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Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Trump says Fed governor Cook 'must resign'

 

President Trump on Wednesday called on Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook to resign as the public pressure on the central bank continues to build.

"Cook must resign, now!!!" Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, Wednesday morning. He included a link to a Bloomberg report about a letter sent by Federal Housing Finance Agency head Bill Pulte urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Cook over a pair of mortgages.

Late Wednesday morning, the Wall Street Journal reported Trump has told aides he is "considering attempting to fire" Cook.

President Trump called for Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook to resign on his social media platform, Truth Social, Wednesday morning.
President Trump called for Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook to resign on his social media platform, Truth Social, Wednesday morning.

Pulte wrote in a letter dated Aug. 15 that Cook "falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, potentially committing mortgage fraud under the criminal statute."

The president's call for Cook to resign comes as public pressure on the Fed continues amid ongoing changes on the Fed's Board of Governors.

Last week, Trump nominated Council of Economic Advisers Chair Stephen Miran to the Fed board to fill a seat left empty by Adriana Kugler, who stepped down from the board on Aug. 8. Should Cook also step down, Trump would have the opportunity to nominate another Fed governor.

The search for a replacement for Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term leading the central bank ends in May 2026, also continues in the background. Trump said last week that the field of possible replacements for Powell was "down to 3 or 4" candidates."

Trump has repeatedly called on Powell to cut rates more aggressively, coining the nickname "Too Late" for the Fed chair. Trump first appointed Powell to the role in 2017; former President Joe Biden renominated Powell as Fed chair in 2021.

He's also targeted the central bank's $2.5 billion renovation of the Federal Reserve's headquarters as a "sort of" fireable offense for the Fed chair. Trump and Powell met at the renovation site in late July as Trump once again called for Powell to lower interest rates.

Powell is also a member of the Fed's Board of Governors, and his term expires in 2028. It isn't clear whether Powell will also vacate that post when his term as Fed chair ends next year.

Reporting from CNBC, however, suggested up to 11 names are under consideration for Powell's role, including Jefferies chief market strategist David Zervos, who told CNBC on Wednesday that the Fed has "never been independent."

The mounting discussion around Fed independence and political pressure currently being levied at the central bank comes ahead of the annual Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, which is set to feature Powell's key policy speech of the year on Friday morning.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-says-fed-governor-cook-must-resign-as-pressure-campaign-on-central-bank-continues-134259634.html


Too Late? Nervous Banking Lobby Fights To Change GENIUS Act

 by Aaron Wood via CoinTelegraph.com,

The US banking lobby isn’t keen on interest-bearing stablecoins or their supposed challenge to financial systems — but it may be too late to amend these “loopholes” in the GENIUS Act.

The Banking Policy Institute (BPI), an advocacy group for the banking industry led by JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, wrote a letter to Congress last week, arguing that stablecoins present a risk to existing credit systems. 

The BPI urged regulators to close supposed loopholes in the GENIUS Act, a new law regulating the stablecoin industry in the US, lest a shift from bank deposits increase lending costs and reduce loans to businesses. 

The bank lobby holds considerable sway in Washington, and while it may be able to complicate lawmaking, some argue that it’s delaying the inevitable: a future denominated in stablecoins. 

Source: Bank Policy Institute

Banks say stablecoin interest is a threat

Prominent members in the crypto industry have long argued that stablecoin issuers should be allowed to offer users interest. In March, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said interest-bearing stablecoins would give users more control over financial products. 

But according to Andrew Rossow, policy and public affairs attorney, the novelty of onchain interest means problems like solvency, liquidity and investor protection aren’t straightforward.

“Claims of ‘easy compliance’ overlook the complex realities of ensuring proper reserve backing, Anti-Money Laundering/Know Your Customer and prudential oversight simultaneously,” he told Cointelegraph.

The BPI’s letter addressed these concerns directly. It particularly called into question a so-called “loophole” in Sec. 4(a)(11) of GENIUS, which prohibits stablecoin issuers from paying “any form of interest or yield (whether in cash, tokens, or other consideration) solely in connection with the holding, use, or retention of such payment stablecoin.”

This section seems to ban yielding stablecoins, but according to Aaron Brogan, founder of crypto-focused law firm Brogan Law, “many believe that it does not ban deals between exchanges and issuers.”

The ability for other firms, like exchanges, to allow interest on stablecoins is based on factors other than “holding use or retention” as mentioned in GENIUS. The word “solely” in the GENIUS Act is a “powerful legal limiter, and it really does mean that if there is any other basis for the deals, they probably don’t qualify,” he told Cointelegraph.

So, while GENIUS is “written to appear quite complete, the prohibition on interest is probably actually relatively porous.”

Stablecoins, which can often offer much higher interest than traditional bank offerings, “do not substitute for bank deposits, money market funds or investment products, and payment stablecoin issuers are not regulated, supervised or examined in the same way,” said the BPI.

It said that this poses a threat to existing credit models. As things stand, customer deposits allow banks to create a significant portion of the money supply through loans and lines of credit.

“Incentivizing a shift from bank deposits and money market funds to stablecoins would end up increasing lending costs and reducing loans to businesses and consumer households,” the BPI stated.

The banking industry’s concerns may have some grounding, said Rossow. “The bank lobby’s strongest argument is that allowing stablecoin issuers to pay interest risks would create unregulated ‘shadow banks,’ threatening financial stability and consumer safety. Without robust capital, reserve requirements and oversight, stablecoin issuers could trigger liquidity crises and expose users to even more risk,” he said.

However, the banks’ position begins to fall apart when it calls issuer-paid interest on stablecoins “inherently dangerous,” said Rossow. Given that some proposals from the crypto industry show it’s possible to allow issuer interest with proper regulation, “a total ban may seem more about protecting traditional banks than balanced progress.”

Will the GENIUS Act be amended?

Pursuing self-interest at the expense of the greater good is essentially taken for granted in Washington. In this regard, powerful and conflicting influences in the policymaking process can “dilute legislation and regulation, leading to a policy gridlock yielding compromises that would most likely please neither side entirely, only to create further market uncertainty,” said Rossow.

He said that, prior to the 2008 financial crisis, mortgage lenders blocked more strict regulations on predatory lending, directly contributing to the financial risk-taking that led to the financial system’s collapse. 

“These lobbying battles only serve to widen the regulatory gaps and weaknesses that undermine our financial stability and consumer protections, further erode public confidence and, now more relevant than ever, our government’s ability to regulate impartially — especially when lobbying appears to grant preferential treatment to vested interests, hidden or not,” Rossow said.

But the banking industry’s ability to actually challenge stablecoins is limited, and it may just be attempting to challenge the inevitable, according to Brogan. It’s unlikely that the crypto industry will accept amendments to GENIUS, a law on which it’s already made concessions. 

Jake Chervinsky, chief legal officer of Variant, noted that the law already took bank lobby considerations into account. Source: Jake Chervinsky

“The bank lobby is tilting at windmills here. Sometimes you do see new language snuck into other legislation like pork, but I doubt something so significant could pass under the radar. I don’t expect more stablecoin legislation in this Congress,” he said. 

Rather, Brogan said that the banks were pushing back against the inevitable, drawing on the historical example of music executives decrying the rise of digital music and file sharing. 

“People never wanted to use banks to make payments, they just had to. Now, they don’t. Just like digital music files were better than CDs, disintermediated finance is better and easier than traditional banking,” he said in a recent blog post

The banking industry has considerable sway in Washington, but its concerns about stablecoins may be a day late and a dollar short. The crypto industry now has the ability to advocate for its own interests successfully and influentially, and it has done so in the form of GENIUS.

What remains to be seen is how this new financial order shakes out for everyday investors. Per the BPI, a shift toward stablecoins means “higher interest rates, fewer loans, and increased costs for Main Street businesses and households.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/too-late-banking-lobby-fights-change-genius-act

American Academy Of Pediatrics Pushes COVID-19 Vax For All Infants

 In stark contrast to reality, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) - which is heavily funded by pharmaceutical companies, recommended on Tuesday that young children, including infants, receive the COVID-19 vaccine despite the fact that children are minimally impacted by the virus, the fact that the vaccine doesn't prevent one from contracting it, and that it largely only helps the elderly and medically fragile from severe cases.

A 1-year-old child receives a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination in Seattle, Wash., on June 21, 2022. David Ryder/Getty Images

According to the organization, all children ages 6-23 months should receive the COVID-19 vaccine - regardless of whether they have natural immunity from prior infection, unless they have a contraindication such as a history of severe allergic reaction to a vaccine ingredient. 

While the recommendation is universal, the group said in a statement that their recommendation stems from infants and other children who are "at high risk for severe COVID-19."

As the Epoch Times notes further, the organization pointed, in part, to a paper it published that found that among children hospitalized for COVID-19 from fall 2022 to spring 2024, the majority of those younger than 2 had no underlying conditions.

Of note, the paper cited surveyed 2,490 children who were hospitalized with COVID-19, effectively a rounding error. 

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC’s parent agency, told The Epoch Times in an email that the AAP, which receives funding from vaccine manufacturers, should strengthen its conflict-of-interest safeguards.

“By bypassing the CDC’s advisory process and freelancing its own recommendations, while smearing those who demand accountability, the AAP is putting commercial interests ahead of public health and politics above America’s children,” Andrew Nixon, the spokesman, said.

The CDC used to recommend that all children, except for those younger than 6 months, receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

In May, under orders from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the CDC stopped recommending the vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women.

The CDC’s schedule currently states that children with moderately or severely compromised immune systems should receive a vaccine, even if they’ve been vaccinated before.

Children who do not have weakened immune systems “may receive COVID-19 vaccination, informed by the clinical judgment of a healthcare provider and personal preference and circumstances,” the schedule states.

“There’s no evidence healthy kids need it today, and most countries have stopped recommending it for children,” Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said when the schedule was changed.

Many countries, including the UK and Australia, no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccines for most or all children.

The AAP, which previously recommended COVID-19 vaccination for all children 6 months and older, now advises the vaccine for people ages 2 to 18 who meet one of four criteria: they are at high risk of severe illness, live in crowded settings such as long-term care facilities, have never been vaccinated against COVID-19, or live with someone at high risk.

Children who do not fall into any of those categories are not advised to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. At the same time, if a parent or guardian wishes, the child “should be offered” a single dose, according to the recommendations.

“The AAP will continue to provide recommendations for immunizations that are rooted in science and are in the best interest of the health of infants, children and adolescents,” Dr. Susan Kressly, AAP’s president, said in a statement.

AAP has about 67,000 members, including pediatricians, in the United States and other countries. Its funders include Pfizer and Moderna, which manufacture two of the three COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States.

Insurance Coverage

After the government narrowed its recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines, the AAP and some other organizations said they were worried that insurers would stop covering vaccines for children and pregnant women.

Many insurers, as well as Medicaid and Medicare, are required to cover vaccines in the CDC’s schedule.

“As we navigate an evolving health care landscape, maintaining robust immunization coverage continues to be a top priority for protecting both individual and community health,” AHIP, a trade group for insurers, said in a joint statement after the COVID-19 vaccine recommendations were changed.

“We are committed to ongoing coverage of vaccines to ensure access and affordability for this respiratory virus season. We encourage all Americans to talk to their health care provider about vaccines.”

Kressly said on Tuesday that the AAP is urging insurers to cover the vaccines in the organization’s schedule.

AAP is committed to working with our partners at the local, state and federal levels to make sure every child, in every community has access to vaccines,” she said.

Some states have maintained universal COVID-19 vaccine recommendations.

Other critics of the CDC’s updated schedule also plan on releasing their own recommendations.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, for instance, said it will release recommendations on maternal immunizations at the end of the summer in collaboration with the Vaccine Integrity Project, an effort established this year by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and led by Dr. Michael Osterholm, a former adviser to President Joe Biden.

The project has a presentation scheduled for Aug. 19 titled “From Data to Decisions: The Evidence Base for 2025 Fall/Winter Immunizations.”

Influenza Recommendations

The AAP’s recommendations largely align with the CDC’s recommendations when it comes to influenza vaccination.

Both advise one or two doses annually starting at 6 months of age, with a transition to one dose annually starting around age 11.

The CDC, though, only recommends influenza vaccines that are free of thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative.

The CDC’s vaccine advisory committee told the agency over the summer it should issue a recommendation against thimerosal-containing flu vaccines. Kennedy accepted the recommendation in July.

Advisers and Kennedy said they wanted to act to prevent mercury accumulation in children. Studies have found links between thimerosal and health problems, such as a paper that found an association between thimerosal exposure and tics.

The AAP was among the groups that opposed the move, stating that there were no health concerns with the amount of mercury present in the vaccines.

The organization said in a policy statement that it recommends “any licensed influenza vaccine product appropriate for age and health status and does not prefer one product over another.” It said that “influenza vaccination should not be delayed to obtain a specific product, including a thimerosal-free product.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/american-academy-pediatrics-pushes-covid-19-vax-all-infants

enVVeno Receives Not-Approvable Letter from the FDA for the VenoValve



enVVeno Medical (NASDAQ:NVNO) has received a not-approvable letter from the FDA for its VenoValve® PMA application, a surgical replacement venous valve designed to treat severe deep chronic venous insufficiency (CVI). The FDA determined that the clinical improvement data was insufficient to establish a favorable benefit-risk profile.

The FDA cited concerns about the lack of specific hemodynamic measurements correlating with patient improvement and raised safety issues related to the surgical procedure requiring re-hospitalizations. Despite showing improvements in revised Venous Clinical Severity Score (rVCSS), pain scores, and quality of life indicators, the FDA suggested potential study bias.

The company is evaluating options, including potential FDA discussions for resubmission or appeal, while continuing development of enVVe, its non-surgical replacement venous valve alternative.

Tharimmune reports positive results for opioid countermeasure film

 Tharimmune, Inc. (NASDAQ:THAR), a micro-cap biotechnology company currently valued at $5.7 million, announced positive results from a pharmacokinetic simulation analysis of its lead asset TH104, a buccal film formulation of nalmefene being developed as a prophylactic countermeasure against high-potency opioids. 

The analysis showed that TH104 could potentially provide protection from respiratory depression approximately 30 minutes after administration, with effects lasting about 24 hours. This duration represents a significant advantage over currently available options like naloxone injection, which typically lasts only 30-90 minutes. 

TH104 is being developed specifically for military personnel and chemical incident responders who may face exposure to weaponized fentanyl and related compounds. The non-injectable buccal film delivery system is designed for convenient use, potentially beneficial for first responders wearing protective gear.

The company noted that earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration provided feedback indicating no additional clinical trials appear necessary prior to a 505(b)(2) New Drug Application submission. 

Fentanyl and related compounds are considered national security threats due to their high potency and potential for causing mass casualties if weaponized. Current countermeasures are primarily reactive rather than preventative.

The simulation used data from Tharimmune’s Phase 1 study to generate concentration time curves and establish effective dosing parameters.

According to the press release statement, Tharimmune is also exploring other indications for TH104, including chronic pruritus in primary biliary cholangitis. While the company advances its clinical programs, financial metrics indicate it’s currently operating at a loss, with a negative return on assets of -222.72% in the last twelve months.

In other recent news, Tharimmune, Inc. has made significant advancements in its intellectual property portfolio by securing new patents for its TH-104 transmucosal film technology. These patents, which cover markets in Japan, Mexico, Australia, and the United States, extend protection for the opioid countermeasure technology until at least 2040. Additionally, Tharimmune has announced key leadership changes, appointing Sireesh Appajosyula as Chief Executive Officer and Vincent LoPriore as Executive Chairman. James Gordon Liddy has also joined the Board of Directors. These changes come after Randy Milby stepped down from his roles as CEO and board member due to personal reasons. As part of a settlement, Milby will receive a payment of $133,500 upon the company’s successful financing of at least $3 million, with his unvested stock options vesting immediately. Appajosyula’s new role as CEO follows his previous position as Chief Operating Officer, while LoPriore’s employment agreement includes a base salary and potential for bonuses and equity awards.

https://www.investing.com/news/company-news/tharimmune-reports-positive-results-for-opioid-countermeasure-film-93CH-4202119

NovaBay New CEO, Rocket FDA Lifts Clinical Hold, Celldex Plunges, Soligenix On Watch

 NovaBay Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NBY) has entered into a $6 million securities purchase agreement with private investor David E. Lazar for the purchase of the company's non-voting convertible preferred stock. As part of the agreement, the company has received $3.85 million in the first of two closings. Lazar has assumed the role of the CEO and director of the company. Former Chief Executive Officer Justin Hall has assumed the newly created position of Vice President of Business Development. A special cash dividend to its stockholders is expected to be declared during this quarter.

In premarket trading, NBY is up 62% at $0.97.

Propanc Biopharma, Inc. (PPCB) closed an underwritten public offering of 1 million shares of its common stock, par value $0.001 per share, at a price of $4.00 per share yesterday. The gross proceeds from the offering were $4 million. The company's shares were uplisted to the Nasdaq from the OTC Markets, Pink Tier, on August 15, 2025. Propanc is developing a novel approach to prevent recurrence and metastasis of solid tumors by using pancreatic proenzymes that target and eradicate cancer stem cells in patients suffering from pancreatic, ovarian, and colorectal cancers. Its lead investigational asset is PRP, which is all set to advance to a Phase 1b, first-in-human clinical study.

PPCB is up 32% at $4.85.

Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (RCKT), today announced that the FDA has lifted the clinical hold on its pivotal Phase 2 trial of investigational gene therapy RP-A501 for the treatment of Danon disease. A clinical hold was imposed on the study by the U.S. regulatory agency on May 23, 2025, after a patient participating in the study experienced an unexpected Serious Adverse Event. The patient passed away after an acute systemic infection. The clinical hold has been lifted after Rocket satisfactorily addressed the issues outlined in the clinical hold. Danon disease is a rare, inherited disorder linked to the X chromosome that affects multiple organs.

RCKT is up 24% at $3.60.

Soligenix Inc. (SNGX) recently completed its Phase 2a proof of concept study evaluating SGX945 in the treatment of Behçet's Disease and achieved the study objective of demonstrating biological efficacy. Dusquetide, the active ingredient in SGX945, was granted Orphan Drug Designation for the treatment of Behçet's Disease as recently as Aug.19, 2025. Before the end of this year, the company plans to share top-line results from its Phase 2a clinical trial with SGX302 in mild-to-moderate psoriasis and a continued clinical update for the ongoing investigator-initiated study (IIS) evaluating extended HyBryte treatment for up to 54 weeks in patients with early-stage cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). A confirmatory Phase 3 study of HyBryte for early-stage CTCL is ongoing, with top-line results anticipated in 2026.

SNGX is up nearly 5% at $3.87.

Celldex Therapeutics Inc. (CLDX) has decided not to advance the development of Barzolvolimab in eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), a chronic inflammatory disease of the esophagus, based on its phase II study results. The study met the primary endpoint, demonstrating Barzolvolimab's ability to effectively deplete mast cells in the gastrointestinal tract. However, this profound mast cell depletion did not translate into improved clinical outcomes, providing direct evidence that mast cells are not a primary driver in EoE. Barzolvolimab is being tested in two Phase 3 studies in chronic spontaneous urticaria and Phase 2 studies in atopic dermatitis and prurigo nodularis.

CLDX is down 12% at $21.21.

HCW Biologics Inc. (HCWB), while reporting Q2, 2025 results earlier this week, revealed that substantial doubt exists regarding its ability to continue as a going concern for at least 12 months from the issuance date of the audited financial statements, without additional funding or financial support. This clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focuses on discovering and developing novel immunotherapies to lengthen health span by disrupting the link between inflammation and age-related diseases.

HCWB is down 13% at $3.10.

https://www.rttnews.com/3567702/novabay-names-new-ceo-rocket-soars-as-fda-lifts-clinical-hold-celldex-plunges-soligenix-on-watch.aspx

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

What Is The Democrats' Endgame?

 by Kurt Schlichter via Townhall.com,

Americans are more divided than we have been since the first time the Democrats started and lost a civil war, with every norm being tossed out and every legitimate exercise of lawfully attained power by us normals being shamelessly obstructed. The left rejects the idea that patriotic Americans have any moral right to participate in their own governance, to pursue their own interests, or to assert their own rights. To them,we are nothing but thralls, tax-generating slaves who must feed them, fuel them, fight for them, and obey their commands while meekly accepting their calumny. 

They are delusional. Things aren’t going to work out that way. 

But things are going to work out some way, and you have to wonder what their endgame is. After all, the Democratic Party, which is entirely indistinguishable from the left, refuses to accept the legitimacy of Donald Trump or any of us and is doing everything it can to prevent us from exercising any self-governance. That specifically and notably includes enforcing laws that were passed through the proverbial Schoolhouse Rock “I’m Just a Bill” process. It’s not much of a democracy if democratically enacted laws are not enforced. We have very clear laws on illegal immigration, yet they’re doing everything they can, formally and informally, to prevent us from enforcing them to get rid of the millions of invaders they allowed into the country without our permission. We have very clear laws on racial discrimination, yet they’re doing everything they can, formally and informally, to prevent us from enforcing them, particularly when they might benefit people of pallor. We have very clear laws on crime, yet they’re doing everything they can, formally and informally, to prevent us from enforcing them to make our cities safe, like in Washington DC, where they’re perfectly happy to sacrifice hundreds of black lives, and a few white ones, to make sure Trump doesn’t score a victory by making that urban cesspool habitable again. 

Our government is gridlocked. We no longer even try to pass laws, thanks to the filibuster. You need 60 senators, and we only have about 51, 53 if you count Murkowski and McConnell, and there’s no real reason to do that. The only action coming out of Congress is the rare reconciliation bill, along with some investigations. Most of what’s happening is executive orders and a re-ordering of government priorities at the hands of Donald Trump. That’s important, and that’s something, but this all has the feeling of a jury-rigged contraption that’s barely held together with duct tape and spit rather than the kind of functional, balanced government the Founders envisioned. 

What can’t go on won’t go on, and this can’t go on. You can’t have half of America denying that the other half of America has any kind of moral right to participate in Our Democracy, and believing that the other side is so morally flawed, so obviously literally fascist in its love of attractive women, blue jeans, law and order, and not being discriminated against because its ancestors came from Europe, that to even consider their interests or rights is to embrace Hitler. 

The critical question is what the Dems think is going to happen. As noted, this is not going to remain the status quo forever. This is unsustainable. But do they believe that, if they hold their breath long enough, until their faces turn as blue as the Democrat enclaves on the election maps, we will just give up, and then they win? 

Will we just give up, shrug our shoulders, and decide to allow them to do whatever the hell they want? OK, here you go, here’s our hard-earned money to give to your deadbeat constituents and to launder to communist NGOs and your billionaire donors. Here you go, here are all our guns. We know how much you hate us having those. We’re not worried about what inevitably happens to people who disarm themselves. And we’ll just shut up now and not exercise free speech by pointing out how corrupt, stupid, venal, and ridiculous you and your ilk are. England can show us the way – if somebody hops on X (assuming it still operates after Elon Musk gets arrested for whatever made-up crime they make up) and points out that a dude with a penis can never be a woman, here comes the SWAT team! And we’ll just let you guys gerrymander your hearts out in the blue states, but we will make sure that every Jasmine Crockett-like borderline clinical moron in some bluish part of a red state gets a safe district. And we will stop expecting to have a say in everything, because of course, we’re not qualified to have a say in anything. We’re not qualified to raise our own kids. We’re not qualified to decide what injections we get. We’re not qualified to opine on weather policy, so take out cars, trucks and steaks. We’re certainly not qualified to decide whether or not we want tens of millions of Third World peasants invading our country and turning it into the kind of hellhole they fled from. So, yeah, you’re good. You pinkos take over and handle things. We’ll be here, ready to take your abuse, take the blame for anything that ever goes wrong, and obey all your commands. 

But if you believe that, you’re gobbling more of your SSRIs and washing them down with more oaky Chardonnay than usual. 

Surrender is not going to happen. We’re just not going to give up on this whole citizenship and freedom thing because you’re big mad that we demand respect and a say. Now, the left may have some hope that, once Trump goes away, the Republicans are devolve back to the old days of gentlemanly managing the decline as the ratchet of leftist advances keeps clicking forward, never to be pushed back again. 

But that isn’t going to happen. The crusty, impotent Republican Party is dead. It’s been killed in a murder/suicide in the sense that it killed itself while its opponents were killing it. That feeble, feminine Republican Party is gone, and it’s not coming back. So, the question is, “What are the Democrats going to do?” If history’s any judge, and it’s the best judge there is, they’re going to turn harder to the left. They did after Hubert Humphrey lost in ’68, and they did after Jimmy Carter lost in ’80. Their answer to a relative moderate losing is always to go harder left and get their butts punted through the goal posts of electoral history. They will certainly try that again in 2028 and likely lose. 

But their loss isn’t guaranteed. They could win. As we’ve seen, starting with Trump in 2016, anyone on a major ticket can win the presidency. And if they do, they’re going to do everything they possibly can to make sure they never lose power again. We’ve seen that the rules don’t matter. We’ve seen that the norms don’t matter. We’ve seen that the Constitution doesn’t matter. They, like the rest of the Western world’s ruling class, will abandon the mechanics of democracy, even as they claim to be protecting Our Democracy, in order to solidify their grip on power. And that’s very, very dangerous. 

That’s dangerous because we’re not going to ever be serfs. Our opponents on the left are evil, corrupt, and stupid, a flock of dumb people who think they’re smart but know nothing of history or human nature. They will push and push and push, not understanding that when you push somebody, he pushes back, mostly because they grew up in feminized schools where you don’t hit back. But we hit back. We’re not them. We’re not just going to take it if they dish it out. 

I write about this in my new novel, American Apocalypse: The Second American Civil War, out now. In it, through bad luck and assassinations – don’t put it past them giving it another good old college try – the left takes power and promptly decides it’s never giving it up again. And then things explode, and it’s very, very bad. We want to avoid that, but we want to avoid being enslaved even more. Better to die on a pile of brass than on your knees, piteously begging some blue-haired commissar for mercy.  

But the question remains: how does America get out of this? It’s not for us, the patriots, to get out of. We have a right to pursue our interests through the use of lawfully won political power; we did not waive our right to do so just because we elected generations of Republicans who refused to do so. No, this is a time for reflection by the Democrats. They need to figure out what they’re going to do. If they keep going to the left, even as they demonize the other half of America, it’s going to end badly for everyone, but even worse for them. That’s not a threat. That’s reality. 

After the disaster that was leftist George McGovern, the Democrats found a winner in a relative moderate, Jimmy Carter. After losing with leftists Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis, they found a winner in another relative moderate, Bill Clinton. They could do that again in 2032, after JD Vance wipes them out in 2028, but there’s a difference this time. This isn’t just politics for them. This is a pagan religion. They don’t think that we’re merely dumb. They think that we’re evil, and that our evil heresy of not being afraid of the weather, loving America, and having normal gender identities makes us the Huguenots, and they’re the French. But we won’t be massacred so easily. 

As Bismarck once observed, “There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children, and the United States of America.” Hopefully, we will find a way through this impasse, but make no mistake about the danger. Right now, half of America considers the rights and participation in our government and society of the other half of America to be absolutely illegitimate. That is unsustainable. They need to get it through their heads. We are not going to be ruled by them. We are not going to be second-class citizens. We are not going to be serfs. 

The Democrats better figure out their endgame, because it isn’t going to end with us giving up and forfeiting the game.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/what-democrats-endgame