Americans are filming their own breaking point, and nothing is affordable anymore. A thirty-dollar roast at Aldi. One bag of groceries that rings up at $91. Fifteen people turned their cameras on and did the math out loud, a man working 41 hours at his first job who still DoorDashes at night, a woman who stopped eating dinner so her partner could take lunch to work, a mother cooking on a mini griddle in a hotel room. In this video we look at what the cost of living crisis actually looks like from the inside, why working Americans can no longer cover rent, groceries and gas, and what it means when the paycheck arrives and still does not reach. Comment your thoughts below.
News by the Numbers. Peter St Onge
(22 Democrat Socialist Radicals to be in next Congress.)
His guest blathers too much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVUHAT4CzU8&t=1868s
29 States Just Dragged Meta Into Federal Court Over What Mark Zuckerberg Did to Kids
In October 2023, 29 state attorneys general filed a federal lawsuit against Meta in the Northern District of California.
Their core accusation: Meta deliberately engineered Instagram and Facebook to addict children – using infinite scrolling, autoplay video, push notifications, and algorithmic feeds designed to maximize time on screen.
They also alleged Meta violated federal children's privacy law by collecting data from kids under 13 without parental consent.
Families across the country had been saying it for years.
Now the governments of 29 states were saying it in court.
https://unmuzzlednews.com/29-states-just-dragged-meta-into-federal-court-over-what-mark-zuckerberg-did-to-kids/?utm_source
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Iran war stretches US Navy as last aircraft carrier leaves Asia
President Donald Trump’s war against Iran is stretching the limits of US aircraft carriers and leaving the western Pacific without one of the key American warships as China shows more signs of aggression.
The USS George Washington is departing the Pacific and expected to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East amid growing concerns about mental health and supply issues aboard the long-deployed carrier. The Lincoln has had its time at sea extended from its original May return date to support operations against Iran.
The lack of a US carrier in the Pacific may be short-lived if the US Navy deploys another in the next couple of months. But it shows how the open-ended operations with Iran are running some American sailors ragged, analysts say, while the Trump administration further retreats from the Asia-Pacific region and focuses on the Western Hemisphere.
Mike Rivero: The US is supposed to have 11 carriers in active service. At the moment, there are only 3. Several carriers—including the USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) and USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76)—remain tied down in extended complex overhauls or dry-dock maintenance availability.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2654832/middle-east
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A 7.1 magnitude quake hits Japans southern Kyushu island killing at least 3
A 7.1 magnitude earthquake shook Japan ’s southern main island of Kyushu on Tuesday, leaving several people dead and dozens of others injured or missing after part of a shopping center and a huge chimney at a paper factory collapsed, officials said. A tsunami advisory was issued but quickly lifted.
At least three people, including two who were found without vital signs at the mall late Tuesday, were confirmed dead, and about 30 others were injured across the Kagoshima prefecture, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said Wednesday.
(Lots of Quakes of late. End of the Age is Nigh.)
https://apnews.com/article/japan-earthquake-tsunami-09e6f40acbcc96053946c9c104e7a242
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Iran's deadliest kamikaze drone yet sends a message to Trump
Iran’s Hadid 110 drone has had an upgrade. Now, it flies lower, faster and is harder to see.
Jet-powered, with a top speed of more than 300mph, the new stealth drone has been built to slip through American air defences.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had been deployed for the first time in the past fortnight, fired towards US bases and warships in the region.
The Telegraph understands that the drone is an advanced version of their standard Hadid 110, a weapon Iranian officials consider one of their most capable.
(Russia spends less in a month than we spend tin a year. Iran spends a fraction of what Russia does. BUT THEY BOTH HAVE FAR SUPERIOR WEAPONS.
HOWEVER, THE PENTAGON WON THE CORRUPTION RACE.)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/07/28/iran-new-kamikaze-drone-stealthier-faster-deadlier/
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'Wolves In White Coats': 5 Key Takeaways From HHS Report On Alleged Pediatric Gender-Treatment Fraud
Authored by Stacy Robinson via The Epoch Times,
A report released Aug. 13 by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has shined a light on alleged fraud by health providers who performed pediatric gender procedures.
The report, titled “Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of ‘Gender Medicine’,” examined the actions and motives of 225 healthcare institutions and found they allegedly put profits and gender ideology ahead of patient needs.
Here are five key takeaways from that study.
HHS Alleges Insurance Coding FraudThe HHS report laid out an alleged pattern of deception, encouraged by groups promoting gender procedures in children, where hospitals and healthcare providers utilized incorrect insurance codes to ensure they got paid.
Rather than use already-existing, specific codes related to gender identity disorders, HHS alleged they used what the study called “proxy diagnosis codes” that were vague, or outright false.
One common diagnosis was “endocrine disorder—unspecified,” which allowed doctors to bill for cross-sex hormones. HHS data showed that between 2015 and 2025, more than $42 million was billed to insurance companies under the unspecified disorder diagnosis.
A 2023 study by the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics found that out of 1,480 patients diagnosed with unspecified endocrine disorder, only 71 actually had such an illness. An analysis by the Manhattan Institute also found a 30 percent rise in such diagnoses between 2020 and 2022, HHS said.
Another common miscoding was for “precocious puberty,” which allowed the doctors to prescribe and bill insurers for puberty blockers. The study found that between 2015 and 2025, insurers were billed more than $11 million under this diagnosis for patients aged 13 to 17.
But that can’t be accurate, the report said, because 13 to 17 is the natural age for puberty.
Advocates Encouraged ‘Alternative Diagnosis Codes’The World Professional Association of Transgender Health, Planned Parenthood, and other groups encouraged healthcare providers to use “alternative diagnosis codes” not related to gender dysphoria, the HHS report stated.
The Epoch Times reached out to these organizations for comment.
In one instance, a Harvard-affiliated gender clinic called Fenway Health advocated using “more vague” diagnosis codes, but also warned that using inaccurate coding is illegal.
Another organization, the Campaign for Southern Equality, put together a toolkit called “Insurance Coding Alternatives For Trans Healthcare” that outlined workarounds for patients with gender dysphoria.
Most insurers exclude gender procedures unless state law requires coverage, the document states. The toolkit shows which coding is frequently rejected by insurers, and which commonly accepted codes to use instead.
If the insurer denies coverage, the toolkit suggests appealing repeatedly. After the third appeal, the case “goes to an outside agency, and is often accepted.”
For example, a patient can claim orchialgia—persistent pain in the testicles—to justify surgical castration, according to the report.
“How do you do a mastectomy, but then bill an insurance company and not raise any red flags? … You bill it as breast reduction instead of a mastectomy,” said Dr. Eithan Haim, an author of the report.
“This guide is essentially a template for how to commit medical fraud. We should all remember that this is something that people go to prison for. This is a major deal.”
In 2024, Haim was indicted by the DOJ for allegedly exposing private information on patients after he accused a Texas hospital of secretly providing gender surgeries on minors in violation of state law. His case was dismissed with prejudice the next year.
Lifelong ‘Captive Patients’ and RevenueSo-called gender affirming care is lucrative as the “captive patients,” as the report called them, require continual medical maintenance that can last decades—or a lifetime.
“You take a little girl and put her on testosterone, or a little boy and put them on estrogen. Well, they’re going to be on that forever and ever, right?” Assistant HHS Secretary Adm. Brian Christine said in an interview with NTD, The Epoch Times’ sister media outlet.
The surgeries and hormone treatments can also result in severe side effects, requiring more doctor visits and racking up hospital fees, the report noted. Mental therapy is often needed, too.
Citing data from the Human Rights Campaign—an organization that supports these procedures in minors—the report said the costs can range from $25,000 to $75,000 per patient.
If the client chooses to have surgeries, the total can skyrocket as high as $170,000 and beyond. Those numbers don’t include peripheral costs, such as hair removal, voice therapy, or reversal procedures.
The report included testimony from one young man who was told that “facial feminization” surgery would cost him $200,000.
“This new patient cohort—young, insured, or Medicaid-eligible, and requiring perpetual follow-ups—represented a strategic area of growth,” the report stated.
“Endocrinology and surgery departments gained volume and prestige, while hospital administrators gained a reliable revenue line that helps subsidize lower-margin services.”
The industry has brought in an estimated $120 million since 2019, the report stated.
Biden Administration According to the report, President Joe Biden’s administration facilitated youth gender procedures, putting pressure on hospital systems by threatening to go after institutions that refused to perform them.
The Biden administration said healthcare workers were bound by the rules of the Affordable Care Act, and refusing gender treatments was “discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”
“Attempts to restrict, challenge, or falsely characterize this potentially lifesaving care as abuse is dangerous,” a Biden-era HHS document stated.
The approach was multi-faceted. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission told employers that their insurance couldn’t exclude such procedures. HHS, the DOJ, and the Department of Education also “took the position in guidance, regulations, and litigation that prohibitions on disability-based discrimination … may apply to individuals with gender dysphoria.”
The Office of Personnel Management also mandated that federal insurance carriers cover the procedures. The National Institute of Health also conducted a $10 million study to probe the impact of gender procedures on children, the HHS report said.
The Biden administration’s gender initiatives were overturned by President Donald Trump at the beginning of his second term in office. The Federal Trade Commission has also sued the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, alleging youth gender interventions are offered under false pretenses since they don’t resolve patients’ mental distress.
WPATH, in a June statement, said the suit was a product of “a relentless and targeted campaign to undermine gender-affirming care.”
Vance Calls for InvestigationIn the wake of the report’s publication, Vice President JD Vance asked the Justice Department to look into the fraud accusations.
“These allegations are crazy, and they demand investigation,” Vance said in a video posted to social media Aug. 13.
The Epoch Times reached out to the DOJ to learn if the department would do so but received no response by time of publication.
As Fenway Health noted in one of its guidance documents, deliberately miscoding to deceive insurers is illegal, and the liability risk increases when Medicaid is involved because such fraud can run afoul of the Federal False Claims Act.
That law allows the government to recoup triple damages and impose other financial penalties, and opens the door for private citizens to file civil suits on its behalf.
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/wolves-white-coats-5-key-takeaways-hhs-report-alleged-pediatric-gender-treatment-fraud
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Trump Says US To 'Substantially Reduce' Military Drills With S Korea, Cites 'Very Good Relationship' With Kim
Also castigates Seoul's stance on Iran war...
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-says-us-substantially-reduce-military-drills-south-korea-cites-very-good
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GB News Host Forced From Home By Migrant Gang Death Threats
Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,
GB News presenter Patrick Christys was ordered by police to abandon his home in the middle of the night after a credible death threat from the Channel people-smuggling gangs he continues to expose in Calais.
The threat-to-life notice from the Metropolitan Police left Christys and his heavily pregnant wife, fellow GB News presenter Emily Carver, packing bags and fleeing to a safe house. One of the men he confronted later turned up on a London street.
A year on, the official warning remains in place and the family still has round-the-clock security.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/gb-news-host-forced-home-migrant-gang-death-threats
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Mother and Daughter Forced to Cover “XX/XY” Shirts at State Farm Arena After Paying $1,000 Tickets to Support Sophie Cunningham — While Pro-Trans Message Appeared on Jumbotron
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/08/mother-daughter-forced-cover-xx-xy-shirts-state/
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Report Says Chinese Cameras Used in Naval Assets Secretly Sent Data to Communist Country
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/08/new-report-says-chinese-cameras-used-naval-assets/
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