Homosexuality is incompatible with the priestly vocation. Otherwise, celibacy itself would lose its meaning as a renunciation.
Distinction Matter - Subscribed Feeds
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Site: Henrymakow.com(Image courtesy Winter Watch)Please send links and comments to hmakow@gmail.comAmericans are stuck with the harsh reality that Donald Trump is not only a war criminal (Israel), he is a pedophile like his predecessor Joe Biden. Many of our political and cultural leaders (see Diddy) are blackmailed.Musk is right that Trump should be impeached and replaced by JD Vance.Will Musk walk back his accusations for the sake of his businesses?The MAGA dilemma: Do they ignore Trump's liabilities because he is expelling illegal migrants and ending DEI?Mossad has videos of Trump raping underage girls. They can blackmail him into attacking Iran. This is a national security issue of the highest order.Downplaying this issue exposes Illuminati shills like Joe Rogan who questions how Musk could possibly know Trump is a pedophile. The whole world has known this for years.Makow- I side with Musk. It is understandable that he would break with Trump after Trump's Big Beautiful Budget undoes all the good DODG did. Trump is a grifter. This will become clear to everyone eventually. Trump could put this issue to rest by releasing the Epstein videos. But that would discredit him and much of the American political establishment. BTW, we're still waiting for the Fort Knox audit and the truth about the CIA's murder of JFK.-----Alex Jones proves he not a complete shillThe Big Question No one is Asking-When will Trump Reply to Musk Charge?-Over 12,000 current and former service members signed a series of letters since the collapse of the ceasefire in March calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government to end the war and declaring they will refuse to serve if it continues-Disingenuous Trump trivializes anyone else's rights. NATO has been waging a proxy war against Russia.Kremlin Says Threat Is 'Existential' After Trump Likens Ukraine War To 'Two Kids Fighting In The Park'-Bayer's Push For State-Level Roundup Immunity Sparks Backlash In The Heartland"Monsanto is trying to push legislation that would take away constitutional rights"In a brazen bid to shield itself from a tsunami of lawsuits over its toxic Roundup herbicide, Monsanto (acquired by Bayer Pharmaceutical) has unleashed a multi-state lobbying blitz to secure immunity from liability, with Missouri as a key battleground.The agrochemical giant, reeling from over $8.68 billion in pre-reduction jury verdicts and $11 billion in settlements, is pushing state legislatures to pass bills that would block "failure-to-warn" claims tied to glyphosate, Roundup's cancer-linked ingredient.-Brazilian Comedian Leo Lins Sentenced to Over Eight Years in Prison for Stand-Up RoutineIn Brazil, telling the wrong joke now carries more jail time than most white-collar crime.---Joachim Hagopian - Trump's war on our constitutional republic with his latest fascist merger with Palantir..."Trump's 1,118 page "Big Beautiful Bill" (BBB) as he calls it, narrowly approved by the House last week and now up for the Senate vote, ensures that all US states neither have the right to interfere nor alter the seemingly unstoppable, highly invasive and warned deleterious lethal effects of Artificial Intelligence over the next ten years. Trump's BBB subversively intends to supersede our states' constitutional jurisdictional rights over another invasive federal law, in this case preventing any state from otherwise protecting its citizens from AI's harmful, potentially deadly consequences. Not-so-hidden away in this Trojan horse monstrosity bombshell adding $2.5 trillion more to the US national deficit lies the disastrous economic doomsday fate of America."-Hamdy Mig--"I repeat my appeal to you once again, this is Sarah, my niece, she is not more than two years old, she suffers from diseases due to malnutrition, and we fear that the complications of the diseases will increase due to the lack of basic materials such as milk and food, and due to the high prices of available food commodities, I appeal to you to donate and contribute to the ability to treat her and try to buy all the basic materials necessary for her treatment, I ask you to help me in saving her life.."A Way to Help Gaza-The goyim are lining up to die for IsraelThe U.S. Army has announced it has already achieved its recruitment goals for 2025, four months ahead of expectations, noting that 61,000 new recruits have joined. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll made the announcement on June 3, making it the first time in over ten years that the Army had met its recruitment goal by the start of June.-Another sign of creeping social dementia is that media headlines no longer convey information but tease you to click on the story to find out what is happening. For example- Michael Jaco & Cathy O'Brien: Shocking Intel Drops - It's All Coming Down to This!"It's all coming down to WHAT???" I don't have 20 minutes to find out.-Epstein Cover-Up Specialist Kash Patel tries to recover some credibility by going after FauciHe has recovered Fauci's phones.-Donald Trump Jr. and his business partners are launching GrabAGun, an e-commerce platform dubbed the "Amazon of guns." It targets rising demand among non-traditional buyers like women and younger conservatives.-Members of the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) celebrate after the "adoption" of the Pandemic Agreement during the 78th World Health Assembly. The INB, which spearheaded negotiations on the agreement, has 6 members -- 3 of whom hail from BRICS statesBRICS are Not our friends - Endorse Plandemic Scam by Edward Slavsquat-
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Site: AsiaNews.itThe Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) office of the Capuchins in Medan, North Sumatra, issued a strong appeal for the protection of the Lake Toba region. Speaking out against rising environmental exploitation and the threat to the rights of indigenous peoples, they ask the government to act and slam the devastation caused by business interests, in particular by Toba Pulp Lestari Tbk.
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Site: Steyn OnlineThey're almost all gone now, but there was a time when every city had its art house cinema – some shabby but proud former "nabe" or second run movie theatre whose management had given itself over to screening foreign films and Hollywood classics, often between regular screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Eraserhead and The Song Remains the Same.
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Site: Steyn OnlineOn this week's episode of Mark Steyn On the Town, we celebrate Georges Bizet and Nancy Sinatra. Plus: a cavalcade of Non-Stop Number Ones, and a rare touch of reggae...
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Site: Zero HedgeThe House Education Committee Gets It Right: Restore Excellence; Dump DEITyler Durden Sat, 06/07/2025 - 09:20
Authored by Teresa Manning via American Greatness,
On May 21, the House Education Committee held a hearing, Restoring Excellence: The Case Against DEI , or “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” a euphemism for neo-racism and therefore a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Thankfully, the hearing got this message across and the presiding chairman, Congressman Burgess Owens of South Carolina, should be commended for convening it.
The panel had four witnesses: a Manhattan Institute Fellow named Renu Mukharjee; Dr. Shaun Harper, a TProvost Professor from the University of Southern California; an attorney from the American Civil Rights Project, Dan Morenoff; and Kurt Miceli, a Medical Director of Do No Harm, an organization focused on protecting medical care from identity politics.
The testimonies made good, if basic, points, though no one mentioned President Trump’s January 21 Executive Order Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit Based Opportunity , an excellent backdrop and guide for the hearing, and only passing reference was made to the 2023 United States Supreme Court opinion banning racial preferences at universities, including when they’re rationalized for the sake of diversity.
But the witnesses did point out that a focus on diversity means competence and excellence take a back seat.
That’s bad for any activity, not just medical care, but also engineering (will bridges collapse?) and flight school (will planes crash?), as well as the arts, athletics, etc. Mediocrity takes over when excellence yields to the race industrial complex.
First, Ms. Mukharjee said that racial minorities are actually harmed by diversity practices, as others presume those minorities are less qualified, calling them “diversity admits” or “diversity hires,” which just reinforces destructive racial stereotypes. Medical Director Miceli also mentioned the concept of racial concordance creeping into medical practice, or the idea that black patients need black doctors. That such nonsense gets any traction at all is a bit depressing. Patients obviously want competent doctors, just as Americans want competence generally.
Only one witness was an ardent defender of diversity ideology—Dr. Shaun Harper. He insisted that DEI had been proven to be beneficial on campus in “dozens of essays,” and in “dozens of books” and “hundreds of peer-reviewed academic journals.” His written remarks go so far as to suggest that abolishing DEI puts higher education at a greater risk of violence on the grounds that DEI reduces institutional susceptibility to racial crises, sexual harassment, and other abuses. This seems a stretch, as claims of racial discrimination and sexual harassment have increased alongside diversity initiatives.
Harper makes other questionable claims, insisting, for example, that attacks on DEI are “politicized.”
Actually, advocating a merit-based society is apolitical. The idea is to let the best man win or to have the cream rise to the top regardless of skin color.
Harper must know that it is diversity ideology itself that is simply politics—identity politics and racial politics designed to divide and conquer the American people, to destroy our national unity, and to keep us fighting each other instead of fighting for a stronger country. A strong America would include a strong national economy using our own, homegrown American students and workforce. For those unaware, diversity is often a moral-sounding cover for cheap labor. Foreigners flood schools and companies, taking seats and jobs from Americans, since they will work for less. This undercuts and depresses the compensation for workers at home, both blue- and white-collar. The recent H1B visa debate on X raised all these issues. In short, illegal immigration, coupled with top-down diversity ideology, has destroyed the national economy and workforce.
Second, no one should be wedded to labels such as “DEI,” since the labels change all the time. Congressman Burgess pointed this out, calling it the rebranding phenomenon. Not only are university DEI offices renaming themselves things like Access, Compliance, and Community offices, but the concept of diversity itself previously went by other terms, such as multiculturalism. But even before that, it was racial preferences, or affirmative action, or reverse discrimination. Americans reject them all. Americans believe in equal opportunity, not playing favorites, much less playing favorites based on skin color.
Third, Harper also seems oblivious to the real target of diversity ideology: Western Civilization and especially the Christian ethics that formed it. In his long list of groups that supposedly contribute to diversity, for example, Christians of European descent are conspicuously absent. DEI’s animus against Christianity is clear from its promotion of sexual degeneracy. DEI encourages all manner of sexual activity except within the context of marriage and family. But traditional Christian teaching specifically protected human sexuality by honoring it within marriage and ordering it toward children and family life. In short, DEI agitators covertly target Christian morals with race as cover.
Obsessing about race in the West is ironic since the West is probably the least racially bigoted region in the world. After all, most of the globe is beset by ethnic tension—India still informally has a caste system, for example; the Middle East and Africa are still largely tribal, as is much of Asia. Witness China’s subjection of the Uyghur people. Ugly tribalism is the norm, not just throughout human history but still in much of the world. While the West had different tribes or nations, its Christian heritage tried to unify them since Christianity was for “all nations” and depended on individual belief, not tribal supremacy.
Furthermore, millions of migrants risk their lives to live in the West and America. But we’re told we’re systemic racists in need of DEI?
Last, pointing to dozens of studies to rationalize DEI is unserious. First, such publications are self-serving; these authors often have academic positions dependent on DEI bureaucracies. But more importantly, everyone knows that universities were captured by the political left decades ago. “Republicans need not apply” is an understatement; many academic departments actually have zero registered Republicans.
The result is that the American college campus is now a place of left-wing political agitation, not a place of serious learning or research.
Consider that Harvard’s own former President Claudine Gay was a serial perjurer. And Oregon professor Pete Boghossian exposed fraud in academic journals when he famously accepted an essay on dog-on-dog sexual assaults in Portland public parks.
Modern academics cite studies because they get to conduct them—they ask the questions, they decide which findings to publish, and they decide what to promote, all the while pretending the content is objective or serious. It’s not. Witness the rise of fake science.
In saner times, academics used words such as reason, understanding, and even wisdom (philosophy), not studies, articles, and journals.
In the end, among the best and most real teachers are experience and reason. Reasonable people know that a country needs unity and excellence to be strong, not diversity—just as the title of the House Education Committee Hearing suggests.
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Site: AsiaNews.itThe Trump administration's immigration restrictions have had a devastating impact on people from Myanmar's, disproportionately affecting refugees and students. Many of them, who have waited years in refugee camps, are now seeing their dreams of a better life in the United States dashed, while the new policies threaten to set a dangerous precedent for other countries.
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Site: AsiaNews.itThe news of the day: North Korea's Internet connection is down for several hours. Bangladesh elections set for the first half of April 2026. The United States sanctions Iranian entities in the UAE and Hong Kong. Myanmar's military junta rejects UN allegations of forced labour.
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Site: Zero HedgeHow Inflation Undermines Culture And ValuesTyler Durden Sat, 06/07/2025 - 08:10
Authored by Daniel Morena Vitonvia The Mises Institute,
In the previous article, I discussed the social consequences of the welfare state; now I want to focus on inflation—or more precisely, on central bank policy. Inflation can broadly be defined as an artificial increase in the money supply that ultimately drives up prices, but this definition overlooks the fact that it is a process in which prices first rise in the capital goods of industries furthest from final consumption and then gradually spread throughout the entire system. Therefore, in an inflationary process, there are a few winners who reap substantial profits, and many losers whose purchasing power declines.
It can be said that inflation is caused by governments, both through monetizing debt and by allowing commercial banks to violate general legal principles regarding the deposit contract. Inflation is a hidden tax with devastating economic and moral consequences; it encourages the population to go into debt by making credit cheaper, and it penalizes saving, increasing the length of time preference. Not only that, but it is also a spiritual burden. It drives people to seek ways to protect their savings, making society more materialistic, causing people to prioritize money over happiness, and often forcing them to migrate, thereby breaking family and patriotic ties.
As Jesús Huerta de Soto explains, the Peel Act of 1844 forms the foundation of modern banking systems. This law correctly prohibited the issuance of banknotes without 100 percent backing, but not that of deposits, as it failed to recognize that deposits are part of the monetary base (M). While issuing unbacked banknotes constitutes forgery and fraud, fractional reserve banking is a form of embezzlement. The ruling issued by Judge Lord Cottenham in 1848 in the case of Foley v. Hill concluded that deposits were under the custody of the banker and, therefore, considered his money to do with as he pleased. This jurisprudence was both binding and disastrous. Moreover, it occurred at a time when grain depositors who had appropriated their clients’ deposits to speculate on the Chicago market were declared to be engaging in fraudulent activity.
On the other hand, human creativity produced a solution that lasted for half a century until World War I: the gold standard. The classical gold standard is a rigid system that prevents disproportionate expansions of the money supply, since the gold stock grows by only about 1-2 percent per year. At the same time, it also prevents any sharp contraction of that supply, and the process of credit expansion through loans not backed by voluntary savings—which creates intertemporal discoordination—cannot occur. With productivity growing at about 3 percent during that period, the years from 1865 to 1896 were marked by deflation. Yet this did not prevent it from being a time of great capital accumulation.
While there were inflationary episodes when rulers manipulated the currency, society did not live under constant inflation as it has in the 20th and 21st centuries. The key difference lies in the central banks. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 granted the Fed the privilege of issuing banknotes and required all banks to hold their reserves in demand deposit accounts with it. The Fed, in Murray Rothbard’s words, is inherently inflationary because it acts as a lender of last resort and can expand its reserves without facing the constraints of a decentralized banking system.
It is no surprise that the Fed reduced the reserve requirements for commercial banks from an average of 21.1 percent to just 3 percent by 1917. Coincidentally, this system came into effect in 1914, and World War I greatly favored its implementation, just as the system facilitated the US entry into the war. Without the Fed, the government would have had to raise taxes directly or print greenbacks, which were highly unpopular. With this system, however, they managed to double the money supply between 1914 and 1919. By 1917, they had obtained permission to issue gold exchange notes and required banks to hold them as deposits with the Fed instead of in physical cash. These measures gradually detached the average American from the habit of using gold in daily life and accustomed them to checks and paper money.
Inflation caused by fiduciary media (although there are other types of inflation, which are neither as obvious nor as persistent over time) has the same redistributive effects as the welfare state, because credit expansion unfolds in several stages. New money enters the economy through specific channels, increasing the purchasing power of those particular actors, who can also consume goods at lower prices. Meanwhile, for the rest of the population, consumer prices rise, leaving them worse off and contributing to a redistribution of income. One could say that inflation promotes capital concentration.
Guido Hülsmann’s claim that the growth of the welfare state and the militarized state would not have been possible without inflation is entirely accurate. This phenomenon has transformed the economic structure since the 20th century. Industrial firms and corporations once relied on retained earnings for financing, with financial intermediaries playing a secondary role. But with the global regime of inflationary fiat money, the tables have turned, and debt has risen at all levels. This is because fractional reserve banking and fiat money violate the non-aggression principle: the latter does so by creating a product that would not survive in a free market and is only used because it is protected by legal tender laws.
As a result, the state’s potential monetary resources are unlimited, since the central bank has unlimited credit through the issuance of national paper money. Investors are aware of this, which is why they continue to buy government bonds even though they know that public debt will never truly be repaid. Credit offered at artificially low interest rates creates perverse incentives, whereby entrepreneurs take on massive debt—but the truth is that an entrepreneur-capitalist operating with only 10 percent equity and 90 percent debt is merely an executive. The real entrepreneur-capitalists are the banks, which act as creditors. Inflation reduces the number of true entrepreneurs—independent men operating with their own money.
The social consequences are numerous. Under inflation, Wilhelm Röpke describes the massive rise in consumer credit and installment purchases as a disorder worthy of parasites and freeloaders, contrary to the idea of living within one’s means—that is, maintaining a balance between income and expenses and living a coherent life. For him, the novelty of democratic-socialist inflation, brought about by the ideologies of mass democracy, is a moral disease stemming from mistaken beliefs about full employment. Inflation causes a vertical surge in investments not backed by real savings, thereby eliminating all incentives to save.
The culture of sacrifice is undermined. As Hülsmann states, “civilization crucially depends on the ability and willingness of at least some of its members to make genuine sacrifices, at least some of the time.” Saving, which is linked to sacrifice, also benefits the economy of giving, and deflation supports it—because falling prices discourage leverage, especially in households. As capital use becomes less profitable, the opportunity cost of making donations drops, which increases charitable giving both in absolute and relative terms. Inflation, by contrast, is harmful because it reduces the value of inheritances, and one of the strongest incentives to save before death is the desire to leave something to one’s loved ones. From this, it follows that one of the most powerful motivations for preserving wealth is the ability to make donations.
The reality is that human motivations are heavily influenced by the political and economic context. Hülsmann continues explaining that monetary expansion first reduces the incentives to save. Families are the school of love and virtue, and they are sources of sacrifice and generosity—but they are not only founded on spiritual grounds, but also on economic ones, rooted in the division of labor and capital accumulation. Inflation forces all participants to dedicate more time to money and investments rather than to starting a family. Under a debt-based system, family ties represent a far greater sacrifice, contributing to rising divorce rates, later ages of first marriage, and fewer children. Inflation has pushed women into the labor market, reduced the costs of leaving the family unit, and increased the number of single mothers and divorces.
To conclude, Hülsmann finally explains how inflationary culture also reduces the time spent on selfless activities like simply being with others, which becomes instrumentalized as “networking”—transforming friendships from relationships of trust into utilitarian arrangements. Every society has individuals with perverse attitudes, but they are usually few and must bear the consequences, including the cost and loss of good company. With inflation, however, these attitudes are subsidized, and the meaning of good and evil is reversed. It also creates tensions between taxpayers and recipients, employers and employees, men and women, or retirees and young professionals, fostering a sense of identity-based conflict or group polarization. Incentives to save in cash are eroded, and savings must either be spent on consumption or invested. In low-income households, the former is more common. The average worker, who only saves in ways he understands—namely, in cash—and who distrusts opening investment accounts with banks or brokers and knows nothing about financial markets, is left with no savings. Inflation has destroyed the working class’s culture of saving, erasing its sense of transcendence.
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Site: LES FEMMES - THE TRUTH
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Site: Rorate CaeliThe Paris-Chartres Pilgrimage started earlier today, with an opening Mass in the massive Church of Saint-Sulpice, in Paris: The pilgrims are on their way, 20 thousand marching towards Our Lady's shrine in Chartres. Let us keep them in our prayers.New Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04118576661605931910noreply@blogger.com
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Site: Zero HedgeFBI And DHS Warn Of 'Elevated Threat' To Jewish Community After Boulder, DC AttacksTyler Durden Sat, 06/07/2025 - 07:35
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned of an “elevated threat” to the U.S. Jewish community following an attack last weekend in Boulder, Colorado, and last month’s killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington.
In a bulletin issued on Thursday, the agencies said that the Israel-Hamas conflict “may motivate other violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators with similar grievances to conduct violence against Jewish and Israeli communities and their supporters.”
“Foreign terrorist organizations also may try to exploit narratives related to the conflict to inspire attacks in the United States. The FBI and DHS therefore urge the public to remain vigilant and to report any threats of violence or suspicious activity to law enforcement,” the joint statement added.
As Jack Phillips report for The Epoch Times, the statement made references to both the Boulder attack, in which an Egyptian national and illegal immigrant allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at people who were protesting in solidarity with Israel and sought the release of Israeli hostages in the conflict. Prosecutors said that 15 people were injured in the incident.
Mohamed Soliman, the suspect, allegedly yelled “free Palestine” during the attack, federal officials have said.
Prosecutors also said that Soliman told officials that he “wanted to kill all Zionist people” and that he also expressed no regret about the attack.
Soliman was charged with a federal hate crime, as well as 118 state charges, including attempted murder, use of an incendiary device, and assault. He has not entered a plea in the two cases against him.
Federal authorities have said Soliman has been living in the United States illegally. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Wednesday that his family was being processed for removal, though a federal judge later stopped their deportation.
Before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, Soliman spent 17 years in Kuwait, according to court documents.
The FBI and DHS notice Thursday also made reference to the attack in Washington, where suspect Elias Rodriguez shot and killed two Israeli embassy staffers after they attended an event at the Capitol Jewish Museum. Video footage and charging documents said that Rodriguez yelled “free, free Palestine” while he was being arrested and handcuffed.
The two staffers, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were a young couple who had worked at the embassy. Lischinsky was an Israeli national and Milgrim was a U.S. citizen from Kansas, family members have said.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino has described both the Washington and Boulder attacks as terrorist acts.
“We are investigating this incident as an act of terror, and targeted violence. All of the necessary assets will be dedicated to this investigation,” Bongino said in a statement on the social media platform X this week, in reference to the Boulder attack.
“If you have any investigative tips please contact the FBI. And if you aided or abetted this attack, we will find you. You cannot hide.”
Later in the notice, the FBI asked people to “promptly report information concerning suspicious activity” to the FBI’s tip website or local field offices.
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Site: Novus Motus LiturgicusIN those days: The hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me forth in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of a plain that was full of bones. And he led me about through them on every side; now they were very many upon the face of the plain, and they were exceeding dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, dost thou think these bones shall live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, thou Gregory DiPippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13295638279418781125noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: Catholic ConclaveThe Archbishop of Munich, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, rejects the social diagnosis of right-wing populism. He sees them as enemies of democracy. It is more important to focus on freedom.Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx has refuted the accusation by right-wing populists that one can no longer say anything in Germany: "That is an absurd accusation. I don't see why one should have the right to lie publiclyCatholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: AsiaNews.itThe well-known pro-democracy activist has been charged again under the infamous national security law for "conspiracy to collude with foreign forces'. This is an attempt by Hong Kong authorities to keep him in prison. He risks a life sentence, human rights groups warn.
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Site: Zero HedgeThe Current Nuclear State Of AffairsTyler Durden Sat, 06/07/2025 - 07:00
Authored by Peter Hussey via RealClearWire,
With the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, and for now the passing of the immediate danger of a nuclear conflict in South Asia, it would make sense to review the current world-wide nuclear state of affairs, especially as we honor those who sacrificed to protect our freedoms.
Much of the recent news has concentrated on the buildup of China’s nuclear forces and the Russian threats to use their nuclear forces against Ukraine and its allies. In addition, there have been reviews of North Korean missile tests and to what degree Iran has enriched uranium.
Although all serious developments, what is missing is an appreciation of what these four rogue states wish to do with their nuclear capability, whether numbering in advance centrifuges or dozens, hundreds, or thousands of nuclear warheads.
As has been often argued, numbers do matter in the nuclear balance. And thus, increasing numbers should be of growing concern to U.S. security analysts.
But what is it that these states wish to do with these nuclear weapons?
That’s where the rubber meets the road.
Three of the four are seeking to build “empires” of sorts while the fourth (North Korea) is a cooperative adjunct of the other three and undertakes whatever the three require.
President Putin has said he does not wish to re-create the Soviet Union. However, he apparently does want to re-create Russia as an empire, including and particularly incorporating Ukraine, the Baltics, Finland, and much of Eastern Europe. Russia is not only terrorizing Ukraine with drones and missiles but also engaging in sabotage and cyber war against nations in eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
China sees its rightful place in the international firmament as the world’s hegemon having a right under heaven to be the world’s premier power, even as Gordon Chang has cautioned, including dominion over outer space, the moon, and even Mars to achieve these goals. China has unleashed unrestricted warfare against the United States and its allies especially in the economic field and harms our social cohesion with what Xi calls a reverse opium war.
Iran is guided by its constitutional mandate to export its violent and terrorist Islamic doctrine through the use of multiple proxy, terror organizations, such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.
After 56 years of such terror, Iran has caused the death of tens of thousands at a cost of multiple trillions of dollars. Contrary to popular belief, Iran’s terror campaigns are not going to be settled with the adoption of an unattainable but pretend two state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.
Iran seeks to build an Iranian condominium of allies in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria as well as Gaza and the West Bank with which to attack Israel and U.S. interests in the Middle East. That Israel and the United States have seriously eroded this Iranian objective is good news, but the bad news remains that Iran fiercely holds onto this objective.
As long as the United States maintains military forces in the Republic of Korea, North Korea will probably not invade. However, North Korea’s role is to pin down American resources in and around the Republic of Korea and Japan, in order to force the United states to provide resources in the area while Chinese created conflict is initiated elsewhere in the western Pacific, particularly with respect to Taiwan. You can be sure that the CCP will cleverly use North Korea as a proxy force to make it all the more difficult for the United States to defend its other allies in the region.
In addition, it is well known North Korea and Iran cooperate on missile and nuclear technology developments. North Korea and Russia cooperate similarly, as well as having the former provide troops for Russia’s war against Ukraine. In addition, North Korea serves as China’s agent whenever the CCP decides to create military mischief somewhere against American interests. And China buys Iran and Russia energy, helps Iran arm the Houthis piracy, and underwrites most of the North Korean economy.
These enemy forces in Europe, the Middle East and Asia confront the United States with serious military threats that cannot be thwarted by any U.S. quick pivot to Asia. All our allies must pivot as well to all three geographic areas as the United States cannot deter these threats alone. That is why the administration as far back as 2017 pushed hard to get NATO to the 2 percent\GDP defense level and why now in 2025 that goal has rightly extended to 5 percent.
Europe has a GDP closing in on $20 trillion, with a population of 449 million, and a per capita income of $62,000. America’s Indo-Pacific allies number two billion people, with a GDP of $20 trillion and a per capita income reaching $34,000 in the Republic of Korea and Japan, $84,000 in Singapore and $10,000 in India.
All can contribute to freedom’s collective security which is precisely what the Administration is seeking, and putting America first is not putting the U.S. alone. The U.S. investment in defense is now approaching $1 trillion which is necessary to protect our security and deter bad “hombres.” When measured in what it would cost the United States to buy the military fielded by China and Russia, the U.S. defense spending matches but does not exceed Moscow and Beijing. Given the United States has global obligations and security requirements, the resources applied to defense and security make sense but cannot be expected to meet all our collective and joint security needs. Real allies pull their own weight and do not depend solely on their friends for security.
Together America and her allies can pivot to the growing dangers. And if proceeding with the moral clarity of peace through strength, we can protect our security through deterrence and welcome indeed many future decades of peace and prosperity.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
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Site: Catholic ConclaveScroll down for today'sSaint of the Day/ FeastReading of the MartyrologyDedication of the MonthDedication of the DayRosaryFive Wounds Rosary in LatinSeven Sorrows Rosary in EnglishLatin Monastic OfficeReading of the Rule of Saint BenedictCelebration of MassReading from the School of Jesus CrucifiedFeast of Saint Anthony Mary GianelliAnthony grew up in a poor but pious family in a small Catholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: southern orders
I don't see anyone trying to read Pope Leo XIV through the lens of either St. Pope John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI. Those who might refer to those two popes aren’t trying to hogtie Pope Leo to either of them.On the other hand, though, those who can’t get over that Pope Francis is no longer pope with his borderline heterodox vision for the Church, a different Church, are desperate to show that Pope Leo XIV is actually Pope Francis II.
But Pope Leo isn’t Francis II; he’s Pope Leo XIV.
Pope Leo certainly won’t cancel the Francis papacy. He is too refined and savvy to do something like that. Francis was not refined or savvy and thought canceling his previous two papacies was the way to get back to the time St. Pope Paul VI was pope, bringing the Church back to the heady days of the immediate aftermath of Vatican II and its bulldozing spirit in the late 1960’s and throughout the 70’s.
But two things show us that Pope Leo is a pope of continuity with the pre-Vatican II Church and the Post Vatican II Church with the orthodox spirit, not the heterodox spirit.
Pope Leo has embraced the icons of the papacy in terms of dress and demeanor. Pope Francis was iconoclastic in this regard, the zenith being his public visit to St. Peter’s Basilica, while he was dying, in his wheel chair wearing only black pants and a t-shirt.
The second one and the most important, which I almost missed, is what Pope Leo said about marriage compared to Pope Francis. I learned what I missed from a National Catholic Register article:
Another signal (about clarifying Pope Francis) came in his homily on June 1 on the occasion of the Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents and the Elderly, when Leo cited the encyclical Humanae Vitae of St. Paul VI in observing “that marriage is not an ideal but the measure of true love between a man and a woman: a love that is total, faithful and fruitful. This love makes you one flesh and enables you, in the image of God, to bestow the gift of life.”
In their simplicity, these words mark a change of direction from the previous pontificate, since in Francis’ contested post-synodal exhortation Amoris Laetitia, Christian marriage was repeatedly cited as an ideal.
My reading of Pope Leo is what I have already written about him. He is a refining Pope. He won’t cancel anyone and he certainly won’t cancel Vatican II. But he won’t cancel the orthodox post-Vatican II orthodox developments of St. Pope John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI.
He won’t cancel that which is orthodox of Pope Francis’ papacy. But he will, in a sober way, correct the errors of that papacy as we have seen he has in his homily quote above about marriage not being an ideal, whereas Pope Francis called it an ideal.
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Site: AsiaNews.itMoscow recently marked the 1,700th anniversary of the first Ecumenical Council when the profession of faith was drafted. Coincidentally, Putin and Pope Leo XIV spoke on the phone, providing an opportunity to renew the dialogue between the Church of Rome and the Russian Orthodox Church. Like in the 4th century AD, after the end of the persecutions, the challenge today for the bishops of the East and West is to show modern emperors a truth greater than any claim to dominion.
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Site: Catholic Conclave“The traditional liturgy is a work of the Holy Spirit. It can be persecuted, but not destroyed,” affirmed Monsignor Athanasius Schneider during an interview organized by the apostolate Know, Love, and Live Your Faith, in which he answered questions for over an hour about the state of the traditional liturgy, the doctrinal crisis in the Church, and the new pontificate of Leo XIV.The Traditional Catholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: Crisis Magazine
As necessary as the evangelical imperative is to the life of the Church, since without it the Gospel withers and dies, it is not enough simply to proclaim the Good News. For all that the world needs to hear the message of Jesus Christ, merely doing so does not exhaust the possibilities of bringing Christ to the world. There is another way, which is not at variance with planting the Gospel seed one…
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Site: Mises InstituteWhy is gold at a record high? How does modern mercantilism fuel today’s tensions? Are we all just pawns in a much bigger game?
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Site: The Unz ReviewAI art just keeps getting better I hope Elon Musk dumps videos of Donald Trump having sex with 12 year old girls and the Trump claims they are AI deepfakes and then nationalizes Tesla, Twitter, SpaceX, etc. and deports Elon to Africa. Then I hope not enough people believe Trump’s Epstein tapes are AI so...
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Site: The Unz ReviewAndrew Anglin, sitting in his living room I just want to thank everyone and say sorry to everyone. I was given a gift and a lot of responsibility and I didn’t do enough with it. I should have done so much more. I owed you guys more than I gave and I regret so much...
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Site: The Unz ReviewὍ τι ἄν σοι συμβαίνῃ, τοῦτό σοι ἐξ αἰῶνος προκατεσκευάζετο.[1] That was how the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius put it nearly two thousand years ago: “Whatever may befall thee, it was ordained for thee from everlasting.” He was elegantly and eloquently expressing a core tenet of Stoicism, the ancient school of philosophy that taught dogged devotion...
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Site: The Unz ReviewSaying Trump was in the Epstein files was an obvious lie. We all know what kind of women Trump is into. His taste is… not similar to Epstein’s. Trump has an entire list of sex scandals, and none of them were with women under 25, I don’t even know if any of them were under...
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Site: The Unz ReviewThe last days of dying empires are dominated by idiots. The Roman, Mayan, French, Habsburg, Ottoman, Romanoff, Iranian and Soviet dynasties crumbled under the stupidity of their decadent rulers who absented themselves from reality, plundered their nations and retreated into echo chambers where fact and fiction were indistinguishable. Donald Trump, and the sycophantic buffoons in...
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Site: The Unz Review
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Site: The Unz ReviewThe surprise Ukrainian attack on Russia strategic airfields caused quite a bit social media discussions in China. Two take-aways stand out – 1. The daring and audacity of the Ukrainian attack – it indeed inflicted damage and embarrassment on the Russians though the victory could well prove pyrrhic if Russia retaliates as expected 2. The...
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Site: Zero HedgeGlobalists Go Radio Silent As NATO Flirts With World War IIITyler Durden Fri, 06/06/2025 - 23:25
Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us
Where have all the globalists gone? Yes, unfortunately they’re still out there free when they should be rotting in a frozen gulag or fertilizing an unmarked field somewhere. I get that. However, if you’ve been tracking the elitist cabal as long as I have you might have noticed a sudden and abrupt shift in public activity among the most prominent globalist institutions.
From at least 2019 onward the mask had come completely off. The elites were flooding western media with woke propaganda through their NGO operations. You couldn’t go anywhere without being bombarded with multiculturalism, DEI and LGBT nonsense. There was a clear attempt to engineer a massive cultural shift in the western world; an expedited progressive coup.
Conservatives were relentlessly targeted as “insurrectionists” and a “threat to democracy”. Pandemic hysteria opened the door to an array of mandates as well as legislation designed to erase constitutional protections in the name of “health safety”. The plan was openly admitted: An endless cycle of covid lockdowns and vaccine passports. A perpetual loop of medical tyranny. Globalists were ecstatic, reveling in the fear and calling for the implementation of forced vaccinations, covid tracking apps and even covid camps for people who refused to comply.
In the midst of the frenzy the WEF and other organizations pushed their economic agenda, asserting that the world needed to go cashless, that carbon controls and “climate lockdowns” needed to become normalized. They wanted what they called a “Great Reset” of the global financial framework. Everything was admitted, they barely tried to hide their intentions. It was the New World Order we “conspiracy” analysts had been warning about for decades.
In the past they would mention details of the plan in obscure white papers or in moments of unguarded discussion. Over the past five years the globalists were essentially dancing in the streets and advertising the NWO for all too see. Why? Because they thought they had already won.
Fast forward to 2025 – The covid mandates and lockdowns are defeated and abandoned. The multicultural invasion is being reversed with a majority of the American population in support of secure borders and deportations. Bans on the transing of kids are being established across the US and LGBT propaganda is being removed from schools. DOGE and Trump instituted cuts which have greatly damaged the government-to-NGO revolving door (which is why many DEI programs are disappearing).
BLM is dead. Pride Month is a dud (so far). Covid is being exposed as the nothingburger it always was. The climate change agenda is fading. The masses are generally suspicious of organizations like the WEF and no one supports a cashless CBDC based system. The globalist ideal has been relegated to the garbage heap and we didn’t even need to fire a shot. Is this what winning looks like?
Not quite.
We have won the information war in the US (for the most part). Europe is taking longer, but conservatives movements are gaining ground; so much ground, in fact, that the elites are arresting people for speech, not to mention arresting their political opponents for being right leaning. This is a sign of panic, not power.
The globalists flew too close to the sun too fast and they got burned. Nearly every major elitist institution has stopped openly promoting “Great Reset” related policies. They’ve limited their media interviews and their think tanks have stopped releasing revealing white papers. Some globalists have suggested in media encounters that globalism is dead. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink even used a Financial Times op-ed to argue that “globalization is over”.
I’ve never seen them back off from their agenda so completely, and I’m highly suspicious of the radio silence.
As I warned in my article ‘World War III Is Now Inevitable – Here’s Why It Can’t Be Avoided’, the globalist plan for a Bolshevik coup has failed, but this only means they will move on to more historically predictable tactics. Meaning, exponential economic crisis and world war.
European political leaders have made it nearly impossible to negotiate a legitimate ceasefire in Ukraine because they continue to give Kyiv hope that NATO will step in with boots on the ground. Even if the US completely pulls all support, the Ukrainians believe Europe will fill the gap. This is ridiculous, of course; the EU has no capacity to fight an attrition war with the Russians and they are much more likely to trigger a nuclear event than liberate Ukraine.
What concerns me more, though, is a specific strategy being used by NATO and Kyiv: I’m talking about the deliberate targeting of Russian nuclear infrastructure. This has been an ongoing problem since the beginning of the conflict and it seems to me as if the elites WANT some kind of catastrophic escalation.
Ukraine has used multiple drone attacks to strike nuclear power plants, including its OWN Zaporizhzhia and Chernobyl plants. The Kursk offensive (now failed) pushed towards a nuclear power plant in the region and Russia accused Ukraine of trying to hit the plant with drones. In early 2024, Ukraine long range drone and missile attacks hit two separate Russian “over the horizon” early warning nuclear radar installations.
The Voronezh-DM stations were positioned outside the city of Orsk and the region of Krasnodar (Armavir); far away from the front lines in Ukraine. I warned about this development in June of last year in my article ‘False Flag On The Horizon? The Strange Case Of The Destroyed Russian Nuclear Radar’.
This past week confirmed my suspicions when Ukraine initiated a complex covert strike on a base holding Russian long range bombers. These bombers were primarily nuclear readiness aircraft and are not generally used to launch FABs or other weapons against Ukrainian targets. The attack could not have been achieved without NATO aid and once again follows the odd pattern of targeting Russian nuclear infrastructure.
There are two obvious dangers attached to this scenario: First, Russia responds with a devastating bombardment of population centers to prove the strike on the bombers did nothing to prevent them from hitting Ukrainian cities from afar. Second, Russia assumes that NATO’s plan is to weaken their nuclear readiness in preparation for European troops entering the war, or in preparation for a nuclear exchange.
In either case, WWIII is the result. Establishment commentators have tried to spin the bomber attack as a Ukrainian victory without consequence, but they deliberately omit the primary purpose of the aircraft. Best case scenario, Russia pounds a few Ukrainian cities with massive ordnance. At worst, the nuclear threat becomes tangible and we edge towards a missile exchange.
I continue to believe that the globalists want to avoid full spectrum nuclear war. Why would they deliberately vaporize the very control grid it took them decades to build? But I do think we will see a limited nuclear event in the near future (perhaps a limited nuke event in Ukraine).
The continuing attacks on nuke related armaments and infrastructure suggest to me an attempt by Kyiv and NATO to create a situation so chaotic that it opens the door to troop deployments and direct confrontation with Moscow before anyone can catch up to what is happening.
Without war, the globalists have nothing. Maybe they can pull off an economic crisis (all the pieces are certainly in place), but in a vacuum they could get the blame. War offers a valuable distraction for the masses and an ever adaptable scapegoat. People broke and starving? Well, that’s just war. The dollar crashing? Currencies are at risk during war. Freedoms being curtailed? Hey, people need to set aside their liberties for the sake of “security”.
There’s a reason why multi-nation wars almost always occur just after historic economic declines. The two crises feed into each other, but the wars also provide cover for extensive centralization schemes. Each successive world war brings us a step closer to world government and a centrally controlled global economic system.
The globalists in Europe are doing everything in their power to prolong the conflagration. They know Ukraine is never going to get their lost territory back. They know that Russia is generating a massive breakout on the front lines in the east. They have no peace plan. Their purpose is to force a direct confrontation between NATO forces and Russian troops. It’s the only explanation for the attacks on Russian nuclear armaments. It’s a provocation designed to end all chances of a ceasefire and take the war to the next level.
The unsettling quiet from normally boisterous NWO reps within think tanks and the media suggests to me that a memo has been posted from on high. All other programs have been scrapped and all eyes are on Ukraine and Russia. Perhaps the globalists have suddenly gone quiet because they’ve set Plan B in motion, and this time they don’t want any of their people talking out of turn until total war is accomplished?
As the old saying goes, loose lips sink ships…
Of course, there’s always the chance we see escalation in Iran, or a Chinese move on Taiwan. There are more than a few precarious powder kegs in place right now. What I see, though, is an inordinate amount amount of financial and political energy going into the Ukraine affair. The elitists are mostly tight lipped about it, but an inordinate amount of financial and political energy is flowing into the region. It’s clear that the next couple of months will be highly unstable as tensions mount.
Diplomatic pathways are fading fast.
Most likely scenario? Ukraine cities get hammered in a relentless Russian bombardment and Europe vows to deploy its forces to intervene. Even if Trump cuts off all US ties to Ukraine and walks away, there’s little that can be done to prevent the disaster that comes next.
It’s not necessarily a scorched earth option for the globalists, but it certainly seems like a last resort – Conjuring a calamity big enough to distract the masses while total centralization is instituted. I’m not saying the plan will work, I’m just saying that this is their most viable strategy.
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Site: Zero HedgeThe Ongoing Fight Against US Child LaborTyler Durden Fri, 06/06/2025 - 23:00
Child labor law violations in the United States rose in recent years in a manner the Department of Labor has called "alarming".
As Statista's Katharina Buchholz reports, in the fiscal year of 2024, there were more than 4,000 of these infractions recorded, down from a recent peak of almost 5,800 in FY 2023.
According to the most recent DOL report on the topic, the general increase might have been in connection with more effective enforcement and awareness.
You will find more infographics at Statista
The peak was at least in part connected to a high-profile case of child labor uncovered at a meat production plant cleaning company, which has now been found to have employed more than 100 minors in hazardous, overnight cleaning operations in Nebraska and Minnesota.
The case that opened the eyes of many for the harsh realities of present-day child labor ended in February 2023 when Packers Sanitation Services Inc. paid $1.5 million in civil penalties on top of taking mandated steps to strengthen compliance within the company. Meat packing is an industry that has been notorious for employing children in hazardous conditions in the United States, with 145 compliance actions taken in the fiscal years 2023 and 2024 combined. A much bigger general violator of child labor laws is the hospitality industry at more than 1,100 compliance actions over the two given years. Other industries with many infractions were janitorial services and retail, where like in hospitality children run the risk of working inapproriate hours.
Human trafficking is another aspect that is sadly intertwined with child labor and in the fiscal years 2023 and 2024, the DOL notified the Department of Health and Human Services in relation to the suspected human trafficking of 43 workers they suspected were minors as well as making 11 other referrals. A recent survey found that around 60 percent of youths affected by child labor trafficking were form other countries, while around 40 percent were from the United States. The research found that victims commonly knew their trafficker and that in 40 percent of cases they were a family member. This could lead in some cases to the problem being overlooked, the report found. It also advocated for providing official and appropriate vocational opportunities for minors as well as safe housing for all young people in the country to make them less vulnerable to laboral exploitation.
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Site: Zero HedgeD-Day: The Great Crusade And The Men Who Made It WorkTyler Durden Fri, 06/06/2025 - 22:35
Authored by Daniel Oliver via American Greatness,
Seventy-one years ago next month, a young man went with his parents and siblings to Europe on a Cunard liner, the MV Britannic.
On the liner with them was a middle-aged couple going to France to visit, for the first time, their son’s grave in Normandy, France.
The beaches of Normandy are where thousands of soldiers, including their son, landed and died on D-Day: June 6, 1944.
The young man, then aged fifteen, had, at best and generously, little understanding of what that couple was doing. Oh yes, he remembered the war from his earliest childhood: he remembered blackouts in New York City, remembered his mother putting the heavy blue paper that cotton came in those days over the windows of their apartment so the “Jerries” (Germans) wouldn’t see any light, remembered hearing planes fly overhead, wondering whether they were “ours” or “theirs,” and remembered his father going at night to stand on the roofs of buildings to be a spotter of German aircraft.
And he remembered hearing the church bells ring when the war in Europe ended—but he was only six then, so his memory was, and is… sketchy.
Seventeen years later, when he was serving in the army in Germany, the horror of war intruded into his faint memory—and almost entirely literary understanding—of armed conflict.
He was a linguist, trained to understand Russian, and particularly Russian military language and jargon. In the unit he was serving with, the best duty, but only for the best linguists, was “plane duty”: the soldiers flew along the East German border most of an afternoon and night, listening to whatever they could pick up, and then had several days off! Our young man was selected for plane duty but was scrubbed from it, permanently, because he was going home for a few weeks of leave.
One night after he returned from leave, the plane crashed. All on board were killed. The official explanation was engine failure, but all the soldiers on the base “knew” it had been shot down by the East Germans (probably the pilot had strayed over the border) and that the U.S. government (the Kennedy administration) had decided not to make a cause célèbre out of it.
Our then-young man remembers seeing the married men’s wives (some of them no more than about eighteen years old) come to the base and collect their husbands’ belongings. That’s when the horror of war hit home.
No movie, not even Saving Private Ryan, could produce the effect of seeing those young girls collecting, grasping at the scanty memorabilia that remained from their very short married lives.
Twenty-seven years later, on a Sunday afternoon, our young man, by then middle-aged, took his children to Coleville-sur-Mer, which is where the Normandy American Cemetery is located. It was officially dedicated on July 19, 1956. Before 1956, the remains of American soldiers who died during the Normandy campaign were temporarily interred at various sites, including the original cemetery established at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer shortly after D-Day. It was to one of those sites that the couple on the Cunard liner were going.
That Sunday afternoon, the sun was bright and the weather warm, not at all like D-Day, when the temperature there had been around 55 degrees and the water temperature 59 degrees. (When was the last time you went swimming in 59-degree water?) The wind had been blowing 10 to 20 mph, gusting higher at times, which created the waves and surf that complicated the beach landings and made airborne drops difficult—facts you know if you’ve seen the movies.
But on that sunny day so many years later, our middle-aged man watched two of his sons stroll up from the landing beach in their Brooks Brothers blazers and loafers. He stood transfixed, watching, appreciating the study in contrast—and his good luck of not being on the army plane that had crashed in the line of duty.
Today, the cemetery at Coleville-sur-Mer, burial ground of 9,387 soldiers, is, some of its visitors think, the eighth wonder of the world. Rows and rows of graves marked by crosses, and some by Stars of David, remind us that greater love hath no man than this: that he lay down his life for a friend.
Yes, yes, those soldiers didn’t plan to lay down their lives. Most were drafted, although about a quarter had volunteered. But still, they did lay down their lives, and you can, and should, visit their graves at the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer before you… join them. And if you can’t get to Normandy, there are 156 military cemeteries in the U.S.—one of which is bound to be near enough to you to coax a visit.
Can those of us today, in our Brooks Brothers suits, or BB look-alikes, ever really appreciate the grind and sacrifice of war? Or is it all simply beyond most of our ability to imagine?
There’s a museum at the Normandy cemetery that displays letters from some of the young soldiers who went from America to those beaches, so many of them to die. Their letters show that many had no idea where they were going or even where Normandy was. But there they were, nevertheless, saving Western Civilization.
World War I was called “the war to end all wars.”
But of course it wasn’t, as the world discovered only twenty-one years later.
Can wars ever end? Probably not, because some things are worth fighting for. And dying for. Is Western Civilization one of those things? Do most Americans think it is? Do enough Americans think it is worth dying for? Will we have to find out?
That is worth contemplating on June 6 this year, as we remember—as the once-young, and then middle-aged, and now old man remembers—those who died for us eighty-one years ago, some of whom are buried in the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France.
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Site: Zero HedgeJudge Rules Federal Rule On Gender Discrimination Violates Catholic BeliefsTyler Durden Fri, 06/06/2025 - 20:55
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,
A rule from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) violates the beliefs of members of a Catholic association, a federal judge ruled on June 5.
The HHS rule requiring members of the Catholic Benefits Association to perform transgender procedures “violates their sincerely held religious beliefs without satisfying strict scrutiny,” U.S. District Judge Peter Welte said in a 19-page decision.
He permanently blocked HHS from enforcing the rule against the association and its current members.
The ruling also prevents the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from requiring the association and its members to provide insurance coverage for transgender procedures.
Spokespersons for the agencies declined to comment.
The association, which says it has more than 9,000 provider members, did not return an inquiry.
At issue is Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.
That section of the Act bars discrimination on grounds outlined in other laws, including Title IX, which prohibits discrimination “on the basis of sex.”
HHS in 2016 said that discrimination on the basis of sex included discrimination on the basis of “gender identity,” and that health providers could not refuse to offer transgender procedures if the provider offered similar services to others. One example offered was that a provider that removed uteruses to treat female health problems was also required to perform hysterectomies for women who believe they’re transgender and want the procedure.
The Catholic Benefits Association sued over the interpretation and won an injunction.
HHS in 2020 updated the rule, removing the part about gender identity.
That same year, the Supreme Court ruled that “it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex,” prompting a court to rule that the HHS gender identity discrimination prohibition remained in effect.
Welte later ruled in favor of the Catholic Benefits Association, concluding that the rule infringed on the association members’ exercise of religion in violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That law allows the government to substantially burden the exercise of religion, but only if it shows it is using the least restrictive means available to achieve a compelling interest.
An appeals court overturned the decision because, judges said, the association failed to show standing since it did not identify specific members and their injuries.
The association brought a new suit identifying members and their injuries, resulting in Thursday’s ruling.
HHS had amended the rule again in 2024, reinstating the explicit prohibition on discrimination on the basis of gender identity. It also barred discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy or related conditions,” which officials said included abortion.
Government lawyers said that the latest version of the rule does not violate the Religious Freedom Act because of a new process that enables providers to seek religious exemptions to the requirements.
Welte disagreed.
“The case-by-case exemption procedure leaves religious organizations unable to predict their legal exposure without furthering any compelling antidiscrimination interests,” he said.
The judge did rule in favor of the government with regard to the requirements for covering “pregnancy or related conditions,” finding the Catholic association did not provide evidence that the requirement violates their members’ religious beliefs.
He also declined to extend the block on enforcement of the gender discrimination prohibition to future association members. That would “stray too far from the principle of party-specific relief,” he said.
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Site: Zero HedgeMost Russians No Longer View United States As Their Top Enemy: PollTyler Durden Fri, 06/06/2025 - 20:30
A new public opinion poll shows that most Russians no longer consider the United States to be their number one global enemy, which suggests that Trump administration's stance on the Ukraine conflict has served to soften public opinion in Russia.
"The U.S. dropped from first to fourth on this list for the first time in 20 years of measurements," the independent pollster, Levada Center, said in a newly published survey.
Via Reuters
The top three most hostile countries, according to the Russian respondents, were named as Germany (55%), the United Kingdom (49%) and Ukraine (43%).
This interestingly coincides with Trump's return to the White House and repeat pledges to deescalate and ultiamtely end the war in Ukraine. He has also thus far refrained from calls to slap new sanctions on Moscow in order to give peace negotiations a greater chance.
At the same time, both the UK and Germany have been urging a 'coalition of the willing' to boost defense spending and present a united front against Russia. Berlin and London have become more and more hawkish.
Among past Russian public opinion polls, past downturns in US favorability followed the 2008 Russo-Georgian war and the 2014 annexation of Crimea, and resulting Washington sanctions and pressure.
The Levada Center survey shows Russians view there closest allies to be Belarus (80%), China (64%), Kazakhstan (36%), India (32%), and North Korea (30%).
Interestingly, Iran's support fell significantly, despite Tehran now being a main drone supplier for Russia's military. Only 11% of Russians surveyed named Iran as a top ally, which is down from 22% in 2024.
The Levada Center noted of this particular survey that it was conducted in person among over 1,600 Russian adults from May 22–28.
Another general observation is that there is probably growing war weariness among the Russian public. Well over three years after the Ukraine war kicked off with intensity, there are grim estimates that hundreds of thousands of young Russian men may have been killed. Certainly war weariness has also take hold of Western populations for some time now. It appears common Russians are increasingly blaming the leading European countries for recent escalations.
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Site: Zero HedgeA Chinese Self-Driving Car Company Stole A Massive Trove Of US DataTyler Durden Fri, 06/06/2025 - 20:05
Authored by José Niño via Headline USA,
The Trump administration is rethinking how it deals with Chinese-linked tech firms after a short-lived self-driving truck company was found to have stolen a vast trove of U.S. intellectual property.
Founded in 2015 by Chinese entrepreneurs and backed by Chinese capital, TuSimple was once hailed as a leader in autonomous trucking, boasting a record-setting 80-mile driverless journey in Arizona and partnerships with major firms like UPS and Navistar.
But beneath its rapid rise, TuSimple’s dual presence in the U.S. and China created vulnerabilities. According to a Wall Street Journal report, February 2022, the company signed a national security agreement with the U.S. government after concerns emerged about its Chinese ties and potential for technology transfer.
The agreement, enforced by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), required TuSimple to separate its U.S. operations and technology from China-based employees and partners, build firewalls, and prohibit the sharing of intellectual property.
Yet, just a week after signing, TuSimple transferred a trove of sensitive data, which included test results and technical blueprints—to Beijing-owned Foton, a major Chinese truck manufacturer.
“They want a lot of details,” said TuSimple employee Xiaoling Han in a February 2022 chat.
“It is pretty time consuming.”
Internal correspondence shows the data sharing continued up to the six-month compliance deadline.
WSJ reporter Heather Somerville noted thatTuSimple provided Chinese companies with what essentially constituted a complete autonomous driving system.
This included the source code that serves as the brain of an autonomous truck, in addition to various elements of the design, hardware, and integration of all these systems.
A CFIUS investigation later found that while the data sharing did not technically violate the agreement, TuSimple was fined $6 million for other infractions. The company did not admit fault, and co-founder Xiaodi Hou insisted that no information prohibited by the company’s national security agreement “was ever shared with anyone.”
The fallout was swift. TuSimple shut down U.S. operations, while being delisted from Nasdaq. These events prompted it to move investor funds to China.
The episode compelled the Trump administration to rethink its reliance on mitigation agreements for high-risk, foreign-connected firms. According to new directives, the White House will “cease the use of overly bureaucratic, complex, and open-ended ‘mitigation’ agreements” and instead block more China-backed deals outright.
Earlier this year, Commerce Department has also issued new rules prohibiting the sale of internet-connected vehicles and components to entities connected to China, with further restrictions on commercial vehicles expected to be imposed soon.
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Site: Zero HedgeKremlin Says Threat Is 'Existential' After Trump Likens Ukraine War To 'Two Kids Fighting In The Park'Tyler Durden Fri, 06/06/2025 - 19:40
The Kremlin on Friday responded to President Trump's prior day's comments which likened the Ukraine war to a schoolyard fight.
"Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy, they hate each other and they're fighting in a park," Trump said on Thursday. "Sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart," he added.
via TASS
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that while the US leader has a right to his own opinion, it remains that for Russia this conflict is an existential matter of ensuring its own security and stability and the nation's future.
"Here, of course, the U.S. president may have his own point of view on what is happening," Peskov said. "For us, this is an existential issue, it is a matter of our national interests, a question of our security, the future of us and our children, the future of our country," he added in remarks translated from Russian.
President Trump was trying to be optimistic in his Thursday meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House. "We'd like to see it end, and maybe it'll end," Trump had told Merz of the Ukraine war.
"But we get some news, there'll be some fighting. Something happened a couple of days ago," he noted of the recent drone attack escalations and that he's "unhappy about it."
"But I think eventually we're going to be successful in stopping the bloodshed," the US president then emphasized.
Watch Trump given his latest thoughts on the crisis:
Trump revealed his Ukraine strategy.
— Karl Mehta (@karlmehta) June 6, 2025
He had a 2 hour 15 minute call with Putin just before Merz arrived.
His approach? Let them "fight like children in a park" before pulling them apart.
But there's a hidden deadline that changes everything... pic.twitter.com/Y0Q8yXy4ALTrump has continued to hold off on yet another round of anti-Russia sanctions, while seeking to keep peace negotiations open:
U.S. President Donald Trump has asked the Senate to delay voting on a bipartisan Russia sanctions bill, Republican Senator Roger Wicker said on June 4.
...The bill, introduced on April 1 by Senators Lindsey Graham (R) and Richard Blumenthal (D), seeks to impose a 500% tariff on imports from countries that continue purchasing Russian oil and raw materials.
"I know that he (Trump) asked the leader (Senate Majority Leader John Thune) not to bring the bill to a vote this week," Sen. Wicker had said.
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Site: Zero HedgeCan The Tyranny Be Soft-Landed?Tyler Durden Fri, 06/06/2025 - 19:15
Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Brownstone Institute,
The excuse that this regime is better than it was, or might otherwise have been, only lasts so long.
Every transition government in history has deployed that trope. Think the Girondins in France, Kerensky in Russia, Weimar in Germany, the Second Spanish Republic, Chiang Kai-shek in China, and so on. In order, they were replaced by Robespierre then Napoleon, Lenin then Stalin, Hitler, Franco, and Mao.
In each of these cases, the transitional government was caught between and ultimately smashed by pressures from both sides: industrial and intellectual partisans of the old regime with legacy control, on one side, and the radicalism of the populist movements that brought new people to power on the other.
Threading this needle is not easy in revolutionary moments. Of such times, history teaches one lesson more than any other. The new regime must be brutally honest about the criminality of the old one and work with focus to dismantle it as fast as possible. Anything short of that leads to its own discrediting and eventual replacement.
In every area of government today under the Trump administration, now entering its second phase, we witness these very historical forces at work. The grassroots movement that beat all odds to put the new people in power had high and even revolutionary expectations following the five most horrid years of our lives.
Some of these hopes are being partially met in good ways but blocked and neglected in too many other ways that are unbearably conspicuous. This dynamic affects the budget disaster, the demand for transparency, and in the realm of public health.
As a result, the wild optimism that greeted the inauguration of Trump has turned to something different, a mixture of incredulity from the grassroots combined with outrage and disgust from the legacy media and establishment that fought this revolution at every turn.
This further raises the prospect about which we’ve repeatedly warned: the Trump administration could go down in history as a transitional regime like we’ve seen so many times in history, a four-year experiment in moderation bookended by different brands of totalitarianism on either side.
This is a serious matter, not a parlor game. Nor is this a typical political battle. What happened over the last five years was for the ages. The world economy was smashed by nearly all states due to a lab leak for a product partially funded by the US government. The unannounced fallback plan, pushed in the name of science, was to universally distribute a new shot with a new gene-altering technology.
The shot did not work. It was not effective. It was not safe. Nor were they properly vetted because they were imposed by military edict under the cover of emergency. Other therapeutics were disparaged and banned. The critics in all areas were censored and shut down. People who refused the injection were fired. Public health collapsed in the name of preserving it.
Those harms have seen no justice.
Meanwhile, to finance this calamity, debt-financed spending ballooned by $8-10 trillion, leaving the federal government’s budget $2 trillion higher than it otherwise would have been. The shots are still on the market despite undeniable and widely known harms.
None of this is a secret, as it might have been in former times. Because of information technologies, people are well aware of every detail. The so-called “populist movement” has become a vast community of in-depth expertise, fully capable of running circles around legacy people and institutions.
The new leaders – elected to change course on all the above and more, including the accompanying crime and migration chaos – began with tremendous bravado and sweeping edicts that seemed promising. Four months later, they are asking for patience while dealing with legacy barriers on all sides from media harassment to court blockages.
The trouble is that public trust is completely gone.
The whole country, traumatized by years of lies, has become Missouri: show me.
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First, no one believes that the “one big beautiful bill” is just a first step on the way to future draconian cuts. We’ve seen this too many times, which is why Elon Musk finally broke his silence and denounced the entire “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill” as “a disgusting abomination.” That has set off a power struggle for the ages.
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Second, in areas of government transparency, there have been some steps but not nearly enough to fulfill the promises. There are still no new Epstein files. The JFK files are a mess and incomplete. We know no more than already public information about the two shooters who tried to kill Trump. There are still many lingering questions about 9-11, the Covid disaster, and so much else. This is not the opening for which the people had hoped.
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Third, let’s talk more at length about the public health area of policy where we’ve seen the most progress. We have a new and excellent Executive Order on science. Tax-funded Covid testing has ended. A contract of $750M for a Bird flu shot has been cancelled. There are new limits on gain-of-function research, and experiments on beagles and other animals are over. Many terrible contracts from NIH have been cancelled while parts of the CDC have been dismantled.
As for the mRNA shots, the market has been narrowed from everyone to only vulnerable populations, leaving aside the known issue that vulnerable populations should not risk them either.
There are new standards for randomized controlled trials with placebos, but no assurance that these companies will do them in a timely way. RCTs for a five-year-old product with massive immune-altering effects can never cobble together a valid sample selection at this late date, nor is a continuation of this experiment in any form morally justified.
In two tremendous victories, the shots have been removed from the routine childhood schedule, the first time this has ever happened to any product targeting a specific disease apart from eradication or replacement. In effect, the CDC/FDA are saying: it is better to get Covid than risk these products. Such a message will drive uptake to new lows approaching zero eventually.
In addition, the outrageous advice from the CDC that expectant women should take them is gone, finally. The champion of that policy has fled the CDC.
These are all welcome changes in policies that never should have existed in the first place. Even now, however, no one says the quiet part out loud: even if these shots had been safe and effective, which they are not, they were never necessary for the overwhelming number of people. Which raises the profound question of how and why all this came to be in the first place.
There are other initiatives too concerning food nutrition, mental health, and other matters in the MAHA Commission report that are hugely welcome changes from what has existed before.
The people in power in these agencies are pleading for patience. That is not unreasonable. Remember that these few appointees are confronting a beast larger, more entrenched, and better financed than any hegemon in human history. The pharma/media/tech/NGO/academia complex is larger and more powerful than the slave trade, the East India Company, Standard Oil, or even the munitions industry that started the Great War.
It’s certain that such a Leviathan cannot be ended in three months, not even with the best people in charge. All the grassroots really need to see is evidence of progress plus a transparent reason for delays. If the shots cannot be pulled now, people need to know why. If Covid emergency powers cannot be ended, explain why. If the new Moderna shot was already in the works and could not be stopped, people need to know the reasons.
Everyone who has watched all this unfold is of two minds, never mind the endlessly mutating factions within the dissident movements that have seen their leadership ascend to power. The people in the MAGA/MAHA/DOGE movements are as thrilled by the progress so far to the same extent that mainstream media and the legacy establishment are furious about all the changes.
For my own part, having watched public affairs for decades, this is the first time I’ve witnessed some progress in at least one area of state operations. That is worthy of celebration. I don’t even need to dwell on the many ways in which improvement over the darkest times of our lives is perhaps not as great an achievement as it would be otherwise.
That said, the release of yet another shot, implausibly called NexSpike, especially in light of all evidence and promises, is a tremendous shock for which no one was prepared. If they were in the works and the appointees could not stop them, we should be told that and the full explanation should be given to all. If President Trump himself is still attached to the foul spawn of Operation Warp Speed, and has forced them back onto the market despite vast public opposition, we should know that too.
Above all else, what we really need is the blunt truth about the last five years. We need to know that the people in office, whether elected or appointed, still share the deep outrage that fueled the movement that put them in power. We need to hear frank talk about the harms, the mandates, the suffering, the deceptions, the payoffs, the graft, the abuses, the illegal vanquishing of freedom, science, and human rights.
It is not enough to proclaim a new Golden Age and be done with it. This pertains to every aspect of public life. Press conferences by the new officeholders, with smiles and promises of better behavior in the future, don’t cut it given the mass loss of trust, rampant cynicism, and grassroots fury. There must be more straight talk, more decisive action that goes to the heart of what happened, and some degree of accountability.
We hear daily rumors that all of this is coming. Great. In which case, the new leaders need to make that clear. The masses are not inherently unreasonable. But they are the people within whom the leadership must reason – not “message,” not presented with flim-flam, not entertained with digital Punch and Judy shows, and not sniffily dismissed as ignorant extremists and conspiracy theorists.
Every new leadership in government that inherits that kind of disaster of the last five years is necessarily going to be squeezed between the legacy regime – including its vast bureaucracies and industrial interests – and the populist movements that put them in power. In these cases, the status quo usually proves irresistible but with disastrous consequences later.
Now is the time to stop that unfolding disaster, one which can only compound the errors of the past.
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Site: Zero HedgeIn Clawback For Ants, House Unveils Bill To Recover $9.4 Billion In Waste, Fraud And AbuseTyler Durden Fri, 06/06/2025 - 18:50
While the so-called Big Beautiful Bill may have killed the bromance between Elon Musk and President Trump, House Republicans released a bill on Friday that would rescind $9.4 billion in federal spending ahead of a floor vote next week - largely made up of waste, fraud and abuse found by DOGE.
The U.S. Capitol building in Washington on June 3, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
The seven-page bill would rescind $22 million from the US African Development foundation, $15 million from the US Institute for Peace, and billions of dollars in bilateral economic assistance. It would also codify some of the cuts identified by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
As the Epoch Times notes further, the White House sent the package to Congress last week under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.
Under it, the president sends rescission requests to Congress, which has 45 days to take action on them.
It is not subject to the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate.
Republicans have already expressed support for the package.
“Now that this wasteful spending by the federal government has been identified by DOGE, quantified by the administration, and sent to Congress, House Republicans will fulfill our mandate and continue codifying into law a more efficient federal government,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote on social media platform X.
“This is exactly what the American people deserve.”
Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) wrote on X: “These packages will be a key step toward codifying President Trump’s agenda and delivering lasting spending reductions in government.
“With nearly $7 trillion in annual federal spending, we need to prioritize the ’must-haves’ over the ‘nice-to-haves,’ to address our enormous national debt.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told The Epoch Times: “I haven’t seen the USAID rescissions to know exactly where they are, because ... I don’t know what’s in the package to know what they’re exactly implementing rescissions on.
“I have no concern with [NPR rescissions]. I understand from my staff, it’s only about 1 percent of their funding today. I haven’t heard a lot of people reporting that consistently. But if, in fact, that’s the case, it seems like they should be able to manage that.
“And if that’s the president’s priority, we should move forward with it.”
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller wrote on X why a rescission package was needed.
“DOGE cuts are to discretionary spending [for the federal bureaucracy]. Under Senate budget rules, you cannot cut discretionary spending in a reconciliation bill,” he said.
“So DOGE cuts would have to be done through what is known as a rescissions package or an appropriations bill.”
Nathan Worcester contributed to this report.
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Site: PeakProsperityMusk-Trump feud highlights that DC will never change on its own, even with people showing up with the best of intentions. Instead, it will continue pushing the country deeper into debt until something breaks.
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Site: PeakProsperityThe behavior of DC politicians is not hard to decipher. With precious few exceptions, they lack the wisdom and/or the knowledge to diagnose the predicaments, and even fewer have the willpower to be honest with the American people. So we're on a collision course with 'going broke.' In my view, this is now unavoidable.
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Site: Zero HedgeUS Investigates Army Vehicle Displaying Word 'Kafir' In Northeast Syria
The US-led coalition in Syria has launched a formal investigation after "unapproved symbols or language" were observed on a US military vehicle in northeast Syria, the coalition said in a statement to Middle East Eye on Friday.
On Thursday, MEE reported that a US military vehicle patrolling near the city of Hasakah last weekend displayed the word "kafir" - infidel in Arabic - on its front next to a Christian cross.
A US armored vehicle bearing the word 'kafir' patrols near the city of Hasakah in northeast Syria on 31 May 2025, via MEE
The term "kafir" gained global notoriety during the Syrian war, frequently used by the Islamic State (IS) and other extremist groups to justify violence against those deemed non-believers - including Muslims who did not share their ideology.
Local residents described the graffiti as "offensive" and a "provocation", particularly as IS no longer has a presence in the region.
"Markings of this nature violate U.S. Department of Defense policy," the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) said in a written statement. "CJTF-OIR has initiated a formal inquiry and will implement appropriate disciplinary measures under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
"This incident does not reflect the professionalism of our personnel or our respect for the Syrian people. While fact-finding is underway, our mission remains unchanged, enabling the enduring defeat of ISIS in Syria and Iraq."
The CJTF-OIR began operations in October 2014 [ostensibly] as the US-led coalition to defeat IS in Syria and Iraq.
Earlier this week, the US special envoy to Syria announced that the United States would reduce its military presence in the country, scaling down from eight bases to three in Hasakah.
Speaking to MEE, Jihan, a 34-year-old Kurdish woman, said it was hard to discern the intended message behind the markings. "We have nothing to do with IS, we don’t consider Americans to be kuffar [plural of kafir], and even less so the Christians who have always lived in Syria," she said.
Syria was one of the first places in the world to have a Christian community – the community is mentioned in the Book of Acts and St Paul’s famous conversion on the road to Damascus...
— Archaeo - Histories (@archeohistories) July 28, 2024
Christians are not foreign to Syrian land; they have not been imported; they are, in fact,… pic.twitter.com/zty0Plep2fThere are currently an estimated 2,000 American troops in Syria, with the number expected to be halved in the coming months.
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Site: Edward FeserPhrenology was the pseudoscience that aimed to link psychological traits to the morphology of the skull. Physiognomy was the pseudoscience that aimed to link such traits to facial features. In his Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel critiques these pseudosciences. Since they are now widely acknowledged to be pseudosciences, it might seem that Hegel’s critique can be of historical interest only. But as the late Alasdair MacIntyre pointed out in his essay “Hegel: On Faces and Skulls,” Hegel’s main points can be applied to a critique of today’s fashionable attempts to predict psychological traits and human actions from physiological and genetic traits. (The essay appears in the collection Philosophy Through Its Past, edited by Ted Honderich.)
That idea alone makes Hegel’s arguments worthy of our consideration. For it would certainly be of interest if it turned out that the fundamental problems with pseudosciences like phrenology and physiognomy had to do, not with their inadequacies vis-à-vis the empirical evidence, but with deeper philosophical assumptions they share with purportedly more empirically plausible and respectable versions of materialist reductionism. The arguments are not, however, presented with maximal crispness. But they are suggestive and worth trying to tease out. What follows is an attempt to do so (and its focus is on Hegel as MacIntyre reads him rather than on Hegel’s own texts).
The appeal to the past
MacIntyre notes several ways in which Hegel takes there to be a mismatch between brute anatomical and physiological facts on the one hand, and human thought and action on the other. But it seems to me that there are two main lines of argument identified by MacIntyre. The first, as I understand it, goes like this. Scientific explanations, including physiological explanations, appeal to general propositions, such as propositions of the form “For every x, if x is F then x is G.” For example, we might explain why a particular glass of water froze by saying “For every x, if x is water then x will freeze at 32 degrees Fahrenheit.” Our predicates F and G refer to universals, and we explain the particular phenomenon by simply noting that it is an instance of a completely general truth.
However, Hegel argues, human actions cannot be understood in this way. Suppose, for example (mine, not Hegel’s or MacIntyre’s), that you have a fight with your brother over some longstanding grudge between the two of you. Properly to explain this event requires reference to particular earlier events in your history, such as a promise to you that he once broke, or an occasion when you publicly insulted and embarrassed him. And those events will in turn be explicable in terms of yet other and earlier particular events. Understanding the character of these events will also involve attention to a variety of contextual details, such as who exactly was present on the occasion you publicly insulted him, and exactly what it was he had promised to do and why it was significant. Furthermore, it will involve attention to how all the relevant parties conceived of these various details.
These circumstances, thinks Hegel (as presented by MacIntyre) simply cannot be captured in general propositions of the kind to which scientific explanations appeal. In particular, there are no true generalizations to the effect of “For every x and every y, if x and y are brothers and x breaks a promise to y, then x and y will get in a fight several years later” (or whatever). What makes the sequence of events intelligible, in Hegel’s view, is not that it is a particular instance of a general pattern, where all events of the one kind will be followed by events of the other. Rather, that you acted in light of certain particular, contingent historical circumstances is an ineliminable aspect of the story, and cannot be captured in general or lawlike propositions. You are responding to those circumstances qua particular, not to just any old circumstances that happened to be of that general type. As MacIntyre writes, “to respond to a particular situation, event, or state of affairs is not to respond to any situation, event, or state of affairs with the same or similar properties in some respect; it is to respond to that situation conceived by both the agents who respond to it and those whose actions constitute it as particular” (p. 329).
What should we think of this argument? I’m not sure. Certainly it would need much tightening up before it could be judged compelling. However, it does seem to be at least in the general ballpark of arguments that I think are powerful. For example, it is reminiscent of Donald Davidson’s famous principle of the anomalism of the mental, according to which there can be no strict laws by which mental events might be predicted and explained. (Though Davidson’s argument too needs tightening up.)
The appeal to the future
What seems to me to be a second, distinct Hegelian argument discussed by MacIntyre (albeit not characterized by him as such) is expressed in this passage:
From the fact that an agent has a given trait, we cannot deduce what he will do in any given situation, and the trait cannot itself be specified in terms of some determinate set of actions that it will produce… [T]he crucial fact about self-consciousness… is, its self-negating quality: being aware of what I am is conceptually inseparable from confronting what I am not but could become. Hence, for a self-conscious agent to have a trait is for that agent to be confronted by an indefinitely large set of possibilities of developing, modifying, or abolishing that trait. Action springs not from fixed and determinate dispositions, but from the confrontation in consciousness of what I am by what I am not. (p. 331)
The idea here seems to be that to be conscious of oneself as an agent is, of its nature, precisely to be conscious of the possibility of an indefinite number of alternative choices. By contrast, to understand an anatomical or physiological feature is to know it as limited to a certain specific and relatively narrower range of effects in might have. Whereas, in Hegel’s first argument, the idea is that a reductionist physiological explanation cannot account for the significance of one’s past, in this argument the idea is that it cannot account for the openness of one’s future.
To make the point a little clearer, consider this passage from earlier in MacIntyre’s essay:
The relation of external appearance, including the facial appearance, to character is such that the discovery that any external appearance is taken to be a sign of a certain type of character is a discovery that the agent may then exploit to conceal his character. (p. 325)
The point here seems to be this. Suppose someone told me that he could, from my facial expressions, read off my character and thus predict my future actions. Knowing this, I could make sure that in the future I avoid the facial expressions I would otherwise normally be inclined toward, so that my interlocutor will be thrown off and his predictions will fail. Similarly, suppose someone told me that, based on what he had determined from scanning my brain, he predicted that I would make a cup of coffee in the next half hour. Even if I were inclined to do so, I could now choose otherwise simply to prove him wrong. There’s an openness to alternative possibilities in the behavior of human beings that differentiates them from the rigid behavior of merely physical systems, including those that comprise the micro-level parts of human beings considered in isolation from the whole.
This line of thought calls to mind the similar argument developed by Jean-Paul Sartre in Being and Nothingness. He famously draws a distinction there between being-in-itself and being-for-itself. Being-in-itself is the kind of reality had by a mere physical object as it exists objectively or independently of human consciousness. It is simply given or fixed. By contrast, being-for-itself, which is the human agent, is consciousness as it projects forward toward an unrealized possibility. Unlike being-in-itself, it is open to different possibilities rather than entirely fixed or determined. To deny free will is essentially to conflate being-for-itself with being-in-itself, but this cannot be done, because they are simply irreducibly different. Naturally, Sartre’s argument, and Hegel’s too, would require tightening up if we are to make them compelling.
Now, the general idea that the conceptual and logical structure of thought are simply irreducibly different from, and inexplicable in terms of, any collection of physical facts and their causal relations, is something I defend rigorously and at length in chapters 8 and 9 of my book Immortal Souls. I take it that Hegel’s first argument is aiming at something like that conclusion. And the general idea that human action is irreducibly teleological, and in particular that it cannot be analyzed in terms of efficient-causal relations (of the kind that obtain between physiological phenomena, for example) is something I defend in depth in chapter 4 of the book. I take it that Hegel’s second argument is aiming at something like that conclusion.
Hence I am, in a very general way, sympathetic at least to the basic idea of the kind of position MacIntyre attributes to Hegel. I leave as a homework exercise the question whether there are, in that position, ingredients for a line of argument that is both compelling and independent of considerations of the kind I set out in the book.
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Site: Zero HedgeTrump Admin Asks Supreme Court To Allow Dismantling Of Education DepartmentTyler Durden Fri, 06/06/2025 - 18:00
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on June 6 to allow it to resume dismantling the U.S. Department of Education, following a lower court’s previous order halting the process.
A federal district court issued an injunction last month blocking the process, directing the government to rehire some of the departmental employees who had been laid off.
“Each day this preliminary injunction remains in effect subjects the Executive Branch to judicial micromanagement of its day-to-day operations,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in the new emergency application.
As Matthew Vadum reports for The Epoch Times, President Donald Trump campaigned on shuttering the department.
On March 20, he signed Executive Order 14242, pledging to close the agency, which he said “has entrenched the education bureaucracy and sought to convince America that Federal control over education is beneficial.”
The department “does not educate anyone” and “maintains a public relations office that includes over 80 staffers at a cost of more than $10 million per year,” the executive order states.
In a May 22 order, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun of Massachusetts ordered the government to rehire about 1,400 laid-off employees and reverse other actions aimed at downsizing the department.
Joun said that for more than 150 years, “the federal government has played a crucial role in education.” Since it was created in 1979, the department’s “role in education across the nation cannot be understated,” he added.
The agency oversees the federal student loan system, performs research for states and schools, distributes federal funds, and enforces compliance with various federal laws.
Joan said it’s clear that the Trump administration’s “true intention is to effectively dismantle the Department” without first obtaining the required congressional approval.
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Site: Zero HedgeE. Coli Detected In Ground Beef Products Distributed To Whole FoodsTyler Durden Fri, 06/06/2025 - 17:40
Authored by Rudy Blalock via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Certain ground beef products distributed to Whole Foods Market locations nationwide have been pulled from shelves due to potential E. coli contamination, according to a June 3 U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) notice.
Image of the ground beef product detected to have been infected with E. Coli. Courtesy of June 3/FSIS public safety alert
The alert applies to 1-pound vacuum-packed packages of “ORGANIC RANCHER ORGANIC GROUND BEEF 85% LEAN 15% FAT,” marked with “Use or Freeze By 06-19-25” and “Use or Freeze By 06-20-25.”
The meat products, produced on May 22 and May 23, 2025, bear the establishment number “EST. 4027” inside the USDA mark of inspection, according to FSIS.
While a recall was not requested because the products are no longer available for purchase, FSIS urges consumers to check their refrigerators and freezers for the ground beef.
The product was initially shipped to distributor locations in Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, and Maryland, where it was then distributed to Whole Foods Market stores across the United States, the agency said.
The potential contamination was discovered when the producer of the products alerted FSIS that ground beef shipped into commerce had tested positive for E. coli O157:H7.
At this time, there have been no confirmed reports of illness associated from consumption of the affected products. Regardless, FSIS advises anyone concerned about a possible illness to contact a health care provider.
E. coli O157:H7 is a potentially life-threatening bacterium that can cause symptoms such as dehydration, bloody diarrhea, or abdominal cramps two to eight days after exposure, with most cases occurring three to four days after ingestion.
Most individuals recover within a week, but some, especially children under five and the elderly, may develop hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a form of kidney failure.
FSIS notes that HUS is characterized by easy bruising, pallor, and decreased urine output, and urges anyone experiencing these symptoms to seek emergency medical care immediately.
FSIS is concerned that some consumers may still have the affected ground beef in their possession.
The agency advises, “Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.”
FSIS says that all consumers should safely prepare raw meat products and only eat ground beef that has been cooked to an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
For food safety questions, consumers can call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 888-MPHotline (888-674-6854) or email MPHotline@usda.gov. Problems with meat, poultry, or egg products can also be reported online 24 hours a day via the Electronic Consumer Complaint Monitoring System at https://foodcomplaint.fsis.usda.gov/eCCF/, according to the agency.
From NTD News
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Site: Zero HedgeChina Grants Rare Earth Export Licenses To Top Three U.S. AutomakersTyler Durden Fri, 06/06/2025 - 17:20
President Donald Trump held a highly anticipated 90-minute phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday. Trump described the conversation as "very good" and mentioned that a potential visit to China is being planned — though Beijing or Washington has not confirmed the trip.
To end the week, more positive trade news hit the wires late Friday morning in New York, as Reuters cited three sources saying that China has granted temporary export licenses to rare-earth supplies for three major U.S. automakers.
The export licenses for rare earths were granted to the three major U.S. automakers: General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis, the maker of Jeep. Sources noted:
At least some of the licenses are valid for six months, the two sources said, declining to be named because the information is not public. It was not immediately clear what quantity or items are covered by the approval or whether the move signals China is preparing to ease the rare-earths licensing process, which industry groups say is cumbersome and has created a supply bottleneck.
In April, China deployed non-tariff countermeasures against the U.S. amid the escalating trade war, including restrictions on rare earths exports and related magnets — moves that disrupted the supply chain for American companies.
Readers are well aware that China controls approximately 90% of the global rare earths market and has repeatedly used this dominance as a strategic economic weapon.
In response, Western nations are ramping up efforts to boost production in allied countries to reduce supply chain vulnerabilities...
Earlier this week, a separate Reuters report said President Trump plans to use emergency powers under the Defense Production Act to bolster domestic production and processing of these metals.
The broader takeaway is clear: the U.S. must reclaim critical supply chains as the global order fractures into a bipolar state—while simultaneously accelerating the deployment of new hemispheric defense capabilities. We outlined this strategic mission for readers in a recent note titled:
It's a five-year sprint to secure critical supply chains and build out hemispheric defense infrastructure before the 2030s kick-off. This comes as the Biden-Harris regime screwed around for four years, more focused on Marxist DEI and gender nonsense than actually preparing the nation to meet the rising threat from China today and in the next decade.
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Site: Catholic ConclaveOPINION. At a time when the Chartres pilgrimage is flourishing, the Tridentine liturgy is divisive. Faithful to a living tradition, its defenders plead for its recognition and freedom within the unity of the Church.A liturgical storm over the column! As the 43rd edition of the Pilgrimage of Christendom gets underway, a wonderful opportunity for 19,000 pilgrims to offer our contemporaries a Catholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: Zero HedgeUS Sanctions Four Hague ICC Judges Over Israel Probe
On Thursday, the US government imposed sanctions on four International Criminal Court (ICC) judges over their role in investigations into war crimes by US and Israeli forces.
The US State Department said the sanctions freeze any assets the judges hold in the country and ban them from any transactions involving US citizens or institutions, cutting them off from the US financial and legal system. This includes a ban on US banks, companies, or individuals from sending money, offering services, or cooperating with the judges through international bodies.
Getty Images
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions in a written statement, accusing the ICC of overstepping its authority and threatening the sovereignty of the US and Israel.
The ICC responded by condemning the move as an attack on its independence. It said the sanctions undermine efforts to hold war criminals accountable. "Targeting those working for accountability does nothing to help civilians trapped in conflict. It only emboldens those who believe they can act with impunity," the court said.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk also criticized the move, emphasizing that "attacks against judges" are in direct contradiction to "respect for the rule of law and the equal protection of the law – values for which the US has long stood."
The judges targeted are Solomy Balungi Bossa, Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza, Reine Alapini Gansou, and Beti Hohler.
According to the State Department, Bossa and Carranza were sanctioned for approving a 2020 investigation into alleged war crimes by US troops and CIA officers in Afghanistan and secret prisons.
Alapini Gansou and Hohler were targeted for their involvement in issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024, with charges including starvation and attacking civilians in Gaza. The decision triggered a strong reaction from both Washington and Tel Aviv, which rejected the ruling outright.
Less than three months later, on February 13, 2025, the US sanctioned ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, freezing his assets and banning him from entering the country.
On April 29, ICC judges issued a gag order on Khan, barring him from publicizing any new arrest warrant applications in the Palestine case. Judges said his public announcements had disrupted proceedings and put pressure on the court.
Trump escalated the campaign after returning to office in January 2025. Just days in, he signed an executive order threatening sanctions against anyone involved in ICC investigations related to US or Israeli war crimes.
The same order is now being used to justify sanctions against the four judges. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio maintain that the ICC holds no authority over the US or Israel, neither of which is party to the Rome Statute.
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Site: Zero HedgeNorth Korea Raises Capsized Warship After 'National Humiliation' Of Botched LaunchTyler Durden Fri, 06/06/2025 - 16:40
Last month we described how North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was left humiliated and outraged after personally witnessing the May 21st botched launch of a new, 5,000-ton destroyer, after which he called it a "criminal act" and a "political issue directly related to the prestige of the state."
North Korea now says Thursday it has successfully raised the capsized warship and moored it at a port in the country’s northeast for repair. KCNA reports that "after restoring the balance of the destroyer early in June, the team moored it at the pier" in the city of Chongjin.
The flipped-over 5,000 ton destroyer before it was set upright, via Airbus Defence and Space
South Korea's military has cited recent commercial satellite images to assess that the 5,000-ton destroyer has indeed been finally restored to an upright position.
The failed side-launch of the ship reportedly resulted in damage to the hull, due to a transport cradle having detached prematurely, allowing the vessel to be wrongly aligned upon entering the water.
North Korean officials are vowing that the "perfect restoration of the destroyer will be completed without fail" before the deadline set by Kim, which is a major ruling party meeting later this month.
Al Jazeera cites KCNA to say, "Experts will now examine the warship’s hull for the next stage of restorations, to be carried out at Rajin Dockyard over the coming week to 10 days."
According to further prior reporting in KCNA, the ship was left with holes torn into its hull, but the outlet didn't report if there were any human casualties. Kim blamed the incident on "unscientific empiricism" and said it "lowered the dignity and self-respect" of the country - or essentially national humiliation.
North Korea confirmed its capsized warship was upright and stable, but a layer of intrigue lingers: Why the armada of massive balloons? https://t.co/paIp9rOXyD
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 6, 2025He ominously promised that consequences would be revealed at the ruling Worker's Party meeting in June, and had set the daunting deadline for the vessel to be repaired by the time of that same event.
"No matter how good the state of the warship is, the fact that the accident is an unpardonable criminal act remains unchanged, and those responsible for it can never evade their responsibility for the crime," said the Central Military Commission. The manager of the shipyard was immediately summoned by police as they set out to investigate the incident and detain potentially culpable individuals.
KCNA blamed "inexperienced command and operational carelessness." The outlet reported that the destroyer's starboard hull was scratched, and water entered the stern section.
North Korea was excited to launch their new "Unsinkable" warship.. but it crashed and sank when they launched it pic.twitter.com/iWyc6cmYh4
— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) June 4, 2025While the official line is that the damage was "not serious," outside observers have had major doubts. Given the entrance of water, "The propulsion systems and electronic components are likely beyond repair,” a naval construction expert told South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo.
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Site: Zero Hedge"The Fabled Fourth Turning Enters Full Churn..."Tyler Durden Fri, 06/06/2025 - 16:20
Authored by James Howard Kunstler,
What Movie Is This?
“MAGA is developing “tech right” fatigue.”
- Cernovich on “X”
In this age of info overload, when everybody’s brain has become a memory hole, we’ll see how long anyone remembers Elon Musk’s epic tantrum. The latest news is that Mr. Trump and Wonderboy have scheduled a phone convo for today, Friday, supposedly to “make-up.”
The whole psychodrama looks like an episode out of the Batman movie that America has become. You could see the current plot twist from a thousand miles away. Even back in the summer, Elon’s spastic cavortings on the campaign trail looked suspiciously drug-edged. He’s reported to use ketamine, which induces mood changes from euphoria to anxiety and agitation, as well as slurred speech. Also, altered judgment and disinhibition that might provoke risky behavior. You just have to kind of wonder.
Meanwhile, the fabled Fourth Turning enters full churn. Western Civ, of which we are part, continues to go sideways into history. In case you are distracted by Mr. Musk’s histrionics, we are on a path toward World War, political crack-up, and global bankruptcy.
Among the strange doings, note former CIA Director Mike Pompeo showing up a week ago at a “Black Sea Security Forum” in Odessa, Ukraine, where — say, what? —he called for called for a "complete victory" over Russia, and advocated for Crimea to be recognized as part of Ukraine (which is not in the folder labeled “Reality”).
A call for “victory” implies that we’re at war with Russia, or seek to enter such a war. Granted, the US neocon-intel-blob sparked the Ukraine-Russia War, starting in 2014, when State Department Cookie Monster Victoria Nuland set off the Maidan color revolution. And “Joe Biden” kept stoking the conflict with cash and ammo — and inflammatory rhetoric. But Mr. Trump has been working this year to put out the fire, difficult as that is, with the EU and the rest of NATO beating war drums offstage.
What was Mike Pompeo up to in Odessa? You can make the case that he was violating the Logan Act: attempting to make freelance foreign policy outside government, and in a rather dangerous way, calling for war, however obliquely. And then you have Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal flying to Kiev to confab with the unelected coke-head running Ukraine’s war machine. . . and alakazam, the next day Ukraine pulls off its long-distance bombing prank deep into Russia, destroying some of its strategic nuclear force. Surely, the purpose of that was to provoke a response that could amount to a cassus belli for the EU to launch its (insane and suicidal) longed-for war against Russia.
Why were Pompeo, Lindsey Graham, and Blumenthal not arrested when they flew back to the USA? Everything they were up to in Ukraine had the odor of serious mischief. Mr. Patel of the FBI, a former US attorney who knows how to manage such things, should have personally hauled all three of them into a windowless room for depositions. Who, exactly, does Mike Pompeo purport to represent these days? Who paid for his trip to Odessa, and who went with him? And why isn’t anybody asking these questions?
Elon Musk’s bout of intemperance was supposedly provoked by his disgust over the “big beautiful bill” before Congress, not a budget, really, but a mandatory spending reconciliation package with lots of bells, whistles, and kazoos attached. Of course, you have to ask: what legislation coming out of that animal farm is not a monstrosity? Maybe it takes a monster to fight a monster.
Maybe America needs to transition out of its Batman phase into something like King Kong versus Godzilla.
The multitude of little folk underfoot are getting trampled, anyway. And the bankruptcy of America is already presenting itself as a sort of systemic sepsis driving ordinary people and small businesses to ruin, even while the stock and bond markets manage to levitate. No one can feel comfortable in the present situation.
The Democratic Party played the Joker the past ten Batman years, working overtime to throw the country into chaos. That movie’s over.
Now, strange to relate, it’s looking more and more like the USA (King Kong) against Europe (Godzilla). Russia is the lady in peril down among the ferns watching the brutes roar at each other. China is something like Ming-the-Merciless from a distant planet (and another movie), waiting off-stage to see what happens.
Europe has a death wish. Its economy is cratering. It’s sacrificing two-thousand years of culture to a new barbarian invasion. The governments of the UK, France, and Germany, have gone full Orwell against their own citizens. The unelected EU has turned into a tyrannical machine grinding up anything that looks like enterprise. And the war drums they’re beating can only bring on a hard rain of Russian hypersonic “hazelnuts,” destroying the only thing they have left: their once-charming cities. If that’s not enough to finish Europe off, wait for the banking and bond market implosion.
Mr. Trump knows that Godzilla is fixing to fall off a cliff. He’s more inclined to take up with that lady down in the ferns and march back into the humid, welcoming jungle. If you really want to rescue what’s left of Western Civ, Russia in its current form, would be your natural ally, not your opponent. Nobody knows how we will get through this movie, but time does not stand still and some day we will be back in a world of nations that have given up acting like monsters. . . and maybe the next movie is something light-hearted like Carey Grant and Kate Hepburn with a pet leopard.
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Site: Fr. Z's BlogTonight,Is the night,Of nights. pic.twitter.com/JAhyy9BFHV — Band of Brothers Behind the Scenes (@BandBehind) June 5, 2025 BBC Radio newsreader John Snagge gives the first news of the D-Day landing at 9:32 AM to the British public. pic.twitter.com/dQLvRWhU1w — Frank McDonough … Read More →
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Site: Fr. Z's BlogI think the “scam” post I made the other day is important. Today I received TWO scam attempts by email, both using a fake “invoice” for something which I have in the past used, one in Italian (Vodafone) and one … Read More →
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