Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 25
August 19, 2025
DOJ to begin turning over Epstein docs to Oversight panel Friday
By Rebecca Beitsch
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced Monday it expects to begin receiving files related to Jeffrey Epstein from the Department of Justice (DOJ) by the end of the week.
“Officials with the Department of Justice have informed us that the Department will begin to provide Epstein-related records to the Oversight Committee this week on Friday. There are many records in DOJ’s custody, and it will take the Department time to produce all the records and ensure the identification of victims and any child sexual abuse material are redacted,” Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a statement.
“I appreciate the Trump Administration’s commitment to transparency and efforts to provide the American people with information about this matter.”
The plans spurred pushback from the panel’s Democrats, who said the DOJ was failing to fully comply by not meeting the original deadline and supplying all documents.
The panel, on a bipartisan basis, subpoenaed the Justice Department for files related to the deceased financier who was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges when he died by suicide.
The motion last month from Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) called for the “full, complete, unredacted Epstein files to be delivered concurrently to the majority and minority.”
Comer’s announcement Monday came the same day that former Attorney General Bill Barr was deposed by the Oversight panel on the Epstein matter, the first in a series of scheduled interviews.
Rep. Robert Garcia (Calif.), the top Democrat on the panel, said after the deposition that Democrats would require all requested records from the DOJ.
“The most critical thing the House Oversight Committee needs for its investigation is the full, complete, and unredacted Epstein files, as well as any ‘client list,’” he said.
“The bipartisan Oversight Committee subpoena requires these documents by tomorrow, and if the committee does not receive the files, it will be clear the Trump Epstein Coverup continues.”
Republican Reps. Nancy Mace (S.C.), Scott Perry (Pa.) and Brian Jack (Ga.) joined Democrats in approving the request in July.
[…]
Via https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5458303-house-oversight-epstein-files-doj/
Trump’s halt on Gaza medical evacuations death sentence for Palestinian children
A Palestinian child receiving medical care at Nasser Medical Complex due to injuries sustained from the Israeli war on Gaza, on June 4, 2025. (Photo: Doaa el-Baz/APA Images)
By Bilal Irfan and Alyssa Seliga
The U.S. State Department’s decision this weekend to halt all visitor visas for people from Gaza, which includes the medical-humanitarian visas that have brought injured children to American hospitals, will cost Palestinian lives. Officials say this process will be subject to a “full and thorough review”. For a child with infected burns or a deep trauma wound, a pause is a verdict on their life. The freeze did not arise from new intelligence or any novel identification of problems in the temporary visitor visa pathway. It followed a social-media panic with the circulation of mischaracterized videos of injured children arriving under the care of a U.S. nonprofit being labeled as a “security threat,” rhetoric amplified by political allies. The State Department then announced it was stopping visas while it re-examines procedures.
The racism and misinformation at the heart of that panic deserve naming. Some have labeled the process of evacuating children with amputations and burns as being potentially linked to terrorism and even characterized their joyful cries as “jihadi chants.” That is textbook dehumanization: take a population of wounded kids and code them as a threat to justify exclusion. Many have commented on the chain reaction from such posts to the administrative action. The line from a viral smear to a federal policy that blocks chemotherapy, skin grafts, or prosthetics for children should shame us, and the speed with which it occurred.
It also wildly overstates the scale of what has actually happened. In total, many of the NGOs running these U.S. transfers report a few dozen total children to date, not a “flood”. Individual city stories have been about twos and threes: a pair treated in Dallas; several children welcomed in Boston. This is the opposite of a large-scale pipeline; it’s a narrow, highly vetted corridor that exists because Gaza’s health system has been shattered.
To understand how few make it here, you have to understand the pathway. First, a physician in Gaza refers a child for care that no longer exists at home. The case goes to a Ministry of Health committee, then to the World Health Organization (WHO) for medical triage. Only after a receiving hospital issues a formal acceptance, often after weeks of back-and-forth with surgeons, translated records, and imaging, does the family usually even begin the paper chase: passports, exit permissions from the Israeli military’s Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Jordanian clearances when the bridge route is used, U.S. visa appointments, and finally a WHO-escorted convoy. Each step is a separate queue with its own failures and reversals; a single “not yet” in any queue can kill the case.
The numbers give us a picture of why this corridor matters. According to WHO and OCHA, as of mid-August more than 14,800 people in Gaza need urgent medical evacuation outside the Strip. Since October 2023, about 7,560 patients, including roughly 5,248 children, have been medically evacuated abroad, with most of those transfers occurring before Israel’s closure of Rafah last year made departures far rarer and slower – in fact, a 92% decrease was recorded in successful evacuations thereafter. On August 13, the WHO managed to move 38 patients, 32 of them children, to care options in Belgium, Italy, and Türkiye. Such operations are far smaller than the need. Pausing the U.S. share of that global effort may look like a minor adjustment from Washington, yet for an injured child in Gaza, it reads as a door slammed shut – and possibly a death sentence.
American hospitals have long accepted international charity cases. Pediatric centers have taken on many cases from around the world, because these are areas where some U.S. teams are among the best in the world and where outcomes can be life-changing and transformative. Now, it is only anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia that are preventing U.S. hospitals from playing a similar role with children from Gaza. Other countries and regions have been accepting far more cases than the United States. Since October 2023, the top five referral destinations have been Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey, and EU countries. The cases include children with trauma wounds, patients with cancer, congenital anomalies, cardiovascular issues, and even ophthalmology-related needs.
Behind every statistic is a child and a clock. We have seen and heard of many such cases. For example, Fatima (anonymized name for safety), a child with multiple burn injuries, cleared one hurdle after another: hospital acceptance in the U.S., COGAT approval, a slot on a convoy list. Starvation and infection outpaced the paperwork. She died just days ago, after being pushed from one evacuation list date to another as her body gave way. Another girl whose cases moved with unusual speed from referral to hospital acceptance to even getting family clearances was now seeking an expedited passport to submit her DS-160s when the U.S. freeze hit. Try explaining to her mother that a stranger’s tweet now stands between her child and a reconstructive surgeon.
And yet, these are not isolated incidents or tragedies. Gaza’s health system has been bombed, besieged, and starved into dysfunction. Key Palestinian medical specialists have been killed or abducted by the Israeli military, and hospitals where care could have been provided have been repeatedly attacked. That is why children who could once be treated locally now need referrals abroad for prosthetics, complex orthopedics, neurosurgery, oncologic care, and skin reconstruction. The pathway is not some loophole, rather it is one of the only viable medical options for these children. Prior to the current genocide, 50-100 patients were leaving Gaza daily for medical treatment abroad.
The pathway is, in fact, fraught with ethical dilemmas. Children are frequently separated from their caregivers or loved ones, and families are separated or torn apart as some relatives are denied exit approval (often men) by Israel, leaving others to stay behind. We have met such families and children who have come to the U.S., have heard from their stories and the trauma they have endured – the physical scars and the psychological ones – and the ones that cannot even be named.
What should happen now is simple. First, immediately reinstate the processing of medical-humanitarian visas for children and their companions. Second, we should push towards affirming the right of return for these children – many families fear never being able to return to Gaza after accepting treatment abroad, with some even choosing to stay in Gaza out of such fears. Third, restoration of medical corridors for Palestinian patients in Gaza to occupied East Jerusalem and the wider occupied West Bank, so that they do not need to leave their country and homeland just for treatment if it is available. Finally, stop letting demagogues dictate whether a Palestinian child gets to live. The moral bar here is not high.
How sad it is that the government in Washington can be spurred by a bad-faith tweet to close a lifeline for children, any shred of decency as Americans should compel us to open it.
[…]
No return of Crimea and no NATO for Ukraine – Trump
US President Donald Trump. © Andrew Harnik/Getty ImagesRT
Russia “took” the peninsula without “firing a single shot,” the US president has said
It is “impossible” for Crimea to return to Ukraine or for the country to join NATO, US President Donald Trump told Fox & Friends on Tuesday.
Adding that Kiev had approached the US-led military bloc to seek help in trying to get the peninsula back.
“They went in and said ‘We want to get Crimea back’. This was at the beginning,” Trump revealed. “The other thing they said was ‘We want to be a member of NATO’. Well, both of those things are impossible.”
“It was always a no-no,” both during the time of the Soviet Union, and now with Russia, Trump explained, adding that Russia has always stressed it did not want “the enemy” on its border.
The peninsula, which is populated predominantly by ethnic Russians, overwhelmingly voted to join the Russian Federation shortly after the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev, which brought a nationalist Ukrainian government to power.
Moscow has cited the abuse of Russian-speaking Ukrainians by the Kiev regime and its ambition to join NATO, as some of the fundamental reasons for the current conflict.
While Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of “land swaps” in his diplomatic push to end the hostilities in Ukraine, he has firmly stated that Kiev will not get Crimea back.
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky had previously refused outright to discuss any territorial concessions, stating that “the Constitution of Ukraine does not allow the surrender of territories or the trading of land.” He, however, acknowledged that the land swaps were on the latest talks agenda at the White House.
The Washington meeting came two days after Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, where the two leaders discussed resolving the Ukraine conflict.
Moscow has long insisted that it will only accept a peace deal that eliminates the core causes of the conflict. Namely that Ukraine should renounce its ambitions for NATO membership, demilitarize, and recognize the current territorial realities, including the status of Crimea, as well as of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, the latter four of which voted to join Russia in 2022.
[…]
Via https://www.rt.com/news/623281-ukraine-returning-crimea-impossible-trump/
The Myth that Robots are Replacing Humans in the Workplace
By Bryan Shilhavy
The Information is one of the few sources in Tech who is willing to admit this. And Nvidia is not the only one to use “a puppeteer behind the scenes” to guide a robot in public. Elon Musk does it all the time at Tesla events. If Tesla had a fully functioning human-like robot in production, you can be sure one would be following Musk around everywhere he goes for advertisement.
AI is NOT replacing American jobs. “Ghost” workers behind the scenes in places like India earning pennies on the dollar compared to what Americans make, are the ones replacing American jobs, at least in the Tech sector.
They just published this today:
Behind Many Robots, a Human Operator Toils
Amid the hype and hand-wringing about robots taking human jobs, a key fact has been overlooked: Many robots are at least partially operated by humans.
When Nvidia wanted to show off software for developing artificial intelligence at its flagship customer conference in March, it brought out a Star Wars–inspired robot that bobbed its head as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang talked to it.
“Stand right here,” said Huang, pointing to his side, and the knee-high robot waddled to the spot, receiving cheers and applause from the audience.
[…]
August 18, 2025
Airline Pilot Incapacitation Crisis After Illegal mRNA Shot Mandates
Nicolas Hulscher, MPHAug 18, 2025Today we’re joined by Dr. Kevin Stillwagon — retired airline captain with 33 years of experience, chiropractor, and immunology educator — who exposes the shocking rise in pilot incapacitations and deaths since the rollout of COVID-19 mRNA injections.
Key Findings40% increase in early pilot deaths (before retirement age) since 2021Pilot long-term disabilities tripled starting in 2021Near-miss aviation events exploded — from just 1 per year pre-2021 to 28 per year at Washington National Airport aloneThe FAA’s Incapacitation Data Registry was discontinued in 2022, leaving no centralized tracking of pilot healthHow mRNA Mandates Jeopardized Aviation SafetymRNA shots illegally forced on pilots violated FAA medical rules banning experimental products.
The shots damage vascular and neurological systems — leading to myocarditis, seizures, brain fog, and sudden cardiac events that directly threaten flight safety.
The evidence is clear: illegal mRNA mandates have unleashed a pilot health crisis that directly threatens aviation safety. Early deaths, disabilities, and near-misses have all surged since 2021 — while the FAA shut down the very database meant to track incapacitations.
Pilots are not expendable. They are the backbone of global transportation. Treating them like “black boxes” — only studied after disaster strikes — is reckless and unsustainable.
It’s time to act: ban mRNA shots in aviation, implement rigorous cardiac risk stratification, reinstate incapacitation data tracking, and protect pilots who report health concerns. The lives of passengers, crews, and the integrity of air travel itself depend on it.
[…]
Via https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/airline-pilot-incapacitation-crisis
End System of Choice for Rich and Mercury for Poor — Support Mercury-Free Dentistry!
Video linkAnalysis by Dr. Joseph MercolaStory at-a-glanceDespite being called “silver fillings,” dental amalgam is actually 50% mercury, a toxic heavy metal that can reach the brain, kidneys, and breast milkAmalgam is now banned across Europe and several other countries, with both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and World Health Organization (WHO) switching from supporters to opponents of mercury fillingsWhile modern dentists avoid amalgam, it’s still used on servicemembers, Native Americans, institutionalized individuals, and low-income families without choiceConsumers for Dental Choice is working to make federal and state programs mercury-free, including military, Medicaid, and Indian Health Service dental careThe Minamata Convention on Mercury is set to reconvene in November 2025 and will aim to mandate a worldwide phase-out of dental amalgam, with growing international support for the banConsumers for Dental Choice has engineered a tectonic shift in dentistry — modern dentists no longer place mercury-based fillings (dental amalgam) — and aware consumers shun them. Unlike a decade ago, neither the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) nor the World Health Organization (WHO) defends amalgam — and the major dental products companies stopped making amalgam.
Consumers for Dental Choice and I are in our 15th year of partnership. I have watched my friend Charlie Brown build a powerhouse national and international force, changing dentistry 180 degrees from mercury-based to mercury-free.
But the government bureaucracies (federal and state) and the insurance behemoths have not changed. Amalgam continues for the powerless — our servicewomen and servicemen, the institutionalized, low-income families, and Native Americans.
To end this morally unacceptable system of choice for the rich and mercury for the poor, once again, I put my money where my mouth is. Until midnight on August 23, 2025, I will match your gift to Consumers for Dental Choice — dollar for dollar. I’m in this cause full bore — and ask you to join me.
Those Gray-Colored Dental Fillings Are 50% MercuryIn an audacious move of brazen deception, the American Dental Association (ADA) — an amalgam patentholder — promoted dental amalgam as “silver fillings” and doubled down on the cover-up by adopting a rule of conduct forbidding dentists from discussing the (obvious) toxicity of mercury.
• The truth behind silver fillings — Well, I’m here to tell you that “silver” filling is actually a mercury filling. Mercury is not only toxic, but the most vaporous of heavy metals. So, that means mercury can reach the brain, the kidneys, the placenta, and the breast milk.
• The status quo is enforced — The ADA’s callous and irresponsible promotion of mercury-based dentistry — when the alternatives are technically better now and much more tooth friendly — continues to have severe health, workplace, and environmental consequences.
• Vote with your wallet — Modern dentists never use dental amalgam. If your dentist still places amalgam in any dental patient, it’s time to take your business elsewhere.
Consumers for Dental Choice Brought a Revolution to American DentistryWhen Charlie and I started working together, the federal government and the states sat firmly on dentistry matters, in the pocket of the ADA — similarly, international agencies are in the pocket of the pro-mercury Fédération Dentaire Internationale (FDI) World Dental Federation.
• Major victories have been won — With tenacity, Charlie built a worldwide nonprofit powerhouse — and with strategic brilliance, found the path to dismantle the pro-amalgam machine. Amalgam is now banned across Europe, and in several African and Asian nations.
Both the FDA and the WHO switched from amalgam advocates to amalgam opponents. Readers, convincing either the FDA or WHO to switch from support to opposition of a product is extremely rare; changing both of these impenetrable colossi is, well, unprecedented in my experience.
• Countless lives were saved from mercury — Millions and millions of American consumers — and billions worldwide — were spared from the health risk of mercury-based fillings. Three decades ago, the late mercury-free dental pioneer Dr. Hal Huggins asked Charlie to help a billion people — it now appears he has done so.
• There are still battles to be fought — But as I explain below, we do not have mercury-free dentistry for all. We need to keep the momentum going to banish use of this primitive, pre-Civil War pollutant from our planet.
So, for the 15th consecutive year, I am stepping up to match every dollar donated to Consumers for Dental Choice from now until midnight your time on August 23, 2025 (up to $150,000 total). Let’s give Consumers for Dental Choice the resources it needs and merits. You may click this button below to donate online:
Or you may mail a check to:
Consumers for Dental Choice
727 15th St. NW, Suite 701
Washington, DC 20005
Testifying before Congress a few years ago, the witness for esteemed National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said American dentistry is “choice for the rich and mercury for the poor.” Consumers for Dental Choice was created with the vision that if consumers have a choice — an informed choice — they’ll reject the mercury filling in favor of the nontoxic one.
• The choice still isn’t given to all — Many consumers are powerless to choose. Soldiers and sailors, institutionalized individuals, people stuck in government programs like the Indian Health Service (IHS), and people saddled with cut-rate insurance plans that favor mercury.
[…]
Here’s some highlights from the agenda of Consumers for Dental Choice to end amalgam for all:
Consumers for Dental Choice’s Initiative to Make Federal Government Programs Mercury-FreeDespite the FDA safety communication warning against amalgam use in children and other high-risk populations, the single biggest purchaser of amalgam in the U.S. is our own government. Its dental programs continue to implant dental mercury into American Indians, into our soldiers and sailors, into institutionalized persons, and into families on Medicaid.
• Authorities finally gathered and listened — After years of pounding on doors, Consumers for Dental Choice finally got the government to the table for an entire day last year in Washington, DC to talk about ending amalgam.
Assembled were government officials representing the FDA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the State Department, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the IHS who met with a broad range of environmental, medical, dental, science, and consumer leaders.
• New programs have been created — Now, we see results. Consumers for Dental Choice convinced the IHS to publish its “Plan to Phase Down the Use of Dental Amalgam among American Indians/Alaska Natives 2010 – 2030 (or until dental amalgam is phased out in the U.S.).”
It includes such effective measures as “Provide guidance to IHS, tribal, and urban dental programs to cease the use of dental amalgam on deciduous (primary) teeth,” “Conduct a national webinar for IHS dental providers regarding the 2020 FDA Safety Communication and this phase-down plan,” and “Develop policies that reduce the amount of dental amalgam purchased by IHS service units.”
[…]
Consumers for Dental Choice’s Initiative to Make State Government Programs Mercury-FreeTo effect change in our federal constitutional system, it takes initiatives both in Washington and in state capitals. So, Consumers for Dental Choice has launched three state projects to serve as models for the rest of the country:
• Florida — Assembling four national organizations, Consumers for Dental Choice filed a petition to Tallahassee to end amalgam use in Florida Medicaid. They had a Zoom meeting with my friend, renowned Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo. More than a dozen Florida dentists signed a letter asking for action.
• Rhode Island — Consumers for Dental Choice is building a grassroots movement in the Ocean State, finding real interest among environmental groups, racial justice advocates, and dental professionals.
• California — Consumers for Dental Choice is working with the Alameda County (Oakland) Consumer Affairs Commission to empower consumer choice.
Cleaning Up the Dental IndustryIt’s not enough to work with government authorities in phasing out dental amalgam. It’s important to target and transform the amalgam market, too. In that regard, Consumers for Dental Choice has scored major victories:
• Cutting off amalgam supply — Consumers for Dental Choice already pushed major U.S. dental products makers Dentsply and Envista (Kerr) out of the amalgam business. Today, the major American companies make only mercury-free fillings.
• Cutting off amalgam demand — As Consumers for Dental Choice wins bans and restrictions on amalgam, the demand for this mercury product continues to drop. Countries banning amalgam sweep across Asia, notably the Philippines and Indonesia. In Africa, Tanzania and Gabon have also banned amalgam, as well as in the Caribbean (St. Kitts and Nevis).
• Cutting off the amalgam trade — The recent European Union (EU) law not only bans amalgam use, but also bans amalgam imports and exports, cutting off dental mercury peddlers — both in the EU and abroad — from many markets.
Winning Amalgam BansWhen Charlie went to Brussels in 2011 to launch the campaign that led to victory, things were bad — only two countries in the EU were interested in mercury-free dentistry.
• Europe was the largest user of amalgam in the world — Governmental officials read from talking points supplied by the pro-mercury Council of European Dentists (CED). Charlie assembled a team from the 27 member nations. His team returned repeatedly to the federal capital, Brussels, went to the national capitals, and organized a response to a European Commission poll demonstrating that 88% of Europeans want mercury-free dentistry.
• Hard work and perseverance pay off — To run the campaign in Europe, Charlie appointed Florian Schulze, leader of an exciting new non-governmental organization (NGO) in Berlin, the European Network for Environmental Medicine. Florian and his NGO engineered the breakthrough our cause needed — a law in 2017 banning amalgam for children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers.
The goal, then, upshifted to mercury-free dentistry for all — a path requiring a Biblical seven more years of grueling challenges. The result in 2024 — a vote to ban amalgam was 27 nations for, zero nations against. What started with two countries in support in 2011 morphed into unanimity in 2024. The European Parliament supported the ban 98% to 2% — imagine such a near-unanimity from a legislative body!
• Governments around the world are following — In addition to the growing number of countries banning all amalgam, many countries — from Vietnam to Mauritius to Tunisia — have banned amalgam use for high-risk populations like children.
Now, another major country, China, has joined them. China issued a new regulation in 2024 that in translation says, “Dental amalgam is prohibited for use in dental treatment of deciduous teeth, patients under 15 years of age, and pregnant and lactating women, unless the dentist deems it necessary based on the needs of the patient.”
Showdown in NovemberThe World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, the international coalition Charlie chairs, has convinced the governments to shift the focus of the Minamata Convention on Mercury from “phase down amalgam” to “phase out amalgam.”
• Preparing for the faceoff — In 2022, the Parties adopted the Children’s Amendment addressing an end date for amalgam for children and for pregnant and breastfeeding women. In 2023 the Parties adopted a phase out of dental amalgam as a worldwide goal.
In November 2025, the Minamata Convention on Mercury reconvenes — at the top of the agenda is whether to shift treaty language from phase out amalgam as a goal to phase out of amalgam as a legal mandate. Both the Africa continent, by unanimity, and the European Union have already called for support of this amendment — and support is growing across the globe.
• The fight to ban amalgam comes to a head — Charlie will lead a civil society delegation from 13 nations at the upcoming conference of the parties, coming 3 to 7 November in Geneva. The voice of mercury-free dentistry will be well-represented.
Your Help Makes a Big DifferenceConsumers for Dental Choice is an amazing nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to advocating mercury-free dentistry. Its talented team of consumer advocates, environmentalists, and health professionals work tirelessly — and effectively — to continue the fight against dental mercury around the world.
[…]
Facing troop shortages, Israel Eyes Recruitment from US and France
Israeli soldiers cry during the funeral of a soldier killed in the Gaza Strip on June 26, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Press TV
Israel’s military is considering a plan to recruit young Jews from abroad as it grapples with a severe shortage of soldiers amid its ongoing genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip.
According to Israel’s Army Radio on Monday, the proposal would target major Jewish communities overseas, particularly in the United States and France, with the aim of enlisting around 700 recruits annually.
The shortage has compounded wider problems for Israel’s armed forces, including equipment deficits and a reserve system strained by months of fighting in Gaza.
Many reservists have also reported psychological issues and exhaustion linked to the genocidal war.
The move comes as the military struggles with a shortfall of 10,000 to 12,000 troops, driven largely by the refusal of ultra-Orthodox Jews, or Haredim, to serve.
For decades, Haredi men who account for about 13 percent of Israel’s population of 10 million have been exempt from Israel’s mandatory military service to pursue full-time religious studies.
However, a 2023 ruling by Israel’s high court ended these broad exemptions, prompting the military to begin enforcing draft orders amid growing troop shortages.
Haredi leaders have accused the Israeli regime of violating their religious beliefs and threatening their way of life.
In July, the Israeli daily Maariv said senior commanders had, for the first time, admitted to the scale of the depletion, estimating a gap of about 7,500 soldiers. Battalion leaders cited crushing workloads, with some signaling plans for early retirement.
The Israeli regime was also reportedly luring around 30,000 asylum seekers from African countries to the army by offering them permanent residency in the occupied territories.
An Israeli military investigation has found a rise in suicides among its soldiers, with the majority of the cases being directly linked to the profound psychological trauma and exposure to extreme conditions experienced during the genocidal war in Gaza.
The findings indicated that most suicides stemmed from prolonged exposure to combat, traumatic battlefield experiences, and the psychological toll of losing comrades.
Despite attempts by the Israeli army to censor reports of suicides and the surrounding circumstances, evidence continues to emerge of a sharp increase in such cases. Media outlets have suggested that the actual number of suicides may be even higher than reported.
The army has reportedly been burying some of these soldiers without military funerals or public announcements, in a desperate effort to conceal the extent of the crisis.
In recent months, a growing manpower shortage has prompted the Israeli army to recall soldiers diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The reports have highlighted a deeper mental health crisis within the Israeli army, revealing that thousands of soldiers have sought assistance from military mental health clinics or field psychologists.
With Israel’s war in Gaza entering its 22nd month, soldiers increasingly report experiences of war trauma, family issues, and psychological distress.
Abu Obeida, spokesman for the military wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, recently warned that if Israel chooses to continue with the “war of extermination,” it will face increasing funerals for its soldiers and officers.
[…]
Via https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/08/18/753330/Palestine-Gaza-Israel-US-France-Africa-
Sam Altman Admits AI Isn’t Profitable and an AI Bubble Exists
Comments by Brian Shilhavy
Excerpts from The Information (https://www.theinformation.com/articles/bytedances-upcoming-world-model-altmans-thoughts-gpt-5-fiasco-profitability-going-public?rc=ie9o9i):
Altman ruled out building anime-style sexual chatbots the way xAI has. He said he believes the easiest way for lagging companies to gain AI adoption is through engagement-bait bots, though OpenAI won’t pursue them.
On the AI market, he agreed there is a bubble, with investors overhyping valuations, and predicted both major successes and significant failures.
Financially, he said OpenAI is “close” to profitable on serving its AI in apps like ChatGPT, excluding the high training costs of developing the AI, and COO Brad Lightcap said the company is nearly profitable on its sales of models to developers.
Fair enough, but OpenAI has recently projected it will burn $8 billion this year—about $1 billion more cash burn than it had projected earlier in the year.
The Big Picture: EU Puppet Show
The Big Picture: The EU Puppet Show
Directed by Alekandr Avilov (2025)
Film Review
https://en.rtdoc.tv/films/2104-the-big-picture-eu-puppet-show
This documentary begins with an observation by the late Henry Kissinger that current European leaders lack the vision of former leaders, such as De Gaulle, Willie Brandt, Helmut Kohl, Jack Chirac or Schoeder. It then shows a clip of Putin echoing these sentiments, stating the continent’s current leaders are a “disaster for Europe.”
Host Jelena Norkunaite explores these observations with Aleksey Zubets, director of the Centre for Social Economics Research, and Nikolay Novik, deputy director of the Institute of World Military Economics and Strategy at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. Their dialogue is interspersed with humorous clips of the leaders they discuss. At least three are of Boris Johnson riding his bicycle.
Both agree on the following analysis:
Current European leaders are merely front men – “hand puppets” or “cardboard figures” with limited education. Their main purpose is to push the agenda of the “real leaders” and secure votes for a “shadow state” where the real power lie. Both agree that people in modern society find it hard to vote for someone smarter than they are. Also that the US deep state has significant influence over European appointments.
They focus mainly on the example on Ursula van der Leyen. In addition to being president of the EU Commission, van der Leyen is Germany’s defense minister. As she clearly knows nothing about running an army (she’s a gynecologist), her main role is lobbying for for US and German defense contractors.
As president of the EU commission, she plays a major role in setting EU policies and managing the EU budget. She has also issued a decree forbidding Slovakia’s prime minister from meeting with Trump. Prior to Trump’s election in 2024, the EU’s main unifying ideology was the Green movement. At present it’s war with Russia.
The commentators also single out Britain’s last four prime ministers, noting that Covid plunged the UK into a deep recession from which it never recovered. They observe that British industry to continues to abandon Britain for the US and Asia. Also that covert intelligence activities (particularly the ability to start conflicts and arrange provocations) remains Britain’s most successful industry.
Boris Johnson – a cuddly buffoonish character who rode his bicycle everywhere and was forced to resign for “corruption” (mostly the parties he held during the Covid lockdowns).Liz Truss – apparently unable to grasp or explain basic political, economic or geographical concepts. When Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov met with her as UK foreign secretary he described it “like the mute talking with the deaf.”Rishi Sumak – professional financier who lost interest in fixing the economy when he discovered he was incapable of fixing the British economy.Keith Starmer – extremely low approval rating.The panelists also make the interesting assertion that Brexit was “a US project to split up Europe.”
August 17, 2025
Meet the Normans
This intriguing documentary has two chapters: the first describes the Norman conquest of northeaster France, the second the Norman conquest of England.
Beginning in the 8th century AD, Normans from Denmark raided northeastern France every summer. From 790 on, they traveled down the Seine, sacking the Rouen in 840. In 845, they threatened to sack Paris but the Carolingian king of West Francia Charles the Bald paid them to withdraw. In 851, the Normans overwintered in France for the first time.
In 852, they sacked the Fontanelle Abbey and burnt it to the ground, in 876 under Rollo, the Vikings sacked Rouen. In 911 Rollo laid siege to Chartres and withdrew under the terms of the Treaty of Saint Clair sur Epte, which resulted in his marriage to the daughter of Charles III and a promise to convert to Christianity. Under the treaty he became a vassal (Duke of Normandy) of Charles III. He and 100 retainers were baptized a Christians in Rouen cathedral in 912. During his reign, he built the famous Mont St Michel monastery.
His son William Longsword succeeded him when he died in 927. Longsword expanded the duchy of Normandy slightly to the West and was assassinated by the Count of Flanders in 942.
In he was succeed by Richard I, an illegitimate on from a Breton concubine who had to be sent to Bayeux to learn Norse. He’s best known for the English/Irish slave market he operated (at the time contrary to Christian teachings).
In 996, his son Richard II succeeded him and married his sister to the king of England.
In 1026, his son Richard III succeeded him, only to be poisoned by his brother Robert a year later.
Robert was Duke of Normandy from 1027-1043, when his son William the Bastard (born of a concubine) succeeded him. The latter’s generation would be the last to speak Norse. Ironically between 912 and William’s accession to the dukedom, Normandy would be the only peaceful area of Europe.
As William was only 7 at the time of his father’s death, he spent much of his early reign putting down rebellion including one in 1057 backed by King Henry the first.
In 1066 when the childless king of England Edward the Confessor died, William (his cousin once removed via the sister of Richard II) was one of the main contenders for the throne. Edward’s 14 year old nephew was the closest heir, but for some reason no one took his claim seriously. The other contenders were the Earl of Wessex Harold Godwinson, Edward’s brother-in-law, and Harold the Viking, a distant relative of the Viking king Cnute, who ruled England from 1016 to 1035
Harold Godwinson was coronated on January 6 1066. In September 1066 Harold the Viking invaded with 200 long boats and marched to York where he confronted Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. After Harold the Viking was killed, William the Bastard loaded his cavalry onto dozen of ships and crossed the English channel. In October 14, 1066 Battle of Hastings 8,000 horseless Anglo-Saxon troops confronted William’s 8,000 Norman, French, Breton and Flemish troops protected by cavalry. After a nine hour battle, the Normans were victorious, killing King Harold. By Christmas day, William had conquered most of southeastern England and was the first to be crowned king in Westminster Abbey.
It would take William six years to consolidate power:
1067 was a year of numerous small rebellions1068 saw major rebellions in the West Country and the Midlands1069 saw two rebellions in the north, supported by a Danish invasion. William ended the rebellions by laying waste to northern England. Known as the Harrying of the North, this resulted in a severe famine that killed 100,000 people and forced many northerners to sell themselves into slavery to survive.William further consolidated his power by removing all the Anglo Saxon landholder and rewarding his military leaders with their lands. The Anglo-Saxon peasants who worked their lands became virtual serfs (slaves), causing William to be credited with establishing feudalism in Europe. He also appointed Normans to head England’s Catholic Church.
? explores the the role of the Bayeux tapestry and William’s Domesday Book in recording this history. In the latter, William required every estate in every English town to be recorded, along with the number of plows, mills and slaves they owned (for purposes of taxation.
William return to France in 1087 because the French king Phillip I was retaking peripheral Norman land. He died of a wound the same year and is buried at Caen. He bequeathed the Norman dukedom to his older son Robert and the throne of England to his younger son William Rufus.
The Most Revolutionary Act
- Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's profile
- 11 followers
