Read it.

The UK Home Office’s Pathways training package was intended to counter the threat of radicalisation in the United Kingdom. Needless to say, this wouldn’t be the most ferocious form of radicalisation, which is Islamism, and by a huge margin. No, they decided to spend a great deal of time and taxpayers’ money on a programme highlighting that spectral terror which lurks only in the minds of civil servants and Church of England clergy—the dreaded ‘far right.’

Marketed as an interactive educational tool for schools, Pathways adopts the language and aesthetics of a video game to guide young people away from ‘dangerous pathways.’ In practice, of course, it’s only the one pathway they’re worried about. It reveals a great deal about how the modern British state now defines extremism and why that definition is detached from reality. Pathways has become a case study in institutional overreach, ideological confusion, and the persistent failure of Britain’s counter-extremism establishment to understand either public opinion or the threat landscape we ask them to manage on our behalf.

At the centre of Pathways is a character called Amelia; a purple-haired goth girl wearing a choker and a pink dress. Unless you have completely detached yourself from the internet over recent weeks, you will have almost certainly come across her, and you will have probably seen her indulging in such extremist practices as waving a Union Jack and generally loving her country.

Amelia is a teenage activist who questions mass immigration, protests against demographic transformation and expresses alarm at the direction of modern Britain. Within the game’s internal logic, engaging with Amelia’s views increases a ‘risk’ score, pushing the player closer to state intervention and the government’s Prevent process. The message is not subtle. Concerns regarding mass immigration and unwanted cultural change are treated not as political positions to be debated, but as symptoms to be managed. The line between radicalisation and dissent is not merely blurred—it is erased.

This framing exposes the true function of Pathways. It is less an anti-terrorism tool than a mechanism of ideological conditioning, one that treats mainstream concerns about borders, identity, and social cohesion as inherently suspect. In doing so, it confirms what many critics of Prevent have long argued: that counter-extremism policy has quietly expanded into the regulation of thought.

Read it.

“The entire population of Gaza is facing the risk of famine,” Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s coordinator for Gaza, falsely claimed, echoing Hamas propaganda. “Israel must halt its devastating strikes.”

Kaag (Pictured above, left), a leftist Dutch politician and UN official, had been picked for the role in Gaza by the Biden administration. And she had all the right credentials including the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO), the World Economic Forum and leftist politics. She had cheered the BLM race riots and claimed that America was systematically racist because New Yorkers had mistaken her husband, who worked for a Muslim terrorist group, for a janitor.

Now she’s been picked for a seat on the Gaza ‘Executive Board’ by the Witkoff team.

Sigrid Kaag had been ousted from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1994 after she secretly married a top member of the PLO, Anas Al-Qaq. The same behavior that made her untrustworthy however qualified her for a job at the UN. There she worked for the IOM, the UN’s mass migration group, and UNRWA, the UN’s ‘Palestinian’ agency: known as a front for Hamas.

Read it.

Authorities in Greece have announced a major operation to identify and shut down all illegal mosques in the Municipality of Athens, alongside deporting the foreign nationals operating them.

The initiative was confirmed by Greece’s Minister of Immigration and Asylum, Thanos Plevris, during a parliamentary committee meeting discussing a legal immigration bill.

The crackdown follows a recent case in Agios Nikolaos, where a Bangladeshi national had his legal residence permit revoked for running an unlicensed place of worship. The site was sealed by police, and the individual was sentenced to prison for operating the mosque without authorization. Plevris stated that “what happened in Agios Nikolaos will happen everywhere.”

Europeans finally start to get a clue.

Read it.

A set of internal documents published by the Republican members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee (Judiciary GOP) has sent shockwaves through Brussels.

Released under the title The EU Censorship Files, Part II, the investigation presents documentary evidence of a sustained strategy by the European Commission to influence public debate on social media and digital platforms, pressuring major tech companies to censor lawful content, alter their internal rules, and restrict certain political viewpoints.

…

The revelations go far beyond an abstract debate over content moderation. According to the material made public, the Commission has directly or indirectly intervened in at least eight electoral processes across six European countries since 2023, using high-level meetings with digital platforms in the days and weeks leading up to elections to demand stricter censorship of political speech.

After a brief experiment with democracy, Europe descends into the totalitarianism it had enjoyed back in the 1930s.

UPDATE: Police Raid on X Paris Offices: No Comment From EU Leaders 

Read it.

A Greek Coast Guard vessel and a boat carrying migrants collided in the Aegean Sea, killing 15 people, according to authorities on Wednesday, February 4th—updating the previous death toll.

The incident occurred on Tuesday off the island of Chios, near Turkey. According to a Coast Guard statement, the pilot of a high-speed boat—operating without navigation lights and carrying foreign passengers—failed to comply with the Coast Guard’s visual and audible signals.

Instead, the pilot turned around, and the boat then collided with the starboard side of the Coast Guard patrol boat…. the force of the impact caused the boat to capsize and sink.

Fourteen bodies were retrieved from the sea, including three women. Another woman, who was pulled out alive, later died of her injuries, the coastguard reported. Among those rescued were 11 children who have been taken to a hospital, along with two injured coastguards.

The tragedy follows an earlier incident in January, where a boat carrying more than 50 migrants sank off the Greek island of Ikaria.

The perpetrators don’t care, since they get paid up front—sort of a scene out of the movie Casablanca. (“I repeat—in cash!”)

Read it.

German police are preparing for nationwide unrest ahead of a Hungarian court verdict in the case of Maja T., a “non-binary” far-left extremist accused of traveling to Budapest to carry out violent Antifa attacks. Authorities warn that a guilty ruling could trigger riots, arson, and attacks on Hungarian diplomatic missions across Germany.

The 24-year-old accused has been imprisoned in Hungary since June last year, after being extradited from Germany in connection with political violence conducted by the so-called Hammerbande (Hammer Gang), an Antifa-linked extremist group known for attacking people they label as ‘right-wing’ or ‘fascist.’ Maja T. is alleged to have taken part in coordinated assaults in Budapest in February 2023, during which victims—including some lying immobilised on the ground—were beaten with hammers and batons. A verdict is expected today, February 4th.

The Antiplanner.

Minnesota’s Northstar commuter train made its last run about a month ago. Planners had predicted that the train would carry 5,900 passengers a day, but in 2024 it carried only 435 per day. Collecting fares that averaged $3 per rider, its operating costs were $121 per rider.

Charles Marohn, a planning advocate over at Strong Towns, argues that, as a transportation project, Northstar was “doomed from the start.” This is because it wasn’t designed for transportation. Instead, it was aimed at getting money from the federal government.

“Northstar wasn’t a transportation project that failed,” wrote Marohn. “It was a funding project that succeeded.”

And that funding went to favored companies supplying the trains, building the tracks, and creating the other infrastructure needed for this boondoggle—and, more likely than not, into the pockets of Democrat politicians and bureaucrats (it is, after all, Minnesota).

Your politicians’ fantasies at work.

Read it.

Hint: No.

The stream of Tories jumping ship to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK shows no sign of abating. Amid Reform’s fresh new recruits, the defection of Suella Braverman stands apart. In my opinion, she is likely to add several percentage points to Reform’s vote share immediately—not through any sudden mass conversion, but by crystallising the disillusionment among the Conservative base that has been building since the 2024 wipeout.

There is tentative evidence to support this, for instance, a recent YouGov poll suggesting that around a quarter of 2024 Tory voters now view Reform more favourably following the Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick defections. Furthermore, Rishi Sunak’s sacking of Braverman back in November 2023 coincided with a sharp rise in the Reform vote.

Those who ‘switch sides’ in any walk of life can expect a degree of censure, but political defections are almost impossible to pull off without violent condemnation. For we ask a great deal of our politicians: loyalty to country, to party, to a manifesto they likely had little or no hand in drafting, and above all to principle—even when many if not all of those things are unaligned. Few of us would satisfy such a test in any 24-hour period. Braverman, however—a paid-up Conservative for the best part of thirty years—might just make the grade.

The British Conservative party hasn’t been worth a shit during my lifetime, certainly, and probably within the lifetime of my father, who was born in 1918. Time to take Old Yeller out back and shoot him.

The Economist, a Voice of the Crust.

At first glance the global economy looks more uneven than ever: billionaires’ fortunes keep breaking records, asset prices have soared and voters across rich countries insist that life is getting harder and more expensive. Yet in the 21st century the world economy has kept getting more equal.

Technology will do that. Of course, the Narrative Media are heavily invested in complaining about ‘inequality’, whether in ‘incomes’ or ‘wealth’ or whatever they think you have more of than you ought; it is beneath their notice that ‘poor people’ have access to resources that John D. Rockefeller would have given half his net worth to have.

The Guardian, a Voice of the Crust.

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have more in common with cigarettes than with fruit or vegetables, and require far tighter regulation, according to a new report.

‘More in common with’ means ‘just as noxious to us’ in Karen-speak. Nobody eats tobacco (except inadvertently), of course, just as no one smokes fruits or vegetables, but the nanny-state totalitarians must have some way to Indicate Their Displeasure with people who follow their own judgment and make their own choices rather than being guided and controlled by the preferences of the Enlightened.

UPFs and cigarettes are engineered to encourage addiction and consumption, researchers from three US universities said, pointing to the parallels in widespread health harms that link both.

The cited author is, of course, female, so the role of Karen in this fable is a good fit. The Narrative Media is never more at home than when telling other people what they ought to do, preferably by government mandate.

The Times (UK).

A former town mayor helped her son to hide evidence when he was arrested at her home for raping a 15-year-old girl, a court was told.

Naheed Ejaz, 61, who had recently completed her one-year term as mayor of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, allegedly refused to let police officers into her home when they came to arrest her son, Diwan Khan, 41.

The Labour councillor delayed the officers’ entry for “some minutes” and spoke to her son in Urdu to assist him in hiding his phone, which allegedly had a video of the sex attack on it, the court was told.

Urdu is the dialect of Hindi used in Pakistan, differing chiefly by being written in Arabic script rather than Devanagari. Presumably these two are Muslim.

Import Turd World people, get Turd World problems.

Read it.

Congressional Democrats said Tuesday they plan to subpoena President Donald Trump to testify under oath about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein if they regain control of the House, citing what they describe as a new precedent set by Republicans’ aggressive oversight tactics.

“We are absolutely going to have Donald Trump testify under oath,” Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., a member of Democratic leadership, told NBC News, saying the issue would be a priority once Democrats have subpoena power.

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., a former House majority leader who is retiring at the end of this Congress, said the prospect of Trump testifying would be significant. “It is a big deal,” Hoyer said. “And it’d be interesting to see what former President Trump thinks of that premise.”

‘It’s Been Brutal’: Twin Cities Economy Suffers Under ICE Crackdown (Lydia DePillis/New York Times)  Mostly due to left-wing violence.

Democratic victory in deep-red Texas district casts a pall over GOP plans to keep the House (NBC News)  And the Narrative Media are rubbing their hands with andicipatory glee.

Judge Blocks Trump From Ending Haiti Protections

Tulsi Gabbard accused of trying to ‘bury’ whistleblower complaint (NBC News)  Accused! That proves it!

‘Crisis’: The fallout from Trump’s surprise plan to close Kennedy Center (Washington Post)

What it’s like to see ICE tear gas kids (Marisa Kabas/The Handbasket)  What it’s like to see parents bring their kids as attempted human shields to protests.

Joe Scarborough’s Screaming Anti-ICE Rant, Devoid of All Context  Hard to believe he was once a Republican Congressman.

NY citizens, others sue to block Trump administration’s visa ban targeting 75 nations

Gateway sues Trump administration over freezing Hudson River tunnel funding

NY is putting extra eyes on immigration enforcement officers, state AG says

6 Things to Know About Judge Who Blocked Trump Deportation of Haitian Immigrants  The judge is, of course, female. ‘Feels over reals”.

Why the Epstein scandal may never die (Zachary Basu/Axios)  Because the Narrative Media will try to make it into a stick with which to beat Trump if it’s the last thing they do.

‘Grassroots’ anti-ICE campaigns funded by left-wing billionaire donors: sources (Chadwick Moore/New York Post)

Homeland Security is targeting Americans with this secretive legal weapon (John Woodrow Cox/Washington Post)

Dunh dunh DUNHHHHHHH….

As some states try to show ICE the door, others put out the welcome mat (NPR)

Three issues that could sink Trump (Caitlin Dewey/Vox)  They hope, they hope, they hope….

The plot to undermine the 2026 elections (Popular Information)  Proglodyte Projection: When the Left accuses you of planning to do what they always do.

How to tear gas children (Sarah Jeong/The Verge)  Step 1: Bring your kids to a demonstration and attempt to use them as human shields. (Teachers Unions Accused of Using Kids at Anti-ICE Protests)

Democrats want to unmask ICE officers to cause them violence and harm (Christopher Tremoglie/Washington Examiner)

Immigration agents draw guns, arrest activists following them in Minneapolis (Associated Press) Good.

Dear media, stop acting like Trump means what he says (Margaret Sullivan/American Crisis)  Ah, ah, ah, ah, yankin’ their chains, yankin’ their chains….

Leaked Email Reveals Border Patrol Goon’s Jaw-Dropping Complaint About Tactics (Leigh Kimmins/The Daily Beast)

ICE Is Watching You — In the latest stop in Donald Trump’s war on liberal democracy … (Tressie McMillan Cottom/New York Times)

Donald Trump Has Built a Clicktatorship (Donald Moynihan/The Atlantic)

‘Monster’s Paradise,’ lampooning US President Donald Trump, has world premiere at Hamburg Opera (Ronald Blum/Associated Press)  They may have won all the battles/But we had all the good songs….

Jerry Nadler Says People Feel Justified Shooting ICE Agents Because They’re ‘Masked Hoodlums’ (Harold Hutchison/The Daily Caller)  No, people feel justified shooting ICE agents because of proglodyte indoctrination—by people like Jerry Nadler.

Trump Is Doubling Down on All the Wrong Things (Jonathan Lemire/The Atlantic)  From the viewpoint of the Narrative Media.

The Influencer Who Spurred the Federal Crackdown on Minneapolis (Ruth Graham/New York Times)  Let’s see whether we can get a proglodyte mob to show up on his doorstep, shall we?

Newsbusters.

In fact, the only people who have a problem with it are Democrats, becuse it stands in the way of their favorite sport, stealing elections.

Read it.

Yet Another Corrupt Black Democrat Politician.

Hmm. That would make an interesting book….

Newsbusters.

Media bias isn’t just on TVs or in newspapers anymore. Now, it’s woven into digital devices, and it’s worse than you think.

MRC President David Bozell highlighted the issue in an interview with Laura Trump, host of the Right View Podcast, on Thursday, describing how it feels like Americans are “watching two different movies,” resulting in completely opposing realities.

The dichotomy between the left’s perception of America and the right’s perception of America is wider than ever. So what’s causing this divide? It’s no shock—from the Media Research Center’s perspective—that the elitist media plays an outsized role in shaping how Americans view the world.

Read it.

Democrat lawmakers in Washington state unveiled legislation Tuesday that would impose a new tax on residents earning more than $1 million annually, Politico reported.

The move advances a proposal supporters say would fund key services, while opponents warn it could worsen economic challenges and fail to address the state’s immediate budget shortfall.

The proposal would levy a tax of nearly 10% on income exceeding $1 million, marking the latest attempt by Washington Democrats to implement an income tax in one of the few states that does not currently impose one.

Party leaders say public support and shifting political dynamics have strengthened the bill’s chances of passage.

Newsbusters.

When a grand jury on January 29 indicted former CNN host Don Lemon for allegedly participating in the disruption of a Minneapolis-area church service, the corporate media responded with unanimous outrage. But for all of their handwringing, not a single journalist has acknowledged even once on any of the big three broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) that Lemon’s arrest was, in fact, the result of a grand jury indictment.

MRC analysts examined all coverage of Lemon’s arrest on the big three broadcast networks’ flagship morning (Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, and Today) and evening shows (ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News), from the morning of January 30 through the morning of February 3, 2026. Across the seven different reports about the incident, totaling just over 14 minutes, not once was it mentioned that Lemon’s arrest was not a reckless act by an out of control Justice Department, but rather the result of a grand jury indictment.

All three networks covered the event once on their evening newscasts on January 30, and a second time the following morning — for a total of 163 (ABC), 351 (CBS), and 334 seconds of coverage, respectively. CBS Mornings also ran a report just hours after the arrest on January 30.

Read it.

A viral video compilation circulating on X has laid bare the dramatic reversal in Democratic positions on immigration, showcasing top party figures advocating for robust border security measures that they now vehemently oppose.

This shift comes amid growing public demand for deportations, exposing a calculated pivot away from policies that once aligned with American interests.

The video, posted by @WesternLensman on X, features archived clips of prominent Democrats articulating views on immigration that echo today’s America First agenda. It underscores how border security was once a bipartisan consensus before the party’s radical elements took over.

Read it.

Last October, Dubai-based billionaire and Emaar Properties founder Mohammed Alabbar unveiled an audacious $400 billion proposal to help solve America’s worsening housing shortage by building millions of housing units, describing it as both a humanitarian and economic opportunity that could “reshape the U.S. market” and create up to 20 million jobs.

According to Alabbar, the United States is experiencing a significant housing-supply shortfall, which has led to a crushing lack of affordable housing. Analysts estimate a gap of about 4.7 million to nearly 5 million housing units currently exists in the US. This shortage is the result of many years of underconstruction, soaring costs, regulatory and labor constraints. The effects are broad: higher home and rent prices, fewer first-time buyers, and mobility barriers for workers. In short: a weak supply side has become a drag on affordability, economic growth and inflation control. In response, Alabbar – who now runs the largest real estate developer in the UAE – proposed a $400 billion “fix” at the Reuters NEXT Gulf Summit in Abu Dhabi, capital which he claimed could be raised in as little as one week if the right partners are assembled.

But while Alabbar’s proposal was unlikely to be taken seriously – as it benefits his company as much as it does US homebuyers – the logic behind it is sound – build much more housing – and has seemingly impressed the Trump admin.

It does explains why, as Bloomberg reports, US homebuilders are working on a plan for a massive program to develop up to a million “Trump Homes” that would address the US affordability crisis while allowing private capital to deploy many billions of dollars.

The New Neo.

Of course he does:

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday condemned legislation requiring ID and proof of citizenship to register to vote as “nothing more than Jim Crow 2.0.”

Probably more like Jim Crow 2000.0, since the Democrats are fond of calling nearly everything the GOP proposes “Jim Crow.”

So, how would a person prove citizenship under the SAVE Act as proposed? If you listen to the left, “millions” couldn’t comply even though they are citizens:

The SAVE Act would require all Americans to prove their citizenship with documentation unavailable to millions and upend the way every American citizen registers to vote.

The article then goes on and on about passports, as though that’s the way it needs to be done, and although it’s already said birth certificates are fine. It mentions that real IDs wouldn’t work for the purpose.

The only people afraid of voter ID are those intending to cheat. It’s just that simple.

Read it.

Protesters argue that body cameras would increase accountability for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

Anti-ICE protesters have also demanded that ICE officers wear body cameras after incidents such as the death of Renée Good, in which ICE officer Jonathan Ross filmed the fatal encounter with his cellphone—a decision that drew criticism from many.

“If you’re an agent … then you should not be encumbered by anything in your hands,” Jonathan Wackrow, a CNN law enforcement analyst, said. “That’s what body-worn cameras are for. But they’re not wearing body-worn cameras.”

However, proponents of the policy say increased transparency could actually benefit ICE agents by protecting them from allegations and misconduct.

Be careful what you wish for.

Newsbusters.

One way “public” broadcasters demonstrate their dramatic leftist bias is by which books and authors they promote. On January 27, they featured an interview by co-anchor Geoff Bennett of Howard Bryant — former ESPN The Magazine columnist, and perpetual racial grievance machine — lionizing the famous black Stalinist puppet and actor Paul Robeson.

Bennett talked to Bryant about his new book, Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America. That’s a heroic athlete and a villainous communist. But not in the minds of the PBS elite.

Read it.

The Federal Communications Commission is moving to overhaul the government’s nearly $1 billion Lifeline program after an internal audit found widespread fraud, with California responsible for the vast majority of the abuse.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the commission will vote this month on sweeping reforms aimed at tightening eligibility, preventing fraud, and ensuring taxpayer dollars go only to legal and eligible recipients.

The move follows an Inspector General advisory showing Lifeline providers received nearly $5 million in federal funds to supply phone and internet services to more than 116,000 deceased individuals.

More than 80% of that fraud occurred in California.

Read it.

One week after the European Commission opened a new formal investigation into Elon Musk’s X under the Digital Services Act (DSA) and expanded a separate probe launched in December 2023, X’s Paris office was raided by France’s cybercrime unit as part of an investigation into the distribution of sexual deepfakes and Holocaust denial content.

“A search is being carried out at the French premises of X by the cybercrime unit of the Paris public prosecutor’s office, together with @CyberGEND and @Europol , as part of the investigation opened in January 2025,” the Paris prosecutors’ office wrote on X early Tuesday.

The Paris public prosecutor’s office also said it is leaving the X platform and will post exclusively on Reid Hoffman’s LinkedIn and Meta-owned Instagram.

Read it.

It has come to my attention that, even though election fraud has been in the news regularly both at the end of 2020/beginning of 2021 and for the last six months, many people seem unaware of the methods by which election fraud is being perpetrated. So, here, are some basics for those who new to the subject.

Read ity.

A majority of French people support a ban on organizations linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. According to a new survey, 53% of respondents are in favor, 23% opposed, and 24% did not express an opinion.

The research, published as an Ifop survey for the magazine Écran de veille, shows French Muslims are divided on the issue, with 38% supporting the ban, 43% opposing it, and 19% undecided. They were also split on the potential effects: 48% said it could reduce conflation between Islam and Islamism, while 47% believe it could strengthen national cohesion and respect for the laws of the Republic. At the same time, 51% think it would not reduce communitarianism.

Opponents cited concerns about discrimination against Muslims (41%) and the possible emergence of radical Islamist currents, although 49% and 57% respectively disagreed.

Read it.

“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun,” King Solomon famously observed in the Koheleth (Book of Ecclesiastes). Truer words have never been written. Look no further than the present anarchic tumult in Minnesota.

On Jan. 12, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison initiated a lawsuit on behalf of the North Star State, along with municipal co-plaintiffs Minneapolis and St. Paul, against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Todd Lyons, and the rest of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement apparatus.

In his press conference announcing the suit, Ellison emphasized the same basic arguments as his formal complaint: Namely, that ICE’s enforcement “surge” in Minnesota amounts to a “violation of the Tenth Amendment and the sovereign laws and powers granted to states.”

In essence, Ellison and his Minnesota’s Democratic Party leadership confreres argue that the constitutional federalism articulated in the 10th Amendment and its corollary of “states’ rights” can shield the Land of 10,000 Lakes from the long enforcement arm of federal immigration law. Ellison and Minnesota Democrats claim that by declaring their state and cities to be illegal alien “sanctuaries,” they can “nullify” federal immigration law.

Stop me if you’ve heard that one before.

Read it.

Identity thieves are now using college enrollment to take out student loans in victims’ names. This so-called “ghost student” scam capitalizes on limited verification for online class sign-ups and the federal aid application process to steal millions in funds while assigning the debt to unsuspecting targets.

I personally have been a victim of this scam, which I discovered only after an outstanding student loan debt landed on my credit report in 2024. Here’s how the scheme works.

Read it.

Many researchers have tried to understand longevity in humans and what could be done to improve it. However, this is a difficult topic to study because it takes a long time to collect data on human life spans, and many different factors can contribute to mortality. One key distinction is between extrinsic mortality (violence, accidents, infections, etc.) and intrinsic mortality due to genetic mutations and/or aging-related diseases. Shenhar et al. analyzed more than a century’s worth of data from three different Scandinavian twin cohorts and concluded that the current estimates of longevity heritability are much too low (see the Perspective by Bakula and Scheibye-Knudsen). In the late 1800s and early 1900s, when these study cohorts were born, extrinsic causes played a large role in mortality, but once those are excluded, longevity appears to be about 50% heritable, similar to many other traits. —Yevgeniya Nusinovich

Oh, I dont’ want to beam down with the captain
‘Cause the captain beams up alone….

Read it.

The markets have been rocked by news of a possible intervention to control the Japanese yen slump, after it reached a forty-year low relative to the US dollar. Fixing the yen and any other fiat currency is simple: Implement an Austrian approach; eliminate constant deficit spending and monetization of government outlays; and implement clear, sound money policies that support the purchasing power of the currency.

Letting rates float and having zero deficit would help.

However, no government seems to want to control spending and eliminate constant artificial currency creation, even knowing that, by doing so, they would limit the risk of financial crises, excessive risk-taking, and erosion of citizens’ wage purchasing power.

The best a citizen can expect today is a mild form of Keynesianism that aims for lower taxes, relatively lower spending, and a constant expansion of money supply as the driver of economic growth. Even this “lesser evil” approach ends with malinvestment, financial crises, and more politicians demanding “public investment” as the solution.

Governments avoid sound money and controlling spending because these choices can hurt them politically right away, while using inflation and interventionist methods allows them to take a lot of wealth from citizens and give it to themselves and their favored industries.

Read it.

Irene Montero, a politician from the far-left, pro-immigration Podemos party, is arguing that after granting amnesty to 500,000 illegal immigrants, the Sanchez government should now make them Spanish citizens and amend the law to allow them to participate in elections. She specifically calls to replace the “fascists and racists with immigrants.” Now, she has faced backlash from a wide range of critics, including Elon Musk and a range of European politicians.

“I hope for replacement theory, I hope we can sweep this country of fascists and racists with immigrants. Whatever their skin color, whether Chinese, Black, or Brown,” Montero said, as quoted by the daily El Mundo. In her speech, she strongly criticized right-wing parties, including Vox and its leader Santiago Abascal, describing their rhetoric as “racist” and “anti-migration.”

Carl Benjamin (‘Sargon of Akkad’) shows and analyzes the video here.

Read it.

And, like the last one, it was started by Democrats.

History rarely “repeats” but our modern political dynamic rings rather familiar. Many of the tactics used by the leftists in Russia in the early 20th Century are being used today in the US. In fact, I would argue they are almost exactly the same and that a Bolshevik-style revolution is happening right now.

Interestingly, the Bolsheviks were a tiny minority within the Russian population. At their peak in 1917 they had only 400,000 “official” members. They were supported politically by an estimated 23% of the population, but that is still a small movement compared to the 150 million Russian citizens trying to live their lives from day to day.

Read it.

“Green New Scam” loans and conditional commitments approved in the final months of the Biden administration, a new analysis reveals that not only did the rush to spend accelerate right after Biden’s disastrous June 27, 2024 debate with now-President Donald Trump, senior Biden officials landed roles at organizations that received agency funding. In some cases, money was steered to NGOs that the officials worked for before joining the government – where they then returned following the cash bonanza.

Following the debate where Biden revealed how cooked he is, nonprofit watchdog Democracy Restored found that billions of dollars began rushing out the door to over a dozen environmental and climate-focused NGOs, including that Alliance for Sustainable Energy, Climate United Fund, the Ocean Conservancy, the Nature Conservancy, and Rocky Mountain Institute, according to Just the News.

Read it.

Jan. 24 marked the 20th anniversary of the release of Al Gore’s alarmist global warming movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” Gore has surfed the movie and climate alarmism to a net worth estimated at $300 million and a Nobel Peace Prize.

But the rest of us have been saddled with: (1) a hoax that has debased the field of science; (2) an energy scam that has cost the world more than $10-20 trillion dollars and threatens our national security; and (3) a political power grab that has reduced our freedoms. (RELATED: Howard Lutnick Heckled By Al Gore At High-Profile Globalist Soirée)

Gore’s movie was junk from the get-go. I attended a meeting in early January 2006 where Gore presented the slide show that was the basis for the movie to a group of conservatives at a weekly meeting sponsored by Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform. After the presentation, I approached Gore and asked if he was interested in participating in some sort of debate about his claims. Although he said he was interested, his staff later declined.

Quillette.

The Iranian revolt of 2026 has exposed a profound flaw in Western progressive thinking. While people in Tehran and Mashhad and dozens of other Iranian cities risk their lives in the name of secular nationalism and constitutional law, progressive activists in the West seem to have nothing to say. If a movement isn’t checking the usual boxes of Western identity politics, they tend to view it as confusing, suspicious, or even reactionary.

Consequently, the Iranian people are showing us, mostly by accident, just how narrow the Western moral imagination has become. Many observers have attempted to interpret the uprising through familiar human-rights and liberationist frameworks, recasting it as another episode of identity-based politics. Others, finding no comfortable place for themselves within it, have chosen silence instead. The result has been a striking absence of sustained global attention.

This is the most pernicious effect of the Narrative Media. Sure, there are other sources of ‘news’, but the Narrative Media, by what they cover, tend heavily to influence what people think they know and especially what they think and talk about.

Read it.

Last Saturday night a mob of leftists went on a rampage in the Italian city of Turin, burning vehicles, throwing stones, and attacking police. A group of Antifa thugs beat a policeman severely, sending him to the hospital.

The events in Turin brought to mind an essay I had just read by JD Hall (hat tip WRSA). He was writing about the actions of Antifa in Minneapolis and other American cities, but the process he described is identical to what is unfolding in Italy….

Read it.

What the philosophers call utilitarianism is actually a family of moral theories with all the feuds, competitiveness and fickle alliances that families tend to have. There may be nuances involved, but there is an intellectual genealogy which takes you from Jeremy Bentham to Peter Singer, a traceable line of descent. There is no striking family resemblance in play, aside from a presumably congenital moral priggishness.

I need to say straight away, and without apology, that this family’s influence is ubiquitous and pernicious. For any offence against decency you will be sure to find a utilitarian argument lurking in the vicinity, sometimes offering to help clear up the mess it was responsible for in the first place.

Utilitarian thinking is there in the Net Zero climate idolatry, it motivates the new eugenicists of the assisted suicide movement, it underwrites the ridiculous “thought experiments” of the effective altruists.

Read it.

France has issued arrest warrants for two French-Israeli activists for “complicity in genocide,” a charge that stemmed from the pair allegedly blocking humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza Strip.

The arrest warrants were issued in July against Nili Kupfer-Naouri, the president of the organization Israel Is Forever, and Rachel Touitou, an activist with the organization Tsav 9, a right-wing Israeli group that was sanctioned by the United States in June 2024 for destroying humanitarian aid for Gaza.

The two have been charged with “complicity in genocide” and “public and direct incitement to genocide,” the French newspaper Le Monde reported on Monday. They are accused of trying to block humanitarian aid trucks from entering Gaza between January and November 2024 and in May 2025.

An array of activists, including military reservists and family members of some hostages, sought to block the aid trucks from entering Gaza on the theory that helping Gazans would alleviate pressure on Hamas.

In an interview with i24News, Kupfer-Naouri said, “I blocked trucks that were supplying Hamas. If I had to do it again, I would do it again.” (Israel accused Hamas of stealing aid shipments to Gaza during the conflict.)

The warrants are notable because they represent a success by advocacy organizations seeking to hold Israelis responsible for what they say are war crimes. The warrants stemmed from a complaint made last year by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and the groups Al-Mezan and Al-Haq, which were all sanctioned by the United States in September for having “directly engaged in efforts by the International Criminal Court to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent.”

In a joint statement with the French Jewish Union for Peace, which joined the complaint, the groups called the arrest warrant against Kupfer-Naouri “a historic step forward in the fight against impunity.”

This ‘fight against impunity’ apparently ignores the ongoing attempted genocide against Jews by ‘Palestinians’ and other Muslims.

Read it.

Is it possible to complete a trip around the world with an autonomous drone? And under 80 days? Today we will explore this crazy project that would make Jules Verne proud. And we will try to figure out if it can be done with a relatively modest budget.

Read it.

water supply pipes and, most significantly, tailpipe emissions. A dangerous neurotoxin that accumulates in human tissues and is linked to developmental deficits in children, environmental lead levels have come way down in the years since, and so have human exposures.

The proof is in your hair.

An analysis of hair samples conducted by University of Utah scientists shows precipitous reductions in lead levels since 1916.

“We were able to show through our hair samples what the lead concentrations are before and after the establishment of regulations by the EPA,” said demographer Ken Smith, a distinguished professor emeritus of family and consumer studies. “We have hair samples spanning about 100 years. And back when the regulations were absent, the lead levels were about 100 times higher than they are after the regulations.”

The Telegraph (UK).

Lord Cameron has accused Labour of taking a “spite-laden wrecking ball” to British education..

In a rare intervention, the former prime minister claimed Sir Keir Starmer was “systematically dismantling” reforms by successive governments that had made English schools world-leading.

The Tory peer also condemned Labour’s decision to scrap dozens of planned free schools in some of the country’s poorest regions, including one backed by Eton College, his alma mater.

The War Zone.

The U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Preble used its High-Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) system to down four drones in a demonstration last year, Lockheed Martin has shared. Earlier this month, the Navy’s top officer said his goal is for directed energy weapons to become the go-to choice for warship crews when it comes to defending against close-in threats. However, the service has continued to face significant hurdles in fielding operational laser weapon systems.

“Speaking of amazing technology, we successfully used a shipboard laser system, Lockheed Martin’s HELIOS, to knock an incoming UAV [uncrewed aerial vehicle] right out of the sky,” the company’s CEO Jim Taiclet said during a quarterly earnings call last week. “The HELIOS weapon system successfully neutralized four drone threats in a U.S. Navy-operated counter-UAS [uncrewed aerial systems] demonstration at sea, showcasing an opportunity to eliminate drone attacks using lasers, and saving U.S. and allied air defense missiles for more advanced threats.”

Welcome To Trumpistan (Vanity Fair)

Trump Lawsuit Against IRS Puts Him on Both Sides of the Same Case (Wall Street Journal)  And he’s probably good with that.

Two CBP Agents Identified in Alex Pretti Shooting (J. David McSwane/ProPublica)  Cue proglodyte mob.

Mayor of Portland, Oregon, Demands ICE Leave City After Agents Gas Protesters  Would he prefer to have them shot? There’s no pleasing some people.

How Trump Appears in the Epstein Files (New York Times)  According to the Narrative, of course.

The Grammys bring more celebrity pushback to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown (James Pollard/Associated Press)  Yet more performative virtue-signaling.

Read it. And watch the video.

A short video clip from Spain has reverberated far beyond, exposing a fault line in Europe’s migration debate and fueling claims that parts of the continent’s far left view immigration not only as a social policy but as an electoral instrument.

The footage shows Irene Montero, a senior figure in Spain’s hard-left Podemos, former equality minister and currently serving as an MEP, addressing a public event. In it, Montero expresses her hope that immigration will help “sweep this country of fascists and racists,” a remark widely interpreted by critics as endorsing demographic change to alter voting outcomes.

Ponder the depth of depravity inherent in having a government ‘equality minister’. (This is, of course, exactly what Democrats are attempting in the U.S.)

What might once have remained a domestic controversy instead exploded onto the global stage after being amplified by prominent international voices. Dutch commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek framed the clip as a rare moment of candor from Europe’s radical left, arguing that it confirms long-held suspicions about demographic engineering being used as a political strategy.

Carl Benjamin (“Sargon of Akkad”) does an excellent piece on it here.

Read it.

More to the point, why would you want to?

If AI is going to be throwing people out of work, and is going to have an increasing effect on the workplace, it would seem obvious that a shrinking population would be a feature, not a bug. for the same reason that a central bank (like the Federal Reserve) reduces the money supply when the economy slows down so as to prevent deflation.

The answer, of course, is that all governments are involved in a multitude of ponzi schemes involving welfare and ‘retirement’ programs that require more and more people paying into the scheme to support the number of people sucking money out of the schemes and voting for the Usual Suspects.

Think about that next time you hear a bunch of hand-wringers lament the Population Crash. (Mostly the same people who were worrying about overpopulation half a century ago with ‘climate change’ meant a looming New Ice Age.)

National Review, which has sadly degenerated in the last fifty years.

When Republican lawmakers moved last year to end taxpayer funding for PBS and NPR, a constellation of media CEOs and experts warned that the cuts would result in the closure of dozens, possibly hundreds, of affiliate stations.

It has now been six months since President Trump signed a bill eliminating $1.1 billion in federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the predicted newsroom Armageddon has yet to materialize.

In fact, of the more than 1,000 television and radio stations that make up the country’s public media system, nearly all remain operational.

“Vanishingly few” affiliates have closed down since last summer, according to the New York Times.