One can readily admit that the Magisterium's manner of expression does not seem very easy to understand at times. It needs to be translated by preachers and catechists into a language which relates to people and to their respective cultural environments. The essential content of the Church's teaching, however, must be upheld in this process. It must not be watered down on allegedly pastoral grounds, because it communicates the revealed truth.
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Site: Zero HedgeNIH Nixes Fauci Pet Project As Scripps' Kristian Andersen Fixes To Flee The CountryTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 23:05
Authored by Paul Thacker via The DisInformation Chronicle,
Senior officials inside the NIH are working to shut down a Tony Fauci initiative launched in 2020 called the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases or “CREID.” Meanwhile, attorneys inside the Justice Department have launched initial inquiries into one of the CREID grants awarded to Scripps Research Institute researcher Kristian Andersen, who is now in the process of fleeing the United States for a position being created for him at the University of Oslo.
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but an NIH spokesperson confirmed the agency is shutting down the CREID grants. “Though the grants have been properly terminated, money will be released to the grantees to assure safe shutdown of these programs in terms of biosafety and security,” said an NIH spokesperson, adding that pandemic preparedness remains important but the dangers of health comorbidities in infectious disease outbreaks was further underlined during COVID. “Strengthening overall health through proactive disease prevention offers a more resilient foundation for responding to future health threats—beyond reliance on vaccines or treatments for yet-unknown pathogens.”
Tony Fauci announced the formation of CREIDs in 2020, awarding 11 grants worth around $17 million, with $82 million in expected funding in succeeding years. NIH did not explain how much of the $82 million slated for CREID had already been spent. Two CREID grantees have been the focus of intense scrutiny since Fauci’s announcement: Peter Daszak of the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance and Kristian Andersen of Scripps.
Daszak was later discovered to have undisclosed ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), having provided an NIH subaward to WIV researcher Shi Zhengli. At the close of the Biden Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finally debarred EcoHealth Alliance and Peter Daszak from receiving federal funds, in part because “in response to NIH’s multiple safety-related requests” EcoHealth Alliance had not provided WIV records.
Andersen also faced close inspection for his CREID grant. Some months before Fauci gave final sign off on Andersen’s CREID award, Andersen and other researchers published a paper in Nature Medicine titled, “Proximal Origin” that dismissed the possibility of a Wuhan lab accident. Andersen’s paper was widely hailed by scientists as proof, at the time, that discussions of a COVID lab accident was a conspiracy.
Nature Medicine’s editor-in-chief, Joao Monteiro, tweeted that the “Proximal Origin” paper “put conspiracy theories” about the pandemic’s possible lab origin to rest.
Andersen echoed Monteiro’s statement days later, associating “conspiracy theorists” worried about a possible lab accident with people who doubt the Moon landing.
The paper would go on to become one of the most heavily cited scientific papers in 2020. However, emails made public through freedom of information act requests and by congressional investigators later found that the papers’ authors had run it past funders—Collins and Fauci at the NIH, as well as with Jeremy Farrar, then at the Wellcome Trust and now with the World Health Organization.
Congressional Republicans later charged that Fauci had helped orchestrate the paper, while House Democrats pointed the finger at Jeremey Farrar, publishing a report that concluded Farrar helped “organize and facilitate” and “led the drafting process of the paper.”
The group BioSafety Now has demanded Nature Medicine retract the “Proximal Origin” paper, calling it a “a product of scientific misconduct.” Two weeks ago, The DisInformation Chronicle reported that the Justice Department began an initial inquiry into the paper, sending Nature Medicine a list of questions that included, “How do you handle allegations that authors of works in your journals may have misled their readers?” The existence of the Justice Department letter to Nature Medicine had not been previously reported.
Justice Department officials opened the inquiry as they suspect the paper may have been a quid pro quo, published by the authors to dismiss the possibility of a lab accident in exchange for the Fauci CREID grant. Andersen addressed these bribery allegations two years ago during a congressional hearing.
“There is no connection between the grant and the conclusions we reached about the origin of the pandemic,” Andersen wrote in sworn testimony to Congress in July 2023. “We applied for this grant in June 2019, and it was scored and reviewed by independent experts in November 2019.”
The Intercept later reported that Andersen “knew that was false.” NIH records show the Fauci CREID grant to Andersen wasn’t finalized until May 21, 2020, two months after Andersen published “Proximal Origin” in March 2020.
Misleading intelligence agencies
Justice Department officials are also likely to examine Andersen’s possible role in misleading US intelligence agencies. A week after Nature Medicine published “Proximal Origin,” the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) published an intelligence report that circulated inside security agencies. First reported by The DisInformation Chronicle, the INR report is marked “UNCLASSIFIED/FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY.”
The INR report documents a briefing that non-government scientists gave to State Department officials, downplaying the possibility of a Chinese lab accident and citing the “Proximal Origin” paper. The names of the scientists who briefed State remained unknown until a couple years ago, when emails found that one of the scientists was Kristian Andersen, who is apparently a citizen of Denmark, not the US.
“Did we have a foreign national parading into the intel agencies and convincing senior officials to not look into a matter?” said a State Department official who is not cleared to speak to the media. “That’s a counter intelligence matter. We need a professional law enforcement investigation.”
Andersen’s involvement came to light in a late 2020 email sent by State Department official David Feith in which Feith wrote that Andersen had briefed State for their March 2020 INR report. “In fact, I'm told that in a briefing organized by INR earlier this year, [Andersen] said that several features that had initially raised questions in his mind were subsequently put to rest by more detailed analysis,” Feith explained by email. “Notably, it was that subsequent follow-on analysis, referred to by Anderson in the INR discussion….”
Based on the briefing by Andersen and colleagues, State’s INR report concluded there was no evidence the virus originated in a lab. “U.S. scientists said that while they cannot completely rule out that scenario, it was improbable and not supported by available evidence.”
But on April 16, 2020, a month after briefing the State Department, Andersen sent a Slack message to his “Proximal Origin” co-authors. This message contradicts what scientists told the State Department.
“I’m still not fully convinced that no culture was involved,” Andersen wrote his co-authors, a month after briefing State that a lab accident was not supported by evidence. “We also can't fully rule out engineering (for basic research).” Andersen added that a critical part of the virus called the furin cleavage site “still could have been inserted” into the virus.
Researcher Andreas Martin Lisewski with Germany’s Constructor University published a recent study supporting Andersen’s suspicion that a furin cleavage site was inserted into the COVID virus called SARS-CoV-2. After analyzing the sequence, Lisewski concluded the SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site came from a laboratory-constructed MERS virus. Although legacy media have ignored these findings, virologist Christian Drosten of Charité University in Berlin presented these conclusions that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was not natural at a World Health Organization meeting last February.
“I don’t see how this not a criminal misleading and counterintelligence matter,” said the State Department official. “This is way beyond the threshold needed for a grand jury.”
During a sworn congressional deposition, Andersen testified that he also briefed the CIA and FBI, although the nature and timing of those discussions is unclear.
As the noose continues to tighten on Andersen, he has been looking to move outside the United States and has apparently found a new home at the University of Oslo. The move would be a precipitous fall in status for Andersen, as Scripps Research Institute has been ranked as one of the most influential scientific programs in the world.
Andersen did not respond to questions and repeated requests for comment sent to his Scripps email.
Finding refuge
“I have heard from several sources that there is an ongoing effort from a group of scientists at the University of Oslo to recruit Andersen, and that this might be finalized in the near future,” said Sigrid Bratlie, a molecular biologist and senior advisor at Norway’s Langsikt Policy Centre.
The campaign to find a position for Andersen at the University of Oslo apparently began last October when professors Anne Spurkland, Rein Aasland, and Nils Christian Stenseth invited Andersen to give a lecture on the Oslo campus. Nelseth has long trumpeted Andersen’s research. In 2021, he published a paper with WIV scientist Shi Zhengli that dismissed the possibility of a Wuhan lab accident, citing Andersen’s “Proximal Origin” paper.
Covering the “facts and the fiction” of the COVID pandemic, Andersen claimed during the October lecture that critiques of his research were mere political attacks that had been spread by conspiracy theorists, naming two Oslo researchers sitting in the audience: Sigrid Bratlie and Gunnveig Grødeland, a professor at the University of Oslo.
Andersen’s Oslo talk was sponsored by the Norwegian Society for Immunology which later released an apology. “Kristian Andersen’s lecture concluded by asserting that, based on his findings, SARS-CoV-2 necessarily originated from an animal at the Wuhan wet market,” the statement reads. “In retrospect, unfortunately, it seems the purpose of his lecture was just as much about stopping the free debate in Norway on this topic.”
Undeterred, Stenseth, Spurkland and Aasland then helped nominate Andersen for membership in the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Two months ago, the Academy accepted Andersen’s nomination.
The exact position being created for Andersen at the University of Oslo is unclear. Stenseth, Spurkland, and Aasland did not respond to questions and repeated requests for comment sent by email. University of Oslo officials also contacted by email did not reply.
Andersen’s arrival in Oslo is likely to be greeted with some trepidation. Last week, Bratlie published a book to positive reviews in Norway titled, “The Wuhan Mystery – the hunt for the origins of the covid pandemic.” Bratlie’s book argues that the pandemic likely started from a lab accident in Wuhan, evidence that was then covered up by international scientists to protect reputations, jobs, and funding. This cover-up, she argues, impedes society’s ability to prepare for future pandemics.
Bratlie said that scientists have legitimate worries about the current climate for research in Trump’s America, but these concerns should be balanced with the need to protect democratic principles and academic integrity.
“I would be absolutely devastated on behalf of Norwegian academia if this recruitment happens,” Bratlie said of the University of Oslo’s bid to bring Andersen to her country. “If Andersen has contributed to a cover-up of the origins of the pandemic, potentially extending to criminal acts, he should be held accountable and not be given amnesty or academic shield in Norway.”
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Site: Zero HedgeWuhan Researcher Charged With Smuggling Biological Materials Into US LabTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 22:15
Authored by Eva Fu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
U.S. prosecutors have charged another Chinese national for smuggling biological materials into the United States and lying about the scheme.
Petri dishes and notes found in intercepted packages that Chinese researcher Han Chengxuan allegedly smuggled into the United States. Department of Justice
Han Chengxuan, a PhD candidate from Wuhan in central China, was arrested upon landing at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport on June 8. An FBI agent said authorities had intercepted four packages of biological materials that Han allegedly sent to members of a University of Michigan laboratory.
She was the third Chinese national charged in a week for smuggling materials for biological research. The previous two, accused of smuggling a crop-killing fungus, include a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan’s Molecular Plant-Microbe Interaction. The criminal complaint said Han was a Chinese Communist Party member who has shown loyalty to the Party.
The complaint said Han admitted to shipping an estimated five to 10 packages, but several were lost in transit. She said that her professors at both the Chinese and U.S. universities, as well as the recipients, had no knowledge of what she sent, characterizing them as a “surprises,” according to the FBI agent.
The packages contain neither the correct documentation nor the permit required for importing roundworm-related materials, the complaint noted.
The shipments allegedly went to two recipients: one active member of the lab and another among the faculty and staff at the Life Sciences Institute at the University of Michigan.
Han initially lied to the customs agents at the airport about the content of the packages, claiming they were plastic cups and a book, according to a court filing. Pressed, she admitted that the packages contained petri dishes of nematode growth medium for growing roundworms, as well as small circular DNA molecules called plasmids in an envelope, the FBI agent said.
Han, who is studying at the College of Life Science and Technology in the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, arrived on an exchange visitor visa; she has an offer letter presenting her as a visiting scholar to the Michigan lab, according to prosecutors. Han told the FBI that she was coming to the University of Michigan for one year for her research on roundworms.
She stated that she had produced the desired plasmids using E. coli, isolated and injected them into roundworms as a primary method for her research, according to the filing. The FBI agent noted that plasmids are often used as a vehicle for introducing genetic modifications in organisms like roundworms.
Han’s immigration paperwork said she researches how animals detect sensory cues such as touch, chemicals, and light, and how neural circuits process such information for behavioral outcome, and how genes and drugs affect such processes, the complaint said. She has co-authored two research papers on roundworms, known scientifically as C.elegans.
A U.S. consular officer initially rejected Han’s J1 visa application on March 18 due to her struggle to conduct the interview in English, which was essential for her obtaining the visa. She secured the visa successfully nine days later, with an officer noting that she “spoke credibly about her educational background, current studies, and post graduate plans,” the complaint stated.
Han tried to conceal the content of the shipment with written notes and a book, including one reading: “Hello! This is a fun letter with interesting patterns. I hope you can enjoy the pleasure within it,” according to the court document.
Labels on the same note contain terms consistent with roundworm research, the filing said. Han allegedly told the customs agent she created a “picture game” in the book and that the recipient of her note would sequence the plasmids—a process each taking about a week—to identify what they were “for fun,” the filing said.
Han allegedly deleted the content of her electronic device before coming to the United States. She stated she wanted to “start afresh” when questioned by federal agents.
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, Jerome Gorgon, said the alleged smuggling from a Wuhan university marks “part of an alarming pattern that threatens our security.”
“The American taxpayer should not be underwriting a PRC-based smuggling operation at one of our crucial public institutions,” he said in a statement.
John Nowak, Customs and Border Protection’s acting director of field operations, said the alleged actions compromise the integrity of U.S. research institutions.
“The guidelines for importing biological materials into the U.S. for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” he said, adding that his agency will not tolerate the smuggling of “potentially dangerous goods” through U.S. ports of entry.
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Site: Zero HedgeDebt, Leverage, And Fiat Come To BitcoinTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 20:35
Authored by Kane McGukin via Bombthrower.com,
Money has always been strategic, providing the foundation of nations and empires for centuries.
Owning capital and controlling its flow isn’t just about survival; it’s about building something that lasts.
If Bitcoin 2024 was the year of political invasion and intelligence acknowledgement, 2025 was a confirmation.
My key takeaway is that what started as an emergent behavior, Bitcoin, has made its way to center stage in 21st-century capital formation. New age dollars are backed once again with layers of sound money and innovative tech rails (stablecoins) that will extend our ability to build the future in both our digital and physical worlds.
This year’s conference laid out how Bitcoin + Stablecoins will be incorporated into balance sheets, national stockpiles, and act as a financial reserve asset. Backing traditional assets, new financial instruments (bitbonds), and resetting the geopolitical landscape while driving growth in the 21st Century.
“Bitcoin is now becoming one of the largest asset classes in the world. … The US needs to be able to defend Bitcoin or use it as an offensive weapon…” – Fred Theil, Mara
“The Executive Order specifically named Bitcoin… as a strategic asset because of its scarcity… and that was a signal being sent to the American population as well as the global population of other national leaders… The US Government sees Bitcoin as a Strategic asset… Is this a signal of a strategic shift? … I think that’s still an uncertain question, but I think we’re leaning towards the latter.” – Matthew Pines
Strategic reserves aren’t just about oil or Swiss cheese anymore. They’re about Bitcoin and the future of money as statecraft – Matthew Sigel, VanEck
A Historical Perspective of How We Got to Bitcoin
Money began with kings and blacksmiths, then shifted to vaults and shipping lanes as industrialized nations arose. To power this evolution, a global information and logistics network emerged: wires stretched across continents, barges moved gold port to port, and boots on the ground gathered local intelligence. Routed it back through government think tanks and major global bank trading desks. These old-fashioned and manual networks are what FED the dollar money machine, creating an unrivaled capital engine in the US.
By the 1960s and 1980s, a new era began. Derivatives became the norm, and information moved faster, requiring one to have financial trading desks around the globe to capture profitable information and support national security. Bankers ruled supreme. Bitcoin 2025 made it clear there is new capital in town, but this time is no different.
In recent decades, social networks began outperforming diplomats and spies. Capital shifted from hard assets to liquid and digital instruments. This accelerated the tempo of our world. We must rebuild that complex network of global banks, but with the advantage of nodes over buildings. In the new realm, VCs, software developers, and engineers rule supreme.
If one theme echoed throughout this year’s conference, it was this: Monetary information is a weapon, and the dollar network needs an extension. A new innovation to carry its weight around the world faster. That’s why Bitcoin is more than Number Go Up (NGU) technology.
Throughout the conference, if you heard it once, you heard it numerous times. Bitcoin won’t replace the dollar, it will expand and deepen the vast power of the dollar network. Moving forward, BTC will be the basis of capital formation, buying power, and geopolitical edge. Its volatility will be harvested and embedded into the balance sheets of public companies (Bitcoin Treasury Companies).
Stablecoins Were Everywhere
The x.com post/meme above is funny and sums up the stablecoin mania. This was an inevitable route, and there was no loss in the opportunity to weave it into almost every session. Stablecoins will lead the way in transforming our money market and dollar payment networks. They bring them up-to-date with modern technology and making “money” fully digital and usable.
Making money move at the speed with which people live today. Tether’s (USDT) Paolo Ardoino proved this in his session. He effectively showed that we’re moving from an era of tech stacks to an era of monetary tech stacks.
If you want value, it must be backed by truth and sustainability. Not rhetoric, corruption, merry-go-rounding, and nothingness.
Underneath the most popular stablecoin USDT sits: sound money assets (Bitcoin and Gold), paper yield-bearing monetary assets (US Treasuries), private company profits, Bitcoin mining and AI datacenter infrastructure, independent media tools, privacy chat tools, and more. Tether has built the future of what a monetary tech stack likely looks like. A combination of all forms of assets we might want in our society today.
“There are many senior folks in the Trump administration directly around the stablecoin space, and this was the same philosophy that really gave rise to the growth of US-based, world-dominant multinational corporations. It was not just the love of Pepsi and Coke as products. It was that they served as instruments of US statecraft, and there was a deep financial overlap between the profits of the large multinational corporations and the reach and acquisitions of the American Empire. … I think that there is a kind of belief that Stablecoins and the Bitcoin market can effectively do for the dollar what multinational corporations did in the 20th Century for the reach of the Empire.” – Mike Benz
As we’ve seen across centuries, intelligence is once again being embedded and synchronized. As power has shifted to technology networks, we’re seeing the importance these leaders are now playing in government.
Much like we saw with old Wall Street revolving doors that allowed leaders to bounce back and forth between Goldman, JP Morgan, Black Rock, The Federal Reserve, and other government institutions. We’re now seeing the same with technology companies, too.
Given the posturing around Bitcoin and AI, it would not be a shock for Bitcoin and stablecoin companies to be the next vector. After all, the power of a monetary network is in the information and profit its operators control.
As capital competition intensifies, it is clear that economic dominance and even warfare have moved from the battlefields to bandwidth.
All of this, Bitcoin’s integration, the rise of stablecoins, and the evolution of monetary tech stacks point to a deeper truth: our current financial system isn’t just adapting, it’s straining while monetary architecture is quickly becoming the next battleground.
This strain comes from a design flaw baked into the system itself: its dependency on endless growth. Its dependency on debt-backed growth.
The Problem of Scale and Constant Growth
“Basically, the way the system is constructed. … it relies on constant growth. It’s like a shark that can’t stop swimming, otherwise it drowns, ironically.” – Lyn Alden
What Lyn describes here with the shark analogy is the premise of Geoffrey West’s book Scale – The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies.
Eventually, superexponential growth systems (like financial systems) reach finite time singularity where the energy and growth required to maintain pace become catastrophically unsustainable.
The only way to avoid the inevitable collapse is through innovation. Ironically, Bitcoin is an innovation for both our financial system and our information system. Both are on unsustainable resource burn paths just to maintain themselves. For the financial system, it’s a debt issue. For the internet, it’s an energy and volume of content/information/value issue.
These dilemmas, though not Triffin’s, make the points highlighted by Vice President JD Vance even more important.
For starters, unfortunately, he made it clear that Bitcoin is now political; continued voice and action are required. As he posed, Bitcoin and AI together should be considered the two most important tools for our future.
As a reminder, empires and stability are built on one’s ability to collect, process, and profit from information. Both work nicely in these capacities. So, the undue interest does make sense.
As a reminder, those who reign are the ones who best showcase the ability to monetize the value in networks.
What nation-states, public entities, and those in statecraft seem to grasp is we’ve shifted from a world of “he who holds the gold makes the rules” to a world of “he who holds the data gets the value”.
It now appears to be an arms race to see who can amass critical capital. Because in times of geopolitical instability, strategic resources are what give control. They are what lead to historical transitions. Once again, we find ourselves in the midst of a paradigm shift, with Bitcoin at the center.
Money, information, and supply chains are the battlegrounds of the moment that will define the lanes of the future.
“We have to start thinking about the long-term strategic implications of Bitcoin. Where Bitcoin is going is as a strategically important asset for the United States over the next decades.” – JD Vance
And yet, while the Bitcoin Conference conversations touched on geopolitics, network theory, and systemic fragility, there was also something personal about this year’s conference.
One moment that captured this shift in narrative was from none other than Jack Mallers.
Mr. Mallers is Aging… A Conference Farewell
Lastly, a Bitcoin Conference would not be complete without a passionate ending from Jack Mallers.
However, this year was a bit of a flip of the script. Rather than promoting HODLing or stacking sats forever, Mallers promoted spending bitcoin and even taking loans against them… debt… because the reality is, as you become an adult, there are things in life Bitcoin can’t buy. There are real moments, real bills quoted and accepted only in USD. This realization helps us understand the simple line Jack quoted:
“Money is a means, it’s not an end.” – Jack Mallers
Money is a savings technology > Spending is for memories and life.
Jack Mallers Bitcoin 2025 Keynote Speech: The HODLers Dilemma
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Site: Public Discourse
After his nomination of Linda McMahon as the new Secretary of Education, President Trump told reporters that he wanted her to put herself out of a job. The following month, on March 20th, Donald Trump signed an executive order with the promising title “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities.” The order instructs the Secretary of Education to dismantle the federal Department of Education and return authority over children’s education to parents, states, and local communities.
The Department of Education was already dismantled once before, but through the efforts of the National Education Association (NEA) it returned. The NEA has also lobbied for federal spending on education, which has dramatically increased without improving student outcomes. Trump’s executive order is a step in the right direction, certainly improving government efficiency, but it is not enough.
Education in the Hands of the Federal Government
The Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Since the Constitution does not delegate power over education to the federal government, this power is reserved to the States or to the people. States and individual people are free to decide how to handle education.
The Department of Education does not directly regulate education, but it exercises powerful indirect influence through its grant-giving ability. In 2022, the Department of Education provided 13.7 percent of the funding for K-12 education. The department gives grants to districts and schools based on their adherence to its specific guidelines. The federal government also gives grants to teachers for professional development and training programs, like National Board Certification or TEACH. The more money available to the Department of Education, the greater its power, a power that should be reserved to the states.
Thomas Jefferson was the Founding Father who spoke most extensively about education. He is often misrepresented as one of the early pioneers of the public school system, but he advocated for a very limited version of state-regulated public schools. In 1779, Jefferson successfully passed “A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge” in the Virginia state legislature. This bill provided free education for three years in reading, writing, and arithmetic to all citizens. In an 1817 bill proposed by Jefferson, he encourages local control of public school funds and warns that with control at the level of state government, “they would be badly managed, depraved by abuses, and would exhaust the whole literary fund.”
For many years, the role of the federal government in education, as described in the 1785 Land Ordinance, was simply to ensure land grants for public schools. Government involvement expanded with the establishment of the federal Department of Education in 1867.
History Repeats Itself: The Department of Education and the NEA
The NEA has played an instrumental role in molding federal education policy, though it began with different aims. The NEA was founded as the National Teachers Association (NTA) in 1857. Thomas Valentine, President of the New York Teachers Association, invited forty-three other educators to a National Teachers’ Convention in Philadelphia to discuss the formation of a national teachers’ union. Valentine told these educators that the NTA would gather and disseminate education information to teachers across the country. Valentine assured those present that the NTA would perform the duties of a much-needed federal department of education which, once established, would remove the necessity of the NTA. Other speeches at the first meeting of the NTA also called for a Department of Education in the federal government, including that of Zalmon Richards, voted to be the first president of the NTA. Speakers at subsequent NTA meetings year after year called for a federal Department or Bureau of Education.
Finally, in 1867, the United States Congress passed an Act to Establish a Federal Department of Education. The following year, however, Congress abolished the department and replaced it with an “Office of Education,” due to questions about its constitutionality and fears that a federal department might exert too much control over local education policies in the states. Nevertheless, the Office of Education remained part of the federal government, a long-term victory for the NTA.
In 1870, the NTA merged with the American Normal School Association, the National Association of School Superintendents, and the Central College Association. Upon this merger, the National Teachers Association changed its name to the National Education Association (NEA).
Writer and educator Samuel Blumenfeld details the lobbying efforts made by the NEA in his book NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education. In 1889, a committee of the NEA urged legislators that “the Bureau of Education should be restored to its original position as an independent department.” In 1918, the NEA set up its headquarters in Washington and created a “Legislative Commission” (now the “Legislative Program”) for drafting legislation proposals to Congress. In 1921, the Journal of the National Education Association started running a column in every issue that detailed the status of legislation related to education, urging members to write to their legislators for support. By 1964, the NEA was sponsoring weekend “Teacher-In-Politics” training workshops with the purpose of inspiring and aiding teachers to become active in politics at the service of NEA-driven goals.
After years of NEA lobbying, in 1965, Congress approved the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), with an initial appropriation of $1.3 billion. This act granted a yearly payout to be administered to schools based on the school meeting certain requirements (in 2023, the ESEA appropriated $29.3 billion).
The success of the 1965 ESEA did not satisfy the NEA. NEA president Sam Lambert said the following in his 1965 inaugural speech as executive secretary:
NEA last year had 1,030,000 members; and by the end of this year we will have at least 1,100,000. . . . We are already four times as large as any other professional organization in this country. Within a few years we will be six or seven times as large. And, beginning now we are going to put our power and influence to work for the things that are most important:
NEA will become a stronger and more influential advocate of social changes long overdue.
NEA will become a political power second to no other special interest group.
NEA will have more and more to say about how a teacher is educated, whether he should be admitted to the profession, and depending on his behavior and ability whether he should stay in the profession.
And, finally, NEA will organize this profession from top to bottom into logical operating units that can move easily and effectively and with power unmatched by any other organized group.
In 1975, the NEA published a report entitled “Needed: An Education Department.” In 1976, for the first time in 119 years of its existence, the NEA endorsed a presidential candidate: Jimmy Carter. In 1979, Jimmy Carter repaid the favor by signing a bill re-establishing the Department of Education.
Just two years later, Ronald Reagan announced plans to dismantle the Department, threatening a historical repeat of the first establishment and disestablishment of the department in 1867. The NEA voiced strong disapproval, and Reagan was ultimately unable to get the legislation passed by Congress.
Spending without Results
The Department of Education website states the following:
In the 1860s, a budget of $15,000 and four employees handled education fact-finding. By 1965, the Office of Education had more than 2,100 employees and a budget of $1.5 billion. As of mid-2010, the Department has nearly 4,300 employees and a budget of about $60 billion.
How did the “Office of Education” grow its budget so much from 1867 to 1965? Clearly, the power of the “Office of Education” was not limited during its time as a mere “office.” Even considering inflation, the education budget grew by a factor of 40,000. From 1965 until 2024, the growth in budget was not nearly as significant, only growing by a factor of between seven and eight.
The figure below maps a timeline of the spending in billions of dollars by the department of education together with the NAEP reading results from 1970 to 2022. The spending dollars are inflation-adjusted to represent constant 2022 dollars.
Chart created using data from the Digest of Education Statistics
The National Assessment for Education Progress (NAEP), sometimes called “The Nation’s Report Card,” is a nationwide test administered to students to get an idea of how well students are learning various subjects. Despite an increasing Department of Education budget, reading scores on the NAEP have hardly budged for fifty years. The NAEP defines each corresponding to a numerical cutoff score on the NAEP. “Basic” indicates partial mastery of the subject. “Proficient” level indicates “solid academic performance and competency,” and “Advanced” is anything beyond this. In 2024, 69 percent of fourth graders and 62 percent of eighth graders performed below “Proficient” and 40 percent of fourth graders and 33 percent of eighth graders performed below the NAEP “Basic” level of reading. The grade level averages in reading (graphed above) have never risen beyond the “Basic” level in the history of the NAEP.
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) provides data on the performance of students worldwide. In 2019, the United States spent 38 percent more per student than the average of other participating countries, yet PISA reading scores for the US are very similar to the average of other countries and have not changed significantly since 2000. In 2022, the United States spent roughly twice the amount per student compared to Japan, yet Japan’s PISA results far surpass our own. The percentage of our government spending dedicated to education is also roughly twice that of Japan’s.
Chart created using data from the OECD
The poor performance on literacy tests has not gone unnoticed by the federal government. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), passed in 2001, appropriated more funding for districts and schools whose NAEP performance was significantly lower than the US average. NCLB increased federal funding for education by about 25 percent, or about $13 billion. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was passed in 2015, appropriating more federal money for education and requiring all states to submit annual education goals and plans to the Department of Education. These are just a few of the acts Congress has passed over the last fifty years to address concerns about the status of education in the United States. Clearly, they are not working.
Closing the Department Is Not Enough
Closing the Department of Education won’t be enough. Organizations like the NEA do not want it to happen. Even if it does happen, they will lobby it back into existence just as they did before. The NEA sued the government this year for what they claim is an unconstitutional executive order.
In 1983, Congressman John Ashbrook explained the NEA’s deep interest in federal funding for education:
An integral part of the NEA design is to siphon ever more control of public education from the grass roots to Washington, closer to its own powerful lobbying influence, farther from the parents and taxpayers who elect the school boards and pay the bills.
The NEA, originally intended to be an organization for teachers to discuss education, is now a lobbying powerhouse. In 1920, the headquarters were moved to Washington, DC and a “Representative Assembly” for discussing policy issues was attached to the annual meeting. With the NEA Legislative Program, the political influence that this organization wields will pose a challenge to the free education of American citizens, even if the federal Department of Education is dismantled. The NEA also advises all three million of its members on various bills in the Congress. The NEA, like the Department of Education, also provides grants to individuals and schools. Many of the grants provided to individuals are to occupy positions in local politics. Last year, when Trump announced his intention to appoint Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education, NEA voiced strong disapproval. The NEA is concerned that power will be returned to the states and the people.
The Trump administration has demonstrated an emphasis on federalism, moving power and authority from the federal government to local control. In 2016, Gerard Robinson, in an article for the American Enterprise Institute, suggested a federalist “encouragement philosophy” to guide the role of federal involvement in education. In 2020, Lindsey Burke and Jonathan Butcher wrote a policy report for the Heritage Foundation, suggesting the dissolution of the Department of Education. But if action is limited to the political sphere, the public education system will not improve.
Work needs to be done in the private sector to eradicate organizations like the NEA that exercise such enormous lobbying power and sway members’ political activism. Rachel Greszler and James Sherck of the Heritage Foundation have written about how large unions like the NEA frequently fail to serve the needs of workers, instead focusing on political lobbying. Nevertheless, the suppression of a union like the NEA by the federal government would be unnecessarily authoritarian, not to mention a violation of the constitution.
The laws of our beautiful nation provide for and facilitate a grass-roots effort to dismantle bloated unions like the NEA. Legally dismantling the NEA would require a “decertification election.” A union can be decertified if, after 30 percent of its members petition the National Labor Regulations Board for a decertification election, a majority of union members vote in favor of decertification. The National Right To Work Committee has explained that the purpose of a decertification election is to remove a union as the “exclusive representative” of the workers. The NEA is the largest labor union in the country with 3 million members. In 2016, roughly 70 percent of all public school teachers in the US were members of the NEA, the same percentage of teachers nationwide that were members of unions. The NEA does have exclusive representation for teachers, and it should be decertified.
For long-term success in protecting local control of public education, the National Education Association must go.
Image by Tada Images and licensed via Adobe Stock.
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Site: Zero HedgeWaste Of The Day: Secrecy Surrounds California Capitol AnnexTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 19:45
Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations,
Topline: An annex to California’s Capitol Building was supposed to cost $543 million, but the price has doubled to $1.1 billion and now includes hallways designed to hide lawmakers from journalists.
Key facts: KCRA 3 reported that the annex will include a new parking garage and visitor’s center and office space for 120 state lawmakers. The news station pointed out it is almost as expensive as the $1.3 billion spent on Levi’s Stadium, the San Francisco 49ers’ football stadium that seats 68,500 people.
KCRA 3’s sources revealed the annex will include private hallways. The building’s current layout means lawmakers must walk through a public “swing space” to get from hearing rooms to the elevators, where journalists can ask them questions about the day’s proceedings. The new layout will allow lawmakers to avoid the swing space.
Other details are still unknown. There has not been a public update on how tax dollars are being spent since 2021. The Joint Rules Committee of the state legislature, which is overseeing the project, denied KCRA 3’s request for an interview and did not provide diagrams of the private hallways.
Taxpayers might have learned more from the project’s environmental impact report, which all public construction projects must complete under the California Environmental Quality Act. But lawmakers wrote a bill that exempts the Capitol annex from the report and signed it into law just 10 days later. The law was upheld by a state court of appeals.
Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.
Supporting quote: State Senate Pro Tempore Mike McGuire told KCRA 3, “Secure corridors have always been included in plans for the new annex … and are designed to help ensure the safety and security of lawmakers, which is even more important today given the events that unfolded on January 6th at our nation’s capital building and the active threats public officials continue to face. Regardless, legislators will continue to be accessible and responsive to the public, staff, and reporters no matter what hallway, elevator or stairwell they choose to use.”
Critical quote: “I think this is the height of hypocrisy,” state Assemblyman Josh Hoover told KCRA 3 about the hallways. “You are using taxpayer dollars for a taxpayer-funded facility and yet you are going to design it in a way that shields you from the public and shields you from accountability.”
Summary: A $1.1 billion taxpayer-funded project should have full transparency and be in the public’s best interest. California’s new Capitol annex might not meet either of those criteria.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
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Site: Zero HedgeChina Sends Two Aircraft Carriers Deeper Into Pacific For First Time, After NATO Bolstered PresenceTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 19:20
Western media and American allies in east Asia are hyperventilating over Chinese warships being deployed in... regional waters off China.
"In a display of Beijing’s growing military reach, the Chinese Navy sent two aircraft carriers into the Pacific Ocean, far from the country’s coast, for the first time to conduct exercises together, Japan’s defense minister, Gen Nakatani, said," writes the NY Times on Tuesday. Let's compare this 'threat' to the eleven active nuclear-powered aircraft carriers that America currently has in action, with worldwide patrol and reach.
Nakatani informed reporters that the pair of PLA Navy carriers engaged in exercises which included jet fighters launching and landing, in an area to the east of Iwo Jima, about 750 miles south of Tokyo. Of course, this area has had a strong permanent American military presence going back to WW2.
Tokyo confirmed that Japan's tiny navy monitored the activities of the Chinese carriers from afar, given it was a first instance that the carriers had operated together in the Pacific beyond the islands of Japan.
The Liaoning and the Shandong were accompanied by PLA warship escort vessels, as is common with carrier groups.
And why would China want to bolster its navy and send it's paltry sum of two carriers deeper into the Pacific?
...it could be because Chinese officials in Beijing are used to opening up their daily newspapers and seeing provocative headlines like the following:
But Washington and its regional allies are keeping a close eye on China's rapid naval expansion, given also a third aircraft carrier has been built, the Fujian, and is currently undergoing sea trials before official active deployment. And a fourth carrier is further being constructed.
Again, might China have real reason to worry? And all the while the US Navy (and increasingly other Western navies) routinely send warships through the contested Taiwan Strait, typically accompanied by jingoistic statements of American neocon Congressmen threatening all-out war should Beijing ever attempt to unite the self-ruled island of Taiwan with the mainland.
The question remains: can most Americans find Taiwan on a map? Well, yes it's true they might start caring when the world's supply of semiconductors comes under direct threat, and the iPhone addicted out-of-shape masses might have to put down their devices for a moment.
Even NATO, which is fundamentally a European, trans-Atlantic military alliance, is getting in on the Pacific action with an eye on China... in China's own backyard.
Bloomberg reported last August that "NATO is bolstering its presence in the Western Pacific by sending warships to more places, a move that risks stoking tensions with China, which is worried about the alliance’s growing influence in the region."
Even Italian vessels are seeking to flex: "The latest entrant is the Italian aircraft carrier Cavour, the first time Rome has deployed its lone carrier to the Pacific. The Cavour and an Italian frigate recently held exercises with the US carrier USS Abraham Lincoln near the island of Guam. A day later, F-35 stealth jets and AV-8B Harriers launched from the Cavour," Bloomberg wrote. Italy?...
Sensationalist MSM headlines, if they were written from the opposite perspective...
China recognizes the One America Policy.
— Kai the Peasant 農民阿凱 (@Kai_Wong_CN) June 8, 2025
But if the US invades California, China will consider sending troops to defend it.
The Aircraft Carrier Fujian is en route to the California coast to uphold freedom of navigation. pic.twitter.com/QYOWd7mxlKSo at least from a realist and strategic point of view, China wanting to extend its carriers sphere of patrol and influence makes perfect sense. This is simply the way the world works, and how the 'great powers' operate.
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Site: LifeNews
The Satanic Temple plans to open an abortion center in Maine on June 14, 2025, named “The President’s Yuge Most Beautiful Tremendous Satanic Abortion Clinic” in a mocking nod to President Donald Trump’s birthday.
“We hope he receives this clinic’s distinguished title as the magnificent, regal birthday present it is intended to be,” said Satanic Temple executive director Erin Helian in a press release.
The facility, part of the temple’s TST Health network, will sell dangerous abortion-inducing drugs by mail and instruct women to perform a “Satanic Abortion Ritual” involving chants that pro-life advocates denounce as evil and morally repugnant.
The abortion biz, announced on June 6, 2025, will offer free medical consultations and prescriptions for mifepristone and misoprostol, costing patients approximately $91, according its website.
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The ritual requires women to recite tenets emphasizing bodily autonomy and scientific reasoning, culminating in a personal affirmation: “By my body, my blood; by my will, it is done.”
The Satanic Temple, a nontheistic organization based in Salem, Massachusetts, claims its ritual is a protected religious practice under the First Amendment and state Religious Freedom Restoration Acts. Since the 2022 Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, the temple has opened similar clinics in New Mexico and Virginia, named to taunt Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and pro-life principles. In Maine, where abortion is legal throughout pregnancy, the abortion center aims to expand access to abortions with mifepristone up to 11 weeks gestation.
Pro-life advocates argue the temple’s provocative branding and ritualistic approach trivialize the gravity of abortion. The temple’s Maine clinic has drawn ire for its timing and name, with posts on X from users labeling it a “satanic” affront to Maine’s values.
The temple has not disclosed its Maine staff but partners with Honey Bee Health for delivery of the dangerous abortion pills.
The post Satanic Temple Opens Abortion Clinic in Maine, Tells Women to Do Evil Chants Celebrating Killing Babies appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Catholic ConclaveFrom June 7 to 9, between Paris and Chartres, nearly 30,000 pilgrims, aged 21 on average, journeyed in faith, despite the headwinds of a materialistic society indifferent to spiritual impetus, rejoices Ambroise Tournyol du Clos, a history professor.That He reigns on earth, as He does in Heaven"Morning star, inaccessible queen,Here we are marching towards your illustrious court,And here is the Catholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: LifeNews
Kim Leadbeater has refused to distance herself from the Sarco gas chamber assisted suicide pods after she failed to back an amendment to her Bill, which would ban the use of the portable gas chambers.
Sarco inventor Philip Nitschke, who is nicknamed “Dr Death” and “the Elon Musk of assisted suicide”, said he is “absolutely” keen on bringing his Sarco suicide machine to the UK if the assisted suicide Bill passes, and described his machine as a “stylish” and “elegant” option for assisted suicide.
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A person ends their own life inside the 3D-printed Sarco pod by pushing a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed gas chamber. The nitrogen causes them to suffocate to death.
Tory MP Greg Stafford tabled an amendment to Kim Leadbeater’s Bill to ban the use of portable gas chambers. Stafford, whose amendment “requires the Secretary of State to forbid the use of medical devices which cause death by the administration of a gas”, told The Independent “The inventor of the Sarco death pod has stated that he would like to introduce his gas pods to this country. The assisted dying Bill, as drafted, would allow the Sarco pod to come to these shores”.
“If accepted, my amendment would remove this possibility by requiring that regulations prohibit any device used for the self-administration of gas”.
Stafford added “We know that the public is uneasy with the Sarco pods. I very much hope that the Bill sponsor takes the opportunity to accept my amendment and makes it clear that she doesn’t support the introduction of these suicide pods in the UK”.
Despite Stafford’s words, Leadbeater declined to back the amendment, with her spokesman saying “I think it’s highly unlikely to be accepted for debate or vote if it hasn’t gone down yet”.
“We know that the public is uneasy with the Sarco pods”
The danger of the Sarco machines being made available in the UK has been highlighted by the fact that Nitschke has said people from the UK have already shown significant interest in his new device, and by leading legal academics confirming with The Telegraph that the assisted suicide pods will be legal under the proposed legislation.
Professor of law and constitutional government at St John’s College, Oxford, Richard Ekins KC, said “If Kim Leadbeater’s Bill passes, and if the Secretary of State approves liquid nitrogen as an approved substance, then the Sarco death pod would be a lawful means to assist suicide in Britain”.
Nitschke heavily criticised by both supporters and opponents of assisted suicide
Leadbeater’s refusal to back the amendment may raise concerns as Nitschke, who believes “troubled” teenagers should be able to access suicide pills, is a controversial figure whose ‘Sarco machine’ has been dogged by controversy. In July 2024, prosecutors in Switzerland banned its use because they were concerned not only about the legality of its use in the country but also potential ethical issues surrounding its implementation.
In a letter obtained by the Swiss media, Public Prosecutor, Peter Sticher said “There is no reliable information about the method of killing. It is completely unclear who has control over which mechanical process during the dying process”.
Nitschke has also been heavily criticised, both by those for and against assisted suicide. Journalist Emily Lawford highlighted the fact that an Australian coalition of voluntary assisted dying societies, Your Last Right, has “specifically opposed” Nitschke’s platforms, whilst Rodney Syme, founder of Dying with Dignity Victoria, referred to Nitschke’s views as “aberrant”.
James Mildred, Director of Engagement for Christian Action Research and Education (CARE), said “Philip Nitschke’s device has been condemned by a broad range of commentators. Many people feel that it trivialises, and even glamourises, suicide. We believe that suicide is a tragedy that good societies seek to prevent in every circumstance. There are ethical ways to help human beings that don’t involve the destruction of life”.
Further blows for Leadbeater Bill
Stafford’s amendment came on the same day the Leadbeater Bill was dealt further blows. First, reports emerged that a letter signed by around 1,000 doctors was sent to MPs urging them to vote against the assisted suicide Bill. The doctors criticised the “deeply flawed bill”, saying “This bill will widen inequalities, it provides inadequate safeguards and, in our collective view, is simply not safe”.
“This is the most important piece of healthcare legislation for 60 years and we urge you to listen to the doctors who would have to deliver the consequences of this deeply flawed Bill”.
The doctors added “It is our opinion that this Bill poses a real threat to both patients and the medical workforce, and we urge you to vote against it”.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “Greg Stafford is right to try and prevent Nitschke’s horrendous Sarco suicide pods from being allowed in the UK. This bizarre killing machine has no place in civilised society and should be destroyed immediately”.
“It is hugely worrying that Kim Leadbeater did not take the opportunity to distance herself from Nitschke and his destructive ideas. She should be listening to the growing number of credible organisations, including the Royal College of Physicians, the British Geriatrics Society, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and around 1,000 doctors, who have expressed grave concerns about this reckless legislation”.
“We urge MPs to pay attention to these concerns and to vote against this dangerous Bill at Third Reading”.
LifeNews Note: Republished with permission from Right to Life UK.
The post UK Bill Would Allow Horrific Suicide Machines People Use to Kill Themselves appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Catholic ConclaveShe spent 20 years within the Institute of the Incarnate Word, which she joined at just 18 years old. She changed her name to "Esposa Fidelis" and was a faithful "servant" until she had had enough and left the order, which is now under investigation by the Vatican. She left with nothing, as she stated in an interview with Colpisa. She hadn't been paid into Social Security, she had no right to Catholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: Catholic ConclaveOn June 14 and 15, 2025, the JUBILEE OF CREATION promoted by the Archdiocese of Siena-Colle di Val D’Elsa-Montalcino and the Diocese of Montepulciano-Chiusi-Pienza will be celebrated. The meeting is at the historic Church of Abbadia San Salvatore starting at 3:00 pm on June 14, 2025. The slogan that has been chosen for this event is “Protecting creation, generating hope”.There will be two days. Catholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: Zero HedgeBorder Czar Homan Says Trump Admin Has 'No Intention' To Arrest NewsomTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 17:20
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,
White House border czar Tom Homan said on Monday that he has “no intention to arrest” California Gov. Gavin Newsom after the Democratic governor dared him to arrest him as protests and riots persist in Los Angeles.
Homan told CBS News that talk about arresting Newsom has “been taken out of context” and that Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass “haven’t crossed a line yet.”
“If you cross that line, I don’t care who they are—the governor, the mayor, whatever—and when you commit a crime against ICE officers, we will seek prosecution,” Homan added, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In another interview with NewsNation, Homan said that “there is no threat to arrest Gov. Newsom” but that a previous comment about arresting anybody who impedes ICE efforts to enforce laws against illegal immigrants still stands.
“If he crosses that line of impeding ICE enforcement efforts, if he knowingly harbors and conceals an alien, that’s a crime,” he told the outlet.
“We would ask … the attorney general to seek prosecution,” he added. “My words were taken out of context, but it is what it is.”
At one point on Sunday, Newsom was asked by an NBC News reporter about the possibility of being arrested. “Come and get me, tough guy,” he replied.
And when a reporter at the White House asked President Donald Trump on Monday about Newsom being arrested by Homan, the president said, “I'd do it if I were Tom,” adding: “Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing.”
The Trump administration and Newsom have been sharply critical of one another in the handling of unrest in Los Angeles over the past several days, which was sparked by protests against ICE efforts across the city. Trump and Homan have said that Newsom hasn’t been able to quell the violence, prompting the president to deploy the National Guard and Marines over the past several days.
In response, Newsom said that the troop deployments are a form of overreach and that Trump’s actions are an incitement to more violence. The state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the deployment on Monday.
Newsom said that the deployment of Marines, which was confirmed by U.S. Northern Command on Monday, is a form of escalation that he described as “completely unwarranted, uncalled for, and unprecedented.”
Homan has told media outlets that ICE agents were serving criminal search warrants at a Los Angeles worksite last week as part of a probe into customs fraud, tax evasion, and money laundering.
Speaking to the “Dr. Phil” show, Homan said that 41 people were arrested and that the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Internal Revenue Service were also involved.
“We took a lot of bad people off the street that day,” he told NewsNation in another interview, adding that those enforcement measures were “targeted” instead of being a random sweep.
In a directive on Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”
The Northern Command said in its Monday statement that the 700 or so Marines “will seamlessly integrate” with troops “who are protecting federal personnel and federal property in the greater Los Angeles area.”
Meanwhile, Monday’s demonstrations were far less raucous, with thousands peacefully attending a rally at City Hall and hundreds protesting outside a federal complex, which includes a detention center where some illegal immigrants are being held following workplace operations across the city.
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Site: Zero HedgeSteel Stocks Slide After US Nears Deal With Mexico To Cut Steel Duties, Cap ImportsTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 17:09
After weeks of quiet, Trump's trade deals are starting to take shape: first it is the ongoing negotiations with China which are "going well", then we learned that an interim deal with India was largely completed, and now Bloomberg reports that in the third positive trade news of the day, the US and Mexico are closing in on a deal that would remove cut steel duties - including Trump’s 50% tariffs on steel imports up to a certain volume - in a revamp of a similar deal between the trade partners during his first term.
The talks are being led by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and since Trump hasn’t been directly involved in the negotiations he would need to sign off on any deal.
While the agreement hasn’t been finalized, under the current terms it would allow US buyers to import Mexican steel duty-free as long as they kept total shipments below a level based on historical trade volumes. The new cap would be higher than what was allowed under a similar deal during Trump’s first term, Bloomberg sources reported, which was never a fixed figure but designed to “prevent surges.”
Following the Bloomberg report, US steel stocks moved lower: Cleveland-Cliffs dropped more than 7%, and Nucor fell more than 4%. The Mexican peso trimmed losses.
At an event on Tuesday, Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said he told US officials in meetings last week that steel tariffs are not justified in Mexico’s case because the US sends more steel to Mexico than vice versa. Last Friday, he posted a picture that showed him shaking hands with a smiling Lutnick in Washington.
“We are waiting for their response, because on Friday we gave them the details of Mexico’s argument and we are right,” Ebrard told reporters Tuesday. “So we are going to wait for their response which will probably be this very week.”
Last week Trump announced he would double steel duties to 50% after saying he would approve the purchase of US Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel, a move he said would protect the domestic industry and national security. While domestic steelmakers welcome the move, end-users have urged the administration to ease the tariffs.
The negotiations come as Sheinbaum seeks an accommodation with Trump over immigration and drug trafficking across their shared border, which the US leader has demanded Mexico halt. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused Sheinbaum Tuesday of “encouraging” more anti-deportation protests in Los Angeles, where the US has deployed troops. Sheinbaum has called Noem’s claim “absolutely false.”
The talks also come ahead of a Group of Seven leaders summit in Canada, where the two presidents are likely to meet.
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Site: LifeNews
The Montana Supreme Court on Monday struck down three pro-life laws passed in 2021, upholding District Court Judge Kurt Krueger’s 2024 decision that concluded the laws violated the state’s right to privacy.
“The laws have been on hold since 2021 after a preliminary injunction was granted in Planned Parenthood’s favor,” John Riley reported.
According to the Attorney General’s office, here are the three commonsense laws struck down:
HB 136 prohibited abortion in the case of babies who can feel pain, generally defined as a baby 20 or more weeks old.
HB 140 required that a pregnant woman be afforded the opportunity to view an active ultrasound and listen to a baby’s heartbeat before undergoing an abortion.
HB 171 established a protocol for the prescription of abortion-inducing drugs to protect the health and welfare of mothers, requiring in-person visits for prescribing and dispensing of chemical abortion drugs.
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The Montana Attorney General’s office and Gov. Gianforte blasted the decision, written by Justice Beth Baker. “This isn’t surprising. It’s another rubber stamp for Planned Parenthood from their allies on the Montana Supreme Court” said Emilee Cantrell, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice. “And as the dissenting opinion correctly points out, ‘the State’s vital role in protecting and preserving human life,’ was ignored.”
Gov. Gianforte hammered the justices for striking down the three laws that were aimed at protecting the life, health, and welfare of mothers and their babies,
“Activist justices on the Montana Supreme Court continued their series of attacks on commonsense measures to protect the life, health, and welfare of mothers and their babies. Clinging to a shaky, outdated ruling and failing to account for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions, these activist justices aren’t interpreting the law. They’re overreaching, making law from the bench and rejecting the will of Montanans’ duly-elected representatives who make laws.
“These activist justices rejected modern medicine and are instead clinging to medical care available more than 50 years ago. Ultimately, they have failed the lives, health, and welfare of mothers and their babies, and they should be ashamed.
Gov. Gianforte concluded
“As a pro-life governor, I believe all life is precious and must be protected. I will continue to defend the lives of those who cannot speak for themselves. I’ll also pray for changed hearts as we work to bring nabout a culture of life for every Montanan, born and unborn.”
In her 69 page decision, Justice Baker “cited the Montana Supreme Court’s 1999 ruling, commonly known as the Armstrong decision, which stated that the state constitution’s right to privacy protected access to abortion before a fetus is viable,” Riley reported.
Wrote Justice Baker, “Armstrong thus explicitly and unequivocally acknowledged that the right of individual privacy—encompassing the right to personal and procreative autonomy—is protected separately under Montana’s right to privacy, a broader provision independent of federal law.”
Gov. Greg Gianforte and Attorney General Austin Knudsen “have argued the Armstrong case was wrongly decided, and the state again made that argument in this case,” according to Riley.
In January 2022, Knudsen told the state Supreme Court that “All three laws unquestionably enhance the health and safety of Montana women. And they represent basic regulations of the practice of medicine—bread-and-butter exercises of (state government).” He added that the reasoning in Armstrong
is a deeply flawed tribute to unrestrained judicial activism. Nowhere in Montana’s constitutional text is there a right to elective abortion. Instead, the framers intentionally excluded abortion from the Constitution and left to the Legislature the prerogative to permit, prohibit, or regulate it.
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. He frequently writes Today’s News and Views — an online opinion column on pro-life issues.
The post Montana Supreme Court Strikes Down 3 Pro-Life Laws, Claims Unlimited Right to Abortion appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Novus Motus LiturgicusHere is another wonderful discovery from the website of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, an illuminated psalter from the beginning of the 13th century. (Département des manuscrits. NAL 1392) The manuscript begins with 13 pages of images of the life of Christ, each within a circular medallion, two per page, enclosed in a rectangular decorative border; these cover all the major feasts of Gregory DiPippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13295638279418781125noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: Zero HedgeViral Footage Appears To Show Waymo Vehicles Fleeing Los Angeles After RiotsTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 17:00
Law-abiding Americans watched in disbelief as Marxist-aligned NGOs sparked chaos in downtown Los Angeles. Riots and looting raged overnight and entered the fourth day, with videos flooding X showing individuals—possibly illegal aliens, migrants, or even U.S. citizens—waving Mexican flags as they torched Waymo Jaguars.
Waymo confirmed to CNBC on Monday that five of its vehicles were set on fire in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, prompting the company to suspend service across the metro area.
Got this the other side of the Waymo fires pic.twitter.com/HVOXKZtI3V
— Los Angeles Alerts (@AlertLosAngeles) June 9, 2025Multiple Waymo vehicles set ablaze here in LA pic.twitter.com/p2iVDUbEIL
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) June 9, 2025As of Tuesday, Waymo's service remained suspended due to ongoing protests, with a company representative stating that "some areas are currently inaccessible because of the protest."
"There's no specific timeframe available at the moment; I recommend checking the app periodically for updates," the company representative continued.
A viral video posted Monday evening by an X user claimed, "Waymo is moving their cars out of LA."
Waymo is moving their cars out of LA pic.twitter.com/lkpANPwmjx
— Nic Cruz Patane (@niccruzpatane) June 9, 2025Viral images of Mexican flag-waving rioters torching vehicles and looting are spreading globally. The Democratic Party's color revolution against Trump is now fueling chaos in the streets of Los Angeles — and the optics are disastrous for Democrats, as it only strengthens Trump's case for a mass deportation mandate of criminal illegal aliens.
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Site: Fr. Z's BlogI unbox – open the package – of the newly reprinted Pre-55 Missal from the Benedictines of Norcia which just arrived. The monks forewarned that they don’t have many at the time I made this video. They will eventually have … Read More →
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Site: Zero HedgeRogue NGOs Prepare For Nationwide Color Revolution; Walmart Heiress Calls For "Mobilization"Tyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 16:40
A network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with known affiliations to Marxist-aligned political ideologies initiated coordinated protest activity across Los Angeles last Friday. Almost immediately, these protests escalated into widespread unrest, including acts of vandalism, arson, and looting, consistent with patterns observed in previous color revolution-style mobilizations by the Democratic Party.
In response, President Trump authorized the deployment of National Guard units and Marines to secure high-risk areas and prevent further civil unrest, with looting and chaos continuing in the overnight hours...
Apple store in LA looted last night.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 10, 2025
But don’t worry, Gavin Newsom has it under control and the media say it’s totally peaceful.pic.twitter.com/oarl25BmxJThey're protesting ICE by looting Adidas pic.twitter.com/vjViwA9cmD
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 10, 2025There is reason to believe that an early staging of a coordinated national mobilization effort is underway to unleash a color revolution across cities, similar to BLM-style protests that morphed into riots in 2020, spearheaded by a group identifying itself as "No Kings." This organization appears to function as a front entity for broader far-left networks, with affiliated support from established rogue leftist NGOs, including Indivisible, a Soros-funded nonprofit previously linked to a failed color revolution targeting Elon Musk's Tesla earlier this year.
Leftist news outlet Common Dreams stated that Indivisible's Leah Greenberg is one of the leading groups behind the "No Kings" movement.
This weekend's planned protest is receiving organizational backing—or, at the very least, logistical support—from nearly 200 groups, including a wide range of NGOs (get ready for the bussing of professional protesters to cities near you).
Here's a partial list of those groups...
Notably, the timing coincides with June 14, a symbolic convergence of Flag Day, President Trump's birthday, a military parade in Washington, DC, and the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary, suggesting deliberate political signaling behind the mobilization effort.
Map: Nationwide Mobilization Effort
FBI Director Kash Patel told media outlet Just the News, "The FBI is investigating any and all monetary connections responsible for these riots."
Patel might want to take a look at the funding Billionaire Walton Family Heir Christy Walton (one of the heirs to Walmart) could be involved in; the 50501 movement, the leftist group also partnered with No Kings, re-posted Walton's protest mobilization ad in the New York Times.
"Who had Christy Walton, Walmart Heiress, on your Bingo Card paying for ads in The New York Times to promote: "No Kings", June 14, Nationwide Protests? Anyone?!?" 50501 movement wrote on Facebook.
Hey @Walmart why are the Walton’s funding these riots? https://t.co/wLOjjacv7z
— Hodgetwins (@hodgetwins) June 10, 2025Riots and chaos in Los Angeles are creating terrible optics for the Democratic Party. The NGOs' deployment of migrants and radical leftists as frontline actors—some of whom are burning vehicles, looting, and causing chaos while waving foreign flags—has strongly reinforced President Trump's mandate from the American people regarding the urgent need to deport criminal illegal aliens.
They are demanding to stay in a country that they have no respect for pic.twitter.com/b8NE6U4d3N
— Sarah Fields (@SarahisCensored) June 9, 2025"The protests the Left is calling "No Kings" for next Saturday should be consistently messaged as "the Left's Anti American Flag Day protests." That's what they are," author and commentator James Lindsay wrote on X.
The protests the Left is calling "No Kings" for next Saturday should be consistently messaged as "the Left's Anti American Flag Day protests." That's what they are.
— James Lindsay, anti-Communist (@ConceptualJames) June 10, 2025All in all, early indications suggest staging efforts nationwide are underway with the Democratic Party's color revolution operation against Trump, supported and funded by rogue NGOs, in an effort to shift public opinion polls. Democrats are using the same playbook from their 2020 BLM riots.
There is growing public awareness of the Democratic Party's deployment of dark NGO networks to orchestrate domestic unrest through tactics resembling the 2020 BLM riots. The ongoing unrest that could potentially spread nationwide by the weekend is best characterized as a hybrid war—cultural and informational against the sitting president of the U.S.
The central unresolved question remains: To what extent are these leftist NGO-linked operations influenced or financed by foreign actors?
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Site: Zero HedgeWe Are Being Amused & Abused To DeathTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 16:20
Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,
“But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another—slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” – Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death
“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.” – Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death
I find myself ruminating about whether there is anything myself or any other average Joe can do to make a difference in this world, controlled by psychopaths, satanists, egomaniacal billionaires, corrupt evil politicians, a cabal of greedy financiers, neocon warmongering globalists, and the propaganda entertainment complex. When a complex entity becomes too large, it becomes inefficient, bureaucratic, corrupt, and uncontrollable.
The corruption, waste, and purposeful use of governmental power to enrich politicians and their billionaire benefactors, to the detriment of the country and the average citizen, has grown to an incomprehensible and uncontainable level. Whether DOGE was a legitimate undertaking by Musk and his tech geniuses to cut wasteful spending and uncover fraud, or nothing more than a PR stunt designed to keep the MAGA army satiated with the appearance of making America great again, it appears to have sunk into the swamps of DC, foiled by the uni-party once again.
But the show must go on, and this past week’s episode of “As the Empire Crumbles” was certainly entertaining, with the most powerful politician in the world hurling insults at the richest man in the world, who responded by accusing the president of pedophilia, while calling for his impeachment and the creation of a new political party. The MAGA acolytes were flabbergasted, as their two heroes, who were going to usher in a new golden era, came to blows and have irreconcilably broken up. Who could have predicted that the two biggest egos on the planet would ultimately clash and dissolve their partnership? Many of the twitterati were convinced it was just more 4D chess, just as they believed the Q bullshit during Trump’s first term.
The world was captivated and enthralled by this trivial social media war, while NATO/Ukraine desperately attempted to initiate WW3 with their attacks on Russian airbases, the Crimean bridge, and Russian passenger trains. Thousands of tweets and hundreds of articles have been written about this Trump/Musk bickerfest, while the world is imploding and we are accelerating headlong towards a global war, initiated by the three stooges running France, U.K. and Germany, and cheered on by the likes of Lindsey Graham and Mike Pompeo.
Trump’s campaign trail promise to end the Ukraine war in 24 hours has proven to be nothing more than his predictable bloviating bullshit. It has become clear he has absolutely no sway over the EU warmongers, or his own Deep State CIA operatives carrying out the attacks on Russia, as his weak and ineffectual efforts to end the conflict start to diminish his presidency from the outset.
The Gaza genocide continues, with American financial and military support, even though Trump promised to end that conflict. Iran continues to resist efforts to stop its nuclear enrichment program. China pretends to be negotiating with Trump on tariffs but is content letting the Soros installed leftist judges across the country place roadblock after roadblock in the way of Trump’s tariff, deportation, and governmental downsizing agenda. Foreign leaders know they can wait out all of Trump’s threats by just slow walking negotiations and hoping the Republicans lose the House in 2026.
China is biding its time until they believe America is sufficiently preoccupied with its own domestic turmoil and its Ukraine quagmire, and they will initiate their inevitable Taiwan takeover. The United States has not won a war in 80 years and is in no position to wage war in Europe and Asia simultaneously. Trump professes to be for peace, but the Deep State actors controlling the government and the globalist billionaires pulling the strings will force him into WW3. That is how Fourth Turnings roll.
With the intense opposition to the Big Beautiful Bill from Musk and key Republicans in the Senate, the next few months could get messy on the fiscal front. Musk is entirely correct, calling the BBB a massive, outrageous, pork-filled disgusting abomination of congressional pork. When the mind numbingly stupid media outlets declare it will add $3 trillion to the national debt over ten years, that means $3 trillion more than the $21 trillion of additional debt already projected. And this assumes no recessions, no financial crisis, no wars, and no fake pandemics. They purposefully give the impression our national debt only goes up by $3 trillion over ten years.
I’m absolutely certain the average prole, distracted by their technological bread and circuses, has no clue our debt is on automatic pilot to increase by nearly 70% over the next ten years. The average person remains trapped in a false comfort zone, designed by their overlords, to keep them satiated with toxic foodstuff, propaganda disguised as entertainment, and believing going deeper and deeper into debt, buying trinkets and baubles makes them wealthy. Until that comfort zone is shattered by the bitter reality of the next financial implosion, the masses will do nothing to try and alter the disastrous course plotted by their overlords.
The GOP passage of $9.4 billion of DOGE cuts is nothing more than a PR stunt to convince the ignorant masses they are actually doing something about the deficit. The dopes making bets on Draft Kings and posting videos on Instagram have no concept about how ridiculously out of control our government has become. They add $6 billion to the national debt every single day, so their $9.4 of “cuts” will be gone in 37 hours. Our deficits are big, but they are not beautiful. Our deficit in FY24 was $1.8 trillion. Through the first 7 months of FY25 the deficit is $1.049 trillion. At the current rate of spending, the deficit will be $2.2 trillion by the end of the fiscal year.
Interest on the national debt is now the second biggest expenditure and has gone from $500 billion during Trump’s first term to $1.3 trillion today. These deficits are clearly unsustainable, and anything which is unsustainable will not be sustained. But the corrupt, captured politicians and insatiably avaricious Wall Street bankers will keep dancing until the music stops. Then they will use their next engineered financial crisis to take more of our money and further restrict our liberties and freedom. CBDCs and social credit scores anyone?
The real reason Trump and the GOP need to pass the big beautiful, bloated pig of a bill is because our Ponzi scheme economy depends upon the never-ending issuance of trillions in debt every year to give the fabricated appearance of stability. This is why the GOP applauds Musk’s low hanging fruit DOGE cost savings and ignores them in their outrageously corpulent budget bill. The truth is any actual reduction in government spending (36% of GDP) would ripple through an economy entirely dependent upon government largess and immediately create a massive recession and probable depression.
Ponzi schemes have to keep growing until they run out of suckers believing the bullshit underlying the Ponzi. This is where those controlling the levers of society (Bernays’ invisible government) utilize their limitless well of propaganda techniques, technological distractions, and mindless entertainment venues to keep the ignorant masses amused, delusional, and living in denial of the reality staring them in the face.
Since the 2008 financial crisis we have been muddling through economically at a 10,000 feet macro level, with periodic crisis episodes (housing collapse, fake pandemic) utilized by the powers that be to issue trillions more debt as the antidote to the initial crisis created by too much debt. At a micro level, the average American has seen a significant decline in their standard of living, as official government reported inflation has eroded 40% of their purchasing power, when in reality they have lost more than 60% of their purchasing power. The reality for the average American prole is debt slavery, either self-imposed to keep up with the Joneses or forced upon them to survive this globalist-imposed death by a thousand cuts economy.
Credit card debt of $1.3 trillion is at an all-time high, up $350 billion (35%) since 2020. The average balance on those credit cards is over $7,000 and the average interest rate on those unpaid balances is over 21%. Student loan debt of $1.8 trillion is at an all-time high, up $100 billion since 2020, with over 25% of these loans in default. Auto loan debt of $1.7 trillion is at an all-time high, up $350 billion (27%) since 2020. The average length of these loans is now 70 months. The borrower is underwater by the fifth year of these loans. Shockingly, credit card and auto loan delinquencies have been soaring in the last year, with credit card delinquencies above 3% for the first time since 2012, and auto loan delinquencies surpassed 8% for the first time since 2010. Does that sound like a consumer on solid ground?
In addition, the housing market is a disaster looking for a trigger. The Wall Street hedge funds (Blackrock) bought up millions of homes, driving prices 140% (Case Siller Index) higher than the 2012 low, while outstanding mortgage debt has risen from the 2012 low of $13 trillion to $21 trillion today. Prices are ridiculously high and mortgage rates of 7% make it virtually impossible for an average working stiff to buy even a small home. The market is frozen.
This is why Trump and his GOP minions must avoid a recession at all costs by continuing to rack up $2 trillion annual deficits. A recession would result in millions of layoffs, which would mean unpaid mortgages, which would mean foreclosures and slashing of home prices, which would trigger housing collapse 2.0, which would turn the recession into a depression, causing a stock market collapse. Now you know why they are desperate to pass this big, beautiful behemoth of bilge.
The Fed is in a precarious position of their own making, with all choices pointing towards disastrous outcomes. They are already sitting on over $1 trillion of unrealized bond losses, while their Wall Street owners sit on another $400 billion of unrealized bond losses. If these entities ever have to realize those losses, our entire banking system would collapse. The Fed has cut rates by 1%, but market rates went up, as their power to mislead market players diminishes.
They have reduced their balance sheet from $9 trillion to $6.7 trillion. The last time they tried to reduce their balance sheet in 2019, the repo market spasmed and they used the Covid cover to drastically print more fiat. Trump is mocking Powell and demanding interest rate cuts. Powell is pretending to be independent, but he is praying for some kind of crisis to again set the printing presses to hyper-speed. I’m sure the ruling oligarchs are hatching a new crisis to expand their wealth, power, and control, while further impoverishing and enslaving the plebs.
It is clear at least to me, we stand on the precipice of an economic conflagration capable of putting the final nail in the coffin of this empire of debt. At the same time there are unrelenting evil forces who are frantically creating the casus-belli to initiate World War III and the massive death and destruction that would produce. The simultaneous commencement of these two events would produce the type of climax expected in the waning years of a Fourth Turning, with a final resolution expected by 2032.
Most people are blissfully unaware of the imminent demise of their comfortable existence, so addicted to their techno-gadgets and mindless social media performance art, they are incapable of critical thought regarding the dystopian world they inhabit.
“People will come to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think” ― Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death
“If politics is like show business, then the idea is not to pursue excellence, clarity or honesty but to appear as if you are, which is another matter altogether.” ― Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death
If you ever needed proof politics is nothing but show business, it is this big, beautiful bill episode of drama, fiction, comedy, and tragedy. Excellence, clarity, and honesty have no part in this absurd psychodrama of lies, accusations, and continued downward spiral of this empire of debt. We know Huxley believed the masses could be sufficiently distracted by their own ego driven pursuits, but I don’t think even he realized how much power the technological “advances” of our times (TV based mass media, the internet, corporate/government controlled social media, Big Pharma) would be used by the ruling elite to control, manipulate, sedate, and scare the ignorant masses into voluntary subservience. Everything we are witnessing and living through is nothing more than a theater production, designed by Bernays’ invisible governing authorities to herd us towards their technological gulag, with the slaughterhouse as the other alternative.
Huxley’s 1932 dystopian vision, which he believed was more likely than Orwell’s 1949 dystopian vision of the future, and reinforced in a letter to Orwell in 1949 shortly before his death, has been the pre-dominant method used by our overlords to rule over, manipulate, and exploit the foibles of the unthinking masses. They have kept their citizens distracted with pleasures, drugged into passivity, taught to feel rather than think in government run indoctrination centers (public schools) and overloaded with so much useless trivial information, they are incapable of distinguishing between good and evil – actually believing their servitude is freedom.
While Huxley’s dystopia continues, the ruling class fears their passive mind control methods aren’t as effective in achieving their great reset agenda, and in need of some Orwellian censorship, disinformation, brute force, government intimidation, harsh mind control, and guaranteeing compliance through fear. Aren’t we lucky to be experiencing the best of both dystopian visions. Those controlling the levers of society have used the school system to create a soulless amalgamation of hedonistic mass consumers; purposeless, apathetic, with muddled brains unable to understand their unintended enslavement to the evil demons running our world and controlling their lives.
Knowing most of what we see on our screens and hear from supposed “experts”, left wing corporate media talking heads, and Fox News bimbos, is gibberish and propaganda, it is hard to distinguish real threats from clickbait, purposeful disinformation, and scare tactics designed to make you do what they want you to do. The precarious financial situation of the country is real. The danger from an AI cage built through a tech-state merger with Palantir to surveil and digitally profile everyone is real.
The threat of the Ukraine-Russia conflict morphing into WW3 is real. The desire by billionaire globalists to introduce a Great Reset, Great Taking, and CBDCs is real. The planned, funded, and executed invasion of our southern border during the Basement Dummy administration by third world dregs, with the sole intention of destroying the social fabric and finances of the country, run by the Soros/Clinton/Obama triumvirate is real.
Even with the dismantling of their USAID insurrection funding source, this week’s festivities in Los Angeles kicked off the summer of civil war. There is nothing real or spontaneous about these riots. Whenever pallets of bricks suddenly show up on streets in city centers, you know Soros and his ilk are behind the organized destruction of that particular city. The brick and bomb throwers are being paid to riot and take photo ops. This will assuredly be rolled out in our other Democrat controlled urban shitholes across the land. The governor of California and the communist mayor of Los Angeles are paid acolytes of Soros, stoking insurrection and should be arrested and thrown into the dungeons of DC, like the grandmothers and patriots who sauntered through the Capitol on January 6.
We find ourselves on the precipice of a financial, social, and military calamity, all driven by the three driving forces of this Fourth Turning: debt, civic decay, global disorder. Anyone not noticing events are intensifying, conflict is expanding, anger is building, and the world is accelerating towards that precipice at breakneck speed, is simply ignorant or their minds are so numbed by their i-gadgets and government school indoctrination, that it’s beyond their comprehension to acknowledge reality.
At this point in history, I do not believe there are enough awakened critical thinking citizens to make a difference during the waning years of this Fourth Turning. We can’t vote our way out. We likely can’t shoot our way out. We can’t buy our way out. When the majority are proud of their ignorance and believe it is superior to actual knowledge, your society is pretty much fucked.
“What is happening here is that television is altering the meaning of ‘being informed’ by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation. I am using this world almost in the precise sense in which it is used by spies in the CIA or KGB. Disinformation does not mean false information. It means misleading information–misplace, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information – information that creates the illusion of knowing something but which in fact leads one away from knowing. I am saying something far more serious than that we are being deprived of authentic information. I am saying we are losing our sense of what it means to be well informed. Ignorance is always correctable. But what shall we do if we take ignorance to be knowledge?” ― Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death
The existing financial, social and political paradigms will have to collapse and be swept away for any real change to occur. The problem is it appears that is exactly what the billionaire globalist elite are trying to trigger. In the aftermath, amidst chaos, financial ruin, civil and global war, social strife, and a political vacuum, they envision establishing an authoritarian global world order, with CBDCs, social credit scores, 15-minute cities, and Big Brother level surveillance. If this vision prevails, Orwell wins the award over Huxley for the most accurate dystopian nightmare.
“It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” ― Samuel Adams
“The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves.” – George Washington
Our only hope resides in the hubris and arrogance of the ruling class. Once the collapse is underway, its course is unpredictable and unstable. The best laid plans have a way of going awry. This could offer an opportunity for normal rational people to make their stand. If a liberty movement, backed by the 300 million firearms residing in the red states, could re-ignite the brush fires of freedom in the minds of men, maybe we could reset the course of our country. The odds probably aren’t worse than they were in 1776. At this point, all we can do is prepare mentally, physically, and spiritually for the coming storm. Buy supplies, guns and ammo. And remember what your forefathers accomplished with far less. The choice is slavery or freedom.
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Site: Henrymakow.com
Please send links and comments to hmakow@gmail.comIn a world that embraces lies as long as they are big enough, and repeated often,we're supposed to forget the Trump was a pedophile. We are supposed to believethat Musk's confirmation that Trump is in the Epstein file, (why it is being withheld,)was a smear caused by a clash of egos. Now the two men can make up and go on as usual.Trump was a nasty pedophile. I doubt he is one now. He should not allow Mossad blackmail toinfluence life-and-death decisions. He should confess to his disgusting past and resolve to take the high road. Don't you think he would be forgiven?More serious is the fact that Trump (and Putin and Netanyahu) belong to Chabad, a Jewish supremacist cult that conjures up world wars to kill the goyim (defined as anyone who reject Chabad as God.) They believe that a "social catastrophe" will summon the Jewish "Messiah." Trump must denounce Chabad and its genocidal goals.Meanwhile, he could admit that Fort Knox is empty and the CIA murdered JFK. Imagine how his credibility and popularity would explode!Trump's role in history is the same as Hitler's was - to provide false Fascist opposition to Rothschild Communism.He must realize that he will be reviled as much as Hitler if he leads the US to world war.JD Vance prevaricates when asked about Trump's raping underaged girlsZionist errand boy demands Iran give up nuclear energy - it won't happen. If he wanted peace, he would ensure that Iran has nuclear weapons.
Tulsi Gabbard posts "bizarre" video: 'Closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation'Gabbard used the story to suggest leaders should not provoke Russian President Vladimir Putin over his war in Ukraine."This is the reality of what's at stake, what we are facing now," she said. "Because as we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elites and war mongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers."--The COLOR REVOLUTION MASTERMINDS Behind LA's RIOTS & the WAR ON TRUMP"Barbara Boyd uncovers the true orchestrators behind the ongoing riots in Los Angeles. Discover how these events are linked to broader geopolitical strategies stretching from Ukraine to the US, and orchestrated by Anglo-American (Rothschild) intelligence networks. Explore the deep dive into the color revolution against Trump, understand the role of British intelligence, and learn how the destabilization of America is part of a greater agenda. Get informed on what steps need to be taken to dismantle this apparatus and protect our republic."Simpsons creators shill for migrant invasion - past episode predicts social breakdown due to expelling freeloaders--
How the LA Riots Fit Perfectly Into Agenda 2030's Plan-RFK Jr. Removes All Members of CDC Vaccine Advisory PanelThe health secretary says 'A clean sweep is necessary to reestablish public confidence in vaccine science.'--Gaza: Aid Trucks Lure the Starving and then Opened Fire on Them-A MUST LISTEN: William Lyne on Red Ice Radio - Occult Science Dictatorship-
China Is Deliberately Using Fentanyl to 'Kneecap' the US, FBI Director SaysChina's long-term plan is to use fentanyl to 'take out generations of young men and women' in the United States, FBI Director Kash Patel said.-IAEA an 'instrument for Israel,' secret documents seized by Iran revealIranian media says the documents show that Tehran's confidential letters to the IAEA were passed on to Israel"These documents clearly show that instead of playing a neutral role, the IAEA has become an instrument serving the objectives of the Zionist regime," Fars news agency cited an informed source as saying on 10 June.The documents prove that "Iran's official and confidential letters to the IAEA - containing sensitive information - were channeled to the espionage agencies of the Zionist regime through covert conduits," the report added.The report also notes that several top Iranian nuclear scientists ended up getting assassinated due to their names being disclosed by the IAEA." -
Site: LifeNews
The House Judiciary Committee voted 13-10 on June 10, 2025, to advance a bill to repeal the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. That’s the 1994 law Joe Biden’s administration used to put pro-life Americans in prison for peacefully protesting abortion.
The FACE law was weaponized by the Biden administration to target and imprison peaceful pro-life activists, including elderly women. The legislation, led by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, aims to prevent future administrations from using the law to punish pro-lifers for exercising free speech and religious freedoms outside abortion clinics.
The FACE Act, signed by President Bill Clinton, prohibits the use of force, threats, or physical obstruction to interfere with abortion businesses and pro-life pregnancy centers. However, pro-life groups argue it has been disproportionately enforced against their advocates.
REACH PRO-LIFE PEOPLE WORLDWIDE! Advertise with LifeNews to reach hundreds of thousands of pro-life readers every week. Contact us today.
Data cited by Roy’s office shows that 97% of FACE Act prosecutions from 1994 to 2024 targeted pro-life activists, including cases against elderly women like 89-year-old Eva Edl, a wheelchair-bound Soviet concentration camp survivor convicted for praying and singing hymns outside a Michigan abortion clinic in 2020.
“This vote is a victory for the unborn and for the free speech of Americans who stand for life,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life Action, which has championed the repeal effort. “The FACE Act was twisted into a tool to jail grandmas and peaceful protesters while ignoring attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers. It’s time to end this injustice.”
Under the Biden administration, the Justice Department prosecuted 55 pro-life activists in 24 cases, securing 34 convictions, according to congressional testimony.
Notable cases include Paul Vaughn, arrested by FBI agents at his Tennessee home in 2022 for a 2021 nonviolent sit-in, and Edl, who faced up to 11 years in prison for her role in a peaceful blockade.
Pro-life advocates argue these prosecutions, often paired with “conspiracy against rights” charges to inflate penalties, represent a double standard, as attacks on pro-life facilities post-Dobbs—such as vandalism and firebombings—rarely faced federal charges.
“Joe Biden’s DOJ turned the FACE Act into a weapon against everyday Americans who believe in the sanctity of life,” Roy said in a statement. “With a Republican-led Congress and President Trump’s support, we can repeal this law and protect free speech for all.”
The bill’s passage through the Judiciary Committee marks a significant step, though it faces hurdles in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to overcome a filibuster.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has introduced companion legislation, and pro-life groups are hopeful that President Donald Trump, who pardoned 23 FACE Act convicts in January 2025, will sign the repeal if it reaches his desk. Trump’s Justice Department has already limited FACE Act enforcement to “extraordinary circumstances,” leaving most cases to state and local authorities.
The bill now heads to the House Rules Committee before a potential floor vote. If passed, it would end a law that pro-life groups say has been used to silence their message and imprison their supporters, including vulnerable elderly activists.
The post House Committee Passes Bill to Repeal Law Biden Used to Put Pro-Life Grandmas in Prison appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Zero Hedge'Several Agencies' Spied On Foreign Musk Associates During Biden Years: ReportTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 15:40
In the final years of President Biden’s term, as Elon Musk began publicly criticizing Democrats and shifted his support to Donald Trump, multiple federal agencies launched a quiet but sweeping inquiry into Musk's foreign associates.
Francis Chung/POLITICO
The investigation, reported by the Wall Street Journal, involved the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and included briefings to officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It focused on foreign nationals — particularly from Eastern Europe and other sensitive geopolitical regions - who were seen traveling to and from Musk’s private properties in 2022 and 2023.
While the probe never led to formal charges and its current status remains unclear, it smacks of yet another politically motivated investigation, while government defenders may argue it was warranted given Musk's proximity to America’s most closely guarded government secrets. The inquiry predated Trump’s return to power in January and was allegedly prompted in part by concerns that foreign actors could attempt to sway or compromise the influential CEO.
The timing, of course, makes that assertion highly suspect.
Musk, who runs five companies including SpaceX and X (formerly Twitter), has enjoyed privileged access to senior government officials and oversees ventures that contract directly with U.S. defense and intelligence agencies. SpaceX, in particular, holds highly sensitive launch and satellite surveillance agreements with the Pentagon.
Trump administration officials, when asked about the prior investigation, said they had no knowledge of it. Since returning to office, the president has cracked down on foreign influence, issuing a series of executive orders restricting international travel and enrollment in American universities, and imposing new vetting requirements on political donors and campaign associates with ties abroad.
The irony, current and former officials note, is that one of Trump’s closest political allies had already been the subject of a counterintelligence review under his predecessor.
Musk’s relationship with Trump has unraveled dramatically in recent days following a public feud that erupted on social media and spilled into news conferences. Once described by insiders as the administration’s “shadow budget director,” Musk had briefly served as a special government employee tasked with streamlining federal expenditures. He was also the primary benefactor behind America PAC, a political action committee that poured more than $250 million into Trump’s reelection campaign, much of it from Musk’s own fortune.
According to the report, as Musk’s influence grew, so too did concern among his political and corporate peers about the people in his orbit.
Even as they worked together over the past few months, however, there had been signs of tension over Musk’s association with foreign nationals.
Musk traveled with foreigners to such an extent that the staff of his super PAC, which he started last year to help re-elect Trump, became concerned about who was joining him at meetings and events, two people familiar with the group’s operations said.
An official at the group, called America PAC, said they had to institute extensive vetting to keep foreigners out of their efforts. Two campaign staffers also said they were worried about Musk’s coterie of foreign nationals. -WSJ
Muh Russia...
And here we go again... the Journal of course goes into a report they broke in October - the peak of Trump-Musk campaigning before the election, that Musk had maintained direct contact with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin since late 2022, sparking internal alarm among national security officials and raising questions about the propriety of such outreach during an active conflict in Ukraine.
The Journal also claims that SpaceX attorneys advised Musk against pursuing a higher security clearance, fearing that formal disclosure of his foreign communications could either jeopardize the application or trigger its revocation.
Still, Musk remains a figure of enormous influence inside and outside government. His ventures span commercial spaceflight, artificial intelligence, transportation, and social media - sectors deeply entwined with U.S. national security and public discourse. His naturalized U.S. citizenship, obtained after emigrating from South Africa, does not exempt him from the types of scrutiny often applied to private individuals with sensitive access and overseas entanglements.
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Site: Catholic ConclaveIrene Montero, the socialist-communist government minister responsible for a law that freed a multitude of rapists, did not receive when she was in government the victims of ecclesiastical sexual abuse with whom she demonstrated yesterday.Cathcon: Along with the synodalists, someone else politically instrumentalising the abuse crisis for their own ends. The person responsible forCatholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: LifeNews
A federal investigation has concluded that Ascension Seton Williamson Hospital in Texas violated federal law by failing to promptly treat Kyleigh Thurman’s life-threatening ectopic pregnancy, resulting in severe health consequences, including the loss of a fallopian tube.
Pro-life advocates argue the case highlights hospital mismanagement, not Texas’ pro-life laws, which explicitly permit treatment for ectopic pregnancies.
According to a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) report, Thurman, 36, sought emergency care in 2023 for symptoms including vaginal bleeding and cramping. Despite clear signs of an ectopic pregnancy—where a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, posing a risk of rupture and death—the hospital discharged her without treatment or transfer to another facility.
Days later, after continued bleeding, she returned, but the hospital again delayed care until her fallopian tube ruptured, necessitating emergency surgery that compromised her future fertility.
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The CMS investigation found the hospital violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) by failing to provide a proper medical screening or stabilizing treatment.
This tragedy stems from hospital failures, not pro-life protections. Blaming Texas’ abortion ban misrepresents the truth and distracts from holding hospitals accountable for neglecting women in crisis.
Thurman’s case, detailed in a complaint filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, underscores the dangers of ectopic pregnancies, which account for up to 10% of first-trimester maternal deaths nationwide. Her initial visit showed low hormone levels and a blocked fallopian tube, but staff sent her home with a miscarriage pamphlet. Only after her OB-GYN’s urgent pleas on a third visit did the hospital act, too late to prevent the rupture.
Pro-life groups argue that Texas’ abortion ban, enacted after the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, includes clear exceptions for ectopic pregnancies and other medical emergencies. They contend that fearmongering by abortion advocates has sown confusion among providers, leading to hesitation in cases where treatment is legally permitted.
Hospitals must train staff to follow the law and prioritize women’s lives. Pro-life laws protect both the mother and her unborn child, and ectopic pregnancy treatment aligns with that mission.
The CMS report noted multiple hospital deficiencies, including failure to consult an OB-GYN during Thurman’s initial screening. Ascension Seton Williamson issued a statement denying the allegations but offered no further comment.
For pro-life advocates, Thurman’s ordeal reinforces the need for accountability in healthcare, not the dismantling of laws protecting unborn life.
The post Hospital Failures, Not Abortion Ban, Caused Failure to Treat Woman’s Ectopic Pregnancy appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: LES FEMMES - THE TRUTH
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Site: Zero HedgeStaked Ethereum Hits All-Time High As ETH ETF Inflows SurgeTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 15:00
Ethereum surged to a four month high this morning, just shy of $2800 (a key resistance zone) as ETF inflows and Staking have reignited interest in the smart contracts ecosystem.
BlackRock's ETH ETF has become a major focal point in Ethereum investment, and its recent activity is nothing short of impressive. For nine straight trading days, the fund has attracted over $490 million of fresh capital - a streak that has drawn attention from investors and analysts alike.
As themerkele.com's Will Izuchukwu reports, a wider embrace of Ethereum by institutions is reflected in the inflows to Ethereum ETFs, which have notched up a 14-day winning streak— the longest streak yet in 2025.
These inflows are coming when Ethereum is returning to prominence among blockchain networks for fee generation, which is a really important indicator of network activity and demand.
CoinTelegraph's Martin Young notes that staked Ethereum has clocked a new record as the asset’s price reclaimed a 12-day high amid major institutional accumulation.
The amount of Ether staked on the Beacon Chain reached a record high of 34.65 million ETH on Sunday, eclipsing the previous high on Nov. 10, 2024.
The amount of Ether staked has been relatively stable, above 33 million for the past year. However, it started to tick up again in June, according to the network explorer Beaconcha.in.
The higher staking level indicates that more holders are not prepared to sell at current levels, preferring a yield from staking instead.
Almost 30% of supply staked
A Dune Analytics dashboard confirmed the record figure, reporting that 34.8 million ETH was staked as of Monday, while Ultrasound.Money reports 34.7 million staked.
The analytics platform also reports that the current amount staked is equivalent to 28.7% of the current circulating supply of Ether, which is 120.8 million, as issuance returned to inflationary in February.
ETF staking coming soon?
The milestone also comes as the industry anticipates the approval of spot Ether ETF staking by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Analysts have suggested that staked Ether ETFs could debut “within the next few weeks,” following a recent filing by ETF provider REX Shares that used “regulatory workarounds.”
Finally, the last few weeks have seen Ethereum significantly outperform Bitcoin...
...after bouncing off the 2019/2020 ratio low support.
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Site: AsiaNews.itRiyadh and Abu Dhabi are investing billions in artificial intelligence and data centres in a two horse race followed with attention and some fear in Washington and Beijing who are trying to boost their partnerships. Gulf states have energy and money, but still lacks qualified talents and brilliant minds. In the first quarter, Saudi GDP boomed, driven by the non-oil sector.
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Site: Zero Hedge'Invest Now Or Learn Russian Later': NATO Chief Wants 400% Increase In Europe's Air Defense Spending'Invest Now Or Learn Russian Later': NATO Chief Wants 400% Increase In Europe's Air Defense SpendingTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 14:45
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Monday urged the European allies to make a "quantum leap" in military spending to deter Russia, which affirms Trump's own longtime message, as the NATO chief called for a whopping 400% increase in the Continent’s air and missile defense budget.
"The fact is, we need a quantum leap in our collective defense," Rutte said before an audience of the London-based think tank Chatham House. "The fact is, we must have more forces and capabilities to implement our defense plans in full. The fact is, danger will not disappear even when the war in Ukraine ends."
The comments came days after he stated provocatively that Europe must invest heavily in defense now, or learn Russian later.
"If we don't act now, the next three years, we are fine, but we have to start now, because otherwise, from three, four or five years from now, we are really under threat," he had said. "I really mean this. Then you have to get your Russian language course out, or go to New Zealand."
NBC reviews that all of this is happening just ahead of a key NATO meeting later in June:
Trump's call for NATO allies to up their minimum defense spending from 2% to 5% of GDP was once seen as outlandish; but last month Rutte too backed this idea and said he expected it to be adopted at NATO's June 24-25 summit.
On Monday he made a similarly ambitious call. He asked for a "400% increase in air and missile defense" and added that "militaries also need thousands more armored vehicles and tanks, millions more artillery shells, and we must double our enabling capabilities, such as logistics, supply, transportation, and medical support."
Canada is already seeking to demonstrate to Washington and NATO that it is taking significant strides to meet the challenge:
Canada, under pressure to spend more on its military, vowed on Monday to boost funding for the armed forces and hit NATO's 2% military spending target this fiscal year, five years earlier than promised.
Prime Minister Mark Carney also said Canada was likely in future to devote a greater percentage of GDP on defense, given the need to replace outdated equipment and reduce its heavy reliance on Washington.
Canada just committed $60 billion in defense spending to meet NATO’s 2% of GDP target.
— Marc Nixon (@MarcNixon24) June 9, 2025
That’s based on an estimated $3 trillion GDP for 2025.
New jets, vehicles, drones, and Arctic surveillance are coming — but how will we afford it with rising debt and a slowing economy? pic.twitter.com/1ee30Olw7oNATO defense ministers are further expected to soon formalize the following increase in spending policies:
- They’ve agreed that 3.5% of GDP would be used for "core defence spending" - such as heavy weapons, tanks, air defence.
- 1.5% of GDP per year will be spent on defense- and security-related areas such as infrastructure, surveillance, and cyber. However, the full list of flexibility has not yet been negotiated.
- "These targets describe exactly what capabilities Allies need to invest in over the coming years," Rutte told journalists.
Washington could step back from Ukraine support...
If #NATO allies fail to meet the defense spending target, the #US could scale back support for #Ukraine, says @TalaMichelIssa, Chief Business Reporter. #WNewsExtra pic.twitter.com/DBRqVwakAs
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) June 9, 2025This is being collectively pushed for amid heightened Cold War-style rhetoric regarding Moscow's intentions.
"The threats facing NATO are growing and our adversaries are certainly not waiting for us to re-arm or be ready for them to make the first move," Rutte has also said. "We would prefer our allies move out urgently on reaching the 5%."
Kremlin officials grab popcorn, set for more inter-NATO turmoil over the future of the alliance...
'NATO in a very deep crisis' over the 5% spending hike — Lavrov
— RT (@RT_com) June 9, 2025
'At the same time the US is switching focus to Asia-Pacific while leaving Europe to deal with its problems on its own' pic.twitter.com/Sqdz8NjwcCBut this assumes that Moscow's war in Ukraine is fundamentally expansionist in nature, and this has not been demonstrated - it is simply assumed. It remains that President Putin has shown no interest even in some kind of outright military occupation of Kiev.
So the idea that he's ready to invade Poland or anywhere else on NATO's 'Eastern flank' next is a huge assumption. Moscow has all along pointed out that it's the NATO alliance which expanded itself right up to Russia's doorstep.
Unhinged fear-mongering... engaged:
Stupendously idiotic stuff here from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. pic.twitter.com/X46yZULWNL
— Daniel DePetris (@DanDePetris) June 9, 2025* * *
A note from Rabobank:
It’s unclear how much chickening out there is in geopolitics. Ukrainian drones just hit another Russian military target, destroying two fighter jets, as Germany’s outgoing spy boss and NATO chief Rutte both warned Russia could launch an attack against it within five years.
“Let’s not kid ourselves, we are all on the eastern flank. There is no east or west, there is just NATO,” Mr Rutte said, and the danger “will not disappear when the war in Ukraine ends.” Rutte specifically told the UK: “Spend more or learn to speak Russian.”
To help Brits appalled at the idea of learning a foreign language, and those who believe it might be better than vast state spending when fiscal deficits and public debt are sky high: “Когда мне снизят центральную банковскую процентную ставку?” (‘When do I get my rate cut?’ – that’s all that matters, right?) Even Canada is moving its Coast Guard to national defence and PM Carney will announce defence spending will be NATO’s 2% of GDP target this fiscal year - just in time for it to rise to 5% at its upcoming summit.
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Site: Zero HedgeNation's 2nd-Largest Wine And Spirits Distributor Exits California Market Over Costs, SuppliersTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 14:40
Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Wine and spirits distributor Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) is leaving the California market.
RNDC cited increasing costs and changes among suppliers as one of the reasons it has decided to stop operating in the state.
“This decision follows years of increasing costs, industry headwinds, and supplier shifts that have made it difficult to operate sustainably in the state,” its leadership said in an emailed statement to its customers on June 4. “We are incredibly proud of our California team and all of their hard work over the years. Please know that our commitment to you during this transition remains unwavering.”
RNDC has lost several significant distribution partnerships in California in recent years. The company’s announcement comes just months after two major suppliers, Tito’s Vodka and Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman, departed from their California distribution relationship with RNDC in favor of its competitor, Reyes Beverage Group.
E. & J. Gallo Winery, which owns the High Noon brand, also ended its relationship with RNDC in the state in 2025, opting instead for Reyes Beverage Group.
In 2023, Sazerac ended its longtime relationship with RNDC in California. The bourbon and whiskey maker moved its brands including Buffalo Trace, Pappy Van Winkle, and Fireball Whisky, to the Reyes Beverage Group.
RNDC did not return a request for comment.
Other companies such as Chevron, Tesla, Oracle, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, have in recent years moved their headquarters from California to states like Texas or Nevada. Unlike RNDC, which also plans to cease servicing the state, these companies continue to operate in California’s sizable economy.
RNDC joins a list of national companies—many of them insurance providers—that have fully exited the California market.
Farmers Direct Property and Casualty Insurance Company withdrew from the California homeowners insurance market in 2023. That same year, American National also announced it would stop offering homeowners insurance in the state, a move that affected more than 36,000 policies. In addition, Merastar Insurance stopped renewing homeowners and car insurance policies in California beginning in 2024.
Some other companies still operating in California have made moves to limit their operations in the state. State Farm and Allstate announced they would no longer be accepting new applications for homeowners insurance, citing rising costs and wildfire risks.
A Farmers Direct Property and Casualty Insurance spokesperson previously told The Epoch Times the company made its decision to increase efficiency and mitigate risk exposure.
Berkshire Hathaway’s AmGUARD, a division of the firm’s GUARD Insurance company, informed the California Department of Insurance in July 2023 of its plan to cancel the homeowners and personal umbrella policies it holds in the state, which followed through on two months later. AmGUARD’s notice came the same day that the small insurance firm Falls Lake Insurance submitted a letter indicating it would also be canceling policies in the state.
A 2022 report by the Hoover Institution found that 352 companies relocated from California to other states between 2018 to 2021, primarily due to the state’s high operating costs.
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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 BarnabasSeen here with Saint Paul contesting with pagansFrom the Golden Catholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: 4Christum
Gay activism in the diocese of apostate Timothy Dolan
Archdiocese New York: Apostate Parish Celebrates Homosexual March – Gloria.tv
The Apostate Parish Priest is Brian Jordan, OFM
St Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Manhattan plans to celebrate its annual "United In Love Pre-Pride Festive Mass" on June 28.
This homosexual propaganda Eucharist coincides with a so-called "WorldPride" event in the city that weekend.
The Catholic parish is notorious for homosexual activism. The prelate responsible for the scandal is "conservative" Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York.
Across state lines, in Hoboken, New Jersey, Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church is planning to celebrate its seventh annual homosexual propaganda Eucharist on the same weekend.
Gay activism in the diocese of apostate Joseph TobinHoboken's apostate church, Our Lady of Grace, engages in gay activism in rebellion against God's natural law and Catholic moral doctrine, using Bergoglio's photo.Apostate and gay activist Alexander M. SantoraApostate Alexander M. Santora implemented Bergoglio's pseudo-blessing for sodomite couplesWATCH: New Jersey Gay Pride Mass Proceeds with Apostate Cardinal Tobin’s Approval
Pro-Gay Apostate Cardinal Tobin Approves Pride Mass – Gloria.tvThe names of the apostate churches St. Francis of Assisi and Our Lady of Grace are on the list of dissident gay activists New ways Ministry -
Site: AsiaNews.itThe Asian Development Bank is investing US$ 1.5 billion to promote more efficient farming that increases productivity while reducing the environmental impact of growing the main staple in the Asian diet. Rice farming alone generates 1.5 per cent of greenhouse gases. New irrigation systems and the use of drones are among the tools to cut the amount of methane released into the atmosphere.
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Site: Catholic ConclaveImages of Marko Rupnik's mosaics have been removed from the Vatican news site Vatican news. The decision represents a first sign of acceleration by the Holy See on the case of the former Jesuit accused of having abused, over a period of thirty years, numerous religious women during his career as a world-renowned artist and theologian. His was a particularly controversial case, not least because Catholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: LifeNews
A North Texas man faces capital murder charges after slipping abortion drugs into his pregnant girlfriend’s drink, resulting in the death of her unborn child and her hospitalization.
The case has sparked outrage among pro-life advocates, who say it underscores the sanctity of unborn life and the dangers of unregulated abortion drugs.
Justin Anthony Banta, 38, an information technology staffer for the U.S. Department of Justice, was arrested June 6, 2025, by the Parker County Sheriff’s Office following a months-long investigation. According to a sheriff’s office press release, Banta intentionally added “Plan C,” a commonly known abortion drug known as mifepristone, to his girlfriend’s drink without her knowledge or consent in September 2024. The incident occurred at a Tarrant County coffee shop, where the victim, whose identity remains confidential, met Banta and later suspected he had tampered with her beverage.
The victim, who was six weeks pregnant, informed Banta of her pregnancy and expressed her desire to keep her baby, authorities said. Despite her wishes, Banta allegedly encouraged an abortion, offered to cover the cost, and suggested ordering the drugs online.
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When she refused, he took matters into his own hands, purchasing the abortion pills and secretly adding them to her drink, according to investigators. The act led to the loss of her unborn child and required her hospitalization for medical complications.
Banta faces additional charges of tampering with physical evidence, and the Texas Rangers have filed the capital murder charge in Tarrant County. If convicted, he could face life in prison or the death penalty, reflecting Texas’ legal recognition of the unborn as victims in cases of intentional harm.
Pro-life advocates point to this case as evidence of the risks posed by the availability of abortion drugs like mifepristone, often marketed as “Plan C.” They argue that such drugs, accessible online with minimal oversight, can be misused to harm women and end unborn lives against a mother’s will.
The victim’s condition remains undisclosed, but her ordeal has drawn sympathy from pro-life communities across the state.
Banta is being held in the Parker County Jail. His arraignment is pending, and the investigation remains ongoing as authorities review additional evidence.
The post Texas Man Faces Murder Charge After Killing His Girlfriend’s Unborn Baby appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Mises InstituteMarxism has infected not only our body politic but also most of our institutions from higher education to religious organizations, as Marxists insist that human action is determined by class and racial affiliations. Ludwig von Mises had a more accurate understanding of how humans act.
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Site: AsiaNews.itSouth Korea's new president and the Chinese leader spoke on the phone for about 30 minutes. China insists on the importance of 'multilateralism' against the backdrop of Trump's tariffs. South Korea calls on Xi to play a 'constructive role' in the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
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Site: LifeNews
Free speech and religious freedom advocates, groups speaking out on the harms of radical gender ideology, and 22 states have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of two Vermont families who had their foster-care licenses revoked by Vermont because of their religious beliefs. On May 30, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing the families filed their opening brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in Wuoti v. Winters.
Despite a track record of success and high praise from social workers who knew Brian and Katy Wuoti and Bryan and Rebecca Gantt, Vermont’s Department for Children and Families revoked their foster-care licenses after the couples expressed their religiously inspired and widely held belief that girls cannot become boys or vice versa. The state applies this policy categorically—prohibiting families with these views from caring for any child, even if they sought to care for a relative, provide respite care for an infant for just one day, or care for a child who shared their faith.
“Vermont’s foster-care system is in crisis: There aren’t enough families to care for vulnerable kids,” said ADF Senior Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse. “As numerous states have attested, religious families play a critical role in the foster-care system. Yet instead of inviting families from diverse backgrounds to help care for vulnerable kids, Vermont is shutting the door on them, putting its ideological agenda ahead of the needs of suffering kids. When it comes to finding kids a loving home, everyone should be able to recognize that the needs of kids should come first. And even Vermont agrees that the Wuotis and the Gantts are loving and caring parents willing to open their door to any child.”
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The state’s foster-care system has more kids in need than families willing to care for them, and officials have had to place some kids in institutions and unlicensed placements, including hospitals and police stations, to fill the gap. To help meet this need, the Wuotis became foster parents in 2014 and adopted two brothers from foster care. The Gantts became foster parents in 2016 and focused on caring for kids born with drug dependencies or with fetal alcohol syndrome. The Gantts have since adopted three kids.
Vermont officials described the couples as “amazing,” “wonderful,” “kind,” and “welcoming.” Yet the state revoked both families’ licenses when they expressed their religious belief that a person should live consistent with their sex and marriage is the union of one man and one woman. According to the state, that made them “unqualified” to parent any child regardless of the child’s age, beliefs, or identity. Vermont will not license these families to provide any type of foster care or even respite care. ADF attorneys say this exclusion burdens constitutional rights as much as it needlessly deprives kids of loving homes.
“Foster parents represent the best of society: local citizens who give back to their community by helping the State raise children that have fallen into its care,” explains the multi-state brief led by Florida and the Arizona legislature. “Unfortunately, foster-care systems are in crisis across the nation as states deal with a shortage of foster homes. Vermont’s brusque approach to foster care has only exacerbated that crisis…States like Florida, Oklahoma, and Idaho, whose foster systems are highlighted in this brief, employ foster-care programs that achieve the same interests through means that do not disqualify scores of good-hearted citizens with genuinely held religious and political views: by matching like-minded parents with like-minded children.”
In a brief filed by The Conscience Project on behalf of prospective foster families in Vermont, attorneys further detail the discrimination by state officials. “Despite the clear desire and ability to provide a safe and loving home for children in need, the Crams were denied a license to foster. According to the denial letter sent to the Crams in June of 2021 by Vermont’s Department for Children and Families, the Crams’ ‘fundamental belief’ of ‘God’s plan for all of us,’ would ‘not meet the emotional or developmental needs of children.’”
The post 22 States Support Couple Who Lost Foster Care License in Vermont Because They’re Christians appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: LifeNews
A George Soros-backed political action committee (PAC) is launching a multimillion-dollar effort to flip Texas blue, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
Democrats haven’t won a statewide election in the Republican stronghold in decades. However, Texas Majority PAC, which has received millions of dollars in funding from Soros, hopes to change that trend with its new “Blue Texas” initiative, according to the WSJ.
Soros and his network of political spending outfits have poured hundreds of millions into supporting Democratic candidates and causes in recent election cycles. Soros donated $2.1 million to Texas Majority PAC in 2024 and $1 million in April, WSJ reported.
The Blue Texas initiative aims to boost candidate recruitment, organize volunteers, and increase voter turnout, with the goal of turning Texas into a battleground state by 2032, according to the WSJ. Texas Majority, along with state and county Democratic parties, spent about $35 million during the 2024 election cycle, and the new initiative’s price tag is expected to surpass that amount.
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In addition to backing state and national Democrats, the Soros family has poured millions into local races and initiatives to push a left-wing agenda. Soros-backed groups spent heavily in 2022 and 2024 to pass ballot measures enshrining abortion as a right in state constitutions, and have routinely supported soft-on-crime prosecutors and judges in major American cities.
The group is particularly focused on the 2026 Senate race, in which former Democratic Rep. Colin Allred — who lost to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in 2024 — is expected to run again. On the Republican side, Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton are vying for the GOP nomination.
A recent Texas Southern University poll showed Cornyn with a 4-point lead over Allred in a hypothetical general election matchup, and Paxton with just a 2-point lead.
“If a win is on the table in 2026, we don’t want to leave it there by not being organized,” Katherine Fischer, the deputy executive director of Texas Majority PAC, told WSJ.
Democrats have funneled massive sums into Texas in recent elections. Allred raised nearly $100 million, while former Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s failed 2018 bid to unseat Cruz brought in over $80 million compared to Cruz’s $38 million.
Despite significant spending in the state in 2024, Democrats failed to win key races. Former Vice President Kamala Harris lost Texas to President Donald Trump by nearly 14 points, and Cruz defeated Allred by 8.5 points.
The flight for the White House in 2032 will be particularly consequential in Texas given that the state is expected to add electoral votes after the 2030 reapportionment, while Democratic strongholds such as California and New York are projected to lose them, The American Redistricting Project estimated in December 2023
“There is no choice for Texas or for anyone else in the country who wants to see a Democrat in the White House after 2032 but to find a pathway through Texas,” Fischer told the WSJ.
Texas Majority did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
LifeNews Note: Melissa O’Rourke writes for Daily Caller. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience
The post George Soros Group Spending Millions to Try to Make Texas a Blue State appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Henrymakow.com
YouTube is full of videos of women complaining that men are no longer
interested in forming relationships.
Heterosexuality is based on the exchange of female worldly power for male protection & love.
Most men love a woman because she sacrifices power. She trusts his leadership.
Feminism has taught women to seek power instead of love, and compete with men. This has effectively neutered them. Power = penis.
(Feminism is a Communist depopulation program aimed at undermining marriage and the family.)
Feminism taught men to seek a woman's approval above his own (i.e. transference, idealizing a woman instead of obeying his best Self.)(Disclaimer - This template has worked for centuries. That's why the usual suspects are trying to destroy it.)Possession is the Essence of Marriage(Updated from Dec. 2009 and April 1, 2018)by Henry Makow Ph.D.
My wife recently asked me why I loved her.Rather than enumerate her good qualities, I answered honestly: "Because you are submissive."
At the risk of being politically incorrect, many men do not seek strong independent women. They do not seek great beauty, brains or sex, but the simple feeling of "possessing" a woman. In other words, what they seek is a degree of ownership or power. This is part of masculine identity.
And many women have the complementary desire, to be possessed, to totally "belong" to their husband.In a blog post, Joseph William, in his thirties, claims he has slept with 100 women and nearly all of them wanted to be dominated in bed. They wanted the man to take charge. This has a general application. Women need men to take the initiative. They acquiesce or reject.The essence of heterosexuality is the exchange of female power for male power expressed as love. This is the heterosexual contract. If a woman is not submissive or a man unloving, the contract has been broken, and they must consider separation.
When a woman surrenders to her husband, she gives him the power to grant her wishes, or not. He does not exploit, control or dominate. He respects her individuality and freedom.He wants her to want to be his. He consults and nurtures. He makes the final decision.Every family needs a head. A creature with two heads is a monster.
INTIMACYWe have a powerful hunger to become one with another person. Two people only can become one when a woman surrenders to her husband. This is how women love. Two people cannot become one if they have competing agendas.The greater a woman's acceptance of her husband's leadership, the greater his love for her. When the issue of worldly power is settled, a husband's sense of self expands to encompass his wife. She becomes part of his ego. He knows that her child is his.
He loves her passionately because she has given herself to him. She has given him everything he wants.Women were designed to crave a man's constant passionate and exclusive love. But feminism ensures they will never get it because it teaches them to be "independent."In "The Power of Sexual Surrender" psychiatrist Marie Robinson writes that femininity is based on "an essential female altruism" i.e. putting husband and children first. Real women do not seek power. They seek love. They are cherished because they dedicate themselves to husband and children.Women express love in terms of surrender, i.e. trust. She empowers her husband by submitting to him. Thus, she inspires him to sacrifice for her and their children. Women domesticate men and give them purpose.Of course, this surrender applies only to the man she loves, the man who has courted her and won her love. If she gives her trust to the wrong man, that is her responsibility.THE BEST WAY TO IMPRESS A WOMAN? DON'T TRYWomen have about 20 years of peak sex appeal. They have to seal a deal before they lose it. They are the sellers. Men are the buyers.When men treat women as sex goddesses, sex objects or prey, as society teaches, they are doomed to fail.Men need to approach women as they are, fallible human beings with normal human desires.They need to get to know a woman as friends and decide if they want a deeper relationship.Women need sex but they want love (an honest human relationship) more. Take an enema and purge everything Hollywood has taught you about love and sex. It is bullshit.Lasting love is not based on sex appeal or sparkling repartee. You can have great sex with a woman who is not conventionally beautiful. All women are beautiful in the sex act. Lasting love is based on mutual dependence.A man must decide what he wants to do with his life, and then find a woman who will help him achieve his goal.
CONCLUSIONBecause the Illuminati bankers control the media and nearly everything else, most of us are ignorant of how egregious and criminal their social engineering is.
Men are active by nature; women are passive. This is the basic yin-yang of nature. By messing with this dynamic, Illuminati social engineers (black magicians?) are throwing a spanner in the gears of human reproduction and happiness. Their promotion of homosexuality to heterosexual children is criminal. They should be charged with child abuse.This is what Satanists do--override nature. They are evil. They hate us and we have every right to hate them and their minions (liberals) in government, education and the media.---Related - Having Sex is not Making LoveFirst Comment from M in Brazil
Good post and very true; too bad it's getting worsE. Man and woman are lost, at least here in Brazil. I am so sick and tired of this feminist, LGBT, race theory, communist agenda, white man-enemy agendas, but unfortunately, it's all over from commercials, companies, celebrities, gov. pushing this on us on every occasion.
I am glad my daughter reads this site, she can learn and have a better outcome in life than I had.
Here in Brazil, women (not all but most), have to pay half of all expenses in the household even if their husband makes 10 times more, it doesn´t matter. They have to pay their share and do most housework since men here say it's their job. What we see nowadays is no longer the sacred union between a men and woman where man treat their wives as a gift given to them by the Lord and woman reverence their husbands and give them children. Instead we are living in times where modern relationships are the norm. Because of that, what we can expect from a marriage is two colleagues living together where each person has their own lives, share their bills 50/50 and if things get too hard they'll just get a divorce and move on to the next partner as if their actions won't have consequences to their children or themselves.
Then you have good men that cannot find a Christian woman to marry because the women are not committed to the relationship nor to God. It has been hard for both good man and a good woman here. This world is definitely not what it used to be.
In my work and at my daughter's college, we see more and more incentives for women to abandon their children with strangers and go to work. From speakers to projects aiming at mothers and women, the effort to put women in their unnatural place is astonishing. At my work, I see women with high paying jobs making all the decisions in their household while their husbands stay home with their kids. And this is a difficult situation because since the feminist agenda has been active for so long, both genders are complacent in maintaining these ungodly roles.
My daughter tells me about her college, where the girls if they want to have a boyfriend they have to pay for all their expenses on dates and this goes on into the marriage and how most people engage in premarital sex as if it's nothing but a sport. So the women have to pursue a carrier because they can't rely on men. It's truly sad where humanity is heading to.
Coincidentally, in Brazil there is a youtube channel called Casamento de Verdade (Marriage biblically) from Professor Afonso (he lives in the US now), he mentioned why its important to be submissive (women) marriage. Its was really good and all women liked it and had no problem with it. The 90 thumbs down were basically from men and not the women. In the comments, woman were complaining about having to pay the bills either 50/50 in the marriage and in some cases all of it and having to do all the house work. -
Site: Zero HedgeIndia And US Advance Toward Interim Trade Deal After Four-Day TalksTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 12:15
Indian and US negotiators have made progress in their latest round of talks in New Delhi on Tuesday on a bilateral trade deal, having focused on market access for industrial and some agricultural goods, tariff cuts and non-tariff barriers, Reuters reported citing Indian government sources.
"The negotiations held with the U.S. side were productive and helped in making progress towards crafting a mutually beneficial and balanced agreement including through achievement of early wins," one of the sources said.
The U.S. delegation, led by senior officials from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, held closed-door negotiations with Indian trade ministry officials headed by chief negotiator Rajesh Agrawal.
Among the preliminary agreements reached, both sides discussed increasing bilateral digital trade, by improving customs and trade facilitation measures, the sources said, adding that "negotiations will continue" for early conclusion of the initial tranche of the trade pact.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed in February to conclude a bilateral trade agreement by fall 2025 and to more than double bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.
Here are some of the highlights of the preliminary agreement:
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India and US aim to sign first tranche of trade pact by fall 2025, with both sides agreeing to hold more talks on bilateral pact.
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The two sides are expected to sign an interim agreement by the end of the month, before the expiry of Trump's 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs on major trading partners, including a 26% tariff on India.
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Both sides discussed increasing bilateral digital trade, by improving customs and trade facilitation measures, the sources said.
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Indian and U.S. negotiators made progress in their latest round of talks in New Delhi on Tuesday on a bilateral trade deal, having focused on market access for industrial and some agricultural goods, tariff cuts and non-tariff barriers, Indian government sources said.
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The next phase of negotiations could tackle more complex matters, with the goal of signing the first tranche of the bilateral trade pact by September or October, the officials added.
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India resisted U.S. demands to open its markets to wheat, dairy and corn imports, while offering lower tariffs on high-value U.S. products such as almonds, pistachios and walnuts, one of the sources said.
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India also asked the U.S to revoke its 10% baseline tariff. However, the U.S. side opposed this, noting that even Britain was subject to this under its recent bilateral trade agreement.
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Additionally, India sought an exemption for its steel exports from a 50% tariff.
According to Reuters, the potential 26% tariff on India would be devastating to Indian goods - including rice, shrimp, textiles and footwear, which together comprise nearly one-fifth of India's merchandise exports - and could severely hit exports and dampen foreign investment inflows.India has pledged to increase purchases of American goods, including energy products like liquefied natural gas, crude oil, coal and defence equipment.India’s exports to the U.S. rose 28% to $37.7 billion in the first four months of 2025, while imports increased to $14.4 billion, widening India’s trade surplus, according to U.S. government data. -
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Site: LifeNews
Democrats in the New York Legislature approved a bill on Monday that gives individuals with terminal illnesses the right to end their own lives, known as medical aid in dying (MAID).
The New York State Senate approved S138, or the “Medical Aid in Dying Act,” which allows those with incurable illnesses to be prescribed medication to “hasten the patient’s death,” according to the bill’s text. The legislation will now head to Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk, and if enacted, New York will join 11 other states and the District of Columbia with similar assisted suicide laws.
“It’s not about hastening death, but ending suffering,” said state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Democrat who sponsored the proposal, according to ABC News. Hoylman-Sigal did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
The bill was approved by the Senate with a 35-27 vote, with no Republicans supporting it and six Democrats joining the opposition. In April, the State Assembly passed the bill by a vote of 81-67, also with no Republican votes in favor.
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New Yorkers who are expected to die within six months, as confirmed by two doctors, would be able to request lethal medications, according to the bill’s text. Two witnesses must sign the request to confirm that the patient has decision-making capacity and is acting voluntarily, without any coercion.
“Assisted suicide? That’s the priority, with all the issues facing New Yorkers?” Republican state Sen. Rob Ortt said at a news conference on Monday, as reported by The New York Times.
Critics are concerned that the bill could put New York on a similar path as Canada, which has among the most expansive MAID laws in the world. In 2023, 4.7% of deaths in Canada were assisted by physicians.
“This is a dark day for New York State. For the first time in its history, New York is on the verge of authorizing doctors to help their patients commit suicide,” said the New York State Catholic Conference in a statement following the Senate’s passage of the bill. “We reject the false notion that suicide is ever a solution. Instead, we call on New York State to expand palliative and hospice care, mental health services, and family caregiver support.”
The Medical Aid in Dying Act has been endorsed by several medical organizations, including the Medical Society of the State of New York, New York State Academy of Family Physicians, the New York State Psychiatric Association and the New York State Nurses Association.
Hochul’s office has indicated that she will be reviewing the legislation, though it is not yet known whether she will sign it into law, according to the NYT.
“Make no mistake – this is only the beginning, and the only person standing between New York and the assisted suicide nightmare unfolding in Canada is Governor Hochul,” the New York State Catholic Conference said.
LifeNews Note: Melissa O’Rourke writes for Daily Caller. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience.
The post Democrats Think Killing People is a Solution appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: AsiaNews.itThis morning, Pope Leo XIV met with 98 representatives of the Holy See diplomatic corps in the Clementine Hall. They are a model, "certainly not perfect", of the Church's message in favour of "human fraternity and peace among all peoples, [. . .] serving the dignity of the human person'.
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Site: Mises InstituteWith US Government bonds being downgraded, another sign that Washington's borrowing and spending is out of control, not that anyone in power is listening. Think of the downgrade as a canary in a coal mine.
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Site: Steyn OnlineSteyn and Simberg respond to Mann's demand that he and his lying lawyers should not have to pay sanctions...
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Site: Steyn OnlineThe pilot programme for civilisational suicide...
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Site: Catholic ConclaveEvery year at Pentecost, the thousands of pilgrims returning from Chartres on specially chartered trains sing a traditional song upon their arrival. One of them received a ticket this Monday for "disturbing the station."The success of the Chartres pilgrimage continues unabated. Year after year, the ranks of these traditionalist Catholics who walk from Paris to Chartres at Pentecost grow, and the Catholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: Catholic ConclaveMy apologies for the delay!Scroll down for today's:Saint 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 Blessed Giovanni DomeniciGiovanni Dominici, OP (English: John Catholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: Ron Paul Institute - Featured Articles
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.
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.
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.
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.
Reprinted with permission from Brownstone Institute.
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Site: Ron Paul Institute - Featured Articles
Russia’s leadership is in “conclave” determining its riposte.
Trump has been silent for two days. Unprecedented. In the last days, Ukraine and its facilitators attempted a massive attack on Russia’s strategic nuclear bomber-force; succeeded in collapsing two bridges onto civilian trains heading to Moscow; attacking the Kerch Bridge; and assassinating a Russian general via explosive body bomb.
As Clausewitz noted two centuries ago, the point of military force is to compel an outcome: i.e. that an adversary finally does what is wanted of him. Thus, in respect to military adventures there is need for clarity of thought from the outset. It must have a realisable political objective that has a prospect to be implemented.
What then, was the objective behind these Ukrainian “irregular” attacks? One certainly was demonstrative – PR exercises to say that Ukraine and allied services are still capable of mounting special forces style, innovative operations. And are therefore worthy of continued support. As Colonel Doug Macgregor cautions:
For the most part it was a PR stunt to try and convey the impression that Ukraine is capable of carrying on the war. Anything you hear from the Western outlets … are probably untrue or at least grossly exaggerated … We damaged ourselves and our relationship – what there is left of it – with Moscow … that’s the real fallout from this.
Okay. But PR stunts are no strategy, nor do the attacks hold any prospect for a shift in the overall strategic military paradigm. It doesn’t say that the West or Ukraine has suddenly discovered a political strategy towards Russia per se. That doesn’t exist. For the most part, the innumerable western declarations come as a hodge-podge of fantasies.
The second objective however, may indeed have had a clear strategic end-state – and has demonstrated feasibility and the possibility to compel a desired outcome: The various attacks have imposed on Trump the uncomfortable reality that he, as President, does not control US foreign policy. The collective Deep State has just made that plain.
As General Mike Flynn has warned:
The Deep State is now acting outside of the control of the elected leadership of our nation … These persons in our Deep State are engaged in a deliberate effort to provoke Russia into a major confrontation with the West, including the United States.
In effect, the likes of Generals Keith Kellogg and Jack Keane, with their adolescent narratives that only through pressure, more pressure and pain will compel Putin (always presumed to be weak) to accept a frozen conflict in the hope that it can obvert from an American defeat in Ukraine.
The British during WW2 similarly believed that the Nazi regime was not strong, and could be overthrown by strategic bombing, intended to bring about the collapse of German society. Today, General Kellogg advocates “bombing” Russia with sanctions – mirroring the British conviction that such tactics “must be bad for morale.”
Trump’s advice from his Generals either did not meet the criterion of political realism – because it was based on fantasies of incipient Russian collapse and a hopeless misreading of Russia and its Army. Or perhaps his Advisers, either inadvertently or deliberately, “shafted” Trump and his agenda of normalising relations with Russia.
What will Trump say now to Putin? That he was indeed forewarned (recall his writing just days ago that “bad things – if it were not for me – I mean REALLY BAD things would already have happened to Russia”) and claim that his advisers did not give him the full details; or will he candidly admit that they deceived him? Alternatively, will he take the line that the CIA was merely operating to an old Presidential “Finding” that authorised attacks into the depth of the Russian hinterland?
All such putative answers would spell one thing – that Trump is not in control. That he and his European allies (such as Britain) cannot be trusted.
Either way, Trump’s advisers will have understood that Zelensky and by extension his NATO enablers, were exploiting the SALT/START Treaties’ vulnerability – in order to use concealed drones, hidden in civilian containers, to attack the very bombers covered by USA-Russia treaties: Article XII of the START treaty specifically requires “a display in the open of all heavy bombers within the airbase.” This provision was a confidence building act (visible monitoring) to guard against a surprise “first strike” nuclear attack.
START 1 cut long-range or strategic nuclear arsenals by 30-40 percent. New START slashed accountable deployed strategic arms by another three-quarters. In 2021, Presidents Biden and Putin extended New START until February 2026.
Of course, these unidentified enablers understood the gravity of striking the strategic nuclear force of a major rival nuclear weapons power.
How would the US respond if an adversary (perhaps a non-state actor) launched a strike against strategic long-range nuclear capable bombers in the USA using cheap and easily available drones hidden in containers? We are in a new era of risk – one in which pagers and cell phones can be weaponised as bombs – and of “sleeper” drones that can be remotely activated to attack airfields, either civilian or military.
Larry Johnson has observed that after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, intended to destroy the US aircraft carriers berthed there, the Japanese Admiral Yamamoto reportedly said the following in the aftermath of Japan’s great victory at Pearl Harbour: “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve … We have won a great tactical victory at Pearl Harbour and thereby lost the war.”
The silence of the bears will soon be ended and we will know more about Russian resolve; but a relationship in which Trump is understood to “mean what he says, and does what he says” likely is over. The Russians are furious.
What happens next is unknown.
Reprinted with permission from Strategic Culture Foundation.
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Site: PaulCraigRoberts.org
Is Putin’s Soft Approach Bringing War in its Train?
Paul Craig Roberts
“If Mr. Putin genuinely wants to save the lives of his soldiers and of his civilians then he should end the war conclusively and dramatically right now. This, I believe, is well within his power if he has the will and the vision to act as the situation requires.” — Gilbert Doctorow
I am pleased to see Gilbert Doctorow’s concurrence with my longstanding position that the greatest threat to peace is Putin’s reluctance to bring the conflict in Ukraine to a quick decisive end. Putin’s ongoing war is a direct road to wider war.
In his ever-widening war Putin has done nothing to prevent the Kiev government from continuing the war. I have suggested that Putin hoped to use peace negotiations to achieve a wider understanding with the West. Others have attributed Putin’s inaction to his concern that if Russia acts decisively, the result will be to unite the West to more hostile action. Still others attribute the never-ending conflict to Russian weakness. Whatever the cause, the longer the war continues the more it spins out of control. Although dismissed by Putin, the attack on Russia’s triad is a very serious matter.
Gilbert Doctorow and John Helmer are commentators, analysts, whatever you want to designate them, who seek out the facts instead of pushing official narratives. They don’t always see eye-to-eye, but I read them as a check on my own thinking. The fact that most so-called experts are pushing narratives instead of correct explanations is why we are in danger from such reckless actions as attacking Russian strategic nuclear forces. As I have said, that attack should scare the world to death.
Use it or Lose It
Gilbert Doctorow
https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/more-on-use-it-or-lose-it
I note with some satisfaction that my last two essays questioning Vladimir Putin’s ‘softly, softly’ approach to conduct of the war in Ukraine attracted particular support from the Community. In what follows, I intend to take this logic one big step further for the sake of argument. Let us do what Herman Kahn famously proposed in his controversial book of 1962 and think about the unthinkable.
I do this in the knowledge that a fair percentage of readers in Alternative Media, including this web platform, may be pacifist minded. My intention is not to offend them, but to allow them to consider other positions on how this war can be prosecuted to bring it to a close sooner rather than later and to spare the lives of combatants and civilians on both sides of the conflict. All the while, my first concern is to avoid escalation to nuclear exchanges, which is what the Community surely believes to be the underlying motive of Putin’s ‘softly, softly’ approach.
In a world of demented politicians occupying highest office, as in the case of Joe Biden, assisted by wholly irresponsible, insane assistants like Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken, ‘softly, softly’ may have made sense. In a world dominated by Realists like Donald Trump it no longer makes sense.
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As readers of yesterday’s essay here will be aware, the Russian government is presently pretending that the attack by Ukrainian drones on its strategic bombers last weekend never happened. Mr. Putin spoke about the Ukrainian attempts to sabotage the peace talks the day before they were scheduled to resume in Istanbul on 2 June by staging terror attacks on civilian rail infrastructure in the Kursk and Bryansk oblasts. This allowed him to attach the ‘state supported terror’ label to the Kiev regime and to prepare the world community for a possible decapitating strike some time in the future. But in time present, Russia’s response to the attacks of last weekend were just more of the same destruction it has rained down on Ukrainian drone manufacturing facilities, design offices and arms caches over the past year or more, all without any apparent effect on the intensity of Ukrainian drone counter-strikes on civilian targets within the Russian Federation, not to mention Ukrainian sabotage by paid agents inside Russia.
The only indirect Russian response to the Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia’s heavy nuclear capable bombers in air bases across the Federation was the seemingly offhand remark by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ryabkov during this past week that it is unlikely there will be any renewal of the New START treaty which mandated the vulnerable stationing of Russian bombers out in the open when that treaty expires early next year.
The logic of Putin’s conduct of the war has been to minimize casualties among Russian soldiers. That prioritization has dictated against Russia’s staging any further storming of Ukrainian fortified cities such as was practiced in the first year of the war in the capture of Mariupol and Bakhmut. Though Russian forces have been advancing steadily along the entire 1200 km Donbas front for many months now, the big summer offensive that Western military commentators are talking about is unlikely to happen precisely because such offensives normally result in much higher casualties on the attacking side than in the defending side and the Kremlin does not want to reverse its overall advantage in casualties incurred till now, which may be reckoned at 7:1 or better.
Let us be clear eyed: this laudable concern for its soldiery results not only from humane considerations. I believe that uppermost are political considerations. Russia today is not the USSR in 1942. It is a democracy, not an iron-fisted, murderous dictatorship and it is responsive to the wishes of its citizenry, who do not want to lose vast numbers of men on the battlefield for the sake of national interests.
The Kremlin is sticking to its plan of a slow war of attrition that has played out reasonably well till now. However, this war of attrition has not brought Ukraine to the point of capitulation, which is the fundamental precondition for their agreeing to the peace terms set out in the Memorandum that the Russian delegation handed over to the Ukrainians a week ago in Istanbul and made available publicly by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since then.
Considering the size of Ukraine and of its population; considering the residual military aid it may yet receive from friends around the world even if the USA steps aside; considering the hatred of moskali (pejorative for Russians) in the broad Ukrainian population that the past decade of intense U.S.-paid propaganda has fanned – the naturally arrived at point of capitulation by Kiev is unforeseeable, even if many, myself included, have suggested it could come soon. Supporting this view are the videos of Russia’s war correspondents speaking to front-line soldiers, especially those manning artillery or tanks shown on Russian state television daily: these soldiers are constantly moving positions to stand clear of incoming artillery and drone strikes coming within minutes of what they themselves are firing. This means that the Ukrainian forces are not fleeing the battlefield but are staying and fighting with deadly effect. Regrettably I do not see any of this reflected in the commentaries of my peers.
*****
During the first Istanbul face to face meeting of Russian and Ukrainian peace negotiators, the head of the Russian delegation Medinsky pointed out that Russia is ready to continue the fight with Ukraine to complete victory however long that takes and he made reference to the Great Northern War with Sweden conducted to victory by Peter the Great…over the course of 21 years.
Twenty-one years!
However, the logic of this argument does not hold. As I said long ago, Vladimir Putin launched the Special Military Operation in February 2022 because he and his advisors saw a window of opportunity to end the military build-up of Ukraine and its planned accession to NATO. The window of opportunity was defined by Russia’s having reached a new plateau in development and first deployment of cutting-edge strategic weapons systems giving it an edge of perhaps five years over the United States. It was also defined by the way the economy had been made sanctions proof since 2014.
This window of opportunity would close within five years as the USA caught up in strategic weapons and as Putin’s holding center stage in Russian politics comes to an end for natural reasons of health, life longevity and so on.
In the meantime, the war itself has created new ‘sell by dates’ on its continuation. The rise to power of Donald Trump has pointed to the possible withdrawal of US military support for Europe under NATO, all of which has empowered those voices in Brussels calling for a big expansion of military production and expansion of military budgets in Europe. It is now conceivable that Europe will pose a serious threat to Russia in conventional warfare within a five-year time horizon unless Russia scores a military victory in Ukraine soon, compelling a capitulation not only in Kiev leading to the country’s neutrality but also capitulation in Brussels and Washington leading to negotiations redrawing the European security architecture and bringing Russia in from the cold.
If Mr. Putin genuinely wants to save the lives of his soldiers and of his civilians then he should end the war conclusively and dramatically right now. This, I believe, is well within his power if he has the will and the vision to act as the situation requires.
As I suggested a couple of days ago, an Oreshnik strike on the headquarters of Ukrainian terror operations headed by Kyrylo Budanov in downtown Kiev would seriously curtail if not completely shut down the terror dimension of Ukraine’s fight against Russia. Why wait?
An Oreshnik strike on wherever in Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and his closest advisors happen to be would free up Ukrainian politics for a genuine move towards peace talks as opposed to the charade we see today.
But why stop there? It is widely assumed that the leading country in the West promoting delivery of a humiliating defeat on Russia and the country’s subjugation is the United Kingdom. It is widely assumed that the planners and likely help-mates to the Ukrainians in their implementation of Operation Spider Web last weekend were the Brits.
Accordingly, I believe that the best response to the attack on the Russian nuclear triad of last weekend would be for Russia to quietly sink a couple of British nuclear submarines.
Who would back Britain in a retaliatory strike against Russia? No one! Mr. Trump is not going to put the entire USA under threat of instantaneous destruction from unstoppable Russian missiles by rising to the defense of Mr, Keir Starmer and his warmonger ministers.
To those who fear for Mr. Putin, who admire his saintly forbearance, I repeat the bit of folk wisdom I received from my boss in a multinational corporation back in the 1980s: the cemeteries are filled with irreplaceable people.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2025
Further comment by PCR:
An alternative to Doctorow’s view that “the logic of Putin’s conduct of the war has been to minimize casualties among Russian soldiers” is that Putin, having foolishly relied on the Minsk Agreement that was used to deceive him was not prepared for the conflict that Washington forced upon him. Therefore, the Russian intervention had to be restricted to clearing Ukrainian forces from the independent Donbas republics. Having been trapped into a limited response, Putin was kept in the trap by Western accusations that he had “invaded Ukraine” and would go on from there to Western Europe. If Putin finally mobilized sufficient forces to destroy resistance, the West would find its prediction confirmed and unite to enter the conflict. Thus was Putin trapped in his “Special Military Operation.”
Fearful of an expanded conflict, Putin’s failure to respond to provocations and to enforce his red lines has expanded the conflict into attacks on Russia’s nuclear triad, and Putin side-stepped reality again. The consequences of Putin’s acceptance of provocations is his lack of credibility. The West does not believe that he will really fight. This belief, reinforced by Putin’s behavior, will result in a provocation that cannot be ignored, and WW III will begin.
Doctorow is correct that the only way to avoid a real war is for Putin to quickly produce an overwhelming Russian victory that completely removes Ukraine from the conflict and sends a believable message to the West. This can be done with conventional weapons. At the moment Putin’s non-action has eviscerated the credibility of Russia’s war doctrine.
Will Putin end the conflict with victory, or will he condemn the world to war?
I seldom see intelligent and relevant analysis from Russian commentators . Whether this reflects censorship or a misunderstanding of events I do not know. The Western foreign policy community simply repeats official narratives.
Petri dishes and notes found in intercepted packages that Chinese researcher Han Chengxuan allegedly smuggled into the United States. Department of Justice
Francis Chung/POLITICO 
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