Ukraine is poised to lose yet more manpower, as every young man of ability or means will likely seek to flee instead of being forcibly recruited into the military when they become eligible.

Ukrainian media is confirming a major change in the country’s wartime martial law policies: “Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers has revised travel rules and allowed men aged 18 to 22 to cross the border, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Telegram on Aug. 26.”

Up until now, men who were aged 18 to 60 have been prohibited from leaving the war-ravaged nation since the start of the full invasion of February 2022, though with some rare exceptions.

While men aged 25 to 60 can be conscripted into the military and sent to the front lines, men 24 and under still cannot. This has been hugely controversial as even US members of Congress have complained that Washington is sinking billions into the war effort against Russia, and Kiev won’t even tap into its most eligible fighting-age demographic.

But if men aged 18 to 22 are now permitted to cross the border – they likely will and in droves, especially as they get closer to the age of conscription, and given the grinding war doesn’t look to abate anytime soon.

The New York Times has explained some of the reasoning for the change as follows:

Over the last three years, many families sent their teenage sons out of the country before they turned 18, to avoid having them eventually conscripted into what has become a grinding war of attrition with high casualty rates.

Announcing the change on Tuesday, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said the change would allow young men to travel and study abroad without feeling that they had to leave to avoid the draft. “We want Ukrainians to maintain as many ties with Ukraine as possible,” she said.

Looming heavy in the backdrop is that over in Donetsk and now Dnipropetrovsk region Russian forces have been making steady gains, forcing a slow Ukrainian retreat. Also, recruitment and conscription methods have continued to be harsh.

Recent Western media reports have begun picking up on the increasingly ineffective, wasteful tactics of Ukrainian military commanders.

For example, soldiers interviewed by the The Wall Street Journal earlier this month described large-scale meatgrinder type tactics of blindly being sent on suicidal frontal assaults while officers are being denied permission to withdraw from dangerous positions.

The consistent commentary on the war has long been that while Russia might have the manpower to do these old ‘war of attrition’ tactics, Ukraine certainly does not.

Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said he felt vindicated in his economic strategy after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz admitted in a landmark speech that Germany’s welfare state can no longer be financed at current levels.

“The German Chancellor’s speech confirms everything that we Hungarians have done in the economy over the past 15 years,” Orbán wrote in response to Merz’s address in Osnabrück on Saturday.

“The Western welfare state is bankrupt, so it was right for us to switch to a labor-based economy in 2010.”

Orbán argued that while Germany is only now waking up to the crisis, Hungary anticipated it and acted accordingly.

“It was right to stand on more legs and start the Eastern opening. It was right to embrace the most advanced Chinese technology, it was right to lead Europe in electromobility, it was right to maintain economic cooperation with Russia, it was right to stick to cheap Russian energy sources, and it was right to support Donald Trump against migration and for peace,” he said.

He contrasted Hungary’s “nation-building” approach with Germany’s belated “crisis management.”

“Our perspective is nation-building: tax revolution, own home, 10-year development plan. What a difference! We fight for the truth! We fight against lies!” Orbán declared.

In Osnabrück, Merz acknowledged the depth of Germany’s problems.

“The welfare state as we have it today is no longer financially viable with what we are achieving economically,” he said.

The warning follows growing concerns over bankruptcies, rising unemployment, and inflation risks.

Migration has become a central factor. Figures from the Federal Employment Agency last year showed that of the 4 million employable people on social benefits, more than 2.5 million have a migration background, nearly 64 percent.

Bild also reported that almost half of Germany’s €17.68 billion housing support budget for 2024 has gone to foreigners.

Yet despite the mounting strain, Remix News reported earlier this month that Germany’s Federal Employment Agency was continuing to promote the “citizen’s benefit” (Bürgergeld) welfare system to migrants.

A section of its website, written in English for “people from abroad,” featured smiling models — including a woman in a hijab — and promised financial support for migrants unable to cover living expenses.

Read more here…

Authored by Mollie Engelhart via The Epoch Times,

Look around at the stories we’re told about the future—on television, in movies, in books. Almost all of them are dystopian. Controlled cities, collapsing ecosystems, machines overtaking humans. Positive visions are so rare they feel almost radical. What if that’s not accidental? What if our thoughts, speech, beliefs, and actions—all of which shape the reality we live in—are being coached toward imagining collapse?

When we are constantly fed visions of destruction, it narrows the scope of what we think is possible.

And when we can’t imagine anything beyond dystopia, we stop building toward anything better.

When I first understood the power of regenerative agriculture, something shifted.

For the first time in years, I felt genuine hope.

That hope was strong enough to push me to change my entire life.

I left behind comfort and convenience and stepped into farming. It did not happen overnight, and I had no idea how difficult it would be. But here I am, living a life for a better future for my children—and doing it publicly so others can see it’s possible.

We do not have to allow our food supply to be consolidated into the hands of a few corporations.

We do not have to be corralled into “15-minute cities” or plugged into machines. And we do not have to worship efficiency when it leaves us with less family, higher costs, and no time.

We can choose another path.

But it starts with refusing to accept the stories of inevitable collapse we are being sold.

At my ranch, guests come to spend the night in one of our tiny homes, to enjoy a meal at the restaurant, or to walk the land with me on a farm tour. They look out on fields teeming with life in ways most modern farms are not. They see animals, soil, and people in right relationship. They taste food that was grown a few steps away, and they begin to understand the difference. They carry that vision home with them—the ripple effect of realizing something else is possible.

That is why I invite people to stop rehearsing dystopia and start imagining futures of abundance. A future where the American farm is restored. Where our soil and water are alive and clean. Where our food system nourishes our bodies instead of depleting them.

I see movies like “The Terminator” as a warning—but a warning nobody is heeding. Instead of paying attention, we rush to connect our minds to chips and automate every corner of life, pretending those stories were just fiction. And efficiency, which is constantly sold to us as salvation, has become its own trap. In a world where everything is more efficient than ever before, why are we busier, more stressed, and stretched thinner than ever—like rats in a wheel just trying to pay the bills? Shouldn’t efficiency bring costs down and free up more of our time? Instead, the opposite has happened. As machines and systems become more efficient, human life becomes more expensive. Families have less time together. Children are raised by screens. People are burned out, isolated, and exhausted. Efficiency without wisdom doesn’t free us; it enslaves us.

The question people always ask is, how do we do this? How do we actually build a different future?

There is no single answer.

But every one of us has the opportunity to co-create that future and take steps toward it. And all of those small steps, combined, can create a grand shift. Some will buy land and return to an agrarian lifestyle. Others will commit to buying only from local farms and eating the “small farm diet.” Some will use their influence to shift culture in that direction. Others will use their money to help entrepreneurs start businesses that move the needle. Every action has a reaction. Every reaction has a ripple effect. And we the people have the power—if we wield it with our dollars, with our minds, and with our words.

It is time to remember who we are—not controllers of the Earth, and not cogs in a machine, but caretakers of a garden.

We can choose a future that is abundant, human, and aligned with nature. Not a dystopia, but something more like the Garden of Eden. Let’s stop merely imagining futures of abundance—and start building them together.

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

Federal officials will take over the management of Washington’s Union Station, which Amtrak now runs.

Amtrak is a federally chartered corporation operating as a for-profit entity, with the U.S. government as its controlling shareholder.

As Jackson Richman reports for The Epoch Times, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the takeover during an event celebrating the launch of Amtrak’s NextGen Acela trains.

“He wants Union Station to be beautiful again,” Duffy said of President Donald Trump.

“He wants transit to be safe again, and he wants our nation’s capital to be great again.”

Duffy said that the move is not a power play, noting that the Department of Transportation has owned Union Station since the early 1980s.

“We’ve always had it, but we think that we can manage the property better, bring in more tenants, bring in more revenue,” he said.

“And that revenue is going to allow us to make investments in this beautiful building. It needs investments.

“It’s been, I think, neglected for decades, and it’s showing its age. And again, we want to make this place beautiful, and the premier train station, not just in America, but the premier train station in the world. And that takes money.”

Amtrak introduced its new line of Acela trains, which are high-speed and travel across the northeast United States.

“The launch of the new Acela is a critical starting point as we work to improve travel for millions of Americans,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation Steve Bradbury said in a statement.

“Our nation’s capital should be putting our best foot forward.”

Amtrak President Roger Harris said,:

“Acela is synonymous with American high-speed trains, and today marks a new era of next-generation service,“ adding that ”the future of high-speed rail starts now.”

Likewise, Amtrak Board Chair Tony Coscia said in a statement:

“From the moment our guests step onboard, they’ll feel the difference of a NextGen Acela train thanks to a more modern, premium, and elevated experience.

“We are grateful for Secretary Duffy and Deputy Secretary Bradbury’s support on the project, and for helping it get over the finish line so Northeast Corridor residents and visitors can enjoy a whole new way to travel.”

National Guard troops have been stationed outside Union Station, which is close to the Capitol, as the Trump administration has looked to crack down on crime in the District of Columbia.

This has included a federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department.

Duffy said robberies are down 52 percent in the district, while carjackings are down 38 percent. Overall, he said, violent crime has decreased by 40 percent.

Authored by Prof. Ruel F. Pepa via GlobalResearch.ca,

The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has captured the attention of the entire world, drawing concern, debate, and urgency from policymakers, analysts, and citizens alike.

Despite widespread awareness and ongoing efforts to seek a peaceful resolution, the ultimate outcome of this war remains shrouded in uncertainty. As the fighting persists and the stakes continue to rise, it becomes crucial to carefully examine the possible trajectories that could lead to the war’s conclusion.

In doing so, two stark and contrasting scenarios stand out as the most plausible, each representing a radically different path forward.

These scenarios are not merely hypothetical; they carry profound implications not only for Ukraine and its immediate neighbors but also for the broader stability of Europe, the security of NATO countries, and the global geopolitical order. Understanding these divergent possibilities is essential for anticipating future developments and for shaping diplomatic and strategic responses aimed at preventing further escalation or catastrophe.

Scenario One: Acknowledgment of Defeat and Surrender by the West

The first possibility hinges on a sobering and potentially unsettling reality: the Western alliance of the United Kingdom, the European Union, NATO, and the United States should finally recognize the reality that they have tragically lost the fight against Russia in Ukraine. This recognition would not be made lightly; rather, it would be the result of a combination of factors such as prolonged conflict, mounting casualties, significant resource depletion, and diplomatic fatigue that have eroded Western resolve and capacity to sustain their current level of support. Ultimately, this scenario would necessitate a formal acknowledgment of defeat, leading to a strategic and possibly humiliating surrender, signaling an end to their worthless military and political efforts to oppose Russian advances.

Such an outcome implies that the West’s military interventions, economic sanctions, and diplomatic efforts have failed to change the fundamental dynamics on the ground. The prolonged conflict, with its heavy toll on both human lives and national resources, would have culminated in a consensus that further confrontation is futile or counterproductive. Recognizing defeat would most likely lead to negotiations, compromises, and concessions that could reshape the territorial and political landscape of the region. This could include the recognition of Russian-controlled territories as part of Russia, or a negotiated settlement that cedes significant influence to Moscow.

This scenario would also entail a vital shift in regional alliances and borders, marking the end of Ukraine’s aspirations for full integration into Western institutions. It would result in a realignment of security arrangements and a recalibration of Western policies towards Russia, which would finally acknowledge Russia’s renewed regional importance and influence. Ultimately, this outcome would bring an end to active hostilities and redefine the balance of power in Europe and beyond. The global order would see a shift towards a more multipolar world, where Russia’s enhanced position influences international diplomacy and security policies for years to come.

Scenario Two: A Devastating Russian Non-Nuclear Strike

The second more provocative and alarming possibility involves Russia resorting to the use of its advanced non-nuclear weapon systems, specifically the deployment of the non-nuclear version of the Oreshnik missile system, targeting Ukraine and one aggressive NATO member country such as Germany, France, Poland, or the UK, thereby achieving a decisive and devastating victory over western aggression. This aggressive attack would be designed to inflict maximum destruction and psychological shock.

This scenario assumes that barring the possibility of the West’s surrender, Russia’s only remaining option is to escalate the conflict by deploying such a formidable weapon to indiscriminately obliterate Ukrainian infrastructure and military targets. The use of a weapon like the Oreshnik which is indubitably recognized as a highly destructive missile capable of delivering a significant payload over long distances would mark a new and dangerous phase in the conflict, aimed at delivering a crushing blow to Ukraine’s military capacity and civilian infrastructure.

The implications of such an act are profoundly chilling. It would signal a willingness by Russia to cross the threshold into large-scale destruction, possibly as a show of strength or as a means to force Western powers into concessions.

Importantly, Russia’s use of such devastating weaponry is intended not only to break Ukraine’s resistance but also to test the resolve and limits of Western alliances. It will serve as a strategic warning, demonstrating that Russia is willing to unleash destruction on a scale that could also threaten member states or their interests, thereby challenging the post-Cold War security architecture of Europe.

Crucially, such a strike on a NATO country could absolutely trigger a wave of terror and paralysis across Europe. The severity and immediacy of the attack is aimed at inducing extreme fear among European nations, potentially leading to a strategic stalemate where retaliation becomes unthinkable, either due to the devastating consequences or the chaos that ensues.

This scenario hinges on the premise that Russia’s willingness to escalate to such an extent would effectively paralyze NATO and European responses, thereby ending the war through sheer overwhelming force and fear. Simply put, such an ultimate and decisive attack would cancel all the risks of hostility escalation and broader conflict thereby inaugurating and guaranteeing global peace and security once and for all.

Potential Outcomes of the Ukraine Conflict: Pathways Toward Peace or Catastrophe

Both scenarios underscore the deeply complex and perilous nature of the Ukraine conflict, illuminating the wide spectrum of potential outcomes and the profound risks involved.

The first scenario suggests a geopolitical recognition of defeat by the West, i.e., the EU, the UK, the US, and NATO, that leads to negotiations, compromise, and a reconfiguration of regional and global power dynamics. Such an outcome will pave the way for a new geopolitical order based on diplomacy, stability, and the respect of national sovereignty thereby ending the hostilities through a negotiated settlement that preserves some degree of stability and prevents further bloodshed. This scenario emphasizes the importance of diplomatic engagement, patience, and international cooperation in steering the conflict toward a peaceful resolution, even amid ongoing hostilities.

In stark contrast, the second scenario presents a terrifying and catastrophic possibility: that the conflict escalates into extreme destruction through heightened military measures, including the use of devastating conventional or non-nuclear weapons. This path would likely result in widespread demolition and massive civilian casualties. The prospect of such escalation underscores the dangerous brinkmanship and the extremely damaging potential inherent in modern warfare, where the line between conventional and catastrophic action can become dangerously blurred. It highlights the urgent need for restraint, diplomatic dialogue, and international mechanisms to prevent the conflict from spiraling into a devastating, uncontrolled escalation that could have global repercussions.

Conclusion

As the war continues to unfold, the international community must grapple with these stark and contrasting possibilities, each representing a different endgame with profound and far-reaching consequences. The first offers a hopeful vision rooted in diplomacy and the potential for a peaceful resolution, while the second serves as a grim reminder of how escalation can lead to catastrophic destruction. The challenge lies in guiding the conflict toward the most desirable outcome: one that minimizes human suffering and preserves regional and global stability.

Ultimately, the hope remains for a peaceful resolution, ideally achieved through the formal surrender of the obvious losers, i.e., the EU, the UK, the US, and NATO, thereby preventing the horrific outcome envisioned in the second scenario. Such a resolution would require steadfast diplomatic efforts, international cooperation, and a shared commitment to peace. It is essential that all parties prioritize negotiations and constructive engagement to avoid the devastating consequences of escalation, ensuring that the conflict ends not in destruction and chaos, but in a way that safeguards human lives, regional stability, and global security. Only through such concerted efforts can the international community hope to steer the course of this conflict away from catastrophe and toward a sustainable peace.

Over twenty years ago Las Vegas was still known as a place where you could lose your shirt gambling, but at least all the basic amenities made a weekend vacation cheap and fun.  Low cost hotel rooms, free transportation between casinos, complimentary drinks and cheap buffets are all disappearing; replaced by outrageous markups on even the smallest items.   

In the past, casinos and clubs focused on luring in tourists with subsidized comforts and making most of their profits through the gaming tables and slots.  Today, everything has changed.  Room prices have doubled in the span of five years.  A morning bagel can cost upwards of $12 or higher.  Cokes?  At least $4 per can.  Over $70 for valet parking.  The once legendary $10 all you can eat Vegas buffets?  All gone.  In some hotels a bottle of water at the minibar costs $26. 

Sure there’s inflation, but it’s also a systematic swindle.  What’s the point of going to Vegas to empty your wallet on Black Jack and Roulette when the casinos won’t even keep you fed?  The basic model for the city’s economy has been turned upside-down and companies are trying to drain tourist cash through a nickel-and-dime model on comforts they can get at home for 10% of the cost.       

The result has been an 11% collapse in tourism year-over-year and Las Vegas officials are worried. 

Visitor volume and consumer spending are tumbling in America’s casino capital, and the local unemployment rate is hovering among the highest in the country for big metro areas.  Democrats in Vegas blame Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts and tariff’s for “causing travel anxiety”.  There’s no tangible data to support these accusations.  As has been the case since the end of 2020, Democrat run cities suffer from exorbitant price increases across the board but somehow it’s all Trump’s fault. 

Not long ago average Vegas visitors had a wide range of incomes and many lower income tourists came to the area as an affordable alternative to overseas travel.  Today, the median income for tourists is over $93,000 a year; more than twice the national average.

While this might help to keep out the riffraff common to more affordable industries like cruise lines, it also deters the more ideal middle class demographic that was once the driver of the Vegas economy. 

Political leaders are now looking to a new bipartisan bill, the Apex Area Technical Corrections Act, to save the day. Signed into law by President Donald Trump, it could pave the way for economic diversification.  It allows federal land to be transitioned to industrial use, potentially bringing warehousing, manufacturing, and other factories to the North Las Vegas area.  

In any case, the old days of low cost Vegas comfort are gone, replaced by an inflationary fear and loathing that probably won’t be undone for many years.  American havens for the middle class are drying up fast.    

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

Christian priests and nuns based in Gaza City will remain to help displaced people sheltering at two churches despite the Israeli military’s plans to conquer the city, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

“At the time of this statement, evacuation orders were already in place for several neighborhoods in Gaza City. Reports of heavy bombardment continue to be received. There is more destruction and death in a situation that was already dramatic before this operation. It seems that the Israeli government’s announcement that ‘the gates of hell will open’ is indeed taking on tragic forms,” the Patriarchates said.

Hundreds of civilians have been sheltering at the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City and the nearby Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church. Both churches have come under Israeli attack, including the recent IDF tank shelling of the Holy Family Church, which killed three Christians and injured Father Gabriel Romanelli, a Catholic priest from Argentina.

Nuns with the Missionaries of Charity, a congregation founded by Mother Teresa, have had a presence in Gaza since the 1970s and have taken care of disabled Palestinians at the church since well before October 7, 2023.

“Like other residents of Gaza City, the refugees living in the facilities will have to decide according to their conscience what they will do. Among those who have sought shelter within the walls of the compounds, many are weakened and malnourished due to the hardships of the last months,” the Patriarchates said.

“Leaving Gaza City and trying to flee to the south would be nothing less than a death sentence. For this reason, the clergy and nuns have decided to remain and continue to care for all those who will be in the compounds,” they added.

Israel’s plans for the takeover of Gaza City involve the forced displacement of more than one million Palestinians sheltering there. The idea is to push them into southern Gaza, and from there, the Israeli government wants to pressure them to leave Gaza altogether, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have made clear their ultimate goal is the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territory.

According to numbers from the UN, at least 11,600 Palestinians have been displaced from north Gaza to southern Gaza since the Israeli military announced its plans to take over Gaza City and ramped up airstrikes and shelling of the city.

The Christian quarter of Gaza is under heavy attack from the nation state of Israel as of yesterday. The Al-Zaytoun neighborhood holds the last Christians alive in Gaza (almost entirely Orthodox and Catholics) and the last remaining Orthodox Church. Please pray. pic.twitter.com/hMsOp0VdHZ

— Theophan (@uncreated_light) August 25, 2025

“This is not the right way. There is no reason to justify the deliberate and forcible mass displacement of civilians,” the Patriarchates said. “It is time to end this spiral of violence, to put an end to war and to prioritize the common good of the people. There has been enough devastation, in the territories and in people’s lives. There is no reason to justify keeping civilians as prisoners and hostages in dramatic conditions. It is now time for the healing of the long-suffering families on all sides.”

About two weeks after an illegal alien truck driver made an illegal U-turn on a Florida highway, killing three Americans, Florida officials – responding to uproar from residents across the state and across the nation – will begin rolling out federal immigration checkpoints at all agricultural inspection stations. The move serves as a blueprint for other states to confront the migrant CDL crisis, which is not only a public safety threat but also a national security threat. Thank the Biden-Harris regime for the migrant CDL crisis that is killing Americans.

“There’s no telling how many illegal aliens are in this country driving large commercial vehicles and putting American families in a safety risk every single day,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier told reporters Monday during a press conference in Live Oak, a city north of Gainesville.

Uthmeier said his team is sending a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, urging the Trump administration to revoke the CDL license program authority and strip related federal funding from California and Washington. We have warned for many months that these sanctuary states handed out CDLs to migrants “like candy.” 

“States like California and Washington ignored the rules, gave an illegal alien a license to drive a 40-ton truck, and three people are dead as a result,” Uthmeier said, adding, “In response, we’re supporting our Agricultural Law Enforcement and state police to ramp up inspections at state entry-points for illegal aliens who may be operating large trucks using out-of-state driver’s licenses.”

Last Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio took decisive action to address the non-domiciled CDL crisis by “pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers” (read the note here).

Effective immediately we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers.

The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers.

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) August 21, 2025

Rubio’s action at State comes shortly after DoT Secretary Sean P. Duffy told the nation that the horrific incident involving an alien truck driver in Florida killing three Americans “cannot happen again.” 

This cannot happen again.

.@FMCSA is launching an investigation into both the driver and White Hawk Carrier.

Here’s what we know:

1. Washington State improperly issued the driver a full-term CDL. Asylum seekers or illegal aliens are NOT allowed to receive this!

2. New Mexico… pic.twitter.com/Qlf8T68IJz

— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) August 19, 2025

The issue Duffy and the Trump administration are discovering is that, under the Biden-Harris globalist regime’s open-borders invasion, the previous administration had boasted about “reducing barriers” for people to obtain CDLs. Figures from the previous administration showed that nearly a million CDLs were handed out like candy in just a short period of time. 

American Truckers United – the leader in exposing this migrant CDL crisis – has previously warned that many of these CDLs issued under the Biden-Harris regime went to migrants, some of whom don’t speak English and were employed by major trucking firms that served mega globalist corporations. 

Hence, the signs at Walmart:

And Amazon. 

And other trucking hubs. 

And remember, while traveling this holiday weekend, maintain full situational awareness on the highways for 80,000-pound big rigs operated by migrants who can’t read English. It could save your life – and your family’s.

Latest reporting on migrant CDL crisis:

• Advocacy Group Calls For U.S. Probe On Non-English Speaking Migrant Truck Drivers After Deadly Austin Crash

• Biden Handed Out CDLs Like Candy… Now U.S. Highways Are A Public Safety & National Security Nightmare

• Rolling Risk: Unvetted Migrants Behind The Wheel Of Big Rigs Threaten U.S. Safety & Security

• From North America To Australia, Migrant Truckers Are Fueling A Highway Safety Crisis

• English Trucking Rule Takes Effect, Federal Probe Begins Of Sanctuary State Migrant CDL Pipeline

• Letter Urges Transportation Sec. Duffy To Ban Foreign CDLs Amid Series Of Highway Crashes

• Highway Mayhem: Trucker From Sanctuary State Illinois Arrested After Baltimore Shooting Spree

• Walmart, Amazon Truck Depots Display Multilingual Signs, Raising Alarms Over Migrant Drivers With No English

• Watch: American Truckers United Issues Dire Warning On ‘Unsafe’ Highways Amid Flood Of Migrant Drivers, Crashes

• Florida Highway Horror: Migrant Truck Driver Leaves 3 Americans Dead Amid CDL Crisis

• Illegal Alien Behind Fatal Florida Big Rig Crash; Sec. Duffy Signals Major Action On CDL Crisis

• “This Cannot Happen Again”: Sec. Duffy Readies Major Action Against Rogue States Amid Migrant CDL Crisis

• US “Pauses Issuance Of Worker Visas For Truckers” To Address Illegal Alien CDL Crisis Killing Americans

Red states will most likely follow Florida’s lead by establishing federal immigration checkpoints at all trucking inspection stations.

. . . 

Authored by Kay Rubacek via The Epoch Times,

America’s loneliness epidemic has been headline news for years. We’ve seen study after study confirming what many feel in their bones: more people are isolated, disconnected, and struggling to find meaning in daily life.

Older Americans often chalk this up to technology or to the social scars of COVID. They aren’t entirely wrong, but the deeper story is much larger.

The culprit is not just phones, or screens, or even the internet.

The real driver of this new loneliness is algorithms—the invisible rules and processes that now govern how we live, connect, and even think.

This may sound abstract, but it isn’t. Algorithms are the silent presence shaping your news feed, recommending your next purchase, deciding which job application gets reviewed, and filtering which posts you see from family or friends. They don’t just show you the world; they decide which world you see.

And the most important thing to understand is that algorithms have not touched every generation equally.

Baby boomers and many Gen Xers remember life before algorithms. They grew up with solitude as a normal part of existence: long walks, time alone with books, evenings without distraction. Their social lives were local and embodied. If they were lonely, it was the ordinary kind of loneliness, the kind that might drive someone to call a friend, join a club, or just take a walk and kick around some stones along the way.

Millennials came of age as algorithms entered their lives through the rise of social media and smartphones. For them, the shift was gradual. They still remember analog childhoods, but their adult lives became increasingly tethered to devices. They learned to straddle both worlds, sometimes nostalgically recalling life before algorithms, but never recognizing algorithms as the new driving force in their lives.

Gen Z and Gen Alpha, however, have never known life without algorithmic curation. From childhood, their identities, friendships, and even their sense of self have been shaped inside systems designed to maximize engagement.

They are the most connected generation in history and yet, paradoxically, the loneliest. Studies confirm that they report higher levels of isolation and depression than their parents or grandparents did at the same age. For them, solitude is almost unimaginable. Their sleeping hours have diminished, and their waking hours have been saturated with algorithmic nudges, performance demands, and invisible comparisons.

This is why blaming “phones” or “tech” misses the point. A phone is just a tool. The deeper cause of today’s epidemic of loneliness is the system of algorithms that runs on those devices and quietly governs the lives lived through them.

What Algorithms Really Are

At their core, algorithms are simply instructions, step-by-step rules for solving a problem. A recipe is an algorithm. Your mental meal plan for the week and your decisions that lead to each choice of ingredient or food order are an algorithm. A GPS system calculating the fastest route from your home to your summer vacation rental is an algorithm.

But in today’s digital ecosystem, algorithms are far more than recipes or maps. They are adaptive, learning systems. They feed on vast pools of data—everything from your shopping habits to your search history, to the measured, minuscule pause you make when you scroll past a video. They compare that data with billions of other users and then predict what you’re most likely to click, watch, buy, or believe.

And because these systems are built by companies that profit from your attention, the algorithms are not neutral. They are designed to keep you hooked, whether by showing you an ad, an argument, or a carefully tuned video feed. The effect is subtle but relentless: instead of you using technology, technology uses you.

This is the deeper driver of the loneliness epidemic. It’s not the devices themselves, but the algorithmic logic that turns every human interaction into a transaction of engagement.

Algorithms, Big Data, and AI

To see the scale of this system, we have to understand how algorithms interact with big data and artificial intelligence. I like to think about it this way:

• Big Data is the raw material. It’s the massive flow of information generated by billions of people every second, such as texts, clicks, GPS signals, online purchases, etc.

• Data Science is the discipline of interpreting that flood of information, using statistical models to find patterns and predictions.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the set of systems that act on those patterns—generating responses, steering cars, translating languages, diagnosing illnesses.

And weaving through all of this are algorithms. They are the connective tissue that directs how data flows, how patterns are recognized, and how AI responds.

This system is bigger than any single app or gadget. It’s not just “social media” or “smartphones.” It’s a body. It’s a living digital body that touches every aspect of our lives.

The Digital Body Analogy

The scale and complexity of this system are hard to grasp. We can understand pieces, such as big data here, AI there, a billionaire’s investment somewhere else, but it’s nearly impossible to see the whole picture. Using a human body as an analogy provides a familiar framework that makes the invisible visible. Think of it this way:

• Blood = Big Data. Every click, swipe, and GPS ping is a drop in the digital bloodstream. It circulates endlessly, feeding every organ.

• Brain = Data Science. Like the cortex, data science interprets signals, prioritizing some and ignoring others.

• Muscles and Nerves = AI. Artificial intelligence carries out actions, reacting to the world, learning through repetition.

• Fascia = Algorithms. Just as fascia is the connective tissue that binds the body, algorithms link every system, invisible but essential.

• Skeleton = Infrastructure. The bones are the servers, chips, and cloud systems that hold the structure upright.

• Hormones = Billionaire Funding. Money acts like growth hormones, directing where and how the body grows.

• Immune System = Regulation and Ethics. Governments and watchdogs try to keep the system healthy, but they are slow compared to the pace of growth.

This is not a metaphor for metaphor’s sake. Thinking of technology as a body helps us see the interdependence of data, algorithms, AI, funding, and infrastructure. They are not separate silos. They are systems working together, coordinated and integrated. They are a whole organism with enormous power.

Who Guides This Digital Body?

The digital body does not grow in a vacuum. It is shaped by human ambition, institutional power, and the money that fuels its expansion. Mathematicians and statisticians lay down the theories that become its hidden code, while researchers and engineers turn those theories into systems that now operate at a planetary scale. Corporations then carry these systems into daily life, embedding them in banking, medicine, entertainment, and government services until opting out is almost impossible.

At the top, a handful of billionaires act as both financiers and architects.

Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Peter Thiel do not simply fund research, they steer its direction. Their money determines which projects thrive, which disappear, and which values are built into the foundations.

Whether it is Musk’s warnings of existential risk paired with his own competing ventures; Gates’s drive to integrate AI into healthcare and education; Zuckerberg’s insistence on open access to AI while keeping access reliant on his platforms; Bezos’s control of the cloud that almost every AI startup relies on, or Thiel’s focus on military and intelligence dominance, their priorities set the course for us all.

Governments claim to act as a counterweight, but their record shows otherwise. Regulations arrive years late, toothless or compromised, while public agencies themselves increasingly depend on the very systems they are meant to restrain. In action, many governments have chosen acceleration over accountability, trading away oversight for short-term advantage in the global race for dominance.

The result is stark. This body is not guided by democratic will or collective conscience. It is guided by the concentrated power of a few men, driven by their personal visions, and fed by the data of billions who never gave meaningful consent.

A Historical Parallel and a Break From History

We have faced moments of massive social transformation before. The Industrial Revolution restructured labor, uprooted communities, and filled cities with both opportunity and despair.

The nuclear age handed humanity weapons so destructive that entire doctrines of deterrence had to be invented to keep civilization intact. But today’s transformation is different in ways that strike at the core of what it means to be human. 

We have never had an industrial revolution that drove youth loneliness to epidemic levels. According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s 2023 Advisory on the Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation, young adults are now twice as likely as seniors to report feeling lonely. 

We have never had a technological revolution coincide with the highest youth suicide rates ever recorded: the CDC reports that suicide among Americans ages 10–24 surged 62 percent from 2007 to 2021.

Unlike the past, where machines amplified our physical abilities, this revolution claims it will amplify our mental ones. And yet, while promising to expand our intelligence, it has narrowed our attention, eroded our solitude, and dismissed our most basic human needs.

No previous age of invention told us that our inner lives—our thoughts, our longings, our silences—could be reduced to data points, packaged, analyzed, and monetized.

And unlike in past upheavals, where governments scrambled to erect guardrails, this time many regulators have stepped aside. Meanwhile, the human costs mount, and the immune system of conscience that once tried to protect society is barely functioning.

This is not simply another revolution. It is an entirely new phenomenon. For the first time, we are living inside a system we cannot see in full, operated by stakeholders we do not know, shaped by algorithms that coldly strip away our individuality. We are not merely workers adjusting to new machines; we are human beings being recast as data points, dehumanized inside a body that grows without us.

Seeing the Whole Body

That is why we must force ourselves to see the body whole. Not just apps or devices. Not just billionaires or companies. But the full organism: blood, brain, fascia, skeleton, muscles, hormones, and the silent forces driving it.

Only then can we understand why loneliness has become epidemic, why young people (our future) are struggling under pressures older generations never knew, and why humanity itself feels unsettled. We cannot continue to dismiss these harms as side effects of “new technology.” They are the natural outcome of a system that feeds on our data, reduces us to abstractions, and values engagement over flourishing.

If we do not recognize this body for what it is, we will continue to live as isolated organs serving it rather than as people with dignity, free will, and conscience.

The digital body is here. It is powerful, fast-growing, and largely invisible. The question is whether we will remain passive tissue inside it, or whether we will reassert our humanity and demand a body that serves us, not the other way around.

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

Authored by Clayton Baker, MD, via The Brownstone Institute,

The prime directive of Western medicine, its golden rule, is expressed by the Latin maxim primum non nocere – first, do no harm. Unfortunately, the Covid era taught us that from the patient’s point of view, a better motto for our times might be caveat emptor – let the buyer beware.

Every medical student is taught that, first and foremost, they should not cause harm to their patients, and every doctor is familiar with this maxim. It is echoed in the Hippocratic Oath, and it forms the basis for the four pillars of medical ethics: autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice.

This rule, and the core tenets of medical ethics that it underpins, were all abandoned during the Covid era. They were replaced with a brutal, inhumane, and unethical martial-law-as-public-health approach to medicine. The results were unconstitutional lockdowns, prolonged school closures, suppression of early treatment, mandated vaccinations, and silencing of dissenting views. These abuses were justified by constant propaganda and lies from public health authorities, the medical establishment, the mainstream media, and medical professional associations.

Enter the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is the largest professional association for pediatricians in the United States. Nearly one hundred years old, the AAP’s motto is “Dedicated to the Health of All Children.” But as with so much of the medical establishment, the Covid era revealed that the AAP has abandoned its stated mission, and in the process, it has betrayed children everywhere.

During the Covid era, no group was harmed more – or more unnecessarily – than children, who lost multiple years of education, socialization, and normal growth and development. Many millions of kids also received the fraudulently tested, toxic, experimental mRNA-based injections that were coercively imposed upon the population at large. Countless children have been harmed or killed by these products, with myocarditis being only the most universally acknowledged of the many toxicities associated with the shots.

Adding insult to injury, it was known from the beginning of the pandemic that the gain-of-function-produced SARS-CoV-2 virus affected children very mildly, rarely causing severe illness, and almost never killing them. Even at the height of the pandemic, an article in the preeminent journal Nature described pediatric Covid deaths as “incredibly rare.” A very large population-based Korean study from 2023 found the case-fatality rate in children from Covid to be well under 1 death in every 100,000 cases. 

If no segment of the population was harmed more egregiously than children during the Covid era, few medical organizations betrayed their patient population more thoroughly than the American Academy of Pediatrics.

While the AAP has for many years taken questionable stances on a variety of issues, including the ever-enlarging pediatric vaccine schedule, “gender reassignment,” and others, at one early point during Covid, the AAP did attempt to advocate appropriately in the interest of children. It didn’t last long, however, and a review of this incident shows how the AAP, like so many other medical professional organizations, effectively sold its soul during Covid.

Summer 2020: The AAP Changes Its Tune on In-School Learning

From mid-March 2020, when the Covid lockdowns began, until the end of that school year in June, most American schoolchildren had been kept completely out of school. On July 9, 2020, the AAP released a statement arguing forcefully for the return of American schoolchildren back:

The AAP strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school. The importance of in-person learning is well-documented, and there is already evidence of the negative impacts on children because of school closures in the spring of 2020.

The July AAP statement went on to say that school closure “places children and adolescents at considerable risk of morbidity and, in some cases, mortality.” It went even further to state that:

the preponderance of evidence indicates that children and adolescents are less likely to be symptomatic and less likely to have severe disease resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, children may be less likely to become infected and to spread infection.

All of these claims the AAP made in July 2020 were known to be true to those who did the proper research (as the AAP apparently had done), and they have been repeatedly and definitively confirmed in the following years.

I was acutely aware of that July 9, 2020, AAP statement. I used it as an important resource in my own advocacy during the summer of 2020 to try to get schools reopened for full-time learning in New York State by the fall. The July AAP document was a well-researched, well-constructed, and well-argued advocacy tool that supported all children’s best interests.

So far, so good. Very soon thereafter, however, the AAP shamefully succumbed to pressure from public health officials, teachers’ unions, and others pushing for continued school closures. By August 19, 2020, with school reopening imminent, the AAP suddenly “revised” their recommendations. The AAP dramatically changed its tune, stating that they would go along with whatever measures public health officials decreed:

…many schools where the virus is widespread will need to adopt virtual lessons and [AAP] is calling for more federal funding to support both models.

“This is on us – the adults – to be doing all the things public health experts are recommending to reduce the spread of the virus,” said AAP President Sara “Sally” H. Goza, M.D., FAAP.

In an act of cowardice and dereliction of duty, the AAP surrendered. It abandoned the strong and sound advocacy for normalizing children’s education contained in its July document. As a physician actively following the issues of the day surrounding Covid and publicly fighting for school reopening, I can testify that nothing changed regarding our knowledge of the virus that justified the AAP’s abdication of its responsibility to children. In fact, multiple foreign countries had already returned children to school without ill effect. The AAP’s capitulation significantly undermined school reopening efforts, especially in Blue states.

The AAP’s sudden and craven volte-face regarding in-school learning was just one of many disgraceful acts committed by medical associations during the Covid era, and it acted to the severe harm of schoolchildren across the nation. Millions of American schoolchildren continued to languish in “remote” or “hybrid” learning for the entire 2020-2021 school year. Many thousands simply dropped out of school, never to return. 

In retrospect, the AAP cannot claim that they “didn’t know” enough to push for school reopening. Their July 2020 document proves they knew the correct course of action – before caving in to the establishment’s false narrative, and then subsequently devolving into just one more shameless shill organization, pushing for the mass inoculation of children with the toxic Covid mRNA injections. 

Why would the AAP have done such a thing?

Money, for one thing. And plenty of it.

The AAP’s Federal Funding Windfall During Covid

As the Covid vaccine push intensified, the AAP became one of the trusted legacy medical associations that was handsomely rewarded to “push vaccines and combat ‘Misinformation’.” By 2023, the year for which data is most available, the AAP was absolutely raking it in.

As journalist Michael Nevradakis explains:

AAP… received $34,974,759 in government grants during the 2023 fiscal year, according to the organization’s most recent tax disclosure. The grants are itemized in the AAP’s single audit report for 2023-2024.Documents show some of the money was used to advance childhood vaccination in the U.S. and abroad, target medical “misinformation” and “disinformation” online, [and] develop a Regional Pediatric Pandemic Network.

In summary: in July 2020, the AAP ever-so-briefly and correctly sided with the lockdown dissenters, in service of its self-proclaimed motto to serve “the health of all children.”

But by mid-August, the AAP switched sides and subsequently got a massive payout to do so.

In fiscal 2023 alone, the AAP was receiving $35 million of tax money, much of it directly tied to pushing the Covid mRNA shots in children and to silence dissenters, whom it knew were telling the truth.

Unfortunately, this is unsurprising. Years before Covid, the AAP had already morphed into a highly compromised organization, straying far from its stated goal of being “dedicated to the health of all children.”

The Dinosaurs Sell Themselves to Survive

The business model for the old establishment medical professional organizations, like the AAP, is a dinosaur. The value of paid membership to these organizations has disappeared over the years, causing income from membership fees to fall. Individual paid subscriptions to their flagship journals have nosedived as well. Their financial survival increasingly relies upon Big Pharma largesse and, as we saw above for the AAP during Covid, government payouts. 

In return for Big Pharma and government money, these professional organizations function less and less as champions for their professional members and their patients. They become mouthpieces for government initiatives and advertisers for Pharma. If you’ll pardon the mixed metaphor, they have become a strange species of dinosaur-prostitutes.

The AAP in particular is deeply tied to and heavily subsidized by Big Pharma, especially in the area of vaccine promotion.

Starting with the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA), which effectively eliminated tort liability for vaccine manufacturers, the CDC pediatric vaccine schedule has ballooned from 7 vaccines in 1985 to 23 vaccines (and over 70 total doses!) in 2024. Since then, the AAP has largely been in the vaccine promotion business.

In accordance with the CDC vaccine schedules, the Federal government purchases huge quantities of the recommended vaccines from pharmaceutical companies. The shots are promoted to the public and to physicians through well-paid organizations like the AAP, and administered by pediatricians, many of whom receive payment – essentially kickbacks – to do so. Every step of the way, palms are greased.

As a result, American children have become what Dr. Meryl Nass calls “a delivery system to transfer taxpayer funds to big pharmaceutical companies, via your child or grandchild’s arm.” 

As HHS Secretary Kennedy recently noted, the AAP posts on its own website its financial indebtedness to its corporate “donors.” Lo and behold, the four top vaccine manufacturers for the products on the pediatric vaccine schedule – Merck, Pfizer, Moderna, and Sanofi – stand at the top of the AAP’s corporate “donor” list. (The total amounts of the payouts the AAP receives are not disclosed.)

The AAP, originally created a century ago to advocate for pediatricians and their patients, has devolved into an advertiser and lobbyist for the corporate interests that fund their operations. So much for “dedicated to the health of all children.”

The AAP Goes All-In Against Reform

Fast forward to the present. The second Trump Administration and its reconstituted Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., are attempting to implement much-needed reforms to the corrupt and thoroughly captured Federal regulatory systems for healthcare.

HHS has begun to review and revise the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended vaccine schedules, including the pediatric schedule. As mentioned above, since the passage of the NCVIA, which provided broad legal immunity to vaccine manufacturers, the pediatric schedule has exploded, from 7 recommended shots in 1986 to an incredible 23 in 2024. For over 3 decades, the AAP has agreed with the recommendations of the CDC with regard to the recommended pediatric vaccines, without argument.

Absolutely no cumulative safety testing for this bloated schedule has ever been performed, and products based on the highly controversial mRNA platform, including annual recommended shots for Covid, have recently been added to the schedule. The CDC pediatric schedule is much larger than those of most other developed countries, many of which boast significantly better pediatric (and general population) health than the United States.

Kennedy’s HHS replaced the members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) that reviews vaccines for the schedules, due to documented conflicts of interest that many prior members were found to have.

In May 2025, Kennedy’s HHS announced changes to the Covid-19 vaccination recommendations for children. The changes are in fact modest. Regarding the Covid shots, CDC currently recommends “shared clinical decision-making” between parents and providers for healthy children ages 6 months to 17 years.

How has the American Academy of Pediatrics responded? With actions so blatantly pro-Pharma, and so spitefully anti-parent, anti-patient, and anti-child, that their August 2020 betrayal of schoolchildren seems like, well, child’s play in comparison.

On July 28, 2025, in its flagship journal Pediatrics, the AAP released a policy statement calling for a nationwide end to all religious and other nonmedical exemptions for all mandated vaccinations for children, announcing “The AAP advocates for the elimination of nonmedical exemptions from immunizations as contrary to optimal individual and public health.”

Note that the AAP calls for a blanket ban. It makes no distinction between different vaccines, different educational settings, or different reasons for seeking exemptions. According to the AAP, all mandated vaccines are equally essential to both “individual and public health.” All nonmedical exemptions are totally invalid. 

The lead author of the policy statement, one Dr. Jesse Hackell, told MedpageToday that

“We recognize that excluding a child from public education does have problems, and yet, we reach the conclusion that, on balance, assuring the safety of the school and daycare environment outweighs that risk because there are other educational opportunities available.”

What an appalling shift in the AAP’s attitude toward in-school learning. What happened to their July 2020 stance, when barring kids from school “places children and adolescents at considerable risk of morbidity and, in some cases, mortality?” 

The AAP’s message to parents and children is crystal clear. They don’t give a damn about your beliefs, your personal autonomy, your Constitutional rights, or even your well-being. You want to go to school? Shut up, line up, and take the shots we tell you to take. Every last one of them. On August 19, 2025, the AAP released its own pediatric vaccination schedule, which is at variance with the Kennedy HHS’s current schedule. The AAP’s website states:

“The biggest difference between the AAP and CDC schedules is around COVID-19 vaccination. The CDC no longer recommends routine vaccination for healthy children, although children can get vaccinated after a conversation with their doctor. In contrast, the AAP recommends all young children ages 6-23 months get vaccinated.”

It is telling that after decades of placid agreement with the CDC as the pediatric vaccine schedule continually expanded, the AAP has decided to take the drastic step of releasing its own childhood vaccination schedule, at variance with the CDC’s, over the issue of “shared decision-making.” Apparently, only slavish adherence to mandatory vaccination suffices for the AAP.

This is the AAP’s stance, despite rapidly declining uptake of the Covid shots in the population, the miniscule risk of Covid to children, and the mountains of evidence building that demonstrate the toxicity of these shots. In addition to myocarditis, peer-reviewed studies are demonstrating numerous autoimmune and immune system toxicities in children receiving these shots. Michael Nevradakis lists some of these:

According to a peer-reviewed study published in Pediatric Rheumatology in May, children and adolescents who received at least one Covid-19 vaccine had a 23% higher risk of developing autoimmune disease compared to unvaccinated children.

A study published in the journal Immunity, Inflammation and Disease in April found that young adults who received a Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine showed elevated spike protein production a year or more after vaccination — significantly longer than the spike protein was expected to remain in the body.Children ages 5-11 who received two doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine had heightened levels of a type of antibody suggestive of an altered immune system response one year after vaccination, according to a peer-reviewed study published last year in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

Regarding the Covid injections and the CDC vaccine schedule in general, the AAP holds a weak hand, and yet their leadership is going all-in anyway. The AAP’s insistence on annual Covid shots for children is absurd at best, and murderous at worst. As public relations, it appears arrogant, mercenary, and utterly tone deaf. Morally and ethically, it is indefensible.

The Betrayal Is Complete

The leadership at the American Academy of Pediatrics has apparently decided that they would rather torch any residual credibility on the altar of vaccinology than acknowledge any past or present mistakes, or suffer the pain of needed reform. In so doing, with their arrogant and grossly irresponsible attitude to the safety of children, they demonstrate that primum non nocere is not in their vocabulary, and that their motto “dedicated to the health of children” is, quite frankly, a lie.

Such destructive (and self-destructive) actions reveal the AAP’s near-total dependency on the vaccine industry, and its desperation to perpetuate that gravy train at any cost. The American Academy of Pediatrics has sold its soul. Sooner or later, the devil will come to collect.

The AAP’s deep betrayal of its stated core purpose is hardly unique. The AAP is just the poster child for the corruption and corporate capture that have consumed other legacy medical professional associations (the American Medical Association and the American College of Gynecology come to mind). 

The Federal Government must stop all funding to medical professional organizations like the AAP. This was always bound to corrupt them, and hard experience has demonstrated that it has. Furthermore, these organizations should be prohibited from accepting Pharma largesse, or at the very least be required to publicly disclose all income from such sources.

Perhaps some of these organizations will choose to reform. Public admission of past wrongdoing, complete divestiture of all Pharma support, and eliminating government subsidy would be the essential, bare-minimum steps to re-establishing independence and credibility. 

More likely, the dinosaurs will be replaced by a species of smaller, independent, and uncompromised organizations that incorporate safeguards against the corruption that destroyed their predecessors.

Any legacy medical professional organizations that do not thoroughly and sincerely reform do not deserve the support of physicians, credibility in the eyes of the public, or trust of patients. May they go the way of the dinosaur.