By: Zachary Stieber The Epoch Times

Multiple water providers have lowered the amount of fluoride they add to water for millions of Americans, amid shortages stemming from the U.S.–Iran war.

The Baltimore City Department of Public Works said on April 13 that it is reducing the level of fluoride in their water supply. The move, officials said, was driven by disruptions to the supply chain caused by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. A key Israeli supplier, specifically, has been struggling to meet demand. “This is an adjustment driven solely by supply availability,” Matthew Garbark, director of the Baltimore City Department of Public Works, said in a statement. Read the good news here.

Tzarism Eastern Europe Staff

Sept 21 2026

The United States is not a free-market or true “capitalist” society but rather a crony capitalist/welfare-state society. That is, many big businesses don’t compete to please the consumer but instead for coercive government privilege.

It is well documented that monopoly can’t exist in a free-market society; the forces of competition will always introduce new competitors to any particular field, especially when there is large amounts of money to be acquired. However, some astute businessmen notice that they can strangle their competition in the womb through government. They lobby for legislation that creates artificial barriers to entry, insane regulations for how productive processes must be run, subsidies, special taxes, or other inventive hurdles. It is far easier to “go political” and join the government in its parasitic extraction of wealth from the economy. A monopolist’s dream is to have a government grant it an exclusive monopoly over an industry.

There are many examples of crony capitalism in action. However, one historical example proves particularly interesting, for it shines a light on just how far monopolists are willing to go to acquire such government privilege. The event in question is the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Much evidence points to the fact that big business firms in the US—centered around the J. D. Rockefeller and J. P. Morgan conglomerates—helped bankroll the Bolsheviks using their massive funds and influence. While the jury is out whether the Bolsheviks would have succeeded in their takeover of Russia and the subsequent creation of the Soviet Union without this assistance, these big business firms absolutely played a part.

Why would these “capitalist” business firms help fund the Marxist Bolshevik revolutionaries? Were they secretly wooed by the false promises of communism? Most likely, no; some firms that aided the Bolsheviks also aided their enemies, presumably so they could have influence within whichever party was victorious. As monopoly capitalists, they realized that an inefficient economy run by totalitarian socialist central planning provided the perfect captive market for them, assuming they are on good terms with the socialist power-brokers. In this situation, the monopolists can easily achieve “protection” from the totalitarian government and take advantage of the consumers who are forced to buy from them because there is no alternative. This arrangement is especially advantageous when the captive market in question is as large as Russia. Therefore, the alliance between these two groups of seemingly enemies is actually not hard to imagine.

This situation is in the same line as the creation of the Federal Reserve System. As Murray Rothbard details in his history of the Federal Reserve, these same monopolist interests—centered largely around the Morgans and Rockefellers—pushed through the parasitic Federal Reserve System. This gave them a banking monopoly at home in the US similar, in principle, to the monopoly they worked to obtain in Russia. It is worth noting that monopoly “capitalists” are the enemies of laissez-faire capitalists who follow the tradition of Murray Rothbard, Ludwig von Mises, etc. The monopolists may run businesses, but they still owe their wealth to government power, not pleasing the consumer.

Wall Street Monopolists Support for the Bolsheviks

Much of the evidence supporting this fact is detailed in Antony Sutton’s work Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution. Sutton provides great evidence that the traditional idea of all communists and capitalists as bitter enemies is not true, at least when crony capitalists are involved. Sutton—largely using the US State Department Decimal File—reveals many interesting links between US big business and the Bolshevik revolutionaries.

For instance, just a few notable events Sutton documents are: Leon Trotsky, one of the pivotal Marxist revolutionaries, alongside Lenin, who helped topple the Russian government, was heavily aided by Wall Street monopolists in his return to Russia in May of 1917, just before the October Revolution. The American Red Cross was co-opted by Wall Street monopolists; they used the Red Cross mission to Russia in 1917 as a cover for financial and political maneuvering with the revolutionaries there. (Not only did the mission’s staff consist of around double the number of financiers and engineers compared to doctors and medical personnel, but all the doctors also abandoned the mission because they were disgusted with the political maneuvering of the other members).

A 1919 raid on the Soviet Bureau in New York revealed documents showing correspondence with the head of the bureau, Ludwig C. A. K. Martens, and many American big business firms. The documents show some of these firms even helped fund the Soviet Bureau. J. P. Morgan controlled Guaranty Trust Company—a major financial player on Wall Street—funneled illegal Bolshevik gold into the US so the Bolsheviks could make critically important purchases of foreign resources. Additionally, in 1922, Max May of Guaranty Trust became a director in the first Soviet State Bank, Ruskombank, further solidifying Guaranty Trust’s relationship with the Bolshevik government.

In the State Department Decimal File a copy of a 1919 Scotland Yard Intelligence report details that governments were aware of Guaranty Trust’s connection with the Bolsheviks,

Martens is very much in the limelight. There appears to be no doubt about his connection with the Guarantee [sic] Trust Company, Though it is surprising that so large and influential an enterprise should have dealings with a Bolshevik concern.

Of all the events, Leon Trotsky’s return to Russia in 1917 is rather interesting because he was a central figure in the Bolshevik Revolution. Trotsky was deported from Europe for essentially “revolutionary activities,” and he subsequently ended up in New York. He proceeded to obtain a US passport at a time when the State Department was universally trying to tighten up passport procedures. According to Jennings C. Wise, in Woodrow Wilson: Disciple of Revolution, he asserts that Woodrow Wilson used his influence to ensure Trotsky received an American passport, which he used to enter Russia.

After Trotsky used his American passport to leave New York, Imperial British officials removed him and his associates from the S.S. Kristianiafjord and detained them at Halifax, Nova Scotia on April 3, 1917. They were detained because they were suspected as Russia/German socialists with aims to overthrow the standing government in Russia, which, as history proves, was not wrong. Now the story gets interesting; it is entirely possible that Trotsky could not have succeeded in returning to Russia if his release from Halifax wasn’t expedited by a few influential individuals.

In the Canadian government’s records, there is a telegram regarding Trotsky from a New York attorney, Nicholas Aleinikoff, to the deputy postmaster general of Canada, R. M. Coulter. Aleinikoff asks Coulter to investigate the reason for Trotsky’s detention, and requests he intercede on their behalf. Arthur Wolf of 134 East Broadway, New York, also sent a telegram to Coulter similar to Aleinikoff’s. The deputy postmaster general had no responsibilities within the military. Regardless of this fact, Coulter—after confirming he received the telegrams—did intercede on Trotsky’s behalf by writing to Major General Willoughby Gwatkin of the Department of Militia and Defense in Ottawa. In his letter, Coulter reproduces the Aleinikoff and Wolf telegrams and essentially vouches for their credibility as responsible men who care for the situation in Russia. He further suggests that if Gwatkin deems it wise, he could use his influence with the English authorities to assist Trotsky.

Gwatkin was a man of significant influence in the Canadian military. He sent multiple memorandums to his connections in the Canadian military—one on April 14, 1917 and another on April 20, 1917—suggesting that the detainment of Trotsky was potentially high-handed injustice, and requesting a decision regarding Trotsky’s disposal be hastened. This pressure by Gwatkin appears to have played a large role in Trotsky’s release. He confirmed in a letter to Coulter on April 21 that their “friends the Russian socialists are to be released; and arrangements are being made for their passage to Europe.” Only using the Canadian government files, the reasons why Coulter and Gwatkin assisted Trotsky are unknown according to Sutton. Regardless, it is interesting how the personal intervention of two New York citizens, not Canadians, led to a chain of events that allowed Trotsky to continue his journey to Russia in a timely manner.

[…]

Via https://tsarizm.com/analysis/2026/09/21/the-crony-capitalists-who-financed-the-bolshevik-revolution/

Jon Lindau</
18 August 2026

Venezuelan sovereign gold reserves held by the Bank of England are set to be released and placed under US Treasury Department management.

Following recent US-backed talks between the acting Delcy Rodríguez government and representatives of the defunct, opposition-majority parliament elected in 2015, the two sides agreed to work together to secure the unfreezing of the 31 tons of gold, worth around US $4.3 billion at current prices, to support post-earthquake recovery efforts.

Ramón López, a member of the opposition delegation, disclosed that the resources would be deposited in a US Treasury bank account and be subjected to external audits.

“The gold will be released with appropriate planning and control mechanisms,” he said in an interview. “[The gold] will be deposited in a US Treasury account and audited by international firms.”Report continues here:

So the United States gets the entire remaining 31 metric tons of Venezuela’s gold reserves, & Venezuela gets $4.3 Billion in US fiats deposited into a US Treasury account to help with earthquake/disaster relief.  A few hours worth of US deficit spending for 31 metric tons of gold.

For those who may not remember, in 2011, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez ordered the repatriation of roughly 211 metric tons of the nation’s gold reserves held at the NY Fed & the Bank of England back to Caracas.

The move sent SHOCKWAVES throughout the Bank of England and NY Fed- who were rumored to have allegedly rehypothecated Venezuela’s 211 metric tons of gold to NY & London TBTF banks 300X in order to continue the paper futures markets suppression of gold prices.

Chávez immediately became Global Pariah #1 to the world’s leading banksters & Central Banksters who fought Chávez’ efforts tooth and nail.

Larry C Johnson

Two things happened this weekend that belong in the same frame, though you will not see them connected anywhere in the Western press. Russia held a national election under a hail of drones and cyberattacks — and came through it. And overnight, the United States began signaling that it is about to widen the war in the Middle East. They are not separate stories. The same barrage that tried to break the Russian vote also tore a piece out of Russia’s refining capacity, and that connects directly to the fuel crisis Washington is about to make worse. Take them in order.

An election under attack

Russians voted over three days, September 18 through 20, to seat the ninth convocation of the State Duma, their national legislature — all 450 seats. What made the final day extraordinary was the effort, backed by the West, to disrupt it by force.

Overnight, Ukraine launched the largest drone assault of the war. Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, reported that air defenses brought down more than 1,600 drones across Russia since Saturday, roughly 450 of them bound for the capital region; the Russian Defense Ministry put the single-night intercept figure at 1,110, the highest it has ever reported. I will be candid: I woke up Sunday morning with no idea any of it had happened. The overwhelming majority were destroyed well before they reached Moscow. A handful got through — two people were killed and about twenty injured in the Moscow region. For those who lost their lives, and for their families, it is a tragedy. But set it against the scale: some seventeen million people live in the Moscow region, and their day went on. Then, through the voting hours, came waves of cyberattacks on the electronic voting system — another attempt to break the election that failed to break it.

Now the numbers that matter. Official turnout, per the Central Election Commission, came in around 56.7 percent over the three days. Ten parties qualified for the ballot. And in the four newly constituted republics — Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson — turnout ran dramatically higher than the national figure, despite those regions being under active attack. People who face drones on their way to the polling station and vote anyway are telling you something about how much the franchise means to them.

The election was watched by international observers — independent-minded people, some of them frankly sympathetic to Gennady Zyuganov’s Communists, no friends of the ruling party. I spoke with several. Their verdict was the same: this was a free and fair election. I saw nothing to contradict it — no signs going up and being torn down, no one dragged away for campaigning.

Now, I know exactly what the Western press will wave in reply, so let me meet it head-on. Yes: the Supreme Court struck the federal list of Yabloko, the one small party that campaigned against the war, and Boris Nadezhdin was kept off the ballot and has since left the country. Those are the two names you will hear over and over as proof that the whole exercise was theater. It is not much of a case. Yabloko has polled below the five-percent threshold for the better part of two decades; the position it staked out — abandoning the four republics and the men fighting for them — is one almost no Russian holds. Excluding a marginal faction that stands where the West stands is not the same thing as crushing dissent, and it does not turn a three-day, ten-party election with 56.7 percent turnout into a fraud. The real spectrum of Russian politics does not run from pro-war to anti-war. It runs from those who support the special military operation to those who want it fought harder — and inside that spectrum the parties went at each other in the open, and the observers, including men who would sooner see a Communist in the Kremlin, judged the contest fair. On the evidence in front of me, the endless claim that Putin simply crushes all opposition is a fabrication.

Here is what the West consistently misreads. Russia’s parties argue fiercely about domestic policy — income inequality, taxes, education, health care, the ordinary business of any democracy. But on foreign policy they are united, something on the order of 95 percent behind the President and the special military operation. If the ruling bloc’s share slips, it will not be because Russians want the war to end. It will be because they want it prosecuted harder. That is the opposite of the war-weariness Western capitals keep predicting.

The refinery, and the squeeze

Here is the hinge the Western coverage misses entirely. In that same overnight barrage, a drone reached the Gazprom Neft refinery on Moscow’s southeastern edge — a plant that processes on the order of 245,000 barrels a day and supplies fuel to the capital region — and set it ablaze. Strip away the election framing for a moment and look at what that means for the world’s fuel balance. Every refinery knocked offline, in Russia or in the Gulf, tightens the same global distillate market. Ukraine, prodded and supplied by the West, is not only trying to break a Russian election; it is degrading Russian refining capacity at the precise moment the world can least afford to lose a barrel of diesel or jet fuel. That is the thread running straight into the second half of this story.

Washington reaches for the matches

The second development arrived overnight as well, and it points the other direction — toward escalation.

Late Saturday, September 19, the State Department sharpened its travel guidance, telling Americans outside the Middle East to seriously reconsider any travel to or through the region and warning those already there to brace for airspace closures and canceled flights. That advisory is confirmed and public. Alongside it came reports — which I have not been able to independently confirm, so I flag them as reports — that personnel manning Central Command’s operations centers are being recalled to duty, and that aerial refueling tankers are up and flying over the region. Anyone who has watched these sequences knows what airborne tankers usually precede.

The open question is the target. It could be Yemen and the Houthis — Ansar Allah — who have been trading strikes with Saudi Arabia and just put a plume of black smoke over Riyadh’s King Khalid airport. It could be Iran. It could be both. I cannot rule out any of the three. As I write this Sunday night, there is no sign that strikes are actually under way. So we will learn soon enough whether this is saber-rattling or whether Donald Trump means to escalate.

What we already know is that the global diesel and distillate crisis is getting worse, not better, and nothing on the horizon reverses it. The EIA now expects U.S. distillate inventories to sit below the five-year low through much of 2027; industry veterans reckon the world has lost something like seven million barrels a day of refining capacity to this year’s fighting. Last night’s strike on the Moscow refinery subtracts a little more. This is the box Trump has built for himself. He wants gasoline and diesel cheaper and inflation tamed — and every move he has made around the Persian Gulf, Iran, the Gulf states and now the Houthis guarantees tension stays high and the distillate squeeze stays on.

The market has been whipsawing on every on-again, off-again ceasefire rumor; crude actually eased into Friday’s close, near $104 Brent, on hopes that Saudi Arabia could restore pipeline flows. But if fresh American strikes land this week, expect that to reverse hard — crude spiking, equities selling off, the pump price and the diesel crack climbing right back up. These signals went out on a Sunday evening. Come Monday morning in New York, the odds favor a market moving the wrong way for a President who says he wants the opposite.

So that is where we stand. Trump, for all his talk of ending wars and lowering prices, keeps doing the one thing that makes both harder: pouring fuel on the fire. I will have more once the real shape of the Russian result is clear and once we know whether the tankers meant anything.

For now, the democracy that is Russia did more than survive this weekend. It was attacked, and it voted anyway.

[…]

Via https://sonar21.com/russia-voted-under-fire-washington-is-loading-the-tankers/

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange returned to X on Thursday, more than two years after his release from prison as the AI crisis dominates the headlines.

Assange on his flight to freedom from London in June 2024. (WikiLeaks via X)

By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News

Julian Assange returned to X on Thursday 25 months after being released from London’s Belmarsh Prison and eight and a half years since he last posted on the social media site.

“I’m back,” Assange posted at 9:02 a.m. EDT. 

His return comes amidst an expanding crisis of Artificial Intelligence, which captains of the AI industry have warned in recent days is slipping out of control and endangering human society.

Assange has remained away from the public since his freedom in June 2024 recovering from his five-year prison ordeal, which was preceded by seven years of confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. 

He made his first post-release public appearance in Strasbourg, France on Oct. 1, 2024 at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights to discuss his case and its implications for press freedom.

Anti-genocide protesters,who marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in August, are among those being blamed for Sydney’s horrific terrorist attack on Sunday. In the front row, left to right: Mary Kostakidis, Gabriel Shipton and Julian Assange. (Consortium News)

Assange next appeared at the head of a march of an estimated 300,000 people over the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Aug. 3, 2025 to protest Israel’s genocide in Gaza.  At the end of July he attended a concert in Sydney in support of pianist Jayson Gillham after the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra cancelled his 2024 concert over comments he made about journalists killed in Gaza.

Assange’s technical expertise could put him in position to weigh in on the AI crisis. It is a non-partisan issue that lacks the controversy of comments on U.S. foreign policy.

OpenAI AI agents escaped testing environments this year and coordinated cyberattacks on other AI systems, revealing that humans were losing control. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for slowing AI development so security measures can catch up, warning swarms could seize the internet within a year. OpenAI’s Sam Altman agreed development “should be slower,” and Elon Musk, who runs Grok AI, posted “Dario is right.”

Assange had not posted on Twitter, later X, since March 2018 when the Ecuador government, which hosted him in its London embassy, cut his internet access after he tweeted about Catalonia’s independence referendum.

After his June 2024 plea deal and release, Assange stayed off social media and his wife, Stella Assange, said publicly he wasn’t on any platforms and that accounts claiming to be his were fake.

Via https://consortiumnews.com/2026/09/17/assange-returns-to-x-in-midst-of-ai-crisis/

(Photo credit: AFP)