In what should be hailed as a significant and positive breakthrough in US-Russia bilateral relations, Russian President Vladimir Putin kicked off the week by offering President Trump a temporary nuclear arms control deal that would extend the status quo by one year, at a moment the future of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, is hanging by a thread.

During a Monday meeting with permanent members of the Russian Security Council, Putin said he was ready to extend by one year the last arms control treaty between Washington and Moscow. This would allow time to negotiate its further extension, likely by another five years. This would be “if the US reciprocates, to prevent a new arms race,” Putin stipulated. However, now reaching the end of the week, and Moscow still hasn’t heard a response on the issue from Washington.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Russia was still awaiting the US side’s response to Putin’s offer to extend the New START treaty for one year, and suggested there’s yet to be any reaction whatsoever from the Trump administration.

“Overall, everyone welcomes Russia’s approach and Putin’s initiative. So we’re waiting for the other side’s reaction,” the Putin spokesman said, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

Putin had in the Monday remarks painted a dire picture of strategic security in the world. “Unfortunately, it continues to degrade, which is caused by the combined impact of a number of factors, including negative ones, provoking the aggravation of existing and the emergence of new strategic risks,” he had said.

“We associate the multiple problems that have accumulated in the strategic sphere since the beginning of the twenty-first century with the destructive actions of the West,” Putin added.

The fact that Putin is offering a year-long extension to New START while its renewal is negotiated is a major positive sign, showing advancement in trust related to Trump’s efforts to have bilateral talks even as the Ukraine war rages.

New START will expire in February 2026 unless a half-decade extension can be reached. Both leaders have shown willingness to reach a breakthrough on this issue. 

The treaty is intended to limit and reduce nuclear arms on either side, setting a limit of no more than 1,550 deployed warheads and 700 missiles. START I began in 1991, with New START signed under the Obama and Medvedev administrations in 2010 as a successor agreement.

In August 2023 the US accused Russia of violating the treaty in disallowing US on-site inspections under its stipulations. In response, Washington halted Russian inspectors’ ability to do the same on American soil. It’s been in limbo ever since, as the expiration deadline fast approaches.

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice,com,

Lately, there’s been a growing sense of confidence among investors that the U.S. economy has dodged the proverbial bullet.

Despite a historic rate-hiking cycle by the Federal Reserve, two years of stubborn inflation, and signs of strain in global trade, the dominant Wall Street narrative is now a curious mix of “soft landing,” “no landing,” and even “re-acceleration.” For example, look at forward earnings estimates for the companies most susceptible to economic growth: small and mid-capitalization stocks. Over the last two years, earnings growth was meager when the economy was “booming” due to massive fiscal and monetary stimulus flows. However, as we head into 2026, Wall Street expects corporate earnings to increase sharply, which can only occur if the economy reaccelerates.

While the market is betting on an economic revival to support current valuation levels, the real economy is suggesting things are slowing down. Notably, the evidence isn’t coming from obscure corners. It’s showing up in the indicators designed to give us a heads-up before a storm arrives.

Unlike data points like GDP or headline payroll numbers that lag, indicators that lead economic changes are meant to flag when momentum is shifting. Historically, these indicators have done an excellent job of predicting economic changes from growth to slowdowns. However, after 2020, with the massive stimulus interventions, the leading indicators have been “missing in action.” Because of that, very few people are paying attention to what these indicators are warning about, and the current optimism feels eerily similar to the late stages of every economic cycle. When markets are up, investors ignore risk, and consider fundamentals irrelevant. But if you know where to look, the warnings are there, and you must be willing to step outside the bullish echo chamber.

There’s a familiar rhythm to economic slowdowns, and we’re hearing it again: first, the data softens quietly; then the revisions come in negative; credit starts tightening; consumer behavior grows cautious; and eventually, the labor market breaks. When everyone finally admits what’s happening, markets have already priced in the damage. That’s why it’s critical to understand what the signals are saying now and not after the fact.

So, let’s take a closer look at the economic dashboard. From my perspective, the economy is not accelerating but slowing down.

Economic Signals

The clearest sign of economic deceleration is the Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index (LEI), which has declined for 17 consecutive months. That’s not a rounding error; that’s the longest losing streak since the 2008 financial crisis. The LEI includes forward-looking components like new orders, jobless claims, building permits, and consumer expectations. Historically, when the index falls this far for this long, a recession isn’t a matter of “if,” but “when.” Even the Conference Board has publicly projected a contraction in late 2024 or early 2025, but that didn’t happen because of all the fiscal stimulus circulating through the economy. However, that stimulus has ended. The LEI has turned lower again, signaling a pickup in economic weakness. While the market largely ignores this flashing red light because the S&P keeps rising, it is a dangerous divergence that investors should consider.

The bond market is also warning us. The yield curve, specifically the spread between 2-year and 10-year Treasury yields, was inverted for over a year. However, it isn’t the inversion that indicates a recessionary onset; it is the UN-inversion. Every post-war recession has been preceded by an inversion, and a UN-inversion of the yield curve. Most people miss the fact that the inversion itself isn’t the recession, it’s the warning. The real trouble begins when the curve steepens again. Often, this is because the Fed is forced to cut rates in a panic. And guess what? As of this writing, markets are pricing at least 50 basis points of cuts by year-end. That doesn’t happen in a “re-accelerating” economy.

Then there’s the labor market. On the surface, it still looks healthy. But dig deeper, and the cracks are widening. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently revised previous job gains by over 911,000. Temporary help services continue to decline, and job openings are down roughly 30% from their peak. However, the real number to watch is the percentage of full-time employment. Since full-time employment supports economic growth, it is unsurprising that there is a decent correlation between that measure and GDP. These are not random data points; they are classic early signs that job growth has peaked.

Credit markets are tightening across the board. The Fed’s Senior Loan Officer Survey shows that banks are making it harder to get consumer and commercial loans. Notably, credit is the oxygen of economic growth, and when it gets harder to borrow, businesses delay hiring and capital expenditures as consumers pull back. In addition, there are rising delinquency rates on credit cards and auto loans, particularly among lower-income households, as the post-COVID stimulus buffer runs out.

Consumer sentiment also continues to deteriorate. The University of Michigan’s latest survey shows a renewed drop in optimism, especially among lower-income groups who are being squeezed by higher prices, student loan repayments, and rising rents. Yes, spending has not collapsed, but that is mainly because consumers are running up credit balances while drawing down what’s left of their savings. This divergence between weak sentiment and sustained spending is not sustainable; eventually, the math breaks.

Given that consumption drives earnings, the slowdown in personal consumption expenditures (PCE) should serve as a warning to more bullish analysts’ forecasts.

Investing When There Are Slowdown Signals

Taken in isolation, each of these signals might be dismissed as noise. But taken together, they paint a consistent picture that the U.S. economy is slowing, and the risk of a traditional, cyclical recession is rising steadily. The trouble is, investors have been lulled into complacency by short-term resilience in the stock market and the memory of pandemic-era policy responses. However, those policy levers may not be as easy to pull now.

The combination of a weakening LEI, an inverted yield curve, tighter credit conditions, softening labor data, falling consumer confidence, and narrowing corporate profit margins doesn’t suggest a soft landing; it indicates the landing zone is shrinking quickly and the Federal Reserve is likely already behind the curve. Crucially, we must not forget that leading indicators, by their nature, flash warnings before the damage is visible. It’s often too late to adjust when these trends show up in GDP or official recession declarations.

One of investors’ biggest mistakes at this cycle stage is anchoring to outdated narratives. They point to low unemployment and solid consumer spending and argue that the worst is behind us. However, those are lagging data points. Unemployment always stays low, right up until it spikes. Spending always looks fine, right up until credit dries up. The market will have already moved if we wait for the headlines to confirm the slowdown.

For investors, the path forward is less about panic and more about preparation. Risk is best managed before it becomes obvious, and currently, that means reassessing portfolio positioning with a greater focus on quality, liquidity, and resilience.

1. Shift toward higher-quality equities—companies with strong balance sheets, positive cash flow, and stable earnings. In late-cycle environments, businesses that can defend margins and avoid excessive leverage tend to outperform. Defensive sectors like healthcare, utilities, and consumer staples historically perform well in economic slowdowns. These aren’t the exciting momentum plays, but they often hold up better when growth stalls.

2. Cash is no longer a drag. With money market funds and Treasury bills yielding north of 5%, holding cash offers income and flexibility. In a market that’s likely to become more volatile, the ability to act without selling at a loss becomes a competitive advantage. Don’t let the fear of “missing out” cause you to miss what may be the opportunity to buy later at better prices.

3. Consider hedging. If you’ve enjoyed substantial gains in the past year, now is the time to protect some of those profits. This could mean trimming back riskier holdings, using inverse ETFs to hedge sector exposure, or selecting options to reduce downside risk. The goal isn’t to go all-in or all-out; it’s to manage exposure with a clear eye on growing macro uncertainty.

4. Reduce exposure to highly cyclical sectors. Industries tied to discretionary spending, real estate, or manufacturing tend to underperform during economic contractions. If the slowdown intensifies, these areas will likely see earnings revisions and price multiple compression.

5. Stay tactical. This isn’t the environment for set-it-and-forget-it strategies. Flexibility becomes critical in periods of transition. Markets are forward-looking, and asset prices will have already adjusted by the time the recession shows up in the data. Use this time to tighten your process, raise select cash, and rotate toward areas that can weather a macro storm.

The fiscal and monetary buffers that helped cushion previous slowdowns may not be available now. The federal government is already running massive deficits, and interest payments on the debt are now the fastest-growing budget item. On the monetary side, the Fed is caught between two mandates: inflation isn’t fully tamed, but growth is slowing. Cutting rates too soon risks reigniting price pressures; waiting too long deepens a downturn.

So while the S&P may continue to climb for now, and sentiment might stay upbeat, the forward-looking data suggests that caution may be a more prudent approach.

Amid an ongoing campaign to rid the FBI of woke politics and priorities, the bureau has fired roughly 15 agents who were caught on camera kneeling during a 2020 protest following the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. In May of this year, the FBI reassigned the agents, but subsequently fired them, according to anonymous sources cited by the Associated Press and CNN. The kneeling agents were among a group of about 20 agents who were fired at the conclusion of a review by the FBI’s general counsel office.

When photographs were published that showed a large group of agents taking a knee as they pandered to protesters in Washington, controversy erupted both inside and outside the FBI. Beyond the political dynamic, some senior FBI officials felt that the agents put themselves and peers at a tactical disadvantage. Here’s how retired FBI supervisory special agent James Gagliano summed up the ugly spectacle: 

[There are] two possible, equally repugnant purposes behind the kneelers’ actions. The symbolic genuflection in the face of protesters (and the movement’s rioters who destroyed businesses and government buildings and claimed lives) was either an expression of unity with BLM, or these armed agents were blatant cowards and spinelessly acquiesced to the demands of a threatening mob. Whichever the reason, it is fully nauseating to career agents.

During the Biden administration and under then-Director Christopher Wray, the incident was reviewed with a conclusion that no policies had been violated. This year, the bureau decided to give it a second look. As a result, the agents were first reassigned to jobs that were perceived as demotions, but have now been jettisoned altogether.  

In August, two senior FBI officials were fired: Brian Driscoll, who served as acting director before Kash Patel’s confirmation, and Steve Jensen, who was acting director of the Washington Field Office (WFO). Both have sued, claiming they were victimized by a “campaign of retribution” targeting agents insufficiently loyal to President Trump. There may be many more terminations to come. The DOJ has said it is scrutinizing the actions of more than 1,500 agents involved in investigations of questionable merit, such as the prosecutions of members of Trump’s first administration and the extraordinary effort mounted against participants in the January 6 riots. 

🚨BREAKING: FBI agents seen kneeling at a 2020 racial justice protest after George Floyd’s death have been fired.

GOODBYE pic.twitter.com/ucoOv5liek

— Jack (@jackunheard) September 27, 2025

This week, it was revealed that the FBI deployed a stunning 274 agents to the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6. The news was broken by Just The News, which obtained an after-action report that included rank-and-file agents’ sharp criticism of the bureau in general and the Washington Field Office in particular. As one agent wrote, “WFO is a hopelessly broken office that’s more concerned about wearing masks and recruiting preferred racial/sexual groups than catching actual bad guys.“

The FBI Agents Association condemned the dismissals and criticized Patel’s job performance. “Rather than providing these agents with fair treatment and due process, Patel chose to again violate the law by ignoring these agents’ constitutional and legal rights instead of following the requisite process,” the group said in a statement. Others, however, are quite pleased: 

https://t.co/ty0nIIAYvO pic.twitter.com/zl1eMXYOFq

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 27, 2025

In case you thought this week couldn’t get any better…

The FBI agents who disgraced the bureau by kneeling for George Floyd have been FIRED. pic.twitter.com/1biTGEZPen

— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) September 27, 2025

*  *  *ATTENTION: Secure your meat before free shipping goes away Sunday night… Several items already sold out.

Just the Steaks (10 lbs)

Filet Mignon and other goodies (11 lbs)

Ground Beef (10 lbs, on sale in addition to free shipping)

Texas Lasagna & Meatballs (clean comfort food… holy crap it’s good)

Beef, Chick & Pork Trio

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The state of New York will be mailing “inflation refund checks” to 8.2 million households, the governor’s office announced Friday.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office said that up to $400 checks “will be mailed directly to eligible New Yorkers, with deliveries to continue throughout October and November” and that households do not need to apply, sign up, or take any other action to receive the checks.

According to Hochul’s office, joint tax filers with income up to $150,000 will receive a $400 payment, and joint tax filers with income between $150,001 and $300,000 will receive $300.

Single tax filers who have an income up to $75,000 will get $200, and single tax filers with incomes between $75,000 and $150,000 will get $150, the announcement said.

“Starting today, we’re sending inflation refund checks to over 8 million New Yorkers because it’s simple—this is your money and we’re putting it back in your pockets,” Hochul said in a statement about the checks.

But the check will only be sent if the person filed a New York state resident income tax return, or Form IT-201, reported income within qualifying thresholds, and was not claimed as a dependent for the tax year 2023, the New York Department of Taxation and Finance said.

“We will begin mailing refund checks to eligible taxpayers at the end of September 2025,” the tax agency said, adding that because of the “large volume of checks” being mailed out over the coming weeks, some people may receive “your check sooner or later than your neighbors, as mailings are not based on zip code or region.”

The agency added that it cannot provide a specific delivery schedule, and contact center representatives will not have additional information on the status of checks.

The statement said that the check will be mailed to the address that was associated with the person’s most recently filed tax return, meaning that if the recent address was used to file state taxes in 2024, the inflation refund check will be sent there.

It also said that there will be no direct deposits to bank accounts and that only checks will be mailed.

The one-time payments were part of a 2025 state budget provision that was passed in the state legislature. Hochul’s office said that inflation has increased costs of necessities, meaning that state revenue from the collection of sales tax has increased.

The rebate checks are different from stimulus checks, also known as economic impact payments, which have been authorized by Congress through legislation and distributed by the U.S. Treasury Department.

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) in July introduced a bill that would send tax rebates to qualified taxpayers using revenue from tariffs instituted by President Donald Trump. Hawley’s bill has not passed the Senate.

Inflation rose in August as the price of gas, groceries, and airfare jumped, while new data showed applications for unemployment aid soared. Consumer prices increased 2.9 percent in August from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday, up from 2.7 percent the previous month and the biggest jump since January.

In response to the weakening job market, the Federal Reserve earlier this month cut its policy interest rate by 0.25 percent to a range of 4.00-to-4.25 percent.

*  *  *

ATTENTION: Buy some meat before free shipping goes away Sunday night… Several items already sold out.

Just the Steaks (10 lbs)

Filet Mignon and other goodies (11 lbs)

Ground Beef (10 lbs, on sale in addition to free shipping)

Texas Lasagna & Meatballs (clean comfort food… holy crap it’s good)

Beef, Chick & Pork Trio

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at the Kremlin in Moscow on Friday, with the two hailing expansion of cooperation on all levels.

“We are practically enjoying active collaboration in all directions,” the Russian president said. “The same applies to security issues and ensuring the safety of the Union State. By the way, here, as we agreed, everything continues in a rhythmic and operational mode. Everything keeps developing naturally,” Putin added.

Lukashenko is joining Putin and other officials at events of the World Atomic Week in Moscow during the two-day visit.

Most importantly, Lukashenko revealed while speaking to the media after discussions with Putin that Russia has presented a new peace proposal to Ukraine, and that Kiev’s response will determine the outcome of the conflict.

According to state media source BelTA, he went so far as to warn the Ukrainians that if they don’t accept its terms, they they will lose all of Ukraine.

“There are good proposals for resolving the Ukrainian conflict,” Lukashenko said of options which are apparently on the table. According to his full comments as translated by BelTA:

“You can say and declare anything. But what if the Kremlin strikes Bankovaya Street [a street in Kiev where Ukrainian government institutions are headquartered]? What would remain of it? Therefore, Vladimir Zelensky needs to calm down. There are good proposals on the table. We discussed them with President Putin. I will not speak about them; the president will speak about them himself.

These are good proposals. Proposals regarding Ukraine, which were also heard by Donald Trump in Alaska, were taken to Washington for consideration and discussion.”

After again calling them “Very good proposals,” he then warned ominously that “If the Ukrainians do not accept these proposals, then the situation will be like the beginning of the Special Military Operation. It will be even worse. They will lose Ukraine.”

As far as what Moscow is offering for negotiated settlement, this without doubt includes Kiev giving up all claims to the four easter territories and to Crimea, as well as to never join NATO, and that it must open up restrictions on the Russian language. Essentially Ukraine will see it as a plan of ‘surrender’.

It was this past summer that Russian forces expanded their operations beyond the Donbass for the first going. The military has at this point captured several villages and settlements Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, which neighbors Donetsk. Ukraine’s manpower crisis has only grown worse in the meantime.

This signifies that Moscow could expand the fight, and Lukashenko’s latest warning suggests this as well. However, Putin unlikely desires to attempt to occupy the whole of the country, but the threat is being echoed amid the ongoing standoff with NATO.

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

Days Of Judgment

“If you want a friend in DC, get a dog. We’re coming for you.”

Dan Bongino, Deputy Director, FBI

You better believe Martha Stewart baked a cake last night — the lovely Gâteau Opéra perhaps? — when she got the news that the ham sandwich known as James Comey got indicted by a federal grand jury twenty-two years after that same ham sandwich indicted the goddess of hearth and home for lying to the FBI and the SEC over a trumped-up insider-trading rap, and sent her to federal prison for a five-month stretch plus five additional months of confined home-making and two years of supervised redecorating.

Mr. Comey’s indictment is probably just the opening salvo in what will be a barrage of indictments coming down against government officials who used their powers-under-law to harass, disable, cancel, dis-bar, bankrupt, persecute and ruin thousands of their fellow citizens, including especially the 45th president and the people who worked for him.

Jim Comey was the engine who pulled the choo-choo train of seditious fakery known as RussiaGate (Donald Trump colluding with Vladimir Putin) into America’s public life, which then expanded into the years-long ass-covering operations of the Mueller Investigation, then Impeachments One and Two, then the J-6 FBI-engineered “insurrection,” then Nancy Pelosi’s Congressional J-6 committee gong show, and then the four various fugazi prosecutions against Mr. Trump in 2024 designed to derail his re-run for office, bankrupt his family, and stuff him in prison for the rest of his life.

Mr. Comey and his associates must be astounded that none of that worked. It really was a mighty organized criminal endeavor. And, as such, it stands to be prosecutable under the RICO statutes, which means that these current two charges against Mr. Comey should be a preview of attractions to come against him and many other familiar characters, possibly including his successor as FBI Director Christopher Wray. (The Blaze reports overnight that the FBI deployed roughly 275 plainclothes agents into the J-6 protest crowd at the US Capitol, as opposed to the 26 agents that Mr. Wray testified about to Congress.)

The smuggery of this gang in the years since all this business started in 2016 has also been out of this world. Mr. Comey dropped one rancid video after another either making threats or sanctimoniously declaring his sainthood, as if he expected the dreadful day would never come that he might face charges. Likewise, former Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe ran his mouth all over CNN for years, former CIA Director John Brennan spun fibs on MSNBC, while FBI RussiaGate straw-boss Peter Strzok rode shotgun regularly with fake news confabulator Rachel Maddow. All of it was designed to bamboozle the public, and it worked!

The day after Joe Biden was sworn in as President, James Comey was calling for Trump to be thrown in prison and barred from running for office again. pic.twitter.com/vMe9v2mQmV

— MAZE (@mazemoore) September 26, 2025

You can expect more than one RICO case to come because these crimes against our country occurred in many discrete episodes of organized misconduct over many years. The RussiaGate op involving Comey, Clapper, Brennan, Hillary, Obama, Biden, et al., was quite separate from Adam Schiff’s orchestrated seditious Impeachment #1 featuring CIA mole Eric Ciaramella, Col. Alexander Vindman, and ICIG Michael Atkinson. As was the activity of the Mueller group actually supervised by Andrew Weissmann (because Robert Mueller was secretly non compos mentis). As were the J-6 shenanigans of Mr. Wray’s FBI, including the DNC Pipe Bomb sideshow. As were the Lawfare exploits of Norm Eisen and Mary McCord conniving with “Joe Biden’s” White House to arrange the Trump prosecutions by DA Alvin Bragg and AG Letitia James in New York and DA Fani Willis in Fulton County, GA. As were the dark deeds of Merrick Garland and his Special Counsels Jake Smith, David Weiss, and Robert Hur. As were the 2020 and 2022 election-rigging capers of Marc Elias & Company. As were whatever peculiar directives were ordered by Alejandro Mayorkas to throw the US borders wide open. As were the “autopen” abuse by the White House staff and their cover-up of “Joe Biden’s” mental decline.

All of these vile pranks would have to be prosecuted in separate packets of cases. You might think it’s just too much for this Department of Justice, and that the three remaining years of Trump 2.0 are not enough time for so much action. But they represent extremely serious breaches of official duty verging on treason. There are probably aspects of it all and additional characters involved whom I have left out. They have gravely injured our country and turned us against each other. Their prosecutions will be heavy lifting, but it has to be done.

One prediction I’ll venture. Jim Comey’s defense will be based on “altitude sickness.”

All it took was an alarming surge in civil terrorism, funded by dark-money NGOs funneling cash into activist nonprofits to fuel endless color-revolution-style operations against “America First”, and the rise of nihilistic accelerantists and far-left militancy has become utterly undeniable this month: from the transgender shooter who stormed a church in Minneapolis, to the furry-obsessed leftist with a transgender boyfriend suspected in the political assassination of Charlie Kirk, to Wednesday’s ICE attack in Texas by another far-left radical. That was enough for the Trump administration to begin a whole-of-government crackdown on domestic political violence, treating it as organized terrorism.

Recapping the Trump administration’s latest moves: 

• Trump Directs Task Force To Counter Rogue NGOs, Leftist Groups Sowing Chaos

• Antifa Designated’ Domestic Terror Group’ As White House Declares War On Radical Leftist Groups

Related: 

• Soros Foundation Fires Back At NYT Report: We “Don’t Fund Terrorism”

• New Report Reveals Soros’ Open Society Funneled $80 Million To Pro-Terror Groups

• Dems’ NGO Empire Cracks: First Gates Foundation Dumps Arabella Network, Then The Atlantic Forced To Admit Left-Wing Terror

With Antifa designated as a domestic terror organization, executive orders targeting rogue NGOs and the radical left being drawn up, and the eventual creation of an intergovernmental NGO-busting task force, the question remains: Does the federal government, in its whole-of-government crackdown on the unregulated NGO world, actually know how to target the proper money networks?

“It is a vast domestic terror movement, and with God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have… throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks… and we will do it in Charlie’s name.”

Steven Miller and JD Vance update the… pic.twitter.com/PhZys5WdEP

— Connor Tomlinson (@Con_Tomlinson) September 15, 2025

Spoiler alert: not all roads lead to the Open Society Foundations, despite what some mainstream narratives suggest.

That’s where civil terrorism expert Jason Curtis Anderson comes in, offering a cheat sheet on dark-money-funded foundations and radical organizations that operate with little regulation, functioning in many ways as a parallel form of government aligned with the Democratic Party to wage endless war against President Trump and his MAGA base, while also pursuing more sinister goals of collapsing the nation and dismantling capitalism.

In other words, many of these groups have openly embraced socialism and Marxism, which is why that anti-American vibe emanates so strongly from the Democratic Party.

Anderson’s cheat sheet to better understand “the orgs who are setting America on fire” that should be investigated first includes: 

Anderson explains: 

Everyone acknowledges the political power held by people like George Soros, but no one understands how it works. It’s pretty simple: 

The revolution against the West has two channels: America’s dark money foundation network and the activist nonprofits that they fund. Think of them as the shock troops. 

The dark money NGO world launders millions in tax-exempt 501c3 donations into the activist groups, which drum up interest in the current popular cause which strengthens the progressive voting bloc, and also organizes mass-scale protests and occasional riots. 

In many ways, this is an unelected parallel form of government, working to subvert our actual government, and these are the people who want to burn America down. It makes sense why George Soros is the self-appointed king of this sector, because there’s much more power there than there is in government with all of their pesky rules. 

He can push dangerous policies like drug legalization, decriminalizing crime, fund an electoral machine that will elect the most far-left politicians who will pass those bills, and then elect DAs like Alvin Bragg who will refuse to prosecute violent crime. You can do it all through these channels. 

Both the dark money foundation world and the activist nonprofits are completely unregulated. There are no clear deliverables, no safeguards to ensure they are working in the public good, and when they burn a city down, they are never held responsible. 

Ten nonprofits can co-sponsor an event that becomes a riot and burns cop cars, and there is no mechanism to hold these tax-exempt nonprofits accountable, as they proved in the anti-ICE riots in LA.

90% of the revolution against the West is in the activist nonprofit sector, funded by a network of billion-dollar progressive foundations.

The choice is clear: begin to enforce this sector or let it take over our government.

. . . 

Via The Cradle

The Iranian government revealed more information this week regarding the vast cache of classified Israeli nuclear and military documents it had previously announced obtaining.

In a documentary aired by state television on Wednesday, Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib said the documents include the full names, personal details, addresses, and professional links of 189 nuclear and military specialists connected to Israeli weapons programs. “The list is still being expanded as Iranian analysts continue to process the material,” Khatib was quoted as saying. 

“Iranian intelligence operatives carried out one of the most complex multilayered operations, penetrated deep into the hidden vaults of the regime and obtained its secret information in nuclear, military, intelligence, and scientific fields,” he added. “In addition, there are documents showing official influence exerted by Israeli officials and American senators on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and their receipt of information about our peaceful nuclear program.”

Khatib said the documents also include precise information on military, intelligence, and nuclear sites in Israel, adding that Tehran targeted and struck some of these sites with missiles during the 12-day war in June. 

He also claimed that employees of the Israeli nuclear and military establishment cooperated with Iranian intelligence as a result of “financial incentives” and “deep hatred toward the regime’s corrupt and criminal prime minister, which led to acts of revenge against him.”

Included in the documentary aired on Wednesday night were personal photos of IAEA chief Rafael Grossi. It says the cache of documents includes personal information on the IAEA chief. The documentary also shows footage from inside Israel’s Dimona nuclear facility.

BREAKING | Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence releases exclusive photos from inside Israel’s Dimona nuclear facility, saying it holds detailed information on the regime’s nuclear weapons that will be useful for future developments. pic.twitter.com/l9spVudiOh

— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) September 24, 2025

“Instead of solving the problem of the Iranian water, think about solving the problem of the bread of many workers who have cooperated with us with the incentive of money, and they are cooperating right now,” Khatib added, addressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

His comments alluded to the premier’s recent statement that Israel would help the Iranian people desalinate water once they were “free” from the government.

Iran initially announced the large-scale intelligence operation on June 9. At the time, it referred to the cache as a “treasure trove.”

Iran’s Intelligence claims it has photos and personal information about IAEA chief Rafael Grossi and his family, obtained from Israel. pic.twitter.com/FA7Or4pd4y

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 24, 2025

Three days later, Israel launched a massive war against Iran, targeting civilian infrastructure, military sites, and nuclear facilities. Iran responded with large barrages of ballistic missiles throughout the 12-day campaign. 

Washington joined in on the final day before the war ended, carrying out a bunker-buster attack on several nuclear sites, which caused severe damage but failed to eradicate the Iranian nuclear program.

The war was launched amid nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington. Iran insisted on its right to continue uranium enrichment, which the US and Israel rejected. The Islamic Republic suspended cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after the war over its failure to properly condemn the attacks, as well as what it said was close cooperation between Tel Aviv and the watchdog. 

⚡️ Iran EXPOSES Israel’s nuclear program

State TV just broadcast photos taken INSIDE Israel’s top-secret Dimona nuclear facility

Plus documents, schematics, PASSPORTS of Israeli scientists, letters to US pic.twitter.com/YJD9kOWCyx

— RT (@RT_com) September 24, 2025

Although a new framework was reached earlier this month, Tehran announced over the weekend that it will fully suspend cooperation after the EU reimposed sanctions on Iran.

The IAEA has never been granted access to Israel’s Dimona facility, which is believed to provide fuel for Tel Aviv’s undeclared nuclear weapons program.

Russia on Friday blasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for his “irresponsible” threats after the day prior he said that leaders in Moscow should check for bomb shelters near the Kremlin if the country does not stop its war in Ukraine.

Zelensky had told Axios that Russian officials “have to know where their bomb shelters are,” adding: “If they will not stop the war, they will need it in any case.”

He did caveat the threat by saying he won’t target civilians as “we are not terrorists” but then underscored, “They have to know that we in Ukraine, each day, we will answer. If they attack us, we will answer them.”

Zelensky also stressed that if Ukraine receives long-range weaponry from the United States, then “we will use it.” This is an especially dangerous scenario as it is flirting with WW3, given Moscow has long issued a red line related to such long-range weapons attacking Russian territory.

The Ukrainian leader could be upping these threats not only out of desperation, but after earlier this month Russia struck Ukrainian government buildings in the capital for the first time of the war, and it was not far from Zelensky’s own office.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to the threats as follows: “Zelensky is clearly continuing his desperate efforts. That’s why he’s issuing threats left and right, which is quite irresponsible,” according to the AFP.

Former Russian president and current top national security official Dmitry Medvedev also responded, by saying:

“The freak should understand something else: Russia can use weapons that no bomb shelter will save you from. And the Americans should remember this too.”

This appeared to be another veiled nuclear threat, and hint at runaway escalation if American long-range weapons are used to attack government buildings in Moscow.

There was at least one notable time earlier in the conflict that Ukraine sent small drones against the Kremlin complex in Moscow, damaging a dome and putting the capital on high alert.

Zelensky directly threatens President Vladimir Putin.

He says that he will use long-range American weapons against Moscow.

When asked if the Kremlin leadership should find the “nearest bomb shelters?,”

He answers, “They will need it” pic.twitter.com/LzQo2C8Qeu

— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) September 25, 2025

Meanwhile, constant cross-border drone attacks targeting Russian energy sites continue. On Thursday Ukrainian drones struck the Afipsky oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region.

It marks the second attack on the site within a month, and it sparked a large fire, which was soon extinguished with no casualties. The Afipsky refinery is one of the largest in southern Russia.

* * * 

Below are more headlines and developments on NATO, Russia, and Ukraine, via Newsquawk:

• European officials privately told Russia they are ready to shoot down jets and view Russia’s Estonia incursion as deliberate, according to Bloomberg.
• French President Macron said France stands ready to support Denmark in assessing the situation and contributing to the security of Danish airspace, according to X.
• US President Trump said Ukraine has a shot at getting territory back and that Russia is doing poorly, adding that he is dissatisfied with what Russian President Putin is doing, according to Reuters.
• IAEA said a drone was downed and detonated around 800 metres from the perimeter of Ukraine’s South nuclear power plant overnight, noting that 22 UAVs were observed late last night and this morning and that its team heard gunfire and explosions, according to Reuters.
• US President Trump said he believes Turkey will halt purchases of Russian oil, adding that it is harder for Hungary and Slovakia as they are landlocked with one pipeline, according to Reuters.

Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

Is China a rising power or a falling star? The answer is both. The most important geopolitical question in the world today is, which one of those trends will dominate? Will China rise to true great power status with a developed economy, high-value added manufacturing and military parity with the U.S.? Or will China collapse into political chaos as it has many times in the long history of its civilization? One or the other outcome is likely, but which outcome is uncertain. The makeup of the world geopolitical order hangs in the balance.

The United States and Russia are established superpowers. That will not change soon. China is properly counted alongside the U.S. and Russia as a great power, but its weaknesses put it in a slightly lower rank. Russia has 5,549 nuclear warheads. The U.S. has 5,277. China has 600 nuclear warheads although that number is growing.

Of course, it would only take perhaps 50 or fewer nuclear detonations to destroy life on earth. The significance of a large nuclear arsenal distributed among ICMBs, IRBMs, bombers, submarines, cruisers and mobile launchers is to withstand a first strike by an opponent and be able to launch a second strike. That’s the essence of deterrence, which has kept the nuclear peace since 1945.

Russia and the U.S. have deterrence capability. China does not. A smaller nuclear arsenal can actually be destabilizing because the temptation for a weaker power to launch a first strike is greater. China is in that position today.

The U.S. has a huge consumer economy, advantages in technology, and a highly developed financial sector to help drive economic growth. Russia does not have nearly as developed a consumer sector, but it has a greater capacity to be self-sufficient (even autarkic) if necessary. Russia’s ability to withstand U.S. sanctions related to the Ukraine war is evidence of this.

China is different.

The country is highly dependent on exports and the manufacturing jobs behind those exports. It is far from self-sufficient. When the U.S. shuts the door on Chinese exports through high tariffs and other sanctions, the negative impact on Chinese output, employment and reserves is real.

An Untested Military

China’s military prowess is impressive to a point. It has three aircraft carrier battlegroups, which include cruisers, destroyers, submarines and amphibious assault vessels. China has developed a hypersonic missile (not as advanced as the Russian version) at a time when the U.S. has no hypersonic capability. China has the largest military in the world with 2.04 million troops compared to 1.1 million troops for Russia and 1.3 million for the U.S.

Its biggest military deficiency is that its troops are not battle-tested. The U.S. has fought major wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait since 1991 and has been in combat in Northern Syria for twenty years. Russia has fought major wars in Chechnya, Georgia, Syria and Ukraine since 2000. China has fought no major wars since 1950, only minor skirmishes with Vietnam and India.

Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke said, “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.” China has had no contact with any enemy in seventy-five years. There is simply no way to assess how its military would perform in an actual war.

China has acted aggressively in claiming all of the South China Sea as its territorial waters and using bullying tactics against Philippine fishing boats and Coast Guard vessels. China’s claims are rejected by the other nations around the South China Sea and by the United Nations. The U.S. is a treaty ally of the Philippines.

China has turned certain coral reefs into major islands by dredging and building military bases and air strips on those islands. The U.S. insists on freedom of navigation and does not recognize Chinese sovereignty in the South China Sea. So far, both sides have avoided escalation although the Chinese did embarrass themselves recently when a Chinese destroyer sliced off the bow of a Chinese Coast Guard vessel near the Philippines.

Chinese fighter aircraft launched from their aircraft carriers carry reduced fuel and weapons loads because of the ski-jump takeoff method. U.S. aircraft use steam-powered catapult technology that allows full fuel and weapons loads. Taking other technology including anti-missile systems into account, any sea battle between the U.S. and Chinese navies would be heavily one-sided in favor of the U.S.

An Economic State of Near Collapse

The reported 5% annualized GDP growth in China is a mirage. Those figures include investment in fixed assets, including ghost cities and unused prestige projects that would be immediately written down to zero under any standard accounting method.

Bad debts are ignored. Banks are propped up with dollar loans from the central bank, which depletes China’s reserve position. Its debt load is more extreme than U.S. debt and impedes further growth. So-called “stimulus” has failed repeatedly. China’s stock market (especially its tech sector) is in a bubble. China’s currency is supported by dollar interventions to buy yuan and its reported per capita GDP of $13,687 (firmly in the middle-income trap) is distorted by the degree distribution heavily skewed toward a small percentage of super-wealth. This leaves everyday Chinese citizens with a far lower per capita income.

In short, the Chinese economy is probably in a recession. Youth unemployment is approaching 30%. The entire system is in a state of near collapse.

A Xi Coup

Worse yet, the Chinese political system has undergone a military coup d’état. President Xi Jinping has been demoted to a position subordinate to a new committee headed by the top leader of the People’s Liberation Army. Cliques loyal to former presidents Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin have emerged from hiding and are now becoming politically active again. This is in keeping with a millennial-old pattern of extreme centralization followed by decentralization and warring factions as Chinese dynasties gain power and then fail.

Xi Jinping reached the pinnacle of centralization in 2018 when term limits of two five-year terms for presidents were removed, and he was allowed to remain “president for life.” Xi became the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. From there (and with a good understanding of Chinese history going back to the Xia Dynasty of 2070 BC), it was easy to predict the fall of Xi Jinping and the collapse of the Peasant Dynasty represented by the Chinese Communist Party. That collapse is now proceeding in slow motion. Whether it accelerates is one of the pivotal political questions of the day.

An Invasion of Taiwan? No Go

Finally, analysts spend enormous amounts of time on the issue of an invasion of Taiwan by Communist China. That will not happen. With Chinese vessels crashing into each other and the U.S. on the side of Taiwan, the idea of a D-Day type invasion of Taiwan with a million men in an amphibious landing by a force that has never been tested in combat seems absurd. China has massive internal problems. Those problems will not be solved by creating even greater problems with a cross-strait invasion.

The Fall of the CCP

Is China rich and powerful? Yes. Is it stable and growing? No. Is it a credible military threat to Taiwan or the U.S.? Not unless it is prepared to pay an unacceptably high price for its adventurism.

Most of China’s technology is either stolen or second-best compared to U.S. and even European or Russian technology. U.S. investment is in full retreat from China. U.S. markets are quickly closing to Chinese goods.

China has few alternative “buyers of last resort.” Unemployment is skyrocketing and bad debts are rising to the surface. China may yet emerge as a great power. But not before the fall of the Communist Party and a period of grave instability that will have ripple effects around the world.