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The Mets' season has taken another hit.

Andrew Widme, a 42-year-old native of North Dakota and who grew up in Minnesota, had moved to Venezuela in February a week after his wife was deported from the United States, according to her mother.

Do DSA Elites Rank America Worse Than Mao's 70-Million Body Count?

This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal senior contributor Victor Davis Hanson.

We’re hearing more and more from the Democratic Socialists of America about all of the sins of America and very little of the good things we’ve done to ourselves and to the world at large on our 250th birthday. 

What is it, the nature of this DSA, Democratic Socialists of America, and the diversity, equity, inclusion criticism that we were racist, sexist, nativist, cruel, ruthless, etc., etc.  

But my question is, compared to what? 

Mao Zedong? He killed 70 million people.

He was the greatest mass murderer in history, and that government is still communist in an unbroken chain from [Chinese leader] Xi [Jinping] all the way back to Mao. Do we ever talk about that or the million people who are in concentration camps in China? 

Compared to historically to the Aztecs? 

We’re told the Aztecs were great people. They had an empire, but they crushed over a million people to create their empire. Some years, they sacrificed up to 10,000, maybe 15,000 a year of conquered tribes of fellow Indigenous people. 

Do we remember Shaka Zulu, the 19th-century creator of the Zulu nation?

He was responsible for a genocide in crushing his enemies that probably cost over a million lives. 

Do we really think that the Native Americans were living in paradise until Europeans came? The story of Native Americans was conquest, enslavement, butchery of rival tribes. 

So, what is going on? 

We have a tradition in the West of self-criticism. That’s what makes us different. Rationalism, self-criticism, improvement. But when that goes to an extreme, it ventures from self-criticism and self-reflection to nihilism, and it’s quite destructive. 

So, let’s just take a look at where the United States is compared to the rest. 

Look at immigration. Why do a million people, or 2 million people, 10,000 a day under Joe Biden, from very poor countries, most of them from what we would call the former Third World that were victims of socialism, why do they risk their lives coming here every year? 

Why do all these critics of the United States … [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], why did her parents want to come here? Why did [Rep.] Ilhan Omar’s father want to come here? Why did [Rep.] Rashida Tlaib’s father want to come here? Why did [New York City Mayor] Zohran Mamdani’s parents want to come? Was it so bad? 

Can’t they ever acknowledge that they came here because they had greater security, they had greater freedom, they had greater economic opportunity? And if they had criticisms, it was never enough that they wanted to go back to the places that they praised, but only from a distance and in the abstract. 

The truth is that the poor in the United States are better off than most of the middle classes in every other country. 

We saw that in the World Cup when middle- and upper-middle-class Europeans came over, and unlike … to watch the games, and unlike most tourists, they didn’t just stick on the coasts. They went to places in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, the South, and the Midwest. 

And they found two things.

One, Americans were amazingly friendly and open, upbeat, not downers and drab, and everything’s terrible, which they expected from their experiences in Europe. 

And more importantly, they were affluent. They had big homes. They had air conditioning. the poor had appurtenances. Everybody has a cell phone. Nobody worries about the cost, apparently. 

There’s also then the hypocrisy of a lot of our critics.

And let me just give you an example of a few of them. 

Hasan Piker is a child of very, very wealthy Turkish immigrants that became U.S. citizens. He grew up for much of his life in Turkey. He gave a talk the other day in a Mao suit to Democratic Socialists of America. Think about that. He put on the uniform, so to speak, of the greatest mass murderer in history, and then he denounced capitalism. 

But he didn’t denounce capitalism in his own life because his parents are multimillionaires. He is a multimillionaire, and he drives a, what? $120,000 Porsche. Isn’t that a luxury of the bourgeoisie? 

And then there’s Zohran Mamdani, of course. His family, as I pointed out numerous times, was the elite of the elite of the elite in Uganda, a community of expatriates, Indians, from India that control 60% of the wealth, and they’re only 1% of the population. 

And he grew up in privilege here. He had a very nice home. He has a family estate on Lake Victoria, of all places. 

Ro Khanna, the congressman from California, he always is pointing out the evils of Republicans, and as he looks at the drift of the Democratic Party, he puts his finger in the wind, and he says socialism is the answer. Ro Khanna does. 

But he’s a multimillionaire. His father-in-law is one of the wealthiest members of the Indian American community, probably worth $500 or $600 million. His own children have been deeded golf courses. His wife drives a $190,000 Range Rover, and he’s lecturing us about our shortfalls? 

And then, of course, we come to [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom. He wants to get in on the socialist craze, so he said the other day, as is his wont, moving his arms around and being very slick and glib, that capitalism fails. It didn’t work. 

It worked for you, Gavin. You have a $9 million home. 

You are the, basically, the quote-unquote, “protégé” of the Gordon Getty oil for- fortune, who backed all of your business opportunities. 

Graham Platner, the now-disgraced madman who thought he was going to be senator with a Nazi tattoo. He criticized capitalism. He said that, you know, he was drifting towards socialism, very critical of America. 

But he really wasn’t a small-business person. He was a construct. His mother and father, who were very wealthy, one owned an upscale restaurant, the other was a well-known, often corporate real estate lawyer. They set him up in business, and they were his only client, and they allowed him to have land to use. 

So, what I’m getting at is most of this criticism of America is not coming from the so-called poor. It’s not coming from the lower middle classes. It’s coming from elites in urban enclaves who have done very well with capitalism, and they feel that by mouthing these socialist and communist platitudes, it’s a way to get power within the Democratic Party first, and then within the United States second. 

And remember one thing, this is not new. Most of the violent socialist communist movements in history, whether we look at the anarchist of the late 19th century, or whether we look at the Bolsheviks of 1905 all the way up to the Russian Revolution of 1917, or we look at the revolutions of 1848 in Europe, especially the Reign of Terror, 1792 and 1793, when a bunch of very wealthy, this should sound familiar, socialists hijacked the French Revolution and turned it into a Stalinist-like murder spree. 

They all had one thing in common. They were very, very wealthy, and they hated the very system that had enriched them, and they wanted to try out a whole series of nihilist projects on whom? On the middle class and the poor, with the proviso that none of their ideology would ever apply to themselves. 

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/25/2026 - 15:10

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Democratic Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke was indicted by a grand jury on charges of criminal conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery and falsifying candidate committee reports stemming from a bribe she allegedly took as a state lawmaker in 2022.

Hundreds of aggressive demonstrators marched through downtown Madison, Wisc., on Friday to protest the killing of Corey Ruiz, a career criminal who allegedly stabbed a police officer.

BLM Is Back And Protesting The Police Shooting Of Another Violent Career Criminal

They are far less active across the US in 2026, but not truly gone.  Is it exasperating, or, is it entertaining?  It depends on how you look at it.  Yes, the Black Lives Matter movement is back, and big surprise, they're angry over the police shooting of another violent minority criminal.  But, is he black?

Not according to his extensive offender detail record, in which his race is listed as "White" and his ethnicity is listed as "Latino".  Yet another in a long line of imprisoned minority perpetrators falsely identified as white on their rap sheet in order to artificially reduce official crime stats.  That said, it's nice to know that BLM is finally admitting that all lives matter. 

Corey Durrell Ruiz, 38, recently released from prison, was approached by police while riding a bicycle after allegedly attempting to enter (break into) random vehicles in Madison, Wisconsin.  He was also suspected of a previous bike theft.  

When officers attempted to detain Ruiz, he ran.  He was tackled off the bike, but produced a fixed blade knife and stabbed one of the officers.  The wounded officer fired three shots, killing the suspect.  

July 22, 2026 – Madison, Wisconsin.

Four officers struggle to arrest a man suspected of stealing bikes and checking cars.

During the fight, he pulls a large fixed-blade knife.

One officer is stabbed. A second officer is also injured.

A female officer yells “Taser, Taser,…

— Louis Montoya (@montoyalouis1) July 24, 2026

Generally speaking, pulling any weapon during an arrest and trying to use it against an LEO is legal justification for the use of deadly force in return.  It is unlikely that the officers involved will face charges in court.  Not to be overlooked, Corey Ruiz has a long criminal history of up to 40 separate misdemeanors and felonies dating back to 2007. 

This includes an extensive history of attacking police officers, and yes, this does matter because it shows a consistent pattern of violence.  A world without Corey Ruiz is, objectively, a better world.

 

The Black Lives Matter movement and the mainstream media have immediately seized on the shooting in an effort to exploit it for political purposes.  The local Democrat run government is already bending the knee to protesters as they hijack press briefings with inane fatiguery.  BLM mobs are stalking Madison looking for chances to create chaos.  Wisconsin's leftist governor is calling for "accountability" in the shooting.

It's fascinating that the family of Corey Ruiz has appeared on camera to demand transparency, given that Ruiz was listed as homeless at the time of the encounter with police.  Multiple reports indicate mental health and substance abuse issues, and apparently no one from Ruiz's family was willing to give him a place to stay.  They are, though, readily available to soak up the media spotlight and feed the activist fervor in the wake of his death. 

News outlets are circulating photos of Ruiz from 2014; a common tactic used by the media to make the suspect look younger and elicit greater empathy from gullible portions of the public.

  

Concert attendees in Madison got a taste of the old BLM mob mentality when protesters stormed the venue and demanded a platform for their grievances.  As much as they would like this to become a "George Floyd moment", however, times have changed and BLM has exhausted much of the public support they had in 2020. 

Mob of angry protesters crashed a concert in Madison, Wisconsin, demanding "justice" for Corey Ruiz, a black man who was shot and killed by police after he allegedly pulled a knife during an arrest.

They essentially held the attendees hostage while hijacking the stage. The event… pic.twitter.com/J2GALWl4ob

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 23, 2026

The shooting is a clear case of officer self defense based on eye witness accounts and the available video footage.  Police body cams are liable to give more detailed insight into the incident, but the evidence against Ruiz is already damning.  

Leftist groups and Democrats seem to be angling for more Kenosha-style riots, perhaps as a means to create disruption during an election year.  But the American populace is tired of the theatrics.  If the protests don't fade due to lack of interest and riots do take place, few people are going to shed a tear if the National Guard drops the hammer on them.  

Ultimately, Ruiz is one of many repeat offenders who had no chance of reform; a member of the 1% of people who cause the vast majority of societal grief for the other 99%.  He should have stayed locked up for the safety of the community at large, and if he had been he would still be alive today.  Maybe, though, that's not what the Democrats and BLM really want.  

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/25/2026 - 14:35

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