Jul 282026
 
 July 28, 2026  Posted by at 9:14 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  Add comments


Pablo Picasso Femme 1930


Trump Ready For ‘Strong Military Action’ If Talks Fail (ZH)
CENTCOM Chief Believes US Strikes Around Hormuz No Longer Effective (RT)
Iran’s Regime Builds More Scaffolds for Protesters (Salgado)
Rubio’s Genius Move: Venezuela Quits the ICC (Anderson)
Insider Politics is an Elite Clique (CTH)
Democrats Keep Digging Their Hole Deeper (Amy Denton)
The Democratic National Committee Is Imploding (Matt Margolis)
Rick Scott Joins Push to Force SAVE Act Vote (Salgado)
The Fair Share Myth and Other Socialist Fables (Turley)
Jury Duty For Illegal Aliens (CTH)
Will the “Fat Lady” Finally Sing? (James Howard Kunstler)
Greece Refuses EU Sanctions Against Russia (TASS)
Judge Boasberg Keeps Ruling Against POTUS, But Keeps Getting Overturned (JTN)
Prosecuting The Prosecutor: Will Jack Smith Face Criminal Charges? (JTN)
Chamath Warns Ban On Open-Source AI Would Tank The Market (ZH)

 


 

https://twitter.com/Tironianae/status/2081321145375014970?s=20

 


 


“Trump Cites ‘Deep Talks’ – Warns of Expanded Action; Houthis Claim Responsibility for New Aramco Attacks..”

Trump Ready For ‘Strong Military Action’ If Talks Fail (ZH)

President Trump has told Axios on Monday that he decided to pause American military attacks on Iran in order to give negotiations another chance, despite there currently being no evidence that Tehran has been urgently requesting them. Trump warned in the comments that war could immediately return with expanded strikes if diplomacy fails.But it seems there’s at least some indirect ‘note passing’ between capitals going on, even as Saudi Aramco facilities have apparently come under drone assault from Iran-aligned militants in Yemen and Iraq. Axios writes that “The talks are being conducted mainly between Iran and Oman.


But Qatar, Pakistan, Egypt and Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are actively involved.” “We are in very deep talks with Iran. If they don’t work out, we will go back to very strong military action,” Trump said in an interview. Again, very deep talks?… The Iranian side is certainly not confirming this, but instead quite the opposite. Tehran has definitively stated its position that there are no talks currently happening. It seems it is merely the mediating powers that are most urgently trying to get the sides back to the negotiating table. Trump said he won’t give diplomacy “much time” and that it “either goes fast or not at all.”

“All of the people that deal with Iran asked me: ‘Don’t fire,'” he also said, perhaps alluding to reports like the following: The top U.S. military commander in the Middle East recommended ending the bombing campaign around the Strait of Hormuz after concluding it reached the limits of its effectiveness, a recommendation that helped shape President Donald Trump’s decision to pause strikes against Iran, Axios reported Sunday. Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, advised Pentagon leaders, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the White House last week that two weeks of sustained airstrikes had weakened Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping through the strategic waterway, multiple sources familiar with the discussions said.

As for new reported strikes on Saudi Aramco facilities (below), and particularly the sprawling Abqaiq site, the Houthis are claiming responsibility.

Previously Trump vowed to hold Iran directly responsible for any attacks carried out by its proxy groups.

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“Admiral Brad Cooper reportedly told President Donald Trump that designated bombing targets in southern Iran had largely been exhausted”

CENTCOM Chief Believes US Strikes Around Hormuz No Longer Effective (RT)

The top US commander in the Middle East, Admiral Brad Cooper, advised President Donald Trump that striking Iranian targets around the Strait of Hormuz was no longer effective, Axios reported on Sunday, citing two people familiar with the matter. Cooper, who leads US Central Command (CENTCOM), reportedly told Trump that the designated bombing targets in the area had largely been exhausted. He added that there was no point in continuing the strikes unless the US returned to major combat operations, according to Axios.


Trump paused the strikes on Friday, abruptly ending a 13-day bombing campaign amid reports that regional mediators were rushing to broker a new ceasefire. Several US news outlets reported that Trump was also concerned about dwindling stocks of interceptors used to counter Iran’s retaliatory missile and drone attacks on American bases across the Middle East. Trump, however, denied that the US was running short of ammunition.= The Strait of Hormuz, a vital maritime chokepoint, remains closed to regular commercial shipping despite US strikes on Iran’s port infrastructure and military sites in the country’s south.

The US resumed its maritime blockade of Iran earlier this month following attacks on tankers attempting to transit the strait. Both sides have signaled that the truce, first reached in April and later expanded through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on June 17, is effectively over. The latest round of hostilities erupted over differing interpretations of the MoU, which was intended to provide more time for negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran insists it has the right to control all traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and has labeled routes designated by the US Navy as illegal.

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52,000 and counting..

Iran’s Regime Builds More Scaffolds for Protesters (Salgado)

The terrorist Iranian regime is planning to execute more political prisoners while also continuing its indiscriminate attacks on neighboring countries.


About a week ago, the murderous mullahs hanged 19-year-old Erfan Esfandiari and 23-year-old Gol Mohammad Mohammadi for participating in the freedom protests this year that culminated in the regime massacring between 40,000 and 52,000 of its own Persian people. This month, Iranian attacks on Jordanian and Iraqi targets also resulted in the deaths of four American soldiers: 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, and Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton. Of course, the death-worshipping ayatollahs see this all as a great success for them, so they want to pile up more casualties.

The Kurdish militias are potential allies if the United States wished to reach out to them; prospective ground troops should there be yet another escalation in the never-ending conflict with the Iranian regime. The ayatollahs obviously understand this, which is why they are now reportedly bombarding the Kurds, an ethnic minority that lives in parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. The Kurds face different levels and outbursts of persecution in each country where they live, including Iran, which is why they are not exactly friendly with the terrorist Tehran regime.

Meanwhile, the ayatollahs are also getting ready to execute up to four political protesters, triggering another wave of protests. Unfortunately for the protesters, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — the entity that organizes international terrorism and enforces domestic tyranny — is also out on the streets.

Whenever Israel has to defend itself and strikes Lebanese or Gazan jihadis, practically the whole world goes crazy with fury. There are riots in every Western country and condemnations from most governments on the killing of terrorists. But for some reason, when Hamas’s sponsors in Tehran butcher innocent civilians, the self-righteous Westerners and Muslim dictators who decried Israel fall silent or barely object.

We cannot make lasting peace with people who believe that murdering innocents is laudable.

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“..on Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, and Khan applied for arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant in May of 2024..”

Rubio’s Genius Move: Venezuela Quits the ICC (Anderson)

On Friday, the Venezuelan regime’s current Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia announced that “interim president” Delcy Rodríguez had instructed him to express to the current UN secretary-general that Venezuela had made the “firm and irrevocable decision to denounce the Rome Statute and initiate its definitive withdrawal from the [International Criminal Court (ICC)], in accordance with Article 127.” He added:


Venezuela considers that the Court’s actions reflect a demonstrated geographical bias, which has disproportionately concentrated its work on African and Latin American countries, to the detriment of the Global South. This pattern reveals an international justice system that, far from being applied equitably, has been instrumentalized to deepen inequalities among peoples and disregard their right to self-determination and sovereignty.

This bias is not a mere procedural coincidence, but the reflection of an institution that has placed its mechanisms at the service of interests alien to justice and the peoples it claims to protect. For this reason, we reject this dimension of lawfare, which perpetuates the persecution against the Venezuelan people and exacerbates the inequalities that international justice should correct. We reiterate our commitment to a genuinely equitable justice, respectful of the sovereignty and self-determination of peoples.

The United States State Department responded almost immediately on Saturday, welcoming the move and calling on all other members to follow the South American nation’s lead. It also pointed out that the court serves no real purpose, as it had been investigating Nicolás Maduro since 2018 with “no result.” Here’s more: The United States welcomes the decision by interim President Delcy Rodriguez and Venezuela to withdraw from the ICC and the new Venezuelan government’s partnership on American-led efforts to dismantle the corrupt and worthless ICC. The so-called court has been ‘investigating’ Nicolas Maduro since 2018 with no result.

The ICC has instead wasted its resources on investigating and charging persons from countries that have competent, independent judicial systems and which never submitted to the jurisdiction of the court. This is blatant overreach, political bias and selective enforcement. The ICC is neither credible, independent, nor legitimate. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership and the efforts of brave American service members, Maduro is now facing justice in a U.S. court for crimes he has committed. It is time to dismantle the ICC. The U.S. calls on all members of the ICC to withdraw from the Rome Statute.

If you’ll remember, Marco Rubio came out a couple of weeks ago and basically told the ICC where it could go and said the United States will dismantle it “brick by brick, if necessary.” Here’s something I wrote about that earlier this month: We’re starting by launching a diplomatic campaign with a simple message: ‘sovereign states over globalism.’ He added that, ‘Those who benefit from American security must not stand idly by while those who provide that security are targeted.’ And that’s only the beginning, Rubio said. We’ll use every tool at our disposal to take down the ICC with the help of every ally really to join our cause.

Of course, we also know that Rubio is largely running Venezuela, so this isn’t some big coincidence. Delcy and the rest of the regime were given their orders and followed them. It’s mutually beneficial. These criminals still overseeing the country buy themselves some insulation against future warrants, and Rubio kicks off his diplomatic campaign to encourage other countries to follow with a concrete example.

As the State Department mentioned, Venezuela is no stranger to the ICC. In 2018, several other Western Hemisphere countries — Argentina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, and Peru — referred the regime and its security forces to the court for “crimes against humanity,” largely based on crackdowns on protests in 2014 and 2017 that led to death, violence, arbitrary detentions, and forms of torture, including severe beatings, electric shocks, asphyxiation, sexual assault, and other brutal techniques.

In 2021, under prosecutor Karim Khan, the ICC opened a case against Maduro’s regime, while also signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with it, promising cooperation and “positive complementarity” — which is basically letting Venezuela handle cases domestically if it can show genuine progress. For two years, nothing happened but a lot of talk. During this period, the regime claimed it was conducting its own investigations.

In 2023, after no progress, the ICC reopened the investigation and even set up a technical office in Caracas to work with Venezuelan authorities. However, the court shut it down, claiming it received no cooperation. There’s also the factor that Khan’s sister-in-law, Venkateswari Alagendra, is a lawyer representing Maduro’s regime. Not a conflict of interest at all. In 2025, a judge ordered Khan to recuse himself from the case, a case on which there has still been no progress made.

In 2026, the Donald Trump administration took matters into its own hands and decided that we’d prosecute Maduro on our soil, but this comes after seven plus years of the ICC dragging its feet on one of the most abusive regimes in the world. To put that in perspective, on Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, and Khan applied for arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant in May of 2024, roughly seven months later. There’s no bias going on here. Nothing to see. But this also shows us that Venezuela was already hostile toward the court. It’s also important to note the language used by the regime. It says the court has “disproportionately concentrated its work on African and Latin American countries.”

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“There was always a problem for George Clooney in the political world which centered around his intelligence. Clooney is not a smart fellow, ..”

“Amal Clooney then went to work for the International Criminal Court (ICC) ..”

Insider Politics is an Elite Clique (CTH)

The relationship between George Clooney and Barack Obama is well known and well documented. However, there are some interesting aspects that fill in a story and highlight how the constructs of U.S. political circles are always managed. The origin of Clooney’s intersection with the Chicago machine likely begins during his time as an actor playing the role of Dr. Doug Ross in the TV series ER (circa mid 1990’s). The show was based in Chicago. Fast forward a few years, and Clooney was considered an alternate fellow traveler for potential as an insurance policy during the 2012 reelection of Obama.


There was always a problem for George Clooney in the political world which centered around his intelligence. Clooney is not a smart fellow, and efforts to educate him on matters of strategic politics were doomed to failure. He was not competent as lead; the male AOC of his time. However, in 2012 those who control the mechanisms of Democrat politics were worried about the reelection of Obama when contrast with the chaos created by the Arab Spring, which he purposefully triggered.

Enter Amal Alamuddin, an international “human rights” lawyer with significant leftist bona-fides. Amal Alamuddin was Lebanese and British. In/around mid-2012, Clooney was told by his lawyer that Amal was coming to his home on the Amalfi coast of Italy; the lawyer said, “This is the woman you need to marry.” Given the frustration of Clooney’s intellectual challenges, the objective was to immerse Clooney in competency and see if it would rub off. Controlled leftism is always following a similar playbook (again, see AOC as a reference).

On June 30, 2012, the overthrow of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarek was concluded. Part of the USAID regime change operation, the part that triggered the original Islamist Spring, worked with great success to install Muslim Brotherhood member Mohammed Morsi. Morsi took power in Egypt and quickly went to work on the platform of extremist Islam. In November of 2012, President Mohammed Morsi issued a provisional constitutional declaration that granted him unrestricted authority and the authority to legislate without the need for judicial oversight or review. The objective was a new Egyptian constitution based on Islamic Law, Sharia Law.

In the background of the Obama administration, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton running the USAID operation supported by CIA Director Leon Panetta, the September 12, 2012, Benghazi crisis in neighboring Libya presented a problem. The U.S administration and the international control agents who supported the Muslim Brotherhood had their hands full. Morsi in Egypt was going fully Islamist at the same time Libya was in turmoil. Back home the Benghazi crisis was filling the headlines as the U.S. reelection loomed large. Clooney was in London and the Amal Alamuddin operation was still ongoing. That’s the context for this video clip.

Listen to George Clooney talk about asking Amal Alamuddin to come meet him and what Alamuddin was working on at the time. The video is prompted; it only takes around 30 seconds to get the point.

Amal Alamuddin was working for the Muslim Brotherhood on the Egyptian constitutional changes in support of the objectives of introducing Sharia Law on behalf of Mohammed Morsi, the hand-selected leader approved by Barack Obama. For those who are only just beginning to realize how candidates, politics and elections are controlled by global elites, you can literally see how the small group was operating through this example. Obviously, Obama won re-election; however, despite getting married to Amal Alamuddin, now Amal Clooney, George Clooney’s intellectual deficiency could never be overcome.

Although, to be fair, there are still Obama operatives at work within the DNC who don’t want to give up on the Clooney enterprise. Six months after Obama’s second inauguration, in June 2013, the Egyptian people had enough of the hardline extremism. The military led by General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, dispatched Morsi, closed the border with Libya, outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, put the remaining extremists like Mohammed al-Zawahiri (brother to al-Qaeda #2 Ayman al-Zawahiri) into jail and saved themselves from the Islamist spring.

Amal Clooney then went to work for the International Criminal Court (ICC) and was part of the legal team that assembled the war crimes charges against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that have recently been in the headlines. Clooney was working for ICC lead prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan who has also been in the headlines recently. “:

”(UK Guardian) – The prosecutor of the international criminal court, Karim Khan, has been removed from office after the court’s governing body concluded in June that he had committed serious misconduct in connection to allegations of sexual abuse. The ICC’s member states voted on Friday to oust the British prosecutor in an unprecedented move that concludes a damaging episode for the court two years after the allegations were first raised. According to sources familiar with the result, 82 of the court’s 125 member states voted in favour of removing Khan at a special meeting at the UN’s headquarters in New York. (more)”:

…And now you probably know more than you ever wanted to know about these things.

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“Someone close to the disaster, who did not want to lose his or her job, spoke to the New York Post, saying, “The midterms are going to come before we know it and then we’re going to be really f****d.”

Democrats Keep Digging Their Hole Deeper (Amy Denton)

Today’s Democrats are so far from the Democrat Party of twenty or thirty years ago that no Democrat back then would be willing to claim them now. The leaders of the Democratic Party of today do not seem to understand that the farther and farther they go to the left, the less people will be willing to donate to them. Putting aside the mess that ActBlue built with its creative fundraising, the Democratic National Committee is in serious financial trouble. Ever since Kamala Harris’ disastrous campaign burned through $1.5 billion—yes, billion with a “b”—the DNC has had the problem of what to do with the remainder of her debt.


In August 2025, the DNC agreed to pay off $20.5 million in campaign debts while Harris agreed to raise money for the DNC to “make the entity whole financially.” Where the money came from to pay that amount off is anybody’s guess. The DNC already had financial problems as of June 2025, with the main fundraising committee looking to borrow money.Wait a minute. If your fundraising committee needs to borrow money, what does that say about how capable the committee is of raising funds? Nothing good.

Because of Harris, because of ActBlue, because of whatever dumpster fire was going on, major donors were pulling back, forcing the fundraising committee to look at borrowing money simply to keep the lights on. While the Republican National Committee has more money than it knows what to do with, the DNC does not. Someone close to the disaster, who did not want to lose his or her job, spoke to the New York Post, saying, “The midterms are going to come before we know it and then we’re going to be really f****d.”

That was last year. This year, the hits keep on coming with the news that the DNC put up its building in Southeast Washington, D.C. as collateral on a $15 million line of credit last year. And yet, the DNC did not declare the building as collateral in its monthly or loan-related filings to the Federal Election Commission. Why not? Was it supposed to and just “forgot”?

The DNC has two goals this election year. First, take back the House and/or the Senate in the midterm elections. Second, win as many gubernatorial and local elections as possible. Both are nearly impossible to do without money. As of June 2026, the DNC had $16 million in its accounts and $18 million in debt. In contrast, over the same period, the RNC had $128 million in cash and no debt. Rather amazing, isn’t it? Completely ignore the electorate, advocate for illegal aliens and genital mutilations of children, and the money starts to dry up. Who would have thought?

The DNC states that using its building as collateral has been done before and was not news. A spokesman for the DNC stated that the building had been used as collateral in 2019, 2018, and 2014, among many other years. Here’s the kicker: the DNC doesn’t own the whole building, only part of it. So, what does it do? Put the part it owns up as collateral?

All of the financial problems have landed firmly on the shoulders of Ken Martin, the Democratic Party chair. Apparently, Martin has not had success in getting donors to maximize their donations, which has led to the low level of cash on hand. Nor has he handled the pressure well. According to an internal human resources inquiry, in early July, he chucked a phone at an aide in frustration after speaking with donors and political allies. The phone did not hit the aide but left other aides who witnessed the incident shaken.

The phone throwing incident on top of the lack of fundraising and the ever-growing skepticism of the Democratic faithful has only led to the deepening of the tense mood in the DNC. Add in the highly edited explanation of what really went wrong in the autopsy of the 2024 presidential election loss, and it becomes obvious why Martin has not been successful in his time as DNC chairman, even though he’s only been chairman since February 2025. In eighteen months, not only have the DNC’s fortunes not reversed, but they’ve also grown worse.

Not so according to Martin. In an op-ed on Substack, he defended the lack of cash on hand, stating that the DNC made the decision to spend more on electoral assets such as more people, earlier organizing, and stronger state parties. Stronger state parties? I don’t know about the rest of the country, but the Texas Democratic Party is a mess. While that is amusing to conservatives and Republicans, it is not helpful to the Democratic Party overall. He ends the editorial with, “A party is not a savings account. Its purpose is to build power.” Wow. If that is indeed the case, the DNC will have quite a time on its hands come November.

Another problem for the DNC is the 2028 Democratic presidential primary schedule. South Carolina is the first state to vote in the Democratic primary, with Nevada and New Hampshire coming next. Dating back to 1972, New Hampshire was the first state to vote in the Democratic primary; it’s a state law. New Hampshire lost the first-in-the-nation primary status in 2022. This year, it came in a distant third. What will happen in 2028 when the primary season begins in New Hampshire? No one really knows.

Having to mortgage the building it only partly owns seems to be the least of the DNC’s problems at the moment. Perhaps the party will find a way to right the ship; perhaps the party will simply make things worse. Considering what has already happened this year in Maine and the appalling lack of decent candidates elsewhere in the country, it doesn’t appear likely. The DNC does look like it is going to go down with the ship instead of righting it. That anonymous source who said that the DNC was f****d could well turn out to be more prophetic than intended.

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“The DNC has paid more than $700,000 in interest on that $15 million line of credit, averaging over $75,000 a month, and starting in January it owes $1.66 million in principal payments every month.”

The Democratic National Committee Is Imploding (Matt Margolis)

The Democrat Party has spent months promising a blue wave midterm election and projecting confidence, but behind closed doors, the Democratic National Committee is in turmoil. =According to a New York Times report, the Democratic National Committee can’t pay its bills and Chairman Ken Martin is paranoid and unhinged. In other words, the committee is drowning in internal chaos. This is threatening to blunt whatever momentum Democrats thought they had heading into the midterms, which are now just 100 days away.


PJ Media previously reported that the DNC put up its own DC headquarters as collateral for a $15 million line of credit last year. That was bad news on its own. But it’s gotten worse. Party leaders have now asked vendors to hold off sending invoices until after the midterms, according to three people briefed on the discussions. Ouch. And then there’s the issues with Chairman Martin. According to the report, he has become isolated, anxious about his job security, and dependent on a shrinking circle of trusted aides. More than two dozen current and former Democrats and DNC officials described his behavior to the New York Times, most speaking anonymously because nobody wants their name near this dumpster fire.

And who could blame them? Just how unhinged has Martin become? Well, in early July, Martin allegedly threw his phone at a junior aide’s desk while reprimanding him, prompting a formal HR complaint. Accounts differ on how hard he threw it, though everyone agrees it hit the desk, not the aide. Martin later met with HR about his behavior. The DNC declined to comment, and Martin declined an interview request. Martin has also made dark jokes about how long he’ll last as chairman, even though his term runs through 2029, but he still insists he’s committed to the party and hopeful about November.

The big problem for the Democrats, of course, is the money gap with Republicans. President Donald Trump controls a $400 million super PAC. The Republican National Committee reported $128.5 million in cash on hand. The DNC is $2 million in debt. Before filing its July report, the DNC even transferred $1 million out of its 2028 convention fund to prop up its main accounts.The loan hasn’t helped. The DNC has paid more than $700,000 in interest on that $15 million line of credit, averaging over $75,000 a month, and starting in January it owes $1.66 million in principal payments every month. The DNC has funneled money to its House and Senate campaign arms every cycle for more than a decade, but officials have privately told congressional leaders that won’t happen in 2026.

There isn’t any cash left to give, and a big factor in this debacle is Kamala Harris. In 2024, Kamala Harris raised a ton of money in her campaign but left behind millions in debt that the DNC spent much of last year paying down with her help. Last fall, Martin sent $3 million each to Democratic gubernatorial campaigns in Virginia and New Jersey, structuring the loan for those transfers, hoping the wins would revive DNC fundraising. The bet hasn’t paid off yet. Martin’s paranoia bled into his own team. This spring, he confronted the party’s finance director over what he believed was an effort to push him out.

In May, finance chairman Chris Korge was already talking with other officers about an emergency meeting on the party’s finances. Martin read those talks as a plot against him, and when the two finally spoke late one Tuesday night, things got ugly fast. The emergency meeting Korge wanted eventually happened in Pittsburgh in June. For the first time, party officers had to sign nondisclosure agreements just to be in the room. I wrote before that this was the sign of a huge problem. Well, there’s the proof.

Make no mistake about it, the Democratic National Committee is a dumpster fire right now. It’s deep in debt, can’t pay its vendors on time, and its chairman is a paranoid wreck who needs nondisclosure agreements to keep its own board members quiet. We’re 100 days out from the midterms, hardly enough time for things to turn around for the Democratic National Committee. This is gonna be fun to watch.

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“Right now Senate Democrats enjoy all the benefits of the filibuster with none of the political cost—and without even having to work for it. Enforcing a real talking filibuster would change that dynamic overnight.”

Rick Scott Joins Push to Force SAVE Act Vote (Salgado)

RINO and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) thought he could get to the August recess without having to vote for election integrity legislation or a budget resolution. But two Republican senators have now stepped up to force a roll call vote on the SAVE America Act.


Get-out-the-vote warrior Scott Presler triggered the upset in the Senate by begging one senator — any senator — to request a roll call vote and force senators to go on the record about the SAVE America Act before the recess. This action is in accord with Senate rules and is based on Article I, Section 5, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) responded to Presler by offering to take up the challenge, and then notified Thune, “I hereby object to any effort to put the Senate into recess in August—at least until such time as the Senate has passed the SAVE America Act—and hereby request a roll call vote.”

Then on Sunday Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) joined in the effort. “I stand with [Mike Lee]. I will vote to stay in session unless we have passed the SAVE America Act. The American people expect us to deliver. They deserve secure elections,” Scott wrote on X.

Scott subsequently reposted Presler’s enthusiastic message of gratitude. “Senator Rick Scott, On [sic] behalf of millions of Americans, thank you for being one of the very few Senators that actually care about us,” Presler exclaimed. “Thank you for working tirelessly to pass the SAVE America Act & secure our elections. We are finding illegal aliens on the voter rolls in Pennsylvania. This is a constitutional crisis.” Presler has been going through the non-juror and registered voter data in Pennsylvania.

https://twitter.com/ScottPresler/status/2080797691366240285?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2080797691366240285%7Ctwgr%5E4424297fc6ffead79f47802d5981c97d6cbc9a3c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fcatherinesalgado%2F2026%2F07%2F26%2Frick-scott-joins-in-forcing-save-act-vote-lee-explains-his-plan-n4955475

Thune wants Americans to believe he can’t get the SAVE America Act or any of its provisions through. But Lee has laid out a plan. Back on July 22, Lee posted on X, “We could break the Democrats’ filibuster the old-fashioned way: make them actually speak on the Senate floor, knowing we can ‘call the question’ and pass it at a simple-majority threshold the minute they stop speaking. We could add pressure by working through weekends and recess weeks as needed, with a public commitment to keep the Senate in session until the bill passes.”

He went on, “Right now Senate Democrats enjoy all the benefits of the filibuster with none of the political cost—and without even having to work for it. Enforcing a real talking filibuster would change that dynamic overnight. We could also advance key provisions of the SAVE America Act using budget reconciliation. Or we could nuke the filibuster.”

The House had actually found a workaround to thwart Democrat shenanigans, as the pre-recess House budget resolution included provisions of the SAVE America Act and vital military funding. Unfortunately, Thune, ever the backstabber, delivered a nonsensical lecture about the importance of consulting Democrats—you know, the ones who aim to defund ICE and oppose funding related to the Iran conflict, fund foreign criminals, and kill all election integrity efforts—while coming up with a “bipartisan” funding package. With Republicans like him, who needs Democrats?

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“.. his promised “warmth of collectivism.”

The Fair Share Myth and Other Socialist Fables (Turley)

New York City socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani is back in his element. After admitting that he cannot fulfill his campaign pledge to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mamdani returned to his class warfare narrative. This week, he taunted the city’s highest-earning taxpayers with a letter informing them of another special tax awaiting them in the Big Apple.As wealthy citizens flee the city, Mamdani strongly suggests that those who remain are going to get burned by his promised “warmth of collectivism.” In doing so, he repeated a socialist myth about how the wealthiest taxpayers are not paying “their fair share.”


Mamdani went on X to tell those with second homes in New York City worth more than $5 million that “you’ve got mail” and a “new pied-a-terre tax.” He gleefully declared, “The best city in the world deserves the best p arks, libraries, and schools in the world. That’s only possible when we all pay our fair share.”The fair share myth is a virtual mantra among socialist and Democratic leaders, from Mamdani to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). In my book, “Rage and the Republic,” I address the false claim that the wealthy are not “paying their fair share.” In fact, the top 10 percent already pay more taxes than the bottom 90 percent combined.

In 2023, the top 1 percent paid an estimated 38.4 percent of all federal individual income taxes. One can certainly raise the need for additional taxes to support public works, but it is simple demagoguery to claim that the wealthy do not pay their fair share when the top 10 percent pay an estimated 75 percent of federal income taxes. The U.S. income tax system is already the most progressive in the developed world, even before additional New York state and city taxes are added in.=The demonization of the wealthy is one of the oldest tactics of politicians seeking to empower themselves by harnessing mob rage.

Combined with pledges of free stuff under socialism, it creates a dangerous delusion among disgruntled citizens. Another common fable has been repeated by socialists such as Darializa Avila Chevalier, the prison abolitionist who won a recent primary for Congress in New York. This radical, who once boasted how she wiped her hands on the American flag in lieu of a napkin, was pressed on whether there has ever been a “successful model of socialism anywhere in the world outside the U.S., in terms of both human rights and widespread economic justice.”

She responded by citing Sweden and Norway, as other figures such as Sanders have done before her. Indeed, the claim of successful Scandinavian socialist systems is a sort of Marxist bedtime fairytale, told to children about a workers’ paradise in quaint Nordic fishing villages. But Sweden’s experience only shows the limits of socialism even in a relatively small nation. Decades ago, after disastrous results to its economy, Sweden turned away from the very kind of socialist theories increasingly fashionable in the U.S. today.

Norway has large public welfare systems, it is true. But there is a very specific reason for that: It has enormous direct oil revenues supporting a very small population. The Norwegian state produces about 120 barrels of oil for every man, woman and child living in the country. If the U.S. could produce that much oil per person through a state-controlled entity, it would be more oil than the entire world produces today and worth enough money to replace all federal individual and corporate income tax revenue. In truth, countries like Denmark and Sweden strongly embrace capitalist principles today.

They are listed among the most capitalist nations on Earth — in some rankings ahead of the U.S. Indeed, many of their leaders have expressed disbelief or amusement at longstanding claims by American leftists about their being socialist nations. In 2015, Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen observed, “I know that some people in the U.S. associate the Nordic model with some sort of socialism. Therefore, I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy.” Likewise, the former Swedish Social Democratic Minister of Finance Kjell Olof Feldt said, ” That whole thing with democratic socialism was absolutely impossible. It just didn’t work. “

Read more …

“The Scale of Ineligible People Called for Jury Duty Starts to Highlight Number of Illegal Aliens Currently on Voter Rolls”

Do you want your court case decided by people who have no right to be in the country?

Jury Duty For Illegal Aliens (CTH)

In most states the jury duty summons process comes from registered voter rolls. As a consequence, when a person is called for jury duty and is then disqualified as a non-citizen, we have another way to judge the scale of non-citizens on the voter rolls.


Reviewing lists of disqualified non-citizen jurors is now taking place in many counties led by citizen inquiry. The disqualification records, “non-juror” lists are public records in many states and counties. These reviews are turning up tens-of-thousands of non-citizens who are on juror lists, which means they are also on voter rolls.

(New Jersey Globe) – About 75,000 noncitizens are summoned for jury duty in New Jersey each year, based on data from three state government agencies, including the Motor Vehicle Commission — a stunning figure that widens the scope of a growing controversy over government databases that may incorrectly identify noncitizens as eligible voters and jurors.While the number is alarming, there’s no indication that noncitizens have served on a jury since the judiciary implemented additional guardrails to prevent it.

“Prospective jurors are asked about their citizenship and other qualifications when they complete the mandatory juror qualification questionnaire,” said Pete McAleer, a spokesman for the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts. “Those who advance are reminded of the eligibility requirements during jury orientation and are directly questioned about their citizenship during jury selection by the judge and, as permitted, the attorneys.” In between, potential jurors watch a training video that includes the citizenship requirement.

The revelation of noncitizens making their way into jury pools comes three days after Gov. Mikie Sherrill disclosed that an alleged software glitch at motor vehicles led to the inclusion of roughly 6,600 noncitizens on New Jersey’s voter rolls; Sherrill blamed the vendor, IDEMIA, and said less than 400 noncitizens have voted in recent elections. According to McAleer, the judiciary processes more than one million summonses annually for potential jury service and randomly selects records provided from the Division of Elections, the Division of Taxation, and the MVC. (read more)

That 75,000/yr number are just those summoned people who disqualified themselves by being truthful about their status. I firmly believe the average non-pretending American will soon to realize/admit that many non-citizens actually remained on juries and passed judgement during trial.

Illegal aliens voting in elections is happening, we all know it and even though the media is still trying to retain their lies, you can tell that stance is softening against the reality. However, illegal aliens sitting as jurors in trials, will create a big-time constitutional mess that is something the communist left and media will never admit.

Read more …

“The Fauci diary is amazing. He monologues like a Scooby Doo villain.” El Gato Malo on “X”

Will the “Fat Lady” Finally Sing? (James Howard Kunstler)

Remember Covid-19? Seems like long ago in a world that time forgot. Well, you get to revisit the whole sketchy business on Wednesday, July, 29, when Dr. Anthony Fauci is called to testify about it to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chaired by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). Though half the USA is still psychotic and unable to process reality, the other half of the country understands that Dr. Fauci has some ‘splainin’ to do.


Dr. Fauci was initially invited but declined to appear (didn’t feel like it), so the committee issued a subpoena compelling him (under penalty of up to a year in jail for failure to show). Because Dr. Fauci was given a peremptory pardon by “Joe Biden,” he cannot legally invoke the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. He will have to answer the questions. Of course, Dr. Fauci has demonstrated in previous appearances that he is a world champeen of failing-to-recall stuff and, at age 85, one might expect him to work that angle to the max.

One big question hanging over the whole proceeding is whether Covid-19 was concocted in the Wuhan Institute of Virology or “jumped from animals to humans” as Dr. Fauci posited around the 2:14 mark (near the end) of this video from a White House press conference, April, 13, 2020:

The Intel Community now kind of leans toward the lab leak theory. Anyway, that all leads to another question as to whether Dr. Fauci directed his agency, the NIAID, to arrange funding for gain-of-function research at Wuhan on coronaviruses found in Asian bats. IOW, did they make the chimeric virus on-purpose? In past testimony, Dr. Fauci has equivocated and dissembled about that, played word games that led to raised voices between himself and Sen. Paul.

As it happened, then-Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard recently unearthed the paper trail of emails and memoranda between Dr. Fauci and his colleagues / partners in other corners of the epidemiological world that show how, at the time, they were all scrambling to cover their collective asses in the Covid-19 business. One partner in particular, Peter Daszak of the New York based EcoHealth Alliance, which had channeled many grants to Wuhan since 2014, was especially active in fabricating alibis and ruses — including a major paper in the UK’s leading medical journal, The Lancet (the article was later nullified).

Behind that smokescreen of confabulation lies the wreckage of American society by the evil Covid-19 business. It was even evident at the time (spring 2020) that President Trump suspected he was being played by the committee of “experts” that had been set up to make Covid-19 policy. His body language suggested as much in news conferences where he shifted uncomfortably from side to side, watching while others spoke at the podium, as if rehearsing his later YMCA dance. At one point, April 23, 2020, (Fauci wrote in an email) President Trump called advisor Deborah Birx (“Scarf Lady”) into the Oval Office and yelled at her: “You and Fauci have destroyed the country and the economy. I should never have listened to you. You have completely destroyed us.” (Thanks to @JeffreyTucker on “X” for citation.)

And that was only the beginning of an event that led to a more momentous string of operations against the welfare of the American people, including the mass shutdown and ruin of small businesses, the orchestrated George Floyd riots, the year-plus of no school, and the mass mail-in ballot policy that enabled widespread voting fraud, ushering-in the election of Deep State tool “Joe Biden,” with the epic fuckery his handlers later laid on the body politic — including the open border, universal DEI, transsexuals celebrated on the White House lawn, the Ukraine money-laundry, weaponization of law and intel, build-out of the USAID-NGO grift matrix to fund Democratic Party operations, and much more.

Read more …

“EU may abandon current sanctions mechanism against Russia due to Greece’s position.”

The LNG ships are often Greek.

Greece Refuses EU Sanctions Against Russia (TASS)

The European Union may revise its mechanism for imposing sanctions on Russia after Athens delayed the adoption of the latest package of measures for several weeks, securing exemptions for a Greek shipping company, the Financial Times reported.


Athens refused to support the new sanctions package until the remaining EU countries agreed to grant an exemption for the company Dynagas, according to the report. The Greek side reportedly sought to ensure that the company’s vessels could continue transporting Russian liquefied natural gas to countries outside the bloc. This marks the first instance of the EU’s collective economic sanctions regime against Russia being relaxed, the publication said. At the same time, the existing strategy allowed capitals to see that many EU member states would face the economic consequences of sanctions decisions, the newspaper said.

Now, new approaches to imposing restrictions are being discussed in Brussels, according to the FT. Officials are considering the possibility of approving sanctions individually or in small thematic batches. This approach is expected to reduce the risk of a national veto by a single country delaying the approval of other measures. Greek officials, for their part, argued that the ban on LNG transport had been agreed to by mistake, would harm the company Dynagas rather than the Russian economy, and would benefit rival shipowners from China and other non-EU countries, the publication said.

Read more …

“In April 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit shut down Boasberg’s contempt inquiry, with the majority describing it as an improper “judicial intrusion into the autonomy of a coequal department.”

Judge Boasberg Keeps Ruling Against POTUS, But Keeps Getting Overturned (JTN)

A controversial federal judge keeps ruling against President Donald Trump and then consistently gets overturned by higher courts. James “Jeb” Boasberg, the chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, has seen some of his highest-profile decisions stayed, overturned or sent to appellate courts for review. Boasberg, 62, was appointed to the federal bench by President Barack Obama in 2011 after serving nearly a decade on the District of Columbia Superior Court, and has decided several cases connected to the Trump administration in the areas of immigration and executive authority.


In March 2025, he temporarily blocked the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to rapidly deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua without traditional immigration proceedings. When deportation flights continued, Boasberg later determined that he found probable cause to pursue criminal contempt proceedings against administration officials. That contempt effort ultimately did not survive after appellate review.

Boasberg’s problem: Accepting separation of powers
In April 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit shut down Boasberg’s contempt inquiry, with the majority describing it as an improper “judicial intrusion into the autonomy of a coequal department.” Boasberg also ordered the administration to provide due-process protections for Venezuelans deported under the Alien Enemies Act. The Supreme Court vacated that order on April 7, 2025. He also directed the U.S. government to facilitate the return of more than 130 deportees so they could challenge their removals. That order is reportedly still under appellate review.

Roberts: Impeachment not the answer to activist judges
Trump called for Boasberg’s impeachment after one of his deportation rulings, which led to Chief Justice John Roberts deciding to issue a rare public statement. “Impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” he said. Attorney General Pam Bondi later directed the U.S. Justice Department to file a judicial misconduct complaint alleging Boasberg made inappropriate comments about the administration during a Judicial Conference meeting. The complaint was ultimately dismissed by another federal judge, who concluded it did not establish misconduct.

Read more …

“Allegation stems from Smith’s closed-door deposition before the House Judiciary Committee on December 17, 2025.”

Prosecuting The Prosecutor: Will Jack Smith Face Criminal Charges? (JTN)

Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith spent years investigating and prosecuting Donald Trump. Now, with Trump back in the White House as the president, Smith has become the subject of a potential criminal investigation of his own. Earlier this month, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan referred Smith to the DOJ for potential criminal prosecution, alleging he made false statements during congressional testimony. President Trump has repeatedly argued that Smith should be held accountable for what he has described as politically motivated prosecutions.


Whether Smith will indeed face criminal charges remains uncertain. Although Congress can recommend prosecution, the decision ultimately rests with the Justice Department, and any case would face significant legal and evidentiary hurdles. On July 22, Jordan, an Ohio Republican, sent a formal referral letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, asserting that there is “strong evidence” that Smith violated 18 U.S.C. § 1001, the federal statute prohibiting materially false statements to the federal government. The allegation stems from Smith’s Dec. 17, 2025, closed-door deposition before the Judiciary committee.

During the deposition, Smith testified that his office had sought only lawmakers’ “toll records” – that is metadata such as call logs – and had not sought warrants for the contents of members’ text messages. Jordan contends in his letter that Justice Department records produced this month contradict that testimony. According to the referral, Smith’s investigation ultimately obtained text messages from 44 members of Congress, with some records reportedly acquired through the National Archives rather than by subpoena. Jordan argues that Smith’s testimony created the misleading impression that investigators had never obtained the substance of lawmakers’ communications.

Smith’s attorneys, Peter Koski and Lanny Breuer, rejected the allegation, arguing that Smith answered the specific question posed to him truthfully and was under no obligation to volunteer information beyond its scope. They contend the referral itself acknowledges that Smith did not make a false statement but instead criticizes him for failing to provide additional, unrequested information.

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the committee’s top Democrat, likewise dismissed the referral, arguing that Republicans characterized Smith’s testimony by conflating questions about subpoenas with questions about presidential records maintained by the National Archives. “This referral, if ever brought before a judge, will get laughed out of court,” Raskin said in a statement. A DOJ spokesperson confirmed receipt of the referral and said the department “will investigate all evidence of criminal conduct.”

A Long-Running Conflict
Jordan’s referral is the latest development in a years-long dispute between congressional Republicans and Smith, who in November 2022 was appointed special by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee two high-profile criminal investigations involving Trump. The Judiciary committee began investigating Smith’s office in 2023, and Smith testified publicly before the committee in January 2026. Republicans have repeatedly questioned the conduct of Smith’s investigations into Trump, while Democrats have defended his work as consistent with the rule of law.

The possibility of criminal liability was also raised during Blanche’s confirmation hearing, when Missouri GOP Sen Josh Hawley asked whether Smith could be prosecuted for false testimony. He responded only that testimony before Congress is taken “very seriously.” Trump has long characterized Smith’s investigations as politically motivated “witch hunts,” while Smith has maintained that the evidence supported criminal charges against Trump and that any investigation into Smith himself would amount to political retaliation. Smith resigned from the Justice Department shortly before Trump’s second inauguration after overseeing the federal prosecutions involving classified documents and alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Could Smith Actually Be Prosecuted?
The referral alone does not initiate criminal charges. Under federal law, Congress may recommend prosecution, but the Justice Department retains exclusive authority to decide whether to investigate and bring a case. To secure a conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, prosecutors generally must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant knowingly and willfully made a materially false statement. An answer that is incomplete, imprecise, or arguably misleading may not satisfy that standard, particularly if it is responsive to the specific question asked.

Supporters of Jordan’s referral argue that newly disclosed records contradict the overall impression Smith left during his testimony.Smith’s defenders counter that his statements were literally accurate because they addressed only the subpoenaed toll records discussed during questioning, not every method by which investigators obtained communications. As with many alleged false-statement cases, the precise wording of both the questions and the answers could become central to any prosecution.

Read more …

“Tank The Market … and crater Anthropic and OpenAI ..

It would seem to me that someone stealing your AI model is inevitable.

That said, how do you know which model something is stolen from?

Chamath Warns Ban On Open-Source AI Would Tank The Market (ZH)

Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya warned that any U.S. move to ban open-source AI would blow a hole in corporate balance sheets and drag the stock market down. “If the United States government intervenes, it will tank the stock market. Not debatable,” Palihapitiya said on the “All-In” podcast released over the weekend. “Now, you can debate which companies get tanked. For example, if they said, ‘No more open source. American companies cannot use open source.'”


“Okay, let’s take an average normal company, Coca-Cola,” Palihapitiya continued. “‘Hey, Coca-Cola, you’re trying to use AI to improve your business. You know what? You can only use these two options. And those things cost 50-100x more than your other best alternative that you may use otherwise.'” “That will eventually show up in your costs. And so this incredibly important input into your cost model is now orders of magnitude, multiples greater than your competitors that are outside the United States, simply because you’re in the United States,” he added. “You’re forced to absorb costs that aren’t rational nor market-driven. So then Coca-Cola has to get re-rated.”

Palihapitiya then turned on the labs themselves, arguing that their revenue depends on government-erected barriers rather than real market demand. “But then you look at the people who are selling those tokens, and this is where Anthropic and OpenAI need to understand, if the government comes in and actually tells you that there’s no open source, their valuation will crater,” he said. “Why? Because all of that revenue is artificially being propped up. It’s not being driven by market demand where you’re being forced to compete. It’s because of regulatory capture where you now get an artificial constraint. But it only works in one market.

“All roads lead to market chaos if anybody gets involved, so we should just not get involved.” Palihapitiya’s co-host, former AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks, went further, accusing Anthropic of running to Washington for regulatory cover.

“If you say that American companies can’t use what’s in the public domain, or that somehow it’s tainted with IP theft, you are basically going to put a dagger through the heart of the entire American open source ecosystem,” he added. The fight has consumed Washington since Moonshot AI’s release of Kimi K3. The Beijing startup’s open-weight model beat Anthropic’s Fable 5 and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol in blind front-end coding tests, according to Axios, and unlike its closed American rivals, anyone can download it.

Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, Palantir and more than 20 other companies fired off a joint letter on Friday urging policymakers to avoid “premature restrictions” on open-weight models, warning that such limits would “stifle competition or drive innovation overseas,” CNBC reported.

Anthropic did not sign.

If the letter was meant to cool things off, it didn’t. The Trump administration spent the week accusing Moonshot of stealing American technology outright. White House science chief Michael Kratsios said Wednesday that Moonshot built Kimi K3 by distilling Anthropic’s technology, and accused the startup of obtaining restricted Nvidia GB300 chips through servers in Thailand.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/2081565782534680581?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle July 28 2026

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  • #245932

    Pablo Picasso Femme 1930 • Trump Ready For ‘Strong Military Action’ If Talks Fail (ZH) • CENTCOM Chief Believes US Strikes Around Hormuz No Longer Eff
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle July 28 2026]

    #245951
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    The war’s back is broken
    The U.S. ultimately will have to capitulate, with the result that Iran becomes a regional power.

    Contact us: info@strategic-culture.su

    Trump ordered the U.S. military not to carry out new strikes on Iran Friday night, despite approving earlier a “Gates of Hell massive attack” on Iran.

    The U.S. has now requested a new temporary ceasefire with Iran and is seeking a return to the collapsed and suspended MoU, with discussions to include Yemen, and with Trump seeking to make AnsarAllah a party to the negotiations.

    Clearly Trump is angry, and fears that that the war is consuming his Presidency (and his legacy). Iran comprehensively rejected all negotiations throughout this last week and confirmed it will not start negotiations under any circumstances. Put simply, why would Iran consent to give the U.S. time to regroup and rearm before launching another round of strikes on Iran when it has the U.S. ‘on the run’.

    A return to the MoU whose credibility Trump repeatedly has shredded? Unlikely.

    Will Schryver notes that rumours are swirling that the Pentagon is pressuring Trump to call off the war with Iran because the U.S. has nearly exhausted its stockpiles of air-defence interceptors and stand-off strike missiles. The President’s top aides are also uneasy about the prospect of a widening war in the Middle East, the alienation of key Gulf allies vulnerable to further Iranian attack, and the coming energy crunch. “Few if any in Mr. Trump’s inner circle believed the plan to escalate was wise, said the two people briefed”, the New York Times reports.

    It seems too that jiggery-pokery over the exact fuel supply situation in the U.S. may have played a part in Trump’s backtrack. Larry Johnson reports that –

    “[A] brief prepared by Karl Miller investigates how the U.S. military’s covert fuel procurement and export operations are depleting the nation’s diesel and jet fuel reserves, particularly during a period when domestic stocks are already critically low”.

    In gist, Miller says that –

    “much of this (covert) fuel export is routed through opaque channels, such as the Rotterdam trans-shipment hub, where the final military or foreign allocation is not publicly reconciled, leaving the American economy exposed to shortage risks – whilst military and foreign operations – “notably Israel” – receive priority access”.

    This report by Miller seems to connect to the U.S. authorities’ open manipulation of oil benchmarks designed to convince markets that there is no danger of fuel shortages arising from the ongoing emergency release from the SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserves) of 172 million barrels that was initiated to counter supply shocks from the conflict with Iran.

    Whilst the statuary security floor is 250 million barrels (the current level is around 300), nonetheless the narrative is being promoted that the drawdown can go even further (to 70 mbpd). But can it? What is the minimum level the strategic oil reserves can go to? It is more complicated than just one big vat of crude that has a specific level. The SPR is composed of many caverns, and contains different types of crude oil, that are being drawn down at different rates, with some caverns likely to collapse if drained too far. In short, nobody knows how far is too far. It’s all guesswork.

    With the back broken to Trump’s military assault the only path back to negotiations would be to offer front-loaded real concessions. But even were Trump to do this, would he be believed? And can Trump’s mental state sustain such implied humiliation?

    The main obstacle on the path back to negotiations with Iran is that he and his inner circle understand Iran back-to-front.

    They aver to believe that they are dealing with an intransigent and hardline leadership, whilst Iranians as a whole long for an exit.

    This is wrong; it is the other way around. It is the leadership that is pragmatic, and it is ‘the street’ that is overall more hard-line and demands vengeance. And demands to know why there should be negotiations at all.

    Then again, Team Trump and his Fox News cheerleaders have slipped from the earlier U.S. vision of itself as a redeemer nation into a radical Manichaean ‘characterisation of itself’, Professor Michael Vlahos writes, in which –

    “American “good news” has been replaced by the ever-present spectre of Evil and the threat of force. The holy words, Freedom and Democracy, while still chanted, have become a hollow mantra. The American “gospel” no longer preaches about bringing redemption and expiation: it is now concerned with enforcement and punishment. The volte-face came in an instant, on 9/11 and with Guantanamo”.

    The problem then centres on attitude: How is it possible to negotiate or talk to the embodiment of evil (as Trump terms the Iranians)? It isn’t possible, of course. That was the point to casting enemies in such dark terms. It precludes true mediation. It precludes a solution that can be viewed as the elevation to power for “one of the most evil people in history”, leading a “gang of bloodthirsty thugs”. It distils policy to the search for dominance over the ‘otherness’.

    The West exhibits one particular way of thinking that it deems to represent the essence of that which is Human. This mode of thinking (often termed Apollonian) links to Patriarchy, law, and vertical top-to-bottom secular, rational, mechanistic thinking. It offers little room for ‘betweenness’. Things are either ‘A’ or ‘non-A’.

    However, another sphere (often termed the Dionysian) expresses the energetic duality in both nature and in the human – male and female; order and exuberant transgression; and of rectitude and degeneracy. They form the poles within consciousness that both co-inhere in us, and that co-constitute each other. (Dionysian logos may be viewed perhaps as the shadow, or even of the revolt against Apollo).

    And then there is Persephone (the underside to the Dionysian ‘shadow’) expressing the chthonic, feminine existence. Here there is no male pole, but only a goddess radiating earthiness and the female principle of reproduction, the process of growth and of caring, and of underworld knowledge (called intuition) – symbolising the cyclical Life of Aphrodite, decay, death and ultimate renewal.

    Consciousness however, mostly expresses the human quality from one particular orientation. Nonetheless, all civilisations draw from the full diversity of such components to consciousness that – one way or another – respond to a particular civilisation.

    To think in one culture is to think in one way; however to belong to a different culture, a different ethnic group, a different religion – means that thinking will differ. Yet we all remain human.

    So the imperial hubris of Trump is beginning to face the fact that he will find it hard – possibly impossible – to find a solution to the Middle East, because to see the world from the purely Apollonian perspective is essentially male and exclusivist and fails to understand ‘otherness’; but rather relies on exceptional privilege. It simply does not – and cannot – recognise a plurality of minds.

    The U.S. has lost the war. By adopting such uncompromising Manichaean language, Trump effectively has severed himself from any prospective diplomatic solution. By widening the war (Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq) he has severely complicated any diplomatic track. All elements are interrelated, yet they also have separate agendas. Thus a solution involves a complex matrix of issues, rather than a binary dispute between the U.S. and Iran alone. The U.S. ultimately will have to capitulate, with the result that Iran becomes a regional power (strengthening Russia and China), whilst the Region slowly will come to terms with this new West Asian reality.

    The war’s back is broken

    #245952
    Dr. D
    Participant

    So this is what we think of when Cidiots on the coasts say “Muh ‘Merica is the richest most powerful nation!”
    Pic

    Y’all look and sound like Caesar Flickerman. You’re so far from reality, you can no longer see it from there and think you ARE in Reality.

    Flick

    Ha ha! Your death is so funny to us! Guess they were too stupid to rent a Uhaul and learn to code!

    Also in the news today, Baltimore loses half a million residents and is no longer really a city. I blame Trump. “This is MAGA country!” It’s because Republicans have not been in charge for generations that it’s their fault. And the racism. …Which is Blue since no Red people live there.

    You know, you can get off this bus to hell any time you want. In just a few weeks in fact. Stop installing policies that always fail, and do install policies that always work. They do not. Ideology is too strong.

    No-Go-Zone: Rotterdam Imposes Unprecedented Nighttime Exclusion Area”

    They could just enforce the law. But now they’re enforcing another law to enforce the first law.

    “US Military Forced To Let Some Iranian Projectiles Through Its Defenses: NBC
    NBC report says bases & host countries much less protected than previously thought…”

    WHO, “Previously thought”? You, NBC? Okay then you’re fired. This was obvious it was happening, the only question being “And then what?” Oman surrenders to Iran and becomes occupied territory?

    “US One-Way Attack Drone Found Adrift In Hormuz Offers New Look At Western Capabilities
    “Iranian fishermen found an American drone”

    That didn’t take long. So we’re already giving away free drones to the enemy. I’m sure nothing bad will happen.

    “Musk compares AI and robots to “a personal God” that will provide humans”

    Considering my present experience is that anything mechanical is broken, and anything digital is both broken AND evil, we may have some work to do. I have almost never seen anything computerized improve anything, although that may be different if you have 100 GeekSquad techs running around like elves fixing everything so you don’t have to.

    Stephan Miller: He’s not being condescending, they literally do not know this. I suspect that puts them below midwits. He has to do this every day on every subject with them. However, because “Below midwits” they are unable to experience embarrassment and therefore an impulse to do better. We do it again tomorrow. How does this work? They are all hired and kept by the world’s top Oligarchs. Oligarch>CEO>Editor>Reporter. Simple. Why can this happen and not be run over? 1) Financialization = free 0% money for every bad idea 2) Clinton’s erasing of Sherman any competition in Media.

    Money with no value and no competition = “Capitalism” of course.

    “President Trump permanently ended the unfair estate tax,”

    How can he do that? That needs Congress.

    “The world map is being redrawn, and the “Old Guard” is being uprooted and replaced.”

    Yes, and sadly you can’t “Just Leave” or there will be a power vacuum and Mogadishu warlord conditions overnight. …This isn’t fully organic, other players actively jump in and MAKE it that way (France in Africa, eg) but to avoid Mad Max collapse conditions worldwide you need to hand off to someone. Competent.

    Of course if we hated everyone and wanted them to die we could just do this the way Fox News and Progressives ask. Sadly, they are adults and are leaving with a process. I don’t really want to waste the time nor pay the cost. Bonus Tip: it’s discussed in hushed tones that the U.S. does this foremost in Europe, who will all attack each other overnight if we stop being the anchor and counterweight there. It’s one reason Europe wants us there, as useful that way. This is disturbing in two ways.

    “(Zelensky’s) trip to London to meet the coalition of the willing and King Charles; followed two days later with the surprising “drone” attack on the Dormition Cathedral”

    This doesn’t seem to be provable, however I believe something like this is happening.

    “• Iran, Oman Hold Hormuz Talks As US Pauses Airstrikes For Second Day (ZH)

    Again, what seems to be happening is the CIVILIAN Iran is fine with calling a truce and signing something. That doesn’t mean full surrender, it just means they’re normal and find bridges and power plants expensive to repair – by Halliburton and KBR. Every time they do anything in the realm of “normal” though – even stall – the IRGC is paid to undermine and attack. …And the IRGC is 30 non-communicating zones, in the “Mosaic” strategy. This is all obvious and pre-planned to cause maximum damage to Persia for the benefit of “London.” Because just like the CIA is not American or even Anti American, the IRGC likewise does not work for Iran but only themselves.

    So we’re on phase 29 of that. The Civilian Gov then point at the latest IRGC holdouts, and then we blow them up. Rinse, repeat until the IRGC no longer feels like being anti-Iranian. We’re not tired at all and have a lot of bombs. Nothing in the U.S. has been blown up or degraded yet, not even a 7-11.

    “Burnham is an out-and-proud socialist who had already signaled that his government would spend and tax more.”

    Note what’s NOT in his To-Do list: WORK. For a Party of the Worker, the Hammer and Sickle, they never, ever, ever think of doing Work. Where do “Taxes” come from? Only spend them, never make them. If they only focused on WORK – even with the same policies – it might actually work, or a lot better. Instead, it’s the outlook of Theft and Envy, consuming not creating. Capitalism ain’t great and has a lot of faults, but they have to get up and MAKE and DO things to get by.

    No idea in general what’s up with Burnham yet. In general the problems are so grave it would take revolutionary action just to address them badly and merely survive as a nation and people. And he is not that guy. Ireland is already gone and Canada may be.

    Okay, in news, after 150 days or more, we’re FINALLY having oil effects. …Which are STILL not in “the market”. Gold and other indicators are still down, US$, market etc are still UP. …Proving every Fox News and Garland Nixon guys wrong.
    Hey, I respect these guys. But what I don’t respect is when something they say doesn’t’ happen, and not that they make up excuses (they have) don’t bother explaining all the things that don’t fit (they don’t), but DON’T EVEN NOTICE. They don’t even notice Reality, that nothing they predict seems to happen. I guess their viewers don’t’ either? And are also immune to all reality?

    Like Covid reaction, I did not see this coming, or not in the Alternative Audience space who just spent 25 years complaining about it and knowing better.

    Back to oil: not before, but NOW the oil reserves are officially near the bottom, Cushing is, Kazakhstan is stopping, Russia is stopping and having refinery trouble, and we’ve already re-jiggered a lot of flows worldwide. Now the oil from Saudi over the Red Sea is being halted. So the dozen other means that meant they were all wrong and there was no $200,000 a barrel oil as Pepe Escobar promised, didn’t happen (And he didn’t notice). So now…NOW we can see if anything will happen.

    Okay, Yemen it hitting the Red Sea at last. Oil rises 30%. Everyone Cheers! Yay Yemen! We’re so glad to see you shut off the world’s oil, Fox, Nixon, eg Moriarty say! That’ll larn ‘em!!!

    …Except oil is LOW. Yes, it’s high, but it was this high under Biden and other times. It’s like $100. Yes, that’s bad but if you said The Straits are closed, Saudi Arabia is closed, what do you think the price will be? Surely they would have said $200/bbl with gas lines and hoarding, right? Me too actually.

    WHY ISN’T THAT HAPPENING?

    That’s “Reality” boys. So you, we, me, all of us had a prediction, somewhere in this zone, and that isn’t happening at all. Why? That’s all I’m asking.

    Could be it will FINALLY happen, although markets say it isn’t, and after 150 days all Pepe’s Predictions finally come true, although none of them have. But when you’re that wrong, you have to start to wonder if it’s just a timing issue. Seems impossible, doesn’t it? Seems like maybe if you’re that wrong, we’re missing something.

    $100 – and presently for a very short time – is very very LOW for shutting off both seas and the other nations being shut like Russia (sort of) and Kazakhstan too. So far as we know, YES the U.S. is filling and getting rich, but THAT much? Not officially.

    Yet there are the markets. Suppose they rig oil – and I think they do – it’s a bad signal. So they rig gold, silver, gas, Dow, everything else TOO? Wow, we’re really, really saying there’s not a sparrow that falls that isn’t at the command of someone, and we don’t see that elsewhere. They’re all in a melee and chaos, fighting each other. Surely SOMEONE would take a try into attacking their market rigging, break oil by breaking silver or something, get it to its natural market price of $250/bbl.

    Nope. I don’t even see the pressure from trying. Either rigging or un-rigging. Systems normal. Normal daily corruption not world-bending corruption.

    Explain?

    That’s what I get so frustrated about. No one notices. No one notices their predictions make no sense. Then are wrong. Then something like this happens, they doubles down the prediction, that oil should be double with double the seas in trouble, but aren’t. Then they don’t notice again, and double down again. When pointed out to them, they ignore it and stick with whatever they learned in 2002, as if the world hasn’t changed one bit since then.

    Discuss?

    If there’s no oil, why is everyone driving cars more than ever, economy is fine on the street, and no actual effects appear, only allegations in Internet Abstraction-Space?

    This is the best example, but you find it in all the other news areas too, Europe, Bonds, Japan, Ukraine, Cuba, wherever. Nothing happens that is predicted, but no one notices or looks to why.

    #245953
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    America’s War on an Independent World

    America’s War on an Independent World

    #245959
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #245960
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    America’s Economy of Unearned Wealth

    America’s Economy of Unearned Wealth

    #245961
    tboc
    Participant

    “We cannot make lasting peace with people who believe that murdering innocents is laudable”
    Niyak Ghorbani
    One of the most severe cases of occular rectalitis ever reported.

    Well ole My Lai Musk must be a historian par exellence. With his everyone will be rich BS he is mimicking every development of the Industrial Revolution.

    Humanity might be compared to the ocean’s tides, it rises and falls with lunacy.

    #245962
    tboc
    Participant

    from one of the greatest prognosticators of all time
    “As technology advances, it reverses the characteristics of every situation again and again. The age of automation is going to be the age of ‘do it yourself.'” ~ Marshall McLuhan

    #245963
    tboc
    Participant

    Iran’s position in song

    #245964
    tboc
    Participant

    perhaps the US’ longest running victory
    Mosaddegh to Khamenei
    Oh! those pesky Persians

    on par only with North Korea

    #245965
    Henry
    Participant

    BTW, Raul, keep up the great work. Thank you.

    #245971

    Thank you, Henry

    #245972
    kultsommer
    Participant

    On YT app, this was to be interrupted by Phoenix energy commercial, among others, a “family owned oil field” employing “hard working Americans” (Marx couldn’t have said that better) offering a slice of a pie for investors = aka easy money.
    Imported to TAE, all quiet of such interruptions. Hope that handler of the site doesn’t mind.

    #245973
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Larry Johnson: Russia’s Naval Blockade of Odessa & Ukraine’s Attack on Iranian Ship

    #245974
    zerosum
    Participant

    “crimes against humanity,”

    “crimes against life.”

    Peace

    #245975
    zerosum
    Participant


    ZELENSKY MEETS TRUMP✈️ 356 Drones REPELLED Over Moscow🛡️ Putin EXPANDS Army⚔️ MS 2026.07.28


    ————–

    #245976
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #245977
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    SABBY SABS: Russia’s WAR Just Collided With Iran’s WHY? Where Does it End? WHITE House Meeting

    #245978
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Pentagon says over 640 troops killed or wounded in ‘quiet’ database update on Iran war
    Monday, 27 July 2026 5:36 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 27 July 2026 5:36 AM ]

    The US Department of War has updated its casualty database, raising the total number of American forces either killed or wounded during Washington’s unprovoked war on Iran to 642, according to figures published over the weekend.

    The revised data came after the department added more than 140 wounded personnel to its “Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS)” and created a new casualty category called “Overseas Operations” covering personnel killed and wounded “starting July 7.”

    Observers commenting on the matter described the move as a “quiet” update. They noted how Washington was trying to ascribe a generic-sounding title for the casualties, while attacks targeting the Islamic Republic currently dominate the United States’ acts of military adventurism abroad.

    The update came after the Islamic Republic scaled up its retaliation strategy in response to American violations, pledging to strike enemy targets at a ratio of at least two to one, meaning that for every Iranian target hit, at least two enemy targets will be struck in return.

    The retaliation has featured extensive strikes by the Iranian Army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) against sensitive and strategic American targets across the region. The targets have especially included the US radar facilities in order to pave the way for increasingly stronger reprisal.

    Days earlier, the Department of War stirred controversy by reducing the recorded casualties that had occurred from February 27 until April 7, when the United States and the Israeli regime joined each other in waging wholesale unprovoked aggression against Iran. The move saw the department reduce the casualties from 18 deaths and 482 wounded to 14 deaths and more than 400 wounded.

    The latest update that took place over the weekend still insisted on the watered-down version.

    On Saturday, however, IRGC spokesman Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi said that more than 200 Americans had been killed as a result of Iran’s retaliation, which was intensified after the US began violating a Pakistan-mediated memorandum of understanding signed between the two sides last month.

    “The figures released by the Americans regarding their personnel casualties are completely false. The number of American personnel killed in Operation Nasr (Victory)-2 exceeds 200, while the number of wounded is significantly higher,” he added, referring by codename to the Corps’ latest series of counterstrikes.

    US evacuates Al Udeid, Al Dhafra air bases in Qatar, UAE after Iranian strikes: Report
    US evacuates Al Udeid, Al Dhafra air bases in Qatar, UAE after Iranian strikes: Report
    The US has evacuated Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and Al Dhafra Air Base in the UAE following Iranian strikes, according to a report.
    “In the [retaliatory] attacks on American targets, we struck eight troop deployment centers. At one of those sites alone, there were 20 hangars, all of which were destroyed,” the official said, adding, “The American people should not allow their lying commanders to treat them as fools.”

    https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/07/27/773133/United-States-war-Iran-forces-killed-wounded

    #245979
    WES
    Participant

    The UK’S PM and Mr. Z put on a public relations deception propaganda show for a fake Ukrainian factory in the UK.

    They are both too broke to create a real factory!

    Get a lawyer to create a fake company out of thin air.
    Locate the fake factory on a military base so nobody can check if it is a real factory.

    Create more “grifting” opportunities to enrich the new UK’s PM.

    Create plausible legal deniability that UK built drones and missile, launched against Russia are Ukrainian, not British.

    #245980
    WES
    Participant

    DNC:

    Nobody wants to donate to the in debt DNC because they get no “bang” for their buck.

    However, there is plenty of money for the DSA!

    So, the Democrats are not broke!

    • This reply was modified 1 week, 5 days ago by WES.
    #245982
    zerosum
    Participant

    Read and Weep

    https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/07/28/773227/iranian-skies-turn-graveyard-america-most-famed-combat-drone-mq9-repear

    Iranian skies turn into graveyard for America’s most-famed combat drone – MQ-9 Reaper
    Tuesday, 28 July 2026 9:41 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 28 July 2026 9:41 AM

    The numbers, cross-referenced from Pentagon records, Congressional Research Service figures, media investigations, and documented visual evidence catalogued by Iranian defense analysts, add up to a picture the US Air Force has been in no rush to present clearly to the American public.

    It costs approximately $30 million per airframe.

    More than 90 percent of the airframes delivered to the US Air Force since the program began are now gone, destroyed by Iran, by Yemen, by Iraqi resistance forces, or in accidents in one operational theater or another.
    ————
    Copilot says:

    Yes: Iran and Yemen have inflicted historic losses on the MQ‑9 fleet.

    Yes: The USAF is below its required operational minimum.

    Yes: The MQ‑9 is effectively obsolete in contested airspace.

    No: The claim that “90% of all MQ‑9s ever delivered are gone” is not supported by any Pentagon, CRS, or independent defense reporting.
    The real number is ~20% lifetime attrition, with ~18% lost in 2026 alone — still catastrophic, but not what PressTV claims.

    • This reply was modified 1 week, 5 days ago by zerosum.
    #245984
    zerosum
    Participant

    July 28, 2026
    Ukraine: Long-range Campaign Fails As Russia Hits Back

    Ukraine: Long-range Campaign Fails As Russia Hits Back


    ————-

    • This reply was modified 1 week, 5 days ago by zerosum.
    #245986
    zerosum
    Participant

    DECLARATION OF WAR?.

    Mexico and Canada need us, we don’t need them. – Trump

    WORDS TO REEEGREAT
    —————

    • This reply was modified 1 week, 5 days ago by zerosum.
    #245990
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    RUSSIA for the First Time struck UKRAINE with a New & More Powerful version of the ISKANDER missile

    #245991
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #245992
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    PEPE BREAKS Iran Says YES On Its Terms: Inside Monday’s Rawalpindi Meeting US Team with Asim Munir

    #245993
    Dr. D
    Participant

    See it it will post:
    “So this is what we think of when Cidiots on the coasts say “Muh ‘Merica is the richest most powerful nation!”
    https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dass5ytuvMR

    Since everyone hates Americans and wants us all to die — including 1/3rd of Americans ourselves I guess, this will make them all very happy.

    #245994
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    1:02:00

    #245995
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Alex Krainer: Energy Wars, Dollar Endgame & Banking Crisis

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