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Friday, June 20, 2025

Iran's Internet Blackout Enters Day Two As Starlink "Beams Are On"

 One path to regime change in Iran involves targeted strikes on state media infrastructure, designed to sever the regime's grip on domestic narratives. In parallel, Western technology—such as Starlink terminals—could flood the information vacuum with uncensored internet, enabling the West's long-prepared psychological operations to win hearts and minds on the ground. 

Early-phase operations appear to have already involved Israeli airstrikes targeting IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) facilities and associated communication nodes in Tehran at the start of the week. The bombing of Iran's state broadcasters may paralyze the regime's centralized propaganda apparatus. There has been no confirmation if the regime's capacity to broadcast propaganda has been degraded.

The Israeli military pointed out it targeted a "communications center of the Iranian regime," while Iran's foreign ministry called the strike a "war crime." 

By late in the week, the NetBlocks website, which monitors global Internet activity, reported that internet activity across Iran had collapsed to near zero

With state media nodes targeted by IDF airstrikes and ground-based communication infrastructure in shambles, the emergence of Starlink internet connectivity inside Iran—either smuggled in or activated via third-party coordination—strongly suggests that the next move by Western forces could involve a domestic operation to supply the population with real-time, censorship-free internet that bypasses state firewalls. 

A week ago, SpaceX's Elon Musk confirmed that Starlink "beams are on" after the Iranian regime cut the internet. 

Neutralizing state media outlets while activating external internet access could mark the West's strategic aim to decapitate the regime's information control, thereby accelerating public disillusionment, fueling color revolution mobilization efforts, and laying the groundwork for all the necessary ingredients for regime change. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/irans-internet-blackout-enters-day-two-starlink-beams

Duffy Urged To Ban Foreign CDLs Amid Series Of Highway Crashes

 bAmerican Truckers United,

As the deadline for President Trump's Executive Order 14286, titled "Enforcing Commonsense Rules of the Road for America's Truck Drivers," looms, a powerful movement is gaining momentum in Washington to address a national security crisis in America's trucking industry. Signed in April 2025, the order mandates stricter enforcement of road safety regulations. With time running out, American Truckers United has sent an urgent letter to Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy, demanding a ban on non-domicile Commercial Driver's Licenses (CDLs) for non-citizens and restrictions on foreign CDLs to commercial trade zones.

The letter exposes how illegal labor, exploiting loopholes from Biden-era policies, has flooded the industry with unvetted drivers. A recent Zero Hedge report highlighted how CDLs were handed out "like candy," creating a "public safety nightmare."

Raman Dhillon of the North American Punjabi Trucking Association warned federal agencies years ago about the dangers, noting that some drivers, with no U.S. driving experience, obtained CDLs within months. "This is a national security issue," Dhillon told officials, yet the warnings went unheeded.

Compounding the crisis, Major Omar A. Villarreal of the Texas Highway Patrol detailed in a December 2024 letter to the FMCSA how corrupt Mexican officials sell digital CDLs without vetting, endangering lives. Calling for their prohibition.

His 17-page report documented safety violations by Mexican and Central American drivers, often employed by U.S. carriers engaging in illegal cabotage. 

While his acknowledgment of the fraud in the system is appreciated, his attempt to issue non-domicile CDLs to non-citizens from Mexico and Canada is very misguided, as it risks perpetuating the problem rather than resolving it.

Domestically, bribery schemes have exacerbated the problem, with DMV employees in Florida arrested for selling 1,000 untested commercial driver's licenses (CDLs). 

Similar scams have been uncovered in Oregon, Massachusetts, and California.

Given the lack of oversight and accountability, it is no surprise that this ecosystem of drivers now controls major marketplaces.

The truckers' petition, aligned with EO 14286, urges Duffy to act decisively. A white paper attached to the letter outlines safety threats and proposes solutions to protect highways and American jobs. As Washington feels the pressure, this grassroots effort is gaining traction.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/letter-urges-duffy-ban-foreign-cdls-amid-series-highway-crashes

Slave Labor Won’t Save America

 


Compromised communist and current Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass, recently told paid propagandist Dana Bash on the Communist News Network that there are “entire sectors of our economy that cannot function without immigrant labor.”  By “immigrant labor,” the Castro-loving Bass means illegal alien labor.  

It is certainly not the first time a Democrat politician has argued that foreign workers are essential for the success of America’s economy, but when an L.A. mayor delivers that message as if it were a matter-of-fact truth, a real reporter might follow up with this question: You mean, the only way for a large number of businesses to remain solvent is for them to break America’s employment laws?  

To be sure, employing illegal aliens means that crimes are being committed.  If an illegal alien uses fake identification documents, an American citizen is most likely the victim of identity theft.  If a business knowingly hires an illegal alien, then it is violating numerous federal laws and Internal Revenue Service regulations.  If a business ignores minimum wage laws, employment regulations, workplace safety rules, and insurance mandates, then it is breaking state laws, too.  

In other words, when commie Mayor Bass tells CNN that America’s economy runs on illegal immigration, she is nonchalantly informing the network’s declining viewership that breaking the law is the only way for “entire sectors” to survive.  Her admission won’t shock most Americans, but it should.  

Black markets are economic transactions that disregard existing law.  In a developed society with a fair and just legal system, robust protections for private property, and cultural mores that include respect for the rule of law, black markets represent a small portion of that society’s total economy.  Where laws are numerous and selectively enforced, private property is routinely confiscated, and law-abiding behavior is derided as “for the chumps,” then black markets flourish.  

In absolute dollar terms, the U.S. supports the second largest shadow economy in the world.  It’s estimated to be worth at least $1.4 trillion each year.  It could be much higher.  Although America’s black market has often been pegged at somewhere between 5% and 15% of its gross domestic product, those numbers depend upon manipulated statistics — including the oft-used political falsehood that the illegal immigrant population in the U.S. has stayed flat at ten million for over thirty years.  

When state and federal agencies ignore identity fraud (under the Obama and Biden administrations, the IRS did not notify citizens when there was reason to believe that illegal aliens were using their social security numbers), aid and abet illegal immigration, and willfully manipulate crime and residency statistics to hide the real size of the foreign population living inside the U.S., it is reasonable to assume that America’s black market is substantially larger than current estimates.  

When prominent Democrats tell network news hosts that “entire sectors” of the American economy will crumble unless they are allowed to continue breaking the law, government officials are essentially claiming that the whole economic system rests atop a rotten shadow economy whose elimination would collapse everything.  Consider how fragile America’s economy must be if its continued survival depends upon flagrant lawbreaking.

In the U.S. and throughout the West, society is rapidly cleaving into hostile coalitions that speak different political languages.  When it comes to discussions of illegal immigration in America, Democrats routinely express some belief that only illegal immigrants will do the “dirty jobs” of the nation.  If President Trump is successful in deporting millions of illegal immigrants, these Democrats argue, there will be no-one left to pick crops, work in factories, build homes, cut grass, clean pools, dust furniture, or look after the children.  Essentially, Democrats advance a position that any job that they deem menial — especially those jobs requiring physical exertion — should be reserved for illegal immigrants.

To the ears of Republicans and other non-leftists, this kind of reasoning sounds horrifically racist.  Hearing Democrats defend these illegal hiring practices is particularly astonishing because Democrats have spent the last sixty years defining themselves as a political association dedicated to fighting racism.  Nothing says, “We’re here to fight white supremacy,” like a party of middle and upper class professionals who demand cheap brown labor.  

The truth is that tens of millions of American citizens — of all races — would be happy to be gainfully employed doing physical labor.  One of the persistent lies propagated over the last century is that people with brains avoid skilled trades and that people with so-called “professional careers” know what’s best for everyone else. 

As someone who has been around farmers, laborers, academics, lawyers, doctors, and government hotshots, I can tell you that this intellectual separation is just not real.  I have learned as much in a field under the baking sun as I have in a classroom, and I’ve known tinkerers and repairmen more clever than surgeons and engineers.  When Democrats demand jobs for “brown people,” they reveal their own class prejudices and misguided belief that high-class people with prestigious titles but few skills naturally know more than regular people without titles but with many skills.  

In my experience, groupthink is endemic among white-collar professionals — especially among professors, journalists, writers, and other so-called “intellectuals.”  To find creative freethinkers, one must venture far from the university campus and meet people whose minds have not yet been infected by manufactured consent and political correctness.  A lot of those people are perfectly comfortable doing dirty jobs for a living.

There are plenty of American citizens willing to do the jobs currently being done by illegal aliens.  What Democrats don’t like is that hiring Americans means that their supply of artificially cheap labor disappears.  When minimum wage laws, employer regulations, and taxation are enforced, it becomes much more expensive to pay other people to clean your home, care for your lawn, and take care of your children.  When competitive market wages replace black market wages, the true cost of a century of inflation cannot be hidden behind discounts from slave-like labor.

Thirty years ago, grocery stores, fast-food restaurants, and lawn care companies primarily employed teenagers.  Every worker in a McDonald’s had zits, and the manager was usually going to college.  Now adults do all those jobs.  What changed?  NAFTA and other international “trade deals” (including Bill Clinton’s normalization of trade relations with communist China) exported America’s manufacturing and industrial jobs to foreign competitors and adversaries.  With millions of jobs disappearing in the space of a decade, adults grabbed the entry-level positions that teenaged workers once held.  

While this slaughter in the job market took place, white-collar professionals assured Americans that exporting jobs would lower inflation and therefore consumer costs.  Prices did hold…for a while.  But continuous money printing and spending ensured that inflation could not be hidden forever.  Now fast-food meals cost fifteen dollars, and there’s talk of twenty- or thirty-dollar minimum hourly wages.

How have white-collar professionals responded to these steady price increases?  They have simply flooded the nation with illegal aliens and adopted a slave-labor-like system for themselves.  Regular Americans might have trouble finding jobs or paying bills, but those with the resources to break the law without suffering the consequences have found a workaround.  They even have the audacity to virtue-signal about their love for “undocumented” slaves — er, I mean, migrants — while condemning those of us who object to demographic replacement.  

When Democrats claim that the economy can’t survive without slave labor, they are indicting their own tax-and-spend policies that have depreciated the value of the dollar and sunk the nation into forty trillion dollars of debt.  Eventually, even slavery won’t keep costs down.  What happens next?  American workers will have to take their country back.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/06/slave_labor_won_t_save_america.html

Israel can take out Fordow without bunker busters

 


The Iranian government put its key nuclear facility about 300 feet below ground at Fordow. A quick look at the area with Google Earth shows that it’s a mountainous area, and all that rock over the enrichment facility would seem to be pretty good protection. But just like a police officer wearing body armor, the appearance of invulnerability is deceiving.

The United States put NORAD’s facility about 2,000 feet below the top of Cheyenne Mountain for the same reason. The granite overhead offers great protection from attack, with Cheyenne Mountain designed to withstand a 30-megaton nuclear blast from 1.2 miles away. While the rock at Cheyenne Mountain provides decent protection, the 300 feet of limestone at Fordow isn’t as good. But, still, it’s better than nothing.

Image created using AI.

Most commentary revolves around US “bunker buster” bombs. One friend commented that the protocol is to drop one bomb, then follow it with a laser guided bomb into the same hole and continue until you see a Chinaman looking back up through the hole. Obviously, such a procedure would shake things up at Fordow so badly that those centrifuges wouldn’t work. But that requires heavy-lift aircraft such as US B-2s or Israeli C-130s. The Hercules will do the job, and Israeli air defense suppression would make the trip feasible. But it’s probably unnecessary.

An underground facility is a little bit like a submarine. It is isolated from the rest of the world under an inhospitable medium. Whether it’s water or rock doesn’t make much difference. It requires energy, which it must either generate or get from outside. A nuclear submarine generates its own energy. If Fordow has a reactor, it might also. Or it may have diesel generators. It may get power from the grid outside. None of these makes any difference to my scenario.

Nuclear submarines regenerate fresh air, and Fordow might also, but it’s much more likely that it simply uses external ventilation like a mine. And this raises a question. Why do we need to bother with the GBU-57A if there are other, simpler approaches? Inquiring minds want to know.

Israel has demonstrated an incredible amount of highly specific intel on Iranian facilities. This allowed them to completely decapitate the Persian military and wipe out its air defenses, largely with weaponry prepositioned for extended periods inside Iran. It is virtually impossible for them not to have detailed information on Fordow. Remember, they got the Stuxnet computer virus into the facility and bollixed up the enrichment process for months or years. Israel knows where the doors are.

In this case, our concern looks much like the police officer in body armor. He’s got steel plates front and back with soft armor in the side panels. Most of the time, an incoming round will be stopped. But suppose the bad guy sneaks a shot into an unprotected area above a side panel or the officer’s neck. Then, it’s likely we’ll see his wife on the evening news dressed in black. He’s protected, but not perfectly.

Fordow has major entrances that are visible from space. Their location is known within centimeters. Any nuclear material would have to come out through them. So, if precision munitions were to fly into the doors, it wouldn’t take long before Fordow wouldn’t have any way to get bombs out. It would be a tomb. If the ventilation and power came in the same way, no one inside would live long.

But if they’re making power from generators, the staff could live longer, perhaps until all ventilation was cut off. Again, the Israelis know where the ventilation structures are. If those are plugged or destroyed, air for the workers and the generators would stop. Again, this isn’t difficult with precision munitions. Just provide for a bit of overkill.

We need to stop overthinking this. Yes, in theory, the big bomb can do the job. But so can a lot of little bombs. And little bombs can come in horizontally to take out the doors. Keep hammering, and pretty soon, the tunnel to which the doors provide access is gone as well. If there are vertical ventilation shafts, we proved in Iraq that we can fly bombs into them as well.

We don’t need to move the mountain. Just a little bit of it.

Ted Noel is retired physician who posts on social media as Doctor Ted. His occasional Doctor Ted’s Prescription podcast is available on multiple podcast channels.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/06/israel_can_take_out_fordow_without_bunker_busters.html

Dangerous trucking practice that puts everyone at risk

 The trucking industry has been facing unprecedented challenges in recent years, with a shortage of qualified drivers, rising fuel and insurance costs, a slew of new regulations to comply with, the threat of self-driving trucks looming, and now economic uncertainty caused by tariffs.

Unfortunately, some questionable decisions are being made in light of the difficult conditions that truckers and trucking companies have been experiencing. Sadly, some of those choices can have an adverse impact on road safety, putting every motorist on the road at risk of harm.

The dangers to those on the roads have become increasingly apparent, as the National Safety Council reported there was a 43% increase in large trucks involved in fatal accidents from 2003 to 2023 as well as a 12% rise in the number of large trucks involved in injury crashes since 2016.

Now, one large lawsuit against a trucking company highlights a dangerous practice that has been going on, and the attorney representing the plaintiffs in the case said that those who filed suit are hoping that it will be a "wake-up call for the trucking industry."

A number of tractor trailers are on the road. Lead.

A dangerous trucking industry practice can lead to devastating accidents. 

Lawsuit highlights the danger of practice

The lawsuit that has been filed — The Estate of Sarah Susman v. Starker Forests, Inc., R&T Logging of Oregon, Inc., Wolf Cr. Timber Services, Llc, Shane Mcvay — is a $65 million wrongful death claim.

It was filed following the death of Sarah Susman, a 25-year-old EMT and future medical school student. Susman was driving to work in September 2021 when a logging truck operated by a 67-year-old driver rolled over and lost its load.

Several vehicles were hit by the logs, including Susman, whose family is pursuing the claim. The incident was fatal, and an investigation by Oregon State Police revealed the driver was intoxicated, speeding, driving a truck with inoperable front brakes, and had a load that was 1,300 pounds overweight.

With strict federal and state regulations of commercial motor vehicles, it seems hard to believe one truck accident could involve all those issues — but surviving family members of the victim believe that the incident can be attributed to a dangerous injury practice referred to as "double brokering."

Now, they are suing multiple trucking companies in a trial that is expected to last several weeks. They hope not only to recover compensation for their personal losses, but also to raise awareness of the dangers of double brokering and to convince those engaged in the practice to stop the high-risk behavior to avoid similar tragedies in the future.

Why is double-brokering so dangerous?

Court filings in the civil lawsuit filed by Susman's estate explained that double-brokering is a practice within the trucking industry where multiple contractors pass hauling jobs between them with very little oversight or enforcement of safety regulations.

Typically, a broker will post a load to a load board and assign it to a carrier. That carrier, in turn, rebrokers it to a different carrier, without disclosing this either to the broker or the new carrier.

The first carrier is able to make money by getting the second to take the load at a lower rate — often without regard to whether the second carrier is qualified and follows best practices for safety.

When double-brokering occurs, the companies shipping the products often do not know which trucking companies or truck operators are responsible for moving their goods.

FreightWaves reported that double-brokering is very common, affecting anywhere from $500 to $700 million in freight annually. As the wrongful death lawsuit shows, however, the cost can be far higher, as it can come in the form of lost lives.

If the plaintiffs prevail in the $65 million wrongful death case, however, the case may turn out to be the wake-up call for the industry that the victim's family hopes it will be.

https://www.thestreet.com/automotive/truckers-get-hit-with-65-million-wake-up-call

SCOTUS Widens Court Options for Vape Companies Pushing Back Against FDA Rules

 The Supreme Court sided with e-cigarette companies on Friday in a ruling making it easier to sue over FDA decisions blocking their products from the multibillion-dollar vaping market.

The 7-2 opinion comes as companies push back against a yearslong federal regulatory crackdown on electronic cigarettes. It's expected to give the companies more control over which judges hear lawsuits filed against the agency.

The justices went the other way on vaping in an April decision, siding with the FDA in a ruling upholding a sweeping blockopens in a new tab or window on most sweet-flavored vapes instituted after a spike in youth vaping.

The current case was filed by R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co., which had sold a line of popular berry and menthol-flavored vaping products before the agency started regulating the market under the Tobacco Control Act in 2016.

The agency refused to authorize the company's Vuse Alto products, an order that "sounded the death knell for a significant portion of the e-cigarette market," Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in the majority opinion.

The company is based in North Carolina and typically would have been limited to challenging the FDA in a court there or in the agency's home base of Washington. Instead, it joined forces with Texas businesses that sell the products and sued there. The conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the lawsuit to go forward, finding that anyone whose business is hurt by the FDA decision can sue.

The agency appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that R.J. Reynolds was attempting to find a court favorable to its arguments, a practice often referred to as "judge shoppingopens in a new tab or window."

The justices, though, found that the law does allow other businesses affected by the FDA decisions, like e-cigarette sellers, to sue in their home states.

In a dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said she would have sided with the agency and limited where the cases can be filed.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids called the majority decision disappointing, saying it would allow manufacturers to "judge shop," though it said the companies will still have to contend with the Supreme Court's April decision.

Attorney Ryan Watson, who represented R.J. Reynolds, said that the court recognized that agency decisions can have devastating downstream effects on retailers and other businesses, and the decision "ensures that the courthouse doors are not closed" to them

https://www.medpagetoday.com/primarycare/smoking/116184

FDA Extends Review for Incyte's (INCY) Ruxolitinib Cream sNDA

 Incyte (INCY, Financial) recently announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has prolonged the evaluation period for their supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) concerning ruxolitinib cream, branded as Opzelura. This topical Janus kinase inhibitor is aimed at treating children aged 2 to 11 years with mild to moderate atopic dermatitis. The FDA's Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) action date has been shifted by three months, now set for September 19, 2025.

The delay allows the FDA to thoroughly assess additional data related to the chemistry, manufacturing, and controls of the 0.75% formulation, as submitted by Incyte following a request for further information. Despite the extension, Incyte maintains confidence in the potential of ruxolitinib cream as a significant non-steroidal treatment option for pediatric patients. The company remains committed to working closely with the FDA to ensure a comprehensive review process.

https://www.gurufocus.com/news/2937866/fda-extends-review-for-incytes-incy-ruxolitinib-cream-snda-incy-stock-news