France Is a Warning to California's Tax-the-Rich Crowd

French economist Gabriel Zucman has come to California bearing a familiar French solution to a fiscal problem: another tax. Once based at the University of California, Berkeley, Zucman is back and campaigning for Proposition 40, which would impose an allegedly one-time 5 percent tax on the net worth of Californians worth more than $1 billion. 

Zucman, who coauthored the proposition, estimates that the tax could raise about $100 billion and claims that 90 percent of the proceeds would go to health care. The California Legislative Analyst's office is far more cautious, saying it would raise only "tens of billions" and could cause a long-term loss of income-tax revenue as wealthy people leave the state with the companies they created.

 I've written plenty about why wealth taxes are economically destructive, administratively nightmarish, and unlikely to achieve anything close to what their advocates promise. But Zucman's prescription is wrong for a more fundamental reason, as his (and my) native country shows: Raising taxes to fuel ever-larger demands for government spending is a recipe for disaster.

France is a warning to California's tax-the-rich crowd

93% of Protestant pastors don’t plan to endorse candidates from the pulpit: survey

 Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, more than 90% of Protestant pastors do not plan to endorse political candidates, even if their churches would face no legal consequences, according to a new Lifeway Research study.

A Lifeway Research survey of over 1,000 Protestant pastors in the United States released Tuesday finds that 93% of respondents won't endorse any political candidates during worship services even after being told the Internal Revenue Service said last year that it wouldn't strip tax-exempt status of churches if their pastors or leaders make political endorsements.

By contrast, 5% of pastors surveyed said they do plan to endorse candidates during worship, while the rest said they were unsure whether they would do so.

“Since historically very few Protestant pastors had endorsed candidates from the pulpit, we were interested in whether the IRS ruling last year would change that,” Lifeway Research Executive Director Scott McConnell said a statement. “Were pastors simply obeying the tax law or was their neutrality in a worship setting their conviction?”

The survey of 1,003 Protestant pastors was conducted Sept. 2 to 24, 2025. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

African American pastors (11%) and pastors of other ethnicities (9%) were twice as likely than white pastors (4%) to say they plan to endorse candidates. Pentecostal (13%), Baptist (9%) and non-denominational (7%) pastors were also more likely than Lutheran (1%) and Methodist (1%) pastors to say they plan to endorse a candidate.

The survey was conducted about two months after the IRS submitted a joint motion for entry of consent judgment last July to settle a lawsuit, saying the agency doesn't enforce Johnson Amendment restrictions "against houses of worship for speech concerning electoral politics in the context of worship services."

93% of pastors don’t plan to endorse candidates from pulpit | Church & Ministries

‘French Intifada’: Mayor Calls For Terror Investigation Into ‘Islamo-Leftist’ Riots, Ban on Antifa Groups

A leading French mayor has called for the government to open up terror investigations into the urban youth riots over the weekend, and to ban far-left militant groups like Antifa. Éric Ciotti, the Mayor of Nice, France’s fifth largest city, said that the unrest seen throughout the country over the weekend, which included widespread attacks on police, mass looting, and arson attacks on government buildings, should be treated by prosecutors as terrorism, while warning that “Islamo-Leftism” is seeking “to overthrow” the Republic. 

 “The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office needs to step in and track down these far-left groups—these coordinated, organized structures that seek to attack the institutions of the Republic. It’s clear that institutions were targeted—not just in other cities, but here in our own city as well. They attempted to attack the town hall, for instance, and they also targeted police stations,” the Nice Mayor told broadcaster BFMTV. 

 The leader of the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR) party and ally of National Rally presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said that France is facing a “hybrid phenomenon” in which the far-left is coordinating and fuelling riots from a “mix of Islamists and drug traffickers, or ‘narco-Islamists’,” and lower level “armed robbers”. “We are facing a red fascism, a French Intifada, a form of insurrection where Islamists, Antifa members, rioters, and looters—remotely controlled by the far left with terrorist aims—converge,” he said referencing the Palestinian terror campaigns against Israel, adding that there are “more Palestinian flags than French flags” at the demonstrations.

French Mayor Calls For Terrorism Investigation Into 'Islamo-Leftist' Riots

Televangelist George Bloomer wins $62.2M in racial discrimination lawsuit against Word Network

 Televangelist George Bloomer was awarded $62.2 million by a federal jury, four years after suing Kevin Adell, the white owner of The Word Network, billed as the “largest African American religious network in the world,” for race discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.

A federal jury in Detroit made the award Wednesday following a five-day trial before U.S. District Judge Susan DeClercq, The Detroit News reported.

Bloomer, 63, who founded the Bethel Family Worship Center, a multicultural ministry in Durham, North Carolina, hosted the television programs “Rejoice in the Word” and “The First Word” on the network from approximately 2011 to September 2019. He left the network in 2019 following an uproar over a controversial meme showing the pimping of black pastors. Black pastors protested and called for a boycott of the network.

In the petition calling for the boycott, Bloomer alleged that in September 2019, Adell texted a photoshopped image of himself dressed as a pimp surrounded by well-known black clergy he called “hoes” to various staff members, many of whom are black. Bloomer was included in the text.

“When Bishop Bloomer stated: ‘This is not funny. This is not good. That pimp talk and hoe talk has racist connotations for Black people.’ Adell texted Bishop Bloomer a second time and said that ‘it’s funny and he should get over it,’” the petition said.

Televangelist George Bloomer wins $62.2M in discrimination suit | U.S.

Is the LGBT fad fading?

 On an especially prescient episode of “Seinfeld,” Kramer refused to “wear the ribbon” during a walk-a-thon to support AIDS research.

Last month, life imitated art at a school in Burlington, Massachusetts, when a group of middle schoolers refused to participate in Pride Day. Instead of rainbow colors, many wore black, or even red, white, and blue. Some announced their pronouns as “U, S, and A.” When teachers and community leaders denounced their sacrilege, parents came to their kids’ defense. As one mom said, “I wish these schools would pump the brakes on what they are shoving down our kids throats.” 

This may not be a random incident. After astonishing growth in the last few decades, the number of young people, identifying as LGBT is now in decline. “Trans identification,” according to Professor and author Eric Kaufmann, “is in freefall. (And) non-conforming sexual identity is also in sharp decline.” Last year, his report on the student body survey from the exclusive Phillips Academy Andover found “a drop from over 9% non-binary in 2023 to 3% in 2025.”  

Is the LGBT fad fading?

Confused About Pope Leo’s Death Penalty Comments? Here’s What You Need To Know | Ep 302

 

Texas AG Ken Paxton qualifies support for data centers: 'A yes with conditions'

 Texas Attorney General and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton outlined what he called a conditional “Texas first” approach to data center development in an attempt to quell opposition from residents concerned about losing their water, particularly in rural areas, and spikes in utility rates.  

Speaking to an audience of small business owners and community leaders at the “In Dialogue: Texas” event hosted by the United States Hispanic Business Council (USHBC) in Fort Worth on Saturday, Paxton said he sees data centers as essential rather than optional. “This is not an extreme yes-no. This is a yes with conditions,” he told USHBC President and CEO Javier Palomarez. 

Paxton qualifies support for data centers: A yes with conditions | Politics