Audio Version:The Wolf at the Door, The Safe Room, and the Building CodeNotes from the Israeli frontier, part oneIsraeli building code has required a reinforced concrete room in every new residence since 1992. It is called a mamad. Steel door, blast shutter, filtered air, poured walls. Americans pay extra for this and call it a storm shelter. Israelis get it standard, the way we get a smoke detector in the hallway.The mamad was designed for rockets. Rockets give you fifteen seconds, and then the danger passes. Nothing in that threat model calls for a lock or a barricade on the inside, so most units have neither. The handle is held by hand, or it is not held at all.On the morning of October 7, 2023, families in the kibbutzim of Be’eri, Kfar Aza, and Nir Oz held those handles while heavily armed terrorists on the other side pulled. Some held for six hours. Some held while the house burned around them. When pulling failed, the murderers fired through the door at the handle, working to destroy the hands holding it. After the parents died, so did the twin five-year-old girls of smoke inhalation - as they had been tucked away in the safe room. Only the family dog survived. Once painted white, the black walls tell the tale of death and destruction.Jill and I went to Nir Oz in Israel and stood in one of those doorways and that safe room this week. The steel around the handle is riddled with bullet holes. They were shooting at hands.When the door held, they burned the house. Fire is what defeated the mamad. A room built to keep you alive for fifteen seconds becomes an oven once the building around it is alight, and its air filter was designed for a chemical agent rather than for smoke. The attackers carried accelerant and threw Molotov cocktails through windows, using fire to drive families out of shelters they could not otherwise breach. More than seventy percent of the homes at Nir Oz burned. Six houses in the entire kibbutz were left untouched. Elderly residents who could not walk died in their beds.A wealthy and technically superb country wrote one threat into its building code. A different threat arrived.Thanks for reading Malone News! This post is public so feel free to share it.ShareWhat a raiding economy isFor roughly a century and a half, the southwestern plains of North America ran on a raiding and captive economy. Hämäläinen (2008) makes the case that Comanchería, that is, the vast region of the Southwestern United States occupied by the Comanche people before the 1860s, functioned as an imperial system rather than a collection of war parties, and that raiding was its productive sector. Brooks (2002) documents the captive exchange in the Southwest borderlands as a working market with prices, brokers, and repeat participants.The arithmetic comes first. A raider chooses the time and place. A defender must guard them all. No amount of virtue, vigilance, or wealth changes that equation.No amount of virtue or vigilance changes that ratio, and wealth does not improve it. A frontier settlement in 1840 and a kibbutz in 2023 faced the same problem, except that the kibbutz faced it on a shorter clock, because the raid arrived by paraglider.The strategy, tactics, and economics of captives were also remarkably similar. Comanche raiders killed adult men and took women and children. The selection was deliberate, and both sides knew it. Ransom followed, funded on the Spanish and Mexican side through the rescate system and by the Church.A reliable buyer creates a standing bid, and a standing bid raises the expected return on acquisition. Every individual redemption was a mercy. The aggregate of those mercies was a price signal that manufactured more captives. Any reader who understands why price controls produce shortages already understands why organized ransom produces abductions.Terror belonged to the same system. Deliberate atrocity and the display of bodies by native populations in the southwest made pursuit unattractive and resistance more expensive than accommodation. It also emptied territory.Through the 1830s and 1840s, Comanche and Kiowa raiding hollowed out the northern Mexican states, and whole districts were abandoned. Raiding by the light of the full moon became a calendar of dread that Texans later called the Comanche Moon. DeLay (2008) argues that this depopulation created the conditions for the American conquest of northern Mexico in 1846. Thethousand desertsof his title are those abandoned settlements. The haunting images of deserted Southwestern churches and settlements so often portrayed in popular films have their basis in this history. I was struck by how much the burned-out, bullet-riddled kibbutzim along the Gaza border resembled those cinematic archetypes.Terror was the production technology for Comanche and Kiowa raiders. A defender who will not pursue is cheaper to raid next season.Carl Menger founded the Austrian School of Economics in 1871 by explaining where prices come from. Value is not a property inherent in a good. It is imputed by the people who desire it, and the resulting price tells producers what to make more of. Pay above the market rate for something, and you have effectively placed an order for more of it.The rabbis arrived at the same insight seventeen centuries earlier, without the formal economics. Redemption of captives,pidyon shvuyim, ranks in Maimonides as the highest form of charity a Jew can perform. YetMishnah Gittin4:6 immediately places a limit on it: captives are not to be redeemed for more than their worth,mipnei tikkun ha’olam, “for the good order of the world.” A tradition that elevated redeeming captives to a supreme obligation also imposed a ceiling on the price, because the sages understood what an unlimited bid does to supply.The ceiling has not held. In 1985, Israel exchanged roughly 1,150 prisoners for three Israeli soldiers. In 2011, it traded 1,027 prisoners for a single soldier, Gilad Shalit. Among those released was Yahya Sinwar, who would later mastermind the October 7 attack. The market cleared. The price was published. The buyer came back.On October 7, Hamas took 251 hostages. Securing their return consumed Israeli politics for the next two years, as the country wrestled with the same dilemma its sages had recognized nearly two millennia ago: how to save the captives without ensuring there would be more captives to save.Americans had their own version in 1676. Raiders struck the frontier town of Lancaster, Massachusetts, at dawn on February 10 during King Philip’s War. They killed more than a dozen settlers and carried off twenty-four, among them Mary Rowlandson, the wife of the town’s minister, and her three children. Joseph Rowlandson was in Boston that morning, petitioning the colonial government for troops to defend Lancaster. He did not get them.Her six-year-old daughter, Sarah, was wounded during the attack and died in her mother’s arms nine days later. Rowlandson walked more than 150 miles over eleven weeks and five days, moving between camps in what she called “removes.” When her captors opened negotiations, they asked her to name her own price, and she set it at twenty pounds in goods. They released her on May 2, 1676. Lancaster had been burned, and there was nothing to return to.She published her account six years later under the titleThe Soveraignty and Goodness of God. It is generally regarded as the first American bestseller and established the captivity narrative as a genre that endured for the next two centuries. Colonists who would never have read a casualty report read Rowlandson, because readers identify with a captive in a way that a body count never can.Israel built the modern version of that in a city plaza. Within days of the attack, the open space outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art becameKikar HaHatufim: Hostages Square. Families of the captives moved in, and some slept in tents there for weeks at a time. Survivors from the attacked kibbutzim staffed booths and told visitors about their missing neighbors. A digital clock counted every second since the morning of October 7. On Friday evenings, crowds gathered for Kabbalat Shabbat, many dressed in yellow.The last twenty living hostages came home in October 2025, a year after the attack. The body of Ran Gvili, a police officer killed that morning, was returned on January 26, 2026, and the clock went dark the following evening after 843 days, 12 hours, and 6 minutes. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum held its final Shabbat service that Friday, marking the first Sabbath since July 2014 with no Israeli held in Gaza. Most of the installations have since been removed, and the municipality is now deciding what the plaza should become.Rowlandson’s readers and the people who stood in that square were doing the same work, separated by three and a half centuries. A society can absorb casualties. It cannot absorb its people being held captive.Who came through the fenceThe attack came in three waves.It began with a massive barrage of rockets across Israel, announcing the assault.The Nukhba came first, Hamas’s elite assault force. Roughly 1,500 fighters crossed in the opening hours against assigned objectives, including the Gaza Division headquarters, the surrounding communities, and the Nova music festival near Re’im. They carried mission orders, and those orders included taking captives alive.Behind them came Hamas’s broader military wing and other armed factions, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, moving through breaches the Nukhba had already opened.Then the fence stood open, and civilians walked through it. These people had no formal orders and no assigned objectives. Looting was widespread. Some killed. Some took captives.Although the massacre is remembered as a border attack, it was not confined to the immediate frontier. Hamas and allied forces fought across more than forty locations and penetrated as far as roughly thirty kilometers into Israel before the attack was finally contained.Hamas and its allies killed roughly 1,200 people in this attack, including more than 800 civilians and over 300 members of Israel's security forces, while taking 251 hostages into Gaza.I heard two seemingly contradictory explanations for the hostage-taking. One described abduction for profit. The other insisted it was an act of terror with no commercial motive. Both were correct. They were describing different layers of the same morning.Hamas’s leadership had political objectives. They wanted a large pool of captives to force another exchange like the one in 2011, which had secured Sinwar’s own release. They also wanted to shatter Israel’s deterrence, derail the Saudi normalization process, and ignite a wider regional conflict. Money appears nowhere on that list of objectives.Ransom in the Israeli case is not monetary. Israel does not pay cash for hostages. The currency has long been prisoner releases, negotiated between a state and an armed organization. A Gazan civilian holding a captive therefore had no direct counterparty in Israel and no practical way to sell that captive to the party seeking their return. What he held was an asset with exactly one buyer. Only Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad could convert a captive into prisoner releases. The primary market created a derived demand, and that derived demand created a spot market inside Gaza among people who had never been part of the original plan.Brooks (2002) describes the same structure on the Rio Grande. Therescatesystem did not merely fund the redemption of captives already taken. It established what a captive was worth, and people with no connection to the original raiding economy began taking captives because a buyer existed.Released hostages have described being held in family homes rather than by organized units, which supports the civilian-captor account. The mechanism by which captives were transferred to Hamas is less well documented.The parallel breaks at the audience. Comanche terror spoke to the local defender about his own conduct: abandon the district and stop pursuing us. October 7 spoke to people thousands of miles away. The attackers filmed the atrocities and broadcast them, in some cases through the victims’ own phones and social media accounts, so that families watched in real time. No nineteenth-century raider could do that, and it changed the purpose of terror itself. The target was not only the communities of the Negev, but Israeli domestic politics and Western public opinion. On the second count, it worked.The economics are ancient. The distribution is new. That is what makes this version more dangerous than the one that emptied northern Mexico.How a superb intelligence service went blindIsrael spent roughly a billion dollars on the Gaza barrier, completing it in 2021. It combined sophisticated sensors, remote weapon stations, and an underground wall designed to block tunnels. As confidence in the barrier grew, however, the manpower behind it thinned, and military units were redeployed to the West Bank.Hamas studied the system and struck the cameras first. The barrier was breached in roughly thirty places within the first hour.The failure began long before the concrete. Israeli intelligence possessed a Hamas planning document, later reported asJericho Wall, describing an operation remarkably similar in scale and method to the one that unfolded. Senior officers judged it to be aspirational. Young women serving as border observers, thetatzpitaniyot, repeatedly reported rehearsals at mock Israeli compounds and drone reconnaissance along the fence. They were told to stop filing the reports.Hayek (1945) named the problem. Knowledge relevant to a decision exists in dispersed, local, and particular form, held by people on the spot who cannot fully articulate what they know. A central authority cannot simply aggregate that knowledge, because compressing it for transmission destroys the part that mattered. The women at the observation posts possessed that kind of knowledge. The officers reading their reports possessed a model instead, and they trusted the model.Israelis call itHaConceptzia, the Conception. Hamas had been deterred. Hamas had become a governing authority with something to lose. Both propositions were defensible when they were first formulated. Over time, they hardened into filters that dismissed contradictory evidence as noise.Israel had done this before. In 1973, the Conception held that Egypt would not attack without the ability to strike Israeli airfields deep inside the country, and that Syria would not attack without Egypt. Egyptian divisions massed along the Suez Canal, and the model absorbed the warning. The Agranat Commission diagnosed the failure in 1974 and prescribed institutional dissent, including a permanent devil’s advocate office within military intelligence whose job was to produce the opposing assessment.That office still existed on October 7, 2023. I would put that fact before anyone who believes a well-designed process can substitute for judgment. The reform survived on paper for half a century, yet it did not prevent the same failure when it mattered most. Wohlstetter (1962) reached a similar conclusion in her study of Pearl Harbor. Betts (1978) went further, arguing that intelligence failures persist because the real constraint is not information but the decision maker’s willingness to hear unwelcome conclusions, something no procedural reform can guarantee.There is a colder lesson here for anyone who keeps a bag packed.A threat that is present every night eventually stops seeming exceptional; it becomes normalized. Constant hostility erodes the ability to recognize the one night the wolf actually comes. Any human system living under permanent low-grade alarm does this. Readiness decays fastest in the places that need it most.Eight hoursSderot lies eight miles from Gaza. Before October 7, its residents were generally not eligible for a private firearms license. Eligibility in Israel is determined by locality, and the licensing map reflected the same threat assessment that guided Israeli intelligence.Where communities had armed civilians, those civilians became the first line of defense. Thekitat konenut, the local ready squad, is a chartered volunteer unit that maintains weapons for precisely this contingency. The squads at Be’eri and Kfar Aza fought through the opening hours. Off-duty soldiers drove south on their own initiative, and police units improvised as they could. The Gaza Division headquarters at Re’im was itself overrun, leaving divisional command largely nonfunctional for most of the day.Nir Oz sits under two miles from the Gaza border, with no military outpost between it and Gaza. Between 400 and 500 attackers entered a community of 385 people that morning. The IDF’s own investigation found that the first security forces reached the kibbutz forty minutes after the last of the attackers had already walked back into Gaza. About a quarter of its people were murdered or taken.Israeli law at the time permitted civilians to hold handguns but not rifles. The ready squads met men with assault rifles and RPGs while carrying pistols. Afterward, the state purchased rifles and issued them to rural squads, then expanded the squads into municipal areas. Ben Gvir’s ministry claimed roughly 700 new civilian security teams within weeks.Storage decided more of that morning than firepower did. Squad weapons belonged to the state, and the state kept them in a communal armory rather than in the members’ homes. Northern squads had generally moved their rifles home. Most southern squads had not. A man in Be’eri or Nir Oz woke to gunfire and had to cross open ground to reach a locked room before he could fight at all. In several communities, he never reached it.Nir Oz fielded nine ready squad members that morning, according to an IDF report aired by Kan. Four were killed. Irit Pauker, who walked us through the devastation of Nir Oz, knew every one of them and told us their stories. It was almost impossible not to be moved by their courage. They faced an estimated 450 attackers. The kibbutz lost 69 people and had another 76 taken into Gaza.Israel had licensed those men, trained them, and issued them rifles. It had not trusted them with the keys to the room where the rifles were kept. That is the difference between an armed population and a ready one, and it likely cost more lives on October 7 than any limit on ammunition ever could. In December 2025, the IDF began allowing thousands of reservists to keep their rifles at home, explicitly citing the delays that morning and the ready squads that could not reach their weapons.People often repeat the saying that when seconds count, the police are only minutes away. On October 7, the answer was closer to eight hours. This happened in a country the size of New Jersey, with universal conscription and one of the finest militaries on earth. The gap between a raid and the arrival of the state is a matter of geometry before it is a matter of competence.Sixty-nine is a number. Gideon Pauker was one of them.Pauker was seventy-nine, a week short of his eightieth birthday, and one of the founders of Nir Oz. Late in life, he planted a vineyard on the kibbutz and brought in its first harvest in 2008.We stood among those vines this week. You can see the Gaza border from them. He made the wine with three lifelong friends who had helped found the kibbutz: Gadi Mozes, Chaim Peri, and Yoram Metzger. Together they produced about a thousand bottles each year, giving nearly all of them to family and neighbors. The 2022 vintage was aging in the kibbutz’s underground shelter, built during the Yom Kippur War.The seventeenth harvest came in just days before the attack.On the morning of October 7, Pauker and his wife, Orna, were inside their safe room when the gunmen reached their home. They fired through the door and killed him. His daughter told us he bled to death. Mozes, Peri, and Metzger were all taken alive into Gaza. Only Mozes came home, after 480 days, at the age of eighty. When he returned, he learned that Gideon was dead. The other two were murdered in captivity.At the funeral three weeks later, someone placed a bottle of his wine on the coffin.His daughter, Irit Pauker, told us about him and his dream of making wine, as she calmly poured glasses from the vines he had planted and tended. She had grown up on that kibbutz among the people whose names now appear on its casualty list. She walked us through Nir Oz house by house, remembering the children she had played with, then telling us how many died defending their families and neighbors, and how many were taken. She did not need to embellish the story. The empty homes did that for her.Most Israelis are not armedI was told repeatedly on this trip that most Israelis now carry a sidearm. That is not true, and anyone repeating it will be dismantled by the first hostile fact-checker who looks.The Small Arms Survey estimated Israel at 6.7 civilian firearms per 100 people in 2017, compared with 120.5 in the United States. Israel had 147,248 active firearms licenses in early 2023, below its 2009 peak. Since October 7, Israelis have submitted more than 403,000 new applications, and the National Security Ministry says it had issued more than 240,000 additional licenses by March 2026. Add those to the existing base, and you arrive at roughly 400,000 licensed carriers in a country of ten million. About four percent, in a nation at war, after three years of the most aggressive firearms licensing liberalization in its history.What looks like general armament to a visitor is mostly conscription. The rifles you see on buses are issued service weapons carried by soldiers who are required to keep them. The guards at every mall entrance are a separately licensed occupational category. Eligibility also varies by residence, so Jerusalem, the border communities, and the settlements have far higher rates of licensed carry than the national average. A delegation itinerary samples the top of that distribution and mistakes it for the middle.Israeli law draws no distinction between open and concealed carry because there is no distinction for it to attach to. There is no ownership license with a separate carry permit layered on top. The private firearms license is a carry license. It covers one handgun, requires periodic range qualification, and says nothing about how it must be carried.Then there is the ammunition. A private firearms license originally allowed possession of just fifty rounds. Fifty in total, and most American readers will assume that number is a misprint. New licensees were allowed one hundred rounds after the war began, while those already licensed remained capped at fifty until January 2025, when the ministry finally doubled the allowance across the board. An official in the Firearms Division explained the change as a direct lesson from October 7, citing civilians who fought with a single magazine and exhausted their ammunition.Nor is firearm ownership treated as a right. An applicant must satisfy a residence criterion, pass background checks, and submit a physician’s declaration of physical and mental fitness. The state grants permission for security reasons and may deny it. No natural-rights doctrine underlies the system, and no constitutional guarantee of self-defense stands between the citizen and the government.Israelis embraced much of the practice we say we want but never adopted the principle. Americans enshrined the principle and, across much of the country, increasingly neglect the practice. Neither side has much reason for self-congratulation.The deeper reason Israel resists anything resembling an American Second Amendment tradition lies in 1948, and it has little to do with squeamishness. The Yishuv (the organized Jewish community residing in Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948)included competing armed factions under independent commands. Ben-Gurion ordered the shelling of theAltalenaoff Tel Aviv in June 1948 rather than allow the Irgun (National Military Organization in the Land of Israel) to land arms it alone would control, and five months later he dissolved the Palmach (the main paramilitary organization of the Jewish community in Mandatory Palestine). Israel’s commitment to a single chain of command was forged at the cost of Jews shooting Jews within weeks of independence. A country founded that way hears the wordmilitiaand thinks of Beirut, not Lexington. That history deserves more from us than a lecture.The man at the gateMy wife, Jill, and I sat with two men at the Nova music festival massacre site on Thursday. One of them ran five miles across open ground on October 7. The other lied to save his life, and the lives of everyone hiding beneath his house.Shalev Biton, a musician and recent member of the IDF who had completed his tour of duty, was twenty-five and at the Nova music festival near Re’im, trying to sleep in his tent when the rockets began. Three hundred sixty-four people were murdered there, and forty were carried into Gaza. Biton escaped with a friend and ran east into the fields. Others joined them as they fled. One young woman had lost her shoes and arrived with her feet bleeding.Five miles away, they found a farm worked by twenty-four Thai laborers and managed by a Bedouin Israeli named Yunis Alkarnawi. They hesitated at first. Men in head coverings standing in a field that morning could have been anything. Alkarnawi waved them in, gave them food and water, let them charge their phones, and told them to rest.The Thai workers saw the motorcycles first. Alkarnawi quietly told everyone to hide as best they could, then walked alone towards the gate, taking refuge behind a John Deere tractor. While he spoke to the gunmen in Arabic, everyone slipped out of the dining room and crawled beneath the house, which stood just high enough off the ground to conceal them.He told the gunmen there were no Jews on his farm. The man at the gate argued with him, consulted three others positioned behind the house, and eventually rode away. Eight festivalgoers and twenty-four Thai workers lay beneath the floorboards for hours, listening to a conversation in a language none of them understood, knowing their lives depended on its outcome.Other Arab citizens of Israel tried talking to Hamas that day and were murdered anyway. When asked why he survived, Alkarnawi simply points to the sky.Like most Bedouin Israelis, Yunis Alkarnawi is an Israeli citizen and part of the fabric of the country. Many Arabic-speaking Bedouin Israelis serve in the Israel Defense Forces.Hold that against the claim that Israel is a colonial project and all its citizens are settlers. A Muslim Bedouin farmer hid Jewish young people and Thai migrant workers beneath his kitchen floor, then lied to armed Hamas gunmen in his own language to keep them alive. That story has no place in the framework. It cannot process the sentence.It complicates my argument too. I have written about ready squads, firearms licensing, and where the rifles were kept, and all of those things mattered on October 7. But the man who saved thirty-two lives near Re’im that morning was unarmed. All he had was Arabic, extraordinary courage, and the determination to save his fellow human beings.What this has to do with the argument you are having onlineThe people who hate Jews have upgraded their vocabulary. The old themes about international finance and dual loyalty still circulate. Today they often arrive dressed as anticolonial analysis, or as a “knowing” snide anonymous remark about who really wanted the last war. They circulate on parts of the American right as well as the left, and pretending otherwise helps no one.Every version of that narrative, built on foundations laid by decades of Soviet propaganda and, before that, Nazi propaganda, requires the Israeli to remain an abstraction: a settler, a colonizer, an outpost of somebody else’s empire. It works by reducing individuals to a category. The abstraction collapses the moment the Israeli becomes a specific person doing a specific thing, because the specific thing is almost always holding a safe-room door shut to protect a family while terrorists try to shoot their way through it.You cannot stand in Be’eri, count the bullet holes around a safe-room handle, and still retain the abstraction. That is why Jill and I went. It is why I am writing this down.Americans who think seriously about self-reliance keep discovering that Israelis have been living the subject we merely study. Local knowledge lost to centralized assumptions. Ransom markets created incentives for more captives. Sophisticated intelligence and one of the world’s finest militaries failed to recognize the threat and respond in time. In community after community, a handful of lightly armed civilians with limited ammunition faced hundreds of attackers carrying automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades, and ample ammunition.For Israelis, the wolf is always at the door.Their enemies have been explicit. Hamas’s charter and repeated public statements have left little doubt about its objective: the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews.And yet.This week, we sat with Lieutenant Colonel Eyal Dror, who founded and commanded Operation Good Neighbor, the IDF program that carried wounded Syrians across the Golan border from 2016 until Assad’s forces reestablished control in 2018. Over those years, Israel treated roughly 4,900 Syrians in its hospitals, about 1,300 of them children. It helped establish a maternity ward inside Syria where more than a thousand babies were delivered. It also sent some 1,500 tons of food, fuel, medicine, and infant formula to people in a country that remained formally at war with it.We also met the leadership of Save a Child’s Heart, which has operated from Wolfson Medical Center in Holon since 1995. My friends Drs. Kirk and Kimberly Milhoan have both volunteered there. Kirk later served as chair of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Save a Child’s Heart has brought more than 8,000 children from seventy-five countries to Israel for life-saving cardiac surgery, including many from countries that do not recognize the State of Israel. More than 3,000 of those patients have been Palestinian children from Gaza and the West Bank, seen through a weekly clinic. The organization is now training a Palestinian surgeon who intends to return home as the first fully qualified Palestinian pediatric cardiac surgeon and establish a department in Ramallah.Israel is a nation with every reason to harden its heart. Yet it has repeatedly found ways to value the lives of its neighbors alongside its own.  As I look into my own heart, I do not know if I would retain my humanity under the same conditions.They have already run the experiment. We should pay attention to the results before conducting our own.Radical Islamist movements will either be contained or neutralized, or they will expand and threaten all of western civilization including the United States. The key questions are where, when, by whom, and at what cost. The terrible alternative is that of Scipio Aemilianus, who commanded the final destruction of Carthage in 146 BC.  Those are the options.RWM/JGMSome of you will disagree with this essay. A few may even unsubscribe because of it.That’s your right, and I hold no ill will toward anyone who reaches a different conclusion.But Malone News has never existed to tell people what they already believe. It exists to follow evidence, ask uncomfortable questions, travel to places where the story is more complicated than the headlines suggest, and report what we actually find.That kind of work takes time, travel, and the willingness to risk being wrong in public. It also depends entirely on readers who value independent reporting enough to support it.Subscribe nowIf you believe journalism should still involve seeing things firsthand instead of commenting from a thousand miles away, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’re not just supporting this essay. You’re making the next one possible.ReferencesBetts, Richard K. 1978. “Analysis, War, and Decision: Why Intelligence Failures Are Inevitable.”World Politics31 (1): 61 to 89.Brooks, James F. 2002.Captives and Cousins: Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the Southwest Borderlands. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.DeLay, Brian. 2008.War of a Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.-Mexican War. New Haven: Yale University Press.Hämäläinen, Pekka. 2008.The Comanche Empire. New Haven: Yale University Press.Hayek, F. A. 1945. “The Use of Knowledge in Society.”American Economic Review35 (4): 519 to 530.The Jerusalem Post. 2026. “Nir Oz volunteers train to defend Israel’s frontlines after Oct. 7.” May 30.Jewish Insider. 2025. “Parents of Nova survivor meet their son’s savior, a Bedouin Israeli, for first time.” January 27.The Jewish Press. 2025. “Ben Gvir Doubles Ammunition Allowance for Licensed Gun Owners.” January 12.Maimonides.Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Matnot Aniyim 8:10.Menger, Carl. 1871.Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftslehre. Vienna: Wilhelm Braumüller.Mishnah Gittin4:6.Rowlandson, Mary. 1682.The Soveraignty and Goodness of God, Together with the Faithfulness of His Promises Displayed: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Cambridge, MA: Samuel Green.Save a Child’s Heart. 2026. “Our Impact.” Holon, Israel.Small Arms Survey. 2018.Estimating Global Civilian-Held Firearms Numbers. Geneva: Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.State of Israel. 1974.Agranat Commission of Inquiry, Interim Report. Jerusalem.The Times of Israel. 2018. “As war nears end, IDF shutters ‘Good Neighbor’ Syrian aid program.” September 13.The Times of Israel. 2025. “To life: Grandson revives wines of vintner killed October 7 in Kibbutz Nir Oz.” July 2.The Times of Israel. 2025. “Residents of 5 more localities to be eligible for gun permits, Ben Gvir announces.” September 1.The Times of Israel. 2026. “After 843 days, 12 hours, 6 minutes, Hostages Square clock goes dark with Ran Gvili’s return.” January 27.The Times of Israel. 2026. “Ben Gvir significantly widens gun license eligibility for Jewish Jerusalemites.” March 9.Wohlstetter, Roberta. 1962.Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Ynet. 2025. “’40 minutes too late’: IDF report details Hamas’ attack on Nir Oz and systematic failures.” March 14.Ynet. 2025. “IDF to allow thousands of reservists to keep rifles at home after October 7 failures.” December 21.


Why Prosecuting Fauci is Off Limits

Octavian (later the Emperor Augustus) was offended when Mark Antony cheated on his sister (Octavia the Younger) with Cleopatra. However, he also knew that the embarrassing affair that became the talk of the town in Rome served his ultimate design to get rid of Mark Antony.Had Antony shown real contrition, left Cleopatra, and returned to Rome to patch things up with Octavia, it would have derailed Octavian’s plan to seize unrivaled power.A close study of history teaches us that whenever the populace is treated to the spectacle of a powerful man being pilloried and lampooned, it is almost certainly a distraction from the true, behind-the-scenes exercise or preservation of power.I’m pretty sure that everyone in Washington understands that prosecuting Anthony Fauci—and the officialdiscoveryit would entail—would bethe end of the US governmentbecause the liabilities would be incalculably astronomical.Fauci’s NIAID was the lynchpin of the Bio-Pharmaceutical Complex that perpetrated a massive crime against all of humanity.—literally ALL of the earth’s inhabitants. As I noted in my poster yesterday (President Biden’s Preemptive Pardon of Fauci)the following is clearly evident from the enormous paper trail.Knew that Daszak, Baric, et al. were conducting GoF research with their colleagues at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (a Chinese biosecurity lab connected with the Chinese military).Knew that Baric et al. were creating SARS coronavirus variants capable of infecting and causing pathogenesis in humans.Knew that the NIH continued to fund (and therefore to endorse) the research of Baric et al. even after the federal pause on GoF in October 2014.Knew that Modernapatented the genetic sequenceof the SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site in 2016.Knew that his ownNIAID began collaborating with Moderna in 2016to develop an mRNA vaccine against coronaviruses.NIAID Collaboration with ModernaPrior to the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists at NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center and the biotechnology company Moderna had collaborated for four years on mRNA vaccines for other emerging infectious diseases.Knew (documented inhis private email correspondencewith eminent virologists in February 2020) that the genome SARS-CoV-2 displayed clear features of lab manipulation.Fraudulently concealed that SARS-CoV-2 was produced in a lab by directing the publication ofThe proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2,authored by the same virologists who had just told him in private that the virus appeared to have come from a lab.In other words, Anthony Fauci was a leading conspirator in perpetrating this crime, fraudulently concealing it, suppressing early treatment for it, and promoting the dangerous, experimental mRNA vaccine that NIAID (of which he was the director) developed with Moderna.The trouble for the sewer known as the US government is that EVERY stinking agency—HHS, DoD, DARPA, BARDA, CIA, FBI—all of themunderstood the obvious reality of what was going on.As for the parcel of imbecilic and venal elected representatives in Congress and the White House—stupidity and cowardice aren’t a persuasive defense.Senators Paul and Johnson are perfect gentlemen, acting in good faith, but I suspect they too know that if this horror show is officially revealed in the discovery phase of a criminal trial against Anthony Fauci, it would be the end of the entire rotten edifice of the US government. The liabilities with respect to all of humanity would be too astronomical. Fauci also understands that he is, in the language of the Sicilian and Neapolitan mafia, “intoccabile”—untouchable.That he is currently being pilloried is an indispensably valuable mechanism for preserving the federal government. It enables We the People to experience a great catharsis. Through this catharsis, our outrage will expend itself and Fauci will go back to being a Distinguished University Professor at Georgetown.Nihil lacrima citius arescit—”Nothing dries faster than a tear,” as the great Roman prosecutor once remarked about the fickle and ever distracted public. Tears are transitory; power such as that which resides in Washington endures.Subscribe nowShare

Summary: Discovery and prosecution of the former NIAID director would expose the entire rotten edifice of the US government. The liabilities would be astronomical.


Explosive Senate Inquiry Paints Anthony Fauci Into a Corner

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHPlease review this explosive reel from July 29, 2026 onThe Evening Edit, Fox Business hosted by Liz MacDonald.  I responded candidly that Dr Fauci over time became a national disgrace as the leader of the largest American public health debacle in the modern era.  Trust in public health has been erased.  The medical establishment, left wing of Congress and its media surrogates should be ashamed.While right leaning outlets such as FOX Business, FOX, and NewsMax covered the hearing with key evidence and comments from US Senators, left wing commentators such as Lawrence O’Donnell heaped praise on Fauci asserting he “saved lives.”  Fauci’s diary did not indicate he treated or advised on a single patient.  He was obsessed with his own aura, not Americans sick with SARS-CoV-2, the virus he helped create.  Joe Scarborough dismissed the hearing as “political theatre” while others said America wants to forget the pandemic and move on.  I will let you decide.Please subscribe toFOCAL POINTSas a paying ($5 monthly) or founder member so we can continue to bring you the truth.AlterAImay be used to assist in searches, synthesis, and review.Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHChief Scientific Officer, The Wellness Companywww.twc.health/focalpoints

Summary: Former NIAID director failed to meet basic biomedical and ethical standards during the COVID-19 crisis.


Will Increasing Efficiency of AI Computing Render Huge Data Centers Superfluous?

The first major digital computer used for a large-scale U.S. defense project, theENIAC(funded by the U.S. Army Ordnance Department), occupied1,800 square feet of floor space and weighed 30 tons. A modern iPhone ishundreds of thousands to millions of times more powerfulthan this room-sized machine.As AI computing becomes more efficient, requiring smaller machines, energy, and cooling capacity, will the massive data centers being built today be rendered superfluous?The largest AI data center complexes under development require11 gigawatts (11,000 megawatts)of total power capacity.To understand the scale of 11 gigawatts of power being delivered to a gigantic machine — as distinct from other forms of human activity and labor — consider that a single gigawatt of continuous power running 24/7 is equivalent to the entire electricity consumption of a major metropolitan area like Denver, Colorado (roughly 850,000 to 1 million homes).What exactly is going to be done with all of this machine intelligence, apart from rendering most human intellectual labor obsolete?While AI is becoming marvelously capable at synthesizing enormous amounts of data, analysis, and concepts with lightening speed, it strikes me as odd that it consumes so much more power than the human brain in a state of intense concentration, which uses about 20 watts of power, roughly25% of the body's total energy, or about 400 to 500 calories per day.I used to date a girl who could simultaneously speed through London traffic, smoke a cigarette, drink a Corona, answer her cell phone for a quick chat, put on lipstick, and have an intelligent conversation with me without having to think about any of these tasks and without causing an accident.How much processing power is required to do all of these actions at once, and how much energy would it require if a robot were trained to do all of them at once?I wonder if the AI nerds are studying the human brain in the way that aviation guys (finally) got around to paying close attention to birds’ wings (such as that of the mallard duck) which feature the sort of aerodynamictwistthat was ultimately built into the Boeing 787 wing, thereby greatly increasing its efficiency—that is, reduction of induced drag.Subscribe nowShare

Summary: Comparing the DoD's first major digital computer to the iPhone and wondering if similar size and resource efficiency is in the cards for AI computing


RFK's 2021 Book "The Real Anthony Fauci" Vindicated, Back on Bestseller List

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.—Arthur SchopenhauerWhen I read Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s 2021 bookThe Real Anthony Fauci,I was immediately struck by the thought that writing and publishing it was one of the boldest acts of perceived impiety in publishing history.At the time, Dr. Fauci was regarded by his legions of adoring, dimwitted followers as the Pontifex Maximus of Science and a Savior—an experience that went straight to his head in the way that becoming prom queen might go to the head of a 17-year-old girl—causing him to make preposterous statements such as “I am science,” or in the stately Latin language, “Scientiae incarnatio sum.”The book’s immediate blacklisting among publishing trade journals and book reviews reminded my of the Holy Office of the Inquisition’s, Index of Prohibited Books, which over time included authorsRené Descartes, Nicolaus Copernicus, Immanuel Kant, and Galileo Galilei.In 2021, with the widespread imposition of orthodoxy and censorship that have no place in our constitutional republic, RFK, Jr. and his publisher, Tony Lyons, had the guts to produce and publish a book that would certainly make them very unpopular in the fashionable, bien pensant society of New York and Los Angeles.As I read the book—a vast work of scholarship, meticulously documenting Fauci’s history as a ruthless agent of his pharmaceutical industry cronies—I frequently thought, “Damn this is bold. Bravo.”Yesterday I was very happy to see the following MAHA Report notice that the book is back on the bestseller list. Click on the image below to read the good news and the fascinating history of what the book had to go through to get to where it is today. And if you haven’t yet read it, you will find it all the more fascinating in light of all that has happened since 2021.Subscribe nowShare

Summary: In 2021, the current HHS Secretary was a voice in the wilderness, and his book was published in the face of censorship, shadow banning, and book review blacklisting


Lying and Killing: The Government's True Element

So ist denn alles, was ihr Sünde.Zerstörung, kurz, das Böse nennt,Mein eigentliches Element.So then is everything that you callSin, destruction, in short, evil,My true element.So introduces Mephistopheles to Dr. Faust in Goethe’s play. What I (and many others) have found especially fascinating about the scene is that Mephistopheles doesn’t try to conceal anything. He clearly states the nature of his game.In this respect, Goethe adhered to a long tradition of the devil announcing himself, thereby eliminating the possibility of anyone subsequently claiming that they weren’t warned.I often think about this while contemplating the US government and the legions of deluded fools who believe the lies told by its nominal leaders.Once it became clear that Trump was going to attack Iran, I knew with certainty that “We the People” were being dragged into another forever war in the Middle East that would result in mass destruction and death and achieve no constructive end.I knew it would begin with the promise of a swift and decisive victory, and then drag on interminably with no clear strategy—just more destruction and more boasts about all the things destroyed.As Mephistopheles said, “Sin, destruction, in short, evil, is my true element.”Long ago, the men that run the US government made the deal with the devil that Jesus—as recounted in Matthew, Mark, and Luke—chosenotto make.In exchange for worshipping the devil, the men who run the US government have received “dominion, glory, and the kingdoms of the world.”I am not saying that the devil appeared to President Trump in the Oval Office as Mephistopheles appeared in Faust’s study.The US government’s deal with the devil was apparently made long ago, and it seems that only the devil’s servants are able to remain in the government. Those like Thomas Massie who take a principled stand against the devil are driven out of government in the most absurd way.The outrageous absurdity of Massie’s ouster— as well as how the Epstein files were swept under the rug, and how the Iran war was started with obvious monkeyshines— are the expression of howthe devil plainly introduces himself.A few days ago I received an email from a reader who sincerely told me that the current war against Iran is a rational response to the Ayatollah Khomeini’s statement “death to America” in his 1979 inauguration speech. Never mind that Khomeini died in 1989. I responded by quoting Kim Jong Un’s 2024 New Year’s Day Address in which he threatened to “deal a deadly blow to the US and thoroughly annihilate them.”Should we attack North Korea?Should the US Air Force again bomb every single city in North Korea to rubble and kill 20% of its civilian population, as General Curtis LeMay proclaimed he had done. As he put it in a 1984 interview with the Office of Air Force History:Over a period of three years or so, we killed off — what — 20 percent of the population.By LeMay’s estimate, every city in North Korea was bombed to rubble.Only someone who has been seduced by the devil would kill 20 percent of the population of a country of 10 million people and totally annihilate all its cities.The devil’s work is obvious, out in the open, to be seen by anyone who has eyes to see.Every heap of total BS we’ve been served since 2001 follows the exact same script—namely, scare the hell out of us, promise to protect us, transfer trillions to whatever interests are the beneficiaries of the “crisis,” and pillory anyone (like me) who questions the veracity of the government’s fraudulent representations.Subscribe nowShare

Summary: How the Trump administration started another forever war in the Middle East, and why millions of people can't see the evil of it.


The Coolest Presidential Candidate in History

The most lamentable feature of our current Age of the Weenie is the almost universal, slavish idolization of the U.S. federal government, and the delusion that either political party is going to save us.The government—no matter which corrupt party is running is—is NOT going to save us. Over 90% of the time, the government CREATES the problems. To put it another way, the government is the problem to the solution.For a long time my favorite American individualist was Henry David Thoreau, and when I was a college student in Boston I often went to the site of his cabin on Walden Pond and meditated on his spirit.As I wrote in my new book,Mind Viruses: America’s Irrational Obsessions:In the 1840s, many American newspapers supported the Mexican-American War in an aggressive, jingoistic fashion, claiming it was an expression of America’s “Manifest Destiny.” A notable critic of the war—and the propaganda published to justify it—was Henry David Thoreau, who correctly believed that the US government declared war on Mexico due to the influence of a relatively small group of powerful southern men who used the government and military as their instrument to gain new territory for slave states. In his 1849 essay, “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau argued that when people acquiesce to immoral government actions, they become complicit.Nothing has changed since then. The business of waging war abroad is still directed by a relatively small group of men pursuing their narrow interests, while “We the People” are propagandized into playing along with it and paying for it with our taxes and US debt obligations.Because humor is such a good antidote to the negative feelings of anger and frustration, whenever I am feeling down, I watch the following video of John McAfee announcing his 2020 presidential candidacy from his yacht in an unknown location while fleeing the IRS. This strikes me as the most colorful and entertaining gesture of defiance in American history.John knew he was playing with fire, and a year later he was arrested in Spain on a US/IRS warrant and incarcerated for nine months before he died in his cell. The authorities claim he committed suicide, but I wonder about that, because he (an internet security pioneer) knew a lot about a lot of powerful people.John may have been the last great rebel, and his death in prison in 2021 may be regarded as the true beginning of the Age of the Weenie in which we now live.RIP John David McAfee (18 September 1945 – 23 June 2021).Subscribe nowShare

Summary: John McAfee's 2020 presidential campaign on his yacht while fleeing the IRS was the most colorful and entertaining gesture of defiance in American history.


BREAKING: 25-Year Study of an Entire Country Finds Most Major Hormonal Birth Controls Are Associated With an Increased Risk of Meningioma Brain Tumors

byNicolas Hulscher, MPHAnationwide studyof Denmark’s female population aged 15 to 59, published inJAMA Network Open, examined hormonal contraceptive use from 2000 through 2024. The underlying population included approximately 3 million females, with researchers comparing 1,473 women diagnosed with meningioma against 14,717 matched controls.The study examined contraceptive progestogens, the hormone class used across nearly all major hormonal birth-control methods, including combined pills, progestin-only pills, injections, hormonal IUDs, implants, patches, and vaginal rings.Most hormonal birth controls analyzed in the study were associated with an increased risk of meningioma brain tumors.Specifically, 8 of the 12 formulations with calculable estimates showed statistically significant or borderline-significant elevations, while several additional methods could not be reliably assessed because too few cases occurred.Meningiomas arise from the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Even when noncancerous, they can compress vital brain structures, cause seizures, cognitive decline, vision loss, weakness, and permanent neurological damage, and may require brain surgery.Overall meningioma risk by hormonal contraceptiveThe study’s primary analysis compared each woman’s most recent contraceptive exposure with nonuse and found the following increases in meningioma odds:DEPO-PROVERA INJECTIONS: +355%OR4.55; 95% CI,2.19–9.45PROGESTIN-ONLY DESOGESTREL: +73%OR1.73; 95% CI,1.17–2.56COMBINED DESOGESTREL: +66%OR1.66; 95% CI,1.31–2.10CYPROTERONE: +61%OR1.61; 95% CI,1.00–2.59DROSPIRENONE: +58%OR1.58; 95% CI,1.05–2.37HIGH-DOSE LEVONORGESTREL IUD: +58%OR1.58; 95% CI,1.28–1.94GESTODENE: +44%OR1.44; 95% CI,1.17–1.77LEVONORGESTREL PILL: +40%OR1.40; 95% CI,1.12–1.76These overall estimates were concerning, but the strongest associations appeared among women with ongoing or very recent exposure.Current hormonal birth-control use and meningioma risk“Current use” was defined as ongoing exposure or exposure ending within the previous year. Risk estimates were generally highest in this group.DEPO-PROVERA INJECTIONS: +870%OR9.70; 95% CI,3.85–24.42DROSPIRENONE: +153%OR2.53; 95% CI,1.45–4.42CYPROTERONE: +115%OR2.15; 95% CI,1.05–4.41COMBINED DESOGESTREL: +107%OR2.07; 95% CI,1.41–3.04GESTODENE: +101%OR2.01; 95% CI,1.47–2.74PROGESTIN-ONLY DESOGESTREL: +96%OR1.96; 95% CI,1.26–3.08LEVONORGESTREL PILL: +80%OR1.80; 95% CI,1.33–2.46HIGH-DOSE LEVONORGESTREL IUD: +62%OR1.62; 95% CI,1.29–2.04ConclusionThis was an observational case-control study, so it cannot prove that hormonal contraception directly caused the tumors. However, the investigation had major strengths: nationwide population coverage, detailed long-term prescription records, validated cancer diagnoses, exclusion of women with prior hormone-replacement therapy, and consistent results across multiple sensitivity analyses.The findings indicate that increased meningioma risk may extend beyond Depo-Provera injections to multiple combined birth-control pills, a progestin-only pill, and high-dose levonorgestrel IUDs.Nicolas Hulscher, MPHEpidemiologist and Foundation Administrator, McCullough FoundationSupport our mission:mcculloughfnd.orgPlease consider following both theMcCullough Foundationandmy personal accountonX(formerly Twitter) for further content.FOCAL POINTS (Courageous Discourse™) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Summary: Nationwide data covering 3 million Danish females link popular birth-control pills, Depo-Provera shots, and high-dose hormonal IUDs to elevated meningioma risk.


The Great Inoculation: How mRNA Vaccines Guarantee Longevity Will Decline

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHAfter this conversation with health futurist and biohacker Dave Asprey, I wondered if humans had been changed, upgraded or downgraded by mass genetic vaccination.🎙 Summary: Dave Asprey Interviews Dr. Peter McCullough onThe Human UpgradeDave Asprey opens by praising McCullough’s courage during the pandemic, noting how Asprey himself lost 95% of his social media following for speaking out. McCullough observes that most podcasters were absent in 2020 when early treatment was the critical issue — not vaccines, which only arrived December 10th, 2020.🦠 The Pandemic Response Was InvertedMcCullough argues the proper public health message was simple: the virus is mild for most; high-risk individuals need early treatment. Instead, the world got lockdowns, masks, and suppressed therapeutics. He recounts howhydroxychloroquine— a centuries-old, pregnancy-safe drug — was first embraced, then targeted with fraudulent papers claiming cardiac harm. An Australian billionaire, Clive Palmer, bought enough to treat every Australian; authorities seized and destroyed it. Facilities producing it mysteriously burned.Ivermectinfaced an even fiercer war. Safe and effective, with studies showing 50% mortality reduction in hospitalized patients, it was smeared as “horse paste” by a coordinated FDA-PR-late-night-TV campaign. Three doctors sued the FDA and won — forcing the agency to retract its fraudulent materials.💉 mRNA Technology: A Permanent AlterationThe spike protein is the pathogenic element. It folds likeamyloid— rubbery, degradation-resistant, accumulating in tissues. Nattokinase is the only known agent that reliably breaks it down.McCullough reveals:Pseudouridine substitution: Pfizer and Moderna replacedeveryuracil with synthetic pseudouridine, making the mRNA impervious to human RNases. There is no off switch.No pharmacokinetic studies existshowing where it goes, when or if it shuts off. No oncogenicity, teratogenicity, or genotoxicity studies were ever done.A Dallas patient still has circulating Pfizer vaccine and full-length spike protein in his bloodstream3.6 yearspost-injection as published by Hulscher et al in the European Society of Medicine.Swedish research (Alden et al) demonstrated the central amplicon integrates into the genome of human liver cells.McCullough’s team found ~20 base pairs of vaccine DNA in a cancer patient’s genome.New mRNA products — RSV and influenza vaccines — are rolling out with zero scrutiny, potentially producing foreign proteins indefinitely and drivingautoimmunity, thrombosis, and neoplastic activity.🔬 The Origins: Gain-of-Function Published in 2015McCullough traces the WIV-1 virus to published gain-of-function research inNature Medicine(2015), funded by Fauci’s NIAID, with Ralph Baric (UNC), Peter Daszak (EcoHealth Alliance), and Stéphane Bancel (Moderna) all connected. Bancel’s prior company, BioMérieux, built the BSL-4 annex at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The papers literally stated the virus was “poised for human emergence.”🧬 Longevity Impossible Under These ConditionsAsprey, who aims to live past 180 through biohacking, frames the central tragedy:two-thirds of the population carries synthetic mRNA producing amyloid-like spike protein indefinitely. The thermodynamic instability, mitochondrial strain, and cumulative protein accumulation McCullough describes are the antithesis of longevity. Asprey contrasts this with legitimate gene therapies thattime out— noting he’d embrace a well-studied vaccine that extended life. What was rolled out globally was the opposite.🏛 What Must Be DoneMcCullough’s prescription:Pull all COVID and mRNA vaccinesfrom the market pending proper pharmacokinetic studies.Repeal the 1986 Vaccine Injury Compensation Act— force manufacturers to carry liability.Ban direct-to-consumer vaccine advertising(which currently lists no side effects for vaccines).Ban all medical and vaccine mandates.Launch an exhaustive investigation into the autism epidemic.Appoint an external special counselto investigate pandemic crimes — naming Fauci as a target.🧠 Propaganda Terms and Cognitive SovereigntyMcCullough identifies six propaganda terms:misinformation(Goebbels),disinformation(Stalin),malinformation,anti-science,anti-vaxxer, andconspiracy theorist. McCullough notes “misinformation” entered the National Library of Medicine as a MeSH term in 2020 — rendering science meaningless if observations can be dismissed with a propaganda label.Both men emphasizecognitive sovereignty— being unprogrammable, calm, and refusing manufactured moral hierarchies. McCullough closes by contrasting Trump’s Politburo-style cabinet conformity with Lincoln’s “team of rivals” approach to leadership.Thanks for reading FOCAL POINTS (Courageous Discourse™)! This post is public so feel free to share it.SharePlease subscribe to FOCAL POINTS as a paying ($5 monthly) or founder member so we can continue to bring you the truth.AlterAImay be used to assist in searches, synthesis, and review.Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHPresident, McCullough FoundationFOCAL POINTS has partnered withAlterAIto defend your medical freedom. Subscribe toAlterAItoday and get a discount on unbiased and accurate AI!📚 ReferencesMcCullough PA.Courage to Face COVID-19.McCullough PA et al.Vaccines, Mythology, Ideology, and Reality(2025).McCullough PA. Pathophysiological Basis and Rationale for Early Outpatient Treatment of SARS-CoV-2.Am J Med. 2020.Rajter et al. Ivermectin and mortality in COVID-19.CHEST. 2020.Hulscher et al,Persistence of Vaccine mRNA, Plasmid DNA, Spike Protein, and Genomic Dysregulation Over 3.5 Years Post-COVID-19 mRNA Vaccination, Medical Research Archives, [S.l.], v. 14, n. 6, july 2026. ISSN 2375-1924. Available at:https://esmed.org/MRA/mra/article/view/7631. Date accessed: 15 july 2026. doi:https://doi.org/10.18103/mra.2026.0351.Alden M, De Marinas Y et al. Intracellular reverse transcription of Pfizer mRNA in human liver cells.Curr Issues Mol Biol. 2022.Baric R et al. SARS-like coronavirus WIV-1 poised for human emergence.Nat Med. 2015.Karagokos T, McCullough PA et al. Thermodynamic instability from synthetic mRNA. 2024.Brogna C et al. Circulating vaccine mRNA persistence. 2023.Tanakawa et al. Nattokinase degradation of spike protein. 2022.Corey P.The War on Ivermectin.Goodwin DK.Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. 2005.

Summary: Dr. Peter McCullough and Biohacker Dave Asprey on Why Two-Thirds of the Population Just Traded Longevity for a Synthetic S-Protein Factory With No Off Switch


The Predictable Catastrophe: Why Aortic Dissection Should Never Be a Surprise

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHLindsey Graham is dead.The senior senator from South Carolina, a fixture of American politics for decades, died of an aortic dissection — a catastrophe that the medical establishment will describe as sudden, unexpected, and unpreventable. They are wrong on all three counts.In the practice ofDr. Peter McCullough, a board-…Read more

Summary: Death of Senator Lindsey Graham should be reviewed for antecedent predictors to inform others at risk


The Beauty of Roman Architecture & the Atrocity of Modernism

In an essay titled “The New Architecture,” published in theBaltimore Evening Sunin the late 1940s, HL Mencken described modernist architecture as "harsh masses, hideous outlines, and bald metallic surfaces.” Modernist furniture he described as “ghastly imitations of the electric chair.” He contrasted modernism with the civilized and humane architecture of the 18th century Georgian period. In the US, this is often referred to as the Federal Style because it coincided with the Constitutional Convention.In Boston, the foremost architect of the Federal Style was Charles Bullfinch, who designed many of the most beautiful townhouses on Beacon Hill, as well as the Massachusetts State House.Bullfinch was influenced by the Scottish architect Robert Adam, who visited the Croatian, seaside town of Split in 1757 to study the remains of the Roman Emperor Diocletian’s palace. Commissioned as the emperor’s retirement residence, construction began around 295 AD and was completed by the time of his abdication in 305.During Adam’s Grand Tour in 1757—accompanied by French architect and artist Charles-Louis Clérisseau—he visited Split (then Spalatro) to draw the ruins. His team performed detailed measurements, drawings, and surveys of the palace’s architecture, ornamentation, and spatial organization.The result was Adam’s influential 1764 publication,Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia, a rich folio with engravings that showed the site to a wide European audience.Adam’s visit influenced his designs for Syon House, Kedleston Hall, and the Adelphi development in London, where the palace’s grand gallery and courtyard principles informed his terrace designs and riverfront planning.I thought of Adam’s 1764 book yesterday while strolling along the seaside of the old palace in Split. Note that much of the ancient Roman tower and colonnade are still intact and have been incorporated into the current dwellings.The following image is a reproduction of one of Adam’s drawings of the palace.The palace was the inspiration of his Adelphi Terrace in London.The Massachusetts State House by Charles Bullfinch displays the same influence.The old Roman and Venetian towns along the Dalmatian coast of Croatia—as well as the great cities of Italy, France, and Spain—are all overrun with tourists because everyone is naturally drawn to Roman architecture and city planning. Compare Bullfinch’s State House to the Boston City Hall—a masterpiece of brutalist horror designed by Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles.When I lived in Boston I always felt well when I walked past Bullfinch’s State House. Conversely, whenever I walked past Boston City Hall, I felt a dull sense of dread and impending doom. The architects of this atrocity were prominent members of a generation that waged war on beauty and the sense of wellbeing that the sight of it instills in the viewer.Every year, Boston attracts about 20 million tourists who take delight in visiting the Public Garden and Beacon Hill. No one is delighted to visit the Boston City Hall and its ghastly Government Center wasteland that replaced the charming Scollay Square, featured in the image below.The people responsible for demolishing Scollay Square and erecting Government Center should have been put in the stocks and pelted with rotten eggs and tomatoes.Subscribe nowShare

Summary: Roman architecture and city planning produced places where everyone wants to be, unlike modern cities poxed by hideous architecture and cars


Alzheimer's Runs in the Family; Smart Move to Start Prevention Measures Now

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHIf you are like me, we worry about cognitive decline over the next several decades by watching what has happened to our parents and grandparents.  Thus far in human history, by age 80, 50% have cognitive decline, age 90—75%, and at 100 years, 85% have lost mental function and a sizable fraction have clinical Alzheimer’s disease.  So I reached out to neurological specialist, Dr Ravi Kumar for a full update.Here’s the summary:🧠 Alzheimer’s Disease: Prevention Over Cure — The McCullough-Kumar InterviewDr. Peter McCullough and Dr. Ravi Kumar — a board-certified neurosurgeon trained at Mayo Clinic and now assistant professor at UNC — delivered one of the most comprehensive public discussions on Alzheimer’s disease to date. With both of McCullough’s parents afflicted, the conversation was personal as well as clinical.The Amyloid Dead EndDr. Kumar dismantled the beta-amyloid hypothesis that has dominated Alzheimer’s research for decades. “We figured out ways to get it out of the brain, but people don’t get better,” he noted. The monoclonal antibodies — lecanemab and donanemab — clear plaques effectively but come with alarming rates of ARIA (brain swelling and hemorrhage), affecting up toone in four patients. Those at highest risk for these side effects? ApoE4 carriers — the very population most vulnerable to Alzheimer’s in the first place.The existing cholinesterase inhibitors (donepezil, rivastigmine, galantamine) and the NMDA antagonist memantine were dismissed as purely symptomatic with trivial improvements in ADASCOG of < 2 points. “They don’t even touch the disease,” Kumar said. “It’s almost like taking a pain med for a cut on your arm.”The Real Drivers: Metabolic Health and LifestyleKumar identifiedinsulin resistanceas the number one modifiable risk factor. The brain consumes 20% of the body’s energy despite being only three pounds. When neurons become insulin-resistant, they enter an energy crisis — housekeeping functions collapse, beta-amyloid accumulates, tau tangles form, and synapses deteriorate.Key protective strategies discussed:Walking outside daily— the human body’s most fundamental movement, shown to improve surgical recovery and overall healthResistance training— muscle mass acts as a glucose sink, maintaining insulin sensitivityOutdoor exposure— sunlight for vitamin D and circadian regulation; the Japanese practice offorest bathingfor mental healthSleep quality— the glymphatic system flushes toxins including beta-amyloid during deep sleep; even one night of sleep deprivation raises brain amyloid by 5%Alcohol avoidance— described bluntly as “a neurotoxin… designed by fungus to hurt animals with nervous systems”Genetics Are Not DestinyThe ApoE4 allele dramatically raises Alzheimer’s risk — from ~5% baseline (E3/E3) to ~65% lifetime risk (E4/E4), with even higher rates in African-Americans who drink alcohol. Yet Kumar pointed to Nigerian populations with high ApoE4 prevalence and near-zero Alzheimer’s rates among those maintaining traditional diets and lifestyles. “You have to take these variants and load them with a certain diet and lifestyle characteristic,” he explained. McCullough, who tested as E2/E3 (the protective variant), noted his parents behave clinically like E4 carriers — underscoring that environment often overrides genetics.New Diagnostics, Old FailuresBlood tests measuringphosphorylated tau-217now achieve 96% specificity for Alzheimer’s detection — outperforming both spinal taps and PET scans. These tests can identify disease before symptoms appear, shifting diagnosis from clinical to biochemical. Yet the treatment landscape remains barren: the ADAS-Cog scale (0–70) shows existing interventions moving scores by only a point or two.Supplements Worth ConsideringVitamin D— deficiency mimics dementia; optimal levels above 30 ng/mLMagnesium L-threonate— crosses the blood-brain barrier; small trials show modest cognitive improvementCoenzyme Q10— critical for mitochondrial energy production; McCullough recommends ~600–800 mg daily, especially for statin usersPolymannose derivatives(aloe-based) — Dr. John Lewis’s research at University of Miami showed 4.5-point ADAS-Cog improvements in nursing home patients over 12 months, outperforming prescription drugsThe Bottom Line“Prevention has to be the focus,” Kumar emphasized. Modifiable risk factors — including regular exercise outside, abstinence from alcohol, hearing loss correction (which alone can reduce dementia risk by 50–60%), smoking cessation, hypertension control, and social connection — “blow any drug out of the water.”FOCAL POINTS (Courageous Discourse™) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Please subscribe to FOCAL POINTS as a paying ($5 monthly) or founder member so we can continue to bring you the truth.AlterAImay be used to assist in searches, synthesis, and review.Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHPresident, McCullough FoundationFOCAL POINTS has partnered withPiqueto promote your optimal health. To learn more aboutPiqueproducts and get 20% off and free gifts today,https://www.piquelife.com/DRPETERReferencesMcCullough P, Kumar R. Alzheimer’s Disease: Epidemiology, Detection, Treatment.The McCullough Report / America Out Loud Talk News / Dr. Kumar’s Discovery Podcast. Broadcast date not specified in transcript. Available via McCullough Report and Focal Point Substack.

Summary: Why waiting for symptoms is a losing strategy — and what to do about it today


Nano-Curcumin Eliminates Cyclospora Infection in Mice—the Parasite Behind the “Explosive Diarrhea” Outbreak Across 31 States

byNicolas Hulscher, MPHCyclospora infections are surging across the United States.Caused by the microscopic intestinal parasiteCyclospora cayetanensis, the infection can trigger prolonged watery diarrhea, severe abdominal cramping, nausea, fatigue, and weight loss that may persist for weeks without treatment.As of July 9, 2026, the CDC had confirmed843 domestically acquired cases across 31 states, including 86 hospitalizations. Multiple outbreaks remain under investigation, and the contaminated food sources have not yet been identified. Bactrim is an established treatment for cyclosporiasis, but many are wondering if there are natural alternatives.Arecent studyidentified curcumin—the primary bioactive pigment in turmeric—as a potentially powerful natural treatment forCyclosporainfection. In mice, just seven daily doses of nano-curcuminreduced parasite shedding by 97.2%, eliminated detectable parasites, restored damaged intestinal tissue, and prevented relapse after treatment withdrawal.Nano-curcumin is curcumin packaged in extremely small oil-based droplets (30–40 nanometers) designed to improve its delivery and absorption.Researchers experimentally infected mice withCyclosporaand compared three treatments:Nano-curcumin:2 mg/kg once dailyRegular curcumin:2 mg/kg once dailyBactrim/TMP-SMX:5 mg/kg trimethoprim plus 25 mg/kg sulfamethoxazole once dailyEach treatment was administered for onlyseven consecutive days, beginning on day 6 after infection when parasite shedding started. The mice received no additional treatment and were followed through day 30—more than two weeks after the final dose.Nano-curcumin produced the strongest overall results.By the end of treatment, parasite oocyst shedding had fallen by:84.0% with nano-curcumin77.3% with Bactrim73.3% with regular curcuminAt day 30, more than two weeks after treatment ended:Nano-curcumin: 97.2% reductionRegular curcumin: 93.5% reductionBactrim: 79.4% reductionUntreated control: persistent and increasing sheddingAll three treatments significantly reduced Cyclospora shedding compared with the untreated control (P<0.001), although differences among nano-curcumin, regular curcumin, and Bactrim were not statistically significant.The mean stool oocyst count at day 30 was1.07in untreated infected mice, compared with0.22in the Bactrim group,0.07with regular curcumin, and just0.03with nano-curcumin.Nano-Curcumin Prevented RelapseThe most important result was not simply the reduction in parasite shedding.The authors reportedno recurrence after nano-curcumin treatment.Unlike regular curcumin and Bactrim, no rebound in infection was detected after treatment withdrawal. No parasite was found in intestinal tissue by standard histological staining, and the researchers stated that the infection appeared to have beeneliminated.Thus, seven daily doses of nano-curcumin produced a sustained97.2% reduction in parasite shedding, with no detected intestinal parasites or relapse more than two weeks later.Regular Curcumin Was Also Highly EffectiveThe ordinary curcumin group also performed remarkably well.After the same seven-day course, regular curcumin reduced parasite shedding by93.5% at day 30. No parasite was detected in the intestinal tissue by H&E staining at that time point.The main distinction was that low-level stool shedding remained, so the authors did not describe regular curcumin as preventing recurrence as clearly as the nanoemulsion. Still, the findings suggest that curcumin itself has substantial anti-Cyclosporaactivity, while nano-formulation may enhance and prolong its effect.Curcumin Damaged the Parasite and Restored the IntestineScanning electron microscopy revealed extensive structural damage toCyclosporaoocysts following treatment with both forms of curcumin.Untreated oocysts had smooth, regular outer surfaces. Curcumin-treated oocysts became distorted and developed dimples, protrusions, and surface irregularities. Nano-curcumin produced even more dramatic changes, including enlargement or shrinkage, deep furrows, pores, perforations, and rough surface damage.The intestinal findings were equally striking.Untreated infection caused shortened and blunted villi, epithelial erosion, inflammation, and progressive destruction of the absorptive intestinal surface. Both Bactrim and regular curcumin improved the intestinal tissue, but nano-curcumin produced the greatest recovery.Mean intestinal villous length was approximately:126 μm in untreated infected mice156 μm with Bactrim190 μm with regular curcumin233 μm with nano-curcuminIn the nano-curcumin group, the intestinal surface remained intact, inflammation declined markedly, villous length returned toward normal, and no parasites were detected in the tissue.Why the Nanoemulsion May MatterCurcumin has demonstrated antiparasitic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties, but poor water solubility and limited bioavailability have restricted its therapeutic potential.The nanoemulsion used in this study contained particles measuring approximately30–40 nanometers. This formulation may improve curcumin’s solubility, stability, biological activity, and contact time with the intestinal parasite.BecauseCyclosporainfects the small intestine, orally administered curcumin may also remain concentrated near the site of infection. The strong performance of regular curcumin supports the compound’s underlying antiparasitic activity, while the improved results with nano-curcumin suggest that drug delivery may be the key to maximizing that effect.ConclusionBactrim remains the treatment of choice for human cyclosporiasis because it has direct clinical evidence in infected patients.Human clinical trialshave shown that TMP-SMX successfully treats cyclosporiasis and can shorten average parasite shedding from 12.1 days to 4.8 days.Curcumin and nano-curcumin, by contrast, have not yet been tested in human patients with cyclosporiasis. Their evidence for this infection currently comes from this animal study.However, given curcumin’s non-toxic nature even at very high doses and myriad other benefits, I will have it in my arsenal in case of infection.Controlled human trials are now needed to determine whether these striking results can be reproduced in people.Nicolas Hulscher, MPHEpidemiologist and Foundation Administrator, McCullough FoundationSupport our mission:mcculloughfnd.orgPlease consider following both theMcCullough Foundationandmy personal accountonX(formerly Twitter) for further content.FOCAL POINTS (Courageous Discourse™) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Summary: Just seven daily doses of nano-curcumin cut Cyclospora shedding by 97.2%, eliminated detectable parasites, restored damaged intestinal tissue, and prevented infection relapse.


T-Cell Immunity: The Holy Grail of Cancer (and COVID-19) Prevention?

Author’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles about T-cell immunity and an immunotherapy for enhancing it.The decline of T-cells with age—known asimmunosenescence—is a primary driver of the increased risk of cancer in older adults.As the body ages, the thymus gland shrinks, drastically reducing the production of new T-cells capable of hunting down and destroying emerging tumors.As we learned during the COVID-19 pandemic—and as our corrupt health authorities worked hard to suppress—healthy children were NOT at risk of developing severe COVID-19 because of their large and super active thymus gland. In 2021, I witnessed my five-year old niece contract COVID-19 from her (vaccinated) mother. One day she developed a rash, mild cough, and malaise, and the following day she was fully recovered.Age-related T-cell decline drives cancer development in the following specific ways:Decreased Immunosurveillance:Young, healthy immune systems constantly scan the body and eliminate nascent cancer cells before they can form tumors. As T-cell populations drop, this surveillance system weakens, allowing malignant cells to multiply undetected.Replicative Senescence:The T-cells that remain become “exhausted” or senescent. They lose their ability to divide effectively and fail to mount a strong attack when they encounter tumor antigens.T-cell Receptor Restriction:The diversity of the T-cell repertoire shrinks, meaning the immune system loses the ability to recognize a wide variety of cancer mutations.Immunosuppressive Microenvironment:Instead of killing cancer, many aged immune cells accumulate in the tumor environment and actively secrete proteins that protect the tumor and help it grow.For several years, Professor Angus Dalgleish has been fascinated by the role of T-cells in preventing cancer, and how the increased incidence of cancer with age closely corresponds to T-cell senescence.A few weeks ago, I spent a day with him at his home near London, talking about this fascinating subject. Over lunch, we discussed theThe COVID-19 Vaccine Cancer Catastrophe.One of the most stunning features of this catastrophe is this evidence that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines actuallycauseT-cell exhaustion.On a positive note, Professor Dalgleish told me about a therapeutic approach that struck me as highly plausible. This approach originated decades ago with the observation that pastoral tribes in Africa who maintained the ancient lifestyle of living with their cattle experienced lower rates of tuberculosis than non-pastoral populations. This led to the discovery of the therapeutic benefits ofMycobacterium vaccae— a nonpathogenicspecies of the Mycobacteriaceae family of bacteria that lives in the soil.Like the wordvaccine, the species name derives from the Latin word,vacca(cow), as the firstMycobacteriumstrain was cultured from cow dung in Austria in 1964 byR. Bönickeand E. Juhasz, who worked at the Leibniz Lung Center in Borstel, Germany.The bacterium was subsequently isolated from soil in the Ugandan Lang’o District, where locals claimed that a muddy substance had the power to cure a number of ailments.This led to experiments usingMycobacterium vaccaein conjunction with the BCG vaccine, which resulted in significant improvement of the BCG vaccine’s efficacy against tuberculosis.Research is currently being conducted using killedMycobacterium vaccaeimmunotherapy for allergic asthma,cancer, depression, leprosy, psoriasis, dermatitis, eczema and tuberculosis.Professor Dalgleish is especially interested in how an intradermal, inactivated close relative ofMycobacterium vaccae—a bacterium calledMycobacterium obuense—stimulates the body's innate immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells.Upon hearing about this product, I was instantly reminded of my longstanding intuition thatHomo sapiens —whichemerged around 300,000 years agoand migrated out of Africa—has an innate immune system that evolved within the context of living with animals, especially with cattle.The Lascaux Cave Paintings in Dordogne, France—often called the “Sistine Chapel of Prehistory”—dates back approximately 17,000 years, and prominently features striking images of aurochs, the now extinct ancestor of modern cattle.Cattle are thought to be the origin of a number of pathogens such as measles, tuberculosis, brucellosis, and anthrax. Tuberculosis and measles subsequently became especially pathogenic for populations living in cities. It appears that—as a result of selective evolutionary pressure from living with cattle— T-cell immunity is stimulatedin the presence of cattleand conversely declines among city-dwellers who do not live with cattle.Reflecting on idea causes me to wonder if it may be the true explanation for 18th century anecdotes in Gloucestershire, England that dairymaids did NOT contract smallpox. Edward Jenner assumed it was because they had already contracted cowpox, but now I wonder if they simply had vastly superior T-cell immunity.For more about this fascinating subject, see Professor Dalgleish’s paperInfection, immunoregulation, and cancer,which he coauthored with the British immunologist, Graham A.W. RookAuthor’s Note: If you found this article interesting and informative, please become a paid subscriber to our Focal Points newsletter. For just $5.00 per month, you can support us in our effort to conduct the kind of investigative scholarship and reporting that you will NOT find in mainstream media or even in mainstream academic journals that have been captured by the pharmaceutical industry.Subscribe nowShare

Summary: Immunosenescence is a primary driver of the increased risk of cancer in older adults. An inactivated, nonpathogenic bacterium shows promise in stimulating T-cell production.


They Died During Sports Competition and Came Back Wired

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHA legacy transvenous implantable cardio-defibrillator (ICD) meant the end of an athletic career just a few years ago.  That paradigm has shifted dramatically with the pandemic and new subcutaneous technology.The Rise of the Subcutaneous ICD in Young Athletes: A Post-Pandemic Shift in Cardiac ProtectionThe sight of an elite athlete crumpling to the turf mid-game, chest unresponsive to a heart that has simply quit, has become one of the defining nightmare images of the pandemic era. And the subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator—the S-ICD—has quietly emerged as the intervention of choice for a generation of young competitors walking off the field with a second chance and a titanium puck nestled against their ribcage.Subscribe nowRead more

Summary: Inside the S-ICD revolution that's letting athletes like Eriksen and Bauer compete through the unthinkable


Testosterone Replacement Therapy After the TRAVERSE Trial

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHSerum testosterone concentration drops as a function of age in the norman human male.  Low testosterone (hypogonadism) becomes increasingly common with age. Estimates vary depending on the definition used, but studies suggest that approximately 20% of men older than age 45 have low testosterone levels, with prevalence rising steadily in older age groups. Some reviews have estimated testosterone deficiency affects roughly 30% of men between ages 40 and 79, particularly among those with obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and other chronic health conditions. Testosterone levels also naturally decline by about 1% per year beginning in a man’s 30s.[amjmed.com],[nature.com]Summary of the JAMA Medical NewsA July 2026JAMA Medical Newsarticle reviews whether recent evidence—particularly the TRAVERSE trial—supports broader prescribing of testosterone replacement therapy (TRT).BackgroundTestosterone therapy experienced a dramatic rise in popularity during the “low T” boom of the early 2000s. Direct-to-consumer advertising and specialized clinics promoted TRT for symptoms such as fatigue, decreased libido, and reduced vitality. Concerns subsequently emerged that testosterone was being overprescribed, often without appropriate diagnostic confirmation, while questions arose regarding cardiovascular safety.In 2015, the FDA required manufacturers to add warnings regarding possible cardiovascular risks and mandated a large clinical trial to better assess safety.The TRAVERSE TrialThe TRAVERSE study enrolled more than 5,200 men aged 45 to 80 years with symptoms of hypogonadism and either known cardiovascular disease or elevated cardiovascular risk.The primary finding was reassuring: testosterone gel (not injections) therapy didnot increase major adverse cardiovascular eventssuch as heart attack, stroke, or cardiovascular death compared with placebo.These findings have become a major reason HHS is now recommending updates to testosterone product labeling.Proposed Label ChangesHHS has proposed three major revisions:Removal of language stating that safety and effectiveness have not been established for age-related hypogonadism.Narrowing prostate cancer contraindications primarily to men with metastatic prostate cancer.Updating warnings regarding benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) to reflect evidence that TRT generally does not worsen urinary symptoms in most men when appropriately monitored.Supporters argue these changes better reflect current evidence and may improve access for appropriately selected patients.Ongoing ConcernsDespite the reassuring cardiovascular results, several experts remain cautious.Key concerns include:Increased rates of atrial fibrillation seen in the testosterone group.Higher rates of pulmonary embolism (blood clots).More acute kidney injury events.An unexpected increase in fractures reported in secondary analyses.Limited long-term follow-up (average approximately 33 months).Exclusion of men at elevated prostate cancer risk.Evaluation of only one testosterone formulation (AndroGel), making generalization to injections and other preparations uncertain.Some investigators worry that the study could unintentionally encourage broader testosterone prescribing beyond the population actually studied.Who Should Receive Topical Testosterone?The article emphasizes a broad consensus among experts:TRT shouldnotbe prescribed based on symptoms alone.Diagnosis requires compatible symptomsandconsistently low testosterone levels on repeated laboratory testing.Other causes of low testosterone—including obesity, chronic illness, poor sleep, medication effects, and alcohol use—should be considered.Men receiving TRT require ongoing monitoring of testosterone levels, blood counts, prostate health, and potential adverse effects.Expected BenefitsClinical trials demonstrate benefits from TRT, but generally more modest than many advertisements have suggested.Reported benefits include:Improved sexual desire and sexual activity.Small-to-moderate improvements in mood and energy.Increased lean body mass.Reduced fat mass.Improved metabolic parameters in some men.However, randomized trials have not consistently shown major improvements in overall vitality, cognitive function, or physical performance.ConclusionThe JAMA discussion highlights a growing consensus that testosterone deficiency is a legitimate medical condition that deserves proper diagnosis and treatment when appropriate. The TRAVERSE trial provides important reassurance that carefully monitored testosterone replacement by topical gel or patch, not by injection of synthetic testosterone, appears to be safe in appropriately selected men. At the same time, questions remain regarding long-term safety, prostate cancer risk in certain populations, arrhythmias, blood clots, and other potential adverse effects.Before initiating testosterone therapy, men should undergo a thorough evaluation with repeated testosterone measurements and assessment of symptoms. Because obesity, sedentary lifestyle, poor sleep, chronic illness, and excessive alcohol use can contribute to low testosterone levels, non-pharmaceutical interventions should be implemented whenever possible. These include:Weight loss for overweight or obese individualsRegular resistance and aerobic exerciseOptimization of sleepReduction or cessation of alcohol consumptionManagement of metabolic disease and other underlying medical conditionsLow T men may also choose to discuss evidence-informed nutritional or botanical approaches with their physician. One example isZeus(The Wellness Company), a combination botanical supplement designed to support healthy testosterone levels. However, unlike prescription testosterone therapy, botanical supplements generally have not been studied in large randomized outcome trials such as TRAVERSE, and their effects may vary among individuals. They should be viewed as health and wellness approach taken before a commitment to TRT is contemplated.Thanks for reading FOCAL POINTS (Courageous Discourse™)! This post is public so feel free to share it.SharePlease subscribe toFOCAL POINTSas a paying ($5 monthly) or founder member so we can continue to bring you the truth.AlterAImay be used to assist in searches, synthesis, and review.Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHChief Scientific Officer, The Wellness Companyhttps://www.twc.health/pages/focal-pointsReferencesJAMA Medical News.Testosterone Therapy: Does New Evidence Warrant Broader Prescribing?Published online July 10, 2026. doi:10.1001/jama.2026.13149.American Urological Association.Evaluation and Management of Testosterone Deficiency Guideline (2024).[auanet.org]Traish AM, Miner MM, Morgentaler A, Zitzmann M.Testosterone Deficiency.American Journal of Medicine. 2011;124(7):578-587.[amjmed.com]Corsini C, et al.Age-related decline in total testosterone levels among young men: insights from a large single-center observational study.IJIR: Your Sexual Medicine Journal. 2025.[nature.com]Lincoff AM, Bhasin S, Flevaris P, Mitchell LM, Basaria S, Boden WE, Cunningham GR, Granger CB, Khera M, Thompson IM Jr, Wang Q, Wolski K, Davey D, Kalahasti V, Khan N, Miller MG, Snabes MC, Chan A, Dubcenco E, Li X, Yi T, Huang B, Pencina KM, Travison TG, Nissen SE; TRAVERSE Study Investigators. Cardiovascular Safety of Testosterone-Replacement Therapy. N Engl J Med. 2023 Jul 13;389(2):107-117. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2215025. Epub 2023 Jun 16. PMID: 37326322.

Summary: Neutral safety finding for topical gel--green light for broader therapy?


Katie Couric: Vaccine Evangelist, Breast Cancer, and a Brain That Forgot

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHWith all the media hype about COVID-19 vaccination in 2021 and now reports of turbo-cancer, blood clots, and neurological events in the years that follow, many are putting the pieces of the puzzle together even if the victims are oblivious to the the overall picture.🤖 Katie Couric Face of Mainstream Media’s Vaccine CampaignKatie Couric is the face of establishment media’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign—a woman who used her platform to push the shots with the kind of sunny, earnest conviction that made her a household name. Then she got breast cancer. Then, in July 2026, she suffered an episode oftransient global amnesia(TGA) so severe she forgot what year it was, who was president, and hours of her own life. The irony is thick enough to cut with a scalpel.🩺 The TimelineDecember 2020:Veteran journalist Katie Couric received her first COVID-19 vaccine publicly onDecember 18, 2020, during a live broadcast with a nurse from Temple University Hospital. She has consistently utilizedKatie Couric Mediaand her social platforms to advocate for vaccines and demystify public health guidelinesSeptember 2022:Couric announces her breast cancer diagnosis—Stage 1A, hormone receptor-positive, Her2neu-negative. She undergoes a lumpectomy, 15 rounds of radiation, and commits to five years of aromatase inhibitors.July 2026:While at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Couric experiences sudden, terrifying memory loss. She cannot recall the month, thinks it’s 2024, and believes Joe Biden is still president. She’s diagnosed with transient global amnesia—a condition involving temporary but profound disruption of memory formation.Couric framed both events with characteristic media polish—the cancer as a “teachable moment” for mammograms, the TGA as a quirky neurological blip. What she didn’t do was connect any dots.Subscribe nowRead more

Summary: Tragedy of COVID-19 vaccination playing out in public figures as audiences connect the dots


America250 Commitment to Bodily Autonomy

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHThis past America250 celebration was a time to reflect on our freedoms including bodily autonomy.🎙 Shemane Nugent Interviews Dr. Peter McCullough — America250 Edition🇺🇸 The Core Argument: Bodily Autonomy Is the American WayDr. Peter McCullough framed health freedom as a direct inheritance from the Founding Fathers. His thesis: the Declaration of Independence guaranteesbodily autonomythrough “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and the First Amendment protects our right totalk about it. COVID, he argues, represented a wholesale shutdown of both.🏥 The Biomedical Deep StateMcCullough didn’t mince words. He described a“biopharmaceutical complex”— a biomedical deep state orientedagainstpatient interests, especially when cheap generics threaten profits. He pointed to:Ivermectin and mebendazole— effective, affordable, and being suppressed as cancer adjuncts because they’re genericmRNA platform expansioninto RSV and influenza without proper preclinical testing — “there’s no emergency,” yet the products got greenlit anywayNugent shared her own experience: banned from TikTok for discussing ivermectin, shadow-banned for asking questions. “I got suppressed for asking questions,” she said.💉 The Coercion ScarsMcCullough recounted a patient who took the shots under threat of losing his job — nowpartially paralyzed in one leg, his life trajectory permanently altered. He noted the cruel irony: those who took the vaccines “don’t want to know” what’s happening to them now. About 19% of Americans passed on the shots. McCullough and his wife were among them: “Boy, we’re so happy we didn’t.”He also dropped this:100% of House Democratstook the vaccine under Biden. Nugent’s reaction: “Jeez, that’s kind of scary.”🪲 Tick Bite Protocol & Travel PreparednessThe conversation pivoted to practical health sovereignty:Tick bites: Remove the tickwith the head, sterile wash, thendoxycycline immediately— can spare a lifetime of Lyme misery. Nugent backed this with her own Lyme Alliance experience from 25 years ago.International travel: Carry a medical emergency kit. Most Americans lack international health insurance. Foreign ERs often demand cash upfront. McCullough’s solution: theWellness Company’s kitsplus 24/7 telemedicine — the vast majority avoid urgent care entirely.⚠ Midterm WarningOn the fall elections: if Democrats retake Congress, McCullough sees little hope for “intellectual honesty” on vaccine safety or the burden on children. Even under the current administration, he admitted reforms aren’t moving fast enough — the biomedical deep state persists.FOCAL POINTS (Courageous Discourse™) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Please subscribe toFOCAL POINTSas a paying ($5 monthly) or founder member so we can continue to bring you the truth.AlterAImay be used to assist in searches, synthesis, and review.Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHChief Scientific Officer, The Wellness Companyhttps://www.twc.health/pages/focal-points

Summary: Why refusing medical coercion isn’t just smart — it’s the most American thing you can do