Pelosi Appears To Have Picked Their Candidate For President In 2028

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) may be retiring from Congress at the end of this term, but she's not done trying to shape presidential races. The 85-year-old former House speaker has turned into what one former aide calls "a Gavin fan-girl," deploying her legendary donor network and political capital to boost California Gov. Gavin Newsom as a 2028 White House contender. The move lands as a calculated slight to Kamala Harris, who polls ahead of Newsom nationally but appears to have lost Pelosi's confidence after the 2024 debacle.

According to a report from Axios, Pelosi has spent months publicly and privately vouching for Newsom.

 "From the standpoint of leadership, vision, and values, knowledge of the issues, strategic thinking about how to get things done, he's masterful," she told The New Yorker. She told Vogue earlier this month, “I’ve seen him grow politically, I've also seen him have this beautiful family, and for all of us who love him, seeing him evolve has been wonderful to behold.”

She’s even trying to help Newsom shed the perception of coming from privilege, telling The Atlantic, "Everybody thinks of Gavin and a silver spoon. But that isn't right. He was a very hard worker in everything that he did, whether it was personally, professionally, and then civically."

This week, Pelosi told Politico that Newsom "would make a great president," though she added Democrats have many strong potential candidates. 

The hedge shouldn’t fool anyone. 

Pelosi isn’t likely to gush unless she's decided. Former aides say she's been eager to publicly vouch for Newsom whenever asked and has privately admired how he's navigated Trump "with a combination of defiance and charm." One former staffer said Pelosi "doesn't crush on many people" and added, "She's hardly ever wrong. When she says she sees something, it's a real thing."

Of course, Pelosi’s connection to Newsom isn’t limited to politics. Her brother-in-law was married to Newsom's aunt, and Pelosi frequently says she knew Newsom before he was born. Politically, they’ve been connected for years, as she's mentored him since his days as San Francisco mayor, watching him rise through California politics like a puppet master or a kingmaker.

While Pelosi is reportedly focused on helping Democrats retake the House in November and making Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaker, she’s clearly looking to the future and sees Newsom as the next leader of the party who will bring Democrats to the White House. This may be a significant vote of confidence for Newsom, but it’s also an undeniable betrayal of another California Democrat, Kamala Harris. 

Pelosi endorsed Harris quickly after Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race, reportedly frustrating Barack Obama, who wanted a more open process.

“The Obamas were not happy,” a Pelosi confidant told ABC’s Jonathan Karl for his book Retribution. 'This person summed up Obama's message to Pelosi as, essentially, "What the f*** did you just do?"' 

Harris lost badly to Trump, spending more than a billion dollars in the process, leaving many major donors deeply disillusioned with her. Pelosi’s support would have gone a long way to repair the damage, but Pelosi appears to have moved on. 

Harris leads the 2028 field with a 27.5 percent national polling average, according to Race to the White House, while Newsom trails at 22.7%. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sits at 9%, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg at 8.7%, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro at 4.9%, and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker at 3.4%.

Neither Newsom nor Harris has publicly announced their intent to seek the presidency, but both are reportedly considering, which makes Pelosi's public courtship of Newsom a calculated snub. Pelosi's endorsements carry weight with the donor class and party elites who decide primaries long before voters cast ballots. By elevating Newsom now, she's signaling to those constituencies where the smart money should flow.

Whether Pelosi's bet pays off depends on factors beyond her control. Newsom has baggage from California's struggles with homelessness, crime, and out-migration on his watch. Harris, meanwhile, carries the weight of a failed campaign but has name recognition and institutional support, and isn’t a white male — a huge plus for a party that has gone all in on identity politics. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 02/16/2026 - 19:30

Why Your Personal Data Are Floating Around On The Darknet, Which Just Keeps Growing

Authored by Chris Summers via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

In June 2025, police in Europe shut down a darknet marketplace for drugs called Archetyp Market, which had more than 600,000 users, and the following month the FBI announced that Operation Grayskull had led to the sentencing of 18 offenders to a total of 300 years for offenses relating to child sexual abuse material on the darknet.

An undated image of a bald researcher at security company DBI searching the darknet at an undisclosed location. DBI

The FBI maintains a Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement team, and in May 2025 it announced that 270 people had been arrested globally as part of Operation RapTor and that hundreds of pounds of fentanyl had been seized as part of an operation targeting drug traffickers on darknet websites.

But experts say the darknet—sometimes known as the dark web—keeps growing and is home to millions of megabytes of personal data, which are used by cybercriminals and ransomware gangs.

“You would be amazed how much personal data is drifting around on the darknet just from breach notifications,” Bob Erdman, associate vice president of research and development at cybersecurity company Fortra, based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, told The Epoch Times.

“It seems like every month you get a new breach notification from some company or website you’ve interacted with, and all those little pieces keep getting assembled to build a profile of you, and then get resold to someone who’s either going to try [to] attack you or try and use you to attack somebody else,” Erdman said.

Darknet Generation Gap

“When I speak with older Americans, many are shocked by the types of data on the darknet and how often it’s exposed or traded,” Chris Nyhuis, CEO at Vigilant, an Ohio-based cybersecurity firm and a human trafficking investigator, told The Epoch Times in an email.

“For younger more technical generations there is ... often a sense of resignation,” Nyhuis said. “They’ve grown up with breaches, so data exposure feels almost inevitable to them.”

“Data released on the darknet is not a darknet problem, it just makes distributing data easier,” Nyhuis said.

He said he believes that companies are still not protecting data well enough.

Erdman said criminals were always trying to get access to logins and passwords, bitcoin addresses, and other data, which they would sell in darknet marketplaces that trade in stolen identities and compromised databases.

So how does the darknet work?

Nyhuis said the darknet is almost a “mirror image” of the internet most of us know, and that it even has its own search engines.

But it can only be accessed through the Tor browser, which provides secrecy and anonymity by passing messages through a network of connected Tor relays, which are specially configured computers.

Nyhuis said a simple way of understanding the darknet is imagining each Tor node as a house with numerous doors opening off of it, which are not visible.

“So if you walk in that house, and if someone’s monitoring that first door and you walk out a different one, then they’re not going to see you,” he said.

Silk Road Showed the Way

In the early days of the darknet, sites such as Silk Road began to operate and enable illicit marketplaces for narcotics and other illegal products and services.

Silk Road operated between January 2011 and October 2013. In May 2015, its 31-year-old founder, Ross Ulbricht, aka “Dread Pirate Roberts,” was jailed for life and ordered to forfeit $183 million.

Ross Ulbricht, creator of the website Silk Road, appears in an undated photograph made from his computer and presented as an exhibit during his trial in New York City in 2015. U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York/Handout via Reuters

Ulbricht created the blueprint that made such darknet marketplaces so successful, Brian Townsend, a retired Drug Enforcement Administration special agent who runs courses on the darknet, told The Epoch Times by email.

There is a myth that the darknet is hard to use, according to Missouri-based Townsend.

“In reality, the learning curve is very low, and it is quite easy to get on the dark web,” Townsend said. “With relative ease, people can buy and sell drugs, stolen credit cards, fake identities, child pornography, or pretty much anything else you can think of.”

In September 2022, Reed Churchill, 27, from Fayetteville, Arkansas, became a victim of the darknet when he took pills containing fentanyl that he had bought from a darknet website, thinking that they were oxycodone.

Since then, Churchill’s father, David Churchill, has been attempting to warn others.

“These are not good people you’re talking to on the darknet, whether it’s about drugs or pornography or whatever is on there,” he told the FBI. “Nobody on that side of the computer has any good intentions for you.”

In October 2024. Rajiv Srinivasan, 37, from Houston was jailed for 19 years and Michael Ta, 25, from Westminster, California, was jailed for 21 years for supplying the counterfeit M30 oxycodone pills containing fentanyl that killed Reed on a darknet website called Dark0de.

Nyhuis said there are people using the darknet for good reasons such as investigative journalism or the exposure of human rights abuses in totalitarian states.

“On the [darknet] there are people who say ‘I’m trying to be anonymous because I’m trying to fight evil’ and then there are the bad parts where ‘I’m trying to be anonymous because I want to do evil,’” he said. “Those are the two paths.”

‘Fighting Evil, or Doing Evil’

“The majority [of] uses of it are either fighting evil, or doing evil,” said Nyhuis, who said more darknet users have bad motives than have good ones.

Nyhuis said he has a theory that a lot of people who had time on their hands during the COVID-19 pandemic learned a lot about the darknet.

“Now people are setting up nodes left and right, and you have a much more anonymous environment,” he said.

According to him, it is now possible to use ChatGPT to create a Tor node.

“It will walk you through the exact steps to do that, even give you the code that you need to copy and paste, and you can turn up a Tor node,” Nyhuis said.

There are an estimated 1.3 billion websites in the world. Delaware-based cybersecurity company DeepStrike estimates that only 0.01 percent of those are on the darknet but that Tor traffic rose to 3 million users per day in 2025.

So why can we not just ban Tor browsers and switch off the darknet?

China has tried to use its Great Firewall to block the darknet, but with limited success.

“China has tried blocking known Tor nodes to try to throttle traffic,” Nyhuis said. “But it’s really a cat-and-mouse game. There’s no main kill switch.”

An undated image of a computer displaying a message from the Chinese Great Firewall at an internet cafe in Beijing. Ng Han Guan/AP

So rather than try to kill off the darknet—which appears to be impossible—intelligence services and law enforcement are learning to live with it and deal with the threats within it.

“I can assure you that law enforcement is active on these [darknet] marketplaces,” Townsend said. “We aren’t just watching from the sidelines.”

“Investigators are embedded in these communities, often operating undercover to identify the players behind the screen,” he said.

“The international law enforcement community also works incredibly well together, sharing intelligence across borders to combat these global criminal networks,” Townsend said. “Because the darknet doesn’t recognize national boundaries, our response has to be just as seamless.”

Last year, ransomware negotiator Mark Lance told The Epoch Times that attackers usually leave ransom notes within a targeted information technology system, which will usually advise the victim to download a Tor browser, go to a website on the darknet, and initiate communications with the attackers.

But even when law enforcement learns about these darknet websites, closing them down is not necessarily the solution.

“Shutting down one darknet communication channel rarely solves the problem because hackers can quickly bring another one online, either from backups or [by] simply moving to another platform,” Nyhuis said.

“The darknet is just a tool and even if a specific site is taken offline criminals can spin up another one quickly.”

Erdman said he does not see the darknet going away as long as there is a market for drugs, stolen data, and child sexual abuse images.

“Even if Tor was ripped down tomorrow, something would be built back up in its place,” he said.

“It’s a lot of work for governments to crack down,” Erdman said. “You can try and limit it, you can try and block the traffic ... but users will find a way to get around it.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 02/16/2026 - 18:55

"Meat Grinder": Behind The Burnout And High Turnover Rates In The AI Industry

Authored by Autumn Spredemann via The Epoch Times,

Across the artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain, insiders describe a precarious, high-turnover workforce with limited support and stability.

This “invisible” human labor that labels data, evaluates outputs, and filters harmful material has become a revolving door of talent that navigates high-pressure gigs and burnout. Moreover, workers and industry experts say this talent churn can degrade the very AI models workers are paid to improve.

Across the board, workers who are hired to support, evaluate, or operationalize AI systems face similar challenges: high-stress environments that often involve complex tasks, unrealistic timelines, job instability, and low wages.

It’s no secret that the tech industry has long suffered from high turnover rates. Numbers vary, but many studies put the average rate of talent churn in the tech sector at between 13 percent and 18 percent.

This becomes clear when considering the cost of replacing tech talent, which can be up to 150 percent of a worker’s salary, including recruitment expenses, onboarding time, productivity losses, and impacts on customer relationships.

Some believe that the loss of institutional knowledge alone makes worker retention critical.

“People love to talk about the ‘magic’ of AI, but the work culture behind it is a meat grinder. I’ve seen talent turnover in model evaluation hit record highs because the work is repetitive and psychologically draining,” Barry Kunst, vice president of marketing at Solix Technologies, told The Epoch Times.

“When you lose a lead researcher to churn, you don’t just lose a body; you lose the ‘why’ behind the model’s safety guardrails,” Kunst said.

This is why he’s adamant about AI workforce stability, which he said correlates directly with model reliability: “If you’re rotating contractors every six months to keep labor costs low, your data governance will fail, period.”

Sovic Chakrabarti, the director of digital marketing agency Icy Tales, said, “Team turnover is more common than people expect.

“In some groups, especially those tied to model training, evaluation, or data labeling pipelines, churn can happen every few months. Short contracts, project-based funding, and constant reorganization mean people cycle in and out quickly,” he told The Epoch Times.

A technician works at an Amazon Web Services AI data center in New Carlisle, Ind., on Oct. 2, 2025. Noah Berger for AWS/Reuters

Chakrabarti has worked on the development and support side of AI systems long enough to see patterns that, as he put it, “rarely make it into public discussions.”

“That [workforce] churn absolutely leads to lost knowledge,” he said. “Important context about why a dataset was filtered a certain way, why a safety rule exists, or why a model behaved oddly in testing often lives in someone’s head.”

When that person leaves, documentation rarely captures the full story, according to Chakrabarti.  “New hires inherit systems without understanding the original tradeoffs, which can quietly introduce risks,” he said.

The Human Cost

Burnout rates among information technology (IT) workers are high. LeadDev’s Engineering Leadership Report 2025 found that 22 percent of the 617 polled engineering leaders and developers felt critically burned out at work.

An additional 24 percent of respondents reported feeling “moderately” burned out, while 33 percent reported low levels of burnout.

Some of this is driven by job-security fears after two years of layoffs at big tech companies, but the pay for many of the workers fueling the AI revolution is often low.

The Alphabet Workers Union (AWU), Communications Workers of America (CWA), and TechEquity led a study on the working conditions of U.S.-based data workers and found conditions similar to those of tech contractors in developing countries.

In a survey of 160 U.S. data workers, 86 percent worried about being able to pay their bills, and 25 percent relied on public assistance to get by. The same group reported a median hourly wage of $15, with a median annual salary of $22,620.

Eighty-five percent of the study group said they’re expected to be “on call” for work, but only 30 percent reported being paid for this time. More than a quarter of respondents reported spending more than 8 hours per week on call.

“If there’s anything I wanted the general public to know, it is that there are low paid people [in the United States] who are not even treated as humans—just little more than employee ID numbers —out there making the 1 billion dollar, trillion dollar AI systems that are supposed to lead our entire society and civilization into the future,” Kirn Gill II, a search quality rater working on Google products at Telus, told the CWA.

Chakrabarti said the work culture behind AI fuels these challenges.

“There is real pressure to keep labor costs low. I have seen unrealistic timelines, understaffed teams, and expectations to ‘do more with less’ while the stakes keep rising. That tension creates stress, especially when the systems affect millions of users,” he said.

Chat GPT app icon is seen on a smartphone screen, in Chicago, on Aug. 4, 2025. AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File

He added that being part of the shadow workforce behind AI can also be psychologically demanding.

“You carry responsibility without always having authority or time to do things properly. ... As tools evolve, roles shift fast, and many people feel replaceable even while being essential,” Chakrabarti said.

Nicky Zhu, an AI Interaction Product Manager at Dymesty, agrees that the cost-containment pressure on data workers is “unrealistic” and is fueling the burnout phenomenon.

“Companies employ contractors instead of using permanent staff, mandate 60-hour crunch weeks, and expect rapid learning of intricate systems. I have witnessed multiple capable engineers exit the field of AI completely because of the high levels of instability and the unmanageable workload,” Zhu told The Epoch Times.

Zhu said the mental strain associated with data work is often unacknowledged.

“Staff are regularly exposed to disturbing material during safety testing, including assessing harmful content. Knowing that your work impacts millions of users increases the stress. The combination of rapid AI development, job uncertainty, and high turnover is mentally overwhelming,” she said.

In the data worker conditions analysis, respondents reported limited or no access to mental health benefits, despite being what the study authors called a “first line of defense, protecting millions of people from harmful content and imperfect AI systems.”

Only 23 percent of data workers surveyed reported having employer-provided health benefits.

The International Labor Organization noted that large language AI models such as ChatGPT and Claude still require “invisible workers” who fine-tune AI responses, mitigate biases, and eliminate toxic or disturbing content behind the scenes.

“As a result, workers are routinely exposed to graphic violence, hate speech, child exploitation, and other objectionable material. Such constant exposure can take a toll on their mental health and trigger post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and reduced ability to feel empathy,” the International Labor Organization stated.

Revolving Door Risks

A knock-on effect of AI’s constant labor change is an increase in cybersecurity risks.

“Labor turnover literally impacts the quality, safety, and reliability of models,” Janero Washington, education director at ACSMI Cybersecurity Certification, told The Epoch Times.

“Large turnover interferes with domain knowledge, delays in the iteration process, and the probability of missing key details in the development.”

Washington said this could have a “direct influence on the accuracy and strength of [AI] models, particularly during deployment phases.”

He added that low labor costs are the primary pressure point in AI projects, which tend to prioritize cost-efficiency over balanced investment in skilled labor.

“It may result in corners being cut, including overworking teams, unrealistic deadlines, or having to use less experienced hires to keep budgets,” he said.

Zhu has seen firsthand how workforce churn affects the efficiency of AI tools: “Knowledge is lost faster than it is documented. Important information about model edge cases, limitations, safety procedures, and related details is lost when contractors leave after six or 12 months.”

When she started her current position, Zhu found that three teams had attempted to resolve the same set of problems using an AI feature that had already been built.

“Still, no one had documented the rationale for the different design decisions. Ultimately, we had to remake previously developed design solutions for problems that had already been solved. This is an all-too-common reality for the industry,” she said.

The data security platform Cyberhaven observed that 24 hours before a layoff or employee resignation, organizations can experience a 720 percent surge in data exfiltration. This includes everything from downloading sensitive files to forwarding emails or copying customer lists, all of which can have significant consequences.

Washington said that critical knowledge or details can be easily lost when a data team is reliant on a short-term contract or experiencing a high talent turnover.

“This affects continuity of knowledge of datasets, edge cases, or versioning issues, causing inefficiencies and possibly a rework of the same issue,” he said.

Chakrabarti agreed. “When teams are stretched thin or constantly rebuilding, issues get patched instead of deeply solved,” he said.

Tyler Durden Mon, 02/16/2026 - 17:45

The Obama Administration's Prostitution Scandal And The Ruemmler-Epstein Connection

Remember Obama's 2012 Colombian prostitution scandal? Turns out, Jeffrey Epstein was involved...

Newly released Department of Justice documents from the Epstein files have exposed a previously unknown connection between a 2012 White House advance-team scandal in Cartagena, Colombia, and Kathryn Ruemmler - the former Obama White House counsel who later became Goldman Sachs’ top lawyer.

Ruemmler resigned from Goldman late last week, after the latest Epstein document dump revealed her extensive, affectionate, and years-long correspondence with the convicted sex offender. The emails show she called him “Uncle Jeffrey,” accepted expensive gifts, and turned to him for advice on sensitive legal and reputational matters - including how to respond to a 2014 Washington Post report that accused her of helping suppress evidence of prostitution involving a rich kid White House aide whose daddy was a huge Obama donor. 

The WaPo report, by all accounts, cost Ruemmler a job as Obama's Attorney General. 

The 2012 Cartagena Prostitution Scandal

In April 2012, ahead of President Obama’s trip to the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, at least 20 Secret Service agents, military personnel, and others were involved in hiring prostitutes. The scandal led to multiple firings and disciplinary actions.

A lesser-known element involved Jonathan Dach, a 25-year-old Yale Law student and unpaid White House advance-team volunteer (son of prominent Democratic donor Leslie Dach). Hotel records obtained by investigators showed a prostitute was checked into Dach’s room at the Hilton Cartagena shortly after midnight on April 3, 2012.

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan briefed White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler on the evidence. The White House conducted a review, interviewed advance-team members (including Dach), and publicly declared “no indication of any misconduct” by White House personnel. Dach was later cleared and went on to work at the State Department.

More recently, Dach was found to have 'chronically violated state rules' in his role as former chief of staff to Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) by using a state vehicle as his personal car for nearly two years "and driving at speeds constituting reckless driving under Connecticut law."

The 2014 Washington Post Revival and Ruemmler’s Response

In October 2014, while Ruemmler was in private practice at Latham & Watkins and reportedly under consideration to replace Eric Holder as Attorney General - WaPo published new details. Reporters Carol D. Leonnig and David Nakamura revealed that the White House had received specific evidence (hotel records and witness accounts) implicating a White House advance-team member but had not fully investigated or disclosed it.

On October 9, 2014, Epstein emailed Ruemmler: “Doing fine. Was talking to reporters until late in the morning last night. Trying to isolate/contain wapo.”

On October 17, 2014, Ruemmler forwarded Epstein a draft of her response to the Post reporter and asked for his input. In the draft she downplayed the allegations, writing:

“The whole thing is ridiculous - they had to obtain the record ‘under the table’ because the last thing the Hilton wanted to do is to voluntarily give over info implicating the privacy of their guests. The procedure for checking in prostitutes is hardly rigorous.”

Epstein replied with suggestions, including the line: “Important point.”

Ruemmler ultimately withdrew from consideration for Attorney General on October 24, 2014 - one week after the email exchange.

Finally, here is the letter that then-Obama White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz sent in coordination with Ruemmler, to Carol Leonnig who wrote the WaPo article exposing Jonathan Dach's prostitution scandal, where they beg her to "from this point forward refrain from using Mr. Dach’s name," as "He has served his purposes for your reporting—repeating his name in connection with these allegations only deepens the wounds he has already suffered."

Beyond the obvious questions over the Obama admin prostitution scandal cover-up - which Congress/DOJ should finally ask - the most important question is: why did Obama's top lawyer summon the help of disgraced pedophile Epstein in planning her defense against the Obama admin's biggest prostitution scandal?

Tyler Durden Mon, 02/16/2026 - 17:10

Epstein-itis

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

"If you tolerate the intolerable, you’re communicating that it’s okay to mistreat you."

- Aimee Terese on X

Did you think the American zeitgeist - our collective spirit plus our thinking - could not get crazier?

Gird your loins. It’s getting worse by the hour.

The Jeffrey Epstein files suggest that people will do anything and that people will believe anything.

Pizza, hot dogs, white sharks. . . boys, girls, babies, teens, Russian whores. . . celebrities by the score. . . billionaires. . . cannibal orgies. . . vivisection parlors. . . adrenochrome. . . blood. . . dead bodies. . . demon worship. . . a depraved and insane global leadership. . . lemme outa here!

I don’t know what’s real in Epstein and what’s not — but neither do you. What you ought to know is that the colossal inventory of Epstein files is perhaps the greatest instrument of mass mind-fuckery ever seen in the history of Western Civ. How interesting, too, that the deluge of material coincides exactly with the critical capability emergence of Artificial Intelligence as a tool for the manipulation of documentary evidence. And also consider all the years since 2019 that interested parties have had to mess with, destroy, possibly fabricate, and catalog all this stuff.

Apparently, the Woke-Jacobin-Marxist eruption was not enough to destabilize the consensus about reality.

The absurdities you were asked to swallow about all-women-are-women-including-men. . . the police killed George Floyd. . . mostly peaceful riots. . . the vaccine is safe and effective. . . the free-est, fairest elections ever. . . “Joe Biden” is president. . . the border is secure. . . speaking English is white supremacy - did not push America deeply enough into Crazyland.

More was required to completely demolish your sense of an ordered world.

Donald Trump was correct, at least, that releasing the Epstein files would bring on more chaos than clarity and impede the effort to get our country back on the rails with an economic engine based on the production of goods instead of financialized hyper-casino voodoo. Well, now we’re in a maelstrom of innuendo, code-talk, gossip, and redaction, and you can hardly begin to sort it out. The Attorney General of the USA, bless her heart, has already botched the management of this monster.

Epstein’s relations with Israel and its Mossad intel blob, along with his connections to global banking interests, have aroused the zestiest breakout of antipathy to Jews since the SS busied itself loading the crematoriums of Europe. Hatred of Jews is a recurring symptom of civilization distress. But it is also possible that Israel has behaved badly — and it is certain that many political intellectuals are reevaluating the way that nation was established after World War Two. To some degree, Israel has become a paranoid state (though even paranoiacs have real enemies).

Where does that go from here? Thoughtful people are pessimistic. For sure, they resent the money and influence seeded by Israel in the US Congress. They might be concerned as well about all the other interests pounding money into American politics. Grift is everywhere, and everyone can see it now. The looming end of the grift orgy is probably behind the Democratic Party’s current psychotic disposition. Having lost its 20th century base of factory workers, the party has had to work the extreme margins of American life to build a coalition of the feckless, the reckless, the brainless, and the shameless. They have become the party’s wards in a reimagined patronage system even more pernicious than the old one under characters like Boss Tweed and Mayor Richard Daley-the-First of Chicago.

The Democratic Party can’t win elections without rigging them and it’s astonishing that they’ve gotten away with building such sturdy armature of ballot fraud in plain sight with next to zero objection from the supposed guardians in officialdom. The features of it are so arrant that a political class with any sense or dignity would have laughed it straight into the criminal courts — and its perps straight into the penitentiary. The fraud became especially acute with the 2020 and 2022 elections. It is about to be revealed in the troves of evidence extracted lately from Fulton County, GA, and presently from Maricopa County, AZ. These birds are cooked. Not a few people will eventually go to jail over these shenanigans. And meanwhile, the SAVE Act pulsates in the Senate like a lump of kryptonite.

Now, you may realize that a political party based entirely on socially marginal persons — many of them mentally ill — will adopt a roster of ideas and policies that are patently marginal, which is to say, crazy. The party elders are now straining to eliminate some of that. Last week, Barack Obama unloaded on California Governor Gavin Newsom’s botched handling of the state’s epic homeless crisis.

“We should recognize that the average person doesn’t want to have to navigate around a tent city in the middle of downtown,” the ex-president said in an interview with progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen.

Hillary Clinton, dropping in on the Munich Security Conference, said, amazingly, “There is a legitimate reason to have a debate about things like migration. It went too far, it’s been disruptive and destabilizing. . .” before tossing in some Woke word-salad:

“. . . and it needs to be fixed in a humane way with secure borders that don’t torture and kill people and how we’re going to have a strong family structure because it is at the base of civilization.”

Say, what. . . ?

But then, poor Hillary, who can’t help being a Cluster-B psycho, turned up moderating a panel at the same Munich meet-up to take up the issue: “Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights: Fighting the Global Pushback.“

To nail down her point, Hillary brought onstage as the featured speaker, Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), known previously as Tim McBride, a man.

Hillary and Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) at Munich

The insanity is, of course, self-evident.

The take-away from all this. They’re not trying hard enough to get their minds right.

And in the meantime, America and the other nations of Western Civ, must contend with the gigantic trip laid on them that is the Epstein files.

We know the newspapers and cable news channels are hopeless.

Is there anyone or any sense-making institution that can usher us through this nightmare back into the daylight?

 

Tyler Durden Mon, 02/16/2026 - 15:30

Coffee Tied To Lower Dementia Risk, Harvard-MIT Study Finds

New research published in JAMA reveals a strong reason to feel even better about being three to four espressos deep before the cash market opens in New York. 

Here's the short version of the findings:

• Caffeinated coffee was linked to lower dementia risk. Comparing the highest vs lowest consumption groups, the study reported a hazard ratio of 0.82 (95% CI, 0.76 to 0.89), which means higher caffeinated coffee intake was associated with lower risk.

• People also reported less subjective cognitive decline. The higher-intake group had 7.8% prevalence vs 9.5% in the lower-intake group (prevalence ratio 0.85).

• The "sweet spot" looked moderate. The most pronounced differences showed up around 2 to 3 cups per day of caffeinated coffee.

• Decaf did not show a significant association with dementia risk.

The long-running study, led by researchers from Mass General Brigham, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Broad Institute of MIT, tracked 131,821 U.S. adults for four decades and documented 11,033 dementia cases. One major finding was a very clear pattern: adults who drank about three cups of coffee per day, or one to two cups of tea, had a much lower risk of dementia and more favorable cognitive outcomes over their lifetimes. Decaf, however, did not show the same relationship.

Both male and female participants who drank more than three cups of caffeinated coffee per day had an 18% lower risk of dementia compared with those who reported little or no daily caffeinated coffee consumption.

"When searching for possible dementia prevention tools, we thought something as prevalent as coffee may be a promising dietary intervention - and our unique access to high-quality data through studies that have been going on for more than 40 years allowed us to follow through on that idea," said senior author Daniel Wang, associate scientist with the Channing Division of Network Medicine in the Mass General Brigham Department of Medicine and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

Wang noted, "While our results are encouraging, it's important to remember that the effect size is small and there are lots of important ways to protect cognitive function as we age. Our study suggests that caffeinated coffee or tea consumption can be one piece of that puzzle."

The cognitive upside of caffeinated coffee is clear.

Now take it up a notch: start with premium whole-bean coffee, then level it up significantly with a smart blend of four ingredients: C8 MCT Oil, Ashwagandha, Alpha GPC, and L-Theanine. The result is steadier focus and no scattered brain.

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Brain Rescue: Mental clarity, anti-inflammatory, encourages nerve-growth factor (NGF) and neuroplasticity

IQ Smart Blend Coffee: Tastes great, plus four amazing ingredients

What the four ingredients are (and why they're infused with the bean):

1. C8 MCT Oil: A type of medium chain fat (caprylic acid), often marketed for quick energy and ketosis support.

2. Ashwagandha: An herb often marketed for stress support and calmer mood.

3. Alpha GPC: choline compound (a building block for acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter tied to memory and attention).

4. L-Theanine: An amino acid naturally found in tea. Often paired with caffeine because it may help you feel calm and focused, and reduce "coffee jitters."

Thank you for your support.

Tyler Durden Mon, 02/16/2026 - 15:30

NASA Awards Next 2 Private Astronaut Missions To International Space Station

Authored by T.J. Muscaro via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

NASA has awarded its next two private astronaut missions to the International Space Station (ISS) in as many weeks, marking a further expansion of the private sector in low Earth orbit and continuing Administrator Jared Isaacman’s intention to make the most use of the orbiting outpost.

In this image from video, the 11 International Space Station crew members representing Expedition 70 (red shirts) and Axiom Space 3 (dark blue suits) crews gather for a farewell ceremony calling down to mission controllers on Earth on Feb. 2, 2024. NASA via AP

The latest mission was awarded to private space station company Vast.

Launching no earlier than the summer of 2027 on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, it will be NASA’s sixth private astronaut mission to the space station overall and is expected to last 14 days.

“Vast is honored to have been selected by NASA for the sixth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station,” Vast CEO Max Haot said in a press release. “Leveraging the remaining life of the International Space Station with science and research-led commercial crewed missions is a critical part of the transition to commercial space stations and fully unlocking the orbital economy.”

The company said it would plan “a robust science and research portfolio” for the mission, focusing on biology, biotechnology, physical sciences, human research, and technology demonstrations. It also said the mission would “generate invaluable insights into the infrastructure and processes required for Vast to safely accomplish human spaceflight missions,” and deepen its collaborative relationship with NASA and international space agency partners as it continues its campaign to have its proposed Haven-2 station chosen as the successor to the ISS.

Vast’s single-module station, Haven-1, is slated to be launched into orbit in early 2027.

Now, this private astronaut mission to the space station will follow one awarded to Axiom Space, targeting a launch no earlier than January 2027.

Announced on Jan. 30, it marks the fifth private mission Axiom will undertake. Its previous four missions featured 14 private and government astronauts, including two European Space Agency astronauts. Those missions were led by retired NASA astronauts who left the agency to join the private sector: Michael Lopez-Alegria, Axiom Space’s chief astronaut, and Peggy Whitson, Axiom Space’s vice president of human spaceflight.

Axiom missions delivered the first female Saudi astronaut and first Turkish astronaut into space, as well as carried the first Saudi, Indian, Polish, and Hungarian astronauts to the ISS.

Axiom Space has also been developing its own commercial space station and new spacesuits that NASA intends to use for moon walks.

Meanwhile, this will be Vast’s first private astronaut mission with NASA.

“Private astronaut missions represent more than access to the International Space Station—they create opportunities for new ideas, companies, and capabilities that further enhance American leadership in low Earth orbit and open doors for what’s next,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a press release. “We’re proud to welcome Vast to this growing community of commercial partners. Each new entrant brings unique strengths that fuel a dynamic, innovative marketplace as we advance research and technology and prepare for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.”

Neither mission has announced a crew yet. NASA made it clear that each company would propose four crew members for it and its international partners to review and approve.

Once a crew is approved and confirmed, the astronauts will train for their mission with NASA, its international partners, and SpaceX for their flight.

Tyler Durden Mon, 02/16/2026 - 14:30

Ship Orders From South Korea Are Surging Thanks To U.S. Fees On Chinese-Made Ships

South Korea is tightening the race with China in global shipbuilding after U.S. plans to curb Chinese-built vessels disrupted order flows and redirected demand , according to Nikkei. 

Worldwide new orders fell 27% in 2025 to 56.42 million compensated gross tonnage (CGT) — the first annual drop in two years — according to U.K.-based Clarksons Research.

China remained No. 1 but saw orders tumble 35% to 35.36 million CGT, shrinking its share to 62.7%. South Korea, ranked second, moved the other way: orders climbed 8% to 11.59 million CGT, lifting its share to 20.6%. Japan, in third, recorded a 53% plunge to 2.77 million CGT, with its slice slipping to 4.9%.

The shift followed a U.S. announcement last April outlining fees on Chinese-built ships entering American ports starting in October 2025. Although the policy was delayed for a year after a U.S.-China summit in late October, uncertainty had already prompted global shipping companies to hesitate on new Chinese orders.

A unit of China State Shipbuilding Corp. said it was disadvantaged in contract talks last summer, opening the door for South Korean yards to win more large container ship deals. HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering cited weaker demand for Chinese shipyards as a key reason for its recent surge in orders.

Nikkei writes that the company posted record results for the year ended December: revenue rose 17% to roughly 29 trillion won ($20.1 billion), while net profit doubled to about 3 trillion won.

Government-backed workforce initiatives have also supported the industry. Seoul opened a training center in Indonesia in 2024 to prepare skilled workers, including Korean language instruction, before dispatching them to local yards. Shipbuilders have raised wages and introduced AI tools to ease labor strain.

Foreign employment in South Korea’s shipbuilding sector hit a record 22,824 at the end of 2024 — about four times the level five years earlier — with foreigners making up more than 20% of the workforce.

Japan, meanwhile, has struggled to capture orders shifting away from China. Data from the Japan Ship Exporters' Association show export contracts in 2025 fell 20% to 8.93 million gross tons, marking a fourth straight year of decline. Limited yard capacity, slipways booked through around 2029, and labor shortages have constrained growth and pushed up costs.

Looking ahead, global demand is expected to rebound in 2026 as stricter environmental rules accelerate orders for vessels powered by next-generation fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia. HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering has set a 2026 order target of $23.3 billion, up 26% from this year, citing steady demand for new builds and fleet replacements.

China is working to regain momentum. In December, Cosco Group placed 50 billion yuan ($7.23 billion) in orders with China State Shipbuilding Corp., underscoring coordinated support among state-owned enterprises.

Japan is also attempting a reset. Imabari Shipbuilding recently completed its acquisition of Japan Marine United to streamline operations. The government aims to double domestic shipbuilding capacity to 18 million gross tons by 2035, seeking to narrow the wide gap with South Korea and China.

Tyler Durden Mon, 02/16/2026 - 14:00

Strait Showdown: Iran Launches "Smart Control" Exercise At Oil Transit Point

Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) kicked off naval drills Monday in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, according to state media.

The exercise, dubbed "Smart Control of Hormuz Strait," is being carried out by IRGC naval forces under the direct supervision of the Guards' top command, state television reported, with semi-official Tasnim news agency describing the drills as testing combat readiness against "possible security and military threats." Energy markets are watching closely.

IRNA: IRGC Navy conducts a hybrid, live exercise dubbed "Smart Control of the Strait of Hormuz."

Under the supervision of IRGC Commander-in-Chief Major General Mohammad Pakpour, a state media press release described the exercise further as "A rapid, decisive, and comprehensive response to maritime security threats form the core focus of the intelligence and operational components of the units deployed during the exercise."

Indirect nuclear talks between the US and Iran have lately resumed after collapsing when Israel launched strikes on Iran in June 2025, igniting a 12-day conflict that included US attacks on three Iranian nuclear facilities - with another round of negotiations scheduled for Tuesday in Geneva, with Oman serving as mediator.

The timing is no coincidence, given that late last week President Trump announced he was dispatching a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East, while continuing to warn that military action against Iran remains on the table.

The IRGC has been conducing sporadic and in some cases unannounced drills in regional waters in order to demonstrate to Washington the Islamic Republic's military readiness.

Two weeks ago, when some of the first drills kicked off, US Central Command (CENTCOM) warned the IRGC it better be careful in the vicinity of US naval assets.

"We will not tolerate unsafe IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) actions including overflight of U.S. military vessels engaged in flight operations, low-altitude or armed overflight of U.S. military assets when intentions are unclear, highspeed boat approaches on a collision course with U.S. military vessels, or weapons trained at U.S. forces," CENTCOM said at the time.

"US forces acknowledge Iran's right to operate professionally in international airspace and waters," it added, and noted that "any unsafe and unprofessional behavior near U.S. forces, regional partners or commercial vessels increases risks of collision, escalation, and destabilization," the statement had warned.

Source: Getty Images/iStockphoto

None of Iran's drills or threat of counterstrike have deterred the ongoing Pentagon build-up in the Middle East with an eye on Iran, however. One thing the White House should be able to perceive, however, is that any military action against Tehran is going to clearly be much more complex, and harder, than some one-off mission in Venezuela.

The potential for massive blow-back and for things to go seriously awry is much greater in the case of a potential US conflict with Iran.

Tyler Durden Mon, 02/16/2026 - 13:00