“Health freedom is the largest, strongest single issue voting bloc in America today.”
“We are America’s new majority.”
“We are independent from any party.”
“And we are stronger than ever.”
She declared that Bayer-Monsanto’s push for a pesticide liability shield is “exactly what happened in 1986 when Congress gave a liability shield to vaccine makers.”
“It was a bad use of tort reform then, and it’s a bad use with pesticides today.”
“So let the record show, just like we did in 2024, we’re gonna show up and decide the elections in 2026.”
“Your voice matters more than you can imagine.”
“And it’s about to matter even more in the 2026 midterm elections.”
The Trump administration is seeking to get other nations to cut back on global humanitarian aid and ‘promote America First values’ by investing in US companies, according to new reports.
The ‘trade over aid’ initiative will be an opportunity to use the United Nations system to ‘create business opportunities for US companies,’ per a cable sent to all US embassies and consulates.
In the cable reviewed by The Washington Post, Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered all US diplomats to issue a démarche – an official call to action – to all foreign nations by Monday that asks them to support the new initiative.
The US plans to introduce this idea at the UN at the end of April, according to the cable.
‘For decades, government aid has been flowing from developed to developing countries with only limited impact,’ according to one of the notes the outlet obtained.
‘It has not solved the world’s economic development challenges, and it has often created dependency, inefficiency, and corruption.’
‘Donors and developing countries are ready to try a new development aid model,’ the note continued.
Even before Trump returned to power in 2025, Western nations including Germany, Sweden, Canada and Norway have been reducing foreign aid since at least 2022.
And since Trump’s proposed reordering of the global aid system, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom have largely followed suit.
Data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found that aid from its members has dropped by about 23 percent from 2024 to 2025.
Many people have requested that I outline some context on the Iran conflict; so, here it is.
What follows is my own researched perspective on the challenge that President Trump is facing. I anticipate the non-interventionists will not be happy with it, and also the Israel First crowd will not like the brutal pragmatism of it. Alas, having spent a great deal of time watching things unfold, here’s my take.
Start with this question: Considering all the years the debate over Iran’s nuclear ambitions has persisted, why haven’t its strongest allies, China and Russia, ever provided Iran with a nuclear weapon?
Now, before anyone jumps into the nuclear non-proliferation perspective, let me remind you we are not going to pretend things here. You can pretend that Beijing didn’t give the DPRK nuclear weapons by pretending that North Korea isn’t a proxy province of China. Or you can stop pretending. The choice is yours!
So, what’s different? Well, in the DPRK example, Beijing holds the control mechanism. For Iran, giving religious fanatics a nuclear weapon would be tantamount to giving the Muslim Brotherhood the ability to start World War III.
As recently noted, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman urged President Trump not to back down from this moment of consequence and to eliminate the Iranian threat once and for all. MbS is about as close to a Middle East pragmatist as you can find. In response, a desperate British Prime Minister Keir Starmer rushed to Saudi Arabia hoping to change the position of MbS. Great Britain is almost out of fuel.
That’s a good place to start looking at the regional perspectives.
Public opinion matters. Public opinion stopped the monkeypox bs. The more the public knows, the more reliable its opinions are. Elections matter, but it is public opinion which fuels them. Public opinion strongly favors IDs for voters. Pragmatism enjoins us to support and encourage valid public opinions. The recent ‘rise in antisemitism’ is nothing more than rising public awareness of how crazy and violent Jewish Supremists are. It is because of them and them only that we are on the verge of WW3 and the use of nuclear weapons. ABN
(1) Upon reelection President Trump told all U.S. energy providers to “drill baby drill” and maximize energy production. Trump then deregulated the industry for maximum efficiency: Secretaries Burgum (Interior), Wright (Energy) and Zeldin (EPA).
(2) Trump then meets with Putin in Alaska Aug 15, 2025. Three days later, Aug 18, 2025, Putin restarts Russia’s flagship Arctic project, the LNG export facility via the Northern Route to Asia.
(3) President Trump then signs contracts with Finland for the urgent start of Arctic icebreaking ship manufacturing in the USA and emphasizes the prior conversation about taking over Greenland which infuriates the Dutch and EU.
(4) President Trump then triggers the Venezuela operation, captures Nicholas Maduro and -in addition to other benefits- forms a new strategic oil development relationship with the interim Venezuela government. Russia stays silent.
(5) President Trump then triggers Operation Epic Fury against Iran; completely changing the geopolitical landscape that surrounds energy partnerships. Energy flows through the Gulf of Oman are impacted.
(6) President Trump then removes specific sanctions against Russia permitting Russian oil and LNG to be sold (in petrodollars) into the Asian market. Meanwhile, the European Union is forced to increase LNG purchases from the United States.
Sure, it could all be just coincidence… or not. One thing is certain, the FIVE-EYES opposition do not think all of this downstream benefit that flows to Russia and the USA is coincidental. The FIVE-EYES opposition see all of this as a strategic realignment between the USA and Russia, and they are going to do everything in their power to stop it.
The author of the above appears to be in favor of USA/Israel attacking Iran, which I am not, but he otherwise makes a good point. From a pragmatic POV, his insight should be taken in; he’s probably largely right. From what I can see, good relations with Russia are of paramount importance for all northern—Top of the World—nations, including Europe, Japan, Korea, as much of Central Asia as wants in, Canada and the Western-derived nations NZ and OZ. Good can usually be found in all situations and this may be a good side of what is happening in Iran, something I personally find revolting and grossly laden with pseudo-Christian nonsense along with Jewish Supremacist madness. It’s basic Buddhism to recognize the human realm is characterized by craziness and delusion. Politically, we always have to work with what we have and no one ever gets everything they want or need. ABN
It has only gotten worse and worse and worse since then. USA and the entire West are infested with violent, implacable Jewish Supremists who are driven by lust for power and entirely organized around that lust. Our political elites are completely controlled by Jewish Supremists. Our only relief will come from widespread public acknowledgement and understanding of the root cause of our ongoing demise. Do not waste time on clickbait garbage like I am so done with Trump or only Christ can save us now or Imma gonna move to the woods; because all we have left is public understanding, the collective understanding and will of the public. It’s not much, but it’s all we have. Public understanding took down the Soviet Union. (Which slithered over and morphed into the EU and CIA, which is yet another angle on the infernal JS story). ABN
This is the beauty of the Buddha’s teaching: It is so complete that nothing has to be added to it. If you just practice sīla, samādhi and paññā, that is enough. And it is so pure that nothing has to be taken out. Nobody can find anything wrong in sīla. Nobody can find anything wrong in samādhi. Nobody can find anything wrong in paññā. People are sure to accept it. And they are accepting it.
If we make a sect out of the Buddha’s teaching, a blind faith or a cult or philosophy, then difficulty arises. Every sect will have its own philosophy, cult, belief, dogma, rites, rituals, ceremonies, and they all differ.
But when you take the essence of the Buddha’s teaching—sīla, samādhi, paññā—everyone is bound to accept it because it is so scientific.
A Buddha teaches Dhamma. A Buddha does not establish a particular religion. A Buddha is not interested in establishing a sect.
Sīla, samādhi, and paññā represent the threefold training in Theravāda Buddhism, forming the core framework for spiritual development and the path to liberation (nibbāna). These three elements—moral virtue, concentration, and wisdom—are not isolated practices but deeply interconnected aspects of a unified path. Together, they guide practitioners in purifying the mind, overcoming defilements (kilesas), and realizing the true nature of reality.
Translation from Latin: In this sign you will win. As a semiotician I like the use of Latin and the word sign. As a Buddhist I can support this ethos if it is reasonable and wholesomely unites the traditional West against those who are destroying it. As an American of Baltic extraction, gotta admit I cringe at knights in armor bearing crosses. Even still, I support Christian unity and wise resistance against the enemies of the West, many of whom are recent invaders and many of whom are ancient infiltrators. I believe a good many Eastern Europeans think the way I do. Both recent and ancient experience has taught us you have to be practical and work every angle to defeat a powerful pathocracy. ABN
FIML practice can be described as shared subjectivity.
The coinage, or units, of basic FIML sharing are microanalyses of communication ambiguities done in real-time, as they happen.
This kind of sharing prevents FIML partners from forming subjective views of each other that are based on mistaken interpretations.
Mistaken interpretations between partners always lead to subjective separation, unshared and unsharable subjectivity.
Mistaken interpersonal interpretations are the source of most, if not all, neurotic thinking and behavior.
It is difficult (I believe impossible) to correct neurotic thinking and behavior through generalized analyses.
Generalized here indicates analyses that are based on general theories that are applied to individuals, often by professional therapists.
FIML is not a generalized analysis. FIML is a communication technique.
It has great therapeutic value because it is a technique that will help partners share their unique subjectivities.
By sharing their subjectivities, partners will extirpate or extinguish their neuroses, their mistaken subjective misinterpretations of each other and of other people.
Neuroses are painful because they cause us to use our minds badly and wrongly.
Neurotic communication is painful because at some level we all know that we are communicating badly and wrongly.
We persist in neurotic behavior only because we do not know another way to be.
FIML shows us another way to be.
By slowly chipping away at neurotic (i.e. mistaken) interpretations the moment they arise, FIML frees us from neurosis itself (i.e. long-standing mistaken interpretations).
Simon makes a decent point, but don’t throw the crowd out with the bathwater. Nothing is perfect. Millions of Brits needed a reason to show their mettle. Who organized it is not the main feature. We have to work with percentages. A huge crowd like this inspires tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions. Don’t make perfect be the enemy of pragmatics. ABN
American Buddhist Net 