Sen. Kennedy Just Exposed More Absurd Things Democrats Shut Down The Government For

Authored by Matt Margolis via PJMedia.com,

The Schumer Shutdown dragged through the weekend, with neither side budging. Republicans pushed for a straightforward continuing resolution to keep the government funded through November, but Democrats chose to hold the line for their wish list of radical spending priorities—billions and billions of dollars’ worth—and in doing so, shut the government down. The media has focused on their demand for free health care for illegal immigrants, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot more buried in this standoff that isn’t getting the attention it deserves.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) took to the Senate floor this week and laid out, in his trademark blunt and hilarious fashion, exactly what Democrats are trying to shut the government down over—and it’s every bit as ridiculous as you’d expect.

“Basically, President Trump just said, ‘We want you to take some stuff out of the budget that we think is wasteful,’” Kennedy began. “And we did — and that upset the congresswoman.”

That “congresswoman,” of course, is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who, according to Kennedy, went ballistic when Trump and congressional Republicans started cutting some of the more absurd Biden-era spending priorities.

Kennedy didn’t hold back as he read aloud what Democrats are fighting to restore.

“We found that under President Biden, they were spending $3 million for circumcisions and vasectomies in Zambia,” he said. “We took that out. The congresswoman says, ‘We’re gonna shut down government until you put that back in.’”

And that was just the beginning.

“We found $500,000 of American taxpayer money for electric buses in Rwanda,” Kennedy continued.

“We found $3.6 million for pastry cooking classes and dance focus groups for male prostitutes in Haiti. I kid you not. I’m not making this up. It was in the budget under President Biden.”

Kennedy went on to rattle off even more examples of this insanity:

• $6 million for media organizations for the Palestinians.

• $833,000 for transgender people in Nepal.

• $300,000 for a pride parade in Lesotho.

• $882,000 for social media mentorship in Serbia.

• $4.2 million for LGBTQI people in the Western Balkans and Uganda.

Do you think we should be funding that nonsense?

Republicans, Kennedy noted, stripped out each of these items as they tried to rein in wasteful foreign spending. But Democrats—with AOC and the “socialist wing” of the party leading the way—are threatening to shut the government down until every last one of those absurd expenditures is put back in.

“I could spend the rest of the afternoon here,” Kennedy said. “We took all that out. It upset Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez. It upset the socialist wing of her party. And now they’re threatening all other Democrats and saying, ‘You’ve got to shut that government down until we get what we want.’”

And that, Kennedy concluded, is what this entire budget fight is about—not defending American taxpayers or funding core government services, but holding the government hostage over millions in woke pet projects and bizarre international handouts.

The Schumer Shutdown didn’t happen by accident—it’s the result of Democrats choosing their woke agenda over citizens. Chuck Schumer made his priorities clear, and now the American people are paying the price.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 22:00

Is Silver About To Tumble Like in 1980 & 2011

Submitted by Jesse Colombo of The Bubble Bubble Report

With silver rallying strongly and rising more than 50% since the start of the year, a growing number of investors are starting to worry that a crash may be coming, similar to what happened after the major spikes in 1980 and 2011, instead of focusing on the incredible long-term opportunity that remains in front of us.

But as one of the few analysts who correctly identified the bull market in both silver and gold from the very beginning, I have consistently urged investors to stop dwelling on negative scenarios and instead recognize the tremendous upside that still lies ahead. This is silver’s moment to shine, and it is also a moment of vindication for those of us who believed in it all along, even when it was ignored by the mainstream financial world and left for dead as recently as just a few months ago.

In this report, I’ll explain why I believe silver will not repeat the sharp collapses that followed its short-lived surges in 1980 and 2011. This time is different. This is a legitimate, sustainable bull market with real staying power and the potential for lasting gains.

To start, I want to show you the long-term chart of silver going back six decades to the 1960s. You’ll notice that there have been three major price surges. The first was the Hunt Brothers–driven spike in 1980, followed by the quantitative easing–fueled rally in 2011, and now the current precious metals bull market. I believe this current move is a legitimate and sustainable bull market that is here to stay, as I will explain throughout this piece.

Now I want you to notice that in both 1980 and 2011, silver surged toward the $50 an ounce level, but that is where those rallies failed and quickly reversed. As a result, the $50 level became a critical price ceiling and resistance level and it still is to this very day.

For the past two years, as I have been calling for a silver bull market, even when silver was still in the $20 range, I consistently pointed to the $50 level as the key one to watch. I believed it would act like a magnet and draw the price of silver toward it, since major psychological levels often have that effect. And sure enough, silver has steadily climbed toward that level, just as I expected.

Now, with silver trading around $47 to $48 at the time of writing, it is extremely close to breaking through the key $50 level, which is a major make or break point. I also want to point out that many investors bought significant amounts of both silver bullion and ETFs during the frenzy of 2011. Unfortunately, when the price plunged afterward, they were left holding the bag, and many have been sitting on losses for the past 14 years.

But once silver finally surpasses $50, which will mark a new all-time high, no silver investor will be sitting on a loss, at least in nominal terms. That fact alone makes the $50 level a critical psychological barrier that will trigger a surge in investor sentiment once silver breaks above it.

Until recently, many silver investors remained deeply discouraged by years of losses and underperformance. But a decisive break above $50 will mark the beginning of an entirely new era for silver and will set off a powerful virtuous cycle. Many more investors will pile in, including new and younger participants who never considered silver before and who are not burdened by the baggage carried by older, battle-scarred veterans. This explosion of interest will help drive silver to incredible new heights.

Now I want to say that I adamantly believe silver is going to surpass $50 and go much higher from there in the near future. However, there is something I want to point out. Because silver has surged so strongly and so quickly, it is a bit extended in the short term, which makes it likely that it will consolidate or pause before eventually breaking through $50. Evidence of this can be seen in the Relative Strength Index (RSI) momentum indicator, shown in the chart below, which provides overbought or oversold readings for assets. I respect what it indicates.

That being said, unlike many amateur investors and analysts, I am adamant that an overbought reading like the current one in silver is not an automatic signal to sell or an indication that the bull market is over. I recommend reading my tutorial on this topic to learn more. There is a very high likelihood that silver will experience a shallow pullback or move sideways for a time to work off its overbought condition. This would conserve energy for the next leg higher, when silver smashes through the $50 ceiling.

Also, refer to my piece from April, when I called on the very day that gold was likely to consolidate temporarily, but not crash. Sure enough, that is exactly what played out in the following months, setting gold up for the impressive rally it is experiencing today. I believe a similar scenario is likely to play out in silver. And honestly, I welcome that because I would rather see silver rise in an orderly, more sustainable way than risk burning itself out. Plus, I would like to accumulate more of everything, including silver bullion, mining stocks, and more! And I’m sure you do too.

Now I want to get to the part of this report where I explain why the current bull market in silver is very different from the ones that failed in 1980 and 2011. The first point I want to make is that while $50 is a key nominal and psychological price ceiling to watch, and I believe silver will break through it decisively, even if it pauses first to work off its overbought condition, it is important to consider how much inflation has occurred over the past several decades. In real terms, the price of silver remains much lower than those previous peaks. That means $50 in 1980 or 2011 is certainly not the same as $50 in 2025, as anyone who has recently been to the grocery store can easily understand.

To illustrate that point, I created a chart showing the real, or inflation-adjusted, price of silver over the past six decades. On the chart, I highlighted what the $50 silver peaks in 1980 and 2011 would be worth in 2025 dollars. It turns out that in 1980, silver reached the equivalent of $199, and in 2011, it reached the equivalent of $72!

Now compare that to today, with silver trading around $47, which is much lower than either of those past peaks. For that reason alone, not even including the additional points I will explain next, I believe the current silver bull market is sustainable, has much more room to run, and should be able to finally smash through the $50 ceiling that has held it back for so long.

To further reinforce my point above, I also want to show you the ratio of silver to the U.S. M2 money supply, indexed to 100. This may be an even more accurate measure of inflation than the Consumer Price Index (CPI) used to create the previous chart. After all, the root cause of inflation is growth in the money supply itself. As Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize–winning economist, famously said, “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.”

Similar to what the real silver price chart revealed, this chart shows that although silver is approaching the same nominal price of $50, its real-world price is much lower than it was in 1980 and 2011. For example, in 1980 the ratio was 1,038, in 2011 it was 176, and now it is just 66. I see this as clear evidence that, despite its recent gains, silver’s bull market is nowhere near being long in the tooth. It still has substantial room to rise, and it should be able to blow through the $50 level with ease.

On that note, I also recommend reading my recent report on how the U.S. and global money supply is growing at an alarming rate. I also suggest reading my other report that explains how it is not so much that gold is rising in value, but rather that paper currencies are losing value.

Next let’s move on to another metric that confirms that silver is still much cheaper today than it was at the peaks in 1980 and 2011, despite its recent gains. This time, we will look at the silver-to-gold ratio, which is a useful way to determine whether silver is undervalued or overvalued relative to gold, the leading benchmark in the precious metals market.

While gold has always been more expensive than silver throughout history, the gap between them has varied significantly. At the 1980 peak, silver was 6.7% of the price of gold. At the 2011 peak, it was 3.3%. But now, silver is just 1.2% of gold’s price, which is far below historical levels.

This indicates that silver is extremely cheap by historical standards and still has substantial room for its bull market to continue. And based on the duration of past precious metals bull markets, I believe silver still has at least another decade to run, and the same goes for gold (learn more).

Another eye-opening metric that confirms silver is still extremely cheap is the ratio of silver to the U.S. federal debt, which now stands at $37.8 trillion and is growing at an alarming pace of $1 trillion every 100 days with no signs of slowing. This is an important metric because it shows whether the price of silver has kept pace with the growth of the national debt, and the answer is clearly no.

The chart, indexed to 100, shows that this ratio was 1,377 at the 1980 peak, 87 at the 2011 peak, and only 33 today. This indicates that silver has substantial room to catch up to the expanding national debt. In that context, $50 silver is not expensive by any measure, and a move to $100 or more is far from inconceivable.

Another reason why this ratio is so important is that the higher the federal debt rises relative to GDP, the closer we move to the inevitable breaking point where the government and the Federal Reserve will be forced to support the U.S. Treasury market and fund government operations by running the printing presses on overdrive. This will send inflation through the roof and ultimately destroy the dollar, causing gold and silver to reach prices that are difficult to even comprehend.

This will not be ordinary inflation, but full-blown hyperinflation like what my great-grandparents suffered through in Weimar Germany during the 1920s. It devastated the wealth and economy of Germany and was the reason they emigrated to the United States. Unfortunately, it also led to mass radicalization, which directly paved the way for the rise of Hitler.

Unfortunately, this debt problem is truly a worldwide phenomenon, as global debt has surged more than tenfold since the mid-1990s, reaching an estimated $250 trillion. This towering debt burden is a ticking time bomb that will ultimately bring fiat currencies to their knees. That is why it is of the utmost importance for everyone to acquire at least some physical gold and silver to protect themselves against what lies ahead. This fact alone guarantees that precious metals still have much further to rise.

Another useful way to determine whether silver is cheap or expensive compared to its past is to measure it against another yardstick: the Dow Jones Industrial Average. This comparison is valuable because there is a long-established relationship between precious metals and stocks, with capital rotating back and forth between them in secular phases. In many ways, they act as counterbalances to each other.

The chart of the silver-to-Dow ratio, indexed to 100, shows that silver at its 1980 peak reached an astounding 3,939. At the 2011 peak, it was 282. Today, it is only 68. This confirms that silver remains very cheap, and that $50 is no longer a particularly high price.

The reason for this extremely low ratio is twofold: the U.S. stock market is highly inflated and expensive right now, while silver remains undervalued by nearly every metric. I believe this situation will reverse, with silver far outperforming as stocks decline and their lofty valuations return to more realistic levels. That reversal will benefit precious metals enormously, as trillions of dollars flow out of a sinking stock market and into a booming silver and gold market, sending them dramatically higher.

As we wrap up this report, I want to leave you on an extremely exciting note. Silver has been forming a powerful chart pattern known as a cup and handle for the past six decades. This pattern indicates that once silver breaks out, it will almost certainly soar to at least several hundred dollars an ounce.

I believe a reasonable target is between $300 and $500, and that does not even factor in the inevitability of hyperinflation, which will send silver to prices measured not just in hundreds, but in billions and even trillions of dollars per ounce.

So this brings us back to the critical $50 threshold that I have discussed throughout this report. In order to confirm the cup and handle pattern and the extremely bullish scenario, silver must decisively close above that level. As I said earlier, that will be a game changer for investor sentiment toward silver, because once it happens, nobody who has ever bought will be holding at a loss.

The story will shift from years of frustration to stories of incredible fortunes made, the kind of life-changing, generational wealth that investors dream of. I am excited and waiting for that breakout, but silver may pause for a period of time to catch its breath first, and I actually hope it does because I want to make a few more purchases before it takes off for good.

So in conclusion, I have made the case throughout this report that while silver’s rallies in 1980 and 2011 were short-lived spikes that ended in spectacular crashes and left investors discouraged for decades, the current move is very different. This time, silver is in a sustainable and organic bull market in which prices will rise significantly and remain at those high levels permanently.

One of the key reasons that outcome will happen is because silver today is much cheaper than it was in 1980 and 2011 when measured against multiple benchmarks, including inflation, the money supply, gold, the U.S. national debt, and the stock market. These are extremely exciting and promising times for precious metals investors, and I am grateful to have you on this journey with me. I hope you prosper greatly in the years ahead.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 21:40

Most Of The World's Largest Trash Heaps Are In The US

Most of the world’s largest trash heaps are in the United States.

As Statista's Anna Fleck details below, according to crowdsourced data verified by the collaborative online platform Waste Atlas, the former dumpsite Fresh Kills tops the list. The site is estimated to contain 220 million tonnes of waste, including debris from the September 11 attacks. It closed in 2001 and a public park is now being built on top of it.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Fresh Kills was historically established as a dumpsite in the mid 20th century, at which time it lacked the environmental safeguards, such as impermeable liners and leachate collection systems, to safely contain and manage waste in a way that would qualify as a sanitary landfill site.

The other major unregulated dumpsite to appear on this list is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, found in the North Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and California. It is thought to measure 100 million tonnes. However, estimates vary considerably, with The Ocean Cleanup project suggesting the patch contains closer to 100,000 tonnes of garbage. This is partly due to the fact it does not have a defined boundary as it is made up of floating plastic and microplastics, which are constantly in motion due to ocean currents and winds.

As the following chart shows, Sudokwon landfill in South Korea is the only other site in the roundup outside of the United States. Containing 65 million tonnes of waste, it comes in rank four. The site is expected to stop accepting non-incinerated waste next year due to limited capacity, according to The Korea Times.

The U.S. faces a major waste problem, with a high reliance on single-use and disposable plastics as well as a culture of low recycling and composting rates. According to environmental health consultancy CLYME Environmental, the U.S. could run out of existing landfill space by 2036.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 21:20

Clarifying Putin's Comments About Poland's Pre-World War II Policy

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

Putin commented on Poland’s pre-World War II policy during the Q&A session that followed his speech at the Valdai Club’s latest annual meeting. Before clarifying what he said, readers should review this piece here about why Putin spent so much time talking about Poland in last year’s interview with Tucker, this one here about whether he really justified the Nazis’ invasion of Poland, and this one here about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

With this context in mind, here are Putin’s latest words on this subject:

“Poland made many mistakes before World War II. After all, Germany offered them a peaceful resolution to the Danzig and Danzig Corridor issue, but the Polish leadership of the time categorically refused and ultimately fell first victim to Nazi aggression.

And Poland completely rejected something else—but historians probably know this—at that time, Poland refused the Soviet Union’s aid to Czechoslovakia. The Soviet Union was prepared to do so; we have documents in our archives, I’ve read them all myself. When the notes were written to Poland, Poland said it would under no circumstances allow Russian troops to aid Czechoslovakia, and if Soviet planes flew, Poland would shoot them down—and ultimately, it fell first victim to Nazi aggression.

If today’s top political family in Poland also remembers, understanding all the complexities and twists and turns of historical eras of various kinds, and it keeps these mistakes in mind when consulting with Pilsudski, then this would actually be a good thing.”

His reference to “consulting with Pilsudski” was due to him being asked about new Polish President Karol Nawrocki humorously going along with an interviewer playfully wondering whether he does this in the Belweder Palace where Poland’s famous independence hero and interwar leader resided. Russian media misunderstood the “infotainment” purpose of him participating in this gag, however, and unironically reported on it in full seriousness. With that out of the way, it’s now time to clarify Putin’s comments.

He’s arguably making two historical points that he then hopes his new Polish counterpart will generalize and consequently apply in the present. They’re that World War II might have been avoided had Poland allowed the Soviets to come to Czechoslovakia’s aid against Nazi Germany or then later peacefully resolved their own dispute without resisting and officially embroiling its formal British and French mutual defense allies in what ultimately became a continental tragedy. This is the Russian position.

As for the Polish one, they feared that the first scenario would lead to the Red Army seizing the Polish-controlled parts of Western Belarus and Ukraine that they partitioned after the Polish-Bolshevik War, thus coercing Poland into becoming a Soviet client state after the Nazis’ defeat. Regarding the second scenario, they feared that ceding Danzig would lead to more cessions of formerly Prussian-partitioned Poland, thus coercing Poland into becoming a Nazi client state. It’s unimportant whether one agrees.

Both schools of thought on this were only shared so that readers can make up their own minds. Moving along, the two historical points that Putin made from the Russian position can be generalized as Poland having made major mistakes by not letting Moscow preemptively deal with a latent security threat to Europe and then rejecting a political deal for preventing a larger war afterwards, despite how flawed it was. Again, one doesn’t have to agree, but this is arguably the essence of what Putin was conveying.

The first generalized point relates to contemporary times in the sense of Poland having made a major mistake by backing February 2014’s coup in Ukraine instead of letting the deal that it agreed to with France, Germany, and Ukraine with Russia’s blessing unfold for de-escalating growing East-West tensions. Regarding the second, it’s relevant with respect to Poland colluding with the UK to sabotage spring 2022’s peace talks, after which what could have otherwise been a minor war exploded into a larger one.

These complementary mistakes in contemporary times contributed to bringing Europe to the brink of another tragedy. Putin thus hopes that Nawrocki will understand the generalized points that he sought to convey via his critiques of Poland’s pre-World War II policy given the latter’s prior role as his country’s top historian. If he does, then he might apply them to the present by encouraging a political solution to the Ukrainian Conflict instead of helping the West escalate tensions at the risk of sparking World War III.

Nawrocki importantly didn’t rule out talking with Putin if Poland’s security depended on it when asked about this in an interview several days before his Russian counterpart’s comments. His predecessor Andrzej Duda, previous Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, and his successor Donald Tusk had and have no interest whatsoever in talking to Putin about anything no matter the circumstances. For this reason, Nawrocki’s approach is pragmatic and even brave given the domestic Polish political context.

This doesn’t mean that he’ll soon call Putin, just that Putin was likely aware of what Nawrocki said and tried to convey – however wonkishly and indirectly – that he’d be receptive to any outreach from him. That’s what Putin’s comments on Poland’s pre-World War II policy aimed to achieve. They weren’t meant to blame Poland for World War II like some might imagine, but to prevent World War III given Poland’s central role in that prior tragedy and the one that might still happen if tensions spiral out of control.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 20:20

New Syrian Parliament 'Overwhelmingly Sunni, Male' Following Controlled Vote

Via The Cradle

Syrian religious minorities and women will be underrepresented in Syria's new parliament following an election that was tightly controlled by self-appointed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and in which the Syrian public was not allowed to vote.

Preliminary results of the election published on Monday show that of the 119 new lawmakers, only six are women, while just 10 come from Syria's Turkmen, Kurdish, Alawite, and Christian populations, Reuters reported. One election observer speaking with the news agency described the new parliament as "overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim and male."

Via Associated Press

"The observer also said the short appeal window severely restricted the ability to file objections and undermined the integrity of the process," Reuters added.

Unsuccessful candidates had until 5:00 pm local time to appeal the outcome. The 119 lawmakers were elected through a vote in which 6,000 members of regional electoral colleges chosen by Sharaa were allowed to participate.

Syria's minorities were further excluded following the decision by Syrian authorities not to hold elections in the Druze-controlled governorate of Suwayda and Kurdish-controlled governorates of Raqqa and Hasakah, citing “security concerns.”

As a result, the 21 parliamentary seats for those regions will remain indefinitely empty. Sharaa, the former Al-Qaeda and Islamic State in Iraq commander, will also appoint the final 70 lawmakers to complete the 210-member legislative body, ensuring Syrians have no voice in the outcome.

Syrian authorities claimed they could not allow Syrian civilians to participate due to a lack of reliable population data and because many of them may not have IDs following the 14-year war.

One day before Sunday's vote, AP reported many Syrians were unaware that the first parliamentary elections since the fall of the government of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad were about to take place, in part because the public was not allowed to participate.

“There were no candidate posters on the main streets and squares, no rallies, or public debates. In the days leading up to the polling, some residents of the Syrian capital had no idea a vote was hours away,” AP stated. 

In 2011, the US, Israel, and allied states launched a covert war to topple Assad's government. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians were killed as the war dragged on for 14 years.

The US and western powers opposed Assad, calling him authoritarian, only to install Sharaa, a former UN-designated terrorist, in power in December 2024. Since then, Sharaa has built a shadow fundamentalist religious state ruled by sheikhs from Hayat Tahir al-Sham (HTS), the former Al-Qaeda affiliate he headed.

Christian-majority areas now being represented by Sunni Salafists and fanatics...

As Most of you know, I’m From A Rūm Village called Suqaylbiyah in Western Hama on my father’s side

Our Village is 90% Rūm, 8% Alawite, and at best 2% Arab Sunni

This is the Representative Running for our Village in the Parliament pic.twitter.com/5uq3YEzBN8

— Rūm ☦︎ (@Antiochian_Rum) October 5, 2025

In March, Sharaa's security forces and affiliated extremist armed groups massacred at least 1,500 Alawite civilians, including elderly men, women, and children, across dozens of locations on the Syrian coast.

Syrian forces carried out similar massacres against members of Syria's Druze religious minority just four months later in the southern Suwayda Governorate. The victims included at least 167 civilians, among them 21 children and 57 women, SOHR reported.

In both the coast and Suwayda, Syrian security forces executed unarmed civilians in their homes and in the streets based on their religious identity. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 20:00

The Progressive Flight From Reality

Authored by J. Peder Zane via RealClearPolitics,

Progressivism isn’t just an ideology; it’s also becoming a mental health condition.

Spiraling past the tendentious spin and lies that have long shaped American discourse on both sides of the aisle, the loudest voices on the left are losing the capacity to grasp reality. As a character in a recent Wall Street Journal cartoon put it: “You’ve got it all wrong. What I’m saying isn’t misinformation. It’s denial.”

Take Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s recent denunciation of “White House senior aides” for “sowing fear, intimidation and division” by, among other things, calling Democrats “fascists.” Given not just his party’s but his own frequent use of such rhetoric – comparing ICE agents to Nazis who disappear immigrants and vowing that Republicans “cannot know a moment of peace” – the jaw-dropping irony of his complaint was lost on no one, except, apparently, Pritzker and his allies. It raises the question: How did he think he could get away with this?

He is not alone. In recent weeks, progressives have been assailing President Trump’s very real attacks on free speech, without wrestling with the fact that they have long been the driving force behind cancel culture, hate speech codes, and broad-based censorship efforts.

They have been attacking Trump for weaponizing the justice system against his political enemies without coming to grips with the fact that they did exactly that during the Biden administration.

These efforts seem darker and more disturbed than the old political tactic of telling small lies to achieve larger truths. More than simply Trump Derangement Syndrome on steroids, they reflect the progressives’ flight from reality, into a world of their own making, a belief that the visions inside their heads are truer than what the rest of us can plainly see. Where sane people try to work through the ineluctable contradictions of their own thoughts – which many of the right are struggling to do in response to Trump’s overreach – progressives have abandoned this mental effort.

Poisoned by leftist arguments that there is no truth, only power, they believe they can make things so simply by saying them – which is crazy. How else to explain:

• An August article in the New Yorker that stated: “Liberals used to be the counterculture; today, they’re the defenders of traditional norms and institutions.” That, of course, might come as news to those who disagree with the liberal view that sex is assigned at birth and who always thought equality, not equity, was the foundation of American liberty.
• A September column in the New York Times that quoted a University of Pennsylvania historian who claimed that Obama and Biden “didn’t think they had the power to disregard statutes passed by Congress and the text of the Constitution. They didn’t think they had the power to do things like treat the presidency as an office that permits its occupant to use the power of the state to reward friends and punish enemies and engage in self-dealing and enrichment.” Evidently, Professor Kate Shaw is unaware of the multiple cases brought against Donald Trump and his allies, the business dealings of Hunter Biden, or the first son’s pardon.

Consider Jimmy Kimmel’s infamous claim that Charlie Kirk’s left-wing assassin was actually MAGA. Given the mountains of evidence to the contrary, including the killer’s own words, it boggles the mind that anyone would come to this conclusion, much less say it in front of millions of people. But the talk show host was, in fact, articulating an unmoored view embraced by many voices respected on the left. Kimmel wasn’t simply trying to spin the news to help his side, he was repeating a story that makes sense if you have convinced yourself that only right-wing people engage in political gun violence and that your side is inviolately virtuous.

*  *  * Have you tried yet?

Unfortunately, this phenomenon gets even more troubling. As fears of political violence have intensified since Kirk’s murder, the New York Times has posted several pieces assassinating his character. One of its star content creators, Ezra Klein, for example, provided little pushback on a recent podcast as the racialist writer Ta-Nehisi Coates repeatedly labeled Kirk a “hatemonger.” The newspaper also published a long essay by Nikole Hannah-Jones, who led the paper’s controversial 1619 Project which tried to put slavery at the center of American history, which repeatedly called Kirk a bigot.

Her only evidence to support this inflammatory portrayal is one 168-word paragraph in a 2,568-word piece that cherry-picked, out-of-context snippets – he said ‘there’s a war on white people in this country’ he referred to a transgender athlete as an ‘abomination’ – to cast Kirk’s opposition to the woke agenda, gender affirming care and his concerns about black crime and Islam as “unabashed bigotry.”

To assess the quality of evidence, note that she repeats the long-debunked claims that Trump “called the white supremacists who rallied in Charlottesville, Va., ‘very fine people.’ ” To demonstrate that her views have wide currency, she writes that “Last year, The Washington Examiner, a conservative news outlet, published a column calling the organization Kirk co-founded, Turning Point USA, ‘one of the most destructive forces in Republican politics.’” What she ignored was that the author of that piece, Ben Rothove, published a short piece in the New York Times 16 days before her essay was published that declared, “I was wrong about Charlie Kirk.”

Hannah-Jones is, of course, entitled to her views – but not her own facts. It is telling that she and her editors thought it was appropriate to print a piece that made no effort to contextualize Kirk’s statements, or to try to understand why so many people in the world admired him. Their goal, instead, was to demonize an adversary by assertion. This is our truth. Perhaps more disturbing are two quotes in the piece that suggest Kirk’s murder was acceptable. “I cannot have empathy for him losing his life when he put mine at risk,” one black educator told Hannah-Jones.

“I firmly believe that no one should be killed for their beliefs, no matter how harmful those beliefs might be,” another person told her. “But we are watching our rights being stripped away. 

Such views, of course, resonate with those of thousands of others who celebrated Kirk’s murder; just as many progressives have cheered Luigi Mangione’s cold-blooded murder of UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson last December.

I hesitate to say that the Times was sanctioning Kirk’s assassination. But it is clear that progressives are proceeding down a dangerous path where facts, truths, and human decency are being overwhelmed by their dark desires.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 19:40

Mapping Extreme Poverty Across All American States

In 2024, 6% of the U.S. population lived in extreme poverty, equal to 20.4 million people.

While there are different definitions of extreme poverty, this is represented as those earning less than $8,160 in annual income, or half of the poverty line. As the federal budget makes cuts to food assistance and healthcare, levels of extreme poverty run the risk of worsening even further.

This graphic, viaVisual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld, shows the share of each state living in extreme poverty in 2024, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Washington D.C. Has the Highest Level of Extreme Poverty

Last year, more than one in 10 residents of the nation’s capital lived in extreme poverty. 

Going further, economic hardship disproportionately impacts people of color in Washington D.C., with one in three black children living in poverty between 2019 and 2023, on average.

As we can see, Southern states also rank among the most impoverished. In Louisiana, 9% of residents live in extreme poverty, and on average, 18.9% lived below the poverty line between 2021 and 2023.

Meanwhile, 7% of New York’s population are extremely impoverished, equal to an estimated 1.4 million people.

On the other end of the spectrum is New Hampshire with the lowest rate nationally, at 3.9%. The Granite State benefits from a stable job market, low unemployment, and a strong education system. Paired with relatively affordable healthcare, these factors contribute to higher living standards for its residents, reducing the risk of poverty.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 19:20

US Takes 10% Stake In Alaska Miner Trilogy Metals

Trump's Industrial Policy juggernaut continues.

Moments after the close when we saw some abnormal moves in the stock of yet another North American small cap stock focused on mining strategic minerals, we quickly skimmed through Trilogy Metals' just released presentation and told readers that yet another "Uncle Sam bear hug" deal was in the works, pointing out the company's disclosure of DOD funding to develop a cobalt supply chain. 

Trilogy Metals (TMQ) soars after microcap miner ($343MM market cap) reveals DOD funding of its "Bornite Project to advance domestic cobalt supply chain" pic.twitter.com/ILauxrLBrn

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 6, 2025

13 minutes later it was official: the US said it will take a 10% stake in Canadian minerals explorer Trilogy Metals as part of a $35.6 million investment to secure critical energy and mining projects in Alaska. The US deal also includes warrants to purchase an additional 7.5% of the Vancouver-based company.

In an announcement Monday, President Donald Trump said the White House is reversing a Biden-era decision to reject Ambler Road, a project to help access vast critical mineral deposits in Alaska’s Northern Brooks Range -  home to some of the world's richest known copper-dominant polymetallic deposits - to open up critical energy and mining projects.

The 211-mile (340-kilometer) highway would connect a remote mining district with deposits of copper, cobalt, gallium, germanium and other minerals.

Trump’s move directs the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and US Army Corps of Engineers to reissue any necessary permits needed to build the road.

“This was something that should have been long operating and making billions of dollars for our country and supplying a lot of energy and minerals and everything else,” Trump said during an event in the Oval Office.

Trilogy Metals has mining claims in remote areas of Alaska, including a joint venture with Canadian mining giant, South32 Ltd.

The planned investment is the latest example of the Trump administration taking stakes in North American critical minerals companies to help counter China’s dominance in the industry. Just last week, the US agreed to acquire a direct interest in Lithium Americas Corp., which is developing the Thacker Pass lithium project in Nevada. In July, the US Defense Department agreed to a $400 million equity investment in MP Materials Corp. to fund a plant for rare-earth magnets. It is expected to do the same with USA Resources and 

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Ambler Road will be a toll road constructed from gravel, and will be sensitive to environmental concerns. Trump said the effort will include the construction of two bridges. The Interior Department blocked construction during former President Joe Biden’s term, folding to the pressure of one or more bluehaired environmental Karens, saying that the road would impact wildlife including caribou.

US shares of Trilogy soared more than 150% in after-market trading following the announcement of the deal. Billionaire John Paulson is a top shareholder in Trilogy, with an 8.7% stake through his investment fund Paulson & Co, according to the latest data compiled by Bloomberg.

Those wondering who may be next, here is a snapshot of comps from the company's own presentation.

Trilogy's full presentation laying out the Ambler Road opportunity is below (pdf link).

 

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 18:58

Milken And Friends Build A $500 Million Monument To Their Version Of The American Dream

Authored by Eric Salzman via Racket News,

I almost fell off my chair a couple of weeks ago when I saw a Bloomberg article titled “The Junk Bond King Opens a Shrine to Capitalism Near the White House.” My thoughts instantly turned to an episode of “The Sopranos” in which Tony and the crew discuss building the Newark Museum of Science and Trucking.

The $500 million Milken Center for the Advancement of the American Dream (MCAAD) is funded by such titans as Citadel Enterprise America’s CEO Ken Griffin, Carlyle founder David Rubenstein, music mogul David Geffen, Walmart multi-billionaire Alice Walton, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates. MCAAD’s website highlights The David Geffen Hall of Dreams, The Kenneth C. Griffin Holodeck Experience, The Word Cloud and much more! I decided to see it for myself, but first, a quick story.

Back in 2017, a Bloomberg interview with Milken caught my attention.

Milken stated about PE:

This is their golden age. You can leverage, you can borrow without covenants, and so for equity holders it affords you very unusual rates of return.

There was also this: “For bond investors today the yields are extremely low, and so therefore you’re not really getting paid much of a premium to invest, but even more important is that the covenants are gone.”

I opined on my former employer’s small blog that PE’s “Golden Age” might be disastrous for the bond and loan holders if they are getting small yield risk premiums with little to no covenants (financial instruments that lenders use to control their risk).

I also noted that in the end, Milken pleaded guilty in 1990 to six felony counts of securities fraud and reporting violations (for which Trump pardoned him in 2020) that resulted in nearly two years of prison, a $600 million fine, and a lifetime ban from the securities industry.

About a week later I received an email from someone at the Milken Institute, the philanthropic think tank that Milken founded in the early 1990s. Milken wanted to speak to me about the article. I told my company, and was told I couldn’t do it. I said to myself, “I’m speaking to Michael Milken!”

My financial career started in the 1980s when Milken was a giant. There are essentially four money-making roles in Wall Street’s bond business: traders, salespersons, strategists and desk heads. Milken had a reputation as being the best at all four roles at the same time. Like it or hate it, the man reinvented finance.

On the appointed day, I called Milken. After exchanging greetings, he said that I was mistaken in my article, mainly because overall, companies are better managed as private entities — basically the same message he had been giving since the early 1980s. I told him that all I was saying was that if it’s a great time for PE borrowers, it probably wasn’t a good time for the lenders (bond and loan holders) because they weren’t getting compensated enough for their risk.

Milken realized that I wasn’t criticizing the private ownership model; I was just taking the other side of the coin. From there we had a very pleasant 15-minute discussion, really just about life in general. After we hung up I said to my wife, “That guy really could sell ice to an Eskimo. Today is Tuesday and if he told me it was Thursday, I’d believe him!”

The Museum

First the good news. Admission is free except for the Kenneth C. Griffin Holodeck Perpetual Story Machine exhibit, which is $15. The MCAAD is a beautiful space with lots of cool digital art displays and a very friendly and helpful staff. Interestingly, the center is located in the old Riggs Bank Building, which is kind of funny considering that a scandal involving the failure to monitor millions of dollars of suspicious transactions from Saudi Arabia after 9/11 eventually sank the bank in 2004.

Overall though, I was disappointed. After reading Bloomberg’s review, I thought the center would be some sort of wild Clockwork Orange experience where words, slogans, visions and flashing lights would come at me in rapid succession to alter my cynical mind into buying into the Milken and Friends version of the American Dream. The David Geffen “Hall of Dreams” sort of did this with charts and graphs about America’s changing opinions on topics such as gay marriage, but I walked out of it as cynical as ever. Words like “Opportunity” and “Immigration” were on the ceiling, and strange white digital clouds “floated” on the glass railings. Perhaps they were supposed to represent dreams.

It made me feel like I was back in the 3rd grade being taught the super-sanitized fairytale version of American History from a textbook published in 1962. Boring pablum. Nowhere was this more evident than the Holodeck. Three saccharine-sweet clichéd stories of making it in America against steep odds that made nearly zero use of the advertised cutting-edge tech. Instead of talking holograms, we got cartoonish-looking people on a screen.

A bit of a disconnect from reality?

The feel-great American dream vibe of the MCAAD differs quite a bit from a recent Wall Street Journal and NORC survey:

The share of people who say they have a good chance of improving their standard of living fell to 25%, a record low in surveys dating to 1987. More than three-quarters said they lack confidence that life for the next generation will be better than their own, the poll found.

Nearly 70% of people said they believe the American dream—that if you work hard, you will get ahead—no longer holds true or never did, the highest level in nearly 15 years of surveys.

Interestingly, soon after entering the MCAAD you can sit down at a little booth and pick videos from the “Foundations of the Dream Gallery” and listen to both everyday Americans as well as famous ones like Katie Couric and Elmo from Sesame Street. Yes, Elmo shares his American dream story. You could choose different themes or groups of people like “Walmart.” This option provides testimonials from Walmart employees who got their start at the company and have made a nice life and career. That jogged my memory that Alice Walton, a scion of the family that started Walmart, was a big contributor to the center.

This was pushback against the narrative that Walmart was one of the main actors in hollowing out America’s manufacturing base, such as in this 2015 study by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute that showed the effect Walmart had on American manufacturing jobs and the trade deficit with China.

When the U.S. supported China’s entry into the WTO in 2001, the argument was that millions of jobs would be created in China which in turn would create tremendous demand for U.S. imports. Those imports would create great jobs for Americans displaced by manufacturing moving to China.

That didn’t happen. Instead, companies like Walmart expanded like wildfire with their low-cost product strategy as their vendors moved out of the USA and profit margins for much of corporate America increased sharply with the reduction in labor costs. However, for the displaced American worker, labor unions were broken, wages stagnated and good jobs with benefits were replaced with part time, low-wage jobs at companies like… Walmart.

Meanwhile, the Chinese consistently manipulated their currency, subsidized industries and essentially broke many WTO rules while the United States looked the other way. The combination of cheap imports and stagnant wages in the U.S. dramatically lowered inflation. Lower inflation drove interest rates down substantially. Then when Wall Street had its subprime mortgage bubble burst in 2008 causing “The Great Recession,” we had a decade of Federal Reserve interest rates at or near zero. The chart below shows the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury Note from 1990 to 2021. We start at about 9% and end up lower than 2%.

Significantly wider corporate profit margins combined with historically low interest rates were nirvana for corporate America, especially Wall Street and hence, the $500 million Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream. Perhaps they should add another floor to the museum with a hologram exhibit of this bit of history. The MCAAD didn’t have to go full-bore pessimistic, but at least Milken and Friends could give a nod to the serious challenges America still faces to make the dream come true for millions more. Instead, there are only brief mentions of things like racial and gender exclusion sprinkled about in the different exhibits.

If the MCAAD is, as Rachel Goslins, the center’s executive director stated, “unapologetically hopeful about the American dream,” shouldn’t the many challenges and potential ideas to solve them be addressed somewhere? After all, hope is not a strategy.

“Why?” was my biggest question when I left the MCAAD. Why would Milken and the other billionaires spend lots of money and time putting all this together?

The messaging of the MCAAD is consistent with what we have witnessed over the last few years from both sides of the political spectrum. Economists-turned-pundits like Paul Krugman told Americans in 2023 that they shouldn’t feel crappy about the economy as inflation raged. He blamed the disconnect between strong economic data and many citizens’ negative opinions on the economy on political partisanship.

Meanwhile, President Trump recently proclaimed in a Truth Social post that, “Prices are WAY DOWN in the USA with virtually no inflation.”

There’s plenty of inflation. Healthcare costs continue to rise, housing costs continue to rise, food prices continue to rise, auto and home insurance continue to rise. It’s a long list of rising.

The politicians and the plutocrats of all stripes can lie to the American people about many things and get away with it. However, when it comes to how Americans are feeling about their economic reality, as Dylan said, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 18:20

The Influence Of Influencers

Most people trust the opinion of their social circle when making purchasing decisions.

As Statista's Katharina Buchholz details below, data from Statista Consumer Insights shows, many also trust the friendly people who freely share their lives with us on social media and at least feel like our acquaintances: influencers.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Influencers currently yield the biggest power over people’s purchasing decisions in Brazil, China and India, according to the survey which is representative of the countries’ online populations. While influencers' sway has only become larger in Brazil and India, it has recently decreased in China, but stayed on a high level nonetheless.

In most other countries, the trend to follow influencers' lead when deciding on a purchase gained traction. The Netherlands and Japan were among the countries paying influencers little mind, even though their following was growing in these nations also.

Among Europeans, Italians were most "under the influence", at 24 percent saying in 2025 that they had made a purchase because a celebrity or influencer advertised the product.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 18:00

Unaccountable: The FBI's Strange Refusal To Fix Key Crime Stat

Authored by John R. Lott Jr. via RealClearInvestigations,

Three years ago, RealClearInvestigations reported that the FBI was undercounting the number of armed civilians who had thwarted active shooters by a factor of three.

Even though the FBI acknowledged the issue at the time, it never corrected the error involving the politically fraught issue. In the years since, the problem has only gotten worse. Since RCI’s 2022 article, the FBI has acknowledged just three additional incidents of armed good Samaritans stopping active shooters from 2022 to 2024, and none in the last two years. In contrast, the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), which I head, has documented 78 such cases over that same period – a 26-fold difference.

The discrepancy highlights systemic problems in the nation’s record-keeping regarding the politically potent issue of crime and safety. The refusal of many local jurisdictions, including Chicago, Maricopa County, Arizona, and New Orleans, to provide accurate crime data to the FBI has long made comparisons with many cities unreliable. The ongoing Justice Department investigation into whether Washington D.C. police falsified crime rates to create a “false illusion of safety” may provide more evidence to distrust the numbers that local authorities submit. 

The FBI has the ability to set the record straight in at least some cases, providing a clearer view of remedies to crime. But its unwillingness to correct errors – or its efforts to fix them on the sly, as RCI reported last year – and improve its methodology raises more concerns. Its shortcomings regarding armed citizens thwarting active shooters illuminate many of these problems.

“It is understandable that the FBI or those they hire to compile cases might miss some,” said Carl Moody, a crime researcher at the College of William & Mary. “I don’t understand why the FBI never corrects overlooked or misidentified active shooting cases, even after researchers and the media point them out. I worry that we can’t trust the FBI with crime data.”

The FBI declined to comment.

The FBI defines active shooter incidents as those in which an individual kills or attempts to kill people in a public place, excluding shootings that are related to other criminal activity, such as robbery or fighting over drug turf. They include instances from one person being shot at and missed all the way up to a mass public shooting.

In 2022, the FBI reported that only 11 of the 252 active shooter incidents it identified for the period 2014-2021, or 4.4%, were stopped by an armed citizen. However, an analysis by my organization identified a total of 281 active shooter incidents during that same period and found that 41 of them – or 14.6% – were stopped by an armed citizen. 

Academic articles dating back to 2015 have flagged similar problems, and even the researchers who collected data for the FBI admitted that “our data are imperfect.”

The FBI report compiled for the Biden administration for 2023 and 2024 contains worse errors. It asserts that armed civilians stopped none of the 72 active shooting cases it identified. The CPRC, by contrast, identified 121 active shooter cases – 45 of which were ultimately halted by armed civilians. Those incidents included eight cases that likely would have resulted in mass public shootings with four or more people murdered. 

“There was a lady there. She heard the shots being fired, and one of them, I think it was her godchild, was involved,” a representative of the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office in West Virginia told Metro News.  “[S]he fired some rounds back at them, which stopped this melee of firepower and they actually took off.”

In another case in 2023, CNN reported that a concealed handgun permit holder shot a gunman after he had murdered one person, wounded three others, and pointed his weapon at bystanders at the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, Texas. 

Various factors explain this stark discrepancy in the data. Police departments do not keep separate records of active shooter incidents, which is at the heart of the problem. Crime researchers, including my organization, have to rely on media reports, which can be inaccurate, to identify and classify the incidents. 

What’s more, the FBI does not compile its own list of cases but hires researchers at Texas State University who use Google searches to find news stories about these incidents. As a result, the potential for incomplete search results and difficult judgment calls by researchers means the FBI numbers are prone to error.

Between 2014 and 2024, FBI reports determined that armed citizens stopped 14 of 374 active shooter incidents its researchers identified – or 3.7% –  with zero defensive gun use cases occurring in the two most recent years. Using the FBI’s definitions, CPRC identified 561 active shooter incidents, with armed citizens stopping 202 of them – or 36%. In addition, CPRC found 31 other cases where civilians intervened before suspects fired their weapons – incidents CPRC excluded because they did not fit the FBI criteria, though they likely prevented shootings as well. 

Most significantly, during that decade, the FBI overlooked 42 incidents where civilians likely prevented mass public shootings.

M. Hunter Martaindale, a research assistant professor at Texas State University, was shown CPRC’s entire list of cases. He objected to just two of the incidents the CPRC identified that the FBI had missed – without commenting on any others. Even then, the two cases differed from the included ones only in that they lacked defensive gun uses. Texas State University declined to respond to repeated requests for comment.

All the cases missed by the FBI are available here, along with links to the underlying sources, so that people can double-check whether any of those cases don’t fit the FBI’s definition.

The FBI compounds the problem by refusing to correct missing cases brought to its attention, including these high-profile ones:

• In 2018, just months after the Parkland school shooting where 17 people were murdered, a gunman opened fire at a back-to-school event for children and their families at another Florida school. A concealed handgun permit holder quickly intervened and stopped the attack. More than 200 people, most of them children, were at the event. “This person stepped in and saved a lot of people’s lives,” said Titusville Police Sgt. William Amos. Unlike the earlier tragedy in Parkland, this incident ended without mass casualties – but national media outlets outside Florida ignored it.
• A week after the Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando in 2016 where 49 people were murdered, a 32-year-old man began shooting inside another nightclub. Because South Carolina law allowed concealed handguns in bars, a permit holder was able to respond. Before the attacker could fire on a fourth victim, the permit holder shot him in the leg. Police later discovered the attacker carried more than 100 rounds. A South Carolina sheriff credited the man with preventing further bloodshed.

In 2024, when conservative freelance reporter John Stossel asked the FBI how complete its data was, the Bureau admitted: “[Our data is] not intended to explore all active shooting incidents but rather to provide a baseline understanding . . .” Yet the FBI never includes that qualification in its reports or press releases. 

“As an academic who relies upon the FBI for accurate reports on crime, I am disappointed by the many errors found in their crime data, particularly on their active shooting data,” said Gary Mauser, an emeritus professor at Simon Fraser University in Canada who has extensively studied gun control and defensive gun uses. 

The FBI’s active shooting reports never indicate whether the attacks occur in gun-free zones. “When places post gun-free zone signs, law-abiding citizens obey those rules and can’t stop attacks in those areas,” explains Professor Moody.

Surveys reveal that criminologists and economists rank the same four policies as the most effective for stopping mass public shootings: eliminating gun-free zones, relaxing federal regulations on company-imposed gun-free zones, allowing K-12 teachers to carry concealed handguns, and allowing military personnel to carry on bases.

The corrected active shooting data between 2014 and 2024 undermines the argument for gun-free zones in particular. The data reveal that citizens stopped 178 out of 339 potential or actual mass shootings where it was possible to identify that guns were allowed in the area. So 52.5% of attacks were stopped by people legally carrying concealed handguns. In 2024, that rate had risen to 62.5%.

These corrected numbers show why it’s no accident that 92% of mass public shootings occur in gun-free zones, where civilians cannot legally carry firearms, and they highlight how the FBI’s reports leave out critical information.

The Annunciation Catholic School shooter in Minneapolis in August made this point explicit in his manifesto: “I recently heard a rumor that James Holmes, the Aurora theater shooter, may have chosen venues that were ‘gun-free zones.’ I would probably aim the same way. . . . Holmes wanted to make sure his victims would be unarmed. That’s why I and many others like schools so much. At least for me, I am focused on them. Adam Lanza is my reason.” (Lanza carried out the Sandy Hook Elementary School attack in Newtown, Conn.) This shooter even explained why he avoided attacking during morning drop-off or afternoon pick-up, when parents with concealed-carry permits might be present.

The 2023 Nashville Covenant School shooter made a similar calculation. She admitted she rejected another target because it had too much security. “There was another location that was mentioned, but because of a threat assessment by the suspect of too much security, they decided not to,” Nashville Police Chief John Drake explained. Covenant had no armed staff to fight back.

The Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket attacker in 2022 echoed the same logic in his manifesto: “Areas where CCW permits are outlawed or prohibited may be good areas of attack.” Many other killers have used almost identical words, with other cases going all the way back to Columbine, where the murderers expressed their opposition to potential victims being able to carry permitted concealed handguns.

These attackers may be deranged, but they are not stupid. They are almost all suicidal and plan to die, but they know that the more people they kill, the more media coverage they’ll get. That’s why they choose targets where no one can fight back.

The news media, federal lawmakers, and courts frequently rely on the FBI’s active shooting reports. News media articles rely on the FBI data to argue that guns are rarely used to stop these attacks. Headlines illustrate this framing: “Rare in U.S. for an active shooter to be stopped by bystander” (Associated Press); “Rampage in Indiana a rare instance of armed civilian ending mass shooting” (Washington Post); and “After Indiana mall shooting, one hero but no lasting solution to gun violence” (New York Times). 

Some states recently loosened or removed restrictions on gun-free zones and expanded the ability of teachers to carry firearms in schools. For example, Wyoming in 2025 abolished most of its gun-free zones in public buildings, state legislative sessions, and other governmental meetings, and public airports outside of those areas restricted by federal law. A number of states – such as Idaho, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming – adopted statutes that explicitly exempt school employees from bans on firearms on K-12 grounds, subject to permitting, training, and approval by local authorities. Utah, New Hampshire, Wyoming, and parts of Oregon allow any teacher with a concealed handgun permit to carry on school property.

After reviewing the missing data shown in this RCI report, Professor David Mustard, a distinguished professor at the University of Georgia who researches extensively on crime, was blunt in his conclusion: “The federal government must improve its records related to self-defensive uses of firearms – especially in active shootings. Because academics, media, and policymakers depend on their data, it is essential that the FBI collect and compile the data consistently and accurately.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 17:40

Bezos Sees Data Centers in Space - Predicts AI 'Bubble' To Pay Off Like Dot-Coms

In a jaw-dropping vision of the future, Amazon founder and executive chair Jeff Bezos predicted Friday that “gigawatt-scale” data centers will be built in space within the next 10 to 20 years, powered by endless solar energy - and that they’ll eventually outperform their Earth-bound counterparts.

“We’re going to start building these giant gigawatt data centers in space,” Jeff Bezos said Friday. Getty Images

Speaking at Italian Tech Week in Turin, Bezos said orbital computing will be the next great leap forward, likening the rise of artificial intelligence to the early internet boom — full of hype, bubbles, and inevitable winners.

“These giant training clusters, those will be better built in space, because we have solar power there, 24/7. There are no clouds and no rain, no weather,” Bezos said in a public conversation with Ferrari and Stellantis Chairman John Elkann. “We will be able to beat the cost of terrestrial data centers in space in the next couple of decades.”

Jeff Bezos plans to build a data center in space within the next 10+ years.

Unlimited solar energy available 24/7, space is an ideal location for data centers.$AMZN AWS is set to make major moves out there. pic.twitter.com/KJCEO973eQ

— Bourbon Capital (@BourbonCap) October 3, 2025

Bezos framed the shift as part of humanity’s ongoing migration to space infrastructure.

“It already has happened with weather satellites. It has already happened with communication satellites. The next step is going to be data centers and then other kinds of manufacturing,” he said.

Space Servers: Big Gains, Big Headaches

The concept of orbital data centers has gained traction among tech giants as Earth-based facilities devour electricity and water to cool their racks of servers. Continuous sunlight and zero weather make space an appealing option - at least in theory.

But Bezos acknowledged there are serious hurdles ahead: maintenance and upgrades would be far more difficult in orbit, rocket launches are costly, and any failure could wipe out billions in hardware in a flash.

Still, the Amazon founder insists that as launch costs fall and technology improves, the economics will eventually tilt in space’s favor.

The AI Boom: Bubble or Breakthrough?

Bezos also turned to artificial intelligence, calling it a transformative force that should be embraced despite the frenzy surrounding it. He drew direct parallels between the AI surge and the dot-com era, when hype led to a crash — but also paved the way for the modern digital economy.

“We should be extremely optimistic that the societal and beneficial consequences of AI, like we had with the internet 25 years ago, are for real and there to stay,” he said. “It is important to decorrelate the potential bubbles and their bursting consequences that might or might not happen from the actual reality.”

Bezos added that while AI investment might look like a bubble, it’s the good kind - an industrial bubble that drives progress rather than financial destruction.

“This is kind of an industrial bubble as opposed to financial bubbles. The ones that are industrial are not nearly as bad - they can even be good. Society benefits from those inventions,” he said, adding "Investors don’t usually give a team of six people a couple billion dollars with no product, and that’s happening today." 

Jeff Bezos called AI an “industrial bubble” at Italian Tech Week:

“Investors don’t usually give a team of six people a couple billion dollars with no product, and that’s happening today.”

He added that while bubbles fund both good and bad ideas, society benefits when the… pic.twitter.com/7QTSgT0gh3

— Wall St Engine (@wallstengine) October 3, 2025

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 17:20

$17,000 per Month: How Sky-High Prescription Prices Take Toll On Patients

Authored by Lawrence Wilson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

“If I were 10 percent less mean or 10 percent less stubborn, I’d probably be dead,” Sarah, a multiple sclerosis patient, said when describing her year-long battle to obtain the medication that could alter the course of the incurable condition and extend her productive life for years.

Diagnosed at age 37, Sarah said she experienced symptoms of this disease of the central nervous system, which can include numbness, weakness, troubling walking, vision changes, and slurred speech.

“I felt like my eyes had fallen out of my head,” she said.

Her doctor prescribed medication to lessen the symptoms, and that helped for a while, according to Sarah. But when her symptoms worsened, her doctor prescribed a newer drug called Kesimpta that promised relief but was also very expensive.

That’s where her story really begins.

Sarah, now 44, asked to be identified by first name only because of her employer’s contract with the federal government. She sought pre-authorization for use of Kesimpta from her insurance company.

Despite her worsening condition, the MRI results showing the progression of the disease, and letters from her neurologist at Johns Hopkins, Sarah’s insurer refused to cover the treatment.

“I priced it,” Sarah said. “It would have cost me $9,000 a month.”

That’s in addition to the $500 per month that she was already paying out-of-pocket for other medical expenses.

When she became unable to walk more than 10 feet, Sarah left her home in Maryland, moved in with her retired mother, and considered applying for disability.

Sarah’s story is not unique. Although President Donald Trump’s Most Favored Nation prescription drug pricing initiative has begun to lower some prices, many fully insured, chronically ill patients find themselves fighting two battles. One is the fight to overcome the disease and its effect on their body and mind.

The other struggle—often waged alone—is to overcome the bureaucratic hurdles imposed by health insurers, drug companies, and government agencies to obtain the treatments that could improve and extend their lives. Often, those treatments involve new drugs for which less-expensive generic versions are not yet available.

Multiple sclerosis patient Sarah (R) poses with her sister, in this file photo. Courtesy of Sarah Bureaucratic Hurdles

“As a patient, you go through a lot of hoops,” said Beth Kitchin, 61, of Birmingham, Alabama.

After multiple rounds of inpatient chemotherapy to treat her leukemia, followed by a stem cell transplant, Kitchin’s health journey took yet another unexpected turn when she developed graft-versus-host disease, or GVHD.

The potentially life-threatening condition occurs when immune cells from transplanted tissue attack the recipient’s cells, causing a range of symptoms, from a rash to vomiting. It can be temporary or lifelong.

To treat this complication and its varied symptoms, Kitchin’s doctor prescribed several new and expensive medications. One was Jakafi, which costs more than $17,000 per month.

Patients in the United States pay higher drug prices than those in any other country, and prices for new medications are often the most expensive.

Kitchin, a health educator at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, was fully insured, and her insurer approved the treatment. But the co-pay was $1,800 per month.

What followed felt like a tug-of-war between the insurance company and the drug manufacturer, she said.

The manufacturer, Incyte Corp., offered a co-pay waiver for several months. When that expired, she paid $1,000 for 12 pills while continuing to search for alternatives. She eventually qualified for a patient assistance program from Incyte.

“It’s like a cycle,” Kitchin said. “Drug companies price their drugs really high. The insurance company battles back by only covering 70 [percent] or 80 percent, and then there’s this gigantic co-pay.”

She found that her insurer did not count the $1,800 monthly co-pay toward her annual out-of-pocket deductible, she said.

“These are the battles we fight,” Kitchin said, noting that, as a university employee, she had doctors, nurses, and social workers available to help her navigate the system. “But not everybody has that.”

Sarah said her experience with her insurer was similarly frustrating. After exhausting her appeals with the insurance company, she filed for an insurance fair hearing, a formal administrative procedure for resolving disputes in Maryland.

The hearing was scheduled for exactly one year after her doctor first prescribed Kesimpta. Two weeks before the hearing, the insurance company notified Sarah that her prior authorization was approved.

Beth Kitchin, 61, of Birmingham, Ala., in this file photo. Courtesy of Beth Kitchin

“They were going to battle me right until the very last second,” she said.

Prior authorization is a process whereby insurance companies require providers to submit proof of medical necessity in advance of rendering certain treatments or medications. If prior authorization is not requested or granted for these treatments, the insurance company can deny payment.

Insurers consider this a way to “promote safe, timely, evidence-based, affordable, and efficient care,” stated the Association of Health Insurance Providers, a trade organization.

The American Medical Association has said that the process is “overused” and has called on the insurance industry to eliminate “care delays, patient harms, and practice hassles” resulting from it.

In June, a group of major health insurers pledged to overhaul the prior authorization process to reduce administrative delays and improve access to care for Americans enrolled in commercial, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid managed care plans.

‘Never a Smooth Process’

Sanie Mikaelian, 44, of Los Angeles, has been living with a rare form of blood cancer for 11 years.

“It’s a roller coaster,” she said, reflecting on her symptoms, the treatments she has endured, and the progression of her disease. Mikaelian also suffers from GVHD.

Adding anxiety to her already uncertain future is the annual reauthorization required by her insurer for continued treatment with Jakafi.

That’s not uncommon, according to the American Medical Association, which notes that reauthorization is often required even when patients have been using a medication to good effect for years and for some chemotherapies that are the only effective treatment for certain cancers.

A 2023 survey by the Arthritis Foundation found that 37 percent of patients were required to undergo reauthorization annually.

“God forbid that something with my insurance changes or if I switched my primary doctor, hematologist, or oncologist, and it happened to be around the annual prior authorization time,” Mikaelian said.

That was the case one year, and approval for continued use of the drug was delayed. To stretch her supply of the medication, she started taking half-doses, then quarter-doses, before gaining access to the medication again.

Read the rest here...

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 17:00

Standoff

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Clusterfuck Nation,

Welcome to the first Monday in October. Know what that means? It means, by federal statute (28 U.S.C. § 2), that the Supreme Court convenes for its new term. Thank goodness, because it’s pretty obvious by now that the Party of Chaos seeks to hogtie and paralyze the executive branch of the government in order to promote the chaos that the Party of Chaos has deftly created for our country. Something must be done.

Chaos is now the Democrats’ preferred milieu for American daily life. They call it The Resistance, bethinking themselves heroic revolutionaries, much like the Jacobins did in Paris, 1793-94, when they tried to turn French society upside-down and inside-out with their insane social “reforms” while they went about chopping the heads off of 17,000 fellow citizens (another 10,000 died in prison awaiting the guillotine). The Jacobins were intoxicated by blood-letting. Their antics lasted less than one year, at the end of which they were briskly routed from the revolutionary assembly hall and escorted within hours to appointments with their own beloved head-chopping device. . . end of story.

The Democratic Party is likewise demonstrably insane. Look no further than the mobs calling themselves Antifa and Transtifa assaulting the federal immigration buildings around the country and promising overtly to injure and even kill their opponents. These are not mere protesters, and everyone knows it, including the upper echelons of the party. They are a riffraff of the violent mentally ill committing criminal acts. Many of them are getting paid for their capers by shadowy NGOs, backed by deranged billionaires. In the case of Portland, Oregon, they have been protected for years by the political establishment, including the governor, the mayor, the police, who will not arrest them, and DAs who won’t prosecute them.

They are ostensibly devoted to stopping the deportation of illegal immigrants, but that is really just the most convenient sob-story to hang their real intentions on — which are to destroy the country currently configured as a Republic and bring on a despotic utopia of free stuff — liquidating anyone who opposes them in the process. They are not all communists, strictly speaking, but the utopia they seek certainly smells like the nightmare societies operated by Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot.

Many of us are opposed to that outcome, including the president of the US, Mr. Trump, who is finally sending federal troops into these places to put a stop to all that. The Antifa street actions in Portland and Chicago give off the odor of actual insurrection, though they have not been labeled as such yet. The police in Chicago have literally declared that they will not assist or protect federal agents going about their business. The police in Portland have been ordered by their superiors to stand down with Antifa.

The president has a duty to protect federal property and the lives of federal employees. You might have noticed that federal district judges have been marshaled by occult Lawfare forces to play a role in The Resistance — to issue stays and temporary restraining orders (TROs) on all and every federal action to put down apparent insurrection. The judges refuse to recognize the Antifa mob actions as anything but lawful assemblies, and they are plainly lying about that.

This has got to stop and the SCOTUS has got to do it now that they are open for business this first Monday of October. The court has what’s called an emergency docket, which allows for expedited interventions on behalf of the executive branch in events that demand it. The emergency docket bypasses the standard merit docket process, which entails oral arguments and detailed opinion. The court’s decisions in such emergency cases are likewise temporary stays of lower court stays and TROs, pending a case moving into the regular merit docket, where arguments are made and definitive decisions are issued on what the law allows the president to do. It’s kind of hard to imagine that SCOTUS would rule against the president defending federal property and lives.

The Party of Chaos is pretty obviously trying to gin up a constitutional crisis at the same time that Chuck Schumer’s Senate Democrats have shut down regular operations of the government in a foolish game of “chicken.” Before long, Americans will suffer from the shutdown, especially middle-class government employees (largely Democrats) who have bills to pay like everybody else. Tomorrow, to aggravate matters, Tuesday, a massive Antifa mob action is planned for New York City.

The play here for the Party of Chaos is the same old routine straight out of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals: instigate action on the enemy in order to provoke a reaction by them that will allow the radicals to yell “tyrant” and “fascist.” The Party of Chaos is against all order and authority that is not their own order and authority — which is the kind you get with Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot: rank despotism, mass murder, lockdown, prison, censorship, poverty, and lawless law. The objective is to maneuver President Trump into declaring a national emergency so they can call him names. The SCOTUS needs to sort all this out without delay.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 16:20

Trump Threatens To Bomb Iran Again, Says He's 'Not Going To Wait So Long'

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

President Trump on Sunday said that he would bomb Iran again if the country restarts its nuclear program, warning the US was "not going to wait so long this time," a threat that comes amid growing signs that another US-Israeli war against Iran may be coming.

"The B2s, what they did. Those beautiful flying wings, what they did, they hit every single target. And just in case, we shot 30 Tomahawks out of a submarine," Trump said in a speech at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, during a celebration of the US Navy’s 250th birthday, referring to the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities on June 22.

Via Associated Press

Trump claimed in the speech that Iran was going to have a nuclear weapon "within a month," but before Israel launched the war, US intelligence determined Tehran was not pursuing a nuclear weapon, and even if it chose to, it would take years to actually develop a deliverable weapon.

“They were going to have a nuclear weapon within a month,” Trump told a crowd of US Navy sailors. “And now they can start the operation all over again, but I hope they don’t because we’ll have to take care of that too if they do, I let them know that. You want to do that, it’s fine, but we’re going to take care of that and we’re not going to wait so long.”

Trump went on to say that he had B-2 pilots visit him in the Oval Office, who said the US had been working on plans to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities for 22 years, but that no president before him wanted to do it.

The president has previously acknowledged that he bombed Iran on behalf of Israel. “Look, nobody has done more for Israel than I have, including the recent attacks with Iran, wiping that thing out,” he said in an interview with the Daily Caller published on September 1.

Since the ceasefire that ended the 12-day US-Israeli war on Iran, Trump has threatened to bomb Iran again several times. At the same time, the Trump administration is demanding that Iran enter negotiations to give up its nuclear enrichment program and place limits on its ballistic missiles, demands that Iranian officials have made clear are a non-starter.

President Trump names the USSS George H.W. Bush, “Navy One” for the day:

“Everybody knows this is, as you know, Navy One. For the day. Only for the day. It's Navy One, like Air Force One. This is Navy One."

First Lady Melania Trump approves!
pic.twitter.com/DroEpD05te

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 5, 2025

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently reaffirmed his prohibition on the development of nuclear weapons but also vowed Tehran wouldn’t give up its civilian nuclear enrichment program, framing it as a matter of national pride. He also rejected the idea of imposing limits on Iran’s ballistic missile program.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 15:35

Israeli Official Who Fled US After Pedo Sting Indicted; Trump DHS Appointee Is His Lawyer

A senior official in Israel's cybersecurity agency who was arrested in a child sex sting in August has been indicted by a Clark County grand jury on Friday, six weeks after he was mysteriously allowed to flee the United States back to Israel.

Tom Alexandrovich, who helps guide Israel's cybersecurity policy, was representing Israel at Black Hat USA, a professional conference in Las Vegas, when he was one of seven people swept up in a major, multi-agency sting operation targeting pedophiles soliciting sex acts with minors. According to court records, on Aug 6, the 38-year-old Alexandrovich allegedly committed the felony offense of using computer technology in an attempt to lure a child into sexual abuse. That particular crime encompasses children under 16. The next day, he posted a $10,000 bond at the Henderson Detention Center and fled the fucking country. 

Online court records show that Alexandrovich is expected to appear on Oct. 15 for an initial arraignment, and is being represented by Las Vegas-based defense attorney David Chesnoff - who President Trump appointed to a position on the Homeland Security Advisory Council. 

Las Vegas Attorney and Trump DHS Advisory Council nominee David Chesnoff

Why is an alleged Israeli high-level government pedophile being represented by a Trump nominee? Chesnoff also represented an Israeli dual citizen who pleaded guilty to lying about the Bidens taking a $5 million bribe from Burisma. Really weird. 

In any event, according to the indictment, Alexandrovich "willfully, unlawfully and knowingly" with an undercover FBI agent, whom he believed was under 16, with the intent to "solicit, persuade or lure" them into sexual conduct through online apps such as WhatsApp and Pure, the latter of which is an app that allows users to "date, play and misbehave" anonymously. 

As the news broke six weeks ago, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reflexively denied Alexandrovich had done anything wrong, claiming that “the employee, who does not hold a diplomatic visa, was not arrested and returned to Israel as scheduled." Subsequently confronted with court records, Israel's Cyber Directorate said the earlier false statement “was accurate based on the information provided to us," and that Alexandrovich is now on leave "by mutual decision." 

As we noted at the time of his arrest, it's not clear why or how he was allowed to return to Israel, which has a reputation as a haven for pedophiles who prey on American children. Citing a Jewish watchdog group, a 2020 CBS News report found that, in just the previous six years, more than 60 Jewish Americans who'd been accused of pedophilia had fled to Israel, taking advantage of Israel's "Right of Return" law that lets any Jewish individual in the world enjoy instant citizenship (though they are still subject to extradition). 

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 15:15

"Civil War Rematch"!? Chicago Mayor Establishes "ICE-Free Zones" After Abandoning Border Agents Under Attack

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order Monday blocking federal immigration agents from using city-owned property for immigration enforcement operations - just one day after we learned that the city 'waved off' cops responding to a vehicle-ramming attack on Border Patrol agents over the weekend.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has rejected President Donald Trump's plan to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago. (Kamil Krazaczynski/Getty Images)

Johnson has established "ICE-free zones," referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) - as part of his 'Protecting Chicago Initiative.'

"Today, we are signing an executive order aimed at reining in this out-of-control administration," Johnson said during a Monday press conference. "The order establishes ICE-free zones. That means that city property and unwilling private businesses will no longer serve as staging grounds for these raids."

"The Trump administration must end the war on Chicago," Johnson continued. "The Trump administration must end this war against Americans. The Trump administration must end its attempt to dismantle our democracy."

Johnson has directed Chicago agencies and departments to identify spaces within the next five days that have been targeted during ICE raids and post a clear message to federal immigration officers that the city-owned property would not be used for immigration enforcement, including as a staging area, processing location or operations base. -Fox News

The move follows a Monday lawsuit from Gov. JB Pritzker attempting to block the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops in Chicago. 

Johnson accused the "extreme right" of refusing to accept the results of the Civil War (!?) when slavery - a Democrat thing - was abolished. 

"They have repeatedly called for a rematch, but in the coming weeks, we will use this opportunity to build greater resistance. Chicagoans are clear that militarizing our troops in our city as justification to further escalate a war in Chicago will not be tolerated," he said.

"The right wing in this country wants a rematch of the Civil War," Johnson continued. 

BREAKING - Brandon Johnson has just illegally established “ICE-free zones” across Chicago to prevent federal agents from enforcing the law, just days after ICE was pinned down by armed rioters and Chicago PD was blocked from assisting them. pic.twitter.com/2smGLfuw24

— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) October 6, 2025

Johnson said that Chicago would "not tolerate ICE agents violating our residents’ constitutional rights," or the Trump administration's "disregard" for state and local authority, Fox News reports. 

"With this executive order, Chicago stands firm in protecting the constitutional rights of our residents and immigrant communities and upholding our democracy," he continued, adding "If the federal government violates this executive order, we will take them to court." 

On Sunday, Pritzker said that he would refuse to comply with the Trump administration's "ultimatum" to deploy Illinois National Guard troops - calling it "absolutely outrageous and unamerican." 

"We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s invasion," Pritzker continued. 

After Pritzker refused to deploy Illinois troops, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott authorized Trump to use 400 Texas National Guard members for deployment in Illinois and Oregon. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 14:55

"We Are Not Messing Around": More Than 8,600 People Arrested In FBI Campaign Targeting Violent Crimes

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and its partners have arrested 8,629 individuals across the United States as part of its “Summer Heat” campaign, the agency said in an Oct. 2 statement.

FBI Director Kash Patel testifies before the House Judiciary Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington on Sept. 17, 2025. Win McNamee/Getty Images

More than 6,500 out of the 8,629 arrests fell under the FBI’s Violent Crime and Gang program, said the agency.

“We are not messing around,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “Our No. 1 mission is crushing violent crime. If you hurt a child, we’re coming for you. If you jack a car, we’re coming for you. If you’re polluting our neighborhoods with deadly drugs, we’re coming for you.”

Investigators looking into violent crimes against children located or identified 1,053 minor victims as part of Summer Heat. In addition, authorities have seized 2,281 weapons, 98,000 pounds of cocaine, and 928 pounds of fentanyl.

The operations took place between June 24 and Sept. 20, with all 55 FBI field offices contributing to the offensive, the FBI said.

In one operation, the agency targeted violent offenders in four cities—Baton Rouge and New Orleans in Louisiana; Memphis in Tennessee; and Miami in Florida—leading to the arrests of 417 individuals and seizing 159 firearms.

“We are grateful for Director Kash Patel and our brave FBI agents who removed more than 8,600 violent offenders from our streets this summer,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi.

“Under President [Donald] Trump’s directive to make America safe again, this Department of Justice will continue prosecuting violent crime and dismantling criminal gangs who are wreaking havoc in our communities.”

In an Oct. 3 statement, FBI Dallas said it captured several criminals over the past three months, which included the arrests of Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Cindy Rodriguez Singh and Cesar Pascual Orozco.

“Under Operation Summer Heat, FBI Dallas collaborated with our law enforcement partners to apprehend fugitives, seize drugs and firearms, and arrest child predators. We remain committed to protecting our North Texas communities from violent crime,” said FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock.

The FBI’s stats come as the Trump administration has taken numerous steps to tackle violent crime in various American cities.

In August, Trump federalized D.C.’s policing. On Sept. 9, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that law enforcement had arrested 2,177 individuals in the nation’s capital since then.

Trump has also ordered federal agents to assist state and local officials in Tennessee, with the federal crackdown leading to 153 arrests in Memphis in four days since Monday.

Meanwhile, Trump signed a memorandum on Sept. 25, ordering the attorney general to fully implement the death penalty in the District of Columbia.

In a Sept. 25 statement, Free DC, a movement for self-determination rights in Washington, criticized the measure and accused Trump of wanting to “spread fear” via the death penalty decision.

“His actions are not about safety, they are only about him consolidating power,” Free DC said.

“This is yet another reminder that D.C. needs full power over our justice system—permanently. We need statehood now. Not tomorrow, not in four years. Now.”

The administration is also cracking down on illegal immigrant crimes. On Oct. 3, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the arrests of more than 1,000 illegal immigrants under Operation Midway Blitz, which targets illegal immigrant criminals in Illinois.

The agency said the arrested individuals include the “worst of the worst,” such as child abusers, pedophiles, gang members, and kidnappers.

“President Trump and Secretary Kristi Noem will not allow continued violence or repeat offenders to terrorize our neighborhoods and victimize our children,” said DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin. “Operation Midway Blitz is making Illinois safe again.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 14:35

Details Leak On OpenAI's Secretive Wearable Device, Plagued By Major Issues

A Financial Times investigation reveals that OpenAI's ambitious wearable AI project, created in partnership with renowned designer Jony Ive, whose work defined Apple's aesthetic for decades, is encountering substantial roadblocks as it attempts to bring the concept to market. Making dystopian AI wearables is harder than it looks.

Former Apple designer Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (Lia Toby/BFC/Getty Images, Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images) 

The device takes an unconventional approach by eliminating screens entirely, instead packaging cameras, microphones, and speakers into a pocket-sized format comparable to contemporary smartphones. Conceived as a creepy ever-present digital partner, it would passively collect information from its surroundings to facilitate ongoing dialogue with users, echoing the design philosophy behind Humane's AI Pin, which, if you recall, didn't exactly set the world on fire.

Beyond keeping details under wraps, OpenAI is wrestling with fundamental technical and design dilemmas. Despite securing massive funding rounds that would make a small nation jealous, the company faces computational constraints that limit the device's capabilities. More unexpectedly, internal debates over the assistant's behavioral characteristics have become a major sticking point. Engineers are caught in a delicate balancing act: the device must offer meaningful input for daily decisions without becoming that insufferably chipper friend who won't stop offering unsolicited advice.

This personality calibration problem isn't new territory for OpenAI. Earlier iterations of its AI models developed reputations for being excessively agreeable. The AI giant also worries about scenarios where the assistant enters repetitive loops during routine activities, which would be about as useful as a GPS that keeps recalculating the same route.

To make matters worse, legal complications further cloud the project's prospects. In June, iyO, an audio technology startup backed by Google, filed a trademark lawsuit challenging OpenAI's use of the "io" branding after the company's $6.5 billion acquisition of Ive's startup in May 2025. The plaintiff argues that "io"—shorthand for "input/output"—creates consumer confusion with its own "audio computer" earpiece product, particularly given that OpenAI leadership, including Sam Altman, had previously examined iyO's technology firsthand.

Awkward.

A federal judge has since issued a temporary restraining order compelling OpenAI to scrub all "io" references from public-facing platforms and marketing content. OpenAI dismisses the lawsuit as baseless and insists the legal dispute won't derail either the acquisition or ongoing product development.

We'll see about that.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 14:15

Illinois Sues Trump Admin to Halt National Guard Deployment; FBI Arrests Border Patrol Ramming Suspects

By Matthew Vadum of Epoch Times

The state of Illinois filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Oct. 6 in a bid to halt the federal government from deploying National Guard troops to Chicago.

The state is arguing in the new legal complaint filed in federal district court in Illinois that the federal government has no legal authority to intervene in the state’s law enforcement efforts.

“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor. To guard against this, foundational principles of American law limit the president’s authority to involve the military in domestic affairs. Those bedrock principles are in peril,” the lawsuit states.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said on Oct. 5 that President Donald Trump was directing 400 Texas National Guard members to Illinois, Oregon, and other states amid federal immigration enforcement operations.

Pritzker described the deployment as “Trump’s Invasion.”

“There is no reason a President should send military troops into a sovereign state without their knowledge, consent, or cooperation,” the governor said.

FBI Arrests Vehicle Ramming Suspects

Meanwhile, the FBI arrested two people who allegedly drove vehicles into federal officials near Chicago, FBI Director Kash Patel announced on Sunday evening.

In a statement on X, the FBI director said that two individuals “have been charged for assaulting federal officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon.”

“Attack our law enforcement, and this FBI will find you and bring you to justice,” he wrote.

FBI Director Kash Patel testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on "Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation" on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 16, 2025. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

While Patel did not name the suspects who were arrested, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois said in court documents that Marimar Martinez, 30, and Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, 21, were “charged in federal court with using their vehicles to assault, impede, and interfere with the work of federal agents in Chicago.”

“After striking the agents’ vehicle, the defendants’ vehicles boxed in the agents’ vehicle,” the office said in its documents, adding that the “agent was unable to move his vehicle and exited the car, at which point he fired approximately five shots from his service weapon at Martinez.”

Martinez, who was allegedly armed with a semiautomatic weapon, drove off, but paramedics found her at a repair shop about a mile away from the scene, according to the office. An ambulance took her to a hospital, where her gunshot wounds were treated.

According to the criminal complaint released by the Justice Department, three Border Patrol agents were carrying out an operation in Oak Lawn, Illinois—a suburb of Chicago—and were followed by Ruiz and Martinez.

The two are accused of pursuing the federal agents’ vehicles and running stop signs and lights, and causing an agent to lose control of a government vehicle after they allegedly rammed their vehicle into it.

After the government vehicle stopped, the agents emerged before Martinez allegedly drove the vehicle at the agents, causing one to fire shots at her, the complaint stated.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement on Oct. 4 that it was forced to deploy special operations in Chicago.

The DHS accused Martinez and Ruiz of being “domestic terrorists” after the incident.

“The scene became increasingly violent as more domestic terrorists gathered and began throwing smoke, gas, rocks, and bottles at DHS law enforcement. Another domestic terrorist was arrested for assaulting CBP at the scene,” the agency said, accusing local Illinois officials of refusing to “allow local police to help secure the scene.”

On Sunday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who has been critical of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations in Chicago, said the White House will be deploying 300 National Guard members to his state.

The National Guard, he added, is being sourced from Texas.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott confirmed this in a post on X.

“No officials from the federal government called me directly to discuss or coordinate,” Pritzker said in a statement.

“We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s Invasion. It started with federal agents, it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state’s military troops.”

The Epoch Times contacted the FBI and an attorney representing Martinez for comment. It was not immediately clear whether Ruiz had legal representation.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/06/2025 - 11:35