A nation of two minds: Another East-West rift in Germany, new coalition in the making

In its early Bundestag elections, the German nation put power in the hands of a black-red coalition made up of the CDU/CSU and the former ruling Social Democratic Party. Interestingly, the country's political preferences are split along the old border between East and West Germany, with the far-right Alternative for Germany triumphing in the east and the Christian Democrats keeping the west. Berlin stands out again for its choice of a third option: the Left, which inherited the legacy of the German Communists. Future Chancellor Friedrich Merz seems resigned to the accelerating deterioration of relations between the U.S. and EU, meaning his government is on the lookout for new international partners. However, political scientist Dmitri Stratievski argues that Germany's Russia and Ukraine policy will remain unchanged.

Germany’s snap parliamentary elections of Feb. 23 produced results almost perfectly in line with the latest opinion polls. First place was predictably taken by the conservative Union parties: the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), led by the likely future chancellor Friedrich Merz (28.52%). The runner-up, for the first time since World War II, was the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) with 20.8%. The ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD) came in third with their lowest ever result (16.41%). The so-called “traffic light coalition” is now history, giving way to a different format of government.

Today, even an incorrigible optimist can no longer call Germany an island of political stability, where the electoral field is divided among mainstream parties and where radicals remain on the margins of national politics. The first serious crack fractured this “wall of calm” back in 2017, when AfD ran in the Bundestag elections for the first time, winning 12.7% of the vote and becoming Germany's third most popular party. The success on the opposite radical flank was also noticeable, as the Left Party, which back then still included Sahra Wagenknecht's group, won 9.2% of the vote.

In the pandemic year of 2021, when Angela Merkel stepped away from the world of politics, election results showed a departure from radicalism, with AfD's results slumping to 10.3% and the Left falling below the 5% threshold, meaning their only representatives in parliament were those who won in single-member districts. Meanwhile, the 2024 and 2025 elections to the European Parliament and in three eastern German states ended in the success of the AfD, clearly demonstrating a rift in German society.

Traditionally one of the “people's parties,” SPD lost so much ground that it was knocked out of its traditional strongholds in Germany's industrial center. Here, the conservatives took almost all of the constituencies, gaining an estimated 1.7 million former Social Democrat voters.

Another 700,000 votes that had gone to the center-left in the previous election shifted to the AfD. Alice Weidel's associates delivered the far-right party's best result since 1933, gaining the trust of 10.3 million voters and triumphing in the east of the country. Admittedly, AfD received some support in West German states as well, but considerably less than in the former GDR.

In all of former West Germany (except the small Saarland), the AfD failed to cross the 20% threshold, with its results ranging from 10% to 15% in Bremen and Hamburg. But its share in the east broke records, ranging from 32.5% in Brandenburg to an all-time high of 38.6% in Thuringia. Only the Christian Democrats and SPD of the euphoric, post-reunification 1990s could boast comparable numbers in the east of the country.

The election results in the capital are paradoxical, as Berlin has traditionally been the fiefdom of the Greens and SPD. In the last state elections, the CDU gained control of the city administration. However, in the Bundestag elections, the Left, which opposed anti-migrant measures and instead emphasized the fight for social justice, came first in both the first votes (for parties) and the second votes (for specific candidates). The Left was also the most popular among people with migrant backgrounds, which is hardly a coincidence.

As for the AfD, sociologists say there is no single decisive factor that would explain the party's success in eastern Germany. Among the reasons cited are weak political structures, a strong presence of right-wing radicals, the lack of democratic traditions, fears of “your average migrant” in the border regions, perceptions of a deteriorating economic situation, and resentment over the alleged lack of representation of eastern Germans in the federal government.

Differences from the previous elections are also noteworthy. The latest poll suggests that only 39% of far-right supporters are protest voters — those opting for the AfD out of dissatisfaction with the other options on offer. As many as 54% define themselves as staunch backers of the AfD specifically.

Also alarming for the mainstream parties was the fact that more than one-third of the nearly 3.7 million Germans who boycotted the last election cast their lot with the AfD this time around. Germany's electoral map is now almost uniformly colored black in the west (CDU and CSU in Bavaria) and blue in the east (AfD). The watershed runs neatly along the pre-1990 border between East and West Germany.

While AfD's success was predictable, the progress of the Left Party came as a surprise to many. The Left Party, which survived a split, the emergence of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, and a series of failures in the 2024 elections, stood no chance of making it to the Bundestag and found itself on the edge of political oblivion. Party strategists capitalized on the missteps of Wagenknecht, who failed to shake off her authoritarian ways — quarreling with influential fellow party members and alienating voters with her anti-migrant and anti-socialist rhetoric.

The Left profited from the slumping ratings of the SPD and the Greens, as well as from the prevailing mood of uncertainty in the left-wing public niche. Eventually, the party ran a successful campaign, doubled its rating shortly before the election, and received 8.77% of the vote. In Berlin, the Left came in first, securing several districts in which the Social Democrats' victory was considered a done deal.

The East-West line is not the only visible fracture in German society. Polarization has become palpable between Germans favoring mainstream policies of past decades and those demanding radical change — even at the cost of authoritarian and inhumane means.

The nation's right turn doubled the AfD's presence in the Bundestag, as the electorate’s small-but-real faction of protest voters teamed up with the far right. The conservatives' victory came not only due to the low approval ratings of Olaf Scholz and the traffic light coalition, but also because of a radicalization of demands in the areas of migration, social security, finance, and the economy, where the bloc played the role of a democratic “AfD Lite.” Merz, for his part, went for the image of “Trump Lite,” a strong leader willing to take unpopular measures in Germany's national interests while playing by the rules of German parliamentarism.

read moar:

https://theins.ru/en/politics/279368

Jim Jordan issues subpoena for Google and Youtube

House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan sent a subpoena to Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, on Thursday, requesting communications between the company and the executive branch as well as internal company communications.

The move to go after Alphabet is the next step in Jordan's yearslong crusade to go after social media platforms for what he says constitutes suppression of conservative speech. After Meta adjusted its own policies in January to respond to concerns from conservatives, Jordan has set his sights on a new target, accusing Alphabet of coordinating with the Biden administration to censure users.

In a letter reviewed by POLITICO, Jordan (R-Ohio) said the documents would inform a legislative response to the alleged coordination.

"Throughout the previous Congress, the Committee expressed concern over YouTube’s censorship of conservatives and political speech," Jordan wrote in the letter to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. "To develop effective legislation, such as the possible enactment of new statutory limits on the executive branch’s ability to work with Big Tech to restrict the circulation of content and deplatform users, the Committee must first understand how and to what extent the executive branch coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech."

Like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Pichai has also indicated he intends to cooperate with the Republican governing trifecta in Washington. He watched Donald Trump's inauguration from inside the U.S. Capitol alongside the president's most steadfast and prominent allies.

Jordan is also requesting communications between Alphabet officials and third parties working with the executive branch during the period of Jan. 1, 2020 to Jan. 20, 2025.

"We'll continue to show the committee how we enforce our policies independently, rooted in our commitment to free expression," said José Castañeda, a Google spokesperson, in a statement.

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/03/06/congress/jim-jordan-continues-subpoena-spree-of-social-media-platforms-00216413

Gavin Newsom breaks with Democrats on trans athletes in sports

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a pioneer for LGBTQ+ rights who decades ago upset leaders in his own party when he defied state law and issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples, suggested Democrats were in the wrong in allowing transgender athletes to participate in female college and youth sports.

“I think it’s an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness — it’s deeply unfair,” Newsom said in his debut podcast episode of “This is Gavin Newsom.” “I am not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you.”

Newsom’s comments on the issue roiling political debates nationwide came in a conversation with influential MAGA-world figure Charlie Kirk, the campus culture warrior who leads the organization Turning Point USA and is a close ally of President Donald Trump and his son, Donald Trump Jr.

Newsom also agreed that the most politically destructive attack ads from Trump’s campaign featured Kamala Harris’ support for providing taxpayer-funded gender transition-related medical care for detained immigrants and federal prisoners.

“She didn’t even react to it, which was even more devastating,” Newsom said, suggesting upward of 90 percent of Americans disagreed with Harris’ position. “Then you had the video [of Harris] as a validator. Brutal,” Newsom added. “It was a great ad.”

Kirk challenged Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential hopeful, to speak out against AB Hernandez, a transgender high school track star from California whose triple jump event in the women’s competition is drawing fierce backlash from the right. Newsom said he has four children of his own — including two daughters — and noted that both he and his wife participated in college-level sports, she in soccer and he in baseball.

“I revere sports, so the issue of fairness is completely legit,” Newsom said. “And I saw that — the last couple years, boy did I [see] how you guys were able to weaponize that issue at another level.”

Kirk challenged Newsom over his use of the word “weaponize,” and Newsom replaced it with “highlight.”

POLITICO last month was first to report Newsom’s new podcast, with the Democratic governor saying he drew inspiration from the likes of HBO provocateur Bill Maher, who regularly finds common ground with conservative adversaries while taking frequent aim at Democratic dogma, including on youth trans issues.

Newsom’s interview with Kirk was friendly, sometimes exceedingly so. He mentioned the influence Kirk and other MAGA-world figures have had on his 13-year-old son, distanced himself from the use of pronouns and the gender-neutral term “Latinx,” called police defunding “lunacy,” denounced “cancel culture” and agreed that there had been some internal issues in the leadership of the Black Lives Matter organization.

Indeed, the 75-minute interview presented Newsom in the opposite light than he appeared in over recent years when stumping as a surrogate for former President Joe Biden and Harris and sparring with ideological foes like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

Newsom in the podcast also was self-deprecating — joking that he only eats meals (including grabbing take-out) at the famed three-Michelin star French Laundry where he got considerable heat for attending a friends’ party during Covid lockdowns and conceding that he should have been celebrating at the everyman eatery Applebee’s.

On youth trans sports Kirk drew out a longer response.

There are relatively few transgender athletes competing at the collegiate level. But Newsom said it was “easy to call out” the unfairness, echoing concerns raised by Republicans in Washington and across the country who argue that banning trans women and girls from participating in school athletic competitions designated for female athletes would ensure fairness.

While Newsom has at times touched on his own concerns about the issue, particularly around youth sports, the remarks on his eponymous new podcast are his most expansive on the topic. He went on to express sympathy for trans people, noting “these poor people” have higher rates of suicide and depression and saying “the way that people talk down to vulnerable communities is an issue that I have a hard time with, as well.”

Yet, Newsom said Kirk was right when he contended that Republicans were capitalizing politically by painting Democrats as out of step with a strong majority of Americans on the issue. Earlier this week, Senate Democrats blocked a GOP-led effort to bar transgender girls from female youth sports.

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“I agree with you,” Newsom said. “We’re getting crushed on it. Crushed. Crushed.”

Newsom noted his own leadership on issues of LGBTQ+ rights but he said even some of his friends have privately asked him why he’s not been more vocal about trans athletes.

He said the authority for trans K-12 athletes competing in girls’ and womens’ sports came from a 2014 state law — signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown — that also allowed students who identified as transgender to use school bathrooms “consistent with their gender identity.”

Newsom compared his position on trans athletes to conservatives who oppose same-sex marriage on principle — saying he values that Kirk and others are not abandoning their opposition now that gay marriages are both legally and socially acceptable by a majority of Americans.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/06/gavin-newsom-breaks-with-democrats-on-trans-athletes-in-sports-00215436

More Than Half in U.S. Want Daylight Saving Time Sunsetted

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the March 9 switch to daylight saving time (DST) approaches in the U.S., the majority of Americans (54%) say they are ready to do away with the practice. By contrast, 40% of U.S. adults say they are in favor of daylight saving time, while 6% are uncertain.

These findings come from a Jan. 21-27 Gallup poll, which marks the first time Gallup has measured Americans’ opinions about daylight saving time since 1999. During the 26-year interlude, views about the practice have shifted dramatically. In 1999, 73% favored daylight saving time, similar to the 74% who did so in a 1990 poll. Support was more muted in readings from 1937 to 1957, when between 51% and 57% were in favor, though daylight saving time was not uniformly observed across the U.S. in that period.

Daylight saving time was introduced at the national level in 1918, the last year of World War I, when the U.S. sought to conserve fuel by extending daylight working hours as a wartime necessity. From then until the 1960s, the U.S. employed a piecemeal approach, with different states deciding to use, or not use, daylight saving time. In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act to institute time changes nationally in the spring and fall each year.

Since then, various laws have modified the timing of those clock changes, and some states, including Hawaii and most of Arizona, have opted out of DST altogether. In 2022, the U.S. Senate voted to implement DST year-round, but the bill stalled in the House. Earlier this year, members of Congress from both parties introduced proposals to make DST a year-round standard.

Since 1999, public support for daylight saving time has plummeted across all demographic groups. Most subgroups by age, political affiliation, income and education have seen declines in support for DST of 30 percentage points or more, except for low-income Americans, who show a 19-point drop.

Today, support for daylight saving time varies across some demographics:

-By political affiliation: Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents show slightly greater support (44%) than Republicans and Republican leaners (34%), though the majority of both groups are opposed.

-By household income: Support is much higher among lower-income households (53%) than among those in middle-income (35%) and higher-income (33%) brackets.

-By age and education: Younger and older Americans, and college graduates and nongraduates, are about equally likely to favor daylight saving time.

A separate question on the same survey, asked of a different subsample than was asked the favor/oppose question, sought to get a better understanding of what Americans want regarding time changes during the year. Gallup asked these respondents which of three scenarios they prefer: having standard time year-round, having daylight saving time year-round or maintaining the current system of switching between the two.

The plurality of Americans, 48%, say they would prefer to have standard time the whole year, including summer. Half as many, 24%, prefer having daylight saving time in place the whole year, including winter. The smallest percentage, 19%, prefer the status quo of switching between the two each year. This means 43% favor having daylight saving time part of the year or year-round, only slightly less than the 48% who would prefer not to have it at all. But it also means more than seven in 10 Americans would prefer no clock changes each year.

Gallup asked a variant of this question in 1946 and 1947, also finding close to half of Americans in favor of standard time being in place all year. Slightly fewer back then favored having daylight saving time the whole year, while slightly more favored switching. Overall, fewer favored yearly standard or daylight time meaning, no clock changes in the 1940s (between 62% and 64%) than the 72% who hold that preference today.

As lawmakers at the federal and state levels continue to debate the future of daylight saving time, Americans seem more willing than ever to do away with the time changes that now occur in early March and early November. Even though DST allows for sunnier evenings over the spring and summer, it comes at the cost of setting clocks ahead every March. And yet, keeping DST would mean later sunrises, particularly in winter months.

There is mounting evidence that the twice-yearly time changes can have negative effects – such as sleep disruption, increased traffic accidents, and health risks, including higher rates of heart attacks and workplace accidents after time changes. In addition, studies have found that adding sunlight hours later in the day results in minimal energy savings. All of this may have contributed to shifts in Americans’ opinions on the matter.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/657584/half-daylight-saving-time-sunsetted.aspx

Gaetz could be next Florida attorney general

Florida's next attorney general could be the ex-congressman who almost became President Trump's U.S. attorney general: Matt Gaetz.

Why it matters: Despite the intense controversy he generated before withdrawing his nomination to be in Trump's Cabinet, Gaetz still has strong name ID and is well-liked enough among Florida's GOP base to be a formidable candidate.

-In a hypothetical primary matchup against Attorney General James Uthmeier, Gaetz was favored 39%-21%, according to a recent survey of likely Republican voters by Tony Fabrizio, one of the nation's top pollsters who works for Donald Trump and several GOP clients.

Zoom in: There's already a war of words brewing between Gaetz and Uthmeier supporters over right-wing influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate, the Florida men who recently were allowed to return to the U.S. after facing sex-trafficking charges in Romania.

-Uthmeier on Tuesday announced an investigation into the Tates. Gaetz — who as a member of Congress faced allegations of paying a minor for sex — has criticized Uthmeier's motives.

Reality check: A race against Uthmeier would be no slam dunk for Gaetz. Fabrizio's poll found 40% of GOP voters were undecided.

-"2026 is going to be a dynamic year in Florida politics, for sure," Gaetz told Axios. "I'm humbled that so many Florida Republicans support me. Sometimes the AG itch doesn't go away with one scratch."

-Gaetz has considered running for state attorney general in the past and hasn't ruled it out in 2026. He's also told others he might run for governor.

-A spokesperson for Uthmeier couldn't be reached.

Zoom out: In red-state Florida, the victor of in a GOP primary in a statewide race is typically the odds-on favorite to win in the general election. Registered Republicans in Florida now outnumber Democrats by 1 million.

The intrigue: Florida's 2026 ballot could be full of must-watch races.

-U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (R) is running for governor and Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis is considering a bid. Her husband, Gov. Ron DeSantis, is in his second four-year term and can't run again under state law.

-Donalds has been endorsed by Trump, but the governor and first lady met with Trump last weekend at the president's International golf club in West Palm Beach to try to curry his favor.

-Uthmeier has never run for statewide office. He was chief of staff for DeSantis, who appointed Uthmeier attorney general two weeks ago to fill the seat vacated by Ashley Moody. DeSantis had appointed Moody to fill Marco Rubio's U.S. Senate seat, which he gave up to become Trump's secretary of state.

Flashback: Gaetz quit Congress and then his bid for the top Justice Department post amid a crush of terrible headlines related to a years-long sex-trafficking investigation that resulted in no charges.

-Gaetz maintained his innocence and characterized a related House Ethics Committee investigation as a witch hunt driven by allies of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), whose ouster Gaetz engineered.

Whether Gaetz runs or not, the investigation into the Tate brothers after they arrived last week in Florida has elevated Uthmeier's profile. The Tates deny wrongdoing and criticized Uthmeier and DeSantis, who denounced them.

-"Ron DeSantis is attacking me because he was worried I would support Byron Donalds over his wife," Andrew Tate posted Tuesday night on X. "They attacked me to prevent me from destroying his wife's political ambitions."

Gaetz chimed in on Wednesday.

-"DeSantis/hisAG are using you to virtue signal against the unrighteous," Gaetz wrote on X.

-"It's all just posturing," Gaetz said. "Hell, Florida even let O.J. Simpson move here, so if you haven't committed any crimes you have little to fear from the Sunshine State."

https://www.axios.com/2025/03/06/matt-gaetz-florida-attorney-general

Breast milk protein’s superpowers lead to breakthrough for new class of oral drugs

Technion researcher Dr. Assaf Zinger says his team’s work shows that the proteins cover and protect nanoparticles as they pass through intestinal layers, conveying therapeutics.

Technion scientist Assaf Zinger began wondering about breast milk when his wife, Noa, was breastfeeding their newborn daughter, Tamara, five years ago.

His wife had just received the COVID vaccine, and Tamara was starting to develop symptoms of the vaccine.

“I thought, ‘Hey, wait a minute, nanoparticles should degrade in the stomach,” Zinger told The Times of Israel in a teleconference call. “They should not be absorbed in the small intestine.”

After two years of research, Zinger said he believes that his team of 16 scientists is the first in the world to show that breast milk proteins can be used to protect and deliver nanoparticles so that people will be able to receive their medication — not by injecting it but by drinking it.

“The study shows that human breast milk proteins can be used for drug delivery purposes, and as far as we know, nobody’s done this before,” Zinger said enthusiastically. “One day, we will walk down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, go into a Starbucks coffee shop, and order a pumpkin spice cappuccino with hormones, vaccines, or chemotherapy.”

The research, led by Dr. Zinger’s PhD students Si Naftaly, Rawan Mhajne, and undergraduate student Topaz Pery from the Wolfson Department of Chemical Engineering, as well as Prof. Maya Davidovich-Pinhas and Dr. Areen Ashkar, both from the Technion’s Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering.

Zinger said the research continued even though he served as an officer in the armored corps of the IDF for more than 100 days since the war began on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst across the Gaza-Israel border, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, amid rampant acts of brutality and sexual assault.

The following day, in solidarity with Hamas, the Iranian-backed terror-group Hezbollah began firing hundreds of rockets, missiles and drones from Lebanon into northern Israel, including at Haifa, where the Technion is located.

Three other researchers in Zinger’s lab also served during the war, for more than 500 days.

“When we came back from reserve duty,” Zinger said, “we pushed the science harder. We decided to go wild on it to show everyone that we are still here. We are alive, we are strong, and we just need to spread light. That’s the only way to really win, right?”

Zinger, who said he had wanted to be a scientist since he was 9 years old, said one hurdle for the researchers involved obtaining breast milk. Most breast milk donations to the national breast milk bank were allocated to babies who became orphans because of the October 7 massacre.

Zinger said that the women who work with him doing research in his lab – whom he nicknamed the “Amazons,” because “they’re super-smart and strong” – launched a local donation initiative within the Technion community to obtain the necessary breast milk samples.

“I thank both the women in the lab and the women who donated their milk to science,” he said.

Explaining his study — which received a grant from the European Research Council, the Israel Science Foundation, and the Israel Cancer Research Fund among others — Zinger said that breast milk is a “remarkable biofluid.”

Both the stomach and the intestines are barriers that prevent hazards from entering the bloodstream. But breast milk proteins can get through these barriers and help transport nano-particles containing therapeutics to the baby.

“If compounds in breast milk can cross this barrier, it means breast milk contains ‘keys’ that enable them to do so,” said Naftaly Kiros, one of Zinger’s co-researchers. “What are these keys? That was what we aimed to uncover.”

The “keys” the Technion scientists discovered were in a breast milk protein, which they named Human Breast Milk Protein Corona.

This corona, said Zinger, “forms a protein coating around a nanoparticle, allowing it to pass through the intestinal layers.”

The researchers confirmed their findings in both human intestinal cell line and pig intestinal samples.

Prof. Zahava Vadasz, deputy CEO of Bnai-Zion Medical Center, Haifa, said that the hospital is planning a future research collaboration between Zinger’s team at the Technion and the hospital, using the method to develop novel treatment strategies for autoimmune and infectious diseases.

“This is a true game-changer in medicine,” said Prof. Hossam Haick of the Technion, where he researches nanotechnology and biomedical engineering and also serves as the dean of Undergraduate Studies.

Haick’s groundbreaking research has led to the creation of technology that can mechanically “smell” elements in the breath of potential victims. The research into breast milk protein, Haick said, “brings us closer to a future where life-saving medications can be taken as a sip instead of a shot.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/breast-milk-proteins-superpowers-lead-to-breakthrough-for-new-class-of-oral-drugs/

Bessent Strikes Competent, Combative Tone in Major Economic Address From New York

NEW YORK, New York – Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took the stage at the storied Ziegfeld Ballroom, recently repurposed from its original cinematographic roots into an event space stacked to the gunwales with art deco features and, this morning, bespoke suits and club ties.Bessent’s on-the-record address to the 790th meeting of the Economic Club of New York, an historically nonpartisan though establishment members’ club, was delivered against the backdrop of global tariff spats and an economy that increasingly feels like it needs a shot in the arm—whether that takes the form of tax cuts for the middle class or otherwise.Bessent’s opening remarks felt explicitly designed to reassure markets and those in the room.

“It is a privilege to be here both as a member of the Trump Administration and of the Economic Club of New York,” the Treasury Secretary began, reminding the audience of his many years in the same seats they occupied. For non-economics heads (such as yours truly), it was deeply in the weeds, as he laid out the “three pillars of the America First” economic agenda:

-Reversing Financial Regulatory Overreach;

-The International Economic System;

-A 2025 Sanctions Regimen.

“At Treasury, we will lead a comprehensive and assertive effort across the Administration to empower our nation’s banks to finance the economy’s pursuit of job growth, wealth creation, and prosperity for all Americans,” he began, adding: “The 4,000 community banks operating nationwide in every county in America are one of the most important reasons for U.S. economic outperformance in recent decades.”

“The United States also provides reserve assets, serves as a consumer of first and last resort, and absorbs excess supply in the face of insufficient demand in other country’s domestic models. This system is not sustainable,” said Bessent, adding: “Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American Dream. The American Dream is rooted in the concept that any citizen can achieve prosperity, upward mobility, and economic security,” to some wilful misunderstanding by online Democrats, who confuse the word “cheap” with “affordability,” rather than having a lack of quality – a dig at China.

Bessent gleefully tore into the Biden government numerous times in his remarks, especially on the subject of Russia, Iran, and Ukraine.“A major factor that has enabled the Russian war machine’s continued financing was the Biden Administration’s egregiously weak sanctions on Russian energy, stemming from worries about upward pressure on US energy prices. In a craven political move, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan raised the Russian sanctions on the way out the door in January. What was the point of substantial US military and financial support over the past three years without commensurate and fulsome sanctions support?”

Bessent rightfully dismissed the decades-long and decades-old free trader shibboleth that asserts maintaining unfettered trade with Communist China will make the Asian power more democratic, free, and a less hostile nation. Indeed, the precise opposite has happened. China is, today, even less democratic and more authoritarian. Its regional ambitions—especially the drive to reacquire Taiwan—have intensified as a result of the West’s enrichment of her.

One of the most important points raised by Sec. Bessent came during the question-and-answer segment with Larry Kudlow, wherein he took aim at Washington’s over-reliance on the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) method of fiscal scoring, which he contends does not adequately take into account economic realities.Trump’s Treasury Secretary notes that the CBO will score a 1.8 percent baseline GDP growth per year in a 10-year window, whether you raise or cut taxes, calling the analysis “reductionist.”

Tellingly, Bessent spent a significant part of his speech addressing the Islamic Republic of Iran, which many in Washington, D.C. are starting to assert was somehow involved in one or both of the Trump assassination attempts during the campaign.“We will close off Iran’s access to the international financial system by targeting regional parties that facilitate the transfer of its revenues. Treasury is prepared to engage in frank discussions with those countries. We are going to close Iran’s oil sector and drone manufacturing capabilities,” Bessent said. The National Pulse has previously reported that President Trump’s enactment of the first maximum-pressure sanctions regime against Iran during his first term crippled the Iranian economy.“We have pre-determined benchmarks and timelines,” Bessent explained. “Making Iran Broke Again will mark the beginning of our updated sanctions policy. Watch this space. If economic security is national security, the regime in Tehran will have neither.”The message especially resonated with the more Republican parts of the audience, who could be heard muttering, “MIBA!” in response.

Bessent’s speech was clearly designed to flex his competence, reassure the economic world’s movers and shakers that he is a steady hand, “one of them,” but certainly acting at the direction of the President at almost every juncture. If a “healthy balance” between MAGA’s more bludgeonsome instincts and economic surety was the goal, Bessent understood the assignment.

https://thenationalpulse.com/analysis-post/133648/

Rapid Response 47

@RapidResponse47

President Trump’s Administration will not tolerate Perkins Coie LLP’s unethical and discriminatory actions that threaten our elections, military strength, and national security.

— In 2016, Perkins Coie LLP hired Fusion GPS to manufacture a false “dossier” designed to steal an election while representing failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

— Perkins Coie LLP pushed debunked claims of secret Trump-Russia communications via Alfa Bank, with attorney Michael Sussmann indicted for lying to the FBI about this scheme.

— Perkins Coie LLP has worked with activist donors, including George Soros, to judicially overturn enacted election laws, such as those requiring voter identification. A court was forced to sanction Perkins Coie attorneys for unethical lack of candor before the court.

— Perkins Coie LLP has been accused of racially discriminating against its own attorneys, staff, and applicants. Perkins Coie has publicly announced racial percentage quotas for hiring and promotions, violating civil rights laws, and excluded applicants from fellowships based on race until lawsuits forced change.

— Perkins Coie LLP hosted an FBI workspace, raising concerns about partisan misuse of sensitive data during investigations targeting President Trump.

— Perkins Coie LLP has filed lawsuits against the Trump Administration, including one designed to reduce military readiness.

https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1897737735303053396

Trump cancels security clearance for Perkins Coie law firm

https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1897777804474810734

Canada Eyes Arctic Military Expansion in Response to Trump’s Demands

Canada is expanding its military presence in the Arctic region as it tries to appease the Trump administration’s calls for higher defense spending and deter Chinese and Russian influence in the remote region.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government will invest C$2.67 billion ($1.86 billion) to bolster its Arctic support hubs, starting with bases in Inuvik and Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories and in Iqaluit, Nunavut, where Defense Minister Bill Blair made the announcement on Thursday.

The outlay is set to happen over 20 years, making the annual additional spending quite meager. Still, the plan underscores the pressure that Canadian leaders are feeling to shore up military expenditures, which have long remained below the North Atlantic Treaty Organization benchmark set at 2% of gross domestic product.

The support hubs consist of airstrips, logistics facilities and equipment and are used in military aircraft operations.

The leader of the opposition proposed a similar plan in February. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promised to build a permanent military base in Iqaluit, funding the project by making cuts to the foreign-aid budget, if his party forms government after a general election expected in the coming months.

Trudeau will step down soon after his Liberal Party elects a new leader on Sunday. The two leading candidates — former central banker Mark Carney and former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland — have both pledged to reach the 2% defense spending target earlier than Trudeau’s goal of 2032.

“Establishing a greater year-round military presence in the region positions the military to better assert Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic,” the defense department said in a statement Thursday. The plan “will help keep Canadians safe and secure in the face of dramatic changes in our physical and security environment.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/canada-eyes-arctic-military-expansion-163423790.html

Mysterious Naval Vessel Spotted In Washington State Is A New DARPA Drone Ship

Aslender, partially covered naval ship that recently emerged in Washington state is the Defiant, a new medium-sized uncrewed surface vessel (USV) designed from the keel up to operate without any humans ever onboard. Developed under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) program, Defiant could be an important stepping stone for the U.S. Navy’s ambitions to add larger and more capable USVs to its fleets.

DARPA confirmed to TWZ that construction of the Defiant, also known by the hull code USX-1, was completed earlier this month. As noted, the first indications that the vessel had been launched came from residents in Washington state who spotted it being pushed by a tug through the Saratoga Passage in Puget Sound north of Seattle. This area of the Sound is also just a few miles from the U.S. Navy’s Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island. User @IntelWalrus on X was first to bring this to our attention.

The 180-foot-long, 240-metric ton Defiant is now set to “undergo extensive in-water testing, both dockside and at sea” and “is scheduled to depart for a multi-month at sea demonstration in spring 2025,” according to DARPA. It is unclear where exactly the vessel is currently docked. Serco Inc. is the primary contractor for the USV, which it has been developing since 2020. The company has told TWZ in the past that the core Defiant USV without any add-on mission systems has an approximately $25 million price tag.

The U.S. military has historically categorized uncrewed vessels like Defiant with lengths under 200 feet and displacements under 500 tons but that are larger than ones with speedboat and jetski-type designs, as medium USVs (MUSV). Large USVs (LUSV) have been defined as ones up to 300 feet long and that displace up to 2,000 tons.

A picture of Defiant in the Puget Sound, as well as additional images DARPA has now released, show much of the vessel literally still under wraps. However, the overall hullform, along with the mast at the center sporting various commercial navigation radars and other antennas, is in line with models and computer-generated renders of the design shown in the past. An additional smaller mast with more radars and other antennas is also present on the bow.

Other details about Defiant as it exists now are limited and TWZ has also reached out to Serco for more information. NOMARS program requirements DARPA released in the past called for designs capable of long-duration open-ocean operation with distributed hybrid power generation, podded propulsors, and high-capacity batteries, as well as a high-degree of hydrodynamic efficiency.

The NOMARS program has also put an emphasis on a concept called “graceful degradation” wherein “individual equipment to fail over time by having enough system-level redundancy to meet full system requirements at speeds of at least 15 knots after one year at sea.”

As designed, Defiant has large open spaces on top of its deck in front of and behind its main mast for add-on payloads. Secro has shown models loaded with standard shipping containers, which could hold an array of different mission systems, as well as general cargo. The company has also shown how the USV might be armed using what BAE Systems is now marketing as the Adaptable Deck Launching System (ADL). The ADL is a modular angled launcher designed to fire missiles from the same canisters used with the Mk 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) found on many U.S. and foreign warships. As such, ADLs can launch a variety of surface-to-air, anti-ship, and land-attack missiles, as well as anti-submarine rockets.

Defiant, at least initially, is intended primarily as a testbed to demonstrate the ability of such a vessel to operate autonomously for extended periods without any humans ever being onboard, even just to monitor systems and provide extra margins of safety.

“The NOMARS program aims to challenge the traditional naval architecture model, designing a seaframe (the ship without mission systems) from the ground up with no provision, allowance, or expectation for humans on board,” DARPA says on its website. “By removing the human element from all ship design considerations, the program intends to demonstrate significant advantages, to include: size, cost, at-sea reliability, greater hydrodynamic efficiency, survivability to sea-state, and survivability to adversary actions through stealth considerations and tampering resistance.”

Last year, DARPA, in cooperation with the U.S. Navy, conducted a successful test of an at-sea refueling system developed to support the NOMARS mission. Two Navy USVs, the Ranger and the Mariner, which are converted offshore support vessels that retain the ability to operate in crewed mode, were used to demonstrate the refueling system.

“Fueling at sea (FAS) for USVs presents a problem that needs to be solved as current FAS solutions use personnel to handle lines and hoses on the platform being refueled,” according to a press release DARPA put out in December. “Requiring personnel on the USV for the operation adds significant constraints on USV design and operations, as the vessel must then be designed with considerations for safety of the humans on board, even if for a short period of time. It can also be risky and sometimes dangerous to transport personnel to a USV in rough seas or high winds.”

“For the recent test, USV Ranger carried a receiving station representative of the system that will be on the NOMARS USV Defiant, and USV Mariner carried a refueling ‘mini-station,’ custom-designed by NOMARS prime contractor Serco Inc,” the release added. “While there were personnel aboard both vessels during the event, no people were involved with operations on the receiving side.”

However, Serco has already been actively pitching Defiant as at least a pathway to a range of operational capabilities, including new armed USVs and ones capable of acting as uncrewed logistics platforms. The company has already been working on a larger USV concept called Dauntless leveraging the work done under NOMARS, which could be armed with up to four ADLs, as well as carry other payloads.

Defiant was also designed with ease of production in mind and Serco has previously told TWZ that the USVs could be produced outside of traditional shipyards, including by railworks, if needed. This could make the design, or future variants or derivatives thereof, very attractive to the U.S. Navy, which has been facing increasingly worrisome struggles to acquire traditional crewed warships. That has come amid broader concerns about U.S. shipyard capacity, or the lack thereof, for building new naval vessels and maintaining existing ones. The U.S. shipbuilding industry continues to be grossly outpaced by that of China, America’s current chief global competitor, despite efforts to narrow the gap in recent years.

Earlier this year, the Navy announced plans to simplify its USV acquisition strategy to focus on smaller, simpler, and more interchangeable designs rather than larger and exquisite ones. The service had previously been working toward fielding distinct fleets of MUSVs and LUSVs.

“The designs already exist, and we must not over-spec this,” Rear Adm. William Daly, head of the Navy’s surface warfare division (N96), told an audience, including TWZ, at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium in January. “We’ve also had sufficient funding and experimentation to date to know what we need.”

“Many of the payloads are ready and tested. [Concepts of operation] are coalescing,” Daly added. “Let’s move faster. This is efficient, this is effective, and this is scalable.”

DARPA’s NOMARS program, especially now with Defiant about to head off for its first at-sea demonstrations, looks set to be another important part of the U.S. military’s uncrewed naval future.

https://www.twz.com/sea/mysterious-naval-vessel-spotted-in-washington-state-is-a-new-darpa-drone-ship

Vince Langman

@LangmanVince

The contrast between Republicans and Democrats last night could be summed up in these two photos.

https://x.com/LangmanVince/status/1897249743430148198

Walgreens to be taken private by Sycamore in $10 billion deal

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Walgreens Boots Alliance will be taken private by Sycamore Partners for $10 billion, the firms said on Thursday, closing out nearly a century of trading on public markets for the U.S. pharmacy giant.

The price is a fraction of the $100 billion the second-largest U.S. pharmacy chain was worth a decade ago. Its fortunes collapsed as drug margins fell and as consumers turned to cheaper rivals such as Amazon and Walmart to fill their prescriptions and purchase toiletries.

And when rivals diversified into insurance or prescription management, Walgreens invested billions of dollars in buying other pharmacy chains such as European giant Alliance Boots despite the trend away from in-store shopping.

Sycamore will pay $11.45 per share, a premium of 8% to Walgreens' closing price of $10.60 on Thursday. Shares of the company rose nearly 6% in extended trading.

Walgreens shareholders could also receive an additional $3 in cash from future monetization of the company's debt and equity interests in primary-care provider VillageMD.

The company's market capitalization has dropped 90% since 2015 to $9.3 billion on Thursday, with debt and lease obligations ballooning to almost $30 billion.

The transaction has a total value of around $23.7 billion including payouts and debt, according to Leerink Partners investment bank.

The final acquisition price was calculated by Sycamore considering the worst-case scenario, based on the minimum price it could recover if assets had to be split for a sale or to be run separately, a person close to the discussions said.

"You have a business that is shrinking, and then you layer on losses and cash burn, all of that was the perfect recipe for what we are seeing today," said Brian Tanquilut, a healthcare services research analyst at Jefferies.

Sycamore, a private equity firm that specializes in retail and consumer investments, has a track record of acquiring distressed retailers for profit including brands such as Staples, Talbots and Nine West.

Its past approach has involved selling the companies' most valuable assets, and reducing costs in the remaining operations through store closures and other measures, with savings often used to draw dividends and not necessarily aimed at growth.

"Going private makes sense on paper," said Ann Hynes, an analyst with Mizuho Bank, adding that Walgreens' operational challenges would likely better be handled without commitments to shareholders.

Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Tim Wentworth said in a statement that the company was making progress on its turnaround strategy, but meaningful value creation would take "time, focus and change that is better managed as a private company".

Walgreens has been trying to sell some of its assets or the company as a whole for at least six years.

In 2019, private equity firm KKR offered $70 billion for the retailer in private talks that did not advance, according to a Morgan Stanley report.

Walgreens has been suffering from reduced cash flow, and more than half of its $7 billion in net debt is due next year.

The company is closing thousands of stores and has embarked on a $1 billion cost-cutting program under CEO Tim Wentworth, with some success.

It currently employs 312,000 people in 12,000 stores in eight countries, according to its website, a sharp decline from the 25 countries, 450,000 employees and 21,000 stores it had four years ago.

Many of the company's missteps were under former CEO Stefano Pessina, also its largest single shareholder, whose tenure at the helm saw Walgreens' market capitalization shrink by about half to less than $50 billion when he exited in 2021.

In 2021, Walgreens announced it took a majority interest in VillageMD for $5.2 billion, following its initial stake acquisition in 2019. That proved to be a cash drain and is now a good exit candidate for Sycamore.

Walgreens concluded a two-step acquisition of Swiss-based Alliance Boots in 2014, a pharmacy-led health and beauty group that is now considered by analysts as a likely candidate for a spin-off.

The company stuck to its buying spree, snapping up almost 2,000 stores from its former rival Rite Aid Corp in 2018. But that store footprint proved too big and soon after the acquisition, Walgreens started to close locations.

There were also missed opportunities. While its top rival CVS has diversified its business beyond retail, including acquiring U.S. health insurer Aetna for almost $70 billion in 2018, Walgreens reportedly considered buying insurer Humana but eventually dropped the idea.

The deal includes a 35-day go-shop period.

"Given the size and number of moving parts involved - a potential split of the U.S. business, Boots, and Health - we don't expect a competing bid to come over the top," said Michael Cherny, an analyst with Leerink.

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/walgreens-taken-private-sycamore-10-221555262.html

Illegal immigration numbers looking good.

https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1897835254049575008

Gavin Newsum interview w/ Charlie Kirk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XJ6rQDRKGA

Charlie Kirk Breaks Down His VIRAL Interview With Gavin Newsom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxqg4XlfKOQ

80 percent disapprove of Al Green

https://x.com/charliekirk11/status/1897326569720619244

ICYMI: Trump signs executive orders, talks to reporters | Daylight Saving Time, tariffs, Canadian trees

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JHH957At7A

The Maine Wire

@TheMaineWire

America last:

A Maine State Rep says her priority is to develop Somalia…

https://x.com/TheMaineWire/status/1897316214604751014

Sawyer Merritt

@SawyerMerritt

BREAKING: SpaceX just successfully caught its Starship Super Heavy rocket booster in mid-air for the third time!

They parallel parked a building!

https://x.com/SawyerMerritt/status/1897794079427047499

SpaceX

@SpaceX

Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster!

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1897794546781532408

Wall Street Apes

@WallStreetApes

WOAH 🚨 Los Angeles, California Fire Department is transporting “1500 bums to the hospital every day.” This is “75%” of their calls

2022 LAFD Honorary Fire Chief, Paul Scrivano “We are nothing more now than the homeless Transport service”

“The biggest reason why the fire department will continue to fail is because we are nothing more now than the homeless Transport service in in the city of Los Angeles. We don't need more stations. We don't need more ambulances. We don't need more paramedics. We need to stop transporting 1200 -1500 bums to the hospital every day. 2000 calls a day, 75%, 1500 calls a day are homeless related for homeless.”

“The city of Los Angeles and the county of Los Angeles to take care of the homeless”

https://x.com/WallStreetApes/status/1897073818109354193

David Sacks

@davidsacks47

Just a few minutes ago, President Trump signed an Executive Order to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

The Reserve will be capitalized with Bitcoin owned by the federal government that was forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings. This means it will not cost taxpayers a dime.

It is estimated that the U.S. government owns about 200,000 bitcoin; however, there has never been a complete audit. The E.O. directs a full accounting of the federal government’s digital asset holdings.

The U.S. will not sell any bitcoin deposited into the Reserve. It will be kept as a store of value. The Reserve is like a digital Fort Knox for the cryptocurrency often called “digital gold.”

Premature sales of bitcoin have already cost U.S. taxpayers over $17 billion in lost value. Now the federal government will have a strategy to maximize the value of its holdings.

The Secretaries of Treasury and Commerce are authorized to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional bitcoin, provided that those strategies have no incremental costs on American taxpayers.

IN ADDITION, the Executive Order establishes a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile, consisting of digital assets other than bitcoin forfeited in criminal or civil proceedings.

The government will not acquire additional assets for the Stockpile beyond those obtained through forfeiture proceedings.

The purpose of the Stockpile is responsible stewardship of the government’s digital assets under the Treasury Department.

PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT

President Trump promised to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile. Those promises have been kept.

This Executive Order underscores President Trump’s commitment to making the U.S. the “crypto capital of the world.”

I want to thank the President for his leadership and vision in supporting this cutting-edge technology and for his rapid execution in supporting the digital asset industry. His administration is truly moving at “tech speed.”

I also want to thank the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets — especially Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — for their help and support in getting this done. Finally Bo Hines played a critical role as Executive Director of our Working Group.

https://x.com/davidsacks47/status/1897802280738734236

Introduced in parliament today, minorities will be given lesser sentences than white British people for the same crime.

Cool Birthday or Christmas gift to give.

The sounds of nature.

Fury as criminals from ethnic and religious minorities could see softer sentences in 'two-tier' justice move

The Sentencing Council published new principles for courts to follow when imposing community and custodial sentences, including whether to suspend jail time, on Wednesday.

The updated guidance, which comes into force from April, details that a pre-sentence report would usually be necessary before handing out punishment for someone of an ethnic, cultural or faith minority, alongside other groups such as young adults aged 18 to 25, women and pregnant women.

The independent body said a greater emphasis has now been placed on the "critical role" of pre-sentence reports, with more detail on when judges should request for the information to be compiled ahead of sentencing decisions.

This includes details about the circumstances of the crime and the offender.

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said in the Commons: "The new sentencing guidelines published alongside this statement will make a custodial sentence less likely for those 'from an ethnic minority, cultural minority, and/or faith minority community'.

"Why is the Justice Secretary enshrining this double standard, this two-tier approach to sentencing? It is an inversion of the rule of law. Conservative members believe in equality under the law; why does she not?"

Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, replied: "As somebody from an ethnic minority background, I do not stand for any differential treatment before the law for anyone.

"There will never be a two-tier sentencing approach under my watch or under this Labour Government."

She later said she will be writing to the Sentencing Council to "register my displeasure" and "recommend reversing this change to the guidance".

Ms Mahmood added: "The Sentencing Council is entirely independent.

"These guidelines do not represent my views or the views of this Government."

The previous government was also consulted on the change during the consultation period between November 2023 to February 2024.

The Sentencing Council advises in a new section that effectiveness of a sentence depends on defendants' circumstances, and that rehabilitative sentences can be more effective in reducing re-offending than a short term behind bars.

It also adds new evidence for deciding sentences, for example for a young person, stating: "The disadvantages young adult offenders face in the criminal justice system may be compounded for young adult offenders from an ethnic minority background.

"For some offences, there is evidence of a disparity in sentence outcomes for offenders from some ethnic minority backgrounds."

Following the comments, chairman of the Sentencing Council for England and Wales Lord Justice William Davis said one of the reasons for the updated guidance was to make sure courts have the "most comprehensive information available" to hand out an appropriate sentence.

On pre-sentence reports, he added: "The reasons for including groups vary but include evidence of disparities in sentencing outcomes, disadvantages faced within the criminal justice system and complexities in circumstances of individual offenders that can only be understood through an assessment.

"Pre-sentence reports provide the court with information about the offender; they are not an indication of sentence. "Sentences are decided by the independent judiciary, following sentencing guidelines and taking into account all the circumstances of the individual offence and the individual offender."

Elsewhere, guidance that tells courts to "avoid" sending pregnant women or mothers of babies to prison has been welcomed by campaigners.

The guidance added: "For offences that carry a mandatory minimum custodial sentence, pregnancy and the postnatal period may contribute to 'exceptional circumstances' that could justify not imposing the statutory minimum sentence."

Reacting to the move, Janey Starling, co-director of feminist campaign group Level Up, said the changes are a "huge milestone" in the campaign to end imprisoning pregnant women and mothers, while lawyer Liz Forrester, from group No Births Behind Bars, said it finally recognises the "deadly impact" of prison on babies and pregnant women.

Lord Justice Davis said a sentence properly tailored to individual circumstances of the offender had the "greatest likelihood" of being effective.

He added of the updated guidelines: "It will ensure that the principles for imposing community and custodial sentences continue to be consistently and transparently applied by the courts and that such sentences are the most suitable and appropriate for the offender and offence before them."

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/uk/criminals-from-ethnic-minorities-religious-gender-could-see-softer-sentences/

>>22717990