I assume that being a Democrat isn’t very fun right now, especially if you live in California. Unless, of course, you’re a Democrat running to be the next governor of the once Golden State. In that case, you’re positively elated. Already, one Democratic candidate had to drop out after multiple sexual assault cases were lodged against him, and the current front-runner, Xavier Becerra, is going viral again for losing track of 85,000 migrant children during his time as President Joe Biden’s Health and Human Services Secretary. This is the guy California Democrats think will get them to the finish line. What a time to be alive. How did he lose all those kids? Starting in 2008, the United States allowed unaccompanied minors to be released to sponsors while their immigration proceedings dragged on for years. The process really ramped up during President Obama’s second term in 2014, but it was under Joe Biden that the floodgates opened. In 2022 alone, more than 130,000 unaccompanied minors entered the U.S. — three times the number from five years earlier. From 2021 to 2023, the total exceeded 250,000. During this time, the Biden White House ramped up demands on staffers to move the children quickly out of shelters and haphazardly release them to adults, rushing through the vetting of sponsors in the process. Xavier Becerra, being the dutiful “yes-man” he was to Joe Biden, was happy to oblige. His department threw out protections that had been in place for decades: background checks, assessments of children’s files, etc. According to former employees, he demanded that “twenty percent of kids have to be released every week or you get dinged,” and had the unnerving gall to ask why they could not discharge children with “machine-like efficiency.” Oh, I don’t know, Xavier. Maybe because they’re children, not inventory? According to a recording obtained by the New York Times, Becerra complained, “If Henry Ford had seen this in his plants, he would have never become famous and rich. This is not the way you do an assembly line.” He told the director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement that if she couldn’t increase the number of discharges, he would find someone who could. She resigned a month later. He made a similar threat to her successor. Here is what that exploitation actually looked like, so we are all clear on what we’re talking about. Young women having their scalps ripped off in a Michigan Cheerios factory. Twelve-year-olds on overnight shifts. Children sleeping in gang-controlled sponsor homes. The Biden DHS’s own Inspector General found at least 570 child placements tied directly to human trafficking, drug trafficking, and weapons trafficking, and noted that because the agency wasn’t even tracking trafficking victims, the real number was almost certainly higher. HHS, at the time, behaved as if the children who vanished into these dark labor arrangements were doing just fine. They weren’t. Democrats opened the border wide, crammed kids into the very facilities they once hysterically called “cages,” rushed them through with minimal oversight, and then looked the other way. When a fellow Democrat finally confronted Becerra about it at a May debate, he air-quoted the phrase “lost kids” and called the whole thing a Trump lie. The New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting it. Twenty-six of Becerra’s own House Democrats wrote him a letter about it. But sure, it’s a Trump lie. The hypocrisy, as we point out often in this column, is again too rich to stomach. Becerra, the child losing overlord, had zero public health experience when he was handed HHS in the middle of a pandemic. At the time, Democrats cheered the pick. Now, these same voices clutch their pearls and scream “incompetent” at Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., an odd bird perhaps, but a man who has spent years fighting corporate capture of public health and is actually making a difference at HHS. Plus, he didn’t lose 85,000 children. Becerra did. Yet here Becerra is, in recent debates, bragging about his record and insisting, “We protected kids,” while pointing fingers at employers. Spare us. The same man who treated child welfare like a Ford assembly line now wants Californians to trust him with the entire state. This is exactly why Becerra is leading in the polls. He will say yes to the Democrat machine in California and never make it answer for anything, but his lead also exposes just how bleak that bench has truly become. This is the party that gave California record homelessness despite billions spent, soft-on-crime policies that turned its cities into open-air drug markets, the highest gas prices and cost of living in the nation, failing public schools that trap poor kids in mediocrity, and an illegal immigration burden that strains every hospital, school, and housing market in the state. After all of that, their shining answer is the architect of the 85,000-lost-children scandal — not despite his record, but because of it. And he will keep the machine running and never once ask whether the machine should be stopped. Progressives don’t actually care about protecting human beings. They care about advancing their radical Left, mass-migration agenda; consequences and scalp-ripping factories be damned. Human suffering is just the cost of doing business when your priority is importing a permanent underclass and growing the urban plantation. Accountability is for other people. Moral authority is for press releases. The uncomfortable truth is that Democrats are not interested in fixing problems. They are interested in manufacturing them, moralizing about them for political gain, and then taking the people who made them and running them for higher office. They opened the border. They rushed vulnerable children through the system with minimal safeguards. They looked the other way when those children were exploited, and now they have the audacity to present one of the people most responsible as leadership material, because they hate Trump and Republicans just that much. California has not elected a Republican governor since 2006. Democrats have had nearly two decades to prove they could lead with competence and humanity. Xavier Becerra is neither competent nor humane, and the people of California — the few Republicans and common-sense voters still there — deserve far better than recycled failures. So don’t give the keys to Sacramento to a man who lost 85,000 children. Don’t give them to a woman who reportedly threw scalding potatoes at her ex-husband and, for some reason, hasn’t discovered GLP-1s. And don’t give them to a billionaire as insufferable as Kamala Harris before the vino kicks in. Tom Homan’s people found 62,000 of those not-lost kids within months, which tells you everything about what competent, willing governance actually looks like. Maybe California tries a small-government conservative who doesn’t hate the people they serve.  The children certainly deserved one.

For decades, New York City mayors — from John Lindsay to Eric Adams — understood that standing with the Jewish community wasn’t just a political tradition; it was a moral imperative. They marched up Fifth Avenue in the Celebrate Israel Parade, built sukkahs for visiting Israeli prime ministers, and declared themselves “brothers” to a community that forms the very backbone of the Big Apple. But in 2026, that tradition has been unceremoniously torched by leftist Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani’s refusal to attend the Israel Day on Fifth parade is more than just a scheduling conflict; it is a calculated, partisan boycott. As Assemblyman Michael Novakhov (R-Brooklyn) rightly noted, this is a “disgraceful insult” to Jewish New Yorkers. Zohran Mamdani has officially confirmed that he will boycott New York City’s Israel Day Parade — becoming the face of a Democratic Party now controlled by radical anti-Israel extremists. After weeks of antisemitic chaos outside synagogues across our city, this should surprise… pic.twitter.com/rhKZzxZPU0 — Michael Novakhov (@MichaelforNY) May 13, 2026 For a mayor to snub an event that brings 50,000 marchers to the streets — an event every mayor since Robert Wagner in 1964 has honored — is nothing short of a radical break from the city’s identity. While Mamdani claims he won’t attend a parade for a state with a “system of hierarchy on the basis of religion,” his calendar tells a different story. This is the same man who proudly marched in the Pakistan Independence Day parade. Apparently, a state that enforces brutal blasphemy laws and enshrines a specific religion in its governance is perfectly fine for a photo-op, but the world’s only Jewish state is a bridge too far. On Thursday, while the Jewish community reels from Mamdani’s snub, City Hall is celebrating “Muslim Day.” The contrast is staggering. While Mamdani and New York City’s government find the energy to host press conferences for his preferred constituencies, he exhibits a pathetic lassitude toward the antisemitic rot festering in his own streets. Yet another one of these events planned at City Hall this week. Particularly tone deaf after the violence we’ve seen directed at synagogues and Jewish neighborhoods over the past few days, but they REALLY want to make sure we understand who’s in charge now. pic.twitter.com/q5vlXpkpii — Hon. Vickie Paladino (@VickieforNYC) May 13, 2026 In neighborhoods like Midwood, the “mob” that Novakhov warned about is already here. In the streets, “anti-Zionist” thugs have waved Hezbollah flags, shouting “Globalize the Intifada” and screaming “Remember Khaybar” — a chilling reference to the 7th-century slaughter and subjugation of Jews. Women have been dragged by their hair and residents harassed in their own doorways by masked agitators shouting “baby killer.” And where is the mayor? He is busy evading questions about his double standards and hiding behind bureaucratic platitudes about “equal rights.” His administration’s response to these intimidation tactics has been one of profound indifference. It’s almost 48 hours since @WOLPalestine & @PAL_Awda terrorized the Jewish community in Brooklyn. Yet, not a word from the Boy @NYCMayor on X condemning the conduct of groups associated with @NerdeenKiswani and @lsarsour doing so. But tomorrow it’s Muslim Day at City Hall. https://t.co/6xc2Q9TYnv pic.twitter.com/XaEcRxGEOA — SCOOCH.NYC (@david_sivella) May 13, 2026 While the City Council recently passed legislation to protect houses of worship from these vitriolic sieges, the police are still waiting for the green light to actually enforce it. Mamdani’s boycott isn’t a principled stand for human rights; it is a signal to the most radical elements of his base that the Jewish community is fair game. By refusing to stand with Israel, he has chosen to stand with the Jew-hating mob that feels increasingly emboldened under his watch.

An 83-year-old Democrat lawmaker from Florida has missed over 40 straight House votes and was caught recycling old photos on social media this week as she faces questions about her recent voting record.  Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) has missed 43 straight House roll call votes and has not voted since April 17, according to official voting tallies. Wilson’s recent voting history was first flagged on Wednesday by veteran Capitol Hill reporter Jaime Dupree. The Daily Wire reached out to Wilson’s office and asked why she has not voted in nearly a month.  Dupree also noted that Wilson, who represents portions of Miami, posted a picture on her congressional X account on May 12 that featured a photo first posted to her account on October 4, 2025.  Rep. Frederica Wilson D-FL missed all 10 votes on Wednesday in the House. Wilson has now missed 43 straight votes – she last voted on April 17. Wilson’s X account this week sent out photos of a Service Academy day – but pictures from the same event were posted last October pic.twitter.com/ncemZstJGP — Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) May 13, 2026 The post from May 12 said, “As students plan their futures, service through a U.S. Service Academy remains a powerful path to leadership, discipline, and opportunity. I was proud to host a Service Academy Day at FIU, bringing together representatives to share guidance with the next generation. For nomination information, visit my website or call my office.” A second post featuring one of the exact same photos and nearly the same text from October 4 said, “As high school students plan their future, service through a U.S. service academy is an excellent path. I was proud to host a Service Day Academy at [FIU] and I thank all the academy representatives who presented. For nomination information, visit my website or call my office.” The Daily Wire also asked Wilson’s office why she was recycling social media posts.  Wilson’s office has published just one press release since she last voted. That release condemned the Supreme Court’s decision to end requirements for black-majority congressional districts.  “This decision is a setback for voting rights and fair representation. Full stop,” she said. “Let me be clear. For generations, people fought, marched, and even died for the right to vote in this country. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was supposed to protect that right and make sure communities that were shut out of power finally had a fair chance to be heard.”

Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman rebuked his party’s hypocrisy over foreign policy on Wednesday, saying Democrats have become the party of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” In a podcast interview with libertarian journalist Nick Gillespie, Fetterman defended the Trump administration’s military campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Asked whether he trusts war assessments from President Donald Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth, the swing-state Democrat did not budge. “100%, I trust the Trump administration, and Trump a hell of a lot more than I would ever trust the Iranians or the Chinese or the Russians,” Fetterman said, adding, “We are all Americans. That’s what we’re forgetting. You know, the Democratic Party can’t become the TDS party. … And clearly that’s where we are right now.”   “That does not mean you agree on every tactic that’s happened,” he continued. “I don’t appreciate the gamification of the Iranian war.”

This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you. *** One of the most decorated bobsledders in history, Kaillie Humphries has it all: six Olympic medals, a loving marriage, and the most adorable son. And after teaming up with XX-XY Athletics in 2026, she’s inspiring women everywhere to go after their dreams.  Humphries knows a little something about beating the odds. She gave birth to her son Aulden in 2024, and just 18 months later, she won two medals at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.  “It is possible to achieve everything you want to achieve,” she tells The Daily Wire. “But it is gonna take work and sacrifice, and there will be some hardships along the way. I’m not gonna say that doesn’t exist because that wouldn’t be truthful.”     View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Team USA (@teamusa) Unafraid to stand her ground, Humphries makes a natural fit for XX-XY. Since its founding by former Levi Strauss exec Jennifer Sey in 2024, the activewear brand has been dedicated to normalizing women’s sports for biological girls and women. The mission? For athletes to “simply be afforded the chance to compete on an even playing field.”  In the battle over Title IX, which was once designed to provide women equal opportunity in sports, XX-XY offered sanctuary from Biden-era policies that allowed an intact man claiming to be a “woman” to strip down in front of female swimmers and, in another case, spike a volleyball so hard it led to another athlete’s concussion during a high school game. Adding insult to injury, biological male athletes regularly broke women’s records, stole nearly 900 women’s medals, and hijacked hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money and scholarships.  The devastating fallout was no surprise. Men are stronger, faster, taller, leaner, and more muscular and have larger lung capacity than women. Period. Extremely limited research showed that “physical performance of nonathletic trans people who have undergone [gender-affirming hormone therapy] for at least two years approaches that of cisgender controls.” It wasn’t close to being fair. President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring an end to the war on women’s sports in 2025. But for Humphries, who spent her entire career advocating for equality in bobsledding, some battle scars last a lifetime. She’s currently the women’s athlete rep for the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, competing for the U.S. on the world stage, but back when she was a citizen of her native Canada, Humphries was forced to advocate for a fair shake.  “When I first started in the sport, women didn’t compete on all the same bobsled tracks,” she says. “We weren’t good enough, is what we were told, so we were given the easy tracks, the soft tracks. I had to go compete against the men with an all-women’s crew at the World Cup because that was the only way they were going to allow us to showcase that we are skilled enough, fast enough, strong enough. I was told no one wants to see women crash. Women can’t do this. You can’t move the weight. It’s too dangerous.”  If this sounds like some kind of vintage vision of sports, Humphries says the balance was still off as recently as 2018. “[Women] didn’t have equal medal opportunity for four of the six Olympics I’ve been to,” she explains. “The men were getting a lot more prize money than the women were getting for the exact same stuff. There were some races when you were given, like, a cheese plate, and the guys were getting prize money.”  Humphries was also advised that she’d lose her competitive edge if she got pregnant. But instead of abiding by other people’s limits, she followed her gut. The number of women who let go of career or family goals because they believe both can’t exist is uncountable. Humphries wants to change that. She established her TrailblazeHER foundation to support elite female athletes with financial assistance and wellness resources as they go for Olympic and Paralympic gold.  So how can every woman go all in off the bobsled track? Whether it’s bench pressing a few pounds or learning to play the piano, start by believing in yourself. “Find your people, chase your dreams … don’t listen to the limitations that people put on you,” Humphries says. “It’s the greatest satisfaction when we can be the best versions of ourselves by showing up for our goals and dreams.”  Along with her dedicated mental game, she attributes her success to her stellar support system and suggests surrounding yourself with your biggest fans. “It might be the friend down the street, it might be a grandparent, whoever it is, a coach, a therapist, stick close to those people.” It’s not uncommon for Humphries to train alongside her husband, her son, and her team among the many people equally dedicated to her goals.  In 2021, Humphries became an American citizen so she could compete for the U.S. at the Beijing Olympics. Five years later, in May 2026, she accepted her third invitation to the White House to be honored at a Mother’s Day event in the Rose Garden. Her chic cherry blossom pink suit put a demure spin on her signature tattoos.  When I ask her what her next bit of ink might be, she confirms “something for Cortina,” but also shares some news. “Hopefully we can get pregnant again, and then that will change what tattoo I want to get.” After we joke that the only open real estate left may be her face and neck, she laughs, “My face? Never. My dad would shoot me.” What she doesn’t completely rule out is a seventh run at the Olympics.      View this post on Instagram   A post shared by XX-XY Athletics (@xx_xyathletics) So will training like Kaillie Humphries in head-to-toe XX-XY help you nab the gold? Along with a supportive team and a positive mindset, a fresh fit certainly lends the confidence boost for that next challenge — even if it’s groceries. But the real magic happens when you take the first step. “Tiny steps are still steps,” Humphries says. “Nobody’s an expert overnight. What looks like big jumps are really little steps in process and work. Focus on the little wins, and work on those steps to get to the goal.”