During the USSR’s 73 years of existence, the list of wars it waged is enormous—a total of 25, including conflicts in the Caucasus, the Baltic states, Finland, Poland, Germany, Japan, Afghanistan, Spain, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.

After the collapse of the Soviet empire, Russia’s predatory mindset did not vanish. Since 1991, Russia has continued to exist in a state of permanent war: Georgia, Chechnya, Syria, and now the most senseless war of all—against Ukraine.

A natural question arises: why?

Looking for a rational explanation is pointless. Russia has always acted irrationally, without any clear benefit and almost always to its detriment.

The root of all its imperial wars should perhaps be studied through the lens of psychology or even psychiatry. My aim is much simpler: to draw attention to the ultimate goal of Russia’s current war against Ukraine.

Sometime after the election of Barack Obama in 2008, the American Left began exploring, then embracing, and finally enacting agendas that proved not only unhinged and unworkable but also fatal to the left-wing project itself.

How did the party so alienate the middle classes when it once professed it was the sole party and protector of those in-between? How did the Democrat Congress sink to a 16 percent approval rating in a current liberal Quinnipiac University poll? How could 63 percent of registered voters view the Democrats unfavorably in a recent Wall Street Journal poll?

In sum: despise the middle class, then lose elections. Let’s itemize what the Dems have done to achieve this.

There’s a rare kind of elegance that doesn’t come from handlers, stylists, or algorithms. It comes from knowing who you are before the world decides who you should be.

Melania Trump didn’t arrive in Washington looking to be molded. She arrived whole. A woman who had already survived a communist upbringing, brutal fashion circuits, and tabloid cruelty, which meant she didn’t need America’s approval.

And that’s precisely why they couldn’t look away.

While others in the political orbit begged for the spotlight, Melania Trump did something that felt borderline rebellious: She stood still. She didn’t chase applause. She didn’t retweet compliments. She didn’t apologize for being herself.

She's thunder without sound.

A hallmark of President Donald Trump’s second term is that he’s not just promoting his own policies — he’s looking to shake up the American power structure from top to bottom.

Step by step, he is undermining or destroying the left’s decades-old program to achieve total dominance of government and politics through its control of money and institutions.

That’s what Trump is up to with his plan to move much of the federal bureaucracy out of the Washington, DC, area and into the rest of the country.

In doing so, he’s infuriating federal bureaucrats leading cushy lives in DC and its suburbs, close to the centers of power — and close to the various contractors and lobby groups that can be expected to offer them well-padded post-retirement jobs.

Here’s a host of good things this will achieve.

The Deep State is a budget-busting, bureaucratic tyranny, crushing capitalist meritocracy and social values. It is a self-directed, out-of-control monster that fights MAGA tooth and claw.

However, the brilliant computer “nerds” of Elon Musk’s Department Of Governmental Efficiency are already using the first version of their Artificial Intelligence software tool with the goal of eliminating at least 50% of federal regulation -- swift, massive deregulation across the federal government.

DOGE has developed this initial, primitive, tool to evaluate what we can think of as the internal rationality of federal regulations. If half of them can be eliminated because they are out of date, redundant, or mutually conflictive, that suggests that half of what bureaucrats do is useless waste.

This is huge. A main source of Deep State’s bureaucratic power is writing the federal regulations that describe how to apply and implement laws passed by Congress.

Note that this scale of information is beyond the ability of a single mind, or team of minds, to read, absorb, and comprehend. Only AI level software can hope to deal with this massive blob of unrationalized data.

An AI software program that identifies redundant and conflicting regulations, and maybe justifies eliminating half of them, is, effectively, a regulation weed-whacker against a leftist bureaucracy.

It’s a billion-dollar industry, illegal and controlled by Chinese mafia networks in quiet rural and suburban neighborhoods across America.

If that weren’t concerning enough, it also involves drugs, money laundering, illegal immigration, slave labor, and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) extensive influence in the American heartland.

Earlier this month, a major FBI bust of a grow house network in New England was reported with details of the massive scale of marijuana production used to generate profits routed back to China. Boston Herald (7/09): Feds Take Down Chinese-Operated Grow Home Network In Massachusetts, Maine

It’s frankly shocking to read the July 8 DOJ Indictment of seven Chinese nationals for conspiracy to produce and distribute illegal marijuana through a network of grow houses. They were also charged with money laundering and smuggling illegal aliens for cheap labor at the grow operations.

Note: Definition of a Marijuana Grow House is appended below.

America deserves better than the degenerate propaganda machine that passes for “elite” journalism. We deserve better than the evil “cracked-out clown car” the Democrat Party has become.

The New York Times and the Washington Post all but ignored DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s bombshell press conference yesterday (Wednesday 7/23), at which she announced that she had sent criminal referrals to the DOJ and FBI implicating former President Barack Obama and his national security team in the “seditious conspiracy” of the Russia collusion hoax.

As time goes on, and more evidence is painstakingly chipped out of hiding, we see just how rotten the apex Democrats are: Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.

No wonder their party is a shambles: “Constipated. Leaderless. Confused. A cracked-out clown car. Divided,” wrote veteran Democrat strategist James Carville in the Times this week, warning of an impending “civil war” between whatever is left of the moderate rump and the parasitical radical faction that is sucking the party dry.

Russia Faces Intense Barrage Of Ukraine Drones Shutting Down Moscow Airports | Sunday July 20, 2025

Ukraine drone attacks on Moscow and all over Russia are a regular occurrence now.

No wonder, then, that the fourth summer of Moscow’s war against Ukraine has brought feelings of tiredness and hopelessness, rather than the usual seasonal optimism, to Russia.

The spring expectations of a probable cessation of hostilities are gone, and the messages from the Kremlin about the firm determination to stay the course aimed at subjugating Ukraine undercut the longing for a normal life.

Opinion polls cannot fully capture this shift in public mood, particularly when conducted by “foreign agents.” They still indicate a decline in feelings of pride and hope, however, and an increase in indifference and fear (Levada Center, July 18).

In recent days, new evidence has emerged showing that the Obama administration intentionally manipulated and politicized intelligence to advance the Russian collusion hoax — despite conflicting assessments from within the intelligence community itself.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has accused former President Barack Obama of orchestrating a “manufactured, politicized piece of intelligence” to undermine Donald Trump’s presidency before it began. A cache of over 100 declassified documents that her office released includes a December 2016 President’s Daily Brief reportedly confirming that Russia had neither the intent nor capability to alter the outcome of the 2016 election.

According to Gabbard, Obama’s political appointees deliberately suppressed that document. The next day, Obama convened a National Security Council meeting and instructed top intelligence officials, including James Clapper, John Brennan, James Comey, and Susan Rice, to produce an assessment that would support a predetermined conclusion: that Russia interfered in the election to help Trump.

The emerging narrative makes Watergate look like amateur hour.

Dr. Trump will see you now

Chemotherapy can be a life-saving though sometimes toxic effort to eliminate lethal cancer cells before they kill the patient. As such, it can serve as a bitter metaphor for the often-controversial efforts of the Trump administration to undo the metastasizing damage caused by the Biden administration.

The Democrats and their media, however, wish to convince America that the remedy for four years of catastrophe is worse than the catastrophe itself.

Take the border. It was literally destroyed over the last four years. After welcoming in some three million illegal aliens per year—none with legal permission, health audits, or criminal background checks—there was no sign that the then-current or a second Biden administration was ever going to stop radically altering the demography of the U.S.

It was apparently not enough for Biden and his puppeteers that there were a record 50-million-plus foreign-born U.S. residents, comprising nearly 16 percent of the population, among them likely more than 30 million illegal aliens. What number would have been sufficient for a putative eight-year Biden administration—40, 50, or 70 million illegal aliens?

The Sleeping Goddess of Malta ca. 3500 BC

Preface by Jack. The Sleeping Goddess carved by the ancient megalithic people of Malta close to six thousand years ago has an entrancingly soothing beauty, symbolic of Malta itself.  Richard Bangs has been a dear friend of mine for over 40 years. In addition to being the world’s foremost river explorer, he is a gifted composer of poetic prose.  Richard will be co-leading with Rebel and me our Magic of Malta exploration this coming November. This is possibly the most beautiful description of Malta ever written.

There are places that murmur with the ghosts of time. There are places that sing with the laughter of the present. And then, there is Malta—a sun-dappled jewel adrift in the Mediterranean, a stage where the drama of civilization has played out for over 7,000 years.

Malta doesn’t simply invite you; it summons you. It’s a clarion call to the curious, the seekers, the wanderers who wish to touch the pulse of history and the poetry of place.

Malta is not merely a speck on the map. It is a living palimpsest, a manuscript written and rewritten by the hands of empires and dreamers.

Malta is the island that seduced myth itself. Homer, that old spinner of tales, cast Odysseus upon these shores, held captive by the enchantress Calypso for seven languid years. And who could blame him for lingering? Malta is more than a waypoint; it is a spell, a place that holds you fast.

US President Donald Trump’s very public volte face in his attitude towards Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is aimed at forcing the Kremlin to end the war in Ukraine.

Another consequence, though, of the package of measures Trump announced this week is that it could end the toxic alliance of despotic regimes that has formed with the specific goal of targeting the West.

Trump’s mounting frustration with Putin’s refusal to take Washington’s ceasefire plan seriously has led the American leader to authorize a new arms package for Ukraine – including Patriot air defense systems. He is also threatening to impose punitive tariffs on any country that continues to do business with Putin’s repressive regime if no agreement to end the war is reached within 50 days.

And it is the latter measure, with talk in Washington of tariffs ranging from 100-500 per cent, that will send alarm bells ringing in Beijing, Pyongyang and Tehran about the wisdom of maintaining ties with Putin.

Much has been written about the enormous scandal involving the Biden administration’s cover-up of Joe Biden’s dementia.

His senility was obvious when he ran for president in 2020, but was covered up by the manufactured COVID pandemic. He was even then an easily manipulated fool/tool of the far left from the moment he took control of the presidency.

Now we know that he was never an acting president.   He was the radical left’s frontman.

What is pathetic is that his handlers ever thought for even one moment that putting him before the public was wise.  The man was a disaster of monumental proportions.  Consider that satanic, scarlet speech he spewed in Philadelphia as if he were the devil incarnate.  He sort of was.

Back to the autopen.

On Sunday (7/13), we relived that horrific yet awesome moment one year ago, when God’s Millimeter Miracle saved our President’s life, then captured by the most iconic photo of our day, he stood defiantly to challenge us all to Fight! Fight! Fight! to save and preserve our country.

We must rise to that challenge.

Politics and governing are generally not complicated. It is often shaded to appear complicated or confusing by those looking to push their own agendas, cash in, or both.

The politics and governing of today are filled with irrefutable certainties. 24 hours in a day; about 15 months to the most crucial midterm election of our lifetimes; a majority of the mainstream media – national, local, and even international – working with their allies in the Democrat Party, academia, science, medicine, and entertainment to continually smear and destroy the most transformative President in U.S. history along with his MAGA movement.

A large percentage of the Deep State still imbedded in the federal government and our three-letter agencies seeking to sabotage the agenda of the President; a small percentage in the federal government and our three-letter agencies desperately trying to help the President save our nation from within while protecting it from our enemies; and a finite – and precious -- amount of energy left to accomplish the task.

We all know how much real-world experience holds significance.  Occasionally, it can mean everything.

NY Post today, July 15, 2025

Hooray! President Donald Trump’s decision to send “billions of dollars” worth of weapons to Ukraine via NATO could prove a game-changer in Kyiv’s 40-month-old war against Russian aggression.

POTUS  on Monday (7/14) also announced 100% “secondary tariffs” targeting Moscow if it fails to agree to a cease-fire within 50 days.

It’s a terrific combination.

Russia’s been stepping up its attacks civilian areas, while the sanctions could break Russia’s economy.

In addition to defensive systems,  Ukraine will also get offensive weapons, including long-range missiles that can reach far into Russia territory, Axios reports. The Russian public, and Putin himself, will feel the consequences.

Best of all, NATO countries will be paying the bill — with proceeds going to US manufacturers for weapons they produce. Sweet.

Across the political left, from orthodox Democrats to Antifa in the streets, the opposition to President Trump has lost its collective mind.

A selection of examples:

* The House minority leader and now-self-styled tough guy, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, poses with a baseball bat to show how dangerous he is in opposing Trump’s budget bill.

* Jeffries harangued Congress for eight hours; New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker went on for 25 — both to no effect.

* Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) hit the rally trail in private jets to rail about oligarchs, omitting that the ultra-rich are not only mostly leftists but also the funders of the Democratic Party.

* Democrats in Congress make bizarre videos, featuring profanity like f*** or s***. On other occasions, they scream and interrupt Congress.

A quick visit to my Wikipedia page will confirm, “Jack Cashill is an American author, blogger and conspiracy theorist.”

Yet, as I wrote here two months ago, I turned down a serious offer to co-author a book on Jeffrey Epstein, and this after a month of research and several proposal drafts.

I have no doubt that Jeffrey Epstein was an evil pervert. Where I lacked confidence is that I could prove Epstein kept a client list or that he used his videos to blackmail prominent individuals, let alone that one of those individuals orchestrated Epstein’s murder.

I do have confidence, however, in the integrity of FBI Director Kash Patel and Assistant Director Dan Bongino.

Donald Trump is opening up a new frontier in his trade war.

Despite striking a pact with China last month, the US president is threatening to reignite tensions with Beijing by entangling the entirety of Asia in a sprawling web of tariff deals.

Even with fresh levies imposed on Japan and South Korea, Trump is racing to land a string of agreements across the continent, including with Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia.

If he pulls that off, he will build a cage around Xi Jinping’s ability to use Asian markets to prop up Beijing’s strained export-driven economy.

“What we are witnessing is no passing trade war,” says Neil Shearing, an economist at Capital Economics. “Rather, it is the manifestation of a deeper, more durable superpower rivalry between the world’s two largest economies.”

House Democrats are getting torched by their own base - and some of their constituents are literally suggesting they light a match. Shocker, we know - from the party that held nationwide riots over George Floyd (though 'mostly peaceful' of course), tried to assassinate Donald Trump and Steve Scalise, and put Rand Paul in the hospital.

Liberal activists are confronting Democrat lawmakers in town halls, office meetings, and online, demanding they ditch political niceties and start “fighting dirty” — even if it means getting hurt, arrested, or worse.

“There is fear and despair and anger among our voters that puts us in a different position where  we can't keep following norms of decorum anymore,” one House Democrat admitted to Axios, as Dems face a mounting tidal wave of frustration from within their own ranks.

In candid interviews with over two dozen House Democrats, Axios found a theme of rage  and a dangerous appetite for violence.

If he is as upset as his expletives suggest, the Russians need to be concerned. What has really changed is that Trump knows his air power can easily penetrate Russian air defenses following the attacks on Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

The Russian president might not live on potatoes but most of the country does, and with the price of spuds rising and Russian sons returning in over a thousand boxes a day, this is the very time President Trump must turn the screw and force Putin to negotiate for peace.

It is now the US president who holds all the aces.

Has Elon Musk gone off the deep end yet again?

Until a few days ago, we thought he had established a cautious truce with President Trump, having apologized for all the awful things he said about the man who had given him a major role in government, estranging their relationship significantly.

Ostensibly, it was all supposedly over the passage in Congress of Trump's budget, known as the Big Beautiful Bill.

It's true that federal spending did increase with its passage and should not have, but it wasn't a massive expansion. It contained critical tax cuts, money for immigration enforcement, money for defense and other important spending.

Nevertheless, Musk was incensed, as if this was the first time he ever heard of it, his ego wounded because it seemingly negated his DOGE work (it didn't so long as DOGE remains in place as it does), and now he says he wants to start a third party, presumably to challenge Trump's party as well as the leftists.

When we look back on the 1980s, a decade characterized by renewed Western strength and prosperity after the malaise of the 1970s, many of us think of three towering figures: Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II.

These three people were committed to individual liberty, both political and spiritual, and they provided the economic, military, and moral impetus for that amazing decade, a decade that ended with the collapse of the once formidable—indeed, seemingly unbeatable—Soviet Union.

When I look at the world today, I’m beginning to wonder whether, in place of the Trio of Titans in the 1980s, the third decade of the 21st century will bring us the Dynamic Duo of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Working in tandem in the last few months, these months have brought about the military downfall of Iran and its proxy armies (Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis), even as we’re witnessing the resurgence of the Abraham Accords, which will bring Israel into the fold of its Arab-Muslim Middle Eastern neighbors.

[I’ve known Grover for over 40 years. In all those years, the dream of his organization, Americans for Tax Reform, is what this bill makes possible.  We’ll be talking about this more in tomorrow’s HFR. Read Grover now for a head start. – JW]

President Donald Trump’s permanent tax cut will change the world.

The "big, beautiful bill" is the capstone of years of work to create a pro-growth tax policy that will make the American economy so strong we will leave Europe in the dust and convince China they cannot compete with us militarily or economically.

The big bill provides lower tax rates for all. Permanent, immediate expensing of business investment. Tax simplification. America competing in the world economy with lower taxes, not lower wages.

And the largest spending cut of any budget resolution in history.

The importance of permanent 100% business expensing cannot be overstated. This is an achievement pursued by the taxpayer movement for the past five decades.

Another Democrat former first lady is taking her contempt for children way beyond her distaste for baking cookies.

It might explain why the Obama children never looked very happy, and why young Malia Obama no longer wants to use her mom and dad's last name in the career she is trying to build in film.

But more broadly, it highlights the moral disorder seen among Democrat opinionmakers. To downgrade motherhood, the one thing only women can do to perpetrate the human race, is an outrageous take on the vital role of women and the role they play most naturally.

It's like a war against human civilization, obvious enough in that thoughtless yet deeply felt opinion of Michelle Obama, a remark bound to be met by approval by Democrats who will clap like seals at its mention.

One of the 10,000 Russian tanks destroyed in Ukraine

Last month (6/25), Russian casualties climbed through the one million mark after three and a half years of Putin’s “special military operation”, originally expected to last three days.

For an army of such size in manpower and equipment this seems a remarkable price to pay for less than a fifth of Ukrainian territory, fighting against an army which was minuscule in comparison on the day of the illegal invasion – 24th Feb 22.

What are the reasons for this ineptitude, and is this purely a problem of the modern Russian army – or a reflection of systemic failures across the centuries? A soldier (Hamish) and a historian (James) will try to answer these questions today.

When it comes down to it, the Russian military has always relied on mass and brutality. It has aspired historically to ambitious intellectual underpinnings for its military power but this has tended to falter on first contact with reality.

Which leads to Ukraine.

On his first day in office of his second term, President Trump signed an executive order ending anchor babies, the practice of treating kids born to illegals on U.S. soil as full-fledged citizens.

Three federal district court judges promptly issued (you’ll never guess) nationwide injunctions blocking Trump’s order. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on those injunctions any day now.

That is clearly the assumption of smug liberals sneering that Trump’s executive order is “blatantly unconstitutional,” as one injunction-happy judge put it. Their sublime confidence in the permanence of a made-up constitutional right is awe-inspiring.

In fact, the whole “birthright citizenship” scam is based on a wildly expansive interpretation of post-Civil War amendments that were designed to help blacks and former slaves.

Birthright citizenship, let alone the anchor baby con, has nothing to do with the original Constitution. And as Trump keeps saying, the post-Civil War amendments, such as the 14th, are all about slavery.

Mullah Iran has long cultivated the image of a nation unwilling to bend to foreign pressure. From Ayatollah Khomeini’s rejection of the West in 1979 to today’s battles over nuclear sovereignty, the Islamic Republic has projected an unyielding front.

Even now, it promptly violated a ceasefire with Israel. Yet, behind this posture, events of the past 72 hours tell a starkly different story.

On June 23rd, Iran fired a volley of missiles toward Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar—America’s largest military installation in the Middle East. All failed to reach their target. The U.S. had been warned of the attack in advance. And shortly afterward, a mutual ceasefire was declared.

Far from being a show of strength, this final strike marked something else: the quiet but unmistakable surrender of Iran’s regime to mounting military and economic pressure. I.e., to President Donald Trump.

It’s official without being official.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put Israel all in to try to help facilitate regime change in Iran.

He is not saying it 100% explicitly, and the IDF is very carefully avoiding saying it, but on Monday (6/23), for the first time, the IDF attacks on Iran seemed to be overwhelmingly against the regime’s internal political power versus its nuclear or external military power.

Israel is now doing almost everything it can to remove the obstacles preventing the Iranian people to rise up and remove the mullahs from power.  Here’s how.

The word “badass” was bandied about a lot after the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump last year.  Famously, the bloodied Republican candidate raised his fist in defiance.

In a different context, the same pungent word applies to his 2 a.m. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Trump the TV star has a knack for the theatrical and grand gesture. That obviously matters in domestic politics, but in international affairs, too, where projecting strength and command are just as important.

Bombing Fordow and the other sites was also quite focused, but the operation came as a strategic thunderclap.

One way to put it is that the “shock and awe” bombing campaign before the second Iraq war was much less awesome than advertised, and a prelude to a grinding, drawn-out conflict. Trump’s operations tend, in contrast, to be all shock and awe, and for real.

The Trump method is to simplify everything and apply blunt-force solutions, undergirded by a very human psychology of dominance.  That’s what makes him a presidential badass.

In Tehran and cities throughout Iran, Iranians are today chanting enthusiastically about the anticipated fall of the “Islamic Republic” regime and the potential return of the Crown Prince, heir to the ancient throne of Persia.

While it is unclear exactly the extent of the damage Israel has inflicted on Iran and whether or not the current genocidal regime will fall because of it, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi confirmed that Iranian soldiers and officials have reached out to him, and he urged the Iranian people to rise up, announcing he already has a plan for renewing Iran should he come to power again.

In his message above, Pahlavi condemned the violence, cowardice, and destructiveness of Ayatollah Khamenei and co., and confidently predicted that the collapse of the regime there is irreversible. “We are prepared for the first hundred days after the fall, for the transitional period, and for the establishment of a national and democratic government — by the Iranian people and for the Iranian people,” he vowed.

Pahlavi is an advocate for a Westernized, secularized government in Iran. Think of what that would mean for the Middle East. And indeed the world.

While chess originated in India, the game as we know it came from Persia (now known as Iran).

It was from Persia that the term for the final, winning move came: “Checkmate.”

The original Farsi phrase is “shāh māt,” which literally means “the king is dead.”

No matter how fast or slow a chess game, whether it takes minutes or weeks, it ends when the king is dead.

Israel has taken note of that fact and has decided to fight a new type of warfare, ignoring the pawns and killing the king in the first instance.

Of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims, about 7-10% of them are “in it to win it.”

While 10% is a small percentage, 160,000,000 fanatics are still a good-sized global army, and many of them are troops in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

They will fight to the death, buoyed up by promises of martyrdom’s rich rewards (mostly creepy sex but, perhaps, a glut of fine raisins).

But no matter how fanatic your troops are, they still need leaders.

Think of them as savage sheep.

If led to battle, they’ll fight fiercely, but if there is no shepherd, they lose the plot, often becoming frightened or disheartened, and almost all will scatter.

It’s this savage sheep concept that gets me to my chess metaphor.