New polls from Emerson College on hypothetical Republican and Democratic 2028 primaries position Vice President JD Vance with a 34-percentage-point lead over the next candidate, while no clear frontrunner is emerging on the Democratic side. It goes without saying that hypothetical polls are hardly decisive. The election is still almost four years away, and President Donald Trump is far from a lame duck. Trump himself said in February that “it’s too early” to name Vance as his successor in 2028, despite the fact that Vance “is very capable.” The president even said he was “not joking” about the possibility of running for a third term, but he later ruled out the possibility on NBC’s Meet the Press in May. Nonetheless, the fact that Emerson’s poll reports Trump’s vice president as the clear favorite for 2028 reflects that Trump maintains a solid hold on the Republican Party that he forcefully took over almost 10 years ago. He is the central figure of American political life. In Emerson’s hypothetical 2028 ballot, 46 percent of Republican presidential primary voters supported Vance. The next highest candidate was also a prominent member of the Trump administration, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who received 12 percent support. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was next with 9 percent, and Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. received 5 percent support. Roughly 11 percent supported other candidates, while 17 percent of respondents said they were undecided. Emerson had also conducted the poll in November (post-election). Then, 51 percent of respondents said they were undecided, and Vance received 30 percent support. DeSantis had the next highest support, with only 5 percent. Since November, Vance has remained Trump’s heir apparent and continued to grow support. On the other hand, Emerson’s June poll found that the future of Democratic Party leadership is in disarray, showing no clear frontrunner. The highest response was undecided at 23 percent. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had 16 percent support, followed by former Vice President Kamala Harris at 13 percent and California Gov. Gavin Newsom at 12 percent. Eight other candidates ranged between 2 to 7 percent. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro each received 7 percent support, while Sen. Bernie Sanders received 5 percent. The poll represented a major shift from last November’s poll, in which Harris had 37 percent support and a clear lead over other Democrats despite her decisive loss in the 2024 election. The next candidate, Newsom, was 30 points behind at 7 percent support, followed by Buttigieg with only 4 percent support. READ MORE from Jonah Apel: RFK Jr. Shows Why America Needs the MAHA Agenda Five Key Takeaways From Pew Report on Trump’s Reelection What C. S. Lewis Can Tell Us About New IVF Eugenics Technology The post %POSTLINK% appeared first on %BLOGLINK%.

WASHINGTON — I start with a salute to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. On Friday, the nation’s top court released a 6-3 majority opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas that rightly upheld a Texas law requiring pornography websites to verify that users are 18 or older before providing access. Kagan wrote the dissenting opinion for Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. She has to know that her view must rankle many parents and commonsense voters, but she is sticking with her view that “obscene-for-children” speech is “constitutionally protected expression.” Joined by Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson — the other two justices picked by a Democratic president — Kagan argued, “No one doubts that States have a compelling interest in shielding children” from sexually explicit speech. And: “What is more, children have no constitutional right to view it.” Note that the Thomas opinion isn’t intended to stop anyone from producing pornography. It’s intended to prevent sleazy websites from displaying porn to children. But, and you knew there would be a but in there, for Kagan, the rub is that an 18-or-older verification requirement for covered websites likely would entail a government ID — with the risk of porn users being publicly exposed, presenting a “deterrent” — or “chilling effect” — for adults. Or maybe the chilling effect is on Pornhub, a party to the Free Speech Coalition challenge. Pornhub no longer operates in Texas and other states with age-verification rules. Don’t equate an online verification requirement with the brick-and-mortar era of flashing an ID to get into a club, Kagan warned, because a user’s data might be hacked or subpoenaed. If Kagan gets points for brass, Thomas wins when it comes to living in the real world. Texas and other states require proof of legal age to obtain alcohol, tobacco, a lottery ticket, a tattoo, fireworks, and a driver’s license. Ditto for a handgun license, gambling, and renting a car. Age verification for online users is an important tool, Thomas argued, because “Unlike a store clerk, a website operator cannot look at its visitors and estimate their ages.” The proof-of-age requirement, Thomas argued, “does not directly regulate the protected speech of adults.” It’s about protecting children. In the opinion, Thomas, the longest serving justice on the big bench, took a walk through the court’s grappling with a nascent internet, which had to be explained as “an international network of interconnected computers.” In 1999, only two of five households had home internet access, mostly dial-up. In 2024, 95 percent of teens had access to a smartphone. In 2019, Thomas reported, Pornhub published 1.36 million hours of new content. So who’s the underdog in this story? Not Big Porn. Free speech will survive. Institute for Justice senior attorney Paul Sherman, who wrote an amicus brief for the Free Speech Coalition, noted in an email to me that the “most important thing about the Court’s ruling is what it does not do. The Court explicitly refused to water down the extremely rigorous scrutiny that applies to most direct regulations of speech.” “Instead, it crafted a narrow rule that applies only in the rare situation in which the same speech is fully protected for adults and unprotected for children. Although that rule is hard to square with the rest of the Court’s precedent, it is unlikely to have a major impact beyond the context of age verification for pornography.” In other words, win-win. READ MORE from Debra J. Saunders: Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill — It’s More Like Yogurt Than Wine 12-Day War Shows Trump Is Not a Warmonger How Scary Is It Out There? Maybe World War III Scary Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM The post %POSTLINK% appeared first on %BLOGLINK%.

It is so routine that many churchgoers — of all faiths! — don’t notice. That routine would be passing the collection plate every Sunday. After all, it costs money to keep a church up and running. And that church doesn’t have to be New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral or the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris or the local Methodist church near your home. My humble Protestant United Church of Christ congregation always passes the collection plates, and always starts the New Year by giving every church member in my congregation a small box of envelopes meticulously dated for every Sunday of the year, plus extras for the holidays. Even the smallest church can have a moment of collection plate passing. But, of course, it isn’t just Protestant churches that pass the plates. The Daily Caller recently headlined: “Pope Leo Wants Traditional American Catholic Conservatives To Help With Vatican’s Finances.” The story starts right off the bat by reporting: Pope Leo is turning to conservative American Catholics and MAGA-aligned megadonors to help stabilize the Vatican’s strained balance sheet. The new pope is reportedly working behind the scenes to reconnect with major U.S. donors whose support had dwindled in recent years, Politico reported. That decline followed widespread discontent with Pope Francis’ more liberal teachings and a string of corruption scandals, including the Vatican bank’s failed investment in London real estate, said John Yep, president of Catholics for Catholics, Politico reported. Insiders told Politico that Pope Leo was seen during the conclave as someone with the financial sensibility to rebuild trust with these high-dollar benefactors. His election came as internal figures showed the Vatican ran an €83 million deficit in 2024 — more than double its last reported shortfall, Reuters reported. U.S. donations — historically the largest single source of external support — have dropped sharply. “Talking to some of the biggest donors in the country, they’re absolutely thrilled,” one conservative Catholic leader told Politico, though no large donations have yet been confirmed. And with reference to the Politico story mentioned above, that headline read: “Pope Leo looks to MAGA megadonors to shore up Church finances: Wealthy American conservatives hint they’re ready to cough up again to rescue the scandal-ridden Church from going broke.” The story begins:  VATICAN CITY — The new American pope is looking to his MAGA compatriots to shore up the Vatican’s finances after decades of scandal and mismanagement. The conclave that brought Pope Leo to power was overshadowed by painful divisions within the Church, a war between modernity and tradition, and bitter reflections over his predecessor’s complex legacy. But more prosaically it was also plagued by angst over a serious fiscal squeeze that is forcing the spiritual leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics to moonlight as a fundraiser. It should be noted that the problems the Catholic faith has been having courtesy, as the article says, of “widespread discontent with Pope Francis’ more liberal teachings and a string of corruption scandals” is not a uniquely Catholic problem. As a lifelong member of a Mainline Protestant denomination (the United Church of Christ) myself — and a member who, as I grew older, challenged the increasing liberal political bent of my denomination, there was no question to me why both the UCC and the larger Mainline Protestant denominations were losing members. Over here at Reformationrev, was this headline in December of 2024, barely a half dozen months ago. The headline: “The Decline in the Mainline: Analyzing the Role of Liberal Theology.” The story noted: Over the past several decades, mainline Protestant denominations in the United States and other parts of the Western world have experienced significant declines in membership, attendance, and influence. Churches such as the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, once central to American religious life, now find themselves struggling with aging congregations, dwindling numbers, and financial instability. While many factors contribute to this decline, one of the most frequently discussed reasons is the influence of liberal theology within these traditions. Liberal theology, which emphasizes reason, historical criticism of scripture, and social justice, has often clashed with the more conservative and traditional expressions of Christianity, creating a divide that some argue has contributed to the decline of mainline churches. But, as noted, this problem of an entire denomination edging Left has not been limited to Mainline Protestants. Right here is the site for Catholics for Catholics, which self-describes this way: “Catholics for Catholics is fighting to bring the Catholic faith back into the public square through rosary rallies, media, political action & more!” While there was a move seen by many Catholics as the late Pope Francis steering the church Leftward, in 2024, the CFC happily listed as one of its campaigns: “2024 Masses Offered for President Trump: Catholic Prayer Campaign from June 14th, President’s birthday, until November 5th, 2024 — Election Day.” The site, in fact, lists a host of events covering President Trump’s activities, along with the ability to sign up as a member of CRC, as seen here. Notably, this includes this YouTube video on the CRC site, the latter serving as the “official home for all things related to the 250th USA Anniversary Celebration from a Catholic perspective.” Among its many informative stories was this headline from March of 2025: “Catholic clergy, laypeople to gather for prayer at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.” The story reported: Nearly 100 members of the Catholic clergy are expected to be among those praying for President Donald Trump and the country during a Catholics for Catholics event at the president’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday evening. “The goal of this event is to pray — and to pray in a specifically Catholic way,” Catholics for Catholics President John Yep told CNA ahead of the group’s second annual Mar-a-Lago gathering. Founded in 2022, Catholics for Catholics describes itself as an organization “at the intersection of faith and politics” that aims to “change hearts and minds for Jesus Christ and his Church.” The March 19 event also featured “various prominent Catholic speakers, including Bishop Joseph Strickland, Father Richard Heilman, pro-life activist Jean Marshall, detransitioner Nancy Charles, and Catholic commentator Taylor Marshall. The Jean Marshall mentioned above was noted by CRC as being “one of the 23 pro-life activists who were arrested under former President Joe Biden’s administration and subsequently pardoned by Trump.” All of which is to say, in an era where some religious denominations have been leaning Left politically for years, the CRC is focused on, as it headlines, “The Good News — From a Catholic Perspective.” The CRC, in discussing, says this in a few short words on how to stay informed. It reads: The Good News newsletter, a free daily resource provided by Catholics for Catholics. It aims to inform Catholics of the top stories happening inside and outside the Church. Covering a range of topics from religion to politics, culture, and more. And judging by the considerable list of headlines and accompanying news stories making up the current list, Catholics for Catholics and its President John Yep are very focused on making sure Catholics have a place to go to have a better understanding of the religious perspective — a serious Catholic perspective — on the issues of the day. It is also presenting its video views on issues in a 21st-century style on YouTube with CRC spokesperson Noreen Johnson. All of which is to say, it seems certain that the selection of Pope Leo XIV, the first American Pope, and in particular from the conservative ranks of Chicago, is going to ripple out and have a real effect on the Catholic Church. In fact, for those with a long enough memory, the selection of the first Polish Pope, John Paul II, had a considerable effect in the world, with the decidedly anti-Communist Pope combining with the anti-Communist American President Reagan and the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to end the decades long Cold War once and forever. In sum? What is going on internally inside today’s Catholic Church will bear watching. And not just for the internal actions of the Vatican. Catholics for Catholics is establishing itself as a significant and valued player inside the Church. And for Catholics who love their faith and their Church, it will be well worth watching. READ MORE from Jeffrey Lord: Trump’s Potential CBS-Paramount Suit Win Anti-American Iran Will Not Go Away Iran’s Khamenei v. Trump — And the World The post %POSTLINK% appeared first on %BLOGLINK%.

Within the past several days, there have been several deeply disturbing stories in the news.  A sniper shot multiple firefighters in northern Idaho, a sicko literally crucified a pastor in Arizona in his own home and was planning to do the same thing to many more, and socialist Zohran Mamdani is getting lots of attention for winning the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City.  It occurred to me that all of these stories share a common theme.  At this stage in our history, our society is bursting at the seams with nuts.  Once upon a time, crazy people were a very small minority, but now they are all around us.  So what has caused this dramatic societal shift? I think that the fact that most of the population is hooked on either legal or illegal drugs is certainly playing a major role. We have been trained to think of legal drugs as “safe”, but the truth is that often legal drugs will mess with your mind even more than illegal drugs will. And once you have been on mind-altering drugs long enough, your ability to think clearly will be permanently impaired. Of course even those that are not on any drugs are being poisoned by all of the toxins that we put in our food, our water, our air and our soil. We live in an ultra-toxic environment and there are thousands of dangerous toxins inside of you right now. On top of everything else, most Americans are consuming thousands upon thousands of hours of twisted propaganda and sick entertainment. Our televisions are instruments of societal destruction, but the vast majority of us are so addicted that we can’t go a single day without more “programming”. Considering everything that I have just shared, it should be no surprise that our nation is now teeming with lunatics. One of those lunatics just purposely set a brush fire on a mountain outside of the city of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.  Once firefighters arrived, 20-year-old Wess Roley opened fire, and the firefighters didn’t stand a chance.  Before it was all over, hundreds of law enforcement officers arrived on the scene… The sniper was identified as 20-year-old Wess Roley, a law enforcement official confirmed to USA TODAY. Norris said law enforcement received a 911 call Sunday afternoon about a brush fire and were notified a short time later that firefighters were taking gunfire. Officers locked down nearby neighborhoods and hunted for the shooter in hilly terrain covered with thick brush while smoke billowed from the growing fire. Officers exchanged gunfire with the shooter, Norris said. The discovery of the shooter’s body on Canfield Mountain, a popular hiking destination outside the city of Coeur d’Alene, culminated six hours of chaos that saw about 300 local, state and federal officers flock to the area. So why did Wess Roley do this? Apparently he was hoping to get a job as a firefighter, but he was rejected because he was too short… Dale Roley said his grandson, who attended high school in Phoenix, where his mother lives, lived with him in Oklahoma for several months before moving to Idaho last summer to be closer to his father. Neither parent could immediately be reached for comment. His grandfather said his grandson’s height, standing around 5-foot-8, might have prevented him from becoming a firefighter. “I know he had been in contact to get a job with a fire department,” Dale Roley said. “He wanted to be part of a team that he sort of idolized.” I would love to know if Wess Roley was on mind-altering drugs or not. I have a feeling that he probably was. In Arizona, a complete lunatic recently went to the home of a 76-year-old pastor and crucified him… The chief suspect in the murder of an Arizona pastor admitted to the murder to True Crime Arizona correspondent Briana Whitney and told her he had other targets. Adam Christopher Sheafe, 51, confessed to crucifying William Schonemann, known to his congregants as “Pastor Bill,” one of 14 executions of pastors across 10 other states he planned to carry out. He was apprehended before he could commit any more crimes. Pastor Bill was discovered at his home on April 28 by police who were conducting a wellness check. He was found dead in his bed and a crown of thorns had been placed on his head. If it had been a leftist that had been crucified, this story would be headline news for weeks on end. But the mainstream media is almost entirely ignoring this story because it was a Christian pastor that got crucified. Adam Christopher Sheafe killed William Schonemann because Schonemann was preaching that Jesus is the Son of God. In fact, when Sheafe got to Schonemann’s house he didn’t want to harm anyone else… When he arrived he saw two women in the driveway but did not harm them as he was not “interested in executing anyone [other] than the pastors or the shepherds leading the flock astray.” He told Whitney he committed the first of his planned murders in his home state of Arizona, as he saw that as the “Garden of Eden.” He said he was planning to kill three more people in Arizona before traveling further afield to Las Vegas, Portland, Seattle, Detroit, and other locations, to kill more people. If Sheafe had been able to make it through his entire list, 14 pastors would be dead. The mainstream media doesn’t consider this to be newsworthy, but if someone was hunting down members of a group favored by leftists it would be an entirely different story. Speaking of leftists, socialist Zohran Mamdani just told NBC News that billionaires shouldn’t exist… Zohran Mamdani, the presumptive Democratic nominee for mayor in New York City, said Sunday that he doesn’t believe billionaires should exist. Asked directly whether billionaires should have a right to exist, Mamdani, who identifies himself as a democratic socialist, told NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” “I don’t think that we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality, and ultimately, what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country.” This guy is nuts. But he is probably going to be the next mayor of New York City. Mamdani is not afraid to be labeled a “socialist” at all, and in the past he has even spoken of “the end goal of seizing the means of production”… The clip comes from a 2021 Zoom meeting of Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), the youth section of America’s largest socialist organization, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). During the meeting, Mamdani said the group has to “continue to elect more socialists, and we have to ensure that we are unapologetic about our socialism… …whether it’s BDS, or whether it’s the end goal of seizing the means of production.” Seriously? You would have to be crazy to vote for Mamdani. Unfortunately, there are vast hordes of crazy people living in the Big Apple these days. Mamdani has only been a citizen of the United States for 7 years, but he has now become one of the most popular politicians in the Democratic Party. Our society is clearly on a very self-destructive path. Will America finally wake up before it is too late? Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com. About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today. The post What Do The Idaho Sniper, The Lunatic That Planned To Kill 14 Christian Pastors And Zohran Mamdani All Have In Common? appeared first on End Of The American Dream.

by Martin Armstrong, Armstrong Economics: The Polynesian island of Tuvalu is composed of nine coral islands across a 420-mile distance in the west-central Pacific Ocean. The ocean has come to reclaim the islands as the natural cycle of climate change has led the surrounding sea level to rise at about 3.9 mm annually, yet the […]

by Rodmac41, The Duran: Central banks across the globe are making a historic shift: reducing their dollar holdings and increasing their gold reserves. A new survey of 75 central banks reveals a clear trend — the dollar is losing its dominance in global reserves, while gold, the euro, and the Chinese yuan are rising in […]

"Trump's Worst Nightmare" is delusional and dangerous

Harley with A/C? Arizona boys do it different ??️