Individualism Versus Collectivism is on the Ballot in November

Defeating democratic socialists is imperative.

American Greatness   

• "In a modern capitalist economy, hundreds of thousands of enterprises produce millions of distinct products—far too complex for any administrative body to allocate rationally . . .Without market prices, planners have no way to know what is genuinely scarce and what is abundant, so they cannot plan well even granting them the best of intentions."

"Six years ago, the rise of the “Bernie bros” supporting avowed socialist candidate Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) raised the question of whether decades of soft indoctrination about the “horrors” of capitalism by the Democrat-media complex and the oft-promised but never delivered benefits of socialism had finally produced enough voters willing to elect their way out of free enterprise.

"Fortunately, that didn’t happen. However, in 2026 the evidence supporting that question is harder to wave away. A self-described democratic socialist now runs City Hall in the nation’s largest city, and a slate of Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed candidates is on ballots nationwide for Congress, statehouses, and mayor’s offices. The question is no longer academic. It is on the ballot on November 3.

"Zohran Mamdani’s November 2025 victory in the New York City mayoral race was the biggest win for the DSA since Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 upset,
built on a platform of rent freezes, city-owned grocery stores, free buses, and steep new taxes on the wealthy. DSA leaders have called it proof that “democratic socialist ideas are very popular.”

"Heading into the midterms, at least eleven DSA-aligned candidates are running for offices from Colorado to Rhode Island, Ocasio-Cortez just won her own House primary with 87 percent of the vote, and Rashida Tlaib is on the ballot again in Michigan. Even sympathetic Democrat strategists are nervous about the label. One Third Way official has even conceded that socialism hands Republicans “a pretty potent set of weapons” in competitive races. A CBS News poll found only 22 percent of Democrats actually support socialist economic positions, which tells you the argument inside the Party is far from settled.

"That makes this exactly the moment to make the case against socialism from the outside, too. Most of the pushback on socialism is economic or historical, and both cases are strong. However, there is a different argument, rooted in older and more fundamental conflict between individualism and collectivism, that should be carefully considered by all Americans before going to the polls this year.

"The purpose of this article is to educate, inform, and proselytize against socialism in all its forms." . . .  More.

Invisible American Lasers Now Destroying Iranian Weapons and Infrastructure

 Ward Clark   

"The Pentagon and the military contractors have been experimenting with laser weapons for some time now. But we are now seeing them used in the field against real targets, and the initial indications are that they are working." 

Video: Golden Dome US Space Force | AiTelly

"Technology is a great force multiplier. We learned that, and our Iraqi opponents learned that, in 1991, in Operation Desert Storm, which was one of the first well-publicized mass uses of smart-weapons. We are still seeing that proved true today, with the use of high-tech weapons against Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and in Iran itself.

Now, in the latest example of Iran's lessons in "you had no idea who you were messing with," American forces are using powerful infrared lasers to target Iranian weapons and equipment. 

The US military has been deploying lasers in the Strait of Hormuz to knock out regime hardware, taking out “drones and incoming cruise missiles at a much lower cost than using more expensive kinetic weapons like missiles,” the Department of War recently confirmed.

The US project to harness laser power has been 50 years in the making and outstrips the capabilities of any other military on Earth.

“We can very specifically track and target drones and put the spot exactly where we want it, [in order] to disable its sensors or kill [i.e. explode] the drone itself,” Mark Neice, president of Directed Energy Consultants, which works with the military, told The Post.

The best part is the control system.

Somewhat surprisingly, the laser weapons are operated by soldiers using reconfigured Xbox game console controllers.

“The video games industry figured out what the best controller was and now the US military is saying, ‘Well, why reinvent the wheel with a specialized control system where you can just use an Xbox controller or something really similar to do the job?'” . . . More.

 Ward Clark hails from Alaska’s Susitna Valley, where he maintains his rural household in one of America’s last free places. 

UPDATED: ‘Dancing on Her Grave’: Kennedy Slams Sunny Hostin’s Cannibal Killer Boast

  PJ Media 

"And sitting on a jury should be sacred," [Kennedy] continued. "But for her, she didn't seem to care at all, and it's almost as like she's recounting the story with absolute glee." 

Wikisimpsons

"When Sunny Hostin took a victory lap on The View for helping a notorious killer avoid a murder conviction, Kennedy made sure somebody remembered the woman he killed.

"Daniel Rakowitz, the man New York tabloids dubbed "The Butcher of Tompkins Square Park," killed Monika Beerle and cut up her body in a bathtub. He then cooked her remains into a soup, ate some of it, and passed out portions to homeless people in the park.

"Back in the early 1990s, The New York Times reported that a single holdout juror "was principally responsible… for preventing them from returning a guilty verdict." Hostin cheerfully claimed the credit. "That was me," she declared. "And it was because I saw clearly that he was psychotic."

"Then she walked her stunned co-hosts through the killing as if she were pitching a true-crime podcast. "He did not mean to kill her, and once he killed her, he panicked," Hostin said. "He chopped up her body parts, yes, boiled her body parts, tried to commit the perfect crime…"

"A man who sets out to commit the perfect crime understands that he committed one. Hostin's own version of events pokes a massive hole in the insanity defense she fought so hard to deliver.

"Hostin’s co-hosts were understandably shocked by the admission, but it was Kennedy on The Five who really went after her." . . .

. . . "That's the point Hostin keeps missing. Monika Beerle was a human being with a real future, and the man who butchered her ended up in a psychiatric hospital instead of a prison cell. She spent nine days in a jury room making sure of that, and more than three decades later, she still wants applause for it. I’m not sure many people see it the way she does. But then again, after the reactions to Lindsay Clancy murdering her three children, who knows?"

But wait! There's  more! Update:  Ruh-Roh: MASSIVE Receipt Shows Sunny Hostin LIED About Being a Holdout Juror... Shocking, We Know   "Earlier this week, Sunny Hostin spent Tuesday on The View treating a 35-year-old cannibal trial like a personal origin story, casting herself as the lone holdout who dragged 11 angry jurors to a not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity verdict for Daniel Rakowitz, the so-called Butcher of Tompkins Square Park. 

This sounds like a horrible movie plot from the get-go, yeah? Anywho ...

That version lasted about as long as it took someone to pull the 1991 clips. 

The Daily News from the day after the verdict names Asunción Cummings, before the TV glow-up — as the juror annoyed with the holdout, arguing the defendant knew what he was doing. Other contemporaneous accounts pointed to an unemployed man who liked the $15 a day and the free meals. 

It would appear Asunción Cummings (Hostin) was ANNOYED with the holdout juror ..."

Exclusive | Sunny Hostin's claim that she was lone holdout in NYC cannibalism trial shot down by sources, reports from the time

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey to New Moms: ‘Hi, I’m Here to Help’

"If we’re going to insist that ‘it takes a village,’ let’s agree that the government isn’t that village."

Aubrey Harris  

"Any time the government shows up to our door and offers to help, we should be suspicious. Especially when it comes masquerading as our community."

Uncle Paul's Parodies

 "It takes a village,” I was assured even before my daughter was born. 

A village to provide for a child. A village to help with the child. A village to educate the child. A village to instill morals into the child. For a phrase popularized by Hillary Clinton, nominally hailing from some remote place in the massive continent of Africa (no one is quite sure where), “it takes a village” certainly gets a lot of traction. At this point, saying the words feels akin to invoking some great and intractable rule of the universe.

"It wasn’t just the mom-themed social media posts my algorithm magically figured I needed to see — it was my mom, my sisters, the lovely women who came to my baby shower, and even the grandmas in the grocery-store checkout line. 

"Presumably, most of us say “village” and mean something along the lines of “a community — friends or family — I’ve chosen and would trust with my life.” Statistically speaking, that kind of community is more dream than reality for most young families today. So, because nature abhors a vacuum, something must step into that community’s place.

"Enter Gov. Maura Healey of Massachusetts. 

"Last week, the governor’s office published a proposal to allocate an additional $2 million to an existing program that sends nurses to mothers’ homes during their postpartum period with the aim of making that program universally available. 

"The program wouldn’t be mandatory, by any means. Anyone who opted in would have a nurse stop by their home to answer questions about basic childcare, screen for postpartum depression and anxiety, and evaluate the home for risk factors like substance and physical abuse. The proposal also suggests allocating an additional $250,000 toward a program dedicated to addressing maternal mental health.

"All of this, of course, comes in the wake of the Lindsay Clancy trial.

"Whether Lindsay Clancy was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she killed her three children or not, the whole incident has led to a veritable storm of internet folk pontificating on the subject of postpartum mental health in the public sphere. Suddenly, we’ve decided postpartum anxiety, depression, and psychosis are national problems amounting to an epidemic caused by our society’s systemic failure to support mothers (a devastating side-effect of the patriarchy, the pink-clad hordes will tell you). (RELATED: Lindsay Clancy, Motherhood, and a Culture That Has Forgotten Sacrifice)

"Surely, the only remedy is yet another government program; specifically, a program that has the government inviting itself into your living room." . . .More.

Aubrey Harris is a graduate of Hillsdale College (2023), the former Intercollegiate Studies Institute fellow at The American Spectator and current columnist. She writes Spectator P.M. Newsletter for American Spectator subscribers where she rambles on current events, historical topics, and life in general. When she isn’t writing, Aubrey enjoys long runs, solving rock climbs, and rattling windows with the 32-foot pipes on the organ

Gavin Newsom Pretends He Governs California, As He Cosplays at the UN Over Climate Change

Jennifer Oliver O'Connell 

"I feel stupider having had to listen to this gasbag of a speech. However, it will be useful as opposition research. The benefit: It is loaded full with fodder for anyone running against Newsom in 2028, with eight years of provably horrible governance and all the receipts to back it up." . . .

"California Governor Gavin Newsom is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly to make fake agreements with world leaders and pontificate about his favorite grift: climate change. 

"Newsom claims he won't run for president in 2028 if former VP and failed 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris chooses to. Yet another hedge by the king of hedges, because while he says one thing out of his mouth, his actions telegraph his true plans. So, what have been Newsom's actions this week? Cosplaying at being presidential while insulting the sitting one, photo ops with fellow communists and world leaders, and signing memorandums of understanding with those who are still all-in on the Green New Scam.

"Thus, climate change and a renewable future comprised much of Newsom's five-minute snooze address before the assembly. Newsom's moments were already filled with maligning President Donald Trump and pontificating about how much smarter California is. His speech continued in that vein of slander and criticism." . . .

. . . "But why let facts get in the way of a good yarn? The most personally offensive part of this yarn: The man who ended the livelihoods of thousands of independent professionals through Assembly Bill 5 claims that California's "entrepreneurial spirit" and "regulatory system" created Elon Musk and Tesla. How much was he smoking when he came up with that one? Particularly since Tesla and Elon Musk are no longer in California, in part thanks to California's regulatory system!"

Remember the "Millennium Scare"? The Kovid Kuarantine with its footstep stickers in stores? Now it's AI

"AI safety and the geopolitical AI race are often discussed as if they were separate issues. They are not." 

China is why America must win the AI race - Dimitris Eleas   . . . "The issue with AI is that you can’t reverse it now or put it back in the box. And the problem is not what American AI companies will do; I believe that when bitter rivals agree on the need for restraint, this will happen. But such responsible restraint cannot be considered in isolation from what China is willing to do. Can the West ignore the rise of China? (A population of 1.4 billion, rare earth minerals of 44 million tons, exports of $3.77 trillion, government debt 94% of GDP, etc.) The Chinese do everything they can to beat America.

The Communist Party governs through a centralized political system capable of directing enormous economic resources toward this new battlefield. Whatever one thinks of that system of directed capitalism, its ambitions in Artificial Intelligence -- or in space, where China has also made major advances -- cannot simply be wished away. " . . .

Dimitris Eleas is a New York City–based political scientist, writer, and independent researcher focused on international relations and political philosophy. His letters have appeared in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.

UPDATE: America’s Last Remaining Maskers  

"The mask-mandate-enforcing lesbian bar, the “Afromystic,” and Violet Affleck are all crazed (one of the bar’s original founders even left to go to clown school), but the only real difference between them and our nation’s public health apparatus is that they have just been more stubborn in keeping up their insane demands. Our public health bureaucrats were able to keep America’s schools shuttered for up to two years; these people have kept up the jig for six years." 

PJ Media

What Made AI Researchers Freak Out—The ‘Incident’ In Plain English  

. . . "Human judgment: The hard part is weighing the evidence and gaming out what happens when we react without thinking through the consequences. When politicians stump for regulation, the question is whether they mean American regulation that leaves the U.S. in a worse position if something goes wrong while doing nothing to stop the actual global risk. When someone says we need to protect open-weight AI, the question is how we keep it free and open without giving any bad actor with enough computing power the means to build a superintelligence. And when someone says America simply needs to plow ahead and win the race, the question is what “winning” actually means. Because getting there first could change the balance of power, but getting there at all could be a mistake none of us come back from."

AI, white supremacy, Global warming, global cooling, population explosion, nuclear destruction, Donald Trump; stolen land! Democrats and "Young Skulls full of Mush" seek contempt for what Reagan once called "a shining city on a hill". TD

Abbott orders a halt on all data center permits  

"In June, Abbott ordered state regulators to audit data center companies prior to approving permits to ensure they “pay for their electric infrastructure instead of shifting costs onto Texas families and small businesses, reuse their own water, reduce the cost of electricity for Texans, do not disrupt residential neighborhoods to preserve Texas’ quality of life, and pay their own way and eliminate reliance on outdated taxpayer-funded incentives,” The Center Square reported."

There is no lynching epidemic in the US

Ayanna Presley, Joy Reid, Maxine Waters, Sunny Hostin, Jasmine Crockett, et al: what do these women, all Democrats, want and who chooses them all to speak to America?

 Washington Examiner  

"And there is no spate of “modern-day lynchings.” There are just wildly irresponsible racemongers trying to gin up discord and anger before the midterm elections."

. . . "Fifty-nine Democrats have signed a letter written by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) demanding the Trump administration investigate the “numerous incidents of Black people found hanging across the country.” Pressley maintains it’s a “national crisis” and “we CANNOT stand by while strange fruit hangs from trees across the country. We’re demanding a federal investigation NOW so we can stop modern-day lynchings.”

"One of the signees, possible presidential hopeful Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, added that the administration must address these “widespread modern-day lynchings and put a stop to this racial terror.”

"Big media joined the fray. The Associated Press notes that Fortune’s death “stirred distressing memories of the grim history of lynching across the U.S. South,” though reporters knew well that the hanging was a criminal act perpetrated by another black American.

"Not only is there no lynching epidemic in the United States, but there likely hasn’t been anything approaching a lynching since James Byrd Jr. was murdered in 1998 in Jasper, Texas, by three white men. Two of his murderers, John King and Lawrence Brewer, were executed, and a third, Shawn Berry, was sentenced to life in prison.

"The last incident of a lynching by hanging was Michael Donald, in March of 1981, 45 years ago, in Mobile, Alabama. Donald had been kidnapped by Ku Klux Klan members, beaten and strangled, and hanged from a tree. All three participants were caught. One of them was executed.

"Pressley’s cynical campaign only belittles the deaths of Donald and Byrd, not to mention the thousands of others who had been victims of lynchings in our past.

"All 10 hanging deaths cited by Pressley have been investigated. Eight of the cases have been ruled suicides by police departments. Of the two remaining incidents, one is still being investigated by a coroner's office, and the other case is still open due to conflicting autopsies." . . .