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Thursday, August 20, 2026

President AOC’s First Term

 by Adam Sharp

The date is August 20th, 2032.

We’re nearing the end of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s first term as president.

The wave of naive optimism that swept her into power has faded. But the damage is done. With a majority in both the Senate and House, the Democrats made big moves.

First they eliminated the Senate filibuster. No more 60 votes needed to pass most legislation. Now a simple majority will do. The political equivalent of a nuclear first strike.

Then AOC’s coalition created two new states: Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. That’s 4 more Democratic Senators, and additional seats in the House.

The Supreme Court was quickly expanded from 9 to 13 justices. The number of justices has changed before, and there’s no hard and fast rule in the Constitution.

Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s last Constitutionalist, retired in 2028 due to health issues. So the highest court in the nation has 5 new neoliberal judges.

ICE was abolished almost immediately. Immigration, both legal and illegal, is out of control. Another 11 million illegals have entered, mostly from Latin America. And 4 million visa workers. Another 4 million refugees and “asylum seekers” from Africa and the Middle East.

All this immigration undercut American workers’ wages, drove up real estate prices, took over small towns, and drained social welfare programs.

Green cards are now granted to immigrants who have been in the country for 3 years, regardless of how they entered. Citizenship and voting rights after 6 years.

The Democrats quickly set themselves up for a permanent majority.

Fruits of the Revolution

The unemployment rate hit 18% this year, even with all the book-cooking. AI, outsourcing, and poor leadership have taken a toll.

The federal deficit hit $5.3 trillion. The stagflation which began in 2029 shows no signs of letting up.

Inflation is running at a 16% clip. A gallon of gas costs $11.34, and diesel is $15 if you can find it. A third of American oil refineries have been shuttered under new environmental regulations.

Anyone worth more than $1 million faces an annual wealth tax of 3%. Family businesses are sold at firesale prices. Wealthy Americans flee the country, taking their assets with them.

Power blackouts are common in big cities. No new generating plants have been built, and data centers continue to tax the grid. With copper trading at $30 a pound, thieves rip out cabling anywhere they can find it.

The Green New Scam reached new heights. Billions of dollars were handed out to politically-connected crooks to build high-speed rail, electric vehicles, and “carbon-free” energy. It’s a total writeoff.

Biden-era censorship on social media platforms returns.

‘Equality’

Households earning less than $80,000 per year now receive Universal Basic Income (UBI) of about $30,000 a year. Barely enough for a family to live on.

UBI was celebrated by the masses early on. But the lack of motivation to get up and work creates a pervasive malaise across the country. Tent cities sprout up like weeds. The scourge of drug addiction worsens.

DEI returns with a vengeance. All of President Trump’s executive orders were reversed in the first month of AOC’s term. Companies are punished harshly if they have too many white male executives. Diversity quotas are enforced with an iron fist.

Universal healthcare went live in 2030. If you thought the old system was bad, this is a nightmare. Patients often wait a year to see a specialist. Need a scan? Tough luck.

Healthcare fraud reaches new levels as criminals target an exploitable system.

It’s been a tough few years. Yet AOC is still on track to win a second term. Millions of new immigrant voters will be the deciding factor.

Back to the Present

I wrote this piece as a thought experiment, pondering what could happen if Dems sweep Congress and win the presidency in 2028.

Honestly, this scenario isn’t all that crazy. It could well happen.

The Republican party needs to get their act together, quickly.

Trump really needs to resolve the war with Iran before midterms. It’s incredibly unpopular with independents and the libertarian-leaning right. If he doesn’t, the chances of a socialist sweep rise significantly. And as I explained above, the consequences could be catastrophic.

Republicans should not let that happen. Make a deal with Iran and be done with it. Re-focus on the American people. If the war is ongoing and the Strait of Hormuz is still closed during midterms, it’s not going to go well for the GOP. It gives far too much firepower to the Dems.

If a socialist like AOC wins, it’s going to be bad news for all Americans, but especially business owners and investors. Our friend Jim Rickards recently wrote the following:

The rise of socialism inside the Democratic Party is an enormously important political story on its own. But it also has huge investment implications that could affect your portfolio.

Many democratic socialists favor higher taxes on wealthy households, expanded government healthcare and tuition programs and sweeping changes to policing, immigration and other institutions. Some prominent figures on the left have also supported “wealth taxes” — which would tax certain holdings of property, shares, bonds and other assets rather than merely income.

Jim nails it, per usual. Much is at stake. If someone like AOC wins, our country might not recover for decades. If not longer.The date is August 20th, 2032.

We’re nearing the end of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s first term as president.

The wave of naive optimism that swept her into power has faded. But the damage is done. With a majority in both the Senate and House, the Democrats made big moves.

First they eliminated the Senate filibuster. No more 60 votes needed to pass most legislation. Now a simple majority will do. The political equivalent of a nuclear first strike.

Then AOC’s coalition created two new states: Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. That’s 4 more Democratic Senators, and additional seats in the House.

The Supreme Court was quickly expanded from 9 to 13 justices. The number of justices has changed before, and there’s no hard and fast rule in the Constitution.

Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s last Constitutionalist, retired in 2028 due to health issues. So the highest court in the nation has 5 new neoliberal judges.

ICE was abolished almost immediately. Immigration, both legal and illegal, is out of control. Another 11 million illegals have entered, mostly from Latin America. And 4 million visa workers. Another 4 million refugees and “asylum seekers” from Africa and the Middle East.

All this immigration undercut American workers’ wages, drove up real estate prices, took over small towns, and drained social welfare programs.

Green cards are now granted to immigrants who have been in the country for 3 years, regardless of how they entered. Citizenship and voting rights after 6 years.

The Democrats quickly set themselves up for a permanent majority.

Fruits of the Revolution

The unemployment rate hit 18% this year, even with all the book-cooking. AI, outsourcing, and poor leadership have taken a toll.

The federal deficit hit $5.3 trillion. The stagflation which began in 2029 shows no signs of letting up.

Inflation is running at a 16% clip. A gallon of gas costs $11.34, and diesel is $15 if you can find it. A third of American oil refineries have been shuttered under new environmental regulations.

Anyone worth more than $1 million faces an annual wealth tax of 3%. Family businesses are sold at firesale prices. Wealthy Americans flee the country, taking their assets with them.

Power blackouts are common in big cities. No new generating plants have been built, and data centers continue to tax the grid. With copper trading at $30 a pound, thieves rip out cabling anywhere they can find it.

The Green New Scam reached new heights. Billions of dollars were handed out to politically-connected crooks to build high-speed rail, electric vehicles, and “carbon-free” energy. It’s a total writeoff.

Biden-era censorship on social media platforms returns.

‘Equality’

Households earning less than $80,000 per year now receive Universal Basic Income (UBI) of about $30,000 a year. Barely enough for a family to live on.

UBI was celebrated by the masses early on. But the lack of motivation to get up and work creates a pervasive malaise across the country. Tent cities sprout up like weeds. The scourge of drug addiction worsens.

DEI returns with a vengeance. All of President Trump’s executive orders were reversed in the first month of AOC’s term. Companies are punished harshly if they have too many white male executives. Diversity quotas are enforced with an iron fist.

Universal healthcare went live in 2030. If you thought the old system was bad, this is a nightmare. Patients often wait a year to see a specialist. Need a scan? Tough luck.

Healthcare fraud reaches new levels as criminals target an exploitable system.

It’s been a tough few years. Yet AOC is still on track to win a second term. Millions of new immigrant voters will be the deciding factor.

Back to the Present

I wrote this piece as a thought experiment, pondering what could happen if Dems sweep Congress and win the presidency in 2028.

Honestly, this scenario isn’t all that crazy. It could well happen.

The Republican party needs to get their act together, quickly.

Trump really needs to resolve the war with Iran before midterms. It’s incredibly unpopular with independents and the libertarian-leaning right. If he doesn’t, the chances of a socialist sweep rise significantly. And as I explained above, the consequences could be catastrophic.

Republicans should not let that happen. Make a deal with Iran and be done with it. Re-focus on the American people. If the war is ongoing and the Strait of Hormuz is still closed during midterms, it’s not going to go well for the GOP. It gives far too much firepower to the Dems.

If a socialist like AOC wins, it’s going to be bad news for all Americans, but especially business owners and investors. Our friend Jim Rickards recently wrote the following:

The rise of socialism inside the Democratic Party is an enormously important political story on its own. But it also has huge investment implications that could affect your portfolio.

Many democratic socialists favor higher taxes on wealthy households, expanded government healthcare and tuition programs and sweeping changes to policing, immigration and other institutions. Some prominent figures on the left have also supported “wealth taxes” — which would tax certain holdings of property, shares, bonds and other assets rather than merely income.

Jim nails it, per usual. Much is at stake. If someone like AOC wins, our country might not recover for decades. If not longer.

https://dailyreckoning.com/president-aocs-first-term/

Telegraph: Daszak Accused of Plotting to Cover Up Covid-19 Lab Leak

 British zoologist Peter Daszak has been accused in U.S. court documents of working with a senior American health official to undermine the theory that Covid-19 emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan.

The allegations center on Daszak’s communications with David Morens, a former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases employee and adviser to Anthony Fauci, who has pleaded guilty to conspiring to evade public-records laws and conceal government documents.

No charges have been brought against Daszak.

Private Emails and ‘Behind The Scenes’ Help

Morens admitted in a signed plea agreement that he communicated with Daszak, identified in the case as “co-conspirator 1,” through a private Gmail account to keep messages outside freedom of information searches.

According to the court documents, Morens also sought to help Daszak regain federal funding for bat coronavirus research in China after the grants were suspended in April 2020.

Emails from June that year show Morens offering to write a scientific commentary supporting the importance of Daszak’s work while omitting Daszak’s involvement, creating the appearance of an independent intervention.

“Let’s win this anti-science battle, get you refunded... then settle the scores and kick some ass,” Morens wrote to Daszak.

Weeks later, Daszak sent Morens two bottles of The Prisoner Red Napa Valley wine, according to the court filings.

His accompanying message thanked Morens for his “advice, support and behind the scenes shenanigans” and described the gift as the first in what he hoped would become a series of expressions of gratitude.

Campaign Against Lab-Leak Narrative

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland said Morens and his co-conspirators had agreed to help “counter the narrative that Covid-19 leaked from a lab”.

Court documents allege that communications were concealed as part of an effort to produce papers and articles without openly identifying Daszak’s role, thereby creating what prosecutors described as the appearance of “disinterested scientific consensus”.

Morens later published an article arguing that Covid-19 resulted from natural animal-to-human spillover and making the case for research like Daszak's to continue receiving funding.

The correspondence also shows Morens telling Daszak that he was working “behind the scenes” on his behalf.

“My boxing gloves are on and laced up,” he wrote.

Wuhan Research Under Scrutiny

Daszak was president of EcoHealth Alliance, which worked with scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology on research involving bat coronaviruses.

The work included collecting the viruses and genetically modifying them to examine how they could mutate and potentially cross into humans.

Covid-19 emerged about eight miles from the institute.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services debarred Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance last year from receiving federal funding for five years.

That followed an eight-month investigation that concluded U.S. taxpayer funds had facilitated dangerous gain-of-function research in China designed to make viruses more lethal.

Molecular biologist Richard Ebright, who has advocated a full investigation of a possible laboratory origin, described Morens’s guilty pleas as an initial step toward accountability for U.S. officials involved in funding the Wuhan research.

WHO Mission and Conflict Questions

Daszak was also part of a World Health Organization team that visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2021 to investigate the pandemic's origins.

The resulting report treated a laboratory origin as possible but unlikely. It faced widespread criticism over its conclusions.

Daszak later withdrew from Covid origins investigations after failing to disclose the extent of his work with scientists at the Wuhan institute.

Viscount Ridley, co-author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19, accused Daszak of trying to block scrutiny of whether a laboratory accident caused the pandemic.

He said Daszak had sought to “kill any investigation into the possibility that a laboratory accident killed millions of people”.

Efforts to Avoid Disclosure

Emails released by the U.S. House oversight committee in 2024 showed Morens and Daszak discussing freedom of information requests and how to handle potentially sensitive correspondence.

Morens described such requests as “dreadful and paranoia-inducing” and wrote that those involved were sufficiently careful not to leave incriminating material in emails.

He also claimed he could make emails disappear after receiving a freedom of information request and, in another message in 2021, advised deleting emails once a subject became sensitive.

Morens entered his guilty plea in the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis scheduled sentencing for November 12. Morens faces up to five years in prison and a possible $250,000 fine.

Fauci has previously told a House committee that Morens acted improperly and that he was not involved in attempts to restore the EcoHealth grant.

https://clashreport.com/world/articles/british-zoologist-accused-of-plotting-to-cover-up-covid-19-lab-leak-f4whf2sykla

College students can now pay tuition with PayPal or Venmo at certain universities

 Some universities are now allowing students and their families to pay tuition through PayPal and Venmo.

Among the first institutions offering the payment options are Bellarmine University, Butler University, Kansas State University, Michigan State University and Texas Tech University, although more universities are expected to join later this year.

Students and families may face transaction or processing fees, with the amount depending on the university and the funding method used.

The payment options are being integrated through campus payment platforms including Illumia, Nelnet Campus Commerce and TouchNet, which process tuition payments for institutions across the country.

“A modern tuition payment experience has to work for both sides of the transaction,” Don Smith, Illumia’s senior vice president and general manager of integrated payments, said in a statement.

“Students and families want the flexibility to use payment methods that fit how they manage their money, while institutions need those options to work within the systems and processes their teams already rely on. This integration helps schools expand choice in a practical way, improving the payer experience without creating a disconnected path for campus teams,” Smith added.

PayPal and its Venmo subsidiary have aimed to further expand their presence in higher education over the last year, offering student-athletes the opportunity to receive institutional revenue-share payments through their platforms. Venmo also expanded its presence on college campuses through NIL partnerships with student athletes, college-branded cards, student ambassadors and gameday activations.

The digital payment systems are already used by many students and families for daily money transfers, including purchasing groceries, splitting rent and sending money to friends and family.

A Kansas State University sign is pictured on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024.Chad Robertson – stock.adobe.com

“Tuition is one of the biggest payments a family will make, and it should come with the same flexibility and security that millions of people already count on PayPal and Venmo for every day,” Frank Keller, President of Checkout Solutions and PayPal, said in a statement.

“That’s why we’re proud to bring that same choice and protection into the reliable systems schools have already built.”

The companies said PayPal and Venmo use security measures including encryption and fraud monitoring. Consumer regulators, however, have cautioned that money stored in nonbank payment apps may not carry the same deposit-insurance protections as funds held directly in a federally insured bank or credit union.

Certain eligible PayPal and Venmo balances may qualify for pass-through FDIC insurance when funds are placed at PayPal’s program banks, which currently include Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Wells Fargo Bank and JPMorgan Chase Bank. Not all PayPal or Venmo balances qualify for the coverage.

But FDIC pass-through insurance “protects against the failure of a Program Bank, not the failure of PayPal. PayPal is not a bank, does not take deposits and is not FDIC insured,” PayPal said in a statement.

https://nypost.com/2026/08/20/business/college-students-can-now-pay-tuition-with-paypal-or-venmo-at-some-universities/