economics

‘Biggest Self-Own In The History Of The Internet’: Hillary Clinton Tries To Get Cute Over Qatar

Authored by Steve Watson via modernity.news,

Hillary Clinton can’t help herself when it comes to President Trump, posting on X Wednesday “No one gives someone a $400 million jet for free without expecting anything in return. Be serious,” in reference to Trump’s acceptance of a luxury Boeing 747 from Qatar’s royal family.

Everyone quickly pointed out the hypocrisy, given the Clinton Foundation’s history of accepting substantial donations from Arab states, including Qatar, during her tenure as Secretary of State.

The Clinton Foundation has received over $40 million from Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and even accepted a $1 million gift from Qatar in 2011 without informing the State Department, despite Clinton’s agreement to disclose such contributions for review.

No one gives someone a $400 million dollar jet for free without expecting anything in return. Be serious.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 14, 2025
Respondents noted that Clinton’s post, comments closed as ever, reopened scrutiny of her own ethical lapses, with many pointing out that she’s the last person who should be commenting on this matter.

what did Qatar want from you https://t.co/l3lIEp1zw3 pic.twitter.com/pog3p2KnJ1
— Jerry Dunleavy IV 🇺🇸 (@JerryDunleavy) May 14, 2025
Clinton’s out here tweeting “be serious” about Trump’s plane while her Foundation’s Qatari cash begs for a mirror.

Reminder, the Clinton Foundation received more than $40 million from four Arab states including Qatar https://t.co/2ijleAMBE6 pic.twitter.com/gbC2AcFXvT
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) May 14, 2025
Her money laundering front Foundation is basically an ATM for Arab donors.

Be serious. Nobody give millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation without expecting anything in return. Be serious. https://t.co/IqHMYunYeR pic.twitter.com/VeHpLkzG9B
— Soquel by the Creek (@SoquelCreek) May 14, 2025
She’s permanently residing in a glass house.

Locking the replies gives the game away. She knows we know and yet
— Thomas Raffles (@TomRafflesJr) May 14, 2025

No one tweets that stuff without expecting the replies. Be serious.
— Amelia (@AmeliaHammy) May 14, 2025
Hillary was on speed dial for Qatari cash.

This from someone who jetted around the world collecting “donations” and depositing them in the Clinton Foundation.
— Random Observer (@WilburFudd) May 14, 2025
It’s OK when they do it!

Although that is some of the best expert testimony on subject matter I’ve ever seen. If anyone knows about bribes and graft, it’s the Clintons.
— Frank Mustafa (@FrankMustafaDJ) May 14, 2025
The Uranium One scandal was also referenced, with claims that Clinton facilitated a deal benefiting Russian interests after donations to her foundation, further fueling accusations of double standards.

If there was ever a topic that Hillary Clinton specifically should stay out of it’s suspicious foreign transactions that have the stink of “pay for play” about them https://t.co/DXAHTsWvh5
— Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) May 14, 2025

This is the biggest self-own in the history of the internet. https://t.co/4Xj1uXoPs4
— Couldn’t Be Papa P (@CouldntBePapaP) May 14, 2025

The Pay for Play Queen has thoughts, y’all. https://t.co/BIWieTzyhN
— Inappropriate Ray of ☀️ (Sworn Enemy of Rufus!) (@MrsRotnjetski) May 14, 2025

You ran a pay for play State Dept, so maybe you should sit this one out,…

UK Farmers Fear For Bioethanol Market Following US Trade Deal

Via City AM,

A recent trade deal between the UK and the US has led to the removal of tariffs on American bioethanol, which British farmers fear will undermine their domestic market.

Concerns exist among beef farmers that the deal will result in increased American beef imports, leading to unfair competition and impacting their livelihoods.

The trade agreement has sparked widespread scepticism among British farmers regarding the government’s commitment to protecting their interests and the future of the agricultural sector.

Ministers and commentators heralded the UK’s trade deal with the United States as a political coup that will save thousands of jobs at British automakers. But changes to beef and bioethanol trade rules have left an already bruised agricultural sector fearing the worst, writes Ali Lyon.

When he’s not slavishly editing clips for the hundreds of thousands of people that subscribe to his Youtube channel, Olly Harrison has the not insignificant job of running 1,500 acres of farmland.

But as his impressively regular feed of videos illustrates, tending to that land – and trying to eke out a semblance of profit from it – has become a difficult, bordering on impossible task, as headwind after headwind hit his arable holding near Liverpool.

“It’s been rubbish,” he tells City AM, still dealing with the aftermath of what was England’s driest April on record. 

“We’ve had extremes of weather, which has been very wet or – like now – very dry.”

Added to recent years’ inhospitable climes, are the input costs for producing the wheat his family has grown for five generations. They have, he says, remained at the elevated prices sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, the price he is able to secure for his end product has fallen by as much as 40 per cent since those 2022 supply-constraint-induced highs.

But it is another, more recent, external shock that has Harrison especially worried. One that, while niche and esoteric, could kibosh the safety net he and his fellow British arable farmers have traditionally fallen back on when the wholesale wheat price drops too low.

Bioethanol: The little-known safety net of arable farmers

“The bioethanol market in the UK – for wheat – is quite big,” Harrison says.

“It’s basically the floor in the market.”

Opening up the UK and US’s agricultural markets to more trade was a key football in the frenzied negotiations that helped the Starmer administration become the first country in the world to secure a trade deal with America since 2 April’s ‘Liberation Day’.

And to spur the States’ capricious President into bringing down painful tariffs on Britain’s export industries like automakers and plane parts, the government agreed to lower its own levies on a selection of American agriculture products; namely beef and the fuel.

The beef tariffs were reduced only on imports that subscribed to the UK’s world-leading food standards, leading some in the farming community to breathe a partial sigh of relief. But the bioethanol concessions – which saw the UK’s 19 per cent tariff abolished completely – contained no such…

Adapt Or Die: Redefining Wargaming For The Age Of Algorithmic Warfare

Authored by S.L. Nelson via RealClearWire (emphasis ours),

Commentary

“Adapt or die.” This isn’t just a cliché; it’s a fundamental truth of human survival. Security—the psychological need for stability and protection—is second only to food and water in Maslow’s hierarchy. War directly threatens this security, so understanding war is essential for preserving peace.

One of the oldest tools for grasping the nature of war is wargaming. It is, in essence, a rehearsal—an intellectual simulation that helps leaders make sense of complex, high-stakes decisions before lives and national resources are on the line. But while its utility has persisted, its form has not evolved fast enough to meet the demands of the modern battlefield.

The Problem With Today’s Wargaming

Wargaming is indispensable, but too often, it’s outdated, misused, or misunderstood. In some defense circles, it functions as little more than a stage for confirmation bias, where senior leaders seek validation for preconceived notions rather than insight into novel threats. Worse, wargames frequently remain trapped in analog formats: players huddle around maps, move tokens, make subjective choices, and imagine the rest.

This traditional model assumes that human decisions lie at the heart of conflict. That remains true. But the battlefield is rapidly changing—and the human element is no longer acting alone. As militaries increasingly rely on uncrewed systems, autonomous platforms, and AI-driven operations, our method of simulating war must evolve accordingly.

To prepare for war in 2030, NATO and its allies cannot afford to rely on wargaming methods from 1980. The urgency of modernizing wargaming is not a choice but a necessity for our collective security.

The Rise of Algorithmic Warfare

Consider this: some forecasts suggest that by the 2030s, one-third of militaries could consist of robotic systems. In Ukraine, drone production is trending toward over 2.5 million units annually. This isn’t speculation—it’s already reshaping how war is fought.

In such a world, the idea of a wargame that exclusively simulates human decision-making is dangerously incomplete. Swarms of autonomous drones executing algorithm-driven tactics change not only the character of war but also the speed, scale, and unpredictability of combat. Abstracting these developments away misses the point entirely. A game without machines is a game divorced from reality.

Critically, decision-making itself is changing. While senior leaders continue to anchor their intuition in past experiences, research shows that overconfidence increases in situations involving more chance and ambiguity. Gut instinct, seasoned though it may be, will not suffice when confronted with system-level interactions between thousands of autonomous platforms and sensors.

Technology as a Catalyst, Not a Crutch

The tools to modernize wargaming already exist. Digital environments can now simulate everything from force placement to logistics flows to legal compliance, with users interacting via natural language, voice, or keyboard. This technological advancement offers a beacon of hope for the future of wargaming, allowing commanders to stress-test strategies in real time and track every decision across a replicable digital thread.

This is not science fiction. It is an underused science fact.

Yet many in the defense establishment cling to narrow definitions of wargaming. A leading DoD-affiliated practitioner recently declared, “If the players or sponsors…

Living Near Golf Courses May Double Parkinson’s Risk, Study Finds

Authored by George Citroner via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Residents living within one mile of golf courses may face more than double the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease compared to those living farther away, according to new research.

Potentially Due to Groundwater Contamination

The case-control study, recently published in JAMA Network Open, analyzed data from more than 400 residents living with Parkinson’s and more than 5,000 matched controls across southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin, from 1991 to 2015.
DG FotoStock/Shutterstock

Researchers looked at how close the individuals lived to golf courses and whether their drinking water came from groundwater sources, especially in regions vulnerable to groundwater contamination from pesticide or herbicide use.

The findings showed that those living within one mile of a golf course had more than twice the odds of developing Parkinson’s compared to those living more than six miles away.

The study also found that residents whose tap water was supplied from groundwater sources, particularly in regions prone to groundwater pollution, faced nearly twice the risk of developing Parkinson’s if their water source was near a golf course.

While the study did not measure the type of pesticides used at the golf courses, the authors wrote that studies have linked pesticides used to treat golf courses with the development of Parkinson’s. Examples of pesticides include chlorpyrifos, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), Mancozeb, and so on.

Pesticides have been linked to nerve cell damage associated with Parkinson’s, yet are still commonly applied to golf courses to keep turf healthy and aesthetically pleasing.

These can enter the environment through runoff or groundwater contamination, which could leach into underground water supplies, according to researchers.

Parkinson’s is a progressive and currently has no cure. Risk of developing the degenerative condition increases with age, and most patients are diagnosed when older than 50.

Dr. M. Maral Mouradian, distinguished professor of neurology and director of Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Institute for Neurological Therapeutics, and not involved in the study, told The Epoch Times that the study adds to growing evidence that environmental exposures may play a role in the disease’s development.

An unrelated 2020 study identified a cluster of Parkinson’s cases in a golf community. According to this group of researchers, golf courses may use more pesticides per acre than are used in agriculture.

This can be due to golf courses striving for a visually appealing, uniform appearance that can be achieved using large amounts of pesticides to control weeds, insects, and diseases that could compromise this look.

“We were contacted by a golf community of approximately 2200 people because of a concern that PD was unusually prevalent in their community,” wrote the researchers of the 2020 study.

They discovered that among the multiple pesticides used on the golf course, there were three previously linked with Parkinson’s risk: Mancozeb, 2,4-D, and manganese oxide.

Significant Limitations of the Study: Expert

Independent experts, not involved in the study, urge caution over interpreting the results.

Dr. Michael Genovese, physician and chief medical adviser at Ascendant New York, told The Epoch Times that researchers didn’t directly…

Florida Troopers Now Federally Credentialed To Arrest Illegal Immigrants On Their Own

Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Florida officials announced that 1,800 state Highway Patrol troopers are the first in the nation to receive federal credentials under an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agreement allowing them to arrest illegal immigrants on their own.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and a local police officer arrest an illegal immigrant in Florida in April 2025. ICE

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a press conference on May 12 that the state’s ongoing partnership with ICE included what is known as 287(g) agreements, where state and local law enforcement partner with ICE to help arrest and deport illegal immigrants.

The Florida Highway Patrol entered into a 287(g) task force model that gives them the power to arrest foreign nationals who are in the country illegally and place detainers on them during routine policing, such as traffic stops.

In essence, it allows local law enforcement to operate as an extension of ICE under federal supervision.

DeSantis encouraged other states to support President Donald Trump’s efforts to deport illegal immigrants, noting the success of Operation Tidal Wave. The recent joint federal-state operation arrested more than 1,100 illegal immigrants.

Some of those arrested included members of gangs such as MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, both designated as terrorist organizations by the Trump administration.

Additionally, DeSantis said Florida also swore in 100 troopers as special deputy U.S. marshals, which will allow them to execute federal search warrants and remove dangerous illegal immigrants.

Dave Kerner, director of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, said during the press conference that the Florida troopers are the first fully credentialed law enforcement to be fully operational under the 287(g) task force model.

“What that means is, if you see a state trooper, he or she has federal authorities to detain, investigate, apprehend, and deport,” Kerner said. “We have troopers in all 67 counties of this great state that have that authority.”

Kerner told The Epoch Times that troopers serving as U.S. marshals will be able to go into homes to serve warrants, which isn’t part of the 287(g) agreements.

He said that the programs offer flexibility to state and local jurisdictions, allowing them to determine their level of involvement once they sign up for the agreements.

“It is, by and large, a voluntary effort,” he said. “You can decide how much you want to participate.”
Illegal immigrants from Venezuela turn themselves in to Texas state troopers after crossing the border from Mexico into Del Rio, Texas, on May 18, 2021. John Moore/Getty Images

DeSantis added that there’s a plan on the table that, if approved by the federal government, would allow military judge advocates to act as immigration judges and provide makeshift detention space and transportation for illegal immigrants.

The governor noted that the state’s experience with disaster response, such as during hurricanes, helped the state come up with the plan. He said there are 70,000 to 80,000 illegal immigrants in the state, with final deportation orders issued by…