Distinction Matter - Subscribed Feeds

  1. Site: OnePeterFive
    1 day 16 hours ago
    Author: Pope St. Gregory the Great
    christ king original sin

    From the Roman office. ℣. Grant, Lord, a blessing. Benediction. May God the Father Omnipotent, be to us merciful and clement. ℟. Amen. Reading 4 From the Sermons of St. Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa. Discourse on the Lords Ascension. The very thought of this day’s Festival is great enough in itself, but the Prophet David hath much inflamed our joyful enthusiasm by the Psalms.

    Source

  2. Site: Mises Institute
    1 day 17 hours ago
    Author: Antony P. Mueller
    While President Trump rails against US trade deficits, he forgets that they are due to the fact that the US dollar is the world‘s reserve currency. This, in turn, encourages deficit spending and a bloated national debt.
  3. Site: Catholic Conclave
    1 day 17 hours ago
    The Catholic Church is building a new parish and community center on Bassinplatz in Potsdam's city center, costing approximately €7.2 million. The Archdiocese of Berlin announced this on Monday. The building is scheduled for completion by early 2028.The new building is being built on a plot of approximately 650 square meters on Gutenbergstrasse, where a historic Dutch house previously stood.The Catholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
  4. Site: Novus Motus Liturgicus
    1 day 17 hours ago
    The author of this series wishes to remain anonymous. He is an experienced master of ceremonies and chanter, intimately familiar with both the 1962 rubrics and the pre-1939 rubrics in ordinary parish contexts.In the summer of 2022, almost as if to mark as well as the first anniversary of the lamentable papal motu proprio, Paul Cavendish and Peter Kwasniewski collaborated to produce and publish a Peter Kwasniewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02068005370670549612noreply@blogger.com0
  5. Site: Zero Hedge
    1 day 17 hours ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    Nvidia's Revenue Pipeline Tops $1 Trillion, UBS Tells Clients

    Following Nvidia's better-than-expected earnings report last Wednesday, UBS analysts were inundated with investor inquiries, primarily focused on the chipmaker's near-term growth visibility and the durability of its long-term revenue pipeline.

    Below, UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri addressed the most frequently asked questions, unpacked key commentary from the earnings call, and provided expanded visibility into a multi-year AI infrastructure boom.

    Visibility to data center revenue doubling yet again?

    An area where we have received a few investor inbounds, but still seems somewhat overlooked is NVDA's commentary on its pipeline. The company noted on its FQ1:26 earnings call that it has visibility into "tens of gigawatts" of AI infrastructure projects in the "not too distant future". Assuming a "low case" pipeline of 20GW and NVDA's stated range of ~$40-50B per GW, this puts its total revenue opportunity for this pipeline at a minium of ~$1T. While the company did not specify a timeframe for this pipeline, based on our conversations, we believe these projects are likely to be rolled out over a 2-3 year period. Using the average of this timeframe, this suggests the company may effectively have "visibility" to ~$400B/yr in data center revenue, or about 2x our $233B data center revenue estimate for C2026. This is obviously very heady, but we did note in UBS' deep dive on OpenAI's Abilene AI Factory that Crusoe alone has ~20GW in project pipeline and this is just one digital infrastructure project developer. The upshot of this is that we believe investor concerns around growth sustainability should be allayed by some of this commentary from the earnings call.

    The math around the rack numbers given on the call

    One of the main investor questions we got coming out of the call was what NVDA was trying to imply by the GB200 rack numbers it provided on the call - which were so far above conventional wisdom that it spurred some confusion. The company said "on average major hyperscalers are each deploying nearly 1,000 NVL72 racks or 72,000 Blackwell GPUs per week and are on track to further ramp output this quarter". Taken at face value, this implies a GPU run rate of nearly 1MM/Q for each hyperscaler - so far above most consensus estimates that it was hard to foot. Therefore, we believe the company was not trying to communicate a revenue "run-rate" but simply trying to reassure investors that GB200 rack issues are resolved and a large quantity of racks are moving from the ODMs and OEMs now to customers - consistent with our commentary into the call that investor concerns about supply chain inventory were overblown. We would not try to do anything more with these numbers as we think the company meant this to be more illustrative than quantitative.

    NVLink bolsters growth in Networking.

    Networking revenue grew to ~$5B in FQ1:26 (+64% Q/Q), $1B of which NVDA attributed to NVLink revenue which was up substantially Q/Q. We believe this is almost entirely tied to the ramp in shipments of GB200 NVL72 rack scale systems, each of which includes a 72-GPU NVLink domain (vs an up to 8-GPU domain for HGX systems). NVDA is recognizing NVLink revenue separately for these NVL72 systems, which is/was not the case for HGX boards where revenue has been consolidated into the Compute sub-segment of Data Center. As such, we would expect Networking revenue to track more closely to NVL72 rack shipments going forward, albeit maybe with a little bit of a lag.

    Gaming growth driven by… gamers.

    The sharp improvement in Gaming revenue in FQ1 (up nearly 50% Q/Q and well ahead of expectations) has prompted many investors to question whether there was some component of 50-series RTX cards being pulled into China for AI workload purposes. Though this cannot be completely discounted, we suspect any such pull-in was likely very limited due to: 1) availability of Blackwell-based RTX GPUs being still too limited in the gaming channel to enable larger-scale deployment, 2) RTX 50-series GPUs are PCIe based and do not support NVLink for scale-up, and 3) NVDA had to some degree starved the gaming channel for Blackwell out of the gate as it prioritized capacity for data center applications so the FQ1 (April) growth was driven by back-filling the channel following these severe supply shortages.

    Gross margin drivers for 2H.

    General improvement in Blackwell profitability and cost downs remain the primary driver to get margins back to the mid-70%s target by FYE26. Part of this, we believe, is GB300 - for which NVDA may actually recognise a small amount of revenue inside of FQ2 with the real ramp being FQ3. Longer-term, we believe pricing to value remains the key function for NVDA's margins - this comes down to both hardware and the software overlay of which the release of Dynamo at GTC is a prime example (accelerates inference on NVDA hardware by >30x).

    Taken together, Nvidia's earnings, along with expanding visibility into a multi-year AI infrastructure boom via UBS, suggest that this boom is less about product cycles and more about exponential infrastructure scaling

    Last week, UBS analysts Steven Fisher, Amit Mehrotra, and others noted that the construction boom of AI data centers is not expected to show up in the real economy or provide structural tailwinds until the second quarter of 2026.

    "More slowing before reacceleration in 2026," Fisher wrote in a note, adding, "We expect stimulus and structural forces to drive the rebound, while cyclical factors remain weak."

    Another UBS note outlined the bullish outlook on data center-driven power demand, particularly for natural gas-linked utilities and midstream names.

    The AI data center buildout could be viewed as the digital-age cousin of the 1930s "New Deal"—but instead of highways and dams, it's GPUs and megawatts. It's reshaping American infrastructure but with Big Tech at the helm. 

    Tyler Durden Wed, 06/04/2025 - 06:55
  6. Site: Zero Hedge
    1 day 17 hours ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    EU Tech Laws Erect Digital Iron Curtain

    Authored by Cláudia Ascensão Nunes via TheDailyEconomy.org,

    Over the past decades, Europe has created little of real relevance in terms of technological platforms, social networks, operating systems, or search engines.

    In contrast, it has built an extensive regulatory apparatus designed to limit and punish those who have actually innovated.

    Rather than producing its own alternatives to American tech giants, the EU has chosen to suffocate existing ones through regulations such as the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

    The DSA aims to control the content and internal functioning of digital platforms, requiring the rapid removal of content deemed “inappropriate” in what amounts to a modern form of censorship, as well as the disclosure of how algorithms work and restrictions on targeted advertising. The DMA, in turn, seeks to curtail the power of so-called gatekeepers by forcing companies like Apple, Google, or Meta to open their systems to competitors, avoid self-preferencing, and separate data flows between products.

    These two regulations could potentially have a greater impact on U.S. tech companies than any domestic legislation, as they are rules made in Brussels but applied to American companies in an extraterritorial manner. And they go far beyond fines: they force structural changes to the design of systems and functionalities, something that no sovereign state should be imposing on foreign private enterprise.

    In April 2025, Meta was fined €200 million under the Digital Markets Act for allegedly imposing a “consent or pay” model on European users of Facebook and Instagram, without offering a real alternative. Beyond the fine, it was forced to separate data flows between platforms, thereby compromising the personalized advertising system that sustains its profitability. This was a blatant interference in its business model.

    That same month, Apple was fined €500 million for preventing platforms like Spotify from informing users about alternative payment methods outside the App Store. The company was required to remove these restrictions, opening iOS to external app stores and competing payment systems. Once again, this was an unwelcome intrusion and a direct attack on the exclusivity-based model of the Apple ecosystem.

    Other companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and even X are also under scrutiny, with the latter particularly affected by DSA rules, having been the target of a formal investigation in 2023 for alleged noncompliance in content moderation.

    Big Tech, by its very nature, is the primary, focused target of this new European legal framework. These companies operate on a global scale, rely on business models centered around the collection and monetization of data, integrate multiple layers of the digital ecosystem vertically, and hold dominant positions in key areas such as search engines, social networks, and operating systems.

    With around 450 million consumers and a high level of digital purchasing power, the EU is the second-largest digital market in the world. For Big Tech, leaving Europe is not an option. And that is precisely where Brussels derives its power: by imposing demanding rules, it forces global changes, since maintaining different versions of a product for each region is costly and technically unfeasible. In this way, the European Union becomes a de facto global legislator, exporting its regulatory vision to the rest of the world.

    Despite living under different institutional realities, Europeans and Americans share fundamental values: individual liberty, private initiative, and open innovation. It is in the name of these values that they must now walk a common path of resistance to this regulatory overreach, reaffirming a transatlantic alliance in defense of innovation, digital sovereignty, and freedom itself.

    Tyler Durden Wed, 06/04/2025 - 06:30
  7. Site: Catholic Conclave
    1 day 18 hours ago
    According to an Ifop report for the Observatoire Français du Catholicisme published on Monday 2 June, 41% of French people say they believe in God, while 59% do not. In 1947, 66% of French people believed in God: in 2004, the figure was 55%, and in 2023 44%. The fall continues.The Baptism of ClovisAlthough 76% of those questioned had been baptised into the Catholic faith (compared with 92% in Catholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
  8. Site: Mises Institute
    1 day 18 hours ago
    Thomas DiLorenzo joins the New American's Alex Newman to discuss " Federal Reserve: The Ultimate Deep State Tool of Control & Destruction"
  9. Site: Zero Hedge
    1 day 18 hours ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    Number Of Zombie Properties Increase In 30 US States

    The number of zombie homes - vacant properties abandoned by owners during the foreclosure process - rose in 30 U.S. states and the District of Columbia in the second quarter of this year from the previous quarter, real estate data analytics company ATTOM said in a May 29 statement.

    Zombie homes, which can fall into disrepair and negatively impact the value of other properties in the neighborhood, are a sign of distress in the housing market and the broader economy.

    As Naveen Athrappully reports for The Epoch Times, among states with at least 50 zombie homes, North Carolina saw the largest percentage increase in these properties year-over-year, with their numbers rising by 52.5 percent during this period.

    This was followed by Iowa and Texas, both seeing an over 50 percent jump in zombie properties. South Carolina and Kansas were the next on the list.

    According to ATTOM’s analysis, Peoria County in Illinois ranked at the top in the list of U.S. counties with the highest zombie foreclosure rates.

    Broome County in New York came in second, followed by Cuyahoga County in Ohio, Baltimore City County in Maryland, and Indiana’s Marion County.

    On a positive note, things looked better from a nationwide perspective, with only one out of every 14,207 being zombie properties in Q2, which ATTOM said was a low rate, indicating the strength of the post-pandemic U.S. housing market.

    “Thankfully, we’re not seeing a lot of homes sitting vacant due to pending foreclosures, which is good for families, neighborhoods, and the market,” said Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM. “However, foreclosure filings have shown a recent uptick—with April seeing a 14 percent increase compared to the same month last year.”

    “So far, buyers seem to be scooping up these repossessed homes relatively quickly, so they aren’t sitting empty,” he added. “Nobody wants to see a return to the days of the 2008 housing crisis when vacant, blighted homes were common in many parts of the country.”

    Meanwhile, the number of property foreclosures had risen by 11 percent in the first quarter of this year from the previous quarter, breaking away from the trend of three consecutive quarterly declines, ATTOM said in an April 11 statement.

    “While levels remain below historical averages, the quarterly growth suggests that some homeowners may be starting to feel the pressure of ongoing economic challenges,” Barber said.

    “However, strong home equity positions in many markets continue to help buffer against a more significant spike in distress.”

    Consequences of Zombie Properties

    According to a June 18 post by financial services company Rocket Mortgage, zombie homes can negatively affect homeowners even after they abandon the properties.

    For instance, the owner may continue to owe property taxes that could end up becoming a tax lien. Similarly, the zombie property may continue accruing homeowners’ association fees, which, if unpaid, could result in a lawsuit.

    “These consequences can result in a major hit to your credit score, among other financial and legal implications. This could prevent you from moving on with your life and regaining your financial footing,” said the post.

    “Abandoned homes can fall into disrepair and affect the surrounding property values. A vacant property can become a shelter for squatters and attract vandalism or other crimes. This could drive away potential new residents and force current ones to reconsider whether their neighborhood is still safe to live in.”

    Lawmakers are taking action to tackle the issue of zombie properties putting unnecessary burdens on people.

    In mid-May, the Connecticut Senate passed SB 1336, a bill seeking to protect homeowners having “zombie mortgages,” the Connecticut Senate Democrats said in a May 15 statement.

    The bill, co-sponsored by state Sen. Pat Billie Miller, places a statute of limitations on lenders regarding the collection of long-dormant second loans on properties, also known as zombie mortgages.

    It prohibits lenders from starting foreclosure proceedings on secondary mortgages 10 years after the scheduled final loan payment date or 10 years after the lender stopped communicating with the borrower.

    “This bill protects our homeowners from foreclosure threats based on debt that’s been dormant for more than a decade,” Miller said. “The change puts Connecticut in alignment with national trends as states across the country move to shield consumers from the delayed impact of predatory lending practices.”

    “No one making reliable payments on their primary mortgage should face foreclosure because someone made an opportunistic decision to resurrect a secondary loan, years after deciding that collection wasn’t worth the effort when property values plummeted in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.”

    The bill passed the House and Senate, and now needs to be signed by the state governor.

    Tyler Durden Wed, 06/04/2025 - 05:45
  10. Site: Mises Institute
    1 day 18 hours ago
    Thomas DiLorenzo joins CapitalCosm to discuss the growing interest in gold at the state level
  11. Site: Crisis Magazine
    1 day 19 hours ago
    Author: Sarah Cain

    The leaked Liturgical Norms document from Bishop Michael Martin of the Diocese of Charlotte reads like a parody of 1970s fervor, delivered by a tyrannical hand through a series of ironically rigid dictates. They are poised to cause direct harm to the priests of the diocese and, through their pain, to faithful parishioners. The man who claims that the liturgy is not the place for “our preferences”…

    Source

  12. Site: AsiaNews.it
    1 day 19 hours ago
    A celebration presided over by the apostolic nuncio in India has confirmed the supernatural nature of the appearance of the face of Christ on a host 12 years ago. A sign for the Syro-Malabar Church, which has long been wounded by the liturgical dispute. Abp. Girelli: 'May the Eucharist be a sign of communion with God and of unity among the faithful, not of discord.'
  13. Site: Crisis Magazine
    1 day 19 hours ago
    Author: Jason Jones

    Comedian and podcaster Theo Von recently showed a kind of courage that I hope and pray will be the defining characteristic of the rising generation of public figures: the courage of living in solidarity with the vulnerable. In a short, simple, unpretentious video, he spoke out on what he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “genocide” in Gaza. Watch Theo’s short message now for…

    Source

  14. Site: Mises Institute
    1 day 19 hours ago
    Author: Ryan McMaken
    In contrast to an ancient agrarian economy, the developing economy presented many risks and costs for lenders, and the idea of what was fair and just in money lending had to change.
  15. Site: Catholic Conclave
    1 day 19 hours ago
     Scroll 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 Francis CaraccioloFrancis (Francesco) Caracciolo was born in Villa Santa Maria Catholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
  16. Site: Voice of the Family
    1 day 19 hours ago
    Author: Peter Newman

    “Marriage is not an ideal, but the canon of true love between a man and a woman: a love that is total, faithful and fruitful”. This is what Leo XIV said on 31 May 2025, in the homily of the Mass for the Jubilee of Families, emphasising that this love “enables you, in the image […]

    The post Leo XIV: Marriage is not an ideal, but the canon of true love between man and woman appeared first on Voice of the Family.

  17. Site: Voice of the Family
    1 day 19 hours ago
    Author: Peter Newman

    As abortions reach their highest-ever levels in the US, in England and Wales, in Ireland, in France and in many other countries, those of us engaged in the battle to protect unborn children are in the toughest situation imaginable and the only possible solution is heavenly assistance.  One leading US group has said that “new […]

    The post A respectful appeal to Catholic leaders in the fight for life as abortion numbers soar appeared first on Voice of the Family.

  18. Site: Voice of the Family
    1 day 19 hours ago
    Author: Peter Newman

    “The Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things.” At the Last Supper, on the last night of our Lord’s mortal life, we find mention of two gifts. One of these gifts is given, and the other is promised. The gift that is given is […]

    The post He will abide with you: sermon on Whitsunday appeared first on Voice of the Family.

  19. Site: Mises Institute
    1 day 19 hours ago
    Author: Connor O'Keeffe
    As President Trump racks up defeat after defeat before the federal courts, the legacy media claims that federal judges are protecting us from government overreach. In reality, government overreach as we know it has been made possible by the federal judiciary.
  20. Site: AsiaNews.it
    1 day 21 hours ago
    Today's news: Lee Jae-myung pledges to 'unite the people' in his first speech as South Korean president;Israel launches a series of attacks on Syrian territory against weapons belonging to the Damascus 'regime'; Philippine authorities raise the alarm over an HIV 'emergency'; Over 200 inmates escape from a Karachi prison, taking advantage of the chaos caused by a series of earthquakes.
  21. Site: AsiaNews.it
    1 day 21 hours ago
    From the 2026/2027 school year, the 'Fundamentals of Russia's moral and spiritual culture' will be introduced as a new subject in Russian schools. The drafting of the textbook has been entrusted to the Metropolitan of Crimea, known as Putin's 'spiritual father'.
  22. Site: Mises Institute
    1 day 21 hours ago
    Author: Patrick Carroll
    The fight against lab-grown meat has picked up considerable steam over the past year, with multiple states now prohibiting its manufacture, sale, and distribution.
  23. Site: Zero Hedge
    1 day 21 hours ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    Dutch Parliament Says 'Nyet' To NATO Defense Spending Plan Amid Chaos Of Geert Wilders Pullout

    NATO aims for its members to spend at least 3.5% of their GDP on defense, but those dreams of NATO expansion - at a moment the proxy war in Ukraine is becoming dangerously close to entering hot war between the West and nuclear-armed Russia - are dying.

    Dutch parliament on Tuesday slapped down a proposal to increase defense spending to 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP), key to NATO's capability targets, in a non-binding motion.

    While it doesn't have legal force at this point, this makes clear parliament's opinion, unleashing deeper tensions among NATO allies, and as the Trump White House exerts pressure to rapidly raise collective defense.

    This comes at an ultra-sensitive political moment, given that as we reported earlier Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders pulled his Party for Freedom (PVV) out of the coalition that governs the Netherlands.

    This sets up the likelihood of new elections after the man dubbed the "Dutch Donald Trump", withdrew the PVV, related to immigration policy failure. 

    According to the latest developments, Prime Minister Dick Schoof has just announced that he would offer his resignation from the Netherlands’ ruling coalition while continuing in a caretaker government, setting the stage for a likely snap election:

    "Wilders has plunged the Netherlands into another round of political chaos," said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group.

    "The Dutch parliament can try to find a new majority or else there will be early elections. But the immediate outlook is one of chaos and uncertainty."

    The country has been in turmoil since Rutte resigned in 2023 after his coalition failed to pass comprehensive immigration legislation.

    Critically, the air war over Ukraine and Russia is heating up, also in the wake of Ukraine's 'Operation Spider's Web'. Funding for air defenses, particularly among 'eastern flank' NATO members is seen as paramount, from Brussels' perspective.

    "NATO is asking European member states to expand ground-based air-defense capabilities fivefold as the alliance races to fill a key gap in response to the threat of Russian aggression, people familiar with the matter said," Bloomberg reports separately on Teusday.

    "The ramp-up will be discussed at a gathering of North Atlantic Treaty Organization defense ministers in Brussels on Thursday, the people said on condition of anonymity as deliberations take place," the report underscores.

    And who will magically step forward to fill this massive funding gap?

    Dutch Lawmakers Oppose 3.5% NATO Spending Target (Dutch need to spend up to €19 Billion more to meet NATO target)

    And just like that Europe's defense budget dreams go up in flames.

    — zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 3, 2025

    Certainly, the United Sates under the Trump administration, which has called for the bar to be raised to a whopping 5% of GDP, won't.

    In the background is the fact that Western populations are 'war weary' and don't want to see escalation of NATO force strength in Ukraine. Trump himself is facing a revolt among conservative pundits on the American domestic front, as some European leaders, particularly Hungary's Orban, are warning of a protracted conflict in Eastern Europe if the West and warring parties don't climb down the escalation ladder soon.

    Tyler Durden Wed, 06/04/2025 - 02:45
  24. Site: Zero Hedge
    1 day 22 hours ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    'Forced Mixing' Housing Plan To Integrate Migrants Pushed By Sweden's Social Democrats

    Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

    The Swedish Social Democratic Party has approved a new integration strategy that aims to forcibly diversify the country’s residential areas, pushing for what party officials call a “socio-economic mix” of Swedes and migrants in housing developments.

    The policy, adopted at the party congress ahead of the 2026 general election, includes proposals to limit immigration to vulnerable areas and to use housing construction to engineer a more integrated society.

    “We are serious about the fact that we intend to break segregation and use housing policy as an engine in that work,” said Lawen Redar, the party official responsible for designing the new platform, as cited by Aftonbladet.

    Redar described the shift as a “U-turn” in the party’s approach, acknowledging that past strategies had failed.

    The new policy includes scrapping the right of asylum seekers to choose their own accommodation and banning municipalities from placing new arrivals in already struggling districts. Instead, migrants will be relocated to wealthier areas in an effort to engineer demographic diversity and “repay the integration debt,” as the party put it.

    Jonas Attenius, a senior party official newly elected to the executive committee and chairman of the municipal board in Gothenburg, emphasized the long-term nature of the project. “Yes, we need to mix the population in the long run. I usually say ‘in a generation’. This is long-term,” he said. He argued that integrating migrant families into more prosperous neighborhoods would be key to breaking entrenched segregation.

    But critics have described the plan as ideological social engineering. Richard Jomshof, a member of parliament for the right-wing Sweden Democrats, responded sharply:

    “No, we don’t need your forced mixing. What we need are closed borders and a return migration (policy) worth the name. But sure, you socialists can mix as much as you want, just pack your bags.”

    On the contrary, the Sweden Democrats announced last month they will campaign in the 2026 general election on a pledge to stop migration to the country.

    The plan comes amid growing concern over crime and integration failures in Sweden’s suburbs, many of which are dominated by immigrant populations. In recent years, the country has faced a wave of gang-related violence, including record numbers of explosions and shootings, often tied to second-generation migrant youth. Some suburbs now rank among the most dangerous areas in Europe.

    Despite the backlash, Social Democrat officials are confident the new approach will not alienate the party’s newer, affluent urban supporters — voters it began attracting after the 2022 election, in part due to the collapse of the traditional center-right Moderates.

    “I’m convinced of that,” said Attenius. “But again, this requires a strict migration policy.”

    Attenius also issued an apology to migrants who had been concentrated in struggling districts. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Sorry for doing that. Now it is time for the whole of society to take over.”

    Read more here...

    Tyler Durden Wed, 06/04/2025 - 02:00
  25. Site: The Unz Review
    2 days 2 min ago
    Author: Hua Bin
    TACO Trump is again making claims President Xi will talk to him before the week is out. Let’s see how many times you can cry wolf before the wolf shows up. Love-struck Trump has been announcing his great friendship with President Xi ever since his second term started (and a few times before that). While...
  26. Site: The Unz Review
    2 days 3 min ago
    Author: John Helmer
    Lenin hasn’t been a favourite of President Vladimir Putin’s. He’s derided him: “Ukraine appeared in 1922…Now the grateful descendants are smashing monuments to Lenin, the founder of Ukraine.” The second last time he mentioned Lenin, in February 2024, Putin blamed him. “For some unknown reasons, he transferred to that newly established Soviet Republic of Ukraine...
  27. Site: The Unz Review
    2 days 7 min ago
    Author: James Edwards
    What follows is an interview conducted by talk radio host James Edwards with former U.S. Representative Steve King (R-Iowa) about his 18 years in Congress and his book, Walking Through the Fire: My Fight for the Heart and Soul of America. * * * James Edwards:
  28. Site: The Unz Review
    2 days 12 min ago
    Author: Andrew Anglin
    The world was shocked this week when it was revealed that woke right journalist Glenn Greenwald is a gay. For those who don’t know, a gay is a man who rams his penis into another man’s a-hole, and/or (usually “or” but maybe sometimes “and”) allows other men to do this to his a-hole. In this...
  29. Site: The Unz Review
    2 days 12 min ago
    Author: Hua Bin
    China deployed the CH-AS-X-13 hypersonic missile to its nuclear triad in 2025, marking a milestone in integrating hypersonic weapons in all its warfighting domains (land, sea, and air). In 2017, China became the first military in the world to deploy an operational hypersonic missile - the land-based, road-mobile DF-17, a TEL-launched Mach 10 hypersonic missile...
  30. Site: AntiWar.com
    2 days 12 min ago
    Author: Jonathan Cook
    It is entirely unsurprising that Israel has yet again been caught out in a lie – a lie that the BBC once again spread far and wide on its news services. Israel claimed that it had not fired at starving Palestinians queueing on Sunday morning to get food from one of its highly militarised “aid … Continue reading "Israel Is Fully Integrating Its Gaza ‘Food Aid Hubs’ Into the Genocide"
  31. Site: AntiWar.com
    2 days 13 min ago
    Author: Thomas Knapp
    “The AUTOPEN,” US president Donald Trump wrote on his “Truth Social” platform on June 2 (referring to Joe Biden), “should have stopped Iran a long time ago from ‘enriching.’ Under our potential Agreement – WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM!” Trump’s absolutely right, but only in three ways that don’t reflect the pomposity … Continue reading "Why Iran Can’t Be ‘Allowed’ To Enrich Uranium"
  32. Site: The Unz Review
    2 days 13 min ago
    Author: Paul Craig Roberts
    I raise the question in the title because the Russian media looks askance at what it labels “a rise in the popularity of right-wing forces” in “recent elections in three EU countries.” The Russian media describes as “right-wing” the awakened ethnic nationalities–the French of France, the Germans of Germany–as “right-wing.” But President Putin of Russia...
  33. Site: Zero Hedge
    2 days 23 min ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    Will Human Error Hand AI The Key To Our Destruction?

    Authored by Julio Rivera via American Greatness,

    By now, the apocalyptic whispers that once belonged solely to science fiction are starting to sound more like realistic forecasts. Artificial intelligence, once hailed as the great liberator of human productivity and ingenuity, is now moonlighting as a con artist, data thief, and spy.

    The machines are rising, yes—but they’re not doing it alone. As we embrace AI with reckless abandon, it’s not the code that’s dooming us. It’s the carbon-based lifeforms behind the keyboard making forehead-slapping mistakes. If civilization does collapse under the weight of digital warfare, it’ll be a joint project between rogue AI and good old-fashioned human idiocy.

    Let’s talk about the Rise of the Machines, 2025 edition—not in the form of Terminators with glowing eyes, but as lines of sophisticated code hell-bent on manipulation, infiltration, and destruction. Whether we are willing to accept it or not, AI-powered cyberattacks are becoming disturbingly common and alarmingly sophisticated.

    We’re seeing the proliferation of deepfake scams, hyper-personalized phishing attacks, and AI-assisted password cracking that make traditional defenses look as flimsy as a paper umbrella in a hurricane.

    Take the case of deepfake fraud, where criminals now impersonate CEOs and executives with astonishing accuracy. These aren’t your cousin’s sloppy Photoshop jobs. These are full-motion, pitch-perfect, AI-generated replicas of real people, used in schemes to authorize fraudulent wire transfers, manipulate employees, or simply throw entire organizations into chaos. It’s not just unsettling. It’s an outright weaponization of trust—an erosion of reality itself.

    And don’t forget AI-generated phishing emails. These aren’t the hilariously broken English scams from 2006. AI now writes flawless prose, mirroring the tone and style of your boss, your bank, or your kid’s school, tricking you into clicking that one wrong link that detonates ransomware across your organization like a digital IED. The machines aren’t playing chess anymore—they’re playing you.

    But even as AI’s capabilities soar into dystopian territory, the greatest cybersecurity threat isn’t machine intelligence. It’s human incompetence. You could hand someone the most secure system in the world, and they’ll still manage to set it on fire with a reused password or a click on an “urgent invoice” from a Nigerian prince.

    report by NinjaOne drives this point home with a sledgehammer: nearly 95% of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human error. Think about that. Not Skynet, not Chinese cyber commandos or North Korean hackers in basements—but Steve in Accounting, who uses “123456” as his password and clicks on pop-ups promising free iPhones.

    The attack vectors are depressingly mundane: downloading unsafe software, failing to update systems, weak passwords, falling for phishing scams, and misconfigured security settings.

    It’s like locking your house with a deadbolt and then leaving the window wide open with a neon sign that says, “Come on in!” And yet, these mistakes are committed daily in both small businesses and Fortune 500 firms alike.

    Compounding this mess is the cyber climate we find ourselves in. While the Biden administration made a lot of noise about cybersecurity (including a 2021 executive order that read like a cyber-fantasy novel), the reality has been more bark than bite. The cyber talent shortage identified during his term is still here. In fact, it’s worse.

    Across the board, we are woefully understaffed. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), for example, is running with fewer hands. Meanwhile, budget cuts threaten to kneecap already stretched-thin federal cyber teams. But here’s the catch: this isn’t a dig at DOGE. Frankly, it’s not the government’s fight alone.

    In an era where the bureaucracy is clearly not nimble or robust enough to be the cyber bodyguard of every business, school district, and hospital, it’s time for individuals and private entities to shoulder the digital shield. The idea that Uncle Sam can magically protect every database, email server, and Wi-Fi-enabled lightbulb from hostile AI is, quite frankly, a joke—and not a funny one.

    So, where does that leave us?

    It means that responsibility, like it or not, is decentralized. Your small business, your city council, your local school, and yes, your grandma’s Wi-Fi router all play a role in national cyber resilience. Everyone from the CEO to the intern must realize that the click of a mouse can ignite a digital inferno.

    This isn’t paranoia. This is math. The AI-fueled cybercriminals don’t sleep, don’t blink, and don’t need to take lunch breaks. They can run cyber threats around the clock, generating thousands of enticing money-related phishing schemes per second or trying billions of password combinations while sipping binary lattes. The only thing stopping them is us—and right now, “us” is losing.

    The solution isn’t some magical new firewall or sexy blockchain band-aid. It’s basic digital hygiene. It’s updating software. It’s using multi-factor authentication. It’s protecting social media accounts and credentials. It’s training staff not to download every sketchy app they’re offered, like over-caffeinated lab rats. It’s investing in AI-powered defense tools to fight fire with fire—automated threat detection, behavioral analysis, and predictive breach detection. In other words, if the machines are evolving, so must we.

    But none of this works without awareness. The greatest virus we face isn’t malware. It’s apathy. Too many Americans still treat cybersecurity like flossing—important, sure, but something they’ll get around to eventually. Meanwhile, AI doesn’t wait. It doesn’t procrastinate. It hunts.

    So yes, the rise of the machines may well usher in the end of civilization—but only if we stand by and let it happen. The antidote isn’t panic. It’s preparation. It’s competence. It’s proper AI oversight. And it’s waking up to the fact that we are all soldiers in a quiet war where the front lines are firewalls, not foxholes.

    Because at the end of the day, the machines aren’t coming to destroy us.

    We’re just really, really good at destroying ourselves.

    Tyler Durden Tue, 06/03/2025 - 23:50
  34. Site: Restore-DC-Catholicism
    2 days 41 min ago
    Author: noreply@blogger.com (Restore-DC-Catholicism)
  35. Site: Zero Hedge
    2 days 48 min ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    Beijing Furious After Europe Uses "International Procurement Instrument" For First Time In Escalating Trade War With China

    When it comes to its trade war with the US, Brussels is quick to parade just how anti-Trump it is, how unfair US trade practices are (just ignore the fact that Europe was far more protectionist for decades) and how much it loves free trade, honest. But in Europe's growing trade war with China (you don't really hear much about it because the media would rather public attention be soaked up by the far less important transatlantic feud, and away from the far more important Chinese trade war) thing are rapidly disintegrating. 

    As Rabobank's Michael Every points out, the "We Love Free Trade" EU just used its International Procurement Instrument for the first time to freeze Chinese medical devices out of its public procurement markets for five years unless China opens its market to EU equivalents. As Every notes, "that’s economic statecraft with muscle, underlining that there are lots of tools in the mercantilist toolkit besides tariffs."

    In response, Beijing took some time away from its constant criticism of US trade policy to also criticize as protectionist the European Union’s plan to curb Chinese medical device manufacturers’ access to public procurement contracts, and vowed to take action to protect the country’s interests, Bloomberg reports.

    China urged the EU to handle any differences through dialog and cooperation to safeguard trade relations, the Commerce Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. “China will closely monitor the EU’s follow-up actions” and will take measures to protect the rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, the ministry said.

    Beijing’s comments come after EU member states overwhelmingly agreed to the curb, which would represent the first use of its International Procurement Instrument, a 2022 law that’s meant to promote reciprocity in access to public procurement markets, and represents a unique slant on how creative mercantilists can and will get when their markets are threatened. It allows the EU’s executive arm to impose various restrictions on firms seeking to participate in procurements, ranging from score adjustments in tenders to an outright ban from public contracts above €5 million ($5.7 million).

    The dispute adds another irritant to relations and comes just as Beijing seeks to shore up ties with the EU, positioning itself as a more reliable partner as Donald Trump alienates the bloc over issues from tariffs to defense. In reality, when it comes to capturing market share, the only thing mercantilists are "reliable" in doing is slashing prices to boost exports. 

    Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao is due to meet with EU trade officials early this month in Paris, where he may address the bloc’s trade grievances including a lack of fair access to China’s own procurement market. European leaders will travel to Beijing for a summit next month with their Chinese counterparts. 

    “At first glance recent EU moves relating to China seem a bit contradictory, reviving senior level interaction while taking measures against unfair imports,” said Wendy Cutler, a former senior US trade negotiator now at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

    “But, in light of different types of pressures from member states, Brussels needs to navigate carefully when it comes to China,” she said. “It has no choice but to look for avenues of cooperation while sending a clear signal that the EU will stand up for European companies that are facing unfair competition.”

    Only problem is that from China's point of view, the competition is completely fair, and it will retaliate accordingly.

    Indeed, a Chinese business lobby group warned earlier that EU’s plans would hurt trade ties and the China Chamber of Commerce to the EU expressed “profound disappointment” over the move, according to a statement on Monday.

    “Its targeted application against Chinese enterprises sends a troubling signal—not only adding new complexity to China-EU economic and trade relations, but also contradicting the EU’s stated principles of openness, fairness, and non-discrimination in market access,” said the organization, whose members include the Bank of China, Cosco Shipping Holdings Co. and BYD Co.

    “Beijing appears to be sending a warning to all advanced economies that actions against China will have consequences,” said Gerard DiPippo, associate director of the RAND China Research Center. “The odds of an EU-China rapprochement are lower than some speculated after the trade war with the US started.”

    Which, of course, will be music to Trump's ears, even if it will be difficult for the mainstream media to explain to its naive audience how the global trade war which it had repeatedly portrayed as "Trump against everyone", was really "everyone against everyone."

    In response to a question on the EU’s move, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian on Tuesday called on the bloc to stand by its commitment to market rules. 

    The EU launched an investigation into China’s procurement of medical devices last April, with the probe finding in January that Beijing discriminated against foreign firms. Consultations failed to find alternative solutions, Bloomberg previously reported.

    The Chinese commerce chamber argued that market reciprocity must be based on “an accurate understanding of historical and practical realities.”

    “For years, European medical device companies have enjoyed significant access to the Chinese market, playing a key role in supporting the modernization of China’s healthcare system and achieving substantial growth,” it said. “The EU’s current decision fails to acknowledge this context and undermines the spirit of balanced engagement and mutual benefit.” 

    Tyler Durden Tue, 06/03/2025 - 23:25
  36. Site: Zero Hedge
    2 days 1 hour ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    55 Tons Of Meth Ingredient From China Bound For Mexican Drug Cartel Seized In California

    By Noi Mahoney of FreightWaves

    Authorities at the Port of Long Beach on Friday seized 55 tons of dicumyl peroxide, a chemical used to make methamphetamine.

    The shipment originated in China and was destined for the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico, according to a news release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

    The dicumyl peroxide was identified as a result of an initiative launched by ICE in 2019 to identify suspicious shipments of chemical precursors from China, India and other source countries that are destined for drug cartels in Mexico.

    Since the initiative was launched, it has led to the interdiction of almost 1,900 tons of chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamines and fentanyl. 

    In March, it led to the seizure of about 44 tons of glacial acetic acid at Port Houston, which was also destined for the Sinaloa cartel, ICE said.

    “This initiative provides Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with a game-changing method to stay one step ahead of the cartels by disrupting the flow of chemicals that they depend on to produce illicit narcotics,” Chad Plantz, ICE HSI-Houston special agent in charge, said in a statement.

    Tyler Durden Tue, 06/03/2025 - 23:00
  37. Site: Zero Hedge
    2 days 1 hour ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    Everyone Was Just Doing Their Job: How Specialization Enables Systemic Evil

    Authored by Josh Stylman via Substack,

    The world's a screaming match—doctors, economists, influencers, all clawing for their slice of truth. Nobody's listening, and nobody's seeing the whole damn picture. We have more information than ever, but we're dumber where it counts, stuck in a loop of shouting past each other. This isn't just politics or algorithm nonsense; it's the cult of specialization—our worship of experts who know everything about nothing. Doctors pushing Covid shots didn't see the fraud. Economists missed the heist. Engineers built surveillance without blinking. Each turned their screw, blind to the machine they were feeding—a Moral Assembly Line where systemic evil thrives. The system's not broken; it's built to break us, and we're all complicit until we start connecting the dots. As I explored in The Illusion of Expertise, we've confused credentials with wisdom, compliance with intelligence. Now we see the deadly consequences: we're not failing because of bad experts—we're failing because specialization itself has become the operating system of institutional evil.

    A Society Talking Past Itself

    Step into any barroom debate, X thread, or YouTube comments section, and it's chaos—facts flying, no one landing. We've outsourced our brains to specialists who slice reality into bits too small to mean anything. A cardiologist can't talk vaccines. An economist reduces geopolitics to models, blind to the real forces at play. Everyone's got their PhD in one inch of the world, and we're dumber for it. Specialization doesn't just fracture understanding; it's the architecture of control, ensuring no one sees the crimes—medical fraud, wealth theft, digital chains—unfolding in plain sight. We're not arguing because we're stupid; we're arguing because the system keeps us siloed, complicit, and clueless.

    Medical Blindness: Expertise Without Vision

    In my medical freedom work, I've seen doctors—smart, caring people—trapped in their own expertise. One, a family physician friend of mine, said VAERS was the "gold standard" for vaccine safety but when I asked about Covid shots, he admitted he never looked even though he was recommending them to patients. He assured me that if it was a problem, the FDA would do something. He didn't know it reported over 30,000 Covid shot deaths by 2023, or that underreporting was rampant. Meanwhile, journalists mocked "half the country eating horse paste," dismissing a drug that had been administered to billions of humans, whose inventor won the Nobel Prize, that's on the World Health Organization's list of most essential medicines, and is known to have very few side effects. People who had never heard of ivermectin were parroting the notion that it was horse paste. These weren't idiots; they were cogs in a machine built by the Rockefeller model of medicine, which, since the 1900s, turned healers into assembly-line technicians—prescribe, cut, bill, repeat.

    During Covid, this enabled a fraud of historic scale. This isn't just about doctors being wrong—it's about a system that rewards institutional obedience over critical thinking. The shots got Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) on rotten data: trials rigged to show symptom relief, not transmission prevention; myocarditis risks buried; long-term safety ignored. Most people don't realize that if there were effective treatments for Covid, these experimental drugs couldn't have been approved under emergency authorization—but that's exactly what happened. Whistleblower Brook Jackson, a Pfizer trial manager and modern-day Erin Brockovich, exposed unblinding and falsified records in 2021. Her story revealed massive crimes that should be criminally prosecuted, but instead it's languishing in the courts while doctors didn't read her BMJ report and media publications never told her story—they trusted the FDA's "safe and effective" stamp. A restaurant owner I know enforced mandates even after it became clear the shots didn't stop transmission, still trusting the authorities despite rules that made no sense—customers had to mask walking to their table but could remove them while sitting, as if the virus respected dining etiquette. She wasn't malicious; she was compartmentalized, her role so narrow she couldn't see the crime—a coerced, harmful rollout sold as salvation.

    Covid: A Masterclass in Fragmented Fraud

    Covid was a crime scene where every expert played their part, blind to the whole.

    Medical Compartmentalization

    The fraud started with PCR tests. Kary Mullis, PCR's inventor, said in the 1990s it's not a diagnostic tool—it amplifies anything, not just active virus. His voice would have been important during the pandemic since the whole thing was based on his invention. Sadly, he died in August 2019.

    Yet it was used to inflate cases, driving fear and lockdowns. Public health ignored immunologists warning of weakened immunity from isolation. Doctors, trusting the CDC, didn't question flawed tests or mandates. The shots were the centerpiece: trials manipulated (Naomi Wolf's team at Daily Clout documented this), adverse events like myocarditis suppressed, and EUAs granted only because alternatives like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) were demonized. A 2020 Henry Ford Health System study showed HCQ cut mortality when used early, but the FDA smeared it as 'dangerous.' A hospital administrator I’m friendly with enforced deadly protocols—Remdesivir and ventilators—that harmed patients. Overwhelmingly, people died in hospitals, not at home. Curious. He followed "protocols," not committing a crime—or so he thought.

    No one read the data; no one minded the store. In fact, FDA advisor Dr. Eric Rubin, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, openly admitted: "We're never going to learn about how safe this vaccine is unless we start giving it. That's just the way it goes." They were experimenting on children in real time, and saying it out loud.

    Economic Compartmentalization

    Lockdowns crushed small businesses while Amazon and Pfizer raked in billions—a $4 trillion heist disguised as relief. Economists, buried in GDP models, missed the human toll. Gold bugs and bitcoiners warned of inflation and a widening wealth chasm, but they weren't credentialed economists, so no one listened. Even many libertarians abandoned their framework, supporting medical tyranny over individual liberty. Stimulus checks, sold as aid, prepped the ground for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), but economists didn't study monetary control. They enabled theft, oblivious to their role.

    Psychological Compartmentalization

    Lockdowns spiked depression, addiction, and child developmental delays, yet behavioral scientists were absent from task forces. Public health dismissed mental health as "non-essential." A school counselor I know saw teen suicides soar but had no policy voice. She saw the damage but still enforced closures, believing she was following "expert" guidance. The trauma wasn't her department.

    Technological Compartmentalization

    Engineers built vaccine passports and contact-tracing apps, sold as "public health." They didn't ask how these fed The World Economic Forum’s digital ID plans or CBDCs' programmable money. A tech developer I met saw his app as "innovation," not surveillance infrastructure. His job was to code, not question geopolitics. Each layer deferred upward, building a control grid no one claimed. Innovation divorced from consequence is how surveillance states are born in beta.

    "Just Doing My Job": The Moral Assembly Line

    Specialization doesn't just split knowledge—it splits guilt. This is the Moral Assembly Line: everyone turns a screw, no one owns the machine, and when it crushes lives, they say, "It wasn't me." In the Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann scheduled trains, not murders. During the MKULTRA experiments, psychologists dosed subjects with LSD, just following CIA orders. During Covid, doctors pushed shots, HR fired the unvaccinated, and journalists parroted identical phrases across every network—'safe and effective,' 'no one is safe until everyone's safe.'

    Video via Matt Orfalea

    Friends enforced vaccine requirements at parties, thinking they were protecting people, not coercing choice. No one felt like a criminal, but the outcome was fraud, harm, and eroded freedom. Evil hides by breaking itself into pieces too small to feel.

    The Design of Disintegration

    This is by design. Universities churn out specialists, not synthesizers—papers, not questions. The corruption runs deeper than most realize. Universities don't just churn out specialists—they create a credentialed class psychologically invested in defending the system that elevated them, even when that system causes harm. Medical boards punish doctors who stray, like those who prescribed ivermectin. Funding rewards obedience, not curiosity. Peer review is peer pressure, silencing dissent. Algorithms on X, Instagram, and TikTok feed you your niche, not the truth. This creates epistemic capture: experts know only what their field allows. A virologist might doubt a shot's efficacy but not its funding. A journalist might report mandates but not trial fraud. They're cogs in a machine they can't see, ensuring we stay complicit and clueless.

    Blind Spots of the Highly Educated

    Specialization blinds even the sharpest to the big picture. Doctors enforcing passports didn't see their connection to Agenda 21's population tracking framework from 1992. They didn't connect apps to CBDCs, which the Bank for International Settlements piloted to control spending. Local health officials in my area justified apps as "stopping the spread," unaware they fed systems that could lock accounts for non-compliance. Why? Geopolitics isn't their field. The World Economic Forum's Great Reset is public, yet most doctors never read it. Intelligence without context isn't just useless—it's a weapon for power.

    The most educated became the most complicit. While PhD epidemiologists enforced lockdowns and cardiologists pushed shots, plumbers and mechanics saw through it immediately. They didn't need peer review to recognize bullshit—they fix things that actually work. The people who make stuff understood: if the solution doesn't match the problem, something's wrong. Meanwhile, the credentialed class defended every policy failure because their status depended on institutional trust.

    The Mockingbird Media: Silencing the Truth

    Media seals the trap. Operation Mockingbird, a CIA program to shape narratives, never died—it's alive in today's censorship. Vaccine injury stories, like those in Anecdotals, a documentary I produced with talented filmmaker Jennifer Sharp, were banned from YouTube. She poured her soul into showing real people—mothers, teachers, children—harmed by shots, but algorithms erased it.

    The silence runs deeper. My friend Pamela lost her stepson, Benjamin, to the shot. He worked for Stephen Colbert, who mandated it for his staff. Pamela begged her stepson not to get it, but he needed to keep his job. A young man, dead from something sold as "safe and effective"—killed by a mandate from the same man who turned vaccines into dancing entertainment. While Colbert's show produced the cringe-worthy "Vax-Scene" skit with dancing syringes, real people were dying from his workplace requirements.

    Pamela screamed from the rooftops, but no reporter would touch her story. Yet you can be sure—if her stepson had died from Covid, they'd have been fighting for the exclusive. Instead, we got montages of "safe and effective" while they buried the bodies. The people trying to warn us sounded crazy because the media made them invisible.

    Pamela's story, as tragic as it is, isn't rare. I personally know dozens. We all have stories. The true number is totally unknown. What makes it worse? It's accelerating. As more shots get pushed on the vulnerable, as boosters become routine, the Pamelas will multiply, their stories will remain untold, and the machine will keep grinding forward.

    Journalists didn't cover these stories—not their beat. The public stays clueless, fed a media diet of propaganda. This isn't incompetence; it's control, ensuring we only see what the system allows, keeping us talking past each other.

    Covid wasn't an exception—it was a perfect example of how compartmentalized systems commit coordinated harm. But the same pattern repeats everywhere: in finance, education, climate policy, and tech. Everyone plays their role. No one owns the outcome. Let's widen the lens.

    Beyond Medicine: Complicity Everywhere

    This pattern is universal, enabling harm while absolving guilt.

    • Finance (2008): Traders chased derivatives, missing the housing bubble. Contrarians warned, but they weren't "in the room." They weren't stealing—they were working, blind to the crash.

    • Education: School boards implemented Common Core without consulting child development experts, or administrators pushed digital learning without understanding its psychological impact on students.

    • Climate: Climatologists model emissions while ignoring weather modification. Policy experts implement Davos agenda while ignoring that those pushing green policies don't live by them. No one owns the dysfunction.

    • AI/Tech: Engineers build addictive algorithms, ignoring polarization. CEOs chase profit, not sociology. They fracture society, feeling nothing.

    • Military: Analysts tout drones, ignoring cultural fallout. Bureaucrats plan wars without local knowledge. No one's a war criminal—just a professional.

    The Generalist: Breaking Free from Spectator Culture

    We need generalists—people who refuse to be watchers in their own lives. Before industrialization, healers and polymaths wove together physical, spiritual, and social knowledge. Today, we're consumers of expertise, not creators of understanding. We've become a spectator culture, watching life happen while trusting someone smarter has it handled. But the price of convenience is competence. We can't change a tire, grow food, read a study, or think without calling an expert. The more educated we are, the more we defer to credentials over judgment.

    E.O. Wilson's consilience—uniting knowledge—isn't academic; it's survival. Nassim Taleb saw fragility (though he was tragically wrong about Covid); Ivan Illich saw institutional harm. They knew outsourcing thinking is outsourcing agency. We must become intellectual sovereigns, thinking across fields, seeing patterns specialists miss. A doctor should understand pharmaceutical economics. An economist should grasp human psychology. Pattern recognition is what separates participants from observers, thinkers from consumers of thought. It's how you stop being a cog and start becoming a sovereign.

    Escaping the Machine: From Cogs to Sovereign

    This isn't politics—it's cognition. We've become passive observers, outsourcing not just tasks but basic thinking. We can't fix a car, preserve food, or question a medical mandate without feeling unqualified. A generation ago, people solved problems themselves. Now, we call authorities, and the smarter we think we are, the more we defer. But what happens when the system leads us astray—not through the malice of its participants, but through the malice of its designers? The doctors recommending drugs, the engineers building apps, the journalists reporting stories—they're not evil. But the system they serve was designed by those who are.

    Specialization has made us passive, watching life happen while trusting the credentialed. But they're cogs too, trapped in a machine they don't see. Understanding this reveals the deeper architecture: specialization connects to other systems of manufactured dependency—fiat currency that separates us from real value, digital convenience that erodes our capabilities, spectator culture that makes us passive consumers. Each system reinforces the others, creating a web that requires seeing the whole picture to break free.

    The way out is radical responsibility. Stop outsourcing your thinking. The path forward begins with recognizing that what we've been taught to value as 'expertise' has been weaponized against us. Questioning institutional narratives isn't a sign of ignorance but a necessary act of intellectual sovereignty. When an expert tells you something, ask: Who benefits? What's hidden? What would another field say? Read outside your lane—doctors, study economics; economists, learn biology. Check primary sources yourself—read Brook Jackson's BMJ report, examine VAERS data, trace the funding. Follow researchers like Catherine Austin Fitts, who documented how the government has misplaced $21 trillion—not million, trillion—with no accountability. This isn't normal corruption; this is systemic looting that makes you wonder what they're really building with our money. Connect with those who think differently. The goal isn't to master everything, but to see the spaces between experts—where truth hides—and to know who to trust.

    The Incalculable Cost: Generational Harm and the Illusion of Reform

    The damage is generational, hiding in plain sight. MAHA celebrates that the White House quietly removed Covid shots from healthy people's schedules, but critics rightfully point out the deeper problem: there's lots more coming on the vaccine schedule. Yes, the trend line may be in the right direction, but how many more unsuspecting people are going to suffer between now and then? Those who don't understand this system is rotten to the core will still listen and get injected. More immunocompromised people getting jabbed, more unhealthy kids having their genetic code rearranged and their immune systems weakened. I appreciate that maybe there's a political game going on, but I don't understand what we're talking about—we're talking about people's lives. The system worked perfectly—create the illusion of reform while continuing the harm to the most vulnerable. It's in VAERS, with over 30,000 deaths reported; in insurance data showing rising claims; in stories like Pamela's that never make the news. The system distributed the harm so widely no one can see it whole.

    Nobody's minding the store. So we have to.

    Be the generalist. See the system. The truth depends on it. The future won't be saved by the most credentialed. It'll be saved by those who can see clearly—and refuse to look away.

    Tyler Durden Tue, 06/03/2025 - 22:35
  38. Site: Novus Ordo Watch
    2 days 1 hour ago
    Author: admin

    Bp. Sanborn dismantles Bergoglio’s false theology…

    LEO WATCH, Episode 1

    Robert Prevost’s First Few Weeks as ‘Pope’ Leo XIV

    For almost a month now, the Vatican II Church has been under new management. After the death of Jorge Bergoglio (‘Pope Francis’) on Apr. 21, the conclave to choose his successor ended on May 8 after only four ballots, and Robert F. Prevost stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica as ‘Pope Leo XIV’.

    With Francis’ demise, the long-running FRANCIS WATCH program produced by True Restoration has now also come to an end, although all 48 audio episodes naturally remain available for free listening and downloading at FrancisWatch.orgREAD MORE

  39. Site: Novus Ordo Wire – Novus Ordo Watch
    2 days 1 hour ago
    Author: admin

    Bp. Sanborn dismantles Bergoglio’s false theology…

    LEO WATCH, Episode 1

    Robert Prevost’s First Few Weeks as ‘Pope’ Leo XIV

    For almost a month now, the Vatican II Church has been under new management. After the death of Jorge Bergoglio (‘Pope Francis’) on Apr. 21, the conclave to choose his successor ended on May 8 after only four ballots, and Robert F. Prevost stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica as ‘Pope Leo XIV’.

    With Francis’ demise, the long-running FRANCIS WATCH program produced by True Restoration has now also come to an end, although all 48 audio episodes naturally remain available for free listening and downloading at FrancisWatch.orgREAD MORE

  40. Site: Zero Hedge
    2 days 2 hours ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    On World Bike Day, Cars Still Dominate The American Commute

    June 3 marks World Bicycle Day, an official UN observance celebrated to draw attention to the benefits of using a bike, a healthy, affordable and environmentally friendly way of getting from A to B.

    On this day, people are encouraged to leave their cars behind and hop on their bikes for their daily commute to work.

    After all, cycling to work is still relatively rare in the United States, despite the many benefits it offers in terms of personal health, reduced traffic and emissions savings.

    However, as Statista's Felix Richter notes, according to Statista Consumer Insights, 72 percent of American commuters use their own car to move between home and work, making it by far the most popular mode of transportation.

     Cars Still Dominate the American Commute | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Meanwhile, only 14 percent of the 7,447 respondents use public transportation while just 9 percent ride their bike.

    As the chart shows, alternatives to the car have become more popular since 2019, but none comes close to challenging the car's status as the king of the American commute.

    There are several factors contributing to the low adoption of bicycles as a means of everyday transportation: for one, Americans are used to commuting longer distances than people in most European nations, automatically ruling out the bike for many. And secondly, many major cities in the U.S. aren’t exactly bike-friendly. According to a recent study, just two American cities made it into the 50 most bicycle-friendly cities in the world, when taking into account factors such as bicycle infrastructure, safety and usage as well as things as mundane as the weather.

    Tyler Durden Tue, 06/03/2025 - 22:10
  41. Site: Rorate Caeli
    2 days 2 hours ago
    It has been an honor to occasionally write for Rorate, especially on liturgy, sacraments and sacred music. The same goes for the op-eds in newspapers I have been fortunate to have published on the Latin Mass over the last several years.This week, I began service in the Trump Administration, heading the faith-based office at the U.S. Department of Labor. From combatting anti-Christian bias to Kenneth J. Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04483319369640034300noreply@blogger.com
  42. Site: Zero Hedge
    2 days 2 hours ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    America's 21st Century Fighter Gap

    Authored by Peter Mitchell via RealClearDefense (emphasis ours),

    Golden Dome has captured headlines as America’s next-generation missile defense shield in the debates around the FY 2026 defense budget’s trillion-dollar price tag.

    But danger lurks between the headlines. America’s fighter fleet—the smallest in modern Air Force historylacks the numbers needed to both protect the homeland and secure the skies abroad. While no one questions that fighters have a vital role in homeland defense, the trouble is that we simply don’t have enough of them. Neither the defense budget nor the $150 billion reconciliation package include plans for multi-year aircraft procurement.

    New Threats to the Homeland

    Iran’s 2024 attacks on Israel delivered a masterclass in modern air defense—and a preview of threats heading our way. When Tehran launched hundreds of drones and cruise missiles, it was primarily fighters—Israeli F-35Is supported by American and Jordanian aircraft—that decimated them over Iraq and Syria before they could reach ground-based defenses. The lesson was unmistakable: fighters are the indispensable first line of any modern air defense system.

    The threat to the American homeland from these cheap, hard-to-detect weapons is now enduring, not episodic. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, the potential for attacks on American soil is higher than at any point since the late Cold War. Ground-based defenses like Patriot, THAAD, and Aegis BMD are essential but can’t do it all on their own. The nature of their equipment makes them relatively immobile and limited by terrain and curvature of the earth.

    Fighters, by contrast, are highly mobile. They can visually confirm targets, ensuring that no civilian aircraft is accidentally attacked. Fighters can reposition quickly, cover vast areas heedless of terrain, and be aerially refueled to extend their range. A single F-35A can carry over 22,000 lbs of ordnance using its external hardpoints—providing a flying magazine capable of confronting dozens of threats in a single sortie. Future technologies promise even greater effectiveness. Directed-energy weapons could provide a virtually unlimited magazine to counter drone swarms at minimal cost per shot.

    With the rise of small and cheap drones the need for fighter-based defense at home is more urgent than ever. These weapons can be launched from mobile platformsfly low and evade radar, and slip past static systems with their small radar cross-section.

    America’s Shrinking Air Superiority

    Yet just as this threat materializes, the Air Force finds itself with the smallest fighter fleet in its history. Only one-third of our fighters are 5th generation aircraft—F-22s and F-35s—with the stealth and advanced sensor suites essential for detecting and engaging modern threats. The remaining two-thirds are aging 4th generation platforms.

    The math becomes alarming when we consider new homeland defense requirements. Maintaining continuous combat air patrols around critical infrastructure and population centers would strain our already overtaxed fighter squadrons. The Air Force needs to produce 72 new fighters annually just to maintain its current inadequate numbers. Yet actual procurement is barely half of that, with the Air Force only receiving 42 new F-35As in its 2025 budget request.

    Building Capacity for the Long War

    This production shortfall isn’t just a procurement hiccup. It’s a strategic vulnerability that adversaries are watching closely. In any high-intensity conflict, combat losses would quickly deplete our limited inventory. America lost 3,744 fixed-wing aircraft in nine years during the Vietnam War. The Air Force currently has around 1,300 fighters. Against peer competitors with advanced air defenses, loss rates would likely be higher, and—with no industrial surge capacity to replace downed aircraft—disastrous.

    The solution requires a fundamental shift in how America approaches fighter procurement. Just as we’re revitalizing missile and shipbuilding capacity through multi-year procurements, we need similar stability for aircraft production. Long-term contracts would enable manufacturers to invest in expanded production lines, automation, and workforce development. American industrial capacity isn’t just about peacetime fleet size; it’s about wartime resilience.

    A Multi-Domain Dome

    Golden Dome will be multi-domain, integrating ground, sea, air, and space-based assets into a seamless web. The ground layer—Patriot, THAAD, and GBI—provides point and area defense. The sea layer extends this umbrella with Aegis destroyers and cruisers. The space layer, with new infrared sensor satellites already in development, provides crucial early warning and targeting data.

    But it’s the air layer—fighters on combat air patrol—that gives the system its flexibility and forward reach. Fifth generation fighters, with their advanced sensors and stealth characteristics, can operate in contested environments where fourth generation aircraft cannot survive. They can serve as flying command posts, data fusion centers, and interceptors, extending the defensive perimeter hundreds of miles beyond American shores.

    Investing in Peace

    Lawmakers face the choice to invest in proven capabilities or to continue in our current vulnerability. The failed Iranian attacks have demonstrated that we need more fighters and the industrial capacity to sustain them through conflict. This is not extravagance but strategic necessity.

    The ongoing modernization of our ground- and sea-based defenses is essential but insufficient. Only 5th generation fighters—and their eventual 6th generation successors—can meet this requirement. Without such a robust fighter force, our air superiority on offense and defense will be able to be exploited by adversaries.

    Securing American skies demands industrial commitment and technological innovation. Multi-year procurement contracts for fighter aircraft, similar to those revitalizing our missile and shipbuilding industries, would provide the stability needed to expand production capacity.

    Golden Dome’s success will ultimately be measured not by the sophistication of its technology but by its ability to prevent attacks. Without a recommitment to America’s air fleet and the industrial capacity to sustain it, that mission remains in jeopardy. When it comes to building America’s future, the cost of not investing in our air fleet could be catastrophic.

    From RealClearWire

    Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

    Tyler Durden Tue, 06/03/2025 - 21:45
  43. Site: Zero Hedge
    2 days 2 hours ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    US Still Prosecuting Former ISIS Members After Officially Embracing One In Damascus

    This week a 49-year-old naturalized American citizen has been sentenced to a decade in federal prison, after confessing to traveling to Syria to join the Islamic State.

    Lirim Sylejmani pled guilty to terrorism charges in December, and was sentenced by a federal court on Monday.  Sylejmani had attended an ISIS training camp beginning in November 2015, after moving from Kosovo to Syria with an intent to joint the terror group. "The defendant will spend a decade in prison thinking about the betrayal to this country," US Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said in a statement.

    Illustrative: ISIS terrorist on top of abandoned Syrian jet, via BBC/Getty Images

    UPI writes that "Prosecutors said he changed his name to Abu Sulayman al-Kosovi and trained alongside other recruits to be an ISIS soldier following his arrival in the Middle Eastern country. His training included instruction on using AK-47 rifles, PK machine guns, M-16 rifles and grenades."

    According to the Defense Post:

    When the Kosovo-native was 23, he found refuge in the United States after fleeing a genocidal regime. Sixteen years later, he decided to join one.

    Sulejmani is one of hundreds of American citizens believed to have joined Islamic State in Iraq and Syria since 2014. But as the Trump administration transfers dozens of high-priority ISIS suspects from makeshift prisons across northeast Syria as U.S. troops levels draw down...

    But the unspoken irony and contraction here is that he had joined the Syrian battlefield at a time the West was "looking the other way" as thousands of international jihadists joined the fight to topple Assad (a fight that the CIA and Pentagon were supporting covertly). NATO member Turkey had essentially opened the border, a 'jihadi highway' into Syria as part of the covert effort to overthrow the Syrian government.

    The other irony is that the US has just embraced Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (Jolani), who himself was at one point early in the Syrian proxy war a personal emissary of ISIS terror chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

    Apparently some kinds of terrorism are OK, according to Washington's regime change playbook...

    Jolani is also well-known for being the founder of Syria's initial al-Qaeda branch, Jabhat al Nusrah, which has since morphed into Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which rules from Damascus in the wake of Assad's overthrow in December. HTS has even spent a long time on the US terrorism list, though the $10 million bounty which had been on Jolani's head has recently been removed by the FBI and US Treasury.

    As for Sulejmani, he had long been held in an prison near Hasakah run by the Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Thousands of suspected ISIS fighters were held there for years, amid efforts to send foreign fighters to their respective home countries for prosecution.

    Lirim Sulejmani, via The Defense Post

    Sulejmani had actually asked to be deported to Kosovo, due to it being largely Islamic and a small country, but that didn't happen. Kosovo was recognized as a nation by the Bush administration, after it was forcibly peeled away from Serbian control following years of war as well as NATO military intervention.

    Meanwhile, Syrian AQ founder al-Sharaa is planning to travel to New York in December to address the United Nations...

    “Moderated” Al Qaeda leader to address UN General Assembly in New York in September.

    What a time to be alive.
    https://t.co/uQOil90Mxl

    — Jonathan Schanzer (@JSchanzer) June 3, 2025

    Confused Americans might rightly be asking: what was 20 years of the so-called Global War on Terror (GWOT) really all about? What was it all for?

    Tyler Durden Tue, 06/03/2025 - 21:20
  44. Site: OnePeterFive
    2 days 3 hours ago
    Author: Massimo Scapin

    On June 3, 1875, exactly 150 years ago, Georges Bizet passed away under mysterious circumstances in Bougival, near Paris, at the young age of 36. Despite his short life, his opera Carmen stands as a landmark work that “significantly contributes to the modernization of the genres of French musical theater and influences the developments of late-century verismo melodrama” (A. Rusconi…

    Source

  45. Site: Public Discourse
    2 days 4 hours ago
    Author: Marc O. DeGirolami

    Editors’ Note: In recognition of the 100th anniversary of Pierce v. Society of Sisters, this article is published as the third in a three-part series on religious freedom. 

    What can the minority in a democracy reasonably expect from the majority? Church-state conflict in this country always seems to boil down to this basic question, whether the issue is Christian crosses on highways, objections to vaccine or mask mandates, privileges for general reporting requirements, prayers in schools or legislative sessions, funding for religious institutions, Native American objections to government land projects, or so many others.  

    Yet nothing illustrates the problem quite as vividly as religious exemption. Exemption is sometimes called “accommodation,” a term that seems inapt. An accommodation is an obliging adjustment. If I plan on serving burgers and sausages at a barbecue, but I learn that one of my guests does not eat meat, I make an accommodation by including a pasta salad and grilled zucchini. I do so willingly, even complaisantly, because I harmonize the wishes of the vegetarian guest with the interests of the rest. Everybody wins. 

    But everybody does not win with exemption. Exemptions (of any kind, religious or otherwise) from the laws are little negations of the laws. They suggest that the laws are actually not as important or essential as had been supposed. Exemptions are, in this way, politically subversive. They destabilize the legal settlements of democratic majorities, while encouraging sentiments of entitlement and interiority. True, sometimes democratic majorities enact broad exemption laws, as they did in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and its state analogues. And yet James Madison once warned that the dangers of faction needed to be managed lest they engulf the common good. The ascendancy of exemption suggests that, today, faction is how Americans understand the common good. We have embraced a kind of federalism of personal autonomy.  

    The mechanics of exemption as a matter of legislative grace suggest that there may be a difference between exemption as exception and exemption as constitutional mandate—between voluntary and compelled concession. Moderate use of exemption can reinforce the law’s primacy while making a softening indulgence. It can make the regulatory pill a little easier to swallow. It can even cement the hierarchy of authority. These exemptions are the backyard barbecue variety, the easy and non-threatening ones, and there are many in the law that are like this. “We are in charge,” such exemptions say, “but we’ll give you this one because we don’t really care.”  

    More systematic use of exemption, by contrast, disrupts. Required exemption is not so much a concession as an expression of a transformed politics where there is no more culture war because there is no common culture left to fight about. Or to put it another way: exemption as the rule, as the political baseline, is a type of ersatz culture war. This may be one of its key functions—to fight the culture war from the rear. Exemptions of this sort are more threatening to the ruling power.  

    Whether disruption is good or bad will depend considerably upon one’s views about the law’s merits and one’s position on the culture wars. People will feel differently about those questions. I myself often favor more aggressive sorts of exemption, precisely because of their unsettling possibilities. But that is beside the point. What is worth noticing here is the destabilizing potential of exemption. We can observe the pressure that exemption puts on the law while prescinding from the merits. And we should want to do that: legal strategies that might succeed in one or another case might have larger political effects that are also worth considering. 

    As for the Constitution, scholars disagree about whether religious exemption was ever required as an original matter by the Free Exercise Clause. Others say that religious exemption may be a diffuse element of American legal culture, a logical corollary of the separation of church and state in the old, jurisdictional sense of separated spheres of civil and ecclesiastical authority. Whoever is right, the constitutional status of religious exemption is highly uncertain as a matter of original meaning. That may explain in part why some originalists partial to religious exemption have made common cause with non-originalists to defend it on non-originalist grounds.  

    Be that as it may, today’s elaborate network of religious exemption laws and its constitutional status surpass what the most zealous champion of exemption can find in American history. The cry of “religious freedom for all” is admirable in many respects but also suggestive of a larger difficulty. “Religious freedom for all” is entirely defensible if it means that nobody should be coerced into religious belief or practice. Perhaps it also means that no one should be punished expressly on the basis of religious commitment as such, though that seems more doubtful: the line between belief and conduct sometimes can be maintained but at other times, as the Supreme Court says, it cannot.  

    But if “religious freedom for all” means constitutionally required exemption from the laws for any claimant who has a sincere objection to them, under circumstances where the laws contain, or even merely contemplate, any other exemption, that is a more complicated matter. When the dissolution of religion as a coherent legal concept is combined with a demand for exemption, one has the makings of a potent political instrument. Of course, requests for exemption may still be overridden if the state has a compelling interest in its law that it is achieving by the least restrictive means, but those concepts are also highly contested. 

    Exemption understood in this way—as a challenge to the polity’s bedrock—compels partisans of the political establishment to face up to which commitments they refuse to compromise. By “the establishment,” I mean not only the church-state sense of the term but also the broader sense used in Romans 13: the political settlements of the “powers that be.” Exemption can provoke our own powers to confront what they think is sufficiently embedded in the American political foundation for them to tell the minority, “No. You must obey our way. You may not have your way.” 

    Whether disruption is good or bad will depend considerably upon one’s views about the law’s merits and one’s position on the culture wars.

     

    The Hand That Rocks the Cradle 

    Of the three law and religion cases that the Supreme Court agreed to hear this term, Mahmoud v. Taylor seems like the surest bet for the religious claimants. The case concerns a 2019 Maryland regulation that sought to promote “educational equity,” which it defined as “view[ing] each student’s” “gender identity and expression,” “sexual orientation,” and other specified “individual characteristics as valuable.” To implement the law, the Montgomery County Board of Education introduced a series of books for elementary school students with (often explicit) LGBTQ themes. Official guidance documents directed teachers to read at least one of these books aloud each year followed by a discussion in which they should “[d]isrupt the either/or thinking” of children about biological sex, and should not suggest there could be reasonable disagreement about these matters. 

    This instructional program did not sit well with hundreds of parents—a sizable minority—from a broad range of religious traditions, who requested that their children be permitted to opt out of it. That request initially was granted, but was later refused. The parents were further informed that they would not be told when the books would be read. These were all sudden policy changes: for years the Board had frequently allowed opt-outs for any “instruction related to family life and human sexuality,” as well as for “classroom discussions or activities” that families believed would “impose a substantial burden on their religious beliefs.” The parents promptly sued, arguing that the denial of the opt-outs and notice violated their rights of religious liberty. 

    The Board makes two principal arguments: first, that the program merely exposes children to these books, and that having the books available for children is not a “substantial burden” on anybody’s free exercise of religion. And second, that the number of objectors to this particular program distinguishes the ordinary opt-out request, inasmuch as exempting so many students makes it virtually impossible for the school to teach the way it (and the state legislature) wants. 

    The case is not difficult. The Board’s first argument is belied by the record. This is not a case about exposure to books sitting mutely on shelves, but about active instruction and the development of certain types of sentiments and attitudes in very young children. Children are required to attend school. They are required to sit and participate in instruction to which their parents object on religious grounds, and in which the school’s express object is to form their minds in a definite way. That seems to meet the legal standard for a substantial burden on religious exercise. 

    The second argument is also easy legally. The school argues that the large number of objectors essentially precludes the new program from operating. To grant opt-outs at this rate is to kill the curriculum. Analogous claims have been made before. The trouble for the Board is that the Supreme Court has interpreted the “general applicability” prong of the free exercise test broadly. The Board gerrymandered its refusal for this specific religious objection alone. Its policy of granting exemptions from curricular and non-curricular school programming, and what the parents plausibly characterize as its “slapdash blitz” to eliminate opt-outs for this particular program, are likely to doom its position.  

    Cycles of Exemption, Disestablishment, and Establishment 

    The case is interesting because underneath the legal doctrine, it illustrates the fissures that exemption can create when it is used to unsettle the deep places in the political foundation—that is, the establishment. In fact, it shows how exemption and establishment exist in a kind of political cycle. Grant them frequently enough, and exemptions become an instrument of disestablishment. Exemptions are, in this way, establishment disruptors. And when they disrupt, they can usher in, bit by bit, their own establishment. I do not claim that the plaintiffs in Mahmoud intend these effects. What they want is simply that their children not be compelled to sit through this instruction. Their object is not to create a new establishment. But the point is not about this case specifically, but the changes that exemptions can bring about over time. 

    In a thoughtful amicus brief in the case, Professor Eugene Volokh and Professor Justin Driver argue that exemptions on the scale contemplated in Mahmoud would “undermine the educational system” by “upsetting the balance” between state control of education and individual rights of free exercise. Reading their brief, one is reminded of Justice Harlan’s epigram that “one man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric.” Undermining the educational establishment is what exemption desired by large numbers of people can do. Indeed, it is what it is well suited to do, inasmuch as it presents itself to the Court as a mere opt-out, while its real function can be to change policy. 

    Exemption used in this way therefore puts pressure on the majority to decide on what it will not compromise to the minority. This is what the Board was pressed to do. It is showing just how committed it is to this type of instruction. Public schools have long served the function of foundational civic formation in this country, of assimilation of the plural mass into the core creeds of the American polity. It may be that in this case, the Board just pushed its creeds too far (or perhaps too fast?), and when it was met with resistance, it dug in. Indeed, Mahmoud v. Taylor sits against the backdrop of a public-school establishment that is now losing some of its footing to a new educational movement, school choice.  

    The dynamic of exemption in controversies like these illustrates what I have described as the continuum of free exercise, disestablishment, and establishment. That continuum might be represented in a four-stage narrative cycle.  

    In the first stage, the establishment is firm and entrenched. Dissent from it is only possible through limited and disconnected exemptions that pose no threat at all to the settled way of doing things. In fact, exemption at this point looks like an act of liberal generosity by the ruling power, whose control may be strengthened by it. 

    In the second stage, the establishment experiences some fragmentation, and the majority provisionally accepts several different accounts of its fundamental commitments and orthodoxies. It pluralizes to negotiate deepening difference. Exemption begins to be used not merely as an individuated opt-out, but as a more direct challenge to the establishment, or to features of it, revealing fissures and generating more organized pockets of disestablishmentarian resistance. 

    In the third stage, certain new disestablishmentarian programs achieve greater strength, and exemption is supplemented by other organizational strategies. Features of the old establishment are gradually supplanted in law and policy. It is generally at this comparatively advanced stage that institutions like the Supreme Court involve themselves in dismantling the old establishment to make space for what will come next.  

    In the fourth stage, one or more of the ascendant disestablishments starts to gain traction as a new establishment and tests its own reach into the political structure. The cycle begins again.  

    The matter is contestable, of course, but it seems we have reached something in the range of the second and third stages in both Mahmoud and one of the other law and religion cases that was before the Court involving religious charter schools. In that case, Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond, the Court recently deadlocked 4-4, resulting in the public school establishment’s default victory because it had prevailed in the lower courts. Yet the equipoise of the justices on the merits (Justice Barrett had recused herself) suggests that all of these disputes, together with the rising school choice movement, reflect new and interesting disruptions to the prevailing system of general education in this country.  

    Whether one thinks those disruptions are good or bad is, as I have said, a different matter. But thinking through the relationship of exemption to political establishment is worthwhile apart from the result in any given case, especially for those of us who are both religious believers and American citizens.

    Image licensed via Adobe Stock.

  46. Site: Zero Hedge
    2 days 5 hours ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    OECD Cuts Global Growth Forecast In Light Of Tariff Threat

    The global economy is projected to grow slower than previously expected this year, as the trade war started by the Trump administration has shaken business and consumer confidence, created a lot of uncertainty and added to inflationary pressures as prices are all but certain to rise in the current high-tariff environment.

    As Statista's Felix Richter reports, in its latest Economic Outlook, published on Tuesday, the OECD slashed its global growth forecast for 2025 from 3.3 percent in December 2024 and 3.1 percent in March 2025 to just 2.9 percent, assuming that tariff rates effective as of mid-May will remain in place through 2026.

    Unsurprisingly, the U.S. and its main trade partners China, Canada and Mexico are expected to be most affected by the tariffs, with U.S. GDP growth expected to slow sharply from 2.8 percent in 2024 to 1.6 percent this year and 1.5 percent in 2026.

    This is down from December projections of 2.4 and 2.1 percent, highlighting the adverse effect that Trump’s tariff policy is expected to have on the American economy.

     OECD Cuts Global Growth Forecast in Light of Tariff Threat | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    "The global economy has shifted from a period of resilient growth and declining inflation to a more uncertain path,” OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said.

    “Our latest economic outlook shows that today’s policy uncertainty is weakening trade and investment, diminishing consumer and business confidence and curbing growth prospects."

    The effect of the new trade barriers is expected to be most severe through 2025, as global growth is expected to slow to 2.6 percent by the fourth quarter of this year, before gradually climbing back to 3.0 percent by the end of 2026.

    “Policy has a crucial role to play to tackle uncertainty and boost growth,” the OECD’s chief economist Álvaro Pereira wrote in an editorial accompanying the report.

    First and foremost, it is essential to avoid further trade fragmentation and trade barriers. Agreements to ease trade tensions and lower tariffs and other trade barriers will be instrumental to revive growth and investment and avoid rising prices,” Pereira said.

    If trade barriers aren’t lowered, he warned, the growth impact would be “quite significant” with “massive repercussions for everyone.”

    Tyler Durden Tue, 06/03/2025 - 18:50
  47. Site: non veni pacem
    2 days 5 hours ago
    Author: Mark Docherty
     
     
    Image

    “The unnatural vice [sodomy] is the greatest of all sins after the sin of unbelief.” -St. Thomas Aquinas 

    Image

    “Every sexual intercourse [sodomy] that cannot lead to conception is opposed to man’s nature.” – St. Thomas Aquinas 

    Image

    “Since by the unnatural vices man
    transgresses that which has been determined by nature with regard to the use of venereal actions, it follows that in this matter this sin is gravest of all.” – St. Thomas Aquinas 

    Image

    The sin against nature [Sodomy] debases man lower than even his animal nature.” -St. Thomas Aquinas 

    Image

    “Since by the unnatural vices man
    transgresses that which has been
    determined by nature with regard to the use of venereal actions, it follows that in this matter this sin is gravest of all.” 

    – St. Thomas Aquinas 

    Image

    “Sodomy pollutes the flesh, extinguishes the light of the mind, expels the Holy Spirit from the temple of the human heart.” 

    ⁃ St. Peter Damian 

    Image

    “And what more should I say since it [sodomy] expels the whole host of the virtues from the chamber of the human heart and introduces every barbarous vice as if the bolts of the doors were pulled out.” 

    – St. Peter Damian 

    Image

    “This vice [sodomy] violates temperance, kills purity, stifles chastity and annihilates virginity with the sword of a most infamous union. It infects, stains and pollutes everything: it leaves nothing pure: there is nothing but filth.”

    -St. Peter Damian 

    Image

    “This plague [Sodomy] undermines the foundation of faith, weakens the strength of hope, destroys the bond of charity; it takes away justice, subverts fortitude, banishes temperance, blunts the keenness of prudence.” – St. Peter Damian 

    Image

    “The miserable flesh [of the sodomites] burns with the heat of lust; the cold mind trembles with the rancor of suspicion; and in the heart of the miserable man chaos boils like Tartarus [Hell]. 
    – St. Peter Damian 

    Image

    “As the Sacred Scripture says, the Sodomites were wicked and exceedingly sinful.”

    -Saint Peter Canisius 

    Image

    “Those unashamed of violating divine and natural law are slaves of sodomy never sufficiently execrated depravity.” – 

    St. Peter Canisius 

    Image

    “Someone who lived practicing the vice of sodomy will suffer more pains in Hell than anyone else, because this is the worst sin that there is.” 

    – St. Bernardine 

    Image

    “No sin in the world grips the soul as the accursed sodomy; this sin has always been detested by all those who live according to God.” 

    – St. Bernardine 

    Image

    All sodomites, men and women, died all over the earth, as Saint Jerome said commenting on the verse Lux orta est iusto [The light was born for the just] (Ps 96:11). This was to make it clear that He [Jesus Christ] was born to reform nature and to promote chastity.

    St. Bonaventure, Sermon 21 – In Nativitate Domini

    Image

    “Consider how great is that sin [sodomy] to have forced hell to appear even before its time!” – St. John Chrysostom 

    Image

    “The sin of Sodom is contrary to nature, and it is an insult to the Creator.” – St. John Chrysostom 

    Image

    “The worst is that such an abomination is committed boldly and that the monstrosity became the law. Nobody nowadays fears, nobody blushes. They boast and they laugh at these actions.” 

    -St. John Chrysostom 

    Image

    “All passions are dishonorable, for they make the soul a slave, and force it to do things that are shameful. But among these, the worst is lust between men.” 

    -St. John Chrysostom 

    Image

    “Such sins [of Sodomy] overturn the laws of nature, and they bring down the wrath of God upon those who commit them.” 

    – St. John Chrysostom 

    Image

    “The sins of Sodom are abominable
    and deserve punishment whenever and wherever they are committed”

    – St. Augustine 

    Image

    “Those offences which be contrary to nature are everywhere and at all times to be held in detestation and punished; such were those of the Sodomites, which should all nations commit, they should all be held guilty of the same crime by the divine law.” -St. Augustine 

    Image

    “Sodomy offends God and provokes His wrath.” 

    – Pope St. Pius V (In his papal bull Horrendum illud scelus) 

    Image

    “Like the blind and stupid, homosexuals do not recognize the disease and misery in which they find themselves. This not only causes Me nausea, but displeases even the demons themselves, whom these miserable creatures have chosen as their lords.” 

    – St. Catherine 

    Image

    It is disagreeable to the demons, not because evil displeases them and they find pleasure in good, but because their nature is angelic and thus is repulsed upon seeing such an enormous sin being committed. 

    It is true that it is the demon who hits the sinner with the poisoned arrow of lust, but when a man carries out such a sinful act, the demon leaves.” -St. Catherine of Siena

    Image

    “They [homosexual acts] are born from an ardent frenzy; they are disgustingly foul; those who become addicted to them are seldom freed from that vice; they are as contagious as disease, passing quickly from one person to another.” 

    – St. Albert the Great 

    Image

    “Sacred Scripture itself confirms that sulfur evokes the stench of the flesh, as it speaks of the rain of fire and sulfur poured upon Sodom by the Lord.” 

    – St. Gregory the Great 

    Image

    “And Sodom and Gomorrah might have appeased [God’s wrath], had they been willing to repent, and through the aid of fasting gain for themselves tears of repentance.” – St. Jerome 

    Image

    “[God in the Law given to Moses] having forbidden all unlawful marriage, and all unseemly practice, and the union of women with women and men with men.” 

    – St. Eusebius of Caesarea 

    Image

    “…It was just that Sodomites, burning with perverse desires arising from the flesh like stench, should perish by fire and sulfur so that through this just punishment they would realize the evil they had committed, led by a perverse desire.” – St. Gregory the Great 

  48. Site: LifeNews
    2 days 5 hours ago
    Author: Katie Clancy

    Today, Thomas More Society attorneys on behalf of Choose Life Marketing, filed a reply in support of their motion to dismiss in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, against a meritless lawsuit brought by abortion provider Four Women Health Services.

    Four Women Health Services argues the marketing services provided by Choose Life Marketing for Abundant Hope, a pro-life pregnancy center and co-defendant in the case, “mislead” women seeking abortions, simply because Choose Life Marketing employs standard marketing practices to better help Abundant Hope offer alternatives to abortion, such as parenting support, adoption resources, and material assistance.

    “Massachusetts’ abortion businesses, backed by a former attorney general with a history of targeting pro-life speech, are attempting to tear up the First Amendment and suppress speech they disagree with,” said Peter Breen, Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation at Thomas More Society. “Choose Life’s amplification of the reach of pregnancy centers in Massachusetts is lawful and protected by the First Amendment, no matter how the abortion industry tries to twist it.”

    REACH PRO-LIFE PEOPLE WORLDWIDE! Advertise with LifeNews to reach hundreds of thousands of pro-life readers every week. Contact us today.

    The newest filing follows an earlier motion to dismiss, filed by Thomas More Society attorneys on March 14, 2025. In a rare move, the court allowed Four Women Health Services to completely rewrite their original complaint, after conspiratorial claims spurred by the pregnancy center’s effective community outreach. The abortion facility then added Choose Life Marketing as a defendant, alleging “unfair business practices” under state and federal law, in a renewed attempt to stifle its speech.

    “This meritless lawsuit hijacks commercial laws to gag the pro-life message which the abortion provider opposes,” explained Nathan Loyd, Staff Counsel at Thomas More Society. “The First Amendment protects the right of pregnancy centers to tell women they exist and provide free assistance.  If successful, the plaintiff’s theory threatens all kinds of community organizations and charities offering free services that others charge for—think about food banks giving free food, or women’s shelters giving free housing—across Massachusetts and the country.”

    “At core, the abortion provider fears that the pro-life message is more persuasive than its own pro-abortion message. It thinks it will make more money by silencing pro-life speech.”

    Four Women Health Services is represented by former Attorney General of Massachusetts, Martha Coakley, who was prominently rebuked by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark pro-life free speech case, McCullen v. Coakley (2014).

    The filing, Choose Life Marketing’s Reply in Support of Motion to Dismiss in Four Women Health Services v. Choose Life Marketing, can be found here.

    The post Abortion Biz Sues to Stop Pro-Life Pregnancy Center That’s Costing It Customers appeared first on LifeNews.com.

  49. Site: Mundabor's blog
    2 days 5 hours ago
    Author: Mundabor
    I don’t have four hours to listen to Tucker Carlson and Bishop “Don’t Get Me Wrong”-Barron. If I had them, I would still choose to do something better with them than listening to Barron. Barron is Catholic Diet Coke. I am not even sure about the lack of sugar. Tucker Carlson is an intelligent, educated, […]
  50. Site: LifeNews
    2 days 5 hours ago
    Author: Amy O'Donnell

    The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has released its Induced Termination of Pregnancy (ITOP) data for January 2025, reporting 14 medically necessary abortions performed under Texas law’s life-of-the-mother exception for that month. This brings the total reported number to 171 medically necessary abortions in Texas during the 31 months following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, which overturned Roe v. Wade.

    Each abortion represents a rare and tragic case where a pregnancy posed a threat to the mother’s life or a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function. Notably, no doctor has been prosecuted, sued, or sanctioned for any of those abortions. No woman has lost her life for lack of an exception in the law.

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    At the same time, reported elective abortions have remained at zero each month since the Human Life Protection Act took effect in August 2022.

    The Texas Legislature recently passed SB 31, the Life of the Mother Act, by Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) and Rep. Charlie Geren (R-Ft. Worth), to create Continuing Medical Education (CME) for physicians and Continuing Legal Education (CLE) for attorneys working in hospital settings on how the life-of-the-mother exception functions under Texas law. SB 31 also harmonizes the exception language across all pro-life statutes to align with the Human Life Protection Act. Governor Greg Abbott is expected to sign SB 31 into law.

    Under the Human Life Protection Act, an unborn child is protected from elective abortion from the moment of conception. However, the law explicitly permits physicians to perform an abortion when, using reasonable medical judgment, they determine that a pregnancy endangers the mother’s life or could cause a serious risk of impairment of a major bodily function.

    “These newly reported numbers offer continued reassurance that the law is working — protecting unborn children from elective abortion while making room for doctors to provide medically necessary abortions for women facing threats to their life or health during a pregnancy,” said Amy O’Donnell, Communications Director for Texas Alliance for Life. “SB 31 ensures that physicians treating pregnant women and attorneys advising them understand what the law allows, so that no woman is denied care due to fear or confusion.”

    “SB 31 is about building confidence for the professionals responsible for making critical decisions in medical cases involving threats to pregnant women’s life and health,” O’Donnell added. “With proper education, we can ensure that every Texas woman receives timely care.”

    LifeNews Note: Amy O’Donnell is the Communications Director for Texas Alliance for Life.

    The post Texas Records 30 Straight Months of 0 Elective Abortions appeared first on LifeNews.com.

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