Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,

Two Democrat legal experts are calling on Congress to take immediate action to prevent President-elect Donald Trump from taking office, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

Evan A. Davis, the former editor in chief of the Columbia Law Review and David M. Schulte, the former editor in chief of the Yale Law Journal, called for Trump’s disqualification in an opinion piece for The Hill, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

Davis is a New York City attorney and a former president of the New York City Bar Association. He worked on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee impeachment inquiry staff during the impeachment process against Richard Nixon.

Schulte is an investment banker and good friend of Barack Obama. He owns the oceanfront Martha’s Vineyard home where the Obama and his family used to vacation when he was in office.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars individuals who have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or given aid or comfort to its enemies from holding “any office, civil or military.”

In a unanimous decision last March, the Supreme Court tossed out a Colorado court decision that barred Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot.  The lower court had based its decision on 14th Amendment  provision.

In their 9-0 ruling, the Supremes concluded that “states have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency.”

But Davis and Schulte argue that evidence of Donald Trump engaging in “insurrection” is “overwhelming” and that Congress has the authority to block Trump from being inaugurated under the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act of 2022.

The act, which was intended to prevent another January 6 scenario, added certain procedures for the counting of electoral votes following a presidential election.

In January 2021, the then-Democrat controlled House of Representatives impeached Trump for “incitement of insurrection” following the January 6 Capitol riot, but the Senate acquitted him,  falling short of the two-thirds majority needed for conviction.

The Democrat lawyers argue that the majority (57-43) vote in the Senate supports their case for disqualification under the 14th Amendment.

They say that any votes cast for Trump should be deemed “not regularly given” due to his alleged disqualification.

“Democrats need to take a stand against Electoral College votes for a person disqualified by the Constitution from holding office unless and until this disability is removed,” the Davis and Schulte wrote.

“No less is required by their oath to support and defend the Constitution.”

Most legal experts however agree that the notion of Republican lawmakers supporting a move that could elevate Kamala Harris to the presidency is highly improbable and at the moment, Democrats just don’t have the stomach for such a fight.

“Republicans and Democrats seem to agree they’ll give Trump the smooth, drama-free transfer of power he denied Democrats in 2020,” Politico reported Thursday, adding “top Democrats say they have no plans to stand in the way of Trump’s victory — and they’re not even sure their rank-and-file colleagues will make the token objections they’ve lodged in years past.”

“I know most about Gates, you know, because I’ve written a book about him,” says Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – President-elect Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services – recollecting his 2021 book, “The Real Anthony Fauci’, where RFK Jr exposes Gates’ so-called “philanthro-capitalism”, which, he explains is “using philanthropy to make yourself rich and you use it strategically and that’s what he’s done again and again.”

“He’s gotten control of the World Health Organization so that they mandate vaccines all over the world and the companies that make those vaccines are, Gates’ and many of them the major shareholder. And so and he did the same thing with the green revolution.”

RFK Jr.  – full of facts and not conspiracies (for, if they were, where are the defamation suits) – then unraveled one of Gates’ greatest disasters:

“He got a hold of the the regulatory agencies in African countries and forced them to take, to change the nature of agriculture. You know, there there’s there’s 20,000 generations of agriculture of of people being, growing, crops like sorghum and plantains and yucca and all these plants for subsistence.”

“And he said, no. We’re gonna transfer them all to these, you know, GMO monocultures of corn, and then we’re gonna bring in, the companies that he owns Kraft, Coca Cola, McDonald’s, these big food companies, processing companies to buy that and that’s gonna be the deal.”

“And then of course during COVID, all of that shut down and you had, you know, there’s 30,000,000 Africans now as a direct result of Gates’s policy who are now on the edge of starvation.”

But, it gets worse, as Gates ‘ventured’ into the vaccine world:

“I think the the big the real tell was what happened with the DTP vaccine, which is diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. Because of Gates pushing this this shot, it’s now the number one vaccine in the world, DTP.”

“And it’s mainly given in Africa. It was that particular shot is discontinued in the United States because it was killing 1 out of every killing or badly injuring 1 out of every 300 kids who took it. We ended it in Europe and the United States, but there’s Gates giving it to every kid in Africa. And in 2017, he asked the Danish government for money to support this program and he said, we’ve saved we’ve saved 20,000,000 kids. The Danish government said, can you show us the data?”

“He couldn’t. So the Danish government went and did its own study, and they had records of 30 years of this vaccine in a country called Guinea Bissau. And, they looked at the records and what they they realized in retrospect, which they were never seeing, is that the the girls who were getting that vaccine at 6 months of age were 10 times more likely to die over the next 6 months as children who didn’t get it. “

“Wow. And they were dying of things that nobody on the ground had ever associated with vaccination.”

“They were dying of anemia and bilharzia and malaria and dysentery, and, and, and nobody had ever had made the connection that it’s only the girls who got the vaccine who were dying of those things, that the other kids were much healthier. ”

“And the Danish government had hired the retained the greatest, vaccine scientist all and were pro vaccine. A guy called Peter Aaby who’s like a deity in that space, and another guy called Soren Morgensen.”

“And a whole team of scientists did that, and those scientists started speaking up and saying you got to discontinue this vaccine. And their careers, Gates made sure their careers were destroyed.”

All of which left RFJ Jr with no doubts:

“So that’s when I understood that he actually understands what he is doing. And, you know, this is not just him being hypnotized. He knows that this is wrong because he’s this science was indisputable. And it really made me wonder about what his motivations are.”

Watch the full conversation here:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “I know most about Gates, you know, because I’ve written a book about him and that what he calls philanthropicapitalism, which is you use philanthropy to make yourself rich and you use it strategically and that’s what he’s done again and again.”

“He’s… pic.twitter.com/EVzvuuGpKN

— Camus (@newstart_2024) December 26, 2024

h/t Camus

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

Big Lots finalized a deal that preserved the brand name and prevented the discount retail chain from entirely going under.

Ohio-based Big Lots announced it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year, citing economic pressures. The company tried to sell its business to Nexus Capital Management but failed to strike a deal. On Dec. 27, Big Lots announced a sales transaction with Gordon Brothers Retail Partners.

As part of the agreement, North Carolina-based Variety Wholesalers will acquire around 200 to 400 Big Lots stores “which it plans to operate under the Big Lots brand.”

Variety, which owns more than 400 retail stores in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic United States, may also “employ Big Lots associates at the acquired stores and distribution centers, as well as certain corporate associates.”

Bruce Thorn, chief executive officer of Big Lots, said the sale to Gordon Brothers and transfer to Variety is a “favorable and significant achievement.”

“This sale agreement and transfer present the strongest opportunity to preserve jobs, maximize value for the estate, and ensure continuity of the Big Lots brand,” he said.

The agreement now needs to be approved by the bankruptcy court and must undergo other closing conditions.

Big Lots operates more than 1,400 stores across 48 states in the United States. While filing for bankruptcy, the company cited issues like inflation, saying that rising prices have changed the spending behaviors of customers.

“The prevailing economic trends have been particularly challenging to Big Lots, as its core customers curbed their discretionary spending on the home and seasonal product categories that represent a significant portion of the company’s revenue,” it said in September.

Big Lots listed assets and liabilities in the range of $1 billion to $10 billion, owing money to 5,001 to 10,000 creditors. The company’s shares have crashed by more than 99 percent this year.

Last week, the company said it intends to kick off a “going out of business” sale at its stores.

Bankruptcies on the Rise

Multiple American retail chains have entered bankruptcy over the past year. In June, apparel retailer Bob’s Stores went bankrupt and decided to sell all its stores in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island.

In July, furniture retailer Conn’s announced filing for bankruptcy, closing down all its 553 stores nationwide following a sales slowdown over past years.

New Jersey-based Party City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, and said it was preparing to close down almost 700 stores across the country. This was the second time in two years that the company filed for bankruptcy.

According to an S&P report, there have been 634 U.S. corporate bankruptcy filings in 2024, up to the end of November, with the figure on track to potentially hit a new 14-year annual high. S&P bankruptcy numbers only take into account large companies that exceed certain asset and liability thresholds.

The jump in bankruptcies comes as businesses face challenges like inflation, elevated interest rates, and changing consumer spending patterns, it said.

“While the US Federal Reserve has begun lowering its benchmark interest rate from a 20-year high, the pace of further cuts may slow in 2025 amid challenges posed by persistent inflation and potential tariffs implemented by President-elect Donald Trump,” said the report.

“However, Trump’s election victory in November did provide an initial boost to stock markets and investor risk appetite.”

The American Bankruptcy Institute reveals that overall commercial bankruptcy filings fell 1 percent yearly in November, according to a Dec. 4 statement.

Michael Hunter, vice president of bankruptcy filing data provider Epiq AACER, attributed this small decline to fewer business days and the holiday season.

ABI Executive Director Amy Quackenboss said that “elevated interest rates, tougher lending terms, and increased geopolitical tensions continue to impact the balance sheets of many struggling businesses and families.”

“While still below the levels recorded prior to the pandemic, the steady growth in filings reflects the growing financial challenges faced by distressed companies and consumers.”

Authored by Eric Utter via AmericanThinker.com,

This is going to be controversial to many, but I am going to tell it like I see it, so damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.

The Biden administration, set up as it was by the Obama administration, has been a clear and present danger to the United States of America. In almost every way imaginable.

It has tanked an economy that otherwise was on the way to (an almost inevitable) rapid, post-pandemic recovery, causing pain to countless American families.

Speaking of the pandemic, its ludicrous lockdown policy, and a host of other counterproductive and destructive policies, caused immeasurable physical, mental, and emotional harm to millions of people—and summarily destroyed many small businesses, particularly restaurants. It fostered a growing oligarchy by ensuring certain government-approved giant corporations prospered while the small businesses were devastated. It nourished this budding fascism even as it took every opportunity to baselessly label Donald Trump and his supporters as “fascists.”

Similarly, it incessantly talked of “saving our democracy” even as it tried to destroy it by pushing for the end of the Electoral College and the filibuster, supporting the advent of congressional representation for Washington, D.C., urging the granting of statehood to Puerto Rico, and, most egregiously, going to any and all lengths to get rid of its chief political opponent, Donald J. Trump. It is still doing all it can to obstruct the will of the people, as was evident in its post-election auctioning off materials for the border wall for pennies on the dollar, as well as in placing various other roadblocks in front of the incoming administration. (In other words, it is doing everything possible to counteract the will of the people. Doesn’t sound very democratic to me.) Leaving the border wide open for years has created the greatest current—and latent—security threat the nation has ever faced. Period. 

In colluding with the social media giants to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story, or with foreign agents to concoct the Russian-collusion hoax, Democrats have shown, time and again, they will do anything to attain and retain power.

The Biden administration made that abundantly clear…seven ways from Sunday.

In its constant use of lawfare and its “accountability for thee but not for me” perversion of the justice system, it has created a two-tiered system of justice that is deeply anti-American and monstrously pernicious.

And that is troubling—and frightening—to most Americans.

The Biden administration has helped make a mockery of common sense—if not of reality itself—with its official inability to define what a woman is, and to simultaneously approve of “gender reassignment” surgeries and procedures (even for the very young)…and biological men in women’s locker-rooms, bathrooms, and on their sports teams. It has done grievous damage to our culture—and unity—by endlessly promoting the absurd ideologies of DEI and CRT.

Its unwillingness to ever be available, accountable, or transparent is only matched by its overwhelming desire and propensity to lie to the very citizens it is supposed to serve. Which we have seen in its attempts to protect itself, smear Trump and his supporters, give a pass to the Chinese spy balloon, and in its flat-out refusal to tell Americans anything resembling the truth about the drone fiasco that has been ongoing for over a month. The non-answers and gibberish that has spewed from the mouths of “government officials,” has been truly mind-blowing…on this and numerous other matters.

As if all of this weren’t enough, its foreign policy may yet lead to our destruction. It essentially surrendered to goat-herders in Afghanistan, leaving behind billions of dollars of high-end military equipment, more than a dozen dead Americans, and our reputation and dignity. It has bizarrely coddled Iran while playing hardball with Israel, the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. And it seems almost determined to get us directly involved in a shooting war with Russia, if not a nuclear one. 

To me, this is far worse than incompetence, more than malfeasance. 

To me, it spells T-R-E-A-S-O-N. 

Were this an age of reason, what other conclusion could be reached?

Authored by Rudy Blalock via The Epoch Times,

Mexico is developing a new cellphone app for its citizens who are in the United States illegally so they can notify their family members and the nearest Mexican consulate if they are facing deportation, according to a Mexican official on Friday.

The move comes in response to potential mass deportations of illegal immigrants in the United States under the incoming Trump administration.

Juan Ramón de la Fuente, Mexico’s secretary of foreign affairs, said the app is currently in small-scale testing, and it “appears to be working very well.”

De la Fuente described it as a “panic button” in a statement to The Associated Press.

“In case you find yourself in a situation where detention [by U.S. immigration authorities] is imminent, you push the alert button, and that sends a signal to the nearest consulate,” he said.

De la Fuente did not say whether the app includes a feature to cancel an alert if detention does not occur.

In addition to the app, the Mexican government has established a 24-hour call center to address questions from its citizens illegally in the United States or those who are unsure of their status. Mexico has also bolstered its consular staff and legal aid resources to assist illegal immigrants in navigating the deportation process.

According to Mexican government estimates, there are approximately 11.5 million migrants with some form of legal residency in the United States and 4.8 million who are there illegally.

The app is expected to be fully launched in January, coinciding with President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. During his campaigning, Trump repeatedly said he would implement mass deportations once back in office.

The development also comes amid ongoing discussions between Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum regarding immigration policies. Trump recently claimed a victory in stopping illegal immigration through Mexico following a conversation with Sheinbaum.

Trump stated on his Truth Social account that Sheinbaum “agreed to stop Migration through Mexico.”

Sheinbaum’s own social media post suggested a different perspective, stating, “We reiterate that Mexico’s position is not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and between peoples.”

Sheinbaum further said that Mexico is already addressing migrant caravans, saying, “I told him the caravans are not reaching the northern (U.S.) border, because Mexico is taking care of them.”

The conversation between the two leaders occurred shortly after Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on Canada and Mexico as part of his strategy to combat illegal immigration and drug trafficking. Trump described the potential tariffs as “effectively closing our Southern Border.”

Citing data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, AP reports that arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped 40 percent from an all-time high in December, largely attributed to increased Mexican vigilance around rail yards and highway checkpoints.

Authored by Sam Dorman via The Epoch Times,

President-elect Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to block a law that could ban TikTok within the United States, stating that he would like to pursue negotiations to resolve some of the issues involved and salvage the platform.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments over the law on Jan. 10, just nine days before the deadline for TikTok’s parent company to either divest from the platform in the United States or face an effective ban.

That Jan. 19 deadline is also just one day before Trump is expected to be inaugurated for his second term as president.

“President Trump alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns,” his Dec. 27 amicus brief read.

Trump’s brief underscored the importance of the timing and urged the court to give him more of an opportunity to handle the issue as chief executive.

“This timing binds the hands of the incoming Administration on a significant issue of national security and foreign policy, and thus it raises significant questions under Article II,” the brief read.

Article II refers to the section of the constitution vesting executive authority with the president. Trump’s brief said the law raised questions about legislative encroachment on executive authority.

“The Executive, not Congress, is primarily charged with responsibility for the United States’ national security, its foreign policy, and its strategic relationship with its geopolitical rivals,” his brief read.

The law in question was passed with bipartisan support and signed by President Joe Biden earlier this year. TikTok challenged the law in federal court, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that it satisfied a high level of scrutiny under the First Amendment.

Although the Supreme Court has decided to take up the First Amendment issue, Trump said he took no position on the merits of the underlying dispute.

He did, however, raise concern about the impact of the law on TikTok’s 170 million users and indicated that upholding it could create a “slippery slope toward global government censorship of social-media speech.”

Trump’s brief took issue with how the law directed the president to work through an interagency process “instead of exercising his sole discretion over the deliberative processes of the Executive Branch.”

In asking the Supreme Court to halt the law, TikTok similarly cited Trump’s incoming administration and the potential for his intervention.

On the day of TikTok’s application to the Supreme Court on Dec. 16, Trump gave a press conference in which he expressed sympathy for the platform.

“We’ll take a look at TikTok,” he said, noting that he had a “warm spot” in his heart for the platform. He added that TikTok had an effect on the support he received from young people in the election.

TikTok had asked the D.C. Circuit to halt the law but was rejected.

“The petitioners have not identified any case in which a court, after rejecting a constitutional challenge to an Act of Congress, has enjoined the Act from going into effect while review is sought in the Supreme Court,” a December 13 order from the court reads.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, whom TikTok sued in the D.C. Circuit and is the respondent at the Supreme Court, defended the law. In a Dec. 27 filing, the Department of Justice said the law “addresses the serious threats to national security posed by the Chinese government’s control of TikTok, a platform that harvests sensitive data about tens of millions of Americans and would be a potent tool for covert influence operations by a foreign adversary.”

The case drew many amicus briefs from organizations, including the Cato Institute and the American Civil Liberties Union. Both of those supported TikTok. A group of former national security officials backed the D.C. Circuit’s decision.

By now, unless you were living under a rock or so focused on your kids opening their gifts you forgot to check your phone for news, you’ll be aware of what the mainstream media is gloatingly calling a ‘civil war’ breaking out between the MAGA right of Trump’s base and the Musk-ian middle over the topic of ‘legal’ immigration – specifically H1Bs.

As we detailed fully here, not all immigration is bad, but focus on Americans first. To over-simplify the issues (well maybe not):

• There is a contingent of MAGA that wants a total shutdown of migrant activity and a moratorium on work visas.  

• On the other side, some in MAGA want to end illegal immigration while supporting legal immigration of skilled workers.

• The threat of a complete shut down of all immigration, including skilled workers, has the tech industry concerned. 

The tensions escalated (and were obviously amplified by the media) after Elon and Vivek turned the rhetoric dial up to ’11’ with comments about “war” and “go fucking yourself” as well as implicit reflections on the lack of work culture among young American workers – none of which which plays well against the longstanding DEI backdrop of white students, and white employees, being passed over for non-whites with similar scores and credentials.

As ‘sundance’ wrote at The Last Refuge:

It always appeared the MAGA alignment with Silicon Valley would not be an issue until the interests of the billionaire tech team came into conflict with the MAGA base.  I did not anticipate the fracture being so fast, nor did I anticipate immigration would be the trigger.  However, H1B visa issuance is apparently a key part of the Silicon Valley business model.

That said, several pragmatic aspects of the discussion are now being lost amid a very toxic shouting match that has begun.

We would agree – a lot of nuance has been lost in the furor.

Former RFK Jr. running mate Nicole Shanahan wrote a lengthy statement on X (but this introduction nailed it):

“Having lived in Silicon Valley for 20+ years and founded and sold an AI company, I’ve seen firsthand how we rely on H-1B to fill grueling, unglamorous coding jobs. These jobs are essential, and we need capable people doing them. But the system needs an overhaul.”

Overhaul indeed…

While Silicon Valley may indeed be short of coders, we find it hard to believe America is suffering enough of a shortage of Golf Instructors to warrant H1Bs…

AMERICANS MUST HAVE AN EXTREME SHORTAGE OF GOLF INSTRUCTORS pic.twitter.com/37VTOr9POj

— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) December 27, 2024

…or math teachers…

H1B MATH TEACHERS pic.twitter.com/6k8QDW0vT5

— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) December 27, 2024

Of course, none of this is new.

Here’s Trump in March 2016:

“Megyn Kelly asked about highly-skilled immigration. The H- 1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay. I remain totally committed to eliminating rampant, widespread H-1B abuse and ending outrageous practices such as those that occurred at Disney in Florida when Americans were forced to train their foreign replacements. I will end forever the use of the H-1 B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program. No exceptions.”

…and remember this from 2020…

From Oct 6, 2020: “The Trump Administration Is Taking Action to Tighten Foreign Worker Visa Requirements and Protect American Workers… Trump and his Administration are protecting American workers by reforming requirements governing the H-1B visa program.”

This went nowhere

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 28, 2024

…to which Musk responded at the time…

But H1B denial rates surged under Trump’s last term…

So far, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have been quiet on the subject – perhaps this chart explains why…

May we humbly suggest there is a balance between Biden’s 2% denial rate (basically no denial at all – even golf instructors and math teachers) and Trump’s 24% denial (show us your special skills and here’s the red carpet, otherwise ‘nope’).

The Biden administration reversed some restrictive policies introduced during Trump’s administration, though recent proposed policies have become more restrictive as well…

Big Tech and IT outsourcing now receive nearly equal volumes of H-1B approvals, a shift from 2017-2018 landscape where IT outsourcing dominated. Big Tech companies have ramped up H-1B sponsorships as they have grown their US headcount significantly over the past decade. Since 2017-18, when IT outsourcing firms led in H-1B approvals, the landscape has shifted. As of 2024, Big Tech and IT outsourcing now receive nearly equal volumes of H-1B approvals.

Finally, while the mainstream media is more than happy to perpetuate this splintering among Trump’s supporters, we suggest getting worked up now is futile since the Biden administration has already enacted more restrictive rules which are due to be put in place in early 2025.

“U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services [USCIS] is committed to the president’s goal of restoring faith in the legal immigration system and attracting global talent,” said a USCIS spokesperson.

“USCIS will continue to promote policies and procedures that attract the best international talent, expand economic prosperity, maintain America’s competitive edge in STEM fields and uphold the country’s promise as a nation of welcome and possibility with fairness, integrity and respect for all we serve.”

However, as we noted previously, as usual, whenever there is a divisive issue causing internal conflict and debate among conservative groups there are doom mongers that dance around the edges and act as if the entire movement is suddenly fracturing.  Conservatives have never agreed on solutions – This is normal. 

They are not a hive mind like the political left, which is a good thing.  Such debates are a sign of a healthy political process.     

What we really have here is an artificially created either/or scenario; skilled labor shortages should be treated as a “why not do both” scenario.

In the long term, the national education system needs to be completely overhauled and a focus on practical skills and advanced STEM has to be championed.  Incentives to lure Americans back into science and engineering fields may be necessary. 

The US can do both:  Cut immigration down to only the best and brightest, or down to labor pools with proven shortages, while also encouraging native-born American interest in such fields and creating a domestic pool of skilled assets.

Ukraine is facing a long period of rolling blackouts this winter after Russia’s “Christmas attack” on the country’s energy infrastructure.  Ukraine reports at least 70 ballistic missiles and hundreds of drones were involved in the onslaught which has left at least 50% of Ukrainians without power (accurate reports on true grid damages are impossible to come by and Ukraine keeps such information censored).   

The usefulness of targeting the power grid is undeniable – Any attempt to establish a reliable manufacturing base in western Ukraine to produce armaments will be impossible.  Regular scheduled blackouts are now in effect in many parts of Ukraine in order to preserve power resources.  Energy Research Center Director Oleksandr Kharchenko says electricity consumption restrictions in Ukraine may remain in effect for another 2-3 years, and that’s if the war ends soon.

Another strategic advantage of grid attacks is the use of cold weather conditions to force civilians out of certain energy weak population centers, making it easier to bombard those areas later without producing heavy casualties of non-combatants.

The large scale missile strikes are dominating the news feeds, while Russian advancements on the eastern front are barely reported.  

Southwest of the key city of Pokrovsk, Putin’s forces are currently surrounding another “linchpin” town called Velyka Novosilka.  The area is considered gateway to the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast region and it’s fall would give Russia easier access to central Ukraine due to thinner defensive lines.  The town is currently surrounded on at least three sides and experts suggest Ukraine in unlikely to order their troops to retreat due to the importance of the location.  Kyiv now fears that the soldiers in the area will soon be encircled.

Velyka Novosilka is vulnerable to Russian attack after Ukraine retreated from Vuhledar, roughly 30 kilometers [18 miles] east of Velyka Novosilka.  The Ukrainians originally claimed that Vuhledar was strategically “unimportant”, but the loss has proven to be disastrous. 

Russian gains are expected to slow as winter weather takes hold, but so far there have been no signs of relent.  Velyka Novosilka will fall within weeks, and Pokrovsk is likely to fall within the next couple of months.  The capture of these two vital strongholds will give Russia near total control of the Donbas and Eastern Ukraine.  It is not known if the Kremlin intends to continue pressing to the west, or if they only plan to take control of the East and annex the region in a settlement with Trump and the US. 

A lack of manpower has been blamed for Ukraine’s increasing strategic failures.    

Donald Trump continues to call for an expedient peace plan which includes Ukraine formally giving up some territory to the Russians.  Vladimir Zelensky has recently admitted that it is unlikely that Ukraine will ever be able to gain back the land lost to Russian forces.   

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The Biden administration has been instructed by a federal judge not to sell off portions of the U.S.–Mexico border wall, which would allow President-elect Donald Trump to use these materials.

On Dec. 17, the State of Texas filed a lawsuit at the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas McAllen Division after reports of the Biden administration selling segments of the border wall along the U.S.–Mexico Border.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he secured a victory in the case after a hearing on Friday.

The Biden administration agreed to a court order preventing the federal government from “disposing of any further border wall materials over the next 30 days—allowing President Trump to use those materials as he sees fit,” Paxton’s office said.

If the order is violated, the court has the authority to enforce it.

“This follows our major victory forcing [President Joe] Biden to build the wall, and we will hold his Administration accountable for illegally subverting our Nation’s border security until their very last day in power, especially where their actions are clearly motivated by a desire to thwart President-elect Trump’s immigration agenda,” Paxton said in a Dec. 27 statement.

Congress had dedicated around $1.4 billion to build fencing along the southern border as part of Trump’s bid to counter illegal immigration. After Biden came to power, he issued an executive order ceasing wall construction and asked the Department of Homeland Security to use the funds for other purposes.

In May 2024, Attorney General Paxton secured a court order forcing the Biden administration to spend the funds on the border wall. Selling off portions of the border wall that was bought using funds allocated for the purpose would be deemed a violation of this order.

The Dec. 17 lawsuit was filed after reports that the federal government “may be auctioning off up to half a mile per day of border wall sections for a mere fraction of the original purchase cost,” Paxton’s office said. “In some cases, the government is allegedly listing entire wall panel sections for sale at a starting bid of just $5.”

Border Security

During a Dec. 16 press conference, Trump said he spoke with officials in Texas regarding reports of the wall parts auction.

“We’re going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more on building the same wall we already have,” Trump said. “It’s almost a criminal act.”

The president-elect said he had spoken with Paxton about securing a restraining order against such actions. “I’m asking today, Joe Biden, to please stop selling the wall,” Trump said.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said selling the border wall was like “treating our national security as if it’s a yard sale,” according to a Dec. 16 X post. “This isn’t just a fight against the incoming president—it’s a fight against the American people.”

Last year, the Biden administration allowed the construction of 20 miles of the southern border, with the president saying he had no choice in the matter but to allow the allocated federal funds to be used for the project.

“The money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get them to reappropriate, to redirect that money,” Biden said in an address. When asked whether the border wall was effective, the president replied, “no.”

In 2020, the Department of Homeland Security said that the border wall resulted in a decline in incidents of illegal crossings, smuggling of drugs, and human smuggling.

Earlier this year, Melissa Dalton, the assistant secretary of defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs, told lawmakers that “a border barrier can help mitigate the flow” of illegal immigrants.

Most Americans also favor building a U.S.–Mexico border wall. A Monmouth University poll released in February showed that 58 percent of respondents supported such a measure, breaking the previous high of 48 percent in 2015.

Revelations that senior US intelligence officials in the early days of the virus pandemic suppressed research indicating a Chinese lab leak as the origin of Covid-19 surfaced in a new Wall Street Journal report titled “Behind Closed Doors: The Spy-World Scientists Who Argued Covid Was a Lab Leak” late this week. 

The investigation by WSJ’s Michael Gordon and Warren Strobel shows the disagreements within the intelligence community over Covid origins…  

But an investigation by The Wall Street Journal shows that the disagreements among intelligence experts over what should be included in the report ran deeper than is publicly known. Nor were the FBI scientists the only ones who believed that the intelligence directorate’s review didn’t tell the whole story.

Three scientists at the National Center for Medical Intelligence, part of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, conducted a scientific study that concluded that Covid-19 was manipulated in a laboratory in a risky research effort. But that analysis was at odds with the assessment of their parent agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and wasn’t incorporated in the report presented to Biden. -WSJ 

Specifically, who decided to exclude input from the Defense Department and the FBI—the only agency to conclude with “moderate confidence” that a lab leak was the likely origin—from the August 2021 briefing to President Biden and the subsequent official federal conclusion that Covid most likely originated naturally?

David Asher, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former head of State Department investigations into Covid origins, joined Vince Coglianese, host of WMAL’s “The Vince Coglianese Show,” on Friday evening to discuss the cover-up of Covid’s origins during the Biden administration.

“We can confirm based on public commercial business records with Chinese government businesses were controlled by the Chinese intelligence service. I mean, the stuff about Hunter and James Biden, you know, his son and brother being tied to CEFC, a company that was infamously associated with the Ministry of State Security in China … I think it has a lot to do with it, and that needs to be investigated as well. I mean, there’s no logical reason why Biden would not continue the Covid investigation that I started. He was briefed on it and he buried, it” Asher said. 

Asher continued, “The Chinese created Covid. It was not Fauci – he did contribute science, technology, and US taxpayer dollars to it. So did the US State Department and United States Agency for International Development provided huge amounts of money to the Chinese for investigating bat coronavirus viruses and then doing in effect gain of function type research in China.” 

“We have a Deep State that is so out of control…” Asher emphasized. 

He continued, “We have so much to do in the second Trump Administration to uncover the origin of Covid, assess the costs culpability and responsibility of the Chinese, and then go after our own government Deep State apparatus that covered this thing up with the Chinese in their own sort of parallel universe of a premeditated cover-up.” 

“We had a senior scientist named Adrienne Keen who used to brief people like me at the State Department. She didn’t tell us that she was also working for the World Health Organization, apparently at the time, as a contractor. I mean, like, I can’t start the level of which this is crazy. I mean, the FBI’s investigation clearly indicated that this thing came out of a lab based on a suspected animal accident,” the former State Department official said. 

He noted that the American people “will soon learn” the truth about the origins of Covid.

“Remember Biden Declassified all the Covid intelligence, but nothing was actually put out there. There’s a lot of intelligence that John Ratcliffe will get out the door very very soon,” Asher said. 

He added, “I’ve met with some of the NSEC team already about it. I know that Senator Paul, who is up on The Hill, will attack this with a bulldozer and machine gun if necessary to get to the bottom of this. The FBI just recently put out with its spokesman on the record that they maintain their investigation, and I wouldn’t be surprised that there might even be criminal charges against some of these people involved – probably not Fauci himself because he’ll get away forever with anything – but I wouldn’t be surprised if Biden pardons him preemptively and probably pardons his brother preemptively. His brother did not create Covid but his brother was getting millions of dollars in money from the Chinese, which is why Biden didn’t want to investigate the origin of Covid because it would get in the way of that uh relationship.” 

Asher said, “The FBI is sitting on a huge case file of over 200 people that they ran a criminal investigation in effect … and maybe we’re going to see criminal charges because somebody in the US government needs to be blamed” for Covid. 

Separately on X, Asher wrote:

“This was why I told people that we at State—via “deep State”—were partially to blame for the coverup. It wasn’t the team I advised, certainly, leading the investigation, not Secretary Pompeo. It was a certain senior official in charge of “arms control” and his minions, including Keene. They were the ones who warned us repeatedly we were opening something akin to a Pandora’s box, which would blow up in our faces. I made it clear whatever is inside the box, I didn’t care if it blew up in THEIR faces—We needed to get to the bottom of what caused COVID, why the Chinese were covering it up and facilitating its release, and why NIH and a bunch of scientists they funded were in on the Fauci organized US coverup. Scientific Wuhangate continues but will be getting exposed under Donald Trump II. Much more to come, I hope.” 

This was why I told people that we at State—via “deep State”—were partially to blame for the coverup. It wasn’t the team I advised, certainly, leading the investigation, not Secretary Pompeo. It was a certain senior official in charge of “arms control” and his minions, including… https://t.co/BGZMRpobWw

— David Asher (@dasher8090) December 26, 2024

In another X post, he said, “We all need to get ready to help President Trump make America truly Great again by holding the ChiComms accountable for mass murder and Fauci and “scientific” associates as accessories of the crime. I’m now triple deep black MAGA on COVID, fentanyl, and making China pay.” 

Thanks for listening. We all need to get ready to help President Trump make America truly Great again by holding the ChiComms accountable for mass murder and Fauci and “scientific” associates as accessories of the crime. I’m now triple deep black MAGA on COVID, fentanyl, and…

— David Asher (@dasher8090) December 28, 2024

Asher also noted on X, “President Trump absolutely should pull the plug on the WHO. It’s a worse than useless organization. It totally failed us in the biggest public health crisis modern world history. It’s a disgrace and a disservice to civilization.” 

President Trump absolutely should pull the plug on the WHO. It’s a worse than useless organization. It totally failed us in the biggest public health crisis modern world history. It’s a disgrace and a disservice to civilization https://t.co/O2pXLGjsOl

— David Asher (@dasher8090) December 24, 2024

And this…

Great analysis https://t.co/axR2vaavHc

— David Asher (@dasher8090) December 22, 2024

As well as, let’s not forget about the documentary “Thank You, Dr. Fauci,” which provides the American people with an understanding of Covid origins… 

@BiosafetyNow formed after the pandemic to combat Fauci’s reckless gain-of-function agenda, expose negligence, malfeasance and fraud. Scientists like @Bryce_Nickels and @jbkinney are working to retract illegitimate science papers secretly commissioned by Fauci and others 🧵3/15 pic.twitter.com/VTDO4BkLg9

— Thank You Dr Fauci (@ThankYouDrFauci) December 16, 2024

The American people are set to receive a truth bomb about Covid origins—something Zero Hedge readers have been well aware of since January 2020 (see: here).