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UK Political Operative Imran Ahmed Of CCDH Should Be Prosecuted Before He’s Deported: Thacker

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UK Political Operative Imran Ahmed Of CCDH Should Be Prosecuted Before He’s Deported: Thacker

Authored by Paul D. Thacker via The DisInformation Chronicle,

A British newspaper reported last week that the Trump White House aims to deport British political operative Imran Ahmed who runs the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a pro-censorship organization Ahmed founded in London several years ago with Morgan McSweeney, the chief of staff to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. But before they kick him out of the country, the Department of Justice should indict Imran Ahmed for laws he broke in America, to include lying to Congress and filing materially false statements with the IRS.

Here’s a quick review of Imran Ahmed and the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).

Based on documents provided to me by a whistleblower, I reported with Matt Taibbi that CCDH was seeking to “Kill Musk’s Twitter” and interfere in the 2024 presidential elections by allying with Democrats. Our October 2024 investigation blew up across the internet—my first post on X getting over 40 million views, and BBC Today reporting on the story the following morning.

A Trump campaign official pledged CCDH would be “investigated from all angles.” But since the election, the Trump government has done nothing.

According to documents provided by a CCDH whistleblower, Ahmed now lives in Northeast Washington, D.C. with his American wife. And while The Telegraph reported that the White House wants to revoke Ahmed’s visa, I’m not sure this is possible as I have been told that Ahmed might have an American passport.

Instead, the Department of Justice should indict Ahmed first for lying to Congress in an August 2023 letter about the nature of his funding, and second for lying to the IRS when he applied for nonprofit, tax-exempt status for CCDH in 2021. Third, my CCDH whistleblower told me Ahmed has ranted in staff meetings that he “might go to jail.” While nobody inside CCDH understands why Ahmed is frightened about going to jail, they suspect it involves his shady funding.

I uncovered an American company Ahmed incorporated in Delaware that is likely how he hides some of his finances.

Lying and misleading Congress

Trying to figure out who was funding CCDH Congressman Jim Jordan asked Ahmed to explain if he was receiving government monies. In response, Ahmed, sent an August 2023 letter claiming that “CCDH is entirely funded by private donors.”

That claim is false, and providing false and misleading information to Congress is a crime. The British Telegraph reported last January that Members of Parliament were upset because the government had funded CCDH.

Here’s one paragraph from The Telegraph’s report:

Ben Obese-Jecty, the Conservative MP for Huntingdon, said: “It’s disgraceful that taxpayers’ hard-earned money is being wasted on Left-wing campaign groups, one set up by the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, who are waging war on our free media and trying to shut down X.

Again, Ahmed misled Congressman Jordan in his letter that denied government funding, but the Department of Justice has failed to investigate this misleading claim.

False statements to IRS

“A finding that there is a materially incorrect statement on an application for tax exempt status should hopefully encourage the IRS to take a hard look,” said Dean Zerbe, regarding CCHD’s application to the IRS to get tax exempt status. Zerbe is a tax attorney with consulting firm Alliant, and a former Senate staffer who investigated corruption in the nonprofit industry.

So what’s materially false in CCDH’s submission to the IRS?

CCDH falsely claimed in their 2021 submission to the IRS that CCDH was already operating as a registered charity in the U.K. However, London investigative reporter Paul Holden found that CCDH never registered as a British nonprofit. CCDH likely made the false claim to speed up the IRS process to gain tax-exempt status so they could begin fundraising in the States.

Yet, neither the IRS nor the Department of Justice has investigated CCDH’s materially false claim.

CCDH’s Secret Funding

Imran Ahmed launched the U.S. versions of the Center for Countering Digital Hate in 2021. You can find all the nonprofit’s financial reports called 990s, at ProPublica’s website.

In 2021, for example, CCDH reported taking in $1,471,247 in donations. While nonprofits are not required to report their donors, I discovered that someone donated $1.1 million to CCDH in 2021. But they hid the donor by running the money through a private Schwab Charitable Fund, meaning someone secretly gave Ahmed’s group almost 75% of the donations they raised in their first year.

Hiding the money has always been important to Ahmed, and CCDH’s whistleblower pointed me to another financial stream: a private company in Delaware that Ahmed also owns. Mirroring the name of the nonprofit, Ahmed’s private company is called the “Center for Countering Digital Hate Inc.”

Unlike the CCDH the nonprofit, CCDH Inc. (the private company) is not required to make its finances public. Yet I found that the CCDH nonprofit uses CCDH Inc. to pay the nonprofit’s bills. For example, when CCDH the nonprofit pays its law firm, the invoice is paid by the company, the Center for Countering Digital Hate Inc.

You can find the invoice here that CCDH paid to the law firm Faegre Drinker for help with renting a WeWork space and for help with immigration matters. According to Delaware state records, the CCDH company was incorporated in 2020, and the address on the invoice is 639 Morton Place NE which is a personal residence in DC, with 2 bedrooms.

Note also that the CCDH company has a different address from the CCDH nonprofit, which states in its 990s that it operates from an office building at 1250 Connecticut Avenue, in Northwest DC.

Since Morgan McSweeney and Imran Ahmed created CCDH, they have not only hidden the organization’s finances, but also who they employ. CCDH’s website currently shows only 6 employees. My whistleblower at CCDH sent me an organization chart that shows CCDH had 28 employees in the summer of 2024.

Imran Ahmed tells CCDH’s employees that he hides their names so that they are not retaliated against, but this is nonsense. A more likely explanation is money. CCDH’s nonprofit tax records filed with the IRS report that the nonprofit takes in around $2 million a year in donations. Ahmed is paid about $250,000 and his is the only salary reported to the IRS. None of the other salaries are reported, as required.

Instead, CCDH reports to the IRS that a couple hundred thousand dollars covers all their employee salaries.

Several members of CCDH’s leadership team are also paid six figure salaries. Yet, CCDH has never explained how they pay dozens of staff members with only the money they report to the IRS. The Washington Free Beacon just reported that the database for the George Soros, Open Society Foundations details a $250,000 donation to CCDH for 2024, but where else does the group get its money to censor free speech?

Enough is enough. When will Department of Justice demand answers?

Subscribe to the DisInformation Chronicle here…

Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/19/2025 – 23:25

Trump Derangement Syndrome Is Real And It’s Driving Therapists Crazy

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Trump Derangement Syndrome Is Real And It’s Driving Therapists Crazy

The strange psychological anomaly first appeared in 2016 – Psychotherapists across the US and even Europe began reporting a sharp rise in patients with “anxiety” about the US elections and, specifically, a potential win by Donald Trump.  This “Trump Anxiety” was greatly exacerbated by the establishment media, which was relentless in their propaganda narrative painting Trump as the next “Hitler”; a racist, misogynist monster who was hellbent on “destroying democracy.”  

Another group that was feeding the national hysteria over a Trump presidency was psychotherapists.  At the time, Politico asserted that Trump’s “crude” behavior could give “new fuel to the charge that his candidacy might be normalizing aggressive, disparaging talk and behavior.”  They cited a manifesto published by 3000 therapists declaring “Trump’s proclivity for scapegoating, intolerance and blatant sexism a threat to the well-being of the people we care for…” 

The same therapists urged others in the profession to speak out against Trump, enumerating a variety of effects therapists reported seeing in their patients:

“That Trump’s combative and chaotic campaign has stoked feelings of anxiety, fear, shame and helplessness, especially in women, gay people, minority groups and nonwhite immigrants, who feel not just alienated but personally targeted by the candidate’s message…”

The manifesto also made a subtler point: that all the attention heaped on Trump is actually making it harder for therapists to do their jobs.  Why?  Ironically, they claimed that Trump’s campaign “legitimized the tendency of people to blame others for their fears and anxieties instead of taking responsibility…” 

That’s right, far-left therapists were accusing Trump of promoting projection and scapegoating – While those same therapists were projecting onto Trump and scapegoating him for the unhinged mental illnesses of their patients.  

This mindless and obsessive rage over Trump, MAGA and conservative culture in general has become so prominent and so easily identifiable that it now has a common name:  Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).  After Trump’s return in 2025, therapists once again report an uptick in Trump anxiety.  They have also revealed that the surge in Trump related fears is overwhelming many of them and causing “burnout.”

One therapist writing for US News in April noted:

“In just the last few months, we have exchanged COVID-19 tests for litmus tests on political beliefs. People are scrubbing their social media pages instead of scrubbing their hands to feel safe.  I understand that my patients want to recoil from the chaos. The combination of depression and anxiety is palpable as people try to move forward but have no road map. And as law firms and universities capitulate to the demands of the administration, individuals feel increasingly powerless and helpless. But we must find ways to fight this despair lest we become paralyzed…” 

You might think therapists would be more inclined to question their own hysteria and find a more balanced view, but clearly this is not the case.  In spring of this year, the National Association of Scholars admitted that therapists were “in crisis” over Trump’s election win and that they had lost their objectivity.

“…Our field is gripped by a collective complex triggered by Trump’s win—a fixation so overwhelming it risks overshadowing the real, immediate concerns of our clients’ lives.”

“…What the post-election reaction exposes is that political bias among psychiatrists, therapists, counselors, and social workers is reaching a critical point. Many in the general public remain unaware of these tensions, but they could have a profound effect on the therapeutic process, potentially skewing the focus away from clients’ individual needs and toward a broader, politically charged narrative.”

At least one psychotherapist is finally acknowledging that Trump Derangement Syndrome exists and that it is the fault of patients, not the fault of Trump.  He says that at least 75% of his patients are obsessed with Trump and project their life problems onto the President. 

Jonathan Alpert, whose office is out of Manhattan, also argues that psychotherapists are actually encouraging TDS and irritating the condition by politicizing their therapy sessions. 

“This is a profound pathology, and I would even go so far to call it the defining pathology of our time,” Alpert said.

It’s important to understand that 2016 was perhaps the height of the liberal order.  Coming off of 8 years of Barack Obama and the rapid spread of third-wave feminism, the woke left believed themselves invincible.  Like a spoiled child that has throws a tantrum because she knows the parents will relent and give her whatever she wants, Zennial feminists and progressives grew up in an America where their ideology was rarely is ever questioned.  

Their delusions led them to believe that they were the overt majority of the population.  They thought that their movement was absolute and that political power was theirs to claim without substantial opposition. 

It’s not that Trump has any uniquely dark or evil effect on people, this idea is absurd.  Instead, Trump has come to symbolize an uncomfortable wake-up call for leftists:  They are not the majority.  The world does not belong to them.  Their power is not guaranteed.  They don’t get to do whatever they want whenever they want, and, in fact, they are going to have to obey certain historical (conservative) boundaries if they want to function in society. 

This realization has driven them to madness.  An eternal temper tantrum.  A mental breakdown that compels their every feeling and action. 

Trump, like him or not, represents a social and political reckoning that is absolutely necessary.  Children need to wake up from their fantasies and delusions.  Children need to grow up.  TDS is the political left’s struggle to avoid growing up; to avoid accepting the reality that they do not run the world.   

Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/19/2025 – 23:00

Treasury Sanctions Former Olympian Snowboarder Turned ‘Cocaine Kingpin’

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Treasury Sanctions Former Olympian Snowboarder Turned ‘Cocaine Kingpin’

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Ryan Wedding, the former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned cocaine kingpin, now on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, along with nine associates and nine front companies spanning Mexico, Canada, Italy, and the UK.

Wedding sits on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list and is accused of operating a multi-ton cocaine trafficking operation that spanned worldwide and left a trail of murders with hired hits across the Americas. 

Treasury, the FBI, the DOJ, and Mexico’s financial intelligence unit coordinated sanctions targeting his criminal organization. 

According to the FBI, Wedding’s organization uses cryptocurrency to move and launder the proceeds of drug trafficking. 

OFAC claims:

  • Wedding operates a Colombia-to-Mexico-to-U.S./Canada cocaine pipeline

  • Launder millions using crypto, jewelry fronts, and luxury-vehicle holdings.

  • Ordered numerous assassinations, including of U.S. citizens and a federal witness.

  • Employs ex-law-enforcement operatives, high-end escorts, and corrupt professionals to locate targets, clean money, and hide assets.

Besides Wedding, OFAC also sanctioned:

  • Edgar Aaron Vazquez Alvarado (“the General”) – ex-Mexican law enforcement, provides armed protection, intel, and owns three Mexico-based fuel companies used as fronts.

  • Miryam Andrea Castillo Moreno – Wedding’s wife; money laundering and violence facilitator.

  • Carmen Yelinet Valoyes Florez – runs a Mexico prostitution ring; assisted in a federal witness murder.

  • Daniela Alejandra Acuna Macias – Wedding’s Colombian girlfriend; collected money and gathered intel on rivals.

  • Deepak Balwant Paradkar – Canadian attorney who arranged drug connections, bribery, and murder plans while violating attorney-client privilege.

Money-Laundering Network:

  • Rolan Sokolovski – Canadian jeweler who moved millions through crypto and his “Diamond Tsar” storefront.

  • Gianluca Tiepolo – ex-Italian special forces; managed luxury-vehicle assets, operated tactical-training camps used for hitmen, and ran multiple auto/motorcycle firms.

  • Cristian Diana and John Anthony Fallon – executives involved in Tiepolo’s companies and linked to laundering entities.

All U.S.-linked assets belonging to Wedding and his associates have been frozen, and U.S. persons are prohibited from doing business with any of them, including any entities they own 50% or more of.

The Bureau’s Sam Cooper brought Wedding to our attention in early September, highlighting the “missed opportunities” Canada had to capture the former Olympian snowboarder turned cocaine kingpin.

Read Cooper’s report.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/19/2025 – 22:35

After Flip-Flopping Tantrum, Trump Signs Bill To Release Epstein Files

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After Flip-Flopping Tantrum, Trump Signs Bill To Release Epstein Files

Let’s review…

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to release ‘the Epstein files’ – i.e. the list of powerful men who partook of Jeffrey Epstein’s network of sex-trafficked young women. 

After a few months in office, a brave reporter asked Trump ‘hey what about those Epstein files you promised?’ – which drew a hostile response from the Commander-in-Chief. ‘Why are we still talking about that DEAD guy? Who cares anyway?’ 

That was the record-needle scratch heard ’round the world – the ‘vibe shift’ that split the base along weirdly partisan lines that seems to have, for some reason, pitted pro-Israel conservatives like Ted Cruz against America First conservatives like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie – who have both vehemently pushed for the release of ‘the Epstein files’ while also criticizing Israel’s influence in DC – the latter of which has been used as a cudgel to try and discredit the former. 

After Trump’s first tantrum at the journalist, which split the base, Pam Bondi insisted that she ‘had the Epstein files on her desk‘ (and alluded to VIDEO evidence), only to release binders of old information to a group of conservative influencers. 

Over the last two weeks things have gotten interesting. Democrats released a cache of Epstein emails mentioning Trump – which essentially established that Trump and the dead pedo were pals. Then, House Republicans released a motherlode of 20,000 documents from Epstein’s estate which – in addition to the Democrat release – paints the following picture (in broad brush strokes): 

– Trump and Epstein were pals

– They had a falling out

– Epstein then worked with Democrats and (oddly) his good friend Steve Bannon to help the ‘Get Trump’ industrial complex… get Trump. 

Then Epstein was arrested by Bill Barr (whose pedocentric author father hired Epstein to teach at the Dalton School) and died in custody. 

What the actual… 

That said, it largely backfired on Democrats, as we learned: 

  • Stacey Plaskett was texting back and forth with Epstein during Michael Cohen’s ‘get Trump’ congressional testimony – asking Cohen questions prompted by Epstein.
  • House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was hitting Epstein up for a dinner and fundraising (like a direct private dinner) after he was convicted of sex trafficking.
  • Larry Summers (Bill Clinton’s former Treasury sec. and Harvard president) just went into hiding because Epstein was coaching him on how to cheat on his wife with the daughter of a former CCP official and mentee at Harvard. 

Leading up to last week’s release, Democrats, MTG, and Massie have been pushing for the release of the Epstein files – which would consist of everything the DOJ has compiled on Epstein and his network, while Trump has called MTG a traitor, and slandered Massie’s dead wife.

We also note that Democrats didn’t care about the Epstein files – and covered for his Democrat associates, until now. 

And just like that, after House lawmakers dumped both sets of files, Trump flip-flopped and now supports the release of the (rest of the) Epstein files.

Related:

Release The Files!

On Wednesday evening, Trump said that he signed legislation allowing the DOJ to release the files – after both the House and the Senate passed Massie’s bill to do just that.

“I HAVE JUST SIGNED THE BILL TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!” Trump wrote in a lengthy screed on Truth Social. “As everyone knows, I asked Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, to pass this Bill in the House and Senate, respectively. Because of this request, the votes were almost unanimous in favor of passage. 

“At my direction, the Department of Justice has already turned over close to fifty thousand pages of documents to Congress. Do not forget — The Biden Administration did not turn over a SINGLE file or page related to Democrat Epstein, nor did they ever even speak about him.”

If we had to guess, the files are more likely to show that Epstein was a Mossad honeypot operation than Trump was a john. 

Can’t wait to learn that [redacted] did all that sh*t! 

Discuss… 

Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/19/2025 – 22:10

Wanted Terror Suspect Entered U.S. Under Biden Admin, Got Commercial Truck License

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Wanted Terror Suspect Entered U.S. Under Biden Admin, Got Commercial Truck License

Federal officials say Akhror Bozorov, a 31-year-old wanted terrorist from Uzbekistan, illegally entered the US in February 2023, was released by the Biden administration, and later obtained both work authorization and a commercial truck driver’s license in Pennsylvania, according to the NY Post.

He was arrested in Kansas this month while working as a trucker, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin condemned the sequence of events, saying, “Not only was Akhror Bozorov — a wanted terrorist — released into the country by the Biden administration, but … he was also given a commercial driver’s license by Governor [Josh] Shapiro’s Pennsylvania,” adding, “This should go without saying, but terrorist illegal aliens should not be operating 18-wheelers on America’s highways.”

The NY Post writes that authorities say Bozorov had an active warrant in Uzbekistan for belonging to a terrorist group, recruiting members, and spreading jihadist propaganda online. Despite that, officials said he was granted work authorization in 2024 and then a Pennsylvania commercial license under Gov. Shapiro.

McLaughlin also accused current leadership of failing to protect national security, stating, “Biden and Mayorkas allowed countless terrorists to come into our country. President Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem unleashed ICE to target these national security threats.”

Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/19/2025 – 21:45

ICE Houston Sweep: 3,600 Criminal Illegal Aliens Arrested, Including 51 Child Predators

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ICE Houston Sweep: 3,600 Criminal Illegal Aliens Arrested, Including 51 Child Predators

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

The Trump administration’s deportation surge is already producing major results. In Houston alone, ICE has arrested nearly 3,600 criminal illegal aliens in a single operation, among them 51 individuals with child-sex offenses and 67 convicted sex offenders.

These arrests are directly tied to the president’s new focus on narco-terrorism and cartel supply chains.

Houston has long served as a major distribution hub for both drugs and human trafficking; the scale of this operation underscores that the administration is targeting the worst offenders first.

The sweep is part of a broader nationwide push that began with last week’s welfare-fraud raids, which recovered more than 24,400 missing migrant children from trafficking and exploitation networks across multiple states.

The Houston operation follows directly from last week’s high-impact raids in key locations, where ICE and local law enforcement zeroed in on criminal illegal aliens preying on communities.

In Florida, the state Highway Patrol’s “Operation Criminal Return” led to the arrest of 230 criminal aliens, including multiple child predators and sex offenders, who were then turned over to ICE for deportation.

Florida has been at the forefront of these efforts, with over 6,200 illegal aliens arrested statewide in recent weeks and handed off to federal authorities.

Similarly, in Charlotte, North Carolina, federal agents arrested 130 illegal migrants over a single weekend, many with serious criminal histories including assaults, DUIs, larcenies, and hit-and-runs.

CBP Charlotte Area Port Director Gregory Bovino noted the intensity: “We do expect that number to go up a lot,” adding that nearly 100 arrests occurred in just hours, creating a visible deterrent effect—reports indicate illegal migrants in the area are now “afraid to go outside” as agents saturate the city.

These actions underscore the Trump administration’s strategy of partnering with willing states to target exploitation rings that flourished under Biden’s open-border policies.

Meanwhile, Border Czar Tom Homan addressed criticism from Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) following the Charlotte arrests, where agents removed convicted child rapists and murderers from her district:

“She can dislike it all she wants… You’d think she’d be hand-in-hand with us, thanking President Trump for focusing on the worst of the worst — child rapists and murderers,” Hooman urged.

He added, that Adams “needs to understand we’re enforcing the law. I mean, what other federal agency does she think should NOT enforce laws? We’re taking public safety threats out of her community every day, which makes her community safer. We’d like her to be a partner, but she doesn’t want it.”

Homan’s response highlights a recurring theme from the recent operations: Democratic officials who previously decried child trafficking under Biden are now opposing the very enforcement that addresses it.

These coordinated efforts—from Florida’s predator takedowns to Charlotte’s rapid sweeps and now Houston’s massive haul—demonstrate the scale of the administration’s commitment to child safety and border security.

With hundreds of thousands more deportations projected, the focus remains on removing threats while safeguarding the vulnerable.

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

Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/19/2025 – 20:05

President Sheinbaum Says No Way To US Strikes On Cartels In Mexico

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President Sheinbaum Says No Way To US Strikes On Cartels In Mexico

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has again sought to stand up to President Donald Trump, on Tuesday repeating her rejection of any possibility of US military intervention against cartels on sovereign Mexican soil.

Trump has recently floated openness toward the possibility, and also Colombia, in exchanges with reporters related to the military build-up off Venezuela. “It’s not going to happen,” Sheinbaum said, according to The Associated Press. “He (Trump) has suggested it on various occasions, or he has said, ‘we offer you a United States military intervention in Mexico, whatever you need to fight the criminal groups.'”

Via Reuters

Trump had been asked asked on Monday if he would seek the Mexican government’s permission before launching any potential strikes and responded that he “wouldn’t answer that question.” He added that he has been “speaking” with Mexico and that they “know how I stand.”

That exchange had started as follows:

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump answered a question about potentially striking Mexico or sending American troops or other personnel into the country by saying it would be “OK with me.”

“Would I launch strikes in Mexico to stop drugs? OK with me, whatever we have to do to stop drugs. Mexico is — look, I looked at Mexico City over the weekend. There’s some big problems over there,” Trump said after he was asked whether he was considering such action.

The military campaign ongoing in the southern Caribbean and off Latin America is called “Operation Southern Spear,” per a prior announcement from Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth.

“We’ve stopped the waterways, but we know every route. We know every route, we know the addresses of every drug lord,” Trump had additionally explained.

“We know their address, we know their front door. We know everything about every one of them. They’re killing our people. That’s like a war. Would I do it? I’d be proud to.”

The question of US military action south of the border is not a completely ‘new’ one; however, Operation Southern Spear marks the first time in history that the Pentagon has parked this many US naval assets, including a carrier group, just off Latin America. It’s making leaders in the region very nervous, to say the least.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/19/2025 – 19:40

An Age Of Forgotten Infrastructure

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An Age Of Forgotten Infrastructure

Authored by Mollie Engelhart via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

We are living in the most materially abundant moment in all of human history, yet most of us move through life unaware of it.

Men work at the site of a condo tower under construction in Delta, B.C., on July 2, 2025. The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck

We turn on a faucet and clean water appears. We flip a switch and light fills a room. With the tap of a finger, we can access the sum total of human knowledge, entertainment, and communication. We not only expect these things, we consider them normal. But none of this is normal. It is extraordinary.

Here in the United States, nearly every home has running water, electricity, paved roads, refrigeration, sewage systems, and buildings engineered to withstand storms and time. Our daily lives operate inside a lattice of infrastructure so reliable we forget it exists. We drive across bridges without a single thought for the men who hung from steel beams suspended high above rivers to construct them. We rely on power lines without remembering that someone once risked freezing temperatures or electrical burns so that power could flow uninterrupted to our homes. We flush toilets without considering the generations of engineers and laborers who built systems to prevent disease and contamination.

Civilization did not happen by accident. It was built piece by piece by millions of people, many with blistered hands, injured bodies, and some who never made it home again.

Maybe I see it differently because I am a builder. I have built restaurants, farms, homes, and the systems required to keep them functioning. On my farm today, the water we drink comes from a well more than 400 feet deep. A pump brings it to the surface, and that pump has failed before. When it failed, the water stopped instantly. There was no gradual decline. No dishes washed. No showers. No drinking water. In those moments the illusion of modern certainty collapses and you remember that water is not convenience. It is survival.

Sometimes I imagine taking a woman from 1920, a farm wife hauling water and cooking over wood fire, washing laundry by hand, and placing her inside my home today. She would marvel. Running water. Heat with the turn of a dial. Electricity at every switch. Refrigeration that keeps food safe for weeks. A roof that holds out wind, rain, and cold without effort. She would likely cry, not from fragility, but from the overwhelming relief of a life no longer defined by constant physical labor simply to exist. Her gratitude would be immense. Ours, in comparison, barely exists.

I have even heard women today say, half joking, “What do we even need men for anymore?” as if modern convenience erased human nature, biology, or history. When I look around, I see reminders everywhere of the masculine drive to build, protect, and improve life for women and children. Nearly every piece of modern infrastructure, from highways to electrical grids to high rises and irrigation systems, was built by men. Not because women could not do it, but because historically men took on the dangerous, physically punishing work required to create safety and comfort for others. Over time, the reverence for that reality faded, and entitlement took its place.

Sometimes I sit quietly in my bedroom and truly look at what surrounds me. The bed I sleep on. The glass in the windows. The air conditioning humming softly. The walls and floors. The metal beams underneath. The insulation. The lumber. The roof. Nothing in that room appeared by magic. Every single piece was sourced, shaped, transported, hammered, welded, lifted, installed, repaired, and maintained. When you slow down enough to see it clearly, the truth becomes unavoidable. We are living inside the accomplishments of countless unnamed people.

Even those with very little financially still live with more comfort and security than kings and queens throughout most of history. The average American has food preservation better than royal cellars, climate control better than palaces, lighting more consistent than candlelit courts, and water safer than the wells civilizations depended on for centuries.

When we forget the cost of something, we stop valuing it. And when we stop valuing it, we stop protecting it.

Maybe the shift begins with awareness. The next time water flows from a faucet, pause for a breath and notice the miracle of it. When you flip a switch and darkness becomes light, remember the people who made that possible. When you step into a warm shower, remember that for most of human history, that experience did not exist at all.

Gratitude does not require guilt. It requires presence.

Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are living in an age of extraordinary abundance. The appropriate response to that abundance is not resentment, apathy, or expectation, but appreciation.

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

Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/19/2025 – 19:15

One-Party-Rule Failure: Democratic Kings Own Maryland’s Epic Demise

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One-Party-Rule Failure: Democratic Kings Own Maryland’s Epic Demise

Maryland is facing severe economic difficulties under long-standing single-party progressive control at the state, city, and even some local levels. Democrats function as the political “kings” of Maryland, and their far-left policies have pushed the state into an epic decline – all while Democratic Gov. Wes Moore is at the helm of the rudderless ship. 

Decades of unhinged leftist political dominance in Annapolis and Baltimore City have coincided with a steady deterioration in Maryland’s charm. The state was recently slapped with the first credit-rating downgrade in 50 years, a ballooning budget deficit sparking crisis fears, soaring taxes, and criminal-justice and social-policy reforms that have led to crime and chaos in recent years – all while Democrats in the state prioritized illegal aliens over their constituents. 

At the same time, a power bill crisis has emerged after failed green policies collided with the era of data centers. The affordability crisis in the Mid-Atlantic state is one of the main reasons why a large-scale exodus of residents has accelerated under Moore’s absolutely terrible leadership. Many in the state question if Moore serves Soros or other Democratic Party elites rather than actual residents in the state. 

And we wonder why people think this way…

A recent 78-page report in the Comptroller’s “State of the Economy” outlined statistics that are optically displeasing, and Democrats hope people never find out, given that Moore is being positioned for a 2028 presidential election run. 

And this. 

The report’s findings reveal that Maryland has continued to experience net domestic outmigration since 2011. 

Between 2010 and 2023, the state lost about 2.3 million residents to other states while only gaining around 2 million from elsewhere, creating a net drain that strains state finances through lost tax revenue.

The largest outflows went to Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Delaware, while the biggest inflows came from Washington, D.C., New York, and New Jersey. Outmigration worsened after the pandemic (2022–2024), with Maryland consistently ranking in the top 10 states for the largest net losses.

The terrible stats show Maryland’s demise:

  • Maryland experienced net domestic outmigration every year between 2011 and 2023. Overall, the state’s population still grew during this period due to the combination of international migration to Maryland and natural net population growth (birth minus deaths), but outmigration creates a strain on the state’s finances in the form of lost tax revenue

  • Between 2010 and 2023, Maryland lost a total of 2.3 million residents to other states, while approximately 2 million residents from other states moved into Maryland.

  • During this time period, Maryland lost the most residents to Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Delaware on a net basis; and gained the most residents from Washington, D.C., New York, and New Jersey on a net basis.

  • The most severe net domestic outmigration occurred post-pandemic (2022 – 2024). In each of these years, Maryland ranked in the top 10 of all U.S. states for the largest net loss of residents to domestic migration.

  • Prior to the pandemic, on a net basis, Maryland primarily lost older, higher-income residents (i.e. retirees). Since the pandemic, the net share of younger and lower- and middle-income residents leaving the state has increased. This finding suggests that pre-pandemic, factors like taxes and weather may have been more prominent drivers of migration decisions, while more recently, housing affordability and overall cost of living are having a greater effect

Since the Covid pandemic, outflows have shifted toward younger and lower- to middle-income households, suggesting that progressive policies are backfiring and sparking affordability and cost-of-living pressures.

Single-party rule in Maryland, or “Democrat Kings,” controls the legislature, the governor’s office, and the major city governments. This concentration of far-left toxic power has eroded internal oversight, and as local outlet Fox Baltimore reports:

Frustration is building in Maryland as the Democrat Kings raise taxes, services decline, infrastructure falters, crime remains elevated, business climate deteriorates, housing becomes unaffordable, and power bill costs explode. We’ve seen this exodus story before from Democrat Kings in California, New York, and Illinois, while common-sense red states like Florida and Texas see net population gains. 

Public frustration has grown so sharply that Democrats unleashed an informational war against residents, with one of their nonprofits buying up local radio air space to counter dissent as Moore’s polling numbers fell.

 Democratic Kings own Maryland’s epic demise.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/19/2025 – 18:50

Heart Attack Risk Halved In Survivors Taking Tailored Vitamin D Doses, Researchers Say

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Heart Attack Risk Halved In Survivors Taking Tailored Vitamin D Doses, Researchers Say

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Researchers found that adult heart attack survivors who took specific vitamin D doses reduced their risk of developing another heart attack by more than half, compared with people who did not take the vitamin D dose.

A man sits in a hospital waiting room in Irvine, Calif., on July 8, 2025. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Research done by Utah-based Intermountain Health found that there was a 52 percent lower risk of suffering another heart attack in people who already survived one and who received “personalized dosing of vitamin D supplements” to reach vitamin D levels of 40 nanograms per milliliter for around four years, said a news release from the American Heart Association (AHA).

That was compared to those who did not receive management of their vitamin D levels, the AHA said.

Over 85 percent of the people who enrolled in the study had vitamin D levels below that threshold, while nearly 52 percent in the study group had to take more than 5,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D per day to reach the blood target levels, the Nov. 9 release said. The 5,000 IU dose is around six times the 800 IU that is recommended by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) per day.

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Yes, we sell Vitamin D which we’d be grateful if you’d try – though whether or not you buy from us, please absorb the information in this article.

*  *  *

“Previous clinical trial research on vitamin D tested the potential impact of the same vitamin D dose for all participants without checking their blood levels first,” Heidi T. May of Intermountain Health said in an AHA statement.

The researchers also checked the study participants’ vitamin D levels when they started the study, followed up, adjusting the dose as needed to reach a range of between 40 and 80 nanograms per milliliter, the statement said.

The authors of the paper suggested that their findings could allow health care providers to focus more on blood testing for people who had experienced heart attacks and to provide tailored doses for them.

While the AHA did not say what form of vitamin D was administered in the study, a separate news release issued by Intermountain Health said that the researchers used vitamin D3, the most common form used in dietary supplements.

In the statement, May said the researchers “observed no adverse outcomes when giving patients higher doses of vitamin D3 supplementation, and to significantly reduce the risk of another heart attack, which are exciting results.”

The study was presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2025 in New Orleans earlier this month. It enrolled 630 adults with acute coronary syndrome who were treated at the Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City from April 2017 to May 2023 and who had an average follow-up of 4.2 years for their condition.

The AHA said that around 107 major cardiac events, such as a heart attack, stroke, heart failure that required hospitalization, or death, occurred in the study period.

The paper released this month adds to a growing body of research around vitamin D supplementation and heart disease. Last year, a study found that taking vitamin D supplements doesn’t reduce the risk of cardiac arrest in older adults, while one published in the British Medical Journal showed there was an association between the supplements and major cardiac events among people over the age of 60.

Aside from supplements, foods that are considered rich in vitamin D include egg yolks, fatty fish, fish liver oil, and cheese, while some foods like cereal, orange juice, milk, and others are fortified with the vitamin. Vitamin D is also activated in the body when the skin is exposed to sunlight.

May added that her organization is encouraging those who have heart disease to speak to health care providers about targeted vitamin D dosing.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/19/2025 – 18:25

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