Republicans Must Preach The Good News About Trump’s America

American Thinker 

We can win the midterms. Democrats want us to believe there is zero possibility of holding the House and maybe even the Senate. The funny thing is, Republicans have more say than they realize in the election outcome.

The Democrats’ strategy is quite simple: confuse issues and provoke us into reacting. They’ve been immensely successful to date, and many on our side currently seem clueless about how to counter this, leading to a defeatist mentality. However, we can counter it, and powerfully, too. The proof was at the recent Munich Security Conference.

When it came to substance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the same things JD Vance said a year ago. However, he did so with a different tone, and received an entirely different reception—tone matters. If we don’t reform our tone to meet today’s challenges, we’ll remain the same party we were when we lost to the non-entity Joe Biden.

The reality we must face is that:

• 55–56% see America as on the wrong track
• 52% of Americans say they are worse off than they were four years ago.
• Only 37% give Trump high approval numbers
• Democrats are plus 5.2% on the generic Congressional Vote
• The Democrats have a standing army we need to counter. (More on this point below.)

Heartache for Republicans, yes, but not inevitability. We can win when we understand the issues, tell a better story, run better candidates, pick our races, and fund them appropriately.

Here’s what we need to do to make that happen:

Force a change in the narrative that will defeat the left’s lock on the media. Most, but not all, conservatives are receiving mixed messaging from our own side. You can only imagine how bad it must be if you regularly get your news from the other side!

To the good,

• A flood of economic good news—cooling inflation, record‑high markets, solid earnings, and continued job growth in key sectors—has created a broadly positive backdrop, even as tech adjusts to the unwinding of its pandemic-era bubble. Recently reported by the WSJ is something glossed over by much of the other media, but it could ultimately be determinative in the most important metric to most people, the economy—“The economy may have stuck the soft landing.” If true, the ramifications to this year’s election could be like adding rocket fuel to the Trump narrative.
• National crime rates are falling during Trump’s tenure, with declines in several major categories according to federal data, a trend his supporters often highlight as evidence of strengthened public safety.
• The Trump administration effectively shut down the escalating Minneapolis ICE‑violence narrative, ending the damaging news cycle while still allowing lower‑visibility enforcement operations to continue in the background.
• Supporters also point to a range of early-term positives—from strong market performance and easing inflation to renewed border enforcement focus and a more assertive foreign‑policy posture—as evidence that Trump’s first year delivered momentum across multiple fronts

All the above metrics can be trumpeted as resounding successes by the Trump administration—and they’d all end abruptly if Trump were to lose the necessary majorities in the House and Senate. This is the key takeaway that should be shouted from the rafters each and every day before this year’s election.

And here’s something exceptional for Republicans going into the midterms: Republicans are blessed this election season with the manna of politics…money. Republicans have inverted the usual financial deficit with a $304 million war chest versus the Dems’ $137 million (some borrowed).

Additionally, word in my circles is that Elon Musk is contemplating spending as much as $300 million this election cycle. The Hill states:

There’s no public number for what Musk is “thinking of” committing beyond the amounts already reported in filings and news reports. The concrete, documented amounts so far this cycle are tens of millions (reported gifts totaling roughly $30M+ by the end of 2025), while his 2024 outlays (~$250–290M) show the upper bound of what he has spent previously.

And that’s just Musk. If, as is rumored, Republicans get similar participation from people such as Kenneth Griffin, Timothy Mellon, Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, Jeffrey Yass, Paul Singer, and Miriam Adelson, that could finally allow Republicans to find and fund winning candidates in the midterms. Thankfully, neither Mitch McConnell nor Ronna McDaniel is in charge of that kind of thing anymore.

Conservatives’ greatest enemy is our tendency to be overly reactive to the other side, frequently leaving us cowering in the corner or splintering into one direction or the other. You don’t see that same dynamic by the Dems. They stay on message, and their top people have a coherent, often winning plan.

God Bless America!

Podcast thread for Feb 21

 

be careful out there if you're in the path of more storms.

The War in Ukraine Could Go Nuclear

American Thinker 

With all eyes on the U.S. military buildup around Iran right now, the Russia-Ukraine War has been temporarily upstaged.  It will not play second fiddle for long.  The recent trilateral talks in Geneva involving the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the United States have been unable to resolve a principal issue of disagreement: Ukraine’s martial-law-president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s refusal to cede any land and Russia’s insistence that the Donbas region — specifically the four eastern territories that have already held a referendum in support of becoming part of the Russian Federation — be acknowledged as sovereign Russian territory.

As the war heads into its fifth year, dangers mount for Europe.  While President Trump wants to end the bloodshed before the violent conflict transforms into something even more catastrophic, too many parties seem committed to ratcheting up the butcher’s bill a while longer.  Unfortunately, there are numerous reasons for prolonging the war that have nothing to do with protecting civilian lives or securing Ukrainian territory.  

There is the political reality that a growing embezzlement scandal is taking down high-ranking Ukrainian officials with close relationships to Zelenskyy and the prospect that general peace would mean not only an end to the hold-over-president’s power but also an end to his legal immunity.  There is the dogged determination of the European Commission and certain European nations — particularly the United Kingdom and its Ukraine-obsessed MI6 — to drag the fighting out as long as possible as part of a larger effort to weaken President Vladimir Putin’s control over the Russian Federation.  There is the long-term European Union goal of absorbing Ukraine into the continental federation and eventually welcoming it into NATO — or at least to use the present war as an excuse for positioning European troops close enough to Ukraine’s current battle lines to trigger a U.S. military response once the lives of NATO-allied soldiers are threatened.  There is the dire financial need for the European Central Bank and discrete national Treasuries to use the war as a publicly digestible excuse for fabricating new war bonds, cutting welfare programs, further integrating Europe’s separate national economies, subsidizing Europe’s defense industries, and printing enormous sums of money.  There is the relentless goal of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (selected by the elite members of the European Council and elected not by the European people but rather the European Parliament) to use the War in Ukraine as a justification for expanded powers for her office and the formation of a European-wide military under her putative authority.  

For many reasons that have nothing to do with saving lives or resisting invasion, Europe seems committed to prolonging war and forestalling peace.

At the same time, there is a growing sentiment among Russians that a larger war in Europe has become inevitable.  While European political leaders have spent more than a decade publicly framing (1) Russia’s annexation of Crimea, (2) its military assistance to Russian separatist groups in the Donbas region, and (3) its “special military operation” in Ukraine as completely unprovoked instances of “Russian aggression,” most Russian citizens view them as legitimate responses to (1) the U.S.- and E.U.-led coup d’état of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 (an event that the West euphemistically calls the “Maidan Revolution” or “Revolution of Dignity”), (2) the Ukrainian military’s attacks on ethnic Russians, and (3) NATO’s decades-long advance right up to the Russian Federation’s borders.  

If European and American leaders intended to weaken President Putin’s domestic support so severely that he would be removed, betrayed, or killed, those efforts have failed.  Instead, a rally-around-the-flag patriotism for “Mother Russia” has swept across the world’s largest nation state.  As European sports leagues banned Russian athletes from competing under their own flag, anger in Russia grew.  As Russians living abroad found their bank accounts frozen for the actions of their government, anger in Russia grew.  As Western news corporations increasingly dismissed politically inconvenient stories as “Russian disinformation,” anger in Russia grew.  Whereas once the prospect of Russian integration with continental Europe seemed likely, Russia now looks East and toward a future with other Asian powers.

A prospect even more unsettling than the current War in Ukraine now takes shape: the quickening drumbeat toward nuclear confrontation.  What U.S. and former Soviet Union leaders spent half a century working to avoid is now discussed too openly for comfort.  American senators, such as Lindsey Graham, have occasionally suggested that effective nuclear deterrence requires U.S. willingness to use the nuclear weapons in its arsenal.  France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Chancellor Fiedrich Merz have held not-so-secret talks on creating a European-managed “continental nuclear shield.”  Turkish President Recep Erdogan wants nuclear weapons of his own.  Polish President Karol Nawrocki says that his country needs nukes in order to defend against the “Russian threat.”  Meanwhile, one of the most influential intellectuals in the Russian Federation believes that President Putin must be willing to utilize “limited but decisive nuclear strikes using operational-strategic weapons” should European Union powers refuse to retreat.  

Russian political scientist Sergey Karaganov says that the E.U. is playing with nuclear fire and must be taught a lesson.  Karaganov is no ordinary academic.  He holds a reputation in Russia similar to Henry Kissinger’s in the United States.  Karaganov is a founding member of Moscow’s prestigious Valdai Discussion Club, the honorary chairman of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a supervisor at the School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, and a personal confidant of both Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Putin.  When Professor Karaganov suggests that the time is approaching when his country must contemplate using nuclear weapons against strategically important areas of Europe, people should listen.

In a lengthy and polemical essay for the foreign-policy journal Russia in Global Affairs, Karaganov argues that Europe’s political “elites” are pushing the continent toward a nuclear confrontation.  He says the War in Ukraine has “dragged on longer than necessary” because of a “lack of determination to employ active nuclear deterrence.”  He argues that nuclear weapons represent the “only mechanism capable of resolving” the “European problem,” a problem that he describes as, “an existential threat to our country.”  Furthermore, “Targets should include places where elites gather, including in nuclear states.  Governments must feel personal risk.”

Professor Karaganov then takes the Russian people through a sympathetic history lesson.  He claims to have had a conversation with a group of European leaders back in 2013 during which he warned that “dragging Ukraine into the E.U. and NATO would lead to war and mass casualties.”  He says they “looked down at their shoes” and mumbled about “democracy,” “human rights,” and “containing Russia.”  Karaganov argues that years of Russian “appeasement” has come at the “terrible cost” of tens of thousands of “brave soldiers” who “lost their lives” in Ukraine.  Describing Russia’s fallen warriors as heroes whose sacrifice cannot be forgotten, he insists that Russia not make the same mistakes of the last two decades.  

Striking Ukrainian targets, Karaganov argues, is not a “strategic solution” because “E.U. elites” represent the real threat.  “The conflict will continue until its true source is addressed: Western Europe’s degenerated ruling classes, intellectually, morally, and materially exhausted, who cling to power by fueling war.”  He insists that Russia must “break” Europe’s “will” to keep fighting.  He argues that effective nuclear deterrence is the only way to prevent a larger U.S.-Russia war.  Furthermore, he believes that France and the United Kingdom must be deprived of nuclear weapons because “they have forfeited the moral right to possess them.  Any Western European move toward nuclear proliferation must be treated as grounds for preemptive action.”

Too many influential voices are contemplating how to “win” a nuclear war.  Say a prayer for peace.

Ukraine's Bureaucrats Are Finishing What China Started

Townhall 

In any war, the side that sustains its production advantage wins. Ukraine understands this. In under three years, it built a drone industry from virtually nothing — seven manufacturers before Russia's 2022 invasion to approximately 500 by 2025, producing over four million units annually. That industrial mobilization gives Ukraine a decisive asymmetric edge, enabling a military outgunned in conventional artillery to inflict devastating losses through unmanned systems. Ukrainian drones now account for up to 80 percent of Russian battlefield casualties. This is not a sideshow capability. It is the backbone of Ukraine's war effort.

China understands it too. In May 2025, President Zelensky confirmed that Beijing had halted drone and component sales to Ukraine while continuing to supply Russia. After China's September 2024 export ban, direct procurement became impossible. Ukrainian manufacturers adapted — building alternative supply chains through European intermediaries, routing components via the Czech Republic, and relying on partners willing to absorb significant legal and financial risk. This was the only route. The Ukrainian armed forces understood, accepted deliveries, deployed the systems, and paid knowingly. The military broadly supported these arrangements because the alternative was no drones at all.

The sector attracted serious American interest. Zelensky proposed a $50 billion drone deal with the United States — ten million drones annually over five years. President Trump expressed direct interest. Secretary Hegseth's directive to fast-track U.S. drone production acknowledged that America lags in small military unmanned systems. Ukraine's battle-tested manufacturers are exactly the partners this strategy requires.

Then Ukraine's own government attacked the industry from within.

The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) — widely regarded as highly politicized— has driven sweeping investigations into dozens of drone manufacturers, with the Economic Security Bureau (ESBU) providing support. Their focus was not corruption, but the very supply chains that kept production alive after China's embargo. According to Yuriy Gudymenko, Chair of the Public Anti-Corruption Council of the Ministry of Defense, ninety percent or more of Ukrainian drone manufacturers have been targeted by these agencies since 2022. The SBI-led investigations halted production of critical systems including heavy-bomber and reconnaissance drones that frontline units depend on daily.

What happened next should alarm every military professional. Investigators demanded that drone manufacturers disclose detailed lists and geolocated coordinates of their production facilities. In a country where Russia actively hunts drone factories with cruise missiles and strike drones, forcing manufacturers to compile and transmit precise facility locations through bureaucratic channels is an extraordinary operational security failure. Ukrainian drone producers have spent years dispersing and concealing their manufacturing — operating from unmarked sites, relocating after strikes, maintaining the kind of operational discipline familiar to any special operations professional. The SBI and ESBU demanded they hand all of that over on paper.

The results speak for themselves. In recent months, Russian precision strikes have destroyed the main manufacturing plant producing drones for Lasar's Group — one of the most effective UAV units in the National Guard — burning $35 million in equipment and weapons stockpiles. A separate Russian strike caused significant damage to another major plant — the production facility for Reactive Drone’s Kazhan heavy-bomber drone, one of the most feared Ukrainian weapons on the battlefield. These factories had survived years of Russian intelligence efforts to locate them. The coincidence of their destruction following demands that manufacturers disclose their locations to agencies with no understanding of operations security demands investigation, not dismissal.

The broader operational damage is equally severe. Supply chains built over years under wartime conditions have been severed. The SBI's appeals to Czech authorities, supported by the ESBU, resulted in the freezing of international supplier accounts. Production lines have gone silent. Fewer drones reaching the front means degraded ISR coverage, reduced strike capability, and Ukrainian soldiers dying in positions that unmanned systems should be protecting. From a force-employment perspective, this is the equivalent of a friendly-fire incident against one's own industrial base.

The legal foundation of these investigations would not survive scrutiny in any wartime tribunal. Investigators are applying peacetime commercial law to wartime defense procurement — comparing end prices against nominal factory costs while ignoring the true burden: clandestine supply chains under sanctions pressure, intermediaries absorbing legal exposure, logistics through multiple EU jurisdictions, and the destruction of thirty percent of one leading manufacturer's facilities by Russian strikes. When the buyer — Ukraine's own military — knowingly accepted delivery and deployed the systems, alleging fraud against the supplier inverts basic legal logic.

The SBI's selective enforcement, backed by the ESBU, has also distorted competition. One company's domestic market share rose from 30 to 60 percent as rivals were investigated into paralysis. That is not anti-corruption — it is monopolization by bureaucratic fiat. The timing — investigations launched shortly after leading manufacturers returned from discussions with American counterparts about post-export-ban sales — raises unavoidable questions about who benefits.

For Washington, this is not an academic concern. A $50 billion drone partnership cannot rest on an industrial base that Kyiv's own agencies are dismantling — or one whose facility locations are being funneled through insecure channels while Russia watches. American interests require a competitive, resilient Ukrainian drone sector, not one hollowed out by the SBI and ESBU operating under peacetime assumptions without the knowledge to evaluate wartime defense procurement.

China tried to strangle Ukraine's drone industry and failed. Russia has spent billions trying to destroy it from the air — and is now apparently receiving help from inside the house. These investigations must cease. The geolocation demands must be rescinded. The supply chains must be restored. And Washington must make clear that the future of allied defense cooperation depends on Kyiv protecting — not exposing — the industry that keeps its soldiers alive.

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CIA Yanks 19 Docs ‘Compromised’ By Leftist Activism, Including Threat Assessment Targeting ‘Traditional Motherhood’

The CIA’s commitment to advancing leftist activism appears to span at least three presidential administrations beginning in 2015.

The Federalist 

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe ordered the retraction of 19 intelligence products following an independent review that found the documents failed to meet regulatory standards of tradecraft and quality, the agency announced Friday.

Redacted versions of three documents obtained by The Federalist showed that the analyses promoted left-wing ideology, took sides on domestic political disagreements in foreign countries, fell outside of the CIA’s official role, and were sourced to left-wing media, nongovernmental organizations, and nonprofit groups. This commitment to advancing leftist activism appears to span at least three presidential administrations beginning in 2015.

“There is absolutely no room for bias in our work and when we identify instances where analytic rigor has been compromised, we have a responsibility to correct the record,” Ratcliffe said in a statement. “These actions underscore our commitment to transparency, accountability, and objective intelligence analysis.”

In one 15-page intelligence assessment published in October 2021, the CIA dubs organizations that have historically “lauded motherhood and homemaking as women’s most important responsibility” as suspect, especially because those groups reportedly “recorded an increased number of female recruits.”

Another document — a World Intelligence Review (WIRes), bulletins that are often distributed to “several hundred senior Executive and legislative branch policymakers” on a daily basis — raised concerns that too many children would be born in countries such as Egypt, Nigeria, and Pakistan if Covid disrupted the distribution of condoms and other contraceptives. That particular review relied on data provided by abortion giants and activist groups such as International Planned Parenthood Federation, Guttmacher Institute, and Marie Stopes International to draw such conclusions. 

A third document, published in January 2015, advocated the launch of LGBT academic programs in North African and Middle Eastern universities. The WIRe also asserted that Middle Eastern and North African governments’ “tough stance” on LGBT people and issues is “driven by conservative public opinion and domestic political competition from Islamists, and is hindering US initiatives in support of LGBT rights.” 

The decision to remove 17 intelligence documents and substantially revise two more comes after the nonpartisan President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB) audited 300 analyses spanning the last decade to ensure they met the agency’s standards. It is unclear how the 300 documents were selected for the audit. Intelligence Directive 203 requires the CIA to produce intelligence products that are accurate, objective, impartial, and “independent of political consideration.” The CIA declined to answer whether the individuals who created and distributed the flawed documents faced any disciplinary action. 

The intelligence assessment about female involvement in “white racially and ethnically motivated violent extremist” (REMVE) groups defined its targets as women who “may not openly advocate violence” but “amplify” narratives regarding perceptions of racial hierarchy. Admitting its assessment was limited by “minimal reporting” and reliant on “open-source reporting,” it listed “traditional motherhood” as a “white REMVE goal” and said females were emerging as “key players” to advance that goal.

The assessment also suggests that “white REMVE-sympathetic women” use “blogs, videos, or other online content under the guise of cooking tutorials” to facilitate conversations or promote content the CIA deems alarming. These videos, the document claims, “feature discussions about the importance of organic food alongside subtle narratives about racial purity and the defense of white European heritage.”

The file titled “Women Advancing White Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremist (REMVE) Radicalization and Recruitment” does not list evidence of any violence attributed to the women considered by the CIA to be “perceived threats.”

The CIA relied on reporting from The Atlantic, owned by Laurene Powell Jobs, a major Democrat donor, and encouraged others to use similar “strategic messaging campaigns” that focused on “limits to [female] authority” in targeted groups. A senior CIA official said the assessment was a prime example of how analysts should not spend their time.

“The intelligence products we released to the American people today — produced before my tenure as DCIA — fall short of the high standards of impartiality that CIA must uphold and do not reflect the expertise for which our analysts are renowned,” stated Director Ratcliffe.

Oklahoma Bill Would Mandate Gun Safety Training in Public Schools

Townhall 

In an ideal world, kids would learn about things like gun safety at home. Mom, Dad, Grandpa, and so on, would all take time to show the proper handling of firearms to such a degree that it only feels natural.

Unfortunately, that doesn't happen. So, what we get instead are kids who don't know better playing with guns, and someone getting injured or killed.

This doesn't have to happen. In fact, this is one rare point of agreement between the pro-gun and anti-gun sides.

It's how we address it where everything breaks down.

For anti-gunners, the only possible solution is to enact laws that will punish parents who fail to store their guns securely, regardless of what other situations might be in place. It's making life worse for people who just had their lives shattered. That's not exactly the best way to handle things.

Besides, not every gun encountered by kids was in a parent's bedroom. Someone trying to dump a gun before being caught by the police isn't exactly worried about your precious baby finding it and screwing around with it. They're just worried about their own skin.

Which is why a better approach is what Oklahoma may be trying to do.

A proposal at the Oklahoma State Capitol wants to bring firearm safety education into classrooms from kindergarten through high school, sparking debate about when and how children should learn about guns.

House Bill 3312 passed its first committee hearing last week, but is getting mixed reactions from parents and lawmakers.

The bill develops a program with the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training (CLEET) to teach safe storage practices and what to do if children encounter firearms.

...

Some parents worry the program could backfire and believe firearm education should remain a parental responsibility.

"I think that we're igniting something when we do that, and I think that education from guns should come from the parents and not shunting from school," said Sandra Goff, a parent who lost her son to gun violence.

It probably should be up to the parents, but the truth is that too few parents even realize they need to offer that education. If they don't have a gun, or they have one that just stays locked up, they might not think it matters.

And that's where we have a problem. That's why things like this occur in the first place, because too many parents out there don't understand they need to teach their kids about this sort of thing, even if they don't have a gun.

Hell, a lot of these parents, even in a place like Oklahoma, don't know how to handle a firearm safely, either. How can they teach their kids something they don't know, either?

It's easy to tell a kid to walk away or to tell an adult--and that's often the best step, particularly for younger kids--but there's more to passing that along than a simple instruction, because we all know that kids aren't exactly known for listening to their parents or other adults.

This is a good thing, no matter what anti-gunners try to tell people.

'Mostly Peaceful' Ohio Teens Skip School, Trash Grocery Store in Anti-ICE Melee

RedState 

It seems that not a day goes by lately that we don’t read about students skipping out on school and instead taking to the streets to protest the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They’re egged on by Democrats, teachers’ unions, and paid activists, all while our education system continues to decline. A disgrace.

Although the Dems love to go on about how most of these protests are “peaceful,” they suddenly turn blind when they’re not. I doubt any of them will have the cojones to make a statement about this chaos, carried out by our perfect little angel indoctrinated students:

A video of students wreaking havoc Wednesday in a Cincinnati Kroger after walking out of school for a purported anti-ICE demonstration has gone viral.

In the video, taken by McAdrian Martin, who was shopping at the time of the incident, students ran through aisles and threw objects at the store's ceiling. Martin said they were beer cans and other adult beverages that had been ripped from the shelves.

A security yelled at the students to get out of the store.

"It said, 'F ICE,'" a female patron told Martin in the video, apparently referring to a sign held by one of the protesters. "They just came over here and went to the beer section and threw our beers."

Watch:

Meanwhile, this is happening:

Lefties claim that the kids are doing this all on their own, but nobody believes that.

The students walked out of schools in the North College Hill School City School District to protest ICE, part of an ongoing national trend that left-wing activists claim is student-driven. 

The school condemned the behavior in a Facebook post, even linking to the now-viral video.

"This video is disturbing and the parents and families of these students should be embarrassed," the post said, adding that the school would be working with the North College Hill Police Department to "identify these students so they can be held accountable for their disorderly behavior."

Martin, the person who took the video, said that the students damaged the store and injured at least one person, who, while not seriously hurt, was “highly upset.”

"I do think that whoever is responsible for the chaos ought to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the court," said Martin. "It's not safe for the environment. It's not safe for the customers. It's not safe for people. So, whoever was responsible and whoever did come to the store should be held liable by the law."

As long as Democrats continue to support left-wing violence and skipping school, unfortunately, I don’t expect Martin’s wish to be granted.

Anti-ICE Activist Running for Congress in TN Berates HS Students Who Refuse to Join 'ICE OUT' Protest

RedState 

Things just seem to get more deranged on the Left when it comes to urging students to ditch their classes and hold anti-ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) protests, instead of getting a state-mandated public education.

As my colleague Jennifer Oliver O'Connell shared earlier on Friday in her comprehensive piece rounding up many of the recent so-call "Shutdown Days," these progressive actions are being organized and funded by the country's largest teachers union, the National Education Association (NEA). 

O'Connell noted that today (Friday, Feb. 20) has been earmarked for the next "ICE OUT" protest day at schools across the U.S.

One of those schools that took part in the anti-ICE protests during school hours, Science Hill High School in Johnson City, Tennessee, reportedly garnered more than 150 students out in the streets. But some of their classmates took a stand instead of joining in, because they were trying to concentrate on tests scheduled for Friday. Some of the boisterous protesters even screamed and used airhorns in the school hallways, they said. Here's a student who took to social media to share his or her pushback on the students who are being disruptive:

"I think they do need to be punished," the student wrote. "I mean as a student at science [sic] Hill overall, I feel as as this was happening in fourth period you know for a lot of a students we had test quizzes etc. and these kids decide to go into the halls screen [sic] and airhorns."

The student called that out as "unacceptable," since most students "come to school for our futures as an education too and we don't do nothing crazy during education."

The student suggested that if the other students want to "fight for your rights you don't have to be crazy about it and disrupt students" who are "actually still trying to learn."

But notice that someone has left a comment on the message. It comes from a Democrat running for Congress in TN, who appears to be an anti-ICE activist; instead of supporting students who want to learn, she berated the student. Kristi Burke is a primary candidate in the 1st District congressional race; Primary voters will head to the polls on Aug. 6, 2026.

Burke's screed against the Trump administration and ICE went as follows:

"I can promise you that fascism will disrupt your life significantly more than a protest will. All students deserve to learn in peace. But there is no peace under this regime. 

"I hope you will show some support to your classmates, who risked a lot to stand up for what is right."

There's some bad news for Burke, and the rest of the Dems running for the seat, though. You likely won't find a more solid-red congressional district in the country, according to a local publication, The Kingsport Times News, since a Democrat hasn't been elected to the seat in nearly 150 years.

Good luck with your attention-seeking in the name of fighting Orange Man Bad, though, Dems. You'll need it.

Armed Man Rammed Substation Near Las Vegas in Apparent Terror Plot Before Committing Suicide

Townhall 

A 23-year-old man identified by law enforcement as Dawson Maloney is dead after he allegedly rammed a power substation outside of Las Vegas around 10 a.m. on Thursday and then committed suicide. 

Law enforcement recovered two shotguns, a pistol, ammunition, flamethrowers containing thermite, and a cell phone from the vehicle, according to a press conference. 

Police shared video of the man driving a silver Nissan Sentra through a power station gate until he rammed into large industrial wire reels, Las Vegas Metro Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill said in a press conference. 

“Given the location and the material discovered, this incident was treated as a terrorism-related event," McMahill said. 

Law enforcement said that they recovered books that contained extremist ideologies, including left and right-wing extremist ideologies, environmental extremism, white supremacy, and anti-government ideology. 

The New York man apparently rented a vehicle and drove cross-country to Boulder City, Nevada. 

The man had been reported missing out of New York and had told a family member that he planned to harm himself and would do something to place him “on the news,” McMahill said. 

Maloney apparently referred to himself as a dead terrorist son. 

♦️𝐖³𝐏 𝐃𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝

 

W³P Daily News Open Thread. 

posted by DarkGoldenMan

Welcome to the W³P Daily News Open Thread. 

Post whatever you got in the comments section below.

This feature will post every day at 6:30am Mountain time.