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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hong responded with a convoluted spin: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Authored by Tom Gantert via The Epoch Times,

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) took a procedural step Saturday to bring the CLARITY Act to the Senate floor, setting up a vote on whether to consider the bill when lawmakers return from their August recess.

The CLARITY Act would establish a federal regulatory framework for cryptocurrency and other digital assets, spelling out how the industry would be regulated and which federal agencies would have authority over different types of assets.

The legislation would divide oversight between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, creating a distinction between digital assets that are considered securities and those treated as commodities. Supporters say the change would replace what they describe as the SEC’s previous “regulation-by-enforcement” approach with clearer rules for the industry.

The bill would also require certain digital asset offerings and sales to provide investors with specific public disclosures. It would create a new exemption from SEC registration, called “Regulation Crypto,” allowing qualifying digital asset projects to raise money from the public while complying with specific disclosure and regulatory requirements.

Other provisions are intended to prevent companies from structuring projects to evade securities laws and would restrict insiders from reselling assets in ways that could facilitate pump-and-dump schemes or market manipulation. The legislation would also provide legal certainty for digital assets that U.S. courts have already determined are not securities.

Senate Banking Digital Assets Subcommittee Chair Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said in late July that she supported the legislation.

“This is another step in my years-long journey to ensure the U.S. leads the way on digital assets,” Lummis said in a press release.

 “The U.S. has always been at the forefront of financial innovation, and the coming weeks are likely the last real chance we will have for years to get this right.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is among the lawmakers opposing the bill.

“Our job is not to advance a pro-industry crypto bill that will put American consumers, investors, our national security and our financial system at risk,” Warren said in a statement in May.

Warren said Congress should be working on kitchen-table issues, such as capping interest rates on credit cards and preventing big banks from charging overdraft fees.

“But, instead of that, we’re spending our time working on a bill written by the crypto industry for the crypto industry. Nothing made it into this bill that wasn’t approved by the crypto industry,” Warren said.

President Donald Trump supports the bill and has urged the Senate to pass it in honor of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has supported various pro-crypto efforts on Capitol Hill.

Trump said in July that China and other countries aim to “take complete and total control of the major financial ‘happening’” and artificial intelligence.

A decade-long drug empire that prosecutors say pumped cocaine and fentanyl through Mobile has ended with its alleged mastermind headed to federal prison for the rest of his life, according to WSFA.

McGee, 42, received life sentences after being convicted of running a large-scale narcotics operation involving drugs, firearms and minors. U.S. District Judge Terry Moorer also imposed another life term stemming from fraud against the IRS and Small Business Administration, along with a $10 million fine.

The government portrayed McGee as far more than a street-level dealer. Prosecutors said his organization moved enormous quantities of cocaine over the years, including drugs obtained through suppliers connected to Mexican cartels. Evidence presented at trial convinced Moorer that the operation exceeded 450 kilograms of cocaine, an important threshold under federal sentencing guidelines.

Money was apparently pouring in as well. McGee reportedly acknowledged making roughly $120,000 in monthly profit, while financial investigators uncovered millions of dollars that could not be explained by his reported legitimate income. During one period, accountants found approximately $4.4 million in additional earnings beyond the $436,000 he officially reported.

Investigators were able to document much of the operation through an extensive surveillance campaign. Cameras secretly recorded activity around a house connected to McGee’s family, while another court-authorized camera was installed inside his Cadillac Escalade. The resulting footage became a major component of the government’s case.

But the money and drug quantities were overshadowed at sentencing by allegations that children were pulled into the operation.

The report writes that during a law enforcement raid on a Mobile stash house, agents encountered a 3-year-old boy carrying a backpack containing drugs. Prosecutors said McGee had learned authorities were approaching and efforts were made to get evidence out of the house before they arrived.

When officers confronted the frightened child, prosecutors said he responded with four words: “I’m not a bad boy.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney George May called what happened “just a horrifying scene.”

The government also presented evidence involving an 8-year-old boy. Prosecutors said a recorded conversation showed McGee discussing having the child throw a backpack containing drugs over a fence ahead of police arrival.

McGee disputed that accusation.

“I never instructed a child,” he told the court. The January verdict found McGee guilty of operating a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiring to distribute cocaine and fentanyl, multiple firearms offenses and involving people under 18 in drug activity.

Prosecutors also argued that this was hardly McGee’s first trip through the federal criminal justice system. Investigators believe he resumed trafficking not long after leaving federal prison following an earlier drug conviction. At Friday’s hearing, McGee challenged a number of the government’s assertions but did not present character witnesses or make a substantial plea for a lighter punishment.

Judge Moorer indicated that the severity of the sentence went well beyond a mechanical calculation under federal guidelines. Even if life imprisonment had not been recommended, he suggested he would have arrived at the same result. “If every federal judge, including myself, was arbitrarily limited to imposing a life sentence in only three cases, I would impose it in your case,” Moorer said.

The punishment also extended deep into McGee’s family. His wife, Echandza Dianca Maxie, was sentenced to life for participating in the drug and firearms conspiracy. His sister-in-law, Edeszann Dailene Maxie, received 13 years and three months for her involvement in the fraud operation.

Outside the courthouse, U.S. Attorney Sean Costello said the combination of narcotics, weapons, violence and financial crimes justified the government’s request for life imprisonment. He characterized McGee as the head of a Mobile crime family and said South Alabama’s streets were now “much, much safer.”

McGee’s next fight will be in the appellate courts, where his lawyers are expected to challenge both his convictions and sentence.

Tracy Rosenthal, co-founder of the Los Angeles Tenants Union, has emerged as an influential far-left star in the Democratic Socialists of America’s tenant-organizing ‘squatting’ movement, promoting rent strikes and aggressive pressure campaigns to bankrupt landlords.  

While the article focuses largely on New York City, Rosenthal’s influence extends far beyond it. She has built an entire career around this work, speaking at conferences and appearing as a media expert. The clips I used of her actually come from a talk she gave to Asheville DSA. pic.twitter.com/2LGiDzVYNG

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) August 3, 2026

In this clip posted on X by Stu Smith, investigative analyst at the Manhattan Institute, Rosenthal stated that tenants pay rent “at the barrel of a gun.” She explained how “Living on rent strike – right – getting to experience having your housing without having to pay for it is one of those liberatory visions of home.” 

🚨 Meet the “Abolish Rent” Ideologue Teaching DSA Tenant Organizers How to Wage War on Landlords

Tracy Rosenthal co-founded the Los Angeles Tenants Union, helps politically educate DSA tenant organizers, and is currently on rent strike in New York City.

In this supercut,… pic.twitter.com/0fw5wi30rt

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) July 17, 2026

The problem with Rosenthal’s revolutionary crusade to collapse capitalism is that she treats rent strikes, and the broader effort to destroy the nation from within, almost as a game, even though the financial fallout affects actual working-class tenants, property owners, lenders, and working-poor communities.

Her view that this is all a game is even more striking given New York Post reporting that she was raised in a super-wealthy household in a multimillion-dollar Manhattan apartment and is the daughter of four-time Grammy-winning studio owner Steven Rosenthal.

Rosenthal showing off her White privilege at the Grammys with her rich father and stepmother. 

In other words, the very privilege created by the capitalist system she seeks to destroy has insulated her from terrible life decisions. She appears to be little more than a lonely cat woman and an unhinged white liberal “Karen” who hates the West, probably because she went to some liberal arts school and was handed an unproductive, woke degree that many companies today see merely as a liability. 

She is also likely representative of many DSA members who, as they watch capitalism progress this summer. Spacex’s IPO mints thousands of new millionaires, including working-class welders, and they see their jealousy boil over as they confront the reality that their decision to pursue far-left activism has led them down a sad and angry path, one full of hate and, as the far-left is known for, violence. 

Rosenthal’s 2024 book “Abolish Rent” has been a top read on the DSA’s own website. 

But hey, she is one of DSA’s recommended authors on “housing justice,” not a manipulative activist weaponizing laws and protections meant to help vulnerable tenants. pic.twitter.com/0uWgbxNYTR

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) July 17, 2026

Rosenthal, who posted “death to America” the night Mamdani clinched the Democratic primary last year and now serves as a visiting scholar at the woke CUNY, has already put some of these rent strikes into practice. 

Meet another of Mamdani’s housing experts…

Mamdani housing event features a lady in a mask ranting about her landlord, declaring “eviction = violence” pic.twitter.com/el709Zzf88

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 16, 2026

It’s time to recognize that Rosenthal, like much of the DSA activist class, is arguably a byproduct of an education system hijacked by the radical left that has purposely oversupplied the country with worthless woke degrees. 

The result is a growing revolutionary cohort increasingly detached from economic realities that have one mission, and it’s not affordability, climate, anti-data centers, Palestine, or any of the lefty causes; it’s to destroy the nation from within – we’re merely citing DSA leaders in their own words … 

Hawley’s Solution

If policymakers actually want to dismantle the cancer killing the education system and producing this far-left activist class, perhaps forcing schools to have an economic interest in student outcomes will result in less wokes? Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced a bill in 2022 – the Make the Universities Pay Act, that would allow federal student loans to be discharged in bankruptcy after a certain period, but pair that relief with a clawback requiring universities that pushed these worthless and toxic degrees to absorb at least half of every covered loan that is ultimately discharged.

Such a mechanism would fundamentally change the economics of higher education overnight. Schools – with their massively inflated tuition – who produce graduates that are unable to generate enough income to repay their debts, would suddenly bear a direct financial cost for those outcomes. This would impose accountability, forcing schools to prioritize productive and demanding degrees instead of worthless woke degrees.

In other words, it’s time to impose accountability on schools that push worthless degrees. Such a move could be the ultimate death blow to many universities with weak balance sheets, high debt loads, and small endowments. 

Lawmakers should read more about how to break the cycle of bad ideas via U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.): New Legislation to Hold Universities Accountable for Rising Tuition Costs and Student Debt. 

Seattle leaders are moving forward with a first-of-its-kind proposal aimed at preventing grocery retailers from using consumers’ personal data to charge different prices for the same products.

The ordinance, backed by Mayor Katie Wilson and City Councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Dionne Foster, would prohibit large grocery chains from using information such as browsing history, social media activity, employment status, race, gender, or chatbot interactions to personalize prices, according to Wilson’s website. 

Instead, retailers would be required to publicly display uniform prices while still allowing traditional discounts for seniors, veterans, loyalty programs, and other transparent promotions.

“This policy stops corporations from using personal data to squeeze more money out of shoppers,” Wilson said. “The same product, in the same store, should cost the same no matter who’s pushing the cart.”

The announcement on Wilson’s site says that the measure is designed to curb AI-driven price discrimination as grocery costs continue to rise. The proposal follows a Consumer Reports investigation that found Instacart tested AI pricing systems that charged different customers different prices for identical grocery items. It also comes after Washington’s attorney general sued Albertsons over allegedly misleading “buy one, get one” promotions that did not actually reduce prices.

Councilmember Rinck argued the legislation would establish “guardrails” around how retailers use customer data, particularly as many households face higher food costs and reduced SNAP benefits. Foster added that consumers “shouldn’t have to wonder whether they’re being charged extra because of an algorithm.”

Labor and privacy advocates also praised the proposal. UFCW 3000 President Faye Guenther accused grocery companies of pursuing “AI-powered surveillance pricing tech” to create “fake discounts,” while privacy advocates said the ordinance would help prevent algorithmic price discrimination before the practice becomes widespread.

If approved, Seattle would become the first U.S. city to adopt rules specifically banning the use of sensitive personal data to set individualized grocery prices.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

Britain’s latest free speech assault is underway.

An elite police unit set up by the Labour government has already flagged more than 100 social media posts to local forces, monitoring online “protest related activity” in a move critics brand a sinister step toward state control of speech.

The National Internet Intelligence Investigations team, created in the wake of the 2024 Southport riots, began operations in February. Freedom of Information figures obtained by the Telegraph and reported today show it has made 106 referrals of “suspicious” posts to forces across the country.

An elite police squad which was set up to monitor social media in the wake of the Southport riots has flagged more than 100 posts to local forces.

Political opponents have described the squad as “sinister” and said it represents a further erosion of free speech and civil… pic.twitter.com/g8YGewbIVn

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) August 8, 2026

In June alone, 50 of those referrals came as public anger boiled over in Southampton after police bodycam footage exposed officers handcuffing dying teenage murder victim Henry Nowak while accepting a false complaint of ‘racism’ from his Sikh killer.

When the unit was first announced, then policing minister Dame Diana Johnson described it as “a dedicated function at a national level for exploiting internet intelligence to help local forces manage public safety threats and risks.”

New elite unit flags more than 100 social media posts to police forces as free speech fears grow https://t.co/DB5IhBmZVu

— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) August 8, 2026

The National Police Coordination Centre claims the squad “supports policing’s understanding of protest-related activity in the online environment by developing a broader picture of emerging, potential risks.”

Its remit, officials say, focuses on “providing strategic insight and improving awareness of protest-related developments that may have relevance to policing.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage commented “This is the beginning of the state controlling free speech. It is sinister, dangerous and must be fought.”

Police have refused to disclose which posts were flagged, citing exemptions around crime prevention. The pattern is clear enough. The unit was born from the Southport disorder that followed the murders of three girls by Axel Rudakubana.

In the information vacuum, online discussion of the attacker’s background and wider immigration failures was blamed for fanning unrest. Now the same apparatus is trained on any online activity that might signal public discontent with official narratives.

This new monitoring squad slots neatly alongside the Home Office’s long-running Research, Information and Communications Unit – RICU – a shadowy “thought police” operation exposed for controlling the mass migration narrative. That unit has intervened after migrant attacks, including the Henry Nowak murder, to shape family statements, briefed police to portray protesters as unsympathetic thugs rather than citizens with grievances, and treated online criticism of immigration policy as a threat requiring behavioural change.

It also sits on top of a growing machinery of digital control that has already turned Britain into a global outlier for speech arrests.

In 2024 alone, nearly 10,000 people were arrested for “grossly offensive” social media posts under communications laws – an average of 30 arrests a day. Some forces clocked rates 20 times higher than others.

Violent offenders were released early to free up cells for those jailed over online comments.

The machinery has been building for years. In 2024, a man was arrested simply for posting “anti-establishment rhetoric” after the riots. Authorities prioritised thought crime over street crime, even as prisons filled with people whose only offence was typing the wrong words.

The Online Safety Act handed regulators sweeping powers to force platforms to remove “harmful” content under threat of massive fines.

Critics called it a censor’s charter from the start. Government units that once hunted lockdown dissenters pivoted to monitoring mass migration critics.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan openly called for a dedicated government social media disinformation unit.

The trajectory is consistent: expand the definition of threat, then expand the surveillance.

Layer on mandatory digital ID and biometric tracking, age verification systems that end online anonymity, and proposals that treat social media access itself as a privilege granted by the state.

What begins as “protecting the public from protest risks” becomes a permanent apparatus for mapping, flagging, and suppressing dissent.

Authoritarianism does not need tanks in the streets. It arrives with a login and a national internet intelligence team.

The 106 flagged posts are not the end. They are the proof of concept. An elite unit now sits at the centre of British policing with a mandate to scan the public conversation for signs of discontent and feed those findings to local forces.

The official language is careful. The practical effect is a standing capability to treat online speech as a public order threat.

Free expression does not survive that environment for long.

The only question left is how many more posts, how many more referrals, and how many more arrests will be required before the public refuses to accept the new normal.

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.

Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir by storage capacity, has fallen to its lowest level on record as a drought throughout western states continues.

Bureau of Reclamation data indicate that the reservoir’s surface elevation rose to 1,040.50 feet above sea level on Thursday, below the previous low of 1,040.58 feet set in July 2022, when the lake first fell to a low following years of drought.

Hoover Dam forms Lake Mead along the Colorado River on the Nevada-Arizona border, and holds water for approximately 40 million people in seven Western states, as well as parts of Mexico. In addition, Lake Mead generates hydropower for customers in California, Arizona, and Nevada, which is threatened by the falling water levels.

As Kimberley Hayek reports for The Epoch Times, the Colorado River Basin has been in a so-called megadrought for more than 20 years.

In 1999, Lake Mead was near capacity, but by 2022 its surface had fallen by nearly 176 feet after a period that is the driest on record throughout many parts of the West.

Southern Nevada gets nearly 90 percent of its water from Lake Mead, and the Southern Nevada Water Authority has long viewed the Colorado River allotment as its largest and most critical resource, leading to conservation efforts over the years that have slashed per-person use going back to the early 2000s, and nearly all indoor water is recycled.

When Lake Mead first fell below 1,075 feet in 2021, federal officials declared a Level 1 shortage, and further declines prompted deeper cuts. Nevada’s share of the river has fallen by billions of gallons over the course of several years.

Hoover Dam also produces thousands of gigawatt-hours of electricity annually.

At Glen Canyon Dam on Lake Powell, Lake Mead’s companion reservoir, the level was 3,521 feet on Thursday, down nearly 33 feet from a year ago.

Electricity production becomes infeasible once the surface falls to 3,490 feet and below.

Both lakes still operate despite being well below the elevation levels needed for reliable power and storage.

Population growth has also added to the pressure.

Nevada ranked near the top of states for growth in recent years, and Southern Nevada is home to approximately 70 percent of the state’s residents.

Lake Mead National Recreation Area attracts millions of visitors each year for a range of activities, including boating, fishing and hiking.

Low water has exposed once submerged features, such as the ruins of the town of St. Thomas. There is also a World War II-era B-29 bomber that was submerged in the lake after crashing almost 70 years ago.

Authored by David Sultzer via AmericanThinker.com,

The Democrat party leadership—sensing its mortal danger from a very well-organized and radicalized Islamo-socialist movement—is trying to stay afloat, claiming that the Democrat Party is a “big tent” where the socialists can find a welcome home:

Senator Chuck Schumer thinks Democrat Socialists — who want to oust him as Leader — make the Democrat party stronger.

REPORTER: “Is the rise of the DSA good for your party?”

SCHUMER: “Being a big tent party is a strength not a weakness.” pic.twitter.com/17hSbCbtMx

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 4, 2026

But ironically, as the “big tent” expands, the number of constituencies inside the tent shrinks.

The traditional power bases of the Democrat party, the working class and minorities, are not part of the Islamo-socialist movement. Instead, the “socialist” part is comprised almost uniformly of downwardly mobile, white college-credentialed losers.

CNN: Abdul El-Sayed won 0 of the 15 counties with the lowest share of adults with college degrees, but 13 of the 15 counties with the highest share.

“El-Sayed’s support came dramatically from those areas… More from elite circles than from the working class circles.” pic.twitter.com/rY2VqhRixN

— Bobby LaValley (@Bobby_LaVallley) August 6, 2026

All members of the Democrat leadership, without exception, can see the danger to them from the Islamo-socialist movement, as well as the danger to their traditional constituencies—and, for that matter, to our constitutional experiment now 250 years old. Most, as epitomized by Chuck Schumer, are willing to sacrifice the country and appease the Islamo-socialist crocodile, hoping it will eat them last.

Others, such as Julian Epstein, writing today at the NY Post, are sounding all the alarm bells, namely, that such appeasement is not merely “a recipe for moral decay,” but “for political suicide” as well:

Democrats aren’t coddling Scandinavian-style socialists; they’re getting into bed with a nihilistic, deconstructionist brand of third-worldism.

It’s an ideology that seeks the elimination of prisons, policing, borders, the Senate, the presidency, the Supreme Court and democratic free markets.

A worldview that aligns with genocidal jihadist movements like Hamas.

This is, Epstein says, fracturing the party “as working-class voters flee an increasingly toxic Democratic brand [and] the party’s newfound embrace of anti-American extremists is likely to produce big losses nationally…”

Moreover, as to the socialist dreams of Bernie Sanders, Epstein criticizes it as a “delusion that attaches no importance to generating wealth—and only cares about redistributing it.”

Epstein ultimately opines that the rise of the Islamo-socialist movement is part of a bigger problem for Democrats:

[T]hat post-modern liberalism is failing. The more we spend on the welfare state, it seems, the worse the outcomes.

It is a fascinating essay, well worth the read. And as Epstein concludes.

“Democrats can’t run from this lunacy in November.”

And naturally, Victor Davis Hanson gets it:

Victor Davis Hanson: The Unintelligent, Arrogant Democratic Socialists Are About to Receive a Reality Check: National Elections

Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary became the most expensive Senate primary in the state’s history.

Haley Stevens’ loss to Abdul El-Sayed says a… pic.twitter.com/9A8W2qACIR

— Daily Signal (@DailySignal) August 7, 2026

After months of lobbying the Trump administration for clearance to purchase Chinese memory chips, Apple appears to be nearing the point where it can tap China’s domestic chip market. The push follows what the iPhone maker has described as “unsustainable” pricing from the memory “cartel,” namely SK Hynix, Samsung, Micron, and SanDisk, whose production has been soaked up by unprecedented demand from hyperscalers. 

The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday morning that Apple is closer than ever to using memory chips from CXMT, a Chinese company that the Pentagon has put on a blacklist because of alleged connections to the People’s Liberation Army.

Apple is currently testing CXMT memory chips across its product portfolio, including iPhones and MacBooks, according to the report.

The report continued:

Apple has held early talks with CXMT about supplying components with the goal of using them in some devices sold in China, the people said. Apple hopes to win the White House’s blessing to do business with the Chinese company.

Apple is raising prices on its products globally, blaming the rising cost of memory chips because of high demand from AI companies. Getting access to Chinese supplies could help the iPhone maker ease its crunch.

As we’ve covered, the iPhone maker has been waging a lobbying campaign to secure the White House’s blessing in order to ease the financial pressure from soaring memory chip prices. A recent FT report said that Apple approached the Commerce Department earlier this summer about procuring Chinese memory chips. 

Apple is not barred from buying chips from China’s DDR giant CXMT or from YMTC, another Chinese memory chipmaker that focuses on NAND memory. YMTC has been aggressively growing its market share, has caught up with SanDisk, and is set to become the world’s third-largest maker of flash memory as soon as this quarter.

However, US rules prevent Apple from ordering customized chips from CXMT but permit it to purchase off-the-shelf components and negotiate prices. 

The WSJ noted that other device companies are seeking CXMT supplies:

Laptop makers HP and Acer have started using memory chips from CXMT in devices sold outside the U.S. to alleviate some of the memory supply strain, people familiar with the matter said.

We expanded on this last week:

• World’s Largest PC Makers Start Using Memory Chips From China’s CXMT

Any agreement Apple inks with CXMT would risk immediate political resistance in Washington, where policymakers fear U.S. orders could strengthen CXMT. Its chip tech trails that of Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron, while its production capacity is largely committed for this year.

However, CXMT is rapidly gaining ground. Its second-quarter revenue increased more than eightfold from the same quarter one year ago, lifting its global DRAM market share to 7%. CXMT completed a successful IPO last month (read note).