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Germany’s Latest War on Freedom

There is no censorship here in Germany,” according to Steffen Meyer, a top spokesman for the German government. In reality, Germans have freedom of speech except for ideas that politicians and government contractors and nonprofit activists don’t like. Germany is providing a road map for freedom that can be squashed throughout the Western world.

Germany was the scene of some of the 20th century’s worst tyranny but today’s German leaders have only noble intentions for oppression. Berlin’s Best and Brightest™ “improved” democracy by turning politicians into a privileged caste. After a conservative editor mocked a top German law enforcement official by posting a meme showing her holding a sign, “I hate freedom of opinion,” he was convicted and sentenced to seven months in jail for “abuse, slander or defamation against persons in political life.” The editor is on probation while the sentence is suspended but many other Germans have been locked up for similar offenses.

The US State Department Human Rights Report stated that German police “routinely raided homes, confiscated electronic devices, interrogated suspects and prosecuted individuals for the exercise of freedom of speech, including online.” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz personally filed almost 5,000 complaints against his online critics, sometimes resulting in police raids against people he accused.

The German media are gung-ho for government censorship of average Germans. TheNew York Times noted, “Authorities in Lower Saxony raid homes up to multiple times per month, sometimes with a local television crew in tow.”  The Times reported that in 2022, “Christian Endt, a journalist in Berlin whose coverage of Covid drew a steady stream of insults online, reached a breaking point. After an anonymous Twitter user had called him ‘stupid’ and mentally ill, he embarked on a mission to see if he could get the person prosecuted.”

The Twitter account didn’t have a real name but Endt used an image search of his picture and tracked it down to a small-business owner. Local prosecutors fined that guy more than a thousand dollars. Endt told the New York Times, “I was not even sure if what this guy wrote was a crime or not. In the end, I’m happy they did something about it and this person got a signal that there are some limits on free speech.” But is there no limit to the cowardliness of some German journalists? Publicly admitting that you ran crying to the authorities after some dweeb called you stupid and crazy makes a journalist unfit for writing about anything that offends anyone.   

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Assaults On ICE Are ‘Highly Coordinated,’ While Local Law Enforcement Told to Stand Down

The Department of Homeland Security has surged federal law enforcement personnel into Minneapolis amid what officials describe as a sharp escalation in violence against officers operating in the city, which has been designated a sanctuary jurisdiction, according to DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

McLaughlin said the deployment was necessary because sanctuary policies in Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota restrict cooperation between federal agents and local law enforcement, leaving DHS officers exposed while carrying out immigration enforcement operations.

“So what’s happening with Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota is it is a sanctuary city, so DHS law enforcement, we’re not allowed to engage with their local law enforcement,” McLaughlin said.

“We’re not allowed in their jails, and local law enforcement are not allowed to respond to backup to our officers.”

According to McLaughlin, those restrictions have coincided with what she described as a coordinated campaign of violence against federal officers.

“So what we’ve been seeing is a highly coordinated campaign of violence against our law enforcement officers,” she said.

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Justice Jackson Outdoes Herself With Complete Nonsense Of An Opinion

Leave it to the woman who doesn’t know what a woman is to decide if men belong in women’s sports. 

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stumbled through oral argument Tuesday in the case of West Virginia v. B.P.J. The case concerns “[w]hether Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prevents a state from consistently designating girls’ and boys’ sports teams based on biological sex determined at birth,” and “whether the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment prevents a state from offering separate boys’ and girls’ sports teams based on biological sex determined at birth,” according to SCOTUSblog. 

Biological sex is indeed “determined,” as in, “ascertained,” not “assigned.” 

Jackson described her understanding of the issue at hand to West Virginia Solicitor General Michael Williams. 

“You have the overarching classification, you know, everybody has to be, um, uh, play on the team that is the same as their sex at birth, um, but then you have a gender identity definition that is operating within that, meaning, a distinction, meaning that um, for, uh, cisgender girls they can play consistent with their gender identity, for transgender girls, they can’t,” said Jackson. 

Jackson distinguishes between “sex” and “gender identity” as though the latter is a category deserving of equal consideration. “Gender identity” only means “a particular feeling I have about myself.” If that feeling leads one to make unreasonable demands, it is perfectly reasonable to toss those demands in the trash. 

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Dr. Oz on MN Fraud: ‘We Are Taking the Largest Action of Its Kind Ever in Medicaid History’

Dr. Oz announced what he described as the largest enforcement action in Medicaid history, saying his administration has begun demanding financial documentation from states and deferring hundreds of millions of dollars in payments amid concerns about fraud and improper spending.

According to Dr. Oz, the move requires states to submit detailed receipts for Medicaid expenditures, with a significant portion of funding potentially withheld while reviews are conducted.

“So we are taking the largest action of its kind ever in Medicaid history, by asking the state to give us all the receipts, and we’re going to defer could be hundreds of millions of dollars,” Dr. Oz said. “A quarter of money that’s not going to go to the state.”

Dr. Oz specifically addressed criticism from Minnesota’s congressional delegation, pushing back on claims that the action would harm residents.

He said the state has sufficient financial reserves to absorb the impact.

“Now I just heard all that belly aching from Congressman and Congresswoman from Minnesota,” Dr. Oz said.

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Fentanyl Deaths Fall As Evidence Points To China Crackdown Trump Long Advocated

A sharp decline in U.S. overdose deaths appears increasingly tied to a disruption in the global fentanyl supply chain – an outcome that new research suggests may stem in part from intensified pressure on Chinese chemical suppliers.

The findings, published Thursday in Science, enter a long-running debate over what finally reversed a drug crisis that pushed annual overdose deaths above 100,000 during the Biden administration. Fatalities began falling in mid-2023 and dropped more sharply thereafter, a trend that has continued under Donald Trump, who has long-framed fentanyl trafficking as a national-security threat and used tariffs, border enforcement and overseas interdictions as leverage.

While public-health officials have pointed to billions spent on addiction treatment, naloxone distribution and domestic law enforcement, the research places renewed emphasis on a crackdown by Beijing – specifically, efforts to prevent fentanyl from being manufactured at all.

The paper concludes that the illicit fentanyl market experienced a significant supply contraction, “possibly tied to Chinese government actions,” citing falling purity in seized drugs, reduced seizure volumes and online reports of shortages. The findings align with arguments long advanced by Trump and his advisers: that pressuring China’s chemical sector was central to choking off supply.

“This demonstrates how influential China can be and how much they can help us – or hurt us,” said Keith Humphreys, a co-author of the study and a former White House drug policy adviser under President Barack Obama.

U.S. law-enforcement agencies have for years scrutinized China’s role as a key supplier of precursor chemicals used by Mexican criminal organizations to synthesize fentanyl. During Trump’s first term, Beijing agreed to classify fentanyl-related substances, though traffickers adapted by shifting to precursor chemicals instead.

Since 2023, however, Chinese authorities have shut down some chemical suppliers and tightened oversight. The Drug Enforcement Administration, in its latest annual drug intelligence report, said China-based suppliers are increasingly wary of selling internationally – evidence, the agency said, that enforcement pressure is having an effect.

According to the CDC, estimated U.S. drug deaths fell in 2024 to about 81,700, with roughly 49,200 involving synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. While 2025 data are not yet available, researchers believe the downward trend is continuing.

The timing remains contested. Formal U.S. – China cooperation was announced ahead of a November 2023 summit between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, months after overdose deaths had already begun to fall. Researchers acknowledge the mismatch but suggest Chinese enforcement may have begun quietly before the agreement was made public.

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Michigan County Clerk Discovers 239 Non-Citizens Selected For Jury Duty Over 4-Month Period, With 14 Registered To Vote

Macomb County Clerk Anthony G. Forlini announced Monday that noncitizens have been appearing in the Michigan county’s jury pool “at an alarming rate” and many of them are registered to vote. The data indicates that many noncitizens have potentially sat on juries and/or illegally voted in elections.

During a press conference in the courthouse jury room in Mount Clemens, MI, Forlini stated that an internal review of the county identified 239 noncitizens selected for jury duty over a four-month period from September 5, 2025, to January 8, 2026.

The jury pool is drawn from the Michigan Secretary of State’s driver’s license database, which does not consistently flag citizenship status, allowing noncitizens—such as lawful permanent residents with green cards—to be included.

Forlini, who is running for Secretary of State, emphasized that noncitizens are ineligible for jury duty under Michigan law.

Upon cross-checking the 239 noncitizens against the state’s Qualified Voter File (QVF), Forlini’s office found that 14 had been registered to vote at some point, with three individuals appearing to have cast ballots, including one who voted multiple times.

This was just one county in Michigan over a four month period.

“We need to bring these issues to light, we need to be able to show a light on this and say, ‘Hey, there’s a problem,’” Forlini said. “Secretary of State offices need to verify all applications against federal databases. I think this is critically important.”

He said the three noncitizens who voted have been referred to county Corporation Counsel for consideration of felony charges.

The clerk expressed concern that the current system relies on self-reporting, meaning noncitizens could serve on juries without being identified, potentially compromising the integrity of the judicial process.

He also highlighted that Michigan’s automatic voter registration process, which registers individuals when they apply for a driver’s license unless they opt out, may contribute to the issue, particularly if applicants do not understand the citizenship checkbox on the form.

“Non-citizens are coming through at an alarming rate. Our jury service summons are based on random draws from the driver’s license bank. Frequently non-citizens slip through because citizenship was not flagged in the Secretary of State database,” Forlini stated.

He called for improved data sharing between state and federal databases to enable more reliable citizenship verification.

“We must find a way for the Driver’s License database to confirm citizenship. Many times there may be a language barrier, and applicants do not understand what they are signing. If this is not addressed, we risk compromising our jury trials and our elections,”  Forlini said.

“One possibility is to take advantage of new breakthroughs in linking several databases, where one database is able flag another database for actual citizenship verification.,” he added.

The issue has drawn bipartisan attention, with former Secretary of State Candice Miller and state Representative Joe Aragona supporting calls for legislative review.

A member of the Macomb County Clerk’s office, however, stated during the press conference that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s (D) office said “we’re not gonna touch this” when presented with evidence of non-citizens on jury pool and voter rolls.

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US May Spend Up to $2 Billion on New Israeli Armored Vehicle Factory

The US may spend up to $2 billion financing the construction of a new armored production plant in Israel, Haaretz reported on Monday, citing official US documents.

The report said that the Israeli government announced last year a project it calls the “Armored Vehicle Acceleration Project” to increase production of Merkava tanks and troop carriers used by the IDF. The Israeli Defense Ministry estimated the project would cost about $1.5 billion, but didn’t mention potential US financing.

The US Army Corps of Engineers said in a presentation in October that future “business opportunities” in Israel include the “planning, design, and construction” of the “Joint Systems Manufacturing Center” for the armored vehicles. The presentation stated that the project is expected to cost between $1 billion and $2 billion and will be financed by US military aid.

Another document from the US Army Corps of Engineers, dated November 2025, outlines “contractor opportunities forecast” and includes the construction of the Israeli armored vehicle plant. “We are exploring the potential for a multibillion-dollar Joint Systems Manufacturing Center (JSMC) project, which could be a pivotal next step for the program,” the presentation reads, according to Haaretz.

The Haaretz report said that when asked about the projects, the US Army said a final decision had not been made. The potential project highlights the fact that US military aid to Israel doesn’t just provide weapons shipments but also finances military construction inside the country.

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92% Of Employed Americans Have Cut Back On Spending As The Standard Of Living In The US Crumbles

The headline of this article is not a misprint.  The reason why “affordability” has become the number one issue for U.S. voters is because most of the population is being absolutely crushed by the rising cost of living.  

Just look at how much you are paying for electricity compared to five years ago.  And just look at how much you are paying for food compared to five years ago.  Housing costs have risen to absurd heights, property taxes have become absolutely insane in many areas of the country, and health insurance premiums have more than doubled for millions of Americans.  It isn’t just a coincidence that so many people are bitterly complaining about the cost of living these days.  The truth is that most of the country is experiencing very real pain.

Of course it isn’t an accident that this has happened.  Our politicians have borrowed and spent 28 trillion dollars that we did not have since Barack Obama first entered the White House in January 2009, and I warned that all of this money would create rampant inflation.

On top of that, the Federal Reserve has pumped trillions of dollars that were created out of thin air into the financial system since 2008.  That has helped the stock market hit record highs, but it has been one of the factors that has made the cost of living unbearable for the rest of us.

The very foolish decisions that our leaders have been making have had dramatic consequences.

Our standard of living is crumbling right in front of our eyes, and now a brand new report is telling us that 92 percent of employed Americans have been forced to cut back on spending…

For millions of Americans, staying financially afloat now means difficult trade-offs. As the price of everyday necessities continues to rise faster than wages, new data shows workers are cutting back wherever they can – often at the expense of savings, overall financial security and even essential needs.

That is the picture emerging from Resume Now’s 2026 Cost-of-Living Crunch Report, a national survey of 1,011 employed Americans, which has found that only 17 percent of Americans feel financially secure enough to cover essentials and save money. Nearly two-thirds of respondents cited everyday essentials as their biggest financial burden. What’s more, a remarkable 92 percent said they have cut back on spending, including on items many would previously have considered non-negotiable.

Please notice that only “employed Americans” were asked about the cost of living.

More than 100 million U.S. adults are not working at all.

For those that do not regularly follow my work, yes that is an accurate number.  The vast majority of U.S. adults that are not working are considered to be “not in the labor force” by the federal government.

Another survey that was conducted at the end of December found that 70 percent of Americans consider the cost of living where they live to be “not very affordable” or “not affordable at all”…

American consumers aren’t feeling great about the economy or their own financial situation, with the phrase “affordability crisis” dominating headlines and political campaigns over the last few months.

The majority — 70% — of Americans surveyed in a Marist poll of over 1,400 adults taken in December, say that the cost of living in their area is not very affordable, or not affordable at all, for the average family.

This is the result of decades of incredibly bad economic policy.

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‘Who is hiding behind these masks?’: Investigators want to know whether ICE is employing former Jan. 6 defendants, demand docs about ‘violent rioters’ hired by DHS

As controversies involving federal immigration agents pile up in multiple cities, congressional investigators are demanding to know whether the Trump administration has hired anyone who was previously pardoned for taking part in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In a four-page letter on Monday, House Judiciary Democrats put the question directly – and in plain terms – to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

“How many pardoned January 6th insurrectionists have been hired by your respective departments?” the letter begins.

In the letter, Maryland Rep. and ranking member Jamie Raskin details how some in the orbit of Jan. 6 have since come to work for the DOJ itself in high-profile positions. Among such employees are pardoned ex-FBI supervisor Jared Wise, who now serves as senior adviser in the office of the Deputy Attorney General. Raskin also makes reference to “J6 enthusiast and defense counsel” Ed Martin, who currently serves as Associate Deputy Attorney General and the head of the DOJ’s “Weaponization Working Group.”

Still, those references – to Wise and Martin – merely preface Raskin’s overarching concern.

“We know that some participants in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol have been rewarded with high-ranking positions in the Department of Justice,” the congressman said in a press release. “However, it remains unclear how many more have been invited to join the ranks of this Administration, including among the masked Department of Homeland Security agents and officers that have dragged, tackled, beaten, tased, shot, and killed citizens and non-citizens alike in communities around the country.”

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773,000-Year-Old Fossils Discovered in Morocco Shed Light on the Last Common Ancestor of Humans and Neanderthals

An international team of researchers has identified an African hominin population that existed very early in the Homo sapiens lineage, providing new insight into the shared ancestry of Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans.

The discovery was made at the Thomas Quarry I site in Casablanca, Morocco, where researchers identified 773,000-year-old hominin fossils dated to Earth’s last magnetic polarity reversal. A recent paper published in Nature reported the discovery of this ancient human ancestor.

Grotte à Hominidés

The Moroccan-French collaboration “Préhistoire de Casablanca” has been conducting excavations, geoarchaeological analyses, and stratigraphic studies in the region for more than three decades. Careful work has revealed not only hominin remains, but also important information about their geological context.

“Thomas Quarry I lies within the raised coastal formations of the Rabat–Casablanca littoral, a region internationally renowned for its exceptional succession of Plio-Pleistocene palaeoshorelines, coastal dunes and cave systems,” said co-author Jean-Paul Raynal, co-director of the program. “These geological formations, resulting from repeated sea-level oscillations, aeolian phases, and rapid early cementation of coastal sands, offer ideal conditions for fossil and archaeological preservation.”

Casablanca is home to some of the most important Pleistocene paleontological and archaeological sites in Africa, illuminating the region’s evolving hominin occupation. Thomas Quarry I has already produced significant finds dating back 1.3 million years and is in close proximity to other important Pleistocene sites, such as Sidi Abderrahmane.

Together, these sites form the “Grotte à Hominidés,” a cave system formed by a marine highstand and later filled with sediment, providing a combination of high-grade preservation and stratigraphic context for the finds.

Dating the Remote Past

That stratigraphic context makes the sites unique globally, as Early and Middle Pleistocene fossils are typically difficult to accurately date. In the Grotte à Hominidés, the infill and continuous deposition create a clear magnetic signal, enhancing the reliability of dating techniques.

Roughly 773,000 years ago, the most recent of Earth’s past magnetic field reversals, the Matuyama-Bruhes transition, occurred, creating a powerful magnetic marker for modern scientists to date ancient materials against.

“Seeing the Matuyama–Brunhes transition recorded with such resolution in the ThI-GH deposits allows us to anchor the presence of these hominins within an exceptionally precise chronological framework for the African Pleistocene,” said co-author Serena Perini.

The stratigraphic sequence at Grotte à Hominidés begins during the Matuyama Chron reverse-polarity interval, continues into the transition, and then extends into the Brunhes Chron normal-polarity interval.

With an unprecedented 180 magnetostratigraphic samples, the team identified the exact stratigraphic position of the switch. The team was able to establish sediment dating to a precise enough resolution to capture even the relatively brief 8,000 to 11,000-year transition period. Faunal evidence supported the team’s conclusions, confirming what they say is the highest-resolution stratigraphic dating ever produced at a Pleistocene site.

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