Feb 21

Today’s News 21st February 2025

  • Trump's Tariffs – History Has Lessons To Be Followed
    Trump’s Tariffs – History Has Lessons To Be Followed

    Authored by Gregory T. Kiley via RealClearDefense,

    Interesting times.  Just one month into President Donald Trump’s second term in office and one would be forgiven for feeling a little whiplashed.  From invoking and revoking Federal Government-wide Office and Management and Budget policy memoranda to announcing wide-reaching tariffs and then staying implementation those same tariffs, Trump’s second tour White House has started eventfully.   

    Hopefully, at least as far as Trade Policy is concerned, once personnel are in place, deliberate, rational, and thoughtful trade and trade negotiations will continue that seeks the long-term goals established by the president, while also helping American businesses in the short term to better fight back, level the playing field, and win here in the U.S. market with American consumers.   

    On President Trump’s first working Monday in office his Office of Management and Budget released a memorandum freezing all federal financial assistance and grants.  This might have been a well-meaning attempt for the new Administration to review federal spending priorities, but such a blanket call to freeze funds was unprecedented and confusing to those not consulted – including the other branches of government. Within hours, OMB rescinded the far reaching, over broad memo, but will continue their review of funding – as they rightfully should.

    On Tariffs, the Presidential-candidate Trump ran on his plan to utilize tariffs as a tool of foreign policy, economic policy, and to Make America Great Again.  It should have come to no surprise that one of the first acts now President Trump did was to threaten the country of Columbia with tariffs if they did not accept back illegal aliens that our government plans to return. Columbia caved on the threat and accepted the returnees.  

    Next has come a broad 25 percent tariff on Canada and Mexico announced January 31st, 2025. Purportedly tied to the excessive funneling of illegal fentanyl drugs into the United States, within hours of implementation, Mexico has agreed to send troops to the border to stop illegal immigration, resulting in at least a month delay in imposing the 25 percent tariff on Mexico goods. Canada similarly agreed to work with the Trump Administration to stem the flow of illegal drugs in exchange for a halt to implementation of tariffs.

    Bold actions, some positive results, however, a better model could be found in the careful, deliberate negotiated approach of 2017-2020 Trump White House and Team.  

    Still, with the confirmation of Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and nomination of Jamieson Greer to serve as the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), President Trump has an experienced team coming to hopefully make judicious use of Tariff policy. 

    Another thing the first Trump Administration got right was a laser focus on China and its predatory practices.  Trump’s team needs to continue pushing the goals and intentions of China tariffs – to increase domestic production and jobs across America over Chinese government-assisted and enabled entities.  The tariffs are designed to encourage more domestic production, making it at least as expensive to import from abroad over manufacturing domestically.

    The tariff regime is broken if it can advantage Chinese companies while disadvantaging American companies. This is an inequity about the current tariff system that President Trump can fix.  One example is Milwaukee Tool, which contrary to popular belief is actually a Chinese company.  The Trade Alliance to Promote Prosperity in 2024 alleged the Chinese firm (like others) may not be paying its fair tariff share, taking advantage of America and hurting American competitors in the process.

    Moving forward, this second Trump Administration should ensure the system doesn’t disadvantage American companies over their Chinese competitors that benefit from government subsidies. Trump should use his tariff authority judiciously, including the use of exemptions to help American companies battle back and, ultimately, invest more in the U.S. and create new manufacturing career opportunities in the process.  The same way the threat of tariffs gives the president leverage with world leaders; the use of targeted tariff exemptions can do the same to help American businesses grow strong again. 

    These are indeed interesting times, and as the old English Phrase connotated, may we live up to their challenges.  The second Trump Administration has started with a bang, now the hard work of detailed negotiation and focused policy needs to follow.

    Gregory T. Kiley, former senior professional staff member, Senate Armed Services Committee; and U.S. Air Force Officer

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/20/2025 – 23:25

  • As Pope Francis Enters 8th Day In Hospital, Vatican Suggests Possible Resignation
    As Pope Francis Enters 8th Day In Hospital, Vatican Suggests Possible Resignation

    Pope Francis has at this point spent over a week in the hospital in Rome, battling pneumonia in both lungs, and in the last 24-hours there have been reports that his condition is stable and has seen slight improvement.

    The 88-year old Pontiff entered the hospital on Feb. 14 with worsening bronchitis, leading doctors to eventually diagnose pneumonia, and reports in the initial days were dire.

    Via Associated Press

    Archbishop Giuseppe Satriano of Bari gave an update on Francis’ condition Thursday, saying “He’s a fighter, and I believe he’ll win this battle.”

    Satriano described that he is awake, eating, and doing some work from his hospital bed, and that blood tests show slight improvements in his inflammation levels. The official Vatican assessment as of Thursday night is that Francis’ condition is “slightly improving” that he’s free of fever.

    Still, the severity of the episode has led to speculation over possible resignation:

    In a memoir, Life: My Story Through History, published last year, Francis wrote, “I think that the Petrine ministry is ‘ad vitam’ [‘for life’] and therefore I see no conditions for a resignation”, only to add in the next sentence, “things would change if a serious physical impediment were to arise”.

    As the pontiff enters his eighth day in hospital on Friday, suffering from pneumonia in both lungs, Vatican watchers are wondering just how serious Francis, 88, thinks that physical impediment has to be.

    On Thursday evening, the Vatican said that Francis’s condition was “slightly improving”, adding that his heart and circulation were in good shape and that he was free of fever and able to work.

    However, in an interview on Italian radio, the senior Vatican cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi broached the topic on everyone’s mind and claimed: “I think he could [resign] because he is a person who, from this point of view, is quite decisive in his choices.”

    This is the first time in his pontificate that the issue of resignation has been raised by a senior Cardinal. However, if he exits the hospital soon this is unlikely, as Pope’s traditionally serve till death. It is extremely rare for a Pope to step down, with his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI having been one of the exceptions to the historic rule.

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    Newsweek commented, “The possibility of resignation resurfaced when Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi noted that if Francis’ ability to engage directly with people was compromised, he might consider stepping down.”

    Conservative and traditional Roman Catholics have been critics of Francis’ leadership, saying he represents a liberalizing trend in church life. Liberals have tended to hail him as being open to the world and a voice of ‘progress’.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/20/2025 – 23:00

  • VP Vance Vindicated, Scottish Police Arrest Woman For Silent Vigil Outside Abortion Clinic
    VP Vance Vindicated, Scottish Police Arrest Woman For Silent Vigil Outside Abortion Clinic

    Via American Greatness,

    Vice President J.D. Vance drew criticism from European leaders and press following his speech last week at the Munich Security Conference in Germany where he openly chastised  European authorities over their suppression of free speech.

    Now, just days after Vance’s warning to European official about censorship, a woman has been confronted by police and arrested for holding a sign that read “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want” outside of a Scottish abortion clinic.

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    In his remarks in Munich, Vance gave examples of Germany arresting people criticizing feminism, Sweden arresting individuals for criticizing religion and Scottish police arresting a man for silently praying for his aborted son outside of an abortion clinic.

    European leaders were called to task by Vance for abandoning what he called their “most fundamental values” while insisting that the U.S. should continue helping defend Europe.

    Vance told the assembled leaders, “If you are afraid of the voices, the opinions and the conscience that guide your very own people … If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you, nor for that matter is there anything you can do for the American people.”

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    Vance’s remarks prompted shock and condemnation among many European politicians and various state media.

    U.K. news outlets had some of the harshest criticism for the Vice President over his condemnation of so-called “buffer zones” around abortion clinics in Scotland where police arrested a man for silently standing outside a clinic, praying for his unborn son.

    The BBC accused Vance of making “dangerous” claims about Scottish laws during his remarks when he spoke of people living within so-called safe access zones receiving a letter from the Scottish government, “warning them that even private prayer within their own homes may amount to breaking the law.”

    According to the BBC, a Scottish government spokesperson said, “no letters had been sent out saying people couldn’t pray in their homes, and only “intentional or reckless behaviour” was covered by the act.”

    However, a copy of the letter received by homeowners within the “safe access zones” reveals ambiguous language that appears to bear out Vance’s warning of the growing danger to peaceful free speech.

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    Should we believe what European politicians and state media are telling us or what can be clearly seen with our own eyes?

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/20/2025 – 22:35

  • "We're Seeing Heavy Traffic": Musk's Grok Chatbot Tops No. 1 On App Store, Overtaking ChatGPT & TikTok
    “We’re Seeing Heavy Traffic”: Musk’s Grok Chatbot Tops No. 1 On App Store, Overtaking ChatGPT & TikTok

    Days after Elon Musk and his xAI team unveiled Grok-3—touted as the “smartest AI on Earth“—the chatbot, which outperforms all commercially available models, has surged to the top of the Apple App Store list. 

    Data from the App Store shows that xAI’s Grok app sits number one on the “Top Free App” page, beating OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Meta’s Threads, and TikTok.

    This surge in demand for Grok likely began around the release of the new model on Monday night. 

    Musk and xAI staff showed how the new model outperformed Alphabet’s Google Gemini, DeepSeek’s V3 model, Anthropic’s Claude, and OpenAI’s GPT-4o across math, science, and coding benchmarks.

    Momentum was reignited on Wednesday night after Musk announced that Grok-3 would be “free to all” for a limited time.

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    By Thursday morning, Musk and xAI had encountered a good problem: “We’re seeing some heavy traffic, so we’ve opted for an alternate model to get your answer to you faster.” 

    This was the message generated while asking the model to produce an image. 

    We asked Grok… It responded:

    XAI noted overnight: “This is it: The world’s smartest AI, Grok 3, now available for free (until our servers melt).”

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    That time may have arrived. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/20/2025 – 22:10

  • The Rebel Campus Boosters Rising Up Against Wokeness On Campus
    The Rebel Campus Boosters Rising Up Against Wokeness On Campus

    Authored by John Murawski via RealClearInvestigations,

    In the plummy world of alumni relations, where distinguished graduates are awarded honorary degrees and major donors are fêted at the president’s mansion, it is virtually unheard of for former students to set up shop as a political counterweight to the university, challenging its modes of governance and day-to-day operations

    Alarmed by academia’s dominant ideological ethos of social justice activism – particularly the holy trinity of race, sex, and gender – more than two dozen dissident groups have emerged seeking to rebalance the culture at leading public and private universities across the country, including Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UCLA, Williams, the University of North Carolina and the University of Virginia. 

    They are expected to gain traction with Donald Trump back in the White House.

    The dissident alumni organizations are not shoestring operations, but well-honed machines, some raising several hundred thousand dollars a year; a number of them have hired executive directors, professional staff, or consultants. This loose coalition of local chapters has also developed into a national movement with its own umbrella group, the Alumni Free Speech Alliance. 

    Drawing on alumni resources and connections, the dissidents have curated email lists totaling thousands of recipients, diverted financial contributions from longtime university donors, attracted financial support from foundations, organized speaker series and public events, and generated critical reports and investigative articles, especially regarding policies advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI. They have invited prominent conservative and contrarian thinkers such as George Will, Nadine Strossen, Jonathan Haidt, Douglas Murray, and Heather Mac Donald to deliver on-campus talks.

    The Virginia Military Institute alumni group, The Cadet Foundation, is the publisher of the independent student newspaper, The Cadet, and other chapters function as aggregators, muckrakers, and news services. The Jefferson Council,the University of Virginia alumni chapter, produces original articles almost daily of consistently high informational and entertainment value, and mostly written by a retired news editor and author. 

    “When you get down to it, these groups are news organizations, in a sense,” said Tom Rideout, a 1963 graduate of Washington & Lee University and a former American Banking Association president who co-founded one of the first alumni free speech associations, The Generals Redoubt, in response to the university’s move in 2018 to distance itself from its namesakes and their ties to slavery. “Essentially we’re in the communications business. Our job is to gather intelligence and distribute intelligence to supporters.”

    It’s not possible to isolate the precise influence of these alumni from parallel pressure applied by Republican lawmakers, conservative trustees, and heterodox faculty, but college donations dipped nationwide last year in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent campus protests; donations at Harvard, Columbia, and Penn fell dramatically during this time amid rising alumni alarm. 

    For their part, the dissident alumni say they have helped bring about significant political gains, including: 

    • The resignation of Cornell president Martha Pollack, who was accused of prioritizing “DEI groupthink” that resulted in unruly campus protests and student harassment, prompting an investigation by the U.S. Education Department; 
    • Princeton’s president admonishing first-year students at freshman orientation last fall that it’s not the university’s job to “validate your opinions”;
    • The University of Virginia suspending student-led campus tours that angry alumni said caricatured the legacy of Thomas Jefferson as nothing but slavery, rape, and theft of Indigenous land; 
    • The Virginia Press Association awarding its “top honor” to the Virginia Military Institute student newspaper, which is published by dissident alumni, for the student-journalists’ coverage of DEI controversies on campus. 

    Their operating expenses go to staff salaries, marketing expenses, speaker fees, and events, which can get disruptive. In some cases, the alumni chapters pay for their speakers’ private security or reimburse the university for campus security. UVA billed The Jefferson Council $7,847 for Abigail Shrier’s appearance in 2023 to discuss her book, “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters.” Over two years, The Jefferson Council was billed about $47,000 for security expenses in connection with controversial speakers. 

    The newly arisen alumni free speech associations are just one facet of a major realignment in academia that signals that a half-century era of unchallenged progressive intellectual dominance may be coming to an end. Major university systems in red states have already ended DEI policies in hiring and scholarship, and more than 120 universities have adopted policies of institutional neutrality – the idea that the university exists to foster debate and criticism, not to take sides on public controversies.

    Other organizations devoted to protecting academic freedom and viewpoint diversity – such as the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, the Heterodox Academy, and the Academic Freedom Alliance – have arisen to challenge the narrow academic consensus on social and political questions. 

    In parallel, heterodox faculty at leading universities have formed campus chapters, such as the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard, the Princeton Council on Academic Freedom, and kindred faculty groups at Yale, MIT, Columbia, and Duke. Last year, the University of Chicago announced an anonymous grant of $100 million to promote free speech values at the Chicago Forum for Free Speech and Expression. The Chicago Forum develops student orientation programming, supports research in academic freedom, and establishes fellowship programs for visiting scholars. 

    Over the same period, conservative donors, legislators, and trustees have launched more than a dozen academic civics centers that are reviving classical liberal education, rediscovering the Great Books, and rejecting what they perceive as the vilification of Western Civilization. These well-funded programs operate autonomously like law schools or engineering schools, with their own deans, Ph.D. programs, and sometimes dedicated buildings. 

    Trump’s Election a Boost

    Trump’s election is expected to accelerate the reforms, particularly with his threat to cut federal funding to institutions that give weight to the racial identity and gender identity of students and faculty in admissions, hiring, teaching, and research. 

    In a January essay on the Princetonians for Free Speech site, group co-founder and current secretary and general counsel Edward Yingling, a former American Banking Association president, predicted that 2025 will be a breakthrough year for free speech on campus. The major precipitating event of this predicted turnaround, Yingling wrote, was the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 that led to unruly campus protests and encampments and the resignations of Ivy League presidents at Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania, all of which now have alumni free speech association chapters. 

    Some observers warn the anti-woke pushback will lead to an overcorrection. The legal director of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech advocacy group, predicted, according to the New York Times, the likelihood of increased attacks on the free speech rights of progressive students and professors, including investigations, punishment, and terminations. A recent weekend essay in the Wall Street Journal issued a similar warning, saying that the ravages of wokeness and cancel culture will come in the form of political payback: “They/them who sow the censorious winds should be prepared to one day reap the whirlwind.”

    These transformations point to a looming question about the future prospects for the alumni free speech alliance chapters: Will these dissident alumni organizations be able to sustain momentum and continue attracting donations when it starts looking like wokeness is moribund and DEI is DOA? 

    When asked this question, not a single chapter representative hesitated to say that the fight will continue for years, possibly until the current generation of faculty and DEI hires reaches retirement age and can be replaced with a more balanced professoriate.

    Carl Neuss, a California real-estate developer who co-founded the Cornell Free Speech Alliance, likened academia to a beautiful sailing ship infested with rats who are about to face an exterminator. 

    “It’ll be a battle royale,” Neuss said. “It’ll be a generation-long effort to get some balance back in the universities. They’re never going to reform themselves – the only way for it to occur is from outside pressure.”

    James Bacon, a co-founder of The Jefferson Council and the chapter’s former executive director, expressed similar sentiments, characterizing the prevailing DEI value system among students, faculty, and administrators as “an entrenched orthodoxy.” 

    “It’s going to be a battle of a generation before we bring about substantial change,” Bacon said. “It’s going to be trench warfare, like the Battle of Verdun, fighting over inches.”

    Retired federal prosecutor John Bruce, a board member of the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill’s alumni free speech association, concurs. “We see ourselves as permanent,” Bruce said. “There is a danger that people will think that the battle has been won. But the Left is relentless.”

    Although the formal missions of these alumni chapters include specific proposals to promote free speech and viewpoint diversity, their ambitions are much broader: to change the intellectual climate of academia, revive classical liberal education, and curb the social justice activism that has pervaded academia for years. 

    Some of the dissident groups – including chapters at UVA, Washington & Lee, Cornell, and Princeton – have been active in opposing campus efforts to  rename buildings and remove statues, plaques, and commemorations that are said to glamorize white supremacy or make African American students feel excluded. 

    The Washington & Lee University alumni who formed The Generals Redoubt include among their stated goals the re-establishment of public prayer. The group defends the character of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and promotes a book, “Un-Cancel Robert E. Lee: An Open Letter to The Trustees of Washington and Lee University,” written by member Gib Kerr and published by the conservative imprint, Bombardier Books.

    These alumni were furious that W&L removed Lee’s name from the campus chapel, sealed off Lee’s recumbent statue from public view, and removed the likenesses of George Washington and Robert E. Lee from diplomas awarded to graduating students. 

    The Generals Redoubt is one of the most successful alumni chapters, raising $2 million in each of the past two years, according to the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer database, and spending $1 million to purchase a historic property to serve as the organization’s headquarters and venue site. 

    Among those that have taken on the cause of historic preservation, The Jefferson Council’s formal mission involves preserving “the beauty of The Lawn” – the terraced greensward and courtyard at the heart of Thomas Jefferson’s academic village that is listed on the Virginia Historic Register, the National Historic Register and among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites – from political signs that the chapter deems vulgar and offensive. 

    The Jefferson Council was provoked in 2020 by a student occupant of one of the storied 19th-century rooms on The Lawn who posted on the door: “Fuck UVA,” followed by a string of accusations: “UVA operating cost, KKKops, genocide, slavery, disability, Black+Brown life.” 

    Noting that the profanity was “disheartening,” the university nevertheless supported the student’s free speech rights in this instance. UVA’s decision was publicly praised by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, “illustrating why UVA is one of the relatively few institutions in the country to earn FIRE’s highest, ‘green light’ rating.”

    The Jefferson Council was galvanized by UVA’s “Racial Equity Task Force” report in 2020 that recommended $950 million in DEI-related and antiracist-oriented investments, leading to the removal of a statue of George Rogers Clark (a subjugator of indigenous tribes), the renaming of the main campus library, and the promised – but as-of-yet not realized – “contextualization” of the Thomas Jefferson statue in front of the iconic Rotunda, designed by Jefferson himself and modeled on the Roman Pantheon. 

    The Jefferson Council has filed more than 200 Freedom of Information Act requests to pry loose details on a range of issues, including details about UVA’s decision-making on recent name changes of campus buildings and past and potential yet-unannounced future statue removals. A faculty petition has declared The Jefferson Council to pose a threat to academic freedom. 

    “We are widely detested,” said Bacon, one of the co-founders and principal writers for The Jefferson Council.

    In a 2023 New York Times article about the alumni group, UVA President James Ryan expressed his doubts about The Jefferson Council’s real motives: “Whether this is an effort to focus on the aspects of D.E.I. that seem to threaten academic freedom and push toward ideological conformity, or whether it’s an effort to turn back the clock to 1965 – it’s hard to know.” 

    Despite the official snub – or perhaps because of it – The Jefferson Council raised a healthy $260,000 in 2023, down from $557,044 the previous year. The group communicates with 3,200 members and has about 850 active donors, said co-founder Thomas Neale, a corporate finance professional who is also chairman of the national Alumni Free Speech Alliance. 

    What rankles Neale and other alumni is what they see as a blatant double standard that trumpets free speech rights for woke obscenities on a UNESCO World Heritage site but cites the harms of misgendering and microaggressions when the insult goes the other way.

    The dissident alumni have established a base of support among like-minded students and faculty on their respective campuses, but they have also made enemies along the way. 

    Robert Morris Jr., the founder and president of VMI’s dissident alumni group, The Cadet Foundation, has been banned for life from the university’s official alumni association in connection with its disputed accessing of the alumni email database to recruit alumni to the dissident group, and a number of other alumni were handed 10-year suspensions for their involvement. 

    Bert Ellis, a University of Virginia trustee and co-founder of The Jefferson Council, was censured by UVA’s Faculty Senate for allegedly planning to vandalize the student’s “Fuck UVA” sign; Ellis was also the target of an unsuccessful effort by Democrats in the Virginia statehouse to block his appointment to UVA’s board of visitors. 

    A ‘Monster List’ of Supporters

    According to The Cornell Daily Sun, then-President Martha Pollack said in 2023 – a year before she was forced to resign – that it was “incredibly frustrating” that groups like the Cornell Free Speech Alliance denounce DEI “in the guise” of defending free speech. 

    The Cornell group has proven to be one of the most active and effective chapters, one born out of a university fundraising appeal gone bad. 

    In 2019, Cornell officials courted Neuss, a 1976 engineering grad and successful real-estate tycoon, with an invitation to make a substantial gift – “north of $1 million,” in Neuss’s words – in exchange for a naming opportunity involving a university building, possibly a library or a laboratory. Neuss had heard rumors about intolerance and censorship on campus and delayed cutting the check as he mulled his options. In a bid to appease his concerns, university officials introduced him to political moderates on the faculty. After hearing their testimonies, Neuss resolved to use his donations to create the Cornell Free Speech Alliance in 2021.

    “What he learned from these faculty members was astonishing,” the Cornell Alliance memorialized in one of its numerous reports. “They told him that they felt sidelined and humiliated by the diversity training they were required to attend and were perpetually afraid they would say something factual but impolitic that could negatively impact their job.”

    The alumni organization began compiling an email distribution from various sources – web searches, references, word of mouth, unsolicited inquiries – and now communicates regularly with 23,000 regular readers and subscribers. Like other alumni groups, Cornell tapped into the university’s official alumni association contacts list – extracting thousands of emails – before Cornell shut down unlimited access. The Cornell Free Speech Alliance now disseminates news updates and other information reporting on the Cornell administration and exposing practices the group considers abusive or even illegal.

    “This is one thing that absolutely freaks them out,” Neuss said. “We have compiled this monster email list of Cornell alumni, donors, trustees, former trustees, et cetera.”

    A report issued in December 2023 lists a number of early achievements: creating a free speech “action plan” for Cornell leadership; media exposure in The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, New York Post, Inside Higher Ed, National Review and RealClearPolitics; and filing an amicus brief with other alumni free speech alliance chapters in a Supreme Court case involving alleged free speech abridgments at Virginia Tech University. 

    Neuss said the organization has close to 1,000 donors. As of 2023, the group reported $221,000 in revenue and total assets of $186,000, according to the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer database. It is run by an executive committee of eight Cornell alums and two dozen other volunteers, and paid professionals include an email blast specialist and a PR/communications point person.

    One of the culture war controversies that drew the group’s ire was the mysterious disappearance of a bust of Abraham Lincoln that had been displayed at the Rare and Manuscript Collections section of Kroch Library, which houses the university’s Asia Collections and rare books,  manuscripts and other artifacts. A professor learned from a librarian that the bust had been removed because of a “complaint.” The bust was eventually restored after the Cornell Free Speech Alliance, The College Fix, and others drew attention to its disappearance, and concerned alumni flooded the administration with angry letters. 

    This was at the height of the so-called racial reckoning in the wake of George Floyd’s 2020 murder, prompting Cornell President Pollack to announce what was cast as a series of antiracist actions: a mandatory unit on racism, bias, and equity for all Cornell students; the creation of an Anti-Racism Center to generate antiracism scholarship; and a campus-wide, racism-focused semester, during which “our campus community will focus on issues of racism in the U.S. through relevant readings and discussions.” 

    In January 2024, Cornell trustee and donor Jon Lindseth wrote an open letter to Cornell trustees calling for President Pollack’s resignation, enumerating a litany of complaints, starting with Pollack’s “shameful,” milquetoast response to “terrorism and antisemitism,” compared to her swift, decisive action in response to the George Floyd tragedy. 

    “A new campus ‘bias reporting system’ fosters a hostile Orwellian environment among neighbors, classmates, and colleagues reporting on one another,” Lindseth wrote. “The elimination of grades and SATs has created a system in which equal outcomes rather than proven merit has become the objective.”

    Many of the examples in Lindseth’s letter, such as “whistleblower accounts” from faculty, are attributed to the muckraking work of the Cornell Free Speech Alliance. “Instances are reported of qualified candidates for faculty positions being rejected for their DEI statements alone,” Lindseth wrote. 

    “Even Lincoln could be canceled under the present administration,” Lindseth lamented. “This is an absolute disgrace.” 

    Less than four months later, Pollack was out. 

    Two weeks later, the alumni alliance released a whistleblower report headlined: “Internal Cornell Records Provided To CFSA Show How The University Discriminates Based On Personal Beliefs & Identity Profiles Rather Than Merit.” The report warned that Cornell was illegally disqualifying job candidates based on DEI statements and based on their identity characteristics. 

    In August, the group submitted an incriminating 101-page report to Cornell leaders and trustees, noting that Cornell ranks 188th out of 203 American universities in free expression, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, whose surveys indicate that 88% of Cornell’s students self-censor their speech on campus. 

    The report urged Cornell leaders to get out of the business of social justice activism: “Concerns of ‘community,’ ‘belonging,’ ‘microaggressions,’ and related efforts to ‘protect students from harmful ideas’ must be clearly and emphatically subordinated to the essential principles of open inquiry, academic freedom, free expression, and viewpoint diversity.”

    “We’re dealing with institutions that are steeped in the oppressor-oppressed ideology,” said Michael Poliakoff, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a national advocacy group that helped spin off the Alumni Free Speech Alliance. “Alumni and donors are now fed up with the idea of being tapped smoothly for money but essentially being pushed aside when they want to talk about the values of the campus.”

    This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.

    John Murawski reports on the intersection of culture and ideas for RealClearInvestigations. He previously covered artificial intelligence for the Wall Street Journal and spent 15 years as a reporter for the News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) writing about health care, energy and business. At RealClear, Murawski reports on how esoteric academic theories on race and gender have been shaping many areas of public life, from K-12 school curricula to workplace policies to the practice of medicine.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/20/2025 – 21:45

  • Truth Social & Rumble Blast Brazilian Supreme Court Justice In Bombshell Lawsuit
    Truth Social & Rumble Blast Brazilian Supreme Court Justice In Bombshell Lawsuit

    President Trump’s Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) and Rumble have teamed up to sue the pants off Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, accusing him of violating the free speech rights of an unnamed Brazilian influencer living in the United States.

    Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes

    The 39-page lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in Tampa, Florida, alleges that de Moraes exceeded his authority and violated international law by trying to ban the Brazilian blogger. TMTG operates Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, while Rumble is a popular video sharing platform. According to the complaint, the blogger is identified as “Political Dissident A,” and claims he has “sought political asylum in the United States, where he remains.”

    “Political Dissident A” has founded several media outlets critical of Brazil’s supreme court, and has built a “sizable online following,” including a YouTube channel which boasts over 1.3 million followers.

    The blogger was a vocal proponent of Brazil’s previous administration under former President Jair Bolsonaro.

    “Acting under the guise of the Supreme Federal Tribunal of the Federative Republic of Brazil (‘STF’), Justice Moraes has issued sweeping orders to suspend multiple U.S.-based accounts (‘Banned Accounts’) of a well-known politically outspoken user (’Political Dissident A‘), ensuring no person in the United States can see his content (’Gag Orders’),” reads the lawsuit, which adds that the gag orders issued by Moraes “censor legitimate political discourse” in the United States and undermine protections enshrined in the First Amendment.

    As the Epoch Times notes further, the lawsuit further alleges that the gag orders conflict with the Communications Decency Act, which grants legal immunity to providers of interactive computer services for content created by others on their platforms.

    According to the lawsuit, Florida-based Rumble faces a fine of $9,000 a day and a shutdown of its service in Brazil if it doesn’t abide by Moraes’s orders.

    The judge’s orders require Rumble to designate a legal representative in Brazil “solely for the purpose of accepting service of the Gag Orders and submitting to Justice Moraes’s authority,” the lawsuit states.

    A ban on Rumble would interfere with Trump Media’s operations because the company relies, in part, on Rumble’s cloud-based hosting and video streaming infrastructure to deliver multimedia content to Truth Social users, the companies claim in the legal filing.

    Rumble and TMTG are asking the court to declare Moraes’s gag orders unenforceable in the United States.

    “Allowing Justice Moraes to muzzle a vocal user on an American digital outlet would jeopardize our country’s bedrock commitment to open and robust debate,” the lawsuit states. “Neither extraterritorial dictates nor judicial overreach from abroad can override the freedoms protected by the U.S. Constitution and law.”

    Moraes is currently weighing charges filed on Tuesday alleging that Bolsonaro led a plot to overthrow the Brazilian government and undermine democracy after his 2022 election loss to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

    A total of 33 people were charged this week alongside Bolsonaro, including several high-ranking officials from his former administration, such as his former national security adviser, retired Gen. Augusto Heleno, and former Navy Commander Almir Garnier Santos.

    Bolsonaro’s lawyer, Paulo Cunha Bueno, has denied any wrongdoing by the former president and said the charges lacked facts.

    “The President has never supported any movement aimed at dismantling the democratic rule of law or the institutions that uphold it,” Cunha Bueno wrote in a statement on social media platform X. “President Jair Bolsonaro trusts in the justice system and therefore believes that this indictment will not prevail due to its fragility, inconsistency, and lack of factual basis to support it in court.”

    *  *  *

    You can support ZeroHedge by picking up a ZeroHedge Multitool (on sale!)

    Click picture… add to cart… check out… receive sweet multitool!

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

  • JD Vance To Young Men: Be Men, Not "Androgynous Idiots"
    JD Vance To Young Men: Be Men, Not “Androgynous Idiots”

    Authored by Sarah Anderson via PJMedia.com,

    Not too long ago, I decided to try a bold experiment. I returned to the University of Georgia to take some agriculture classes. The reason I considered it bold is that I was old enough to be many of the students’ mothers (had I been an extremely young teen mom, of course). I learned a lot of lessons about this current generation of teens and twenty-somethings and how college has changed since my first go-round two decades prior, but what really threw me was when a professor asked for my pronouns. 

    My class was given a virtual assignment to upload a video introduction of ourselves to a school website. “Tell us your name, your major, your hobbies and interests, and your pronouns so your classmates can gain a better understanding of who you are.” I’d never been asked to provide my pronouns in my life and had no interest in starting now. Before I uploaded my video, I watched through some of the others, shocked as these young men and women offered up their “hes” and “shes” and “theys” as if this was all perfectly normal. 

    But there was one guy, let’s call him Tyler, who gave us his name, his major, and his hobbies and interests, but instead of pronouns, he ended the video with “I’m a dude” and a slight eye roll, obviously mocking the pronoun situation. 

    Let me tell you, he’s the only person from that class I even remember, much less ever gained any sort of understanding of who he was.  

    Well, JD Vance just gave all the other Tylers of the world permission to crawl out from under their rocks of submission and embrace their God-given masculinity. 

    On behalf of women — well, the ones who enjoy being women — I would like to say thank you to our vice president. 

    Vance spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Monday and said a lot of great things, some of which even earned him a standing ovation. But it was his message to young people, especially young men, that really stood out.

    My message to young men is don’t allow this broken culture to send you a message that you’re a bad person because you’re a man, because you like to tell a joke, because you like to have a beer with your friends, or because you’re competitive. 

    The cultural message…wants to turn everybody, whether male or female, into androgynous idiots who think the same, talk the same, and act the same. 

    We actually think God made male and female for a purpose, and we want you guys to thrive as young men, and as young women. And we’re going to help with our public policy to make it possible to do that

    The crowd erupted into cheers: 

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

    I don’t know about you, but I could listen to that over and over again. 

    There’s a reason why Donald Trump won 49% of the vote from young men (ages 18 to 29) in November and 54% from men overall. 

    Vance touched on that too.  

    I think this is why young men in particular are so, you know, they’re so inspired by President Trump is because he doesn’t allow the media to tell him he can’t make a joke or he can’t have an original thought.

    President Trump just says what’s on his mind; that’s a damn good thing. 

    Amen to that. 

    “We’re fighting for you,” was Vance’s overall message to young people, and it was refreshing to hear. Our country doesn’t just face international enemies — we’re under attack from enemies within who want to debase and degrade our culture. 

    They’re the ones who want to tell young men that they can’t be masculine and tell women they can’t be feminine. They’re the ones who demand that boys play girls’ sports, who insist that teachers force gender ideology on elementary school students, and who truly believe there are 72 genders. 

    *  *  *

    You can support PJMedia by signing up for a VIP membership and gaining access to exclusive content, as well as the opportunity to comment on articles and interact with their contributors. It’s already a great deal, but right now, they’re having a big sale to celebrate the new Trump administration. Use the code FIGHT to get 60% off, and use this link to sign up.

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

  • Musk: "Time To Begin Preparations For Deorbiting Space Station"
    Musk: “Time To Begin Preparations For Deorbiting Space Station”

    NASA awarded SpaceX a billion-dollar contract last year to deorbit the International Space Station and guide its controlled descent into the Pacific Ocean by the end of the decade. Now, Elon Musk is pushing for an accelerated timeline.

    “It is time to begin preparations for deorbiting the @Space_Station . It has served its purpose. There is very little incremental utility. Let’s go to Mars,” Musk wrote on X around lunchtime. 

    Eric Berger, a senior space editor at Ars Technica, commented on Musk’s post: “Are you suggesting that the ISS be deorbited prior to 2030? As you know, SpaceX currently as a contract to build the US Deorbit Vehicle to safely bring the station down in 2030.”

    Musk responded to Berger: “The decision is up to the President, but my recommendation is as soon as possible. I recommend 2 years from now.”

    The ISS, launched in 1998, recently extended its operational life from 2024 to 2030. Russia has indicated plans to withdraw from the ISS after 2024, while China is building its own space station called Tiangong.

    The total cost of the ISS since 1998 is estimated to be around $150 billion to $160 billion, including $3-4 billion per year in costs. 

    Democrats have already become angered over Musk’s proposed accelerated timeline for deorbiting the ISS on X. We’re sure they’re completely melting down on BlueSky. However, the ISS was originally set to retire in 2015, only to have its operational lifespan repeatedly extended by Congress. Over the years, numerous reports surfaced on leaks and structural concerns. It’s time to move on and save taxpayers billions of dollars per year. 

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

  • Federal Judge Allows Trump Admin To Continue Mass Layoffs Of Federal Workers
    Federal Judge Allows Trump Admin To Continue Mass Layoffs Of Federal Workers

    Authored by Stacy Robinson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A federal judge on Feb. 20 declined to block for now downsizing efforts by the Trump administration, including mass firings and buyout programs.

    The E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Court House in Washington on Feb. 19, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

    “Federal district judges are duty-bound to decide legal issues based on even-handed application of law and precedent—no matter the identity of the litigants or, regrettably at times, the consequences of their rulings for average people,” U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper wrote in his ruling.

    Unions representing hundreds of thousands of federal workers had filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and the heads of several government agencies, saying they were overstepping the executive branch’s authority.

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

    The unions also said slashing the size of federal agencies would result in “irreparable harm” because of lower union dues revenue and a loss in bargaining power.

    They asked the court to declare the federal program unlawful and to halt the administration from implementing another similar program.

    The buyout, or deferred resignation, offer, which ended on Feb. 12, was offered to more than 2 million government employees by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to hasten Trump’s plan to shrink the federal workforce.

    OPM offered workers full pay and benefits until Sept. 30 in exchange for voluntary resignation and warned that “the majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force.”

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

  • Department Of Health And Human Services Updates Definitions Of Female, Male
    Department Of Health And Human Services Updates Definitions Of Female, Male

    Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Feb. 19 issued new guidance updating its official definitions of terms such as sex, female, and male as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to restore “the concept of biological truth” in the federal government.

    It marks one of the first actions taken by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. following his confirmation last week.

    The guidance was released to the U.S. government, external partners, and the public to “expand on the clear sex-based definitions” outlined in a January executive order signed by Trump, called “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

    That order stated, in part, that the Trump administration “will defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”

    The new HHS guidance reiterates the Trump administration’s stance that male and female are the only two sexes and that they cannot be changed.

    Specifically, it defines the term “sex” as “a person’s immutable biological classification as either male or female.”

    Female is defined as “a person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing eggs,” while male is defined as “a person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing sperm.”

    A woman is “an adult human female.” 

    A man is “an adult human male,” the guidance states.

    A mother is described as a female parent and a father is described as a male parent.

    The HHS will use these definitions and promote policies acknowledging that “women are biologically female and men are biologically male,” according to the guidance.

    “This administration is bringing back common sense and restoring biological truth to the federal government,” Kennedy said in a statement. 

    “The prior administration’s policy of trying to engineer gender ideology into every aspect of public life is over.”

    Athlete Riley Gaines Praises Trump’s ‘Clarity, Decisiveness’

    In conjunction with the new guidance on sex-based definitions, HHS also launched a new website that includes information and resources for “protecting women and children.”

    The website features a video from former National Collegiate Athletic Association swimmer, Riley Gaines, defending a recent ban on men participating in women’s sports.

    Gaines, who has regularly advocated for such a ban, can be seen in the video thanking Trump for taking swift action to protect female athletes.

    “The clarity and decisiveness of this administration sends a strong, clear message to women and girls across the country that we matter,” Gaines said.

    The website also features a blog post by Dr. Dorothy Fink, an endocrinologist who served as acting HHS secretary before Kennedy assumed his new role, on the various sports-related conditions faced by women and girls competing in athletics.

    “In health care, sex distinctions can influence disease presentation, diagnosis, and treatment differently in females and males,” Fink said in a statement. 

    “HHS recognizes that biological differences between females and males require sex-specific practices in medicine and research to ensure optimal health outcomes.”

    The latest guidance represents a shift from the previous administration’s stance on gender identity.

    Under Biden, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one of HHS’s agencies, defined sex as “an individual’s biological status as male, female, or something else,” while gender was defined as “the cultural roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes expected of people based on their sex.”

    In the United States, 1.6 million people over the age of 13 identify as transgender individuals, according to the Williams Institute.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/20/2025 – 19:15

  • Tom Hanks, Margaret Brennan, & The European Ministers Reveal It All
    Tom Hanks, Margaret Brennan, & The European Ministers Reveal It All

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

    Three recent but completely unrelated events illustrate the deranged hatred of Donald Trump and his supporters continuing now even into a second decade. And yet the venom only further marginalizes the left.

    In its too-long 50th anniversary spectacle, Saturday Night Live offered a skit in which marquee actor Tom Hanks did an impression of what the left thinks is a supposedly neanderthal Trump supporter.

    The episode was NBC’s tele-version of the recent Obama-Hillary Clinton-Biden vocabulary of cheap MAGA disparagement: clingers, deplorables, irredeemables, chumps, dregs, semi-fascists, and ultra-MAGAs.

    Most of those stereotyped props were evident in Hanks’ character.

    He was wearing a red MAGA hat (real and not the fake versions of Jussie Smollett’s wild and sinister imagination).

    Hanks sounded off as a superstitious evangelical, a slow-speaking Southern twanger, and a poorly dressed slob.

    And of course, the SNL writers insisted that he play the gratuitous racist. So, Hanks, as a clueless Black Jeopardy contestant, initially refused to even shake the hand of the African-American, assumed intellectually and morally superior, gameshow host.

    We are supposed to believe the Hanks caricature is in contrast with progressives—usually represented in society as the bicoastal enlightened, well-spoken, and snappily dressed.

    Perhaps the SNL crowd thought the counterpart to Hanks’ MAGA sluggard was the recent hard-left, Democratic standard-bearer—the eloquent Kamala Harris of mesmerizing word-salad fame?

    Aside from the reality that Trump captured a record number of African-American male voters, nearly split the Hispanic vote, and made gains with Asian- and Jewish-Americans, he also won massive defections from Wall Street and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

    So, does the SNL, Tom Hanks, or the left have any idea why it lost the popular vote due to such a diverse group of Democrat apostates?

    Democrats should ask: Who is truly slow-witted? Is it the stumbling Tom Hanks caricature or the real Joe Biden and his ilk?

    The latter bequeathed Americans an open border, 12 million illegal aliens, hyperinflation, two theater wars abroad, mega-trillion-dollar deficits, and the Green New Deal that impoverished the middle classes of all races.

    At about the same time, Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation. He was immediately pressed by host Margaret Brennan, the epitome of the supposedly sophisticated, hip, left-wing journalist, and thus the converse of the Hanks caricature.

    Yet when pressing Rubio about the recent dress-down speech of Vice President J.D. Vance to the European ministers, Brennan thought she would draw on her historical wisdom to confound the supposed Trump megaphone.

    Did Vance not know, Brennan demanded of Rubio, that he was lecturing Europeans about their unfortunate abandonment of free expression and speech? And in Germany of all places, she intoned—the very place, she insisted, where the Nazis once weaponized free speech to conduct the genocide!

    It took Rubio about a nanosecond to clue the historically illiterate Brennan that the Nazis never allowed any free speech.

    It was not excessive or even crude free speech that caused the Holocaust, but precisely the complete absence of all sorts of dissenting views in the marketplace of ideas.

    Ironically, it was precisely Brennan’s own defense of censoring “hate speech,” “disinformation,” and “misinformation” that the Nazis used to brand as extreme and unacceptable any view contrary to their own.

    Next, the stunned European ministers in Munich, of course, sat aghast at Vance’s tutorial.

    None refuted what he was saying, namely that European elites’ efforts to delay or cancel elections that might bring national conservative populists to power are contrary to the European enlightenment.

    The use of weaponized, selective law enforcement to go after peaceful anti-abortion protestors, but not known violent Muslim illegal immigrants, is not only contrary to a free society but suicidal.

    But Vance had a deeper subtext to his remarks.

    The left-wing European elite fear even more than they hate the rising populist pushback.

    The European apparat knows their own past two decades of massive illegal alien influxes, disarmament, deindustrializing, crashing fertility, green mandates, high taxes, crushing regulations, asymmetrical trade tariffs, and suppression of free speech and dissent were precisely what created the populist backlash.

    The growing counter-revolution was not because of bogeyman charges of “racism,” “Islamophobia,” or “xenophobia,” much less “hate speech.”

    The real culprit was bankrupt policies that not only did not work but impoverished the entire European Union middle classes.

    So, the cure to restore European influence and prestige abroad and prosperity and security at home is not more censorship but more debate, dissent, and fresh ideas.

    All that transparency might jumpstart the economy, encourage entrepreneurism, ensure national security, and return Europe to a civil, safe—and influential—society.

    Sometimes Trump haters prove to be his best allies. Their venom shows us they either lack common sense or intelligence or both.

    Such was the case with Tom Hanks, Margaret Brennen, and the European ministers.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/20/2025 – 18:25

  • US Treasury's Bessent Says Russia Could Win Sanctions Relief If Cooperative In Peace Talks
    US Treasury’s Bessent Says Russia Could Win Sanctions Relief If Cooperative In Peace Talks

    Update(15:00ET): The Trump administration has signaled that Russia could win sanctions relief if Ukraine war talks are successful.

    “Russia could win some relief from U.S. sanctions based on its willingness to negotiate an end to its war in Ukraine,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent conveyed Thursday in a Bloomberg interview. Per the breaking report:

    Asked whether the U.S. was prepared to increase sanctions on Russia or reduce them depending on how talks to end the Ukraine war go, Bessent said: “That’d be a very good characterization.”

    The US Treasury chief then emphasized, “The president is committed to ending this conflict very quickly.”

    Trump’s stance on Ukraine has been met with growing beltway resistance, including from notable Republicans, amid a growing war of words with Zelensky, labeled a ‘dictator’ who doesn’t want to hold elections in a Wednesday Truth Social post by Trump.

    The Ukrainian administration understands itself to be increasingly isolated by Washington, now near the eve of the war reaching the exact three-year mark, and there are reports that Zelensky is being told by his advisors to not respond to Trump’s provocative words. Trump is telling Zelensky he needs to hold elections.

    Any sanctions relief on Moscow would mark a huge shift in the conflict, and Europe would ultimately have no choice but to conform, despite the continuing hawkish statements issued from Brussels. Statements from Rubio also reflected this Trump stance days ago…

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    Russian markets have responded this week, with the Ruble hitting a six-month high:

    Russia’s ruble surged to its strongest level against the U.S. dollar in more than six months on Thursday, buoyed by renewed U.S.-Russia ties and hopes in Moscow for sanctions relief. The ruble has gained about 14% since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, reversing losses from late 2024.

    On Thursday, Russia’s Central Bank set the official exchange rate at 88.5 rubles against the U.S. dollar, its highest level since August. While Russia does not have a fixed exchange rate, the Central Bank’s figure reflects market trends. The rebound follows a steep drop in the ruble last year when the outgoing Biden administration imposed its toughest sanctions on Russia’’ oil sector since the start of the war”.

    Note: a 1-month fwd Ruble chart.

    Trump has held out the threat of more sanctions, but this new statement from Bessent signals where the US administration’s priorities are headed.

    * * *

    Retired US Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, is in Kiev where on Thursday he had an (apparently) brief meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

    A scheduled post-meeting news conference has been unexpectedly canceled, though no reason was immediately forthcoming, according to a Ukrainian official, presidential spokesman Serhii Nikiforov. The US side made no comment upon the presser’s cancelation.

    The Associated Press observes, “When the meeting began, photographers and video journalists were allowed into a room where the two men shook hands before sitting across from each other at a table at the presidential office in Kyiv.”

    NYT: Keith Kellogg, center, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, meeting with European leaders in Brussels on Tuesday before traveling to Ukraine. Getty Images

    What’s the latest in the growing feud that let up to this?

    President Trump on Wednesday night continued bashing Ukraine’s Zelensky, this time describing that his officials treated Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent “rudely” during his visit to Kiev last week.

    Trump further said that Zelensky chose to sleep instead of meeting with the high-ranking American official to discuss the White House proposed mineral rights deal. “Zelensky was sleeping and unavailable to meet him,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

    Trump’s comments:

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    The Treasury Secretary had “traveled many hours on the train, which is a dangerous trip,” Trump added, characterizing the whole visit as futile given the Ukrainians “told him ‘no'” on the deal for America to acquire 50% of the country’s rare earth minerals.

    Trump’s anti-Zelensky rhetoric, which included him calling him a “dictator” yesterday, has grown to the point that many pundits see that the Ukrainian president’s exit is nigh. Trump is pressuring Kiev for new elections, which would require parliament to change the constitution.

    Vice President J.D. Vance also warned Wednesday that Zelensky will only bring harm on himself should be continue ‘badmouthing’ President Trump. This was in reference to Zelensky asserting that Trump is living in a Russian “disinformation space”. 

    Via Financial Post

    Vance’s warnings were conveyed in an interview published in the Daily Mail:

    “The idea that Zelensky is going to change the president’s mind by badmouthing him in public media, everyone who knows the president will tell you that is an atrocious way to deal with this administration,” Vance said. 

    “We obviously love the Ukrainian people,” but “we obviously think that this war needs to come to a rapid close,” he added. 

    And Vance followed with a reminder: “That is the policy of the president of the United States. It is not based on Russian disinformation.”

    Elon Musk has defended the Trump admin’s fierce critique of Zelensky. For example, Musk had tweeted out the following list by prominent pro-Trump account @DC_Draino: 

    Want to know why Trump called Zelensky a Dictator? Here are the FACTS:

    • He’s in year 6 of his 5 year term
    • Declared martial law Feb 2022 and has banned elections since then
    • Banned 11 political parties
    • Passed law in 2022 to censor journalists and combined all news into one gov’t station
    • Journalists investigating his corruption get conscripted and thrown on the front lines to die

    The list ended with the observation that “Even Saddam Hussein held elections!” We should add to this list the ongoing persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the Zelensky government, merely because it maintains spiritual communion with the Moscow Patriarchate.

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    At this point, many pundits believe it’s only a matter of time before there’s a change in Ukraine’s government. European leaders are of course rallying around Zelensky, but the pressure and power of Washington is a different matter, and in essence Trump is warning that if the Zelensky doesn’t achieve peace, there will be drastic changes in Kiev.

    *  *  *

    Our most popular supplement Astaxanthin – the ultimate antioxidant, is back in stock at ZH Store! Grab some today.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/20/2025 – 18:11

  • Kennedy Center Cancels Gay Men's Chorus Show Meant To Kick Off Pride Month
    Kennedy Center Cancels Gay Men’s Chorus Show Meant To Kick Off Pride Month

    The casualties of the Trump administration’s war on government-sponsored, taxpayer-subsidized wokeism are piling up. In the latest development, a gay men’s chorus performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has been yanked off the schedule. 

    Along with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington DC was set to put on a show called “A Peacock Among Pigeons: Celebrating 50 Years of Pride.” Timed for late May, the show was mean to kick off Pride month. 

    The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington DC performing in 2024

    The show was based on an LGBT-themed children’s book of the same name, which has been among many such child-indoctrination works targeted for removal from school and public libraries. Rather than simply promoting equality and tolerance, A Peacock Among Pigeons positions being LGBTQ as something more special than being straight. Here’s how the plot is described on the book’s Amazon listing: 

    Peter the peacock doesn’t know how it happened, but he found himself growing up in a flock of pigeons. Surrounded by a world of grey, he found himself feeling less than his peers and was embarrassed by his feathers. After he fails to blend in, he decides that it’s time to learn to fly on his own. Along the way, he meets new bird friends from all different flocks that teach him a lesson he will never forget.

    The cancelled show was based on an LGBT-themed children’s book that positions non-heterosexuality as something that sets kids apart from the “grey” crowd of pigeons

    Trump ruffled feathers earlier this month when he maneuvered himself into the chairmanship of the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees, ousting Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein. Trump filled board vacancies with allies like Vice President JD Vance’s wife, Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles, the wife of the Commerce secretary, and the wife of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who voted Trump in, while also giving the boot to Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter and tapping Ric Grennell as her temporary replacement. The gay Grenell‘s most noteworthy experience in managing theater was his service as acting Director of National Intelligence. 

    At the time of the Kennedy Center regime change, Trump promised to make the venue great again. “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP,” he said on Truth Social. 

    National Symphony Orchestra executive director Jean Davidson claims the decision to nix the show came before the Trump coup. “We made the decision to postpone Peacock Among Pigeons due to financial and scheduling factors,” he said in a statement. “We chose to replace it with The Wizard of Oz, another suitable program for World PRIDE participation.”  

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    The Gay Men’s Chorus, which performed at Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, said it was “deeply disappointed” with the decision. “We believe in the power of music to educate and uplift, to foster love, understanding, and community, and we regret that this opportunity has been taken away.”

    The ascendancy of Trump and his allies at the Kennedy Center has prompted a wave of cancellations by artists themselves, as well as resignations of people associated with the venue. Actress, writer and comedian Issa Rae cancelled a sold-out March 1 show, citing “an infringement on the values of an institution that has faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds. Musician and wimpy-voiced singer Ben Folds — who has married and divorced five women, calls his work “punk rock for sissies” but is totally not gay — resigned as artistic adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/20/2025 – 18:00

  • Israel Suspends All Public Transport After Three Buses Explode In Quick Succession
    Israel Suspends All Public Transport After Three Buses Explode In Quick Succession

    On Thursday night Israel’s Transportation Authority halted all public transport including the operation of all buses, trains, and light rails, following an attempted terror attack in the Tel Aviv suburbs of Bat Yam and Holon.

    Three empty buses exploded had exploded in quick succession in parking lots in these areas, and police believe the detonations were actually intended to happen in the morning, when the buses are usually packed.

    No injuries have been reported, but police said at least two other unexploded devices were discovered on nearby parked buses. A search for suspects and evidence as to who is behind the attacks is underway.

    Tel Aviv District police chief Haim Sargarof was cited in local media as saying the bomb plot “looks like something [that originated] in the West Bank.”

    Further details presented in Israeli media said:

    According to a Channel 12 news report, the devices were slated to explode on Friday, when the buses were in use, but were somehow set off early. The network also reported that one of the undetonated devices was found due to an alert of a passenger who notified the driver of a suspicious bag.

    In a statement, the Bat Yam Municipality said that “miraculously, the buses arrived at the parking lots a moment before the explosion,” and were already empty of their passengers.

    Had the plot not been thwarted (by the apparent early explosions), this means potentially up to five buses could have been detonated with people on them, which would could have been one of the worst terror attacks in Tel Aviv history.

    Israel’s Defense Ministry has in the wake of the bomb plot said it is ramping up operations in the West Bank, to crack down on Palestinian militants.

    “In light of the severe terror attack attempts [in the Tel Aviv area] by Palestinian terror organizations against the civilian population in Israel, I instructed the IDF to increase the intensity of the counterterrorism activity in the Tulkram refugee camp, and all the refugee camps in Judea and Samaria,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said.

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

    Some Palestinian sources are accusing Israel of being behind a ‘false flag’ operation in order to justify a greater security presence and crackdown in the West Bank.

    Since the Oct.7 terror attacks by Hamas, there’s been internecine street fighting in some West Bank towns and camps, with hundreds of Palestinians killed, and dozens of Israelis dead and injured as a result.

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

  • RFK Jr. Has Early Mandate to Tackle Children's Health
    RFK Jr. Has Early Mandate to Tackle Children’s Health

    Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Immediately after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Feb. 13, he was tasked with heading up a commission primarily focused on childhood health.

    Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock, Getty Images, Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

    Kennedy is the chairman of the new President’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, created by President Donald Trump via executive order.

    The commission directs executive departments and federal agencies to primarily advise the president on how to “address the childhood chronic disease crisis.”

    It is tasked to explore contributing causes to childhood chronic diseases such as “the American diet, absorption of toxic material, medical treatments, lifestyle, environmental factors, government policies, food production techniques, electromagnetic radiation, and corporate influence or cronyism.”

    The mandate aligns with Kennedy’s presidential campaign platform and his previous work at Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that he founded in 2007.

    “I have prayed each morning for the past two decades for God to put me in a position to solve the childhood chronic disease epidemic and now, thanks to you Mr. President, we will make this promise a reality,” Kennedy said in a Feb. 13 statement.

    Aside from the commission, as head of HHS, Kennedy will oversee a budget of $1.8 trillion for fiscal year 2025, the largest of any federal agency.

    HHS oversees 13 agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

    Six in 10 Americans have at least one chronic disease, and four in 10 have two or more chronic diseases, according to the executive order. It’s also estimated that one in five adults in the United States lives with a mental illness.

    Seventy-seven percent of young adults do not qualify for the military based, in large part, on their health scores, and 90 percent of the nation’s $4.5 trillion in annual health care spending is for people with chronic and mental health conditions, according to a White House fact sheet.

    “In short, Americans of all ages are becoming sicker, beset by illnesses that our medical system is not addressing effectively. These trends harm us, our economy, and our security,” the order reads.

    The President’s MAHA Commission will demonstrate “gold-standard research on why Americans are getting sick in all health-related research funded by the federal government,” the fact sheet states.

    An audience member wears a Make America Healthy Again t-shirt as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies during a Senate confirmation hearing in Washington on Jan. 29, 2025. Win McNamee/Getty Images

    Within 100 days (by ​​May 22), the commission will deliver an initial assessment of potential factors that contribute to the chronic disease epidemic, the order states. A national Make Our Children Healthy Again strategy will be presented within 180 days.

    The commission includes the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency; the departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Education, and Housing and Urban Development; and several economic advisers. The FDA commissioner, the CDC director, and the NIH director will also be involved.

    Sayer Ji, co-founder of Stand for Health Freedom and founder and director of GreenMedInfo, said Trump’s executive order is “an extraordinary and historic moment for the health freedom movement and the future of our nation’s well-being.”

    The commission institutionalizes the MAHA movement that Kennedy got behind last year, he said.

    “For far too long, we have watched as chronic disease, vaccine injury, environmental toxicity and regulatory capture have devastated the health of millions—especially our children,” Ji said.

    “For the first time in modern history, a federal commission will formally acknowledge these crises and work toward real solutions that put the well-being of the American people over corporate profits.”

    ‘Radical Transparency’

    Kennedy has said that “radical transparency and returning gold-standard science to the NIH, the FDA and CDC,” and “ending the corporate capture of those agencies” that led to compromised science are two parts of his plan.

    These dovetail with the commission’s objectives.

    Federally funded health research should “avoid conflicts of interest,” empower Americans through transparency and open-source data, “and should avoid or eliminate conflicts of interest that skew outcomes and perpetuate distrust,” the White House said regarding the commission.

    The NIH and other health-related research funded by the federal government should prioritize gold-standard research on the root causes of why Americans are getting sick, according to the fact sheet.

    A biologist works in the lab at the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., on Feb. 7, 2018. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

    Kennedy said he believes that little will change in the health arena until corporate influence on the FDA, the CDC, and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) is addressed.

    At a roundtable organized by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in September 2024, Kennedy said these agencies “advance the mercantile and commercial interests of the pharmaceutical industry,“ which has transformed the agencies and the food industry into ”sock puppets for the industry” that they’re supposed to regulate.

    Working With Agriculture Secretary

    Kennedy is expected to work with Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on several initiatives, aside from the new commission.

    The USDA and HHS have a late 2025 deadline to complete the 2025–2030 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

    Rollins said on Feb. 14 that she will also work with Kennedy and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to restrict Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, also known as food stamps, to healthier items.

    “We really need to look at where that money is going, what it’s being spent on,” she said. “I look forward to working with Bobby Kennedy as we figure out, ‘Do we have the healthiest choices?’ So when a taxpayer is putting money into SNAP, are we OK with us using their tax dollars to feed really bad food and sugary drinks to children who perhaps need something more nutritious?”

    SNAP benefits were distributed to 42.1 million people in fiscal year 2023, according to the USDA.

    Rollins said she believes SNAP grew by almost 30 percent under the Biden administration.

    “Will we ever take food out of a hungry child’s mouth? Of course not, this is the United States of America,” she said.

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/20/2025 – 17:00

  • "When Narrative Runs Into Reality"
    “When Narrative Runs Into Reality”

    Legacy media TV anchor Gayle King of CBS appeared shocked to learn that President Trump’s layoffs of FAA employees do not impact air travel safety in the US. Meanwhile, Democrats have been drumming up misinformation and disinformation campaigns with their legacy corporate media partners to push a narrative that layoffs are endangering air safety. 

    Delta CEO Ed Bastian sets the record straight for far-left propagandist TV news anchor Gayle King:

    The cuts do not affect us. I’ve been in close communication with the Secretary of Transportation. I understand that the, the cuts at this time are something that are raising questions, but the reality is there’s over 50,000 people that work at the FAA. And the cuts, I understand, were 300 people, and they were in non-critical safety functions.

    The Trump administration has committed to investing deeply in terms of improving the overall technologies that are used in the air traffic control systems and modernizing the skies. They’ve committed to hiring additional controllers and investigators, and safety and investigators. So no, I’m not concerned with that at all.

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

    “When narrative runs into reality,” CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings wrote on X, responding to Kirk’s video. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/20/2025 – 16:40

  • DOGE Is What Happens When Trust In Government Hits Zero
    DOGE Is What Happens When Trust In Government Hits Zero

    Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

    Multiple people over the last week or two have asked me – as a Trump voter in this last election – what I think about President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) having access to all types of critical government systems, including those at the Treasury and the Social Security Administration. Most recently, I talked about it last night on a podcast with George Gammon.

    The way I, and people on both sides of the political aisle, feel about DOGE is mostly irrelevant. Like most Americans, I’m sitting by and watching them gain access to and burrow through critical government infrastructure under the guise of looking for waste, fraud, and abuse. Like I do with my thoughts when I’m meditating, I’m just watching for the time being. I’m observing without judgment.

    And yes, I do feel a bit conflicted. Part of me knows that sending teenagers named “Big Balls” deep into these government databases to try and unearth fraud isn’t a thoughtful or nuanced way to deal with the situation. But the other part of me can’t help but throw my hands up in the air and exclaim, “That’s what we get.”

    Remember, the “adults” were supposedly already in charge over the last four years and, to me, it’s inconceivable how things could possibly get any worse from our country’s fiscal management standpoint. The “adults” ran up the debt at record speed. The “adults” opened our border and welcomed illegal immigrants, allowing many of the them to collect government benefits paid for by taxpayers. The “adults” lied to us and told us Joe Biden was mentally fit for office. The “adults” pushed censorship in media and on social media.

    I’m a big believer in people, places, and things reaping what they sow, and after all this “adulting”, maybe “Big Balls” is exactly what we deserve.

    Donald Trump won the election in a landslide because the Democrats and the Washington, D.C. political machine made it happen. As I’ve pointed out multiple times on this blog, the elites in D.C. may have had overwhelming control, but they lacked finesse in delivering their narratives and failed to hide their true intentions from the American people. Ergo, for better or worse, this led the United States to elect a man widely viewed as a political outsider. Trump campaigned on an agenda that, 15 years ago, would have never held enough water with the American people to get behind it. But thanks to what can only be described as four years of gross incompetence under a barely conscious President Biden, it was all but destiny that Trump would win this election by a landslide.

    And with Trump comes the idea of massive government cuts, and DOGE. It has hardly been a secret that the U.S. government has been fiscally irresponsible for decades. This irresponsibility—marked by sending hundreds of billions of dollars overseas in foreign aid while military veterans lay dying on U.S. city streets—has reached a fever pitch where even the everyday American can’t ignore it.

    Photo: Inc.

    The United States is drowning in debt, running larger and larger fiscal deficits that were only casually mentioned by Treasury Secretary Yellen and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, despite their “runaway train” nature.

    U.S. National Debt going parabolic

    The expansion of the money supply, the sharp increase in debt-to-GDP, and runaway inflation have made our cowardly fiscal policies something digestible even to the most uninitiated U.S. citizens who would otherwise never track the economy.

    Debt/GDP up almost 4x since the early 1970s

    When the average American sees a chart of our debt-to-GDP combined with massive inflation, then watches government officials hurriedly clean up the entire city of San Francisco in 48 hours simply because CCP President Xi Jinping was visiting, it makes even the most uninterested financial minds perk up and ask, “What the hell is really going on here?” Surely, if we can clean up San Francisco that quickly for a communist foreign leader, we should be doing it daily for American citizens, right?

    On top of that, how come every time I visit a place like Montreal or Europe, their trains, subways, public squares and cities appear cleaner, nicer, newer and far more functional than those in the U.S.? Why is there less homelessness and better social services? Are they really charging that much more in taxes relative to GDP than the U.S.?

    Along these lines, Americans have begun asking themselves similar questions, all leading to a central point: “What are we getting for our tax dollars?”

    After all, the country is running a massive deficit, and Democrats’ unhealthy obsession with taxation drifted last year into extremely regressive territory—like taxing unrealized capital gains. So, if you’re going to tax gains I haven’t even made yet, can I at least board one – just one – subway car in Philadelphia that doesn’t smell overwhelmingly like human fecal matter?

    Yes, Americans like me have been left wondering things like: If the IRS can hire 100,000 new agents to pore over things like $600 Venmo transactions under the guise of scraping together a few extra million dollars in tax revenue, why is it acceptable for billions, and collectively possibly trillions to just — POOF! — go missing, like some kind of magic trick being performed at a 13 year old’s birthday party?

    The obsession with taxation piecemeal stands in stark contrast to the huge amounts of tax revenue that either ends up in foreign pockets or disappears without explanation.

    These types of situations are what we’ve sown—DOGE is what we’ve reaped.

    To say that DOGE is moving fast and breaking things would be an understatement. But in reality, what alternative approach would have been better at this point? The country’s taxation, spending, and fiscal habits are so poorly calibrated that promising minor cuts here and there would accomplish nothing. Letting loose a bull in the China shop of the American government, however, quickly postures up and puts everyone on notice: The gravy train has officially ended, and nothing is off-limits.

    Would there be more nuanced and strategic ways to handle the problem? Probably. But that’s not what we deserve at this point. Sadly, in some ways we deserve a bit of mayhem while reviewing how the country is managing its finances. And my answer to “what are your thoughts about DOGE” is irrelevant, because all I can do is sit back and watch it unfold.

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    When it comes to public sentiment, I think the gross misuses of taxpayer money that DOGE has—and likely will continue to—uncover will leave the average American so aghast that concerns about how “strategic” DOGE is in its approach could eventually play second fiddle.

    To be clear, I’m not condoning the mishandling of private taxpayer information, nor am I endorsing DOGE’s methods. But I do understand how, karmically, this feels like the country getting exactly what it deserves after decades of politicians speaking out of both sides of their mouths about controlling spending and taxation.

    Ultimately, once the chaos settles and DOGE has run its course, I believe the government will recalibrate and rebuild in ways it wouldn’t have otherwise. Sure, DOGE is likely wildly overshooting the mark in multiple ways, but I hope that when the establishment reasserts control—whether through the judiciary, midterms, or RINOs turning on the MAGA movement—they will look back at this feeling of discomfort as a reminder not to grow too complacent with the waste, fraud, and abuse, as well as the erratic and irresponsible spending, that our government has made commonplace.

    And at least in that regard, I think DOGE will have had somewhat of a positive impact.

    QTR’s Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only. In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author.

    This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. I may or may not own names I write about and are watching. Sometimes I’m bullish without owning things, sometimes I’m bearish and do own things. Just assume my positions could be exactly the opposite of what you think they are just in case. If I’m long I could quickly be short and vice versa. I won’t update my positions. All positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice and at any point I can be long, short or neutral on any position. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

     

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

  • Trump Officially Signs Kash Patel In As FBI Director
    Trump Officially Signs Kash Patel In As FBI Director

    The Senate on Thursday confirmed Kash Patel to lead the FBI.

    Patel had widespread support of Republicans – even Mitch McConnell (!), who argued that the Trump nominee would reform the nation’s top law enforcement agency after decades of corruption.

    “Mr. Patel should be our next FBI director because the FBI has been infected by political bias and weaponized against the American people. Mr. Patel knows it, Mr. Patel exposed it, and Mr. Patel has been targeted for it,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said last week during a committee meeting to discuss Patel’s nomination, before the panel advanced Patel in a party-line vote.

    Update (1550ET): In response to his confirmation, Patel said he was “honored” to have been confirmed, and he will now “rebuild trust in the FBI.”

    “The FBI has a storied legacy—from the “G-Men” to safeguarding our nation in the wake of 9/11. The American people deserve an FBI that is transparent, accountable, and committed to justice. The politicalization of our justice system has eroded public trust—but that ends today. My mission as Director is clear: let good cops be cops—and rebuild trust in the FBI,” he said in a post on X, adding “And to those who seek to harm Americans—consider this your warning. We will hunt you down in every corner of this planet.“

    Update (1944ET): Trump has officially signed Patel in as the new Director of the FBI…

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

    Democrats, meanwhile are positively spooked…

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

    Meanwhile, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) – who notably blocked the release of the Epstein client list that Patel has vowed to expose, held a press conference outside FBI headquarters on Thursday, slamming what he called Patel’s “bizarre political statements” spanning Jan. 6, to retribution – and accused Reepublicans of “willfully ignoring red flags on Mr. Patel,” who he argued has “neither the experience, the judgment or the temperament” to be FBI chief for the next decade.

    “Mr. Patel will be a political and national security disaster,” said Durbin.

    Patel, a vocal critic of the FBI, has worked in several roles during the first Trump administration, including acting deputy director of national intelligence. In prior comments, Patel said he wanted to clean out the bureau’s headquarters in Washington DC as part of a mission to dismantle the Deep State.

    *  *  *

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/20/2025 – 15:49

  • Pentagon 8% 'Cut' Is Actually Shifting Funds From 'Woke Programs' To America First
    Pentagon 8% ‘Cut’ Is Actually Shifting Funds From ‘Woke Programs’ To America First

    On Wednesday, a Washington Post report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had directed senior Pentagon leaders to prepare for 8% budget cuts sent Palantir and other defense stocks plunging.

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivers remarks at the White House last month. (Kent Nishimura/For The Washington Post)

    “The proposed cuts, if adopted, would mark the largest effort to rein in Pentagon spending since 2013,” wrote WaPo.

    Except that’s not what’s going on…

    On Wednesday night, Breaking Defense‘s Aaron Mehta and Ashley Roque reported that the ‘cuts’ are actually Hegseth ordering the review of the department’s 2026 budget “in order to shift funds from legacy programs towards President Donald Trump’s priorities, including border security and the Iron Dome for America.”

    “Secretary Hegseth has directed a review to identify offsets from the Biden Administration’s FY26 budget that could be realigned from low-impact and low-priority Biden-legacy programs to align with President Trump’s America First priorities for our national defense,” acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Salesses said in a Wednesday night statement.

    “The Department will develop a list of potential offsets that could be used to fund these priorities, as well as to refocus the Department on its core mission of deterring and winning wars. The offsets are targeted at 8% of the Biden Administration’s FY26 budget, totaling around $50 billion, which will then be spent on programs aligned with President Trump’s priorities.“

    As Breaking Defense notes further;

    After the statement was released, Breaking Defense obtained a portion of Hegseth’s memo, which lists 17 “offsets” which “may not be included by services and component in their eight percent decrease” recommendations. Those are:

    • Southwest Border Activities
    • Combating Transnational Criminal Organizations in the Western Hemisphere
    • Audit
    • Nuclear Modernization (including NC3)
    • Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCAs)
    • Virginia-class Submarines
    • Executable Surface Ships
    • Homeland Missile Defense
    • One-Way Attack/Autonomous Systems
    • Counter-small UAS Initiatives
    • Priority Critical Cybersecurity
    • Munitions
    • Core Readiness, including full DRT funding
    • Munitions and Energetics Organic Industrial Bases
    • Executable INDOPACOM MILCON
    • Combatant Command support agency funding for INDOPACOM, NORTHCOM, SPACECOM, STRATCOM, CYBERCOM, and TRANSCOM
    • Medical Private-Sector Care

    It’s unclear what kind of programs will be targeted outside this list, although Salesses in his statement said the department will target “unnecessary spending” like “so-called ‘climate change’ and other woke programs, as well as excessive bureaucracy.” It’s also unclear if the decision not to exempt support for EUCOM, AFRICOM, CENTCOM or SOUTHCOM is a sign that those regions may be downplayed as priorities.

    According to Salesses, the department will target “unnecessary spending” such as “so-called ‘climate change’ and other woke programs, as well as excessive bureaucracy.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/20/2025 – 15:45

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