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CNN Slams Keir Starmer’s “Atrocious” Ratings, ‘Makes Trump Look Like Abraham Lincoln’

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CNN Slams Keir Starmer’s “Atrocious” Ratings, ‘Makes Trump Look Like Abraham Lincoln’

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Keir Starmer’s approval ratings have plunged to historic lows, with even CNN calling them “absolutely ATROCIOUS” and noting that President Trump appears “downright like Abraham Lincoln” by comparison. This brutal takedown highlights how Starmer’s globalist policies are alienating Brits across the board.

As the Labour leader clings to power, his war on free speech and commitment to protecting illegal immigration is fueling a backlash that could spell the end for his regime. With polls showing just 20% approval, Starmer’s grip on Number 10 looks increasingly tenuous.

The Overton News clip, which has gone viral on X, captures CNN’s scathing assessment of Starmer’s popularity nosedive.

In the segment, analyst Harry Enten declares, “These numbers are absolutely ATROCIOUS! I mean, you never see numbers like this in the United States of America.”

Focusing on the dire stats, Enten points out, “Britons who like Keir Starmer, look at this — overall it’s just 1 in 5! It’s just 1 in 5, 20%!”

Even within his own ranks, support is crumbling:

“His OWN party, Labour, he’s just at 52% there.”

The commentary escalates, revealing, “I’ve even seen numbers with satisfaction in the TEENS — and this is actually HIGHER than the lowest.”

The most striking line compares Starmer unfavorably to Trump:

“You know, we always talk about Donald Trump being unpopular in this country — but Donald Trump looks downright like Abraham Lincoln compared to Keir Starmer’s numbers at this point!

The latest YouGov survey from February 2026 shows Starmer’s net favourability at -47, with only 22% viewing him positively against 69% unfavorably. That’s an improvement from January’s -57, but still abysmal for a sitting PM.

Other trackers paint an even grimmer picture. Ipsos reported satisfaction in the teens late last year, aligning with CNN’s observations. Opinium’s February poll pegs his net approval at -44, with over half the public calling for his resignation.

Starmer’s woes stem from policies that prioritize globalist agendas over British interests. Mass immigration continues unchecked, straining public services while borders remain porous. Economic missteps, like burdensome regulations on businesses, echo the failures of socialist experiments.

Recall our earlier coverage where a former aide to Starmer revealed how a “stakeholder state” – an unelected network of insiders, NGOs, and civil servants – effectively controls the UK government.

Paul Ovenden described this “political perma-class” as diverting power from voters to elite priorities, wasting resources on fringe issues while ignoring secure borders and sovereignty.

This shadowy influence explains Starmer’s disconnect from the public, leading to approval ratings that rival the worst in postwar history. Historical comparisons show that every UK PM with similar low ratings either lost big or resigned before the next election.

Adding fuel to the fire is Starmer’s aggressive stance against free expression. Threats to ban platforms like X over AI-generated content have drawn international condemnation.

As we reported previously, the US under Trump vowed to deploy its “full arsenal of tools” against such censorship, equating the UK to regimes like Iran. Under-Secretary Sarah B. Rogers warned that nothing is off the table to defend free speech, including facilitating uncensored access via Starlink.

This transatlantic tension underscores how Starmer’s surveillance-state ambitions, like cradle-to-grave digital IDs, threaten core freedoms. Brits are waking up to the hypocrisy: cracking down on online speech while turning a blind eye to real threats like grooming gangs.

Bloomberg notes Starmer’s ratings bounced slightly after a leadership scare but remain deeply negative compared to rivals like Kemi Badenoch (-23) and Nigel Farage (-37). Reform UK, with its America First-style populism, has surged ahead, capitalizing on Labour’s failures.

Even among Labour members, Starmer ranks near the bottom in internal favorability, with a net +5. A gender divide shows women more supportive, but overall, the party is fracturing.

Starmer’s trajectory mirrors the downfall of other left-wing leaders who embraced globalism over national sovereignty. As approval lingers in the doldrums, calls for his ouster grow louder.

The message is clear: Brits demand leaders who put their country first, not puppets of unelected elites. If Starmer doesn’t suddenly reverse course on open borders, economic strangulation, and speech suppression, his tenure could end much sooner than expected.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden
Sun, 02/22/2026 – 11:55

Could The War In Ukraine Go Nuclear?

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Could The War In Ukraine Go Nuclear?

Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker,

Too many influential voices are contemplating how to ‘win’ a nuclear war…

With all eyes on the U.S. military buildup around Iran right now, the Russia-Ukraine War has been temporarily upstaged.  It will not play second fiddle for long.  The recent trilateral talks in Geneva involving the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the United States have been unable to resolve a principal issue of disagreement: Ukraine’s martial-law-president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s refusal to cede any land and Russia’s insistence that the Donbas region — specifically the four eastern territories that have already held a referendum in support of becoming part of the Russian Federation — be acknowledged as sovereign Russian territory.

As the war heads into its fifth year, dangers mount for Europe.  While President Trump wants to end the bloodshed before the violent conflict transforms into something even more catastrophic, too many parties seem committed to ratcheting up the butcher’s bill a while longer.  Unfortunately, there are numerous reasons for prolonging the war that have nothing to do with protecting civilian lives or securing Ukrainian territory.

There is the political reality that a growing embezzlement scandal is taking down high-ranking Ukrainian officials with close relationships to Zelenskyy and the prospect that general peace would mean not only an end to the hold-over-president’s power but also an end to his legal immunity.  There is the dogged determination of the European Commission and certain European nations — particularly the United Kingdom and its Ukraine-obsessed MI6 — to drag the fighting out as long as possible as part of a larger effort to weaken President Vladimir Putin’s control over the Russian Federation.  There is the long-term European Union goal of absorbing Ukraine into the continental federation and eventually welcoming it into NATO — or at least to use the present war as an excuse for positioning European troops close enough to Ukraine’s current battle lines to trigger a U.S. military response once the lives of NATO-allied soldiers are threatened.  There is the dire financial need for the European Central Bank and discrete national Treasuries to use the war as a publicly digestible excuse for fabricating new war bonds, cutting welfare programs, further integrating Europe’s separate national economies, subsidizing Europe’s defense industries, and printing enormous sums of money.  There is the relentless goal of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (selected by the elite members of the European Council and elected not by the European people but rather the European Parliament) to use the War in Ukraine as a justification for expanded powers for her office and the formation of a European-wide military under her putative authority.

For many reasons that have nothing to do with saving lives or resisting invasion, Europe seems committed to prolonging war and forestalling peace.

At the same time, there is a growing sentiment among Russians that a larger war in Europe has become inevitable.  While European political leaders have spent more than a decade publicly framing (1) Russia’s annexation of Crimea, (2) its military assistance to Russian separatist groups in the Donbas region, and (3) its “special military operation” in Ukraine as completely unprovoked instances of “Russian aggression,” most Russian citizens view them as legitimate responses to (1) the U.S.- and E.U.-led coup d’état of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 (an event that the West euphemistically calls the “Maidan Revolution” or “Revolution of Dignity”), (2) the Ukrainian military’s attacks on ethnic Russians, and (3) NATO’s decades-long advance right up to the Russian Federation’s borders.

If European and American leaders intended to weaken President Putin’s domestic support so severely that he would be removed, betrayed, or killed, those efforts have failed.  Instead, a rally-around-the-flag patriotism for “Mother Russia” has swept across the world’s largest nation state.  As European sports leagues banned Russian athletes from competing under their own flag, anger in Russia grew.  As Russians living abroad found their bank accounts frozen for the actions of their government, anger in Russia grew.  As Western news corporations increasingly dismissed politically inconvenient stories as “Russian disinformation,” anger in Russia grew.  Whereas once the prospect of Russian integration with continental Europe seemed likely, Russia now looks East and toward a future with other Asian powers.

A prospect even more unsettling than the current War in Ukraine now takes shape: the quickening drumbeat toward nuclear confrontation.  What U.S. and former Soviet Union leaders spent half a century working to avoid is now discussed too openly for comfort.  American senators, such as Lindsey Graham, have occasionally suggested that effective nuclear deterrence requires U.S. willingness to use the nuclear weapons in its arsenal.  France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Chancellor Fiedrich Merz have held not-so-secret talks on creating a European-managed “continental nuclear shield.”  Turkish President Recep Erdogan wants nuclear weapons of his own.  Polish President Karol Nawrocki says that his country needs nukes in order to defend against the “Russian threat.”  Meanwhile, one of the most influential intellectuals in the Russian Federation believes that President Putin must be willing to utilize “limited but decisive nuclear strikes using operational-strategic weapons” should European Union powers refuse to retreat.

Russian political scientist Sergey Karaganov says that the E.U. is playing with nuclear fire and must be taught a lesson.  Karaganov is no ordinary academic.  He holds a reputation in Russia similar to Henry Kissinger’s in the United States.  Karaganov is a founding member of Moscow’s prestigious Valdai Discussion Club, the honorary chairman of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a supervisor at the School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, and a personal confidant of both Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Putin.  When Professor Karaganov suggests that the time is approaching when his country must contemplate using nuclear weapons against strategically important areas of Europe, people should listen.

In a lengthy and polemical essay for the foreign-policy journal Russia in Global Affairs, Karaganov argues that Europe’s political “elites” are pushing the continent toward a nuclear confrontation.  He says the War in Ukraine has “dragged on longer than necessary” because of a “lack of determination to employ active nuclear deterrence.”  He argues that nuclear weapons represent the “only mechanism capable of resolving” the “European problem,” a problem that he describes as, “an existential threat to our country.”  Furthermore, “Targets should include places where elites gather, including in nuclear states.  Governments must feel personal risk.”

Professor Karaganov then takes the Russian people through a sympathetic history lesson.  He claims to have had a conversation with a group of European leaders back in 2013 during which he warned that “dragging Ukraine into the E.U. and NATO would lead to war and mass casualties.”  He says they “looked down at their shoes” and mumbled about “democracy,” “human rights,” and “containing Russia.”  Karaganov argues that years of Russian “appeasement” has come at the “terrible cost” of tens of thousands of “brave soldiers” who “lost their lives” in Ukraine.  Describing Russia’s fallen warriors as heroes whose sacrifice cannot be forgotten, he insists that Russia not make the same mistakes of the last two decades.

Striking Ukrainian targets, Karaganov argues, is not a “strategic solution” because “E.U. elites” represent the real threat.  “The conflict will continue until its true source is addressed: Western Europe’s degenerated ruling classes, intellectually, morally, and materially exhausted, who cling to power by fueling war.”  He insists that Russia must “break” Europe’s “will” to keep fighting.  He argues that effective nuclear deterrence is the only way to prevent a larger U.S.-Russia war.  Furthermore, he believes that France and the United Kingdom must be deprived of nuclear weapons because “they have forfeited the moral right to possess them.  Any Western European move toward nuclear proliferation must be treated as grounds for preemptive action.”

Too many influential voices are contemplating how to “win” a nuclear war.  Say a prayer for peace.

Tyler Durden
Sun, 02/22/2026 – 10:45

Shotgun-Wielding Man Killed By Law Enforcement After Breaching Mar-a-Lago’s Security Perimeter

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Shotgun-Wielding Man Killed By Law Enforcement After Breaching Mar-a-Lago’s Security Perimeter

U.S. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi reported on X that a young male was shot and killed after breaching the security perimeter at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, the private resort owned by President Donald Trump.

Guglielmi said the incident unfolded around 1:30 a.m. ET, when the man, in his early 20s, was shot by Secret Service agents following an unauthorized entry into the secure perimeter at Mar-a-Lago.

“The individual was observed by the north gate of the Mar-a-Lago property carrying what appeared to be a shotgun and a fuel can,” the spokesman said.

Guglielmi continued:

U.S. Secret Service agents and a PBSO deputy confronted the individual, and shots were fired by law enforcement during the encounter. No U.S. Secret Service or PBSO personnel were injured. No Secret Service protectees were present at the location at the time of the incident.

He said the individual, whose identity is being withheld pending notification of next of kin, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Earlier, Palm Beach County Sheriff Rick Bradshaw told reporters at a press conference that the young man was “ordered to drop the two pieces of equipment he had with him. At that time, he put down the gas can and raised the shotgun to a shooting position.”

Bradshaw said two agents and the deputy “fired their weapons to neutralize the threat.”

He noted that the suspect was from North Carolina and had been reported missing by his family a few days earlier. A preliminary investigation shows he may have acquired a shotgun during his travels, as officers found the box for the gun in his vehicle.

Bradshaw said investigators are compiling a psychological profile of the deceased individual and investigating the motive. When asked whether the individual was known to law enforcement, Bradshaw replied, “Not right now.”

The incident was a few miles from his West Palm Beach golf club, where unhinged leftist Ryan Routh attempted to assassinate Trump during the 2024 election. Routh was recently sentenced to life behind bars.

*Developing… 

Tyler Durden
Sun, 02/22/2026 – 10:15

Jim Snow 2.0: Mamdani Requires Snow-Shovel Volunteers Show Two Forms Of ID, Social Security Card

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Jim Snow 2.0: Mamdani Requires Snow-Shovel Volunteers Show Two Forms Of ID, Social Security Card

With 2-3 feet of snow predicted to hit New York City and New Jersey, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani has called on New York residents to volunteer as emergency snow shovelers. 

“You too can become an emergency snow shoveler. Just show up at your local sanitation garage between 8am and 1pm tomorrow with your paperwork,” he said during a Saturday press conference before the city’s first blizzard warning in nine years

Except, the Mamdani administration is actively committing a hate crime – by requiring volunteers bring ‘Two small photos, two original forms of ID, plus copies, and a Social Security card’ – the thing Democrats say is “Jim Crow 2.0” when it comes to voting in elections. 

The oppressive nature of Mamdani’s hate crime against aspiring-yet-disenfranchised New York City snow shovelers did not go unnoticed

Also funny, when the snow melted last week it revealed that the sidewalk near Brooklyn’s Sunset Park was covered in shit-cicles from all the dog poo that owners couldn’t be bothered to pick up themselves. 

Why can’t leftists keep their cities clean?

Tyler Durden
Sun, 02/22/2026 – 10:05

Fico Threatens To Cut Ukraine’s Emergency Power As Russian Oil Transit Fight Escalates

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Fico Threatens To Cut Ukraine’s Emergency Power As Russian Oil Transit Fight Escalates

Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister and pro-Trump ally Robert Fico has drawn an unexpectedly hard line in his country’s ongoing energy showdown with Ukraine: restore Russian oil flows, or else a key emergency electricity lifeline for Ukraine gets pulled.

In a weekend post on X, Fico warned that unless Ukraine resumes pumping Russian crude to Slovakia by Monday, Bratislava will cut off its emergency power exports. This is an immense threat given current frigid subzero temperatures in war-ravaged Ukraine.

“If the West does not mind that the Nord Stream gas pipeline was blown up, Slovakia cannot accept Slovak-Ukrainian relations as a one-way ticket benefiting only Ukraine,” he wrote, in a pointed swipe at Brussels and Washington alike.

AFP/Getty Images

Fico went on to blast Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying: “The Ukrainian president refuses to understand our peace-oriented approach and, because we do not support the war, he is behaving maliciously toward Slovakia.”

The pipeline in question has been offline for nearly a month, as we’ve reported previously: Russian Oil To Slovakia Via Damaged Druzhba Pipeline Still Halted As Accusations Fly. Kiev has alleged it was initially damaged in a Russian drone strike, and the whole incident and showdown has quickly snowballed into a broader inter-EU fight. According to more background:

Transit through Druzhba has been halted since 27 January, with Hungary and Slovakia stopping diesel exports to Ukraine earlier this week until Ukraine resumes transit. Despite requests from both the Hungarian and Slovak governments, the European Commission said it will not apply pressure on Ukraine to restore transit.

Kyiv reacted sharply to the coordinated pressure from Budapest and Bratislava, accusing both governments of ‘ultimatums and blackmail’ and claiming their actions were ‘provocative’ and ‘irresponsible’.

In a statement, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry argued that Hungary and Slovakia were ‘playing into the hands of the aggressor’ and threatening regional energy security, while insisting that ongoing Russian strikes and technical damage justified the disruption of transit.

Hungary has actually stood by Fico’s criticisms, with the rest of the EU supporting the Ukrainian version of events. For example, earlier this month, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto suggested Kiev was responsible for blocking electricity supplies for the operation of the pipeline.

Just one day earlier to Fico issuing his ultimatum, Hungary signaled it would block a €90 billion emergency loan package for Ukraine over the same pipeline dispute, which Slovakia in turn now says it will back.

Both countries remain heavily dependent on Russian oil and maintain comparatively warmer ties with Moscow than most of their EU counterparts – for which they’ve come under severe criticism by Western European nations.

Hungary’s FM Szijjártó has most recently charged Ukraine with “blackmailing” Budapest by failing to restart oil shipments, and that all other delays are based on false excuses.

A major irony in all this is that Slovakia has become one of Ukraine’s most critical electricity suppliers after repeated Russian strikes crippled large swaths of the country’s power grid. Now, that support may hinge on whether Russian oil starts flowing again, and it all continues to highlight fractured EU policy when it comes to Russian energy dependency.

Tyler Durden
Sun, 02/22/2026 – 08:45

“Potentially Worst Blizzard In Decade” Set To Hammer Mid-Atlantic And Northeast

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“Potentially Worst Blizzard In Decade” Set To Hammer Mid-Atlantic And Northeast

A potentially historic winter storm is set to slam the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast beginning Sunday, bringing heavy snow, damaging winds, and coastal flooding.

As of Sunday morning, 35 million people are under Blizzard Warning alerts from the Mid-Atlantic through New England, according to a post on X from the National Weather Service Prediction Center.

Meteorologists are already labeling the nor’easter as potentially historic and warn it could be the most intense blizzard to hit the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast in a decade.

Snowfall forecasts are already pointing to a high-impact setup along large stretches of the I-95 corridor, from the Washington, D.C., area to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston, where significant accumulations are possible.

In the Tri-State region, some forecasts suggest localized totals could reach upwards of 2 feet, likely sparking major travel disruptions from the I-95 corridor to air travel.

“DHS suspends TSA PreCheck & Global Entry over shutdown. Millions who paid for faster security now stuck in regular lines—while a historic blizzard cancels 7,000+ flights in the Northeast,” Fox News reporter Lucas Tomlinson wrote on X.

Related:

The storm’s setup is similar to the 2016 blizzard that blanketed Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and New York City with up to 2 feet of snow in some areas.

Tyler Durden
Sun, 02/22/2026 – 08:10

Preparation For Martial Law? Europe To Recruit Migrants For “National Defense”

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Preparation For Martial Law? Europe To Recruit Migrants For “National Defense”

Europe’s lack of military readiness has become painfully obvious in recent years, due largely to the war in Ukraine as well as the Trump Administration’s efforts to force NATO members to fulfill their basic obligations. 

Specifically, Russia’s successful use of attrition tactics against NATO supported forces in Ukraine has exposed a significant weakness in western military doctrine.

New and cheap technologies (including drone technologies) are making large scale maneuver warfare obsolete.  The era of super-weapons dominating the battlefield with minimal manpower is over.  As was the case in WWI and WWII, troop strength and boots on the ground are once again the key to victory.  

A Washington DC-based defense think-tank, Center For A New American Century (CNAS), has come to the same realization and suggests a novel (as well as predictable) solution:  Exploit mass immigration from Ukraine and third world countries to the west as a resource to fill the persistent void in military recruitment numbers.  

Writing for Foreign Policy, the CNAS notes:

“Closing manpower gaps may prove harder than writing bigger checks. The continent’s demographic crisis compounds the problem: Births in the European Union fell below 4 million in 2022 for the first time since 1960, shrinking the pool of potential recruits as geopolitical threats—chief among them, Russian aggression—demand larger, more capable forces…”

The argument, of course, presupposes that Russia has any intention of invading greater Europe.  There is no evidence that this is Vladimir Putin’s goal.  However, the Russian bogeyman does make for a useful excuse to justify the development of a unified EU military force.  

The threat of war can also be exploited by European officials as a way to justify open borders and mass immigration from the third world.  Immigration from Ukraine makes some sense – It is a legitimate war torn country and Ukrainians are close to the rest of Europeans in terms of cultural attitude.  But, EU elites need a rationale for flooding the region with third worlders and war with Russia seems to be their ticket.  The CNAS uses the “demographic collapse” claim as a catalyst.

“Ukraine’s grinding war of attrition has laid bare an uncomfortable truth: Emerging capabilities in the form of high-tech weaponry cannot substitute for boots on the ground. Soldiers, sailors, marines, coast guardsmen, and airmen are the backbone of national defense. Yet the European Commission estimates a 43 million reduction in the bloc’s working-age population by 2070…”

“…Meanwhile, Europe continues to grapple with significant migration flows from Africa, the Middle East, and other regions. These arrivals, often young, male, and seeking better opportunities, represent exactly the demographic cohort European militaries desperately need. Many migrants arrive with valuable skills: language abilities, cultural knowledge of strategic regions, technical expertise, and, most importantly, motivation to prove themselves and build new lives.”

It should be noted that these kind of articles from think-tanks are not so much “suggestions” for future policy initiatives.  Rather, they are propaganda pieces designed to promote policies that governments already intend to implement in the near future.

A number of European countries have already begun the groundwork for recruiting migrants for national defense. 

Ireland just recently announced that their are reviewing a possible program to give fast-track citizenship to immigrants who volunteer to join the military.  Irish leaders assert that this is necessary to boost defense capabilities, but they also argue that it is need to increase Ireland’s “diversity.”    

Several other European governments are looking at similar programs, including Germany, France and Spain. 

The real question is, would third world migrants actually fight on the front lines for Europe?  Furthermore, is this really the true agenda behind mass immigration?  To boost western demographics to defend against invasion, or to support the economy?

It is clear that third worlders are a net negative on the economic health of the countries they migrate to.  The majority represent a drain on social welfare systems.  Europe is on a downward spiral in terms of economic health and crime over the past decade.  In fact, the more European leaders embrace mass immigration, the more the economy declines and the worse their native demographic crisis becomes.  

It makes more sense if one considers the possibility that mass immigration and military recruitment are designed to keep European citizens in line, not Russia or Putin.  As we mentioned in our recent article on Canada’s new program to recruit military trained foreign nationals for their own armed forces, left-wing governments are not really worried about invasion from Russia or China, they are worried about opposition from their own conservative and nationalist populations. 

It is much easier to control native Europeans using immigrant mercenaries with no loyalty to the culture.  The CNAS specifically mentions the use of military service as a way to sooth the concerns of “xenophobic” conservatives.

“The political center regarding migration has collapsed in the face of far-right xenophobic approaches to the migration file, such that few policy initiatives other than hardening land and maritime borders and cutting deals to send migrants away see the light of day…”

“The promise of citizenship provides powerful motivation, and military service demonstrates commitment to the nation in the most tangible way possible. The United States demonstrates that national identity is forged through shared sacrifice, not shared ancestry…”

In other words, sell Europeans on the idea that they have no shared ancestry and that migrants going to war for them is proof enough that they are loyal and should be citizens.  Of course, it’s unlikely that migrants will be convinced to risk their lives for Europeans.  They might, however, be easily convinced to help oppress Europeans in exchange for citizenship and the spoils of subjugation.  

It’s a threat western citizens need to seriously consider before supporting any government policy for the recruitment of foreign nationals.  They might just be supporting the very recruits that will eventually be used to enslave them.  

Tyler Durden
Sun, 02/22/2026 – 07:35

Ukraine’s Fast-Tracked EU Membership Would De Facto Advance EU Federalist Goals

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Ukraine’s Fast-Tracked EU Membership Would De Facto Advance EU Federalist Goals

Authored by Andrew Korybko,

The approval of “reverse enlargement” to Ukraine and other candidate states would institutionalize a three-tiered Europe between the “E6”, Central Europe, and the new partial members from Eastern Europe and the Balkans for facilitating Germany’s divide-and-rule federalist plans.

Politico reported on the EU’s plan to grant Ukraine partial membership by next year at the earliest as part of a comprehensive solution to that country’s conflict. An unnamed official described this as “reverse enlargement” and explained that “It would be a sort of recalibration of the process — you join and then you get phased in rights and obligations.”

This modus operandi would enable all the other candidates to join too and thus complete the bloc’s expansion in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

If Orban isn’t ‘democratically deposed’ during next month’s parliamentary elections, then the EU plans to appeal to Trump to pressure him into agreeing to this, absent which they’ll remove Hungary’s voting rights.

Left unsaid is the assessment from early November when this general idea was first reported about how “Poland Might Impede The EU’s Push To Speedily Grant Ukraine Membership” if this compels it to open its agricultural market to another deluge of low-cost and low-quality Ukrainian exports.

Per the preceding hyperlinked analysis, “neither half of its ruling duopoly wants to be blamed for the domestic consequences of Ukraine joining the EU, especially not ahead of fall 2027’s next parliamentary elections. Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s ruling liberal-globalist coalition is already facing an uphill battle and would torpedo any hope of keeping control if they supported this, while President Karol Nawrocki from the conservative-nationalist opposition would betray his base if he went along with them.”

It’s therefore possible that the EU’s “reverse enlargement” to Ukraine doesn’t include unlimited tariff-free access of its agricultural products either to the bloc as a whole or only to Poland in order to secure Warsaw’s approval. In any case, Ukraine’s fast-tracked EU membership would de facto advance EU federalist goals by institutionalizing Germany’s “two-speed Europe” proposal, thus leading to three tiers of membership actually between the “E6”, other full members, and the new partial members.

The “E6” refers to the bloc’s six largest economies – Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Poland – who’d collectively sit atop this institutionalized hierarchy that would unofficially be led by the German-Franco duopoly (or divided into factions by them if their rivalry becomes unmanageable).

Regardless of Poland’s participation or lack thereof within the “E6”, which the abovementioned hyperlinked analysis argues can’t be taken for granted, the EU would thus be formally divided.

The “E6” would push through reforms for facilitating federalization even if that end goal isn’t openly declared to avoid spooking some countries and their societies. The new partial members would then be pressured to conform with these new policies to obtain full membership, while the remaining full members from the second tier would be pressured by the first and third one into following suit. There’s a distinct geopolitical division between these tiers that deserves mention before concluding the analysis.

The “E6” represents Western Europe (with the exception of Poland), the new partial members would represent Eastern Europe and the Balkans, while the rest represent Central Europe. The EU federalists therefore want to pit the first three against the Central European members who oppose federalism in order to then impose that system upon them as a fait accompli. This observation further contextualizes the perceived urgency over approving “reverse enlargement” to Ukraine and the other candidates.

Tyler Durden
Sun, 02/22/2026 – 07:00

From Blockchain To Ball-And-Chain: Are We Being Borg’d?

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From Blockchain To Ball-And-Chain: Are We Being Borg’d?

Authored by Patti Johnson via The Burning Platform blog,

Tokenized Tyranny: How Elites Are Digitizing Our World for Total Control

I’ve followed investigative journalist Whitney Webb’s work for years, and her once-distant warnings now feel eerily prophetic as they unfold in real time. What she has consistently exposed, the systematic digitization and commodification of everything from natural ecosystems to human life itself, is no longer speculative theory. It’s happening before our eyes.

When I first encountered Whitney’s reporting, I found it hard to believe. Could this level of control and financialization truly be underway? It seemed too dystopian, too extreme. Yet after digging deeper the evidence was undeniable. What she described was not exaggeration. It was an accurate and meticulously documented reality.

The tokenization of nature and humanity represents a deliberate strategy by the world’s most powerful financial institutions. Figures like BlackRock’s Chairman and CEO Larry Fink have openly championed turning the planet’s resources, and increasingly aspects of human existence, into fractionalized, tradable digital assets on blockchain-based ledgers. This creates new avenues for elite profit and unprecedented surveillance and control.

With Fink now serving as Interim Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Board of Trustees (alongside André Hoffmann), the technocratic elite have gained an ideal global platform to accelerate this agenda. What better forum than the WEF to mainstream and fast-track “total control” from cradle to grave.

The process begins with assigning unique digital identifiers to virtually everything: land, water, forests, carbon credits, even personal behaviors and biological data. These are then logged on universal ledgers, where ownership is sliced into tradable fractions, much like stocks. But this goes far beyond traditional finance. It encompasses the Earth’s finite resources and, ultimately, the very essence of human life, all reduced to programmable, monetizable units in a centralized system of power.

This is tokenized tyranny in action: a quiet revolution that could redefine ownership, freedom, and existence itself..

Nature on the Chopping Block: From Forests to Fractional Shares

For nature, tokenization means chopping up wild places like the Amazon rainforest into digital securities. Each token represents a piece of land or ecosystem service such as clean air or biodiversity. Companies like O.N.E. Amazon, which is tied to U.S. intelligence and crypto investors, plan to issue these tokens backed by preservation deals. They cap the supply to make them scarce like digital gold. They install massive sensor networks and satellites to monitor every hectare in real time and collect data on everything from tree growth to animal movements. The data feeds into AI systems that manage the assets:

Each initiative will be structured under a transparent, science-based framework ensuring traceability, accountability, and full respect for Panama’s sovereignty. Future projects may also explore nature-backed digital instruments as mechanisms to channel private investment into measurable conservation outcomes.

Juan Carlos Navarro, Minister of Environment of Panama, stated: “As part of the partnership, O.N.E Amazon will pilot its proprietary Internet of Forests (IoF™️), an advanced monitoring system powered by satellites, LiDAR, and ground sensors, to provide real-time ecological intelligence that supports environmental governance and transparency.”

“O.N.E Amazon was created to align global capital with the conservation of our planet’s most valuable ecosystems. Together with Panama, we aim to demonstrate how innovation, transparency, and shared purpose can turn conservation into a true economic opportunity, one that benefits both nature and people. O.N.E Amazon is more than a financial instrument, it is a new contract between humanity, capital markets, and nature. When innovation meets purpose, markets become engines of regeneration,” said Rodrigo Veloso, Founder and CEO of O.N.E Amazon.

Panama and O.N.E Amazon Sign a Letter of Intent to Protect the Darién Region and Pioneer New Models of Conservation Finance

Whitney calls this tokenization of nature “borgifying” the environment (Remember Star Trek and the Borg). It turns planet earth into a controllable grid.

Involved parties include former BlackRock executives, Trump administration figures, and firms linked to stablecoins like Tether. They push this under the banner of sustainability while securing profits through inequitable deals with indigenous groups. Those groups get minimal shares and lose autonomy over their lands.

Greenwashing in Action: Tokenized Nature Happening Now

This is already unfolding through initiatives like Natural Asset Companies (NACs), backed by the Intrinsic Exchange Group and the Rockefeller Foundation. They aim to list ecosystems on stock exchanges as new asset classes. This assigns financial value to untouched nature and creates markets for trading shares in forests or rivers. Clean Air and Water Are Worth Money as ‘Natural Asset’ Companies Attract Cash

The WEF (World Economic Forum) is involved in turning nature into a commodity for investors to profit:

 Finance Solutions for Nature: Pathways to returns and outcomes is out now! This insight report by World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Company provides a practical framework for investors to unlock capital for nature. Key takeaways: A portfolio approach is essential: 10 priority solutions can offer investors and issuers pathways to investable returns and nature outcomes at scale. Model transactions need to be replicated: Over 20 examples of existing transactions show that success in nature finance isn’t just theory — but needs replication. Markets can’t solve nature loss alone: Traditional finance has a central role, but needs enabling policies, robust data, better de-risking mechanisms, and shifting norms to recognize nature’s full value.

Finance Solutions for Nature: Pathways to Returns and Outcomes | World Economic Forum

Another example is Estonia’s Single Earth, which tokenizes forests, swamps, and biodiversity to back its MERIT token. It allows companies to buy fractional ownership for carbon offsets while claiming to make nature the new gold:

“Single.Earth closes the $700 billion nature financing gap by channeling ESG (Environmental Social Governance)-driven company funds to high-impact landowners, while assessing ecological data for maximum impact globally.

Bridging Nature and Finance, Climate and Biodiversity, Corporate Sustainability through Nature Financing Enterprises buy tokens to balance their impact on nature and boost ESG scores, securing a greener financial future.”

In the Central African Republic, the Sango Project is tokenizing land, timber, and diamond reserves to attract investors. It turns national resources into blockchain assets. Even traditional commodities are involved, with platforms tokenizing oil and gas reserves or renewable energy sources:

“The Central African Republic (CAR) has extended its Sango blockchain project to tokenization of its land and natural resources. The country, one of the poorest and most crypto-friendly in the world, is also one of the most active in crypto innovation.”

Central African Republic expands Sango project to land, resource tokenization

In 2023 Australia’s National Australia Bank issued a green stablecoin tied to verified agricultural assets and carbon credits. Their tokenized farms could soon serve as loan collateral. National Australia Bank eyeing a ‘green’ stablecoin – Ledger Insights – blockchain for enterprise

Eco-Dystopia Ahead: When Nature Becomes a Profit Machine

In a future society under this system, nature becomes a Wall Street product where investors buy fractions of forests or rivers without ever setting foot there. Any “conservation” is dictated by profit motives rather than ecological needs. Entire regions could be locked into debt-like swaps where countries trade resource rights for loans. This leads to foreign-owned wind farms or bioenergy plants that displace locals.

Whitney explains that this creates a tokenized world where natural disasters or climate events can spike token values. It encourages exploitation disguised as green finance. Ecosystems are managed by algorithms that prioritize financial returns over life itself.  In the guise of saving ecosystems, they are tokenizing the world and making profit from their exploitation of planet earth.

Humans as Assets: The Financialization of Flesh and Blood

When it comes to human resources, Whitney extends tokenization to the financialization of people themselves. Human potential, data, and behaviors are tokenized into investable assets. This builds on impact investing where elites bet on social outcomes like reducing poverty or improving education through human capital bonds. It turns individuals into data points on a ledger.

Personal information, health records, DNA, and even daily actions get digitized and fractionalized and linked to digital IDs and programmable currencies that track and control spending. It all connects to broader agendas from groups like the World Economic Forum. Humans are seen as resources to be optimized. Blockchain ensures every aspect of life from skills to biometrics becomes a tradeable commodity.

From Blockchain to Ball and Chain

Blockchain is often sold as a liberating technology. It’s sold as a super-secure, shared digital notebook where transactions get recorded in unbreakable blocks that form a chain. These spread across thousands of computers worldwide so no single boss can tamper with it. It promises privacy and freedom from banks or governments. But from my skeptical angle, like the one Whitney Webb takes, it’s actually shaping up to be a high-tech ball and chain designed to track and control every aspect of our lives. This happens despite those privacy boasts. While blockchain claims to be decentralized and anonymous, most versions, like Bitcoin’s, create a permanent, public ledger where every transaction is traceable forever. This makes it easy for powerful entities from governments to corporations to follow your money trail. They link it to your identity through exchanges or data leaks. They can build detailed profiles on your habits, associations, and whereabouts.

Elites are co-opting this tech. They push for things like central bank digital currencies built on blockchain that tie your finances to digital IDs with biometrics. This turns everyday spending into a surveilled activity. In the future non-compliant behavior like buying the “wrong” things or associating with certain people could get you flagged, frozen out, or punished.  This could mean a world where your blockchain-tracked data feeds into AI systems that predict, manipulate, reward or punish your actions.

The ultimate goal is to enforce rules through programmable money. The programmable money can expire, restrict purchases, and track everything you purchase automatically. This is being pushed under the guise of security and efficiency.  Critics on X say that because blockchains are so public and open, it’s easy for others to watch everything you do and even jump ahead of your trades to make quick money off you.

They argue that without true privacy, decentralization just hands control to the most resourced spies. This echoes Webb’s expose on how Bitcoin’s traceability makes it a tool for destroying real financial privacy in favor of elite-controlled systems.

The Blockchain Enabler: Fueling Human Tokenization at Scale

This blockchain backbone is exactly what’s needed to make the tokenization of human resources possible on a massive scale. Without it, you couldn’t reliably slice up and trade fractions of someone’s skills, behaviors, or biometric data. Blockchain provides the immutable ledger that records every tokenized “share” of human capital.

Whether it’s your work output, health metrics, or social compliance, it links them permanently to your digital ID so the elites can monitor, value, and manipulate them in real time. It turns abstract human potential into concrete, programmable assets that can be bought, sold, or penalized without escape.

Human Commodification Unfolding: From Bonds to Biometrics

It seems truly unbelievable and dystopian but real-world implementations are creeping in through programs like social impact bonds.

There investors fund initiatives such as prisoner rehabilitation or early childhood education.

They profit if metrics like reduced recidivism are met. https://socialfinance.org/social-impact-bonds/

Byte by Byte Humans are Being Tokenized

The World Bank’s Human Capital Project measures countries’ human potential as economic assets:

“The Human Capital Project (HCP) is a global initiative launched by the World Bank to inspire and inform investments in human capital”

It paves the way for tokenized investments in workforce development. In refugee aid, organizations use blockchain combined with biometric IDs like iris scans or fingerprints to deliver and track assistance. This is how they implement the plan byte by byte as seen in UN pilots from the World Food Programme’s Building Blocks project in Jordan, where refugees scan their eyes to buy food with aid stored on a blockchain ledger. Or UNHCR’s efforts in Ukraine distributing programmable stablecoin cash directly to digital wallets. These systems make aid traceable and “efficient.” But I see them turning vulnerable people into monitored data commodities under the guise of inclusion and empowerment.

Your Skills as Tradeable Tokens

Companies are experimenting with turning workers’ skills and performance into digital tokens on blockchain platforms. They break down things like work history, credentials, or gig results into small tradable pieces. This mostly targets gig workers: drivers, delivery people, freelancers who do temporary jobs through apps. Platforms verify and tokenize these, letting people buy, sell, or trade tiny fractions of a worker’s “value” (fractionalized trading: like slicing someone’s skills into shares anyone can own and trade, similar to buying a piece of a stock). It turns personal labor into digital assets that can be bought and sold.

I know this sounds wild and hard to believe for most folks. I didn’t buy it either until I dug into the research myself. It’s all part of a larger agenda to digitize and control everything, your job and skills, your land, even nature under a single digital system run by a tiny elite of powerful companies and tech oligarchs. Critics call this endgame a form of fascist dictatorship known as technocracy, where “experts” and algorithms dictate life instead of democratic choice.

For a real-world example happening today, check out platforms like LaborX (part of Chrono.tech), a blockchain-based freelance marketplace where gig workers’ skills and work history are verified on-chain, and payments/rewards can involve tradable tokens tied to performance bringing tokenized labor closer to reality in the gig economy: https://laborx.com/

Another related case is project tokenization ideas for gig workers, as explored here: https://medium.com/@tradefin101/project-tokenization-for-gig-workers-revolutionizing-the-gig-economy-with-blockchain-20359a1ffcfd. These show early steps toward fractionalizing and trading aspects of human capital.

The Ultimate Warning: A Tokenized Hellscape Awaits

In my depiction of a tokenized future, society looks like a giant database where people own nothing tangible, as the WEF slogan suggests. The WEF idea of happiness is enforced through surveillance. Everyone carries a digital ID that opens access to jobs, services, or even basic rights. Tokens represent shares in human capital markets that reward or punish based on compliance.

Governments and corporations use this to engineer behaviors like tying aid to biometric scans or tokenizing refugee programs for “inclusion.” But it really cements a system of digital serfdom. I see this leading to a loss of freedom where the elite overlords hold all the tokens. They manipulate markets to siphon wealth while the masses are reduced to monitored data streams in a hyper-financialized digital prison.

Technocracy Tokenopoly

The world’s billionaire elite, already far beyond any need for more wealth, now crave absolute power and control. They are quietly fulfilling the 1930s vision of the Technocracy movement led by Howard Scott and Technocracy Incorporated which declared that scientists, engineers, and technical experts should replace democratic governments and elected leaders. They viewed traditional republics and ordinary citizens as too irrational and uninformed to govern effectively, insisting only a data-driven, expert-ruled system could rationally manage resources and society for maximum efficiency.

Today this technocratic ideal unfolds through the tokenization of everything: rainforests, rivers, biodiversity, human labor, skills, behaviors, and data all turned into tradable blockchain assets under the guise of sustainability and inclusion. Earth and humanity become pieces in a high-stakes game, satirized in Tokenopoly, where players buy and sell properties like the Amazon Rainforest, Nile River, Niagara Falls, CAR resources, Human Labor, and Biodiversity Credits, with cards commanding “Collect 100 Tokens” or “Go Directly to Digital Wallet.” Using AI, surveillance grids, programmable money, and immutable ledgers, the elite claim dominance and enforce compliance, building the tokenized, borgified system of digital serfdom

To pull off this nightmare, elites and tech oligarchs are racing to build AI data centers at breakneck speed devouring massive amounts of fresh water and energy just to hoard every scrap of our tokenized data. They can’t build them fast enough, but that desperation is our opening. People are waking up to their plan as their electric bills go sky high and their fresh water is drained by the data centers.  People are starting to speak out.

Could their pride be their downfall?

How supremely arrogant of these self-anointed digital overlords to imagine they hold proprietary title over nature itself and over human beings, treating both as resources to be patented, monetized, and managed. How breathtakingly hubristic for them to insist that scientists, engineers, and technocratic elites are better suited to govern than the democratic process, elected representatives, and the will of the people.

Proverbs 16:18 – Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

Expose their plan before it’s too late. 

Don’t let them Borgify us and turn free humans into obedient, trackable nodes in their machine. Don’t let them steal nature and turn it into a commodity for the elite. Get active locally. Resist immediately. Slow their rollout to a crawl. The future isn’t theirs yet. We claim it by saying NO!

Resistance is NOT futile.

We will NOT comply.

*  *  *

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

Tyler Durden
Sat, 02/21/2026 – 23:20

Amb. Huckabee Claims Israel Has ‘Biblical Right’ To Conquer Whole Middle East

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Amb. Huckabee Claims Israel Has ‘Biblical Right’ To Conquer Whole Middle East

In a jaw-dropping exchange with Tucker Carlson, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee openly framed Israel’s territorial claims in biblical terms – suggesting the Jewish state has a divine mandate over virtually the entire region.

Asked whether a passage from the Book of Genesis could be read as granting Israel the right to claim all the land between Egypt’s Nile River and Syria’s Euphrates, Huckabee didn’t hedge. He bluntly and without apology said it would be “fine” if Israel and its military took over the whole Middle East. Full interview can be accessed here:

“It would be fine if they took it all,” Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist Minister and previously the governor of Arkansas made clear. This led to a wide ranging conversation and back and forth over whether the modern nation-state of Israel, officially founded as a sovereign government on May 14, 1948, is synonymous with the Israel written about in the Old Testament, stretching back thousands of years.

Here’s how that contentious segment of the interview unfolded, according to a transcript and commentary

Huckabee was asked in an interview with US conservative commentator Tucker Carlson about his understanding of a biblical verse suggesting that land including parts of Egypt, Syria and Iraq had been divinely promised to the Jewish people.

Carlson said that according to the Old Testament, the boundaries would be “basically the entire Middle East.”

He continued: “Does Israel have the right to that land?”

“Not sure we’d go that far,” Huckabee said in reply. “It would be a big piece of land.”

Carlson then pressed him: “Does Israel have the right to that land?”

“It would be fine if they took it all,” Huckabee responded, before adding, “I don’t think that’s what we’re talking about here today.”

Carlson asked: “You think it would be fine if the state of Israel took over all of Jordan?”

That’s when Amb. Huckabee must have realized he was entering some hot diplomatic water, which would be sure to outrage Washington’s Arab allies in the region.

“They’re not trying to take over Jordan. They’re not trying to take over Syria. They’re not trying to take over Iraq or anywhere else, but they do want to protect their people,” Huckabee responded. We should note here that the Israeli army has indeed invaded southern Syria and is occupying swathes of territory which lie a mere dozen or so miles from Damascus.

“I think you’re missing something because they’re not asking to go back to take all of that, but they are asking to at least take the land that they now occupy, they now live in, they now own legitimately, and it is a safe haven for them,” Huckabee added.

Huckabee on Saturday, the day after the Carlson interview aired, issued a lengthy clarification of his comments, accusing the former Fox show host of twisting his words and engaging in bad faith arguments and attacks.

There are many parts of the rare interview which will be sure to spark lasting debate. Supporters of Huckabee tend to cast any and all criticisms of Israeli policy as ‘anti-Semitic’ – while critics of Tel Aviv point out that being against political Zionism does not equate to being anti-Jewish in any way.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 02/21/2026 – 22:45