A Roar From the Radical Left

Good morning!

If you thought Trump’s return to power would send the radical left into retreat, this week is a good reason to think again.

[BRIEF]

• Far from fading, the party’s most ideological radicals just won big. And it wasn’t an isolated case.

In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed defeated establishment favorite Haley Stevens for the Democratic Senate nomination. His platform: abolish ice, Medicare for all, cut off aid to Israel.

• He won while being outspent roughly 9 to 1. aipac’s super pac alone poured tens of millions into stopping him. It didn’t matter.

Ties to Islamism: This week in a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Muslim Brotherhood networks in America, we learned that El-Sayed’s father-in-law sits on the founding committee of the Islamic Society of North America and once led cair’s Michigan chapter. He gave $200,000 to the pro-El-Sayed super pac.

• Separately, at least 41 people with cair affiliations, including the group’s national board chair, treasurer and executive director, gave the campaign more than $115,000.
• Both isna and cair were named unindicted coconspirators in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation case, and a federal judge found “ample evidence” tying isna to Hamas.

El-Sayed’s race against Republican Mike Rogers this fall is a genuine toss-up. His success exposes a growing ideological rift within the Democratic Party.

• Centrists fear the radicalization of the party, arguing that progressive candidates like El-Sayed and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani energize Republican opposition as much as they excite the base.
• Radicals argue that the future is with younger, angrier voters and that grassroots energy, not donor contentment, is what’s actually turning out votes.

The pattern is bigger than one race. Democratic Socialist-endorsed candidates won primaries this cycle in Colorado, California and New Jersey—part of a House progressive bloc projected to grow from four members in 2018 to between 18 and 24 in the 2027–2029 Congress.

• Most of that growth is in safely blue seats, where the primary is the only real contest.

Texas’s James Talarico is a different flavor of the same trend. He beat a more combative progressive, Jasmine Crockett, by sounding softer and more unifying—but his politics are standard progressivism.

• He’s a Presbyterian seminarian—but his theology may be more radical than her politics. He has argued that God asked Mary for “consent” before Jesus’s conception as scriptural grounding for abortion rights. He’s used Matthew 25 to argue the Bible mandates government-run health care.

Meanwhile, Republicans can hardly gloat. Four gop-held House seats—held by Chuck Edwards in North Carolina, Max Miller in Ohio, Cory Mills in Florida, and Andy Ogles in Tennessee—have gone from safe to competitive because of scandals: sexual harassment findings, abuse allegations, an fbi phone seizure, and accusations of stolen valor.

• These are districts Trump won by 9 to 13 points, now turned into toss-ups by self-inflicted political wounds.

America’s founders bluntly said the system they built assumes a moral and self-governing citizenry to run it. John Adams warned that America’s Constitution “was made only for a moral and religious people.”

A political culture producing radicalized primaries on one side and disgraced incumbents on the other shows that allowing the rot and the dismantlement of our moral and religious underpinnings has drastic consequences.

Iran War Update

• Iran and Oman are close to announcing a deal over the Strait of Hormuz, multiple media outlets are reporting. A deal would likely cement joint control over the transit route and possibly include charging tolls.
• Iran is working on a nuclear weapon, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leader Ahmad Vahidi admitted, according to Israeli media. Vahidi, who is likely Iran’s most powerful leader, said, “As long as the United States and Israel possess nuclear weapons, we will continue working on them for our national security.” Iran’s government has repeatedly denied that its nuclear program is for the purpose of making a nuclear weapon: Vahidi’s comment is a rare admission from a senior Iranian official.
• Yemen’s Houthis threatened to intensify attacks on Red Sea shipping yesterday, specifying that they would close “all access routes” for vessels carrying oil from Saudi Arabia. The Iran-backed terror group declared a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia on July 20.
• Israel struck Hezbollah yesterday in its first strikes on southern Lebanon since June, responding to Hezbollah’s violation of its ceasefire with Israel earlier that day. The strikes targeted the village of al-Mansouri as Israeli and Lebanese delegations were in Rome during peace talks.

German Airport Targeted by New Form of Warfare

A drone carrying an explosive device was discovered overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday at a German airport. The Leipzig/Halle Airport serves as a hub for military logistics supporting Ukraine and nato allies. Investigators believe the device targeted a Ukrainian Antonov cargo aircraft.

• A bomb-disposal robot removed the detonator from the drone. Security authorities believe the detonator malfunctioned, preventing an explosion.

German officials described the incident as a new and more dangerous category of security threat.

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said this presents a “new level of danger,” explaining, “None of this points to an amateurish approach. We’re talking about a professional hybrid threat scenario that we need to continue addressing.”

Drone defense: The German government is currently equipping the nation’s eight largest airports with sophisticated drone-defense technology “at the speed of light,” according to a statement from Federal Aviation Association managing director Joachim Lang today.

• Drones and robots enable foreign actors to strike far behind enemy lines without putting soldiers at risk. Multiple coordinated incidents, guided by artificial intelligence, could cripple airports, even if each attack caused only limited damage.

Bible prophecy reveals that the brewing conflicts in our world will soon escalate and Germany will be at the center of it. Incidents like these add urgency to Germany’s war preparations.

Germany Prepares for Conscientious Objectors

In a sign of how serious Germany is about reintroducing conscription, the nation’s Ministry of Family Affairs is preparing a civilian service program for conscientious objectors, Bild reported on Tuesday.

• If conscription were implemented, the labor loss in civil services, such as senior care and emergency services, would be among the first effects felt. The government is already working to resolve that issue.
• It told Bild that it must “already have the foundations for a modern civilian service in place” should conscription “become necessary.” As soon as next year, many charitable organizations could be ready to accommodate the objectors, a government survey found.

Planning for the reinstatement of conscription is well underway.

• All men born from 2008 on must fill out a questionnaire regarding their willingness to serve and, beginning next year, they must complete a medical evaluation.
• In January, a clause in Germany’s conscription law was added that stated all German men between ages 17 and 45 had to alert the German Armed Forces if they planned to leave the country for more than three months. That clause has since been suspended due to public outrage.

Cause for alarm? Conscription was the norm in Germany since the 1950s and only ended in 2011. What makes it concerning now is its being coincident with Germany rebuilding its military juggernaut.

Bible prophecy warns this increasingly empowered German military will not be used solely to defend against Russia—it will first be used against several of Germany’s “allies.”

IN OTHER NEWS

Japan’s military buildup accelerates: Japan must further strengthen its national defense to counter China’s rapidly expanding reach into the Pacific, its Defense Ministry said in a white paper released Tuesday. Describing China as “an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge” to Japan’s security, the paper said the Japanese must not only increase military spending but also build a more robust defense industrial base and bolster its alliances. Japan and China are locked in an intensifying rivalry, driving both powers to build formidable military might. Yet biblical prophecy reveals that they will ultimately unite under Russian leadership and unleash that power in the deadliest war mankind has ever known.

FBI characterized Trump as Russian asset after Comey firing: Yesterday, the White House released declassified fbi memos about a 2017 counterintelligence investigation, code-named “Oxferd Comma” [sic], that began right after President Trump fired fbi Director James Comey. Investigators were told Trump might be directed, controlled or coordinated by Russia in ways that threatened U.S. national security. They also examined whether he tried to obstruct the related fbi Crossfire Hurricane investigation. The inquiry opened on May 16, 2017, and closed in April 2019 as Special Counsel Robert Mueller completed his own probe. Mueller concluded there was no evidence of conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. In his book America Under Attack, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry emphasizes that the Obama administration used the Clinton-Steele dossier to frame Trump as colluding with Russia to destroy his presidency. The newly released “Oxferd Comma” documents corroborate and shed additional light on that effort.