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Debt Rattle April 29 2026

Apr 292026
 
 April 29, 2026  Posted by at 8:36 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , ,  Add comments


Vincent van Gogh Fishing Boats on the Beach at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer 1888


• Trump Claims Iran in ‘State of Collapse’ (ZH)
• Trump Says Iran Caved on Strait of Hormuz Closure (Salgado)
• Iran Already Scrambling for Oil Storage After Two Weeks of US Blockade (ZH)
• Iran Has DAYS Until This Crisis Hits (Stephen Green)
• Carney Claims All Nations Tell Him They Regret Making Deals with Trump (CTH)
• Why Some Democrats Think Trump Staged Latest Assassination Attempt (Taft)
• The Chilling Embrace of Political Violence in the United States (Turley)
• Trump Is Putting Americans into Digital Prison (Paul Craig Roberts)
• House Judiciary Expands Probe Into Biden Admin Spying On GOP Congressmen (JTN)
• Kimmel Defends ‘Expectant Widow’ Sketch (JTN)
• ‘Beyond the Pale’: Trump Joins Melania’s Call to ABC to Fire Kimmel (Salgado)
• Knives Out: Is a Coup Brewing in Kiev? (Ryumshin)
• Top Fauci Advisor David Morens Charged In COVID Records Cover-Up: DOJ (ZH)

 


 

 


 


Keyword today is “storage”. If Iran doesn’t find a solution fast, they will have to inflict forever damage on their own infrastructure.

It’s like a car factory without a parking lot.

• Trump Claims Iran in ‘State of Collapse’ (ZH)

Literally one minute before market-open, and President Trump issues the following big claim: he says that Tehran has informed Washington they are in a “state of collapse” and that the Iranians want the US to “open the Hormuz Strait”. Of course, even if it were true, why would the Iranians admit such a thing to their enemy during a state of war? There have been some signs of political fracture – especially tensions between IRGC and civilian leadership – but so far the evidence has been anecdotal at best. Currently the internal Iranian government debate seems to be on whether to talk to the US or not – but again, amid the fog of war… all Western MSM can do is speculate, aside from the rare Iranian ‘anonymous’ source that might whisper in a reporter’s ear.


Oil Rises to 3-week High as Trump Doesn’t Appear Open To Iran Proposal
Reporting from Monday evening and overnight says President Trump doesn’t appear open to Iran’s latest proposal to end the war, which hinges on the US naval blockade being lifted but pushes the nuclear issue off to later negotiations. As a result, oil prices have continued to rise, climbing above $110 a barrel Tuesday morning – a first in three weeks, amid concerns of a prolonged strait closure. As for the latest tankers to actually make it through, CBS describes: Four civilian ships appeared to leave the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday without Iranian interference, including a Japanese oil tanker carrying some two million barrels of crude from Saudi Arabia.

The Panama-flagged crude oil tanker Idemitsu Maru called at Saudi Arabia’s Juamyah industrial port in early March, according to open source data from the MarineTraffic ship tracking website. For the past week it had remained anchored off the coast of Abu Dhabi in the Persian Gulf, until late Monday, when it sailed toward Iran’s Larak island in the Strait of Hormuz. On Tuesday morning, tracking data showed the vessel passing south of Iran’s Larak island, which analysts say the regime had used as a “toll booth” to collect fees from some ships before military authorities declared the strait entirely closed again last week.

The White House has insisted that there would be no scheme for Iran collecting tolls as part of any future deal, but the Iranians appear to be forcing the issue, and have said the funds will help with the country’s reconstruction after the devastation wrought by US-Israeli bombing raids.

Three M’s
Independent news organization Drop Site says that Iran is now setting its own terms for ending the war as President Trump’s narrative on negotiations flails. One Iranian analyst has said that Tehran believes it has the three M’s on its side: “munitions, markets, and the midterms.” The report cites Hassan Ahmadian, a well-known Iranian analyst and associate professor at the University of Tehran, who explains: “The Iranians are saying time is working in our favor for the three Ms: munitions, markets, and the midterms. These three Ms help Iran in its position and weaken US positions.”

“Obviously in the U.S., they want something to say, ‘We squeezed Iran and we got this.’ My perception is that the Iranians are keen to deny the United States that – they wouldn’t give what Trump wants as a victory,” he added. A separate Iranian official, privy to negotiations and so remaining anonymous, stated: “We’re currently moving forward with our own design, and we feel continuing negotiations doesn’t make sense until the U.S. government lifts the maritime blockade.” “

The scope of the conflict has expanded, and naturally the issue is no longer purely nuclear,” the official added. Indeed, the latest proposal for ceasefire out of Tehran focuses on the US Navy ending its blockade, and leaves the nuclear issue for future consideration, given it has proven an impasse in the prior Islamabad talks. But Washington as been asserting its own leverage:

President Trump explained – in his own inimitable manner – what we described last week: time is running out for Tehran… as oil blockade stalls the flow state of Iran’s economy permanently… 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.”

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“.. the Trump administration must beware of taqiyya, the Islamic principle of lying to political opponents to accomplish the goals of jihad.”

• Trump Says Iran Caved on Strait of Hormuz Closure (Salgado)

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the genocidal Iranian regime is collapsing and ready to cave on reopening a key economic waterway. nThe U.S. Navy has been enforcing a partial blockade of the Strait of Hormuz after the Iranian regime refused to remove its mines from the strait and repeatedly attacked ships sailing through it. But on April 28, Trump posted on Truth Social, “Iran has just informed us that they are in a ‘State of Collapse.’ They want us to ‘Open the Hormuz Strait,’ as soon as possible, as they try to figure out their leadership situation (Which I believe they will be able to do!). Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Apparently, Iran’s oil crisis grew too desperate.


I personally think we should resolve the leadership question in Iran by bombing the rest of the genocidal regime’s leadership into oblivion; otherwise, we will with 100% certainty be fighting another round or four or 20 with the remaining regime leaders in the future. The same murderous mullahs who have attacked Americans, slaughtered Israelis, and massacred their own Persian people for half a century — not to mention repeatedly violating their ceasefire agreement with the USA — are not going to change their behavior. They’re buying time to save their own sorry backsides.

One of the prime negotiators has been Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, who was boastful in March of targeting Americans and civilians indiscriminately across the Middle East. He fought for Iran’s terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the 1980s and has been working for the terrorist Iranian regime for decades, according to Britannica. Why should he survive and retain power? And if the new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, isn’t already dead, why should he survive to carry on his father’s bloody legacy? The regime is still executing freedom protestors. And Araghchi’s fellow negotiator, “Death to America” Qalibaf or Ghalibaf, is even worse, as I reported last week:

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Baqer Ghalibaf (or Qalibaf), the same man who recently proved so stubborn in refusing a peace deal when he met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, is bragging that negotiations are a form of warfare and he thinks he is winning against the United States. “I, as a soldier, am fighting in the realm of negotiations,” he smirked… He praised Iranian terror proxy Hezbollah, which has bombarded Israel throughout this conflict… Qalibaf further bragged about convincing Trump to announce the ceasefire in a social media post, saying it was a way of putting all the onus of the ceasefire request on America, and ignored his own Iranian regime’s immediate ceasefire violations with missile attacks on multiple nations.

If Qalibaf and Co. are now singing a different tune, the Trump administration must beware of taqiyya, the Islamic principle of lying to political opponents to accomplish the goals of jihad.

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Iran needs Hormuz open or they drown in oil.

• Iran Already Scrambling for Oil Storage After Two Weeks of US Blockade (ZH)

Trump’s blockade is having a predictable effect on Iran’s economy and oil industry, with reports that the regime is scrambling to repurpose old and rusty tankers as floating storage. Kharg Island is hitting capacity and the results could lead to disaster for Iran’s oil wells.


The regime is reportedly moving to expand crude storage at the island, where around 90% of their energy exports are processed, by reactivating a 30-year-old crude carrier called M/T Nasha. It’s a bad sign for Iran, indicating that the country’s main oil hub is nearing its onshore storage limit. Maritime analysts say the vessel, which had been anchored empty for years, is being repositioned as floating storage to absorb crude that still has to move out of the system.

But how much time will decommissioned tankers buy Iran? Current estimates indicate Kharg Island has roughly 13 million barrels of spare onshore storage remaining at the terminal, while net inflows are running at about 1.0 million to 1.1 million barrels per day. At that pace, storage could be filled in about 12 to 13 days, which places the saturation point in late April to early May if current flows hold. A large tanker gives them another potential 2 million barrels of capacity. In other words, not much.

This data is a near match to JP Morgan’s recent assessment that Iran has between 20 – 26 days of capacity (including emergency measures) before they hit the wall and are forced to shut down their oil fields. Trump’s assertion on Sunday that Iran’s oil infrastructure may “explode in three days” due to the blockade might be a bit optimistic, but with the threat of overcapacity it is likely that the Iranians will be forced to the negotiating table in the near term. The regime’s only other option is to divert the oil away from Kharg to the Jask Oil Terminal at Kooh Mobarak using the Goreh-Jask pipeline. But this storage is limited and may already be full.

There are also limited reports that Iran is increasing “flaring” at wells to burn off excess. To keep wells operating safely (avoiding sudden shutdowns that can cause permanent geological issues), operators are flaring off excess associated gas (and possibly some liquid byproducts) at a heightened rate.If wells are forced to shut down due to lack of storage, this could cause permanent damage and render the wells unusable in the future. Recovery is expensive and difficult. If the current data is accurate, then Iran has approximately two more weeks before their economy is destroyed. Loss of $430 million per day in export revenues aside, permanent damage to their oil fields would result in a long term economic disaster.

The danger of well shutdowns is probably the reason why the regime has offered new proposals every few days to open the Strait of Hormuz, though, they continue to call for a separate negotiation on their estimated 970 pounds of enriched Uranium stockpile. There is little incentive for Trump to lift the blockade at this time, given the amount of leverage he will have over the Iranian economy if he maintains restrictions on their oil exports for another two weeks. The regime is trapped between a rock and a hard place, and will have to decide soon if their oil wells are more important to them than their Uranium.

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“Tehran likely has until April 29 before its onshore storage facilities are filled.” The Trump administration on Sunday gave the same estimate.”

• Iran Has DAYS Until This Crisis Hits (Stephen Green)

The Islamic Republic is “scrambling” to find places to put the oil that President Donald Trump’s blockade stops the regime from selling before suffering “irreversible” damage to the country’s oil production. “If the Iranians have to shut down oil and gas production due to a lack of storage capacity, there will be permanent damage to the productivity of the oil fields,” Marketwatch cofounder Derek Reisfield told the New York Post on Monday. “The damage will be irreversible,” he said. “The loss in capacity could easily be half a million barrels in daily production.” That’s a significant hit to a pre-war production rate of a little over three million barrels.


Oil wells can’t just be flipped off and back on again like a switch, and that’s a yuge problem. Once capped, a single oil well can require months — or longer — and millions of dollars to bring back into production. That’s why the Islamic Republic last week brought an aging tanker out of retirement to use as a floating storage unit. The Nasha, Tanker Tracker reported, is “a 30-year-old VLCC that’s been anchored empty for the past few years; currently spending four days on a trip that should take 1.5-two days.” That was almost a week ago. Now things are worse. According to the Wall Street Journal on Monday, the regime “is resorting to previously unused methods to conserve storage space,” including “using containers and ‘junk storage’ — disused tanks in poor condition—in the southern oil hubs of Ahvaz and Asaluyeh.”

Tehran might be able to move some oil to China by rail, but not much. The rail links between the two countries simply aren’t built for oil transportation. How long before the regime simply runs out of room and starts having to cap wells?Estimates differ. Naval expert John Bulkeley estimated on Monday that in just “a few days the IRGC will have to start stopping the oil wells from pumping,” while Zero Hedge today put the figure at “about 12 to 13 days.” The American Enterprise Institute told The Post that “Tehran likely has until April 29 before its onshore storage facilities are filled.” The Trump administration on Sunday gave the same estimate.

That’s Wednesday, for those keeping score at home. I dunno. Maybe they could just let the oil just spill and create a nearly unprecedented ecological disaster for the next government to clean up. With the IRGC, anything is possible. Open Source Intel quoted a recent Iran International report claiming that Iran’s Supreme National Security Council “reportedly warned that anti regime protests could resume within days as the economy deteriorates. Officials said economic pressure is the main trigger.”The same report estimated the regime can only withstand another six to eight weeks of the blockade, with up to two million private sector jobs disappearing along with energy extraction and exports. “Security officials reportedly concluded unrest is inevitable, with only the timing uncertain.”

Or as Margaret Thatcher once famously advised President George H.W. Bush, “This is no time to go wobbly.” Granted, not everything here is running smoothly. Gas hit $4.24 here yesterday after dropping down below $3.50 just a week or so ago. But there’s a world of difference between having to pay more for gas for a little while and being a terrorist regime about to drown in its own oil.

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“.. we understand administration officials review these CTH research inputs.”

• Carney Claims All Nations Tell Him They Regret Making Deals with Trump (CTH)

Today is not a good day for the Canadian trade team. It started with Quebec’s new Premier in Washington DC meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer {citation} in order to talk trade saying on Twitter, “Quebec wants a renewal of the [USMCA] to ensure a stable and predictable framework for our economic exchanges.” However, Mrs. Christine Fréchette (pictured left) then bragged about having strategic discussions with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. {citation}


For those who might not know, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a parasitic Wall Street and K-Street lobbying organization that has been locked out of trade influence since President Trump took office in 2017. It was the U.S. CoC who sold out our manufacturing base, paid-off prior administrations and wrote the actual trade language in almost every trade deal that destroyed U.S. manufacturing.The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a lobbying organization who focuses on the bottom-line profits of U.S. multinational corporations, and they don’t care what happens domestically to American jobs, American manufacturing and American wages. The CoC is the organization who created the rust belt and destroyed our manufacturing base under the guise of promoting a “service driven economy.”

If Canada wants a successful trade negotiation with the USA, the Chamber of Commerce is the last organization they should be strategizing with.

Then comes Prime Minister Mark Carney who not only steps on a rake, but he also publicly insults President Trump and the entire U.S. trade team by saying every country in the world privately tells him they regret making a trade agreement with President Trump. I’m going to post the entire video of Prime Minister Mark Carney discussing USMCA (Canada calls CUSMA) trade negotiations because the tone deafness of it is off the charts. That includes the Canadian Prime Minister saying that Section 232 national security reviews are a violation of the U.S-Canada trade agreement. Carney believes any independent U.S. trade position that negates trade with any Canadian sector is a violation of trade rules, yet he is afraid to sue over Sec 232 because he doesn’t want to discover the flaw in his mindset.

Carney, like Trudeau before him, is highly upset about the U.S. tariffs on Steel, Aluminum and Softwood Lumber. Factually, those raw material sectors of the Canadian economy have been dumping product into the USA for decades despite the Canadian government simultaneously dismantling their industrial dirty jobs. This is how the Canadian system works: Canada dumps raw materials into the USA market, then skips the manufacturing part (dirty jobs) because they are not climate friendly, then imports manufactured component parts from China and elsewhere, assembles the components and then tries to find markets for their finished goods, usually in the USA.

President Trump has worked to stop the “dumping part” by placing tariffs on the Canadian raw materials (Steel, Aluminum, Softwood Lumber), in order to generate our own industrial sectors of mining, logging, steel and aluminum works. This tariff block creates a situation where Canada needs to find other outlets for their raw material dumping….. which them becomes funny because Europe has already rejected them (same reason as Trump) and China doesn’t need them.

As a consequence, Canada has no choice except to try and force the USA to accept the dumping by lobbying Democrats and various business interests like the Chamber of Commerce to put political pressure on President Donald Trump. So far, their approach not only isn’t working – but it’s also insulting.If Prime Minister Mark Carney keeps promoting this type of ridiculous anti-Trump trade narrative for domestic consumption (orange man bad), the Canadian people are going to be blindsided when the backfire surfaces. It has already backfired; the Canadian people just don’t see it yet.

Note: We are drawing attention to this because we understand administration officials review these CTH research inputs. President Trump is not going to like this insult.

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Because the media tell them so.

• Why Some Democrats Think Trump Staged Latest Assassination Attempt (Taft)

Pssst. Did you hear the conspiracy theory about President Donald Trump staging his own attempted assassination? It’s in the news. The conspiracy theory goes that the most transparent president in the history of America staged his own assassination attempt as a false flag. This means that these attempts are his own darned fault because he planned them. Yeah, that must be it. Besides, Trump is looking too good, too presidential, too heroic for there to be any other explanation for this political violence against him than that he staged attacks to burnish his Q rating. Conspiracy theories abounded after the Butler assassination attempt. But they have exploded now. Even as the gunshots sent White House correspondents diving under the tables at their big dinner and giving away lucite blocks and gold plaques like Halloween candy, the conspiracy theory stories have exploded.


Wired ran a story called, “STAGED: Conspiracy Theories Are Everywhere Following White House Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting.” Two days before the latest attempt occurred, CNN ran a story headlined, “How would an assassination attempt be staged?” The day before, CNN ran a story about Trump staging his own attempted assassination in Butler, Penn., titled, “The conspiracy-theory monster that Trump fed may be coming for him.” WaPo reported, “First came the shooting and then came the conspiracies.” And none other than the New York Times bannered a story called, “After Correspondents Dinner Shooting, Rumors and Conspiracy Theories Spread.” The piece was subtitled, “Influencers jumped to fill the information void with conspiracy theories about the attack at the White House Correspondents’ dinner on Saturday.”

Actually, there was no void to fill. Right after the shooting, the president held a presser with multiple Justice officials to discuss next steps. We knew the name of the would-be assassin, had social media information, knew where he lived, and even found his Teacher of the Month plaque from the misguided Torrance, Calif., school that hired this monster. The president spent hours on the phone with reporters on Fox and ABC News throughout the night and the following morning, filling the alleged void. And still we got the pap about Trump running a false flag to help himself.

Of course, the president has his haters. Remember, there was a swath of reporters who claimed they’d boycott the White House Correspondents’ Dinner if the president showed up. Did they do that to Barack Obama after it was revealed he charged reporters with espionage, tapped the AP’s phones, or spied on reporters or naw? The naws have it. Or, are a few of those “fake news” conveyors all unhinged like this one, who said while hiding under a table and within earshot of a sitting congressman on Saturday night, “I hope they kill the orange MF.” Gee, maybe Trump staged the latest — or all the attacks — to change the subject away from the current Candace Owens, Steve Schmidt, Tucker Carlson, and Rick Wilson anti-Trump talking points.

[..] Lincoln Project hitman and slander machine operator Steve Schmidt, right after the 13th attempted assassination, had deep thoughts on President Trump and how this was all his fault.

Now, where on earth would the media and the left — same people — get the idea that someone would stage a fake attack to produce a narrative? Did you happen to read in the past few days about the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is alleged to have paid leaders of racist organizations to be more racist to create a desired narrative and generate more donations? The organization is accused of paying a group leader to flood the zone at the 2017 Charlottesville instant-protest. I went over the indictment on my recent Adult in the Room Podcast. Here’s part of that discussion.

But there’s so much more. What about all the paid informants and law enforcement officers urging lawbreaking on January 6? Earlier today in Shorter Pritzker: Trump Deserved It, and I’ll Justify It by Completely and Hilariously Wrecking Myself, I went down memory lane to the Trump campaign in 2016 and all those bird doggers at Trump rallies who were paid to create a narrative. That’s why it’s so easy for them to believe that someone would stage a fake assassination attempt. Because they’d do that.

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“.. many seem unsure whether we represent something beyond the totality of our wealth or power. We were much more than that when we first assumed the moniker of Americans.”

• The Chilling Embrace of Political Violence in the United States (Turley)

We are seeing increasing support for violent action across social media, including those lamenting that the recent presidential assassination was not successful. Conservative sites have been featuring teachers and others who were upset that the recent effort failed, including one who has now lost her job. The current violence and violent rhetoric have been building for years as our leaders fuel the rage in the nation.


One poll by the University of Virginia Center for Politics found that 52 percent of Biden supporters say Republicans are now a threat to American life, while 47 percent of Trump supporters say the same about Democrats. Among Biden supporters, 41 percent believed violence is justified “to stop [Republicans] from achieving their goals.” An almost identical percentage, 38 percent, of Trump supporters embraced violence to stop Democrats. The support for violence has been growing. One prior poll shows a quarter of Americans supporting political violence.

An earlier survey from the Baker Center at Georgetown University also captured the growing divide among Americans on this 250th anniversary year of our revolution. The public’s distrust of the media, democracy, and each other appears to be growing as one out of seven Americans now embraces political violence. That survey also showed the continuing drop in support for the media. As the mainstream media continues to show the same bias and advocacy journalism that has been alienating many citizens, roughly half (49%) of the public has little or no confidence in the press. Roughly the same percentage believes that the press favors the Democrats in its coverage. The percentage with great confidence in the media is now just 18%.

One of the most chilling aspects of the survey is the drop in faith in each other and in democracy. A shocking 57% believe that members of the opposite party are a somewhat or very serious “threat to the U.S. and its people.” Only 69% say that democracy is “preferable to any other kind of government.” The drop in support of democracy is particularly concerning with almost 10% of the public saying that political violence is “sometimes” warranted and 5% say that individual acts of political violence are “often” or “very often” justified.

With the third attempted assassination of President Donald Trump, the survey suggests and a sizable number of Americans may share the views of Cole Allen that even murder is now a legitimate, even righteous, response to political opponents. The New York Times recently ran a podcast in which radical Hasan Piker, the New York Times Opinion Culture Editor Nadja Spiegelman, and New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino captured the moral relativism that has taken hold of the left in American society. They cheerfully described the rationale for everything from “microlooting” to murder.

In response to latest assassination attempt, Hakeem Jeffries declared, “I don’t give a damn” about criticism over his reckless rhetoric. That is hardly surprising for a politician whose favorite political prop appears to be a baseball bat, but it shows how politicians hope to ride this rage wave back into power. For Jeffries, rage may be the ticket to becoming the next Speaker of the House of Representatives. The sad fact is that violent rhetoric works in an age of rage. Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger called upon her supporters to “Let your rage fuel you.” She then refused to withdraw her support for the Democratic candidate for Attorney General, Jay Jones, who once expressed his desire to kill his political opponents and his children.

It is the combination of this rising moral relativism with the failing faith in our system that represents an existential threat to our Republic. We will be facing unprecedented economic and social challenges in this decade. We have a system that is designed for such changes. In my book, Rage and the Republic” I discuss what I view as a crisis of faith in our values and ourselves.

When Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur asked, “What then is the new American, this new man?” he was a Frenchman. Later, the author, cartographer, farmer, and diplomat would adopt a new name as John Hector St. John as well as a new identity: an American farmer. ,,, What was so striking about Letters from an American Farmer was the fourth word: American. At a time when most people still identified with their states as Georgians or Virginians, Crèvecoeur wrote as one of a new people known as Americans…

The greatest challenge of this century may be a rediscovery of that essential character that seemed so clear to these early writers when they first came upon our shores. Call it a crisis of faith or a confusion of the times, but many seem unsure whether we represent something beyond the totality of our wealth or power. We were much more than that when we first assumed the moniker of Americans. The question, is what we are now? Or, perhaps more pointedly, what do we aspire to be in this new century?

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“America’s 15 minutes in the sun are over.”

Not sure what exactly he wants to say apart from that.

• Trump Is Putting Americans into Digital Prison (Paul Craig Roberts)

The Trump regime has shown that its true agenda is to dump Americans into captivity. Trump and his Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, a George Soros lackey, are using undocumented aliens as an excuse to force American citizens into total digital surveillance. The Burning Platform explains:


“In a move that exposes the true agenda behind the “America First” rhetoric, the Trump administration is barreling forward with an executive order that will force every American to hand over their biometric facial data or be locked out of the banking system entirely. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a longtime Soros protégé who helped wreck the British economy in the 1992 Black Wednesday raid [by Soros on the British currency], has confirmed the policy is “in process.” Banks will be required to verify every customer’s citizenship using a U.S. passport containing embedded RFID chips and government-ready facial recognition biometrics. No passport? No bank account. Period. Real ID, driver’s licenses, and every other common document will not suffice. This is not border security. This is the final knot in the digital noose.

“The order’s language is chillingly straightforward: banks must fully “know your customer,” including immigration status. Undocumented immigrants “don’t have a right to be in the banking system,” Bessent declared. But the real target is every American citizen. Millions without passports will now be compelled to get one with high-resolution facial scans formatted for seamless integration into centralized government databases. Once your face is digitized and permanently linked to your money, the infrastructure for a cashless surveillance state is complete. Track, freeze, or deny funds at will based on compliance, social scores, political dissent, or future “misinformation” flags. This is how they build the cage: one “security” measure at a time.” https://www.theburningplatform.com/2026/04/25/trump-administration-fast-tracks-the-digital-control-grid/

Notice that Trump’s unconstitutional executive order pretends the order is against “undocumented immigrants” who Bessent says “don’t have a right to be in the banking system.” What a blatant lie! Undocumented immigrants have the right to work and they are paid via checks drawn on bank accounts. The federal government issues them ID cards and states issue them driving licenses. They receive housing, medical, food, and educational benefits. In some Democrat states and cities they vote in US elections and serve in state and local governments. California passed a law, or tried to, to allow immigrant-invaders to serve as police officers. Immigrant-invaders have been extended the Constitutional rights that the US Constitution gives to US citizens. So what does Bessent mean that undocumented aliens cannot have a bank account?

Is this the best disguise the Trump regime can give to tyranny? The infrastructure of tyranny “is being built right now, under the cover of “securing the border” and “know your customer.” Trump is adding to the construction of tyranny by urging Congress to approve a FISA domestic spying program. Trump says he is willing to give up his Constitutionally protected civil liberties for national security and the military’s needs. Be sure you understand what is occurring. The federal government let in millions of undocumented immigrant-invaders including criminals and possibly terrorists. To protect against this threat, the federal government wants to take away the Constitutionally protected civil liberties of US citizens.

Trump’s plan leaves Americans completely unprotected against government just as the American colonists were unprotected against the British government except by force of arms.. Congress will vote for “national security” and “for the military.” Voting against the military/security complex is as dangerous as voting against Israel.

The US Constitution has been destroyed piece by piece for a long time. Today hardly a remnant remains. President Lincoln destroyed states rights during 1861-1865, thereby wiping out limits on federal power. 1913, the eve of the First World War, brought the termination of the Constitutional prohibition of an income tax, and it established centralized control over the banking system, to which Americans had long been opposed. President George W. Bush set aside, unchallenged, habeas corpus and asserted presidential power to hold citizens indefinitely on suspision alone without evidence presented to a court. Obama asserted the right of the president to execute American citizens on suspicion alone without due process of law.

The Biden regime used the power it claimed to imprison citizens on the basis of false allegations. And now Trump, himself a victim of weaponized law completes the federal government’s construction of Tyranny for the American People. The American people, as insouciant as they have proved to be time and time again, have little comprehension that America’s time as a free society has come to its end. This coming July 4 will the last time Americans hear about America’s unsurpassed freedom and the men who gave their lives for us to have it. No such freedom will any longer exist. The agendas of organized interests have overridden the agendas of the American people–family, morality, good will toward others.

America wastes its resources and lives fighting wars for Israel’s agenda of Greater Israel and for the profits of the military-security complex. The American liberals and the Zionists have achieved their goal. Today Americans are so disunited that it is impossible for a leader to arise. Trump has proven himself to be a tool of the Zionist agenda and of the authoritarian state. When the Democrats return to office, they will be focused on imprisoning Trump and his supporters, not on restoring the American Republic created by the Founding Fathers.

America’s 15 minutes in the sun are over.

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If just a little part of this is true, there goes US politics.

• House Judiciary Expands Probe Into Biden Admin Spying On GOP Congressmen (JTN)

Revelations last year claimed the Biden FBI snooped on the phone records of multiple Republican members of Congress, including eight senators, during its January 6 investigation known as Arctic Frost. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan expanded his committee’s investigation Monday into allegations that the Biden administration spied on Republican lawmakers. Revelations last year claimed the Biden FBI snooped on the phone records of multiple Republican members of Congress, including eight senators, during its January 6 investigation known as Arctic Frost.


Jordan sent the latest letter to Alpine Bank CEO Glen Jammaron requesting documents and communications related to allegations that the Biden administration’s Department of Justice may have subpoenaed financial institutions for records of private customer data for Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert. The letter asks the bank to produce documents and communications relating to any material sought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia in relation to investigations about the 2020 presidential election. It also sought documents and material related to Arctic Frost and activities conducted by former Special Counsel Jack Smith and asked for the material by no later than May 11.

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Trump made a lot of people not funny. Colbert, Kimmel etc., they have nothing left at all. Is it a writers’ crisis?

• Kimmel Defends ‘Expectant Widow’ Sketch (JTN)

In his opening monologue on Monday, Kimmel said that sketch referring to first lady Melania Trump as an “expectant widow” was a joke about the president’s age and not a call for assassination. Jimmy Kimmel, host of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show, responded on Monday to demands from first lady Melania Trump and President Donald Trump that he be fired for his “expectant widow” comment. In a sketch last week that was a parody of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Kimmel referred to Melania Trump as an “expectant widow.” Following the shooting on Saturday, the first lady demanded Kimmel be fired for what she said was a call for violence.


The president later joined his wife in the demand, posting on Truth Social, “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.” Kimmel on Monday night joked about the controversy in his opening monologue and went on to say that the joke was about Trump’s age and not a call for the president to be assassinated, according to the Washington Post. President Trump is 79 and his wife turned 56 on Sunday. = Kimmel also claimed the president and his wife know the sketch wasn’t a call for violence and noted that he’s been “very vocal” in his opposition to gun violence.

One of Kimmel’s scheduled guests for Monday night, mentalist Oz Pearlman, who was set to perform magic tricks at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, canceled his appearance on the show following the shooting and the Trumps’ outrage. ABC and corporate parent the Walt Disney Company suspended the production of Kimmel’s show for six days in September 2025 following public criticism and pressure from Trump administration officials over a Kimmel monologue about the reaction to the assassination of conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

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She’s man enough to handle Kimmel.

• ‘Beyond the Pale’: Trump Joins Melania’s Call to ABC to Fire Kimmel (Salgado)

President Donald Trump has joined his wife in calling for ABC News to sack vile “comedian” Jimmy Kimmel, and the president was even more furiously direct than the first lady was. Trump used his usual medium of posting on Truth Social to state that Kimmel’s unamusing and disgusting assertion that First Lady Melania Trump looked like an “expectant widow” was a joke “far beyond the pale.” Kimmel has been using his late night show on ABC News to make the most disgusting pro-assassination comments for many months now, however.


The president began, “Wow, Jimmy Kimmel, who is in no way funny as attested to by his terrible Television Ratings, made a statement on his Show that is really shocking.” For most of 2025, Jimmy Kimmel Live! averaged 1.1 to 1.8 million viewers per episode, which was below the average Nielsen-based viewership for shows in the first two quarters of last year. Kimmel is a failure as a show host, which doesn’t stop him from continuing to spew vile, extremely biased propaganda like his pre-White House Correspondents’ Dinner satire.

Referring to Kimmel’s tactic of showing a clip of Melania on screen while he mocked her as if she were present, Donald Trump continued, “[Kimmel] showed a fake video of the First Lady, Melania, and our son, Barron, like they were actually sitting in his studio, listening to him speak, which they weren’t, and never would be. He then stated, ‘Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.’ [Two] day[s] later a lunatic tried entering the ballroom of the White House Correspondents Dinner, loaded up with a shotgun, handgun, and many knives.”

Cole Tomas Allen, the shooter, “was there for a very obvious and sinister reason,” Trump added. The U.S. Department of Justice has since charged Allen with three federal charges of attempted assassination, interstate transportation of a firearm for committing a felony, and firearm discharge during a violent crime. The charge of attempting to assassinate the president carries a life sentence with conviction. Trump ended, “I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

First Lady Melania also seemingly urged the Disney Company, which owns ABC, to fire Kimmel. “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,” she posted. “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 declared, “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.” Kimmel is part of the hate campaign that inspired Cole Allen.

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If only…

• Knives Out: Is a Coup Brewing in Kiev? (Ryumshin)

Almost six months have passed since ‘Mindichgate’ erupted in Ukraine. The corruption scandal, which allegedly implicated large parts of the ruling elite, became the most serious political test of Vladimir Zelensky’s presidency and, for a time, threatened to bring it to an abrupt end. To stabilize his position, Zelensky was forced into concessions. His long-time ally Andrey Yermak was removed, and in his place came Kirill Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR), a figure widely seen as a moderate critic of the president. The cabinet was also reshuffled, with new figures brought in to broaden the coalition. In return, anti-corruption bodies such as NABU and SAPO eased their pressure on the president.


The immediate crisis has subsided. But the structure of power in Ukraine has shifted significantly. The clearest sign of this transformation is the rise of Budanov. Initially, the new head of the presidential office kept a low public profile. Over time, however, he has grown more confident, and more visible. Throughout April, Budanov appeared to walk a careful line in his public statements, often striking a tone at odds with Zelensky himself. While the president has prepared the country for a prolonged conflict, Budanov has spoken of ongoing negotiations and suggested that peace may not be as distant as many assume.

When Zelensky highlighted Ukraine’s technological breakthroughs, Budanov has downplayed them. He has also openly acknowledged the growing difficulties of mobilization, a rare admission from a senior official in a country at war. At the same time, Budanov has been carefully constructing his public image. In Western media, he is presented as both a war hero and a pragmatic “dove,” a man who understands the need to bring the conflict to an end. For domestic audiences, his team promotes stories of personal bravery, portraying him as a hands-on commander who has taken part in operations and narrowly escaped danger.

The result is a carefully balanced political persona, and one that increasingly resembles that of a future president. Budanov’s ambitions are hardly a secret in Kiev. His approval ratings reportedly rival those of Valeriy Zaluzhny, once seen as Zelensky’s most serious potential rival. Unlike Zaluzhny, however, Budanov remains firmly embedded within the system. He is said to have cultivated connections abroad, including with figures in Donald Trump’s political orbit, while at home he enjoys support among influential members of the ruling Servant of the People party.

For Zelensky, bringing Budanov into the inner circle may have seemed a logical move. Where Zaluzhny was sidelined and sent abroad, Budanov was co-opted in an application of the old principle: keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. In theory, this should allow the president to monitor potential dissent within the elite. In practice, it has created a new risk. By elevating Budanov to the centre of power, Zelensky has given him both visibility and institutional leverage. The head of the presidential office is no longer a background figure but a key political actor, one capable of shaping narratives and, potentially, alliances.

The fault line may emerge over the question of negotiations with Russia. As the conflict drags on and the situation at the front becomes more difficult, a growing segment of the Ukrainian elite appears to favor some form of compromise. This sentiment increasingly clashes with Zelensky’s public stance.

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There will be much more of this soon, pwomise,

• Top Fauci Advisor David Morens Charged In COVID Records Cover-Up: DOJ (ZH)

With Pam Bondi out (related?), the U.S. Department of Justice announced today that it has indicted Dr. David M. Morens, a longtime senior advisor to former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci. The 78-year-old Morens faces charges including conspiracy against the United States, destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations, concealment, removal, or mutilation of records, and aiding and abetting. Dr. David Morens. Look at that criminal brow. According to the indictment, Morens allegedly used his personal Gmail account to evade Freedom of Information Act requests and worked with others to conceal communications related to COVID-19 research grants during the pandemic.

Morens served as Senior Scientific Advisor in NIAID’s Office of the Director from 2006 through 2022 – advising senior leadership, including Fauci, on policy matters, infectious disease issues, and aspects of COVID-19 origins research. He also gathered information from grantees and the scientific community and helped prepare briefings for Fauci to use with the White House, Congress, and the public.

The Congressional Investigation
The indictment follows years of scrutiny by Congress. In June 2023, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic began obtaining emails showing that Morens had been using his personal Gmail account for official government business specifically to avoid FOIA disclosures. Over the following months the subcommittee issued document requests and subpoenas, conducted transcribed interviews with Morens in December 2023 and January 2024, and ultimately obtained tens of thousands of additional pages from his personal email account in late April 2024.

As Paul Thacker of the DisInformation Chronicle noted in 2024, the subcommittee released a detailed staff memo and more than 150 pages of emails on May 22, 2024, documenting what it described as serious questions about potential wrongdoing and illegal activity by Morens. The emails included discussions of deleting records and routing sensitive communications through personal accounts. Sen. Ron Johnson had raised similar concerns even earlier. In November 2023 he wrote to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Inspector General Christi Grimm, stating that Morens’ actions may have directly obstructed congressional oversight efforts related to NIAID activities during the pandemic.

Key Emails
Two emails in particular have drawn significant attention. In a February 24, 2021 message to Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance and Gerald Keusch, Morens wrote that he had learned from an NIH FOIA official “how to make emails disappear after I am FOIA’d but before the search starts, so I think we are all safe. Plus, I deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to Gmail.” In an April 21, 2021 email to Daszak, Morens added: “PS, I forgot to say there is no worry about FOIAs. I can either send stuff to Tony on his private gmail, or hand it to him at work or at his house. He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble.” (“Tony” refers to Anthony Fauci.)

These messages, along with others detailing coordination with EcoHealth Alliance after its NIH grant was terminated, formed a central part of the congressional record. nOn May 22, 2024, Morens appeared for a public hearing before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. He faced questions from both Republican and Democratic members about the emails, his relationship with Daszak, and his role in efforts to restore EcoHealth’s terminated grant and shape public messaging around COVID-19 origins..

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Home › Forums › Debt Rattle April 29 2026

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  • April 29, 2026 at 8:36 am #239547
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

    Vincent van Gogh Fishing Boats on the Beach at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer 1888 • Trump Claims Iran in ‘State of Collapse’ (ZH) • Trump Says Iran Cav
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle April 29 2026]

    April 29, 2026 at 8:51 am #239574
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

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