It has been clear for some time that US corporate news media have explicitly taken a side on the Ukraine War. This role includes suppressing relevant history of the lead-up to the war (FAIR.org, 3/4/22), attacking people who bring up that history as “conspiracy theorists” (FAIR.org, 5/18/22), accepting official government pronouncements at face value (FAIR.org, 12/2/22) and promoting an overly rosy picture of the conflict in order to boost morale.

For most of the war, most of the US coverage has been as pro-Ukrainian as Ukraine’s own media, now consolidated under the Zelenskyy government (FAIR.org, 5/9/23). Dire predictions sporadically appeared, but were drowned out by drumbeat coverage portraying a Ukrainian army on the cusp of victory, and the Russian army as incompetent and on the verge of collapse.

Triumphalist rhetoric soared in early 2023, as optimistic talk of a game-changing “spring offensive” dominated Ukraine coverage. Apparently delayed, the Ukrainian counteroffensive launched in June. While even US officials did not believe that it would amount to much, US media papered over these doubts in the runup to the campaign.

The U.S. has spent billions of dollars aiding Ukraine as that Eastern European nation battles against a brutal Russian invasion, but the aid has gone beyond simply assisting the embattled country with armaments. "60 Minutes" has reported that the U.S. is purchasing "seeds and fertilizer for Ukrainian farmers and covering the salaries of Ukraine's first responders — all 57,000 of them." The report also stated that the U.S. is "subsidizing small businesses."

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded to the report by indicating that the U.S. should help its own. "Modest suggestion: Let’s support farmers, small businesses, and first responders in our own country instead," he tweeted.

"You don’t live in a country, you live in a tax farm for a global empire," BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre posted.

Webmaster addition: Meanwhile, here in the US, police are being de-funded (crime is going up) and we have homeless Americans sleeping in alleys and eating out of trash dumpsters!

Some iPhone 15 early adopters are turning to social media to report overheating issues that can drive the temperature of the handset to over 100°F, making it uncomfortable to handle.

So, what's happening?

9to5Mac's Ian Zelbo posted on X that his iPhone 15 Pro Max became "almost too hot to touch" while fast charging.

Jeeez my iPhone 15 Pro Max is almost too hot to touch while fast charging rn…

— Ian Zelbo (@ianzelbo) September 25, 2023

Tech reviewer Mohit Verma posted a video on X showing his iPhone hitting 42°C (107°F) after "just a 2-minute FaceTime call or when scrolling through reels for 8-10 minutes."

This guy is on point 💯 pic.twitter.com/HY0N1JuqCu

— illuminatibot (@iluminatibot) September 26, 2023

 Michelle Obama — whose husband, former President Barack Obama, said in a 2018 speech “There’s only so much you can eat. There’s only so big a house you can have. There’s only so many nice trips you can take. I mean, it’s enough” — got paid over $700,000 for a one-hour speech in Germany.

 Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that his state has already won the debate against California ahead of his upcoming debate later this year against California Governor Gavin Newsom.

 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party this week over the renewed explosion of illegal immigration on the U.S. southern border, saying that they “empower the cartels” to make billions of dollars through their illicit activities while ignoring the suffering of the American people.

 The hosts of ABC’s midday talk show “The View” aired their grievances about a recent poll showing former President Donald Trump beating President Joe Biden in a head-to-head match-up.

 Ford announced on Monday that it is pausing construction on a multi-billion dollar battery plant in Marshall, Michigan that had drawn scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers over the company’s partnership with Chinese battery-maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., or CATL.

 A small group of House Republicans has said that they’re willing to risk a possible government shutdown, rejecting party leadership’s funding bills unless specific demands are met. But they may face an uphill battle in the court of public opinion, according to an analysis of polling data showing House Speaker Kevin McCarthy remains immensely popular with conservatives.

This is outrageous!

The U.S. Marshals Service last year arrested three men accused of fatally beating 17-year-old high school student Ethan Liming to death outside the school founded by LeBron James in June.

The three men beat Liming to death and later bragged about it to friends.

According to reports, Ethan Liming, whose father is a pastor, tried to calm the situation in the parking lot when he got jumped and hit in the head from behind.  The suspects broke his neck.

We learned from the police report that the suspects took Liming’s car and prevented his friends from driving him to the hospital.

Liming was later pronounced dead in the parking lot.

Webmaster addition: More of that "White Privilege!"

A rare case of white-on-black killings, the triple murder at a Dollar Tree in Jacksonville, FL, attracted the attention of the President of the United States, eager to angry up his black base [‘Silence is complicity’: President Biden denounces racist shooting at Florida dollar store, by Grethel Aguila, Miami Herald, August 27, 2023]. It was used by the Leftist New Republic as evidence of the “threat” of mass right-wing violence [Violence Is Coming? Sorry, It’s Already Here—and Getting Worse, by Brynn Tannehill, New Republic, August 31, 2023].

But even including Jacksonville, there were only 4 (four) white-on-black homicides in August. In contrast, there were about 35 black-on-white killings (we fudge because a couple of the victims seem to be white Hispanics). As always, the Regime ignores this continuing carnage—in fact, it is probably exacerbating it: some of these killings appear to be random “Hate Crimes.”

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters he had nothing to say about alleged attempts by unnamed figures in Washington to prevent Tucker Carlson from interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“This will be good,” Miller quipped upon hearing Tucker’s name, interrupting a journalist’s question. After drawing some laughs in the room, the reporter went on to ask whether the spokesman had any comments. 

“I have no idea what he’s talking about,” Miller stated with a smile, before moving on to the next question. 

Last week, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson told Swiss publication Die Weltwoche that he had attempted to set up an interview with Putin, but did not say when the interview was to occur or how exactly the US government intervened.

A Polish government minister has launched a bid to extradite Yaroslav Hunka, the 98-year-old Ukrainian-Canadian man who fought in a German-Nazi division during World War Two and last week received a standing ovation in Canada’s parliament.

“In view of the scandalous events in the Canadian parliament, which involved honouring, in the presence of President Zelensky, a member of the criminal Nazi SS Galizien formation, I have taken steps towards the possible extradition of this man to Poland,” announced education minister Przemysław Czarnek.

He published a copy of a letter he has sent to the head of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) – a state historical body that has prosecutorial powers – asking him to “urgently [establish] whether Yaroslav Hunka is wanted for crimes against the Polish nation or Poles of Jewish origin”.

The Nord Stream pipelines, built to deliver gas under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, were hit by explosions in September 2022. The pipeline's operator, Nord Stream AG, said that the damage was unprecedented and it was impossible to estimate the time repairs might take.

The administration of US President Joe Biden decided to sabotage the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines due to fears of losing its influence over Germany, and Western Europe as a whole, amid the supply of cheap Russian gas to the European continent, Pulitzer Prize-winning US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said in an article on Substack, noting that the incident had nothing to do with the conflict in Ukraine.

"The Biden administration blew up the pipelines but the action had little to do with winning or stopping the war in Ukraine. It resulted from fears in the White House that Germany would waver and turn on the flow of Russia gas—and that Germany and then NATO, for economic reasons, would fall under the sway of Russia and its extensive and inexpensive natural resources. And thus followed the ultimate fear: that America would lose its long-standing primacy in Western Europe," Hersh wrote.

The German government began a massive €100 billion rearmament campaign last year, pledging additional money for the military as social spending retreats and the country faces the threat of deindustrialization and economic stagnation.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has some explaining to do amid reports that a €1.3 billion batch of new digital radio communications systems for the Bundeswehr’s fleet of tracked and wheeled vehicles will be forced to sit in storage for years due to compatibility and installation difficulties.

“34,000 ground forces vehicles are to be equipped with digital radio devices. In total we’re talking about billions of euros. Deliveries of the radios have been ongoing since January. Now it turns out that the devices will be impossible to install anytime soon,” a German publication wrote, summarizing the problem.

The digital radios, produced by German technology manufacturer Rohde & Schwarz, are supposed to replace the Bundeswehr’s older analogue sets. But the new equipment is reportedly proving difficult to mount on the military’s many different types of vehicles, requiring the purchase additional adapter kits, and showing other problems, like low-capacity batteries. Adjustments are reportedly necessary for the more than one hundred different vehicle types in service with the Bundeswehr.

The white owners of two small businesses based in Houston, Texas, are suing to block government policies privileging minority-owned businesses in city contracts. The policies also privilege women-owned businesses. However, the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), which represents the businesses, told Legal Insurrection it “made a strategic decision to focus directly on the race-based set-asides.”

Jerry and Theresa Thompson own Landscape Consultants of Texas and Metropolitan Landscape Management. Their companies compete for city landscaping contracts. However, because of the Thompsons’ race, their companies “cannot compete on equal footing with other businesses.”

Landscape Consultants, for example, has a $1.3 million contract with the city with an 11 percent set aside for minority-owned businesses.

This means that Landscape Consultants must take at least $143,000 of work away from its (largely minority) staff, even though they are capable of doing the work, and pay a competitor to do the work—solely because of the race of Landscape Consultants’ owner and the race of its competitor’s owner.

Legal Insurrection readers may recall that I reported State Farm, one of the largest insurance agencies in the country, was no longer accept applications for home and business insurance in California due to wildfire risks and the cost of rebuilding.

To stop more insurance companies from ditching California, the state’s insurance commissioner has approved plans for firms to use “climate change” as an excuse to gin up rates.

California will let insurance companies consider climate change when setting their prices, the state’s chief regulator announced Thursday, a move aimed at preventing insurers from fleeing the state over fears of massive losses from wildfires and other natural disasters.

Unlike other states, California does not let insurance companies consider current or future risks when deciding how much to charge for an insurance policy. Instead, they can only consider what’s happened on a property in the past to set the price.

…On Thursday, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said the state will write new rules to let insurers look to the future when setting their rates. But companies will only get to do this if they agree to write more policies for homeowners who live in areas with the most risk — including communities threatened by wildfires.

X owner may claim in interviews he despises antisemites, but his platform being swarmed with antisemitic content and several claims he has made against Jews and the ADL make many doubt his words

Webmaster addition: When this whole anti-semitism thing came up, I predicted that Twitter/X would see a flood of fake anti-Semitic posts to smear Musk!

Breaking news on this Monday out of China where we have new data on the dumping of U.S. treasuries and what this means for the U.S. dollar dominance. Saudi Arabia also dumping U.S. treasuries at an increased rate over the past few weeks. What is going on?

Canadian House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota has apologized for honoring a Ukrainian man who served in Adolf Hitler’s Waffen SS forces during World War II, and calling him “a Ukrainian and a Canadian hero.”

Yaroslav Hunka, 98, a former member of the SS 14th Galician Division, was given a standing ovation in the chamber during the visit of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on Friday. The incident was heavily criticized by Jewish groups.

“On Friday, September 22, in my remarks following the address of the President of Ukraine, I recognized an individual in the gallery,” Rota said in a statement on Sunday. “I have subsequently become aware of more information which causes me to regret my decision to do so.”

Without mentioning Hunka by name, Rota reiterated that the Ukrainian man was one of his constituents. “I particularly want to extend my deepest apologies to Jewish communities in Canada and around the world. I accept full responsibility for my actions,” he said.

The civil rights complaint by the Equal Protection Project (EqualProtect.org) of the Legal Insurrection Foundatoin regarding two racially-discriminatory scholarships at Western Kentucky University has spread widely in the media, including initial coverage at The Chronicle of Higher Education, Fox News, and the Daily Caller.

The coverage has continued to expand with an article at Reuters, which has been syndicated in several dozen other news outlets, putting EPP at the center of the movement to remove racially-discriminatory university policies, Anti-affirmative action group, emboldened by US Supreme Court, targets scholarships:

While Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) campaigns for a Senate seat on a platform of earmarks for local causes, the 12-term Congressman has been busted steering millions in taxpayer dollars to for-profit defense contractors, many of whom have been political donors to his campaigns.

According to an investigation by Politico, Schiff "has offered an incomplete and potentially misleading account of his record on earmarks."

A POLITICO review of congressional earmarks and political contributions found that in addition to the money for homelessness and drug treatment, Schiff also steered millions to for-profit companies and raised tens of thousands for his House reelection campaigns from corporate executives and people connected to them. The review was mostly limited to publicly available data from the brief three-year window when corporate earmarks were disclosed.

In two particularly egregious cases, Schiff channeled millions in funding to Smiths Detection and Phasebridge, Inc., two defense companies within his district - with $6 million steered to Smiths Detection and $3 million to Phasebridge. Both moves would have been barred under reforms adopted in 2010. This financial maneuvering coincided with Schiff receiving $8,500 in contributions from PMA Group PAC and two family members of Paul Magliocchetti, founder and owner of the lobbying firm retained by both defense companies.

The recent sparring between Elon Musk and the despicable Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has cast considerable light on the successful attempts by Jewish groups to dominate America’s foreign as well as some domestic policies, in part by taking away the First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech so their behavior cannot be challenged. As readers of Unz will be aware, Musk has threatened to sue the ADL for as much as $22 billion for defaming him and doing material damage to his business interests while also falsely smearing Musk himself and the platform for allegedly providing an antisemitic haven for “hate speech.” In Musk’s view, the ADL has put pressure on potential advertisers not to do business with him and to engage in a total boycott of his social networking sites.

Greenblatt’s argument is that material that he considers to be anti-semitic should not be allowed on any public forum, to include Musk’s site X, formerly known as Twitter. If Greenblatt were concerned with public incitements to kill Jews or damage their property there might be a case to be made, but the fact is that such behavior is already criminalized. Greenblatt is much more expansive than that, condemning any criticism of Jewish group or even individual behavior or the actions of Israel, which have included various war crimes and crimes against humanity to include targeting and killing Palestinian children and harvesting the organs of Palestinian prisoners. Israel is also a nation that is increasingly ethnically exclusive and has a state religion that is intolerant and repressive of other creeds, to include minority Christians and Muslims.

Just take down all the statues of white men in New York City. Better, rename every building, every street, every road, and every school named after a white man. [NYC Council advances bid that could yank monuments honoring Washington, Jefferson, Columbus, NY Post, September 18, 2023]:

New York’s City Council — which just passed a budget that’s already been deemed a flop — is now spending some of its time advancing a plan that could kill off monuments honoring figures such as George Washington.

The Democratic-led council’s Cultural Affairs Committee is set to hold a public hearing Tuesday on a proposal to yank artworks from city property dedicated to historical figures such as George Washington, Peter Stuyvesant and Christopher Columbus because of their controversial pasts.

But critics immediately branded the effort as cancel culture run amok.

After decades as one of the world’s largest recipients of United States foreign aid, the Egyptian government was nervous about how long the largess would continue at that level. But when the United States cut a sliver of the aid in 2017 over Egypt’s grim human rights record, stunning Cairo, Egyptian officials found an ally in Senator Robert J. Menendez of New Jersey.

He happened to be the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a position that Egypt evidently felt could help its footing in Washington. And even as he accused the Trump administration of being lax when it came to Egypt, prosecutors say he was doing favors for Egyptian officials who had gotten to know him through his then-girlfriend — signing off on arms sales and secretly helping it lobby Washington to release funding.

In return, according to a federal indictment of Mr. Menendez unsealed on Friday, Mr. Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, received hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, checks and bars of gold.

It was a price that Egyptian officials clearly felt was worth paying.

Almost nine out of every ten Ukrainian draftees who enlisted in the army a year ago have either been killed or injured in combat, Ukrainian media reported on Friday citing a senior conscription officer in the Poltava Region.

Lt. Colonel Vitaly Berezhny, who is currently serving as the acting head of the territorial center for recruitment and social support, made this admission during a Poltava City Council meeting.

Sounding the alarm, Berezhny told meeting participants that “out of the 100 individuals who joined the units last fall, only 10-20 of them remain, the rest are dead, wounded or disabled.” Going from this statistic, he declared that the military was in urgent need of reinforcements.

He acknowledged that local authorities are facing significant challenges in their conscription efforts, having only achieved 13 percent of the mobilization plan. This places the Poltava at the bottom of the region’s rankings.