• Democrats love socialism, hate capitalism: A recent Gallup poll provided a piece of not-news for those who follow politics: Democrats support socialism and hate capitalism. Some 66% of Democrats have a positive view of socialism compared to 38% of Independents and 14% of Republicans (which might be the real headline). CNN’s Harry Enten had even more striking numbers with Democrats favoring socialism by 36 percentage points, up from just seven points in 2010. A minority of Democrats, conversely, have a positive view of capitalism, just 42%. Independents and conservatives are both favorable at 51% and 74%. These numbers are the least favorable for capitalism that Gallup has ever recorded. However, Enten’s numbers say that socialism still loses by 18 points while capitalism is favored by 12 points nationally.

• Walz over Buttigieg: Kamala Harris’s new book alleges that she chose Tim Walz, the “manly” Minnesota governor, over Pete Buttigieg as her vice presidential pick because a black woman and a gay man on the same ticket would have been dead in the water. It’s not a surprising admission that a Democrat would judge candidates based on their “immutable” characteristics. Harris claims that Buttigieg knew in his heart that she couldn’t pick him, but Mayor Pete says the opposite: “I just believe in giving Americans more credit than that.” It seems unlikely that Buttigieg would’ve brought Harris’s campaign victory, but it’s hilarious that the Democrats avoided a gay man and then picked Tim “Jazz Hands” Walz in an effort to bring the testosterone. Maybe one day Democrats will embrace MLK’s dream and judge people on the content of their character, but that day does not appear imminent.

• Measles, mumps vax update: On Thursday, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to change the recommended age for administration of the measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella vaccine (MMRV) to no younger than a four-year-old. The ACIP’s previous recommendation for the MMRV vaccine was for children beginning at 12 months of age. Criticism has arisen against HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his efforts to fire several ACIP members and replace them with his own appointees. The result of this 8-3 vote serves to fuel the narrative that Kennedy is promoting his own controversial views on vaccines, rather than adhering to the broad scientific consensus. While this serves only to provide official ACIP-recommended guidelines to parents on the MMRV vaccine, concerns have been raised about how this may negatively impact health insurance coverage for the vaccine and, in turn, yield lower vaccination rates.

• Biden’s missing border crossing kids found: Joe Biden’s administration allowed more than 500,000 children to cross the U.S. southern border without a parent. By 2023, the New York Times was reporting that the government had lost track of 88,000 of those kids. His administration left unaddressed the more than 65,000 kids who were flagged at the southern border for safety concerns. The Trump administration had tracked down 10,000 of the missing children by July. Now that number has risen to 22,000 children found and more than 400 criminal sponsors arrested. Assuming every child that has been located was one of those flagged for safety concerns, that leaves 43,000 children that the Trump administration still needs to track down.

• 48 Trump nominees confirmed in a single vote: Senate Republicans just went nuclear. That’s the description they’ve given of the rule change Republicans have been forced to enact in the face of obstructionist Democrats. The “nuclear option” allows for lower-level nominees to be confirmed in groups; higher-level nominees, like cabinet positions, still require individual votes. The 48 nominees had already been advanced out of committees, but were held up by individual floor votes that Democrats were dragging out to the maximum extent. The 51-47 party line vote is the first of its kind, and if those votes hold, it should allow Republicans to quickly work through the backlog of Trump’s nominees that Democrats have held up with blanket holds.

• Kids’ gaming site under scrutiny over Kirk “assassination simulator”: The online gaming site, Roblox, which is popular with children and boasts 380 million monthly active users, has pulled an “assassination simulator” from its platform that appeared not long after Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Roblox also noted that it had pulled over 100 other user-created games that offered similar “experiences” to the Kirk assassination simulator. Roblox CEO David Baszucki stated that he was “saddened” by Kirk’s assassination and that his company’s “Community Standards prohibit content and behavior that re-enacts specific real world violent or sensitive events or promotes terrorism or hatred against individuals or groups.” His “moderation team is taking swift action” to deal with any content that is flagged for policy violations. Meanwhile, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has launched an investigation into Roblox, stating that it “lacks adequate safety measures and is overrun with harmful content and child predators.”

• Federal judges express anti-gun views from the bench: The Second Amendment defense group Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms has raised alarms over the growing number of federal judges expressing anti-gun views from the bench. The group’s chairman, Alan Gottlieb, noted a recent example: Judge James Robart, in sentencing a repeat felon for possessing a firearm, said, “In my experience, a gun is an invitation to get into trouble.” Gottlieb noted other examples, including DC Judge Ana Reyes, who told federal agents during Donald Trump’s recent DC crime crackdown that “I freak out around guns.” Last year, New York Judge Abena Darkeh objected to a defendant referencing the Constitution, stating, “Do not bring the Second Amendment into this courtroom. It doesn’t exist here. So, you can’t argue Second Amendment. This is New York.”

• Trump looking to return troops to Bagram: Leaving Afghanistan was a disastrous mistake. Donald Trump recently announced that the U.S. is working to reestablish a troop presence at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. “We were going to leave Afghanistan, but we were going to leave it with strength and dignity, and we were going to keep Bagram, the big air base — one of the biggest air bases in the world,” Trump recently stated. “We’re trying to get it back, by the way.” He then explained, “One of the reasons we want the base is, as you know, it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.” While the U.S. and Taliban have no formal diplomatic relationship currently, Trump stated that there exist economic means that could be leveraged in order to regain Bagram: “We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us.”

Headlines

• Turning Point USA unanimously elects Erika Kirk as new CEO (Not the Bee)

• Expect tight security at State Farm Stadium for Charlie Kirk memorial (Axios)

• Trump inks tech deal with Britain and major firms to shore up trans-Atlantic ties (Washington Times)

• Boxcutter-wielding man arrested for rape of young jogger is twice-deported illegal immigrant (Daily Wire)

• Pennsylvania authorities ID gunman who killed 3 law enforcement agents (NBC News)

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