Scott Adams, the prolific cartoonist behind the ‘Dilbert’ comic who was canceled from newspapers nationwide for expressing conservative opinions, says he has the same type of aggressive cancer as former President Joe Biden and has just months to live.

“I have the same cancer that Joe Biden has. I also have prostate cancer that has also spread to my bones,” said the 67-year-old Adams during his May 19 “Coffee with Scott Adams” show on Rumble.

“My life expectancy is maybe this summer. I expect to be checking out from this domain sometime this summer.”

Adams said that the cancer “is already intolerable.”

“I can tell you that I don’t have good days. So if you are wondering, ‘Hey Scott, do you have any good days’? Nope. Nope. Every day is a nightmare and evening is even worse.”

“I do have the ability to kind of get up for this part of the day, but I am in pain, and I’m always in pain. And the pain moves around to different parts of my body,” he said during the show. “I’ve been using a walker to walk for months now.”

Scott Adams gives solid words of wisdom after revealing his cancer diagnosis.

“I realize that for some of you, this is hitting you hard because you’re hearing it for the first time.”

“I have to say that everybody has to die, as far as I know. And it’s kind of civilized that you… pic.twitter.com/g5eRulqKH8

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 19, 2025

As the Epoch Times notes further, Adams said he wouldn’t go into the details about treatments he’d undergone. However, he did mention that he attempted to use medications such as ivermectin and fenbendazole to no effect.

Adams had words of support for Biden and his family.

“I’d like to extend my respect and compassion and sympathy for the ex-president and his family, because they’re going to be going through an especially tough time,” he said.

“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive, which allows for effective management,” Biden’s office told media outlets. “The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”

In a post on X on Monday morning, Biden included a photo of himself and his wife Jill Biden, and wrote: “Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.”

Prostate cancers are graded for aggressiveness using what’s known as a Gleason score. The scores range from 6 to 10, with 8, 9, and 10 prostate cancers behaving more aggressively. Biden’s office said his score was 9, suggesting his cancer is among the most aggressive.

A number of political leaders on both sides of the political aisle sent words of support to Biden after the announcement.

Trump, a longtime political opponent, wrote on social media that he was saddened by the news and “we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”

Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris, said on social media that she was keeping him in her family’s “hearts and prayers during this time.”

Adams launched “Dilbert” in 1989. Known for its satirical office humor, the comic at one point appeared in thousands of newspapers across multiple languages.

In 2023, the strip was dropped by many publications after Adams made controversial comments on race.

From Portland to Washington, D.C., and across Europe, the far-left extremist movement known as Antifa has unleashed years of orchestrated chaos driven by a radical, anti-capitalist agenda aimed at destabilizing the West. Now, for the first time, explosive undercover footage reveals life inside an illegal Antifa headquarters. 

YouTuber The Urban Legend has released 30 minutes of explosive footage captured inside a secret and illegal Antifa headquarters in Manchester, United Kingdom.

The video reveals what appears to be a fully operational base—complete with stockpiles of food, racks of clothing, a sleeping area, and what looks like a makeshift revolutionary workshop for rioters. The footage offers a rare and disturbing glimpse into the behind-the-scenes of the revolutionary movement that has fueled unrest across the West. 

We grabbed a series of screenshots from the video, including text on the wall that said: “Give Trans Girls Guns.” 

Additional graffiti included slogans like “Protect Trans Kids” and “Punch Nazis”—language that, while politically charged, raises serious concerns due to its potential to incite violence. 

What appears to be a revolutionary workshop. 

Another banner read, “All Prisoners Are Political.” 

Our takeaway: Antifa’s HQ in Manchester appears more like a bunch of children who failed to grow up playing fort in a condemned warehouse. Not a drop of testosterone was detected in the entire 30 minutes of footage.

Watch:

The question now is whether Antifa maintains operational bases within the U.S…

Via American Greatness,

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told Megyn Kelly that one reason Dr. Anthony Fauci sought a preemptive pardon before Joe Biden left the White House is because he lied under oath about helping fund the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gabbard recounted the numerous times that Fauci denied providing funding for gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) while being questioned under oath by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).

“So is it any wonder that he sought a preemptive pardon for anything during a certain period of time by President Biden before he left office,” Gabbard asked.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard CONFIRMS Anthony Fauci sought a preemptive pardon because he lied under oath about funding the Covid Pandemic

“Anthony Fauci helped fund the pandemic, things that he denied over and over and over to Senator Rand Paul’s questioning”… pic.twitter.com/hX5w82rLFs

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) May 14, 2025

In the five years since the pandemic first began, the official story that the SARS-CoV-2 virus originated in a Wuhan wet market has been gradually walked back by members of the media, the intelligence community and the government.

The most likely origin of the virus, according to Kelly, is from a lab leak at the WIV where research was being performed on bat coronaviruses.

Earlier this month, the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China released a white paper claiming that the U.S. was trying to “shift the blame” for the virus to China, even as Chinese officials accused the U.S. of potentially being the origin point of the virus.

Gabbard said she has not yet read the white paper but maintains that the postmortem on the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over.

Gabbard explained, “I created… the Directors Initiative Group that is focused on investigating a number of the president’s top priorities and the things that the American people really deserve and want to know the truth about. The origins of COVID-19 is one of them… [and] a lot of the work that has been done is on covid.gov.”

Gabbard has also teamed up with Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Jay Bhattacharya to find the specific link between gain-of-function research being done by the Wuhan Lab and its partnership with U.S. nonprofit Ecohealth Alliance.

If that link can be established, it would directly link Fauci, through Ecohealth Alliance, to funding the research that gave us Covid-19.

This could open up new possibilities of criminal prosecution of Fauci at the state level as well as the possibility of Biden’s autopen-signed pardon being revoked.

Update (2135ET): Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and moderate Republicans have tentatively agreed on a state and local tax (SALT) cap increase to $40,000 for individuals making $500,000 or less in income (no word on married couples) – with a 1% increase per year over 10 years, one source told The Hill Tuesday night.

That marks an increase from the $30,000 cap with a $400,000 income cap currently in the bill — a provision that SALT Caucus members vehemently rejected. The House Rules Committee is scheduled to convene at 1 a.m. Wednesday, during which the panel will consider changes to the bill.

While several members of the SALT Caucus are supportive of the plan, according to sources, Johnson will need to sell the proposal to hardline conservatives — including many in the House Freedom Caucus — who have been resistant to a significant hike to the deduction cap.

Members of the SALT Caucus met with Johnson into the evening – but upon leaving said that they did not yet have a ‘firm’ deal – though ‘significant progress’ had been made.

“We weren’t even in the same universe a couple of days ago. We’re on the same ballfield now,” said Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY).

THE SALT DEAL is coming together.

$40,000 deduction with a $500,000 cap. both the income and deduction limits escalate every year for a decade.

JOHNSON needs to sell this. but he will make the case that this is a better deal than what the SALTers were seeking. and, with rules…

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) May 21, 2025

*  *  *

While Republicans hash out the details on the path to passing President Trump’s 1,116-page ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ – a key sticking point has emerged in regards to the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, which allows taxpayers who itemize to deduct state and local taxes (such as income and property taxes) from their federal taxable income. This primarily benefits rich taxpayers in high-tax states such as California, New York and New Jersey.

Tax writers on the House Ways and Means Committee have offered to raise the cap from its current $10,000 to $30,000 for joint filers making up to $400,000 per year – while Speaker Mike Johnson’s most recent offer was a $40,000 cap for indivuduals / $80,000 for couples for four years at a $751,600 income limit.

The ‘SALT Caucus,’ meanwhile, are holding out for at least a $62,000 cap for individual filers, and $120,000 for couples before they’ll vote ‘yes’ on the bill.

“I’m still a no on the Jason Smith number,” said SALT Caucus member Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY), referring to the $30,000 cap floated by House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-MO). “I hope that the president’s presence here today motivates everybody, especially my leadership, to give the SALT Caucus a number to which we could actually say yes.”

The SALT cap is worth thousands of dollars in savings to millions of typically higher-income taxpayers who itemize vs. take the standard deduction. The cost to the rest of America for this would be around $1 trillion over the next decade, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Before 2017, the average SALT deduction was approximately $13,000, before it was capped at $10,000. In 2022, nearly 10% of all taxpayers used a SALT deduction.

Trump Drops F-Bomb

During a Tuesday meeting with House Republicans, President Donald Trump pressured Republicans to fall in line behind the bill and get it done – asking moderate Republicans from blue states to give up their SALT battle, while warning members not to “fuck with Medicaid,” which some lawmakers have eyed for cuts.

“It’s not a question of holdouts. We have a tremendously unified party,” Trump told reporters before the meeting. “There are some people who want a couple of things that maybe I don’t like or that they’re not going to get.”

A White House official said Trump made clear in the meeting that he’s losing patience with all holdout factions of the conference, including the SALT Caucus and the House Freedom Caucus, and he insisted every Republican should vote “yes.”

His main requests to the conference were not to let SALT impede the bill, arguing Republicans can fight for SALT later on; not to touch Medicaid except for eliminating waste, fraud and abuse such as booting off those who entered the country illegally and instituting commonsense work requirements; and to stick together and get the bill done, a White House official told The Hill.

The president told lawmakers in the closed-door meeting to “let SALT go,” arguing concerns over the provision can’t get in the way of passing the bill. He signaled he was supportive of raising the SALT deduction from $10,000 to $30,000 for anyone making $400,000 or less — the proposal currently in the bill that members of the SALT Caucus have vocally rejected. -The Hill

Trump’s appearance at the nearly two-hour meeting didn’t move the needle much, however.

“The president I don’t think convinced enough people that the bill is adequate the way it is,” said Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), chair of the House Freedom Caucus, whose members are among the loudest critics of the massive spending package. “I can’t support it the way it is right now,” Harris added.

Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), a prominent SALT Caucus member, said “While I respect the president, I’m not budging on it.”

So, it all comes down to SALT.

Archer Aviation is set to serve as the official air taxi provider for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles—a high-profile partnership that has boosted the startup’s public visibility. However, skepticism mounts over whether Archer can deliver a fully operational flying taxi aircraft ahead of the Games.

Short seller Culper Research has released a scathing report on Archer Aviation, alleging that the startup has “systematically misled, deceived, or outright lied” investors about nearly every significant milestone tied to developing and testing its eVTOL aircraft, Midnight.

“Archer’s misrepresentations have grown increasingly brazen as it attempts to conceal a far more deep-seated, and – in the Company’s very own words – “potentially catastrophic” problem: Midnight’s sham transition flight and underlying instability. In our view, Archer’s continued promotion of near-term commercialization is not only premature, but reckless,” Culper wrote in the report.

Culper claimed Midnight was “nowhere close to flying,” and pointed out that Archer CEO Adam Goldstein has been more focused on running promotions, such as appearing on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show last Thursday. 

“Our sources suggest, however, Archer paid millions for the airtime, in addition to Fallon’s recent appearance at an Archer promotional event in NYC,” the short seller wrote, adding, “We reached out to Fallon’s agent who told us that we, too, could have Jimmy show up at our party (to say nothing of his appearance in a promotional video) for about $600,000, plus transportation.”

On Tuesday morning, Culper wrote on X, “We are short Archer Aviation – and we’re extending a $1 million wager to Jimmy Fallon, who has earned millions to promote Archer. Jimmy – if you truly believe in Archer, prove it.”

NEW: We are short Archer Aviation $ACHR – and we’re extending a $1 million wager to @jimmyfallon, who has earned millions to promote $ACHR. Jimmy – if you truly believe in Archer, prove it. Our offer, and our full report now available at https://t.co/4MDshx5BeT pic.twitter.com/9u3BA2eFf7

— Culper (@CulperResearch) May 20, 2025

Archer shares are down a little more than 1% in late afternoon trading on Tuesday. According to data from S3 Partners, about 17% of the company’s floating stock is short. 

Here is short activity in Archer shares via Bloomberg. 

Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management is among the startup’s top shareholders. 

It appears that Midnight is capable of flight—at least to some extent.

✅ Midnight has achieved transition flight!

Next steps…
💨 Continuing to expand Midnight’s speed and endurance flight envelope
🗺️ Execute commercial flight plans to demonstrate the aircraft’s operational readiness

Watch the full, uncut version of the transition flight here:… pic.twitter.com/NLh1yw9GR8

— Archer (@ArcherAviation) June 27, 2024

One has to wonder: will Cathie Wood step up to defend Archer against Culper’s damning allegations?

Authored by Chris Summers via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

In 2025, most people are inseparable from their laptops and smartphones. With that familiarity has come a wariness of the dangers of clicking on unsolicited emails, SMS, or WhatsApp messages.

But there is a growing menace called zero-click attacks, which have previously targeted only VIPs or the very wealthy because of their cost and sophistication.

A zero-click attack is a cyberattack that hacks a device without the user clicking anything. It can happen just by receiving a message, call, or file. The attacker uses hidden flaws in apps or systems to take control of the device, with no action needed from the user and the user remains unaware of the attack.

“Although public awareness has increased recently, these attacks have steadily evolved over many years, becoming more frequent as smartphones and connected devices proliferated,” Nathan House, CEO of StationX, a UK-based cybersecurity training platform, told The Epoch Times.

“The key vulnerability is in the software, rather than the type of device, meaning any connected device with exploitable weaknesses could potentially be targeted,” he said.

Aras Nazarovas, an information security researcher at Cybernews, told The Epoch Times why zero-click attacks usually target VIPs, rather than ordinary individuals.

“Since finding such zero-click exploits is difficult and expensive, most of the time such exploits are used to gain access to information from key figures, such as politicians or journalists in authoritarian regimes,” he said.

“They are often used in targeted campaigns. Using such exploits to steal money is rare.”

In June 2024, the BBC reported that social media platform TikTok had admitted that a “very limited” number of accounts, including those of media outlet CNN, had been compromised.

While ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, did not confirm the nature of the hack, cybersecurity companies such as Kaspersky and Assured Intelligence suggested it stemmed from a zero-click exploit.

“The part that requires high levels of sophistication is finding bugs that allow such attacks and writing exploits for these bugs,” Nazarovas said.

“It has been a billion-dollar market for years, selling zero-click exploits and exploit chains. Some gray/dark market exploit brokers often offer $500,000 to $1 million for such exploit chains for popular devices and apps.”

Nazarovas added that while ordinary users have been hit in the past by zero-click ‘drive-by’ attacks. These are attacks that emerge after the unintentional installation of malicious software onto a device, often without the user even realizing it. They have become more infrequent with the growing gray market for such exploits.

House said zero-click exploits often seek out vulnerabilities in software and apps that are expensive to discover, which means the perpetrators are usually “nation-state actors or highly-funded groups.”

Expanded Spyware Markets

Although there have been recent innovations in AI that have made certain cyber crimes, such as voice-cloning or vishing, more prevalent, Nazarovas says there is no evidence yet that it has increased the risk from zero-click attacks.

House said people could use AI to “write zero-click exploit chains for people who would have otherwise lacked the time, experience, or knowledge to be able to discover and write such exploits.”

But, he said, the increase in zero-click attacks in recent years, “stems mainly from expanded spyware markets and greater availability of sophisticated exploits, rather than directly from AI-driven techniques.”

He said zero-click attacks have existed for more than a decade, the most infamous of which was the Pegasus spyware affair.

In July 2021, The Guardian and 16 other media outlets published a series of articles, alleging that foreign governments used the Israeli-based NSO Group’s Pegasus software to surveil at least 180 journalists and numerous other targets around the world.

Alleged targets of Pegasus surveillance included French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, and Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi, who was slain in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018.

In a statement at the time, NSO Group said, “As NSO has previously stated, our technology was not associated in any way with the heinous murder of Jamal Khashoggi.”

On May 6, a California jury awarded WhatsApp’s parent company, Meta, $444,719 in compensatory damages and $167.3 million in punitive damages, in a privacy case against NSO Group.

The WhatsApp complaint was focused on the Pegasus spyware, which, according to the lawsuit, was developed “to be remotely installed and enable the remote access and control of information—including calls, messages, and location—on mobile devices using the Android, iOS, and BlackBerry operating systems.”

“While ordinary users can occasionally become collateral targets, attackers generally reserve these costly exploits for individuals whose information is especially valuable or sensitive,” Nazarovas said.

According to Nazarovas, corporations offer hackers ‘bug bounties’ to incentivize them to find these exploits and report them to the company, rather than selling them to a broker who then sells them on to parties who use them illegally.

Read the rest here…

Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

I’ve spent years warning about the economic dangers of policies that attempt to tax wealth before it’s realized, and now, like a slow-motion train wreck, we’re about to witness exactly why those warnings matter.

Australia’s new move to tax unrealized capital gains is one of the most reckless policy decisions I’ve ever seen — and keep in mind, I had front row seats to an “Inflation Reduction Act” that added more than $1 trillion in spending.

Taxing unrealized gains is equal parts outright f*cking mathematically insane and cut-and-dry authoritarian. And while I’m appalled by the policy itself, there’s a perverse part of me that’s almost glad it’s happening in Australia first—because the disastrous results will be on full display for the world to see.

Starting in July 2025, the Albanese government is set to debut its latest economic masterstroke: taxing imaginary money. That’s right—if you’ve got more than $3 million sitting in your superannuation, not only will you get slapped with a 30% tax, but it doesn’t even matter if you actually made any money.

Didn’t sell anything? Didn’t cash out? Never saw a cent? Tough luck—Big Brother took a peek at your account, saw some numbers went up, and decided you owe them a slice of your hypothetical success.

This isn’t just bending the rules of how taxation and private property works—it’s snapping them clean in half and using the pieces to beat your rights to death. For as long as economies have existed, the deal was simple: you sell an asset, you make a profit, and then you pay tax. You know, after you’ve actually made money. Because taxing cash that doesn’t exist yet is the kind of thing you expect from crackheads playing Monopoly, not national policy.

But here we are. Australia is now sprinting headfirst toward a future where you get billed for wealth that isn’t liquid, isn’t realized, and, if the market tanks tomorrow, might never even exist. It’s like being forced to pay income tax on the raise your boss almost gave you but didn’t, or footing the bill for the lottery jackpot on the billboard on the side of I-95 that you didn’t win.

The fallout is not rocket science. People will be forced to liquidate assets—probably the wrong ones, at the worst possible time—just to scrape together enough real money to cover taxes on their fake money. Don’t have the cash lying around to pay that bill? Sounds like a you problem. Better start liquidating. And this isn’t just stocks we’re talking about. Real estate? Private businesses? Long-term investments you hold precisely because they’re supposed to be safe and stable? All fair game in a fire sale.

But wait, it gets even better. That $3 million threshold? It’s not even indexed to inflation. So as the value of money inevitably erodes, more and more regular people will find themselves dragged into this mess. It’s like the $1,200 handpay rule in Atlantic City and Las Vegas: it was created in the 1800s when $1,200 was enough to buy a private island, but as the purchasing power of the dollar has eroded, the rule has been kept in place, with the recalibration serving as way to monitor more and more transactions.

🔥 50% OFF FOR LIFE: Using this coupon entitles you to 50% off an annual subscription to Fringe Finance for life: Get 50% off forever

With these unrealized gains, today it’s “only the rich,” but tomorrow it’s anyone who happened to save diligently or saw their house value rise because some genius decided to inflate the housing market even more.

So, if you’re sitting there thinking, “Well, that won’t affect me,” just wait. You might not be rich enough for the government’s shakedown yet, but thanks to inflation and asset bubbles, they’ll be at your door before you can say “unrealized gains.”

Back in 2024, I wrote about why taxing unrealized gains in the U.S. would be a catastrophic policy error. I warned that it would lead to forced sales, create liquidity crises, and punish anyone who dares to invest in volatile or long-term assets. Investors will avoid riskier assets that fluctuate in value because even a temporary increase could trigger a tax liability before they’ve seen any real return. This creates a chilling effect on investment in startups, innovation, and anything with a long payoff horizon.

It would also cause monstrous capital flight out of the U.S., as I’m guessing we’ll soon see in Australia.

Then there’s the bureaucratic nightmare of it all. Valuing assets for tax purposes every single year is an administrative quagmire. How do you accurately value a private business annually? How do you value collectibles, real estate, or other non-liquid assets in a way that’s fair and consistent? The government doesn’t have that kind of precision, and neither do most investors. What you end up with is a system riddled with errors, disputes, and compliance headaches for both taxpayers and the government.

Yet despite all these glaring problems, Australia is going through with it. And while I genuinely feel for the Australians who are about to suffer the consequences of this insanity, there’s also a silver lining. The rest of the world is watching. This is about to become the textbook case study in how not to run an economy. If you want to see what happens when a government taxes phantom wealth and forces people to pay cash they don’t have, just keep your eyes on Australia over the next few years.

My prediction? You’ll see a mass exodus of capital. People will restructure their investments, move funds offshore, and pull money out of productive sectors of the economy. You’ll see market volatility as investors dump assets to avoid future tax liabilities. You’ll watch the property market distort as people chase after tax shelters. And ultimately, you’ll see economic growth grind down under the weight of a policy that punishes investment and rewards government overreach.

In a strange way, I’m thankful this is happening—not because I support it, but because it will stand as a stark, irrefutable warning to every other country foolish enough to consider the same policy. The Australian government is about to run a live experiment in economic self-sabotage, and the results will be undeniable. In my opinion, after this plays out, no serious policymaker with a shred of economic literacy will be able to look at the forthcoming outcomes and still argue that taxing unrealized gains is anything but a disastrously stupid idea.

QTR’s Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only. In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author.

This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. I may or may not own names I write about and are watching. Sometimes I’m bullish without owning things, sometimes I’m bearish and do own things. Just assume my positions could be exactly the opposite of what you think they are just in case. If I’m long I could quickly be short and vice versa. I won’t update my positions. All positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice and at any point I can be long, short or neutral on any position. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

Agricultural advocates and lawmakers are sounding the alarm this week, as section 41001 of the proposed Budget Reconciliation Act (the Big Beautiful Bill) contains language that would centralize local authority to the federal government regarding land use and land expropriation.

Property rights are under attack again.

A House Energy and Commerce proposal for the budget reconciliation bill would override state laws that protect landowners’ private property rights from being taken by Green New Deal carbon sequestration pipeline companies.

The proposal… https://t.co/FWKqiaVwbe pic.twitter.com/wakjgv3d4D

— Speaker Jon Hansen (@SpeakerHansen) May 14, 2025

Beginning under the Biden administration’s Federal Plan for Equitable Long-Term Recovery and Resilience (ELTRR), funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the USDA credit line, known as the Commodities Credit Corporation (CCC), were allocated to ideologically aligned Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). 

Using contract law, NGOs were then tasked with creating a carbon market and strategic buyout programs for federally funded public-private land acquisitions—entered into as an agreement structure with local municipalities—to facilitate the Green New Deal.  

Carbon capture has captured Farm Credit, and could soon capture lands across America’s Heartland.

Amid a flurry of administrative rule changes, the Biden administration prioritized government-backed Farm Credit lending for rural utilities. Reallocating parts of the USDA’s Rural Development budget, the Biden administration attracted “eligible organizations” to “invest in renewable energy infrastructure and zero-emission systems,” to “significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

Simultaneously, as part of the ELTRR’s “whole-of-government” approach; the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exempted certain “Green Energy” infrastructure projects, such as solar and carbon capture from Environmental Impact Studies, while 45Q tax credits promised billions in government subsidies, and agencies eased land acquisition regulations for “Federally Assisted Programs.”

This coalescence created a proverbial gold rush. Suddenly, private equity firms like Blackrock and Vanguard quickly began backing projects for Carbon Sequestration infrastructure, such as the 2,500-mile C02 pipeline project spanning five states. 

Now, as Congress works to immediately halt IRA funding and reign-in the “whole-of-government,” state lawmakers and agricultural advocates warn the cure could exacerbate the disease.

According to Amanda Radke, a fifth-generation cattle rancher who has fought against giving private corporations eminent domain power in South Dakota, “this proposal would open the door for federal overreach and eminent domain abuse, especially with the $10 million price tag to fast-track these projects.”

“I’m deeply concerned that the current proposal for the budget reconciliation bill will grant centralized federal authority over the permitting of carbon dioxide pipelines,” Radke said. “This Green New Deal has held America hostage for far too long, and it’s time for Congress to cut ties with this boondoggle once and for all. Landowners across the nation are calling for Congress to cut wasteful spending, halt the subsidies of the IRA like the 45Q tax credit, and protect our private property rights.” 

S.D. landowners have also found a fierce advocate in Speaker of the House, Rep. Jon Hansen. Hansen, who is now running for Governor,  and running-mate Rep. Karla Lems, have led the charge to protect private property rights in the State of South Dakota. 

However, according to Hansen, these hard-won efforts could now be a moot point. 

“President Trump has made it very clear that he wants to end the Green New Deal scam. In spite of that, politicians in Washington are trying to sneak a provision deep in the budget bill that would override the hard-fought protections that we have put into place for farmers, ranchers, and land owners in South Dakota,” Hansen told ZeroHedge.

While GOP leadership has made quiet promises that the bill will be amended, an updated draft has yet to materialize prior to Wednesday’s vote. A fact that isn’t sitting well with Radke or Hansen.

“While we’ve been told this language would be cut on Wednesday morning, farmers and ranchers are waiting for reassurance from Congressional leaders that our land is, in fact, not for sale to the highest bidder,” Radke said. 

For Hansen, however, anything short of killing this section, will be considered an absolute failure.

“All members of Congress must reject this proposal,” Hansen said. “Anything short of killing the land grab proposal and totally defunding the 45Q tax credit is an absolute failure to deliver on ending the green new deal scam and a failure to defend our peoples’ constitutional rights.”

Update(1830ET): At a moment it has become very clear that Netanyahu could care less about ‘pressure’ from Western allies the US, UK, and Canada, there are breaking reports Tuesday evening that a preemptive Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear sites could be imminent. According to CNN:

The US has obtained new intelligence suggesting that Israel is making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, even as the Trump administration has been pursuing a diplomatic deal with Tehran, multiple US officials familiar with the latest intelligence told CNN.

Such a strike would be a brazen break with President Donald Trump, US officials said. It could also risk tipping off a broader regional conflict in the Middle East — something the US has sought to avoid since the war in Gaza inflamed tensions beginning in 2023.

The same report underscores that no ‘final decision’ has been made yet, and this is perhaps another ploy by the Israelis to show the West and the Mideast region that it means business, in the wake of “Israel’s 9/11” – the Oct.7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks. 

The late in the day headline resulted in an immediate spike in oil prices… 

* * *

The United Kingdom on Tuesday suspended its free-trade agreement negotiations with Israel over the growing Gaza crisis, and after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressed disgust at newly expanded Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip, also as famine threats at least 500,000 Palestinians.

Starmer described that he and his French and Canadian counterparts are “horrified” by the Netanyahu government’s escalation in Gaza. This also comes as international headlines and warnings grow more dire. For example Al Jazeera has the following new headline: “Starving Palestinians resort to eating animal feed, flour mixed with sand”.

“We repeat our demand for a ceasefire as the only way to free the hostages, we repeat our opposition to settlements in the West Bank, and we repeat our demand to massively scale up humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” Starmer told parliament.

A Monday joint statement by the UK, France and Canada had threatened sanctions on Israel. Britain further did slap targeted sanctions on Israeli settler groups and individuals. 

Later on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary David Lammy voiced agreement with Starmer, saying that Israel’s actions are “morally wrong” and “unjustifiable.” He also said of the fresh sanctions, “I have seen for myself the consequences of settler violence. The fear of its victims. The impunity of its perpetrators.”

In announcing the pause in free-trade agreement negotiations, Lammy further revealed that the Israeli ambassador had been summoned. Britain is reportedly demanding the full resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip.

Responding to shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel, Lammy told parliament:

I think the whole house should be able to utterly condemn the Israeli government’s denial of food to hungry children. It is wrong. It’s appalling.

Opposing the expansion of a war that has killed thousands of children is not rewarding Hamas. Opposing the displacement of 100,000s of civilians is not rewarding Hamas. On this side of the house, we are crystal clear that what is happening is morally wrong, unjustifiable, and it needs to stop.

Starting Friday the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced an expanded mobilization of troops for operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’. Some two million Palestinians are expected to be forced into a “humanitarian zone” while most of the enclave is destroyed and flattened.

The policy somewhat contradicts Trump’s main messaging during last week’s Gulf tour, wherein he emphasized peace through deal-making, and not ‘chaos’ in the war-torn Middle East. 

This is probably the most pressure Israel has come under from its Western allies since Oct.7, 2023. As we previously reported, even Vice President JD Vance abruptly canceled a planned trip to Israel following the Netanyahu government’s declaration that it would ramp up operations to conquer all of Gaza.

Meanwhile the domestic policy fight within Israel has been ramping up too…

Yair Golan, an IDF major general and leader of Israel’s Democrats Party, said Monday that Israel is killing babies as a hobby:

“A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies for a hobby, and does not set goals involving the expulsion of populations.” pic.twitter.com/NofvIAdNW9

— Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) May 20, 2025

Axios had written that “The US official said Vance made the decision because he didn’t want his trip to suggest the Trump administration endorsed the Israeli decision to launch a massive operation at a time when the U.S. is pushing for a ceasefire and hostage deal.” 

Neither the US nor UK have every fully cut funding or arms transfers to Israel for any reason, and are unlikely to ever escalate to that point, no matter how tense relations become.

The optics are grim for far-left Maryland Governor Wes Moore. As the state grapples with a fiscal crisis (deficit explosion), a credit downgrade, illegal alien invasion, violent crime, the looming threat of resident and business flight, a potential tsunami of new taxes, and a worsening power crisis, Moore is facing a growing backlash from all Marylanders. His ability to lead is increasingly being questioned—and it’s becoming clear he’s far from presidential material.

Moore has managed to anger both sides of the political aisle. The latest outrage comes from within his own party after he vetoed a bill that would have established a state commission to study and recommend reparations for African Americans affected by slavery.

In a letter explaining his decision, Moore said it’s not the time for another study, emphasizing the need for direct action to address racial disparities such as the wealth gap, homeownership, education, and food insecurity.

“I will always protect and defend the full history of African Americans in our state and country,” Moore wrote in his letter, adding, “But in light of the many important studies that have taken place on this issue over nearly three decades, now is the time to focus on the work itself: Narrowing the racial wealth gap, expanding homeownership, uplifting entrepreneurs of color, and closing the foundational disparities that lead to inequality — from food insecurity to education.”

He continued: “We have moved in partnership with leaders across the state to uplift Black families and address racial disparities in our communities. That is the context in which I’ve made this difficult decision. Because while I appreciate the work that went into this legislation, I strongly believe now is not the time for another study. Now is the time for continued action that delivers results for the people we serve.”

Moore’s rationale—more likely crafted by his advisors—appears rooted in political optics. These far-left redistribution programs are so detached from capitalist principles and Western values that they risk being deeply unpopular, especially at a time when Maryland’s finances are unraveling after decades of Democratic overspending and an economy overly dependent on government funding.

We suspect Moore’s veto has also angered hardline Marxist Democrats in the state, who continue to push for socialist systems that redistribute wealth from the productive to the less productive. Under the current leadership of activist progressives, Maryland is on a death spiral—and it’s not us saying this—but some leaders of some of the largest companies that operate in the Baltimore area have told us this.

With Democrats furious over Moore’s veto of the reparations bill, the governor has now managed to infuriate both sides of the political aisle.

The Maryland Legislative Black Caucus was not pleased with Moore: 

“The state’s first black governor chose to block this historic legislation that would have moved the state toward directly repairing the harm of enslavement.”

Meanwhile, Maryland’s financial outlook continues to deteriorate, with a $3 billion budget shortfall looming—likely paving the way for new taxes and triggering yet another wave of resident flight.

It just keeps getting WORSE

Maryland has now LOST its prized AAA bond rating from Moody’s. Add that to the growing list of what Maryland has recently lost.

– FBI Headquarters
– Washington Commanders
– IonQ’s quantum computing hub
– Six Flags America

What will be next?

— Chris Papst (@chrispapst) May 15, 2025

A large asset manager based in Baltimore told us earlier this year that they had advised clients to leave the state before the impending tax tsunami and to avoid purchasing Maryland municipal bonds due to the high risk of a credit downgrade.

And last week, Maryland’s financial credit profile deteriorated, for the first time in decades—after Moody’s downgraded the state’s creditworthiness to Aa1 from AAA.

Since 1973, Maryland has maintained a top-tier credit rating, long seen as a reflection of fiscal discipline and responsible governance. However, far-left Democrats in Annapolis have chosen to run deficits to fund their progressive pet projects. This credit downgrade puts Maryland on the disastrous pathway toward becoming “Illinois 2.0.”

“I think it’s disgraceful that we’re going to set up a reparations tax that might tax one race and give to another race all in the name of equity,” Matthew Morgan, a Republican delegate, said in April before voting against the bill.

Epoch Times noted, “Some lawmakers also took issue with the bill’s broad language, which gave the proposed commission wide discretion in defining eligibility. They warned that, in theory, this could extend benefits to millions of people across the United States or even the world, costing billions of dollars.”

Perhaps Moore should take some personal time—maybe at the upscale Caves Valley Golf Club, where sources say he is a member—and reflect on his state strategy while paying a round of golf. With crises piling up well before Trump’s second term began, Moore has yet to demonstrate strong leadership Maryland needs.