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A Treat
Paul Craig Roberts
Dear Friends,
I am as tired of challenging and distressing news as you. Today there is a treat instead. The treat is “the Tall Texan,” the American pianist Van Cliburn playing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto at the first Soviet international competition in Moscow in 1958, which Van Cliburn won. Khrushchev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, was present as was Mikoyan. You will see them applauding.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/6qROema2MDI / Or use this LINK for phones.
After the performances, the judges approached Khrushchev, the ruling General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and asked if they might give the prize to Van Cliburn. Khrushchev asked the judges, “Was he the best?” The judges said, “yes.” “Then give him the prize.” The Soviet conductor could easily have ruined Van Cliburn’s performance, but he did not and the two went on together to make recordings. Today the sanctions would prevent both Van Cliburn’s performance and the subsequent recordings.
Beating Wall Street at Its Own Game — The Bank of North Dakota Model
by Ellen Brown
North Dakota is staunchly conservative, having voted Republican in every presidential election since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. So how is it that the state boasts the only state-owned bank in the nation? Has it secretly gone socialist?
No. The Bank of North Dakota (BND) operates on the same principles as any capitalist bank, except that its profits and benefits serve the North Dakota public rather than private investors and executives. The BND provides a unique, innovative model, in which public ownership is leveraged to enhance the workings of the private sector. It invests in and supports private enterprise — local businesses, agriculture, and economic development – the core activities of a capitalist system where private property and enterprise are central. Across the country, small businesses are now failing at increasingly high rates, but that’s not true in North Dakota, which was rated by Forbes Magazine the best state in which to start a business in 2024.
The BND was founded in 1919, when North Dakota farmers rose up against the powerful out-of-state banking-railroad-granary cartel that was unfairly foreclosing on their farms. They formed the Non-Partisan League, won an election, and founded the state’s own bank and granary, both of which are still active today.
The BND operates within the private financial market, working alongside private banks rather than replacing them. It provides loans and other banking services, primarily to other banks, local governments, and state agencies, which then lend to or invest in private sector enterprises. It operates with a profit motive, with profits either retained as capital to increase the bank’s loan capacity or returned to the state’s general fund, supporting public projects, education, and infrastructure.
According to the BND website, more than $1 billion had been transferred to the state’s general fund and special programs through 2018, most of it in the previous decade. That is a substantial sum for a state with a population that is only about one-fifteenth the size of Los Angeles County.
The BND actually beats private banks at their own game, generating a larger return on equity (ROE) for its public citizen-owners than even the largest Wall Street banks return to their private investors.
The Dark Side of Mental Health Care: A History of Control, Exploitation, and Corporate Greed
Dr. Althea Mentes
An Exposé of The Brain Police
Mental health care has always been in conflict and dispute, struggling with deep-seated cultural perceptions, changing medical practices, and a growing tide of mighty industry profit. What is often portrayed as an altruistic mission of healing and support is, in many instances, steeped in a long history of exploitation, control, and harm. From the days of crude bloodletting to corporate-driven over-medication of vulnerable people, one sees how, time and again, the mental health industry has failed to live up to its ethical obligations. This article tries to look into these disturbing histories and present practices to see how mental illness has been commodified, manipulated, and even weaponized for profit. At the same time, millions of people are still marginalized, labeled, and left to suffer.
Every large extended family has an eccentric person, Alzheimer’s patient, or a Type-A driven high achiever, or an Obsessive-Compulsive controller, etc. The stigmatization today is far worse, thanks to Big Pharma and Health Care Corporations raking in obscene profits and running astroturf “community-based” pill-pusher movements.
Hegseth Is a Bad Joke
By David Swanson
Like the Republican Party whose senators will make Pete Hegseth the next U.S. Secretary of War, Hegseth is a bad joke. The Democratic minority in the horribly unrepresentative Senate is a joke you might hear at an amateur mic night.
Hegseth is a guy who has reportedly shouted “Kill all Muslims.” Nobody asked him if he had done that or if he agreed with it — not even when he claimed to have been labeled an extremist purely for having a Christian tattoo. He’s a guy who has told troops in Iraq to disobey an order and shoot on sight rather than only when threatened. No senator asked who was included in acceptable targets or why. He’s said the Geneva Conventions should be ignored. One Republican senator asked him how many pushups he could do and how many human genders there are.
Several asked if he’d be sure to spend a lot on weapons. (He would.) While Hegseth denounces government spending and has appeared in photographs wearing “Big Government Sucks” on his chest, on Tuesday he repeatedly claimed — falsely and laughably — that Congress had cut military spending during Biden’s years in the White House. Asked by Senate Armed “Services” Chairman Roger Wicker if spending less than 3% of GDP on militarism endangered the United States (Wicker seemed to falsely suggest that the United States does spend less than that) Hegseth agreed.
The Real Matrix: A Deep Dive into the Surveillance Digital Prison, Artificial Intelligence, and Global Control 2013 - 2025
Tracy Turner
Albertsons Safeway Vons GMOs Pesticides Chemicals Article
A Case Study of Zionist Globalism
The real question in the 21st century is not "Are we living in a simulation?" but "Are we living in a prison?" Welcome to the Digital Matrix-a highly interconnected web of surveillance, AI, predictive analytics, and corporate greed that seeks to trap every aspect of our lives for profit. While in the movie version of The Matrix, human beings were physically plugged into an artificial simulation, the real Digital Matrix operates invisibly through our devices, the networks we navigate, and the data we provide. It feeds into an ecosystem in which your smartphone, laptop, credit card transactions, and patterns on social media coagulate in effect to serve and reinforce control-pervasive and insidious, franken-dystopian constructions more nightmarish than any Hollywood ever dreamed of.
This exposé explores this digital prison that is set up and well-developed by pivotal entities such as Palantir, Google, Apple, Boeing, NSA, Mossad Unit 8200, Amazon, Microsoft, and many others. It's not just a data collection; they use it to control you. The question is no longer if we are being watched but how much of our lives are being analyzed, commodified, and sold back to us, masquerading as "convenience" and "innovation." The world of Surveillance Control Capitalism is here already, and it is in full bloom.
The Folly and Illegality of Sanctions
Paul Craig Roberts
I am being asked if the issuance by the dreadful Biden regime of a new package of sanctions against Russian oil exports are a gift to the incoming Trump presidency or a poisoned chalice. My answer is neither. The sanctions, if the incoming Trump regime leaves them in place, are a poisoned chalice for the American consumer and for America’s European allies or puppets. If the sanctions succeed, reducing the world’s supply of oil in the market will drive up prices. The demand for oil is inelastic with respect to price. A higher price of oil will increase Russian oil renevues and hurt everyone else.
In Germany industry is already leaving to locate in countries with less costly energy. This will leave Germans unemployed. American commute times mean that higher energy prices cut into discretionary income and consumer spending, reducing the outlook for growth and profits. For Russia it means a higher oil revenues. If I were in charge in Russia, I would not sell energy to enemies conducting war against Russia. Russia can finance its domestic developments without foreign exchange. Michael Hudson and I have explained this many times. We are amazed that Putin tolerates the incompetence or worse of his central bank director, whose 21% interest rates are a worse threat to Russia than NATO, American sanctions, and the remnants of the Ukrainian army.
The Decline of Mainstream News in 2023 and 2024: Failing to Respond to Global Challenges, Increasingly State-Aligned Media
Cathy Smith
The Sputnik/TASS Nature of Fox, CNN, MSNBC, and BBC
It isn't just the digital news portals. You search Google and Bing for Activism, Dissidence, Truth to Power and you get an inner urban liquor store, donut shop and Burger King.
The media landscape underwent a significant shift, marked by the decline of traditional news media and the emergence of alternative journalism. This transition was accompanied by a range of challenges, from political coverage to human rights, health, environmental sustainability, social problems, technological advances, global wars, and cultural narratives. Most independent outlets, with their promise of fresh, untainted voices, found it difficult to cover these critical topics. They often found themselves entangled in corporate-governmental webs, which diminished their proclaimed independence and effectiveness.
In 2023 and 2024, the decline of mainstream news has become a spectacle for anyone still clinging to the belief that media outlets like Fox, CNN, MSNBC, and the BBC serve the public good. These institutions, once champions of journalistic integrity, now seem to be more concerned with pandering to their political audiences than addressing the global challenges of our time. The narrative has shifted from being a resource for information to merely a tool for state-run media to push agendas, with the likes of Sputnik and TASS as the gold standards of media manipulation. This isn"t a coincidence--state control of information is no longer hidden behind closed doors but proudly on display, eroding credibility and dismantling any vestige of media integrity. The so-called "news" delivered by these outlets is increasingly shaped by media bias and the whims of political power, all while audiences are left questioning whether they can still trust anything they hear or read. It"s almost as if the headlines themselves are part of some twisted political narrative, crafted to obscure the truth rather than illuminate it.
The McMansionization of California's Fire Ecology: Greed, Corruption, and the Role of Technology in Environmental Manipulation and Social Control
Fred Gransville
Abstract
The rapid urbanization of California's fire-prone zones, driven by large-scale land developments known as McMansionization, has resulted in significant ecological disruption, heightened wildfire risks, and undermining fire ecology. Exacerbating this trend are such advanced technologies as satellite surveillance, directed energy weapons, and space-based lasers, potentially used for environmental manipulation or control. This paper aims to deepen our understanding of how McMansionization intersects with Agenda 21—a United Nations sustainability program—and how corporate greed and technological advancement could lead to environmental destruction, social control, and population management. By discussing the wider socio-political ramifications of untrammeled development and technological overreach in California through ecological analysis and critiques from experts with PhDs, we hope to engage you in this crucial issue.
The fire-prone zones of California have increasingly become targets for large-scale real estate development, a trend colloquially known as McMansionization. This endeavor of human greed and avarice disrupts fire ecology and promotes the risks of disastrous wildland fires, with McMansionization playing a central role in this disruption. In the interest of profit, developers tend to overlook the long-term environmental implications of such urbanization, which political lobbying and regulatory leniency enhance.
Preliminary Economic Ripple Effect and Unparalleled Demand on Federal Relief: A Case Study of the 2025 California Wildfires
by Tracy Turner
Disaster Relief and Economic Stimulus: A Comparison of the 1986-1987 Earthquakes with the 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires
In 1986-1987, California had suffered three major earthquakes that caused immense destruction. The disasters led to the U.S. government committing over $1 trillion in various federal and FEMA relief. This paper compares the economic impact brought about by the earthquakes of 1986-1987 and the 2025 wildfires of Los Angeles and estimates necessary federal aid as well as potential economic recovery. The following analysis, with specific calculations and financial comparisons, shows how the 2025 wildfires could require an even higher level of federal investment than the earthquakes and be a national economic stimulus.
Section 1: 1986-1987 Earthquakes - Financial Impact and Federal Relief
| Earthquake | Economic Loss (Nominal) | Adjusted for Inflation | Total FEMA & Federal Relief |
| Northridge Earthquake (1994) | $44 billion | $75 billion | $500 billion |
| Whittier Narrows (1987) | $358 million | $800 million | $15 billion |
| Sierra Madre (1986) | $100 million | $225 million | $5 billion |
| Total Economic Loss | $50 billion | $76 billion | $1 trillion |
Blinken’s Blinkered Vision Has Spotted, of All Things, a Genocide
By David Swanson, World BEYOND War
The U.S. Secretary of State has taken a break from demanding more weapons shipments to fuel the genocide in Palestine, to announce that he has “recognized” a genocide in Sudan.
Blinken says he has based his determination on the horrific killing of civilians in Sudan, without citing any evidence of intent to commit genocide. It is the voluminous evidence of that intent that distinguishes the genocide in Gaza from most wars, virtually every one of which in recent decades has amounted to a mass slaughter of mostly civilians — and most of which have been more one-sided than the war in Sudan.
