USA - Just hours after the House passed the Democrats' $1.9 trillion stimulus package, President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he would unveil "the next phase" of the US COVID-19 response on Thursday, which is also the one-year anniversary of the first COVID-inspired lockdowns in the US.

USA - A year of living through Covid has left many Americans drinking more, struggling with their weight and sleeping less – and parents, key workers, the young, and people of color are feeling the stress more. The findings are detailed in a survey released on Thursday by the American Psychological Association (APA), which finds that Americans have been through a collective trauma that will adversely affect their physical and mental health for years to come. Some 23% of Americans reported that they had been drinking more alcohol to relieve Covid stresses. “We’ve been concerned throughout this pandemic about the level of prolonged stress, exacerbated by the grief, trauma and isolation that Americans are experiencing,” said Arthur C Evans Jr, the CEO of the APA. “This survey reveals a secondary crisis that is likely to have persistent, serious mental and physical health consequences for years to come.”

USA - President Joe Biden signaled over the weekend he is optimistic about the future of his political agenda. “I’m going to succeed,” Biden said, when asked about the future of his agenda. “We’re going to succeed moving forward.” Biden spoke to reporters after Democrats rammed through their partisan $1.9 trillion American Rescue package through the Senate using budget reconciliation and their simple Senate majority. Not one Republican voted for the package. “Look, the American people strongly support what we’re doing,” Biden said. “That’s the key here and that’s going to continue to seep down through the public, including from our Republican friends.” The president’s next plan is a massive infrastructure spending bill, a priority Republicans have signaled interest in. In the coming weeks, Democrats will push forward on some of their more partisan issues including gun control, climate change, and amnesty for illegal immigrants. Democrats also want to raise taxes, presumably on more wealthy Americans, to pay for their agenda.

USA - Taxpayers will now foot the bill for gender reassignment surgery for active military personnel and veterans, with some treatments costing upward of $200,000 under an executive order signed by President Biden. Tucked inside Biden’s January 25 transgender order, “Enabling All Qualified Americans to Serve Their Country in Uniform,” is a clause that repeals an Obama-era policy that prohibited federally funded reassignment surgery. This was followed up by memos from both Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough specifically stating that surgery is now an added benefit. “This revised policy will also ensure all medically-necessary transition related care authorized by law is available to all Service members,” Austin wrote.

USA - Our leaders are killing the US dollar, and it is being done to thunderous applause. The House and the Senate have now both passed the 1.9 trillion dollar “COVID relief bill”, and it will go to Joe Biden’s desk for his signature. Of course we don’t actually have 1.9 trillion dollars to spend on yet another “COVID relief” package. In fact, we don’t even have one dollar to spend on another “COVID relief” package. Every single dollar that is spent will have to be borrowed, and that will soon push our national debt beyond the 30 trillion dollar mark. Sadly, our politicians seem convinced that giant mountains of dollars can be printed, borrowed and spent indefinitely without any repercussions, and most Americans fully support what they are doing. In fact, one recent poll found that a whopping 78 percent of all Americans support more stimulus checks…Yes, it is nice to get a big, fat government check in the mail. But in the process we are rapidly destroying our currency, and what we are doing to future generations of Americans is beyond criminal.

EUROPE - The European Parliament on Wednesday is set to debate a resolution that would declare the European Union’s 27 member countries a “freedom zone” for LGBT people. The Associated Press reports that the motion largely comes as a response to communities in Poland, an EU member, adopting symbolic resolutions declaring themselves free from what conservative politicians refer to as “LGBT ideology.” The towns say they are defending their Catholic values, but LGBT activists counter that these resolutions are discriminatory and designed to make the gay community feel unwelcome. The resolution was made by the cross-party EU group the LGBTI Intergroup, which said it has enough support to approve the resolution. The measure will also reportedly address issues faced by gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people in the EU.

USA - Biden celebrates international women’s day by forcing girls to share bathrooms, sports teams, with boys. President Joe Biden pulled out all the stops for International Women’s Day on Monday, but he arguably undercut women’s advancement while paying lip service to it. He issued a glowing statement about women’s empowerment, launched a Gender Policy Council, and signed an executive order barring “sex discrimination” — including discrimination on the basis of gender identity — in public schools. On one hand, Biden celebrated women’s advancement, and on the other, he forced schoolgirls to share bathrooms and sports teams with biological boys.

USA - A couple of decades ago, the US military was an unparalleled fighting machine. Both Russia and China seemed hopelessly behind, and nobody dared to challenge America’s military superiority. Everyone else was battling for second place in the pecking order, and they knew it. But since that time, Russia and China have engaged in extremely aggressive modernization programs, while the US military has chosen to focus on becoming more “diverse” and “inclusive”. As a result, the balance of power has changed dramatically.

USA - Not all of us have been brainwashed, but as far as I can tell the majority of the western world has been. The internet has been stolen from its original user base and it has been taken over by corporations and media giants who censor all dissenting viewpoints, and they actively fight any collective action that could threaten its power (eg nationalism, beliefs in other systems). The future looks like it will be a world managed by a relatively small number of college educated “elites” who endlessly push their propaganda onto the masses and ensure stability through thought control (google search results, facebook, instagram, etc).

USA - The horrific drought that has much of the western half of the United States in a death grip has already surpassed what many scientists thought was possible. Some areas of the Southwest went more than 200 straight days without any measurable rain last year, vegetation is disappearing at a frightening pace, and giant dust storms are becoming increasingly common. For years, we have been warned that the droughts in the Southwest were getting worse. For years, we have been warned that Dust Bowl conditions would return.

HAWAII - Hawaii floods have triggered a state of emergency and evacuations as homes in Oahu and Maui have been destroyed and tourists advised to "stay inside." Hawaii's Governor David Ige declared a state of emergency on Tuesday following heavy rains across the Aloha State. The intense rainfall caused flooding, landslides, and fear of dam failure. A news release from the governor's office revealed at least two counties have been evacuated. The advisory read: "In Maui County, heavy rains completely washed out the Peahi Bridge on Peahi Road, and displaced the Kaupakalua Bridge on Kaupakalua Road, making the roads impassable. There is also damage to other roads and bridges on the Valley Isle." Maui Mayor Michael Victorino said: "When you see flood damage in the light of day, it’s a reminder of the sheer power of fast-moving water."

USA - The American people are really going to regret putting the warmongers back in control. Joe Biden has been in the White House for less than two months, and the warmongers that Biden has surrounded himself with have been feverishly setting the stage for the next war in the Middle East… The Biden administration is quite determined to start projecting “American influence” all over the globe once again. In this article, I would like to examine some of the chess moves that have been made since Joe Biden entered the White House. As you will see, a very troubling picture emerges once you start putting all of the pieces together.

ISRAEL - As the IDF closely follows Hezbollah’s moves behind the northern border, the 71st Armored Battalion is completing its readiness for a possible confrontation in Lebanon. As part of a wider move of improvements and advancement in the 188th Brigade, the battalion finished a recent transformation and is now using the most advanced tanks in the IDF, the Merkava Mark IV, which include the anti-missile TROPHY system. Using advanced radar, the TROPHY can detect incoming anti-tank missiles and then launch a cloud of countermeasures to intercept them before they strike the tank. TROPHY is combat proven from operations in the Gaza Strip.

USA - At least 10 different hacking groups are using a recently discovered flaw in Microsoft Corp's mail server software to break in to targets around the world, cybersecurity company ESET said in a blog post on Wednesday. The breadth of the exploitation adds to the urgency of the warnings being issued by authorities in the United States and Europe about the weaknesses found in Microsoft's Exchange software. The security holes in the widely used mail and calendaring solution leave the door open to industrial-scale cyber espionage, allowing malicious actors to steal emails virtually at will from vulnerable servers. Tens of thousands of organizations have already been compromised, Reuters reported last week, and new victims are being made public daily. Earlier on Wednesday, for example, Norway's parliament announced data had been "extracted" in a breach linked to the Microsoft flaws. Germany's cybersecurity watchdog agency also said on Wednesday two federal authorities had been affected by the hack, although it declined to identify them.

USA - The United States had long been a holdout among Western democracies, uniquely and perhaps even suspiciously devout. From 1937 to 1998, church membership remained relatively constant, hovering at about 70 percent. Then something happened. Over the past two decades, that number has dropped to less than 50 percent, the sharpest recorded decline in American history. Meanwhile, the “nones” — atheists, agnostics, and those claiming no religion — have grown rapidly and today represent a quarter of the population. But if secularists hoped that declining religiosity would make for more rational politics, drained of faith’s inflaming passions, they are likely disappointed. As Christianity’s hold, in particular, has weakened, ideological intensity and fragmentation have risen. American faith, it turns out, is as fervent as ever; it’s just that what was once religious belief has now been channeled into political belief. Political debates over what America is supposed to mean have taken on the character of theological disputations. This is what religion without religion looks like.