How the U.S. Government Controls the Ukrainian Media

USAID funded the vast majority of ‘independent’ media in Ukraine. What American taxpayers don’t realize is that their money went to suppressing the truth.

The camera was rolling when chaos erupted. It was January 21, 2024, and an independent Ukrainian journalist named Ostap Stakhiv was livestreaming a call with Vasyl Pleskach, a man claiming he was being illegally detained by Ukraine’s infamous military conscription unit, the TCC. The agency has been accused of kidnapping men from the street and forcing them to the front lines. Those who resist have sometimes been tortured—and in several well-documented cases—killed.

In the middle of the interview, Stakhiv called the police to see if they would free Pleskach from the clutches of the TCC. Just then, with the police still on the line, a burly figure entered Vasyl’s frame, walked over to Pleskach, and struck him hard in the face. His phone tumbled to the ground, landing sideways, but still recording. “They’re beating him right now,” Stakhiv told the police, as Vasyl’s picture went haywire. “People are watching it live. They’re beating him as we speak. Go to my YouTube channel and see it for yourself.” Off-screen, Pleskach’s screams were audible for another minute before the line was disconnected.

Share

Trump would boost ‘proud’ US ice hockey team at Canada game, says GM

The general manager of the US men’s ice hockey team said he would welcome a visit from Donald Trump to the 4 Nations Face-Off final between the United States and Canada on Thursday night.

Bill Guerin, who played 18 years in the NHL, said on Fox News that Trump’s presence would give a boost to the rivalry between the North American hockey powers. He credited Trump’s tariff threats and talk of making Canada the 51st US state for raising the intensity in their fight-filled matchup in the preliminary round.

Share

Trump plans 25% auto tariffs to reshape US trade policy

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday auto tariffs will be around 25% and he will have more to share on the topic on April 2.

On Friday, Trump said levies on automobiles would come as soon as April 2, the day after members of his cabinet are due to deliver reports to him outlining options for a range of import duties as he seeks to reshape global trade.

Trump has long pointed to what he calls unfair treatment of U.S. automotive exports in foreign markets.

Share

Europe Deserves Its Humiliation

It must spend more for its own defense, as American leaders have warned for years.

Europe has been warned, and warned again.

Still, it has been reduced to a near-fainting fit — and, in the case of one German official, actual tears — over the Trump administration’s tough words about its deficient military spending and its moves to begin negotiating on its own with Russia over the Ukraine war.

Share

German Minister Blasts Musk and Trump, Calling For More Censorship

Robert Habeck—Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and unpopular lead candidate for the left-wing Greens at the upcoming elections in Germany—has criticised President Donald Trump and his ally, South African-born billionaire Elon Musk, for teaming up “to eliminate boundaries on power.”

Habeck stated that Musk—the owner of social media platform X, formerly Twitter—and other U.S. tech giants “must be regulated, if necessary, in a way that aligns with our values,” during a TV debate on Monday, February 17th. Together with his leftist colleagues in the German parliament, he has sought repeatedly to close down free speech.

Share

U.S. controls key equipment on new warships, putting Canada in a potential ‘hostage’ situation over military procurement

The United States controls many of the key systems onboard Canada’s new warships, allowing the Americans to hold this country hostage over future upgrades or even the provision of spare parts, defence industry officials warn.

Taxpayers are spending as much as $80 billion on a new fleet of Canadian Surface Combatants to be constructed at Irving Shipbuilding.

Share

Think Again – Pro-Canadian shouldn’t mean anti-American

President Donald Trump just imposed 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum and may soon place similar tariffs on all other products entering the United States.

These tariffs will devastate our economy. In fact, they may throw us into a recession. It’s imperative we do everything we can to stop these tariffs from happening.

However, it’s interesting to see so many Liberal and NDP politicians suddenly beating the drum of Canadian patriotism. These are the same politicians who, until just a couple weeks ago, often referred to our country as “so-called” Canada and denounced it as a genocidal state.

Share

Donald Trump’s 51st state threats a ‘wake-up call’ for Canada’s European allies, seasoned diplomat Melanie Joly says

OTTAWA—U. S. President Donald Trump’s 51st state annexation threats are a “wake-up call” to many of Canada’s European allies who have remained publicly silent and oblivious, says Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly.

Although Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was captured on hot mic 10 days ago telling Canadian business and union leaders that Trump’s desire to subsume Canada into the United States is “a real thing,” Joly said even now U.S. senators and representatives she met in Paris, Munich and Brussels continue to joke about it, while allies appeared unaware.

Joly changed her mind upon realizing she could shop with US dollars and never pay duty again once annexation was accomplished.

Share

Trump’s musings on ‘very large faucet’ in Canada part of looming water crisis, say researchers

Water sharing between Canada and the United States has long been a contentious issue.

In 2005, former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed warned against sharing Canada’s water supply with the United States, suggesting Alberta’s most important resource was water, not oil and gas.

“We should communicate to the United States very quickly how firm we are about it,” Lougheed said.

Share

Europe’s Leaders, Dazed by an Ally Acting Like an Adversary, Recalculate

Faced with undisguised hostility from the Trump administration, Europeans are preparing for what is shaping up to be a go-it-alone era.

For years, European leaders have fretted about reducing their dependence on a wayward United States. On Monday, at a hastily arranged meeting in Paris, the hand-wringing gave way to harried acceptance of a new world in which Europe’s most powerful ally has begun acting more like an adversary.

President Trump’s plan to negotiate a peace settlement in Ukraine with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, with neither the Ukrainians nor Europeans invited to take part, has forced dazed leaders in capitals like Berlin, London and Paris to confront a series of hard choices, painful trade-offs and costly new burdens.


So the emerging consensus narrative is to smear President Trump’s administration as “adversarial” for asking fellow NATO members to pony up their fair share if they want a seat at the table.

No pay no play was inevitable and they’ve known it for years.

Share

Canada as the 51st State? In Electoral Terms, Trump’s Idea Favors Democrats.

As President Trump looks north and repeatedly presses his case to absorb Canada as the “51st state,” politically minded Democrats who are otherwise outraged by almost everything else about his agenda find themselves contemplating a potential electoral boon should it ever happen.

Few in Washington take the prospect all that seriously, of course. Canada has made clear that it has no interest in joining the United States, and Mr. Trump seems unlikely to send in the 82nd Airborne Division to force the matter. But if the idea appeals to Mr. Trump’s grandiose sense of himself as an empire-building historic figure, it could also undercut his own party’s prospects.

We are a stereotype in the NYT’s world view.

Share

Under Trump, CIA plots bigger role in drug cartel fight

The Central Intelligence Agency is poised to take a larger, more aggressive role under President Donald Trump in the battle against Mexican-based drug cartels, devising and evaluating plans to share more intelligence with regional governments, train local counternarcotics units and possibly conduct other covert actions, according to people familiar with the matter.

The expanded focus on cartels, which smuggle fentanyl and other narcotics into the United States, represents a new and potentially risky priority for the spy agency, which in recent years has made espionage against China, counterterrorism operations in the Middle East and Africa, and support for Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion its main concerns.

WAPO is worried this will upset the Cartels.

Share

Government Downsizing and the Left’s Instinctive Outcry

Some 75,000 federal employees have accepted the Trump administration’s voluntary buyout offer and the Trump administration is ramping up the firings of various groups of federal workers as well, from ineffective inspectors general to partisan U.S. Attorneys, and possibly whole wasteful agencies whenever the case can be made and its legality confirmed.

The American Left is horrified by this sudden activity. Normally, it’s only Democrat presidents who move this quickly, and of course, they move in the opposite direction. This wasn’t expected; they thought they could keep President Trump on his heels, stymied from most of the actions that he was elected to do, as in his first term.

Share