Authored by Dean George via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Candy canes have been associated with Christmas for centuries, but their origins and early history are shrouded in legend, folklore and fantasy.

The sweet and sticky candy first became associated with Christmas in Germany in the 17th century, though the name, color and flavor were markedly different from contemporary candy canes. Originally, they were called sugar sticks. They were pure white in color, had no peppermint flavor, and weren’t “J” shaped. 

The popularity of sugar sticks eventually spread to other European countries like France and England. Because sugar was often unavailable, sugar sticks were often flavored with sweet essences from plants. Sugar sticks were handmade in small batches and given as seasonal gifts to children, family, and friends. 

European immigrants coming to America in the 19th century brought their old-world recipes with them. Eventually, sugar sticks became part of this country’s Christmas celebrations.

European Folklore and Religious Symbolism

A common but unsubstantiated legend says that around 1670, a German choirmaster in Cologne gave children performing in Nativity reenactments sugar sticks to keep them quiet and attentive. A similar tale says that when some church members objected to children eating candy in church, the choirmaster commissioned a confectioner to shape the sugar sticks like shepherd’s crooks to symbolize the Biblical shepherds tending their flocks near Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. 

Modern day legends attributed more to religious symbolism. Some tales say that when turned upside down, the candy crook is shaped like a “J” and stands for Jesus. Another tale implies the candied crook represents a shepherd’s crook and is symbolic of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

One popular myth is that an Indiana candymaker crafted the Christmas candy cane to symbolize the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ. The white color represents the purity of the Virgin Mary and Christ’s perfection. The thin red stripes denote Jesus’ scourging before he was crucified, and the large red stripe symbolizes the blood Christ shed on the cross. These anecdotes are intriguing but lack any historical documentation to prove their veracity. 

More likely is the idea that German families used the hook in the original candy stick to facilitate using it as a Christmas ornament alongside fruit, nuts, candies, cookies, and paper decorations.

When Sugar Sticks Became Candy Canes

German-Swedish immigrant August Imgard is the first documented case in North America of using the sweet treat as a tree ornament. On Christmas Day, 1847 he introduced this interesting “twist” on sugar sticks when he decorated a blue spruce tree in Wooster, Ohio as part of his family’s Christmas celebration. 

By the 1860s, the term “candy canes” was appearing in publications like Ballou’s Monthly Magazine. They were described as being hung up next to stockings. In 1871, German immigrant Claus Doscher founded Doscher’s Candies, America’s oldest candy cane maker, which was featured in American Essence magazine. Remarkably, the Doscher’s candy canes are still handmade. 

The candy cane’s famous red stripes and peppermint flavoring were believed to be added sometime around the turn of the 20th century, according to the National Confectioners Association. 

In 1919, entrepreneur Bob McCormack founded the Famous Candy Company in Albany, Georgia. Within a few years, the company was producing thousands of handmade candy canes annually under the name Bob’s Candy Company (later changed to Bobs Candies). Later, in the 1950s, the Georgia company became the largest maker of candy canes and the first to wrap their candies in cellophane and mass distribute them.

In the 1950s, Gregory Keller, a Roman Catholic priest and McCormack’s brother-in-law, invented a machine that automated candy cane production, greatly reducing production time and labor costs. A patent request for the “Keller Machine” was submitted in 1957 and approved in 1960; it allowed Bobs Candies to produce millions of candy canes annually. Bobs candy canes are still made today, though the McCormack family sold the company to larger candy conglomerates in 2005.

Contemporary Candy Cane Options

The traditional red and white peppermint-flavored candy canes still dominate the market, but novel options in recent years have included fruit-based flavors and odder flavor choices for candies, like bacon, pickle and jalapeño. New textural options include chewy and liquid-filled canes with a juice-infused center.

Candy canes are now seen at other holidays also. There areheart-shaped candy canes for Valentine’s Day and orange and black candy canes at Halloween.

Traditionalists need not worry, though. The National Confectioners Association notes that 90 percent of candy canes are sold between Thanksgiving and Christmas; the second week of December is the biggest single week for candy cane sales annually; 1.76 billion candy canes are sold annually in the United States; candy canes are the number one-selling non-chocolate candy in December, and December 26th is National Candy Cane Day. 

A 20-year-old U.S.-based content creator and streamer, whose real name is Braden Peters, was reportedly banned overnight from the creator-focused livestreaming platform Kick following an incident that appears to involve running over a person described as a “stalker.”

On Christmas Eve night, X user KickChamp posted a video showing Claviclar running over a “stalker” with a Tesla Cybertruck who jumped onto his windshield.

Clavicular RAN OVER a stalker that tried hopping on his windshield 😳 pic.twitter.com/w4ikrAeUp9

— KickChamp👑 (@Kick_Champ) December 25, 2025

“The stalker Clavicular ran over is unresponsive at the scene,” KickChamp said.

The stalker Clavicular ran over is unresponsive on the scene 😳 pic.twitter.com/ckGGgqaVil

— KickChamp👑 (@Kick_Champ) December 25, 2025

KickChamp posted another video …

Security confirmed that the stalker Clavicular ran over didn’t get up 😳 pic.twitter.com/QbMcpL2Gsd

— KickChamp👑 (@Kick_Champ) December 25, 2025

Following the incident, Clavicular’s Kick page has been deleted. It appears he has been banned from the platform.

Yet another documented instance of dangerous and harmful behavior associated with some livestreamers on Kick…

Via Middle East Eye

Youssef Tarazi, a Palestinian Christian in Gaza, says the giant Christmas tree that once stood as a symbol of communal celebration will not be lit this year. For a third consecutive year, Gaza’s Christian community says they will be observing Christmas without public celebrations, as Israel’s alleged repeated ceasefire violations and restrictions on humanitarian aid entering the enclave continue to cast a shadow over the holiday.

“Churches have suspended all celebrations outside their walls because of the conditions Gaza is going through,” Tarazi, 31, told Middle East Eye. “We are marking the birth of Jesus Christ through prayer inside the church only, but our joy remains incomplete”.

Before the war, churches across Gaza transformed their courtyards into gathering spaces, decorated streets with festive lights and hosted carols that brought families together. 

Muslims often joined Christian neighbors to mark the occasion, including the annual lighting of a large Christmas tree in Gaza City. “This year, we cannot celebrate while we are still grieving for those killed, including during attacks on churches,” Tarazi said.

“Nothing feels the same anymore. Many members of our community will not be with us this Christmas”.

George Anton, the director of operations at the Latin patriarchate in Gaza and head of its emergency committee, echoed those sentiments. “We cannot celebrate while Christians and Muslims alike are mourning devastating losses caused by the war,” Anton told MEE. “For us, the war has not ended”.

Anton said churches are limiting observances to prayers and a nativity scene inside church buildings. “In the past, we decorated our homes. Now, many homes are gone. We decorated the streets. Even the streets are gone,” he said. “There is nothing to celebrate”.

Since October 2023, Gaza’s Christian homes, schools and churches have been damaged or destroyed during Israeli military operations. Three historic churches – Church of Saint Porphyrius, the Holy Family Church and the Gaza Baptist Church – have suffered severe damage.

Anton said at least 53 Christians have been killed directly or indirectly during the war, with many others injured. “Some were killed in air strikes, while others died because we could not reach hospitals or provide medicine, especially elderly people with chronic illnesses,” he said.

Determined to stay

This Christmas comes amid what church leaders describe as the smallest Christian population Gaza has seen in decades.

More than 400 Christians have left Gaza during the war, fearing for their lives after relatives and friends were killed. Today, an estimated 220 Christian families – around 580 people – remain in the strip. “Those of us who remain are determined to stay,” Anton said, while acknowledging that worsening humanitarian conditions may force more families to leave in search of medical care and stability.

For the last two years, Nazareth, the hometown of Jesus Christ, has not been able to properly celebrate Christmas. Due to the war in Gaza, there has not been a tree in the village square, and the Christmas market has not been open.https://t.co/KVVHKLfgbr

— Crux (@Crux) December 22, 2025

Around 70 percent of Gaza’s Christians belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, with the remainder Latin Catholics. “The situation affects everyone – Christians and Muslims alike,” Anton said. “We are part of this society, and what happens to Gaza happens to us”.

On October 20 2023, less than two weeks into the war, Israeli strikes hit the Church of Saint Porphyrius complex, killing at least 16 people who had sought refuge there. The church is one of the oldest in the world, built on a site used for Christian worship since the fifth century.

In another attack on 17 July, Israeli fire struck Gaza’s only Catholic church, killing two women and injuring several others, including the parish priest. “All Palestinians, including the Christian community, are still living with the consequences of the war,” Anton said. “We are grieving, frustrated and unstable. We cannot celebrate as if nothing has happened”.

Authored by Susan Crabtree via RealClearPolitics,

The FBI recently raided the home of a Secret Service agent on Vice President JD Vance’s detail in an alleged tax and wire fraud case involving millions of dollars in donations and grants.

In the alleged scheme, the agent accepted donations to a charity that purports to help inner-city youth and victims of domestic violence but didn’t provide the services it reported to the IRS, according to several knowledgeable sources in the Secret Service community.

The raid, which took place on or around Dec. 8, was the culmination of more than a year of work by a joint FBI-IRS investigation that the Secret Service joined in recent months, the sources said. Federal investigators have interviewed more than a dozen Secret Service agents, some of whom contributed to the nonprofit at the center of the probe, which is run by an agent on Vance’s detail.

The Secret Service has placed the agent on unpaid administrative leave and suspended his security clearance, signs that the agency considers the potential crimes and misconduct extremely serious, even though the individual has not been arrested, according to sources familiar with the matter.

RealClearPolitics has reached out to the USSS and has been told a statement is forthcoming.

The alleged fraud could further bruise the Secret Service, which is facing retention problems as it struggles to regain its once elite reputation after two Trump assassination attempts last year. In addition to potential criminal prosecution, the Secret Service agent could face internal insider threat allegations for demonstrating poor judgment and possible criminal intent.

“This is bigger than the 2012 prostitution scandal because agents are trained to investigate tax and bank wire fraud – anyone involved knew what they were doing was illegal,” one source remarked.

In 2012, more than a dozen Secret Service agents and other personnel were placed on administrative leave, and several were eventually fired after their superiors discovered they had hired prostitutes during a trip to Colombia to prepare for then-President Obama’s visit to the Summit of the Americas.

The agent whose home was raided is listed as the founder and chairman of the charity’s board of directors on tax documents filed with the IRS.

The charity in question purports to provide laptops to young inner-city youth in its “Laptops for Hope Program” – at least some of which are laptops donated by the Secret Service because they are beyond their warranties, according to knowledgeable sources. Investigators, however, are looking into whether laptops discovered in the basement of the agent’s home were ever donated to the youth or whether there were plans to do so.  

In tax documents, the charity states that its mission is to provide “emergency assistance to survivors of domestic violence, financial literacy, preventing childhood obesity, & [stet] supporting families affected by HIV/AIDS in VA, MD, DC, & GA.”

The alleged tax and wire fraud schemes could implicate numerous Secret Service agents and employees, some of whom allegedly donated to the charity and then received part of their donation back in a payment. Investigators are looking into whether the donations allowed the Secret Service agents to file deductions and write off numerous work-related expenses, the sources said.

The charity has been operating since 2022, receiving $351,329 in contributions and grants in its first year while paying just $23,000 in salaries, tax documents show. In 2023, contributions and grants shot up to $806,409, and the nonprofit paid its officers a total of $154,590. Those numbers increased to $979,053 in contributions and grants in 2024, the latest tax document available. That year, the charity reported paying $267,221 in salaries.  

Yes, it’s been five years.

Yes, it’s the season of joy and forgiveness, blah blah blah.

But, fuck that!

In 2020, while the sheeple huddled in fear-porn isolation, a cabal of power-hungry bureaucrats and pharma-shilling “experts” pulled off the greatest heist in modern history: they stole Christmas.

Not with guns or tanks, but with “emergency decrees,” arbitrary lockdowns, and endless streams of hysterical propaganda about a virus with a 99.7% survival rate for most.

Across the West, authoritarian governors and health czars like California’s Gavin Newsom and New York’s Andrew Cuomo played Grinch-in-Chief.

Family gatherings? Banned.

Churches closed on the holiest night of the year, while big-box retailers like Walmart raked in billions—essential, you see.

Travel restrictions grounded flights, borders slammed shut, and millions faced solitary holidays, Zoom “celebrations” replacing real human connection.

In the UK, Boris Johnson’s last-minute Tier 4 lockdown crushed plans for millions, proving politicians love nothing more than moving goalposts.

And to ensure we don’t forget (or forgive) those that imposed such a farce upon so many, Martin Armstrong dug up some images as a reminder…

The economic carnage was deliberate: small businesses gutted, restaurants shuttered, while Amazon’s Jeff Bezos laughed all the way to his yacht.

Fauci the Flip-Flopper pontificated from his ivory tower, warning against singing carols or hugging grandma, as if seasonal joy itself was a superspreader event.

This wasn’t public health – it was social engineering on steroids.

Fear was the weapon, compliance the goal.

The tyrants wrapped their theft in “science” bows, but the data later exposed the scam: excess deaths from despair, suicides, delayed treatments far outweighed their “saved” lives narrative.

Five years on, the damage lingers: fractured families, eroded trust, and a precedent for endless control.

Christmas 2020 wasn’t just stolen – it was sacrificed on the altar of technocratic tyranny.

Never forget: they hated the Whos down in Whoville, and they’ll do it again given half a chance.

Never Again!

Authored by David Jensen via Substack,

Dutch trading specialist Karel Mercx posted the following commentary where the opposite (multiply by -1) of the silver swap rate minus US interest rates can be used as a proxy for the implied silver lease rate to determine physical shortage in the London silver market.:

“The 1-year silver swap minus the US interest rate is now –7.18%.

That distortion explains why the silver rally is not over.

Only at the red line do supply and demand normalize.”

A further six days ago Mercx posted the following commentary:

“ The 1-year silver swap minus the US interest rate is now almost –7%! That distortion is the key reason the silver rally is not over.

That spread should be positive, since silver needed in one year comes with storage, insurance, and financing costs.

Extra explanation.

The silver swap rate is a crucial part of the global precious-metals trade. It exists because major players such as banks, producers, industrial users, and investors constantly exchange silver for dollars without physically moving metal from vault to vault. This mechanism keeps the London physical market tightly connected to the New York financial market.

But that system is now under strain. Physical silver today is almost 7% more expensive than silver for delivery one year from now. Swaps were designed to avoid shipping metal around the world, yet today silver is being moved because buyers are demanding delivery.

Holding physical silver isn’t easy or cheap.

A $1 million position weighs several hundred kilograms, spread across dozens of heavy bars that require vault space, insurance, and security…

…That question is now being priced in. As long as the 1-year silver swap minus US rates remains below the red line, silver’s upside pressure continues. No one knows where supply and demand will reconnect. … ”

I’ve added a trend arrow to the chart that Mercx posted:

Figure 1 – One Year Silver Swaps Minus One Year One Year US Interest Rates at Dec 23, 2025; source: Karel Mercx x.com

Note that the distance from the red line normalization is increasing as the London silver shortage intensifies. The London silver market is devolving, not stabilizing.

[ZH: the spread between SHFE and COMEX silver futures is extreme to say the least – incentivizing the flow from London to Shanghai]…

This is what a run on the London ‘physical’ silver market looks like where holders of unallocated promissory notes for silver ownership and delivery, at the margins, start to demand physical metal delivery.

The enormous leverage of London paper (vapor) claims vs physical silver available for delivery gives the potential for a very quick unwind of London.

On the holiest day of the Christian calendar, the nonprofit Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) purchased a gigantic Times Square advertisement in New York City declaring, “Jesus is Palestinian.” This inflammatory and divisive rhetoric is nothing more than an attempt by the Arab nonprofit to stir up the Christian nation with their own narrative.

Adeb Ayoub, National Executive Director of ADC, told The New York Post that the nonprofit has been renting ad space in Times Square this year, with rotating weekly messages.

“There’s a lot more similarities between Arabs and Muslims and Christians in this country than others want to allow us to believe and there are similarities and there is a fear of culture, shared religion,” Ayoub said.

NYPost’s report continued:

“Most of the Americans in this country are Christian and the birthplace of Christianity is Palestine. If people wanna go back and forth and debate it, then great, the billboard sparked debate. At least you’re having a conversation about it. Otherwise, we’re silenced and our voices and positions don’t come out.”

When asked whether his group is disputing that Jesus was Jewish, Ayoub said that “Jesus lives within all of us” and that the subject was “up for interpretation.”

He added that Jewish groups he claims have waged a digital war against him since the Spring are free to promote their own views about Jesus.

Based on publicly available records, Adeb Ayoub appears to be affiliated with the United Mission for Relief and Development (UMR), which has a significant focus on Palestine. He also has links to “Liberation Legal” … 

Earlier this year, ADC hosted ArabCon 2025, the nation’s largest annual convention of Arab Americans, in Deaborne, Michigan, which hosted anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour and China-linked Medea Benjamin of CodePink, among others.

Ahead of ArabCon, ADC wrote on their website, “Recent attempts to smear the organization and our upcoming conference deploy the same racist and tired playbook meant to intimidate and shame Arab and Muslim spaces– branding ArabCon with inflammatory labels like ‘pro‑terrorism’ and ‘antisemitic.'”

Ayoub told NYPost that a new billboard will appear in Times Square for New Year’s Eve… 

In a stunning development, the embattled Department of Justice chose Christmas Eve to announce it had discovered more than a million more documents with potential links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Already in violation of a legislatively-mandated Dec 19 deadline to release all such files — and facing demands for an audit of its handling of the process — the DOJ says the enormous new tranche of documents will require “weeks” of additional work before they can be posted.  

“We have lawyers working around the clock to review and make the legally required redactions to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible,” the DOJ said. “Due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks. The Department will continue to fully comply with federal law and President Trump’s direction to release the files.” The DOJ said the documents come from the Southern District of New York and the FBI. 

Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who’s been the Capitol Hill’s leading voice on Epstein-file declassification, indicated the staggering volume of newly-acknowledged documents gives new reason to question the lack of additional prosecutions beyond Epstein and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell:

Today the DOJ claims the Epstein-Maxwell file exceeds 1.7 million documents.

And they still expect you to believe this involves only two guilty people.

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 25, 2025

Employing more pointed rhetoric, Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the Trump administration is “openly engaged in a cover-up protecting Epstein’s co-conspirators and the powerful men who abused women and girls.” 

Also on Christmas Eve — and before the million-document “discovery” was announced — a group of 12 senators sent a letter to DOJ Acting Inspector General Don Berthiaume demanding an audit of the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein files. Beyond pointing to the failure to meet the Dec. 19 deadline, the senators said the huge number of redactions in the released documents have raised “serious questions as to whether the Department is properly applying the limited exceptions for redaction that are permitted under the Act. Any withholding or redaction beyond those specified circumstances is against the law.” Eleven of the 12 signatories were Democrats, with Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski the only Republican. 

On Sunday, Massie and California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna said they were in discussions with other members of Congress about potentially holding Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt — over the DOJ’s failure to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act enacted in November. “We only need the House for inherent contempt,” Khanna said on Meet the Press, “and we’re building a bipartisan coalition, and it would fine Pam Bondi for every day that she’s not releasing these documents.” 

Khanna also decried the volume of redactions in the files that have been released. “The redactions were excessive. And even Harvard Law professors who have looked at that have said, you can’t redact internal communications, you can’t redact workforce product, and the courts are going to find that these were excessive.” 

Are these the “narrowly tailored” and “segregable” redactions that the drafters of the “Epstein Files Transparency Act” had in mind? pic.twitter.com/z22j7GEcYt

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) December 20, 2025

Transparency advocates have been exasperated by the amount of content that’s been redacted — with hundreds and hundreds of pages completely blacked out. However, raising additional questions about the DOJ’s competence, some of the department’s black ink turned out to be see-through, as internet sleuths discovered some of the redacted Epstein files can be read by simply cutting and pasting blacked-out passages into a new document. While they first bloomed on social media, the easily-erasable DOJ redactions have been subsequently reported by The Guardian and New York Times. 

‼️🇺🇸: I can CONFIRM that the Epstein copy/paste hack does INDEED show redacted text from the DOJ Epstein Transparency Act Files

That said, We should do everything we can to not publish Epstein Survivors names.

I will be doing batch unredactioms tomorrow for us to go through. 🫡 pic.twitter.com/v6o929WcO5

— Diligent Denizen 🇺🇸 (@DiligentDenizen) December 24, 2025

It’s not clear how many documents have been incompetently redacted. While no bombshells have yet been uncovered, the un-redactions may be damning in a different kind of way, as they might demonstrate DOJ is failing to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act’s mandate for maximum disclosure, with redactions only allowed for a narrow set of exceptional circumstances.

For example, one of the documents that’s been cleansed of black-outs and posted to social media is an exhibit from a civil suit against two executors of Epstein’s estate — Darren K. Indyke and Richard D. Kahn. Two of the redacted passages read:  

“Between September 2015 and June 2019, Indyke signed (FAC) for over $400,000 made payable to young female models and actresses, including a former Russian model who received over $380,000 through monthly payments of $8,333 made over a period of more than three and a half years until the middle of 2019.”  …

“Defendants also attempted to conceal their criminal sex trafficking and abuse, conduct by paying large sums of money to participant-witnesses, including by paying for their attorneys’ fees and case costs in litigation related to this conduct.”  

It’s not clear why these entire passages would be redacted. Even if there were reasons to hide Indyke’s name, it’s far from clear why the other allegations would be hidden from the public.  

While ZeroHedge readers may differ with Khanna on a long list of issues, he raised some important questions on Meet the Press: 

“I guess the question the American people have even to me, is, is the system so corrupt, is the system so corrupt that Thomas Massie and you defy the odds, pass a bill through a discharge petition, get the Senate, get the president to sign it, and still, these rich and powerful people are being protected. Who has this kind of hold on our government? What are they hiding? Why are they not releasing this?” 

On a lighter note, news that the DOJ is suddenly aware of more than a million additional Epstein documents gave social media users grist for some dark humor: 

We thank you for this holiday entertainment pic.twitter.com/heikBwJqR5

— Three Year Letterman (@3YearLetterman) December 24, 2025

The Epstein files redactions. pic.twitter.com/t8fT74SK1J

— Roddy 🇨🇦 (@RodKahx) December 23, 2025

Justice Dept. Says It Has Found Over a Million More Epstein Documents pic.twitter.com/ZPo2U8cgor

— Scott Horton (@scotthortonshow) December 24, 2025

A common pattern across America’s far-left organizations is alarming behavior that appears militant, resembling revolutionary movements more than civic advocacy. There is a historical explanation that is rarely discussed: for decades, Cuban intelligence has penetrated and influenced segments of the radical left, enabling influence operations with nation-killing objectives.

This is not a new phenomenon, nor is it speculative. The pattern stretches back more than half a century and follows a consistent arc: student activism, escalation into disorder, foreign ideological grooming, and institutional capture through nonprofits that later rebrand as “civil society.”

The story begins in 1968, when members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), including Mark Rudd and Bernadine Dohrn, were invited to Cuba. That trip resulted in the founding of the Venceremos Brigade, which publicly framed itself as a solidarity delegation but privately represented something more consequential. Multiple intelligence assessments and contemporary reporting alleged that SDS radicals requested formal training from the Castro regime, including instruction in explosives and sabotage. The objective was explicit: to move from protest politics to revolutionary struggle with foreign backing.

Upon his return to the U.S., Rudd was elected president of Columbia University’s SDS chapter and quickly presided over a wave of sit-ins, building takeovers, and riots that paralyzed campus life and captured national attention. After his expulsion, Rudd, alongside Dohrn, went on to become co-founders of the Weather Underground, a domestic extremist organization responsible for bombings and violent underground activity throughout the early 1970s.

The lesson Cuba learned from this period was very simple: American radicals could be trained, networked, ideologically shaped, and then sent back to do their dirty work.

Last week, we were honored to send a delegation of 40 DSA elected leaders & rank-and-file members from chapters big & small across the country to #Cuba, where they delivered hundreds of pounds of solidarity aid & learned about the achievements & challenges of Cuban socialism. pic.twitter.com/SD1hul0PB7

— DSA (@DemSocialists) October 20, 2025

Guess where Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass got her start in politics…

Did You Know:

Karen Bass got her start in politics in the Venceremos Brigade, a Marxist front group in the US funded by Cuba

She traveled to Cuba many times

The Venceremos Brigade directly spawned domestic terror groups the Weather Underground and May 19th Org pic.twitter.com/Pno87kL50S

— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) January 25, 2025

Here’s what happened in Los Angeles this summer…

Fast-forward to 2025, and the same structure still exists, but it has been supercharged with vastly greater assets and manpower, fueled by billionaire leftists who operate what is now widely described as the protest industrial complex. This network is increasingly described as a color-revolution-style operation led by NGOs to undermine the Trump administration and ‘America First.’ What were once underground protest movements now operate openly and, in some cases, violently, supported by armies of “movement lawyers,” expansive national coalitions, and dark-money-funded NGOs. There was even the political assassination of Charlie Kirk this fall, a reality that even Deep State media outlets like The Atlantic were forced to acknowledge…

According to a defected Cuban intelligence officer and corroborating intelligence reporting, legacy Castro-aligned groups such as the Venceremos Brigade and the National Lawyers Guild have been controlled by Cuba’s Dirección General de Inteligencia (DGI) since at least the 1980s. That influence is exerted through ICAP (the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples).

ICAP is an official Cuban government organization, founded in 1960, that promotes international solidarity and cultural exchange. On paper, it organizes delegations, volunteer brigades, educational tours, and international conferences that oppose U.S. sanctions and support Cuba’s political system. It appears benign – almost quaint.

WATCH: Washington Post Reporter Says Democrats Won’t ‘Go Hard’ On Cuba Because They Agree With The Regime https://t.co/O8tP3Wb17a pic.twitter.com/tV2Uk9B9h3

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) July 19, 2021

But declassified CIA documents dating back to the Cold War describe a consistent operational method: foreign recruits were brought to Cuba for training in intelligence tradecraft or guerrilla sabotage and were received by DGI officers posing as ICAP officials. ICAP functioned as the intake valve – political cover for intelligence operations designed to cultivate long-term assets rather than short-term spies.

What exists today is not a single organization but a complex ecosystem.

ICAP sits at the center, functioning as a coordinating hub. Orbiting it is the National Network on Cuba (NNOC), a deliberately loose coalition that links 77 organizations of activists, nonprofits, and campaigns while minimizing legal exposure or clear command structures. The National Lawyers Guild serves as the lawfare and agitation arm, training protesters, facilitating delegations, and litigating against U.S. institutions under the guise of civil rights.

Funding and infrastructure come from the Neville Roy Singham Network, a web of organizations tied to Chinese Communist Party-aligned capital that provides money, logistics, and professionalized organizing capacity. Public narratives are amplified by legacy anti-war organizations like CODEPINK and the ANSWER Coalition, which are also now under the Singham umbrella. They frame U.S. foreign policy as illegitimate while defending authoritarian adversaries. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) functions as the political activation channel, translating activist energy into electoral and legislative influence on behalf of the Cuban regime.

Viewed individually, each organization insists it is merely engaging in advocacy. Viewed together, the pattern is unmistakable.

Examine the leadership and membership of the National Network on Cuba and the picture sharpens further. Calla Walsh, founder of PalAction U.S. and Unity of Fields, served as a co-chair of NNOC. Manolo De Los Santos lived in Cuba for six years and maintains relationships with senior ICAP officials and Cuban political leadership. Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK lived in Cuba for five years, married a Cuban communist, and went on to build organizations centered around Cuba delegations. Groups as radical as Armed Queers of Salt Lake City appear inside NNOC membership rolls. The DSA has held meetings at the Cuban Embassy in New York City and subsequently traveled to Cuba, where it announced a formal partnership with ICAP.

🇨🇺 🇨🇳 These Cuba trips are run through ICAP, a shadowy Cuban intel front, and the Venceremos Brigade. Since 1970, at least 744 delegations have brought U.S. activists to Havana for a crash course in communist collaboration. Cuba used to be a proxy for the Soviets but lately it’s… pic.twitter.com/n4QePQ99UE

— Peter Schweizer (@peterschweizer) September 16, 2025

None of this proves espionage in the cinematic sense. It does not need to.

🧵🚨 MAJOR BREAKING 2: The 2025 May Day trip of SLC Armed Queers to Cuba: “Well, if we’re terrorists, we’re proud to be terrorists”

I’ve obtained a now-deleted video.

In it, Ermiya Fanaeian and an unidentified man named Connor talk openly about:

👉 Palestinian students at… pic.twitter.com/CBkStDYjEO

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) September 16, 2025

Come on now…

So here is @senwarren with the head of the Salt Lake City Armed Queers (she/her). Let’s see what a few hours of tracing lobby fund flows will reveal next. https://t.co/8TaLE0e4QA

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 17, 2025

Influence operations are not about secrets; they are about shaping norms, training protest foot soldiers, and aligning political instincts. By that measure, Cuba’s intelligence services have been extraordinarily successful. Entire segments of the U.S. radical nonprofit sphere now reflexively defend foreign authoritarian regimes and justify violence, while dehumanizing and demonizing half the country by calling them “Nazis” and “fascists.”

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

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) September 12, 2025

The reason target profiling of Republicans was done by the radical left and Democrats is very simple:

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

Many of these organizations are conspicuously opposed to anything associated with America First, with some openly calling for the destruction of Western capitalism and even the end of the U.S. Strikingly, they all sing from the same radical Marxist songbook.

If you want to understand why the radical left appears to hate America and seeks to implode the nation from within, it is not difficult to see that these ideas are rarely developed organically. More often, they are shaped and reinforced by outside influences. This chart helps explain why the radical left has become so radical.

As per The Washington Times, “Cuba’s intelligence apparatus is training foreign nationals to wage war against the West.”

It’s already begun:

• US Gov’t Foils Terror Plot By Far-Left Group Plotting New Year’s Eve Bomb Attack

The Atlantic is absolutely correct: “Left-Wing Terrorism Is on the Rise.” And perhaps we just unveiled why…