HALF-FULL REPORT 06/13/25
Empire’s Edge: From Insurgencies to Border Wars to Nuclear Ghosts
Happy Father’s Day to the men who raise warriors, not whiners and a proud Flag Day to all who still stand when the anthem plays.
This nation wasn’t built by committees or comfort It was built by fathers who worked, fought, prayed, and bled under that flag. Whether you’re a dad, a vet, or just a proud American, we honor the legacy of strength, sacrifice, and sovereignty.
Hold the line. Raise ‘em right. And never let that flag touch the ground.
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Operation Rising Lion and the End of Illusions
At 3:30 a.m. Tel Aviv time, on June 13, 2025, the quiet Persian night was torn open by the scream of jet engines and the flash of precision fire. The operation was code named Rising Lion, but it might as well have been titled The Reckoning.
Israel, acting without apology, launched its largest single-day combat operation in modern history, deploying over 200 aircraft, including stealth F‑35s, F‑16s, and a fleet of tankers, to deliver a direct message 1,000 miles east to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The airstrikes were not symbolic. They were decisive.
Phase One: Shatter the Shield
The first wave of Rising Lion hit Iranian and allied air defense systems across Syria, Iraq, and western Iran obliterating radar systems, command-and-control networks, and SAM sites including Russian-built A-300 batteries and indigenous Bashar‑3 radars.
Mossad operatives operating silent and embedded had already rigged key defense facilities with internal explosives. As Israeli missiles tore across airspace, internal sabotage blew open gaps in Iran’s radar net. Tehran’s skies were naked by the time the second wave arrived.
Phase Two: Rip Out the Fangs
Next, Israel went for Iran’s offensive missile arsenal. Mobile launchers, fixed silos, and underground depots near Kermanshah, Ilam, and Sardasht were vaporized. Iran’s ability to launch an effective retaliatory barrage degraded significantly.
Some sites reportedly housed Shahab and Sejjil-class ballistic missiles, capable of hitting Tel Aviv with high payload warheads. The Israelis didn’t just destroy machines. They shattered the confidence of the IRGC.
Phase Three: Cut Off the Head
The third and final wave was surgical in its intent: eliminate nuclear infrastructure and kill the architects of Iran’s nuclear ambition.
Explosions lit up the sky above Natanz, Arak, Fordow, and Isfahan. The Natanz enrichment halls, where cascades of gas centrifuges hummed with uranium hexafluoride, were set ablaze. Arak’s heavy-water reactor, the potential backdoor to plutonium production, was bombed into radioactive rubble. Fordow, buried under 260 feet of mountain, was hit with bunker-busting munitions designed for deep-target elimination.
But the shock wasn’t just technological, it was also human. Among the confirmed fatalities were several of Iran’s top strategic commanders and nuclear scientists.
Major General Hossein Salami, the IRGC Commander-in-Chief, was eliminated, along with Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the Chief of Staff. Gholam Ali Rashid, a senior military strategist, and Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the IRGC Aerospace Force, were also reported killed. In the scientific echelon, Dr. Fereydoun Abbasi, former AEOI chief and top physicist, was confirmed dead, along with Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, a nuclear theorist and academic.
The goal was clear: destroy the capability and remove the minds behind it.
The Trigger: The IAEA Breaks the Seal
Just days before Rising Lion, the IAEA released a damning June 10 resolution confirming that Iran was operating at least three undeclared nuclear sites, housing unreported quantities of nuclear material. It was the smoking gun Israel had warned about for years. The West issued sternly worded statements; Israel launched Rising Lion. That’s the difference between diplomatic delay and existential clarity.
Iran’s Counterstrike and the Rising Cost of Hubris
By 9:30 p.m., Iran retaliated with dozens of ballistic missiles and drone swarms, targeting Tel Aviv and the MEDIC complex, Israel’s equivalent of the Pentagon.
Over 100 drones were intercepted by Iron Dome, Arrow, David’s Sling, and Patriot systems. Tel Aviv absorbed shockwaves, but Israel remained standing, shielded by one of the most sophisticated air defense architectures on Earth.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei declared the attacks “a declaration of war,” vowing “harsh punishment.” Iran’s remaining air assets, F‑4 Phantoms, F‑14 Tomcats, and MiG‑29s, reportedly scrambled, though their operational readiness remains doubtful. Iran has volume, yes, but its edge is dulled by age and dependency on obsolete Russian platforms.
Geopolitical Fallout: Reagan Doctrine Redux
This isn’t just an Israeli operation as much as it’s a global inflection point. Iran is a client state of Moscow, dependent on Russian radar tech, airframes, and doctrine. With each destroyed SAM battery and every flattened underground bunker, Russia’s influence burns away. Rising Lion hits more than bunkers. It drains the Russian war economy.
We’ve seen this before: in Nicaragua, in Afghanistan, in Grenada. Proxy states press the free world, and the free world answers with overwhelming precision and resolve. That is the Reagan Doctrine, as created by Dr. Jack Wheeler, and it is alive and roaring in 2025.
The Road Ahead: Escalation or Collapse
Netanyahu has made it clear: this campaign will continue for as long as necessary. The G7 and UN, predictably, call for de-escalation. Jordan pleads for calm. But this is about consequences and not calm. Iran violated non-proliferation, and the response was justice in motion.
If Iran chooses to dig in and if it responds with asymmetric terror or prolonged missile warfare, then this becomes not just a war of deterrence, but a war of strategic attrition. Israel has shown the world it’s ready. The question is whether Iran, Russia, and their sympathizers have the stomach for the cost of defiance.
Rising Lion has risen. And it isn’t landing anytime soon.
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USA: Proud Non-Participant
The Trump administration confirmed that Israel acted unilaterally. Secretary of State Rubio affirmed, “we weren’t involved” and emphasized America’s top priority is protecting U.S. forces in the region.
President Trump himself said he “knew everything” about the strike and hinted at readiness to resume nuclear talks, but warned Iran “there are several people who will not be coming back.”
Despite potential domestic blowback, Congress led by House Speaker Johnson swiftly backed Israel, affirming continued military aid ($3.8 billion annually). Still, any future U.S. support could be complicated depending on political fallout .
Nuclear Brinkmanship: Blowback or Breakthrough?
These strikes may degrade Iran’s nuclear capabilities, but they won’t erase decades of technical know-how. Worse, they may push Tehran to double down on its atomic ambition. Iran could pivot toward full-on weaponization or deepen ties with Russia, especially if Moscow shares drone swarm blueprints . The regional response triggered by shippers hit by Houthis, missile salvos from Tehran, cyber-attacks, even terror plots has already begun.
The IAEA’s resolution dinging Iran for non-disclosure was a political green light. Israel’s target list aligns with that confirmation, but this is far from a surgical strike, it’s the opening salvo of a long campaign.
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FBI Investigates Funding Behind Anti-ICE Protests
FBI Director Kash Patel announced investigations into financial backing of recent anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles. The bureau is examining monetary connections to determine funding sources for these protests.
“The FBI is investigating any and all monetary connections responsible for these riots,” Patel told The Epoch Times and Just the News. That’s DEFCON 2 language for someone is writing the checks and we’re going to follow the trail.
The target of the chaos? Federal immigration enforcement. The perpetrators? An unholy alliance of communist operatives, pro-Beijing financiers, pro-Hamas agitators, and Democrat-aligned NGOs. This is a foreign-funded, ideologically synchronized, color-revolution operation aimed at breaking the sovereign right of the United States to enforce its own borders.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation has emerged as a primary organizing group behind the protests. The organization reportedly has connections to tech billionaire Neville Roy Singham, who funds pro-Beijing organizations including The People’s Forum of Manhattan.
The People’s Forum of Manhattan’s director Manolo De Los Santos publicly endorses China’s COVID-19 lockdown policies and organizes events that celebrate Chinese Communism as a transformative global movement. He has publicly praised Chinese Communist policies and holds events promoting Chinese political systems.
Rather than being a grassroots effort, this represents a well-funded, ideologically driven network with foreign backing that promotes Maoist ideology in American urban centers.
Unity of Fields, a Palestine Action US offshoot, coordinates protest activities through Telegram channels that reach over 10,000 participants. The group has been linked to incidents involving property damage and has made public calls for militant action against federal immigration enforcement.
Christy Walton, heiress to the Walmart fortune, is reportedly funding the “No Kings National Riot” event scheduled for June 14. Walton previously provided financial backing to the Lincoln Project during its political campaigns.
The “No Kings” protests represent a “nationwide day of defiance” organized to “reject authoritarianism” scheduled to coincide with President Trump’s birthday and Flag Day. More than 100 leftist advocacy groups are partnering to organize the No Kings events, which are positioned as a counter-response to what organizers describe as authoritarian displays of power.
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Official Responses
Mayor Karen Bass has publicly opposed ICE operations in Los Angeles, denouncing federal immigration raids in the city.
President Trump and Vice President Vance have criticized California leadership, stating that Governor Newsom and Mayor Bass encouraged the riots.
Investigation Status
The FBI investigation focuses on potential foreign financial influence in domestic protests and examines coordination between multiple activist organizations. Investigators are analyzing the use of encrypted communication platforms for organizing demonstrations and reviewing incidents of property damage that occurred during the protests.
The bureau seeks to determine whether organized funding networks systematically support anti-immigration enforcement activities.
Political Objectives Driving the Protests
Some observers argue these protests are less about compassion and more about power. They point out that labeling immigration enforcement as “kidnapping” and ICE agents as “fascists,” while casting illegal immigrants as “neighbors,” is a rhetorical sleight of hand meant to cloak a deeper political agenda.
At the heart of the issue is congressional representation. With roughly 40 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S., critics say that population significantly alters House seat distribution. Since seats are apportioned based on total population and not citizenship, with every 750,000 people counted, regardless of legal status. That could mean at least 50 additional congressional seats for blue states, the riots are about colonizing the ballot box.
California Isn’t Mexico, It’s Still the United States
Here’s a quick history refresher for the revisionists: California was under Spanish control for over two and a half centuries. Mexico held it for less than 20 years before handing it over to the United States nearly two centuries ago. That doesn’t exactly give Mexico a strong historical claim. If anything, it proves how little stake they had.
So when rioters drape themselves in Mexican flags while torching American cities, it’s not about justice,it’s about allegiance. They’re not asking to join the American project. They’re trying to overrun it. And the Democratic Party? They’re not pushing back. They’re opening the gates.
Democrats have turned NGOs into political shock troops, organizing, coordinating, and funding the riots. This is the NGO-industrial complex: tax-exempt, donor-funded, and completely unaccountable. And it’s weaponized.
GM Knows Which Way the Wind Blows
While Los Angeles burns under the weight of imported chaos, General Motors is quietly making a move that actually strengthens this country. They’re shifting $4 billion worth of production from Mexico back to Detroit. That’s not just a business decision, it’s a statement of intent. It’s a return to economic nationalism, and it’s exactly what sovereignty looks like when it’s done with steel, grit, and payrolls.
Karen Bass: From Mayor to Mascot of Mayhem
Mayor Karen Bass didn’t just fail to lead, she signaled the mob to march. She condemned ICE for enforcing the law, and then looked shocked when lawlessness took over her city. That’s not leadership. That’s dereliction of duty wrapped in progressive platitudes.
President Trump and Vice President JD Vance didn’t mince words:
“Newsom and his stooge Karen Bass fomented and encouraged the riots. Their movement exists for one purpose: to promote mass migration.”
They’re not interested in order, opportunity, or assimilation. They’re interested in importing a new electorate, one riot and one open border at a time.
What we’re witnessing is a domestic insurgency, foreign-influenced, billionaire-funded, ideologically motivated, and politically protected. It operates through encrypted channels, shouts in the streets, and hides behind the shield of progressive morality. But its mission is clear: undermine American sovereignty and replace it with a permanent revolutionary apparatus.
If we don’t draw a hard line now and if we don’t treat this as the political warfare that it is, then we shouldn’t be surprised when neighborhoods start to look more like Gaza than Main Street. And when your vote gets drowned out by a population that wasn’t elected but imported, don’t pretend you didn’t see it coming.
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The Dragon Buys Time
President Donald J. Trump, in classic fashion, took to social media this week to declare a “done deal” with Beijing after two days of high-stakes trade negotiations concluded in London on June 11, 2025.
Don’t mistake the brevity of his announcement for lack of substance.
The bones of this agreement, if not yet the sinew, have been laid bare. And while the usual caveat of “final approval” remains, this framework marks a pivot point in the decades-long economic war that Washington has too often refused to name.
This isn’t a handshake between trading partners so much as it’s a managed ceasefire in a war that has gutted American industry, enriched Chinese communists, and empowered a rival civilization with hegemonic ambitions. And yet, it’s also a step, measured, conditional, but real, toward reclaiming our national economic sovereignty.
The Tariff Balancing Act
Under the deal, the U.S. will levy a 55% tariff on Chinese goods, which is significantly lower than the punishing 145% blanket rate previously imposed during the escalation phase. But it is still steep enough to deter the Walmart-to-fentanyl pipeline of cheap imports.
This isn’t free trade. It is filtered trade, and that’s exactly what we need. Meanwhile, China has agreed to reduce its own tariffs on U.S. goods from 125% to 10%. On paper, it looks symmetrical. In reality, it’s Beijing blinking, not Washington.
That 55% figure isn’t random. It includes a new 10% “baseline” tariff that reasserts what Washington once knew instinctively: that industrial policy begins at the border. No more pretending that low consumer prices justify the hemorrhaging of jobs, skills, and dignity from our heartland. The age of the dollar store subsidy is over. If you want to sell to the American market, you’ll pay for the privilege.
Rare Earths: Strategic Minerals, Strategic Leverage
Perhaps the most critical aspect of the deal, and the least appreciated by coastal media elites—], is China’s concession on rare earth elements. These are the silent gears of modern civilization, used in everything from electric vehicles to guided missile systems. And for years, the Chinese Communist Party has leveraged their near-monopoly to choke supply chains and extort concessions.
No longer. Beijing has now agreed to supply the U.S. “upfront” with the rare earths and magnets we require. This is an explicit reversal of their prior export restrictions that had begun to ripple through our defense industrial base. In war fighting terms, this is akin to securing fuel before the next tank offensive.
This is a strategic realignment, one that plugs a critical vulnerability before it can be exploited in a future conflict over Taiwan, semiconductors, or global dominance.
Other Provisions: The Soft Power Concession
In return, the United States has agreed to “what was previously agreed,” including access for Chinese students at American universities. Some will decry this as a soft spot, and in truth, it is a compromise.
Our higher education system remains a two-faced actor. It is simultaneously a beacon of Western liberalism and a sieve for intellectual property theft.
But viewed in balance, the concession is minor compared to the economic and strategic gains. We’ve conceded access to Berkeley and MIT, not the keys to our missile systems. And with heightened scrutiny already in place, these students will arrive in a country that is no longer asleep at the wheel.
The Broader Picture: A Tactical Pause, Not a Treaty of Versailles
Let no one misread this deal as a final peace. This is not the end of America’s long economic struggle with the People’s Republic of China. It is, at best, a breathing space and temporary stabilization meant to slow the hemorrhage of strategic materials, regain footing in global manufacturing, and prepare for what’s next.
It was unrelenting, politically unpopular, and economically painful pressure that brought Xi Jinping to the table. From Geneva to London, the playbook hasn’t changed: squeeze until they squeal. And squeal they did. That’s why we got this deal, and that’s why we must enforce it to the letter.
Conclusion: Know the Enemy, Honor the Moment
This is a chess move, not a checkmate. China’s goals remain unchanged: economic supremacy, technological domination, and global ideological expansion. They see time as their ally. We must treat it as our proving ground.
President Trump’s announcement may have been short. The road ahead will not be. But for now, America has bought itself time and bought it with strength, not supplication. The message to Beijing is clear: we’re not folding, we’re fortifying. And this time, we mean it.
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Taiwan Prepares: Invasion Sim & the Drone Wall
As the fog of U.S.-China tension builds, Taiwan is preparing for the storm.
This week, nine senior retired officers from Taiwan, Japan, and the United States participated in a civilian-run, operational-level simulation of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030. It was the first of its kind in Taipei and signaled a new level of civil-military fusion and seriousness in defense planning.
These aren’t academic war games. These are dry runs for survival.
In parallel, Taiwan is taking its first serious steps toward building what analysts are calling a “drone wall” as an uncrewed, distributed defense network modeled loosely on Ukraine’s revolutionary use of drones. Taiwan is procuring 200 maritime drones under the “Kuai Chi Project,” developed by the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST), the island’s top weapons R&D agency.
These vessels are undergoing combat evaluations, with further testing planned later this year. Combined with a newly announced Littoral Combat Command launching in 2026, Taiwan is aligning its doctrine, procurement, and command structure around asymmetric warfare.
The new defense strategy released in March of this year explicitly embraces asymmetric warfare, with drones featured not as experimental novelties but as foundational elements. The strategy integrates uncrewed systems into training, operations, and the broader defense industrial base.
But while drones are acknowledged as vital, the precise budgetary commitment remains murky. If Taiwan intends to deter Beijing, clarity and scale in funding must match the rhetoric.
Taiwan’s Drone Industry: Ambition Meets Constraint
Taiwan has also announced it will become a drone manufacturing hub. Leaders are promising to not only supply the world’s best chips but its most advanced drones. The aspiration is bold, but it faces a core challenge: unlike Ukraine or Russia, Taiwan isn’t burning through drones daily. Chips evolve through constant use; drones, in peacetime, do not.
Without combat attrition as a forcing function, Taiwan’s feedback loop for improving its platforms will be slower and more dependent on simulations and partnerships.
Still, the groundwork is being laid. The government has launched a “Drone National Team,” set up a drone development center in Chiayi City, and is subsidizing up to 50% of R&D costs for domestic producers. These measures mirror Ukraine’s rapid industrial expansion, but Taiwan will need more than subsidies. Ukraine’s drone experience is forged in fire. Taiwan’s must be built in the shadow of one.
Balancing the Force: Crewed and Uncrewed Systems
Western militaries, and Taiwan is no exception, are structurally addicted to large, exquisite, expensive platforms deployed in small numbers, often with dangerously low munitions stockpiles. This model is obsolete. Modern warfare is a consumption game. Ukraine has made that brutally clear.
Taiwan must reckon with its own force structure and make hard choices about how it balances legacy crewed systems against cheaper, scalable, uncrewed assets. This is not a zero-sum decision, but an overdue rebalancing act.
The UK’s 2025 Defense Strategic Review offers a compelling model. It recommends a 20–40–40 force ratio: 20% crewed platforms controlling 40% reusable drones and 40% one-time-use “consumables” as munitions and suicide drones. This high-low mix reflects modern battlefield realities and offers a tangible template for Taiwan to follow.
While mission-specific adjustments will be needed, the principle is clear: quantity matters, and survivable, affordable platforms must be at the center of future defense.
Scaling Up: Time Is the Enemy
Taiwan’s defense ministry has committed to deploying 700 military UAVs and 3,000 dual-use drones by 2028. That’s a solid first step. But it’s not enough. Those numbers represent about one month of drone consumption in Ukraine. If China invades, Taiwan will need more, much more.
Just as Ukraine needs drone units on every frontline, Taiwan must prepare to deploy drones across all domains and all geographies from frontline trenches to vital infrastructure hubs.
Taiwan is currently focused on maritime and aerial drones, rightly prioritizing naval denial and airspace disruption. But as the beachhead battles of a Chinese landing draw near, land-based systems and especially autonomous ground vehicles and sensor networks on offshore islands will become increasingly important. Ukraine’s experience with land drones offers a roadmap.
Drone Defense and Strategic C2 Integration
Defense against drones is not optional. It’s essential. China will flood the battlespace with swarms of surveillance, attack, and jamming drones. Taiwan must be ready with a multi-tiered drone defense system integrating electronic warfare, microwave systems, cyber attacks, and kinetic interceptors.
These systems must be interoperable across air, sea, and land and tied into a common C2 framework that enables real-time targeting and coordination.
Taiwan’s Littoral Combat Command will form one piece of this network. But success depends on joint war fighting concepts that tightly integrate drone operations with larger recon-strike strategies and U.S. military doctrine, particularly the “Hellscape” concept being developed the US. Harmonizing these visions is Taiwan’s next great challenge.
China’s Expanding Presence & Internal Threats
Meanwhile, China continues to press the tempo. PLA Navy’s Liaoning carrier group was spotted operating southwest of Japan, well beyond the second island chain. This marks the first public instance of a Chinese carrier venturing that far into blue water and a direct signal to U.S. planners watching Midway and Hawaii.
Domestically, Taiwan is under siege from within. This month, the High Court sentenced two brothers and eight active-duty personnel from all three services for spying for the Chinese Communist Party. The brothers set up front companies and recruited others to feed Beijing military intelligence. Infiltration isn’t theoretical. It’s active. And it’s directed from China.
China and the EU: Bully Tactics Abroad
China has also taken aim at Europe. After EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas criticized Beijing’s South China Sea aggression, the Chinese embassy in Manila demanded the EU stop “provoking trouble.” The irony is blinding. This is Russia telling Ukraine to quit complaining while missiles rain down on Kharkiv. It’s the textbook authoritarian play: escalate, then cry foul.
Modern warfare has shifted to drones, deception, and grinding attrition. Western nations lag behind authoritarian regimes in information warfare. This is the “deception gap.” Ukraine serves as the real-world laboratory for these new tactics.
Taiwan needs to study and implement these lessons immediately. Ukraine’s defeat would trigger broader consequences for global security. Russia is weakening while drone technology spreads rapidly. War now centers on automated systems, disinformation campaigns, data warfare, and precision munitions rather than traditional large-scale ground forces.
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California’s Pacific Ambitions and the White House Pushback
While riots burn and cultural realignments churn, there’s another quiet secession brewing and not by bullet or border, but by bureaucracy and ideology.
California, the Golden State turned Green Theocracy, is not just a state anymore. It is an aspiring Pacific Empire.
With 40 million people and an economy larger than Britain’s, Sacramento now sees itself less as a member of the United States and more as a sovereign power aligned with global progressive regimes; particularly the People’s Republic of China.
This is not hyperbole. It’s policy. California’s environmental mandates, digital censorship schemes, and unilateral diplomacy with foreign nations reflect an ambition far beyond state governance.
Under Governor Gavin Newsom, California has pushed to phase out internal combustion vehicles, asserting authority over national energy policy and manufacturing, dragging 11 other states with it in what amounts to an economic bloc. But behind the clean-air slogans is an attempt to reorder American industry around Chinese supply chains and green-tech dependence.
President Trump, upon returning to office, saw it for what it was: a constitutional rebellion in green robes. Yesterday, in a decisive stroke, he signed joint resolutions from Congress that overturned Biden-era approvals for California’s electric vehicle mandates. These resolutions, legally immune to judicial review, stripped California of its long-standing Clean Air Act waivers and essentially revoked its privilege to dictate emissions rules beyond federal standards.
The backlash was immediate. California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit. Governor Newsom signed an executive order to circumvent the federal block, directing state agencies to bribe carmakers into loyalty through incentives.
But the White House made its stance clear: this is a republic, not a confederation of eco-states. Trump called the EV mandates a “disaster” that would “abolish the internal combustion engine,” a move cheered by automakers and oil producers alike.
This is not just about cars. This is about whether a single state can steer national policy by leveraging market size and elite sentiment. California’s green imperialism isn’t aimed at saving the planet, it’s aimed at reshaping the American economy in the image of Beijing’s command-and-control model.
The fact that the Party for Socialism and Liberation and Chinese-funded activist groups find common cause with Sacramento should be enough to raise every eyebrow in the Pentagon.
The three resolutions Trump signed didn’t just kill the 2035 gas car ban. They wiped out California’s attempt to force 50% electric truck sales by that same date and its effort to impose ultra-strict nitrogen oxide limits as regulations that would have effectively rewritten the logistics infrastructure of the American West.
This was the first time in history that Congress revoked California’s EPA waivers. And it had to be done. Because when a state begins to operate as an ideological vassal of foreign rivals, economically, diplomatically, and culturally, federalism must end and federal power must reassert itself.
Call it what it is: California is not just progressive. It’s post-American. Its leadership sees national borders as obsolete, statehood as leverage, and the future as a joint venture between Silicon Valley technocrats and Chinese Communist planners.
And here’s the irony: The state that screams the loudest about fascism is the one building its own parallel regime with censorship, state media, vehicle quotas, and de facto diplomatic policy.
But California didn’t build this alone. Since the Obama years, its federal agents embedded across Washington’s sprawling bureaucracy, from the EPA to the Department of Energy, from Commerce to Defense, have waged an insurgency against presidential authority.
Senators, representatives, and left-leaning apparatchiks in the federal complex have used lawfare, regulation, and committee sabotage to dismantle the executive branch’s constitutional power. This wasn’t just political turf war. It was strategic realignment: shifting the center of gravity in American governance away from the Atlantic and toward the Pacific Rim.
It almost worked. For a decade, California acted as the western capital of an emerging post-national ideology. But now, that doctrine is on the run.
And the real question facing the American left isn’t about Trump. It’s this: what breaks first, doctrine, logistics and cash, or belief? The subsidies are drying up. The supply chains are straining. And the only thing holding this hollow empire together is a fading myth of historical inevitability.
Trump pulled the emergency brake. And he was right to do it.
Because if California is allowed to chart a separate course, economically tethered to Beijing and morally aligned with international progressive authoritarianism, then the Union will fracture in function long before it ever fractures in law.
And it’s not just California. In a modern echo of pre-Civil War confederacy, we now see Democrat governors declaring their states above federal law. This isn’t a republic; it’s a rogue alliance. On Thursday, before the House Oversight Committee, the governors of Illinois, New York, and Minnesota defended their sanctuary policies as ICE raids triggered riots from Los Angeles to Dallas.
These governors aren’t just defying federal immigration law, they are constructing a political firewall to protect foreign nationals at the expense of their own citizens. That’s not compassion. That’s sedition in a three-piece suit.
When Gov. Hochul couldn’t name the illegal alien accused of burning a woman alive on the New York subway, it wasn’t forgetfulness. It was a revelation of doctrine: the individual lives of Americans come second to the sacred ideology of open borders.
When Gov. Pritzker dodged responsibility for the deaths of two young women killed by an illegal alien driving drunk, it wasn’t politics, it was the quiet belief that the state answers only to itself.
And when Gov. Walz gave 81,000 illegals driver’s licenses while denying Minnesota was a sanctuary state, he was channeling the same doublespeak we heard from slaveholding senators in 1859. Say one thing, do another, and claim moral high ground all the while.
The Biden-era progressive bloc has formed a shadow confederacy but this one is not bound by cotton and railroads, but by ESG scores, identity politics, and a post-sovereign vision of global governance. And like the old Confederacy, their doctrine is untenable. Because it is not built on merit, law, or loyalty. It is built on grievance, contradiction, and foreign sympathies.
The Constitution is not a menu. You don’t get to opt out of Article II when you disagree with the President’s immigration policy.
We call it what it is: a soft coup in slow motion. The governors of New York, Illinois, and California are not just presiding over states. They are trying to build a breakaway federation that shelters criminal aliens, rewrites federal law, and demands the rest of America fund it.
And now they are on defense.
The line has been drawn. Not between red and blue states but between republics that still believe in sovereignty, and rogue states that would rather be green colonies of a Chinese-led world order, or open-borders satrapies of transnational progressivism.
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Russian Army: A Bankrupt Liability
Russia’s war hinges on lies, not bullets. Its economy is hemorrhaging money with $9 billion in monthly deficits, a dwindling $30 billion in reserves while the state shoulders over 1 million casualties.
Conservative estimates peg the cost of deaths alone at $50–60 billion. That’s two months of unfunded war, and the troops know it.
Kremlin recruiters are dangling cash: $41,000 for a wound, $150,000 for a kill. But the money almost never arrives. Corpses are incinerated, classified as “missing” or worse, “defectors.” The Russian military is collapsing under its own deceit. As unpaid benefits accumulate, morale crumbles, and the frontline risks mutiny before the labored economy.
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The Hum Returns
On May 13, 2025, in the quiet hum of shortwave static, an artifact most forgot when they ditched their Cold War radios and turned to TikTok, something stirred.
The old Soviet war whisper came alive. UVB-76, nicknamed “The Buzzer,” a relic of paranoia operating on 4650 kHz, broke its decades-long monotony. Since 1991, it’s been emitting a low, mindless drone.
Not anymore. Now it hums in tones and pulses containing digital bursts organized not randomly but mathematically. Specifically: the Fibonacci sequence. An old trick, used in the handshake protocols of 1960s-era automated command systems.
You don’t need a tinfoil hat to know what that means. You require a background in thermonuclear doctrine and a healthy respect for Soviet dead hand, or dooms-day systems
These aren’t pranks or flukes. These tones and pulse represent very old Soviet nuclear war doomsday systems coming online. It sounds like somethig out of the film Dr. Strangelove.
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Perimeter: Moscow’s Dead Hand
Reagan said “Trust, but verify” and then stocked the silos with missiles anyway. Back in 1967, the Soviets built a network of 33 hardened radio stations. Each one a cog in the Perimeter system, also known to insiders as “Dead Hand.” These weren’t just radios. They were the last will and testament of a dying empire.
The system is a collection of concrete bunkers and towering transmitters designed to survive the apocalypse. These are communication systems running on vacuum tubes and relays playing robust, pre-recorded tapes designed to surve the EMPs that fry transistorized circuits. EMPs bounce off the old big iron designs.
Dead Hand was built to ensure retaliation if Moscow was obliterated. No humans needed. Detect gamma radiation in the air? Notice silence from the Kremlin? Then the system assumes command, and initiates a preprogrammed war protocol.
Now the ghosts are whispering again.
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The Signal Pattern: More Than Coincidence
On the same day UVB-76 woke up, other shortwave frequencies lit up briefly and ominously: 4636, 4402, 4625, and 4623 kHz. Bursts of encoded chatter. Coded signals. Then silence.
Then something stranger happened: MDZ-13, a station at the long-abandoned Viasma SIGINT site, dormant since 1975, barked a loud and clear transmission. Satellite imagery shows a diesel generator kicked on. Power lines are now glowing warm with current. That’s not just noise. That’s activation.
We’re not talking about some nostalgic tech enthusiasts playing games. We’re looking at a full re-initialization of a Cold War-era doomsday protocol designed to execute nuclear war plans without any human decision-making left.
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The Big Question: Why Now?
That’s the trillion-dollar question. Why the hell is Russia reactivating an automated nuclear retaliation system in the middle of 2025?
The reasons could be manifold. Putin may fear a decapitation strike against Russia’s military leadership, especially given persistent rumors about his health and potential cancer diagnosis. Activating Dead Hand serves as morbid insurance against losing command and control.
Alternatively, Moscow might be positioning for a nuclear first strike while maintaining the facade of defensive readiness, aligning with their “escalate to de-escalate” doctrine as the ultimate signal of intent.
Internal instability presents another possibility. The Wagner Group’s march on Moscow just two years ago demonstrated the fragility of Putin’s control. Soviet hardliners may be attempting to seize power and resurrect the old empire, complete with its automated doomsday systems. There’s also the technical angle to consider.
Russia’s technology infrastructure combines Soviet-era components with modern AI systems, all held together by corruption and desperation. A satellite malfunction or solar flare could have accidentally triggered legacy circuits in this Frankenstein system.
The activation might simply be psychological warfare designed to fracture NATO unity or force Western concessions through fear. High-stakes theater has long been a Russian specialty, and threatening automated nuclear response certainly qualifies as maximum pressure.
The doctrine behind Perimeter remains chilling in its simplicity. The system was built to survive the destruction of its creators and operate as “launch after silence” rather than “launch on warning.” It represents the ultimate revenge from the grave. When Moscow goes silent, these stations don’t mourn; they react automatically and send launch codes to the three branches of the Russian Nuclear Triad.
Buried in declassified files, references to the program called Svezda RLS describe a mesh network of 33 shortwave transmitters designed to awaken and transmit activation codes to Russian nuclear weapons, possibly including undisclosed weapon arrays. This system requires no human orders because it is the order, programmed to execute nuclear retaliation without any living commander’s authorization.
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The Edge of Rationality
This situation is unprecedented. Russia’s empire is collapsing, and its leadership is desperately clinging to nuclear deterrence systems from the Soviet era.
The Russian Federation is failing on multiple fronts. Their conventional military has been gutted by the Ukraine war. Their economy survives only through energy exports and systemic corruption. Intelligence reports suggest their leadership is fractured, isolated, and increasingly desperate.
Dead Hand operates independently of these political realities. The system doesn’t require human judgment or authorization—it simply executes its programming. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has proven that Cold War tensions never truly ended, only went dormant. Now Soviet-era nuclear doctrines are being reactivated.
Whether this activation stems from paranoia, technical malfunction, or genuine security threats, the implications remain the same. The automated system is operational and programmed for nuclear retaliation. The critical question is whether Russia retains enough functional warheads from their Soviet strategic arsenal to make the threat credible. Current assessments suggest that some of their warheads still function.
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Meritocracy, Relational Ethics, and the American-Mexican Realignment
In the ideological chessboard of American politics, the most undervalued piece may be the Mexican immigrant.
For decades, Democrats have banked on Latino loyalty, misreading their collectivist values as permanent alignment with the progressive left.
That’s a strategic blunder. Beneath the surface lies a tectonic clash between the sacred-relational ethics of Mexican culture and the cold machinery of Western liberalism. And here lies an opportunity for the new MAGA movement, not the old Republican Party, to form an alliance grounded in shared virtue, faith, family, and order.
This isn’t about tweaking tax policy or immigration slogans. It’s metaphysical. American-style meritocracy, born from Enlightenment rationalism and Calvinist individualism, sees the world as a ladder. Each man climbs alone. His worth is measured by test scores, salary, and status. You succeed by beating others. That’s the American creed.
But Mexican ethics doesn’t play that game. Personhood is defined through relationships. Success is not personal achievement but fulfilling obligations to kin. Hiring your cousin isn’t corruption, it’s moral responsibility.
The American right has long praised family values, yet failed to grasp this deeper, duty-bound ethic. The left, meanwhile, shames relational loyalty as nepotism while celebrating elite-network favoritism under the name “equity.”
This isn’t relativism, it’s a collision of worlds. Where American systems reward ambition, Mexican ethics elevate humildad (humility), lealtad (loyalty), and solidaridad (solidarity). For many immigrants, the individualistic pursuit of merit appears as the heartless abandoning of family in the name of personal gain.
Yet these same immigrants know how to hustle. They learn to walk the tightrope: perform merit for the boss, send the check home to mamá. In this way, meritocracy is tolerated, even wielded, but never fully embraced.
The divide runs through the classroom. American public education is a meritocratic machine. It sorts, measures, standardizes. Children are trained to be autonomous economic units. It’s Dewey plus spreadsheets.
In contrast, Mexican public education is a civic rite. Born of revolution and shaped by Catholicism and comunalidad, it’s about forging national identity, preserving heritage, and sustaining harmony. The teacher isn’t a coach; she’s a moral authority. The student isn’t a consumer; he’s a vessel of culture. Even when poorly funded, this model commands reverence.
Democrats promise “equity” but deliver fragmentation. Policies designed for statistical fairness ignore the moral architectures of immigrant life. Medicaid expansions don’t touch culturally rooted clinics.
Education reform elevates gender ideology but undermines parental authority. Immigration tech upgrades still tear families apart. The sacred-relational worldview—duty to God, family, and community—finds little refuge in a party obsessed with self-expression and procedural justice.
And so the realignment begins. Latino men, especially, are walking off the Democratic plantation. Abortion absolutism grates against their faith. School policies insult their authority. Their work ethic and respect for order are closer to the MAGA ethos than the left’s endless deconstruction.
But they aren’t Reagan Republicans either. They want strong borders and strong families. They want work and dignity—not libertarian chaos or corporate betrayal. They want a politics of virtue, not license.
Here’s the play: The new MAGA party, if it’s wise, will stop chasing GDP charts and start speaking in moral terms. Not just law and order, but loyalty and honor. Not just deregulation, but duty. Not just tax cuts, but respect.
A movement that celebrates the sacred role of fatherhood, protects the family unit from state intrusion, and puts God back in the public square will find ready allies among Mexican immigrants. But this means letting go of the libertarian baggage.
The new coalition must not sneer at collectivist values but redeem them through American virtue. It must honor relational ethics without sliding into tribalism.
A potential fusion of Mexican virtue ethics and Reagan-era libertarianism could emerge in a policy framework that prioritizes localized, family-centered empowerment while preserving individual freedoms. Picture this: a nationalist form of “familialist libertarianism,” where policy works in service of relational integrity.
Instead of bloated welfare bureaucracies, we could offer direct household support such as improved tax credits, child allowances, education savings accounts. These align with the Mexican ethic of solidaridad by reinforcing the kinship structure, while satisfying the libertarian need to avoid state paternalism. It’s small government, big family.
Immigration reform must respect this same logic. A real nationalist policy doesn’t just seal the border—it secures bloodlines. That means expanded legal pathways for family reunification, not in defiance of the law but in service of it.
Migration becomes a sacred duty to one’s own people, and the law must channel that, not criminalize it blindly. That’s a moral border policy that distinguishes between human smuggling and human loyalty.
Economically, the fusion deepens. Mexican immigrants don’t need handouts—they need breathing room. Lift regulatory burdens on small businesses. Let families own property, hire their kin, pass on skills. Encourage communal uplift through enterprise, not redistribution.
The libertarian gospel of self-reliance gets a moral upgrade here: the “self” isn’t an atomized individual, it’s a network of obligation that can be the extended household. That’s the unit of production, education, and virtue. Honor it, and you build a MAGA party that dwarfs everything before it.
This hybrid model would appeal to Mexican-Americans by honoring their moral duty to family while preserving the Reaganite emphasis on self-reliance.
The Mexican sacred-relational ethic is not going away. It is not a phase. It is not inferior. It is a rival moral order that sees sin as disharmony and virtue as right relation. It borrows from religious doctrine, indigenous cosmology, and practical survival.
It judges policy by its impact on kin, not its alignment with ideological purity. This worldview can be integrated into a patriotic, God-fearing, order-restoring movement, but only if that movement speaks to the sacred.
The left believes that assimilation means conversion. That’s their fatal error. What’s needed is a synthesis: American political liberty anchored in Mexican social duty. If MAGA can champion this fusion, it will crack the Hispanic bloc wide open and not just to win votes, but to rebuild a republic that remembers virtue.
Mexican immigrants aren’t waiting for slogans. They’re watching for moral seriousness. Show them that, and they’ll fight for this country with the same fire they’ve shown for their families.
The battle isn’t left versus right. It’s sacred versus hollow. It’s duty versus decadence. It’s relation versus atomization. We don’t need more outreach coordinators. We need a righteous alliance; unapologetic, unafraid, and ready to build the next American century.
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Mike Ryan is a chemical engineering consultant to heavy industry.