not to outshine those In-and-Out Jesus Burgers — “It’s not about the money for us. Unless God sends a lightning bolt down and changes my heart miraculously, I would not ever sell.”
Apr 01, 2026
Presidents Trump and Netanyahu would surely be condemned to death by hanging if they came before a Nuremberg style international tribunal.
Trump meets with Chabad rabbis in Oval Office
Trump offers to sign prayer book for rabbi on Oct 7 anniversary visit
Here, back to Colonel Astore’s Substack, my comment:
I’d reframe — What are the threats to global health, welfare, peace, social justice, prosperity, safe food, air, water, and education?
Yikes.
So freaks like Kissinger stated, with others in the billionaire class and in the AmeriKKKan class,
*Those who control the money of a nation, control economies.
*Those who control the food, control a nation.
*Those who control water, control entire regions.
*Those who control oil, control development.
*Those who control the data, control the world.
So, the most dangerous thing on earth is, well, Capitalism, and you can call it Zombie Capitalism, Disaster Capitalism, Penury Capitalism, Inverted Totalitarian Capitalism, or fill in the adjective before Capitalism.
Now? Digital Gulags are being built, and we can call that Fourth Industrial Revolution, 15-minute or Smart Cities, or a Phillip K. Dick world of surveillance Capitalism, pre-crime set forth through AIG/AI, and here we are — social control through data harvesting and privatization of all human services and governmental programs.
The premise of a social impact bond is that investors pay for public service delivery with the understanding that if the interventions they’ve invested in “work,” the government pays them back, plus a pre-determined, built-in profit. “Successful” interventions purportedly save the government money by reducing the need for special education, addiction treatment, incarceration, and chronic health management services. The idea is that people identified as being “at risk” of becoming a “burden” on society are “treated” via interventions that are supposed to reduce their likelihood of accessing services in the future.
Of course, this structure can be gamed, as evidenced by the Salt Lake City, Utah pre-kindergarten SIB that supposedly reduced the need for special education services for participating children by 99 percent. Most well funded preschool programs, which the Goldman-Sachs-backed project was not, yield at best a 50 percent reduction. So, either the screening tool used to identify children for the program was flawed, or children who may have needed special education services were denied access. This New York Times article, “Success Metrics Questioned in School Program Funded by Goldman” provides additional background.
Social Impact Bonds, or Pay for Success as it is becoming better known, is simply a new method of privatization. Impose austerity so government departments, including education, cannot function; proclaim the system “broken;” and use the created dysfunction as an excuse to outsource services. Worse, by using manipulated data to direct anticipated public expenditures into financiers’ coffers in the present, it hobbles future government operations.
This “Third Way” approach to financing “the public good” has found bi-partisan support in the United States. Liberal interests are happy that services continue to be provided, and conservatives are pleased government is only paying for “what works,” based on data. This summer Democrats, Republicans, investors, consultants, and non-profit service providers all gathered in the Senate Building to celebrate the passage of the Social Impact Partnership Pay for Results Act (SIPPRA), which is set to inject $100 million in federal funding to this nascent “Pay for Success” market. Other beneficiaries of “outcomes-based” contracting include telecommunications companies, cloud-based computing companies, and law firms with expertise in Blockchain smart contracts.
In 2008, the Rockefeller Foundation provided funding to B-Lab to develop the standardized impact metrics that would undergird the system. This framework, now managed as the IRIS initiative, maintains a catalog of over 2,500 metrics aligned to the UN’s Sustainability Goals. Many have specific associated cost savings that are used to calculate profit margins for investors. Predictive analytics establishes baselines for individuals and populations, estimates the likelihood they will be “impacted” in a “positive way” (as shown by data), and assesses what savings might be generated from “fixing” them via interventions. All of this entails significant levels of surveillance.
In October 2024, Kamala Harris stated Iran was America’s “greatest adversary.” For the moment, the Trump administration seems to agree. Yet how, exactly, is Iran a threat to U.S. national security? Yes, Iran has struck U.S. bases in the Middle East, but only after being attacked by the U.S. and Israel. Iran has no capability to strike at the U.S. directly, and even if it had, Iranian leaders know that any attack on the U.S. would likely provoke a massively destructive U.S. response that would make the current war look like a schoolyard skirmish.
So, looking dispassionately, what are truly the biggest threats to U.S. national security?
1. Nuclear war. There is no more immediate threat to our nation’s security (and indeed the world’s) than nuclear war. Thus, we should do everything possible to reduce nuclear weapons and the global proliferation of the same.
2. Climate change. While nuclear war would kill the planet quickly, global warming is a longer-term threat, but a threat nonetheless. Ocean current changes, severe weather, droughts, famine, rising sea levels: all these, and more, loom in the future. If we keep burning fossil fuels like there’s no tomorrow, soon enough there’ll be no tomorrow.
3. The military-industrial complex (MIC) and incessant warfare. Yes, America’s incredibly bloated national security state is a threat to national security. And this is nothing new. Recall that President Eisenhower warned the nation in 1961 that a “military-industrial complex” posed the gravest of threats to democracy and individual liberties. Likewise, James Madison warned a new nation that incessant warfare posed the gravest of threats to democracy and liberty. Forces that reinforce militarism, that wage constant wars, pose a dire threat, especially when they are disguised as “necessary” for national security.
4. Zionism and Greater Israel. The Zionist quest for a “greater” Israel has implicated the U.S. in genocide in Gaza, apartheid and torture of the Palestinian people, and wars in Iraq, Syria, and now Iran. Many Americans see Israel today as the tail that wags the dog of the U.S. government and military machine. True or false, it doesn’t contribute to U.S. national security.
5. U.S. national debt. Currently at $39 trillion and rising, the national debt, propelled by incessant warfare and vast overspending on “defense,” is contributing to the hollowing out of America.
6. Bellicose and bombastic U.S. leaders. Figures such as Trump, Hegseth, Rubio, Witkoff, Kushner, and others do not inspire confidence in U.S. leadership and diplomacy. Devotion to war, Israel, profit, and power doesn’t make America more secure.
7. China’s growth. As the U.S. empire weakens, China grows stronger. Chinese ambitions in the Pacific and designs against Taiwan are perceived by the U.S. national security state as threats, even though such threats are not directly detrimental to America as a nation.
8. The increasing lawlessness of America and the de facto ideal of “might makes right.” In its arrogance, the U.S. empire believes only it determines what the “rules-based order” is. The truth is there are no rules anymore since the U.S. national security state believes it must dominate everything. When genocide is supported, rules mean nothing.
9. Terrorism. It remains a threat, but much of it is blowback from U.S. military operations overseas. Reduce those and blowback will also be reduced. Terrorism is also best addressed through international police efforts rather than further military action of the whack-a-mole variety.
10. A spineless Congress. No war should be fought without a formal Congressional declaration of the same. We haven’t had one of those since World War II. In abdicating its responsibility, Congress since 1950 has enabled the worst presidential/MIC follies.
11. Propaganda and narrative control. Increasingly, the American people are treated like mushrooms, kept in the dark and fed total BS. A misinformed public, deliberately kept divided and distracted and downtrodden, can’t exercise its role as a check on the lawlessness and folly of the powerful.
12. Russia and its expansionist designs. Right now, Russia is bogged down in a regional war in Ukraine, a war that doesn’t directly threaten U.S. national security, unless U.S. government action makes it so. Still, Russia remains a threat, notably because of its nuclear arsenal.
Readers, what do you see as the greatest threats to U.S. national security? Did I miss any? Did I get the order wrong? Have at it in the comments section, and thanks.
+—+
Threats? To the World? To the UnUnited Snakes of I$rael?
Trump plans to move Forest Service headquarters to Utah and shutter research sites
THREATS? Just plain old Judaism: Vanier College is apologizing after facing criticism for postponing a Holocaust commemoration event, acknowledging it failed to fully consider the impact of the decision.
In a statement sent to Global News, the college said its 34th Holocaust and Genocide Symposium went ahead as planned last week, featuring multiple educational activities and guest speakers for students, faculty and staff.
However, the college said the decision to reschedule the commemorative portion of the event was made amid heightened attention to safety and security.
“In doing so, the College acknowledges that it did not fully consider the significance and impact that such a change could carry. This was an oversight,” the statement said.
Oh, that Air Force Colonel Astore retired from: The US military says its 70-year-old B-52 bombers are now flying overland missions as air superiority expands over Iran
Jews again in the news? A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the University of Pennsylvania to comply with a subpoena from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission seeking a list of Jewish community members in what the federal government says is an effort to combat antisemitism on the Ivy League campus.
The university had fought the subpoena, which alarmed several members of Penn’s Jewish community and prompted a monthslong federal court battle. Several people told CNN the government’s quest for a list of names, phone numbers and mailing addresses of Jewish people felt like an invasion of privacy and evoked haunting historical comparisons.
But in a 32-page opinion issued three weeks after oral arguments in a Philadelphia courtroom, US District Judge Gerald Pappert dismissed constitutional concerns and said comparisons between the EEOC’s work and the Holocaust or Nazi Germany were “unfortunate and inappropriate.”
“Though ineptly worded, the request had an understandable purpose – to obtain in a narrowly tailored way, as opposed to seeking information on all university employees, information on individuals in Penn’s Jewish community who could have experienced or witnessed antisemitism in the workplace,” Judge Pappert wrote of the EEOC’s subpoena.
The university plans to appeal the ruling, a Penn spokesperson said in a statement.
“We continue to believe that requiring Penn to create lists of Jewish faculty and staff, and to provide personal contact information, raises serious privacy and First Amendment concerns,” the statement read in part.
“The University does not maintain employee lists by religion,” it added.
Oh, so religion is not a threat to world peace? The Real Religious ‘Renewal’ Happening in Gen Z
Some pastors and politicians claim that a Christian revival is afoot among young Americans. Nationwide data tell a different story.
Conversion therapies everywhere in the White Man’s House: Vance to publish book on his conversion to Catholicism in June.
It is the most high-profile release from a potential 2028 hopeful.
LGBTQA Jews: OpenAI is now bringing in $2 billion a month — and 3 more highlights from its latest update. His paternal great-grandfather was born in Płock, Poland.
More funds run by Cathie Wood’s Ark will have positions in the ChatGPT creator
Fascism against clowns, man:
Dozens of clowns have marched through the streets of Bolivia’s capital to protest against a government decree that limits extracurricular activities in schools, threatening their livelihoods.
Wearing full face paint and their signature red noses, the clowns gathered on Monday in front of the ministry of education in La Paz to oppose a decree published in February. The new mandate says schools must comply with 200 days of lessons each year – in effect banning them from hosting the special events where the entertainers are frequently employed.
“This decree will diminish our income, and with the economic crisis the country is going through, our future looks increasingly gloomy,” said Elías Gutiérrez, a spokesperson for the Confederation of Artisanal Workers of Bolivia.
Bolivia is grappling with its worst economic crisis in decades. Revenues from natural gas are plummeting after a sustained decline in production, and US dollars are becoming scarce, making imports more expensive in the landlocked nation.
Fucking clown show at the Department of War Crimes:
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth said the crews of two US army AH-64 Apache helicopters that hovered next to the singer Kid Rock’s swimming pool while he clapped and saluted on Saturday are no longer suspended.
“No punishment. No investigation,” Hegseth wrote on social media. “Carry on, patriots.”
Hegseth’s announcement came just hours after a US army spokesperson said the crews had been suspended from flying pending a investigation.
“The army has confirmed that on 28 March, two Apache helicopters from the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade at Fort Campbell conducted a flight in the Nashville area that has attracted public and media attention,” according to a statement from the army on Tuesday.
The army said it was reviewing “the circumstances surrounding the mission, including compliance with relevant FAA regulations, aviation safety protocol, and approval requirements”.
Here we are, buggered buggered buggered by that zero inflation: Pacific Power, PGE raise residential electricity rates again for Oregon customers
The Public Utility Commission on Tuesday approved rate increases for the two monopoly utilities that will take effect Wednesday
[n October 2023, Palestinian poet and professor Refaat Alareer warned that former New York Times journalist Bari Weiss had put his life in danger.
Weiss tweeted that he “joked about Israeli babies burned alive” — a claim rooted in unverified atrocity propaganda that Israeli officials themselves later walked back. But this atrocity propaganda was used to justify Israel’s atrocity in Gaza.
Refaat tweeted:
“If I get killed by Israeli bombs or my family is harmed, I blame Bari Weiss and her likes.”
Weeks later, he was targeted and killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza as the IDF escalated its attacks against Palestinian scholars and academics.
Today, Bari Weiss — founder of the pro-Israel outlet The Free Press — is reportedly set to become editor-in-chief of CBS News under a new ownership deal led by Larry Ellison’s family, one of Israel’s biggest private donors.
From incitement to influence, this is what media power looks like in an empire that rewards those who justify genocide.]
Chabad Broadcasting System’s updates:
What to know about the Iran war:
- President Trump told reporters Tuesday he expects U.S. operations in Iran to wrap up in “two weeks, maybe three.”
- Earlier Tuesday, the president told CBS News’ Weijia Jiang he’s not ready “quite yet” to abandon efforts to force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping traffic.
- Mr. Trump will deliver an “important update on Iran” in a Wednesday night prime-time address, the White House says.
- After he renewed his threat to attack Iran’s civilian energy and water infrastructure if no deal is reached to end the war, Iranian state media said a water desalination plant on an island near the Strait of Hormuz was out of commission after being hit.
- Energy markets continued to convulse over uncertainty about the war, sending the average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. over $4 for the first time in almost four years as a massive tanker loaded with crude was hit by an Iranian drone off Dubai’s coast.
- American journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in Baghdad. A State Department official said a person linked to the Iran-backed militia group Kata’ib Hezbollah is believed to have been involved.
That states’ rights Pedophile in Chief (sic). Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order seeking to restrict mail-in voting and compile a national voter list in a move that is unprecedented and likely unconstitutional.
The order directs the administration to establish a federal list of confirmed citizens that can legally vote in each state, and orders the postal service to send mail-in ballots only to those on the list. During a press conference at the White House, Trump said the administration would like to require voter ID and proof of citizenship, and repeated falsehoods about mail-in voting.
A Silicon Valley city will offer its residents free wireless doorbells equipped with cameras to help police collect video evidence.
The city council of Milpitas, a suburb north of San Jose, California, recently approved $60,000 to provide these devices on a one-camera-per-household, first-come, first-served basis, as was first reported by Milpitas Beat and confirmed by the Guardian.
$60,000 in funding has been approved for the program. These funds will be put toward purchasing the cameras, which will be distributed on a first-come first-serve basis.
To be eligible, one must be a verified resident of the City of Milpitas. The cameras will be distributed by the Milpitas Police Department (MPD). The MPD plans to show residents how to set up and maintain the cameras. The City hopes that along with improving safety and awareness, giving residents the cameras will increase the availability of video evidence for investigations.
The doorbell camera provides similar capabilities to Ring cameras, and does not require a monthly subscription to maintain.
“It ensures that all distributed cameras can remain fully operational without recurring costs, reduces financial barriers to participation, and supports long-term program reliability,” read a City report. “Existing digital evidence upload procedures provide a workable method for obtaining footage when needed.”
Residents would be allowed one camera per household.
In the near future, the MPD plans to order a small batch of cameras and host an event where residents can receive them. If they determine that there’s ample interest, they will purchase more cameras and host more events.
“Even with limited funding, we are committed to making this program successful,” said Councilmember Chua. “And we will advocate for additional resources, if needed, to keep our residents safe.”
Good Little Germans: Where once the suburbs were characterised by net curtains and the drone of lawn mowers, now they are defined by Ring doorbells. An unsleeping gaze is fixed on our gnomes and driveways, our children walking home and our midday deliveries. The houses have eyes now.
My street WhatsApp is populated with daily reports from neighbours’ doorbells – suspicious roofers, sinister car thieves at 3am, sometimes just a guy, standing by the wall, leaning oddly. The group buzzes frequently, too, with videos from other streets’ doorbells, images that have been forwarded so many times they have the weary sheen of photocopies. Watch out, the messages say, for men in hoods, men with bricks, men stealing packages from doorsteps, or, yesterday on our road, a doorstep itself.
As more and more millions of internet-connected doorbells and devices are sold, the problems of mass surveillance become both more expansive and more intimate. Especially as we learn (and had confirmed with last week’s Channel 4 report on Gen Z’s doubts about democracy) that people between the ages of 13 and 28 are growing “more uncertain about who to trust”. The knowledge their parents are tracking them remotely, the knowledge their privacy is a myth, how does that contribute to this instability of trust? These pricks of paranoid light that watch them as they walk home, that broadcast a darkened street to their family’s phones, that make the world seem suspicious and full of dread simply by capturing a night scene through a fisheye lens, what impact does it have on their understanding of equality, or safety, or identity, or youth? Trust takes time to earn, but falls away in seconds.
Mail on Sunday poll of 18- to 27-year-olds found 67% were in favour of chemically castrating sex offenders and 45% supported the death penalty. A study for Channel 4 found 52% of gen Zers thought “the UK would be a better place if a strong leader was in charge who does not have to bother with parliament and elections”.
Iran? Ukrainian Nazis? Noem’s crossdressing hubby? Nope, In and OUT cardiac burgers are in the news: Here’s where new In-N-Out locations are opening next.
Utah, which saw its first Double-Double in 2008, is slated to get a new store at 4643 S. Pioneer Road in St. George, while the Las Vegas Strip is preparing for a three-story restaurant at 3747 S. Las Vegas Blvd., expected to be one of the largest in the burger chain’s history.
- Family Ownership: The company has remained private and family-owned for its entire history, passing from the founders to their sons, Rich and Guy, and eventually to Lynsi Snyder, the only grandchild of founders Harry and Esther Snyder. She is a devout non-denominational Christian who has spoken openly about her faith, guiding her leadership of the company.
- Religious Tradition: The practice of printing Bible verse references on packaging—such as “John 3:16” on soda cups—was started in the late 1980s by Lynsi’s uncle, Rich Snyder, following his religious conversion.
- Expanded Expressions of Faith: UnderLynsi Snyder’sleadership, the company has added more verses to its packaging, including:
- Proverbs 24:16 on French fry containers.
but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.- Luke 6:35 on coffee cups.
“But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked”
- Isaiah 9:6 on holiday cups.
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”
- Philanthropy: The family maintains several faith-based and charitable organizations, such as the Slave 2 Nothing Foundation (fighting human trafficking and substance abuse) and the In-N-Out Burger Foundation (assisting abused and neglected children).
Paul Haeder, Author 