We have the evidence and the documents that prove Obama and his administration, including Hillary Clinton and our own intelligence community committed treason and ran a coup on President Trump to steal the 2016 election.

1. Hillary Clinton greenlights the plan to tie Trump to… pic.twitter.com/fncRuQdWyW
— The SCIF (@TheSCIF) May 10, 2026

https://twitter.com/Real_RobN/status/2053635138765062154?s=20

Trump just reposted this. pic.twitter.com/j9loQ1e1ql
— johnny maga (@johnnymaga) May 11, 2026

Barack Hussein Obama wiretapping Trump Tower during the 2016 election was a million times worse than anything Nixon did during Watergate. It is time to arrest the Renegade. pic.twitter.com/qefWDZAxlW
— I Love America News (@ILA_NewsX) May 9, 2026

https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2053546881050169600?s=20

Bankrupting the insurance Cartels. Something has to be done. pic.twitter.com/fDvVgcQpNw
— Johnny Midnight ⚡️ (@its_The_Dr) May 11, 2026

I’m a big fan of Marco Rubio now—this is easily the best Catholic political speech I’ve heard from someone

video: CIT pic.twitter.com/hI0E0Y0taP
— Sachin Jose (@Sachinettiyil) May 10, 2026

This is simply unreal. What happened in Germany? Has the left virus completely eaten their minds?

How on earth is it possible to not be willing to defend one's country and family? pic.twitter.com/wPedD5gNvy
— Michael A. Arouet (@MichaelAArouet) May 10, 2026

“I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP”

• Trump to Iran: Time’s Up (Robert Spencer)

“Iran,” said President Donald Trump in a Truth Social post early on Sunday afternoon, “has been playing games with the United States, and the rest of the World, for 47 years (DELAY, DELAY, DELAY!),” and there is no doubt that his assessment is true, particularly in regard to the present on-and-off negotiations. Now, however, Trump has issued an ominous warning that the surviving leaders of the Islamic Republic would be wise to take seriously, which doesn’t at all mean that they will do so.

The leaders of the Islamic Republic, whoever they may be, have been playing a delaying game with Trump with the peace talks, and that’s essentially all that those talks were or ever could be. This is clear from the very fact that Iran is an Islamic republic that strives to adhere to Islamic principles and laws in all of its dealings. Islamic law allows for a truce between a Muslim force and a non-Muslim one only under two circumstances: if the non-Muslim force is about to convert to Islam, which is obviously not in play here (although it could be sooner than anyone expects), and if the Muslim force is losing the war, and needs time to gather strength to fight again more effectively.
There is no scenario in Islamic law in which a Muslim force and a non-Muslim one sign a treaty for a lasting peace, lay down their arms, and coexist. The assumption among Western policymakers that the Islamic Republic of Iran would do such a thing under any circumstances is based on those policymakers’ willful ignorance regarding Islamic law, and fond assumption that everyone in the world thinks just the way they do. Trump went on in his Truth Social post to skewer a pair of his predecessors for showering the Islamic Republic with American largesse in pursuit of exactly that chimerical peaceful coexistence:
“…and then finally hit “pay dirt” when Barack Hussein Obama became President. He was not only good to them, he was great, actually going to their side, jettisoning Israel, and all other Allies, and giving Iran a major and very powerful new lease on life. Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and 1.7 Billion Dollars in green cash, flown into Tehran, was handed to them on a silver platter. Every Bank in D.C., Virginia, and Maryland was emptied out — It was so much money that when it arrived, the Iranian Thugs had no idea what to do with it. They had never seen money like this, and never will again. It was taken off the plane in suitcases and satchels, and the Iranians couldn’t believe their luck. They finally found the greatest SUCKER of them all, in the form of a weak and stupid American President. He was a disaster as our “Leader,” but not as bad as Sleepy Joe Biden!”
Trump was right about Obama giving the Islamic Republic a “very powerful new lease on life.” Without the financial boost that Obama gave to the mullahs, they likely would not have survived the nationwide protests that swept Iran several times since Obama’s billions arrived. Those protests were ruthlessly suppressed, and the money for that suppression came from the United States. Adding insult to injury for the long-suffering people of Iran, Old Joe Biden sent them $10 billion. All this cash has kept the bloodthirsty Islamic regime alive. Trump continued:
“For 47 years the Iranians have been “tapping” us along, keeping us waiting, killing our people with their roadside bombs, destroying protests, and recently wiping out 42,000 innocent, unarmed protestors, and laughing at our now GREAT AGAIN Country. They will be laughing no longer! President DONALD J. TRUMP” Just over two hours after posting this, Trump added: “I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘Representatives.’ I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP”
What Trump will do now is anybody’s guess, but one thing is certain: the Islamic Republic will keep on behaving belligerently and aggressively toward the United States and Israel as long as it continues to exist. It cannot end its hostility to either country without ceasing to be an Islamic republic. It hates the U.S. because free society and representative government is the foremost competitor to the Sharia-based society that it wishes to export, and it hates Israel because the Qur’an designates the Jews as the “most vehement in hostility” to the Muslims (5:82).
And as long as Iran is losing, it will continue to delay. Trump is correct to call them out. Now is the time to act.

“I didn’t even waste my time reading all of it. It’s on life support..”

• Trump: Iran Ceasefire ‘On Life Support’ (JTN)

President Donald Trump on Monday stated that the ceasefire with Iran was “on life support” amid a growing diplomatic deadline between Tehran and Washington and the exchange of live rounds across the Persian Gulf. It’s unbelievably weak. After reading that garbage they sent over? I didn’t even waste my time reading all of it. It’s on life support,” he told reporters. “I would say the ceasefire is on massive life support, where the doctor walks in and says, ‘sir, your loved one has approximately 1% chance of living.'”

Trump’s remarks came from the Oval Office during an unrelated event. He also lamented the difficulties of dealing with Iran, saying they agreed to commitments and then backed out. He rejected the Iranian peace proposal over the weekend, calling it “totally unacceptable.” Earlier this month, Iran and the United Arab Emirates exchanged fire across the Persian Gulf, despite the ceasefire, with Iran launching missiles toward UAE territory and striking at least one industrial oil facility.

Iran act like they’re winning.

“Everything we proposed in the text was reasonable and generous.” However, US officials continue to insist on their “unreasonable demands,” Baghaei stressed. He described that Iran’s demands for the war to stop, for the US to lift its blockade, and the release Iran’s frozen assets, remain legitimate..”

• Trump Mulls Military Action As Ceasefire On “Life Support” (ZH)

President Trump is meeting with his national security team Monday to discuss the way forward in the Iran war, including possibly resuming military action, after negotiations with the countrydeadlocked on Sunday, three U.S. officials told Axios. U.S. officials say Trump wants a deal to end the war, but Iran’s rejection of many of his demands and refusal to make meaningful concessions on its nuclear program puts the military option back on the table. This sent oil prices back to the highs of the day…

President Trump also told Fox, that he sees a 1% chance of an Iran deal materializing and succeeding, as even the ceasefire is one of “the weakest, on life support”: President Donald Trump called out the “piece of garbage” peace proposal from Iran on Monday from the Oval Office, saying only “stupid people” in Iran are questioning his resolve in guaranteeing Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. The latest Iranian proposal reneged on a past vow to give up enriched uranium. None of this bodes well for the prospect of the Strait of Hormuz opening up anytime soon. Oil prices have reflected general pessimism at the start of this week.
Trump Might Fully Restart Project Freedom
Fox News is reporting that President Trump is considering renewing Project Freedom, pushing oil up. According to the developing story: President Donald Trump has stated in an interview with Fox News that he is considering renewing Project Freedom, a military operation originally launched to secure the passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz. This operation, involving significant U.S. naval assets, had been paused amid diplomatic efforts with Iran. The initial pause was influenced by diplomatic progress mediated by Pakistan, although recent developments suggest a potential escalation.
However, the reality is that the de facto US naval blockade has remained in place. The Iranians last week fired on US warships which were escorting foreign vessels through the strait. Since then there’s been an uneasy calm amid stalled negotiations. There’s really no movement on either side. Trump indicated in the fresh comments that all of this could be part of a larger operation, and strangely a bit of a contradictory stance: he said of Iran’s “hardline leaders” that “they are going to fold” and that “I will deal with them until they make a deal”. Of course, the very label of ‘hardline’ would suggest the opposite.
The same Fox correspondent was told by Trump that forcibly retrieving Iran’s ‘nuclear dust’ is still on the table: It is clear there remains a huge gap between the positions of Washington and Tehran, after the past days saw proposal and counterproposal submitted via Pakistan, with the White House issuing its final response over the weekend, as President Trump called it ‘unacceptable’.
According to new Monday words from Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, “Everything we proposed in the text was reasonable and generous.” However, US officials continue to insist on their “unreasonable demands,” Baghaei stressed. He described that Iran’s demands for the war to stop, for the US to lift its blockade, and the release Iran’s frozen assets, remain legitimate. Further, Tehran is demanding safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, along with establishing security in the region and in Lebanon.
Senior Iranian military official Mohsen Rezaee to Tasnim: There Is No Clear Prospect for a Political Agreement With the United States n”Unfortunately, the US continues to insist on its one-sided view,” Baghaei added of the “reasonable, generous offer” built around Iran’s national interests. Iran has strongly suggested that the US is actually too influenced by driving Israeli interests, not American priorities. But per WSJ, Washington’s focus remains on the nuclear issue, which Iran considers a non-starter in negotiations: “The president on Sunday said a multipage response that Iran sent to the U.S. proposal to end the war, which didn’t include commitments about Tehran’s nuclear program, was unacceptable,” the publication writes.

Do the mullahs still have any say? Or is it now really the IRGC?

• Dear Mr. President: Just Finish the Mullahs Already (Stephen Green)

“When you set out to take Vienna,” Napoleon advised, “take Vienna.” When President Donald Trump initiated the current round of hostilities in the 47-year-old Iran War on February 28, observers had no way to tell whether Trump had merely ordered U.S. forces to inflict more heavy damage to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions, or if he was determined to force regime change.

Lately, it looks like neither. As PJ Media’s own Robert Spencer noted on Sunday, “There is no scenario in Islamic law in which a Muslim force and a non-Muslim one sign a treaty for a lasting peace, lay down their arms, and coexist.” There comes a point where even Trump’s so-much-winning art-of-the-deal negotiating tactics come up against this hard reality, and it looks increasingly like that’s where we are.
Look, I love the idea of Trump doing to Tehran what he did to Caracas back in January, and removing the problem leader, then making peace with the much more pliable survivors. But it’s clear by now that either no such people exist in the Islamic Republic, or the government is too fractured or leaderless to comply. Either way, the fiery-but-mostly-peaceful ceasefire may have run its course. The man himself said on Sunday that the regime “will be laughing no longer!” at the U.S., but that’s not the way it looks to those of us watching from the outside.
This exchange between my Red State colleague Bonchie and another X user explains where I arrived over the weekend: In the interest of fairness, let’s look at the flip side, because there’s also the global picture that Oil Price analyst Irina Slav reported on this weekend. The short version is that China is hurt more by the growing oil crisis than the U.S. is. If temporarily higher gas prices are the price of ending the Islamic Republic and hurting the CCP, too, then I’d think of them as a worthwhile investment.
Then again, midterm voters are likely less sanguine about gas prices than I am, and political considerations are real. Or as another X user put it, “We either prove we can open the straits now or deal with it being closed in October.” It may well be that Trump is simply running out the clock on Tehran’s finances and oil storage issues that could go critical as soon as this week. If that’s the ploy, and it works, then please forgive my itchy trigger finger. But the more I think about what desperate actions the regime might take in either one of those circumstances, the more convinced I become that waiting them out could prove to be a huge mistake.
There are two clocks ticking. One on the Islamic Republic, the other on America’s patience with the war’s economic fallout. It’s always looked like Tehran’s clock will run out first, but after 10 weeks, the time might have come to force a decision instead. Did Trump set out to take out the regime? He’s been typically coy about his actual endgame, but whatever the goal was on February 28, maybe now Trump needs to finish the job.

Khameini jr. “orders”? Who listens?

• Khamenei Orders Iran’s Army To ‘Continue Decisive Operations’ (Cradle)

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has ordered the country’s forces to continue military operations against the US and Israel, according to a report by Iranian public broadcaster IRIB released Sunday. The order came during a meeting between Khamenei and Major General Ali Abdollahi, the commander of the Iranian army’s Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters. “During this meeting, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, His Eminence Ayatollah Sayyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, while expressing appreciation for the brave and valiant fighters and the country’s powerful armed forces, issued new directives and guidance for continuing operations and confronting enemies decisively,” the report said.

Abdollahi also “presented a report on the readiness of the armed forces” during the meeting, IRIB added. The report comes after two months of speculation and unverified media claims about the Supreme Leader’s status. Western news outlets like The Guardian and The Times had claimed earlier in the war that Khamenei was in a coma following the US-Israeli strikes that assassinated his father. Reports also claimed that he fled to Russia. Mazaher Hosseini, head of protocol in the office of Iran’s supreme leader, recently stated that Khamenei was healing from minor injuries he sustained and “is now in complete health.”

“Thank God, he is in good health. The enemy is spreading all kinds of rumors and false claims. They want to see him and find him, but people should be patient and not rush. He will speak to you when the time is right,” the Iranian official stated. The IRIB report came a day after CNN cited US intelligence as saying that Khamenei “is playing a critical role in shaping war strategy alongside senior Iranian officials.” It also comes days after Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said he met with the supreme leader. “What struck me most during this meeting was the vision and the humble and sincere approach of the supreme leader of the Islamic Revolution,” he said.
Tehran has sent out its response to a new US proposal for a ceasefire via Pakistan, according to state media. The US has maintained an illegal blockade of Iranian ports since the ceasefire began. Washington violated the truce days ago by bombing Iran’s coast and attacking two vessels. Iranian forces targeted two US military vessels in response. The next day, skirmishes broke out between Iranian and US forces in the Strait of Hormuz. Spokesperson for the Iranian parliament’s Foreign Policy and National Security Committee, Ebrahim Rezaei, said on Sunday that Tehran will strike US military bases and vessels in response to any new violations from Washington – stressing that “restraint has come to an end.”

“..maximum victory for the U.S. would look like, in addition to the other tiers of victory. “Regime change … empowering the Iranian people and giving us an Iran that could be a friend in the future..”

• Confused About Iran? Here’s What U.S. Victory Looks Like. (Victoria Taft)

The Trump Administration is the most transparent in the history of the country, but keeping up with the torturous talks with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is getting harder all the time. It started off clearly enough, but since this Iran campaign went into negotiation mode with the leftover leaders of the IRGC, it’s been as if we’re “looking through a glass, darkly,” as Paul put it in 1 Corinthians. From claims of kamikazi dolphins, to on-and-off-again negotiations, claims of full air superiority, use of autonomous ships, to the question of whether we can call it a “war,” there’s been confusion about what is going on in the Iran conflict and the subsequent talks. Some of this confusion is on purpose, no doubt, to confound the IRGC leftovers, but people like me who try to keep up are, well, frustrated.

The Iranian leftover leaders are conducting what is obviously a stall strategy, of course, and President Trump posted on Truth Social over the weekend that he knows what they’re doing, “DELAY, DELAY, DELAY!” he wrote. I asked a subject matter expert, Edmund Fitton-Brown — a former UK ambassador to Yemen and former UN negotiator with Al Qaeda and the Taliban — to explain if those talks can get us to something we can call “victory.” The Iran conflict is something I tackle on Tuesdays in my Adult in the Room Podcast livestream, and I asked the senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies to explain things to me.
In the interview, Fitton-Brown explained that “[Trump] is really serious about peace, but you don’t get peace with people who want to kill you.” However, there are three tiers of achievable “peace,” and they are “minimum victory, medium victory, and … maximum victory.” You can see the entire exchange at 22:20 of this video below, but here’s a distilled version of his theory. “Minimum is the straightforward moves, open [Hormuz], no Iranian toll, complete reassertion of… the law of the sea and freedom of navigation,” he told me. “[W]e need the Iranians to acknowledge that they can’t enrich uranium in the future,” he said. “Those are the minimum conditions.”
The Hormuz takeover, though not completely unexpected, gave the Iranians another leverage point they didn’t have before. Fitton-Brown said he’d negotiate for more, of course. “Medium conditions for success would be to get the Iranians to agree that they will not resume their procurement and manufacture of ballistic missiles so that so that we don’t have this constant threat to Israel that has destabilized the Middle East,” and that sounds even better. He continued, “Iranians would acknowledge that they have to reign in their proxies. They can’t just keep waging war on their neighbors using the Houthis, the Hezballah, Iraqi militias and Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”
Minimum plus Medium equals a better deal. Here’s what he says maximum victory for the U.S. would look like, in addition to the other tiers of victory. “Regime change … empowering the Iranian people and giving us an Iran that could be a friend in the future,” he told me. He says they’ve been anything but that in the past 47 years. “We have allowed the Iranians for 47 years to chant death to America. And that should never have been allowed. Right from the start, we should have said to them, you know, if you say that, then you cannot be allowed to have a kind of civilized relationship with us,” he stated. He’d keep sanctions going until “they realized there was a real cost to [saying] it.” The IRGC gets a vote, too. Now the Iranian nuke czar says Trump’s number one goal, the Islamist’s nuclear program, will not be part of any negotiations.

Mohammad Eslami, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, told a parliamentary security committee session that nuclear technology will not be part of any negotiations and that enrichment is off the table entirely. Reported by committee spokesman Ebrahim Rezaei. pic.twitter.com/bEAVOmNTBD
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) May 11, 2026

Fitton-Brown says, “The lesson is to take people at their word.”
Maybe it’s time to bring back the B-2s.
Watch my interview below.

Europe has a long way to fall.

• EU Prepares For ‘Potential’ Talks With Putin As US Slowly Reduces Troops (ZH)

A recent report in Financial Times indicates the European Union is preparing for “potential” future talks with Russia and President Vladimir Putin at a moment of extreme doubts over both US military commitments and Russia’s intentions in Ukraine. Putin himself during his V-Day speech Saturday hinted for the first time that the conflict may be ‘coming to an end’: “I think that the matter is coming to an end,” Putin told reporters of the Russia-Ukraine war, Europe s deadliest conflict since World War II.

The Russian leader, however, added he would be willing to meet Zelensky only after the terms of a peace agreement had already been settled. The Kremlin had rejected US President Donald Trump’s August 2025 offer to hold a trilateral meeting with Zelenskyy, Putin and Trump. “This should be the final point, not the negotiations themselves,” Putin said after the Victory Day, which marks Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 in World War II. Also on Saturday, António Costa, the president of the European Council, said to a press conference the EU will only talk to Putin at the “right moment”. Costa ultimately sees “potential” for direct EU engagement with Putin.
“We need in the right moment to have talks with Russia to address our common issues with security,” the EU president had said. “We don’t want to disturb the initiative led by President Trump,” said Costa at a ‘Europe Day’ celebration in Brussels. He also spoke of preparations aimed at being “ready to do what we need to do” regarding Europe’s security. And separately an EU official said: “There will be a moment when the EU will need to speak to Russia because it’s an existential issue for Europe. Now it’s not the time.”= President Trump has recently blasted NATO as a “paper tiger” (though it wasn’t the first time) and has said the US is withdrawing 5,000 American troops from Germany.
In response, European governments have accelerated discussions on deeper EU military coordination, including joint defense initiatives which bypass US protection. Currently, the three-day Ukraine ceasefire announced and backed by President Trump appears to have held throughout the weekend, as no drone attacks have been registered on Moscow or other parts of the country. Trump had presented this as a window and opportunity to achieve a more permanent truce, and Putin is without doubt seizing on the initiative, but surely wants a final settlement in line with Kremlin aims in Ukraine.

In 1999, Putin took over a desperate, despondent, bankrupt country from Yeltsin. Life expectancy among men was in their 50s. Ask them now how they feel about Putin. Not as a failure, I guarantee you.

• Putin’s Failure as a World Leader has Cleared the Path to WW III (PCR)

Igor Girkin regrets that Putin’s pusillanimous behavior has humiliated Russia before the world.

“We — as an entire country — have been humiliated before the whole world by our astonishing inability not only to defend our status as a Great Power (something that had remained unquestioned for Russia for centuries), but even to uphold ordinary national interests. We allow ‘neutral’ states to seize our ships and cargo without the slightest response; we supply (at a discount) oil, gas, and other essential resources to states openly producing missiles and drones that rain down daily on Russian soldiers and civilians; we are ‘passionately friendly’ with neighbors openly laying claim to Russian territory; and in the end, amid triumphant shouting, endless boasting, and equally endless lies from state media, we are unable to defeat an enemy that 10 years ago was pitiful both militarily and socioeconomically — but which we ourselves allowed to grow stronger through our own insane (downright idiotic) actions and inaction.
“And there is much more besides…“We tolerate these idiots in power in the hope that they will ‘come to their senses’ and finally (if only out of self-preservation) defend Russia from external enemies — but the further things go, the more these idiots behave like cowards, while continuing to profit shamelessly from the difficult and unsuccessful war they themselves are losing. “So why should anyone respect us as a country? Who would genuinely ally themselves with obvious losers?”
In 2007 when Russian President Putin spoke at the Munich Security Conference it looked as if the fear of the American Zionist neoconservatives had been realized that a country sufficiently strong to stand as a barrier to Washington’s hegemony had appeared on the scene. Putin declared that Russia did not accept Washington’s unilateralism. Not long after he drove the American trained and equipped Georgian Army out of South Ossetia. Next he threw down the gauntlet with his unequivocal statement that “Russia will never again fight a war on its own territory.” Putin presented Russia to the world as a barrier to US imperialism and looting of the world.
The Israeli-American Zionist neoconservatives decided to fight back. They saw Russia’s weakness in Putin’s desire for peace and good relations. The Zionists correctly read this weakness as an opportunity to seize Ukraine, which Washington had already broken out of Russia and created as an independent state when the Soviet Union collapsed politically. The American Zionists reasoned correctly that Putin would regard Russia’s intervention against their coup as a propaganda advantage for Washington to portray Russia as a revanchist state bent on recovering the Soviet empire and then adding all of Europe. As Putin’s goal was mutual trust and beneficial business relationships, he stood aside, not understanding that the Zionist intent was to use Ukraine in a proxy war against Russia in the expectation of destabilizing Russia.
The American Zionists are achieving their goal. Increasingly, Russians are expressing discontent with Putin’s prevention of the Russian military from winning the conflict initiated by Washington. More and more Russians are speaking out strongly. Drones and missiles supplied by Washington and NATO now hit deep into Russia. They hit Russian energy production facilities, reducing the energy flow. They hit Russian energy export facilities, reducing the ability to export energy. They hit civilian residential housing killing Russian civilians. EU countries of zero military potential seize Russian oil tankers on the high seas. The humiliations go on and on, and Putin accepts them to the disgrace of Russia.

“Operation Epic Fury was the loud one. Operation Economic Fury is the quiet one. . . . While the carriers were on television, Treasury was doing the actual demolition.” —Jesús Enrique Rosas on X

• The Earth Moves Just a Bit (James Howard Kunstler)

Expect a consequential week. The Persian Gulf remains closed and colossal oil slicks leak out of Kharg Island while Iran blusters and stomps its feet. No one can even try to buy its oil anymore, not even China. The sanctions are too onerous. Iran’s wells must be shut in now. Imagine how the production chiefs out in the oil fields are howling at their insane IRGC overseers. Iran has no economy left operating. Iran’s domestic security force, the Basij (Sâzmân-e Basij-e Mostaz’afin, or “Mobilization of the Oppressed”) is strangling anyone who expresses discontent in the streets, not a good look for a regime that can’t survive without the pretense of popular support.

Late Sunday, the US President rejected Tehran’s latest conditions for peace out of hand. They are trying to jerk the whole world around, even while they whirl around the drain. Despite what you read in The New York Times — Iran’s US-based chief cheerleader — it is probably a matter of days now before capitulation. The ball is in America’s court this morning, a real hanging lob shot. The return is apt to be hard. Of course, whatever official utterances come out of Iran, you must discount by about 99.9-percent. For now, there is nothing but the morning fog of suspense.
But strange doings are a’foot elsewhere. You might have noticed that the UK’s labor government got drubbed in local elections, losing nearly 1,500 council seats, a humiliating repudiation. It’s a matter of days before PM Keir Starmer will have to hang it up. His possible replacements are utterly unknown to Americans — Angela Rayner, a former Deputy PM, Energy Secretary Ed Milliband, Health Sec’y Wes Streeting — and any of them is just a place-holder for the election’s main winner Nigel Farage of the Reform Party, which exists wholly outside the age-old British political transect of Labour / Tories.
The Labour Party, you see, is lately as loathsome in the altogether to British voters as its current avatar, Sir Keir (Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, KCB), whose latest act was to extend social welfare benefits to the additional wives of poly-marital Muslims. Way to go! Why not just travel the island empire from town-to-town and slap every indigenous Briton in the face? And the Tories (putative Conservatives), well, just fuggeddabowdem. Sir Keir’s Tory predecessor as PM, Rishi Sunak, screwed the pooch for his party into the next twenty years allowing net Third World migration to hit record highs while the kingdom crumbled.
The way it works over there, Sir Keir or whoever takes over from him, asks King Charles to dissolve Parliament, and you get a sudden national election short of Parliament’s regular five-year term. And so, sometime in the months ahead, Nigel Farage will become Prime Minister and things will change-up bigly in Britain. Mr. Farage will have to contend, among other things, with Donald Trump’s dismantling of whatever was left of Britain’s stealth neo-colonial command of global finance through the British banking system.
he question really is: can Farage arrest his country’s sickening slide into becoming an Islamic caliphate, with all the Third World bells and whistles? Can he possibly even start shipping the most recent arrivals back to where they came from? Can he do what Mr. Trump is attempting in the USA and turn the UK back to an economy based on the actual production of goods rather than financial finaglery?

“France is illegally harvesting its citizens’ data, while accusing social media platforms of doing the same, the entrepreneur has alleged ..”

• Durov Slams French Hypocrisy Over X Crackdown (RT)

Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov has accused France of hypocrisy after prosecutors expanded a criminal investigation into Elon Musk’s X. Durov said French authorities were violating citizens’ privacy while accusing the social media platform of similar conduct. The entrepreneur made the remarks on Sunday, just days after the Paris prosecutor’s office announced that it would seek new charges against X over alleged illegal sexual deepfakes made by the platform’s Grok AI, as well as unlawful data extraction and other crimes.

“The French government is accusing X of the very things the French government itself is doing,” Durov tweeted. The French government is panicking. They know a major political shift in 2027 will expose their misdeeds – so they’re trying to silence free speech platforms under whatever pretext they think they can get away with.He called on the international community to back X against what he called the French state’s “immoral assault” on the social media app.
French investigators initially launched their investigation of X and Grok in January, alleging that the platforms’ algorithms were biased and accusing the company of illegal data gathering and of possessing and spreading sexualized deepfakes created by its AI, including images involving minors. The tech mogul has denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the legal action as a “political attack.” Last month, the US Department of Justice reportedly denied a request from French prosecutors to cooperate in the investigation. US President Donald Trump’s administration has long been critical of what it has called attacks on free speech and political opposition in the EU and UK.
Durov’s Telegram has also faced legal troubles in France. The entrepreneur was arrested at a Paris airport in 2024 and indicted on a dozen charges after French prosecutors accused him of being complicit in crimes committed using his social media platform. Durov has since been allowed to leave France, despite the ongoing investigation. The entrepreneur has repeatedly called the arrest absurd and condemned crackdowns on social media networks as a concerted attack on free speech.

“You ask for miracles, Theo? I give you the Virginia Democrats.” —Hans Gruber, possibly

• Um… Did the GOP Just Win the Midterms? (Stephen Green)

You probably know that I’m not exactly up on the GOP’s chances of holding the House in November, but there’s a glimmer of light ahead, thanks in no small part to overreach by Virginia Democrats — and Republicans finally wising up. Over the weekend, Roger Kimball looked at the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision and declared that “the decision will net Republicans some 8-12 additional House seats in the midterms. In other words, Republicans will not only hold the House; they will also expand their majority.”

Reporting for the (extremely) left-wing Mother Jones, Ari Berman called the decision “devastating” for Democrats, but also noted that “the only silver lining for those harmed may be that the ruling came be too late to have a major impact on the 2026 midterm elections.” “Candidate filing deadlines have passed in most Southern states; primary elections have been held already in North Carolina, Texas, and Mississippi; and Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia have mailed ballots for upcoming May primaries.” That’s six deep-red states out of play for 2026 redistricting, so it isn’t that Roger’s numbers are wrong, but they might be premature. Don’t get me wrong — I pray he’s right.
So for the moment, the GOP’s odds remain too long for comfort. Democrats are comfortably ahead on the 2026 generic congressional ballot, typically the best indicator of what happens on election day. The RealClearPolitics average has them up by 5.6 points. Overcoming a number like that requires the kind of enthusiasm that, frankly, much of the Trump electorate just doesn’t enjoy right now. The Iran War — while totally necessary, they were about to get nukes — has gas prices uncomfortably close to Biden-era highs. Food prices, particularly beef, remain stubbornly high. And the GOP Congress refuses to do a damn thing about election integrity. I’m looking at you, Sen. John Thune.
That last one is a real problem, for reasons both practical (election integrity, duh) and political (Trump voters need this win). We sent the GOP to Congress to undo the damage done to our election system, and they have yet to deliver. You had one job. But sometimes — as we learned from watching Hans Gruber make the FBI sing to his tune in Die Hard — knowing the other guy’s procedure is a yuge part of winning. Which brings us to Virginia, Indiana, and the GOP’s improved chances come November.
By now, you know what happened in Virginia. State Democrats — led by non-former CIA spook Gov. Abigail Spanberger — did what they’re now basically compelled to do, and broke every law on their way to gerrymandering the GOP into oblivion. Then the state Supreme Court knocked them down and declared the illegal referendum void. And Another Thing: Please note that the Virginia Supreme Court did not say that Democrats can’t gerrymander the GOP into oblivion. It just said you actually have to follow the law of the land to do it. At the next court-approved opportunity, you can be sure they’ll get it done.
In Indiana, GOP voters took one look at the new rules and voted out every RINO they could in the state’s primary election last week. Most of the Republican state senators who blocked Indiana’s congressional redraw got hammered by Trump-backed challengers, and Gov. Mike Braun is pushing again for redistricting. If successful, that could net the Republicans one or two more seats. Altogether, in states where it isn’t already too late, and including states like Florida that have already redistricted, Republicans could redraw themselves between 11 and 14 seats before the midterms. Is that enough to overcome the generic congressional ballot deficit? There’s just no way to know this far out, although if Sen. Thune would stop posturing on X long enough to pass the Save Act, I’d bet next month’s car payment that the GOP holds the House.
Grrrr.
Looking ahead, however, 2028 looks really good.

Ukraine is all about money, Russia is not.

• Zelensky Touts That 20 Countries Seek Ukraine Drone Deals (ZH)

Ukraine is emerging as a global drone export powerhouse, coming fresh off vast experience gained in over four years of war with Russia – or at least that’s the image Kiev is seeking to present to the world. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that nearly 20 countries are pursuing drone agreements with Ukraine, with four deals already finalized. Agreements already confirmed include deals with Germany, Norway and the Netherlands, alongside long-term security partnerships with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates which were inked in late March as Zelensky personally toured the Gulf, even amid the ongoing Iran war, according to Reuters.

Zelensky has been offering Ukraine’s services and drone supplies to Gulf countries as a cheaper, effective alternative to dwindling and costly American-supplied anti-air defenses. “Nearly 20 countries are currently involved at various stages: 4 agreements have already been signed, and the first contracts under these agreements are now being prepared,” Zelensky has newly proclaimed on X. “Ukraine has already started to receive the necessary volume of fuel thanks to the agreements,” Zelensky also stated. Interestingly, he’s also of late been pitching being a supplier of battlefield robots, as we’ve detailed before.
Starting in April, Zelensky had hailed that Ukrainian personnel were able to help partners build effective air defenses using interceptor drones to combat Iranian Shaheds. Low-cost interceptor drones deployed by Ukraine are among the most effective ways to combat the inexpensive $20,000 Shaheds, as a war of attrition makes little economic sense when interceptor missiles cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.
Ukraine has had four years to develop low-cost one-way attack drones and interceptors during its war with Russia. Now, this technology is clearly being exported across multiple theaters in Eurasia. Zelensky did not identify the countries or the exact interceptor drones used in his comments at the time, but it is possible that Octopus-100 autonomous interceptor drones were deployed. The past couple months have seen Zelensky touring around proclaiming Ukraine’s ability to fill defense tech sector gaps for allied countries:

Zelensky:

If Ukraine, Türkiye, Norway, and the UK were EU members, you would have the strongest army in the world.

It would become the strongest alliance in the world.

Together, these countries and the EU have smart engineers, the best technologies, the best drones,… pic.twitter.com/xFRe5nVz5Z
— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 21, 2026

He said Ukraine had deployed hundreds of experts to the Gulf area, and, in return, has received weapons to protect its energy assets as well as financial support. After the Trump White House began signaling a significant drawdown in direct military aid to Ukraine and to Europe more broadly, the Zelensky administration began launching more creative means to ensure ongoing funding for the war with Russia. Support from EU countries, however, doesn’t look to have wavered.

Growacet.

• White House Identifies Treatment Course for TDS Sufferers (CTH)

The White House has identified a treatment course for those suffering from acute cases of TDS. In many cases the issue can be treated by moderate changes in behavior or lifestyle:

For more severe or intense cases of TDS, like the Carlson strain, the prescription below is also an option.

Inviting outrage.

• Trump Floats Making Venezuela The 51st State (ZH)

First Canada, then Greenland… and now Venezuela?

President Donald Trump said Monday he is seriously considering annexing the South American nation as the 51st U.S. state, citing the country’s vast oil reserves and what he described as strong local support for his leadership. In a telephone interview with Fox News anchor John Roberts, Trump mused that he is weighing the move for a nation that holds an estimated $40 trillion in oil resources. “Venezuela loves Trump,” the president told the reporter.
The suggestion comes months after U.S. forces conducted a military operation in Venezuela in January that resulted in the capture of longtime President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The couple was extradited to the U.S. to face narco-terrorism and weapons charges, effectively ending more than a decade of socialist rule that had transformed one of Latin America’s richest economies into an economic disaster marked by hyperinflation, mass emigration and the breakdown of public services.
Rather than installing opposition figure María Corina Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, as the new leader, the Trump administration supported the installation of Delcy Rodríguez—Maduro’s former vice president—as interim president. Trump has described the arrangement as “spectacular” and predicted a rapid economic turnaround. Rodríguez’s government has moved swiftly on economic reforms. Within weeks of taking power, it enacted legislation opening the oil sector to privatization, dismantling core elements of the Chavista model that had dominated for more than two decades.
Meanwhile, commercial activity has accelerated thanks to Chevron, which signed two agreements expanding its participation in a joint venture with state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela SA in the Orinoco Oil Belt, Reuters reported at the time. Venezuelan oil output is already rising.
PDVSA reported production of 1.095 million barrels a day last month, up 75,000 barrels a day from February, with Oil Minister Paula Henao setting a target of 1.3 million barrels a day by year-end. Trump administration officials have been candid about the financial stakes. A White House spokesman called the first $500 million portion of an approximately $2 billion oil-supply agreement a “historic energy deal,” CBS News reported at the time. Trump has said the U.S. would rebuild Venezuela “in a very profitable way,” adding, “We’re going to be using oil, and we’re going to be taking oil.”

“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) came up with the best reason to tax billionaires: They do not actually exist…”

• “You Just Can’t Earn a Billion Dollars”: AOC (Turley)

This week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) came up with the best reason to tax billionaires: They do not actually exist. On a podcast, Ocasio-Cortez declared with all the certainty of a freshman in a Smith College political science course that the notion of a self-made billionaire is simply a fantasy, because “you just can’t earn” a billion dollars. It is only the latest in a series of socialist fables that are being dressed up as economic facts. The difference is that this fable, if told often enough, could become true. In suggesting that true billionaires are a capitalist myth, Ocasio-Cortez is suggesting that people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos really did not earn their wealth and, therefore, it is really not their money.

“There’s a certain level of wealth and accumulation that is unearned. You can’t earn a billion dollars. You just can’t earn that. You can get market power, you can break rules, you can abuse labor laws, you can pay people less than what they’re worth, but you can’t earn that.” In other words, you can only make a billion dollars through theft and exploitation rather than actual entrepreneurial enterprise. This statement comes as support builds for the California billionaires’ tax which, even before it has a chance to pass in November, has already cost the state trillions due to an exodus of these billionaires.
In my book, “Rage and the Republic,” I discuss common myths spread by the left to fuel economic factionalism. One common myth is that the “wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes.” In truth, the top ten percent of taxpayers pay the vast majority of taxes in the U.S. In the book, I also dispel the claim that most millionaires inherited their wealth or came from privileged backgrounds. These myths are designed to make redistribution schemes more palatable. And Democrats are ramping up the “eat-the-rich” rhetoric ahead of the midterms in pushing both millionaire and billionaire taxes. Democrats from Washington to Virginia are pushing millionaire taxes, and the mere conversation has already set off a stampede of high-earning taxpayers to red states like Texas and Florida, which have no state income tax.
It was also evident in this week’s California gubernatorial debate. Candidate Katie Porter (D) said she opposes the billionaire’s tax because it would not go far enough. Porter then pressed the only billionaire in the group, Tom Steyer, who has been moving to the far left to grab voters in the wake of the departure of former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) as a candidate. Steyer said that he supports the billionaire tax but would want to go even further.Steyer has spent a fortune of his own money on this race, apparently to convince Democratic primary voters that he is some kind of red billionaire in the mold of a George Soros or Neville Roy Singham. Good luck with that — after spending roughly $150 million of his own money, Steyer is still languishing between 12 and 18 percent support.
Of course, Steyer was not asked if he believes that real billionaires such as himself exist. Yet he has already apologized for making considerable money on private prisons, including those used to hold undocumented immigrants. Ironically, in finance, a “unicorn” is a company worth more than $1 billion dollars, a term coined by venture capitalist Aileen Lee to capture the rare and almost magical status of such enterprises Conversely, Ocasio-Cortez’s unicorn myth is part of a general denial of economic realities that has taken hold on the left. The cost of these policies is borne by workers, who are being left to eat soundbites.
Democrats have sold voters on raising minimum wages as high as $30 per hour, even though such policies cost thousands of jobs. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg bragged about blocking a merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlines, claiming that it would create cheaper flights and better jobs. Spirit has now been forced to close its doors, causing the loss of thousands of flights and jobs. A rising generation of voters is eagerly devouring soundbites and promises of the “warmth of collectivism” from figures like New York’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. From promises of free buses to state-run grocery stores, voters are buying the same threadbare socialist schtick.
That was on display this week as socialist Seattle mayor Katie Wilson laughed when asked about the millionaires fleeing the city over rising taxes and crime. She delighted the crowd by mocking the departing millionaires with two words: “Like, bye!” The last laugh, however, rests with those fleeing a city facing a projected deficit of $114 million. As Wilson faces major cuts in the city budget, she gleefully mocks those whose tax dollars the city will desperately need to close this gap if it is to maintain public services.
Ironically, Wilson and other Democrats are quickly making their myth a reality. Soon, there will be no billionaire unicorns roaming the land. Even millionaires may become scarce, as these wealthy citizens move to less hostile states with less delusional leaders. The solution to this exodus is equally predictable. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who has campaigned for a billionaire tax in his state while representing Silicon Valley, has also joined with socialist Bernie Sanders to push for a national billionaire’s tax — an effort to guarantee that there is no place to hide. This is the same approach that tanked the French economy under François Mitterrand after the wealthy fled that nation.
These are not, however, a time for economics or history. It is the time of fables. Ocasio-Cortez has thrived in the land of socialist unicorns. She can even attend the ultra-rich Met Gala wearing an expensive “Eat-the-Rich” gown. Like her dress, it is fashionable to deny that billionaires created their wealth. It is your money for the taking. The result is that billionaires and even millionaires in states like New York may go the way of unicorns, fanciful creatures that once thrived in a land of jobs and growth.

U.S. Senator John Kennedy is now publicly demanding that Barack Hussein Obama return $120 million that he allegedly earned through ownership related to “Obamacare.”

“He allocated money under his own laws using taxpayer-generated prestige,” Kennedy said, calling it “an abuse of… pic.twitter.com/E0TYsFUEpq
— JOSH DUNLAP (@JDunlap1974) May 11, 2026

https://twitter.com/warDaniel47/status/2053414597722300913?s=20

ONE DAY BEFORE the hantavirus fear campaign began…WHO pandemic treaty talks COLLAPSED prompting Tedros to warn the next pandemic was "a matter ⁠of when, not if."

Then suddenly… ONE DAY LATER… the cruise ship hantavirus media frenzy exploded.

Don't fall for the Bill… https://t.co/GvEJfdqn1K pic.twitter.com/4dpZTGcmwd
— Nicolas Hulscher, MPH (@NicHulscher) May 10, 2026

Hantavirus – cruise ship – and false narratives galore!

My scientific and medical opinion as a scientist who did research on Hantavirus is that an inquiry into Dr Bix is warranted
Please share massively – accurate info –

1. First and foremost we studied Hantavirus in my lab for… https://t.co/wWbNY53lWi pic.twitter.com/3fwpnCXsQM
— Martin Zizi (@MartinZ_uncut) May 11, 2026

🚨 Jeffrey Tucker exposes the dark truth behind Covid policies: It was all conditioning.

“The whole point of the lockdowns was to prepare the population for the shots.”

“To keep people apart so they wouldn't acquire natural immunity.”

“To preserve immunological variety as… pic.twitter.com/quCCzdXtnm
— Children’s Health Defense (@ChildrensHD) May 10, 2026

The Department of War celebrates the launch of https://t.co/odnX2WDaGO as a major milestone in government transparency. In just 12 hours, the site has received 340 MILLION hits from Americans and truth seekers worldwide seeking unfiltered UAP information.

This overwhelming…
— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellASW) May 9, 2026

Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

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May 12, 2026 at 9:03 am #240387

Raúl Ilargi Meijer
Keymaster

Henri Matisse The Dessert – Harmony in Red 1908 • Trump to Iran: Time’s Up (Robert Spencer) • Trump: Iran Ceasefire ‘On Life Support’ (JTN) • Trump Mu
[See the full post at: Debt Rattle May 12 2026]

May 12, 2026 at 9:12 am #240406

Michael Reid
Participant

The First Domino Has Fallen
The cascade we predicted in Two Wars is starting.

Jay Martin
The United Arab Emirates is not broke.

It has roughly $95 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds, hundreds of billions in foreign exchange reserves, and access to trillions more through its sovereign wealth funds.

So why did it just ask Washington for an emergency loan?

Because this is not really about whether the UAE has money.

It is about what the UAE would have to sell to get that money.

And that brings us to the pressure point I wrote about two weeks ago: the U.S. Treasury market.

Here is a quick recap before we dive in:

Two weeks ago, in Two Wars, I wrote about a vulnerability in the U.S. Treasury market that most investors do not think about, but that I am now convinced will define the next twelve months of market activity.

The mechanism is simple.

When the U.S. government spends more money than it collects in taxes – which it does every single year, to the tune of trillions of dollars – it borrows the difference. It does this by selling IOUs called Treasury bonds.

A “10-year Treasury” is simply a promise from the U.S. government to pay you back in ten years, with interest. These bonds are considered the safest investment in the world because, in theory, the U.S. government will always pay its debts.

Here’s why this matters right now.

Countries around the world – Japan, the UK, China, South Korea, and dozens of others – hold roughly $9.4 trillion worth of these American IOUs. They bought them because Treasuries are safe, liquid, and denominated in dollars.

For decades, this system worked beautifully.

The U.S. borrowed cheaply. Foreign governments parked their savings in a safe asset. Everyone won.

Until everyone needs cash at the same time…

Let me ask you a question.

If you were running Japan’s central bank, and your country was suddenly staring down an energy crisis that threatened to shut down factories, power plants, and shipping routes – and you needed dollars immediately to buy oil on the open market – what would you sell first?

You would sell the most liquid dollar asset you owned.

You would sell U.S. Treasuries.

And that is exactly what is happening.

Foreign central bank holdings of Treasuries at the New York Federal Reserve have dropped to their lowest level since 2012. The decline began the month the war started. Countries short on energy and desperate for dollars are selling American government bonds to raise cash to pay for fuel.

Japan holds $1.2 trillion in Treasuries. The United Kingdom holds $895 billion. These are not small positions.

Now here is the problem.

When lots of people sell the same asset at the same time, the price drops. When the price of a Treasury bond drops, its interest rate – what Wall Street calls the “yield” – goes up.

That yield is the incentive investors receive to lend money to the U.S. government.

And because Treasury yields set the baseline for borrowing costs across the entire economy, everything gets more expensive: Mortgages, car loans, corporate debt, and government refinancing.

All of it.

Let me take a minute to break this down simply.

Put me in the position of the U.S. government.

I spend more than I make, so I need to borrow cash.

Let’s say you loan me $1,000, and I agree to pay you 5% interest – $50 a year – for five years. You earn annual interest, and you get your $1,000 back at the end of the term.

Good deal.

But two years in, you get a cash call. You need your money back now.

The problem is, I do not owe you your $1,000 for another three years.

So you go looking for someone to buy the loan from you.

You find a third party and say:

Jay owes me $1,000. He is paying 5% a year, and the full amount is due in three years. If you buy this loan from me, the payments are yours.

But the third party can smell your desperation.

He says:

“I’ll take it – but I’m only paying you $800. You will not get full value, but you will get cash today, which is what you need.”

So you take the deal.

Now think about what just happened.

That third party just paid $800 for a note that will pay him $1,000 in three years, plus the $50 annual interest along the way. His effective return – his yield – just went up because he paid less for the same stream of payments.

Now imagine this happening at scale.

Not one lender, but entire countries – Japan, the UK, South Korea – all desperate for cash to buy oil, all selling U.S. Treasury bonds at the same time, all willing to take less than full value.

And we are not talking thousands.

We are talking trillions.

Here is why that matters.

The United States is still spending more than it earns, so it still needs to issue new debt. But if investors can buy existing Treasuries cheaply on the open market, why would they lend fresh money to the U.S. government at effectively lower rates?

They wouldn’t.

Nobody would.

So the government has to offer higher interest rates on new debt to attract buyers. That raises borrowing costs for Washington at exactly the moment it can least afford it.

And because Treasury yields anchor the entire credit system – mortgages, car loans, corporate debt – everything gets more expensive all at once.

This is the predicament.

The U.S. needs to offer higher interest rates to incentivize other countries to lend it money. But paradoxically, higher interest rates can break their own economy.

The prediction we came to was this:

The longer the Strait of Hormuz stays closed, the longer the list of countries running short on food and fuel will grow. That creates an ever-larger population of Treasury bondholders who may need to start selling.

And now we are beginning to see the first pieces of validation.

The first domino

In late April, the United Arab Emirates approached the U.S. Treasury and asked for a wartime financial lifeline.

The UAE is one of the foreign holders we wrote about. The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed for 12 weeks. As a result, the UAE cannot sell oil as it used to, and it has bills to pay.

But here is the thing.

The UAE is a fabulously wealthy country. It has not run out of money in the conventional sense.

It holds roughly $95.6 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds alone. It has approximately $270 billion in foreign exchange reserves overall, and it controls trillions more through its sovereign wealth funds.

So the UAE is far from broke. But its cash flow has stopped.

And when your cash flow stops, you dip into your savings.

If the UAE had sold its U.S. assets to raise the cash it needed, that would have meant unloading tens of billions of dollars in U.S. Treasuries onto the open market during an already stressed moment.

The price of those bonds would have dropped.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury would have climbed.

The exact spiral I described earlier would have begun, and the UAE would have been the country that started it.

So instead, the UAE did something different.

It approached Washington with a proposal:

We did not ask for this war. We were dragged into it. If we run short on cash and you do not help us, we will have no choice but to raise it ourselves – and you know what that means for your bond market. Let’s avoid this.

So the UAE asked for a short-term loan, known as a currency swap line – an emergency credit facility that allows the U.S. Federal Reserve to lend dollars directly to a foreign central bank.

This is not a bailout of the UAE. It is a bailout of the Treasury market.

Let me explain.

What is a swap line?

Let me take a minute to break this down, because everybody is going to be talking about swap lines in the months ahead, and very few people will actually understand them.

A swap line is, in technical terms, an emergency loan between two central banks.

The U.S. Federal Reserve agrees to lend dollars to a foreign central bank. The foreign central bank pledges its own currency as collateral, locked at a fixed exchange rate. When the swap matures, the foreign central bank pays back the dollars with interest.

The exchange rate at maturity is the same as the rate at the start, regardless of how the currencies have moved in between.

Every swap line, or emergency credit facility, that the United States has offered in 2008 and 2020 has been repaid.

Sort of.

And as long as that is the case, they are not technically a bailout.

But I use the term “sort of” because, in 2013, the Federal Reserve quietly changed the terms on swap lines with five countries from temporary to permanent.

I am not sure there is a meaningful difference between a loan that is not repaid and a loan that does not mature.

But I will leave that with you.

I have another prediction.

Over the next year, the swap line program will expand dramatically, and with it, the standing roster of countries for which the United States has assumed responsibility during a dollar liquidity crisis.

If I am right, two things will happen.

First, the list of countries that the United States deems “eligible” for swap lines will grow.

It will expand beyond key U.S. allies like the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada, and the Swiss National Bank, and begin to include a much wider net of less reliable partners with much less stable currencies.

And as the eligibility criteria drops, the fragility of the loan will rise.

Second, the number of swap lines that shift from temporary to permanent will also grow.

In that environment, swap lines do not get repaid in any meaningful sense.

They get rolled.

The Fed extends the maturity. The borrower draws a new swap to repay the old one. Each transaction shows as “repaid” on the books, but the aggregate balance never really goes down.

Wall Street has a name for this: Amend, extend, and pretend.

Amend the terms of the loan.

Extend the payment deadline.

Pretend everything is fine.

The evidence that this prediction is materializing will be simple:

The UAE gets its swap line approved. And Kuwait gets one next.

Why Kuwait?

Because oil revenues fund roughly ninety percent of Kuwait’s government budget.

Kuwait exported zero barrels of crude oil in April 2026 – for the first time in roughly thirty years. Kuwait Petroleum Corporation declared force majeure on its export contracts in March and extended it on April 20, telling clients it could not meet its contractual obligations even if the Strait of Hormuz reopens.

Kuwait holds $66.1 billion in U.S. Treasuries.

Read that again.

Kuwait now has zero oil revenue. Kuwait runs ninety percent of its government on oil revenue. Kuwait holds sixty-six billion dollars in U.S. Treasuries.

They will either sell their Treasuries, which is the trigger we wrote about in Two Wars, or they will follow the UAE’s lead and ask Washington for a swap line of their own.

Is a Swap Line a Bailout?

Critics will say swap lines are bailouts. US bulls will say they are not.

They are both right.

Because they are thinking about the bailout backwards.

A swap line looks like a bailout for the borrower because the borrower receives the dollars. But in this case, the real beneficiary is the lender.

Because what is the alternative?

The alternative is that dollar-starved countries sell the most liquid dollar asset they own: U.S. Treasuries.

They sell into a falling market. Treasury prices drop. Yields rise. Washington’s borrowing costs climb. Mortgages, car loans, corporate debt, and government refinancing all get more expensive at once.

That is the spiral.

So when the Fed opens a swap line, it is not merely helping a foreign central bank.

It is preventing that foreign central bank from becoming a forced seller of U.S. government debt.

This is not a bailout of the UAE.

It is a bailout of the Treasury market.

And if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, the question is not whether more countries will need dollars.

They will.

The question is whether Washington chooses to let them sell Treasuries to raise those dollars, or quietly lends them the dollars first.

That is why the UAE matters. It is not the end of the story.

It is the first domino.

Honest question – what am I missing? Let me know in the comments.

That’s it for today,

Jay Martin

If you appreciate my writing, please share it with someone!

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May 12, 2026 at 9:14 am #240407

Michael Reid
Participant

https://jaymartin.substack.com/p/the-first-domino-has-fallen

May 12, 2026 at 9:17 am #240408

Germ
Participant

“Sleepy ~~Joe~~ Don”

https://x.com/Acyn/status/2053861218402910497

May 12, 2026 at 10:15 am #240409

Dr. D
Participant

Col Douglas Macgregor: Iran TOO BIG TO INVADE” Daniel Davis / Deep Dive•51K•4h ago Whyyyyyyy?

Do we LOOOOOOOK like we are invading them? Do we look like we NEED to invade them??? Are there any men, anywhere on earth, to invade them? No, no, and no. You’re delusional, man, get off the sauce. How is it even POSSIBLE he can go on like this?

“Netanyahu Says He Wants To End Annual US Military Support For Israel

Darn you Trump!!!! Stopping US welfare for Israel AND bombs Israel flat? Well, I say sir, if that doesn’t prove he’s Netanyahu’s puppet nothing will. What happens is if you get a guy blackmailed with the Epstein Files you tell him to STOP paying you. Day 39.

“Fire Erupts At HF Sinclair Refinery In Tulsa

Again, tell me this is Iran. Please. And it should be easy since all terrorists bring their passports and leave them on the ground. It’s in the Union rules.

“Hegseth: Senator Mark Kelly Revealed Classified Information On US Munitions Stockpiles.

To be fair, All Congress always does this. It’s in THEIR Union rules. They they say “Why didn’t you inform Congress???” as far back as Tom Clancy or probably Ted Kennedy. Because you will always call Mandelson, who will insider trade on it with Epstein? That’s why?

“Tyson Sinks, Walmart Falls After Trump Moves To Temporarily Lower Beef Import Tariffs “Ranchers won’t love this”

Since no one can “Call” for a “Statement”, yes they will. Trump is going after the meat packers who have flipped from 20% to 80% of the profit using monopoly collusion. If Trump knocks them out, there will be far more money for ranchers than imports. There’s this place called “The White House” which has “A Press Office” which will tell you all about it in great detail.

“Judge Who Oversaw Utah Gerrymander Resigns For Affair With Plaintiff’s Attorney

You know what they say: “Couples who do major felonies together, stay together.” Worked for the Clintons.

Duran, Trump has mild helpful effect on calling a time out, arranging the Victory Day ceasefire.

As with me, we see that as a minor positive leading to other solutions for the first time. Great!
…They then say this is strange, why does Putin trust Trump at all since this is totally Trump’s war, because Trump wasn’t in office and was in fact busy being persecuted and arrested over the war, just like Putin/Russia was. That’s how you know it was Trump’s war, because: Not President, and who in fact tried to shut it down Hour 1 Day 1 with a dozen broadsides right in the political face, Jan 20, 2025.

This of course means it’s STILL Trump’s war, because no money, men, or materials, and is leaving the European bases supporting it, therefore Putin’s behavior toward this guy who didn’t start the war and indeed used all his political capital to stop it, is truly inexplicable. Ah.

Europe of course, are little darlings only doing what the U.S. — that is to say, Trump himself wants. Europe always does whatever Trump says, right? That’s completely obvious. Thanks Alex2

Anyway, nice to have something reasonable and normal for the first time since (Biden) started it. Perhaps something can expand on this, and Putin seems to imply so.

Also, very hard confirm Russia is shutting off ALL gas to the West, Europe. Slovakia, etc, say y’all retarded, as we’re just going to buy Russia gas repackaged by the United States. Which we pointed out 6 months ago, but in fact Europe has INCREASED the purchase of Russian gas, but ALSO is giving Putin far more money for it.

Oh noes. Not the briar patch. War is when you buy all your goods from your enemy and pay MORE for it.

“Merz Promises Fico A Spanking For Slovak Leader’s Moscow V-Day Trip” “We will talk with him about this day in Moscow.”

Germany is running all the other nations and is telling them what to do. Hmmm. I’m sure that’ll be popular in Europe.

“’Mediator’ Pakistan Hosted Iranian Military Aircraft To Insulate Them From US Attacks, Graham Fumes At Islamabad

Hahahaha! Suckers! You mean a party to the conflict can’t also be the negotiator? Like all the times the U.S. has done this?

“What Decades Of Academic Literature, Military Doctrine Says About Effectiveness Of ‘Decapitation Strikes’
Decapitation strategies represent a cartoon, video game style approach to foreign policy.

Step 1: Make up everything, generally against all available evidence.
Step 2: When what the other guy never intended doesn’t work, yell “Aha! This thing you never attempted never came to pass! You LOSER!”
Step 3: (Forthcoming) Everyone looks at you as if you’re a psycho and a crazy person. This behavior is Narcissistic Abuse 101.

“Iran Deploys Combat-Ready Mini Subs In Hormuz As US Flexes Nuclear Submarine En Route” The Pentagon almost never reveals their locations…”

1) That’s because we were lying, the sub is already there. 2) We may have sunk every Iranian sub already, because concerning submarines, no one will ever say.
.
“Iran Executes Top Young Aerospace Scientist, Alleging CIA & Mossad Ties

This may seem over the top, but what was it, their Defense Minister or Top General was literally Mossad, from way back? That’s why the initial strikes were outrageously successful?

“Jeffries Calls On Half-Dozen Democratic States To Start ‘Aggressive’ Redistricting
It’s already been counted in: because the DNC had ALREADY gerrymandered all states, and like 10 States have no reps at all, they cannot now gerrymander AGAIN. But it’s fabulous you put your plans to do what you yourself say is illegal, into the headline news for us. Never stop talking. Get Carville on.

“California Mayor Indicted, Will Plead Guilty To Being CCP Agent

But to be fair, all CA mayors (and Canadian mayors) are, as well as the Governor and all their congressmen, Fang Fang. Remember Newsom had no trouble cleaning S.F. for Xi, but never even tried before or since?

Alex Krainer interviews: Trump is an idiot who’s never had a plan and blundered into Iran. However, this is probably all going to work out great for him, because accidents always turn out that way 10/10 times on accident. China is going to help. Ah. Yes. The 99th time he slipped on a banana peel and did a backflip in a top hat and cane like a magician that it’s an Accident. Right.

Also Alex: “There is no reason for the Nasdaq to go straight up, it’s all QE bubble, no other possible explanation.” No, now I’m losing respect for you, more than the last one. YES that is a possible explanation, but not the only one, and IF there were any QE, the market and commentators would be all over it, screaming from the hills. It’s also very easy to see; ie numbers are reported. So no, that does NOT appear to be what’s happening. Or you yourself would say so, “Bessant has created new money-firehose project code named “Cash from Orbit’” etc. YOU KNOW THIS. This is Alex’s day job, and he’s very competent.

That leads to part one: he “just assumes” this must be the case because one of the major alternative options is: Europe is collapsing, the U.S. is winning in Iran, and all the world’s money is flowing to the United States. This happened in the 20s and gave us that bubble, see Armstrong. And “World money flows” is ALSO easy to see and track.

Why the Naz, AI, Dow? Because it’s all CURRENCY. So you’re Germany, you either see the problem or want to stock cash for a US car factory you’re going to make but can’t admit to German government you’re planning, bc they’ll assassinate you. Buy US Bonds? Well Europe is the top buyer of U.S. bonds, but we’re talking the “public” here. Why would I buy bonds at a low interest rate when I can be stocks? The money I’m going to make is on the CURRENCY changing. So you get stock AND currency gains. This is what Armstrong said in the 70/80s, you could buy a Porsche, it would be worth more AFTER you drove it than when you bought it bc the currency changed so much. How much better for Apple, which can also take the volume? And pays dividends?

Now I may not be right because I am NOT tracking these very easy numbers, as it’s not (no longer) my day job. But I can prove it’s not what Alex is saying. He does this because it’s unthinkable that the U.S. be successful and not destroyed. With him it’s not even the 20 years programmed hatred for all things American, it’s residual, and that’s a twin to his inability to perceive any upside – indeed any reason – to attack Iran, which would be that we sell oil and food and will get Rich AF? Not rocket science here. Mo’ Money Mo’ betta.

Comments:
Randomer: Yes, exactly. My example is Vietnam. But this is just illustrating soft power vs hard power. They couldn’t take the U.S. at that time and communist thinkers took a gambit they could make wars “unpopular” (that is, soft power, perception, PR, “Lies”) at home. They were right. And I agree those wars were stupid, corrupt, and probably the Iran war is too, no case has been made. But that’s exactly my point: it’s VOLUNTARY. You have to surrender for no reason at all. Multiples more in this case as we’re not losing 10 soldiers a week here or whatever it was in the Delta. This is also why it’s confused, as the two look identical. FStan was more: “Can anyone even define WTF we’re doing here?” A: Protecting the CIA’s heroin. Yeah, that’s a tough sell.

“What happened to, what I thought as an agreed upon, notion that D & R are “two cheeks of the same ass”???

As I pick on Republicans daily, I’m doing my part. Or did I forget to mention Thune today?

“A negotiated settlement for a sovereign Iran is nigh impossible”

Yup. The war will still be going on when the sun burns out, a billion years from now. Trump Jr XXIV will still be fighting it against Khomeni XXIV in 2349AD. You’re fired. ALL wars are “negotiated settlements” and it doesn’t actually take all that long either. Maybe 8 years is the long side? But that’s when both sides have an army which is not the case right now. And allies (As the Revolutionary war) which both China and Russia are not.

“Iran is determined to achieve a ‘breakout’ from the ‘cage’ of 74 years of U.S. military encirclement”

You can want all kinds of things. I want stuff too. But I don’t usually get it because I also do not have an army.

“The U.S. desperately needs an exit-ramp”

Why on earth would we want or need an off ramp? So we don’t end up getting accidentally rich? Please never open the straits. We sell oil; the entire Middle East goes broke and China gets choked. Russia brings China to heel. Oh noes.

“Trump today seems torn between the prospect of ‘heavy’ military escalation”

Internal emotional state of Trump using Trump-Telepathy. Why? How? There is literally no indication of any such (Army, land-based) escalation. He will drop bombs on them from Missouri until the sun burns out. This is bad. What will Iran do with a “Heavy escalation” they cannot bomb back at NOR makes Trump unpopular since involves no troops, no deaths?

“Iran, on the other hand, has withstood the combined military pressure of the United States and Israel. Whereas Israel has failed to achieve any of its original war objectives.”

1) Yes, and more power to them and their famous force of will to withstand. Everyone respects the Persians. However, they can now shoot bows and arrows. 2) Sinking the entire Navy and killing every IRGC head 5 levels down, and more each day was never a “War objective”? You have a very strange sense of war.

Meanwhile: “RUSSIA achieved its Strategic Goals:”

WTF? I agree Russia did fine, however, they have NONE of their goals. They are not solidly at the Dnipr yet, as an easy take of all Donbas. Kiev continues to bomb their heartland daily, which is 100% different than the U.S. situation in Iran. They have big problems to resolve in Odessa, which they want and should. Ukraine is running and selling drone factories the world, and Europe is now mobilizing to a war economy, as eg Rhinemetal contracts. That’s a dozen serious problems although it’s going pretty well. This guy says they’re all solved.

U.S.: Most leaders killed, whole Navy sunk, Army completely sidelined = no objectives.
Russia, still has huge, viable, armed enemy killing 1k men/day on border, backed by entire force of combined Europe, daily bombings at home = All objectives met.

“We Make S—t Up” according to our Feelz!” I WANT them to win, therefore they have!

“The US has been dragged into war by Israel” That’s odd because he seems to be bombing Israel and doing the war on behalf of the Gulf States. That is: the #Opposite.

“US & Israel Will Lose, If We Restart Iran War /Alastair Crooke & Lt Col Daniel Davis”

Say the same guys who’ve been screaming we’ve never LEFT the war. Now the war is over and we’re going to restart it? How will we lose since we’ve been running the war from Missouri?

“ANDREI MARTYANOV – IRAN WAR FIRES BACK UP” Again, never stopped but also starting. We seem at roughly the same simmer since Day 20 – so that’s despite Trump saying there’s a ceasefire. So it’s also not starting back up at all, it’s entirely unchanged. STOP MAKING STUFF UP. Andrei, does this make you look smart and informed? Maybe I’m wrong, and you can show me an incident chart or something, but I don’t think so. Shooting out over one tanker isn’t the same as everyone lobbing 80 heavy missiles a day.

“Alaska carries Trident missiles armed with nuclear warheads.”(in the Gulf)

Yes, but that’s not ALL they carry. Wouldn’t be much good if they did. Use your head. It’s possible they have NONE onboard at all right now precisely because they wanted to carry more Navy Seals, more tomahawks, whatever, they’re not going to tell you.

“The United States is funding the modernization of military bases in Cyprus in order to create an evacuation hub for the Middle East”

Are we though? We’re not going to tell you. This has to do with knocking out Turkey, a different thing. Now we’re positioning in force on Cyprus, where Turkey is occupying, toooooootally by complete coincidence they might get booted from there for “Reasons”.

“despite CIA assessments that Tehran was not building a bomb”

Well, we just boarded a ship China probably pointed out to us demonstrating Iran building mega-missiles as that was a whole ship of rocket fuel. Iran SAID they were building a bomb. THERE IS NO OTHER PURPOSE FOR REFINEMENT. The Iranian argument is “Yes we had 40 kilos of meth around the house, but we weren’t going to smoke it, officer.” No. No one on earth has discovered a second use for highly-enriched uranium. Now my perception was that they would keep it all in a basement somewhere, on tap ready to be assembled just in case. And that may be although recent behavior makes that less likely. However that’s the “Trust me Bro” plan. I wouldn’t have intervened because I don’t think the war is worth it, but other nations (apparently all the Gulf nations + Pakistan and Russia and China) DO, and I understand that. I’m like 60/40 on it, they are like 51/49, and we’re not much different. Turns out they were “right” in a sense, since my reluctance was based on the difficulty of intervening, which turns out to have been alarmingly easy.

“Russia and its Allies dealt a Crushing Blow to the US and EUROPE”

Yes, we lost the war we’re not in. The one Trump helped Putin harden themselves against war sanctions, gave Ukraine on bullet at a time, where we warned Putin ahead of time to stock oil, lifted their sanctions, and are buying their fertilizer. Europe, their aggressor, paid it all instead. Everything is an accident. All actions ever made are one big accident. That’s what we pay Intel Agencies hundred-billions for.

UK/Holocaust: For all the headline news about Jewish lobby, I can probably go out in the street and holocaust deny at the top of my lungs most days and no one would ever care or act. I’d just get tired. So yes, there’s still a lot of free speech here.

“Carter = war
Reagan = war
Bush = war
Clinton = war
Bush = war
Obama =war
Trump = war
Biden = war
Trump = war
For example”

Quite so, and annoying. My point is, this isn’t new nor unique. Orange Man is not some new level, some fresh executive horror. You didn’t care last 5 Presidents, what’s the rush now? These are also not identical people and policies. What war was Carter in? Afghanistan? “Jimmy Carter is the only U.S. president to serve a full term without starting, fighting, or ending a war, though his 1977–1981 administration managed significant conflicts” (AI, guh)

“Doc D. You make an excellent grasshopper. Now, listen to the ants and STOP TYPING AND GO SHOPPING.

I told you. $6 Porterhouse. $6 flats of chuck rounds, non stop. Top gourmet coffee, $9/lb. Top cheddar, $4/lb. Chicken $2/lb. Potatoes and rice, nearly free. These are all national box stores. I can’t help that you CAN buy steak at $20, Starbucks at $20/lb, etc. TV pre-prep frozen dishes, even potatoes at $10/lb, Bologna at $12/lb — Don’t be an idiot. That’s always been true. Look in the phone book: go to the first Asian or Spanish store listed and get a start. I also do live in a high-cost area, believe it or not.

May 12, 2026 at 11:31 am #240413

chooch
Participant

Hey, it’s Tuesday pre market and no coordination by Trump a Bessent to punish traders long oil. It’s a matter of national security to manipulate markets. Warsh takes over the Fed soon. The Lauder fam has a compound on Jupiter Island, near Tiger and not far from Mar Lago. Imagine that. Fleecing of Main Street will continue.

May 12, 2026 at 11:31 am #240414

Michael Reid
Participant

THE LEDGER OF SHADOWS: INSIDE AMERICA’S QUIET FINANCIAL ERASURE AND THE RISE OF A SURVEILLANCE-DRIVEN ECONOMY
Milan AdamsMay 11, 2026

THE LEDGER OF SHADOWS: INSIDE AMERICA’S QUIET FINANCIAL ERASURE AND THE RISE OF A SURVEILLANCE-DRIVEN ECONOMY

May 12, 2026 at 11:31 am #240415

tboc
Participant

Did you ever pause to wonder how one group of people quietly packed and boarded trains while another group encouraged every atrocity with vigor?

I do not understand how so many find murder palatable should a flag be draped over a coffin.

“Do the mullahs still have any say? Or is it now really the IRGC?” i reckon Mr. Green has not heard about the military industrial complex. Easily overlooked.

““..maximum victory for the U.S. would look like, in addition to the other tiers of victory. “Regime change … empowering the Iranian people and giving us an Iran that could be a friend in the future..” Fitton-Brown. This dude has a phd in double speak. Lord of the Flies

I understand hope is foolish, I have never acquired a taste for despair Get your shorts ready to be wadded – blood thirsty savages run amok. freedom from people who want to murder, musings of a mad man.

Onward Christian Soldiers

May 12, 2026 at 11:33 am #240416

Dr. D
Participant

Today:
DNC Congressional Map: Exactly what everybody has been telling them, including all Democrats, even DSA: GET A POLICY. They’ve been vote-rigging (let’s even pretend legally , like this) for so many decades, and the result is, they only do law and procedural, with no ground game, policy for actual VOTERS. There are plenty, so I’ll repeat “Medicare for All” again. And they’re the party of Billionaires, Government workers, and white PMCs, so yes they could give actual concessions BUT THEY DON’T HAVE TO. Just LIE!!! Lie, lie and lie s’more! Just SAY you care, you know healthcare, food, (lockdowns, chopping up your kids) then do it anyway! They always have before for 250 years, why not now? (A: Narcissists, mentally ill. They need you to KNOW they are grinding and power-over you)
Here they’re about to blow up in an epic pyre will be in history books forever and STILL won’t change, not even not change, like throw millenial kids a bone from Wall St, but WON’T EVEN LIE and PRETEND they care about workers. Breathtaking.

Anyway, it may seem vote-rigging works great – cause it did! …But then this happens. You find out stealing is easy and steal more and more and more until you’re stealing so much, so carelessly, you get caught. Do the work, you can’t dodge the work, as I think DBS would say. You may think lying is fooling God and Reality: it’s not.

“Start arresting poll workers”...start arresting ANYONE. “Literally Hitler” where literally no one is arrested, for daily calling for the assassination of Hitler, then taking action to do so, with Congress and Judges helping, who are also not dissolved, rounded up and arrested. That’s just how Stalin would have done it, right? That’s what “Fascist dictator” means: arrests literally no one.

“Bankrupting the insurance Cartels. Something has to be done.”

He’s attacking the Food Packing cartel, openly. Well he’s also attacking all the other cartels. Hegseth hammered the Defense contractors. RFK is after pharma. Trump said he’s cutting off medical insurers, giving the money to the people instead. Etc. Now we need to see ACTION, when we’ve only got positive noise so far, but that’s more than 50 years.

“What happened in Germany? Has the left virus completely eaten their minds?”

I was thinking the opposite: why are any of the others still willing? I’m not fighting for Macron or Queer Stalin.

“Iran act like they’re winning.”

Why are they lockstep, eerily identical to Ukraine? A: They’re both run by London. See “Boris Johnson”. And thus 2M will die in Iran too.

“as even the ceasefire is one of “the weakest, on life support”: President Donald Trump

Yes, one might even say there’s no ceasefire at all, it’s laughable. Why? The point was they needed “A war” at the 60-day mark to have “Soft Power” Congress vote to surrender. Trump needed a “Ceasefire”, real or fake on that day. Everyone just let Trump do it. As above, even the moronic Fox commentators act as if there was a break. Okay, another day you dips handed Orange Man another win, thanks. If you hadn’t been lying, you wouldn’t have done that. Just. Tell. The. Truth.

““There is no scenario in Islamic law in which a Muslim force and a non-Muslim one sign a treaty for a lasting peace, lay down their arms, and coexist.”

You might say this isn’t true, but ancient acts, and recently 20 years of history, demonstrate that’s essentially true. In modern practice, right this minute.

“The short version is that China is hurt more by the growing oil crisis than the U.S. is.”

Literally we win “The War against China” the “Thucydides Trap” without firing a shot. And get rich AF. I cannot possibly see any motive for this epic blunder, Alex3 says. Must be a big dummy. Golly gee.

“• Khamenei Orders Iran’s Army To ‘Continue Decisive Operations’ (Cradle)

I also give orders. And I wear my Napoleon Field coat when I do it. No one listens.

“• EU Prepares For ‘Potential’ Talks With Putin As US Slowly Reduces Troops (ZH)

I have nothing to point at so I don’t say it, but all the quiet position, decision, relative value of Russian strategy implies they are waiting, bringing, all Europe to heel as all Europe “collapses”. Maybe one by one, maybe all at once, maybe over 10-20 years, but it’s there. Europe will seriously decline. That’s why Putin doesn’t want to push and have it over in a hurry, although this costs him in priceless Russian men per day. If he did, and Europe was too strong, Europe would be able to push their advantage and harm Russia more, getting a second wind for 4 more years.

So add that to PCR’s “I’m ordering you to Shock and Awe and rush to occupy hostile Lviv and meet NATO at the Polish border.” Um, no. You idiot. I thought so too but I never gamed it out, and that was four years ago where I updated my map in weeks. He can be wrong every day and stay the same, which means he’s at a sore lack of being punched in the face to make him see and adjust to reality.

Watching these pointless deaths (and in Iran too) is my version of being emotionally punched in the face. However I also don’t lose my mind and cry. As a man, it’s my job to remain coldly rational and therefore coldly functional. Lighting my hair on fire for hate only helps the enemy, the real enemy: The Morningstar. Don’t do that. Hate is not the side of the angels.

““You ask for miracles, Theo? I give you the Virginia Democrats.” —Hans Gruber”

As in “Updating your mental map” everyone like Krainer is still saying Trump has to surrender to Iran to win the midterm. No. I mean, srsly, NO. And Trump clearly knew this all along. Maybe this is all from Epstein Files he has on USSC and SCVa, but the point is, he probably has 50 such cards in his hands he’s not playing yet. Everyone “Just says” he has nothing, every day since he knocked out 12 GOP candidates like paper in 2016, another “Complete accident”. They “Accidentally” withdrew from the race as a pure coincidence, like the day after he pointed out Ted Cruz’s father was in Dallas on assassination day. Apropos to nothing, Ted, a top candidate, withdrew the next day. But he’s an idiot and also didn’t have cards on the other 11, like Jeb Bush. For seriously???

“• Zelensky Touts That 20 Countries Seek Ukraine Drone Deals (ZH)

HOW, is this possible, and Russia doesn’t level the factories? JHC. Is this a war or a puppet show.

“• Trump Floats Making Venezuela The 51st State (ZH)

Big part of this is upsetting the Status Quo. We see this in Economy, in Hormuz. They say, “But everything was great before he came along.” Really? THAT is your argument? That from 1970- 2010 the U.S. was NOT getting worse and worse for everyone, every hour of every day, screwing everyone, killing millions of us, and become ever more a vicious war-making Empire? So you all DEFEND the status quo, every billionaire, CNN, Disney, Google, Bill Gates? This is how you, on the Right, ALSO “Resist”? With Nike’s slave-making plants in Asia?

I’m AGAINST the Empire, actually. I’m AGAINST the status quo. Like for reals. So when someone upsets it and breaks it, I’m HAPPY. Unlike, eg Jeff Sachs, who is super sad.

So saying things like this is just Trump’s general outlook: WHY do things have to be the way they’ve always been? Why NOT just make a deal to change them? Get everyone at a table and see what happens. Make everyone re-define what they WANT, for real, who they are, inside when put to it. Like Canada. Good example: WHO are you Canada? What do you WANT, for real, when put against the wall? No one’s asked in generations. So? What is it? What’s your greatest wish and what will you pay for it? Is there a deal where we both win?

But Greenland or Ven too. Or Cuba. Really Cuba should be the new territory and we can make Puerto Rico a full state. Of course Ritter says we must expel Puerto Rico from the U.S. by Friday and ruin all the U.S. citizens who live there, but who listens to him? I’d rather make them a full state instead of a money-laundering loophole that’s getting dumped on, where we shut their power off and laugh, warehouses full of water we won’t deliver, all kicked back to DC.

These are ideas: what do the People of those places want? And what does that mean? A few always will and a few always won’t. What does it mean to “Decide” for the whole place and people?

“• “You Just Can’t Earn a Billion Dollars”: AOC (Turley)

It’s pretty bizarre. Taking the other side, I’ll argue this is true: Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Zuck, all MADE UP. Elon, all MADE UP. Either they were already billionaire families, OR lately, the Intel Agencies, CIA just print infinity money, kill all all your competition, real or metaphorically, and essentially HAND you the money. There is zero capitalism to be found anywhere. Too many cases to follow, but do we have Sherman anti-trust anywhere? I thought that was a thing? The Meat-packer cartel are lily-white jungle capitalism compared to the economy in tech, data, weapons, space, oil….

So AOC is right…if she were to say that. None of them invented the light bulb and made it against competition without outrageous government. Every one was born to a billionaire family.

“Barack Hussein Obama return $120 million that he allegedly earned through ownership related to “Obamacare.”

We’re hearing a lot of insider trading on oil this month. Anyone giving that back?

“FBI wiretapped Susie Wiles during a PRIVILEGED CALL with her lawyer without the consent of EITHER party.”

Are you kidding? I just assume they are always and haven’t been wrong. I assume if I had a traffic ticket they would do this. So because they did this, and nothing has happened, they’ve stopped now, right? Because: No arrests, no punishment? Yes, I’ve heard pearl clutching while letting them retire at old age with 6 figures and full health care causes reforms like that.

Hantavirus: Must be hard AF to get it. But Collum, John Cullen is worth watching though goes everywhere.

A footnote is that Hanta is probably super easy to fix and Japan already has the cure for pennies.

More relevant is that he follows Kirk where a Pentagon super-spy jet appears to have dropped high-speed, high tech Israeli military drones before Kirk, which were seen all over on film, then came in an picked them up again immediately after. So that’s odd. Who has control of the Pentagon’s top, top tech and jets? To kill Kirk? Boy sure seems like Trump is on a very short list there. Listen carefully would also explain the ‘bullet’.

““To keep people apart so they wouldn’t acquire natural immunity.” And die by millions.
Yes, we know. And no one has been arrested. Discuss?

“what would you sell first? You would sell the most liquid dollar asset you owned.”

Yes, but the Treasury/Fed can eat this. IF – if if if if if – support for the US$ stays strong. But it can’t. Someone else would have to collapse if that were the case. Someone would have to be WORSE than the US$ — a LOT worse, and very, very large.

Yes, we know. They’re called “Europe”. It’s them or us and they’ve been plotting to kill us all for 20-30 years so too bad, so sad.

THE CORE CURRENCY FAILS LAST. Now which is it, US$ or Euro? Absolutely totally, rock-solid the Dollar. The Euro found out IT HAD NO TRACTION. All the “Euro” traffic was Europe/Russian oil trades. That disappeared, so did the uptake and use of the Euro. So no way. No f—ing way. The BRIICS just said the same. They’re not even trying to unseat the US$.

This was said in China dumping, Europe dumping. THEY BOTH TRIED and NOT A RIPPLE. So probably not.

May 12, 2026 at 11:52 am #240417

Michael Reid
Participant

Thanks chooch

Sexual evil in Israel at the very end of video

May 12, 2026 at 12:01 pm #240418

those darned kids
Participant

• Dear Mr. President: Just Finish the Mullahs Already
• Dear Mr. President: Just Finish the Daoshi Already
• Dear Mr. President: Just Finish the Rabbis Already
• Dear Mr. President: Just Finish the Gurus Already
• Dear Mr. President: Just Finish the Priests Already
• Dear Mr. President: Just Finish the Shamans Already
• Dear Mr. President: Just Finish the Bhikkhu Already

we must be equal opportunity murderous thugs, after all.

[attention five eyes! this is sarcasm]

May 12, 2026 at 12:26 pm #240419

tboc
Participant

“I believe that there will be ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those who do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the system of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don’t think it will be based on the color of the skin.” ~ Malcolm X

tdk the god in the machine is already planning your list. One of the first parts of the human psyche put down after The Great Schism was contemplation. All of human emotion will be exorcised in The Great Ai Schism. The perfection of the roman church is upon us. I am prepared to be unable to buy or sell. And you?

May 12, 2026 at 12:26 pm #240420

Michael Reid
Participant

May 12, 2026 at 12:49 pm #240427

those darned kids
Participant

well, mr “high cost area”, us folks down here in “po’ folk land” see other things.

(actually, this po’folk lives in a high cost area, but them rich folk really don’t want me here)

i remember the prices very, very well for the items i buy. i consider myself (ever so humbly) to be quite an adept shopper. for example, in february of 2020, i augmented my already considerable pantry considerably. thus, when the whole world was terrified, waiting in line outside costco six idiocies apart, i was sitting in my back yard “enjoying” the show..

i was away from food purchases for about two weeks. upon my return, the price of produce,

i.e. the stuff that will most immediately reflect inflationary pressures,

has gone up 20, 30, 40 and even 50%.

in

two

weeks.

May 12, 2026 at 1:03 pm #240428

those darned kids
Participant

tboc: i believe i understood your comment until “I am prepared to be unable to buy or sell. And you?”

with a little clarification, i will gladly respond.

ciao!

May 12, 2026 at 1:03 pm #240429

tboc
Participant

Mr. Meijer perhaps you will propose a more fitting piece of music for a theme song. The Theme for The Pink Panther was considered but after all it lost to Mary Poppins at the 37th Academy awards.
Chim Chim Cher-ee
I know, something by Wagner! Who doesn’t love the smell of napalm in the morning? Maybe The Beatles, Happiness Is A Warm Gun?
The Django-esque phrasing of the guitar in The Third Man Theme was a pleasant contrast to the simplicity of the motif.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a melody worth?
A scooter, a child, her father and a drone?

Irony is not dead but metaphor…………

May 12, 2026 at 1:22 pm #240430

tboc
Participant

tdk i have the sense the insantiy of the moment strikes at the core of your being. Those who will not go along to get along are facing a tough row to hoe. The question “and you?” was for your internal contemplation, not an indictment. I truly hope to have the intestinal fortitude to resist, we shall see.

The protestants have no litany of saints such that most believe Christian martyrdom died with The Enlightenment. Hardly anyone understands the phrase, “do you have a stake in it?”. Who knows the name Giordano Bruno?

No offense was intended, please forgive if one was taken.

May 12, 2026 at 2:29 pm #240431

zerosum
Participant

Secrets
2020 was the attempt of overthrow.

https://x.com/Real_RobN/status/2053635138765062154?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2053635138765062154%7Ctwgr%5Ed0e1178b858673a9ce16498882903159f84b70ea%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwtww.theautomaticearth.com%2F2026%2F05%2Fdebt-rattle-may-12-2026%2F
—————
hypocrisy and Lies
Stil Looking for a dance partner, Who is looking for an exit-ramp to peace?
Who listens?

Iran’s demands for the war to stop, for the US to lift its blockade, and the release Iran’s frozen assets, remain legitimate..
—————–

May 12, 2026 at 2:32 pm #240432

Michael Reid
Participant

May 12, 2026 at 2:45 pm #240435

zerosum
Participant

WAR RESUMES! 216 Russian Drones vs Ukraine + US Strikes Zelensky’s Inner Circle

MS 2026.05.12

———-

May 12, 2026 at 2:54 pm #240436

kultsommer
Participant

Hantavirus prediction in 2020.
At 15:15 time stamp – usual behavior of our “small hat crickets” followed by the short cover story that made title of the blog.
Enjoy.

May 12, 2026 at 3:50 pm #240437

those darned kids
Participant

Tboc: no offense — far from it.

My studies of the saintly types are limited, so I just reached for clarification.

●■●■●■

Germ! We sure need you back..

●■●■●■

: “Couples who do major felonies together, stay together”.

Well, Don and Melania will also certainly be sharing each other’s sulphuric wretchedness for all of eternity. Hopefully the administrators of the fiery pits find them “nice” neighbors. Perhaps those friendly Obamas will fit into their high cost area.

May 12, 2026 at 4:01 pm #240438

kultsommer
Participant

Alex pushing the rock uphill.
Blurred line between J and Z.

May 12, 2026 at 4:14 pm #240439

those darned kids
Participant

Here’s my suggestion for a theme for the new, deproved [Ed. Unimproved] Automatic Zionist:

Oh, Lord, don’t let ’em shoot us
Oh, Lord, don’t let ’em stab us
Oh, Lord, no more swastikas
Oh, Lord, don’t let ’em tar and feather us!

[Chorus]
Oh, Lord, no more Ku Klux Klan
Name me someone who’s ridiculous, Dannie
Governor Faubus!
Why is he so sick and ridiculous?
He won’t permit integrated schools
Then he’s a fool!

Boo! Nazi Fascist supremists!
Boo! Ku Klux Klan (With your Jim Crow plan)

[Chorus]
Name me a handful that’s ridiculous, Dannie Richmond
Bilbo, Thomas, Faubus, Russel, Rockefeller, Byrd, Eisenhower

Why are they so sick and ridiculous?
Two, four, six, eight:
They brainwash and teach you hate

H-E-L-L-O, Hello

Boo! Nazi Fascist supremists!
Boo! Ku Klux Klan (With your Jim Crow plan)

[Chorus]
Name me a handful that’s ridiculous, Dannie Richmond
Bilbo, Thomas, Faubus, Russel, Rockefeller, Byrd, Eisenhower
Why are they so sick and ridiculous?
Two, four, six, eight:
They brainwash and teach you hate

May 12, 2026 at 4:37 pm #240440

those darned kids
Participant

Too bad ranchers don’t live in high cost areas:

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/tyson-sinks-walmart-falls-after-trump-moves-temporarily-lower-beef-import-tariffs

While that’s GOOD for consumers, it’s VERY bad for us cattle ranchers. Our input costs are still sky high. Think: Transport (diesel costs), tractor parts, labor, fertilizer etc. These costs DONT come down for us with this. It just makes us compete with lower cost, lower quality imported beef

May 12, 2026 at 5:10 pm #240441

zerosum
Participant

Building the Ballroom has no tax payer money. However, …
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/11/politics/trump-ballroom-security-funding-congress
Senate Republicans weigh whether to swallow Trump’s $1B push for ballroom security

May 12, 2026 at 5:21 pm #240442

kultsommer
Participant

Cenk and Ana.
Turk and Armenian hosting the channel.
I find it cool.

May 12, 2026 at 5:31 pm #240443

kultsommer
Participant

J-kitchen-sink thrown at us as if we haven’t had enough.
But…. don’t look what we do….. you cattle!

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/12/middleeast/report-sexual-violence-hamas-oct-7-attacks-intl?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc&recs_exp=most-popular-article-end&tenant_id=popular.en

May 12, 2026 at 5:53 pm #240444

kultsommer
Participant

You are cattle, but we still need your backing.
.

May 12, 2026 at 6:22 pm #240445

Michael Reid
Participant

May 12, 2026 at 7:40 pm #240447

Doc Robinson
Participant

For Dr. D –

FWIW, Wikipedia says the SSBN ballistic missile submarine USS Alaska is not the same configuration as cruise missile submarines, aka “SSGNs capable of conducting conventional land attack and special operations.”

SSGNs capable of conducting conventional land attack and special operations… payload possibilities include new generations of supersonic and hypersonic cruise missiles, and Submarine Launched Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles,[citation needed] unmanned aerial vehicles, the ADM-160 MALD, sensors for antisubmarine warfare or intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, counter mine warfare payloads such as the AN/BLQ-11 Long-Term Mine Reconnaissance System, and the broaching universal buoyant launcher and stealthy affordable capsule system specialized payload canisters.

The missile tubes also have room for stowage canisters that can extend the forward deployment time for special forces. The other two Trident tubes are converted to swimmer lockout chambers. For special operations, the Dry Combat Submersible (which replaced the Advanced SEAL Delivery System), as well as the dry deck shelter, can be mounted on the lockout chamber and the boat will be able to host up to 66 special-operations sailors or Marines, such as Navy SEALs, or USMC MARSOC teams. Improved communications equipment installed during the upgrade allows the SSGNs to serve as a forward-deployed, clandestine Small Combatant Joint Command Center.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio-class_submarine

May 12, 2026 at 8:28 pm #240460

morongobill
Participant

TAE= All Trump All the Time.

May 12, 2026 at 8:37 pm #240461

Michael Reid
Participant

May 12, 2026 at 9:13 pm #240462

Michael Reid
Participant

May 12, 2026 at 9:14 pm #240463

Michael Reid
Participant

May 12, 2026 at 9:16 pm #240464

Michael Reid
Participant

May 12, 2026 at 11:58 pm #240468

kultsommer
Participant

Chas has not translated to Nixon the whisper that he may have overheard: “Just let your greedy “job creators” bring all the manufacturing to us. We’ll fuck you up in a few decades or so.”

May 13, 2026 at 12:00 am #240469

Doc Robinson
Participant

Greek tanker carrying oil from Iraq (not Iran) to Vietnam reportedly forced to turn back near Oman (at the US Navy’s blockade line) after getting through the Hormuz Strait.

According to multiple shipping and media reports, the vessel had been transporting Iraqi crude oil bound for Vietnam after departing Iraq’s Al Basrah terminal.

The tanker had successfully passed through the Strait of Hormuz using a route authorised by Iranian authorities and travelled via officially declared shipping lanes, Iranian media reported.

However, ship-tracking data later showed the vessel abruptly changing course near the Gulf of Oman before eventually turning back, amid heightened naval tensions involving the United States and Iran. Reports linking the manoeuvre directly to intervention by the U.S. Navy have circulated online, although no official confirmation has been issued by U.S. authorities at this stage.

https://greekcitytimes.com/2026/05/12/agios-fanourios-i-tanker-oman-hormuz/?amp

May 13, 2026 at 12:10 am #240470

TAE Summary
Participant

* Trump Daily Synopsis
– TAE = Trump Always Everywhere
– Trump announces new Treasury auctions at gunpoint; Supply and demand
– Happy Bill; Dopey W; Bashful Barry; Sleepy Joe; Grumpy Trumpy
– Trump has such huge cojones he needs more ball room

* Economics
– The first domino has fallen
– Market manipulation safeguards national security
– Surveillance drives the economy
– A rising tide drowns all sheep
– Prep now; It’ll soon be the grasshoppers vs the ants and the grasshoppers will be armed

* Etc.
– Victory for the US in Iran will smell like napalm in the morning
– On Ted Cruz: I may agree with what you say, but I prefer a slow death to listening to you say it
– Power couples: The couple that slays together stays together
– AI will exorcise all human emotions so fast it’ll make your head spin

May 13, 2026 at 12:21 am #240471

Doc Robinson
Participant

Today I learned that a submerged nuclear ballistic missile submarine can receive launch orders from a special aircraft (such as a Boeing E-6A) using very low frequency communications.

Yesterday, one of those E-6A aircraft flew to Europe from the US, and today a US ballistic missile submarine was reported to have embarked on a “Mediterranean Patrol.”

“USS Alaska Leaves Gibraltar for Mediterranean Patrol as US Navy E-6A Arrival Raises Strategic Questions”

The ballistic missile submarine believed to be USS Alaska (SSBN-732) departed Gibraltar today heading east into the Mediterranean after arriving on Saturday, in a movement that comes just one day after the arrival in Europe of a US Navy E-6A Mercury aircraft.

Unlike attack submarines, SSBNs represent one of the core components of the American nuclear triad, designed to provide survivable second-strike capability. For that reason alone, deployments of this kind are always strategically sensitive, even when conducted routinely.

What makes the movement particularly interesting is the near-simultaneous presence in Europe of a US Navy E-6A Mercury tracked yesterday. The aircraft serves as an airborne nuclear command post capable of relaying launch orders to US ballistic missile submarines through very low frequency communications.

https://www.itamilradar.com/2026/05/12/uss-alaska-leaves-gibraltar-for-mediterranean-patrol-as-us-navy-e-6a-arrival-raises-strategic-questions/
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