Under new Florida maps, a White Democrat aims to win a heavily Black district

Debbie Wasserman Schultz is competing in a racially thorny primary in which everyone seems to think experience is important — but they don’t agree on what kind.

August 17, 2026 at 6:00 a.m.

By Teo Armus

SUNRISE, Fla. — When Republicans cut up her mostly blue congressional district to boost their chances in the midterm elections,Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D) faced a choice.

The veteran lawmaker could have stuck to her home address and anew, predominantly White district that went for Donald Trump by 10 percentage points.

Instead, Wasserman Schultz jumped into the primary for a neighboring district in Broward County, where a handful of prominent African American leaders were already vying to represent an area that is more than 40 percent Black.

That’s how she ended up at a holiday concert in this sweltering suburb earlier this summer, passing out handshakes and pamphlets as she stressed the one thing that set her apart from her primary opponents — other than her race.

“We don’t want to lose the power and experience I have for Broward,” she said, pausing only briefly as she zipped through the crowd in her rhinestone-covered platform sneakers. “It’s essential we have people with enough experience to be able to fight.”

A 59-year-old former national party chair and frequent cable news presence, Wasserman Schultz is among the nation’s most prominent incumbents being forced to reintroduce themselves and make the case for seniority this year.

Yet more so than other contests, her primary race in Florida’s 20th District represents the often thorny trade-offs Democrats face as Trump and the GOP have sought to redraw maps across the country and eliminate deep-blue seats in Congress.

After the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act this year, some veteran Democrats across the South have been forced to choose between running on more politically competitive turf or bowing out entirely.

Wasserman Schultz chose a third option,turning her election into a contest that effectively pits congressional experience against racial representation.

It’s especially potent when the ranks of Black lawmakers in Congress are all but guaranteed to dwindle, said Corey Shearer, president of Broward’s Black Democratic Caucus, which has backed a rival candidate, Dale Holness.

“She’s been an ally, but suddenly it’s feeling more like she’s using the familiarity she’s built against us,” Shearer said. “With the landscape of all that, somebody who says they’re our friend decides: ‘Hey I’m in trouble, and I’m going to take yours.’”

Four other candidates are seeking the nomination: Holness, a former mayor of Broward County; a young progressive activist; the district’s disgraced former congresswoman; and a 1990s rapper perhaps best known for the song “Me So Horny.” But it may be difficult for any of them to edge out Wasserman Schultz, who has a massive advantage in fundraising and name recognition….

https://archive.ph/831QX#selection-587.0-643.92

Democracy Dies in Darkness—KEK

Angry at the Supreme Court, liberals push a slew of plans for overhauling it

As the midterms near, Democrats are proposing adding more justices, limiting their terms and more.

August 16, 2026 at 6:00 a.m. EDTToday at 6:00 a.m. EDT

One bill proposes increasing the number of Supreme Court justices from nine to 13. Another would cut their lifetime terms to 18 years. Others would create an enforceable ethics code and place standards on how the court rules from its relatively opaque “shadow docket.”

The latest wave of proposals to overhaul the Supreme Court have reached something of a fever pitch over the past few months, as Democrats grow increasingly frustrated with the court’s rightward turn. While the court blocked several of President Donald Trump’s key initiatives this past term,it also delivered significant conservative victories that pared back the 1965 Voting Rights Act, loosened campaign finance rules and increased presidential power.

Democrats’ anger is fueled by a conviction that many of these rulings are more about politics than the law.

“There’s constant and building dismay about the increasingly appalling record of the court,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), who recently introduced a term limits bill, said in an interview. “And I think the continuing interest in reform springs from continued dismay and concern about the court’s misbehavior.”

The pitches coincide with record levels of disapproval of how the Supreme Court is doing its job, as well as perceptions that the justices are ruling based on their ideology — a viewpoint largely embraced by liberals, according to a July Washington Post-Ipsos poll.

Those perceptions have only magnified as the justices have weighed in on issues that could directly affect the upcoming midterm elections. HouseMinority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) said Thursday that there are a “variety of different options that are on the table, and I think we can’t foreclose on any single one of them.”

Conservatives dismiss the proposals as efforts by liberals to intimidate and undermine a court that is not ruling the way they want.

“All of these ‘reforms’ are because the left doesn’t like the decisions coming out of the Court,” Mike Fragoso, a former chief counsel to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), said in an email. “The goal is to intimidate the Court into changing the course of decisions. It’s reprehensible.”

Liberals concede that the measures cannot succeed without Democrats solidly in control of Congress, and even then, only if the filibuster is eliminated — otherwise any proposal would require 60 votes in the Senate, which is highly unlikely….

Blah blah blah how many decades will it take for dems to get what they want? The dems will nominate the worst radicals ever!!!

https://archive.ph/gJ6W1#selection-175.0-288.1

James Burnham on X: "After @elonmusk bought Twitter, a bunch of advertisers engaged in an illegal group boycott of @X. The advertisers coordinated to pull billions in ad spend and reveled in the harm they caused. We sued and this week received a flood of support for our appeal—for which we are"

James Burnham

SpaceXAI

@BurnhamDC

After @elonmusk bought Twitter, a bunch of advertisers engaged in an illegal group boycott of @X. The advertisers coordinated to pull billions in ad spend and reveled in the harm they caused. We sued and this week received a flood of support for our appeal—for which we are incredibly grateful. 1/

7:24 PM · Aug 15, 2026

James Burnham

SpaceXAI

@BurnhamDC

Aug 15

First, we'd like to thank @AGToddBlanche, @TheJusticeDept, @JusticeATR for an exceptionally strong brief:

“The district court here improperly analyzed antitrust injury—conflating it with the merits—and unduly restricted the scope of conduct that can constitute a group boycott.

archive.org

5th Cir. 26 10394 127 0

James Burnham

SpaceXAI

@BurnhamDC

Aug 15

Second, we'd like to thank twelve States, which argued that the district court erred repeatedly in dismissing four foreign defendants on jurisdictional grounds.

==The brief — led by West Virginia’s Attorney General and joined by the Attorneys General of Alabama, Alaska,

5th Cir. 26 10394 127 0

James Burnham

SpaceXAI

@BurnhamDC

Aug 15

Third, we'd like to thank @AntitrustInst, which wrote that the district court’s “ambiguous and inscrutable ruling” in a “confused and confusing opinion reveals that clarification is sorely needed.”

Brief here: archive.org/details/5th-ci….

archive.org

5th Cir. 26 10394 127 0

James Burnham

SpaceXAI

@BurnhamDC

Aug 15

Finally, we'd like to thank Professor John Yun, who wrote: “In short, the district court held that X had not pleaded an antitrust violation on the merits and, therefore, had not pleaded antitrust injury. The premise and conclusion are both incorrect."

Brief here: Show more

what goes around comes around

https://x.com/BurnhamDC/status/2088768818352951726

Election Officials Are Preparing for Prediction Markets to Sow Chaos in the Midterms

From threats to the safety of poll workers to voters who can’t distinguish between odds and results, prediction markets are already scrambling the political process.

WHEN JIM ALLEN, the elections director for Delaware County, Pennsylvania, recently ran a training session for poll workers, he began a conversation about a topic he’d never previously had to address during training:

prediction markets. “There was one person who stood up, and they said, ‘Well, what if we just want to make a minor bet on what turnout will be, that'll keep things interesting?’ And we said: ‘No, this is all bad,’” Allen, who oversees 383 precincts, recounts.

As a result, Allen and the board of elections in Delaware County amended the oaths signed by people involved in elections to include “an affirmation that the workers have no direct or indirect interests in any bets, wagers, or prediction markets.”

Some 2,500 people, including everyone from full-time staff in the elections office to temporary employees helping process ballots on Election Day, have signed the oath ahead of November’s midterms.

The rapid growth of prediction markets, and their plans to prey on elections, are direct threats to undermining trust in electoral outcomes,” Allen tells WIRED. “The overriding concern is that prediction markets have the potential to monetize a reward for manipulating results and, equally concerning, capitalizing on the anger and frustration by those who lose in these prediction markets.”

Increased Threats

With less than 100 days left until the midterms, and with President Donald Trump and members of his administration working overtime to undermine trust in American democracy, WIRED spoke to election officials across the country struggling to get their heads around how prediction markets could further complicate Election Day.

Last week’s Wisconsin gubernatorial primary showcased how large the discrepancy can be between prediction market odds and how a race actually shakes out, as both Kalshi and Polymarket had progressive candidate Francesca Hong as the likely winner until the results started coming in.(Traditional polling was also wildly off.) Election officials see risk in this type of scenario, where people place too much confidence in the probabilities shown by the markets and make wagers expecting guaranteed money.

There’s also concern over whether prediction markets could fuel aggression against poll workers and other people involved in elections, something that some officials say they’ve already witnessed.

Prediction markets “fed a lot of the volatility in the aftermath of the June election,” says Dean Logan, county clerk for Los Angeles County, the country’s most populous election jurisdiction, during a webinar organized by the Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions. “I won't go into great detail about how that resulted in threats or aggressiveness from observers or people who had a stake in the outcome of the election, but it is something that we definitely saw, and we saw it at a level that we haven't seen in prior elections.”

“Let us be unambiguous: Threatening an election official or poll worker is a crime, and Kalshi condemns it in the strongest terms, full stop,” Kalshi spokesperson Jacki McGavick says.

Both Kalshi and Polymarket tell WIRED that they will not allow markets about whether there will be unrest at the polls.

https://archive.ph/cz9jY

California teacher placed on leave after posting 'alarming' videos to social media

A Madera Unified staff member has been placed on leave as the district and police investigate videos posted on her social media.In one clip, Kenisha Daily of Fresno says she's "starting a black militia," and will "rob some white people."

https://youtu.be/GnyE1R3xThw

Fresno teacher’s twisted gun-toting ‘black militia’ video sparks police investigation

Mon, August 17, 2026

A special education teacher who recruited black people to "shoot some guns" and "rob some white people" is now banned from the school where she worked and is under police investigation.

Kenisha Daily, a special ed teacher at Madera Unified School District in Fresno posted several disturbing videos of herself on social media over the weekend describing her want to create a "black militia." Daily also loaded weapons, including a shotgun and a pistol, in the videos.

"Starting today, I'm starting a black militia. So if you're black, if you want to shoot some guns, come find me," she said in a video shown by ABC 30 KFSN. "We're going to rob some white people."

Daily's videos were quickly reported to Madera Unified by concerned followers Saturday night.

District officials contacted Fresno authorities over concerns for Daily and the surrounding community, prompting a home visit that resulted in a temporary restraining order. The incident is now under investigation by law enforcement, according to a statement released by MUSD.

MUSD and Madera police conducted a safety review at Lincoln Elementary and increased security at the school, while Daily was placed on leave pending the investigation. Police and district officials are also working with local agencies on longer-term safety measures stemming from the incident, the statement revealed.

"Our Board of Trustees adamantly believes that students, families, and staff all deserve a safe and welcoming school environment. Furthermore, we believe that no staff member has the right to compromise others' sense of safety," the statement said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/special-ed-teacher-twisted-gun-142246367.html

I bet the police said, we are going to arrest some black people before they left the precinct! Maybe the black lady shouldn’t have recorded her self when she said, they were about to commit a crime! KEK

CRIME

ChatGPT reported South Palm Beach man's rape and murder threats to FBI

'No one deserves the type of conduct you exposed this lady to,' a judge told Darren Zhou, a since-fired Goldman Sachs analyst.

Aug. 14, 2026Updated Aug. 17, 2026, 12:04 p.m. ET

KEY POINTS

• OpenAI reported Darren Zhou, 25, to the FBI after he used ChatGPT to plot the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend.

• Zhou's attorney blamed the violent messages on a 'very difficult mental health episode.'

• Zhou made a deal with prosecutors to avoid both prison and a felony conviction.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, reported a 25-year-old South Palm Beach man to the FBI after he shared detailed plans to rape and murder his ex-girlfriend.

"I'm gonna kill her by the end of this month," Darren Zhou told the chatbot, his messages preserved in court records."If I can't have her then nobody can."

Investigators sayZhou, a since-fired Goldman Sachs analyst, turned to ChatGPT in March to discuss his recent breakup with a girlfriend of six months.He recounted her hobbies, the places she frequented, his jealousy of the men around her and his desire to get back together.

Investigators say the messages quickly turned to threats of rape, murder and murder-suicide. Zhou told ChatGPT he planned to wait in the parking lot of the woman's gym with flowers in hand.If she rejected his offering, Zhou said he would "draw a gun, kill her, then shoot myself."

In another conversation, he said he would "rape her with the gun too." He wrote in subsequent messages that he planned to force her at gunpoint to drive to his home in South Palm Beach, where he would sexually assault her and hold her hostage. If police arrived to save her, he said he would "shoot her repeatedly" before turning the gun on himself.

He told the chatbot he'd bought an AR-15-style rifle, a Glock handgun and a 12-gauge shotgun, and that he'd sent his girlfriend photos of his guns, zip ties and latex gloves.

"I texted her I was gonna rape her tonight," he told the AI.

Federal agents turned over two months of Zhou's chat logs to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office in May, by which point Zhou's targets had grown to include the young woman's family. A deputy who reviewed the logs — which included only Zhou's messages, not ChatGPT's responses — said they weren't "vague emotional outbursts" but instead showed a pattern of rehearsal and planning.

Girlfriend supplied deputies with violent texts from ex

Deputies performed a welfare check on the girlfriend, a 21-year-old from Lake Worth Beach. She said she'd broken up with Zhou over his "erratic, jealous and controlling behavior," and did so over the phone because she feared how he would react.

Since the breakup, the woman said Zhou dogged her with calls, texts and social-media messages, pressing her about comments that a man left on her TikTok videos. He accused her of moving on quickly and ignored her repeated requests that he not contact her again.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/crime/2026/08/14/openai-reported-florida-man-darren-zhou-chatgpt-murder-messages-fbi/91285875007/

Ukraine’s press gangs ‘like organized crime’ – MP

People pay up to $150,000 in bribes for jobs in the country’s mobilization authorities, lawmaker Aleksandr Kachura has alleged

Published 17 Aug, 2026 22:45 | Updated

The government body overseeing Ukraine’s mobilization campaign has all the hallmarks of an “organized criminal group,” with some officials allegedly paying bribes of up to $150,000 to secure senior positions, Ukrainian lawmaker Aleksandr Kachura has said.

Draft officers ambush military-age men on the streets, at workplaces, and outside their homes, using physical violence against those attempting to resist or flee. The practice has been dubbed ‘busification’ because officers have often been filmed shoving potential recruits into vans.

In an interview published on Monday, the MP from Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s Servant of the People party said the conduct of the Territorial Centers of Recruitment and Social Support (TCC) went far beyond what he described as abuses of the conscription system.

“Is kidnapping someone in broad daylight, where they gouge out their eyes, break their arms, and take away their health – is that a serious crime?” Kachura said, adding that the authorities exhibited “all the signs of an organized criminal group.”

The average bribe to “get out” of a TCC after being detained is between $10,000 and $15,000, depending on the region, he said. However, people pay even larger sums to secure positions overseeing the process, according to the MP.

To become a district military commissar, you need to pay $50,000, and to become a regional one, $150,000,” he said.

Kachura accused TCC officials of enriching themselves, claiming that the recruitment chief in his hometown “used to ride a bike, now he drives a Land Cruiser, while his wife drives a (Porsche) Cayenne.”

The MP went on to argue that the TCC should be abolished and replaced with a system centered on the voluntary recruitment of “motivated individuals.”

In May, Ukraine unveiled plans to rebrand the TCC, a name that has become synonymous with controversial and violent draft methods that have fueled widespread discontent among Ukrainians and drawn criticism from officials. Ukraine’s top human rights official, Dmitry Lubinets, recently warned that what he called systemic failures within the Defense Ministry had fostered a culture of impunity.

Moscow has repeatedly condemned Ukraine’s forced mobilization, with Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswomanMaria Zakharova arguing that Kiev is throwing recruits into “a meat grinder” on the front line.

https://www.rt.com/russia/644345-conscription-ukraine-organized-crime-bribes/

Interactive Search Map for Flock Cameras Near You

August 17, 2026 | Sundance |

The topic of Flock Cameras or ALPR (Automatic License Plate Reader) cameras has become of increased interest to a variety of people and groups concerned about privacy. The issue is increasingly controversial.

There are reports of false identification, wrongful stops, violations of civil liberties and abuse from police and government officials as they use the Flock camera resource network to trace and locate the travel of persons of interest. To continue putting scale to the transparency effort a crowdsourcing platform has been created where you can search for the Flock cameras near you.

[Interactive Website Here]

“DeFlock is an open-source, volunteer-powered project for identifying and documenting automated license plate readers. The map is powered by OpenStreetMap. Camera locations come from volunteers and the OpenStreetMap community, not a private company or government agency.” ~ Maps.Deflock.Org

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/08/17/interactive-search-map-for-flock-cameras-near-you/#more-286139

Ukraine’s press gangs ‘like organized crime’ – MP

People pay up to $150,000 in bribes for jobs in the country’s mobilization authorities, lawmaker Aleksandr Kachura has alleged

Published 17 Aug, 2026 22:45 | Updated

The government body overseeing Ukraine’s mobilization campaign has all the hallmarks of an “organized criminal group,” with some officials allegedly paying bribes of up to $150,000 to secure senior positions, Ukrainian lawmaker Aleksandr Kachura has said.

Draft officers ambush military-age men on the streets, at workplaces, and outside their homes, using physical violence against those attempting to resist or flee. The practice has been dubbed ‘busification’ because officers have often been filmed shoving potential recruits into vans.

In an interview published on Monday, the MP from Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s Servant of the People party said the conduct of the Territorial Centers of Recruitment and Social Support (TCC) went far beyond what he described as abuses of the conscription system.

“Is kidnapping someone in broad daylight, where they gouge out their eyes, break their arms, and take away their health – is that a serious crime?” Kachura said, adding that the authorities exhibited “all the signs of an organized criminal group.”

The average bribe to “get out” of a TCC after being detained is between $10,000 and $15,000, depending on the region, he said. However, people pay even larger sums to secure positions overseeing the process, according to the MP.

To become a district military commissar, you need to pay $50,000, and to become a regional one, $150,000,” he said.

Kachura accused TCC officials of enriching themselves, claiming that the recruitment chief in his hometown “used to ride a bike, now he drives a Land Cruiser, while his wife drives a (Porsche) Cayenne.”

The MP went on to argue that the TCC should be abolished and replaced with a system centered on the voluntary recruitment of “motivated individuals.”

In May, Ukraine unveiled plans to rebrand the TCC, a name that has become synonymous with controversial and violent draft methods that have fueled widespread discontent among Ukrainians and drawn criticism from officials. Ukraine’s top human rights official, Dmitry Lubinets, recently warned that what he called systemic failures within the Defense Ministry had fostered a culture of impunity.

Moscow has repeatedly condemned Ukraine’s forced mobilization, with Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswomanMaria Zakharova arguing that Kiev is throwing recruits into “a meat grinder” on the front line.

(https://www.rt.com/russia/644345-conscription-ukraine-organized-crime-bribes/

Playboy magnate ‘repeatedly’ flagged Epstein to FBI – New York Post

The agency reportedly ignored Hugh Hefner and only contacted an alleged rape victim 15 years after his first warning call

Published 18 Aug, 2026 02:21 | Updated

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner repeatedly contacted the FBI on behalf of a model who alleged that Jeffrey Epstein had raped and trafficked her, but the agency did not contact her until 15 years later, the New York Post has reported.

According to a lawsuit filed against the US government by 32 of Epstein’s alleged victims and cited by the Post, former Playmate Audra Lynn Christiansen sought Hefner’s help in 2005 after telling him about the alleged abuse. Despite his repeated calls to the FBI, investigators did not contact her until 2020 – a year after Epstein’s death.

Christiansen also alleged that she had been trafficked to Macau casino billionaire Stanley Ho, known as China’s ‘Godfather of Gambling’, who died in 2020. She reportedly asked Hefner to approach the authorities on her behalf because she believed his law enforcement connections and “clout” would ensure her allegations were taken seriously.

Jordan Merson, an attorney representing the alleged victims, told the Post that the FBI’s attempts to use procedural technicalities to avoid accountability for its alleged failure to properly investigate Epstein for years were “deeply concerning.”

In June, the FBI sought to have the lawsuit dismissed, arguing that the agency was not legally required to investigate every complaint it received. The case remains pending.

Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking minors and died in custody less than a month later, before standing trial. He had previously pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a minor and served 13 months under a controversial agreement with prosecutors.

Earlier this year, the US Justice Department released more than 3 million pages of documents related to Epstein. The files mentioned more than 300 people, including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, former US President Bill Clinton, Mick Jagger, and Kevin Spacey. Many appeared only in correspondence or news reports, and being named in the files does not in itself indicate wrongdoing.

Hefner himself faced posthumous allegations of sexual abuse and coercion in the 2022 documentary series ‘Secrets of Playboy’, five years after his death. Women featured in the series alleged that they had been coerced into sex and drugged.

The allegations were never tested in court. Hundreds of women, including Hefner’s former girlfriends and employees, as well as Playboy models and ‘Bunnies’ who worked at its clubs and other properties, later signed an open letter defending him.

https://www.rt.com/news/644333-playboy-hefner-flagged-epstein-fbi/

WNBA showdown: Mom, daughter say they were told to cover XX/XY shirts

WNBA fans Kasey and Annie Thomason discuss being allegedly forced to cover up their 'XX/XY' biological women's sports shirts during a game on 'The Ingraham Angle.

5:45

https://youtu.be/_hUBUs3jTfs

'INCREDIBLE RECKLESSNESS': New details emerge in Swalwell's suspected relationship with Chinese spy

Government Accountability Institute's Peter Schweizer discusses disgraced former Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell's relationship with Fang Fang on 'Jesse Watters Primetime

3:28

https://youtu.be/vsESB4m5ue8

They are a ‘VIRUS’: Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich RIPS socialist candidates

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Fox News co-host Charlie Hurt discuss Florida Democratic socialist congressional candidate Oliver Larkin’s campaign and the influence of Democratic socialists on ‘The Ingraham Angle.

5:45

https://youtu.be/c3JZvK6evfc