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Debt Rattle April 19 2026

Apr 192026
 
 April 19, 2026  Posted by at 9:54 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  Add comments


Laura Knight The Green Sea, Lamorna 1918


• Trump Forces Iran To The Table: The New World Order (CTH)
• The Strait of Hormuz Is Open (Catherine Salgado)
• Winning in Iran Is Worth Losing the Midterms (A.J. Christopher)
• Iran Says Reasserted Control Over Strait of Hormuz (PressTV)
• “Bit Of Chaos”: Hormuz Shuts Again As Ships Make U-Turn (ZH)
• Iran Bats Down ‘Baseless’ Trump Claim On Handing Over Enriched Uranium (ZH)
• Iran’s New Supreme Leader Surfaces (Sort of) With a Chilling Message (Robert Spencer)
• The Way RFK Jr. Turned the Tables on This Democrat Was Amazing (Margolis)
• Abolishing Veto Power To Spell Beginning Of End For EU — Slovak PM Fico (TASS)
• Liberal Justices Are Stalling a Ruling to Protect Democrats (Margolis)
• 6,000 Apply as Air Traffic Controllers As Duffy Wants To Recruit Gamers (Jung)
• Dick Morris Confirms a Huge Rumor About Bill and Hillary Clinton (Margolis)
• Fetterman Torches His Party Over Its Surging Antisemitism Problem (Margolis)
• Ilhan Omar Not Actually a Multimillionaire After All (Robert Spencer)
• Cuba Sends ‘Secret Letter’ To Trump – WSJ (RT)
• Building of Trump’s White House Ballroom Can Resume In Full: Appeals Court (BBC)

 


 

 


 


“..direct negotiations between the United States and Iran for the first time in nearly half a century..”

“.. the old geopolitical order is being replaced in real time. This is not chaos. This is strategy.”

• Trump Forces Iran To The Table: The New World Order (CTH)

Mike Steger from the Promethean group presents thoughtful analysis of the change President Trump is bringing to a new era in geopolitical alignment. This is an interesting and insightful review. As noted by Mr Steger:“From direct negotiations between the United States and Iran for the first time in nearly half a century… to coordinated diplomatic and military movement across the Middle East, South Asia, and beyond… the old geopolitical order is being replaced in real time. This is not chaos. This is strategy.”



TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 The global shift begins
1:20 The strategy behind the Iran deal
3:05 Blockade pressure and economic impact
5:10 Diplomacy with teeth: Islamabad talks
7:20 Iran moves closer to a deal
9:00 Nations aligning: Pakistan, India, China
11:15 A global reset in motion
13:10 The long game: from Riyadh to today
15:20 The new Middle East framework
17:10 Europe’s decline and the old order fading
18:50 What this moment really means

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“THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ IS COMPLETELY OPEN AND READY FOR BUSINESS AND FULL PASSAGE, BUT THE NAVAL BLOCKADE WILL REMAIN IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT AS IT PERTAINS TO IRAN..”

• The Strait of Hormuz Is Open (Catherine Salgado)

The Strait of Hormuz is fully reopened, President Donald Trump announced on Friday morning. His Truth Social post was in all caps. “THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ IS COMPLETELY OPEN AND READY FOR BUSINESS AND FULL PASSAGE, BUT THE NAVAL BLOCKADE WILL REMAIN IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT AS IT PERTAINS TO IRAN, ONLY, UNTIL SUCH TIME AS OUR TRANSACTION WITH IRAN IS 100% COMPLETE,” the president wrote. He added, “THIS PROCESS SHOULD GO VERY QUICKLY IN THAT MOST OF THE POINTS ARE ALREADY NEGOTIATED. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!”


It remains to be seen how soon Iran’s regime will break this agreement. They violated the original ceasefire within two hours by bombarding nearby countries, especially Israel, with missiles. They then claimed they could not and would not disable all the mines they had scattered in the strait, but they still wanted tolls from any countries that used the waterway. The same Islamic jihadi regime remains in power that has terrorized the world and massacred its own people for half a century.

Trump also announced that he “prohibited” Israel from striking Lebanon, which really means the genocidal group Hezbollah. This frankly makes no sense. How can we, from so very far away, tell Israel, whose northern towns have been absolutely wrecked by Hezbollah, that they are not allowed to defend themselves? When Hezbollah breaks the agreement and strikes Israelis within the near future, as it will with absolute and complete certainty, how can we tell Israel they cannot strike back? And how on earth can it be in anyone’s interest not to eliminate Hezbollah? Don’t forget that the Michigan synagogue attacker in America last month was a Hezbollah operative. We have a stake in eliminating this terrorist group, too.

Perhaps Trump means that the ceasefire will last only so long as Hezbollah upholds its side of the bargain.

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Are the midterms a worry for the GOP if the Democrats have no candidate?

• Winning in Iran Is Worth Losing the Midterms (A.J. Christopher)

There has been much hand-wringing among us conservatives about the upcoming midterms. Will we win them? Lose them? What do the polls say? What will be the deciding factor? The economy? Some 11th hour scandal? Or, more pressingly, Iran? What should we do if Iran proves to be a detriment to our chances?The hard truth is that the Iran War needs to be fought to completion. If that takes another week, another month, or another year, it needs to be done. The worst possible thing Trump can do is to cut a deal just for the sake of cutting a deal and going home with enough time to recover in the polls before midterms.


Because all that will do is leave the enemy intact to fight another day. Assuredly, they will. The MAGA movement supports the Iran War because we are the grown-ups in the room. We are worried about the next century more than we are about the next midterms. We are worried about the future of Western civilization, not ensuring our guy gets on whatever appropriations board to ensure he’s cut his slice of the swamp pork.Do I want to lose the midterms? No. But I think a midterm loss will be a lot less devastating than its currently being made out to be.Think about it this way. If we lose the midterms, it most likely won’t be a landslide. We’ll lose control of the House and maybe the Senate by a marginal number of seats. Ok, then what?

Then the Democrats will spend the next two years making complete fools of themselves. Their first order of business for a Democrat-ran House will be to impeach Trump at least two, maybe three times over the next couple years. The impeachments will then go to the Senate to promptly die. This alone will simply prove that the Democrats have no intention of, and certainly no plan for, governing in the interests of the American people and are only interested in sticking it to Orange Man Bad. And history will judge these impeachments not as objective, rational checks on usurped power, but as the shrieking hissy fits of overgrown children that they are.

Second, whatever legislation the Democrats pass won’t be centered on actually fixing any ills that Americans face. They’ll focus on open borders, trans inclusion, net zero, and other catnip for the extreme left. They’ll waste no time in reminding the American voter, once again, why they voted against Democrats last time around.But won’t Democrats use their two-year window to cram in as much of this garbage legislation as they possibly can? Yes, and Trump will use this two-year window to veto all of it. Both the House and Senate would need a two-thirds majority to override a presidential veto, and neither chamber would come close to getting that. It’s likely the Senate Democrats wouldn’t even get a filibuster-proof bill through for a vote.

But what if Democrats nuke the filibuster? Good. I hope they do. That way, the next time we retake the chamber, we won’t be subject to endless excuses from Thune & Co. about the preposterous “integrity” of Senate procedure. But we won’t get any of our legislation passed! And how, exactly, would that change from what’s happening right now? We are not getting any of our legislation passed now. Other than the occasional Ted Cruz or Mike Lee, our representatives are largely an amorphous mass of self-interested, backstabbing cowards who are banking on doing the bare minimum necessary to placate MAGA before, in their estimation, the movement fizzles out and they can go back to the McConnell/Romney days of business as usual.

There are currently 20 REPUBLICANS in the House who are all on board with Maria Salazar’s amnesty bill. This is the majority we’re fighting to keep? Our slim Senate majority, with Tillis and Murkowski blocking everything they can, is what we’re fighting to keep? Regardless of who wins, the post-midterm Congress will be just as useless as the pre-midterm Congress. The only practical downside to losing the Senate is losing the ability to confirm judges. In this outcome, Trump can play just as dirty as his Democrat opponents. If we lose the Senate in the midterms, Thomas or Alito can retire and Trump can get a replacement in before January 2027.

If Thomas and Alito choose not to retire until after January 2027 but before the next election, Trump can keep the seat(s) vacant until we win back the Senate in 2028. During that time, he can continue to put forward reasonable conservative candidates, all of whom will get rejected by the Democrat Senate. This will only serve to further convince Americans that Democrats’ only goal is blocking Trump at all costs.That should be obvious at this point, but there seem to be millions of Americans whose memories don’t extend past the most recent fluctuation in gasoline prices.

My point is, losing the midterms won’t be an unmitigated disaster because Trump holds the veto pen, Trump makes the military decisions, and Trump can outmaneuver anything they lob at him. A midterm loss would be the price we pay for a resounding 2028 landslide when a Vance/Rubio steamroller crushes whatever flax seed munching, non-binary clown car the Democrats unveil as their next sacrificial lamb. When the 2028 campaign seasons kicks into high gear, we will have the previous two years working to our advantage. We will be able to show, again, just how insane the left behaves when it is given just a modicum of power. And we will be able to show that the MAGA Republicans were the only ones in the last half-century who decisively dealt with the Iran problem.

And the Iran problem was this: In 47 years, this Islamist regime had terrorized the region, friends and foes alike.

It declared war on the United States, starting with the 1979 embassy takeover and continuing, unabated, until the present day.

Funds, shelters, and cooperates with almost every Islamic terrorist organization in the region, to include Hamas, Hizballah, al-Qaeda, and the Houthi rebels.

It has broken every agreement it ever made with the West.

It helped maim and kill hundreds, if not thousands, of American troops in Iraq through its funding of anti-American militias and other terror groups.

It was weeks, if not days, away from producing nuclear weapons.

Unlike Russia or China, a nuclear-armed Iran cannot be deterred through mutually assured destruction. If they get nukes, they will use them. First against Israel, then against Europe and/or the Gulf States, and eventually against the United States.

Yeah, but wouldn’t we just nuke them back? Yeah, but they don’t care. We’ve just decimated their navy, their air force, much of the IRGC, and almost all of their senior leadership. They don’t care. They just massacred 40000 of their own unarmed citizens. They don’t care. For them, this isn’t about using nukes as leverage to get concessions. This is about using nukes to usher in the apocalypse they sincerely think is necessary to preclude the coming of the hidden Twelfth Imam. The quicker they start nuking infidels, the quicker their version of the Last Judgment happens.

This nightmare doesn’t end until the current Iranian leadership is either driven from power, or decimated to such an overwhelming (and permanent) degree that they pose less of a threat than did the Branch Davidians. Trump instinctively knows this, but the squishier elements of the GOP have been constantly whispering the word “midterm” into his ear.We put ourselves in this position because, for a decade of elections, we refused to entertain any notion whatsoever about that dreaded four-word phrase boots on the ground!!! Our boots would have been on Tehranian ground by now had we not straightjacketed every candidate or official from even hinting at such a thing.

But what about another quaqmire? Every quagmire we’ve gotten into, from Vietnam to Iraq, has been the fault of the American voter. This includes conservatives. There isn’t a conservative reading this who didn’t fully support Bush when we launched the liberation of Iraq. All of us did. Myself included. We were all America F*** Yeah when the Saddam statues came toppling down. But the moment the going got tough and the polling started to slip? Let’s be honest. We jumped ship. All of us did. Myself included. Bush is now a neocon villain of conservative lore. He’s the moronic sock puppet who let himself get duped by Dick Cheney and Halliburton and the oil companies to the point where there was very little daylight between our arguments and those of the radical left.

The cold, hard truth is that boots on the ground in Iran, done properly and with realistic timelines set, is the only way to fully guarantee the threat of the mullahs is finally and permanently neutralized. But can we really blame Trump or any other Republican from not going all-in on the idea of boots on the ground? They saw how we hung Bush out to dry, why would they want the same treatment?

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PressTV is Iranian.

• Iran Says Reasserted Control Over Strait of Hormuz (PressTV)

The spokesperson for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters says Iran has reasserted control over the Strait of Hormuz due to the United States’ so-called naval blockade of the waterway and its acts of “piracy.” According to Lieutenant-Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaghari, the Islamic Republic of Iran, in line with previous agreements and with good faith during negotiations, had agreed to a managed passage of a limited number of oil tankers and commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz.


However, the spokesperson added that the Americans, with their track record of repeated breaches of faith, continue to engage in banditry and piracy under the guise of a so-called blockade. “For this reason, control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state, and this strategic strait is under the intense management and control of the armed forces,” the spokesperson stated.The spokesperson further declared that as long as the United States does not fully end the disruption to the free passage of vessels originating from Iran to their destinations and from destinations back to Iran, the situation in the Strait of Hormuz will remain under severe control and will stay in its previous state.

On Friday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced the reopening of the strait following the implementation of a ceasefire in Lebanon. The Islamic Republic had identified the ceasefire as an indivisible part of a 10-point proposal it had forwarded prior to Trump’s announcement. Reacting to the announcement, Trump took to his Truth Social platform, alleging that Iran had “agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again.”

He also claimed that the United States’ “naval blockade will remain in full force and effect as it pertains to Iran, only, until such time as our transaction with Iran is 100% complete.”= Trump additionally said that ceasefire negotiations “should go very quickly and that most of the points are already negotiated.” Iran has categorically refuted Trump’s claims, asserting that the strait was only open to commercial vessels, which would be allowed to transit through only a designated route and with Iran’s authorization.

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Iran closes Hormuz BECAUSE the US closes Hormuz?!

• “Bit Of Chaos”: Hormuz Shuts Again As Ships Make U-Turn (ZH)

The Trump administration’s “baffle ’em with bullshit” methodology has been on full display, as the reopening of the Hormuz chokepoint on Friday drove a broad risk-on in markets: US equities soared, crude collapsed, and Treasury yields declined, based on the assumption that disruption to global energy flows had eased. However, as of early Saturday morning, those moves may prove premature. The Wall Street Journal reports that the world’s most important maritime chokepoint is once again closed to commercial transit.


About 20 ships waiting to enter the Persian Gulf through the maritime chokepoint have turned back toward Oman after Iran’s military declared the waterway closed again, amid a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.

The OSINT community on X is reporting a Hormuz closure as well…

The vessels had reportedly been prepared to pay $2 million in tolls to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to pass through, but radio warnings indicated the strait was closed. WSJ notes: “They are now turning back because the Revolutionary Guards are sending radio messages that the strait is closed, according to one Hong Kong owner with a container ship waiting to transit the strait.”

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Trump won’t leave without it. His claim about taking Iran’s enriched uranium is NOT baseless.

• Iran Bats Down ‘Baseless’ Trump Claim On Handing Over Enriched Uranium (ZH)

Iranian source in conversation with Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed: Trump’s claim about the delivery of Iran’s enriched uranium is baseless. Per the report:

• Iranian source in conversation with Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed: Only civilian ships can pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and that too through routes specified by Iran. The announcement of the temporary opening of the Strait of Hormuz has nothing to do with the current negotiations with Washington.
• We waited a few hours to make sure that a ceasefire had been established in Lebanon; then we temporarily opened the Strait of Hormuz. The announcement of the temporary opening of the Strait of Hormuz and the ceasefire in Lebanon are part of the agreement.
• Negotiations on the issues of dispute with the United States are still ongoing, but due to Washington’s excessive demands, there is no clear perspective.
Washington’s demands in the negotiations remain illogical and unreasonable. The US President’s claim about taking Iran’s enriched uranium is baseless

The ‘excessive demands’ complaint is exactly the same Iranian position prior to Friday, when Trump made a series of massive claims and declarations on some kind of agreed-to and imminent final peace deal. Latest:

• Iran says its enriched uranium is “as sacred to us as the soil of Iran and will not be transferred anywhere under any circumstances,” adding that 60% enriched uranium will not leave the country “in any way,” per Iran’s Foreign Ministry via Tasnim.

And more contradiction in terms of Trump’s big claims concerning a major Iran deal in the works, wherein he’s insisted money won’t be exchanged for the US obtaining the enriched uranium and ‘nuclear dust’: The U.S. has told Tehran it would give Iran access to $20 billion if it hands over its stockpile of fissile material, officials familiar with the negotiations say. The proposal is one of the ideas on the table for resolving one of the big sticking points in talks: how to remove Iran’s access to 972 pounds of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium.Axios reported the U.S. proposal earlier Friday. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the offer would include all of Iran’s fissile-material stockpile, which includes medium- and low-enriched uranium. Two of the officials said Iran has neither dismissed nor accepted the proposal at this point.

More Big Trump Words on Alleged Iran Deal in Works
A grand deal in the works as Trump says a second round of direct talks will likely be held this weekend? It’s too hard to say what’s agreed upon from the Iranian side at this point, as Trump continues issuing rapid-fire Friday statements: Talks over a lasting agreement will “probably” be held this weekend, the president said. “Most of the main points are finalized. It’ll go pretty quickly,” Trump said. The president denied that the moratorium on Iran’s nuclear program would expire after 20 years. Asked if the program will completely halt, Trump responded “No years, unlimited.” Really?…

TRUMP TELLS REUTERS WILL BRING IRAN’S URANIUM TO US Iran Threatens to Again Close Strait: FARS.And soon on the heels of what appears to be a lot of Trump projection: IRAN TO CLOSE STRAIT OF HORMUZ IF US BLOCKADE PERSISTS: FARS. In essence, despite the flurry of victory lap-style messages from Trump on Truth Social Friday, the ground reality remains that Iran will do what it has been doing if the US does what it has been doing – but the question will be whether each side keeps up the charade for the sake of the war not restarting, or whether this is again headed toward inevitable clash.

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What to make of this? There are plenty dead people who are more communicative than this guy.

• Iran’s New Supreme Leader Surfaces (Sort of) With a Chilling Message (Robert Spencer)

Mojtaba Khamenei, the new supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, still hasn’t been seen in public since he was named to his exalted new position. Reuters reported that “three people close to his inner circle” said that the world’s most prominent nepo baby was severely injured in the airstrike that killed his father, suffering disfigurement to his face and reportedly also losing a leg. Nevertheless, in a new message on Telegram Saturday, the younger Khamenei was full of threats and bravado, and ready to give the Great Satan and Little Satan a whipping they won’t soon forget.


“Iran’s navy,” Mojtaba (or whoever was writing the message in his name) declared, “is ready to inflict new bitter defeats on enemies.” That may be, but it’s more than a little improbable. As President Donald Trump put it on Monday, “Their military is destroyed, their whole navy is underwater. One hundred fifty ships are gone, their navy is gone.”It was peculiarly fitting: the threat of a phantom navy from a supreme leader who may very well not be alive at all. The Islamic Republic has admitted that Mojtaba was indeed gravely injured: according to Reuters, “a newsreader on state television described him as a ‘janbaz,’ a term used for those badly wounded in war, after he was named supreme leader.”

On the other hand, Mojtaba Khamenei could be dead, and all this talk about his facial injuries and how he lost a leg is just an attempt to secure some legitimacy for a regime that is on the brink. A new supreme leader who is the son of the old supreme leader immediately commands more respect than a second- or third-line cleric who might have been pressed into duty after the killing of so many of the Islamic Republic’s top leadership. Whatever his true condition may be, the Telegram version of Mojtaba was full of bravado. “Just as Iran’s drones strike like lightning against the US and Zionist criminals, Israel,” he wrote, “the brave navy is also prepared to inflict new bitter defeat on enemies.”

Nor is the Islamic Republic relying upon its navy alone. “The Army,” Khamenei added, “is like the nation’s child, which arises from within the heart of the people’s homes. The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Army is now courageously defending the land, water, and flag that belong to it. Iran’s Army is standing side by side with their comrades from other armed forces, battling the two leading armies of disbelief and Arrogance.” Taking a page from Baghdad Bob, the spokesman for Saddam Hussein who provoked laughter around the world two decades ago when he insisted that the Iraqi army was dealing the Americans a humiliating defeat, even as American troops advanced in the background of his video shot, Mojtaba declared: “And the Islamic Army has exposed those armies’ weakness and humiliation to the world.”

He meant, of course, the armies of America and Israel, not his own, but back in the real world, Trump said: “I think Iran is in very bad shape. I think they’re pretty desperate… We had a meeting that lasted 21 hours. We understand the situation better than anybody, and Iran’s in very bad shape.” Nevertheless, it seems clear from the chest-thumping and threats in the message from Khamenei, or whoever really wrote it, that the Islamic Republic of Iran intends to take up the war in earnest when the true expires on April 22. That has been clear enough from the fact that on Saturday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced: “Following the violation of the ceasefire conditions, the American enemy did not lift the naval blockade of Iranian vessels and ports; therefore, from this afternoon, the Strait of Hormuz is closed until this blockade is lifted.”

Whatever shape Mojtaba Khamenei is really in, the IRGC is likely running the show in Iran now, and that situation will almost certainly continue. Iran’s Islamic regime has been ruling through terror for 47 years, with the IRGC as its principal enforcement arm. Now, with the regime deeply threatened from both within and without, the terror has gotten even worse, and those who have trafficked in it all these years have presented themselves as the only force that can keep the regime in power. Nevertheless, Mojtaba Khamenei, alive or just presented as such, is a powerful force to give the new rulers legitimacy. How long all this strange situation will or can last, however, will depend largely upon the will of the U.S. and Israel to keep up the pressure.

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“That’s not cutting Medicaid; that’s making sure only the people who should be on it are getting it. There’s a significant difference..”

• The Way RFK Jr. Turned the Tables on This Democrat Was Amazing (Margolis)

Democrats thought they had Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. right where they wanted him. On Friday, Kennedy was on Capitol Hill so that Democrats could grandstand on the HHS budget, the 25th Amendment, and whatever else they needed clips of to include in their fundraising pitches. They thought they could abuse Kennedy and he’d just take it. They were wrong. Very, very wrong. During the hearing, Democrats came loaded with their usual talking points about proposed Medicaid changes harming the poor and the sick. What they didn’t anticipate was Kennedy coming armed with numbers that reframed the entire argument. Instead of playing defense, he walked into that hearing room and went on offense.


Kennedy’s central point was straightforward: the administration isn’t cutting Medicaid. It’s cleaning it up. Then came my favorite moment of the exchange. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) decided to challenge Kennedy with what he clearly thought was a devastating question. “Have you met with any of the 1.4 million people who have lost their health insurance just this last year from dropping off of Obamacare?” Casar asked. “Have you sat down and talked to those folks about the fact they won’t have their health insurance again?” The question was stupid, but the implication was obvious. According to Cesar, Kennedy was supposedly indifferent to real Americans losing coverage.

Kennedy’s response was about as devastating as it gets. “They’re almost all illegal immigrants,” he told him. There was a brief pause before Cesar stuttered his way through a response and then proceeded to talk over Kennedy as he attempted to make a critical point. “We found 1.5 million illegal immigrants illegally collecting Medicaid,” Kennedy said. Kennedy made it perfectly clear what is actually happening. “What we did with Medicaid is we’re kicking people off it who were illegally taking it,” he said. “There were almost 3 million people who were registered for Medicaid in two states, or registered for Medicaid and Obamacare. That’s illegal. There were a million illegal aliens who were on it.”

That’s not cutting Medicaid; that’s making sure only the people who should be on it are getting it. There’s a significant difference, and Democrats have spent months pretending that distinction doesn’t exist. Democrats built their entire line of attack on the assumption that any reduction in Medicaid enrollment represents harm to legitimate beneficiaries. Kennedy dismantled that assumption in real time, in front of Congress, using the administration’s own data. Casar’s question was supposed to be some moral gotcha moment. There are a lot of great clips of Kennedy during the hearings on Friday floating around on social media, and honestly, they’re all pretty great. He didn’t take any of their crap.

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“.. the beginning of the end of this significant international organization, which none of us wants.”

• Abolishing Veto Power To Spell Beginning Of End For EU — Slovak PM Fico (TASS)

Abolishing the veto power of EU member states would mark the beginning of the end of the union, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said in a speech broadcast by the TASR news agency. “The EU is going through a huge crisis,” the prime minister said. “Abolishing the veto is the beginning of the end of the EU, the beginning of the end of this significant international organization, which none of us wants. If anyone puts forward such proposals, they are simply demonstrating an inability to reach compromises,” he added.


Fico condemned the European Commission’s attempts to secure an EU-wide decision to abolish member states’ veto rights on foreign policy issues. He expressed particular concern over a statement to that effect by EC President Ursula von der Leyen, made immediately after the results of the recent parliamentary elections in Hungary were announced. The outgoing government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban rejected attempts to limit the national sovereignty of European countries in foreign policy matters. Fico said he was not yet aware of the position of Hungary’s new authorities.

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“If the justices rule that drawing districts based on race violates the Constitution, Republicans could pick up as many as 19 new seats across the South. ”

• Liberal Justices Are Stalling a Ruling to Protect Democrats (Margolis)

Republicans across the South have been gearing up for what could be the biggest political map shake-up in decades, and it all hinges on one thing: the Supreme Court’s expected ruling in Louisiana v. Callais. This case will decide the constitutionality of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. It would be cliché to say that the stakes couldn’t be higher, but it’s kind of true. For most of the past half-century, Section 2 has required states to draw “majority-minority” districts — districts engineered to elect minority candidates, who happen to vote overwhelmingly Democrat. Frame it however you like, but the practical effect has been a race-based political firewall protecting Democratic power in states they’d otherwise struggle to hold.


That firewall may be about to come down. In fact, it looks likely. All signs point to the court gutting the race-based VRA congressional districts that have propped up Democratic incumbents for generations. What does this mean? If the justices rule that drawing districts based on race violates the Constitution, Republicans could pick up as many as 19 new seats across the South.

“While such a decision is no sure thing, some states are nonetheless planning for the scenario,” Politico reported back in October. “The potential scramble to redraw could completely reshape the midterms, and Democrats are already sounding the alarm.” So why haven’t we seen the ruling yet? That’s the question everyone should be asking — and the answer, if true, is infuriating. Sean Spicer dropped a bombshell on 2WAY that deserves far more attention than it’s gotten. According to Spicer, reliable sources are telling him the decision is already written and ready to go — but the dissenting minority on the Court is deliberately dragging its feet.

“I have been told by reliable sources that that decision is done, and that the minority is slow walking the dissent so that … states do not have time to redistrict ahead of it,” Spicer said. “But I have been told very reliably that the minority is slow walking that dissent.”

It’s likely that the dissenting justices are Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. I wouldn’t be shocked if Chief Justice John Roberts joined them as well, but regardless, if what Spicer is hearing is true, that the dissenting minority is sandbagging their own dissent to run out the clock on redistricting timelines, it’s a big deal. If accurate, it’s a naked abuse of the judicial process — weaponizing the timeline of a Supreme Court decision to preserve partisan power.

If states don’t have enough time to redraw their maps before the 2026 midterms, the ruling becomes functionally meaningless for this cycle. Democrats keep their gerrymandered seats for another two years, regardless of what the Constitution says.

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“To reach the next generation of air traffic controllers, we need to adapt..”

“,, skills common among gamers, such as rapid decision-making, sustained concentration, and the ability to manage multiple inputs simultaneously could be applied to directing air traffic.”

• 6,000 Apply as Air Traffic Controllers As Duffy Wants To Recruit Gamers (Jung)

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declared the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) campaign to recruit video gamers as air traffic controllers “wildly successful,” after nearly 6,000 applicants submitted forms within the first twelve hours of the program’s launch. The FAA is reporting thousands of applicants applied after its unconventional new recruitment initiative launched on April 17, with the application portal reaching its cap at 8,000 candidates. The Trump administration is currently looking to address a persistent nationwide shortage of air traffic controllers, as many of the most experienced have retired in recent years. “To reach the next generation of air traffic controllers, we need to adapt,” Duffy said in a statement.


“This campaign’s innovative communication style and focus on gaming taps into a growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller.” The recruitment drive features a high-energy promotional video and messaging that frames job requirements as “mission objectives,” which is designed to appeal to Gen Z applicants. Duffy said that skills common among gamers, such as rapid decision-making, sustained concentration, and the ability to manage multiple inputs simultaneously could be applied to directing air traffic. “If you think about what gamers are doing on screens, they’re talking, reacting, and managing a lot at once — that’s very similar to what happens in a control tower,” Duffy said during remarks in Washington.

The push comes as the FAA confronts a shortfall of roughly 3,500 air traffic controllers, a gap that has developed over the past decade amid rising demand for air travel. Federal data shows the number of controllers has declined even as flight volume has increased, placing additional strain on existing personnel and raising broader concerns about system resilience. To attract candidates, the agency is highlighting the role’s long-term earning potential, noting that certified controllers can earn more than $155,000 annually within three years, but stress that certification remains highly selective and rigorous.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens under the age of 31 and fluent in English, while those who accepted face a multi-stage evaluation process, including the Air Traffic Skills Assessment, medical examinations, and security clearances. Even then, only about 2 percent ultimately complete the training pipeline, which can take between two and five years. Industry stakeholders have largely welcomed the campaign as a creative way to broaden the applicant pool. The air traffic controllers union has expressed support for the program, citing the need to bring in new talent amid ongoing staffing pressures, but cautions that it is not a quick fix due to the significant time required to complete training and certification.

Some aviation experts caution that the influx of applicants will not immediately resolve the shortage, as the lengthy training process and high attrition rates mean that even a successful recruitment effort may take years to translate into fully certified controllers in control towers and radar facilities. The initiative arrives at a time of heightened scrutiny of aviation safety and operations, with recent incidents drawing attention to a decline in highly trained personnel. While aviation officials maintain that the system remains safe, they acknowledge that staffing remains a critical issue.

For now, the FAA’s gamer-focused outreach appears to be achieving its immediate goal: capturing the attention of a new generation of potential recruits. Whether that interest translates into a sustained expansion of the controller workforce will depend on the agency’s ability to guide candidates through one of the most demanding training pipelines in the federal government.

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“I’m not sure that would be divorcing Hillary,” he said. “The issue — it was in part Hillary divorcing him.”

• Dick Morris Confirms a Huge Rumor About Bill and Hillary Clinton (Margolis)

Dick Morris has finally confirmed what many people have long suspected: Bill Clinton, while sitting in the Oval Office, seriously entertained the idea of divorcing Hillary — and he had his longtime political advisor run the polls to find out if he could survive it politically. Morris, who advised Clinton for years, as far back as his 1970s gubernatorial campaigns in Arkansas, appeared on Newsmax and dropped a bombshell that has somehow received far too little attention. When host Rob Finnerty asked Morris to confirm the rumor, the answer was blunt.


“Yes, actually several times,” Morris said. “It was a constant topic of conversation between then-President Clinton and myself, and the storminess of the Clinton marriage made that relevant.” It was actually four or five times, by Morris’s count. The man wasn’t merely curious; he kept returning to the question. Morris said the first time was the most consequential, and he came back to Clinton with a clear message: if you’re going to do this, you need to lay the groundwork first. “I came back to him, and I said that if you did that, you have to prepare people by explaining how Hillary has an independent career and has independent priorities.”

This was all happening before the 1996 re-election campaign against Bob Dole, so Clinton was genuinely weighing whether to cut Hillary loose before asking the American public to give him a second term. All while Paula Jones was in the picture, Gennifer Flowers had already gone public with her claims of a 12-year affair (which Clinton eventually admitted to), and Monica Lewinsky was waiting in the wings. But here’s where it gets even more interesting. When Finnerty suggested Clinton was considering divorcing Hillary, Morris pumped the brakes on that framing. “I’m not sure that would be divorcing Hillary,” he said. “The issue — it was in part Hillary divorcing him.”

I’m sure it was mutual, to be honest. So, obviously, the big question is why they have stayed together since. I use the term “together” loosely, by the way. Morris has a theory. “I think that Hillary made a calculation about her relationship with Bill. I think at the beginning it was true love, and I think it was that until the Monica Lewinsky thing came along,” he said. After that, the relationship shifted into something more transactional… at least for Hillary.

“Hillary realized that as long as her power and her prestige was entirely dependent on her marriage to Bill, that it was a shaky reed,” Morris explained. The polling results made it clear that being Mrs. Clinton wasn’t enough. “She had to have in her own right credentials and things she could run on — which she did.” And run she did. Twice, in fact. The whole arc of Hillary’s political career — the Senate seat in New York, the 2008 primary run, the secretary of State role, the 2016 presidential campaign — was all courtesy of a politically convenient marriage, which was merely a vehicle for her own quest for power.

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“I’m not the only Democrat that supports this, but I’m the only Democrat that’s willing to stand up and say it’s the right thing.. “

• Fetterman Torches His Party Over Its Surging Antisemitism Problem (Margolis)

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) sat down with CNN’s Kasie Hunt on The Arena Friday, and he admitted the ugly truth about the Democratic Party: it has an antisemitism problem. Not a messaging problem. Not a perception problem. And he named names.When Hunt asked Fetterman directly whether the Democratic Party has a problem with antisemitism, he didn’t hedge. “Sure, definitely,” he said, and then kept going. He pointed to Graham Platner, a Democratic primary candidate in Maine who has a Nazi tattoo on his chest and was recently caught online praising a video of Hamas beating and torturing Israeli soldiers to death. That man, Fetterman noted, is currently leading his race.


“The guy that’s going to win the primary in Maine has a Nazi tattoo on his chest, and that’s no problem for a lot of voters,” Fetterman said. “So I don’t know. I don’t know why — that’s crazy.” The RealClearPolitics average shows Platner leading Gov. Janet Mills by 22 points heading into the June primary, and recent polls show Platner beating Collins by an average of 7.6 points. He made clear this isn’t a matter of youthful ignorance, either. “We know he knows. He knew what that was,” Fetterman said. “I mean, if you’re back over 12, 13 years cheering about the death of Israeli soldiers — I mean, you clearly have a serious issue. And the left has a serious issue with antisemitism.”

This goes without saying. Since the Obama years, antisemitism has grown increasingly fashionable inside the Democratic Party. The Nazi tattoo should have ended his political career before it started. Today, it’s where all the Democrat energy is. Platner isn’t just beating Mills in the primary; he outperforms her in matchup polls with Sen. Susan Collins.Then came Hasan Piker — the far-left streamer who has openly praised Hamas, said America deserved 9/11, and declared Hamas “1,000 percent better than Israel.”

Democrats aren’t just tolerating Piker. They’re campaigning with him, and Fetterman lit into his own party over it, daring them to take that act to Pennsylvania. “Go ahead, try to win Pennsylvania and campaign around Hasan Piker, saying, yeah, America deserved 9/11, or Hamas is 1,000 percent better than Israel, or I don’t care about the rapes,” he said. “And for all these other things.”

Fetterman was equally blunt about the party’s broader drift against Israel. He noted that 80% of Democrats now view Israel negatively — a staggering number that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. He called out Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for voting against funding the Iron Dome, the defensive missile system that saves Israeli civilian lives by intercepting rockets fired from Gaza. “I mean, we have a serious problem with my party,” he said. “So if I have to be the last man standing in the Democratic Party, I’m proud to stand with Israel.”

Fetterman also criticized his party’s opposition to Trump’s actions on Iran. He noted how Democrats have been saying for years that Iran can never be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons, but when Trump actually did something to prevent that, they flip-flopped. “I’m not the only Democrat that supports this, but I’m the only Democrat that’s willing to stand up and say it’s the right thing,” he admitted, “because I know how politically toxic it is as a Democrat to support this.”

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Or is she?

• Ilhan Omar Not Actually a Multimillionaire After All (Robert Spencer)

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Mogadishu) has for some time now been the poster child not only for the legion of ungrateful, America-hating migrants, but for members of the House of Representatives who have become multimillionaires on a $174,000 annual salary.


The latter in particular has brought her unwelcome scrutiny: In February, House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) announced that he was opening an investigation after two companies Omar’s husband owns jumped in value from $51,000 to $30 million in value in a single year. Now, however, Omar is trying to make an end run around the whole investigation, and lessen the suspicion that she is a totally corrupt grifter, by claiming that the whole thing was a mistake. She and her hubby Tim Mynett don’t have $30 million after all. It was all just an “accounting error,” you see.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that while “an Omar disclosure filed last year showed she and her husband held assets of between $6 million and $30 million, a massive rise in wealth from her previous annual filing,” now “an amended filing” claims “the couple’s assets to be just $18,004 to $95,000. The forms don’t require exact values, only broad ranges.” Man, that’s one massive accounting error. James Comer should find the error in itself worth looking into. Is Omar simply trying to cover something up? Or did she really hire the most inept accountants in the history of the world?

The great solon herself was going with the inept accountant theory, and apparently wants us to believe that she has simply been too busy serving the people to concern herself with such mundane matters as a phantom thirty million dollars: “Aides said that Omar looked at the form before it was filed in 2025, but that the error didn’t jump off the page for her because she isn’t involved with her husband’s businesses and she trusted the accuracy of the accountant who provided her husband’s figures.”

Omar spokeswoman Jacklyn Rogers claimed victory, saying: “The amended disclosure confirms what we’ve said all along: The congresswoman is not a millionaire. The congresswoman amended her disclosures voluntarily as soon as the discrepancy was identified.”

Okay, great. She is as honest as the day is long. That’s wonderful. And yet there is more. Back in January, before Comer announced his investigation, the New York Times, which has generally been quite friendly to Omar, reported that “the Justice Department under the Biden administration opened an investigation into Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, in 2024 to scrutinize her finances, campaign spending and interactions with a foreign citizen, according to people with knowledge of the matter.”

The Biden administration! When one’s own leftist political allies open an investigation on you, you’re either guilty as sin, beyond all denial and stonewalling, or they’re looking for a way to jettison you without backlash or embarrassment. Either way, not a good look for the patriotic servant of the people from Mogadishu, Minnesota. Omar and Mynett have also acted as if they had something to hide. The New York Post reported in Dec. 2025 that “embattled Rep. Ilhan Omar’s husband’s venture capital firm quietly scrubbed key officer details — including former Obama officials — as scrutiny grows over the family’s skyrocketing wealth.”

Mynett’s Rose Lake Capital firm “saw its reported value go from nearly zero in 2023 to between $5 million and $25 million in just a year, and touted its officers’ $60 billion in ‘previous’ assets under management — an amount many Wall Street money managers only dream of.” But once Rose Lake Capital started coming under scrutiny, it suddenly started become considerably more secretive than it had been: “Between September and October — when federal prosecutors announced charges against eight more individuals, including six of Somali descent, for their roles in the welfare scheme — the names and bios of Rose Lake Capital’s nine officers and advisers were removed from the website. None of them were charged in the fraud.”

The names that were removed included “lobbyist and former Obama Ambassador to Bahrain Adam Ereli; former Senator and Obama Ambassador to China Max Baucus; DNC Finance Chair associate Alex Hoffman; former DNC treasurer William Derrough; and former ex-CEO of Amalgamated Bank Keith Mestrich, who once described Amalgamated as “the institutional bank of the Democratic Party.” If it was all just a misunderstanding based on an accounting error, why move to protect these people? They had nothing to worry about, right? Omar’s “accounting error” calls for as much of an investigation as the sudden jump in wealth she denies.

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“US officials reportedly intercepted a proposal with an economic deal that was intended to bypass Secretary of State Marco Rubio..”

• Cuba Sends ‘Secret Letter’ To Trump – WSJ (RT)

The Cuban government attempted to open a direct back-channel with US President Donald Trump last week, tapping a private businessman to hand-deliver a sealed letter to the White House, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing sources. The reported message, which was ultimately intercepted, was meant to bypass US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has pursued a policy of regime change on the island. The move was orchestrated by Raul Rodriguez Castro, grandson and chief aide of 94-year-old former Cuban President Raul Castro, who is widely considered one of the island’s most powerful figures, the report said. It added that the letter bore an official Cuban government seal and was formatted as a diplomatic note.


The letter proposed economic and investment agreements alongside sanctions relief, and warned that Havana was bracing for a possible US military incursion, an unnamed US official told the paper. The courier, Roberto Carlos Chamizo Gonzalez, 37, a luxury tourism and high-end car rental entrepreneur based in Havana, was stopped by security officers at Miami International Airport, who confiscated the letter and sent him back to Cuba.

The paper suggested that the move appeared designed to circumvent US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a son of Cuban immigrants and Washington’s most forceful advocate for maximum pressure on Havana. mRicardo Herrero, executive director of the Washington-based Cuba Study Group, suggested that an attempt to sidestep the top US diplomat was “downright foolish and bound to backfire,” adding that “it’s worse to go with an unknown with no personal relationship to the president, which makes it look more foolish.”

The back-channel bid comes as Cuba is reeling under its worst economic crisis in decades. After US forces kidnapped Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in January 2026, Washington severed Cuba’s main oil lifeline from Caracas and imposed a near-total fuel blockade. The island is also struggling with recurring complete blackouts. Trump has labeled Cuba “a failing nation”, threatened a “friendly takeover,” and has said recently that the US “may stop by Cuba” after the war in Iran. Havana has warned it is ready for any American attack.

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Fine by me.

• Building of Trump’s White House Ballroom Can Resume In Full: Appeals Court (BBC)

Construction of the underground and above ground portions of US President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom will be allowed to continue, an appeals court has ruled. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia granted an administrative stay after the Trump administration appealed against US District Judge Richard Leon’s decision to halt above-ground construction on Thursday.Construction is now expected to continue until the next hearing, which is due to take place on 5 June.This week’s rulings came after the appeals court ordered the judge to reconsider the national security implications of halting the work after he temporarily blocked all construction of the ballroom in March.


The ruling marks a victory for the president in his effort to redesign the storied American structure. Leon said on Thursday that he thought the project required congressional approval, adding that the administration reclassifying the ballroom plans as vital for national security appeared to be an attempted work around. “National security is not a blank cheque to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity,” he wrote. Following the ruling, Trump took to Truth Social to accuse the judge of “attempting to prevent future Presidents and World Leaders from having a safe and secure large scale Meeting Place”.


Two annotated images of the White House complex. The top aerial view labels the West Wing, South Lawn, White House residence, and an area marked ‘East Wing demolished.’ The bottom image, dated 23 October, shows the White House residence from the front with the former East Wing area highlighted


“It’s all tied together as one big, expensive, and very complex unit, which is vital for National Security and Military Operations of the United States of America!” he wrote, adding that the underground complex would include bomb shelters and medical facilities. He also said that the ballroom was “needed now” and that “no judge can be allowed to stop” it. The Justice Department filed an appeal against Leon’s ruling on Thursday, arguing it “would imperil the president and national security and indefinitely leave a large hole beside the Executive Residence”. The judge temporarily halted the construction project in late March, ruling that proper procedures were not followed before it had begun.

That decision came after the White House was sued by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The preservation group’s lawsuit, filed last year, alleges that the White House broke the law when it started construction on the ballroom and bunker without filing plans with the National Capital Planning Commission and by declining to seek authorisation from Congress. The East Wing of the White House, constructed in 1902, was demolished in October to make way for the multi-million-dollar ballroom, which will have capacity for 1,350 guests. The White House has said the project was expected to cost $400m (£302m) and was being funded entirely by private donors.

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Home › Forums › Debt Rattle April 19 2026

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  • April 19, 2026 at 9:54 am #238770
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

    Laura Knight The Green Sea, Lamorna 1918 • Trump Forces Iran To The Table: The New World Order (CTH) • The Strait of Hormuz Is Open (Catherine Salgado
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle April 19 2026]

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