The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Friday that it will cut about 23 percent of its workforce and eliminate its research and development office as part of the agency’s restructuring effort.
The agency stated that it expects its workforce to reduce from 16,155 to 12,448 employees, noting that many have opted to resign through voluntary early retirement and a deferred resignation program.
The layoffs will affect the Research and Development Office, according to its statement. The agency said the restructuring effort is expected to help it save about $748.8 million after completion.
The EPA said it plans to create an Applied Science and Environmental Solutions Office that will enable it to focus on research and science “more than ever before,” placing them “at the forefront of rulemakings and technical assistance to states.”
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said the reorganization is intended to ensure the agency is “better equipped than ever to deliver on our core mission of protecting human healthand the environment while Powering the Great American Comeback” under the Trump administration.
“This reduction in force will ensure we can better fulfill that mission while being responsible stewards of your hard-earned tax dollars,” he said.
The Office of Research and Development functions as the EPA’s scientific research arm, according to the agency’s website. The office carries out “leading-edge research” that “informs agency decisions and supports the emerging needs of EPA stakeholders, including the agency’s state, tribal, and community partners,” it stated.
Critics said cutting the office’s workforce will affect the EPA’s ability to respond to those risks properly.
Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.) said on March 18 that the office is “vital to understanding and addressing environmental risks.”
“The Trump Administration’s plan to dissolve the EPA’s Office of Research and Development and lay-off over 1,000 scientists is yet another step in their scheme to fully gut this agency,” Foushee said.
The EPA had previously announced that it planned to enhance its scientific and research efforts within program offices to address its “statutory obligations and mission essential functions,” particularly within its air, water, and chemical offices, according to its statement.
The announcement followed the Supreme Court’s decision on July 8 to lift a lower court ruling that had blocked the Trump administration from proceeding with mass layoffs of federal workers and an overhaul of federal agencies.
Aside from the EPA, the State Department has also announced plans to proceed with restructuring efforts following the Supreme Court ruling. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on July 10 that the reorganization plan is now “moving into implementation,” but declined to provide a specific timeline for when layoffs will occur.
We all understand that mass adoption of humanoid robots is still years out. But the timeline is accelerating—bipedal, autonomous robots and so-called “robo-dogs” are already reaching early adopters. While mass adoption may still be years away, the affordability inflection point could arrive by the early 2030s—perhaps bringing us closer to the kind of household companion seen in Bicentennial Man, the late-1990s film starring Robin Williams.
But warning signs around AI and humanoid robotics are already flashing yellow, with a hint of red. First, a recent study from AI research firm Anthropic warned advanced AI bots could be willing to harm humans to avoid being shut down or replaced. Second, investing legend Paul Tudor Jones issued a stark, apocalyptic warning about AI back in May. And now, in China, humanoid robots have gained the ability to recharge autonomously.
According to the South China Morning Post, Chinese firm UBTech Robotics rolled out the Walker S2, the world’s first humanoid robot capable of autonomously swapping its own batteries, allowing it to operate 24/7 without human assistance.
#WalkerS2 – The World’s First #HumanoidRobot Capable of Autonomous Battery Swapping.
→ Anthropomorphic Bipedal Locomotion → Autonomous hot-swappable battery system→ Autonomous battery swapping, 24/7 continuous operations
Swarm Intelligence 2.0 is coming soon! pic.twitter.com/gDyLWrgG25
This development underscores China’s rapid progress in robotics, drones, AI, smartphones, semiconductors, and electric vehicles—technologies that often share similar production ecosystems. The nation that controls the development and supply chains of these technologies will dominate the 2030s.
The emerging fear isn’t just that China is becoming a “robotics powerhouse,” as Moody’s noted last week—but that its robots are now gaining the ability to operate autonomously and recharge themselves, edging closer to full independence from human control. With a mind of their own, there’s no telling what these robots will do if one of them becomes rogue. Remember this…
This week, the legacy media’s obsession with dragging President Donald Trump into the orbit of Jeffrey Epstein stooped to a shameful new low.
The Wall Street Journal embarrassed itself with a hyped-up Trump-Epstein “bombshell” that amounted to nothing more than a birthday card that Trump supposedly sent to Epstein in 2003.
Curiously, the evidence in this bombshell is under wraps, but Trump denies writing and threatened to sue over the bogus report.
Attorneys have now filed that lawsuit.
This latest smear attempt is just another chapter in the media’s ongoing effort to tie Trump to Epstein, despite the lack of evidence and Trump’s documented decision to ban Epstein from Mar-a-Lago. Meanwhile, Epstein’s deep ties to Democrats, especially Bill Clinton, who flew on Epstein’s jet multiple times and visited his island, consistently get downplayed or ignored. The double standard is as blatant as it is dishonest.
One might think, after years of “Russian collusion” hoaxes, the “very fine people” lie, and endless misquotations — debunked every time — these outlets would be wary of another wild goose chase.
But no.
When it comes to Trump, the normal rules of evidence or integrity are suspended.
Opponents and their media mouthpieces were so eager to make hay over any Epstein association — even an obviously fake note — that they abandoned the last shred of credibility their institutions had left.
Now, Trump has filed a $10 billion libel lawsuit in federal court in Florida against the Wall Street Journal’s publisher, Dow Jones, the reporters who wrote the story, News Corp, and Rupert Murdoch himself.
One of the co-authors of the WSJ report, Joe Palazzolo, previously wrote for a publication called Main Justice, which was founded by Mary Jacoby, who happens to be the wife of Glenn Simpson, the Fusion GPS founder behind the debunked Steele Dossier and the Russia hoax.
Both Simpson and Jacoby previously worked at the Wall Street Journal themselves, which tells you everything you need to know about the political rot festering in that newsroom.
“It has truly turned out to be a ‘Disgusting and Filthy Rag’ and, writing defamatory lies like this, shows their desperation to remain relevant.
If there were any truth at all on the Epstein Hoax, as it pertains to President Trump, this information would have been revealed by Comey, Brennan, Crooked Hillary, and other Radical Left Lunatics years ago.
It certainly would not have sat in a file waiting for ‘TRUMP’ to have won three Elections. This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS!”
The Journal’s irresponsible coverage comes just as public interest surges over the Epstein saga.
Recent government conclusions, confirming Epstein’s death as suicide and, conveniently, denying that any “client list” exists, only stoke further doubts about media motives.
The American people see right through these coordinated smear attempts. Trump has made clear he will not back down, nor give the mainstream media an inch when it comes to outright lies.
Nearly 1,000 Killed In Clashes In Syria’s South, With 80,000 Displaced
The death toll from a past week of spiraling violence in Syria’s Sweida province, a stronghold of the Druze minority – which also has a presence of Christians – has climbed to 940 since last weekend, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, despite a recent declared ceasefire.
Among the dead are 326 Druze fighters and 262 Druze civilians, including 182 reportedly executed on the spot by forces from Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham government fighters.
The Observatory also reported the deaths of 312 government security forces and 21 Sunni Bedouins—three of whom were civilians allegedly executed by Druze fighters. Additionally, some 15 Syrian government troops were killed in Israeli airstrikes amid the intermittent intervention by Israeli warplanes.
Damascus announced a ceasefire early on Saturday, saying in a statement the truce is badly needed in order “to spare Syrian blood, preserve the unity of Syrian territory, the safety of its people.”
In a televised address, the country’s self-appointed president Ahmed al-Sharaa stated that he “received international calls to intervene in what is happening in Suwayda and restore security to the country.”
He described that Israeli military intervention has “reignited tensions” in the city of Sweida, with fighting there at “a dangerous turning point.” Interestingly he also at one point thanked the United States for its support.
According to Syria’s Health Ministry, the death toll from fighting in the Druze-majority city is now at least 260. An estimated 80,000 people have fled the area, according to the International Organization for Migration.
“A lot of extrajudicial killings [are] being reported,” said Vall. “People are suffering, even those who have been killed or forced to flee, they don’t have electricity, they don’t have water, because most of those services have been badly affected by the fighting.”
Government forces further say they want to defeat Druze leaders who have allied themselves with a foreign power – Israel.
Israel has of late made no secret that it is backing the Druze cause, but critics see Netanyahu expansionist ‘divide and rule’ policies at work.
Heartbreaking, Father Tony Boutros, representative of the Greek Catholic Church in Sweida, Syria, makes an appeal to the international community to save Christians and Druze from an Islamist genocide.
HTS has just taken off the US-designated terrorism list earlier this month, after Trump had posed with its leader Sharaa (Jolani, who had earlier been a member of ISIS) while visiting Riyadh, expressing hope that he’ll make for a good post-Assad ruler. HTS fighters have lately been massacring Druze, Christians, and Alawites – waging war against non-Sunni minorities.
ABC News, June 18, 2025: “U.S. oil prices hovered near a five-month high on Wednesday as President Donald Trump weighed direct involvement in support of Israeli strikes on Iran, making it all but certain that gasoline prices would rise for Americans within days, industry analysts told ABC News.”
CNN, June 24, 2025: “Oil prices fell sharply Tuesday, returning to levels last seen before the Iran-Israel conflict, as investors cheered news of a ceasefire, albeit fragile, between the two countries.”
Predictions of skyrocketing oil prices if President Trump decided to bomb Iranian nuclear sites permeated the media. The reality over the course of just six days from before and after the actual bombing was much different.
Forecasts about how world events will shape energy prices and the reality once such events unfold are rarely aligned. Most Americans have grown weary of “experts” foreseeing disaster, predictions which intensify when Donald Trump is sitting in the Oval Office. From energy prices to the overall economy to foreign affairs, “expert” predictions and analysis are routinely much more reflective of political bias than actual industry expertise.
The far-left (formerly mainstream) media revels in rolling out alarmist headlines based on the ruminations of analysts, forecasters and, these days, “influencers.” Scroll the websites of any of the leading mainstream publications and you’ll find the content littered with gloom-and-doom prophecies about Trump administration actions and policies that almost never prove accurate.
What they do achieve is providing fodder for a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week cable news cycle, as roundtables of analysts weigh in on the latest predictions. It’s a round-robin tournament of endless negative chatter based on dissecting the negative chatter that kicked off the latest 24-hour cycle.
As the hot summer months progress, warnings of potential blackouts and an overall strain on the electric grid are once again in the news. Some blackouts have already occurred, and a predictable blame game is well underway, with adherents of the climate cult blaming global warming and rising temperatures instead of identifying the true culprit – compromised power grids.
In reality, the climate doomsayers’ prescription of more solar and wind simply exacerbates the disease. The main reason for grid strain and power failures is an overreliance on “alternatives” that are not up to the task of supplying the demands of an energy-devouring nation – demands that are exponentially increasing with the proliferation of data centers needed to power emerging AI technologies.
One sure way to guarantee power shortages is to follow radical edicts to phase out oil and gas in favor of wind and solar. We started down that road during the Obama and Biden administrations, and the final destination is demonstrably disastrous (see Spain, Portugal and France). Fortunately, the Trump administration has mapped a new course and is attempting a rescue mission, just in the nick of time.
The federal level is not the only place where common sense is making a return. Louisiana recently became the first state in the nation to codify affordable, reliable and clean energy security into law. As Gov. Jeff Landry (R) said when signing House Bill 692, the legislation “sets the stage for an energy renaissance—not only here, but in America. … This bill positions Louisiana as an economic powerhouse, where we can not only join the industrial South that we’ve been missing out on, but we can lead in that industrial South.”
While supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs and providing more transparency to ratepayers, the bill most importantly “ensures equal treatment for all energy sources, contributing to grid reliability and resiliency,” as the governor put it.
In other words, Louisiana has codified the inclusion of traditional energy sources as eligible – even preferred – choices when it comes to governmental decisions about energy projects and usage. No longer will Louisianans be pawns in the “green new deal” scam supported by “experts” whose main goals are more political than science-based.
The “alternatives” con is coming to an end. The government subsidies that supported the rip-off are being phased out. Energy freedom is returning for Americans who rely on affordable and trustworthy energy sources.
Hope is on the rise. Other states are considering legislation similar to the Louisiana model. Ideally, Congress will enact legislation that will make affordable, reliable and clean energy the law of the land and a cornerstone of national security.
There is one prediction that is solidly based in fact and reliably backed by previous experience: Energy prices will remain affordable, power failures will be rare, and freedom from being held hostage by foreign suppliers of energy will be assured if natural gas and other traditional energy sources are allowed to flourish. Let’s insist that our state and federal lawmakers make this prediction come true.
Gary Abernathy is a longtime newspaper editor, reporter and columnist. He was a contributing columnist for the Washington Post from 2017-2023 and a frequent guest analyst across numerous media platforms. He is a contributing columnist for The Empowerment Alliance, which advocates for realistic approaches to energy consumption and environmental conservation. Abernathy’s “TEA Takes” column will be published every Wednesday and delivered to your inbox!
The Department of Justice has proposed a rule to restore the Second Amendment rights of people who have been convicted of certain crimes but who are not “likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety.”
The Department submitted the proposed rule “regarding the exercise of the Attorney General’s authority under 18 U.S.C. 925(c) to grant relief to individuals who are otherwise precluded from possessing firearms,” to the Federal Register on Friday.
Federal law rescinds the firearms rights of convicted felons regardless of whether or not they were convicted of a violent crime. The law also empowers the attorney general to restore Second Amendment rights to individuals who are not “likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety.”
No applications have been processed since 1992, when funding for that was blocked by House Democrats.
A July 18 press release from the Justice Department states that President Donald Trump directed the department to “address the ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment rights of our citizens—all of them.”
According to the press release, an official copy of the rule will be published on the Federal Register website the week of July 21.
“For too long, countless Americans with criminal histories have been permanently disenfranchised from exercising the right to keep and bear arms—a right every bit as constitutionally enshrined as the right to vote, the right to free speech, and the right to free exercise of religion—irrespective of whether they actually pose a threat,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi.
A Second Amendment advocacy group praised the new rule.
“This proposed rule to grant relief to certain individuals convicted of non-violent crimes is long overdue,” Alan Gottlieb, executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, wrote in an email to The Epoch Times. “The Second Amendment Foundation has been fighting for decades in courts to restore rights to people that are no threat to society.”
Erich Pratt, senior vice president of Gun Owners of America, echoed those sentiments. He said his organization will continue to support the expansion and preservation of gun rights in America.
“GOA has long supported this effort, and we’re encouraged to see the Department of Justice continue to acknowledge that non-violent citizens should not be denied their constitutional rights,” Pratt wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.
Gun control organizations did not respond to a request for comment by publication time. Past moves to change the longstanding policy drew criticism on the groups’ webpages.
Last March, in a step toward overturning the policy, the DOJ took responsibility for processing the applications from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and gave it to the attorney general.
This changed a policy that had been in place for more than 30 years.
In a March 19 statement on the Everytown for Gun Safety website, the group’s president blasted that change.
“The Trump Administration is throwing out decades of bipartisan precedent and laying the groundwork to put guns back in the hands of domestic abusers and violent criminals,” wrote John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety.
The rule proposed on Friday would provide citizens whose firearm rights have been rescinded a way to restore those rights.
The press release states that the attorney general would decide each application on a case-by-case basis. Violent felons, registered sex offenders, and illegal aliens will remain presumptively ineligible for relief, according to the Justice Department press release.
Part of Trump’s Plan
“General Bondi’s support of the rebooted 925(c) program is consistent with President Donald J. Trump’s promise to the American people to support the beautiful Second Amendment,” said U.S. Pardon Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr.
Once the proposed rule is published, the public comment period will begin. Communities that could be affected by a final rule, including law enforcement, victims’ advocates, elected officials, and individuals who would like to apply to have their gun rights restored, as well as the general public, can place comments here once the proposed rule is published.
Pratt said his organization will encourage its members to comment.
“We look forward to working with the grassroots and our members to submit comments to ensure the proposed rule benefits the Second Amendment community and the marginalized individuals who are working to reclaim their rights under the Constitution,” Pratt said.
The Justice Department recommends that individuals seeking the restoration of their firearm rights review and comment on the proposed process rather than submit applications at this time, according to the press release.
Interested parties may view the proposed rule here. An official copy is expected to be published next week, according to the Justice Department.
Daredevil athlete Felix Baumgartner, best known for his record-breaking 2012 skydive from space, has died at 56 years old in a paragliding accident in Italy.
According to officials in the coastal city of Porto Sant’Elpidio, Baumgartner died on July 17 after crashing into the side of a swimming pool.
“Our community is deeply affected by the tragic disappearance of Felix Baumgartner, a figure of global prominence, a symbol of courage and passion for extreme flight,” the town’s mayor, Massimiliano Ciarpella, said in a statement.
The exact cause of the incident remains unknown; however, Ciarpella noted that a “fatal illness” prior to the crash could have led to the accident.
“Porto Sant’Elpidio stands with his family and loved ones in this moment of grief,” the statement continued.
“On behalf of the Municipal Administration and all citizens, I express my sincerest condolences for this irreparable loss.”
The Austrian native made international headlines on Oct. 14, 2012, when he jumped out of a capsule in the stratosphere, free-falling for 24 miles towards Earth.
The jump was sponsored by Red Bull, an Austrian-owned energy drink company, with Baumgartner breaking the sound barrier during the feat.
He reached speeds of up to 843 miles per hour before opening his parachute and landing safely on the ground in New Mexico.
In a statement, Red Bull paid tribute to Baumgartner, thanking him for being “unyielding,” while remembering him as a colleague and friend.
“You always sought out the greatest challenges and mastered them with sharp thinking, relentless precision and a good dose of courage,” the statement read.
“You delved deep into every project. No detail was too small, no risk too great—as long as you could calculate it.”
“We grew with you and you with us. We wouldn’t trade a single day we had together. You will stay with us as a colleague, a loyal companion, but most of all as a friend.”
Baumgartner, a former military parachutist, teamed up with Red Bull in 1988 and over the course of his career made thousands of jumps from bridges, planes, skyscrapers, and famed global landmarks.
He broke 14 world records, including the highest parachute jump from the Petronas Towers in 1999, flying across the English Channel in a carbon fiber wing in 2003, and the world’s lowest BASE jump from the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro in 2011.
In an age when political authenticity is currency, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is making a risky bet: that he can repackage his image from slick, left-coast progressive into pragmatic, media-savvy moderate.
Newsom’s strategy appears engineered to break out of the coastal liberal mold. His new iHeartRadio podcast, “This Is Gavin Newsom,” features guests from across the political spectrum. He’s launched a Substack, plastered Fox News with ads, and even taken his feuds with Donald Trump directly to national audiences. In one episode, he sounded more like a centrist mayor than a San Francisco progressive, defending the rule of law and even nodding to law enforcement concerns around crime and public safety.
But this isn’t just about booking podcast guests. In another instance, Newsom criticized the inclusion of biological males in women’s sports, conceding to Charlie Kirk that their inclusion was “deeply unfair.” The comment was a stark departure from his earlier record as a vocal supporter of expansive transgender rights. Progressive critics immediately pounced, accusing him of pandering to the right. The backlash highlighted the tightrope Newsom is now walking, trying to appeal to moderate voters without alienating his liberal base.
Such maneuvering makes sense. A June survey from the Public Policy Institute of California shows his approval hovering at just 47% among likely voters. More troubling for Newsom, a UC Berkeley-Los Angeles Times poll finds that 54% of Californians believe he’s more focused on national ambitions than governing the state. His shift in tone and strategy doesn’t do much to counter that very perception, but his pivot does allow him to reintroduce himself to a broader electorate before 2028 speculation becomes a reality.
It’s a rebrand as ambitious as it is audacious, and it may be guided by one of the most unlikely figures imaginable: Kimberly Guilfoyle, Newsom’s former wife, Donald Trump Jr.’s former girlfriend – and current Trumpworld operative.
Guilfoyle, a key figure in Republican fundraising and messaging, was once the glamorous first lady of San Francisco. Although she and Don Jr. apparently have parted ways, she has been nominated by Donald Trump to serve as U.S. ambassador to Greece. And she remains a seasoned political operative known for her bombastic speeches, relentless media presence, and deep ties to the MAGA establishment. She served as national finance chair for Trump’s 2020 campaign and has been one of the movement’s most aggressive defenders on cable news and social media. According to The Wall Street Journal, Guilfoyle helped broker introductions between Newsom and hard-right populists Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon, a move that raised eyebrows across the political spectrum.
While she obviously holds no official title in Newsom’s political operation, her behind-the-scenes facilitation marks a surreal twist in California’s ongoing political theater: the governor once hailed as the prince of progressivism now courting the architects of right-wing populism.
Critics on both sides aren’t buying it. Conservatives see a cynical ploy, a progressive in centrist clothing. Some Democrats are equally skeptical, worried that cozying up to MAGA voices lends legitimacy to extremism. And with homelessness, crime, and housing shortages still plaguing his home state, Newsom risks looking like a politician distracted by vanity projects while California struggles.
Still, his media makeover may be more than a branding exercise. By engaging with adversarial audiences, he’s signaling an understanding of political polarization and attempting to do something about it. Whether voters reward him for that courage or punish him for perceived opportunism remains to be seen.
If Newsom’s transformation succeeds, he won’t just have reinvented his image. He’ll have rewritten the playbook for what it means to be a post-woke Democrat in an era where ideological purity often takes a backseat to electability. If it fails, expect both the left and the right to say: We told you so.
Seven Reasons Why PBS And NPR Deserve To Be Defunded
When was the last time you heard of federal dollars flowing into overtly conservative programming? While there may be a tiny handful of outliers, generally speaking this does not happen. For decades the majority of public funding subsidies for social programs inevitably goes to progressive run organizations. For anyone who is right leaning in their politics, the idea of their hard earned money being handed over to people who hate them and everything they stand for is disconcerting.
Why should conservatives support federal funding if that money is being used to propagandize them and indoctrinate their children? Why isn’t there any requirement for publicly funded programs to remain politically neutral?
The U.S. Senate this week passed the Trump administration’s proposal to cancel $9 billion in federal funds previously allocated for foreign aid and public broadcasting, and the House of Representatives approved the package after midnight Friday, sending it to President Trump’s desk.
The Corp. for Public Broadcasting, which administers the funds for NPR radio stations and PBS TV affiliates, is on track to lose $1.1 billion that had previously been budgeted for the next two years.
Both PBS and NPR executives warn they will have to make drastic cuts to media content and will resort to layoffs to stay afloat. The organizations rely on a mixture of federal funds, public donations and corporate advertising. Federal subsidies make up around 15% of PBS operating dollars and up to 10% of NPR affiliate dollars. This might not seem like much, but the institutions function on razor thin margins. Loss of public cash would immediately put them in the hole.
But is this a bad thing? Maybe PBS and NPR deserve to fail. Both outlets have engaged in some of the most egregious woke propaganda and authoritarian pontificating among all media platforms in the US. Let’s look at seven reasons why PBS and NPR should be unplugged from taxpayer life support.
1) Lil Miss Hot Mess
“The hips on the drag queen go swish swish swish…” sings drag performer Lil Miss Hot Mess in a PBS promoted program in New York. Though PBS did not directly fund the show “Let’s Learn” on WNET, it did provide the platform. The drag queen episode aired in 2021 and featured a drag performer (male pretending to be female) reading a LGBT children’s about “drag” and gay pride.
2) Sesame Street Stands With BLM
It’s impossible to list the number of times PBS used kids show Sesame Street as a vehicle to indoctrinate children with DEI concepts. However, in 2020 they truly stepped over the line when the organization partnered with CNN, using Sesame Street characters hosting a town hall to explain to children why America is racist and why the national BLM riots were justified.
Keep in mind, there were over 600 riots during the BLM protests, with 25 fatalities, thousands of police injuries and billions in property damages, all triggered because of the death of one career criminal hopped up on fentanyl.
3) Pride Month And Two Gay Dads
In 2021, Sesame Street also featured a Pride Month special called “Family Day” about LGBT inclusion. The show’s audience of toddlers got to explore the relationship between a girl and her two gay dads, along with concept of “love is love”.
The network’s popular “Arthur” cartoon series also produced an episode with a same sex marriage and two gay dads. Why they felt the need to explore the sexual orientation of “Mr. Ratburn” to a bunch of preschool viewers is a mystery, unless child indoctrination was the goal.
4) Refusing To Watch Porn And Masturbate Might Be Linked To “Extremism”
NPR joined the endless leftist war on the “manosphere” in a 2024 podcast which linked the “NoFap” movement to extremism. The degenerate Kinsey-esque dialogue admonishes the trend of young men refusing to watch porn and refraining from masturbation as medically and psychologically concerning. The movement was started due to the near-infinite access young people have to pornography in the digital age, leading to porn addiction and an inability to socialize in healthy ways.
NPR characterizes the NoFap movement as misleading American youth into a life of misery while they ignore the rising evidence of the negative effects of the porn industry.
5) Suspended For Pointing Out Leftist Bias
NPR suspended a 25 year veteran editor Uri Berliner after he criticized the network for leftist bias. The editor discovered that the NPR newsroom was stacked with 87 registered Democrats and zero Republicans. He pointed out that NPR prolifically reported on the Russian collusion hoax, and that “[Adam] Schiff talking points” were “the drumbeat of NPR news reports.”
After exposing NPR staff as utterly partisan, Berliner was removed.
6) NPR Helps To Undermine The Covid Lab Leak Theory
The Wuhan leab leak theory, which is now widely regarded as the most logical explanation for the spread of the covid virus from Wuhan, China to the rest of the world, was throttled in the news cycle and banned on social media platforms for years due to the efforts of US and Chinese government officials (and corrupt medical representatives) working to suppress the story.
Why? To this day it’s not clear but the Wuhan lab’s long running gain-of-function research projects which essentially weaponize viruses were funded by US government interests, the same interests who ended being in charge of the draconian response to the covid outbreak.
NPR repeatedly dismissed the theory that COVID-19 originated in a lab – a conclusion now deemed likely by the FBI, CIA, and Department of Energy. They published propaganda pieces including: “Scientists Debunk Lab Accident Theory Of Pandemic Emergence”, and “As Trump Pushes Theory Of Virus Origins, Some See Parallels In Lead-Up To Iraq War”.
7) Absolute Bias In Election Coverage
A 2024 Media Research Center study found that PBS’s coverage of the Republican National Convention was 72% negative, while coverage of the Democratic National Convention was 88% positive.
In 2023, a study found that congressional Republicans saw 85% negative coverage while congressional Democrats saw 54% positive coverage on PBS’s flagship news program
According to a 2024 study, PBS news staff used 162 variations of the term “far-right,” but only six variations of “far-left.”
This all might sound like common sense to most conservatives – Of course NPR and PBS are politically biased, but it’s not supposed to be this way. The public has been conditioned to accept such bias over time and conservatives have been told to shut up when complaining about their money being used to feed far-left content.
The above list could go on for dozens of pages; it’s only a taste of NPR and PBS’ trespasses in the past five years. Trump’s defunding of these platforms is long overdue and if they implode in the process, so be it. They are nothing more than brainwashing campaigns disguised as humanitarian projects.
Bitcoin may feel futuristic, but when you peel away its digital veneer, it is just the latest chapter in a 2,600-year story of value, trust, and human ingenuity. Having reached record highs, Bitcoin has been making headlines as nations declare strategic stockpiles and corporate America embraces the new asset class. Why now?
The answer lies in a pattern as old as civilization itself: When governments corrupt a currency, people innovate their way to something better.
As the saying goes, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” When the first coin clanked into existence in 600 B.C., it was not merely a gold and silver alloy stamped with the face of the Lydian king. It was a financial revolution. For the first time, people could move past the inefficiencies of barter and instead use a medium of exchange to trade. But this value was not in the sparkle; it was the individuals’ collective understanding that these coins have worth.
The integrity of that system has waxed and waned over the ensuing millennia, typically driven by governmental spending policies. The silver-backed Roman denarii enabled the empire to flourish, but as subsequent emperors diluted its value – reducing their silver content to fund wars and build grand palaces – citizens lost faith in their currency. When Emperor Nero reduced silver content from 98% to 83% in A.D. 64, Romans began hoarding old coins and rejecting new ones. By A.D. 260, the denarius contained just 5% silver. Inflation spiraled and commerce crumbled, contributing to the eventual fall of the empire.
The United States has battled currency crises since our nation’s birth, but unlike Rome, America has consistently innovated solutions along the way. After we declared independence from Britain, the Continental Congress printed the nation’s first paper money. Called “Continentals,” it was backed by neither gold nor silver – simply by belief in its value. While gold and silver are at least relatively scarce metals that constrain supply, paper can be printed. And that is precisely what the first U.S. government did.
Desperate to pay troops and buy supplies necessary to wage the Revolutionary War, Congress turned to making more Continentals. Bills flooded the market, driving down value as Americans questioned whether the new nation could honor its promises. In 1777, one patriot complained to his father as inflation spiked by an estimated 200%, writing, “America has much more to fear from the effects of large quantities of paper money than from the operations of British Generals.”
Prices climbed so rapidly that George Washington himself came to refuse Continentals as payment. In fact, it became common to describe something of little value as “not worth a Continental.” The currency became such a laughingstock that sailors paid in the bills would sew them onto their clothes and parade through town to mock it. But rather than crumble like the Roman Empire, the U.S. innovated: This currency crisis was a driving force that led our Founding Fathers to scrap the American government under the Articles of Confederation and draft our current Constitution.
This change represented more than political reform – it was monetary advancement, shifting from discretionary to rule-based money. The new U.S. government adopted a bimetallic standard in 1792, which tied the value of dollars to both gold and silver. The country eventually simplified its approach by shifting to a de facto gold standard in 1834, which lasted until 1971 when President Nixon abandoned it in favor of fiat currency. Like the Continentals before it, the dollar has since been backed by belief in its value: full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
And then came the 2008 financial crisis. Lehman Brothers fell, banks wobbled, and the public? They started asking: “What is money?” It was then, from the digital shadows, that an anonymous figure – Satoshi Nakamoto – dropped a whitepaper like a patriot dropping a leaflet on the eve of the Revolutionary War: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. No emperors. No banks. Just math, cryptography, and an unbreakable record called the blockchain. A new kind of trust was born – not in a ruler, but in code.
What was initially viewed as an interesting hypothetical idea was quickly put to real-world use. Users beget more users. Trust grows. Entrepreneurs dream. It’s a full-blown historical saga unfolding in real time.
Bitcoin has risen above the other cryptocurrencies it inspired, in large part due to its scarcity: no longer could an Emperor add bits of cheap copper to silver coins or Congress print more paper because it is hardcoded that only 21 million Bitcoin will ever exist. Further, all Bitcoin transactions are verified by a decentralized network of approximately 20,000 individuals’ computers across the world, all checking one another beyond politicians’ control. In an age of runaway government spending, investors have turned to those scarce Bitcoin that no government can dilute. A decentralized system that guards the people from government domination – how American is that!
It is no coincidence that Bitcoin has skyrocketed to a $2 trillion valuation just as the U.S. national debt has reached record highs. Researchers debate how long fiat currencies last on average throughout history, with some placing time of death at between 27 and 35 years. Since the U.S. has been off the gold standard for over 50 years, history suggests the dollar is poised for decline.
People are simply asking the age-old question: What is money, really? As trust is shaken in paper money due to inflation and ballooning federal spending, many are turning to innovation. Even nations themselves have begun to set up strategic reserves. In fact, the United States is the largest known state holder of Bitcoin – once again positioning America at the forefront of monetary evolution.
As John Adams advised in 1787, “All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from the defects of the Constitution, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.” It is incumbent upon Americans to arm themselves with knowledge and engage in the age-old American tradition of challenging broken systems with better ideas in the pursuit of liberty.
Logan Beirne serves as the chief legal officer at Strive and is the bestselling author of “Blood of Tyrants.” He teaches corporate law at Yale Law School.
