67.2 F
Chicago
Wednesday, November 4, 2026
type here...
Home Blog Page 1637

Democrats Attempt To Blockade ICE Detention Center In New Jersey

survivalnomics
-
0
Democrats Attempt To Blockade ICE Detention Center In New Jersey

When are Democrats finally going to accept that illegal immigration is not a winning issue for them? 

Their position only becomes more untenable as time passes.  Without federal dollars from agencies like USAID flowing into NGOs and by extension into far-left activist groups, the Democrat response to ICE deportations across the country has been limited.  No substantial mass marches, no big riots, no mobs at the border trying to throw the gates open.  

“Charity” programs designed to make it easier for migrants to enter the US and access welfare subsidies are fading out because there’s no more government cash for these charities to skim.  Once bustling villages on the Mexico side of the southern border are ghost towns.  Border crossings have plunged by 95% since Donald Trump took office.  The Cloward-Piven game is over – Conservatives won.

Democrat Party leaders, however, haven’t received the memo.  With their now limited resources they are attempting to create artificial drama to draw public attention and lure volunteer protesters to their cause.  They can’t keep the borders open anymore, but they can try to stop the deportations of the millions of illegals already in the US.

Progressive political leaders are taking to throwing themselves upon the ramparts of ICE detention facilities to disrupt prisoner transfers.  The situation has escalated after Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested for trespassing at an ICE center in New Jersey.  Baraka arrived at the facility with a cadre of protesters and Democrat representatives.  He is seen in bodycam in an argument with officers and apparently refusing to leave the area, at least initially.  The details of the arrest are not yet clear, but the establishment media is running with the narrative that this is political persecution on the part of the Trump Administration.

The arrest led to an angry flurry by protesters including at least one Dem representative who seemed to physically attacked officers.  Democratic representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman, LaMonica McIver and Rob Menendez visited the center known as Delaney Hall on Friday saying they wanted to “inspect” the facility.  Their posture became confrontational when they were apparently denied entry.

Footage circulating on social media better illustrates what ICE officers have been dealing with; leftists have been using sit-down tactics and human chains in an effort to prevent arrested illegals from entering or leaving the federal building.  It’s hard to say how this will stop mass deportations but it does put the spotlight on Dem politicians, which is what they care about the most.

DHS officials have called the actions “a bizarre political stunt”.  Democrats claim they were only there for an oversight visit, but the event was clearly a planned protest.  The Trump administration is now warning that the three congressional reps involved in the incident may also be arrested for assault and interfering with federal agents.

The hysterical fervor of progressives has grown stale and is not being met with the same oppositional apathy as it was during the BLM riots and the pro-Gaza protests.  It’s unlikely that continuing such tactics will bear fruit for them.  The Democrat argument is essentially that illegals must be awarded the same due process as legal citizens; meaning, it takes them two seconds to cross the border but two years or more to deport them.  This is not federal law and it’s certainly not going to get much support from the American public.

The Overton Window on immigration was pushed so far to the left during the Biden Administration that Democrats simply came to assume that mass deportations were impossible.  

And, as usual, when leftists don’t get their way they throw the biggest and loudest tantrum they can.  

Maybe the country will become so embarrassed by their wailing and flailing that it will give them what they want just to shut them up?  

Tyler Durden
Tue, 05/13/2025 – 10:05

Watch Live: Trump Speaks From Saudi Arabia After Signing Hundreds Of Billions In Joint Deals

survivalnomics
-
0
Watch Live: Trump Speaks From Saudi Arabia After Signing Hundreds Of Billions In Joint Deals

Update(1005ET): Trump said to be moments away from speaking live from Riyadh after signing hundreds of billions of dollars in US-Saudi investment deals…

* * *

If there’s one thing that’s clear by now, it’s that Saudi Arabia and the royal family loves President Donald J. Trump.

For example, in an unusual move and break with protocol, it was Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) who rushed to greet Trump the moment the president stepped off Air Force One at the Royal Terminal on Tuesday.

Via Al Monitor

The greeting was typically lavish, as Trump was received at the Royal Terminal at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, after which he and MbS walked a lavender carpet and sat down amid marble columns in navy-and-gold armchairs, as the NYT Times detailed.

“Trump lands in Saudi Arabia to a royal welcome from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,” Al-Monitor journalist Elizabeth Hagedorn pointed out. “Biden, by contrast, got the governor of Mecca.”

As Air Force One entered the kingdom’s airspace earlier Tuesday, Saudi fighter jets escorted it while approaching the Saudi capital.

And later, “The presidential limousine, nicknamed The Beast, was escorted by riders on Arabian horses as it drove to the royal court,” NYT detailed.

Among the first major events includes Trump speaking at an investment forum hosted by the Saudi government. Accompanying him are Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and other top officials.

The investment forum has also seen the Saudi crown prince greet Elon Musk as well as other important tech and silicon valley chief executives, including from BlackRock, Palantir, Nvidia, OpenAI, IMB, CitiBank, and others.

Others eyeing potential investments from the Saudis, include billionaire medical entrepreneur Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of The Los Angeles Times.

The president said before cameras upon the start of bilateral talks, “MBS is a friend, we have a good relationship.”

“I really believe we like each other a lot,” Trump added.

Via Reuters

Trump is hoping to secure a $1 trillion investment in US industry from the kingdom, significantly over and above the crown prince’s earlier investment pledge of $600bn, upon this first stop in his Gulf tour which will later include Qatar and UAE.

Importantly, the head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, was at the airport with MbS for Trump’s grand greeting at the VIP Royal Terminal.

Trump is more of a Diet Coke drinker, (or perhaps there was a remote fear in his mind of being poisoned?)…

President Trump salutes as the Saudis play the American National Anthem…

developing…

Tyler Durden
Tue, 05/13/2025 – 10:05

Court Order Blocking Trump From Targeting Perkins Coie Is Overreach

survivalnomics
-
0
Court Order Blocking Trump From Targeting Perkins Coie Is Overreach

Authored by Kenin Spivak via RealClearPolitics,

Federal District Court Judge Beryl Howell’s injunction prohibiting the implementation of Donald Trump’s executive order restricting the Perkins Coie law firm spoils a righteous core with judicial activism.

On March 6, Trump issued an executive order asserting that “the dishonest and dangerous activity of…Perkins Coie has affected this country for decades. Notably, in 2016 while representing failed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Perkins Coie hired Fusion GPS, which then manufactured a false “dossier” designed to steal an election…. Perkins Coie has worked with activist donors including George Soros to judicially overturn popular, necessary, and democratically enacted election laws….”

The order also accused Perkins Coie of racial discrimination, citing its “publicly announced percentage quotas in 2019 for hiring and promotion on the basis of race and other categories prohibited by civil rights laws.”

The order suspended security clearances for the firm’s lawyers and barred them from federal buildings, prohibited the government from engaging the firm, directed federal contractors to disclose if they use the firm’s services, and referred the firm to be investigated for violating civil rights laws. The order was one of several similar orders issued, or contemplated, against leading law firms.

Howell, an Obama appointee, previously served as chief judge for the District of Columbia, in which capacity she was a strong supporter of Jack Smith’s Trump prosecution. Her 120-page opinion excoriated the administration for disregarding the First Amendment and failing to comply with her orders. She criticized the content and formatting of the Justice Department’s memoranda, averred that the government had no credible evidence of racial discrimination or other wrongdoing by Perkins Coie, and rejected all of its arguments.

Howell is right that the First Amendment and principles of American justice mandate that lawyers be able to deliver candid advice and zealous advocacy to their clients. But, she goes too far by ignoring the compelling case that Perkins Coie conspired with Hillary Clinton and Fusion GPS to improperly influence the 2016 election and destabilize the Trump presidency by developing the fraudulent Steele dossier (which falsely accused Trump of being a Russian agent), and then misleading government investigators about its provenance.

She began her decision by quoting Shakespeare’s admonition to “kill all the lawyers” to make it easier to seize power, and Alexis de Tocqueville, who wrote that the legal profession “is the most powerful existing security against the excesses of democracy.” Howell then held that “using the powers of the federal government to target lawyers for their representation of clients and avowed progressive employment policies in an overt attempt to suppress and punish certain viewpoints…, is contrary to the Constitution, which requires that the government respond to dissenting or unpopular speech or ideas with tolerance, not coercion…. Simply put, government officials cannot… use the power of the State to punish or suppress disfavored expression.”

Access to unvarnished legal advice is sacrosanct, but Howell goes off the rails. She never acknowledges that much of Perkins Coie’s wrongdoing had nothing to do with its legal advice, but came in its capacity as a political kingpin. She bewilderingly asserts that using the firm’s admissions of racial discrimination violates its First Amendment rights. Her related attack on the administration’s opposition to diversity programs reveals her motives for this bizarre conclusion.

She never discusses the constitutional infirmities of requiring a client to hire a lawyer in whom they lack trust. Perkins Coie sought to destroy Trump personally and politically. Its beliefs differ from his. That is more than sufficient reason under Article II and the Fifth and Sixth Amendments that the president, who is the executive branch of government, may choose not to work with it.

On the other hand, Trump may not target Perkins Coie because its lawyers provide legal services to litigants whose positions are adverse to his administration, bar the firm from federal buildings, or require federal contractors to disclose their law firms.

The question of whether the security clearances granted to Perkins Coie lawyers may be limited is a close one, given the firm’s fraudulent manipulation of Congress and the FBI. The firm’s defenders are fixated on the fact that the partners who led its fraudulent services have moved on. So what. The firm is organized on a partnership model. Partners still at the firm likely were involved in, and benefited from, the fraud.

When progressives applaud as conservative lawyers like John Eastman are indicted and unconstitutionally subjected to disbarment for giving legal advice to President Trump on the 2020 election, it is difficult to sympathize with a law firm that engaged in a conspiracy to steal an election and topple a sitting president. Nonetheless, in a free society, government officials do not use their power to punish lawyers because of their clients or advice, while also recognizing that being a lawyer is not a free pass to commit fraud or override the constitutional powers of the president.

Kenin M. Spivak is founder and chairman of SMI Group LLC, an international consulting firm and investment bank. He is the author of fiction and non-fiction books and a frequent speaker and contributor to media, including The American Mind, National Review, the National Association of Scholars, television, radio, and podcasts.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 05/13/2025 – 09:50

TikTok Illegally Sent Europeans’ Personal Data To China, EU Regulators Claim

survivalnomics
-
0
TikTok Illegally Sent Europeans’ Personal Data To China, EU Regulators Claim

Color us not surprised…

TikTok has been fined €530 million by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) for illegally transferring Europeans’ personal data to China and failing to be transparent with users, according to the Free Beacon and Politico. 

In its first ruling on data transfers to China, the DPC said TikTok failed to properly assess how Chinese surveillance laws could impact the safety of European user data and couldn’t ensure adequate protection once the data was transferred.

This is the third-largest fine ever imposed under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). As TikTok’s EU headquarters are in Ireland, the Irish DPC serves as its lead regulator.

During the inquiry, TikTok admitted that Chinese surveillance laws—giving authorities broad powers to demand data access—“materially diverge from EU standards.” Despite previously claiming it did not store European or U.S. user data in China, TikTok informed the DPC in April that it had discovered in February that “limited EEA User Data” had, in fact, been stored there.

Irish DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said the regulator was taking this discovery “very seriously.” Although TikTok claims it has since deleted the data from Chinese servers, Doyle noted the DPC is still considering “what further regulatory action may be warranted.”

Politico says that TikTok now has six months to either bring its data practices into full compliance with EU privacy laws or suspend all data transfers to China. TikTok said it “strongly contest[s]” the DPC’s findings and plans a full appeal.

“Beyond the DPC’s failure to substantively consider the extensive safeguards [already implemented by TikTok], we are disappointed to have been singled out despite relying on the same legal mechanism employed by thousands of other companies providing services in Europe,” said Christine Grahn, TikTok’s head of public policy and government relations for Europe.

Grahn also emphasized that TikTok has “never received a request for European user data from the Chinese authorities, and has never provided European user data to them.”

She warned the ruling “risks setting a precedent with far-reaching consequences for companies and entire industries across Europe that operate on a global scale,” and “delivers a blow to the European Union’s competitiveness.”

TikTok highlighted its €12 billion investment in Project Clover, which includes building data centers in Europe to store data locally and implementing additional privacy safeguards. While the DPC acknowledged this effort, it said it was not enough to change its decision.

The Free Beacon writes that DPC deputy commissioner Graham Doyle said: “TikTok failed to verify, guarantee and demonstrate that the personal data of [European] users, remotely accessed by staff in China, was afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU.”

Tyler Durden
Tue, 05/13/2025 – 09:31

Netanyahu Blasts Media ‘Spin’, Says Trump Ties ‘Excellent’ – Dispatches Hostage Negotiators 

survivalnomics
-
0
Netanyahu Blasts Media ‘Spin’, Says Trump Ties ‘Excellent’ – Dispatches Hostage Negotiators 

Via The Cradle

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that he has approved a negotiating delegation to travel to Qatar on Tuesday to participate in US-led prisoner exchange talks.

The decision was announced after the embattled premier met with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Ambassador Mike Huckabee earlier in the day and spoke over the phone with US President Donald Trump.

Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

“I thanked President Trump for his assistance in the release of IDF soldier Edan Alexander. President Trump, for his part, reiterated his commitment to Israel and his desire to continue close cooperation with me,” Netanyahu wrote on social media.

“In my meeting with Envoy Witkoff and Ambassador Huckabee, we discussed the last-ditch effort to implement the outline for the release of the hostages presented by Witkoff, before the fighting escalates. To this end, I have instructed that a negotiating delegation be sent to Doha tomorrow,” Netanyahu added.

He also said he had informed his US allies “that negotiations would only take place under fire.”

Netanyahu’s announcement came a few hours after he rejected reports that a rift exists between him and Trump, calling his relationship with the US president “excellent.”

“These spins – most of them are born here [in Israel.] They’re born in a certain media outlet that’s trying to promote a certain candidate. And in order to promote him, they need to say: ‘Trump and Netanyahu are no longer,’” Netanyahu said in a video posted on his X account.

This comes as Israeli-US captive Edan Alexander was released by Hamas on Monday evening. Officials from Washington reportedly informed Tel Aviv that his release will kickstart a new round of prisoner exchange talks.

Alexander’s release reportedly prompted a partial stop in Israeli army operations inside Gaza.

“A significant number of military operations have indeed been halted. There are no airstrikes in Gaza, aside from a few attacks, and no drone reconnaissance flights over the Gaza Strip,” Israeli Army Radio had reported Monday morning.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 05/13/2025 – 09:10

FBI Deputy Director Says Illegal Immigrant Criminals, Child Predators Are Top Priority

survivalnomics
-
0
FBI Deputy Director Says Illegal Immigrant Criminals, Child Predators Are Top Priority

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The FBI is prioritizing removing illegal immigrants with criminal records and arresting child predators, the deputy director said on May 10.

An FBI agent walks toward a crime scene, in this file photo. Mario Tama/Getty Images

“[The FBI] workforce has been working overtime on task force operations to remove dangerous illegal aliens from the country. The work continues,” FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, a former radio host, wrote in a lengthy post on social media platform X.

“If you came here illegally to prey on our citizens, your days here are numbered.”

Such efforts are likely to ramp up in the coming weeks, Bongino said in the post, which he described as an operational update. He also said the agency is increasing enforcement against individuals who prey on children.

“Crimes against children are a priority for the workforce. Operation ‘Restoring Justice,’ where we locked up child predators and 764 subjects, in every part of the country, is just the beginning,” he said, referring to a recent operation announced by the FBI.

“We are going to take your freedom if you take away a child’s innocence.”

Hundreds of suspected child predators were arrested over a five-day period, and 115 children were rescued, the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on May 7.

Elsewhere in his post, Bongino said that the bureau would provide regular updates to Congress and is responding to high-profile cases that arose in recent years. These include the shooting at a congressional baseball game in 2017 that left Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) gravely injured, the 2023 Christian school shooting in Nashville, Crossfire Hurricane, the origins of COVID-19, and the release of files related to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

“There are voluminous amounts of downloaded child sexual abuse material that we are dealing with,” Bongino wrote in addressing the Epstein case. “There are also victims’ statements that are entitled to specific protections. We need to do this correctly, but I do understand the public’s desire to get the information out there.”

He also said that the FBI is doing its “best in the current budgetary environment to prioritize the mission, act as good fiscal stewards, find waste and inefficiencies, and to enact reforms while moving the FBI forward.”

FBI Director Kash Patel told Congress on May 8 that he would make the bureau’s mission “work on whatever budget we’re given,” a day after he said that he was seeking more funds than what the Trump administration had proposed.

The 2026 budget proposal released in early May calls for a funding cut of about $545 million for the FBI as part of what the White House said was a desire to “reform and streamline” the bureau and reduce “non-law enforcement missions that do not align” with President Donald Trump’s priorities.

“My view is that we agree with this budget as it stands and [will] make it work for the operational necessity of the FBI, and as the head of the FBI, I was simply asking for more funds because I can do more with more money,” Patel said in a Senate hearing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 05/13/2025 – 06:30

These Are America’s Fastest-Growing Counties

survivalnomics
-
0
These Are America’s Fastest-Growing Counties

On average, U.S. counties grew by 1,000 people from 2023 to 2024. 

But the level of population growth varied widely from place to place. 

This chart, via Visual Capitalist’s Jenna Ross, in partnership with BGO, shows the fastest-growing counties. 

Ranking the Largest Population Increases in U.S. Counties

Using the latest data available from the U.S. Census Bureau, here are the counties that had the largest population growth measured in number of people.

Rank County 2023-2024 Population Change,
Number of People
1 Harris County, Texas 105,852
2 Miami-Dade County, Florida 64,211
3 Maricopa County, Arizona 57,471
4 Collin County, Texas 46,694
5 Clark County, Nevada 44,586
6 King County, Washington 43,398
7 Cook County, Illinois 40,095
8 Broward County, Florida 34,686
9 Montgomery County, Texas 34,268
10 Tarrant County, Texas 32,793
11 Orange County, Florida 32,381
12 Denton County, Texas 31,384
13 Fort Bend County, Texas 31,314
14 Mecklenburg County, North Carolina 30,057
15 Bexar County, Texas 29,548
16 Santa Clara County, California 29,188
17 Wake County, North Carolina 29,050
18 Polk County, Florida 28,706
19 Pinal County, Arizona 27,467
20 New York County, New York 27,435
21 Riverside County, California 26,384
22 Williamson County, Texas 25,840
23 Los Angeles County, California 25,342
24 Kings County, New York 24,694
25 Palm Beach County, Florida 24,574

Harris County, which includes Houston and neighboring communities, had by far the biggest population growth. The primary driver of the county’s growth was international migration. On a domestic basis, more U.S. residents moved out of Harris County than those that moved into the area. 

While international migration was the biggest contributor to population growth in most areas, some counties bucked the trend. Domestic migration drove the bulk of population growth in Montgomery County, Denton County, and Williamson County in Texas, along with Polk County, Florida and Pinal County, Arizona.

The only county on the list to see a bigger boost from the natural change in population (births minus deaths) compared to net migration was Kings County, New York.

Preparing for Larger Populations

In general, population growth was concentrated in counties that already had large populations. One challenge of growing populations can be ensuring there is sufficient housing for all of the new residents. 

To meet rising demand, BGO is expanding its investment in high-quality multi-family and build-to-rent communities across fast-growing Sunbelt and Western U.S. markets. This includes Phoenix in Maricopa County—now the third fastest-growing county in the country—as well as residential properties in other population growth hubs like Miami-Dade and King County.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 05/13/2025 – 05:45

Net Deadly: Europe’s Blackouts Are A Warning For Americans

survivalnomics
-
0
Net Deadly: Europe’s Blackouts Are A Warning For Americans

Authored by Jonathan Miltimore via the Washington Examiner,

A massive blackout crippled Spain and Portugal on Monday, April 28, grounding flights, halting transport, and leaving millions without power.

The cause was “unclear,” the New York Times reported, with “no evidence of a cyberattack.” 

As Spanish officials urged citizens to stay off the roads, European leaders said they were attempting to ascertain the cause of the mysterious outage.

“We do not yet have conclusive information on the reasons for this [power] cut,” Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, said in a national address.

On Tuesday, April 29, power was largely restored, but the Associated Press reported that the blackouts “remain a mystery.” 

Some pundits, however, observed a remarkable coincidence in the timing of the blackouts.

“Six days ago, the media celebrated a significant milestone,” Michael Shellenberger observed on Substack.

“Spain’s national grid operated entirely on renewable energy for the first time during a weekday.”

Shellenberger was not the only person to claim that Europe’s overreliance on intermittent sources such as wind and solar had left its energy grid vulnerable.

“I would say there’s a strong chance that the large amount of solar on the system created the conditions for this to be a widespread blackout and made it much worse,” said Kathryn Porter, an independent energy consultant.

Many saw this tragedy coming.

European lawmakers’ infatuation with “green” energy, which is not as green as its supporters would have you believe, has been causing problems on the continent. Energy prices have soared in recent years. As the average household electricity bill skyrocketed, many nations scrapped energy taxes to help struggling (and angry) consumers.

In their rush to go green, many countries (including Spain) over the last decade began to phase out not only fossil fuels but nuclear power.

A tightening energy supply was exacerbated by the outbreak of the Ukraine War. Facing a full-blown energy crisis, governments began imposing regulations that forced Europeans into more Spartan lifestyles.

Energy rationing, including limits on hot showers and swimming pools, fueled public anger and helped trigger the 2024 “greenlash,” as Green parties were routed across Europe.

Spain and Portugal were among the nations that resorted to energy rationing. A European Union agreement tailored specifically for these nations was approved by lawmakers despite opposition from some regional authorities.

The law, among other things, set temperature limits for public and commercial buildings (no lower than 80°F for cooling, no higher than 66°F for heating), required “energy-efficient” appliances, and accelerated renewable energy projects. Meanwhile, the law was accompanied by a plan to cut 13.5 percent of domestic gas for power generation.

These actions didn’t happen in a vacuum. It was all part of Spain’s plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Net zero was always a pipe dream, but it was a lucrative one for politicians and their allies. Under the banner of fighting climate change, lawmakers funneled billions of dollars into subsidies, grants, and contracts that enriched a network of special interests, including renewable energy companies, consulting firms, and financial institutions.

The climate ring is now collapsing, but the costs of the experiment are visible. Europe’s energy infrastructure has languished and is in dire need of investment. Meanwhile, historically low fossil fuel prices have concealed the energy crisis Europe still faces.

European leaders promise a full investigation into the outage, but they’ll be reluctant to admit their own policies are to blame for the energy disaster.

While pundits were already quipping about net zero—“No iPhone charge, no Netflix, no Uber Eats, No Nothin’!”—energy policy is no laughing matter. Blackouts kill people.

Those on life support are sustained by equipment that runs on electricity. In the absence of generators, dialysis patients go without treatment when machines lose power. Home oxygen concentrators shut off, leaving respiratory sufferers gasping for oxygen. Traffic signals fail, causing fatal collisions. Water pumps stop. Refrigerators go dark, spoiling food supplies and triggering foodborne illnesses.

Americans should be paying close attention to developments in Europe.

The government-manufactured incentive structure that encouraged European lawmakers to abandon more reliable forms of energy and replace them with expensive intermittent energy sources also exists in the United States, where lawmakers dream of a “Green New Deal” and a world without fossil fuels.

None of this is to say there’s no room for renewable energies in the global future. There is. Battery technology is rapidly improving. And solar energy at utility scale has shown great potential.

But the effort to purge fossil fuels from economies and reshape the global economy through heavy-handed regulations, wealth transfers, and centralized planning was always tinged with economic hubris, if not madness.

“The curious task of economics,” the Nobel Prize-winning economist F.A. Hayek observed, “is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”

Europeans receiving such a lesson now find themselves powerless.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 05/13/2025 – 05:00

Health Agencies Unveil New Nutrition Program To Further RFK Jr.’s Agenda

survivalnomics
-
0
Health Agencies Unveil New Nutrition Program To Further RFK Jr.’s Agenda

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

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) on May 9 said that they’re launching a new nutrition program that will help further the agenda of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in White Oak, Md., on June 5, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The research initiative “will serve as a key element in fulfilling [Kennedy’s] commitment to Make America Healthy Again,” the agencies said in a statement.

Under the initiative, dubbed the nutrition regulatory science program, the agencies are going to carry out research that will answer questions such as how and why ultra-processed foods harm people’s health.

Officials also say they will look at how food additives affect human metabolism and the role of diet on health issues, such as autoimmune diseases, over one’s lifespan.

The answers “will enable effective policy development and help promote the radical transparency Americans deserve about the foods they are eating and how those foods can impact their health,” the agencies said.

Kennedy has said that one of his top priorities is removing “bad ingredients” from food and has repeatedly expressed concern about chronic diseases such as diabetes, particularly among children. More than four in 10 children have at least one chronic health condition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The FDA previously banned several artificial dyes and says it is working with companies to remove others that the agency still allows to be added to foods and drinks. More recently, regulators approved new additives derived from natural sources.

Dr. Marty Makary, the FDA’s commissioner, said in a statement that “the FDA is focusing resources on the greatest contributors to the staggering health care crisis: chronic diseases.”

The nutrition program mirrors a joint FDA–NIH program that has conducted research on tobacco, officials said.

FDA staffers will offer expertise on regulation while the NIH will “provide the infrastructure for the solicitation, review and management of scientific research,” according to the agencies.

The researchers who will be involved have not been identified, but officials said the program will feature research that is free from conflicts of interest.

“Nutrition has always been a priority at NIH,“ Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the NIH, said in a statement. ”By teaming up with the FDA, we’re taking a major step toward answering big questions about how food affects health—and turning that science into smarter, more effective policy. It’s time to tackle the chronic disease crisis head-on. That’s why NIH is making this investment alongside the FDA.”

Tyler Durden
Tue, 05/13/2025 – 04:15

Is Britain On The Brink Of Civil War?

survivalnomics
-
0
Is Britain On The Brink Of Civil War?

Authored by Joe Baron via DailySceptic.org,

According to David Betz, Professor of War in the Modern World at King’s College London, many of the preconditions for civil war exist in Britain today. 

Using academic studies on social cohesion, civil war causation theory and social attitudes surveys, he argues that the following preconditions are in place: elite overreach, factional polarization, a collapse in trust, economic pressures, and the perceived downgrading of the majority population in a previously homogeneous society, are all present in contemporary Britain.

The current dynamics, he continues, point to an emerging conflict between radicalized factions within the Muslim community and an incipient nativist white nationalism. Professor Betz goes on to claim – using the Maoist model that divides insurgencies into three phases – that the nativists are in phase one, the so-called defensive phase in which the group begins to organize, disseminate propaganda and build a conscious community of followers.

Islamists, on the other hand, are in phase two – when violent attacks occur on a semi-regular basis, a military structure is being developed, but they are not yet strong enough to challenge the state’s monopoly on violence. (Professor Betz believes that, due to the absence of clear geographic divisions between the antagonists, Britain is unlikely to reach phase three – the offensive phase. This is when the insurgent groups are strong enough to challenge government forces.)

It is an arresting and troubling thesis. It is also convincing. 

The preconditions outlined above undeniably exist in modern Britain.

There has been a collapse of public trust in the state, for example. The 41st British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) report, published on 12 June 2024, concluded “that people’s trust in governments and politicians, and confidence in their systems of government, is as low now as it has ever been over the last 50 years, if not lower”. Indeed, a record high of 45% “almost never” trust governments of any hue (22 points above the figure recorded in 2020); 58% (another record high) “almost never” trust politicians to tell the truth when they are in a tight corner, up 19 points on 2020; and a striking 79% of respondents said that the system of governing Britain could be improved “quite a lot” or a “great deal”, matching a record high recorded during the parliamentary stalemate over Brexit in 2019 and up 18 points on 2020.

Professor John Curtice, the Senior Research Fellow at the National Centre for Social Research, the organisation that carried out the BSA survey, says: “The government… will… need to address the concerns of a public that is as doubtful as it has ever been about the trustworthiness and efficacy of the country’s system of government.” As Professors Curtice and Betz warn, public trust in governments of all stripes has collapsed and, with it, trust in the system of government that we have traditionally sacralised and encouraged others to adopt. That this trend, if left unchecked, could potentially shatter an already fragile social contract is a statement of the obvious. Trust in the state unites the disparate groups of a multicultural society, acting as what Professor Betz calls a kind of “superglue”. Without it, the groups fracture and retreat into silos characterised by mutual suspicion and animosity.

Although the BSA report does provide a chink of light, offering the possibility of a resurgence in trust – like the one seen in 2020 after the parliamentary shenanigans over Brexit were finally put to bed by Boris Johnson’s election victory – the signs are inauspicious. The post-Johnson resurgence was short-lived, eroded by more ‘elite overreach’ as he turbocharged immigration against the wishes of the electorate. What became known as the ‘Boris-wave’ was the final act of betrayal for a downtrodden populus reeling from a decade of broken promises.

Indeed, public trust has been eroded by elite arrogance – and such arrogance shows little sign of abating. Political elites are not only forcing mass immigration on a reluctant population; they are now actively discriminating against the white majority. The recruitment practices of our public services are a case in point. In the summer of 2023, a report found that the Royal Air Force was unlawfully discriminating against white men in a campaign aimed at boosting diversity; West Yorkshire Police recently placed a temporary block on hiring white British candidates for the same reason. In addition, a recent article in the Telegraph revealed that NHS trusts discriminate against white applicants by manipulating interview shortlists to favour ethnic minorities. Our irreproachable health service encourages what is known as the ‘Rooney Rule’ – a policy originating in American football that makes it mandatory for ethnic minorities to be shortlisted for interviews if they apply.

Furthermore, the toxic spectacle of two-tier policing is obvious to all but the most dyed-in-the-wool progressives. The contrast between the police’s uncompromising response to the white Southport rioters – in which they rightly used batons and shields against the aggressors – and their pusillanimous reaction to the Harehills Romani rioters – in which they ran away despite a bus being set on fire – was starkly demonstrative of a system that no longer treats its citizens as equal in the eyes of the law. Sir Keir Starmer took the knee in the wake of the violent Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests; he pressured judges to hand down custodial sentences to mothers who posted injudicious tweets during the Southport disturbances.

Guidance issued by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing shamelessly highlights the current two-tier approach. It says there should be “equality of policing outcomes”, meaning, to ensure “racial equity” not everyone should be treated the same. Apparently, policing should not be “colour blind”. The justification for anti-white racism is therefore spelt out in black and white – excuse the pun. No wonder the police attack white football fans trying to protect the Cenotaph whilst appeasing the Islamo-fascists who wish to deface it. No wonder they tolerate marauding Muslim gangs in Birmingham while deploying armoured battalions to deal with their white counterparts.

The white, native population is in the midst of an elite driven programme to downgrade their status in the United Kingdom – a phenomenon that Professor Betz cites as a precondition for civil war. 

That it could lead to a backlash by those being downgraded is self-evident.

Britain is already facing factional polarization within some of its communities. Last year, four independent MPs were elected because of a religiously-inspired preoccupation with the Israel-Hamas war. Moreover, according to government figures, the UK has approximately 40,000 Islamists on the terror watchlist. Inter-communal violence has also been playing out on the streets of Birmingham between Hindus and Muslims, as well as on the streets of London between Eritreans and Ethiopians. If you add economic pressures into the mix – economic stagnation since 2008, an acute housing shortage, historically high taxation, private and public indebtedness, and broken public services – and a resentful white majority (Southport witnessed the incipient convulsions of a native population that clearly feels besieged), a heady, explosive cocktail threatens to ignite the country.

Professor Betz is right. The preconditions for civil war do exist. Years of elite overreach have led to resentment and an alarming collapse of trust in our politicians, institutions, and political system, in addition to the increased polarization of our ever-growing migrant communities – communities that find themselves, along with the native majority, in the eye of an approaching storm. Our elites must wake up before it’s too late!

Joe Baron is the pseudonym of a secondary school teacher. This piece was originally published on his Substack, which you can subscribe to here.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 05/13/2025 – 03:30

1...1,6361,6371,638...4,588Page 1,637 of 4,588

About Us

Popular Category

Editor Picks