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During the last five decades it is estimated that 65+ Million babies have been slaughtered throughout the United States, the great majority of these surgeries took place at Planned Parenthood Clinics.  Over 20 Million were dead black babies, just as its founder, Margaret Sanger, had planned.  [Blacks are only 13% of the US population.]  Under Roe v. Wade such clinics were legal in all 50 states, and, with some exceptions, slaughtering full-term babies who were in the process of coming down the birth canal was also legal.

Following the Dobbs v. Jackson decision handed down by the US Supreme Court in June 2022, the legislatures of each state decideing when a pregnancy can legally be terminated.  Thus, Planned Parenthood, Inc. is seeing fewer & fewer abortion clients in many of their clinics.  To keep the money rolling in, their executives rich, their employees employed and the savagery continuing, they have adopted a new marketing plan: mutilating* the perfect bodies of “older babies.”

TARGETING EIGHT-YEAR-OLDS, CREATING LIFELONG PATIENTS

In its cartoon ad, designed for children, not for adults, Planned Parenthood is telling pre-teens and teens that they can change their bodies at whim.  The ad lies when it claims that puberty blocking drugs are safe and they can be used “like a stop sign” to halt puberty.

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“There are medicines you can take to delay puberty for a while, they’re called puberty blockers and they work like a stop sign.”  “Puberty blockers are safe and can give you more time to figure out what feels right for your body and your gender identity.”

The ad pushes the gender ideology scam as it pushes puberty blockers AND surgical mutilation: “some people decide on hormones or surgeries to help their body match up to their gender identity.”

Planned Parenthood’s website claims, “Your gender identity is real, and there are medical treatments you can use to help your body better reflect who you are.”  It specifically cites leuprolide acetate, AKA Lupron, as a drug that is used to block puberty.  Lupron has been used to chemically castrate sex offenders.

Children who are abused in this fashion will need medical care THEIR ENTIRE LIVES. They will never be able to live a full life without continual medical assistance. They will have Planned Parenthood on speed dial. Money, it is all about money, for the ghouls who abuse children this way.

DESTROYING A WHOLE GENERATION

This is a horrible time to be a child even IF he/she makes it out of the womb.  Democrat policies have dummied down public school education for decades, depriving children of their full potential. Democrat-run states are teaching school children to hate each other based upon skin hue, robbing them of their self-respect. For the last decade, the Dems have been USING TAX DOLLARS, to destroy children’s very souls.

President Trump is taking steps to protect children: PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM CHEMICAL AND SURGICAL MUTILATION

Planned Parenthood was recently caught giving 16-year-olds cross-six hormones behind their parents’ backs, without examination by competent doctors and without short or long term follow up by competent doctors. This exposé starts at the 2-minute mark of Matt Walsh’s podcast.

*I am using the term “mutilate” when referring to puberty blockers because, even though body parts are not being cut off or cut out YET, this patient’s body will not develop naturally, leading to medical problems his/her entire life.

^Even after Roe v. Wade was overturned, Planned Parenthood managed to slaughter 402,200 babies in 2023 and 2024.

LifeNews Note: The author, Diane L. Gruber, is a First Amendment advocate who writes for Substack. She calls her Substack newsletter America First Re-Ignited. Reprinted with permission form AFNN. 

The post Planned Parenthood: From Slaughtering Babies To Mutilating Middle-Schoolers appeared first on LifeNews.com.

The only certainties in this world, a famous quip says, are death and taxes. No group in America weds the two like Planned Parenthood. The indisputable head of the abortion industry, they boast of more than 400,000 abortions a year – at least ten times the capacity of Times Square. And they do it while raking in nearly 40% of their $2 billion in income from taxpayers.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act that just passed the House of Representatives is the best opportunity to stop forced taxpayer funding of Big Abortion since 2017, when a similar effort fell short by one vote. As the Republican majority works through budget reconciliation, all the Democrats’ old lies are re-emerging: “Women will lose critical health care.” “Planned Parenthood does more than abortion.” More than ever, they fall flat.

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For the longest time, it seemed certain Planned Parenthood was “too big to fail” and politically untouchable. At over a century old, they’ve outlived scandal after scandal: multi-million-dollar payouts to settle Medicaid fraud charges. Dozens of employee lawsuits alleging racial discrimination. Their eugenics-driven foundress, Margaret Sanger, getting cast under the bus during 2020’s summer of unrest. Even – horrific as it is – the revelation of their selling freshly harvested organs of aborted babies for thousands of dollars apiece in incentives.

The abortion giant not only survived – the subsidies taxpayers were forced to pay increased to more than $700 million, including about half a billion from Medicaid.

They’ve survived in part by grossly exaggerating their importance as a health care provider of last resort for poor women – for instance, allowing the public to think they provide mammograms (they never have). They cling to this fiction as a shield, even while their own reports show massive declines in everything from contraception to pap smears. Except abortions, of course. Those are at record level. When a pregnant woman enters Planned Parenthood looking for help, 97% of the time she is sold an abortion, rather than supported in parenting or planning for adoption.

Now, a new analysis by the Charlotte Lozier Institute estimates community health centers offering women’s health care outnumber Planned Parenthood locations (in-person and virtual) 15 to one nationwide. These include 5,500 federally qualified health centers, which provide comprehensive health care services to low-income and underserved populations, and 3,300 rural health clinics serving Medicaid and Medicare patients in areas particularly vulnerable to care shortages. That’s on top of thousands of pregnancy resource centers that provide free baby supplies, education and assistance.

Women have real choices. Community health centers are vastly more available than Planned Parenthood, and more women choose them already. When Medicaid patients choose these centers, Medicaid dollars stay with them.

At last, scandal-plagued Planned Parenthood is poised to collapse under its many detriments. The New York Times, no pro-life outlet, acknowledged Planned Parenthood botches procedures and subjects patients to inhuman treatment. In one case, sewage was allowed to leak into a recovery room for days. NPR highlighted “dysfunction” between rank-and-file employees and management, with one former employee stating she was repeatedly expected to break protocol to assist surgical abortions despite being the sole nurse on duty.

Moreover, billions of dollars in donations go not to fix their appalling conditions, but to fund the organization’s constant litigation and political activism. OpenSecrets found Planned Parenthood spends more to lobby the federal government than any group on either side of the abortion issue. Supposedly in a financial crisis, they’ve just taken out a full-page ad in The New York Times – the outlet they feel betrayed them – signed by some of the richest people in America.

But the media won’t save them. The courts won’t bail them out. Even Gavin Newsom is cutting them off.

Enter a new administration focused on rooting out waste and fraud. In March, the Trump administration halted millions in Title X funds to Planned Parenthood, citing a review of their DEI policies. In any case, millions of Americans strongly reject abortion as “family planning.” Groups that treat it as such aren’t entitled to tax dollars. The freeze is already having an effect as Planned Parenthood centers shutter across the country. Only Congress can tackle mandatory Medicaid spending, however.

Some say we’re tilting at windmills, since the Hyde Amendment prohibits federal funding of elective abortions. Because money is fungible, this is like claiming subsidies to McDonald’s Corporation wouldn’t underwrite hamburger sales. It’s rich coming from Democrats in Washington, some of whom used to support the life-saving Hyde Amendment but virtually all of whom despise it today. Even occasional Republicans, making anonymous, uninformed statements to the media, miss this key point. Fortunately, they are a minority; the pro-life movement is united to defund Big Abortion, as is the GOP with leaders like Speaker Johnson and Leader Thune.

Defunding Big Abortion is a win-win for fiscal hawks and patients. With 70% of voters concerned about wasteful spending, there can be no more excuses for forcing such a terrible investment on taxpayers. This is the new certainty: Planned Parenthood’s gravy train must end.

Have courage, Senate Republicans. Women deserve better than shoddy and shrinking care. They won’t miss the smell of sewage. It’s time to expose the Democrats, not only as patronizing and hypocritical but radically blind to the harm to women and children.

LifeNews Note: Marjorie Dannenfelser is president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

The post Senate Republicans Must Defund Planned Parenthood appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel sparked controversy Sunday by defending Planned Parenthood, describing how it kills babies in abortions as “life-saving work” while criticizing Republican efforts to defund the radically pro-abortion organization.

The comments, made on his BlueSky account, come as Congress debates the “Big Beautiful Budget Bill,” which includes provisions to strip federal funding from the nation’s largest abortion company.

Kimmel, host of Disney-owned ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” urged his followers to oppose the pro-life budget cuts, writing, “Donald Trump’s BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL wants to defund Planned Parenthood and leave more than a million patients without access to care. Call your Senators to let them know you support the life-saving work they do. #IFightForPP.”

The post echoed Democrat talking points, framing Planned Parenthood killing babies in abortions as essential healthcare. Calling the termination of unborn children ‘life-saving’ is a grotesque misrepresentation. Planned Parenthood’s business model relies heavily on abortion, not healthcare. It performs less than 1% of the nation’s Pap tests and no mammograms, yet it’s responsible for over a third of U.S. abortions.

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Pro-life advocates on X swiftly condemned Kimmel’s remarks, arguing that abortion ends lives rather than saves them.

Its own recent annual report found Planned Parenthood’s non-abortion services, like cancer screenings, have declined significantly while its abortion numbers increase.

The debate over Planned Parenthood’s funding has intensified since the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which returned abortion regulation to the states. The proposed budget bill, backed by President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans, aims to redirect federal funds to community health centers that do not perform abortions. Pro-life leaders argue these centers provide more comprehensive care, including mammograms and prenatal services, which Planned Parenthood does not offer.

Kimmel’s history of advocating for abortion is well-documented.

Earlier this month, he joined pop star Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights” campaign, which promotes killing babies in abortion as a “fundamental right” and labels it healthcare. In 2022, Kimmel used his show to criticize the Senate for rejecting pro-abortion legislation and later slammed the Supreme Court for overturning Roe v. Wade. His latest comments have drawn ire from pro-life groups, who accuse him of ignoring the ethical concerns surrounding Planned Parenthood’s practices.

On X, users expressed outrage over Kimmel’s remarks, with one calling him “an idiot” for equating abortion with life-saving care and another labeling his stance “stupid” for disregarding the pro-life perspective.

The post Jimmy Kimmel Calls Planned Parenthood Killing Babies “LifeSaving Work'” appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 1027 into law on Saturday, a measure that pro-life advocates say strengthens protections for the state’s pro-life abortion ban by reforming the initiative petition process.

The bill, which caps the number of signatures that can be collected from each county for state ballot questions, aims to ensure broader representation across Oklahoma’s 77 counties, particularly amplifying rural voices.

The legislation amends the requirements for state question petitions, setting a signature cap at 10% of voters in counties with populations over 400,000 and 4% in counties with fewer than 400,000 residents. Proponents argue this change prevents urban-dominated petition drives from overriding the will of rural communities, where pro-life sentiment often runs strong.

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The bill’s author, state Sen. David Bullard, emphasized that the previous system allowed petitioners to “ignore 97.5% of the state’s counties,” which he called “corruption.”

Oklahoma’s near-total abortion ban, enacted after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, prohibits abortions except to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest reported to law enforcement. Pro-life groups have praised the state’s leadership in restricting abortion, with Governor Stitt previously signing multiple pro-life bills, including one in 2021 banning abortions after a  heartbeat is detected.

A leading pro-life group told LifeNews it was thankful for Stitt’s signature on the bill and the further protects it affords to the abortion ban, which protects women and unborn children.

“Governor Kevin Stitt signed SB 1027 into law over the weekend, and because the bill has an Emergency Clause, it became effective immediately upon receiving his signature,” said Tony Lauinger of Oklahomans for Life. “Thank you very much to all of you who phoned his office to encourage him to sign the bill. And thanks to all of you who emailed legislators during this monthslong effort.”

“The strengthening of requirements for initiative petitions which SB 1027 provides will help greatly in the looming battle over abortion promoters planned effort to try to force a constitutional right to unlimited abortion on demand on the unborn children of Oklahoma,” he explained.

The new law makes it more challenging for pro-abortion radicals to gather the signatures needed to place a state question on the ballot, a process that could potentially reverse or weaken Oklahoma’s abortion ban. By requiring petition drives to collect signatures from a wider geographic spread, Senate Bill 1027 increases the logistical and financial hurdles for such efforts.

Senate Bill 1027 takes effect immediately, and pro-life advocates are optimistic it will fortify Oklahoma’s position as a leader in protecting unborn life. Meanwhile, opponents are exploring legal challenges, arguing the law restricts democratic participation. As the debate continues, the measure underscores the deep divide over how Oklahomans shape their state’s future through the ballot box.

The post Governor Kevin Stitt Signs Bill Making It Harder to Reverse Oklahoma Abortion Ban appeared first on LifeNews.com.

http://praybenedictus.com

Will the Effort To Restore Equal Treatment Under Law for White Americans Succeed? 

Paul Craig Roberts

In 1995, 30 years ago, Henry Regnery published my book, The New Color Line.  Henry told his son Alfred that my book was the second most important book, after Russell Kirk’s The Conservative Mind, that the publishing house had ever published.

Reviewers agreed. Irving Kristol, the father of the neoconservatives, called attention in The Public Interest  to the important message of my book.  What had happened was the implementation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by the EEOC had overthrown the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, that required equal treatment of the law, by imposing racial quotas, explicitly prohibited in the statutory language of the 1964 CivilRights Act, against whites and in favor of blacks, against males and in favor of females in hiring, promotion, and university admission.  This, of course, made whites and white males into second class citizens under the law as it was enforced by the US Department of Justice and federal courts including the US Supreme Court. This practice of making white Americans second class citizens in law has continued for 60 years.  

Appreciative reviews from both right and left–Judge Robert H. Bork and Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz–attested to the non-ideological, non-partisan straight-shooting content of my book. 

The New York Times Book Review wrote “A forceful and convincing case . . . vividly dramatic.”

The Wall Street Journal said “There are important lessons to learn . . . not least how good intentions can go badly awry.”

The Washington Post said “Roberts and Stratton make a strong case that the civil rights legislation of the 1960s has been distorted beyond recognition.”

I don’t remember any conservative or libertarian magazines taking notice of the book.  Perhaps Regnery’s marketers did not think that endorsements from conservatives would be helpful, or perhaps conservatives saw my book as an assault on America’s virtue–“nothing that Roberts says could happen here!” This is the typical  conservative reply to anything that doesn’t read rah-rah America.

All I know is that Henry Regnery died a year latter in 1996, and with his death the publisher went death on the book.  It took another year of pressure by me to get Alfred to issue a paperback edition, and there was no marketing effort.

Someone told the publishing company to pull the plug on a well reviewed book. And the plug was pulled.  All the information I provided about the assault on  equal rights, was  discarded. The success in deep-sixing the book was so complete that Harmeet Dhillon knows nothing about it, and neither does Tucker Carlson.  They have learned of the problem by living it. https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/05/no_author/the-dojs-assault-on-white-christians-is-worse-than-you-think/ 

So, where are we now after 60 years 0f  EEOC and Justice Department enforcement of illegal discrimination against white American citizens?  

We have Harmeet Dhillon as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice.  Every American, no matter your opinion or how indoctrinated or brainwashed you are from your “education,” should watch Dhillon’s interview with Tucker carlson–https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/05/no_author/the-dojs-assault-on-white-christians-is-worse-than-you-think/ .  You will learn the enormous extent to which racism against white people has been institutionalized.  For example, the black mayor of Chicago said publicly that he only hires blacks for positions of authority.  This seems to also be the policy of New York’s prosecutorial system.

Assistant Attorney General Dhillon reports that she came in as head of a US Justice Department division, that of civil rights, that had worked for decades to establish in law discrimination against white people and against Christians.

She sent correctly written memos to the 400 career lawyers and 200 staff under her in the Civil Rights Division specifying what the laws say, for which the Civil Rights Division was created to enforce, and told them that she required that the laws as written be enforced.

The result was organized “unhappy hours” and “struggle sessions” when 600 Justice Department employees complained  about the interference with their mission to elevate blacks above whites to make up for past alleged discrimination by whites against blacks.  These protests were followed by “Crying Sessions” in which 30, 40, 50 year old white civil rights attorneys literally cried on one another’s shoulders that the evil new Trump regime was preventing them from imposing “racial justice” on white people by discriminating against them to make up for past discrimination. 

Assistant Attorney General Dhillon says that in the US Justice Department “Racism against white people is institutionalized.” 

Dear fellow American, try to put yourself into the situation. Here are 400 career attorneys who are so upset that they are going to be prohibited from discriminating against white American citizens that 200 of them to show their support for privileges for “people of color” organized  themselves as a phalanx and marched together out of the  Justice Department in resignation as protest against the law’s requirement of equal treatment under US Law. These indoctrinated Justice Department attorneys are the products off American’s most prestigious law schools,  which are in fact anti-American indoctrination centers, as are the journalism schools and most university departments.

Tell me MAGA-Americans how President Trump with only a few appointees is going to govern  the vast anti-white government bureaucracy that numbers as of November 2024 over 3 million employees. https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-people-work-for-the-federal-government/

Systemic discrimination against white Americans is so institutionalized in America that privilege for non-whites has become a squatters’ right protected in  federal court decisions, including those of the US Supreme Court.  We have reached the point that federal judges are doing their best to give the rights of American citizenship to immigrant-invaders who have entered the US illegally.  American citizenship is meaningless if it can be acquired simply by illegally entering the country. Moreover, as immigrant-invaders are people of color their rights under a DEI Democrat regime will exceed those of white American citizens.

Americans have sat there, paying no attention, watching football games, shopping online, following  “celebrities,” while their  country was stolen from them.  They cannot get it back except through violent revolution for which they have no stomach.

It is unclear how long any rights protected by the Constitution will exist.  If the 14th Amendment can be ignored for 60 years, so can the entirety of the Bill of Rights.  It is entirely possible that the Democrats will steal the mid-term elections, impeach Trump, and prosecute him, his government and his supporters and impose tyranny in order to establish a DEI society of unequal rights based on race and gender.  Such a  society is the Democrat agenda. Until the arrival of Harmeet Dhillon the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice was committed to it.

Over the last seven days the Ukrainian military has launched over one thousand drones against targets in Russia. Most of these were shot down by Russian air defenses. There are no reports of any serious damage.

The biggest effect the week long drone attacks achieved was to shut down air traffic in Moscow for several hours.

After waiting a few days the Russian military responded in kind.

Over the last three days a record number of drones and missiles were launched against military installations and production facilities in Ukraine (archived):

Russia stepped up missile-and-drone assaults on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and other regions, killing at least 12 people overnight into Sunday after President Trump last week declined to impose further sanctions on Moscow over its refusal to halt its invasion.

Russia attacked with a total of 367 drones and missiles—one of the largest single-night raids of the war, according to the Ukrainian Air Force—in a second consecutive day of pounding strikes that sent civilians running for shelters in the middle of the night.

Over three days the Russian forces used some 1,000 heavy drones plus 58 cruise- and 31 ballistic-missiles to attack Ukraine.

The Russian attacks are overwhelming (archived) the western provided air defenses:

A YEAR AGO, for 30 drones to strike Ukraine in a single night was considered exceptional. Now Russia is saturating Ukraine’s air defences with hundreds of them. On May 25th the Kremlin pummelled the country, with what it called a “massive strike” against Ukrainian cities, featuring 298 drones, probably a record.

Russia is using more missiles, too: 69 were fired on the same night. As a result, Ukraine is once again stepping into the unknown. If the current ceasefire talks fail, which seems highly probable, air-defence units will need to ration their interceptors. More Russian missiles and drones will get through, to strike towns, cities and critical industry.
…
Last year the Kremlin was producing around 300 Shahed drones a month; the same number now rolls out in under three days. Ukrainian military intelligence says it has documents that suggest that Russia plans to increase its drone production to 500 a day, suggesting that attack swarms of 1,000 could become a reality.

The Russian forces are now using the sixth iteration of the Shahed drones. These now carry a 90 kilogram explosive load, fly much higher than previously and are less sensitive to electronic countermeasures (machine translation):

The tactics of using “Shahids” are also changing.

‘Now their UAVs are attacking in swarms. Before the attack, ten or fifteen “Shaheds” cut several circles at a distance from the target, at a great distance and altitude of up to four thousand meters, actually out of the zone of destruction of our air defense. Then the “Shaheds” attack targets, diving from a high altitude. At the same time, they are clearly controlled remotely, which indicates that the UAVs are equipped with EW-protected communication complexes with command posts. Because of the new tactics, the effectiveness of eliminating enemy UAVs by means of our air defense systems is sharply reduced, ‘ said officer N., who serves in the Air Defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

To be more terrifying Shahid drones now have the wailing sound (1st vid) of Stuka sirens attached to them.

Number of Shahed drones launched against Ukraine
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While the drones keep the air defenses busy ballistic missiles and cruise missiles push through.

Ukraine has reportedly eight Patriot missile systems which cover the capital Kiev. (On Saturday at least one (2nd vid) was destroyed in a Russian attack.)

Ammunition for Patriot air defenses are running out:

Lockheed Martin, which builds the Patriot systems and their PAC-3s, is increasing its output to 650 missiles per year. But this is about 100 fewer than projected Russian production of ballistic missiles, with a Ukraine government source estimating the Kremlin has a 500-missile stockpile. It usually takes two PAC-3 interceptor missiles to intercept a Russian ballistic missile.

Supplies for other air defense systems have also run dry (archived):

The growing number of projectiles; their diversity (drones, cruise and ballistic missiles); and the complexity of their flight paths are overwhelming Ukraine’s air defense capabilities. In 2024, Ukraine managed to mitigate damage by implementing a multi-layered system combining numerous light mobile units equipped with anti-aircraft guns, medium and long-range missile batteries, helicopters, fighter jets and a network of jammers spoofing satellite coordinates received by incoming projectiles. In 2024, the destruction or diversion rate for Shahed drones often exceeded 90%. That is no longer the case; today, the rate sometimes drops to 30%.
…

A source told Le Monde that Ukraine no longer has missiles for its two SAMP/T batteries and “has not received a single missile in a year and a half” for the short-range Crotale air defense system.
…
‘We are running out of missiles,’ said Ihnat. ‘There are several Patriot divisions around Kyiv. But they cannot provide 100% protection against ballistic missiles. One battery only covers a radius of 25 kilometers. The Russians have found countermeasures: Iskander missiles perform evasive maneuvers in the final phase, avoiding the Patriot’s trajectory calculations. In addition, the Iskander can release decoys capable of fooling Patriot missiles.’

The relentless improvement of weapons and tactics has given rise to a breathless duel between sword and shield. The sword clearly has the upper hand today. Under attack, Ukraine has responded by ramping up its own aerial campaign against Russia, currently launching over 100 drones per night. The escalation appears inexorable.

It is an escalation which the Ukraine has no chance to win.

But there are still propagandists who claim to differ (archived):

Russia’s battlefield strength in Ukraine has started to wane and it could run into serious shortages of manpower and weaponry by next year, even as President Donald Trump retreats from pressure on Moscow to end the war, according to senior U.S. and European officials and military experts.

These reports border on being laughable (archived):

When Russia failed to deliver a knock-out blow in 2022 and to split Ukraine down the middle, Putin had a choice between a reduced war and a war on civilians across Ukraine. He went with the war against civilians—not to be seen as backtracking and to compel Ukrainians to surrender. This decision also backfired. The brutality of the Russian occupation coupled with countless assaults on civilians and civilian .

However, no numbers to support such statements are ever delivered.

As of end of April the UN reported some 13,000 killed civilians killed in Ukraine during more than three years of war.

During a night in which Russia fires more than 350 drones and ballistic missiles while Ukraine uses all air defenses it has against those, a loss of 12 civilians, as reported yesterday, is tragic but a very, very low rate.

In July 1943 the U.S. and Britain launched a week long air raid on the city I live in. Some 50,000 died and 200,000 were wounded; half of its houses burned down.

It shows how ridiculous claims like these are:

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The picture General Kellogg attached to demonstrated the claimed “indiscriminate killing of women and children at night” shows the burning Antonov aircraft manufacturing facility in Kiev which was hit Friday night. The facility had been used to produce fixed wing drones for the Ukrainian military.

At the front line Russian troops use first-person-view (FPV) drone directed through fiber wire and thus insensitive to electronic counter measures. Up to 40 kilometers behind the front line Russian drones, controlled through flying radio relay station, manage to harass Ukrainian logistics. Beyond that long range drones, like the Shaheds, engage industrial targets in swarm attacks.

There are also more and more specialized drones to drop bombs or mines. Others, flying high, are used for reconnaissance and to direct artillery. Still others are launched (vid) to directly attack incoming enemy drones.

A Ukrainian soldier describes the consequences (machine translation):

“Meat assaults, when the Russians threw their own into frontal attacks on our positions without the support of drones, although still sometimes occur, but less and less often. Now the assaults mostly start in a different way. First, the Russians launch reconnaissance drones. Then our positions are bombarded with KAB and tightly covered with artillery. Then the Russians immediately lift into the air shock FPV drones, which accurately crumble everything that is left to move after the shelling. They have more and more fiber-based attack drones, which are not hindered by any anti-drone means. And only after that they throw assault groups of 4-5 soldiers on motorcycles and ATVs, or just on foot, whose task is to get to our strongpoints and clear the positions. At the same time, if a year ago we had a clear advantage in UAVs, now we have at least parity, and in some areas the Russian Federation has a very significant advantage. Especially worryingly, the range of strikes is increasing. Drones are already hitting for several tens of kilometers, destroying our logistics in entire directions, ” says UAV platoon sergeant K.

Over the last weeks Russia has introduced several drone innovations. It has increased their production to never before seen levels. It is unlikely to stop here.

Anyone who thinks of countering it should consider where Russian drone capabilities will be next year and beyond.

Reprinted with permission from Moon of Alabama.

Folks who believe the current political atmosphere is uniquely hateful have forgotten the boundless vitriol prevailing a few decades ago. During the George W. Bush administration, Republicans relied on push-button rage to suppress all criticism of the war on terror. After I appeared on a 2006 Fox News panel and criticized the Bush administration’s secret illegal financial surveillance regime, I was peppered with hostile emails including this gem: “Every know-nothing lying jackass like you should be rounded up and gassed with the Iraqi poison gas that does not exist according to you.”

I’ve never enjoyed poison gas so I eschewed following that suggestion. Unfortunately, most media outlets remained reticent about publishing frontal attacks on President Bush’s most outrageous policies. So, with a hat tip to Monty Python and Jonathan Swift, I sought to satirize my seditious thoughts into print.

On August 27, 2006, the Los Angeles Times ran my “Modest Proposal: Coerce Congress to Tell the Truth.” That piece was accepted and deftly edited by assistant op-ed editor Matt Welch, who is now the Editor at Large for Reason Magazine. Following is a tweaked version of that piece.

What about Congress?

Do Americans deserve the truth about their members of Congress? If so, citizens should be entitled to use the most advanced fact-finding methods approved by the US government.

Many people are unaware of the revolutions sweeping American jurisprudence. In June, the Supreme Court condemned the Bush administration’s torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and declared that the president is “bound to comply with the Rule of Law.” The Bush White House was outraged and is browbeating Congress to enact legislation overturning that court ruling and unleashing its interrogators.

Last month, Assistant Attorney General Steven Bradbury notified Congress that the administration seeks to use “coerced confessions” in military tribunals at the Cuba base. Bradbury stressed that “there are gradations of coercion much lower than torture.” Those “gradations” veered away from a 400-year trendline against using brute force to determine facts in judicial proceedings.

Congress will likely pass Bush’s Enemy Combatant Military Commissions Act, approving heavy-handed measures to get the truth from people suspected of bad things. Under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, American citizens should be permitted to use the same methods to pry the truth out of their congressmen, many of whom are also suspected of bad things.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has approved a dozen extreme interrogation methods previously banned by the Pentagon, including hooding, forced nudity, and exploiting fear of dogs. When photos from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq leaked out in 2004, Sen. James Inhofe proclaimed that he was more “outraged by the outrage” than by the pictures of detainees forced to pile into a naked pyramid and a US Army private female dragging a naked Iraqi guy wearing a dog collar.

Inhofe should be blindfolded, put in a straitjacket, and left in a room full of crazed chihuahuas until he explains why the US military should not be constrained to follow the Anti-Torture Act of 1996.

The most iconic Abu Ghraib photo showed an Iraqi man covered in a shroud, standing on a box, with wires attached to his body as if he were awaiting electrocution. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist spearheaded the coverup of the CIA’s use of secret prisons that pummeled detainees. Frist could be similarly wired and attired and compelled to balance atop a rickety box until he explains why he believes the Geneva Convention prohibition on making detainees “disappear” is null and void.

Exposure to extreme cold is another favorite tactic for US interrogators, despite occasional detainee deaths from hypothermia. Sen. Joe Lieberman has been the biggest Democratic apologist for Abu Ghraib in the Senate. He could be strapped to a block of ice until he explains how scandals over Bush’s torture regime helps the US win hearts and minds in the Muslim world.

But if you really want the whole truth and nothing but the truth, then you can’t go wrong by replicating the Spanish Inquisition. Waterboarding involves strapping a person to a board and pouring water down their throat and over their nostrils to make them feel like they are drowning. CIA Director Porter Goss assured Congress that waterboarding is a “professional interrogation method,” not torture. CIA agents proved their professionalism by waterboarding one detainee more than 80 times—and didn’t kill him once.

Citizens should be permitted to bring splintery planks, leather straps, and water tanks to interrogate any member of Congress who denies the Iraq war is becoming a debacle. Any public interrogations of elected representatives should strictly follow the same rules that Bush proposes for military tribunals. Anyone could make anonymous accusations against a member of Congress, and no representative would be allowed to see or cross-examine their detractors. Secret evidence would be allowed but only if it incriminated the accused. Medical doctors would be on hand for any interrogation, ready to formally certify that any resulting fatalities were accidental.

Some people may object that giving Gitmo-style equal treatment to members of Congress could tarnish the dignity of democracy. But that is rather quaint, considering all the outrageous tactics that Congress has already rubber-stamped for Bush’s war on terror. Besides, no one is forcing politicians to approve the use of coerced confessions for everyone else in the world. They still have time to avoid reaping what they sow.

No Shame on Capitol Hill

My mockery failed to shame Congress into decency. In the following weeks, legislators rushed to approve Bush’s barbaric interrogation wish-list. The Boston Globe reported that “because of the Bush administration’s restrictive policy on sharing classified information with Congress, very few of the people engaged in the debate will know what they’re talking about.” Fewer than 50 members of Congress knew what actual interrogation methods were being debated. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)—Trump’s first attorney general—boasted, “I don’t know what the CIA has been doing, nor should I know.” Legal analyst Dahlia Lithwick declared, “We’ve reached a defining moment in our democracy when our elected officials are celebrating their own blind ignorance as a means of keeping the rest of us blindly ignorant as well.”

On September 30, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act (MCA), retroactively legalizing torture that occurred prior to December 30, 2005. The act also blocked torture victims from suing the US government. In the weeks before the midterm elections, the Republican Party vilified any Democratic member of Congress who failed to vote for the MCA as a terrorist lover. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill) claimed that Democrats who opposed the MCA had “voted in favor of new rights for terrorists.” Hastert’s cachet suffered after a federal judge condemned him as a “serial child molester” and sent him to prison for bank fraud.

Shortly after the MCA was signed, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced that there was no such thing as habeas corpus rights for American citizens. Gonzales previously declared that President Bush enjoyed a “commander-in-chief override” regarding laws prohibiting torture.

The following year, the New York Times published classified documents revealing that the Bush torture program explicitly imitated Soviet interrogation methods from the Cold War, including manacling detainees in painful poses for long periods and pummeling them into submission. Gen. Barry McCaffrey complained, “We tortured people unmercifully. We probably murdered dozens of them during the course of that, both the armed forces and the CIA.” But shortly after Barack Obama became president, he effectively issued a blanket pardon for all US government torturers and torture policymakers (this means you, Dick Cheney).

In 2014, the Senate Intelligence Committee finally released a 600-page summary of its report on the CIA torture regime. CIA abuses included death resulting from hypothermia, rape-like rectal feeding of detainees, compelling detainees to stand long periods on broken legs, and thrashing them to stay awake for seven days and nights straight. In some cases, interrogators didn’t know the language of the person they were questioning so they compensated by beating the hell out of them. Psychologists aided the torture regime, offering hints on how to destroy the will and resistance of prisoners. Many detainees were innocent but that didn’t save their skin.

Ironically, after all the shocking disclosures about the Bush-era torture regime, some people still consider my 2006 Los Angeles Times satire to be in bad taste. Instead, plenty of folks likely agree with the conclusion of the Iraqi poison gas email dude: “The reason this country is so screwed up is because of arrogant liberal bastards like you who think they are just so much smarter than anyone else…. Your whole pathetic agenda is to attack the president. I think it is time for you to commit yourself you need serious help.”

Reprinted with permission from Mises.org.

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