During the USSR’s 73 years of existence, the list of wars it waged is enormous—a total of 25, including conflicts in the Caucasus, the Baltic states, Finland, Poland, Germany, Japan, Afghanistan, Spain, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.

After the collapse of the Soviet empire, Russia’s predatory mindset did not vanish. Since 1991, Russia has continued to exist in a state of permanent war: Georgia, Chechnya, Syria, and now the most senseless war of all—against Ukraine.

A natural question arises: why?

Looking for a rational explanation is pointless. Russia has always acted irrationally, without any clear benefit and almost always to its detriment.

The root of all its imperial wars should perhaps be studied through the lens of psychology or even psychiatry. My aim is much simpler: to draw attention to the ultimate goal of Russia’s current war against Ukraine.

In recent days, new evidence has emerged showing that the Obama administration intentionally manipulated and politicized intelligence to advance the Russian collusion hoax — despite conflicting assessments from within the intelligence community itself.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has accused former President Barack Obama of orchestrating a “manufactured, politicized piece of intelligence” to undermine Donald Trump’s presidency before it began. A cache of over 100 declassified documents that her office released includes a December 2016 President’s Daily Brief reportedly confirming that Russia had neither the intent nor capability to alter the outcome of the 2016 election.

According to Gabbard, Obama’s political appointees deliberately suppressed that document. The next day, Obama convened a National Security Council meeting and instructed top intelligence officials, including James Clapper, John Brennan, James Comey, and Susan Rice, to produce an assessment that would support a predetermined conclusion: that Russia interfered in the election to help Trump.

The emerging narrative makes Watergate look like amateur hour.

Chemotherapy can be a life-saving though sometimes toxic effort to eliminate lethal cancer cells before they kill the patient. As such, it can serve as a bitter metaphor for the often-controversial efforts of the Trump administration to undo the metastasizing damage caused by the Biden administration.

The Democrats and their media, however, wish to convince America that the remedy for four years of catastrophe is worse than the catastrophe itself.

Take the border. It was literally destroyed over the last four years. After welcoming in some three million illegal aliens per year—none with legal permission, health audits, or criminal background checks—there was no sign that the then-current or a second Biden administration was ever going to stop radically altering the demography of the U.S.

It was apparently not enough for Biden and his puppeteers that there were a record 50-million-plus foreign-born U.S. residents, comprising nearly 16 percent of the population, among them likely more than 30 million illegal aliens. What number would have been sufficient for a putative eight-year Biden administration—40, 50, or 70 million illegal aliens?

America deserves better than the degenerate propaganda machine that passes for “elite” journalism. We deserve better than the evil “cracked-out clown car” the Democrat Party has become.

The New York Times and the Washington Post all but ignored DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s bombshell press conference yesterday (Wednesday 7/23), at which she announced that she had sent criminal referrals to the DOJ and FBI implicating former President Barack Obama and his national security team in the “seditious conspiracy” of the Russia collusion hoax.

As time goes on, and more evidence is painstakingly chipped out of hiding, we see just how rotten the apex Democrats are: Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.

No wonder their party is a shambles: “Constipated. Leaderless. Confused. A cracked-out clown car. Divided,” wrote veteran Democrat strategist James Carville in the Times this week, warning of an impending “civil war” between whatever is left of the moderate rump and the parasitical radical faction that is sucking the party dry.

It’s a billion-dollar industry, illegal and controlled by Chinese mafia networks in quiet rural and suburban neighborhoods across America.

If that weren’t concerning enough, it also involves drugs, money laundering, illegal immigration, slave labor, and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) extensive influence in the American heartland.

Earlier this month, a major FBI bust of a grow house network in New England was reported with details of the massive scale of marijuana production used to generate profits routed back to China. Boston Herald (7/09): Feds Take Down Chinese-Operated Grow Home Network In Massachusetts, Maine

It’s frankly shocking to read the July 8 DOJ Indictment of seven Chinese nationals for conspiracy to produce and distribute illegal marijuana through a network of grow houses. They were also charged with money laundering and smuggling illegal aliens for cheap labor at the grow operations.

Note: Definition of a Marijuana Grow House is appended below.

Ukraine drone attacks on Moscow and all over Russia are a regular occurrence now.

No wonder, then, that the fourth summer of Moscow’s war against Ukraine has brought feelings of tiredness and hopelessness, rather than the usual seasonal optimism, to Russia.

The spring expectations of a probable cessation of hostilities are gone, and the messages from the Kremlin about the firm determination to stay the course aimed at subjugating Ukraine undercut the longing for a normal life.

Opinion polls cannot fully capture this shift in public mood, particularly when conducted by “foreign agents.” They still indicate a decline in feelings of pride and hope, however, and an increase in indifference and fear (Levada Center, July 18).

Preface by Jack. The Sleeping Goddess carved by the ancient megalithic people of Malta close to six thousand years ago has an entrancingly soothing beauty, symbolic of Malta itself.  Richard Bangs has been a dear friend of mine for over 40 years. In addition to being the world’s foremost river explorer, he is a gifted composer of poetic prose.  Richard will be co-leading with Rebel and me our Magic of Malta exploration this coming November. This is possibly the most beautiful description of Malta ever written.

There are places that murmur with the ghosts of time. There are places that sing with the laughter of the present. And then, there is Malta—a sun-dappled jewel adrift in the Mediterranean, a stage where the drama of civilization has played out for over 7,000 years.

Malta doesn’t simply invite you; it summons you. It’s a clarion call to the curious, the seekers, the wanderers who wish to touch the pulse of history and the poetry of place.

Malta is not merely a speck on the map. It is a living palimpsest, a manuscript written and rewritten by the hands of empires and dreamers.

Malta is the island that seduced myth itself. Homer, that old spinner of tales, cast Odysseus upon these shores, held captive by the enchantress Calypso for seven languid years. And who could blame him for lingering? Malta is more than a waypoint; it is a spell, a place that holds you fast.