In the past year alone, titles like &#8220;Assassin’s Creed: Shadows&#8221; (which featured a <a href="https://notthebee.com/article/new-assassins-creed-game-has-gay-black-samurai-kiss-theythem-character">romance</a> between a bisexual black samurai and a nonbinary Japanese character) and the remastered version of &#8220;The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion&#8221; (which <a href="https://steamcommunity.com/app/2623190/discussions/0/604154245960211414/">replaced</a> the “female” and “male” options from the original game with “Body Type 1” and “Body Type 2”) have drawn significant backlash. 

But forcing woke content into video games isn’t the only way progressives are trying to ruin the gaming industry.
Now, they’re coming for its business model. 
 
Recently, the American Economic Liberties Project (AELP), a <a href="https://www.economicliberties.us/about/#">think tank</a> stacked with progressives, <a href="https://www.economicliberties.us/press-release/ninth-circuit-affirms-epic-games-victory-over-google-forces-monopolist-to-lift-app-store-restrictions/">cheered</a> a major court victory against Google’s app store that they aggressively pushed.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Epic Games’ case against Google was legitimate. Per the suit, Google forced developers into a rigid system with up to 30% fees, banning rival app stores and alternative payment methods, hurting both creators and consumers.
But don’t be fooled. AELP’s broader agenda has nothing to do with helping gamers or developers. Its antitrust crusade would shackle gaming — and every other innovative industry — under permanent bureaucratic control.
For example, AELP was the <a href="https://www.economicliberties.us/press-release/ftc-must-pursue-administrative-case-against-unlawful-microsoft-activision-merger/">loudest cheerleader</a> for the <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings/2210077-microsoftactivision-blizzard-matter">Biden-era push</a> to block Microsoft from acquiring Activision-Blizzard — a case the Trump administration just killed.
Biden’s FTC, egged on by AELP, claimed Microsoft would make &#8220;Call of Duty&#8221; and Overwatch Xbox exclusives, supposedly “suppressing competitors” in consoles and cloud gaming. They wouldn’t have. Microsoft committed to keeping &#8220;Call of Duty&#8221; <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/16/microsoft-and-sony-sign-deal-to-keep-activisions-call-of-duty-on-playstation.html">on PlayStation</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2023/02/21/microsoft-signs-call-of-duty-contract-with-nintendo-pressuring-sony-and-regulators/">bringing it to Nintendo</a>.
Courts saw through the AELP’s claims. A federal U.S. judge <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/07/11/microsoft-activision-ftc-decision/">rejected</a> the FTC’s suit in 2023, and by May 2025, Trump’s FTC wisely <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trumps-ftc-walks-away-from-microsoft-activision-merger-fight-started-by-biden-131433987.html">dropped</a> the case. Even the ultra-liberal European Union <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/eu-antitrust-regulators-clear-69-bln-microsoft-activision-deal-2023-05-15/">approved</a> the Microsoft-Activision deal.
Liberal activists like those at AELP may not want to admit it, but the truth is that gaming is a fiercely competitive industry. It doesn’t need Washington activist groups or government bureaucrats picking winners and losers. 
 
Consider the very video game example that AELP loves to harp on — &#8220;Call of Duty.&#8221;
Yes, it’s a mega-blockbuster franchise that has sold over 500 million copies since 2003. But it is far from unstoppable. When &#8220;Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare&#8221; launched in 2016, its <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeF3UTkCoxY">reveal trailer</a> was ratioed with 4 million dislikes to 667,000 likes. 
Four days later, video game developer DICE <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7nRTF2SowQ">unveiled</a> &#8220;Battlefield 1&#8221; — a rival shooter with a World War I setting — and its trailer’s likes outnumbered dislikes 37-to-1. &#8220;Infinite Warfare&#8221; only <a href="https://www.vg247.com/call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-was-the-best-selling-game-of-2016-despite-all-your-protests-but-battlefield-1-was-hot-on-its-heels">outsold</a> &#8220;Battlefield 1&#8221; because it bundled a remaster of &#8220;Modern Warfare.&#8221; Activision learned its lesson and abandoned the futuristic setting.
Market dominance in gaming seldom lasts. AELP <a href="https://www.economicliberties.us/media/vertical-merger-scrutiny-needs-an-upgrade-after-microsoft-activision/">argues</a> that video game consoles “rely on unique intellectual property that cannot simply be replicated,” but that’s simply not true. Blockbuster franchises are frequently copied, challenged, and displaced.
For example, &#8220;Guitar Hero&#8221; ruled the mid-2000s until &#8220;Rock Band&#8221; split the market — and soon after, both faded into irrelevance.
Yet, if regulators used AELP’s &#8220;Call of Duty&#8221; logic, perhaps they would have treated &#8220;Guitar Hero&#8221; like an untouchable monopoly, freezing the industry in place while gamers missed out on the next wave of competition.
Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft have spent decades battling to build their own “killer apps.” Players bought Xboxes for &#8220;Halo,&#8221; PlayStations for &#8220;Uncharted,&#8221; and Nintendo consoles for &#8220;Zelda.&#8221; If Microsoft ever made &#8220;Call of Duty&#8221; exclusive, the proper response from Sony wouldn’t be to run to regulators, it would be to make something better. That is how markets are supposed to work.
Instead, AELP and the far left’s vision appears to be to turn antitrust into a permanent chokepoint for the entire economy, swapping innovation for bureaucratic control.
Unfortunately, the Microsoft-Activision case was just a warm-up for them. After celebrating victory with Epic, AELP continues to push crackdowns on everything from <a href="https://www.economicliberties.us/press-release/ain-vetoing-anti-algorithmic-rent-fixing-bill-gov-polis-sides-with-corporate-landlords-over-colorado-renters/">dynamic pricing</a> to <a href="https://www.economicliberties.us/press-release/dot-greenlights-united-jetblue-partnership-deepening-airline-consolidation-crisis/">airline partnerships</a> that help travelers redeem miles across carriers.
If AELP succeeds in locking its mindset into law, it won’t just be gamers who lose — it will be every industry that depends on competition and creativity to thrive.
Gamers don’t need Washington lawyers and think tank activists deciding what they can play, and neither does any other sector caught in AELP’s crosshairs. What the market needs is the freedom to build, compete, and win without having to beg permission from the same professional regulators who mistake every successful product for a monopoly.
If AELP gets its way, innovation won’t just stall in gaming — it will stall everywhere. That would be bad news for everyone.
The Trump administration should continue to stand its ground and fight AELP’s agenda tooth and nail. We’ll all be better off for it.
* * *
James Skyles is a legal policy analyst and the principal of Skyles Law Group. He has written for some of the largest legal publications in the United States, including Law.com and Law360.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Friends shouting and cheering while playing the game battle on the playstation

It’s More Than Woke Storylines Ruining Video Games

It's More Than Woke Storylines Ruining Video Games

Blizzard Entertainment

Gaming

Microsoft

Progressivism

Video Games

Woke Culture

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-DEMONSTRATION

The ‘No Kings’ Protests Were A Disaster

The 'No Kings' Protests Were A Disaster

Democratic Party

Democrats

Donald Trump

Leftists

Los Angeles

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Police

Protests

Riots

Salt Lake City

Seattle

You recall Greta Thunberg when she was a not-particularly-cute child, and we weren&#8217;t allowed to make jokes about her not being particularly cute because she was a child.
Well, now she&#8217;s 22 years old, so I can say whatever the hell I want about her: She is an obnoxious brat. She was always obnoxious.
Thunberg first heard about climate change in 2011, when she was eight; she said she stopped talking, stopped eating, and lost 22 lbs. over it at age 11.
Instead of going to school and getting the treatment she probably deserved, her father got her treatment, took her out of school, and put her on camera repeatedly. He said, “She can either sit at home and be really unhappy, or protest and be happy.”
She has spent the last ten years gallivanting around the globe and protesting. She started with climate change, where she famously lectured all the adults for not doing enough, in her humble opinion, to stop the world from getting warmer.
Just kidding, she wasn’t humble, she was obnoxious.
But it was that very obnoxiousness that endeared her to the Left-wing media machine, which finds small children saying idiotically reductive things to be wise and useful.
In 2018, she yelled at the adults like a brat, “My message is that we’ll be watching you.  &#8230; You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. &#8230; We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”
Now that she’s 22, she still dresses like a little girl and cosplays as a teenager, but now she’s graduated to the new Leftist radical cause of the day: standing for terrorists in the Gaza Strip. 
This Swedish truant who still hasn’t graduated college is now heading for Gaza in a boat – a boat reminiscent of the terrorist flotilla from 2010 in which friends of Hamas sent a set of ships to Gaza laden with goods that would immediately have gone to support the terrorist group. They were offered passage at Ashdod, an Israeli port, and turned it down, fearing that Israel would confiscate the goods, even though Israel had offered to coordinate any aid with the UN. Many of the participants in that flotilla attacked Israeli troops attempting to stop it, and some even grabbed weapons of the Israelis; ten Israeli soldiers were wounded. Seven of the nine people on the ships killed in response by Israeli troops had openly issued wishes to die as martyrs.
Anyway, back to our moronic story – Greta’s pleasure cruise. Our Pippi Longstocking wannabe heroine has now loaded onto the Madleen ship, launched by the so-called Freedom Flotilla Coalition. Thunberg herself has taken the lead, calling to “dismantle Zionism” – which, for the record, means the forcible killing of millions of Jews, who currently live in an actual, not fictional state, called Israel.
A few months ago she declared, “What are we going to do? We will crush Zionism.”
Thunberg has been joined by propagandists from the Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera, as well as an actor from &#8220;Game of Thrones.&#8221; They say they’re trying to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, even though Israel has actually taken over the distribution of humanitarian aid directly, thus breaking Hamas’ stranglehold over the Palestinian population, who are now free to actually receive aid without having to worry about having it stolen directly by Hamas.
One of the big problems with the UN is they worked for Hamas. And so all the aid that was going in was being hijacked by Hamas. Hamas was then taking it and using it themselves, or they would sell it back to the Palestinians at inflated rates to pay for their terror tunnels. What&#8217;s happening right now is that Palestinians are actually beginning to get aid, and it&#8217;s breaking the Hamas stranglehold over the Palestinian population. It&#8217;s actually creating the possibility of a true Palestinian uprising against Hamas.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2210?elementPosition=6&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
So what Thunberg is doing is actually part of a gigantic propaganda effort launched by the exact same forces that lied earlier this week by claiming that Israel had shot dozens of people at an aid distribution center, a complete and total lie parroted by the Left-wing media.
Thunberg has suddenly decided that climate change is soooo tiring and boring and that Hamas is super-hot right now.It’s all part of her broader crusade to get herself arrested so she can attain the same levels of attention she used to when she was a child actress.
Now, this sort of stuff — taking a boat to Gaza — is super silly and kind of funny — and stupid. I’m hoping that this whole thing turns into one of the world’s most entertaining reality specials, with the engine of the boat breaking so that we get the world’s most ridiculous version of &#8220;Gilligan’s Island.&#8221;
The problem is that Greta, despite the hair, doesn’t really carry it forward the way Marianne did, and the whole crew of the USS Minnow has been replaced by smelly environmentalists who really, really hate Jews. And just like the USS Minnow, they may be stuck wherever they land for years at a time, because none of these people are going to make a radio out of a coconut.
The real question here is the same as always: Why is it that we can almost certainly identify – always! – climate change activists as fans of Hamas, one of the least environmentally-friendly groups on the planet? 
The answer is simple: the Omnicause. These people are simply interested in “fighting the system,” by which they mean capitalism and the West, which was always Greta’s thing. She’s been saying a version of this crap since 2019, when she released a book and somehow, incredibly, became even more obnoxious, saying, “What we refer to as ‘normal’ is an extreme system built on the exploitation of people and the planet. It is a system defined by colonialism, imperialism, oppression and genocide by the so-called global North to accumulate wealth that still shapes our current world order.”
These people hate the West. And so I wish them a pleasant three-hour tour. And if they land on the shores of some uncharted desert isle, I hope that they land without their keffiyehs, so that they can see how the Hamas locals treat them without their terror solidarity insignias – how Westerners are treated when they end up among the actual barbarians they believe they support.
This is part of a broader movement that actually is quite dangerous, because when the West begins to parrot the absolute lies of terror groups, that has consequences. When you continue to say the word “genocide,” when a genocide never has applied in this area, you are fomenting the same language that leads to a raising of the temperature.
And when you raise the temperature this much, people are going to get violent.

‘Freedom Flotilla’ And Greta Thunberg Prepare To Depart Italy For Gaza

Greta Goes To Gaza

Ben Shapiro

Gaza

Greta Thunberg

Hamas

Israel

Middle East

I believe that America’s core ideals are very much linked to its Christian faith. So as Easter has just passed, I thought this would be a good time to take a closer look at the state of the American church and then weep quietly and say it was a great country while it lasted.
Now, according to a Pew poll, 62% of Americans identify as Christian. This is a slight drop from the 1697 poll which showed 99.9% of Americans were Christian with one heretic hiding in the woods hoping some long-haired guy with a buckle on his hat wouldn’t blow his head off with a blunderbuss.
But today’s religious landscape looks different depending on political affiliation. For instance, on the political Left, 43% of those who identify as progressives say they have abandoned Christianity and become Episcopalians. Fourteen percent of progressives say they have renounced the corrupt beliefs of colonizing white men, have returned to the innocent and beautiful natural religion of indigenous peoples, and were preparing to sacrifice a virgin to the volcano God until they realized that by the time they were sure she was a virgin, she wasn’t a virgin anymore, and if they threw her into a volcano there’d be no one left who knew how to make breakfast.
Other progressives say they are sick of the sort of restrictive religions that ruined the 1950’s by making everything so great. Instead they have turned to more modern faiths with practices that reflect the moral progress of mankind. These practices include yogic meditation, ritual mindfulness, and tantric sex followed by butchering any unborn babies conceived during tantric sex, then celebrating the mass slaughter by dancing around a pole in a wild blood-drenched frenzy, getting a full body tattoo featuring goat-headed demi-gods with flaming eyes, then running naked through a forest while grunting inarticulately and listening to music that’s mostly composed of drumbeats and shrieking because classic rock is just the best.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Andrew Klavan Show</a></h3>
Among Christians on the political Right, 17% say they believe in Christ so hard they’ll kill anyone who disagrees with them, 14% say their faith is so strong they might even be willing to go to church as long as porn is provided, and 8% say their worship mostly involves posting unspeakably cruel remarks on social media to people who aren’t as Christly as they are. Four percent of conservative Christians say they have abandoned their own egos for Christ’s sake and have thus elevated their souls into a state of suffering-yet-serene agape love, and are now hiding in the woods hoping some long-haired guy with a buckle on his hat won’t blow their heads off with a blunderbuss.
The remaining 57% of Right-wing Christians spend most of their time sobbing and whispering, “Oh God, I suck so bad, please, please, please have mercy on me and don’t send me to hell or California.”
As far as other American religions go, 94% of limousine drivers identify as Muslims, 16% of Christian women pretend they’re Buddhists, and 82% of Jews control 90% of everything except which parts of Ivy League campuses they’re allowed to walk on without one of their professors pointing at them and making that awful insect noise like Donald Sutherland at the end of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”
Approximately 29% of Americans have no religion whatsoever and they say that makes life much easier because they&#8217;re able to rotate their heads 360 degrees and spider walk across the ceiling, which comes in very handy when they’re trying to escape from the exorcist.
Around the world, the religious landscape is much more varied. For instance, in Great Britain, while 47% of the people identify as Christian, 70% of them say that Islam is also absolutely great, totally fine, really wonderful and not a problem at all, no, really, it’s fantastic, they’re not just saying that because they’d be arrested for telling the truth.
In France, 49% of the population were excited because they thought they belonged to a dark, obscure, mystery cult with elaborate secret rituals until they found out they were actually just Catholics.
And in China, 23% of high-ranking Communists identify their kidneys as Uiger.
* * *
This excerpt is taken from the opening satirical monologue of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Andrew Klavan Show</a>.”
The views expressed in this satirical article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Andrew Klavan is the host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” at The Daily Wire. Follow him on X: @andrewklavan
Klavan is the bestselling author of numerous books, including the Cameron Winter Mystery series. The fourth installment, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1613165536?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_thcv_3&amp;storeType=ebooks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A Woman Underground.</a>” His most recent nonfiction release is “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Cain-Finding-Literature-Darkness/dp/0310368340/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_w=nMYjR&amp;content-id=amzn1.sym.bc3ba8d1-5076-4ab7-9ba8-a5c6211e002d&amp;pf_rd_p=bc3ba8d1-5076-4ab7-9ba8-a5c6211e002d&amp;pf_rd_r=133-8344803-2786917&amp;pd_rd_wg=7a8J3&amp;pd_rd_r=5791ea0f-6d96-4732-9d6a-3a4e6b348bb5&amp;ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness.</a>” (May 2025, Zondervan/HarperCollins).

US-ENTERTAINMENT-FILM-FESTIVAL-CARTOON-COMICCON-RELIGION

Progressives Abandon Christianity, Become Episcopalian

Andrew Klavan

Bible

Christianity

Conservatives

Easter

Episcopal Church

Humor

Satire

In a recent piece, the great <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/03/21/democrats-10-part-strategy-to-stopping-trump-at-any-cost/?utm_source=TDS_Email&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=MorningBell&amp;mkt_tok=ODI0LU1IVC0zMDQAAAGZXFVF8EiGHTOyBnThyW4grIVUl7BZT15Afcq-EIHg2MlGbVXGiYW0vNjgf4M2VoXDCfdVx3aPXat1HzDwjX0OzlMzAiZsyuw1NrKva4F7ED5RIRjnxQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Victor Davis Hanson</a> apologized to his readers for previously contending that Democrats were both disorganized and without a plan. Upon reflection, he now sees a very clear and organized ten-point plan largely focused on continued demonization of President Trump and Elon Musk, the opposition to any federal budget cuts or the deportation of anyone, continued promotion of open borders, support of radical Palestinians, the Ukraine war, DEI initiatives, and chaos, and an amplification of hysteria in all of their communication. Their actions thus far would indicate that he is spot on.
It is a truly audacious plan — audacious because it involves, in many ways, simply doubling down on the messaging from the losing 2024 presidential campaign, and audacious because with each of these issues, the Democrats are on the opposite side of the fence with regard to public sentiment, in some cases dramatically so. Nonetheless, their aim is to change that public perception on at least enough of those issues to overcome their opponents in the midterms and ultimately regain power. What would make them think they could pull that off?
The answer is likely that the Democrats have grown accustomed to having a very finely tuned, powerful and successful network for public influence at their disposal.
In 2019, author and researcher Dr. Robert Epstein<a href="https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Epstein%20Testimony.pdf"> testified before Congress</a> about the dangers posed by just one piece of that network — Google. He concluded that Google represents a dire threat to both democracy and human autonomy, and provided numerous examples from his extensive data collection going back to 2016, including this one: “In 2016, biased search results generated by Google’s search algorithm likely impacted undecided voters in a way that gave at least 2.6 million votes to Hillary Clinton (whom I supported). I know this because I preserved more than 13,000 election-related searches conducted by a diverse group of Americans on Google, Bing, and Yahoo in the weeks leading up to the election, and Google search results – which dominate search in the U.S. and worldwide – were significantly biased in favor of Secretary Clinton in all 10 positions on the first page of search results in both blue states and red states.”
However, the Tech players are only one part of the larger Democrat propaganda apparatus. The revelations from the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2877184/twitter-files-have-exposed-the-unholy-alliance-between-democrats-the-fbi-big-tech-and-the-media/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter/X Files</a>, from DOGE regarding <a href="https://www.newstarget.com/2025-02-08-usaid-funds-6000-journalists-1000-platforms-worldwide.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">USAID</a> and other governmental funding have laid bare the indisputable <a href="https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/08/governments_collusion_with_social_media_is_worse_than_you_realize.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unholy alliance</a> of the Democrat party, key governmental and non-governmental agencies, and factions of the mainstream and social media.
We now see that these entities have worked together to simultaneously push false narratives and censor truth — often demonizing and punishing those parties that interfered with this process in any way. Michael Shellenberger warned and testified to Congress about “<a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/shellenberger-testimony.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Censorship Industrial Complex</a>.” He observed: “The censorship industrial complex combines established methods of psychological manipulation, some developed by the U.S. Military during the Global War on Terror, with highly sophisticated tools from computer science, including artificial intelligence. The complex’s leaders are driven by the fear that the Internet and social media platforms empower populist, alternative, and fringe personalities and views, which they regard as destabilizing. Federal government officials, agencies, and contractors have gone from fighting ISIS recruiters and Russian bots to censoring and deplatforming ordinary Americans and disfavored public figures.”
Executive Director of Foundation for Freedom and former State Department official Mike Benz refers to the entities behind much of this clandestine activity as simply “<a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/09/24/mike_benz_the_history_of_the_intelligence_state.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Blob</a>.” In describing the blurring of the lines in our intelligence state he says: “This means that when the U.S. government provides funding or assistance, suddenly the churches they were working with are no longer simply churches — they are instruments of statecraft. The nonprofit charities are no longer simply charities; they become instruments of statecraft. The media is no longer independent; it becomes an instrument of statecraft. Hollywood becomes an instrument of statecraft, and organized criminal mafias do as well.” 
He describes the technological methodology of state narrative control in his presentation “<a href="https://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/MikeBenzCensorhip070924.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Whole-of-Society Censorship Framework”</a> saying, “This is why I refer to these AI super weapons as Weapons of Mass Deletion. They effectively did for internet censorship what weapons of mass destruction did for war. You didn’t need a standing army anymore of a million soldiers ready to go. You could have a few lines of code take out an entire political organization.”
In his piece <a href="https://www.realclearbooks.com/articles/2025/03/06/the_artificial_culture_1095413.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Artificial Culture</a>, Mathew Gasda refers to this political/governmental/media cabal as “the propaganda regime.” He asks and answers, “Why did newspapers, universities, publishing houses, record labels, and movie studios uniformly fall in line behind Trump Derangement Syndrome, Russiagate, cancel culture, COVID safetyism, dogmatic gender ideology, and other authoritarian ideological certainties? Because key figures in public and private institutions across the globe — literally — were being paid to propagate these narratives; this much we now know.”
Call the alliance what you will; the Democrat complex is an extraordinarily powerful, technologically sophisticated, and overwhelmingly partisan machine — not like a mere airplane to use a simile, but more like an F-47 Stealth Fighter.
This fighter jet has a storied track record of success in getting most or enough Americans to ignore the facts that surround various issues and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-2024-election-was-a-referendum-on-reality" target="_blank" rel="noopener">embrace a preferred alternative narrative</a> — at least for a while. From Obamacare, to Benghazi, to Russiagate, to Covid, to belief in multiple genders, to the activities of the <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/the-bidens-influence-peddling-timeline/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biden Crime Family</a>, to the authenticity of <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/10/19/its-been-two-years-since-51-intelligence-agents-interfered-with-an-election-they-still-wont-apologize/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hunter’s laptop</a>, to border security, to a host of specific individuals, the Democrats’ warplane inflicted massive damage on their enemies and got them through turbulence and countless battles with shockingly low casualties.
It is perhaps understandable that with this impressive history of success, party leadership would be hesitant to abandon this awesome weapon. They will look earnestly for alternative explanations for the 2024 election result. Perhaps the pilot, whoever that was, had the wrong flight or battle plan for the aircraft? Perhaps the pilot didn’t understand and adequately maximize the sophisticated evasion and engagement capabilities of the aircraft? In fact, perhaps the pilot didn’t even employ or fully engage the aircraft’s most powerful weapons, or focus them on the correct targets?
Sure, a jackbooted DOJ may no longer be part of the arsenal (although the judiciary certainly isn’t on the sidelines), Twitter/X has now fallen to the enemy, and it looks like the plug is being pulled on some of the funding for sycophant NGOs, so the Democrat warplane has taken a bit of flak and may be down to only five or so of the eight engines. But those are big engines, and five of them still garner a lot of power — maybe more than has yet been shown. So it will obviously require more than the results of a single election to convince them that their combat-tested warbird needs to be mothballed. They’re going with pilot error, not aircraft design.
* * *
Greg Salsbury, Ph.D. is former president of Western Colorado University and Board of Advisor member for <a href="https://starrs.us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">STARRS.US</a>. 
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Senators Meet For Policy Luncheons Ahead Of Government Funding Deadline

As Democrat Warplane Takes Flak, Audacity Remains Intact

Elections

Google

President Trump

Social Media

Social Media Censorship

U.S. Politics

Victor Davis Hanson

The following is an excerpt taken from the new book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Gold-Radicals-Traitors-California/dp/1546008039">Fool’s Gold: The Radicals, Con Artists, And Traitors Who Killed The California Dream And Now Threaten Us All</a>” By Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter. (Center Street/Hachette, March 2025)
* * *
The Failed Progressive Vision
Under Newsom’s watch, violent crime in California has skyrocketed. Homicides jumped by 33.9 percent and aggravated assaults by 25.3 percent in 2022, with gun‑related homicides and aggravated assaults soaring by 37.7 percent and 61.1 percent, respectively. The actual rates are likely much higher. Crime data only captures incidents reported to police, and many crimes go unreported.
The rapidly rising crime rates didn’t just occur in a vacuum. They directly correspond with Newsom’s decade‑plus‑long progressive experiment with criminal justice reform, which has resulted in far lighter sentences and the premature release of violent criminals from jail. After Newsom released tens of thousands of prisoners during COVID, ostensibly to prevent the virus from spreading among California’s incarcerated criminals, the state prison population dropped from 160,000 in 2011 to around 91,556 by mid‑2024. As we discuss in Chapter 4, Newsom has been accused of releasing these prisoners under a false premise. COVID death rates in the state­ corrections system have been markedly lower than in the outside population. Even as crime surges, Newsom’s administration estimates the prison population will drop to roughly 86,000 by 2028.
Newsom is not only emptying prisons; he is also shutting them down. His administration has closed or is closing four state prisons, and has plans to “reimagine and transform” San Quentin, the state’s oldest and most notorious prison (and previous home to the largest “death row” in the United States), into a rehabilitation center. “We are literally tearing down walls to reimagine our prison system, incentivize true rehabilitation, and end cycles of violence and crime,” Newsom said in a 2024 press release. “Brick by brick, we’re building a new future that will make all of us safer.” But Newsom cited no evidence that the state is growing safer because there is none. As we will explain in Chapter 5 the state’s corrections agency won’t disclose rehabilitation results for the years Newsom has served in review copy office. Again, Newsom and the progressives’ failed COVID policies exacerbated the problem. During the pandemic, when millions were out of work and the state had the highest unemployment in the nation, flash mobs of masked robbers stormed through the doors of Nordstrom and other high‑end retailers in San Francisco and Greater Los Angeles, stealing thousands of dollars of purses, clothes, and jewelry. This type of organized retail theft has become such a massive problem that many retailers are closing their doors for good. By mid‑ 2024, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Whole Foods, Anthropologie, Old Navy, Office Depot, 7‑Eleven, and Denny’s all announced plans to close stores in downtown San Francisco or nearby Oakland. Starbucks and Target have also closed locations.
<div id="attachment_890669" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Gold-Radicals-Traitors-California/dp/1546008039"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-890669" class="size-large wp-image-890669" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-384x576.jpg" alt="Cover copyright: 2025 by Hachette Book Group, Inc." width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_.jpg 1000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" /></a>Cover copyright: 2025 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.</div>
Newsom attributes business closures in downtown San Francisco to “macroeconomic” shifts, not rampant theft, drug use, and violent crime. In August 2023, downtown San Francisco was such a hotbed of crime, homelessness, and drugs that the US Department of Health and Human Services advised employees at the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in the Tenderloin District to work remotely “for the foreseeable future.” Showing up for work at the building had become just too dangerous.
In January 2024, California’s homegrown, beloved burger joint, In‑N‑­Out Burger, announced that it would close a store for the first time in its ­seventy‑five‑year history, citing crime. The franchise no longer considered the store near Oakland International Airport safe for operation. “We feel the frequency and severity of the crimes being encountered by our customers and associates leave us no alternative,” the company said. “Despite taking repeated steps to create safer conditions, our customers and associates are regularly victimized by car break‑ ins, property damage, theft, and armed robberies.”
Southern California isn’t faring much better. More and more businesses in Santa Monica and Los Angeles, even on once tony and vibrant Wilshire Avenue, have boarded up due to vandalism, crime, and homelessness scaring customers away.
“Mayor, we need your help. We need your help in this area,” Sean James, an independent contractor who runs a business in Santa Monica pleaded in an interview with a local Fox News affiliate.
The surge in violent murders, rapes, organized retail thefts, and other crimes that shock the conscience are directly the result of Newsom’s failed progressive vision and can be laid squarely at his feet. Back in 2014, when Newsom was lieutenant governor, he was the highest‑ranking official pushing the specific progressive ballot measure responsible for the chaos: Proposition 47. This was the George Soros–backed policy that decriminalized drug, property crimes, and even certain sex crimes. Prop. 47 turned theft of items valued under $950, and some drug offenses, from felonies to misdemeanors. Newsom vocally supported the progressive activists and organizations pushing Prop. 47, while his boss, then‑Governor Jerry Brown, remained quiet. The measure passed by a wide margin.
Despite the bedlam that has ensued, Newsom now seems in denial over the disastrous effects of Prop. 47. In early 2024, he revealed that he witnessed a shoplifter steal from Target without workers intervening to stop. When he confronted an employee about it, the woman blamed the California governor for passing laws that emboldened criminals — before realizing he was in fact the governor. “Why didn’t you stop him?” Newsom recalls asking the Target employee. “The governor lowered the threshold &#8230; there’s no accountability,” the employee said. Newsom’s description of the encounter was widely ridiculed for his failure to recognize the obvious truth in the Target employee’s accusation. 
* * *
This excerpt is taken from the new book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Gold-Radicals-Traitors-California/dp/1546008039" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fool’s Gold</a>” by Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter. Published by permission of Center Street/Hachette Book Group. Copyright © 2025 by Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter.
Susan Crabtree is senior White House and national political correspondent for RealClearPolitics.
Jedd McFatter is the director of research at Peter Schweizer’s Government Accountability Institute.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

California Governor Newsom Announces New Funding For Los Angeles Communities Affected By Wildfires

Newsom Let Thousands Of Prisoners Walk During COVID. Then Crime Skyrocketed.

Books

California

COVID

Crime

Criminal Justice

Gavin Newsom

Prisons

San Francisco

Violent Crime

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The Democrats Hilariously Fall Apart During The DNC Meeting

David Hogg

Democratic National Committee

Gender

Liberals

MSNBC

Non-binary

TOPSHOT-US-WEATHER-FIRE

The Real Reason L.A. Is Burning — And It’s Not Climate Change

Fire

Firefighter

Karen Bass

As a Gen Z, pro-life woman, I voted for President-elect Donald Trump. It’s crystal clear why he won: the political Left’s empty platitudes and hollow tolerance talk was a façade, and the election results shredded their mask. My post-election experience thus far consists of being mobbed or threatened on campus, proving the hypocrisy of the Left’s claims of acceptance of all lifestyles. I identify as Pro/Life.
I’ve been fighting for pre-born lives for my entire college and adult career, debating abortion supporters’ &#8220;pro-woman&#8221; abortion arguments. I’m no stranger to ostracization from my peers, hateful messages, and even death threats. Maybe it’s because these people support an industry that kills pre-born babies to keep their doors open.
Two days after the election, the abortion Left’s chaotic response at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) to my campus tour, “Abortion is Violence,” proved my point about abortion supporters.
These “pro-woman” abortion zealots quickly surrounded me, yelling, spitting at me and my crew, stealing flyers and other display materials, leading to one arrest by campus police.
The conduct during my speech wasn’t much better; I walked into a room at full capacity of 160 people with more protestors waiting outside. Abortion supporters held signs with my face on them. They mocked, shouted, and insulted me, even telling me I should’ve been aborted.
One pro-abortion man came up to me and yelled:
“You should be eradicated! You should rot in the bowels of hell! You should die!” When a nearby person pleaded for civility, saying, “That’s a woman, respect the woman,” he replied, “My respect for women is very selective.”
Whatever happened to “I’m with her?”
And these same people wonder why Vice President Kamala Harris lost.
They say they support women, but only those women who agree with killing pre-born children, or perhaps men who identify as women who feel the same.
They want the freedom to spit, steal, and scream but don’t want Americans they disagree with to speak peacefully and engage in public discourse.
They say women should have the truth and resources to “make their own choice,” but blatantly lie about miscarriage care, Chemical Abortion Pill side effects, and fetal development.
Fortunately for us, people saw past the spin, and it cost Harris and the Democratic Party the Presidency, U.S. House, and U.S. Senate.
Voters had the choice of voting for the most radical, pro-abortion ticket in world history, and said NO. A majority of voters don’t want abortion up until birth, nor do they appreciate the senseless propaganda around it.
<ul>
<li><a href="https://studentsforlife.org/2024/01/16/new-sfla-sflaction-yougov-poll-shows-the-youth-vote-open-to-pro-life-perspectives-supports-services-for-mothers-rejects-the-biden-administrations-radical-agenda/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nine out of ten</a> youth voters want safeguards around Chemical Abortion Pills.</li>
<li><a href="https://lozierinstitute.org/pregnancy-centers-provided-over-350m-of-services-goods/#:~:text=Of%20the%20over%2016%20million,Knights%20of%20Columbus%E2%80%93Marist%20Poll." target="_blank" rel="noopener">91% of Americans</a> support Pregnancy Help Centers.</li>
<li><a href="https://harvardharrispoll.com/key-results-november-3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Seven out of ten</a> Americans are against abortion after 15 weeks.</li>
</ul>
Late-term abortion extremism is not a winning argument, which is why abortion zealots don’t want civil conversation and critical thinking to spread nationwide. If open dialogue occurs, then people can clearly see how radical these beliefs really are.
At VCU, as I talked with students willing to listen, an aggressive mob of more than 200 abortion supporters shouted down the free speech of others. The online death threats I continued to receive became too severe for me to remain on campus, requiring my security as well as police to escort me to safety. Students took more of my flyers and ate them in my face as I walked through the mob.
Despite securing my physical safety, the online attacks continued as pro-abortion students made viral videos on <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTY1SBYm3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TikTok,</a> flooded by Instagram with horrific messages, and got my TikTok permanently banned.
But their efforts to silence my voice for the voiceless prove my point: these tactics wouldn’t be necessary if abortion extremism was popular. Their actions and insults against decent and good people solidify their perception as loudmouths who are intolerant of the beauty of life.
I’ve received countless messages from people saying I’ve helped change their minds on abortion. Millions of people have seen my content from my tour stops and seen the pro-life movement challenging the pro-abortion narrative shoved down our throats.
Even though the abortion Left’s ire rings loudly, the pro-life movement treks forward victoriously, with the hopes that Trump will stand up for our free speech rights so we can continue to protect the pre-born.
* * * 
<a href="https://studentsforlife.org/people/lydia-taylor-davis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lydia Taylor Davis</a> serves as a Spokesperson and Social Media Coordinator for Students for Life of America (SFLA). She tours college campuses nationwide speaking against intentional abortion &amp; creates pro-life social media content viewed by millions of people. 
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Young woman leading a demonstration using a megaphone

Pro-Abortion Mobs Threatened To Kill Me After The Election

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One of the most basic assumptions about climate change that you&#8217;re told to accept is that, if you give the government enough power and make enough personal sacrifices, you can help change the weather. You can make natural disasters less likely. You can save beaches and endangered species and even entire countries. All you need to do is pay more in taxes to fund more government bureaucracy, and give up your car and your gas stove and airline travel and maybe your entire livelihood. And then everything will be fine.
There&#8217;s no other country on Earth that&#8217;s internalized this way of thinking more than our neighbor to the north, Canada. They&#8217;ve declared a &#8220;national climate emergency.&#8221; They have a constantly-increasing national tax on carbon, which raises the cost of living for pretty much every household in the country. They&#8217;ve banned plastic straws. They&#8217;ve shut down oil and gas permits off their Pacific coast. If you&#8217;re an insomniac and you pull up a video of a debate in the Canadian parliament to help you sleep, there&#8217;s a good chance they&#8217;ll be debating climate change in some way or another.
So how&#8217;s all that working out for Canada? What exactly have all of these taxes and regulations accomplished, aside from hamstringing Canada&#8217;s economy for the past decade? Surely we can assume that, at the very least, Canada&#8217;s carbon emissions are much lower as a result of all of this government bureaucracy. After all, Canada&#8217;s not even a top-20 country by population. Their GDP barely ranks in the top-10. It shouldn&#8217;t be hard for them to rank relatively low on the list of global carbon emitters, especially since they&#8217;ve been trying so hard and punishing their citizens so much.
As it turns out, however, Canada is currently one of the biggest carbon emitters on the planet. They&#8217;re setting new records in the wrong direction. They&#8217;re adding more of that dreaded carbon into the atmosphere than countries three times their size. And it&#8217;s all because of a series of wildfires last year that the Canadian government clearly could not control. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 Canada Wildfires" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mnnl2sBw4lg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
All told, the 2023 wildfires contributed more than four times as much carbon into the atmosphere as everything else that Canada did last year, put together. So the plastic straw bans and the taxes and industry-crushing regulations were completely undone, four times over, by these wildfires.
If you check in with the experts, of course they&#8217;ll tell you that the wildfires were only so severe because of climate change. Supposedly the one-degree rise in reported global average temperature from 2022 to 2023 could be the reason the wildfires burned more of Canada than any other wildfire season in recorded history. Therefore, we need to redouble our efforts to ban fossil fuels and so on. That&#8217;s the line they&#8217;re going with.
As MIT Technology Review <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/08/28/1103186/canada-wildfire-emissions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">put it</a>: 
<blockquote>Fires are part of natural, healthy ecosystems, and burns on their own don’t necessarily represent a disaster for climate change. After a typical fire season, a forest begins to regrow, capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it does so. This continues a cycle in which carbon moves around the planet. &#8230; While climate change doesn’t directly spark any one fire, researchers have traced hot, dry conditions that worsen fires to the effects of human-caused climate change. The extreme fire conditions in eastern Canada were over twice as likely because of climate change.</blockquote>
The MIT Technology Review concludes with this: 
<blockquote>It was already clear that we need to stop emissions from power plants, vehicles, and a huge range of other clearly human activities to address climate change. Last year’s wildfires should increase the urgency of that action.</blockquote>
What&#8217;s striking about explanations like these is that they conveniently absolve the government of all responsibility for managing the forests, which is the single most direct way to prevent wildfires from spreading out of control like they did last year. And even the Canadian government admits that. I went on the website of Canada&#8217;s National Resources Department and found that, in addition to blaming fossil fuels, they acknowledged that they <a href="https://natural-resources.canada.ca/simply-science/canadas-record-breaking-wildfires-2023-fiery-wake-call/25303" target="_blank" rel="noopener">could do more</a> to prevent wildfires from spreading: 
<blockquote>As wildfire risks will continue to intensify as the climate warms, Canada needs to &#8230; adapt fire management and mitigation strategies. There are different ways to manage wildfire risk, including controlled burns, revised forestry guidelines, and procedures to manage fuel around communities and infrastructure. It’s a balance of these techniques that can help deal with future challenges.</blockquote>
One scientist with the Canadian Forest Services put it this way: 
<blockquote>A changing climate means a proactive approach must be taken. Studies like this can offer important lessons to be better prepared for the next time a devastating event like this occurs.</blockquote>
They don&#8217;t mention that preventing arson is another way to stop these fires, even though that&#8217;s true as well. While the majority of these fires were apparently caused by lightning or some other natural event, there was at least one guy who pleaded <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/16/canada-wildfires-conspiracy-man-pleads-guilty-arson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">guilty</a> to arson for setting more than a dozen separate fires in Canada last year. But even if you set that aside, there&#8217;s a glaringly obvious solution here, which Canada&#8217;s government acknowledges. And that solution is for the Canadian government to do a better job preventing and containing wildfires by improving their first management capabilities.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1433-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
That brings me to the broader lesson from this disaster in Canada, which is that the government, in general, should focus on doing basic things competently. They shouldn&#8217;t set out to save the planet with complicated carbon cap schemes and climate emergencies, which is what Canada is doing. Preventing and containing forest fires is a very tangible and straightforward responsibility for the government. When you get the basics right, then very often you don&#8217;t need the more convoluted schemes at all.
Not that a convoluted scheme to control the weather makes any sense in the first place, because we actually have very little control over our environment. We don&#8217;t have the capacity to &#8220;fight climate change&#8221; in the way they&#8217;re suggesting. All of the climate change activism in the world can’t change the fact that forests go up in flames all over the world every year, as the MIT Technology Review admitted. And volcanoes erupt, too — like the one I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/climate-alarmists-panic-over-heat-wave-turns-out-it-was-caused-by-a-volcano" target="_blank" rel="noopener">talked about</a> last year that drove temperature changes all over the world. Remember that? The eruption sent 40 trillion gallons of seawater into the stratosphere. Researchers called it an “unprecedented water vapor injection&#8221; that trapped a lot of heat — and that may have contributed significantly to global warming. No one was responsible for that eruption. It was a natural event. And sometimes those happen, and we have to accept that they happen.
<h4><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you.</a></h4>
But there are no indications that the Canadian government is going to accept that they can&#8217;t control the weather, or that they&#8217;re seriously going to revise their forest management or take any responsibility whatsoever. Instead, predictably, they&#8217;re turning the wildfires into yet another opportunity to harp on racial grievances and divide their country even more. 
True North <a href="https://tnc.news/2024/08/28/muslims-indigenous-wildfires-racism-colonialism/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a> this week: 
<blockquote>The Public Health Agency of Canada wants to review the way wildfire evacuations are conducted because they supposedly disproportionately impact minorities. Part of this impact is that evacuating people from First Nations communities traumatizes Indigenous people due to &#8216;colonialism&#8217; and the history of residential schools. A rapid review released by the agency in July included an &#8216;intersectional analysis&#8217; arguing that wildfires disproportionally impacted First Nations groups, minorities, women and non-binary people.</blockquote>
Yes, they&#8217;ve turned their worst wildfire season on record into an opportunity to complain once again about &#8220;non-binary people.&#8221; In the face of an actual, concrete problem — forests burning down and people dying — the Canadian government is worried about a small and highly narcissistic subset of its population with an imagined identity. 
Here&#8217;s a couple of lines from the Canadian government&#8217;s report to give you some idea how unhinged the country has become: 
<blockquote>The impact of wildfires on Indigenous Peoples is influenced by colonialism and has forced many Indigenous Peoples to live in isolation or in communities that are isolated from the rest of society. &#8230; The evacuation measures conducted in Indigenous communities served as traumatic reminders of being taken away to residential schools and/or the Sixties Scoop as some were forced onto buses and separated from family.</blockquote>
Not that you needed it, but this report is your admission from the Canadian government that they don&#8217;t actually care about climate change or preventing wildfires. Their only concern is to preserve and expand their power at every available opportunity. And they&#8217;ve determined that dividing people with crude racial guilt is the best way to do that.
That&#8217;s why Canada — for all its promises to save the world from carbon emissions — is now one of the single biggest carbon emitters on the planet. It&#8217;s a perfect illustration for why no one, anywhere in the world, should ever trust politicians who say they can control the weather, if only you give them a little more power and influence. They&#8217;ll happily take the power and influence; that&#8217;s a guarantee. And then, as your country is burning down around you, they won&#8217;t do anything about it. Instead, they&#8217;ll call you a racist. They&#8217;ll demand even more power to fight &#8220;climate change.&#8221; And then, before you know it, you&#8217;ll wake up one day and you&#8217;re living in a country a lot like Canada. And by that point, it&#8217;ll be too late to do anything about it. Unless you&#8217;re an indigenous nonbinary shaman, no one will care what you think.
If Canada serves any purpose whatsoever, it&#8217;s to provide cautionary tales like this. We can either pay attention and accept that there are some things we can&#8217;t control. Or we can choose to make the problems we do have much, much worse.
<a href="http://www.amiracist.com/">WATCH THE TRAILER FOR &#8216;AM I RACIST?&#8217; — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI</a>

TOPSHOT-CANADA-WILDFIRE

When Wildfires Strike, Canada Blames Racism Instead Of Taking Action

Canada

Climate Change

Wildfires

The US presidential <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/2024-election" target="_blank" rel="noopener">election</a> is shaping up to be one of the most “heartland” themed campaigns in recent history. Donald Trump’s VP selection of Ohio Senator JD Vance checked the Rust Belt box for Republicans, and Democrat Kamala Harris countered with her new running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. 
With camo hat always on hand, Walz’s political brand is tied to his <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91168539/tim-walzs-first-job-was-working-on-a-farm">first job</a> working on the family farm in Nebraska. Farmers across Minnesota are <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2024/08/06/minnesota-farmers-union-president-stalled-farm-bill-weather-extremes-walz-veepstakes">abuzz</a> about Walz&#8217;s agriculture record both as a congressman and as governor, and it’s mixed. Walz speaks the language of Minnesota farmers but shares the sentiments of California and European progressives when it comes to food and environmental policy.
Environmentalist groups like Greenpeace and Pesticide Action Network have never had potential allies in the White House quite as aligned as Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Walz’s record indicates he would entertain the kind of utopian visions that have guided the European Union on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dutch-farmers-spread-manure-on-streets-as-new-emissions-rules-threaten-to-close-down-livestock-farms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">policies</a> such as gas taxes on farm equipment and sweeping pesticide bans. The same policies which sparked massive <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/here-s-why-farmers-are-protesting-in-europe/7494997.html">farmer protests across Europe and Canada</a>.
As recently as July, Walz announced $200 million from the EPA to flow into Minnesota for the advancement of “Climate-Smart Food Systems”, meaning the replacement of gas-powered farm vehicles, new standards around refrigerators, and soil practices. Several years back, Governor Walz <a href="https://www.farmforum.net/story/news/agriculture/2016/08/18/minnesota-rep-tim-walz-visits-organic-farm-listens-to-concerns-of-organic-farmers/49239667/">visited organic farms</a> in Minnesota to give voice to their concerns about pesticides, saying “There’s still more we can do to make things easier for organic farmers.”
What did those organic farmers want? Nothing related specifically to their operations, but instead a total ban on aerial pesticides used by conventional farms statewide, which they claim travels by air and impacts all farms. Walz’s position was, “We need to build coalitions with the public and fellow politicians and get them on board with this stuff.”
Americans have been fortunate, as these progressive experiments in rolling back high-yield farming have not hit the political mainstream. That could soon change. 
The European Union <a href="https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/02/06/von-der-leyen-announces-withdrawal-of-contentious-pesticide-law-the-first-defeat-of-the-gr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">abandoned</a> its own attempts to boost organic farming after the farmer protests, learning over many years that its rules and regulations led to a less productive and more expensive food system for consumers.
But you’ll find that no EU member state has endured a famine, and that’s the result of Europe’s trademark caution and incrementalism. Nations that have been inspired by Europe’s failed policies but lack their bureaucratic restraint have seen actual starvation when modern farming systems were upended.
The case of Sri Lanka, a small island off the coast of India, is only the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sri-lankas-president-flees-the-country-amid-mass-uprising" target="_blank" rel="noopener">most recent example</a>. Until 2019, Sri Lanka had been the planet’s top tourism spot for a decade, but regulatory change in agriculture <a href="https://www.wfp.org/news/food-crisis-sri-lanka-likely-worsen-amid-poor-agricultural-production-price-spikes-and-ongoing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">threw it back</a> into the ‘dark ages’.
All it took was seriously implementing the ideas of progressive environmentalists and food production critics.
In Sri Lanka&#8217;s 2019 election, now former-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised a 10-year transition away from conventional farming practices to “organic agriculture”. It was on the advice of an Indian environmentalist, Vandana Shiva, that Rajapaska believed chemical fertilizers and pesticides needed to be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/apr/28/fighting-giants-eco-activist-vandana-shiva-on-her-battle-against-gm-multinationals" target="_blank" rel="noopener">outlawed</a>. Shiva cared little for the steady gains in agricultural productivity in Sri Lanka in the 21st century.
During COVID, President Rajapaska banned all imports of chemical fertilizer and pesticides, effectively forcing two million farmers to go organic. The plans have since been abandoned but still created a devastating ripple that has yet to be undone.
Sri Lanka&#8217;s domestic rice production <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/05/sri-lanka-organic-farming-crisis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has dropped</a> by 20% due to the lower agricultural output of organic farming compared to conventional methods, despite political promises. Food prices rose by a third. Tea production, a crucial domestic and export commodity, decreased by 50%, as foreign consumers were unwilling to pay premiums. Nine out of every 10 Sri Lankan families were reported to have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-china-india-asia-c9a49428e9bad5c0bb087534c0d310f8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">skipped meals</a> and waited for days at a time in lines for fuel.
Rubber and coconut producers faced similar challenges, as obtaining imports on short notice proved nearly impossible despite the lifting of the ban on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.
Half a million individuals fell back into poverty after decades of real progress. Sri Lanka has been left to rely on foreign food assistance from neighboring India. On top of all that, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62104268" target="_blank" rel="noopener">protestors in 2022 stormed</a> the Prime Minister&#8217;s office and the President&#8217;s residence, forcing the government to resign in disgrace.
Sri Lanka still grapples with grinding inflation due to the devaluation of its currency. As of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/3/22/economic-conditions-in-debt-stricken-sri-lanka-improving-imf-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">March,</a> inflation sat at 5.9%, down from a peak of 70% in 2022. The island country has seen an <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/6/20/fed-up-doctor-exodus-bleeds-sri-lankas-healthcare-after-economic-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exodus</a> of doctors as well as parents being forced to pick <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64158513" target="_blank" rel="noopener">which of their children can attend school</a>. All ripple effects of a deep economic crisis that has hobbled the country, stemming from the all-in pursuit of progressive’s food production agenda.
None of this is to say that Tim Walz and Kamala Harris are going to bring famine and pestilence to the United States, but should emphasize that the food systems Americans take for granted are indeed fragile. Ideological reformers have persuaded many of America’s trade partners to pursue the kinds of policies that have broken nations, starved families, and produced massive political blowback from hardworking farmers.
Food systems are fragile, and both Kamala Harris and Governor Walz should be asked tough questions about these global farming trends, as well as their records while in office. Walz has more farming knowledge than any presidential or vice presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter, but Americans need to know where he really stands on these debates. It can be a matter of life and death.
* * *
Bill Wirtz is senior policy analyst at the Consumer Choice Center, where he focuses on agriculture and trade. He has published “No Copy-paste: What Not to Emulate From Europe’s Agriculture Regulation.&#8221;
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Tim Walz

Governor Walz Needs To Answer For Failed Progressive Food Policies

2024 Election

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Readers Pass

The American Federation of Teachers&#8217; 88th National Convention centered not on workplace conditions or the resolution of deep issues rampant throughout the nation’s classrooms but underscored the union’s longstanding devotion to progressive politics, culminating in a resounding endorsement of presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
The convention, which hosts AFT delegates from across the nation to vote on resolutions which guide the union’s internal operations for the year ahead, was markedly partisan as the infamously progressive union preps its members for election season.
Resolutions passed by this year’s delegates covered a swath of hot button political issues:
“The AFT <a href="https://www.aft.org/resolution/committing-end-lifetime-alert-physical-and-psychological-violence-against-lgbtqia-youth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">will</a> recommit resources,” for example, to “support LGBTQIA+ affirming and inclusive school environments and curriculum,” according to a resolution regarding “physical and psychological violence” against queer youth.
Another <a href="https://www.aft.org/resolution/opposing-overreach-us-supreme-court" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resolution</a>, “Opposing the Overreach of the U.S. Supreme Court,” details the union’s commitment to “reverse the decisions” of those Justices AFT accuses of “eliminating guarantees of the fundamental rights and freedoms of the American people.”
According to a <a href="https://www.aft.org/resolution/what-stake-2024-elections-democratic-republic-committed-liberty-and-justice-all" target="_blank" rel="noopener">third</a>, “the basic institutions and principles of U.S. democracy…are under attack” by “Donald Trump and the ultra-right MAGA faction.” In addition to democracy, AFT writes, Republicans have attacked public education through “voucher schemes,” reproductive freedom through “draconian anti-abortion laws,” and “the very humanity of marginalized and stigmatized communities.”
But the key <a href="https://www.aft.org/resolution/endorsement-kamala-harris-president" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resolution</a> passed by the AFT was the union’s “Endorsement of Kamala Harris for President.”
“Kamala Harris has a clear record under the Biden-Harris administration to compare with Donald Trump’s, offering voters a stark choice,” AFT explained. The union pledges to mobilize its members in support of Harris’s presidential campaign, plus join the rest of Big Labor in its “collective effort to elect Kamala Harris.”
Amid talk of a variety of progressive topics, AFT’s support for Harris was constant.
Before delegates arrived in Houston, the union’s executive council preemptively <a href="https://www.aft.org/press-release/aft-executive-council-unanimously-endorses-kamala-harris-president" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pushed</a> a unanimous call on AFT members to ratify its endorsement of Harris for the American presidency.
AFT President Randi Weingarten’s keynote address amplified strong support for Harris, through which “progress is possible.” “But so is the eradication of the rights and progress we hold dear,” continued Weingarten, through former President Donald Trump, who poses an “existential threat to democracy and freedom.”
Throughout the convention, among the <a href="https://www.aft.org/news/convention-sneak-peek-were-fighting-better-life-all" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speakers</a> who addressed the union in support of Harris included United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Harris, whose address was the convention’s grand finale, again emphasized the responsibility of educators to vote in support of her dedication to “freedom, compassion, and rule of law,” in opposition to Right-wing “chaos, fear, and hate.”
A vote against her campaign, Harris emphasized, would “return America to a dark past.”
AFT’s longstanding devotion to progressive causes and candidates is nothing new. For years, the union has <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/teachers-unions-spend-big-democrats-ahead-midterm-elections" target="_blank" rel="noopener">transferred</a> millions directly from the pockets of dues-paying teachers to its Democratic friends.
Though American teachers continue to <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/teachers-union-membership-drops-by-59000-across-the-nation/#:~:text=The%20National%20Education%20Association%20and,member%20loss%20the%20previous%20year." target="_blank" rel="noopener">flee</a> AFT in search of refuge from the progressive agenda included in membership, this year’s convention emphasizes that the union’s loyalty to the left-wing will not fade anytime soon.
According to a <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/04/04/teachers-views-on-the-state-of-public-k-12-education/#:~:text=A%20majority%20of%20public%20K,or%20lean%20toward%20the%20GOP." target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pew Research survey</a> of over 2,500 public K-12 school teachers, a significant percentage of teachers presumably disagree with their union’s endorsement. The AFT, however, couldn’t care less.
For the AFT, it seems as though disregarding the inconvenient interests of teachers unsupportive of union ideology is a worthy sacrifice in pursuit of the political agenda that continues to dominate Big Labor’s priorities across the board.
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Aaron Withe is Chief Executive Officer of the Freedom Foundation.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Wire.

Vice President Kamala Harris Delivers A Keynote At The American Federation of Teachers’ 88th National Convention In Houston

‘Democracy Under Attack’: Teachers Union Convention Backs Progressivism, Endorses Kamala Harris

'Democracy Under Attack': Teachers Union Convention Backs Progressivism, Endorses Kamala Harris

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