Authored by Dr. James Allan via DailySceptic.org,

Last year when I was asked to write a chapter for a US book on the incredible inroads and attacks on our civil liberties during the thuggish Covid lockdown years I decided, in part, to rank the worst offending groups. The lawyerly and doctorly castes were bad. They were woeful in fact. But the politicians as a class, the ones who ultimately made the calls, were worse – and there were very few exceptions to that generalised claim, as any Australian knows who looks for politicians who, say, resigned from Cabinet on principle (nada, zero) or who spoke up publicly and loudly against the massive authoritarian over-reach and aping of the policies of the Chinese Communist Politburo (a mere handful at most). 

So I gave the silver medal for thuggish lockdown commitment and stalwart thuggery to the political class. However, in terms of letting all of us citizens down I reserved the gold medal for the journalists of the legacy media. As a class they exhibited no scepticism. No thinking for themselves. They were fearmongers and PR agents for the modellers, public health gurus, ‘nudge’ manipulators and politicos. Yes, there were some brave exceptions. But very few. What we got from the legacy media was a sort of attempt to play the type of media you’d see in George Orwell’s 1984, dealing in Big Brother doublethink. And all of that is on top of the verifiably huge drift towards the political Left of the legacy media over the last few decades.

Well, if you were hoping things would get noticeably better after the lockdowns ended, they haven’t. 

For just one instance, let me take you to the murders of two young children and the wounding of at least 17 others in Minneapolis, Minnesota last week. It took place at a Catholic school with the murderer shooting at random through a stained-glass window during the first school mass of the academic year. The legacy media embarrassed itself reporting on this because it went against all the progressive class’s and legacy media’s (but I repeat myself) deeply held shibboleths and Left-wing bromides. You see the murderer was a man, Robert Westman, who back in 2020 had changed his first name to Robin and come out as transgender. He said he was now a female. And he hated Donald Trump. And he left behind a sort of manifesto that oozed antisemitism along with other bits of nastiness.

How to report this? How to report this, while still genuflecting before the progressive worldview? Life for the legacy media is just so much easier when a multiple shooter is a white, heterosexual male, preferably with conservative leanings. Then the details can be reported pronto. And the label ‘white nationalist’ will just be begging to be used. Alas, it was not to be. So on the transgender front the legacy media tied itself in knots. NBC News described the shooter as “a person in her early 20s”. The New York Times also used ‘she’ to describe the murderer. CNN talking heads worried about ‘misgendering’ the person who had killed two primary school kids and wounded 17 others, some severely. These journalists definitely know what’s important in a story, don’t they? The Washington Post got itself in a bit of a conundrum because, as it reported, “it is unclear how the shooter identified at the time of the incident”. 

Likewise, the NPR that President Trump has just defunded wrote that we “do not know how the person currently identified” while the very Left-leaning Associated Press told readers “the shooter’s gender identity wasn’t clear”. 

Oh, and on CNN the former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, the man embroiled up to his neck in the Russian collusion scam against Donald Trump, made a point of calling the trans murderer by his preferred identity: “I’m sure [the killer’s mother] is grieving for her daughter” – also somewhat misdirecting the first port of call for sympathy you might think.

Meantime no legacy media outlet that I know of mentioned the fact that an awful lot of recent mass school shootings have been committed by transgender murderers – in Denver, Nashville, Uvalde, Georgia, Aberdeen, Philadelphia, the list goes on.

 In fact, it is a massively disproportionate number of such crimes being committed by transgender school shooters, a point I make for all the identity politics Lefties out there who insist on seeing the world in terms of groups.

I agree with the growing numbers of people who say the two most likely reasons for this are a) gender dysphoria is a severe mental illness which right now is not being treated as mental illness, but instead is being humoured and encouraged. Or, b) transgender people who transition are being subjected to intense doses of drugs that may be having an unpredictable effect on their behaviour or aggravating their pre-existing mental illness. Because let’s be honest. If you told someone you were Napoleon Bonaparte trapped in the wrong body that person would not make empathy his main response and cater to your self-delusion. He would try to explain that there is a mind-independent truth about the external, causal world. Likewise, the 47 year-old cannot identify as a 13 year-old to win some sporting competition. Because however he feels or whatever his preferences, he is not 13 years old. Again, the white woman doesn’t get to be black just because that’s what she would like and is how she sees herself. 

As one US commentator rightly noted after this Minnesota tragedy, “The trans movement has been a disaster in every way and should be re-examined from the ground up.” 

And the higher up the socio-economic ladder you go, the more sympathy you find for this toxic empathy. Rich, white women seem to be the most in its thrall.

The other big difficulty for the legacy media in reporting this shooting was the fact that the shooter hated Trump and wasn’t all-in on MAGA. Indeed, this shooter, Robert Westwood, had written “kill Donald Trump” on his gun. Now, how could they report that without pushing a characterisation that would help the current US President (a.k.a. ‘Hitler’)? Well, one of the terrestrial, longstanding main US TV networks tried to square that circle by reporting that the murderer had “Donald Trump’s name on his gun”. Yes, you read that sleight of hand correctly. Still want to know why the legacy media is dying and why conservatives, especially, no longer trust anything that they are being told by these partisan hacks? Why supposed Right-of-centre politicians pay any attention to these legacy media journalists is beyond me. Just look and see how Donald Trump and Pierre Poilievre treat them with disdain and copy that.

Authored by Jesse Coghlan via CoinTelegraph.com,

The European Central Bank (ECB) renewed its push to issue a digital euro, drawing pushback from EU lawmakers over privacy protections and potential risks to commercial banks.

ECB board member Piero Cipollone told a parliamentary economic committee on Thursday that a digital euro “will ensure that all Europeans can pay at all times with a free, universally accepted digital means of payment, even in case of major disruptions.”

Some parliamentarians pushed back over concerns that the digital currency wouldn’t protect user privacy, and that offering accounts backed by the central bank would undercut the private sector.

Legislation for the central bank digital currency (CBDC) has been before the European Parliament since 2023, and has faced delays amid political concerns and the 2024 elections.

Digital euro seen as fallback in crisis

The ECB’s Cipollone said the core of the bloc’s digital payment systems comes from non-EU providers, which could hinder the “capacity to act swiftly and independently — particularly in times of crisis.”

He pitched the digital euro as a fallback in cases of cyberattacks or network outages, and noted US efforts to promote dollar-backed stablecoins.

Source: ECB

Cipollone said a digital euro would “complement physical cash, which remains key for resilience and inclusion,” but added that digital payments are now “essential to daily life,” which the government is expected to ensure.

Lawmakers warn on privacy, risks to banks

Some lawmakers raised concerns about the privacy implications of a digital euro and the risk that EU citizens would choose to bank with the ECB over a commercial bank, as it would present a safer option.

On privacy, Cipollone stressed that the central bank “will not know anything about the payer and the payee” and that an offline solution for the digital currency “will be as good as cash in terms of preserving the privacy of the people.”

Pierre Pimpie of the right-wing Eurosceptic Patriots for Europe group said “accounts in private banks could be emptied” due to a digital euro and took issue with the ECB having control over setting a cap on user accounts, which he argued the bank could raise in a crisis.

Cipollone said the central bank’s cap would be set “on the basis of rigorous analysis” and added that if corporations and wealthy individuals “see a crisis in Europe, it will take them a second to buy a stablecoins denominated in a different currency.”

“The digital euro at that point would be the least of our problems,” he added.

ECB eyes 2026 law, rollout by 2029

Cipollone said the ECB was working under the assumption that digital euro legislation would be in place by the second quarter of 2026.

Three EU institutions must greenlight the digital euro, including the parliament, the European Commission and the European Council. Talks among them could take months.

After the law is passed, which could be as late as the middle of 2026, the ECB has to create and test the digital currency’s infrastructure, which could take up to three years, putting a potential launch around 2029 if no delays occur.

Which car brands are winning Europe’s competitive auto market in 2025, and how much of their sales are electric and hybrid vehicles?

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, shows the best-selling car brands in Europe in the first half of 2025 so far using data from JATO Dynamics via Best-Selling Cars.

It also showcases the share of internal combustion engine (ICE) sales vs. hybrid and electric vehicle (EV) sales for each car brand.

Volkswagen Group Leads European Car Sales

Volkswagen Group remains Europe’s top car seller, with over 1.8 million units sold in the first half of 2025, as seen in the data table below.

While still heavily reliant on combustion engines (72% of sales), Volkswagen has steadily increased its electric offerings, which now represent 28% of sales.

Volkswagen maintains a significant lead over Stellantis, the second-largest car brand with 1.04 million units sold in H1 2025. Stellantis has the highest share of combustion cars sold among the top 10 car brands at 83%, with just 17% of sales coming from EVs or hybrid vehicles.

Europe’s Emerging Car Brand Competitors

Renault Group (704,023) and Hyundai Motor Group (540,917) were third and fourth respectively, with both of them having 43% of their sales coming from hybrids or EVs.

Premium brands like BMW group (40% electrified) and Mercedes-Benz (34%) are also rapidly transitioning towards more electric and hybrid offerings.

Meanwhile, Chinese-owned Geely Group (with 67% of sales EV or hybrid) is gaining ground in Europe with competitive EV offerings and ranked ninth in total sales with 202,230 just ahead of Nissan (165,645) and behind Ford (257,337).

Toyota’s Electrification Edge in Europe

Toyota ranks sixth with nearly 479,000 cars sold but stands out for its electrification strategy.

A remarkable 86% of its European sales were hybrids or EVs, the highest share of any top automaker. Toyota’s strong hybrid lineup and growing adoption of electrified models in Europe has helped it compete against larger-volume and domestic brands.

To learn more about EV adoption around the world, check out this chart on global EV adoption over time on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

Former MMA champion Conor McGregor has urged his online supporters to pressure local councillors into nominating him as a candidate for the Irish presidency.

In a video filmed outside Government Buildings in Dublin, McGregor attacked the government over homelessness, migration, and security.

“We have seen the homelessness of Irish children rise to levels unprecedented, proving this government’s refusal to abide by and respect our proclamation where all children of Irish are to be cherished. Instead, our children abandoned,” he said.

He also claimed tourism had declined and “danger on our streets has risen” as a result of mass immigration.

Citizens of Ireland, the time for real change is now!

As President, I will not sign any bill in law until it goes back to the people first!

If you want to see my name on the ballot for the Presidency, I urge you to contact your local county councillors today and ask them to… pic.twitter.com/LGDCSGN9vr

— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) September 4, 2025

Describing himself as a “master of martial combat” and a “solution-driven man,” McGregor called on his followers to contact councillors.

“If you want to see my name on the ballot for the presidency, I urge you to contact your local county councillors today and ask them to nominate me,” he said.

“Our councillors are the backbone of our communities. They work harder and deliver more for the people than those in the Oireachtas, who continue to fail this country time and again.”

He told supporters he wanted to be “a president face to face with government officials with only one priority — to ensure that the country our founding fathers gave their lives for is strictly adhered to on behalf of its citizens.”

He tied his message to Ireland’s republican tradition, invoking the 1916 Proclamation.

“Ireland, under my tenure, the will of the people will be heard. Ireland under my tenure, we will return important articles of our constitution prior, and thus again aligning with Padraig Pearse’s proclamation,” he said, referring to the revolutionary who was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising.

To run, a candidate must secure the backing of either four of the State’s 31 local authorities or 20 members of the Irish bicameral parliament.

McGregor’s plea suggests he is not confident about securing the latter, and is thus seeking the people to lobby their local councillors to get him on the ballot.

The Irish presidential election is scheduled to be held on Oct. 24.

Read more here…

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

Trump’s escalatory signals in Ukraine, the Indo-US split that he induced, and the attendant alleviation of the Sino-Indo security dilemma freed Russia up to clinch the long-negotiated Power of Siberia 2 deal…

Trump’s Eurasian grand strategy has sought to preemptively avert Russia’s potentially disproportionate dependence on China in order to avoid having its natural resources turbocharge the superpower trajectory of the US’ only systemic rival. In pursuit of this, the US envisaged entering into a resource-centric strategic partnership with Russia upon the end of the Ukrainian Conflict, expecting that this shared goal would incentivize Putin into agreeing to significant territorial and/or security concessions.

Trump’s unwillingness or inability to coerce Zelensky into any of Putin’s demanded concessions paired with increasingly concerning reports about plans to deploy NATO to Ukraine to spook Putin into ditching his balancing act and pivoting to China. The successful clinching of their long-negotiated deal over the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, which will nearly double Russia’s gas exports to China to ~100 bcm a year and at a cheaper price than the EU receives, signifies the failure of Trump’s Eurasian grand strategy.

Putin might have held out for longer had Trump not inadvertently catalyzed the incipient Sino-Indo rapprochement via his hypocritically punitive tariffs that aim to derail India’s rise as a Great Power. That spooked India into patching up its ties with China, which alleviated their security dilemma that the US was exploiting to divide-and-rule them. This in turn reduced India’s worries about closer Russian-Chinese energy cooperation that it previously feared could lead to Russia becoming China’s junior partner.

It was never officially voiced, but astute observers and those who’ve talked to Indian thinkers know that India was worried that China might leverage its influence over Russia to get it to curtail or cut off military exports to India, therefore giving China a pivotal edge in their border dispute. The Trump-induced Indo-US split and attendant alleviation of the Sino-Indo security dilemma freed Russia up to clinch the Power of Siberia 2 deal without fear of spooking India into the US’ arms and thus dividing-and-ruling Eurasia.

The growing convergence between BRICS and the SCO, which aim to gradually reform global governance via their complementary efforts to accelerate multipolar processes, is due in no small part to India’s embrace of both in response to new strategic threats from the US. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to China in seven years to attend the SCO Leaders’ Summit, during which time he held an important bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping, is expected to lead to a new normal in Sino-Indo ties.

The roots of their tensions haven’t been resolved, but Russia expects that they’ll now be better managed, ergo why it clinched its deal with China over the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline right after also concluding that the US won’t try to help it obtain any of what it wants from Ukraine. To review, Trump signaled escalatory intent in Ukraine reportedly as the quid pro quo for the US-EU trade deal and then Sino-Indo ties improved as Indo-US ones worsened, thus making Power of Siberia 2 politically possible.

Trump’s foreign policy towards Eurasia has therefore indisputably failed. His team’s misguided approach towards Russia and India in demanding too much of them led to those two and China working out their differences, which exist amongst themselves bilaterally but also regarding their ties with the US, and consequently accelerated multipolar processes at the expense of the US’ unipolar interests. The Rubicon has clearly been crossed after this latest pipeline deal and it’s anyone’s guess how the US will respond.

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

Authored by Ross Pomeroy via RealClearScience,

The Mexica people ruled the Aztec Empire in the Valley of Mexico for its roughly 90-year duration between the 15th and 16th centuries. Mexica mythology tells of an intoxicated deity, Ometochtli, whose drink of choice was pulque. White and viscous, with a strong, yeasty odor of slightly spoiled buttermilk, pulque is produced through fermenting a sugary sap known as aguamiel, extracted from certain species of Agave plant. According to myth, the goddess Mayehuatzin, Ometochtli’s sister, provided the aguamiel and plied him with his favorite fermented booze.

While pulque is today little known outside of Mexico, it has deep roots in human history, tracing back 2,000 years in Mesoamerica. Researchers at the Escuela Superior de Medicina del Instituto Politécnico Nacional in Mexico City recently explored its longstanding significance in a paper published to the journal histories. 

The Mexica may have been most fond of pulque, but the Teotihuacanos, Otomies, Zapotecas, Mixtecas, and Maya also consumed it. “Anthropological evidence, including pottery, murals, codices, chronicles, and oral cosmological traditions, suggests that this… alcoholic beverage was already part of the diet of the inhabitants of Teotihuacan,” the authors wrote. “Pulque is therefore one of the oldest, if not the most important, fermented beverages in Mesoamerican history.”

One of the reasons pulque is relatively overlooked compared to other fermented beverages, such as kombucha (originating in ancient China) and kefir (hailing from the North Caucasus), is its exceedingly brief shelf life. Naturally fermented in an enclosed container over 12 to 24 hours, it reaches an alcohol concentration comparable to beer – roughly 4 percent to 6 percent – then rapidly spoils over the next 24 to 36 hours. 

Its transience made it a sacred drink and divine gift in ancient Mesoamerican cultures. “It was highly esteemed and reserved for the nobility and priesthood, who consumed it during ceremonial and religious rituals,” the researchers described.

Today, pulque’s transience makes it difficult to export and sell. While the Spanish conquistadors enjoyed it (and its intoxicating effects) after conquering the Aztecs, pulque over time fell out of favor compared to longer-lasting beer, tequila, and wine. European rulers also carried out a coordinated smear campaign against pulque in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

“This anti-pulque campaign, orchestrated by political elites, stigmatized the drink, its producers, and its consumers, depicting it as unsanitary and associated with poverty, indigeneity, and illiteracy,” the authors wrote.

Currently enjoyed by locals and tourists in Mexico, pulque hasn’t found widespread fandom anywhere else. Pasteurized versions – which last for months – do exist, but food writers express that the experience isn’t remotely the same.

“It’s the original active fermented beverage which will simply go bad after a few days so it’s truly a locavore phenomenon,” Max Garrone wrote for Flaviar.

As for the flavor, award-winning food writer Naomi Tomky calls it “intriguingly zingy.”

“Natural or plain, pulque is an opaque milky color but fizzy and bright on the tongue. Sweet, but not cloying, lightly viscous but not slimy, and just ever-so-subtly yeasty, like the whiff of freshly risen bread dough hitting the oven.”

President Trump on Friday said India and Russia seem to have been “lost” to China following Modi and Putin having met with President Xi Jinping this week, amid the leaders hailing the forging ahead of a new multi-polar order which seeks to thwart a purely Washington-centric global system.

“Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!” Trump wrote in a social media, with an accompanying a photo of the three leaders together at Xi’s summit in China.

This has been followed on Friday with India confirming that it will double down on Russian oil purchases, in defiance of US tariffs and threats.

“Where do we buy our oil from, especially since it’s a very expensive commodity, we pay a very high price for it and it’s the highest import, so we’ll have to decide what suits us best,” Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in an interview.

She then emphasized somewhat defiantly, “We will definitely buy it.” On the same day, this development reported in Reuters will only serve to exacerbate tensions: 

Top Indian refiner Indian Oil Corp (IOC.NS), opens new tab skipped the purchase of U.S. oil in its latest tender and instead bought 2 million barrels of West African and a million barrels of Middle Eastern grade, trade sources said on Friday.

The state refiner also bought one million barrels each of Nigerian oil grades Agbami and Usan from French oil major TotalEnergy, and another million barrels of Abu Dhabi’s Das crude from Shell, the people said. Nigerian oil has been bought on free-on-board basis and Das has been purchsed on a delivered basis for arrival at Indian ports in late October-early November. In its previous tender last week, IOC bought 5 million barrels of U.S. West Texas Intermediate.

This comes amid Trump’s escalating trade war with New Delhi, but he now seems resigned to simply admit India has been “lost” to China and Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this week hailed that India, among the largest economies on the planet, has not given in to US demands to stop purchasing its oil and other products.

A combined population of almost 3 billion…

“Such tariffs have already been introduced, for example, against India – our particularly privileged strategic partner, a major consumer of Russian goods, in particular, hydrocarbon raw materials,” the top Russian diplomat explained.

“We appreciate the fact that New Delhi did not bend under pressure and remains committed to the principles of free trade,” Lavrov stated. 

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Thursday criticized the Trump administration’s decision to bomb a boat near Venezuela over claims that it was carrying drugs, an action that was taken without providing any evidence.

“It’s hard to have any sympathy for drug dealers trying to import product into our country,” Paul said in an appearance on Newsmax. “But at the same time, I guess, you might ask the question, ‘Where does it end? Are we the world’s policemen?”

The Kentucky senator said that US authorities wouldn’t bomb a boat if it were off the coast of the US and suspected of running drugs. “We all assume these people were bad people and drug dealers, but if they were caught off the coast of Miami, we would stop the boat. If they don’t shoot at us, we don’t shoot at them,” he said.

Paul said that the “reason we have trials and we don’t automatically assume guilt is what if we make a mistake and they happen to be people fleeing the Venezuelan dictator?”

He added that in the US, even the “worst people” accused of terrible crimes are entitled to a trial.

President Trump claimed that the strike on the boat killed 11 people who were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang the US government has labeled “narcoterrorists.”

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other US officials have said more strikes are coming and are not ruling out the possibility of pursuing regime change in Venezuela, which may be the real purpose of the deployment of multiple US Navy warships to the Southern Caribbean.

Rand Paul: “The reason we have trials and we don’t automatically assume guilt is what if we make a mistake and they happen to be people fleeing the Venezuelan dictator? … off our coast it isn’t our policy just to blow people up … even the worst people in our country, if we… pic.twitter.com/UpKVFAy5XU

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 3, 2025

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has denied the US accusations that he’s involved in drug trafficking and is vowing to fight if the US attacks his country.

Other Venezuelan officials have downplayed the US strike on the boat, claiming that the video Trump released purporting to show the bombing may have been a fake, AI-made video.

Authored by Rebecca Day via The Epoch Times,

Clear thinking and effective decision-making skills are two pillars of personal and professional success. But it can sometimes be hard to know if you’re making the right call amid a sea of options. Or maybe too much information causes you to forgo a decision, sometimes referred to as “analysis paralysis.” U.S. Air Force pilot Hasard Lee tackles these common problems and teaches us an easy-to-apply, well-rounded system full of effective solutions with his book, “The Art of Clear Thinking: A Stealth Fighter Pilot’s Timeless Rules for Making Tough Decisions.” And as an experienced combat pilot and instructor, no one is better equipped to teach clear thinking and quick decision-making than Lee.

His book offers a contemporary approach to timeless wisdom. The nonfiction work incorporates practical tips and methods that are immediately applicable to a range of situations, from business decisions to everyday problems. But before Mr. Lee explains just how we can learn to think better, he first takes us into the high-speed professional life of a fighter pilot.

Author Hasard Lee. St. Martin’s Press

An Exhilarating Read

From dogfights during some of combat’s most hazardous conditions to training sessions as one of the Air Force’s most skilled pilots, Lee’s extensive experience flying the world’s most complex combat jets, including the F-16 and F-35, is highly impressive. Through his debut book, he helps readers see that the pressure and chaotic environments he’s lived through are highly relatable.

Several of the book’s chapters begin with anecdotes of some of Lee’s most high-stakes missions. These riveting, eye-opening stories offer a bird’s-eye view of what it’s like to be an Air Force fighter pilot in the U.S. military. And this unique author experience is what sets “The Art of Clear Thinking” apart from the rest.

He takes us back in time to some of history’s most historic battles, including the American military’s invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. As it turns out, this historic mission was supposed to happen the day before. However, Royal Air Force Captain and meteorologist James Stagg, who worked closely with President Eisenhower during the mission, noticed weather radar had picked up stormy conditions that would directly affect the operation. The high winds alone, making the sea especially choppy, would make it tough for landing craft to successfully reach Normandy’s coastline. Heavy cloud coverage would also make navigation difficult for aircraft. A tough call had to be made. Troops needed to be instructed to either go forward with the mission despite inclement weather or postpone it to June 6, when a possible break in the storm was forecast.

General of the Army Dwight David Eisenhower circa December 1943. Public Domain

A little-known factor played a key role in the ultimate success of this foray: U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s quick decision-making abilities and ability to prioritize a multitude of pressing tasks. His mental toughness and skill allowed his team to adapt to the situation and make the hard, risky decision to postpone the operation for 24 hours. It was met with much criticism. Any delay gave the Germans a chance to find out about the planned attack. Despite pushback, Eisenhower’s strategic thinking and ability to take vast amounts of information and prioritize what was necessary helped put American soldiers in an advantageous position.

A First-of-Its-Kind Program

With many combat missions and flight hours under his belt, Lee ultimately became an instructor. Instead of limiting his teaching solely to flight instruction, he became part of a group of fellow instructors who developed a “first-of-its-kind program” that treated mental toughness not as an innate character trait but as a skill that could be harnessed and learned.

During the program’s development, he drew on his years of experience as a fighter pilot. He also incorporated lessons learned during his time as a boxer while attending the Air Force Academy. While at the academy, he was introduced to the concepts behind sports psychology for the first time, which he continued to build upon throughout his professional career.

The visionary program he helped spearhead was such a success for the Air Force that it is now an integral part of every pilot’s training. The book features several of the program’s lessons that are easily adaptable to everyday life. Lee has spent time teaching the lessons included in “The Art of Clear Thinking” to people involved in many disciplines, from business executives to athletes on professional sports teams.

Lee understands why this type of wisdom is accessible to humans from all walks of life. In “The Art of Clear Thinking,” he states, “High performance isn’t something that can be turned on and off—to thrive in the cockpit, the pilots needed to thrive in their personal lives.”

This mentality built for success easily translates to anyone who wants to better themselves personally, accomplish goals professionally, and live all-around more fulfilling lives.

X-35B flying over Edwards Air Force Base. Public Domain

Inspiration for Every Reader

Athletes and other performance-based professionals can take advantage of Lee’s simple yet highly effective tactics to remain calm amid adversity. Tried-and-true breathing techniques and resetting one’s internal dialogue are included in the text, along with an easily digestible section on the science behind this type of sports psychology-based training. The book briefly delves into the science of the brain, its chemical reactions, and how that affects us physiologically.

Business professionals and goal-oriented individuals can particularly benefit from the author’s section on Humans as Decision-Makers, which highlights the importance of developing one’s critical thinking skills as opposed to only relying on technology to do all of the forecasting that often comes with trying to anticipate market conditions.

The core of this book revolves around conceptual thinking. Lee helps you understand how to apply an integrated system of ideas to a problem when information is sometimes either too abundant or too scarce and come up with a quick, effective solution. This is a big reason why it’s such a well-rounded work on mental fortitude. Man is only as good as his grasp of concepts, and Lee eloquently elaborates on this important point of reality in his chapter Fast-Forecasting:

“When we rashly turn over our decision-making to external aids, such as committees or computers, we lose the ability to bring the full power of our brain to bear on a problem. We, in essence, have carved out a hole in our understanding and replaced it with someone else’s solution. If we don’t learn the underlying concepts behind that new information, then we’re blindly trusting that it’s correct. We lose the ability to quickly reconfigure concepts into creative solutions, which is one of the great strengths of the human mind.”

Assess, Choose, Execute

Many more tips, tricks, and thought-provoking stories are discussed throughout this entertaining and helpful read. The book itself is laid out across three different overarching sections: Assess, Choose, and Execute, which make up a concept fighter pilots learn early on that is vital to their success: the Ace Helix. This method involves assessing the problem at hand, swiftly choosing the proper “course of action,” then prioritizing tasks that aid in the execution of decisions that will help reach the goal or solution efficiently.

The book’s readability and layout make it an easy read and one you can treat as a guide you can come back to over and over again. It’s a helpful reference tool that aids in navigating life’s complex situations that require quick, effective decisions.

Equal parts practical wisdom and philosophy, “The Art of Clear Thinking” is a great resource to have on hand for a calm mind and reasoned thinking.

* * * Patriots, these handmade flags are really cool. Made by ZH reader John O. Pick one up and support both ZeroHedge and John’s work. 

On Friday The New York Times revealed what may go down in history as the single most ignominious fiasco of US special operations in years, or possibly even decades – a positively wild story which is going to cast a further spotlight on Trump and current and former intelligence officials and elite military commanders.

In early 2019 at a moment President Trump during his first term publicly engaged in high-profile diplomacy with Kim Jong Un, which included chummy summits at the DMZ border and the exchange of letters, a highly secretive operation by the US Navy’s SEAL Team 6 ended with a group of North Korean civilian fishermen massacred under mysterious circumstances.

Trump as Commander-in-Chief had ordered a high-risk mission, utilizing low-tech methods to avoid detection, to insert the Seal team on the North Korean coast where they would install a surveillance device capable of intercepting Kim Jong Un’s most sensitive communications. It would be hidden from Congress and the public, and even government officials based on need-to-know access. It’s one of those past covert ops which was never intended to see the light of public knowledge.

The Times report describes the mission’s purpose as likely to give the White House a huge leg up as Trump tried to engage Kim on the nuclear front, to achieve hoped-for historic denuclearization on the Korean peninsula. “The objective was to plant an electronic device that would let the United States intercept the communications of North Korea’s reclusive leader, Kim Jong-un, amid high-level nuclear talks with President Trump,” it says. But the report notes that the hidden surveillance objective may have had a broader purpose.

“The mission had the potential to provide the United States with a stream of valuable intelligence,” NY Times continues. “But it meant putting American commandos on North Korean soil — a move that, if detected, not only could sink negotiations but also could lead to a hostage crisis or an escalating conflict with a nuclear-armed foe.”

Essentially this would be a small-scale invasion and breach of one of the most militarized and paranoid countries in the region and on earth. It should be noted that it is covert operations like these which give autocrats like Kim Jong Un (or previously: Saddam, Gaddafi, Assad, as well as the Iranians) valid reasons to be paranoid concerning Western spies and elite operatives.

The report details that under the cover of night, the Seal team landed on a North Korean shoreline after they swam through freezing waters with untraceable equipment, operating completely blind and with no typical drone, spy plane or overhead surveillance or real-time mapping. Even their weapons and bullets were selected so as to be ‘untraceable’. 

Apparently there was precedent for this, something also long kept secret: “In 2005, SEALs used a mini-sub to go ashore in North Korea and leave unnoticed, according to people familiar with the mission,” NY Times discloses. “The 2005 operation, carried out during the presidency of George W. Bush, has never before been reported publicly.”

Every aspect to the 2019 infiltration was ultra high-risk, NYT continues:

The plan called for the Navy to sneak a nuclear-powered submarine, nearly two football fields long, into the waters off North Korea and then deploy a small team of SEALs in two mini-subs, each about the size of a killer whale, that would motor silently to the shore.

The mini-subs were wet subs, which meant the SEALs would ride immersed in 40-degree ocean water for about two hours to reach the shore, using scuba gear and heated suits to survive.

Eight Seals would swim to the target and plant the device, but the mission began to dramatically unravel from nearly the moment they surfaced in the dark of night.

Given the lack of real-time intelligence and communications black-out, intelligence analysts had studied and monitored the intended landing spot for months prior via satellite, to ensure no North Korean soldiers or bystanders could detect the operation. But it turns out there was a fishing boat very near the target zone:

Every few yards, the SEALs peeked above the black water to scan their surroundings. Everything seemed clear.

That might have been a second mistake. Bobbing in the darkness was a small boat. On board was a crew of North Koreans who were easy to miss because the sensors in the SEALs’ night-vision goggles were designed in part to detect heat, and the wet suits the Koreans wore were chilled by the cold seawater.

The SEALs reached shore thinking they were alone, and started to remove their diving gear. The target was only a few hundred yards away.

By that moment, one group of Seals had made it to the shore, while another had stayed with the underwater small subs. Thinking that the fishing boat had likely detected the subs, which may have been exposed due to wake-movement or bubbles at the surface, and possibly underwater lights – a Seal commander at the shore opened fire on the boat.

“As the shore team watched the North Korean in the water, the senior enlisted SEAL at the shore chose a course of action,” NY Times details. “He wordlessly centered his rifle and fired. The other SEALs instinctively did the same.”

Upon inspection of the shot-up boat, all the crew were dead. They had just been unarmed civilians diving for shellfish. But to conceal their presence, the Seals punctured the lungs of the corpses so the bodies would sink to the bottom of the ocean floor.

From that point, “The SEALs swam back to the mini-subs and sent a distress signal.” The report adds: “Believing the SEALs were in imminent danger of capture, the big nuclear submarine maneuvered into shallow water close to the shore, taking a significant risk to pick them up. It then sped toward the open ocean.”

The fact that this highly classified incident is being leaked to the press now is significant in its own right…

This is insane. Trump secretly deployed SEAL Team 6 into North Korea to plant a listening device but the mission collapsed when a fishing boat approached. SEAL Team 6 killed every civilian, sank the bodies by piercing their lungs, and escaped. Congress wasn’t told about it. pic.twitter.com/JnnZuSqibt

— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) September 5, 2025

The Seal team made it back unharmed, and US officials told the NY Times that a flurry of intense North Korean military activity was later observed by satellites at that same shoreline. Pyongyang never made accusations or statements publicly acknowledging there was a deadly incident, and the US gained no intelligence from it – as the listening device was never planted – and there was apparently never accountability. 

The whole episode suggests there may be many more such ‘secret failures’ involving special forces in recent history. Special operations tend to only be made public, and celebrated, when they are a success; however, such missions which end in futility and innocent civilians dying get covered up, often with mission overseers getting promoted. Pyongyang is certainly paying close attention to the Friday Times report.

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