Jun 072026
 
 June 7, 2026  Posted by at 9:51 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  Add comments


Claude Monet San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk 1908


US Led Over 100 Vessels via Strait of Hormuz in May — NYT (TASS)
‘Biden’s War’ Has Become Trump’s – Lavrov (RT)
Promethean Action PAC Discovers MAGAnomics (CTH)
Trump Says US Weighing Taking Stakes In AI Companies (ET)
California and the Politics of Low Expectations (Turley)
The EU’s ‘Strictest-Ever Migration Law’ Won’t Change Anything (von Hoffmeister)
Paris Riots Fuel The Right (RMX)
Tory Leader Warns Of ‘Civil War’ In UK (RT)
Questions and Answers (James Howard Kunstler)
The White Countries Have Become Rabidly Racist Against White People (PCR)
When Race is the Only Possible Verdict (Eric Florack)
Europe No Longer Attractive Global Hub, Only Itself To Blame – Kneissl (TASS)
EU Embassies In Moscow Should Establish Dialogue With Russia — Kneissl (TASS)
UK Government Plots Digital ID Lockdown On Every Phone (MN)
Bots Now Generate More Web Traffic Than Humans – Cloudflare (RT)

 


 

 


 


Surprisingly little war news today, but all the more -racial- discrimination.

About this article: 100 vessels a month is quite a lot. 3 per day, and not small vessels. An oil tanker carries two million barrels.

US Led Over 100 Vessels via Strait of Hormuz in May — NYT (TASS)

Last month, the US military helped coordinate the passage of more than 100 commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, The New York Times (NYT) wrote citing sources. According to the report, passage through this waterway remains dangerous for ships against the backdrop of stalled US-Iranian reconciliation talks. Earlier, The New York Times said the US Central Command (CENTCOM) assisted the passage of 70 ships via the strait. The majority of them switched off their transponders.


The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were also hit. Tehran decided to close the Strait of Hormuz to ships associated with the United States, Israel and countries that backed the aggression against Iran.

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“The US president could have ended the Ukraine conflict by following through on his own proposals, the Russian foreign minister has told RT..”

‘Biden’s War’ Has Become Trump’s – Lavrov (RT)

America’s position on the Ukraine conflict has become almost indistinguishable from that of the EU, making US President Donald Trump’s stated ambition to mediate an end to the fighting hollow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has told RT. Trump repeatedly blamed the conflict between Russia and Ukraine on his predecessor, Joe Biden, and claimed that he could bring it to a swift conclusion while campaigning in 2024. However, recent statements by members of his administration suggest a different course, Lavrov said on Thursday in an interview on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.


“Biden’s war has become Trump’s war,” the Russian foreign minister said. Speaking to Congress this week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said efforts to facilitate Russia-Ukraine talks were complicated “because, frankly, we’re not an impartial mediator.” He cited the continuation of the sanctions on Russia and sales of US weapons to Ukraine. “After we agreed to the United States proposal in Anchorage [in August 2025], Washington began to shift its position. Instead of advancing those same proposals in its dealings with Ukrainians, it is now pretending that the parties should sort things out themselves. This is not a very consistent position,” Lavrov said.

“It is the West that cannot be trusted to keep its agreements. Its approach is: ‘I’ll promise something now, then stall for time.’ If the US had truly advanced its own initiative, I think… the fighting would already have stopped.” According to Lavrov, the only major difference between Trump’s policy and that of Biden and the EU is that his administration resumed direct talks with Russia. Dialogue is important, he said, but it must be matched by action on commitments already made.

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“.. both Trump and Bernie Sanders agreed on the problem. The difference between them was the solution.”

Promethean Action PAC Discovers MAGAnomics (CTH)

In 2015, even before President Trump came down the golden escalator, CTH was outlining a ‘new era and dimension’ in American economics that could be possible if a presidential candidate focused on specific Main Street policy. Throughout the next four years we watched carefully how Donald Trump was organizing that Main Street revival and what specifically was creating the economic growth. One of the points emphasized in 2016 about Trump’s unique MAGAnomic policy, was how both Trump and Bernie Sanders agreed on the problem. The difference between them was the solution.


Think of it like economic football.
Both Trump and Sanders identify the rigged game. Bernie Sanders wanted to change the referees so that government controls the game. Donald Trump’s approach was different. Trump wanted to change the rules of the game, not step in and try to play referee to a rigged game where the rules were flawed. One of the examples of economic “rule changing” is trade tariffs. You don’t need govt to regulate the corporations directly (ie. raise corporate income taxes). Instead, you can change trade policy to make the better corporate decision a return of production back to the USA (a fundamental rules change).

Both approaches involve a different govt policy, but Trump’s approach changes behavior. That’s MAGAnomics. One of the reasons Trump’s approaches are much more effective, is that his rule changes extend beyond the American corporate game. Trump’s approach changes the behavior of foreign governments and foreign corporations, a win/win/win.An example is the Japanese government investing in America to offset reciprocity tariffs; while Toyota, a corporation, invests in specific auto manufacturing expansion to avoid baseline tariffs.

You don’t get that kind of result through Bernie’s approach changing the American referee in an all-American game and raising corporate income taxes. And don’t forget, the corporation can just move offshore and avoid income taxes entirely. Apple used to have their company incorporated in Ireland. Trump’s rule changes brought them back.The Promethean Action PAC is now highlighting the fundamentals of Trump’s MAGAnomics and how the policy is distinctly different from all U.S. economic policy before it.

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“The bad news? His executive order is voluntary and does almost nothing to protect Americans,“ Sanders wrote. “Congress MUST act.”

Trump Says US Weighing Taking Stakes In AI Companies (ET)

President Donald Trump told reporters on June 5 that his administration is exploring the possibility of the United States acquiring a public stake in artificial intelligence (AI) companies. Trump made the comment in response to a question about a recent News of the United States report, which suggested that unnamed senior U.S. officials had discussed with major AI firms the possibility of the federal government holding some shares in their companies. “There’s so much money that is so big that there are concepts where pieces could be given to the American public, where the American public essentially becomes a partner with the companies,” Trump said aboard Air Force One.


“I have spoken to all of [the AI companies]. There’s something very interesting about it, where it almost becomes a partnership with the American public, and we’ll look into that,” he said. Trump said he and his team have a meeting scheduled in the “very near future” with major AI firms to discuss this possible venture. “We’re talking about it, where the American people can benefit from the success of AI, and by doing that, they can like it better,” Trump explained.nSen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) penned an op-ed in The New York Times on Monday titled “A.I. Is a Public Resource. You Should Own Half of It,” where he announced he would soon introduce congressional legislation to give the American public a direct ownership stake in the largest AI companies in the United States.

“It would create a sovereign wealth fund through a one-time 50 percent tax—not on the profits of OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and other companies, but paid with something far more valuable than that: the stock,” Sanders wrote in the piece. He said the legislation, which he plans to call the American A.I. Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, would give the American public a direct role in determining the future of AI while also guaranteeing that the trillions generated by the industry are “used to improve the lives of all of us—not simply to make the richest people in the world even richer.”

When asked on Friday if he found it odd that he and Sanders were seemingly on the same page about the proposal, Trump said that the two “have certain things that aren’t that far apart” regarding economic policy. “People are surprised, but if you’ll take a look, many of the people who voted for Bernie Sanders … they went to me,” Trump said, referring to some of the voters who backed him in the 2016 presidential election after previously supporting Sanders in the Democratic primary that year.

Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday asking AI companies to voluntarily submit their frontier models for government review 30 days before a full public release. In a post on X hours after the order was announced, Sanders said it was “good news” that Trump had “finally acknowledged AI poses a real threat” after the president had previously criticized efforts to tighten regulation of the AI industry. “The bad news? His executive order is voluntary and does almost nothing to protect Americans,“ Sanders wrote. “Congress MUST act.”

Read more …

Expect nothing. You may be pleasantly surprised.

California and the Politics of Low Expectations (Turley)

This week, the nation watched as California grappled again with the ordinarily straightforward task of counting votes in an election. While large states such as Florida declare election winners within 24 hours, California may take up to two weeks to count all the votes. Even Los Angeles cannot count its votes in the time of large states despite giving the Clerk an annual budget of $336 million and a $448,179 a year salary with the help of 1,100 budgeted positions. In most states, voters would be outraged by the incompetence, waste, and inefficiency.


However, in the Golden State, voters shrug, as if they can demand no more from their elected officials than subpar performance. Call it the Politics of Low Expectations and California is the model for the nation. For years, my students have asked me what the secret is to a successful marriage approaching four decades (For full disclosure, there is an ongoing contractual dispute over my counting eight years of monogamous dating — leading to two dates on our anniversary cakes). The answer is simple. I reduced her expectations so low that I have exceeded them on a daily basis.

That began with our eloping on New Year’s Eve. We were married after an actual shotgun wedding where the clearly expectant teenage bride’s family was screaming profanities at the teenage groom. After paying $50 and using my high school ring for a wedding ring, we stepped out on the street of Old Town Alexandria as a drunk was retching in the gutter. That left only room for improvement. On any given day, my wife is simply grateful that I have not traded the house and car for a handful of magic beans. California Democrats seem to have applied my approach to matrimony to politics, creating a politician’s dream voter with few expectations.

That is most evident with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s infamous high-speed train to nowhere. In 2008, voters were promised a 500-mile High-Speed train running from San Francisco to Los Angeles for $33 billion. It is now projected to cost somewhere between $126 billion and $231 billion. After roughly two decades, no track has been laid, and the current plan is to focus on building a track between Bakersfield and Merced. Without any track to display, Newsom recently stood before a freight train on an existing track to insist that his train is moving speedily along.

One would think that citizens would be coming for their leaders with torches and pitchforks. Instead, there is a collective shrug as if it is perfectly normal to spend more than the entire budget of Amtrak on a non-existent train. The same leaders have burned billions in other boondoggles, including a massive solar power farm that produced energy at a higher cost and incinerated thousands of birds a year. California is facing a growing crisis of rising homelessness, dismal education scores, and an exodus of business and wealthy taxpayers. It has also imposed taxes that make gas the most expensive in the nation while suppressing its own energy industry.

Now, after many voters took the unprecedented step of voting for Republican candidates for governor and L.A. mayor, citizens will wait for weeks to learn the results of an election that would have been called days ago by third-world countries. The same politics of low expectations are evident in other states. In New York City, voters just shrug when told that they have a budget rivaling that of the entire state of Florida, resulting in awful educational, infrastructure, and other conditions. Voters have watched as wealthy taxpayers have taken their money and jobs to other states.

In return, figures like Mayor Zohran Mamdani promise state-run grocery stores, which will cost tens of millions of dollars to build and operate at a loss. In Minnesota, elected officials allowed billions to be stolen in fraud while businesses fled a state rife with rioting and homelessness.

Baltimore, a student failed all but three of his classes and was ranked in the top half of his graduating class. Yet, voters reelected the same leaders who have denied generations any real opportunity for advancement. While other countries maintain superior school systems at a fraction of the cost, urban voters cast their ballots like lemmings for the same party and politicians.

In states like California, politics has long been run on Henry Ford’s pitch that you can have any color Model T so long as it is black. This election seemed to offer voters something they had not seen in many years: a real choice between a Republican governor and an L.A. mayor. As California slowly counts its votes, the odds still heavily favor the continuation of California as a one-party state. Poor services, rising crime, rampant homelessness, hundreds of billions in waste and other failures are treated as virtually inevitable. The result is an electorate that only a politician would love: passive voters who expect little from their government and receive even less.

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“Politicians promise immigration control while the economic and demographic forces driving migration remain firmly in place..”

In other words: Europe is simply too far gone.

The EU’s ‘Strictest-Ever Migration Law’ Won’t Change Anything (von Hoffmeister)

The European Union’s new migration rules, agreed upon in principle by lawmakers and state representatives, will allow EU countries to transfer rejected asylum seekers to third countries if they cannot be returned to their countries of origin. They also introduce stricter rules for dealing with illegal migrants, especially those considered a security risk.


The media has called it “historic,” “hardline,” and the “strictest-ever migration law” as politicians behind their lecterns spoke of control and the defense of borders. Yet in truth, the EU has once again promised to become tougher while preserving the structures that produced the migration crisis in the first place. New procedures, databases, and regulations have appeared, but the underlying incentives have remained largely intact. The result resembles many political spectacles of recent years: a performance designed to reassure anxious voters while preserving the economic and ideological foundations of the existing system. The gap between rhetoric and reality has become one of the defining characteristics of contemporary Western politics.

The same pattern can be observed across the Atlantic. Donald Trump returned to office promising the strongest immigration enforcement campaign in American history. His supporters anticipated deportation operations on a scale never previously attempted. Yet the reality has proved considerably more modest. Immigration enforcement agencies continue to conduct highly publicized arrests that generate dramatic footage for television and social media. A worker removed from a restaurant kitchen, a raid on a warehouse or construction site – all good for cameras and for political supporters to receive confirmation that action is taking place.

Yet the larger economic machinery that attracts millions of migrants continues operating. Businesses that employ illegal labor rarely face penalties severe enough to transform their calculations. The availability of employment remains the primary magnet drawing people across borders. A government genuinely committed to ending illegal immigration would focus relentlessly on employers, labor contractors, and industries dependent on cheap foreign labor. However, such measures would provoke opposition from powerful economic interests. Consequently, symbolic enforcement often proves more attractive than structural reform.

Politicians frequently present immigration as a humanitarian question, a cultural question, or a question of border security. The economic dimension often receives less scrutiny. Modern capitalism and mass immigration have become deeply intertwined. Employers gain access to larger labor pools, which increases competition among workers and places downward pressure on wages in many sectors. Agricultural businesses, logistics firms, construction companies, restaurants, delivery services, and countless other industries derive substantial advantages from a continuous supply of foreign labor. The benefits remain concentrated while many of the costs become dispersed throughout society. Housing demand rises, infrastructure faces greater pressure, schools require expansion, healthcare systems absorb additional burdens.

Welfare programs support those who struggle to establish themselves economically. These expenses rarely appear on corporate balance sheets – instead, they get distributed across the broader population through taxation and public expenditure. This contradiction led the French thinker Alain de Benoist to formulate one of the most incisive observations in the entire debate: “One who criticizes capitalism while approving of immigration, of which the working class is its first victim, would do better to remain silent. One who criticizes immigration while remaining silent regarding capitalism should do the same.” The statement captures a reality that many ideological camps prefer to avoid. Immigration and capitalism frequently function as partners within the same economic system, and any serious analysis of one eventually encounters the other.

Back in Western Europe, governments routinely announce crackdowns on illegal immigration while simultaneously preserving the economic and demographic model that depends on continuous inflows of foreign labor. Public discussion frequently centers on boats crossing the Mediterranean or migrants entering through other irregular routes – images that dominate news coverage because they are visually dramatic. Yet illegal immigration represents only one component of a much larger phenomenon. The overwhelming transformation of Western Europe has occurred through legal channels. Work permits, family reunification programs, student visas, humanitarian admissions, labor recruitment schemes, and various residency pathways have altered the demographic composition of entire societies. A politician can reduce small boat arrivals while expanding legal immigration quotas. Statistical reports may then suggest success even as overall migration continues at historic levels.

Italy provides an instructive example. Giorgia Meloni rose to power promising a fundamental break with previous migration policies. Her electoral success depended heavily on public dissatisfaction with mass immigration. Yet her government subsequently approved hundreds of thousands of additional work permits for non-European migrants in response to labor shortages. Nearly half a million new non-EU work visas were authorized over a multi-year period even while the government continued presenting itself as a champion of immigration control. Supporters emphasized efforts against illegal arrivals, while employers welcomed access to additional labor, and the demographic trajectory remained largely unchanged.

This recurring pattern has created a phenomenon increasingly described by critics as the “Melonization effect,” where leaders campaign as insurgents against mass immigration and then govern as managers of the existing system. Similar tendencies have appeared across numerous Western countries.

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Marine Le Pen.

Paris Riots Fuel The Right (RMX)

:With French national elections approaching in 2027, the mass riots seen in Paris following the PSG victory in the Champions League are leading to an even sharper electoral shift towards the right-leaning National Rally’s Jordan Bardella. Verian’s June barometer, published by Le Figaro Magazine, places Jordan Bardella at the top of political figures, with 47 percent of those questioned wanting to see him occupy an important place in public life. This rating, up six points in one month, reveals a record result for the National Rally.


Marine Le Pen comes in second position and is also progressing. Several other personalities located on the right are also rising in the ranking, including Marion Maréchal, Éric Ciotti and Robert Ménard. The riots in Paris left stores and cars burned out and resulted in 890 arrests, 180 officers injured, and two deaths. The apocalyptic videos from the riots also sent shockwaves through the French public. While these polls cannot predict the election, they underline data showing that Bardella or Le Pen are well positioned to win the presidency in 2027 elections.

https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/2061886947467919775?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2061886947467919775%7Ctwgr%5Ed4eaf6b6844c32a7acab68214b84076630ca3930%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frmx.news%2Farticle%2Fparis-riots-fuel-the-right-jordan-bardella-would-trounce-all-opponents-in-2027-national-election%2F

Other recent polls also show that Bardella would win a runoff against a range of candidates. A poll from a week ago from Odoxa showed Bardella beating former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe 52 to 48 percent. Other potential candidates, such as the far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, were also beaten by wide margins, with polling showing Bardella nearly 50 points ahead of him, at 74 percent to 26 percent, illustrating the France’s distate for Mélenchon’s politics.

Brussels’ nightmare scenario
Politico ran a piece three days ago entitled “Brussels’ nightmare scenario,” which predicted that a Bardella-Mélenchon matchup is a real possibility and would be viewed as catastrophic by the EU elite, as both candidates have a highly skeptical view of the European Union.

“That prospect of stopping Bardella has hit a major potential hurdle, however, as momentum builds behind the campaign of the firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the far-left France Unbowed party. The latest polls suggest he now has a strong chance of qualifying for the second-round showdown — depriving the race of a centrist who could rally voters against the far right in the EU’s No. 2 economy.” The paper also quoted, Gérald Darmanin, the justice minister under President Emmanuel Macron. He said he now believes Mélenchon will be the main challenger to the “far right.” “You have … to be wearing blinkers not to see it,” he said.

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A brown skinned lady who swears that Britain “is not a racist country,” Now you know what you got there is a politician.

Tory Leader Warns Of ‘Civil War’ In UK (RT)

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has slammed UK politicians over what she described as attempts to score points on existing racial divisions, warning that it risked pushing the country towards a “civil war.”nSpeaking in an interview with the BBC aired on Friday, Badenoch reacted to the murder of Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old Polish-British university student, who was stabbed five times by Vickrum Digwa, a 23-year-old Sikh. The incident took place in Southampton in December 2025, but gained a national spotlight only recently.


When police arrived, Digwa falsely claimed he had been the victim of a racist assault, with police initially believing his account. Body-cam footage released after sentencing showed officers handcuffing the dying student as he repeatedly told them he had been stabbed and could not breathe. While Digwa was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 21 years, the fall-out triggered widespread uproar, protests, and accusations of “two-tier policing” and “anti-white prejudice” in Britain. The incident also drew outcry from the US – a traditional UK ally – with the State Department warning that “ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing are glaring symptoms of civilizational decline.”

Badenoch insisted that Britain “is not a racist country,” but acknowledged that “we are now seeing more and more hostility to people of every ethnicity, whether they’re English or not English.” However, she insisted that the real driver of tension was politicians using racial divisions to harvest votes and importing these conflicts into communities that had previously been spared from them. “Parties which do that, politicians who do that, they may get to benefit in the short term, but in the long term, that’s how you end up with civil war,” Badenoch warned.

While Badenoch did not name specific politicians, one of those who seized on the controversy was Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, widely known for his anti-immigration agenda. Farage called for “pure cold rage” in response to the incident. Reform UK is currently polling at around 27%, with Labour and the Conservatives tied at roughly 18% each. Meanwhile, Badenoch herself became the Tory leader after former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s landslide defeat in the general election in 2024, which was in large part caused by the party’s identitarian and cultural policies as well as a failure to deliver on immigration promises.

The culture war has long plagued British politics, with one of the most notable instances coming in August 2025 when “Operation Raise the Colours” saw activists tying Union Jacks and St. George’s Cross flags to lampposts across England. While the protest was framed as an expression of patriotism, some Labour-run councils disagreed, ordering the flags to be removed over concerns that they were sowing division – a move that drew furious condemnation from Reform UK.

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“I’m the look-around candidate. All you have to do to understand why I’m surging in the polls is just look around. . . .” — Spencer Pratt

Questions and Answers (James Howard Kunstler)

Just watch in wonder and nausea as California’s mail-in ballots dribble in, providing a real-time demonstration of the “Our Democracy” party spitting in the country’s face again, since everybody knows exactly what’s going on. Meanwhile, the Senate voted down the SAVE Act again this week by 52 to 48 for. . . reasons. But, hey, cheer up, it’s Pride Month. At the same time that California was queering its own “jungle primary,” a troupe of drag queens swanned and capered around New York’s City Council Chamber in what was called a “Pride Ball” (actually more of a show than a ball).


And what it really showed is that the party running New York City has no shame. How, exactly, does mental illness intersect with the public interest, you might ask? Historians of the future, roasting armadillos-on-the-half-shell over their campfires, will probably figure it out. For now, you must pretend that no such question even exists. Don’t bother asking. Just go along with the gag.

Here’s a scene you might like to see: As you know by now, the president has nominated Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to be the Senate-confirmed full-on, bona fide AG. But Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) says he would require Mr. Blanche to declare that the Jan 6, 2021, Capitol riot was “an insurrection.” Wouldn’t it be fun to hear Mr. Blanche reply by saying, “Can’t do that, sir, because the DOJ has an ongoing case that involves dozens of federal officers from several agencies instigating the events of that day in collusion with members of Congress and the US military, and, well, I can say no more about that at this time. . . .”

Similarly, election fraud. Just days ago, Mr. Trump told Miranda Divine of The New York Post, “We had a rigged election [2020], we can’t have rigged elections. We know who rigged the election. We know everything now. . . we have information that nobody thought was possible. . . . Let’s see what happens.”

Hmmmm. . .. Wouldn’t that prompt you to suspect that the DOJ has a case, or multiple cases, involving 2020 election fraud cooking on its stove? Recall that not long ago the FBI seized 700 boxes of evidence from the Fulton County Election Hub in Union City, GA. And another truckload out of Maricopa County, AZ. Do you think they’ll discover some, er, irregularities in all that? Perhaps eye-wateringly blatant?

Would it not then be urgent to seek indictments of actual persons, if any are deserved, well before November, so that measures could be taken to preclude more fraud and cheating in the midterm election — measures like . . . passing the SAVE Act! How might Majority Leader John Thune explain his intransigence on the matter in the face of all that? Or, like New York’s City Council, does he have no shame?

In another momentous development this week, the new management at CBS-News cashiered 60-Minutes star Scott Pelley for apparent insubordinate behavior in a confab with the show’s newly-hired Executive Producer Nick Bilton and Mr. Bilton’s boss, Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss. They had already sacked the querulous Sharyn Alfonsi a week earlier. Of course, 60-Minutes, with its giant audience following NFL games, was one of the main units in the Deep State’s gaslighting apparatus, and Mr. Pelley burned brightest there for years, flaring out one lying-ass narrative after another from the Russia Collusion hoax to 2020 election fraud to the Jan 6 fake “insurrection,” with the same burnished arrogance he showed his new bosses. Gone now. . . buh-bye. Next up, Lesley Stahl (“Sir!!! Sir !!!”), and the self-important prick Bill Whitaker. Fire them all!

If you seek to understand why the American public is so deeply bamboozled, it is largely the utter failure of the news business. You can trace that to a couple of signal changes of policy. One was the 1987 repeal of the FCC’s “Fairness Doctrine,” which required TV stations holding federal licenses to cover controversial public issues in a “fair and balanced manner.” The other was the 2013 “modernization” (under Barack Obama) of the Smith-Mundt Act (1948), which had prohibited the US government from “propagandizing” its own citizens — and after “modernization” turned squishy on that.

The 1975–1976 (Sen. Frank) Church Committee — the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities — documented that the CIA had long-term secret relationships with dozens of U.S. journalists. This is casually referred to as “Operation Mockingbird.” Since the Church Committee, it has only gotten much worse as the Deep State struggles to cover-up layer upon layer of crimes it keeps committing. The nightly news shows now are just anchors and “panelists” shooting their mouths off. The news itself goes mostly unreported. A big reason is that broadcast news now employs nearly zero correspondents in-the-field. Nobody is out there reporting on events. They don’t want to spend the money. So, the news just spins and spins, mostly in the service of manufactured lies.

Also last week, famous New York Times columnist and fake Nobel economics prize-winner Paul Krugman put out a video calling for the “purging” of MAGA and everything MAGA-adjacent from American life — when his team (the party of “Our Democracy”) comes back to power, as it must. He didn’t detail whether this process would entail internment camps and crematoriums, but you could infer as much from his tone. Kinda gives you a clue of where their heads are at.

Read more …

Paul Craig Roberts.

The White Countries Have Become Rabidly Racist Against White People (PCR)

As I was writing this article several thousand British citizens were outside a police station in Southhampton, England, demanding accountability for the murder of a young white British student, Henry Nowak, by a black immigrant-invader and the white British police.


The black immigrant-invader murdered Nowak by stabbing him five times. The white British police murdered Nowak by ignoring his testimony that he had been stabbed and what turned out to be Novak’s last words: “I can’t breathe.” The British police, trained as they successfully have been to see the white person as the aggressor, instead of arresting the black immigrant-invader who attacked Nowak, fatally as it turned out, the white British police arrested the dying Nowak, who died in police handcuffs. The “racially sensitive trained” white British police believed the black immigrant-invader’s lie that Nowak had used a racial epithet. They did not believe Nowak that he had been stabbed. The “racially sensitive police” did not even look to see if Nowak had been stabbed. Instead, they handcuffed a dying man and did not call for medical help.

You would think that this would be a scandal–and it was–but not for the right reason. The rabidly anti-white white British prime minister Starmer characterized the several thousand white protesters, a small number in view of the enormity of the injustice, as “far-right rioters and racist thugs.” In other words, the Prime Minister of England sees racism not in the unprovoked deadly attack on the white Nowak by the black immigrant-invader, not in the British police’s ignoring of Nowak’s dying plea for help. The white British Prime Minister Starmer sees racism in the British citizens’ protest about what has happened. Is there any lower form of pure political excrement than Starmer ? How does a piece of political excrement such as Starmer survive as Prime Minister of Great Britain?

Now, let us ask ourselves how a white ethnic British Prime Minister from the Labour Party, which in former times prior to the despicable Tony Blair, represented the ethnic British working class, became indoctrinated and brainwashed to such an extreme extent that the racists in society are the white people who suffer from theft, rape, and murder by immigrant-invaders.? Confront this fact: The excrement that serves as Prime Minister of Great Britain, formerly a great and reasonably moral country, has defined protest about a racist murder of a white British citizen to be “white racism.” This is the position of white people today. In NO Western country do white ethnic citizens have the protection of law. Their own government is against them.

The UK, once an ethnic nation, now a Tower of Babel, has a “commitment to racial equality.” What does it mean? To quote the official answer, “it does not mean treating everyone ‘the same’ or being ‘color blind,’” it means limiting racism to white people. No one but white people can be racists. This is the official position of the Starmer UK government. It was the official position of the Biden regime and the official position of all Western European governments. Trump prefers to hand over to Israel the power otherwise handed over to immigrant-invaders. This is why the police automatically saw the murderer of Nowak as the victim and Nowak as the racist.

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“This death connects directly to George Floyd — not superficially, not controversially, but logically. In both cases, nobody asked what happened. They asked who did it — then let that answer bury every other question alive.”

When Race is the Only Possible Verdict (Eric Florack)

Vodkapundit put it best earlier this week: “By now you must know the story of Henry Nowak all too well. The 18-year-old student was stabbed five times on a Southampton street following an altercation with a British Sikh man. As he lay bleeding out, trying to tell the police he’d been stabbed, killer Vickrum Digwa told police that Nowak was a racist. So police cuffed the dying victim. Digwa and his brother knew exactly what to do even before the cops arrived. “We’ve just been attacked by…” Gurpreet Digwa told police dispatchers with a pause, “someone racially.”


Vickrum was just convicted of murder and sentenced to a minimum term of 21 years, but the Southampton police have yet to face any consequences for their behavior. In today’s Britain, it’s basically impossible. Almost 250 years after Americans codified British notions of liberty, Britons returned the favor, so to speak, by institutionalizing the American left’s liberty-destroying racial grievance spoils system. “To understand how we got here,” Konstantin Kisin wrote for The Free Press this week, “you have to understand what the post-[George] Floyd ‘reckoning’ actually did to British institutions—especially the police. The response to Floyd’s death wasn’t merely emotional, nor was it just symbolic. It was ideological, and it was systematic.”

I have a lot of respect for Kisin. His statement here does nothing to diminish that respect. Kisin is right. This death connects directly to George Floyd — not superficially, not controversially, but logically. In both cases, nobody asked what happened. They asked who did it — then let that answer bury every other question alive. More succinctly, ethnicity didn’t influence the verdict. Ethnicity was the verdict, delivered before Nowak’s body finished cooling. But sure, call it justice. The left certainly does. News flash: That’s not a justice system. That’s an ideology with a gavel. On Derek Chauvin, I’ll be equally direct: overturn the conviction. George Floyd killed George Floyd. The fentanyl he swallowed in order to hide it from the cops did the paperwork.

I’ll grant the cops in the case of Nowak this much: they followed orders and training. How reassuringly Nuremberg of them. I mean, they were certainly caught in the middle here. That truth doesn’t exonerate them, but it does redirect the crosshairs. The politicians who enshrined race over logic in that department’s doctrine? They built this outcome, brick by brick. The brass who designed training that systematically lobotomizes human judgment deserve the lion’s share of the blame for Nowak’s death. You don’t get to manufacture robots, point them at people, and then act surprised when someone ends up dead.

Bill Glahn over at Powerline addresses this with appropriate sarcasm: It has been decreed by official Britain: the unprovoked, brutal murder of Henry Nowak shall not be “politicized,” lest the wishes of Henry’s surviving family be dishonored. In practice, to avoid politicization, one must refrain from any criticizing or questioning any errors or omissions by anyone in government. How dare you. The only prominent political figure to not go along with the Omerta is Reform leader Nigel Farage. For this incivility he was defamed on the BBC. Now that the official police watchdog has officially cleared the police response from any hint of wrongdoing, and now that Nowak’s murderer has been sentenced to the shortest possible prison term (21 years) for a murder conviction, we must speak of this incident no more.

Read more …

“We are to blame for a great many of these problems ourselves, former Austrian Foreign Minister said “

Europe No Longer Attractive Global Hub, Only Itself To Blame – Kneissl (TASS)

Europe has ceased to be a center of attraction in terms of economy, innovation, and demographics, and it has only itself to blame for it, former Austrian Foreign Minister and head of the G.O.R.K.I. Center at St. Petersburg State University Karin Kneissl said in an interview with TASS on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). She noted that in recent years, a lot of Arabic and Spanish could be heard at SPIEF.


“That’s simply a reflection of the times. It’s interesting that American companies were here again this year. The world has changed, and overall I have much more confidence in the South and the East. And I have been saying this for a long time, even before this whole situation with the war in Ukraine began. Because for me, Europe is no longer the focus of attention. And it hasn’t been for a long time,” Kneissl said. “From a demographic standpoint, we have been left behind. We are not particularly strong in innovation either,” she continued. “We are to blame for the economic crises we are experiencing in Germany and other countries. There is too much bureaucracy, too much ideology in the energy sector, and the selection of personnel is too poor.”

According to her, there are even bigger problems on top of that. “And now, in just about every corporation, everyone has their own director of geopolitical affairs who explains where the Strait of Hormuz is. We are to blame for a great many of these problems ourselves. And some people are still trying to point the finger at Russia and say: this is ‘Putin’s inflation’ or this is ‘the Russian recession.’ You still hear this in Germany and especially in Austria,” the analyst noted. At the same time, she believes that there are forces in some countries that hold a different view. “There are also those who have realized that they created their own problems and that they must solve them on their own,” Kneissl stressed.

SPIEF
The 29th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2026) is taking place on June 3-6. This year, the event is held under the theme “Pragmatic Dialogue: The Path to a Stable Future.” Saudi Arabia is the guest country at SPIEF. The forum program is dedicated to shaping a new model of global development amid the ongoing transformation of the world economy.

Read more …

“According to former Austrian Foreign Minister, European embassies “just need to do their job”..” These days, she’s “head of the G.O.R.K.I. Center at St. Petersburg State University”..

EU Embassies In Moscow Should Establish Dialogue With Russia — Kneissl (TASS)

EU embassies should take the lead in restoring dialogue with Moscow, former Austrian Foreign Minister and head of the G.O.R.K.I. Center at St. Petersburg State University Karin Kneissl said in an interview with TASS on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). “Every EU country has an embassy. They really need to start doing their job and maintain normal relations with Russia. I’ll say it again: there is no need for a mediator here. There are 27 EU embassies in Moscow, and their job is to maintain daily working contacts with the Russian authorities. That is their responsibility,” she said.

According to Kneissl, European embassies “just need to do their job.” “I do not see much point in having a separate coordinator. Theoretically, the EU high representative could perform this task. Who is that now? Kaja Kallas. We know her very personal stance toward Russia,” the expert noted. The former Austrian foreign minister added that if Javier Solana, the EU’s first High Representative, were hypothetically in Kallas’s position today, “he might have been a better fit.”


“Of course, a lot depends on the individual. But regardless of who holds this position, in my view, this task should be carried out by each individual EU embassy. French companies have one approach to the Russian market, German companies another, and Italian companies their own view of Russia. Ultimately, each country has its own foreign trade interests when it comes to Russia,” she emphasized.

According to Kneissl, “the high representative will never be able to take all these interests into account, especially since there is another position in the European Commission responsible for that — the commissioner for trade and economic security.” “Perhaps I am being too pragmatic. But I will say it again: the core tasks of diplomacy have hardly changed over the centuries. What should a diplomat do? First, represent their country. Second, keep their capital informed about what is happening in Russia. And third, conduct negotiations. They need to negotiate agreements in areas such as culture and sports. These are their responsibilities. And they must do their job,” Kneissl concluded.

SPIEF
The 29th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2026) is taking place on June 3-6. This year, the event is held under the theme “Pragmatic Dialogue: The Path to a Stable Future.” Saudi Arabia is the guest country at SPIEF. The forum program is dedicated to shaping a new model of global development amid the ongoing transformation of the world economy. The Roscongress Foundation is the organizer of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. TASS is its official general information partner.

Read more …

How much crazier are the British than everybody else?

UK Government Plots Digital ID Lockdown On Every Phone (MN)

The Labour government in Britain is accelerating its assault on digital privacy under the well-worn banner of child protection. Fresh plans leaked to the press reveal ministers intend to compel Apple, Google and other tech firms to restrict smartphones so thoroughly that a digital ID will be needed to use them with unfettered access. The mechanism comes in the form of expanded age verification that effectively demands digital identification for device setup and use. What is sold as safeguarding the young is shaping up as a backdoor mandate for every adult in Britain to submit ID just to operate a phone or go online.


This development lands alongside Google’s confirmation that it will soon bring digital IDs to Android devices in the UK via Google Wallet. Users will record a short video selfie and scan a government-issued ID to add a digital version of their passport or other documents.

The feature, already rolling out in select EU countries this summer, is explicitly tied to the UK’s Online Safety Act requirements for age checks on content involving self-harm, eating disorders, bullying and pornography. Google is exploring certification under the government’s digital identity trust framework, which could extend its use to everyday purchases such as alcohol. Apple has already implemented similar restrictions on iOS devices in Britain, forcing age confirmation or locking users into limited “child mode.”

ig Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo has been blunt about where this leads. “Protecting children online is vital, but these are outrageous plans that will fail to address the underlying causes of online harm. This will only result in population-wide ID checks for all of us to use our phones, tablets and laptops.” She continued: “Put simply, the Labour Government is introducing ID checks for the internet. No one in a democracy should need to show their passport just to get online.”

Carlo warned that the proposals replace genuine parental responsibility and meaningful tech design with “performative, authoritarian government control that children can easily circumvent by accessing adult-registered devices.” For the UK’s fifty million adult internet users, the outcome is stark: “this backdoor digital ID requirement would invoke the death of anonymity and internet privacy.” The mechanics are chilling. Without submitting to intrusive ID checks during device setup, users face a “chokehold on your software and internet access leaving you with a child-locked device.” Restrictions on messaging, streaming and browsing open the door to client-side scanning – government spyware sitting in every pocket. Carlo noted this has long been a GCHQ ambition and “will be exploited for other purposes before long.”

The bigger picture involving “The Government mandating that all phones/devices in Britain require ID and surveillance software is a crossing of the Rubicon that would make the UK one of the most authoritarian internet regimes in the world.” “I don’t know anywhere else in the world that has done this,” Carlo warned. The story broke via a leak to The Times rather than any parliamentary process. Carlo called it a travesty: “This extreme technological censorship requires rigorous public and parliamentary scrutiny that is totally missing.” Big Brother Watch has pledged to fight the measures. These phone-level controls do not exist in isolation. They slot directly into the UK’s wider digital ID infrastructure, already exposed as a dystopian experiment in mass surveillance.

The government’s One Login platform and planned GOV.UK Wallet create a centralized system for identity verification across public services, with biometric data, audit trails logging every use, and a permissions framework that can deny access to everything from jobs to age-restricted purchases. What begins as convenient “right-to-work” checks or alcohol verification quickly becomes a comprehensive record of daily life, open to expansion and abuse. nThe ambition reaches even further back – to the cradle. Labour ministers have privately discussed assigning digital IDs to newborn babies alongside their health records, modeled on Estonia’s system.

Framed initially as a tool to tackle illegal immigration through right-to-work verification, the scheme has ballooned into a cradle-to-grave tracking apparatus. Critics across the spectrum have labeled it a sinister overreach with nothing to do with stopping the boats and everything to do with building a permanent digital file on every citizen from birth.

Read more …

“The rise of AI agents has pushed automated requests past human activity, according to the internet infrastructure firm..”

Bots Now Generate More Web Traffic Than Humans – Cloudflare (RT)

Bots and AI agents now generate more web traffic than humans, according to data from internet infrastructure company Cloudflare. CEO Matthew Prince has described the development as a major turning point in the history of the web. Recent Cloudflare Radar data shows that automated bot requests account for roughly 57% of traffic to ordinary webpages across a selection of websites using the company’s services, compared with about 43% generated by humans.


“Welp, that happened faster than I predicted,” Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince wrote on X on Wednesday. He stated that he had expected automated traffic to overtake human activity only in 2027, but that “agentic traffic” has grown rapidly enough for bots to pass humans “for the first time in the Internet’s history.” The shift is primarily being driven by AI agents – automated systems that browse, retrieve, and process web content on behalf of users. While a human might visit a handful of websites before making a purchase or researching a topic, an AI agent can scan thousands of pages in order to produce an answer or complete a task.

Cloudflare’s figures suggest that much of today’s web activity is no longer ordinary browsing by people clicking through pages, but machine-to-machine traffic with automated systems requesting data from websites, apps, services and databases. The data covers web traffic only and does not include activities such as streaming, messaging, gaming, or app usage. The trend has revived debate over the “dead internet theory,” the idea that much of online activity is increasingly generated by bots, automated accounts, and AI systems interacting with other machine-made content.

The rise of bot traffic has also threatened the internet’s advertising-based business model. Since bots do not click on ads, concerns have been raised about whether websites may eventually charge AI agents for access to content. Meanwhile, researchers have also noted that large parts of the older web have been disappearing. A 2024 Pew Research Center study found that 38% of webpages that existed in 2013 were no longer accessible a decade later, fueling concerns that the open web is being transformed from a space built around human browsing into one increasingly dominated by automated systems.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle June 7 2026

Viewing 30 posts - 1 through 30 (of 30 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #242159

    Claude Monet San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk 1908 • US Led Over 100 Vessels via Strait of Hormuz in May — NYT (TASS) • ‘Biden’s War’ Has Become Trump’s –
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle June 7 2026]

    #242171
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    The WEST is on its KNEES : Russia deployed a Game-Changing Nuclear Giant Monster that Paralysed NATO

    #242172
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    1 day ago
    SHOCKING PayBack: Russia confirmed the evacuation of dozens of bodies of NATO servicemen from KYIV

    #242173
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    2 days ago
    FINLAND was Violently Attacked amid RUSSIA’s announcement of closure of the SKIES over NATO states

    #242174
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    4 days ago
    RUSSIA confirmed the DEATH of SBU and CIA officers during the strike by ‘ZIRCON’ Hypersonic Missiles

    #242175
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    5 days ago
    Great Achievement: RUSSIA Quietly Deploys the World’s Most Powerful Game-Changing VESSEL

    #242176
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    6 days ago
    Russian Colonel announced a Missile Attack on a NATO Airbase & the Death of Dozens of UK servicemen

    #242177
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    It’s a Pure VICTORY: Russia introduced the World’s most Powerful Carrier of ZIRCON missiles
    7 days ago

    #242178
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    8 days ago
    After ORESHNIK, Russia struck KYIV with the World’s Most Powerful Cruise Missile 9M729 ‘NOVATOR

    #242180
    zerosum
    Participant

    As reccommended … Read More …
    A want-to-be-elitist-organization wanting to influence operations with their opinions.

    We are active in the MAGA movement as candidates and party officials.

    Promethean Action is a political movement dedicated to defying oligarchy & unleashing the fire of human creativity!

    https://www.prometheanaction.com/action/

    • Susan’s Substack, run by Susan Kokinda
    • Barbara’s Newsletter, run by Barbara Boyd
    • Physical Economics, run by Brian Lantz
    • Robert Ingraham’s Substack, run by Robert Ingraham
    • American Civilization, run by Mike Steger
    • StarshipMike, run by Michael Carr

    ————
    symbolic enforcement often proves more attractive than structural reform.
    The EU’s ‘strictest-ever migration law’ won’t change anything

    Politicians promise immigration control while the economic and demographic forces driving migration remain firmly in place
    Published 5 Jun, 2026 19:31

    https://web.archive.org/web/20260606120405/https://www.rt.com/news/641094-eu-new-migration-law/

    ————-
    If you seek to understand why the American public is so deeply bamboozled, it is largely the utter failure of the news business.

    A big reason is that broadcast news now employs nearly zero correspondents in-the-field. Nobody is out there reporting on events.
    They don’t want to spend the money.
    So, the news just spins and spins, mostly in the service of manufactured lies.

    ————-
    As recommended. … Read More …

    https://tass.com/world/2143587

    TASS, Russia’s leading government-run news agency, turned 121 on September 1, 2025
    The Russian news agency TASS, the country’s first unified body for distributing official information, turned 121 on September 1, 2025.
    TASS originated as the St. Petersburg Telegraph Agency, which went live on September 1, 1904.
    As one of Russia’s most cited news agencies, TASS publishes nearly 3,000 news items daily in six languages, alongside about 1,000 photographs and videos from correspondents in Russia and across the globe.
    This extensive coverage ensures a comprehensive and objective view of current events.

    Over 1,700 employees ensure the agency’s operation in real time.
    ————-

    #242181
    zerosum
    Participant

    Read more …

    https://web.archive.org/web/20260606042037/https://www.rt.com/news/641080-bots-generate-more-web-traffic/

    503 Service Unavailable
    No server is available to handle this request.

    ————-

    Bots and AI agents now generate more web traffic than humans, according to data from internet infrastructure company Cloudflare. CEO Matthew Prince has described the development as a major turning point in the history of the web. Recent Cloudflare Radar data shows that automated bot requests account for roughly 57% of traffic to ordinary webpages across a selection of websites using the company’s services, compared with about 43% generated by humans.

    ————–

    #242194
    zerosum
    Participant

    Drone and missile warfare

    ☢️ CHORNOBYL HIT: A CLEAR MESSAGE TO UKRAINE⚠️ LIMAN & KOSTYANTYNIVKA FALLING FAST⚔️ MS 2026.06.07


    ————
    New skirmishes between Iran and US Navy
    Plus news and updates from Lebanon.
    Ismaele
    Jun 06, 2026

    https://geopolitiq.substack.com/p/new-skirmishes-between-iran-and-us

    #242195
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    9 days ago
    Judgment had come to the WEST┃Russia Secretly Deployed a Game-Changing SYSTEM that SHOCKED the WORLD

    #242199
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    10 days ago
    Our Revenge is MERCILESS: Russian General announced the Destruction of NATO Military Transport Plane

    #242200
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Richard Wolff: Petrodollar DEAD as Iran War BURIES US Empire, Trump in DENIAL

    #242201
    Dr. D
    Participant

    So silver and gold crash means we’re doing a land invasion in Iran, right? It’s the only choice. Or it means bigger war in Ukraine as Russia wins? Go on, I’m waiting.

    This is like Oil at $70 with Duran yesterday: they say “the market is wrong, I’m right!” Uh, no. That’s not how it works.

    “Has Trump Opened Pandora’s Box? The limits of U.S. military power are now fully exposed.” Rosenberger

    Apparently not. We used 10% of our power and brought out almost no new and secret tech. And took out a nation of 90 Million in 30 days, so you better hope we’re the good guys.

    So talk to me about how much you know about the limits of our power after we have used 80% of it and we have more than say 1,000 casualties. …Like 10 or 50 thousand. So far this has looked like a training exercise.

    “2.5 months in to the U.S.-Israeli war against a nation that posed no threat to the United States’ vital interests, justified by a pyramid of lies,”

    Well Israel is an official major ally, so that’s by definition a threat to U.S. vital interests, regardless of how you feel about our alliance, that’s what those words mean. He is also claiming the Strait has no strategic significance whatsoever, or it would be by definition a “Vital Interest”. He then is so clear on what lies were told (eg “Yellowcake”) that he can’t name one of them. No facts or details. Why? Because if he had facts or details he would name them, since that would better present his case. He does not, which means he’s a liar. Guilt, Rumor, Innuendo, Lies.

    “The repeated bombing of military‑related targets across a country the size of Western Europe with more than 90 million people is not a strategy; it is a tactic untethered to any discernible operational or strategic end state.”

    Bombing places does not achieve military objectives this genius says. Someone tell Patton and Montgomery they were doing it wrong.

    “The Trump administration assumed that by assassinating the Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, the IGRC and security apparatus of the nation would collapse, and the Iranian people would flood into the streets to violently overthrow the government.”

    They never specifically said this, you made it up just now. And you know that since the sentence before was lamenting the absence of plan or objective. If this is their plan and objective then there was one. If not, retract your previous statement: they had a plan and objective, you merely disagree with it. But they both have and do not have a plan, and it’s bad both ways. Because: Orange Man. If there is a man in the woods and no woman can hear him, is he still wrong? Yes, note all his approaches are the extreme toxic feminine.

    “The government and the people have never been more unified.”

    Not just “how would you know this?” — I seriously doubt it as no nation on earth supports their government right now, not the US, UK, China, Brazil, Mexico, etc. — but that we can very much KNOW for a fact the IRGC and Civilian governments are at open war. And the IRGC appears to have the Ayatollah hostage. That’s not what you call unified. If you want to say “They’re just as unified as the U.S.” that’s fine, but we’re on the brink of a Civil War too, only averted so far.

    “The Trump administration assumed that the massive armada of air power it would employ would quickly destroy Iran’s capability to retaliate. It didn’t.”

    The Administration never said any such thing. You just made it up. He continues on that the U.S. never thought of anything, ever, at any time (see above, where we “thought of overthrow”) That’s why they had both Insurance and trade all pre-planned and ready to go. And that’s why Russia was stockpiling oil in preparation +6months before.

    “Equally concerning, the administration overlooked the fact that Lloyds of London and other maritime insurance companies would not underwrite”

    So Lloyds is attacking us. Got it. Thanks. So the real enemy is there, not Iran’s guns. Check. Lloyd’s is synonymous with “London” and their office practically connects with MI6. Glad it’s out in the open and we agree, not just me saying it. I’ll quote you now when I need to make this case.

    Continues with tropes about how Iran is better armed with more missiles than when they started, which is why they’re not shooting any and it’s a fight for Israel which is why they’re ignoring Israel altogether and the U.S. and attacking only Kuwait and UAE.

    “The result? Cascading and disastrous effects. “

    Yes, effects like Oil is down to $70. Oh no. What will we do when gas is $2.99 again? Cry I guess.

    “The Gulf States are unlikely to ever welcome American forces back into their countries, “

    Exactly. Except exactly zero of that has happened. There’s tremendous REASON to act, speak out, hint, anything. No one has. If anything they are more all-in – and allied with Israel – than ever. Explain?

    Part of “We Make S–t Up” is also “Not Noticing” all other contradicting facts. That is: “Reality.”

    “Russia is enjoying a windfall in oil and natural gas sales and revenue as it becomes the principal supplier of oil to China, India, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and other nations”

    Yes but Russia is our ALLY. Only Neocons like you think they’re our enemy. Same with China. And it’s not only Russia who gets Rich AF with oil sales: the other or primary beneficiary is the U.S.

    “Lastly, the administration has failed to define a path to victory that culminates in the restoration of a durable peace in the Middle East.”

    This is roughly every paragraph. YOU said they defined a path: to overthrow Iran, install a puppet government, and steal the oil. That is “Defining a path to victory and end state.” Now I disagree, I don’t think they’ve defined one at all, and from what I can gather, that would not be it…or you might at least HAVE ground troops stationed somewhere. But I’m just reading your own argument back to you. We both have, and do not have, a path to victory. Both are bad.

    Your argument is gibberish. Why is nearly every pro-Iran argument hot raving gibberish? It should be really easy: you can’t aggressively attack a sovereign nation especially during negotiations. They then have the right to defend themselves against your assets worldwide, or especially in theater. Simple. The U.S. is required to declare war. Simple. There are 1,000-year laws in war, such as right of conquest, and recently Westphalia and Geneva conventions, etc. Simple.

    Nope. His argument rests on utter nonsense and “Not Noticing” instead. On that Iran has twice as many missiles as 90 days ago, and that the U.S. has clearly collapsed. What. TF.

    “FBI Fires Analysts Who Drafted Controversial Anti-Catholic Memo

    Something happens and this is a case where arresting is not actually the thing to do. Wish you could take their pension, but perhaps even that is too far. So good. 90% on this one action. Only about 200,000 more Federal employees left to punish.

    “MASS LAYOFFS AT SPY AGENCIES? Two real pieces here. …about 8,000 senior federal workers to at-will status with no appeal rights, and OPM says it could reach 50,000.”

    And probably the right ones. We need to radically re-set the Government/Private balance. Away from being Joseph Stalin and +50% of the nation is government.

    “Last month, the US military helped coordinate the passage of more than 100 commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, The New York Times (NYT) wrote citing sources.”

    More than thought perhaps since they may have started that run on day 15. Add to that 50% of the oil is possibly moving outside of Hormuz, as to the Red Sea, and every minute Hormuz becomes more irrelevant, and Iran’s leverage far smaller.

    Strongly suggests they are out of missiles and boats, although Trump admits (as is obvious) they have assembled some new ones out of remaining parts. This is different from saying they have as many or more than when they started which is likewise impossible.

    “• ‘Biden’s War’ Has Become Trump’s – Lavrov (RT)
    America’s position on the Ukraine conflict has become almost indistinguishable from that of the EU,

    This is categorically not true, so I’m not sure what Lavrov is up to, a smart operator. So sending $150B is the same as sending near nothing? And Trump’s POSITION can be anything, it’s irrelevant if there is no physical ACTION backing it up. We already know he bitch-slapped the whole EU senseless over this before giving up on them, and has shut off their oil only last month. An absolutely ENORMOUS blow, possibly more relevant than Russia’s.

    “Marco Rubio said efforts to facilitate Russia-Ukraine talks were complicated “because, frankly, we’re not an impartial mediator.”

    I very much appreciate someone not telling lies for 5 minutes. Why do I have to say nice things about Rubio, it hurts. Not that we can’t be a “Mediator” in some capacity, but absolutely vital to admit we’re not impartial.

    Diagnosis: Lavrov’s mad about Congress forcing Monetary support to Ukraine, and appropriately so. However, Trump doesn’t control them. Trump may have and very likely did promise he would have Congress in line however, and does not. As with MTG we’re still finding all the traitors.

    Why MTG, Margorie Taylor Green? She has always worked with Ro Khana, as does Massie, more than their own party. Okay, not wrong, but a signal. She is now talking about joining with Democrats, and on “Reimagining Police” and other straight-up DNC (Far Left) talk, with using their precise spin-language. That doesn’t mean much to me, but for guys in that career, the word choice itself indicates what Team and Talking Points they’re selling, and it’s moved heavily into DNC Far-Left territory. Disbanding the police is not exactly “Far Right.”

    Massie was the same, remember. Saying “I’d congratulate my opponent, but couldn’t reach him in Tel Aviv” while his own major backer is equally Pro-Israel. Also major ally of Ro Khana, and voted against literally everything: Big Bill, all jobs and manufacturing moving back to KY, backed the Meat Packing status quo, everything corporate.

    Obviously this is disappointing.

    “a return of production back to the USA (a fundamental rules change).
    Both approaches involve a different govt policy, but Trump’s approach changes behavior.”

    That’s true, I understand this. Promethean is wrong on some things though. She was saying Capitalism is this jungle of money. No. “Capitalism” is PROPERTY RIGHTS. You already need a government to have any Property Rights. So therefore you presume (Just) rule of law. So then “Capitalists” (meaning “People”) already can’t poison, murder, bribe, steal, commit fraud. Those rules pre-date “Capitalism” by 5,000 years.

    “Capitalism” is not disbanding government. That’s nonsense.

    The “American Plan” is indeed different, roughly matching Howard Deans’ (DNC) plan (1999?) to have “fair playing field” by leveling tariffs on nations according to their wages, Union and environmental safety, etc. Then China comes up WITH us. If China has outrageous tariffs, we’re not supposed to just sit there and lose. If they have none, we have none, but that never happens. So he agreed with DNC exactly as Trump’s other plans are just Bill Clinton’s Center-Left platform.

    So her diagnosis that “This IS Capitalism” and what we really want is “The American Plan” (As per Hamilton, etc) is good talking points, but mostly off, and I try to be accurate. Yes, “Capitalism” can go too far like that…but that means it’s no longer Capitalism. Because there are no longer free markets, price discovery, and competition, only paying off Government in a merger…which is a foundation of Fascism (which adds a few other things like propaganda and social engineering).
    Understanding this, then Trump taking percentages in say, AI and other corporations is just what we always did, say with the Erie Canal or other major projects for 250 years.

    In a way they are not “Conservative” which means hands off as much as possible…but this is traditional. And they’re not absolutists, which is a sign of the “Far-somethings”. It’s not a religion.

    “While large states such as Florida declare election winners within 24 hours, California may take up to two weeks to count all the votes.”

    Every nation on earth except Blue Cities and States. Then they also keep finding more votes for only their candidates somehow. Amazing! We count until I win! Then we stop.

    “• The EU’s ‘Strictest-Ever Migration Law’ Won’t Change Anything (von Hoffmeister)

    Translation: they did nothing. No ACTIONS. This is after lying for 26 years. We’re now at the point of “Okay, you’re right, We DID do that…but it’s a good thing.” And as yesterday “Strict law” of Illegals while keeping “Legal Immigration” pegged at infinity, and handing out a free Stab-and-Rape pass at the border, hitting native populations like a hammer.

    Good for Cameras, “Yet the larger economic machinery that attracts millions of migrants continues operating.”

    Yes, because giving “Free S—t Army” is the structure of the whole nation. U.S. and foreign alike. It’s Russia 1990, “Closing the Collapse Gap with the Soviet Union” (where is Orlov lately anyway?) Attacking business isn’t going to get us back domestic again, duh. And all these laws are created and repealed by Congress. He can do more– as he says, arrest business owners – but how far will that really take you? As above, create a STRUCTURAL change, then the Tide itself starts moving.

    How do we know? That’s exactly how it was installed in say 1971 or 1994. Sorry you want it in 30 minutes or less, so do I, but things made quickly reverse quickly. Change the foundation and people don’t notice until it’s already gone.

    “• Paris Riots Fuel The Right (RMX)

    If by “Far Right” you mean to the left of Antifa in the U.S.

    “Kemi Badenoch has slammed UK politicians over what she described as attempts to score points on existing racial divisions, warning that it risked pushing the country towards a “civil war.”

    This is the plan and required. They set it up like an avalanche, I would say essentially impossible to defuse. They make the situation worse and worse and worse and worse, then if anyone does anything about it, they call them “Far Right” “Killers” “Nazi” “Racists”. These are all just native peoples trying to live in f—king peace. Thanks to some dumb billionaire extractors – as usual – they are importing colonists and leveling the place, exactly the same as when White Guys arrived in the Dakota hills for gold.

    Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old Polish-British student”

    He matters now that he was half-immigrant. But not if he’s all-native.

    “The only prominent political figure to not go along with the Omerta is Reform leader Nigel Farage.”

    Pretty sure this is untrue. Rowe is twice the Farage. Farage is also probably a mole and less than half of what he claims. So this is part of the “Great Pretending” the furious “Not Noticing” that Rupert Lowe and Restore exists.

    “Framed initially as a tool to tackle illegal immigration through right-to-work verification, the scheme has ballooned into a cradle-to-grave tracking apparatus.”

    So the other reasons to have “A Crisis”. All made up! Voluntary! Planned. To cause the issue, a disaster to be able to do more out of a crisis than on a normal day.

    CAUSE the crisis. Pre-position the trades, Walk it as far as your able. Let the herd rest so they don’t kick back, then repeat.

    “The WEST is on its KNEES : Russia deployed a Game-Changing Nuclear Giant”

    I’m not on my knees to Russia. I don’t even notice. We’re probably allies. Now if you mean EUROPE, completely excluding America, then yes. There is no “West”.

    Want an extra on that? They willy-nilly include..and do not include…Japan in that list of “The West” Or why not Australia, the same? Mexico is equally colonized by Europe and the same age or older than the U.S. but is not “The West.” The word never had meaning, it’s used exclusively to baffle all.

    #242202
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Nima R. Alkhorshid: Iran’s Response to Beirut Bombing – War Now Heading to the Mediterranean

    #242203
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    US/IRAN GOING BACK TO WAR, THE ECONOMY WILL BE SACRIFICED FOR THE RULING CLASS GLOBAL AGENDA

    #242204
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    UPDATED 5:01 PM EDT — 8:40 AM EDT – June 7: Israel Has Attacked Beirut, Lebanon, Again; Iran Says Resumption of Full Scale War, NOTAMS Issued
    Hal Turner
    The Israeli Defense Force(IDF) is offensively attacking Beirut Lebanon, again.

    Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned last week that Tehran would “respond with force” if Dahiyeh in Beirut were struck:

    All eyes are on Tehran to see if they make good on their word.

    UPDATE 10:40 AM EDT —

    Iranian state media is reporting that the Supreme National Security Council has called an emergency session following Israel’s strike on Beirut’s Dahiyeh district.

    Israel informed the U.S. in advance before the strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, Saudi Al-Hadath reports.

    UPDATE 10:48 AM EDT —

    Iranian state media claims that the IRGC’s Khatam al-Anbia headquarters has placed “Operation True Promise 5” on standby following Israeli strikes in Beirut’s Dahiyeh district.

    UPDATE 11:40 AM EDT —

    Iran’s IRGC is now ready to execute “Operation True Promise 5” against Israel tonight, with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei having authorized the full-scale resumption of war.

    Iran’s Supreme National Security Council convened an emergency session, saying a “painful and decisive response” will come in response to Beirut strikes, per Iranian state TV.

    Iran has issued an evacuation warning to all residents in northern Israeli territory to immediately leave, with coordinates of Israeli targets now transferred to missile units.

    UPDATE 12:25 PM EDT —

    Qalibaf (Speaker of Iran Parliament and Chief Negotiator with U.S.): “The naval blockade on us and Washington’s green light to Israel make their bases and interests legitimate targets.”

    UPDATE 12:33 PM EDT —

    QATAR Issues a 7 DAY NOTAM, READY FOR WAR

    I assume this is in anticipation of an attack on Israel by Iran for striking Lebanon.

    This could result in the U.S. hitting Iran from their Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

    NOTAM:

    This NOTAM is restricting all flights from today until June 14th. It will establish alternative flight routes through its airspace for aircraft departing from Doha and airports in Saudi. That’s almost a whole week of suspended flights.

    UPDATE 5:01 PM EDT —

    Hostilities in the Israel/US – Iran Conflict are RESUMING!

    About three hours ago, I departed my home in New Jersey and drove to my country home in northeast Pennsylvania. (It had nothing to do with the hostilities in the Middle East).

    In the three hours it took me to drive from NJ to PA, the following developments took place:

    3:16 PM EDT — Iran has just restarted the war with Israel. Ballistic missile attack.

    3:31 PM EDT — Israeli airspace and all flights at Ben Gurion Airport have reportedly been halted. Multiple U.S. Air Force refueling aircraft are said to be taking off from Israel as the IDF prepares a major response.

    3:32 PM EDT — Iran fired 5 waves of missiles towards northern Israel. The 5th is on the way right now. Every barrage consists of about 3-5 ballistic missiles.

    3:35 PM EDT — Iran’s IRGC says “this is the beginning of a full week of continuous strikes.” “Waves of missiles and drones will continue to be launched around the clock for the next seven days until the enemy is deterred and ceases its crimes.”

    3:51 PM EDT — According to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), via the Fars New Agency: “Tonight’s operation was merely a warning announcement, and if aggressions are repeated, the responses will be broader and will include all American-Zionist targets in the region.”

    The IRGC cites their reason for tonight’s ballistic missile attack against Northern Israel as continued Israeli strikes against Lebanon and U.S. attacks against Iranian coasts and vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the Sea of Oman, and the Indian Ocean.

    4:00 PM EDT — Turkish media “Anadolu Agency”: Air raid sirens went off in Haifa and several other locations across northern Israel after Iran launched missiles. As interception attempts were underway, blasts were heard in both Nazareth and Haifa.

    4:09 PM EDT — Israel’s Ministry of Health is preparing to transfer all hospitals to protected areas and underground complexes – Channel 12

    4:11 PM EDT — Iraq has just shut its entire airspace. FAA NOTAM A0237/26 closes the Baghdad FIR effective 1940Z, citing “operational reasons,” the standard wording for closing a flight region when it turns into a military risk zone. It came through within the hour of Iran starting to fire ballistic missiles at northern Israel.

    4:15 PM EDT — The Islamic Republic has again cut off internet to 90 million Iranians.

    4:37 PM EDT — The Israeli army says it will continue its operations “throughout Lebanon”

    4:39 PM EDT — Trump says, “The Iranian strikes didn’t hurt anybody. Hopefully Israel is not going to retaliate. If Bibi strikes them back it’s just gonna keep going like the last 47 years, or the last 3000 years.” “I’m going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate. Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one.”

    5:02 PM EDT — Iran is now threatening that if Israel responds, missiles will be launched immediately toward a list of targets inside Israel.

    5:04 PM EDT — All airports in western Tehran FIR are closed until 23:30 Tehran time on June 8th – NOTAM

    5:05 PM EDT — US Embassy in Jerusalem has directed all U.S. government employees and their family members in Israel to shelter in place until further notice.

    5:11 PM EDT — Iran’s Foreign Ministry says its armed forces conducted ‘defensive strikes’ against Israel

    5:22 PM EDT — Trump and Netanyahu conducted a phone call. No word on what was said or how it went.

    5:29 PM EDT — After the phone call with Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding a joint meeting with senior defense officials.

    5:31 PM EDT — Iran has sent a message to Israel saying it has finished its attacks and will not strike again if Israel does not respond.

    #242205
    Michael Reid
    Participant
    #242206
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #242207
    tboc
    Participant

    the last thing one should take seriously is themself

    #242208
    John Day
    Participant

    Thanks Michael Reid.

    #242209
    zerosum
    Participant

    “The government and the people have never been more unified.”

    Of course, Iran killed, 60,000 rebels who supported the US and tried to overthrow the Iraq gov.

    #242216
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    For those in the west considering the future

    http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2026/06/i-think-larry-and-pepe.html

    #242217
    zerosum
    Participant

    Order your popcorn

    Iran’s IRGC says “this is the beginning of a full week of continuous strikes.”
    ”Waves of missiles and drones will continue to be launched around the clock for the next seven days until the enemy is deterred and ceases its crimes.”

    #242218
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Iran war effect marks the resetting of world geo-politics
    Contact us: info@strategic-culture.su

    Seemingly, every day brings breathless new claims that an U.S.-Iran ‘deal’ awaits only a signature. As so often happens, the mediators (Pakistanis and Qataris) hope to manage both sides by telling one side that the other party is at the brink of agreement when it is not so, especially in an atmosphere of total mistrust. By these means the mediators hope to push matters towards a final agreement. It is a familiar tactic, but one that quite often results in confusion and distrust – rather than the hoped-for settlement.

    The ‘plan’ at this stage has only two central pillars: Iran’s ‘reopening’ of the Strait of Hormuz (on Iran’s terms) in return for the lifting of the U.S. naval blockade, and – at a later date – an understanding that the dilution of Iran’s 60% enriched uranium would be tackled in return for an end to sanctions.

    To say the devil is in the detail would be the understatement of the year. Iran understands that Trump’s headliners of an ‘imminent deal’ are firstly, intended to keep the U.S. stock market up and oil futures trading well below that of the delivery price of physical oil. And secondly, to obfuscate that Trump may be seeking a plausible way to end the war via striking a quick, incomplete deal that would, in all likelihood, be largely on Iran’s terms.

    All other issues – including the crucial detail of any nuclear agreement – would be deferred.

    Trump wants from Iran an initial concession that he can hail as a visible win – and one that will please markets, too. But Iran will not trade its military leverage, and certainly not the strategic dominance that it achieved in the war, nor Hormuz, for fuzzy assurances from the mediators. Iran does not trust the U.S. one iota.

    Ali Akbar Velayati, Senior Adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader observes,

    “History bears witness that everyone who came seeking domination, from Alexander to Genghis Khan and Trump, ultimately ended up dissolving into the heart of ancient Iranian civilization. This time, Iran’s red line is clear: papers and signatures alone are no guarantee. The tangible guarantor of the agreement’s survival is the Strait of Hormuz”.

    “For geography does not lie, and it is the final judge over every covenant written on paper”.

    The mediators naturally are desperate to avoid another round of war. Iran however, demands hard detail. This is Trump’s dilemma. He wants a quick win, but the mere hint of a fudged, incomplete deal – mainly on Iran’s terms – brought the wrath of the pro-Israel billionaire class down upon his head (the pushback was intense), and Israel (likely with encouragement from that same class) then blew up Trump’s ceasefire by launching ascorched-earth military assault on Lebanon, and on Gaza and its citizens, so breaching the ceasefire precondition for any deal.

    Trump is in zugzwang. (Any move he makes, potentially only worsens his position, whether strategically or domestically).

    We saw this same zig-zagging, back of an envelope, non-strategy perfectly illustrated in the iconic imaging from Trump’s Beijing visit – Trump ‘winged it’; no prior preparation; a ‘seat of the pants’ summit.

    That image may perhaps come to define this era – today’s iconic moment was of a U.S. President wearing the air of defeat whilst a confident President Xi’s comportment demonstrated who was in control.

    Why, one may ask, would the pro-Israel class risk the West being wrecked by the economic consequences of a prolonged closure of Hormuz that would be entailed by their angry veto of Trump’s mooted ‘deal’? Possibly because Jewish ‘Big Money’ – since the 2008 crisis and the subsequent structural transfer of wealth from the real economy to the financialised ‘trader élite’ – may lead them to feel immune to economic downturn. They may even see it as an ‘opportunity’ (leading to assets going cheap).

    The Iran effect, if not the direct cause, nonetheless marks a point of a significant reshuffling of global geo-politics. For, Israel it is bad news. The current Israel narrative is that no deal is better than a bad deal, because Israel could always return to war with Iran in a year or two’s time.

    No one believes that, of course. Israel cannot mount war on Iran without full assistance from the U.S. And tomorrow’s America – in its relations with Israel – likely will be different from today’s.

    Nahum Barnea in Yediot Ahoronot has written,

    “We [Israel] are sliding into a never-ending war on three, perhaps four fronts, holding territories that are not ours, with soldiers we do not have, in a bloody war against enemies we do not know how to deter – and all without giving real security to our citizens. Israel must break out of the Iranian trap. [Yet] Netanyahu is the last person who has the ability to extract us from it”.

    Russia is changing too (partly under the effect of Iran). Strategic patience is over, and the recent deadly Ukrainian drone attack on a college dormitory in the Russian town of Starobelsk which killed at least 21 people, mainly teenage girls, was described Moscow as “the last straw”. The Russian public is justly furious.

    Moscow holds European capitals and Kiev responsible for the recent Ukrainian barrage of drones and missiles fired deep into Russia, taking advantage of NATO airspace in the attempt to sidestep Russian air defences. Additionally, Russia has issued formal notification to Washington (via a telecon with Maro Rubio in India) that it holds European capitals and Kyiv responsible for the collapse of the Anchorage framework as well.

    Russia has said that it intends to put an end to Ukraine’s ability to carry out further such attacks, and to liquidate the decision centres that plan and direct the attacks on Russians – even if it means killing U.S. and European personnel. On 15 April, Russia’s Defence Ministry published lists containing the names and addresses of over 20 European companies and joint ventures allegedly supplying drones and components to Ukraine. Senior Russian officials, including Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, explicitly designated these international facilities as “potential targets” for Russia’s armed forces.

    Europe has been warned.

    Again, it seems that the Trump-Xi and the Putin-Xi summits in Beijing serve to mark the transition into a more hard-nosed geo-political era.

    The two summits, one after the other, seem to have incentivised China into loosening its customary caution in order to put a brake on U.S. attempts to widen dollar use, at the expense of the Yuan. The U.S. Treasury’s ‘grand strategy’ is to ‘contain’ China’s current competitive advantage by raising its capital and energy costs. The U.S. Treasury first tried imposing tariffs on China, but after failing with that ploy, turned to trying to squeeze China’s competitive advantage by blockading Chinese oil imports (naval blockades of Iran and Venezuela) to raise China’s energy costs.

    However, if Trump wants all out trade competition, it seems to be ‘game on’ now for China – No more Mr (Xi) nice guy.

    China is responding to Trump not with sanctions, nor with missiles. It is doing something far more precise: They are exerting counter pressures back at the U.S. economy, and are doing this by cutting money flows into the dollar sphere in reaction to the U.S. attempt to grossly widen global dollar use.

    Both the U.S. Genius and the Clarity Acts are contrived to suck out retail holders of local overseas currencies from their positions through inducing them to switch into crypto tokens denominated in dollars and backed by U.S. Treasuries. If successful, this would both widen the U.S. dollar reach and provide a new source of demand for U.S. debt. Similarly (under the Clarity Act), investors looking to hold assets could be swapped out of regular U.S. stocks and bonds into digital tokens, via a digitised distributed ledger system.

    In short, the U.S. aims to scoop up as much overseas currency as it can to insert into U.S. markets via crypto – (effectively swapping the declining Petro-dollar for a substitute Crypto dollar hegemony that would then generate the dollar demand necessary to keep the U.S. bond market from failing).

    So, China is countering by going after something more sensitive – the flow of Chinese retail money going into American stocks and bonds. Chinese authorities have cracked down hard on Hong Kong brokerages that were helping Chinese mainland money flow into U.S. markets. As matters stand, Wall Street depends on foreign buyers of stocks to a significant extent, but Chinese savings dwarf those of all other countries. These will no longer be available.

    Secondly, China, the largest holder of gold in the world, will open a new gold trading centre in Hong Kong in July. This is a major move to break the western hold over precious metal trading – it strengthens the role of the Yuan and enables oil sales to be settled in gold (Saudi Arabia, in a roundabout way, is reportedly already selling oil to China via gold).

    Thirdly, Euroclear, one of the world’s largest financial companies and the backbone of international settlements, is planning to accept Chinese bonds traded in Hong Kong – as ‘good collateral’.

    Sean Foo explains:

    “When Euroclear accepts Chinese bonds as collateral, that means those bonds are treated as equivalent to liquid cash. It means they are good enough to back all international transactions – meaning that the global financial plumbing will be incorporating Chinese debt into the core infrastructure”.

    “Now there’s a reason why Chinese bonds are becoming attractive to global investors, and this goes beyond just geopolitics or trade flows. It comes down to one fundamental reason. China is sitting on over $50 trillion in bank deposits. That’s more than the combined bank holdings of the EU, U.S. and Japan. And that creates something every bond market, such as China’s needs in order to function well – a deep, reliable base of domestic buyers – your own local people buying”.

    In sum, as more money flows into Chinese bonds, and the Yuan bond market deepens, Chinese borrowing costs stay low. So Beijing can fund itself cheaply and almost indefinitely – and thus can outlast the U.S. grand strategy to contain China by squeezing both its capital costs and its energy costs.

    Iran war effect marks the resetting of world geo-politics

    #242219
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    On Pipes, Poetry, and the Christian Life (Malcolm Guite) | Ep. 579

    #242220
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Iran: The art of controlling escalation dominance
    Contact us: info@strategic-culture.su
    MOSCOW – Iran holds an insurmountable escalation dominance in contrast with the U.S. And that’s driving the vociferating Emperor of Barbaria absolutely nuts.
    Let’s quickly recap the highlights of the past week. In direct retaliation for a CENTCOM air attack on the outskirts of Bandar Abbas airport – a direct break of the “ceasefire” fiction – on the very same day the IRGC launched a targeted strike against a U.S. base in Kuwait. The IRGC was unambiguous: “If repeated, our response will be more decisive.”
    The extremely calibrated IRGC response was framed as a deliberate warning, signaling in no uncertain terms that any U.S. provocation will be met with a response, yet short of triggering the return of all-out war.
    At the start of last week, two U.S. military vessels attempted a “dark transit” through the Strait of Hormuz: transponders off, evading IRGC Navy monitoring, and ignoring repeated navigational warnings.
    Yet Omani signals intelligence flagged the vessels, and after warnings were explicitly disregarded, the IRGC Navy went for a targeted drone strike.
    Translation: that was the strict enforcement of the new laws regulating the Iran-controlled navigation corridor at the world’s top sensitive maritime choke point.
    The Zionist axis did not fail to frame Iran’s enforcement action as a direct assault on “American supremacy”. Hence, predictably, the White House authorized strikes against Iranian drone installations.
    Washington, once again predictably, presented the kinetic response as a proportionate reassertion of deterrence. Tehran for its part interpreted it as a blatant U.S. attack during an active ceasefire.
    So the IRGC’s retaliatory strike on the Kuwaiti base delivered, once again, an unmistakable message: American forward bases in the Gulf – the ones not yet destroyed – continue to be legitimate targets, and never again will regain the status of sanctuaries.
    CENTCOM, predictably, did not back down. There were more strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday, and that was coupled on Thursday with sanctions targeting Iran’s new Strait oversight agency, the PGSA.
    CENTCOM framed attacks on Iranian radar and command sites in Goruk and Qeshm Island as “self‑defense strikes”. The IRGC Aerospace Force targeted the Kuwaiti airbase from which the U.S. strikes originated – and stated that the “predicted targets were destroyed”, adding that responsibility “lies with the U.S. regime.”
    A dangerous escalation cycle is back. Trump and CENTCOM may see it as tactical deterrence. Tehran sees it as strategic bad faith.
    What they don’t want you to know
    Iran’s response to the American provocation made it crystal clear that the current incarnation of the proposed 60-day ceasefire framework does not hold. China, officially, happens to support a 60-day ceasefire. Yet the U.S. for all practical purposes continues to violate the current, wobbly ceasefire.
    Conversations last week in Shanghai revealed that China maintains very close communication with Iran and constantly adapts the facts on the ground – and in the air – into its much broader, long-term strategic calculations, especially concerning energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz.
    Additionally, what really matters in the grand strategic chessboard is that China and Pakistan, on the forefront, plus in the background Russia and the DPRK, continue to provide material and strategic support to Iran across several levels of deliberate ambiguity and plausible deniability. The intensity of the coordination has been on the rise, non-stop.
    The strikes last week on Iran only serve one player: the death cult in West Asia, which strategically wants to degrade Iranian military infrastructure and keep Tehran perpetually on the defensive – irrespective to the enormous risks to real U.S. interests and West Asia stability.
    The outlook is self-evident: Pentagon generals, in thesis, may want to explore off-ramps, but the political leadership of what may be described as the Epstein Syndicate wants war.
    None of the Gulf petro-monarchies – with the exception of the UAE, shorthand for “Arab Zionists” – want the U.S. to resume war. Their concern is obviously existential. They know the IRGC, and the possible entrance in the war theater of Ansarallah in Yemen, would lead to a major retaliation disaster – with attacks on their ports and energy assets. The GCC players still live in perpetual fear.
    Iran’s response to what is now on the public domain – direct UAE attacks during the war – will come in due time. What’s more pressing is the actual collapse of the UAE’s semi-monopoly of navigation in West Asia.
    Iran and Pakistan have closely interconnected their regional transit hubs in just a matter of weeks, with the opening of seven layers of land corridors, directly linked to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
    After all both Iran and Pakistan are New Silk Road partners, and that also apply to ports: Chabahar in Sistan-Balochistan and Gwadar in the Arabian Sea, separated by only 80 km, are enjoying a new, unforeseen symbiosis. The UAE’s maritime semi-monopoly in West Asia has become meaningless.
    When it comes to the heart of the action – the Strait of Hormuz – we have crossed yet another threshold. If CENTCOM decides to go for more provocations, up the escalation ladder, the next IRGC response will go for the jugular, destroying U.S. air assets outright.
    So it’s up to the actors which want restraint – China, Pakistan, Gulf petro-monarchies, Iran pragmatists – to exercise the necessary leverage to stop the road back to war.
    The facts are stark. Trump effectively holds less than zero leverage with Iran. And Iran holds insurmountable escalation dominance.
    What has happened this past week goes way beyond a temporary flare-up in the Strait of Hormuz; this is all about a serious, ongoing structural rupture in West Asia, a much deeper, more volatile architecture beneath the whole drama.
    And it is this volatile context – illustrated by the disclosure of exclusive information – that will start to be analyzed in a new independent platform, Power Shift.
    Power Shift debuts globally this Monday, June 1st, at 5:30 PM EST, with a special first episode titled “Iran: What They Don’t Want You to Know”. Global viewers fed up with managed narratives and ready for the real read-out may join it live. I will be joining from Moscow. Exclusive. Unfiltered. Uncensored.

    Iran: The art of controlling escalation dominance

    #242255
    Dr. D
    Participant

    He’s insane. “Escalation Dominance” is extremely in doubt here, and doesn’t win wars anyway. He’s talking about all the “Signaling” side of the exchanges, ignoring that every radar dish we hit means they have no ability to project or express power.

    Iran is of course untouched and unaffected by anything the U.S. does, because, they have a few county bridges to equally-backward Pakistan, then the $100M shut off in wells don’t matter.

    They are biding their time for 5, 10, or 20 years, because they Totes can blow up all U.S. air assets but are being super-nice and not trying. Uh-huh. Spin. There are not enough facts and details in this to be worth our time, although of course one should always know what the other guy is spinning.

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