White House Says Trump Was ‘Caught Off Guard’ By Israel’s Recent Syria Airstrikes

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White House Says Trump Was ‘Caught Off Guard’ By Israel’s Recent Syria Airstrikes

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that President Trump was “caught off guard” by Israel’s recent airstrikes in Syria and the Israeli tank shelling of the sole Catholic church in Gaza.

“He was caught off guard by the bombing in Syria and also the bombing of the Catholic church in Gaza,” Leavitt told reporters.

The comments come after several reports that the Trump administration was unhappy with Israel’s airstrikes in Syria, with one US official telling Axios that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a “madman” and “bombs everything all the time.”

Also on Monday, Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey who serves as a special envoy to Syria, also criticized Israel’s airstrikes on Syria and expressed strong support for the al-Qaeda-linked Syrian government despite the massacres its forces have committed against Druze civilians during the fighting in southern Syria’s Suwayda.

Barrack told The Associated Press that the “the killing, the revenge, the massacres on both sides” are “intolerable,” but that “the current government of Syria, in my opinion, has conducted themselves as best they can as a nascent government with very few resources to address the multiplicity of issues that arise in trying to bring a diverse society together.”

Israel bombed Syrian government tanks that entered an area of southern Syria it wants to be demilitarized and followed up the attack with airstrikes on the Defense Ministry in Damascus. Barrack said that the strikes “came at a very bad time” and insisted that the US “was not asked, nor did they participate in that decision, nor was it the United States’ responsibility in matters that Israel feels is for its own self-defense.”

Barrack also said that Israel would rather see a fractured and divided Syria rather than one with a strong central government. “Strong nation-states are a threat — especially Arab states are viewed as a threat to Israel,” he said.

After the regime change that ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated and took credit for, Israel invaded southern Syria. The US has been pushing for a normalization deal between Israel and the al-Qaeda-linked government in Damascus, but Israel would likely rather keep the territory it has captured and is using the plight of the Druze as a pretext for continued military intervention.

The US is also putting pressure on its Kurdish allies in northeastern Syria to merge into the Syrian government. According to a report from Middle East Eye, the US and Turkey have given the Kurdish-led SDF a 30-day deadline to integrate. “The SDF was told that not all of its armed units would be integrated into the Syrian army. Units excluded from integration would be disarmed, and overall control would remain with the Syrian government,” a source told MEE.

The Trump administration has embraced the new Syrian government and its de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, despite his al-Qaeda past, which included fighting US forces in Iraq. The US has lifted most sanctions on Syria and removed Sharaa’s jihadist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), previously the al-Nusra Front (al-Qaeda in Syria), from the terror list despite the massacres of civilians by HTS-linked forces.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.

Fiscal Fallout: How Washington Medicaid Spending Quintupled Over a Decade

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Fiscal Fallout: How Washington Medicaid Spending Quintupled Over a Decade

(TJ Martinell, The Center Square) Washington state’s Medicaid spending has quintupled, or increased five times over, since the 2013-15 biennium, according to an analysis by The Center Square.

Along with that increased spending, the number of those on Medicaid has climbed, though some health care experts note that despite this increased spending Washington continues to undercompensate medical providers who treat Medicaid patients.

In the 2013-15 operating budget, Washington state spent $7.85 billion on Medicaid. Spending was evenly split between the federal government and the state. As part of the Medicaid expansion, the federal government offered to cover 100% of the expansion costs for the first three years, then decrease it on a sliding scale to 90%.

Washington state was planning to spend $42 billion on Medicaid in the 2025-27 biennium, with $26 billion coming from the feds. However, with President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Act seeking to reduce both funding and the number of people on Medicaid in Washington state, some healthcare experts warn that Washington taxpayers can expect to hear calls for more taxes to cover the lost funding.

“Taxpayers are going to start hearing why we need to increase the tax revenue because of that bill passing,” Washington Policy Center Healthcare Center Director Elizabeth New told The Center Square.”

However, she added that “the bottom line is people who are traditional Medicaid recipients are not in danger here,” arguing that the program was in need of reform.  According to a 2014 report by WPC Senior Fellow Roger Stark, Washington’s Medicaid program was expanded by the state Legislature through “a one-line budget gimmick,” after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that states could voluntarily choose whether to do so under the Affordable Care Act. Prior to that, Medicaid provided health insurance for families with children that earned less than 133% of the Federal Poverty Level, for long-term care patients, and the disabled. The expansion included any adult who earns less than 138% of the FPL.

“The 2015 Legislature must again face the long-term impact of what the Medicaid expansion means for the people of our state,” Stark wrote in 2014.

In 2013, there was an estimated 1.3 million people enrolled in Washington’s Medicaid program, known as Apple Health. According to the Washington Health Care Authority, there were 2.17 million residents enrolled in Apple Health as of January 2022. Nearly half of all births in Washington state in 2020 were covered by Apple Health. As of 2023, the uninsured rate was 4.8%.

As a result of the Apple Health expansion, New said that “you had these inflated numbers of people who didn’t even need care. That added hundreds of thousands of able-bodied adults to the Medicaid rolls.”

She added that the suspension of Medicaid eligibility redetermination during COVID “kept enrollment artificially high. The safety net is too wide. Eligibility goes out to people in need and not in need, and we’re not doing a state recovery the way we could be.”

In an email, she wrote that “there is a valid argument to be made that even if able-bodied expansion enrollees lose coverage because they don’t meet community-participation or redetermination requirements, they could simply use ER services when needing care. That will bring pain to hospitals and cost-shifting to commercial payers.  BUT I hope the reforms help shaves down the expansion group, ending Medicaid for those with other insurance options through work or on the subsidized exchange, etc., and reserving taxpayer-financed care for those without other health insurance options.”

According to the Washington Health Care Authority, between 200,000 and 320,000 Washington residents are projected to lose Medicaid coverage, while the state is estimated to lose billions in funding at a time when it already faces a fiscal crisis by 2027 despite the largest tax increase in state history and record revenue levels.

House Health Care  & Wellness Committee Chair Rep. Dan Bronoske, D-Lakewood, wrote in an email to The Center Square regarding the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that “I believe that health care outcomes will be worse for the people of Washington as a direct result of this piece of legislation. The state of Washington is projected to lose billions in federal funding between 2025-2034.”

“The entire state Legislature will have to collectively determine how to control the damage to AppleHealth/Medicaid and the people who will be negatively impacted by the changes made by the federal government,” he wrote further. “Let me be clear, I believe every single one of us will feel these impacts, not just the people covered under Apple Health and the expansion.”

EXCLUSIVE: Medical Examiner Collected Trump Shooter’s Bile and Hair, but Omitted Results from Toxicology Report

Ken Silva
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EXCLUSIVE: Medical Examiner Collected Trump Shooter’s Bile and Hair, but Omitted Results from Toxicology Report

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Last October, Headline USA exclusively obtained the autopsy and toxicology reports for alleged Trump shooter Thomas Crooks after a months-long legal battle.

At the time, the toxicology results didn’t seem to indicate much about Crooks’ state of mind—they showed that he had elevated levels of lead, but that he wasn’t on any “drugs of abuse.” As Headline USA noted back then, the exam didn’t include results for other drugs or therapeutics.

However, roughly nine months later, an online sleuth notified this publication about apparent anomalies in the report. The online sleuth, an anonymous Twitter/X account @tjphager, noticed that Crooks’s toxicology exam is missing the results for three specimens that were taken from his body: eight milliliters of heart blood, three milliliters of bile, and an envelope of hair. Those specimens were labeled items 3, 7 and 8, respectively.

Sure enough, items 3, 7 and 8 are not listed in the toxicology report’s findings. Instead, the findings only include results for three separate containers of heart blood, a vial of urine and one milliliter of eye fluid— list items 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6, respectively. Allegheny County Medical Examiner Ariel Goldschmidt, who conducted the autopsy exam on Crooks, also commissioned a private firm called NSM Labs, which tested Crooks for blood for lead, arsenic, mercury and other compounds. But that firm didn’t test for psychotropics, either.

It’s unclear whether Crooks’s bile and hair were ever tested, or if Goldschmidt simply omitted the results from his report. Goldschmidt didn’t respond to numerous messages seeking an explanation—nor did one of his scientists, Katrina Lindauer, who signed off on the exam. Butler County Coroner William Young, who was involved in the decision to send Crooks to Allegheny County, also didn’t respond to requests for comments.

Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger declined to comment.

Bile and Hair

According to an academic article published on the National Institutes for Health (NIH) website, bile can be used to test for a variety of drugs. Moreover, bile can reveal the presence of drugs for longer than other bodily fluids.

“Because it is an excretion product of the liver, it can be used for screening purposes and to determine what drugs an individual used or was exposed to prior to death,” scientists Jolene Bierly and Laura Labay wrote in a June 2018 article entitled, The Utility of Bile in Postmortem Forensic Toxicology.

“Some reasons for choosing bile as an alternative matrix include ease of collection, large sample volume, extended detection window relative to blood, and high concentrations of drugs and metabolites.”

Similarly, hair can be used to test for psychotropic drugs, too.

“Antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs are regularly encountered in different aspects of forensic toxicology, and some cases require the examination of hair samples,” wrote Maximilian Methling, Franziska Krumbiegel, and Sven Hartwig in a 2020 article entitled, Hair analysis of antidepressants and antipsychotics-Overview of quantitative data.

SSRIs and Shootings

Psychotropic drugs such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, have long been thought to be linked to mass shootings and other terroristic activities. While no definitive causal link has been proven, studies show that mass shooters often struggle with mental health problems. A 2019 Secret Service study found that 19 out of 35 students who attacked their schools in an act of “targeted violence” had received some type of mental health treatment.

When it comes to would-be presidential assassins, at least one has been found to be on psychiatric medication: John Hinckley Jr., who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, had been taking “anti-depressants and tranquilizers” since the mid-1970s.

“Various psychiatric evaluations diagnosed Hinckley with schizophrenia, dysthymia (a type of prolonged depression, as well as narcissistic, schizoid, borderline and passive-aggressive personality disorders,” wrote historian Wendy Painting in her PhD thesis-turned-book, Aberration in the Heartland of the Real—a massive biographical work on Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Crooks’s father, Matthew Crooks, did tell law enforcement that his son was dealing with mental health issues. However, Thomas Crooks was purportedly never diagnosed with anything.

Crooks and Mental Illness

Butler County Coroner William Young said he was called around 6:15 a.m. on July 14 to examine Crooks’s body, which had been sitting on the AGR rooftop for over 12 hours.

“The decedent was removed from the rooftop at AGR International by Coroner Young and Deputy Bosiljevac. The decedent was taken to Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office for a pathological examination,” Young’s coroner report said.

“The remains were then released to Beinhauer-Connell FH.”

Infamously, Crooks’s body was cremated days later with bullet fragments still in his shoulder.

According to CBS, Crooks searched online in April about a “major depressive disorder” in the lead-up to the attack. Additionally, the FBI briefed the House Task Force investigating the Trump assassination attempts last month, telling members that Crooks exhibited strange behavior in the days leading up to the shooting, such as “walking around the house talking to himself” and “flapping his arms.”

And according to ABC News, “Investigators learned that throughout high school, Crooks would routinely sway back and forth while standing at the bus stop—but that Crooks never received any sort of formal diagnosis related to it.”

Headline USA reached out to three different independent toxicologists for their analysis of Crooks’s report. Only one was willing to talk—under the condition of anonymity—and he said that he didn’t know what to make of the missing results in Crooks’s report.

“I am probably not the right person to explain why it is missing a number. I interpret toxicology results, but don’t generate these reports. I would look for an expert witness who is a medical examiner or forensic pathologist,” the toxicologist said.

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

U.S. Set to Withdraw from UNESCO in 2027

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U.S. Set to Withdraw from UNESCO in 2027

(Sarah Roderick-Fitch, The Center Square) The U.S. is withdrawing from UNESCO, the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, saying that the organization has “strayed from its founding mission.”

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce announced the U.S. withdrawal from the organization, saying it is “not in the national interest of the United States.” However, the U.S. will remain a full organization member until Dec. 31, 2026.

In a statement from the State Department, it accused the organization of being globalists, highlighting anti-Israeli “rhetoric.”

“UNESCO works to advance divisive social and cultural causes and maintains an outsized focus on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy. UNESCO’s decision to admit the ‘State of Palestine’ as a Member State is highly problematic, contrary to U.S. policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization,” according to the statement.

State added that moving forward, the U.S. “participation in international organizations will focus on advancing American interests.”

This isn’t the first time President Donald Trump has withdrawn from the organization. During his first administration in 2017, the administration made the same move, prompting the organization to prepare for a possible second withdrawal.

Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO, released a statement, calling Trump’s decision to withdraw “regrettable” but “anticipated.” The head of the organization warned that the decision may impact its relationship with its partners in the U.S.

“This decision contradicts the fundamental principles of multilateralism, and may affect first and foremost our many partners in the United States of America – communities seeking site inscription on the World Heritage List, Creative City status, and University Chairs,” Azoulay stated.

Azoulay assured its members of its financial stability, underscoring that since 2018, the organization has “diversified” its funding sources to offset its reliance on U.S. dollars.

Azoulay addressed accusations of antisemitism, highlighting its work to fight against antisemitism while promoting education on the Holocaust.

“UNESCO is the only United Nations agency responsible for these issues, and its work has been unanimously acclaimed by major specialized organizations such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, the World Jewish Congress and its American Section, and the American Jewish Committee (AJC). UNESCO has supported 85 countries in implementing tools and training teachers to educate students about the Holocaust and genocides, and to combat Holocaust denial and hate speech,” the statement added.

Israel’s minister of foreign affairs, Gideon Sa’ar, celebrated the decision in a social media post, calling it a “necessary step, designed to promote justice and Israel’s right for fair treatment in the UN system.”

“Singling out Israel and politicization by member state must end, in this and all professional UN agencies … Israel thanks the US for its moral support and leadership, especially in the multilateral arena which is plagues with anti-Israel discrimination. The United Nations requires fundamental reforms in order to remain relevant,” Sa’ar posted to X.

Cruz Introduces Bill to Designate Muslim Brotherhood as Terrorist Organization

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Cruz Introduces Bill to Designate Muslim Brotherhood as Terrorist Organization

(Bethany Blankley, The Center Square) U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has introduced a bill to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.

Cruz introduced the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act again this year after doing so in 2015, 2017, 2020 and 2021. U.S. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, R-Florida, introduced companion legislation in the House, as he has also previously done. The bill has multiple cosponsors.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization,” Cruz said, which is “committed to the overthrow and destruction of America and other non-Islamist governments across the world, and pose an acute threat to American national security interests. American allies in the Middle East and Europe have already labeled the Brotherhood a terrorist organization, and the United States should do the same, and do so expeditiously.”

The bill states the Muslim Brotherhood “functions as a global terrorist organization and provides material support to [its] branches in countries and territories by providing political support, financial resources, training, services, expert advice, and communications assistance.” Its branches have “sought to destabilize and undermine United States allies and partners throughout the Middle East, including in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Emirates, and have been outlawed as a terrorist group by the governments of those countries.”

The bill amends the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987 to include banning all Muslim Brotherhood members from the U.S., making them ineligible for visas or admittance to the U.S. This includes revoking visas of all non-U.S. citizens who are confirmed Muslim Brotherhood members and removing them from the country. It also requires the Secretary of State to impose sanctions on any Muslim Brotherhood branch, charity or organization that is directly or indirectly controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, including Hamas.

“The global Muslim Brotherhood has numerous regional branches, including terrorist organizations such as Hamas, and spreads violence and instability throughout the Middle East,” Díaz-Balart said. “For this reason, it is crucial to U.S. national security interests that we prohibit U.S. dollars from enabling the Muslim Brotherhood’s dangerous activities, and that we ensure Muslim Brotherhood members are blocked from entering the United States. This important legislation gives the Trump Administration the additional authority it needs to protect Americans, and our closest allies, from this insidious threat.”

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded by Egyptian politician Hassan al-Banna in 1928 as a Sunni Islamic militant group. Over the next few decades, it grew to have hundreds of thousands of followers in multiple countries in the Middle East and north Africa. After a failed assassination attempt of Egypt’s prime minister in 1948, the Egyptian government cracked down on Muslim Brotherhood members, arresting them, trying them for treason and executing them.

By the 1980s, the Muslim Brotherhood saw a resurgence in Egypt and multiple countries. In 1987, its Palestinian branch emerged as Hamas in Gaza, committed to the destruction of Israel. The preamble to the 1988 Hamas Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement includes the famous claim, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it,’” made by al-Banna, The Center Square reported.

Since then, Hamas has taken credit for a range of terrorist acts, including the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack against Israel, resulting in the death of more than 40 Americans and the kidnapping at least 53 Americans.

The bill was proposed after antisemitic incidents drastically increased nationwide, reaching their highest level on record last year of nearly 10,000, The Center Square reported. Cruz and U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas, have been targeted by pro-Hamas rioters and vandals, including at Cruz’s Houston home and at a U.S. Senate hearing, and at De La Cruz’s offices, The Center Square reported.

Hamas has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government since 1997.

After the Hamas Oct. 7 terrorist attack, the U.S. House passed the Hamas International Financing Prevention Act, HR 340, In November 2023. Filed by U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Florida, it would have required the executive branch to impose sanctions on foreign actors that provide certain types of support to Hamas or its affiliates. It went nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Cruz has also repeatedly called on the president to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Last month, U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Florida, called on the president to do so highlighting actions taken by other governments.

To date, the governments of Austria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates have designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.

Justice Department Wants to Interview Jeffrey Epstein’s Former Girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell

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Justice Department Wants to Interview Jeffrey Epstein’s Former Girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell

(Headline USA)  The Department of Justice wants to interview Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of helping the financier sexually abuse underage girls and is now serving a lengthy prison sentence, a senior official said Tuesday.

If Maxwell “has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a post on X, adding that President Donald Trump ”has told us to release all credible evidence.” A lawyer for Maxwell confirmed there were discussions with the government.

The overture to attorneys for Maxwell, who in 2022 was sentenced to 20 years in prison, is part of an ongoing Justice Department effort to cast itself as transparent following fierce backlash from parts of Trump’s base over an earlier refusal to release additional records in the Epstein investigation.

As part of that effort, the Justice Department, acting at the direction of the Republican president, last week asked a court to unseal grand jury transcripts from the case.

Epstein, who reportedly killed himself in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial, sexually abused children hundreds of times over more than a decade, exploiting vulnerable girls as young as 14, authorities say. He couldn’t have done so without the help of Maxwell, his longtime companion, prosecutors say.

The Justice Department had said in a two-page memo this month that it had not uncovered evidence to charge anyone else in connection with Epstein’s abuse. But Blanche said in his social media post that the Justice Department “does not shy away from uncomfortable truths, nor from the responsibility to pursue justice wherever the facts may lead.”

He said in his post that, at the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi, he has “communicated with counsel for Ms. Maxwell to determine whether she would be willing to speak with prosecutors from the Department.” He said he anticipated meeting with Maxwell in the coming days.

A lawyer for Maxwell, David Oscar Markus, said Tuesday in a statement: “I can confirm that we are in discussions with the government and that Ghislaine will always testify truthfully. We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case.”

Two judges who will decide whether to release the grand jury transcripts, Paul Engelmayer and Richard Berman, noted in nearly identical orders Tuesday that the records can be made public only under special circumstances, and they said the Justice Department hadn’t provided them with enough information.

They gave the government until July 29 to explain why it wants the transcripts released and describe how much of the information has previously been made public. They also want to hear from Epstein’s victims and from Maxwell by Aug. 5 as to whether they oppose or support disclosure of the records.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.

400 Ph.D. Economists vs. One Shiny Rock

Money Metals News Service
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400 Ph.D. Economists vs. One Shiny Rock

(Jp Cortez, Money Metals News Service) On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called for a full review of the Federal Reserve system. He said on CNBC’s Squawk Box, “I think what we need to do is examine the entire Federal Reserve institution and whether they have been successful.”

It’s a completely legitimate statement, but Bessent is a bizarre messenger for it.

To be sure, the Treasury Secretary is no Ron Paul. The Trump administration calling for a review of the Federal Reserve is more likely to result in findings that the Fed’s power should be transferred to an official government department so that he can play god with the monetary levers.

That said, Secretary Bessent made an interesting comment that harkens back to a day of simpler monetary policy. He quipped, “All these PhDs over there, I don’t know what they do. This is like universal basic income for academic economists.”

Is Secretary Bessent right? Centrally planned monetary policy today is astoundingly complex, supposedly requiring a team of hundreds of professional economists to manage.

Alternatively, under a gold standard, money is tied to a consistent, trusted asset.

Was the old way better? Does money need “interesting features” or esoteric, in-depth explanations from experts using jargon that alienates the average person?

Historically, the answer has been no.

Elite bankers and politicians hatched the Federal Reserve System during secret meetings in a smoky room on Jekyll Island, Georgia, with the bill ultimately passing in late December 1913.

According to their website, “The Federal Reserve Board employs more than 500 researchers, including more than 400 Ph.D. economists, who represent an exceptionally diverse range of interested and specific areas of expertise.”

These researchers attempt to operate an incredibly convoluted monetary system by adjusting interest rates, engaging in market interventions such as bond purchases, and issuing forward guidance. In a nutshell, the Fed fixes the price of money.

Does a monetary system have to be so complex? And further still, does all this combined brainpower from “top institutions” actually deliver better results than a simpler solution?

Monetary policy today involves the impossible job of balancing inflation forecasts, unemployment rates, tenuous geopolitical circumstances, trade and currency wars, and more.

Meanwhile, the average person has little knowledge or interest in regressions, dot plots, or yield curve control.

With systems so complex, one would think a world before modern monetary theory (not to be mistaken with Modern Monetary Theory) would have been utter chaos. But history shows that was not the case. The chaos under the current system may be greater.

Given the lack of value being added, it’s not unreasonable to suggest the Federal Reserve is a glorified jobs program for academics and economists.

Many goods throughout history, with varying degrees of effectiveness, have served as media of exchange: salt, wampum, and tobacco have all been used as money, just to name a few. However, gold and silver emerged as universally accepted monies by the free market because of their durability, transportability, fungibility, and scarcity.

Emerged is the key. The process through which money is “created” is not one of central planning or of creation at all, but rather one in which money is “discovered” by markets.

In the United States, monetary policy before the Federal Reserve was simply the classical gold standard. Between 1880-1914, the United States enjoyed an inflation rate of only 0.1 percent per year. This period saw real economic growth, increases in living standards, and bona fide innovation. A predictable money supply allows individuals, families, and entrepreneurs to make plans and investments for the future.

Gold’s role in restraining government spending also prevents unmitigated growth of the state. By not diluting America’s money with wars or expensive and inefficient entitlement programs, currency holders were not subjected to the harsh effects of inflation.

This “boring” system, based on honest weights and measures, protected individuals, restrained government, and created an environment that promoted principles of accountability and freedom. This system wasn’t centrally planned, masked in technical language, or gatekept by “experts” – it was chosen by millions of market actors acting in their own best interest. This is why sound money matters.

On the other hand, since the establishment of the Federal Reserve, holders of America’s paper money have been pillaged by central bankers. Since 1913, the Federal Reserve note –commonly referred to incorrectly as the U.S. Dollar – has lost more than 96% of its value.

The expertise of these central bankers brought us episodes like 1970s stagflation, with inflation peaking at nearly 14%, and the 2008 Great Recession, caused by massive bubbles across various sectors of the economy, all fueled by Federal Reserve manipulation of interest rates. Also, consider the waves of inflation following the Federal Reserve’s response to COVID-19, after dismissing critics and assuring the nation that inflation was “transitory.”

The Federal Reserve seems to be an institution whose meddling creates more volatility and damage to everyday Americans. Hundreds of economists in the echo chambers of the Eccles Building (now in the midst of its billion-dollar taxpayer-funded renovation) and other Federal Reserve banks enable political manipulation and unrestrained government expansion at the expense of taxpayers and currency holders everywhere in the form of persistent debasement.

The gold standard underpinned periods of unbridled growth, stability, and honesty without technocratic control. Secretary Bessent is correct about the Federal Reserve’s flaws, but a system that further centralizes monetary control is not positive for sound money or freedom at large.

A return to sound money is the way forward. 2025 has featured incredible strides at the state level, with more than 32 states considering pro gold and silver bills, and more than a dozen enacted into law across the country. The Sound Money Defense League and Money Metals Exchange have led this charge for more than a decade.

When comparing a sound money standard to a central bank-managed unbacked paper money, the choice is clear.

400 Ph.D. economists vs. one shiny rock? My money is on the rock.

Img credit: WikiCommons

Jp Cortez is the Executive Director of the Sound Money Defense League, an organization working to remonetize gold and silver through nationwide legislative efforts. He is a graduate of Auburn University and a resident of Charlotte, North Carolina. Jp is the lead author of the Sound Money Index. Follow him on X (Twitter) @JpCortez27.

Hunter Biden Lashes Out at George Clooney, Other Democrats, Over Joe Biden’s 2024 Campaign

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Hunter Biden Lashes Out at George Clooney, Other Democrats, Over Joe Biden’s 2024 Campaign

(Headline USA)  Former President Joe Biden’s son Hunter is lashing out against Democratic elites and others over the way he says his father was treated during last year’s presidential campaign.

Hunter Biden spoke publicly in recent interviews about last year’s election, when Joe Biden ultimately dropped his bid and Donald Trump won the White House. In a three-hour, expletive-filled online interview with Andrew Callaghan of Channel 5, he directed ire toward actor and Democratic Party donor George Clooney for his decision to call on the elder Biden to abandon his 2024 reelection bid.

He also ranted against longtime Democratic advisers he accused of making money off the party and trading off previous electoral successes, but not helping candidates’ current efforts.

The lengthy screed made plain the younger Biden’s feelings that his father was mistreated by those around him in the waning days of his candidacy and administration. He also laid bare critiques of the party’s operation and operatives that, he says, aren’t well-serving its opposition to Trump and the Republican Party.

Hunter Biden spared no feelings in his assessment of the actor, questioning why anyone should listen to the “Ocean’s Eleven” star.

Clooney supported Joe Biden’s bid for a second term, even headlining a record-setting fundraiser for the then-president, but changed his stance after Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Trump in June 2024.

Clooney made his feelings known in an opinion piece in The New York Times, adding his voice to mounting calls for the then-81-year-old president to drop his presidential bid. Biden ended up leaving the race a few weeks later and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, who went on to lose to Trump.

“What right do you have to step on a man who’s given 52 years of his f——— life to the services of this country and decide that you, George Clooney, are going to take out basically a full page ad in the f——— New York Times to undermine the president,” Hunter Biden said before he trailed off to talk about how Republicans are more unified than Democrats.

Los Angeles-based representatives for Clooney did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

There were also weighty critiques of a number of longtime Democratic advisers.

Anita Dunn, a longtime Biden senior adviser, has made “$40 to $50 million” off of work for the Democratic Party, Hunter Biden said. James Carville, adviser to former President Bill Clinton, “hasn’t run a race in 40 f——— years.”

Former Obama strategist David Axelrod, Hunter Biden said, “had one success in his political life, and that was Barack Obama — and that was because of Barack Obama.” Other former Obama aides who now host “Pod Save America,” are “four white millionaires that are dining out on their association with Barack Obama from 16 years ago,” he said.

One of the four, Tommy Vietor, Monday on social media applauded Hunter Biden’s decision “to process the election, look inward, and hold himself accountable for how his family’s insular, dare I say arrogant at times, approach to politics led to this catastrophic outcome we’re all now living with.”

In a message Tuesday, Axelrod told The Associated Press, “Never have the words ‘no comment’ felt more appropriate.” Dunn did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

As for the debate performance, the fallout from which ultimately led to the calls for his father to step down from the 2024 presidential campaign, Hunter Biden said his father may have been recovering from Ambien, a medication that he had been given to help him sleep following trips in the weeks before the debate to Europe, as well as the Los Angeles fundraiser at which Clooney said his interactions with Biden made him feel the president wasn’t mentally capable.

“He’s 81 years old, he’s tired as shit,” Hunter Biden said. “They give him Ambien to be able to sleep, and he gets up on the stage and he looks like he’s a deer in the headlights.”

A spokesperson for Joe Biden declined to comment on the interview.

Hunter Biden also appeared Monday in an episode of “At Our Table,” a new podcast hosted by former Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison.

“Yeah, Joe Biden did get old. He got old before our eyes. … But you know what? A few changes does not mean that you do not have the mental capacity to be able to do your job.”

In that interview, Hunter Biden also talked about the calamitous presidential debate.

“And then they saw him at that debate. It was awful, and it was truly horrible,” he said, saying he was opposed to holding it, given Trump’s recent convictions on 34 felony charges in a New York hush money case.

To Harrison, Hunter Biden also addressed Clooney, saying, “I love George Clooney’s movies, but I don’t really give a s—- about what he thinks about who should be the nominee for the Democratic Party.”

Asked by Harrison about his father’s decision to quit the 2024 race, Hunter Biden said “I think that he could have won” but still made the right choice for Democrats broadly.”

“I know that it wasn’t a mistake in that moment,” Hunter Biden said, adding that his father “chose to save the party” over saving himself.

The podcast drops come just days ahead of the expected beginning of court proceedings in a Los Angeles federal court.

Hunter Biden is suing Patrick Byrne, alleging that the former CEO of Overstock.com falsely claimed that Hunter Biden was reaching out to the Iranian government in the fall of 2021 and offering to have his father Joe Biden “unfreeze” $8 billion in Iranian funds “in return for $800 million being funneled into a numbered account for us.”

In the waning days of his administration, Joe Biden pardoned his son, sparing the younger Biden a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions and reversing his past promises not to use the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family.

The Democratic president had previously said he would not pardon his son or commute his sentence after convictions in the two cases in Delaware and California. The move came weeks before Hunter Biden was set to receive his punishment after his trial conviction in the gun case and guilty plea on tax charges, and less than two months before Trump returned to the White House.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.

Trump Admin. Releases FBI Records on MLK Jr. over his Family’s Opposition

Headline USA Editor
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Trump Admin. Releases FBI Records on MLK Jr. over his Family’s Opposition

(Headline USA) The Trump administration on Monday released records of the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr., despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate’s family and the civil rights group that he led until his 1968 assassination.

The digital document dump includes more than 240,000 pages of records that had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.

In a lengthy statement released Monday, King’s two living children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62, said their father’s killing has been a “captivating public curiosity for decades.” But the pair emphasized the personal nature of the matter and urged that the files “be viewed within their full historical context.”

The Kings got advance access to the records and had their own teams reviewing them. Those efforts continued even as the government granted public access. Among the documents are leads the FBI received after King’s assassination and details of the CIA’s fixation on King’s pivot to international anti-war and anti-poverty movements in the years before he was killed. It was not immediately clear whether the documents shed new light on King’s life, the Civil Rights Movement or his murder.

“As the children of Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, his tragic death has been an intensely personal grief — a devastating loss for his wife, children, and the granddaughter he never met — an absence our family has endured for over 57 years,” they wrote. “We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family’s continuing grief.”

They also repeated the family’s long-held contention that James Earl Ray, the man convicted of assassinating King, was not solely responsible, if at all.

Bernice King was 5 years old when her father was killed at the age of 39. Martin III was 10.

A statement from the office of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called the disclosure “unprecedented” and said many of the records had been digitized for the first time. She praised President Donald Trump for pushing the issue.

Release is ‘transparency’ to some, a ‘distraction’ for others

Trump promised as a candidate to release files related to President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination. When Trump took office in January, he signed an executive order to declassify the JFK records, along with those associated with Robert F. Kennedy’s and MLK’s 1968 assassinations.

The government unsealed the JFK records in March and disclosed some RFK files in April.

The announcement from Gabbard’s office included a statement from Alveda King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece, who is an outspoken conservative and has broken from King’s children on various topics — including the FBI files. Alveda King said she was “grateful to President Trump” for his “transparency.”

Separately, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s social media account featured a picture of the attorney general with Alveda King.

Besides fulfilling Trump’s order, the latest release means another alternative headline for the president as he tries to mollify supporters angry over his administration’s handling of records concerning the sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself behind bars while awaiting trial in 2019, during Trump’s first presidency. Trump last Friday ordered the Justice Department to release grand jury testimony but stopped short of unsealing the entire case file.

Records mean a new trove of research material

The King records were initially intended to be sealed until 2027, until Justice Department attorneys asked a federal judge to lift the sealing order early. Scholars, history buffs and journalists have been preparing to study the documents for new information about his assassination on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King co-founded in 1957 as the Civil Rights Movement blossomed, opposed the release. The group, along with King’s family, argued that the FBI illegally surveilled King and other civil rights figures, hoping to discredit them and their movement.

It has long been established that then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was intensely interested if not obsessed with King and others he considered radicals. FBI records released previously show how Hoover’s bureau wiretapped King’s telephone lines, bugged his hotel rooms and used informants to gather information, including evidence of King’s extramarital affairs.

“He was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the King children said in their statement.

“The intent … was not only to monitor, but to discredit, dismantle and destroy Dr. King’s reputation and the broader American Civil Rights Movement,” they continued. “These actions were not only invasions of privacy, but intentional assaults on the truth — undermining the dignity and freedoms of private citizens who fought for justice, designed to neutralize those who dared to challenge the status quo.”

The Kings said they “support transparency and historical accountability” but “object to any attacks on our father’s legacy or attempts to weaponize it to spread falsehoods.”

Opposition to King intensified even after the Civil Rights Movement compelled Congress and President Lyndon B. Johnson to enact the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After those victories, King turned his attention to economic justice and international peace. He criticized rapacious capitalism and the Vietnam War. King asserted that political rights alone were not enough to ensure a just society. Many establishment figures like Hoover viewed King as a communist threat.

King’s children still don’t accept the original explanation of assassination

King was assassinated as he was aiding striking sanitation workers in Memphis, part of his explicit turn toward economic justice.

Ray pleaded guilty to King’s murder. Ray later renounced that plea and maintained his innocence until his death in 1998.

King family members and others have long questioned whether Ray acted alone, or if he was even involved. Coretta Scott King asked for the probe to be reopened, and in 1998, then-Attorney General Janet Reno ordered a new look. Reno’s Justice Department said it “found nothing to disturb the 1969 judicial determination that James Earl Ray murdered Dr. King.”

In their latest statement, Bernice King and Martin Luther King III repeated their assertions that Ray was set up. They pointed to a 1999 civil case, brought by the King family, in which a Memphis jury concluded that Martin Luther King Jr. had been the target of a conspiracy.

“As we review these newly released files,” the Kings said, “we will assess whether they offer additional insights beyond the findings our family has already accepted.”

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press



Who Voted for This? GOP Lawmakers Colluding w/ Dems to Push for Immigration Amnesty

Jose Nino
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Who Voted for This? GOP Lawmakers Colluding w/ Dems to Push for Immigration Amnesty

(José Niño, Headline USA) Behind closed doors in Washington, Republicans are weighing potential immigration compromises — one of which is now being described as the party’s biggest ideological betrayal since the Trump era began.

Twitter user Joseph Jordan (@Littoria14) observed that the “Biggest story of the week is that Congressional Republicans (Jim Jordan, Salazar, etc) are teaming up with Democrats to draw up an immigration amnesty. If you’re an orange knight time to start brainstorming copes now because the final nail in the coffin is coming.”

In this instance, the Twitter user Jordan is referring to Rep. María Elvira Salazar’s, R-Fla., Dignity Act of 2025, that was introduced last Tuesday. The legislation would provide up to seven years of renewable legal status to illegal aliens who arrived before 2021, complete with work authorization and travel privileges.

The bill has bipartisan support from 20 lawmakers.

Republican Co-Sponsors (10)

  1. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash.
  2. Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.
  3. Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif.
  4. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa.
  5. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa.
  6. Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colo.
  7. Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind.
  8. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb.
  9. Rep. Mario Rafael Díaz‑Balart, R-Fla.
  10. Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif.

Democratic Co-Sponsors (10)

  1. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y.
  2. Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev.
  3. Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif.
  4. Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif.
  5. Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass.
  6. Rep. Hilary Scholten, D-Mich.
  7. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill.
  8. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass.
  9. Rep. Adam Gray, D-Calif.
  10. Rep. Laura Gillen, D-N.Y.

However, Conservative media outlets like the Federalist have called this legislation as “amnesty by another name.”

Salazar insists that this bill represents “no amnesty, no handouts, no citizenship.” Nevertheless, this bill creates what amounts to permanent legal residence without the traditional pathway to citizenship.

Top Trump ally Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, will likely a play a major role in this bill’s passage if it continues to gain steam.

As Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jordan wields significant control over immigration legislation, making his role in any potential amnesty deal absolutely crucial. The committee has direct jurisdiction over all immigration matters, meaning Jordan serves as the primary gatekeeper for whether the Dignity Act receives hearings, markup sessions, or advances to a floor vote.

In a prior report, Headline USA noted that Jordan has publicly signaled openness to H-1B visa expansion. In March, he told Politico that he was “eyeing his party’s flagship immigration bill as the legislative vehicle for overhauling existing laws to increase the flow of immigrants into the United States with expertise in science, technology and engineering.”

This represents a dramatic shift from traditional immigration restrictionist positions that the Republican Party has generally embraced in the Trump era, particularly given Jordan’s public stance that he is “steadfastly against illegal immigration and amnesty for illegal immigrants.”

Jordan has not publicly demonstrated support for the Dignity Act thus far. However, there has been speculation in conservative circles that the passage of a mass amnesty is something DC leaders are potentially considering.

As Headline USA previously reported, Charlie Kirk sounded the alarm over what he described as a covert push for mass amnesty in the wake of the passage of Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and Trump’s subsequent proposal of partnering with farmers and hotel owners to grant legal status to workers who have lived in the country for 14 to 15 years.

Kirk warned that GOP elites and corporate interests are pressuring Trump to legalize millions of illegal immigrants. While Kirk claims his warnings have temporarily stalled the effort, he insists the threat of “amnesty by another name” still looms large.

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