Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

TIME Magazine is facing backlash for declaring that the conviction of French populist politician Marine Le Pen on a trumped up bureaucratic charge “was a good day for French democracy.” 

Yes, really.

Apparently banning a front running candidate from running for office for five years and handing her a prison sentence is “good for democracy.”

It was a good day for French democracy but the far-right may still win the 2027 presidential election, writes Cole Stanglerhttps://t.co/vlexFV9Ltg

— TIME (@TIME) April 1, 2025

As we highlighted yesterday, this is happening all over Europe in what many are describing as a coordinated globalist effort to prevent more nationalist candidates from being elected.

Le Pen will serve two of the four year prison sentence qunder house arrest with an ankle bracelet monitor.

Why 2 years of house arrest? Is there a risk she might steal a car? The only plausible explanation is that it is to prevent her campaigning for whoever is the RN’s candidate in the next elections.

— Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry (@pegobry_en) March 31, 2025

Democracy does not include imprisoning the likely winner, you drooling fucking morons.

— JWF (@JammieWF) April 1, 2025

Define democracy, @TIME

— Rug art (@eratosthenes121) April 1, 2025

Democracy now means putting your political opponents in jail worldwide.

— JaknTea (@JaknTea) April 1, 2025

Removing candidates from running is totally a good day for democracy.

— Harry Flashman (@KamalaGrapple) April 1, 2025

How is it good for democracy to imprison popular opposition?

— pushfade (@pushfader) April 1, 2025

Putting your political opponents in jail before an election is *not* repeat *not* a “good day for democracy”. Its quite the opposite, actually.

— Its A Dry Heat (@Its_a_dryheat) April 1, 2025

Le Pen may still yet find a way to run given that the Paris Court of Appeal said it will look to decide whether to uphold or scrap the ban on her from elections by next year.

“The Paris Court of Appeal confirms having received today three appeals filed against the decision rendered on March 31, 2025, by the Paris judicial court in the case of the parliamentary assistants of the National Front. It will examine this file within a time frame which should allow a decision to be rendered in the summer of 2026,” the court said, according to Le Figaro.

In response, Le Pen said it was “very good news,” but that she intends to challenge the ruling in any way possible, including France’s Constitutional Council and the European Court of Human Rights.

“I will use all possible avenues of appeal. I won’t let it happen,” she told Le Parisien.

She has further contended that the court’s decision to impose a ban on her pursuing office while her appeal is ongoing undermines the rule of law, asserting that individuals in the appeal process are generally granted the presumption of innocence, and thus, implementing the ban at this stage disregards established legal norms.

Current polling suggests that Le Pen is almost certain to win if she runs in 2027.

*  *  *

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Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

It’ll therefore either have to accept a lopsided one or prepare for a major war that it might lose.

Iranian-US tensions are boiling after Trump threatened to bomb Iran following its rejection of direct talks over a new nuclear deal. He also ordered the Pentagon to move six B-2 stealth bombers, which CNN assessed to be a full 30% of the US’ stealth bomber fleet, to the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. The Iranian Supreme Leader responded by promising strong retaliation if the US attacks while one of his chief advisors warned that their country would then have “no choice” but to build nukes if that happens.

Although the US Intelligence Community’s latest Annual Threat Assessment claimed that “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon”, there have been long-standing concerns that it could quickly do so if the decision is made due to its nuclear program allegedly have a rapid breakout potential. This makes it no different in principle than Japan’s, which could begin churning out nukes in a matter of months, but neither the US nor its regional allies consider Japan to be a threat, unlike how they view Iran.

The US’ renewed bombing campaign against Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen might have been partially intended to send a message to the Islamic Republic aimed at getting it to enter direct talks over this issue by signaling that Trump 2.0 does indeed have the political will to initiate military action if it refuses. Despite Iran’s recent rejection of his demand, Trump might still hold off on this for now due to the likelihood that Iran could inflict unacceptable retaliatory damage to the US’ regional bases and allies.

Furthermore, diplomacy hasn’t yet been exhausted since Iran didn’t reject indirect talks of the kind that Russia offered to mediate after reportedly being asked by the US to do so, which was discussed here. Therefore, it would be premature for the US to seriously consider bombing Iran at this time, yet that option isn’t off the table if indirect talks fail to reach a deal. Iran lacks the leverage for a fair deal with the US, however, so it’ll either have to accept a lopsided one or prepare for a major war that it might lose.

Iran is a proud civilization-state that’s loath to subordinate itself to anyone, hence the difficulty in getting it to agree to drastic curbs on its nuclear energy program that would enshrine its status as a second-class country in this regard, all while abandoning any chance of nuclear weapons in the future. From Iran’s perspective, this could embolden Israel into one day launching a large-scale conventional or even nuclear war against it, which Iran believes has only hitherto been deterred by dangling this Damocles’ sword.

That said, while Iran could inflict unacceptable retaliatory damage to the US’ regional bases and allies (first of all Israel) if it’s attacked over its refusal to agree to a Russian-mediated lopsided deal, it cannot inflict such damage to the US’ nuclear triad and would thus likely be destroyed. Iran couldn’t count on Russia intervening to help it either since their newly updated strategic partnership doesn’t include mutual defense obligations and Moscow doesn’t want war with Washington or West Jerusalem.

Even though the US could survive a major war with Iran, it still prefers to avoid one. So long as the US’ demands remain limited to drastically curbing Iran’s nuclear energy program and don’t expand to include curbs on its support for regional allies or its ballistic missile program, then creative diplomacy could prevail. For that to happen, Russia would have to devise a set of incentives for Iran that the US approves of and Iran then agrees to, but that’s still a far way off and Trump might strike first if he loses patience.

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump’s pardon for people convicted of charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol does not extend to crimes “only connected to January 6 by the happenstance that it was uncovered during investigation of the unrelated January 6 offenses,” a federal appeals court ruled on April 2.

A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a lower court ruling that rejected arguments from Dan Wilson, a Jan. 6 defendant who said that Trump’s relief should cover firearm convictions that stemmed from a search conducted as part of the probe into his actions on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump on Jan. 20, when he took office for his second term, pardoned people for crimes “relating to the events at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”

“That language plainly applies to related offenses,” Circuit Judges Cornelia T.L. Pillard and Gregory G. Katsas said on Wednesday, in denying Wilson’s motion for release pending appeal.

Circuit Judge Neomi Rao, the third judge on the panel, dissented.

“Wilson’s appeal presents exceptional circumstances. He raises a novel question implicating the scope of the pardon power, which is vested exclusively in the President,” Rao said.

She noted that Trump issued the pardon but tasked the attorney general with administering and effectuating it by issuing certificates to relevant people. The U.S. Department of Justice has said in court filings that the pardon does cover Wilson’s firearm convictions.

“Wilson’s certificate merely repeats the language of the blanket pardon and does not specifically list his firearm convictions,” Rao said. “But nothing seems to preclude a new certificate from being issued that clarifies the scope of Wilson’s pardon. Because it is unlikely that the issuance of a certificate of pardon is judicially reviewable, there is at least a ’substantial question’ whether we should defer to the Department of Justice when it claims the certificate it has issued applies to Wilson’s firearms convictions.”

The majority said in response that they were reviewing the scope of the pardon, not its validity.

“The pardon does not cover offenses wholly independent of events at the Capitol on January 6, even if uncovered during investigation of January 6 offenses,” they said.

“What matters is the relationship between the offenses. Wilson’s Kentucky firearm offenses are not ‘offenses related to events that occurred’ at the Capitol on January 6. They occurred at a different time and place, and the elements of these offenses—possession of an unlicensed firearm and the possession of firearms by a prohibited person—bear no relationship to conduct that occurred at the Capitol on January 6. Thus, by the plain terms of the Pardon, they are not covered.”

George Pallas, an attorney representing Wilson, told The Epoch Times in an email that “Illegal gang members from El Salvador have better luck than J6ers do in the DC courts.” He was referring to recent rulings blocking the Trump administration from deporting Tren de Aragua members and suspected members under Trump’s Alien Enemies Act declaration.

Wilson had been released shortly after Trump signed the proclamation, but Department of Justice officials later said he should have been kept in custody because the firearms crimes were not covered by Trump’s pardon.

Several weeks later, officials told the federal court in Washington that they were now of the view that the pardon did cover the crimes.

U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich ruled in March that the convictions, which came in Kentucky after a search of Wilson’s home, were not covered by the pardon.

Friedrich said that Trump can still pardon Wilson for unrelated convictions but that he has not yet.

Pallas told The Epoch Times in an email after that ruling that Friedrich missed the point because “President Trump is in the courtroom speaking through his surrogate, the prosecutor.”

A different judge, at around the same time, declined to vacate the convictions of Edward Kelley, another Jan. 6 defendant who offered similar arguments against conspiracy and threat charges. Kelley has not appealed that ruling.

Also on Wednesday, a federal judge in Florida agreed to dismiss the convictions of another Jan. 6 defendant, Jeremy Brown, who was convicted of grenade and firearm possession in 2023. The judge overseeing the case cited how the Department of Justice moved to throw out the charges, referencing the pardon.

The Israeli military (IDF) has expanded its Gaza operations over the last 24 hours, and has announced a new focus on establishing a “security zone” in an around the southern city of Rafah.

The push into Rafah is intended to dismantle all remaining Hamas infrastructure and command activity, given the city is seen as the group’s last main stronghold in the Gaza Strip.

This has unleashed a new wave of mass displacement, with reports of hundreds of thousands fleeing the city amid the assault. The enclave for more than the last year been even more crowded, given it has served as a last place of refuge for the displaced from northern and central Gaza.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir visited Gaza this week, delivering the following message of intensified operations to get back all of the remaining hostages:

During the visit, Zamir addressed troops near Rafah, stating that the Israel Defense Forces are intensifying their offensive at a deliberate and determined pace. He emphasized that the military effort would continue until all Israeli hostages are returned and declared the mission far from over.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry has announced at least 97 people killed in Israeli strikes from Wednesday into Thursday, including at least 20 killed in a dawn airstrike on a suburb of Gaza City.

According to a Palestinian eyewitness of the stepped up assault who spoke to Reuters:

Rafah “is gone, it is being wiped out,” a father of seven among the hundreds of thousands who had fled from Rafah to neighboring Khan Younis, told Reuters via a chat app.

“They are knocking down what is left standing of houses and property,” said the man who declined to be identified for fear of repercussions.

A ground assault on eastern Gaza City is also reported to be ongoing. This week has seen the heaviest escalation of the ground and aerial assault since the ceasefire collapsed last month.

Meanwhile controversy and international outraged has continued over the recent killings of a group of Palestinian emergency responders:

The Israeli military killed 15 medics and emergency workers in southern Gaza and buried the bodies with their ambulances and rescue vehicles last month.

Dr Ahmed al-Farra, director of pediatrics at Al-Tahreer Maternity Hospital in southern Khan Younis, saw the bodies coming into the medical facility after they were recovered a week later. He said Israeli soldiers would have easily seen they were targeting medics when they opened fire.

“The skies are filled with their planes, they can see a needle on the ground. So they could easily distinguish ambulances,” al-Farra told Al Jazeera.

“When the bodies came to the hospital, they were nearly decomposed. It had been around seven to eight days since the medics were executed. I saw three of them had their hands tied behind their backs.”

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have continued lobbing rockets on southern Israel, with a new round launched on Thursday. Warning sirens have returned to becoming a regular feature of life in Israeli towns and cities in the south and central of the country.

⚡️Nonstop Israeli strikes across Gaza pic.twitter.com/FZhk636IxG

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) April 3, 2025

The wartime situation is set to continue for the foreseeable future, given new IDF spokesman, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, declared Thursday that the military has entered “a new stage” of the fight against Hamas. “The plan serves the goals of the war, returning the hostages and destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities,” he said.

The IDF is maintaining “operational ambiguity, so we can surprise the enemy and bring about significant achievements,” he said, adding that “our actions will speak”.

Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

Aside from the rhetoric, there is a growing consensus among Western diplomats, military analysts, military officers, heads of state, and even much of the media about how to end the endless Ukrainian war.

A proposed peace will see a DMZ established somewhere along an adjusted 1,200-mile Ukraine-Russia border. Tough negotiations will adjudicate how far east toward its original borders Russian forces will be leveraged to backstep.

Publicly in the U.S. and covertly in Europe, all accept that a depleted Ukraine will not have the military strength to retake Crimea and the Donbas.

In 2014, both were absorbed by Russia during the Obama administration. Neither that administration nor any since has advocated a military effort to reclaim them.

Loudly, the U.S.—and again quietly Europe—concedes that Ukraine will not be in NATO—a confirmation that Russia will use to justify to its people its disastrous invasion, and even many Ukrainians will accept.

How will the West deter Putin from his inevitable agenda of reclaiming lost Soviet territory and Russian-speaking peoples? For now, his army is exhausted, its arsenals depleted, and its reputation shattered.

In the future, a commercial corridor, anchored by concessions to American and international mining concerns, will supposedly serve as a tripwire to deter Putin from attacking in-the-way noncombatant Americans.

More practically, Ukrainian forces will be kept fully armed. They have already inflicted perhaps a million causalities on Putin’s forces—possibly five times the dead, wounded, and missing that the Russians lost to the Taliban over that entire decade-long misadventure in Afghanistan.

If Trump can coax even a ceasefire, the oddly bellicose left will still rail about “Munich” and Trump as “Putin’s puppet.”

But after perhaps 1.5 million total Ukrainian and Russian dead, wounded, sick, and missing, transatlantic leftists will quietly admit they never had any realistic plan to win by fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian.

And they certainly were not willing—despite what they claimed in their spasms of braggadocio—to send U.S., U.K., European, or NATO ground troops into Eastern Ukraine.

Trump has faced criticism for his volatile, art-of-the-deal approach to Ukrainian diplomacy over the last 10 weeks.

Lost in such criticism is that the Biden administration did not even try to end the war. Instead, in the LBJ-style of “light at the end of the tunnel,” it parroted the great “spring offensive” to come. And when that gambit disastrously failed, it resorted to the banal blank check of “as long as it takes.”

Western leaders simplistically thought that sending more arms, money, and Ukrainians into the cauldron would eventually break Russia—30 times larger than Ukraine, 10 times richer, over four times more populous, and far less bothered by the mounting toll of its greater losses.

In addition, we even know the likely course of negotiations to end the slaughter.

As soon as Trump pressures Zelenskyy for a ceasefire and a rare minerals mining concession, Putin smells an advantage. So, he digs in and orders his generals to double down on terror strikes for advantage.

And then, once Trump sees that scolding Zelensky empowers Putin to back off from a ceasefire, he turns on Putin and puts far greater pressure on him: a secondary embargo on all who buy Russian oil that even the “on to Moscow” crowd had never envisioned.

Once Putin seems to agree, then Zelenskyy thinks he was had and wants a better mining deal or reconsideration of NATO or more sophisticated weapons—until Trump reminds him that the despised U.S., not his beloved Europeans, is his only route to a shaky peace.

So, we know the negotiations will have a yin and yang until there is no solution other than a ceasefire leading to a Korean-peninsula-like hot peace.

Putin always preferred to exploit the Obamas and Bidens of the world. And he did so in 2014 and 2022, rather than the mercurial, unpredictable, and ultimately dangerous Trump, during whose tenure he stayed put within his borders.

He also knows that for all the talk of his puppet Trump, the latter killed hundreds of the Wagner group, pulled out of an asymmetrical missile deal, first sent offensive weapons to Ukraine, sanctioned Russian oil and oligarchs, warned the Germans not to deal with Putin on the Nord Stream II pipeline, and bombed into extinction ISIS of Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and Qasem Soleimani.

So, Putin knows that India, China, and others who buy his oil will not if he reneges on his willingness for a ceasefire.

If and when peace comes, we can already foresee the misinformation that will follow: Trump deserves no credit. Zelenskyy remains the true hero. A now hollowed-out Russia was the real winner.

The only mystery?

Since when did the anti-war left prefer an endless and horrific war to a difficult, messy peace?

President Donald Trump teased another explosive revelation from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), as Democrats and legacy media escalate their ongoing campaign against the cost-cutting initiative and its leader, Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

While speaking with the press aboard Air Force One en route to South Florida for the weekend, Trump said: “They found something today that’s horrible,” adding. “You’ll find out very soon. What they found is incredible.”

Trump on DOGE: “They found something today that’s horrible. You’ll find out very soon. What they found is incredible.”pic.twitter.com/4clczQhM1s

— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) April 3, 2025

Trump also gave Musk credit for his leadership at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has so far achieved an estimated savings of $140 billion, amounting to roughly $869.57 per taxpayer. 

“Elon is fantastic,” the president said. “He’s a patriot. He found millions of dollars of fraud.”

“He loves the country that’s why he does it,” he added. Addressing speculation about Musk’s future, Trump responded to reporters, “I want him to stay as long as possible.”

The president also commented on the recent wave of violent attacks targeting Tesla vehicles and dealerships, incidents he has previously labeled as “terrorism.” 

“It’s a shame what they are doing with his car company,” he said. “It’s a great car, great product.”

According to a since debunked Politico report citing unnamed sources, Trump has privately indicated to close associates that Musk plans to scale back his involvement as an advisor in the near future. While Musk and the White House denied the report, Trump told reporters on AF1 that “Elon is fantastic,” but he has “a number of companies to run.”

“I want him to stay as long as possible,” said Trump. “There’s going to be a point where he’s going to have to leave.”

Over the weekend, at a Wisconsin rally aimed at boosting voter turnout, Musk and DOGE volunteer Antonio Gracias disclosed that millions of noncitizens were granted Social Security numbers under former President Joe Biden’s administration. They presented a chart illustrating a consistent annual rise, peaking at over 2 million in FY 2024, which concluded on September 30. In both FY23 and FY25—the latter starting in October and running through September of this year—approximately 1 million noncitizens received Social Security numbers.

“None of this would have happened without President Trump,” Gracias told Fox News. “President Trump had the courage to allow us to go across databases. He signed an executive order. It’s never been done before, where agencies could talk to each other and databases could talk with each other.”

“That allowed us to connect all this data, to find these people across the system, across the benefit system, all the way to the voting records. It really took a lot of courage,” he added.

Now the question is; what’s this ‘horrible’ thing DOGE found? And is it just a ‘LOOK, SQUIRREL!’ to distract from all the ‘fun’ we’re having in response to new tariffs?

*  *   *

Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,

he Florida Senate passed a bill prohibiting geoengineering and weather modification by a vote of 28-9, Thursday. SB-56, dubbed the “chemtrails bill” by the media, prohibits “the injection, release, or dispersion, by any means, of a chemical, a chemical compound, a substance, or an apparatus into the atmosphere within the borders of this state for the express purpose of affecting the temperature, weather, climate, or intensity of sunlight.”

The bill also requires the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to set up a system where residents can report “suspected geoengineering activities” and directs the FDEP to investigate those claims, WFLA reported.

Geoengineering, or climate engineering is defined as “the intentional large-scale alteration of the planetary environment to counteract [alleged] anthropogenic climate change.”

Florida’s bill banning the practice must now be approved in the Florida House, which has its own watered down version.

If a bill passes, Florida would become the second state in the nation to ban geoengineering. Tennessee passed its own bill banning geoengineering and weather modification in 2024.

Over two dozen other states, including Kentucky, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Arizona, Iowa, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Carolina, Utah, Wyoming, Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Montana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia, Missouri, and Maine have introduced similar legislation in 2024 or 2025, and are pending further action.

The Tennessee law went into effect July 1, 2024. Florida’s legislation is set to take effect on July 1.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican Ileana Garcia, said the legislation became necessary after her constituents repeatedly voiced concerns about unknown entities altering the atmosphere in Florida without their consent.

“Many of us senators receive concerns, complaints on a regular basis regarding these condensation trails, aka chemtrails,” Garcia said in a committee hearing last month. “There’s a lot of skepticism.”

“I have a problem with people spraying perfume around me sometimes, don’t you have a problem with people spraying things into the atmosphere that really have no type of empirical data, that you just don’t know who they are or what they’re doing?” Garcia said Thursday.

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo expressed support for the Senate Bill on Wednesday.

“Big thanks to Senator Garcia for leading efforts to reduce geoengineering and weather modification activities in our Florida skies,” Ladapo posted on X. “These planes release aluminum, sulfates, and other compounds with unknown and harmful effects on human health. We have to keep fighting to clean up the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat.”

Governor Ron DeSantis said that he supports the bill passed by the Senate, but that it was “gutted” by the House lawmakers who cut it down from 10 pages to a single page on Wednesday.

“I support the legislation, however, the Florida House of Representatives has gutted Sen. Garcia’s legislation, and they would actually codify the practice of geoengineering and weather modification,” DeSantis said in a video posted to X.

The House version of the bill does not forbid the practice of weather modification outright, just without a license. It also comes with a less steep penalty.

The Senate version, which would impose a sweeping ban, calls for violators to be charged with a third-degree felony and face a fine up to $100,000. The House version would charge those without a license, or who lie on their application, with a second-degree misdemeanor and up to a $10,000 fine.

“People have a lot of kooky ideas that they can get in and put things in the atmosphere to block the sun and save us from climate change,” DeSantis said. “We’re not playing that game in Florida.”

“Thank you for your support, Governor,” Garcia posted on X. “Don’t tread on our☀️sunshine!”

California based attorney Nicole Shanahan also applauded the bill on X.

“Banning geoengineering at the state level is a good start but real change happens when we expose the bad actors who have been funding these projects and are heavily invested in preventing an end to this at the federal level,” Shanahan wrote. She thanked her former running mate, former Independent candidate for president, now HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  “for naming it what it is: a crime.”

In an interview last year, RFK Jr. warned that The World Economic Forum and Bill Gates had “hijacked geoengineering,” with Gates funding these projects around the world.

“They aggravate the problem then sell us the solution,” Kennedy explained, adding that the solution is that “they want is more social controls.”

“Geoengineering is a threat that the environmental community needs to know about and the rest of us needs to know about,” he said.

Shanahan recently sat down with researcher Peter Kirby, author of Chemtrails Exposed: a New Manhattan Project, for a long, eye-opening discussion on what’s been going on in our skies.

*  *  *

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Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

There may be no winners of the game of Global Domination ™, and that is likely the best outcome.

Okay, players: jokers are wild, but with a twist: the entire deck is jokers. Since everyone at the table will have five Aces, nobody wins.

Welcome to the Trade War Poker Table: nobody wins, as everyone has the same hand of jokers.

This is not to say that exploitive, mercantilist “free trade” (no such thing has ever existed) is desirable, much less possible. We’re reaping the consequences of what was passed off as “free trade”: corporations gleefully gutted National Security to boost profits by offshoring everything that could be offshored.

Every nation can impose tariffs or limit imports by other means. Tit for tat tariffs, concessions, grand deals, side deals–everyone has access to the same deck of cards. Who wins each round of play is an open question, as is who wins the game.

There are several time-tested strategies in the game for Global Domination ™. One is domination gained by exporting far more than you import, building up treasure in the form of vast trade surpluses.

The problem with this strategy is eventually the nations being stripped by your mercantilist strategy wise up and limit your exports. There is only one way to get around this: military force, i.e. establish a Colonial Empire in which your colonies are forced to buy your surplus production (exports) via a bayonet in their back.

Absent force and a colonial empire, mercantilism is eventually defeated by its own success.

There is another way to play for Global Domination ™, and it’s the exact opposite of mercantilism: run large, sustained trade deficits by importing more than you export, which beneath the surface is a remarkable flow of trade: the importing nation “exports” its currency in size in exchange for goods and services.

Once this currency is “exported” in sufficient quantities, it becomes the dominant currency simply from its ubiquity, its liquidity (i.e. its quantity and ubiquity make it easy to trade everywhere) and its trustworthiness due to its wide ownership across global markets: since the currency is spread across the globe, the issuing nation no longer controls its valuation; that’s now set by the market.

This is Global Domination ™ via financing trade rather than by running trade surpluses by exporting tangible goods. Pick one, as you can’t have both: either export goods to run mercantilist trade surpluses, and build up a trove of other nation’s currencies, or “export” your own currency via sustained trade deficits so it becomes the global lingua franca of financing trade.

Due to the demands of the Cold War, this was the U.S. strategy in the postwar era. As I have often explained, the U.S. was not merely in an arms race with the Soviet Union; it was also in a war for influence and alliances. The strongest adhesive in alliances is self-interest; by absorbing the surplus production of its allies in Europe and Asia in exchange for dollars, the U.S. cemented alliances that essentially encircled the Soviet Empire.

This strategy was far more effective than open conflict, but it came with a cost. Just as the success of mercantilism generates its own undoing, so too does maintaining a reserve currency via trade deficits / exporting one’s currency. Should the issuing nation (in this era, the U.S.) decide to limit imports and reduce its trade deficit, its currency will slowly lose the global scale needed to sustain its market dominance.

This is Triffin’s Paradox, which I’ve addressed many times over the years: any currency–and the system for creating and distributing the currency–has two masters it cannot possibly serve equally: the domestic economy and the global economy. Any nation that wants to control the valuation of its currency cannot possibly achieve global financial dominance, as the only way to gain and maintain global financial dominance is to surrender control of the currency’s valuation to the market via exporting currency in such vast quantities that the global market sets the value.

There’s a profound irony in this. To manage the domestic economy, the state wants to control everything: the issuance of currency and its valuation via its relative abundance or scarcity, which is reflected in the cost of credit (i.e. interest rates) and asset prices.

But to gain the high ground in the global financial landscape, the currency must serve the global demand for a currency that is ubiquitous, extremely liquid and trustworthy precisely because its value cannot be reset by state diktat. The valuation of a truly global currency is constantly influenced by interest rates, bond issuance, demand and so on–all the features of a transparent marketplace.

The game of Global Domination ™ will never be decided by a deck of jokers. The real game is 5-card draw: you play the cards you’ve been dealt by Nature, history, culture and chance. Every nation has a spectrum of strengths and weaknesses, advantages and disadvantages. Some are rich in resources, some are poor in resources. Some have advantageous geography, some less so. Some have cultural coherence, others have diversity; each is a strength and a weakness.

In Nature, the winner is not necessarily the strongest or the one most blessed by chance. The winner tends to be the one with the greatest capacity and incentives for flexibility, experimentation, a level playing field (i.e. social mobility) decentralized capital and all the traits of fast adaptation: if not an appetite then at least a capacity for a continual churn of instability, failure and self-criticism, which are the necessary components of experimentation.

There may be no winners of the game of Global Domination ™, and that is likely the best outcome. Any form of dominance generates its own undoing.

*  *  *

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Ahead of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff rollout on Wednesday afternoon—particularly the 25% tariff on vehicles and auto parts imported into the U.S.—reports surfaced last week of consumers rushing to dealerships to purchase vehicles already on the lot, as those would be exempt from the new levies. We suspect that if consumers are willing to flock to auto dealerships, they’re probably just as willing to stock up on their favorite Chinese-made products before the next round of tariffs takes effect this weekend and next Wednesday.  

Tariffs on Chinese goods are set to increase by 34% next Wednesday, on top of the existing 20%, bringing the effective rate to 54%. This will significantly impact companies heavily reliant on Chinese manufacturing (and other Asian countries), forcing them to absorb the cost or pass it on to consumers—setting the stage for sticker shock.

Goldman analysts Brooke Roach, Kate McShane, and others earlier today provided clients with a breakdown of Trump’s reciprocal tariffs: 

• On April 2nd, President Trump announced reciprocal tariffs. This includes a 10% tariff increase on all countries (excluding Mexico and Canada) and a higher rate of increase on select countries with trade deficits, set to take effect on April 5th and April 9th, respectively.

• We believe the most material impact to our retail coverage from the announcement is the increase in tariffs on key sourcing partners for retail such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Cambodia.

• China: Tariffs on China move to 54% (a 34% increase vs. the 20% tariff already in effect).

• Tariffs broadened to key sourcing partners: Tariffs on other key sourcing partners for U.S. retail are set to be implemented, including Vietnam (46%), Indonesia (32%), Bangladesh (37%), Italy (20%), India (27%), and Cambodia (49%). Imports from the European Union will also be subject to a 20% tariff.

• Canada and Mexico: The announcement maintains tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Exemptions under USMCA will remain, which exempt compliant products from the 25% tariff rate on both countries. Should current orders be terminated, USMCA compliant products would receive preferential treatment while non-USMCA compliant goods would be tariffed at a 12% rate.

• Material increase to softlines tariff rate overall: On our calculations, the announcement implies a ~38% weighted average tariff rate for total apparel and footwear imports to the U.S.

Given the tariff breakdown and timeline, Roach and McShane provided clients with a “China Tariff-O-Meter,” highlighting companies in their retail coverage whose supply chains are heavily exposed to China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Cambodia.

From their Softlines coverage, companies such as Warby Parker, Torrid Holdings, Groupe Dynamite, Nike, Yeti Coolers, and SharkNinja have high exposure to China and other Asian countries targeted by Trump’s upcoming round of tariffs. In other words, the products from these companies entering U.S. ports in the coming days will be subjected to sizeable tariffs.

In their Hardline coverage, companies such as Floor & Decor, Lowe’s, RH, Williams-Sonoma, Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Dollar Tree, and Five Below have elevated or high supply chain exposure to China or other Asian countries. 

Take note of the Softline and Hardline retailers listed above. If there’s a product you’ve been eyeing—whether it’s a new couch from RH or some Chinese junk from Five Below—now might be the time to buy.

To avoid paying higher prices for foreign goods, just buy American.

We also suspect searches for “American Made” will begin to rise.

Via VigiliantFox.com,

Dr. Mary Talley Bowden left Tucker Carlson visibly shaken after dropping a chilling COVID vaccine statistic that’s impacting millions of children right now.

Before her appearance on Carlson’s show, Dr. Bowden, a Texas-based ENT specialist, rose to prominence in the medical freedom movement by speaking out against vaccine mandates and advocating for early treatment options like ivermectin.

She gained national attention after she was suspended by Houston Methodist Hospital for challenging the prevailing COVID narrative.

Despite the backlash, Bowden has remained committed to the Hippocratic Oath, successfully treating an impressive total of over 6,000 COVID patients without a single death.

Before Tucker became visibly disturbed, Dr. Bowden pointed to data from the CDC’s VAERS system, explaining that over 38,000 deaths have been reported following the rollout of the so-called COVID-19 vaccines.

She said that under normal circumstances, such numbers would’ve prompted the FDA to pull the shots.

Instead, they pushed forward, adding the COVID vaccine to the routine childhood schedule, with the expectation that babies receive three doses by just nine months of age.

She added that the shots are still under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for children under 12—not fully FDA approved—and yet they remain on the official vaccine schedule.

Tucker was horrified when Dr. Bowden mentioned a disturbing fact: “According to the CDC, 9 million American children have gotten the latest version of these COVID shots,” she said.

Clearly caught off guard, Carlson asked, “Actually?”

“Yes,” Bowden confirmed.

“Still?” he pressed.

“Yes. Yes. 9 million [kids]—12% [of US children have been injected].”

Tucker, in disbelief, asked, “Wait, this is going on right now?”

“Yes,” Bowden replied.

“I think we voted against this,” Tucker said.

“Yeah,” Bowden confirmed.

“Correct?” Tucker stressed.

“I don’t know,” Dr. Bowden answered.

“You’re very diplomatic, but I’m just stunned to learn that that’s happening right now,” Tucker exclaimed.

“Could this be shut down?” he asked.

“It should have been shut down a long time ago,” Dr. Bowden answered. “And you know, what’s the—”

Tucker interrupted: “9 million babies have had COVID shots?”

“Yeah. Well, children. Minors,” Dr. Bowden clarified.

Tucker’s reaction at the end says it all:

Carlson was horrified when Dr. Bowden mentioned a disturbing fact: “According to the CDC, 9 million American children have gotten the latest version of these COVID shots,” she said.

Clearly caught off guard, Carlson asked, “Actually?”

“Yes,” Bowden confirmed.

“Still?” he… pic.twitter.com/ihkbx4zKeJ

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) April 3, 2025

The conversation took another dark turn when Carlson asked about the potential long-term consequences of these shots, to which Dr. Bowden pointed to a disturbing trend.

“I don’t see a ton of cancer in my practice,” she said, “but I do have friends at MD Anderson, and they said they’ve never seen anything like it. The young people coming in with very advanced tumors, I think that’s what we have to be worried about now.”

She explained that getting updated cancer data is difficult, but the anecdotal reports are piling up. “It’s hard to get up-to-date cancer numbers, but I’m hearing all sorts of things. There are probably people who have access to that data, but publicly, it’s hard [to get access].”

The conversation took another darker turn when Carlson asked about the potential long-term consequences of these shots. Dr. Bowden pointed to a disturbing trend.

“I don’t see a ton of cancer in my practice,” she said, “but I do have friends at MD Anderson, and they said they’ve… pic.twitter.com/muaMqzmwkS

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) April 3, 2025

This raises a profound question we must now consider as a society: What have we done?

In our rush to vaccinate every man, woman, and child, have we compromised the long-term health of a population that never needed these shots in the first place?

What data was ignored? If so, who made decisions to ignore that data, and will they ever answer for the consequences? It’s time for a serious conversation about accountability.

You can watch the full, eye-opening conversation below:

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