Editor’s Note: Barack Obama, who served as the 44th President of the United States, spoke at a post-election gathering of black voters. Matt Manochio of  The American Spectator was present and submits this transcript of Obama’s brutally honest speech. African American men, as your undisputed leader and messianic father figure, I, Barack Obama (he/him), am disappointed in the 24 percent of you who disrespected me by voting for Donald Trump. As my former pastor Jeremiah Wright would say, God damn America. I say that daily, but say it now out of rage rather than habit because of your selfishness. African/South Asian/Jamaican-American Vice President Kamala Harris was destined to be our next historic president until she started speaking and voters listened. Not everyone possesses my gift for oration. Kamala’s inability to speak substantively should not have disqualified her, given the state of our public education system. Frankly, Kamala should not have had to speak at all. When I reluctantly installed her — er, I mean, when Kamala became our nominee from the grassroots up — the American electorate simply should’ve forgone November’s election and handed her power. However, the United States has this quaint notion that Democrats should debase themselves by explaining their ideas to the hoi polloi rather than being empowered to implement them outright. This forced Kamala to concoct core beliefs beyond forcing Catholic hospitals to abort babies. Any heartfelt values she focus-grouped shouldn’t have mattered because her marginalized status and that D next to her name has always meant minorities (African Americans, specifically) would blindly vote for her. Enough of you signaled you wouldn’t, forcing my hand. Do you think I wanted to fly from Martha’s Vineyard to your housing projects to lecture you? I have better things to do, like producing Netflix documentaries about me. “You’re thinking about sitting out or supporting somebody (Trump) who has a history of denigrating you, because you think that’s a sign of strength, because that’s what being a man is? Putting women down?” I scolded you in Pittsburgh. “That’s not acceptable.” The Democratic party has plenty of masculine role models for you to emulate, like Jonathan Capehart or my wife. But Trump? Have you yet to realize your place by now? We swoop into your neighborhoods every two to four years to remind you to vote Democrat so we can make your lives marginally better while keeping you dependent on us. But no matter how poorly we run your crime-ridden cities, you must blame Republicans, and you vote for us. “But Mr. Great President,” you might tell me, “my groceries cost too much and were cheaper under Trump.” I haven’t stepped foot in a grocery store in years — someone does that for me. But regardless of how expensive your food is, we Democrats make sure your welfare benefits are on your EBT cards. Since when has that not been good enough for you? What more could Kamala have done to treat you like respectable, mature adults? Once she realized African American men were abandoning her, she offered you marijuana the way Mortimer Duke dangled a bottle of alcohol in front of Billy Ray Valentine in Trading Places: “Whiskey! All you want!” If asking for your vote in exchange for drugs doesn’t express how much she cares about you, nothing does. Still, you betrayed me. My friend and former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson was just as distraught upon realizing you began thinking for yourselves. “As different demographic groups become further integrated into our society, they start caring about all of the other issues that everyone else does,” Johnson said forlornly on MSNBC. “Whether it’s the economy, crime, whether it’s border security.” Johnson described the Democrats’ nightmare scenario, which apparently occurred: Even though Kamala did a terrific job securing the border, many counties on the border, some of which are overwhelmingly Hispanic, voted for Trump.) Because I am not Hispanic, I cannot credibly chastise the 45 percent of you who voted for Trump. I will leave that to intellectual heavyweights like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) or that useful idiot on The View. But I agree with Joe Scarborough and the Rev. Al Sharpton that Hispanic and African American men who don’t vote for a mixed-race Democratic woman are misogynistic racists on par with George Wallace or David Duke. African American men who voted for Trump, I awoke November 6 and stood on my mansion’s seaside balcony, a steaming-hot latte in hand. I averted my eyes from the sun’s glare off the Atlantic Ocean, and I thought, America faces waters rougher than the waves crashing into my yacht because you ignored me. While you disappoint me the way a naughty son bedevils his father, remember that I care about how you vote. And I will remind you of this four years from now. In the meantime, stay off my lawn. READ MORE from Matt Manochio: Kamala Harris’s 60 Minutes Interview, for Real Matt Walsh’s Am I Racist? Properly Reviewed The post Kamala’s Loss Leaves Obama Seething appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

There was a moment of civility following the election, with both the president and the vice president calling the president-elect to congratulate him on his winning campaign and assure him of their full cooperation in the transition. He reportedly accepted it gracefully. Go big, then … offer Jack Smith and Alvin Bragg … new positions in traffic courts. The factions should leave it at that, courtesies, cooperation, politics, competitive as always but without the end-of-times hysteria. Politics ain’t bean bag and never has been, just review the hatred — not to mention an armed rebellion — George Washington, father of the nation, put up with. But in America, you must know even very bad moments are not the end of anything, and even when they are, they are also the beginning of something. The truth is, though, some people just will not quit. Matt Walsh, one of the funniest observers of our odd times, explains in a recent skit how some innocent sarcastic comments of his on the Project 2025 bogeyman were taken literally by down-melts, some of whom expressed without irony a wish to make him dead. It is not only here: the sharp and witty Elizabeth Moutet, writing from Paris for the London Telegraph, reports on paranoiac Euro reactions to Trump’s win. Which is not to say the stakes are not high. The campaign marked the clashing moment in what has been for many years a spirited debate about the nature of American society and the place of government in sustaining, or changing, it. Two pieces written during the campaign, James Piereson in the New Criterion and Chris DeMuth in the Wall Street Journal, lay out what conservatives have been saying about the urgent need to let the air out of the Washington blob and reduce the size and reach of the federal government, which must include restoring the  balance among its branches. In this regard, the best indicator of the incoming administration’s success may turn out to be a devaluation in the real estate market in Washington D.C. and the surrounding Maryland and Virginia counties, which are among the richest in the country. By all rights it should be happening while the nation experiences a bullish stock market, and a job-creating economic expansion. There is no call, whatever the urge, for schadenfreude. Comity would in fact be welcome. The Republic faces enemies, within and without, that wish us devastating harm. We ought to be able to agree what these enemies represent, who they are, what strengths they have.  Then we can agree on prudent strategies to confound them without doing damage to our liberties, our way of life, and our system of government. In the past we have made mistakes in this area. John Adams, second president and one of the greats, was perhaps overbearing with the Alien and Sedition acts, however well intended. They were never applied to the degree the far worse disloyalty and treason laws of the Woodrow Wilson (28th president and one of the worst) administration. Internal and foreign security can be achieved without prejudice to liberty within a broad consensus. After all, we have had such consensuses in the past, marred at times by boneheaded execution, but we can learn and improve by studying history, ours and others’. We Define Our Enemies And we should, because if we cannot agree on the threat, it is difficult to see how we can avoid another eruption of partisan strife with the concomitant insults, as well as the abuse of federal agencies and the courts, which as we have seen lowers the people’s esteem and trust.  So, let us begin with a list of enemies that all can agree on. An enemies list should be made up not of national or ethnic or cultural groups, because then you miss the tree for the forest, of worse, the tree you see misleads you regarding the forest.  You define enemies by what they do.  Murderers would make the list, and other sociopaths, such as pickpockets. Here’s a better way to put it: an enemy is anyone who breaches the accepted moral code. But do we have one?  That is the big question now. One way to let the code reveal itself in practice would be to go big on magnanimity. With malice toward none is one of the classic phrases in the American language, and rightly so. Magnanimity, absence of malice and charitable impulse, requires empathy and the will to serve and protect others. Donald Trump understands this: his dismay at the shortcomings of our culture, our press, our legal system, our political system, and much else in our society and nation motivated his entry into politics and propelled his disruptive victories over a failing status-quo. Notwithstanding fits of temper that had deplorable results, notably in the aftermath of the 2020 election, he is what Southerners used to call a champion, a battler who establishes a rapport with his people because of a demonstrated willingness to defend them, speak for their cause. The good humor and especially the connection with voters he achieves repeatedly are the marks of a man with a heart, a beating heart and, this matters too, a heart that he knows he sometimes must close. Go big, then: rather than punish anyone, offer Jack Smith and Alvin Bragg — to take two sorry examples of persons toward whom another man would feel bitterness — new positions in traffic courts. Judge Merchan might be assigned as a public defender in a precinct next to a red light district, where he could learn to exercise some compassion to tone down the show-me-the-man-I’ll-find-a-crime vindictiveness that seems to be his forte. Leaders of the opposition party ought to be invited as soon as possible to meet with the new president that he might hear their perspectives as well as their most dire fears and grandest hopes.  My own suggestion would be a nice lunch somewhere, low key and casual, though with correct dress required. The host would sit and listen and say nothing except the occasional quiet “yeah” or “yeh, innarestin'” or “umm, never thought of that” with the slightest accent on “that”; and then, “Well, thank you ladies and gentlemen, have a nice rest of the day, goodbye.” The gestures of the moment must include the “charity for all” part of Abraham Lincoln’s revered line. Beginning with a major dinner party for the liberated January 6 hostages (with meaningful financial compensations) and others, like Daniel Petty, the president can show that American justice cannot work if it is based on politically-defined categories of victims and oppressors. Re-Value Work Charity, to last, must involve a new dedication to the value of work.  Teach a man to work, and more to the point in a land of opportunity like ours, remove the obstacles to gainful work, and the need for in-kind or monetary charity will be much reduced.  Welfare for the truly needy is fine, as is public education and essential health care, but the private sector is, or should be, the leader in these areas as it should be in most other areas of life in a free society. The aim, expressed by conservatives for as long as there have been governments trying to corner the market for compassion, is to build character, self-reliance, and to remove obstacles to opportunity.  If we can explore space and find cures for cancer and make double rye whiskeys — all of which and much more we have done — by God we ought to figure out welfare reform. I myself, for example, know many fantastically gifted cooks who could give McDonalds a run for its money — which by the way would be good for McDonalds — in the fast eats business.  And they never ask for help, only the lowering of barriers to entry. Enterprise, a thousand-ship Navy, the best Air Force in the world — America will be safe, America will be sound, there will be no percentage in changing genders, no need to fret over time clocks between pitches on the baseball field or serves on the tennis court, no reason to steal from CVS stores, priests will be kind and rabbis will be wise, pastors will be steadfast in faith and teachers will be strict and patient and, yes, kind.  Screw up and succeed, fall and rise again: in America, nothing is impossible. READ MORE from Roger Kaplan: Reflections on the End of an Election Cycle Are We About to Replay the Alger Hiss Affair? The post Now We Move Forward, With Malice Toward None appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

The United States employs about 1.3 million soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, special operations personnel, and other active service military members. The security of the entire nation, as well as the security of allies, global shipping lanes, and airspaces depends directly on these individuals who comprise less than 1 percent of U.S. adults. The low tuition reimbursement rate for active military members is made even more stark when compared to Pell Grants. It is no hyperbole to say that our lives depend on these men and women who serve the nation. The service that our military personnel provide is even more extraordinary when we realize that they volunteer for duty. In 1968, the U.S. had 3.5 million active service members, but that number dwindled precipitously after 1973 when the draft ended. Today, everyone in uniform is there by choice. Despite the commitment and sacrifice of military personnel, the nation’s support of them is lackluster. According to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), the starting monthly pay for enlisted personnel is $2,261 after an initial six-month period, though this can vary depending on location, skills, etc. A primary reason individuals join the military is the tuition benefit that the military provides. According to Indeed.com, education and training benefits are the second main driver of enlisting after a sense of duty. Tuition benefits for veterans are very good. Thanks to the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 (Post 9/11 GI Bill), veterans have all tuition and fees covered at public institutions and up to $28,937 at private schools. In most cases, veterans’ tuition benefits are transferable to dependents. Tuition benefits for active military members, however, are far below the average rate of tuition in the U.S. Active military members are reimbursed only $250 per credit hour up to an annual cap of $4,500. While the average cost of tuition increased 65 percent from 2000 to 2021, the active military tuition reimbursement rate has not changed since 2002. Today, the average cost of one credit hour at public four-year institutions is $456, and it is nearly three times that amount at private schools. Many colleges and universities cannot afford to honor the $250 reimbursement rate, so given the modest salaries of active military and the low tuition reimbursement rate, members of our armed forces have increasingly limited choices of schools to attend. The low tuition reimbursement rate for active military members is made even more stark when compared to Pell Grants. Pell Grants are need-based financial aid administered by the U.S. Department of Education. The maximum Pell Grant amount that a student can receive in 2024 is $7,395, which is 64 percent more than the maximum tuition reimbursement rate for active military personnel. Hence, the men and women who actively defend the United States everyday receive fewer tuition benefits than those who demonstrate need but provide no military service to the country. There is a relatively simple three-step solution to this problem. First, the Department of Defense receives about $800 million annually for tuition reimbursement. However, it only uses about $600 million for that purpose. The remainder of the funds goes toward training and other activities. If the Department of Defense used all the money it receives for tuition assistance for that purpose, it could increase the tuition reimbursement rate to $300-350 per credit hour. The second step in the solution is for Congress to allocate more resources for active military tuition. It might seem as though $800 million is a lot of money. It is, until it is put into a broader context. The 2024 Department of Education budget is $79.1 billion. $24.6 billion is allocated for federal student aid programs that do not impact the military tuition reimbursement rate. If Congress added $500 million to the Department of Defense budget stipulating that it must be used for tuition reimbursement, it would allow the active-duty tuition reimbursement rate to increase to at least the average cost of a credit hour at public universities. The third and final step in the solution is to tie annual increases in the active military tuition reimbursement rate to the consumer price index. This would ensure that another 22 years do not go by without an increase. It is in the best interest of every American to have a strong military. Since the U.S. has a completely voluntary armed forces, we must ensure that we continue to attract strong, capable, and dedicated individuals who want to serve and protect the nation. A small investment in the benefit that drives many to enlist would go a long way to ensure that the country remains protected for many years to come. READ MORE: Wokeness Is Responsible for the Military Recruitment Crisis It’s Time to Fix Incompetence in the Pentagon The post A Tuition Bump Can Ensure a Strong Military appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Muse of Fire: World War I as Seen Through the Lives of the Soldier Poets By Michael Korda (Liveright Publications, 381 pages, $30) The First World War saw an outburst of poetic creativity unmatched in European history. Fueled by bitter anger at a war that destroyed the comfortable world of Victorian prosperity and complacency, the so-called “war poets” changed the nature and themes of English poetry forever.  Owens, Korda believes, outshone all the other poets despite the fact that only four of his poems had been published during his lifetime. Michael Korda, author of over 20 books and an influential publisher, now in his 90s, has authored a new book centering on the lives of six of the most quoted and highly regarded of these poets: Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, Alan Seeger, Isaac Rosenberg, and Wilfred Owen. He divides them into two categories: those like Brooke and Seeger who wrote about war with a sense of innocence and those who bitterly denounced the war and its terrible violence. Brooke, to whom Korda devotes a third of the book, wrote about war in romantic terms and in the lyrical tradition of English poetry: “Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His Hour,” comparing going to war “as swimmers into cleanness leaping.” Brooke is clearly Korda’s personal favorite among the poets although his innocence about what war means makes his war poetry seems juvenile. He died of an infection before experiencing war and found, as he wrote, the “corner of a foreign field that was forever England.” Seeger, the only American among the group of six and the only one not an officer, lived in France and had a passionate love for the country, one of those about whom Oscar Wilde wrote: “When good Americans die, they go to Paris.” Seeger joined the French Foreign Legion to take part in the war, to have, he wrote in one of his poems, “the rare joy of dying well.” He wrote about going into battle with a naivete that matched Brooke’s. “I am happy and full of excitement over the wonderful days that are ahead.” On July 4, 1916, Seeger found his “rendezvous with death” fighting in a futile and meaningless battle. He was the last of the war poets to glorify death. The remaining four poets had no time for talk about Seeger’s “privilege of dying well.” They were all British, all officers, and all bitter at their experience of war. Robert Graves, to whom Korda devotes the least attention, perhaps because he is the best known due to his popular book of war experiences — Goodbye to All That — and the subsequent fame of his I Claudius stories. The book is filled with tales of seeing the ghosts of his dead comrades, his affection toward his men under his command, and a bizarre story of how after he was wounded his commanding officer wrote his parents that he had died. Graves enjoyed his war, writing that he wanted to be a good officer and win medals, something that comes through in his book. His war poetry hasn’t had the impact that the work of the others did, which explains why his chapter is so flat. Korda’s best chapters revolve around Sassoon, Rosenberg, and Owen. In fact, the one chapter I would single out is that dealing with Sassoon, who Korda regards as having the surest touch with words. His poetry “begs to be read aloud,” something not true of the others. It is also the bitterest with his anger directed at those civilians and military who prolonged the war. “Good morning, good morning!” The General said When we met him last week on our way to the line, Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of them dead And we’re cursing his staff for incompetent swine. “He’s a cheery old card,” grunted Harry to Jack As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.  But he did for them both by his plan of attack.  And yet Sassoon loved the war and its comradery in some ways, denouncing the violence and yet returning to the Army after he had been declared mentally unfit. Like Graves he coveted decorations. Two Special Poets Korda has great respect for the last two of the war poets, Isaac Rosenberg and Wilfred Owen. Rosenberg came from an impoverished Jewish family although he was not much interested in things Jewish, according to Korda. Unlike the other poets he did not find writing easy and labored over his poems. Korda admires his determination to write. His poetry, according to Korda, has “a directness and simplicity” not found in the work of the better educated others. He has not found the audience that the others, except Seeger, have today. Owens, Korda believes, outshone all the other poets despite the fact that only four of his poems had been published during his lifetime. No one better described “the pity of war” (his words) better than Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est.”  My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory,  That old Lie: Duce et decorum est  Pro patria mori There is something profoundly melancholy in these words, given that Owens died in a futile infantry attack less than a week before the war ended. The war poetry is still read today in college and one hopes the high school core. Korda, with his great love for their work, has written a beautiful book in remembrance of them. READ MORE from John Rossi: A Little-Known Film Is a John Wayne Gem Film Noir Made Me Conservative John P. Rossi is a professor emeritus of history at La Salle University in Philadelphia. The post The Soldier Poets Who Knew About War appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Eleven thousand North Korean troops sent by Kim Jung Un to aid his close ally Vladimir Putin in his war against Ukraine, include a significant contingent of Special Forces with recent combat experience in Syria and trained to fight South Korea’s powerful army. Much of the media has been downplaying the threat posed by the North Koreans, describing them as “inexperienced,” “underfed,” and generally unfit by the Wall Street Journal, London Times, and several other major news outlets. Putin doesn’t mind sacrificing hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers to the Ukrainian meat grinder. It’s said that Kim’s troops can’t operate Russian equipment because they are “unfamiliar” with sophisticated weapon systems and the language barrier. According to widely circulated but unverified Ukrainian reports, 18 have supposedly defected and The Guardian quotes cocky Ukrainian soldiers who say they are learning Korean to tell them to surrender after a North Korean unit reportedly came under fire last week. “Never underestimate your enemy” is the first tenet of Sun Tzu’s Art of War and if the widespread public perceptions of the North Koreans deployed to Ukraine are any reflection of U.S. and NATO intelligence assessments, the West may be violating that golden rule. While the bulk of North Korea’s mass conscript army of 1.2 million, the fourth largest in the world, is undoubtedly in poor shape, with many recruits serving as little more than glorified slave labor, its special forces, or 11th Storm Corps selected from about 200,000 elite sections of the armed forces, are highly trained in unconventional warfare, sabotage, deep infiltration, and reconnaissance operations, according to the Defense Intelligence Agency. They have recently fought in Syria as a key ground component of Russia’s large scale support for the regime of Bashir Al Assad against a U.S. backed insurgent coalition. Many North Korean “Storm” officers have operated and trained with Russian Spetsnaz and speak Russian. A 2018 report by the editorial staff of Military Watch magazine revealed that “on March 2016, representatives of the Western backed (Syrian) insurgent forces stated that North Korean military personnel had been deployed for combat operations in the country on Damascus’ behalf.” The head of the High Negotiations Committee named “two North Korean units” which he described as “lethal” at a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, and these Korean personnel have proven an invaluable asset to Syrian government forces. (READ MORE from Martin Arostegui: Swallowing Eastern Ukraine Piecemeal) Deploying special forces to Syria remains an effective means of contributing to Damascus’ war effort, and the latest in a long line of North Korean military interventions to support friendly states against Western aligned adversaries. With anti-government groups deploying some of the latest Western made weaponry, and European and U.S. special forces having been found to operate alongside a number of them in the field, combat in Syria is likely to provide the Korean military with invaluable experience in countering the latest Western arms and tactics — invaluable knowledge which can be passed onto KPA (Korean Peoples Army) units at home in future. Experience in urban fighting and capturing fortified enemy territory, operations which the KPA has seldom performed since the Korean War, is also highly invaluable.” The North Korean military personnel also manned Russian air defense missiles and flew MIG fighters for Syria, according to Military Watch. The Western media mantra about North Koreans not being in combat since the 1950s Korean War is highly misleading. During the late 1960s, North Korean SOF conducted a series of deep infiltration missions into South Korean territory across the heavily fortified DMZ that often involved moving through layers of obstacles, mine fields, watch posts and South Korean patrols. They staged about 700 raids into South Korea, killing hundreds of South Korean personnel and 70 American servicemen, according to the defense magazine Grey Dynamics. While the three year “Quiet War” ultimately failed in the objective of sparking an insurgency in South Korea, it provided the basis for the selection and training of elite North Korean units that formed the 11th Storm Corps now organized into 20 specialized brigades, whose preparation includes use of biological and chemical weapons.  Storm Corps’ light infantry brigades are normally attached to regular units as shock troops, similar to the way that Spetsnaz operate in the Russian army. Storm Reconnaissance and Sniper brigades trained to operate and survive behind enemy lines offer further skills that Putin urgently needs. He has to dislodge Ukrainian forces entrenched in the Russian border region of Kursk, without diverting elite Russian forces from Ukraine’s eastern industrial region of Donbass where they are making steady gains and which he must control before agreeing to peace negotiations being pushed by the incoming U.S. administration of president Donald Trump. According to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, two or three North Korean brigades commanded by their own officers are “making their way to Kursk,” which was invaded last August by elite Ukrainian mechanized and airborne troops that are now struggling to hold onto a 300 — 400 mile perimeter, amidst concerted Russian counter attacks. Locating and destroying control bunkers of Ukraine’s lethal fleet of robotic drones and otherwise eroding Ukrainian rear positions in Kursk was assigned to a Russian naval infantry brigade, recently transferred to the area, which has endured heavy casualties. It’s being reinforced by North Korean special forces which have been undergoing initial joint training with the Russian marines for night-time operations using advanced thermal goggles according to Ukrainian intelligence reports. Korean racial characteristics are similar to Russians from eastern Siberia, allowing them to blend into Putin’s military formations, They are wearing Russian uniforms, armed with the latest AK-12 assault rifles and even issued Russian ID documents, according to reports on the BBC. Ukrainian signals intelligence indicate that the North Korean units are transported to the front in unmarked trucks and called “K battalions” in Russian communications. (READ MORE: Has Latin America Become a Base for Iran’s Terrorism?) According to Western news reports citing Ukrainian sources, the North Koreans are “terrified” and won’t survive Kursk’s plain open battlefields, different from Korea’s hill and mountain terrain to which they are accustomed. Few may be expected to make it back from Kursk but their record of survival under extreme conditions, suicidal devotion to their “divine supreme leader” to whom they swear daily allegiance and mission orientation, should make them a match to Ukraine’s SOF, trained by the U.S. Army’s 10th Special Forces Group and the British SAS. When three members of the North Korean special forces became stranded south of the 38th Parallel during an incursion of South Korea in 1996, they managed to evade several thousand highly trained South Korean soldiers tasked with finding them for 49 days. By the time two of them were finally found and eliminated they had killed twelve South Korean soldiers and caused 27 other casualties. The remaining operative was never found, and is assumed to have successfully returned to North Korea. In a 1983 assassination attempt against South Korean president Chun Doon during a visit to Burma, the clandestine North Korean team that planted explosives which killed his top military aides collectively ingested suicide pills to avoid capture. Putin doesn’t mind sacrificing hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers to the Ukrainian meat grinder and North Korea’s Kim can be expected to care even less about expending a few thousand of his special operatives for what he may get in return from Russia. Few details are known about the “mutual military assistance” pact signed between Putin and Jung last June, but the October 31 launch of North Korea’s new HS-19 ICBM last month, capable of reaching the U.S., may well have been facilitated by upgraded technological support from Moscow which is also backing Pyongyang in the protests raised by the U.S. and South Korea at the UN. The post North Korea Is in the Fight appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

from Rebel News:  TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/

by Alex Christoforou, The Duran: There’s talk in America about a second Civil War coming, but what’s needed is instead a second Revolutionary War — not like the first one, to overthrow a foreign aristocracy, but to overthrow America’s own aristocracy (the super-wealthy few individuals who control — by the revolving door between public offices and highly […]

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) published videos on Sunday found in Gaza that show Hamas torturing local Palestinian residents during the years 2018-2020. The nearly 47-minute video compilation that the IDF uploaded on Sunday shows how Hamas interrogators chained suspects by their wrists and feet to the ceiling and put sacks over their heads during […]

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In a historic move toward culturally inclusive healthcare, Medicaid will now fund traditional healing treatments for Native Americans in four states: California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Oregon. This new pilot program will allow Medicaid to cover Indigenous cultural therapies like sweat lodges, music therapy, and ceremonial rituals, a significant step toward bridging conventional and traditional approaches to health and healing. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched the pilot program, which represents a significant victory for Native communities. Roselyn Tso, director of the Indian Health Service (IHS), praised the move, stating, “These practices have sustained our people’s health for generations and continue to serve as a vital link between culture, science, and wellness.” The program will last two years and apply to services provided at IHS facilities, tribal clinics, and urban Indian health organizations. Supporting recovery via tradition Many Native Americans rely on traditional healing practices to manage substance use disorders. These treatments not only aid in physical recovery but also address underlying issues of trauma and spiritual separation. Emery Tahy, a 43-year-old Navajo Nation member, is fully aware of this. Tahy’s journey from addiction and depression to recovery included reconnecting with his roots, which was made possible by traditional healing methods at Friendship House, a Native-led treatment clinic in San Francisco. “I knew immediately that I was in the right place,” Tahy says. He participated in prayers, songs, and sweat lodge sessions, all of which helped him reconnect with his cultural and spiritual roots. “From that day moving forward, I was able to reconnect to my spiritual and cultural upbringing,” Tahy disclosed. Tahy’s experience exposes a broader dilemma in Native communities. Addiction rates among Native Americans are among the highest in the country, with overdose deaths increasing year after year. Experts contend that Western medical methods alone cannot effectively treat these diseases in Native societies. “Traditional practices are, by nature, holistic,” explains Damian Chase-Begay, an American Indian health researcher at the University of Montana. “They treat the person physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. They benefit the whole being, not just the physical symptoms.” The cultural gap in healthcare Historically, Medicaid has not supported Indigenous healing modalities, leaving Native American patients without culturally appropriate care. Though some practices were available through IHS appropriations, tribal monies, or specific grants, formal Medicaid coverage remained out of reach until recently. In California, the new program under Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid arm, is noteworthy. California has the greatest Native American population in the country. Governor Gavin Newsom stated in a press release that the initiative represents the state’s dedication “to healing the historical wounds inflicted on tribes, including the health disparities Native communities face.” The program now covers two types of care. Patients suffering from substance use disorders can seek help from traditional healers who perform cultural ceremonies and rituals, or from trusted figures within tribal communities, such as spiritual leaders and tribal officials, who provide trauma counseling, psychological support, and recovery assistance. Healing historical trauma The inclusion of these techniques meets a critical need for Native Americans, whose health has suffered as a result of years of historical trauma. Chase-Begay sees this as a step toward reconnecting Native Americans with their heritage. “What California is now covering under Medi-Cal is exactly what our Native communities have been asking to be covered for years,” according to him. “This kind of support, had it been in place, could have helped stop some intergenerational trauma and substance use years ago.” For many Native people, incorporating traditional practices into rehabilitation is more than just physical healing; it is a means of recovering cultural identity and resilience. Kiana Maillet, a certified therapist from the Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, noted, “Traditional healing is firmly embedded in our traditions. Without it, we are lacking a component of our identity. The advantages of traditional healing in addiction recovery Research backs up the benefits of combining ancient techniques with modern treatments in addiction rehabilitation. According to studies, cultural practices in treatment programs can promote patient engagement and result in more successful recovery outcomes. Though most research remains qualitative, the results in Native communities demonstrate the significant effects of culturally adapted techniques. The Medicaid expansion is extremely beneficial to Native American health clinics and practitioners. Medi-Cal, which presently covers traditional therapies including medicine and behavioral therapy, will soon reimburse Indian Health Service providers for these services as well. This policy expansion is set to take effect in January 2025 and will be reviewed after two years. Maillet is optimistic about the influence this program will have on Native American communities. “It is vital that we honor our traditional ways of healing,” says one woman. “These methods are more than just treatment; they are a lifeline to our identities.” A long-overdue change For those like Tahy, this innovative program has the potential to improve their lives. Tahy, who found sobriety via traditional healing at Friendship House, currently works as an evaluator for the Native American Health Center in San Francisco and is nearing completion of a Master’s degree in American Indian Studies. He even ran the San Francisco marathon a few months ago, demonstrating his health and strength. The Medicaid expansion is a promising step toward tackling Native health concerns through culturally appropriate care. Chase-Begay notes that it’s “long overdue.” He believes that these inclusive health policies can pave the way for a healthier future for Native communities by respecting and incorporating Indigenous cultural values into modern medical care. Medicaid expansion may only be a pilot program, but for many Native Americans, it represents a critical step toward comprehensive, culturally appropriate healthcare. As Tso points out, this program “serves as a vital link between culture, science, and wellness,” confirming the role of tradition in the pursuit of healing.The post Medicaid expands to cover traditional healing practices for Native Americans in 4 states first appeared on The Optimist Daily: Making Solutions the News.