Enabling Chaos

American  Thinker 

Anyone who has lived with a loved one struggling with addiction knows the painful tension between loving the person and despising their behavior. Addicts often manipulate friends and family into enabling their descent into dysfunction, and well-meaning but misguided loved ones can inadvertently hasten their collapse.

This dynamic mirrors a broader societal issue in the West. Leftist politicians and the legacy media promote unchecked tolerance, diversity, and inclusivity, often ignoring the consequences. The result is an influx of unvetted immigrants who resist assimilation and are swiftly placed on welfare. As immigrant birth rates rise, western fertility rates decline. In the U.K., some immigrant men have formed rape gangs, targeting local women and children. Yet, citizens who voice concerns on social media or to authorities risk being labeled Islamophobes and facing criminal charges. In Scotland, 14-year-old Mayah Sommers, dubbed the “Young Queen of Scots,” faces charges after brandishing edged weapons and confronting alleged migrant attackers threatening her and her sister. The migrants, however, face no repercussions. Young girls in Scotland seem forced to choose between submitting to violence or being prosecuted for self-defense.

In the U.S., tragedies like the rape and murder of Laken Riley highlight similar issues. Immigrant truck drivers, unable to read road signs, cause fatal crashes, and hospitals face financial strain from uninsured migrants using emergency rooms for primary care. President Trump’s efforts to address these challenges in Washington, D.C., have faced resistance from leftists, though Mayor Muriel Bowser recently acknowledged positive results. Meanwhile, Democrat-run cities continue to deteriorate.

Shockingly, some perpetrators of these crimes receive public support, even from victims. A Chicago woman, injured during a violent carjacking, opposed President Trump’s plan to deploy National Guard troops to her city. Over 2.5 million people signed a petition urging leniency for an illegal immigrant truck driver responsible for three deaths in Florida. Luigi Mangione, accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has garnered support from those frustrated with the healthcare system.

This growing “assassination culture” is alarming. Over one-third of attendees at the Stand Up for Science Rally in Washington, D.C., expressed belief that violence may be necessary to “save” the country. Meanwhile, societal indulgence of mental instability exacerbates the problem. Not long ago, individuals confused about their gender received treatment. Today, they are celebrated, and those who refuse to affirm their identities may face censure or legal consequences. Providing hormones and surgical interventions to the mentally unstable is akin to giving an addict free drugs and shelter -- it enables rather than heals. Similarly, unchecked immigration and crime, coupled with media narratives blaming President Trump, conservatives, Republicans, and Jews, fuel emotional frenzy among unstable individuals, sometimes leading to violence.

Mass shootings by transgender or non-binary individuals underscore this issue. Media claims that such incidents are rare are of little consolation to their victims, and their frequency has become noticeable. Examples include Devon Erickson and Maya Alec McKinney in Denver, Snochia Moseley in Aberdeen, Audrey Hale in Nashville, Salvador Ramos in Uvalde, Dylan Butler in Iowa, Kiimbrady Carriker in Philadelphia, Anderson Lee Aldrich in Colorado Springs, and Robert Westman in Minnesota.

Mental illness is a common thread in these cases, yet the media often downplays these incidents while highlighting alleged right-wing violence, such as the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot (an FBI hoax) or the January 6 protest (likely instigated and enabled by the Left).

We would be better served by helping the mentally ill get the treatment they need to restore them to health, rather than enabling them to sink further into dysfunction. The left may find it useful to place the blame on guns, racism, or transphobia, as it gives them the excuse to exercise more control over us. However, it sentences those suffering from mental illness to lives of misery and endangers those of us who seek to live lives of peaceful security.

False positives, flawed stats, misused data: Reform group warns science (and liberty) under attack

 

CAPTION & CREDIT: Textbooks; Pong Photo/Shutterstock

By Daniel Nuccio - Northern Illinois University

The College Fix  |  August 29, 2025

Key Takeaways

• A new report highlights a lack of accountability in scientific research, with claims that government funding may incentivize biased research to support preferred narratives.
• Public health agencies are criticized for their expanding roles and misuse of statistics, creating unnecessary regulations that infringe on personal freedoms—termed by some as 'Wizards of Regulatory Science.'
• Proposed reforms include stricter laws on research integrity, improved science education, and safeguards to protect individual liberties from government overreach in scientific regulation.

Flaws, bias, and incentivized research in scientific studies are leading to shoddy findings and government regulations that restrict liberty, according to a new report from the National Association of Scholars, an organization focused on higher education reform.

“There are entire fields which have been affecting scientific regulation that sure seem, politely, bunkum,” NAS Director of Research David Randall said in a recent webinar discussing the report.

The online event marked the release of the most recent report in the association’s “Shifting Sands Series” project, described as examining “how irreproducible science affects select areas of government policy and regulation.”

America lacks meaningful mechanisms for investigating or punishing researcher malfeasance, said Stan Young, director of the project, during the Aug. 19 webinar.

“There are no cops for science,” he said. “There are no laws. There are no prosecutors, no courts, no judges to police a bad system in the university.”

Warren Kindzierski, an adjunct professor of environmental health at the University of Alberta School of Public Health, highlighted what he and Young referred to as “The University Science Problem.” 

“Too many of these studies coming from researchers at universities have false results,” said Kindzierski during the webinar. 

He went on to note examples from nutrition science, environmental epidemiology, and the social sciences of influential studies that are frequently cited despite poor replication records.

Young also noted how, when findings within a larger body of research are ambiguous, it can be difficult to discern whether such ambiguity is downstream of corruption or incompetence.

‘Wizards of Regulatory Science’

Making matters worse, the government may actively exacerbate existing problems by incentivizing biased research, Young said.

“Why is there so much junk science?” Young asked rhetorically. “Well, one thought is that the government buys research supporting the narrative that they want to push.”

“Government funding doesn’t always, but it can quite easily support self-serving claims,” he said.

“The naive belief is that research generates claims, [which] generates government action, but it can reverse,” he added. “The government can have a point of view and they can fund research that supports that point of view.”

Richard Williams, board chair of the Center for Truth in Science, discussed the expansion of public health and the “misuse of statistics” by those in the field to generate “false positives that are used to supply proof that government intervention is needed to resolve issues.”

Recounting the history of public health during the event, Williams described how over the centuries public health’s goals shifted from stopping the spread of contagious disease to preventing contagious disease to getting rat droppings and dangerous chemicals out of food to going “nuts into all sorts of areas.”

Williams said public health agencies now concern themselves with not just infectious disease and food safety, but also diet, healthcare, education, bullying, poverty, prison reform, transportation, and broadband internet access among numerous other areas.   

Regardless of whether some goals might be a net-positive to individuals or society, Williams said, many of them are unrelated to public health. But, he added, treating them as if they were allows public health bureaucrats to accumulate power, and in effect, greater control over people’s lives.

Describing them as the “Wizards of Regulatory Science,” Williams said what public health bureaucrats do is “gin up a lot of often phantom risks,” present a solution that is assumed to work, and never follow up to determine what effect their efforts had.

Eroding liberty

Similarly, Randall said, “we have, as a nation, ceded a remarkable amount of power to people acting on the basis of science.”

Marlo Lewis, a senior fellow in energy and environmental policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, cited President Dwight Eisenhower’s “famous warning against the accumulation of power, whether deliberate or not, by a military-industrial complex.”

“But he also was very worried about how government funding for scientific research…would corrupt the academy and also undermine democratic accountability,” Lewis said during the event.

As an example of the real-world implications of this, Randall noted how during COVID “we had one of the worst…destructions of liberty in the country.”

While the general public is willing to forgive and forget on the condition that those responsible refrain from repeating past mistakes, he said, “every professional is saying, ‘Yeah, we’ll do that again the next time we can.’”

Finding solutions

As for what can be done moving forward, Randall said there are four major areas in which he and his colleagues believe reforms must be made. 

First, he said, there needs to be statutes or laws to address questionable research practices by scientists. For example, he said, these could entail requiring researchers to replicate their findings, as well as implement certain statistical procedures that reduce the risk of false positives. 

In education, Randall said, K-12 science education standards need to be tougher, teacher education needs to be improved, and the requirements of science majors and graduate students at universities need to be more rigorous. 

“We need every person who graduates from high school to be able to say, ‘Wait a minute. I heard that you can muck around with statistics to jimmy up a fake result. When I hear that there’s something I should be panicking and pulling my hair out about, maybe I should just take a look to see if there’s anything in this newspaper article about whether they did the proper due diligence to make sure it’s not just some gummed up, jimmied up fake report,’” Randall said.

Additionally, Randall said, “science reform includes the protection of liberty,” which he said includes not just holding commissions and setting policies to prevent the kinds of abuses of power that occurred during COVID, but also looking at how AI and social media companies may inhibit free speech. 

Lastly, he said, policy institutes interacting with government officials need to convey that even though politicians and administrations may have limited political capital and other worthy goals, the basics of science policy reform matter too.

The full webinar can be viewed here. 

A deep dive into Trump Derangement Syndrome

American  Thinker 

Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), is a sociological, psychological, and political phenomenon.  The central characteristic is not disagreeing with Donald Trump, but rather an intense dislike, disdain for, devaluing of, despising of, and/or hatred of Donald J. Trump.  TDS began as soon as Trump made the public decision to become an American politician and run for president of the United States.

An unspoken but evident and fanatical vow among sufferers of TDS is never, ever to acknowledge or give Trump any credit for good and positive things he does for America.  Even peace in the Mid-East or Ukraine would never result in Trump being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which that Obama won for nothing but his utopian Cairo speech.

A corollary to the above vow by TDS afflicted individuals is to relentlessly and tirelessly criticize and disparage Trump for any proposal he suggests, or policy he introduces.  Trump’s sincere efforts to help America are to be condemned as racist, sexist, dictatorial, or Hitlerian-fascist.  Such criticism, especially by liberal Democrat pundits must be made with a studied tone of sanctimony and self-righteousness modeled on the voice tone of Scott Pelley of CBS.

Another basic requirement to quality for the diagnosis of TDS is that the TDS-afflicted must stay perpetually mindful of the Russia Hoax that took forty million taxpayer dollars of Robert Mueller’s investigation to disprove, and two bogus impeachment debacles to convince Americans that Trump is a pushover, lapdog, and colluding agent against America with Vladimir Putin of Russia.  Such a connection with evil Putin must be relentlessly believed and asserted.

And finally, with or without factual proof, the TDS victim must tie Trump to the violence that occurred during the pageantry and protests of January 6, 2021.  No mention of the Democrat-supported violence of the Summer of 2020 in Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, or Portland and Seattle can be acknowledged, and BLM and George Floyd must always be held in absolute reverence.

The Social and Psychological Domain of TDS

Trump the Political Aggressor, Identification with the Aggressor,* and Hatred of the Aggressor by the Group Self.**

*The phrase identification with the aggressor was coined by Sandor Ferenczi.  It is a paradoxical behavior that can be explained only as a defense mechanism, which involves the victim of aggression or harm acting like the aggressor.

**Group self: There is a parallel process by which an individual’s sense of himself as part of a group is formed.  In essence, inner representations of our self and our self-in-a-group are parallel and conjoined during early developmental and maturational personality experiences.

In individual psychology, psychoanalysts describe identification with the aggressor in their work with individuals, particularly traumatized individuals.  In observing Trump operate politically, it is striking to observe what can be called identification with and/or hatred of the aggressor at the large group psychological level.  In his large political rallies, Trump is applauded, cheered, and adored by the crowds of supporters as he insults, demeans, and caricatures political opponents.  They radiate an almost joyful identification with their aggressor-hero, Donald Trump.  Many in Trump’s campaign style crowds have felt traumatized and hurt by trade and other government policies that they feel took their jobs away in the oil, coal, or manufacturing industries.  Trump was their aggressor-savior.

Democrat and even some Republican politicians with TDS, however, more than resent and hate Trump at subconscious and conscious levels because of his aggressive, bullying, political style and behavior.  They seem to feel victimized or traumatized emotionally and politically.  Trump sometimes starts such political fights, and certainly, if attacked, will predictably escalate his aggression to win a personal fight at all costs.

Many sectors of the American large group-self who react with a tone of narcissistic woundedness, rage, resentment, and dislike have TDS.  They seek political revenge at all costs.  One could argue that the whole commentary and opinion staffs of some media networks have TDS and lead and cheerlead the cadres who hate and despise Trump.  The biased and slanted liberal media are, in turn, attacked by Trump as “fake news” for their TDS.  Trump’s political enemies with TDS, and there are many of them, react like collective wounded political animals who did not accept Trump’s election, nor did they support and work with him politically or legislatively.

TDS is sad and bad news for America because Trump works tirelessly, sincerely, and relentlessly to keep his campaign promises to America.  Democrats and others with TDS must merely trust in “their democracy,” as they call it, and present and deliver better ideas for America.

School district suspends two boys for questioning female who entered boy’s locker room

 

CAPTION & CREDIT: A gent reads a story in disbelief; lOvE lOvE/Shutterstock.com

By Dave Huber - Associate Editor

The College Fix  |  August 30, 2025

Key Takeaways

• Two boys at Stone Bridge High School in Loudoun County, Virginia, were suspended for 10 days after questioning a transgender student's presence in the boys' locker room, which led to accusations of sexual harassment and discrimination against them.
• The school's decision followed the recording of the interaction by the transgender student and the findings of the district's Title IX Office.
• Parents of the boys expressed outrage, arguing the district's actions promote punitive measures against students expressing dissenting views related to transgender policies.
• Loudoun County and other Virginia districts face loss of federal funding due to policies on gender identity.

A high school in the Loudoun County, Virginia school district recently suspended for ten days two boys who had “questioned” whether a biological female should be in their locker room.

The female student, who “identifies” as a male, recorded her encounter with the boys at Stone Bridge High School back in May, WJLA reports.

After she showed administrators her recording, the two boys were deemed by the district’s Title IX Office as “responsible for sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination.”

In addition to the suspensions, the boys were given a “no-contact” order regarding the (female) student, and were required to “meet with school administrators to determine a corrective action plan.”

The punishments “officially” were handed down August 15, according to lawyer Josh Hetzler, who represents the two boys.

Loudoun County Public Schools announced earlier this month that it would not change its “Policy 8040,” or “Rights of Transgender and Gender-Expansive Students,” despite a finding by the U.S. Dept. of Education that its “bathroom and locker room policies violate Title IX.”

(Policy 8040 does not require any “substantiating evidence” from students regarding their gender identity.)

Parents of the two boys believe Loudoun district officials are “sending a message that any student who expresses views that disagree with so-called Policy 8040 will be punished.”

One of the parents, Renae Smith (pictured), said “[We’re] absolutely floored that they came back and branded my son responsible for sexual harassment and sex based discrimination with no solid evidence whatsoever. We’re talking about scarring him for life by a biased process that’s supposed to protect fairness, but it’s shocking. It’s wrong, and it should terrify every single parent.”

CREDIT: Renae Smith/X

Parent Seth Wolfe said his first reaction to news of the punishments was “anger”: “[We’re] saddened by the decision-making process and how that went.”

Most recently, Wolfe blasted the district over its hypocrisy — the same high school that disciplined his son has a “male-only” staff restroom.

“When truth about men and women’s restrooms is censored, hypocrisy rules,” Wolfe said. “It’s unbelievable that the people left in care of our children who allow this indoctrination to happen are allowed to make biological decisions for themselves.”

Ironically, the female student involved in the locker room incident also violated district policy by recording it. She has yet to face sanctions, however.

Over the summer, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said Loudoun County Public Schools officials are “utilizing an unlawful, discriminatory, and retaliatory Title IX investigation to silence students’ sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The U.S. Dept. of Education said on August 15 it had “begun the process of cutting federal funding” to Loudoun County schools as well as four other Virginia districts, noting they “will have to defend their embrace of radical gender ideology over ensuring the safety of their students.”

Two of the districts, Fairfax County and Arlington Public Schools, are suing the Dept. of Ed. in order to, in the words of Education Secretary Linda McMahon, “keep boys in girls sports and bathrooms.”

In a letter to district parents, Fairfax County Superintendent Michelle Reid claimed its suit to keep federal monies flowing is “an important step in our effort to protect the health and safety of all our students in alignment with state and federal law […] including our transgender and gender-expansive community.”

The Loudon County district has a long history of controversy, including attempting to thwart teachers’ criticism of “action-oriented equity practices,” alerting staff against using Dr. Seuss books due to their “racial undertones,” and suspending a teacher for speaking out against Policy 8040 during the public comment section of a board meeting (courts overturned the suspension).

Trump’s Pragmatism Will Save Ukraine From Its Courageous Naïveté

American  Thinker 

Volodymyr Zelensky has, quite bravely, been playing the part of a military commander, but he’s never had a workable strategy for winning or even ending the war. Donald Trump’s pragmatism is forcing Zelensky to face reality, which may ultimately save Ukraine from having Russia seize it inch by inch in the coming years.

In the Age of Chivalry, bravery won wars. At the Battle of St. Jacob an der Birs in 1444, Swiss freedom fighters suicidally fought a much larger French invading force, outnumbered 20-to-1, resisting down to the last man. This persuaded the French to stop waging war on the Swiss, in awe at their sacrifice. Those days are gone. When the last Ukrainian soldier is dead, Putin will not pause to admire the selfless courage with which they fought and fell.

Putin’s mafia state will simply raise its flag over whatever Ukrainian cities it’s captured. Then, the Russians will bring in predominantly Muslim migrant workers from Central Asia to replace the former indigenous population of those places, rebuilding them according to the Kremlin’s totalitarian logic. This has already happened in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which was captured in mid-2022. If the war rages on for years to come, it may happen in Kyiv, Kharkiv, or Odessa, too.

In Spring 2022, Zelensky won the hearts of the world with his “I need ammunition, not a ride” decision to stay in Kyiv and spearhead the capital’s defense. Lion-like bravery, though, is no substitute for strategy. And beyond a PR strategy, strategy is something Zelensky never had.

Zelensky campaigned for President in 2019 based on naïve promises aboutquickly ending the conflict with Russia over eastern Ukraine. He was propelled to victory by Eastern Ukrainian oligarchs, whose media outlets promoted him. After Zelensky’s election triumph, European leaders hastily set up a meeting between him and Putin in Paris.

On the eve of that meeting, Zelensky first donned his now-infamous military-style wear at a TV talk show, and said that he wanted to bring back from the meeting a “feeling that everybody really wants gradually to finish this tragic war.”

The problem with conducting diplomacy based on feelings, not facts, is that they may not be reciprocal. At the meeting, it turned out that Putin was not ready to end Russia’s involvement in Eastern Ukraine on terms acceptable to the majority of Ukrainians. Contrary to the fears of some Ukrainian conservatives at the time, Zelensky also refused to accept terms that would have ended the conflict in Putin’s favor.

With a deal out of reach, Zelensky did not pivot to preparing his country for the intensified Russian aggression it was now likely to face. Instead, he stood paralyzed, like a deer in the headlights. The best he could come up with was a vague proposal to hold a referendum on building a Trump-style border wall around the Russian-occupied parts of Eastern Ukraine. Legally, Ukraine’s president would not have needed to hold a referendum to authorize building defensive fortifications. In any case, no referendum was ever scheduled and no wall was ever built.

In January 2022, when Western leaders first publicly warned about an imminent full-scale Russian invasion, Zelensky did very little to respond. He did not call up military reservists until February 23. He did not close the country’s borders. He did not even order basic defensive measures in those cities likely to be Russia’s first targets.

It’s not about hindsight. As Ukrainian defense analysts acknowledged as early as 2021, any Russian invasion of Ukraine was always going to focus on Melitopol and Kherson. These two key cities in Southern Ukraine were the closest to the already Russian-occupied Crimea.

It was also widely acknowledged that Putin dreamed of creating a land bridge between Russian-occupied parts of eastern Ukraine and Crimea, a quest that would have been impossible without the strategically located Melitopol. It was also no secret that Russia wanted to capture the seaside metropolis of Odessa to cut off Ukraine from the sea entirely and erase its sovereignty. In May 2014, Russian-funded groups of rioters had already tried once to seize Odessa.

For Russian forces to get from Crimea to Odessa, Kherson is the first stop—and also the most formidable natural barrier, as the very wide Dniepr river flows through the city, crossed by only one road bridge and one rail bridge. The roads from Crimea to these cities also feature numerous shorter bridges over irrigation canals and other bodies of water.

Rigging and blowing up these bridges would’ve been the obvious way to mount an effective defense, slowing down Russian advances by weeks or months, as Ukrainian officials have repeatedly acknowledged. Yet, Zelensky failed to get it done.

When the invasion got underway in February 2022, Russian tanks were able to roll into Melitopol and Kherson easily, just days after the start of the invasion. Despite months of warnings about Russian forces amassing in Crimea, Zelensky had not deployed any of Ukraine’s combat-experienced light infantry brigades to these key cities, the nearest to Crimea. Instead, he kept them stationed in exposed cities like Mariupol in Eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region, where they were sitting ducks for Russian encirclement.

In the end, the task of defending Melitopol and Kherson fell to a few hundred self-organised civilian volunteers, with little government support and no defensive fortifications at hand. Forgotten by Zelensky’s government, some of the volunteers struggled to find even basic firearms or ammunition for their heroic, but hopeless, last stand. Russian invaders mowed them down in no time.

Zelensky’s inability to think ahead cost Ukraine vast areas of territory in the first days of the invasion.

Since then, Ukraine’s brave soldiers have managed to stop the hemorrhaging of land. Eventually, they managed to take back Kherson from the Russian occupiers, though Melitopol’s status remains unchanged. What hasn’t changed as well is Zelensky’s inability to formulate a clear long-term strategy for Ukraine.

Over the past years, Zelensky’s team rejected one well-meaning peace proposal after the other, instead of engaging constructively. When Musk tweeted his impractical, but heartfelt, peace proposals in 2022, one of Zelensky’s handpicked diplomats quite literally told him to “f*** off.”

In 2023, senior NATO official Stian Jennsen made the more viable proposal that Ukraine should cede some territory in exchange for the ultimate Western security guarantee, NATO membership. His sensible proposal was met with a torrent of outrage from Zelensky’s team, and he was forced to apologize for his suggestion.

Zelensky didn’t just turn down credible international peace offers. He also failed to tackle the biggest hurdle Ukraine currently faces: Ukraine’s military recruitment crisis. The fine for evading a draft summons is only a few hundred dollars (25,500 UAH, roughly 600 USD), an amount “insufficient to motivate” compliance, as Ukrainian media have noted. In parliament, Zelensky’s party blocked proposals to freeze the bank accounts of draft dodgers.

Without such effective legal tools to incentivize widespread compliance, desperate draft officers have to prowl the streets, looking to snatch up random evaders.

Since 2019, Zelensky’s entire strategy has boiled down to a single deus-ex-machina assumption: Sit back, do little, and let the conflict roll on, while hoping that a Black Swan event in Russia either topples Putin’s regime or makes Putin unable to carry on the war, so Ukraine obtains a full victory. This strategy is neither sustainable nor honest.

Trump is putting realism back in the equation because, ultimately, only Putin can end his invasion. Trump’s pragmatism has already forced Zelensky and his European allies to seek actual defense policies, abandoning wishful thinking about Putin’s impending overthrow. In the end, Trump may save many freedom-loving Ukrainian soldiers from a worse fate than that of Swiss freedom-lovers at St. Jacob in 1444.

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Violence Is The Logical And Desired Outcome Of Leftists’ Trans Victim Narrative

After wallowing in the left’s grievance politics, people are beginning to behave in predictably violent ways.

The  Federalist 

The horrific Annunciation Catholic School shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, became the latest act of violence perpetrated by an individual claiming to be transgender. The FBI confirmed the “shooter has been identified as Robin Westman, a male born as Robert Westman.” Victimhood narratives always end in violence, making grievance politics a precursor to atrocities ranging from mass shootings to genocide.

The left sells this oppressor/oppressed narrative to its constituents — including and especially the so-called trans community, but this community stands out for one important reason: they are uniquely prone to irrational behavior as gender dysphoria is a mental disorder.

Imagine if the leftist press relentlessly pushed a narrative telling schizophrenics that their very existence is being threatened by an evil cabal of conservatives plotting to destroy them. Imagine if once impartial but now ideologically corrupt medical institutions reinforced that messaging. People with schizophrenia would be far more likely to commit acts of violence against their “oppressors.” It doesn’t take much clairvoyance to predict that sequence of events.

It would be unthinkable to exploit schizophrenics by affirming their delusions, granting them elevated status in society, and giving them carte blanche to behave however they like, and yet this is precisely what the left is doing with gender dysphoria. Increasingly bizarre activism on behalf of the “trans community” is characterized as the noble pursuit of “rights” intended to untangle victims caught in the diabolical web of an evil cis mafia conspiring against them.

Rather than recognizing and treating this for what it is — a mental disorder — Democrats are instead convincing “trans people” that the despair, anxiety, frustration, sadness, and confusion they experience derive from treacherous bad actors who wish to undermine their identity. If only “backward” Americans would allow men to invade women’s bathrooms, to shower alongside them at gyms and schools, to categorically destroy women’s sports, to sexually mutilate scores of children through macabre surgeries, then the “trans community” would ascend to a state of eternal bliss. That’s what the left tells people suffering from a mental disorder. Their pending euphoria is made impossible only through the bigotry of nonbelievers.  

People suffering from mental disorders often face an irresistible temptation to attribute their afflictions to the unwillingness of others to embrace reality as they see it. To pour gasoline on that fire by giving credence to a warped reality is unprecedented in the medical community or in society at large – but that’s exactly what our most powerful institutions are doing. Affirming a reality that doesn’t actually exist helps no one except self-righteous ideologues whose insatiable thirst for power and faux enlightenment are pursued at the expense of everyone else, including and especially the patients they “treat.” 

The fallout is exactly what you’d expect — people are beginning to behave in predictably violent ways — most notably the aforementioned Annunciation Catholic School shooting and the shooting at a Nashville Christian school in 2023. As is the case with all school shootings, a percentage of onlookers struggling with similar mental problems will see these violent outbursts as their only option to settle the score. By embracing a distorted sense of reality and identifying heretics supposedly responsible for the suffering of so-called trans people, the left is doing what it does best: priming people to commit acts of violence to further a perverted ideology.

Mexico Is Doing What Canada Is Ignoring – Preparing for 2026 USMCA Renegotiation

Conservative Treehouse 

There are going to be two major stories in 2026 that we will have full context to understand.  Yes, the 2026 midterm politics are going to lead the headlines, but two other issues will have considerable impact.

The first, is the FISA (702) reauthorization, and there is a lot that will surface in the next several months likely to upend the best laid plans of the administrative UniParty [Tulsi Factor].  The second, is the USMCA reauthorization – the end of the trilateral trade agreement, and the structural shift into two separate free trade agreements.

As to the latter issue, while Mexico and Canada are currently in a state of economic flux, only Mexico is preparing to deal with the seismic shift that is about to unfold.  Canada is going to be caught completely off guard.

While Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is trotting around Europe trying to establish his relevance amid the pro-Ukraine coalition,  Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is spending time focused on her domestic economy.

Mexico is preparing to drop significant tariffs on Chinese imports, a proactive move to position Mexico in advance of the upcoming bilateral discussion.

Sheinbaum knows that right now for every deportation ICE executes, her economy is hit as remittances recede. Simultaneously, for every mile of border wall that is completed, the financial dependency model increases.  President Trump’s leverage in the upcoming bilateral trade negotiation against Mexico increases each day, week and month.

Claudia Sheinbaum is smartly focused on trying to get ahead of the issues, while Mark Carney ignores his vulnerability and is about to make Canada naked to the economic weaknesses created by Justin Trudeau.

CHINA POST – Mexico is preparing to raise tariffs on Chinese imports of automobiles, textiles and plastics, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, under a proposal expected to be part of the 2026 budget to be submitted to the nation’s Congress next month.

If confirmed, the increase would mark one of Mexico’s sharpest trade shifts in recent years. Officials in Washington have urged the move as part of US President Donald Trump’s push to build a “Fortress North America” and reduce dependence on Chinese supply chains.

Trump has been a long-time critic of what he calls trade “loopholes” in the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement allowing Chinese goods to enter the US. During his election campaign last year, he railed against Chinese carmakers building plants in Mexico to export cars to the US.

Mexico’s imports from China exceeded US$51 billion last year, accounting for nearly one-fifth of the country’s total purchases abroad.

The rapid growth has turned Mexico into China’s top overseas market for vehicles, but has also left local manufacturers complaining of unfair competition from subsidised goods. The planned tariffs could also be extended to other Asian nations, although China remains the main focus. (read more)

Taken in context, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is prepping to be in alignment with the goals and objectives of President Trump. Meanwhile Canada is completely ignoring the issue of Chinese trade, and the loopholes that anger President Trump within the USMCA exploitation.

We’ll keep watching, but this context will unfold. Slowly at first, then suddenly, all at once, come spring ’26.