim only," complete with modest dress codes, halal options, and a prayer room.

After backlash the language was softened, but the episode reinforced concerns that public facilities were being reserved for exclusive religious use.

Taken together, the airport ablution stations, school field trips, city council approvals, unauthorized schools, exclusive events, and residential developments form a consistent picture.

Abbott's referral of the airports to the DOJ is the latest concrete step to enforce the principle that government facilities and public money cannot favor one religion. Texas under Abbott continues to treat equal application of the law as non-negotiable, rejecting special privileges that create two-tier systems on public property.

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 Wed, 08/26/2026 - 17:00

Kohberger, 31, is currently serving four consecutive life sentences without parole.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo ranked number 10 among public universities and number 38 nationally on TIME’s 2026-27 inaugural list.

The Russian faced a difficult challenger just getting to the US Open.

The Bangtan Boys have four shows at the Rams and Chargers' home from Sept. 1-6.

Meta’s deal to settle a federal lawsuit alleging it fueled a teen mental health crisis has a major caveat – its chief rivals TikTok and Google-owned YouTube must agree to make the same safety changes to their apps before Mark Zuckerberg will pay the full settlement.

The gregarious star of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," who died Tuesday in Los Angeles at age 80, oozed an eccentric, ginormous personality that exploded off the screen and stage and inspired a passionate fandom spanning multiple generations.

The smoothies are coming.

Don't dream it, be it.

Don't dream it, be it.

Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Janice Robinson ignored prosecutors and released attempted murder suspect Adrian Benitez without bail.

Don't Trust The Midterm Polls

Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via The Epoch Times,

This is a lightly edited transcript of an Aug. 24 segment of the "Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words" podcast.

Let's have a periodic check on the status of the midterms that we're now less than 80 days away from. The Democrats are riding high. They feel that historical trends, i.e., 39 out of the last 41 midterms, the party in the White House loses seats, and there's not very many seats Republicans can afford to lose, and they may lose the House and Senate.

They're already, I guess you'd call it, measuring their drapes, but in the sense that they're already explaining how they're going to go after the Trump family, the Trump family associates, cryptocurrency concerns, any hangers-on, people going to the Middle East and investing. They're gonna open it wide open.

These are the people, of course, who never investigated the Biden family or Hunter Biden. That's no excuse if there's culpability, but nonetheless, you can count on a two-year investigation of Donald Trump and a never-ending impeachment inquiry, and the end of the MAGA agenda should he lose the House and the Senate.

Donald Trump is strangely confident. He now has finally hit on a strategy that he feels will work. Earlier, I called it the "Anaconda Strategy," the idea that he is squeezing a debilitated Iran. In other words, the kinetic 40 days of bombing have left the nuclear military-industrial complex in shambles.

And this time, he's not just blockading, he's not just having an embargo on goods. He is not just freezing the bank accounts of Iranian grandees. He's not just debanking the entire country. He's going to third parties and saying, "You and China and Russia and Europe have been trading with this country even while we were bearing the burden of defanging a potential nuclear renegade nation, and we're going to isolate you. We're not gonna do business with you if you do business with Iran."

And the Iranians now are crying foul. They're saying we're colonialists. But what I'm getting at, after all that military damage from Feb. 28 for the next 40 days, and after all the blockades, they're not able to withstand a renewed squeezing.

And so, time is actually on our side.

The second part of this strategy is Donald Trump has now put the war on the back burner. He is saying that we don't need to have ground troops. We might not even go in and bomb them again unless they egregiously attack an ally of ours or one of our carriers or ships.

We have managed it now. The strait is mostly open, and whatever the status of the nuclear stockpile or enriched uranium of the theocracy, it's pretty clear they can't get at it.

Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah don't seem to be getting money. They don't seem to have enough rockets to threaten the Gulf States or Israel, at least to get through their missile defenses.

And so, we're just going to concentrate, Trump thinks, on the economy.

So, what he is doing now is he and JD Vance are barnstorming the country, and they're starting to make headway. They're not worried about the polls that show a generic 7 percent Democratic advantage and betting odds and polls that say they're gonna lose the House because they looked at the recent primaries.

Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for the Democratic senatorial seat in Michigan, was polling ahead 10 points, and he scarcely won by a point and a half.

Francesca Hong, the Wisconsin Democratic candidate for governor, was polling ahead 10 or 15 or 20 points. She lost and lost handily.

Mr. [Alexander] Vindman, who was running for Senate in Florida, was polling ahead. He lost to Ms. [Angie] Nixon, a democratic socialist.

So, what I'm getting at is the polls are worthless. And what we need to look at is what the status is right now.

The war is starting to wane. If it should end or if the Iranians crack in the next 60 to 70 days, that would be a spectacular achievement that Donald Trump - you know, we've tragically lost 17 Americans - but at a tolerable cost in blood and treasure, he ended a 50-year problem that seven presidents said was existential.

You could not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and the pressure that he's put on them and the damage he's inflicted would probably, in the next year or two, prompt a renewal of internal opposition against a theocracy that is bleeding.

The second thing to remember very carefully is, as I said earlier, the redistricting, the red state redistricting and the Supreme Court prohibition on racial gerrymandering might give him an additional four or five seats.

But the most important developments are money and the agenda of the new Democratic Party.

Very quickly, Donald Trump has got a war chest of about $400 million, and he's now going to use it.

He says he's going to use it all in his political action committees to help save the Republicans in the midterms.

Elon Musk said that he is going to match dollar for dollar the Democratic oligarchic class that if they start to donate in great amounts to Democratic candidates.

So, the money issue probably favors also, like, the redistricting and maybe the course of the Iran war that could wane and be not an issue.

But the most important thing to conclude is the Democratic Party. No one thought that the Democratic socialists would ever try to absorb and even seem to succeed in absorbing the Democratic Party. I mean, Nancy Pelosi, Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, they've all said they have no problem with the Democratic socialists.

It's a big tent party, and they're going to help them win their seats.

But the problem is, once you have the money and the effort and the attention, and you show what the democratic socialists are, like, defunding the Pentagon, defunding the police, opening the border, mass amnesties, warring on fossil fuels, isolationist foreign policy, the transgender issue reopened with biological men now by statute free to compete in women's sports. I could go on and on.

They even want to destroy the Senate and the Electoral College, not to mention packing the Supreme Court, ending the filibuster, and bringing in new seats in the Senate by admitting new blue states such as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

And so, what I'm getting at is, the more we learn about the democratic socialists, and the more that the Democratic Party feels they've already taken over the apparatus of the party and they're going to join them, or at least they're not going to oppose them, they're gonna be culpable or responsible for what these people say.

And they're saying all sorts of stuff, not just anti-Semitic venom, not just anti-Israel venom, but questioning the very legitimacy of the United States government, the way that our Founders created a legislative, judicial, and executive branch, the Declaration of Independence. Our entire traditions, they're saying, are flawed at their origins.

They got worse during our maturity, and now they're god-awful right now. That's not a winning message.

So, the midterms are very much up in the air.

Contrary to historical precedent, there's still a chance that the Republicans can save both the Senate and the House.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/26/2026 - 16:20

The classic cut and collar – a classic that stands the test of time.

The "Valley" alum posted and deleted the lengthy rant on Instagram Wednesday.

The "Valley" alum posted and deleted the lengthy rant on Instagram Wednesday.

This weekend very possibly is not the end of seeing each other in 2026, so the Yankees must prove they will not be left behind.

Mark Paoletta has a long history in conservative legal circles and is a friend of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

The daring actor's immortal role lives on at Studio 54 on the Great White Way until February 2027.