from Kerry Lutz's Financial Survival Network
In a bold declaration, Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. has officially ended government-sponsored censorship through the State Department. In this episode, Robert Ian of ConquerChange.com breaks down Rubio’s April 17th, 2025 interview where he claims the Global Engagement Center—the controversial censorship arm of the State Department—was shut down in late 2024. Rubio reveals how this censorship infrastructure, originally created to counter radical extremism after 9/11, was quietly weaponized to silence American voices, especially during the 2020 election and early pandemic. NGOs were used as proxy hitmen, tagging U.S. citizens as “foreign agents” to justify de-platforming. Now, Rubio promises transparency, a deep investigation into who ordered the censorship, and a commitment to free speech as the antidote to disinformation. But questions remain: Will this effort truly dismantle the censorship machine? Can the U.S. push back against European Union censorship laws targeting American speech abroad? Or is this just another PR move? We explore it all—with hard questions, historical context, and a close look at what this means for freedom of expression in the digital age.
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When I originally floated the idea that Bitcoin could be used by the U.S. government to help pay down the national debt and recapitalize Social Security, the reaction was swift—and not always polite.
Now that the entire economy depends on these hyper-normalized speculative bubbles for its “growth” and “wealth,” there is a profound fear of a future based not on artifice but on the real world.
Tennessee has just passed a law requiring toxicology testing for mass killers. That means the bodies of these sickos will now get a full drug screening during autopsy, including for psychotropic drugs like antidepressants. It’s about time.
These are aspects the Fed is considering in setting its monetary policy; that type of discussion is part of its meeting minutes.
Strengths
Credit markets are becoming increasingly vulnerable to fallout from the emerging trade war. While the media will continue to focus on headline tariff announcements and retaliatory measures, structural risks are emerging. Trade frictions are being transmitted into funding markets, onto corporate balance sheets, and ultimately into broader economic activity.
In this week’s The Reason Roundtable, editors Peter Suderman, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Matt Welch discuss how President Donald Trump is de-prioritizing due process by not adhering to a ruling from the Supreme Court.
As America and the world deal with the phenomenon of Trump 2.0, with the Left slinging the ACLU at the court system and educated liberal ladies demanding HANDS OFF! and Standing up for Free Speech, and the rest of us wondering if our Democrat friends are really serious about flying to El Salvador on the taxpayers’ dime to advocate for helpless innocent Central American gang members. Of course, maybe traveling to the country named after The Savior during Holy Week is a brilliant and sophisticated pitch for the votes of Christians.
Gold Bull Markets And Price Pullbacks
President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration is successfully getting illegal aliens to self-deport from the United States, a concept once mocked by the establishment media.
We are about to find out what happens when thousands of very popular products are suddenly no longer available for sale. A lot of Amazon shoppers have been shocked to learn that some of their favorite products have already disappeared. In fact, there are entire stores on Amazon that are now completely gone. Of course it isn’t just Amazon that is facing an unprecedented crisis. Walmart, Target, Home Depot and our largest dollar store chains are all going to have to figure out new ways to fill their shelves in the months ahead.