Lew Rockwell Institute

Like many, I find the American political system extremely disenchanting, as while people will frequently complain about the problems facing us, it’s rare they do anything to fix them—rather the issues simply continue to get worse. As such, it’s fairly rare to find elected Federal officials who stay true to their values throughout their tenure and get things done.

Over the years, I’ve become a huge fan of Ron Johnson as his political life has been defined by him wanting to solve problems rather than advance his political career (which he could afford to do as he was a successful CEO) and over the last few years, he’s been willing to go after a variety of issues no one else will touch such as COVID-19 vaccine injuries.

[Tucker Carlson]: I mean, watching what’s happened to you has really been the greatest of all wake up calls for me because I would say of the senators I know, which is most of them, you’re, like, the most temperamentally moderate and accountant, number based, like, not a multi radical at all at all. And there are some crazy people in the congress you’re not. You’re the opposite. You like budgets and stuff. So if they’re calling you a wacko, they discredit themselves.

You’re a business guy from Wisconsin, a very closely divided state. You didn’t win by a huge margin. You never won by 30 points. So, you know, whenever you talk about something in public, you’re taking a bigger risk than, say, the senator from Utah or South Dakota because you could lose an election. I never in a million years thought you, of all people, would be the guy to, like, ask questions about 09/11 or the vax or January 6 and a whole bunch of other issues, and yet you have been the only guy in a lot of cases to ask those questions.

Why? Why are you doing this? Would it just be easier to talk about tax reform or something? I would ask you the same question. You know, why have you been so instrumental in broadening the Overton window on some of these things?

Note: Ron Johnson had planned to retire in 2022 but ran for re-election specifically to help those affected by the vaccine. As he is the only Senator in US history to have actively worked for vaccine safety (something our movement has waited decades for), I’ve prioritized supporting his work throughout the lifespan of this publication. As a result, I’ve had many readers and colleagues reach out to me to share that Ron Johnson deeply cares about doing the right thing, and I can only imagine how frustrating it must have been for someone who genuinely cares to spend years opposing the obstinate Federal COVID bureaucracy.

One of the things that’s been the most strike about Ron Johnson’s attempts to stop the COVID vaccines has been just how little power a Senator has to compel the CDC or FDA to do the right thing (e.g., many of the key COVID government documents his office uncovered were never provided by the H.H.S.).

Nonetheless, he has been extremely methodical and patient in seeking a way to change the current paradigm. He has now ascended to a very unique position: chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. This committee has long been one of the most powerful and broadest investigative bodies in Congress. In parallel, since RFK Jr. is now directing the H.H.S. and has Trump’s full support to enact the MAHA agenda, rather than stonewall Johnson, the documents he is requesting are now being released.

Because of this, he was recently able to hold a pivotal Senate hearing that conclusively showed the Biden Administration, FDA, and CDC were aware the COVID vaccines were causing heart attacks but continually hid that from the public to keep pushing the COVID vaccines on the public.

For those unable to watch the hearings, The Vigilant Fox made an abridged summary of this hearing which received 4 million views, again highlighting how much reach our message has and that the medical industrial complex can no longer cover up its catastrophes with the same playbook it’s used for decades (as it no longer has a monopoly over the mass media).

Likewise, a January 2023 survey found 49% surveyed believe it is likely that side effects of COVID-19 vaccines have caused a significant number of unexplained deaths and 28% personally knew someone whose death may have been caused by side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines and 57% wanted the Congress to investigate the CDC’s conduct with “assessing” COVID vaccine safety. Similarly, a May 2025 poll showed 51% now believe the COVID vaccines caused heart damage (while 21% were unsure and only 28% believed they didn’t).

Note: the gaslighting with heart attacks and strokes from the “clot shot” was eye-opening for me as within a week of the vaccines hitting the market, I’d received numerous reports of sudden deaths and heart attacks following vaccination from friends around the country, and within a month, I had a fairly good understanding of how they were killing people. In contrast, every single medical authority, which had access to massive databases the public can never see somehow could never “detect a safety signal” even as the unusual deaths (e.g., in children and athletes who never die suddenly) kept on accumulating and public demand kept increasing for them to do something.

Recently, Robert Malone gave an excellent synopsis of the current situation:

Although many within the MAHA and Medical Freedom movements were advocating for immediate legislative action to force the removal of these products from the market, Senator Johnson discussed that he strongly believed that it would be necessary first to build national consensus in support of such action. That attempts to move legislatively without broad voter support would be a fool’s errand. He spoke about the coming opportunity to ascend to become chairperson of the Senate DHS permanent subcommittee on investigations, at which time he would have the power of the subpoena and could force disclosure of previously redacted or withheld information from the HHS bureaucracy concerning the hazards associated with these products. The Senator’s proposed strategy revolved around what he anticipated would be staged disclosure of key government documents and correspondences that would prove to (and move) US Citizens to support legislative reversal of the laws and policies that gave rise to the COVID crisis lies and travesties, and what he refers to as the COVID cartel.

Last week’s hearings by the Senate DHS permanent subcommittee on investigations concerning “The Corruption of Science and Federal Health Agencies: How Health Officials Downplayed and Hid Myocarditis and Other Adverse Events Associated with the COVID-19 Vaccines” were stunning. The strongest indicator of impact that I witnessed while sitting in the audience was the three lobbyists sitting in front of me, whom I am quite sure had no idea who I was. They started out sniggering at Senator Johnson’s opening statement, but as the meeting progressed, they became more and more agitated and distraught. I overheard the senior member calling some colleague outside the conference room, and he was clearly quite upset by the testimony. This is winning, and the Senator clearly understands the politics of all of this, as demonstrated by the recent Rasmussen Reports polling that was just disclosed today.

Regarding my HHS contacts, I was told that the team would deploy a strategy closely paralleling that of Senator Johnson. Staged deployment of large blocks of well-vetted and substantiated new information concerning the key topics associated with the MAHA agenda, with the intent of overwhelming the ability of “fake news” media to spin and distract from the underlying inconvenient truths. You can think of this as a “Twitter Files” strategy. The intent being to break through the firewall of propaganda and censorship that will be arrayed against the assembled disruptive team and the new ideas they will promote. Hoping that truth and data will have sufficient power to convince the general citizenry. Hence the massive truth bomb of the MAHA Commission report. Which is the lead in to the second poll cited above- documenting that “American Voters Strongly Support MAHA Policies, Backing Crosses Party Lines.”

This is what winning looks like in the land of the blind, where the one-eyed man is king. Many in the MAHA, sponsored and spontaneous, are quite willing and able to build outrage, anger, clicks, likes, and follows by shouting that things are not perfect, and Bobby et al are not moving fast enough. But from where I sit on my little homestead in the foothills below the Shenandoah National Park, all of this looks like winning at warp speed.

Bobby is staying true to his ideals, and to the ideals of the MAHA movement that has caught fire with key cross-partisan segments of the American electorate. I personally think we are on the verge of a major political realignment. Populist movements are often challenged by the task of translating their ideals into effective political action and achieving long-term change. Frankly, I have been skeptical that this strange bedfellow alliance of MAHA and MAGA could translate all of the layers of hope and passion into sustainable policy. But with leaders like Secretary Kennedy, Senator Johnson, and President Trump, it is looking a lot like this dream just might come true, at least in the near term.

On the horizon, the multifaceted threat to fundamental truth and reality known as Artificial Intelligence will sweep across all of this and profoundly restructure society, business, and government. Some see that impending period of accelerating change as a threat. I see it as an opportunity. I love disruptive change. Kennedy, Trump, Johnson, Gabbard, and many others are agents of change, and from the resulting disruption of industries and existing networks of power and control, new opportunities will emerge for those with the skills and agility to recognize them.

Don’t let the nattering nabobs of negativity distract you. This is what winning looks like, and it is glorious. Focus instead on what you can do to adapt to this change, to innovate, and together help create a decentralized “new world order”.

Disruption is king. Long live the disruption.

Echoing Malone’s points, while it seems as though he’s done very little, numerous conventional colleagues I have are now incredibly distressed and viewing the simple changes RFK has already made (e.g., requiring basic testing for new vaccines or removing the COVID vaccines from the childhood vaccine schedule) to be apocalyptic for our nation’s vaccine program.

Read the Whole Article

The post America’s Disastrous Health Care Deficit appeared first on LewRockwell.

Since 2021, The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and The Brick in Los Angeles have been planning an exhibition which seeks to re-interpret works of American history as totems of shame. The Monuments  exhibition set for this October, could showcase amazing Beaux Arts sculptures removed from their original locations. Instead, it will feature some paint-splashed monuments, replacing great works of art with political statements.

Removing sculptures and shipping them across state lines both endangers artworks and violates a curator’s proper care as outlined in A Bill of Rights for Works of Art. The museums will include contemporary artists with derogatory themes, also debasing Southern history.

The museums’ mocking of certain Confederate sculptures by displaying them with graffiti or paint is reminiscent in spirit to the 1937 exhibition of artistic works labeled “Degenerate” by Joseph Goebbels’ Ministry of Propaganda in Nazi Germany. Goebbels publicly ridiculed and demonized modern art and artists. In this case, the opposite is true. Many historical  works, admired for generations, will be displayed fallen from their literal pedestals.

By exhibiting desecrated (euphemistically called “decommissioned”) works,  the curators privilege small numbers of protesters over the majority opinion who value the statues remaining in place. Further, the Brick and MOCA seem to tar anyone who believes that Confederate monuments represent funerary commemorations or fine art. The exhibition’s curators crave significance, yet lash out against those who don’t agree with their rhetoric. Museum text touts recent monument removals as a “historic moment,” marking the “evolution of the Confederate monument” from its “roots in a funerary impulse” to its rise as a “crystalline symbol of a white supremacist ideology.” Funerary art is charged with “obstinacy,” “against calls for civil rights.” With such audacity, the exhibition will serve to stir up racial hatred. And, contrary to their claim of “robust scholarship,” the curators are off to an inaccurate start.

This exhibit sees statues erected during Reconstruction and after as “white supremacist,” but those sculptures can still have a commemorative aspect, listing regiments and names of the dead. During Reconstruction, veterans were dying out; families honored them. In 1907 the largest Confederate veteran reunion took place in Richmond for just that reason. Likewise, in Washington D.C., General George McClellan’s statue joined several already-completed Lincoln monuments. Impoverished Southern economies prevented widespread commemoration until the 1890s.

Ironically, The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a modern organization (with assets of over $5 billion) that vilifies the South, has for years labeled funerary Southern art as Jim Crow symbols of white supremacy because of the time period in which the statues appeared. Correlation of time does not prove causation. The SPLC omits the fact that money is needed to pay for memorials. They ignore the fact that Northern cities erected many classically-inspired memorials, and fail to explain how only the South’s statues are white supremacist.

At a recent  NYU round-table, called De-commission, Seth Levi, chief program policy advisor at the SPLC, admitted that two-thirds of the public wants Confederate statues to remain standing. He said that is because they don’t know the Civil War was about slavery. Levi smeared mourners, claiming  if anyone wants to commemorate those who fought to defend slavery, then they’re white supremacists.

Levi’s organization is actively lobbying mayors and city officials to remove 2,000 Confederate statues and rename streets. Levi admitted the SPLC has been accused of erasing history but disagrees with the accusation. By removing public statues, the SPLC is also curtailing conversations about local history.

The Civil War was our nation’s most defining moment after the American Revolution, with nearly 800,000 dead. It reordered the nation’s structure from one of sovereign states to a united nation.

Read the Whole Article

The post Los Angeles’s Monuments Exhibition: The Triumph of Politics Over Art appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks, Saleh Abdullah. 

NaturalNews.com

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Thanks, John Smith. 

AP News

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Thanks, John Smith.

Reuters

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Decade after decade, the Republicans disappoint. They can control all levers of government and they still disappoint. The election last November was supposed to put an end to that. Republicans (with massive public support at their backs) were finally going to lessen the major burdens that Americans are forced to shoulder (spending, deficits, and debt). But then came the Big Beautiful Bill, and once again, Republicans disappoint. All three of the burdens will rise. Elon Musk, who was very instrumental in the election, finally had enough. He joined Thomas Massie in saying we need a SLIM Beautiful Bill.

The post Massie & Musk Are Right — We Need A SLIM Beautiful Bill appeared first on LewRockwell.

Writes Martin Averick:

Recently, there has been a growing disconnect between politicians and ordinary citizens in Europe. Countries turn a blind eye to its own interests and follow Brussels’ directives, especially when it comes to elections or “cancelling” of “inconvenient” influential figures. Thus, the European Union (EU) undermines its own founding values, restricting freedoms of its citizens and normalizing political violence.

The most high-profile episode that revealed an acute crisis of democracy was the recent presidential elections in Romania, which resulted in the unexpected victory of the pro-European politician Nicusor Dan. As George Simion received the overwhelming majority of votes in the first round, his sudden defeat suggests an outside interference. Telegram founder Pavel Durov added fuel to the fire by declaring that the French intelligence was attempting to influence the election campaign in Romania and asked him to ban Romanian conservative voices. One way or another, the country was stripped of the opportunity to independently determine a leader, which clearly does not fit into the concept of democracy.  And this is not the only example of the Brussels puppeteers turning a blind eye to the will of the people. Earlier, the increasingly popular Alternative for Germany was classified as “extremist“, and French far-right politician Marine Le Pen was convicted and barred from seeking public office solely because her policies ran counter to the interests of Brussels.

The pressure on independent politicians and parties comes against the backdrop of the EU’s destructive militaristic course.  Brussels’ acceleration of military build-up is explained by an imagined threat from the East and the deterioration of relations with the United States.  Europe, once a model of democracy and humanity, is rapidly deteriorating, sliding towards militarism and dictatorship, and seems to see war as the only way out for the ruling regime. Meanwhile, the situation in European countries teetering on the brink of economic crisis could just worsen due to increased defense spending and support for the conflict in Ukraine. All these remains of the once-vaunted European democracy and diplomacy are now ruins, in which hundreds of thousands of Europeans may soon be buried.

The post In the ruins of European democracy appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks. John Smith. 

Antiwar.com

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Thanks, David Martin.

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Stephen Manz wrote:

Lew,

Is it a coincidence that the spending bill is abbreviated “BBB,” which is probably the debt rating the US will have after adding another $5 trillion to the federal debt?

In Liberty

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Thanks, John Frahm.

Activist Post

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Thanks, Andy Thomas.

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Thanks, Saleh Abdullah. 

DW News

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Ginny Garner wrote:

Lew,

Emerald Robinson explains why Mike Lindell is not guilty of defamation in the lawsuit filed against him. The jury trial began on June 2.

See here.

The post Why Mike Lindell Is Not Guilty of Defamation in Election Machine Case appeared first on LewRockwell.

International Man: What is it about silver that makes it viable as a monetary metal—that is, something people actually use to store and exchange value?

Doug Casey: Let’s look at the definition of what makes a good money. There are basically six characteristics. A good money has to be durable, divisible, convenient, consistent, have use value, and some limit on supply. Using those six key characteristics, gold ranks first, silver second, and copper third. That’s why those three metals have been preferred money throughout history. They were superior to seashells, salt, cows, paper, and other commodities. In today’s world it makes sense to bring Bitcoin, which also satisfies those six characteristics into the mix.

So, to answer the question: Silver has always been a monetary metal, and it likely always will be.

International Man: Do you think gold functions better as money than silver—and if so, why? If not, why not?

Doug Casey: Gold is much scarcer than silver. It has an extremely high unit value. And its value relative to silver has increased throughout history. In the days of Ancient Egypt, gold traded at only three times the value of silver. In Rome, at the time of Caesar, the gold aureus was worth about 12 times more than the silver denarius. The US initially fixed the value of gold against silver at 17.5 to 1. Incidentally, fixing the value of any commodities—which fluctuate widely for many reasons—is always a bad idea. As of now, the ratio is about 100 to 1. The increase in gold’s value relative to silver is a trend that, with fits and starts, has been in motion for over 3,000 years.

It’s important to have an adequate quantity of money available for use in commerce. This was a problem in the early days of the US, when there was neither enough gold nor silver in circulation. Of course, the terms “adequate” and “enough” are rather arbitrary. That’s one reason why money itself should be strictly a function of the free market, not government. If there’s not “enough” gold or silver, more will be mined at a profit. When there’s too much, mining becomes unprofitable, and stops. Unlike government money, free market money is self-regulating.

Out of maybe 7 billion ounces of gold that have ever been mined, almost all is stored in vaults, safe deposit boxes, or worn as jewelry. Most is owned by governments and their central banks. It doesn’t circulate in any meaningful way.

Governments—including the US government—used to hold large amounts of silver in storage too. But now none do.

International Man: The long-term trend has been for silver to be demonetized and increasingly treated as an industrial metal. Do you see that continuing, and what are the implications?

Doug Casey: Let’s look at silver as an element. In the past, it was only used as jewelry. But out of the 92 elements, it’s the most reflective and the most conductive of both heat and electricity. There’s every reason to believe that silver is going to gain many more industrial uses over time because of these properties. It’s a high-tech metal.

A great deal of silver used to be consumed in photography and X-rays, until a generation ago, but it’s hardly used there at all anymore. Digital photography has nearly replaced it.

About 850 million ounces of silver are mined every year, and about another 150 million ounces are recycled. The available supply of bullion, therefore, is about a billion ounces—versus about 100 million ounces of gold. That’s roughly a ten-to-one ratio on the supply side, although most of the silver is “consumed,” whereas almost all the gold is added to inventory. Since 2019, silver has been in deficit. Roughly 150 million ounces a year have been taken from various stockpiles. That explains why its price has risen to a new base level in the $30 to $35 range, and done better than gold, percentage-wise.

And while we’re talking about silver’s unique qualities, it’s worth mentioning that gold also has unique metallic properties. It’s the most non-reactive of all metals; gold doesn’t oxidize. It’s the most ductile, meaning it can be drawn into the thinnest wire of any metal. It’s the most malleable, meaning it can be beaten into the thinnest sheet of all metals.

When people talk about gold and silver, they often treat them as if they were one metal. While they do share a lot of characteristics, they each have unique qualities. You’ll notice that, on the Periodic Table of Elements, copper (with 29 protons) is at the top of the file, above silver (with 47), and gold (79). The three metals are closely related atomically, as well as by their traditional use as money.

International Man: During times of monetary chaos and runaway inflation, people tend to rush into traditional forms of money—assets that hold value better than rapidly depreciating government paper.

Silver often sees a surge in demand during these moments, despite its limited monetary role today.

Do you see something like that happening again?

Doug Casey: I don’t think there’s any doubt that we’re heading into a massive monetary crisis. The dollar is going to lose value at an accelerating rate because of the US government’s profligate spending policies.

DOGE, which was an excellent idea, has failed; the deficits are going to rise from $2 trillion to $3 trillion. And when the economy takes a downward turn, the government’s tax revenues will fall, even while its obligations rise. I expect that within the next five years, we’ll see $5 to $6 trillion annual deficits.

That’s why bonds are in a world of trouble, for reasons we’ve discussed in the past. The stock market is grossly overpriced. Real estate is also in bubble territory, with large carrying costs aggravating the problem. The average guy is likely to rediscover gold, and especially silver.

International Man: Where do you see silver prices heading, and what do you think are the best ways to speculate on a rise?

Doug Casey: Both gold and silver are in major bull markets. Silver is the poor man’s gold. The average guy, who can’t lay his hands on $500 cash if he needs it, really can’t afford gold. But when he gets scared enough about what’s going on, silver will still be relatively affordable. The average guy will start accumulating silver as a place to hide.

I’ve accumulated silver for many years, just like gold. I’ve only bought it, never sold it. The problem with silver is that its unit value is so low, you’d need a vault like Uncle Scrooge to store a substantial amount. That’s not true with gold.

That said, everybody should have 100 ounces of silver coins. If you can, set aside a few thousand ounces as a savings vehicle. If the US government succeeds in destroying the dollar, many people are likely to prefer being paid, and buying and selling, with gold and silver coins. They’ll want something real and tangible, not a digital abstraction, or pieces of paper.

It really doesn’t matter how high the price of silver goes from a supply point of view. That’s because almost all new silver is a byproduct of mining other metals—gold, copper, lead, and zinc. To major mining companies, silver is only a nice bonus. Even at $100 it won’t have a material effect on their production plans.

Years ago, there was a Spokane Stock Exchange. It closed in 1991. Most people are unaware the US used to have a number of regional stock exchanges—Denver for oil, Salt Lake for uranium, and so forth. Scores of small silver stocks were traded in Spokane. From about 1960 to 1970, those little penny stocks went up by orders of magnitude. The boom was chronicled in a book called “Small Fortunes in Penny Gold Stocks.” The best one was Coeur d’Alene Mines, which went from 2 cents to $20. That kind of thing could happen again.

There are a few pure publicly traded silver companies now, and they’re generally very small-cap stocks. Institutions don’t own them, and few care about them. However, I think we’re going to see $100 or $200 silver in the next few years, and these stocks should catch fire. There used to be a whole class of investment advisors who published newsletters and made a living beating the drum about silver. They no longer exist. That tells me that silver is under-owned, nobody cares about it, and it’s going higher.

I consider silver stocks a superb speculation.

Reprinted with permission from International Man.

The post Silver: Money, Markets, and the Metal’s Role in the Coming Chaos appeared first on LewRockwell.

When you spend 30 trillion dollars that you do not have, it is easy to create an illusion of prosperity. In 1995, the nation was obsessed with the O.J. Simpson trial, “Toy Story” was the biggest movie of the year, the Sony Playstation made its debut in the United States, and Bill Clinton was in the White House. At that time, the U.S. national debt was right on the verge of crossing the 5 trillion dollar mark. Today, the U.S. national debt is sitting at 36.2 trillion dollars. That means that we have added more than 30 trillion dollars to the national debt in just 30 years.

So what did we get for 30 trillion dollars?

We got the greatest party in the history of the world.

Over the past three decades, we have been enjoying an obscenely inflated standard of living that we did not deserve.

When the government spends money, it provides a short-term boost to the economy.  Those that get their hands on the money that the government spends end up using it to go shopping, repair their vehicles, eat at restaurants, etc.

If we could go back and pull 30 trillion dollars of extra government spending over the last 30 years out of the economy, we would be in a rip-roaring depression right now.

So for those of you that wish to avoid economic pain at all costs, you should thank our Congress critters for spending money like drunken sailors all these years.

But in the process, our leaders have destroyed America’s future.

We are broke, and we are absolutely drowning in debt.

The only way that we can meet our obligations is to go into ever larger amounts of debt.

Unfortunately, that cycle can only go on for so long before we reach a point where nobody wants to lend us money anymore.

If you have been paying attention to the bond market, you already know that there have been all sorts of red flags in 2025.

The clock is ticking.  But instead of getting our spending under control, Congress seems determined to ramp our spending up to a much higher level…

The package of tax-and-spending measures sent to the Senate, now officially called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, could act like budgetary wolf bait. It would add around $3 trillion to debt levels over the next decade compared with existing estimates and $5 trillion if certain temporary features were made permanent, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

For perspective, federal interest this fiscal year already will be more than the defense budget and more than Medicaid, disability insurance and food stamps combined.

If you are one of those that want to keep the party going for as long as possible, you probably support this bill.

But for those of us that want our children and grandchildren to actually have a future, we are absolutely horrified by what we are witnessing.

In fact, Elon Musk just called this bill a “disgusting abomination”…

Elon Musk is right.

Rand Paul has also spoken out against this bill, and he is right too.

What we have been doing to future generations of Americans over the past 30 years is beyond criminal.

It must stop.

If it doesn’t stop, it is just a matter of time before the entire system collapses.

We have been able to defy the laws of economics for many years, but now economic reality is catching up with us in a major way.

And even though we continue to spend giant mountains of money that we do not have, the illusion of prosperity that we have created is rapidly starting to crumble anyway.

This week, we learned that Disney is conducting “major layoffs”…

Major layoffs are underway Monday the Walt Disney Company, with several hundred employees impacted globally, Deadline has learned. The bulk of them are across divisions of Disney Entertainment, including marketing for both film and television as well as television publicity, casting and development. Also affected are Disney’s corporate financial operations.

Microsoft is even bigger than Disney, and they are conducting mass layoffs as well…

Microsoft Corp. cut hundreds more jobs just weeks after its largest layoff in years, underscoring the tech industry’s efforts to trim costs even as it plows billions of dollars into artificial intelligence.

More than 300 employees were told their positions had been eliminated on Monday, according to a Washington state notice reviewed by Bloomberg.

These latest layoffs by Microsoft are on top of the 6,000 job cuts that were revealed last month…

A Microsoft spokesperson said the latest headcount reduction is in addition to the 6,000 job cuts announced last month. “We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace,” the spokesperson said.

If you have a job that you value, hold on to it as tightly as you can, because a lot more people are going to be losing their jobs in the months ahead.

And that is really bad news, because we already have a major employment crisis in this country.

As I discussed the other day, nearly 1 out of every 4 Americans is “functionally unemployed” at this point.

Things are really tough out there right now.

In fact, things are so tough that Americans are eating meals at home at the highest level we have seen since the early days of the pandemic…

More Americans are cooking at home as growing economic concerns are forcing households to cut back, according to Campbell’s CEO Mick Beekhuizen.

Beekhuizen told analysts during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Monday that consumer sentiment continued to soften throughout the quarter, with shoppers becoming even more deliberate about how they were spending money on food.

“A key outcome is a growing preference for home-cooked meals, leading to the highest levels of meals prepared at home since early 2020,” Beekhuizen said.

One way or another, we are going to have to take our medicine.

Either our leaders will have to get our financial house in order, or the bond market will force us to change.

But no matter how it plays out, nobody can deny that the party is ending.

It was fun while it lasted, but everybody knew that the wild spending would eventually have to come to an end.

Needless to say, the adjustment to our standard of living that we will soon experience will be exceedingly painful, and our society is not prepared for that at all.

Reprinted with permission from The Economic Collapse.

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Now that some total idiot in the Trump regime has green-lighted an attack on Russian strategic forces, John Helmer raises for Putin Lenin’s question, “What is to be done?” See this.

As I understand it, Washington’s attack on Russian strategic forces is grounds under current Russian war doctrine for Putin to push the button.  But Putin, unlike Lenin, is a balancer, not a person who acts.  Is Putin so desperate to avoid war that he is bringing war upon us?

There seems to be more awareness among Russian people than in Washington and Europe of the seriousness of the situation.  With too long of a wait, it eventually dawned on the White House that Trump must be disassociated from the attack, as otherwise the attack is easily interpreted as Washington’s declaration of war on Russia.  According to the White House announcement, Trump was not informed in advance of the attack on the Russian strategic bombing fleet, which in keeping with the treaty is kept lined up openly on air fields. One problem with this disavowal is that the Secretary of State or the Defense Secretary reportedly watched via the digital revolution the attack as it happened. So Trump’s government knew, but Trump didn’t?

What confidence does the attack on Russian strategic forces  give Putin that Trump is sincere about peace negotiations?

Why does Trump announce constructing a trillion dollar dome to protect the US from incoming missiles when the costless alternative is a mutual security agreement, a great power agreement, with Russia and China?  The answer is that the US military/security complex wants the money.  The dome will be useless, because hypersonic missiles on random jig-jag trajectories cannot be intercepted.  If Trump is the peace president, why not simply agree to a mutual security agreement?

Another problem with the White House’s disavowal is Trump’s competence as president. Let’s examine the implication of President Trump not being informed of an attack that under Russian war doctrine is sufficient to launch nuclear missiles against the United States and Europe.  How can it be that it is not in the hands of the President of the United States whether or not to undertake a military action that could initiate nuclear war?  Is this a sign of President Trump’s incompetence or of his irrelevance?

It is not only the White House that is making light of a stupid action that could have unleashed nuclear war, but also all of Washington, Western Europe, and the Western whore media, a collection of despicable people who lie for their living. We are facing an existential threat to the continued existence of life on earth and the idiot whore media is telling us about some celebrity’s concern with her sex life.

Putin’s government itself is making light of the attacks, describing both the attacks on the Russian strategic forces and the destructions of the two railway bridges as “acts of terrorism,” not acts of war.  Putin has accepted another humiliation in order not to abandon his false hopes for the “peace negotiations.”  Putin’s unrealism is likely to encourage ever more provocative acts against Russia.  Both the large circulation newspaper, Moskovsky Komsomolets and the military blog Colonel Cassad make the same point I have been making.  As long as the Kremlin refuses to accept that “the enemy is waging a total war, the purpose of which is the destruction of our country and people — and no peace talks will change this — the longer an adequate response is in coming, the more” provocations there will be.

From the beginning of Putin’s ever-widening, never-ending war over a few kilometers in the Russian provinces Communist officials assigned to Ukraine I have said that Putin’s unwillingness to use sufficient force to terminate the conflict would result in opportunities for the US and NATO to become involved in the conflict with their prestige involved.  Consequently, the conflict would spin out of control, which it came close to doing with the attack on Russian strategic forces.  

How many non-responses to provocations can Putin survive?  Are Russians so Westernized and brainwashed that they have no national pride?  Are they willing to be humiliated forever by leadership that declares red lines but always turns the other cheek?  Why is no one in the West concerned with these serious questions?  Is it because no one takes Russia seriously? Is Putin causing World War III because he has convinced the West not to take Russia seriously?

Washington’s neoconservatives might succeed in destabilizing Putin, considering all the help Putin is giving them, but will his replacement be an American puppet or a person of action capable of recognizing an enemy when he sees one?  No intelligent Russian would sacrifice Russian lives in order to make unrealizable peace deals with people determined to destroy Russia. On what grounds can Russians believe in any agreement with the West?  

If Putin is replaced by a Lenin, the Western World is over and done with.  Putin is a reasonable, rational, emotional stable person, not a warmonger.  The West should be supporting him, not pushing him into war.

We are watching the Trump regime fall apart. Elon Musk, one tower of strength, has left.  Russian strategic forces are attacked, and Trump doesn’t know about it.  Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services,  announces that the deadly Covid vax will no longer be recommended for pregnant women and healthy children.  The head of the CDC, a subordinate to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, gives the finger to his boss and announces that the Covid vax will be recommended for pregnant women and healthy children.  Robert Kennedy announces that no vaccines will be approved without tests, and the CDC approves Big Pharma’s vaccine without the tests.  

In other words, there is no Trump Administration in place.  The Establishment rules.  Trump and his government are irrelevant. Trump does the bidding of Israel and the military/security complex. Big Pharma, not Secretary Robert Kennedy, makes the decisions.  Elon Musk gives up and goes home.  The FBI director validates the unbelievable Epstein suicide narrative.  The Trump Justice Department has held no one accountable for the attempted frame-up of President Trump by the CIA and FBI.  Attorney General Bondi says weaponized law is halted, but as those responsible have not been held accountable, the Democrats will again weaponize law.  The media remains weaponized.

I warned that this would be the result.  I repeat what I wrote when Trump was making his comeback without opposition from the ruling establishment. The American Establishment decided to let Trump again be president.  The Establishment knew that they could use the judiciary, the civil service, and Trump appointees who would betray Trump for success in the Establishment.  I saw all of this in the Reagan administration with appointees, few being Reagan’s, betraying him for their advancement in the Ruling Establishment

The Establishment reasoned that the easiest way to eliminate “populist opposition” is to put their leader in the presidency, block him at every turn, thereby demoralizing his supporters. With their hope eviscerated, defeated people go home and accept whatever happens.

Trump was America’s last chance.  If he were a young Julius Caesar, he might have succeeded.  But like Julius Caesar, the Establishment was against him.  Trump’s entire government consists of Israel’s puppets.  They will do anything for Israel and little for America.  The Zionist Trump regime has again vetoed a UN Security Council resolution against Israel’s on-going slaughter of Palestinians by bullets, bombs, starvation, and disease.  War with Iran can still result from Iran’s refusals of Trump’s dictates that serve Israel’s interest.  We still await the problems that the Trump regime will create with China.

Dear readers, you can expect war.  No one in the Western World, nor Putin, has sufficient intelligence to avoid it.  It is just a matter of time.  

The post Lenin’s Question Is the Question of Our Time appeared first on LewRockwell.

Bishop Robert Barron recently appeared on the Tucker Carlson Show, in a wide-ranging discussion that covered prayer, evolution, AI, the New Atheist Movement, and about a dozen more topics. Naturally, the Catholic world was excited by a Catholic bishop—and one of our most well-spoken—appearing in front of such a large, and mostly non-Catholic, audience. How would he do? What would he say?

I was not immune from the excitement, but I admit I was nervous as well. You see, I’ve never been a Bishop Barron fanboy. I’ve even been a critic at times. In my book Deadly Indifference I detail my disappointment with Barron’s appearance on the Ben Shapiro Show in 2018. When asked point-blank by the Jewish Shapiro if he should become Catholic, Barron—the de facto Chief Evangelist of the Catholic Church in America—hedged and gave what I thought was a weak, ambiguous answer. I pointed it out as a tremendous missed opportunity, and I was worried something similar would happen on Carlson’s show.

That wasn’t my only concern. I think Barron downplays the problems in the Church significantly and unreasonably exalts Vatican II. Further, while I believe that Barron is orthodox in his beliefs, he skirts the line far too closely when it comes to the salvation of all souls, a tendency he shares with his hero Hans Urs von Balthasar. In an age when most people think everyone except Hitler goes to heaven and so there’s no point in following moral rules or the Church’s teachings in general, I don’t think it’s helpful to have a popular bishop speak as if he agrees with that sentiment.

Because of my willingness to publicly criticize Bishop Barron, I’ve often heard from his legions of supporters with messages that range from constructive criticism to outright attacks. I even had an employee of Barron’s reach out to me directly, lamenting that I’d dare “attack” the Great Bishop.

Yet through all my criticisms I’ve never doubted that he is one of our best bishops. In fact, it’s not particularly close—he’s clearly in the top 1% of bishops. I realize that the competition isn’t exactly fierce these days, yet his passion for souls is obvious, as is his willingness to speak out against the excesses and errors of our culture. Over the years I’ve encountered countless Catholics positively impacted by him, and it would be foolish to pretend otherwise. I even know a traditional religious sister who converted after listening to his works. Not many bishops, let alone many Catholics, can say they’ve brought more souls into a deeper relationship with Christ in his Catholic Church than Bishop Barron.

My criticisms of him, in fact, have been based in large part on my overall positive assessment of him. A sports fan is far more critical of the star player who makes an error than of the benchwarmer when he gets in the game and doesn’t produce. Much more is expected of the star player. And for better or worse, Bishop Barron is clearly one of our star players.

I’ve noticed in recent years that Barron has gotten more outspoken, and I wonder if it’s just because he has his own diocese now, instead of being an auxiliary who has to answer to an archbishop. I’m guessing the death of Pope Francis and the election of Pope Leo will make his voice even stronger. So in spite of my past criticisms, I was hopeful regarding what the bishop would say on one of the most popular and influential podcasts in the world today.

Read the Whole Article

The post In Appreciation of Bishop Barron appeared first on LewRockwell.

For years, Jake Tapper, the leading newsreader for CNN, has been very unfair to and very biased against Republicans in general, and to President Trump in particular.

Now, in an attempt to restore some of his lost credibility, he has written a new book with Alex Thompson of Axios about the Biden health cover-up.

He apparently is embarrassed and/or feels guilty about all he did in a very partisan way to try to keep a very unhealthy Joe Biden in office as president, but I will give him credit for now admitting to some extent how wrong he was. Of course, he is putting most of the blame on the White House staff.

I will not try to help Tapper in this personal campaign of his by buying his book. However, I have read and heard many things he has said and I have read some of the reviews.

He said: “Alex and I are here to say that conservative media was right and conservative media was correct and that there should be a lot of soul-searching, not just among me, but among the legacy media.”

In an interview with Piers Morgan, Tapper said the cover-up of Biden’s health by the White House, aided by Tapper and most of the national media, was “maybe even worse” than the Watergate scandal. In fact, he used those words three times in the interview.

He added: “It is without question and maybe even worse than Watergate in some ways because Richard Nixon was in control of his faculties when he was not drinking.”

In its story about Tapper’s book, the U.S. edition of the Daily Mail (a British newspaper), led this way: “CNN star Jake Tapper has been branded a ‘fraud’ and a ‘phony’ over his self-righteous rants about former President Joe Biden’s health cover up.”

The story said “many believe the journalist was complicit in Biden’s cover up” and added that early reviews “were quickly overshadowed by allegations that Tapper himself was part of the cover up and is now seemingly trying to rewrite history.”

The national media hated Trump so much that reporters were eager to jump on and exaggerate anything unfavorable to him and to emphasize anything favorable to Biden.

Tapper’s book apparently says that Biden’s inner circle “couldn’t believe how easily (the media) swallowed campaign lies” and how eager reporters were to say something Trump said was false.

Much of the mainstream media was doing everything it could to protect and promote Biden. They would never ask him tough questions or criticize him for not holding press conferences and for not having anything on his schedule.

In the summer of 2023, the New York Times reported that “people who deal with him regularly, including some of his adversaries, say he remains sharp and commanding in private meetings” and “he has at times exerted striking stamina.”

His two young press secretaries said at different times they were having trouble keeping up with him and that videos shown by Fox News and other conservative media were “deep fake.”

Yet, several months before the election, the Biden campaign tried to film a town hall meeting to use on TV ads, but they couldn’t use it because, according to the Tapper book, Biden “couldn’t put together coherent thoughts.” The book also said Hunter Biden was “effectively chief of staff.”

In a survey released on Dec. 30, 2023, Syracuse University’s School of Public Communications said the number of journalists identifying themselves as Republicans fell from 18% in 2002 and 7.1% in 2013 to only 3.4% in 2022.

I received my journalism degree in 1969 and worked as a full-time reporter for the Knoxville Journal, our morning daily newspaper, during my senior year at U.T. in 1968-69. I taught journalism for one year. In those years, newspapers felt it was important to have a separation between the news pages and the editorial pages.

They never would have allowed a reporter to use words like “obviously false” in what were supposed to be news stories unless some official made the accusation. Reporters were supposed to be reporters, not editorial writers, and especially not flunkies for one political party.

Finally, not only did they hide the truth about Biden’s health, but Tapper and the national media also pushed the story that Russia had aided the 2016 Trump campaign. After paying 18 very anti-Trump lawyers for two years and spending many millions of taxpayer dollars, they found no proof at all of this Russian hoax.

This article was originally published on Knoxville Focus.

The post Jake Tapper: Biden Cover-up ‘Worse Than Watergate’ appeared first on LewRockwell.

The American Revolution was the first step in a global upheaval that would do away with a system called monarchy, creating a new world of equality and freedom. On paper this sounds about perfect, n’est-ce pas, as our French friends say, but in actual fact a few years later the Haitians revolted and massacred the ones who didn’t agree with the revolutionaries, appalling democrats the Western world over. The French chopping off the heads of all people who knew which fork and knife to use at the table did not help democracy either. Nasty and bitter partisan elections have followed right here in these United States, not to mention South American ones, more often than not settled at the barrel of a gun.

In the year of our Lord 2025 the Donald is in the White House, having been duly and fairly elected last November. His supporters cheered his victory and called it unprecedented; his opponents jeered Joe Biden for having reverted to being a baby, hiding it, and refusing to give up his doll, the White House. Never mind. I have a question or two about the jeering, however.

“Something has gone wrong in this country, and I blame those lying activists calling themselves journalists for it.”

Where was this guy Tapper, at present shoveling the money into his bank account for coauthoring the book about Biden’s baby talk, when the republic was being run by unelected gofers of the baby president? Why didn’t he or his coauthor Thompson, both posing as journalists, reveal the truth about the baby residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? I’ll tell you why. Objective truth or fact is an alien concept for 95 percent of journalists, and both men preferred to see a baby dressed as an adult try to run the world instead of a blond, orange tough guy bloviating in Palm Beach. And both men had one thought in mind: to cash in on what they knew after the baby had finally been taken back to his nursery.

Back in 1972 the great American president Richard Nixon carried every state except Massachusetts, winning an unprecedented landslide in the process. Nixon had opened up China and the Soviet Union, had settled the war in Vietnam, and was leading America into the brightest of futures, but he had a mortal enemy—yes, you guessed it, the so-called fourth estate. Two infamously mendacious journalists, Woodward and Bernstein, in cahoots with the deep state and a hostile Congress, brought Nixon down in less than two years after his unprecedented triumph at the polls. These same mendacious hacks and their similes now refer to that disgraceful period as the golden age of journalism. It was nothing of the sort. A few so-called elites controlled the media and hired only those who played the game according to their rules. When President Nixon decided to go after them, they managed to get to him first.

Technology, needless to say, disarmed those who controlled us for so long, namely the lefty major newspapers and the three TV channels. So now little ole Taki can write in his little ole magazine Takimag the truth, and there’s nothing left-wing phonies running the Times or the TV channels can do about it. The “fabled era in the capital, when Presidents feared journalists” is truly over. As Sally Quinn, an old-time Washington gossipmonger and bottom kisser of the powerful, said last week, “Everybody is so disoriented and depressed and untethered.”

I don’t blame them. They’re so depressed about what 77 million Americans did last November that this Goldberg woman who writes a column for the Big Bagel Times is now blaming the great Elon Musk for 300,000 deaths of East Africans. Just think about this. These so-called journalists hate what 77 million citizens voted for, so Times columnists and reporters blame most deaths from cancer and disease on Musk and Trump. See what I mean, dear Takimag readers, when I say that these people calling themselves journalists is like career criminal George Floyd having a square named after him and being called a hero, with 27 million greenbacks being given to his family only because a policeman followed procedure and held him down? Something has gone wrong in this country, and I blame those lying activists calling themselves journalists for it.

Down in D.C. those phonies posing as objective truth tellers are up in arms because their Santa Claus, Jeff Bezos, has named an outsider, Will Lewis—and a Brit to boot—as head of The Washington Post. They want the legacy of Kay Graham revived, in other words the legacy of mendacity and the ability to bring down a president. Well, they might still get it, but this time it’s going to be harder. 77 million voters cannot be ignored by a small group of D.C. catamites. The same ones who call their paper a national treasure for having brought down a great president some fifty years ago.

Here’s what these bums posing as truth tellers did for us lately: denounced anyone sympathetic to Trump as a racist, bigot, or fascist. Dismissed millions of working-class people as numbskulls for having voted the wrong way. Used a vile and sophomoric tone against any Trump appointee, starting with Elon Musk. Hyperbolic fearmongering replaced any kind of balanced reporting of news. The monopoly that Trump haters hold in the media, however diluted by technology, still sets the terms of national debate. But the media landscape is expanding, and that fact alone is driving the lefties a bit balmy. The legacy media, as it’s called, instead of trying to play it straight for once, is reverting to type and claiming its entitlement. It ain’t gonna work. At least I hope not.

This article was originally published on Taki’s Magazine.

The post Bad Press appeared first on LewRockwell.