In The Washington Post/Ipsos poll, 55 percent of respondents said they wouldn’t ‘consider’ casting their ballot for a self-identified democratic socialist presidential candidate, while 39 percent said the opposite and 6 percent did not respond,” The Hill wrote. Read that: Nearly 40 percent of ignoramuses in America would vote for a communist masquerading within the Democrat Party as a democratic socialist. They may not know what a democratic socialist is, or what the DSA types stand for, or the level of devastation these leftists would inflict upon America - but nearly 40 percent say, hey, what the hay, let’s vote ‘em in anyway. It’s on par with the Democrat Party’s fearless leaders in Congress advising fellow members to pass a thousand-plus page bill and then see what’s in it. Nancy Pelosi, then-House speaker, circa 2010, on the Affordable Care Act: “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.” But if those of curious minds truly want to know the difference between a democrat and a democratic socialist - or a democrat and a progressive; or a democrat and a communist; or a democratic socialist and a communist - all that’s needed is a quick look at these parties’ and organizations’ platforms and stated visions for the country. They may use different verbiage. They may couch their more destructive and anti-Constitution designs in flowery language. They may dress their final endgame goals using diverse narratives. But their hope for America’s future is all identical: They want a collectivist society. Vote Democrat and what’s sure to come is a country where individualism is killed off and the notion of God-given rights and liberties is replaced by a dark substitute called government-granted - where the elite few get to decide who gets, who must give, and who must give up all for the greater good.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday found 47% of Americans say they don’t understand what it means to be a democratic socialist. Meanwhile, a Washington Post/Ipsos poll released a few days earlier found 39% of U.S. adults would consider voting for a democratic socialist for president. For the sake of the low-information voter - and by the looks of recent polling, there are quite a few of them - let’s clarify that democratic socialism is one and the same as socialism. Moreover, socialism is one and the same as communism. And since today’s Democrat Party has ceded its political power to the democratic socialist crowd, and the Democratic Socialists of America influences, then it’s clear a vote for a Democrat is a vote for a communist. It’s a simple geometric equation. “A lot of Americans are confused about what democratic socialism is,” USA Today wrote. “A Reuters/Ipsos poll … reported 47 percent of Americans don’t understand democratic socialists’ policies, compared to 49 percent who do. Twenty-seven percent said democratic socialists have some good ideas, while 51 percent of respondents said there [are] few, if any, good ideas.” Well, that makes sense. Ask a Democrat if a socialist has good ideas and that Democrat will say yes. That’s because Democrats are socialists. Ask a Republican if a socialist has good ideas and the answer is no, nope, not even close, not ever. That’s because Republicans aren’t communists, oh, excuse, socialists, oh, forgive, democratic socialists. What’s the difference, by the way? Democrats want border policy reform - so that borders will be wide open to all. But shh, don’t say that part out loud.

Republicans say footage of thousands of migrants illegally entering Spain is a warning of what would happen to America’s border if Democrats regain power. “It’s terrible. Remember that picture. That’s going to be us in three years if the wrong side gets in,” President Trump told a Fox News reporter on Friday of the migrant swarm into Ceuta - a Spanish coastal enclave in North Africa - by land and sea. At a Cabinet meeting, also on Friday, the president called the Ceuta crisis an “invasion,” adding that it will be “a talking point for the midterms” in November. Spain’s interior minister said roughly 50,000 illegal immigrants entered the country in a daylong surge and half returned to Morocco. He said that by Friday more than 48,000 had returned to Morocco. Police reported that at least 43 deaths were connected to the stampede, which began Saturday. “Thank God [President Trump] was elected and our country’s border no longer looks like this,” Vice President J.D. Vance wrote in a social media post about the surge. “These images out of Spain are an unfortunate reminder of the consequences of mass migration and the radical left-wing globalist policies that have enabled the Invasion of the West.” White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller similarly wrote, “The Democrats did this to America every single day for 4 years under Biden and will do it again instantaneously, but orders of magnitude greater, if they are given any form of national power.” The U.S. is no stranger to massive illegal border crossings. In December 2022, during President Biden’s term, about 1,500 migrants crossed from Mexico into El Paso, Texas, in an overnight surge. Such crossings have plummeted during Mr. Trump’s second term. Customs and Border Protection has said that in June, apprehensions at the southwest border “were 94% lower than the monthly average” under Mr. Biden.

A Canadian woman was arrested and accused of espionage while working as an intern in the operational headquarters of the NATO military alliance, Belgian authorities said Saturday. Belgium’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office said it launched an espionage investigation after NATO’s security services tipped off Belgium’s military intelligence. Authorities then detained “a Canadian citizen of Chinese origin” on Friday, a day after raiding the suspect’s home and workplace inside NATO’s vast command center. “She is suspected of spying on behalf of a third country and of being a member of a criminal organization,” the prosecutors said in a statement. The strategic headquarters of the Allied Powers, known as SHAPE, is located in the southern Belgian city of Mons near the French border. Military officials at SHAPE plan and command joint strategy, tactics and operations. The alliance’s political headquarters is in Brussels, where ambassadors from member nations meet to discuss defense spending, drone incursions and cyber threats. Both Canada and Belgium are members of the 32-nation military alliance that in 2021 labeled China a “security challenge” alongside active threats in Russia and the Middle East. NATO leaders have said China is working to undermine global order, develop its military opaquely, and run destabilizing disinformation campaigns. They said that Beijing’s goals and “assertive behavior present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to alliance security.” The Chinese government denounced the statement and said its military buildup was defensive. The arrest in Belgium comes at a crucial time for the alliance as it weathers deep criticism from President Donald Trump who has drawn down the U.S. security role in Europe. Trump has been pressing allies to spend more on defense and join the conflict in Iran while at the same time threatening to seize by force Greenland from NATO-member Denmark, a move that rattled Europeans and the alliance. Last year, following pressure from Trump, 32 NATO nations agreed to invest 5% of their gross domestic product on defense.

The men also talked about easing of sanctions in return for Mr. Putin’s negotiating in good faith to end Russia’s barbaric war on Ukraine. Nor does Mr. Putin have any empathy for the innocent Ukrainian hospitals, maternity wards or neighborhoods that the Russian military has rained hell down upon. There is no evidence that Mr. Putin would ever seek a commercial reset with the West at the cost of abandoning his strategic objective of conquering Ukraine and violently demarcating the Kremlin’s self-designated sphere of influence. In return for Tehran’s agreement to negotiate on its nuclear program and to open the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. lifted the blockade on Iran’s ports, enabling the ruling regime to earn billions of dollars in revenue by selling oil at market prices. Speaking shortly after the memorandum of understanding was signed, Vice President J.D. Vance noted that we want Iran “to have a successful country, but only if they do what’s necessary to commit long-term to not building a nuclear weapon.” That is because, just like its axis-of-dictatorship allies, Russia and North Korea, Iran’s kleptocratic theocracy does not exist to promote its citizens’ well-being. Rather, it exists to violate citizens’ human rights with impunity. The Trump administration should be lauded for trying to use commercial incentives to bring our adversaries to the negotiating table. After all, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill rightly argued that it “was better to jaw-jaw than war-war.” Yet that approach - even if it demonstrated to domestic opponents of those regimes what a better future might hold as a proof of concept - has to this point led to a series of diplomatic dead ends. As long as these rogue dictatorships remain in power, there appears to be no better option than to revive President Reagan’s pragmatic national security strategy based on deterrence, containment and deep partnerships with our closest allies around the world.

Back in 2018, I had a front-row seat in Singapore when President Trump became the first sitting U.S. leader to meet North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Expectations were high as the president tried to entice Mr. Kim to negotiate in good faith by emphasizing North Korea’s economic potential, including beachside condos and hotels. If Mr. Kim would agree to “shake the hand of peace,” then he could transform his country from an economically isolated hermit kingdom into a prosperous Asian powerhouse. The U.S. offered investment, commercial opportunities and security guarantees. A year later, during a summit in Hanoi, Mr. Trump rightly walked away from what would have been a bad deal after Mr. Kim demanded massive sanctions relief without acceding to anything close to the U.S. demand for “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.” In the years since, North Korea has significantly expanded its inventory of nuclear weapons and now reportedly has about 50 warheads. Designed to survive a first strike, North Korea’s nuclear arsenal includes underground and mobile land launchers as well as a fleet of submarines. North Korea has also test-fired nuclear-capable cruise missiles from a newly deployed destroyer. Ruthlessly focused on regime survival, Mr. Kim has little interest in improving the horrific standard of living of his starving people ? especially if that means giving up his nuclear weapons arsenal. He will, however, gladly pocket any sanctions relief gained through perfunctory negotiations to enrich his family and coterie of elite security and military forces on whom he relies to stay in power. The second Trump administration tried a similar strategy with the Kremlin. During meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the CEO of the Russian Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, Special Envoy Steven Witkoff discussed joint business development in rare earths and hydrocarbons.

The “tough part that we’re wrestling with is Zohran won with support of liberal progressive White folk. Are these the same progressive White folk that are pricing us out and we can’t live in the community? That’s the tension,” Rev. Rashad Moore, who is Black and the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Crown Heights, told The New York Times of Mr. Mamdani’s victory. In Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, establishment candidate Haley Stevens is leading DSA candidate Abdul El-Sayed. Her strengths, according to a Detroit News/WDIV-TV poll conducted by the Glengariff Group released this week, are with Black voters (67% to Mr. El-Sayed’s 21%), non-college-educated voters (56% to Mr. El-Sayed’s 34%) and voters older than 55. Black voters are also skeptical of Mr. El-Sayed’s criticism of the Obamas, who are still beloved by Michiganders. In a 2010 editorial, Mr. El-Sayed was critical of first lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign. Ms. Stevens’ campaign, meanwhile, has deliberately highlighted her close ties to the Obamas. Ms. Stevens was Mr. Obama’s chief of staff in his auto industry bailout. Polls also show that Black voters oppose “defunding the police,” a stance adopted by many within the DSA. There is also a divide between the DSA’s Muslim candidates and their ideological framing. Many feel the modern struggles faced by Muslim immigrants are different from the systemic, historical disenfranchisement they have experienced. President Trump made significant inroads within the Black community in his 2024 campaign, winning 15% of Black voters, an increase from the 8% he won in 2020. A preelection Pew poll found that the economy and healthcare were the most important issues for the voting bloc, ahead of racial and ethnic inequality. As the Democratic Party embraces the DSA, Republicans can build on Mr. Trump’s gains. For Black voters, socialism is not the answer; opportunity is.

Democrats are abandoning the party’s most cohesive and dependable voting base ― Black voters ― in favor of flashy, young and charismatic socialists. Historically, about 80% to 90% of Black voters have aligned with the Democratic Party. No other major demographic in the U.S. votes as unitedly. Black turnout is essential for Democrats to win national elections, and candidates who fail to secure their support, as seen in the historically crucial South Carolina primary, rarely win the overall nomination. However, the Black electorate is not a progressive monolith. About 73% of Black Americans identify as Christian, and nearly 97% believe in God or a higher power. About 59% of Black Americans consider religion “very important” in their lives, a rate higher than the general U.S. adult population. Younger generations of Black voters are leaning more conservative, disenchanted with a political party that seems to take their vote for granted. As the Democratic Party lurches further left, courting Democratic Socialists of America candidates, the Black vote has increasingly been ignored by the party establishment. Black lawmakers and activists across the Deep South “say they’ve been let down by nearly all corners of the party: would-be presidential hopefuls who have flocked to early and swing states but do not bring their megaphones elsewhere; congressional leadership focused on majority-making battlegrounds while safe Black seats are drawn out; and years of chronic underfunding that has allowed local party apparatus to wither away,” Politico reported this month. Unlike White, college-educated Democrats, Black Democrats are not falling for self-identified socialist candidates who do not support the state of Israel, reject Judeo-Christian values and want to abolish immigration enforcement and law enforcement. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won his Democratic primary without the Black vote. According to a New York Times analysis, Andrew Cuomo dominated in precincts where at least 70% of residents were Black, more than doubling Mr. Mamdani’s support, 59% to 26%.

Each series of bombs dropped somewhere in Iran denies political support for a president needing a rally-round-the-flag foundation for this war. Without that support, hand-wringing over the November midterm elections is dictating war strategy. Gas and grocery prices are more important to the public than a nuclear threat. Today’s war with Iran must be viewed through a very different lens from the one we have used in the past. For the first time in the history of the world, we are facing a potential enemy controlled by determined religious zealots who openly declare their intentions to wage war against the infidels of the West with weapons of mass destruction. American, Middle Eastern and Western European leaders have never wavered in the need to restrain a government that reportedly killed 50,000 of its own citizens. For the first time, an American president has acknowledged that the Iranian threat is on the verge of becoming a catastrophe that must be shut down. A recent poll of 1,100 U.S. adults shows that 35% of Americans ages 18 to 34 believe a nuclear attack in the Middle East or Europe would be either neutral or positive for our stock market. When the fear of high prices is worse than the fear of a nuclear-armed Iran, there is a crying need to educate the public. I recently had the Perplexity AI search engine conduct a scenario analysis to quantify the financial impact of a single Iranian nuclear detonation in Europe or the Middle East. The impact would be unimaginable to most Americans. Depending on whether a city, port or financial hub is hit, trillions of dollars in damage and huge death tolls are expected. Then there is the inevitable public demand for costly retaliation. There are obviously more questions than answers before us, but Mr. Trump must convince Americans that it is a sucker’s bet to think worst-case outcomes are impossible. Mr. Trump knows the stakes. In addition to serving as commander in chief, he has a communications job. A few facts, well delivered, would make a great difference.

An islandwide blackout struck Cuba on Friday for the second time this week as the nation of nearly 10 million people grapples with a crumbling power grid and fuel shortages stemming from a U.S. energy blockade. While total blackouts have become increasingly common in the Caribbean country, it’s unusual for back-to-back ones to hit just days apart. Cuba’s Electric Union confirmed the outage on X. Authorities in Cuba said the cause of the blackout was a “fluctuation in the parameters” following a failure in a line connecting the provinces of Santa Clara and Sancti Sp·ritus. The electrical grid in Cuba is particularly fragile, both due to the lack of maintenance of its aging infrastructure - some power plants are over 30 years old - and the scarcity of the fuels on which it depends. “It has been another very difficult week under the impact of the energy blockade: two disconnections of the National Electric System (SEN), almost no fuel to power the plants, and several units out of service,” Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said on his social media account. Authorities reported that they have already begun restoring power to some areas. On Monday, another massive blackout affected nearly 10 million people nationwide. Authorities reported during the week that service was gradually being restored from that outage. Friday’s national collapse of the electricity system is the fourth so far this year. A blackout in mid-May affected the island’s eastern provinces, while a blackout in mid-March struck the entire island. Fuel has been running out across Cuba since January, when U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to the island, deepening the island’s ongoing economic and financial crisis. Public transportation has largely been halted, and officials have canceled tens of thousands of surgeries. Cuba produces only 40% of the fuel it needs, while the 730,000 barrels of oil delivered by a Russian tanker in late March ran out by the end of April. The government also has been rationing power with intentional outages that can stretch to more than 24 consecutive hours.