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Debt Rattle April 28 2026

Apr 282026
 
 April 28, 2026  Posted by at 9:48 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  Add comments


Johannes Vermeer Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window 1657-59


• A Feral and Savage Party (James Howard Kunstler)
• No Conspiracy Required (Stephen Green)
• Obama Said This About the Latest Trump Assassination Attempt (Margolis)
• President Trump 60-Minutes Interview on Events During Attack at WHCA Dinner (CTH)
• Again, Fetterman Breaks Ranks After the Third Attempt on Trump’s Life (Manney)
• Melania Trump Deplores Jimmy Kimmel’s Disturbing Shooting Jokes (Salgado)
• How the GOP Should Respond to the ‘Both Sides Are Guilty’ Nonsense (Pinsker)
• The New York Times Explores the Case for “Microlooting” to Murder (Turley)
• Muslim Voters Are Reshaping U.K. Politics (JTN)
• Trump’s Prescription Drug Policies Make Small-Town Pharmacies Great Again (JTN)
• Charlottesville: The Deceit Underlying the Hoax (Steve Cortes)
• The Siege of Iran, and Other Matters (James Howard Kunstler)
• Iran Offers New Proposal To Reopen Strait – Trump Open To Deal Via Phone (ZH)
• Bessent: IRGC Leaders ‘Trapped’ Like ‘Drowning Rats’ By US Blockade (ZH)
• Senator Chuck Grassley’s Office Requests Answers from DOJ and FBI (CTH)

 


 

https://twitter.com/Real_RobN/status/2048492303531364530?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2048439348463337953?s=20 https://twitter.com/CRRJA5/status/2048585821163254218?s=20 https://twitter.com/eagameover/status/2048427971476705443?s=20

 


 


“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action.” —Ian Fleming

• A Feral and Savage Party (James Howard Kunstler)

Don’t you love the way the news media pretends it can’t figure out the motive of Cole Tomas Allen, who tried to shoot-up Saturday’s White House correspondents’ gala. He was a creation of the very White House correspondents who ducked under their tables at the sound of his shots. Cole Tomas Allen had digested and internalized the “narrative” spewage of the Democratic Party’s propaganda department. MSNOW occupied his brain like a glistening parasite.


CBS tried to amplify the shooter’s own motive on Sunday night’s 60 Minutes show when Norah O’Donnell read out-loud from his manifesto, “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” and asked President Trump “What is your reaction to that?” Mr. Trump did not fall for the ruse — which was just an opportunity to reinforce a well-worn scurrility. “You’re a disgrace,” the president replied, and Ms. O’Donnell just continued with the interview as if his answer never registered. There it is.

In fact, Cole Tomas Allen traveled all the way from Los Angeles to Washington for the rare chance to find Mr. Trump and most of his cabinet all together in one room where he might be able to kill as many of them as possible. He styled himself: “Cole ‘coldForce’ ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ Allen. “I experience rage thinking about everything this administration has done,” he concluded in his short manifesto, reportedly composed and sent out minutes before he left his room at the Washington Hilton to perform his rash deed.

That rage, you understand, was planted in his head by the likes of Norah O’Donnell of CBS news and the scores of reporters, editors, and news producers who had to abandon the festive menu starters of spring pea and burrata salad and crab terrine with a nice Veuve Clicquot when the shots rang out. The gala is a night when the Blob’s media errand boys and call girls like to treat themselves like royalty. (Meanwhile their hated enemies back in the truck stops of MAGAland get by on lowly chili-lime jerky and Little Debbie Zebra Cakes, washed down with Red Bull — good for five-hundred miles of hauling, at least.)

The former president can’t guess Cole Tomas Allen’s motives. He is a liar, a cad, and a fraud. As for political violence in general, you have not heard Mr. Obama complain about Antifa mayhem, BLM riots, tranny school murders, harassment of ICE officers, or any other violence approved by the Lefty-left. Mr. Obama is himself a bona fide seditionist. When he repeats the shibboleth “our democracy” he means simply the Lefty-left’s malevolent will to power — which is predicated on nothing more than feeding the Democratic Party’s never-ending rackets, doling out money to its captive clients for votes, solely to remain in power: Ouroboros, the snake eating its own tail. His mealy-mouthed sanctimony serves only his personal need to evade prosecution for his own crimes.

The only way Barack Obama can evade prosecution for RussiaGate and then for covertly running the “Joe Biden” White House from his HQ across town is if he is named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the RICO cases to come. That will be enough for historians to understand what happened here in the early 21st century. And what about the other traitors, the long list of Blob apparatchiks who schemed to overthrow the executive from 2016 to 2021, and then labored to throw thousands in prison, ran a fake pandemic op, queered two elections, hijacked the courts, shut down opposing opinion, and poisoned the minds of several assassins?

Justice is coming for them. They know it, and their “resistance” seeks to turn feral and savage in the months leading to the midterm elections. It will start in a few days with “Mayday Strong” rallies and street marches. Their slogan, “It’s workers over billionaires,” is just another lie. The part they leave out is that these actions are funded by billionaires: George Soros, Neville Roy Singham, Hansjörg Wyss, et al. Don’t expect the action to remain “mostly peaceful,” either. The idea, of course is to get violent so as to goad President Trump into invoking emergency powers to put down an insurrection.

I doubt that President Trump will shrink from invoking the Insurrection Act, an amalgamation of laws passed by Congress starting in 1792–1795 with the Militia Acts, then the key 1807 law signed by President Thomas Jefferson, and major amendments during and after the Civil War, including the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act. It is codified in Title 10 of the United States Code, Chapter 13, specifically §§ 251–255. It is a statutory exception to the Posse Comitatus Act (1878), which generally prohibits using federal troops for domestic law enforcement.

The Insurrection Act (with its predecessor statutes) has been invoked approximately 30 times in U.S. history by 16 presidents — Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Grant, Hayes, Arthur, Cleveland, Wilson, Harding, FD Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson, Reagan, and Bush — in episodes ranging from the Whiskey Rebellion, the Southern Secession, many violent labor strikes, several race riots, and looting in natural disasters.

President Trump might have to use the Insurrection Act to stop what has been an ongoing coup against his elected administration by an opposition party that has turned criminal and traitorous. He may have to convene extraordinary military tribunals to adjudicate crimes that include those committed by the federal judiciary itself. If he does all this, it must include an executive order mandating common sense election procedure for the midterm: citizenship and photo ID required, paper ballots only, no vote-counting machines, voting only on one day deemed Election Day, and mail-in ballots limited only to military, people required to be out of the country, and the disabled. All this is looking increasingly unavoidable.

Read more …

“If the Democrats don’t knock this off, there really will be a civil war in this country, and it won’t end well for them, just like the last one they started in 1861.”

• No Conspiracy Required (Stephen Green)

“The Democratic Party has created monsters among them,” Jan. 6 criminal defense attorney Marina Medvin posted to X in the wake of yet another assassination attempt on President Donald Trump Saturday night. “The most interesting part” of attempted assassin Cole Allen’s manifesto and social media posts is that they’re “generally indistinguishable from most liberal social medial accounts belonging to Democrat voters in America.” Dems, you have a problem.


“The same week the New York Times published a cozy interview justifying the murder of people whose politics you don’t like, the same week we learned that the Unite the Right Charlottesville rally was funded by the Left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center, President Trump survived his third assassination attempt,” Batya Ungar-Sargon wrote on Sunday. “A recent YouGov poll says it all: 25% of very liberal Americans consider political violence justified—compared to 3% of very conservative Americans. Another 17% of liberal Americans say it’s justified, compared to just 6% of conservatives.”The left has worked hard at normalizing political violence — and Allen’s murderous intent is the left’s new mainstream. Let’s start with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, widely believed to have 2028 presidential ambitions, speaking last week:

As John Bulkeley warned, “If the Democrats don’t knock this off, there really will be a civil war in this country, and it won’t end well for them, just like the last one they started in 1861.” Speaking of war, here’s Democrat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries doing just that.

Barring some big change before the midterms, Jeffries will be the next House Speaker. Maybe you remember James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by four-term incumbent John Cornyn. Writing for the New York Times last month, pseudo-conservative David French praised him as “one of the most faith-forward politicians in the United States.” Here’s Talarico’s pastor on Sunday:

Please note that the pastor did not go on to chide people for having mixed feelings about an assassination attempt, but instead doubled down on the very rhetoric that Allen echoed on BlueSky and in his manifesto. In church, if you can believe it. Finally, here’s late-night host Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday, calling first lady Melania Trump “an expectant widow” right to her face.

One more? OK, one more:

And don’t even get me started on the mainstream media… but if CNN’s Jake Tapper is at all unusual, it’s only because he’s so high-profile.

As I’ve written here for two years, there’s no conspiracy required to produce a left-wing assassin like Tyler James Robinson or Ryan Routh. They just amp up the rhetorical pressure, 24/7/365, until somebody pops. Lee Harvey Oswald was a weird teen, easy to pull out of the crowd. He embraced “theoretical Marxism” in high school and soon after earned the name “Oswaldovich” from his fellow Marines. But he seems to have required renouncing his citizenship and a two-year stint in the Soviet Union to turn him into a lefty assassin. If his manifesto is anything to go by, all Cole Thomas Allen had to do was watch CNN and read the New York Times.

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“Allen’s manifesto made it clear he has fallen for the lies of the Democrats, radicalized by their rhetoric — including Barack Obama’s.”

• Obama Said This About the Latest Trump Assassination Attempt (Margolis)

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting at the White House Correspondents Association dinner at the Washington Hilton, where 31-year-old Cole Allen of California tried to assassinate President Donald Trump and other administration officials, there was a lot of confusion. Early reports suggested that the shooter had been killed. Those reports turned out to be false. During that time, many people on the left were trying to distract from the obvious, that someone had tried to assassinate Trump again. Left-wing influencers started chiding conservatives, pointing out the obvious. They claimed we shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Of course, they also claimed the shooting was staged, but that’s a whole other story.


And then there’s Barack Obama. “Although we don’t yet have the details about the motives behind last night’s shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner, it’s incumbent upon all of us to reject the idea that violence has any place in our democracy,” Obama wrote on X. “It’s also a sobering reminder of the courage and sacrifice that U.S. Secret Service Agents show every day. I’m grateful to them – and thankful that the agent who was shot is going to be okay.”

There’s just one huge problem with Obama’s statement. We already knew the shooter’s motive at this point. Obama posted his statement at 5:15 p.m. EDT on Sunday, and the shooter’s manifesto and its contents were first published late Sunday morning. So by the time Obama decided to weigh in, the manifesto had been in the public domain for several hours, and his anti-Trump motives were already widely reported.] Here’s what Cole Allen’s manifesto said:

“I am a citizen of the United States of America. What my representatives do reflects on me. And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. (Well, to be completely honest, I was no longer willing a long time ago, but this is the first real opportunity I’ve had to do something about it.) […] Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest

Allen made clear that Secret Service agents were only to be engaged if necessary — and even then, he claimed he preferred to incapacitate rather than kill. Hotel security, Capitol Police, and National Guard personnel were to be avoided unless they intervened, and he explicitly stated that hotel employees and guests were not targets. In short, there is no doubt he came there to kill Trump and other Trump administration officials. And Obama’s response was to tell the public the motive remained unclear.

There’s a pattern here worth naming. When political violence touches conservatives, the motive becomes suddenly complex, nuanced, perhaps unknowable. The calls for unity arrive with a side of fog. Meanwhile, the very writings that explain everything are either broadcast for maximum damage or quietly tucked away to avoid inconvenient conclusions.

No one can honestly believe that Obama was clueless. So why keep pretending that the motive is some unsolvable mystery? The answer is the same reason some on the left rushed to claim the assassination attempt was staged. They understand how damaging this is, so the instinct is to downplay it, muddy the waters, and dodge any real reckoning with the kind of radicalism that keeps surfacing on their side. Allen’s manifesto made it clear he has fallen for the lies of the Democrats, radicalized by their rhetoric — including Barack Obama’s.

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He shows himself in total control. This is obviously not the first time he thinks about it. How could it be?

Donald Trump came out of this weekend a lot bigger than he went in. A lot.

• President Trump 60-Minutes Interview on Events During Attack at WHCA Dinner (CTH)

President Trump details his experience at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where a gunman charged toward the ballroom. President Trump says he wasn’t worried and praised the actions of law enforcement.


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“Fetterman cut through the noise and picked action over argument. While others kept talking, he picked a solution.”

• Again, Fetterman Breaks Ranks After the Third Attempt on Trump’s Life (Manney)

If the man wasn’t a bloody lefty, I’d create a chorus of people asking him to flip to the Republican side. When compared to other Senate freshmen, he’s ranked the second most leftist. Alas, I believe him to be the maverick that the media’s favorite maverick, John McCain, thought himself to be. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) didn’t hedge after the chaos at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner when a gunman, Cole Allen, rushed a Secret Service checkpoint and opened fire. The shooter has now been identified as 31-year-old schoolteacher Cole Allen of Torrance, Calif., who sprinted past security checkpoints inside the hotel armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and two knives. He never made it into the ballroom.


Gunfire was exchanged during the incident, but Allen was not hit, and police arrested him. A Secret Service agent was struck but was wearing protective gear. No other injuries were confirmed among the attendees. In seconds, a routine political event turned into a live test of how much risk members of the Trump administration accept when they gather away from the White House. Fetterman saw enough, telling fellow Democrats to drop the reflex of opposing anything “Trump” and back a practical fix: build a secure, bulletproof ballroom on the White House grounds. A hardened, on-site venue would let presidents host large events inside a controlled perimeter instead of relying on facilities that weren’t built for modern threat levels.

President Donald Trump drove the point home within hours, saying the shooting proved why a protected ballroom isn’t optional; it’s basic security. Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and senior officials moved off the stage as agents contained the threat. One Secret Service agent took a round to his chest and, thanks to his vest, survived. Cole Allen of Torrance, Calif., never reached the main seating area, but the gap between “contained” and “catastrophic” was very thin. Fetterman’s position isn’t a one-off; he votes with his caucus most of the time, yet he breaks from it on national security when it counts. He backs Israel, supports Trump’s effort to block Iran from getting nuclear weapons, and, last year, defended the ballroom plan as appropriate and in line with the White House’s long history of upgrades.

Private donors would fund the ballroom, which removes the usual fight over money. For years, security professionals have warned about concentrating the president, vice president, cabinet, and lawmakers at off-site venues like the Washington Hilton. A single breach threatens multiple layers of leadership at once. A White House ballroom keeps those events inside a fortified perimeter designed for current threats, not assumptions from the past 30 years. You can’t put it more plainly than Fetterman did on X.

His point isn’t partisan; it’s operational: protect the office, reduce exposure, and control the environment. Washington typically defaults to posture over progress when leaders dig in, defend their side, and stall anything tied to the other party. Fetterman, however, did the opposite; he looked at what happened and backed a fix already on the table. Allen’s “alleged” attack didn’t create a new problem; he exposed one that’s been tolerated and kicked down the road for years.

How many times will it take for people filled with common sense to look at the critics of the ballroom, smack ‘em in the head, and, in the most sarcastic tone possible, exclaim: It doesn’t bear repeating, but for some dunderheads, it does: a secure, on-site venue won’t solve every risk, but it closes obvious ones. The presidency demands more than ceremony and tradition; it demands infrastructure that matches the reality of modern threats. Fetterman cut through the noise and picked action over argument. While others kept talking, he picked a solution.

Read more …

‘Political Sickness:’

• Melania Trump Deplores Jimmy Kimmel’s Disturbing Shooting Jokes (Salgado)

After vile “comedian” Jimmy Kimmel referred to First Lady Melania Trump as an “expectant widow” in a series of grossly inappropriate jokes before the Saturday assassination attempt on Trump administration officials, the first lady responded with dignity but without holding back on emphasizing just how dangerous the rhetoric is.


Just days before Cole Allen opened fire at the April 25 White House correspondents’ dinner, the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! chortled, “Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.” That ugly display was part of Kimmel’s Thursday parody of the then-upcoming correspondents’ dinner. And the shooting highlighted vividly how irresponsible or downright bloodthirsty the media is for their constant pro-assassination rhetoric. No wonder the first lady wants ABC to take him off the air.

Melania posted on X Monday, “Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America.” That is exactly what we see across the political left in America now, a sickness that has pervaded not only their politics, but their minds and their morals as well.

Then, Melania continued by challenging the networks that platform such incredibly dangerous rhetoric. “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate. A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him,” she said. “Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.”

Jimmy Kimmel was also despicable about the Charlie Kirk assassination. He falsely claimed that Kirk’s murderer was MAGA (actually, Tyler Robinson was an LGBTQ leftist) and smirked that the right was trying to score political points off the tragedy. The problem is that he is mainstream for lefties. He might be a little more candid about his unholy glee when Republicans die or are in danger of death, but his mainstream media pals agree with him.

Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow, was at the correspondents’ dinner on Saturday and understandably was extremely traumatized after the near-deadly incident, considering how recent her husband’s assassination was. But Kimmel thinks it is all a great big joke. While ABC is not a public broadcasting station that essentially receives a form of government subsidy, and therefore the government cannot challenge Kimmel’s employment directly, it is entirely reasonable for Melania to ask why the Walt Disney Company keeps funding this hideous human being’s show.

Why is Kimmel even still on the air? At the very least, Donald Trump needs to stop going on mainstream media like CBS News’ 60 Minutes and legitimizing these poisonous propagandists. The president and his wife are absolutely right that the media is fueling violent hatred, and therefore, Republicans should allow these same media stooges to fall into the complete irrelevancy they have so richly earned.

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Don’t get ahead of yourself: Only one man should decide and proclaim how the GOP should respond: the President.

• How the GOP Should Respond to the ‘Both Sides Are Guilty’ Nonsense (Pinsker)

If you’re an absent-minded married shlub, you’ve probably played the “golly gee, both sides were wrong, let’s move on” card, too. It goes like this:

Wife: Scott, why haven’t you taken out the garbage yet? I asked you two days ago. It’s starting to stink.

Me: But that was in the past! We need to look to the future. Let’s not dwell on the blame-game, honey — we’re better than that.

Wife: What are you talking about? Just take the garbage out, please.

Me: Look, we both contributed to the garbage. You threw away plenty of stuff, too. Probably more than me.

Wife: I can hear the garbage truck coming! Take it out to the street before it’s too late!

Me: Really, we’re both at fault: You asked me to do something — and somewhere along the way, there was a communication breakdown. So instead of pointing fingers, let’s be grownups and admit we were both wrong. Mistakes were made, but life goes on. That’s why pencils have erasers. Right?

Wife: [sighs] Never mind, I’ll do it.

Me: Thanks, honey. While you’re up, can you grab me a beer?

Yeah: It doesn’t work when you’re married any better than it’ll work for the Democrats. On the heels of yet another assassination attempt, the American people are beginning to recognize the media’s Political Violence Blame-Game Template. After all, it’s really not that complicated: When there’s no political violence: Blame Donald Trump and the GOP for inciting this awful, terrible epidemic of violence that doesn’t exist (yet).When a Democrat is the victim: Blame Donald Trump and the GOP for “extremist language” and racist/fascist “dog whistles” that are an “existential threat to democracy.” Demand greater civility in political discourse — while threatening to jail Republicans who appear “threatening” to liberals. (The only long-term solution to political violence, of course, is to remove Republicans from power.)

When a Republican is the victim: Blame both sides. (“It’s everyone’s fault! How the heck did things spiral out of control?”) Neither party has a monopoly on unstable nutjobs, but according to opinion polls, one side is a helluva lot more likely to support political violence than the other. Spoiler alert: It’s not the GOP.

For the Babylon Bee, the parody writes itself:

The assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner will likely dominate the headlines for the next several days. Unlike most Black Swan events, this one will have extra-long legs because:

1) All the D.C. journalists who witnessed it are highly incentivized to continue talking about the most exciting moment of their careers. Like I wrote yesterday, if reporters like Brian Williams can’t resist bragging about fake bullets, you better believe they’re gonna be talking nonstop about the real thing.

2) There’s a legitimate mystery to investigate: Who, what, when, and how was Cole Allen, the (alleged) “Friendly Federal Assassin” radicalized? On the surface, he seems like your normal, typical, nondescript leftist. As far as we know, this wasn’t a kid who was in and out of mental hospitals. So, was he radicalized by TikTok and Reddit? By the Epstein conspiracy? A hate-merchant like Hasan Piker? What pushed him over the edge?

Which means, the mainstream media will play the “both sides are equally guilty” card, but its attention will be diverted: Journalists can’t investigate Allen, beat their chests and brag about their (remarkable) bravery, AND be laser-focused on blaming both sides. Not enough oxygen in the room. Too many competing storylines to juggle. And therein lies the GOP’s opportunity. Because the media’s attention will be divided, the GOP will have a free hand to publicize its own message to the masses — and counterprogram the mainstream media. But we’ll have to be picky: With all the competing storylines, only one or two “talking points” will break through.

This means that we can’t say EVERYTHING we think about Cole Allen and left-wing political violence. We must be selective: It’s all about bang-for-the-buck. So how should the GOP counterprogram the Dems? Conservatives tend to favor intellectual, evidence-based arguments over raw emotions. It’s why we rely so heavily on statistics. Already on social media, we’re seeing swaths of posts about polling data — such as the one embedded above — that make a compelling mathematical argument about left-wing America’s sick tolerance of political violence.

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“Margaret Cho this week declared that “we need a feral, bloodthirsty, violent Democrat.”

• The New York Times Explores the Case for “Microlooting” to Murder (Turley)

“It is so hard to live ethically in an unethical society.” That lament heard this week from New York Times opinion culture editor Nadja Spiegelman could well be the Democratic Party’s epitaph. Spiegelman was interviewing two left-wing influencers about how everything from shoplifting to murder may be excusable today in light of the unfairness they see in society.


The podcast, a product of the nation’s newspaper of record, reveled in the moral relativism that has taken over the American left. It featured the ravings of the antisemitic Marxist streamer Hasan Piker, who calmly explained how the murder of United Healthcare executive Brian Thompson was perfectly understandable. His rationalization came from Marxist revolutionary Friedrich Engels, who had called capitalism “social murder.” If capitalists are “social murderers,” then why not kill them? The logic is liberating and lethal for some on the left looking for a license for violence.

Mind you, this same newspaper had once condemned and effectively banned a U.S. senator for writing an op-ed advocating the use of the military to quell violent protests during the summer of George Floyd’s death. The Times even forced out its own opinion editor for having the temerity to publish such an opinion. But glorifying murder? The suggestion of open hunting season on corporate executives did not appear to shock or repel Spiegelman. After all, we are living in “an unethical society.” She explained that many felt that the murder of Thompson, the father of two, meant that “finally, someone can actually do something about health care.”

Even liberal comedians are practicing a literal version of slapstick. Margaret Cho this week declared that “we need a feral, bloodthirsty, violent Democrat.” To be far, Spiegelman did concede that it might seem a bit “scary” for some to start murdering our way to social justice. She also explained that shoplifting can be justifiable because people are “stealing from Whole Foods — not just for the thrill of it, but out of a feeling of anger and moral justification.” New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino also contributed to the podcast, titled “The Rich Don’t Play by the Rules. So Why Should I?” She immediately threw in her own experience with “microlooting” and explained why it is arguably moral: “I have, under very specific circumstances. I will say, I think that stealing from a big-box store [isn’t] significant as a moral wrong, nor is it significant in any way as protest.”

She detailed her own past thefts and added, “I didn’t feel bad about it at all, in part because the store was a corporation. And it certainly felt, in a utilitarian sense, I was like, this is not a big deal. Right, guys?” Not in the confines of the New York Times, where apparently you are entitled to all goods that are fit to pilfer. The bizarre exchange highlighted the moral chasm that is opening its maw on today’s political left. In my book “Rage and the Republic,” I write about how rage helps people excuse any offense or attack. It dismisses the humanity of others and provides a license to hate completely and without reservation. It is not really murder or theft if there are no real humans on the other side, is it?

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And the country.

• Muslim Voters Are Reshaping U.K. Politics (JTN)

The growing numbers of Muslims in the United Kingdom, along with their organized and issue-driven politics, has made them an increasingly consequential – if not outsizes – part of the country’s electorate – representing new challenges for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s center-left government and efforts to maintain a unified stance on key issues.Recent elections have shown the country’s estimated 4 million people, or roughly 6.5% of the country’s overall population, have been enough to determine electoral outcomes in specific districts and nudge national parties to re-calibrate their platforms.


U.K. foreign policy – particularly when it concerns heavily Muslim parts of the world such as Gaza and Iran – has become especially prickly, according to surveys. Changes among Muslim voters have also fragmented the traditional Labour Party coalition, and according to some reports, have accelerated a shift toward “transactional politics.” “The size of the Muslim population and even more so, the areas where it is concentrated are helping to leverage influence in key areas,” political scientist Rana Dancyger told Just the News. “They do not vote as a bloc, but their influence is large enough that their priorities must be taken into consideration.”

Census data shows that the U.K.’s Muslim population is concentrated in urban constituencies such as Birmingham, Bradford, parts of London, and cities in the north. The Muslim Council of Britain has for years identified dozens of constituencies in which Muslim voters could play a decisive role in tight races. That played out in 2024, the last national vote, where Starmer’s Labour Party lost significant support among constituencies with large Muslim populations, meaning hundreds of thousands of voters shifted away over protests on specific issues including the government’s policies on Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, where roughly 99% of the population Muslim. And likewise with Iran, who’s at war with Israel and the United States, and whose population is 99% Muslim.

It didn’t hurt Labour in the final tally, in which Starmer and his allies swept the Conservatives out of office for the first time in 16 years. But the shift helped to fuel growth for more extreme parties, such as the Liberal Democrats and the right-wing Reform UK party. The shift has forced Starmer’s government into a delicate balancing act, as positions that in the past would have been framed through political alliances – such as support for Israel or backing Israeli and U.S. policies toward Iran — now carry clear domestic consequences.

Even within the Labour Party itself, Muslim members of parliament, other government officials, and activists, have become more vocal in criticizing government policies, making it increasingly difficult for Starmer to maintain a unified message. One survey warned that the historic ties between the Labour Party and Muslim representatives could be “at a breaking point,” adding to Labour’s woes stemming from weak economic growth and indirect ties to scandals involving the Epstein files in the U.S.

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Wonderful.

• Trump’s Prescription Drug Policies Make Small-Town Pharmacies Great Again (JTN)

President Donald Trump recently announced a substantial deal with drug manufacturer Regeneron to lower drug prices and onshore nearly $10 billion to $27 billion in U.S. manufacturing, further expanding access to domestic medicine, the absence of which has caused headaches for America’s thousands of community and rural pharmacies. “Seventeen of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, representing 80% of the branded drug market, have now agreed to sell their drugs to American patients at the lowest price anywhere in the world. This will result in the largest drop in prescription drug prices in the history of the United States of America,” Trump told the press Thursday during the announcement in the Oval Office.


Earlier in April, the Trump administration imposed a timed 100% tariff on patented pharmaceutical ingredients and products from most countries, which has accelerated the return of drug manufacturing to the U.S., producing stability and economic wins for independent pharmacies that have long struggled with supply-chain fragility. Key policy drivers include the April 2 Presidential Proclamation imposing 100% ad valorem tariffs on patented pharmaceuticals and ingredients (effective July 31 for major companies and September 29 for smaller companies). Companies with secretary of Commerce-approved onshoring plans qualify for a transitional 20% rate, which escalates to 100% on April 2, 2030, while MFN pricing agreements can yield 0% tariffs (with their own sunset provisions).

Complementary actions streamline FDA approvals and inspections to accelerate domestic manufacturing.The data have shown dramatic early results. In 2025 alone, drugmakers announced more than $370 billion in new U.S. manufacturing commitments – the largest reshoring wave in industry history – creating tens of thousands of jobs and dozens of new or expanded facilities. Major players have pledged over $480 billion total (e.g., Eli Lilly’s $27 billion for four new sites, Johnson & Johnson’s $55 billion including multiple plants, AstraZeneca’s $50 billion with a major Virginia facility, and similar multi-billion-dollar moves by Novartis, Roche, and others.)

The investments are generating roughly 44,000 direct manufacturing and support jobs while reducing reliance on overseas APIs, where 70–80% of U.S. generics and many branded drugs historically originated from China and India. For rural and small-town pharmacies, the re-shoring translates into tangible long-term gains. Independent operators – who often operate on razor-thin margins and serve Medicare/Medicaid-heavy populations – have faced chronic shortages, stock outs, and price volatility from global disruptions. Domestic production ramps are already easing those pressures by shortening supply chains, cutting transit risks and enabling faster replenishment.

Early signs that these policies are improving the industry, all the way down to small pharmacies, include stabilized generic supply in key categories (like antibiotics and diabetes treatments) and renewed local economic activity as new plants (many in heartland or Southern states) boost regional wages, supplier networks, and tax bases that indirectly support pharmacy viability. The administration’s parallel Rural Health Transformation Program further amplifies this by aligning pharmacies with goals like “sustainable access” and “make rural America healthy again,” positioning independents as frontline partners in expanded care delivery.

Read more …

“The SPLC created hate groups and activities like the Charlottesville rally, and the complicit media then weaponized these concocted offenses by spreading outright lies about Trump’s reaction to the staged events.”

• Charlottesville: The Deceit Underlying the Hoax (Steve Cortes)

For years, Democratic politicians and their allies in the legacy media have spread the damnable Charlottesville Hoax: the propaganda myth that President Trump praised bigots who rioted in 2017 in the Virginia town. Of course, the opposite is true, as Trump actually said: “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists because they should be condemned totally.”

Now, we learn that the entire hoax of Trump and Charlottesville is, itself, built upon another grand lie. The media and people like Joe Biden have continually pushed the narrative that some big, organic gathering of hateful Americans descended upon Charlottesville and represented some larger threat to the republic itself. But it now turns out that the “Unite the Right” rally was organized and financed by the highly partisan, left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center.

In a sweeping 11-count indictment, the Department of Justice and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche charge the advocacy group with criminal defrauding of donors and “manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.” The charges contained in this indictment are akin to the fire department becoming an aggressive criminal arson enterprise, setting fires all across a town, and then demanding more budget and authority to fight the very infernos it set ablaze.

So…the end result is that America endured years of propaganda that convinced a large segment of the population – in contravention of the facts – that their president supported violent hate merchants. Even worse, masses of unskeptical Americans, who consume only legacy media content, believed that the entire America First populist movement was based on bigotry, rather than patriotism.

Now, nearly a decade later, the truth is revealed about the deception that lay beneath that grand lie. There was a layer of duplicity here that is almost difficult to fathom. Only true Marxists could excuse this level of propaganda. The SPLC created hate groups and activities like the Charlottesville rally, and the complicit media then weaponized these concocted offenses by spreading outright lies about Trump’s reaction to the staged events.

Read more …

“What matters now is ending the war as quickly and decisively as possible. . . After that, people can wrestle over the “moral and constitutional” quandary to their heart’s content.” —Brandon Smith

• The Siege of Iran, and Other Matters (James Howard Kunstler)

Other matters first, then Iran. The fall of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in an eleven-count fraud and money-laundering indictment is a watershed moment for exposing the bad faith business model of the Lefty-left: pay for the creation of imaginary monsters so you can pretend to be the defender of your fake victim-clients, the sundry “oppressed minorities” yearning to breathe free.


The money was paid to various manifestations of “white supremacy,” ranging from the good old Ku Klux Klan (more venerable in America’s memory than Frankenstein) to the avant-garde Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, affiliated with the Aryan Nation. And, turns out, the SPLC also engineered the Fine People Hoax in Charlottesville, 2020, that loomed so large in “Joe Biden’s” supposedly victorious campaign for president. The Left’s moral center-of-gravity is a black hole of grift and subterfuge.

Of course, this SPLC farrago might raise some questions about many other Lefty-left NGOs that infest our political landscape, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Black Lives Matter (BLM), and Al Otro Lado in California, which launders taxpayer money into all manner of freebies for illegal aliens — all of these orgs accused of rank improprieties. CAIR, which is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, was declared a terrorist or transnational criminal organization by Texas and Florida. BLM grifters in Atlanta and Oklahoma City were indicted for wire fraud and money laundering.

Between the zillions of dollars flooding the USA from foreign dark money pass-thrus like the Soros family’s Open Society Foundations, the checkbook of Shanghai American expat Neville Roy Singham, The Tides Foundation, The Hopewell Fund, et cetera, ad infinitum, plus the taxpayers of California, New York, Illinois, and Minnesota, vast fortunes are pumped into civic mischief and chaos creation here, including all the riots of recent years. Is it not time, a least, to revoke the 501(c)(3) tax exemption status of all these nefarious outfits? Should be easy. (Paging Treasury Sec’y and IRS chief Scott Bessent!)

Next up: The Democratic Party’s savage stupidity played out this week in Virginia with a big election win for a shamelessly impudent Congressional redistricting scam that would sculpt away all but one GOP district of eleven on the Virginia map. NGOs poured a ton of money into the op. The ballot proposition was worded artfully “to restore fairness in upcoming elections,” which, as always with the Lefty-left, was the exact opposite of what it was designed to do.

Within hours, Tazewell County Circuit Court Judge Jack C. Hurley, Jr., ruled the proposition void and blocked Virginia from certifying the referendum. The case now speeds to the Virginia Supreme Court where the prop is expected to fail on at least four counts of blatant affront to the state’s constitution. Virginia’s new governor, former CIA analyst Abigail Spanberger, ran in 2025 on the explicit promise that she would not advocate a Congressional redistricting measure. This is exactly what Democratic Party bad faith looks like.

You’ve noticed, no doubt, that bad faith is not solely owned by the Democratic Party. We watch in wonder and nausea the bewildering psychodrama of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) refusing to allow procedure that would get the Save Act passed (common sense election reform). Nor will Thune allow confirmation votes to proceed for nominated DOJ US attorneys and other jobs submitted by the executive branch. He shows every sign of wanting his party to lose. . .which means, allowing the Democratic Party to continue queering elections, including the crucial midterms. . . which means he wants our country to fail.

Seems like nobody knows what to do about Sen. Thune and his dishonorable cohorts in the chamber. If the president knows, he isn’t saying just now, and that would be consistent with his mode of fighting battles. But remember, Nicolás Maduro has been in US custody for months, and you can be sure he’s been debriefed on the subject of Dominion and Smartmatic voting machine shenanigans that originated in Venezuela years ago in order to ensure his own election. The FBI is also sitting on 2020 election evidence harvested out of Georgia, Michigan, and Arizona (perhaps other states, too). The truth about 2020 will come out, probably sooner than later, and when it does, Senator Thune will be sufficiently humiliated to drive him out of his post. He appears to be too dumb to realize that.

Now, as to Iran: The country’s putative “leadership” marinates in rage, impotence, and factional squabbling as the ceasefire dwindles. They can make some more mischief in the Persian Gulf, perhaps, but in a matter of days Iran’s oil industry will be permanently wrecked, its economy strangled, and its ordinary citizens in a desperate fury to make it all stop. If that doesn’t force a deal — no nukes, hand-over the 1000 pounds of Uranium, let in the neutral inspectors, etc. — then it’s onto the bridges and power plants. There really is no other way now. Show a little more patience. Won’t be long. The world will be a better place when this is over.

Read more …

Trump demands NO NUKES; not maybe, not halfway.. They can anwser yes or no. New proposals are useless.

• Iran Offers New Proposal To Reopen Strait – Trump Open To Deal Via Phone (ZH)

Running a little ahead of schedule, Sunday evening brought this week’s infusion of pre-Monday-open optimism about prospects of ending the US-Israel war on Iran. Axios’ Barak Ravid, a veteran of Israeli intelligence who routinely posts anonymously-sourced scoops, reported that Iran has presented a new proposal for opening the Strait of Hormuz and ending the shooting — though Iran’s concept includes a potential non-starter via a proposed postponement of nuclear negotiations. No details were reported, beyond the notion of either an extended ceasefire or permanent end of the war that would accompany a full reopening of the strait.


Earlier on Sunday, President Trump said face-to-face discussions with the Iranians weren’t essential to ending the war. “If they want to talk, they can come to us, or they can call us. You know, there is a telephone. We have nice, secure lines,” he told Fox News. “They know what has to be in the ` agreement. It’s very simple: They cannot have a nuclear weapon; otherwise, there’s no reason to meet.” Sunday’s micro-dose of hope capped a weekend in which negotiations were perceived as grinding to a clear stalemate marked by a lack of warfare but also a continued choking of traffic through the vital Strait of Hormuz. On Saturday, Trump’s lead negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, were poised to travel to Islamabad for another round of negotiations with the Iranians when Trump nixed their trip at the last minute.

Iranian Foreign Minister Shuttles Between Pakistan, Oman, Russia
Iran’s Fars news agency reported that Araghchi has “conveyed written messages regarding Iran’s red lines to the American side through Pakistani intermediaries.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has been on the go. On Saturday, he left Pakistan after meeting with Pakistan’s military chief, Asim Munir, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar. On parting, Araghchi said he’d had a “very fruitful visit,” while cautioning it’s unclear “if the US is truly serious about diplomacy.” Then he was off to Oman for talks centered on re-opening the strait — which lies between the two countries — then back to Pakistan. By Monday, Araghchi was in St Petersburg, Russia for discussions with President Putin. Commenting on the relationship via X, Iran’s envoy in Russia said:

“Iran and Russia are present in a united front in the campaign of the world’s totalitarian forces against independent and justice-seeking countries, as well as countries that seek a ` world free from unilateralism and Western domination.”Trump: Iranian Oil Infrastructure In Peril From Limited Capacity Trump told Fox News on Sunday that the US blockade on traffic to and from Iranian ports is putting major pressure on the country’s export infrastructure: “When you have, you know, lines of vast amounts of oil pouring through your system, if for any reason that line is closed because you can’t continue to put it into containers or ships, which has happened to them — they have no ships because of the blockade — what happens is that line explodes from within, both mechanically and in the earth.”

“It’s something that happens where it just explodes. And they say they only have about three days left before that happens. And when it explodes, you can never, regardless, you can never rebuild it the way it was.” That approximate scenario has also been outlined by the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute. “Once the tanks are filled, Iran would have to shut down its oil fields, which risks long-term damage to the fields,” AEI’s Annika Ganzeveld told the New York Post. A worst-case scenario doesn’t only imperil Iran’s economy, but also threatens to put more upward pressure on global energy prices. Analysts differ on how much time Iran has before a forced shutdown of production — with estimates ranging from mere days to seven weeks.

Read more …

NO nukes and NO control of the Strait.

• Bessent: IRGC Leaders ‘Trapped’ Like ‘Drowning Rats’ By US Blockade (ZH)

In the early evening of Monday, well after markets closed, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued the following on X (below), describing IRGC leaders as now “trapped like drowning rats” amid the enduring US naval blockade of Iranian ports, which will soon result in gasoline shortages and anger – and potential protests leading to uprising (according to US desires and aims). Also here is where things stand on the stalled negotiations, and an early hint of the potential White House reaction, per WSJ:


Iran has presented regional mediators with a new offer to stop its attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for a full end to the war, including the U.S.’s lifting of its naval blockade of Iranian ports and the postponement of nuclear negotiations, according to officials familiar with the matter. nThe proposal, presented by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during his tour of the region and Pakistan over the weekend, is designed to break the deadlock in the conflict and set talks back in motion, the people said. President Trump and his national-security team are skeptical of Iran’s offer, U.S. officials said. Trump previously said negotiations could happen over the phone instead of in person.

And: “Trump held discussions with aides Monday morning about the offer. While he didn’t reject it outright, officials said Trump sounded notes about Iran not dealing in good faith or being willing to meet his key demand: ending nuclear enrichment and vowing never to make a nuclear weapon.”

Meanwhile..

Rubio: ‘Will Not Tolerate’ Iran Control of Strait
The latest via WSJ on what Iran is proposing, centered on immediately lifting the US naval blockade on Iranian ports: Iran has presented regional mediators with a new offer to stop its attacks in the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for a full end to the war and a lifting of the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, according to officials familiar with the matter. The proposal, presented by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during his tour of the region and Pakistan over the weekend, is designed to break the deadlock in the conflict and set talks back in motion, the people said. It would see discussions about Iran’s nuclear program shelved. Washington hasn’t responded to the proposal, one of the people said. Iran’s mission to the United Nations didn’t respond to a request for comment.

But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told Fox News on Monday that the US will not tolerate Iran controlling or establishing a toll system in the Strait of Hormuz. Rubio further asserted that the strait would remain open either through international pressure or a coalition-led effort. Just days ago Iran began declaring that the first toll passage funds had been successfully transferred to the Central Bank of Iran, after Trump stated the US won’t allow a toll system. Rubio further said the US will not normalize the Iranians being essentially a gatekeeper, with countries seeking permission from Iran.

Read more …

A theme that will grow in importance as we go along,

“Inside Chuck Grassley’s office there is an investigative team that every GOP senator and congressman will admit consists of the very best researchers and knowledgeable staff..”

• Senator Chuck Grassley’s Office Requests Answers from DOJ and FBI (CTH)

First, it becomes very important for people to understand some of the inside baseball in Washington DC circles in order to hold context for what has been made public today by the office of Senator Chuck Grassley. Inside Chuck Grassley’s office there is an investigative team that every GOP senator and congressman will admit consists of the very best researchers and knowledgeable staff officials on how the Deep State operates. Grassley’s office is the venue, the vehicle or vessel, for those investigators to operate; Chuck Grassley is not organizing this group – he facilitates it.

Just as Robert Mueller served as the figurehead holding the legislatively authorized power of the special counsel—while the actual investigative work was carried out by his team—Chuck Grassley similarly acts as a symbolic leader, with the real action happening within the organization he oversees. Mueller at 75-years old (2019) was to the special counsel as Grassley at 93-years old (2026) is to senatorial inquiry.

That said, today the office of Senator Chuck Grassley sent a dispatch of connected information about Hillary Clinton from DOJ/FBI files retrieved over the past several years as part of a longer-term investigation. Grassley’s office released the FBI Washington Field Office’s 12-page “electronic communication” (EC) that opened a preliminary investigation into the Clinton Foundation. [SEE HERE] They also released a trove of documents showing overwhelming evidence of pay-to-play criminal activity by the Clinton family and emphasize lack of response from the DOJ which highlights both politicalization and weaponization of information by the Department of Justice and FBI.

The FBI and DOJ buried the investigations of Hillary Clinton, yet the evidence of corruption was simply overwhelming. With time running out on their ability to retain the venue, in essence Grassley’s office is urgently asking the DOJ and FBI, how could this not have been prosecuted?

Chuck Grassley, who turns 93 in September, has served in the U.S. Senate for 45 years. Grassley has spent more than 50 years in Congress overall, having served in the U.S. House from 1975 to 1981 before being elected to his first term as senator. In 2022, Grassley was elected to an eighth term, winning against Democratic challenger Michael Franken with 56% of the vote — a smaller margin of victory than in many of his previous elections. He will be 95 by the time his current term ends in 2028.

Currently, Grassley serves as president pro tempore of the Senate, in addition to being the Senate Judiciary Committee chair. I strongly doubt there will be another Grassley term in office and given the stakes of the 2026 midterm election it looks like the people in his office are trying to push out as much information as possible while it can still do some good. I would bet you a donut this is the correct context to view this information flow.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/2048534614755467353?s=20 https://twitter.com/Gitmo99/status/2048574878026985630?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Home › Forums › Debt Rattle April 28 2026

Viewing 32 posts - 1 through 32 (of 32 total)
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  • April 28, 2026 at 9:48 am #239474
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

    Johannes Vermeer Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window 1657-59 • A Feral and Savage Party (James Howard Kunstler) • No Conspiracy Required (Stephen
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle April 28 2026]

    April 28, 2026 at 9:55 am #239475
    those darned kids
    Participant

    The Automatic Zionist

    April 28, 2026 at 11:29 am #239504
    Just Some Randomer
    Participant

    “NO nukes and NO control of the Strait.”

    And a pink pony too? Why not?

    April 28, 2026 at 11:34 am #239505
    Dr. D
    Participant


    Probably true. No warranties. The entire West believes this, this is the natural and inevitable end state. There is nothing here yet alarming them and activating anyone’s sense of moral Right and Wrong.

    No markets anywhere yet. Dow is high AF, has been for decades, what can you say? US$, no change. Gold and silver building long term patterns. Oil blah, nothing. Probably because none of the markets are real and are disconnected from delivery price.

    So if anything exists out there, markets don’t show it yet.

    What we KNOW is happening is, the longer Iran is closed, the more money flows are habituated to flow through Texas and NY, (Actually Miami) and stop flowing to London and Zurich long-term. And UAE. These are like…tidal flows, I guess, and can’t be minimized bc that’s all that makes the US$ function either: Habit. So now we are in the HABIT of ignoring Iran long-term.

    Rumor has it, they ALREADY cut a deal, in FEBRUARY, just like Maduro did. Okay, we know these things DO happen, but you got a lot of war to explain in that case. So WHO cut the deal? Cuz it looks like whoever would have ordered the U.S. to bomb the s—t out of the IRGC alone (we did) with a quid pro quo they would bomb the S—t out of Israel for us (they did). And that we would leave our bases in the M.E. (looks like) and kill the “radar” that may have been the HAARP stations that have been causing Iranian drought(remains to be seen, if it starts raining, would be a big coincidence).

    I got nothin’ on this. No idea, only that it’s certainly possible because the OFFICIAL story that Iran is making us rich out of clever strategy after we leveled them makes NO sense at all. Here’s one though: why NOT, as a condition of peace, allow Iran to charge an official toll as other nations do (Panama)? Idgaf. Who cares? if it’s reasonable. No one. Then Iran gets money directly and Lloyd’s has nothing to insure there. Win-win. This would be a great “Win” for Iran to triumph!!!!!! over Capt Cheeto, when really it means literally nothing. Iran IS a country. They DO need to have revenue. They WILL sell oil, so what’s the dif if they also secure the strait so long as they are trustworthy and don’t use it to attack all their neighbors like they have all this month.

    So they’re attacking Turkey and that’s okay? Like we’re attacking Iran, but slipped and dropped a few bombs in Montreal by accident? What would you say to that? A: When Iran does it, it’s fine. When Iran bombs children, they are not real children, because: Internet points.

    “Iran War Ignites Global Financial Armageddon UNZ

    As a reporter, markets indicate the very exact #Opposite. Being aware of that and not being #DeadWrong is something reporters and experts used to do. In fact, some American stocks are going straight up.

    “we need a feral, bloodthirsty, violent Democrat.”
    these words were reposted by Bill Kristol, the founder of the Weekly Standard and the current editor-in-chief of The Bulwark. Kristol was a leading conservative figure in the Republican Party. Kristol left the Republican Party and is now a vehemently anti-Trump writer.”

    Kristol is the poster child for NeoCons. He’s the arch enemy of Trump. This of course, means that Trump is a NeoCOn, and his enthusiastic endorsement for the assassination is because NeoCons and Globalists all go around shooting…themselves. That’s #Winning, you know, when they’re the same team. Kristol is also radically Pro-Israel, iirc, so clearly whatever Trump is doing appears to be the Opposite of that to him. Nutsy used to hang out in Jersey with the Kristols, iirc, plotting exactly what many here say: to have the U.S. be their slave and minion and checkbook.
    And they hate Trump with the heat of 1,000 suns.

    Any gears turning here? And sparks going off?

    Trump is their “Club” he’s their waterboy, doing only what they want daily…which is why they try to kill him daily.

    …Why do I bother? I’ve now said this every day for 10 years that a thing and it’s Opposite are not the same, and every day, Day 32, makes no difference, has no effect. Reason, Facts, logic, have no hold at all.

    Article continues: “James Carville declared, “If the Democrats win the presidency and both houses of Congress, I think on day one, they should expand the Supreme Court to 13. F— it. Eat our dust. Don’t run on it. Don’t talk about it. Just do it.”

    They have ALREADY done this, in 20 ways before now. VA just ignored their whole Constitution, in main, and all bylaws, to pack their already astonishingly gerrymandered state (look at any map) to be 10:1 against when it’s 50-50 on the ground. Election law being one, immigration being another. But this is only Democrats, Republicans act the same, right? Well, Thune is getting out of bed to come put the Senate in session for two minutes at 2am in order to keep Trump from having recess appointments, and refusing to seat the 90 prosecutors all American Republicans want there to prosecute crime, Epstein, etc, and upholding election fraud, stopping even mild, normal bills that say “It’s Okay to have an ID”. This goes back to Gingrich. So no, Republicans are NOT running the same tricks. We just call them the SLOW Democrats, the SLOW Communists. Democrats like AOC and Omar go as fast as they can to Stalinism. Republicans exist as the “Fabian Socialists” insuring the pace remains slow enough it doesn’t alarm anyone and American keep ingesting the poison daily and willingly. It has been working wonderfully for 60+ years.

    “AI Needs Silver… Silver Isn’t Moving (Yet)

    Demand dos not mean price rises. In fact, there can be dead shortages in critical materials and prices never rise. This happens regularly in silver.

    “Germany’s Merz Says US ‘Humiliated’ By Iranians & Trump Lacks Strategy, Exit Plan

    I don’t understand. Did something happen? We are flying over every inch of their country from coast to coast with impunity and have shut off their ports and revenue without landing a soldier. The shooting war has been over for 20 days, Iran is not hitting anything in eg Israel. They’re out. Strange humiliation to beat a nation of 90M in 20 days, have them by the neck and shake them, and it’s called “Losing”. How?

    A: My Feelz Wants It. “We Make S–t Up.”

    “Israel Bombs Deep Into Lebanon For First Time Of 3-Week Ceasefire

    What “ceasefire” means to Israel. And what American threats mean to Israel as well. As expected. We should annoy Tehran again on the quid pro quo they hit N. Israel.

    “They hate President Trump because he will not comply with their ‘Rules-based Order’.”

    Notice who is NOT getting assassination attempts: Everyone. Thune, McConnell, Jordan, Roberts, etc.

    “Bret Baier: “You have been called a Nazi, a white supremacist, a fascist. Just to name a few.”

    Quite a thing to say to an Immigrant and America’s most prominent African-American! Why do they hate Africans and Immigrants so much? The only people they hate more are Hindus, Samoans, Women, and men with immigrant wives.

    But: HATE, so the side of the angels, you know.

    “Don’t you love the way the news media pretends it can’t figure out the motive of Cole Tomas Allen,”

    Hate again. And LOVE of violence. Yes, I was going to remark on that, “Suspected” Assassin, “Unknown motives”, “unknown plan.” No, that’s not the usual language for this, not historically, and certainly not since 2016 when Trump or a Republican eating carrots means he hates carrots and wants them all to die. Anyone within 100 miles of DC on J6 is summarily jailed. (Tarrio was nearly this far away, an FBI informant) They seem to know the motive and plan with no trial at all.

    But: Adult Americans spoke; Therefore they were lying. Open mouth: Lie fell out. But when Fox News speaks, CNN, it’s totally different. Despite having lied mostly for 25 years since 2002 – all provable – nothing happened at all, nothing changed, no one apologized, but like the CIA because nothing happened and no one was held accountable, they all tell the truth now starting this Monday, just now.

    It’s not THAT they lie that gets me. It’s that after 25 years without a single breath devoid of lying PEOPLE STILL CAN’T CATCH ON. Everybody proven wrong for a lifetime are still experts and quoted with breathless, starry-eyed puppy love. Aw Backstreet Bois, you’re the best! Justin Timberlake 4 Evah! Except for Fox News. Ew.

    ““I experience rage thinking about everything this administration has done,”

    He had the feelz. This went as well as it usually does, and Rage is definitely the side of the angels, as is mass murder. When you have the Feelz, there’s no choice! It’s okay to kill people then!

    Speaking of, at the bottom of this article (on the site) is the legacy of Democrats: a doctor was giving out Covid force-vaccination, “I was an untested medical experiment today”, and although avoiding jail, she owes a $10,000 fine. This is the Freedom and goal they have for all of you. This is the “Democracy” they are protecting and believe in. Every word of Covid (essentially) was a lie, all done by the same people, who we all credit now as being earnest good-faith actors.

    “assassin Cole Allen’s manifesto and social media posts is that they’re “generally indistinguishable from most liberal social medial accounts belonging to Democrat voters in America.” Dems, you have a problem.”

    That’s not a problem, that’s a plan. The plan is to destroy the United States and everything it stands for, from the face of the earth, forever. (And install techno neofeudalism) They are happy and excited they are finally here, at the “shooting and killing everyone” part. Especially shooting and killing the dirty Proletariat workers widely the scum. Plus the poors. Yuck. 100M dead in the 20th century remember, so they are way behind!

    “@RepJeffries called for “Maximum Warfare Everywhere All The Time,”

    This is not just talk. This is their dream well-proven by 80 years of non-stop actions. This is the “Eternal Revolution” where new people must be killed daily in the outbreak of brotherly love…against the poors.

    “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”

    Pic
    What happens to real journalists, from:

    That is, Leftists kill them. The only enemy is Truth.

    “Donald Trump came out of this weekend a lot bigger than he went in. A lot.

    Doesn’t look like any change at all to me. If anything Democrats are excited and motivated by the potential for murder. I’d say not a good look, but they turn to the Democrat next to them, who agrees.

    “• Again, Fetterman Breaks Ranks After the Third Attempt on Trump’s Life (Manney)

    Imagine: An elected government official who doesn’t think we should just let the public shoot all elected officials! What will Democrats discover next? I don’t mean to pick on only Democrats, obviously, but: LOOK! They are in favor of killing…themselves? WTF.

    Yes, because all violence is good violence. …When that is the true goal and religion of your god.

    “Jimmy Kimmel was also despicable about the Charlie Kirk assassination.”

    Shirley is also regularly threatened to be “Kirked”. Which shows two parts: one the death threat, yes. Second, the people sending it are proud and elated at murder. Of basically anyone. With no process. They are happy, when they speak of it, they have joy and emotional excitement at the mere thought of murder, death, brains blown against the wall, on Kirk’s wife, blood spattering all over her children, delightful! Happy claps! My god rejoices!

    “• Charlottesville: The Deceit Underlying the Hoax (Steve Cortes)
    “Now, nearly a decade later, the truth is revealed about the deception that lay beneath that grand lie”

    Nope. No one will believe it or care. I deal with liberals all the time. They will just tune it out as the words are being spoken, and it will never register. I’m sure no one thought back in 2017 it would take this level, this saga, to clear something so obvious a single click could fix, yet here we are. …And still no one will click, “Fine People Hoax”, even as it’s in the ultra far-left, “Snopes” as an actual, total hoax. The level to which reality doesn’t matter, sadly only the evil people really understood. Set a calendar appointment, ask someone about this in a week: it will have never happened.

    “The Greek government announced a major crackdown to close down approximately 60 unlicensed or illegal mosques”

    Speaking of fascism: so religious people are not allowed to meet anywhere without the government’s express permission? What is the basis of this law? So if me and a friend are in Tim Horton’s and a Bible passage comes up, we’ll be arrested?

    Planting: demonstrates if you have infinity money and add infinity time and care, you can grow a potato that costs 5c. All these methods add plastic, get soil from WalMart trucks, and require daily hand-watering from a hose. Also as AI, the real ones would be far less pretty. It will work however, and we may be driven to it if Europe and the solar people have their way.

    April 28, 2026 at 11:47 am #239506
    those darned kids
    Participant

    The Automatic Gibberist

    April 28, 2026 at 12:04 pm #239507
    tboc
    Participant

    don’t kill the messenger

    My Back Pages


    Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
    Too noble to neglect
    Deceived me into thinking
    I had something to protect
    Good and bad, I define these terms
    Quite clear, no doubt, somehow
    Ah, but I was so much older then
    I’m younger than that now

    April 28, 2026 at 12:19 pm #239508
    tboc
    Participant

    congratulations to all of the Boomers who went along to get along

    every letter of every word that defines moral failure belongs to us

    Every person who buys into the rhetoric expressed in today’s TAE post is making another recurring payment to their plausible deniability fund.

    I’m Sure, They Did It !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    April 28, 2026 at 12:40 pm #239509
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    The mechanistic fallacy — Why the West so often fails at geo-politics
    Washington will not be able to think straight about Iran, and will opt for the wrong tactics.

    Contact us: info@strategic-culture.su

    Some fifteen years ago I wrote that western reliance on its lens of secular rationality was no longer adequate as a means to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It was becoming obvious — even then — that the future of the region would be one of wars increasingly defined by religious symbols: i.e. Al-Aqsa versus the Third Temple.

    Since then, things have moved on: In Israel, national elections in November 2022 brought a new leadership committed to founding Israel on the ‘Land of (Greater) Israel’; displacing the non-Jewish population and implementing Halachic law.

    The new government’s platform was an expression of an eschatological and messianic purpose with a teleology of pursuing a path toward messianic Redemption. It was not secular, nor couched in Enlightenment tones.

    My point then — and still is — that Western secular mechanistic ways of thinking will misunderstand these fundamental shifts. The West insists to apply its westernised conceptual precepts to something — Messianism and the pursuit of Redemption — that lies outside the frame of today’s post-modern western consciousness. We understand well enough power politics, but eschatology largely is a closed-book to most western seculars.

    The bottom line is that no purpose is served in trying to convince those absorbed by a messianic vision that their solution consists of a two-state political structure in historic Palestine. The former actually welcome Armageddon and the defeat it would portend for non-Jews.

    Nor can this be viewed as a passing phase, or a whim. Messianism has been a prominent, yet fluctuating, impulse in Judaism since Sabbatai Zevi (1660s) and Jacob Franks (18th century). (Some of its thinking filtered into European notions too, during the later Enlightenment period).

    Jewish historian and scholar, Gershom Scholem, correctly predicted that religious Zionism — which in recent decades has aligned with Likud and the settler movement — operates as a “militant,” “apocalyptic,” and “radical” messianic movement that tries to “force the end” by demanding that the state engage in, for example, massive territorial control — i.e. they demand territorial conquest for end-of-times reasons.

    Perhaps unsurprisingly, western mechanistic rationality however, has proved to be as much at a loss in its grasp of what motivates Iran as it is in understanding today’s Israel. The literal approach simply amputates any awareness of Iran’s deeper resistance and revolutionary anima.

    Rather, we choose to project onto Iran our image of the 19th century nation-state – – the concept of a state ruled by top-down, centralised government as the dominant, sometimes autocratic, vehicle of rule over which wider polities once were governed through other principles of legitimacy.

    In an interview in 1979 with Richard Falk, Ayatollah Khomeinei said plainly that the Revolution was a civilizational rather than a national triumph. He stressed that he felt that the basic community for all people in the Islamic world was civilizational and religious – – and not national and territorial. Khomeini explained that territorial sovereign states built around national identity did not form a natural community in the Middle East in the way they did in Europe.

    His insistent theme was to express the view that a government consistent with Islamic values could not be reliably established on democratic principles without it being subject to unelected religious guidance from top Islamic clerical scholars as the source of highest political authority.

    The repression of Islam (forced secularisation) and the destruction of the Caliphate pursued by Mustafa Kamal in the early 1900s had led Seyyed Qutub to preach revolutionary vanguardism until his execution in 1966. Qutb’s writings, but more particularly his Social Justice in Islam — coinciding with mass protests throughout the Muslim world at the partition of Palestine in 1947 — laid the principal groundwork for the revolutionary thinking that would emerge in Iran.

    For Iranians, this was a call to a return to an earlier way-of-being, with a storied lineage, reaching far back — one that reflects a more spiritual and inward transformation of the human: A world of hierarchical modes of consciousness and a disposition to fight against oppression, and to care for the dispossessed.

    Thus, to view Iran through the nation-state lens is to misread Iran. The limits of mechanistic thinking make it impossible for outsiders to grasp or predict the way ahead for Iran. Today, young Iranians are returning enthusiastically to the ethos encompassed in the 1979 Revolution. There is a new energy apparent in Iran — and it is radical. And its reverberations are spreading well beyond the borders of Iran.

    If we in the West want to hear and understand, then it would be wise to first hold up a mirror to ourselves. Are we truly so secular and rationally strategic as we believe?

    U.S. military historian Michael Vlahos, in a long essay — America is a Religion — points out that the U.S. itself is far from unaffected by the currents of messianic idealism, millenarianism and Manichaeism – – “This is an enduring theme whose deep current flows into Christianity”:

    “Since its founding, the United States has pursued, with burning religious fervour, a higher calling to redeem humanity, punish the wicked, and christen a golden millennium on earth. America has steadfastly hewed to its unique vision of divine mission as “God’s New Israel”.

    Of course, American ‘Civil Religion’ is inextricably linked with the Reformation, Calvinist Christianity, and Protestantism. “Although its scriptural reading became secular in the Progressive era, the American religion still remained tethered to its formative roots”, Vlahos argues.

    “Hence, America is not only “messianic” in character — as in, “possessed by passion and zeal” — but manifests an implicitly biblical vision proclaiming its faith in the predestined nature of its passage. A “chosen nation” divinely elected to act in the name of Providence as the world’s Redeemer”.

    However, as Vlahos tells it — like with the Zionists in Israel, in the last election — the U.S. had its moment of metamorphosis: It was triggered by 60 years (1963-2023) of repeated and unrequited battlefield débâcles:

    “Each episode [that was] waged to fulfil the prophecy of a global democratic millennium—and with each time, that dream slipped away”.

    Consequently, writes Vlahos, American messianism slid into “a Manichaean caricature of itself – in which American “good news” has been replaced by the ever-present spectre of Evil and the threat of force. The holy words, Freedom and Democracy, whilst still chanted, have become a hollow mantra”.

    “The American “gospel” no longer preaches about bringing redemption and expiation: it is now concerned with enforcement and punishment.

    “The volte-face came in an instant, on 9/11 — and with Guantanamo.

    “Almost overnight, America ditched “international rules” and “civilized norms”—and instead built out an archipelago of torture and arbitrary incarceration, without oversight or appeal”.

    Today, the U.S. is experiencing deep polarisation at home, whilst still pursuing conflicts overseas whose aims U.S. leaders try to connect to the redemptive narratives coined for service in the domestic struggle (i.e. validating the ‘Peace through Strength‘ meme) via the war on Iran. The U.S. establishment thus links ‘victory’ in a foreign war as the means to restore its political standing domestically and internationally. Michael Vlahos calls this duality “a mutually destructive dynamic”.

    It virtually assures that Washington will not be able to think straight about Iran, and will opt for the wrong tactics.

    April 28, 2026 at 1:00 pm #239510
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action.” —Ian Fleming

    And, after about the millionth time I think you have to call it culture.

    April 28, 2026 at 1:16 pm #239511
    John Day
    Participant

    ‘She is in a state of total shock’ – 12-year-old French girl collapses after judge releases 2 men arrested for gang raping her in an Airbnb
    “They can, if they wish, contact and visit the young girl whenever they want,” the girls lawyer warned. “Therefore, there is total incomprehension, not to mention anger, on the part of the family.” https://rmx.news/article/she-is-in-a-state-of-total-shock-12-year-old-french-girl-collapses-after-judge-releases-2-men-arrested-for-gang-raping-her-in-an-airbnb/

    April 28, 2026 at 1:35 pm #239512
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Iran should open a “Futures Market” in which they sell guarantees for delivery of bulk oil at whatever the prevailing price of oil is at time of delivery, BUT to be delivered ONLY AFTER all of Iran’s Security Demands are met.

    In other words, they tell the world that it can have all the oil it needs and wants, at fair value, just as soon as the United States and Israel remove their armed bandits out of Iran’s front yard.

    April 28, 2026 at 1:56 pm #239514
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    I think that the cognitive and emotional problem that ordinary Americans have the most difficulty wrapping their hearts and minds around (and which makes them look so stupid to the rest of the world) is the fact that the governments (at all levels, really, but mostly Federal) which they think they have elected to represent their interests see them as nothing but tokens or chips in a giant casino game where governments, corporations and other giant institutions gamble to see which player can acquire the most chips, and the perks that go with being big winners.

    To a fundamentally decent person, such deeply profound betrayal is simply not possible, and so they do not include it in their thinking.

    Recovery from such a state of oblivious ignorance is a long, slow and painful process… but it can be done.

    We’re in the process of doing that now…. and it hurts like Hell.

    April 28, 2026 at 2:08 pm #239515
    zerosum
    Participant

    “I understand life.” – Trump

    ——————

    I don’t see many people standing up generally in any Western country, and if you understand history they rarely do to affect change until they are hungry and impoverished.
    Posted by: GeorgeWendell

    (Does ” standing up ” mean/include – Hate, revenge, anger, killing, rage, chaos, survival, stealing, secrets, conspiracy, power, control, army, assassinations, )

    —————

    History keeps repeating itself…
    The pattern is undeniable.
    ———–

    “Reject the idea that violence has any place in OUR democracy” – Obama

    (Who is included and excluded in “OUR”)
    ————–

    Jimmy Kimmel delivered a fake White House Correspondents Dinner speech, saying “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
    ————–
    Allen’s manifesto made it clear he has fallen for the lies of the Democrats, radicalized by their rhetoric — including Barack Obama’s.

    https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2026/04/27/i-cant-believe-obama-said-this-about-the-latest-trump-assassination-attempt-n4952235
    by Matt Margolis

    There’s just one huge problem with Obama’s statement. We already knew the shooter’s motive at this point. Obama posted his statement at 5:15 p.m. EDT on Sunday, and the shooter’s manifesto and its contents were first published late Sunday morning.

    So by the time Obama decided to weigh in, the manifesto had been in the public domain for several hours, and his anti-Trump motives were already widely reported.

    Here’s what Cole Allen’s manifesto said:
    https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2026/04/26/the-whca-dinner-shooter-had-an-anti-trump-manifesto-heres-what-it-says-n4952217
    ————–
    Where is the money coming from ?
    Lower the selling price. Increase the investments.
    https://justthenews.com/government/white-house/trumps-pharma-policies-are-making-small-town-pharmacies-great-again
    ———-

    April 28, 2026 at 6:32 pm #239519
    tboc
    Participant

    1. here is an exercise in following the corruption in the US. Follow the mainstreet economy and real wages ffrom Kemp/Roth to TARP/AARA. Remember the words spoken with utter disdain – “Should’ve Planned Better”?
    Did you weather the housing cycles from Commonweath in 1972, through 1983 to 2007? Did you think you were so clever surfing the inflation wave? Did you buy into the “Greed is Good” immoralilty? Did you cast aspersions onto the rising tide of poverty in the US? Were you one of the moralists who conjured up the notion that lack of success was proof of moral failing?
    Did you accept the nightly news was true? Did you ever listen to talk radio and agree with the ignorant ravings of reactionary propagandists?
    “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” Norquist. Remember G.W. Bush reshaped the US security state. Downsizing of the highest order. Might i be so bold as to surmise the age of digital ID was born at that time?
    Did you ever respond to the lowest common denominator disparaging any segment of society? Do you have that mindset today?

    What has left you with impression you are not engaged in the same behavior now? Do you really believe the Youtube content creators have any more access to the tip of the information pyramid than you?

    2. Dr. John do you believe that MK Ultra ended? Do you think that MK Ultra was just rebranded and compartmentalized into another hidden agenda? Do you believe MK Ultra even existed?
    When, and if, we learn about Cole’s childhood, his parents and his schooling and extra curricular activities then we can have some idea where his actions originated. MK Ultra has touched your life whether you know it or not.

    “Another lesson about a naive fool who came to Babylon, and found out that the pie don’t taste so sweet.” ~ Dwight Yoakam – Guitars, Cadillacs and Hillbilly Music

    There must be self-governing individuals for a self-govening nation to exist. Look around.

    April 28, 2026 at 6:52 pm #239520
    those darned kids
    Participant

    That’s funny — I was thinking just today they should be called babylonyists, not zionists

    April 28, 2026 at 11:06 pm #239521
    WES
    Participant

    Obama & EU:

    Nice to see that Obama’s “Our Democracy” is exactly the same as Europe’s “Democracy Shield”.

    Democracy = Slavery!

    Indicted:

    The Indicted are the ones who will not be convicted of any crime, because they are being prosecuted in Washington, D C!

    When has a criminal ever been convicted of any crime, by their Washington DC criminal peers?

    Mark Twain couldn’t remember anyone being convicted, either!

    An honest man being run out of town on the rails?
    Yes.

    April 28, 2026 at 11:26 pm #239522
    John Day
    Participant

    Queried TBOC:
    “Dr. John do you believe that MK Ultra ended? Do you think that MK Ultra was just rebranded and compartmentalized into another hidden agenda? Do you believe MK Ultra even existed?
    When, and if, we learn about Cole’s childhood, his parents and his schooling and extra curricular activities then we can have some idea where his actions originated. MK Ultra has touched your life whether you know it or not.”

    A: MK-Ultra was subsumed, morphed and rebranded. I do not discount it at all. I believe Sirhan Sirhan was an output of that project, for instance, as RFK Jr also appears to.

    It does not clarify what happened with Cole Allen. It is not excluded, nor included.
    He seems to have been high functioning and idealistic, not writing “Kill Kennedy” mantras in notebooks, as Sirhan did.
    I await further news.
    (It looks like he fired one shotgun shell while running and fell down from it.)

    April 28, 2026 at 11:27 pm #239523
    John Day
    Participant

    Unbearable Tension https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/unbearable-tension

    What will be the next move in the Strait of Hormuz” The tension is stressing every player except Russia.
    Iran needs revenue, and the clock is ticking on storage capacity before wells have to be shut down, which will permanently impair their productive capacity upon re-start. The Iranian people live in austerity, and have just been asked to further conserve electricity.
    Israel needs to be winning upon some war front to sustain internal political coherence and resolve. Lebanon is not looking like that front, as fiber-optic drone attacks from hezbollah are taking a heavy toll on Israeli armor and infantry, as they did in Ukraine a year ago. The defense is drone-nets covering transport routes, but that scarcely works for the Israeli operation to demolish south Lebanon by making every town and farm unliveable. Israel is expanding outposts in Syria, the least defended border right now. Perhaps Syria will never get fiber-optic FPV drones? Turkey is the rising regional rival to Israel, and makes advanced drones of several sorts. Turkey is thought to manage the current Syrian government as a strategic asset. Turkey might not mind bleeding Israel in a Syrian proxy war.
    It is widely reported that Israel has been warned-off using nuclear weapons against Iran, but the reports say the US prevented it by bombing Iran, and that Russia and Pakistan have warned Israel, so it is not clear what threats Israel actually does face if it chooses to nuke Iran.
    Israel would much prefer that the US further attack Iran for them. Can Israel set up a convincing false flag attack to kill American troops and induce an American invasion of Iran? American ships keep playing with the 300 km distance mark from Iran’s coast, just outside missile range.
    Can Israel attack an American ship, like the Iwo Jima, full of Marines, with a submarine launched missile, as they purportely tried to pull off near Cyprus? Would this be tolerated by the US this time?
    The Trump Admin. really needs 6 months to buff the domestic economy before October midterm elections, so some resolution really needs to be put in place before June. Good news for stocks and oil prices every Friday may be played-out already. WTI is over $100/bbl already.
    Trump needs to declare victory and get out. That’s what commanders of Naval and Air Forces arereportedly telling him. “Don’t grab the tar-baby”. the best way out is to not go in again. Trump is postoring and feinting with forces along Iran’s coast, but Iran does not want to give any justification for an overwhelming US response.
    Iran has up to mid May before all oil storage is filled, and they have to shut down wells. That really makes mid May a final breaking point for both Iran and the Trump admin.
    Israel needs some form of military progress or a US commitment to attack Iran harder than ever before mid May. Do they want to turn Syria into another war of attrittion like Lebanon? Is there anything more they can do to Gaza and the West Bank? Can they convince the US to act on an Israeli false-flag attack as a justification for getting into a forever-war in Iran? (Will Israel have to admit that Netanyahu is dead? No, never that! What would happen if Israelis started demanding that he appear in court?)
    Europe, Asia and Oceana are starving for oil, natural gas, fertilizers, sulfur and helium, and the worst is about to hit, so the crisis is already building, and it is already breaking down the UAE financially.
    Iran’s Foreign Minister Araghchi visited Oman, which holds the other side of the Strait of Hormuz and agreed to joint-custody and tto split transit-tolls. Marco Rubio said that’s “not acceptible, because it is like Iran having a nuclear weapon”. He then retrenched and said that a real nuclear weapon capability was the real decision-point. Iran could not have nuclear-weapon capability. The enriched-uranium has to be removed. This appears to leave an opening, intended or not, for Iran to park the highly enriched Uranium in Russia right away, removing that consideration from a deal to open the Strait, collect tolls, and let the “Spice Flow” again.
    A deal with Iran would pull the rug out from under Israel. What is the real strength of the Israeli control over the US government? What would break first?

    Michael Hudson, Postponing the World’s Financial Winter – For How Long? Iran’s MAD Standoff with the Rest of the World
    We are seeing the economic version of what the 1960s called Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).1 The term referred to the military standoff that avoided the global Nuclear Winter that would have occurred if the world’s leading powers had used atomic weapons against each other…
    ..In the 1960s it was understood that an atomic attack by either of the major powers would not be survivable by them in meaningful terms. But today’s economic version of MAD has no such restraint on America’s floundering attempts to reverse the loss of its economic power that has left it with few major levers to exert control over other countries. Its main leverage is its ability to threaten countries with economic and financial chaos, by closing off the U.S. market to their exports and by blocking their access to oil and gas from Russia, Iran and (until just recently) Venezuela in its drive to force reliance on its own energy supplies and Arab OPEC oil under its control.
    This threat of trade disruption has worked best against America’s closest allies…
    ..Trump has stated that opening the Strait of Hormuz to restore OPEC exports is not America’s job or even in its interest, as it is not a major customer for this oil and gas. He has criticized Europeans who are most in need of oil for not mounting their own suicidal attack on securing islands in the Strait, knowing full well from his military advisors that such soldiers would be sitting ducks for the Iranian defenses in place. Evidently his Plan B is to let the Strait remain closed, assuming that the U.S. economy will be less seriously affected than those of other countries.
    Arab oil-exporting countries as well as Western governments have complained to Iran that it is unfair to make them suffer, inasmuch as the U.S. and Israeli attacks are not their war. Western Europe was not consulted, and Spain and Italy have refused to permit U.S. use of their air bases to mount attacks on Iran. Japan recently has made the same claim to be an innocent bystander.
    But these countries all are part of the U.S. drive to control the entire world’s diplomacy by weaponizing (with the backing of military force) the dollar-based financial system, the oil trade and foreign access to U.S. markets and America’s control of the United Nations, IMF, World Bank and other international institutions to prevent resistance to the U.S.-centered extractive economic system. And this economic and political diplomacy is driving the world toward World War III…
    ..By acting as a major catalyst for reshaping the international order, Iran has made itself a world power – not a major military power, or even an economic power as an investor nation or market, but a moral and political power pushing the world to create an alternative international order…
    ..To the United States, the threat is that foreign sovereignty and economic self-sufficiency may reduce its ability to force other countries to pay it financial tribute and subordinate themselves politically. https://www.democracycollaborative.org/whatwethink/iran-mad-standoff

    The Honest Sorcerer notes that America supplying Europe will drain America: The Myth of American Energy Independence – Make America Drained Again
    The United States has been a net energy exporter since 2019, meaning that it has been selling more energy abroad (in terms of Btu) than it imported for more than six years now. However, that doesn’t mean that the US has become import independent—quite to the contrary. In 2024, for example, America produced 13.2 million barrels of oil a day1 on average and imported an additional 6.6 million barrels on top. At the same time only 4.1 million barrels a day were exported. In strict barrel to barrel terms the US was a net importer of crude oil in 2024, and still is to this very day. However, with the arrival of an armada of tankers to US shores in April-May, this is about to change… Say goodbye to moderate price increases (compared to the rest of the world) and also to US strategic petroleum reserves. America is about to be sold out. https://thehonestsorcerer.substack.com/p/the-myth-of-american-energy-independence

    Larry Johnson drops a BOMBSHELL The Air Force and Navy commanders under CENTCOM have both told leadership that we should not restart this thing. Our best option is to get out and get out now.
    This has gone up to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Larry: “If that holds up, we’re essentially looking at the end of the war. They’ll figure out a political exit.
    If Trump overrules them and orders them to attack – it’s gonna be devastating for the US and for Israel.” The military is telling the president to stop. https://x.com/i/status/2048534645231521839

    BREAKING: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Saint Petersburg early Monday morning to meet Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov. The visit closed a forty-eight hour shuttle through Islamabad twice, Muscat once, and Riyadh and Doha by phone. CNN reported, citing Iran’s ambassador to Moscow, that Russia has offered to take custody of Iran’s enriched uranium, proposing to store or reprocess it on Russian soil. That is the structural reveal Pakistan delivered to Washington yesterday. Iran’s offer through Pakistani mediators per Axios was to reopen Hormuz and end the war while postponing nuclear talks to a later stage. The headlines are reading sequencing. The Saint Petersburg meeting is reading custody…
    ..Araghchi did not fly to Saint Petersburg to consolidate an alliance. He flew to confirm the custody, the air defense, and the drone production lines that turn the Pakistani-mediated proposal into a deliverable agreement. Putin holds three pieces of leverage Trump’s blockade cannot replicate. The only depository for Iranian uranium that Tehran will accept. The only post-war air defense rebuild contract already signed. The drone production architecture without which Iran has no kinetic option remaining if the talks collapse.
    The 2025 Comprehensive Strategic Partnership signed January 17 deliberately omitted a mutual defense clause precisely so Russia could play this role: broker rather than belligerent, custodian rather than combatant. https://x.com/i/status/2048622470580855145

    April 28, 2026 at 11:29 pm #239524
    John Day
    Participant

    Gold & Geopolitics, Daily digest: 2026-04-28
    Iran-US stalemate escalates toward potential military resumption. Trump holds Situation Room meeting with top national security team. Iran’s “new proposal” via Pakistani mediators focuses on ending the war and reopening the Strait, but postpones nuclear talks – the exact issue Trump insists on. Multiple sources confirm Trump is “dissatisfied”…
    ..Iran has 12-22 days of oil storage left per Kpler. Crude exports collapsed ~70% from 1.85M bpd to ~567K bpd since blockade. Goldman estimates 2.5M bpd already curtailed…
    ..S&P 500 closes at all-time high, up +13.6% from March 30 bottom. This while economic confidence index is below April 2020 pandemic levels and 60% of Americans worry about affording groceries…
    ..Iran FM Araghchi flew to Moscow on a plane named after the 168 Minab schoolgirls killed by the US. Met Putin, who praised Iran’s “courageous and heroic” defence. Araghchi also met Russian Defence Minister Belousov. Iran-Russia-Pakistan military officials held separate talks in Kyrgyzstan
    Iran told mediators it won’t back down from Hormuz control…
    ..Chinese crude inven..tories fell by less than 1M barrels since war began, still at ~1.8B barrels. Iranian crude purchases rising to record ~1.9M bpd this month. China’s SPR barely impacted – Russia being the obvious reason…
    ..OpenAI unravelling – CFO Sarah Friar privately warned OpenAI may not be able to pay future computing contracts. Has been excluded from infrastructure meetings by Altman
    Missed target of 1B weekly active users. ChatGPT web traffic share collapsed from 86.7% to 64.5% as Gemini surged to 21.5%
    OpenAI deleted its AGI clause the morning of the Musk trial – the one provision preventing it from becoming a regular corporation…
    ..Hezbollah tactical evolution in southern Lebanon – Fiber-optic FPV drones with RPG warheads targeting Merkava tanks, IDF evacuation forces, and medevac helicopters. Seven soldiers killed/wounded in single Taybah operation
    Hezbollah activated martyrdom squads for hand-to-hand combat, deploying 1980s-style tactics across occupied southern Lebanon per DD Geopolitics
    Hezbollah message to Israel: no security zone will protect them once they decide to deploy these weapons
    Israel bombing five towns in southern Lebanon, destroying villages, targeting solar panels in Christian villages. Casualty toll: 2,491 killed, 7,719 wounded since March 2…
    ..UAE demanded $3.5B loan repayment from Pakistan over Iran mediation role, threatening a fifth of central bank reserves. Saudi stepped in with $3B. The Saudi-UAE rift widens. https://no1sdailydigest.substack.com/p/daily-digest-2026-04-28

    Gold & Geopolitics, Daily digest: 2026-04-27
    WHCD assassination attempt on Trump — Cole Thomas Allen, 31, California teacher, breached security at Washington Hilton with shotgun, handgun, and knives… Suspect in custody, charged with two felonies. Published manifesto calling Trump “pedophile, rapist, and traitor”. Security was near-zero — no bag checks, no magnetometers. Multiple sources confirm he assembled weapons in his hotel room the night before.
    VP Vance evacuated before Trump, raising questions…
    ..WHCD security failures and political fallout – Daily Beast editor in adjacent hotel room: “Nobody even looked at my luggage” — no magnetometers, no hand checks, no ID checks
    Allen’s manifesto: detailed target prioritization (admin officials highest, Secret Service only if necessary), described “sense of arrogance” in security, assembled weapons in hotel room night before
    Shooter was CalTech graduate, mechanical engineer, teacher of the month, funded Ukrainian military on Bluesky, posted 1000+ anti-Trump messages…
    ..Mali under coordinated jihadist assault — al-Qaeda-linked JNIM and Tuareg FLA launched simultaneous attacks across multiple cities. Defense Minister Sadio Camara killed by car bomb. National Intelligence Chief also assassinated.
    Russia’s Africa Corps conducted airstrikes and ground operations in response but reportedly withdrawing from northern Mali after reaching agreement with FLA/JNIM…
    ..Fire at RAF Fairford — Major fire at UK base hosting US Air Force B-52 and B-1 bombers used in Iran operations. Cause not yet announced. Commissary building reportedly gutted…
    ..Pakistan’s blockade arbitrage – Pakistan issued Transit Order SRO 691(I)/2026 authorizing third-country goods to flow overland to Iran through six designated routes — punching a legal hole in the US naval blockade while simultaneously mediating the ceasefire
    3,000 Iran-bound containers stuck at Karachi behind the blockade. The Transit Order moves them
    Pakistan accepted $8B in Saudi support on April 17, signed Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement with Riyadh in September 2025, owes deep CPEC debt to China, faces $18B arbitration penalty on stalled Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline — threading all constraints through one legal instrument
    No State Department, Treasury, or GCC response yet. “The silence is the signal”…
    ..US budget airlines pitching $2.5B relief plan to Trump admin — hedging broke down because futures are “so manipulated and disconnected from crude oil prices in the real world” per JustDario
    Iraq to spend $1.5B this year on crude export pipeline — all Gulf states activating Hormuz bypass plans
    Goldman: oil shock may cost 10,000 US jobs/month for the rest of the year
    Morgan Downey warns: 41 days until ex-US SPRs run dry on June 13…
    ..Lebanon: Hezbollah’s FPV drone war evolving fast
    Multiple Hezbollah FPV attacks on IDF: Merkava tanks, Humvees, medevac helicopters, excavators — all documented with footage
    IDF soldier Eitan Fox killed in southern Lebanon; FPV drone then targeted the medevac rescuing casualties from the first strike
    Fibre-optic guidance neutralizes Israeli EW advantages — jamming is irrelevant with a physical tether per Hamzé Attar
    IDF Hermes 450 shot down by Hezbollah MANPADS — sixth IDF drone downed since early March
    Hezbollah warned Israelis: “no security zone, whatever depth, will protect you once we decide to deploy these weapons”…
    ..Bennett-Lapid merge into “Together” coalition — Aiming to replace Netanyahu ahead of October elections. 50%+ of Jewish Israelis were unhappy or neutral about the US-Iran ceasefire. 80% support prolonging war against Hezbollah. https://no1sdailydigest.substack.com/p/daily-digest-2026-04-27

    Shanaka: For five years, Iran built an alternative financial architecture on the explicit theory that cryptocurrency would be sanctions-resistant.
    Bitcoin mining was legalized in 2019. Subsidized power was redirected to industrial farms. Mined coins were sold to the Central Bank of Iran for hard currency. The IRGC moved over three billion dollars through digital assets in 2025 alone.
    By year end the Iranian crypto ecosystem had reached seven point eight billion dollars per Chainalysis, with the central bank holding at least five hundred seven million in USDT reserves per Elliptic.
    The architecture was the bet. The bet was that the dollar could not follow Iran onto the chain. On April 23, 2026, the United States Treasury froze three hundred forty-four million dollars of that architecture with one smart-contract call. Tether executed the freeze on receipt of intelligence from US law enforcement. https://x.com/i/status/2048306325445329304

    Iran To Send Revised Proposal To US In ‘Days’ As ‘Tank Tops’ Loom, Trump Claims Iran “Informed Us They Are In State Of Collapse”
    Iranian analyst describes that Tehran believes it can outlast Trump & the standoff with US in Hormuz, citing “munitions, markets, and the midterms.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iran-believes-it-can-outlast-us-based-munitions-markets-midterms-while-trump-not-open

    Bessent: IRGC Leaders ‘Trapped’ Like ‘Drowning Rats’ By US Blockade, Will Soon Face Uprising Over Coming ‘Gasoline Shortages Next’ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iran-offers-new-proposal-reopen-strait-trump-open-sealing-deal-phone

    April 28, 2026 at 11:30 pm #239525
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ State Department Says US Is in Conflict With Iran ‘At the Request’ of Israel
    The statement was issued by the State Department’s legal adviser, Reed D. Rubinstein, who attempted to provide a legal justification for the war.
    ​ “As the United States has explained in multiple letters to the UN Security Council, including most recently on March 10, the United States is engaged in this conflict at the request of and in the collective self-defense of its Israeli ally, as well as in the exercise of the United States’ own inherent right of self-defense,” Rubinstein said.​ https://news.antiwar.com/2026/04/26/state-department-says-us-is-in-conflict-with-iran-at-the-request-of-israel/

    ​ Today it’s just about nuclear-breakout potential: Marco Rubio Appears To Reject Iranian Proposal To Reopen Strait Of Hormuz Without Nuclear Deal
    Speaking with Fox News, Rubio said that the “nuclear question is the reason why we’re in this in the first place.”​ [It wasn’t initially.]
    He went on to say that any agreement would need to be one that “definitively prevents them from sprinting toward a nuclear weapon at any point.”
    https://www.ibtimes.com/marco-rubio-appears-reject-iranian-proposal-reopen-strait-hormuz-without-nuclear-deal-3802058

    1970s ​Iranian fighter planes broke through to drop Soviet dumb-bombs: Iranian Strikes’ Damage to U.S. Bases Exceeds Pentagon Admissions https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/iranian-strikes-damage-us-bases

    Simplicius, US Carrier Groups in Position for Next Round as Trump “Dissatisfied” With Iranian Demands
    We happen to have gotten
    new satellite geolocations. First, of the USS Gerald R Ford, which had been taken out of action due to a “laundry fire”, but has now returned to the Red Sea. It was reportedly seen pulling a hard and fast u-turn at geolocation 25.275, 35.964​ ​[Back towards Suez, away from Yemen]​…
    ..Why is that ~300km range key? Because, those who read my breakdown of Iran’s anti-ship capabilities here will recall that Iran’s anti-ship ballistic missiles pretty much cap out at 300km range, which marks this as the exact distance that US carriers dare venture to near Iranian shores in order to stay just a hair’s length outside the envelop while still pretending to act ‘tough’ and show some kind of phony “resolve”. You’ll note the exact measurement is actually 331km, which means they’re cautiously keeping just outside Iranian range—and in fact, it’s more than that, given that Iranian launchers would be dozens of miles inland…
    ..CENTCOM brags that this is the largest convergence of US naval power in the Mideast “in decades”…
    ​..But something quite interesting was revealed over the past few days, when news broke that Iranian attacks during the war had done far greater damage to US bases than previously admitted to…
    ..Most notably, the big revelation that touchstoned this release was the shocking admission that an Iranian F-5 jet had breached US air defenses and directly bombed the US Camp Buehring base in Kuwait…
    ..Recall a few reports ago we had shared the image of a Russian Fab-500 bomb in the wreckage of US’s other Kuwaiti base, Camp Arifjan. This is a direct drop bomb, which means Iranian craft had to get pretty much directly over the defenseless US bases to attack them.
    ​ Further, recall the Kuwaiti fighter jet that shot down three American F-15s. The most important nugget during that event was that US forces had been fending off attacks “from Iranian aircraft”… Iranian aircraft appeared to have breached US defenses, directly gravity-bombed US bases, all while causing flustered defenders to engage in friendly fire. That means Iran was able to do to the US what even Ukraine has not been able to do to Russia​…
    ​..Now the latest ‘negotiations’ tango has again commenced, with claims that Iran has made some new three-point offer. The offer reportedly allows for an initial stage of agreement on key points—presumably surrounding US’s blockade and sanctions—before Iran would entertain the issue of nuclear enrichment as part of a second stage of talks. If true, it’s essentially an ultimatum to the US: show us respect and a compromise first, and only then will we even broach the nuclear subject.
    ​ Multiple reports have subsequently claimed that Trump did not take kindly to this, as both sides believe themselves to hold all the ‘cards’​…
    ​..On the more speculative and unverified side of the spectrum, we have claims that resumption of the war is imminent…​ Lending credence to the above is obviously the fact that the US carrier groups are now finally in position and have reportedly been replenished and reloaded for the next round, with USS Bush particularly meant to be joining the USS Lincoln in the Centcom AoR any day now, if it hasn’t already.
    Sensing the coming attack, Iran has threatened the largest response in history​. https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/us-carrier-groups-in-position-for

    ​Just in time for summer: Crude oil tops $107, stocks dip as lingering Iran-US standoff deepens market anxiety​ https://www.geo.tv/latest/661760-brent-tops-107-stocks-dip-as-iran-standoff-deepens-market-anxiety

    April 28, 2026 at 11:32 pm #239526
    John Day
    Participant

    At least 3 bad months after straits reopen and years of​ slow readjustment: Chevron CEO says Hormuz closure impacts will last ‘for some time’​ https://www.iranintl.com/en/202604265090

    ​ Staycation-summer ahead: Europe Emerges As Key Buyer Of U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve Oil
    IEA-led SPR release is underway, with the U.S. already distributing ~80 million barrels—much of it going to major traders and European buyers amid tight supply.
    ​ European refiners are benefiting from discounted U.S. crude, as SPR barrels (often sour grades) are offered below local prices and shipped to hubs like Rotterdam​. Impact is limited and temporary, as the release only offsets supply losses briefly​. https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Europe-Emerges-As-Key-Buyer-Of-US-Strategic-Petroleum-Reserve-Oil.html

    ​ Groceries on credit-cards: U.S. Consumer Sentiment Hits Record Low.
    Consumer sentiment in the U.S. has plummeted to its lowest level since 1978, driven by economic uncertainties stemming from the Iran war.​ https://thenationalpulse.com/2026/04/24/u-s-consumer-sentiment-hits-record-low/

    ​ Lipstick not working: Vance and Trump allies invoke ‘just war theory’ to legitimize Iran action. Experts say it ‘fails every single criteria’
    ‘Trump’s threat to end civilization is one of the most blatant violations of proportionality in the history of modern warfare​.’​ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-iran-vance-republicans-just-war-theory-catholics-b2965369.html

    ​ Caitlin Johnstone: Australia’s “Antisemitism Envoy” Makes It Clear That Israel’s Critics Are The Real Target
    The handbook, set to be formally launched later this week under the title “Understanding Antisemitism in Australia,” explicitly conflates antisemitism and antizionism with statements like “Antisemitism and antizionism are both expressions of hatred towards Jews” and asserting that it is antisemitic to accuse Israel of “apartheid, oppression, racism and genocide.”
    ​ It is therefore unambiguously the official position of the Australian government’s appointed authority on antisemitism that it is hateful and abusive toward Jews and their religion to oppose the racist political ideology underpinning the modern state of Israel.
    ​ So when Australians hear Jillian Segal and government officials talking about how there’s been an increase in “antisemitism” in our country and saying extreme measures must be taken to stop it, it’s important to be clear that this is the “antisemitism” they are talking about. They are talking about criticism of Israel.​ https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/australias-antisemitism-envoy-makes

    April 28, 2026 at 11:33 pm #239527
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Closure of UK unit tracking Israeli violations means loss of database with 26,000 verified incidents
    The closure of the unit has raised concerns among human rights lawyers and activists, who say the material was key in holding Israel accountable​ https://www.newarab.com/news/uk-foreign-office-closes-unit-tracking-israeli-violations

    Iranian Group Submits Evidence of US-Israeli War Crimes to International Criminal Court​ https://scheerpost.com/2026/04/26/iranian-group-submits-evidence-of-us-israeli-war-crimes-to-international-criminal-court/

    ​ Israeli Attacks in Gaza Kill 19 Palestinians in Three Days as IDF Continues Constant Ceasefire Violations
    Among the victims was Islam Karsou, a woman pregnant with twins who was killed alongside her two young children​ https://news.antiwar.com/2026/04/26/israeli-attacks-in-gaza-kill-19-palestinians-in-three-days-as-idf-continues-constant-ceasefire-violations/

    ​ ‘Silent suffering’: Why children in Gaza are losing their ability to speak
    An estimated 1.1 million children in Gaza now need mental health and psychosocial support, as a growing number lose their ability to speak due to trauma and injuries from Israeli attacks.​ https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/4/24/silent-suffering-why-children-in-gaza-are-losing-their-ability-to-speak

    In Gaza, 17,000 infections linked to rodents and external parasites​ https://israelpalestinenews.org/in-gaza-17000-infections-linked-to-rodents-and-external-parasites-daily-update/

    April 28, 2026 at 11:33 pm #239528
    John Day
    Participant

    Shooting up rowboats at this point: Growing Israeli attacks on Gaza fishermen deepen fishing sector losses https://english.palinfo.com/news/2026/04/26/361981/

    Jewish settlers destroy hundreds of olive trees in W. Bank​ https://english.palinfo.com/news/2026/04/26/361948/

    ​ Israeli Bulldozers Smash Solar Panels, Olive Trees in Southern Lebanon ‘Infrastructure’ Demolition
    IDF promises investigation after footage emerges of destruction in Christian village​ https://news.antiwar.com/2026/04/26/israeli-bulldozers-smash-solar-panels-olive-trees-in-southern-lebanon-infrastructure-demolition/

    ​ Israeli strikes kill 14 in deadliest day in Lebanon since truce
    Lebanon’s health ministry said those killed on Sunday included two women and two children, adding that 37 other people were wounded.​ https://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-strikes-kill-14-deadliest-day-lebanon-truce

    ​ New Evacuations Orders in Southern Lebanon as Israel Escalates ‘Ceasefire’ Strikes​ – Seven new towns ordered emptied north of the Yellow Line​ https://news.antiwar.com/2026/04/26/new-evacuations-orders-in-southern-lebanon-as-israel-escalates-ceasefire-strikes/

    April 28, 2026 at 11:34 pm #239529
    John Day
    Participant

    Israeli escalation in southern Lebanon raises death toll to 2,509​ https://english.palinfo.com/news/2026/04/26/361983/

    Hezbollah says attacks on Israel are legitimate response to ceasefire violations​ https://www.iranintl.com/en/202604263107

    ​ Weaker than a spider’s web: Hezbollah’s fiber thread traps the Merkava
    A weapon measured in microns has cut through decades of Israeli military doctrine. What unfolded in southern Lebanon was not a surprise attack, but the exposure of a system built to fight the last war.​ https://thecradle.co/articles/weaker-than-a-spiders-web-hezbollahs-fiber-thread-traps-the-merkava

    ​Celia Farber on “Netanyahu” prostate-cancer-2-years announcement, “Netanyahu” Moved Off Stage Left–Reported To Have A Cancer Diagnosis https://celiafarber.substack.com/p/netanyahu-moved-off-stage-left-reported

    Meryl Nass MD, As Dr John Day and I suspected, the ‘new’ news about Netanyahu’s prostate cancer diagnosis is fishy. Oh, he also has a pacemaker. Even the NYT finds the story has holes.
    And the photo accompanying the story is from January. Is he alive? BTW over the last year he had obviously lost considerable weight.​ https://merylnass.substack.com/p/as-dr-john-day-and-i-suspected-the

    April 28, 2026 at 11:35 pm #239530
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Bye-Bye Bibi? Israeli Opposition Leaders Join Forces In ‘Together’ Alliance To Topple Netanyahu
    Former Israeli prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid unveiled Monday that they are merging their parties into a joint ticket dubbed “Together – Led by Bennett” – as a major challenge to current leader Benjamin Netanyahu in the upcoming elections.
    ​ During a press conference Bennett said the alliance with Lapid is the “most Zionist and patriotic act we have ever done, for the sake of our country” – adding that the “era of division is over.”​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israeli-opposition-leaders-join-forces-together-alliance-topple-netanyahu

    ​ AI-Netanyahu is not included, as not verifiable yet: Three Recent Examples Of AI Being Used For Empire Propaganda
    In the last few days I’ve seen three separate instances of generative AI being used to promote propaganda for US-Israeli war agendas which are worth paying attention to.
    ​ Firstly, an Israel-based company called Generative AI for Good has been creating deepfakes of supposedly real women who say they were sexually assaulted by government forces in Iran.​..
    ​..The Canary notes that Generative AI for Good is staffed with Israelis who have very conspicuous agendas, including a creative director who pushes the discredited narrative about mass rapes on October 7, a marketing manager who served in the IDF’s “Psychotechnical Headquarter”, and a founder who said in early 2024 that “Artificial intelligence is a secret weapon of ours”…
    ​..Secondly, users of the graphic design platform Canva have been complaining that the company’s AI service has been translating the word “Palestine” to “Ukraine” without prompting or permission. Complaints went viral, compelling Canva to address the issue…
    ..Thirdly, a Spanish-language tweet about Israel from user @maps_black was auto-translated into English by Elon Musk’s AI Grok in a way that added entirely new sentences to the social media post to frame the Zionist state in a sympathetic light.​ https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/three-recent-examples-of-ai-being

    ​ Apple CEO Tim Cook funded the SPLC for nearly a decade. The SPLC used the money to fund KKK & Neo-Nazi leaders. The DOJ announced indictments. Cook resigned the day before.​ https://x.com/amuse/status/2047692780072316937

    ​ White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner Shooter Charged With Attempted Assassination Of Trump
    Federal prosecutors charged Cole Tomas Allen, 31, the accused gunman in the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner shooting, with three criminal counts, including attempting to assassinate the president.
    ​ Fox News reports that Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh unsealed the case against Allen on Monday. Allen appeared in federal court wearing a prison jumpsuit and answered the judge respectfully. He did not enter a plea and was only informed of the charges.
    ​ The three counts include attempted assassination of the president, transporting a firearm across state lines, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. ​ https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/whca-shooter-charged-attempted-assassination-trump

    ​ Allen fired his shotgun with buckshot once, fell down and was tackled. There was one bullet in the Secret Service agent’s vest, not buckshot:
    Questions raised over who fired shot that hit Secret Service member at WHCA Dinner
    ​ Cole Allen’s arraignment on Monday took just minutes, but he was hit with three federal charges. Afterward, the Department of Justice held a news conference, saying five shots were fired by one Secret Service agent, and that agents were able to tackle Allen and detain him. But what officials could not confirm is who exactly fired the shot that hit a Secret Service agent.​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LMmm-NNdZA

    April 28, 2026 at 11:36 pm #239531
    John Day
    Participant

    He apoligizes to everybody who knows him, knew him, ever sat next to him or would be negatively affected, for the first 1/3, then finishes with saying how terrible this feels and does not recommend it, just before he goes to sprint past the checkpoint with his shotgun. Read White House Correspondents’ Dinner Gunman Cole Allen’s Full Anti-Trump Manifesto http://globalresearch.ca/read-white-house-correspondent-dinner-gunman-cole-allen-full-anti-trump-manifesto/5924018

    ​ Air Force Whistleblower Died in ‘Accidental’ Drug Overdose After Agreeing to Testify About Secret UFO Crash Retrievals​
    Perfectly normal. Nothing to see here.​ https://www.vigilantfox.com/p/air-force-vet-died-in-accidental

    ​ The U.S. Department of Justice has secured a new federal indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, marking the second criminal case brought against him by the Trump administration in under a year. The charges center on a controversial May 2025 Instagram post in which Comey shared a photograph of seashells arranged on a beach to form the numbers “86 47.”​ https://www.zerohedge.com/political/comey-indicted-trump-doj-takes-second-bite-apple

    Trump fired his friend the Navy Secretary when he heard about this and other supply SNAFUs: U.S. Navy Considers Abandoning Indigenous Destroyers to Buy South Korean and Japanese Ships https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/us-navy-abandoning-destroyers-skorean-japanese

    ​ Russia, North Korea agree ‘long-term’ military cooperation
    Russia and North Korea have agreed to “long-term” military cooperation, Russia’s defence ministry said Sunday, as Moscow’s military chief visited officials in Pyongyang.
    ​ Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops — as well as missiles and munitions — to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.
    ​ In return, analysts say North Korea is receiving financial aid, military technology, food and energy from Russia, helping Pyongyang circumvent heavy international sanctions over its banned nuclear programmes.​ https://www.spacewar.com/afp/260426134141.kqkze2uj.html

    April 28, 2026 at 11:37 pm #239532
    John Day
    Participant

    China Surpasses US in Research Spending – The Consequences Extend Far Beyond Scientific Ranking and Clout​ https://scheerpost.com/2026/04/26/china-surpasses-us-in-research-spending-the-consequences-extend-far-beyond-scientific-ranking-and-clout/

    ‘Quality Learing Center’ And 20 Other Somali-Linked Businesses Raided By FBI, Homeland Security In Minnesota​ https://www.zerohedge.com/political/quality-learing-center-and-20-other-somali-linked-businesses-raided-fbi-homeland-security

    ​ Improper US Government Payments Rose To $186 Billion In 2025: Watchdog​ – About $153 billion—roughly 82 percent—of this total arose from overpayments. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/improper-us-government-payments-rose-186-billion-2025-watchdog

    ​ Artificial General Intelligence is for-profit, not public good now: Do you understand what just happened to OpenAI’s soul..
    They deleted the ONE clause that legally prevented them from becoming a regular corporation – on the MORNING of their trial with Elon Musk.
    The AGI clause was nuclear: → if OpenAI built AGI, Microsoft lost ALL rights to it → the board could pull the plug on any commercial deal → humanity was the legal beneficiary, not investors
    Gone.. Today.. While jury selection was happening in the courtroom. Musk’s lawyers didn’t need to prove anything. OpenAI proved it themselves. https://x.com/i/status/2048868588434420146

    America Trembles as Transportation Secretary Announces Plans for Air Traffic Controllers to Lean on AI Tools​ https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-air-traffic-duffy

    April 28, 2026 at 11:38 pm #239533
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Reliable Robotics Raises $160M Ahead Of Autonomous Cargo Flights
    New Funding Will Accelerate Development Of Uncrewed Large Aircraft
    ​ Reliable Robotics has announced $160 million in new funding to accelerate deployment and scale production of the Reliable Autonomy System (RAS) – the first Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certifiable system enabling fully automated operation of an aircraft.​ https://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=AA65CBB8-5C29-457E-A89B-C77EE685AFA3

    ​ Senator Ron Johnson just revealed that Secretary Kennedy provided him with 11 MILLION pages of HHS documents on the COVID vaccine.
    What the documents exposed about the FDA is truly disturbing.
    ​ JOHNSON: “We have now uncovered the fact that FDA officials knew in March of 2021 that their analytical system for the VAERS system, was completely inadequate, that it would MASK significant safety signals.”
    ​ “They had a different system that would, you know, produce this information unmasked.” “They presented that to top FDA officials, and they covered up.”
    “They were 49 cases of extreme masking, resulting in 25 safety signals, including sudden cardiac death, ​Bell’s palsy, pulmonary infarction, very serious side effects.”
    ​ “And again, I said, I don’t I didn’t need a sophisticated system.” “I saw deaths per year go from a couple hundred to over 20,000 the year the vaccine came out in 2021.”​ https://x.com/overton_news/status/2047370947150192792

    ​ Meryl Nass MD remains vigilant on glyphosate legal liability: Those who work inside the Beltway have 2 chances this week to get pesticides a liability shield–Farm Bill vote in House next week and the Supreme Court hears oral arguments Monday: Monsanto v Durnell
    ​ And the crooks in Congress are STILL lying about the liability shield: now calling it “regulatory certainty in the interstate marketplace.” Give your Congress critter a piece of your mind.​ https://merylnass.substack.com/p/those-who-work-inside-the-beltway

    ​ What is the most recent, independent evidence that glyphosate and the mixtures in which it is found, cause cancer?
    The Ramazzini Institute study.​ And the director of its Cancer research unit got fired after publication.
    ​ Bayer/Monsanto appears to be up to its old tricks, even today.​ https://merylnass.substack.com/p/what-is-the-most-recent-independent

    ​John Klar, Yes, Glyphosate Is Harmful to Humans​ – The real science is damning. https://www.themahareport.com/p/yes-glyphosate-is-harmful-to-humans

    April 28, 2026 at 11:39 pm #239534
    John Day
    Participant

    Environmental Working Group Sues EPA Over Glyphosate in Oats, Citing Risk to Children’s Health
    The EPA is violating federal law by failing to respond to a petition about how current glyphosate levels in oats are putting children’s and babies’ health at risk, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday. In 2018, two rounds of EWG-commissioned lab testing found widespread glyphosate contamination of foods containing oats, including popular children’s cereals.​ https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/environmental-working-group-sues-epa-glyphosate-oats-risk-childrens-health/

    ​ Monday rally in DC against RoundUp liability shield: At Vibrant ‘The People vs. Poison’ Rally, Resistance Galvanizes Against Bayer-Monsanto, Makers of Roundup https://www.themahareport.com/p/at-vibrant-the-people-vs-poison-rally

    ​ Sleep with one eye open: Grassroots Opposition Sinks Bill to Limit Local Control Over Cell Towers — for Now
    After facing opposition from local governments and health freedom advocates, and failing to garner enough support from Republican representatives, the House Committee on Rules postponed today’s scheduled vote on a bill intended to strip local governments of the authority to reject the installation of unwanted cell towers near homes, schools and parks in their communities.​ https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/cell-towers-bill-limit-local-control-grassroots-opposition/

    ​ BREAKING: Top Fauci Advisor Indicted in First Criminal Prosecution Against a Senior COVID Official
    David Morens criminally charged with hiding emails, destroying records, and evading transparency laws to shape the COVID “natural origins” narrative​ https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/breaking-top-fauci-advisor-indicted

    ​Paul Marik MD points out that as well as genetic and carcinogenic contributions:Oncologists, It’s Time to Wake Up: Cancer Is a Metabolic Disease https://substack.com/home/post/p-195413350

    April 28, 2026 at 11:40 pm #239535
    John Day
    Participant

    Dr. Marik details anti-cancer effects of green tea, curry powder & more at the molecular level: Targeting Glycolytic Enzymes in Cancer Cells (Warburg Effect) https://substack.com/home/post/p-189651870

    ​ COVID Vaccine Injury Program Paid for One Death in March, But Denials Still Top 98%
    Overall, as of April 1, the Health Resources and Services Administration has compensated just 51 of 6,944 claims decided with the federal government’s Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program. The death benefit paid in March was only the second death benefit CICP has paid out since the start of the pandemic. The program has denied 6,847 claims.​ https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/covid-vaccine-injury-program-paid-one-death-march-denials-still-top-98/

    ​ “Climate-Change-Ready”: Gates Bets $5M on AI Crops for Poor Farmers — Critics Say It’s All About Profit and Control
    An artificial intelligence (AI) startup founded by Google and funded by the Gates Foundation has set its sights on developing “climate-resilient crops” — but some agricultural experts warn the technology is really designed to make small farms dependent on patented, privately owned technology.​ https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/bill-gates-5-million-investment-ai-crops-poor-farmers-profit-control/

    ​ Biotic Pump model co-originator, Climate Physicist Anastassia Makarieva explains how models pre-determine predictions, China at an Ecohydrological Crossroads, Part II: Common Assumptions
    ​ When vegetation is assumed to affect water use but not air circulation, re-greening is predicted to reduce water yield by construction, regardless of what happens in the real world​ https://bioticregulation.substack.com/p/china-at-an-ecohydrological-crossroads-06d

    April 28, 2026 at 11:41 pm #239536
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Jessica Rose has a Spiritual Perspective: Beyond the Epstein Files: Designer Babies, Soul Transfer, and Why These Experiments Are Doomed to Fail
    Healing guilt, honoring unbreakable souls, and exposing the deeper spiritual stakes behind the Epstein files​ https://jessicar.substack.com/p/beyond-the-epstein-files-designer

    ​Jessica Rose’s philosophical perspective on the nature of reality: Quantum superposition and free will​ – The ability to choose creates the known reality https://jessicar.substack.com/p/quantum-superposition-and-free-will

    ​ Elon Musk’s answer to why he’s still working, despite being worth over $800 Billion​ ​A short video outtake of Elon Musk explaining his own struggles as a teen and young man, regarding “the meaning of life”, “German philosophers not helping teenage depression”, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, “42”, and building a bigger universal consciousness of our species to find the bigger question, that our planetary consciousness may not be big enough to answer.​ I’m not at all confident that his bigger-is-better seeding of the universe with human minds is the “best” approach. ​ https://x.com/Thedrivenman/status/2047710910261645348

    April 28, 2026 at 11:52 pm #239537
    John Day
    Participant

    @Michael Reid: Thanks for excerpting the treatise on the fervor of politica; religious groups professing messianic Abrahamic religions and desiring to bring on “Armageddon”.
    ;-(

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