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This week on The Breggin Hour, Peter and I sat down with one of the more wonderful men we know: Sheriff Richard Mack, founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, the Arizona sheriff who took the federal government all the way to the Supreme Court over the Brady Bill—and won. He has a new book. The title is deliberately offensive. He said so himself, and he meant it that way. The Democrat Murder of America: Demagoguery in the First Degree. The cover is a jackass in a patriotic hat, a knife in its hoof, stabbing the Statue of Liberty in the back. Sheriff Mack admitted it is horrible. That was the point. He wanted your attention. The book site is murderofamerica.com. There is an ebook at $14.92, an audiobook at $17.76, and a paperback at $26.76. They planned those numbers. Columbus. 1776. 2026. This is not a campaign pamphlet for a party. Sheriff Mack said it is not a pro-Trump book and not a pro-Republican book. It is a history book about what is being done to the country from within—and a manual for people who still believe the Constitution and the individual human being are worth defending. You cannot have communism and freedom That was the sentence he kept coming back to. Those philosophies are not cousins. They are not “different paths to the same good.” They are the antithesis of each other. Communism does not recognize civil rights. It does not honor the person. It tells you how many children you may have, what you may say, what you may own, and what you must obey. The promise of forced equality is a lie. The individual is erased. Peter and I have spent years saying the same thing in another language: collectivism—religious, political, or “scientific”—is the opposite of Christianity and of the American founding. The First Amendment begins with faith for a reason. A Creator who made each person in His image is not compatible with a state that claims ownership of the soul and rejects the individuality and unique qualities of each person. Sheriff Mack asked a question the media will not ask the new crop of openly socialist and communist candidates: What will you do with the people who refuse to cooperate? We already know part of the answer. We lived it. COVID was the rehearsal On the show, we talked about the last few years as if they were ancient history. They are not. Children locked inside. Playgrounds closed. Churches shuttered. Babies staring at masked faces for the first years of life. Australians held for months in camps. Planes on which you could remove the mask only to eat—so Sheriff Mack ate peanuts for hours, until they changed the rule to force the little ritual of pull-down, bite, pull-up. Control for control’s sake. They learned that a “crisis of the day” can make Americans surrender schools, businesses, worship, and the Constitution. Justice Scalia, in the very case Sheriff Mack won, wrote that the Constitution protects us from our own best intentions. It divides power so we will resist the temptation to concentrate it as an expedient solution to the emergency of the moment. Never let a crisis go to waste. That is not wisdom. That is a method. If you think that chapter is over, Sheriff Mack’s warning is simple: wait until the people who admired that machinery hold still more offices. **History they hoped you would forget** The book is full of names younger Americans were never taught. Nikita Khrushchev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, told Americans they were gullible. You will not accept communism outright, he said. We will feed you small doses of socialism until you wake up and find you already have communism. We will not need to invade. We will destroy you from within. We will bury you. Sheriff Mack’s argument is that a political movement inside the Democrat Party is fulfilling that threat—not because every Democrat is a villain, he said, but because the party’s dominant direction is to replace the Constitution with something closer to Marx. He talked about Dorothy Kilgallen, the What’s My Line television game show panelist and journalist who interviewed Jack Ruby and then died the same night her JFK notes disappeared—barbiturates and alcohol, ruled an accident, the same pattern as Marilyn Monroe. Vince Foster. The sudden expansion of Vietnam after JFK was gone. The deep state is not a new invention. He talked about CNN’s Sarah Sidner, who came to his daughter’s house, recorded eighty-five minutes, heard again and again why they were even talking—his Supreme Court victory against the Clinton Justice Department—and then went on Anderson Cooper and mentioned none of it. Peter and I know that pattern. We have been walked out of buildings we were invited into. YouTube banned us for life after we announced *COVID-19 and the Global Predators*. The media is not a referee. It is a participant. Elections, cities, and the Senate Sheriff Mack described a country in which a tourist from Buenos Aires can walk into a New York polling place, register without ID and without English, vote, and fly home to brag. He described the open talk of abolishing or neutering the Senate and packing the Court—so that a handful of giant cities decide the fate of small states. Destroy the Constitution, he said, and you destroy the country. He also said something we hear too rarely: there are good Democrats, including Christians, who have been lied to. The book is written to be handed to them. Start with the epilogue, he suggested. Then talk. That is not hatred. That is an invitation to wake up from indoctrination. The smartest person in the room, he said, is the one who can recognize his own brainwashing. A peaceful manual, while peace is still possible Peter’s closing on the hour was short: buy the book. You are not only buying pages. You are supporting one of the great living voices for constitutional liberty in this country. Sheriff Mack and co-author Dan Perkins talked, while they were writing, about what happens if the book actually gains traction. They have already been smeared. They know the next step. Perkins told him he hoped their wives would be taken care of. That is not melodrama. That is what it costs now to say plain things in public. The alternative they offer is still peaceful: know the history, refuse the next crisis-of-the-day, restore local accountability, protect the sheriff’s oath to the Constitution rather than to Washington, and come together as good people who still love this country. We are of a generation that did duck-and-cover, that watched people shot trying to leave East Germany, that saw COVID used as a nationwide obedience drill. Younger people have been propagandized in school and have not seen the same failures with their own eyes. That is why a book like this matters. It is a history lesson and a warning in one. Christmas will be here before we think about it. Give this book as a gift of freedom—one for you, one for the family member who still believes the slogans. The website again: **murderofamerica.com** *The Breggin Hour* airs on America Out Loud. We will keep talking. We refuse to stop. The truth still sets people free. But first they have to hear it. — Ginger, with Peter       ________   Learn more about Dr. Peter Breggin's work: https://breggin.com/   See more from Dr. Breggin's long history of being a reformer in psychiatry: https://breggin.com/Psychiatry-as-an-Instrument-of-Social-and-Political-Control   Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal, the how-to manual @ https://breggin.com/a-guide-for-prescribers-therapists-patients-and-their-families/   Get a copy of Dr. Breggin's latest book: WHO ARE THE “THEY” - THESE GLOBAL PREDATORS? WHAT ARE THEIR MOTIVES AND THEIR PLANS FOR US? HOW CAN WE DEFEND AGAINST THEM? Covid-19 and the Global Predators: We are the Prey Get a copy: https://www.wearetheprey.com/   “No other book so comprehensively covers the details of COVID-19 criminal conduct as well as its origins in a network of global predators seeking wealth and power at the expense of human freedom and prosperity, under cover of false public health policies.”

In a world quick to prescribe electrical violence to the brain under the guise of “treatment,” it is a profound relief—and a moral imperative—to sit down with one of the clearest voices challenging this relic of psychiatric barbarism. On The Breggin Hour, my husband Peter Breggin and I spoke at length with Professor John Read, a clinical psychologist from the University of East London whose work has helped pierce the veil of denial surrounding electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Professor Read is no outsider throwing stones. He comes from the heart of the clinical psychology establishment, yet he has become one of its most formidable critics on ECT. His recent international survey—the largest ever, with 1,100 participants from 44 countries—gives voice to the lived reality of those who have endured this procedure. The findings are damning. What the Largest ECT Survivor Survey Reveals The research team, which included ECT survivors like our colleague Sarah Hancock, asked hard questions about efficacy, memory loss, and informed consent. The results: On five different measures of effectiveness, the “majority” of recipients reported “no improvement” or that their condition was “made worse”. Two-thirds experienced significant memory loss—both retrograde (losing past memories) and anterograde (inability to form new ones). For most, this persisted for at least three years, which in practical terms means it is often permanent. The vast majority were not adequately informed about these risks. Neither were their families. Women continue to receive ECT at twice the rate of men, with 82% of the psychiatrists administering it being male—an observation that raises uncomfortable questions about power, empathy, and whose distress we choose to “treat” with electricity. These are not abstract statistics. They represent shattered lives, erased memories, and families left picking up the pieces. As Peter has long documented, ECT is essentially a closed-head electrical lobotomy that exceeds OSHA safety thresholds for electrical brain injury. The brain is not “reset”—it is traumatized. Professor Read put it plainly: we are inducing grand mal seizures in people while another branch of medicine works desperately to prevent them. The original 1930s theory—that schizophrenia and epilepsy were mutually exclusive, so inducing seizures could cure the former—was bizarre even then. That we continue this practice ninety years later, with so little rigorous evidence, is a scandal. Legal Victories: Hitting Them Where It Hurts  Professor Read has served as an expert witness in key cases that are finally forcing accountability. In a 2023 Florida jury trial, manufacturer Somatics was found liable for failing to adequately warn about brain damage and permanent memory loss. A 2024 California case against individual psychiatrists and a psychiatric center—alleging negligence, fraud, malpractice, and battery—settled just before trial after surviving all dismissal attempts. MECTA, another major manufacturer, has filed for bankruptcy amid mounting litigation and withdrawn its Spectrum device, only to introduce a near-identical “Sigma” model. The industry adapts, but the human cost remains. Peter shared his own observations from decades of work, including the first successful ECT malpractice case (Salters, 2005). He described the visible horror: patients emerging confused, amnesic, and disoriented—much like victims of repeated concussions. This is traumatic brain injury, period. The temporary “euphoria” some experience is often the brain’s response to injury, not genuine healing. The Deeper Problem: Over-Medicalization of Human Suffering  John Read situates ECT within a larger tragedy—the reduction of complex human distress to a purely biological problem solvable by pills or electricity. Poverty, trauma, abuse, loneliness, and loss are pushed aside while white coats reach for the shock machine. Many psychiatrists, he notes, lack the skills or willingness to sit with profound emotional pain, especially in women and older patients. This resonates deeply with our work exposing psychiatric harm. Whether antidepressants, antipsychotics, or ECT, the pattern is the same: interventions that promise quick fixes but deliver dependency, disability, and despair. The public understands that life circumstances drive mental suffering. Too many professionals still do not.  A Call to Survivors, Families, and Truth-Seekers  If you or a loved one has been harmed by ECT, know that you are not alone. Professor Read’s survey papers are open access—search “John Read ECT survey” to read them directly. Share your story. Support organizations fighting for informed consent and bans on this outdated practice. We must demand real informed consent, rigorous science, and an end to the normalization of brain damage as “therapy.” Peter and I continue this fight because human rights do not end at the psychiatrist’s door. The brain is not a machine to be jolted into submission. Listen to the full conversation on The Breggin Hour (available on America Out Loud and major podcast platforms). Professor Read’s humility, clarity, and dedication shine through. We are grateful for his partnership in this long struggle and look forward to future collaborations. Download and print this free brochure “No One Should Be Given Shock Treatment“ To all who have suffered: Your experiences matter. Your memories—however fragmented—are worth fighting for. The truth is emerging, one voice, one lawsuit, one honest conversation at a time.  Share this widely. The more light we shine, the harder it becomes for these practices to hide in the shadows. Peter and Ginger Breggin have spent decades exposing psychiatric harms. Subscribe for more unfiltered truth on mental health, freedom, and the defense of the human spirit. About our Guest Dr. John Read is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of East London. He has published over 200 research papers, primarily on the relationship between adverse life events and psychosis; the negative effects of bio-genetic causal explanations on prejudice; anti-psychotic and anti-depressant medication; electroconvulsive therapy; and the toxic influence of the pharmaceutical industry on clinical research and practice. John is Chair of the International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal [https://iipdw.org] and is on the Board of Hearing Voices Network, England He has been the editor of the scientific journal ‘Psychosis’ since 2009, and is the editor/author of several books, including: Read J, Sanders P. (2022) ‘A straight talking introduction to the causes of mental health problems’. PCCS Books. Read J, Dillon J. (eds) (2013) ‘Models of Madness’, Routledge. Further Reading/Resources:  Professor John Read’s publications: A large exploratory survey of electroconvulsive therapy recipients, family members, and friends: what information do they recall being given? Journal of Medical Ethics A Survey of 1144 ECT Recipients, Family Members and Friends: Does ECT Work?, National Institutes of Health Largest-ever survey questions ECT’s effectiveness, University of East London Survey Findings on Electroconvulsive Therapy, Psychology Today Models of Madness and Other Works by John Read By Peter R. Breggin, MD: Download and print this free brochure “No One Should Be Given Shock Treatment“ Free Resource Center: Dr. Peter Breggin’s ECT and Deep Brain Stimulation Resources Center Dr. Breggin’s two overview scientific articles: Breggin 1998 and Breggin 2010. The 2010 article contains a brief summary of ECT’s harmful effects, written to inform the FDA. Also read Jones and Baldwin 1992 for a powerful overview. Read Dr. Breggin’s blogs on ECT. Like the brochure, these are also useful as an introduction for anyone who is just learning about ECT. See his blogs: “New Study Confirms Electroshock (ECT) Causes Brain Damage,” “The Stealth ECT Psychiatrist in Psychiatric Reform,” “FDA Panel Recommends Testing of ECT Machines,” “Electroshock for Children and Involuntary Adults.”

In the past months, the world has watched as the people of New York City elected Zohran Mamdani to office as mayor of the largest city in the United States, with over 8 million residents and international cultural and economic centers such as the financial sector and performing arts realm. Youthful, charismatic, and bold, he won the election by over 50% in a 3-way race. Mayor Mamdani started making changes from his first day in office. His political philosophy, however, is the same old package the world has seen fail in socialist countries around the world, including Cuba and Venezuela in our own hemisphere. In the name of fairness, Mamdani planned to pay for the universal daycare, the subsidized housing, the price-controlled groceries, the public transportation through various taxes and other fees, especially on the very rich, the celebrities and billionaires who call New York City home, or own property there. Despite being targeted as the cash cows that would pay for the party, the wealthy did not just pack up and leave on the day that Mayor Mamdani was sworn in. They appeared to be holding their breath, waiting to see if they could afford to stay. Then Taylor Swift posted two short social media items, neither one long and neither one declaring she was leaving New York City, but containing an air of wistfulness and a hint that leaving might be an option. Within 48 hours, there was a surge unlike any seen in living memory in new listings of high-end residences for sale. Values of the listings totaled $2.3 billion. Should even a portion of those owners who are listing depart from the city, the financial repercussions for New York City and for New York State will be enormous. Meanwhile, on the heels of the Mamdani victory, new political hopefuls who are declared far-left socialists, many under the banner of Democrat Socialists of America(DSA) are running in primaries around the US. The DSA party and the DSA National Election Commission are hip, excited, and trying hard to be fun. But all the charisma, the self-declared desire to be kind, to be fair, and all the taxes in the world will not create a more productive, liberty-oriented, vibrant environment able to nurture ingenuity, growth, and opportunity for all. The Democratic Socialists of America have totalitarian goals that they share with their sibling revolutionaries, Communists, Socialists, and the Woke Left Under all the hype and the slogans of the Democratic Socialists of America and other far-left groups is a desire to tear down the America we grew up in. They want another American revolution. Like basic Communist tenants the far left wants to abolish private property (or tax it to death), put religion in a closet or abolish it altogether, make everyone “equal” – not in opportunity, but in outcome, and embrace the policies promoted by globalist entities such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization which have lots of goals and targets aiming at fairness and equality on an international scale and at the expense especially of the United States. We have tried in the West to be so kind, so tolerant, so darn nice in the face of destructive policies and hate-filled rhetoric and actions that we have allowed the destruction of our own culture. So, we invited a genuine survivor of the totalitarian communist USSR who was born in Moscow and immigrated with his family as a young child to Canada. Our guest brought his memories of long food lines, the fear that sits like a stone in a family of dissidents, and his awareness that those who make trouble can be shipped off to Siberia. We met with Jamie Glazov for an episode of The Breggin Hour. It was one of those rare conversations that feels less like an interview and more like speaking with family. Jamie’s presence, his clarity, and the depth of his lifelong study of totalitarianism left us both strengthened and sobered. The perspectives Jamie shares are fresh, straight from the news headlines. Jamie is the Russian-born Canadian author, historian, and managing editor of FrontPage Magazine. His updated and expanded book, United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny, Terror, and Hamas, is not merely a must-read. It is a work of truth-telling that explains phenomena many of us have watched with growing alarm but struggled to fully name. The Left’s Romance with Murderous Regimes and Movements In United in Hate, Jamie traces a continuous thread through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: the Western Left’s repeated romance with the most murderous regimes and movements of their time. The first half of the book examines the “political pilgrims” and fellow travelers who traveled to Stalin’s Soviet Union, Mao’s China, Castro’s Cuba, and the killing fields of Cambodia and Vietnam, returning to praise the very systems that produced mass graves. The second half shows how that same psychological and ideological pattern transferred, almost seamlessly, to embracing radical Islam and groups such as Hamas. After the collapse of Soviet communism, the Left did not abandon its hunger for a totalitarian alternative to the West. It found a new object of adoration. October 7, 2023, became the catalyst for the revised edition of United in Hate. Jamie told us that the moment he saw the celebrations and justifications erupting across Western campuses, streets, and media, he knew the book had to be updated and expanded. The ecstasy some on the Left displayed at the rape, mutilation, and murder of Jews was not an aberration. It was the logical continuation of a long romance with tyranny and terror. A Profound Alienation from the West Jamie does not stop at documentation. He examines the inner life of what he calls “the Believer.” The hard Left, he argues, is driven by a profound alienation from the West, a self-hatred that seeks external enemies to destroy, and a quasi-religious need for a purifying utopia that requires blood sacrifice. Communism once supplied that vision. When it failed, radical Islam offered a new version: a death cult that openly rejects the Judeo-Christian foundations of the civilization the Left already despises. In our conversation, he described two layers of the problem. There are the malicious actors who knowingly work to dismantle Western civilization. And there are the many more who simply cannot emotionally bear the truth. To acknowledge what radical Islam teaches and practices would shatter the comforting narrative that “everything will be okay if we just show more tolerance.” So, they choose willful blindness. They sacrifice Jewish and Christian victims on the altar of their own psychological comfort. Peter, who has spent decades studying the psychology of power and vulnerability, was particularly struck by how accurately Jamie captures the leftist mindset of alienation turning into passionate identification with those who attack the West. A Spiritual Battle Jamie spoke openly about the spiritual dimension of what we face. He reminded us that we are in a battle that cannot be reduced to politics alone. The hatred directed at Jews and at the Christian West has a demonic quality. The same forces that once celebrated Stalin and Mao now celebrate those who butchered families on October 7 and who openly seek the destruction of Israel, Christianity, and, ultimately, Western civilization. Peter and I felt an immediate kinship with Jamie. He is the son of Soviet dissidents. His heart has always been with the persecuted. That same impulse—the refusal to look away from suffering—has driven our own work for decades. When Jamie said he felt he was among family while speaking with us, we felt the same. Listen and Read I urge you to listen to the full interview. Jamie’s passion, his refusal to soft-pedal, and his moral clarity come through powerfully. Then get the book. United in Hate will equip you to understand not only the present moment but the deeper currents that have brought us here. We are living in a time when large portions of our cultural and institutional elite have chosen sides against the civilization that produced them. Jamie Glazov has given us a map of that betrayal. The least we can do is study it carefully and refuse to look away. Order United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny, Terror, and Hamas by Jamie Glazov.

The story told by our guest Patrick Hahn of how the medical industry has taken advantage of people who wish they had been born a different sex is appalling, heartrending, and a lesson from the extremes to which modern medicine can become perverted against the very people it is supposed to serve. Anyone who thinks they were mistakenly born into the wrong body has a tragic story to tell about how they became alienated from themselves while growing up. Instead of helping people recover their identity as a male or female human, in all its glory, and with all its complications, modern medicine is making billions of dollars by taking advantage of this vulnerability and pretending that the proper approach is to medically attempt to change their sexual identity by mutilating their bodies through highly dangerous and permanent surgical and medical interventions. In an especially tragic twist, the sex change industry has now targeted children, some as young as toddlers, beginning with indoctrination and leading to “puberty blocker” hormones to prevent the natural maturation of the individual. These early medical interventions often lead to surgery to remove breasts, vaginas, or penises as if in collaboration with the psychological demons that these individuals need to overcome. It’s gotten so bad that one state has just authorized interchangeable body parts in an “anatomically correct doll to be used in public school sex education. The industry of so-called “gender affirmation” continues to be a “third rail”—dangerous to touch in any critical manner. People are stifled publicly and privately from speaking about this issue in a critical manner because they have been told they will cause so much pain and prejudice if they do. But the real suffering is being perpetrated by medical professionals, hospitals, and therapists who encourage the fantasy that one can change their sex to improve their quality of life. The reality is quite dismal in terms of outcomes. In every area in which our guest Patrick Hahn addresses the real science behind medical and psychiatric interventions, including his most recent book on the sex change industry, Patrick Hahn writes the most comprehensive, interesting analyses available. Where our books dovetail with his, and they often do, we nonetheless learn a great deal from him. If you’ve never heard him speak before, listen to this show simply for the pleasure of hearing one of the most brilliant and thoughtful critical researchers in the field of medicine and psychiatry today. This week on The Breggin Hour, Patrick Hahn joins us to discuss his powerful new book, Irreversible. Patrick is a careful researcher and a clear writer who has spent years documenting the medicalization of ordinary human suffering. His latest work traces how the obsession with “sex change” moved from a tiny fringe subculture to a multi-billion-dollar industry in the United States alone—and how that industry rests on a mountain of lies and deceptions. Patrick does not mince words. “There is nothing good about this industry. Nothing,” he told us. “The whole industry is based on lies.” In biology and medicine, he reminds us, nothing is more certain than this: there are two, and only two, sexes. It is impossible to turn a man into a woman with a surgeon’s knife. When an entire medical enterprise begins with that lie, the rest of the story unravels into incoherence. Activists insist that “trans women are women,” then demand fantastically expensive surgeries and lifelong cross-sex hormones precisely so those same individuals can resemble women. If they already are women, why the need for the knife and the drugs? The most comprehensive long-term study ever conducted, from Sweden (one of the most “trans-friendly” countries on earth), found that after surgical transition the suicide rate was elevated by a staggering nineteen times compared with matched controls from the general population. Not nineteen percent higher—nineteen times as many suicides. There is no credible data showing that these procedures reduce suicide risk. The “transition or die” claim pushed on desperate parents is itself a lethal lie. As Patrick put it, “Trans and die” would be more accurate. Most gender-distressed children simply outgrow the distress if they are allowed to go through natural puberty. That is why the industry is so eager to block puberty. The “cure,” as Patrick observed, is puberty itself. When clinics rush children onto blockers and then hormones, they are manufacturing lifelong medical patients out of young people who would otherwise have resolved their confusion. How did this twisted field get its beginning? The founding figures—Harry Benjamin, John Money, the early directors of the Johns Hopkins clinic—were often more candid than today’s activists about the role of childhood trauma, family dynamics, and social rejection. The first gender clinics in the United States and Europe eventually closed after their own research failed to show meaningful improvement. Those early practitioners had the intellectual honesty to admit failure. Their successors had a simple self-serving answer: if adults do not improve, start younger. The human toll in the sex change medical industry is incalculable. And the financial remuneration is staggering. An industry estimate of two billion dollars a year in the United States is almost certainly a gross undercount; it leaves out hormones, blockers, the cascade of complications, the “affirming” therapy that keeps families compliant, and the repeat surgeries required to repair damage from previous ones. Projections of five billion by 2030 still understate the true cost—human as well as monetary. We heard heartbreaking stories of families torn apart in court when one parent seeks to medicalize a child, and the other resists. We discussed the strange cultural power of celebrities who treat their children’s bodies as fashion statements. And we noted the encouraging signs that the political tide is finally turning– federal funding streams are being cut, and people are less afraid to speak the obvious truth. Patrick’s larger point is one we have long shared. The sex-change industry is only the sharpest edge of a broader medicalization of life. Once institutions stop caring whether people are productive and start treating them primarily as consumers of medical interventions, almost any human distress can be turned into a lifelong customer base. The damage done to children in the name of “gender affirmation” is irreversible. That is why the book is titled as it is. We urge you to read Irreversible. It is thorough, carefully documented, and written with genuine compassion for the people caught in this industry. You can find it, along with Patrick’s earlier books on psychiatric drugs, ADHD, COVID policy, and genetic determinism, at patrickhahn.net.

In 2021, Dr. Ron Elfenbein, MD, operated urgent care centers in Maryland, testing and treating COVID patients with monoclonal antibodies. The treatment was so successful that he was able to test and treat patients, see them recover, and watch them go home. Dr. Elfenbein went on Fox News sharing the great news of how successful the treatment of monoclonal antibodies was for COVID. Four months later, he was criminally indicted on 5 counts of fraudulent coding and billing at his clinics. A matter that should have never been brought in criminal court—at most deserving of some administrative action. He is still fighting these charges today. That is the stark outline of what happened to a good doctor. The fuller story is even more revealing—and more troubling. He is the kind of doctor you would want for your own care or for the care of your family. Dr. Elfenbein is an emergency physician with more than two decades of experience. When COVID arrived, he did what physicians are trained to do: he looked at the evidence in front of him and treated the patients in front of him. Monoclonal antibody infusions—technology that has been used safely since the 1970s for a range of conditions—produced dramatic results. Patients who arrived looking “on death’s door” often improved while still sitting in the infusion chair, with rapid turnarounds during the treatment itself. Lives saved. Hospitalizations prevented. Families spared further illness. No ventilators. No funerals. Displaying ingenuity and personal drive along with organizational skills, he built infusion centers and quickly became one of the largest providers in the Mid-Atlantic region. Patients traveled from neighboring states because they could not obtain the treatment closer to home. He saw the technology work with his own eyes. So did the patients and their families. Who needed any mRNA vaccines? Patients were being treated inexpensively and were able to return home. But there was a pandemic and a vaccine blueprint we documented in our book COVID-19 and the Global Predators: We are the Prey that had been developed for more than a decade, involving many billions of dollars in profits and offering the potential to finally exercise control over free and feisty American citizens. Led by Bill Gates and Klaus Schwab, both working with Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Deep State, careers and billions in research had been invested in shoehorning the “next generation” of vaccine technology past FDA approval requirements and into the marketplace. The “Universal Vaccine” was the holy grail before 2020. The mRNA vaccine model was considered a strong candidate with tremendous support from Bill Gates and others. “Why don’t we blow the system up? Obviously, we can’t just turn off the spigot on the system we have and then say, ‘hey, everyone in the world should get this new vaccine we haven’t given to anyone yet.’ But there must be some way…”  Michael Specter, Staff Writer, The New Yorker; Moderator at the Milkin Institute’s Future Health Summit 2019 panel titled “Making Influenza History: The Quest for a Universal Vaccine.” When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, an Emergency Use Authorization was issued for the mRNA COVID vaccines. It was based on the legislative condition that there were no preexisting “adequate, approved and available alternatives.” And that was the wrinkle. There were adequate, approved, and available alternatives to a rushed, unapproved, mRNA vaccine system already documented to be toxic. Hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, monoclonal antibodies, and even the basic medical treatments for respiratory viral conditions that are a part of any general practitioner’s armamentarium (albuterol and Budesonide inhalers, analgesics, oral steroids, cough suppressants, and antibiotics for secondary infections or other available tools that were not being recommended by the government when patients began to exhibit viral respiratory symptoms thought to be caused by COVID). None of these treatments were recommended for COVID by the CDC. Bill Gates, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the pharmaceutical industry pushed a multi-billion-dollar boondoggle for experimental vaccines, all of which depended upon the absence of early effective treatments. But there were good doctors who stood against the pressure on behalf of their patients and patients everywhere, speaking truthfully through media outlets to inform citizens about their care options and treating their own patients. Dr. Elfenbein is one of those good doctors, and the Biden administration noticed, especially after he made a couple of media appearances talking about the successful treatment of COVID with monoclonal antibodies. A simple, outpatient monoclonal antibody treatment that could be provided in test/treat facilities and scaled up to provide care to thousands in a community should have provided strong evidence against any need for “vaccines.” But the Biden government was in the middle of their single-minded drive to get mRNA vaccines for Covid into “every arm.” Then federal authorities shut the monoclonal antibody program down nationally, citing that it was less effective with the newer Omicron variant. Dr. Elfenbein went on national television and said what many physicians believed, but few dared state publicly: people would die as a result of that decision. He was right. Hospitalizations and deaths followed. The monoclonal antibodies were eventually pulled from the market entirely, while the mRNA vaccines remained available. Four months after Dr. Elfenbein’s public criticism of COVID policy and the mRNA vaccines, the Department of Justice indicted him. The charges were not that he invented patients or fabricated services. The charges concerned how certain COVID-related evaluation and management visits had been coded for insurance reimbursement—technical billing questions that arise routinely in medical practice and are normally handled, when necessary, through civil or administrative channels. A jury convicted him in August 2023. Then something almost unheard of occurred. Chief Judge James K. Bredar of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland—the same judge who had presided over the trial—issued a detailed 93-page opinion vacating the convictions and entering a judgment of acquittal on all five counts. The judge found that the relevant CPT coding guidance was ambiguous, that the government had failed to prove the Level 4 codes were false beyond a reasonable doubt, and that no reasonable jury could have reached a guilty verdict on the evidence presented. He also conditionally granted a new trial because the evidence weighed so heavily against the verdict that it would be unjust to enter judgment. The government appealed. The Fourth Circuit later reversed the pure judgment of acquittal while acknowledging the evidence was “thin,” leaving the new-trial order in place. Judge Bredar subsequently recused himself from the case with a one-line notice and no explanation. Dr. Elfenbein now faces a second trial. The legal costs of the first prosecution nearly bankrupted him and his family. A second trial threatens to finish what the first began. Major physician organizations have stood with him. The American Medical Association—the very body that authors and maintains the CPT code set the government claims he violated—filed an amicus brief in his support. So did the Maryland State Medical Society, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, and the Independent Medical Alliance. These groups have made clear that differences of interpretation over complex, pandemic-era billing rules should not be criminalized, especially when the underlying medical services were actually provided, and no patient harm is alleged. This case is not an isolated bureaucratic error. It fits a larger pattern we have watched for years: physicians who questioned official COVID narratives, who prioritized early treatment, or who spoke publicly about what they were seeing in their clinics often found themselves investigated, deplatformed, or professionally attacked. When a doctor can face decades in federal prison over disputed coding of real services, the message to the entire profession is unmistakable. Dr. Elfenbein’s website is dropthecase.com. There you will find information about his legal defense fund. If you are able to help, please do. If you cannot give financially, share his story. Write to the Department of Justice. Let the current administration know that continuing this prosecution does not serve justice, public health, or the integrity of medicine. We have seen too many good physicians pay a heavy price for putting patients first and telling the truth as they saw it. Ron Elfenbein is one of them. He is a good and great man who should not have to stand alone. Go to Dr. Elfenbein’s website, DroptheCase.com, and contribute to his legal costs through GiveSendGo.

Dr. Juliette Engel is a living witness and victim of some of the most vile hidden Intelligence programs ever devised. She has survived and even thrived since her brutal childhood, going on to offer brave eyewitness testimony to the depravity that can result when persons in power decide that they can violate any morals and acceptable behavior in the pursuit of control. The justification, as warped as it can be, is to say that we must sacrifice some people/children in order to preserve the greater good. From being delivered by her parents into the arms of CIA handlers at the age of six, to meeting Jeffrey Epstein on the San Juan Islands in the 1980s, when he was talking of buying islands in the Caribbean, Dr. Engel has encountered evil and survived. On this week’s “Breggin Hour,” Peter and I had the privilege of sitting with Dr. Juliette Engel. At 77, she carries herself with a quiet radiance that Peter described as angelic. After hearing her story, I understood why. What was done to her as a child would have broken most people. What she has done with her life since then is a testament to the best of the human spirit. Juliette was born into a family of OSS, CIA, and NSA operatives. At the age of six, in 1955, her own father sold her into the MKUltra Monarch program. There she endured mind control, satanic ritual abuse, and the deliberate fracturing of a child’s mind through repeated trauma. The program’s goal was to create a dissociated, highly controllable person—someone who could later be used as a prostitute or intelligence asset. She was trained in what she calls “sex magick,” prepared for a future of exploitation. She escaped at seventeen. With no memory of her childhood, she put herself through university and medical school and became a physician in Seattle. For decades the past remained locked away. Only later, in her sixties, after twenty years of extraordinary humanitarian work in Russia, did she begin the long, painful process of opening those sealed rooms in her mind. What she discovered there is almost unbearable. Yet she has chosen to tell it—first in her memoir *Sparky: Surviving Sex Magick as I Lived It*, written from the magical thinking of the ten-year-old child she once was, and later in *Angels Over Moscow*, the story of her twenty years building an underground railroad for trafficking victims across the former Soviet Union. While working to improve medical care for children in Russian orphanages, Juliette uncovered a trafficking network that moved young girls to Scandinavia and the United States. She followed the trail. What she found changed the course of her life. With the MiraMed Institute and the Angel Coalition she founded, she helped create a network of villagers, police, educators, journalists, and officials who rescued more than 70,000 children and young women. She did this at great personal risk, often traveling alone through dangerous territory. She did it because she knew, in a way few of us can, what it means to be a child with no one coming to save you. In our conversation, she spoke of creating “Sparky”—an internal role model, a tough, courageous little girl warrior she invented at age ten because she had no trustworthy adults. Sparky was everything Juliette longed to be: strong, pretty, smart, able to stand up for herself and others. That imagined self became her compass. Decades later, when Jeffrey Epstein and his brother approached her at a private gathering on the San Juan Islands—offering her a house, naming the exact amount in her bank account, inviting her into their world—something deep inside said no. She credits Sparky. The protective programming that had once kept her silent also, in that moment, kept her safe. She spoke, too, of the suicide programs that are deliberately installed in survivors—the overwhelming voices that rise up when a person begins to remember or to speak. She has faced them more than once. She has learned to recognize the attack when it comes and to pull it through what she describes as the eye of a needle until it becomes manageable. She offers this knowledge freely to other survivors, because she does not want another person to be lost to a programmed death. Peter reminded us that whether intentionally programmed or programmed by traumas of childhood and tragedies of life, one must resist an urge toward suicide. He said: “First of all, somebody probably put that idea in your head on some level. And also it is something you can definitely leave behind. People can leave being suicidal behind, but you can’t leave dead behind. So you’ve got to work to overcome the pain. And we’re getting a wonderful lesson today in how a fine person can overcome that pain. Dr. Engel actually has done amazing work in setting up networks to save children in different parts of the world. What an amazing outcome for somebody who’s been about as abused as a person can survive.” How to Help the Suicidally Depressed Person—Dr. Peter Breggin’s 5th Simple Truths About Psychiatry’ Once again we see a pattern that Peter and I have seen throughout our decades of work: the same systems that harm children also work hard to keep the truth from being believed. For years, people who reported MKUltra experiences were told they were delusional. People who tried to expose the dark operations of the CIA were called “conspiracy theorists.” But now that the CIA has finally released thousands of pages admitting the program’s existence, survivors can no longer be so easily disparaged. The scale of what was done and, many believe, continues today, is coming into the light. Despite the horrors Juliette endured and witnessed, she persevered. A child who was meant to be broken became a doctor. A woman who had every reason to remain silent spent twenty years rescuing other people’s children. A woman recovering her own stolen memories continues to stand with those still finding theirs. Dr. Juliette Engel found the courage and created the safety net for herself that made it possible to survive and build a life of compassion, science, healing, and reform. Her courage opens a window which we must look through. From facing the suffering of children through the hidden programs of the past or the open trafficking of the present, we must refuse to turn away. We need to build our empathy, not our defenses. And we need to remember that the human spirit, even after the most deliberate attempts to destroy it, can still choose love, courage, and service. We are grateful to Dr. Juliette Engel for trusting us with her story. Listen to the full interview on “The Breggin Hour.” Her books Sparky and Angels Over Moscow are available for those who wish to go deeper. You can learn more about her work at www.JulietteEngel.com. May her example strengthen every person who has ever felt broken by forces larger than themselves. Survival is possible. Healing is possible. And sometimes, out of the worst soil, the most luminous lives grow.

We thought we would discuss critical thinking and how it applies to today’s propaganda-laden world. And we did. But the conversation quickly turned into a luminous, expansive exchange of knowledge, opinions, and faith, especially between Dr. Fox and Dr. Breggin. Dr. Fox has an open and warm demeanor that radiates care and affection when he greeted us. Dr. Andrew Fox is an Anglican priest who now lives with his wife in the heart of Texas, where he has settled after immigrating from the United Kingdom. He became an American citizen and shared with us about how happy he is to be here in the United States. We exchanged stories about the unexpected and delightful joy with which recent World Cup tourists coming to America for the first time shared their experiences on social media. Europeans discovered how beautiful, engaging, friendly, welcoming, fun, and (the food!) delicious America is. Then they shared all of that on social media, red-pilling their friends and families and helping Americans feel proud again after these terrible post-COVID years. After the show, I enjoyed reading Dr. Fox’s blog on this topic, “The World Cup: America’s Greatest Untapped Form of Diplomacy.” Dr. Fox introduced his forthcoming book: Truth in the Age of Applause: How Stupidity Is Ruining the American Dream. We discussed critical thinking and how it and civil dialogue are essential for challenging harmful ideologies while maintaining respect for authority—particularly said Dr. Fox– in scriptural contexts. The conversation explored the differences between Old and New Testament perspectives on Jews as the Chosen people, with Dr. Fox commenting that while the Old Testament focused on a specific tribe’s witness to one God, the New Testament emphasizes an egalitarian approach where all people are children of God. We discussed how modern concepts of relativism [the philosophical belief that nothing is objectively true or universally applicable] have been misused to undermine truth, particularly in debates about biological reality and gender identity, with Dr. Fox noting that reality doesn’t change regardless of opinions. I discovered after the interview that Dr. Fox has spoken the truth very actively rather than seeking applause. Dr. Fox had served eight years as Austin City Fire Chaplain when, in 2021, he wrote a blog arguing that men should not compete in women’s sports due to biological differences between the two sexes. According to the Christian Post: Months later, Fox was dismissed when officials decided that his efforts to apologize to unnamed offended parties were not sufficient, as he refused to recant his views on LGBT issues. In August 2022, Fox filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, alleging that AFD officials “retaliated against him for exercising his First Amendment rights, violated his First Amendment right to free speech and free exercise of religion, and violated the Texas Constitution.” On March 3, 2026, the city of Austin reached a $78,000 settlement with former Austin City Fire Chaplain Andrew Fox, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom. Dr. Fox does not seek applause. He seeks truth. We are sure his book will be as engaging as our hour visit with Dr. Andrew Fox!       ______   Learn more about Dr. Peter Breggin's work: https://breggin.com/   See more from Dr. Breggin's long history of being a reformer in psychiatry: https://breggin.com/Psychiatry-as-an-Instrument-of-Social-and-Political-Control   Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal, the how-to manual @ https://breggin.com/a-guide-for-prescribers-therapists-patients-and-their-families/   Get a copy of Dr. Breggin's latest book: WHO ARE THE “THEY” - THESE GLOBAL PREDATORS? WHAT ARE THEIR MOTIVES AND THEIR PLANS FOR US? HOW CAN WE DEFEND AGAINST THEM? Covid-19 and the Global Predators: We are the Prey Get a copy: https://www.wearetheprey.com/   “No other book so comprehensively covers the details of COVID-19 criminal conduct as well as its origins in a network of global predators seeking wealth and power at the expense of human freedom and prosperity, under cover of false public health policies.”   ~ Robert F Kennedy, Jr President Trump’s Director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the largest health agency in the worl

The healing power of love, creativity, and faith Peter Breggin MD & Ginger Breggin Mon Jul 6 The Breggin Hour Cultural Wars, Faith, Family Life, Health   It was one of those recording sessions that lingers in the heart long after the microphones are turned off. On a recent afternoon, Peter and I had the profound privilege of speaking with Dr. Francis Christian—a gifted surgeon, poet, professor, and thinker whose life embodies the integration of science, art, and deep faith. His latest book of poems, To a Nurse Friend Weeping, published by a small Canadian house, and his Substack (francischristian.substack.com) reflect a man who sees the full spectrum of human experience: suffering, joy, and the creative spark that connects us all to something greater. Dr. Christian joined us as we explored themes close to our own lives—especially in this season of recovery and reflection following Peter’s stroke. The conversation flowed naturally from the personal to the cultural, touching on what it means to be fully human in a world that often fragments us. Reconnecting Medicine to the Human Story As a professor of surgery at the University of Saskatchewan, with expertise in trauma and oncology, and a former director of patient safety and quality improvement for the province, Dr. Christian could easily have focused solely on technical excellence. Instead, he founded the Surgical Humanities program and served as founding editor of the Journal of Surgical Humanities. He explained it beautifully: “Unless you’re acquainted intimately and engaged with the human story, how can you actually treat the human being?” The humanities—literature, poetry, music, and visual arts—remind physicians, residents, and students of the narratives behind the patients they serve. He shared how he witnessed talented young people set aside their creativity under the pressures of training, only to become cynical. The program sought to reconnect them: through an annual musical evening with an orchestra of physicians, nurses, and students, and a journal that welcomed high-literary-quality pieces from medical voices or non-medical perspectives on medical themes. Creativity isn’t a luxury; it is essential to wholeness. As Dr. Christian noted, we are created in the image of God, the Master Creator. To be fully alive is to create—to engage with joy, sorrow, suffering, and relief in ways that science alone cannot teach. For those of us who have faced illness or cared for the sick or wounded, a physician who is truly present—who hears you, respects your humanity—becomes part of the healing itself. Sexuality, Sublimation, and the Gifts of Commitment A recent essay on Dr. Christian’s Substack moved me profoundly. In it, he explores the sublimation of sexual energy into creativity and the devastating cultural costs of the sexual revolution. He spoke with poetic respect about human desire—not as mere biology or casual encounter, but as a profound drive that, when channeled with reverence, fuels art, poetry, family, and civilization itself. He drew on John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” where the lover’s unfulfilled yearning becomes eternal beauty: “Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss… yet do not grieve… for ever wilt thou love, and she be fair.” For centuries, Christian civilization elevated this longing toward the prize of marriage—a sacred house of fulfillment, commitment, and creative partnership in raising the next generation. The sexual revolution of the 1960s, he observed, lowered the “price” of sex, especially for men, through the pill, abortion, and cultural shifts influenced by feminist and Marxist ideas. What was promised as liberation has delivered falling birth rates, crashing below replacement levels, declining testosterone, less satisfying relationships, sky-high divorce rates, and energies diverted from family into ideologies. Birds, he noted wryly, often show more fidelity than this new mammalian norm. We spoke of the sadness for young people today—burdened by debt, indoctrinated to view children as encumbrances, and offered casual encounters via apps instead of the depth of lifelong trust. Yet there is hope. Some younger generations seem to be turning toward virtue, early commitment, and building families with community support. Peter and I shared from our own journey: the joy of treasuring one another, the self-sacrificial love that grows stronger through trials, and how God’s grace sustains it. Peter reflected movingly on how, since his stroke, he has seen God’s love through my care for him—and how it has drawn us both closer to the Divine. “Treasure other human beings,” he urged, especially the young. “Dare to love. You’ll get hurt, but the more you love, the more you help others become loving.” Dr. Christian echoed this in referencing agape love—the selfless, giving love modeled on the cross. He reminded us of St. Paul and Jesus’ mission: to heal the brokenhearted, set the bruised at liberty, and proclaim good news. His hope, like ours, is that people find new life at the foot of the cross and in the resurrection’s promise of eternal meaning. A Call to Treasure What Matters This conversation left us refreshed and reminded of what civilization truly rests upon: deep respect, creative fullness, committed love, and faith. In a time when so many forces seek to cheapen human connection, we are called to nurture love like a garden, to greet “that of God” in one another (as the Quakers say), and to resist the fragmentation of modernity. Dr. Francis Christian’s life and work stand as a witness: a surgeon who operates with skill and soul, a poet who finds beauty in the weeping and the joy. I encourage you to visit his Substack and explore his poetry. In a world hungry for authenticity, voices like his point us back to what is true, good, and life-giving. Peter and I continue to learn, day by day, about the miracles of recovery, partnership, and grace. We pray this hour of reflection blesses you as it blessed us—to love more boldly, create more freely, and trust in the God who made us for relationship. Thank you, Dr. Christian, for sharing your wisdom and your faith. Our audience—our wonderful community—is richer for it. ______   Learn more about Dr. Peter Breggin's work: https://breggin.com/   See more from Dr. Breggin's long history of being a reformer in psychiatry: https://breggin.com/Psychiatry-as-an-Instrument-of-Social-and-Political-Control   Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal, the how-to manual @ https://breggin.com/a-guide-for-prescribers-therapists-patients-and-their-families/   Get a copy of Dr. Breggin's latest book: WHO ARE THE “THEY” - THESE GLOBAL PREDATORS? WHAT ARE THEIR MOTIVES AND THEIR PLANS FOR US? HOW CAN WE DEFEND AGAINST THEM? Covid-19 and the Global Predators: We are the Prey Get a copy: https://www.wearetheprey.com/   “No other book so comprehensively covers the details of COVID-19 criminal conduct as well as its origins in a network of global predators seeking wealth and power at the expense of human freedom and prosperity, under cover of false public health policies.”   ~ Robert F Kennedy, Jr President Trump’s Director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the largest health agency in the world.

We had such a wonderful conversation with Rainer Zitelmann on The Breggin Hour — the kind that leaves you feeling hopeful about the future while reminding you how important it is to keep fighting for truth, freedom, and justice. Rainer is a historian, a sociologist, and an author who has written more than thirty books, including two that really caught our attention: In Defense of Capitalism: Debunking the Myths and his latest, New Space Capitalism. He joined us from Berlin, and right away, you could feel his warmth, curiosity, and genuine excitement about big ideas. Why Capitalism Still Matters   Rainer has been sounding the alarm about the dangers of socialism for years. When he warned about it eight years ago, some people rolled their eyes and said, “Who believes in socialism anymore?” Well… here we are. The financial heart of the US and one of the greatest American cities, New York City, has now elected its first Democratic Socialist Mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Rainer would have preferred to be wrong, but events keep proving his point. He loves good discussion — even when people push back hard. As he put it, the stages are: first, they ignore you, then they attack you, and eventually, they say they knew it all along. The Space Revolution Happening Right Now One of the most exciting parts of the interview was hearing Rainer talk about the new space age. He told the story of Elon Musk’s early dreams of making humanity multi-planetary — a vision that started with a crazy idea and a trip to Russia to buy rockets (where they apparently weren’t too impressed at first or maybe thought he was a US agent trying to steal their space technology!). Fast-forward, and SpaceX is now launching more rockets than entire countries. Rainer pointed out that last year, SpaceX alone did more launches than all other nations combined in many categories. The reusability of those rockets — something governments struggled with for decades — has dramatically cut costs. He explained the difference in incentives: under the old government model, higher costs often meant higher profits for contractors. With private companies like SpaceX, lowering costs means bigger success. That simple shift changes everything. The Power of Private Property — Even in Space Rainer made a strong case that private property rights will be essential if we really want to open up the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty says nations can’t claim sovereignty over celestial bodies, but Rainer believes treating space like a giant “commons” won’t work any better than it has on Earth. He imagines settlers claiming manageable areas (think the size of Singapore on Mars), turning them into investment and shared-ownership opportunities. His vision is optimistic — not just for billionaires, but for regular people who could one day own a piece of humanity’s future in space. Unbreakable Spirit We also talked about Rainer’s book Unbreakable Spirit, about people who overcame enormous challenges — born blind, paralyzed, or facing other severe obstacles — yet lived lives of remarkable achievement. He shared the story of Ray Charles, who took full responsibility for both his successes and his struggles. That kind of spirit moved us deeply, especially given Peter’s own recovery journey after his stroke. Rainer’s admiration for people who refuse to see themselves as victims really comes through. It’s the same attitude he sees in the great entrepreneurs pushing humanity forward. A Warm Message of Hope Listening to Rainer feels like talking with a friend who still believes in big dreams and human potential. He loves the American spirit of bold goals and personal responsibility. As he quoted Robert Zubrin: “Freedom will give us space. Space will give us freedom.” Whether it’s defending capitalism here on Earth or imagining humanity’s next steps among the stars, Rainer reminds us that real progress comes from freedom, courage, and the willingness to take responsibility for our own lives. We thoroughly enjoyed this conversation and highly recommend checking out Rainer’s books — especially In Defense of Capitalism, Unbreakable Spirit, and New Space Capitalism. They’re full of that rare quality, hope, as well as clear thinking and fresh perspective at a time when we need both. Meet the Guest Rainer Zitelmann is a historian, sociologist, entrepreneur, investor, and internationally bestselling author. He holds doctorates in history and sociology and has authored or edited 31 books translated into 35 languages. His books include New Space Capitalism: The Entrepreneurial Path to the Stars, In Defense of Capitalism, The Power of Capitalism, and How Nations Escape Poverty. His work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Newsweek, Fox News, The Daily Telegraph, Le Monde, and numerous international publications. ______   Learn more about Dr. Peter Breggin's work: https://breggin.com/   See more from Dr. Breggin's long history of being a reformer in psychiatry: https://breggin.com/Psychiatry-as-an-Instrument-of-Social-and-Political-Control   Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal, the how-to manual @ https://breggin.com/a-guide-for-prescribers-therapists-patients-and-their-families/   Get a copy of Dr. Breggin's latest book: WHO ARE THE “THEY” - THESE GLOBAL PREDATORS? WHAT ARE THEIR MOTIVES AND THEIR PLANS FOR US? HOW CAN WE DEFEND AGAINST THEM? Covid-19 and the Global Predators: We are the Prey Get a copy: https://www.wearetheprey.com/   “No other book so comprehensively covers the details of COVID-19 criminal conduct as well as its origins in a network of global predators seeking wealth and power at the expense of human freedom and prosperity, under cover of false public health policies.”   ~ Robert F Kennedy, Jr President Trump’s Director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the largest health agency in the world.

We opened this episode of The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour acknowledging the weight of our times. For the past week, we’ve explored how to live meaningfully amid chaos, threats, and cultural unraveling. That conversation remains vital. But reality does not pause for comfort. This week, we returned to the difficult terrain with our friend J.J. Carroll — a man of uncommon courage, a former law enforcement officer with decades on the border and in fugitive operations, a truth-teller who was recently fired for daring to speak plainly on the very issues he lived. J.J.’s experiences are not abstract. They have been forged in daily encounters with violence in the six months he worked with ICE in 2025-2026 and the violence he faced for 24 years as a Border Patrol Officer, arresting drug cartel members on the Southern border. He describes a nation where the demographic transformation is not subtle policy but visible, measurable destruction. J.J. is a firsthand witness to the continued open borders, net increases in illegal immigration, and jobs going overwhelmingly to non-Americans while native-born citizens, especially White males, are sidelined. Government data he cites paints a stark picture: hundreds of arrests daily, yet a system so backlogged that true mass deportations feel like a distant promise rather than a current reality. We do not shy away from these realities on this show. America was built by a specific people with a specific culture — a White, Christian, European-rooted nation that achieved greatness through shared values, faith, rule of law, and high-trust communities. Pretending otherwise dishonors history and endangers the future. As J.J. powerfully states, demographics shape destiny. When you import millions from cultures with vastly different norms, lower average IQs, and incompatible worldviews — often without any expectation of assimilation — you do not enrich; you transform, and not for the better. Europe is learning this lesson in blood and social collapse. We ignore it at our peril. Even now, the mayhem is surging onto our shores. The rising tide of migrant violence and social breakdown is unmistakable across Europe and England, where no-go zones, knife crime, and gang rapes have become grim daily realities. Here in the United States, the pattern repeats in major cities like New York and beyond. The many stories of murders, rapes, and other violence by illegal immigrant populations are not isolated tragedies; they are the predictable consequence of policies that prioritize unassimilated foreign populations over the safety and future of our own children. We have a huge country to manage with almost 350 million souls living here from all parts of the world. There are issues with continued illegal border crossings, international drug trafficking into the US, and massive issues of fraud and theft on a level never before identified that threatens to demolish us and invites totalitarianism to come and take charge. The Judeo-Christian foundational culture that created America and those individuals who were all part of it are being shredded by our political and intellectual elite and other cultures coming from far different places in the world who want no part of what we have here in terms of civilization. A significant number of these people have no understanding of respect for human life, the rule of law, the US Constitution, basic rules of life, or rules of the road that we take for granted. How does that ignorance translate into the daily lives of citizens? No respect for human life translates into murder, including the deliberate attacks on people who are strangers by perpetrators using trucks, knives, guns, and other weapons. No understanding of, agreement with, and respect for the rule of law translates into fraud and theft on a massive basis, employing lying, subterfuge, and cunning to swindle, cheat, and steal from individuals and from American citizens through federal theft. In California, several massive, multi-million-dollar fraud rings involving illegal immigrants and transnational criminal organizations have recently been dismantled by federal authorities for stealing taxpayer-funded welfare, COVID-19 relief, and tax revenue. Similar large-scale fraud operations tied to Somali communities have also plagued Minnesota, further draining public resources intended for American citizens. This cultural incompatibility extends even to everyday infrastructure. Illegal immigrant commercial drivers, often poorly trained, unlicensed, or operating stolen or improperly maintained vehicles, are contributing to chaos on our highways. Serious accidents, deadly pile-ups, and overwhelmed emergency services have increased in areas with high concentrations of such drivers, adding yet another layer of preventable danger to American families who simply want to travel safely on roads built and maintained by prior generations. As Elizabeth Nickson has powerfully documented in her recent Substack column “White Boy’s Summer,” the impact across Europe has been devastating. Decades of mass migration have been accompanied by a deliberate political project that has taught many newcomers to view the native populations — the very citizens who built and sustain these societies as producers, taxpayers, and keepers of the culture — with resentment and outright hatred. (See: White Boy’s Summer) The Spiritual Dimension This is not merely political or economic. It is spiritual. We agreed that there is a degree of evil walking the world that we have not seen before. Both concepts of evil and love have been banished from intellectual discussion, laughed at as old-fashioned. Cultural relativism — the idea that all cultures and moral systems are equally valid with no objective standard by which to judge them — is the opposite of these terms. Allan Bloom’s 1987 bestseller, The Closing of the American Mind, sounded the warning but was quickly buried in intellectual and media circles with a wave of multiculturalism, DEI, calls of racism to silence critics, and a focus on bending reality with transgenderism and other tales that have left devastation in their path. J.J. speaks as a believer who sees Satan as the source of evil roaming the earth, a force that delights in the slaughter of the innocent — 63 million abortions, the mutilation of children under transgender ideology, and the darkest allegations tied to elite networks like those surrounding Jeffrey Epstein. The failure to fully release the Epstein files, despite promises and power, is a profound betrayal. When those in authority protect the powerful at the expense of justice for children, the system stands condemned. Peter and I have long warned about the moral free fall — the erosion of the Ten Commandments in public and private life, the suppression of love and conscience, the celebration of evil in entertainment and elite circles. Occult influences, ritualistic abuses, and a rejection of God create a void that darkness eagerly fills. We see it in the boldness of anti-human spectacles at major events and in the quiet despair of families watching their children be targeted. We Refuse Despair We do not exempt leaders from scrutiny. While Donald Trump remains the strongest border president in modern memory, serious disappointments linger — continued promotion of mRNA technology, the absence of full accountability for past crimes, and an emperor-like tone in some foreign policy pronouncements. Real change requires more than one man. It demands people willing to reclaim their inheritance. Yet we refuse despair. Peter reminded us of the Black Robed Regiment — the ministers who fueled the American Revolution with Judeo-Christian conviction. The Black Robed Regiment was the courageous pastors and clergy of the Revolutionary era. They preached biblical principles of liberty, justice, and resistance to tyranny from their pulpits and from town to town in Colonial days, leading up to the American Revolution, while dressed in their distinctive black robes. These men were instrumental in shaping the fundamental, encompassing worldviews of individual freedom, liberty, and release from tyranny. These courageous and hardy pastors, ministers, and clerics rallied the American people, framing the fight for independence as a sacred duty and providing the moral and spiritual backbone of our nation’s birth. We need a similar revival today: a return to the fundamentals of faith, family, and constitutional order. J.J. finds hope in his teenage son’s generation and the friends he drives around — young people who are more politically engaged and spiritually aware than many in prior generations. They are turning away from the emptiness of the sexual revolution, materialism, and identity chaos, and they want none of it. Across the country, our youngest generations — Gen Z and Alpha — are showing signs of a quiet but powerful shift, returning to God, traditional churches, and core American values of family, self-reliance, and ordered liberty. Reports and surveys document rising interest in Christianity, declining support for extreme gender ideology, and a renewed appreciation for the Founding principles that made this nation exceptional. Young girls, too, are increasingly rejecting the glitter culture of hyper-sexualization and fluid identity in favor of something more grounded and enduring. Small Is Beautiful: Love in Action In the face of such overwhelming disorder, the answer begins at home. Make your home a sanctuary. Love your spouse fiercely. Raise your children in truth. Plant apple trees — literally, as Peter and I recently did in our backyard. Build a real community where you are. Civility, trust, and decency radiate outward from strong families. As Peter emphasized at the close, the world’s evil fades by comparison to the love we put into it. God will measure us by that love. In a time when elites peddle division and death, we counter

We were delighted to welcome Seth Holehouse, host of the popular podcast Man in America, to The Breggin Hour. With over a million listeners dedicated to uncovering the forces reshaping our nation, Seth brings a thoughtful, big-picture perspective that resonates deeply with our own work exposing global predators. This wide-ranging conversation touched on the Epstein files, MKUltra, satanic ritual abuse, compromised elites, spiritual warfare, and the practical steps each of us can take to live freely in an upside-down world. As always, we encourage you to listen to the full episode for the complete exchange. The Epstein Files: A Crack in the Veil Seth first encountered the Epstein story years ago amid early discussions of Pizzagate, the Podestas, disturbing artwork, and high-profile figures like Bill Clinton. The more recent document releases struck a chord, especially with younger people encountering the horror on TikTok. “There are a lot of people that… look around and just have this sense that something’s just not right with the world.” These awakening moments—whether from 9/11, COVID, or the Epstein revelations—pierce the illusions. Seth urges us to step back and take the broader view rather than getting lost in distractions or narrow slices of the truth. This aligns with our own experience: the more we step back and examine the complete picture, the clearer the patterns of predation become.  MKUltra, Survivor Testimony, and the Pyramid of Control Seth has conducted powerful interviews with survivors of MKUltra and satanic ritual abuse, including a dedicated series exploring these dark networks. These accounts reveal how compromise, blackmail, and ritual abuse serve as tools to control those who rise in elite circles. He draws on important works, including Fritz Springmeier’s Bloodlines of the Illuminati, Jim Marrs ‘ Behold a Pale Horse, and especially Andrzej Łobaczewski’s Political Ponerology. Łobaczewski, a Polish psychiatrist who survived both Nazi and Communist regimes, studied how pathological personalities—particularly psychopaths and character-disordered individuals lacking conscience and empathy—infiltrate and corrupt institutions. This leads to pathocracy, or “rule by evil,” where a small minority of disordered people seize power, distort ideologies, and promote their own kind. The process, called ponerization, gradually transforms normal groups into pathological ones through infiltration, blackmail, and twisted moral justifications (paramoralisms). Visible politicians, celebrities, and CEOs often serve as puppets in a modern Allegory of the Cave, while real power lies higher up within protected bloodlines and networks. Compromise—frequently involving the abuse of children—ensures loyalty. This framework helps explain the spread of evil at the highest levels and why left-right political theater so often distracts from deeper systemic pathology. As Seth’s survivor interviews illustrate, these mechanisms are not abstract—they destroy lives and souls. Facing this kind of evil is not easy. Ginger noted how confronting the Epstein files broke her heart and made it difficult to continue looking for a time. Peter connected it to his lifelong reform work protecting children and the vulnerable from institutional and psychiatric abuse. Spiritual Warfare and the Choice Before Us We see these issues as fundamentally spiritual—a testing ground where individuals and societies must choose virtue, love, and truth over base appetites and predation. Seth, raised in a Christian home with an emphasis on simply being a good person, describes a predator-prey dynamic operating at elite levels. Peter and I shared reflections on our partnership, including the challenges of Peter’s stroke and his remarkable recovery through hyperbaric oxygen therapy and other supports. After decades together fighting for patients and human freedom, we know the sustaining power of love and mutual commitment in the face of darkness. Spotting Controlled Opposition and Questioning Authority Seth offered practical wisdom for navigating today’s information landscape—wisdom we have learned through hard experience: Heavy focus on left-right political divides often serves the control grid by keeping people distracted and divided. Beware influencers who shut down discussion of “forbidden” topics or demand unquestioning loyalty. Prioritize sources with evidence and receipts rather than vague “secret intel.” Maintain an open mind and even question your own assumptions. “It’s my moral duty to question everything… even to question my own beliefs.” This spirit of honest inquiry is essential. As we have seen time and again, real reform begins with refusing to accept surface narratives and insisting on truth. Prep Like Noah: Returning to Human Living Living near a major population center, Seth speaks from experience about preparedness—not driven by fear, but by a return to traditional, responsible ways of life. His forthcoming book Prep Like Noah and the new private community The Ark (buildthearc.com) focus on self-reliance in food, energy, homeschooling, and community. The coming “flood” may involve digital IDs, surveillance, engineered shortages, and expanding tyranny. By reclaiming control over the essentials of life, we become less vulnerable. Like Noah, we build what we can control and allow pathological systems to collapse under the weight of their own evil, incompetence, and infighting. Peter found Seth’s grounded, calming perspective especially helpful. We agree: returning to authentic human connection, family, and stewardship is one of the strongest defenses against the demoralization that global predators promote. Final Thoughts Conversations like this remind us that while the forces arrayed against humanity are formidable, truth-seeking, moral courage, strong families, and practical action offer real hope and freedom. We are grateful to Seth Holehouse for joining us and look forward to future discussions. Connect with Seth Holehouse: Website: SethHolehouse.com Podcast: Man in America Book & Community: Prep Like Noah / BuildTheArc.com Conversations like this remind us that while the forces arrayed against humanity are formidable — truth-seeking, moral courage, strong families, and practical action offer real hope and freedom. We are grateful to Seth Holehouse for joining us and look forward to future discussions. ______   Learn more about Dr. Peter Breggin's work: https://breggin.com/   See more from Dr. Breggin's long history of being a reformer in psychiatry: https://breggin.com/Psychiatry-as-an-Instrument-of-Social-and-Political-Control   Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal, the how-to manual @ https://breggin.com/a-guide-for-prescribers-therapists-patients-and-their-families/   Get a copy of Dr. Breggin's latest book: WHO ARE THE “THEY” - THESE GLOBAL PREDATORS? WHAT ARE THEIR MOTIVES AND THEIR PLANS FOR US? HOW CAN WE DEFEND AGAINST THEM? Covid-19 and the Global Predators: We are the Prey Get a copy: https://www.wearetheprey.com/   “No other book so comprehensively covers the details of COVID-19 criminal conduct as well as its origins in a network of global predators seeking wealth and power at the expense of human freedom and prosperity, under cover of false public health policies.”   ~ Robert F Kennedy, Jr Author of #1 bestseller The Real Anthony Fauci and Founder, Chairman and Chief Legal Counsel for Children’s Health Defense.

In the world of leaders who have investigated and informed citizens everywhere about the malevolent intentions behind the COVID pandemic, one of the most effective has been lawyer Reiner Fuellmich, who continues to be silenced and imprisoned in Germany after one of the most bizarre and abusive “trials” ever to occur in a modern courtroom in the Western World.  The German administration should be genuinely ashamed for exposing themselves as puppets of the Globalist cabal who are silencing dissenters who revealed the true nature of the COVID policies and practices. Reiner Fuellmich began his professional career with a doctorate in law. His first focus was on medical and pharmaceutical law at the University of Gottingen, where he worked as a research assistant. This background would prove invaluable when he began in 2020 to investigate and expose the COVID conspiracy and the hidden hands of the elite internationalists manipulating the shuttering of national economies and installing control of whole populations. As a consumer protection and trial lawyer in Germany and in California, Reiner opened his own law firm in 1993. He may have been best known for his successful work in representing consumers who were sold Volkswagen vehicles with defective emissions devices. His background included consumer law related to international banks, including Deutsche Bank, and investor protection suits representing victims of “junk real estate” investments. But Dr. Reiner Fuellmich was just getting started in his advocacy. As with so many others in the “new freedom leadership,” Reiner and his wife recognized the authoritarianism embedded in the early 2020 COVID pandemic lockdowns, other mandates, and sudden legal declarations. People were ordered to stay home; no public gatherings were allowed; masks were required when going out; and all small businesses were closed, except for a few. Children were ordered to stay home from school to “learn remotely.” All these interventions, along with their draconian enforcement by law enforcement, were a red flag. So he and his wife left California and returned to their home country, Germany, where he could gather more information. The Corona Investigative Committee was the immediate result of Reiner’s return. Over the next 2 years or so, Reiner and colleagues conducted approximately 400 interviews with physicians, scientists, medical specialists, economists, historians, investigative journalists, and others seeking answers to the unprecedented shutdown of the world. Reiner was the primary member of the task force, and Dr. Breggin was one of his key witnesses. The Corona Investigative Committee was so successful that it was an enormous threat to the globalist overlords. The committee members saw other groups and individuals around the world having bank accounts seized or frozen, including the fundraising account for the COVID-19 protesting Truckers in Canada. They agreed with legal documents to disperse the funds within the leadership to be held securely until such time as the threat of seizure was passed. In 2022, Reiner traveled to the US to participate in a speaking tour titled “Crimes Against Humanity,” and while he was out of the country, the other primary member of the committee removed Reiner from the group. There was a general “disruption” among the four members of the original investigative committee (which we have seen happen often when an organization begins to have an impact) Reiner was forced to go to and remain in the US and then Mexico, where he began another investigative committee: the International Crimes Investigative Committee. Reiner’s first formal interview for the new committee was conducted with expert journalist Naomi Wolf, psychiatrist Peter Breggin, and Prof. Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi and his wife Prof. Dr. Karina Reiss. That seminal first interview explored the vital issue of “stunning personality changes” caused by mRNA covid vaccines. Despite everything, Dr. Fuellmich was undeterred in his international investigation of the globalists and the United Nations/World Health Organization/World Economic Forum efforts to capture control of the free world. Germany brought criminal charges against Dr. Fuellmich for taking the protective measures that had been taken to protect CIC funds. Dr. Fuellmich was accused of embezzlement. Reiner was marooned in Mexico after being denied visa entry again into the United States. His passport disappeared, and when he went to the German embassy in Mexico to collect a new passport, he was captured, held, and transported back to Germany. Arrested by German authorities, Dr. Fuellmich was transported to the maximum-security prison in Rosdorf. He has remained incarcerated by German authorities to this day. Dr. Fuellmich directly addressed the various rumors and whispers about his legal case on March 10, 2026, in his “Press Release – ICIC. law—The History of Dr. Reiner Fuellmich’s Kidnapping.” Dr. Reiner Fuellmich declared: Here I have once again put together the story of my kidnapping from Mexico in the context that is relevant from my point of view, so that anyone who has already heard a little about the case – “embezzlement, he screwed everyone over, but somehow something is really fishy” – can immediately see that this is certainly not a criminal case being pursued, but rather a political case that has been fabricated. The Fuellmich trial was a mockery, bleeding on for over a year, before and during which Reiner was subjected to shocking neglect and abuse within prison. The outcry about the false imprisonment, massive trial manipulations, and human rights violations committed while holding Dr. Fuellmich before and after trial are covered in detail by our guest this week, Seba Terribilini. She is a Swiss activist. She has followed Reiner’s work, dedicated the past two and a half years to attending the entire trial proceedings, and is now trying to raise awareness of him. She has also visited him three times in prison. Film director and investigative journalist Philippe Carillo, along with Seba Terribilini, is currently working on a documentary about Reiner’s persecution. The trailer for the Free Reiner film is here. We greatly admire and heartily support Reiner Fuellmich as well as Seba Terribilini for her efforts to increase public awareness of Dr. Fuellmich’s plight and his need for justice. May God bless both Fuellmich and Terribilini. ______   Learn more about Dr. Peter Breggin's work: https://breggin.com/   See more from Dr. Breggin's long history of being a reformer in psychiatry: https://breggin.com/Psychiatry-as-an-Instrument-of-Social-and-Political-Control   Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal, the how-to manual @ https://breggin.com/a-guide-for-prescribers-therapists-patients-and-their-families/   Get a copy of Dr. Breggin's latest book: WHO ARE THE “THEY” - THESE GLOBAL PREDATORS? WHAT ARE THEIR MOTIVES AND THEIR PLANS FOR US? HOW CAN WE DEFEND AGAINST THEM? Covid-19 and the Global Predators: We are the Prey Get a copy: https://www.wearetheprey.com/   “No other book so comprehensively covers the details of COVID-19 criminal conduct as well as its origins in a network of global predators seeking wealth and power at the expense of human freedom and prosperity, under cover of false public health policies.”   ~ Robert F Kennedy, Jr Author of #1 bestseller The Real Anthony Fauci and Founder, Chairman and Chief Legal Counsel for Children’s Health Defense.

In the early months of 2020 state and federal authorities implemented a massively restrictive collection of guidelines and orders which authorities claimed were to prevent spread of COVID, but which resulted in the restriction of all citizens except “essential workers” to their homes, the closure of more than 2.7 million shuttered businesses, and the permanent shuttering of more than 100,000 small businesses, the deep wounding of the American economy and the destruction of the social fabric of the citizenry through stay-at-home orders, masking, and restriction of public and private gatherings. The fear was palpable among the population, with some individuals driven to turn on their neighbors and other citizens for rule infractions—the so-called “Karens” who aggressively enforced COVID-era policies and mandates.

In early May 2026, transport vans rolled out of Ridglan Farms in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, carrying beagles toward new lives—grass under their paws, sunlight on their faces, and homes instead of stacked wire cages. Nearly 1,500 beagles were purchased by rescue organizations like Big Dog Ranch Rescue and the Beagle Freedom Project after years of documented suffering at one of the nation’s largest commercial beagle breeders for biomedical research. This outcome marks a rare, tangible win for animal advocates. But it came only after daring direct-action raids, mass protests met with tear gas and rubber bullets, a special prosecutor’s investigation, and persistent legal pressure. Even now, roughly 500 dogs may remain behind as Ridglan winds down its commercial breeding operations by July 1, 2026. The Ridglan story is not just about one facility. It exposes deep, systemic failures in U.S. law that leave millions of animals in laboratories with minimal protections—and even those “covered” by federal rules often receive little meaningful relief. The Raids That Forced Change On March 15, 2026, activists from groups linked to the Coalition to Save the Ridglan Dogs breached fences and buildings at Ridglan Farms. They removed around 22–30 beagles. Some were successfully rehomed; others were recovered by police. However, an estimated 2000 beagles remained in captivity, potentially subject to additional horrific experimentation. Our guest, Dean Guzman Wyrzykowski, was one of these activists. A second, larger action on April 18 drew roughly 1,000 protesters to rescue the remaining beagles. Law enforcement responded with tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets. No additional dogs could be rescued that day. Dozens of protesters were arrested, including our guest on The Breggin Hour, Dean Guzman Wyrzykowski, a San Francisco Bay Area-based animal rights activist and political organizer. He is co-founder of The Simple Heart Initiative—a nonprofit dedicated to advancing species equality through open rescue, impact litigation, undercover investigations, and activist training. With over eight years in nonprofit advocacy, Dean has recruited and trained hundreds of activists and is one of the lead organizers of the Ridglan campaign. He now faces serious felony burglary charges—potentially up to 12 years in prison—along with several co-defendants for the first March 15, 2026, rescue effort. Further charges may be pending. As a top priority, we urge that the charges be reduced or dropped to reflect the vastly important ethical basis of the actions of these animal advocates. How to Help Dean Dean reports that the best way to assist him with legal costs is to become a paid subscriber to his Substack at Urbananimal.substack.com. To support ending the breeding of dogs for lab testing, go to Save the Dogs, make a donation, and join over 111,581 others who have already signed the petition to end breeding of dogs for laboratory use. These weren’t the first efforts to expose and stop the abuses of these dogs. Ridglan had faced scrutiny for years, including earlier investigations. The raids amplified public outrage and accelerated negotiations between rescuers and Ridglan Farms. In late April, rescue groups announced they had reached a deal to acquire ~1,500 dogs. Transports began in early May, with many “frosted face” seniors (older dogs with graying muzzles) now adjusting to life outside the facility—initially flinching at touch but quickly learning to wag tails and play. Decades of Alleged Cruelty at Ridglan — and Why It Is Winding Down Ridglan Farms operated for decades as a major supplier of beagles for testing. Former employees and state inspections described windowless warehouses, stacked cages over waste pits, high ammonia levels, rusted wires causing injuries, and routine surgeries (including eye procedures and devocalizations) performed without anesthesia or proper pain relief—sometimes by non-veterinarians. In 2025, Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) cited Ridglan for hundreds of violations. A judge found probable cause for animal cruelty. Special Prosecutor Tim Gruenke was appointed to investigate. Rather than face criminal charges, Ridglan chose to wind down. In a negotiated settlement in late 2025, the company agreed to surrender its Wisconsin commercial dog-breeding license by July 1, 2026. This effectively ends its large-scale commercial breeding and sales of beagles to external laboratories. In exchange, the state dropped the threat of felony animal cruelty prosecutions. This agreement was driven by years of accumulated citations, whistleblower testimony, undercover investigations, and intense public and activist pressure. While Ridglan can still conduct limited on-site research under its federal USDA licenses, its days as a major commercial beagle supplier are over. Parallels with Envigo and Other Scandals Ridglan is far from isolated. In 2022, a major scandal erupted at Envigo’s breeding facility in Cumberland, Virginia. PETA’s undercover investigation revealed severe neglect: inadequate food, veterinary care, housing, and staffing; dead puppies were left among litters; and unqualified staff performed invasive procedures. The U.S. Department of Justice intervened, leading to the rescue of over 4,000 beagles—the largest such seizure in U.S. history. Envigo (and its parent company Inotiv) later pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Animal Welfare Act and the Clean Water Act, agreeing to pay a record $35 million+ in fines and shutting down the breeding operation. From the Beagles to the Breggins, Senator Bill Stanley Sought Justice for the Underdog At a state level, key Virginia state legislators were involved in advocating for stronger animal welfare regulations in response to documented Animal Welfare Act violations, poor conditions, and high puppy mortality in the facility. Sen. Bill Stanley (R-Franklin County) was a leading champion at the state level. He visited the facility multiple times, co-sponsored several “Beagle Bills” in 2022 (e.g., SB 87, SB 88, SB 90, SB 604) to increase oversight, close loopholes for research animals, require adoption offers before euthanasia, and penalize repeat violators. He adopted two Envigo beagles (Daisy and Dixie) and worked on adoptions/rescues. We are especially happy to acknowledge Sen. Stanley’s contributions because, among several attorneys we contacted to defend us against Robert Malone’s lawfare defamation suit against us for $25 million, Bill was the first attorney willing to seriously pursue our case, which ended in the presiding judge throwing Malone’s case out of court. From the beagles to the Breggins, Senator Stanley has sought justice for the underdog. The Sand Fly Experiments and High-Profile Scandals Public outrage over government-funded beagle suffering peaked in the early 2020s with revelations about NIH-funded experiments under Dr. Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). One widely criticized study involved beagle puppies in Tunisia exposed to sand flies carrying parasites (to study leishmaniasis). Reports described dogs having their heads locked in mesh cages filled with infected sand flies, being used as live bait in desert cages overnight, and in some cases undergoing cordectomies (vocal cord removal) to silence barking. The experiments sparked bipartisan congressional criticism and intense media coverage. The Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) and partners filed habeas corpus petitions seeking court recognition of the Ridglan dogs’ right to freedom from cruelty and immediate remedies. While initial petitions faced dismissal, appeals continue for the remaining animals. Why U.S. Law Fails Experimental Animals The core federal statute is the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) of 1966 (and its amendments), enforced by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). It sets minimum standards for housing, feeding, veterinary care, and handling of certain animals. Critical Limitations Include: Massive Species Exclusions: Rats, mice, and birds bred for research—accounting for roughly 95% of lab animals—are explicitly excluded. Cold-blooded animals and others also fall outside coverage. Weak Standards for Covered Species: Even for dogs, cats, primates, etc., the AWA permits painful procedures if deemed “scientifically necessary.” There is no outright ban on specific types of experiments. Self-Regulation via IACUCs: Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees—dominated by researchers at the institutions they oversee—review protocols. Approval rates hover near 98%, with limited external oversight. Enforcement Gaps: Under-resourced inspections, reliance on self-reporting, and modest penalties limit impact. Ridglan itself had passed many USDA inspections despite state-level findings of serious issues. Property Status: Animals remain legal property. Novel habeas efforts like the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) challenge this but face significant judicial hurdles, as courts have historically rejected animal “personhood” claims. For those of us who learned in childhood about unconditional love from our dogs, they are not only of equal value to people, but they seem on a higher spiritual level in the love they have given to us. Other frameworks, such as the Public Health Service Policy, apply only to federally funded research and offer even less robust enforcement. The 2022 FDA Modernization Act opened doors to non-animal alternatives, but broader statutory mandates for the “3Rs” (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) remain limited. Reform efforts often stall due to powerful research lobbies, congressional agriculture committees’ oversight, and public support for medical research that can overshadow welfare concerns. Broader Context and the Path Forward Ridgla

We recorded this interview on the day of Dr. Peter Breggin’s 90th birthday. This interview features Peter Breggin and Ginger Breggin, and our returning friend Steve Miller, Hollywood writer and brave soul, who still lives in Los Angeles with his wife.