For years, Democrats have wielded the tired accusation that Republicans lack a healthcare alternative to the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare. 

On Friday, House Republicans called that bluff, unveiling the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act, a legislative package aimed at dismantling the cost drivers embedded in the Affordable Care Act while expanding choice and transparency. The bill heads to the House floor next week, and predictably, Democrats are already scrambling to kill it.

“Nearly 15 years ago, the Democrats’ Unaffordable Care Act broke the American health care system. Since its inception, premium costs have skyrocketed, networks have shrunk, and the system has become bloated, inefficient, and riddled with waste, fraud, and abuse. While Democrats demand that taxpayers write bigger checks to insurance companies to hide the cost of their failed law, House Republicans are tackling the real drivers of health care costs to provide affordable care, increase access and choice, and restore integrity to our nation’s health care system for all Americans,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement. 

“Earlier this year, Democrats had a chance to help make life more affordable by supporting the Working Families Tax Cuts legislation,” Johnson continued. “Instead, they voted to raise taxes, protect waste and fraud, and continue providing free health care to illegal immigrants. Democrats’ ‘affordability’ charade has gone on long enough.”

Johnson said the new Republican proposal offers a responsible path forward on health care, cutting premium costs while expanding access to quality health care options for Americans nationwide. “The Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act will actually deliver affordable health care – and we look forward to advancing it through the House.”

A key aspect of the legislation is a push for transparency for pharmacy benefit managers. PBMs, the middlemen who negotiate drug prices and rebates, have long operated without any transparency at all at the expense of employers and patients. The proposed legislation would force PBMs to disclose detailed data on prescription drug spending, rebates, spread pricing, and formulary decisions. Employers and workers would finally see what they’re paying for – and what they’re not getting in return.

According to Johnson, the bill also appropriates funding for cost-sharing reduction payments beginning in 2027. These payments, meant to lower premiums and stabilize the individual market, would be directed toward low-income enrollees. The measure aims to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly rather than being dumped into a system that rewards insurers for inflated costs, as the current system does.

Beyond transparency, the legislation expands health coverage options for American workers through Association Health Plans. These plans allow employers, including the self-employed, to pool resources across industries to purchase high-quality, more affordable coverage. 

Republicans have long advocated for the idea that by banding together, small businesses and independent workers gain the negotiating power currently monopolized by large corporations and government-run exchanges.

The bill also clarifies that stop-loss insurance – coverage that protects employers from catastrophic claims—is not “health insurance coverage” under federal law. This distinction allows small and mid-sized businesses to tailor their employee benefits without triggering the burdensome regulations of Obamacare. 

Another provision codifies and strengthens the 2019 rules that allow employers to offer defined contributions for employees to purchase their own coverage. These arrangements, rebranded as CHOICE arrangements, let employees pay premiums on a pre-tax basis while selecting plans that fit their needs rather than accepting whatever their employer chooses. 

The concept is simple: give workers control over their healthcare dollars and let them shop for the coverage that works best for them.

Naturally, Democrats hate it.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wasted no time trashing the proposal, dismissing it as “likely to be a disaster” before he even knew what was in it. Speaking to MS NOW on Friday, Jeffries claimed the package would diminish rather than enhance American healthcare, though he offered no specifics to support his assertion. His vague prophecy of doom reflects the Democrats’ broader strategy: attack anything that threatens Obamacare’s legacy, regardless of the facts.

Jeffries suggests that a vote on the GOP health care bill + amendment vote on Fitzpatrick bill won’t be suitable for Democrats.

“Their health care package, as I understand it, is likely to be a disaster and actually not enhance the health care of the American people. It will… pic.twitter.com/Sr6JbZE9zT

— Mychael Schnell (@mychaelschnell) December 12, 2025

But that doesn’t change the fact that the Affordable Care Act has been a disaster. A recent Forbes analysis found that since it was passed in 2010, premiums have nearly tripled and deductibles have more than doubled. The cost of coverage for a family of four has surged by more than $10,000. Worse, the coverage itself has deteriorated. Americans are paying more for less, a reality that Democrats refuse to acknowledge.

The Forbes analysis also shows that Obamacare deductibles run far higher than those in employer-sponsored plans. The law was marketed to the public as a way to create affordable, accessible care. Instead, it became a case study in government overreach that enriched insurers and bureaucrats while sticking middle-class families with soaring costs. That was entirely by design.

Republicans are betting that Americans have had enough. The Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act offers a clear alternative: transparency over opacity, choice over mandates, and market competition over government control. Whether it passes remains to be seen, but the message is unmistakable. Democrats built Obamacare. Republicans are offering a way out. 
 

Via Financial Preparedness,

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” 

~ Benjamin Franklin

I think virtually everyone would agree that there are “bad guys” in this world. Of course, there are varying degrees of “bad,” but we should concern ourselves with the most dangerous—the ones who have both the desire and the ability to take one simple action that would probably end up destroying Western civilization.

Due to the unprecedented amount of fake news, gaslighting, lies, propaganda, mis- and disinformation and psychological warfare operations that are employed today, this can be quite challenging for the average person to ascertain. But due to the existential stakes involved, having this ability is crucial for survival.

Recently, Elon Musk devised a litmus test that one can use to determine who the bad guys are:

“As a general rule, you can tell which side is the good side and which side is the bad side by which side wishes to restrict freedom of speech. The side that is restricting freedom of speech . . . you know, that would have been the Hitler, Stalin, Mussolinis of the world, they had very strong censorship, very strong restrictions on speech. That’s one of the signs that they are the bad guys.”

Recently the European Commission (the elite, unelected body of the EU that actually runs it) levied a €140 million fine on X and Elon Musk personally for allegedly breaking its “laws” requiring social media transparency. As Michael Shellenberger pointed out, “the goal of the European Commission, like that of the governments of Britain, Brazil, and Australia, is to censor the American people.” As I wrote about in March, the EU is maniacally determined to wage a campaign of cultural suicide. But for them it’s not enough for just Europe to be overrun by barbarians. No, they want all of Western civilization to fall.

As an aside, Shellenberger noted that “The EU is now in direct violation of the NATO Treaty, under which the US is militarily obligated to defend Europe. The NATO Treaty requires member states to have free speech and free and fair elections. France and Germany are actively and illegally preventing political candidates from running for office for ideological reasons, namely their opposition to mass migration. And the Romanian high court, with the support of the European Commission, nullified election results under the thin and unproven pretext of Russian interference, after a nationalist and populist presidential candidate won.”

J.D. Vance recently said, “Germany’s entire defense is subsidized by the American taxpayer. There are thousands upon thousands of American troops in Germany today. Do you think that the American taxpayer is going to stand for that if you get thrown in jail in Germany for posting a mean tweet? Of course they’re not….[the friendship between the U.S. and Europe] is based on shared values. You do not have shared values if you’re jailing people for saying we should close down our border. You don’t have shared values if you cancel elections because you don’t like the result—and that happened in Romania. You do not have shared values if you’re so afraid of your own people that you silence them and shut them up.”

Well, the European Commission (and NATO) is about to FAFO, as they say. My German friend points out that Europe has more people than Russia (implying that Russia couldn’t conquer Europe), but as I replied, that’s not what we in the US Army called the “order of battle.” It doesn’t matter how many people you have if they don’t value liberty enough to be willing to risk their lives to defend it.

I’ll soon finish reading a great book called While Europe Slept, in which the author writes, “…Americans, for all their idiocies and vulgarities, really do believe in fighting for liberty, even the liberty of strangers in faraway places with names they can’t spell and languages they can’t speak a word of and cultures they find ridiculous. In their view, to defend other people’s freedom is to defend their own….maybe that’s what being an American does come down to—a sentimentalism, about liberty among other things, that many Western Europeans just can’t fathom….Sitting there with [his Dutch friends], I realized that they were genuinely unable to comprehend a land whose people take liberty seriously enough to die for it.”

I recently heard about how “vandals” (a euphemism for immigrants) attacked the Christmas market and living nativity scene in Erbach, Germany, beating and torturing two donkeys and defecating in the church. This was relatively mild; at least no one was injured or killed, as is often the case.

Erbach is very close to where I lived at my first duty station in the early 1990s, and I’m sure I drove through it while exploring the area. At the time, Germany was a clean, orderly and picturesque place; even the forests seemed like they were diligently maintained. Living there was a wonderful experience, and I have many good memories of it. Unfortunately—and I say this as someone who spent 3.5 of the best years of my life enduring many hardships and risking my life to defend it—Germany (along with France, the UK, Ireland, Sweden and probably most of the rest of western Europe) is finished. It’s kaput, it’s over, finito Benito, dead Fred.

Ideally, we would be able to rescue hundreds of millions of innocent Europeans from a tyrannical fate. However, given the current dire situation, I think Europe has passed the event horizon of a very dark black hole. When you have some quiet time, watch this sobering interview with a professor of military history living in the UK. He says there is no political solution to the problem, and cannot foresee an outcome that does not result in massive deaths (he estimates it will be between 23,000 and 500,000 in the UK alone). He predicts violence will begin suddenly and spread quickly to neighboring countries.

It’s now time to dispel illusions and come to grips with reality. The U.S. should cut its losses and allow most of Europe to collapse into a supernova of disarmament, severe censorship, never-ending war, mass taxpayer-funded immigration, medieval religious fanaticism, rampant crime and terrorism, cuckoldry and organized rape of underage girls on an industrial scale, humiliation and intimidation, environmental alarmism, welfare socialism, stifling bureaucracy, corruption, deindustrialization and de-agriculturalization, central bank digital currency, loss of privacy, massive government spending/deficits/debt, currency/financial/ economic/sovereign debt crises and cultural and societal extinction.

Congressman Thomas Massie just introduced a bill to withdraw the U.S. from NATO. To help soften the blow, perhaps the U.S. could offer a generous asylum policy (with no welfare benefits) for Europeans who wanted to escape this raging dumpster fire and live in a normal, civilized country, as it did with the Boer farmers in South Africa, who were being systematically slaughtered. Perhaps the number of refugees allowed each month would decline over time to help ensure that only the most ideologically compatible people were admitted instead of hordes of disillusioned Leftists who eventually realized that statism doesn’t work. This would also shore up America’s own flagging demographics, allowing it to stave off the barbarians for a while longer.

Although Trump won a decisive Electoral College victory in 2024 and Republicans control Congress (though by a thin margin), Democrats are emboldened by recent election victories, and The Great Reset is rapidly being implemented in most of the rest of the world. Few people realize that Western civilization actually hangs in the balance by the thinnest of threads, one that currently runs straight through X and Elon Musk. If the European Commission succeeds in censoring X and other American websites, Western civilization is over.

Without free speech and the right to share ideas and find out what’s really going on, it becomes impossible to stop tyranny. In modern warfare, opponents first seek to decapitate each other by eliminating the leadership (assassination in the political world) and their ability to see and communicate (censorship). Once you’ve done that, it’s much easier to disarm (gun control) and destroy (or subjugate) an enemy. The European Commission doesn’t want to restrict speech because they care about democracy or the truth, they want to censor people because they intend to enslave them.

The current battle between the European Commission and X reminds me of the Battle of Britain after the start of World War II: One small country (or website) standing alone against an onslaught by a regional empire that appeared unstoppable. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence that Germany is/was one of the primary aggressors in each case.

Like the Battle of Britain, the fate of Western civilization depends on the outcome of this battle; mark my words.

During an interview with MSNOW Senior Political and National Reporter Jacob Soboroff, New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani faced pointed questions about whether his rhetoric on accountability extends to federal immigration enforcement, and Mamdani suggested his police force might arrest federal officers enforcing federal immigration laws.

Soboroff didn’t dance around the issue, asking directly whether there’s a scenario where the NYPD under Mamdani’s leadership could arrest ICE agents on city streets for their treatment of illegal immigrants. 

“I’ve also heard you say that no one is above the law and anyone can be held accountable, and that goes for the president of the United States, and it also goes for ICE agents,” Soboroff began.

“I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but is there a scenario in which the NYPD, under you, could arrest ICE agents on the streets of New York for their behavior towards immigrants?”

Mamdani initially tried to avoid answering the question.

“My focus is for the NYPD to not be assisting ICE in their immigration enforcement and to actually be following the policies of sanctuary city law,” he said. 

But he didn’t stop there. 

“I do believe, however, that, for the law to have meaning, there has to be accountability for all of us,” Mamdani continued, framing the issue as one of equal justice rather than what it actually is—a direct challenge to federal authority. 

He insisted this accountability must apply “no matter who we’re referring to,” suggesting ICE agents enjoy no special status in his vision of law enforcement.

Soboroff, however, seemed to want a more concrete answer and pressed about whether ICE agents could actually be arrested by NYPD officers.

“So, in other words, there is a circumstance in which if an ICE agent violates someone’s rights here in New York City, they could be arrested by the police department?” he asked.

Mamdani did not deny it.

“I think if an ICE agent is breaking the law, then that is a law that they should be held accountable to,” he declared. 

Zohran Mamdani says he will not allow NYPD to assist ICE in NYC.

When asked about ICE entering the subways, Mamdani says it’s his job to “make sure that doesn’t take place.”

He says, “what New Yorkers need from a federal administration is the kind of partnership that will… pic.twitter.com/Ej36h2iig9

— Wall Street Mav (@WallStreetMav) December 10, 2025

Though he didn’t explicitly say so, the implication was clear: federal immigration officers could be arrested by New York City police officers if Mamdani decides they’ve crossed whatever line he chooses to draw. Mamdani is clearly signaling that preventing the New York Police Department from assisting ICE agents isn’t enough. Mamdani is talking about active interference by using the NYPD as a barrier to block federal immigration enforcement and even arrest ICE agents carrying out lawful deportation orders. 

Mamdani’s plan puts him in direct conflict with the Constitution. The Supremacy Clause establishes that federal law takes precedence over conflicting state or local laws, and immigration enforcement is clearly a federal responsibility. If the NYPD starts blocking ICE or arresting federal agents carrying out lawful deportations, it isn’t “standing up for immigrants”—it’s defying the law. Local policy can’t override federal authority, and any attempt would spark a legal battle the city would almost certainly lose. Beyond the constitutional issues, the practical consequences would be chaotic. Mamdani is essentially declaring himself the final judge of whether federal officers can operate in New York City, ignoring that ICE agents answer to Washington, not City Hall.

This is not the first time Mamdani has anointed himself the final arbiter over the law in New York City. He previously warned he intends to enforce the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he ever sets foot in the city. He staked out that position even before taking office, and he hasn’t backed away from it.

“I’ve said time and again that I believe this is a city of international law, and being a city of international law means looking to uphold international law,” he said. “And that means upholding the warrants from the International Criminal Court, whether they’re for Benjamin Netanyahu or Vladimir Putin,” he said last month, even though he doesn’t have the legal authority to do so. 

“New York City mayor does not have the power to do that,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul admitted earlier this month.

Netanyahu has also laughed off Mamdani’s threats. Appearing via video at the New York Times DealBook, Netanyahu said that the threat wouldn’t keep him away from New York City. “Why don’t you wait and see?” he said. “Yes, I’ll come to New York.”

Mamdani’s approach is a direct challenge to the country’s constitutional order. By positioning the NYPD to block or even arrest federal agents, potentially, he risks a showdown with the federal government that the city is almost certain to lose. New Yorkers should be wary of a mayor who treats his own judgment as superior to the law, because when local officials ignore federal authority, the result is chaos, not justice.

Authored by James Hickman via Schiff Sovereign,

When Robert Oppenheimer watched the first atomic bomb detonate in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945, the blast confirmed that America had won the race to build a nuclear weapon.

The destructive power of these weapons was extraordinary; the explosion from Oppenheimer’s “Trinity” test unleashed an astonishing 83.7 Terajoules (TJ) of energy from just SIX kilograms of Plutonium-239.

By comparison, a typical power plant in 1945 would have required 9.5 MILLION kilograms of coal to produce a similar amount of energy.

This makes splitting the atom one of the most important discoveries in all of human history; the sheer volume of energy that can be released from a nuclear reaction is literally over 1 million times greater than from chemical/thermal reactions (like coal, natural gas, or TNT).

Initially this discovery was weaponized. And just three weeks after Oppenheimer’s successful test, US President Harry Truman dropped two atomic bombs on Japan to finally end World War II.

But many of the same scientists who built the weapon also realized that this same power could also be used to generate electricity so cheaply and abundantly that it would be practically free.

Yet in one of the most bizarre twists of fate, after literally EIGHT decades since Oppenheimer’s test, humanity has done almost nothing with this revolutionary technology.

That’s because the first institution to harness the power of nuclear energy as a fuel source (and not a weapon) was actually the United States Navy.

Admiral Hyman Rickover understood that nuclear energy could power America’s submarine fleet, giving the US Navy a major strategic advantage. With nuclear power, US subs could stay underwater and sustain themselves for longer missions and greater distances.

But that required certain critical decisions that would impact the nuclear power industry for decades.

Most importantly, in designing its nuclear submarines, the Navy had to first decide on what material to use as a coolant.

Many scientists at the time championed using molten salt for its safety and stability. But Admiral Rickover overruled them and decided to use pressurized water instead; after all, he reasoned, submarines were literally surrounded by water, so it would be the most efficient coolant.

That proved to be an incredibly fateful decision.

The civilian nuclear power industry essentially copied the Navy’s design choices— especially the decision to go with pressurized water as a coolant. And then came the accidents.

Pretty much every nuclear accident you’ve ever heard of— Three Mile Island in 1979, Chernobyl in 1986, and much later Fukushima in 2011— were essentially BECAUSE of the pressurized water cooling systems.

In other words, had the commercial nuclear power industry been designed around molten salt (which has a MUCH higher boiling temperature than pressurized water), those infamous accidents would have never happened.

And yet, they did. The consequent negative media coverage and political fallout slammed the door shut on nuclear power for a generation—effectively sending a technology with staggering potential into the waste bin.

Despite all the panic, policy paralysis, and lost decades, however, nuclear is finally making a comeback. And it remains, by far, the cheapest form of electricity in existence.

And that matters. Energy is a key driver of inflation, and when energy prices rise, so does the price of nearly every good and service in the economy.

Abundant, cheap energy is one of the few forces that can reliably keep inflation in check.

Nuclear, of course, is not the only option. There’s still “conventional” sources like oil, gas, coal, etc.

Yet starting in 2021, the Biden administration went out of its way to mothball nuclear development and kneecap those other conventional industries, driving prices higher across the board.

Instead they mandated and subsidized extremely inefficient “green energy” (which is not all that green when you factor in the environmental costs of mining cobalt, lithium, etc. for battery backups).

That’s not just idiotic from an economic standpoint, it has actually caused serious harm to national security.

America’s main adversaries have spent the past decade building the largest power grid in human history— including coal, hydro, and of course, nuclear.

Between 2010 and 2024, China’s electricity production grew more than the rest of the world combined, and last year they generated more than twice as much power as the United States.

Chinese AI data centers can already purchase electricity for as little as 3 cents per kilowatt-hour, less than half what American operators pay. Plus it has another 34 nuclear reactors currently under construction which will drive the cost of electricity even lower.

Whether America’s competition with China stays economic or, in the worst case, turns into an outright war, the side paying double or triple for electricity is at a strategic disadvantage.

Any serious nation should prioritize cheap and plentiful energy to supercharges economic productivity.

Cheap energy fuels stronger growth, lowers prices, and it makes life better for everyone. What’s not to like about that?

That’s why one of the most important—and least appreciated—developments of this year in the United States is the renewed federal push for nuclear energy.

In May, the Trump administration issued four executive orders aimed squarely at jump-starting the industry: reforming the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), speeding up licensing, and creating an expedited pathway for advanced reactors already tested by the Department of Energy (DOE) or the Pentagon.

More importantly, this year the Department of Energy selected two recipients for major SMR (Small Modular Reactors) development awards.

Unlike traditional gigawatt-scale giant reactors that can take a 10+ years and billions of dollars to build, SMRs are designed to be modular, scalable, and dramatically easier/faster to deploy.

The newly reformed NRC also, finally, signed off on one company’s SMR design— a 77-megawatt reactor that can be manufactured in a factory and shipped to a site ready to install.

This design certification is a huge leap forward; once the NRC approves a reactor blueprint, developers can use it without undergoing years of safety reviews.

This removes one of the biggest regulatory chokepoints in the entire nuclear industry and speeds along new reactor construction.

All of these moves mark the first real momentum nuclear power has seen in decades.

Between newly certified small modular reactor designs, federally backed advanced-reactor projects, and the restart of shuttered plants, there are now multiple US nuclear projects that have been approved, funded, or moving through a faster licensing track.

Nuclear is back. And this revival is one of the most encouraging developments of 2025.

Over the next decade, we could see small modular reactors move from prototypes to widespread deployment. And we’ll be able to draw a straight line from the cheap, abundant energy of the future, to the decisions that were made this year.

This is important, because America is going to need every watt.

Some of these next-generation data centers will require a Megawatt of power PER RACK. That’s essentially a dedicated nuclear reactor for a single facility.

The grid we have today can’t support the future that’s arriving. Nuclear can.

And that is especially important because these two developments—nuclear power and AI—are realistically the only way to unleash enough productivity to grow the economy out of the deficit and debt problems the government has weighed it down with.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Friday named Tim O’Malley the state’s director of program integrity, tapping the judge and former superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to root out fraud in government.

O’Malley, who also worked as an FBI agent and spearheaded reforms in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, will be involved across agencies to oversee that taxpayer funds are not misappropriated.

Walz also announced a partnership with WayPoint Inc., a Minnesota firm made up of former law enforcement and federal agents focused on forensic accounting and investigations.  They will develop a comprehensive fraud-prevention strategy for the state.

Walz said he was proud O’Malley would be working to protect Minnesota taxpayers from fraud in government programs.

“Today we are building on the work of the last several years and strengthening Minnesota’s defenses against fraud,” Walz said.

“If you commit fraud in Minnesota, you will be caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

As Kimberley Hayek reports for The Epoch Times, O’Malley said he has not been appointed to serve the governor or any individual or political party.

“I’m here to serve the people of Minnesota,” O’Malley said.

“No one has any tolerance for fraud. This issue must be addressed aggressively. Minnesotans must have trust in our public institutions.”

WayPoint will spearhead the creation of uniform investigative protocols, a cross-agency fraud prevention strategy, legal data-sharing mechanisms to detect multi-program abusers, and methods for auditing and probing misconduct.

“Fraud is not just a financial loss. It disrupts lives, harms families and undermines confidence in the programs Minnesotans rely on,” Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said.

“Our Financial Crimes and Fraud Section is focused on working with local, state and federal partners on criminal investigations that hold offenders accountable and we’re working with the Office of Inspector General Coordinating Counsel to develop stronger barriers and stop fraud before it occurs.”

Shireen Gandhi, Minnesota Department of Human Services Temporary Commissioner, said the Minnesota Department of Human Services has no room for fraud.

“We are intently focused on solutions – strengthening program integrity, tightening oversight of services, and hardening our programs against attacks by criminals,” Gandhi said.

“Our job is to protect Minnesotans who need services. Their lives shouldn’t be a political football and we need to maximize every dollar that goes toward programs to help them.”

O’Malley, who is currently serving as interim chief judge at the Court of Administrative Hearings, led child protection and clergy accountability efforts in the archdiocese beginning in 2014. He will start serving in his new capacity next month.

The appointment comes amid federal scrutiny of organized welfare fraud in the state, with authorities investigating schemes involving networks from Minnesota’s Somali-American community that allegedly stole vast sums of money.

The Treasury Department is investigating allegations that stolen funds were sent to Somali terrorist groups. At the same time, the House Oversight Committee is examining whistleblower allegations of ignored fraud activity and an alleged cover-up.

Meanwhile, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been ramping up activities in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Twin Cities region.

Via The Cradle

US special forces raided a cargo ship travelling from China to Iran in November that was allegedly transporting “dual-use military technology,” according to a report published by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Friday.

Citing unnamed US officials, the WSJ revealed that a special operations team boarded the ship several hundred miles from Sri Lanka and seized the cargo, which was described as “dual-use components that could be used either for civilian applications or to make conventional weapons.”

The ship’s name, its owner, and the flag under which it was sailing have not been disclosed. Neither Iran nor China immediately responded to the report. A spokesperson for the US Indo-Pacific Command, responsible for regional military activities, declined to comment. 

Nevertheless, an official told the WSJ that Washington seized material “potentially useful for Iran’s conventional weapons,” but highlighted that the cargo could have “both military and civilian applications.”

The WSJ reported that the high-sea raid was part of a Pentagon effort to “disrupt Iran’s clandestine military procurement” following the 12-Day War in June, during which the US and Israel teamed up to bomb Iranian nuclear sites and kill dozens of military commanders, nuclear scientists, and their families.

The reported seizure took place weeks before US troops seized a Venezuelan oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea and stole its cargo in a move Caracas condemned as “theft and piracy.” It also came as the UN reimposed an international ban on Iran’s arms trade in late September.

Overnight on Saturday, Iranian authorities reported seizing a foreign-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman and detaining its crew for allegedly smuggling six million liters of fuel. The vessel was intercepted in waters off the southern province of Hormozgan.

Mojtaba Ghahremani, the chief justice of Hormozgan province, said the seizure was part of ongoing intelligence efforts to monitor suspected fuel-smuggling activities in the Sea of Oman.

There’s a clause in the UN sanctions that returned via snapback that covers interdiction of vessels carrying weaponry or dual-use goods for Iran’s missile or nuclear programs.

If China and Iran continue this trade, more seizures are likely to follow. https://t.co/7vJRsu7W8s

— Gregory Brew (@gbrew24) December 13, 2025

On Wednesday, Iran seized an Eswatini-flagged vessel carrying 0.35 million liters of smuggled diesel. In mid-November, IRGC also seized a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker outside Iran’s waters in the Persian Gulf for carrying unauthorized cargo.

An FBI whistleblower has come forward with perspectives that raise concerns that the bureau has charged an innocent person with planting bombs at Democratic and Republican headquarters on Jan 5, 2021, according to Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie. 

“The FBI employee disclosing this information to me doesn’t believe the FBI has arrested a person who is capable or motivated, or even interested enough in affairs outside of his own small world, to execute the J6 pipe bomb plot on his own,” wrote Massie in a Friday afternoon thread on X, noting that this was Massie’s “personal conclusion” about the whistleblower. 

Nearly five years after two pipe bombs were found at RNC and DNC headquarters on Jan 6, 2001, the FBI earlier this month arrested Brian J. Cole Jr. of Woodbridge, Virginia. He was charged with transporting an explosive device across state lines with the intent to either kill, injure, or intimidate, or to unlawfully damage property. He was also charged with attempted malicious destruction by means of explosive materials. The arrest came after mounting doubts that the FBI and other authorities were earnestly investigating the crime. Many theorized that, even worse than slow-rolling the probe, the feds were actively covering something up.  

🧵 Based on the observations of several neighbors, the suspect does not appear to have the mental acumen to plan, prepare, and execute a complex bombing plot by himself.

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 12, 2025

Shielding the FBI insider’s identity and employment status, Massie said this was the third set of disclosures about the case he’d received from current and former government employees in the last three weeks. Massie, who’s been simultaneously leading the charge for transparency on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, used the X thread to paraphrase what the FBI insider told him. Key excerpts: 

The community where the suspect was arrested is populated with several employees of the FBI, Secret Service, and police. Many of them have observed the suspect on walks over the years.

He wanders around his neighborhood several times a day while walking a dog. Other than walking his dog, he doesn’t engage in any other activities outside his home. He does not interact with anyone. He doesn’t wave or acknowledge others or even say hello. He does not even look at other people when he walks by. He appears to live in his own world. 

He’s never been observed walking around in an angry or agitated state. His demeanor is detached and vacant. He’s always worn headphones when walking around the neighborhood. It’s possible that he’s using headphones to drown out any surrounding noises. He doesn’t appear to be interested in anything or ever get interested in things that are happening around him. His behavior is awkward.

It’s obvious he has a mental disability, and likely lives in a permanently vulnerable, intellectual, and emotional state. It’s well known that individuals with mental conditions are susceptible to providing inaccurate and unwarranted “confessions.”  Based on the observations of several neighbors, the suspect does not appear to have the mental acumen to plan, prepare, and execute a complex bombing plot by himself.

In what could prove to be a telling observation, the FBI employee told Massie that neighbors were not evacuated when the purported bomber’s home was searched. Indeed, neighbors were ordered to stay inside their houses. “If the suspect had in fact been engaged in making bombs and stockpiling bomb materials, the proper safety precautions were not taken,” said Massie, summarizing the FBI insider.

This anomaly parallels oddly nonchalant behavior when the bombs were discovered on Jan. 6. Massie has previously said police waited to finish their sandwiches before taking action, after a plain-clothes officer alerted them to the nearby device. They even allowed pedestrians to continue strolling by: 

“The guys in the cop cars finished their sandwiches, because it was about lunch time, before they got out to look at this pipe bomb,” @RepThomasMassie describes the lack of urgency to investigate one of the pipe bombs on Jan. 6 after Capitol Hill police found it. Watch the full… https://t.co/p94TY3lXXw pic.twitter.com/BVe6XEd11r

— Free the People (@freethepeople) November 27, 2025

After the arrest, major media rushed to push a bogus narrative that Cole was a Trump supporter, but Cole’s grandmother, Loretta, told the Daily Mail that Cole “has no party affiliation, never votes,” and “don’t like either party.” She described her grandson as socially withdrawn, “borderline autistic,” with “the mind of a 16-year-old,” living in his mother’s basement and grieving the death of his pet chihuahua. She also emphasized that Cole has no social media presence and never engages in political discussions online. 

The perspectives of the latest FBI whistleblower raise new questions about the case, and reinforce why advocates of transparency are grateful that Massie is doggedly pursuing the facts about this and other important federal cases. Maybe it’s no coincidence that President Trump is teaming up with three billionaires to oust Massie from office next year via a Republican primary challenge.     

I’m sure this goes without saying but with MTG out of office we need a fundraising avalanche to keep Thomas Massie in place. They are gonna dump 50 Mill to try and get rid of him. They must fail. Mandatory.

— Clint Russell (@LibertyLockPod) November 22, 2025

Washington’s Syria intervention is the mess that keeps on giving. And now more tragedy has struck after years of a Pentagon quagmire and endless occupation in the northeast of the country.

Two US Army soldiers and an American civilian who was serving as an interpreter were killed after shots were fired at US and allied Syrian forces during a security meeting near the ancient central Syrian town of Palmyra.

An additional three other American servicemembers were wounded in the attack, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a post on X.

The attack occurred as troops were conducting “key leader engagement.” This marks the single biggest casualty event among US forces inside Syria in years – given at least six total US personnel were apparently shot.

A CENTCOM statement said it was the result of an an “ambush by a lone ISIS gunman in Syria,” and that the “gunman was engaged and killed.”

“Their mission was in support of on-going counter-ISIS/counter-terrorism operations in the region,” Parnell had described further. He said that identifying information about their units will be withheld until 24 hours after the next of kin notification. “This attack is currently under active investigation.”

Syrian state SANA indicate that two members of a Syrian security detail were also wounded – but these seem to have been fighters from the largely Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The shooting took place on the outskirts of Palmyra.

The city of ruins, which also includes a modern town which grew up around tourism, is a UNESCO world heritage site an has long been frequented by visitors. 

Reports of US and Syrian forces imposing blockade on parts of Palmyra, long feared a hotbed of ‘ISIS cells’:

In Palmyra – eastern Syria, US forces of the coalition against ISIS alongside their allies the Tanf-FSA were ambushed.

Sources on the ground claim that soldiers of the convoy were wounded.

Right now, the US forces enforced a blockade of the main roads via the STG – US air… pic.twitter.com/LEI9ceXALF

— ScharoMaroof (@ScharoMaroof) December 13, 2025

In 2015 the Syrian Army was pushed out by advancing ISIS terrorists, and troops serving under President Assad were executed. Assad forces and the Russian military eventually liberated it:

ISIS began by executing Khaled Al-Ass’ad, the former Director of Antiquities at Palmyra, a devoted and outstanding archeologist who loved Palmyra like no one else. Following this horrific execution, ISIS began to destroy many of the most famous ruins—the Bel and Baalshamin temples, the tower tombs, the monumental arch and standing columns in addition to plundering the Palmyra Museum and destroying a large number of sculptures and artifacts left there.

In March 2016, the Assad forces (backed by the Russian military) recaptured Palmyra and immediately started building a Russian military base within the World Heritage Site. ISIS recaptured Palmyra in early December 2016 and destroyed the tetrapylon and damaged the theater. The Assad regime forces managed to take Palmyra back in March 2017.

Washington at the time didn’t seem to mind that ISIS was taking over key Syrian sites and cities at the time, given admissions from top US officials that they could ‘manage’ ISIS by using terrorism to keep pressure on Assad (see below) in order to overthrow him.

The savage who perpetrated this attack was killed by partner forces.

Let it be known, if you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you. https://t.co/P7D9NrWpAL

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) December 13, 2025

* * *

An important trip down memory lane and recent history…

Remember this?

Leaked audio of then Secretary of State John Kerry admitting that the US backed ISIS in Syria:

‘Daesh was threatening to take Damascus. That’s why Russia came in. We saw it coming too, but thought we could use it to force Assad to negotiate…’ https://t.co/9DdJxWK7NE pic.twitter.com/IOEzJMm5Od

— Afshin Rattansi (@afshinrattansi) November 24, 2025

Authored by Vince Coyner via American Thinker,

It’s not often that life gives nations real second chances when it comes to the big things, but in America’s case, it did.  My only hope is that we don’t squander it...or to be more precise, I hope Donald Trump doesn’t squander it.

The 2026 midterms are less than a year away.  That makes what Trump does in the next six to eight months monumentally important.  The bottom line is, does he want to be consequential or just well known?

Julius Caesar is easily one of the best known men in history, but was he really that consequential?  The truth is, no.  We know more about Caesar than any other Roman not because he changed the world, but because he was a genius of propaganda and wrote prodigiously — and well — about his exploits.  The reality is, Caesar was just another Roman general, albeit a great one, caught up in a century of internecine wars among men seeking to control the Republic.

Augustus, his adopted son, who is far less well known in history, was far more consequential, having transformed the Republic into an empire that would arguably last another 1,500 years.

Is Donald Trump going to be Caesar or Augustus?  Is he going to be a president who rearranges the deck chairs on the Titanic and simply slows down her eventual collision with the iceberg?  Or is he going to steer her through the treacherous waters and bring her out safely on the other side?

When Trump won re-election last November, I was certain that after enduring eight years of what is easily the most vitriolic abuse any American politician had ever endured, he was going to return to Washington, and metaphorical heads were going to roll.  Indeed, he ran on the idea of destroying the Deep State.

Now, a year after the election, I’m not so sure.  Though I applaud most of his moves on immigration, particularly his recent move to cease all immigration from third-world countries, there are two elements that cause concern.

One is his support for the H1B visa program.  If there are jobs that can’t be filled by Americans, then bringing in foreign workers who have the necessary skills makes sense for keeping American industry productive.  But that’s not what’s happening.  Hundreds of thousands of foreign workers, primarily Indians, are being brought in to supplant American workers whom companies would generally have to pay more to keep or hire.  There is no shortage of American STEM workers; there are merely trillion-dollar tech, consulting, and other companies who simply want to bolster the bottom line by paying foreign workers lower wages.  Sadly, Trump defends the program virtually every chance he gets.  Add to that his allowing half a million students (or spies) from Communist China to remain at American universities, and one begins to wonder whose payrolls Trump’s advisers are on. 

Another area where Trump has not met expectations is taking on the leftist cabal that brought the nation to the brink of disaster over the last decade.  From Barack Obama to Hillary Clinton and the army of anti-American traitors who worked against Trump, his allies, and the American people, Trump should establish a task force with the specific purpose of investigating every single member of the government or NGO and every financier who had anything to do with Russiagate as well as the coup-cover-up of 2020 and the resulting J6 persecutions.

Americans know what happened.  We watched it in real time.  Molly Ball crowed about it in TIME magazine, we read about it in Mollie Hemingway’s Rigged, and later we followed as Emerald Robinson pulled string after string…but what we don’t have, and need, is the entire case of the treachery laid out in black and white, and then to see the guilty tried and punished.

As we all learned in the OJ trial, juries can’t always be trusted, but at a minimum, the information should be laid out for the American people to see so that they can vote accordingly.  The recent arrest of the D.C. pipe bomb suspect and Kash Patel’s announcement that it was based on information the FBI sat on for four years tells us that the information is there; it just takes an administration with sufficient courage to expose it. 

Hand in hand with allowing that treachery to go unpunished is the fact that Trump has not put his shoulder into ensuring the passage of the SAVE Act.  Indeed, New England, which is about 40% Republican, has 21 House seats, and 100% of them are Democrat.  That’s not good.  Democrats win by cheating.  Period.

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act would require voter ID and proof of U.S. citizenship and outlaw most mail-in voting.  Strong-arming Congress, which the GOP theoretically controls, into passing SAVE would do more for saving the Republic than almost any other thing Trump could do.  If Trump wants to maintain GOP control over Congress and have any chance of fixing the country, he needs to fix the voting system now, because we know that the second the SAVE act is passed, there’s an army of treacherous federal judges who will seek to derail it.

This brings us to the last critical issue: the Judiciary.  Since 2015, federal judges across the country have acted as the rear guard for the Obama plan of “Fundamentally transforming the United States of America” into a leftist nirvana.  From nationwide injunctions to throwing out cases to seeking to exercise executive power, the federal judiciary has become untethered to the Constitution.  The traditional way such overreach is addressed is that cases make their way through the appellate process, and SCOTUS may or may not eventually rectify the problem.  But that system breaks down as a viable solution when fast approaching elections that decide the direction of the government are concerned.  Congress must act to address this judicial overreach. 

As such, Trump should work with Congress to utilize their Article III powers to fix this.  I’d suggest two possible avenues: 

1. Congress abolishes the entire Judiciary below SCOTUS and remakes it as a far more limited and constitutional Judiciary.

2. Congress sets up a separate parallel federal court channel that would deal exclusively with election- and executive power–related issues so they can be argued in a timely fashion and be resolved long before they become moot.

Decades from now, Donald Trump is going to be remembered.   The question is, will he be remembered as a celebrity president — who attracted a great deal of attention and simply slowed the collapse as the nation calcified into a failed dystopia driven by big government and big spending — or is he going to be remembered as an heroic, mythic figure who fought back the leftist tide and put America back on firm, limited-government, constitutional footing, giving her a real opportunity to survive another 250 years?

I guess we’ll see.

Authored by Erik Milito via RealClearEnergy,

After years of market swings, regulatory uncertainty, and deep staffing cuts, America’s energy workforce is overdue for a stabilizing signal. December 10th provides exactly that: the first federal Gulf of America lease sale in nearly two years, offering long-awaited certainty for the companies and workers that power America’s offshore energy engine.

In 2024, Gulf of America oil and gas activity supported approximately 428,000 jobs across all 50 states, contributed $35.9 billion in spending, and generated $7 billion in federal revenues. Few industries deliver that scale of widespread economic impact.

Mandated by President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, this sale is the first of 30 over the next 15 years, with additional sales offshore Alaska. After an unprecedented 24-month leasing gap, the door to America’s offshore future, anchored by Texan expertise, is reopening.

Regular leasing is not a bureaucratic detail; it’s the foundation of long-term offshore development. Offshore oil and gas projects are multi-billion-dollar endeavors with 20–30-year timelines, and many high-skill engineering, fabrication, marine, and logistics jobs supporting are found across the Gulf coast. More than 200 job types, from subsea engineers to welders to data scientists, pay on average 29% above the national average. When leasing stalls, workers feels it first.

Production coming online today is the result of lease sales, policy choices, and investment decisions made years ago. Wood Mackenzie projects that long-planned deepwater projects will add 300,000 barrels per day in 2025 and another 250,000 in 2026, essential to replenish offshore production volumes, offset onshore declines, and strengthen long-term U.S. energy security. None of this happens overnight: consistent leasing is the lifeline for the offshore economy.

The 24-month pause forced operators, service companies, and supply-chain firms to delay projects, scale back planning, and freeze capital, contributing directly to staffing reductions across the region. Predictable leasing restores confidence, giving companies a horizon for investment and workers the stability they deserve.

The offshore ecosystem spans subsea engineering, advanced manufacturing, offshore construction, vessel operations, robotics, data analytics, and safety training, among other innovative energy fields. Regular lease sales mean steadier workloads, predictable capital cycles, and real stability for employers and workers alike.

The benefits ripple far beyond individual operating companies. Steady offshore activity supports local suppliers, fabrication yards, and service providers, sustaining thousands of additional jobs across the nation. When companies along the Gulf coast can count on long-term projects, they are better able to invest in technology, training, and infrastructure that strengthens the city’s energy cluster and keeps it globally competitive. This ripple effect ensures that the Gulf of America remains an anchor of America’s offshore energy industry, benefiting communities, families, and the local economy for decades.

Offshore development also delivers massive amounts of public revenue. In 2024, U.S. offshore activity generated $7 billion in direct federal revenue. Through updates to the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (GOMESA), a growing share of that revenue flows back to Gulf states funding coastal restoration, hurricane protection, community infrastructure, and other critical investments.

The Gulf of America is one of the world’s most prolific and lowest-carbon intensity offshore basins, with Gulf barrels having 46% lower carbon intensity than the global average. Every barrel produced here displaces higher-emission imports while strengthening energy security for America and its allies.

With global threats rising and energy markets volatile, predictable investment opportunities are essential to our economic future, both locally and nationally. It signals to investors that the U.S. is committed to long-term energy development. It gives companies confidence. It gives workers stability. And it gives the Gulf of America, after years of uncertainty, a clear horizon it can finally plan around.

With the December 10th lease sale, and the 29 that follow, the Gulf of America is once again positioned to anchor America’s energy future, and our workforce has a reason to look forward with confidence.

Erik Milito is President of the National Ocean Industries Association.