Feb 14

Today’s News 14th February 2025

  • How To Forge The Spectator Class
    How To Forge The Spectator Class

    Authored by Josh Stylman via The Brownstone Institute,

    My father could disassemble and rebuild a car engine in our garage. I, like many of my generation, was steered toward the ‘civilized’ path – white collar work, climate-controlled offices, and an increasing detachment from the physical world. While I grew up loving sports, memorizing baseball stats with religious devotion, and finding genuine joy in the games, something fundamental has shifted in how men engage with athletics today.

    In dimly lit rooms across the nation, millions of men gather every weekend, adorned in jerseys bearing other men’s names – not as a complement to their own achievements, but as a substitute for them. We’ve transformed from a nation of players to a nation of watchers.

    Like Rome’s bread and circuses, this passive consumption serves to pacify rather than inspire. 

    The games themselves aren’t the problem – they can build character, teach discipline, and provide genuine entertainment. I still love sports, finding genuine joy in the games just as I did memorizing those baseball stats as a kid. But somewhere along the way, I grew up and realized they should complement life’s achievements, not substitute for them. The danger lies in what happens when grown men never make this transition.

    A growing segment of young men face an even more insidious form of spectator culture. While their fathers at least watched real athletes achieve real things, many young people now idolize social media personalities and content creators – becoming passive observers of manufactured personas who achieved fame primarily by being watched. They can recite influencer dramas and gaming achievements but don’t know the stories of Solzhenitsyn or have ever built something with their own hands. The virtual has replaced the visceral; the parasocial has replaced the personal.

    History shows us a recurring cycle: hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times. We find ourselves now in the latter stages of this cycle, where comfort and convenience have bred a generation of observers rather than builders. Our sophisticated entertainment serves as a digital opiate, keeping the masses content while their capacity for meaningful action atrophies.

    This transformation isn’t accidental. As I explored in my ‘Engineering Reality‘ series, the systematic reframing of physical fitness as problematic represents a calculated effort to weaken societal resilience. Major media outlets like the Atlantic and MSNBC have published pieces linking physical fitness to right-wing extremism, while academic institutions increasingly frame workout culture as problematic. Even gym ownership has been characterized as a potential indicator of radicalization. The message couldn’t be clearer: individual strength – both literal and metaphorical – threatens the prescribed order.

    This erosion of self-reliance extends far beyond fitness. A friend who’s spent decades as an auto mechanic recently confided that he’s grateful to be nearing retirement. “These Teslas,” he told me, “they’re not even cars anymore – they’re computers on wheels. When something goes wrong, you don’t fix it; you just replace entire modules.” What was once a craft that any dedicated person could learn has become an exercise in supervised dependency. Even Klaus Schwab openly predicts that by 2030, Los Angeles will be “private car driven free” – just a fleet of self-driving Ubers. With this week’s devastating tunnel fire in LA leaving thousands stranded, one wonders if such ‘Build Back Better’ moments are exactly the opportunities needed to accelerate these transformations. The message becomes clearer: you won’t fix things anymore because you won’t own them.

    The Covid response revealed this agenda with striking clarity. While liquor stores remained ‘essential businesses,’ authorities closed beaches, parks, and gyms – the very places where people might maintain their physical and mental health. They promoted isolation over community, compliance over resilience, and pharmaceutical dependency over natural immunity. This wasn’t just public health policy; it was a dress rehearsal for state dependency. The same institutions that discouraged basic health practices now champion policies that replace family authority with bureaucratic oversight. From school boards usurping parental rights to social services intervening in family decisions, we’re witnessing the systematic replacement of the capable father figure with an ever-expanding nanny state.

    But true masculinity has never been solely about physical strength. History’s greatest exemplars of masculine virtue weren’t just men of action – they were men of principle, wisdom, and moral courage. From Marcus Aurelius to Omar Little, as I explored in my earlier writing, the common thread was having an unwavering code – the willingness to stand firm on conviction even when it carries personal cost.

    Consider how many men today silently acquiesce to policies they know are wrong, embrace narratives they privately doubt, or submit to institutional pressures that violate their conscience. During Covid, we watched as men who understood the importance of natural immunity, outdoor exercise, and community bonds nevertheless enforced policies that harmed their neighborhoods and families. They chose institutional compliance over moral courage, career safety over civic duty, majority approval over personal conviction.

    Real strength isn’t found in anonymous aggression or digital posturing. I learned this firsthand during Covid when I spoke out against vaccine mandates and became a pariah for defending personal choice and bodily autonomy. While numerous ‘brave’ keyboard warriors attacked me online, one incident stands out. A friend forwarded me a Reddit thread where someone had posted personal information about my family and me, hoping to incite harassment against me – all because I stood up for bodily autonomy and opposed arbitrary biomedical segregation. The initials gave it away – it was my own neighbor, someone I’d known for years.

    When I confronted him in person, this digital lion transformed instantly into a cowering mouse. The same man who had boldly called for my destruction from behind his screen, believing he was anonymous, now stood physically trembling before me, his hands shaking, voice quivering, unable to even meet my gaze.

    This spiritual and intellectual weakness poses a far greater threat than any decline in physical capability. A society of physically strong but morally compliant men is just as vulnerable as one of physically weak ones. True masculine strength requires the courage to think independently, to question authority when necessary, and to protect those who depend on you even when it carries risk. It demands the wisdom to distinguish between legitimate authority and manufactured consensus, between genuine expertise and institutional capture.

    History offers a stark lesson: civilizations thrive when diverse virtues work in concert – builders and nurturers, protectors and healers, strength balanced with empathy. Today’s systematic erosion of both isn’t random but calculated. As men are steered toward passive consumption and women away from their intuitive wisdom, both are replaced by institutional authority – a nanny state that attempts to fill both roles while achieving neither.

    Consider the machinery at work: government programs increasingly separate children from family influence at younger ages, while school curricula promote ideologies that deliberately blur biological realities. From preschool to college, institutions systematically distance children from their parents’ values. Like the fiat currency that replaced real money, we now have fiat relationships through social media, fiat achievements through gaming, and fiat experiences through the metaverse. Each substitution moves us further from authentic human experience toward engineered dependency. When children no longer understand what it means to be male or female, when they’re taught to look to institutions rather than parents for guidance, the state’s victory is nearly complete.

    The result is a society of spectators rather than builders, of consumers rather than creators, of followers rather than leaders. A society where men trade real achievement for virtual entertainment and keyboard courage, while genuine feminine wisdom is replaced by corporate-approved stereotypes.

    The state can only expand into the vacuum left by weakened men and disconnected women. It feeds on our engineered helplessness, growing stronger as we grow more dependent. Those who recognize this pattern face a simple choice: remain comfortable spectators in our own decline, or reclaim the authentic virtues that make us human.

    Republished from the author’s Substack

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 23:25

  • Two Alarming Truths: Family Farms Vanishing & Centralized Beef Industry For RFK Jr. To Fix
    Two Alarming Truths: Family Farms Vanishing & Centralized Beef Industry For RFK Jr. To Fix

    On Thursday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as Director of Health and Human Services, taking control of the agency responsible for overseeing the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other key agencies. 

    As part of his “Make America Healthy Again” strategy, Kennedy has vowed to take on the processed foods industrial complex and big pharmaceutical companies, as what he claims are poisoning consumers. He also plans to push initiatives to boost clean food, small farms, and other health trends to reverse the nation’s obesity and health crises. 

    “If you’re going to have leadership that wants to think about shaking up health and nutrition and thinking about how the government holistically gives advice about nutrition … the Dietary Guidelines are a pretty one-stop shop,” said Sarah Gallo, a top lobbyist at the Consumer Brands Association—which represents packaged food companies and major alcohol makers—in a recent interview with Politico.

    Kennedy will be America’s best shot at dialing back the ultra-processed foods and food additives industry responsible for the obesity crisis.

    More interesting, Kennedy and the MAHA movement will push to revitalize small farms.

    Days before the presidential election in late October, Kennedy published a video in which he stated, “If Trump gets me inside” the United States Department of Agriculture, “we’re going to give farmers an off-ramp from the current system that destroys soil, makes people sick, and harms family farms.” 

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    To end the note, the Beef Initiative, a non-profit focused on boosting localized food supply, listed four shocking facts about America’s family farms, the health crisis, the beef industry, and big pharma ads:

    • Family Farms Disappearing: Over 141,000 farms lost between 2017 and 2022, with just 1.89 million left in the U.S. today.

    • Health Crisis Rising: Obesity rates hit 42%, and Type 2 diabetes cases quadrupled since 1980.

    • Beef Industry Centralized: 85% of U.S. beef is controlled by just 4 corporations.

    • Big Pharma Spending: $19.6 billion on ads, $102 billion on research—focused on profit, not solutions.

    We’ve heard of agency capture – but how about website capture? 

    • Beef.org: Owned by NCBA and the Big 4.

    • Health.com: Powered by People Magazine.

    • Science.com: Powered by Bill Gates.

    • Beef.com: Once used by PETA.

    The more citizens are informed about the corrupt food supply chain controlled by mega-corporations, the easier it will be to usher in change through Kennedy and MAHA. Let’s “Making Local Farms Great Again.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 23:00

  • 14 States Sue To Block DOGE From Uncovering Government Abuses, Slashing Waste
    14 States Sue To Block DOGE From Uncovering Government Abuses, Slashing Waste

    We are now firmly in the lawfare stage of the second Trump presidency, with Democrats filing a flurry of lawsuits to hinder the new administration’s agenda until a strong ruling from the Supreme Court eventually sets precedent.

    In the latest legal move, a group of 14 states have sued Elon Musk and President Donald Trump, alleging that the authority granted to the billionaire and his team at DOGE is unconstitutional. The states, including Arizona, Michigan and Rhode Island, have taken aim at efforts to dramatically reduce the size of the federal workforce, including dismantling entire agencies, as well as their access to sensitive data.

    “The founders of this country would be outraged that, 250 years after our nation overthrew a king, the people of this country—many of whom have fought and died to protect our freedoms—are now subject to the whims of a single unelected billionaire,” said Arizona AG Kris Mayes in a statement reported by NBC News.

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    The lawsuit argues that Trump violated the Appointments Clause of the Constitution by creating DOGE – an unofficial government agency, without congressional approval, and for granting Musk “sweeping power” without the advice or consent of the Senate through a confirmation hearing.

    “President Trump has delegated virtually unchecked authority to Mr. Musk without proper legal authorization from Congress and without meaningful supervision of his activities,” reads the complaint. “As a result, he has transformed a minor position that was formerly responsible for managing government websites into a designated agent of chaos without limitation and in violation of the separation of powers.”

    The states seek a court order blocking Musk from making changes to government funding, canceling contracts, making personnel decisions, and more.

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    According to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, the lawsuit is nothing more than a “continuation of the weaponization of justice against President Trump,” adding “The White House will continue to fight these battles in court, and we expect to be vindicated.”

    Another Thursday lawsuit from a group of government employees sought to block Musk and DOGE from accessing sensitive data and removing federal employees until “Musk is properly appointed pursuant to the U.S. constitution.”

    That lawsuit came on the heels of NY Attorney General Letitia James and 18 other attorneys general suing the Trump administration to block DOGE from accessing personal data housed in the Treasury department, calling it “unconstitutional.” A federal judge temporarily granted that request, ruling that the states “will face irreparable harm in the absence of injuctive relief.”

    Meanwhile, 22 state attorneys general were separately granted a request to halt an effort by the Trump administration to make large cuts to federal research agencies.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 22:10

  • FDA Misled The Judiciary About Pfizer's Vaccine Documents
    FDA Misled The Judiciary About Pfizer’s Vaccine Documents

    Authored by Maryanne Demasi via The Brownstone Institute,

    On December 6, 2024, a federal judge ordered the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to release documents related to the emergency use authorisation of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine. These documents had been hidden from public view.

    The legal battle traces back to September 2021, when attorney Aaron Siri filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on behalf of the Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency. The plaintiffs sought access to the vast trove of documents the FDA relied on to approve Pfizer’s vaccine.

    Initially, the FDA proposed a slow release schedule. In November 2021, the agency stated it would release just 500 pages per month—a pace that would have stretched the full disclosure process to 75 years. 

    However, in January 2022, District Judge Mark Pittman of Texas rejected the FDA’s proposal, ordering the agency to expedite its release to 55,000 pages per month, aiming to complete the disclosure of all 450,000 pages by August 2022.

    As the documents trickled out, researchers began uncovering glaring gaps that prevented a systematic review of the data. These gaps fueled suspicions about what else the FDA might be withholding. 

    It became evident that the FDA had withheld records directly tied to its emergency use authorisation of Pfizer’s vaccine, estimated to be over one million pages. 

    These documents, which the FDA had full knowledge of, were excluded from earlier disclosures, effectively misleading the judiciary and undermining public trust.

    Siri didn’t mince words. 

    “The FDA has been hiding a million pages from the Court, the plaintiff, and the public. Only those concerned about the truth seek to conceal evidence,” said Siri in an interview.

    “The FDA here is clearly concerned about the truth and lacks confidence in the review that it conducted to license Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine because it is doing everything possible to prevent independent scientists from conducting an independent review,” he added.

    Aaron Siri, Managing Partner of Siri & Glimstad LLP

    Judge Pittman’s latest court order to expedite the full disclosure of documents acknowledges the public’s right to scrutinise the data that underpin one of the most significant public health interventions in history. 

    In his ruling, Judge Pittman invoked a powerful reminder from American revolutionary Patrick Henry:

    “The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.” 

    Pittman concluded, “The COVID-19 pandemic is long passed, and so has any legitimate reason for concealing from the American people the information relied upon by the government in approving the Pfizer vaccine.”

    According to the latest court order, the additional documents are slated for release by June 2025. However, Siri is unsure about whether the FDA will release these records in installments or in a single tranche. Either way, he is not taking any chances. 

    Siri issued a legal notice to the FDA and other agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services, warning against the destruction, deletion, or modification of any relevant documents and vowing to report any such violations to the Department of Justice.

    “The FDA has spent far too long thinking it can do whatever it wants without accountability,” Siri said. 

    He speculated that the FDA may try to extend its deadline and prolong the legal battle, given its army of attorneys and vast resources. 

    “I think they’re hoping that we will just go away. What the FDA doesn’t know is that we’re never going away. We won’t stop fighting for freedom and rights, ever,” added Siri defiantly.

    A spokesperson at the FDA said it “does not comment on ongoing litigation.”

    Republished from the author’s Substack

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 21:45

  • Broken Beyond Repair? Barely Anyone Trusts Politicians
    Broken Beyond Repair? Barely Anyone Trusts Politicians

    Arguably the biggest driver behind Donald Trump‘s political rise in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election and his recent return to power is the fact that he is not a politician, at least not in the traditional sense. 

    He doesn’t speak like a politician, he doesn’t act like a politician and as a consequence, he doesn’t face the same level of distrust that many career politicians face these days.

    As Statista’s Felix Richter reports, according to Statista Consumer Insights, people in the United States have shockingly little faith in politicians, with only 5 percent of U.S. respondents saying they trust politicians in their country. 

    That makes politicians the least trusted profession in the country, trailing even online influencers, celebrities and financial services professionals who all face low levels of trust as well. 

    The same can be observed in other countries included in the survey, with respondents from Germany, Japan and the UK expressing similarly low confidence in politicians.

    Infographic: Broken Beyond Repair? Barely Anyone Trusts Politicians | Statista 

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Another profession that has earned a bad reputation in recent years is journalists. 

    With people like Donald Trump and Elon Musk relentlessly exposing “fake news” and the so-called “mainstream media” following an agenda, trust in journalism has eroded noticeably in recent years. 

    The trend has only been exacerbated by social media echo chambers, which have made it very hard for people to distinguish between the actual truth and the truth most fitting to their belief system.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 21:20

  • MAHA: RFK Jr. Confirmed To Lead HHS Despite 'Traitor' McConnell Siding With Democrats
    MAHA: RFK Jr. Confirmed To Lead HHS Despite ‘Traitor’ McConnell Siding With Democrats

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as the Director of Health and Human Services on Thursday, despite Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-INO) as the sole Republican to vote against him. 

    The vote – which is ongoing, came after a heated battle in the Republican-controlled Senate, which voted 53-47 on Wednesday to invoke cloture, setting up the final confirmation showdown. Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic and former environmental activist, only needs a simple majority of 51 votes to secure the position.

    Kennedy’s nomination has been a political firestorm from the start. His past claims linking vaccines to autism and other harms sparked a fierce backlash from Democrats, who grilled him in contentious confirmation hearings last month. But despite their objections, Kennedy managed to navigate the political minefield, thanks in part to key Republican senators who were initially hesitant but ultimately threw their support behind him.

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    A GOP Divide Over RFK Jr.

    With Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee refusing to advance Kennedy’s nomination, pressure fell on Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). Cassidy, a physician himself, had expressed concerns about Kennedy’s anti-vaccine rhetoric but ultimately gave him the green light, citing a long list of commitments Kennedy made to ensure transparency and oversight.

    “These commitments, and my expectation that we can have a great working relationship to make America healthy again, is the basis of my support,” Cassidy said.

    Kennedy also won over GOP Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), both of whom had initially been skeptical. Murkowski admitted she remained wary of Kennedy’s stance on vaccines but pointed to his pledges to work with Congress and make data-driven policy decisions.

    One of the biggest question marks was Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), a staunch proponent of vaccines who contracted polio as a child. While McConnell voted to advance Kennedy’s nomination, all eyes were on whether he will break ranks with his party during the final confirmation vote.

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    Beyond vaccines, Kennedy has vowed to shake up HHS by tackling Big Pharma and the food industry, shifting the agency’s focus to chronic disease prevention and diet reform. His ‘Make America Healthy Again’ plan includes overhauling dietary guidelines, cracking down on ultra-processed foods, and addressing the root causes of the nation’s health crises.

    “Our country is not going to be destroyed because we get the marginal tax rate wrong. It is going to be destroyed if we get this issue wrong,” Kennedy declared, warning of the dangers of chronic diseases.

    From Political Outsider to Trump’s HHS Pick

    Kennedy’s political arc has been quite interesting, to say the least. A lifelong Democrat, he frequently invoked his family’s legacy – his father, former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy. But in recent years, he’s built strong alliances with right-wing figures, particularly over his vocal opposition to vaccine mandates.

    Kennedy made headlines last August when he abruptly dropped his independent presidential bid and endorsed Trump, a move that shocked many in the Democratic establishment. After months of criticizing Kennedy, Trump embraced him, calling him “a man who has been an incredible champion for so many of these values that we all share.”

    Trump wasted no time in rewarding Kennedy’s loyalty, nominating him for one of the most powerful roles in the federal government.

    Kennedy’s confirmation comes just one day after another lightning-rod nominee, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, was confirmed as director of national intelligence in a 52-48 vote. If Thursday’s vote goes as expected, RFK Jr. will soon take the reins at HHS.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 21:15

  • Musk Says DOGE Providing Tech Support To White House, Improving Outdated Technology
    Musk Says DOGE Providing Tech Support To White House, Improving Outdated Technology

    Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

    Elon Musk said on Feb. 12 that he is providing tech support to the White House, while criticizing outdated U.S. government systems and software that he said lack efficiency.

    Musk made the comments during a virtual appearance at the World Governments Summit in Dubai alongside the United Arab Emirates’ artificial intelligence minister, Omar Al Olama.

    The tech billionaire—who heads the advisory committee known as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration—was dressed for the occasion in a T-shirt reading “Tech Support.”

    When asked how he plans to make the government more efficient, Musk said part of his role will be to focus on improving outdated technology used by the executive branch.

    “A shocking percentage of the problem—or maybe not shocking to those who know it—a big percentage of the problem is improving the technology that the government runs on,” Musk said.

    “The U.S. government runs on a collection of thousands of computers, many of them antiquated, running on very old software, and the computers don’t talk to each other. That’s why tech support is kind of a real thing, in order to make the government more efficient you have to improve the technology.”

    He told the summit that the current retirement rate among federal employees is limited to 10,000 a month, largely due to the sheer amount of paperwork associated with leaving and how it is stored and handled.

    “Right now, it’s manually calculated paperwork that’s put in an envelope and then taken down a mine shaft and stored in a mine,” Musk said.

    “One of the things that affects the rate at which federal workers can retire is the speed of the elevator in a mine in Pennsylvania, which is bizarre because it should be digital.”

    Musk, the world’s richest man, said he had been informed that the U.S. government has been working toward digitization since 2014 but that it has yet to make sufficient progress.

    “So I’m like, ‘We’re going to really need to provide some tech support here otherwise, literally, people can’t even retire, even if they want to,’” Musk said.

    He said a lot of software systems used by the government will need to be updated and fixed while others may need to be completely automated or removed altogether. This, he said, will also help to reduce unnecessary government spending, which is one of DOGE’s main goals.

    Musk Addresses Possible DOGE Conflict of Interest

    Musk also spoke to reporters alongside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Feb. 11.

    During that visit, Musk, who was joined by his 4-year-old son, X, addressed questions regarding any possible conflicts of interest between his role in reshaping the government as head of DOGE and his stakes in electric vehicle company Tesla and U.S. space technology company SpaceX, which is a major aerospace contractor for the U.S. government.

    “Transparency is what builds trust,” Musk told reporters at the White House.

    He said the general public can see everything he is doing with DOGE via continuous updates on X and the DOGE website and that they can assess, themselves, whether or not that work benefits him or his companies.

    Trump followed up on Musk’s remarks by stating that the government would not allow Musk to “do that segment or look in that area if there was a lack of transparency or conflict of interest.”

    DOGE is currently facing multiple lawsuits from Democrats and progressive groups, including one regarding its access to Treasury Department payment systems data.

    That legal challenge, filed by a coalition of 14 state attorneys general, alleges DOGE lacks authority to access the systems and that the move violates the law and poses a massive cybersecurity and privacy risk.

    A Manhattan judge has temporarily blocked DOGE employees from looking at that data and ordered them to destroy any data they may have obtained so far.

    Other lawsuits have been filed in recent weeks challenging Trump’s executive actions, including his efforts to freeze payments for federal programs and end automatic citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants on U.S. soil.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 20:55

  • Anthony Fauci Museum Exhibit Canned As Part Of Latest Round Of Government Cuts
    Anthony Fauci Museum Exhibit Canned As Part Of Latest Round Of Government Cuts

    A better question would be: what was the need for this exhibit to exist in the first place?  It seems a little…cult-ish…even for a place where the highest aspiration is to be a 5th grade field trip stop. But we digress. 

    “In the past 48 hours, HHS canceled 62 contract[s] worth $182 million. These contracts were entirely for administrative expenses — none touched any healthcare programs. This included terminating a $168,000 contract for an Anthony Fauci exhibit at the NIH Museum,” DOGE wrote on its X account this week. 

    The cut is part of more than $180 million in cuts being made, according to the New York Post.

    The Post wrote this week that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had planned to spend $168,000 on an exhibit honoring Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland, set for completion by July.

    Now where will we take the kids for summer vacation?

    However, the project was scrapped following pressure from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which claims to have saved taxpayers billions through similar cost-cutting measures, though some face legal challenges.

    Fauci led the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022, gaining prominence for his work on AIDS and later as a key figure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    His handling of the pandemic, including support for strict mitigation measures, drew sharp criticism, particularly from conservatives. He also faced controversy over his congressional testimony about U.S. funding for gain-of-function research abroad. Emails revealed that a Fauci aide helped reinstate a grant for EcoHealth Alliance’s work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, with Fauci allegedly informed via a “secret back channel.”

    Fauci denied involvement, stating he didn’t “recall any specific interaction.”

    Last month, former President Donald Trump ended funding for Fauci’s post-retirement security detail, stating, “You can’t have a security detail for the rest of your life because you work for government.”

    Before leaving office, President Joe Biden controversially issued a pre-emptive pardon for Fauci – we’re sure for no reason at all – amid concerns he could face prosecution under a Trump administration.

    In addition to canceling the exhibit, NIH announced reforms to its grant process to reduce administrative overhead, aiming to save $4 billion annually. “Last year, $9B of the $35B NIH granted for research was used for administrative overhead,” NIH stated on X. “Today, NIH lowered the maximum indirect cost rate research institutions can charge the government to 15%,” significantly less than the 60%+ charged by some institutions.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 20:30

  • China's Coal Power Construction Is At A Decade-High Despite Renewables Boom
    China’s Coal Power Construction Is At A Decade-High Despite Renewables Boom

    Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

    Despite soaring solar and wind power installations, China launched construction of as many as 94.5 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power projects in 2024, the highest level since 2015, new research showed on Thursday.

    China also approved 66.7 GW of new coal-fired power capacity in 2024, as approvals picked up in the second half after a slower start to the year, found the report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Global Energy Monitor (GEM).

    Apart from the new coal power construction starts, China last year resumed construction of 3.3 GW of suspended projects.

    All these approvals and construction start to signal that “a substantial number of new plants will come online in the next 2-3 years, further solidifying coal’s role in the power system,” the report says.

    China added 356 GW of wind and solar capacity in 2024 alone – 4.5 times the EU’s additions and nearly equivalent to the total installed wind and solar capacity in the U.S. by the end of the year, according to the research.

    “This record-breaking expansion highlights China’s leadership in renewables, yet instead of replacing coal, clean energy is being layered on top of an entrenched reliance on fossil fuels,” CREA said.

    Despite a pledge to phase down coal by the end of the decade, China continues to be committed to coal power, which overshadows clean energy progress and exposes fundamental challenges in China’s energy transition, the authors of the report wrote.

    Globally, China is the leader in renewable energy capacity installations, but it is also a leader in coal-fired power and continues to be the key driver of record-high global coal demand.

    The persistent growth in Chinese coal demand, including for power generation, goes to show that coal remains the baseload of China’s power system to back up the surge in renewables and will stay such for years to come as power demand jumps with the increasing electrification of homes and transport.  

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 20:05

  • US Aircraft Carrier Damaged After Colliding With Huge Merchant Ship Off Egypt
    US Aircraft Carrier Damaged After Colliding With Huge Merchant Ship Off Egypt

    In a highly unusual and embarrassing incident, a US Navy aircraft carrier has collided with a merchant ship off the coast of Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea, a US Sixth Fleet spokesman revealed Thursday.

    The collision involved the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and the merchant vessel Besiktas-M at around noon local time on Wednesday.

    US Navy image: USS Harry S. Truman

    The vessels collided near Port Said, but there were no injuries reported on either ship. No injuries or flooding on the aircraft carrier were reported, and its propulsion plants “are unaffected and in a safe and stable condition,” the Navy’s 6th Fleet said.

    However, the Truman did sustain some damage, statements indicate:

    The Truman was approaching the Suez Canal to go from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, a Navy official told CBS News. There’s no assessment at this time which vessel was at fault, the official said.

    The Truman sustained some damage above the waterline, the official said. It wasn’t clear if it will be going in for repairs. The ship remained in the Mediterranean.

    The Navy is conducting an investigation and has released few other details, including which vessel was at fault. The Besiktas-M also sustained damage – likely more significant than that of the carrier.

    The carrier deployed to the Mediterranean and Mideast region starting in September and has reportedly been conducting ‘counter-ISIS’ missions, including Trump-ordered strikes on Somalia on Feb.1st. As of late last week it was in a Greek port.

    Besiktas-M bulk carrier

    The Truman was likely headed into the Red Sea to monitor developments out of Yemen, and to be in a position for a potential response. The Houthis have vowed to resume attacks on Red Sea shipping if the Gaza ceasefire collapses.

    Three more Israeli hostages are expected to be handed over on Saturday, but Hamas earlier this week called off the handover, but in the last 24 hours indicated it plans to move forward with the exchange. Israel has warned that if the hostages aren’t freed, attacks on Gaza will ensue. This means the Houthis would unleash more Red Sea attacks, including on American warships.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 19:40

  • Benz And Rogan Expose How USAID Pushed 'Blacklists' Of Independent Media While Operating Global Propaganda Network
    Benz And Rogan Expose How USAID Pushed ‘Blacklists’ Of Independent Media While Operating Global Propaganda Network

    Former State Department official-turned-truthsayer Mike Benz sat down with Joe Rogan for three hours this week, where the two went down the USAID rabbit hole.

    To review – over the past several weeks, Elon Musk’s team at DOGE have descended on several key levers of power within the US government – including the US Treasury, the Office of Personnel Management, and of course, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) – which was quickly revealed as a rogue, unaccountable ‘blob’ that used its vast funds not only to spread propaganda worldwide, it paid news organizations and ‘disinformation’ researchers to collude against outlets such as ZeroHedge, The Federalist, and others in order to strip us of ad revenues and damage our reputation. (Fortunately your subscriptions, and generous support of our new store, are keeping the lights on).

    Rogan and Benz

    “It must have been very exciting to have the vault opened and to get a peek into the machine, because you’ve been describing this,” Rogan told Benz – who’s spent the last several years dispensing redpills. “The last time you were on the podcast, you went into depth about usaid, and it’s very curious why they chose USAID as the first organization for DOGE to investigate.”

    “Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, the joke that I tell here is, it’s like what they tell you to do your first day of prison is you go in, you walk up to the meanest, baddest SOB and you punch them right in the mouth. I mean, that’s basically what’s happened here with the White House’s first target being USAID,” Benz replied.

    Benz then went into how USAID funded NGOs, along with the deep state’s global propaganda news complex via ‘Internews.’

    If you have 13 minutes – watch this:

    How USAID Targets US Independent Media

    Benz explained how USAID leaned on advertisers to boycott independent media outlets.

    Benz: “For example, we just played internews and the internews CEO campaigning to governments and corporations and private sector civil society organizations around the world that they need to economically Blacklist news sites that operate on social media and those are U.S. news sites. This is the basis of lawsuits here in the US like Daily Wire and the Federalist suing the State Department. Because U.S. news sites are in these advertiser blacklists. And to that end, I want to note two things. First, if you go to my X feed and you type in the word advertiser or advertisers and if you need to, you can plug in the word USAID or CEPS in this.

    And I want to show you that this is not internews gone wrong. This is not a half a billion dollar year grantee of USAID going rogue and being ideological about this. This is top down US government policy from the White House.“

    …

    “SEPS is a program that is basically a joint baby of USAID and the State Department and is implemented by USAID’s key operational arm, the National Endowment for Democracy. But this is a USAID program on countering disinformation. Internet censorship is what they do and we went over last time, remember we played that two minute video where they were openly saying that the plan is to get foreign governments to pass legal reform, pass laws and regulations to stop the spread of misinformation on US social media websites.”

    Benz discussed how USAID has been used in the past to interfere in domestic politics – similar to how the CIA once targeted anti-Vietnam war activists in the 1960s and 1970s.

    “This happened against the left, against the Democrats in the 1960s and 70s when the CIA and its sister orgs like USAID were pumping money into domestic politics to stop the anti-Vietnam War movement,” said Benz.

    More on how USAID has been influencing international politics.

    Benz goes on to describe how every major institution in America, from media to universities, unions, NGOs, and even conceptions of public health, are instrumentalized by this system.

    “What people are going to see on this is going to completely reorient their mental map of how they think the world works, how they think American power projects into the institutions.”

    How Did We Get Here?

    Benz delved into the history of how the government ‘breached the social contract’ with Americans.

    Benz: You know, it was really set up in 1948 when George Kennan created this NSC 10 2, this National Security Council. We completely reoriented the structure of the American Empire in 1948, after World War II. In 1947 we passed something called the National Security Act. That’s what established the CIA. That’s what established the National Security Council, which coordinates all of our foreign, foreign facing empire management work. It renamed the Department of War to the Department of Defense so that it didn’t look like we were acquiring territory by military force which had just been banned under international law under the UN Declaration of Human Rights. So we moved from primarily kinetic warfare into what George Kennan called just two months before he created the plausible deniability doctrine that we live under. He called this organized political warfare.

    …

    So in 1948, when we established the secrecy doctrine, doctrine that we now live under, and all these NGOs work under this cover effectively because of their sponsoring organizations, USAID or CIA or State.

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    Turned On Our Own People

    Benz then goes into a group called the OCCRP (Corruption Reporting Project).

    Benz: “This is a group that half of its funding comes from USAID and the US State Department. OCCRP has to the USAID and the State Department have a veto right over the staff that it can hire. This is the largest consortium of investigative journalists on planet Earth. This is the group that broke the Panama Papers. They got all these hacked documents. They got special access to it. I don’t have any facts on this. I’m simply noting that it’s an oddity that a group funded by a major CIA funding conduit, usaid, while the CIA has the ability to hack any target around the world that’s authorized by the National Security Council, they’re getting these special access documents that are reportedly either hacked or leaked and they’re being sponsored by the group that’s connected to something with a hacking power.”

    …

    They’ve been around for almost 20 years. And they were sponsored in order to do. They do investigative hit piece journalism about corruption. And what they do is they go after all of the State Department and USAID and DOD’s opponents in the region.

    Ukraine

    Benz and Rogan then segued into the topic of Ukraine, where then-Vice President Joe Biden bragged to the Council on Foreign Relations about forcing them to fire prosecutor Victor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma.

    Benz: “So Viktor Shokin was investigating Burisma. Joe Biden personally weaponized USAID in order to force a foreign country’s prosecutor to be fired in order to get that billion…”

    Rogan: “Can I stop you for a second? What was the investigation of Burisma? What did it entail?”

    Benz: “I believe it was a similar corruption probe that there was misuse of funding. Other stuff is. Is well documented in Miranda Devine’s book, the Big Guy. But if you. So if you open those four screenshots, I don’t know if you’re able to center it or zoom out a little bit … Remember when Hunter Biden’s permanent blanket pardon goes back to, it goes back to 2014. And so this directs USAID to guarantee loans. So it’s loan guarantees for every phase of development of oil and gas in Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. Now if you go to go to the next screenshot in this, this is from. This is a, you know, a foiaed or legally obtained internal document at the State Department which says despite his ruined name in Ukraine, Zlocheski is actively campaigning for. He’s been sending letters to Ambassadors Yannick, Yovanovitch and Pyatt. They note that Hunter Biden and Devon Archer are on the board. And they say even internally at State, USAID does have cooperation with Burisma. Says pre existing small scale, preexisting cooperations. They’re formally cooperating with Burisma in the region. They’re noting that. And then if you go to the next screenshot now this again is State Department email traffic that’s been unearthed. Okay, so they’re talking about doing co branding with USAID and Burisma and the public private partnership around USAID and Burisma, but then noting, quote, the very sticky wicket of the Hunter Biden connection on Burisma’s board.”

    Watch the entire interview here.

    *  *  *

    Thank you to everyone who has subscribed or bought something from the ZeroHedge Store (our waxed canvas hats have been flying off the shelf!). With ad revenues in the toilet, we we couldn’t do it without you. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 19:35

  • 7 Examples That Show Why There Is Such A Conspiracy To Stop Elon Musk
    7 Examples That Show Why There Is Such A Conspiracy To Stop Elon Musk

    Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,

    Politicians are screeching at the top of their lungs, there have been threats of extreme violence, and Washington D.C. has never seen a tsunami of lawsuits of this magnitude.  Amazingly, all of this is happening just because Elon Musk and his team are targeting waste, fraud and abuse in our federal agencies.  

    The left suddenly hates Elon Musk with a passion, and that is because he is coming after their money.  It has now become clear that multiple federal agencies have been used as giant money laundering operations, and billions upon billions of dollars are at stake.  If they cannot put an end to what Musk is doing, it will be an unmitigated financial and political disaster for the left, and many of them will likely end up in prison.  

    The following are 7 examples that show why there is such a conspiracy to stop Elon Musk…

    #1 Last year, Medicare paid out more than 800 billion dollars in benefits, and Social Security paid out more than 1.5 trillion dollars in benefits.  Unfortunately, it appears that vast amounts of money are being paid out through these programs fraudulently.  In fact, Elon Musk is now claiming that “the magnitude of the fraud in federal entitlements” is greater than “the combined sum of every private scam you’ve ever heard by FAR”…

    At this point, I am 100% certain that the magnitude of the fraud in federal entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Disability, etc) exceeds the combined sum of every private scam you’ve ever heard by FAR.

    Just think about that.

    If Musk’s claim is true, it is a scandal that is absolutely unparalleled in American history.

    At the White House, Musk told the press that there are people that are supposedly 150 years old that are still receiving Social Security payments each month…

    ‘Reexamination of Social Security – we’ve got people in there that are 150-years-old,’ Musk lamented during an impromptu press conference as Trump signed an executive order.

    ‘Now do you know anyone who’s 150?’ the billionaire asked. ‘I don’t know. They should be in the Guinness Book of World Records. They’re missing out.’

    ‘So, you know, that’s the case where I think they’re probably dead, is my guess, or they should be very famous – one of the two,’ he concluded.

    In other cases, people that have no Social Security numbers at all are getting payments.

    Prominent Democrats keep warning their constituents that Elon Musk is coming after their Social Security checks.

    And in a twisted way, they are correct.

    It appears that vast numbers of people are illegally receiving Social Security checks each month, and if those checks suddenly get cut off many on the left are going to be incredibly angry.

    #2 The Department of Education has always been a giant money-generating machine for the Democratic Party, and now Elon Musk has gone in and cancelled nearly a billion dollars in DOE contracts…

    Elon Musk has already saved nearly $1 billion after slashing contracts at the beleaguered Department of Education.

    Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been combing through the embattled agency and has cut $982 million in spending so far.

    The bulk of that – $881 million – was saved by ditching 89 contracts dished out by the department’s Institute of Education Sciences.

    #3 Elon Musk has revealed that retirement paperwork for federal employees is stored 230 feet underground in an abandoned limestone mine in Pennsylvania…

    Today we learned the absolutely INSANE process our Government uses for Federal Employee Retirements.

    You wouldn’t think that would be anything special or weird, but it is!

    For some reason, back in the 1950s, our Government decided that Federal Employee Retirements would be processed in an abandoned limestone mine in Pennsylvania, 230 feet underground.

    What this means is that the speed at which federal retirements can be processed is literally limited by the speed of the single elevator shaft that goes down to that limestone mine…

    Elon Musk says that there is a literal limestone mine where they store all the US Government’s retirement paperwork built in 1950 that they need to go up and down every time they want to retire someone from Federal Government. The speed in which they can retire people is limited by the speed of the elevator shaft. Yes, actually.

    #4 Elon Musk’s team has discovered that 59 million dollars was paid out last week to house migrants in luxury hotels in New York City…

    The Department of Homeland Security told Fox News that “four employees are being fired today for circumventing leadership and unilaterally making the egregious payment for hotels for migrants in New York City.”

    The firings come after Elon Musk wrote on X Monday that “The DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants.”

    “Firings include FEMA’s Chief Financial Officer, two program analysts and a grant specialist,” the DHS also said. “Under President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS will not sit idly and allow deep state activists to undermine the will and safety of the American people.”

    #5 Elon Musk’s team has also discovered that the Department of Health and Human Services had signed a $168,000 contract for “an Anthony Fauci exhibit at the NIH Museum”…

    The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) canceled more than $180 million in contracts over 48 hours, including a nearly $170,000 contract for an Anthony Fauci museum exhibit.

    “In the past 48 hours, HHS canceled 62 contract [sic] worth $182 million,” The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced in a Friday social media post. “These contracts were entirely for administrative expenses – none touched any healthcare programs. This included terminating a $168,000 contract for an Anthony Fauci exhibit at the NIH Museum.”

    #6 Do you remember that scene from Office Space in which two consultants named “Bob” ask employees what they actually do at the company?  Well, it sounds like that is precisely what has been happening at the General Services Administration…

    Three General Services Administration employees — all of whom spoke to POLITICO anonymously out of fears of retribution — described their and their subordinates’ recent interviews with Musk’s DOGE agents as potentially career-ending, with federal employees feeling like every word they’re saying could be grounds for future dismissal. The behind-the-scenes agency handles the federal government’s real estate, software and logistics — so Musk and his team’s efforts to trim GSA could have a domino effect across the government.

    “The interviews are anxiety provoking,” said a GSA supervisor whose employees were recently interviewed by a DOGE worker. The tension swells the moment a worker receives a calendar invite from a Gmail account, they said, “frequently with almost no notice and often scheduled over existing client meetings.”

    I am sure that those interviews were definitely “anxiety provoking”.

    If you are making over $100,000 a year but are not really doing much that is productive, there is a very good chance that you will be on the chopping block.

    #7 On top of everything else, Elon Musk says that the Federal Reserve could soon be audited by DOGE…

    Billionaire Elon Musk on Sunday signaled that the Federal Reserve could face scrutiny as Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues to audit federal agencies and spending.

    Musk wrote on X in response to a user’s post about the billionaire’s support for an audit of the Fed that the central bank isn’t above scrutiny from DOGE.

    “All aspects of the government must be fully transparent and accountable to the people. No exceptions, including, if not especially, the Federal Reserve,” Musk wrote.

    If you don’t understand why this would be a really, really big deal, please see my previous article entitled “11 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Is Bad”.

    Fortunately, it appears that President Trump is quite pleased with Elon Musk’s work so far.  In fact, he just signed an executive order that gives the Department of Government Efficiency even more authority…

    With Musk standing to his right in the Oval Office, Trump praised the work of his office, known as the Department of Government Efficiency Service (DOGE). And Trump said he wanted Musk to now do more, even as DOGE faces multiple lawsuits from labor unions and Democratic state attorneys general over whether it is acting within the law.

    The new executive order directs federal agencies to “coordinate and consult” with DOGE to cut jobs and limit hiring, according to a summary provided by the White House. Each agency will be ordered to “undertake plans for large-scale reductions in force” and limit hiring to only “essential positions,” the summary says.

    Of course the more that Elon Musk and his team dig into the waste, fraud and abuse, the more irate the left is going to become.

    All sorts of people have been making violent threats against Musk, and that includes a Baptist pastor in Tennessee…

    A Baptist church in Tennessee has taken down its website amid calls for its pastor to step down after a video clip surfaced in which he stated that “sometimes violence is necessary” when speaking about the Trump administration’s efforts toward fiscal transparency.

    Dr. Steve Caudle, senior reverend at Greater Second Missionary Baptist Church (GSMBC) in Chattanooga, delivered a sermon on Sunday in which he appeared to threaten the “possibility of violence” over the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its ongoing investigations into misappropriation of taxpayer funding.

    In a message titled “The Violent Kingdom,” Caudle warned about the DOGE initiative as a threat to “steal your personal information and your Social Security check” and appeared to link the effort to “the devil.”

    As large numbers of fraudulent payments start to get cut off, there will be widespread chaos in the streets.

    People will be screaming that they “want their entitlements”, but the truth is that everyone that is legally eligible to receive them will still be getting their checks.

    Those that are illegally raking in money from the federal government every month are stealing from all the rest of us.

    If we want Social Security, Medicare and other key programs to be there for us in the future, we must root out waste, fraud and abuse.

    Otherwise, eventually the system would simply collapse under the weight of all of the corruption that currently exists.

    *  *  *

    Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 19:15

  • 'The Deep State' Dies In Daylight: A Public Role In Ending Systemic Government Abuses
    ‘The Deep State’ Dies In Daylight: A Public Role In Ending Systemic Government Abuses

    Authored by Thaddeus McCotter via American Greatness,

    In a January 30 appearance with Elizabeth MacDonald on Fox Business’s The Evening Edit, American Majority CEO Ned Ryun, author of the best-selling American Leviathan: The Birth of the Administrative State and Progressive Authoritarianism, advanced a singular proposition for President Trump to utilize an often neglected tool in the executive branch’s workshop for dismantling the “Deep State”: presidential commissions.

    Succinctly, the chief executive establishes presidential commissions to address an issue and report directly back to them for prospective further action. The president determines the commission’s scope; appoints its leadership and membership; establishes its charge, functions, and powers; its funding and other administrative support from the executive branch; and sets a deadline for its termination. (See Mr. Biden’s presidential commission on expanding—i.e. packing—the Supreme Court.)

    Per Mr. Ryun, there needs to be a presidential commission composed wholly of members of the public to investigate abuses of power and all instances of the weaponization of government by those who were—and perhaps still are—entrusted with the police and surveillance powers of the state.

    “I think it is time for President Trump to appoint a special presidential commission, in which he appoints all the members of that commission; gives them full investigative and subpoena powers; and has that commission report directly to him. And then when Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbards, and John Ratcliffe are confirmed, have all of them come before the commission; [and] have those hearings be public.”

    Mr. Ryun then went further, explaining what should be done with the presidential commission’s findings:

    “[The presidential commission] should do a final report with recommendations, including stripping even more people of security clearances, prosecutions, [proposing] legislative reforms from Congress. It’s time to pull back and have radical transparency and accountability for these institutions that have been massively abused over the last nine years.”

    Some may argue that the presidential commission is merely repeating much of the oversight work performed by Congress over the last few years. 

    This overlooks two important factors.

    First, the Biden administration was, shall we say, less than cooperative and forthcoming in responding to Congressional oversight requests, especially from the Republican-led House. 

    There is likely a lot left on and, more importantly, under the table for a public commission to unearth and investigate. 

    Given the diminished, though still extant, bipartisan opposition to reforming the administrative state, President Trump is best served by establishing his commission rather than wholly relying upon Congress to do it.

    Secondly, as Mr. Ryun stresses, these abuses of power were falsely deemed justified as being done in the defense of the very public whose trust they violated:

    “If President Trump were to do this, he should announce: ‘I’m doing this for the American people. This abuse has been done in the name of the American people, they have funded it; and the American people deserve to know the whole truth about what’s happened the last nine years with the FBI, the DOJ, and our intel community.’”

    I could not agree more. 

    As I responded to Mr. Ryun at the time: 

    “Great idea, @nedryun, for a presidential commission composed of the public for the public to protect the public from government abusing its powers.”

    Mr. Ryun is correct, and this renders it critically important that his proposal not be incorrectly perceived.

    This or any other prospective presidential commission would be designed by Mr. Trump to facilitate reforming and deciding the future and fate of the components of the executive branch. Thus, such a presidential commission could operate contemporaneously to provide suggestions for current and future reforms to President Trump or could serve as a post-mortem inquest providing to him ameliorative measures for the damage the rogue agency and individuals caused and the prophylactic policies to ensure such abuses of power never again occur.

    Above all, as his final term progresses, by keeping the administrative state’s abuses front and center in the citizenry’s mind, any of Mr. Trump’s prospective presidential commissions will maximize the first and best guard against the resurrection of the rogue administrative state: public awareness and transparency.

    The deep state thrives in darkness; the deep state dies in daylight. 

    Consequently, if President Trump implements Mr. Ryun’s sound proposal, I would humbly offer a further suggestion: next up, a publicly comprised, likely post-mortem, presidential commission on the waste, fraud, abuse, and weaponization of USAID. 

    Talk about lit…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 18:25

  • Three Top Federal Prosecutors Rage-Quit After DOJ Drops Case Against NY Mayor
    Three Top Federal Prosecutors Rage-Quit After DOJ Drops Case Against NY Mayor

    New York’s top federal prosecutor and two senior federal prosecutors in Washington DC have resigned after refusing to follow a DOJ order to drop corruption charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams, NBC News reports, citing ‘multiple officials.’

    Via Mario Nawfal

    The resignations of Danielle R. Sassoon, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, John Keller, the acting head of the Public Integrity Section, and Kevin Driscoll, the acting head of the department’s criminal division, came three days after acting US deputy AG Emil Bove issued a memo ordering federal prosecutors in New York to drop the case against Adams because, in part, it hampered his ability to combat “illegal immigration and violent crime.”

    And before anyone gets too crazy about this, let’s look at the timeline…

    Revenge…

    In December of last year, Adams vowed to work with the Trump administration on mass deportations, saying “I reached out to [Trump] and I shared that I would like to sit down and speak with him to hear what are his ideas, because I don’t want people talking at each other, I want people to talk to each other. And I made it clear that I’m not going to be warring with this administration, I’m going to be working with this administration.“

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 18:00

  • Victor Davis Hanson: Myth-Busting About Musk
    Victor Davis Hanson: Myth-Busting About Musk

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson,

    Here are some of the untruths told about Elon Musk and DOGE…

    “Musk has no right to cut USAID.” 

    Elon Musk and his team are not cutting any federal programs.

    They are auditors. They were given legal authority under a presidential executive order creating the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

    Its mandate is to identify waste, abuse, fraud, and irrelevance in the federal budget at a time when the U.S. is $37 trillion in debt.

    The agency will expire on July 4, 2026.

    Ultimately, Musk can propose program cuts, but Trump holds the authority to approve or reject them. He may or may not act on all, some, or none of the DOGE recommendations.

    “No one elected Musk.” 

    Like hundreds of government officials, Musk was appointed by an elected president to run an agency that does not require Senate confirmation.

    Musk is as legally legitimate as the national security advisor and his National Security Council, none of whom require Senate confirmation.

    Does the left believe former national security advisor Jake Sullivan, who made decisions far more pivotal than Musk, had no authority to do so because he too was neither elected nor confirmed by the Senate?

    “It is a dangerous precedent to give a private citizen billionaire like Musk so much power.”

    In fact, Musk has far more legal authority than did FDR’s best friend Harry Hopkins. He moved into the White House and de facto set U.S. foreign assistance policies toward Stalin’s Russia.

    Musk’s position is more akin to past captains of industry like Henry Ford, Henry Kaiser, and William Knudson appointed by FDR to run the wartime economy.

    None of them were either elected or confirmed by the Senate. All of them helped to save a poorly armed US after the debacle of Pearl Harbor.

    “Foreign aid is ending.”

    Hardly.

    Foreign aid, which in all its manifestations in various cabinets and agencies is reaching nearly $80 billion per year, is not ending.

    One of its distribution centers, USAID, may be vastly curtailed or bundled into the State Department. But the important bulk grants to allies like Israel or friends like Egypt or aid in times of famine relief and natural disasters to the needy abroad will remain. And these programs will be strengthened and saved precisely because they will be trimmed of skimmers and scammers.

    “It is illegal to end USAID.”

    USAID was created by an executive order in 1961 by then President John F. Kennedy in response to congressional legislation codifying foreign aid and allowing the president to execute the statute at his discretion.

    Nearly four decades later, in 1998, Congress passed another law reifying Kennedy’s USAID as a formal agency but still within the executive branch.

    But neither law mandates that Trump bundle all or even most foreign aid in USAID. He can disperse money as he sees fit throughout the cabinets. And he can keep whatever funds or programs he chooses under the aegis of USAID should he wish.

    “Trump cannot impound any USAID money legislated by Congress.”

    That legal question apparently depends on whose ox is gored.

    Neither Congress nor the courts have ever, in blanket fashion, either approved and sustained a line-item presidential veto or outright banned any form of presential impoundment.

    But recently Joe Biden, as both vice president in 2016 and president in 2021, set a precedent that an administration most certainly can impound or delay congressionally passed funding as it pleases.

    Infamously, Biden publicly bragged that on a trip to Ukraine, he had threatened that government by withholding $1 billion in approved US foreign aid unless it immediately fired Biden enemy prosecutor Viktor Shokin.

    That condition was never discussed in any congressional aid authorization (and was the sort of act the left would impeach Trump for in 2020).

    More flagrantly in 2021, Biden abruptly and permanently stopped all construction on the border wall. And he impounded those congressionally approved construction funds through a variety of gimmicks.

    Biden, remember, without Congressional approval, gratuitously canceled student loan obligations, issued blanket loan amnesties, and promised to ignore or work around court prohibitions of his illegal acts.

    “China will be delighted by USAID cuts.”

    False. China will be likely upset by the Trump cuts.

    Beijing finds its own concrete development projects far more effective than USAID imposing American cultural agendas abroad. Beijing likes self-destructive American aid like LGBTQ activism, transgender chauvinism, and anti-conservative American media.

    Does anyone believe China was angry that the USAID created a vast gender studies program at the University of Kabul or had the U.S. embassy there advertise its pride activism, or itself snagged $40 million to engineer deadly viruses?

    So, China will be quite unhappy that organs like the New York Times and the BBC are having their USAID subsidies ended. After all, they, along with China, so often vilified their shared existential nemesis—Donald J. Trump.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 17:40

  • Gandhi's Playbook: From Ignored To Attacked By DC Swamp Creatures – What's Next For DOGE?
    Gandhi’s Playbook: From Ignored To Attacked By DC Swamp Creatures – What’s Next For DOGE?

    “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win,” Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian political and spiritual leader, famously said decades ago.

    Remember Gandhi’s quote throughout the note as a rough framework of what could happen next… 

    Gandhi’s quote could very well apply to the situation unfolding in Washington, D.C., where President Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have exposed what some believe to be the D.C. Swamp Uniparty siphoning billions of US taxpayer dollars each year through a complex web of NGOs funded by USAID. 

    First, the Uniparty ignored and mocked DOGE… 

    Then, in the last several weeks, Uniparty swamp creatures declared war on DOGE:

    Meltdowns… 

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    All because the Deep State grift is over… Here’s how it worked through a web of NGOs:

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    And now, swamp creature Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer—after weeks of attacking DOGE, along with his colleagues declaring war on Musk and Trump, has finally admitted an inconvenient truth for the Deep State cheerleaders of the Democratic Party: “Everyone knows there’s waste in government that should be cut.” However, he noted: “But DOGE is using a meat axe, and they’re cutting things that are efficient and effective.”

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    Just a week ago, Schumer was in full panic mode, warning that DOGE would bring disaster—without a single mention of the need to cut government waste. In fact, he and his colleagues were advocating for the opposite: preserving USAID and maintaining the status quo.

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    So what changed in one week for Schumer to admit there’s actual waste and fraud in the government? Maybe because he finally understood that most Americans gave Trump this mandate for more transparency in the government to understand where their monies are going. 

    Suppose we follow Gandhi’s quote, given Schumer’s admittance that government fraud and waste are plentiful. In that case, Trump has a good shot at overcoming and winning the fight on government efficiency despite the short-term noise of Democrats yelling at the sky outside the US Treasury building.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 17:20

  • US Warships Transit Taiwan Strait For First Time Under New Trump Admin
    US Warships Transit Taiwan Strait For First Time Under New Trump Admin

    Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

    Two US Navy ships transited the Taiwan Strait this week, marking the first US naval passage through the sensitive waterway under the new Trump administration, which drew a rebuke from China.

    US Indo-Pacific Command said the guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and the survey ship USNS Bowditch carried out the transit from February 10 to February 12.

    USS Ralph Johnson, Wiki Commons

    While the presence of US warships in the Taiwan Strait is extremely provocative from the viewpoint of Beijing, the US always frames the transits as “routine.”

    China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said it monitored the US warships as they sailed through the Strait. “The US action sends the wrong signals and increases security risks,” the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command said.

    “Troops in the theater are on high alert at all times and are resolute in defending national sovereignty and security as well as regional peace and stability,” the Chinese command added.

    Justifying the transit, a spokesman for US INDOPACOM said it “occurred through a corridor in the Taiwan Strait that is beyond any coastal state’s territorial seas.”

    The new Trump administration is stacked with China hawks and is expected to continue the Biden administration’s policies of building up the US military footprint in the Asia Pacific.

    Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that one reason why the US wants to wind down its support for the Ukraine proxy war is so more focus can be put on China, which he claimed posed a threat to the US “homeland.”

    “The United States faces consequential threats to our homeland. We must, and we are focusing on the security of our own borders. We also face a peer competitor in the Communist Chinese with the capability and intent to threaten our homeland,” he had said.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 17:00

  • Trump Tells Xi, Putin 'Let's Cut Military Budget In Half' – Says Russia Should Be Back In G7
    Trump Tells Xi, Putin ‘Let’s Cut Military Budget In Half’ – Says Russia Should Be Back In G7

    On Thursday President Donald Trump continued to signal positive feelings about a future relationship with Russia and Putin, telling reporters that he’d like to see Russia invited back in to join the The Group of Seven major economies, or G7, which until 2014 was the G8 when Russia was included.

    “I’d love to have them back. I think it was a mistake to throw them out. Look, it’s not a question of liking Russia or not liking Russia. It was the G8,” Trump said from the Oval Office upon announcing new US reciprocal tariffs.

    “I said, ‘What are you doing? You guys – all you’re talking about is Russia and they should be sitting at the table.’ And he then added, “I think Putin would love to be back.”

    2017: during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Danang, Vietnam. AFP/Getty Images

    The G7 countries are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US. In 2014 these nations decided to expel Russia over the annexation of Crimea, but Moscow pointed out that Crimeans overwhelmingly voted to become part of the Russian Federation after a popular referendum.

    Another highlight from the Oval Office press conference was when the president called on China and Russia to join the United States in agreeing to cut their enormous defense budgets in half. He said in the context of also urging the three major powers to restart nuclear arms control talks.

    “One of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia. And I want to say, ‘let’s cut our military budget in half.’ And we can do that. And I think we’ll be able to,” Trump declared.

    According to an Associated Press summary of the comments:

    Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump lamented the hundreds of billions of dollars being invested in rebuilding the nation’s nuclear deterrent and said he hopes to gain commitments from the U.S. adversaries to cut their own spending.

    “There’s no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons, we already have so many,” Trump said. “You could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and they’re building nuclear weapons.”

    “We’re all spending a lot of money that we could be spending on other things that are actually, hopefully much more productive,” Trump continued.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Russia and the US have long had the world’s biggest nuclear arsenals, but China has in the last ten years been making strides to greatly bolster its strategic capabilities, which has alarmed the West. Trump warned that any future nuclear use by a global power is “going to be probably oblivion.”

    Likely Moscow and Beijing will receive these words positively as an overture, especially on the nuclear front, but neither will actually heed Trump’s call to pledge a 50% reduction in defense spending – especially when Russia is at war in Ukraine and under US-EU sanctions. They might tell the Trump White House instead: ‘your move first’.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 16:40

  • Democrats Jump The Shark: Exposing The Latest Absurd Claims Of A 'Constitutional Crisis'
    Democrats Jump The Shark: Exposing The Latest Absurd Claims Of A ‘Constitutional Crisis’

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    Forty years ago, a radio personality coined the phrase “jump the shark” in reference to the episode of the sitcom “Happy Days” in which the character Fonzie (Henry Winkler) jumps over a live shark on water skis. The term is often applied to dying franchises that turn to sensational language or scenes to try to revive the fading interest of the public. More often, you jump the shark and land in utter obscurity.

    This week, the Democratic Party jumped the shark.

    For years, Dems and their allies pushed the absurd claim that democracy was about to die if Joe Biden or Kamala Harris was not elected president. The public wasn’t buying it. In 2024, Donald Trump won a majority of the voters as well as control of both houses of Congress.

    Rather than examine its messaging, Democrats decided to double down. 

    After the election, politicians and pundits announced a new “constitutional crisis” surrounding the effort to downsize the federal government led by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

    Kris Mayes, the attorney general of Arizona, declared this week, “We are on the brink of a dictatorship, and America has never been in a more dangerous position than she is today.”

    The same media that carried the breathless accounts of the imminent death of democracy with the last election are now running “constitutional crisis” articles with many of the same “experts.”

    Despite Trump repeating that he “will abide by the courts” while appealing opposing decisions, NPR insisted that Trump’s circle has indicated it is “willing to ignore court orders and defy judicial authority.”

    During his first term, Trump repeatedly lost cases — as did his predecessor, Barack Obama, and successor, Biden — but he continued to comply with those rulings.

    The fact is that we have the oldest and most stable constitutional system in history. It has repeatedly survived challenges from political to economic meltdowns that would have destroyed other systems. That Madisonian system relies on an independent judiciary, including Trump appointees who regularly ruled against the Trump administration, including on the Supreme Court.

    For many citizens, what is most striking is not Trump’s actions, but how Democrats are seeking to prevent the very reforms that a majority of voters supported.

    Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) warned that this “is a really, really sad day in America. We are witnessing a constitutional crisis. We talked about Trump wanting to be a dictator on day one. And here we are. This is what the beginning of dictatorship looks like when you gut the Constitution, and you install yourself as the sole power. That is how dictators are made.”

    Actually, that is not how dictators are made but how democracies work. Trump ran on reducing the deficit and size of the government. The public is worried about a crisis — though it is not one of democracy but debt.

    In 2024, the $6.75 trillion budget exceeded our tax receipts of $4.9 trillion. The rest, $1.8 trillion, had to be borrowed. As a result, the national debt has ballooned and, if left on its current trajectory, would amount to 250% of gross domestic product within three decades.

    We are becoming a debtor nation where every citizen now shoulders a $106,000-per-capita burden to pay for our out-of-control spending.

    Nevertheless, in the first DOGE subcommittee hearing in the House, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) insisted that he would “defend democracy,” which is “under attack” by DOGE and the effort to carry out of Trump’s campaign pledges.

    What is truly in danger is the status quo. 

    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) may have ironically had the most honest moment when he joined one of the daily protests and yelled how Musk’s government efficiency efforts are “taking away everything we have.”

    By declaring a constitutional crisis, these figures are using “rage rhetoric” that gives a license for extreme conduct and messaging.

    Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has declared a “coup” is being carried out.

    Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) insisted “God d—-it shut down the Senate! … WE ARE AT WAR!”

    Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) called on citizens “to fight back” as Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) called for a fight in the streets and for citizens “to rise up.”

    Not to be outdone in the rage-fest, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) yelled, “We are gonna be in your face, we are gonna be on your a–es, and we are going to make sure you understand what democracy looks like, and this ain’t it.”

    Biden was repeatedly found to have violated the Constitution, including with unilateral actions through executive orders. Courts called him out for it. None of these Democratic members declared a coup or collapse of democracy. Such court challenges are common and often these early initiatives shake out with new guarantees and judicial guidelines.

    The courts may oppose certain moves by Trump and DOGE, but these are decisions of process, not policy. Eventually the president will be able to pare government spending, which is what the Democrats are really upset about — not the invented “constitutional crisis.”

    Judging from the polls, the public sees that. The Fonz saw it, even if he still does not get it. Just before the election, Winkler mocked Trump’s huge Madison Square Garden rally and told NBC, “That’s his life’s bread; his life’s blood is the sound of appreciation or adulation or whatever.” That “whatever” is called public support. It is a lesson that the Democrats may want to learn if they ever want to see happier days.

    *  *  *

    Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/13/2025 – 16:20

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