Is the Supreme Court’s ‘Common Use’ 2nd Amendment Test Really Originalist?

The Supreme Court’s “common use” test has become one of the strongest weapons available to Americans challenging bans on AR-15s, standard-capacity magazines, and other widely owned firearms. It may also rest on a surprisingly weak originalist foundation.

That is the theory recently advanced by Second Amendment plaintiff Charles Nichols, who argues that the Constitution does not protect an arm because enough Americans already own it. The Second Amendment protects arms because the text says the people’s right to keep and bear them “shall not be infringed.”

Nichols’ criticism deserves serious consideration as the Supreme Court prepares to decideViramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins, the consolidated cases asking whether the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect the right to possess AR-15-style and similar semiautomatic rifles. The Court granted review on June 30, 2026.

The challengers have an overwhelming argument under existing precedent: AR-15s are bearable arms, are commonly possessed for lawful purposes, and cannot plausibly be classified as both “dangerous and unusual.” Nichols, however, is asking a more fundamental question. [MORE]

Jonathan Cook: How Israel planned the Gaza Genocide decades ago

In October 2023, Israel found an excuse to breathe new life into an old story of slaughter and expulsion. The chief differences this time have been of scale and duration

The truth slowly comes to light: Israel‘s genocide in Gaza was planned decades ago.

Listen to the testimonies of four Israeli soldiers who served in Gaza.

Soldier 1: “Human lives didn’t matter. You could kill, there was no law. No one would say a word to you. But it’s not a good feeling. It mainly kills your humanity.”

Soldier 2: “At first I wasn’t willing to execute Arabs who weren’t resisting [that is, civilians]. Then we came to the conclusion that we had to kill. We went through the process of ceasing to see them as human beings.”

Soldier 3: “We caught guys, lined them up and eliminated them. In retrospect, it looks like murder.”

Soldier 4: “We would roam through refugee camps in Gaza and carry out purges… Every soldier who was there created a ‘concentration camp’, and they didn’t hesitate to kill people who caused a slight disturbance.”

No, these testimonies are not new. The whistleblowers did not serve in Gaza during the current, ongoing genocide there. These accounts are nearly 60 years old, published last week by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz under the headline “We were ordered to kill”. [MORE]

While Massa Media Conceals Reality and TrumpStein Lies to His Believers, the Unlawful Iran War may go Down as the US’ Worst Ever Defeat

While the US president continues to lie to his people about imagined victories over Iran in West Asia, the arguments fall flat amongst the vast majority of Americans who see through his tired rhetoric. Unlike past military blunders, Washington has not and will not be able to pull the wool over its people's eyes.

Some analysts have attempted to compare Donald Trump’s failure to effectively combat Iran with defeats and strategic mistakes that ruined the reputations of past presidents; this one is very different.

To go through all US wars of aggression is simply too steep a task to take on in a single article, but there are a few different comparisons that are going around which deserve to be analyzed: they are the Iraq War, the Vietnam War, and even Operation Eagle Claw.

All the above-noted comparisons are very much different in their nature from the large-scale air campaign, turned stop-start battles that the Trump administration has engaged in. If we first look at the Vietnam War comparison, this is often said as a figure of speech - “it is so and so’s Vietnam” - which is the way in which some analysts have chosen to apply Vietnam to what we see today. 

Although there is something to be said about how the US is being bogged down in the Iran War, it is a totally different ball game to what occurred in Vietnam. At the beginning stages of the escalation, in October of 1965, a Gallup poll recorded a 64% public approval rating of US intervention in Vietnam, which by 1970 had shifted to around 55% of the US public stating that they sought a return of the troops. [MORE]

Who Wants to Live in This Racist, Digital, Free Range Prison?

Flock Cameras Expose Charlie Kirk Assassination Lie!

Vijay Prashad: The Long Goodbye to the US Dollar

There are moments in history when a system appears so complete that it becomes difficult to imagine its end. When Britannia “ruled the waves,” it was thought in large parts of the world that sterling was not merely a currency but the natural language of commerce itself. 

Since the mid-twentieth century, the United States has spoken of the U.S. dollar in much the same way. Writing in 1980, amid the crisis of the post-Bretton Woods order, the Argentine economist Raúl Prebisch observed that “in the United States the illusion of the almighty dollar held sway.” By then, however, this was not only a U.S. illusion. The dollar had already become the world’s principal reserve currency and the dominant currency of international trade.

Now that illusion has begun, slowly and unevenly, to fray.

Tricontinental‘s latest dossier, “The Architecture of Power: The Dollar, Financialisation, and the Struggle for Sovereignty,” shows that the dollar is not merely money but an institution of imperialist power. The dollar system organises trade, determines access to credit, disciplines governments, finances war and reproduces a hierarchy between the Global North and the Global South. 

The debate over the dollar is therefore not a matter of preferring one currency to another — the dollar over the renminbi (RMB) or the euro — but whether humanity can construct an international monetary order that serves development rather than domination. [MORE]

Young Australians are Dying of Turbo Cancers in the World’s Most COVID ‘Vaccinated’ Country

"I Will Never Betray [Big Pharma's] Science:" Black Probot CDC Nominee Survives ‘Kabuki Theatre’ Hearing by Pledging Obedience to Medical Establishment on Vaccines and Autism, Despite Dangers, Death

On July 15, Dr. Erica Schwartz appeared before the U.S. Senate HELP Committee to make her case for leading the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

But before the nominee had answered a single question, the terms of her confirmation had already been laid down. HELP Committee chairman Bill Cassidy wasted no time.

“A lot of this conversation for me is going to revolve around vaccines,” he announced. “Vaccines should be settled.”

He blamed “a flurry of misinformation” around immunization, saying some people cast doubt on mRNA vaccines “for no other reason than people don’t understand them.”

Mothers and fathers, he said, had become “confused as to whether vaccines are safe to give their children.”

The result was thousands of measles infections, with children hospitalised or dying from vaccine-preventable diseases.

Then came the ultimatum.

“Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe and effective,” Cassidy declared. “Study after study shows they do not cause autism.”

“Any equivocation on these facts,” he warned Schwartz, “and I shall not be able to support your nomination.”

Only then did the questioning begin. Confirmation hearings are meant to test a nominee’s judgment, independence and fitness to lead. Instead, Cassidy announced the conclusions he expected Schwartz to affirm before she had given a single substantive answer. From the outset, it was clear there was no room for dissent.

Cassidy’s concern was whether Schwartz would publicly defend what he regarded as settled science on vaccines. He pointed to her predecessor, Susan Monarez, Ph.D., saying she had been dismissed after refusing to carry out instructions she believed would harm public health.

Would Schwartz show the same resolve and stand up to political pressure? Schwartz responded as most nominees do. She spoke of integrity, the Hippocratic oath and her commitment to public health.

“I will never compromise on that,” she said.

Cassidy pressed her again on whether she would have the authority to reassign or remove CDC staff who were pursuing an agenda he believed was harmful to public health. Schwartz tried to explain that the health secretary had nominated her to lead the CDC and that she expected to carry out that role. Cassidy cut her off several times.

An oath to orthodoxy

“We need a CDC director that will actually stand up to crazy, stupid things being said that undermine faith in immunization,” Cassidy said. “Are you the person?” Schwartz answered cautiously.

“You have my assurances that I will continue to lead by my integrity. I will never compromise on the science.” Cassidy noted that she had already been through a “murder board.”

That is Washington shorthand for the gruelling mock confirmation hearings in which nominees rehearse difficult questions with advisers before appearing before senators.

He pressed once more, asking whether she would say no to “junk science” and stand up for what was “right and true.”

Schwartz replied, “I have always stood up for what is right and what is true,” adding, “I will never betray the science.”

Cassidy left little doubt that his support was contingent on Schwartz affirming conclusions he regarded as settled.

Israeli foreign agent took over The Charlie Kirk Show days after his fake Killing

Charlie Kirk’s media empire and his right-wing activist organization, Turning Point USA (TPUSA), have come under the control of the Israel-directed forces he spent the last months of his life antagonizing. Erika Kirk now claims her husband supported Israel to the end, while TPUSA misrepresents his opposition to war on Iran. 

The Charlie Kirk Show is now distributed by a federally registered agent of Israel tasked with seeding American media with Zionist propaganda. It is part of a whopping $46 million dollar annual contract between the Israeli government and Brad Parscale, the former chief of staff for Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign. This may be the largest lobbying contract in the history of foreign influence operations in the US.

On September 10, 2025, Kirk was assassinated during the first stop on his American Comeback Tour at Utah Valley State University. Eight days later, Parscale registered as a foreign agent of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, assuming responsibility for a propaganda blitz “tailored to Gen Z audiences across platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, podcasts, and other relevant digital and broadcast outlets.” [MORE]

Ukraine has become a testing ground for Western military technologies, AI-driven warfare, and defense industry interests - serving geopolitical and corporate objectives beyond Ukraine

In June 2026, the Russian military continues its slow advances against the Ukrainian military in the Donbass region and elsewhere in the former eastern Ukraine, amidst the NATO proxy war being waged against the Russian Federation. Russian forces are grinding down the dwindling ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

For its part, the government in Kiev, whose mandate has expired, is focusing on drone strikes against oil refineries and shipping terminals in Russia. This fits into the overall strategy of the Western, NATO powers to deprive their economic competitors of oil supply in the struggle to maintain global hegemony. This can also be seen further in the continued, debilitating attacks and sanctions aimed against the peoples of Iran, the Middle East as a whole, and Venezuela and Cuba.  

In late May, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy issued a five-page, open letter to US President Donald Trump dated May 26, requesting that more missiles be supplied as soon as possible. As noted by the Ukrainian analytical Telegram channel Rubicon on May 30, “While arms deliveries were previously discussed rather privately, now everything is taking the form of public appeals of ‘Donald, help us, and fast!’. [MORE]

Puppetician JD Vance: Palantir's Front Man for the New Surveillance Leviathan

A pan-ideological coalition is growing against the more odious of U.S. alliances, especially the United Arab Emirates and Israel. This is a natural development to counter the typical center-left vs center-right pro-surveillance and interventionist alliance. It is therefore quite possible that new permutations will arise from within the foreign policy establishment to counter growing criticism of the various entrapping alliances whose benefits increasingly seem to only exist for lobbyists and defense contractors. This could well involve the coming together of the traditionally bellicose center, constantly losing with the public but maintaining a death grip on policymaking and the media, with the current crop of ‘post-liberal’ reactionaries who see themselves as ascendant even as their general popularity continues to crater. A quite likely place of convergence between these forces under present circumstances is that of Vice President J.D. Vance.

First, some context is needed. [MORE]

Gabbard Drops Fauci COVID-19 Receipts On Last Day: He Funded The Research, Cooked The Cover Story, Then Lied To Congress

Newly declassified documents released Thursday by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard show that a U.S. national laboratory assessed the COVID-19 lab-origin hypothesis as a serious possibility as early as May 2020, as well as evidence of U.S.-funded coronavirus research that included planning for spike-protein modifications, receptor-adaptation experiments, and testing in humanized mice in collaboration with researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The documents also prove that Anthony Fauci lied under oath. [MORE]

Smoking Gun Documents Suggest Fauci Knew COVID was Created in Wuhan Lab, and mRNA injections Were Deadly and Injurious

From [HERE] In August 2021, Dr. Anthony Fauci received a U.S. intelligence report suggesting the COVID-19 virus was developed in Chinese and U.S. labs as a bat vaccine, that it subsequently leaked from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, and that it contained characteristics that would make it resistant to mRNA vaccines.

The report, authored by Joseph Murphy, a major with the U.S. Marine Corps, and printed on Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) letterhead, was part of a tranche of documents Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) released Thursday as part of his ongoing congressional investigation into the origins of COVID-19.

The documents show that not only did Fauci receive the DARPA report, but that in an Aug. 25, 2021, email to National Institutes of Health (NIH) officials, he called it “important.” “Let us discuss my going down to the White House to review the report,” Fauci wrote.

The document tranche also contained evidence that Fauci cultivated ties with intelligence agencies at least as early as 2003, the same year he received a CIA report warning of the dangers of genetically manipulating coronaviruses.

Fauci later used these intelligence connections to sway the intelligence community to support the zoonotic theory of COVID-19’s origin, the documents show. [MORE]

War Veteran says Unprovoked, Immoral War Against Iran Driven by Corporate Profit, not Nuclear Concerns

From [HERE] The US-Israeli war against Iran was never about nuclear weapons, but about corporate profit and control over the country’s oil, according to a prominent American anti-war activist.

In an interview with the Press TV website, Mike Ferner, a long-time anti-war activist and former national director of Veterans for Peace, pulled no punches in his criticism of Washington's motives and the influence of Zionist lobbies and US corporations.

Asked whether the US-Israeli war against Iran was necessary, particularly given that it unfolded in the midst of Oman-mediated nuclear talks in Geneva and despite Iran's repeated assertions that it is not seeking a nuclear weapon, Ferner offered a blunt answer.

"The war was necessary if you understand that the US is an empire and US corporations govern it, influenced by Zionists," Ferner told the Press TV website.

He identified financial interests as the primary drivers of the war, not security concerns.

"Weapons-making corporations saw it as an opportunity to make billions," he stated. "Oil companies saw it as a way to reassert control over Iran's oil. These corporations basically control our foreign policy."

Ferner also pointed to the collapse of diplomatic alternatives, noting that a functional nuclear agreement had already existed, one that the Trump administration had previously withdrawn from, referring to the 2015 nuclear deal.

"There was a functioning agreement that Trump will not be able to replace," he said. "In the meantime, Iranians are suffering and dying, while in this country millions of people still go without health care."

Many analysts, including Iranian officials and even some US figures such as former top counterterrorism official Joe Kent, assert that President Donald Trump was drawn into the war by Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who had previously failed to persuade US presidents to directly engage Iran on Israel's behalf.

"It would not surprise me if that were true," the anti-war activist said.

On Washington's stated rationale for the unprovoked war against Iran, Ferner pointed to both Iran's consistent position on its nuclear program and recent US military actions.

Iran has long maintained that it does not seek a nuclear weapon, a position backed by a formal religious decree (fatwa) from the martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. [MORE]

Dr. Gatti: The First COVID/mRNA "Vaccine" was a Swab Test

Ron Paul: The Ceasefire is a Scam

From [RONPAUL] During my most recent appearance on Judge Napolitano’s Judging Freedom on Wednesday I expressed the view that the ongoing ceasefire between Washington and Tehran was a scam designed to support Israeli interests in the region and to give both Tel Aviv and the White House breathing room to prepare for the next major assault on Iran. I based my judgment on several aspects of the story being circulated by the White House and the tame media. First of all, it is being suggested that the US acceptance of the proposal for a ceasefire put forward by Iran through mediators in Pakistan was arrived at without discussions with Israel. In other words, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had no preview of it nor hand in it. [MORE]

Stop Pretending Military Spending is about ‘Defense’ and that Soldiers Fight for Our Freedom

$1.5 trillion.

With a “t.”

That’s how much US president Donald Trump wants Congress to appropriate for military (falsely called “defense”) spending in 2027.

And that number — there’s no other way to put this — is insane. The only proper date for such a spending request, followed by a winking grin emoji, is April 1.

Let’s compare.

At the height of the US war in Vietnam, in 1969, the US government spent about $85.5 billion ($761 billion in inflated 2026 dollars) on “defense.”

In 1991, when the US deployed hundreds of thousands of troops for Desert Storm, the US government spent about $313 billion, or $750 billion accounting for inflation.

In 2004, while fighting wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, that number was about $450 billion, or $780 billion in 2026 dollars.

Yes, it’s wartime again.

As usual, the war — this time with Iran — is entirely illegal/unconstitutional (only Congress can declare war, and it hasn’t).

And, as usual, the war is entirely optional and serves no defensive purpose whatsoever.

The president keeps telling us THIS war will be over Real Soon Now, and he started talking about a $1.5 trillion military budget months before he launched Operation Epic Fail, so the 40% bump clearly isn’t about Iran. [MORE]

WHO Teams With Singapore Firm Tied to Pfizer, Bill Gates to Roll Out Global Vaccine Passports

Five years after digital vaccine passports were introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) is partnering with an investment firm linked to COVID-19 vaccine maker BioNTech and the Gates Foundation to roll out “interoperable digital health wallets.”

The WHO announced earlier this week that it is partnering with Temasek, a firm owned by the Singapore government that participated in a $250 million investment in BioNTech in June 2020 — a few months before BioNTech released a COVID-19 vaccine in conjunction with Pfizer.

The initiative “builds on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, which demonstrated the urgency of reliable, verifiable digital health documentation,” the WHO said.

The initiative will begin with digital international certificates of vaccination or prophylaxis and will later expand to “broader personal health summaries.” It will be piloted in the 11 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to develop a “replicable model” for potential export to other countries.

The initiative is a result of last year’s amendments to the WHO’s International Health Regulations(IHR), which called for “globally recognized digital health certificates.” [MORE]