Mark Chagall Paris through the window 1913
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2029740962369405166?s=20 https://twitter.com/AstronomyVibes/status/2029738545125150860?s=20 https://twitter.com/EvanLuthra/status/2029799159025521112?s=20The crew in the White House have no idea what the consequences will be of taking 25% of the world’s energy off-line.
— Douglas Macgregor (@DougAMacgregor) March 6, 2026
It will be a disaster 1 million times worse than Covid.
LNG shipping rates soar 650% from $40,000 to $300,000 per day. https://t.co/21eDvpnoZ7
https://twitter.com/AlexMasonCrypto/status/2029590536722751572?s=20President Trump is more popular than Barack Obama and George Bush at this point in his Presidency
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 5, 2026
pic.twitter.com/kTCmrbadKF
Nvidia just spent $4 billion on a technology 99% of people have never heard of.
— Ricardo (@Ric_RTP) March 6, 2026
But in 3 years, every AI data center on Earth will need it.
And Nvidia just LOCKED UP the supply.
Here's what happened:
Nvidia invested $2 billion in Coherent and $2 billion in Lumentum. You… pic.twitter.com/xCZiqeNEUq
Cuba.
• Trump to Rubio: Here’s Your Next Project (Sarah Anderson)
Donald Trump told Marco Rubio that he’s got a new project coming on Thursday, and no, I’m not talking about babysitting Kristi Noem, though, apparently, he’s doing that too. Trump welcomed the Inter Miami CF soccer club to the White House today, and there was a lot of talk about Cuba, as the club’s co-owners, brothers Jorge and José Mas, are of Cuban descent. After praising Rubio as the “best Secretary of State in the country’s history” and joking that he didn’t want him to get “too popular,” Trump said, “He’s doing some job, and your next one is going to be… special. He’s waiting, but he says, ‘Let’s get [Iran] finished first.’ We could do them all at the same time, but bad things happen. If you watch countries, over the years, you do them all too fast, bad things happen. We’re not going to let bad things happen.”Read more …
I look forward to working with Kristi Noem as Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas — our new security initiative comprised of 13 countries.
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) March 5, 2026
Kristi has achieved incredible results as Secretary of Homeland Security and will be a tremendous asset in our effort to promote…
The “special” job is, of course, taking over Cuba (last week, Trump called it a “friendly takeover”). The president implied during his speech that it would happen in a couple of weeks, but he said we need to get Iran under control first. But Trump was adamant, as he has been for weeks, that Cuba will fall. Of the regime, he said, “They want to make a deal so badly. You have no idea.” If the Miami Herald is to be believed, the current hand-picked “president” of the nation, Miguel Díaz-Canel, is the holdout and “biggest obstacle,” but it sounds like if he doesn’t start negotiating, he could end up being Cuba’s biggest loser. Rubio is reportedly in talks with Raúl Castro’s grandson, as well as other people in the country’s so-called “government.”Díaz-Canel actually spent his day at the Iranian Embassy, paying homage to Ayatollah Khamenei. These images are giving me major “defiant Nicolás Maduro before the January 3 raid” vibes. We know how that turned out. Unfortunately, there’s no warrant out for Díaz-Canel’s arrest. Trump also said today that soon, Cubans who live in the United States will be able to go back to their country, but given the current conditions, I can’t imagine a lot of people are super eager. On Wednesday, over two-thirds of the island suffered an extended blackout. While some power has been restored, word is that it could take days to fix it. Then again, sadly, I think the people in Cuba are used to it at this point. Many parts of the country go 20 hours a day without power. The regime blames Trump’s oil squeeze, but we all know what the real problem is. It starts with a “c” and ends with an “ommunism.”
I’ve been banking stories out of Cuba for the last few days for an update, but if I included every single one of them, this article would end up at about 8,000 words, so I’m going to pick the two biggies. So, we know that Mexico’s narco-president, Claudia Sheinbaum, was sending Cuba “humanitarian oil” last year and early this year before Trump put a stop to it by threatening more tariffs. In February, she began sending humanitarian aid instead. Tons of it — items like food and toiletries, while about a third of her own country lives in poverty. Many have condemned her actions, mostly because she sent the aid straight to the regime rather than the Catholic Church as our State Department has been doing.
Well, Azteca Noticias did some investigative work and found that those items are being sold wholesale in state or military-controlled stores that only accept U.S. dollars. For example, for $43, you could get about 30 kilograms or just over 66 pounds of dry beans. And so, people continue to go hungry. The other major news is that many countries in the region are cutting any sort of diplomatic ties with the Cuban regime. The most noteworthy in recent days is Ecuador, which declared Cuban Ambassador Basilio Gutiérrez persona non grata and gave him and his staff 48 hours to get the heck out of the country. Those staff members could be seen on the roof of the embassy burning papers on Wednesday.
Several other countries are also refusing to continue participating in Cuba’s forced labor program. Commies will tell you it’s a great humanitarian gesture in which Cuba sends doctors and other healthcare providers and professionals to underserved countries. But the fact is that these medical professionals are treated like garbage. Some have compared it to modern-day slavery. Meanwhile, the regime gets rich off what these countries pay for the services. Honduras just sent 168 people back home, and on Thursday, Jamaica announced that it was ending its relationship with the program after five decades. Trump said on Thursday that Cuba will definitely fall. It’s just a matter of time as to when. He acted as if it’s merely a scheduling conflict between handling that, Iran, and Venezuela. He makes it all look so simple. We are witnessing history here, folks, and I will continue to document it as much as I can.
“..the media participation was limited to column inches, punditry reports, claims and scripted presentations that worked alongside Zelenskyy, the actor..”
• Strange – CNN Found a War to Cover Again (CTH)
CNN is bragging about the teams they have on the ground in Iran and around the war zone to provide coverage for Operation Epic Fury. [SOURCE] Which again, brings up an interesting contrast that seemingly flew under the radar from past events.
As we noted in the beginning of the Russian war in Ukraine, where was the media for that one? Where was this CNN coverage for the war in Ukraine? The Ukraine war was the only war in modern history with ZERO mainstream media reports complete with helmets, flak jackets and play-by-play reporting of every moment within the conflict. Why? The answer is not necessarily complicated. The Ukraine war was a war of narratives. Yes, there was actual fighting, but the physical conflict itself was not in alignment with the narrative the media intended to create from it. The reality within Ukraine did not fit in the pert chart and the visuals would not ever have supported the claims.Ukraine was/is the COVID-19 of wars. A western intelligence operation using the geography of Ukraine to push an agenda in alignment with western interests. It would not and does not serve the interests of truth and transparency for media to report from inside a battlespace that might contradict their claims. Hence, we labeled it “World War Reddit,” and it remains that way through today. Volodymyr Zelenskyy was installed by the same interests who triggered the conflict. As an outcome, the media participation was limited to column inches, punditry reports, claims and scripted presentations that worked alongside Zelenskyy, the actor, traveling all around the world promoting the conflict and raising money.
The physical battlespace was far less valuable than the EU/NATO and Intelligence Community narratives needed to maintain it. As soon as everyone started making money from the screenplay, maintaining ticket sales was prioritized over the performance itself. Criticism and critiques can be completely avoided by keeping the curtain down and just narrating what’s going on behind it. That system of deception continues through today. Strange that everyone just accepted it.
Says CNN.
• Trump’s Favorability With His Voting Base Tops All Previous Presidents (JTN)
Multiple new polls show President Donald Trump’s approval rating within his party is higher than any other president in history. “Republicans love Donald Trump more than any president’s own party’s supporters loved him at this particular point,” CNN’s Harry Enten told viewers Wednesday night. The poll, which found that at this point in his second term, Trump’s GOP approval sits at a remarkable 86%, while former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush were both at 77%. Strong approval within their own parties is now at 53% for Trump, again higher than Obama and Bush, whose strong approval ratings were 48% and 47% respectively. This approval comes despite other polls showing majority disapproval for Trump’s strike on Iran.Read more …
Trump’s approval rating held steady at 44%
A Fox News poll released in late January 2026 shows similar results: strong support persists among Republicans, with 85% approving overall and 97% among those identifying as MAGA (Make America Great Again, Trump’s slogan) supporters. Among all voters, Trump’s job approval rating held steady at 44% among registered voters, with 56% disapproving, unchanged from the previous month. That survey showed that Trump’s rating matches former President George W. Bush’s at a comparable point in his second term and exceeds Barack Obama’s by 2 points.A president’s own party approval is a direct result of campaign promises coming to fruition. For Trump, there’s a substantial list thanks to his bullishness. President Trump’s campaign promise to secure the southern border has come to fruition through aggressive enforcement measures, resulting in negative net migration for the first time in 50 years and border crossings dropping to historic lows. Trump fulfilled his pledge to deliver major tax relief by signing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which extended his 2017 tax cuts, eliminated taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security benefits, and provided significant reductions for working- and middle-class Americans.
The administration achieved record energy production and dominance by unleashing domestic drilling and deregulation, contributing to lower energy costs and positioning the U.S. as a leading global energy exporter. Trump successfully implemented policies ensuring that net job growth went primarily to native-born Americans through strict immigration enforcement, reversing trends from prior years. His commitment to massive bureaucracy cuts and government efficiency efforts has saved hundreds of billions of dollars, equivalent to substantial per-taxpayer relief, while reshoring trillions in investments to boost American manufacturing and economic growth.
“… the US, Israel and their allies – the “Epstein Coalition” as the Russian military bloggers are calling them…”
• The Sinking Ship Problem of the Epstein Coalition (Helmer)
The problem is that rats can leave a sinking ship but they cannot return if their ship has already sunk. They must surrender instead or drown. This must have been what President Vladimir Putin meant when he instructed his spokesman Dmitry Peskov to announce on Thursday afternoon, March 5: “Moscow has not received any requests for assistance, including weapons provisions, from Iran, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a briefing. ‘As for the current situation, there have been no requests from Iran. Our consistent position is well-known to everyone. It remains unchanged,’ he pointed out, when asked if Russia planned to provide any assistance to Iran, particularly by providing weapons, in addition to political support.”Read more …
In other words, Russian military intelligence must have told the Kremlin that the war aims of — are failing to decapitate Iran’s civilian and military leadership; failing to destroy their missile stocks and underground launcher capacities; and failing to detect, intercept and prevent the escalating destruction of Iran’s counter-attack targets in the US base system, the Gulf Arab economies, and Israel itself. Accordingly, the Russian assessment is that Iran will not need to request military resupply and other assistance from Russia. Not yet — because the attrition of the Epstein Coalition forces is so rapid, they will be compelled to ask for a stop before Iran will need to ask for Russian assistance.This is not the interpretation of Russian plans by the Trump Administration. At his Pentagon briefing on March 4, the US Secretary of War, Peter Hegseth, was asked by a reporter: “What is your message to Iran’s allies, namely Russia and China, who have called for an immediate end to hostilities?” Hegseth replied: “I don’t have a message for them and they’re not really a factor here and we’re – our issue is not with them; it’s with the nuclear ambitions of Iran.” Peskov’s announcement followed after Hegseth’s. Since Russian and Iranian officials know exactly what they have been discussing with each other, before the war began and since, Peskov cannot have been addressing Iran. Was he then messaging Washington for reassurance that “our consistent position… remains unchanged”? Was Hegseth correct that this means Russia has not entered the war on Iran’s side and will not do so?
This is the sinking ship question. It remains to be answered whose ship is sinking. It is unclear if Peskov’s message is the same as the Russian Foreign Ministry’s. Reading in retrospect and between the lines of the Ministry communiqués after Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s first telephone call with Abbas Aragchi, Iran’s Foreign Minister, on February 28 and his second call on March 3, there is ambiguity. In the first call Aragchi briefed Lavrov on Iran’s “steps to repel the aggression by the United States and Israel” and “expressed sincere gratitude to the Russian Federation for invariable and solid support.” That last phrase implies Russian intelligence, air defence radar, missile battery, and electronic countermeasures support, plus missile targeting and guidance in the counter-offensive.
In the second call, Lavrov has reported himself as having “reaffirmed Russia’s principled position in support of de-escalation, rejection of force, and a transition to a political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict.” Transition means not yet.Lavrov’s spokesman, Maria Zakharova added on the next day, March 4: “We are convinced that the crisis surrounding Iran has no military solution. We strongly call for the abandonment of forceful methods and a return to political and diplomatic resolution of all issues.” Zakharova also announced that a special operation is under way for five border crossings between Iran and Turkmenistan to open for the northbound evacuation of Russians in Iran. This means that the same routes are now open for Russian military supplies to move southward to Iran, when or if they may be needed. When or if — this is the key to Russian decision-making in the days ahead.
“If you are feeling dumb today, just remember, there are real people who believe Iran is winning.” —Cam Higby on “X”
• The Rockets Red Glare (James Howard Kunstler)
You probably wonder what the end of this war will look like. It won’t look like V-J Day in Times Square, 1945, with sailors kissing girls they met five seconds ago. Our country is way too divided and disturbed with politically-inflected mental illness for love to bloom in the streets like it did then. If you happen to catch the glum crew on CNN you will detect that they really want this operation to fail because, you know, Trump. The war will be over when Iran loses the ability to spray missiles and drones all over the place — and notice how they are pouring it on the Emirate states, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and even Azerbaijan, for Gawdsake, turning would-be bystanders into pissed-off additional enemies they need like a hole in the head.Read more …
At some point they will run out of ordnance, or the will to roll them out of the supposed 10,000 bat caves their weapons are stashed in. Our side apparently has an uncanny knack for seeing the launchers creep into daylight and efficiently blowing them up. Creates a disincentive to even think about launching. Of course, Iran might have some spectacular last-ditch thingie they can unleash to horrify the world — perhaps a “dirty” bomb that uses the 460 kilos of 60-percent enriched uranium they bragged about at one of the last negotiation sessions before the war with Witkoff and Kushner. Standing by on that.But, at some point a week or so hence, a stillness will fall upon the earth and sky above Iran, and that will be all she wrote for sheer havoc. Victory will not look much like anything. Just that stillness. The body politic in Iran is another matter. Expect awful turmoil. Iran’s command structure is shattered. Officials don’t dare pick a room in some building to meet in. The Internet is down and most communication with it. Nobody knows who is really in charge, and nobody may be in charge, not for quite a long time to come.
Let’s hope we have the patience to let the Iranians sort out their own governing structure, and that it will be made up of people who are not insane, not fanatics of the martyrdom cult that has ruled the place for fifty years. It’s probably not part of the US plan to slaughter the Revolutionary Guard, or Sepah, the chief apparatus of despotic control in the country. Or the Basij, (Sâzmân-e Basij-e Mostaz’afin, which means “Organization for the Mobilization of the Oppressed”), an auxiliary volunteer paramilitary militia that acts as the “morality police” and cracks down on dissent. Hundreds of thousands are employed by these groups.
You might imagine circumstances in which the members of those dastardly outfits decide to peel away from them, sensing a loss of legitimacy and danger in remaining on-board. Surely, a lot of Iranians will have blood in their eyes, looking for scores to settle, just as the people took revenge on members of the Shah’s secret police, the Savak, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Even now with the bombs still falling in Tehran (perhaps even because of them), many ordinary Iranians are dancing in the streets. You must suppose there is massive opposition to the regime. But first, chaos.
Why would we feel any necessity to put “boots on the ground” in there? Why expose American troops to the factional fighting that is apt to break out, as it did in Iraq? Did we not learn the lessons of Fallujah? Wouldn’t it be enough that Iran just loses its ability to fire weapons at anyone? Loses its ability to mess with shipping in the Persian Gulf? And loses its ability to foment mischief in other countries, including any ideological influence it might still have, or any financial mojo for sponsoring terrorism? Can we not just stand by and let the Iranians figure out their own future?
Try imagining a peaceful Iran not bent on exporting Jihad (just like you might imagine a peaceful Ukraine, not making itself a problem for the rest of the world). Forgive the cliché, but Iran (a.k.a. Persia), is an old and durable culture, with a highly educated population, one of the world’s largest oil-and-gas reserves, and plenty of other resources. Iran could be somebody. It doesn’t have to be a bum with a one-way ticket to Palookaville.
As for our own country, too many people here are busy wolfing down the black pills with their Adderall and their Starbucks iced lavender cream chai. It’s actually possible that there is a satisfactory outcome to this Iran operation. Would that disappoint you — as it apparently disappoints the glum crew at CNN? As with Iran, it doesn’t pay to be insane, and something close to half of America is insane. That perturbation is mostly lodged in the American Left these days, the Democratic Party, devoted to a long list of ideas and propositions at odds with reality and locked into a strange willful hysteria that regards any kind of good faith as poison. That is exactly why we can’t have clean elections. How about fixing that?
“Keep an eye on Russia. Ignore the western media narratives and look for direct source information on Russian oil activity. Let them work and just keep watching.”
• President Trump: ‘No Deal with Iran Except Unconditional Surrender’ (CTH)
The U.S. and Israel have been targeting deep underground missile sites within Iran, with strong success. Iranian counterstrikes, missile & drone launches are down 80 to 90 percent according to Pentagon officials. Additionally, the Israeli military has reported they dismantled an underground bunker system in Tehran used by regime leadership. Originally the bunker was used by slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei underneath the leadership compound in central Tehran. The bunker was targeted by 50 Israeli fighter jets and subsequently destroyed. President Trump announced via Truth Social that he will not seek any terms with Iran other than unconditional surrender.Read more …
Meanwhile, in a somewhat predictable move, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has announced the U.S. will lift some sanctions on Russian oil exports in order to mitigate shortfalls. India will be permitted to purchase additional Russian oil for use in their refineries. The gasoline end products will then be sold into the market. BESSENT: “President Trump’s energy agenda has resulted in oil and gas production reaching the highest levels ever recorded. To enable oil to keep flowing into the global market, the Treasury Department is issuing a temporary 30-day waiver to allow Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil. This deliberately short-term measure will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government as it only authorizes transactions involving oil already stranded at sea. India is an essential partner of the United States, and we fully anticipate that New Delhi will ramp up purchases of U.S. oil. This stop-gap measure will alleviate pressure caused by Iran’s attempt to take global energy hostage. (more)”Strategically, it has always appeared that President Trump wanted to remove the sanctions against Russia as part of a negotiated peace deal with Ukraine. However, the intransigence of Ukraine and the EU had blocked that move. I would anticipate at some date the U.S. will use the opportunity of global need as a justification to permit more Russian oil to be sold into Western markets. This approach will not make Ukraine or the EU happy; however, it could be structured to put petrodollars back in control of Russian oil sales. That approach would further weaken China and the BRICS assembly who have been purchasing energy products in domestic exchange currencies.
The U.S., Venezuela and Russia could increase output and replace the missing oil production from the middle east region. This would stabilize markets. Although, the politics of that approach would face stiff opposition. What seems very likely is that Bessent, Rubio and Trump have a plan. If there’s one person in U.S. politics who understands how to use oil to financially mitigate any geopolitical impacts, it’s President Trump. Keep an eye on Russia. Ignore the western media narratives and look for direct source information on Russian oil activity. Let them work and just keep watching.
“.. the Supreme Court effectively reduced many of the charges to mere trespass in later litigation, rejecting obstruction claims.”
• Virginia Dems Move to Require Teaching Jan. 6th as an Insurrection (Turley)
Virginia Democrats are moving to require teachers to tell students that Jan. 6th was an “insurrection” and effectively bar them from referencing “peaceful protests” or election irregularities. The characterization of the riot as an insurrection is historically and legally false. However, any parents who want to send their children to Virginia public schools would have to accept this form of indoctrination as part of their children’s education.Read more …
In the last election, Democrats campaigned as moderates, including Abigail Spanberger. Once in control of the Governor’s mansion and the legislature, however, they have moved quickly to the far left in a flurry of measures. Democratic legislators just voted themselves almost a 300% increase in salaries. They will need it. They are moving to increase taxes on ride shares, concerts, counseling, leaf blowers, Amazon deliveries, DoorDash, Uber Eats, ammunition, and other areas. However, HB 333, drafted by Del. Dan I. Helmer of Fairfax, raises serious concerns over academic freedom and free speech. The summary of the bill mandates “a program of instruction on or relating to the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the United States Capitol” and further:“prohibits any such program of instruction, any accompanying curriculum or instructional materials, or any instruction provided by a teacher as a part of such program of instruction from (i) describing, portraying, or presenting as credible a description or portrayal of the actions precipitating or involved in the January 6, 2021, insurrection as peaceful protest or (ii) stating, suggesting, or presenting as credible a statement or suggestion that there was extensive election fraud that could have changed or actually changed the results of the 2020 presidential election. The bill requires any such program of instruction, any accompanying curriculum or instructional materials, or any instruction provided by a teacher as a part of such program of instruction to describe the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the United States Capitol as an unprecedented, violent attack on U.S. democratic institutions, infrastructure, and representatives for the purpose of overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election.”
Soon after Jan. 6th, I condemned the riot but rejected the argument that this was an insurrection. However, it soon became part of an orthodoxy in politics and academia despite the fact that the public rejected it. As former House Speaker Pelosi declared, “It is essential that we preserve the narrative of January 6th.” Yet, “insurrection” and “sedition” are legal terms. They have a meaning. The FBI investigated thousands after January 6th and charged hundreds. Not one was charged with insurrection or conspiracy to overthrow the country. The vast majority are charged with relatively minor offenses of trespass or unlawful entry or property damage- the type of charges that are common in protests and riots.
Indeed, the Supreme Court effectively reduced many of the charges to mere trespass in later litigation, rejecting obstruction claims. Faced with a collapsing historical and legal narrative, Democrats are now moving to simply indoctrinate students that this was an “insurrection.” Notably, Helmer is running again for Congress after Democrats, with the support of Gov. Spanberger, moved to reduce Republicans in the state (which is divided down the middle between the parties) to just one of eleven districts through gerrymandering.
Helmer is running in one of the most notorious new districts, called the “lobster” or the “scorpion,” because it runs from the Potomac River in Arlington southwestward, then splits into two “claws” toward the West Virginia line near Rawley Springs and Goochland and Powhatan. In my book, Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution, I discuss the radicalization of the American left. While many on the left advocate censoring “disinformation,” they are far less circumspect in promulgating their own disinformation.Likewise, where Democrats have objected to the pressure put on universities for greater diversity of viewpoints as an attack on academic freedom, these Democrats see no problem in mandating the teaching of positions that are demonstrably false.
Here, Rep. Helmer and other Democrats are mandating the teaching of a false narrative to children rather than simply relying on public debate. The reason is that they are losing the debate over the characterization of this riot as an actual insurrection. This, and other moves on the left, will only accelerate the exodus of families from public education. Notably, Fairfax County (which Helmer represents) has seen a sharp fall in enrollments in recent years.
Walz, Ellison, Omar et al.
• James Comer Suggests Criminal Referrals Are Possible In Minnesota Fraud Probe (JTN)
Chairman James Comer, who leads the House Oversight Committee, told Just the News that further criminal referrals are possible with the evidence his committee has uncovered of the rampant welfare fraud in Minnesota. A new report from Comer’s committee, released on Wednesday, concluded that senior Minnesota government officials, including Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison, were for years aware of claims of widespread fraud in the state’s federally funded welfare programs, but failed to act, other than to retaliate against whistleblowers, Just the News reported. Comer told Just the News that he has already shared those findings with the Justice Department.Read more …
“We’ve given [the Justice Department] the report today that shows Walz and them knew. I don’t know that it’s a crime. Incompetence isn’t a crime, unfortunately…but at the end of the day, if some of these fraudsters implicate a coordination with Attorney General Ellison or Governor Walz, then I think that you could see some referrals from the committee,” Comer said on the Just the News, No Noise TV show on Wednesday. Governor Walz, who was also the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2024, previously acknowledged there is fraud in his state, but said his administration has made it a priority to root it out for years.He appeared at an Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday alongside Ellison where he again defended his handling of the fraud allegations, touting the federal prosecution of more than 75 defendants, but struggled to answer why his own government did not take action against the suspected fraudsters after his office was informed of suspicious activity. “I have watched with dismay as members of this Committee have made unfounded allegations that I am somehow complicit in defrauding Minnesota programs,” Walz said in his opening statement before the committee. “As a former member of Congress, I know that this institution can be better than these evidence-free accusations levied for nakedly partisan reasons,” he said, before reiterating a commitment to work with Congress and federal prosecutors to root out fraud.
However, the Oversight Committee believes the evidence shows the opposite, that Walz and his senior officials knew about the fraud concerns from the very beginning of his tenure and ultimately failed to act to address it before facing public backlash and pressure from the federal government in recent months. That evidence comes from testimony gathered by the committee from nine current and former Minnesota state officials who oversaw the benefits programs within the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and the Department of Human Services (DHS), the two government bodies that oversaw the programs at the center of the fraud allegations.
No company can force the hand of a government. If it does. it IS the government. Shouldn’t his model have told him that?
• Anthropic CEO Apologizes For ‘Dictator Trump’ Meltdown Memo (ZH)
As Anthropic attempts to salvage their relationship with the Trump administration, CEO Dario Amodei publicly apologized Thursday for the inflammatory tone of his leaked internal memo that accused the White House of targeting his company because it hadn’t offered “dictator-style praise” to President Trump. The apology came in his first major interview since the Pentagon’s Department of War (DoW) formally designated Anthropic a supply chain risk to national security – effective immediately – marking the first time such a label has been applied to a U.S. company.Read more …
The March 5 designation, confirmed in a letter to Anthropic leadership, stems from weeks of failed negotiations over Claude AI’s military applications. Anthropic refused to drop strict red lines prohibiting the model’s use for mass domestic surveillance of Americans or fully autonomous lethal weapons, insisting on meaningful safeguards rather than what Amodei previously called “safety theater” in rival deals like OpenAI’s. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had threatened broad restrictions, including barring defense contractors from any commercial activity with Anthropic, but the company clarified the scope appears narrower: it primarily affects direct DoW-related work, with partners like Microsoft confirming continued availability for non-defense uses.Last Friday, the Trump administration ‘fired’ the company after a bruising dispute with the Pentagon came to a head over ethical concerns surrounding Claude’s military use. The Pentagon demanded to use ClaudeAI for “any lawful purpose” with no guardrails – or having to allegedly ask permission in a life-or-death scenario. In the interview with The Economist Amodei described the crisis as one of the most “disorienting” in Anthropic’s history. He attributed the leaked memo – written hastily on Slack amid rapid-fire events including Trump’s announcements and OpenAI snaking their contract – to confusion and panic from a “difficult day.”
“It does not reflect my careful or considered views,” he said, downplaying it as a casual internal message rather than a formal memo. He said he’d apologized to DoW personnel and signaled openness to further dialogue with administration figures, though he sidestepped a direct personal apology to Trump. Amodei’s Thursday mea culpa was accompanied with a blog post titled: “Where things stand with the Department of War,” where he emphasized shared interests with the military, offered Claude at nominal cost plus engineer support for warfighters, and highlighted ongoing “productive conversations” despite the label.
I also want to apologize directly for a post internal to the company that was leaked to the press yesterday. Anthropic did not leak this post nor direct anyone else to do so—it is not in our interest to escalate this situation. That particular post was written within a few hours of the President’s Truth Social post announcing Anthropic would be removed from all federal systems, the Secretary of War’s X post announcing the supply chain risk designation, and the announcement of a deal between the Pentagon and OpenAI, which even OpenAI later characterized as confusing. It was a difficult day for the company, and I apologize for the tone of the post. It does not reflect my careful or considered views. It was also written six days ago, and is an out-of-date assessment of the current situation.”
“Orban, meanwhile, has taken to social media to issue his own warning. “There will be no deals, no compromise. We will break the Ukrainian oil blockade by force,”
• Zelensky Issues Military Threat to Orban (RT)
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has issued an apparent military threat to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban over the ongoing refusal by Budapest to lift a veto on billions in loans underwritten by EU members for Kiev. Orban last month blocked a planned €90 billion ($106 billion) emergency loan raised by EU members for Kiev – following the bloc’s failure to agree on outright stealing billions in Russian assets frozen in Belgium. Orban took the step in response to Ukraine preventing key Russian oil supplies from reaching Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline.Read more …
Speaking on new weapons for Kiev’s armed forces on Thursday, Zelensky stated: “We hope that one person in the EU will not block the €90 billion… Otherwise, we will give the address of this person to our armed forces, to our guys, so that they call him and communicate with him in their own language.” The diplomatic dispute between Hungary and Ukraine has escalated in recent weeks, spilling over into personal barbs. Zelensky launched a string of attacks against Orban, including fat-shaming him during the Munich Security Conference last month.https://twitter.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/2022635714953789612?s=20
The Hungarian prime minister has long opposed Ukraine’s push to join the EU, and has repeatedly refused to send it weapons or approve EU military aid, calling for diplomacy instead. Orban, meanwhile, has taken to social media to issue his own warning. “There will be no deals, no compromise. We will break the Ukrainian oil blockade by force,” he wrote on X on Thursday, adding that oil will soon flow to Hungary again through the Druzhba pipeline.
The Soviet-era pipeline, part of which runs through Ukraine, went offline in January after Kiev claimed it had been damaged by Russian strikes – accusations Moscow denies. Hungary and Slovakia, both heavily reliant on Russian energy, have accused Kiev of deliberately cutting them off for political reasons and inventing obstacles for restarting oil flows. Zelensky has issued threats against foreign leaders and officials before. Last year, he suggested that Russia’s top officials should check for bomb shelters, hinting that Ukraine could target the Kremlin. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the comments “irresponsible.”
“..a loan with no payback clause..”
• Orban Intercepts Zelenskyy’s Money Laundering Operation (CTH)
Ukraine (Zelenskyy) was angry at Hungary (Orban) for blocking the €90 billion EU loan (a loan with no payback clause) which was backed by confiscated Russian sovereign wealth funds. A splendidly European financial scheme. To get back at Viktor Orban, Volodymyr Zelenskyy destroyed an oil/gas pipeline hub in Ukraine that transferred Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia (Robert Fico). Hungary and Slovakia were furious, and Zelenskyy said repairs were too complicated to be easily fixed. Viktor Orban and Robert Fico then doubled down on blocking Ukraine funds and Ukraine’s assentation to the EU.Read more …
When Zelenskyy was questioned about Hungarian or EU inspectors visiting the site to evaluate the repairs, Zelenskyy said they would not be allowed access. Zelenskyy further noted when he was told Patriot Missiles were in short supply, he did not get to visit the inventory; implying his lies were similar to lies told by the United States. Caught in a lie, Zelenskyy followed up by saying he didn’t care, it was Russian oil so get lost. Two days ago, Hungary then intercepted two Ukraine vans carrying $40 million in cash dollars, €35 million in cash Euros, and 9 kg of gold – presumably a money laundering transfer intended to fund Zelenskyy and his intelligence chiefs.Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó stating that “since January, $900 million and €420 million in cash, as well as 146 kilograms of gold, have been transported across Hungary.” The shipment apprehended by Hungary included 40 million U.S. dollars as well as 35 million euros and 9 kilograms (19.8 pounds) of gold — worth around $1.5 million at current prices — according to a separate statement by Oschadbank. Hungary’s National Tax and Customs Administration confirmed Friday that it had detained the Ukrainian citizens and seized the two armored cash-transport vehicles. It added it was conducting criminal proceedings on suspicion of money laundering. {LINK}
Upon hearing of the intercept yesterday, a highly angered Volodymyr Zelenskyy then threatened to send Ukraine “special military operators” to the home of Viktor Orban to extract revenge. Zelenskyy’s threat caused the European Commission to issue an unusual rebuke of the Ukraine dictator. “Specifically in relation to the comments made by President Zelenskyy, we are very clear as the European Commission that that type of language is not acceptable. There must not be threats against EU member states,” Commission deputy chief spokesperson Olof Gill told reporters Friday, in a rare condemnation of the leader in Kyiv. {link}
Zelenskyy, with pants down and visibly on fire, now missing all the money/gold, retreats from the originating position that started this mess and says he will repair the oil transfer station he destroyed, if Hungary will permit Ukraine to get the €90 billion loan (not a loan) from the Russian sovereign wealth fund.
“Before the Iron Curtain: The centuries-old roots of the Russia–Europe rift ..”
• Churchill Wasn’t The First: Europe’s War On Russia Is Centuries Old (Norin)
In 1946, Winston Churchill’s Fulton Speech symbolically marked the beginning of the Cold War between the Western world and the Soviet Union. Since then, relations between Russia and the West have been fraught with tension. In recent years, this culminated in a strong and almost existential antagonism. Surprisingly, just a while ago, Russia viewed Europe as a natural ally. For two decades following the collapse of the USSR, there was a belief that Russia and Europe have a promising future together. Russian energy resources and European technology seemed like a perfect match, and Europe was commonly considered to be a model, both in terms of lifestyle and organizational efficiency.Read more …
That optimism turned out to be fleeting. Unfortunately, the roots of Russian-European opposition run much deeper. Ideas about isolating, colonizing, or even breaking up Russia didn’t emerge recently, and weren’t even invented by Adolf Hitler.Prisoners of geography
One defining characteristic of Russia is its geographical position, which has historically influenced the decisions of its leaders and its overall policy. Russia is located on the edge of Europe, making connections with the rest of the European continent challenging. Throughout the centuries, this has affected relations between Russia and Europe, giving rise to unrealistic expectations, illusions, and persistent mutual fear. Russian foreign policy has long been shaped by efforts to break through this ‘cordon sanitaire’.At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, several global developments occurred at around the same time. Europe discovered the great wide world, and as a result, soldiers, traders, and missionaries left its borders. Europeans didn’t just discover new lands – they were intent on carrying the word of the true faith there. Those who were willing to listen became part of the Christian world (although they were granted lesser roles within it), and those who resisted became enemies. However, while European missionaries erected crosses on the shores of America and India, movements spread within Europe that were initially considered heresies. Protestantism spread rapidly across the Old World, and intense religious conflicts raged in Europe.
Ignorant of these troubles, Rus’ was preoccupied with its own affairs. The country had cast off the Mongol yoke and was piecing itself together after centuries of foreign domination. It was during this period that emissaries from Western Europe arrived, including representatives from Rome. Their main goals were to persuade Rus’ to join the fight against the Islamic world, particularly the Ottoman Turks, and enter into a union with Rome. Initially, Catholics felt inspired by Russia – here was a vast and already Christian nation, which needed only some guidance along the right path.
“Winston Churchill’s Fulton address was a signal for the Iron Curtain to drop, and for nukes to almost drop as well..”
• This Speech Started The Cold War – Still Haunts The World 80 Years On (Amar)
Eighty years ago, on March 5, 1946, one of the most famous leaders of World War Two delivered a fairly short but stern message which helped lock humanity into a future of open-ended and high-risk Cold War. That was the essence of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s Fulton Speech (if we name it after the small midwestern US college town where he gave it), also known as the Iron Curtain Speech (after its key claim).Read more …
A massive political, ideological, and last but not least, military barrier had come to divide post-World War Two Europe, Churchill argued, and it was all the wicked Soviets’ fault: They had broken the Grand Alliance with the West by taking control of “the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe,” he charged. In the face of this “Soviet sphere” and the aggressive strategies seeking to expand it even farther, Churchill warned, a Western policy of “balance of power” would be ineffective and lead to “catastrophe.” Instead, he urged, the “Western Democracies” needed to “stand together” in order to – Churchill clearly implied – deter the Soviets, who in his view respected only strength, especially of the military variety.Well lubricated with shameless flattery for American President Harry Truman, who had travelled far to be in the audience and had a hand in setting up the speech, as well as for the US in general – at its “pinnacle of world power” – the Fulton Speech also pitched Churchill’s own, badly declining Britain as a junior but special sidekick to the Americans in their “primacy.” Unfortunately, that too came to pass.
Short and – in its recommendations – really quite generic as it was, Churchill’s intervention, speaking in the middle of nowhere in what is now called fly-over country, has a secure place of honor in naively admiring accounts of the West’s Cold War. There, it is still celebrated as an example of looking unflinchingly at harsh realities, a valiant call to arms, and a wise policy recommendation. Even those less sentimentally inclined still consider the speech necessary and the strategy of containment that it was effectively selling, inevitable.
That however is lazy thinking. For more reasons than one: Most obviously, the old Cold War was extremely costly as well as outrageously perilous. In the end, it lasted for four decades, before it ended with a negotiated settlement, initiated by the Soviet Union, in the late 1980s (no, the Cold War did not end in 1991, whatever ideology-contaminated Wikipedia says). Over almost half a century, this Cold War of the last century could, all serious observers have long understood, easily have ended with World War Three instead, including a world-ending use of nuclear weapons. In that entirely possible scenario, I would not be here to write this, and you would not be here to read it. And everything around us would be missing as well.
Jensen Huang just validated Elon Musk’s entire ecosystem in a single breath.
— Dustin (@r0ck3t23) March 6, 2026
Not one product. All of it.
Huang: “The work he’s doing in Grok, self-driving cars, and Optimus. These are all world-class. Every single one of them is revolutionary. Every single one of them is going… pic.twitter.com/S9dz3pqpnj
Elon Musk laid out the most ambitious compute expansion in human history and it ends with harnessing the Sun
— X Freeze (@XFreeze) March 6, 2026
"We'll be launching with SpaceX orbital data centers at the 100 to 200 gigawatt per year level. Not cumulative; I mean per year"
And this is just step one, the next step… pic.twitter.com/HmSCKvuZvi
Dark matter https://twitter.com/AstronomyVibes/status/2029551805097808281?s=20Every price tag on every product in Europe is about to be repriced.
— Dustin (@r0ck3t23) March 5, 2026
Elon Musk just confirmed the timeline. Most people scrolled past it.
Musk: “We’ve got the Tesla Semi coming up, so the Tesla heavy truck. And that’ll be going to Europe, hopefully next year.”
Most people are… pic.twitter.com/puNJmQ5HMg
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