The biggest question facing get-out-the-vote organizations like mine is how do Republicans win in November when President Donald Trump is not on the ballot? To answer that question, we went straight to the voters whose votes will determine the midterms in battleground states. Proving the point that while Trump himself...

The military operation against Iran has just begun, and already the legacy media spread false narratives of impending failure and chaos. But what if everything is proceeding exactly as planned? The United States brings overwhelming opportunities and resources to this conflict that dwarf those of the Iranian regime. With superior technology, intelligence, and military might, […] The post Iran: What If Everything Goes As Planned? appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

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. *** It’s become a running joke that millennials are obsessed with minimalism to the point of living in empty, sad gray-walled homes with white kitchens and zero personality. What started as a noble cause — the rejection of overconsumption, the adoption of thoughtful purchasing — has swung way too far in the other direction. Millennials throw everything away. And now, they’re taking away the joy of kids getting birthday gifts? Say it ain’t so! Look, on a surface level, I understand the temptation to advocate for “no gifts, please” birthday parties for small children. Kids have enough toys. Your house is way too small, and they don’t appreciate the shiny new plaything for more than two seconds. And honestly, some of the reasoning behind the movement is legitimate.  The economic argument deserves consideration: When every guest feels obligated to show up with a present, it creates real financial pressure — gifts, annoyingly overpriced cards, and wrapping paper can easily run $30 or more per party, and kids sometimes attend dozens of parties a year. Removing that expectation means every family can attend without stress. That’s obviously a bonus. But here’s what the no-gifts movement keeps missing: We are looking at all of this from an adult perspective, not a kid’s perspective. And for kids, there is nothing more magical than receiving a present. The research backs this up. One study involving children ages 3–17 found that young children derive significantly more happiness from material gifts than from experiences.  That zoo membership, that donation in your honor, that educational subscription box — those are adult satisfactions dressed up as children’s gifts. Children haven’t yet developed the cognitive framework to derive lasting joy from something they can’t see or hold. The toy is real. The memory of the experience fades fast. And the joy flows both ways. Choosing a gift for a friend builds genuine empathy; a child has to imagine what would make someone else happy, not just themselves. Research confirms that giving activates real neurological benefits, and the brain may enjoy giving even more than receiving. That small friend who spent an afternoon at Target picking out the perfect present is getting something out of this tradition, too. It’s hard to remember what it felt like on Christmas morning. But if you think back, it probably felt amazing. Piles of presents, mountains of wrapping paper, nary a “zoo membership” or “educational subscription service” in sight. I got a whole bunch of stuff when I was a kid, and you know what? It was great. Now with five kids and a 1,400 square-foot ranch home, I definitely feel the pull to reduce the number of things that inevitably accumulate on every available surface. But I would argue that doing so at the expense of birthday presents, which only come around once a year, is a huge mistake. Birthdays are special occasions. At any birthday party I’ve been to where presents still get opened in front of everyone, it’s always a highlight of the festivities. All the kids gather around the birthday girl (“Back up! Everyone, move back a little, I can’t see!”) and watch in delight as she tears through the gifts. When she gets to the present my child brought, the small attendee beams with pride, especially when it’s received with a delighted smile or a hug. That moment should never be taken away. I’m not saying we should rent storage units to accommodate all the clutter, and I’m not dismissing the concerns that started this movement. If budget is a worry for your guests, consider a “bring a favorite book” policy, new or used, which keeps the joy of giving alive without the financial pressure. Or, create a wish list including non-expensive items and send out the link. That’s a genuine solution to a genuine problem. But scrapping the tradition entirely, in the name of values the child doesn’t yet hold and wouldn’t choose for himself or herself, is a step too far. In my house, my kids never get gifts outside of birthdays and Christmas. No little treat on a random Target run. Want something your friend just got? Put it on your birthday list. Then, when the party is over, I tuck those gifts away and dole them out individually every time someone says “I’m bored.” Nothing is wasted, and everything is appreciated. The magic is in the ritual, not the present pile. Practically speaking, experiences make better gifts, but only when you’re older. As a millennial, I would much rather receive an experience than an item, but I’m not a child. Projecting my preferences onto my kids would be a mistake, and the research confirms it. These kids are growing up too fast already. Your overstuffed toy shelves will be neglected in no time. Your sweet little child asking for Barbies and baby strollers will soon replace those requests with iPhones and pimple patches. Soon, you’ll be wishing she still wanted toys. I like to think of this as my clutter season. It will be brief, it will be busy, and it will be beautiful. So please: Bring them all the birthday gifts. Clutter my house. Delight my mama heart. The magic won’t last forever. *** The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

In the year 1204, Arab scholar Abd Al-Latif Al-Baghdadi visited Egypt. Al-Baghdadi marveled at ancient monuments, including the Sphinx (then buried in sand up to the neck and nicknamed “Old Father Dread”) and of course the pyramids, which he described as “awe inspiring.” However, Al-Baghdadi found it disturbing that none of the Egyptians of his day could read the inscriptions left to them by their ancestors: “There are inscriptions on the stones written in the ancient characters that no one understands. In the entire land of Egypt, I have never found a single person who so much as claimed to have heard of anyone who knew how to read them.” Many centuries would pass before foreign invaders discovered the Rosetta Stone, which allowed scholars to decipher hieroglyphics. The United States also has monuments with stone inscriptions that our ancestors sought to preserve for future generations. Sadly, very few American public-school students display the knowledge and skills necessary to understand them. While it took Egypt a long time to lose their legacy, Americans unfortunately are moving in a at a much faster pace. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (also known as the Nation’s Report Card) released data on K-12 reading achievement in 2024. The results proved alarming and bitterly disappointing. The recent results found record low levels of reading achievement, with students equally likely to rate “Below Basic” in reading (a polite term for functionally illiterate) as Proficient or Better, with each category taking up 33% of students. A third of American senior high school students thus would stare at inscriptions on their own monuments with a level of comprehension like that described by Al-Baghdadi. The bad news however continues—American students attending monuments in the District of Columbia need not just literacy skills, but knowledge of American Civics and History to fully comprehend the inscriptions in proper context. NAEP exams reveal a consistent pattern of having a higher percentage of students scoring “Below Basic” on Civics larger than the percentage scoring at “Proficient or Better” across grade levels (4th, 8th, and 12th) and years of examination. Across all NAEP Civics examinations, the average “Below Basic” equates to 30%, while the average “Proficient or Better” is only 22%. Astoundingly, the news becomes still worse when examining NAEP United States history exams: across all exams given, 42% of public-school students scored “Below Basic,” while only 14% scored “Proficient or Better.” In other words the utterly ignorant of American history to knowledgeable stood at nearly three to one across all exams and grade levels. American public-school students with the literacy and background knowledge necessary to read and appreciate the meaning of inscription such as the Gettysburg Address at the Lincoln Memorial are few and far between. We are not to the Egypt of al-Baghdadi yet, but we Americans should feel more than concerned. “A Republic, if you can keep it” Benjamin Franklin famously quipped when questioned about the product of the Constitutional Convention. Preparing students to responsibly exercise the duties of citizenship stood as one of the major justifications for the creation of the American public school system during the 1800s, but today we find our public schools much more interested in indoctrinating students than in equipping them with the academic skills and knowledge necessary to responsibly exercise the duties of citizenship. The post American Hieroglyphics appeared first on The Daily Signal.