Authored by Glennys Hyland via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Great leaders are quick to recognize signs and warnings that indicate a potential toxic dynamic. They don’t ignore behaviors that cause uneasy and uncomfortable feelings. Lying, controlling attitudes, self-seeking, manipulation, and blaming others instead of taking responsibility are all strong signs or warnings that need immediate correction to prevent a dangerous and painful outcome in your corporation, ministry, or business.

Here are some signs and behaviors to take seriously.

Lack of Honestly

Do not ignore a lack of honesty. Even a small, tiny lie, requires immediate correction. Exposing lies will help others understand that your organization stands and works in a deception-free zone. This approach strengthens relationships, builds trust, and instills confidence among team members.

Chaos

Organization, order, and structure are essential. A chaotic workplace, where individuals pull in different directions without a clear workflow or instructions, can drain the team’s energy. Such disorder creates anxiety and unrest, impacting both mind and body—what begins in the head eventually affects the entire self.

Effective leaders prioritize order and neatness, fostering a peaceful environment that allows their teams to thrive. They embrace a teachable spirit, consistently seeking to learn and grow. Their character goes beyond surface-level impressions, evident in their demeanor, the atmosphere they cultivate, and, most importantly, their words and actions.

Absence

Great leaders understand the value of being present. They actively identify and address harmful behaviors that create discomfort, such as manipulation, controlling attitudes, gossip that damages reputations, or unwholesome conversations.

These leaders demonstrate love for their vision and workplace through their actions—they show up on time, bring enthusiasm, express gratitude, and inspire their team members to share in that passion. By appreciating, motivating, and encouraging their teams, they cultivate a culture of commitment and shared purpose, amplifying the love for the vision.

Self-Seeking

It is crucial for leaders to remain focused and align every action with the vision. Losing focus can lead to self-serving agendas that misuse the vision and platform for personal gain.

Don’t fall into the trap of being caught in your own net. Straying from the core purpose of the organization—be it a corporation, ministry, or business—creates space for distractions to take center stage, resulting in chaos and confusion. This shift can alter the direction and undermine the purpose. Prioritize exalting the mission above the visionary to successfully achieve the vision.

Favoritism in Rules and Regulations

Know every rule, regulation, and policy—and apply them consistently, including to yourself. Stay informed about team dynamics, changes, and accommodations.

Favoritism, where rules are enforced for some members but not others, breeds inconsistency and results in a dysfunctional team. Ensure fairness by holding everyone accountable equally. Be consistent. Be prepared. Be honest. Lead by example by adhering to the rules you establish.

Accountability

Great leaders embrace accountability and transparency, taking full ownership of their actions, whether positive or negative.

They accept responsibility without shifting blame or offering excuses, even when their positions are on the line. With humility, they prioritize others above themselves, seek wise counsel, and strive to act justly. When challenges arise, they take the time to investigate thoroughly and hold everyone, including fellow leaders, accountable.

They understand that every situation has two sides and ensure both perspectives are heard. Relying solely on one person’s account—especially when that individual holds a higher position or provides a preferred narrative—can lead to devastating consequences for the organization, ministry, or business.

Truth, no matter how painful, is essential for freedom and resolution. Justice is the key to bringing closure and restoring balance in every scenario. Great leaders recognize that mistakes happen and use them as learning opportunities. They act quickly to correct injustices and make amends with all parties involved. Above all, they embody the principle: Treat others as you would like to be treated.

Bad Behaviors

Wise leaders identify and address lies, manipulation, and controlling behaviors. They reject unwholesome language and actions that make team members feel uncomfortable or intimidated by misuse of power.While things may seem fine on the surface in these cases, leaders understand that, deep down, many team members may be silently hurting, choosing to endure for the sake of their dedication to the vision. Truly great leaders prioritize the well-being of their team, fostering fairness and respect. They actively encourage honesty and genuine unity, creating an environment where everyone feels valued and heard.

Prevent Dangerous Outcomes

Addressing wrongdoing and taking immediate corrective action are essential for building a healthy, successful team.

Covering up the truth by removing the team member who felt uncomfortable is a perilous path for any organization. These behaviors cannot be ignored. Leaders must remain vigilant, as appearances can be deceiving—what seems fine from the surface or from your point of view may not reflect the reality.

Invest in fostering healthy relationships. Engage with your team, listen to their concerns, and ask thoughtful questions. Take every possible step to prevent harmful and painful outcomes for your organization, ministry, or business.

A leader without accountability—or with accountability that is too distant—is like a country without border protection: they can come and go freely, leaving those under their care vulnerable and insecure. This lack of accountability is dangerous for those within their responsibility.

Effective leaders always have someone to whom they can be accountable—someone who encourages them when they excel and gently corrects them when they fall. Accountability is essential for growth and trust. Embrace it.

The Epoch Times copyright © 2025. The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors. They are meant for general informational purposes only and should not be construed or interpreted as a recommendation or solicitation. The Epoch Times does not provide investment, tax, legal, financial planning, estate planning, or any other personal finance advice. The Epoch Times holds no liability for the accuracy or timeliness of the information provided.

The US operations of TikTok will be majority-owned and controlled by Americans under a deal reached this week to spin off the platform from its Chinese ownership, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Speaking on Fox News, Leavitt said Saturday that Americans would hold six of the seven board seats for TikTok and that more importantly, the app’s addictive algorithm would be US-controlled. She added the final deal would be signed in the coming days.

🚨 @PressSec @karolineleavitt with news on exactly what the TikTok deal will look like.

Saturday In America w/ Kayleigh McEnany @FoxNews ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/dgweGBcEOY

— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) September 20, 2025

The American board members would have national security and cybersecurity credentials and the remaining board member, chosen by current owner ByteDance, will be excluded from the security committee, according to a senior White House official.

“So all of those details have already been agreed upon, now we just need this deal to be signed and that will be happening, I anticipate, in the coming days,” Leavitt said. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping finalized the deal in a phone call on Friday.

Talks earlier this week between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Madrid yielded a vague framework agreement for spinning off ByteDance’s US TikTok operations, but details of that framework had yet to be made public. Today for the first time we got concrete details of the shape of the deal. Meanwhile, Trump extended the deadline for TikTok’s divestiture until Dec. 16. Congress passed a bipartisan law requiring ByteDance to divest of TikTok by January 2025.

As previously reported, the The TikTok arrangement will see current owner ByteDance hold less than 20%, with new investors including Oracle, Andreessen Horowitz and private equity firm Silver Lake Management controlling the rest.

Indeed, Oracle is emerging as the biggest winner from the deal: in addition to becoming a lead investor, the tech giant will also host and manage US user data via its cloud infrastructure, and act as TikTok’s security provider and monitor the app for safety, working with the US government. As a result, Americans’ data will be stored in the US with no access by China, which according to a White House official will allow American users to continue using the popular app “safely and securely.”

“The data and privacy will be led by one of America’s greatest tech companies, Oracle, and the algorithm will also be controlled by America as well,” Leavitt said.

Trump was once a critic of TikTok but has shifted his views of the app, crediting it with helping him make gains among young voters in last year’s election.

Authored by J. Peder Zane via RealClearWire,

A week before Charlie Kirk’s murder, some friends and I were trying to identify the seminal events that have shaped this American century. We all lead happy lives, but the incidents we listed told a story of fear and dread.

We immediately mentioned 9/11 and the economic collapse of 2008, both of which galvanized an aching sense of vulnerability. If JFK’s assassination marked the loss of American innocence, those events symbolized the withering sense of safety and security.

We agreed that the Iraq War and COVID-19 intensified the growing belief that our government was not only incompetent but dishonest.

The BLM riots of 2020 and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol suggested that the center was no longer holding, that passionate intensity was overwhelming reason.

“Don’t forget Trump,” I said. Although most of my friends support the president, they believe that our politics would not have taken such an ugly turn if he had never stepped onto that escalator. The hatred Trump inspires in his opponents, and his relish at fighting fire with fire, have amped up the discord. Acknowledging that he has helped bring out the worst in his adversaries – and, too often, in his supporters – is not to blame him for our circumstances but to recognize that he is a singularly polarizing figure.

A friend said the rise of social media may be an even more important factor, noting how it has helped create political echo chambers in a strange space of connected loneliness that makes it harder for us to relate to others. It may still be true that “no man is an island,” but we seem to be trying. Our growing mental health crisis, especially among younger Americans, is hard to explain without reference to this phenomenon.

The fear, mistrust, anger, division, and violence – it was all there. Still, it struck us that these events were more flashpoints than triggering events, which did not adequately capture how and why our nation appears to have gone off the rails. Individuals and countries can respond to what life throws at them in any number of ways – with courage or cowardice, love or hate. The question became: Why have these and many other events unleashed darkness instead of light?

We would have needed a lot more time, and wine, to begin to answer that one. But it struck me, later, that important roots of our current crisis can be found in the unsettling ideas that have taken hold in our culture for the past few decades. Although much of this thinking has come from the progressive left – developed in academia and advanced by elite media – it has been absorbed by people of all political stripes as well as those alienated from politics.

As Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay detailed in their indispensable book, “Cynical Theories,” the fall of communism in the early 1990s created a crisis for the innumerable scholars influenced by Marxism. In response to the discrediting of their worldview, they set out to “problematize” – i.e., find the fault – in other ideologies. This is not hard, because every system of human thought and action is deeply flawed, filled with tensions and inconsistencies. We don’t live in a perfect world. The observation made famous by Churchill, that “democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried,” can be applied to most of the assumptions and structures we rely on.

Emboldened by the postmodern idea that there is no truth, just versions of reality, these scholars set out to undermine every pillar of society. Pluckrose and Lindsay observed: “They are obsessed with power, language, knowledge, and the relationships between them. They interpret the world through a lens that detects power dynamics in every interaction, utterance, and cultural artifact – even when they aren’t obvious or real. This is a worldview that centers social and cultural grievances and aims to make everything into a zero-sum political struggle revolving around identity markers like race, sex, gender, sexuality; and many others.”

In fairness, there is much to say and debate about their targets, which included religion, capitalism, American history, the nuclear family, gender roles, race, and our legal system.

But the thrust of their critiques was not aimed at building a better nation but razing the one we have – of sowing doubt without offering an alternative beyond empty slogans. We live in a world of fear in large part because they have worked to strip us of certainty about everything. It is hard to calculate, for example, the irreparable harm they have done to children through the confusion they unleashed by telling them that gender is assigned at birth. Similarly, their efforts to cast America as a despicable nation with a shameful history have made it increasingly hard for many people to harbor the love of country that is essential to building a national community.

No matter how much disruption, human beings inherently crave certainty and stability; these are the bedrocks that justify our actions. This is why the left, incoherently but necessarily, still claims it is the guardian of its chief target: truth. But if there is no truth, then there is only power. If reality is just a social construct, facts and language are merely tools that can be twisted in any way to prevail.

The further down this path we have traveled, the harder it has become to sustain a functioning democracy, which hinges on the ability of disparate people to come to common understandings to forge compromises. As we have retreated into our own versions of reality, misinformation and disinformation have run rampant in part because people (and major media outlets) feel freer to assert their own results-oriented versions of truth, and in part because each side’s truth strikes the other as deceit.

The inability of half the people to talk to, much less convince, the other half foments frustration, anger, and resentment. Lacking the tools of dialogue and persuasion, ramping up rhetoric seems the only recourse. Hence, Democrats label their opponents as Nazis and fascists as they cast every issue as an existential threat. President Trump calls his adversaries scum and insists we are ever on the verge of losing our country.

Principle bows to opportunity as each side becomes enraged when the other mimics its own egregious conduct – as we are seeing right now as conservatives embrace the cancel culture they once abhorred.

If war is the failure of diplomacy – of the ability to solve problems civilly – the political violence that is engulfing our culture is no surprise. Recent polls show that young, often university-educated students in particular, accept violence as a proper response to unwelcome speech, which reflects the spread of poisonous ideas. If Charlie Kirk’s assassination is to be a wake-up call rather than a harbinger, we must reject the nihilistic thinking advanced by reckless elites.

This is a monumental task. No single atrocity is going to flip a switch. The evidence following Kirk’s murder suggests we are more likely to embrace conflict. That said, we have one towering strength that can help us keep our Republic: the truth about our country. We are lucky beyond measure to be spending our one chance at life in the freest and most prosperous land in human history. Even as we confront our problems, we must acknowledge our many blessings that were bequeathed to us by our ancestors. Reflecting on these gifts might inspire the gratitude that can once again give flight to the better angles of our nature. If we don’t, lord help us.

J. Peder Zane is a RealClearInvestigations editor and columnist. He previously worked as a book review editor and book columnist for the News & Observer (Raleigh), where his writing won several national honors. Zane has also worked at the New York Times and taught writing at Duke University and Saint Augustine’s University.

After Wednesday’s decision by Disney / ABC to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for lying about the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the left (the architects of cancel culture) exploded with rage – saying that Kimmel’s firing was because major affiliate Nexstar needs the FCC to sign off on its $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna. 

To recap, during Kimmel’s opening monologue on Monday, he suggested that Tyler Robinson – the 22-year-old charged in the fatal shooting at Utah University – was aligned with conservatives. “The MAGA gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.“

By Wednesday, he was fired – leading to cries of censorship and ‘free speech’ by the left, which is hilarious.

Yet, according to an insider report by the Wall Street Journal, Kimmel’s ouster was prompted by an immediate revolt by viewers and affiliate networks including Nexstar, and concerned advertisers. 

Advertisers and affiliates soon called the network expressing concern about Kimmel’s show… –WSJ

“Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located,” said Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division. “Continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show.” 

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr blasted Kimmel on Wednesday, telling podcaster Benny Johnson that Kimmel’s comments were “truly sick,” and that there’s a “strong case” for legal action against both ABC and Disney (ABC is a Disney subsidiary). “This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney,” said Carr. “These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

BREAKING: The FCC Chairman is threatening immediate action against Jimmy Kimmel, ABC, and Disney for deliberately misleading the public by claiming Charlie Kirk’s assassin was a MAGA Conservative.

Chairman Brendan Carr calls Kimmel’s malicious lies are “truly sick” and says they… pic.twitter.com/mGhtGMPReI

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 17, 2025

Yet according to Nexstar, Carr’s comments weren’t a factor. “The decision to preempt ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ was made unilaterally by the senior executive team at Nexstar, and they had no communication with the FCC or any government agency prior to making that decision,” a Nexstar spokesman said. 

Disney executives weighed whether Kimmel should address the controversy directly on Wednesday night’s program. According to people familiar with the matter, Dana Walden, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, and Chief Executive Robert Iger decided his planned remarks risked inflaming the situation further.

After the conversation between Kimmel and Walden, she and other senior executives thought that the star’s approach could make the situation worse, people familiar with their conversations said. Executives also discussed staff safety, including threatening emails staff on Kimmel’s show had received after Carr’s remarks and the posting of some of their personal information online, the people said.

Walden huddled with her team and Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger before the two executives decided to temporarily take “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air, the people said. She then informed Kimmel of the decision. -WSJ

According to a person close to the show, Kimmel was planning to say that MAGA was purposefully twisting his words. So, another lie. 

Industry and Political Response

Hollywood unions and producers criticized Disney’s move, calling it corporate capitulation. Damon Lindelof, co-creator of the ABC drama Lost, said he would not want to work for a company that sidelined Kimmel. Former late-night host David Letterman described the decision as “managed media” and warned of broader consequences.

“We all see where this is going, correct? It’s managed media. And it’s no good,” David Letterman, the former late-night host, said at an Atlantic magazine event Thursday.

Actor Ben Stiller said (and then blocked replies) “This isn’t right,” to which Elon Musk replied “He went full retard. Never go full retard.” 

He went full retard. Never go full retard.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 19, 2025

Democratic lawmakers and former President Barack Obama accused the Trump administration of censorship, while Trump applauded the decision and urged other networks to follow. “They give me only bad press, but they’re getting a license,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Some media critics said Kimmel’s benching, coupled with CBS’s recent decision to cancel its late-night show hosted by frequent Trump critic Stephen Colbert when its season ends in May 2026, will lead shows to self-censor. 

Kimmel’s removal comes as CBS prepares to sunset Stephen Colbert’s late-night program in 2026. Media critics say the combination of events could have a chilling effect on political commentary in late-night television.

“The degree of capitulation going forward will to some extent be a function of what kind of financial cudgel the administration has to wield,” said Lee Levine, a retired media lawyer. “Whenever the cudgel has been pretty significant, sooner or later the network caved in the recent past.”

For Disney, the choice to take Kimmel off the air was the product of overlapping political pressure, regulatory risk, affiliate revolt, and advertiser anxiety – a convergence that left little room for delay. By late Wednesday afternoon, the decision was made: Jimmy Kimmel Live! would be “preempted indefinitely.”

Of course, who was even watching?

HOLY SHIT

Kimmel was ONLY Getting 129,000 Viewers

hahahahah

I can post a picture of a cat and get more views than that pic.twitter.com/gUd3sUgwa7

— Tim Pool (@Timcast) September 19, 2025

Also, WTF…

*  *  *

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

Could data centers and the power grid be America’s next “renaissance?” With the U.S. national debt exceeding $37 trillion and interest payments surpassing defense spending, many articles have been written about the “debt doomsday” event coming. Such was a point we made in “The Debt and Deficit Problem.”

“In recent months, much debate has been about rising debt and increasing deficit levels in the U.S. For example, here is a recent headline from CNBC:”

“The article’s author suggests that U.S. federal deficits are ballooning, with spending surging due to the combined impact of tax cuts, expansive stimulus, and entitlement expenditures. Of course, with institutions like Yale, Wharton, and the CBO warning that this trend has pushed interest costs to new heights, now exceeding defense outlays, concerns about domestic solvency are rising. Even prominent figures in the media, from Larry Summers to Ray Dalio, argue that drastic action is urgently needed, otherwise another “financial crisis” is imminent.”

As we discussed in that article, the “purveyors of doom” have been saying the same thing for the last two decades, yet the American growth engine continues chugging along. Notably, Ray Dalio and Larry Summers focus on only one solution: “cutting spending,” which has horrible economic consequences.

“Furthermore, investors must understand a critical accounting concept: that the government’s debt is the household’s asset. In accounting, for every debit there is a credit that must always equal zero. In this case, when the Government issues debt (a debit), it is sent into the economy for infrastructure, defense, social welfare, etc. That money is “credited” to the bank accounts of households and corporations. Therefore, when the deficit increases, that money winds up in economic activity, and vice versa. In other words, those shouting for sharp deficit reductions are also rooting for a deep economic recession.” – The Deficit Narrative

The other challenges with cutting spending are that it is politically toxic, and tax hikes drag on growth.

However, one solution that all the mainstream “doomsayers” overlook is raising productivity and GDP through private-sector capital investment. In other words, as the U.S. did following World War II, it is possible to “grow your way out of your debt problem.”

That’s where the AI data center boom and massive electricity demand come in.

The Economic Engine of Capex

The buildout of data centers and the power grid may offer the best opportunity to generate sustained growth. The scale of investment is large enough to matter, the economic multipliers are high, and the timeline aligns with when fiscal pressure will peak.

Data centers are the backbone of the digital economy. AI models, cloud platforms, and automation rely on them, and each large AI model requires thousands of GPUs housed in purpose-built facilities. These are not minor server rooms. They are $1 billion-plus industrial complexes. But, for the build-out of “data factories” to impact economic growth, a massive investment will be required to affect a $30 trillion (nominal) U.S. economy.

How much are we talking about? As noted in our previous article on data center demand, McKinsey projects that data center investment will reach $7 trillion globally by 2030. Over 40 percent of that will happen in the U.S. Alone. Moreover, Nvidia’s latest quarterly report forecasted data center capital expenditures by Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and Alphabet to reach $4 trillion by 2030, or roughly $1 trillion annually.

However, you can’t build a data center without power.

Data Centers Require Power

According to the Department of Energy, U.S. data center electricity consumption could double or triple by 2028. Deloitte expects a 30-fold increase in AI-related data center power usage by 2035, reaching 123 gigawatts. That’s more than the total residential demand in California. This means building new substations, transmission lines, and power plants. Therefore, as noted by Edison Electric Institute, investor-owned U.S. electric utilities will invest more than $1.1 trillion in the 2025-2029 period to meet that demand.

This infrastructure boom will not be optional. AI development needs low latency, which requires local capacity and reliable electricity. Since data centers are capital-intensive and mission-critical, the U.S. economy could see between $1.25 and $1.5 trillion in annual capex spending.

Why is that critical to our “debt to GDP” concerns? Large-scale capital spending is one of the few economic inputs reliably boosting long-term growth. Unlike stimulus checks or tax credits, infrastructure spending creates durable productivity improvements. We are already seeing this impact.

• The PwC study for the Data Center Coalition found that from 2017 to 2021, U.S. data centers added $2.1 trillion to GDP. That’s before the AI acceleration began.

• According to Reuters, in Q2 2025, AI-related capex accounted for over one-third of real GDP growth, which added roughly 0.4 percentage points to quarterly GDP.

The Multiplier Effect

But it isn’t just $1 trillion in CapEx. These projects create upstream demand for construction, power equipment, semiconductors, cooling systems, and skilled labor. They support engineering, real estate, logistics, and utility services. Most notably, they set the stage for sustained gains in productivity. Once operational, AI systems reduce costs, improve decision-making, and enable scale in industries from health care to manufacturing. In other words, there is a “multiplier effect” to these projects. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) estimates that every $1 billion in infrastructure investment creates 13,000 jobs and adds $3 billion to GDP over a decade.

Therefore, by 2030, if the $5 trillion in combined investment in AI data centers and power generation comes to fruition, the U.S. economy will see an additional $15 trillion in growth. The chart below shows the average 5-year growth rate in nominal GDP and projected growth.

The chart below assumes we will continue to issue debt at the average quarterly pace since 2021. However, instead of wasting money, we focus on productive investments while maintaining all current spending programs and obligations. Assuming some conservative growth estimates resulting from the investments, the “debt to GDP” ratio will begin declining in 2026 and revert to more sustainable levels by 2030.

However, this isn’t a guarantee, but it is certainly potentially more realistic than a “debt crisis” that sends the U.S. into an economic depression.

Risks and Constraints

The growth opportunity is significant, but not risk-free. While the bears constantly ring the alarm bell about the current level of debt and deficits, the more dire economic consequences they forecast may fail to come to fruition.

As noted by Goldman Sachs:

“Generative artificial intelligence has the potential to automate many work tasks and eventually boost global economic growth. AI will start having a measurable impact on US GDP in 2027 and begin affecting growth in other economies worldwide in the following years. The foundation of the forecast is the finding that AI could ultimately automate around 25% of labor tasks in advanced economies and 10-20% of work in emerging economies.”

They currently estimate a growth boost to GDP from AI of 0.4 percentage points in the US.

Increases in productivity, productive capital investment, and increased labor demand for the infrastructure buildout (which will also result in higher wages) should provide the economic boost needed.

Conclusion

Will it solve all of the current socio-economic ills facing the U.S.? No. However, it may provide the growth boost necessary to revitalize economic growth and prosperity in the U.S., which we have not seen since the 1970s. But there are risks to this outlook.

1. The scale of spending may lift electricity prices. A study from NC State found national prices could rise 8 percent by 2030, with some localities seeing 20–25 percent jumps. If not managed, this could erode industrial competitiveness.

2. Jobs per dollar of investment are low. Data centers are automated. Once built, they require few workers. A $1 billion facility may employ only 100 people full-time.

3. There is a local backlash. Projects require land, water, and energy. Communities are resisting tax incentives and environmental costs. Several counties have imposed moratoriums.

4. Permitting delays and regulatory hurdles remain high. The average interconnection wait for new power projects is over 3 years. Without reform, many AI investments will be delayed or redirected.

The government will need to be involved to unlock the full economic benefit.

1. Public policy must streamline permitting, including environmental review, grid interconnection, and land use.

2. Given that infrastructure and national security are at stake, a public/private partnership should be involved.

3. Tax policy should avoid distortion. Many subsidies go to projects that were already economically viable.

4. The focus should be on shared infrastructure, such as transmission lines, regional data hubs, and reliability upgrades.

5. Utilities need regulatory clarity. Traditional cost-of-service models may not align with the fast pace of AI demand, so performance-based rates or return-on-equity mechanisms may be required.

6. Energy policy must support generation diversity. Solar and wind are inefficient, and AI demands require firm natural gas, nuclear, and advanced storage capacity.

The goal should be energy abundance. High reliability, low prices, and scalable infrastructure will attract private AI investment and increase growth.

It may also just be enough to keep the demise of the U.S. from occurring any time soon.

Federal prosecutors revealed that Nicholas Roske, the California man who pleaded guilty to attempting to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2022, had planned to kill up to three Supreme Court justices to “single-handedly alter the constitutional order” over Roe v. Wade. The motive appears political and leftist in nature, and other court documents obtained by The Daily Wire revealed that the would-be assassin identifies as transgender.

🚨BREAKING: The WANNA-BE ASSASSIN who almost killed Justice Brett Kavanaugh just CAME OUT as TRANS 🚨

Nicholas Roske now “IDENTIFIES” as Sophie Roske pic.twitter.com/hWL5ndpO4u

— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) September 20, 2025

Roske, who now identifies as female and uses the name “Sophie Roske,” is set to be sentenced on October 3. Federal prosecutors are seeking 30 years to life in prison, citing the defendant’s premeditated plot to kill three justices in an attempt to change the Court’s balance.

“The severity and potential devastating impact of the defendant’s criminal conduct is immeasurable and staggering. By targeting and planning to kill “at least one,” but “shooting for 3” justices of the Supreme Court, the defendant sought single-handedly and irrevocably to alter an entire branch of the United States government through violence,” the Department of Justice’s sentencing memo stated. 

The memo continued, “The defendant’s conduct falls within the quintessential definition of terrorism: the use of violence or threats of violence to achieve a political goal. The defendant, by committing this crime, sought to achieve some level of significance by striking at the heart of our democracy — to alter the trajectory of the judicial branch for decades to come.” 

In a separate filing from the transgender’s defense attorneys, first obtained by The Daily Wire, Nicholas, who now goes by “Sophie Roske”… 

“The case is captioned as United States v. Nicholas John Roske,” lawyers for Roske state. “That name remains Ms. Roske’s legal name, and she has not asked to recaption the case. Out of respect for Ms. Roske, the balance of this pleading and counsel’s in-court argument will refer to her as Sophie and use female pronouns.”

Daily Wire noted, “A source familiar with the legal proceedings in the case told The Daily Wire that Roske was using female identities online before the attempted murder, and now goes by the female name reflected in the defense filings.” 

Attorney General Pam Bondi told the outlet, “This Department of Justice condemns political violence and our prosecutors will ensure that this disturbed individual faces severe consequences for his deranged actions.”

Roske was likely radicalized in the years leading up to the 2022 assassination plot of the justices, but perhaps what activated the deeply mentally ill man was the permanent protest industrial complex, funded by allies of the Democratic Party dark-money NGO network, which unleashed psychological operations through protests to influence emotions and trigger responses by their far-left fringe.

The Democratic Party has employed this type of operation for years, labeling and targeting their enemies as “fascists” and “Nazis.”

Where did Charlie Kirk’s murderer learn to call conservatives “fascists”?

“Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?”

Kamala Harris: “Yes, I do. YES, I DO!” pic.twitter.com/RxDjgOYjKY

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 12, 2025

Leftist corporate media conducted massive PsyOps against the American people. 

And fast forward to last week, the suspected Charlie Kirk assassin was a radical leftist who had a relationship with a transgender. One of the shell casings from the Kirk assassination was etched with the words: “Hey, fascist. Catch!”

Political violence is being fueled by the Democratic Party’s permanent protest industrial complex, activating its fringe leftists…

… with at least one group boasting thousands of members “planning war against fascists.”

Hmm.

I think if ODNI were to declassify all records and files of how the US government worked with Antifa and Trantifa groups around the world for the past 10 years, the results would absolutely shock you. pic.twitter.com/O2BI3H3iLp

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) September 18, 2025

. . . 

Authored by Susan Crabtree via RealClearPolitics,

Amid a fiery national debate over political violence and free speech, the Secret Service faces one of its biggest tests yet in securing Charlie Kirk’s massive funeral in Arizona this weekend.  

President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and numerous dignitaries, conservative figures, prominent reporters, television anchors, and up to 100,000 members of the public are expected to attend the tribute to Kirk’s life this Sunday at State Farm Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals, in Glendale.

The Secret Service has been under serious scrutiny since multiple failures provided an opening for two near-miss assassination attempts against Trump last year, the first of which resulted in the death of rallygoer Corey Comperatore and the serious injury of two other attendees. 

The Secret Service successfully protected the inauguration of President Trump in January without a hitch, even though the agency moved the swearing-in ceremony indoors and canceled the traditional outdoor parade, purportedly because of low temperatures in D.C.

But the massive Arizona memorial service honoring Kirk, the assassinated conservative activist and organizer known for his influence with young people across the country and the world, poses a serious challenge for law enforcement and the Secret Service, an agency already facing manpower strains and pressure as it strives to repair its reputation to execute a zero-fail mission.

The stadium in Glendale can seat 63,400, and the local police department is planning for a crowd of up to 100,000 people to descend on the area, with at least one overflow location designated at the Desert Diamond Arena where the event will livestream on jumbotrons.

Kirk’s memorial comes during tumultuous times for the nation. His supporters mourn his brutal killing amid a national debate over gun violence and what types of limits, if any, private and government entities can place on free speech. Conservative and liberal politicians and political commentators are facing off over ABC’s Wednesday decision to abruptly fire late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel after he misrepresented the assassin’s likely motives for murdering Kirk. And Trump on Wednesday designated the far-left Antifa group a “terrorist organization” and said he was strongly recommending that those funding the movement be thoroughly investigated “in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices.”

It’s also a difficult moment for the Secret Service, which has faced serious retention issues since the assassination attempts, with a recent Department of Homeland Security Department Office of the Inspector General’s report exposing the agency as seriously understaffed when it comes to counter snipers – 73% below mission requirements.

A large contingent of top-flight Secret Service agents traveled to the United Kingdom with Trump and first lady Melania this week for an official state visit. And the United Nations General Assembly will be in full swing next week in New York City, where the Secret Service is charged with securing more than 100 visiting foreign dignitaries at hotels and events around Manhattan. Meanwhile, the agency must also maintain security teams around all Cabinet secretaries and former presidents.

“Where are they getting all these assets?” Rich Staropoli, former Secret Service agent and former Department of Homeland Security undersecretary, asked in an interview with RealClearPolitics.

“It’s going to be very difficult to find the manpower, given the UN is in session and then you probably have a couple of hundred guys on their way back from London right now that won’t get back until the day after the president,” he added. “And then you’ve got this event, this huge event out in Arizona. It’s not like we got a couple of hundred agents out there on a normal basis.”

Other sources in the Secret Service community argue that the agency is well prepared to handle both UNGA and the Kirk memorial service, especially since Trump and Vance will be there with their USSS details, some of the most highly trained agents, and elite units designed for high-risk scenarios.

Back in New York City, the Secret Service has a high trust in the New York Police Department’s robust team of counter snipers in their Emergency Services Unit, with which the agency partners for protection. Not all foreign dignitaries show up at once; they arrive and participate in the summit on a rolling basis, former Secret Service agent Charles Marino explains.

“The fact that we’ve got a great deal of confidence in the NYPD, that does free up some resources for the USSS to use for this memorial,” Marino tells RCP.

The Department of Homeland Security has designated the Kirk funeral as a Special Event Assessment Rating (SEAR) 1 event with the same level of security as the Super Bowl or the Boston Marathon. The designation is different than a National Special Security Event, a category for events that could affect the nation and the world. In SEAR events, state and local authorities make the assessments and DHS provides the assets.

The Secret Service agent in charge of the Phoenix Field Office will serve as the federal coordinator for the service, working side by side with local partners.

Those Secret Service and local law enforcement partnerships broke down during the assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, when the agency and local police maintained siloed communications and even two separate command posts.

On the one-year anniversary of the Butler event, Secret Service Director Sean Curran issued a statement declaring that the agency is “laser-focused on ensuring that those we are sworn to protect, the public, and the dedicated men and women of the Secret Service are never let down again.”

Curran said the agency has implemented changes to the Secret Service’s protective operations policies “to ensure clear lines of accountability and improved information sharing with local law enforcement partners.”

In the wake of Kirk’s assassination, House Republicans this week also included $88 million in a stop-gap funding bill to bolster security for federal officials. The funds would include $30 million for congressional security, $30 million for the executive branch, and $28 million for the judiciary.

“[Kirk’s killing] initiated a number of uncomfortable but necessary conversations about important issues like the safety and security of our members and the responsibility of public service, and the need for political leaders to turn down the temperature and the violent rhetoric in America,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said.

Despite these efforts, the Secret Service was fumbling again just days before Kirk’s killing in ways that funding boosts may not fix.

RCP reported last week that Secret Service screeners missed a Glock in the bag of someone who had entered Trump National Golf Course in Sterling, Virginia, while Trump was golfing over Labor Day weekend. Thankfully, the individual posed no harm to the president and self-reported the security breach.

Last Thursday, the night before Kirk’s assassination, anti-Israel Code Pink protesters ambushed Trump, Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as they were dining out in D.C. just a short walk from the White House. The protesters unfurled pro-Palestinian flags and banners and yelled epithets at Trump from just a few feet away.

After Kirk’s murder, RCP reported that a Secret Service agent named Anthony Pough posted on Facebook that the conservative activist was a “racist” and essentially deserved to be killed because of “karma.” The Secret Service placed the agent on administrative leave late last week.

The Secret Service defended its response to the protesters who verbally accosted Trump at the restaurant last week, arguing that agents escorted them out quickly. An agency spokesperson also said that the Secret Service had screened everyone in the establishment for weapons and explained that the protesters had made reservations to dine at the restaurant along with all the other patrons.

But Staropoli and other former agents argued that the Code Pink incident was another embarrassing breach – that the Secret Service should have acted more quickly to remove the protesters or should have screened restaurant patrons more thoroughly to prevent such a menacing display.

With the Kirk assassination consuming the following day’s news cycle, the press never asked the White House whether the Secret Service should have prevented the Code Pink confrontation from occurring.

Just hours before that incident, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday evening told RCP that the Secret Service has opened an investigation into the missed Glock incident “to figure out exactly how the gun made it onto the property.”

“As for the president, in the past he has said he trusts USSS and the job they do to protect him,” Leavitt added.

Leavitt did not say whether Trump’s trust in the Secret Service remains – or whether magnetometers would be required at his golf clubs in the future, a question RCP posed to her. 

Some Secret Service agents chock up the recent breaches to either a lowering of standards as the agency tries to beef up its numbers during a severe manpower shortage or fatigue because existing agents and Uniformed Division officers used for screening are continuing to be stretched too thin.

“The backdrop here is the Service has got to move quickly in building up these numbers as quickly as possible because these types of big competing security events are not going away – they’re just not,” Marino remarked.

After this summer’s unprecedented Alaska summit between Presidents Trump and Putin, the Kremlin is signaling that the Russian leader could return to American soil once again.

Putin could accept an invitation from Trump to visit the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United State next summer, Moscow’s ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin, has said – as cited in state media sources. The ambassador told a British broadcaster that Putin could really attend the World Cup as he seeks to foster “closer links” with Trump.

This next World Cup will mark the first ever time the tournament will be played in three different countries, with the US, Canada and Mexico all hosting games – with the host venue for the final being MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey (typically used for NY Giants and Jets games).

Sixteen host cities were announced by FIFA as Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Guadalajara, Kansas City, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Monterrey, Mexico City, Toronto, Boston, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Miami.

Trump in a press conference last month programed that Putin “very badly” wants to attend the World Cup. It’s unclear whether that may have been directly expressed by Putin during the August 15 Alaska summit.

“That is a man named Vladimir Putin who I believe will be coming depending on what happens. He may be coming and he may not,” the US president said while displaying a photo of himself and Putin from the prior summit.

As for Russian ambassador Kelin, in his fresh interview he said: “There are different ideas. Earlier… they [Putin and Trump] talked about the possibility of an ice hockey match between US and Russia… and football game as I understand is also at work.”

He was asked by the interviewer to confirm that this was in reference to the FIFA “football tournament” scheduled between June 11 and July 19, 2026 – to which the ambassador replied, “Yes, football tournament. I hope that in the coming contacts we are going to discuss that.”

Pundits on the Left have reacted fiercely to the prospect of Putin attending World Cup play in the US:

Crowd goes crazy for Trump at FIFA World club title soccer match in New Jersey. Other than the WNBA all star game, I’m not sure there’s an American sporting event Trump could attend and get booed. pic.twitter.com/T1rmAdEZ9C

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) July 13, 2025

It would be somewhat of a ‘shock’ for many Americans, especially Democrats, to look up at the VIP boxes of a large stadium as a World Cup match was underway in a US city to see Presidents Putin and Trump being chummy and enjoying the biggest soccer tournament in the world.

Authored by Liz Heflin via Remix News,

A shop owner in the city of Flensburg, Germany, near the Danish border, decided to put up an anti-Semitic sign in his window, effectively banning Jews from his store.

The 60-year-old owner of the shop, Hans Velten-Reisch, admitted to putting up the A4-sized paper himself, which read: “Jews not allowed!!!” 

Below that clear ban, in smaller letters, the owner wrote: “Nothing personal, not anti-Semitism, I just can’t stand you.”

“Jews have house ban here” — a sign displayed in Flensburg, Germany today.Shocking. This is not “criticism of Israel.” It is blatant, unapologetic antisemitism.

More than 80 years after Nazi Germany posted signs excluding Jews from public life, we are seeing the same vile hatred… pic.twitter.com/BejTCT0g2N

— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) September 18, 2025

In a statement to the Schleswig-Holsteinische Zeitungsverlag, reported on by Magyar Nemzet, the owner denied the accusation of anti-Semitism and justified his actions with Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

“There are Jews living in Israel, and I can’t tell who supports the attacks and who doesn’t,” R. said, in an attempt to justify his action. He also called Israeli attacks in Gaza “hypocritical.”

“They always say that history shouldn’t repeat itself, but then they do it themselves,” the shopowner added, comparing Israeli actions in Gaza to the Holocaust.

Posts with photos of the shop window have gone viral on social media. 

Felix Klein, the German federal government’s commissioner against anti-Semitism, has spoken out on the matter. 

“This is pure anti-Semitism, and of course a direct reference to the Nazi era, when Jews were boycotted and many such signs were visible.”

“This should not be tolerated in any form,” Klein emphasized.

Local politicians were also quick to react, with the Flensburg branch of the Greens condemning the anti-Semitic poster most strongly. Simone Lange, the former mayor of Flensburg, personally filed a police report.

Federal Minister of Education Karin Prien, who also has Jewish ancestry, said: “Anyone who expresses and justifies anti-Semitism goes against everything that our democratic coexistence represents.”

Police have received several reports regarding the sign, and the prosecutor’s office is investigating whether a crime was committed.

“We must show that we will not tolerate anti-Semitism,” Klein stated. 

The Israeli ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, also spoke up. “In Flensburg, in 2025, signs saying ‘Jews not allowed’ are once again hanging in shop windows. Just like then, in the streets, cafes and stores of the 1930s,” The Independent reports him as saying.

“This is exactly how it began – step by step, sign by sign. It is the same old hatred, only in a different font. After the signs came shards of glass, fire and destruction. And today, people behave as if it were ‘nothing personal.’”

“It was never about Zionism. It was always about Jewish life. And it has never ended harmlessly,” Ambassador Prosor added.

Read more here…

Many cities are seeing a widening gap between wages and home prices, making them “impossibly unaffordable.”

Not only that, U.S. home prices are more unaffordable than the run up to the 2008 global financial crisis. Driving this affordability crunch is the combination of elevated interest rates and soaring home prices in the post-pandemic boom, although some markets have seen slowing growth in recent months.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows housing market affordability in North America, based on data from the Globe and Mail via Hanif Bayat.

The Housing Affordability Crunch in 2025

Below, we compare benchmark home prices as of July 2025 to gross median household income across major metro areas in North America:

Gross median household income as of 2023, the latest data available.

With a home price-to-income ratio of 13.5, Vancouver, Canada’s housing market is extremely out of reach for most residents.

Today, it surpasses all other major American cities, where the average price for a detached home often exceeds $1.4 million–up from around $250,000 in 2000. Similarly, home prices in Toronto are more than 10 times higher than the median household income.

Meanwhile, the West Coast metros of Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco are the most unaffordable in the U.S. given high demand, supply shortages, and for the latter, proximity to Silicon Valley.

Falling near the middle of the pack is Miami, where home prices are 6.4 times the median household income. While home prices have fallen moderately over the past year, they have jumped 61% higher since July 2020—increasing affordability concerns.

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on the world’s most unaffordable housing markets.