Teenagers get a bad name today. We call them lazy. Screen-addicted. Entitled. Unable to focus beyond 15-second videos. We’re wrong about one group of teens. Dead wrong. They call themselves Scattered Spider. They’re probably younger than your college freshman. They live in suburban bedrooms across America and Britain, and they’ve just brought industries to their knees. These pimple-faced pirates are demonstrating that the right teenager with the right skills can bring civilization to its knees. This is the new face of warfare — young hackers with Discord accounts who can crash critical infrastructure between homework assignments. The pattern is terrifyingly simple. These digital natives understand something adults missed. Every corporation’s weakest point isn’t its firewall. It’s the 19-year-old working the IT help desk. Here’s how it works. A Scattered Spider member calls your company. He sounds stressed. Professional. Maybe a little desperate. “Hi, this is Dan from accounting. I’m locked out of my email before the big presentation. Can you reset my access?” The help desk worker wants to help. Dan sounds legitimate. His caller ID shows he’s calling from inside the company. His knowledge of internal systems seems authentic. Dan isn’t Dan. He’s a teenager who spent 30 minutes researching your company’s structure. The phone number is spoofed. The knowledge comes from social media stalking and corporate websites. Within minutes, “Dan” has access to your entire network. What happens next would impress military strategists. These criminals don’t just break in and grab data. They study their targets like doctoral students. They learn entire industries before launching coordinated strikes. First, they hit retail. UK grocery chains crumbled. Shelves emptied. Supply chains froze. Then insurance companies across North America. Claims processing stopped. Customer data vanished. Finally airlines. Flights canceled. Passengers stranded. Each sector gets the full treatment. Multiple companies hit simultaneously. Maximum chaos. Maximum profit. The FBI calls this “the most imminent threat” to American infrastructure. They’re not exaggerating. Scattered Spider emerged from something called “the Com” — an underground network of trolls and criminals. Think 4chan crossed with organized crime. These malicious minors level up fast. What begins as petty harassment quickly turns into full-blown extortion. Afterwards, members shift their focus to cyber-terrorism. It all unfolds like a ridiculous game of Whac-A-Mole. The stakes, however, aren’t tokens; they’re tens of millions in actual damage. To compound matters, there’s no boss to arrest. No chain of command to cut. Just a sinister swarm that mutates and multiplies. There’s no neat hierarchy to dismantle. Just skilled youngsters loosely networked through dozens of apps. Shut one cell down, and three more spring up. It’s not a gang; it’s a marketplace. Take down one ransomware service, another pops up offering better customer support. Arrest a member, and a teenager in another time zone takes their place before the cuffs even close. The economics drives everything. A successful attack pays more than any teenage job and, honestly, better than most jobs, period. Caesar’s Entertainment forked out millions after Scattered Spider struck. MGM Resorts lost $100 million recovering from their breach. Why flip burgers for minimum wage when you can make millions with phone calls? Traditional security focuses on firewalls and passwords. Scattered Spider, however, focuses on human psychology. They’ve weaponized politeness, our willingness to help, and trust in familiar voices. The phishing websites they craft are masterpieces of deception. This is social engineering taken to an art form. Once inside networks, they deploy ransomware or steal data for extortion. But the real weapon isn’t malware. It’s their understanding of human nature. We built digital fortresses to keep out traditional hackers. These teens simply called at the front door and asked to be let in. The generational divide makes defense nearly impossible. Corporate security teams think like adults. Scattered Spider thinks like teenagers. They’re two generations ahead in understanding how digital natives operate. Adults worry about TikTok rotting teenage brains. Meanwhile, these cunning culprits are conducting advanced psychological operations against Fortune 500 companies. The irony cuts deep. We dismiss teenagers as distracted and lazy, while the most dangerous ones are running sophisticated criminal enterprises. Scattered Spider represents something new in human conflict. Previous terrorist groups needed training camps and weapons. These youngsters need smartphones and social skills. We’re in an arms race between teenage criminals and corporate security. The teenagers are winning. The next wave promises to be even more devastating. As Amazon, Google, and Microsoft expand deeper into healthcare, hospitals become prime targets. Imagine Scattered Spider infiltrating electronic medical records systems during a crisis. Ventilators shut down. Patient data held hostage. Surgery schedules scrambled. Life-support systems compromised. These aren’t just financial attacks anymore — they’re potential body counts. When a teenager in suburban Manchester can disable cardiac monitors at Cleveland Clinic with a phone call, we’ve crossed into biological warfare territory. The same teens who grounded planes could soon be deciding who lives and dies in emergency rooms. These pimple-faced pirates are demonstrating that the right teenager with the right skills can bring civilization to its knees. So, perhaps it’s time to stop underestimating them and instead focus on stopping them. READ MORE from John Mac Ghlionn: The Literary Castration of the Modern Male Not Everyone Needs a Therapist. Some Just Need a Job. The post %POSTLINK% appeared first on %BLOGLINK%.

And now it begins. With 2025’s Fourth of July celebrations now over, next up on the American party list is a considerably awesome one. That would be, of course, the celebration of America’s 250th birthday on July 4, 2026. And a small one it promises not to be. If you thought the June 14/Flag Day/Trump birthday parade of 2025 was a big deal, buckle in for 2026. 250 years ago next July 4th marks America’s Semiquincentennial. The latter term is already emblazoned in Wikipedia and notes that it is also called the Bisesquicentennial, the Sestercentennial, America250 or the Quarter Millennium, (and) will be the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence. Festivities will mark various events leading up to the Declaration’s anniversary on Independence Day, July 4, 2026. Official planning for the celebrations began in 2016 with the congressional, non-partisan United States Semiquincentennial Commission. In 2025, Donald Trump created the White House Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday to also promote and plan the events. The Wikipedia entry goes on to add: The United States Semiquincentennial Commission Act of 2016 directs the United States Government to issue commemorative coins and postage stamps, and commission appropriately named naval vessels, in advance of the semiquincentennial. In addition, specific activities — both officially organized and independently created — are being planned. The legislation specifically directs the organization of events “in locations of historical significance to the United States” going on to list Boston, Charleston, New York City, and Philadelphia as “leading cities.” The Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020 allows the United States Mint to redesign any coins in 2026. It calls for a series of five designs for the quarter, including one depicting women’s contributions to independence. Plans for the casting of a new public bell are being coordinated by the National Bell Festival. The bell will honor 250 years of women’s contributions to the American story, and will lead nationwide ringing tributes during the celebrations. The “Leading Cities” officially listed as participating in the 250th are, as of now, Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Charleston. Each of those cities were leaders in the fight for America’s independence. From the legendary Boston Tea Party to the memorializing of Evacuation Day (the day British troops evacuated Boston, under a siege led by the new commanding colonial General George Washington), Boston will have much to remember and celebrate. So too with Philadelphia, the home of what then was known as the Pennsylvania State House and has now long been renamed as Independence Hall. It is there that the idea of American independence was debated, with the results written down as composed by, among others, a young delegate from Virginia named Thomas Jefferson. The document’s title: The Declaration of Independence. And not to be forgotten is the city of Charleston, South Carolina. As written up here, South Carolina already has a site loaded with historical background on the state’s role in the Revolution. Among other things, it says: There were more than 400 battles, skirmishes and events across South Carolina — including the war’s bloodiest battle. There are dozens of historical markers, museums and homes dedicated to the revolutionary-era. Come experience the landmarks, events and unforgettable stories you haven’t heard yet and learn why the Revolutionary War was won here. In short, considering the celebrations from this last week — and earlier with the Trump Flag Day events — it is safe, very safe(!!) to predict Big Things for America’s 250th birthday party. For those who may not have been around, it is worth recalling the 1976 American Bicentennial. That had been in the planning for years, beginning in 1966 — a full decade earlier. As events turned out, the 1976 celebrations came a mere year after the collapse of Saigon, the evacuation of American troops, and the end of the disastrous Vietnam War. All of which launched the then-incumbent administration of President Gerald Ford to make a point of emphasizing “the themes of renewal and rebirth based on a restoration of traditional values, giving a nostalgic and exclusive reading of the American past.” All of which is to say, Americans can be certain that despite the fact there is not a presidential election until 2028, with Congress, governors, and state legislators up for election in 2026 there will be a lot of politics swirling around the 250th, with various celebrations in fact having a political tint to them. In other words? The 249th Fourth of July is over. The celebration — make that massive celebration — of America’s 250th birthday has just begun. Buckle in! READ MORE from Jeffrey Lord: Four Days in July: Redux ‘Catholics for Catholics’ on the Rise Trump’s Potential CBS-Paramount Suit Win The post %POSTLINK% appeared first on %BLOGLINK%.

A high-stakes diplomatic maneuver is quietly taking shape. U.S. President Donald Trump is reportedly weighing whether to re-admit Turkey into the elite F‑35 stealth fighter program — a move that could reshape Middle East alliances. In return, President Erdoğan would support Syria’s inclusion in the Abraham Accords, the U.S.-brokered peace initiative transforming Israel’s regional standing. Restoring Turkey to the F‑35 program in exchange for a questionable Syrian peace deal risks compromising both military security and diplomatic integrity. This is being marketed as a win-win: Trump secures a foreign policy victory, Erdoğan regains access to top-tier U.S. defense tech, and Syria appears to emerge from isolation. But this isn’t standard diplomacy — it’s a transactional gambit involving fractured territory and a proxy regime aligned with Ankara’s ambitions. Mohammad al-Julani, once al-Qaeda’s top man in Syria, now acts as the de facto governor of the Syrian state,  Through Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its affiliated structures, Julani has consolidated control over civil administration, internal security, and taxation, as detailed in a report by the International Crisis Group. His grip  is maintained with Ankara’s protection, indirect funding, and political tolerance. Turkey’s presence in  Syria is deliberate and strategic. Turkish troops operate openly in Idlib. Turkish institutions, currency, and oversight dominate local life. Ankara doesn’t officially govern this enclave, but it effectively controls the area. It has made itself the gatekeeper of any diplomatic overture involving Syria’s northwest. When Erdoğan pushes for Syria’s normalization with Israel, what he’s really offering is this Turkish-backed zone , a tactic consistent with his broader playbook from Libya to the Caucasus, where Turkish influence is projected through local proxies rather than formal annexation. For Israel and the West, this sets a dangerous precedent: empowering a non-state actor through a backdoor peace deal. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has privately warned that “any concession that empowers Ankara’s grip over Syria or compromises Israeli air superiority is unacceptable.” Israeli officials are lobbying Washington to block any deal that restores Turkey’s access to F‑35s — particularly if it legitimizes Julani’s fiefdom as a diplomatic partner. The F‑35 isn’t just a fighter jet — it’s the core of allied military interoperability across NATO. Turkey was removed from the program in 2019 after acquiring Russia’s S‑400 missile system, a direct breach of alliance protocols. Re-admitting Ankara while it balances Western ties with authoritarian alignments in Moscow would be a serious risk to Western cohesion. Meanwhile, legitimizing HTS — even by implication — rewards extremists with diplomacy. It normalizes territorial gains made by force, elevates non-state rule over sovereign representation, and risks encouraging other militant groups to seek legitimacy through proxy arrangements. Julani has polished his image for Western journalists, but HTS remains a rigid Islamist movement with a violent pedigree. Any normalization process that includes them — even under Ankara’s influence — undermines the very foundation of the Abraham Accords. These Accords were built on formal diplomacy, mutual recognition, and shared security goals. Allowing this deal to proceed would debase the currency of normalization. A backroom arrangement involving Erdoğan and a former al-Qaeda affiliate does not expand the framework — it dilutes it. This isn’t to say Syria must remain permanently excluded. But meaningful normalization must involve legitimate, internationally recognized actors — not enclaves run by proxies with opaque loyalties. Idlib under Julani does not meet that standard. The U.S. must reject any arrangement that trades strategic capability for symbolic gain. Erdoğan is an unpredictable partner — sometimes useful, often destabilizing. Rewarding him now, with no assurances or accountability, invites deeper instability. Israel’s opposition is not rhetorical — it’s grounded in experience. The Accords have succeeded because they’ve prioritized clear rules, legitimate actors, and transparent state-to-state diplomacy. Turning them into a mechanism for appeasement would threaten their credibility. Restoring Turkey to the F‑35 program in exchange for a questionable Syrian peace deal risks compromising both military security and diplomatic integrity. Washington must distinguish real progress from political theater — and avoid mistaking a calculated maneuver for meaningful peace. READ MORE from Kevin Cohen: From Tehran to Texas From Tehran to Texas The post %POSTLINK% appeared first on %BLOGLINK%.

Wandering through the stacks at the college library one day in my freshman year, I happened upon the shelves devoted to American humor. What a discovery! I was thrilled. Here were all these authors I’d never heard of — people who’d written in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Imagine the treasures! Imagine the laughs! Pulling down one book after another, I prepared to chortle, to giggle, and even to guffaw. Instead I found myself baffled. Bemused. Bewildered. Humor? How was this stuff humor? At that time, back in the late 1970s, I was a major in English with a specialization in American literature. Eventually the syllabus of one of the courses I took included a book called American Humor: A Study of the National Character by Constance Rourke. I looked forward to reading it. Given the title, I foolishly thought that it might actually be amusing. Boy, was I wrong. In fact I was (again) baffled, bemused, and bewildered. [I]f Mad’s subversiveness was admittedly directed in the 1950s largely at big corporations … in the late Sixties and Seventies … it was more preoccupied with making fun of the New Left, Women’s Lib, and the youth revolution. Yes, Constance Rourke appeared to be a highly knowledgeable critic. But she also seemed to have no sense of humor whatsoever, which was something of a drawback given the topic of her book. More important, however, was the “American humor” she wrote about: wheezy whimsy, most of it, about New England Yankees and Appalachian backwoodsmen. What? I was born in America. I’d lived in America my whole life. This was American humor? Yes, some of what I encountered in Rourke’s book was vaguely familiar from Mark Twain and a couple of other classic writers. I loved Twain. But when I thought of American humor I thought of, well, material of more recent vintage. Material that didn’t just make me chuckle, but made me howl so hard that I gasped for air. What, for example? Put it this way. Like everyone else of my generation — I’m a late Baby Boomer — I appreciated I Love Lucy. And I loved The Dick Van Dyke Show. But the TV series that really hit me where I lived, that felt as if they’d invented it just for me, was The Honeymooners. The total lack of control with which the hapless bus driver Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) screamed at his wife, Alice (“Bang! Zoom!”), felt more like real life — and was funnier — than anything else on TV. Even moreso, I responded to Abbott and Costello, even though it felt not at all like real life. It took place in a world all its own. Our two heroes (Bud Abbott, Lou Costello) — jobless, rootless, with no visible source of income or personal history — inhabited a bizarro world in which they slept in the same rooming-house bedroom and dressed up every morning in proper 1950s jackets and ties and hats to set forth into a world of surreal adventures, utterly unbridled by the rules that seemed to govern other TV shows or, for that matter, ordinary human existence. In one episode, they packed up the car for a vacation to Phoenix — and drove about 30 feet, stopping next door at the Phoenix Hotel. For me, it was more wonderfully out of this world than Star Trek. During that early-TV era there was also a show called Dobie Gillis. I found it utterly uninteresting — standard TV fare of the time, tame and predictable. I probably watched a total of ten minutes of the entire series. Which was odd, given that I enjoyed the book on which it was purportedly based, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1951), by Max Shulman (1919-88), and adored Shulman’s earlier opus, Barefoot Boy with Cheek (1943), a zany masterpiece of middlebrow absurdity that was for me, for a while there, something of a comic touchstone. Later I would become a zealous fan of the early, funny movies of Woody Allen, of Mel Brooks’s The Producers, of the TV series The Odd Couple (except season 1), and of Howard Stern, whom I listened to religiously for years until he gave up being the King of All Media and decided instead to become the most politically correct man in the history of show business. I loved the relentless, uproarious iconoclasm of Joan Rivers, too: one of my life’s regrets is that when I passed her on Fifth Avenue in 1998, I chose to respect her privacy rather than to gush over her. At some point after encountering Constance Rourke’s book — I’m not sure when — I woke up to the realization that my sense of what was funny had been formed not by traditional American “humorists” of the kind she studied so earnestly but almost entirely by — what’s the word? Oh, yes. Jews. No, Jackie Gleason wasn’t Jewish. But his writers were. Lou Costello wasn’t Jewish, but Bud Abbott was, and so was the brains behind their series, the unsung genius Sidney Fields. Similarly, The Dick Van Dyke Show, with two WASPs in the lead roles and a heavily Jewish supporting cast, was the creation of the Jewish wunderkind Carl Reiner, who, like Fields, hovered in the backgrounds of many of his show’s episodes. Why was I never remotely entertained by Red Skelton, the beloved comic whose variety series was in the top 10 Nielson ratings during most of my childhood? Am I oversimplifying if I say it was because he was a WASP, a cultural descendant of the humorists Constance Rourke wrote about in her book? All of which brings us, finally, to Mad Magazine, which I think did more to shape my notion of comedy than anything else, and which is the subject of a new documentary, When We Went MAD, in which director Alan Bernstein makes a point of just how Jewish that remarkable rag was. No, the great names at Mad — and there were many of them — weren’t all Jews from Brooklyn, but most of them were. And their comic sensibility was essentially that of the very best Borscht Belt standups and the blue-chip writers of Sid Caesar’s legendary Your Show of Shows. In other words, Mad (which was founded in 1952) wasn’t just Jewish. It was really, really Jewish. Not that I realized it at the time. All I knew was that I loved Mad. It spoke to me. Which is why so much of When We Went MAD (just out on Amazon Prime Video) was a disappointment. “Mad was the precursor to The Daily Show,” says one of Bernstein’s talking heads. The Daily Show? As Alfred E. Neumann would say: “Ecch!” No, Mad, with its unerring impiety, was the precise opposite of The Daily Show, which perfected the art of shamelessly spinning the news (and deceptively editing interviews) to rigidly enforce the establishment narrative. The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart himself isn’t one of the talking heads in When We Went MAD, but the list of folks who show up in this film to praise the magazine’s irreverence is heavy with names like Bryan Cranston and Judd Apatow and even Tom Carvell, the executive producer of the shabby Daily Show knock-off Last Week Tonight with John Oliver — all of whom, far from being avatars of Mad-like heresy, are vapid parrots of leftist orthodoxy and members of the very Hollywood elite that was one of Mad’s favorite targets. The documentary’s line on Mad, which is articulated by one after another of Bernstein’s talking heads, is that it was a “left-wing” take on “Americana” — a “wonderfully subversive” response to “an era of tremendous repression” when “the whole country was in a conformist mode.” The regular Mad cartoon feature “Spy vs. Spy,” we’re told, was about U.S,-USSR moral equivalence; what’s omitted from the documentary is the fact that its Cuban-refugee creator, Antonio Prohías, was no Cold War fence-sitter but a fervent enemy of Castro. Bernstein’s emphasis on Mad’s so-called left-wing subversiveness (“no one else had ever thought to make fun of corporations”) is misleading on two counts. First, the main attraction wasn’t the subversiveness; it was the wit. One of Bernstein’s talking heads, Quentin Tarantino, gets it right: “the pull was the movie satires.” God, yes. Antenna on the Roof! Is Paris Boring! In the Out Exit! The Sound of Money! The Ecchorcist! Second, if Mad’s subversiveness was admittedly directed in the 1950s largely at big corporations and the advertising business, by the time I was reading current issues in the late Sixties and Seventies — at the height of its popularity — it was more preoccupied with making fun of the New Left, Women’s Lib, and the youth revolution. When I was barely into my teens, it was Mad that told me it was OK to be amused by the mindless, shiftless, three-chords-on-a-guitar way in which kids several years older than me were playing at rebellion. Witness Sleazy Rider (June 1970). Or the April 1968 cover, which depicted perennial cover boy Alfred E. Neumann as a dopey-looking flower child, complete with love beads and earrings, under the headline — in psychedelic Laugh-In typeface — “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Dead.” A July 1971 parody of the now-forgotten movie Joe jeered at its premise — a Park Avenue heiress, beloved by her parents, moves into a downtown hovel with some drugged-out bum “to find meaningful answers to life.” In the April 1975 parody of Death Wish, the cop who’s hunting down the vigilante tells an underling: “I want a list of names of everyone in New York who’s been mugged, or had a member of his family mugged.” To which the underling replies: “That’s easy, Chief. Just pick up the phone book!” Bernstein does include a brief old clip of Mad publisher Willim M. Gaines saying that he and his crew prided themselves on having “no politics.” Longtime Mad writer Tom Koch says that “you had to hit all sides,” while adding that “I think I was the only conservative who wrote for Mad.” I find that hard to believe. What seems certain to me is that more than a few of today’s populist MAGA voters were formed in part by Mad Magazine’s reflexively sarcastic response to an era that embraced both The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit and The Madwoman in the Attic — the very idea of biting, acerbic criticism, after all, being a feature not of the lockstep, humorless left but of the freedom-of-speech-loving right. READ MORE from Bruce Bawer: Fry vs. Rowling ¡Babalú! The post %POSTLINK% appeared first on %BLOGLINK%.

Former Vice President and failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris posted a gloomy Fourth of July message on Friday that has led to widespread criticism. Instead of enjoying the holiday and praising the nation’s founding, she began her post, “This Fourth of July, I am taking a moment to reflect. Things are hard right now. They are probably going to get worse before they get better.” Harris added, “But I love our country — and when you love something, you fight for it. Together, we will continue to fight for the ideals of our nation.” Harris’s downtrodden tone follows several other low-spirited public moments since November. In one notable case, Democrats released an emotional clip of Harris addressing her supporters in late November in which she appeared to be slurring her words. Harris’s lackluster Independence Day post comes amid her uncertain political future. Harris has maintained speculation about running either in the 2026 California governor race or the 2028 presidential election, and she said in March that she plans to confirm her decision by the end of the summer. Some preliminary polling has shown support among California Democrats for a Harris gubernatorial bid. While her promise to “continue to fight” suggests she still wants to pursue her political ambitions, Harris’s poll numbers for a 2028 presidential bid have declined precipitously, even among her own party. A recent poll on 2028 presidential primaries reported that Harris only had 13 percent support among Democrats, behind former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s 16 percent support. Harris’s Fourth of July post also featured a picture from last year’s celebrations at the White House that appeared to have intentionally cropped out former President Joe Biden and Jill Biden. Many have interpreted Harris’s removal of the Biden family as a “very symbolic” attempt to distance herself from the previous administration. According to one of Harris’s advisers, the former vice president blames Biden for her 2024 presidential election loss and believes she would have won if he had dropped out of the race sooner. Harris is not alone in her lack of zeal for Independence Day celebrations this year. This year’s Gallup poll on American patriotism showed a record low among Democrats. While Republicans have typically registered above 90 percent of responses saying they were “extremely or very proud” to be an American, this year only 36 percent of Democrats said the same. In contrast, 87 percent were patriotic in 2001, and it only fell below 75 percent once before 2016. While Harris failed to enthusiastically celebrate America’s founding this year, her malaise simply reflects the sentiments of the majority of those in her party. READ MORE by Jonah Apel: No, the Left Has Not Discovered Its ‘Hillbilly Elegy for People Who Hate JD Vance’ RFK Jr. Shows Why America Needs the MAHA Agenda Five Key Takeaways From Pew Report on Trump’s Reelection The post %POSTLINK% appeared first on %BLOGLINK%.

In his tirade against the GOP and in the wake of the Big Beautiful Bill’s success, Elon Musk wants to create the “America Party,” a new third-party option for voters. President Donald Trump, who gave Musk a position in the federal government and campaigned with him, is not happy with the billionaire and has publicly bashed Musk’s plans. It is doubtful that Musk will abandon his plan to start the “America Party,” but history has dictated that his scheme will likely be futile. Repeatedly Failed Candidates What happens to candidates who decide to run in a third lane? Throughout American history, there have been numerous third-party candidates who have surfaced during each presidential election cycle, but none of these contenders has been able to claim a victory. As of January, there were more than 55 parties officially on ballots across the country. Aside from the Green, Libertarian, and Conservative parties, many Americans would likely be hard-pressed to recognize a political party apart from Democrats and Republicans. (RELATED: Is Elon Musk Ross Perot Reincarnated?) In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt ran for president as a Progressive Party candidate. Even Roosevelt, who had formerly been a well-liked Republican president, only garnered 88 electoral votes. Since 1912, no third-party candidate other than George Wallace has secured a single electoral vote. In recent history, the only alternative candidates who received any serious attention were RFK Jr., who later famously joined the Trump administration, and environmental activist Jill Stein. Even in these most recent cases, Stein and Kennedy were mostly popular for their history in activism or, in Kennedy’s case, the shock factor they presented to the American people by throwing off their previous allegiances.   No third-party candidate has ever won the presidency. Currently, there are no other-party politicians in the House of Representatives, and only two senators do not identify as either Republican or Democrat, and even then, these two senators caucus with Democrats.  Challenges Faced by Third Parties One of the main issues that smaller candidates face is the lack of media attention and publicity they can garner during the election cycle. There are many finance laws, papers to fill out, and questions to answer if you choose to run. Behind the scenes, these endeavors cost a large sum of money, and many candidates are unable to put forth adequate finances without the support of an established, well-funded party. Furthermore, third-party candidates often fall into the trap of running on a controversial issue that is neglected by Republicans and Democrats. Richard Hofstadter coined a saying to frame the issue that third parties face: “Third parties are like bees: once they have stung, they die.” Considering this idea, Bruce Schulman of Boston University explains that third parties surface largely because of current social issues or cultural movements. “What almost always happens is that … one of the major parties appropriates their message,” noted Schulman. After issues and ideas have been brought to light by the sting of a third party, the larger parties overtake the movement, and the smaller party effectively dies.  Does this make third parties useless? Not quite. Schulman goes on to explain that when these parties emerge and bring forth current issues, they effectuate political change: Democrats and Republicans begin talking about the hot-button topics and delineating their plans to federally deal with the issues. However, because the parties swoop in to appeal to voters using issues that the third party has brought to light, the likelihood of such a group assuming power is slim to none. Thus far, holding positions in government is not the role that third parties have played in American government.   Compounded with financial and ideological setbacks is the cliché that to vote outside of the two-party system is effectively to “throw away your vote.” Each election cycle, frontrunners for the Democrat and Republican parties warn voters against this practice, arguing that the third-party candidates won’t win anyway. Instead, argue the candidates, a vote would be better “spent” supporting an effective party than making a statement.    Elon Musk can likely evade the financial crisis that other third parties face during elections, but he still must formulate a plan for Americans who believe that Republicans or Democrats could better solve the issues he cares about. Pleasing the Public Unbelievably in the face of such consistent failure, businessmen, activists, and politicians continually attempt to forge an alternate path to Washington. Their motives are rooted in pet projects or dissatisfaction with the part that they initially aligned with. Such is the case with Kennedy and Musk. Continually, the dissatisfaction of the American people with Democrats and Republicans is cited by third parties as a reason to run against these platforms. However, time and again the same public that is unhappy with current party leadership will still vote for the established parties instead of placing other leaders in power. It stands to reason that Democrats, frustrated with Musk for his enthusiastic support for Donald Trump in the past election cycle, will not vote for the American Party. Similarly, Republicans and Independents who stood firmly behind President Trump are likely to keep voting red, frustrated with the way that Elon turned his back on the president in the last few weeks. In each case, the trends that have historically dictated voting for over a century are likely to stand, and even Elon cannot outrun the ramifications of running outside of the two-party system. READ MORE from Madison Fossa: Making Sense of Trump’s Newfound Friendship With DeSantis Democrats Turn to an Alternate Universe in Search of Success The post %POSTLINK% appeared first on %BLOGLINK%.

A recent Gallup poll found that only 36 percent of Democrats are extremely or very proud to be an American, in a continuing downward trend for the party. Conversely, 92 percent of Republicans are extremely or very proud to be an American. On this episode of The Spectator P.M. Podcast, hosts Ellie Gardey Holmes and Lyrah Margo discuss the importance of patriotism and their disappointment with the Left. Ellie and Lyrah also consider how those on the Left continually portray themselves as anti-American, especially through their disdain for the American flag. Tune in to hear their discussion! Read Ellie and Lyrah’s writing here and here. Listen to the Spectator P.M. Podcast on Spotify. Watch the Spectator P.M. Podcast on Rumble. The post %POSTLINK% appeared first on %BLOGLINK%.

It should be illegal for anyone to artificially modify the weather.  That is something that we should all be able to agree on. Unfortunately, as you will see below, it has now come out that this has been happening all over the western half of the United States.  In fact, cloud seeding operations were being conducted in Texas just two days before horrific flooding killed a whole bunch of innocent children.  The information that I am going to share with you in this article is explosive, and I hope that you will share it with as many people as you can. The company that has been conducting cloud seeding operations in Texas is called Rainmaker Technology. Rainmaker Technology CEO Augustus Doricko is claiming that his company had nothing to do with the recent flooding because his company did not do any cloud seeding in Texas on July 3rd or July 4th.  But he is admitting that his company was doing cloud seeding in Texas on July 2nd… Overnight from July 3rd – 4th, moisture surged into the Hill Country from the Pacific as remnants of Tropical Storm Barry moved across the region. At 1:00 a.m. on July 4th, the National Weather Service (NWS), which we work closely with to maintain awareness of severe weather systems, issued a flash flood warning for San Angelo, Texas. Note, summer convective cloud seeding operations in Texas do not occur during overnight hours. At 4:00 a.m. on July 4th, the NWS issued a life-threatening emergency warning, and flooding ensued. Did Rainmaker conduct any operations that could have impacted the floods? No. The last seeding mission prior to the July 4th event was during the early afternoon of July 2nd, when a brief cloud seeding mission was flown over the eastern portions of south-central Texas, and two clouds were seeded. These clouds persisted for about two hours after seeding before dissipating between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. CDT. Natural clouds typically have lifespans of 30 minutes to a few hours at most, with even the most persistent storm systems rarely maintaining the same cloud structure for more than 12-18 hours. The clouds that were seeded on July 2nd dissipated over 24 hours prior to the developing storm complex that would produce the flooding rainfall. A senior meteorologist observed an unusually high moisture content prior to the event’s arrival, using NWS sounding data. It was at this point that our meteorologists determined that we would suspend future operations indefinitely. As you can see, we suspended operations on July 2nd, a day before the NWS issued any flood warning. This is a bombshell. We don’t want people seeding our clouds. This should be illegal. It turns out that Rainmaker Technology CEO Augustus Doricko is just 25 years old, and his company has been heavily funded by billionaire Peter Thiel… Whoever approved cloud seeding operations in Texas needs to resign immediately. But this isn’t just happening in Texas. In fact, according to the official website of the North American Weather Modification Council, most states in the western half of the nation are actively conducting cloud seeding operations… What these states are doing is extremely dangerous. They need to stop it now before more people die. Thankfully, there are a few politicians that are determined to take action. For example, U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has introduced a bill that would ban anyone from modifying or altering the weather… Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced a bill intended to block any government or private effort to “modify or alter the weather,” directly referencing “geoengineering” and “atmospheric interventions.” Although introduced in the context of recent Texas weather events, the bill is grounded in older conspiracy narratives rather than new scientific evidence. The text of the bill closely mirrors the language used by online groups that have promoted the chemtrail theory. The proposal has received no mainstream scientific support. Good for her. Unfortunately, many other members of Congress are still attempting to deny that weather modification even exists.  One of those members of Congress is Senator Ted Cruz… Sen. Ted Cruz dismissed talk about weather modification Monday, saying there is “zero evidence” to support claims that the government is manipulating the weather. The Texas Republican made the comments in response to a proposed bill by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, which aimed to ban atmospheric interventions—a move rooted in long-debunked “chemtrail” theories. “The internet can be a strange place,” Cruz said at a press conference this morning. “People can come up with all sorts of crazy theories.” Are you kidding me? Somebody please send this article to Senator Cruz. It is time for the madness to end. Of course even if weather modification ends here in the United States, other countries will continue to do it. Those that are engaged in this practice are destabilizing weather patterns that have been relatively stable for thousands of years. So now we have a real crisis on our hands. A couple of decades ago, we would be hit by a major weather disaster a few times a year. Now they are hitting us constantly. In fact, Tropical Storm Chantal just hammered the Carolinas… Chantal made landfall in South Carolina as a tropical storm but has since weakened to a tropical depression after losing strength over land. However, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned it still poses a threat of tropical storm conditions to millions this week. The storm unleashed up to 10 inches of rain across central North Carolina on Sunday, inundating homes, submerging roads and stranding numerous drivers. More than 17,000 residents in Orange and Chatham counties remain without power due to downed trees and power lines. When I woke up this morning, I learned that parts of Chapel Hill were literally underwater… The Chapel Hill Fire Department and neighboring agencies completed more than 50 water rescues, many of them in areas where floodwaters entered or threatened to enter apartments, the Town of Chapel Hill said in a news release early Monday. More than 60 people were displaced. Some rescues also took place at shopping centers, where water flooded parking lots and businesses. The town warned residents to be careful as they ventured out Monday morning while crews continued to assess the damage. Yes, there have been storms and floods all throughout history. But what we are witnessing now is not even close to normal. Those that have been messing with the weather should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.  We live at a time when major apocalyptic disasters are happening all around us, and they are making things even worse. Those that are “playing God” by modifying our weather belong in prison. But I doubt that they will ever be held accountable. In fact, many of our politicians will continue to insist that cloud seeding isn’t even happening. Sadly, much of the population will actually believe them. 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 This Is Going To Keep Happening As Long As They Keep Artificially Modifying The Weather appeared first on End Of The American Dream.

by Joseph P. Farrell, Giza Death Star: We’re starting off this week’s blogs of high octane speculation with what I think is a whopper doozie, and I have one of my typical “Wile E. Coyote” nosedives off of the end of a very slender twig on the speculation tree into the canyon below.  For those […]

by Martin Armstrong, Armstrong Economics: People continue to ask if Bitcoin will replace the dollar. They believe that the recent surge in Bitcoin indicates that it will topple the USD as the world’s reserve currency, but that is merely propaganda. You must understand that Bitcoin is simply a trading vehicle, not a currency. I cannot stress […]