Better Off? How Generational Progress Slowed In The US

Bettering yourself financially or at least giving your children the opportunity for a more prosperous future has driven people to emigrate to the United States for generations. But is the next generation still better off in this day and age?

The answer is yes, but not by that much.

At least, as Statista's Katharina Buchholz reports, this is the verdict given in a discussion paper published by the Federal Reserve Board of Washington D.C. in 2024. 

It concludes that millennials' median household income at 36 to 40 years old was still 18 percent higher than that of Generation X at the same age.

A millennial born in 1982 would have turned 40 in 2022, the last year the study looked at.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Gen X achieved a similarly low increase of median household incomes over Baby Boomers at 16 percent.

This is in contrast to the post-war generation, which at age 36-40 earned 27 percent more than the Silent Generation.

For this generation growing up during World War II, the number still stood at 34 percent on average.

Taking as a baseline the Greatest Generation, which was born between 1900 and 1927, the Silent Generation earned 34 percent more, while Boomers made a cumulative 70 percent more, Gen X took home 97 percent more and finally Millennials brought in 133 percent more than the Greatest Generation even when adjusted for inflation.

The data also shows that the Silent Generation worked 14 percent more hours than the generation before and Boomers worked another 14 percent more.

However, working hours have been relatively stable for generations since.

While the numbers show that average income wealth rose in the United States over time and that more people gained access to at least a middle-class life over the decades, this doesn't mean that everybody is necessarily making more than those who came before. 

A study published in 2017 and widely reported then showed that only 50 percent of people born in 1984 made more than their parents at age 30.

For those born in 1940 and turning 30 in 1970, this number had still been above 90 percent.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 05:45

The Men Who Own The Ukraine War Now Run It

Authored by Thomas S. Karat via AntiWar.com

There was a time when the arms dealer waited in the corridor. He financed the campaign, endowed the think tank, took the general to dinner, and hoped the man inside the office would remember him when the contract came up. The wall between the money and the decision was thin, often corrupt, but it was there. Someone held the public trust, and someone else tried to buy it, and you could at least tell the two apart.

That wall is gone. The financier no longer waits in the corridor. He holds the office. He signs the checks. He is the buyer and the seller, the regulator and the regulated, the public interest and the private portfolio, fused into a single man in a single suit, and the arrangement is entirely legal, which is the whole problem.

Getty Images

One of these men may already be familiar from a previous article. His name is Friedrich Merz.

The chancellor was the warm-up act

From 2016 to 2020, Merz chaired the supervisory board of BlackRock’s German arm, the local office of the largest pool of private capital on earth – a fact confirmed, without embarrassment, by his own party's foundation. Then he climbed back into politics, and in March 2025, as chancellor-in-waiting, he drove through the outgoing Bundestag — deliberately before the newly elected parliament could convene – the constitutional amendment that exempted defense spending from Germany’s debt brake. The borrowing limit Germans had treated as sacred since 2009 was gone. German military spending rose 24 percent in a single year to $114 billion, the largest in NATO Europe, and BlackRock held stakes in the very contractors – Rheinmetall, Hensoldt – that the money would flow toward.

He broke no law. He simply spent four years learning, from the inside, how the machinery paid out, and then went and pulled the lever. The arrangement was a particular kind that no scandal quite captures, because nothing in it is hidden. It sits in plain view, in regulatory filings and procurement requests, and it works precisely because everyone involved can say, truthfully, that they broke no rule.

It reads as a German problem only until you cross the Atlantic. There the same face turns up in an American suit, several of them, installed not adjacent to the war machine but at its controls.

The banker who became the Navy

Consider John Phelan, who until March 2025 had no connection to the military beyond a seat on a charity board. His career was money: he co-founded MSD Capital, the private investment firm that managed the personal fortune of Michael Dell, and later founded his own firm, Rugger Management. He gave Trump’s joint fundraising committee $834,600 in April 2024. Months later he was nominated to run the United States Navy, and in March he was confirmed, handed a $263.5 billion budget and command of nearly a million sailors and Marines.

Before his confirmation, Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to him about the obvious. He had recently earned over $5 million in capital gains from Palantir, a defense-software contractor that took in $541 million from the Pentagon in fiscal 2024 alone, and whose relationships Phelan’s own acquisition vehicle had once advertised. She asked him to divest his defense holdings and to recuse himself, for four years, from matters touching his former clients and employers, noting that a dozen Biden appointees had voluntarily gone beyond what the ethics laws required. Phelan declined to make the stronger commitment. He was confirmed anyway, 62 to 30, with eleven Democrats joining every Republican in the room.

The man overseeing the Navy’s shipbuilding budget was, weeks earlier, a private investor with money in the companies the Navy buys from. Nobody hid it. It was printed in his disclosures and read aloud at his hearing, and it changed nothing.

The private-equity takeover of the Pentagon

Phelan is the modest case. The full expression of the thing sits one floor up, in the office of the deputy secretary of defense, where Stephen Feinberg runs the day-to-day of the entire department.

Feinberg co-founded Cerberus Capital Management and led it for thirty-three years; in his own sworn testimony to the Senate he put the firm’s portfolio at over $65 billion. He was a major Trump donor, and by the time he was confirmed in March 2025 he was, at a listed minimum net worth of $2 billion, the wealthiest official in the administration. What he has built since is not influence over the Pentagon. It is ownership of its investment arm.

Feinberg has surrounded himself with a circle of advisers drawn from his old firm. The group includes former Cerberus managing director John Gallagher and a deal team led by Cerberus alumnus George Kollitides – who was, until 2015, chairman and chief executive of Remington, the gunmaker Cerberus owned. Industry executives nicknamed the squad “Deal Team Six,” a joke on the SEAL unit that killed bin Laden, and Kollitides told a Milken Institute audience he found the name both fun and fitting while explaining that economic warfare has been a part of all successful nations for thousands of years. A Stanford professor watching this described it plainly: private equity has just acquired its largest organization.

The organization it acquired writes checks the size of nations. Under Feinberg, the Pentagon stopped merely buying weapons and began buying companies. It took a $400 million preferred-equity stake in the rare-earth miner MP Materials, enough to make the United States government the firm’s largest single shareholder at roughly 15 percent – ahead, as it happens, of BlackRock. It put $1 billion into an L3Harris rocket-motor unit slated to go public in 2026. Stakes in Trilogy Metals, Vulcan Elements, and ReElement Technologies followed, a portfolio that a group of House members warned was locking federal policy to the fortunes of individual firms – picking winners, and by definition creating losers.

Whose companies get the contracts

Here is where the fusion stops being abstract... Feinberg signed an ethics agreement before confirmation. He would divest from Cerberus and recuse himself from matters involving the firm. But the fine print left the door open: he could transfer his Cerberus holdings into trusts benefiting his adult children, a maneuver legal under conflict-of-interest law but one ethics experts say hollows out its purpose, and he could keep contracting with Cerberus for administrative services. That contract was meant to end in April 2026. In January, he reversed course and extended it with no end date. The financial relationship between the deputy secretary of defense and the private equity firm he used to run now continues indefinitely.

Meanwhile the department began handing out contracts for Golden Dome, Trump’s missile-defense shield, a program that has already ballooned to an estimated $185 billion. The Pentagon at first refused to name the companies winning the work. When it finally released a list, at least four of the winners turned out to be owned or partly owned by Cerberus: North Wind, Stratolaunch, Red River Technology, and NetCentrics. The department still will not disclose what those contracts are worth, and by law is required to announce only those above $9 million.

Does Feinberg personally pick the contractors? The department says he has no direct responsibility for Golden Dome acquisitions. But the general who runs the program, Michael Guetlein, described his own chain of command without ambiguity: I report to the deputy secretary and only to the deputy secretary, he said. He is the only official who can tell me no. The man who can say no to the entire missile-defense program is the man whose old firm owns the companies being paid to build it, and whose family may still profit from that firm’s returns. No single email needs to be produced. The architecture does the work.

The recruiting pitch says it out loud

For anyone wondering how normal this has become, the sales brochure settles it. To staff its new investment operation – an “Economic Defense Unit” meant to deploy up to $200 billion over three years – the Pentagon hired the headhunting firm Heidrick & Struggles, whose recruiting deck went hunting for bankers at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Bank of America.

The pitch promised recruits unmatched access to top-level government officials and privileged information flow — whatever you need, you can get. It offered salaries reaching $600,000 through a government-aligned nonprofit, against a federal average near $100,000. And it described the job not as public service but as a two-year secondment leading to exceptional exit opportunities, including the chance to launch a new fund with members of the team. Come into the government, use the access, leave richer, on the strength of relationships built on the public payroll. This is not a leak of something embarrassing. It is a document written to attract people, on the assumption that the merger of private profit and public office is the perk.

A former assistant director on the White House technology-security staff, reading the same deck, warned that an effort this size has the potential to distort national-security-critical industries in ways he did not think anyone had seriously contemplated. There is, he added, obvious potential for truly egregious corruption. But corruption is almost the smaller point. Corruption implies a rule being broken. What is happening here is a rule being dissolved.

The same men, both shores

Line them up. Merz chaired an asset manager and then commanded the German rearmament that manager profits from. Phelan ran a billionaire’s money and then took command of the Navy that buys from the companies he held. Feinberg ran a private equity empire and then took the Pentagon’s second chair and filled the building with his former partners. Different countries, different uniforms, one profession and one move: from owning the assets of war to commanding the state that pays for them.

The line worth repeating from Merz’s own story turns out not to have been about Germany at all. The buildup manufactures the danger it claims to answer. Every European budget hardens Moscow’s conviction that it is being encircled, which justifies the next budget, around and around, while the men who profit count their dividends and call it security. That was true of one chancellor. It is true of an entire class of men who have stopped seeing daylight between the public interest and their own book, because across their whole careers there never was any.

The old fear, the one Eisenhower named in 1961, was that the military-industrial complex would acquire unwarranted influence over the government. That fear is quaint now. Influence is what you need when you are standing in the corridor. These men are not in the corridor. They are behind the desk, and the desk has a checkbook with no ceiling, and the recruiting brochure is on the table telling the next banker that whatever he needs, he can get.

Thomas Karat writes investigative work published at karat.substack.com and the Libertarian Institute, drawing on a corporate career and academic training as a behavior analyst to examine how institutions manufacture consent and influence.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 05:00

Europe Votes Against Thought-Policing 'Chat Control', Brussels Passes It Anyway...

On Thursday in Strasbourg, 314 Members of the European Parliament voted to reject the return of "Chat Control," the legal regime allowing tech companies to scan the private messages of roughly half a billion Europeans.

Illustration via proton.me

Only 276 voted to keep it.

So naturally, the scanning regime won - thanks to a 'quirky' voting procedure in Brussels that allowed legislation to survive even though most MEPs who cast a vote opposed it. That should alarm anyone who still believes the word "parliament" is supposed to mean something.

Losing by Winning

The vote took place at second reading, under an urgent procedure pushed through just two days earlier by Parliament's largest bloc, the centre-right European People's Party.

At second reading, the arithmetic is rigged toward passage. Rejecting or amending the text does not require a majority of votes cast. It requires an absolute majority of all 720 MEPs: 361 votes.

That means every absent MEP and every abstention effectively counts in favor of the law.

This is how “DEMOCRACY” works in Europe:

⛔️ 314 vote AGAINST mass surveillance.
✅ 276 vote FOR it.

MASS SURVEILLANCE WINS.

Then the same bureaucratic hypocrites travel the world lecturing everyone about democracy and their so-called “European values.”

WELCOME TO THE EUSSR. https://t.co/5OiJPMmg8i pic.twitter.com/zOM4OnLqkv

— Dr. Simon (@goddek) July 9, 2026

On Thursday, 607 members voted: 314 to reject, 276 to proceed, and 17 abstained. Another 113 were not in the chamber. The rejection therefore fell 47 votes short of the required threshold. A clear majority of voting MEPs opposed the measure - and the measure became law again anyway. Not coincidentally, the vote was scheduled for the final sitting day before Parliament dispersed for its summer recess, when absenteeism is at its annual peak.

The path to this outcome is as important as the result. Parliament had already rejected an extension of these same rules on 26 March. The regulation then expired on 3 April. In any functioning democratic system, that would have been the end of it. Instead, the Council returned on 2 July with essentially the same text, repackaged as a new proposal. Then, on 7 July, the EPP secured an urgency procedure by a narrow 331-to-304 vote, bypassing committee scrutiny and setting up Thursday's vote under second-reading rules.

Marketa Gregorova, the Greens/EFA negotiator on the file, accused the EPP of violating Parliament's own rules of procedure and abusing its position to force a re-run of a question the chamber had already answered. She was right to do so.

This is actually quite unbelievable.

Did you know that Nazis never won an over-whelming majority? They gained rule through such exceptions.

Evil finds its way. https://t.co/YOKnH2RStA

— Tuomas Malinen (@mtmalinen) July 9, 2026

When a legislature can be made to vote on the same question repeatedly, under progressively worse rules, until it produces the desired answer, the word "vote" begins to look decorative.

What was revived on Thursday is "Chat Control 1.0" - the ePrivacy derogation first adopted in 2021 - not the broader permanent proposal commonly known as Chat Control 2.0.

The revived regime permits, rather than requires, providers such as Meta, Google and Microsoft to scan private messages, emails and uploaded images on unencrypted services for child sexual abuse material. It will now run until April 2028, unless permanent legislation replaces it first.

Parliament did manage to push through two concessions. Amendments exempting end-to-end encrypted services passed with 369 and 362 votes, carried by an unusual coalition spanning liberals, the left and parts of the right. That matters: Parliament is now formally on record against breaking encryption.

But as civil-rights campaigner Patrick Breyer notes, the victory is partly symbolic. Providers cannot meaningfully scan end-to-end encrypted content in the first place without undermining the encryption itself.

The more revealing vote was the one that failed. An amendment to restrict scanning to individuals actually identified as suspects by the judiciary won a clear plurality, 322 to 255. But because it also needed 361 votes, it died.

In other words, a majority of voting MEPs wanted scanning limited to actual suspects.  Europe got suspicionless scanning of everyone instead.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 04:15

Is She Going To Eat It?

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

Migrants continue to treat Britain's streets, parks, and waterways like a personal hunting ground, with fresh footage exposing the grim reality of unchecked mass immigration.

A disturbing new video circulating on X shows a woman - widely identified in comments as a migrant - seemingly actively hunting birds.

She uses a sheet to capture a seagull perched on a gate or property edge. After securing the bird, she looks around for more prey, scanning the area as if on a deliberate hunt.

I DONT WANT PEOPLE LIKE THIS IN MY COUNTRY pic.twitter.com/HZCiZ8mBiI

— WeGotitBack ??????????? (@NotFarLeftAtAll) July 9, 2026

When locals spot her and begin filming while questioning what she is doing with the bird, she gestures dismissively - as if to say "what's your problem?" and implying this is totally normal behaviour and none of their business.

The clip has sparked widespread outrage, with many slamming the trespass and illegal taking of wildlife.

This is sick. We don't want this barbaric and cruel shit in our country!

— Nicola Beaumont. ? (@PsychBeaulogy) July 8, 2026

ALL gulls (commonly called seagulls) are fully protected in Britain by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, making it illegal to kill, injure, or handle them, or to destroy their active nests and eggs.
This woman needs locking up...FOLLOW OUR LAWS OR BOG OFF ???? @BBCNews...

— Nix Randall (@Nixterr1) July 9, 2026

They're eating the birds. They're eating the cats.

They actually are. Libtards will defend it.

— GMghostmode (@GallowsMemes) July 9, 2026

There have been further suggestions that the woman was actually "rescuing" the bird, but many are not buying that explanation.

? WOMAN WAS RESCUING SEAGULL, NOT STEALING IT

A video I shared yesterday of a woman catching a seagull in a blanket, was Not what it looked like, the woman in question was actually concerned for the small seagull after it has fell off the roof previously, as you can see in... https://t.co/X4ae0MxvCR pic.twitter.com/36ONNaUHu6

— Active Patriot (@ActivePatriotUK) July 9, 2026

I've never seen someone rescue a bird by snapping it's wings and stuffing it into a bed sheet.

— NickyP (@Nickypwastaken) July 9, 2026

This does not align with the original video which shows a bird with an adult size wingspan, not a fledging who is unable to fly. The bird the woman was wrestling into the sack/blanket would have been able to fly. What this means now I cannot say, but something is amiss here.

— Tez Locke (@TezLocke) July 9, 2026

Fair play, but a juvenile gull that size does not need 'rescuing'. You can see in the original video that it tries to fly away from her. It was already fledged. pic.twitter.com/Hp2xzuaVYt

— MJ Simpson (@mjsimpsonfilms) July 9, 2026

As if that's the same woman aint even the same house.

— ????????? ??? (@CerebrAiX) July 9, 2026

You have to be an idiot to see that first video even with the idea in your head that she is trying to help it, and still think she is trying to help it.

— Monty (@MontyDean1A4) July 9, 2026

I see nothing in this video that refutes the first one. The woman is not present in this one, & it's a different gull. As a wildlife biologist, I can say that she did NOT handle the gull like someone w/ its welfare in mind. Have you been threatened into issuing this statement?

— Missy Lee (@RecoveringWLW) July 9, 2026

This one was rescued from the road ? pic.twitter.com/RK6wiXoo9S

— Harry Lines??????? (@HarryLines7) July 9, 2026

This latest incident fits a clear pattern. Migrants have been repeatedly filmed hunting pigeons, with their bare hands in UK streets, and even using fishing rods to try and catch them.

Similar scenes have played out with protected swans and ducks across the UK and Ireland, where migrants set traps and butcher birds in public spaces.

The depravity doesn't stop at birds. On the continent, a Nigerian migrant was caught cooking a cat in a public park next to a children's playground, drawing fury from locals.

These cases echo reports from Springfield, Ohio, where Haitian migrants faced accusations of snatching and consuming local wildlife, including ducks and geese in parks.

Residents described scenes of animals being grabbed by the neck, decapitated, and taken for food - claims that amplified national debate over mass migration's impact on communities and norms.

British wildlife laws under the Wildlife and Countryside Act strictly protect many of these species. Yet enforcement seems inconsistent when it involves certain arrivals who show little regard for local customs, laws, or basic animal welfare.

Locals filming these confrontations repeatedly highlight the same point: these individuals have housing, clothing, and food provided, yet they hunt urban birds as if in a survival scenario from their countries of origin.

The cultural clash is undeniable. Britain, long a nation of animal lovers with strong traditions of protecting wildlife, now contends with behaviors that treat public spaces as open butcheries. Pigeons and seagulls in cities scavenge in polluted environments, raising health risks from diseases, but that hasn't deterred the hunters.

This is a visible symptom of failed open-border policies that prioritize globalist ideals over national cohesion and rule of law. While politicians lecture about tolerance, everyday Brits watch their parks and streets transformed, and communities on edge.

Mass immigration without assimilation imports incompatible practices that erode Britain's way of life. Strong borders, enforced laws, and putting citizens first aren't radical - they're essential to preserving what remains of civilized society.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 03:30

Erdogan Taunts Israel & Greece After Trump Hands Turkey F-35, Sanctions Win

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has responded to ongoing Israeli and Greek objections to the possible US sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey by mocking the Turkish enemies and rivals.

Opposition to the potential stealth fighter transfer raised by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Greece’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis "has no place in my world," Erdogan said in his characteristically bellicose manner.

"Hopefully, when the F-35s are delivered to Turkey, the whole world will say America kept its promise," Erdogan said at a Wednesday closing news conference for the NATO summit hosted in Ankara. 

Netanyahu told Fox News on Monday that "Turkey is a great country, but it's governed by a man who calls openly for the annihilation of Israel" - in reference to Erdogan. "He occupies half of Cyprus, a NATO country. He's threatening Greece, another NATO country, and he talks openly about conquering Jerusalem."

The Israeli leader also said that giving Ankara F-35s or fighter jet engines would "upset the power balance in the Middle East, which is ultimately guaranteed by Israeli air superiority and also by, I think, by America's posture in the Middle East." He's been urgently requestion that the White House reign in Erdogan and his provocative rhetoric.

However, Israeli pressure did nothing to sway Trump while the US President was in Turkey. Trump strongly signaled he's ready to go through with the sale of F-35s, saying of Erdogan, "We are great friends".

What's more is that Trump declared - to the surprise of US Congress (who will want a word on this) that he'll be removing US sanctions which were imposed on Turkey during his own prior administration: 

In response to that purchase, Washington in 2020 imposed sanctions on a major Turkish defense company and removed Turkey from the F-35 stealth fighter jet program, where Ankara was also a production partner.

"We’re going to be taking the sanctions off," Trump told reporters just before his meeting with Erdogan during a visit to Turkey for a NATO summit. He added that his secretary of state and Treasury secretary were working on the issue.

In the moment, Secretary of State Marco Rubio looked a bit surprised, while President Erdogan beamed with a sense of victory...

Erdogan gives a thumbs-up as Trump lifts sanctions in real-time. Rubio has a WTF?!? look that can't be denied. pic.twitter.com/XnGIkvyIOs

— Christopher Leonard (@ChrisLeonardATL) July 8, 2026

Later, Erdogan voiced that in reality the United States is "not enforcing any sanctions against us" and that "by and large, those measures have already been lifted."

He said of his top national security officials, "They have all witnessed firsthand that these sanctions are not being applied to Türkiye. So, we have no such problem. And whenever an issue does arise, Mr. Trump, thankfully, returns our call within 24 hours whenever we reach out to him. Within that same 24-hour period, we receive the response we need."

The Turkish foreign ministry has also hit back at recent Israeli statements, saying, "The baseless allegations recently circulated by Israeli officials in a coordinated manner and with calculated timing are part of a disinformation campaign." The statement added: "Netanyahu and his partners in crime deliberately distort any criticism directed at them and seek to divert attention through a systematic propaganda effort."

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 02:45

Europeans Should Embrace The American Revolution

Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker,

The time has come for Europeans to declare their independence from ruling-class tyranny.

We made it to our two-hundred-fiftieth birthday, America.  What’s next?  Let’s get back to work, so that our descendants can celebrate one thousand.

Making sure the American Experiment endures is work, after all.  Protecting American ideals from our ideological enemies is never easy.

Well before our nation declared independence from Great Britain, the American system repudiated the whole “ruling class” hierarchy that — to this day! — still oozes from the infected abscesses of the United Kingdom and much of continental Europe.  After we fought two world wars in the twentieth century to save Europe from itself, we spent the Cold War period in a bit of a kumbaya stupor during which Americans often equated the beliefs of Western nobles with those who founded and built the United States.

But Europe and America have never been the same.  The people who built America left Europe behind for good reasons.  They rejected Europe’s aristocratic allegiances, its feudal social structures, and its false pretension that blue-blooded “elites” are divinely and innately empowered to rule over everyone else.  The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution are not merely documents establishing America’s political separation from Britain and the legal foundations for its new government.  They are revolutionary statements of America’s intent to remove itself from the generational enslavement upon which monarchies, ruling classes, and feudal systems depend.

Taken together, the Declaration and Constitution assert fundamental truths that governments throughout human history have tried to obscure from their peoples.  Those truths include the recognition that all of us are equal before God; so-called noble aristocrats are not divinely given or entitled to receive more power or privilege than the common man.  Furthermore, our rights come from God, not the government.  Aristocrats, government officials, elected representatives, and bureaucrats cannot give us what only God provides for our well-being and happiness.  Additionally, because governments are artificial creations constructed by imperfect human beings, they are legitimate only when the people who live under those governments consent to their structure.  Governments that exercise power in defiance of the will of the people are unjust governments utilizing illegitimate powers.  Finally, when governments deny the people their God-given rights, fail to keep the public safe, undermine their citizens’ happiness, usurp powers belonging to the people, abuse the public, or threaten the lives and liberties of citizens, the people have a right — nay, a duty! — to overthrow those governments and replace them with new governments more likely to protect the people’s lives, liberties, and God-given rights.

These assertions didn’t just repudiate the British Crown.  They repudiated the legitimacy of governments throughout the world.  Princes justified their powers over common people as expressions of God’s will.  Claiming to be God’s direct emissaries on Earth, noble aristocrats considered themselves the arbiters of what rights and liberties common people might enjoy.  The American Revolution rejected these premises as outright lies.  Princes are endowed with the same rights as commoners.  Rights and liberties come from God, not ruling class elites!

In other words, America’s War for Independence was also a war that threatened systems of power throughout the world.  If legitimate government powers come directly from the people, then the whole feudal hierarchy is inverted.  Rather than a pyramid with a king or queen on top who allocates certain powers to a small royal court of lords who allocate a few powers to vassals who allocate a tiny portion of those powers to peasants who remain in indentured servitude, the Declaration of Independence asserts that power arises from the base of the pyramid with the people and that government authorities merely borrow the people’s power as temporary custodians obligated to secure and advance the public’s will.  Nothing at the top of the pyramid is legitimate unless the bottom of the pyramid consents.  Two-hundred-fifty years ago, America turned the world upside down.

Do any of these American convictions describe Europe today?  Does the unelected European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen behave as someone who derives her power from the consent of those Europeans she insists upon governing?  Do the digital censorship laws that prevent citizens of the United Kingdom and the European Union from freely communicating with each other protect their God-given rights and liberties?  Do the growing swarms of European bureaucrats writing endless rules and regulations inside unaccountable government institutions appear to respect the people’s inherent powers?  Do Europe’s open borders policies provide European citizens with security, safety, and happiness?  If the answer to these questions is “no,” then don’t common Europeans have the right and duty to overthrow their governments and form new institutions committed to their protection and the preservation of their freedoms?  Otherwise, aren’t most of the bureaucracies and government institutions of Europe wholly illegitimate?

It is easy to see why governments around the world don’t spend much time teaching young students about the Declaration of Independence or the American Revolution.  If they did, most citizens would immediately recognize their own forms of government as oppressive, harmful, unjust, and resentful of God’s authority.

This is why European political “leaders” refuse to talk about rights and freedoms and instead drone on about “democracy.”  It is difficult to explain how rights and freedoms can be inalienable when governments insist on defining, redefining, or abridging them whenever those in power find it necessary or convenient to do so.  “Democracy,” on the other hand, stands for nothing other than the dangerous proposition that fifty-one cannibals can vote to eat forty-nine of their neighbors.  “Democracy” can even be twisted to mean that a couple dozen European Commissioners are entitled to choose a European Commission president who is somehow entitled to write laws for all of Europe.  Such an arrangement undermines all safeguards for Europeans’ inalienable rights and liberties.  Describing fascism, socialism, or monarchy as “democratic” does not lend legitimacy to despotic forms of government.

To this day, Europe’s leaders don’t understand America.  Or they understand, but they pretend that America embraces European “values.”  Or they look down upon America as some kind of wild mongrel that makes a good guard dog but remains incapable of appreciating the dignified sensibilities of European “elites.”  The noble gentry who spread their cancerous ideologies from Brussels do their best to groom and domesticate America while expecting us to pee on the rug at any time.  Europe’s entrenched aristocracy prefers for the unruly American dog to stay outside.

Part of the reason we are “unruly,” though, is that our political instincts are foreign and threatening to a European feudal structure that demands total power for the few and no power at all for the many.  Europe’s bureaucrats prefer Karl Marx to Thomas Jefferson.  Europe’s aristocratic “elites” prefer declarations of dependence to America’s Declaration of Independence.

The future is not a battle between the so-called “democratic” West and the authoritarian regimes of the world.  The future is a battle between feudal forms of government and an American system that recognizes governments as legitimate only when they are used to protect each individual’s God-given rights.  Both in Europe and the United States, the war against government tyranny and for human freedom will continue to rage.  European and American “elites” will do everything they can to foster public dependence upon government.  European and American citizens who wish to be free must declare their independence from Big Government.

There are those alive today who believe that Big Government cannot be beaten.  That’s natural.  Two-hundred-fifty years ago, few believed that America’s Declaration of Independence would lead to the British Empire’s defeat.  The war for human freedom never truly ends.  Every generation must fight to secure their God-given rights.  When governments forfeit the people’s consent and undermine the people’s freedoms, they are rendered illegitimate.  There is but one public remedy: revolution.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 02:00

113 Active Spies From Foreign Countries Arrested: FBI Director

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The FBI has arrested 113 active spies from foreign nations, agency director Kash Patel said on Wednesday.

FBI Director Kash Patel testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 12, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

The arrests of foreign spies "means our tech stays home and our defense secrets stay locked down," a video shared by Patel on X said. "But the FBI didn't stop there. They forced 62 removals of Chinese spies in 2026 alone."

The video added that this has shattered the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP's) deep cover operations against the United States.

The House Committee on Homeland Security released a report in February 2025 detailing multiple cases of espionage conducted by the CCP in the United States since 2021.

The cases, spread across 20 U.S. states, involved the transmission of sensitive military information to Beijing, stealing trade secrets to benefit the regime, transnational repression schemes targeting Chinese dissidents, and obstruction of justice. Every 12 hours, the FBI opened new cases to counter Beijing's intelligence operations, according to the report.

The report noted that the CCP's theft of U.S. intellectual property amounts to roughly $4,000 to $6,000 annually per American family of four after paying taxes.

In one prominent case, a senior adviser to the State Department was arrested in October 2025, accused of taking thousands of top-secret documents and meeting with Chinese officials. The individual allegedly downloaded and saved documents related to U.S. fighter jets and weapons capabilities.

On Jan. 12 this year, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that a former U.S. Navy sailor was sentenced to 200 months in prison for spying for Beijing.

The person had access to sensitive national defense information about the amphibious assault ship U.S.S. Essex, such as its weapons, propulsion, and desalination systems. These ships are a "cornerstone of the U.S. Navy's amphibious readiness and expeditionary strike capabilities," according to the DOJ statement. The sailor sold critical information to a Chinese intelligence officer for $12,000.

More recently, on June 4, the DOJ announced that a U.S. citizen pleaded guilty to acting as an agent for China. The man, who lived in China, would travel to the United States to meet with individuals who could provide him, and ultimately the Chinese Ministry of State Security, with important information.

Digital Threats, Cartels

The video shared by Patel also said that the FBI has been successful in countering cyber threats.

On Jan. 8, the FBI issued an alert warning about a North Korean state-sponsored cyber threat group targeting American entities with a QR code phishing scheme to steal sensitive information. As of last year, threat actors from the group targeted academic institutions, think tanks, and U.S. and foreign government entities.

Last month, the DOJ said that 13 internet domains backed by suspected Chinese agents were seized by authorities. The domains were used to target Americans with security clearance to access classified government information.

The FBI is now targeting cartels as foreign terrorists, which has led to around 4,800 cartel members getting arrested, the video said.

Despite the ongoing crackdown, cartels are shifting drug trafficking tactics. During a Senate committee hearing on May 12, top law enforcement officials raised concerns about some Mexican cartels moving operations to Canada in order to manufacture and distribute fentanyl.

Terry Cole, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said there have been "significant seizures" of fentanyl in Canada over the previous months.

At the hearing, Patel said: "The drug traffickers got smart with the securitization of the southern border and moved it up there [to Canada]. So we're tackling that with our seize partners."

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/09/2026 - 23:25

Fiber-Optic Kamikaze Drone Found In Mexico Signals New Drone Threat South Of Border

The global proliferation of low-cost suicide drones is setting off alarm bells across the US military and among national security officials and experts. The race to harden high-value assets in the homeland, from military bases and airports to power substations, crude oil refineries, stadiums, and data centers, is already underway as officials fear the next major threat could come from a cheap drone equipped with a warhead.

The latest warning that Ukrainian-style drones are just south of the US-Mexico border comes from a new report by the Mexican newspaper El Sol de Durango, which states that Mexican federal forces discovered an unjammable fiber-optic kamikaze drone during a raid on a compound.

The raid took place at a compound in the Dolores del Río neighborhood, located deep inside north-central Mexico, about 500 miles from the US border and about 560 miles from Mexico City by road.

The Attorney General's Office (FGR) reiterates its commitment to the investigation and prosecution of federal crimes and calls on citizens to report any illegal activity, either in person or anonymously. / Photo: Courtesy / FGR

The Mexican Army and National Guard secured the perimeter of the compound, while Durango's regional federal prosecutor's office and other law enforcement agencies found the fiber-optic suicide drone, guns, ammunition, ATVs, and other vehicles.

They seized an explosive device, two magazines and 78 cartridges of different calibers, a drone, two ATVs and four vehicles / Photo: courtesy / FGR

From the local outlet:

The operation stemmed from a citizen complaint received by the Attorney General's Office (FGR ) through the Single Window for Attention (VUA), in which a member of the National Guard (GN) reported potentially criminal activity at the aforementioned address. In response, the Federal Public Prosecutor (MPF) requested and executed a search warrant for the location.

During the operation , supported by agents of the Federal Ministerial Police (PFM) and the Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC), authorities seized an explosive device , two magazines and 78 rounds of ammunition of various calibers, a drone, two ATVs, and four vehicles . The perimeter was secured by personnel from the Mexican Army ( Sedena ) and the National Guard (GN).

The importance of this find is that fiber-optic kamikaze drones, once largely confined to major war zones across Eurasia, from the Russia-Ukraine conflict to the Gulf area, now appear to be spreading worldwide.

Even more troubling, this drone was found roughly 500 miles south of the US-Mexico border. The discovery points to one unavoidable conclusion drawn from today's conflict zones: the US must supercharge the hardening of high-value assets against this drone threat (read here).  

Military bases, airports, power substations, refineries, ports, data centers, and other critical infrastructure are entering a whole new risk environment in which cheap drones can cause outsized damage.

We recently penned a note for readers on how to profit from the "asymmetric warfare boom." Read the note here.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/09/2026 - 23:00

Federal Agents Targeting Illegal Truck Drivers At Weigh Stations Nationwide

By Noi Mahoney of FreightWaves

Federal immigration agents are now working alongside state troopers at commercial truck weigh stations across the country as the Trump administration intensifies its crackdown on illegal commercial drivers, according to U.S. Border Czar Tom Homan.

Appearing on Fox News on Tuesday, Homan said the Department of Homeland Security is partnering with the U.S. Department of Transportation and state law enforcement agencies to identify commercial drivers who are operating trucks with improperly issued commercial driver’s licenses. 

“We’ve got a lot of people we’re looking for,” Homan said. “Actually, some states we’re actually working weigh stations with the troopers, trying to get these people as they’re coming through.”

Homan said more than 28,000 non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses have been revoked nationwide and acknowledged that obtaining driver records from some states has complicated enforcement efforts.

"We’re working very closely with many states,” Homan said, adding that DHS is coordinating with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy while the Department of Justice pursues legal action against jurisdictions that refuse to share driver information.

Enforcement expands beyond paperwork

The latest announcement builds on a series of recent commercial vehicle enforcement operations by state agencies focused on licensing violations, unsafe equipment, hours-of-service compliance and immigration-related offenses.

Last week, FreightWaves reported that law enforcement agencies in Texas, Arizona and California had expanded commercial vehicle inspections targeting unqualified drivers and unsafe trucks. Those operations resulted in immigration arrests, equipment citations and drivers being placed out of service.

Homan suggested the latest federal effort goes beyond revoking licenses by focusing on locating drivers who remain behind the wheel after their commercial driving privileges have been canceled.

According to Homan, DHS agents are working directly with state troopers at weigh stations to identify those drivers during routine commercial vehicle inspections.

Arizona stop highlights safety concerns

The enforcement push comes as Arizona authorities continue reporting cases involving commercial drivers operating without required credentials.

In a Facebook post, the Arizona Department of Public Safety said on Tuesday a Highway Patrol Commercial Vehicle Enforcement trooper stopped a hotshot truck on June 26 along State Route 202 near Arizona State University after discovering numerous violations.

Investigators said the driver lacked both a commercial driver’s license and a required USDOT medical certificate. Inspectors also found that none of the trailer’s brakes were functioning, meaning only the tow vehicle could stop the fully loaded 14,900-pound trailer. 

Arizona troopers also cited exposed hubcaps and a missing emergency brake cable before placing the driver and vehicle out of service.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/09/2026 - 22:35

When Will The Cattle Cycle Turn? BofA Has Answers For Beef Lovers

Bank of America analysts spoke with Oklahoma State University agricultural economist Derrell Peel, who offered new insight into the US cattle cycle. His key takeaway: the herd-rebuilding phase may not meaningfully begin to turn until near the end of the decade, suggesting elevated beef prices at the supermarket are here to stay.

The most important issue in the beef industry is when the cattle cycle will turn. The US beef cow herd is the smallest since 1961, while the 2025 calf crop is the smallest since 1941. Beef production is expected to decline by 4.5% to 5% in 2026 and continue falling through at least 2027, despite heavier carcass weights partially offsetting lower slaughter volumes.

Peel explained to Sara Senatore, a BofA Securities research analyst covering restaurants, protein processors, and food and beverage, that the beef industry has not yet seen the tightest supplies because meaningful heifer retention has only just begun.

He added that if ranchers begin saving heifer calves in 2026, those animals would be bred in 2027, calve in 2028, and only begin adding to supply in 2029 or 2030.

Peel explained more about when the cattle rebuilding cycle could turn: 

The bottom line is, I don't think we're saving very many heifers yet. I don't think we're doing more than perhaps slowing the liquidation down, or stabilizing the herd. We're certainly not going to expand any in 2026. I think the prospects for expansion in 2027 are very limited at this point, because again we know that the supply of heifers that's already on the ground, that we would need to be breeding this year to enter the herd next year, just isn't there.

And so if we start saving heifers, which would really be heifer calves in 2026, we breed them in '27, they would calve in 2028, we're talking about 2029 into 2030 before those calves would be weaned and fed out and have an impact on beef production. So we're really looking at the end of the decade before we can change the path here.

And in fact, what it means is that in the meantime we have to save some additional heifers. We haven't yet seen the tightest supplies of this particular situation. We've got tight supplies, the feeder supply continues to decline with these smaller calf crops, but at some point we have to pull additional heifers out of that mix in order to retain them for herd rebuilding. We have not done that yet to any appreciable degree.

Cow calf producers are getting market incentives, returns are good. But we've been very slow to respond as an industry for, I think, a wide variety of reasons, that includes drought and financial conditions and demographic changes in the herd or in the producer population, and just a variety of things that contribute to that.

The upshot of it all, this is my final analytical slide, is that we think that prices will continue to go even higher. I would expect that heifer retention process to be what would put the peak in this thing. That peak will not happen, in my opinion, at this point in 2026. It will be at least into 2027. And there is a possibility that it gets pushed off even beyond that if we don't see some indications of heifer retention pretty quickly here in 2026.

So the short answer is the current situation will continue, and I think persist, and actually get a little bit more in terms of higher cattle prices. Now, that's all predicated on demand continuing as strong as it is. I don't see that changing at this point. There's certainly some potential threats out there that we're watching, but I don't see demand changing enough to prevent this.

So the short answer is the current situation will continue, and I think persist, and actually get a little bit more in terms of higher cattle prices. Now, that's all predicated on demand continuing as strong as it is. I don't see that changing at this point. There's certainly some potential threats out there that we're watching, but I don't see demand changing enough to prevent this.

The warning that the cattle cycle is still several years from a meaningful turn builds on our prior note that there are "no quick fixes" for historically tight supplies.

The structural fix is herd rebuilding, and Peel's timeline points to meaningful relief in beef production closer to 2029-2030, not anytime soon.

In other words, high supermarket beef prices are not a temporary squeeze. This is a new reality folks must understand: a broken cattle cycle that will take years to repair - and quality might lack... 

That's why locking in high-quality beef now matters. While the Trump administration searches for ways to bring prices down (see here) and the industry waits years for herds to rebuild, readers can skip the junk at the supermarket and buy directly from our ranchers. 

Buy here. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/09/2026 - 22:10

'World's Largest' Heavy-Lift Cargo Aircraft Targeted For Military And Disaster Logistics

Authored by Christopher McFadden via Interesting Engineering,

Radia and Blue Water Shipping (Blue Water) have announced a strategic alliance that will combine the former's gigantic Windrunner aircraft with the latter's global logistics network. Under the agreement, Radia will supply the aircraft, and Blue Water will do basically everything else.

Image of several Radia Windrunner aircraft taxiing.Radia

"The companies expect to focus initial collaboration efforts across several strategic sectors, including energy and project cargo, humanitarian aid and disaster relief, aerospace logistics, and military and defense-related transportation," Radia explains in a press release.

In case you are unaware, the Windrunner is being marketed as the world's "largest cargo aircraft." Not in terms of raw weight, incidentally, but rather in the fact that it can vary extremely large, and non-standard cargo.

To date, examples have included 328-foot (100-meter) long turbine blades, large military vehicles, satellites, and aircraft fuselage parts, among other notable examples. So, in a sense, the selling point for it is its cargo-carrying volume.

Windrunner Is One Hell Of An Aircraft

Another interesting wrinkle is that the Windrunner is designed to operate out of both existing and "semi-prepared runways." This means it can deliver cargo to dirt strips, compacted gravel, temporary runways, and remote airfields.

That means it could, in theory, fly directly to places like wind farm construction sites, military bases, disaster zones, and mining projects, rather than unloading hundreds of miles away.

Both Radia and Blue Water are particularly pitching their services to militaries and humanitarian aid efforts. The former often requires irregular cargo like radar systems, missile launchers, helicopters, engineering gear, bridge-laying equipment, etc, delivered to areas with no existing aerodromes.

The same is true for humanitarian aid, especially when natural disasters have knocked out existing infrastructure.

"Many of the industries we support are constrained not only by infrastructure but by the inability to efficiently move oversized cargo where and when it is needed," said Mark Lundstrom, Founder and CEO of Radia.

Blue Water is a logistics company that has made its fortune arranging global logistics via things like ships. trucks, trains, etc, and navigating all the administrative red tape like customs, permits, etc. Both companies believe they can combine their respective talents to streamline the integration of their respective services.

Not An Exclusive Partnership, More Of An Open Relationship

"By combining WindRunner's transformational airlift capabilities with Blue Water Shipping's global logistics expertise, we believe we can help create more flexible and resilient transportation solutions for customers operating in some of the world's most challenging environments," Lundstrom added.

"Blue Water Shipping has extensive experience delivering complex logistics solutions across industries that depend on precision, reliability, and flexibility," said Rasmus Svane, Head of Global Product Development Wind, Blue Water Shipping.

"Our collaboration with Radia represents an exciting opportunity to explore new logistics models for oversized cargo and help customers rethink what is possible when combining multimodal transportation solutions," he added.

It is important to note that the agreement is for both to become "preferred partners" of one another. That doesn't mean exclusivity, but rather, they will bid together for projects that benefit both.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/09/2026 - 21:45

"Turn Off Bluetooth, Use Signal": ACLU Advises Anti-Trump Protesters On Evading Gov't Surveillance

If you want a sign of how the left-wing, permanent protest-industrial complex is gearing up for the next wave of street mobilization, look no further than Chad Marlow, a senior policy counsel at the ACLU.

Marlow, whose work focuses on privacy, surveillance, and technology, has circulated guidance for protesters on social media about how to limit digital exposure, avoid government surveillance, and communicate via encrypted messaging platforms while protesting.

"If you're protesting and not actively using your phone, the best thing you can do to prevent it from sharing information about you and your location is to shut it off entirely. If you want to turn on your phone to take pictures and record video during the day, turn your phone on, enable Airplane Mode, and turn off Bluetooth. That way, your phone won't be inadvertently sharing your private location and other data while you're using it," Marlow said in a video posted on Instagram.

He continued, "If you need to use your phone, turn it on while you're communicating, then shut it off when you're done. By the way, it's always safest to use a fully encrypted app like Signal, which makes it more difficult for the government to intercept your communications."

After the North Texas Antifa defendants were convicted over the anti-ICE terror shooting attack and the Minnesota Antifa cell suspects were indicted for anti-government violence, leftist groups have been releasing guides on how to hide and destroy digital evidence.

The ACLU is… https://t.co/HfQv37KL0a pic.twitter.com/WRSFSgGxqf

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) July 8, 2026

The ACLU is listed as a proud partner of the failed No Kings rally, an event that is far from organic; instead, it is a heavily coordinated coalition of far-left socialist groups, NGOs, and unions seeking a socialist revolution by toppling Trump.

Marlow's educational session on how protesters can limit digital exposure and evade government surveillance is certainly not a good look for a nonprofit that claims to defend all civil liberties. Instead, it has become a legal arm of far-left protesters.

Related:

• Leaked Memo Shows 'Pro-Cuba' NGO Network Preparing To Target ICE, US Bases, Federal Buildings

Concerns that the ACLU is no longer merely protecting constitutional rights but is increasingly helping to equip DSA-aligned protesters for their revolution are very troubling, given what socialists say in their own words:

DSA Members: "The most important thing we can do is take America down from within" pic.twitter.com/phicruCxKe

— DSA Watch (@DSA_Watch) July 8, 2026

This blurs the line between civil-liberties advocacy and activist support infrastructure at a time when the broader protest-industrial complex appears to be gearing up for the next round of street chaos. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/09/2026 - 21:20

Justice Department Agrees To End Biden-Era Oil & Gas Leasing Restrictions In Alaska

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Department of Justice said July 7 the Biden administration’s oil and gas leasing restrictions in northern Alaska’s Arctic region violated federal law and asked the court to dismiss lawsuits by the state and its industrial development and export authority challenging the regulations.

The lawsuits were filed in 2025 over the Biden administration’s 2024 restrictions on oil and gas lease auctions in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Alaska argued that the administration essentially sabotaged bidding with its restrictions on surface use and occupancy, which made “any development economically and practically impossible.”

“The Biden era Alaska oil and gas leasing program violated the law and improperly limited Alaska’s energy potential with unreasonable regulation,” U.S. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a July 7 press release.

“This settlement supports the Trump administration’s commitment to secure American energy independence and our national security for generations to come,” he added.

Congress set aside 1.5 million acres along the Alaska coast in 1980 for potential oil and gas development, and in 2017 instructed a federal agency to develop the resources on the land. Alaska’s lawsuit claims the Biden administration negated Congress’s directive.

“These resources not only help our energy independence as a nation but also grows the Alaska economy and puts more money in the Alaska Permanent Fund for future generations,” Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in a January 2025 statement.

The settlement says the 2024 leasing program violated the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act by abdicating the government’s duty to conduct a second lease sale, closing 75 percent of the 1.56 million-acre Coastal Plain to exploration and leasing, imposing unreasonable surface use restrictions on the remaining 25 percent, and unreasonably restricting surface disturbance.

“This settlement sets the record straight that the Biden administration’s 2024 restrictions on oil and gas production in Alaska were overly restrictive and contrary to Congress’s clear command to establish a competitive oil and gas leasing program in Alaska’s Coastal Plain,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a statement.

Alaska’s governor’s office and the industrial development and export authority didn’t immediately return requests for comment about the settlement.

The Justice Department also settled a decades-old lawsuit with Alaska on July 7 over a botched federal expansion project at the Don Young Port of Alaska in Anchorage, agreeing to pay the state $180 million.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy speaks at the White House in Washington on July 16, 2020. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

The funds will go toward rebuilding the Don Young Port, according to Dunleavy.

The port serves about 90 percent of Alaska’s population with food, fuel, building materials, and other goods.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/09/2026 - 20:55

New Hampshire Kills Historic $100M Bitcoin Bond Proposal

New Hampshire's Executive Council narrowly rejected a proposal Wednesday that would have authorized a $100 million Bitcoin-backed bond, ending what supporters hoped would make the state a pioneer in digital asset finance, according to Bitcoin Magazine.

The measure failed in a 3-2 vote after reaching its final approval stage, despite receiving a favorable rating review from Moody's and backing from Governor Kelly Ayotte and the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority. Had it moved forward, officials said it would have been the first municipal bond in the world secured by Bitcoin.

The report notes that supporters argued the transaction would not put taxpayers at risk. Instead, it would have connected private investors with a private borrower using Bitcoin as collateral, while allowing the state to collect fees that could fund small business, housing, child care, and economic development initiatives if the deal proved successful.

Skeptics, however, questioned whether New Hampshire should attach its name to a financing structure built around a volatile digital asset. Councilor Karen Liot Hill said she was not opposed to cryptocurrency itself but believed the state should be cautious about endorsing a transaction tied to Bitcoin's price swings.

Business Finance Authority Executive Director James Key-Wallace rejected the idea that Bitcoin remains an "emerging" asset class, arguing it has already established itself in global finance. He also suggested the proposal could have opened the door to similar transactions in the future.

Ayotte, who signed legislation making New Hampshire the first state to authorize a strategic Bitcoin reserve and giving the state treasurer authority to invest in Bitcoin, said pursuing innovative financial structures is worthwhile so long as taxpayers remain protected.

The vote came after Liot Hill unsuccessfully attempted to delay consideration of the proposal. She was joined by Janet Stevens and David Wheeler in opposing the measure, while Joseph Kenney and John Stephen voted in favor.

The decision arrives as Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency industry are facing heightened scrutiny. Bitcoin has pulled back from recent highs, while renewed attention has focused on Michael Saylor and Strategy, whose aggressive Bitcoin dividend strategy has drawn increasing debate as the cryptocurrency's price weakens.

That backdrop has put high-profile Bitcoin-related proposals under a brighter spotlight, even as adoption efforts continue at the state and institutional levels.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/09/2026 - 20:30

SoCal Education Leaders Stole Nearly $20M From Schools; Report

Authored by Bryan Hyde via American Greatness,

A new report has revealed that a pair of Southern California school leaders separately stole nearly $20 million from their schools in order to fund lavish personal lifestyles.

According to The New York Post, the report was co-authored by the State Financial Officers Foundation, a watchdog made up of state treasurers and auditors, and OpenTheBooks, a nonprofit focused on transparency in government spending.

The cases of the two Southern California educators were among the most expensive examples of K-12 education fraud documented nationwide.

"It's for the kids."

Said every educrat, ever.https://t.co/1XWVRTcWZS

— Scott C. Johnston (@SJohnston60) July 9, 2026

Jorge Armando Contreras, the former fiscal services director for the Magnolia Elementary School District in Orange County, was charged with altering school checks over several years to funnel $16.7 million into his personal accounts.

Contreras was spending the money on everything from a luxury home and a BMW to designer clothes and pricey tequila and federal investigators found stacks of cash stuffed into a mini-fridge and luxury designer bags at his home.

He was sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison in 2024 and order to pay $16.7 million in restitution to the Magnolia School District in Orange County.

Another case highlighted in the report revealed that Janis Bucknor, the head of the Community Preparatory Academy charter school in Los Angeles, stole more than $3 million in taxpayer funds to cover travel, restaurants, shopping and private school tuition for her children.

Bucknor also pleaded guilty to spending more than $220,600 on Disney cruise line vacations, theme park admissions, and other Disney-related expenses.

According to prosecutors, Bucknor admitted in 2020 to stealing the funds, and was sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, State Financial Officers Foundation CEO OJ Oleka said:

All fraud is harmful, but defrauding education dollars meant to help kids learn and succeed is especially hideous. The findings in this report should alarm every family, teacher, and civic leader.

The California cases were part of nearly 90 cases identified by a coalition of auditors over the past six years involving embezzlement, phony invoices, inflated enrollment, bid-rigging and kickbacks, among other crimes.

The report follows the Trump administration’s promise to crack down on government waste, with Vice President JD Vance leading a nationwide “War on Fraud” that has raised new questions about oversight of federal education spending.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/09/2026 - 20:05

Russia Warns NATO Leaders To 'Stop & Think' Before Leading World To Catastrophic Confrontation

Another night has passed, and the usual major Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil and facilities and tankers have occurred, this time impacting at least three Russian regions, authorities said Thursday. Strikes hit oil depots in the Stavropol and Tver regions, as well as an oil pumping station in the republic of Bashkortostan and a marine loading terminal in the Rostov region - along with other reported impacts, Amsterdam-based Moscow Times reports.

During this week's NATO summit, Ukraine's President Zelensky was touting his country's drone capabilities as among the best in the world, and that now, essentially no place is safe in Russia.

Telegram/Moscow Times: Fire at an oil depot in the central Tver region.

This was perhaps on display Monday, when long-range drones apparently set a new distance record in striking a sprawling oil refinery in the city of Omsk in western Siberia

"Today, our long-range sanctions reached the oil refinery in Omsk – nearly 2,500 kilometers from Ukraine," Zelensky had announced in a nightly address soon after the attack.

"Upgraded Fire Point drones have put Siberia within reach of Ukrainian precision. This is a significant blow to Russia’s oil economy and an important achievement for the Armed Forces of Ukraine," Zelensky said.

The messaging from NATO leaders gathered in Ankara had clearly been one of support. For example, President Trump had commented, "It's an escalation but it’s also an escalation that can help lead to an end [of the war]." 

Trump also said, "We have a lot of pressure on President Putin. I don’t think he likes what’s going on." He added: "But I talked to President Putin a lot. He wants to end the war."

Following these developments, the Kremlin is freshly warning Western strategists to 'stop and think' before leading the world to the brink of disaster by confronting nuclear-armed Russia.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated Thursday, "European elites are positioning themselves as leaders in the confrontation between the 'collective West' and our country," Zakharova said.

The Russians obviously knew Trump approved giving Ukraine targeting intel for deep strikes on Ru energy. Russia answered it this year by providing Iran targeting intel on US bases, radars & infrastructure. Iran defeated the US. Quite a brilliant tradeoff.https://t.co/X7vfRaExNO

— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) July 8, 2026

"They likely don't realize that all this entails not only creating threats and problems for Russia, but also a significant depletion of resources and the creation of hotbeds of military tension within Europe itself," she added.

She also underscored how pursuing peace with Russia was glaringly absent NATO proceedings at the Turkey summit. "A constructive agenda remains a low priority for NATO," the Kremlin spokesperson continued.

"It's a shame that if NATO strategists had stopped and reflected, they might not have made such irresponsible decisions that could lead to disaster not only for the alliance, but for the entire world," she said.

According to more of her comments via English-language state publications:

The Russian spokeswoman also took aim at NATO's pledge to provide $80 billion in military aid to Ukraine in 2027, while ignoring mounting socio-economic problems across the continent. She accused the alliance of treating Ukrainians as "expendable material for their geopolitical ambitions.""In fact, the current European elites are positioning themselves for leadership positions in the confrontation with our country," she stated.

Some European officials actually voiced something similar, but they remain in a tiny minority:

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš:

Everyone is talking about war, everyone is talking about rearmament, and yesterday I didn't hear the word "peace" even once. pic.twitter.com/KNfyVDzE6A

— Clash Report (@clashreport) July 8, 2026

Prominent Russian writer and political philosopher Alexander Dugin has also commented, "The summit of NATO is a clear sign of all spectrum escalation. The growth of Russophobia and new phase of war against Iran."

Indeed both the Ukraine and Iran conflict theatres are growing hotter once again, and there's simultaneous escalation. Dugin has also warned that the "MoU is over. The new phase of the war begins. The escalation with Russia is going to grow."

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/09/2026 - 19:40

New Atlas Aircraft Targets Long-Range Strikes Without Runways Or Large Flight Decks

Authored by Neetika Walter via Interesting Engineering,

Mach Industries has won a Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) contract to develop a long-range unmanned aircraft designed to launch from austere locations and ships without large flight decks.

Atlas drone Mach Industries

The aircraft, called Atlas, is being developed for the DIU's Runway Independent Maritime Expeditionary Strike (RIMES) program. Mach Industries will serve as the aircraft integrator, working with propulsion company Whisper Aero.

According to the solicitation, the Department of the Navy is seeking an unmanned aerial system capable of conducting long-range strikes while operating from expeditionary sites with minimal infrastructure or from ships that lack conventional runways.

Mach said Atlas is designed to meet those requirements with a hybrid-electric propulsion system, runway-independent operations, a 1,000-pound payload capacity, and a range of 1,400 nautical miles.

Built For Austere Operations

The aircraft combines Mach Industries' platform development capabilities with Whisper Aero's JetFoil propulsion technology.

Unlike conventional fixed-wing aircraft that require runways, Atlas is being designed to operate from unimproved landing zones while retaining the control characteristics of a fixed-wing platform. The companies say the approach could give military units greater flexibility in contested environments where traditional airfields may be unavailable or vulnerable.

Excited to announce Atlas, our VTOL strike and logistics aircraft for the Navy. pic.twitter.com/fvbLWujnVN

— Mach Industries (@Mach_Industries) June 16, 2026

The aircraft is also intended to support distributed operations, a growing focus for the U.S. military as it prepares for conflicts in which logistics networks could come under attack.

In recent testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael identified contested logistics as one of the Pentagon's critical technology priorities. The challenge centers on sustaining military operations when transportation routes, supply chains, and support infrastructure are disrupted.

Mach says Atlas addresses that challenge by reducing infrastructure requirements for launch and recovery while simplifying maintenance through a highly redundant propulsion architecture and a lower part count.

"Mach's speed to prototype and production, coupled with Whisper Aero's novel aerodynamics and propulsion makes Atlas a revolutionary air mobility platform," said Nathan Diller, President and Chief Strategy Officer at Mach Industries.

Quiet Propulsion Advantage

A key feature of the aircraft is Whisper Aero's JetFoil technology, which the company says improves efficiency while reducing acoustic signatures.

The system is designed to generate lift and thrust more efficiently than traditional approaches, helping extend range while allowing operations from confined locations. Lower noise levels could also make the aircraft more difficult to detect during missions.

"We developed JetFoil to propel the next generation of conventional, short, and vertical takeoff and landing aircraft silently and efficiently," said Mark Moore, CEO of Whisper Aero.

According to Moore, the technology allows Atlas to meet RIMES requirements while operating from smaller naval vessels. "With JetFoil, Atlas can effectively meet the needs of the RIMES mission to operate even from destroyer class vessels."

The award adds to Mach Industries' expanding defense portfolio. Founded in 2023, the company says it is currently flying five different platforms and has manufactured more than 250 aircraft. Over the past two months, it has also conducted flight operations in four countries under complex electromagnetic conditions.

If successful, Atlas could provide the Navy and joint force with a long-range strike platform capable of operating from locations where traditional aircraft cannot, while reducing dependence on large runways and established air bases.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/09/2026 - 19:15

Strongest El Nino In 75 Years Sets Off Food Supply-Chain Alarm Bells

The US Climate Prediction Center has warned that the weather phenomenon El Niño, which only recently emerged across the Pacific, could become the most powerful in more than 75 years. This raises the risk of adverse weather conditions across the US, Asia, Australia, and South America. The stronger the weather event becomes, the greater the threat to critical food supply chains, which are already vulnerable to drought, flooding, export restrictions, and rising protectionism.

The CPC, a NOAA/National Weather Service unit that issues official US government climate outlooks, wrote in its report that sea-surface temperatures at least 1C above normal have spread across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, with an 81% chance the event becomes "very strong" and ranks among the largest on record since 1950. Some parts of the Pacific were 2.7C above normal last week.

A negative El Niño Southern Oscillation Index indicates pressure patterns consistent with El Niño, typically associated with weaker Pacific trade winds and warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific. The SOI is now at levels not seen since 2005.

"Even the strongest El Niño events do not lead to typical impacts everywhere, but stronger events can more significantly tilt the odds in favor of expected outcomes," the Climate Prediction Center said. El Niño "will strengthen through the end of the year, with a 97% chance it will last through early spring 2027."

Goldman Sachs commodities research analyst Lina Thomas provided further insight into the looming El Niño threat, warning that global agricultural supply is "highly concentrated geographically," leaving crop markets "highly vulnerable to localized weather, geopolitical, or policy shocks."

Thomas warned about weather, geopolitical, and/or policy shocks that may put a bid under food prices:

Global agricultural supply is highly concentrated geographically. Across key crops such as soybeans, corn, rice, sugar, and palm oil, the top three exporting countries account for 60-90% of global trade (Exhibit 1), leaving agricultural markets highly exposed to localized weather, geopolitical, and policy shocks.

Because major agricultural exporters increasingly prioritize domestic food and energy security through export restrictions and biofuel mandates, even modest disruptions—or the fear of disruptions—can trigger policies that reduce exportable supply. In highly concentrated markets, the resulting loss of exportable supply can be much larger than the original production shock, amplifying price volatility. Import-dependent countries may in turn respond by stockpiling and pursuing greater self-sufficiency, often accepting higher domestic production costs in exchange for supply security. While these measures are ultimately aimed at improving resilience locally, they also fragment trade, reduce market liquidity, and increase the sensitivity of prices to future shocks.

We view the risk of protectionist policy responses as a key source of upside risk to crop prices and agricultural volatility, as three near‑term supply concerns could trigger precautionary measures even if the underlying disruptions ultimately prove limited.

• First, El Niño conditions are already present, with a 63% probability of developing into a "super" El Niño. Because many major exporters of staples such as rice, and crops used for biofuels such as sugar and palm oil, are concentrated in regions that historically experience more adverse weather during El Niño episodes, even a modest weather shock—or the fear of one—could trigger precautionary export restrictions.
• Second, higher energy prices in 2026H1 and concerns about fuel security may encourage governments to increase biofuel mandates, further diverting crops from export markets into domestic fuel production.
• Third, fertilizer markets also remain exposed to renewed disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz during the critical Q3 procurement season for major nitrogen fertilizer importers ahead of 2H planting.

Already seeing rising vegetable oil prices...

El Niño coverage:

• Super El Nino: Famine Follows War?
• UBS Warns El Nino May Intensify Food Inflation Across Asia
• First Major Weather Organization Declares El Nino Onset As Food Inflation Risks Intensify

Professional subscribers can read more El Nino coverage here at our new Marketdesk.ai portal. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/09/2026 - 18:50

Trump Admin Targets Medicare Fraud After 7,100% Surge In Transplant Claims

Via American Greatness,

The Trump administration says it has uncovered a dramatic increase in Medicare claims for tissue and organ transplants, resulting in a broad crackdown on suspected fraud that officials say has already blocked hundreds of millions of dollars in questionable payments.

Administration officials said Medicare claims for tissue and organ transplants, known as allografts, climbed from $200 million in 2019 to $14.4 billion in 2025—a 7,100 percent increase.

The surge led the White House Anti-Fraud Task Force, headed by Vice President JD Vance, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to intensify their review of claims. Since March, the agency has denied 96 percent of allograft claims identified during the review.

CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said the agency identified 4,200 potentially fraudulent allograft claims totaling $224 million through May.

“That’s a lot of money,” Oz said during a Wednesday news conference in Milwaukee.

“And that bankrupts not just hospital systems and physician groups, but it causes major problems across the entire landscape.”

The agency also announced enforcement actions involving Durable Medical Equipment (DME) including wheelchairs, walkers, hospital beds and other medical equipment.

According to CMS, payments have been suspended to 102 suppliers, while billing privileges have been revoked for another 725 suppliers. The agency said those suppliers accounted for 8.6 percent of all Medicare-funded DME in 2025.

CMS officials reported they identified suspected fraud involving claims for equipment that was not medically necessary or ordered, equipment that was more expensive than prescribed, and equipment that was never delivered.

“In just six months, the task force has effectively wiped out Durable Medical Equipment fraud in America,” a spokesperson for Vance’s office said.

“After the vice president and Dr. Oz announced a moratorium on new DME companies, paired with aggressive enforcement actions by DOJ and HHS, this kind of fraud has effectively ended.”

Oz said the administration’s efforts have already prevented significant losses.

“Thanks to the whole-of-government approach spearheaded by the White House Anti-Fraud Task Force, we stopped nearly $220 million in fraudulent skin substitute claims and suspended or revoked billing privileges for over 800 DME suppliers,” Oz told Fox News Digital. “We are keeping our promise to the American people: we will root out corruption, protect vulnerable patients, and hold every bad actor accountable.”

Oz also warned those engaged in health care fraud that the administration intends to continue its enforcement campaign.

“To anyone out there, and I’m talking to you if you’re a fraudster, for anyone out there who thinks they can get away by stealing from the American people, especially American patients, I’ve got a bit of advice for you: Do not walk away from this press conference. Don’t walk away from us. You start running because the vice president and this task force are coming after you,” Oz said.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/09/2026 - 17:00

Trump Admin Targets Medicare Fraud After 7,100% Surge In Transplant Claims

Via American Greatness,

The Trump administration says it has uncovered a dramatic increase in Medicare claims for tissue and organ transplants, resulting in a broad crackdown on suspected fraud that officials say has already blocked hundreds of millions of dollars in questionable payments.

Administration officials said Medicare claims for tissue and organ transplants, known as allografts, climbed from $200 million in 2019 to $14.4 billion in 2025—a 7,100 percent increase.

The surge led the White House Anti-Fraud Task Force, headed by Vice President JD Vance, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to intensify their review of claims. Since March, the agency has denied 96 percent of allograft claims identified during the review.

CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said the agency identified 4,200 potentially fraudulent allograft claims totaling $224 million through May.

“That’s a lot of money,” Oz said during a Wednesday news conference in Milwaukee.

“And that bankrupts not just hospital systems and physician groups, but it causes major problems across the entire landscape.”

The agency also announced enforcement actions involving Durable Medical Equipment (DME) including wheelchairs, walkers, hospital beds and other medical equipment.

According to CMS, payments have been suspended to 102 suppliers, while billing privileges have been revoked for another 725 suppliers. The agency said those suppliers accounted for 8.6 percent of all Medicare-funded DME in 2025.

CMS officials reported they identified suspected fraud involving claims for equipment that was not medically necessary or ordered, equipment that was more expensive than prescribed, and equipment that was never delivered.

“In just six months, the task force has effectively wiped out Durable Medical Equipment fraud in America,” a spokesperson for Vance’s office said.

“After the vice president and Dr. Oz announced a moratorium on new DME companies, paired with aggressive enforcement actions by DOJ and HHS, this kind of fraud has effectively ended.”

Oz said the administration’s efforts have already prevented significant losses.

“Thanks to the whole-of-government approach spearheaded by the White House Anti-Fraud Task Force, we stopped nearly $220 million in fraudulent skin substitute claims and suspended or revoked billing privileges for over 800 DME suppliers,” Oz told Fox News Digital. “We are keeping our promise to the American people: we will root out corruption, protect vulnerable patients, and hold every bad actor accountable.”

Oz also warned those engaged in health care fraud that the administration intends to continue its enforcement campaign.

“To anyone out there, and I’m talking to you if you’re a fraudster, for anyone out there who thinks they can get away by stealing from the American people, especially American patients, I’ve got a bit of advice for you: Do not walk away from this press conference. Don’t walk away from us. You start running because the vice president and this task force are coming after you,” Oz said.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/09/2026 - 17:00