It’s Wednesday, September 9. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Audrey Fahlberg on the purity tests disrupting the DSA’s path to victory. Isabella Redjai interviews residents of the “data center capital of the world.” Matt Pottinger and Liza Tobin on the great Chinese AI heist. And much more.
But first: Does guaranteed basic income for ex-cons work?
Every month, a Florida man gives away $800 to ex-cons to help them regain their bearings. It’s part of an experiment being conducted in a number of places to see if a guaranteed income, for six months or a year, will help keep those newly released from prison from winding up back inside. The data so far is promising, though far from definitive, writes P.G. Sittenfeld. But anecdotally, their transformative effects are clear.
The Florida man is Kevin Scott, who heads a Gainesville-based nonprofit, and he was once behind bars himself. “The joy of being free was counterbalanced by the terror of, ‘How am I going to make these probation payments?’ ” Scott said.
Leaving prison on parole is one thing. Staying out is another matter entirely—many states charge parolees monthly fees when they leave, and of course someone with a felony on his record has a difficult time finding work. That’s where Scott, and other private philanthropists, come in.
Sittenfeld also knows what it’s like to serve time. As he wrote in a Free Press article last year, he was caught up in an FBI sting and wound up in jail for four and a half months before President Donald Trump pardoned him in 2025. Read his latest report on the NGOs writing the checks, the ex-cons cashing them, and whether the solution to our high recidivism rates could be as simple as a little bit of money.
—The Editors
Live in New York City: Bari Weiss and Simon Sebag Montefiore on the Making of the Modern Middle East
On October 1, Bari Weiss returns to the stage for her first live event in nearly a year, joined by renowned historian Dr. Simon Sebag Montefiore to discuss his latest book The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East. Paying subscribers get early access to tickets until Thursday, September 10, at 12 p.m. ET.
MORE FROM THE FREE PRESS
THE NEWS
Britain, Canada, and France issued sanctions against Israeli settlements in the West Bank on Tuesday, citing concerns of escalating settler violence. In response, Israel threatened to close the British consulate in Jerusalem, which represents the UK in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza.
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Lonnie G. Bunch announced his resignation Tuesday following clashes with President Trump over how the American museum presents its history and values. “I have to be honest, it has been stressful,” Bunch, 73, told The New York Times. “And at a certain point, I’d like to wake up in the morning and not look at my cellphone.”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh blocked a redrawn Missouri congressional map favoring Republicans on Tuesday, deferring to the state’s Supreme Court, which said voters must approve the map in a statewide referendum. The map had already been used in last month’s primary election, and the state court did not specify what map would be used in November’s general election.
Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods took effect Tuesday in an escalation of the trade war between the two neighboring countries. The tariffs span about $20 billion in American products—including milk, video game consoles, and fishing rods—which represent a small piece of the $700 billion in goods that flowed across the U.S.-Canada border last year.
Houthi terrorists attacked four Saudi cities on Tuesday, wounding more than 70 people and marking a major expansion of the war in Iran. The U.S. also resumed attacks on Iranian tankers after a two-day pause, responding to attempted Iranian strikes on a U.S. Navy warship, officials said.
Two art thieves stole four Renoir paintings Tuesday from a museum on the French Riviera, jettisoning two of the works as they fled. The heist took less than three minutes and targeted the most valuable paintings in the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, according to the office of the regional prosecutor.
A secret screening of a documentary featuring disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes stirred the Telluride film festival into a frenzy over the weekend. The three-hour documentary features exclusive, at-length interviews between comedian Nathan Fielder and Holmes that were conducted months before she began her 11-year prison sentence. The film will debut in theaters on October 16.
When the covetous rule the earth….according to the DSA.
It has been suggested that DSA prospective members follow Bernie, O’Cortez, and Mamdani in order to get a handle on how to be a good socialist/communist. They are the leaders. That is according to this article. I mean what happened to these people in their early childhood cognitive development that made them so covetous? And, these three have bonafides that would include any conservative, financially well-off member rather than the communist rhetoric they spew. Cmon people. Net worth anyone?
They seemed to never understand how you can get through life producing as little as possible while coveting all the things most of us are willing to work for. It would almost seem that E. Walker’s “learned helplessness,” an old theory that excuses weakness, and sometimes laziness, or numbness (due to trauma) for strength. Whining instead of resiliency. Remaining ordinary while coveting the extraordinary. Self-empowerment is hard stuff. Painful. It can be so soothing once accomplished. But these people would never understand.
These three role models tout the socialist/communist tenets of taking while never earning. I mean someone please provide me a list of the accomplishments of these three - objectively. It’s gonna be a small one. How bout Gordillo, New York DSA Chair, who never worked, lives in a million dollar plus home owned by his mommy and daddy who spouts how making money on money is a sin. How does he think his family could afford keeping him in the luxury he inhabits? The four mentioned herein do not walk the walk. And that transparency is what will, hopefully, end their covetousness.
So, give them every opportunity to speak. And whilst you are at it, provide simultaneously, how they live, how they earn their livings, their net worth, their investments, their lifestyles. I hear that the recent DSA convention was held at a four star hotel. How much did they spend on room service and amenities? Masks aside.
Don’t you just love transparency? As to factions in the DSA and the dem party, well, when you are a lazyleftdemmcommunist, what can you expect? No one earns. They bitch. Get several of them in a room, and belt and braces everyone. They eat their own. And so it goes with covetousness.
If you're interested in the program of speakers for the Republicn mid-term convention starting today, the Washington Examiner has it. You probably can see it only on CSPAN:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/4717742/rnc-midterm-convention-speaking-order/