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It's Affordability, Stupid? Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness, The recent Democratic cry of “affordability” is ironic in many ways. The left-wing narrative of Trump hyperinflation was one of desperation and came only after previous memes had failed to resonate. The 2025 generic “dictator,” “fascist,” and “Nazi” smear points never helped the left much. Nor did the nihilist government shutdown over the “Obamacare crisis” work other than perhaps to depress fourth-quarter GDP. Nor did the earlier spring 2025 melodramatic predictions of an impending “Trade War,” “Recession,” and stock-market “Meltdown resonate.” Nor did the “Gestapo,” “SS,” and “Nazi” ICE smears become effective talking points. The “illegal orders” and “unconstitutional use of force” in destroying narcotraffickers' shipments in transit of lethal drugs were mostly empty rhetoric. Then the Democrats got smart and remembered how Trump had won in 2024. He ran an...

DOD Flirting With Aviation Disaster: 2nd Near-Collision With USAF Tanker Off Venezuela Just one day after almost killing everyone aboard a passenger jet, the US Air Force narrowly dodged another near-disaster off the coast of Venezuela -- this time with a business jet. For many, the two frightening incidents intensify a perception that the administration's militarism against Venezuela is as reckless as it is unwarranted and unconstitutional. Within a day of each other, two midair disasters nearly unfolded off Venezuela involving USAF refueling tankers, like this KC-45 Pegasus (USAF Photo) For those who missed our reporting on the first near-disaster, on Saturday, a JetBlue Airbus A320 heading to New York's JFK Airport from the Caribbean island of Curaçao was forced to take evasive action when the pilots suddenly found themselves staring down an approaching USAF refueling tanker at the same altitude and only two or three miles away. "It was an air-to-air refueler from the United Stat...

Wall Street's $4 Quadrillion Backbone To Roll-Out Tokenized US Treasuries Authored by Jesse Coghlan via CoinTelegraph.com, The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation said it is set to bring tokenized US Treasurys onchain, and plans to expand to a “broad spectrum” of assets in the future. The DTCC said on Wednesday that it plans to “enable a subset of US Treasury securities” custodied at its subsidiary, the Depository Trust Company, to be minted on the Canton Network, a permissioned blockchain created by the fintech company Digital Asset. “This collaboration creates a roadmap to bring real-world, high-value tokenization use cases to market, starting with US Treasury securities and eventually expanding to a broad spectrum of DTC-eligible assets across network providers,” said DTCC CEO Frank LaSalla. The DTCC runs crucial market infrastructure for clearing, settlement and trading of US securities and reported that its subsidiaries processed $3.7 quadrillion in securities transacti...

Gavin Newsom Singles Out CZ, Ross Ulbricht, Arthur Hayes As Trump's "Criminal Cronies" Authored by Vismaya V via Decrypt.co, California Governor Gavin Newsom has launched a website tracking what he calls President Donald Trump's "criminal cronies,” a list that includes Trump himself alongside convicted drug lords, January 6 insurrectionists, and several prominent crypto figures who have received presidential pardons. The tracker, unveiled Tuesday, spotlights Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, and BitMEX co-founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, Gregory Dwyer, and Samuel Reed, among the recipients of Trump's pardons. CRIMINAL IN CHIEF: DONALD TRUMP 34 felony convictions. Cozying up to convicted sex traffickers. Cashing in on crypto grifts. Inviting foreign influence into American politics. This is the standard Trump sets. See more at: https://t.co/B05K1ZIqBW pic.twitter.com/cfDAEacmib — Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) Decembe...

Ford To Lay Off 1,600 Workers As Kentucky EV Battery Plant Pivots To Data Center Storage Ford will lay off all 1,600 workers at its newly built electric-vehicle battery plant in Glendale, Kentucky, as it pivots away from EV production and converts the facility to make battery-storage systems for data centers, utilities, and renewable-energy developers, according to WDRB. The company said Monday it plans to begin shipping battery energy-storage systems from plants in Kentucky and Michigan in late 2027, calling the move a shift toward “higher-return opportunities,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Ford estimates the transition away from its EV strategy will cost $19.5 billion and disclosed that it has lost about $13 billion on EVs since 2023. “Instead of plowing billions into the future knowing these large EVs will never make money, we are pivoting,” CEO Jim Farley told the Journal. In a video message to employees, Michael Adams, CEO of BlueOval SK—the former Ford–SK On joint ve...

Solid 20Y Auction Stops Through After Jump In Foreign Demand With stocks selling off again, and with capital - especially tech capital - scrambling for a flight to safety, it should hardly surprise anyone that today's 20Y auction was strong.  Pricing at a high yield of 4.798%, this was almost 10bps higher than the 4.71% stop in November (when the auction tailed by 0.2bps), and stopped through today's When Issued 4.799% by 0.1bps, the 6th stop through in the past 7 auctions.  The bid to cover jumped from 2.41 in November to 2.67, just above the 2.65 recent average.  The internals were also solid, as foreigners (aka Indirects) took down 65.2% of the auction, the highest since July; and with Directs awarded 22.2%, a bit below the 25.3% recent average, Dealers were left holding 12.6%, up from 11.4% in November and above the six-auction average of 11.0%. Overall, this was a solid auction, which is what one would expected today, and while yields moved lower by about a basis point on the news, t...

Four Days Later: Brown University Shooter Still At Large As Bizarre Anomalies Mount In Investigation Anger mounts as the investigation into the Brown University shooting runs into ongoing hurdles: no identifiable suspect, a series of dead-end leads involving so-called persons of interest, and bizarre anomalies as the probe enters its fourth day. The shooting at Brown occurred Saturday afternoon at the Barus and Holley Engineering Building. Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov were both killed. Importantly, Cook served as the vice president of the Ivy League school's College Republicans. Brown University Republican Club VP Ella Cook's family deserves answers. pic.twitter.com/heOL1hQj6x — Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 17, 2025 Following the shooting, there have been multiple dead-end leads involving so-called "persons of interest." Local police have released blurry footage of one individual, while one of the most heavily surveilled schools in the nation reportedly had no ...

Shell Oil Sued Over "Causing Typhoon" In Philippines In Major Test Case Authored by Chris Morrison via DailySceptic.org, A massive 'lawfare' claim backed by Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth has been filed in the UK's Royal Courts of Justice claiming that Shell Oil played a part in a devastating typhoon in the Philippines in 2021. At the centre of the case is a Green Blob-funded weather 'attribution' study that claims Typhoon Rai, also known as Odette, was made significantly worse due to human caused climate change. The study has been recently published and is heavily linked to academic institutions funded by the green billionaire investor Jeremy Grantham. The action has been filed by a number of survivors of the Philippines storm that caused considerable damage in parts of the Philippines in late 2021. It claims financial compensation as well as “injunctive relief to curb Shell's destructive activities”. Typhoons are not unknown in this part of the world, but recent ev...

Trump Admin Demands Tim Walz's Resignation After Another Fraud Discovery Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA, Education Secretary Linda McMahon demanded on Monday that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz step down over allegations that his administration allowed millions in taxpayer money to be stolen by “ghost students.”  Tim Walz / IMAGE: @AlphaNews via X McMahon's scathing letter, published on X, came after the Education Department reportedly uncovered at least 1,834 fraudulent college applicants in Minnesota received $12.5 million in grants and loans.   Overall, the Trump administration reportedly found that $90 million had been disbursed to alleged scammers in 2024 alone, in addition to $30 million in loans to dead people and over $40 million to companies using AI bots. These suspected fraudsters, also known as “ghost students,” use stolen identities to obtain the funds.   Dear @GovTimWalz: pic.twitter.com/6VbvrcNdiY — Secretary Linda McMahon (@EDSecMcMahon) December 16,...

Putin Dismisses EU Leaders As 'European Swine' Who've Failed To Collapse Russia President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that European leaders have continued stoking and hyping fears that Russia seeks expansion and that it is prepared even to go to war with EU and NATO countries. He went so far as to call EU officials "European swine" for their role in fueling the proxy war. He again emphasized that Moscow is in no way seeking war with Europe. "I have repeatedly stated: this is a lie, nonsense, pure nonsense about some imaginary Russian threat to European countries. But this is being done quite deliberately," he said. via AP The Kremlin has repeatedly accused EU leaders of seeking to thwart peace, while praising that Washington's efforts to forge a deal under Trump appear genuine and are in good faith. However, the Trump admin is currently said to be preparing more sanctions on Russia's energy sector if Moscow persists in rejecting a peace deal. All the while, Zelen...

Fellow Judge Delivers Blow To The Defense Of Hannah Dugan Authored by Jonathan Turley, The trial of Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan began this week. Yesterday, the defense was delivered a blow from the testimony of the judge, who Dugan enlisted to confront ICE officers seeking to arrest an illegal alien in the courthouse. Judge Kristela Cervera testified that she was pulled into the dispute by Dugan, who she said admitted that she was trying to help Eduardo Flores-Ruiz as he evaded officers. Many of us were wondering who the second judge was who appeared in the hallway wearing her robes. It is irregular to see judges outside of their courtrooms wearing their robes. Cervera said that Dugan specifically told her to keep her robe on and that she was reluctant to do so: “I didn't want to walk in the hallway with my robe on.” Dugan, however, allegedly wanted the agents to see them in their robes as a sign of authority. She said that the agent remained respectful but that Dugan was getting ...

Fani Gets Frothy In Epic Meltdown Over Payments To Lover Fulton County DA Fani Willis - who botched her 2020 election case against President Trump and others after it emerged that she was paying her lover, Nathan Wade, to help prosecute the case - had a complete meltdown on Wednesday in an appearnce before a special Georgia Senate committee examining her prosecution of President Trump on Wednesday.  When presented with documents showing how much her office paid Wade, she became hostile and combative with legislators - saying "I don't review those documents, so you're asking me to look at documents that I haven't, for the first time..." "What I can tell you is I allowed Mr. Wade to bill 160 hours a week," adding that Wade whipped her office staff into shape.  "He got there before them, he left after him... he was a leader to the team... and for that, him like me - has been threatened thousands of times," Fani continued.  "You have something to inve...

California Allows Tesla To Continue Sales In State... For Now Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), California's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has placed on hold an order suspending Tesla's car sales in the state, granting the electric vehicle maker additional time to respond to allegations of misleading marketing and overstated self-driving capabilities. Teslas fill the charging stations at a newly opened Tesla Diner in Hollywood, Calif., July 22, 2025. Jill McLaughlin/The Epoch Times DMV Director Steve Gordon told reporters on Tuesday that the agency adopted a judge's recommendation for a 30-day suspension of Tesla's manufacturing and sales licenses, but stayed the measures. The stay lasts for 90 days on sales and indefinitely on manufacturing, which Gordon said provides Tesla “one more chance to be able to remedy the situation.” Gordon noted that he hopes Tesla will “find a way to get these misleading statements corrected.” Tesla can appeal the ord...

House Republicans Forge Ahead With Vote On Health Care Reforms Authored by Lawrence Wilson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The House will vote on a Republican health care plan that does not include an extension of the expiring enhanced tax credits for Obamacare, a decision by GOP leaders that produced some dissension within the party. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) speaks at a press conference during the 34th day of the goverment shutdown in Washington on Nov. 3, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times The Dec. 17 vote is the latest development in the battle over the Affordable Care Act Marketplace, popularly known as Obamacare, and certain COVID-19-era subsidies that are set to expire this month. Republicans are pitching their bill, the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act, as a set of reforms that will lower the cost of health insurance across the board. The GOP plan would leave the original Obamacare subsidies in place while allowing the temporary enhanced subsidies, inst...

ASPI Jumps After Clearing Hurdle To Acquire Renergen ASPI, which we have discussed extensively both here in our premium section, has finally received all required approvals for the acquisition of South African LNG and helium production company, Renergen. Temporary - and recurring - delays in obtaining regulatory approval for the acquisition in South Africa were starting to create doubts that the transaction would never close. But the latest announcement from ASPI has cleared the way for the transaction to be consummated after final approvals are received later this month. The news sparked a significant jump in the stock price on a day when most other small cap, high beta stocks are again getting crushed by another day of the Oracle-inspired pukefest. Renergen operates the Virginia Gas Project in South Africa, which has received significant funding in the hundreds of millions of dollars from the US government through the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). The project is pro...

Warner Bros. Board Urges Shareholders To Reject Paramount Hostile Takeover Bid Authored by Andrew Moran via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Warner Bros. Discovery's board of directors said on Dec. 17 that it is advising shareholders to reject Paramount Skydance's hostile takeover bid and support Netflix's offer. Netflix and Warner Bros Discovery logos are seen in this illustration created on Dec. 5, 2025. Dado Ruvic/Reuters Last week, Paramount put forward an all-cash $30‑per‑share bid valuing Warner Bros. at $108.4 billion, matching the offer it made a week earlier. CEO David Ellison argued that the proposal is superior to Netflix's and said a Paramount–Warner Bros. merger would have better odds of clearing regulatory review. But Samuel Di Piazza Jr., chair of the Warner Bros. Discovery board of directors, says Paramount has never presented a proposition that is superior to the Netflix offer, adding that the current offer is “inadequate, with significant risks and costs impos...

General Mills Earnings Top Expectations But CEO Warns Of 'K-Shaped' Bifurcation General Mills reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings. Organic revenue fell 1% in the fiscal second quarter, much less than the Bloomberg Consensus estimate of -2.53%, while volumes remained flat after an 8% plunge in the first quarter. Still, the packaged food giant, with more than 100 brands worldwide, cautioned that a bifurcated consumer environment persists across North America. "While we're encouraged by the progress we're making in improving volume, we've seen a change in consumer behavior this year that is driving an increase in the cost of volume across our categories," CEO Jeff Harmening said in prepared remarks. But Harmening warned about the "K-shaped" economy, also known as the bifurcated consumer environment, where middle-income and upper-income households are doing just fine, while lower-income, working-class households are under pressure from lingering effects of fa...

Trump Weighs Limiting Defense Contractors' Shareholder Payouts, CEO Compensation Major defense contractors like Boeing and Raytheon depend on government contracts for at least half the dollars they take in - and times have been 'good' particularly in the last several years of geopolitical hotspots and raging wars from Ukraine to Gaza. Contractor CEOs have as expected really been raking it in as well, though some government accountability watchdogs have long complained that huge CEO compensation, also through ample bonuses, does nothing to advance the defense of the United States. But alas, it remains that ultimately it's the taxpayers subsidizing these more-than-ample paychecks. This trend jumped significantly starting in 2022 into 2023 - which marked the first year of the Russia-Ukraine war, and Washington's policy of arming Kiev to the teeth. Getty Images One industry watchdog had this to say from that year: "The United States spent more last year on defense than the next 10 ...

FBI Arrested A Fifth Trantifa Militant In NYE Bomb Plot Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, The FBI arrested a fifth suspect in a New Year's Eve mass bombing plot tied to the communist “decolonization” outfit known as the Turtle Island Liberation Front. This time, it's an ex-Marine and former cop who ditched sanity for Trantifa extremism, underscoring how transgender ideology keeps fueling these deranged attacks on law enforcement and freedom. The arrests spotlight a festering movement: violent leftists entangled with gender confusion, plotting to slaughter ICE agents and blow up key sites. As we highlighted, Federal authorities swooped in last week, nabbing four Southern California militants from the Turtle Island Liberation Front while they allegedly headed to the desert to test homemade explosives. The group, a far-left antifa-style cell obsessed with pro-Palestinian and anti-government rants, aimed to unleash coordinated IED attacks on five Los Angeles spots during New Year...

White House Prepping New Sanctions If Russia Rejects Latest Ukraine Ceasefire Offer The White House is preparing a fresh round of sanctions on Russia's energy sector which would be implemented if Moscow rejects the Trump-proposed peace deal with Ukraine. According to Bloomberg, this time around it is set to be even more muscular: "The US is considering options, such as targeting vessels in Russia's so-called shadow fleet of tankers used to transport Moscow's oil, as well as traders who facilitate the transactions, said the people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations." Ukraine's President Zelensky has called the current draft a "very workable version" - after he met in Berlin for two days with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to work on it. Next it is expected to be presented to the Kremlin in the coming days. August 15 Alaska summit, Getty Images The Ukrainian leader appears somewhat satisfied as it's said to include robust secu...