Crypto funds smash records with $5.95 billion inflows amid shutdown concerns

Source: CoinTelegraph

“Cryptocurrency investment products recorded their highest-ever inflows last week, as the US government shutdown fueled a rally in spot crypto markets. Global crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) recorded $5.95 billion of inflows in the week ending Friday — the largest ever seen — CoinShares reported on Monday. … With inflows reaching $5.95 billion, crypto ETPs surpassed the previous $4.4 billion record from mid-July by 35%. Unlike the previous record inflows, which were almost equally distributed between Bitcoin and Ether, the latest gains were heavily dominated by BTC, with Bitcoin funds attracting a record-breaking $3.6 billion.” (10/06/25)

https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-funds-record-5-95-billion-inflows-amid-shutdown-concerns

Texas and Florida Have Become National Models for Using the Police State To Wage Culture War Battles

Source: Reason
by CJ Ciaramella

“When the second Trump administration issued an order threatening to strip federal funding from K-12 schools that teach children ‘anti-American, subversive, harmful, and false ideologies’ related to gender and race, it was lifting from Florida’s playbook. Likewise, the administration’s campaign against universities on such issues as anti-Israel protests, transgender athletes, and critical race theory were all preceded by Florida, where a powerful executive branch, Republican-controlled Legislature, and conservative state Supreme Court allowed Gov. Ron DeSantis to apply intense pressure to public universities and school districts. … In March, Maria Rojas, a Texas midwife who operated four clinics for low-income women in Harris and Waller counties, became the first person in the state arrested for allegedly providing illegal abortions. Rojas'[s] case was the first opportunity for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office to flex its new criminal and civil powers under a trio of anti-abortion bills passed in 2021.” (for publication 11/25)

https://reason.com/2025/10/06/culture-war-police-state/

Judge denies US regime’s request to delay Abrego Gargia’s legal proceedings

Source: ABC News

“The judge overseeing the Maryland deportation case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Monday denied the government’s request to delay proceedings because of the government shutdown. The ruling came Monday during a status conference held in the case of Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man deported in error to El Salvador last March and then returned back to the United States in June to face criminal charges in Tennessee. … The judge gave the government until Wednesday afternoon to file any evidence about steps taken to remove Abrego Garcia to Eswatini. She also asked the government to provide witnesses who can speak firsthand to those efforts.” (10/06/25)

https://abcnews.go.com/US/kilmar-abrego-garcias-deportation-case-back-maryland-judge/story?id=126237666

The Trump “Peace Plan” is Itself a War Crime

Source: CounterPunch
by Jeff Cohen & Richard Eskow

“Parts of the plan are uncontroversial. All sane people want the war to end quickly. And few would object to point 18, which calls for ‘an interfaith dialogue …based on the values of tolerance and peaceful co-existence.’ And yet, I wonder how many Americans noticed that #5 calls on Israel to release the 1,700 people it has seized from Gaza since 2023, ‘including all women and children …’ How many Americans even knew that Israel routinely imprisons children before they saw that sentence? Our media doesn’t mention it much. … Under international law, the United States and other countries should condemn this child abuse and demand that the children be released. however, the Trump plan uses this longstanding criminal practice as leverage, saying that the children will only be released when Hamas accedes to the demands in this proposal.” (10/06/25)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/06/the-trump-peace-plan-is-itself-a-war-crime/

In the Autumn of America’s Empire

Source: TomDispatch
by Alfred McCoy

“In his novel The Autumn of the Patriarch, which is eerily evocative of our current political plight, Gabriel Garcia Marquez described how a Latin American autocrat ‘discovered in the course of his uncountable years that a lie is more comfortable than doubt, more useful than love, more lasting than truth, [and] became convinced … that the only livable life was one of show.’ In amassing unchecked power spiced with unimaginable cruelty, that fictional dictator extinguished any flicker of opposition in his imaginary Caribbean country, reducing its elite to a craven set of courtiers. Even though he butchered opponents, plundered the treasury, raped the young, and reduced his nation to penury, ‘lettered politicians and dauntless adulators … proclaimed him the corrector of earthquakes, eclipses, leap years and other errors of God.'” (10/06/25)

https://tomdispatch.com/in-the-autumn-of-americas-empire/

ME: State auditor launches primary challenge to congresscritter who voted with Republicans on shutdown

Source: Boston Globe

“Representative Jared Golden, the Maine Democrat known for his maverick streak, has for the first time drawn a serious Democratic primary challenger — setting up an intra-party battle with potentially significant implications for the balance of power in the U.S. House. On Monday, State Auditor Matt Dunlap, who has been active in Maine politics for decades, launched his campaign for the Second Congressional District. He first announced in May that he was interested in challenging Golden and began filing necessary paperwork last month. … ‘Jared Golden has shown a consistent pattern of voting with the Republican conference on significant issues that affect people in Maine,’ Dunlap said, citing Golden’s vote last month for the Republican-backed government funding bill. He was the only Democrat to do so, as his party coalesced behind a strategy to oppose the stopgap bill unless the GOP negotiated on expiring Affordable Care Act premium subsidies.” (10/06/25)

https://archive.is/pRsya

Abolish the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Patrick Carroll

“With the Bureau of Labor Statistics generating all this attention, many are taking the opportunity to highlight its perceived shortcomings and ways that it might be reformed and improved. But there is a much more foundational question that we ought to be asking: Should the BLS even exist in the first place?” (10/06/25)

https://mises.org/mises-wire/abolish-bureau-labor-statistics

US CDC announces change in COVID-19 and chickenpox vaccine recommendations

Source: Los Angeles Times

“The new acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced changes to the recommended vaccination schedule for adults against COVID-19 and for kids against chickenpox. … The CDC is now recommending that children under the age of 4 no longer get a combination vaccine that protects against four diseases: the chickenpox (also known as varicella), measles, mumps and rubella. Instead, the CDC now recommends two separate shots, one just against chickenpox, and the other that protects against measles, mumps and rubella. The CDC has also now officially lifted its recommendation that adults under age 65 get the updated COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC now says the decision on whether an adult under age 65 gets a COVID-19 vaccine should be based on ‘individual-based decision-making’ in consultation with health professionals like a physician, nurse or pharmacist.” (10/06/25)

https://archive.is/8wijF

Tony Blair and the Gaza Trap: Continued Colonial Control Disguised as “Transition”

Source: Antiwar.com
by Dennis Kucinich & Elizabeth Kucinich

“Western governments are preparing a plan for Gaza’s postwar administration. The proposal, advanced through quiet coordination between Washington, London, and Jerusalem, would establish a new international body called the Gaza International Transitional Authority to govern the territory for several years following the conflict. The concept, promoted as a stabilization effort, is said to draw inspiration from earlier foreign-led missions in Kosovo and Lebanon. At the center of this ‘plan’ is the risible suggestion that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair should lead the authority, overseeing Gaza’s reconstruction, policing, and governance on behalf of the self-proclaimed international community.” (10/06/25)

https://original.antiwar.com/kucinich/2025/10/05/tony-blair-and-the-gaza-trap-continued-colonial-control-disguised-as-transition/