Until the fighting begins, national military strategy developed in peacetime shapes thinking about warfare and its objectives. Then the fighting creates a new logic of its own. Strategy is adjusted. Objectives change. The battle for Bakhmut illustrates this point very well. 

When General Sergey Vladimirovich Surovikin, commander of Russian aerospace forces, assumed command of the Russian military in the Ukrainian theater last year, President Vladimir Putin and his senior military advisors concluded that their original assumptions about the war were wrong. Washington had proved incurably hostile to Moscow’s offers to negotiate, and the ground force Moscow had committed to compel Kiev to negotiate had proved too small.

Surovikin was given wide latitude to streamline command relationships and reorganize the theater. Most importantly, Surovikin was also given the freedom of action to implement a defensive strategy that maximized the use of stand-off attack or strike systems while Russian ground forces expanded in size and striking power. The Bakhmut “Meatgrinder” was the result. 

Florida’s citrus industry posted its worse harvest since 1937, which should give orange fans some pause at the supermarket.

Damage from the 2022 hurricane season, combined with the impact of citrus greening disease, is ravaging the Sunshine State’s orange crop.

This will likely cause citrus prices to skyrocket nationwide, as Florida farmers recorded its smallest orange harvest in 90 years, according to the state’s latest agriculture report.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in January that only 18 million boxes of Florida oranges would be on the market in 2023, a 56 percent drop from last year.

One would not know it from looking at the S&P which just hit a 2023 high, but there is a bit of a bankruptcy crisis sweeping the US where companies are filing for bankruptcy at the fastest pace in 13 years, in a clear sign of a tightening credit squeeze as interest rates rise and financial markets have locked out all but the strongest borrowers.

The increase is most visible among large companies, where there were 236 bankruptcy filings in the first four months of this year, more than double 2022 levels, and the fastest YTD pace since 2010 according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Americans, on average, estimate that a family of four needs a minimum income of $85,000 annually to “get by” in their community, marking a considerable increase from a decade ago. The past decade has witnessed not only an increase in the average income required but also a notable shift in the upper range of income expectations.

During that time, the proportion of Americans who believe that a family needs more than $100,000 to get by has tripled to 30%, while 18% now estimate it to be between $75,000 and $99,999, and 31% think it is $50,000 to $74,999. Half as many Americans now as in 2013 believe a family of four can get by on less than $50,000 annually. This includes 3% who estimate a figure lower than $30,000, and 11% who cite a figure between $30,000 and $49,999.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hailed China's "balanced position" on the conflict in Ukraine during a Friday meeting with Chinese special envoy Li Hui in Moscow.

China has thus far resisted Western pressure to condemn Moscow, but has instead tried to present a neutral stance while issuing occasional statements condemning NATO expansion and US global dominance. Beijing has also been among a handful of Asian countries to have greatly expanded Russian energy imports since the start of the war.

Instead of fighting anti-civilization lunacy, corporations are taking their money off the table, along with their life-affirming affordable fuel...

“We need to criticize the people who got us here,” says Alex Epstein, founder of the Center for Industrial Progress and author of Fossil Future.

“We can’t keep treating these designated experts as real experts. They are not real experts, they are destroyers. They are anti-energy, non-experts. And that needs to be made clear.”

Epstein is right, and his advice has never been more urgent—or as difficult to make people understand. It is no exaggeration that every major institution in America has now committed itself to the elimination of affordable and abundant energy. If it isn’t stopped, this commitment, motivated by misguided concern for the planet but also by a lust for power and money and enabled by moral cowardice and intellectual negligence, will destroy Western civilization.

It’s been over five decades since the war on drugs began in the United States, and billions of dollars coerced from taxpayers have been spent on this frivolous operation.

The General Accounting Office’s report found that the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program did not deter youth from drug abuse.

How exactly has this war benefited taxpayers when drug use has increased, and more potent drugs are being consumed? Even the diabolical Charles Manson distributed drugs while imprisoned. Does one honestly think the government will eradicate drugs off the streets?

IRS officials picked a left-wing think tank to conduct a $15 million “independent review” of a proposal long supported by the same foundation to empower federal officials to prepare Americans’ tax returns, according to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.).

The think tank in question is New America, a Washington-based nonprofit foundation with deep ties to Democrat officials, appointees, and advocates.

“The characterization of New America as a strictly non-partisan, non-profit is surprising since the organization is known to be a left-leaning think tank. Specifically, some of the non-profit’s top officials include alumni from the Obama Administration … and other top officials of the organization are tied to left-leaning mainstream and openly left-wing media outlets,” Smith said in a March 6 letter to Acting IRS Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell.

After taking in hundreds of millions of dollars of corporate contributions, paying millions in bonuses and buying million-dollar mansions for founders, BLM (Bolshevik Lives Matter) ran a $9 million deficit.

Cowardly CEOs eager to appease the woke mob fall for these scams every time. Could we soon be witnessing the demise of the “DEI” movement?

The letters “DEI” stand for diversity, equity and inclusion, which is the mantra of corporate and political America today.

It sounds good. Who doesn’t like diversity in experience and conversation? Who doesn’t support equity? And what’s wrong with the inclusion of individuals in larger groups and institutions? Nothing.

The problem is that none of these words is used in any common-sense way. They’re used in Orwellian fashion to mean almost their exact opposites.

Trust in news has fallen in many countries around the world, following a temporary increase during the peak Covid-19 pandemic years, albeit still remaining higher than before the health crisis began.

This is according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2022, which polled 93,000 consumers in 46 markets about a range of digital news topics ranging from perceptions of media coverage of the war in Ukraine to the changing habits of younger consumers as well as where people go for climate news.

Overall trust in the news fell in 21 out of the 46 markets analyzed, while 18 markets remained at a similar level and only seven saw an uptick.

The phenomenon of SADS – “Sudden Adult Death Syndrome” is a brand new phenomenon since COVID-19 mRNA vaccines rolled out in the general population starting in December 2020.

 Perfectly healthy, young COVID-19 vaccinated people go to sleep and never wake up. There is no struggle. They die “peacefully” and their families, who never had any warning signs, are left in utter shock and horror.

Here are 13 such cases of young people dying in their sleep in 2023:

Webmaster addition:The half-life of mRNA can range from minutes to several hours. The stability of mRNA is crucial for regulating gene expression and ensuring precise control over protein production within cells. For this reason, Covid shots at the start of the vaccination program were frozen at −80°C requiring the purchase of large commercial freezers. But care providers and hospitals balked at buying these expensive machines and so the Covid shots were stored at higher temperatures, which means the mRNA is prone to mutating despite newer encapsulation and delivery systems, thereby triggering a wide range of unpredictable gene expressions.

Russia has issued another stern warning related to further potential Ukrainian attacks on Crimea. “Strikes on this territory are considered by us as an attack on any other region of the Russian Federation. It is important that the United States is fully aware of the Russian response,” Moscow’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, warned Sunday.

This was in response to an earlier weekend statement by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to CNN. He said while speaking from the G7 summit in Japan over the weekend, “we have not placed limitations on Ukraine being able to strike on its territory… What we’ve said is that we won’t enable Ukraine with US-systems to attack Russia. And we believe Crimea is Ukraine.”

Russia Issues Dire Warning After US Approves Ukrainian Strikes On Crimea

However, the US has consistently denied that it has OK’d Ukraine using US-supplied advanced weaponry to mount such attacks.

Master Lock, the United States-based padlock manufacturer, is reportedly set to close its factory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, next year with plans to outsource over 400 American employees’ jobs.

Officials with the United Auto Workers (UAW), who represent many of Master Lock’s employees, said Master Lock executives have informed employees that the Milwaukee plant will shutter by the end of March next year and that their jobs will be outsourced to other existing North American plants.

Americans at the Milwaukee plant produce parts for locks that are then sent to a plant in Mexico where the locks are assembled.

A subpoenaed FBI informant file links President Joe Biden to a bribery scheme worth five million dollars, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) publicly disclosed.

Comer revealed the size of the alleged bribe Wednesday in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, who continues to stonewall Comer’s subpoena to obtain the unclassified document from the bureau. In the letter threatening action, Comer pledged to hold the FBI in contempt of Congress if Wray does not provide the file.

The two men scheduled a meeting next week to discuss the dispute.

In addition to the sum of the alleged bribe, Comer’s letter revealed the date of the whistleblower’s tip to be June 30, 2020. Comer issued the subpoena following legally protected disclosures by a whistleblower to Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) office.

Based on the timing of a cash bribe allegedly offered in Ukraine, the New York Post speculated a link between the Biden family’s deals in Ukraine and the alleged bribe:

There’s much talk about whom the 2024 Republican presidential nominee should be. Would Donald Trump pass voter muster? Florida governor Ron DeSantis? Someone else? Who can win?

The answer is, well, no one — according to a new report.

That is, unless Republicans radically change how they approach swing-state politics. This is for a simple reason, avers Jay Valentine, a fractal-technology expert with electoral integrity entity Project Omega:

Maintaining the status quo ensures that the swing states in 2024 will swing only one way — toward vote fraud.

America's biggest home insurance company has announced it will no longer insure houses in California, saying that the risk from wildfires was too great and the cost of rebuilding too high. 

State Farm, the nation's biggest car and home insurer by premium volume, said existing customers would not be affected.

But from Saturday, no new home insurance policies will be issued. The company will continue offering auto insurance.

State Farm said it 'made this decision due to historic increases in construction costs outpacing inflation, rapidly growing catastrophe exposure, and a challenging reinsurance market.' 

Walgreens Boots Alliance is to layoff 504 corporate employees as financial obligations for opioid litigation and other legal matters pile up.

Earlier this month, the drugstore giant settled a lawsuit with the city of San Francisco, agreeing to pay it $230 million over its sales of opioids that have contributed to the Bay Area city's drug crisis.

Most of the cuts will be made at the drugstore giant's Deerfield, Illinois headquarters or its Chicago office. 

The layoffs represent about 10 percent of the company's corporate workforce.

Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors has been quietly let go from her Warner Bros TV deal after producing no content. 

Cullors, 39, signed the deal with the media giant in 2020 to much fanfare but it ended in secret in October 2022, it emerged on Friday. 

'The deal, unfortunately, did not result in any produced shows,' a source told the New York Post. 

Cullors claimed in January 2022 that she was working on a documentary about how reparations were similar to the idea of landback, where Native Americans got back their lands, and another about black social mobility. 

Ukraine's defence ministry has claimed Russia is planning to simulate a major accident at Europe's biggest nuclear power station in an attempt to thwart a long-planned Ukrainian counteroffensive to retake territory occupied by Russia.

The Zaporizhzhia plant, which lies in an area of Russian-occupied southern Ukraine, is Europe's biggest nuclear power station and the area has been repeatedly hit by shelling that both sides blame each other for.

The defence ministry's intelligence directorate said Russian forces would soon shell the plant and then announce a radiation leak. This would force an investigation by international authorities, during which all hostilities would be stopped.

Webmaster addition: I think it is more likely that Ukraine will stage a false-flag event to blame on Moscow.

Unbeknown, it seems, to most people in Peru and the US (considering the paucity of media coverage in both countries), US military personnel will soon be landing in Peru. The plenary session of Peru’s Congress last Thursday (May 18) authorised the entry of US troops onto Peruvian soil with the ostensible purpose of carrying out “cooperation activities” with Peru’s armed forces and national police. Passed with 70 votes in favour, 33 against and four abstentions, resolution 4766 stipulates that the troops are welcome to stay any time between June 1 and December 31, 2023.

The number of US soldiers involved has not been officially disclosed, at least as far as I can tell, though a recent statement by Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador, who is currently person non grata in Peru, suggests it could be around 700. The cooperation and training activities will take place across a wide swathe of territory including Lima, Callao, Loreto, San Martín, Huánuco, Ucayali, Pasco, Junín, Huancavelica, Iquitos, Pucusana, Apurímac, Cusco and Ayacucho.

Special counsel John Durham will appear before Congress for two hearings in June after he released a devastating report this month revealing the FBI wrongly opened its investigation into alleged Trump-Russia collusion.

Durham will testify publicly before the House Judiciary Committee on June 21 at 9:00 a.m. and will also appear before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence the day before, but behind closed doors, according to committee spokesmen.

Durham is expected to discuss the recently published report, which revealed how the FBI failed to uphold certain standards during the high-profile Crossfire Hurricane investigation.

The investigation, which was promoted heavily by Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Rep. Adam Schiff (CA), was based on now-debunked allegations that the Trump campaign was working with Russian political operatives during the 2016 presidential election.

Nearly all House Democrats, along with eight House Republicans, helped tank an effort to override President Joe Biden’s veto of a bipartisan plan that would have restored United States tariffs on China-made solar panels.

In June 2022, Biden announced a 24-month tariff moratorium on solar panel imports from Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia. Commerce Department officials suspect that the solar panels are actually made in China but have been routed through the four southeast Asian nations to avoid U.S. tariffs on China-made solar panels.

The suspension of tariffs came even as Biden’s Commerce Department found that BYD Hong Kong rerouted its production through Cambodia, Canadian Solar and Trina through Thailand, and Vina Solar through Vietnam for the sole purpose of avoiding the tariffs.

A Utah Target has been evacuated and a bomb squad has been called in after multiple threats were made against stores across the state and five in Ohio after the company's annual Pride collection sparked fury. 

A Layton Target - located at 810 West 2000 North - was evacuated after receiving multiple bomb threats. A bomb squad and a K9 unit were deployed to the store around 1pm, according to KUTV. 

All staff and customers were directed to the parking lot. 

Police said stores in Layton, Salt Lake, Taylorsville and Provo were threatened. Authorities became aware of the threats after local news stations received emails threatening danger and referencing the company's new controversial Pride collection. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Friday on CNN’s “The Situation Room” that extreme MAGA Republicans want to crash the economy because they believe “it will be in their political benefit in 2024.”

Jeffries said, “We certainly are only a few days away from this manufactured default crisis, which is very real right now. We shouldn’t be in this situation, because America should always pay our bills and do it the in had a manner consistent with what has been done under Democratic presidents and Republican presidents without partisanship. We are in this place now, thankful for President Biden and his team of designees who are working hard to avoid a default in the face of a group of individuals, some of whom clearly would take the position that blowing up the economy, crashing it, and triggering a recession apparently they have concluded, is their political benefit. We’re hopeful cooler heads will continue to prevail over the next day or so, we can arrive at a bipartisan agreement that makes sense, that’s consistent with democratic values, and we can pass this dangerous default crisis.”

Webmaster addition: "I didn't screw up the economy; it's the GOP's fault. Honest!" -- Official White Horse Souse

Twitter has withdrawn from a voluntary European Union agreement to stamp out disinformation online, a top EU official said late Friday.

"Twitter leaves EU voluntary Code of Practice against disinformation. But obligations remain," EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton wrote on Twitter.

"You can run but you can't hide. Beyond voluntary commitments, fighting disinformation will be legal obligation under #DSA as of August 25. Our teams will be ready for enforcement," Breton added, referring to the EU's new Digital Services Act which takes effect in less than two months.

Amid a culture-war storm that has hit several American companies in recent weeks, including Bud Light and Target, LGBTQ+ rights advocates and anti-trans activists are now focusing on Walmart's approach to the debate and putting the company's marketing strategy under increased scrutiny.

After calls to boycott Target over its trans-friendly products—part of its Pride season's collection—the American retailer announced on Tuesday that it was removing some items in its Pride collection.

The decision was seen as a small victory by anti-trans activists, which have appeared galvanized by the retailer's move and eager to put another company that sells Pride-related merchandise—Walmart—under the same amount of scrutiny.

Democrats are lashing out at President Joe Biden for not being a strong enough leader in the face of the debt ceiling crisis.

Democratic lawmakers are frustrated that Biden is allowing House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to shape the narrative about the negotiations, essentially allowing Republicans to win in the court of public opinion, as evidenced by polling.

Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter recently suspended an illustrated novel project about “defying transgenderism” after the campaign was fully funded.

The author of the project, Hans G. Schantz, stated that his comic was canceled by Kickstarter after initially being reviewed and approved by the company. It was not until after the illustrated novel reached its $3,000 crowdfunding goal that the project was booted from the website.

Schantz said that he increased the novel’s goal to $6,000 before the project reached its May 31 deadline, but Kickstarter shut down the campaign, claiming that it had violated the site’s community rules.

The illustrated novel, “The Wise Heart,” follows the story of a biology teacher who is “thrown in jail for defying transgenderism” and subsequently “faces a show trial amid a media circus.”

A California Powerball winner is accused of stealing a lottery ticket worth more than $2 billion. The lottery winner was served with lawsuit papers at his newly purchased mansion in Hollywood Hills, California.

Last year, Edwin Castro won the Powerball lottery jackpot of $2.04 billion after purportedly purchasing the winning ticket from Joe’s Service Station in Altadena, California, on Nov. 7, 2022.

As previously reported in TheBlaze, Castro elected to take home the lump sum prize money of $997.6 million in February 2023.

Castro used the lottery winnings to purchase two multimillion-dollar California homes and a vintage Porsche convertible reportedly worth $250,000.

In the same month, a lawsuit was filed in California claiming that the winning lottery ticket had been stolen.