Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” ― Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

“What we’ve got here is… failure to communicate. Some men you just can’t reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it… well, he gets it. I don’t like it any more than you men.” – Captain – Cool Hand Luke

It is fitting that I use a quote from a communist to begin this article because it is the communist ideology of hate, murder, and propaganda that has led us to this point of no return. Charlie Kirk was right. America will never be the same. It might not even closely resemble the America at the start of this century by the time this period of upheaval and crisis resolves itself, with the shedding of much blood and death on a scale not seen since World War II. Charlie Kirk was Cool Hand Luke’d for daring to challenge the status quo and daring to question the psychopathic powers that be in this prison planet of our own making.

The senseless slaughter of Iryna Zarutska and Charlie Kirk were the opening salvo in a new U.S. civil war, which is likely to spread to the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Australia and wherever else the globalist elite have planted the seeds of revolution through importing Muslim hordes, criminalizing whiteness, glorifying deviancy, outlawing free speech, bankrupting nations, and promoting WW3. The chaos, confusion, vitriol and mayhem is not happening by chance. It is being manufactured by those constituting the invisible government (aka Deep State) as a means to their end game – Digital IDs, CBDCs, Social Credit Scores, 15 Minute Cities (Gulags), Great Taking leading to the Great Reset, and the depopulation of millions with the dehumanization and subjugation of the survivors.

What is happening is not a bug, but a feature in the new world order they envision. The last couple weeks certainly meet Lenin’s criteria of decades happening, as the whirlwind of tragedy, anger, threats, retribution, legacy media lies, political posturing, international coalitions forming into war-like postures, all capped off by the cold blooded murder of “that white girl” by a feral psychotic dangerous black man set loose by a black woman pretending to be a judge, and the assassination of an earnest young christian conservative man who was trying to sway minds and hearts through debate, evidently by an ANTIFA inspired transgender dropout loser who spent his life online with other losers.

I say evidently because I don’t believe anything the government or media tells me. There are dozens of unanswered questions regarding this 22 year old Tyler Robinson as the shooter. Based on what we have been told by the authorities regarding Thomas Crooks, the 20 year-old Butler assassin, I don’t expect any truthful revelations regarding Kirk’s assassin. An official narrative will be concocted, fed to the MSM mouthpieces, and devoured by the ignorant masses as the truth. Questioning the official story will be shouted down as conspiracy theories, even though the conspiracy theorists are now 40 – o versus the official stories over the last decade. Our lives don’t matter, but narratives do matter to those pulling the strings.

Even worse was the complete blackout of Iryna’s murder by the far left dying legacy media. The alt-media forced the world to witness the consequences of left wing policies of encouraging crime and refusing to lock up dangerous black men. False narratives are all the left have. The dying legacy left media live up to Huxley’s observations regarding the truth:

“Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.” – Aldous Huxley

Personally, the images of that beautiful helpless girl staring in stunned terror at the savage beast who just slaughtered her because she was white, and the instantaneous death of Charlie with the blood pouring out of his neck wound have disturbed and haunted me for this entire week. I haven’t been able to sleep. I feel like I’ve been going through the motions at work and at home, as a feeling of foreboding envelopes my consciousnesses. I’m sure others have a similar feeling.

The last time I felt this way was the week following 9/11. I knew the world had changed and the change was not going to be good. The world has once again taken a turn for the worse. There will be no reconciliation between the right and the left. There will be no peace. There will be no turning the other cheek and coming together as a nation. Unification is impossible. You will be required to choose a side, because the violence has only just begun. It will only intensify from this point until there are clear winners and losers.

That young refugee from Ukraine was going home from her shift at a pizza joint. It’s ironic that she would have still been living peacefully in Ukraine if the U.S. had not initiated the hostilities by overthrowing the democratically elected government in 2014, as the neocon/Deep State plan to overthrow Putin by goading him into WW3 was hatched. The millions of deaths and casualties in Ukraine are directly attributable to the dastardly actions of Obama, Biden, Nuland, Graham, McCain and the rest of the warmongering bastards that instigated this war. That racist feral dog that murdered Iryna in cold blood shouldn’t have been on that train either. The left wing communist DAs and judges who released this violent unhinged savage 14 times have her blood on their hands. Both seats should have been empty, but that image of savagery will now encourage a race war.

I know every right leaning talking head, twitter influencer, blogger and politician has been mourning the death of Charlie Kirk on social media at a deafening crescendo, trying to outdo each other in their level of tributes, video compilations, and pictures of his wife and children. He is being treated as a Jesus-like martyr, with connotations of JFK’s Camelot lost. Some said he was destined to be president within the next decade. Maybe so, but we will never know.

Truthfully, until he was murdered this week, I knew very little about the man. I knew he was a popular right leaning commentator, but I had never heard him speak or followed him on twitter. I pretty much lumped him with the other right wing influencers, who make a living off tweets, podcasts, youtubes, and blogging. Everyone’s gotta make a living somehow. They are in a constant battle for likes, retweets, impressions and eyeballs. I’m always suspicious about whether they are paid to support a certain point of view or actually believe what they say.

He was 31 and I’m 62. His Turning Point USA organization was geared to mobilize idealistic young conservative people to embrace conservative family values. After 17 years of trying to change hearts and minds, my site generally attracts cynical old dudes who despise the government and media, knowing change through the ballot box is a fruitless venture. The best we can do now is tribe up with like minded people, gather our preps, make sure we are heavily armed, and buy more ammo. Nothing I’ve seen in the last couple weeks tells me to do otherwise. This train is moving too fast towards the bend, and derailment is a certainty.

From what I could gather, Charlie was an intelligent, loving Christian family man, who loved spirited debates with those who had opposing points of view.

His debating skills were clearly top-notch.

The left wing loons in the media, on college campuses, and in politics despised him because he was more intelligent and articulate in presenting his viewpoint, as they shrieked at, threatened and cancelled those who supported him. The brainwashing of our indoctrinated youth by left wing communist ideology has convinced millions to actually believe Kirk, Trump, Musk, Carlson, etc., are nazis and fascists – deserving to be murdered for their cause. Their warped ideology kills.

Kirk’s Turning Point USA non-profit is essentially a rounding error compared to the Soros NGOs, Gates Foundation, and USAID grifts funding chaos and hate across the land. I checked their 990 Tax return and total donations were $85M, with Kirk’s annual compensation around $400k. Pelosi makes more than that with one insider stock trade. He surely also made significant income from Twitter, podcasts, books, etc. But, he wasn’t what I would call a grifter.

His views pretty much aligned with mine on most major issues – Ukraine war, the Israeli genocide, bombing Iran for Israel, abortion, tranny degeneracy, woke indoctrination in schools, 1st Amendment, 2nd Amendment, covid vaccines, masks, Snowden & Assange, and the Deep State . He did not deserve to die and making him a martyr will ultimately backfire on those celebrating his murder. Cancellation goes both ways, they are finding out.

More people have now read and watched his speeches/debates in the last few days than would have ever been introduced to his views over their lifetimes. His death has created more anger and desire for retribution than I’ve witnessed in the course of my life. Will it be a Boston Tea Party/Fort Sumter moment, triggering a revolution/civil war? Time will tell, but we know one thing for sure, Fourth Turnings never de-intensify. I would say in this past week we have experienced an intensification of our ongoing crisis, with the bloodiest and most intense years yet to come. Tragic iconic photos from my lifetime have marked turning points for the country, and I believe the two photos above will sadly mark a new turning point of death and destruction.

I was six months old when my government murdered JFK. The images from the Zapruder film are disturbing and sad, but the murder of our young president because he threatened the CIA/FBI/Deep State changed the course of our country to the detriment of all but those constituting the Deep State and their billionaire benefactors. Our young have been dying, while those running the show have utilized all the propaganda tools at their disposal to breed hate and fear. Keeping the masses focused on their differences, ensures they don’t all realize the true enemy are those pulling the strings and manipulating the masses, as described by Edward Bernays.

Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they’ve always done before
Look at the hate we’re breeding
Look at the fear we’re feeding
Look at the lives we’re leading
The way we’ve always done before

Civil War – Guns N’ Roses

And history hides the lies of our civil wars
D’you wear a black armband when they shot the man
Who said, “Peace could last forever”?
And in my first memories, they shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
Civil War – Guns N’ Roses

Two tragically iconic photos during the Vietnam War were turning points in convincing average Walter Cronkite watching Americans we should not be there, sacrificing our young men, killing women and children, and turning our military against college students protesting against another war fought by the poor to benefit the rich. The American empire has degenerated into Murder Inc., spreading death and destruction across the globe to enrich the military industrial complex and the parasite politicians fueling the war machine with our tax dollars, while burdening our children with an unpayable debt.

So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall in D.C. to remind us all
That you can’t trust freedom when it’s not in your hands
When everybody’s fightin’ for their promised land and
I don’t need your civil war
Civil War – Guns N’ Roses

The photos of the World Trade Center towers on fire shortly before collapsing into their footprint became the defining moment of this century, thus far. We know the neo-cons (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz) who used the moron baby Bush to kick-start their agenda by pushing through the pre-written Patriot Act, ushering in the ever expanding surveillance state, have seized control of government and set us on a path to destruction. We’ve been spilling blood across the globe, while adding debt at a hyper-sonic pace, based upon lies, corrupt leadership, and at the behest of a globalist billionaire death cult. And here we stand at the brink of a civil war and global conflict, with unknown but likely terrible consequences.

Look at the shoes you’re filling
Look at the blood we’re spilling
Look at the world we’re killing
The way we’ve always done before
Look in the doubt we’ve wallowed
Look at the leaders we’ve followed
Look at the lies we’ve swallowed
And I don’t want to hear no more
Civil War – Guns N’ Roses

We are currently in an existential battle between good and evil. The murderous bastards who killed Iryna and Charlie were the personification of evil, motivated by the satanic urging of the Soros, Gates, Obama, Clinton cult of death. The Democratic party is infested with evil men and women, hellbent on the destruction of our country through the promotion of depravity, social chaos, and rampant criminality without consequences. The real deplorables in this country who cheered Kirk’s death and felt sorry for the black devil who slaughtered “that white girl” are evil. The despicable excuses for journalists in the far left propaganda media are evil.

All of these people are your enemy. Many of your neighbors, coworkers and family are your enemy. They would not shed a tear at your death. We have passed the point of no return. I wish I could visualize a near term positive outcome, but that is impossible after this week. As another old time cynic declared a century ago, normal people need to hoist the black flag.

“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” ― H.L. Mencken

A current day cynic, and someone the left would also like to kill,  captures my thoughts exactly. I will not unite or let bygones be bygones with people who wanted me to die for refusing the covid jab and would spit on my grave based upon my views on the Constitution, unwarranted wars, the welfare state, surveillance state, government spending, and the degeneracy of the left. We are already at war, but most don’t realize it yet.

We’ve tried to live in peace, minding our own business, turning the other cheek, and hoping the crazed leftists would fade away, because their ideas are evil and insane. We just wanted to be left alone, but they forced millions to get jabbed with Big Pharma poison under threat of being fired, hoisted their transgender deviancy upon our children, indoctrinated our young with communist bullshit in government schools, opened our borders to third world invaders, burned our cities while making a drug addicted black criminal their fake martyr, placed low IQ diversity stooges in key positions of power, encouraged criminality with no consequences, stole elections, and now they are killing the best of us. It is now time for all normal people to channel William Munny and do whatever is necessary to defeat the evil forces opposing us. Words matter, but actions speak louder than words.

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

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported last week that it had arrested 617 members of the Sinaloa cartel in a global operation.

The week-long operation aimed to dismantle the Sinaloa cartel, which has been flooding the United States with fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin, the DEA said in a statement.

In addition to the 617 arrests, the DEA seized narcotics, including 480 kilograms of fentanyl powder, 714,707 counterfeit pills, 2,209 kilograms of methamphetamine, 7,469 kilograms of cocaine, and 16.55 kilograms of heroin.

As Alicia Márquez reports below for The Epoch Times, the DEA also seized more than $11 million in currency, over $1.6 million worth of assets, and 420 firearms.

“These results demonstrate the DEA’s unwavering commitment to protecting the American people,” DEA Administrator Terrance Cole said.

“Every kilogram of poison seized, every dollar confiscated from the cartels, and every arrest we make represents lives saved and communities defended.”

“The DEA will not rest until the Sinaloa Cartel is completely dismantled,” he added.

The operation was carried out by DEA agents in 23 domestic field divisions and seven foreign regions from Aug. 25 to 29.

“There are tens of thousands of Sinaloa members, associates, and facilitators operating worldwide in at least 40 countries who are responsible for the production, manufacture, distribution, and operations related to the trafficking of dangerous and deadly synthetic drugs,” according to the statement.

“This coordinated action was a combination of the DEA’s increased focus on law enforcement, intelligence, and national and international collaboration, using all resources at its disposal to degrade the Sinaloa Cartel’s command and control.”

In February, the Trump administration, through the State Department, designated the Sinaloa cartel a Foreign Terrorist Organization, along with seven other Mexican and Latin American organizations.

Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch dismissed the idea that the Sinaloa cartel is finished.

“No, no, the Sinaloa Cartel has never had a leader as such, that is, there have always been several leaders,” Harfuch said at an Aug. 27 press conference.

Harfuch also spoke about the structure of the Sinaloa organization.

“It is a cartel that has, let’s say, several branches. One of them was Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, another was ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, then El Chapo’s sons, El Guano, who is also El Chapo’s brother, and another, ‘El Chapo Isidro,’” Harfuch said, following Ismael Zambada García’s guilty plea in the United States.

On Aug. 25, Zambada, co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, pleaded guilty in a New York federal court to two counts of drug trafficking, money laundering, and use of weapons, after more than five decades of criminal activity.

Zambada admitted to participating in a drug trafficking operation that for years brought large quantities of illicit substances, including cocaine and heroin, into the United States.

Authored by Paul Terdal via RealClearPolitics,

Here’s a question my home state of Oregon could easily answer: How many kids have received gender transition surgeries in the last 15 years? The state has this data and is required by law to give it to me. Yet instead of doing so, officials are now telling me that they’ve been illegally selling Oregonians’ health information for years. It’s a head-turning argument, but it’s also false. It shows how desperate the state is to avoid answering my question.

I have been a volunteer health consumer advocate for more than 20 years. I have led the development and passage of laws that guarantee insurance coverage of evidence-based autism services, end discrimination against disabled patients seeking organ transplants, and strengthen the insurance commissioner’s enforcement authority. I am also a lifelong Democrat, and as transgender medicine has come into vogue in recent years, I’ve worked to help my state implement evidence-based standards that protect kids.

The key to my work is the Oregon Health Authority’s “All Payer All Claims” database, which has detailed information about health transactions for more than 92% of the state’s population. By law, this data is available to the public, and to protect patients, it’s fully compliant with federal privacy laws and regulations. There is no way to identify any individual patient, full stop.

The Oregon Health Authority makes this data available for purchase, and a few years ago, I purchased access to the 2019 data for a federally funded study. I found that while Oregon had estimated that only about 175 patients would obtain taxpayer-funded gender transition services at a total annual cost of no more than $200,000, more than 7,585 patients had done so at more than 100 times the initial cost estimate. That included 160 children using “puberty blocker” drugs and approximately 370 children taking cross-sex hormones. There were also 33 biological girls who had mastectomies – including some as young as 15 – and two 17-year-old girls who had their uteruses and ovaries removed.

I found this concerning since the Oregon Department of Justice had declared in a February legal filing that “genital surgery is not performed on transgender minors”. Yet the state’s own data confirmed that children really do undergo genital surgery that leaves them permanently sterilized. I publicized my findings late last year.

In February, I contacted the Oregon Health Authority to express interest in a new research project. At first, they offered me 10 years’ worth of data – 2011 through 2020. This would have been invaluable in tracking the recent rise in gender dysphoria diagnoses, the age and other medical conditions of patients who pursue a gender transition, and the types of treatment they received.

Yet when I told officials that I wanted to study “gender-affirming treatment” over that decade, their reaction quickly shifted. From internal emails that I obtained under Oregon’s public records laws, my routine request was immediately flagged for review by senior executives. They were deeply concerned about the political “risks” of providing me with this data.

The first idea they debated was requiring me to sign a new contract that would prohibit me from publishing detailed results of my analysis. Then, they considered just purging all records related to gender dysphoria. They concluded that they didn’t have the legal authority to do that. They ultimately settled on another concerning – and telling – approach. The Oregon Health Authority told me that the state database was out of compliance with federal privacy laws. Therefore, it couldn’t be released to me or anyone else.

This claim falls flat on so many levels. Oregon has been selling this database to dozens of organizations for 15 years. Customers have included academic researchers, journalists, and even computer companies seeking data to train artificial intelligence tools. If this database were illegal, someone would have flagged it by now – not least the state’s lawyers.

More to the point: If Oregon really believed that the database was out of compliance with federal laws, the state would be required to notify the Secretary of Health and Human Services. It would also be required to inform the news media and each and every one of the millions of individuals affected. Yet the state has made no such move. The Oregon Health Authority hasn’t even notified those of us who already possess the data, nor have they tried to recall it. If their lawyers really say they’re not in compliance, those same lawyers would tell them to begin the notifications immediately.

I’m left with one undeniable conclusion: Oregon is withholding the data to prevent me from researching – and telling the public – about the prevalence and practice of gender medicine in my state. That is a severe violation of my constitutional rights under the First Amendment, and in August, I filed a federal lawsuit to vindicate my rights.

I’m appalled to see this kind of authoritarian behavior from my own Democrat-led state government. My fellow liberals wouldn’t tolerate this from a Republican administration, and I refuse to tolerate it from my own.

Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

By the time he set off on his final campus speaking tour, Charlie Kirk had built an organization of some 250,000 members, all the while engaging in conservative political organizing, engineering get-out-the-vote efforts, drawing tens of millions of dollars in funding, and growing a media influence machine.

A driving force behind Kirk’s movement, Turning Point USA, has been his focus on engaging young minds in political debate and setting an example for new generations of political influencers like himself.

Through this mission, Kirk often found himself on a college campus, delivering a speech or sitting down with a table and a microphone and defying his critics with the prompt “prove me wrong,” even in the face of insults and threats.

He continued this mission until the very end.

“Charlie Kirk could’ve been running his multi-million dollar operation from a fancy suite or a fancy office, and he could’ve just hired the dangerous part of what he did out to other activists, and instead of doing that, he always stayed in the trenches. And I think that’s one of the most admirable things about him,” said Gunnar Thorderson, a former Turning Point USA organizer who helped establish the organization’s presence at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, where Kirk was assassinated on Sept. 10.

Thorderson rose from the Turning Point USA chapter president at UVU to a state-level director for the organization in Utah. Now, Thorderson is a sitting member of the Utah Republican State Central Committee. He attributes his trajectory, in large part, to Kirk’s personal mentorship.

“I really got to view him as a mentor and as a personal friend, as he would invest in me one-on-one, on many occasions,” he told The Epoch Times.

Thorderson is among many whose political voices Kirk amplified since co-founding Turning Point USA in 2012.

“I owe my entire political career to Charlie Kirk,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) said in an X post the day after Kirk’s death.

“I would quite literally not be in office today if it weren’t for him. Even when my own party was working against me, Charlie endorsed me and campaigned to help me win election.”

Luna’s communications director, David Leatherwood, also came into his own, politically, through Turning Point USA and Kirk’s personal support.

Leatherwood, 37, a self-described gay conservative, first met Kirk in 2017.

“I met Charlie at one of his campus tours in Fort Lauderdale, and we actually filmed a video together where he said that he, you know, supports the gay community, and that e pluribus unum, represents all Americans,” Leatherwood told The Epoch Times.

“And ever since that day, he was always supportive of me, and he invited me to be an ambassador for his organization.”

Raising Young Conservative Voices

Hallie S., 26, from Gainesville, Florida, credits Kirk’s organization with helping her and other conservative students at Santa Fe College be more outspoken with their views.

“I’ve always been more conservative. I was raised conservative, but was never big about speaking up, especially in Gainesville, which is such a liberal area, and you never know how people are going to react,” she said.

Hallie said she was able to revamp the College Republicans chapter at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, thanks in large part to the influence of Kirk and Turning Point USA.

“Charlie Kirk was a huge portion of that. He had a huge impact on politics on college campuses, especially in Santa Fe,” she told The Epoch Times.

“You had all these students that were like, ‘wow, my conservative values are being represented in a way that really had never been represented before.’”

Kelly Shackelford, a First Amendment attorney and president and CEO of First Liberty Institute, said he invited Kirk to speak at a fundraising event in Houston, Texas, shortly after discovering the young influencer.

“Typically at fundraisers, everybody’s 60-and-older,” Shackelford told the Epoch Times.

“And so I wanted to encourage these older people that there are younger people who are coming behind them, and it’s not going to die with them.”

Making an Online Presence

With much of his content shared online, Kirk’s influence spread beyond the numerous college campuses he visited over the years and reached millions online.

Tucker, a teenager who requested his surname not be revealed due to fear of retaliation, told The Epoch Times that Kirk was among a limited number of political influencers whose content he liked to engage with.

“I don’t really like watching political stuff. I mean, it’ll come up like on TikTok or something like that, and I just scroll past it,” Tucker said.

“But when I saw his stuff, I would always click on it cause it was always interesting and he was just somebody that you could look up to.”

During an interview on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast in March, the Democratic governor confessed that his 13-year-old son wanted to skip school for a chance to meet Kirk.

“Literally last night, trying to put my son to bed, he’s like, ‘Dad I just—what time, what time is Charlie gonna be here? What time?’” Newsom said.

“And I’m like, ‘dude, you’re in school tomorrow.’”

Leatherwood said he was comforted knowing how many moments of Kirk’s life were captured on camera, preserving his thoughts and views.

“The beautiful thing about today and modern technology and our access, our access to media, is that, you know, there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of footage of him speaking. And those will live on, and I think they’ll actually memorialize his legacy in an even greater way than people can anticipate,” he said.

Driving Debate

Kirk made debate a core component of his mission. As he visited college campuses around the country, he often did so with a pop-up tent emblazoned with the words “prove me wrong,” and he offered up a microphone to those with differing points of view to confront him directly through dialogue.

“He went from campus to campus, engaging with students that he didn’t really view as the enemy ever. It was just that he felt they needed to be educated and that they needed to have proper discourse,” Thorderson said.

“And it was through that that they would end up being convinced of our ideas.”

Not all of Kirk’s interlocutors were swayed by his arguments, but they credited him for allowing a discussion.

“I stand by so little of everything that [Kirk] said, but one of the things he stood by was conversation,” Hunter Kozak said in a video post the day after Kirk’s death.

Kozak, 29, is a student at UVU and was the last person to debate with Kirk before he was shot.

Kirk was just minutes into what was meant to be the first stop of his latest campus speaking tour when he was assassinated.

Dean Withers, who had debated Kirk, broke down in tears while filming a livestream on Sept. 10, as he learned Kirk had been shot. Addressing his initial reaction, Withers filmed another video that evening, acknowledging his disagreements with Kirk.

“Does that mean I think he deserved to lose his life? No. Does that mean I think his two young children, who were in attendance at the event where he was shot, deserved to watch their father die? No. Does that mean I think they deserve to grow up without him? No. Does that mean I think that his wife, who was also there, deserved to lose her husband? No,” Withers said.

“And honestly, if you answered yes to any of those questions, there’s a very clear line drawn between me and you. I don’t want your support, and I don’t support you either.”

Living Beyond Politics

Throughout his stardom as a conservative political influencer, Kirk frequently looked beyond politics and emphasized his Christian faith.

Speaking with The Epoch Times, Thorderson recalled a morning when he and Kirk were traveling for an event and went for a workout in the hotel gym. It wasn’t long before their exercise turned philosophical.

“I remember at the time, I was struggling with my own faith and kind of just playing devil’s advocate with him,” Thorderson recalled.

“And he was just so steadfast in his faith and impressive with his knowledge. And that was a moment where I didn’t feel like he was necessarily preaching to me, but really just trying to connect on a personal level and trying to see me where I was at.”

At other points, Thorderson described Kirk being able to hold a knowledgeable conversation on matters beyond politics and articulate a connection back to his core values.

“He was a savant,” Thorderson said.

Thorderson also recalled having the chance to know Kirk when the Turning Point USA leader was getting to know his wife, Erika.

“He just always valued family and wanted to start a family. And that was just, even before he had kids, that was a core value for him,” Thorderson said.

Kirk leaves behind his wife Erika and two children.

John Haughey, Savannah Pointer, Nanette Holt, and Natasha Holt contributed to this report.

Authored by Savannah Hulsey Pointer via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President Donald Trump announced that the National Guard would be heading to Memphis to deal with crime.

The president made his comments on Sept. 12 during an interview with Fox News, saying that the administration would take on crime in the Tennessee city, and possibly others, such as New Orleans.

During his comments, Trump said that Memphis is “deeply troubled,” and added that the national guard presence would fix the problem, “just like we did in Washington.”

The president also said he sees New Orleans as a city in “really bad shape,” and that Gov. Jeff Landry wants him to act.

“The governor wants us to go in. We’ll do that too,” Trump said.

The announcement comes just over a month after the Aug. 11 federalization of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington.

As of Sept. 10, more than 2,300 arrests have been made by federal and local partners in Washington, and more than 220 illegal firearms have been seized, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Trump previously said Chicago could be the next major city to face a federal crime crackdown.

He said the National Guard could “solve Chicago within one week.”

“After we do this, we’ll go to another location, and we’ll make it safe also,” Trump told reporters at the time inside the Oval Office, referring to his efforts in Washington to crack down on crime.

“Chicago’s a mess. We’ll straighten that one out probably next. That will be our next one after this. And it won’t even be tough.”

Narcan, the overdose-reversal drug hailed as a lifesaver, is now being weaponized against San Francisco’s drug users, , according to ABC 7.

The San Francisco Standard, in a report shared by ABC7 News, details how some residents frustrated with open drug use are allegedly using Narcan not to save lives, but to inflict harm.

“A couple of instances I heard was someone was sleeping in U.N. Plaza and they basically felt somebody putting this plastic nozzle up their nose and then they woke up to crazy withdrawals and the person was telling them that they couldn’t sleep in the plaza,” said SF Standard reporter David Sjoestedt. “And, the allegation is that this wasn’t somebody who thought they were overdosing, it was somebody who wanted them to move.”

Sjoestedt explained that Narcan can trigger immediate and severe withdrawal symptoms: “a lot of pain, anxiety, throwing up, and wild temperature fluctuations.” A UCSF health expert told the SF Standard that misusing the drug in this way should be considered assault.

ABC writes that the city’s Department of Public Health reaffirmed Narcan’s intended use: it should only be administered if someone appears to be overdosing. Using it to deliberately cause suffering, the department stressed, is “inhumane.”

And of course, the disturbing misuse of Narcan in San Francisco underscores a broader failure of the city’s liberal policies, which have poured resources into harm reduction without addressing the root causes of addiction, homelessness, and public safety. Instead of creating real solutions, officials have enabled an environment where even life-saving tools are twisted into instruments of cruelty—leaving both residents and vulnerable addicts caught in the chaos of a city unraveling.

By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

Beyond the Fed, My Droog

We will spend a few minutes on the Fed because it is pretty much obligatory ahead of the FOMC, though hopefully our view has been quite clear. Then we will touch on Russia/Ukraine as there have been some really interesting developments.

We got to cover a lot of topics that generated a lot of feedback on Wednesday morning on Bloomberg TV (Academy’s segment starts at the 6:45 mark).

The Fed

We laid out a bunch of hypotheticals in August on how We Would Drive Yields Lower. We started focusing attention on flatteners then. One of our August interviews got condensed into a smaller clip Focus On Long End of the Curve, Not Fed Cuts: Tchir.

Currently, according to WIRP, the market is pricing in 1.04 cuts at this meeting, 1.9 cuts in October, and 2.8 cuts by the end of the December meeting.

That seems a touch low.

We remain in the 75 to 100 bp cut camp for the year, so there is room to price in a higher probability of 4 cuts this year than the market currently has priced in.

For this meeting, we see a 0.00001% chance of no cuts (we guess there is always some possibility), but only a 60% chance of 25 bps, with a 40% chance of 50 bps. Actually, we only view it as a 25% chance, but this seemed like a good opportunity to dig up a fun report in the Wall Street Journal that we were involved with – How Do Pundits Never Get It Wrong? Call a 40% Chance. 

The market doesn’t seem to be prepared for a big shift to the dovish side. We think a bigger cut than 25 has a real shot, and that the dots could surprise with more cuts occurring sooner.

Our assumption is there are always some people who don’t have a strong opinion, and for ease, just adopt the consensus and/or the recommendation of the leader. So, Powell had what seemed like more support, or conversely, less obvious dissent than really existed.

With the tide changing at the Fed, and other voices gaining strength as we prepare for a new Chair, it seems reasonable to assume some of those who just followed along as hawks will now follow along as doves – impacting the messaging. Any mention of “additional” measures does not seem priced in at all.

It is probably too early to mention that things like another Operation Twist are on the table (Operation Twist is where the Fed sells shorter-term bond holdings to buy longer-maturity bonds).

The Treasury Department announced Increased Buybacks. This fits with our theme of a “tandem” approach to managing the yield curve. Where the Treasury and Fed work in conjunction with each other to complement their tools. This helps contain the longer end of the curve, and also likely generates some revenue to create lower deficits (I haven’t confirmed this, but to the extent they are buying bonds below par and retiring them, there should be an accounting gain).

Probably a touch early for Powell to address some non-traditional programs (though they now seem pretty standard), but even after recent flattening, you seem to be getting this potential option very cheaply. Though maybe he could admit that changes in short-term rates are not as effective (as a policy tool) as they once were.

Finally, we are seeing rate cut expectations increase, while curves flatten for two other reasons, which we’ve mentioned before:

• By having so many credible candidates for the Fed discuss their views, almost all being more dovish than Powell has been, it makes it seem less “egregious” or even “normal” to cut (we were in the “should cut in July camp” but that view has gone from potentially being accused of being politically motivated, to validated by the data).
• Cuts justified by weak economic data (jobs) do not force the curve steeper.

The corollary, or counterpoint, or outlet of this view is a weaker dollar. We could see a break below 90 on DXY. Given the administration’s desire to reduce imports and increase exports, a weaker dollar would likely be viewed (behind closed doors, because we “cannot” publicly say we have a weak dollar policy) as a feature and not a bug.

China Trade Talks

China has the upper hand in regards to controlling “usable” rare earths and critical minerals. They refine and process the vast majority of rare earths and critical minerals. Even as the U.S. starts getting access to the rare earths and minerals themselves, it will take years, heavy investment, and potentially a lot of deregulation, to be sufficient in producing the “usable” forms of these crucial components for so many products.

The U.S. has the upper hand in chips for AI and data centers, but China seems to be digging in their heels in this area to promote and develop their domestic chip industry – which is far behind but seems to be closing the gap in some segments.

Secondary tariffs on trade with Russia? We will delve into Russia next, but the idea that the U.S. may be close to getting Europe to place high secondary tariffs on China (after which the U.S. would follow suit) has gained a lot of traction. It seems difficult to believe that it will occur, but it would be incredibly disruptive. It seems like it would be very difficult to get China to negotiate in good faith on a bilateral deal if the U.S. is really pushing hard on this front (because China would not see the U.S. negotiating in good faith under these circumstances).

I find this chart mesmerizing as it seems so counter-intuitive from the news flow, yet it is real.

Every day we are inundated with “all-time high” headlines. We get a lot of coverage on our policies and the impacts they are (or are not) having here. We hear so little about China, clearly the country where policy should be focused.

Yet, since the election, FXI is up 60% versus 23% for QQQ. 34% versus 15% since the start of the year in favor of FXI. QQQ holds a slight edge since the post-Liberation Day lows (40% versus 38%). A portion of the return is related to FX, another portion can be attributed to positioning, but there is something about this chart that captivates me and makes me wonder how well we are doing as the globe tries to adapt to big changes in US policy. The chart would look worse if we focused on the Russell 2000 which hasn’t benefited as much as the Nasdaq 100 from the spending on AI and Data Centers.

Ra Ra Ras PUTIN

Thinking about some big changes in Europe this week got this song stuck in my head. Some of the lyrics seem to apply just as well to Putin as to Rasputin (most people looked at him with terror and fear). “There was a cat that really was gone. It was a shame how he carried on. In all affairs of state, he was the man to please. The demands to do something about this outrageous man became louder and louder.” I was shocked that this song was not a one-hit wonder, but we digress.

It also seems like a good time to channel some Clockwork Orange, my droog, as the violence and “aggro” have the potential to escalate – which unfortunately, may be a necessary step towards achieving peace.

Academy published a SITREP this week – NATO Jets Shoot Down Russian Drones Over Poland. This incident caused Poland to invoke Article 4 of the NATO treaty to prompt a formal discussion within the alliance. The SITREP analyzes the situation extremely well.

We’ve already addressed the “chatter” about actually, truly enforcing sanctions and we briefly addressed secondary tariffs against China (with India being the other target, and more likely to face some tariffs than China). Finally, after over 3 years, our quotes in Time Magazine – Sanctions on Russia Won’t Work may turn out to be incorrect. At the time, we argued that the willingness to truly enforce sanctions were low, therefore sanctions would be ineffective. We would turn a blind eye to strategies that would avoid sanctions (like some of the “stans” suddenly having massive trade with Europe – wonder where they were getting the stuff to sell? Or China and India not abiding by sanctions).

It is time to turn the screws on Putin economically.

When we argued, post-election, that President Trump could be successful in achieving a relatively quick cessation of hostilities, we laid out the carrots and sticks that would likely be needed on both sides.

We all know how the first Oval Office meeting between Trump and Zelensky went.

Ukraine seemed to be getting the stick, while Russia primarily got carrots. That has been changing over time. The new “circle” where the U.S. sells weapons to Europe which in turn “provides” them to Ukraine seems to be renewing the flow of equipment to Ukraine (without adding to the deficit woes of the U.S.).

There seems to be more willingness (if not encouragement) to allow the Ukrainians to implement pretty standard tactics (like hitting supplies and disrupting transit in Russia). Many of these tactics had been denied to Ukraine in the past.

With the Department of War and Peace Through Strength there is reason to believe that Ukraine will be able to do more.

This new system somewhat resembles the proxies we have been facing.

Did the U.S. supply the weapons? No. Not directly. 

Did the U.S. give permission for Ukraine to use the weapons they have, of U.S. origin, more effectively? No, but we didn’t say they couldn’t.

More carrots for Ukraine and a bit of a stick for Russia.

But that isn’t what we want to talk about.

Russia’s Frozen Reserves

Finally, the President seemed to encourage Europe to take steps to “take” some of Russia’s frozen reserves.

There is approximately $300 billion of frozen reserves.

The vast majority of this sits in the European Union as, according to Grok, over $200 billion (of euros) was frozen. Our understanding is that some of the $65 or so billion of USD reserves frozen are not fully controlled by the United States.

We’ve written about this multiple times as a key element to forcing any peace.

We also discussed our very strong view that the President was extremely reluctant to take or use Putin’s frozen USD reserves. There was a view in the admin that the U.S. didn’t have the law on its side. It is also possible, that at the time, the admin wasn’t willing to be too aggressive, as the President seemed to believe that his relationship with Putin would be enough to achieve peace, and threatening his reserves would not help their relationship.

We have heard from multiple sources that Putin fully expects to receive these reserves (it seems logical, that behind the scenes, some countries helping him the most, have helped him “monetize” these reserves, making their “freezing” less effective).

Well, Europe keeping a big chunk of the money would be a wakeup call for Putin.

It “solves” the issue of how Ukraine (or Europe) is going to afford the weapons they are buying from the U.S. $200 billion is one heck of a war chest.

• Europe in general, and Ukraine in particular have a stronger case for war reparations. Could it be as simple as Ukraine, in some international court, wins war reparations? But since Russia won’t pay, Europe would then provide the money from the funds? Not sure how this plays out, but Russia’s frozen reserves seem to be on the table for the first time and that is a big stick.
• Is there a chance that Putin has promised some of this money (once it was returned) to his backers? That seems plausible as they are running what was already an anemic economy on a wartime footing. Not going to say that could be akin to borrowing from a loan shark, but in the movies that rarely works out well. This could mean there is even more pressure on Putin to get the money returned than we know.

Threatening Russia’s frozen reserves may be the best thing I’ve seen in terms of pushing this conflict towards some sort of deal.

European Bond Rally?

Imagine if Europe is successful in keeping even $100 billion?

What does that do for their borrowing needs? For their borrowing needs for defense spending?

Part of the reason we have seen yields behave stubbornly across the globe is concerns about the amount of spending Europe needs to embark on to meet their commitments on military spending. (Japan has been a big problem too for global yields, but let’s just focus on the European contribution to higher global yields here). Btw, there is supposedly $37 billion in pounds that England might be happy to get their hands on.

They Didn’t Quit, They Wanted His Head

Wow, that song is really stuck in my head, but I cannot reiterate how profound Friday’s “nod” to go after Russia’s frozen reserves is. That along with Article 4 from NATO and an admin that does not seem afraid to be tougher on sanctions and tariffs (in no small part because it hurts the U.S. less than it hurts Europe to go in that direction) could pave the way for some real progress.

We always thought that this would be about balancing carrots and sticks with the two combatants, and that balance seems to be happening.

Look for American corporations to be given big advantages over corporations from other countries in any rebuilding efforts once peace is achieved. We believe this is an important goal for the administration as they feel we did not get enough of a head start/advantage after the Gulf Wars.

Bottom Line

Lower yields, flatter curves. In no small part because of global economic sluggishness, as the world adapts to a new trade order.

Peace between Russia and Ukraine, especially if it accompanies taking some of Russia’s frozen reserves, would help bonds, and we don’t think that is on anyone’s radar.

The equity grind continues. Good news is good. Bad news is good. No news is good. We did say last week that we thought there was a better chance of 5% downside before 5% upside. Even though we “only” got 1.6% this week on the S&P 500, we are still sticking with that view, though with yields coming down, potential surprises from the Fed, and what we see as an improvement in the odds of some peace in Europe, it is difficult to stick to that view.

Credit remains boring in a “good” way and crypto continues to benefit from this shift to easier monetary policy in the U.S., the momentum created by the GENIUS Act, and other regulatory actions.

Hopefully, you are reading this while enjoying some coffee and moloko as you prepare for what should be another interesting week.

A massive homeless encampment in Koreatown has grown into what neighbors describe as a “city” of its own — complete with a tennis court, garden, barbecue pit, and even illegally rigged electricity, according to the NY Post.

“The reason why people are sleeping here is because you leaders are sleeping on not taking initiative and action to clean this place up,” resident Daniel King told ABC7.

Neighbors say they’ve watched people pry open a streetlight, install a surge protector inside, and run extension cords across the street to power the camp. “Thank God it hasn’t rained in a while,” said Sangmin Lee. “It’s a fire hazard … then they run the cable across the street, and it’s a trip hazard for everyone.”

Lee also pointed out, “There’s a tennis court, there’s a garden where they’re growing stuff… There’s a barbecue pit.” Another neighbor, Max Smith, summed it up: “It’s a city in there. It’s crazy. It’s crazy.”

The Post writes that residents say the camp has created safety concerns, with one woman telling ABC7 she avoids walking her dog near the site after being approached by people from the encampment. An ABC7 crew was also threatened while reporting there.

City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky said officials are hamstrung because the property is privately owned. “It’s over-bureaucratic. It’s the city at its worst, sort of not being able to get out of its own way,” she admitted.

The lot belongs to a Delaware-based LLC that has not responded to inquiries. Yaroslavsky said “No Trespassing” signs will soon go up, allowing police to act. Meanwhile, city agencies are ordering the owner to address trash and security issues, and Public Works will wrap the tampered streetlight to stop further power theft.

Mayor Karen Bass’ office said outreach teams have been sent to offer housing to the people living there.

And so, in true Los Angeles fashion, liberal leaders have managed to turn “housing the homeless” into letting them build a better-planned city than the one City Hall runs—complete with amenities, hazards, and zero accountability.

*  *  *

Looking for quick and easy Rancher-Direct suggestions before tonight’s ordering deadline? 

Steak Lover’s Bundle – the steaks, the whole steaks, and nothing but the steaks (top seller)

Elkins Texas Lasagna and Meatballs – clean, rich, satisfying comfort food

Authored by Thaddeus G. McCotter via American Greatness,

One of the left’s many irritating traits is its pedantic didacticism. Viewing themselves as morally and intellectually superior, they tend to view their lives as one long teachable moment to enlighten the rest of benighted humanity (i.e., non-leftists).

In so doing, however, they rarely take the time to educate themselves as to the inherent contradictions in their ideology, let alone endeavor to overcome the cognitive dissonance to hold such opposing ideas without feeling the need to reconcile them.

Consider the left’s chastisement that is oft leveled at dissenters from the preferred narrative: “You are not entitled to your own facts.” This is rich coming from this political tribe of postmodernists.

Creeping forth from the cesspool of Rousseau, who himself wrote in reaction and rejection to the Enlightenment, postmodernism is just one more justification of individual will and appetite employed to remove any Western civilizational claims and constraints upon licentiousness; and, unsurprisingly, a siren song that ultimately leads not to freedom but serfdom.

Per Britannica:

Postmodernism is largely a reaction against the intellectual assumptions and values of the modern period in the history of Western philosophy (roughly, the 17th through the 19th century). Indeed, many of the doctrines characteristically associated with postmodernism can fairly be described as the straightforward denial of general philosophical viewpoints that were taken for granted during the 18th-century Enlightenment, though they were not unique to that period.

Within this warped ideology of a fat and sassy political movement that has enough money to dabble in such folly, moral relativism, and the use of language through deconstruction and narrative engineering are critical (pun intended) to accomplishing their aims of recreating society in their preferred civilizational construct.

Postmodernists deny that there are aspects of reality that are objective; that there are statements about reality that are objectively true or false; that it is possible to have knowledge of such statements (objective knowledge); that it is possible for human beings to know some things with certainty; and that there are objective, or absolute, moral values. Reality, knowledge, and value are constructed by discourses; hence, they can vary with them. This means that the discourse of modern science, when considered apart from the evidential standards internal to it, has no greater purchase on the truth than do alternative perspectives, including (for example) astrology and witchcraft. Postmodernists sometimes characterize the evidential standards of science, including the use of reason and logic, as “Enlightenment rationality.”

In consequence, for those who boast about speaking “truth to power,” there is no truth, only power. Language, then, is deemed a crucial tool of the powerful imposing power upon the powerless in a society:

Part of the postmodern answer is that the prevailing discourses in any society reflect the interests and values, broadly speaking, of dominant or elite groups. Postmodernists disagree about the nature of this connection; whereas some apparently endorse the dictum of the German philosopher and economist Karl Marx that “the ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class,” others are more circumspect. Inspired by the historical research of the French philosopher Michel Foucault, some postmodernists defend the comparatively nuanced view that what counts as knowledge in a given era is always influenced, in complex and subtle ways, by considerations of power. There are others, however, who are willing to go even further than Marx.

“Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your colloquialisms!” Today’s postmodern leftists regard themselves as chic for wrapping themselves in the threadbare “will and appetite” arguments of Rousseau that have lured radicals from Robespierre to Pol Pot. This is repackaged radicalism for the entitled and ignorant among us, whose disorder and ennui are periodically placated by ordering around other people—Postmodernism: The New Coke of ideologies.

So, you ask, why do relativists who do not believe in objective truth claim you are not entitled to your own facts?

It is a means of censoring dissent to impose their views upon others.

If “truth” is relative, subjectively posited, and dependent upon language, the political “discourse” must be tightly constricted to prevent alternate narratives expressed by the erstwhile dominant power structure within a society from surviving and reviving. Such is the essence of Herbert Marcuse’s “liberating tolerance,” as Roger Kimball noted in City Journal over two decades ago: “Back in the 1960s, then-famous Marxist philosopher and guru of radical students Herbert Marcuse advocated the Orwellian principle of ‘liberating tolerance’—‘intolerance against movements from the Right, and toleration of movements from the left….’”

We need not look far to find the bitter instances of such leftist liberating intolerance: their Russia-gate subversive smear campaign to undermine a duly elected president; the COVID cover-up of its origins and the coercion of entire populations to comply with its less than scientific public “health” directives; the outright lies about Hunter Biden’s laptop and President Biden’s mental competence, etc. All these deceits had been proclaimed as truths by the left, and despite all evidence, many are still firmly believed. Moreover, as for those who questioned these lies and were ultimately proven correct, the left had long ago claimed to have “debunked” these dissenting voices and dismissed them with the trope, “You are not entitled to your own facts.”

The cognitive dissonance of the postmodern left prevents them from recognizing both their hypocrisy and the ineluctable end of their ideology: authoritarianism or worse. In sum, they cannot recognize that they are what they claim to oppose—or, perhaps they do, which is why they unfairly and incessantly project it upon others?

Suffice to say, however, as an American with a God-given, constitutionally recognized, and protected right to free speech and the inherent right to the freedom of conscience, you are entitled to your own facts, because no person or institution has or can have the legitimate power to tell you what you must say or think in our free republic.

Thus, this is the case whether or not you actually believe in facts and are open-minded enough to critically think and revise said facts in the face of new evidence. Though that certainly helps improve the overall health of our free republic. For the benefit of the postmodern left, let us remind them that there is nothing more dangerous than a censor who seeks to control the language to control the minds of others, by any means at their disposal.

A recent incident in Polish airspace involving at least three Russian drones has inspired hysteria in greater Europe (stoked by EU politicians and the media).  The event, which involved what appear to be Russian reconnaissance drones, is similar to previous incidents of purported Russian UAVs shot down after crossing into NATO skies.  No attacks, no casualties and no clear intent of invasion. 

However, the presence of these drones in Polish skies, even if their flight path was only meant to take them to Ukraine, is enough to fuel European calls for possible escalation.  The EU and UK continue to insist on deployment of “peace keeping” troops to intervene in the Ukraine war, with France, Germany and Britain suggesting boots on the ground to reinforce the now faltering Ukrainian front lines. 

The Polish Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, asserts that the drone incursion is part of a Russian plot to “test NATO reactions without triggering a full scale war”.  The Polish claim that at least 19 drones were involved in the incursion and that the devices had traveled “hundreds of miles” before they were intercepted.  Only three to four drones are confirmed to have been shot down. 

This means that either Poland has possibly the worst air defenses in NATO, or, the reported number of drones is greatly inflated. 

“The drones didn’t reach their targets and there was minor damage to property, nobody was hurt. If it happened in Ukraine, by Ukrainian definitions, that would be regarded as a 100% success,” Silorski said.  But the drones had no ordnance attached and there is no evidence that they were targeting anything or anyone.

As President Donald Trump noted, the crossing into Poland was more likely a mistake.  This response has angered the Europeans, who are desperate for US involvement in the war. 

Poland’s response has set the country on “high alert”.  Troops have been reinforced and the border with Belarus has been closed.  The government is now sponsoring voluntary military training for civilians.  Open to the public, the training has attracted over 20,000 recruits including Polish mothers, who say they want to “protect their children”.

The idea is logical enough, though the deployment of women for front line combat is generally an act of desperation rather than sound strategic policy.  It is interesting that a country which practices strict gun control and eligibility requirements for citizens is suddenly so interested in using those citizens as a militia reserve against a hypothetical Russian invasion.  Ukraine suffered from similar restrictions on its citizens before they were invaded and this stunted their defensive capabilities.   

EU officials say the drone event is an “aggressive, reckless act” and is “part of a serious escalation by Russia,” only reinforcing the bloc’s “support and resolve to support Ukraine.” The problem, though, is a matter off logistical realities. 

Europe’s contributions to NATO defenses are minimal and the vast majority of military spending has long been covered by US taxpayers.  Europe’s ability to manufacture the weapons needed to fight a prolonged conflict with Russia is next to nil and the means to supply their forces with enough equipment and resources to engage in an attrition war does not exist.   

The US military is the only force with the resources to manage a long term war in Ukraine, which is why the EU continues to demand that the Trump Administration commit to escalation.  European officials have been encouraging Volodymyr Zelensky’s ambitions to take back lost Ukrainian territory with talk of potential EU troops.  This has extended the life of the war and sabotaged efforts to organize diplomatic talks.  

Currently, Russian forces are surging on the Eastern front and Ukraine is facing the loss of the entire Donbas region.  Central Ukraine is also at risk as Ukrainian troop strength dwindles.  Analysts outside of typical western propaganda networks argue that Ukraine is facing a total loss unless a resolution is achieved in the near future.