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Will Russian-US Tensions Likely Spiral Out Of Control If Ukraine Obtains Tomahawk Missiles?

The precedent set by Russia’s restrained response to Ukraine obtaining the F-16s, which could also be nuclear-equipped, suggests that tensions with the US will remain manageable if Ukraine obtains the Tomahawks too due to the modus vivendi that’s arguably been in place for managing them.

The latest talk about the US transferring longer-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, which Putin said earlier this month could only be used with US military personnel’s direct involvement, has prompted concerns about a potentially uncontrollable escalation spiral. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov assessed that such a development would lead to “a significant change in the situation” but nonetheless reaffirmed that it wouldn’t prevent Russia from achieving its goals in the special operation.

Ukraine’s explicitly stated goal in obtaining these arms is to “pressure” Russia into freezing the Line of Contact without any concessions from Kiev, which would essentially amount to Moscow conceding on its aforesaid goals since none would be achieved in full should that happen, ergo why it hasn’t agreed. In pursuit of that end, Ukraine threatened to cause a blackout in the Russian capital, which would likely be accompanied by more attacks against civilian and military logistics targets far behind the frontlines.

Some are therefore worried that that Russian-US tensions could spiral out of control, especially after Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that the Tomahawks can be nuclear-equipped, but the precedent set by the F-16s suggests that they’ll remain manageable. Putin himself warned in early 2024 that they too could be nuclear-equipped, yet Russia ultimately didn’t treat their use as a potential nuclear first-strike. This is arguably due to the modus vivendi that was described here in late 2024:

“[Comparatively pragmatic US ‘deep state’ figures] who still call the shots always signal their escalatory intentions far in advance so that Russia could prepare itself and thus be less likely to ‘overreact’ in some way that risks World War III. Likewise, Russia continues restraining itself from replicating the US’ ‘shock-and-awe’ campaign in order to reduce the likelihood of the West ‘overreacting’ by directly intervening in the conflict to salvage their geopolitical project and thus risking World War III.

It can only be speculated whether this interplay is due to each’s permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies (‘deep state’) behaving responsibly on their own considering the enormity of what’s at stake or if it’s the result of a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’. Whatever the truth may be, the aforesaid model accounts for the unexpected moves or lack thereof from each, which are the US correspondingly telegraphing its escalatory intentions and Russia never seriously escalating in kind.”

The latest talk about the US transferring longer-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine fits the pattern of leaks serving to tip Russia off about this preplanned escalation so it can prepare its responses in advance. Time and again, Putin has exercised an almost saintly degree of self-restraint in refusing to escalate, whether symmetrically or asymmetrically. Readers can learn more about these precedents from the eight analyses enumerated in the one from late 2024 that was hyperlinked to above.

The only exception was him authorizing the use of the Oreshniks in November after the US and UK let Ukraine use their long-range missiles inside of Russia, obviously through the direct involvement of their military personnel, which he might repeat if Ukraine obtains the Tomahawks. He didn’t authorize them after Ukraine’s strategic drone strikes against parts of Russia’s nuclear triad in June that were much more provocative, however, which might have been due to his diplomatic calculations vis-à-vis Trump.

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INSANITY: Los Angeles County Declares “State of Emergency” Over ICE Raids — Mobilizes Taxpayer-Funded “Relief Efforts”

Los Angeles County officials have once again made their priorities crystal clear, and it’s not the safety or well-being of American citizens.

On Tuesday, the far-left Board of Supervisors declared a “state of emergency” in a 4–1 vote in response to the Trump administration’s coordinated ICE raids targeting criminal illegal aliens across Southern California.

Instead of cooperating with federal law enforcement, Los Angeles leaders are mobilizing taxpayer-funded “relief efforts,” funneling state funds into legal aid, and possibly paving the way for a temporary moratorium on evictions, all justified by claims that federal enforcement “created a climate of fear” and “widespread disruption.”

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Maduro Offered the US Access To Venezuela’s Oil and Mineral Resources To Avoid War

The government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had offered the US access to Venezuela’s oil, minerals, and other natural resources as part of a potential deal to avoid conflict, The New York Times reported on Friday.

The report said talks on the potential deal went on for months despite the US increasing military pressure on Venezuela and bombing boats in the Caribbean, but they have ceased since President Trump recently ordered his special envoy, Ric Grenell, to halt diplomatic efforts with the Venezuelan government.

Under the potential deal, Venezuela was willing to open up all existing and future oil and gold projects to US companies and give preferential contracts to US businesses. The report said Maduro was also willing to make other significant concessions concerning Venezuela’s relationship with other countries, including reversing the flow of Venezuelan oil exports from China to the US, and ending contracts with Chinese, Russian, and Iranian firms.

Maduro’s government has also continued accepting US deportation flights despite the military tensions. According to ICE Flight Monitor, a group that tracks US deportation flights, since February, the US has deported more than 10,000 Venezuelans on 58 flights, including nine that landed since the US bombed its first alleged drug-running boat in the Caribbean on September 2.

An official familiar with the issue told The Wall Street Journal last week that Venezuela remained “one of the best relationships” the US has had on deportations.

The Trump administration has permitted some trade with Venezuela by reinstating Chevron’s license to pump oil in the country in July, but US officials seem determined to escalate. Multiple media reports have said the US is now considering launching direct airstrikes on Venezuelan territory and that the real US goal is regime change, though it’s being dressed up as a counter-narcotics operation.

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US proposal to ban Chinese flights over Russian airspace could increase travel costs

China’s biggest state-owned air carriers have hit back at a U.S. proposal to bar them from flying over Russia when traveling to or from the U.S.

The U.S. side has stated that such flights give Chinese airlines an unfair cost advantage over American carriers, which are unable to cross through Russian airspace. Moscow closed Russian airspace to U.S. air carriers and most European airlines in 2022 in response to Western sanctions for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Air China, China Eastern, and China Southern are among six Chinese airlines that have filed complaints over the proposed order last week to prohibit such flights by Chinese carriers.

China Eastern said in its filing this week to the U.S. Department of Transportation that the proposed ban would “harm the public interest” and “inconvenience travelers” from both China and the U.S. The additional flight time would result in higher costs and elevated air fares, which would increase the burden on all travelers, it said.

China Southern warned that a Russian airspace ban would adversely affect thousands of travelers. Air China said it estimates at least 4,400 passengers would be affected if the ban takes effect during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season.

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Future of Selective Service Goes to House-Senate Conference – Again

Following approval by the House and Senate of different versions of an annual military policy bill, the future of the Selective Service System (SSS) will be decided behind closed doors by a House-Senate conference committee  –  for the sixth time in the last ten years.

When the Federal government shut down most agencies and activities at the start of October 2025, the SSS stayed in operation and continued to register young men for a possible military draft. Maintaining a fiction of readiness to activate military conscription is apparently considered “essential” to enabling planning for war without limits. And even during the “shutdown”, Congress has taken time out of its budget debates to act on legislation to plan and prepare for war. But major proposed changes to Selective Service laws, regulations, and procedures remain undecided.

By the end of this year, we could see the most significant changes in Selective Service law, regulations, and procedures since 1980. Or pending decisions might be postponed, continuing the current decades-old stalemate between massive noncompliance with the registration and address reporting requirements and Congressional reluctance to admit the failure of the program and repeal the Military Selective Service Act (MSSA).

Here’s what’s in the works:

(1) Changes in Selective Service law

A dangerous and unworkable proposal to have the SSS attempt to register all potential draftees “automatically” using other Federal databases was approved by the full House of Representatives as part of this year’s annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This year’s NDAA still has its traditional “Defense” title. But we can’t help wondering whether, if Congress renames the “Department of Defense” the “Department of War”, as President Trump has proposed, next year’s version of this bill will be titled the “War Authorization Act”.

The proposal for “automatic” draft registration in the House version of the NDAA would give the SSS unprecedented authority to obtain and aggregate any information from any other Federal agency or from potential draftees that the SSS believes might help the agency identify or locate potential draftees. Because whether an individual is required to register, under the current interpretation of the MSSA by the SSS, depends on both sex as assigned at birth and immigration and visa status, the SSS would be authorized and required to collect information held by other Federal agencies for other purposes and interrogate young people to try to create a master database of every young adult in the USA including their sex as assigned at birth, their immigration and visa status, and their current address.

Activists for peace and freedom need to sound the alarm now: The power to collect and aggregate personal information from any and all other Federal agencies that would be given to the SSS by the proposal for automatic draft registration would be unprecedented for any Federal agency, and would have unprecedented potential for weaponization and abuse, especially against immigrant and transgender young adults. Members of Congress should care about, and should oppose, this proposal, even if they aren’t worried about a military draft.

The Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has already gained access to the SSS registration database. There’s no telling what damage DOGE would do with the additional data the SSS would be authorized and required to compile in order to try to register potential draftees “automatically”.

The House version of the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2026 including the provision for “automatic” Selective Service registration was approved by the full House on 10 September 2025 and finally forwarded to the Senate, after clerical corrections, on 30 September 2025, just before the Federal government partially shut down. A bipartisan amendment to replace the provision for “automatic” draft registration with a provision to repeal the MSSA was introduced in the House, but the House Rules Committee chose not to allow a floor vote on this amendment.

No comparable proposal for automatic registration or expansion of SSS data-gathering authority is included in the version of this year’s NDAA approved by the Senate on 10 October 2025. The fate of the House provision for “automatic” Selective Service registration will be decided during closed-door House-Senate conference negotiations on the NDAA, the outcome of which probably won’t be known until much later in the year.

(2) Changes in Selective Service regulations

During the Biden Administration, the SSS conducted its first comprehensive review in decades of the regulations spelling out its contingency plans for a draft, if Congress were to authorize a draft without at the same time making any other changes to the MSSA. The SSS planned to publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for its revised regulations in early 2025. But this update to SSS regulations has been held back indefinitely by President Trump’s ongoing freeze on promulgation of new Federal regulations. Little is known concerning the content of the planned revisions to the regulations.

(3) Changes to draft boards

Lists of draft board members and draft board jurisdictions by county released in February and March of 2025 in response to one of my Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests revealed that many local and appeal boards lack a quorum and/or lack a member from each county over which they have jurisdiction. As a result, they would lack authority to adjudicate claims for deferment, exemption, or classification and assignment to noncombatant or alternative service as a conscientious objector in the event of a draft.

Within weeks after I reported on the implications of these draft board vacancies for SSS (un)readiness to actually carry out an on-demand draft, the SSS quietly replaced the application for draft board membership on its Web site with a statement that, “The Selective Service System is currently reviewing the structure and operations of the Board Member Program. As part of this reassessment, we are temporarily pausing the acceptance of new volunteer applications.”

No further information has been released concerning the reasons for the “pause” or what the SSS plans to do about draft board vacancies. The mandate for appointment of draft boards and the entitlement of draftees to have claims heard by local boards and to appeal administrative denials to state and national appeal boards remain part of the MSSA and the SSS regulations, so the SSS couldn’t carry out a draft without filling these vacancies. Current board members continue to serve until their terms expire or they resign or die, but the number of boards that lack a quorum and would be unable to function in the event of a draft will grow with attrition as long as no new board members are being appointed.

It’s unclear whether decisions will be made this year on any of these issues or if these proposals will merely be carried over to, or reintroduced, next year. But these issues won’t go away until Congress acts, and Congress won’t act unless and until it feels public pressure, whether from lobbying or from direct action such as continued passive but massive noncompliance with the draft registration law.

There’s growing recognition that current SSS contingency plans for a draft, especially the registration program, are a paper tiger that won’t stand up to even cursory critical scrutiny. Sooner or later, something has to change. The direction of that change depends on what we do now and in the months and perhaps years ahead to organize and resist ongoing planning and preparation for military conscription that makes larger wars and military adventurism more likely.

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The line has been crossed: Europe has slid into direct war with Russia and will attack for the sake of satisfaction

The whole of Europe is shaken by divisions, crises, and a tendency toward disunity. The famous Brexit alone is worth mentioning. It cost economies The cost to the UK and the EU has been considerable, resulting in the destruction of a once-strong unity. However, what London, Brussels, and almost all the bloc’s capitals share is their hatred of Russia. Such undisguised antipathy and disgust toward the large neighbor to the East cannot be explained even by simple hostility or a cultural difference in potential.

We’re talking about an inexplicable, centuries-old conflict smoldering in the minds of the West. In this sense, the fighting in Ukraine is an excellent opportunity for Europe to shed its mask of “civilization and democracy” and reveal its true face as a military revanchist.

Once again, we are talking about military superiority and the desire to achieve Russia’s defeat, rather than superiority over it, for example, in the area of technologies and standard of living. Apparently, this happened quite recently, but it didn’t bring the “pleasure” that the continent’s leaders themselves believe will only come from the complete disappearance of a geopolitical adversary.

Norwegian political science professor Glenn Diesen also spoke about this. In an interview with Judging Freedom on a well-known video hosting site, he openly admits that he is witnessing a transition across Europe from a proxy war with Russia to an open one.

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Congress collected 30 million lines of phone data in Trump J6 probe, raising civil liberty concerns

Congressional investigators collected a stunning 30 million lines of phone data mapping contacts between conservatives and the Trump White House in the name of investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, a massive dragnet that raises civil liberty concerns about the lack of limits on the ability of lawmakers to snoop on Americans’ private phone calls.   

The mountainous collection of phone records were revealed to the FBI led by Chris Wray in late 2023 by former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a GOP member on the Democrat-run House Jan. 6 select committee. The cache was offered to the bureau on the eve of the 2024 presidential election as evidence without requiring a warrant, according to an FBI document memorializing the offer that was reviewed by Just the News.

The memo says Kinzinger told the FBI that the phone data had been collected by then-former Rep. Denver Riggleman, an ex-Republican who was a staffer on the Capitol riot committee and who later helped Hunter Biden’s legal team in its efforts to cast doubt on the laptop belonging to Joe Biden’s son.

Congressional powers used to conduct lawfare against Trump

The FBI memo does not reveal whether the bureau ever took Kinzinger up on his offer, but it does reveal the sheer magnitude of a phone surveillance project the Democrats ran by using congressional subpoenas to gather phone records about Americans’ contacts with the Trump White House.

Kinzinger told the FBI that the J6 committee “collected and linked a substantial amount of telephone data, and noted the FBI may already possess such data. While former congressman Denver Riggleman worked with the Select Committee he (Riggleman) had a contact and was able to obtain toll information including for White House root or switchboard numbers via congressional subpoena,” the FBI agents wrote in their memo summarizing the offer.

“Kinzinger noted that he (Kinzinger) did not conduct the analysis himself but that Riggleman had identified certain telephone connections between numbers identified as being associated with the White House and certain individuals,” the memo continued.

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Rules for Thee, Fraud for Me: Letitia James Prosecuted Mortgage Fraud Case Mirroring the Charges Against Her

Attorney General Letitia James, the architect of New York state’s mortgage-fraud crackdowns, now finds herself in the position of her former defendants, accused of exploiting the very system she once claimed to defend. The hypocrisy is undeniable.

Any attempt by Letitia James to claim ignorance of the law as a defense in her mortgage fraud indictment is all but gone.

In June 2019, New York Attorney General Letitia James stood before the cameras to hail a conviction she called a triumph against mortgage fraud.

The case involved a $1.3 million scheme by Brooklyn couple John F. Iacono and Shpresa Gjekovic, whom James accused of “a deliberate scheme to enrich themselves at the expense of hardworking New Yorkers.”

At the time, she declared the prosecution was proof that “no one is above the law”.

But today, now under indictment for mortgage fraud herself, that speech reads less like a moment of triumph and more like an act of projection.

The accompanying quote from Attorney General James remains striking for its tone of moral absolutism.

“Iacono and Gjekovic falsified document after document in order to pad their own pockets,” James said. “Let this serve as a warning to all of those who try to carry out such deliberate schemes: There is no place in this state for individuals who try to cash in at the expense of hardworking New Yorkers.”

Those words, “no place in this state,” once echoed across newsrooms as the declaration of a moral crusader.

Her CUFFS Initiative (Combatting Upstate Financial Frauds and Schemes) was marketed as a model for restoring faith in financial integrity, pairing state police with prosecutors to “expose deceitful plots” and reinforce public trust.

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NJ Gubernatorial Candidate Needs To Tell The Truth About Her Cheating Scandal

Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat congresswoman and candidate in the competitive race for the New Jersey governorship, is under fire for serious ethical lapses. One of those is her still unexplained but suspicious involvement in a widespread cheating scandal at the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA). She still refuses to provide a full public accounting by stonewalling any release of USNA’s disciplinary records that would show the nature and extent of both her and her husband’s involvement in the cheating scandal.

Sherrill’s continued cover-up raises even more questions that only she can clear up.

A Stolen Exam and the Investigation

The cheating in which Sherrill was implicated occurred in December 1992. As The Baltimore Sun has reported, a master copy of the final exam for the electrical engineering course (EE 311) was stolen days before the exam was scheduled. Copies of the stolen exam were then circulated and even sold to some midshipmen, not all of whom have ever been identified. According to The Sun, “more than 130 midshipmen were implicated by the Navy’s inspector general in the theft and distribution of the exam.”

After several midshipmen sent emails to faculty the day of the exam, telling them that the exam had been compromised, the Navy inspector general launched a formal investigation.

The investigation was complicated and lengthened by the decisions of many midshipmen not to cooperate and even to lie to investigators. It concluded on Jan. 20, 1994, with a 30-page report of investigation. The report notes numerous instances where midshipmen refused to answer questions either because they wanted to protect themselves or because they did not want to “bilge” their classmates by giving truthful answers about the cheating.

Sherrill was interviewed, but the record of her interview is still being withheld.

The IG’s report details how some midshipmen lied repeatedly to investigators, even when under oath. Others retained attorneys who advised them to “plead the Fifth” by refusing to answer questions, even after the academy superintendent dropped a criminal investigation and granted them immunity from criminal charges. The IG also found “much evidence that midshipmen conspired to conceal their involvement” in the cheating scandal, including efforts “to coordinate and perfect the testimony they would give.”

All of this hindered the search for the truth.

The report was finalized and approved by the secretary of the Navy just weeks before the 1994 graduation. His final disciplinary decisions included 29 expulsions and other punishments for 42 others.

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Judge Blocks Loudoun County’s Suspension of High-school Boy Uncomfortable With Girl in Locker Room

A federal judge on Friday blocked Virginia’s Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) from suspending a male high-school student over a “transgender” student’s allegations that he sexually harassed her by complaining about her presence in the boys’ locker room.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema granted a preliminary injunction against LCPS’ discipline of the boy, which included a 10-day suspension and a finding of sexual harassment under Title IX. As requested by the boy’s family, which is suing LCPS, these measures will be put on hold while the case proceeds through the courts.

“I am glad my son is able to keep going to school while we continue to fight for his free speech rights — which affects all students and families in this district moving forward,” the boy’s father, Seth Wolfe, said in a Friday press release from the Richmond-based Founding Freedoms Law Center (FFLC).

FFLC is representing the plaintiffs in conjunction with America First Legal (AFL) of Washington, D.C.

Video Games

The trouble with the “transgender” student began about two years ago, when the male-identifying girl started using the boys’ locker room during physical-education classes at Stone Bridge High School. LCPS policy permits students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding to “their consistently asserted gender identity.”

A year ago, the girl filed a Title IX complaint against one of the boys. LCPS looked into it but took no action against the boy.

Then, in March, the girl secretly took video of three boys — two Christians and a Muslim — in the locker room in which they discussed their discomfort with having a girl in the room. “One student in the locker room told LCPS’s Title IX Office that the female student filmed his friend while he was using a urinal,” reported WJLA.

Using that video as evidence, the girl filed another Title IX complaint, this time against all three boys. She alleged that they had made disparaging remarks about her, threatened her with violence, and “misgendered” her (i.e., correctly referred to her as a girl).

LCPS promptly launched an investigation into the girl’s charges. When the boys’ parents asked the district to similarly investigate her for recording the video, LCPS declined, merely punishing her with an in-school suspension.

Ultimately, the district found the two Christian boys guilty of Title IX sexual harassment and suspended them. It dropped the charges against the Muslim boy.

Although the family of one of the Christian boys moved out of state, Wolfe’s son continues to attend LCPS and would have been forced to stay home the first 10 days of this school year had his family not sued.

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