On Saturday evening, President-elect Donald Trump and dozens of others screened a new documentary, “The Eastman Dilemma: Lawfare or Justice,” which decries the use of “lawfare” against Trump’s allies who questioned election integrity in 2020. 

Alan Dershowitz, a retired Harvard Law professor, told the audience at Mar-a-Lago during the screening event that the lawfare against Trump was “worse than Stalinism.” 

Dershowitz left the audience with a message:

“Fight back fairly. Use the law. And I can help you do that. We can fight back fairly. We can fight back in a way that makes it clear that we respect the law. We will not use lawfare against lawfare. We will use the Constitution and the rule of law.” 

Epoch Times senior editor Jan Jekielek released Dershowitz’s speech on X.

.@AlanDersh explains how “guerrilla lawfare” (the term he coined) was used against @realDonaldTrump, and how it was “worse than Stalinism” (he explains why in detail), and how those harmed should “fight back fairly” within the bounds of the constitution—all while Trump looks on,… pic.twitter.com/401l7jdU79

— Jan Jekielek (@JanJekielek) January 5, 2025

An earlier note titled “In New Film, Former Trump Attorney Details Struggles of Conservative Lawyers” by Epoch’s Emel Akan provided more color into the new film… 

In a new documentary, constitutional scholar John Eastman argues that in recent years, the United States has seen the rise of a “two-tiered justice system” in which the legal system has unfairly targeted lawyers representing conservative clients.

In the new film “The Eastman Dilemma: Lawfare or Justice,” he argues that lawyers who defended President Donald Trump and other conservative figures after the 2020 election faced harsh penalties for questioning election integrity—penalties he believes would not be applied if those on the left made similar claims.

Eastman, a former law professor, gained national attention for advising Trump on constitutional challenges to election procedures in several key battleground states following the 2020 presidential election. He has faced both disbarment and criminal charges related to his role.

The documentary, which will premiere on Jan. 4 at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, aims to shed light on the problems he and other lawyers have faced.

Alongside Eastman, the movie also features Alan Dershowitz, a retired Harvard Law professor, and Jeffrey Clark, a senior Justice Department official in the Trump administration.

“For the last three years, everybody that was involved in raising the serious challenge to illegality in the 2020 election has been targeted for lawfare, criminal prosecutions, and bar disbarment proceedings,” Eastman told The Epoch Times.

He posits that the goal of these efforts has been not only to get lawyers disbarred but also send a message so that no one will dare take on such challenges in the future.

“The purpose of the movie is to expose that lawfare, but also to put together a brief summary of the evidence of illegality that occurred in the 2020 election, so people can know that we weren’t making this stuff up,” Eastman said.

He calls these actions against him and other lawyers “unjustified and unprecedented.”

“I’d like Americans to understand that what we did was in defense of the Constitution,” Eastman said. “I want people to learn about it and to come away angry, so that it never happens again.”

In 2020, he was invited to join an election integrity working group organized at Trump’s request. The group was formed in anticipation of post-election litigation related to the presidential race. On Dec. 6, 2020, Eastman received a formal engagement letter for legal services defining the scope of the agreement.

Eastman is facing criminal charges in both Georgia and Arizona related to his alleged role in efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Following 35 days of trial, a California state bar court judge found in March 2024 that “Eastman’s wrongdoing constitutes exceptionally serious ethical violations warranting severe professional discipline” and recommended his disbarment.

Judge Yvette Roland ruled that Eastman, who had held his California law license for more than 26 years, broke ethics rules by advancing Trump’s challenges to the integrity of the 2020 election.

“His lack of insight into the wrongfulness of his misconduct is deeply troubling,” she wrote.

Eastman has also been allegedly de-banked by Bank of America and USAA.

In an interview in April 2024, Eastman told The Epoch Times that both banks had decided to close his accounts and discontinue doing business with him, without offering an explanation. Eastman believed that these actions were connected to his role in advising Trump.

Bank of America spokesperson Bill Halldin denied the claims of alleged de-banking.

“Due to privacy rules, we don’t comment on client accounts. However, I can say that political views are not a factor in any account closing,” Halldin told The Epoch Times in an email on Jan.3.

USAA did not respond to the request for comment by the time of publication.

Eastman once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

He is a former dean of Chapman University Law School and a visiting professor at the University of Colorado. He also had to sever ties with both institutions in January 2021.

“They both canceled me in the same week,” Eastman said. “I’ve been disinvited from conferences and removed from publications.”

Despite the challenges of the past three years, Eastman says he has never doubted that it was worth it. Though he still spends nearly all his time defending himself, he remains hopeful that 2025 will bring an end to his struggles.

“I very much look forward to having this stuff past me so I don’t have to devote nearly full time to defending myself.”

“The Eastman Dilemma: Lawfare or Justice” will be released on Jan. 6. Between 400 and 500 guests are expected to attend the film premiere event at Mar-a-Lago on Jan. 4.

Authored by Jeff Carlson and Hans Mahncke via TruthOverNews.org,

Most of us have known all along that the January 6th Insurrection narrative was a hoax – albeit a very effective one – that was perpetrated by the Left. But there’s someone else whose actions on that fateful day have escaped the close scrutiny they deserve. A man whose seemingly perfectly-timed actions may have played a greater role in the events of that day than any other single individual.

We’re talking, of course, about the actions of Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence. While many know that Pence later played down allegations of voter fraud and certified Biden’s Presidency, few are fully aware of Pence’s actions on and leading up to that fateful day.

On Dec. 22, 2020, Pence spoke at a Turning Point USA event in West Palm Beach where he told the crowd that “as our election contest continues, I’ll make you a promise. We’re going to keep fighting until every legal vote is counted. We’re going to keep fighting until every illegal vote is thrown out. We’re going to win Georgia, we’re going to save America and we’ll never stop fighting to make America great again. You watch.”

But Pence wasn’t done firing up supporters of President Trump who hoped the election could be successfully challenged. Two days prior to the events at the Capitol, during an impassioned speech on Monday, Jan 4, 2021, Pence urged Georgia Republicans to vote for Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler while reassuring the enthusiastic crowd that he “stands with President Trump”.

Pence assured the crowd that he would use his position as president of the Senate to review the 2020 election, telling the cheering masses that “We’ve all got our doubts about the last election. I want to assure you, I share the concerns of millions of Americans about voting irregularities. And I promise you, come this Wednesday, we’ll have our day in Congress. We’ll hear the objections. We’ll hear the evidence.”

The crowd roared its approval:

Despite his fiery rhetoric, Pence knew his words were almost certainly hollow at the time that he said them.

A last gasp lawsuit – that we thought was actually quite good – was filed by Texas AG Ken Paxton on December 8, 2020, challenging the many uncon­sti­tu­tion­al changes to 2020 elec­tion laws in key battleground states. Instead of focusing on election fraud, Paxton highlighted how four states exploited Covid and the subsequent shutdown to justify ignoring federal and state election laws and unlawfully enacting last-minute changes, thus skewing the results of the 2020 General Election.

Paxton’s lawsuit also noted how these battleground states flooded their citizens with unlawful ballot applications and ballots while ignoring statutory requirements as to how those were received, evaluated and counted. It was a very good lawsuit. It was also almost immediately rejected by the Supreme Court – who apparently wanted no part in deciding the outcome of the election. That rejection marked the true end of any election challenges.

The day after Pence’s Georgia speech, on the morning of January 5, 2021, President Trump sent a tweet stating that “The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.” There was no public response from Pence, although that afternoon the New York Times ran a story alleging that Pence had told Trump at lunch that day that “he did not believe he had the power to block congressional certification of Biden’s victory.”

But that story was quickly refuted by Trump, who issued a statement claiming Pence had “never said that. Trump continued, declaring that “The vice president and I are in total agreement that the vice president has the power to act.” Trump said that Pence had “several options under the U.S. Constitution. He can decertify the results or send them back to the states for change and certification. He can also decertify the illegal and corrupt results and send them to the House of Representatives for the one vote for one state tabulation.”

Throughout all of this, Pence said nothing publicly.

Neither Pence nor his office made any statement refuting the President’s claim or restating Pence’s position—until the following day when Trump was giving his Capitol speech, which began at noon on Jan. 6th.

At 12:53, just minutes before a joint session of Congress was to elect a president – and while Trump was still giving his speech – Pence’s office released a letter to members of Congress stating his position on electoral certification for the first time publicly, saying, “I do not believe that the Founders of our country intended to invest the Vice President with unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted during the Joint Session of Congress.”

Pence’s position that he lacked unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted was not an overtly unreasonable position. But Pence’s unexplained failure to clarify his position until Trump was near the end of his speech on Jan 6th was an issue. A big one.

Pence’s statement to Congress was first released at 12:53 p.m. Four minutes later, individuals began jumping fencing located at 1st Street and at 12:58 p.m. a crowd broke “through fencing near the Peace Monument.” To make matters potentially more inflammatory, Pence also sent his statement out broadly in a tweet at 1:02 EST – exactly 10 minutes before Trump wrapped up his speech before a huge crowd of tens of thousands of people.

At the exact moment of Pence’s tweet, fencing on the Capitol steps was breached. At 1:06 pm the joint session of Congress convened to count the electoral votes. At 1:12 pm Trump finished his speech at The Ellipse.

Meanwhile, the situation at the Capitol continued to rapidly deteriorate and at 2:08 p.m. the Capitol was placed on lockdown. Between 2:11 and 2:18 p.m. the Capitol building was “breached” and at 2:18 p.m. the House called a recess during its debates over objections to the Arizona electoral votes.

At 2:24, Trump sent a tweet stating that “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.” Two minutes later, at 2:26 pm, the Senate called a recess over an objection to the electoral votes from Arizona.

That was the end of any legal objections and debates in Congress. At 2:38, President Trump sent out a tweet calling for peace in the Capitol, asking that everyone “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”

By roughly 5:00 p.m., relative order was restored in the Capitol allowing the Senate to resume its proceedings at 8:06 p.m. and at 3:42 a.m. on Jan. 7, Pence certified the election results. Pence declared Biden the “President-Elect” with no further objections to the election results being heard.

Following the certification of votes, Pence shared an “elbow bump” with speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Notably, Pence later said nothing in defense of conservative congressmen such as Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley when they were being demonized in the media for raising constitutional objections to the electoral votes—something that Democrats have done three times in the last two decades.

On January 19th, Pence sent out a tweet noting that it had been his privilege to serve as “your Vice President these past four years.” No mention of Trump or his family was made. Two months later, Pence broke his silence on the events of January 6th, carefully recrafting his words from his fateful speech on January 4th in the process.

Pence said that he had “pledged to ensure that all objections properly raised” during the electoral count process “would be given a full hearing before Congress and the American people.” Unsurprisingly, Pence blamed the events of January 6th for “depriving the American people of a substantive discussion in Congress about election integrity in America.”

The brazenness of Pence in redefining his role was, and still remains, revolting. Why is it that Pence failed to openly state his intended position in the days leading up to January 6th? Why did Pence choose to give a speech just two days before Jan 6th in which he raised the possibility – and the hopes of tens of millions of his fellow citizens – that he would personally step in to assist in challenging the 2020 election outcome when he knew he wouldn’t do so?

Pence understood the impact and results from his words when he proclaimed that he would fight until all illegal votes were thrown out. Pence understood what it meant when he told the American people that they would have their day in Congress.

Worse still, Pence also understood the impact from his strategically timed reversal when he suddenly claimed that he lacked unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted.

Mike Pence knew what would happen.

To say Steve Bannon is not a fan of Elon Musk would be putting it lightly.

In 2023, the former White House chief strategist suggested that Musk is a “total and complete phony,” who is “owned lock, stock, and barrel by the Chinese Communist Party.”

Then last week, after Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy sparked a firestorm of criticism over H-1B visas, Bannon said that Musk and other tech companies utilizing H-1B labor “want a tech feudalism.”

And on Saturday, Bannon suggested that Musk has “masters in Beijing” during a Sunday episode of WarRoom in which Bannon discussed Musk’s decision to change the algorithm on X to reduce “negativity.”

“This is the CCP. This is a social credit score,” said Bannon, adding “He’s got a glass jaw…he’s got the maturity of an 11-year-old. It’s obvious, he can’t take criticism.”

Musk’s Hypocrisy: X will Alter Algorithm to Suppress “Negativity,” Joe Allen Reports @JOEBOTxyz pic.twitter.com/bV4BfWLy5s

— Bannon’s WarRoom (@Bannons_WarRoom) January 4, 2025

“One of his weaknesses is that he needs to be loved. He needs the masses to love him. He needs the masses to love him, you can tell when he’s on the stage, he needs that glory.”

Bannon then circled back on the H-1B visa debate for which Musk started catching major shit from the right.

“So then when his apparatus turns against him, and particularly people that cheered him who said ‘hey, we hate what you’re doing to this country, we know now that you’re lying to us, bald-faced lie, these are not high-skilled people,’ and they turn, all of a sudden, he has to go to what is a Chinese credit score,” he continued.

“They have a digital ghetto. And to only have raised up what praises him. That is like the little boy’s mentally of ‘I want to be the superhero, I want to put the cape on and kind of skip around.'”

“It’s an absolute indication of immaturity, of not being able to deal with things as an adult. And that’s what you’re seeing being implemented on Twitter here,” Bannon said.

Musk’s decision to change the X algorithm to “maximize unregretted user-seconds” has not gone over well – particularly among the ‘free speech absolutist’ crowd, which recoiled in shock during the H-1B visa debate when those critical of the program found themselves demonetized or outright banned from the platform.

Algorithm tweak coming soon to promote more informational/entertaining content. We will publish the changes to @XEng.

Our goal is to maximize unregretted user-seconds. Too much negativity is being pushed that technically grows user time, but not unregretted user time.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 4, 2025

Authored by Daniel Lacalle,

If you want to really understand the current monetary system and the risks and opportunities it creates, you must read “The Age of Debt Bubbles.” This is a comprehensive, informed, and thorough analysis of the current global monetary system.

Debt bloats the global economy. Spending and debt, rather than savings and prudent investment, form the foundation of economic development. This debt-based system, where sovereign debt is allegedly the safest asset and governments continue to stretch their solvency ratios, is constantly generating boom and bust cycles. Through a meticulous examination of historical data and trends, this book analyses the risks posed by the ever-expanding debt bubbles.

The book explains that debt has become a pervasive and inescapable feature of modern economies. The relentless pursuit of growth and profit with little equity involved has driven individuals, corporations, and governments to take on increasingly larger amounts of risk through indebtedness in exchange for lower returns, creating a fragile house of cards that is the root of all financial crises.

The Era of Increasing Debt Bubbles and Economic Instability: “An In-depth Analysis of Debt Crises, Asset Bubbles, and the Role of Monetary Policy” offers a thorough and exhaustive exploration of contemporary monetary policy, debt-fueled bubbles, and the economic consequences they entail.

There are two main sections in the book:

The first part delves deeply into elucidating the intricate process of money creation within contemporary economies while also scrutinising the formation of debt bubbles. Here are some key points to consider:

Banks create new money when making loans, expanding both sides of their balance sheet. Governments create new money through spending and borrowing. Banks need some capital to lend to the private economy. None is required to lend to money-printing governments. Even economists often misunderstand this process. Additionally, central bank reserves are not a constraint on bank lending; they are supplied on demand.

This process of constant monetary expansion to justify the accumulation of risk is often referred to as “liquidity injections,” as if it were a much-needed blood transfusion, when most of the time it simply disguises rising debt and risks built into the financial system. The current monetary system disguises its tendency to create boom-bust cycles with newly created currency.

This constant process of credit expansion can lead to malinvestment and economic distortions. Companies take increasing levels of debt to invest in businesses with fragile fundamentals, house prices rise well above affordability, credit card borrowing reaches all-time highs despite rising inflation and weaker real wage growth, and equity and bond valuations soar despite poor economic fundamentals… All these are manifestations of the risk of malinvestment and debt accumulation.

Part two features chapters from senior policymakers offering perspectives on debt bubbles and modern central banking.

Contributors include William White (former BIS official), Barbara Kolm (Austrian central bank VP), Lord Syed Kamall (former MEP), and Miguel Fernandez Ordoñez (former Bank of Spain Governor). Some of these contributors see the monetary system from a Keynesian perspective, giving the reader a balanced approach and different perspectives.

This essential work highlights how most textbooks and economists misunderstand the creation of money in modern economies. The book correctly criticises central bank policies, which seem more focused on perpetuating and disguising bubbles than preventing them. The manipulation of interest rates is one of the most dangerous factors. Central banks cut interest rates to encourage credit growth, and this always leads to distortions in the economy. Furthermore, when monetary policy creates inflation, policymakers increase rates, hurting the last recipients of money more severely.

Money creation is never neutral. It always disproportionately benefits the first recipient of new money, governments in particular, and negatively impacts the last recipients, real wages, and deposit savings. As such, the current monetary system is designed to penalise the most prudent savers and erode the purchasing power of the currency while rewarding excessive risk-taking and government fiscal irresponsibility.

In periods of monetary expansion, the size of government in the economy rises as adding debt is rewarded and regulation forces banks to consider government debt as a zero-risk asset. However, in periods of monetary contraction, the size of government in the economy also increases because almost the entire burden of interest rate hikes and liquidity contraction falls on the shoulders of families and small businesses.

The authors of this seminal work propose that the monetary policy framework of advanced countries requires fundamental reforms. They advocate for a system that shifts from an endless increase in reserves to a system of scarce reserves, akin to the gold standard. This would reduce central banks’ footprint in the economy and limit their effects on resource allocation. It is also crucial to limit the central banks’ links with government indebtedness to maintain independence, also reducing central bank balance sheets to maximise their ability to expand when truly needed. The authors also suggest that market forces should determine interest rates more than central bank policy, as malinvestment and asset bubbles primarily stem from artificially low interest rates.

“The Age of Debt Bubbles” is an essential contribution to the debate on monetary policy and financial stability. It challenges conventional wisdom and offers alternative perspectives on issues that affect all of us.

As Hayek said:

“the past instability of the market economy is the consequence of the exclusion of the most important regulator of the market mechanism, money, from itself being regulated by the market process.”.

This book is particularly timely because citizens are suffering persistent inflation after unprecedented central bank interventions, leading to all-time high asset prices but weaker real wage growth. If you want to understand money and why it matters to you, this is an essential read.

*  *  *

The Age of Debt Bubbles: An Analysis of Debt Crises, Asset Bubbles and Monetary Policy (Professional Practice in Governance and Public Organizations) Springer-Verlag GmbH, 2024, is available in all good bookstores and online shops.

In what may mark the start of a phenomenon echoing the enduring, worldwide pursuit of alleged rank-and-file World War II Nazi war criminals, an Israeli soldier vacationing with his family was forced to flee Brazil after a court directed police to investigate claims that he’d participated in war crimes in Gaza. Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar denounced the development, accusing Brazil of antisemitism.   

The court’s move came in response to a complaint filed in Brazil by the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF). The pro-Palestinian group, named after a five-year-old girl said to have been killed by an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) tank firing on her family’s car, had reportedly submitted substantial documentation to the court, including photos, videos, and geolocation identifiers. Taken together, they were offered as proof that IDF soldier Yuval Vagdani has placed explosives that were used to level “entire neighborhoods” in Gaza last November.

🚨🚨 Urgent Alert❗️
The #HindRajabFoundation has verified information that Israel is imminently attempting to smuggle suspected Israeli war criminal Yuval Vagdani out of Brazil, because of a Brazilian court order for police to take investigative measures against him. There are… pic.twitter.com/DiIigN4kC2

— The Hind Rajab Foundation (@HindRFoundation) January 4, 2025

“This individual actively contributed to the destruction of homes and livelihoods, and his own statements and behavior clearly align with the genocidal objectives in Gaza,” said HRF lead attorney Maira Pinheiro. According to Palestinian authorities, more than 45,800 Gaza residents have been killed in Israel’s enormously destructive war that followed the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel. Aside from Israeli military action, Palestinians are also menaced by malnourishment and disease as Israel thwarts the flow of food and supplies into the strip. 

More to the point of Brazil’s interest in Vagdani: As of last August, Israel had damaged or destroyed nearly two-thirds of all buildings in Gaza — with the toll on housing unlike anything seen on Earth seen since World War II, according to a UN estimate via satellite analysis. 

The Israeli military’s campaign to significantly expand a “buffer zone” along the eastern perimeter of #Gaza should be investigated as the war crimes of wanton destruction and collective punishment.

Read @Amnesty’s new investigation here: https://t.co/RNB6e6hpWj pic.twitter.com/5U71BCd65p

— Amnesty International (@amnesty) September 5, 2024

The Israeli foreign ministry took credit for helping Vagdani flee Brazil before investigators could close in on him. Vagdani’s father told Israel’s Channel 12 that an Israeli diplomatic office messaged one of his son’s travel companions to tip him off that a warrant had been issued. Vagdani’s whereabouts are unknown as of this writing, but the Israeli government said he achieved a “swift and safe departure from Brazil.” On Oct. 7, he was reportedly at the Nova music festival that came under Hamas attack, but he managed to run multiple kilometers to safety.  

New: Our analysis of social media videos found Israeli soldiers filming themselves in Gaza destroying civilian property, including a number of homes. We focused on combat engineers, who used D9 bulldozers and explosives to destroy civilian buildings.https://t.co/CgorfdSVlr pic.twitter.com/whWFBTTBoP

— Aric Toler (@AricToler) February 6, 2024

Deploying a common rhetorical tool used when the State of Israel and its military come under condemnation, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar said Brazil’s move against Vagdani sprang from a hatred of all Jews. “What we are witnessing is a systematic and anti-Semitic campaign aimed at denying Israel’s right to self-defense. Countless international actors and many countries are complicit in this,” he said. 

To identify alleged perpetrators of war crimes, the Hind Rajab Foundation has capitalized on IDF soldiers’ notorious sharing of videos showing them engaged in all manner of wanton destruction in Gaza, laughing as they unleash the instant demolition of enormous housing complexes or sadistically trash small shops. There’s even a disturbing, recurring theme of IDF soldiers wearing the dresses and underwear of displaced Palestinian women, a practice now carrying over to the IDF’s war in Lebanon: 

I’ve been in four wars, as a soldier or reporter, and seen a lot of atrocities and abuses. But dressing up in the clothes of the women and girls you’ve killed or displaced is a sick and twisted practice wholly unique to the murderous perverts of the Israeli army. https://t.co/uAiJ4Gbciq

— Seth Harp (@sethharpesq) October 31, 2024

On Sunday, the Israeli government said IDF soldiers should take the Brazil situation as a warning against sharing videos and photos of their destructive exploits on social media. “The foreign ministry draws Israelis’ attention to posts on social media about their military service, and to the fact that anti-Israel elements may exploit these posts to initiate futile legal proceedings against them,” the foreign ministry said Sunday. Of course, if such legal proceedings were entirely “futile,” the Israeli government may not have been in such a hurry to help Vagdani escape from Brazil. 

Brazil is one of 125 signatory-countries of the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the International Criminal Court (ICC). “Any country that has signed the statute is compelled to ensure that crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide must be investigated and their perpetrators must be brought to justice,” Pinheiro told Brazil’s Metropoles. The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over their conduct of the Gaza war. Netanyahu has called the IDF “the most moral army in the world.” 

Israeli soldiers filmed themselves destroying a Palestinian shop in Ramallah and posted it on their social media accounts.
pic.twitter.com/G34nib4bOV

— Dr.Sam Youssef Ph.D.,M.Sc.,DPT. (@drhossamsamy65) February 11, 2024

An Israeli soldier has made a video that shows him vandalising a Palestinian-owned shop in Gaza and mocking its contents. pic.twitter.com/dkJOjXaQYd

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) December 11, 2023

Authored by John Mills via The Epoch Times,

The M-1 Abrams main battle tank was championed by then-Army Chief of Staff Creighton Abrams in the early 1970s. Abrams had vowed never again that American tanks would be anything but dominant after his experience driving his regiment of Sherman tanks to relieve the surrounded American force in Bastogne in December 1944.

The German tanks were far better armed and armored. The Abrams tank delivered dominance and overmatch by annihilating the most advanced Soviet tanks used by the Iraqis in 1991’s Battle of 73 Easting. The Chinese (and Russians) continue to study Desert Storm as their model of perfect warfare, and they know the decisive role of the M-1 tank well.

Taiwan has sought M-1 tanks from the United States for years, and they were finally approved in 2019. As the cyber liaison from the Office of the Secretary of Defense to the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense (MND) for several years, M-1 tanks were routinely brought up as the first point of order in our regular bilateral cyber meetings. It was a bit of a stretch to connect M-1 tanks to cyber—but there is a nexus.

M-1 ranks not only have the dominant firepower, mobility, and protection of any tank in existence but are also heavily connected to the cyber world. They are perhaps the most ferocious land domain and internet protocol endpoints ever created. It took years, but finally, the deal was consummated, and now the first 38 tanks have arrived in Taiwan. The Taiwanese army now has its hands on the best tank ever created with a proven combat record.

Abrams Tanks Send Message of Deterrence, US Support

The first M-1s were delivered to the Hsinchu, Taiwan-based Armor Training Command. Some will become training tanks; some will be the nucleus of the first M-1 armored battalion of the Taiwanese army. Delivering the M-1 tank was a strong signal of U.S. resolve.

However, there has been hesitancy on the U.S. side over the M-1s. The issue was the “prickly” versus “prestige” debate. This was a basic math issue on defense spending with some American policy experts. “Prestige” weapons such as tanks, submarines, and ships consumed a higher percentage of the Taiwanese defense budget. This was a realistic concern during earlier days of lesser Taiwanese defense spending.

One way to address both the “prickly” and “prestige” weapons was to increase Taiwanese defense spending. Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party has implemented seven straight years of defense spending increases, reaching over $20 billion in 2025.

Both “prickly” weapons (drones and missiles) and “prestige” weapons have a role. Ukraine had few weapons, prickly or prestige, and made Ukraine look like an easy, 72-hour Desert Storm to Russia. Without any visible deterrence, Russia, a vassal of China, was seeing a green light to invade Ukraine. Having a disciplined and ready force of prestige weapons like the M-1 tank is a visible, demonstrative signal of deterrence that totalitarian countries like China see, respect, and incorporate into their invasion calculus.

By late 2023, “prickly” weapons were bogging down the war, as both Russia and Ukraine faced small drones on the battlefield. But Ukraine was able to break out of this drone stalemate by using tank maneuver warfare (including M-1s) to counterattack and occupy a significant swath of Russia’s Kursk Oblast.

The Taiwanese M-1 tanks are a strategic psychological operations message of deterrence and a powerful maneuver force to strike and destroy any possible Chinese beachheads on Taiwan’s west coast if an invasion occurs.

Taiwan Waits for Delivery of Defense Equipment

One question regarding the M-1 tank delivery to Taiwan is: Why did it take so long?

There is a significant backlog of “prickly” and “prestige” weapons orders for Taiwan, and it’s a U.S. industrial base issue, not a Taiwanese issue. For M-1 tanks, the sole plant for new construction and refurbishment is in Lima, Ohio. With the war in Ukraine, interest in the M-1 has outpaced the plant’s capacity, which has languished and has been underutilized for almost 20 years.

Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Australia, Egypt, Bahrain, and the U.S. Army are all jostling for slots in the production and refurbishment schedule, which squeezes Taiwan’s deliveries. U.S. missiles are also in high demand, straining the American defense industrial base.

The good news is that Taiwan has started receiving some missile shipments. The first 100 Harpoon coastal defense missile launchers and 400 Harpoon Block II missiles arrived in September 2024, based on a 2020 order placed during Donald Trump’s first presidential term.

HIMARS long-range rocket artillery, which has proven so effective in Ukraine, has partially arrived in Taiwan. This was also ordered in 2020, meaning about a four-year lead time. Beyond these missiles, there is still a long list of items that are already paid for by Taiwan and waiting for production and delivery.

Chinese Penetration of LOGINK Shipping Software 

China has been conducting an expanding set of Joint Sword exercises demonstrating a possible blockade or quarantine of Taiwan.

During a meeting in September 2024 in Taiwan, Tzu-Yun Su, a research fellow and director of the Taiwan-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research, expressed concern that the Chinese regime might quarantine Taiwan within six months.

LOGINK is an integrated platform of logistics data broadly used in the transportation community. This system is potentially being used, like port “spy” cranes, for monitoring U.S. war material shipments to Taiwan. A spokesman for the U.S. Transportation Command stated, “China is seeking to enhance its visibility into the global supply chain, including U.S. military logistics.”

With communist China leveraging LOGINK, future shipments of the $22 billion-plus of the backlog of war material from the United States to Taiwan may be selectively targeted in the coming years.

*  *  *

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

North Korea has for the past several months been ramping up missile tests, but on Monday Pyongyang launched a suspected hypersonic missile in its first such test-fire of 2025.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) indicated it traveled approximately 1,100km (some 690 miles) into the East Sea after being launched at around 12 noon. This would be enough to reach US Pacific bases in locations like Guam.

The timing appeared intent on sending a message, given that at that moment US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Seoul holding meetings with South Korean leadership amid an ongoing political crisis.

While the JCS noted the rocket flew a shorter distance than is normal of intermediate-range ballistic missile, they said it was a suspected hypersonic, meaning it is so fast as to be difficult for modern defenses to intercept.

Newsweek provides more of the regional context as follows:

Monday’s launch was North Korea’s first since it fired a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles toward a similar area in November, just days ahead of the U.S. presidential election.

Pyongyang’s first test-fire of 2025 came as Blinken, America’s top diplomat, met with South Korea’s acting President Choi Sang-mok. Choi assumed the interim role after the South Korean Parliament voted to impeach a second president in two weeks.

At a press conference later the same day, Blinken said Russia was likely providing North Korea with advanced satellite technology in exchange for Kim’s dispatch of elite troops to the Ukraine war.

Blinken addressed the new launch during a press conference in Seoul, saying “Today’s launch is just a reminder to all of us of how important our collaborative work is.”

As for South Korea, an official foreign ministry statement said the missile launch “constitutes a clear violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and poses a serious threat to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and the international community.”

During a visit to Seoul, top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken fended off questions over his country’s willingness to speak out following impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed attempt to impose martial law. https://t.co/l8ffktr8P6

— The Japan Times (@japantimes) January 6, 2025

Pyongyang has been seen as engaged in heightened nuclear saber-rattling over the last year, especially following the US decision to at times park a nuclear submarine at South Korean port. The north has also frequently condemned joint US-South Korean military drills, which it denounces as “invasion rehearsals”.

Seoul and the West at this point are deeply worried that the north could renew banned nuclear tests. The last known North Korean nuclear test was in 2017.

American and Turkish policies in Syria are increasingly clashing in the open in the wake of Assad’s ouster on December 8. As we detailed last week, the Pentagon is building a new base in the heart of Kurdish territory in northern Syria near the Turkish border (which the US has since denied, despite videos showing the military build-up).

This is a huge provocation to the Erdogan government, given the Turkish army and its proxies are at war with the US-backed Syrian Kurds. In fresh Monday statements, Turkey has put both the Kurds and by extension Washington on notice, saying it is only a “matter of time” before Kurdish militants are driven out of Syria.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan emphasized that Turkey will not accept any future Syria with the YPG in it. The YPG makes up the core of the US-funded and trained Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), but Turkey sees it as but an extension of the outlawed PKK.

“We are in a position not only to see but also to break any kind of plot in the region,” Fidan told a press conference alongside his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi in Ankara.

“Conditions in Syria have changed. We believe it’s only a matter of time before the PKK/YPG is eliminated,” he said, calling on the group to lay down its arms “as soon as possible.”

“The PKK’s empire of violence built over Kurdish people is on the verge of collapsing,” he added, according to Turkish media. That’s when he indirectly addressed the United States, which has propped up the YPG for at least a half-decade at this point:

“If you (the West) have different aims in the region, if you want to serve another policy by using Daesh as an excuse to embolden the PKK, then there is no way for that either,” he said.

The Pentagon has long justified its troop presence in the northeast Syria as part of the ‘counter-ISIS’ mission, even though the Islamic State had been defeated long ago. At times US officials also talk about the ‘counter-Iran’ mission, which is less pressing now in the wake of Assad’s defeat.

Turkish media is meanwhile reporting that Jolani’s HTS government in Damascus, which is without doubt serving Turkey’s interests, has ordered the Syrian Kurds to immediately lay down their arms:

The interim Syrian government held talks with representatives of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), demanding that they disarm, Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources.

…Two meetings have taken place between the new Syrian authorities and representatives of the PKK, who reportedly sought recognition as a division or corps within the official Syrian army in exchange for disarmament. The new Syrian authorities did not accept any conditions, the Turkish newspaper said.

But the Kurds do have significant leverage, given they are directly supported by US special forces and aerial assets, and currently control almost all oil and gas fields in Syria.

The Kurds will likely settle for nothing less than clear autonomy and self-governance within a federated system if they are to be part of the Syrian state. As for Washington, it’s anything but clear what the end-game is for the US occupation. Another big looming questions is whether it will keep up the sanctions, which have brutalized the common populace in the region.

Trump during his first term in office expressed a desire to bring the troops home, and it remains uncertain whether he’ll try to see this through during this next term. He doesn’t take kindly to threats from Turkey, however.

Authored by Alex O’Donnell via CoinTelegraph.com,

The so-called “debasement trade” into gold and Bitcoin is “here to stay” as investors brace for persistent geopolitical uncertainty, according to a Jan. 3 research note by JPMorgan shared with Cointelegraph.

Gold and BTC “appear to have become more important components of investors’ portfolios structurally” as they increasingly seek to hedge against geopolitical risk and inflation, the bank said, citing the “record capital inflow into crypto markets in 2024.”

Source: JPMorgan

The debasement trade refers to increasing demand for gold and BTC due to factors ranging from “structurally higher geopolitical uncertainty since 2022, to persistent high uncertainty about the longer-term inflation backdrop, to concerns about ‘debt debasement’ due to persistently high government deficits across major economies,” among others, JPMorgan said.

Source: JPMorgan

Institutional inflows

Investment managers including Paul Tudor Jones are longing Bitcoin and other commodities on fears that “all roads lead to inflation” in the United States.

US state governments are also adding Bitcoin as “a hedge against fiscal uncertainty,” asset manager VanEck said in December.

In October, JPMorgan cited spiking open interest on BTC futures as another indicator that “funds might see gold and Bitcoin as similar assets.” 

In 2024, net open interest on BTC futures rose from approximately $18 billion in January to upward of $55 billion in December, according to data from CoinGlass.

Source: CoinGlass

“In addition, the fact that Bitcoin [exchange-traded funds] started seeing inflows again in September after an outflow in August suggests that retail investors might also see gold and Bitcoin in a similar fashion,” JPMorgan said in October. 

In November, US Bitcoin ETFs broke $100 billion in net assets for the first time, according to data from Bloomberg Intelligence.

Crypto ETF inflows are among the most important metrics to watch because they are “more likely than other trading activity to be new funds/market participants entering the crypto space,” according to a December report by Citi shared with Cointelegraph.

Surging institutional inflows could cause positive “demand shocks” for Bitcoin, potentially sending BTC’s price soaring in 2025, asset manager Sygnum Bank said in December.

*  *  *

[ZH: The structural rise of gold in investors’ portfolios is best shown in the chart below, which proxies gold allocation globally via the stock of gold that is held for investment purposes by central banks or private investors holding gold via coins, bars or physical gold ETFs (or similar products) as % of the stock of equities, bonds and cash held by non-bank investors globally.

Professional subscribers can read JPMorgan’s full note here…

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Teachers’ unions prevail in New Jersey. Kids will suffer…

Literacy Not Required to Teach

Adobe Stock Image from article below. I added 1 + 1 = ?

CampusSafety reports New Jersey Teachers No Longer Required to Pass Basic Literacy Test

New Jersey Democratic Governor Phil Murphy passed Act 1669 as part of the state’s 2025 budget in June to address a teacher shortage, Read Lion reports. The law went into effect on Jan. 1, 2025. Individuals seeking an instructional certificate will no longer need to pass the Praxis Core Test, a basic skills test for reading, writing, and math that is administered by the state’s Commissioner of Education.

“We need more teachers,” Democratic Sen. Jim Beach, who sponsored the bill, said in May 2024 when the chamber cleared the bill in a 34-2 vote. “This is the best way to get them.”

New York, California, Arizona Lower Teacher Requirements

In 2017, New York also scrapped its basic literacy requirements for teachers, noting it was meant to increase diversity among teachers. According to the NEA, only about half of New York students in grades three through eight tested proficient in English and math during the 2022-2023 school year despite the state spending almost twice the national average on education.

California and Arizona also lowered requirements for teacher certification by implementing fast-track options for substitute teachers to become full-time educators and eliminating exam requirements to make up for shortages in the field that were worsened by the pandemic, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Former Educator Gives Opinion on Eliminating Teacher Literacy Exams

Erika Sanzi, former educator and current director of outreach at Parents Defending Education, a national grassroots organization, spoke to the National News Desk about why she is against Act 1669.

“It’s important to know that the teachers union, specifically in this case, the NEA, pushes really hard for this. I’m a former member of the NEA in two states. Generally, whatever they push for, tends to be something that’s not particularly good for students,” said Sanzi. “The NEA wants to eliminate all barriers to teaching because that increases their number of dues-paying members, and when that’s your mission, student learning and quality control really aren’t priorities at all and so that’s a concern, for sure.”

Blue State Union Corruption

Blue state union corruption is obvious.

But no place is worse than Chicago when it comes to making sure unions are first and kids are last.

March 13, 2024: Chicago Teachers’ Union Seeks $50 Billion Despite $700 Million City Deficit

If you live in Illinois, get the hell out before unions take every penny you have.

July 2, 2024: In Chicago There’s Under a 50 Percent Chance Police Show Up If You are Shot

Good luck in Chicago getting the police to show up if you are shot, stabbed, a victim of domestic violence, or any number of other serious crimes.

November 25, 2024: When Do Mayor Brandon Johnson and the City of Chicago Finally Implode?

Chicago slashed 2,103 public safety job but added 184 administrators. The budget deficit is nearly $1 billion.

December 23, 2024: The Corruption and Incompetence of Chicago’s Mayor Has No Bounds

Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson stepped to new lows when his hand-picked board fired Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Pedro Martinez without cause.

Diversity and Union Priority vs Kids

The New Jersey teachers’ unions say the test is unneeded.

But if the test not needed, then then every teacher would easily pass. Why do so many fail an easy test?

In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson sacrifices police, safety, and education for the sake of the teachers’ unions.

The Chicago mayor is easily the worst mayor in the country.