If you inherited an IRA in 2020 or later, you could be facing a Dec 31 deadline to start taking required minimum distributions from the account, under threat of IRS penalties. 

The new rules spring from the December 2019 SECURE Act, which attacked long-beloved rules that previously allowed beneficiaries to stretch required distributions over their life expectancies, allowing them to enjoy tax-deferred growth along the way. The new rules apply to those who inherited either a traditional or Roth IRA from someone who died in 2020 or after. Those who inherited IRAs before 2020 still get to use the friendlier old rules. 

The new rules apply when the deceased IRA owner was old enough to be taking RMDs of their own before they died. The new requirements do not apply to spouse beneficiaries, who will still be able to take over the inherited retirement plan assets and have them treated as if they had always been theirs. There’s also forgiving flexibility for so-called “eligible designated beneficiaries,” such as those who are disabled or chronically ill, minor children of the deceased owner, and others who are not more than 10 years younger than the deceased owner.

Between the SECURE Act’s passage and the IRS’s tardy 2024 announcement about the final rules, IRA beneficiaries were subjected to a multi-year, rolling bureaucratic fiasco, unsure what they were supposed to do. While the feds sorted things out, the IRS said it wouldn’t penalize anyone who didn’t take a required distribution in 2021, 2022, 2023 or 2024. However, those days of rare IRS leniency are over, with affected beneficiaries now required to calculate a 2025 RMD by applying a life expectancy factor to the balance of their inherited IRA as of Dec 31 of last year.

If you fail to take the RMD, the penalty is a hefty 25% of the amount you should have taken out but didn’t. That penalty is trimmed to 10% if you correct things within two years. Among other institutions, Vanguard offers an online, inherited IRA RMD calculator that anyone can use.

There’s no need to “make up” for the years when the IRS waived the penalty, and the 10-year clock is still based on the year of death. After taking RMDs driven by your life expectancy each year through Year 9, you’ll have to take out the entire remaining balance by Dec 31 of the year containing the 10th anniversary of the original IRA-owner’s death. For example, consider a situation where an IRA owner died in 2021 and left her IRA to her adult child. After taking RMD’s in 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030, the beneficiary has to take out whatever’s left in 2031.  

The RMD math drives distributions of relatively small proportions of the account before Year 10. Building on the previous example, a 58-year-old beneficiary of an inherited IRA that had a balance of $100,000 on Dec 31 2024 would have to take just $3,378 this year. All things equal, those RMD’s grow gradually larger each year. However, investment performance and withdrawals will affect the account balance used to determine subsequent RMDs. 

It could be in your interest to take out more than the RMD. For example, if the account is big enough, a large, single withdrawal in Year 10 could push you into a higher tax bracket, or have a domino affect on other elements of your tax return driven by your adjusted gross income. Then there’s the question of what future tax rate you’ll be subjected to in a late-stage empire that’s $38 trillion in debt.  

You may also want to factor in your future income needs. Someone who’s retiring a few years before that Year 10 lump-sum requirement may plan on taking big distributions over the last few years of the 10-year span, after his other income has dipped.   

A Clinton-appointed federal judge in Washington has stepped into the James Comey saga with an order that effectively tells the FBI to wipe a key evidentiary trail tied to the former director’s obstruction case, and to do it quickly. The move drops the Justice Department into a separation-of-powers storm at the same time it is trying to salvage its prosecution of the man who helped ignite the Trump-Russia hoax. 

Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted in September on charges of making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding, stemming from his 2020 testimony about Operation Crossfire Hurricane. The indictment alleged that Comey lied when he denied authorizing anyone at the FBI to act as an anonymous source for media reports damaging to Donald Trump, and that he used Columbia Law Professor Daniel Richman as an outside conduit to leak material while Richman simultaneously worked as a government contractor. Emails between the two are critical to the case against Comey. 

U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, a Bill Clinton appointee, dismissed the indictments against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James last month, ruling that the appointment of Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, who pursued the charges, was unconstitutional, and thus the indictments were invalid. 

Six years ago, a warrant approved by Judge James Boasberg allowed the FBI to seize Richman’s devices.

Today, another Clinton-appointed judge, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, has ordered the FBI to destroy the emails by 4 p.m. on Monday. According to Michael R. Davis, the founder and president of the Article III Project, the ruling “threatens the separation of powers essential to the Republic, and either the D.C. Circuit or Supreme Court must intervene immediately.

Richman, who is not charged in the case and has no standing as a defendant, filed a motion under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(g) to reclaim those emails, arguing that the government violated his Fourth Amendment rights. Rule 41(g) typically allows individuals to ask a court to return property obtained in an unlawful search. 

Still, its use here departs from legal norms because Richman is not the target of the prosecution, and Comey himself lacks standing to challenge the warrant executed on Richman’s accounts. Judge Kollar-Kotelly granted the motion and, on December 13, ordered the Justice Department to return all data seized from Richman, concluding that prosecutors handled the material with “callous disregard” for Richman’s rights and had improperly used it to indict Comey. She directed that a copy of the emails be delivered to Biden-appointed Judge Michael Nachmanoff, who is presiding over the Comey case in the Eastern District of Virginia, but even with that copy preserved, the ruling bars the FBI and prosecutors from reviewing these emails as they pursue a new indictment.

“This salvation of a copy of the emails, however, does not lessen the impact of Kollar-Kotelly’s horrible ruling,” explains Davis.

“The FBI and the prosecution will be unable to review them in their efforts to seek a new indictment if Currie’s dismissal ruling survives on appeal.”

The statute-of-limitations law allows the government only six months after an indictment’s dismissal, suspended during the appellate process, to seek a new indictment. The inability to view this evidence would substantially increase the time necessary to seek an indictment. Even if a higher court reverses Currie, the government’s inability to review the emails to use as evidence and prepare for trial would massively hamper its case.

Kollar-Kotelly’s decision raises grave separation-of-powers concerns because it involves a judge outside the criminal case, and outside the district where it is pending, ordering the destruction of evidence that was lawfully obtained. 

Usually, Rule 41(g) comes into play where a defendant has had property wrongly seized, and he moves to reclaim it,” Davis explains. “Here, Comey is not seeking to reclaim anything; Richman, a then-government contractor with whom Comey communicated extensively about government business, is seeking this evidence. Richman has run to a partisan Democrat judge not even involved in the criminal case — and not even in the same district — to procure the destruction of crucial evidence in that case in an obvious effort to assist his friend Comey.”

Ordinarily, the judge presiding over the criminal case decides whether to suppress evidence under the Fourth Amendment, not a different judge in another district using a third party as a vehicle to attack the warrant. 

Comey cannot challenge the warrant against Richman because he lacks standing to do so. Incredibly, Kollar-Kotelly suggested that Richman could move to quash this evidence in Virginia. She’s going way out of her way to help Comey. Judges presiding over cases often have excluded evidence against defendants as having been obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment. It is, however, extraordinary for a different judge — especially in a different district — to interfere in and dramatically hamper the prosecution’s case based on a claim by a third party of a wrongful search and seizure, especially when the evidence the government wishes to use consists of communications between that third party and the defendant — a defendant who was a senior government official.

The episode fits within a broader pattern in which left-leaning judges have allowed or intensified lawfare against President Trump and his allies while taking steps to shield alleged lawfare perpetrators, such as Comey, from accountability.

 “If higher courts do not reign in these rogue judges, Congress must do so through oversight, withholding of funds from judicial appropriations, and impeachment,” argues Davis. “A system where the judiciary enables lawfare and then shields its perpetrators from legal consequences is unsustainable, and higher courts must put a stop to it.”

Authored by Cynthia Cai via The Epoch Times,

The new year is right around the corner, which means a new batch of laws will soon take effect.

From banning masks for law enforcement officers and requiring gender-neutral restrooms in schools, to enhancing artificial intelligence regulations and completely banning plastic bags in stores, here is an overview of some major laws Californians can expect next year or late this year.

Law Enforcement Masks

Senate Bill 627 will ban law enforcement officers at the local and federal levels from wearing a face mask when operating in the Golden State.

It also requires agencies to create policies limiting the use of facial coverings. According to the bill, face coverings excluded from this ban include clear face shields that don’t obscure the person’s facial identity, medical masks, motorcycle helmets, or masks necessary for underwater use.

The federal government had sued the state over this new rule, saying it threatens the safety of officers who could be harassed if their identities are known. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a Nov. 17 statement that “California’s anti-law enforcement policies discriminate against the federal government and are designed to create risk for our agents.”

The mask ban is slated to take effect on July 1, 2026.

School Policies

Senate Bill 760 will require schools to provide at least one all-gender restroom available during school hours and school functions.

The bill allows schools to convert their existing restrooms to comply. The state will reimburse local agencies and school districts for the costs.

The new bathroom policy applies to both public and charter schools and will take effect on July 1, 2026.

Assembly Bill 495 will broaden who can approve school-related medical procedures.

Distant relatives and temporary legal guardians designated by a parent in a family court will be allowed to sign a child out of school and authorize medical care.

Supporters have said the move protects families that have been divided by deportation due to illegal immigration. But opponents said it could lead to kidnapping and child trafficking if someone other than the parents has authority over a student.

Taking effect Jan. 1, 2026, the law will also prohibit daycare providers from asking for or keeping immigration-related information about students or their parents.

AI Regulations

Senate Bill 243 will make California the first state to require safety regulations specifically targeting companion chatbots.

Chatbots are described by the Federal Trade Commission as artificial intelligence (AI) technology that can “effectively mimic human characteristics, emotions, and intentions, and generally are designed to communicate like a friend or confidant, which may prompt some users, especially children and teens, to trust and form relationships with chatbots.”

The new law requires a technology operator to make it clear and obvious to users that the chatbot is not a real human.

It also requires the operator to maintain a protocol for preventing the chatbot from producing content involving suicide or self-harm for the user. Details of the protocol need to be published on the operator’s website to comply with the new law.

The new chatbot regulations will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026, and chatbot operators will be required to submit annual reports on suicide-prevention protocols beginning on July 1, 2027.

Senate Bill 53 creates new regulations for frontier AI models, which include OpenAI’s GPT-4 and -5, Google’s Gemini, and xAI’s Grok.

Frontier AI models are defined as “a foundation model that was trained using a quantity of computing power greater than 10^26 integer or floating-point operations,” according to the bill.

Under the new law, large developers will have to publish their “frontier AI framework” explaining risk management practices, mitigation strategies, and evaluations by a third party. They will also be required to release transparency reports detailing risk assessments prior to introducing updated AI models. Non-compliance would result in up to $1 million in fines.

The new regulations will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.

Business Pay Transparency and Reporting

Senate Bill 642 will revise the rules surrounding employers’ pay scales and employees’ pay history disclosures.

Under this new law, employers are prohibited from asking applicants about their salary history information. However, if applicants voluntarily disclose their salary history, employers are still allowed to use the information to decide on salaries for applicants.

Employers now must also give employees pay scale information for their current roles upon request. Additionally, employers with over 15 employees must include pay scale information in all job postings.

The new pay disclosure regulations will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.

Senate Bill 464 will implement stricter rules for pay data reporting and separating demographic data.

Under the new law, employers with more than 100 employees must store demographic data collected for pay reports separately from main personnel records. They will also have to submit their annual pay data reports to the Civil Rights Department for more job categories.

The pay and demographic data regulations will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026. Then on Jan. 1, 2027, the number of job categories for annual pay reporting will expand to 23.

Health Care

Assembly Bill 144 establishes a handful of new health-related policies for the state, which took effect on Sept. 17 after the governor signed the bill into law.

Key changes include requiring health plans to continue to cover, without cost-sharing, all preventive services and immunizations that are recommended at the federal level as of this year, even if the federal government later removes those recommendations. The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) will also have authority to supplement or modify federal health-related recommendations to create state-specific rules.

Health insurers must also, within 15 business days, cover any new recommendations by the CDPH regarding changes to vaccines and other preventive services.

The new law also extends protection to clinic employees, who “shall not be liable for any injury caused by an act or omission in the administration of the vaccine or other immunizing agent.”

AB 144 will also exempt out-of-state health care practitioners from having to obtain California licensure when providing services at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Senate Bill 40 will cap the price of a 30-day supply of insulin at $35. The bill says the goal is to reduce costs for people diagnosed with diabetes.

The new law would also restrict insurance companies from using “step therapy” for insulin, which is when an insurance company specifies the sequence in which different types of drugs are allowed to be prescribed.

The $35 cap will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026, for large health insurance companies and on Jan. 1, 2027, for individual or small group plans.

Total Ban on Plastic Bags

Senate Bill 1053 will eliminate single-use plastic bags at checkout, allowing only recycled paper bags for a 10-cent fee.

The law covers supermarkets, large retailers with pharmacies, and some convenience stores, which can no longer provide plastic bags at checkout regardless of thickness or intended reuse.

It will also require, by 2028, that paper bags provided at checkout contain at least 50 percent post-consumer recycled materials.

The plastic bag ban will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.

The White House recently released its newly updated National Security Strategy, a roadmap “to ensure that America remains the greatest and most successful nation in human history, and the home of freedom on earth.”

In the document’s opening statement among callouts of securing the border, massive military investments, and strengthening of NATO, Trump makes a specific call out for domestic energy: “We unleashed American energy production to reclaim our independence”

He places energy production among the national-level focus areas to make America “safer, richer, freer, greater, and more powerful than ever before”. Meanwhile, the projected demand continues to skyrocket.

Good luck PJM pic.twitter.com/3I0nN7Hh85

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 3, 2025

Recalling our recent discussion about what’s holding back the country’s data center industry, as well as the profile of the one biggest factor that has destroyed Europe’s economic growth, the national security strategy emphasizes the US’ desire for a robust, productive, and innovative energy sector to both fuel America and lead the country’s export industry. Indeed, the US has already obtained the status of net-exporter of energy through the recent ramp-up of LNG production, but, as the administration has highlighted multiple times, the nation intends to use nuclear reactors as political tools as well.

Exporting an energy asset like a nuclear power plant is a massive political leverage tool that can last upwards of 100 years. Just look at the iron grip on some eastern European countries that Russia still wields with its nuclear reactors. While the bulk of the relationship ended after the reactor was constructed, the fuel for the reactors was continuously provided by Russia for decades after the plant was first commissioned. That fuel isn’t exactly easy to replicate and just swap over to another provider. It took Westinghouse several years to develop replacement fuel for the VVER series reactors, and only just started production of some of the first rounds of it in Hungary.

With the US announcing their intent to export the AP1000 design, and likely the BWRX-300, they are attempting to use the following nuclear fuel orders, and engineering assists for major refits, as a way to maintain a controlling political relationship with the country where the reactor is located. This is one of the main reasons China and Russia export their reactor designs throughout locations in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The US is embarrassingly behind on the utilization of this political tool, but Trump’s May executive orders announced that it’s finally time to catch up.

This brings the total nuclear reactors under construction in China to 30, followed by India (6) and Russia (5).

There are no new nuclear reactors under construction in the US currently. https://t.co/f9O1m7HGTN pic.twitter.com/vkXUWp8YW3

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 12, 2025

Under the header of economic security, the administration has declared the objective to restore American energy dominance through oil, gas, coal, and nuclear power. The intent is to reshore the necessary energy components to facilitate the national build out of these assets and prepare them for mass exporting.

Energy is lastly discussed as one of the main reasons we have been focused on the Middle East for so many decades. Explaining that multiple previous dynamics no longer hold, the US now stands as a diversified importer of energy and a net-exporter. America under Trump hopes to finally rescind its focus on the Middle East as it instead becomes a source and destination for international investment in industries like nuclear energy.

Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,

We’re being hit with the “Super Flu” (allegedly), and that means everyone wants us to wear masks again.

We went over this (a lot) in 2020.

Then we went over it again in 2023.

Masks don’t work, they never worked, and – prior to 2020 – the academic literature was very clear on this.

In a 2016 literature review, infection control expert Dr John Hardie found [emphasis added]:

Between 2004 and 2016 at least a dozen research or review articles have been published on the inadequacies of face masks. All agree that the poor facial fit and limited filtration characteristics of face masks make them unable to prevent the wearer inhaling airborne particles. In their well-referenced 2011 article on respiratory protection for healthcare workers, Drs. Harriman and Brosseau conclude that, “facemasks will not protect against the inhalation of aerosols.”

[…]

Health care workers have long relied heavily on surgical masks to provide protection against influenza and other infections. Yet there are no convincing scientific data that support the effectiveness of masks for respiratory protection.

[…]

It should be concluded from these and similar studies that the filter material of face masks does not retain or filter out viruses

Why Face Masks Don’t Work: A Revealing Review

That study was removed from the website of the Journal of Oral Health in July 2020, because it was “no longer relevant in our current climate”. Which is perfectly normal, I’m sure.

Another study, conducted in 2019 and published in May 2020, concluded:

Disposable medical masks are loose-fitting devices that were designed to be worn by medical personnel to protect accidental contamination of patient wounds, and to protect the wearer against splashes or sprays of bodily fluids. There is limited evidence for their effectiveness in preventing influenza virus transmission either when worn by the infected person for source control or when worn by uninfected persons to reduce exposure. Our systematic review found no significant effect of face masks on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza.

Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare Settings—Personal Protective and Environmental Measures

In 2023, the Cochrane Report by Jefferson et al. found:

Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness (ILI)/COVID‐19 like illness compared to not wearing masks […] Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of laboratory‐confirmed influenza/SARS‐CoV‐2 compared to not wearing masks…
Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses

None of this is new information; we’ve published it all before, but if they keep pitching the same lies, we’ll just have to keep batting with the same facts.

When it comes to preventing disease, masks are not effective. They never worked. The science backs this up.

This is neither an ideological position nor a moral position. It is simply a rational, fact-based position.

Anyone saying otherwise is misinformed, ideologically captured, willfully dishonest or some combination of all three.

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

The fundamental problems of our society can largely be traced back to the collapse of reproduction rates. These are a symptom of dysfunction in the machinery of the social factory. People are losing faith in the future.

The dramatic decline in birth rates is no longer exclusively a Western phenomenon. China, long the epitome of demographic dynamism, has been in an open contraction process for about a year. The consequences are visible wherever political and social systems have been designed for steadily growing populations alongside rising economic productivity.

We know this problem from Germany. For the first time, the German society faces severe distribution conflicts and social struggles in its pay-as-you-go pension system as well as in healthcare provision for a rapidly aging population. The demographic foundation on which the welfare state was built is beginning to crumble. With its unprecedentedly naive immigration policy, the political class is operating like a dynamo, accelerating this development.

Much speculation surrounds the causes of this population decline. A valid point refers to the introduction of the contraceptive pill as a symbol of female emancipation – a medical-scientific intervention in reproduction rates that delivered a massive shock to 20th-century societies, still reverberating today.

The Eternal Reach into the Political Attic

To counter these trends, modern politics has devised a whole arsenal of monetary incentives: child allowances, tax incentives for marriage, joint taxation for couples, supplemented by a bouquet of state incentives. Yet all these measures have largely failed. Birth rates could not be sustainably stabilized, let alone increased.

A small anecdote illustrates how history repeats itself – at least in the sense that societies in demographic crises always fall back on the same reaction patterns. During the reign of Emperor Augustus, a decline in the Italian core population was met with a mix of monetary incentives for young parents and draconian tax penalties for childless members of the senatorial class. Both had little noticeable effect.

It is remarkable – and sobering – how persistently humans and political systems reproduce failed options, even when their failure is historically documented and empirically evident.

The Chinese example seems almost comical. During the population boom in the Middle Kingdom, a strict, heavily sanctioned one-child policy prevailed. Yet the population still grew – and with the now visible collapse of reproduction rates, Chinese leadership today follows the Western democratic model: offering child allowances while kindergartens visibly empty.

China is expected to lose about 20 percent of its population over the next 30 years.

There is no doubt this will have consequences for the global economy. Societies react reflexively to such developments. China responds with aggressive subsidies for its export engine to counter these domestic distortions, which primarily manifest economically as deflationary pressures.

Demographics, Intervention, and the Loss of the Generational Bond

Adjusting an economy to a shrinking population becomes increasingly difficult the higher the degree of political intervention. This is a central problem – not just for China, but also for Germany and Europe at large.

On a global scale, the population is expected to reach its peak in about ten years, around 9.7 billion. Currently, about 8.2 billion people live on the planet. Regions like China and Europe are already in a demographic downward spiral, while India and large parts of Africa continue to grow dynamically. This asynchrony exerts significant migration pressure on regions like Europe – leading to culturally consequential misjudgments, such as the EU’s planned relocation of millions of culturally foreign people to the continent.

Germany’s transformation into a kind of global welfare office has created a unique demographic situation. If open-border policies continue, the German population may even grow further in the coming years. Whether this is cause for celebration is debatable, given the state of German society.

But what has really happened here? The welfare state gradually transferred the responsibility for securing old age from the individual and their family to the institution itself. In the past, one’s old age was secured by children; today, the state assumes this role – financed by contributions from those still working. This increasingly dissolves the intergenerational bond between parents and children, both emotionally and economically – a kind of causal decoupling.

The emotional loss of family significance is difficult to overstate. The necessity for large families has disappeared.

The Fiat Money Shock

Examining demographic developments presents one of the most complex social structures imaginable. Remarkably, one central factor is consistently ignored: the monetary system under which these developments occur – the end of the gold standard.

By closing the so-called gold window in 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon ended the dollar’s convertibility into a fixed gold equivalent – marking the transition into the era of fiat credit money.

Money was no longer tied to real scarcity but could be politically manipulated through deficit policies and expanded through credit processes on an unprecedented scale. Credit became money; credit products like government bonds formed the foundation of the global monetary system.

This decoupling had far-reaching consequences. States effectively subordinated their central banks, using them to finance permanent deficits – a policy that, as we can observe in Germany today, eventually spirals out of control. It is an attempt to pull future purchasing power into the present, creating fiscal and economic leeway. A classic Keynesian maneuver that leaves nothing but debt, asset bubbles, and inflation.

The consequences of this nearly unbacked credit creation, especially in private banking, are visible in asset price development since the beginning of this era. Real estate shifted from consumer goods to financial instruments, quasi-piggy banks in the battle against systemic money devaluation.

Today, for young families, purchasing a home without plunging into massive debt is nearly impossible. Dual-income households have become a prerequisite. The focus on child-rearing has not only been socially devalued amid waves of feminism but is now also practically impossible for many economically.

In a credit-driven economy, life becomes a scarce resource. Two incomes are required to close the wealth gap with owners and heirs. Children inevitably compete with career, income, and private retirement planning.

It is a fatal dysfunction of the social factory, whose incentive structure should ideally produce at least enough children to stabilize the population.

A return to sound money could be the key to an economic and social turnaround, which also lies ahead for German society at the end of its decline.

It would simultaneously end the postmodern hyperstate, which, through credit manipulation, deeply interferes with individuals’ economic dispositions. With sound money and technological progress, people could gain purchasing power through disciplined saving – translated into time. Time they could devote to their families, projecting themselves into the future with confidence under stable monetary processes.

Our warning that the radical left protest industrial complex is not peaceful, but instead amounts to “civil terrorism,” was on full display during the Los Angeles riots this past summer. Now, Marxist-aligned NGOs, funded by leftist billionaires and some receiving foreign support, wage continuous color revolutions against President Trump, attempt to collapse capitalism, while pursuing a broader objective of sowing chaos from within to destroy the ‘America First’ agenda.

Now, with the Trump administration moving full steam ahead in a massive effort to dismantle and destroy radical left groups following the political assassination of Charlie Kirk, we have shown readers that the militant left has effectively declared war on so-called “fascists,” while Democratic Party politicians and media figures have repeatedly labeled Trump and the MAGA movement as fascists. In other words, the left normalized the assassination culture with their base.

Here is the roadmap to Charlie Kirk’s assassination… pic.twitter.com/S4JPbPiFy8

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) September 12, 2025

Now we shouldn’t be surprised about further developments in the radical left sphere. The latest from Attorney General Pamela Bondi says the Department of Justice and FBI have disrupted “what would have been a massive and horrific terror plot in the Central District of California (Orange County and Los Angeles).”

“The Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF)—a far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government, and anti-capitalist group—was preparing to conduct a series of bombings against multiple targets in California beginning on New Year’s Eve,” Bondi wrote on X.

She warned, “The group also planned to target ICE agents and vehicles.”

After an intense investigation, the Department of Justice, working with our @FBI, prevented what would have been a massive and horrific terror plot in the Central District of California (Orange County and Los Angeles).

The Turtle Island Liberation Front—a far-left,…

— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) December 15, 2025

FBI Director Kash Patel said TILF was a “credible, imminent terrorist threat.” 

Over the weekend, the @FBI disrupted a credible, imminent terrorist threat and arrested FOUR individuals connected to the Los Angeles area.

The subjects self-identified as members of a radical offshoot of the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF), an extremist group motivated by… pic.twitter.com/81NfM1Mvwi

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) December 15, 2025

Four TILF members were arrested, including Audrey Ilene Carroll, Dante Garfield, Zachary Aaron Page, and Tina Lai, in San Bernardino County, California.

JUST IN: FBI foils New Year’s Eve bomb attack, four individuals have been arrested who are anti-capitalist members of the ‘Turtle Island Liberation Front.’

The group allegedly planned on setting off IEDs across Orange County and Los Angeles.

“Each of the defendants charged… pic.twitter.com/v4XR7xwum3

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 15, 2025

Federal agents believe they were preparing to test explosive devices ahead of the planned attacks. Another person linked to the far-left group was also arrested in New Orleans for allegedly planning a separate attack.

Civil terrorism expert Jason Curtis Anderson pointed out that TILF “didn’t radicalize in a vacuum. They drank from a well of online content created by the accounts they follow: Antifa, Codepink, Palestine Action, Decolonization…”

Anderson’s full note:

Members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front were arrested today for allegedly planning a terrorist attack in Los Angeles. They didn’t radicalize in a vacuum. They drank from a well of online content created by the accounts they follow:

• ANTIFA

• CODEPINK

• Palestine Action

• “Decolonization,” Indigenous, anti-police, and anti-ICE activist accounts

• Jewish Voice for Peace, which has repeatedly praised or endorsed terrorists

This is an entire social-media ecosystem that treats “Palestine” as something to worship and constantly calls for escalation.

These accounts spend all day shouting “escalate” at young Americans, and we hand-wave it away as completely normal free speech/online behavior.

This is how radicalization actually happens.

🚨Members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front were arrested today for allegedly planning a terrorist attack in Los Angeles.

They didn’t radicalize in a vacuum. They drank from a well of online content created by the accounts they follow:

• ANTIFA
• CODEPINK
• Palestine… https://t.co/CYYceYqseQ

— Jason Curtis Anderson (@JCAndersonNYC) December 15, 2025

In August, Anderson covered a story on a secret program bankrolled by one of the largest Democrat dark money machines in America, designed to quietly pay off dozens of high-profile influencers to steer young voters toward the radical left:

• Soros-Funded Dark Money Group Secretly Paying Democratic Influencers to Shape Gen Z Politics

The far-left radicalization targeting youth will only continue to be supercharged:

• Rockefeller Foundation Partners With MrBeast To Target Youth With “Next-Gen” Propaganda

Meet TILF comrade Mary. She seems like an unhinged, white, educated liberal woman living on a trust fund.

🚨 “Mary,” a member of the Los Angeles domestic terror organization Turtle Island Liberation Front, makes it clear that reclaiming American land from colonizers is the goal.

The group was planning a mass casualty event for NYE.

Enjoy prison, you filthy savage. pic.twitter.com/GMAJeK5e84

— NizNellie3 (@NizNellie3) December 15, 2025

Oversight Project highlighted the radical left ecosystem months ago…

The term “Turtle Island” is not isolated to the “Turtle Island Liberation Front.”

Other, well-known far-left groups – like Students for Justice in Palestine – also use this term.

Its an incitement to secession.

We highlighted this 6 months ago👇 https://t.co/8KcBxXtmax pic.twitter.com/lYsLQd4KXU

— Oversight Project (@ItsYourGov) December 15, 2025

And so did we:

• The Protest-Industrial-Complex Isn’t Peaceful, It’s “Civil Terrorism”…

• The Transgender Shooter, The Socialist Rifle Association, And The Alarming Rise Of Far-Left Militancy

• Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Radical Leftist Orgs “Setting America on Fire”

• Gen-Z Democrat Operative Visits Iran, Joins “Death To America” Chant

• New Report Reveals Soros’ Open Society Funneled $80 Million To Pro-Terror Groups

• Dems’ NGO Empire Cracks: First Gates Foundation Dumps Arabella Network, Then The Atlantic Forced To Admit Left-Wing Terror

• Dark-Money-Funded NGOs Enter Mainstream Debate

• Soros-Funded Dark Money Group Secretly Paying Democrat Influencers To Shape Gen Z Politics

Anderson’s cheat sheet to better understand “the orgs who are setting America on fire” that should be investigated first includes:

Follow the money.

📊We traced $294,487,641 to the official No Kings 2.0 partners & organizers…all funneled through the same “Riot Inc.” dark-money networks:
💰 Arabella network $79.7M+
💰 Soros network $72.1M+
💰 Ford network $51.7M+
💰Tides $45.5M+
💰 Rockefeller $28.6M+
💰 Buffett $16.6M+ pic.twitter.com/b6zFla79UP

— Seamus Bruner (@seamusbruner) October 16, 2025

Meanwhile…

• “Planning War Against Fascists” – Socialist Rifle Association Boasts 10,000 Members

Whether TILF or TILF-style militant far-left groups, the Democratic Party and their dark-money-funded NGOs are waging a constant pressure campaign; the picture should be clearer that this is all part of a broader color revolution against Trump, as well as an attempt to subvert the nation for collapse.

Anderson concludes:

There is much for us to learn from the thwarted terrorist attack in Los Angeles.

The individuals who planned this attack are not formally affiliated with traditional terrorist organizations, but they are aligned with them and inspired by them. That inspiration is often cultivated through the consumption of terror-aligned content.

America has an enormous ecosystem of radical networks, framed through the lens of thousands of different causes. Some groups present themselves as ‘anti-war,’ while others focus on Indigenous rights, Palestine, anti-policing, anti-borders, anti-ICE, immigrant justice, and more. Any of these movements can take on a revolutionary character, urging followers to escalate, resist, and engage in violence. Just because an organization brands itself around climate change or social justice does not mean anarchist elements are absent, or that the group is untouched by foreign influence.

In Los Angeles, this revolutionary ecosystem includes many legacy organizations centered on immigrant rights, open borders, and anti-ICE activism, which aligns with California’s demographics. These organizations often broaden their goals to build coalitions and onboard supporters. This is how Latino-centric groups end up in alliances with ANTIFA, Marxist organizations, and anti-Israel groups.

Young people are consuming anti-Western content all day, both in schools and on social media. Much of it is produced by activist nonprofits that operate relentlessly, attempting to turn the West against itself.

To reverse course, we must first clearly understand the problem and stop dismissing all of this as merely healthy political protest or admirable free speech. Social media platforms and activist nonprofits are engaged in coalition-building with hostile foreign governments and are actively laying the groundwork for revolution.”

And this…

• General Flynn Calls For National Address From Trump On Color Revolution Threat

• “At What Point Does This Become Treason?”

. . . 

Via American Greatness,

A federal appeals court has granted an emergency motion sought by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to halt contempt hearings scheduled to start this week over the deportation of suspected Venezuelan gang members.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg had scheduled contempt hearings for Dec. 15 and 16, over the Trump administration’s deportation of Venezuelan gang member under the Alien Enemies act in March of this year.

Boasberg had issued restraining orders on the deportation of two planeloads of suspected Tren de Aragua gang members, after the planes were already airborne.

When the Trump administration followed the written orders but not the judge’s oral instructions, which DOJ attorneys said were defective, and allowed the deportation flights to complete their mission to transport the detainees to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.

The Supreme Court had ruled that Boasberg lacked jurisdiction and vacated the orders but the judge still scheduled contempt hearings, which were temporarily blocked by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in a 2-1 ruling on Friday.

In its emergency motion, filed last week, the DOJ condemned Boasberg’s escalation of the matter and said, “This long-running saga never should have begun; should not have continued at all after this Court’s last intervention; and certainly should not be allowed to escalate into the unseemly and unnecessary interbranch conflict that it now imminently portends.”

The filing continued, “This Court should therefore again grant mandamus relief, this time foreclosing any further inquiry. The Court should also order the case to be reassigned given the strong appearance that the district judge is engaged in a pattern of retaliation and harassment, and has developed too strong a bias to preside over this matter impartially.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi called Boasberg’s actions “lawless judicial activism” and warned that the judge’s latest order threatened the separation of powers as well as attorney-client privilege.

Noon today: DOJ files petition to stop Boasberg’s retaliatory vanity hearings

6 PM today: D.C. circuit responds by stopping the hearings@AGPamBondi’s attorneys are not tired of winning pic.twitter.com/JBhp3uiziS

— Gates McGavick (@GatesMcgavick) December 12, 2025

In their emergency order, Judges Neomi Rao and Justin Walker emphasized that their stay is temporary and does not constitute a ruling on the merits of the case, saying, “The purpose of this administrative stay is to allow the court time to render a decision on the mandamus petition and the stay motion.”

DOJ lawyers also asked the court to bar testimony from two current and former senior Justice Department officials who had been ordered to appear for questioning this week.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem has been identified as the official who authorized the transfer of the Venezuelan detainees after being briefed about Boasberg’s order by DOJ lawyers and acting general counsel for DHS.

Despite the rapid expansion of AI-powered investing tools in 2025, most affluent American investors remain reluctant to hand over control of their retirement savings to chatbots. A new survey from InvestorsObserver shows that even as artificial intelligence becomes more embedded in portfolio analysis, market research, and trading platforms, trust in AI stops short when it comes to 401(k)s and long-term retirement decisions.

The survey questioned 1,050 experienced U.S. investors between the ages of 35 and 60, all of whom hold portfolios worth at least $500,000, including retirement accounts such as 401(k)s and IRAs. An overwhelming 88% said they would not allow an AI chatbot to manage their 401(k), underscoring a strong preference for human judgment when it comes to life savings.

While AI adoption in finance has accelerated in 2025—through robo-advisors, algorithmic rebalancing tools, and AI-driven portfolio simulations—actual reliance remains measured. Nearly two-thirds of respondents, or 64%, said they have never used AI chatbots for investment advice at all. Only 5% reported acting on AI-generated recommendations without independently researching the advice or consulting a professional.

That caution extends across multiple financial functions. Just 12% of investors said they would trust AI to handle retirement planning, and the same share would rely on it for tax optimization. At the other end of the spectrum, 19% indicated they would not allow AI to manage any financial task whatsoever, signaling persistent skepticism even among tech-aware, high-net-worth individuals.

At the same time, the findings do not suggest outright rejection of AI. A majority of respondents—59%—said they plan to use or continue using AI for financial guidance in the future. However, most see these tools as support systems rather than decision-makers, using them to speed up research, compare funds, analyze fees, or surface potential risks rather than to dictate portfolio moves.

“People are open to using AI chatbots to generate ideas, but when it comes to life savings in 401(k)s and IRAs, they want a human hand on the wheel,” said Sam Bourgi, senior analyst at InvestorsObserver. “Today, AI can inform retirement decisions, but it should not replace personal judgment or professional advice.”

This mindset reflects a broader shift toward hybrid investing models in 2025. Investors increasingly combine AI-driven insights with human oversight, relying on technology to process vast amounts of data while retaining control over contribution levels, asset allocation, rebalancing, and retirement timelines. The approach allows investors to benefit from efficiency and speed without surrendering accountability.

The survey suggests this caution may be well founded. As AI tools become more persuasive and widely available, they are not always more accurate, and unverified or context-poor outputs can lead to costly mistakes. For now, wealthy investors appear determined to keep AI in an assistive role—powerful, useful, but firmly supervised—when it comes to protecting their long-term financial future.

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The United States and Mexico reached an understanding in which Mexico will meet its obligations under the 1944 Water Treaty and provide water to American farmers and ranchers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a statement on Dec. 12.

“Under the 1944 Water Treaty, Mexico is obligated to deliver 1.75 million acre-feet over five years to the United States from the Rio Grande River. The United States in turn delivers 1.5 million acre-feet of water to Mexico from the Colorado River,” the USDA said.

However, “Mexico’s persistent shortfalls in deliveries have led to severe water shortages for Rio Grande Valley farmers and ranchers, devastating crops, costing jobs, and threatening the local economy,” it said.

The valley is located in the southernmost part of Texas.

Mexico will begin releasing 202,000 acre-feet of water to the United States, with deliveries scheduled to begin this week, according to the USDA.

Since Mexico had not supplied the agreed-upon water volumes during the previous five-year cycle, the country has agreed to repay the outstanding deficit.

The two nations have reviewed a series of actions to meet treaty obligations and are currently negotiating the matter, with the intention of finalizing a plan by Jan. 31, 2026, the USDA said.

“Farmers across South Texas have been reeling from the uncertainty caused by the lack of water. Now they can expect the resources promised to them, thanks to President Trump’s leadership. I thank Mexico for their willingness to abide by the treaty and return to good standing with their past obligations,” Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said.

“Mexico has delivered more water in the last year than in the previous four years combined. Although this is a step in the right direction, President Trump has been very clear: if Mexico continues to violate its commitments, the United States reserves the right and will impose 5 percent tariffs on Mexican products.”

A Nov. 20 study published by Springer Nature detailed the water security issue in the Rio Grande-Bravo basin, which the United States and Mexico share.

The basin is experiencing “a severe water crisis demanding urgent attention,” it said, adding that water storage reservoirs, annual streamflow volumes, and aquifers have been “substantially depleted” over recent decades.

The study estimated that only 48 percent of the water directly consumed as a result of human activities is replenished by renewable sources. The remaining 52 percent of consumption has been unsustainable, leading to the depletion of aquifers, reservoirs, and river flows.

“The over-consumption of renewable water supplies is primarily due to irrigated agriculture, which accounts for 87 percent of direct water consumption in the basin,” the study says.

“At the same time, water shortages have contributed to the loss of 18 percent of farmland in the river’s headwaters in Colorado, 36 percent along the Rio Grande in New Mexico, and 49 percent in the Pecos River tributary in New Mexico and Texas.”

Last week, Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Mexican imports by 5 percent if the country failed to swiftly deliver the water it owes. He said the treaty violation was “seriously hurting” Texas agriculture and livestock.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum highlighted the ongoing drought plaguing her country but vowed to help resolve the treaty issue.

In April, Trump threatened Mexico with possible sanctions and additional tariffs over the water treaty violation, and Mexico subsequently agreed to send more water to Texas.

In a Dec. 14 statement, Sid Miller, commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture, commended Trump for ensuring that Mexico honors the water treaty.

Producers in the Rio Grande Basin have been deprived of water they are legally owed for the past several years, he said. This has resulted in the loss of crops, industries, jobs, and livelihoods.

Mexico’s “willingness to come to the table speaks volumes about the improved relationship between Mexico and the United States, but sustained accountability will be necessary,” Miller said.

“Let me be clear: Texas farmers expect Mexico to fully meet its obligations—not just today, but for years to come. Water is the lifeblood of agriculture. President Trump understands that without water, there is no farming, no ranching, and no rural economy in the American Southwest,” he added.