The 2025 Paris Air Show, Europe’s biggest air show, is nearing an end as Airbus announced a flurry of new plane orders while Boeing dialed back its presence to focus on last week’s Air India 787 Dreamliner crash. 

Reuters estimates Airbus has secured $21 billion in sales through Thursday morning, led by 132 firm orders on Monday alone from buyers including Saudi lessor AviLease, Japan’s ANA, and Poland’s LOT. That compares to just 41 for Boeing and 15 for Brazil’s Embraer, according to aviation advisory firm IBA.

So far, in Boeing’s absence, Airbus has seized center stage in the commercial aviation space. The show was defense-heavy, and the most yet, according to aviation blog AeroTime:

Yet even this early flurry of orders couldn’t shift the broader impression: the 2025 edition is a defense show. More specifically, a show shaped by war and the enduring demands it places on production, logistics, and inventory. Organizers revealed that approximately 45% of this year’s show was dedicated to defense and security, marking a record-high share for Le Bourget. Air and missile defense systems, ISR platforms, and drone technologies dominated both floor space and conversations.

The wars in Ukraine and Gaza continue to influence both the tone and content of announcements across the board. This year, exhibitors seemed more preoccupied with the gritty realities of supply chains, industrial base readiness, and attrition warfare.

It is a telling shift. The idea that high-end systems alone win wars has been challenged repeatedly over the past two years. In Ukraine, Russia’s reliance on quantity over quality has exposed the limits of boutique arsenals. In Israel, stockpiles have proven just as essential as sensors or networked command.

Lockheed Martin captured this mood directly. It announced a production ramp-up across its missile portfolio, with a 40% increase in tactical missile deliveries year-on-year. While many eyes were looking for flashy unveilings or next-gen prototypes, Lockheed’s real message was about scale and delivery capacity, two areas militaries increasingly care about.

Beyond missiles, a clear narrative emerged around the transformation of legacy platforms. Gone are the days when new drones or sixth-generation fighter mockups dominated every conversation. Instead, the focus has shifted toward how existing assets, some of them decades old, can be adapted to fight in tomorrow’s networked environment.

Take Airbus’s A400M, which was presented not just as a transport aircraft but as a future “mothership” platform capable of deploying UAVs and integrating into a system-of-systems battlefield. Similarly, Sikorsky gave a briefing in which its Black Hawk was showcased with concepts for integration with unmanned systems and autonomous missions, proof that even established workhorses are being reimagined for collaborative combat scenarios.

The language surrounding these announcements has changed, too. Buzzwords like “interoperability,” “modularity,” and “attritability” featured heavily, but so did references to reliability, sustainment, and production guarantees. It seems that militaries are asking fewer questions about what might be possible, and more about what will actually be delivered, on time and in quantity.

In a separate note, a team of Goldman analysts, led by Noah Poponak, attended the air show and met with 15 companies across the aviation industry. 

Given the Paris Air Show’s heavier defense focus this year amid escalating global conflicts, we’ll narrow the focus to Poponak’s discussions with several key defense firms:

RTX Corp. (RTX; Neutral):

We attended the RTX investor event on 6/16. The company discussed its key platforms in the commercial and defense businesses, the opportunities it sees to expand and improve content, and how it can leverage data and AI to improve manufacturing efficiency and part effectiveness.

• Defense: The leadership team from RTX is focused on its missile defense systems and military engines. Management noted that production on its Coyote product has recently ramped from 40 to 100 and will reach 150/mo by the end of the year. The company described different layers of missile defense and its products (35 systems in use in combat today) within each that are set to grow with initiatives such as Golden Dome. RTX spoke to the success of the F35 in recent missions and how its work on the engine enables that. The company also highlighted it builds propulsion for the B21 bomber, the first sixth gen application, and is ready to provide commercial off the shelf engines for CCA depending on requirements.

Woodward Inc. (WWD; Buy – on Conviction List):

We hosted a group dinner meeting with Woodward Director of Investor Relations – Daniel Provaznik. Investor conversation spanned WWD’s portfolio, covering LEAP content gains, JDAM, the industrial businesses, and the recent Airbus announcement. We also hosted an investor meeting with CFO Bill Lacey, Daniel Provaznik, and Market Analysis and Stratety Manager Scott Davis on 6/16.

• JDAM: In the last three quarters, Defense OE revenues have grown ~40%, ~21%, and ~52% yoy, with some of that momentum attributable to increased JDAM order activity. WWD expects to deliver JDAM components under a new contract structure beginning in ~F4Q25, where it has negotiated price increases, which should meaningfully improve the program margin.

GE Aerospace (GE; Buy):

We hosted Rahul Ghai (CFO) and Blaire Shoor (Head of IR).

• New engine technology & defense: GE believes the open fan approach to the engine it is developing under CFM’s RISE program is the best way to achieve the 20%+ fuel efficiency gain over the current generation of engines (LEAP, GTF). That said, it will likely be several years before an OE makes a decision on what engine to move forward with, and the RISE engine would likely not see EIS until the mid 2030s if it were chosen. In GE’s defense portfolio, the company believes its backlog, programs, and U.S. defense spending will sustain MSD% growth over the medium to long term.

CAE Inc. (CAE; Buy):

We hosted Andrew Arnovitz (Senior VP Investor Relations).

• Defense: Management sees large opportunities for its defense business to grow as non-US budgets increase. The company noted that 50% of its defense business is U.S. vs international. It identified Canada as a strong opportunity, as the country has under invested in defense for decades, and it needs many types of systems that CAE is well positioned to provide training on. The company believes it has a competitive advantage because it is not a prime and it has the ability to partner with disruptive defense tech companies to offer new products. Management reiterated its expectation for 8-8.5% margins this year and LDD% margins in the future.

Howmet Aerospace Inc. (HWM; Buy):

We hosted Ken Giacobbe (CFO) and Paul Luther (VP Investor Relations).

• Defense: HWM’s defense business is strong. F35 is a big part of the business, as the company is sole sourced on critical components of the engine. The fleet currently stands at ~1,100 aircraft, and will to continue to grow at ~150 planes/year, so the company is optimistic about both OE and spares growth for the platform. On next generation capabilities, HWM is agnostic to who wins given its expertise in the hot parts of the engine, and the lack of a strong competitor.

On a related note, we flagged the emergence of a “hemispheric defense” theme last month—marking the rise of all things defense as the world fractures into an increasingly dangerous bi-polar state. 

President Trump stated Thursday that a potential U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear targets could occur within a two-week window. This announcement aligns with an uptick in U.S. military activity across the USNORTHCOM, USEUCOM, and USCENTCOM theaters, including airlift missions, the deployment of aerial refueling tankers, and the repositioning of naval assets—indicators consistent with pre-strike staging. While officially framed around countering Iran’s nuclear program, the operation so far suggests regime change. 

Simultaneously, in the Homeland, concerns are flourishing over the possible activation of Iran-backed operatives. According to CBS News, intelligence and law enforcement officials remain focused on Hezbollah-linked sleeper cells and IRGC proxy networks, which could be directed to carry out retaliatory actions if the U.S. initiates kinetic attacks against Iran to support Israel. 

Here’s more from CBS News, citing multiple sources… 

As President Trump is contemplating potential U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, law enforcement officials have stepped up surveillance of Iran-backed operatives in the United States, multiple sources told CBS News.

FBI Director Kash Patel has increased efforts to monitor possible domestic sleeper cells linked to Hezbollah — a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization backed by Iran — since Israel’s Operation Rising Lion offensive began earlier this month, U.S. officials said.

. . . 

The threat from Iranian operatives has worried current and former administration officials since Iranian General Qasem Soleimani was assassinated on Mr. Trump’s orders in January 2020.

CBS noted:

Late last year, federal prosecutors charged an operative of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and two U.S.-based people with plotting to surveil and assassinate critics of the Iranian regime. The IRGC operative allegedly told investigators he was pushed by unnamed IRGC officials to plan an attack against Mr. Trump.

The threat on the Homeland has never been graver given the Biden-Harris regime of globalists facilitated the greatest invasion this nation has ever seen on the southern border, with millions of unvetted migrants, criminals, cartel gangsters, and terrorists. 

In late 2024, former CIA targeting officer Sarah Adams spoke on the Shawn Ryan Show about Al-Qaeda terrorists on American soil. 

Ryan asked Adams: “I just want to clarify. You are 100% certain that there are 1,000 plus Al-Qaeda-trained fighters within the U.S. borders?”

Adams, currently a global threat advisor with extensive experience in Middle Eastern affairs, responded: “Well, Al-Qaeda says they trained and deployed a thousand for this attack. First off, I think there are more than a thousand Al-Qaeda members in the United States, but for the Homeland Attack, that number is based on what Al-Qaeda is saying, so they could exaggerate it; however, they did have about 1,400 in the Hamas Attack so the number is not off from what they did in the first round of attacks.” 

Frightening information to hear. Former CIA targeting officer Sarah Adams is warning of an IRGC U.S. Homeland attack in retaliation for Soleimani. She says 1,000 or more terrorists may already be here and discusses the “Invisible Bomb” undetectable to magnetometers and now… pic.twitter.com/tVGLhHGqZI

— Johnny St.Pete (@JohnMcCloy) December 28, 2024

The overlap between the Israel-Iran conflict and an elevated U.S. counter-terrorism posture signals a rising domestic threat environment should President Trump decide on direct military action. Open southern borders over the past four years via the globalists in the Biden-Harris regime have markedly increased uncertainty about the number of IRGC- or Hezbollah-linked operatives inside the country. In the event of a U.S. strike on Iran, these terror networks could conduct retaliatory attacks against high-visibility or soft targets.

Submitted by American Truckers United,

As the deadline for President Trump’s Executive Order 14286, titled “Enforcing Commonsense Rules of the Road for America’s Truck Drivers,” looms, a powerful movement is gaining momentum in Washington to address a national security crisis in America’s trucking industry. Signed in April 2025, the order mandates stricter enforcement of road safety regulations. With time running out, American Truckers United has sent an urgent letter to Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy, demanding a ban on non-domicile Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) for non-citizens and restrictions on foreign CDLs to commercial trade zones.

American Truckers United delivered a letter to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, requesting support for our petition to ban non-domicile CDLs issued to non-citizens and to restrict foreign CDLs. https://t.co/uQv0hwIvmC pic.twitter.com/z71Ba8XnJ6

— American Truckers (@atutruckers) June 19, 2025

The letter exposes how illegal labor, exploiting loopholes from Biden-era policies, has flooded the industry with unvetted drivers. A recent Zero Hedge report highlighted how CDLs were handed out “like candy,” creating a “public safety nightmare.”

Raman Dhillon of the North American Punjabi Trucking Association warned federal agencies years ago about the dangers, noting that some drivers, with no U.S. driving experience, obtained CDLs within months. “This is a national security issue,” Dhillon told officials, yet the warnings went unheeded.

😡Breaking News: Biden Administration Was Warned

Biden Administration, FMCSA, DOT, DOL, and OSHA leadership were all in attendance at the Biden Harris Trucking Action Plan. They knew.

As Raman Dhillon told the story, he and the other smaller associations “said in front of… pic.twitter.com/kYfPkPnpL4

— American Truckers (@atutruckers) June 19, 2025

Compounding the crisis, Major Omar A. Villarreal of the Texas Highway Patrol detailed in a December 2024 letter to the FMCSA how corrupt Mexican officials sell digital CDLs without vetting, endangering lives. Calling for their prohibition.

Texas DPS Justification for the Prohibition of the Mexican Licensisa de Conductor and Canadian Issued Commercial Drivers Licenses pic.twitter.com/sPG8swm4Vi

— American Truckers (@atutruckers) June 19, 2025

His 17-page report documented safety violations by Mexican and Central American drivers, often employed by U.S. carriers engaging in illegal cabotage. 

🚨ALARMING: Unvetted Non-Citizens Driving 80,000 lb Commercial Vehicles on Our Highways!

According to comments from Texas DPS Officers (attached), many of these drivers are operating with foreign CDLs they have purchased illegally, posing a serious threat to our families. Just… pic.twitter.com/kpKqwWPEpg

— American Truckers (@atutruckers) June 12, 2025

While his acknowledgment of the fraud in the system is appreciated, his attempt to issue non-domicile CDLs to non-citizens from Mexico and Canada is very misguided, as it risks perpetuating the problem rather than resolving it.

🚨Texas DPS petitioning the FMCSA to issue Non Domiciled CDLS to Mexican and Canadian Truck Drivers 🚨 HELL NO – BAN THEM ALL pic.twitter.com/oBXWTGLll5

— American Truckers (@atutruckers) June 19, 2025

Domestically, bribery schemes have exacerbated the problem, with DMV employees in Florida arrested for selling 1,000 untested commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs). 

🚨SHOCKING SCANDAL: Florida DMV employees ARRESTED for selling Non-Domicile CDLs to Non-Citizens!😳

Over 1,000 licenses likely sold to non-citizens with NO training, testing, or vetting—FROM JUST ONE DMV!

American Truckers United warned 4 months ago: Florida is one of 10… https://t.co/j8412VQxB1 pic.twitter.com/XgXFj8X42Y

— American Truckers (@atutruckers) June 16, 2025

Similar scams have been uncovered in Oregon, Massachusetts, and California.

Given the lack of oversight and accountability, it is no surprise that this ecosystem of drivers now controls major marketplaces.

🚨National Security Threat in Trucking – The majority of the truckloads in Americas two largest ports are now being hauled by Non-Citizen truck drivers when shipped over the road by semi-truck. This is a National Security threat that should be addressed immediately. @SecDuffy… pic.twitter.com/Ho7YGcv9Se

— American Truckers (@atutruckers) June 13, 2025

The truckers’ petition, aligned with EO 14286, urges Duffy to act decisively. A white paper attached to the letter outlines safety threats and proposes solutions to protect highways and American jobs. As Washington feels the pressure, this grassroots effort is gaining traction. 

One path to regime change in Iran involves targeted strikes on state media infrastructure, designed to sever the regime’s grip on domestic narratives. In parallel, Western technology—such as Starlink terminals—could flood the information vacuum with uncensored internet, enabling the West’s long-prepared psychological operations to win hearts and minds on the ground. 

Early-phase operations appear to have already involved Israeli airstrikes targeting IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) facilities and associated communication nodes in Tehran at the start of the week. The bombing of Iran’s state broadcasters may paralyze the regime’s centralized propaganda apparatus. There has been no confirmation if the regime’s capacity to broadcast propaganda has been degraded.

The Israeli military pointed out it targeted a “communications center of the Iranian regime,” while Iran’s foreign ministry called the strike a “war crime.” 

BREAKING | Israel bombs Iranian state media broadcaster IRIB live during a segment. pic.twitter.com/VXyt1RUGfc

— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) June 16, 2025

🚨NOW — Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) was targeted by an Israeli Air Force precision strike.

The IDF had issued evacuation warnings for the Tehran district housing IRIB prior to the strike.

IRIB is seen as a “propaganda mouthpiece”.pic.twitter.com/Y4SCiMmykf

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 16, 2025

By late in the week, the NetBlocks website, which monitors global Internet activity, reported that internet activity across Iran had collapsed to near zero. 

⚠️ Update: Iran’s internet shutdown has now passed the 48 hour mark; metrics show the nation has been offline for more than two days, leaving loved ones out of touch and citizens ill-informed about the state of conflict with Israel ⏱️ pic.twitter.com/LTeFsTqR7e

— NetBlocks (@netblocks) June 20, 2025

With state media nodes targeted by IDF airstrikes and ground-based communication infrastructure in shambles, the emergence of Starlink internet connectivity inside Iran—either smuggled in or activated via third-party coordination—strongly suggests that the next move by Western forces could involve a domestic operation to supply the population with real-time, censorship-free internet that bypasses state firewalls. 

🚨🇮🇷 STARLINK STILL LIVE IN IRAN AFTER REGIME CUTS INTERNET

Following Israeli strikes on Tehran, Iran’s regime pulled the plug on the internet, but Elon didn’t.

Starlink remains active, quietly punching through the blackout with uncensored satellite access.

Tehran’s firewall… https://t.co/OZslE0axqC pic.twitter.com/BxmWkEu0Ns

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) June 20, 2025

A week ago, SpaceX’s Elon Musk confirmed that Starlink “beams are on” after the Iranian regime cut the internet. 

The beams are on

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 14, 2025

Neutralizing state media outlets while activating external internet access could mark the West’s strategic aim to decapitate the regime’s information control, thereby accelerating public disillusionment, fueling color revolution mobilization efforts, and laying the groundwork for all the necessary ingredients for regime change. 

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on June 18 announced a halt to clinical trials that involve sending cells from Americans to “hostile countries” until they can confirm Americans have granted informed consent.

FDA officials said that a security rule finalized in late 2024 under the previous administration, and implemented in April, limits exports of sensitive data to China and other countries of concern, but that the rule contains an exemption for companies sending biological samples such as DNA for processing overseas as part of trials regulated by the agency.

Dr. Marty Makary, the FDA’s commissioner, and Dr. Vinay Prasad, head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a video released by the agency that they only learned about the exception this week.

“Americans have their, can have their cells removed for cancer treatment, sent to China, where they are genetically engineered that is genetically edited, sent back to the United States, where it’s then infused back into an American,” Makary said. “And so from a pure national security standpoint, it sounds very concerning.”

Prasad said that the cells “can be engineered to be potent killers of targets that can be found anywhere” and that scientists may not be able to fully test them on their way back into the United States.

“In cases of personal health information, Americans’ identity, in cases of national security, I think we have to be extremely strict and really protect American interests here,” he added later.

The FDA said in a statement that there are signs that Americans participating in some of the trials were not informed about their biological material being sent overseas, and that the transfer may have exposed the genetic data to misuse by foreign governments, including the Chinese Communist Party.

The agency said it is now reviewing all of the trials that relied on the exemption to the security rule. Officials say they’re going to require that companies “demonstrate full transparency, ethical consent, and domestic handling of sensitive biological materials” before trials are allowed to resume.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya welcomed the development.

“Our goal is to protect Americans’ sensitive biological data while continuing to support life-saving innovation in a way that is safe, secure, and worthy of the public’s trust,” he said in a statement. “This exemption requested created a dangerous blind spot in our research security that put the privacy and trust of American participants at risk. We are assessing the scope of this issue to ensure that no NIH dollars are supporting clinical trials that compromise data integrity, patient consent, or national security.”

Officials said the moves are aimed at following an executive order signed by then-President Joe Biden in 2024, as well as an additional order signed in May by President Donald Trump.

Biden’s order stated that the access of countries of concern to Americans’ sensitive personal data “constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat” and instructed government officials to restrict such access. Trump’s order directed officials to end federal funding of life-science research occurring in foreign countries without adequate oversight.

The primary argument among progressives on the issue of mass deportations is that “criminals are fine” but kicking Pedro the farm worker or Juanita the waitress back to Mexico is unacceptable because they are doing jobs that native born Americans refuse to do.

First, the Trump campaign made it clear from the beginning that they planned to deport all illegals, not just those that commit crimes after they cross the border.  Second, the narrative of essential migrant workers is based on a lie; Americans do want and need most of the jobs being stolen by foreign invaders.  

An ICE raid this week at the Glenn Valley Foods meat packing plant in Omaha, Nebraska resulted in at least 75 illegals detained out of 150 workers total workers.  The majority are now being deported, triggering an angry leftist protest. 

With the plant losing so many workers at the same time the concern was that it would have to immediately shut down. Every employee at Glenn Valley Foods, including those who were detained by ICE, has been approved through E-Verify, according to the company owner Gary Rohwer. When he told this to DHS during the raid, an agency official described the system they operate as flawed and easy to cheat.

It’s also important to remember that these are vetting systems restructured by the Biden Administration and it’s likely most of the illegals were hired during Biden’s term.  About a third of the remaining staff at Glenn Valley Foods showed up to work the next day, with many staying home because they “felt afraid or traumatized”, resulting in a roughly 20% drop in production.  No illegals will dare apply at any of the surrounding manufacturing plants – In other words, the raid was a success. 

The company is now engaged in a hiring frenzy and they are getting a positive response.  Despite his claim that manufacturers will collapse without migrants, Rohwer admitted that the packing plant immediately received over 100 new applications and only five of the potential employees are immigrants.  That’s right, the illegals were stealing jobs from native born Americans who were willing to work.

Workers on the production line at Glenn Valley Foods earn $18 to $19 an hour, Rohwer says.  How much the illegal workers were getting paid is not known, but on average migrants work for 30% less in any given industry, driving down wages for Americans and undercutting employment opportunities.

The Labor Department’s May jobs report, released earlier this month, showed both an increase in wages and a substantial decline in the immigrant labor force, due in part to border czar Tom Homan’s execution of the president’s deportation plan.  More than a million foreign-born workers have exited the US workforce since March. 

The Omaha example helps to debunk claims by Democrats that illegal migrants are an integral part of the US economy that the country “can’t live without”.  In fact, there are millions of Americans citizens ready to fill these jobs if only given the opportunity to work without being pushed out by cheap foreign labor.   

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”

– Marcus Aurelius

You must have noticed by now how this Fourth Turning bidness disorders the collective mind.

The churning zeitgeist is hard on the nerves, while something strange is birthed by mankind, the end of one way of life and the beginning of another.

Everybody’s got a story, and most of them are pretty spooky — A-I Globalist hell. . . de-pop and neo-slavery. . . chemtrail death. . . lizard people. . . caliphate on-the-march across Western Civ. . . World War Three. . . escape to Mars. . . . Mercy!

The last thing you might imagine is a tranquil evening in the town square among happy and prosperous neighbors, the dogs frisking and the children chasing each other as lights begin to twinkle against the lovely violet sky. Rather, you have to wonder just when is that hard rain a’gonna fall? When will some obdurate enemy try to bust a cap in your country’s ass? And at the center of this psychic maelstrom, the provocative visage of Mr. Trump.

So, let’s stipulate that it’s natural to be alarmed by events. But must you lose your mind? Many did during the Covid set-up, and they have not recovered. Most particularly the political Left. The Covid operation was supposed to rid the world of DJ Trump for good, and it flopped. What it accomplished politically for four years was to demonstrate that the Left cannot be trusted to run our national affairs. That, and the cumulative failures of lawfare, have made the Left crazier than ever — while the Democratic Party goes broke and bleeds out support-wise.

Meanwhile, the political Right struggles to hold things together, especially the morale of the people. The great national megaphones — CNN, The New York Times, et al. — are no help at all. They only multiply the mental disorder. And they will do everything possible to undermine the efforts of MAGA to reform a system that foundered under corruption and delusion. Where there is not gridlock these days, chaos breaks out. . . violence of action and opinion.

The focus of all this angst for the moment is Israel. Suspicion runs deep that Israel “owns” America, bends us to its will, treats us like a mere lackey in its quest to dominate the world. It does this, they say, through AIPAC, its chief lobbyist, stuffing money into every pocket and every campaign treasure-chest in DC. In reality, political payoff-wise, AIPAC, at $3.3-million (according to OpenSecrets.org) doesn’t hold a candle to the National Association of Realtors at $63.5-million, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, at $30-million, and the US Chamber of Commerce, at $29.6-million.

Of course, the AIPAC suspicion tends to redound upon plain-old, age-old hatin’ on the Jews. (Full disclosure, yours truly is one.) It’s true enough, for such a low percentage of the US population, Jews seem to run an awful lot of things here: Wall Street firms, Ivy League universities, medical research, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Broadway, the news media. How to account for that? Well. . . it is said that in the shtetls of old Europe, the richest fathers married off their daughters to the smartest young men in the village. Hence, their offspring sailed into Ellis Island with a certain advantage. It could be as simple as that. What else might it be? Luciferian magic, some seem to think.

So now, obviously, Israel is engaged in trying to beat the crap out of Iran in order to persuade them to discontinue that country’s quest for deliverable nukes. Every other means of persuasion has failed, you understand, while Iran has never ceased to advertise its wish to “wipe Israel off the map” — a leitmotif not subject to disambiguation. Strange to relate, this has utterly inflamed the political Left against Israel and the Jews. Strange especially because until the day-before-yesterday the political Left in America was dominated by Jewish orgs, Jewish money, and Jewish individuals.

As we speak, Jewish Democratic Party lawyers run the Lawfare endeavor: Norm Eisen, Marc Elias, Benjamin Wittes, Michael Bromwich, Brooke Goldstein (Exec Director of The Lawfare Project org). Marc Elias has served as the Left’s chief election law finagler through three national elections, while Norm Eisen coached Special Counsel Jack Smith, New York AG Letitia James and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg in mounting their cases against Donald Trump.

Now, ironically-to-the-max, The Lawfare project is battling against the wild outbreak of antisemitism on Ivy League campuses (surprise, surprise) — Harvard, in particular, where the antisemitic frolics are presided over by the university’s Jewish president, Alan Garber. So, now it’s Jew-on-Jew, which is just another angle on the political Left eating itself alive. In case you’re wondering, I consider the Jewish lawfare ninjas a disgrace to my ethnic group, for the simple reason that their years’ long exploits against Mr. Trump have been altogether garishly dishonest. The lawfare gang has done much more damage to our country than AIPAC ever has.

And also now, at this inflection point in the Fourth Turning, Mr. Trump stands by in Israel’s campaign to put Iran’s nuke project out-of-business. This dilemma has inflamed both ends of the political spectrum. Looks like Mr. Trump is very reluctant to commit the US to an act of war. He is apparently unconvinced that our bunker-buster MOABs can successfully penetrate Iran’s nuclear Fordo mountain stronghold. For the moment, he is playing for time, probably hoping that Israel alone can “finish the job” (de-nuke Iran) somehow without US intervention. There is even some reasonable hope that Iran’s mullah theocracy can be tossed out, at best by the Iranian’s themselves.

Israel is much-resented for beating up on its enemies. It left Gaza for dead after the horrific Oct 7, 2023, rape, murder, and hostage attack. The American Left has labeled Israel “Hitler 2.0” for that. The American Left is insane of course. The news media is working the story hard that Israel is now hated by everybody in the world, even Ol’ Tucker Carlson. The Jewish lawfare ninjas are just layin’ low on this one, which seems a bit churlish for such otherwise combative punks. Only Alan Dershowitz dares speak up for Israel, and he’s not associated with the Left anymore. It remains for Mr. Trump to keep a clear head about this while everybody else runs around with his and her hair on fire.

I will make a bold prediction: Iran will be successfully de-nuked. The world will be better for it. Eventually, world opinion about Israel will shift. The world will be grateful that Israel dared to take on this problem. Eventually, too, the lawfare ninjas will find themselves in court — but, this time, sitting at the defendant’s table on a seditious conspiracy rap. That will toast my bagel.

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

Despite Israeli warplanes conducting regular bombings and around Tehran, and against nuclear and missile sites in Western Iran, tens of thousands have taken to the streets for what activists are calling “Friday of Rage and Victory” after mosque prayers on Friday morning.

“Among those photographed at the prayer and the march were Chief Justice of Iran Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, former IRGC commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, as well as several ministers and the deputy speaker of parliament, a social media post by Iran’s Jamaran News showed,” Al Jazeera writes.

RT footage of large crowds in Iranian cities on Friday:

Thousands of defiant Iranians flood country’s streets in support of their government

Chants condemning US and Israel echo through several marches across the country pic.twitter.com/e56nCtTMGf

— RT (@RT_com) June 20, 2025

State-run English language Press TV has observed similar pro-military demonstrations have taken place in other major  cities, including Mashhad, Isfahan, Tabriz, Qom, Shiraz, Qazvin, Yazd, and Gilan.

Report: Presence of Major General Jafari, the Chief Justice, the Minister of Roads, the Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, the Minister of Sports, at the Tehran Anger and Victory March and Friday Prayer.

حضور سرلشکر جعفری، رئیس قوه‌قضائیه، وزیر راه، وزیر صمت و نایب‌رئیس مجلس، وزیر ورزش و در راهپیمایی خشم و نصر و نماز جمعه تهران
/ pic.twitter.com/uxztsCrcf7

— پایگاه خبری جماران (@jamarannews) June 20, 2025

According to more eyewitness accounts of the growing protests via Al Jazeera:

We’re seeing unprecedentedly large demonstrations here in Tehran and in cities big and small across the country. We’ve seen hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets and marching in solidarity to express their anger over the Israeli attacks, despite the ongoing strikes.

There were striking scenes at Friday prayers at the University of Tehran. People were chanting, waving flags of Iran, Palestine and Hezbollah. We heard many chants saying they supported Iran’s retaliatory actions.

Some people brought pictures of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had called for solidarity among the people after the Israeli strikes began.

These Iranian military actions have continued, as the aerial war reaches one week since the last early Friday morning Israeli surprise attacks, which came at a moment Iran was preparing for more nuclear negotiations with Washington.

BREAKING: Israel’s Haifa explodes. pic.twitter.com/SGgHiTS7b2

— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 20, 2025

While President Trump has said he will decide within two weeks whether to join American forces with Israel’s assault on Iran, the Europeans are scrambling to engage the Iranians in hopes of salvaging some kind of nuclear deal. But the clock is ticking, as Iran’s retaliatory missiles are only growing more destructive, and as Israel’s air defenses struggle to keep up and not be overwhelmed. At least twenty more ballistic missiles have been fired on Israel Friday afternoon (local).

Authored by Savannah Hulsey Pointer via The Epoch Times,

The National Institute of Health (NIH) announced the end of gain-of-function research in a June 18 statement. The institute’s update said the move is in compliance with President Donald Trump’s executive order on the topic. 

The president’s order was issued on May 5 of this year to improve the “safety and security of biological research.” 

The agency is also suspending or terminating the awards that have supported this research, as the order requires. The awardees are required to review their research portfolios by June 30 to ensure the projects are terminated.

“NIH is requiring all NIH awardees to review their research portfolios to identify NIH funding and other support for projects meeting the definition of dangerous gain-of-function research,” the June 18 statement said

Trump’s Order 

Trump’s May executive order concludes: “Dangerous gain-of-function research on biological agents and pathogens has the potential to significantly endanger the lives of American citizens.” Additionally, the order allowed for research agencies to find and end federal funding for other biological research that “could pose a threat to American public health, public safety, or national security.”

It also ended federal funding for gain-of-function research in countries of concern, such as China and Iran, and prohibited funding from moving to foreign research that would likely cause another pandemic. 

According to the White House fact sheet, the order was given because “these measures will drastically reduce the potential for lab-related incidents involving gain-of-function research, like that conducted on bat coronaviruses in China by the EcoHealth Alliance and Wuhan Institute of Virology.”

The president’s order paused U.S. research that used infectious pathogens and toxins, citing possible danger to American citizens, until a time when a safer and more transparent plan can be implemented. 

Both COVID-19 and the 1977 Russian flu were used as illustrations of the possible outcome of underregulated research with dangerous pathogens.

House Oversight Report

In December 2024, the Republican-led House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released a 520-page report that was the end result of a two-year investigation, announcing that its findings indicated the COVID-19 virus likely originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

The report found that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) was funded by the NIH and the EcoHealth Alliance Inc., which used U.S. taxpayer dollars to support the research at the lab. 

The committee said in its report that COVID-19 had biological characteristics not previously found in nature. According to the committee, the data reviewed indicated that all COVID-19 cases could be traced back to a single introduction into humans. This is different than previous pandemics, where there were multiple spillover events discovered.

“By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin, it would have already surfaced,” the oversight subcommittee said in a statement.

The committee findings also cited a June 2023 Office of the Director of National Intelligence report that offered a similar conclusion, and went even further, stating, “Scientists at the WIV have created chimeras, or combinations of SARS-like coronaviruses through genetic engineering, attempted to clone other unrelated viruses, and used reverse genetic cloning techniques on SARS-like coronaviruses.”

During the investigation, the panel interviewed Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who left the role in December 2022. 

According to the committee report, Fauci “prompted” a research study titled “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” for the purpose of disproving the theory of the pandemic originating via a lab leak. 

“Although Dr. Fauci believed the lab-leak theory to be a conspiracy theory at the start of the pandemic, it now appears that his position is that he does have an open mind about the origin of the virus—so long as it does not implicate EcoHealth Alliance, and by extension himself and NIAID,” it stated, citing Fauci’s memoir that was published weeks after the hearing.

More Changes 

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which governs the NIH and other agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has made other significant changes. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy notified the 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices on June 9 of their dismissal.

The panel was created by the CDC to provide advice about vaccines, including childhood and adult immunization schedules. 

Members “are knowledgeable in the fields of immunization practices and public health, have expertise in the use of vaccines and other immunobiologic agents in clinical practice or preventive medicine, have expertise with clinical or laboratory vaccine research, or have expertise in assessment of vaccine efficacy and safety,” the committee’s charter says.

Kennedy spoke to reporters about the dismissals, saying that the new members would be credentialed scientists and doctors “who are going to do evidence-based medicine, who are going to be objective, and who are going to follow the science and make critical public health determinations for our children based upon the best science.”

President Donald Trump on Friday called for a special prosecutor to investigate potential fraud in the 2020 US election. 

“Zero Border crossings for the month for TRUMP, verses 60,000 for Sleepy, Crooked Joe Biden, a man who lost the 2020 Presidential Election by a ‘LANDSLIDE!‘” Trump posted to Truth Social.

“Biden was grossly incompetent, and the 2020 election was a total FRAUD! The evidence is MASSIVE and OVERWHELMING. A Special Prosecutor must be appointed. This cannot be allowed to happen again in the United States of America! Let the work begin! What this Crooked man, and his CORRUPT CRONIES, have done to our Country in 4 years, is grossly indescribable! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The post comes on the heels of FBI reports that China allegedly mass-produced fake driver’s licenses in connection with a fake ballot scheme in the 2020 election, Just the News reported. 

Officials told Just the News that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had captured nearly 20,000 fake driver’s licenses in July 2020. Those revelations have called into question the assertions from former FBI Director Christopher Wray that he knew of no foreign interference plots ahead of the election.

They have further reignited Trump’s own claims of large-scale election fraud in 2020 that he has said affected the results.

Meanwhile, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Wednesday that he’s launching investigations “into 33 noncitizens for illegally voting in the 2024 election.”

“Noncitizens must not be allowed to influence American elections, and I will use the full weight of my office to investigate all voter fraud,” he said in a post on X. 

BREAKING: I’m opening investigations into 33 noncitizens for illegally voting in the 2024 election.

Noncitizens must not be allowed to influence American elections, and I will use the full weight of my office to investigate all voter fraud. pic.twitter.com/OD9ifRiXQI

— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) June 17, 2025