Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

Australian outdoor retailer KMD Brands wanted to be hip, to follow the zeitgeist, and launched a transgender campaign. Now the company is in trouble. Once again, it shows: those who bed down with state ideology often find their final resting place there.

The Australian outdoor giant KMD Brands, known for functional clothing, backpacks, camping gear, and surf products, teeters on the edge of the financial abyss after a transgender advertising campaign.

For over a decade, the company posted steady profits, grew vigorously, and carved out a clear identity: masculine, cool, independent, nature-oriented. KMD Brands sold lifestyle products that embodied exactly what young men and family-oriented customers sought – tangible, authentic, identity-defining.

Arriving in the Red Zone

But the engine of the successful company has started to sputter. After a loss of 48.3 million New Zealand dollars (NZD) last year, KMD Brands reported for fiscal 2024/2025 a doubled loss of 92.06 million NZD, roughly 47.5 million euros.
The driver of the loss was none other than the lifestyle surf brand “Rip Curl,” whose sales dropped by 27 percent.

The catastrophic result has consequences. KMD Brands operates around 300 stores worldwide. In light of rising costs and falling sales, the first 21 stores are set to close this year, with 16 more likely to follow next year. The company is trying to restructure, regain control of costs, and launch six new premium stores to refresh its image.

Transgender Campaign Flopped

So what happened? Just a few months ago, KMD Brands launched a transgender campaign for the Rip Curl surf brand, featuring a trans person presenting products for female surfers. As expected, customers called for a boycott, giving management a severe reality check. A lesson in how marketing messages that ignore the core customer base can become expensive – woke-minded, revenue forgotten.

The collapse at the surf brand has a name: Brent Scrimshaw. After 18 years at the helm of Nike, with senior roles in Australia, Europe, and the U.S., Scrimshaw was a global brand strategist. Vice President, CEO Western Europe, Chief Marketing Officer EMEA, General Manager East Coast USA – he ranked among the 30 top executives worldwide and shaped Nike’s global brand and sales strategy.

On March 25, Scrimshaw took over as CEO of KMD Brands. His approach, as they call it: inclusive, zeitgeist-oriented. Owners trusted him to open new markets in a climate of rising costs and declining sales. The Rip Curl transgender campaign was an expression of this strategy – brutally ideological, aligned with the politically dictated, supposedly modern zeitgeist. The boycott was the logical consequence: they overshot the mark by miles.

Out of Touch and Politically Compliant

At its core, it’s almost incomprehensible. One wonders in what world the management of such companies lives – have they not heard from the United States that the woke wave has ebbed with the new administration in Washington?
Anyone who doesn’t understand by now that political eccentricity in brand marketing no longer wins hearts and minds is truly beyond help. It’s playing with fire and the capital of the owners – in KMD Brands’ case, the shareholders.

The ideological entanglement of leftist identity politics – gendered language, transgenderism, woke absurdities – with brand strategy and corporate decisions is more than problematic. It’s a dangerously misaligned development if executive suites have no counterweight or resistance to ideological decay.

At the same time, the boycott of KMD Brands’ transgender campaign shows that customers are responsive, that in many cases reason still prevails, and that the vast majority do not fall into the woke trap conjured by the leftist mainstream. The customer boycott thus becomes a socio-political corrective, a slap in the face to those who overstep their competence and try to implement divisive ideologies through the market.

In Bad Company

“Go Woke, Go Broke” has become the mantra of marketing catastrophes in recent years. 

As early as 2019, Gillette’s management and marketing team demonstrated, with a classic masculine core product, how willing they were – perhaps in a kind of reaction to Donald Trump’s presidency – to submit to the leftist zeitgeist. The “woke” #MyBestSelf campaign featured transgender teenager Samson Bonkeabantu Brown, whose father guided him through his first shave. Part of the overarching “The Best Men Can Be” campaign, it aimed to address toxic masculinity and promote a supposedly “positive image” of men – including transgender men.

While conservative groups criticized and called for boycotts, #MyBestSelf was celebrated by the leftist mainstream for its inclusive, positive portrayal. Gillette wanted to show that masculinity is not rigid but dynamic and responsible, that the “best self” is measured not by gender but by attitude. Attitude – that residue that remains when civic values, ethics, and morality have already eroded.

The issue of politicized advertising hit the public consciousness in 2023 with Budweiser and Bud Light as a textbook example of management failure. The beer brand ran a “woke” campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. For her “365 Days of Being a Woman” anniversary, Mulvaney received a personalized Bud Light can with her face.
The reaction: a full-blown culture war. Conservatives called for boycotts, online hate spread, celebrities like Kid Rock spoke out, political actors such as Ron DeSantis intervened.

The result: revenue dropped by up to a quarter, market share fell, Bud Light likely lost forever its status as America’s most popular beer. Budweiser tried to reach Millennials and Gen Z with this derailed strategy but failed with a now-sensitive audience. Two marketing managers were suspended, criticism came from all directions – the European executive later called it a “misstep”: the audience wanted fun, sports, and music, not a political statement – what a revelation.

Disney as Ideological Spearhead

The madness doesn’t end. Disney has been setting off an ideological fireworks display for years. In its series and films, unclear gender roles, transgender hysteria, and woke babble often take center stage – in short: the destruction of traditional roles. A targeted, leftist diffusion campaign flopped at the box office while management stubbornly clung to what it believed was the zeitgeist.

Credit goes to every participant in boycotts against this unethical corporate policy. They erect a protective wall against the politically forced degeneracy of a bourgeois-destroying ideology, multiplied by compliant corporate collaborators, and they show the co-opted management teams the red card.

* * * 

About the author: Thomas Kolbe, a German graduate economist, has worked for over 25 years as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.

Watch Live: 

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Shares of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer sprinted higher in early trade Tuesday after reports that later today, President Trump and CEO Albert Bourla, will announce that the company will sell drugs at lower prices to the US Medicaid insurance program as part of a deal to advance the Trump administration’s “most favored nations” agenda. 

The program is an effort to link US drug prices to the lowest cost of drugs paid by the wealthiest countries – and is linked to a May executive order that laid out the initiative, WaPo reports. Administration officials have been in negotiations with big pharma to get them to voluntarily lower their prices, which had a Monday deadline. 

Bourla is also expected to announce a $70 billion investment on manufacturing medications in the USA, according to Pfizer spokeswoman Amy Rose and a White House official. 

“It’s a win for American patients, a win for American leadership, and it’s a win for Pfizer because it provides the certainty and stability we need to continue advancing new breakthrough medicines for patients,” Rose said in a statement.

The move coincides with a direct-to-consumer website for Americans to buy drugs, dubbed TrumpRX – which would allow people to pay cash for certain drugs directly from a government website at a discounted price negotiated by the government. 

“We pay much higher for drugs than the rest of the world. We subsidize the rest of the world,” Trump said last week. “We’re not doing that anymore and that’s a big thing.”

Trump has long argued that the United States government spends too much on medications and pursued a similar drug-pricing plan during his first term. His administration has sought to pressure the pharmaceutical industry through a mix of tariffs and new initiatives, such as several pilot programs being developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that could impose new drug-pricing controls in the Medicare program, according to four people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail those pilot programs. -WaPo

And according to the Wall Street Journal, other companies are expected to follow suit. 

“President Trump is leveraging the power of the federal government to drastically cut drug prices for everyday Americans,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai. “Democrats talked the talk for decades about drug prices, but only President Trump is actually walking the walk.”

The pharmaceutical industry has sought to make concessions – with their main lobbying group – the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America on Monday announcing a series of voluntary steps to support Trump’s goals. 

Developing…

As previously reported, Pete Hegseth’s big Tuesday speech at Quantico, for which some 800 Generals and Admirals from their bases around the world were summoned, focused on the ‘warrior ethos’ and tightening up discipline among all branches of the military. He also laid out his vision for the armed forces at a moment that two major conflicts rage across the seas: Ukraine and Gaza.

He took the opportunity to declare a reversal of the woke culture which had for too long reigned at the Pentagon during the Biden administration. “No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division, distraction, or gender delusions. No more debris. As I’ve said before, and will say again – we are done with this shit,” the Pentagon chief emphasized.

“From this moment forward, the only mission of the newly restored Department of War is this, war fighting, preparing for war and preparing to win, unrelenting and uncompromising in that pursuit,” he said.

He at one point used the old slogan that goes well back into the Reagan administration and beyond of presenting a national posture of “peace through strength” by the military.

Apart from issuing what has long been the articulated stance of the administration on battling woke trends in the military, one substantive moment came when Hegseth vowed no more nation-building:

“They said ‘never again’ to mission creep or nebulous end states,” Hegseth said. “The same holds true today. Our civilian and military leadership is chock-full of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who say ‘never again’ to nation building and nebulous end states.”

He said “this clear-eyed view — all the way to the White House” and Mr. Trump’s “military buildup” would posture the U.S. for future victories.

“To our enemies: F A F O.”

He pauses for dramatic effect. One or two guys cheer, the rest remain silent.

There’s a cultural clash here, where the generals see themselves as serious people doing serious things and are largely disgusted by Hegseth. pic.twitter.com/LX4eiBpsO6

— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) September 30, 2025

While this is a positive development and vision, it remains that the American arms and cash pipeline to Ukraine is ongoing. To some degree, there is nation-building, happening in Ukraine, and provoking Russia right on its doorstep. 

Hegseth talked more on military standards, at another point saying that “If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is… It will also mean that weak men won’t qualify — because we’re not playing games. This is combat. This is life or death.”

Likely, there were a lot of unhappy generals and admirals sitting there for a speech which would have been captured in a standard weekly chain-of-command email. After all, some flew from far-flung bases across the seas for a pep talk on PT standards, which is actually typical boilerplate stuff for pretty much every enlisted Friday briefing and muster at most military bases and units across the DoD:

🚨 BREAKING: SecWar Pete Hegseth NUKES fat generals and announces a new twice-yearly PT test for top brass.

“It’s unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon, and leading all around the world. It’s a BAD LOOK, and it’s not who we are!”

“You need… pic.twitter.com/xcX0PXDj0J

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) September 30, 2025

As for President Trump, he sounded similar themes as he spoke from the podium for about 70-minutes. It dealt with military culture, but also political issues facing the nation. He disclosed for one that his administration is mulling making the military “larger”.

“We’re thinking about making it larger because we have so many people, and it’s nice to be able to cut people because of merit that aren’t really qualified for any reason, a physical reason, a mental reason, you don’t have to take them anymore, because you have, you have the pick of the litter, and they all want to be with you,” Trump said.

“They all want your job. They want to be with you. They want to work with you. They’ll even take your job.”

Trump’s speech started off a bit awkwardly…

JUST IN – President Trump addresses military leaders in Quantico, VA: “I’ve never walked in a room so silent before… if you want to applaud, you applaud… and if you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room — because there goes your rank, there goes your future.” pic.twitter.com/XOC9xBjgf5

— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) September 30, 2025

Suggesting more top level firings and reshuffling, he also said: “And, we got many of them out of here too. I’ll be honest with you, didn’t like doing it, but we got many of you out of here because we weren’t satisfied we have we know everything about everybody,” Trump.

Apparently there was a lengthy, awkward wait for the speeches to begin…

BREAKING
The U.S. military’s top brass sits waiting.

Trump was scheduled to take the stage at Quantico at 9 a.m., directly after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrapped.

Twenty-five minutes later, the generals still sit in place.

Hegseth called it an unprecedented gathering.… pic.twitter.com/jM62mRRV3o

— Amber Speaks Up (@AmberWoods100) September 30, 2025

“I can say that, as opposed to a couple of years ago, when I was talking to rooms where they were desperate to get people and they couldn’t get them, what a difference a presidential election can make,” he added while noting a strong reversal of low recruiting numbers due to his administration.

Another interesting moment was when he said Department of Defense should use “dangerous cities as training grounds for the military and National Guard. Common enlisted ranks might not feel to thrilled about that one.

“I told Pete [Hegseth], we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, National Guard, but military, because we’re going into Chicago very soon, that’s a big city with an incompetent governor,” Trump continued from Quantico.

President Trump to the Generals assembled in Quantico: “We were a little bit threatened by Russia recently. And I sent a nuclear submarine, the most lethal weapon ever made…number one: you can’t detect it. We’re 25 years ahead of Russia and China in Submarines…we’re WAY AHEAD… pic.twitter.com/ugPpznvdkd

— MAGA Kitty (@SaveUSAKitty) September 30, 2025

And on the issue of unruly crowds or demonstrators disrespecting law enforcement and the military, he quipped “they spit, we hit.”

“People are standing, their mouth is this far away from their mouth, and they’re spitting at them and they’re screaming at them. And that soldier standing there, he wants to knock the hell out of the person, but he’s not allowed to do anything,” Trump said. “I say they spit, we hit. Is that okay? I think so, they spit it’s a new thing. They spit, we hit.”

And when rioting crowds throw bricks or rocks at officers, he said: “You get out of that car, and you can do whatever the hell you want to do, because those people are, you now can die from that.”

Hegseth had 800 Generals from around the world fly to Quantico for Trump’s message: Bro you too fat.

Hogseethe had 800 Generals from around the world fly to Quantico for Trump’s message: Bro you too fat.#moostache pic.twitter.com/zKuf7VRB47

— Dennis Consorte (@dennisconsorte) September 30, 2025

Again, the generals didn’t seem too impressed by all this, after having been pulled from their command bases and deployment theatres – all at a huge US taxpayer expense no doubt. “I’ve never walked into a room so silent,” Trump had said at the start of his speech, eliciting some restrained laughs.

*  *  *

The plot surrounding the mystery of the 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline sabotage explosions and secret op continues to thicken, as Poland has on Tuesday issued a surprise announcement saying it has arrested a suspected connected with it.

“A Ukrainian man suspected of being involved in causing undersea explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in 2022 was arrested in Poland, a spokesperson for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw said Tuesday,” The Associated Press reports.

Without irony or satire, the AP identifies further that “Volodymyr Z. was detained in Pruszkow, central Poland, according to Polish radio station RMF FM, which first reported his capture” – based on a European arrest warrant issued by German authorities. 

The man in custody has elsewhere been described, including in Reuters, as a Ukrainian diver wanted by Germany… and his name is Volodymr Z… though the reporting is not based on The Onion.

This is the second recent arrest related to the Nord Stream sabotage investigation, as last month another Ukrainian man was arrested in Italy in connection.

The mainstream media narrative on this major event which came early in the Ukraine war has shifted dramatically several times. In the opening months, the MSM was lockstep in collectively assuming Russia must have bombed its own key pipelines, effectively economically sabotaging itself and a (at the time) leading European energy export partner.

Then, as we highlighted, there was in 2024 the “bombshell” WSJ Nord Stream report which was a shift, but yet another attempt by mainstream gatekeepers to put official distance between President Zelensky and his supposedly ‘rogue’ top general at the time who ‘oversaw’ the covert op.

The WSJ report with the lengthy title: “A Drunken Evening, a Rented Yacht: The Real Story of the Nord Stream Pipeline Sabotage: Private businessmen funded the shoestring operation, which was overseen by a top general; President Zelensky approved the plan, then tried unsuccessfully to call it off,”… has for the most part become the official accepted narrative.

But legendary US journalist Seymour Hersh has maintained the whole time that it was the CIA and a special elite diving branch of the US Navy behind it, in “How America Took Out the Nord Stream Pipeline”.

Ultimately, the following is now crystal clear and fully established at this point, as even mainstream media now fully admits: Yes, Ukraine was likely involved. No, Russia did not do it. And yes it probably had the involvement or at least foreknowledge of the CIA or other Western intelligence groups.

As for the newly arrested suspect, the ongoing investigation is unlikely to produce anything ‘new’ which might embarrass the Ukrainians or Western intelligence – or at least nothing which will readily be made public.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Democratic Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman was asked Sunday if he is considering switching parties to become a Republican after he once again spoke out against Democrats’ extreme rhetoric, waring that it “will foment more extreme outcomes.”

As we have highlighted, Fetterman has spoken out against Democrat Party lines on several topics, and in particular criticised the refusal of many on the left to condemn political violence.

On Sunday Fetterman shared a screenshot of an Axios article titled “Study: Left-wing terrorism climbs to 30-year high,” which covers a recent study from the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) that concluded that although right-wing violence has historically outnumbered left-wing terrorism, the pattern has now flipped.

He accompanied the post with the caption “Unchecked extreme rhetoric, like labels as Hitler or fascist, will foment more extreme outcomes,” adding “Political violence is always wrong — no exceptions.”

“We must all turn the temperature down,” Fetterman added.

Unchecked extreme rhetoric, like labels as Hitler or fascist, will foment more extreme outcomes.

Political violence is always wrong—no exceptions.

We must all turn the temperature down. pic.twitter.com/PDwYjn4rfl

— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) September 28, 2025

Then in an appearance on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo, Fetterman stated “If you want a Democrat that’s gonna call people Nazis or fascist, all these things, I’m NOT gonna be that guy!”

Asked by Bartiromo if he would consider switching parties because of the extremism on the left, Fetterman responded “No, I’m not going to switch, but I’m just going to be an independent voice in the Democratic Party. I’m not going to be afraid if people, if there are groups attacking a Democrat, you know the last one in Pennsylvania, to me that’s part of the problem in our party.”

🚨 JUST IN – SENATOR JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): “If you want a Democrat that’s gonna call people Nazis or fascist, all these things, I’m NOT gonna be that guy!”

Can every Democrat say this, please? pic.twitter.com/v4eRHtUKbx

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) September 28, 2025

Your Democrat colleagues have mastered the routine. Spend every day inciting violence and then spend 10 minutes calling for the temperature to be turned down after something horrible happens. Then immediately go back to inciting violence.pic.twitter.com/e5D1J1cHgu

— MAZE (@mazemoore) September 28, 2025

Fetterman also repeated his call to Democrats to avoid shutting down the government, noting “I am ALWAYS going to vote against those things! I am going to condemn it. ESPECIALLY with the kind of chaos we are facing after (Charlie) Kirk.”

“I think shutting our government down is the wrong thing. It’s the wrong time,” he reiterated.

🚨 BREAKING: Senator John Fetterman BREAKS with Democrats, says the United States has been thrown into chaos after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and opposes a government shutdown.

“I am ALWAYS going to vote against those things! I am going to condemn it. ESPECIALLY with the kind… pic.twitter.com/NmX3UgVspx

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) September 28, 2025

While some have applauded Fetterman, others point out that until he stops being a Democrat, he’s making no difference.

It’s nice of @SenFettermanPA to say this, but ACTIONS speak louder than words. Until he leaves the Democrat party, he 💯supports what they’re doing.

Call it guilty by association, if you please.

— Just Jen R𝕏 🫡🇺🇸 (@JustJenRX) September 28, 2025

He always says the right things but then votes with the democrats.

Until that changes he is no better.

— Real Defender (@real_defender) September 28, 2025

His words are great.

He can say he “speaks” independently.

But he votes party line regardless of the damage.

Talk is cheap

— Chris Bradley (@chrisbradleyonX) September 28, 2025

Ill buy into Fetterman when his actions match his words

— Cash Loren (@CashLorenShow) September 28, 2025

He’s only saying this because he’s up for reelection next year. Change parties or shut up.

— Donna Bradshaw (@BrafshawD41096) September 28, 2025

Fetterman knows PA is going Red like Ohio so he is hedging for re-election.

Check his voting record – 95%+ with Chuck Schumer!

Don’t be naive voters!

— Publius (@OcrazioCornPop) September 28, 2025

Come to the light side of the Force, Senator

— St Thomas Fan 🇻🇦 🇺🇸 (@StThomasStan) September 28, 2025

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

With new home prices falling and median existing home prices rising in August (while average existing home prices rise, signaling ‘expensive’ homes are selling), this morning’s (admittedly lagged and smoothed) Case-Shiller home price data was expected to decline (for July)… and it did, but ony marginally.

Home prices across the top 20 cities in the US fell by 0.07% MoM (less than the 0.2% decline expected) – the fifth straight monthly drop in prices. This pulled the YoY price appreciation down to 1.82%, the lowest since July 2023…

Source: Bloomberg

The US is coming off its weakest spring selling season in 13 years after high prices and mortgage rates sidelined many would-be buyers.

“July’s results reinforce that the housing market has downshifted to a much slower gear,” said Nicholas Godec, Head of Fixed Income Tradables & Commodities at S&P Dow Jones
Indices. 

“In other words, U.S. home values have essentially stagnated after inflation, marking the third straight month of real housing wealth decline for homeowners. This reversal is striking: during the pandemic boom, home prices were climbing far faster than inflation, rapidly boosting homeowners’ real equity. Now, the situation has flipped – over the last year, owning a home yielded a modest nominal gain, but an inflation-adjusted loss. “

The geographic hierarchy of U.S. housing continues its dramatic shake-up, with 7 cities seeing outright price declines YoY…

• Denver -0.6%

• San Diego -0.7%

• Phoenix -0.9%

• Dallas -1.3%

• Miami -1.3%

• San Francisco -1.9%

• Tampa -2.8%

However, given the decline mortgage rates, one could argue that home prices are set to re-accelerate soon (which fits with the slowdown in the price depreciation)…

Source: Bloomberg

On the bright side, declining home prices (and the follow through into PCE/CPI calculations for Shelter costs) could more than offset any tariff-driven anxiety over the next few months.

But, home price changes do seem to track very closely with bank reserves at The Fed (6mo lag), which implies home prices could rapidly decelerate in the new year (after a brief rebound)…

Source: Bloomberg

“Looking ahead, the housing market appears to be settling into a new, more measured equilibrium,” Godec concluded.

“The era of 15-20% annual home price jumps is behind us, and in its place we’re seeing growth rates closer to overall inflation – or even a bit below it. While that means homeowners aren’t gaining wealth at the breakneck pace of the recent past, it also signals a potentially healthier trajectory for housing in the long run.

The question remains, that after slashing rates by 100bps (last year), home prices have started to decline (with significant lag)… is that what The Fed wants this year too, now that the rate-cutting cycle has restarted?

Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,

In emotionally fraught testimony Monday, Steve Federico, father of a young woman who was brutally murdered by a black career criminal in South Carolina, pleaded with Democrats to stop protecting dangerous criminals with soft-on-crime policies.

The House Judiciary Committee held a field hearing in Charlotte, North Carolina, Monday, to “examine violent crime in Charlotte, North Carolina and the surrounding areas looking at repeat offenders and lenient pretrial release policies and decisions among others.”

The man’s daughter, Logan Federico, 22, was fatally shot in the chest by Alexander Dickey, 30, during a home invasion on May 3, 2025.  She had been visiting friends at a rented property in Columbia, South Carolina at the time of the execution-style murder.

“When I tell you this story, think about your kids,” her father said, his voice trembling with raw emotion.

“Think about your child coming home from a night out with their friends, laying down, going to sleep, feeling somebody come in the room and wake them and drag her out of bed, naked, forced on her knees, with her hands over her head! Begging for her life, begging for her hero, her father—ME!—that couldn’t be there,” Federico testified.

“She was five foot three, she weighed 115 pounds … BANG! … dead, gone!” he cried.  “Why?  Because Alexander Devante Dickey, who was arrested 39 G-d damn times—25 felonies!—was on the street. How about that?!”

Addressing the committee members,  Federico asked, “how good are we doing for out families? How good are you doing for your kids?”

The father added: “He should have been in jail for over a 140 years for all the crimes he’d committed. You know how much time he spent in prison? A little over 600 days in ten years.”

Federico noted that Dickey had been “committing 2.6 crimes a year since he was 16-years-old” but nobody had figured out that he couldn’t be rehabilitated.

“Well, you’d have to put him in prison to see if he could be rehabilitated,” he pointed out.

Federico said his daughter had just decided she wanted to be a teacher “two weeks before she was executed.”

The grieving father noted that he has not heard from South Carolina’s Fifth Judicial Circuit Court Solicitor, Byron Gipson, a Democrat who was elected to the position in 2018.

“Not one word,” Federico fumed. “Four months, no communication!”

Gipson, with his 21 years as a defense attorney, quickly earned the reputation as a soft-on crime prosecutor after taking office in January 2019.

According to the National Police Association, Gipson has gained critics and detractors “among people who tend to think dangerous and violent criminals should be kept separated from docile and law-abiding citizens. Irrespective of his relatively short prosecutorial resume—and that’s being generous to the point of absurdity—Gipson has said and done things as Solicitor that warrant criticism and derision.”

Federico said Gipson’s “biggest concern” was how he’d made the prosecutor look during his Fox News interview with former House member Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.).

“How pathetic is that?” he thundered. “She was literally executed while on her knees! Begging for her life!”

He added indignantly, “her name is Logan Federico!—not Irena!”

Earlier in the hearing, Rep. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) had confused Federico’s daughter with 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, who was fatally stabbed on August 22, 2025, while riding Charlotte’s LYNX Blue Line light rail by another black repeat offender. That suspect, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr., also has a long history of prior convictions. He was charged with first-degree murder and also faces federal charges.

Federico demanded stronger protections against these dangerous repeat offenders, emphasizing the need for accountability and justice for the victims of violent crime.

“You will not forget her! I promise you. You will be sick and tired of my face and my voice until this gets fixed. I will fight until my last breath for my daughter,” he promised.

Addressing the committee again, he added, “you need to fight for the rest of our children, the rest of the innocents, and stop protecting the people that keep taking them from us!”

“Please! You have the power. We put you in power to do what you have to do. We’re asking you, we’re begging you all, to stop this!” Federico said, adding that was no good reason why someone who had committed 25 felonies would be walking the streets.

“What you all did, you woke up a beast and you pissed off the wrong daddy!” he declared.

OPEC+ is to discuss fast tracking its latest round of supply hikes in three monthly instalments of about 500,000 barrels a day to recoup market share.

This comes after the cartel announced earlier this month that they were adding a much smaller amount than that – about 137,000 barrels a day – leaving a question mark about how fast the rest will be returned.

So, now, Bloomberg reports that, according to a delegate, Saudi Arabia and its partners will review the expedited return of the remainder of a 1.66 million barrel-a-day supply tranche when they meet on Oct. 5.

The result is further pressure on the price of oil…

…testing the lows of its recent channel (ironically extending losses after similar rumors hit crude prices yesterday).

The IEA already forecast that the oil market is headed for a record supply-demand surplus next year.

Finally, we note that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is heading to Washington in November to meet with President Donald Trump, who has called for lower oil prices (infuriating Dallas Fed survey respondents who said Trump’s energy policies are crushing local workers).

Via The Cradle

The US Defense Department has ordered suppliers to double or “even quadruple” production rates on a “breakneck” schedule over fears about a depletion of arms stockpiles and a potential confrontation with China in the future, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. 

According to WSJ, “Military leaders are urging defense contractors to increase assembly of 12 critical weapons.”The list includes Patriot interceptor missiles, long-range anti-ship missiles, Standard Missile-6 missiles, Precision Strike missiles, and Joint Air-to-Surface Missiles. Patriot is a particular priority, given Lockheed Martin’s efforts to keep up with growing global demand.

Informed sources said there have been a series of recent high-level meetings between Pentagon officials and representatives of missile manufacturing companies. 

US Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg is taking a direct role in this effort – called the Munitions Production Acceleration Council – and is calling company executives weekly to discuss the matter, according to the sources. 

The Defense Department invited major missile suppliers to a roundtable meeting at the Pentagon in June to launch this effort. The meeting was attended by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and General Dan Keane, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It included executives from several weapons manufacturers. 

However, the report notes that stakeholders fear Washington’s goals are “unrealistic,” and that questions are arising about the funding needed to accelerate production. 

Some suppliers have struggled to meet the new demands and are wary of overbuying orders that have not yet been funded by the government.

The WSJ report comes a few days after the Washington Post said an “unusual” meeting of hundreds of top US military leaders has been ordered by Hegseth. “The highly unusual directive was sent to virtually all of the military’s top commanders worldwide,” the newspaper wrote, citing more than a dozen people familiar with the matter.

The announcement comes months after Hegseth revealed plans to carry out a major consolidation of top military commands. Hegseth’s abrupt call for such an emergency meeting has led to concerns of a coming conflict.

A senior Pentagon official said, “In my 30 years in the US military, I have never seen anything like this. We might be on the brink of war.” Monday’s report is not the first to note official concerns over low stockpiles. 

China reportedly conducted a successful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test, with videos showing a depressed trajectory launch possibly using hypersonic boost-glide tech for maneuverability and speed. pic.twitter.com/mD3E8DDxfG

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 29, 2025

During this year’s US campaign against Yemen, which ended in May, Washington burned through at least $1 billion in munitions. This raised concerns in the defense community that the US military would be left unprepared and would face “real operational problems” if a conflict with China were to erupt, according to the New York Times (NYT).

Analysts have also recently suggested the possibility of a new war between Israel and Iran, which Tel Aviv is likely to involve Washington in. 

Israel was close to running out of interceptors during the 12-day war with Iran in June, which was mentioned in several reports. According to a WSJ report from June, Washington feared it would burn through its own interceptors while replenishing Israel’s stockpiles. 

While US home prices remain elevated and despite some price drops in recent months, affordability remains near all time lows, the housing picture is far worse in various other countries.

One such place is Australia where more retirees are renting than ever, as soaring housing costs and longer working lives expose the limits of the nation’s much-hailed pension system.

The portion of retirees living in private rentals has doubled over the past two decades to 12%, according to a a recent government-funded survey. Over the same period, those who (can afford to) own their home outright slipped from 75% to 66%.

“Retirees who rent are far more exposed to housing stress,” said Kyle Peyton, co-author of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey, which tracks the same 16,000 people annually. “This group of renting retirees is only likely to grow.” 

As Bloomberg notes, the findings highlight how housing policy has long prioritized demand while neglecting supply, pushing prices to record highs and widening the wealth gap between owners and renters. In Sydney, the median house price has more than tripled in two decades to above A$1.5 million ($990,000).

Australia’s ongoing housing crisis means that the country’s A$4.3 trillion pensions system, projected to be the world’s second largest by the early 2030s, will fall short for many retirees.

“Superannuation alone will not be enough to support the growing number of younger Australians locked out of homeownership,” Peyton said.

The survey also showed more Australians are working longer. In 2003, 70% of women and 49% of men aged 60 and 64 were retired; by 2023, that had fallen to 41% and 27%. Higher pension eligibility ages, cost pressures and better health have all pushed retirement further back.

To retire comfortably at 67, couples need about A$690,000 in savings and singles A$595,000, according to the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia. That’s assuming they own a home and receive a part government pension on top of their superannuation, and as the data shows, that has become an extremely generous assumption.