Life takes us in many strange directions and wonderful discoveries. It never turns out the way we thought it would.
Sunday, November 30, 2025
Saturday, November 29, 2025
Brief Glimpses Of Tehran Today
In brief glimpses of Tehran, an AP journalist sees a changing and challenged Iran
By Jon Gambrell,
7 hours ago
Iran Changing Tehran Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
As you enter Iran’s capital, it starts with only occasional glimpses — a passenger in a car speeding by or a pedestrian trying to leapfrog through Tehran’s notorious traffic. But as you reach the cooler heights of Tehran’s northern neighborhoods along the city’s sycamore-lined Vali-e Asr Street, they are almost everywhere, women with their brown, black, blonde and gray locks.
More and more, Iranian women choose to forgo the country’s mandatory headscarf, or hijab.
It was something unthinkable just a few years earlier in the Islamic Republic, whose conservative Shiite clerics and hard-line politicians long pushed for strict enforcement of laws requiring women to cover their hair. But the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini and the nationwide protests that followed enraged women of all ages and views in a way few other issues have since the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“When I moved to Iran in 1999, letting a single strand of hair show would immediately prompt someone to tell me to tuck it back under my headscarf out of fear of the morality police taking me away,” said Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “To see where Iran is today feels unimaginable: Women and girls openly defying mandatory hijab.”
"Authorities are overwhelmed by the sheer numbers across the country and worry that if they crack down — at a delicate time marked by power blackouts, water shortages, and a rotten economy — they could spur Iranians to return to the streets."
First trip to Iran in years
I received a three-day visa from the government to attend a summit addressed by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as tensions remain high over Tehran's nuclear program. Access to reporting beyond the summit was limited, but the trip gave me my first look on the ground in Iran since my last visits in 2018 and 2019.
In those intervening years, I had watched from abroad in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in my role overseeing the Associated Press’ coverage of Iran and the Gulf Arab states as Iran was roiled by protests over the economy and Amini's death, the coronavirus pandemic and a 12-day war with Israel.
For the past 46 years, Iran’s rulers have imposed the hijab rule. At the strictest times, the police and the Basijis, the all-volunteer force of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, kept a close eye on women in the streets to ensure compliance.
Whenever the atmosphere felt laxer, many women pushed their scarves further and further back on their head — small challenges to the government on how much hair can you get away with showing. But they rarely dared to remove it.
More women choosing to go without the hijab
Working remotely with my AP colleagues in Iran, I knew from their reporting, photographs and video footage from the streets on even unrelated assignments that women had begun to drop the hijab completely. But I didn't fully understand the scale of that refusal until I saw it myself.
Around Tajrish Square, at the foot of Tehran's Alborz Mountains, one group of young girls who are required to wear the hijab to school immediately removed them after leaving in the afternoon. They darted between cars idling through traffic, laughing and carrying art projects. Women of all ages went uncovered at the Tajrish Bazaar and walking past the blue-tile domes of the Imamzadeh Saleh shrine. Two police officers on the street talked among themselves as the women passed by unremarked.
At the luxury Espinas Palace Hotel, multiple uncovered women walked past the signs reading, “Please observe the Islamic hijab” with the black-and-white outline of a woman in hijab.
A foreign diplomat’s wife attended a dinner for the summit without one. An Iranian woman in attendance briefly put one over her head while in discussion with a hotel staff member, then let it fall fully to her shoulders a moment later.
Those sites were in northern Tehran, an affluent area that is generally more liberal. But even in a more conservative southern district, an uncovered woman walked quickly down the street among others in the all-encompassing black chador.
“All of my life I had to wear hijab, at school, at university, everywhere in public,” one Iranian woman who recently emigrated to Canada told me after I returned to Dubai, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
“I always tried to follow the rules but it made me feel a lack of confidence … because I wore the hijab and I didn’t believe in that.”
Signs of the war could be seen too. I saw one apartment building, its top-floor apartment still in ruins from an Israeli strike as well.
Dissatisfaction simmers under the surface
Hard-liners within Iran's theocracy repeatedly have called for increased enforcement of the hijab laws. Iran's reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian has pushed to halt that, saying in September in an interview with NBC News that “human beings have a right to choose."
Iran's top authority, 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has so far left the hijab issue alone after this year's war with Israel, which also saw the United States bomb Iranian nuclear enrichment sites. Also on hold is any change to Iran's government-subsidized gasoline prices, among the cheapest in the world, despite increasing economic pressure on the country as its rial currency trades at over 1 million to $1.
The reason likely rests in the widespread dissatisfaction of Iran's people with its theocracy at the moment. Previous government actions on both issues led to nationwide protests and security force crackdowns that killed hundreds and saw thousands detained.
In recent days, Pezeshkian's social affairs adviser Mohammad-Javad Javadi-Yeganeh acknowledged data from an unpublished survey by the state-linked Iranian Students Polling Agency. The polling reportedly suggested widespread discontent with the government, something not previously acknowledged by officials who have repeatedly contended that the country came together during the 12-day war. Fear of another war breaking out permeates conversations across Tehran.
“When we visit provinces, we see in surveys that people are discontent about the administration," Pezeshkian recently said, without directly acknowledging the polling. "We are answerable since we cannot provide services to people.”
The polling tracks with widespread voter discontent and a low turnout during last year's initial presidential vote.
“Years of economic hardship, inflation, currency volatility, unemployment and public frustration over environmental and social challenges have sharply eroded trust in institutions,” the Washington-based National Iranian American Council said in an analysis about the reported polling data.
Yet the worry of a renewed government crackdown persists for a population exhausted by the grind of international sanctions and the widespread fear that another war with Israel will come.
“Sometimes that fear is with me,” the Iranian woman living in Canada said. “Sometimes when I’m behind the wheel, I try to find my headscarf on my head. That fear is still with me.”
___
The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Friday, November 28, 2025
Thursday, November 27, 2025
An Amazing New Cancer Cure
How does nonchemotherapy cancer treatment Anktiva work?
By Zach KaplanAshley N. Soriano,
1 days ago
If you missed NewsNation’s “Killing Cancer: The Power Within” special report, you can see an encore presentation on Thursday at 9p/8C. Click here to find NewsNation in your lineup.
(NewsNation) — Billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong developed a new cancer therapy, Anktiva, that does not require patients to go through chemotherapy. But how does it work?
According to ImmunityBio, the company that developed Anktiva, the treatment harnesses the body’s immune system to destroy cancer tumors, which could make chemotherapy obsolete. While it received FDA approval to treat a specific form of bladder cancer, Soon-Shiong says the drug, which he claims has had miraculous results, has faced regulatory hurdles.
Read this article to learn more about Anktiva from Dr. Soon-Shiong himself. You can also read more of his articles here or follow his X account @DrPatSoonShiong.
‘Killing Cancer: The Power Within’: NewsNation special
Here’s what we know about how Anktiva works:
Anktiva is an immunotherapy that aids the natural killer cells
Anktiva is not a chemotherapy or gene therapy. It’s an immunotherapy that activates the body’s cancer-fighting cells.
“You have, in your body, God-given, a cell that kills cancer, that kills TB, that kills HIV, that kills COVID, a cell called the natural killer cell that is your body’s first responder,” Soon-Shiong explained to NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo in an hourlong special, “Killing Cancer: The Power Within.”
The natural killer cells have a receptor “that’s looking for a protein that your body makes called interleukin 15 (Il-15),” he explained.
“Anktiva is that IL-15,” Soon-Shiong said. “It is the switch that actually binds to the NK cell and activates and proliferates them.”
‘Saved my life’: Patients praise Anktiva effectiveness
In other words, when the natural killer cell is treated with IL-15, the cell becomes stronger, more durable and multiplies faster, making the body better equipped to take on and kill cancer cells.
Anktiva is combined with BCG, or Bacillus Calmette-Guérin, an immunotherapy drug delivered to the bladder through a catheter.
Currently, Anktiva is only approved by the FDA to treat adult patients with stage zero BCG-unresponsive nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer, with carcinoma in situ with or without papillary tumors.
In May, the FDA refused to expand Anktiva’s use to patients with BCG-unresponsive nonmuscle NMIBC who have papillary disease only.
Protecting natural killer cells may cure cancer: Soon-Shiong
Anktiva sets itself apart by enhancing the function of natural killer cells instead of diminishing them.
The most common cancer treatments in use today, chemotherapy and radiation, hurt the natural killer cell.
Soon-Shiong explains that “everything, from radiation to chemotherapy, the toxins we eat, to the stress, has been inducing the destruction of the natural killer cell.”
“The only thing that you need to protect in your body is your natural killer cell. And if you protect that, that’s what actually not only prevents cancer, but treats cancer and maybe cures cancer,” he said.
How does Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s cancer treatment work?
What other doctors say about Anktiva
In NewsNation’s special, “Killing Cancer: The Power Within,” other doctors expressed enthusiasm for Soon-Shiong’s breakthrough in cancer treatment.
“There’s so many patients with cancers, afflicted with cancer, that we could do so much more for,” said Dr. Steven Finkelstein, the national director of radiation oncology with U.S. Urology Partners. He explained that the cancer research field is desperate for a change.
“(Soon-Shiong) has something that he’s seen work … and patients have gotten a therapy that has made their cancer better,” Finkelstein said. “And that’s why it’s so important to figure out if it works, to get it to a place where everyone gets access.”
Dr. Simon Khagi, the medical director of neuro-oncology at Hoag Family Cancer Institute and a board-certified medical and neurological oncologist, also expressed support for an expedited approval process.
“I think the rules need to be maybe a little different, maybe a little bit more relaxed to allow for things and development to move faster,” Khagi said.
Soon-Shiong continues to lobby President Donald Trump’s administration to support expanding Anktiva’s use for other types of cancer.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation.
Wednesday, November 26, 2025
Tuesday, November 25, 2025
Trump To Announce Extension Of ACA Tax Credits For Two Years
Trump to announce extension of ACA tax credits for two years
By Joe Sommerlad,
20 hours ago
President Donald Trump appears poised to announce a two-year extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies, due to expire at the end of December, while setting new limits on who is eligible to receive the tax credits, according to reports.
Without an extension of Covid-19-era Obamacare subsidies, insurance premiums for nearly 22 million American citizens threaten to more than double early next year, a point made repeatedly by Democrats during the recent 43-day government shutdown, who refused to sign a stopgap spending bill that did not address the problem.
The president could unveil his new proposal as early as Monday, according to MS NOW, presenting a new healthcare framework and calling on Congress to send a bill to the Oval Office for his signature as soon as possible.
President Donald Trump flanked by Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy Jr and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr Mehmet Oz at the White House in September (AP)
Senate Republicans did promise to hold a vote on the matter by mid-December to a group of eight Democrats in the chamber as a condition of securing their support on a bill to end the shutdown earlier this month.
Trump’s plan will be called the “Healthcare Price Cuts Act,” according to White House officials cited by MS NOW, and would address the “surprise premium hikes” resulting from ACA subsidy expirations.
It would require recipients to make a minimum premium payment, according to Axios, and also eliminate the “zero-premium” subsidies currently offered under Obamacare to stop fraudulent “ghost beneficiaries” from exploiting the system – a Republican bugbear.
The plan is further understood to feature a deposit program that would incentivize people to buy lower-premium options on the ACA exchange.
Anyone who downgrades their coverage under the new proposals would see the difference in costs distributed to a “Health Savings Account” provided with taxpayer dollars, MS NOW reports.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune convinced eight Democrats to help end the record government shutdown this month by promising a vote to address expiring ACA subsidies (AP)
“We believe healthcare is going to come down,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessentsaid on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday before trailing an imminent announcement on tackling costs and acknowledging that the issue of affordability is becoming increasingly urgent as the holiday season approaches.
There is a clear desire for Washington to act on the ACA deadline, with a recent poll from the non-partisan healthcare research group KFF revealing that 74 percent of Americans want to see the subsidies extended, an opinion shared by 50 percent of Republicans specifically.
Trump will reportedly make his announcement at the White House in the presence of Dr. Mehmet Oz, his administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The president had previously expressed opposition to simply signing off on an extension of the current subsidies, arguing instead that the money involved should be allowed to bypass insurance companies and sent directly to consumers to shop for their own health coverage.
He suggested an act to that effect should be known as “Trumpcare” and claimed it would empower citizens and leave them feeling like entrepreneurs.
Monday, November 24, 2025
Sunday, November 23, 2025
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Friday, November 21, 2025
Thursday, November 20, 2025
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Sunday, November 16, 2025
Russia's Appalling Losses In Ukraine
Opinion: Putin’s ‘Mad Max’ army lurches forward amid appalling casualties
By Jonathan SweetMark Toth,
3 days ago
“There are two types of people on the battlefield — the quick and the dead.” This Army saying is instilled in basic training then reinforced throughout one’s military career.
Until last month, Ukraine was “the quick” in its defensive war against Russia. Kyiv, since day one of the war, has understood that to be quick requires embracing innovations and adaptations in techniques, tactics and procedures. Winners change methods, employment, and utilization of troops and weapon systems on the battlefield as needed. He who adapts fastest wins.
Kyiv has repeatedly come out ahead in this regard. It has modified weapon systems to extend their ranges, enabling them to strike deep within the Russian interior. This has single-handedly created a Revolution in military affairs. Ukraine’s deployment of drones in modern warfare, alongside other new tactics, is designed to defeat a Russian invader intent on mass infantry charges and artillery as the primary means to win.
Russia, in contrast, has been stuck in World War II-era tactics — more infantry, more tanks, more artillery more effort. Their only playbook has been to attack, attack, and attack some more until complete destruction of the objective is achieved — then move on to the next objective. The Russians have to deploy barrier troops to prevent their men from retreating and ensure forward momentum.
After 45 months of combat, this playbook has cost Russia more than 1.1 million casualties, more than 11,000 tanks, nearly 24,000 armored fighting vehicles, and nearly 36,000 artillery and multiple launch rocket systems.
Human life is not part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s cost-calculus. The ends — and the only end really does seem to be the destruction of Ukraine — justify the means. The Kremlin will find more bodies to fill the uniforms — whether it’s mercenaries, conscripts, reserves, prisoners, or foreign fighters from North Korea, Chechnya, Cuba and Africa.
Yet something has changed as the two sides battle it out over Pokrovsk. Russian ground forces have suddenly tried something new. Stefan Korshak writes in the Kyiv Post that they have tried infiltrating the Ukrainian side with smaller units and “going to ground” inside of the town and behind enemy lines. They then reappear to disrupt Ukrainian logistics and command from the rear, engaging in street fighting and close-quarters battles while evading Ukraine drones.
As one officer observed, “very often there are situations when the enemy appears in Pokrovsk where we do not expect him.” Kyiv has been forced to employ Special Operation Forces to oust them.
By attacking from within while still applying pressure from outside, Russian ground forces are threatening Pokrovsk and neighboring Myrnohrad. Last Sunday, they slowed the tempo of their ground activity to “extend logistics and bring up reinforcements to southern Pokrovsk.” Putin has elevated the outcome of the battle for Pokrovsk to a “must-win” status.
His generals have been fighting for what is now mostly a symbolic piece of terrain for 21 months. Having deployed 110,000 Russian soldiers in the area, he is determined to conquer the town. As Shaun Pinner reflected, “Pokrovsk represents a place where Russia feels it must win, and where the Ukrainian armed forces are making them pay dearly for trying.”
Putin told the White House and U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in September that he intends to occupy Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region by the end of 2025. He needs Pokrovsk to make that happen — to build momentum necessary to eventually attack Ukraine’s four-city fortress belt of Slovyansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka, and Kostyantynivka.
Videos of Russian soldiers advancing towards Pokrovsk depict a disorganized, Mad Max, pick-up game of sorts. Bad weather, specifically fog, provides some concealment as they approach the battle lines. Pokrovsk is simply the next town. In 2023 it was Bakhmut, in 2024 it was Avdiivka. Putin will reinforce failure, continue his attacks, and thousands more will die for his aspirations — not in defense of Russia, but to satisfy his own delusions.
For the defenders of Pokrovsk and future towns to be determined, finding and blocking Russian infiltration lanes is now a priority. The Ukrainian military, already stretched thin, must now cover even more terrain.
As retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges noted recently on Polish state television, “It is very difficult to hold terrain, especially built-up areas, with just drones. You need manpower, and lots of artillery and rocket capability to defend over these long fronts … In the defense, you still need manpower.”
Mounted assaults can be narrowed down to a few avenues of approaches based on terrain analysis. Infiltration lanes, however, are numerous. In the absence of manpower, the equalizer becomes interdiction. More attention and resources must be allocated to the area between the close and deep fight.
As Frederick the Great said, “one who defends everything defends nothing.” Therefore, Ukraine must attack at the source — the assembly areas behind Russian lines — before they can split up into smaller groups to infiltrate into rear areas.
For Russia, masking 110,000 soldiers and their equipment will be a challenge. They are vulnerable in their assembly areas and fuel points, and also when they move. NATO and the U.S. must do more to get artillery forward — tubes and munitions — to strike them before they reach the front line.
But successful interdiction will not be enough. Russia continues to bomb Ukrainian population centers and has returned to targeting energy infrastructure to weaponize the coming winter.
Ukraine must tweak its strategy to find balance in deep strikes intent on crippling the Kremlin’s ability to fund and sustain the war, while defending their homeland.
During an attack on Ukraine Saturday evening, they were able to shoot down 89 percent of the Russian drones fired, but only 20 percent of the missiles. An 80 percent failure rate is unacceptable. Europe must do more to provide Ukraine an effective integrated air and missile defense capability and establish a no-fly zone.
Deep strikes on oil refineries are achieving the desired effect. However, as Hodges emphasized, Ukraine must develop a methodology to asymmetrically engage Russia’s shadow fleet in ports while its ships take on oil.
All eyes are on Pokrovsk this week, but regardless of the outcome, the war will continue until Russia is forced to stop attacking. The “just enough” strategy of barely preventing Ukraine from losing is still not enough against Putin’s changing Mad Max army.
Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Sweet served 30 years as a military intelligence officer and led the U.S. European Command Intelligence Engagement Division from 2012 to 2014. Mark Toth writes on national security and foreign policy.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Saturday, November 15, 2025
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Wednesday, November 12, 2025
The US vs Venezuela-What Is Going On?
Title: These are the potential operations the Pentagon is planning against Venezuela
Back in September, the US military dispatched a sizable force near Venezuela. Yet one that was still moderate in size, limiting what it could pull off. So the US mostly settled with intercepting and destroying what it called narcocartel’s speedboats.
But since then, the US has made further preparations and has sent additional forces. It seems the goal of toppling Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president, and changing his authoritarian government, might be in its sights. This video will explore what military options might help the US achieve that and what sort of attacks the US might perform.
Since our previous video in September, US forces stationed near Venezuela, on route to Venezuela, or patrolling near Venezuela have increased dramatically. More Burke-class destroyers were added, as were a special operations ship and resupply ships.
Plus, the Ford aircraft carrier, US most modern and biggest carrier, is en route to the area, or has perhaps even already arrived, accompanied by one more Burke destroyer and a resupply ship.
US forces
September
2 Burke destroyers
1 Tico cruiser
1 nuclear submarine
1 LCS corvette
2 San Antonio amphibious assault ships
1 Iwo Jima amphibious/air assault ship
November
4 Burke destroyers
1 Tico cruiser
1+ Nuclear submarine
1 LCS corvette
2 San Antonio amphibious assault ships
1 Iwo Jima amphibious/air assault ship
1 Special ops ship
2 Resupply ships
1 Hospital ship
1 Submarine support ship
Back in September, additional airbase work was observed in one location in Puerto Rico. By November, three bases had seen modifications. Including a larger apron, enlarged taxiways, and possibly even longer runways. In addition to various mobile control and security equipment brought in.
September
Air power (including aircraft on Iwo Jima)
10 F-35B
4-6 Harriers
4-6 Viper attack helicopters
12+ Osprey rotorcraft
Several CH-53 heavy helicopters
12+ Venom/Seahawk helicopters
Several Reaper drones
A few P-8 ISR planes are operating nearby
November
Air power (including aircraft on Iwo Jima/Ford)
44-48 F-18E/F
Several F-18G electronic warfare planes
Several E-2D radar surveillance planes
10 F-35B
4-6 Harriers
4-6 Viper attack helicopters
12+ Osprey rotorcraft
Several CH-53 heavy helicopters
16+ Venom/Seahawk helicopters
Several Reaper drones
A few P-8 ISR planes operating nearby
A few B-1B bombers operating periodically
A few B-52 bombers operating periodically
Roosevelt Roads Base and Rafael Hernández Airport, both in Puerto Rico, saw the said additional work done. As did Henry Rohlsen Airport in the US Virgin Islands territory east of Puerto Rico. The US wouldn’t have gone into such infrastructure investment unless there were gonna be some serious air operations done from all those bases. Keep in mind, the US also has the Guantanamo base in Cuba, which, in theory, could also be used, if beefed up further, but for political reasons, that might be the last resort.
At least 40 but probably more C-17 flights were observed into Puerto Rico since September, bringing in various equipment. The US is evidently gearing up for something bigger than was evident back in September.
Now, we won’t talk about Venezuelan forces much as those are far from being important. Even IF the Venezuelan military were to react to US strikes, even if enough of its air defenses and Air Force survived, and even if enough were willing to try to attack US assets, there’s hardly anything Venezuela could do. At best, some lucky interceptions of US planes and rotorcraft might happen.
The media were full of news of Russia sending air defenses, but so far, a single Ilyushin 76 plane has been observed coming to Venezuela. At best, it could’ve carried something like a few Pantsir vehicles or some Buk missiles or launchers. It is possible a few more flights sneaked past undetected, but even so, it’s not easy to transport a whole air defense battery by air. A single Ilyushin 76 might transport 2 Buk launch vehicles, so the whole battery would require close to a dozen flights.
So, even if Venezuelan air defenses have been beefed up a little, it’s not gonna amount to much. Venezuela would be wise to disperse those assets as much as possible and use them very sporadically, basically never using their radars as the primary means of aircraft detection. Even if it means relying on other, smaller radars or even relying on other obsolete means for detection. Then, if close enough, and if lucky enough to stop and shoot quickly, it might catch some unlucky US low or medium altitude aircraft or rotorcraft off guard.
Venezuelan SAM batteries were previously known
2 S-300VM
2 Buk M2
4 Pechora 2M
Possible additions
A few/several Pantsir S1 vehicles
A few Buk M2 vehicles
Such an ambush would increase the chances of the US detecting the SAM battery and blowing it up. With the massive number of satellites, side-looking radar-equipped surveillance planes peeking at Venezuela from a few hundred miles away, and probably US informants on the ground, it’s quite plausible the US is already tracking most of Venezuela's SAM batteries.
The Venezuelan Air Force would hardly be a threat. It’d get bombed on the ground by cruise missiles and stand-off bombs. At best, Venezuela might be able to disperse some planes beforehand. And likely keep them hidden during the whole ordeal. Any and every airstrip in Venezuela is likely monitored 24/7 and would be hard-pressed to launch su30 missions. Let alone successful ones. And anyway, Su-30s are 30 years old technology nowadays.
Venezuela had up to 18 F-16A, but only a few may be flightworthy
It has 21 Su-30MKV
Perhaps the biggest threat to the US might be various shoulder-launched missiles, if the US goes for troop insertions deep inside Venezuela via rotorcraft. Venezuela has received thousands of Russian Igla MANPADs, on top of having some Western MANPADs as well. With rotorcraft being slow and with plenty of treeline protection, shoulder-launch missile operators could detect targets early enough to fire off some shots into mostly helpless targets.
4000-5000 Igla
400 RBS-70
Maybe some Mistral
But all that really depends on what the US wants to do. Here are some possibilities. The US is already likely doing CIA covert missions inside Venezuela. Said missions were publicly approved.
The forces the US has are still really insufficient for an invasion. Three assault ships can land some 22 hundred marines in one go, but even if the US has further troops prepped, it’s unlikely to be a figure many times over. And it’d be likely to take days and weeks until further troops are used.
Venezuela’s ground force
63,000 active army personnel
15,000 marines
23,000 National Guard
220,000 paramilitaries
But a full-scale invasion of Venezuela is likely not what the US is after. There’s one immediate goal: after Trump makes the final decision, and after a legal go-ahead for attacks is produced. To change who runs Venezuela. That means toppling Maduro. There are several ways to go about it, but they all boil down to these two. Either pressure Maduro and his clique to flee. Or to convince people around Maduro to rise up and get rid of him. Now, everything done so far by the US is likely a form of pressure. The US hopes Maduro will get scared and simply leave the country, leaving a political vacuum that the US could influence and control. Even the slow but inevitable cruise of the Ford carrier to the Caribbean is part of the show.
If pure intimidation fails, bombs may start falling. At that point, it’s less likely the US would be content with letting Maduro flee. So then the option of pressuring others into performing a coup d’etat might be more likely.
And who gets bombed, how much, and where do US forces go - that can help convince those people around Maduro to topple him. We’re not talking about the general population. But about people enabling Maduro’s governance.
While a lot of this is speculative, it’s plausible that a lot of the military in Venezuela is integrated into and or connected with various drug cartels. So, it’d be easy to imagine a deal: as long as Maduro’s government doesn’t interfere with the drug deals, the military stays loyal. Now, if the US were to start attacking narcocartels’ assets, especially with an under-the-table promise to stop once Maduro is out, cartels might rebel against Maduro. And with them, a lot of the armed forces, including higher echelons.
Action against cartels might include US troop insertions, as we’re not talking about tens of thousands of troops opposing them. And if anti-cartel ops aren’t enough, the US might go for long-term pressure. Like bombing and raiding Venezuela’s oil production and oil export assets. Refineries, ships, and so on.
Venezuela’s economy has been in tatters for a long time, and its main driver has been oil export, run by a government-owned company. And oil makes up for two-thirds of all the country’s exports.
Venezuela GDP 2024 - $106 billion
Exports $26 billion in 2024 (World Bank, goods and services)
Imports $9 billion
Oil and fossil fuel exports $17.5 billion in 2024
So oil is two thirds.
Even more worryingly for Maduro, oil exports make up half the total state budget. If those stop, the country will quickly go bankrupt. And then all hell can break loose. With possibly many of the officers around Maduro switching sides, once they realize the day they stop getting paid may be close.
Of course, such strikes would come in a package with a general show of force. US bombing Venezuelan military sites, bases, and a campaign of decapitation of various leadership around Maduro and his generals. Be it via air strikes or assassinations. With the ultimate goal of sowing fear among Maduro's ranks. No one would know who could be next to be killed. Unless Maduro is toppled.
So that’s where we’re at. The US aims to pressure the cartels and generals around Maduro to get him out of power. It’s a plan that has a high likelihood of working, depending on the amount of pressure applied. Which means that if at first Maduro doesn’t go, the US might be bringing in even more forces, prolonging the whole bombing campaign. Right now, no final decision has been made, but the US is building up those forces and bases for a reason. Time will tell.
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The Affordable Care Act Will Survive Despite The Best Efforts of President Trump
The Existentialist Republic
The ACA Has an Absolute Bombshell Hidden in It, and Dems Can Take Advantage of It
We can build a system that is resilient to Trump's sabotage efforts.
Christopher Armitage
Nov 01, 2025
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California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Washington combined represent 87 million people. If those five states formed a unified health insurance market, they would have enough negotiating power to force down hospital reimbursement rates, slash pharmaceutical prices, and cut premiums by hundreds of dollars per month. The legal authority to do this already exists.
Section 1333 of the Affordable Care Act explicitly authorizes states to form Health Care Choice Compacts where qualified health plans operate across state lines. The provision became law in 2010. It took effect January 1, 2016. Zero states have used it. Not one.
Democratic governors are forming regional alliances to coordinate vaccine recommendations, which is progress, but Section 1333 (42 U.S.C. § 18053) offers something transformative: actual market power to deliver billions in savings to tens of millions of people. The law has been sitting there for 15 years, waiting to be deployed.
Specifically, section 1333 permits two or more states to enter into compacts allowing health insurance issuers to sell qualified health plans across state lines. States must pass enabling legislation, then apply to the Department ot Health and Human Services (HHS) for approval. HHS must approve any compact if it provides coverage at least as comprehensive as essential health benefits, maintains affordability protections at least as strong as the ACA, covers at least as many residents, does not increase the federal deficit, and does not weaken enforcement of applicable laws. These guardrails ensure compacts create genuine public benefit rather than allowing junk insurance to cross borders.
Although the provision became effective January 1, 2016, HHS has never issued implementing regulations, though federal law does not require them. According to the 2019 Federal Register, HHS received zero applications and zero states had passed enabling legislation. Georgetown University's Center on Health Insurance Reforms confirmed in 2025 that this status remains unchanged after 15 years. The authority sits dormant.
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Colorado launched its public option in 2023. The program enrolled 132,791 people in 2025, nearly half of marketplace enrollment. Lowest cost Silver plan premiums dropped by $100 per month. Now imagine that market power scaled up. An interstate public option covering 87 million people gives state governments leverage to negotiate hospital reimbursement rates, pharmaceutical prices, and administrative fees that individual state programs cannot achieve.
If an interstate public option achieved Colorado's $100 monthly savings across just 10 percent of that market, families save $10 billion annually. The Northwest Prescription Drug Consortium documented over $99 million in savings from 2016 to 2019 through coordinated purchasing. Healthcare insurance purchasing operates on the same economic principles. Bigger markets drive better prices.
Political barriers, not legal or economic ones, explain why Section 1333 remains unused. HHS under both parties never issued regulations. States never pressured for action. Health insurance lobbying groups oppose anything increasing government negotiating power. State insurance regulators protect turf. Provider networks represent the operational challenge, but combined market power solves this. An interstate public option representing 87 million people has leverage to bring providers to the table. States could require provider participation as a condition of Medicaid contracts or facility licensing.
Some analysts argue Section 1333 was designed to enable conservative deregulation rather than progressive public options. Republicans included the provision hoping states would use it to allow cheaper, less comprehensive plans to compete across borders. That political origin does not change what the statute actually authorizes. The text requires comprehensive benefits and affordability protections. States can use Section 1333 to build exactly what the provision's original sponsors feared: genuine public alternatives with real market power.
Blue state governors formed regional health alliances to coordinate vaccine guidance after Trump administration officials gutted federal public health agencies. Those alliances demonstrate appetite for interstate cooperation and frustration with federal dysfunction. But vaccine recommendations do not materially change people's economic circumstances. An interstate public option covering tens of millions of people with billions in savings does.
Section 1333 represents unused legal authority sitting dormant while the public pay inflated premiums. This is actual resistance with material consequences. Not symbolic gestures. Real policy delivering real savings to the public.
Ten Democratic governors need to hear that this matters. Contact them and tell them you want them to use Section 1333 authority to create an interstate public option. Explain that an interstate public option covering tens of millions of people would have negotiating power to drive down premiums, reduce pharmaceutical costs, and force hospitals to accept reasonable reimbursement rates.
Also, mention that Colorado's public option achieved an average of $1,200 per year premium savings, and scaled across multiple states this could save families billions annually. Then personalize your message with your own story about why healthcare costs matter to you. Ask them to work together to draft Section 1333 compact legislation. Tell them this is how blue states actually fight back, not with strongly worded letters but with policies that materially improve people's lives.
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Contact these governors:
California Governor Gavin Newsom: https://www.gov.ca.gov/contact/ | Phone: (916) 445-2841
New York Governor Kathy Hochul: https://www.governor.ny.gov/content/governor-contact-form
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker: https://gov.illinois.gov/contact-us/contact-the-governor.html | Phone: (217) 782-0244
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/email-the-governors-office | Phone: (617) 725-4005
Washington Governor Bob Ferguson: https://governor.wa.gov/contacting-governor/contacting-governors-office | Phone: (360) 902-4111
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro: https://www.pa.gov/governor | Phone: (717) 788-8990
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer: https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/contact | Phone: (517) 335-7858
Colorado Governor Jared Polis: https://governorsoffice.colorado.gov/governor/contact-us | Phone: (303) 866-2471
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy: https://www.nj.gov/governor/contact/all/ | Phone: (609) 292-6000
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz: https://mn.gov/governor/contact/ | Phone: (651) 201-3400
Send your message today. Healthcare costs are crushing people. Democratic governors have the legal authority to do something about it right now. They just need to use it.
Author's note: I wanted to congratulate Glass Empires and W. A. Lawrence on breaking the top 100 for US Politics on Substack. Her content is top notch and I encourage you all to check out some of her explorations and insights on the role of psychology and narrative in the modern political climate.
References
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2019, March 11). Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Increasing consumer choice through the sale of individual health insurance coverage across state lines through health care choice compacts. Federal Register, 84(47), 8657–8660. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/03/11/2019-04270
Colorado Division of Insurance. (2025, January 15). Colorado Option lowers premiums and saves Coloradans money – Findings from Brown University research [Press release]. https://doi.colorado.gov/news-releases-consumer-advisories/colorado-option-lowers-premiums-and-saves-coloradans-money
Governor of California. (2025, September 3). California, Oregon, and Washington to launch new West Coast Health Alliance to uphold scientific integrity in public health as Trump destroys CDC's credibility [Press release]. https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/09/03/california-oregon-and-washington-to-launch-new-west-coast-health-alliance-to-uphold-scientific-integrity-in-public-health-as-trump-destroys-cdcs-credibility/
Governor of California. (2025, September 4). Hawaii to join West Coast Health Alliance with California, Oregon, and Washington [Press release]. https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/09/04/hawaii-to-join-west-coast-health-alliance-with-california-oregon-and-washington/
Massachusetts Department of Public Health. (2025, September 18). Several Northeastern states and America's largest city announce the Northeast Public Health Collaborative [Press release]. https://www.mass.gov/news/several-northeastern-states-and-americas-largest-city-announce-the-northeast-public-health-collaborative
Murray, R. C., & Whaley, C. M. (2025, January 15). Can public option plans improve affordability? Insights from Colorado. Health Affairs Forefront. https://doi.org/10.1377/forefront.20250113.844529
Northwest Prescription Drug Consortium. (2020). NW Consortium overview [Presentation to Nevada Legislature]. Nevada Legislature. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/InterimCommittee/REL/Document/15817
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act § 1333, 42 U.S.C. § 18053 (2010).
Pogue, S. (2025, March 27). A blast from the past: Dusting off ACA Section 1333 compacts. Center on Health Insurance Reforms. https://chirblog.org/a-blast-from-the-past-dusting-off-aca-section-1333-compacts/
Polis, J. (2025, January 23). Governor Polis, Lt. Governor Primavera, and Colorado Division of Insurance announce record 2025 Colorado Option enrollment numbers [Press release]. State of Colorado, Office of the Governor. https://www.colorado.gov/governor/news/governor-polis-lt-governor-primavera-and-colorado-division-insurance-announce-record-2025
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