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Gail Appel wrote:

Biden’s “ success” in Afghanistan. And wait ‘til you see Syria and Bangladesh! Every fashionista knows that black burkas with the entire face and head covered are sizzling hot( literally) compared to those frumpy saris that wrap snugly around the hips and rear, leaving  6 “ of bare midriff.

See here.

 

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The Hill.

 

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Gail Appel wrote:

A hermaphroditic Fauci/Duby symbiosis.

See here.

 

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This tweet explains it well:

AidenHunterX (@Aiden Hunter) posted: Does anybody else get the distinct impression that Murray’s appearance was supposed to be some kind of profound culture-changing moment that would finally shut us up?

It’s like they were counting on Murray to go in and broadside Joe by surprise. Not to engage in argumentation.

See here.

 

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Le ultime settimane sono state caratterizzate da manifestazioni di dissenso nei confronti dell'amministrazione Trump. Dagli attacchi vandalici alle Tesla in giro per strada agli incendi degli stabilimenti industriali della stessa casa automobilistica, il sentimento contrario e di protesta sta emergendo con una certa violenza. Non solo, ma due fine settimana fa abbiamo sentito dai canali informativi ufficiali che in gran parte delle grandi città americane erano scesi in piazza manifestanti per esprimere il loro dissenso nei confronti di Trump. Giornali, telegiornali e giornalisti hanno subdolamente fatto intendere che tutte queste cose sono squisitamente “spontanee”. Lasciatemi essere campanilista nei confronti del lavoro che svolgo su queste pagine (virtuali): senza la voce analitica di uno come me, non ci sarebbe scampo dai megafoni della propaganda mainstream; spazi divulgativi come i miei dovrebbero essere supportati affinché possano continuare a operare nonostante i venti contrari provenienti da mancanza di sponsor e dalla facilità con cui potrebbero essere perfidamente silenziati (“shadow ban”, spinta più in basso nei risultati di ricerca, ecc. cosa già accaduto dal 2021 al 2024). Detto questo, ecco servita l'ennesima confutazione dell'informazione generalista: si scopre infatti che c'è coordinamento nel sottobosco dell'estrema sinistra per quanto riguarda la devastazione mirata di Tesla. Non solo, ma ciò vale anche per le altre manifestazioni di protesta contro Trump e la sua amministrazione, in America e nel resto del mondo (oltre alle “rivoluzioni colorate” in Georgia, Moldavia, Serbia, Romania). Infatti la realtà è ben diversa da quella disegnata e diffusa dai canali d'informazione ufficiali. Sto esagerando? Allora leggetevi questo lungo articolo del Time dove si riporta, prove estese alla mano, l'esistenza di una rete sotterranea di coordinamento e finanziamento facente riferimento alla sinistra e allo Stato profondo. Lo smantellamento della USAID, quindi, e il licenziamento di fannulloni nella macchina pubblica sono passi nella giusta direzione. Sebbene lo Stato profondo non resterà a guardare, una pubblico attento e con spirito critico nei confronti di ciò che legge è essenziale affinché esso non riacquisti forza e attiri dalla sua parte anche chi è stato accuratamente fuorviato da un'informazione mainstream distorta e (convenientemente) omissiva.

____________________________________________________________________________________

di Matthew Palumbo

(Versione audio della traduzione disponibile qui: https://open.substack.com/pub/fsimoncelli/p/soros-e-la-usaid-un-matrimonio-diabolico)

La recente attenzione rivolta alla USAID e le rivelazioni esplosive sulla reale destinazione delle sue spese rappresentano sicuramente un regalo di Natale anticipato per Rand Paul, quando arriverà il momento di preparare il suo rapporto annuale Festivus.

Dal finanziamento dell'insegnamento ai giornalisti dello Sri Lanka su come evitare il “linguaggio binario di genere” ai cambiamenti di sesso in Guatemala, all'attivismo LGBT in Armenia, Giamaica, America Latina, Uganda, tra innumerevoli altri, l'agenzia si comportava più come un'organizzazione di attivisti che altro. C'è anche dell'ironia nella rivelazione che molte cosiddette “Organizzazioni non governative” (ONG) ottengono la maggior parte dei loro finanziamenti dal governo federale.

Altre cose che saltano all'occhio includono il finanziamento di Sesame Street in Iraq, laboratori di drag show per migranti venezuelani in Ecuador, la promozione del turismo in Tunisia ed Egitto, la sensibilizzazione degli africani sui cambiamenti climatici e l'insegnamento alla popolazione del Kazakistan su come difendersi dai troll su Internet.

L'elenco potrebbe continuare per centinaia di pagine, ma il concetto è chiaro.

Anche i progetti di aiuti che potrebbero essere considerati più legittimi sono macchiati dalla politica e questo grazie a George Soros. Nel 2017 la Heritage Foundation ha svelato come Soros avesse sfruttato la sua influenza per mettere vincoli agli aiuti umanitari erogati dalla USAID, tutti i quali richiedevano ai destinatari di sottoscrivere un'agenda politica di estrema sinistra, specialmente nei Paesi che non la volevano:

[...] ma stanno emergendo prove che negli ultimi otto anni [a partire dal 2009], Soros, la sua Open Societies Foundations (OSF) e le loro numerose affiliate più piccole hanno ricevuto denaro dei contribuenti statunitensi tramite USAID e che quest'ultima ha reso OSF il principale esecutore dei suoi aiuti.

Fu nel 2009 che la USAID iniziò a vincolare i fondi per lo sviluppo ai Paesi che assumevano posizioni progressiste sui diritti gay/transgender, tra le altre cause di sinistra, tra cui anche la legalizzazione della prostituzione e la depenalizzazione delle droghe (non nel modo in cui molti libertari vorrebbero, ma piuttosto secondo il modello “San Francisco”). Ciò accadde ai Paesi africani e ai Paesi europei “dall'Irlanda alla Macedonia”.

Heritage ha anche scoperto che, nonostante alcuni aiuti da parte della USAID siano aiuti umanitari, abbiamo decenni di dati che dimostrano che non hanno migliorato la crescita economica e lo sviluppo nei Paesi finanziati. Quindi non c'è davvero alcun problema a buttare via il proverbiale bambino con l'acqua sporca quando si tratta di eliminare la USAID.

Per quanto scandalosi siano alcuni dei progetti progressisti e caricaturali in cui la USAID ha investito, dare fuoco ai soldi non è nemmeno lontanamente una delle loro attività più distruttive.

Ecco alcuni esempi.

Albania

L'Albania è la nazione più colpita dalla corruzione amministrativa nella regione, con il 57% dei cittadini a cui vengono richieste tangenti occasionalmente e il 47% che prende parte a transazioni corrotte. In collaborazione con USAID, la Open Society Foundations (OSF) di Soros ha contribuito con $60 milioni tra il 2000 e il 2015 ai cosiddetti sforzi di riforma della giustizia in Albania, e l'OSF ha stanziato i fondi.

Gli sforzi di riforma hanno ampiamente aiutato il Partito Socialista a consolidare il potere. Esso è guidato dal Primo Ministro Edi Rama, fotografato con Alex Soros quasi ogni mese, e che lo chiama suo “fratello”. Un documento dell'OSF redatto nel 2013, l'anno in cui Rama ha assunto il potere come Primo Ministro, ha delineato come riformare la Costituzione albanese. La riforma giudiziaria USAID-Soros-Rama è stata completata nel 2016.

Una revisione degli sforzi per quanto riguarda la riforma giudiziaria nel luglio 2021, esattamente cinque anni dopo la sua promulgazione, mostra come siano stati scarsamente all'altezza del linguaggio roseo che l'OSF e i socialisti hanno usato per promuoverla. I risultati sono stati devastanti:

• I tentativi dell'OSF e del Partito Socialista di impadronirsi della Corte Costituzionale e dell'Alto Ispettorato della Giustizia albanesi hanno lasciato l'opinione pubblica senza di essi per quasi quattro anni.

• Le Corti d'appello e le Corti di primo grado hanno solo un quarto dei giudici di cui hanno bisogno, e la Corte Suprema metà. Di conseguenza si stima che ci vorranno due decenni per smaltire l'arretrato di oltre 100.000 casi legali, 36.000 dei quali sono in attesa di essere esaminati dalla Corte Suprema.

• L'High Judicial Council ha esternalizzato l'amministrazione dei fascicoli della Corte Suprema all'East-West Management Institute, finanziato da Soros e USAID, gestito dall'ex-moglie di Rama, che è anche ex-presidente dell'OSF. L'East-West Management ha ricevuto oltre $270 milioni dalla USAID.

• Le riforme pongono le reti delle ONG sotto la competenza del Partito Socialista.

• La corruzione è aumentata. Il prezzo delle opere pubbliche con denaro del bilancio statale in Albania costa tra 6 e 8 volte di più rispetto alle opere pubbliche eseguite in “campi simili” con il finanziamento delle banche europee.

Si può solo immaginare quanto disastrosa sia stata a livello locale l'ingerenza di Soros nel sistema giudiziario americano: all'estero è stata ben peggiore.

La rivoluzione colorata nella Macedonia del Nord

Nella piccola nazione della Macedonia del Nord (formalmente Macedonia), che ha una popolazione di poco meno di 2 milioni, Soros, attraverso la sua Fondazione Open Society Macedonia (FOSM) e le sue attività sostenute dalla USAID, ha creato canali di informazione per promuovere la propaganda di sinistra e ha fondato 80 organizzazioni con lo stesso obiettivo, tra cui think tank, associazioni di giornalisti, gruppi che promuovono l'aborto, la droga e gli elementi più stravaganti dell'agenda LGBT. La FOSM era composta in gran parte da persone provenienti dall'ala “riformista” del partito comunista.

Sul tavolo erano previsti anche metodi diretti per un cambio di governo.

Nel 2015 l'Unione socialdemocratica di Macedonia e Soros (con l'aiuto della USAID) hanno finanziato gruppi per avviare una Rivoluzione colorata e rovesciare il partito conservatore al potere VMRO-DPMNE, in carica sin dal 2006. Durante le proteste gli attivisti di sinistra hanno apertamente esultato per il loro sostegno a Soros, indossando magliette con la scritta “esercito di Soros”. Un giornalista che ha posato per una foto indossando una delle magliette ha anche condotto uno show televisivo che promuoveva la rivoluzione colorata nella Macedonia del Nord, e alla fine della trasmissione è stato esposto il logo della USAID.

Guatemala

Una relazione di Judicial Watch ha rivelato come la USAID abbia incanalato milioni di dollari in programmi allineati con gli obiettivi di OSF in Guatemala. Le reti di Soros hanno speso oltre $100 milioni in America Latina dal 2015, con la “riforma della giustizia” come interesse principale. Rispetto al PIL OSF spende in Guatemala oltre il doppio di quanto spende la USAID nel Paese, cosa che ha fortemente allineato le iniziative di ritorno di Soros e ne ha finanziate direttamente alcune, come la Commissione internazionale contro l'impunità.

Come molte cosiddette organizzazioni anti-corruzione finanziate da Soros, tale Commissione è stata trasformata in un'arma contro i leader di destra del Paese e promuove “riforme” di estrema sinistra. Le loro azioni hanno portato alle dimissioni di un presidente a cui Soros si opponeva, Otto Perez Molina del partito di centro-destra Patriot Party, e hanno anche preso di mira il suo successore, Jimmy Morales del partito di destra National Convergence Front.

Negare, negare, negare

Cosa ha da dire OSF a riguardo? “Le affermazioni secondo cui le Open Society Foundations, fondate da George Soros, ricevono finanziamenti dalla USAID, o dirigono il finanziamento di un'agenzia governativa statunitense multimiliardaria, sono palesemente false”.

I bugiardi mentono, ma la documentazione no.

[*] traduzione di Francesco Simoncelli: https://www.francescosimoncelli.com/

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Brass knuckles, which can be made of any material, metal or not, are worn around the knuckles of the hand to increase the force and damage of a punch. Although they are not illegal on the federal level in the United States, they are illegal in about 20 states and in many foreign countries—but not in “Red” China.

A 1931 law in Michigan, MCL 750.224(1)(d), imposes severe penalties, including a possible prison sentence, for possession of brass knuckles. A Grand Rapids-area man was charged with unlawfully possessing brass knuckles. He argued that the statutory prohibition violates both the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article 1, § 6 of the Michigan Constitution. A state trial court denied the man’s motion to dismiss the charges. However, the Michigan Court of Appeals, in a unanimous 18-page opinion, recently affirmed the state’s prohibition of brass knuckles.

Judge Christopher Murray wrote in his opinion that the Michigan “ban on the possession of metallic knuckles falls within the historical tradition of prohibiting the concealed carry of metallic knuckles as a dangerous and unusual weapon.” He previously said during oral arguments in November: “If you ask everybody out here, probably they’d all say brass knuckles are used by the gangs and the thugs who want to go make a point. The history and tradition of the use is not a glamorous one.”

So, since brass knuckles can be used to assault, harm, disfigure, disables, or even kill someone, should the state of Michigan or any other state, ban them?

Of course not.

First of all, brass knuckles don’t assault, harm, disfigure, disable, or kill by themselves. They are attached to someone’s hand and move as the hand moves. Brass knuckles are an inanimate object.

Second, brass knuckles are not just offensive weapons. They can be used to fend off an assailant and let him know that he picked on the wrong person.

Third, hammers, knives, axes, clubs, baseball bats, crowbars, scissors, pipe wrenches, and blunt instruments can be used to assault, harm, disfigure, or kill just as much as brass knuckles.

Fourth, the deadliest weapon that can injure or kill at a distance is a gun. Thousands of Americans are killed every year with pistols or rifles. Yet, guns are not illegal in Michigan or any other state. They may be regulated, and in some cases heavily regulated, but they are not illegal like brass knuckles are.

Fifth, guns, knives, and clubs “are used by the gangs and the thugs who want to go make a point” just like brass knuckles. Yet, it is only brass knuckles that are banned in Michigan (and about 20 other states).

Sixth, if someone assaults, harms, disfigure, disables, or kills someone else—whether it is with brass knuckles, a metal object, or a gun—then he commits a crime that should be punished. No one should be punished for possessing an object that might be used to commit a crime. If so, then no one should be allowed to own golf clubs.

Seventh, if brass knuckles are outlawed, then only outlaws will have brass knuckles. No one who is going to assault, harm, disfigure, disable, or kill someone is concerned about laws against brass knuckles.

Michigan should legalize brass knuckles and any other object or substance that it prohibits. And the federal government and all of the other states should do likewise.

The post Seven Reasons Why Brass Knuckles Should Not Be Banned appeared first on LewRockwell.

For many years now I have been talking about the growing global economic divide between East and West. This volatile opposition between the BRICS nations and the US is not a product of the Trump era. It has been decades in the making with a myriad of complex working parts and numerous US trading partners have been preparing for the fallout as far back as 2008.

At the same time behind the scenes there have been malicious influences at play: Special interests within the Davos community have been working diligently to undermine the US economy and the dollar. But what is the ultimate aim of this agenda?

In 2018 I published an article titled ‘World War III Will Be An Economic War’ – In it I outlined the basic mechanics of the East vs West paradigm and how banking institutions like the IMF and BIS were positioning to take advantage of the chaos. At the time, the “trade war” witnessed a kind of false start, but all the pieces were there for what we are seeing today. Don’t let the 90 day pauses on some tariffs fool you, economic decoupling is going to be the dominant theme of the decade and the tariffs will undoubtedly spring up over and over again.

Trump’s incredible return to the White House sets the stage for the end of globalism (and that’s a good thing), but I want to make it clear that the pitfalls are numerous and the establishment could try to use the end of the old world order to bring in their “new world order”.

In 2018 I noted:

“The bottom line is this: Russia and China are in full support of globalist controlled institutions like the Bank for International Settlements (the central bank of central banks) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The governments of both nations have called for the IMF to assert their Special Drawing Rights basket currency framework as a foundation for a new world reserve currency system. Again, both Russia and China want the IMF, a globalist controlled entity, to become the de facto ruler of a new global monetary structure…”

“With the rise of simple to generate cryptocurrencies and the easily tracked blockchain exchange mechanism, globalists now have the perfect liquidity tool for replacing the dollar as world reserve. All they need now is a crisis event to provide cover for the transition…”

“…It would appear that a crisis event is now being triggered in the form of an international trade war. This trade war, in my view, is designed to become so widespread that it will one day be considered a “world war.”

As I’ve mentioned many times, the dollar’s world reserve status, instituted with the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944, has long been America’s Achilles Heel.

The US technically enjoys an enviable trade advantage as well as a monetary stimulus advantage because the dollar is used in the majority of international transactions. This means the Federal Reserve can print dollars with wild abandon and most of them will be absorbed overseas by foreign banks, governments and corporations. In this way, the dollar is already a kind of beta test for a one world currency.

However, the Bretton Woods Agreement came with a series of caveats, some of them unspoken. For the “privilege” of controlling the reserve currency, the US is expected to financially backstop allies as well as provide the vast majority of military support for NATO. The revelations behind the DOGE audits alone show an endless flood of dollars from American taxpayer funds into a vast array of subsidies for foreign governments. Americans has been paying for everyone and everything.

You know those supposedly amazing social welfare and healthcare programs in Europe? Yeah, we make that possible through billions in foreign aid to the those countries along with hundreds of billions spent on defense so that Europeans can sleep easy at night.

The situation is even worse when we consider how many trillions of dollars were created from thin air by the Federal Rserve and transferred overseas after the crash of 2008. Not to mention the trillions poured into foreign economies during the pandemic. In the meantime, relentless money creation is finally catching up to us in the form of a stagflation crisis. The dollar system, as we know it, is precariously unstable and more stimulus is not going to save it.

It’s not surprising the US has been hit with an inflationary freight train. We haven’t just been printing dollars for ourselves, we’ve been printing dollars for the entire planet.

The old world agreements are ending, and in many ways this is necessary. European leaders are going full authoritarian; they now throw people in prison daily for online speech and they are also throwing their right-leaning political opponents in prison to prevent them from participating in elections. Europe is no longer our ally and the US public is starting to realize it.

Outsourced production in Asia, the foundation of the current global supply chain, is in need of reform. Because of our reserve status America has become the world’s cash cow. We have been relegated to the position of dutiful consumer nation, spending our increasingly devalued dollars in a spiraling cycle of inflationary decline while we produce very little on our own soil.

Donald Trump’s tariff actions, which I suspect will be cumulative over the next few years, are an expression of America’s desire to end the globalist status quo and bring back balance. That said, the rhetoric from the rest of the world and the media is that these tariffs constitute an “act of war”.

As I predicted years ago, the US is not allowed to stray from the Bretton Woods system without being painted as an “aggressor” nation bent on destroying our neighbors. Keep in mind, most of the countries affected by Trump’s tariffs have had their own tariffs on American goods for decades. When they do it, it’s normal. When we do it, it’s a betrayal.

Enter the BRICS; this international trade body is currently headed by Brazil and includes China, Russia, India, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates among others. The running theory for many alternative economists is that the BRICS will eventually move to fully decouple from the US dollar and introduce their own shared currency system.

I have posited a similar theory, though I argue that the situation is not as simple as some analysts think. This is not just an East vs West division leading to a break in the dollar structure; there is a lot more going on.

Ten years ago the BRICS were in a much better position economically and that would have been the time to introduce a competing monetary framework. Today, Russia is in the midst of a proxy war with NATO in Ukraine, China is on the edge of deflationary collapse and South Africa is on the edge of social collapse. There’s not a single BRICS member beyond oil producers like Saudi Arabia that is not facing extreme fiscal turmoil. In other words, the BRICS do not currently have the ability to counter the dollar.

That said, I don’t think this was ever the plan. Rather, globalist institutions like the IMF, BIS and World Bank have been preparing for the rollout of CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies) along with a single IMF controlled global digital currency attached to the SDR basket. The BRICS cannot compete with the dollar, unless the IMF and BIS help them to do so.

As IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva admitted in 2023:

“CBDCs should not be fragmented national propositions… To have more efficient and fairer transactions we need systems that connect countries: we need interoperability…For this reason at the IMF, we are working on the concept of a global CBDC platform.”

Such program could only be accomplished after serious economic turmoil has made the populations of all nations desperate for a centralized solution. The upcoming BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, slated for July, should be watched carefully because it is timed almost exactly in line with the end of Trump’s 90 day tariff pause. The summit is expected to address the trade war in depth as well as the subject of “de-dollerization”. Trump has previously threatened a 150% tariff on any country that makes an attempt to de-dollerize.

While speaking at the BRICS Summit in 2024, held at Kazan (Russia), Russian President Vladimir Putin said:

“The dollar is being used as a weapon. We really see that this is so. I think that this is a big mistake by those who do this”.

This was the same summit where Putin shared a mock up of a “BRICS dollar” and spoke about the adaptation of a BRICS currency. Of course, Russia is in no position to field a new reserve currency and neither is China, but I believe this talk is a precursor to a larger international push for a new reserve system managed by the IMF.

The BRICS intend to court the Mexican government at the July 2025 summit in Rio de Jeneiro and there is also talk of European nations increasing trade with China as a way to frustrate Trump’s tariff efforts. But again, China’s economy is currently flirting with deflationary disaster and there’s not a single nation or group of nations that will be able to fill the void in consumer markets left behind by the US.

Even though a Chinese-based solution is unlikely, the behavior of the BRICS indicates that there is some kind of plan afoot. China and India have been stockpiling massive gold reserves and this may be in preparation for a break from the dollar, with gold skyrocketing as the dollar falls. The ongoing shift into crypto and CBDCs is also, I believe, an attempt to create a cushion for de-dollerization.

Just remember that none of this is possible without globalist organizations facilitating the spread of the technology. The BIS has been particularly active the past 5 years in testing cross-border CBDC swaps and secure CBDC transactions. The BRICS would be nothing more than a vehicle for the proliferation of a globalist CBDC reset.

Does this mean that the US and Trump are falling into a trap? Do tariffs make it easier to justify an international shift way from the dollar? Is Trump making things easier for the globalists? I argue that this reset is going to be attempted regardless; Trump and conservatives are going to be blamed regardless. Americans will blame the BRICS and Europe – The BRICS and Europe will blame America.

It should also be noted that the middle class and poverty stricken citizens of China and Europe largely HATE their governments. The elites have abused them beyond all measure and what little freedoms they have left are being erased. Most of these people are on the side of anti-globalism. This war is not everyone in the world against the US, though the corporate media would have you believe this is the case.

Tariffs are a way for the US to disrupt the forced interdependency of globalism, but there’s going to be pain involved as things change. In other words, tariffs are necessary. The end of globalism is necessary. America needs to stop relying on the dollar’s reserve status and the global supply chain. But we should be wary of what kind of system ends up replacing the Bretton Woods structure. Meaning, we may have to use any means at our disposal to stop a new global monetary scheme before it can take hold.

The next BRICS Summit should be scrutinized carefully because it could give us insight into when the next stage of the “reset” will begin. Don’t be surprised if their rhetoric is wildly hostile towards the US and decoupling from the dollar is the main topic of discussion. Also don’t be surprised if “de-dollerization” becomes a household term in the next couple of years.

This article was originally published at Birch Gold Group.

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A change of pace is always welcome, especially when writing a column about politics. The latter can be as boring as writing about cooking, and the only newspaper that used a cookery writer as a political pundit is The New York Times. I think he’s called Frank Bruni and he’s reported to be going blind due to his loathing of Donald Trump.

Never mind. When your correspondent was still in shorts and newly arrived in America, the greatest and most feared gangster was one Frank Costello. Brought up in front of a Senate investigating committee, his lawyers managed to keep his face out of camera range and only his hands were televised. Somebody at home figured out that his nails were manicured and polished. He lost a few points among us after that.

Years later at a chic nightclub I watched as some greasy-looking fellow kept running his fingers up and down my wife’s naked back. I stood up and punched downward. All hell broke loose. The owner, Oleg Cassini, Jackie Kennedy’s couturier and JFK’s procurer, demanded I apologize to the slob I had hit as he was Senator Williams of New Jersey. The year was 1966. I did nothing of the sort but instead went to the bathroom to wash my hands as I had cut my knuckle during the fracas. That’s when I heard the following from a man speaking on the telephone: “Yeah, his name is Taki, and he lives in the Sherry-Netherland.”

“When your correspondent was still in shorts and newly arrived in America, the greatest and most feared gangster was one Frank Costello.”

Although he was a mincing rat of a man, I took what I was hearing rather seriously. In fact his words had an elegiac sense of doom—gangsters spraying the 18-year-old wife’s face with acid and other such horrors. This, I said to myself, is real; cancel culture for good. So, with no time for heroics, I called on my friend Tom Corbally, man about town, lady-killer par excellence, decorated rear gunner on more than thirty missions over Germany, and among the best-looking men in New York City and definitely connected with the city’s most powerful but criminal members. “Don’t worry, kid, we’ll go see Mr. C,” said Tom when I visited him at 530 Park Avenue. Mr. C was the way people in the know referred to Frank Costello, retired head of the Cosa Nostra, but still no one to disrespect, and then some.

We met at Childs, on 79th Street and Madison Avenue, where Mr. C lunched and dined daily. His voice was gravelly, more like Robert Kennedy’s today, and his accent was not exactly upper-class, but neither was it Brooklynese, as my father used to call it. After I explained my predicament, Mr. C asked only one question: “Were you in any way out of line?” “No, sir,” I answered truthfully. “I’ll see what I can do,” said Mr. C.

A few days later at P.J. Clarke’s, another popular city hangout back then, the rat man spotted me and came up with his hand extended. “Hey, Taki, no hard feelings, everything’s fine,” said the rat. “And the senator said you had a hell of a right.” Obviously Mr. C’s magic wand had done the trick. Incidentally, Senator Williams, having survived a right cross, did not end well. Like a more recent senator from New Jersey, he was indicted in something called Arabgate and disappeared from view. My problem was how to thank Mr. C for services rendered. My finances were tight, so I went to my mother and spilled the beans, and she came to the rescue. “Just don’t tell your father you know people like this gangster,” she warned.

Alas, more problems ensued. My mother bought a pair of Cartier cuff links that if memory serves were green and very chic and expensive. They did not register with Mr. C, who told Tom Corbally that “your friend Taki is a cheapskate.” Size mattered to those gents, and the cuff links I gave him were understated to say the least. But then we made up for good. Tom had told Mr. C that Gianni Agnelli and I were great friends, and Mr. C told me he’d like to meet the Fiat heir and chairman-to-be. Costello had a daily morning shave at the Waldorf Astoria barbershop, and Gianni Agnelli kept a suite at the Waldorf Towers. I pleaded with Gianni to come down to the barbershop for two minutes, and he finally said yes. Mr. C called him Giovanni, while Gianni called him Mr. Costello. “I wanted to meet you and tell you my first car was a Fiat,” said Mr. C. “I won it in a raffle in Atlantic City when I was a kid. I told the man holding the mic that No. 9 wins. He told me to get lost. Then I showed him the rod and repeated that No. 9 wins. And it did.” “How amusing,” said Agnelli, “I don’t think our advertising department can use it.”

Yep, those were the days, and they all came back because of a new movie, The Alto Knights, that features Frank Costello played by Robert De Niro. In this film Mr. C is shown as an uxorious husband. In real life Mr. C was married but spending three nights a week with Thelma Martin, his mistress, whose apartment was a couple of blocks down from where he lived with his wife. Movies always show life to be worse than it really is.

This originally appeared on Taki’s Magazine.

The post The Real Costello appeared first on LewRockwell.

Millions of people around the world were at the edge of their seats over the weekend, waiting to hear whether Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff’s indirect talks with the Iranian foreign minister would ratchet down tensions or would break down and bring on a major Middle East war.

If it seems bizarre that the outcome of a meeting between a US president’s designated negotiator and a foreign government minister could determine whether we plunge into possibly our biggest war since World War II, that’s because it is bizarre. In fact, this is an excellent example of why our Founders were so determined to keep warmaking authority out of the Executive Branch of government. No one person – much less his aide – should have the power to take this country to war.

That is why the Constitution places the authority to go to war firmly and exclusively in the hands of the representatives of the people: the US Congress. After all, it is the US people who will be expected to fight the wars and to pay for the wars and to bear the burden of the outcome of the wars. When that incredible power is placed in the hands of one individual – even if that individual is elected – the temptation to use it is far too great. Our Founders recognized this weakness in the system they were rebelling against – the British monarchy – so they wisely corrected it when they drafted our Constitution.

Unless the US is under direct attack or is facing imminent direct attack, the Constitution requires Congress to deliberate, discuss, and decide whether a conflict or potential conflict is worth bringing the weight of the US military to bear. They wanted it harder, not easier, to take us to war.

When wars can be started by presidents with no authority granted by Congress, the results can be the kinds of endless military engagements with ever-shifting, unachievable objectives such as we’ve seen in Afghanistan and Iraq.

We are currently seeing another such endless conflict brewing with President Trump’s decision to start bombing Yemen last month. The stated objectives– to end Houthi interference with Israeli Red Sea shipping – are not being achieved so, as usually happens, the bombing expands and creates more death and destruction for the civilian population. In the last week or so, US bombs have struck the water supply facilities for 50,000 civilians and have apparently blown up a civilian tribal gathering.

Starting a war with Iran was the furthest thing from the minds of American voters last November, and certainly those who voted for Donald Trump were at least partly motivated by his promise to end current wars and start no new wars. However, there is a strange logic that to fulfill the promise of no new wars, the US must saber rattle around the world to intimidate others from crossing the White House. This is what the recycled phrase “peace through strength” seems to have come to mean. But the real strength that it takes to make and keep peace is the strength to just walk away. It is the strength to stop meddling in conflicts that have nothing to do with the United States.

That is where Congress comes in. Except they are not coming in. They are nowhere to be found. And that is not a good thing.

The post Standing at the Edge of the Iran War Cliff appeared first on LewRockwell.

Whatever else you think is happening in our world, contraction is the reality-based order-of-the-day, and everything else is downstream of that. The world has to get by with less. Nothing is going to fix this for everybody, though any number of schemes for redistributing what’s left will preoccupy the political mojo.

Right now, it’s tariffs, which are an attempt to restore industry ceded to the formerly left-behind people elsewhere in the world — taking back what we used to do. You are correct to wonder if this is even possible. The wish is surely understandable, if a bit fuzzy and over-simplified: to be again a nation of people occupied purposefully in the service of a bright future. Redemption stories are deeply appealing.

Many of us are aware that the hour for this is late. We’ve already lived through our decades of pumping cheap oil out of American ground, extracting the ores, fashioning the metal into I-beams and rails, raising the skyscrapers, laying the asphalt ribbons of highway, and strewing the landscape with split-level houses and strip-malls. Let’s not try a re-run of that.

What have we got to work with? An overly-complex matrix of systems and subsidiary systems operating on the verge of failure at excessive scale. For example, our cities and their asteroid belts of suburbs. The rot is already well-advanced in many of them from their centers outward, and we can see the process underway of strip-mining the remaining assets on-the-ground. Detroit, Cleveland, Baltimore. . . all occupy important geographically strategic sites. All are populated by dwindling societies of the cope-less, floundering their way out of existence. The geographies will abide without them. Others will come along and make something of these places’ virtues.

Agri-business is a method for strip-mining the value from what remains of our fruited plains. Everything about it is on an arc of failure, mortgaged to a futureless giantism. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and now that time has passed. The remaining soil itself can probably be rescued with heroic ant-like peasant labor over generations, which is to say a long and rather desperate project with no quick resolution. Even if Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., hadn’t come along to read America the riot act on food, anyone can see that the age of Froot Loops is drawing to a close.

Town and country, what human society at its best was composed of, has got to be rearranged. This is something that MAGA is not talking about. MAGA looks like it is seeking a reenactment of the years 1950 to 1964. That isn’t going to happen. What then? The tech broz propose something that looks like an A-I printed robotic future. They are drunk on their own Stanford University brand Kool-Aid, hallucinating a future that is little more than math dressed in spandex.

It is nearly impossible to grok the size of their vast fortunes, their billions. Thousands upon thousands of millions. From what? From marshaling squadrons of lawyers to draw up ownership documents for this and that venture enabling idiots with nose-rings to lecture each other about sexual etiquette on cell-phone screens? Warning: don’t become infatuated with singularities, journeys beyond biology and the ecology of planet earth. That’s a story for saps, cargo-cultists, the mentally ill.

Speaking of all that money, one thing you can surely depend on is a violent unwinding of global finance. The vast bottom of humanity already has plenty of nothing, and their abundance will abide. The hedge fund broz and related broz in the shared hallucinations of capital can make some provision for wealth preservation if they have half-a-brain. It’s the great wad in the middle that has the worst problem: they get wiped out and then they discover they have no Plan B. That’s when the fun really kicks off in America (and other sovereign lands, of course.)

Things are breaking ‘out there.’ The financial world’s feedstock is promises. In a trusting world, promises are a splendid technology. Promises allow you to borrow hamburgers from next Tuesday to have a hamburger today. . . .and all else that follows from that. In a not-so-trusting world, promises go up in a vapor with the morning dew.

The folks in charge will attempt to manage the manifest contraction that is upon us by doing everything possible to pretend that it isn’t happening and to deflect from any signals that happen to get through the muzak they broadcast about blue skies and staying on the sunny side. If you are serious — even serious about the comedy sure to arise out of this — you will be prepared for all kinds of trouble: shortages, hunger, civil strife, cold, darkness, the absence of TikTok. Your number-one job is to stay sane. Now, go forth and revel in today’s fine spring weather, mindful of the many more fine days to come as history spools out.

Reprinted with permission from Kunstler.com.

The post Systemic Considerations appeared first on LewRockwell.

(Montgomery, Alabama) – Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has signed Senate Bill 130 into law, reaffirming gold and silver as legal tender. This symbolic victory marks Alabama’s latest step toward promoting constitutional sound money in the state.

Sponsored by Sen. Tim Melson and Rep. Jamie Kiel, the Alabama Legal Tender Act recognizes “any refined gold or silver bullion, specie, or coin that has been stamped, marked, or imprinted with its weight and purity” as legal tender in the Yellowhammer State.

The law ensures that no one is obligated to accept gold and silver for transactions unless specified by a contract or required by law.

The measure, backed by Money Metals Exchange and the Sound Money Defense League, sailed through the state legislature with unanimous support, receiving no negative votes in committee or floor votes in either chamber.

Article 1 Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution reads: “No state shall… coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; [or] make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts…” Senate Bill 130 aligns with this constitutional mandate.

“I’m proud to sponsor this legislation reaffirming gold and silver as legal tender in Alabama,” said Senator Melson in an exclusive interview with the Sound Money Defense League.

“While inflation continues to erode the purchasing power of the U.S. Dollar, encouraging stable, time-tested, and constitutional alternatives like gold and silver is a commonsense step. This bill upholds their constitutional status and supports sound money for our citizens across the state,” he concluded.

This marks the fifth pro-sound money law enacted in 2025, a national trend driven by the Sound Money Defense League and Money Metals Exchange for over a decade. Alabama joins Kentucky, Wyoming, and Idaho in passing related laws this year.

So far this year, Wyoming has established a $10 million physical gold reserve, Idaho passed bills eliminating capital gains taxes on gold and silver and reaffirming the two precious metals as legal tender, and Kentucky became one of the dozens of states to end sales taxes on purchases of precious metals.

After President Nixon “temporarily suspended” the convertibility of dollars into gold, America’s 54-year experiment with a purely fiat currency system has fueled high inflation, ballooning deficits, and unchecked government spending.

When savers, wage earners, and investors seek ways to protect their savings from the ravages of inflation, they often choose precious metals over fiat currency because precious metals have preserved purchasing power over time.

Since 2018, Senator Melson has advocated for several sound money bills alongside the Sound Money Defense League to expand tax exemptions and remove barriers to using gold and silver in Alabama. Senate Bill 130 offers symbolic support to Alabama citizens making this choice, and it is a modest next step toward continuing to promote sound money legislation in the state.

This year’s legislative success builds on the passage of seven sound money bills in 2024, five in 2023, and three in 2022 – each of which enjoyed strong support from the Sound Money Defense League.

With SB 130 passed, Alabama, currently ranked 9th on the Sound Money Index, is expected to rise in the 2026 edition.

This originally appeared on Money Metals.

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