Rand Paul Should Make Fauci Answer For Wuhan And BeagleGate Lies

Authored by Anthony Bellotti via American Greatness,

Fauci no longer faces any realistic risk of criminal exposure for perjury or other past federal offenses covered by the pardon.

Next week, Dr. Anthony Fauci is scheduled to testify before Sen. Rand Paul's Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. After years of stonewalling, evasions, carefully parsed denials, and outright lies, this hearing presents a rare opportunity to get answers from America's most notorious mad scientist, who recklessly funded dangerous animal experiments that likely caused COVID-19 and financed beagle torture in labs worldwide.

This time is different.

In one of his final acts in office, in January 2025, President Joe Biden granted Fauci a sweeping pardon that conspicuously covered a decade-long period starting when he first funded the infamous grant that paid the Wuhan lab, which was first exposed by White Coat Waste in early 2020 and cut days later by President Donald Trump.

This means that Fauci no longer faces any realistic risk of criminal exposure for perjury or other past federal offenses covered by the pardon. So, the usual Fifth Amendment justification for refusing to answer questions about potentially self-incriminating conduct is largely off the table.

Paul should press Fauci on three false statements he has repeatedly made to Congress, the press, and the American people about the Wuhan lab and BeagleGate - claims debunked by evidence obtained by White Coat Waste.

First, Fauci needs to finally fess up about funding gain-of-function animal experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

In multiple Senate hearings in 2021, Fauci categorically told Paul and others that "the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology." He repeated essentially the same claim during a House Oversight Committee hearing in 2024.

But White Coat Waste has receipts. Our Freedom of Information Act investigations uncovered damning internal government emails from 2016 showing that NIH officials told EcoHealth Alliance that its Fauci-funded animal experiments with the Wuhan lab "appear to involve" gain-of-function research that was banned at the time.

Instead of stopping the experiments, NIH worked with disgraced EcoHealth president Peter Daszak to skirt the ban. Daszak gleefully celebrated the decision, writing, "This is terrific! We are very happy to hear that our Gain of Function research funding pause has been lifted."

In May 2024, then-acting NIH Director Lawrence Tabak finally admitted to the House Oversight Committee that NIH did, in fact, fund gain-of-function in Wuhan.

Paul should ask a simple question: Does Fauci still stand by his testimony, or will he finally acknowledge that his previous statements to Congress were false or misleading?

Second, Fauci should answer for his testimony denying that he used his personal email for official NIH business.

During House testimony in 2024, Fauci declared to Chairman James Comer, "To the best of my recollection and knowledge, I have never conducted official business via my private email."

Yet White Coat Waste's FOIA investigations uncovered official NIH emails showing Fauci telling a Washington Post reporter covering the BeagleGate scandal, "I will send you an email via my Gmail account."

Records have also emerged showing that David Morens, Fauci's longtime advisor who was indicted in April for FOIA violations, told Daszak and others in 2021, "I can either send stuff to Tony on his private Gmail or hand it to him at work. . . He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble."

Will Fauci come clean?

Finally, Paul should revisit BeagleGate - the viral dog testing scandal first exposed by White Coat Waste that Fauci and his allies spent years falsely dismissing as a conspiracy.

In a 2021 Washington Post cover story written by the same reporter Fauci said he would contact through his personal Gmail account, he called the dog testing claims "ridiculous accusations and outright lies." In his 2024 memoir, Fauci again dismissed the story as "lies," "lunacy," and "off-the-wall accusations" and defended himself by awkwardly saying, "I am a passionate animal lover, especially of dogs."

But government documents obtained by White Coat Waste prove that Fauci funded countless dog labs, including the infamous experiments in Tunisia, where beagles were drugged and had their heads locked in mesh cages full of biting sand flies. After reviewing these records, even the Washington Post, which had aggressively defended Fauci and smeared White Coat Waste, finally acknowledged in 2024 that it published NIH disinformation, acknowledging that "NIH was not fully transparent as it tried to handle a public-relations nightmare."

Paul was one of the lawmakers who led the charge with White Coat Waste to hold Fauci accountable for funding beagle abuse and lying about it.

Americans deserve answers.

Next week's hearing may be Congress's last meaningful opportunity to confront Anthony Fauci directly and finally set the record straight on Wuhan and BeagleGate. Paul should seize it.

* * * [ZH]: Not everyone is convinced Rand can bring the heat. What say you?

Fuck this guy too. He’s a powerless loser who is essentially a blow off valve for the disaffected pic.twitter.com/XJJb4PUnBo

— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) July 23, 2026

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Rand Paul Should Make Fauci Answer For Wuhan And BeagleGate Lies

Democrats Are Worried The GOP's Cash Advantage Could Hurt Their Chances In The Midterms

The Democratic Party heads into the midterms with generic congressional ballot polling and historical precedent on its side. It is nevertheless worried that the majorities it so desperately wants could still slip away.

Politico reported this week that Democratic strategists increasingly fear their favorable political environment could be overwhelmed by a Republican cash stockpile that dwarfs their own.

Federal Election Commission filings through the end of June show the three main GOP national committees and their affiliated congressional super PACs sitting on a combined $657 million. Their Democratic counterparts held $334 million. Add President Trump's MAGA Inc. super PAC, which reported more than $400 million on hand several weeks earlier, and the Republican reserve runs to more than three times what Democratic Party committees and congressional super PACs can muster between them.

That gap matters more this cycle than it would have in any previous one. On June 30, the Supreme Court ruled in NRSC v. FEC that federal limits on coordinated party spending violate the First Amendment, overturning a 2001 precedent and freeing national party committees to spend without ceiling in direct coordination with their candidates. Committee money that once had to be routed through independent expenditures can now be aimed straight at a race.

Democratic strategist Morgan Jackson, an adviser to former Gov. Roy Cooper's Senate campaign in North Carolina, calls the imbalance the central threat to his party's hopes this cycle.

"What is putting the House majority and the Senate majority, nationally, in danger is the Republicans' massive stockpile of resources that they're putting together to push back," Jackson said.

He warned that the spending gap could erode the advantage Democrats have built everywhere else. "If you get outspent five to six to eight to one, that can alleviate the environmental advantage that Democrats have this cycle," Jackson said.

The committee-level numbers are lopsided almost everywhere. The Republican National Committee reported $128 million in cash against $16 million for the Democratic National Committee, which is also carrying $18 million in debt. The National Republican Senatorial Committee held $55.9 million to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's $41 million. The National Republican Congressional Committee held $92.7 million to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's $79 million.

The super PAC gap is wider still. Senate Leadership Fund, the leading Republican Senate super PAC, reported roughly $112 million more on hand than the Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC. Congressional Leadership Fund, its House counterpart, held about $51 million more than House Majority PAC.

The national totals obscure a more complicated picture in the marquee Senate races, where the money runs the other way. Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff holds roughly $40 million more on hand than Rep. Mike Collins in Georgia. In Texas, Democrat James Talarico has nearly $20 million more than Attorney General Ken Paxton. In North Carolina, Cooper is about $17 million ahead of former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley. In several of the contests that will decide both chambers, individual Democratic candidates are burying their opponents even as the national party apparatus falls behind.

The picture inside the party gets messier once primary season is factored in. A wave of insurgent challengers aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America has forced sitting Democratic incumbents into costly primary fights this cycle, draining accounts well before anyone gets near a Republican opponent.

Senate Majority PAC spokeswoman Lauren French rejected the idea that the committee gap tells the whole story. "Republicans can crow all they want about getting massive checks from donors and businesses and billionaires, but we're going to win because we have the actual support from people who are voting," French said.

Other Democratic strategists are less confident that grassroots enthusiasm can offset a structural disadvantage. Jesse Ferguson argued that the media environment itself has made the shortfall more expensive than it would have been in past cycles. "Too many people think that fragmentation of media meant more efficiency and spending less. Wrong - it means you have to spend more," Ferguson said. The proliferation of streaming platforms, social media, and other digital outlets has driven up the price of political advertising, strategists say, raising the stakes for whichever side can deploy the deepest reserves of outside money.

What should worry Democrats most is that the Republican advantage has barely been touched. Trump political director James Blair said last month that Republican spending would begin "very soon," without offering a timetable. The fear on the Democratic side is that the bulk of MAGA Inc.'s $400 million war chest is being held back deliberately, to be dumped into competitive House and Senate races in the closing weeks - at the exact moment undecided voters start paying attention and Democratic committees have the least room left to answer.

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Democrats Are Worried The GOP's Cash Advantage Could Hurt Their Chances In The Midterms

Trump Orders Signs Outside Smithsonian Museum To Warn Of Inaccurate Exhibits

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on July 24 directing signs to be placed outside one of the Smithsonian Institution’s history museums warning visitors that some exhibits contain inaccurate information.

The order references a July report by the White House Domestic Policy Council, which alleges that the National Museum of American History “cannot be trusted to tell America’s story honestly and in a way that is inspiring, unifying, and worthy of our great republic.”

Trump said in his order that the report shows that “the Smithsonian leadership does not present American history as a shared national inheritance to be taught and celebrated, but instead views American history as a ‘prime tool’ to advance ideas of social justice and the radical transformation of our society.”

The president directed his administration to use “all available authorities” to encourage the Smithsonian Institution to correct the issues identified in the report and ensure compliance with the laws, funding requirements, and contract conditions.

The order instructs the Interior Department to place temporary signage along the sidewalks and walkways that are maintained by the National Park Service and used by the public to access the museum, informing visitors of the report’s findings.

The signage will direct visitors to locations and resources presenting what the president deems accurate information regarding America’s history, according to the order.

The Smithsonian Institution did not return a request for comment by publication time.

The National Museum of American History, located in Washington, was originally named the National Museum of History and Technology when it was opened in January 1964. The museum was renamed in October 1980.

The museum’s collection includes more than 1.7 million objects representing the nation’s heritage in the areas of science, technology, society, and culture, according to its website.

Anthea Hartig, director of the National Museum of American History, defended the museum during a July 21 congressional hearing, saying its work is guided by the Smithsonian’s standards of scholarship and independence.

“The museum does not take sides in America’s political debates,” Hartig said. “We preserve and document the evidence of American life in all of its breadth, so that the public can encounter the past and draw their own conclusions.”

The White House report followed Trump’s March 2025 executive order directing the Interior Department to ensure that public monuments “do not contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

The report said the museum has not established any exhibit specifically dedicated to the Founding Fathers, the Second Continental Congress, the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolutionary War, or the nation’s path to independence and the establishment of constitutional rule of law.

“Our central finding is not that the museum has simply added overlooked stories, corrected perceived errors, or broadened its historical scope,” the report stated.

“Rather, it is that museum leadership has explicitly adopted an ideological framework that no longer treats the American story as a shared national inheritance to be taught or celebrated, but as a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens.”

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Trump Orders Signs Outside Smithsonian Museum To Warn Of Inaccurate Exhibits

Private Forecasters Warn "New Heat Event" Will Target US East Coast

Folks across the Mid-Atlantic are enjoying a welcome stretch of mild weather today, with temperatures in the 70s following several rounds of extreme heat earlier this month that sent temperatures into the 90s and even into the triple digits. Enjoy the comfortable nights in the 60s and low 70s over the next few days, because another heat wave is already on the horizon.

"New heat event potentially targets East Coast Aug 5-7," private forecaster Commodity Wx Group wrote on X.

New heat event potentially targets East Coast Aug 5-7. pic.twitter.com/GTwfR5pVrY

— Commodity Wx Group (@commoditywx) July 24, 2026

Bloomberg forecast data show temperatures beginning to climb by the middle of next week, with highs peaking in the mid-to-upper 90s during the first week of August. The incoming heat wave is not expected to match the intensity of the two earlier this month, when temperatures surged well into the triple digits.

Notably, temperatures in the Lower 48 have reached their seasonal peak and will begin trending downward.

Peak summer is a welcome relief for customers across the PJM grid, who are facing some of the highest power costs in the nation.

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Private Forecasters Warn "New Heat Event" Will Target US East Coast

Confirmed Deaths In Ebola Outbreak Eclipse 1,000

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

The Ebola outbreak spreading in Africa has killed more than 1,000 people, authorities said on July 23.

A doctor provides care to a patient with Ebola virus disease at an Ebola treatment center in Bunia, Congo, on July 13, 2026. Benediction Murhabazi /AFP via Getty Images

The number of confirmed deaths from Ebola in Congo in recent months hit 1,033, Congolese authorities said.

Forty percent of the confirmed 2,536 patients have died.

Another 506 people have recovered, and 738 are currently in isolation or being treated in hospitals, according to officials in the central African country.

"Health teams are pursuing surveillance operations, case management, and contact tracing to contain the spread of the disease," Congo's Ministry of Communications said.

Teams have been able to track the contacts of 77 percent of patients in a bid to control the outbreak, much lower than the 90 percent threshold suggested as ideal by the World Health Organization.

The only other deaths confirmed in the outbreak are two in Uganda, which has not recorded any new cases in several weeks.

The outbreak was detected in Congo in mid-May, although it is believed to have started weeks or even months earlier. It is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare type of ebolavirus for which there are no approved treatments or vaccines.

"These are people dying. They are dying because we don't have vaccines, we don't have medicine, we don't have funding," Dr. Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a summit in Ghana on Wednesday.

The Africa CDC and other entities have been seeking and have received tens of millions in funding from the United States and other countries to combat the outbreak, but say they need more funds and resources.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters earlier in July that the outbreak was "continuing to outpace the response" and that the response plan needed more than $400 million in additional funds.

Ebola was first identified in 1976 after an outbreak in modern-day Congo. The deadliest Ebola outbreak on record ran for two years starting in 2014 in West Africa, causing 28,610 cases and killing 11,308 people.

That outbreak was caused by the Zaire ebolavirus.

The current outbreak is growing at a much faster rate than that outbreak did, according to Kaseya.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists said in modeling projections released in June that absent "large-scale and sustained public health interventions," the outbreak centered in Congo could become as large as the 2014-2016 outbreak.

"Rapid identification of cases, contact tracing, isolation and treatment of persons with [Ebola], community engagement, and use of safe and dignified burial for persons who die from [Ebola] are necessary to control the outbreak," they said.

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Confirmed Deaths In Ebola Outbreak Eclipse 1,000

"The Polycrisis Of 2026 Whirls Like A Demon-Infested Storm Overcoming This Human Project..."

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

Struggle session

“. . .there is no saving the Left. There is only saving America from them.” — Sasha Stone

The polycrisis of 2026 whirls like a demon-infested storm overcoming this human project of ours like a medieval panorama of the world’s end. Everything is fraught, tilting toward hazard, menace, ruin. Even under a summer sun, the mind sees only darkness everywhere it looks.

Apocalypse now, it seems like.

You almost can’t blame the doomers, the black pill-ers, lost in their transports of dread.

But I tell you, we will get through this.

Is it a surprise that the IRGC has a death wish for its host, Iran? They’ve been advertising it loudly for half a century, yearning for martyrdom, the bliss of paradise, marriage to multiple perfumed virgins, all the pomegranates you could ever want, and perpetual dreamtime beside a gently burbling fountain in the palace of eternity. Trouble is, to get there you must have your head blown off.

That’s exactly what the IRGC is asking for, though the millions of ordinary Iranians probably have their doubts about the ask. They are hostages of the IRGC regime, which refuses to just stop being a problem for the world. Mr. Trump’s proffer for Iran still abides: become a normal nation, sovereign and all, only without atom bombs. Let ships sail through Hormuz unmolested. Sell your oil, make some money, trade with the other fellas across the Persian Gulf, have a nice civilized life with all the refinements of age-old Persian culture, even with its Islamic overlay. Be happy!

The USA does not seek to occupy Iran, steal its resources, subjugate its people, force them to buy Minnie Mouse plush toys, play baseball, eat Jimmy Dean sausage for breakfast, strum banjoes, or wear cowboy hats. Just stop projecting violence and discord all over the Middle East.

You can’t make us, the IRGC says. Yes, we will, the USA replies. And so it goes. Next up: bridges and power plants. Plus, every ship you damage, we’ll deduct the cost of repair from your frozen assets held in our banks. This is where things stand after the thirteenth night of strategic bombing against the IRGC’s launch sites, drone factories, missile storage caverns, and shoreline military installations. Iran prepared assiduously for this death-scene for decades, building hidey-holes here, there, and everywhere. But every time they launch something now, our satellites mark the coordinates, and boom, now there’s one less hidey-hole.

Iran’s currency, the rial, has an exchange rate against the US dollar of about 1,900,000 to one dollar. There is hardly a functioning economy left. The people are flat broke. Everyday life must be hell now. Could be the IRGC was getting tons of munitions and material for free from China, but days ago we blew up the railroad bridge at Aq Tekeh-Khan that was China’s main connection to Iran, so that’s over with.

You must doubt that Russia is capable of sending arms to Iran at this point. Russia needs every drone and missile it can fabricate now that Ukraine is sending drones clear into Moscow and St. Petersburg on a regular basis. Of course, that war is being stoked by NATO, which perforce includes the USA. A bill (H.R. 2913 — the Ukraine Support Act) that would furnish $1.3-1.8 billion in direct security, military, and reconstruction assistance for Ukraine plus $8 billion in loans was passed by the House in June, but languishes in the Senate. President Trump has threatened to veto it, as running counter to the administration’s preference for negotiations with Russia to end the Ukraine War rather than extend it.

These two conflicts must seem intractable for now, but the mojo driving them has clear and present limits.

If the USA does not underwrite Ukraine’s war effort, then that leaves the EU nations, who are increasingly broke, and for all their idle talk are really incapable of mounting a major arms production campaign.

The UK especially is skating on thin ice these days as Mr. Trump methodically cancels its long-running command and control of global finance through the City of London (as its “Wall Street” is called). In fact, it looks as if the floundering UK — with dopey Andy Burnham rolling in as Britain’s seventh Prime Minister in a decade — has passed the ball of globalist leadership to its forward striker (and all-purpose fixer) Mark Carney the Prime Minister of Canada.

Carney, who was previously chief of the Bank of England, has played a series of losing games against President Trump the past year, while Mr. Carney is busy wrecking the Canadian economy for the sake of the globalist “green” flimflam, a sustained high volume of third world immigration, and outlandish DEI activism that includes giving vast tracts of real estate back to Canada’s First Nations people, their Indians. Carney has also very actively played footsie with the CCP to a degree that is seriously pissing off Mr. Trump. Among all the other shocks and surprises upcoming, you might imagine him having to send the 82nd Airborne up to Ottawa to inform PM Carney that there will be no globalist seat of operations in North America.

Yes, things are getting that strange. And then, continuing the clean-up operation south of our border, there is Cuba to straighten out. Cuba is obviously next. Our patience with that failing state’s communist export project is particularly thin, now that the Democratic Party here is entertaining Marxist-Leninist dreams of glory.

On top of all that, we have serious concerns with the financial markets and the widening income inequality that drives the younger generations’ yen for “socialism” (free rent, free medicine, free stuff).

Financialization concentrates and compounds wealth while the salary-mule class stagnates, suffers, goes broke, and nurses its grievances.

We’re pushing into the season of financial train wrecks. AI has cornered all the free capital in the land — for something that appears to be an existential menace as much as any potential economic benefit — and it is wildly perverting the equity market. The bond market groans under the debt burden and the impossibility of fiscal prudence. Capitalism that can’t self-correct invites financial and political violence.

It’s probably a greater threat to us than the faraway wars, bad as they are. Mr. Trump, Secretary Bessent, and others in charge surely know this — that the American ownership class has become tiny, and that the cure for that is getting the vast dis-owned, forsaken middle-class back into businesses that they will own, in an economy based on production of real goods, not on playing games with money.

There is so much to be done and we can get it done if we screw our heads back on.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/24/2026 - 16:20
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"The Polycrisis Of 2026 Whirls Like A Demon-Infested Storm Overcoming This Human Project..."

Secret Service Agent On JD Vance's Detail Under Investigation For Leaking

Authored by Ken Silva via Headline USA,

CNN reported Thursday that a Secret Service agent on Vice President JD Vance’s security detail has been put on administrative leave and is suspected of leaking information about his travel to a news site.

According to CNN, the agent is suspected of leaking to MS NOW about how agents on Vance’s security detail are overworked by his busy schedule. MS NOW’s source complained about Vance planning to fly with his son on a Marine Corps helicopter to a golf lesson — even though that plan was canceled.

“The story caught the attention of Secret Service, FBI and White House officials, who fumed over operational details being described in the press,” CNN reported Thursday.

Secret Service Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi confirmed to CNN that an agent is indeed under investigation.

“A member of the Vice Presidential Protective Division is the subject of an administrative investigation, and potential criminal inquiry, involving allegations of compromising operational and information security,” Guglielmi reportedly said in the statement.

“While we will not comment on the specifics of this matter, one principle is unequivocal: any conduct that undermines the trust and confidence between a protectee and their protective detail is fundamentally incompatible with our mission and will not be tolerated.”

🇺🇸 A Secret Service agent on Vance's detail is suspected of leaking to the press that agents were fed up with his travel demands.

Which, according to reports, included flying his son to a golf lesson on a Marine Corps helicopter...

The agent was put on administrative leave… pic.twitter.com/L341faQsnO

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) July 23, 2026

Thursday’s report isn’t the first instance of an agent leaking information about Vance’s travel schedule. In January, journalist James O’Keefe published a report about how another Secret Service agent assigned to Vance’s security detail leaked details about his travels to one of O’Keefe’s undercover reporters. O’Keefe is famous for having attractive females—and sometimes males—seduce government officials to get them to leak info.

Along with leaking agents, another Secret Service guard on Vance’s detail was recently arrested for a drug deal with an undercover cop.

RealClearPolitics reporter Susan Crabtree reported the arrest last month, saying that she’s withholding the agent’s name “until more details emerge about the alleged drug-related arrest.”

The incidents on Vance’s detail represent just a few of the many scandals plaguing the Secret Service.

In May, a Secret Service officer was reportedly arrested for public masturbation at a DoubleTree hotel near the Miami airport.

In April, a married Secret Service agent was revealed to have been having an affair with an OnlyFans star and making pornographic videos with her.

Around the same time, ABC News revealed that a Secret Service trainee was arrested for spying on his roommate, also an agent-in-training, with a hidden camera.

Before that, a Secret Service agent protecting former First Lady Jill Biden shot himself in the buttocks last month at the Philadelphia International Airport.

And earlier in the month, Crabtree reported that agent Myosoty Perez, who is a lesbian, has been suspended and is under investigation for marrying a foreign national—possibly an illegal immigrant—without declaring it. Perez was one of the agents responsible for nearly getting President Donald Trump killed at his July 13, 2024, campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Additionally, in January a Secret Service recruit shot and killed a 16-year-old in Tamarac, Florida. The 16-year-old victim was identified as Orlando Wedderburn. A woman was also grazed. The Secret Service recruit, for his part, is claiming self-defense.

According to Crabtree, Secret Service Director Sean Curran is receiving internal criticism for not doing enough to eliminate the agency’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies, which were implemented starting in the Obama era.

Meanwhile, the agency is looking to hire 4,000 new employees by 2028.

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Secret Service Agent On JD Vance's Detail Under Investigation For Leaking

"He Was Very Close To Being Arrested": Epstein's Paris Model Scout Found Dead At Home, Weeks After CNN Appearance

Daniel Siad, the 69-year-old Paris modeling scout whose name appears nearly 2,000 times in the DOJ's Epstein files, was found dead at his home in Colombes, northwest of Paris, on Monday. The deputy public prosecutor at Nanterre, Marie-Celine Lawrysz, confirmed the death Wednesday and said an investigation into the cause was opened that evening, with an autopsy to follow.

Which is to say: officially, nobody knows anything yet. Siad's lawyer told Reuters that "Daniel Siad never stopped proclaiming his innocence" - and that her client died of a heart attack. To AFP, she was more careful, saying that if it was a heart attack, the strain and anxiety of the case will have played its part. The autopsy, presumably, will referee. And if that first statement sounds familiar, it should: when Jean-Luc Brunel was found dead in 2022, his lawyers announced that "Jean-Luc Brunel never stopped declaring his innocence." The French defense bar evidently keeps the line on file.

For over a decade, per the document dumps Congress pried out of the DOJ under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Siad operated as a one-man logistics chain into Epstein's orbit. In a 2009 email he pitched a 5-foot-8 Latvian model: "she is 20 years old but she looks younger." In a 2014 note he discussed a 15-year-old French girl - parents reportedly thrilled about her modeling prospects - along with 16- and 17-year-olds, and compared his trade to angling: "some time I cache quick , some time no fish" [sic]. Files reviewed by CNN show Epstein paid Siad tens of thousands of dollars over the years; other messages flagged a young French woman in Marrakesh who'd be happy to meet him, and in 2018 Siad offered to scout the financier a young, good-looking assistant.

Here was the legal picture on the day he died: Siad was under investigation in France over allegations of rape and human trafficking - at least five accusers, per French media. One woman told the BBC he was "essentially a professional trafficker." The first criminal complaint landed only in February, from former Swedish model Ebba Karlsson, now in her fifties, who alleges Siad raped her when she was 20 and then introduced her to Gerald Marie, the former European chief of Elite - whom Karlsson and several other women have also accused of rape, allegations Marie has repeatedly denied. Siad denied everything as well, and - as his lawyer correctly notes - he was never formally placed under investigation, the mise en examen threshold at which French magistrates decide the evidence is serious. Not because the process cleared him; because the process never reached him. Per AFP, Siad had not yet been questioned by investigators when he died, though he had said he wanted to give his version of events.

"He was very close to being arrested," Karlsson said Wednesday.

He will now give his version of events to no one. And here is the part that will launch a thousand posts: six weeks ago, Siad sat for an on-camera CNN interview in which he insisted Epstein - a convicted sex offender for the entire back half of their collaboration - was a free man who had served his time and had always been thoroughly professional. He said he had no reason to believe that two women he'd recommended to Epstein - women who told CNN, on the record, that Epstein abused them - had ever been harmed. He claimed to have believed Epstein was a casting director for Victoria's Secret and MC2, a claim CNN could find no evidence for. His summary of the whole arrangement: "He was such a powerful person. And how can I not trust him?"

He gave that interview in mid-June, yet didn't make it through July.

That makes four... 

• Jeffrey Epstein, August 2019, Metropolitan Correctional Center: found dead in his cell weeks after his arrest (or he was smuggled out after being swapped with the corpse of a homeless guy - or Hillary Clinton's brother, so the kids say), with the cameras outside malfunctioning and the guards asleep - guards who later admitted falsifying their logs. Ruled a suicide, a ruling re-certified in 2025 by FBI leadership ("I've seen the whole file, he killed himself," Deputy Director Bongino assured Fox viewers), which settled the matter for approximately no one.
• Jean-Luc Brunel, February 2022, La Sante prison, Paris: the other French modeling agent in Epstein's orbit, found hanged in his cell while awaiting trial on charges involving the rape of minors - days after Prince Andrew reached his settlement with Virginia Giuffre. As we noted at the time ("Epstein 'Pimp' Jean-Luc Brunel Found Hanged In Paris Prison"), "the jokes practically write themselves." Ruled a suicide.
• Mark Middleton, May 2022: the Clinton special assistant who had signed Epstein into the White House, found dead in Arkansas. Ruled a suicide.

And now Daniel Siad - the second Epstein-linked figure from the French modeling world to die suddenly with an investigation inbound and his testimony never taken. Former model "Juliette G.," who says Siad recruited her for Epstein back in 2004, told Al Jazeera that for victims, Siad represented a possible avenue to finally "shed light on what happened." Except now, he's unable to speak in the Nanterre morgue.

Then there's Virginia Giuffre - Epstein's most consequential accuser who died at her farm in Western Australia in April 2025, at 41 - ruled a suicide by police and described that way by her own family, though as we reported last month, sixteen academics have since petitioned the state coroner for a formal public inquest. Giuffre notably traveled to Paris in 2021 to testify against Brunel in person and help keep him behind bars. 

Siad's death lands as the Epstein affair continues to result in zero arrests: the House Oversight email dumps last November, the DOJ's mandated releases under the Transparency Act, the cascading resignations among the great and the good, New Mexico's freshly launched probe into what actually happened at Zorro Ranch - which we covered in February - and the Washington Post's own June investigation into the modeling-world pipeline that kept feeding Epstein introductions long after his 2008 conviction: a Swedish scout hunting teenagers, a Russian model coaching him on which women would be easy. Siad was one of the very few members of that network willing to sit in front of a camera and explain himself.

On a pretty short timeline, the survival rate for Epstein associates drops to zero...

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"He Was Very Close To Being Arrested": Epstein's Paris Model Scout Found Dead At Home, Weeks After CNN Appearance

DOJ Seeks To Rescind US Citizenship Granted To 10 Individuals

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Monday that it has filed to denaturalize 10 individuals charged or convicted with various crimes, including offenses against minors.

“Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a naturalized U.S. citizen’s citizenship may be revoked, and certificate of naturalization canceled, if the naturalization was illegally procured or procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation,” the DOJ said in a July 20 statement, adding that the Trump administration was continuing its “largest denaturalization effort ever.”

One of the individuals targeted for denaturalization is Rodriguez Perez, 45, of Cuban origin, who was naturalized as an American in 2018. Prior to obtaining citizenship, Perez engaged in Medicare fraud worth more than $886,694 and concealed this conduct during the naturalization process.

Perez pleaded guilty in the case and was convicted of conspiracy to commit healthcare and wire fraud.

Another individual, Urbano Vazquez Ortega, 53, a Mexican naturalized in July 2017, had sexually assaulted children while being employed as a church priest in Washington. The crimes were committed between 2015 and 2017. Ortega was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2019.

A third individual, Omar Cantu-Montalvo, 44, from Mexico, was naturalized in December 2005 after claiming in his application that he had never committed a crime. However, Cantu-Montalvo was later sentenced to 100 months in prison by a court for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, a scheme he joined just a few months before applying for naturalization.

Other individuals have been charged with crimes such as carrying a concealed firearm, sexually abusing a minor, misrepresenting identity to secure citizenship, and wire fraud.

“These 10 criminal aliens—including child sex abusers, a $900,000 Medicare fraudster, and a cocaine trafficker—lied their way into U.S. citizenship,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the statement.

“Each of these individuals lacked the good moral character required by law and procured citizenship through willful misrepresentations and concealment of their crimes. Under President Trump’s leadership, this Department of Justice will continue to aggressively pursue denaturalization to restore integrity to America’s naturalization process.”

In January, the Southern District of Texas court, McAllen Division, issued an order to revoke the citizenship of a naturalized person convicted of a child sex offense.

In March, the DOJ announced it had secured the denaturalization of two individuals—a convicted gun trafficker and a healthcare fraudster.

As of late April, the Trump administration had filed 22 denaturalization cases in its second term, according to the DOJ. During the entire Biden administration, 24 such cases were filed.

A DOJ memo from June 2025 prioritized investigations and enforcement actions advancing denaturalization. The memo directed the department’s Civil Division to aggressively pursue denaturalization cases by evidence, especially those involving national security threats, undisclosed felonies, gang activity, and terrorism.

Sanctity of US Citizenship

In an April 24 post on X, Rep. Grace Meng (D- N.Y.) criticized the Trump administration’s denaturalization efforts.

Naturalized people are American citizens, Meng said. Individuals who undergo the naturalization process are “extensively vetted,” often spending years navigating America’s immigration system, taking exams, and pledging loyalty to the United States, she said.

“The President’s targeting of naturalized U.S. citizens is not only a reckless weaponization of the Department of Justice, it is an attack on core American values,” Meng said.

During a Senate hearing last month, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) argued that denaturalization is a crucial safeguard to protect the sanctity of U.S. citizenship, according to a June 4 statement from the lawmaker’s office.

“For too long, Washington treated naturalization like paperwork. Check the boxes. Say the words. Get the passport. Collect the welfare check or federal tax credit. Move on. That approach desecrates American citizenship. It insults every immigrant who came here honestly, followed the law, learned our history, embraced our Constitution, and took the oath in good faith,” Schmitt said.

“The Supreme Court has made the rule clear: no alien has the slightest right to naturalization unless every statutory requirement is met. Citizenship obtained by fraud is stolen status. Stolen status should be revoked.”

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DOJ Seeks To Rescind US Citizenship Granted To 10 Individuals

Lockheed Unveils Move Towards Cheaper Patriot Missiles As Interceptor Stockpiles Dwindle

With US-Iran tit-for-tat strikes on their ninth day and the Russia-Ukraine war grinding on in Eastern Europe, US inventories of certain air-delivered munitions are being depleted. This has made the rapid procurement of lower-cost missiles and bombs a top priority for the Trump administration.

The Wall Street Journal reports that defense giant Lockheed Martin is planning a low-cost version of the Patriot interceptor missile that will cost less than half as much as the current version.

The PAC-3 Adapted Capability Effector will cost less than half the price of Lockheed's PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement interceptor, which currently costs $4 million per round.

.@LockheedMartin introduces PAC‑3 ACE™ – a low‑cost, high‑performance interceptor built on the trusted PAC‑3® family. Designed for our allies, it delivers rapid‑field capability against short‑range ballistic, cruise and air‑breathing threats. pic.twitter.com/YW87z3Mq9f

— Lockheed Martin Europe (@LMEuropeNews) July 20, 2026

The new missile is designed to counter cruise missiles and short-range ballistic threats while using existing Patriot launchers.

A separate report from the Financial Times states that Lockheed is exploring a European production line for the new low-cost interceptor missiles, which could drive the price down to between $1.5 million and $2 million per round.

Lockheed is already considering European suppliers for solid rocket motors, guidance electronics, and other critical components, potentially through a partnership with a leading defense contractor on the continent.

Lockheed's decision to look toward Europe, rather than expand exclusively in the US, may signal limitations within the domestic defense-industrial base, just as the Trump administration's war economy begins to accelerate.

So about lead time for these new missile? How many years?

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30-Year Fixed-Rate Mortgage Reaches Highest Level In Almost A Year

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The average weekly rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is at its highest level in nearly a year, contributing to elevated housing costs and dampening buyer interest.

A home for sale in Alhambra, Calif., on Aug. 28, 2025. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

For the most recent week, the mortgage rate was at 6.55 percent, according to a July 16 statement by Freddie Mac. This is the highest level since the week ending Aug. 27, 2025, when the rate was at 6.56 percent. Since mid-May, rates have consistently hovered around 6.5 percent.

Rates have risen consecutively over the past two weeks, from 6.43 percent for the week ending July 1 to 6.55 percent currently.

Meanwhile, pending home sales in the country declined 2.2 percent for the four weeks ending July 12 compared to the four-week period ending July 5, according to a statement from real estate brokerage Redfin.

First-time homebuyers are facing a "tough time" breaking into the housing market, Christine Kooiker, a Redfin Premier agent in Grand Rapids, Michigan, said in the statement.

"High mortgage rates mean that even homes in the most affordable price point - under $350,000 in the Grand Rapids area - are a stretch for a lot of buyers, and they're hard to find and competitive," Kooiker said.

Many buyers are "sitting on the sidelines, too, because they're locked into low mortgage rates or can't find a new home they love."

Similar findings were made by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), which, in a July 16 statement, reported a 5.4 percent month-over-month dip in pending sales in June.

The decrease was most pronounced in the Midwest, followed by the West, South, and Northeast.

"The highest mortgage rates in nearly a year and the record-high national median home price together are contributing to a tepid housing market that is especially difficult for first-time homebuyers," NAR Chief Economist Dr. Lawrence Yun said in the statement.

Housing Affordability

Lawmakers have taken action to ease the burdens on prospective homebuyers and make housing more affordable for Americans.

On July 11, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act became law. The legislation aims to ensure housing affordability through various measures, such as rolling back permits and regulations, and offering financial support to homebuyers, builders, and state and local governments.

The bill was passed by the House and Senate last month. However, President Donald Trump refused to sign the bill until the election integrity bill, the SAVE America Act, was passed by Congress.

According to Article I of the U.S. Constitution, if a bill is not returned by the president within 10 days after being presented, it shall become law. Trump's deadline to veto the bill was July 10.

The bill "will cut red tape, lower costs, and boost the supply of housing," Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.) said in a July 13 statement.

"We need to build on this momentum and keep rolling up our sleeves to tackle the housing crisis confronting far too many American families."

Meanwhile, builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes declined in July from the previous month, according to a July 16 statement from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index was at 36 in July, the 15th straight month it has remained below the 40 level. This is the longest stretch of monthly values below 40 since 2012.

NAHB chief economist Robert Dietz cited housing affordability as the "primary challenge" facing the home building industry.

NAHB chairman Bill Owens said that many potential buyers continue to hesitate to purchase homes as they wait for mortgage rates to come down and for more clarity on inflation and the economic outlook.

While the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act has some important provisions addressing obstacles faced by buyers and builders, "these reforms will take time to implement," Owens said.

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30-Year Fixed-Rate Mortgage Reaches Highest Level In Almost A Year

Judge Strikes Down Race-Based Provision In Biden-Era Internet Access Grant Program

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

A federal judge ruled on July 15 that a race-based provision of the Digital Equity Act, signed by President Joe Biden in 2021 to close digital gaps, was unconstitutional.

A judge's gavel rests on top of a desk in a courtroom in Miami, Fla., on Feb. 3, 2009. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The Digital Equity Act was part of Biden's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which appropriated $2.75 billion to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to establish grant programs to expand high-speed internet access for minority groups and communities in rural areas.

After taking office for a second term last year, President Donald Trump halted the competitive grant program authorized under the Digital Equity Act, saying it was unconstitutional because it allocated federal funding based on race.

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance, a recipient of the competitive grant program, later filed a lawsuit in October 2025 seeking to reinstate the program.

In a 35-page order, U.S. District Judge John Bates ruled that the Digital Equity Act's provision authorizing the use of race in awarding federal funds was unconstitutional, citing the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling that struck down race-based preferences in higher education admissions.

Bates said that while the Digital Equity Act aims to address the digital divide among minority groups and other covered populations, the Supreme Court precedent showed that remedying general social disparities alone does not justify the use of race in government action.

"Addressing that gap is a laudable goal, but the Supreme Court has admonished that ameliorating general societal inequalities - as opposed to specific instances of past discrimination - 'does not constitute a compelling interest that justifies race-based state action,'" the judge stated.

"Otherwise, Congress could deploy racial classifications when confronted with any situation of an uneven resource distribution."

Bates said the grant program could be reinstated without the race-based provision, and the government had committed to restoring it upon a judicial determination that the provision was unconstitutional.

Trump welcomed the ruling in a Truth Social post, calling it a "big win" for the American people.

"The so-called 'Digital Equity Act,' a Biden DEI law, was ruled exactly what I said it was last year - A RACIST and UNCONSTITUTIONAL giveaway that never should have become Law," he wrote.

The decision to end the Digital Equity Act comes amid the Trump administration's efforts to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs from federal agencies and government initiatives.

Trump stated in a Jan. 20, 2025, executive order that the previous administration had forced "illegal and immoral discrimination programs" across virtually "all aspects of the federal government" through DEI initiatives.

Christopher Mitchell, director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, credited the National Digital Inclusion Alliance with helping to secure the program's restoration.

"Yesterday's ruling on the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program is, on balance, a victory," Mitchell said in a statement. "The only real question now is how quickly NTIA moves to actually implement it."

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance did not return a request for comment by publication time.

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The Data-Center Revolt Goes National: Tea Party Veteran Leads 142 Rallies Across 42 States

The backlash against the AI data-center build-out - which we've been tracking since it was a smattering of county fights across 28 states - staged its first coordinated day of action on Saturday: 142 protests across 42 states, from Wasilla, Alaska to Naples, Florida, organized by Humans First, the nonprofit that Tea Party veteran Amy Kremer co-founded and chairs. The crowds spanned both sides of the aisle...uniting a MAGA stalwart in a 'faith, family, freedom' T-shirt in New Jersey, a first-time activist in Texas, and a left-leaning organizer in California's Imperial Valley.

The fight looked like Kenilworth, New Jersey. Residents of the 8,500-person borough gathered outside the municipal court at mid-morning with drums, plastic horns, and sidewalk chalk to protest the $1.8 billion CoreWeave AI data center their planning board approved in May 2025 on the former Merck campus - a project that has since drawn more than 12,000 petition signatures against it, several thousand more names than the town has people. The woman in the "faith, family, freedom" T-shirt marched beside neighbors holding "Build community, not data centers" signs. When heavy rain arrived later in the day, they pulled on ponchos, shared umbrellas, and kept marching. One sign, caught by Business Insider's photographer on the scene: "You think this is pressure? Wait 'til there's no water pressure."

Texas, the country's hottest data-center market, hosted the most rallies - 18 - with Georgia at 11, California at eight, and Pennsylvania, Florida, and Indiana at seven apiece. In Imperial Valley, where a proposed facility could pull 260 million gallons a year from the Colorado River, Ivan DelSol, 54, told Reuters that around 50 people turned out in 100-degree heat. "It's dystopian that you would use this much fresh water for AI," he said. Organizers released no headcounts; turnout ran below expectations in some rural areas and in Atlanta, where about a dozen showed - most of them, a volunteer there said, driving in from the smaller Georgia towns where the biggest data centers are going up.

Kremer is a founding figure of the Tea Party movement who went on to found Women for Trump, and an organizer of the January 6, 2021 rally that preceded the Capitol riot (she neither planned nor took part in the riot itself). She has spent months calling data centers the defining fight of her lifetime, warning the technology could threaten humanity itself, and she is open about running the old playbook: grassroots pressure, town by town, aimed at both parties.

Today was incredible!

142 protests. 42 states. One message: ONE NATION UNITED AGAINST DATA CENTERS!

Communities across America showed up today for a National Day of Protest Against AI Data Centers to say that We The People deserve a voice before massive data centers are… pic.twitter.com/TwE7oRjR6V

— Kylie Jane Kremer (@KylieJaneKremer) July 18, 2026

Her crowds bear that out. One of Saturday's Texas rallies, in Tyler, was organized by Eva Cardona, a 31-year-old self-described political nomad and first-time activist who told Reuters she wanted something more hands-on than posting on Facebook; about a dozen people came. And in Imperial Valley, the man who helped lead the rally leans left. The polling explains why a coalition that broad holds. A June Reuters/Ipsos survey found only 14 percent of Americans would support a data center in their own community. Gallup polling fielded in March found 71 percent oppose building an AI data center in their area - 48 percent strongly - a worse number than a local nuclear plant gets. And Morgan Stanley told clients in a July 14 note that support for local data-center bans runs strongest among Republican, higher-income, and urban voters, while Morning Consult's national tracker crossed a line of its own in May: "stop building" (about 45 percent) overtook "keep building while expanding energy supply" (about 38 percent) for the first time since last October.

Several democratic candidates, including candidate for Texas Governor Gina Hinajosa, stopped in Lubbock to discuss campaign topics including data centers. A data center protest was also held to collect signatures to pause building hyperscale data centers in the Lubbock area. pic.twitter.com/wh3mdGNcu4

— KAMC News (@KAMCNews) July 19, 2026

For all the movement's reputation, Kremer's demands stop well short of a shutdown. She opposes a national moratorium and statewide moratoriums alike, telling Business Insider that each community should choose what gets built inside it, and that too many of those choices are made behind closed doors. Humans First's platform runs to transparent approval processes, environmental review before permits are granted, union construction jobs, and binding developer commitments of the kind lawyers call community benefits agreements. She has aimed as much fire at her own side, accusing Republicans of giving Big Tech a free pass and predicting the industry will cozy up to Democrats the moment the majority flips. The fix, she argues, belongs to Congress.

Amy Kremer is the cofounder of Women for Trump and Women for America First. Now she's taking on AI data centers. Jacquelyn Martin/AP

The organization is a narrower thing than the crowds it convened. Humans First announced in April that its non-conservative team members would spin off into a separate group, with Kremer promising "a topflight team of conservatives" to fight Big AI and its lobbyists. The banner over Saturday's rallies, in other words, was a conservative one - which makes the mix of people who marched beneath it all the more striking.

Official Backlash

The rallies capped a fast-moving week. On Tuesday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order imposing the nation's first statewide moratorium on new hyperscale data centers - an immediate pause of up to a year on state environmental permits for projects of 50 megawatts or more while regulators draft standards covering energy demand, water use, and air quality. Her office promised localities community-benefit guidance within 60 days, and Hochul will pursue repeal of the state's sales-tax exemptions for massive data centers. A tougher bill passed by the legislature, with a 20-megawatt threshold, remains unsigned on her desk; her office has called it complicated, and Hochul said the state wants to be "the first to get it right."

New York was not alone. Virginia's new tax on data-center electricity - 1.1 cents per kilowatt-hour - took effect July 1. Pennsylvania's House passed a ban on non-disclosure agreements in data-center deals by a 171-31 vote, and separately voted 197-5 to repeal the industry's sales-tax exemption, a break worth roughly $517 million a year by 2030. Arizona's governor signed a three-year moratorium on new data-center tax breaks in June. Legislators have filed more than 300 data-center bills this year; local pauses have passed at the county, city, and tribal level in at least 15 states.

Meanwhile In China

Nothing comparable is happening on the other side of the Pacific. Two days before the marches, Beijing-based Moonshot AI released Kimi K3, a 2.8-trillion-parameter system billed as the largest open-weight model ever built and claimed to perform level with America's best frontier models. Bloomberg has reported that Beijing plans to spend roughly $295 billion over five years on a nationwide network of AI computing hubs - and none of it will face a zoning board. Under the state's "Eastern Data, Western Computing" program, the buildout is steered into the arid, sparsely populated west; provincial governments compete to attract data centers with tax holidays, cheap land, and compute vouchers, and the state absorbs up to half of operators' energy costs, so the strain never shows up on a household bill. No Chinese county has passed a moratorium, because no Chinese county gets a vote.

The financial toll is no longer hypothetical. Third-party trackers cited by Morgan Stanley in its July 14 note put the value of cancelled or delayed projects at roughly $156 billion in 2025 and another $130 billion in the first quarter of 2026 alone - about $286 billion in all - set against the bank's own estimate of $877 billion in AI capital spending this year. The underlying quarterly count comes from Data Center Watch, a tracker run by 10a Labs, an intelligence firm whose client list includes AI companies, which logged at least 75 projects blocked or delayed from January through March - matching in one quarter the number of projects derailed in all of 2025 - as active opposition groups more than doubled from 396 to 833 and spread to 49 states.

Saturday itself stayed peaceful - chalk, chants, drums, umbrellas - though the wider fight has had harder edges: developers of the Piedmont transmission line into Northern Virginia's data-center corridor asked a federal court last summer for U.S. Marshals to escort survey crews after landowners threatened workers, an episode we covered at the time.

The industry answered forcefully. The Data Center Coalition warned that New York's moratorium tells investors the state is "closed for business" and will push jobs and tax revenue to neighboring states. Seven major AI and cloud companies - Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI - point to the Ratepayer Protection Pledge they signed at the White House in March, a voluntary commitment to cover the grid costs their facilities create. And White House AI czar David Sacks went after Hochul's case point by point on the All-In podcast, calling data centers "the scapegoat for all of the angst that people have about AI." His answer to the utility-bill complaint: let developers build their own generation behind the meter instead of competing with households for grid power.

David Sacks: Everything Kathy Hochul Said About Datacenters Was a False Accusation@DavidSacks: “These data centers become the scapegoat for all of the angst that people have about AI.

Everything she's saying there is a false accusation on datacenters. So let's just go one by… pic.twitter.com/gAxesw3fRD

— The All-In Podcast (@theallinpod) July 18, 2026

Some industry allies go further, pointing to OpenAI's June disclosure that it banned a China-linked network using ChatGPT to mass-produce comics and comments blaming data centers for rising power bills. OpenAI itself found the operation gained almost no authentic traction - and the crowds in Kenilworth and Imperial County were unambiguously homegrown.

Kremer spent Saturday evening thanking volunteers and looking past the weekend. "America is not for sale, and our communities are not collateral," she wrote on X. She expects data centers on the ballot in November, and again in 2028. The midterms are less than four months away.

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The Data-Center Revolt Goes National: Tea Party Veteran Leads 142 Rallies Across 42 States