See two videos I posted about this previously here:

While trickle down economics has never proven to work as having positive impact on the economy, trickle down economics has repeatedly worked when it comes to negative economic jolts. We’ve had one of the most clearly obvious transfers of wealth in the past century occur the past 18 months while accumulating massive amounts of debt as both consumers and as a country.

We are simply over indexed on how much we are investing and the volume and opportunity of customers is starting to get smaller and smaller.

Will it burst? I’m not 100% sure to be honest. Will there be a market reset in the next 12-18 months? It is starting to look inevitable.

Here’s the problem: The poll is bad. Watch my video where I go into detail explaining why it’s not a good poll to take any stock in.

When I first heard about this bill and read through the initial proposals months ago, I thought it was just going to be providing Israel with access to U.S. military intelligence in a shared dashboard. When Netanyahu said months ago that it was time for USA and Israel to “move from aid recipient to partner” I thought it was going to result in a pre-mid-terms renewal of aid commitment that would be another decade of funding.

I did not expect that it would be a full incorporation of Israeli Technology into U.S. weapons production.

I also did not anticipate the par that says (paraphrased)… no matter what Israel does in terms of future humanitarian war crimes and genocidal actions, the U.S. will not stop partnering with Israel.

What’s truly unprecedented about this (and I was just talking with about this yesterday) is that this type of cooperation would be a stronger alliance than we currently have ever had with NATO or any other U.S. partnership.

More to come on this as it goes through the Senate.

We’ve mostly moved on from tariff conversations because it’s just not as “sexy” to talk about a year and a half later but they are still heavily crippling the agriculture industry (which I predicated in March 2025 would happen) and they have done absolutely nothing to actually increase agriculture resiliency, growth and revenue and, in fact, have done the exact opposite.

Again. Not the sexiest headline but something worth pointing out in my opinion.

Statistically, body cams have not had significant impact on reducing police violence. But what murders and shootings by completely unqualified / untrained ICE and CBP officers shouldn’t be compared to trained law enforcement AND available data does say that when Sheriffs and Police Officers utilize body cams, they are significantly more likely to respond to threats with shootings to reduce the threat vs. kill.

All that said, if they are ineffective, why won’t DHS implement their own policy? Why did Susan Collins agree to the budget bill in exchange for body cameras and ICE didn’t ever implement them? The answer is related to risk analysis assessment.

The risk that ICE and CBP agents being forced to record their actions creates too much of a risk for the Trump Administration that available footage would reveal that ICE agents are, in fact, acting out of terror vs. law enforcement.

Even if you support ICE and deportations, why are you so opposed to ICE wearing body cameras that could dispel and eliminate all the speculation? We’ve now seen that DHS regularly puts out a release that creates the propaganda machine and despite us now having conclusive third-party evidence that Joan Sebastian Guerrero was trying to escape vs. trying to attack ICE, the propaganda continues.

We know the money exists. It’s a fraction of the budget for DHS. They don’t want the body cameras because they know that it would cause ICE to be more careful and reserved. And this administration doesn’t want it. Because every time a person of color gets shot by ICE, MAGA celebrates and feels more empowered in their convictions.

And that’s what Trump needs for the midterms.

Folarin Balogun is currently the U.S. Men’s National Team’s leading goal scorer in the World Cup. Millions of Americans including the left and right are cheering him and the rest of the team on right now.

The irony? He’s a citizen of the United States by birthright. His parents are both Nigerian who, at the time of his birth, were residents of London. While 7-months pregnant and visiting New York, Balogun’s mother was refused access to their flight back to London due to safety concerns over her pregnancy. As a result, Balogun’s mother gave birth to him in Brooklyn, NY therein making him a U.S. citizen.

Balogun returned to the UK after two months where he was raised. He was a highly sought after player and was eligible to play for England, Nigeria and the United States. He chose the United States. MAGA celebrates this as a choice of representing “the greatest country in the world” while simultaneously stating that he has no right to be a U.S. citizen.

This is the hypocrisy of MAGA which stretches immediately into their translation of Biblical texts where it’s “pick and choose” which ones result in their narrative. Because Balogun provides “value” to them, they choose to ignore their convictions and make an exception. Now this exception should be extended to all immigrants, regardless of immigration status, because as you know, immigrants give more than they take in terms of federal tax dollars vs. social welfare benefits.

But that doesn’t work for them. Also ironic to me is that the United States team is unbelievably stacked with Black, Hispanic and Carribbean representation; which coincides with most all other professional sports in the United States. But they turn a blind eye to it as long as they can slap a “they’re patriotic representing their country” sticker on them.

Donald Trump releases his 2025 Earnings Statement

Trump released his 2025 earnings statement and he earned $2.2billion based on official releases. This is not an estimate or sensationalized number. That’s the number. There’s obvious things in there like money from his country clubs and resorts as well as millions from suing every media company that crosses him.

I’ve been following World Liberty Financial and their business dealings ever since Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, an Emirati Senior Government Official and member of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family took a 49% equity stake in World Liberty Financial as well as how often Trump has been pushing Stablecoin as an alternative currency.

But the one that stuck out to me the most was the $635,000,000 he made from $TRUMP, the meme coin he launched just days before his inauguration. Trump pushed hard on his loyal fans and followers to buy $TRUMP resulting in the price reaching the mid $70s before almost immediately crashing. If you invested $2,000 in $TRUMP at its peak, today you have $46.

We are reaching Czar-level profiteering from the President while he spends tax-payers dollars on a National Mall fair that’s attracting literal dozens of attendees. It’s not even “let them eat cake” at this point. It’s “give them gruel and they’ll still thank me for this.

Epstein Files: DOJ and Todd Blanche Have an Important Decision to Make Today

Today is July 2 which means the DOJ and Todd Blanche have a decision to make: Either adhere to the Federal Court-mandated order to release the full un-redacted Epstein documents or ignore an injunction and face being held in contempt.

If you didn’t know, former MSNBC anchor and now independent journalist, Katie Phang, sued Todd Blanche and the Department of Justice directly for not complying with the Epstein Transparency Act of November 2025 (signed by President Trump) where then Attorney General, Pam Bondi, was instructed to release all the documents.

They didn’t. Only about 65% of them… and they redacted the hell out of them. Despite consistent bipartisan efforts led by Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna to get the files released, the courts upheld that they acknowledged that the DOJ was violating the law but they couldn’t do anything to enforce it. So Katie Phang sued the government herself.

In her lawsuit, she alleged that the government withholding the documents was not allowing her to be able to do her job as a journalist. And, shockingly, she won her case. Now here’s the sticky part: If Todd Blanche chooses to ignore it, Phang and her lawyers could move for Blanche to be held in contempt. The problem? The enforcers of this would be the U.S. Marshals, who fall under the Department of Justice.

Worth noting that Blanche was requesting from the D.C. District Court for an extension for 60 days to adhere. Why does 60 days matter? Because Blanche is scheduled for confirmation by the Senate as the new Attorney General and this would absolutely derail his confirmation.

Another Bad Week for MAHA

The Make America Healthy Again crowd is currently up in arms about a recent decision by the EPA deciding to omit MicroPlastics from water-monitoring rules.

From Chemical & Engineering News:

The updated UCMR includes 7 ultrashort PFAS, including trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), 3 pesticide metabolites, 13 semivolatile organic compounds, and 7 purgeable organic compounds. The list excludes microplastics, frustrating some critics.

The EPA’s defense? A deflection. Despite scientific research being readily available, they are claiming that test methods are not sophisticated enough for water systems to check microplastic levels. California's State Water Resources Control Board approved the first standardized methods in May 2022 with two standard operating procedures for particle extraction and measurement. Both were validated through a 22-laboratory study.

To date, 176 organizations, seven governors, and 14 attorneys general urged the EPA to require monitoring for microplastics. The science and research is there. The problem is that for it to be regulated by the EPA the EPA has to certify the existing testing.

The reality is that Trump's fiscal year 2026 budget request proposed cutting $2.46 billion — an almost 90% reduction from fiscal year 2025 funding — from the EPA's Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds. They don’t want to certify the testing because they don’t want to spend the money on it.

Which goes back to my original theory back in early 2025 when I saw all the proposed cuts to Health and Science, Cancer Research, etc. that the Trump administration’s solution for saving money on healthcare was to reduce the number of people that need it. AKA… reduce the population.

Things to know:

• The DOJ will appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The DOJ argues that because the order came from Federal District Court, the judge (Sullivan) has no jurisdiction. Worth noting that they are not contesting Phang’s lawsuit and just the jurisdiction. But because the DOJ never presented a strong argument in the first place, Sullivan ruled that they may have forfeited the right to contest an appeal.

• The DOJ has asked for a 60-day pause on compliance timed, conveniently, to run past Blanche’s Senate confirmation. Sullivan denied it. They would need the D.C. district court to grant emergency relief from the deadline.

• If a district court doesn’t grant emergency relief / extension and they refuse to adhere, Phang and her attorneys would go back to Judge Sullivan and demand the DOJ or Todd Blanche, be held in contempt of the injunction.

• This would be unprecedented and could potentially create a constitutional crisis. There's no real precedence for a cabinet department blatantly ignoring a contempt order. Courts technically have authority to order the U.S. Marshals to enforce orders, but the Marshals are, themselves, part of DOJ.

Would we be shocked by the Trump administration ignoring the law? No. Would it create further rifts in the Republican Party and likely setup huge campaign points for Democratic candidates in the midterms? Yes. Absoluely.

[Opinion]

Let me start by stating that Iranian media’s release of the 14-clauses of the ceasefire deal are not confirmed and the Pentagon and administration will 100% deny its credibility. That said, Iran would not have agreed (for the first time) to the terms, publicly, unless they were getting something huge out of it.

Yes my headline is clickbait and the fact that the alleged terms include $24B in frozen assets being released (remember when MAGA lost their mind over $1.7B from Obama in exchange for hostages?) but, in addition, Iran is demanding $300B to repair the infrastructure destroyed by U.S. and Israel.

This would likely be joint-paid by U.S. and Israel but do we actually see a world where Israel is going to give Iran reparation money when the ceasefire agreement includes that Iran can continue to fund resistance groups who openly hate Israel? Doubtful.

All that said, hidden in the ceasefire deal is what has always been a part of Iran’s terms for any ceasefire is the larger and more substantial biggest fuck up of this entire war and one that should go down in history as one of Trump’s biggest foreign policy blunders:

End of sanctions on Iranian oil and petrochemicals.

I know this doesn’t seem like a big deal but it is astronomical in the house of cards that is the middle east. Iran has been under sanctions for almost 50 years and just like that, they are free to trade oil again. If you don’t understand macroeconomics let me just elevate how big this is. Wars are no longer really fought with guns and tanks and they are rarely fought with drones even. They are fought with economic sanctions and the fact that the $USD is the global trade currency allows the US to heavily cripple the economies of adversaries.

For decades now, China has been one of the core importers of Iranian oil because they don’t adhere to the economic sanctions of the United States. Now, Iran will be free to trade with anyone in the region which is where the house of cards comes into play.

As you are aware, Saudi Arabia and UAE have been core partners with the United States and they benefit greatly from economic sanctions on Iran because it’s one-less potential oil trade partner they have to worry about. With the UAE leaving OPEC and Iran now potentially being a new trade partner, around 8% of the total global oil trade is no longer part of regulations. I wouldn’t be surprised if Iran joins BRICS.

And when you think about it, the whole purpose if you recall the early days of the war with Iran was to liberate the Iranian people from the Supreme Leader. Well… that didn’t happen. And not only have we lost billions to the war, US soldiers lives, are dealing with spiked gas prices that may not come back to pre-war levels until 2027… we now have just made Iran more economically powerful.

What a complete fucking mess.

Veterans already do get an entire month.

Senator John McCain proposed the establishment of “Military Appreciation Month” in 1999 and it passed Congress and was signed into recognition by Bill Clinton. The passed bill designates and recognizes both active duty and veterans.

That same year, President Clinton, by proclamation (and not a congressional vote) established “gay and lesbian month” which was later renamed to LGTBQ Month by President Obama…. also by Presidential proclamation.

Their biggest complaint on MAGA’s end is something doesn’t exist (when it does) and that something shouldn’t be federally recognized (when it isn’t). It’s also worth noting that over 100 countries celebrate Pride either through a series of events or an entire month. It’s not just the United States. A factor that MAGA often forgets because they believe we are the center of the universe.

That said, PRIDE matters now more than ever. Support for gay marriage has actually dropped since 2021. Support for the Trans community is dropping at an even faster rate. Meanwhile, survey data has reported that around 20% of adults 18-25 in the United States identify as LGBTQIA+. A remarkable increase since the 2010s when survey data started on this topic.

So the next time you hear someone in your life complaining about why PRIDE gets an entire month but Veterans only get one day… you can now easily correct them.

Another shooting at the White House, the conflicting reports on a ceasefire between U.S. / Israel and Iran, and Tulsi Gabbard’s resignation completely dominated the news cycle last week (understandably so). But in the midst of all of this, a lot of things happened during the administration’s “Flood the Zone” strategy.

Trump’s New Green Card Changes Are a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

The administration announced a new order on Friday stating that the majority of future Green Card applicants must apply in the country that they are originating from. For almost 50 years, foreign nationals with legal status have been able to apply and complete the permanent residency process within the United States. This includes married individuals, those on work and school visas, refugees and asylum seekers.

The USCIS has now stated that green cards will only be given to those already in the U.S. on “extraordinary circumstances.”

In reality, this is a tactic by the administration to get foreign nationals to leave the country, attempt to apply for permanent residency and then deny and ban them from re-entry. It’s effectively entrapment and will surely be fought in courts as, per usual, there’s not details on who, specifically, this applies to and how it will be implemented.

Trump Balks on Executive Order for AI Regulation

After drastically scaling back Biden’s AI safety and regulations orders and declaring that the United States would become the AI capital of the world, Trump has had a one-sided relationship with AI that was made more evident when he was about to sign an EO on AI Safety & Regulation but then backed out last minute.

Back in December, Trump signed an EO saying that states cannot pass regulatory laws (with zero ability to enforce) and states continued to do it anyway. In reality, the only entity that can pass a law that could prevent AI from being regulated on a state-by-state level would be Congress.

AI / Crypto was the largest campaign contributors by dollar amount in the 2024 election and both are amassing massive campaign chests to fund both Democratic and Republican candidates. The biggest being Leading the Future backed by billionaires Marc Andreesen, Ben Horowitz and Greg Brockman. One could argue, reasonably, that preventing China from having a monopoly on AI is of importance (even Biden knew this), but critics on both sides of the political aisle also say that letting AI just run free with no safety regulations is dangerous.

Bad Week for MAHA as EPA Rolls Back PFAS Drinking Water Standards

Here’s the TL;DR: The EPA claims that the Biden administration rushed regulations and not followed procedures leaving them vulnerable to court challenges. PFAS are known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down easily and are found in non-stick cookware and food packaging and have been linked to cancer, infertility and immune system problems.

After rolling back the standards, providers would be off the hook for up to two years to comply with limits on two of the PFAS which means that people could be exposed to contaminated drinking water until new regulations are passed.

In short, the Lee Zeldin, the Administrator of the EPA who once stated that the goal of the EPA was “to lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home, and running a business” (not what the EPA does) made a business decision. Forcing providers to adhere to safety standards is too expensive and it would be better to fund our healthcare industry when people get sick from drinking toxic water.

UAE completes 50% of new pipeline bypassing Strait of Hormuz just one month after leaving OPEC

If you recall, a month ago the UAE announced they were leaving OPEC after being a member for almost six decades. Why does this matter to you? By being part of OPEC, they were regulated on how much oil they could produce and supply. Now that they are out of OPEC they can flood the market or withhold from the market freely.

To add on to this, they just announced 50% completion of a brand new pipeline to add on to their existing pipeline that ends in the Gulf of Oman allowing them to bypass future conflicts with Iran. In the end, there are more positives than negatives for the United States in this in that the remaining members of OPEC would be impacted by future Strait of Hormuz closures but provided the UAE and U.S. continue diplomatic relations, this would decrease global oil shortages by a marginal amount in the future.

SpaceX is Expected to Go Public on June 12, 2026, Making Elon Musk the World’s First Trillionaire.

That’s it. That’s the headline. Also it’s harrowing that my spellcheck is underlining trillionaire as not being a word because… the word has not been used enough.

While we are all hyper-fixated on the mid-term elections, the GOP is quietly like a thief in the night, just like in 2010, executing their 2020 - 2030 strategy of ensuring they control state house, senate and supreme court legislations. It all comes down to 2030 when we have our next US census. It’s why the President, himself, wants an unprecedented and unconstitutional census RIGHT NOW.

One could even argue that the GOP could just shoulder shrug and give up the midterms in 2026. Trump stays in power, vetos everything and all Democrats can do is block executive orders and executive war powers (which honestly yes please). But the GOP knows this which is why most of the OBBB provisions don’t even kick in until 2027. The Democrats, win the House and Senate in the midterms, all of this economic policy mess kicks in and the GOP can blame the Democrat-controlled House and Senate.

It truly sets up for an awful chess match the next four years where nation-wide state-by-state-redistricting will occur in 2031. So stay focused on your state level races the next few years because the GOP is far ahead of us right now.

[Opinion]

First off, I am Korean and my husband is Taiwanese so please remove any level of bias that you think I might have in defending China and the CCP.

We don’t get a lot of bipartisanship these days but last week amidst the madness of the White House Correspondent’s Dinner shooting and this weekend’s Spirit Airlines announcement, Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan) and Senator Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) introduced bipartisan bill to ban Chinese cars and autoparts.

Now this goes along with President Biden placing a quadruple tariff on Chinese electric vehicles in 2024 that made them virtually unaffordable. Both sides of the political aisle are pointing towards a fear of China being able to utilize technology in the vehicles to track us, gather data, and use it for lord knows what. It’s the same reasons why a U.S.-only version of TikTok also had bipartisan support (although Larry Ellison owning U.S. operations of TikTok is, in my opinion, a worse scenario).

Is there fear of Chinese “spying” on U.S. citizens through platforms like TikTok and automobiles where we now have AI embedded into virtually all new vehicles? Sure. I can buy into that. But the real core reason that nobody wants to talk about is economics and it’s why a global-free-trade-first United States is a quickly depreciating narrative.

Here’s the data:

In 2022 Tesla had a 14% global share of EV deliveries. Chinese EV automaker BYD had a global share of 11%. In 2023, both Tesla and BYD gained market share but BYD slowly closing the gap with Tesla owning 16% of EV deliveries and BYD owning 14%. Then 2024 hit and BYD went full throttle opening hundreds of global dealerships eventually landing at a 16% global share and Tesla dropped to 14%.

Now if you recall, Elon Musk was basically ordered by shareholders to return to Tesla to rescue it after his very short-lived role as the head of DOGE. Shareholders saw the writing on the wall with Tesla ending 2025 with a 10% share of global EV deliveries and BYD maintaining their 16% share.

In just four years, that is a 9 point percentage slip representing billions of dollars and the market knows this. Since the end of 2025, Tesla’s stock valuation has dropped by 20%.

That point alone is important because Tesla is part of the M7 (Apple, Tesla, Meta, Google, Amazon, Nvidia, Microsoft) which represents 1/3rd of the entire U.S. stock market… albeit out of that 33%, Tesla has the smallest stake at 1.2% of the entire market.

The part that Senators Slotkin, Morena and both our current and previous administration don’t want you to know.

U.S. and all other approved foreign automakers use the very same tracking and AI listening that Chinese automakers use.

In fact, a 2023 study by hey data confirmed that none of the 25 automakers passed basic transparency criteria for users. Your cars are allowed to not only listen to you but are now tracking your face for emotions, reporting your daily commutes to provide data to carmakers and Tesla’s own records confirm that they use internal and external cameras and feeds it to their AI servers.

U.S. automakers like Tesla are currently shipping cars to foreign countries that utilize the exact same tracking technology and reporting it back to U.S. automakers that the government is currently banning.

The reality (and again this is an OpEd / opinion on my end) is that allowing BYD into the United States would bankrupt Tesla and other automakers. Why? Because similar to the AI industry, manufacturing industry, and basically every technology industry, China is way ahead of the U.S. in terms of innovation and their EVs are not exempt.

If the U.S. were to allow the sale of a basic BYD Seal, the cost would be around 35% less than a Tesla Model 3. And when you do a side-by-side comparison, BYD is basically comparable and even slightly better in terms of features and capabilities. Elon Musk, himself, reportedly stated on a Tesla earnings call that BYD can “pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world.”

So am I advocating for BYD to be sold in the United States? Nope. Definitely am not.

Why? Because BYD would absolutely disrupt U.S. auto manufacturing and would likely push Tesla into even a larger devaluation. There’s a reason a Senators from Michigan and Ohio are calling for this ban and it’s because Michigan is the number one jobs provider of auto manufacturing in the country (~164,000 jobs) and Ohio is number two (~84,000 jobs).

However, this goes completely against the United States being the leader of encouraging global free trade. Our elected leaders will never come out and say that the reason why we don’t think Americans should have cheaper electric vehicles is because it risks our own domestic manufacturing industry.

They need to call a spade a spade and stop pretending it’s about data privacy when we are guilty of the exact things they are accusing China of.

Side note: I find it interesting that a lot of Republicans don’t ever call out that 52% of Tesla’s global deliveries are coming from their Giga factory in China and not from the United States.

Republicans blame Democrats for blocking a JetBlue merger. Democrats blame Trump for rising fuel costs and creating a volatile economy.

So who’s right? Neither side is. Watch for the facts.

1. The Case: Louisiana drew a second majority-Black congressional district (SB8) after a lower court suggested the Voting Rights Act (VRA) required it. A separate group then challenged SB8 as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, creating a legal catch-22 for the state.

2. The Ruling: The Supreme Court (6-3, written by Justice Alito) struck down Louisiana’s map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, holding that the VRA did not actually require the second majority-Black district in the first place.

3. Reinterpreting the Voting Rights Act: The Court significantly narrowed Section 2 of the VRA, holding that it only applies when there is a strong evidence of intentional racial discrimination effectively moving away from the previous discriminatory effects that Congress established in 1982.

4. Partisan Gerrymandering as a Shield: States can now assert partisan goals like protecting incumbent Republicans as a defense against VRA claims. If a plaintiff cannot prove racial rather than political motivation drove new district lines, their claim will fail.

5. What It Means for Future Elections: The ruling makes VRA voter disenfranchisement lawsuits dramatically harder to win. States can more easily crack or pack minority communities into districts by citing partisan justifications, potentially reducing minority representation in Congress and state legislatures.

6. The Dissent’s Warning: Justice Kagan, joined by Justices Sotomayor and Jackson, called the decision the final step in the Court’s “demolition of the Voting Rights Act” and warning it could lead to the largest reduction in minority representation since Reconstruction.

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I have always admired Brad not just for his passion for every day New Yorkers but for his ability to stand for what is right. In a day and age where people say what hopes to get them elected, Brad says what he believes is right — a rarity in this day and age.

If you’d like to support Brad (because he is in my congressional district) and is running against quarter-billionaire Dan Goldman and needs every bit of support he can get, please visit BradLanderforCongress.com. Dan Goldman is sending two mailers per week to my address and he is running TV ads around the clock and is backed by Corporate, Tech PACs and AIPAC funding to prevent Brad from winning.

A lot of people are automatically assuming that a progressive political party won because in the U.S. we’re so used to everything being left vs. right… but that’s not what happened. A centrist party that was created in 2020 but really established itself in 2024 won… and they didn’t just win.. they won massively.

I’ve been called Blue Maga, a neolib, a DNC shill for the past year as a content creator because I live in reality. Although I strongly advocate for social liberalism (free trade capitalism but with regulations and taxes that create social safety nets) and have voted and campaigned, enthusiastically, for democratic socialist candidates, I know the reality of the United States… and sometimes that includes voting blue no matter what.

We are pulled so far right that I just don’t, personally, see a clear pathway to an immediate shift to the left. We have citizen’s united, we have non-existent FEC guidelines for influencers and media personalities that are flooding the internet with dark money on both sides of the political spectrum… and we are trapped in culture wars and identity politics dominating much of our day to day.

And I’m not saying we shouldn’t fight for those things. As a BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ immigrant obviously I fight for those things… but when I take a step back and look at the big picture… I truly do believe that the way to get to the left is to take the immediate detour back to the center.

Remember when you could watch John McCain and Barack Obama debate and speak highly of each other? Remember when politicians regularly worked together to find bipartisan agreements to meet the needs of Americans? I do. And I miss that era… but that era is long gone.

And I could be dead wrong in this. Really I could. We might need a shockwave that is just an heir of Bernie Sanders to get the country back away from authoritarianism. Would I love to see AOC as the nominee? Fuck ya I would. Do I think it’s realistic? Probably not.

The important thing to know from what Hungary just did is that they didn’t swing left. They shifted left.

[Opinion]

English Literature Scholar and University of Virginia Professor, Mark Edmundson wrote recently that many college students are actively avoiding 19th and 20th Century literature because they lack the patience for more dense and challenging works. He goes on to describe a cultural trend where students view knowledge as “consuming” rather than learning and they would rather be entertained than experience an intellectual struggle.

And that describes the current state of news and politics. If you heard data released by Pew Research Center that in 2025, 37% of people under the age of 30 preferred to get their news from social media content creators vs. mainstream news would it surprise you?

It shouldn’t. It’s how I have grown on Instagram from 10,000 to 680,000 followers in about a year of posting. And here’s the interesting part: 84% of my audience is over the age of 35. It’s not just Gen-Z and young millennials getting their news and information from creators… it’s Gen-X and Boomers too.

Now all that said, I rarely cover breaking news because I don’t see the value in it. I prefer to step back and cover things after we know all the information and data and provide tools so my viewers can come to conclusions. Interestingly, I actually have a journalism background — albeit a minor one. I was a senior staff writer for the Central Florida Future, the college newspaper of my alma mater UCF — the 4th largest university in the country.

That doesn’t qualify me for NY Times or The Atlantic but I know how to cover a story… but it’s something? I guess.

Now why am I writing this? Because today, there are widespread reports and claims being made on social media by progressive creators that Iran has let two ships pass through the Strait of Hormuz and that they were charged $2,000,000 each with 1/2 going to Iran and 1/2 going to Oman.

We don’t know if this is true. It could be true. But people are making it true.

And this is the danger of social media.

Here is what we do “know” and I put know in quotations because what Iran is releasing to state media isn’t necessarily exactly what is in the proposal from Pakistan that the US and Iran have agreed to in the two-week ceasefire:

• U.S. guarantee of non-aggression against Iran

• Iran retains control over the Strait of Hormuz (with a “secure transit protocol” for passage)

• Iran’s right to enrich uranium is accepted

• Ceasefire in Lebanon and all regional proxy conflicts (Hezbollah, etc.)

• Removal of all secondary sanctions on entities doing business with Iran

• End of all UN Security Council resolutions targeting Iran

• End of all IAEA resolutions on Iran’s nuclear program

• U.S. withdrawal of combat forces from the region

• Financial compensation to Iran for war damages

• A binding UN resolution to secure the final peace deal

Creators are running on this. They are posting YouTube videos that are getting half a million views. TikTok and Instagram have creators releasing fragments of this and then coming to additional conclusions and translations as factual.

Meanwhile, I’m sitting here like… lawd… we don’t know anything except:

• There was a two-week ceasefire agreement that Iran and Israel have already violated due to Israel attacking Hezbollah and Iran retaliating.

• A few ships are passing through the Strait.

And now millions of people believe things that we don’t know are actually true… because of Cognitive Impatience. Creators like me are killing critical thinking and people’s desire to do research and come to their own conclusions. It’s not just MAGA leading the blind. It’s progressives capitalizing on the lazy.

And don’t get me wrong… mainstream media is also to blame as they are quickly scrambling and beginning to shift to clickbait headlines in social media posts because they know people like me are pulling their audiences away from them.

But we should not and cannot allow ourselves to fall victim to algorithms that surge us into confirmation bias. And, unfortunately, with respect to my colleagues in this space, far too many of the social media influencers in the progressive space are guilty of perpetuating cognitive impatience and trapping people in algorithms of confirmation bias.

Let’s say you watch a video where someone makes an audacious claim that may not be rooted in factual information. The algorithm now assumes you want to see more of this content because their goal is to trap you in their app. So they will feed you this content over and over again because it assumes you want to hear about it. And then… boom… you are convinced it is factual.

If reading this has shaken you, a reminder before you decide to unfollow me:

I still work a full time career in data analysis and communication strategy.

In fact, I kicked off with a new client this week. I work around 32 hours per week consulting and the rest of the time focusing on this. I make less money making content but thankfully, I don’t have to rely on clickbait or rapid response news reporting to grow a following because I don’t rely on this.

So please. Be mindful of fact checking and researching when you see something that you think is true. And be even more mindful when algorithms feed you things over and over again.