Blog

The Right-Wing Ukraine Divide Returns

President Donald Trump reignited a fierce debate within the American right on October 10, when he made some aggressive remarks about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Zelensky could’ve settled this war many times,” Trump said. “He chooses not to. Very difficult.”

Trump went on, “We said you can do whatever you want to Russia, don’t hit the refineries, because that’s a world problem that it’s caused… and what does he do? He goes and hits the diesel fuel.”

“He better damn well stop,” Trump continued. “I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal.”

Trump’s colorful statements come in the aftermath of an oil deal he announced with Russia, in which he says Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to distribute “300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel” to the American and global markets. As the midterm elections quickly approach, Trump is making a last-ditch effort to bring down the price of gasoline and diesel here in America – an issue which has caused serious concern among voters.

The move was a brief and sudden departure from the foreign policy that has defined Trump 2.0 up to this point, which has been one that combines Bush-like hubris with a lustful attraction to militarism. Trump even seemed to have been growing fond of Zelensky, whom he had lambasted in February 2025 – saying the Ukrainian president was “gambling with World War Three.”

In response to the deal, the Russia-Ukraine war’s top boosters came out of the shadows to denounce the move as a betrayal of Ukraine. Former Vice President Mike Pence was among the pro-war figures to speak out, saying on Twitter/X that “President Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on Russian fuel amidst Putin’s ongoing and brutal attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine makes no sense and is a betrayal of the legacy and leadership of the late Senator Lindsey Graham.”

Lindsey Graham?

Graham, who died this past summer, was one of the biggest pro-Ukraine zealots in Washington. He was working up until his final hours to pursue the interests of Ukraine in the U.S. Senate. A fierce advocate for increased American support for Zelensky’s war effort, Graham also drafted legislation to sanction Russia – a bill which was passed over the summer in his memory. He often acted as Zelensky’s voice in Trump’s ear.

To say that American foreign policy should prioritize the defense of Graham’s legacy – a man who “never saw a war that he didn’t like,” in Trump’s words – is foolish at best, and dangerous at worst. The good news is that Pence isn’t in a position to enact such policy goals. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t people close to Trump, or media figures from whom Trump seeks approval, who share Pence’s perspective.

Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade is one such figure. Kilmeade has always held the line on supporting America’s foreign adventures, no matter how reckless or needless they may be. The proxy war in Ukraine is no different. After the news broke regarding the Russian oil deal, a debate ignited on Sunday’s edition of “Fox & Friends Weekend” between Kilmeade and Rachel Campos-Duffy, wife of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Campos-Duffy gave the administration’s pitch to the Fox audience, attempting to convince Kilmeade.

“[Zelensky] keeps blowing up these refineries after the President [Trump] said ‘please don’t do that,’ especially before the midterms,” Campos-Duffy said. “It’s hurting President Trump and the administration who’s been very generous towards him and his war efforts.”

Kilmeade responded, saying “The President got ticked off because Zelensky came out and said do not buy 500 million tons of diesel, which is in violation, I thought, of the bill that they just signed, Lindsey Graham’s bill. If you buy any energy from Russia, you’re going to get sanctioned and tariffed. Are we going to tariff ourselves?”

He went on, “Zelensky’s frustrated because now all this money is going to flow into Russia, who started this whole war unprovoked, their the bad guys… there’s no plausible, practical peace effort that Vladimir Putin would participate in effectively that would end this war. There’s one person who is responsible. Vladimir Putin. That is it.”

“It would be the biggest mistake of his administration to work with Russia,” Kilmeade added.

Keep reading

AI sector wipeout risks global financial contagion, IMF report warns — 14 deals drove $1.4 trillion in circular orders on $650B in loans

Watchers and reporters in the AI space have long pointed out how its circular economy could implode, potentially taking associated investments with it. The IMF has examined those fears in its latest Global Financial Stability Report, and its conclusions are stark. In the IMF’s view, the global economy is becoming increasingly dependent on capital flows to the AI world, and a crash could result in harm to global GDP, investment, and consumption by 2028.

The report makes a distinction between “core” AI firms and others in the space. Presumably, core firms include companies like TSMC, Nvidia, and AMD, memory makers like SK hynix and Micron, and storage vendors like Western Digital. Those firms are seeing historical windfalls, and most of their production is currently spoken for years in advance. In other words, in this gold rush, these are the companies making bank selling the shovels.

In theory, if non-core players fail, only their investors would suffer harm, but according to the report, there’s still risk to worry about. Hedge funds have increased leveraged positions and margin borrowing, further exposing themselves to the blast radius of a potential bubble pop. Adding to that, the IMF states that the share of single stocks in leveraged ETFs increased to 28%, likely fueled by demand for AI and tech stocks. By our reckoning, a sharp drop in those equities could trigger a massive sell-off by the ETF issuers and lenders, triggering a feedback loop.

Keep reading

America’s AI ambitions threaten Indigenous lands in the Philippines

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. arrived at the Grand Hyatt Manila on Sept. 10 to address hundreds of foreign business representatives assembled for the Luzon Economic Corridor investors’ forum.

Outside the hotel, hundreds of demonstrators had also gathered, carrying signs that read “No to Pax Silica!” The scene reflected both the government’s ambitious plans to ride the artificial intelligence wave and deep ambivalence in civil society.

Police confronted the crowd, shoving them with riot shields and batons on the street outside the hotel lobby. Activists say police injured at least 27 protesters and arrested five. Police, meanwhile, reported minor cuts and injuries to 16 personnel. 

Protester Jona Yang, from the activist-scientist group AGHAM, said she was negotiating with the police to cool tensions when they arrested her. “We want the Marcos government and investors to see the outrage all of this has caused,” Yang told Mongabay. “They’re taking away our resources and our lands.”

The Luzon Economic Corridor, or LEC, is an economic initiative focused on the Philippines’ biggest island, begun in 2024. Pax Silica, the U.S.-led global pact to build an AI and semiconductor supply chain that is not reliant on China, includes the LEC. In April, Washington and Manila announced plans to build a 4,000-acre high-tech manufacturing hub in the Central Luzon region.

Pax Silica has become a lightning rod for political and environmental contentions. The government maintains it’s a boon for the Philippine economy. But opponents of the project, including Indigenous and local communities living on the land designated for the project, say it’s an international land and resource grab in the name of U.S. AI ambitions.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Manila in July to affirm bilateral commitment to the project, with a final agreement slated for signing in November.

At the LEC forum, Pax Silica was discussed behind closed doors, and officials gave few details about its future. Angela Ignacio, an undersecretary at the Philippine Department of Finance, told reporters it would be premature to share any details on Pax Silica before plans are finalized. But she did call it a chance for the Philippines to become a “global player when it comes to technologies that will shape the future.”

Heather Variava, senior adviser to the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs, added that “the goal of the U.S. is always to be an additive, to bring more power, to bring water, to bring more benefits to the Philippines.”

The Pax Silica hub will be built within New Clark City, a government-planned “smart” city inside the greater 79,000-acre Clark area, a former U.S. military complex. Clark is titled and managed by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, or BCDA, an office under the supervision of the president. At a press briefing, development authority chief Joshua Bingcang shared a “conservative” estimate that the facility would need around 3 gigawatts of energy to run. He also said that it would be green and mainly solar powered.

“We are blessed with 300 days of sunshine,” Bingcang added.

Running consistently, the Pax Silica facility would demand about 26.3 terawatt-hours each year; by contrast, the Philippines’ entire service sector consumed about 28 TWh in 2024.

Keep reading

Why Europe Depends on the U.S. for Intelligence

Europe depends on the United States for intelligence because it never built the systems the U.S. operates. It has no missile early-warning satellites, few reconnaissance satellites, and no EU-level intelligence service capable of collecting intelligence. It relies on U.S.-built AWACS aircraft and surveillance drones, along with a U.S.-sponsored NATO fusion centre. Funded European replacements are not expected to become operational until 2029 or the early 2030s.

On the evening of October 12, Russia fired five Iskander-M ballistic missiles at Kyiv from its Bryansk region, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. The missiles hit civilian infrastructure. In a Facebook post, Zelensky said, “There was no warning from our partners regarding this strike.” He did not identify the partner involved.

Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said Ukraine receives intelligence from partners on Russian strategic aviation, ships in the Black and Caspian Seas, and ballistic missile launches from Russia’s northern regions and occupied Crimea. He said this information sometimes fails to reach Ukraine, cited technical issues, and noted that this was not the first such instance. The Air Force is investigating why it received no launch information.

The EU’s Institute for Security Studies reported that U.S. satellites provide round-the-clock intelligence across the entire front line. It concluded that Europe’s ability to match the quality and quantity of that intelligence is limited.

Europe’s own defense also relies on American support. NATO’s Intelligence Fusion Centre, which provides all-source intelligence to the alliance, is a U.S.-sponsored organization.

Space-based missile launch warnings for Ukraine and NATO come from American satellites. The U.S. Space Force has launched 12 satellites carrying SBIRS or STSS missile-warning payloads. Its replacement constellation, Next Gen OPIR, will add five more. Allies receive the data through the Shared Early Warning System, a U.S.-only program that distributes American missile-warning data to select foreign nations.

Europe has no operational equivalent. The EU’s space-based early-warning program, ODIN’S EYE, began in 2021 as a €7.5 million EU-funded study, followed by a €90 million design-phase contract in 2023. Germany and France have since signed an agreement to implement the system. Their joint JEWEL framework targets initial capability in the early 2030s.

Keep reading

James Talarico Mental Breakdown Report Highlights The Deteriorating State Of Independent Journalism

After decades of legacy media becoming the proverbial Orwellian boot stomping out the face of the truth, a faint glimmer of hope glinted in the eyes of audiences trying to see through the propaganda constantly saturating their view. That optimism arose following a paradigm shift leading to greater decentralization of media, in which independent journalism was finally given the ground to flourish following the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk from the hands of technocratic oligarchs that used the platform as a mechanism for mass censorship and to curate approved narratives. In the few years since Twitter rebranded itself as X under the mission of trying to replace the system ushered in by the legacy media, the trajectory of that endeavor has taken a dismal turn in which it appears to have done more to replicate that framework to put its control under its own hegemony. With that, independent journalists find themselves fighting the same struggle, as their calls for the pursuit of the truth continue to be drowned out by a cacophony of unearnest reporting from their peers that rivals that of the mainstream media machine they hoped they had finally dismantled.

The latest bombshell “report” from right-wing independent journalist Nick Sortor serves as a case study of how the new media paradigm has quickly devolved into the same problematic echo chamber it sought to sever itself from. On Sunday, Sortor teased a revelatory report that postured itself as tilting the scales of the contentious race for the junior senate seat for the state of Texas between Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton. Once the dust settled, the report that was teased as bringing the unceremonious end to the Talarico campaign instead proved itself to be more of a damning indictment of the state of independent media.

Keep reading

“Ask Your Doctor:” The Media’s Most Dangerous Tagline

Travelling to the US never fails to put me in touch with a part of American culture that I find particularly fascinating, but disturbing. Drugs. Drugs and more Drugs. I’m talking about the in-your-face, 24/7, marketing of the newest, most expensive pharmaceuticals on the planet.

All in the name of health, of course. 

You might argue, but so what? Every other consumer product gets advertised in the US—almost everywhere, to everyone, perhaps except tobacco. And lots of those things are bad for you too, such as junk food, alcohol, and gambling. 

However, drugs are different, and I often find myself experiencing a kind of vertigo as I stare, enthralled, at all the incessant drug advertising from screens everywhere I look—in airports, hotel lounges, restaurants, or bars. 

The plotlines are predictable. A slick 60 seconds and we see the fate of worried people suffering some sort of condition “ask their doctor” about Drug X, and soon the new prescription is magically transforming their lives. They turn into bliss and smiles as they romp their way through meadows of wildflowers while, sotto voce, we catch strange murmurs of liver failure and premature death. 

I find myself absorbed in the ads as if they are cultural artifacts of a strange race. Most of the Americans I know seem to be pretty healthy people, but any newcomer confronting all the US screens for the first time might conclude one thing: “Man, these people must be really sick.” 

They are sick, but not in the way of being physically sick. Sick as in showing all the adverse effects of living in a polluted information ecosystem where toxic levels of drug propaganda drift through the airwaves as freely as exhaust engulfs a freeway. 

Americans are so immersed in the smog of commercially-sponsored drug information that they might forget they used to live in a world where serious criticisms of drug industry products or behaviour were routinely reported on mainstream TV. Those halcyon days are over. 

The Land of the Free means drugmakers can, with near impunity, push their expensive products for Crohn’s disease, Colitis, or psoriasis—serious obesity, schizophrenia, and major depression with the most outlandish of claims wrapped up in crafty but misleading narratives. Drugs get advertised, and the stuff between the ads (ie: the programming, the sitcoms, and the news) won’t touch the subject with a ten-foot pole lest they upset the money chain. Meanwhile, everyone thinks this is normal? Wow. 

Not everyone. Earlier this summer, the consumer group US Public Citizen put out a petition urging the FDA to ban Direct-to-Consumer Advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs. They listed the usual reasons why DTCA is so toxic to consumers: Emotional manipulation, misleading benefit and risk information, inappropriate prescribing and overdiagnosis, the erosion of the patient-physician relationship, the promotion of low-value medications, and overall economic harm. Amen to all that.

What it all adds up to is a polluted environment in which careful and appropriate pharmaceutical use doesn’t happen. Americans are paying the highest prices for prescription drugs in the world, yet also have the most profligate use of those drugs. 

The pollution of the airwaves by Pharma propaganda is precisely the reason every other country in the world (except tiny New Zealand) bans Direct-to-Consumer Advertising (DTCA). The rest of the civilized world looked at DTCA, recognized it as a predatory assault on public health, and banned it decades ago.

Keep reading

All Aboard for the ‘Not Our War Tour’

A man from Iowa who said he lived in a small rural town, population 20,000, called into CSPAN’s Washington journal on Tuesday and had some remarkable observations to share. He noted that a lot of the Trump signs were gone and several of the local and vocal Trump voters in the community had gone noticeably quiet. One man was flying his Trump flag at half-mast.

This author has heard of similar phenomenon in ruby red places, more recently in the Keystone State, where there is an often-cited “Trump: A National Embarrassment” billboard as you cross a town called Bedford a hundred miles outside of Pittsburgh along the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Bedford County went 84% for Trump in 2024.

While clearly this is anecdotal, the polling doesn’t lie. Trump is losing support with the very people who brought him into the White House, twice. One could point to myriad missteps and perceived betrayals over the last year. However, the war in Iran, launched for and with Israel seven months ago, has truly broken a covenant with voters who in many cases voted for him twice to do the opposite. Another forever Middle East war wasn’t on the bingo card.

So Trump starts a conflict with Iran that has conflagrated across the Persian Gulf and has allowed Israel to push its forces into Lebanon and at the cost of the U.S. economy. Oil shortages translate into spiking consumer gas, diesel, and heating oil prices. This not only impacts Americans who rely on driving, but shipping costs are escalating for all goods including groceries and supplies for home and car repairs, clothing, everyday household stuff. Then there are the shortages in fertilizer components for farmers, adding to increasing food costs down the road. Add that to high interest rates affecting loans and mortgages, and there is a lot of uncertainty out there.

As Jim Antle said in Responsible Statecraft on Tuesday, “The economic costs of the war are undeniable even to its remaining supporters, and are being inflicted on an electorate that has been angry about the high cost of living for at least five years.”

Not to mention the military and their families. As we saw with the sailors on the USS Lincoln, Trump is willing to sacrifice their health, morale, and the readiness of the US Navy by insisting on a protracted Naval blockade while stockpile depletions continue and we no longer have the luxury of easy restocking and refueling our ships from nearby Gulf bases because so many facilities had been made inoperable by Iranian attacks.

This is why so many Americans are saying this is ”not our war.” They never wanted it and the Congress never approved it. Many are going to the polls Nov. 2 with a mind for ending it but make no mistake, it will take voices from across the political spectrum to send the signal to the White House and Congress after the midterms. That’s why the Quincy Institute has joined up with former Trump administration intelligence official Joe Kent to host two events on a new “Not Our War Tour” to speak directly to disaffected Americans about the cost and stakes of not ending the conflict soon.

Keep reading

Measles Fear Is Being Used To Sell A Schedule — Follow The Numbers

According to the below October 6 Fox News Report, measles cases in the US are at nearly 3,900 – the worst year for the virus since 1991, declares the CDC. Pennsylvania has over 1,000 cases and five measles-related deaths. New York has declared a disaster emergency.

The video opened with the number of measles cases reported by the CDC this year. But it was the death toll that reached for the biggest number of all – five. That number is reported by the state of Pennsylvania, which counts anyone who died within 30 days of a lab-confirmed case of measles. The segment never mentioned that the CDC lists only two measles deaths for the entire year, counting only deaths where measles is the underlying cause on the death certificate, according to KFF. The CDC is still working with state epidemiologists to come up with a national definition of a measles death.

The same goes for the figure officials repeat most. The CDC reports that 95% of cases are in people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown. These are two separate groups folded into one number. A missing record is not the same as a refused shot. Only about 10% of cases have resulted in hospitalization, according to CIDRAP. And the 1991 comparison leaves out the rest of the picture: that year there were 9,643 cases, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, and this year’s 4,080 is still less than half of that.

Pennsylvania administered more than 56,000 doses of MMR vaccine in September alone, more than double a typical month. New York declared its statewide emergency on October 5 with about 100 cases of the highly contagious disease in a state of roughly 20 million people. As part of the emergency, additional groups of health care providers will be able to administer vaccine, including paramedics, pharmacists and midwives. Merck and GSK sell the MMR vaccines in the US. More immunizations equal more sales of these vaccines.

Also this week, New York Attorney General Letitia James and 15 other states are suing HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the childhood vaccine schedule the CDC issued in January. The schedule stopped recommending seven vaccines for every child, and most were moved to what the CDC calls “shared clinical decision-making” between parents and doctors. James’ suit seeks to put the old schedule back, and it also challenges Kennedy’s firing of all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee. Her office calls Kennedy one of the nation’s most prominent anti-vaccine activists.

Follow the money! New York AG Letitia James has received over $71,000 from the Soros family (yes, that Soros family) since 2019, according to state filings, and over $100,000 from health care unions, nursing homes and industry PACs in her 2018 attorney general primary, according to City & State. (Note: no reports have surfaced regarding money from vaccine makers, but the biomedical industry that benefits when fear is turned into doses of vaccine is the same industry whose schedule she is defending.)

Together, the case count leads a report about measles that makes a great case for alarming families, states declare emergencies and allow more people to give vaccines, and then the alarm becomes the argument for putting back a childhood vaccine schedule. None of the seven vaccines in her lawsuit is the MMR shot for measles.

Georgia families deserve the raw numbers, the definitions behind them, and the names of those who benefit when fear leads to prescriptions.

Keep reading

Amnesty Rep. Maria Salazar Promises Support for Colombians

Amnesty advocate Rep. Elvisa Salazar posted a late-night promise on Monday to support foreign citizens in the distant South American nation of Colombia.

“I receive with immense pride the support of my friend, President Abelardo de la Espriella,” Salazar declared via X late on Monday:

I know how much he loves Colombia. I know his convictions and the determination with which he works to restore security, prosperity, and opportunities to his country. Representing thousands of Colombians in South Florida has made Colombia a cause I carry with me every day to Congress. I have stood with Colombia in difficult times. I have defended its democracy and its relationship with the United States when it mattered most. Now a new stage begins. Abelardo has in me a friend. Colombia, an ally. And Colombians, a steadfast voice in the United States Congress.

Salazar’s promise of support for Colombians prompted a mixed reaction from Colombians.

Colombia’s capital city is 1,500 miles from her citizen constituents in Coral Gables, Florida.

Keep reading

Big Tech Pushes Back On Paying For A Grid That Was Crumbling Long Before AI

When Big Tech signed President Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge in March, promising to pay for all the new grid infrastructure upgrades required to service their data centers, we cautioned that “voluntary pledges from trillion-dollar tech giants have a habit of evolving.“

Seven months later, the hyperscalers are pushing back on how much of the grid’s bill is theirs to pay.

The past week brought a Democratic Senate report and a North Carolina utility settlement, and FERC is expected to rule on whether new data centers must bring their own power.

But before anyone grabs a pitchfork, ask the question none of them answers: how much of this bill is really AI’s, and how much is the cost of decades of grid neglect?

On Friday, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen and Richard Blumenthal released Power and Profits, the result of a nearly yearlong investigation into seven data center operators including Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft. The headline finding is as you would expect: the companies’ promises to cover their full costs apply to infrastructure serving only their own facilities, not the full cost of shared grid upgrades their arrival triggers.

The companies broadly opposed the “but-for” standard consumer advocates are pushing, under which a data center pays for any shared upgrade that “would not have been built but for the data center.” One hyperscaler told Senate staff that such upgrades often provide a “system benefit which should be shared among all ratepayers.”

They also balked at minimum bills, which advocates want set at 80% to 90% of contracted demand whether the power gets used or not. One Big Tech firm called a 90% floor “insanely high.” Another called 85% to 90% “unreasonably high,” since facilities often don’t use all of their projected demand.

Two days earlier, Duke Energy announced a settlement, signed by Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and North Carolina’s utility consumer advocate, that it says ensures data centers “will pay upfront for all costs to connect to the grid.“

The settlement itself is more nuanced. Data centers prepay the full cost of equipment that serves only them, such as a dedicated substation. For shared transmission upgrades, they post a letter of credit covering the estimated cost, collateral that starts shrinking once the facility consistently draws 75% of its contracted demand.

Whether data centers get directly charged for any slice of those shared costs is punted to a Duke study due a year after approval, and would apply only to future contracts.

Keep reading