Saturday, May 24, 2025

Unmasking the Real Threat to America's Democracy


America isn't a democracy but a constitutional republic designed to limit majority rule and protect individual rights. This distortion enables narratives that label dissent as dangerous, especially in portraying Trump as a "threat to democracy" -- a claim pushed by institutions caught spreading falsehoods about him. What appears as consensus is actually assigned opinion enforced by media and political power, as "conspiracy theories" used to silence dissent are proving to be true.

What follows is not just a list of lies -- it’s a pattern of systemic deception that reveals where the real threat lies.

The Concealment of President Biden’s Cognitive Decline: A Betrayal of Voters

For years, concerns about Joe Biden’s mental acuity were dismissed as partisan attacks or “conspiracy theories.” The White House physician declared him fit for office. Staffers claimed he “ran circles around them.” Meanwhile, public appearances were tightly controlled, questions were pre-approved, and scripted answers were passed off as spontaneous.

But in 2024, the dam broke. Biden’s debate performance made his decline undeniable. Millions had already cast primary ballots for a man clearly unfit to serve -- yet instead of outrage over the scale of the deception, voters watched passively as Kamala Harris stepped in as the de facto candidate.

It was an unconstitutional transfer of candidacy that the media refused to acknowledge. This wasn’t spin -- it was a deliberate, coordinated effort to deceive the American public about who was actually running the country.

All while, the same media complex screamed that Trump was the dictator.

If truth and transparency are foundational to democracy, then this widespread concealment -- and the resulting erosion of informed consent -- should outrage every American who values honest governance.

COVID-19: From "Conspiracy" to Consensus

When Trump suggested the virus originated in a lab, the idea was branded "xenophobic" and "debunked." Today, both the CIA and FBI assess a lab leak as probable. This pattern repeated across masks, school closures, natural immunity, and vaccine efficacy.

The CDC quietly redefined "vaccine" to accommodate products that didn't stop transmission, contradicting officials' earlier claims. Education leaders denied coordinating with teachers unions on prolonged school closures despite evidence proving otherwise, devastating children's mental health and education.

Throughout, Trump was vilified as "anti-science" for questioning narratives that later collapsed -- demonstrating how the "threat to democracy" label silences legitimate dissent.

Border Security: Denial Amid Crisis

While Trump was called xenophobic for demanding border security, his policies effectively curbed illegal crossings without new legislation. In contrast, Biden officials dismantled these effective policies while insisting only Congress could solve the problem.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Congress the administration had "operational control" of the border -- while record-breaking illegal entries, overwhelmed facilities, and surging cartel activity told a very different story.

They claimed to be addressing the “root causes” of migration, yet crossings exploded to historic levels. They blamed Trump’s policies as inhumane while ignoring the actual consequences of their own: trafficking increased, fentanyl poured into American communities, and untold lives were lost in the chaos.

Common sense was discarded. Hatred for Trump outweighed concern for national security and human suffering. While illegal immigrants were given free housing, food, and healthcare, American veterans went neglected, seniors faced rising medical costs, and cities buckled under homelessness and resource strain.

These are not partisan talking points -- they are 90/10 issues that should unify Americans regardless of party. But the public was instead gaslit into believing that caring about your own country’s sovereignty is xenophobic or cruel.

The Russia Investigation and Intelligence Abuses

The Trump-Russia narrative -- foundation for claims that Trump threatened democracy -- collapsed when Mueller found no evidence of conspiracy. Later revelations proved more damning: FBI lawyer Clinesmith falsified evidence for a FISA warrant; the Steele dossier contained deliberately false information paid for by Trump's opponents; exculpatory evidence in the Michael Flynn case was concealed.

The great irony here is staggering: while Trump was accused of being a threat to democratic institutions, those very institutions were being weaponized against him in unprecedented ways. The real undermining of democratic norms came not from Trump, but from those who claimed to be defending democracy against him.

Media Collusion and Information Control

Today's media no longer informs -- it enforces. The New York Post was banned for reporting verified facts about Hunter Biden. Trump's "very fine people" comment was maliciously edited to hide his explicit condemnation of neo-Nazis. His reference to a new technique for sterilizing blood was twisted into a narrative that he told people to "inject bleach."

These aren't mistakes but engineered falsehoods meant to dehumanize political opponents. In a genuine democracy, media checks power; instead, American media has become a propaganda arm defending institutional power while demonizing challengers.

Government Institutions as Political Weapons

Government institutions have been weaponized for political ends while accusing Trump of authoritarianism. Under Obama, the IRS targeted conservative groups. The DoJ labeled concerned parents at school board meetings as potential terrorists. Security clearances and FISA warrants were politically manipulated.

Classified document cases reveal a two-tiered justice system: aggressive prosecution for Trump versus leniency for Biden and Clinton. January 6th defendants faced harsh treatment compared to 2020 rioters who caused far more destruction.

Federal agencies have colluded with social media to suppress dissent -- raising serious First Amendment concerns. The January 6th Committee's selective editing of evidence and exclusion of exculpatory information about Trump exemplifies how "defending democracy" shields undemocratic behavior.

The Inversion of Reality: Who Truly Threatens Democracy?

Logic dictates a simple conclusion: if nearly every major anti-Trump narrative -- from Russian collusion to COVID origins to Biden’s cognitive health -- has collapsed under scrutiny, what basis remains for believing Trump threatens democracy?

The aftermath is equally clear: if the institutions aligned against him -- intelligence agencies, media conglomerates, and political operatives -- have repeatedly misled the public, their credibility to define “danger” is null. The louder they sound the alarm, the more they reveal about themselves: suppressing information, weaponizing government agencies, manipulating elections, and discarding due process when politically convenient.

And yet, instead of acknowledging the obvious, many Americans now defend manufactured narratives that make intelligent people sound irrational. Reasonable citizens abandon common sense -- not because the facts changed, but because the media relentlessly promulgates assigned opinions that demand emotional loyalty over objective thought. Issues that should unite 90% of the public -- like stopping child trafficking, securing borders, or caring for veterans -- become polarizing, not on principle, but because they’re associated with the “wrong” political figure.

Restoring Sanity, Reclaiming Sovereignty

Democracy cannot function without informed citizens. And citizens cannot be informed when they are being systematically lied to -- by government agencies, media platforms, and political leaders who view the truth as a threat to power.

The real crisis in America isn’t Donald Trump. It’s the normalization of institutional lying, the abandonment of due process, and the transformation of journalism into narrative enforcement.

Until we reject assigned opinions and return to objective truth and transparency, we will remain ruled not by reason, but by illusion. Meanwhile, those who shout loudest about “threats to democracy” conceal their actions in shadows -- while figures like Trump operate in full view. If this inversion continues, “government by the people” will be reduced to a hollow phrase -- masking a system of manipulation, not representation.

The time has come for Americans across the political spectrum to acknowledge the pattern of deception and demand better. Our constitutional republic depends on it.



On the Fringe, Red Pill News, and more- May 24

 



Vaccine Side-Effects: Democrats Lied, Thousands Died


So now we learn not only that Joe Biden has Stage Five prostate cancer, but that starting in February 2021, the POC/LGBTQ committee that was operating Biden like a Muppet concealed, then downplayed the risk of heart disease from the COVID vaccines.

It’s funny how we find out all this dirt, within 48 hours after the committee’s announcement about Joe’s cancer.  Because he’s got a few months to live, he’s now officially the “Fall Guy.”

Everything bad can be blamed on him, if it can’t be blamed on Trump.  All the Muppeteer committee members can pretend they’re innocent and resume their White House and Cabinet posts on January 20, 2029 if the Democrat party Deep State (DPDS) steals another presidential election.

From Daily Wire:

According to the report from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, officials knew as early as February 2021 that the vaccines were associated with myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and pericarditis (inflammation of the thin sac surrounding the heart). Still, they waited to warn the public until June as they pushed the vaccine on Americans.

The report concludes that U.S. health officials “knew about the risks of myocarditis,” “downplayed the health concern,” and deliberately “delayed informing the public about the risk.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who chairs the committee and will lead a hearing on it later this afternoon, told The Daily Wire that Biden officials delayed reporting the side effects because they were concerned about “vaccine hesitancy.” 

“But in being concerned about that, they violated the inviolable principle of informed consent,” Johnson said.

Here is the full subcommittee report.  This report never would have been prepared if Democrats had kept control of the Senate last fall.  The Subcommittee on Investigations would have been launching new bogus investigations into Team Trump instead.

Spearheaded by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the official diktat of the DPDS was that the vaccines were “safe and effective.”  They knew better.  The Israelis had started distributing Pfizer vaccines several weeks before we did.  So they knew that vaccinated patients were getting myocarditis with alarming frequency, months before we did.

They were warning Joe’s Muppeteer committee, but that committee wasn’t passing on this warning to the American people.

This is another one of Fauci’s many crimes against humanity, the most evil being his funding of gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, using our tax dollars.  That’s how COVID was unleashed upon the world, causing the deaths of 2 million people worldwide, including a million Americans.

Very few government figures in recent history — Hitler, Stalin, Chairman Mao and Pol Pot, for example — have killed more of their own countries’ people.

I was almost one of them.  I spent a month in the hospital, including 72 hours comatose on a ventilator.  Then I had to learn how to walk again, because I’d spent so much time on my back in bed.  This was very difficult at my age.

Millions of Americans, and millions more around the world, suffered terribly from this disease without dying.  Thank you, Dr. Fauci.  Your blanket pre-emptive pardon by the Muppeteer committee’s Autopen evidently shields you from civil liability as well.  How convenient.

PRO TIP: Check the increased numbers of “excess deaths” and excess disabilities in the past four years.  Insurance companies keep careful track of such things.

There was a slow, gradual increase until 2020.  Then both started going up sharply, through the roof and into orbit.  And the graphs didn’t level off very much after the pandemic was officially declared over by Joe Biden himself, so that he could cancel Trump’s Title 42 public health order and let in millions of illegal aliens even faster.

What did we start doing differently in March 2021 that would cause all these deaths and disabilities after the pandemic was officially over?  Joe’s Muppeteer committee was pushing the vaccine like a bulldozer, and concealing the devastating side-effects.

“Correlation is not causation,” but as we now know, COVID vaccines cause myocarditis and other debilitating and fatal diseases.  These diseases cause heart attacks, which are often fatal.  Even if the patient survives, the result is a massive scar on the heart muscle, which reduces blood flow.  The disease survives, however, and can cause subsequent heart attacks.  The cumulative effect of surviving multiple heart attacks, or even one, is a weakening and crippling of the patient due to reduction of oxygen flowing to the muscles.

Eventually, one of these heart attacks will probably kill the patient.  Sadly, that’s the prognosis for patients with these heart diseases.  If the patient is 12, or 25, or 46, or even 100, crippling him like this is aggravated battery.  Many states call these specific circumstances “medical battery.”  And if the patient dies, it’s called ”wrongful death.”

Crippling thousands of patients like this — along with the excess deaths — is Dr. Fauci’s crime against humanity.  But he’s got a blanket pardon.  Thanks, Autopen operator, whoever you are.

Why did the Muppeteer committee decide to conceal and legally immunize all of this?  Well, a lot of Democrats and RINOs in Washington, D.C. have been bought and paid for by Big Pharma.  So Big Pharma now has total immunity from product liability, for almost anything COVID-related.

Mask and vaccine mandates?  The Democrats also seem to like totalitarianism when they’re the ones in power.

Their party is controlled by a tiny elite, many of whom are over 70 and a few in key positions who are over 80 (Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Bernie Sanders, for example).  A study very early in the pandemic by an Italian hospital — Europe was hit early and hard by the virus, like New York — had revealed that the average age of a COVID fatality was 85.

So senior citizens who got annual check-ups (such as Biden, Pelosi, Sanders, Chuck Schumer, and dozens of other Democrat congressmen) got dire warnings from their doctors.

Also, their party elites wanted to be able to get their hair done at their favorite salons (Pelosi) and dine in fancy French restaurants (Gavin Newsom) without wearing a mask.

Several of the DPDS elites had been caught flaunting their own mask mandates — Pelosi and Newsom were just two of them — and they didn’t want their “rules for thee but not for me, peasants” hypocrisy to be exposed anymore by Fox News.  So they wanted to bulldoze us into herd immunity as fast as possible and declare the pandemic over.

Personally, I had to pass up a job offer for 50% more than my current salary because the new employer was insisting that I get vaccinated.  I provided a medical exemption.  Enforcing the mask and vaccine mandate with an iron fist, the employer said, “Take the vaccine or we’ll find someone else.”

Of course, it was a downtown Chicago law firm — very left-wing, and heavy on all the DPDS dogma.  I was willing to navigate it for all that money, but I drew the line at risking my life.  I’d already been working for a similar firm for years, navigating left-wing dogma in an office right across LaSalle Street, and I still work there.  But their solution was to have everyone work from home.  Imagine that.

So far, in addition to my temporarily crippling case of COVID, Big Pharma and its DPDS minions (such as Dr. Fauci) have cost me over $150,000 in lost wages.  And as we know, the cumulative economic damage worldwide was in the trillions.  Over 100,000 small businesses in America closed their doors forever, including several of my favorite small-town restaurants.

But both Big Pharma and all its DPDS minions have absolute immunity, or (in the case of government minions who weren’t pardoned by the Autopen) qualified immunity.  Since they were following Fauci’s protocols, they qualify for immunity.  Fauci himself has absolute immunity from his pardon.

The way things stand right now, none of them will pay one dime in damages, or spend one minute wearing handcuffs.  See how this works?  Here in Chicago, we have a proverb: “In the Democrat party, one hand washes the other.”



Biden’s Prostate Cancer –- Things Don’t Add Up

Joe Biden looking senile

Days after the release of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview with former President Joe Biden, a new story has predictably emerged, aimed at distracting from the previous one. (This is big media’s art form: narrative control, not reporting. They shape the news to best benefit the Democrats and the administrative state.) 

The second and distracting story is that former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an "aggressive" form of prostate cancer, “with metastasis to the bone."

The timing is intriguing, but the outlook for Biden is bleak.

This is metastatic or Stage IV cancer. The five-year survival rate for metastatic prostate cancer is 30%, with a median survival time of 2 to 3 years. 

This is tragic news for Joe Biden and his family.

However, to borrow a phrase from the Nixon era, the question is: what did they know and when did they know it?

According to Harvard Medical School, prostate cancer is diagnosed in approximately 238,000 American men each year. Despite ongoing debates over “what is a woman?”, transgender women (men) are included in this statistic and are at risk for prostate cancer, regardless of whether they identify as women or wear a dress.

Why are we only hearing about Biden’s advanced cancer now?

Mayo Clinic notes that, “Prostate cancer is usually found early, and it often grows slowly. Most people with prostate cancer are cured.”

However, bone metastases represent late-stage cancer, not early, and are unlikely to be cured.

According to MedicineNet, “It can take up to eight years to spread from the prostate to other parts of the body (metastasis), typically the bones.” Biden may have had cancer before he became president. It’s possible that neither Biden nor his physicians were aware of it at that time. It’s also possible they were aware and chose to conceal it, even as he campaigned for president.

As others have suggested, perhaps the plan was to get Biden and Harris reelected in 2024, and then shortly after the inauguration, announce Biden’s cancer. He would resign, making Vice President Harris the president, a position she would likely not win on her own. 

The president undergoes an annual physical exam and is cared for by a White House physician, who has an office in the White House, alongside a White House Medical Unit that includes five military physicians, five physician assistants, five nurses, and three paramedics. One of the physicians is always present with the president, whether in Washington, D.C., or abroad.

This staff is not only for the president but also for his immediate family and White House staff; the focus is on the commander-in-chief. 

Biden’s last reported physical exam in February 2024 revealed no signs of trouble, according to his doctor. There was no mention of prostate cancer or his declining cognitive state.

His physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, claimed that he “identified no new concerns.”

This Clintonesque language (“it depends on what the meaning of is is”) may technically be correct if the prostate cancer was not “new” in 2024, but how does that imply “no signs of trouble”?

And how does this assertion from Dr. O’Conner hold?

"He continues to be fit for duty and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations."

Is Biden’s physician trustworthy? That’s a good question. The New York Post reported, “Joe Biden’s WH doctor was a longtime family friend who once worked with his shady brother.”

Perhaps this doctor is implicated in both the cognitive issues and the cancer cover-up. Who else could be involved? Another doctor named Dr. Jill?

Although I am younger than Biden, my annual physical includes a digital rectal exam to check for prostate nodules or enlargement, as well as a PSA test, which suggests prostate cancer if elevated. I assume Biden’s physical included the same.

Or maybe not. A Biden spokesperson claimed, “Former U.S. President Joe Biden had not received a test for prostate cancer, known as a PSA, for more than a decade.” PSA testing is not mandatory and depends on age and risk factors, but for the most important medical patient in the country, it seems such testing would be a no-brainer. 

Yet this year, a small nodule was discovered in the prostate during a routine physical exam, which necessitated further evaluation.

In a slow-growing cancer that has now advanced, how could a nodule or prostate enlargement have gone unnoticed earlier, or was Biden’s PSA not elevated?

Was this cancer missed by the team of medical professionals responsible for maintaining the president's health? Once again, what did they know, and when did they know it?

Or was it known and kept hidden? Like Biden’s cognitive state, which only now, after he is out of office, are White House staffers and the media finally acknowledging?

Remember how many weekends Biden spent at his Rehoboth beach house?

Was the reason, as claimed by NPR, that he chose to be almost anywhere but the White House, where he said it's “hard to get comfortable"?

Or was Biden undergoing treatment for his cancer at home, away from the prying eyes of Washington, D.C.?

Everyone in Biden’s orbit, including his staff, family, and media who observed him daily, said nothing about his mental decline, which was clear to even casual observers. Did his handlers also conceal his cancer diagnosis?

Biden’s brother Frank made an interesting comment last year: “Selfishly I will have him back to enjoy whatever time we have left.”

What did they know, and when did they know it?

This raises questions about Biden’s fitness and ability to serve in office under the 25th Amendment. Was he undergoing chemotherapy during his presidency? If so, for how long?

Chemotherapy side effects include fatigue, low energy, and memory and concentration difficulties, among other medical issues. These symptoms are similar to those of dementia. However, it was significantly covered up.

“Chemo brain” is a real phenomenon. The Mayo Clinic describes it as, “Trouble with thinking and memory that can happen during and after cancer treatment.”

We are learning that Biden was, as Newsweek reported, “a leader whose public image of control and clarity masked private struggles with memory, stamina, and recognition.”

It may not only have been dementia but also cancer treatment, or some combination of both. Regardless of the cause, cognitive dysfunction in the U.S. president is concerning. Transparency regarding presidential health and fitness is crucial and was clearly lacking during the last administration. 

Here’s another consideration. If Biden’s cancer truly appeared out of nowhere, could it be a “turbo cancer”? These aggressive cancers, whether new or re-emerging from previous remission, may be associated with COVID vaccines and boosters.

The medical establishment downplays turbo cancers, calling them a “myth.” Then again, questioning the mantra of safe and effective vaccines, mask and distancing efficacy, and so on was labeled a “conspiracy theory.”

Biden received five vaccine doses, raising the possibility of such an aggressive cancer presentation. However, there are certain medical topics we can’t discuss, such as the 100-fold increase in autism over two generations. 

The bigger question is: who ran the country, made crucial decisions, signed bills into law, issued executive orders, and granted presidential pardons? Who operated the infamous “autopen”? 

Was Biden aware of what was happening in his name?

President Trump doesn’t think so, saying, “It was the people that knew he was cognitively impaired, and that took over the Autopen.”

Moreover, “Staffers operating President Biden’s autopen were allegedly taking payoffs in exchange for pardons,” according to Rep. Tim Burchett.

If his doctors overlooked both his cancer and dementia, that constitutes medical malpractice. If the doctors, along with his staff and family, concealed it, allowing a rogue group of individuals to govern the country, that’s even worse.

Which is it, and will we ever know the truth?

Brit Hume summed it up well, “There’s a whole generation of Democratic politicians who have to answer for this.”

Don’t hold your breath, though, as no one in Washington, D.C., is ever held accountable for anything.



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Lessons From Trump’s First Term Animate His Push To Confront the Washington Establishment’s Depths of Perfidy

 In response, democracy is being redefined by the left as the ability of a thousand district judges individually to stop anything the president wishes to do.

by Conrad Black

After less than four months in his second term, President Trump is no less controversial yet steadily more accomplished. Illegal immigration, which reached the proportions of the barbarian invasions of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth and sixth centuries A.D., has effectively been ended. Almost forgotten now are the shameful compromises of Senator McConnell and others claiming that an excellent goal would be keeping illegal immigration to two million people a year. 

Even fewer now remember the endless years of hypocritical claptrap from Senator McCain and others about “comprehensive immigration reform,” a euphemism for doing nothing or making conditions worse. The Democratic desire for more votes to be regimented and delivered, despite the lack of citizenship of this new election-clinching constituency, united with the avarice of Republican employers to exploit cheap labor, and to hell with the national interest. The press allowed President Biden and some of his predecessors to claim legislation was necessary to enable them to honor their presidential oath in defending America’s borders.

It isn’t clear how great the savings accomplished by the DOGE may be, and with Elon Musk one must always be ready for hyperbole. Doubtless some people are being disemployed unwisely, and such incidents will receive maximum publicity. Yet this is an effort worth making that will produce material results as well as shaking the complacency of the gigantic Democratic pustule of government in and around the District of Columbia.

OXON HILL, MARYLAND - FEBRUARY 20: CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk leaves the stage holding a chainsaw after speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel And Convention Center on February 20, 2025 in Oxon Hill, Maryland. The annual four-day gathering brings together conservative U.S. lawmakers, international leaders, media personalities and businessmen to discuss and champion conservative ideas. Argentinian President Javier Milei gifted Musk a chainsaw that he used as a prop while campaigning. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Tesla’s Elon Musk holds a chainsaw at the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 20, 2025, at Oxon Hill, Maryland. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Mr. Trump’s opponents tried to turn a thoroughly undesirable person who had entered the country illegally into a civil rights hero while only defending “due process.” This is a bit rich coming from all those who sanctimoniously cheered on the politicization of the intelligence agencies and the FBI, to present Democratic campaign smears in 2016 as the work of legitimate intelligence gatherers so clearly truthful it could be published without any verification, and who supported spurious impeachments and indictments of Mr. Trump, attempts to keep him off the ballot, and who may have been at least indirectly complicit in lapses of security so serious that they almost cost the former president and leader of the opposition his life.

The Democratic Party has allowed itself to become entangled with visa-holding students supporting antisemitism and sanctifying terrorists. All the while, Mr. Trump is accused of being a rudderless force for chaos with Hitlerian ambitions. No effort whatever was made by the previous administration to bring the Ukraine war to an end. It was assumed that Russia would win easily, and the Biden administration completely misread the correlation of forces. 

For two years, Mr. Biden and NATO gave Ukraine enough material support to survive, but not to win, and there was never any exit strategy, much less one with a satisfactory strategic outcome. Mr. Trump will eventually get a cease-fire because he alone has the ability to create conditions in which both sides need an agreement. His opponents accuse him of being motivated entirely by a desire for a Nobel Peace Prize. 

FILE - Members of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest group, including Sueda Polat, second from left, and Mahmoud Khalil, center, are surrounded by members of the media outside the Columbia University campus, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York.
Anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil outside the Columbia University campus, April 30, 2024.
AP/Mary Altaffer, file

He is the only president who has taken serious counter-measures against the Communist Chinese campaign of unfair trading, industrial espionage, currency manipulation, and intimidation of smaller trading partners, all while being overtly contemptuous of America. There has been the customary press effort to present the recent de-escalation of tariffs between America and China as a climb-down by Mr. Trump, but it is obvious the world is far more concerned with access to the American market than it is with placating the Chinese. 

So far, Mr. Trump’s tariff plans appear successful and the 130 countries seeking negotiations are looking to limit their own concessions, not aggravate American complaints. Mr. Trump also has the distinction of being the first president since Bill Clinton to pay any attention to the federal budget deficit and to the trade deficit, though it has been a concern since the Carter years.

Ultimately more important than individual policy areas is that the Trump administration is now armed with the knowledge it did not possess in its first term of the depths of perfidy and tenacity of the corrupt Washington establishment, which sustains itself not by popular support but by the self-interest of the elites and the occupation of the commanding heights of unelected, bureaucratic, and regulatory government. 

Now that the prosecution service has been torn from their hands, they have engaged in industrial-league judge shopping, and redefined democracy as the ability of a thousand district judges individually to stop anything the president of the United States wishes to do. The challenge to the Academy to maintain reasonable toleration of a variety of opinion and to avoid the degradation of higher learning into a battering ram for the destruction of American society and civilized traditions is denounced as fascist authoritarianism, when as the public sees, that is in fact what it is opposing.       

A student protester waves a Palestinian flag above Hamilton Hall on the campus of Columbia University, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. Early Tuesday, dozens of protesters took over Hamilton Hall, locking arms and carrying furniture and metal barricades to the building. Columbia responded by restricting access to campus.
A protester waves a Palestinian flag above the occupied Hamilton Hall, renamed Hind’s Hall, on the Columbia campus, April 30, 2024, at New York. Pool/Mary Altaffer via AP

About 80 percent of the national political press and the visible academic elite are leftist and they had succeeded in foisting upon a hostile nation anti-American education, systematically dishonest media, biological men destroying womens’ sports, a permanent welcome-mat for the destitute and criminals of the world, hemorrhaging debt, a politicized and corrupt legal system, and diminishing armed forces harassed by racial and gender nonsense. 

Mr. Trump’s assault on the unrepresentative biases of the academic, journalistic, entertainment, and financial elites is generally popular, and because he is much more knowledgeable of the methods of his enemies than he was eight years ago, and has so convincingly debunked the defamations of those who represented him as a meteoric freak and mountebank, the forces of national defeatism are finally in a state of cold and almost inarticulate terror.

If there is a potential Achilles’ heel on what should now become one of the most important presidencies in American history, it is the president and his family’s fondness for commercial hucksterism. To some extent, this is a question of taste, but some of the Trumps’ recent commercial initiatives, particularly with countries he is in intimate official negotiation with, do not appear to be entirely above suspicion. Mr. Trump is very close to a series of colossal triumphs that will make him a world-historic figure. He should be careful not to give any hostages to his enemies as a result of commercial habits that could be inappropriate to a holder of his great office.

https://www.nysun.com/article/lessons-from-trumps-first-term-animate-his-push-to-confront-the-corrupt-washington-establishments-depths-of-perfidy



France: International synthetic drug production network dismantled

 


An international synthetic drug manufacturing network has been dismantled, according to an announcement by the Marseille public prosecutor’s office on Saturday with around 15 people arrested in southern France and Belgium, and eight charged.  

 

The operation, initiated on Monday following months of investigations led by the specialised interregional jurisdiction (JIRS) of Marseille, was prompted by the arrest in June 2024 of two individuals in the Var region with 215 kg of methamphetamine. This haul alone matches the total annual seizures typically made in France in recent years, highlighted Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone in a statement. 

Following these arrests, the investigation revealed that 400 kg of methamphetamine were produced in spring 2024 at a laboratory set up from scratch in a luxurious property in the Var hinterland, according to the prosecutor.  


The raw materials, mostly sourced from China, were shipped by sea and then by road to businesses in Var, where the network had strong logistical support. The retail value of the operation was estimated to exceed €11 million. 


The two individuals arrested in June 2024 were linked to the Var criminal underworld and collaborated with a Mexican cartel, as stated by Mr Bessone. Investigators also identified distribution channels involving intermediaries based in Spain and Belgium, as well as the use of cryptocurrencies for fund transfers. 


The judicial operation launched on Monday resulted in the arrest of 15 individuals, primarily in Var. Notably, one of the key figures in the network was apprehended in Belgium by the LiΓ¨ge judicial police as part of a mutual legal assistance request. 


Raids led to the seizure of cash, three vehicles, luxury leather goods, numerous mobile phones, and electronic equipment used to detect surveillance systems employed by law enforcement. 


Abandoned equipment was also discovered at the Var hinterland villa that housed the methamphetamine production lab. 


Following interviews, 8 of the 15 individuals arrested have already been charged, primarily for organized importation, production, and international trafficking of narcotics, along with various forms of money laundering. Six were remanded in custody, and two were placed under judicial supervision. 


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