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Ben Bartee

The post USAID’s Epic Failed Venture in Vietnam appeared first on LewRockwell.

The late Charlotte Iserbyt was the consummate whistleblower! Iserbyt served as Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education, during the first Reagan Administration, where she first blew the whistle on a major technology initiative which would control curriculum in America’s classrooms.

Charlotte T. Iserbyt, 91 of Dresden, passed away at her home on the afternoon of February 8, 2022.  Born in New York on October 26, 1930, she was the daughter of Clifton and Charlotte (Thomson), and the wife of the late Jan Iserbyt.

Iserbyt’s father and grandfather were Yale University graduates and members of the Skull and Bones secret society.

Iserbyt was a former school board director in Camden, Maine and was co-founder and research analyst of Guardians of Education for Maine (GEM) from 1978 to 2000. She has also served in the American Red Cross on Guam and Japan during the Korean War, and in the United States Foreign Service in Belgium and in the Republic of South Africa.

Iserbyt was a speaker and writer, best known for her 1985 booklet Back to Basics Reform or OBE: Skinnerian International Curriculum and her 1989 pamphlet Soviets in the Classroom: America’s Latest Education Fad which covered the details of the U.S.-Soviet and Carnegie-Soviet Education Agreements which remain in effect to this day.

A prolific writer, Ms. Iserbyt authored two books, The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America…A Chronological Paper Trail in 1999, which alleges that changes gradually brought into the American public education system work to eliminate the influences of a child’s parents and mold the child into a member of the proletariat in preparation for a socialist-collectivist world of the future. She also wrote three editions of Back to Basics Reform or…OBE*Skinnerian International Curriculum between 1985 and 2003 and Back to Basics Reform, which documents her experiences working in the U.S. Department of Education, where she was privy to past and future plans to restructure American education.

Ms. Iserbyt contributed numerous articles to professional journals and newspapers. She was a freelance writer and had articles published in Human Events, The Washington Times, The Bangor Daily News, and included in the record of Congressional hearings.

The post The Secret History of Western Education – The Scientific Destruction of Minds – Charlotte Iserbyt appeared first on LewRockwell.

“For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike,” President Trump declared last week when he proclaimed a national emergency and imposed the highest tariffs since the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930. US stock markets lost more than $6 trillion in value and fierce controversies are raging over whether Trump is rescuing or ruining the economy.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Trump’s penalty tariffs are “the reordering of fair trade.” Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent declared, “For the first time in decades — probably since I was a college student — we’re going to see fair trade.”

Last week, the US Trade Representative (USTR) released its 377-page annual report on Foreign Trade Barriers, exhaustively recapping abuses by each nation cheating America. Luckily for the Trump administration, media fact checkers almost completely ignored the wildly-slanted report.

But one of the most high-profile cases illustrates the absurdity of Trump’s latest fair trade definitions.

USTR stated that most “US exports to Vietnam face tariffs of 15 percent or less.” But in the Rose Garden ceremony, Trump touted a chart stating that Vietnam’s “Tariffs Charged to U.S.A.” was 90 percent. Trump set penalty tariffs at only half the assessed tariff on the US because he wanted to be “kind”; Vietnam’s exports were kindly walloped with a 46 percent tariff. Trump declared that each nation’s tariff was based on “the combined rate of all their tariffs, non-monetary barriers and other forms of cheating.”

Last Friday, Trump announced that he had spoken with the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam and Vietnam “wants to cut their tariffs down to ZERO if they are able to make an agreement with the US.” But Peter Navarro—Trump’s top trade adviser—scoffed at the offer: “When they come to us and say, we’ll go to zero tariffs, that means nothing to us, because it’s the non-tariff cheating that matters.”

And what are the supposedly outrageous Vietnamese non-tariff barriers? The USTR report castigated Vietnam for its refusal to import “second hand consumer goods; used parts for vehicles; used internal combustion engines of less than 30 horsepower…and refurbished medical devices.” Does the Trump administration actually believe it can close the trade deficit with Vietnam by shipping them our used lawn mowers, rattletrap transmissions for old Fords, and leftover syringes?

Ethanol supposedly exemplifies Vietnamese unfair trade barriers. USTR complained that Vietnam “only allows blends of 5 percent ethanol in one of its three grades of gasoline.” The US government is pressuring Vietnam for “the eventual migration to a 10 percent ethanol blend.” Ethanol is a poor source of fuel compared to gasoline and it pollutes the air. Ethanol is notorious for damaging car engines in this nation.

But the US has plenty of ethanol to export because its production has been heavily subsidized since the 1970s. Last week, the Trump administration announced $537 million in new subsidies for biofuels production. But browbeating Vietnam to purchase more ethanol subsidized by the US government is a victory for fair trade because God wants Iowa corn farmers to be rich. Condemning foreigners for not purchasing exports subsidized by the US government epitomizes the hypocrisy of Trump-style fair trade.

The Trump administration is also indignant that Vietnam bans US “white offal,” including “poultry gizzards and beef and pork stomach and intestines.” The US government insists that Vietnam lacks a “science-based justification for not approving new US facilities seeking to export offals.” Offals can be contaminated by Salmonella, mycotoxins, parasites, and heavy metals.

The US government offal enthusiasm doesn’t extend to haggis, the traditional Scottish dish which has been banned from import since 1971. Haggis relies on sheep lungs, which the US Department of Agriculture considers a high risk of spreading food-borne illnesses.

But even if Vietnam bought all the used lawn mowers and all the butcher shop leftovers in America, there would likely still be a big trade deficit between the two nations. The Trump penalty tariffs were largely derived from a simplistic formula that took “the trade deficit that America runs with that nation and dividing it by the exports that country sent” to the US, as the New York Times explained.

A Trump administration official declared that the penalty tariffs were “based on the concept that the trade deficit that we have with any given country is the sum of all unfair trade practices, the sum of all cheating.” Regrettably, the administration has provided no evidence to buttress that assertion. Trump declared on Sunday that as long as trade deficits persist, so, too, will the penalty tariffs.

Basing penalty tariffs on trade flow data is like a federal judge sentencing a criminal based on the weight of the defendant, not on the actual offense he committed. But it doesn’t matter if Trump’s proclamations have zero intellectual or moral credibility. His declaration of an emergency sufficed to vastly increase his arbitrary power over the American economy.

Trump’s decrees vivify how “fair trade” means a moral canonization of pure political arbitrariness. The ultimate basis is that fair trade is whatever politicians say it is—at least until they revise the definition of fairness. Will Trump explain why making foreign trade totally dependent on presidential decrees is a triumph of fairness?

On Sunday evening, Trump proclaimed: “Some day people will realize that Tariffs, for the United States of America, are a very beautiful thing!” How much will Americans be forced to pay for Trump’s tariff salvation scheme? Never forget Sen. James Beck’s 1884 warning: “The tariff is the protection the wolf gave the lamb.”

The post Trump’s ‘Fair Trade’ Offal appeared first on LewRockwell.

Many Americans will be relieved to learn that US Embassy employees and their families in China can no longer have “romantic or sexual relations” with local Chinese. It is certainly a move long past due which will keep us safer together with those 125% tariffs that we will be hitting the Chinks with. But beyond that good news, it has been another interesting week in the fantasy world created and sustained by President Donald J Trump. This week included a not-so-surprise visit by the Chosen Lord of the Universe Benjamin Netanyahu, ruler of a pathetic little country called Israel, which is growing bigger as, with American support, it absorbs all of its neighbors one at a time. Netanyahu was in town to give Trump his marching orders for the next month or so, and it was no surprise that both men agreed that the two million or so hapless Palestinians still hanging around Gaza have to go and the sooner the better. Starving them and shooting and bombing them is not getting the job done quickly enough, so they will have to be convinced to go somewhere else, which sounds a lot better and easier than it actually is. An upbeat Trump nevertheless observed that they could find a nice quiet place somewhere in the world where they would be less likely to get killed. Meanwhile that lovely bit of prime real estate along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea can be developed under US protection without any Palestinians allowed. Netanyahu noted that the Gazans should just go “voluntarily” to one of a number of unnamed countries that he is talking with about the issue. But if they don’t go voluntarily…

Netanyahu was possibly a bit miffed over a bit of an attempt by Trump to assert some independence by indicating that his team of misfits would be negotiating directly and separately with Iran in Qatar to essentially come to an agreement that removes any possibility that uranium that is being enriched might be weaponized. Such a program was in place and called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) back in 2017, when Trump withdrew from it claiming, without any evidence, that there was a secret enrichment and weapons development center hidden somewhere underground, i.e. that the Iranians were cheating. CIA and even Mossad, who have plenty of spies inside Iran, for what it is worth, have since declared that Iran has no nuclear weapons program and has not had any such thing for the past twenty years but guys like Trump and Netanyahu are notably not good listeners.

Now Trump wants to recreate the program but make it even tougher by threatening the Iranians with dire consequences, which will in any event be a hard sell as his promises are known to be worthless. Also, he is simultaneously and openly building up a force of heavy bombers in the Indian Ocean which appear to be intended for use against Iran when the talks break down, as they will, and Trump is forced to deliver on his “hell to pay” option. Iran is fully aware of what cards are on the table.

Netanyahu is also calling for a “Libyan solution” which would completely strip Iran of its defenses. Since the meeting with Trump he has asserted that any agreement with Iran will have to include the complete destruction of their infrastructure capability, meaning that they should be unable to create and manufacture new and effective weapons. It would mean the end of their arms industry and they would be unable to defend themselves, which would end their ability to sustain their regional sovereignty against Israel. It would also require the use of American troops to strip the Iranians of their defense establishment capabilities, which is not going to happen. Admittedly, the Mullahs’ new found friends Russia and China might be willing to exchange oil for weapons if Tehran proves to be dumb enough to fall for whatever the US acting for Israel places on the negotiating table.

Another good story over the past week makes the case that the accelerating deportation of alleged illegal immigrants or foreign born criminals from the United States is extremely dangerous and establishes a very bad precedent for getting rid of people you don’t want in your country. It unfortunately sets the stage for much worse abuses of American citizens in the near future. The link includes a video of President Trump saying that US citizens committing “grave crimes” as interpreted by the White House can be similarly deported to places like El Salvador and other hell-holes that the non-citizens are now being sent to, in order to serve their sentences. This perversion of justice is earth-shatteringly vile, and beyond dangerous. It is a massive violation of constitutional law, international precedents, and a direct abuse of presidential authority. That the authority would be inevitably expanded to include “speech” and “thought” crimes like “antisemitism” is a certainty. It is a given that we Americans will one day soon have to endure the enabling of government to silence dissidents by being able to detain and deport anyone who is brainless enough to say anything that contradicts the policies coming out of the White House.

Such a program is possibly being considered to neatly complement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests and deportations of foreign-born visa holders and legal residents with green cards which have heavily impacted on students studying for degrees at US universities. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently announced that there have already been more than 300 revocations of travel and residency documents plus hundreds more in the past few days while many more are in the pipeline. The Department of Homeland security is reportedly scanning social media sites to develop derogatory information both on current visa holders as well as on foreigners who have applied for immigrant or student status. Social site account identifications will soon be required on all new application forms. This will dramatically increase the number of potential targets. As Gilbert and Sullivan once put it in The Mikado, America’s Attorney General Pam Bondi might soon be singing “As some day it may happen that a victim must be found I’ve got a little list — I’ve got a little list… Of society offenders who might well be underground… And who never would be missed — who never would be missed!”

Genevieve Lakier, a professor at my alma mater the University of Chicago who specializes in freedom of speech and American constitutional law, explained the focus on students: “My understanding is that Trump promised mass deportations and the people you can find that are the easiest to identify are students. They’re in the system and universities maintain records that are easy to access via multiple pathways. And of course, the administration doesn’t like universities, so it does not mind disrupting their business model. It’s a win-win for the administration and horrifying for our students who are terrified.”

To help the deportations along, the White House also announced last week that the anti-American, anti-Israeli, terroristic, antisemitic subhuman trash slated for a quick exit will be fined $998 per day if they overstay their final deportation order. It sounds like a nice incentive for getting the scumbags out expeditiously. If the targets don’t have the cash their personal property will be seized to make up for the shortfall. So, putting together all of the nifty personal security invasions, if you don’t like what’s going on here in the US or even object to the slaughtering of maybe as many as 400,000 Gazans, complain and even if you are an American citizen you might end up joining the undesirables in “retirement” or even in prison in places like Burkina Faso!

But the best story coming out of last week I saved for last! It is all about the military parade that Donald Trump has called for to celebrate his 79th birthday on June 14th. The parade also celebrates the 250th anniversary of the creation of the United States Army. It will run over a four-mile long parade route running from the Pentagon through Arlington National Cemetery to Constitution Avenue and will feature flyovers, parachutists, marching troops, fireworks and lots of music from various military bands. Trump apparently was impressed when he was in Paris during his first tour in office and watched the French Bastille Day military parade. He wanted one of his own, and now it looks like he will yet again get what he wants at a cost of something like $110 million, which is pocket change for a government carrying an unsustainable $36 trillion debt and which will be spending $1 trillion which it does not have on the Pentagon in the upcoming year.

It promises to be a splendid spectacle, but I would throw in a bit more entertainment value to make it a historic event. As it turns out, Trump, Bill Clinton, George W Bush and I are all very close in age and I realized that if you are going to throw a military parade it would be nice to integrate some of the outliers into the ceremony, which would mean including the narrative of draft dodgers Trump and Clinton as part of the festivities. I would also include Joe Biden though he is four years older than the rest of us. I won’t go into the details, but if one goes to Wikipedia or Googles the names with “draft dodger” you will be presented with the arguments that have been made to demonstrate that all three maneuvered to avoid the draft which was running in support of the Vietnam War. George W Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard and was the only recent ex-president who served in the military in some capacity, though not directly in a war or war zone. Barack Obama also had no military service, but there was no draft on when he was in college and afterwards.

As I was in the same draft eligible group as Trump and Clinton, I am aware of the many subterfuges used by my university classmates to avoid Vietnam. Instead, when I was notified that my draft board would be calling me up a week after I graduated from college, I hurriedly enlisted in the army, adding another year to my commitment, but allowing me to pick my job category, which was intelligence. As I had had a year of Russian language in college, I wound up in Cold War Berlin where I spent a fabulous three years. In any event, I think it would insert a bit of fun at the expense of our combat shy presidents to introduce a bit of reality into a military parade ordered by a narcissist head of state who plausibly dodged the draft due to “bone spurs.” Perhaps Biden, Clinton and Trump could be presented with a special award, maybe a plaque or something like that featuring a Golden Chicken.

Reprinted with permission from The Unz Review.

The post Another Week In the Twilight Zone appeared first on LewRockwell.

Recently, a young Black male killed another young White male. This is hardly news, seeing as how every day, young Black males kill. It’s a ‘hood workout. The apparent motive in this case, was that the young Black male felt “disrespected.” In ghetto culture, you don’t accept “disrespect.” You have to respond, too often in a deadly way.

Now why this story has become national news is puzzling. The young victim, an honor roll high school student named Austin Metcalf, who was a Division 1 college football prospect, is no different than countless other White victims of Black pathology who remain anonymous because the crimes were ignored by mainstream media. The murderer is named Karmelo Anthony. We were assured that he came from a good home, unlike the vast majority of young Black killers. In this case, Anthony appears to have wandered into the tent provided for members of Metcalf’s high school track team. Maybe Karmelo forgot what school he went to. Metcalf asked him to leave, because the tent was reserved for track players at his particular high school. Now, no one asks a young Black man to leave any place. If he’s there, he must have a reason. So, Karmelo felt “disrespected.” And he responded in an appropriate ghetto style.

According to Austin’s twin brother, who will be haunted for the rest of his life by reliving the indescribable agony of his twin dying in his arms, Austin represented no threat to Karmelo. Austin didn’t bring a knife, or any other weapon, to a track meet. Karmelo Anthony did. The mainstream media normally suppresses stories like this, because they are so common that even the comatose “normies” might eventually start wondering. But they did report this one. Why? And the reaction has been predictable; uniform and irrational Black solidarity online. I’m sure Joy Reid and the shrews from The View will be chiming in soon. There is no other racial group that would attempt to justify cold blooded murder. You couldn’t find a single White person on earth defending this killer, if the races were reversed. This case is as cut and dry as can be. A knife to the heart for being asked to move from a restricted area?

This is the problem we face, and have faced for a very long time. It’s why I have African American Fatigue Syndrome (AAFS). We have to pretend that Blacks don’t kill Whites and Asians far, far more often than the reverse. If any White person kills any Black person, you’ll know, because it will become front page news. I’m not sure any Asian has ever killed a Black person. You’ll be required to “say his or her name!” Loudly. When you first heard about the story, and that a White and a Black teen were involved, there was no doubt in your mind about which one was the perpetrator. Despite the best efforts of Hollywood to convince us that Whites bully and kill Blacks, and rape Black women, in real life these events are so rare as to be almost statistically meaningless. And you will not find a single Black public figure who will condemn this murder without some kind of ridiculous qualification. And that’s the real issue here.

Why is it so hard for good Black people to call out the atrocious behavior of young Black thugs, who are seemingly committed to criminal activity like some kind of twisted catechism? More significantly, why are the vast majority of White people afraid to condemn the violent trappings of this absurd “culture?” There should be nothing glamorous or attractive about learned stupidity, and gang activity. About single mothers and drive by shootings. About “wilding.” I guess they still engage in “wilding.” I’m old and White, so I wouldn’t know. This ghetto mentality has resulted in a perpetual morass of death and poverty. And yet every Black entertainer pays homage to it. They genuflect to the likes of stoned “gangsta” Snoop Dogg. Even more remarkably, so does polite White society. How can any intelligent person not laugh when saying his infantile rap name? Is it supposed to sound intimidating?

We have been in an unofficial race war practically my entire life. I saw Blacks being accorded favorable treatment on the job in the 1970s. I saw White managers and directors- surely all of them hopeless racists during that era- fawn over them, and let them get away with things that no White employee ever could. I heard stories of my Uncle Logan being beaten up on the job by a bunch of Blacks. In the 1940s. From the impression one gets from our media, I would assume Blacks weren’t allowed to speak without permission in the 1940s. Remember, we have been lied to about everything. For all I know, maybe the slaves goofed off and slapped the White women on their asses on the plantations. Perhaps the tobacco spitting Whites were cucked out, just like their descendants, and laughed uproariously at the supposed natural Black ability to sing and dance, run and jump. Why believe anything the court historians say?

Bernard Goetz. Tawana Brawley. The Duke lacrosse players. George Floyd. There’s a long history of generals and soldiers in this race war. You have the Rev. Jesse Jackson, renowned for lying about holding the dying Martin Luther King in his arms, and shaking down unknown numbers of companies for cash. Jesse made a lot of money for someone who basically never worked a job in his life. A stone cold gangsta. But perhaps Rev. Al Sharpton outdid him. A random crack dealer caught by the FBI, and turned into an informant. His regular job description was to inject himself into any widely publicized racial incident. To remain consistently on the “Black is always right” side. Sharpton’s role in the Tawana Brawley hoax was forgotten, and is never mentioned. Jackson and Sharpton are like the Ulysses Grant and William T. Sherman of this race war. They are considered heroes by most of those they are fighting.

The odd thing about this race war is that it is being waged against an opponent that doesn’t realize there is a war. From the despicable “Woke” self-loathers to the deluded conservatives in search of a new Steppin Fetchet for the Republicans, it is a toothless bunch. I’m sure they strike fear in the hearts of professional race hucksters and young Black “gangstas” alike. They treat Blacks collectively like pampered pit bulls; aware that they could kill them unexpectedly but oddly allured by them. They certainly don’t treat them like anybody else. They are coddled, fawned over, and rewarded beyond any imagined worthiness. DEI is their Apostle’s Creed. It’s a one-sided battle; Blacks worked into frothing anger by the corrupt media and their own government-anointed “leaders.” Blacks repeatedly fed the fiction that somehow they are still being held down by “systemic racism” and “White privilege.” Blacks emboldened that there is something good and noble, and really cool, about their violent, dysfunctional culture.

When you can attempt to rationalize stabbing a young kid in the heart at a track meet, you can attempt to rationalize anything. Karmelo Anthony should be convicted in about five minutes, and locked away forever. If we really had a system of justice. We don’t. If enough Blacks complain loudly enough, Karmelo might become the next George Floyd. Nobody is going to fight back in this war. There is no Robert E. Lee or Stonewall Jackson to contend with. Instead, you’ll have to rely on a mainstream Right that thinks Caitlin Jenner is a conservative. Until the ghetto culture is thoroughly condemned as strongly as the fictitious “White Supremacy” has been, by every government agency and business establishment in the land, nothing will change. These laughably uneducated bullies need to be ridiculed by everyone. Do you really think it would be hard to spoof their absurd lifestyle and mindset for comic effect?

There have been many casualties in this race war, but all of them are on one side. Blacks kill each other on a daily basis, but that’s just friendly fire. And the same Left that is mortified over school shootings and thinks guns are the problem, doesn’t say a word about the guns that are used every night on the mean streets of Chicago, and Baltimore, and most every other major city that is ruled by Black “gang bangers,” not the preposterous skinheads of Hollywood. Apparently, those Black lives don’t matter. Black pathology continues to be excused, no matter how horrific it is, by both wealthy Black “leaders,” and the vast majority of the supposedly more educated public of all other races. Why, for instance, weren’t Asians outraged by all the Black assaults on their people, which were somehow attributed to nonexistent White racists? Why aren’t they mad at being denied prestigious college admissions by DEI policies?

I don’t think this war will ever end. Whites, Asians, and other nonblack groups appear unwilling to ever fight back. They have been absolutely cucked into submission, and conditioned to believe the Hollywood depiction of Blacks as brilliant, kind hearted, helpful, sexy, hard working victims of a White elite that unfairly discriminates against them. And never forget that the Black males are the best athletes with the biggest penises ever created. It is shameful and embarrassing that any White person would believe such juvenile level propaganda. Especially if they are poor and working class, and have interacted to any significant degree with large numbers of Blacks. As a lifelong egalitarian, I struggle not to generalize myself. There are plenty of good and decent Blacks in this country. But they are as outnumbered in their own population as much as honest corporate executives are in our rigged crony capitalist system.

I suspect there are many others suffering from African American Fatigue Syndrome. Just hearing the pandering term “African-American” is enough to trigger it. No entire group of people should be either exalted or written off collectively. But considering their wildly disproportionate level of crime, the lack of education, and dislike of civility on the part of too many “African-Americans,” they surely are the least deserving people for this kind of slobbering adulation. If we have to worry that catching the eye of some young Black may result in a fatal stabbing, then we have to acknowledge that there is no way to live together in harmony with such a native criminal element. Unless we continue to look the other way, apologize for noticing reality, and be content with walking on eggshells. Wealthy, highly educated Whites have shown a willingness to play a subservient role, even with “gang bangers” that are illiterate after years of public “education.” Just one of many White humiliation rituals.

People have even been attacking Austin’s father, for acting like a real Christian and forgiving his son’s killer, saying that God will judge all. He was also criticized for quite reasonably asking, what kind of parents raised Karmelo? Karmelo’s family created a Go Fund Me account, which always happens in these cases, and supposedly it has raised something like $150,000 so far. But it was the Metcalf family who was criticized for starting their own Go Fund Me account. Some fundraisers are more equal than others. Amateurish fake online posts were created by someone to make it seem like Austin was a “racist.” And that he “bullied” poor Karmelo. Just like it happens in Hollywood. Sounds believable. Why else would a fine, upstanding young Black man stab him in the heart? What else could he do? Stand there and be “disrespected?” As the “journalists” would say, this is a tragedy for both young men. Uh, no actually it isn’t. Karmelo is alive. And will probably be dealt with leniently.

Read the Whole Article

The post Austin Metcalf and the Endless Race War appeared first on LewRockwell.

The decade-long treasonous hectoring of Mr. Trump keeps on coming, you understand, for the simple reason that there have been absolutely zero consequences for any of the vicious rogues behind it. Not so much as a rap on the knuckles for seeking to overthrow a president, steal elections, hide high crimes, rob the treasury, and recklessly frame the innocent. And suddenly this week, as startling as a mythic goddess of justice riding a spring zephyr, comes a brisk demonstration of exactly what-to-do.

Days ago, Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey ordered his state police to not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement officers (ICE) — a nice bit of grandstanding for a guy seeking to occupy the Democratic Party’s leadership vacuum. So, Thursday night, newly-appointed US Attorney for the New Jersey federal district, Alina Habba, opened a criminal investigation against Gov. Murphy for “obstruction and concealment.” That means, possibly, jail. Badda-bing! This ain’t no foolin’ around.

The reason the Democrat pols and their activist agents pule and mewl about “retribution” is because they know they are guilty of so many manifest crimes against the country and against decency, that a fair system would have jailed or hanged them by now. They evaded their reckonings only because their own filthy mitts gripped the levers of justice until very recently.

Since January 20, that has obviously changed. But two questions have dogged the necessary restoration of fairness and good faith in the backbone of government we call the law. 1) Since the culpable are such well-known figures — the Clintons, Obama, Biden, Comey, Brennan, Mayorkas, Garland, Wray, Fauci, Collins, Pelosi, Eisen, Weissmann, McCord, Schiff, and dozens more — how do you seek justice without appearing to “go after” individuals in the old Soviet mode of “show me the person and I’ll find you the crime”? And 2) where do you begin with such a cosmic-scale panorama of treasonous malfeasance spanning many years and many theaters-of-action?

I’d say US Attorney Alina Habba’s move this week is an excellent place to start. For one thing, Governor Murphy’s defiant act is a fresh crime, only days old, and a clear-cut one: you can’t order state officials to flout federal law, especially where public safety is concerned. Ms. Habba smacked him instantly, like an insolent biting insect. Now, follow through. Prosecute. Mere apologies not accepted. No “mulligan” on that shot. If she brings a case, then other mayors and governors of the many self-proclaimed “sanctuary” jurisdictions around the country, trolling for virtue brownie points in their Woke waters, will rethink their lawless posturing.

Couple of other good starts just this week. Mr. Trump issued executive orders yesterday that will afford a fresh look into some older but critical crimes against the nation. One directs US Attorney General Bondi to investigate the actions of a key player in wide-ranging 2020 election mischief. From the White House memo itself:

Christopher Krebs, the former head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), is a significant bad-faith actor who weaponized and abused his government authority. Krebs’ misconduct involved the censorship of disfavored speech implicating the 2020 election and COVID-19 pandemic. CISA, under Krebs’ leadership, suppressed conservative viewpoints under the guise of combatting supposed disinformation, and recruited and coerced major social media platforms to further its partisan mission. CISA covertly worked to blind the American public to the controversy surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop. Krebs, through CISA, promoted the censorship of election information, including known risks associated with certain voting practices. Similarly, Krebs, through CISA, falsely and baselessly denied that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen, including by inappropriately and categorically dismissing widespread election malfeasance and serious vulnerabilities with voting machines. Krebs skewed the bona fide debate about COVID-19 by attempting to discredit widely shared views that ran contrary to CISA’s favored perspective.

Next, the White House directed an investigation of Homeland Security officer Miles Taylor who proclaimed, during the first Trump term in an anonymous New York Times op-ed, that he was party to “a resistance within the Federal Government that ‘vowed’ to undermine and render ineffective a sitting president. . . . [T]his conduct could properly be characterized as treasonous and as possibly violating the Espionage Act,” the EO said. Sounds serious, a little bit.

Next, in another EO, the White House severely disciplined the swamp law firm Susman Godfrey for its racist DEI activism in the federal agencies it did work for, saying, “Lawyers and law firms that engage in activities detrimental to critical American interests should not have access to our nation’s secrets, nor should their conduct be subsidized by Federal taxpayer funds or contracts.” Hence, Sussman Godfrey lost its security clearances, its federal work contracts were cancelled, and its lawyers are barred from entering federal buildings, including courthouses. FAFO.

Next, Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard announced at Thursday’s cabinet meeting that her office has obtained evidence of massive vulnerabilities in voting machines that allow hackers to flip votes. This has long been written off as “baseless conspiracy theory” for years by degenerate news outlets like The New York Times. The key word in Ms. Gabbard’s statement, is “evidence.” You realize, of course, that there is no reason to use vote-counting machines in our election except for the purpose of hacking and cheating. Most other putatively “democratic” nations use paper ballots and manage to tabulate and report election results within twenty-four hours.
Of course, this motley batch of sudden cases — Gov. Murphy of NJ, Chris Krebs, Miles Taylor, Susman Godfrey — are relative outliers to the notorious operations such as RussiaGate, the Schiff-Vindman-Ciaramella-Eisen plot behind Impeachment No. 1, The Covid-19 intrigue, The BLM rampage, the Hunter Biden Laptop ruse (and Biden family’s bribery and treason), J-6 riot and the DNC Pipe-bomb caper, and four years of a wide-open border. That long train of crimes, seditions, and treasons came close to wrecking the country. We know exactly who was behind and involved in all of that. What remains is the heavy-lifting to build cases that can be brought to grand juries in good faith. Perhaps a comprehensive omnibus RICO case can incorporate all of these in what appears to amount to a single, complex orchestrated, long-running attempted coup. Don’t bet that this isn’t coming. And, by-the-way, the infamous “Crossfire-Hurricane” binder was just released last night. As of this writing, there is almost no analysis available yet. Stand by.

Reprinted with permission from Kunstler.com.

The post The Wicked Flee appeared first on LewRockwell.

Providing transgendered children “puberty blockers” is currently one of the most controversial areas in medicine. Remarkably, little knowledge exists about the safety of these drugs (e.g., when I’ve asked liberal colleagues who support these drugs if they were aware of their dangers, they genuinely shared that they were not aware the drugs had any clinically significant side effects).

Given that hormonal blockers are amongst the most dangerous drugs on the market, I feel it is essential to bring light to the people who they have harmed, and the scandalous 40-year saga that has allowed them to be unjustifiably used for a wide range of medical conditions.

How Hormonal Blockers Work

There are various ways you can block the production of hormones in the body. Since the signal to produce sex hormones (e.g., estrogen and testosterone) begins in the brain, cutting that signal off mainly eliminates the body’s production of hormones. The most potent hormonal blockers, the GnRH agonists, work by overstimulating the brain’s GnRH receptors so that they become “burned out” and no longer respond to the natural release of GnRH in the body, thereby short-circuiting the body’s production of sex hormones (which in many cases is a permanent deactivation).

Note: A variety of different GnRH over-activators are sold, with Lupron, Vantas and Supprelin being the most widely used. Additionally, various drugs, such as Orilissa, instead function by directly blocking the GnRH receptor. Henceforth, I will focus on Lupron.

Testosterone, known to fuel prostate cancer growth, prompted extensive research into reducing its levels. Initially, countering testosterone with an estrogen analog called DES was promising. However, DES was withdrawn due to its severe adverse effects, which included harms to both the children and grandchildren of mothers who took it.

In 1984, a study compared Lupron (which chemically castrates males) to DES for advanced (likely fatal) prostate cancer, finding similar side effects and a slight increase in survival rates. This led to Lupron being approved as an alternative treatment for advanced prostate cancer despite FDA concerns about the study’s flaws and an incomplete understanding of Lupron’s metabolism.

Since that time, a myriad of additional dangers from the drug (e.g., an increase in fatal heart attacks or diabetes) have been uncovered, some of which suggest its reduction in prostate cancer deaths were due to it killing them from something else first.

Over time, Lupron’s usage has broadened beyond advanced prostate cancer to encompass various conditions, including advanced breast cancer, endometriosis, and fibroid pretreatment before surgery. Moreover, its off-label applications have proliferated, ranging from managing gynecological issues to assisting in in-vitro fertilization (IVF) protocols and chemical castration for sex offenders.

Hence, while these drugs were initially developed for men (i.e., prostate cancer), they are frequently given off-label to women. This, for example is why Lupron’s FDA insert states its only indication is for the palliative treatment of advanced prostate cancer, but it simultaneously warns against pregnant women taking it (even though it’s also used for egg harvesting)

In turn, despite having been on the market for decades, there is very little evidence to show these drugs actually benefit those who take them.

This hence raises the question—why on earth are these drugs so popular?

Selling Lupron

Lupron’s manufacturer faced a rather significant challenge—how could they get doctors to begin prescribing a hazardous and ineffective drug? They accomplished this through one of the most overt acts of physician bribery I’ve seen in American medicine.

Initially facing sluggish sales, Lupron’s manufacturer found a loophole in chemotherapy drug pricing, reformulating Lupron into a long-acting monthly shot for direct administration by urologists. This move allowed them to profit from marked-up prices, exploiting Medicare payments that soared to $1,200 per shot. Bribes and free samples were handed out to urologists to sweeten the deal, though this illegal practice eventually led to an $875 million fine.

The drug’s profitability enticed American urologists to adopt Lupron for increasingly benign prostate cancers, resulting in treatments costing nearly a billion dollars annually by the late 1990s. Medicare payments accounted for 40% of urology practices’ income. Medicare’s intervention in 2001 and 2003 led to reimbursement cuts, curbing Lupron’s excessive use and prompting a drop in inappropriate hormonal treatment rates for prostate cancer (leading to many urologists reporting their income had been halved).

Note: one survey found 53% of the urologists who did not believe prescribing Lupron benefitted certain prostate cancer patients still prescribed the drug to them.

Despite concerns about efficacy, Lupron’s profitability captured other medical specialties, leading to a surge in off-label uses, notably among obstetricians and gynecologists. This proliferation persisted despite poor data on Lupron’s efficacy for gynecological conditions and its exorbitant pricing, with patients often facing bills exceeding $10,000 for a single injection.

The significant markup on Lupron underscores questionable prescribing practices and raises doubts about the drug’s actual value. Patients experiencing adverse effects often encounter disbelief from negatively incentivized doctors, highlighting challenges in obtaining proper treatment and support. These issues underscore the need for greater transparency and ethical standards in pharmaceutical practices to safeguard patient welfare.

Lupron Lawsuits

Due to Lupron’s toxicity, many users have experienced severe and lasting incapacitation, leading to numerous lawsuits. This, in turn, may have deterred competitors from entering the market due to the substantial financial risk associated with potential lawsuits.

Despite numerous lawsuits against Lupron’s manufacturer and prescribing doctors, few have succeeded, even when cases involved clear harm caused by the drug being used for experimental or unapproved purposes. Many individuals injured by Lupron believe that the manufacturer’s extensive legal defenses (funded by the immense profitability of the drug), including alleged actions such as paying off judges or securing gag orders in settlements, make it nearly impossible to win a case. Consequently, many have struggled to find attorneys willing to take on their cases.

Lupron Toxicity

My longstanding interest in understanding pharmaceutical injuries has led me to conclude that Lupron is one of the most dangerous drugs on the market, based on the multitude and severity of reported injuries. Despite growing public pressure against Lupron in the late 1990s, efforts to collect evidence of its harm, such as the National Lupron Victims Network, faced obstacles and even disappeared mysteriously before publishing collected data.

In my research within Lupron support groups, I’ve found that women comprise the largest group of injured individuals, followed by those who took the drug to halt premature puberty, then men, and finally, transgender individuals. Many who took Lupron during puberty are experiencing adverse effects decades later, leading to concerns about similar long-term effects in transgender youth receiving puberty blockers. Notably, specialist reviews have highlighted the lack of controlled studies on Lupron’s use for early puberty or height enhancement, relying instead on expert opinion.

Some of the most commonly reported side effects of Lupron include:

• Significant decrease in bone density, leading to fractures and chronic dental issues such as teeth cracking and unexpected fractures even from minor stressors. This bone loss can occur rapidly and may emerge years after taking Lupron.
• Long-term or permanent damage to female menstrual cycles, with many experiencing failure to return to baseline ovarian function even one year after stopping Lupron. Other hormonal issues like permanent weight gain, abnormal menses, hot flashes, and vaginal atrophy are also frequent.
• Sexual dysfunction, with high rates of impotence reported in males and significant decreases in sexual desire, interest, and intercourse observed in some studies.
• Psychiatric conditions like depression, anxiety, severe mood fluctuations, dysphoria, rage, and suicidality are common after Lupron usage.
• Cognitive dysfunction, including memory loss and brain fog, is frequently reported, particularly among women receiving IVF treatments.
• Heart conditions like coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, strokes, and sudden cardiac death have been associated with Lupron usage, especially in men.
• A study of more than 3000 women found that 76.7% reported joint pain and severe pain throughout the body is commonly reported in support forums.

Because of Lupron’s toxicity, condensing the thousands of heartbreaking injury reports I’ve encountered into this article was incredibly challenging.

Note: the FDA inserts for Lupron (summarized here) reported recipients experienced dozens of severe side effects at rates ranging from 5% to 50% depending on the symptom.

WPATH

Evidence-based medicine was created so that harmful and irrational dogmas within the medical field could be overturned by scientific evidence. While this was initially helpful, the process gradually became corrupted as the pharmaceutical industry realized doctors could be made to believe only the “best” evidence should be trusted and the groups purveying the “best” available evidence (e.g., the premier medical journals) could be easily bought out.

A key part of the push to buy out the “best” evidence has been to create authoritative guideline committees that are tasked with evaluating the existing scientific evidence and coming to a consensus over what constitutes the best practice of medicine. This process is fairly easy to corrupt since the industry can simply pay off the committee.

Take, for example, the handling of COVID-19 treatments. Despite ample evidence supporting the efficacy of affordable options like ivermectin, America’s corrupt (Fauci-appointed) committee chose to only recommend ineffective but expensive treatments like Remdesivir. This pattern repeats in other areas, such as statin usage guidelines, where industry influence skews recommendations to benefit pharmaceutical companies rather than patients.

In the realm of transgender medicine, guidelines set by organizations like the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) heavily influence medical practice. Their guidelines advocate for the use of puberty blockers, such as GnRH analogs like Lupron, in various scenarios:

• They recommend administering these drugs at the earliest signs of puberty in transgender children, arguing that early intervention provides greater benefits.
• Puberty blockers are suggested as a temporary measure for adolescents who have undergone some puberty changes but are hesitant about starting hormone therapy.
• They are endorsed for individuals distressed by their body’s menstrual cycles or penile erections, as these drugs alleviate such discomfort by halting menstruation and suppressing testosterone.
• In cases where males seek to achieve female hormone levels, puberty blockers are presented as a solution.
• While they acknowledge the dangers of the cheaper hormonal therapies, they consistently downplay and dismiss the dangers of the more lucrative GnRH analogs.

Those guidelines are troubling for multiple reasons. Due to recent public scrutiny, even more ominous information has come to light in the form of leaked internal documents and correspondence from WPATH.

These leaked documents from WPATH reveal concerning insights into their advocacy for puberty blockers in transgender care:

• They admitted uncertainty about the long-term consequences, essentially treating the use of blockers as a giant experiment.
• Acknowledged significant side effects in children, including permanent loss of libido or orgasm ability, and emotional developmental hindrances.
• Despite claiming reversibility, they knew Lupron’s effects were often irreversible.
• Children receiving blockers were deemed too young to grasp the risks, yet WPATH sought to start treatment as early as possible.

Given all the things I’ve seen the pharmaceutical industry repeatedly do to make money during my lifetime, very few things surprise me these days. Nonetheless, even I was a bit taken aback when I discovered through these documents that there has been a push to affirm “plural identities” (multiple personalities) within WPATH. In turn, there are numerous cases which have been presented at WPATH conferences (e.g., under the umbrella of UCSF—one of America’s premier medical institutions) where each personality of an individual with split personalities was assessed for its sentiments on beginning a gender transition and at least one instance where some of the personalities did not consent but the transition was nonetheless deemed “ethical” and proceeded.

Note: the origins of the puberty suppression experiment stemmed from transgender adults’ dissatisfaction with their transition outcomes and a theory that preventing puberty could improve their final appearance. While it was acknowledged this would lead to inappropriate interventions (e.g., for someone who later realized they didn’t want to transition), they deemed the potential benefit (e.g., a more feminine appearance later in life) outweighed that risk.

Read the Whole Article

The post Hormone Blockers Are Very Dangerous Drugs appeared first on LewRockwell.

1.) America: Freedom to Fascism — In 2005, the movie America: Freedom to Fascism came out. It was written, directed, and produced by a Hollywood producer who did not like what he was seeing in Hollywood or in America. It depicts the stranglehold that the concept of “Real ID” represents in American life. It is worth watching this very day if you have not recently watched it.

2.) Real ID is effectively a federal ID card. You will be uniquely identified in an easily searchable, widely available, federal database for the first time ever. Some will say, “If you are doing nothing wrong, what do you have to worry about?” The justice system has been weaponized. You only need to have the right bureaucrat pay too much attention to you for you to go from innocent to guilty.

3.) Some White Houses are worse — The process of mandatory Real ID has been advanced most by pro-efficiency advocates (and others) in the George W. Bush White House and in the Donald Trump White House. The Democrats have been much more lax about it.

4.) Yes, there are massive databases already, but… — Facebook has databases that include you. They are quite extensive. Lexis Nexus has databases that include you. They are quite extensive. The Social Security Administration has databases that include you. They are quite extensive. They are not as effective as you think they might be, so don’t let down your guard about data collection.

5.) Unique identifiers — Your social security number is a good way to track you and to use as a unique identifier. Your phone number is a better way to track you and use as a unique identifier. Both are imperfect. When non-essential database populators ask for your phone number, I recommend (212) 555-1212. They do not have a good single number for you.

6.) Thanks tech bros — There is not a very effective conglomeration of that information. There is not one central database. The prevalence of newly patriotic tech bros in Washington DC easily will likely come up with an effective way to combine databases. The Real ID is a possible solution to this problem, a problem I don’t want solved. For full disclosure, the people who most often use the term “tech bro,” would probably include me in that designation. I have helped found, build, and scale tech companies.

7.) Lots of inaccuracies — Beware of predictive programming that says to you “They already know everything about you, so what’s the use of protecting yourself.” That’s simply not true. Go find a private detective, or an OSINT professional, or a debt collector, or the assistant of a salesman who needs to make cold calls, all will tell you how hard it is to get accurate information about most people.

8.) Lots of crap — If you or I look at our own Lexis Nexus entries for example, we might find 10 or 20 allegedly unique identities who could be us. There are lots of big databases out there filled with crap.

9.) Your decisions matter. Don’t let them fool you — They really don’t know that much about you. They really, really don’t. There are very simple ways that they can known even less about you. I don’t care how much people claim that apps like Signal or Telegram are compromised. They get rid of 99% of the problems one can have with privacy. I don’t care how much people claim VPNs and TOR are compromised. If used right, they can make life much harder for most of those who want to know what you are up to. I don’t care how much some people claim Monero is compromised or how much Bitcoin oriented privacy tools are compromised or how much someone says cash is traceable. The use of these tools avoid many problems from people who wish to watch you.

10.) Duck Duck Go sucks (sort of) — Duck Duck Go helps make it less likely you will be tracked, but when it comes to censorship, Duck Duck Go is the absolute worst on the list, worse than Google, worse than Yahoo, even worse than the Bill Gates owned Bing. I illustrate that further in a research report I’ve written on the 11 worst internet search engines and the 2 best. That doesn’t mean to stop using Duck Duck Go. It means to always be studying and understanding the tools that you use.

11.) Freedom isn’t free — Constant study is part of the cost of living a more free life. Not everyone accepts that responsibility, so not everyone will get to live free. We live in an era in which the person who wants freedom can have freedom as long as he are willing to dedicate the resources or time and energy to that. Seldom does it even cost that much money. The rest of the population are living in a primitive state of techno-feudalism. You get to decide whether or not you will be a serf.

12.) A more important focus of efficiency — Because there is much information out there about you, in isolated databases, and because often much of it unable to be connected to you, it is important to be diligent about the information you provide to others. Do not long for a more efficient government. Long for your efficient attitude about living a more free life.

13.) Amusement — It’s fun watching the Department of Government Efficiency do their thing. Their press releases are funny. It’s amusing that someone is finally cleaning up some of that rubbish. Be careful confusing cheap laughs with core principles.

14.) More amusement — It’s fun to cheer things like, “Yeah, why are 40,000 people over 115 years old getting Social Security benefits!” But you know what, those millions of dollars are distractions from the fact that we have trillions of dollars of spending that the US Government shouldn’t engage in. Where does the constitution even say that it is okay for Social Security to exist? What happened to that question? Be careful when you are passionately agreeing with anything Sean Hannity is saying. There is a good chance that when you do agree with programming like that, that you are being misdirected from core principles.

15.) Twitter purchase makes sense — Elon Musk owns the largest satellite network, the closest thing to an interplanetary travel network, the most important electric car manufacturer, the most advanced brain chip manufacturer, sizable cryptocurrency portfolio, with tremendous influence over the cryptocurrency called DOGE, and the most important micro-blogging platform. His purchase of Twitter was an enigma to some. It should be no enigma. Nor was it altruistic. His purchase of Twitter was the missing link in that collection of companies. He is the best positioned person to bring an effective social credit system to the United States. Twitter is the platform that can best be used to link his companies.

16.) Are those Musk’s intentions? — Do I think he will do that? Do I think Elon Musk will usher in an American social credit score? I have no idea. As a man who seeks to live free, I am covetous of my freedom. You, too, may want to be. The details here listed in this entire piece of writing are not inconsequential and isolated. They need not be conspiratorial, either. They are worth noting. And your role in them is worth being attentive to.

17.) Many missed deadlines — May 7, 2025 all people are to have a Real ID to travel on commercial flights. The deadline has been extended many times. There are states that won’t be able to meet that deadline sufficiently for an efficient and smooth transition. Just poke around at DMV websites and keep an eye out for frenzied posts along those lines to answer that question of which states are not meeting the deadline.

18.) The only newsworthy point in this article — If the deadline stands, those citizens without their name in the federal ID database will be second class citizens unable to contract with commercial airlines. I’m not that bothered by that. Sometimes consequences are okay. The consequence is worth noting. Why the news covers this single topic and none of the other topics in this piece of writing is worth asking as well. Are you being well-served by a news source that only mentioned this one detail: “May 7, 2025 all people are to have a Real ID to travel on commercial flight”? That’s a question for you to answer.

19.) Red state v. Blue state — Red states tend to be have more efficient government and more obedient government. Obedient to whom? To perceived authority. That authority need not be legitimate, only perceived. Be careful in red states. They are better at putting the jackboot on the neck.

20.) Laxity around freedom — America has a population of slaves, not a free population. If we were handed a free country tomorrow, few of us would know what to do with it. It must be run. It must be managed. Freedom is not had without societal structure. We have an immoral people unwilling to do the hard work to live free. I do not mean to point a finger when I say that. The reality is that each person is likely lax in that area. You and I both probably have ways that we are lax in that area. Freedom is a direction and a mindset. It is not a destination.

21.) Leadership — In this period in history, America is generally-speaking poorly led. Leadership can have an impact on a people. We may change from a nation of slaves to a free people sooner than any of us realize. How are you, dear reader, rising to the occasion and embracing the opportunity by leading those around you? This is a question each on of us must ask ourselves.

22.) Slippery slopes are real. 

23.) Christianity — Christianity is the central non-governmental structure at the heart of American freedom. It’s remnants are the only thing keeping us from tyranny. Christian expression tends to be more free at times or less free and is certainly not homogenous. Commerce plays a secondary role. It too tends to be more free at times or less free. Those serious about living in a free country will be serious about upholding each of these two topics. I was once an atheist. Thankfully, I no longer am. Even in those dark days of abject atheism, I understood how much the Christian nature of America mattered to my well-being. Regardless of personal theological beliefs, there is no one who is a passionate advocate of freedom who should have any hesitation promoting these two notions as good for American freedom.

24.) The foundation matters — We must be very careful of any government not solidly built on those ideals. We must be careful of all government. Living lives solidly built on those ideals and crafting a government that upholds those ideals is how we get a government solidly built on those ideals.

25.) It’s amusing — It’s fun watching the Department of Government Efficiency do their thing. Their press releases are funny. It’s amusing that someone is finally cleaning up some of that rubbish.

26.) A better option — I don’t want a more efficient government. I want a sloppy, ineffective government walking around with its head in its rear end.

27.) Then what? — Once we have an efficient government, we will not know what to do with it. That is the present nature of the American population. That is also the nature of the freedom movement and the nature of conservatism. People just want to be left alone. That makes Trump (possibly) a four year reprieve from the tyranny. That means, whether he intends to or not, the Trump Administration is building a more effective and efficient enemy of human freedom. Our founding fathers understood that government is the greatest enemy of human freedom. If you read the US Constitution, you know that they invented a slow-moving inefficient government not an efficient one.

28.) Self-entrapment — I don’t know what happens next with Real ID. I know that Americans should not take a single step closer to more efficient government control over our individual lives.

29.) Be ungovernable. — I don’t know what that looks like in your life. I hardly know what it looks like in my life. This remains a useful principle to live by. Many reading this may have already gotten their Real ID. Recognize what you have done. Recognize that your every decision matters. Recognize your ability to impact your own life and the lives of those around you. And be ungovernable.

30.) Affections mean little — I like President Trump. That doesn’t mean in need to give the US government one more tool to enslave me with. Be cautious as you give government tools to enslave you with.

31.) It’s day 83 — Less than 90 days ago, you had a government that openly despised you. Is it really time to be Pollyanna-ish and compliant?

The post Some Reminders About Real ID — 31 To Be Exact appeared first on LewRockwell.

The move can only exacerbate America’s debt crisis, particularly after it reached $35 trillion last year and is expected to go over $40 trillion next year. Experts are warning that the latest increase in military spending will likely add at least another trillion to the already rapidly growing debt and that budget cuts are yet to affect the Pentagon, adding that the US military “does precisely nothing to defend the USA” and that it “exclusively interferes in other countries”.

Remember when President Donald Trump promised to make the US military “far more powerful, but for much less money”? Remember when he pledged to end the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict in 24 hours? Well, me neither. In all seriousness, we can always say that Trump is a politician and that truth or consistency are not exactly the defining qualities of any politician.

On the other hand, the Messianic Complex among many Trumpists is certainly concerning, as there’s little questioning of Trump’s policies. He’s most definitely a very polarizing figure. The vast majority of people are either his staunch supporters or have TDS (Trump derangement syndrome). This prevents a more objective view of his performance, both at home and abroad.

Namely, Trump is exposed to numerous interest groups, many of which have very diverging views on how America should be. The old Deep State sees him as the greatest threat to “Pax Americana” and wants him out at all costs (including through physical removal), while other interest groups think extreme measures are unnecessary and that simply influencing Trump’s decision-making is more than enough.

The latter seem to be leading the charge, while the remnants of the previous administration are engaged in largely pointless protests. However, despite superficial enmity between them, there’s a quite solid continuity in many policies of the two administrations. This is particularly true when it comes to foreign policy and financing the US military.

In the case of the former, the Biden administration’s crawling economic warfare against the European Union (primarily through the destruction of its trade with Russia while the US continued to buy critical commodities from Moscow and even resell them to Europe) has been augmented by Trump’s trade wars.

In the case of the latter, there’s a robust continuity with virtually every US administration in the last 35 years (at the very least). Namely, the consistent increase in American military spending is a clear indicator that the same people are making the final decision on this issue, regardless of who’s in power. The Trump administration’s latest announcement regarding the US “defense” budget effectively proves this is precisely the case.

Namely, on April 7, President Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed that the Pentagon will get its first $1 trillion. Interestingly, what should’ve been breaking news was sidelined by global panic regarding the impact of new tariffs. In his usual manner of using superlatives, Trump said that “nobody’s seen anything like it”, adding that “we have to build our military, and we’re very cost-conscious, but the military is something we have to build, and we have to be strong”. It’s certainly commendable to see a government exercise “cost-consciousness”, with Trump employing Musk’s DOGE to be “the ultimate auditing organization”. However, giving a trillion dollars to the unaudited US military sounds like anything but frugality.

On paper, the administration has been adamant about cutting excess government spending, so this move doesn’t make much sense (unless all the auditing was designed to help find the money for the Pentagon). The logical conclusion is that Trump is exposed to the influence of the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) just as much as any other president.

Hegseth was certainly happy with the arrangement, as evidenced by his announcement on Twitter/X where he thanked Trump and presented the development as something “fantastic for everyone”. It would be interesting to see what American taxpayers think about the fact that their money will be invested in more death and destruction instead of restoring America’s crumbling infrastructure.

As previously mentioned, the first official $1 trillion for the US military was only a matter of time, as the troubled Biden administration announced it two years ago, when it pledged to double the Pentagon’s budget. The latest increase is in line with this plan, as the actual US DoD spending has been well over $1 trillion for years (many of its expenses are distributed to other departments). In addition, the Biden administration’s 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was officially $895 billion, so the latest increase is nothing out of the ordinary and is in line with regular spikes in military spending with every US government in recent history. This certainly breaks the Trump administration’s attempts to present itself as “anti-establishment”.

In addition, the move can only exacerbate America’s debt crisis, particularly after it reached $35 trillion last year and is expected to go over $40 trillion next year. Experts are warning that the latest increase in military spending will likely add at least another trillion to the already rapidly growing debt and that budget cuts are yet to affect the Pentagon, adding that the US military “does precisely nothing to defend the USA” and that it “exclusively interferes in other countries”.

And indeed, Trump’s reshuffling at the Pentagon was largely political and never affected its financing. Worse yet, he also supports continued US aggression in the Middle East, where a war with Iran is looming. In addition, the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff wants to expand the US nuclear sharing policy.

This originally appeared on InfoBrics.

The post Here We Go Again – $1 Trillion for US ‘Defense’ appeared first on LewRockwell.

Calculating How Long Your Food Stockpile Will Last

To get the total number of days your stockpile will last, you need to take the:

Total calories in your stockpile ÷ Calories your family needs per day

Let’s start with the top half of the equation.

Calculating How Many Calories You Have

Ideally, your pantry is well organized, making the process much faster.

But if it’s not…perhaps this will allow you to do so…?!?

Because you’re about to take inventory.

Yup. Just like ALL successful retail businesses do regularly.

Now you may ask, “Should I count EVERYTHING” on my shelves?

If it’s shelf stable and you replace it regularly, then YES, count it.

Sure, some items will fluctuate as you use them up and then buy more.

But a snapshot of the shelf life stable calories in your pantry is “close enough” …

Obviously count all freeze-dried foods, MREs, canned meats, and #10 Cans.

Also, don’t count ANY calories in your refrigerator or freezer.

Power outages make freezers highly vulnerable disaster appliances.

The only exception is if you have a robust backup energy plan or you are already living off the grid.

A robust backup energy plan means having a Power station (or a generator with a few weeks of fuel).

Otherwise, I DON’T count your refrigerated and frozen goods.

I used a simple spreadsheet for this to help make the calculations easy. Plus, I can sort and filter as needed later with a spreadsheet.

Start by making a few columns titled:

1. Food – Brand
2. Number of items (pouches, bags, containers)
3. Servings Per Container
4. Calories per Serving
5. Total Calories

Once you fill out an entire row with that info, multiply the “number of items” by the “servings per container” by the “calories per serving.”

This will give you the number of calories you have in your inventory for THAT specific food item.

Now, you need to be careful here.

I added the Brand to the first column because not ALL brands use the same servings/calorie info.

For example:

Separate Brands of canned beans may seem identical but often are not.

The difference can add up, especially if you have a lot of dried beans…

Now, IF the foods are the same, AND the info per serving is the same, you can put them in the same line.

Otherwise, if any of those numbers are different, add a new line item.

Now keep going and inventory everything that makes sense for you.

Once done, you should add up all the calories.

And now you know exactly how much non-perishable food you currently have.

This calorie number may seem massive if you’ve got a decent-sized stockpile.

Perhaps even a few hundred thousand calories, like 358,753 or something like that.

WOW. Massive, right? Not so fast…

Having your total calories may seem like an important number to know, but it’s not all that helpful…yet.

Why? Because it’s relative to the size of your family, right?

For example, 358,753 calories is a stellar long term food storage for a retired couple of 2.

But what about a growing family of 5? Not so much.

That’s why we need to figure out how many calories YOUR family consumes each day…

How Many Calories Does Your Family Need Per Day?

At first, this may seem like a difficult task, but with the proper tools, it’s easy.

You must figure out how many replacement calories each family member needs daily.

1. And this is NOT the same for males and females.
2. It’s also NOT the same for babies, kids, young adults, adults, or mature adults.
3. And it’s NOT the same for those who live an active or sedentary lifestyle.

You need to consider ALL 3 of these variables to make an educated guess.

The good news is I created a simple chart to do just THAT.

You can use this chart to determine your sex, age, and activity level for each family member.

Then add up each number.

The TOTAL is how many calories you’re family needs per day.

Now, THIS is a very good number to know!

This is the number you need to figure out how long your food stockpile will last.

Your Final Calculation

Take your total calories and divide by your family’s daily calorie requirement.

Viola! THAT new number is a very good approximation of How Long Your Current Food Stockpile Will Last.

Perhaps your number is 58.63 days?

That means you’re very close to having 2 months’ worth of food in your emergency stockpile.

Now, of course, you may be able to ration those calories a bit in a longer-term emergency.

But I don’t recommend “rationing” your calculation.

Why? Because I’d rather underestimate the duration of my stockpile by a few days and NOT the other way around.

Said another way, I’d rather be pleasantly surprised…

You now know how long you have before starvation begins after the grocery store shelves go bare.

Read the Whole Article

The post How Much Emergency Food Should You Keep at Home? appeared first on LewRockwell.

In its effort to combat homelessness, Los Angeles County and the city itself and other cities in the county will spend more than $2 billion dollars this year on its 70,000 or so vagrants.

That works out to be about $30,000 per drooping head.

And that does not include the state’s direct funding of anti(?)-homelessness programs or the food stamp and Medicaid (called Medi-Cal in California) and direct cash and Social Security disability and other benefits that total up to about another $24,000 a year.

And that does not include the value of the free rent provided to hundreds of people in a number of “permanent supportive housing” facilities, including those that have been recently built at a cost of between $700,000 and, in Santa Monica,$1 million dollars per 600-square-foot studio apartment unit.

Amazingly, in LA and throughout the state, spending on solving homelessness has more than doubled over the past decade or so. What else pretty much doubled while all this money was being spent? The homeless population.

Obviously, no real dent has been made in the problem – the number of homeless people has only increased and, still, three or four homeless people die on the streets of LA every day.

The problem has only grown as the funding has grown – not in any way a coincidence and if you are wondering about the chicken and egg situation, don’t bother: the spending has essentially preceded the rise in the number of homeless people.

More homeless, more money…for the massive homelessness industry that has metastasized in California over the past decade.

The industry – made up of catastrophically, almost comically, inept theoretical non-profits that continue to fail miserably but pay staff very well, political cronies, and actual relatives of the government officials doling out the money – has done very well and made quite a bit of bank off of the suffering of others.

That, however, may finally be put under the microscope with the developments of the past week or so because people in a position to make changes have actually begun to notice the problem.

Well, it’s hard not to. An audit of the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority (LAHSA) – a joint agency of the city and county that is rapidly crumbling – showed the agency really couldn’t explain explain where billions of dollars went.

It got spent, of course, but no one seems quite sure on what; an audit of the state’s homelessness programs found a similar issue, again ranging into the billions of dollars.

Well, at least one expenditure is a certainty: $2 million dollars to a “non-profit” operated by the husband of erstwhile LAHSA chief Va Lecia Adams Kellum.

Before resigning, Adams Kellum said she was not part of the expense’s approval, absolutely did not recall approving the expense, let alone signing the check. Trust me.

Adams Kellum – hired in 2023 as a “change agent’ – was a close ally of Mayor Karen Bass. She advised her directly before and after the election and Bass’s daughter worked at the non-profit Adams Kellum ran before being hired to run LAHSA.

From an LA Times story on the appointment:

Getting a Bass ally into this role does potentially signal a change in the city’s orientation and attitude toward LAHSA — one that views the agency less as an obstruction that should be circumvented and more as one that can aid and augment the resources that city government is already putting forward.

Public officials and services providers — even harsh critics of LAHSA — indicated broad excitement over the appointment, stemming mostly from Adams Kellum’s work in various communities on street homelessness.

“It seemed like the most hopeful time to make change because as all of us have said, the key is the city and county working together,” Adams Kellums said.

Last week, the county pulled out of LAHSA after which Adams Kellum resigned (rather embarrassingly, actually – in defending the agency she was not even recognized as a fellow government person but relegated to the “public comments” period when all the crazies speak…and she had her mic cut off.)

And the other funder of the agency – the city – is almost about to do the same thing and pull out.

Now, fewer levels of bureaucracy are always a good thing, but the idiots who have run LAHSA over the past years will almost certainly be picked to run the separate programs (doncha love civil service protections?) and do not have to worry about soon becoming a client of the city and/or county.

Another nightmare for the homelessness industry is Judge David Carter, who sits on the federal bench and has been trying to act as somewhat of an overseer of the programs since a lawsuit was filed about five years ago (fyi – back then, the homeless lobby loved him because he ordered more beds be created, options given, etc. Now, not so much.)

As part of this effort, he ordered an audit of LAHSA. It did not go well.

In fact, it was so bad that when he asked various and sundry LA area officials to show up in his courtroom to explain themselves, they didn’t turn up (Bass eventually wandered in but said essentially nothing.) As to LAHSA’s efforts, the judge said this:

“If they were going to do it, they should have done it, or they should have given you a road map now of … how they’re going to do it.”

In fact, the audit was even more worser – the judge openly wondered about whether he should put everything into receivership and essentially run everything himself.

But even more importantly worser than the implosion of LAHSA (by the way, it had an overhead budget of about $400 million alone) is the announcement from the new SoCal federal prosecutor Bill Essayli.

He has announced a federal criminal investigative task force to try to figure out the incestual rat’s nest that is LA’s (and California’s) anti(?)-homelessness funding systems.

Note – the question mark after “anti” has been intentional both times it has been used, because the people that pay their mortgages “fighting” homelessness would not be able to do that if they actually solved the problem.

“Taxpayers deserve answers for where and how their hard-earned money has been spent. If state and local officials cannot provide proper oversight and accountability, we will do it for them,” said Essayli, a Republican and former State Assemblymember who was appointed to his post by Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi last week.

The Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force will “investigate crimes related to the misappropriation of federal tax dollars intended to alleviate homelessness” in the Central District of California, which covers an estimated 20 million people across seven counties.

Along with reviewing federal, state and local programs that receive federal grants and funding, the task force will “investigate fraud schemes involving the theft of private donations intended to provide support and services for the homeless population,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

As the entire homelessness industry has been operating in the netherworld of political grease, outright graft, and devastating failure, Essayli’s new effort must have many poverty plutocrats shaking in their well-heeled boots.

This originally appeared on The Point.

The post LAHSA Oopso appeared first on LewRockwell.

The following is the Introduction to my new book, At the Lost and Found (Clarity Press).

My dear mother, who had an artistic temperament that tended at times toward the sentimental, liked to call me a contrarian. She was right. I think she liked but feared this inclination of mine that started in childhood. It no doubt has many roots, some of which an artful reader may sense in the essays in this book, for while I have written about the lies and coverups of the ruling elites, I have tried to do so in a self-revelatory way, even in the writing where it is couched in pure artifice.

I have always felt that conventional life was a provocation because it hid more than it revealed; that it harbored secrets that could not be exposed or else the make-believe nature of normal life would collapse like a cardboard set. That people were performing for some invisible director that they couldn’t or wouldn’t recognize. I always wondered why.

There is nothing profound in this tendency of mine, except the powerful force of it throughout my life. Like everyone, I was ushered onto this Shakespearean stage and have acted out many roles assigned to me but always with the inner consciousness that something was amiss. Everyone seemed to be playing someone, but who was the player? Who was I?

Because I grew up in a large literate family where our sizable bookcase was filled with great literary classics, I have always loved to read. I noticed early on that the great writers focused on this performative nature of social life, and this strengthened my burgeoning artist’s eye. I particularly remember the family set of Mark Twain’s books that drew me in this direction, his humorous ways of puncturing social hypocrisy.

My writing was born within all my reading, including my grandparents’ large and colorfully illustrated volume of Arabian Nights that I would sneak a peek at from time to time. Then there was my father’s witty storytelling where he would regale me with his improvised tales drawn from the metaphoric well of Pinocchio’s theatrically duplicitous adventures.

By the time I was a young man, my mind was a vast store-house of words, phrases, metaphors, tunes, memorized lines of poetry, etc. that sometime I could consciously recall but that often would just pop up like jack-in-the boxes to startle and amuse me. This has continued throughout my life – even as I never tried to remember it all and even tried to forget much of it. My forgettery has always been my faithful servant.

I am telling you this for a few reasons. One is that I have noticed that many writers seem afraid to reveal who they are or what motivates them to write. They hide the personal side behind a false objectivity. This is especially true for writers whose focus is political and involves public and cultural affairs, as does much of mine.

I think of Thoreau’s words: “We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking.”

And that person, with all their hopes, dreams, desires, politics, ambitions, personal relationships, predilections, habits, faith, despair, etc., informs their work, no matter how seemingly authoritative and objective it may sound. What that person wants from writing or any art is a fair question, just as it is the core existential question for everyone: What do you want and why? What are you seeking by doing what you are doing? What is your goal?

Readers want and need to know something (not everything) about the person whose hand pens the words they are reading. It is a normal human response to ask, “Well, where is this person coming from; what’s in it for him?”

It is banal to say that one has learned so much from so many others, but it’s very true in my case. Not just the living but all those who have preceded me and whose words and creativity have become part of who I am, my memories, all that I have read, heard, seen, and forgotten but emerges when I write, in ways I realize or not.

It is mysterious; it happens through osmosis, but in the end one hopes the result is creative and new and that the writing is a place of epiphanies.

I admit that I am possessed by language and that it precedes the content of what I write. Maybe words possess me. I don’t know, nor do I care. I just know it’s so. So the mélange of the wide-ranging and free-wheeling essays that result, their multifarious styles and content, fits with my contrarian personality that seeks to do both astute political analyses and art in luminescent words and sentences that pulsate. I think of them as beyond a cage of categories and intertwined lovers.

I wrote the essays in this book between late summer 2019 and 2024. The topicality of many will be apparent, but I hope you will find in them more than contemporary relevance. I hope you will find me, Ed Curtin, one man who lived through these strange and disturbing years and responded in his own way. One man whose core concerns are essentially no different from the serious contrarian poets, writers, journalists, philosophers, musicians, painters, and artists throughout world history.

There are those who are trying to mechanize us all, to eliminate passion and will, to transmute love into a chemical and hate into a biological aberration. They seem to be succeeding, but they will fail. One reason I have written these essays is to oppose these scoundrels and their ilk who kill and wage endless wars against innocents around the world. Another is to try to create something that will delight and last a little while. I believe that writing is my vocation and that I am answering a call, and if there is any credit due, it is beyond me.

It is a very cruel world, as events over these last few years have confirmed. It is hard to wake up in the morning and hear the news. It leaves one with a sense of lostness that must be fought. The spirit of resistance can be found in many places, including poetry and song. I often remember the words of a poet that my mother had memorized and liked to recite, William Wordsworth, whose romanticism flows in my veins as well. He ended his great poem “Intimations of Immortality” thus: “Thanks to the human heart by which we live,/Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,/To me the meanest flower that blows can give/Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.”

Nietzsche was right about writers when he said their work is a personal confession, “a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir.” No doubt this is true for me.

Finally, I hope that in reading this book you will find the words of Yuri Zhivago in the novel of death and resurrection, Doctor Zhivago, by the great Russian poet and novelist, Boris Pasternak, echoing in your mind. As he contemplates being possessed by the mystery of inspiration while writing poems, Yuri writes this: “Language, the home and dwelling of beauty and meaning, itself begins to think audible sounds but by virtue of the power and momentum of its inward flow.”

Since Zhivago means “living” in Russian, it is my wish that these essays live in your memory like the sound of music deeply felt, the same inward flow I felt when writing them.

Reprinted with the author’s permission.

The post At the Lost and Found appeared first on LewRockwell.

Apparently sound money has no meaning for those controlling the money supply, which is purported to be in the hands of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the Federal Reserve System.  Sound money and states don’t get along, neither do sound money and banks.  About the only people who would benefit from sound money are people who use it to buy groceries or pay for their kids’ education.  And those who save for rainy days and expect it to be there and worth something when they need it.

But if we don’t have sound money what is it we’re using?  It goes by the name of fiat money — paper or digits without economic value in themselves.  Gold has various non-monetary uses, such as jewelry, technology and medicine.  Fiat money?  In some cases it’s been a source of poignant  creativity.  Photos from the German hyperinflation of 1923, such as a lady wearing a dress made from nearly worthless currency, entertains onlookers while trying to remind them of a tragedy.  (At one point 4.2 trillion marks equaled one American dollar.)  Insanity at this level is only possible when the state shows up with legal tender laws, thereby forcing market participants to accept its depreciating currency. If money holds the potential to control resources or acquire property, then fiat money, even if it loses value by the hour, qualifies as a medium of exchange.

Aside from occasional excesses such as in Weimar Germany, should we care whether money is sound or not?  People who sit on the FOMC are well-qualified academically and many have banking and investment experience which in some cases is global.  Surely they know what’s best for the economy and whether interest rates need adjusting — notwithstanding their Smith-Hayek “conceit” and generations of evidence to the contrary.  In past years one of them has even been sympathetic to a gold standard — Alan Greenspan, author of the insightful 1966 article “Gold and Economic Freedom,” who served as Fed chairman from 1987 to 2006.

Greenspan, in fact, was more than sympathetic.  In discussing the Fed’s monetary policy of the 1920s, he slammed the “paper reserves” the Fed used to augment gold deposits, which “nearly destroyed the economies of the world.”  His article was brilliant and original in many respects, condemning deficit spending as “a scheme for the confiscation of wealth” and that without “the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation.”  But his comments on the banks’ practice of fractional reserve banking leaves me wondering if he actually understood it:

Individual owners of gold are induced, by payments of interest, to deposit their gold in a bank (against which they can draw checks). But since it is rarely the case that all depositors want to withdraw all their gold at the same time, the banker need keep only a fraction of his total deposits in gold as reserves.

Lost in his explanation is any distinction between demand deposits and time deposits, though he could hardly be faulted for not mentioning it.  Thanks to a series of rulings beginning with Carr v. Carr 1811 UK a banker was no longer considered a custodian or bailee in any deposit contract, obligated to return the funds deposited on demand.  The law made the banker a debtor, and though required to “repay the principal” the deposited money was his “to do with as he pleases.” (Foley v Hill and Others 1848).

The distinction between a warehouse bank and a loan bank was thus discarded over time.  Banks own the money you deposit and it immediately becomes subject to bank-lending multiplication.  As with any debtor they may or may not have it when you claim it, though the public counts on it being there at all times.

In the UK, MP Douglas Carswell introduced a bill in 2010 aimed at ending fractional reserve banking by declaring there would “henceforth be two categories of bank account: deposit-taking accounts for investment purposes, and deposit-taking accounts for storage purposes.”  If enforced, this transformation would eliminate the maturity mismatch between assets and liabilities and force credit expansion from real savings only.  The public would need to be aware that a time deposit was a loan to a bank, with the usual risks it entails.  Banks would operate without legal privileges, the one thing they have sought to avoid through a fiat system of central banking and deposit insurance.  The Carswell bill, of course, did not progress beyond its first read and lapsed soon after.

(The bill had an innocent-sounding title: To prohibit banks from “lending on the basis of demand deposits without the permission of the account holder.”  Banks could argue that the bill would force them to charge a fee that account holders could avoid by granting permission to lend their deposits in exchange for “free” banking,  Banks could promote their spotless records in recent times and claim depositors had nothing to gain and something to lose by withholding permission.  To the public whose money would constitute the deposits, granting permission would seem a no-brainer — though the British public might know better.)

Tricks of the (government) trade

Article IX of the Articles of Confederation says

The united states, in congress assembled, shall also have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck by their own authority, or by that of the respective states . . .

Nowhere is there a mention of paper money, the abuses of which led to Shay’s Rebellion and helped excite interest in a Constitutional Convention.  One might hope the Constitution would clear up the matter.  James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 44: “The power to make any thing but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts, is withdrawn from the states, on the same principle with that of striking of paper currency.”

The Constitution, following Madison’s comments, says in Article 1, Section 10: “No State shall… coin Money;  emit Bills of Credit;  make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts…”. States, therefore, could not print their own money or make anything other than gold and silver coin legal tender.  But the door was open for Congress to authorize or forbid issuing paper money.  Subsequent court cases (particularly Knox v. Lee, 1871) settled the matter, giving Congress the power to issue fiat money even in peacetime.

Conclusion

Is sound money today a political possibility?  Mises defined sound money in chapter 21 of his Theory of Money and Credit:

The sound-money principle has two aspects. It is affirmative in approving the market’s choice of a commonly used medium of exchange. It is negative in obstructing the government’s propensity to meddle with the currency system.

Franz Oppenheimer defined the constitutional State this way:

Let us give the mechanics and kinetics of the modern state a moment’s time.  In principle, it is the same entity as the primitive robber state or the developed feudal state. (p. 124)

Both Mises and Oppenheimer are right. We are ruled by thieves, and sound money is no advantage to these looters.  The road to a true sound money economy will require a collapse of the political institutions obstructing it.

The post Is Sound Money Politically Impossible? appeared first on LewRockwell.

In 1997, a group of future members of George W. Bush’s administration co-signed onto the “Project for the New American Century.“ The statement of its core principles declared:

“we need to accept responsibility for America’s unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles.“

In the following years, the Bush administration in the Middle East occupied Iraq using fabricated allegations of its development of weapons of mass destruction and in the following years attacked other Middle Eastern countries.

In 2023, the U.S. Republican Party published a book titled “Project 2025,” outlining its policy agenda for the 2024 presidential election. The 922-page book mentioned China 483 times. It stated:

By far, the greatest danger to the security, freedom, and prosperity of Americans is China… China seeks to achieve a dominant position in Asia and, based on that position, global dominance. If Beijing succeeds in this goal, it could dramatically undermine America’s most fundamental interests, including restricting U.S. access to the world’s most important markets. Preventing this from happening must be the highest priority of U.S. foreign and defense policy… It is no longer certain that America holds an information and technological advantage. China’s progress and intense focus on emerging technologies have, in some areas, shifted it from a near-peer competitor to likely surpassing the U.S… The United States must ensure that China does not succeed… U.S. defense strategy must clearly identify China as the top priority for American defense planning.

The Chinese threat to American global dominance was undoubtedly on President Joe Biden’s mind already when he insisted on rejecting Russia’s demand for Western guarantees that Ukraine would not join NATO. He was fully aware that this would provoke Russia into attacking Ukraine, dragging it into a war where the U.S. and its allies could support Ukraine and strip Russia of its status as a world power. In doing so, he completely disregarded the fact that parts of Ukraine identified with Russia and have no desire to join the EU or NATO.

The Russia-China alliance had been obstructing the U.S. from completing its domination of the Middle East and its oil reserves, which were vital to much of the industrial world— if the USA controlled those reserves, they would control as well the countries importing them for their industry. To finalize this plan and weaken the Russo-Chinese bloc, the U.S. needed Russia’s defeat in Ukraine to pave the way. That’s why Joe Biden rejected Moscow’s demands for Western assurances against NATO expansion, which would have prevented NATO nuclear weapons from being stationed within a 10-minute flight from Moscow.

He knew this would push the world to the brink of global war, but he gambled on the hope that, after weakening Russia, the U.S. could eventually subdue China as well. However, Russia-China cooperation has severely complicated this American ambition. Russia began gaining the upper hand in the Ukraine war, and the hope of a U.S. (and EU-backed) victory over the Russo-Chinese bloc has been fading.

The new U.S. President, Donald Trump, therefore decided to shift America’s strategy—turning the U.S. war against Russia and China into a U.S. and Russia alliance against China. However, the only chance for this strategy to succeed was to cede at least the Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine to Russia, block NATO’s expansion to Russia’s borders with Ukraine, and thus eliminate the threat of Russia losing a nuclear war with the West. In other words, it meant preserving Russia’s status as a global power—a status the U.S. had been undermining through its actions in Ukraine. With this goal in mind, Donald Trump initiated negotiations with Russia.

Russia, likely weary of the conditions China had imposed in exchange for its support, entered the talks with a dual risk: it could lose Chinese backing but also held out hope that China might unconditionally increase its support. If Russia were to lose China’s support, it would become an easy prey for the U.S.

Vladimir Putin announced on April 1, 2025 that his most esteemed guest at the celebrations for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II would be Xi Jinping. He invited him to the celebrations, stating that he would prepare for him a “nice and rich” program and that he would be “our main guest,” and that he planned to discuss mutual relations and cooperation in international organizations, including the UN, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and BRICS.  This indicated to both Trump and Xi Jinping that Putin could still return to an alliance with China. The continuation of the conflict between the alliance of Russia with China against the alliance of the USA with the EU posed a dangerous threat of a world war.

Ukrainian army captured two Chinese soldiers on April 8, 2025, who were fighting in the Russian army. In the face of such an alliance, the EU, in conjunction with the USA, and possibly Great Britain and Australia, has no hope. A global conventional and subsequently nuclear war between these factions could only destroy life on this planet.

The ideal solution for all parties involved would be to reach an agreement, instead of a world war, to end the struggle for global power by creating a democratic United Nations, where decisions regarding potential military interventions against aggressors would be made by a majority vote of states, and military organizations like NATO, which attempt to seize global power for one state or a group of states, would be abolished.

The original source of this article is Global Research.

The post America’s War Against China appeared first on LewRockwell.

Nick Eberstadt is a political economist and Harvard grad with lots of accolades and many academic accomplishments. He has also written a number of excellent books, one of which I was delighted to learn confirms my long held views about America’s flight from work. The book is called Men Without Work, and it was first published in 2016 when Nick first began to see a shocking number of healthy men in their prime working years, exit the workforce. Today, the number of able-bodied men who have affirmatively elected to not work is north of 7.2 million. These are not men who can afford to support themselves. Many are addicted to pain medication. Very few—according to their own responses in exhaustive surveys—contribute to their household or to their community. They do not attend church, and they do not participate in civic organizations. They do not exercise. What they do, mostly, is play. As Nick explains in this episode, these men spend an average of 2,000 hours a year on screens.  

I was fascinated by our conversation…and troubled. We have nearly 7.6 million open jobs in this county, and no one seems willing to do them. Nick has the courage to spell it all out, and I encourage you to watch. It’s worth your time.

#podcast #usa #work mikeroweWORKS—My foundation is giving away $2.5 million in trade scholarships. Apply by April 17:

https://mikeroweworks.org/scholarship/

The post Why Are Healthy Men Exiting The Workforce? | Nick Eberstadt #274 | The Way I Heard It, with Mike Rowe appeared first on LewRockwell.

Tulsi Gabbard says the long-suppressed RFK and MLK Jr. files are “ready to release,” igniting a new wave of interest in the intelligence community’s secrets.

Join Mark Groubert and Eric Hunley on this Free-form Friday episode of America’s Untold Stories as they dig into what might be revealed, and how Gabbard’s “hunters” are putting pressure on the FBI and CIA for more.

Plus, Trump orders the DOJ to investigate former DHS official and “Anonymous” op-ed writer Miles Taylor, calling him guilty of “treason.” Will the deep state finally get exposed?

We also break down the bizarre case of a Catholic school teacher who admitted to sleeping with a student—then blamed her husband for “neglect.”

And in a fiery update to the Seth Rich saga, attorney Ty Clevenger files to hold the FBI in contempt for ignoring court orders to release records.

From celebrity scandals to government secrecy and everything in between, this is one Friday you don’t want to miss.

The post America’s Untold Stories – Gabbard Drops Bomb: RFK, MLK Records Coming in Days appeared first on LewRockwell.

“I, Pencil.”

The post Elon Musk Tweets Milton Friedman Explaining Leonard Read’s Famous Essay, appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks, Jay Stephenson. 

Doug Murray presented himself as if he’s a superior member of society during this debate and was extremely condescending to both Joe Rogan and Dave Smith. And every time he got cornered, he resorted to the William F. Buckley debate tactic of using big words and overemphasizing his English accent. Rogan has mostly avoided the Israel issue on his show, but I predict that will change after this debate.

The post Neocon flops during debate on Rogan appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks, John Smith. 

Antiwar.com 

The post Another Failed 20-Year War: America vs. Somalia appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks, John Smith. 

Huff Post

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