So what is the solution to this colossal mess?

The answer to 1913 is 2025.

This year, we are seeing things get proposed in Washington D.C. that once would have been unthinkable.

For example, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick just told Fox News that President Trump wants to “abolish the Internal Revenue Service”…

More details have emerged from the Trump administration about alleged plans to get rid of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and utilize tariffs so the “whole economy explodes.”

“His goal is to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and let all the outsiders pay,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday on “Jesse Watters Primetime.”

“As the president said, reciprocal tariffs, either you bring yours down or we’re going to bring ours up. If we go to their level, it will earn us $700 billion a year to be equal to everybody else,” he expanded Thursday on “America’s Newsroom.”

And it appears that the Trump administration is already taking concrete steps toward that goal.

In fact, it is being reported that “approximately 7,000 probationary workers” at the IRS are about to be hitting the bricks…

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is planning to slash approximately 7,000 probationary workers in Washington, D.C., and across the U.S. starting Thursday, according to reports.

The layoffs will affect probationary workers who have been employed for one year or less and have not been able to secure full civil service protection, The Associated Press reported, citing a person familiar with the plans.

Wow. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is also being targeted by the new administration.

In fact, Elon Musk has suggested that the Federal Reserve could soon get visited by the Department of Government Efficiency…

Musk wrote on X in response to a user’s post about the billionaire’s support for an audit of the Fed that the central bank isn’t above scrutiny from DOGE.

“All aspects of the government must be fully transparent and accountable to the people. No exceptions, including, if not especially, the Federal Reserve,” Musk wrote.

Musk is a longtime critic of the central bank and has called out its decisions on monetary policy as well as claiming the Fed’s workforce is bloated.

This is wonderful news. Because what we have been doing for decades is clearly not working.

The Federal Reserve system is designed to create debt, and the income tax is designed to service that debt.

We find ourselves on an endless hamster wheel that becomes more painful with each passing year.

The charts that I am about to share with you tell a very clear story.

The primary reason why we have had an almost unbelievably high standard of living over the past three decades is because we have piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world.  Once upon a time the United States was the wealthiest country on the entire planet, but all of that prosperity was not good enough for us.  So we started borrowing and borrowing and borrowing and we have now been living beyond our means for so long that we consider it to be completely normal.

When President Woodrow Wilson entered the White House in 1913, the U.S. was less than 3 billion dollars in debt.

Now we are 36 trillion dollars in debt…

This is what a central bank is designed to do. Most people simply do not understand this.

We have been robbing future generations blind for so long that it doesn’t even seem to bother most people anymore.

It is time for a change.

Sadly, Americans have also accumulated the largest mountain of household debt in the history of the world.  The following chart which comes directly from the Federal Reserve shows the growth of household and non-profit organization debt over the years…

Of that amount, more than 18 trillion dollars of it is household debt…

Americans’ household debt levels, including credit card debt, rose to new all-time highs in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The report showed that overall household debt increased by $93 billion to $18.04 trillion at the end of 2024, an all-time high. Credit card balances rose by $45 billion from the prior quarter to reach $1.21 trillion at the end of December, which is also a record high.

We have become accustomed to living in debt.  We go into massive amounts of debt to get an education, we go into massive amounts of debt to buy a home, we go into massive amounts of debt to purchase our vehicles, and we even pile up debt to buy holiday gifts and to purchase groceries.

The American people want to hear that better times are ahead. But under the current system the only way to give the American people “better times” is to crank up the debt spiral to an even higher level.

That is the approach that our leaders have been taking for a long time, and it is madness.

When you add up all forms of debt in our society, it comes to a grand total of more than 100 trillion dollars…

We are literally committing national suicide. I wish that I could get more people to understand this.

30 years ago, the total amount of debt in the system was less than 20 trillion dollars. Now we have surpassed the 100 trillion dollar mark.

We are talking about a financial bubble that is unlike anything that the world has ever seen before. If we continue down this road, our children and our grandchildren would have no future.

When people hear words like “billion” or “trillion” they tend to tune out. But that is a mistake.

There is an enormous difference between a billion dollars and a trillion dollars.

Just how big is one trillion dollars?

To answer that question, I would like to use an illustration that I have used in my books.  If right this moment you went out and started spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.

Yet somehow we have piled up more than 100 trillion dollars of debt, and our financial status just keeps getting worse month after month after month.

If we want to get free from all this debt, we have to abandon the system that created all of this debt in the first place.

We need to abolish the Federal Reserve, the IRS and the income tax. We have been living far, far beyond our means for decades, and it has been the greatest party in the history of the world.

But it is time to turn out the lights because the party is over. The good news is that change is in the air.

The answer to 1913 is 2025, and those that are attempting to dismantle the current system should be applauded.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

The 88-year old Pontiff entered the hospital on Feb. 14 with worsening bronchitis, leading doctors to eventually diagnose pneumonia, and reports in the initial days were dire.

Archbishop Giuseppe Satriano of Bari gave an update on Francis’ condition Thursday, saying “He’s a fighter, and I believe he’ll win this battle.”

Satriano described that he is awake, eating, and doing some work from his hospital bed, and that blood tests show slight improvements in his inflammation levels. The official Vatican assessment as of Thursday night is that Francis’ condition is “slightly improving” that he’s free of fever.

Still, the severity of the episode has led to speculation over possible resignation:

In a memoir, Life: My Story Through History, published last year, Francis wrote, “I think that the Petrine ministry is ‘ad vitam’ [‘for life’] and therefore I see no conditions for a resignation”, only to add in the next sentence, “things would change if a serious physical impediment were to arise”.

As the pontiff enters his eighth day in hospital on Friday, suffering from pneumonia in both lungs, Vatican watchers are wondering just how serious Francis, 88, thinks that physical impediment has to be.

On Thursday evening, the Vatican said that Francis’s condition was “slightly improving”, adding that his heart and circulation were in good shape and that he was free of fever and able to work.

However, in an interview on Italian radio, the senior Vatican cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi broached the topic on everyone’s mind and claimed: “I think he could [resign] because he is a person who, from this point of view, is quite decisive in his choices.”

This is the first time in his pontificate that the issue of resignation has been raised by a senior Cardinal. However, if he exits the hospital soon this is unlikely, as Pope’s traditionally serve till death. It is extremely rare for a Pope to step down, with his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI having been one of the exceptions to the historic rule.

As talk of a potential conclave in the near future heats up I thought it would be helpful to make a diagram of the current ideological makeup of the College of Cardinals pic.twitter.com/FHXgoRyYR0

— Al Carbo (@carbo_al) February 18, 2025

Newsweek commented, “The possibility of resignation resurfaced when Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi noted that if Francis’ ability to engage directly with people was compromised, he might consider stepping down.”

Conservative and traditional Roman Catholics have been critics of Francis’ leadership, saying he represents a liberalizing trend in church life. Liberals have tended to hail him as being open to the world and a voice of ‘progress’.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos announced the move on Thursday during a press conference with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

“This investment, and the productions derived therefrom, will benefit Mexican production companies and will contribute to the growth of the local audiovisual industry and the creation of opportunities nationwide,” said Sarandos.

According to The Hollywood Reporter (THR), the streaming giant will “invest $2 million in Mexico City’s iconic Churubusco Studios, one of the oldest and largest production facilities in Mexico, to ‘elevate’ its facilities.”

“The streaming company will continue creating and funding programs that help develop diverse and creative talents behind the camera, so that they may develop their careers in the entertainment industry,” added THR. “In August last year, a fund worth more than $1 million was unveiled in Mexico to be used in 2024 and 2025 for this purpose.” […]

— Read More: www.breitbart.com

Of course the country that I am talking about is North Korea.  The following are 22 really bizarre facts about the most Orwellian society on Earth…

#1 The first “Great Leader” of North Korea, Kim Il-sung, is deeply revered in North Korea.  In fact, there are approximately 40,000 statues of Kim Il-sung scattered all throughout the nation.

#2 In North Korea, it is believed that “destroying a statue is the most hideous insult to our supreme authority and our people and is an act of war no less serious than an armed invasion”.

#3 Hanging up pictures of founder Kim Il-sung is compulsory for every household in North Korea.

#4 It is against the law for citizens of North Korea to smile on the 8th of July.  If you break this law, you can be sent to a prison camp or in some cases you could even be executed…

Everyone loves a smile. But what if there were laws on when you could do it? Sound nuts? Believe it or not, it’s against the law for North Koreans to smile on July 8, the anniversary of Kim Il-sung’s death.

If Citizens do happen to break the law for this rule, they could be sent to concentration camps or even pay with their lives. The same goes for being loud, drinking, or having a birthday party. So, whatever you do, don’t smile on July 8.

#5 After he died, the body of Kim Il-sung was embalmed and it still lies in state in Pyongyang.

#6 The same thing was done to the body of Kim Jong-il when he died…

North Korea has announced that the body of late leader Kim Jong-il will lie in state permanently at a palace in the capital, Pyongyang.

His body will be displayed at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace alongside his father, Kim Il-sung.

#7 The North Korean people were told that Kim Jong-il actually bowled a perfect game the first time he ever tried bowling…

Kim Jong Il’s mythology is no less extensive. His birth was hailed as “heaven sent” by propagandists, and state media has often touted impossible feats: He scored a perfect 300 the first time he tried bowling, and shot five holes-in-one the first time he played golf. Upon his death in 2011, the skies about the sacred mountain Paektu in North Korea allegedly glowed red.

#8 The Constitution of North Korea actually guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press…

Citizens are guaranteed freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, demonstration and association.

The State shall guarantee conditions for the free activity of democratic political parties and social organizations.

#9 The Constitution of North Korea also guarantees freedom of religion…

Citizens have freedom of religious beliefs. This right is granted by approving the construction of religious buildings and the holding of religious ceremonies.

#10 In 1987, North Korea began construction on the Ryugyong Hotel, which would have been the tallest hotel in the world at that time if it had been finished on schedule in 1989.  Instead, construction of the bizarre 105 story skyscraper that somewhat resembles a pyramid was suspended in 1992, and the unfinished structure was just a massive concrete shell towering over Pyongyang completely empty for the next 16 years.  Work began once again on the project in 2008, but it is still unfinished to this day…

That pointy building in the center of the capital Pyongyang is the Ryugyong Hotel, also known as “the hotel of doom.” At a height of 1,079 feet (329 meters), it is the tallest unoccupied building in the world, according to Guinness World Records. Construction on the abandoned residence began in 1987 and has stopped and started several times over three decades due to North Korea’s economic woes.

#11 One of North Korea’s greatest national treasures is the Pueblo – a U.S. naval vessel that the North Koreans captured from “the imperialist Americans” back in 1968…

USS Pueblo (AGER-2) is a Banner-class environmental research ship, placed into service during World War II, then converted to a spy ship in 1967 by the United States Navy. She gathered intelligence and oceanographic information, monitoring electronic and radio signals from North Korea. On 23 January 1968, the ship was attacked and captured by a North Korean vessel, in what became known as the “Pueblo incident”.

#12 Current leader Kim Jong-un didn’t like the rules of basketball, and so he radically changed them…

Even the country’s sports are isolated from the rest of the world. Kim Jong-un apparently didn’t like the OG way basketball was played, so decided to rewrite it. The North Korean basketball rules say that slam dunks are worth three points and field goals in the final three minutes of the game are worth eight points.

#13 Police in North Korea are often given promotions when they are able to to identify and arrest Christians…

North Korea’s secret police, the Ministry of State Security, are incentivized with promotions when they apprehend Christians and other believers.

“Those charged with Christianity often face execution or are forced to live out the rest of their lives in political prison camps,” testified Inje Hwang, an investigator with Korea Future Initiative, during a webinar hosted by USCIRF.

#14 Children in North Korea are taught that Christian missionaries suck the blood of children…

Even children are taught from a young age to be suspicious of Christianity.

“In schools, young children are taught that Christian missionaries are spies of the countries who seek opportunities to invade North Korea and they’re shown graphic images of missionaries sucking the blood of children to show how malicious they are,” said Suyeon Yoo, co-director of Korea Future Initiative. “And they are taken to state-run exhibition halls where religious adherents are presented as murderers, spies, and where Bibles are displayed as trophies taken from enemies of the state.”

#15 Christians are executed in some of the most brutal ways imaginable in North Korea.  In one case, a group of Christians was crushed to death by a steamroller…

“While Interviewee 17 was in the North Korean Army, his unit was dispatched to widen the highway between Pyongyang and the nearby port city of Nampo. They were demolishing a vacated house in Yongkang county, Yongkang district town, when in a basement between two bricks they found a Bible and a small notebook that contained 25 names, one identified as pastor, two as chon-do-sa (assistant pastors), two as elders, and 20 other names, apparently parishioners, identified by their occupations. The soldiers turned the Bible and notebook over to the local branch of Department 15 of the Korean Workers Party (KWP), but the Party officials said it was up to the military police unit, Bowisaryungbu gigwanwon, to investigate. Tracked down at their place of work through the listing of occupation in the notebook, the 25 persons were picked up without formal arrest by the military bowibu. The interviewee was not aware of any judicial procedures for those seized. In November 1996, the 25 were brought to the road construction site. Four concentric rectangular rows of spectators were assembled to watch the execution. Interviewee 17 was in the first row. The five leaders to be executed – the pastor, two assistant pastors, and two elders – were bound hand and foot and made to lie down in front of a steamroller. This steamroller was a large construction vehicle imported from Japan with a heavy, huge, and wide steel roller mounted on the front to crush and level the roadway prior to pouring concrete. The other twenty persons were held just to the side. The condemned were accused of being Kiddokyo (Protestant Christian) spies and conspiring to engage in subversive activities. Nevertheless, they were told, “If you abandon religion and serve only Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, you will not be killed.” None of the five said a word. Some of the fellow parishioners assembled to watch the execution cried, screamed out, or fainted when the skulls made a popping sound as they were crushed beneath the steamroller. Interviewee 17 thought, at the time, that these church people were crazy. He thought then that religion was an “opiate,” and it was stupid for them to give up their lives for religion. He heard from the soldiers who took away the other twenty prisoners that they were being sent to a prison camp.”

#16 It has been estimated that over 150,000 people live in six giant North Korean concentration camps…

All the fanciful and funny myths about North Korea’s dictators cover up a disturbing truth, however: Some 154,000 North Koreans live in prison camps, according to South Korean government estimates. (Other international bodies put the number at closer to 200,000). There are six camps, surrounded by electrified barbed wire. Two camps allow for some “rehabilitation” and release of prisoners, according to “Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West” (Viking, 2012). The rest are prisons for life.

#17 The conditions that prisoners must endure in North Korea are absolutely deplorable…

Extrajudicial executions, rape, forced abortions, jail without trial, torture, starvation rations that leave prisoners so hungry some turn to eating insects.

These are just some of the abuses commonplace in North Korean prisons and other detention facilities, according to former detainees whose testimony forms the basis of a new report released by a human rights watchdog this week.

#18 A song entitled “No Motherland Without You” was written specifically for Kim Jong-il, and it is one of the most popular songs in North Korea.  It is regularly sung by the North Korean military.

#19 Most Americans don’t know that the North Koreans have developed a nuclear missile that can “reach anywhere in the U.S. mainland”…

North Korea said Monday leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to develop more powerful means of attack, days after the country’s first intercontinental ballistic missile launch in more than four years.

The statement suggests North Korea might perform additional launches or even test a nuclear device soon as it pushes to modernize its arsenal and increase pressure on the Biden administration while nuclear diplomacy remains stalled. Last Thursday, the North performed its 12th round of weapons tests this year, launching the newly developed, long-range Hwasong-17, which analysts say was designed to reach anywhere in the U.S. mainland.

#20 North Korea has successfully tested an undersea drone that is reportedly similar to Russia’s Poseidon doomsday weapon…

According to KCNA, the test was personally overseen by dictator Kim Jong-un, who wanted to warn the U.S. and South Korea they are causing a “nuclear crisis” with their “intentional, persistent, and provocative war drills.”

North Korea’s state Rodong Sinmun newspaper published a photo of Kim standing next to a large torpedo, which may or may not have been the undersea drone. The article also included photos that purportedly showed the drone maneuvering underwater and then kicking up a pillar of water, depth-charge style, when its test warhead detonated.

#21 Kim Jong-un has repeatedly threatened to nuke South Korea.  Here is just one example…

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened to use nuclear weapons to destroy South Korea if attacked, state media reported Friday, after South Korea’s president warned that if the North used nuclear weapons it would “face the end of its regime.”

The fiery rhetoric isn’t new, but comes at a time of tension on the Korean Peninsula and just weeks after North Korean state media released images of Kim visiting a uranium enrichment facility, which produces weapons-grade nuclear materials.

#22 Kim Jong-un has also threatened to “thoroughly annihilate” the United States…

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his military to “thoroughly annihilate” the United States and South Korea if provoked, state media reported Monday, after he vowed to boost national defense to cope with what he called an unprecedented U.S.-led confrontation.

Even knowing all this, I would love to visit North Korea someday.

But those that visit are certainly not guaranteed to get out alive.

A woman named Yeonmi Park knows what daily life in North Korea is like, because she was born there.  By the age of 13, she had literally witnessed people drop dead from starvation right in front of her eyes.  Thankfully, she was able to escape North Korea for a better life.

In 2016, Park transferred from the university that she was studying at in South Korea to Columbia University here in the United States.  Initially she was very excited to be able to study in this country, but once she started attending classes she quickly realized that “even North Korea isn’t this nuts”…

A North Korean defector said she viewed the US as country of free thought and free speech – until she went to college here.

Yeonmi Park attended Columbia University and was immediately struck by what she viewed anti-Western sentiment in the classroom and a focus on political correctness that had her thinking “even North Korea isn’t this nuts.”

It is so easy to mock North Korea, but the truth is that much of the rest of the world has been going down the same Orwellian path.

Hopefully there will be some positive changes now that a new administration is in power here in the United States.

But in most nations, basic freedoms are being eroded at a staggering rate.

Liberty is such a precious thing, and once it is lost it can be exceedingly difficult to ever get back.

Just ask the people of North Korea.

Michael’s new  book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

With Trump back in the White House, China’s economy is likely to face even greater strain, further limiting its ability to invest in the BRI and expand its global influence.

A decade after its launch, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is faltering. Once hailed as a transformative infrastructure project that would reshape global trade, the BRI has instead been marred by financial instability, unfinished projects, and accusations of debt-trap diplomacy. Countries that once embraced Beijing’s ambitious promises are now stepping back, with Brazil being the latest major economy to reject formal participation, joining India and Italy in distancing themselves from the initiative. As nations struggle with mounting debt and projects that fail to deliver meaningful economic benefits, the BRI’s grand vision is unraveling.

Despite Beijing’s assurances of prosperity, many BRI projects have turned into financial and logistical nightmares. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) exemplifies these failures—Gwadar Port remains largely non-functional due to corruption, insurgency, and mismanagement.

Key infrastructure, like the Karachi-Lahore Motorway and the ML-1 railway modernization project, has either stalled or become financially unsustainable. Similarly, in Indonesia, the high-speed rail project connecting Jakarta and Bandung has faced repeated delays and ballooning costs. […]

— Read More: www.thegatewaypundit.com

The study describes these symptoms and others — including tingling and numbness, exercise intolerance and difficulty concentrating — as post-vaccine syndrome or PVS. Other symptoms included trouble falling or staying asleep, nerve damage, muscle aches, anxiety, tinnitus and burning sensations. The study was published as a preprint, meaning it has not yet found a home in a scientific journal and has yet to be vetted by outside scientists via peer review.

The researchers studied 42 individuals they diagnosed with PVS. The researchers tested for dozens of potential biological signatures of the syndrome using serology, or blood tests, uncovering a range of hypotheses about the underlying causes.

The researchers hesitated to pinpoint any one single cause, emphasizing that further studies are needed.

But perhaps the most striking clue the researchers picked up was significantly higher circulating levels of spike protein as compared to the control group. Individuals vaccinated 600 to 700 days prior had more elevated levels of spike protein than other participants who had been vaccinated more recently.

However the study only measured each individual’s spike protein levels once, thus could not determine whether the spike protein was increasing over time.

“This suggested that prolonged antigen persistence might be associated with PVS in a subgroup of patients,” the study reads.

The study included participants who had received the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson shots.

Another potential signal of the syndrome explored in the paper is T cell exhaustion — when white blood cells progressively lose the ability to fight off infections. People with PVS also had fewer antibodies against the spike protein as compared to the control group. It’s also possible that the syndrome is associated with a reactivation of dormant Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a common and usually latent virus.

The researchers acknowledged that PVS has been neglected by health authorities, as many consider the topic “radioactive.”

“This is a hard topic to study. People don’t want to fund it and journals don’t want to publish it because it is viewed as radioactive and I’m so grateful to my co-authors for staying the course,” said David Putrino, director of Rehabilitation Innovation for the Mount Sinai Health System and a coauthor of the paper, in an X thread. “To anyone saying that this paper will embolden antivax movements, please take a moment to consider an alternate take: failing to be transparent in the moment, denying the lived experience of many and hiding the truth is what emboldens anti-science movements. In the history of drug discovery, there has never been a drug that didn’t produce side effects in a percentage of users. Pretending this fact isn’t real is dishonest.”

Yet some in the scientific community criticized the scientists for publishing the preprint at all.

The study drew data from the Yale School of Medicine’s Listen to Immune, Symptom and Treatment Experiences Now (LISTEN) study, as well as the Centre for Post COVID Care at Mount Sinai Hospital.

The PVS group had poorer health and a poorer quality of life than average, despite the cohort having no preexisting comorbidities and being relatively young (median age 43).

Long COVID shares many of the same symptoms of PVS, the researchers wrote, though there are some differences. While long COVID can be associated with elevated SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, the individuals with PVS in the new study had lower antibodies than the control group.

The preprint states that the condition afflicts a small fraction of people receiving COVID-19 vaccines. The researchers were quick to emphasize that the COVID-19 vaccines saved lives.

“By revealing distinct immunological features of PVS, this study helped generate hypotheses regarding the underlying pathobiology of this condition,” the study reads. “Understanding such mechanisms will help improve the overall safety profile of COVID-19 vaccines and support public health strategies that maximize vaccine efficacy while minimizing adverse effects.”

The study arrives amid Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s first days at the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services.

His ascension to the role of HHS secretary could prompt a second look at policies promulgated by the Biden administration around the COVID-19 vaccine, including the decision to mandate vaccination of some individuals with a previous COVID-19 infection as a precondition for employment.

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“Russia could win some relief from U.S. sanctions based on its willingness to negotiate an end to its war in Ukraine,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent conveyed Thursday in a Bloomberg interview. Per the breaking report:

Asked whether the U.S. was prepared to increase sanctions on Russia or reduce them depending on how talks to end the Ukraine war go, Bessent said: “That’d be a very good characterization.”

The US Treasury chief then emphasized, “The president is committed to ending this conflict very quickly.”

Trump’s stance on Ukraine has been met with growing beltway resistance, including from notable Republicans, amid a growing war of words with Zelensky, labeled a ‘dictator’ who doesn’t want to hold elections in a Wednesday Truth Social post by Trump.

The Ukrainian administration understands itself to be increasingly isolated by Washington, now near the eve of the war reaching the exact three-year mark, and there are reports that Zelensky is being told by his advisors to not respond to Trump’s provocative words. Trump is telling Zelensky he needs to hold elections. […]

— Read More: www.zerohedge.com

One teen gang robbed an entire train. They haven’t been caught. A Tren de Aragua gang of robbers who were released immediately went back to their taxpayer-funded shelters. Another criminal was caught 87 times and released each time. Criminals are hurting people for no reason, knowing nothing will happen to them.

Many walk around with masks, so you can’t catch them if you want to catch them, and the police don’t want to since they get released right away.

Criminals in New York City won’t stop because no crime will result in anything happening to the criminal. The felonies are now minor misdemeanors.

The National Guard was supposed to scare criminals away, and it didn’t. Why would it? They plan to put more police on trains, but all they can do is try to scare criminals.

Waltz, who appeared at Thursday’s briefing with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, fielded a question about where the deal stands after Zelensky rejected the first proposal.

.@MikeWaltz47: “A key part of this conversation was helping President Zelenskyy understand that this war needs to come to an end. This open-ended mantra that we’ve had under the Biden administration is over and a lot of people are having a hard time accepting that.” pic.twitter.com/lpOkgGztvT

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 20, 2025

“He needs to come back to the table, and we’re going to continue to have discussions about where that deal is going. Again, we have an obligation to the taxpayer. I think this is an opportunity. The President thinks this is an opportunity for Ukraine going forward,” Waltz said.

“There can be, in my view, nothing better for Ukraine’s future and for their security than to have the United States invested in their prosperity long term. And then a key piece of this has also been security guarantees,” he added.

Waltz further stressed that the war between Russia and Ukraine must come to a close, and the “open-ended mantra” the Biden administration took toward the war is “over.” […]

— Read More: www.breitbart.com

“I’m not happy with Boeing. It takes them a long time to do Air Force One. We gave that contract out a long time ago. It was a fixed-price contract,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “And I’m not happy with the fact that it’s taken so long. And we may do something else. We may go and buy a plane or get a plane or something. But I’m not happy with the fact that it’s taken Boeing so long. There’s no excuse for it.”

Trump dismissed the option of buying Airbus planes as an alternative to Boeing while talking to reporters.

“No, I would not consider Airbus over Boeing,” he said. “I could buy one that was used and convert it. I could buy one from another country, perhaps, or get one from another country. So, we’re looking at other alternatives, because it’s taking Boeing too long.”

In 2018, the Trump administration signed a $3.9 billion contract to build two 747-8 planes that would serve as Air Force One aircraft, replacing the current 747-200 fleet.

The original delivery date was scheduled for December 2024. The deadline was pushed to at least 2027 and 2028. Boeing blamed the delays on labor constraints, changes in the designs, and supply chain issues.

“Our team is fighting through a very, very challenging program—two very complex airplanes,” Ted Colbert, who heads Boeing Defense, Space, and Security, said in July last year. “We’ve done a ton of investment in our workforce and training, efficiency, work on the factory floor.”

The project is now estimated to cost about $2 billion more than the initial budget. When the contract was signed in 2018, the White House said that the deal would save taxpayers more than $1.4 billion from the initially proposed $5.3 billion cost.

The Epoch Times reached out to Boeing for comment on Trump’s latest remarks but did not receive a reply by publication time.

Boeing Under Pressure

The new Boeing 747-8 aircraft are being designed as an airborne White House, set to be equipped with military-grade avionics, a self-defense suite, and advanced communications systems. The planes are expected to be capable of operating under extreme security situations, such as a nuclear war.

In December 2024, billionaire Elon Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency, visited Boeing.

Commenting on the visit, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said the company was working with the administration to speed up delivery while calling discussions with Musk “constructive.”

Last year, Musk criticized Boeing for its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, warning that these policies were putting passenger lives at risk.

His comments followed an incident involving a Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft in which a door plug of the plane’s fuselage snapped off midair. The plane was forced to make an emergency landing and passengers were injured.

Boeing came under the scrutiny of multiple agencies such as the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the National Transportation Safety Board.

In February 2024, the company said it planned on reworking around 50 undelivered planes after a supplier notified it about engineering issues linked to fuselages.

An employee working at the supplier informed their manager that two holes in the planes may not have been drilled per requirements.

Last month, the company revealed it made 348 commercial airplane deliveries in 2024, down 34 percent from the previous year. Rival Airbus delivered 766 aircraft last year.

Boeing reported $66.51 billion in revenues in 2024, down 14 percent from 2023. Its net loss ballooned from $2.24 billion to $11.82 billion during this period.

“My team and I are focused on making the fundamental changes needed to fully recover our company’s performance and restore trust with our customers, employees, suppliers, investors, regulators, and all others who are counting on us,” Boeing President Kelly Ortberg said in January.

The Associated Press contributed to the report.