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Fri, 18 Jul 2025 01:20:00 +0000 US To Build Fast Boat Base In The Philippines To Confront Chinese Vessels
US To Build Fast Boat Base In The Philippines To Confront Chinese Vessels
US To Build Fast Boat Base In The Philippines To Confront Chinese Vessels
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
The US will fund and construct a base for fast boats for the Philippine military on the South China Sea amid heightened tensions between Manila and Beijing over disputed rocks and reefs in the area.
The base will be built on the west coast of the Philippine island province of Palawan and is expected to be completed by the first quarter of the 2026 fiscal year. According to USNI News , the base will house five boats, including both "assault boats" and rigid-hulled inflatable boats , which will be constructed by the US-based company ReconCraft.
US Marines Corps photo via DVIDS
The USNI report said that the base will be situated approximately 160 miles east of Second Thomas Shoal, a major source of tensions in the maritime dispute and the site of collisions and encounters between Chinese and Philippine vessels .
Despite the distance, the Philippine military frequently deploys small boats to the disputed reefs , and the US project will give them a more effective way to do that.
It’s unclear how much the project will cost the US, but it’s the latest in a series of US-funded military construction projects in the Philippines.
In 2023, Washington and Manila signed a deal to expand the US military presence in the country , and the US has also been increasing military aid to the Southeast Asian nation.
The South China Sea has become a potential flashpoint for a conflict between the US and China since Washington has repeatedly affirmed that its mutual defense treaty with Manila applies to attacks on Philippine vessels in the disputed waters.
Last year, it was revealed that US troops were secretly deployed to Palawa to assist the Philippines in its maritime dispute with China.
The US military has also been involved in military drills in the area and fired missiles using HIMARS rocket systems into the South China Sea from Palawan earlier this year as part of the US-Philippine Balikatan exercise.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/17/2025 - 21:20 Close
Fri, 18 Jul 2025 00:55:00 +0000 Democratic Socialism Is Totalitarianism
Democratic Socialism Is Totalitarianism
Democratic Socialism Is Totalitarianism
Authored by William Anderson via The Epoch Times,
After writing about the upset election win of socialist Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, a reader sent me an angry email, telling me that Mamdani was a “democratic socialist,” and that Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez were “social democrats.” The sender apparently wanted me to believe that all they wanted was to make New York and the United States into Denmark.
After all, isn’t Denmark one of the world’s happiest countries? Doesn’t it have a $22 minimum wage? (Actually, it has no federal minimum wage). Doesn’t it have wonderful welfare benefits along with lots of personal freedom ? So, if we can just elect the kind of politicians that want to turn the US into Denmark, then we should do it.
There are some issues, of course.
For one, Denmark is far from a socialist country and it certainly does not have a socialist planned economy. This is an important point, because AOC, Sanders, and Mamdani all have called for substantial government planning and ownership and Mamdani has gone even further. The socialist online magazine Jacobin recently praised Mamdani precisely because he does call for the full socialist economy:
No one should be surprised that Zohran Mamdani supports democratic control over the economy, the end goal of socialism. But he won because he combined socialist politics with practical solutions to the cost-of-living crisis facing working people.
At a 2021 conference of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), Zohran Mamdani discussed various short-term reforms favored by the organization. But alongside offering his thoughts on the groups’ immediate aims, he also had something to say about “end goal” of socialist politics: “seizing the means of production.”
In the last week, the clip resurfaced on right-wing social media, where it’s been treated as a damning discovery about Mamdani, who just won a primary to become the Democratic nominee for mayor in New York City.
National Review ran a brief item on the clip under the headline “Uh, That’s Literal Communism!” On CNN, Scott Jennings concurred, saying that Mamdani was “using the language of the Bolsheviks.” Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) said that this was “the scariest thing Mamdani has said” and that it was “straight out of Karl Marx’s Communist playbook.”
It’s unclear why these remarks about the end goal of socialist politics are supposed to be shocking.
There is much to process in this short passage, and it speaks volumes about so-called democratic socialists. For that matter, that socialists would want to identify with the Jacobins speaks volumes to their intentions, given that the Jacobins were the first political party to organize and carry out political terror complete with mass executions during the French Revolution. Second, by claiming that “democratic control over the economy” means the state “seizing the means of production,” they speak to the totalitarian and violent nature of their “democratic” beliefs. One does not “seize” anything without coercion. As Jacobin editor Bhaskar Sunkara bragged in a recent interview , “We were not trying to hide Marxism.”
Lest anyone doubt the coercive and violent nature of American socialists, the recent Socialism 2025 conference in Chicago featured speaker after speaker calling for outright totalitarian control of all of American life. Among the proposals from speakers and delegates (all of whom were required to wear N-95 or K95 masks as part of the uniform) were taken from “democratic” socialist movements like the Bolshevik Revolution and Pol Pot’s Cambodian terror, and included :
Replacing the family unit with communes (reminiscent of a scene from “The Killing Fields ” in which the Khmer Rouge overseers show their subjects a drawing with a family X’d out);
Using public schools to “radicalize” young people before they get to college;
Continue to use higher education as a tool to undermine the universities and society;
Dismantle the current United States but replace it with a “democratic socialist,” centralized entity where the state has complete control over everything.
As David Sypher, Jr., writes :
The overarching belief is clear: America’s systems – capitalism, policing, meritocracy, marriage – are all inherently oppressive and must be torn down and replaced with something “equitable.”
Although Mamdani has not publicly commented on the recent Socialism conference, he himself has called for ending private home ownership and replacing private dwellings with communal living. He also claims that private ownership of housing and profit-seeking by home builders is the main cause of homelessness. (One is reminded of the scene in the 1965 film “Dr. Zhivago ” where Yuri comes home from the war after the Revolution to a house that has been divided up for different families).
Since Mamdani has openly called for the state to seize the methods of production along with private housing, there is little if any difference between his worldview and that of the most radical collectivists. That Bernie Sanders and AOC have endorsed him also speaks volumes about their own beliefs. We are supposed to believe that all they want to do is to make the US a little more like Denmark . One should wonder if the people cheering at their “Fighting Oligarchy” rallies understand just how their lives would change—and not for the better—if Sanders, Mamdani, and AOC get the “Democratic Socialism” that they want.
But what about the rest of the Democratic Party that doesn’t support Mamdani and so-called Democratic Socialism? To a certain extent, many of them are dependent upon a system of intervention that allows them to gain personal wealth from regulated capitalism and they realize that they would be left in the cold if the US really were to go fully socialist, as the left wing of the Democratic Party would like to do. Thus, we understand their resistance to the Mamdani campaign.
The Democrats were in this same place more than 90 years ago. The socialist writer Upton Sinclair in a huge electoral upset won the California Democratic Party primary for governor in 1934, running on a platform to “abolish poverty.” As Steven F. Hayward wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal :
Sinclair ran on a radical platform known by the acronym EPIC, for End Poverty in California. EPIC proposed universal old-age pensions (before Social Security), Soviet-style collective farms, state-run industries that would “produce for use, not for profit,” and perhaps property confiscation.
(Note that Mamdani has not called for the creation of collective farms in New York, which should not be surprising, given there are no farms in the city. However, in 1934, many Americans were enamored by the so-called Soviet Experiment in communism, which was much more highly regarded in the US than it would be later during the Cold War.)
President Franklin Roosevelt was not pleased with the result, as he worried that Sinclair’s radical campaign might turn people against his New Deal plans. While incumbent Republican Gov. Frank Merriam was unpopular, many Democrats and Republicans looked to run an “independent” candidate, Raymond Haight, as a foil to the other candidates.
Ultimately, Hollywood (which at that time had not been politically radicalized) turned up the rhetorical and broadcasting heat against Sinclair, and that proved to be the difference. Merriam won the election , and the socialists had to look elsewhere for electoral success.
Like the Mamdani platform and the socialist “vision” given in Chicago, Sinclair’s political promises could only be accomplished through coercion and propaganda. As Ludwig von Mises wrote more than a century ago in Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis , socialism cannot work the way its promoters claim. As we have seen from the Bolshevik Revolution to modern times, socialists had absolute power to direct both labor and resources to whatever purposes they wished, yet their attempts failed miserably.
However, socialists continue to press on and now they seem to be enjoying political success. And while they throw in the word “democratic” to soften the blow, one cannot implement socialism without violence and threats of violence, since it requires confiscation of the property of others and seizes resources to change economic outcomes. In the end, it becomes yet another form of totalitarianism.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/17/2025 - 20:55 Close
Fri, 18 Jul 2025 00:30:00 +0000 Why Is Modern Society Obsessed With "Incels" And Controlling Masculinity?
Why Is Modern Society Obsessed With "Incels" And Controlling Masculinity?
Since ancient times and the rise of the first empires and monarchies political elites have sought to manage and control what they sometimes referred to as the
Read more.....
Why Is Modern Society Obsessed With "Incels" And Controlling Masculinity?
Since ancient times and the rise of the first empires and monarchies political elites have sought to manage and control what they sometimes referred to as the "warrior class"; groups of men with the skill and ability to topple governments and ravage nations.
For the Vikings, warrior prowess was directly linked to one's ability to lead. In other words, the Vikings simply stacked their governments with warriors rather than trying to suppress them. At certain periods in Medieval societies kings were tasked with leading their soldiers into battle, thus requiring them to take the same risks as the men they sent to the front lines.
However, in the vast majority of cases throughout history kings and politicians were not warriors. They feared the power of masculinity and what might result if it is left to its own devices. In other words, what they feared was the potential for rebellion and overthrow.
The most common solution was to send strong men to war (as often as possible) as a way to weaken the citizenry and keep them under the boot of the elitist class. Other methods included codes of honor and conduct such as Chivalry or Bushido; standards of male ethics meant to prevent rogue warriors from wandering too far away from society and acting outside of the common order. There was also marriage and family, which anchored men to the community and gave them something to lose should they step out of line.
Finally, in modern times, feminism has stepped in as a useful tool for the state; focusing more on the psychological neutering of men from childhood rather than more blunt efforts to keep them distracted. Feminism is far less about "empowering women" and far more about disenfranchising and controlling men.
Under feminism, the very idea of masculinity has been targeted as a threat to civilization. The natural, biological and inherent psychological framework of male behavior present since the beginning of humanity has been labeled "toxic". The solution? Feminists say that men must become "more feminine", more like women, otherwise their presence is like a nuclear bomb just waiting to go off.
Every man is a prospective terrorist that needs to be kept locked up in his own personal GITMO. Otherwise, men might one day organize around their own ideals (rather than the approved ideals of the elites) and change the world without the permission of oligarchs.
Over the past several years there has been a growing rallying cry among third-wave feminists and progressive governments to do more to keep men in line. They warn that the "rise of the incels" is upon us.
The Verge recently published a rambling diatribe trying to dissect the language of incel culture (which they argue started in the dark underbelly of anonymous 4chan forums) and uncover how it has "infected the mainstream". As if male interactions and organizations can be analyzed like a disease in a Petri dish.
The article suggests that the spread of "incel language" needs to be studied as a means to better understand how such "extremist ideas" are able to proliferate despite being censored on a majority of mainstream platforms. That is to say, leftists are angry that their efforts to stifle discussion have failed and they need to figure out why so they can better control the sharing of ideas in the future.
"We can, in fact, use the spread of incel ideas as a case study to examine how memes carry information across social media platforms. Real incels never had access to algorithmic recommendations, since their ideology was too unpalatable and subject to content moderation. So how did their concepts and language move from website to website until eventually arriving, in diluted form, on our social media feeds...?"
In reality, the term "incel" was started by feminists and left-wing activists, not young and isolated males on 4chan, as a way to pigeonhole men who dared to criticize the woke movement. As is always the case with leftists, everything is about sex. And, if a man is not having sex, it can only be because he has no options. If he has no options, then he is a low-class man.
Celibacy therefore becomes a brand of shame (Keep in mind that until the past 70 years the majority of westerners waited for marriage - now to be accused of celibacy is an insult). And the only way to escape the shame and gain the affections of women (according to feminists) is to embrace their ideology and become more feminine (i.e. a man must give up on manhood and prostrate himself before the will of the establishment to prove he is no longer a threat).
Feminism has, in fact, created all the conditions that might inspire men to go rogue; they have created their own monster. The movement has destroyed the concept of chivalry and honor codes, making it clear that men are unlikely to get any rewards or respect for serving their inherent roles as providers and protectors. As The Verge admits:
"Incel slang is marked by its deeply negative views toward society, and these ideas frequently resonate with younger generations who are similarly pessimistic about the present. In the early 2020s, for instance, the catchphrase “it’s over” began making the rounds as a dejected reaction to an adverse situation. Partially a joke, partially a genuine expression of hopelessness, it was buoyed in popularity by incels, who had been using the phrase since it began making the rounds on 4chan..."
First world societies are fundamentally designed to coddle women, making women dependent on governments and corporations rather than reliant on husbands for their survival. DEI quotas for women in education and the workplace have given women an artificial advantage in terms of access to the career market.
Surveys show the majority of women want to date men who make the same salary as them or greater (hypergamy). Meaning, a man who works hard and builds up a modest living is no longer guaranteed a decent chance to be rewarded with companionship and family. Marriage laws also lean heavily in favor of women, making marriage financially untenable.
Finally, feminists lied for years about women wanting "more feminine men". Studies show that most women, including feminists , continue to be attracted to masculine men . In other words, any men who jumped on the woke train and abandoned their masculinity have even less success with women than they might have otherwise. In fact, feminists will often declare their disdain for feminine men as inferior or "creepy".
It has dawned on western men in recent years that there are no longer any rules to follow - The rules change according to whatever benefits feminists and the oligarchy at the moment. So, why play the game at all?
The systematic alienation of men has politicians and bureaucrats worried, with many governments across the west looking for ways to manipulate male psychology and further keep them on the plantation. The Democrat Party recently invested millions into a project to study young men , much to the amusement of conservatives.
Leftists claim their purpose is to determine why young men are walking away from the party, but the language of the project is revealing - Democrats are more interested in finding the "keys" to the male mind as a means to propagandize them. They want the tools to con men back into the progressive fold; they don't care about helping men with their troubles.
UK governments are increasingly determined to mold the minds of young men. Propaganda about the "danger of incels" is rampant within their public school system and media. The English government has called for secondary schools in the country to tackle "incel culture" , with educators told to identify the signs early so that male students can be pacified before they take violent action.
With men increasingly unfettered by traditional standards and facing a future without rewards for their efforts or merits, it's only a matter of time before western males organize to enact change without permission. Governments know this is coming. They created the conditions that make it inevitable. This is why they can't seem to shut up about toxic masculinity; they're trying to defuse a time bomb after they started the clock.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/17/2025 - 20:30 Close
Fri, 18 Jul 2025 00:05:00 +0000 For National Security, We Need Uranium Mined In America
For National Security, We Need Uranium Mined In America
For National Security, We Need Uranium Mined In America
Authored by Ivan Maldonado via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Perhaps it’s too soon to mark nuclear power’s revival in the U.S. but there is a burst of activity that should ultimately yield a new generation of advanced nuclear plants and small modular reactors.
Two miners push an ora cart as they emerge from an uranium mine in California, circa 1955. Tom Stimson/FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images
This is especially true for major industrial energy consumers—which now also includes data centers—where there is a strong economic incentive to use more nuclear power instead of natural gas and intermittent renewables.
In Illinois, Meta recently signed a long-term agreement to buy nuclear power from Constellation’s Clinton nuclear plant, the latest in a slew of deals between big tech and the nuclear industry. Constellation also said it would restart Three Mile Island Unit One in Pennsylvania and sell the power to Microsoft under a 20-year agreement. Google, too, has agreed to fund the development of small modular reactors, or SMRs, at three new nuclear sites in Oregon. TVA plans to build SMRs at its Clinch River site and Kairos Power has a blueprint for an advanced molten salt reactor. Moreover, Amazon, Google and Meta signed a pledge in March calling for nuclear energy worldwide to triple by 2050.
Elevating nuclear power on our list of energy options makes sense because it is the only way to generate large amounts of emission-free electricity reliably for AI-powered data centers, electric vehicles and industries. But surging demand for electricity and nuclear power underscores a serious issue: Who will provide the huge amounts of uranium needed to fuel nuclear plants?
Currently, 95 percent of the uranium used at US nuclear plants is imported from other countries, with Russia and former Soviet States flooding the global market and driving free-market companies out of business. China is also rapidly expanding its influence in the global uranium supply chain. But our dependence on uranium imports is not for lack of domestic resources.
In fact, in the mid-1970s the U.S. was the sole supplier of enriched uranium in the West , and business boomed. Since then, artificially low prices—and policy antagonism to domestic production—have forced U.S. customers into the hands of foreign competitors. Currently, there are only five uranium mines operating in the U.S. in contrast to several dozen in the 1970s and 20 as recently as 2009.
A uranium crisis may not be imminent, but the long-term implications of buying cheap foreign uranium instead of from US mining companies are ominous, particularly for national defense, including the Navy’s fleet of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines. Our nation’s fleet of 94 nuclear power plants also requires a dependable supply of uranium.
American industries, including our defense industrial base, are currently under immense pressure from China’s export restrictions on mineral exports—including rare earth metals. We know too well that the era of overreliance on mineral imports must come to an end. This is an economic, energy and national security vulnerability that has become untenable.
Given the risk of a cutoff of uranium imports or a huge spike in the price of uranium, we need a government policy to counter the threat to our national security and economy. President Trump recently said the Administration will draw up recommendations for reviving and expanding U.S. uranium production . That’s a good first step but we must match intent with action.
Our dependence on imported minerals, particularly from adversaries, poses a grave threat to national security. And it will cause serious trouble for key sectors of our economy if something isn’t done soon to boost domestic production. For these reasons, the U.S. now faces a monumental challenge: scaling up production of uranium, diversifying supply chains to protect national security and doing so in ways that are sustainable.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/17/2025 - 20:05 Close
Thu, 17 Jul 2025 23:40:00 +0000 GOP Canceling $9 Billion Approved Spending: Who Could Be Affected?
GOP Canceling $9 Billion Approved Spending: Who Could Be Affected?
GOP Canceling $9 Billion Approved Spending: Who Could Be Affected?
Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
President Donald Trump’s $9 billion rescissions package , advanced by Senate Republicans in a narrow procedural vote on July 15, seeks to claw back funding that Congress had already approved for foreign aid, humanitarian programs, and public broadcasting.
The U.S. Capitol building in Washington on July 14, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times
Officially titled the Rescissions Act of 2025, the bill reflects the Trump administration’s effort to translate proposed Department of Government Efficiency cuts into law, aiming to reallocate billions of dollars toward domestic priorities. A final vote is needed by a Friday deadline, along with a second House vote on the Senate’s amendments.
Supporters have said the rescissions promote responsible spending and put U.S. interests first. Critics have said such cuts could undermine U.S. global leadership and disrupt programs that deliver important support both internationally and within local communities.
Here’s who could be affected if the bill becomes law.
US Taxpayers
Supporters have said that the measure promotes fiscal discipline and prioritizes domestic needs over foreign programs, cutting wasteful or needless spending at a time of record-high national debt.
“President Trump’s proposed rescissions are an essential piece to implementing his agenda to protect U.S. taxpayers and enact lasting change in Washington by dealing a major blow to the weaponized foreign aid bureaucracy and public funding of woke indoctrination at NPR and PBS,” Heritage Action Vice President of Government Relations Steve Chartan said in a statement .
Critics, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), have argued that, among other things, it would reduce access to public media in the United States.
“For Republicans to turn around and slash local news and public radio in the name of fiscal responsibility is a vindictive swipe at rural America, where these stations are needed so badly,” Schumer said in floor remarks. “It’ll leave rural communities twisting in the wind.”
The bill proposes eliminating the entire $1.1 billion in advance funding set aside for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). That funding supports NPR, PBS, and about 1,500 local public radio and television stations nationwide.
Local stations use CPB grants to fund operations, emergency alerts, educational programming, and community news coverage. According to the Public Media Alliance, many of these stations—especially those in smaller markets—could lose significant portions of their budgets.
The advocacy group warned that cutting CPB funding could create “news deserts” in regions with limited commercial media options, leaving communities without local reporting on civic issues, elections, and public safety. Supporters of the cuts, like Jeffrey Miron of the think-tank Cato Institute, have said that with the internet, media subsidies are no longer needed.
Citizens of Other Countries
Developing nations stand to lose about $2.5 billion that would be rescinded from the $3.9 billion that Congress set aside for USAID’s development assistance in fiscal year 2025. These funds are aimed at reducing poverty and fostering democratic institutions.
Foreign communities that benefit from global health programs face a $500 million reduction, affecting initiatives aimed at combating diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis and improving maternal and child health.
Although the House’s original version of the bill proposed $900 million in health-related cuts, the Senate ultimately spared $400 million initially targeted for the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief . The program, which supports global HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, has saved about 26 million lives, according to the agency . Critics have accused the agency of using some of the funds to promote anti-family agendas.
Refugees and displaced people worldwide could feel the effects of an $800 million cut to the State Department’s Migration and Refugee Assistance fund. The money is for emergency shelters, clean water, food, and family reunification for those fleeing war and persecution.
Regions grappling with ongoing conflicts could feel the effects of nearly $1 billion in cuts to U.S. contributions to international organizations and peacekeeping operations. Roughly $361 million would come from funding for international peacekeeping missions, and more than $638 million would be cut from broader multilateral efforts, including $437 million from the International Organizations and Programs account and $202 million from the Contributions to International Organizations account.
Government Employees
Within the federal government, the rescissions package would affect key agencies and their employees.
For example, the bill includes a $125 million cut to USAID’s $1.7 billion operating budget, which covers staff salaries and benefits.
This could lead to further layoffs or downsizing, as the Trump administration consolidates many of its functions into the State Department.
Critics have said the move may weaken USAID’s specialized development expertise, and supporters have said that it will enable better oversight.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/17/2025 - 19:40 Close
Thu, 17 Jul 2025 23:15:00 +0000 America's Biggest Medical Facility For Transgender Youth Is Shutting Down
America's Biggest Medical Facility For Transgender Youth Is Shutting Down
America's Biggest Medical Facility For Transgender Youth Is Shutting Down
Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), the nation’s largest provider of gender procedures for youth identifying as transgender, announced it will shut down its program on July 22, citing mounting legal and financial pressures stemming from the Trump administration’s policies.
Protesters gather outside as the Supreme Court hears a case over banning transgender procedures for minors in Washington on Dec. 4, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
In a recent statement , CHLA described the decision as “heartbreaking” for staff , adding that it followed a thorough legal and financial review in light of “the increasingly severe impacts of recent administrative actions and proposed policies.”
The planned closure has led to demonstrations outside CHLA in recent days, with protester Sage Sol Pitchenik telling The Associated Press that “trans kids are done being quiet” and that a facility like CHLA “meant the world” for transgender youth.
CHLA’s announcement comes in the context of President Donald Trump’s executive order , issued shortly after his second term began in January, which bars federal support for gender transition procedures for individuals under 19.
Trump’s order said such treatments—including puberty blockers and surgeries—are medically risky and potentially irreversible , stating that many minors lack the maturity to fully grasp the long-term consequences. It also prohibits federal insurance programs like Tricare and Medicaid from covering these treatments, directs the Department of Justice to pursue legal action against providers, and suspends funding for hospitals and universities offering transgender procedures, which it described as “chemical and surgical mutilation.”
Following the order, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a directive suspending federal grants, loans, and financial assistance related to transgender programs pending further review. In response, a coalition of 23 state attorneys general sued in federal court to block the OMB directive, arguing that the funding freeze was unlawful.
Meanwhile, CHLA’s imminent closure follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent 6–3 ruling upholding Tennessee’s ban on gender-related medical treatments for minors—a decision that could support similar laws nationwide.
Tennessee’s law prohibits health care providers from administering puberty blockers or hormones for the purpose of “enabling a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex” or “treating purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity.”
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the opinion that such state laws need only meet a “rational basis” test, suggesting that similar restrictions in other states will probably withstand legal challenges. Roberts said Tennessee’s law focuses on age, not sex-based discrimination, and cited concerns about the risks and irreversible impacts of transgender medical procedures for minors.
Several other hospitals, including facilities in Colorado, Illinois, Virginia, and Washington, DC, have also paused transgender procedures for minors in response to the evolving legal landscape.
Rush University Medical Center in Illinois recently became the latest Chicago-area hospital to stop transgender procedures for minors, with a spokesperson telling WBEZ Chicago that Rush had “paused” hormonal care for new patients under 18, though it will continue to provide mental health services to transgender youth.
Sam Dorman contributed to this report.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/17/2025 - 19:15 Close
Thu, 17 Jul 2025 22:50:00 +0000 Sanctimonious Reporter Says He Got "PTSD" From Trump Assassination Attempt Because Of MAGA Supporters
Sanctimonious Reporter Says He Got "PTSD" From Trump Assassination Attempt Because Of MAGA Supporters
Just when you thought mainstream media couldn’t sink lower, they surpass expectations with a new low.
CBS
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Sanctimonious Reporter Says He Got "PTSD" From Trump Assassination Attempt Because Of MAGA Supporters
Just when you thought mainstream media couldn’t sink lower, they surpass expectations with a new low.
CBS News Capitol Hill correspondent Scott MacFarlane is prompting eyerolls for comments made during an interview with former NBC host turned podcaster Chuck Todd, where he attributed his mental health struggles following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump to the actions of Trump’s supporters.
“For those of us there, it was such a horror because you saw an emerging America,” MacFarlane told Todd.
“And it wasn’t the shooting, Chuck. This was – I got diagnosed with PTSD within 48 hours. I got put on trauma leave, not because, I think, of the shooting, but because you saw it in the eyes, the reaction of the people.”
“They were coming for us,” MacFarlane said of Trump supporters. “If [Trump] didn’t jump up with his fist, they were going to come kill us!”
“I know,” Todd replied in agreement.
In another segment of the interview, MacFarlane claimed, “Many of us on press row, as we talked about this on our text chains for weeks after, were quite confident we’d be dead if he didn’t get back up.”
The CBS News journalist further alleged that multiple Trump supporters blamed reporters for the shooting, saying, “‘You did this. This is your fault. You caused this. You killed him,’ and they were going to beat us with their hands. I mean, they were going to kill us. And respectfully, the Secret Service had bigger issues [than] protecting us. When he jumped up triumphantly, it saved us.”
“I can’t eliminate from my mind’s eye the look in their faces,” the journalist added.
“That’s what America is right now. It’s not rational. It’s an irrational thought to think the media shot somebody from the top of a building, but the lack of rationality is what connects January 6 to this.”
“How do we pull out of this as a country is the defining question of our time,” he concluded.
The incident in question occurred on July 13, 2024, when former President Trump survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania. The attacker, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired eight rounds from an AR-15-style rifle, grazing Trump’s right ear. The assault killed one spectator, Corey Comperatore, and critically injured two others before Crooks was neutralized by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
Trump credited a last-second head turn toward a chart for saving his life.
Reflecting on the near-death experience this week, Trump said , “It remains my firm conviction that God alone saved me that day for a righteous purpose: to restore our beloved Republic to greatness and to rescue our Nation from those who seek its ruin.”
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/17/2025 - 18:50 Close
Thu, 17 Jul 2025 22:30:00 +0000 China Will Sentence Fentanyl Traffickers To Death, Trump Says
China Will Sentence Fentanyl Traffickers To Death, Trump Says
China Will Sentence Fentanyl Traffickers To Death, Trump Says
Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times,
President Donald Trump on Wednesday told a crowd at the White House, which included dozens of family members of fentanyl poisoning victims, that China will honor a deal he made with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during his first term and sentence people to death for fentanyl manufacturing and distribution.
The president made the remarks during a signing ceremony for the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act .
“The death penalty is going to be imposed on people from China that make fentanyl and send it into our country,” Trump said. “I believe that is going to happen soon.”
After taking office again in 2025, Trump targeted China with punitive tariffs for failing to live up to the deal that would help address the U.S fentanyl crisis.
Manufacturers in China distribute the precursor chemicals needed to create the illicit drug to various criminal organizations around the world.
Altering the compounds can allow deliveries to go unnoticed at some inspection points, and criminals have begun creating alternative versions of the deadly drug, including carfentanil , which is 100 times more potent than fentanyl, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“I imposed a 20 percent tariff on China because of the fentanyl ... it’s a penalty because China delivers much of the fentanyl, some people would say all of it, delivered into Mexico and even into our own country,” Trump said.
“We have a 20 percent [tariff], so they pay billions of dollars and billions of dollars in damages for what they’ve done.”
Following a meeting in June with U.S. Ambassador David Perdue, the Chinese communist regime added two fentanyl precursors to its list of banned substances, with enforcement beginning July 20.
More than 450,000 Americans have died of synthetic opioid overdoses over the past decade, with millions more addicted.
President Donald Trump holds up the "Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act," which strengthens prison sentences for fentanyl traffickers, after signing it in the East Room of the White House on July 16, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Before signing the HALT Fentanyl Act on Wednesday, Trump said: “This is a very special time because we’ve worked very hard to put ourselves in this position. Today we strike a righteous blow to the drug dealers, narcotic traffickers, and criminal cartels that we’ve heard about for so many years.”
The legislation, which passed with bipartisan support, reclassifies substances related to the synthetic opioids as Schedule 1 narcotics, the strictest designation established by the Controlled Substances Act.
The new law mandates a minimum 10-year prison sentence for those convicted of distributing at least 100 grams of any fentanyl-related substance, enough to kill approximately 50,000 people, based on DEA statistics .
Critics of the bill suggested that demand is fueling supply and argued that the new law could disproportionately impact marginalized communities by increasing incarceration rates.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said in March that the bill would do little to solve the fentanyl crisis.
“[It] will make it harder to research addiction and overdose reversal medication, disrupt communities and families by incarcerating rather than treating addiction, and divert resources from methods that work to disrupt the flow of fentanyl in the United States to strategies from the outdated War-on-Drugs solutions that do not work,” Markey said. “Families are asking us to do something about the fentanyl crisis, and rather than do that, we are simply enabling a political stunt at the expense of real solutions.”
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/17/2025 - 18:30 Close
Thu, 17 Jul 2025 22:10:00 +0000 A Short History Of The Emoji
A Short History Of The Emoji
Emojis have become a staple of electronic communication since their inception in the 1990s and people of all ages and on all continents use them. While their number keeps on growing ever
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A Short History Of The Emoji
Emojis have become a staple of electronic communication since their inception in the 1990s and people of all ages and on all continents use them. While their number keeps on growing every year due to new releases by the Unicode Consortium, the pictograms are increasingly vying for users’ attention as other forms of visual communication – think gifs, stickers and avatars – are experiencing their heyday.
With myriads of emojis released over the previous years, new batches have become somewhat smaller.
As Statista's Katharina Buchholz reports, a recently suggested update that would grow the number of emojis to almost 4,000 next year contains 164 additional pictograms , but only nine completely new ones.
While 2022 had seen the release of 112 new emojis, that number was just 31 in 2023. The figure rose again to 118 in 2024 due to emojis that allow users to pick different skin colors or genders (which are counted individually), before falling to an all-time low of eight in 2025. The number of non-customizable emojis has meanwhile decreased with almost every release.
You will find more infographics at Statista
New 2025 icons included the beetroot, the shovel and the flag of British Channel Island Sark – showing how emoji makers are seemingly running out of ideas (despite taking submissions from the public). The Unicode Consortium has recommended the orca, the yeti, the landslide and the ballet dancer, among others, for release in 2026, but the final decision is still outstanding.
What emojis appear on people’s phones and on their social media platforms is not arbitrary but has been coordinated by the Unicode Consortium since 1995, when the first 76 pictograms were adapted by the U.S. nonprofit. The Consortium has been overseeing the character inventory of electronic text processing since 1991 and sets a standard for symbols, characters in different scripts and – last but not least – emojis , which are encoded uniformly across different platforms even though illustration styles may vary between providers.
Despite the first Unicode listings predating them, a 1999 set of 176 simple pictograms invented by interface designer Shigetaka Kurita for a Japanese phone operator is considered to be the precursor of modern-day emojis. The concept gained popularity in Japan and by 2010, Unicode rolled out a massive release of more than 1,000 emojis to get with the burgeoning trend - the rest is history.
Different skin colors have been available for emojis since 2015. The first regional flags came to the service in 2017. The first same-sex couples have been available since the major emoji release of 2010, but more versions were added in 2015. The 2017 release also included the rollout of the first non-binary options, while interracial couples first appeared in 2019.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/17/2025 - 18:10 Close
Thu, 17 Jul 2025 21:50:00 +0000 What Parents Should Expect After Supreme Court's Ruling On Opt-Outs From Pro-LGBT Storybooks
What Parents Should Expect After Supreme Court's Ruling On Opt-Outs From Pro-LGBT Storybooks
What Parents Should Expect After Supreme Court's Ruling On Opt-Outs From Pro-LGBT Storybooks
Authored by Aaron Gifford via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
When classes resume in public schools next month, parents across the nation should expect notification from school administrators about any “LGBTQ+ inclusive” instruction and the right to opt their children out of it for religious reasons.
Children and supporters of parents advocating for religious rights demonstrate outside the Supreme Court in Washington on April 22, 2025. Parents won the right to sue to opt their young children out of school storybooks that promote LGBT lifestyles due to religious reasons in a Supreme Court ruling on June 27. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 27 ruled in favor of Maryland parents , many of them Christians and Muslims, who complained their school district forced instruction about LGBT lifestyles on their young children. In a 6–3 vote, justices determined that while the district said the instruction was lessons in mutual respect, the materials conveyed and reinforced viewpoints about same-sex marriage.
The district, Montgomery County Public Schools, incorporated LGBT storybooks that promoted same-sex romance between children, Pride celebrations, and gender transitions in 2022, according to court papers . Parents initially were told they could opt their children out of the sessions when such books were read, but in the fall of 2023, the district made story time mandatory.
The Supreme Court decision establishes a national precedent, requiring all public school districts to broaden their existing protocols for curriculum and opt-outs to include LGBT materials.
Nate Kellum, senior counsel for the First Liberty Institute, said that these communication measures were likely in place for decades with respect to health and sex education instruction.
“It’s easy enough to incorporate ,“ Kellum told The Epoch Times. ”It’s just a matter of common sense and common courtesy. It won’t become an administrative nightmare. ”
“But it becomes a question of will. For some districts, this is a bitter pill to swallow.”
Kellum said there will likely be questions about activities outside the classroom, like morning announcements, school-wide assemblies, and displays. If those events are planned ahead of time and potentially interfere with a family’s religious exercise, the school is obligated to provide advance notice and the option not to attend.
Questions will also emerge about age and grade level. While advance notice is a reasonable request, it’s also reasonable to expect that older students are less impressionable, so families should act in good faith before taking actions against their school, Kellum said.
Still, given that the Supreme Court establishes the law of the land, families who are not granted the appropriate accommodations as stated by that federal branch have a “slam dunk” case, he said, adding that he anticipates some lawsuits across the nation in the coming months as the parameters of this federal court decision are fleshed out.
Kellum successfully represented parents in a similar case in suburban San Diego. They sued in federal court after their district didn’t allow them to opt their children out of a program where pairs of fifth graders read “My Shadow is Pink” to a kindergartner.
The book is about a boy with a pink shadow who likes to play with dolls and wear dresses. The fifth graders were also required to chalk an outline of their kindergarten buddy’s body and discuss with them their preferred shadow color, according to court papers.
Following the May 12 U.S. District Court decision in favor of the parents, the plaintiff, Encinitas Union School District, appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court.
With the recent Supreme Court decision, Kellum said, “I don’t know if they really have any place to go.”
Montgomery County Schools, following the Supreme Court decision, announced that it will provide further guidance to parents before the school year begins.
How other school leaders across the nation plan to proceed remains to be seen. Attorneys general from Massachusetts, Maryland, and California issued statements expressing disappointment with the decision.
“By ensuring our curriculum reflects the full diversity of our student population, we foster an environment where every student feels seen, supported, and empowered to succeed,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a June 27 news release.
Republican members of Congress called the decision a historic win for families.
“Children are not wards of the state, and families, not government officials, should decide how curriculum related to human sexuality is introduced to their children ,” Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) said in a news release .
Defending Education, an education watchdog group, is encouraging parents to contact their local schools about this matter before the school year begins. The organization has provided an email template that cites the Supreme Court decision and further requests that the school allow a child to opt out of mandatory preferred pronoun usage and shared bathrooms and locker rooms with the other sex.
“It is the right of religious parents to opt their children out of this type of sex and gender-focused curriculum, regardless of when and where it is introduced during the school day,” Defending Education’s July 13 announcement said.
The organization also asks parents to let them know if their school district does not allow children to opt out of the programs in question.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/17/2025 - 17:50 Close