#2
It is a lovely fantasy and a long-running NATO/EU wet dream: If we can make things awful enough for the Russian people, they will rise up and overthrow the evil dictator subjugating them. Voila! A color revolution! Pity it does not seem to be working, despite frothy articles in the Daily Mail.
Commentary by Kirill Dmitriev
[ColonelCassad] 1. Obviously, an unspoken part of Trump and Putin's agreements is Trump's informal commitment to bend European satellites and Ukrainian puppets to partially agreed conditions so that they figuratively "eat shit" and thank Trump for it with a slap, as the Europeans did recently, agreeing to almost all of Trump's demands.
2. If Trump pushes them in the coming days and forces them to agree to what was agreed with Putin, then a new meeting between Trump and Putin is possible in the coming weeks. And even a general summit, where everything will be formally approved. If Trump is not able to sell all of this, it will simply show that he cannot force the figures dependent on him to fulfill their obligations, and therefore agreements with him do not make much sense, since he cannot guarantee them.
In this case, the Russian Federation will simply continue to achieve its goals by military means without focusing on agreements with the USA, since the situation at the front allows us to speak from a position of strength.
3. Naturally, Europe will try to torpedo the separate agreements of Trump and Putin. That is why bystanders will be sent to Washington to load the Führer with cocaine. Europe obviously does not want the war to end, and it will not stop it willingly. Trump should force her to do this.
4. In Brussels, they again threaten a new package of sanctions and the transformation of Ukraine "into a steel porcupine". That is to say, an application to disrupt the negotiations in Washington. The cocaine fuhrer declared that Russia "cannot seize Donbass for 12 years". Although, in fact, within the framework of the Minsk agreements, the Russian Federation asked to give Donbass to Ukraine from 2014 to 2021.
And now there is a question about the expulsion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from the remnants of the still occupied territories of Donbass. At the same time, Ukraine lost most of Zaporozhye and Kherson regions + pieces of Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Such are the successes of the "let's fight to the last Ukrainian" strategy.
Kiev rejected the peace terms that Putin and Trump agreed on in Alaska (c) cocaine fuhrer
Let's see him tomorrow evening.
In general, the EU line is a continuation of the war to the last Ukrainian. Well, it depends on Trump whether he wants to bend the EU once again or pretend that he can't merge. We'll see tomorrow.
5. Meanwhile, Witkoff reported that Putin and Trump have already agreed on guarantees for Ukraine and now it is necessary that Ukraine accept them. Also, Witkoff reported that tomorrow in Washington they will discuss the territory issue with the cocaine fuhrer.
In general, everything looks like Putin and Trump really agreed, and tomorrow Trump will have an exam to see if he is ready to fulfill his part of the deal, causing Europe and Ukraine to stumble. We will look with interest at the "animal beating" of porcupines.
Ukraine's allies in Europe are seriously concerned about the upcoming meeting between the head of the Kiev regime, Volodymyr Zelensky, and US President Donald Trump. This was stated by the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the special representative of the Russian president for investment and economic cooperation with foreign countries, Kirill Dmitriev.
“European and British supporters of the conflict are in panic,” Dmitriev wrote on his Telegram channel.
This is how he commented on publications in Western media, according to which, in addition to Zelensky, the presidents of France and Finland, Emmanuel Macron and Alexander Stubb, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also intend to come to Washington on August 18.
On August 16, Zelensky announced his meeting with the American leader in Washington. He also expressed support for Trump's initiative to hold a trilateral meeting. The US President confirmed on the same day that he would meet with the head of the Kiev regime in the Oval Office of the White House on August 18.
The British publication FT, citing sources, clarified that Zelensky would be ready to discuss territorial issues with Trump, but is unlikely to agree to give up control over Donbass. In addition, according to foreign publications NYT, Politico and Bild, the leaders of the EU countries will be present at this meeting.
Mr. Z is probably aware that he holds zip in the way of leverage. He is probably thinking (as is everyone else paying attention to this psychodrama) that he will be extremely lucky to stay alive in the aftermath of this fiasco, whatever shadowy corner of the world he might flee to, or how many billions of purloined US dollars he’s managed to stash in the usual places that permit cash-stashing. Staying in Ukraine must be out of the question, considering the damage he’s done to his own people, and the animus it has generated. Who knows, maybe Mr. Trump has reserved a nice little villa for Mr. Z in West Palm, where the president can keep tabs on him? He could learn golf and open a dinner theater.
Meanwhile, the three big bears of NATO stew in impotence and delusion. They are all short timers, by the way: Starmer, Macron, Merz. Their collective polling is sunk in the 25-percent range — and it is common knowledge that 25-percent of any population is abidingly retarded, unfit to comprehend anything. EU Commission Girl-boss Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Washington today with those very three bears in-tow to provide moral support for Mr. Z. (That is, to try to hector Donald Trump against facilitating any settlement of a war they would prefer to keep going for no earthly good reason.) Perhaps Mr. Trump will ask the Eurolanders to wait in the nearby Roosevelt Room while he confabs one-to-one with Mr. Z and makes various offers that Mr. Z can’t refuse. Then, they can all convene together in the Oval for coffee and donuts and review the results of that confab.
#2
"it is common knowledge that 25-percent of any population is abidingly retarded, unfit to comprehend anything." Worth pondering outside of the Ukraine/Russia war.
#5
So now Moscow is calling Zelensky the cocaine fuhrer.
I remember a comic strip many, many years ago. It was the Wizard of Id, I believe. The King of Id was standing atop the walls of his castle observing a developing battle with his lieutenant, forget the lieutenant's name. The king told his lieutenant that he wanted his troops spaced out.
"Oh, no worries," said the lieutenant. "They wouldn't be out there if they weren't spaced out."
Well, how spaced out must the cocaine fuhrer be to want war with Russia?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/18/2025 11:54 Comments ||
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] There is a 95% chance that civil war will break out in one or more European countries in the next five years. This forecast was made by David Betz, a professor at London's King's College, in an interview with Military Strategy Magazine on August 17.
“The obvious reason for the threat of civil war is the growing division of multicultural societies along identity lines,” the expert believes.
The most likely places for a civil war to break out are Britain and France, Betz said, adding that many major cities in those countries have been relegated to the status of "wild cities" and their authorities are unable to enforce the law.
Additional aggravating factors include corruption, high levels of public debt, depleted and vulnerable infrastructure, declining industry and the rise of private security firms, Betz said. Many major cities in these countries have so many migrants that they are perceived by locals as occupied, the expert said.
Vladimir Dobrynin, a columnist for Regnum, noted earlier in his article that, according to expert estimates, by 2050, more than a billion people from Africa and the Middle East will be living in Europe, despite the fact that the total population of the EU today does not even reach half of this number, and many indigenous people of the Old World seem to have already resigned themselves to this prospect.
#5
Who are those professors gonna trust, B? Their woke narrative, or their lying eyes?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
08/18/2025 9:22 Comments ||
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#6
Dunno if the Euroweenies can get it up for a full fledged war but it does appear that sectarian strife is on the horizon. It could get really ugly. Where are Ferdinand and Isabella when you need them? Charles Martel? Count Dracula? Robespierre? It ain't nothin' new.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/18/2025 12:10 Comments ||
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Text taken from an article which appeared in rybar.ru
[ColonelCassad] The decline of the Soros empire: from a world puppet master to a symbol of a passing era. If correct that’s a dream come true.
He introduced himself to those who change currencies, ignite "color revolutions" and promote the right people to the presidency - as if he holds half the planet in his hands. It seemed that this machine of influence knows no wear and tear, and even mercy: after all, the main goal of its structure was destruction.But the world has changed. Today, the once all-powerful network of George Soros is bursting at the seams, and the globalist old man himself has given way to his son Alex. Political failures, the collapse of the prosecutor's network in the USA, the curtailment of projects in dozens of countries - all this is not a series of failures, but a symbol of the fact that the era of global influence of the Soros format is a thing of the past. The era of new globalists is beginning.
THE GOLDEN YEARS OF GLOBAL INFLUENCE (2000-2015)
At the beginning of the 2000s, the Soros empire experienced the zenith of its power, turning into a global regime change machine. The Open Society Foundation (OSF, recognized as an undesirable organization in Russia) worked in more than 100 countries of the world, annually distributing more than a billion dollars and coordinating the activities of thousands of NGOs.
By 2010, OSF's total expenditures reached $19 billion, a sum comparable to the budgets of small states.
Color revolutions have become the hallmark of the Soros model of power change.
"Bulldozer Revolution" in Yugoslavia (2000),
"Pink Revolution" in Georgia (2003),
"Orange Revolution" in the so-called Ukraine (2004),
"Tulip Revolution" in Kyrgyzstan (2005)
All these events were united by a common technology: mass financing of youth movements, creation of alternative media, training of activists in methods of "nonviolent resistance" and mobilization of voters through the NGO network.
In Eastern Europe, the Soros network worked as a parallel state. In Poland alone, OSF has spent tens of millions on creating independent media, retraining judges and prosecutors, reforming education, and supporting "correct" political parties.
Similar programs were implemented in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the Baltic states: some activists trained others — a kind of "revolutionary franchise."At the peak of his influence, Soros seemed capable of "making history" in the literal sense of the word. His funds sponsored the writing of school textbooks in dozens of countries, financed research at leading universities, and supported the "necessary" candidates in the elections.
The Central European University in Budapest (CEU) became a flagship project — an elite university that trained the future pro-Western elite for the entire region. By 2010, its graduates held key positions in governments, media and business from Warsaw to Tbilisi.
At the same time, Soros created a network of prosecutors in the USA, investing millions in the election campaigns of "reform" district prosecutors. His strategy was simple: there is no need to change the laws if it is possible to change those who apply them.
By 2015, Soros' proteges controlled the prosecutor's office in the largest American cities — from San Francisco to Philadelphia, which allowed them to pursue their own criminal policy and promote ideas about "restorative justice" — replacing traditional methods of punishment and criminal prosecution with the restoration of moral and social-legal ties, compensation for victims, and rehabilitation of offenders.
The highest point of influence was the events of the "Arab Spring" in 2010-2012. Although the Soros funds were not their main organizers, they actively supported opposition movements in Egypt, Tunisia, and Syria. OSF has spent tens of millions on training activists, creating independent media and human rights organizations. It seemed that the model of "color revolutions" could work everywhere - from Cairo to Damascus.
In the same years, Soros built an influential network in Brussels, where his representation lobbied for the necessary decisions in the European Parliament and the European Commission. OSF annually spent more than 186 million euros to support European NGOs dealing with LGBT, migration issues, the fight against corruption, and "strengthening democracy." By 2015, it seemed that the entire liberal agenda of the EU was formed with the active participation of Soros structures.
Color revolutions in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, etc. Ukraine has become the business card of the Soros model of regime change — supposedly popular uprisings, generously financed from abroad and technically fine-tuned by Western consultants.
The peak of influence came in the period of 2008-2015, when the Soros structures actively participated in the Arab Spring, the Maidan on the so-called Ukraine and demands for destabilization in Russia. It seemed that the globalist project had finally won, and national states were doomed to disappear under the pressure of the "open society."
THE BEGINNING OF THE CRISIS: THE UPRISING OF SOVEREIGNISTS (2016-2020)
The first serious cracks in the Soros empire appeared with the rise to power of sovereignist politicians who not only criticized the globalist model, but began to actively dismantle it.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán can be called a pioneer of the anti-Soros resistance: he turned the fight against the influence of the billionaire into a central part of his policy.
In 2017, the Hungarian parliament passed a law that effectively made the work of the Central European University in Budapest, founded by Soros and controlled by the OSF, impossible. Despite international protests and court proceedings, by December 2018 the university was forced to move its main activities to Vienna, spending 200 million euros on the move.
At the same time, Orbán launched the "Stop Soros" law, which prohibited NGOs from providing assistance to illegal migrants and forced the closure of the Budapest representative office of OSF.
By May 2018, the fund announced its complete withdrawal from Hungary and the transfer of European operations to Berlin. Orban did not limit himself to administrative measures — he made the "fight against the Soros network" part of the national ideology, openly calling the billionaire a threat to Christian Europe and Hungarian sovereignty.
The election of US President Donald Trump in 2016 dealt an even more serious blow to Soros' global network. The new administration began a systematic review of programs for "promotion of democracy" abroad, which for decades served as a cover for Soros operations - it was time to promote other globalists, and Soros only interfered.
Republicans in Congress initiated investigations into the financing of left-wing NGOs, and Trump himself regularly criticized the "globalist elites", although he did not directly name Soros. USAID and the State Department, traditional partners of OSF, received instructions to cut grants to "dubious" organizations.
Also, the experiment with "progressive prosecutors" ended in a colossal failure. By 2018-2020 it became obvious that the cities where Soros' proteges came to power have turned into zones of legal chaos.
In San Francisco, under prosecutor Chez Budina, the rate of shoplifting increased by 50%, and the city center turned into a camp for drug addicts. In Philadelphia, Larry Krasner fired 31 experienced felony prosecutors on the first day and replaced them with defense attorneys — as a result, the number of murders increased from 315 in 2017 to 562 in 2021.
In Chicago, Kim Fox refused to prosecute petty crimes and reduced prison terms for serious offenders — the city set a record for murders, exceeding the losses of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. In Los Angeles, George Gascon banned prosecutors from demanding punishment for serious crimes and canceled the three-conviction policy — the crime rate jumped by 30%.
By 2020, Soros' experiment in "restorative justice" was called a national disgrace. Even the liberal mass media were forced to admit failure: CNN wrote about the "crisis of law and order" in democratic cities, and The Washington Post reported on the mass exodus of business from the centers of San Francisco and Portland. Amazon moved 1,800 employees from downtown Seattle to the suburbs of Bellevue because of rising crime, and major retailers began closing stores en masse in cities with progressive prosecutors.
At the same time, resistance to Soros projects in other countries grew. In Russia, in 2015, OSF was declared an "undesirable organization", and in 2021, Soros himself was included in the list of persons threatening national security. Even in Poland, the ruling "Law and Justice" party launched a campaign against the "Brussels-Soros" opposition. In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro directly accused NGOs of inciting protests, and in India, Narendra Modi's government tightened control over foreign funds.
Even in seemingly friendly Europe, confrontation began. Italy under Matteo Salvina began to block the migrant vessels financed by Soros NGOs. In Germany, the Alternative for Germany party has made the fight against Soros' influence part of its program. In France, Marine Le Pen openly criticized the "Soros network" as a threat to national sovereignty.
By the end of 2020, it became clear that the "golden era" of Soros's influence was over. The model of "color revolutions" stopped working, the prosecutor's network in the USA discredited itself with the growth of crime, and right-wing parties opposed to the globalist agenda were gaining strength in Europe. In addition, the 90-year-old Soros himself could no longer personally control the branched empire, which created the prerequisites for the coming collapse, which is quite natural, given the outdated model of his structure.
TRANSFER OF POWER AND STRUCTURAL CRISIS (2020-2024)
Thus, the first signs of an impending crisis appeared as early as 2020. At the same time, Patrick Gaspard suddenly left the post of OSF president: he worked for many years in the US Democratic Party, and before joining the foundation he headed its National Committee, was the main organizer of Barack Obama's presidential campaign in New York and the US ambassador to South Africa under Obama (2009–2013).
As head of OSF, Gaspard was responsible for developing strategies and overseeing the fund's grant programs around the world, but when he unexpectedly left his post, it became one of the first signs of an impending structural crisis within the Soros empire.
Gaspard was replaced by the British diplomat Mark Malloch-Brown, a close associate of Soros, but a man without charisma and political weight. The appointment of Malloch-Brown to OSF looked like an attempt to "give solidity" to the Soros business, but he was still unable to come up with a new strategy. Under his leadership, the fund went in the direction of "green rhetoric", lost its political drive, and many grants became purely symbolic.
In Brussels, he is known as a person who behind the scenes promotes the interests of narrow circles through "working groups" and "informal agreements". It was he who was responsible for the OSF influencing EU legislation without pretending to be directly involved.
And it is quite likely that Malloch-Brown, known as the "behind-the-scenes manager of failures" in OSF, was appointed already with a view to the future collapse. Under his leadership, the fund experienced its first major cuts — in 2021–2022. about 30 offices were closed, the staff was cut by a quarter.
The internal reports of 2022 recorded a drop in the effectiveness of grants, the collapse of reputation among partners and a mass exodus of professionals. And already in the spring of 2023, George Soros publicly admitted that he was "tired of keeping all the projects in his head" and that it was time for "new energy and a fresh look." This is how the official transfer of control to the 37-year-old son Alex took place in June 2023.
Unlike his visionary father, who personally formulated a global strategy, Alex turned out to be more of a secular dandy with political ambitions than a systemic thinker.
Ouch. That does seem an accurate description, though.
His public speeches were reduced to general phrases about "democracy" and "human rights", and the only concrete statement was a promise to be "more political" than his father.
Already a month after the official appointment of Alex, the structure began to be severely cut. In July 2023, OSF announced a 40% reduction in staff from 800 to approximately 500 employees worldwide, many of whom have worked at the foundation for decades. European offices were particularly painfully affected by the cuts: in Berlin, 80% of the 180 employees were planned to be laid off, and the Brussels office was subject to actual liquidation.
At the same time, OSF closed representative offices in dozens of countries and announced the complete cessation of funding of programs in the EU from 2024. This decision shocked even allies: hundreds of European NGOs, which had been receiving Soros grants for years, were left without funding. As one of the Hungarian human rights defenders admitted, "we did not expect that we would be abandoned so quickly and cruelly."
"Modernization" under the leadership of Alex Soros seemed like chaos. The fund abandoned its father's global geopolitical ambitions, focusing on narrow projects such as the "green economy" and climate initiatives. In 2024, OSF announced the allocation of 400 million dollars for "green jobs" — a decision that critics called "an attempt to follow fashion trends instead of systemic work."
And even within the organization, a real riot began. The OSF trade union issued an unprecedented open letter, accusing the new management of "destruction of labor rights", "anti-union politics" and "complete non-transparency of the decision-making process". Employees complained about "morale, which has fallen to a critical level", the uncertainty of the strategy and the mass exodus of talented personnel. The freezing of grants for six months in 2023 was particularly painful for the staff.
At the same time, international partners began to distance themselves from OSF. And in 2024, the president of the Malloch-Brown foundation suddenly resigned - officially for "personal reasons", actually because of a conflict with Alex Soros about the future of the organization. He was replaced by Binyaeta Nyorayi, a former UN employee, which many saw as a symbol of a move away from active politics to bureaucratic management.
By the end of 2024, OSF reduced its presence to 18 regional centers against the previous 100 offices. The organization actually withdrew from Latin America, Africa and most Asian countries, focusing on the so-called Ukraine, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan and the Western Balkans. Even these operations were significantly cut: the budget was reduced from a peak of 1.5 billion to less than 600 million dollars per hour.
The symbol of decline was the closing of the famous London office of OSF in 2024, the same one from which operations were coordinated throughout Europe. The British partners were notified a month before the closing, and the multi-year programs were closed with practically no transition period.
It became increasingly clear: what was accepted to be called the "Sorosian ideology", which included loyalty to migrants and LGBT people, tolerance (read - amorphousness) to everything that was happening, discrediting Christianity and traditional values, all of this - receded into the background. Globalists of the second format and level appeared on the scene and they intended to redo the world in their own way, getting rid of outdated tools and architects.
In addition, the growth of right-wing populist parties in Europe did not play into Soros's hands: even in traditionally friendly countries such as Germany and France, his projects began to meet growing resistance.
The most striking manifestation of the decline was the massive collapse of district attorneys financed by him in the United States. With the beginning of Trump's second term, the wave of resignations, defeats and recalls reached a critical mass. For the period 2022-2025 21 prosecutors associated with Soros were replaced by "tough on crime" candidates.
And the "icing on the cake": in parallel with all these political failures, the Soros empire faced serious financial restrictions. The fortune of the billionaire himself decreased from a peak of 25 billion dollars to approximately 7 billion dollars by 2025.
THE ERA OF THE SECOND GLOBALISTS
The failure of the Soros empire does not mean the end of globalist projects - the baton simply passes to other players. The aging Hungarian speculator is replaced by a new generation of billionaires with their own ambitions and methods, instead of traditional NGOs and other soft power tools like grants or training programs, they use technological platforms and economic levers.
For example, Elon Musk, who controls a key technological platform, demonstrates a much more effective model of influence through information channels and direct influence on the political process. His support for Trump in 2024 turned out to be decisive in general - and cost many times less than Soros's multibillion-dollar investments.
And Mark Zuckerberg uses the technological infrastructure of Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads) as an instrument of global influence through the control of information flows. Unlike traditional NGOs, Zuckerberg directly forms the public opinion of billions of users through algorithms and content moderation policies.
At the same time, the economic influence of the owner of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, is so great that the company can force entire cities to make concessions under the threat of going out of business, and federal contracts with the US government worth billions of dollars make him a key player in public policy.
National states have learned to resist globalist pressure, and voters reject politicians financed from abroad. But this does not mean the victory of sovereignty - it's just that the era of the second globalists has come. The struggle for control over the world continues, but now it has other faces, other methods and other stakes.
A whole set of factors led to the collapse of the Soros empire, including the fundamental weaknesses of oligarchic globalism — dependence on the personality of the founder, the ineffectiveness of the grant model, and an overestimation of the role of ideology. But, perhaps, the most important and obvious thing is that its structure, which originally carried only destruction, has worked its way out and is currently obsolete and simply not needed.
#2
The first serious cracks in the Soros empire appeared with the rise to power of sovereignist politicians who not only criticized the globalist model, but began to actively dismantle it.
Globalism has failed. It was always going to, but it was propped up by money from Soros and his fellow WEF types with billions of dollars for as long as it could be.
The tell that things were going pear shaped for the globalists was the turning up of the "all forms of nationalism are identical to Naziism" narrative to 11. It's true that since WWII there has always been an undertone of that to one extent or another, but one of the signature features of wokism as it rose since the late 2000s was beating the drum with this nonsense louder and louder. As the edifice of globalism/neofeudalism cracked apart from its internal contradictions, the drumbeats went off the scale. Pathetic.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
08/18/2025 9:20 Comments ||
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#3
According to local activists, it is antisemitic to blame things on Soros because he is a Juice. Pay no attention to the evil!
Not surprising about his kid. It is a common pattern - Dad builds a successful kingdom/company/empire and the kids piss it away.
#5
We knew Soros would go away at a rapid pace as soon as the USAID money dried up. Soros was spending tax dollars to disrupt and undermine America.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/18/2025 11:39 Comments ||
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#6
Not all of us were that insightful, 49 Pan. It’s not like he can’t afford to fund it on his own, in concert with all his little rich Progressive friends.
[Defending The Republic] The summit with Russia happened and it is yet unknown what the results might be. The Fake News is reporting it as a failure. Do not believe that.
Meanwhile, there is some massive cleaning up going on the streets of Washington. President Trump is determined to make it safe and pretty again.
The Swamp Dwelling left is mad that he is trying to protect them from crime. Actually, the Swamp Dwellers are just mad generally.
As we race into another "slow" August week, check out these stories....
A rare positive take on the Alaska Summit.
Texas Democrats arrested for election cheating.
Another example of how deep The Swamp is.
Great news from an iconic American company.
The poster child for corruption in Washington D.C.
As is the case these days, when President Trump does something extraordinaire, the radical left Democrats are hellbent on making it into the end of the world.
The truth is, Trump is smarter than they are. He always has a plan and works his plan.
Stay calm. Be patient. Let this all play out.
By Yassin K. Fawaz, CEO with experience in international security.
Matthew 5:9 - Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
[FoxNews] New Jersey's 2016 reform cited as example of increased costs and reduced accountability
"Cashless bail" is one of the most misleading phrases in modern politics. Reform advocates coined it, the media amplified it, and it stuck. The reality? What we provide is secured bail — a constitutionally protected, privately funded system that ensures defendants appear in court and protects the public, all without costing taxpayers a dime.
Ironically, the term "cashless" could make us sound like the good guys. We accept all forms of payment. We take the financial risk. We are legally liable for producing defendants in court. We operate 24/7 — making payroll, paying taxes, freeing the accused in an accountable way, and, when necessary, tracking fugitives so victims are protected and prosecutions move forward. Courts and judges who still have secured bail know it works, because we have skin in the game.
THE NEW JERSEY EXAMPLE
In 2016, New Jersey passed the Bail Reform Act, removing the accused's right to bail and replacing private secured bail with a taxpayer-funded pretrial release bureaucracy. Here’s what happened:
No right to bail – defendants can now be held without release until trial.
Taxpayer burden – counties spend millions annually to operate pretrial programs once handled at no cost by the private sector.
Accountability removed – bondsmen, motivated to ensure court appearances, have been pushed out.
The results were predictable. Ed Forchion, a Marine veteran and self-described "peaceful political pothead," was held for 447 days on a witness tampering charge tied to a Facebook post — not a violent crime — without the possibility of bail. I offered the prosecutor a $2 million secured bond to secure his release. They couldn’t take it. Why? Because New Jersey no longer recognizes the right to bail.
The costs are staggering. In 2016, the New Jersey Association of Counties sued the state because there was no funding in county budgets for this massive new mandate. Today, residents continue to pay millions each year for a system that is less accountable and less effective than what it replaced.
WHERE IT’S HEADED
Tennessee is now on track to follow New Jersey’s path and other states are considering similar changes. Once the suggested right to bail is stripped away, it’s nearly impossible to restore. The shift is always the same: from private accountability to public expense, from a proven, self-funded system to a costly government program.
THE "CASHLESS" MYTH
Every politician who has signed onto "bail reform" gets paid whether they work or not. They don’t understand what we do because they’re chasing a funded narrative. If tomorrow’s narrative was "funeral home reform," they’d be after multi-generation, family-owned funeral homes with the same zeal.
The truth is simple: "cashless bail" isn’t about making the system fairer. It’s about replacing private industry with government bureaucracy — funded by you, the taxpayer.
A BETTER WAY FORWARD
President Donald Trump demonstrated leadership on post-conviction reform. Now is the time to address pretrial justice reform. The Eighth Amendment suggests that the accused have the right to bail, and it’s time to defend it nationally.
A balanced approach is possible — one that maintains judicial discretion, protects public safety, and ensures defendants appear in court without shifting the financial burden to taxpayers. Secured bail achieves all of this.
Congress should act now to protect the bail before more states follow New Jersey’s failed example. Without action, the cost to taxpayers will climb, accountability will drop, and victims will be left waiting for justice.
We in the private bail industry are ready to work with leaders who understand the vital role of private enterprise in the criminal justice system. We are, as I like to say, the "Coal Miners of Criminal Justice" — doing the hard, unglamorous work that keeps the system running, even when the lights are off.
Michelle Esquenazi is president of the National Association of Bail Agents.
An Israeli explosive drone penetrates an apartment on the upper floor of a tower in Gaza.
The drone detonates inside, targeting a Hamas position embedded among civilians.
⚠️ Once again — Hamas hides in residential buildings, turning high-rises into military outposts.
Israel adapts with precision. Hamas gambles with lives.
More from War-in-Israel
Overnight, the IDF says it carried out a drone strike against a cell of Hamas gunmen outside Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood.
The armed terror operatives were "identified storing weapons and equipping themselves with weapons at the hospital compound and using it as a place of shelter," the military says.
The IDF says Hamas "continues to use hospitals in the Gaza Strip for terror purposes, cynically and brutally exploiting the civilian population in and around the hospital."
During the strike, which was directed by the 990th Artillery Regiment and carried out by an Israeli Air Force drone, the IDF says it took steps to mitigate civilian harm, "including the use of precise munition, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence."
[FacebookReel] An Israeli "human rights group” just accused Israel of genocide in Gaza. But that group, B’Tselem, isn’t a neutral watchdog. And their broad, out-of-context definition of “genocide” falls apart the moment you read the report. Real genocide requires proof of intent. Citing a fringe group because it's Israeli is clear, agenda-driven tokenization.
Legal terms shouldn’t be hijacked for headlines.
Very fringe, very small. My assumption is that they are either wrong or lying when they run into the spotlight.
[IsraelTimes] Many Syrians resent Hezbollah for its support of Assad, while some in Lebanon blame Damascus for Rafik Hariri’s assassination and are angry Lebanese defector became Syrian security official
A lot has happened in just a year on both sides of the Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel... -Syria border. A lightning offensive by Islamist bandidos hard boys in Syria toppled longtime autocrat Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... and brought a new government in place in Damascus.
In Lebanon, a bruising war with Israel dealt a serious blow to Hezbollah — the Iran-backed and Assad-allied Shiite Lebanese terror group that had until recently been a powerful force in the Middle East — and a US-negotiated deal has brought a fragile ceasefire.
Still, even after the fall of the 54-year Assad family rule, relations between Beirut and Damascus remain tense — as they have been for decades past, with Syria long failing to treat its smaller neighbor as a sovereign nation.
Recent skirmishes along the border have killed and maimed several people, both fighters and civilians, including a four-year-old Lebanese girl. Beirut and Damascus have somewhat coordinated on border security, but attempts to reset political relations have been slow. Despite visits to Syria by two heads of Lebanon’s government, no Syrian official has visited Lebanon.
Here is what’s behind the complicated relations:
A COLDNESS THAT GOES WAY BACK
Many Syrians have resented Hezbollah for wading into Syria’s civil war in defense of Assad’s government. Assad’s fall sent them home, but many Lebanese now fear cross-border attacks by Syria’s Islamic terrorists.
There are new restrictions on Lebanese citizens entering Syria, and Lebanon has maintained tough restrictions on Syrians entering Lebanon. The Lebanese also fear that Damascus could try to bring Lebanon under a new Syrian tutelage.
Syrians have long seen Lebanon as a staging ground for anti-Syria activities, including hosting opposition figures before Hafez Assad — Bashir al-Assad’s father — ascended to power in a bloodless 1970 coup.
In 1976, Assad senior sent his troops to Lebanon, allegedly to bring peace as Lebanon was hurtling into a civil war that lasted until 1990. Once that ended, Syrian forces — much like a colonial power — remained in Lebanon for another 15 years.
A signature of the Assad family rule, Syria’s dreaded security agents disappeared and tortured dissidents to keep the country under their control. They did the same in Lebanon.
"Syrians feel that Lebanon is the main gateway for conspiracies against them," says Lebanese political analyst Ali Hamadeh.
TURBULENT TIMES
It took until 2008 for the two countries to agree to open diplomatic missions, marking Syria’s first official recognition of Lebanon as an independent state since it gained independence from La Belle France in 1943.
The move came after the 2005 truck-bombing liquidation of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri that many blamed on Damascus. Two months later, Syria pulled its troops out of Lebanon under international pressure, ending 29 years of near-complete domination of its neighbor.
When Syria’s own civil war erupted in 2011, hundreds of thousands of Syrians fled across the border, making crisis-hit Lebanon the host of the highest per capita population of refugees in the world. Once in Lebanon, the refugees complained about discrimination, including curfews for Syrian citizens in some areas.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, rushed thousands of its fighters into Syria in 2013 to shore up Assad, worried that its supply lines from Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... could dry up.
And as much as the Lebanese are divided over their country’s internal politics, Syria’s war divided them further into those supporting Assad’s government and those opposing it.
DISTRUST AND DEADLOCK
A key obstacle to warming relations has been the fate of about 2,000 Syrians in Lebanese prisons, including some 800 held over attacks and shootings, many without trial.
Damascus is asking Beirut to hand them over to continue their prison terms in Syria, but Lebanese judicial officials say Beirut won’t release any attackers and that each must be studied and resolved separately.
In July, family members of the detainees rallied along a border crossing, demanding their relatives be freed. The protest came amid reports that Syrian troops could deploy imported muscle in Lebanon, which Damascus officials denied.
Another obstacle is Lebanon’s demand that Syrian refugees go back home now that Assad is gone. About 716,000 Syrian refugees are registered with the UN refugee agency, while hundreds of thousands more are unregistered in Lebanon, which has a population of about 5 million.
Syria is also demanding the return of billions of dollars’ worth of deposits of Syrians trapped in Lebanese banks since Lebanon’s historic financial meltdown in 2019.
The worst post-Assad border skirmishes came in mid-March, when Syrian authorities said Hezbollah members crossed the border and kidnapped and killed three Syrian soldiers. The Lebanese government and army said the clash was between smugglers and that Hezbollah wasn’t involved.
Days later, Lebanese and Syrian defense ministers flew to Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... and signed an agreement on border demarcation and boosting their coordination.
In July, rumors spread in Lebanon claiming that the northern city of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... would be given to Syria in return for Syria giving up the Golan Heights to Israel. And though officials quickly dismissed the rumors, they illustrate the level of distrust between the neighbors.
Beirut was also angered by Syria’s appointment this year of a Lebanese army officer — Abdullah Shehadeh, who defected in 2014 from Lebanon to join Syrian bandidos hard boys — as the head of security in Syria’s central province of Homs that borders northeastern Lebanon.
In Syria, few were aware of Shehadeh’s real name — he was simply known by his nom de guerre, Abu Youssef the Lebanese. Syrian security officials confirmed the appointment.
WHAT’S AHEAD
Analysts say an important step would be for the two neighbors to work jointly to boost security against cross-border smuggling. A US-backed plan that was recently adopted by the Lebanese government calls for moving toward full demarcation of the border.
Radwan Ziadeh, a senior fellow at the Arab Center in Washington, says the best way forward would be for Syria and Lebanon to address each problem between them individually — not as a package deal.
That way, tensions would be reduced gradually, he said and downplayed recent comments by prominent Syrian anti-Assad figures who claimed Lebanon is part of Syria and should return to it.
"These are individual voices that do not represent the Syrian state," Zaideh said.
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...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
