Friday, June 26, 2026

Will Anyone Ever Be Held Accountable?

Last week outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released a treasure trove of documents on the origins of the Covid virus and the actions of Dr. Tony Fauci in funding the dangerous funding of research at the Wuhan lab and his work with the Intelligence Community to cover up the truth.


Link: https://x.com/DNIGabbard/status/2067792184753938484

There was a time when the Director of National Intelligence made a release of information like this it would be front page news for weeks.

However, there has been almost no mainstream new coverage about the communications and documents that Gabbard released.

The Washington Post, New York Times, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, BBC, and The Guardian appear to have no dedicated front-page or major investigative pieces based on recent searches. 

CNN dismissed the release saying that it contained some prior communications that were already known but contained no "smoking gun" on the origins of the virus or misconduct by Fauci.

There is some truth to the claim that many of the documents and communications that were released were already known through previous FOIA requests.

However, in many respects this is an even greater indictment of the mainstream media.

All of the misdeeds of Tony Fauci and his compatriots has been right under their noses for several years and they were unwilling to investigate any of it and share the truth with the American people.

Bear in mind we are talking about what turned about to be one of the greatest crimes against humanity in history.

Millions died around world. The world economy was drastically disrupted. Children were kept out of school for months (and years in some places). Government deficits soared. Inflation followed.

 I wrote about much of what the Director of National Intelligence revealed in a blog post over two years ago titled "Truth and Lies" which detailed the actions of Fauci involving the origins of Covid, the cover up and the motivations he had in responding to the virus.

If you want to better understand what is involved in the DNI release I recommend you read that blog post.

It was the most popular blog post I wrote in 2024 based on the number of views.

I ended that blog post with a question.

Will Dr. Fauci or anyone else be held accountable for the lies, deceit and malpractice now that four years have passed and the truth is becoming more apparent every day?

It is now six years later, the truth has become even more apparent, and we can better understand why Fauci received and accepted an autopen pardon from Joe Biden on his last day in office.

The truth about Covid becomes better known with each day.

However, will it ever matter?

Will anyone ever be held accountable?


Truth and Lies

(originally published January 26, 2024)

 

Exactly four years ago today I wrote a blog post about a mysterious and deadly virus that had gripped the Chinese city of Wuhan.

At that point, only five cases of the virus that would eventually be named Covid-19 had been identified in the United States.

It would be the first of almost 200 blog posts I would write about Covid over the next several years.

When I wrote that initial blog post it was suggested that the virus originated in a wet market in Wuhan in which bats and other unauthorized animals had been sold.

However, even at that early date in January, 2020, I reported that I was troubled that the outbreak could very possibly be traced to a Chinese biolab in Wuhan that was known to be studying the highest risk pathogens in the world.

More troubling are reports that this virus may have escaped from a Chinese biolab that is located in Wuhan and was involved in studying the highest risk pathogens in the world.

U.S. scientists were worried about the risks that pathogens could escape from facilities like this one as evidenced by this article in The Scientist back in 2015.





As a result, the United States ceased funding any of this "gain-of-function" research back in 2013 because it determined the risk of creating a pandemic was much greater than any information gained from the research.

It is worthwhile to note that at that time this decision was made there was research being done in the U.S. on an engineered coronavirus. Note as well where the surface protein came for that virus.

Ralph Baric, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, last week (November 9) published a study on his team’s efforts to engineer a virus with the surface protein of the SHC014 coronavirus, found in horseshoe bats in China, and the backbone of to one that causes human-like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in mice. The hybrid virus could infect human airway cells and caused disease in mice, according to the team’s results, which were published in Nature Medicine.


Little did I know that at the same time that I was writing that blog post in late January, 2020,  Dr. Anthony Fauci was desperately working behind the scenes to steer any suspicions away from the lab leak theory as well as cover up his involvement in the funding of gain of function research on coronaviruses at the Wuhan lab.

The full truth of what went on with the origins of Covid and the subsequent illogical response by the public health establishment is coming into better focus with each succeeding day.

Senator Rand Paul in his book Deception does a great job in detailing what appears to be a coverup perpetrated by Dr. Fauci and others involving Covid.


Source: https://www.amazon.com/Deception-Great-Cover-Up-Rand-Paul/dp/1684515130


Dr. Paul drew much of the material for his book from emails obtained under FOIA requests involving Fauci and others at the National Institute of Health and other government agencies.

What is particularly revealing in those emails was the time and effort Fauci spent at the end of January, 2020 working to discredit the lab leak theory both within the public health community and with the media.

A few excerpts from Deception.




Fauci's efforts at working to discredit the lab leak theory reached a fever pitch on January 31, 2020.

Based on the emails, it appears that Fauci did not sleep that night.

He had to be living in mortal fear knowing the hand he had in all of this.

Why else would he be emailing and phoning people in the wee hours of the morning on that day?

Is that something that would be normal for someone who should not be particularly concerned with the origins of the virus but should be focused on how to protect the American public from it?

For example, Fauci sent an email to his second in command at 12;29 am that morning that included a paper on the gain of function work that had been going on at the Wuhan lab. Fauci told him that it was "essential we speak this morning. Keep your cell phone...read this paper...you will have tasks today that must be done".

At 3:00 am Fauci sent another email out to the individual in government whose duties included chairing the committee that was supposed to screen all gain of function funding requests and disapprove any that were considered too dangerous. He sent along an article suggesting the virus was natural in origin

The problem for Fauci and the NIH was they had been funding the gain of function research at Wuhan but had purposely not sent the funding request for the required exception to the gain of function ban that was in place.

All of this explains a lot of what followed.

Fauci and the NIH were living in fear of it being found out they were funding the work on the coronaviruses at Wuhan.

They also knew that the purpose of the work was to create a virus that was more contagious and deadly than was currently in place in nature.

Knowing all of this, it undoubtedly caused Fauci and the NIH to overreact and recommend the draconian response to the virus they did knowing that it was totally at odds with established protocols in dealing with a pandemic.

Fear and guilt had to be enormous motivating factors in what Fauci and his brethren did next.

They could not leave any stone unturned in the Covid response knowing what they appeared to have unleashed.

What would the reaction be if the truth came out and Fauci had not gone all out in the response in order to stop the virus?

As I wrote in that first blog post, the science was clear on what the public health response should be.

The most effective way to stop an outbreak of a virus such as this one is to aggressively isolate and quarantine those that are ill so as to not infect other people. They need to be identified, treated aggressively by medical professionals, and isolated.

What did Fauci and his public health officials do instead?

They shutdown the economy and schools and quarantined and isolated the healthy. That was completely counter to over 100 years of hard learned pandemic guidelines.

You see how absurd it all was in a recent interview of Francis Collins (Fauci's former boss at NIH) in which he admitted "mistakes were made"

“If you're a public health person, and you're trying to make a decision, you have this very narrow view of what the right decision is, and that is something that will save a life. doesn't matter what else happens, so you attach infinite value to stopping the disease and saving a life. you attach zero value to whether this actually totally disrupts people's lives, ruins the economy, and has many kids kept out of school in a way that they never might quite recover from. this is a public health mindset… and that was really unfortunate, it's another mistake we made."

This is how a public health person is supposed to think?

You attach infinite value in saving one life but zero value on what you are doing as a result to millions and millions of others that totally disrupts their lives, ruins the economy and keeps kids out of school such they may never recover from it?

I thought their responsibility was PUBLIC HEALTH? Does that not include a broad view of all elements of health in a society--physical, mental and economic?

If you are in public health how do you totally disregard the lives of 100's of millions of people, the economy, business owners, schoolchildren and the damage your policies are causing to focus on the narrow view of single lives balanced against the needs and future of society?

That is especially true in that early in the pandemic it was clear that there was minimal risk to most everyone under the age of 70. These were individuals for which it was easiest to isolate and protect.

I questioned what was being done in April, 2020 at the height of the lockdowns in a blog post "Two-Faced Fauci". Little did I know how accurate I was in describing Fauci at that early juncture in the pandemic.


I also have a hard time in understanding how Dr. Fauci can stand up at those press conferences and say that his sole focus is on health recommendations to the President. He is being charged with overseeing the public health of the United States. Yes, that includes the nation's short term response to the virus. However, how do public health concerns also not extend to the longer term implications of the economic shutdown. He says he is not an economist. In my view, it is not enough for him to say that it is not his concern. There is a public health component in that as well that he should be considering and weighing in his recommendations.

 

We also have the recent testimony of Fauci that the six feet recommendation on social distancing was totally made up as there was no scientific basis for it at all.


Source: https://nypost.com/2024/01/10/news/fauci-admits-to-congress-that-certain-covid-social-distancing-guidelines-lacked-scientific-basis-sort-of-just-appeared/



More and more studies have also confirmed that face mask mandates were not effective tools to protect against the virus. I cited research (read "Unmasking Masks" that i wrote in July, 2020) about the limitations of masking at the beginning of the pandemic. However, Fauci and others totally disregarded the science. They wanted to make sure it looked they were doing something to protect the public. 


Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/21/opinion/do-mask-mandates-work.html



Dr. Deborah Birx wrote in her book that "15 days to slow the spread " was just the term they used to convince Trump to approve the initial lockdown. They all knew that it was just the start and they wanted to lockdown much longer.


Source: https://www.independentsentinel.com/dr-birx-admits-they-lied-about-the-15-days-to-flatten-the-curve/


Of course, I am not even touching on the experimental Covid vaccines, the vaccine mandates that followed and all the lies surrounding how safe and effective they would be in preventing the disease and transmission. After all, preventing the disease and its transmission would be the only logical reason to justify a mandate to begin with.

Do you remember, as I do, all of the statements that were made that the vaccines would stop the virus and create a dead end for transmission? We were told it was the only way to end the pandemic.

Fauci made that claim himself in May, 2021 in an appearance on Face the Nation.


Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/553773-fauci-vaccinated-people-become-dead-ends-for-the-coronavirus/


Who were they misleading and lying to?

It wasn't just the American people. They were also lying to the President of the United States.

It should also be remembered that in the early days of the pandemic President Trump stated that he had seen evidence that Covid-19 had originated in that Wuhan lab.

However, every chance Fauci got he contradicted Trump and argued that the origin of the virus was entirely within nature. He consistently stated there was nothing to the theory that the Covid-19 virus came out of work done at the Wuhan lab.

Of course, consider the recent finding of Dr. Richard Ebright of Rutgers University, who has closely examined the chemical and biological makeup of Covid-19 and compared it to the proposal that the EcoHealth Alliance developed and sent to the Wuhan lab that was funded by Fauci and the NIH.




When it came to the media trusting Trump or Fauci on this question you know who they believed.

This CNN article from May, 2020 says it all.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/05/politics/fauci-trump-coronavirus-wuhan-lab/index.html


Now, before we play the game of “he said, he said” remember this: Only one of these two people is a world-renowned infectious disease expert. And it’s not Donald Trump.

In short, Fauci’s view on the origins of the disease matters a whole lot more than Trump’s opinion about where it came from. Especially because, outside of Trump and his immediate inner circle, most people in a position to know are very, very skeptical of the Trump narrative that the virus came out of a lab – whether accidentally or on purpose.


There is truth and there are lies.

Four years later it should be pretty clear where the lies were coming from.

Will Dr. Fauci or anyone else be held accountable for the lies, deceit and malpractice now that four years have passed and the truth is becoming more apparent every day?


Wednesday, June 24, 2026

Time To Reflect

Every once and while it is worth the time to reflect.

Time to count our blessings.

Time to focus more on what we have than what we don't have.

Time to consider those who went before us and sacrificed so much that we can live like we do today.

I thought about all of this as I saw some of the headlines over the last week.

It starts with those who are unhinged with anything that Donald Trump does.

Their derangement now even extends to Trump's efforts to beautify the nation's capital for the 250th anniversary of the United States.

Some people are so consumed with hatred for Trump they are willing to sabotage the Reflecting Pool between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial.

It does not bother them to tear down America as long as they can diminish Trump.

Link: https://x.com/WallStreetApes/status/2068771851397111886

There are also people calling themselves "Team Algae" and cheering for algae growth in the Reflecting Pool.


Link: https://x.com/WallStreetApes/status/2068842606436790767


This is what they see as the best use of their time?

I think it might be useful for them to spend some time to reflect.

That advice also extends to former President Barack Obama.

Obama said this during the grand opening of his $847 million Presidential Library in Chicago.



Obama fails to recognize that there would not even have been a Declaration of Independence and a United States of America as we know it if the Founders had not done what they did at the time.

The first draft of the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson actually did contain a provision that attacked slavery and the King's actions in "suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce."

Jefferson and many of the Founders wanted to end slavery as part of a new and free country.


Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration of Independence



This passage was deleted in the final Declaration that was approved because it simply was not possible to ban slavery and have a United States of America that was free and independent of England at that time.

The southern states would not agree to that provision.

This is how www.blackpast.org  describes the "The Deleted Passage of the Declaration of Independence".

When Thomas Jefferson included a passage attacking slavery in his draft of the Declaration of Independence it initiated the most intense debate among the delegates gathered at Philadelphia in the spring and early  summer of 1776.  Jefferson’s passage on slavery was the most important section removed from the final document.  It was replaced with a more ambiguous passage about King George’s incitement of “domestic insurrections among us.” Decades later Jefferson blamed the removal of the passage on delegates from South Carolina and Georgia and Northern delegates who represented merchants who were at the time actively involved in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. 

Why did Jefferson and other Founding Fathers accede to removing this language?

Quite simply, if they were to be successful in breaking away from Great Britain, and gaining independence, all 13 colonies had to be totally united. Everyone who put their name on the Declaration of Independence was literally putting their their life, livelihood and fortune on the line. 

As Benjamin Franklin famously told those that were assembled to sign the Declaration on July 4, 1776,

"We must all hang together or most assuredly we will all hang separately."

It is also important to remember that slavery was not an American invention. It was a fact of life for thousands of years all around the globe.

Slavery was introduced to the American colonies by the British and the slave trade continued to be legal in Great Britain for many years after the United States gained freedom.

Jefferson went on as President to sign the law banning the importation of slaves in the United States in 1807.

The larger goal of independence from Great Britain took precedence in 1776 as it was not possible to move forward with only 9, 10 or 11 of 13 colonies united on the issue of slavery. 

Tough compromises are necessary on tough issues. Moving forward allows for a fight for another day. Attempting to take on the issue of slavery at that time accomplished nothing for the cause of freedom in the 1770's---for anyone---colonists or slaves.

Does Obama think things in the world would have been better over the last 250 years if there was no United States of America?

Obama and others who disparage the country and its founders should take the time to reflect on that question.

Finally, I cannot stop seeing the mass of foreign visitors here for the World Cup posting on social media about all of the amazing things they are seeing in the United States of America during their visit.

Seeing for themselves what we have and our way of life that is far removed from the narrative promoted in the foreign press.

Also far removed from the concrete and chaos of New York City and other big cities they typically might visit. They are seeing first hand the privilege it is to see how Americans live in the suburbs and exurbs of the nation,

This woman describes it as the World Cup becoming a Discovery Channel for the rest of the world.

Air conditioning. Free rest rooms. Free refills. Ice machines. Buc-ees. Ranch dressing.




Many are also commenting on the friendliness and helpfulness of the Americans they encounter.

The left-leaning magazine The Atlantic could not let this feel good story about the United States stand so it did its best to pour "ice cold' water on it after reciting some of the social media fervor about America.


Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/06/world-cup-tourists-america/687572/



The article fell flat when balanced against reality.



Social media is filled with posts like this about the reaction of foreign visitors to the American lifestyle.



If you doubt the reality, consider these announcements that I saw in the last couple of days merely on the subject of the discovery of ranch dressing by those foreign visitors.

They don't seem to want to travel anywhere without it.

There has to be a lot of foreign visitors loving ranch dressing to cause these reactions.

The TSA must be confiscating a lot of ranch dressing.

Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/tsa-reminder-world-cup-fans-ranch-dressing-counts-as-liquid-2026-6

And that has even led Kraft Heinz to introduce TSA-approved travel kits for those World Cup ranch dressing lovers.

Source: https://fortune.com/2026/06/22/kraft-ranch-dressing-tsa-approved-travel-world-cup-visitors-chugging/

For those of us who live in the United States this all might be reminder to take the time to reflect as well.

We have it pretty good and it has been that way for a long time.

That is why it is so hard to understand why so many don't appreciate what they have and are intent on tearing it down.

I have reflected on that for a long time and I still don't understand it.

Monday, June 22, 2026

An Inconvenient Truth + 20

Al Gore first put together his slide show about what he claimed would be the devastating effects of global warming over 20 years ago.

With the help of Producer Laurie David, the Gore material was made into a documentary in 2006 entitled, "An Inconvenient Truth" for which the film won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.




In the film Gore claimed that our weather would get increasingly warmer due to man-made effects caused by the use of fossil fuels. 

Our climate would become more severe with more hurricanes, tornadoes, drought and wildfires. 

The Arctic would be ice-free in summers by 2016 and polar bears would become extinct.

Gore stated that the snows of Mount Kilimanjaro would be gone within a decade.

Humanity itself would be threatened by climate change.

In his previous book, Earth in the Balance,  published in 1992, Gore predicted that in the next few decades "up to 60 percent of the population of Florida may have to be relocated" due to rising sea levels.

That claim was consistent with this New York Times article from 1995 claiming that by 2020 most of the beaches on the East Coast of the United States would be gone.



Let's not forget this prediction that Greta Thunberg amplified on social media in 2018 that she subsequently deleted five years later.

I wonder why?





Now that 20 years have passed, how have the predictions of Al Gore and all the other climate alarmists turned out?

There has been a slight increase in global temperatures amounting to about 0.53 deg C since 2006.

Credit: https://x.com/JunkScience/status/2062312556564189292


Global satellite data is only available since 1979.

However, temperatures are still much lower than they were in the 1930's despite massive increases in the amounts of global carbon emissions over the last 100 years.

That is evident in looking at the number of extreme heat days in the United States since 1895.




The extreme heat in the 1930's caused massive drought conditions in the Midwest and resulted in 
2.5 million people leaving their homes in a desperate migration in search of work and better living conditions. 

They moved from an area that became known as The Dust Bowl which suffered severe dust conditions during a drought that lasted a decade.

20% of the population of Oklahoma alone was forced to leave the state in the 1930's. 

Can you imagine what would happen today if we had this heat and drought?

It would all be blamed on man-made climate change and billions and billions of dollars would be spent with no effect.

Oklahoma has also been known for its tornado activity.

The number of strong tornadoes (EF2 and higher) has decreased over the years even with increasing carbon emission levels.




The number of hurricanes has also not increased in the last 20 years despite rising CO2 levels.




The same is true with wildfires.

Far less acreage around the world today is being consumed by wildfires than in the past.


Climate-related deaths continue to fall.


Source: https://x.com/RoyPentland/status/2066256166733152701/photo/1



Florida, which Gore predicted would see up to 60% of its population have to relocate due to rising sea levels, has seen its population explode.

Florida's population has increased by over 30% (18 million to an estimated 24 million) in the last 20 years.

That is 4 times the population that Al Gore suggested Florida was heading for due to climate change in his 1992 book.

In 2013, DNC Chairwoman and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was claiming that her South Florida Congressional District would be under water in a few short years.

Over a decade later aren't we beyond a "few short years"?

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.), who represents the Miami area, warned that unless climate change is addressed “in a few short years,” rising sea levels will force her to represent areas more than two hundred miles away.

“I will eventually represent Orlando if we don’t do something about making sure we can reduce global warming,” she said on Fox News this morning. Wasserman Schultz’s current residence, Weston, Fla., is 224 miles away from Orlando.

Her district is still high and dry and there is still no beachfront property in Orlando.

However, Wasserman Schultz has now seen her south Florida district redistricted and earned the contempt of Black Democrats as she has decided to run for the Democrat nomination for Congress in a majority Black district in the Miami area.

It also makes you wonder why she would want to run for a seat in Congress from a district that will be underwater in a "few short years"?


Source: https://www.wlrn.org/government-politics/2026-05-26/wasserman-schultz-dnc-election-black-district


And that ice-free Arctic?

At the end of last summer, Arctic sea ice extent was actually larger than it was in 2012---34% more expansive than 13 years ago.


Credit: https://x.com/TonyClimate/status/2008211253328773506



This is the Arctic sea ice extent as of June 20, 2026.


Source: https://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/N_daily_extent_hires.png


It also should be noted that Arctic temperatures since May have been running at record lows.

That ice-free Arctic that Al Gore predicted looks further and further away.



The polar bears are also not going extinct.

Their population is rising.


Credit: https://x.com/BjornLomborg/status/1596907585084719104


Mount Kilimanjaro still has plenty of snow despite the fact that it is on the equator in Africa.

Source: Google AI



Those "Inconvenient Truths" that Al Gore talked about 20 years ago have mostly been shown to be Untruths.

Projections and predictions do not override real world data.

It should also be noted that even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently recognized that the apocalyptic climate scenarios it has been promoting for the last 15 years are implausible.


Source: https://modernity.news/2026/05/05/ipcc-admits-apocalyptic-climate-scenarios-are-implausible/


Those IPCC scenarios were the ones that fueled the insane climate change agenda and resulted in trillions of dollars in green agenda items promoted by politicians in the United States, Europe and Australia.

At the same time, China, India, Indonesia and others barely paid it any mind.

They carried on because they know that economies and humanity really suffer without affordable and accessible energy..



Source: https://e360.yale.edu/features/china-coal-five-year-plan


Source: https://www.carbonbrief.org/new-coal-plants-hit-10-year-global-high-in-2025-but-power-output-still-fell/




We now find all of the hysteria was implausible as if the last 10-20 years has not already confirmed it 
not to mention thousands of years of climate history before there were any carbon emissions to speak of?

To wit, we know there was an ice age.  We also know the ice melted.  How did it ice up? How did the ice melt?

All of this occurred without the slightest intervention of humans.

Even if the data shows the earth is warming, how do we know it is caused by man when you look at past history? 

Of course, the IPCC  retraction has received almost no mentions in the mainstream media.

I doubt few of you have have even heard about it.

A Google search turned up no mentions of this story in the corporate media other than this headline in The New York Times.


Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/climate/emissions-worst-case-scenario-rcp.html

Some risks may have been overstated?

You think?

I guess it is also an inconvenient truth to remind everyone that in 2000 Al Gore came within 537 votes in Florida of becoming President of the United States.

I am guessing that Al Gore would not feel too bad if two-thirds of Florida was underwater

Those 537 votes in Florida in 2000 is just another reminder that no matter how bad you think things have been, they could have been much, much worse.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.

And our climate

After all, it is important to remember it is ultimately under HIS control... not ours.

Friday, June 19, 2026

What---Me Worry?

We seem to live in a world filled with anxiety.

A lot of people find a lot to worry about.

In the United States, the National Institute of Mental Health reports that 19% of Americans have some type of anxiety disorder annually.

A third of Americans will deal with an anxiety disorder some time in their lives.


Young people are much more likely to experience some form of anxiety disorder than older people according to CDC data from 2019.

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db378.htm


Anxiety is also more prevalent in females (19.0%) compared to males (11.9%).

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db378.htm

Anxiety has also increased in recent years driven by increases in rates in younger adults.

Rates among those Age 50+ have remained stable.

Source: https://slowrevealgraphs.com/2024/05/28/prevalence-of-anxiety-by-age-generation-in-the-us/

Consider all of this anxiety and then compare it to this factoid that I recently came across from Brandon Luu, MD.

91.4% of those things that people worry about that causes anxiety never materialize.

If fact, the most common occurrence in those who worry is that none of it actually happens.


Is this the reason that older people have less anxiety?

Have they learned over the years that many worries are not worth worrying about?

What is worrying is the increase in anxiety among young adults.

Notice that it began to spike in conjunction with the introduction of the iPhone.

Jonathan Haidt wrote a book that argues that the rewiring of childhood from "play-based" to "phone-based" has been responsible for a collapse in the mental health of young people.


Source: https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/book


In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood” began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood” in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood” has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies. 


Perhaps it is time to return to a simpler time when young people of my era in the 1960's were reading the satirical humour publication, Mad magazine, and taking to heart the advice of its fictional mascot and cover boy Alfred E. Neuman.




Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Trust and Understanding

Last week I wrote that Donald J. Trump was sitting abreast "The Hinge of History" as we are waiting to see what will happen in Iran over the next several months.

Whether he likes it or not, the final verdict on Trump's legacy will be defined by Iran.

It is important to remember that history is only written by the winners.

If Trump is successful in neutering Iran, its terrorist meddling in the Middle East, providing more freedom to the Iranian people and denying them a nuclear weapon, he will be the winner and history will treat him exceedingly well.

If the Iranian regime survives relatively intact, the Middle East continues to be a hot mess, the Iranian people continue to suffer and the nuclear threat is not definitively quashed, Trump will be end up being compared to Jimmy Carter rather than Abraham Lincoln or FDR.

We now have a supposed "deal" with Iran that is referred to as a "Memorandum of Understanding".

However, from what we know right now, the "understanding" seems to be in the eye of the beholder.

The Trump administration has an understanding of the deal that seems quite different than the understanding of those in the Iranian regime.

It is difficult at this point to understand what the understanding really is when viewed objectively.

We will really not know if this is good or bad for the United States (and Trump) until the "understanding" turns into a real agreement that includes the final resolution of the nuclear issue.

However, as I stated in that last post, if I were Trump I would not trust my legacy to any "deal" with Iran.

I am going to wait to see how this evolves before making any other judgments.

There is too much I don't know that Trump does know.

I do know that Trump knows that his legacy is on the line with Iran.

I do know that Trump does not ever want to look bad or lose.

I do know that Trump is indefatigable and tireless and will not rest until he wins at anything he does.

In that regard, I refer you to the post below that was published on X by someone who goes by the name Cynical Publius that aligns closely with my views..

The views of Cynical Publius on Iran right now can be summarized this way.

Trump has earned our trust. 

Trust the plan that he is pursuing.

He knows more about what he is doing than I do.

However, right now I have to rely more on blind trust than clear understanding of where this leads.

I cannot find much fault in the thoughts below.


I have largely been quiet on this matter lately, mostly because I don’t think anyone in the general public has the first clue as to what is actually going on in terms of negotiations (me included), but let me please offer some thoughts on things I am certain are true at the time I write this:

1. The Iranian mullahs are/were implacable enemies of Western Civilization, and have a goal of global jihad by any means necessary.

2. Neither the Iranian nor American media can be trusted to report accurately on the purported agreement.

3. “MOU” means “memorandum of understanding.”  In corporate law, another term for this is a “term sheet.”  Basically it is an outline of basic terms and serves as a basis for negotiations between the parties towards a more fulsome, definitive agreement.  Nothing at the MOU stage is definitive.

4. The Trump Administration could do a better job of keeping the American public informed on this matter.

5. Iran’s military and nuclear capabilities have been decimated.

6. Iran’s ability to export terrorism has been greatly impaired.

7. Multiple layers of the mullahs' leadership are now dead, and those currently in power are acutely and uncomfortably aware of this fact.

8. The only viable means of ultimate regime change in Iran is the Persian people rising up and overthrowing the mullahs.

9.  An Iran with nuclear arms would be the worst threat to human civilization since the medieval era Bubonic Plague epidemic.  The JCPOA was enabling them to build such weapons.

10.  President Trump had no choice but to take the military actions he has taken thus far, because of the nuclear and terror threats.

11. America and Israel assumed that the Persian people would take this opportunity to violently overthrow their theocratic dictators.

12. Because the Persian people are thus far collectively unwilling to walk through the door of regime change that has been made possible (admittedly with great cost to them), President Trump is now faced with a dilemma: either commit ground forces to Iran (with half of the USA wildly opposing such action) or negotiate with whomever is actually in power at the moment (with the other half of the USA wildly opposing such action).

13.  President Trump has earned our trust—in all matters (not just Iran) he has consistently prioritized American interests properly more so than any other President since Ronald Reagan.  There is no one I trust more to navigate such a complex, potentially “no win” situation than President Trump.

14.  America and the world are currently in a far, far better and safer situation today than if no military action had been taken.

15. All military options remain open to the USA.  Virtually no military options (other than internal repression) remain open to the Iranian leadership.

***********

I have always despised all that "Q" nonsense, but at the moment I believe the following words are actually the best course of action for Americans with respect to the Iran conflict: “Trust the plan.”

In the coming days consider the differences of opinion you might see in the comments of Republicans and Trump loyalists who might raise questions and doubts about where the Iran policy is going.

Then contrast that with the total silence about anything from the Democrats yhat was ever said on anything Joe Biden did.

There was no pushback or questions about his failed immigration policy, the vaccine mandates, men in women's bathrooms or his obvious physical and mental lapses.

Everyone was 100% in lockstep until they weren't.

What does that say in itself?

There should be the freedom and strength of character for anyone to question the merits of what is going on.

However, if those with TDS want to disparage and demean Trump's commitment to this nation I recommend that you consider what the now 80 year old President did in the last few days it its service.

Saturday--Negotiated final terms in the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran

Sunday--80th Birthday and attended UFC fight on White House grounds on Sunday night

1217am Monday--Boarded flight to Europe for G-7 Meeting

 830am Monday (US Time)---Participated in working meeting with French President

1000am Monday---Reception with G7 leaders

1030am Monday---Dinner with G7 Leaders

1200am Tuesday---Working Session with G7 Leaders

130am Tuesday---Meeting with the Emir of Qatar

215am Tuesday--Meeting with the President of the UAE

300am Tuesday---Working Lunch with G7 Leaders

How could anyone argue that Joe Biden was a better President?

We have come a long way in the last two years.

Trump presided over this a couple of nights ago.



Joe Biden sent his wife to preside over this two years ago.

Credit: Getty Images
Source: https://beelineblogger.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-indefatigable-donald-trump.html


I trust most of you know where I am coming from.