Retired American teacher imprisoned by Russia returns to U.S.

From NBC News.com (Oct. 21):

Russia has released retired American teacher Stephen Hubbard, 74, the latest sign of warmer ties between the two countries as Washington pressures Kyiv to agree to a deal to end Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

The jet carrying Hubbard touched down at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, at about 10:49 p.m. Wednesday (11:49 p.m. ET), video at the base showed.

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff lauded Russian President Vladimir Putin for Hubbard’s release as they held peace talks early Wednesday in St. Petersburg. “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir,” Witkoff said.

Lawmakers from both parties criticized Witkoff’s use of the word “humanitarian,” with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, saying Putin is “the aggressor in the war against Ukraine.”

The U.S. has courted the Kremlin for weeks, and the release of Hubbard — a Michigan native detained in Ukraine in 2022 — will give President Donald Trump a victory to tout after backlash at home and abroad for his tilt away from Kyiv in the conflict.

Son of Stephen Hubbard says 'no evidence' his father was a mercenary

Trump hailed the news, telling reporters late Wednesday that Hubbard would visit the White House “over the next day or so.”

Earlier, Trump said on Truth Social that Hubbard was “on his way back home and will soon be with his family. The United States, out of respect for President Trump, was not required to give anything in return — an unprecedented situation for Russia.”

Trump said he directly asked Putin in a phone call last week to release Hubbard, who was being held on charges of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine, which he denies. He was the last American designated as wrongfully detained in Russia by the State Department.

The Kremlin said the move was a goodwill gesture.

Hubbard’s family in a statement thanked “President Trump and his team for opening the dialog with Russia which led to this joyful day. Our family can attest that there are wonderful blessings to be found along the hard road to peace.”

Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov later said Hubbard was handed over to Witkoff at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport.

In a video from the Russian state news agency RIA, Hubbard wears a green jacket and is smiling as he meets Witkoff. “Thank you very much for all your efforts,” he tells Witkoff as they shake hands. Putin sent Hubbard “blessings,” Witkoff tells him, adding, “From today, it’s a new life.”

Martin De Luca, Hubbard’s lawyer, said in a phone interview Wednesday that he spoke with Hubbard as he was “getting ready to take off” on a plane bound for the U.S. and that his client was overjoyed to be released.

“He was overwhelmed with joy,” De Luca said. “The No. 1 thing he was excited about was seeing his children and family, who will be waiting for him when he arrives in the U.S. tonight. He was in a fragile state, so it wasn’t a long conversation, but he’s OK, which is what’s important.” [read more]

Good to read. Welcome back home!

Trump Announces at a Georgia Campaign Rally That Audi Will Build a New Auto Factory in the State

From Newsmax.com (Oct. 25):

President Donald Trump on Saturday announced that Audi will build an automobile plant in Georgia as he tries to deliver on his promise to bolster American manufacturing in the final days before the midterm elections.

Speaking at a campaign rally in Perry, Georgia, where he sought to boost Republican candidates, Trump said Audi — the German luxury brand owned by Volkswagen — would commit $4.2 billion in nearby Macon to begin construction on a plant that will produce 200,000 cars a year.

“Think of that. 200,000 cars a year. That’s incredible,” Trump said, crediting his aggressive and unpopular tariff policies for the company's decision to build the plant.

The announcement seemed timed to offer a last-minute boost to Republican candidates in the battleground state, including Rep. Mike Collins, who is trying to unseat Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. Trump has spent October campaigning in reliably Republican states as the party tries to hold onto its majorities in the House and Senate. Trump won Georgia in 2024 after losing it in 2020.

Trump was joined on stage by Gernot Döllner, the chairman of the board of management at Audi, who said the plant would be producing “our biggest and most premium SUVs.”

“This is a long-term investment, because we believe in the American market,” he said.

Audi, in a news release, said the plant — its first in Georgia — would create approximately 4,500 jobs and that construction was scheduled to begin in 2027, with production beginning in the early 2030s.

Republicans are bracing for losses in the Nov. 3 midterm elections as they contend with an unpopular president and an electorate that is angry over high costs and the ongoing war in Iran.

At the rally, Rick Jackson, the Republican candidate for Georgia governor, thanked Trump for the plans.

“Thank you on behalf of Georgia for putting the biggest economic deal in Georgia history right here today," he said. [source]

Call it a win! 

Another win:

DOJ touts major drops in crimes amid enforcement surge, 31% decline in aggravated assaults across US

‘GOD SAVED ME’ Mum found floating at sea after two years missing ‘felt shark fins’ passing by her before miracle rescue

From The-Sun.com (Sept. 29, 2020):

Angelica Gaitan, 46, was found unconscious and suffering from hypothermia off the coast of Colombia after being in the sea for eight hours.

She was discovered by fisherman Rolando Visbal and a pal floating 1.2 miles off the town of Puerto Colombia on the Atlantic side of the country at around 6am on Saturday.

It reported her first words after being rescued were “I was born again, God did not want me to die” after she had jumped into the sea following mental health problems.

She was brought ashore where locals tended to her before she was taken to hospital.

Angelica was then reunited with her family as she told investigators what had happened to her since disappearing two years ago.

The Carribean sea where she was in is home to dangerous sharks, including tiger sharks and bull sharks.

During her time in the sea she said the creatures circled her as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

“I knew there are many sharks in that area and, I don’t know if in a hallucination I felt that a fin passed very close to me, but it didn’t stop,” she said.

But then with time beginning to run out, she had a miraculous stroke of luck when she was spotted by the fisherman, who initially thought she was a log until she waved her hand to summon help.

Dramatic video shows the moment Rolando and a friend known only as Gustavo came across Angelica, who appears to be completely unresponsive.

Rolando told Colombia’s Caracol Radio that they nearly didn’t go out fishing that day after problems with his boat’s engine delayed an earlier trip.

“If we hadn’t had the problem with the spark plug on Friday, we would have gone fishing that day and the woman would be dead at sea,” he said.

“Gustavo warned me to be careful with the trunk and I began to turn about 15 degrees to the right, then to my surprise the trunk moved. I thought it was something supernatural.”

The video shows Angelica being dragged towards the boat in a lifebuoy the pair had thrown to her and which she had used her last ounce of energy to put on.

The pair attempt to have a conversation with her and give her water but Angelica begins to cry as the video comes to an end.

Rolando said Angelica didn’t say anything when they hauled her on to deck and was so weak he believed she would have drowned if she had spent any longer in the sea.

“So it turns out that I didn’t catch any fish that day either, but I fished a life. I think this was God’s purpose.”

Mystery continues to surround exactly what happened during the time her family lost contact with her, with her account of fleeing domestic abuse at the hands of her partner disputed by her daughter. [read more]

A miracle indeed. Glad she was rescued in time.

Notes from the American Citizenship and Its Decline course

Dr. [Victor Davis] Hanson argues that perhaps the greatest catalyst for the development of citizenship in ancient Greece was the protection of property.

Rome adopted many ideas from the Greeks regarding citizenship, especially from the constitutions of Sparta and Crete.

The Romans established a government with a senate and two consuls in order to check the excesses of radical Greek democracy.

According to Dr. Hanson, Rome was able to expand as far as it did because the Romans brought legal protections, cultural sophistication and material benefits to the peoples they conquered.

Rome's expansion brought new challenges to citizenship because its population was too diverse to share a common identity, the elites no longer felt invested in the common interest, citizens in distant provinces were difficult to assimilate.

According to Dr. Hanson, borders are significant to the idea of citizenship because borders define a space in which a common idea can be pursued.

Dr. Hanson does not classify globalization as one of the "organic" or "premodern" challenges to citizenship.

Source: Hillsdale College's "American Citizenship and Its Decline" course.

Pentagon UFO boss says strange sightings are either 'aliens' or a foreign power - and he hopes it's extraterrestrials

From Daily Mail.com (Nov. 10, 2023):

The Pentagon's outgoing UFO chief has said he does believe extraterrestrial life exists - but that you'd have to go to Mars or beyond to find it. 

Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the longtime laser and materials physicist and head of the Pentagon's UFO-chasing All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, delivered his assessment following news of his retirement from government service.

Kirkpatrick's 18-month tenure as the office's first-ever director has been laced with controversy, as expected for an area once relegated to the scientific fringe.

In the summer, there was a Congress hearing into claims the American government is covering up its knowledge of alien craft - which included the resurfacing of the 'Tic Tac' shaped UFO saga from 15 years ago.

Kirkpatrick's office was established in July 2022. He said his mission is to 'is raise the level of the conversation' around aliens and their potential existence.

When asked by Politico if aliens are real, he said: 'That is a great question. I love that question.

'Number one, the best thing that could come out of this job is to prove that there are aliens, right? Because if we don’t prove there are aliens, then what we’re finding is evidence of other people doing stuff in our backyard. And that’s not good.

'Two, from a scientific perspective: The scientific community will agree that it is statistically invalid to believe that there is not life out in the universe, as vast as the universe is and the number of galaxies and solar systems and planets.

'That is what part of NASA’s mission is to look for that life. The probability, however, that that life is intelligent and that it has found Earth and that it has come to Earth and that it has repeatedly crashed in the United States is not very probable.

'So part of what we’ve been trying to do, and part of what I will continue to do until I’m done, is raise the level of the conversation.

'If you are talking with NASA or the European Space Agency, and you’re talking about looking for life out in the universe, it is a very objective, very scientifically sound discussion and discourse.

'As that discussion gets closer to the solar system, somewhere around Mars, it turns into science fiction. And then as you get even closer to Earth, and you cross into Earth’s atmosphere, it becomes conspiracy theory.

'We need to change the level of the [public] conversation. It’s one of the reasons why we’ve engaged academia to work on a number of scientific papers that look at the probabilities of these things, and what are the signatures associated with that?

'So that we can benchmark what we’re doing in scientific proofs and in scientific fact and not hearsay and pointing fingers and government cover ups and conspiracies with no evidence of any of them.'

Kirkpatrick also revealed he's had over 30 whistleblowers 'come in to talk,' adding: 'We have investigated every single one of them, every single story, every lead that provided any substantive evidence for us to go after.'

According to the director of the Pentagon's UFO investigation office, 'the best thing that could come out of this job is to prove that there are aliens.'

The alternative to what would be a literally Earth-changing discovery of extraterrestrial life exploring our own planet would be that a rival foreign power could be 'doing stuff in our backyard,' he said.

Kirkpatrick added: 'And that's not good.'

While some UFO whistleblowers now accuse Kirkpatrick of fostering an 'atmosphere of disinterest,' others have suggested his superiors are holding AARO's efforts back even though a few have described 'really positive' experiences with the office.

'I'm ready to move on,' Kirkpatrick told Politico, upon official confirmation of his retirement. 'I have accomplished everything I said I was going to do.' [read more]

Is there another explanation other than misidentification? I suppose they could also be future earth time travelers if you want to get imaginative. From a Christian perspective, UFOs or UAPs could be Satan messing with mankind. Hard to say.

EXCLUSIVE: Hamas Turns Gaza Hospitals and Schools Into Torture Chambers as It Reestablishes Police State: Gazans Describe Horrific Interrogations, Beatings

From Free Beacon.com (June 10):

Hamas has built makeshift torture chambers inside Gazan hospitals and schools where its men are interrogating and abusing fellow Palestinians suspected of disloyalty. The reign of terror comes as Hamas moves aggressively to reassert its power over the Gaza Strip, according to video testimonials and official government documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

More than eight months after a fragile ceasefire with Israel left Hamas badly wounded, the terror group has largely turned inward, establishing a strict police state and moving internal security operations—its dreaded "Interior Ministry"—back into the same civilian outposts it commandeered to wage war on Israel. Eyewitness accounts from three Gazans reveal that Hamas has again laid claim to al-Shifa hospital, the Gaza Strip's largest medical complex, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, and the al-Ma'amadani Hospital in Gaza City. The terror group has done the same with schools across Gaza, turning classrooms into prisons and detention centers where civilians are often subjected to brutal beatings and more creative forms of torture.

"They have prisons inside the schools, rooms that function like prisons," recounted one Gazan activist who says he was abducted by Hamas and beaten for several days. "The same goes for hospitals. They have rooms underground in the basement that they use as a prison, as if they were military and security sites." At the Nasser Hospital, said a second Gazan woman, "inside the Hind al-Daghma Dialysis Center, people are beaten and shot in the legs. If they send someone to the renal department at Nasser, it basically means it's over."

Jonathan Schanzer, a veteran regional analyst and executive director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, said it is no surprise that Hamas is again staking claim to Gaza's most important civilian centers.

"Hamas has always exploited the civilian infrastructure that it has wielded to deter Israel from attacking its military structures," he said. "The co-opting of institutions is a long-standing practice of this terrorist organization dating back to its very founding."

Like others quoted in this report, the Gazan witnesses to Hamas's torture operation have asked to remain anonymous in order to protect themselves from Hamas retaliation. The video testimonials were secretly filmed inside Gaza by Jusoor News, an independent Arab-run media outlet that frequently documents life under Hamas control, and provided to the Free Beacon along with Hamas-run Interior Ministry documents that show civilians being summoned to hospitals for interrogation.

The testimonials and documentation provide some of the firmest evidence to date that Hamas is not only torturing Palestinians, but also continuing to breach international law by using civilian buildings as military outposts. Israel targeted several of the aforementioned hospitals during the war in Gaza and provided extensive evidence that Hamas used these medical facilities for its operations, with Hamas operatives often working alongside humanitarian aid workers.

At the same time, anti-Israel elements of the international community and the media have paid little attention as Hamas rebuilds its authoritarian state and have focused instead on criticizing Israel. The New York Times last month published a largely discredited opinion column by Nicholas Kristof, which alleged that Israelis were raping "Palestinian journalists" with carrots and dogs. [read more]

Evil sheep-screwing bastards!  President Trump should just let Israel destroy Hamas. The world (other than the crazy Mullahs) wouldn’t miss them.

The ‘Far Right’ Is Surging In Europe Because The Left’s Version Of ‘Democracy’ Has Failed

From The Federalist.com (June 13, 2024):

Due to mounting dissatisfaction with the political establishment throughout the European Union, right-wing parties have made significant gains in the recent European Parliament elections. Perhaps most surprisingly, this surge in seats won was fueled not only by traditional older conservatives but also by younger voters who have sought to rekindle the spirit of nationalism within their homelands.

Before the European Parliament elections, 32 percent of French 18-to-25-year-olds said they’d vote for the “far right” National Rally party, closely reflecting the eventual election outcome. Led by Marine Le Pen, “the National Rally party is on course to win 31.5 percent of the vote—more than twice the 14.7 percent projected for [French President Emmanuel] Macron’s liberal Renaissance party.”

Meanwhile, Germany’s AfD party secured better-than-expected results, coming in second in Germany’s EU parliamentary election, winning nearly 16 percent of the vote. Notably, AfD gained significant ground among younger voters, surging 12 percentage points to 17 percent among 16-24-year-olds.

This political earthquake felt in France and Germany is not an isolated incident within these two countries. Feelings of Euroscepticism and discontent over immigration are rising all across Europe.

While a “centrist” (meaning leftist) pro-EU majority remains in firm control of the European Parliament, members of the Western ruling class are quickly realizing that the backlash against the globalist agenda, put into motion shortly after World War II, is escaping leftist containment and steadily growing.

This should surprise no one. We saw the first strong signs of this immune response to globalism in 2016 when Britain voted to leave the European Union. Yet ruling class members on both the left and right within the United Kingdom did not heed the message their voters sent as immigration surged.

One of the major promises of Brexit was to regain control of England’s borders, yet the number of legal arrivals has nearly doubled since Brexit. This surge has fueled a significant rise in anti-immigration protests by individuals desperate to preserve their culture and heritage. As a consequence, the Conservative Party in the U.K., which has been the primary governing party since 2010, is now set for historic losses ahead of the July 4 national elections due in part to its failure to control its borders.

Of course, according to leftist media, the rise of so-called “far-right” populism, manifesting itself through legitimate electoral wins, is positioned as a threat to democracy. But this is a rhetorical sleight of hand.

Democracy is not in danger. It’s their “democracy” that’s threatened as the right is beginning to flex its political muscles — finally acting as legitimate opposition to the status quo dominated by an establishment left and right that look and behave in a very similar fashion.

When liberals use the word “democracy,” they don’t mean the will of the voters. Rather, the word democracy is used as a substitute for leftist hegemony, or as Curtis Yarvin explained, “When they say democracy, they mean oligarchy.”

“Traditional” conservatives and “centrist” leftists both share the same immigration policy. That’s part of why the left is terrified of legitimate right-wing opposition as opposed to the traditional “opposition in-name-only” conservatism they are accustomed to defeating. In a recent New York Times analysis titled “Just How Dangerous Is Europe’s Rising Far Right?” author Roger Cohen alluded to the failure of leftist political containment strategies,

“Across Europe, the far right is becoming the right, absent any compelling message from traditional conservative parties. If ‘far’ suggests outlier, it has become a misnomer. Not only have the parties of an anti-immigrant right surged, they have seen the barriers that once kept them out crumble as they are absorbed into the arc of Western democracies.”

Much to the dismay of liberal elites, authoritarian “barriers” in the form of “hate speech” legislation, social stigmatization, corporate media exclusion, and outright censorship are proving ineffective because the reality of deteriorating social and economic conditions, due in part to mass migration across the West, is too great to ignore. After decades of prioritizing the well-being of immigrants over that of native-born citizens, the reinvigoration of traditional forms of nationalism through legitimate right-wing opposition was not only necessary but inevitable.

The surging popularity of the “far right” in Europe is shaking democracy to its core, as it should, exposing how unresponsive “democracy” has become to the needs of the people Western governments were meant to serve. [source]

Good. The Left likes to scare the public by using the term 'far right.' When in reality, the public gets tired of failed crazy socialist policies and wants sane policies back again.

Sheep binge on 600 pounds of pot: ‘They found green stuff to eat’

From NY Post.com (Sept. 25, 2023):

They’ve been very baaaad.

A flock of sheep near the town of Almyros in Thessaly, Greece broke into a greenhouse and devoured 600 pounds of medical cannabis, reported Newsweek.

The sheep were seeking refuge from flooding after the aftermath of Storm Daniel.

The storm hit parts of the central and eastern Mediterranean, leading to extreme flooding in Libya as well as Turney, Bulgaria, and Greece, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

In spite of the floodwaters, the sheep appeared to have found greener pastures. Although, the sheep were unable to pull the wool over their Shepard’s eyes. The Shepard said that after consuming Mary Jane, his sheep started exhibiting jumping higher than goats

The owner of the legal cannabis plant was dumbfounded by the event.

“I don’t know if it’s for laughing or crying. We have the heat; we lose a lot of production. We have the floods; we lose the rest. And the best: After all this, a herd of sheep, which I don’t know how to get back, entered the facility and started eating what was left,” he told TheNewspaper.gr.

“I don’t know what to say, honestly,” he added.

Farm owner Yannis Bourounis told a local radio producer: “They found green stuff to eat” and “jumping higher than goats, which never happens,” Newsweek reported.

Weed has been legal in Greece for medicinal purposes since 2017 and the country welcomed their first medical cannabis plant this year. While weed can have medicinal uses for humans, it’s dangerous for animals.

Cannabis poisoning among dogs is on the rise — especially in the US. There was an 11% percent uptick in cases last year and a 300% increase in the last five years, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Ever since pot dispensaries opened up in NYC, dogs have been poisoned after eating stoners’ stray joints and edibles. [source]

Jumping higher than goats? I bet. The rumors aren't true that afterwards the stoned sheep wandered into a Frito Lay factory.

Five top takeaways from Trump's high-stakes UN speech to the world

From Fox News.com (Sept. 22):

"A lot has happened since we gathered here last year," President Donald Trump said midway through his address to the United Nations General Assembly.

No kidding. First there was the Gaza ceasefire and hostage return, then Operation Absolute Resolve that removed Nicolas Maduro from power in Venezuela, and, of course, the deployment of U.S. military and economic power to stop Iran’s "mad dash" for a nuclear weapon.

Trump has put American courage and fortitude on display by taking big risks to strengthen the U.S. position—not just for global leadership, but for America’s future. This U.N. speech had its triumphant moments. "Bully no more," Trump said as he touted the battlefield success of Operation Epic Fury. Yet Trump’s serious and formal tone was evidence that this has also been a year that has tested the optimism and tried the patience of both President Trump and the American people.

Here are five takeaways.

1. Iran’s Choice is a Deal or Annihilation. "Just imagine if such a vile regime were ever empowered to carry out large-scale terror attacks from behind a nuclear shield. This was the reality we had to confront—a reality that far too many preferred to ignore," Trump explained on Tuesday.

And the U.N. audience broke into spontaneous applause when Trump vowed again that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. He asked world leaders to stay "united in maintaining pressure" on Iran. But, to no one’s surprise, this speech was also a direct message to the "lunatic clerics" who run Iran, to borrow the phrase from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Iran can make a deal or face annihilation. "I believe we’ll make a deal right after the midterms," Trump said. He’s ever-hopeful, but this is why 50,000 U.S. service members, led by two aircraft carriers, remain in the region under U.S. Central Command. Either way, he said, we "will soon see a world free of the 51-year menace." And indeed, it could go either way.

2. Greenland. Did you see Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen happily nodding during Trump’s remarks? Yes, this agreement that keeps Chinese investment out of Greenland and builds up Pituffik and other Space Force locations was a win-win for American security, Greenland, Denmark and NATO. This deal meant a lot to Trump, and it was smiling faces all around with the president, Frederiksen and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen at the signing ceremony held immediately after his U.N. address.

3. The Cartels in the Crosshairs. Trump’s speech delivered two scorching messages reiterating his commitment to the Western Hemisphere. First, Venezuela and the United States together control roughly 22% of the world’s proved oil reserves. Second, Trump said the "cartels are the ISIS of the Western Hemisphere" and decried these "sick, demented adversaries." Put this in perspective: These cartels control more cash than the global jihadis, so expect drug boat strikes to continue. "The United States will no longer permit threats to America to gain a foothold anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. And if necessary, we will use our unmatched military might to secure the vital national interests of the United States," Trump warned.

4. Super Intelligence. Not content with renaming lakes, seas and the Kennedy Center, Trump said he wants AI to be called Super Intelligence—or SI. He joked about seeing whether "SI" catches on, but here’s the serious message: The U.S. is ahead of China and will do whatever it takes to achieve supremacy in the global race for tech stack adoption and market share. "Whoever wins SI wins," Trump reiterated. That’s a nice setup for the state visit of China’s Xi Jinping later this week.

5. Melania Trump. Considering how little the U.N. has done with Iran or, for that matter, Ukraine, Trump let it off easy. Trump took a few swipes at the U.N. bureaucracy, but he was also courteous about U.N. Resolution 2817 condemning Iran’s attacks on international shipping. Most of all, Trump took time to acknowledge his wife, Melania Trump. On March 2, 2026, she became the first sitting first lady to preside over a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, leading a discussion on children and technology. During the speech, the first lady was seated with Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. As Trump scanned the audience for her, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer waved to point her out.

This was a thoughtful gesture, but it was poignant as well. For all the courageous tone, President Donald J. Trump has a lot of work ahead of him.

His 2026 U.N. speech may stand as the high-water mark of Trump’s bold efforts to improve international security and diminish the menace of China. [source]

Trump: US Navy Cleared All Mines From Hormuz

From Newsmax.com (Aug. 25):

President Donald Trump said Tuesday the U.S. Navy has cleared all mines from international waters in the Strait of Hormuz and warned Iran that any attempt to mine the vital shipping route again would draw an immediate military response.

"I have just been informed by the United States Navy that all mines have been removed and/or detonated from within the International Waters of the Strait of Hormuz," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump said Iran has been warned that "any ship or boat placing new mines will be immediately and systematically destroyed."

The president added that the U.S. Space Force is monitoring "every square inch" of the strait and said a "Zero Tolerance policy on mine placement" is now in effect.

The announcement marks the culmination of a months-long U.S. effort to clear mines planted by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after fighting erupted with Tehran earlier this year.

U.S. Central Command began a major mine-clearing operation in April after Iranian mines disrupted commercial traffic through the strategic waterway. The Navy deployed destroyers and underwater drones as part of the effort to establish safe shipping lanes through the strait.

The Strait of Hormuz, which separates Iran from Oman, is one of the world's most important energy corridors and normally carries a major share of global oil shipments.

Trump had said last week that the strait was "open and operating" and that its mines had been removed or detonated, even as Iranian attacks on commercial shipping continued.

Trump also said Space Force surveillance extends to "Pickaxe Mountain" and three Iranian nuclear sites he said had already been destroyed. [source]

Great!  Good to know.

American Wins!

• US Murder Rate Headed for Record 1-Year Drop
• Border Patrol completes full year with no catch and release of migrants
• BREAKING: President Trump Announces Massive Oil Deal with Venezuela – “BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY!”
• Trump: US Will Refill Strategic Petroleum Reserve Using Venezuelan Oil
• EPA: Biden-Era Emissions Rules for Coal and Fossil Fuel-Fired Power Plants Repealed
• Americans Are Wealthier Than 30 Years Ago. Here's the Data To Prove It.
  
• ADP: Private Sector Added 90,000 Jobs In September, Much More Than Expected
  
• GDP Revised Up To Show Stronger Growth In First Half of Year
  

And the GOP says there is no issues to run on. Really?

Scientists discover new organ in the throat

From Live Science.com (Oct. 20, 2020):

Scientists have discovered a new organ: a set of salivary glands set deep in the upper part of the throat.

This nasopharynx region — behind the nose — was not thought to host anything but microscopic, diffuse, salivary glands; but the newly discovered set are about 1.5 inches (3.9 centimeters) in length on average. Because of their location over a piece of cartilage called the torus tubarius, the discoverers of these new glands have dubbed them the tubarial salivary glands. The glands probably lubricate and moisten the upper throat behind the nose and mouth, the researchers wrote online Sept. 23 in the journal Radiotherapy and Oncology.

The discovery was accidental. Researchers at the Netherlands Cancer Institute were using a combination of CT scans and positron emission tomography (PET) scans called PSMA PET-CT to study prostate cancer. In PSMA PET-CT scanning, doctors inject a radioactive "tracer" into the patient. This tracer binds well to the protein PSMA, which is elevated in prostate cancer cells. Clinical trials have found that PSMA PET-CT scanning is better than conventional imaging at detecting metastasized prostate cancer.

PSMA PET-CT scanning also happens to be very good at detecting salivary gland tissue, which is also high in PSMA. Until now, there were three known large salivary glands in humans: one under the tongue, one under the jaw and one at the back of the jaw, behind the cheek. Beyond those, perhaps a thousand microscopic salivary glands are scattered throughout the mucosal tissue of the throat and mouth, study co-author and Netherlands Cancer Institute radiation oncologist Wouter Vogel said in a statement.

"So, imagine our surprise when we found these," Vogel said.

To confirm the discovery, Vogel and his colleagues imaged 100 patients (99 of them men due to the focus on prostate cancer) and found that all of them had the newly discovered glands. They also dissected that nasopharynx region from two cadavers from a human body donation program and found that the newfound region consisted of mucosal gland tissue and ducts draining into the nasopharynx. [read more]

I guess the biological text books have to be updated now.

Climate change fueled witch hunts… Then and now

From CO2 Coalition.org (Oct. 29, 2021):

European witch hunts of the 15th to 17th centuries targeted witches that were thought to be responsible for epidemics and crop failures related to  declining temperatures of the Little Ice Age. A belief that evil humans  were negatively affecting the climate and weather patterns was the  “consensus” opinion of that time. How eerily similar is that notion to  the the current oft-repeated mantra that Man’s actions are controlling  the climate and leading to catastrophic consequences?

The first extensive European witch hunts coincided with plunging temperatures as the continent transitioned away from the beneficial warmth of the Medieval Warm Period (850 to 1250 AD). Increasing cold that began in the 13th century ushered in nearly five centuries of advancing mountain glaciers and prolonged periods of rainy or cool weather. This time of naturally-driven climate change was accompanied by crop failure, hunger, rising prices, epidemics and mass depopulation.

Large systematic witch hunts began in the 1430s and were advanced later in the century by an Alsatian Dominican friar and papal Inquisitor named Heinrich Kramer. At Kramer’s urging, Pope Innocence VIII issued an encyclical enshrining the persecution and eradication of weather-changing witches through this papal edict. The worst of the Inquisition’s abuses and later systemic witch hunts were, in part, empowered by this decree.

This initial period of cooler temperatures and failing crops continued through the first couple of decades of the 16th century, when a slight warming was accompanied by improvements in harvests. Clearly, the pogrom against the weather-changing witches had been successful!

Unfortunately for the people of the Late Middle Ages, the forty years or so of slight warming gave ground to a more severe bout of cooling. The summer of 1560 brought a return of coldness and wetness that led to severe decline in harvest, crop failure and increases in infant mortality and epidemics. Bear in mind that this was an agrarian subsistence culture, nearly totally dependent on the yearly harvest to survive. One bad harvest could be tolerated, but back-to-back failures would cause horrific consequences, and indeed they did. [read more]

Interesting. I wonder if Bill O'Reilly knows about this history? I don't know, because I haven't read his Killing the Witches book yet.

How The CCP Uses Birthplace Citizenship And Surrogacy To Manufacture ‘Americans’

From The Federalist.com (May 18):

The recent guilty plea of Eileen Wang, the former mayor of Arcadia, California, should serve as a warning to a nation that has spent 30 years refusing to defend its own sovereignty against Chinese Communist Party (CCP) subversion.

Wang, a naturalized citizen after immigrating to the United States around 30 years ago, admitted to acting as an unregistered agent for the Chinese government, using her political platform to disseminate pro-Beijing propaganda through a front website called “U.S. News Center,” which branded itself as a news source catering to Chinese Americans.

While the corporate media headlines focus on the political fallout, Wang represents something much more sinister. Her guilty plea is the latest predictable harvest of a “Pandora’s Box” opened in the 1990s when American leaders traded our national security for economic gain and the fantasy of liberalizing China.

The Clinton Legacy

The groundwork for this crisis was laid by President Bill Clinton, who championed the normalization of trade with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) despite mounting evidence of Beijing’s hostility.

The 1990s provided two clear warnings that should have halted America’s renewed relationship with China: the bipartisan Cox Report, which revealed the theft of classified designs for the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal, and the “Chinagate” scandal, which exposed CCP cash being funneled into the Democratic National Committee.

And yet, despite all that was revealed about China’s growing subversion, Clinton still stood at Johns Hopkins University in March 2000 and gave a speech promising that normalizing trade relations with China would “liberate the potential of its people,” and allow America to “export products without exporting jobs.”

Not only was Clinton wrong on both counts, but America also ended up importing a permanent class of potential foreign subversives like Eileen Wang.

Since 1990, around the time Wang came to the U.S., the population of Chinese immigrants in the United States has more than tripled, increasing from around 677,000 to approximately 2.4 million by 2023.

This trend can also be seen within America’s elite Academic institutions. The number of Chinese international students has increased nearly fivefold since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 under the Bush Administration.

During the 2004-2005 academic year, there were only 62,523 Chinese students in the U.S.; by the 2019 peak, that number soared to more than 372,000 — accounting for 35 percent of all international students and providing a massive pool for potential CCP exploitation.

The threat from this influx presented itself most recently when a Chinese national and post-doctoral researcher at Indiana University was sentenced to more than four months in prison, resulting in his immediate deportation back to China after pleading guilty to smuggling biologic materials into the United States.

This is yet another example in an “alarming pattern” of Chinese subversion coming not only from without, but from deep within our borders.

The Birth of the ‘Manchurian Generation‘

Today, the CCP’s strategy has evolved from stealing sensitive state secrets and influencing U.S. politicians like Wang to the literal manufacturing of “American” babies.

As Peter Schweizer details in his book, The Invisible Coup, we are witnessing a form of “civilizational warfare” through the exploitation of birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment.

This demographic strategy is most visible in the American territory of Saipan. Located just 2,000 miles from Shanghai, the island has been effectively repurposed as a CCP forward-operating base for “maternity tourism.”

Due to a visa-free visitation policy dating back to the Obama era, Saipan’s local hospitals have become a conveyor belt for foreign nationals, with Schweizer noting that 70 percent of all newborns on the island are now children of Chinese birth tourists.

The scale of this influx has created what Schweizer terms a “Manchurian Generation.”

This isn’t just a matter of changing demographics, but of a latent political force: more than 1.5 million American passport holders are currently being raised under the CCP’s educational system.

These individuals represent a long-term “sleeper” asset for Beijing, capable of returning to the U.S. as adults to leverage their voting power at age 18, and chain-migration privileges at age 21, all for the benefit of the Chinese state. [read more]

The loophole needs to be closed or the Chi-Coms will continue to exploit it. An obvious no-brainer.

More articles on the matter:

• Sen. Blackburn Revives Ban Birth Tourism Act
• Chinese Social Media Chatter Indicates Trump’s Birth Tourism Crackdown Is Starting To Work
• Rep. Fallon to Newsmax: Make Birth Tourism a Crime

Christian NGO Welcomes Release of Pastor Held in Southern China

From Newsmax.com (July 5):

ChinaAid, a Christian NGO, said on Sunday it welcomed the release of Zion Church Pastor Jin Mingri, who had been held in detention centers in the southern Chinese ‌city of Beihai since last October ​and arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Eighteen leaders of the major underground church, including Jin, ⁠were arrested last November and charged with ​the crime of "illegally using information networks."

Jin's daughter Grace ⁠told Reuters on Sunday that eight members of the Zion Church are still detained in China.

"ChinaAid welcomes with profound gratitude ‌the release of imprisoned Chinese house church ​pastor Ezra Jin, ‌who arrived safely in Los Angeles on July 4, 2026," the ‌NGO said in a statement that used Jin's English first name.

China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond ⁠to a request for comment ‌sent outside work ⁠hours.

President Donald Trump had asked Chinese President Xi Jinping ⁠for ⁠Jin's release during his May trip to Beijing, Grace Jin said.

"We know ‌that this could not have happened without the direct intervention from Chairman Xi Jinping. We hope this is ‌a signal ​of a positive ‌turn for people of faith in China and relations between our two nations," said a ​separate family statement shared with Reuters. [source]

That is great news!  Welcome back home!

Egypt's smart: They built a giant above-and-below-ground WALL at the border with Gaza to keep Hamas out…

From Revolver.news (Oct. 13, 2023):

We could definitely learn a thing or two from Egypt about how to protect our country and our people. Egypt shares a border with the Palestinians, right on the Gaza Strip. To keep migrants from rushing in, they’ve built a formidable border wall that goes both above and below ground, making it nearly impossible to breach.

Al-Monitor:

Egyptian authorities had begun the first phase for building a tall concrete wall on the border with the Gaza Strip. Tribal sources told Al-Monitor that the wall will extend from the Kerem Shalom crossing to the Rafah border crossing. Meanwhile, the Egyptian armed forces have not made any official announcement on the wall.

The sources said the wall is 6 meters (20 feet) high and goes 5 meters (16 feet) underground and will be parallel to the old concrete barrier topped with barbed wire that was built on the border in early 2008; the walls will be separated by a distance not exceeding 10 meters (33 feet). The new wall, which sources said was begun Jan. 27, aims to prevent the entry of armed militants from Sinai into Gaza and close the remaining tunnels along the border.

The BBC also reported Feb. 18 that the wall will have observation posts placed every 100 meters (328 feet).

An Egyptian security source told Al-Monitor over the phone that the concrete wall along the border with the Gaza Strip will be 13 kilometers (8 miles) long and stretch from the Kerem Shalom crossing to the seacoast at Rafah.

The source, who declined to be named, said the implementation plan for the wall was developed nearly two months ago. The source further said that a 2-kilometer (1.2-mile) segment has been finished and that the rest will be completed in the next few weeks.

The source indicated that Egypt is rushing the construction work, which is designed to allow the government to manage entry and exit along the border with the Gaza Strip, as Cairo seeks to control all of the underground tunnels that can be used for terrorist operations, drug trafficking and weapons smuggling.

Interesting.

End Wokeness:

Gaza also shares a border with Egypt.

To keep Gazans out, Egypt built massive parallel walls and a super-strength steel underground wall.

One wall is made of concrete, goes 20 feet high and underground. The other is stone.

In addition to the above/underground walls, the area is patrolled by the military.

There is only one checkpoint to get in to the country and it’s heavily guarded.

Here’s a closeup of the images of the wall:

Wow, that looks secure, doesn’t it? What does it say about our own nation that we let just about anyone cross our borders illegally and with zero scrutiny?

But Egypt isn’t stopping at just a wall. In response to the recent surge of terror attacks in Israel and retaliatory actions in Gaza, Egypt has doubled down on security. They’ve shut the door on refugees looking for a safe haven. When asked why Egypt would turn away these refugees, experts stated the obvious: how can authorities be sure who’s a legitimate refugee and who’s a terrorist? [read more]

See walls do work. Actually, a pretty good idea.

Defeating the Mullahs

From Bill O’Reilly on Bill O’Reilly.com (Aug. 11):

The War with Iran is now a significant problem for both the Trump administration, the United States, and pretty much everybody.

I receive hundreds of messages each day from all over the world. A recurring question is: “How would I, your humble correspondent, defeat the Mullahs?”

So, here’s what I would do:

Number 1: Take out Pickaxe Mountain immediately. That’s the underground complex housing Iran’s supply of Uranium. No guarantee that destroying the facility would achieve anything, but it sends a message.

Number 2: I’d single out targets in the capital city of Tehran. You have to give a warning to the people who live there, but we should take out their infrastructure: that’s water, electricity, all gone.

Finally, the US has to take over this operation—no more influence from our Allies in the region. Let them have their opinions in private, but America must run this enterprise as we did during World War II.

If President Trump did these three things, he would be condemned all over the world, including the Democratic Party here in the US, but he has no alternative.

The Iranian strategy is to “run out the clock” – pardon the cliché. They know the American public will eventually tire of high gas prices and global instability.

President Trump must do something now. Time’s up for Tehran. [source]

Not bad strategies. I don't think the sheep-humping IRGC will ever voluntarily surrender. They definitely don't care about their own citizens. All they care about is spreading their warped ideology. Some kind of extreme pressures need to be put on them. Too bad they can't just be eliminated altogether (maybe by Delta Force?) but first you must find them. Maybe, Mossad knows where they are at.

Woman’s mystery illness turns out to be 3-inch snake parasite in her brain

From Ars Technica.com (Aug. 28, 2023):

A neurosurgeon in Australia pulled a wriggling 3-inch roundworm from the brain of a 64-year-old woman last year—which was quite the surprise to the woman’s team of doctors and infectious disease experts, who had spent over a year trying to identify the cause of her recurring and varied symptoms.

A close study of the extracted worm made clear why the diagnosis was so hard to pin down: the roundworm was one known to infect snakes—specifically carpet pythons endemic to the area where the woman lived—as well as the pythons’ mammalian prey. The woman is thought to be the first reported human to ever have an infection with this snake-adapted worm, and it is the first time the worm has been found burrowing through a mammalian brain.

When the woman’s illness began, “trying to identify the microscopic larvae, which had never previously been identified as causing human infection, was a bit like trying to find a needle in a haystack,” Karina Kennedy, a professor at the Australian National University (ANU) Medical School and Director of Clinical Microbiology at Canberra Hospital, said in a press release.

The case, reported in the latest issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, began in January 2021. The woman went to a local hospital in southeastern New South Wales, Australia, with a three-week history of abdominal pain, diarrhea, dry cough, and night sweats. Her blood work indicated an infection of some kind, and scans showed signs of pneumonia in her lungs as well as lesions in her spleen and liver. But tests for known microorganisms and parasites came up negative, as did tests for cancers and autoimmune disease. She was diagnosed with an unexplained case of pneumonia and given a corticosteroid, prednisolone.

Three weeks later, she was admitted to another hospital for recurrent fever and persistent cough. Again, doctors found the lung, liver, and spleen injuries as well as signs of an infection. Her blood had high levels of eosinophils, white blood cells known to fight off parasitic infections. They treated her for the high eosinophil levels and, out of concern there was a false-negative for a human roundworm infection, treated her with the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin.

From mid-2021 to early 2022, the woman’s liver and lungs improved. With the addition of another drug to help keep her eosinophil counts down, she was able to lower the dose of prednisolone.  [read more]

Glad the doctors got the worm out in time.

Former US Marine Held in Russia for More Than 4 Years Has Been Released

From Newsmax.com (Aug. 11):

Russia has released an American military veteran who spent more than four years in prison on disputed charges under abusive conditions and was said to be gravely ill and at risk of dying, a group advocating for him said Tuesday.

Robert Gilman was on his way to a U.S. military hospital in Texas, where he will be medically and psychologically assessed and treated, said Eric ‌Lebson, chief strategy officer of Global Reach, a group that’s been working to free him and other American detainees abroad.

Gilman’s family has flown to Texas to be with him, including his mother, who was in Russia attempting to see him at a hospital.

President Donald Trump, however, posted on social media that Gilman will arrive at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland outside of Washington on Tuesday evening.

“I just spoke to him, and he had one request — A GREAT cheeseburger when he lands,” Trump wrote. “I will take care of that!”

Trump said he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin before Gilman's release, which Trump said was “very much on a Humanitarian Basis.”

“We appreciate this decision, and the fact that Russia asked for no one in return — No exchange took place,” Trump said.

Gilman, a 32-year-old teacher detained since 2022, was initially handed a 3 1/2-year sentence when he was convicted of beating a police officer after being taken off a train for causing a disturbance.

He later was convicted of attacking a prison inspector during a cell check, beating an investigator and assaulting a guard, and he was sentenced in October 2024 to eight years and one month. His sentence was extended last year to 10 years after he was found guilty of assaulting prison guards.

Gilman’s father has disputed the charges against him.

Gilman's sister, Lexie Hudson, credited Trump and Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts with bringing about the former Marine's release.

“There is no other reason that Robert is alive today other than that President Trump heard about the case and took action,” said Hudson, who thanked Markey “for leading our advocacy efforts in Congress.”

“The Russians treated my brother so badly," Hudson said. "They hurt him for no reason, other than that he was both an American and a Marine. What did they get out of this? Why did they do this to such a wonderful person?”

Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service did not respond to a request for comment on Gilman’s health deteriorating behind bars.

Arrests of Americans have become increasingly common in Russia in recent years. Concern has risen that Russia could be targeting U.S. nationals for arrest to use later as bargaining chips in talks to bring back Russians convicted of crimes in the U.S. and Europe.

The State Department also said Gilman, who had been determined recently to have been wrongfully detained, was released on humanitarian grounds and “was not part of an exchange, and no other concessions were provided.”

“This as a welcome step that we hope leads to the release of Americans unjustly held in Russia, such as wrongful detainee Stephen Hubbard,” it said.

During Gilman’s December 2025 trial in the southwestern city of Voronezh, where he was found guilty of beating two prison guards and had his term extended to 10 years, Russian media reported that he pleaded guilty to the charges and apologized to the guards he was charged with assaulting.

The business daily Kommersant said he explained his actions by saying he wanted to stay in the prison where he was serving his sentence and avoid being moved to another penitentiary.

Gilman’s lawyer Irina Brazhnikova told the Russian news agency Interfax on Friday that Gilman was in a psychiatric ward of a civilian hospital, where he’s been since early July.

He was there “due to a psychiatric condition,” and according to doctors, his condition has worsened, but neither his defense lawyers, nor his family were allowed to visit, she said.

Before Gilman was flown out of Russia, he had been in “a dissociative stupor” for 47 days due to the abuse he had suffered in prison, Lebson said. After he was moved to the hospital, he was hooked up to a feeding tube and handcuffed to a bed.

Hospital reports conveyed Gilman’s condition “as dire and life-threatening,” pushing the U.S. government into action and leading to his release, Lebson said.

Markey had called on Russia and the U.S. to work together to get the Massachusetts resident released. Gilman was among at least eight Americans who remained in Russian custody after a series of high-profile prisoner exchanges with the U.S. in recent years.

Markey blamed Russia for Gilman's poor health, saying his return to the U.S. was long overdue.

“It is a tragedy that it took Robert’s near-death condition for his case to receive the attention that it required for his release to be negotiated," Markey said. "Throughout his detention, Robert was subjected to physical torture, forced medication, and provocations by Russian authorities. There is no doubt that his treatment by Russian authorities is the reason Robert is in this precarious state today.” [source]

Good to know! Welcome back home.  Get well and enjoy your cheeseburger.

Another person released:

President Trump Brings Another American Home-Announces Return of Christian Missionary Kevin Rideout Who Was Kidnapped and Held by Jihadi Terrorists in West Africa

44-Year-Old Hoarder Left Behind Treasure Trove Worth Up to $5 Million After Passing Away

From Western Journal.com (Oct. 10, 2020):

Hoarders are notorious for calling themselves “collectors,” and claiming that their hoard is made up of valuable items. Many times, those items turn out to be trash — worse than worthless — but, every once in a while an antique or box of items will turn out to be worth something.

The only way to know if a group of items are a “collection” and not a landfill in progress is to call in the experts. And one man in England is incredibly glad he did.

The man’s brother was a 44-year-old bachelor computer programmer who died suddenly last year, according to Metro.

That man had spent over a decade filling up every part of his three-bedroom house in Nottingham floor to ceiling with stacked boxes, bags and packages, earning him the title “Britain’s Biggest Hoarder.”

When he ran out of space, he filled up 24 bins outside and rented two garages and a neighbor’s backyard. Eventually, he had to stay elsewhere because there was nowhere for him to live at his home.

When he passed and his brother was tasked with cleaning up the hoard, the brother very nearly just had it all thrown out — but decided to get it evaluated first. Enter Terry Woodcock of Unique Auctions in Lincoln. With decades in the business, Woodcock was astounded at what he found.

“This collection is beyond belief,” Woodcock said, according to Metro. “I met the man’s brother at the house and he was just as shocked as I was. He had no idea his brother lived like he did. His house and garage were literally crammed full of items.”

Apparently, the deceased bachelor had taken to ordering items online and was hoping to sell them one day to fund his retirement. Lots of vintage electronics, piles of rare comic books, old science kits, Beatles memorabilia and countless other collections were found stacked haphazardly in every space he owned.

According to Metro, it took eight men and three vans more than six weeks just to clear the house, let alone open packages and research the value of items.

But the estimate of what the items could be worth is absolutely staggering: between £500,000 ($650,000) and £4,000,000 ($5,200,000).  [read more]

Nice.