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Debt Rattle July 9 2026

Jul 092026
 
 July 9, 2026  Posted by at 10:04 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  Add comments


Vincent van Gogh Vase with Daisies and Anemones 1887


• IIran Hits Back, Launching Missiles On Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar (ZH)
• They’re Scum’—Furious Trump Explodes, Declares Iran Ceasefire Over (Rusty Weiss)
• Trump Says US-Iran Ceasefire Is Over, Going To Hit Them Hard Tonight’ (ZH)
• New Strikes On Iran Significantly Stronger Than Earlier Attacks (ZH)
• You’re Just Going to Have to Kill Them or Walk Away From Iran (Derek Hunter)
• Bill Clinton Advisor Warns of Socialist Takeover (ZH)
• Just 43% of Americans Believe NATO Would Assist If US Were Attacked (Anzalone)
• Carney and Zelensky Announce New Canadian Bank for Money Laundering (CTH)
• Europe Replacing US as NATO’s Main Anti-Russia Actor – Trenin (RT)
• ‘You’re Playing With Fire,’ RT Editor-in-Chief Warns Europe (RT)
• Polish MEP Tears Up Ukrainian Nazi Collaborator Flag At EU Parliament (RT)
• Zelensky In Ankara Still Insistent On Ukraine Joining NATO (ZH)
• America’s Factory Floor Is Still Its Greatest Superpower (David Manney)

 


 

https://twitter.com/mitchellvii/status/2074589312201396605?s=20]

 


 


Whenever the Iranians don’t feel so good. they say stuff like this. It’s very recognizable.

“He (Trump) will certainly lose both the Strait of Hormuz and the negotiations over a final agreement,” said the source. “The choice is now his.”

• IIran Hits Back, Launching Missiles On Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar (ZH)

Iranian Retaliation: Air Defenses Active Over Bahrain, Kuwait
Nearing 5am Tehran time, and there are incoming reports of Iranian retaliation against Gulf states, which it seems is set to become a predictable pattern – after hours ago the US launched fresh airstrikes on Iranian island and coastal areas near the Hormuz Strait. According to developing reports via AFP and other sources:


Explosions heard in Bahrain after air raid sirens: AFP
Kuwait says responding to ‘hostile’ missile, drone attacks
U.S. forces struck two railway bridges in northern Iran with cruise missiles—the first U.S. attack on Iranian infrastructure since the April 8 ceasefire.
Reports (unconfirmed) also suggest that missiles are being fired on Qatar – which hasn’t happened in quite a while. Iran has reportedly launched ballistic missiles at the US Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, in a first since early March.

Meanwhile, the view from Russia on two war theatres escalating once again, and at the same time…

Trump Tells NATO Summit Iranians Want To Assassinate Him
President Trump while giving a closing address at the end of the NATO summit in Ankara repeatedly claimed that Iran was plotting to assassinate him, saying he was “on every single one of their list.” He claimed: “They want to take out the US Leader. I’m on every single one of their list. So far, I’ve had a bit of luck, but maybe it won’t last. They’re evil and sick people, and we must get rid of this cancer.”

He suggested that it’s time to “finish the job” and yet at other times while fielding questions from reporters shied away from laying out anything that sounds like regime change. Instead he opted to again talk about how the US can never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. He again stressed that “lunatics” can never have a nuclear weapon.

On the claimed assassination plot, it’s unclear whether he has something specific in mind, in terms of a recent statement from the Iranian government. He could be referencing media reports from earlier this week quoting mourners and speakers at Khamenei’s funeral. For example the following was in a Tuesday Reuters report: As they passed under a bridge, mourners hurled stones at a billboard hung from above showing U.S. President Donald Trump with a bullet aimed at his head. “The U.S. killed our father,” it read. “We won’t let you go!”

As demonstrators set fire to U.S. and British flags, women in black chadors held aloft red placards with the English words “KILL TRUMP” in black letters. Others held aloft posters with the faces of Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, each depicted in the crosshairs of a gunsight, with the words “There will be blood”. Ahead of more potential renewed strikes on Iran tonight, CENTCOM is saying its forces are at the ready:

Iran Threatens To Reclose Strait, as US Military ‘Ready’ to Restart Blockade
Iran has once again threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, according to state broadcaster Press TV on Wednesday, citing an Iranian official. Iran is of course planning strait only under its own arrangements, or a protocol involving collection of fees and utilizing a designated route close to its coast, “as per the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).” The Iranian official further warned the military stands ready to “strike at least twice the number of targets hit” in response to any strikes by the United States. “The developments of the past 48 hours show Iran won’t back down from managing the Hormuz,” the source noted.

“The U.S. military stands ready to restart the blockade of ships to and from Iranian ports if ordered to do so, a U.S. official tells Fox News”, Fox’s Friden reports. “Iran suspends talks on a final settlement with the United States”, TASS reports citing an Iranian source. “Any threat will receive a powerful response,” the official was quoted in Press TV as saying, and warned further that the Islamic Republic’s armed forces do “not distinguish between the United States and its partners in the region.” The official warned Trump that the US “will gain nothing” from making such threats.

“He (Trump) will certainly lose both the Strait of Hormuz and the negotiations over a final agreement,” said the source. “The choice is now his.” Meanwhile…

Read more …

“And if they had a nuclear weapon, they’d use it.”

• They’re Scum’—Furious Trump Explodes, Declares Iran Ceasefire Over (Rusty Weiss)

‘President Trump on Wednesday declared the ceasefire with Iran over, saying he’s done negotiating with its leaders, who he described as “scum,” “liars,” “cheats,” and “sick people” he no longer wants to negotiate with. Trump’s acrimonious comments come after the U.S. carried out airstrikes on more than 80 Iranian targets in retaliation for attacks on commercial ships in the region. Speaking to reporters in Ankara, Turkey, the President made little effort to hold back his thoughts on the people he has been dealing with in the rogue nation.


He was prompted by a reporter who asked, “Is the ceasefire done? Is the MOU dead?” “To me, I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them anymore, but they’re scum. You know what scum is? They’re scum, they’re sick people, they’re led by sick people, and they’re vicious, violent people,” he responded. “And if they had a nuclear weapon, they’d use it.” “As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.”

The comments come just weeks after a preliminary agreement aimed at easing tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, but Trump made it clear he now views the entire effort as a waste. The President said he would discuss further plans with his team of negotiators but expressed skepticism that any movement would be made in dealing with “a bunch of lying guys.” “I don’t like them at all,” he fumed. “And, frankly, I think we waste a lot of time with them. I think we should just do our business. Can you imagine they start shooting bombs, actually missiles at ships yesterday, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, couple of others?” “

They’re liars,” he continued, before explaining the negotiating process with a mendacious regime. “We make a deal. Everyone’s agreed, no nuclear weapons. We make a deal. They go outside, talk to the press, they say, ‘We never even talked about it.'” “They’re liars, they’re cheats, they’re sick people, they’ve hurt their people,” Trump added. “They killed 54,000 people as of now that were protesting.”

“I told them, every time you hit, we hit. And of course, they’re dirty players.” “They’ve kiIIed thousands and thousands of our soldiers. They’ve kiIIed hundreds of thousands of innocent people.” Iran violated a fragile ceasefire by firing missiles at three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday and Tuesday, prompting swift U.S. retaliation. In response, the Trump administration revoked a key license allowing Iran to sell its oil on the global market, with CENTCOM launching powerful strikes on over 80 Iranian targets to impose “heavy costs” for attacking civilian shipping.

President Trump and U.S. officials described the Iranian actions as a clear breach of the agreement, declaring they will no longer tolerate such aggression. These incidents have made the shaky nature of any deal with the mullahs crystal clear. With the regime once again proving it cannot be trusted, President Trump appears ready to abandon negotiations entirely in favor of decisive American military strength.= Iran’s lead negotiator, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, issued a statement Wednesday declaring: “The era of bullying and extortion is over. It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”

Neither do we.

Read more …

Trump: “Probably Hit Iran Tonight”

• Trump Says US-Iran Ceasefire Is Over, Going To Hit Them Hard Tonight’ (ZH)

After earlier saying from the NATO summit in Ankara that the Iran ceasefire is “over” – and amid fears of renewal of full-scale war given that Tehran has launched drone and missile attacks on nearby American allies Kuwait and Bahrain once again, President Trump said on Wednesday that he would “probably hit Iran tonight”. He issued the major threat and warning during a press conference at the NATO summit: “I’ll give a little warning: We’re going to hit them hard tonight,” he told reporters just before his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He later lambasted Iran for “killing soldiers, killing people for 47 years,” and that because of that, the US has “a score to settle.” He added: “We may just do it without a deal.”


He also sought to once again explain his view that it’s not about regime change, but about the nuclear issue. Geopolitical news source DropSite is pushing back against some of Trump’s newest claims, particularly that Iranians security services gunned down “54,000 protesters” during the January economic protests, commenting:Trump today claimed Iran’s revolutionary regime killed 54,000 protesters at the start of the year, inflating the 40,000 figure he repeated through much of the US-Israeli war to justify and build support for U.S. action. There is no evidence for either figure.

HRANA, which has received U.S. funding, documented about 7,000 deaths, including many Iranian security and police. Iran puts the death toll just above 3,100 and says rioters killed civilians during protests that were overtaken by Israel- and U.S.-backed armed elements. Scores of videos from the January 2026 riots show armed men destroying mosques and government buildings and carrying out vigilante killings of security personnel.

Meanwhile, it’s not a war, Trump has repeated… but what’s next and what is the ultimate endgame here? Is there a coherent strategy yet? Trump further on Wednesday, while speaking alongside Zelensky and fielding questions, floated that “if we have to we will take out higher level targets” – and that “we may take over Kharg Island”. He again admitted the Iran deal may not stick, after the US “knocked out 28 boats last night”. He further warned that US forces will probably take out more boats tonight.

TRUMP, ON ATTACKS TONIGHT: NOT A THING IRAN CAN DO ABOUT IT TRUMP:WOULD HATE TO STRIKE DESALINATION PLANTS, BUT MAY HAVE TO TRUMP: WE MAY PUT DOWN THE BLOCKADE ON IRAN TRUMP: BLOCKADE WOULD ONLY APPLY TO IRAN

Brent crude futures jumped more than 6% in London after President Trump told reporters at a press conference in Ankara that the tentative ceasefire with Iran is over. “To me, I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them anymore; they’re scum,” Trump told reporters.

Trump’s remarks came after Iran launched missiles and kamikaze drones at several merchant vessels in the Hormuz chokepoint on Tuesday. This was countered by overnight US strikes, as fears of conflict erupting once more are on the rise. However, Trump stopped short of saying the U.S. would restart the war and said he would let talks continue if the parties were willing. In European trade, front-month Brent crude futures jumped 6% to $78.63 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate rose 6.2% to $74.85 a barrel. Natural gas prices rose as well, with the benchmark Dutch TTF contract up 4.8% to 49.04 euros per megawatt-hour.

Hours before the strikes, the US Treasury revoked a sanctions waiver that had allowed Tehran to sell oil, reversing a key element of the interim deal. Trump also told reporters that he would continue to let his negotiators talk to Tehran, though he thought “they’re wasting their time.” On Tuesday afternoon, the Joint Maritime Information Center upgraded the Hormuz risk rating to “Severe” after three tankers were targeted by Iran. This renewed uncertainty in the critical waterway will only pressure the normalization of vessel flows.

Read more …

‘Four to Five Times Larger’ Than Earlier Strikes.‘

• New Strikes On Iran Significantly Stronger Than Earlier Attacks (ZH)

US officials are vowing bigger, more sustained and prolonged strikes against Iran tonight, according to the latest being reported in CNN and Axios: The U.S. has launched a significantly expanded wave of airstrikes on Iran that is four to five times larger than the strikes carried out 10 days ago, a U.S. official told Axios. The official said the operation is expected to continue for hours. Iran state media is meanwhile reporting on an initial retaliation by its forces (though not initially confirmed in other international sources):

Iran fires several anti-ship missiles and drones towards US Navy warships in the Sea of Oman, Fars reports More from state media on what could be mounting civilian casualties: The state broadcaster reports that “most of the attacks” by the US in southern Iran have “targeted civilian areas”. This comes as the US claims its military hit Iranian missile and defence systems in its latest attacks.

Iran’s president is hastily traveling back to the Islamic Republic, cutting short funeral observances for Khamenei among Shia communities in Iraq: “Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has left the Iraqi city of Najaf to return to Tehran, according to the IRIB broadcaster, following the US’s latest strikes. Pezeshkian had been in Iraq to attend funeral rites for Khamenei, whose body had arrived in Najaf on Tuesday night. According to Press TV, Pezeshkian had also planned to hold high-level talks with Iraqi government officials.”

Read more …

Not the people, but the ”leaders”.

• You’re Just Going to Have to Kill Them or Walk Away From Iran (Derek Hunter)

In late 2003, if you’d sat across the table from a team of negotiators from Al Qaeda to work out some kind of deal to end hostilities, what could have possibly come from it? The answer is nothing, because there is no compromise with someone whose position is that they want you dead. Where’s the middle ground with that – can you be half-dead? Are you willing to lose a limb or two to get peace?


Of course not, that’s stupid. Al Qaeda wanted all Americans dead, so the only “solution” to their existence was to either work to contain them so attacking us would be harder and less frequent, or to kill them all. Thankfully, President George W. Bush opted to kill them all, then set about killing as many of them as humanly possible. He ignored the whining of Democrats who wanted to arrest them, give them lawyers and trials, and (for the most part) left the sorting them out part to God.

Iran is pretty much the same situation, with the only differences breaking down to them having some semblance of a government, their own currency, and sympathetic client states who want to keep them afloat because of the way they are a disruptive force in the world and a thorn in the side of civilization.

Whatever remains of a government in Iran has no interest in cutting a “deal” with the United States. They don’t need us; they make money and gain power by poking us. Their “demand” that for no peache negotiations rang hollow as their weeks-long funeral for the dead former leader was punctuated by their launching drones against ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Radical Islamists always demand “holy days” and “holy months” off from fighting, and every other day or month seems to have some kind of “holy” designation to it. But it never stops terrorist attacks. Weird, isn’t it?

Iran has no interest in a deal because they don’t need one. The appeals to a “booming economy” Iran could have if they chose peace mean nothing, as the leaders of the country are fine and always will be – they take what they want, and the average Iranian suffers. If there’s less in the country, as there has been for decades, they still get theirs. No Mafia don ever told their underlings to be understanding if someone paying “protection” was a little short sometimes, as downturns happen. No, they’d break the guy’s arm and take everything he had, leaving him with nothing and charging him interest on the difference he couldn’t cover. That’s how Iran works internally.

There is no carrot on a stick that will change their behavior because they’re lousy with carrots. The people are the ones without vegetables, and they don’t care about the people.,The only options are to bomb the hell out of them, leaving not a stone unbombed, or leave them alone. You either have to kill them, or they stay the way they’ve always been. The only other option, the one I believe might change the path of Iranian history, is to tell our allies in the area that they are free to take as big or small a piece of Iran as they want – Persia is a region and has always existed; the country of Iran has not and does not need to. Let its neighbors take pieces and rule them.

They’d go for the oil and the ports; we’d provide air cover, and that would really choke off the government. It would also have the benefit of scaring the hell out of these leaders. They know we won’t torture them; we’d give them three hot meals and a cot and access to a jury of Democrats who’d likely cheer them for 47 years of killing Americans. Their neighbors, against whom they’ve funded terror for five decades, wouldn’t be so nice. The Iranian leadership would know what being captured by them would likely mean, and it isn’t pretty. Maybe THAT would get them to negotiate in good faith, because nothing else will. Drop guns to the freedom-minded, too, and level anywhere a government official might be hiding, unleash the region, or cut bait.

These aren’t rational people; they aren’t motivated by things that motivate normal people. It’s time to recognize that and choose a path forward based on that reality.

Read more …

“.. one increasingly defined by anti-American rhetoric, hostility toward capitalism, support for foreign adversaries, calls to abolish jails, race-based politics and, of course, utter disdain for the Constitution.”

• Bill Clinton Advisor Warns of Socialist Takeover (ZH)

Mark Penn, the former chief White House pollster and strategic advisor to President Bill Clinton for six years, used a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “The Socialist Threat Is Real” to warn that far-left radicals are hijacking the Democratic Party.


The problem for Democrats is that years of letting socialists and Marxists into their DEI kingdom have only now produced dire consequences. Status quo Democrats are watching their power evaporate as Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidates defeat mainstream Democrats in primaries across New York, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and other states. Penn’s warning was blunt: “America will be in serious trouble if Democrats fail to defend their party.”

“This ‘revolution’ is driven not by the working class but by the urban professional class that is willing to support candidates who celebrate 9/11, cheer at the massacre of 1,000 Israeli and American kids, would defund the police, abolish prisons, end private property and open the borders,” Penn explained. Penn and his fellow status quo party members are watching in real time as their party transforms almost overnight from one once built around labor, civil rights and working-class citizens into one increasingly defined by anti-American rhetoric, hostility toward capitalism, support for foreign adversaries, calls to abolish jails, race-based politics and, of course, utter disdain for the Constitution.

What DSA stands for:

Our latest profiling of the new Democratic Party appears to show how DSA-ers are far detached from traditional American values and openly hostile to the country’s founding institutions:

Meet the new Democratic Party:

Meet the unofficial DSA spokesman:

Penn’s op-ed then called for immediate investigations into the DSA to determine whether the socialists are “being funded by foreign governments and interests.” He said, “Lawmakers, law-enforcement agencies and journalists should investigate the DSA to see if it is being funded by foreign governments and interests.”

Read more …

“Many Americans argued that NATO providing billions of dollars of assistance to non-member Ukraine unnecessarily created tensions with Russia.”

• Just 43% of Americans Believe NATO Would Assist If US Were Attacked (Anzalone)

Most Americans do not believe that European members of the North Atlantic Alliance would come to the United States’ aid if attacked. Politico reported that a NATO poll found that just 43% of Americans believe the bloc would assist the US if needed. While Politico was unable to view survey results from previous years, a NATO official said that American confidence in the bloc was down about eight percent.


The foundation of NATO is Article 5 of the bloc’s charter. Article 5 is viewed as a mutual defense pact that calls on each member to come to the aid of any state that is attacked. In recent years, Americans have begun to question the United States’ membership in the bloc. Americans have long pointed to the US footing the majority of the alliance’s military spending. The drift away from supporting NATO intensified when the bloc backed Ukraine in the war against Russia. Many Americans argued that NATO providing billions of dollars of assistance to non-member Ukraine unnecessarily created tensions with Russia.

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently criticized the alliance over Europe’s lack of assistance in the war against Iran: President Donald Trump declined Tuesday to say whether he plans to announce additional US troop reductions in Europe, telling reporters, “we’re going to see,” during a bilateral meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara.

“Well, we’re going to see,” Trump said when asked whether he is likely to announce further drawdowns of US forces in Europe. The US president also renewed his criticism of NATO, suggesting he had considered skipping the summit altogether. Trump is meeting other NATO leaders in Turkey this week, where he is expected to push member states to increase military spending.

Ahead of the summit, NATO Ambassador Matthew Whitaker downplayed the tensions between Washington and the bloc as growing pains. “The target is that Europe takes over the conventional defense of the European continent. We’re not going away, we’re just doing less.” He added, “I see these as just the challenges that we’ve worked through before.”

Read more …

“Defense, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB). CANADA”

“.. a NEW BANK (DRSB) controlled by Mark Carney, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and likely Chrystia Freeland, and funded (at least in part) by Canadian taxpayer money flowing to Ukraine. All other nations within DRSB providing the patina of credibility to hide the laundry.”

• Carney and Zelensky Announce New Canadian Bank for Money Laundering (CTH)

WOW…=Things are coming together quickly now as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney begins unveiling details to support his illusion of meeting NATO obligations, with a smart money laundering assist from Volodymyr Zelenskyy. To establish part of the background, remind yourself that former Canadian Minister Chrystia Freeland was appointed by Zelenskyy to lead a Ukraine redevelopment operation. Today, speaking from Ankara, Turkey, Carney and Zelenskyy announced a $900 million fund for short, mid-term and long-term investment in Ukraine.



But wait, it gets much better. A few hours later Prime Minister Carney and Volodymr Zelenskyy announced a new Canada-based financial institution called the Defense, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB). CANADA – […] “Mark Carney, welcomed the support for the Canada-led DSRB by: Albania, Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Romania, Türkiye, and Ukraine. These countries will be entrusted with defining the initial policies and directives of the Bank, shaping its operations and ensuring benefits flow to members’ economies.”

[…] Leveraging a strong credit rating, the Bank will provide long-term, low-cost financing for defence, security, and resilience initiatives across supply chains.” When you see the term “resilience initiatives” think climate change. Specifically, think carbon capture and carbon trading mechanisms. The DSRB banking approach, in combination with Chrystia Freeland heading the Ukraine Economic Development operation, then takes us to the carbon capture deal with Alberta [carbon capture and storage (CCS) project] and then, wait for it,…. The TKMS submarine purchase contract with Germany.

You see, unbeknownst to most people, TKMS has a subsidiary that was just founded, literally just founded weeks before Carney announced the $20 to $30 billion submarine contract. In announcing the TKMS contract, CBC noted: “The German government also proposed establishing a carbon capture facility deploying TKMS technology in partnership with Alberta.” That would be TKMS Calvion GmbH (TKMS-CG) which was a company formed within TKMS on May 16, 2026.

So, think about this. Mark Carney tells Alberta Premier Danielle Smith that a condition for the Alberta pipeline is authorization of a carbon capture scheme that will be contracted to the recently created subsidiary of TKMS, TKMS-CG. who Carney knows is about to get the submarine contract. Pretty slick. All of this spending (military and resilience initiatives) then becomes part of Canada meeting their NATO obligations, which will be wrapped into a NEW BANK (DRSB) controlled by Mark Carney, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and likely Chrystia Freeland, and funded (at least in part) by Canadian taxpayer money flowing to Ukraine. All other nations within DRSB providing the patina of credibility to hide the laundry.

The “private sector” investments, noted within the banking charter, will almost certainly stem from companies like TKMS and TKMS-CG, who will create a circular process. Taxpayer funds to TKMS. TKMS funds to bank. Bank funds to TKMS-CG. With Carney, Zelenskyy and Freeland prepositioning investments ahead of the arrival of deposits.

Brilliant.

Here’s a great video recap that was created before the $900 million and DRSB bank announcement, and when you add in those two components it all makes sense. Information packed 20 minutes.

Read more …

European elites view the Ukraine conflict as an opportunity to settle old scores with Moscow, Dmitry Trenin says

• Europe Replacing US as NATO’s Main Anti-Russia Actor – Trenin (RT)

European NATO members have become the main driving force behind the bloc’s confrontation with Russia as US strategic priorities have shifted, Dmitry Trenin, the president of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), wrote in an op-ed for RT. He argued that some European politicians view the Ukraine conflict as an opportunity to settle old scores with Russia. “The European elites’ strategy toward Russia is no longer deterrence as in the days of the Cold War. The goal is Russia’s destruction as a major power. This is what strategic defeat is all about,” Trenin wrote.


“The Europeans dream of eliminating Russia as a serious factor in the geopolitics of Eurasia. To them, this would mean the ‘final solution’ of the long-dreaded ‘Russia problem.’” Trenin argued that European governments are using the ‘enemy at the gates’ narrative as a tool to brand any opposition as ‘Kremlin stooges’, while increased defense spending due to the supposed ‘Russian threat’ is presented as a way to revive struggling European economies. “People in Moscow entertain no illusions about the adversarial attitude of the United States toward Russia, but Washington now is a back-seat driver when it comes to the conflict with Russia,” he wrote, adding that Moscow sees NATO as “Europe backed by America.”

After returning to the White House last year, US President Donald Trump pushed NATO members to commit to spending 5% of GDP on defense annually by 2035, criticizing European allies for what he called a failure to share the burden. The rift deepened when several member states refused to back Trump’s military operation against Iran. While Trump has attempted to broker a peace deal between Moscow and Kiev, European countries have adopted a hardline stance, insisting that an agreement must be reached on Ukraine’s terms. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said last year that diplomacy has been exhausted; EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas urged Trump not to fall into a ‘Russian trap’.

Russia has dismissed speculation that it plans to invade NATO countries, saying it would respond militarily only if attacked first. Last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described Europe as “a party bent on Russia’s defeat.”

Read more …

Can’t show it to you. EU bans RT. One of the best ews channels around highly intelligent lady.

• ‘You’re Playing With Fire,’ RT Editor-in-Chief Warns Europe (RT)

Europe is “playing with fire” as it assists Ukraine in strikes deep into Russia, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan has said, warning Kiev’s Western backers that Moscow may have no other choice other than to respond with force. In a lengthy interview with Die Weltwoche’s Roger Koeppel on Wednesday,Simonyan said, “it is not Ukraine that is bringing the war to Moscow” but rather Europe, as Kiev is incapable of conducting attacks without foreign aid and intelligence.


Simonyan warned that Moscow’s patience is running thin as drones, missiles, flight disruptions, and fuel shortages increasingly affect civilians in Russia. “People are afraid to sleep at night… Where is the limit of this hardship, when the people will say, ‘Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin], we have to respond! I don’t know, but I think it is very close. Very close. Right now, you are playing with fire.”

Read more …

“The UPA, the armed wing of Stepan Bandera’s Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II ..”

• Polish MEP Tears Up Ukrainian Nazi Collaborator Flag At EU Parliament (RT)

A Polish member of the European Parliament has publicly torn up a flag of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) – whose fighters massacred up to 100,000 ethnic Poles in one of World War II’s worst atrocities – during a debate on Kiev’s bid to join the EU. On Tuesday, Ewa Zajaczkowska-Hernik, a member of the right-wing Patriots for Europe Group and a history teacher by training, delivered a scathing indictment of Ukraine’s glorification of the UPA. The speech came against the backdrop of a weeks-long diplomatic spat between Warsaw and Kiev triggered by Vladimir Zelensky’s decision to name a special forces unit ‘Heroes of the UPA’.


Polish President Karol Nawrocki called Zelensky’s decision “outrageous” and stripped the Ukrainian leader of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest honor, with several senior Ukrainian officials responding by handing back their Polish awards. The UPA, the armed wing of Stepan Bandera’s Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II and carried out systematic mass killings of ethnic minorities, with one of the most notorious episodes taking place in Volhynia in 1943-1944. While Poland recognizes the killings as a genocide, Ukraine has rejected the term, with Bandera often being propagated as a national hero by Kiev.

Zajaczkowska-Hernik focused her speech on the UPA war crimes record, stressing that a country worshipping such an organization does not belong in the EU. “Over 360 ways to kill civilians. Sawing people alive, disemboweling pregnant women, impaling children on pitchforks”, she said, adding that Ukrainian nationalists killed not only Jews and Poles but also local Ukrainians.

“If Germany had named a unit after the SS heroes and erected monuments to Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, or Eichmann, would you invite them to the [European] Union? No. You would call them neo-Nazis. And rightly so. There is no moral difference between honoring the SS and honoring the UPA.”

The MEP also took aim at the EU’s own June report on Ukraine’s accession bid, noting that while it included chapters on fundamental rights and non-discrimination, it made no mention of the glorification of wartime collaboration or genocide. “The report on Ukraine is silent on this topic,” Zajaczkowska-Hernik said. “It is the silence that kills the memory of the victims of the genocide in Volhynia and the Eastern Borderlands for the second time.”

Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz also warned last week that Ukraine will not join the EU as long as it continues to venerate Bandera and the OUN-UPA, adding that “no one will tell us how to vote” on another state’s accession. In a bid to contain the fallout, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sibiga flew to Warsaw last week to meet his Polish counterpart, Radoslaw Sikorski, proposing an “anti-crisis package” that includes historic roundtables, while stressing that Ukraine and Poland “share a common enemy, Russia.” Sikorski responded cautiously, saying that “diplomacy prefers silence,” while his deputy, Marcin Bosacki, made clear that Warsaw “expects a correction” of the UPA unit designation.

Read more …

‘Alliance For The Future’

If Ukraine joins, it’s the end of NATO. You can’t invite a country at war, for one thing.

• Zelensky In Ankara Still Insistent On Ukraine Joining NATO (ZH)

:President Volodymyr Zelensky is in full court press mode while being present in Ankara for the annual NATO summit, amid Western leaders including President Trump. He has predictably renewed his argument for Ukraine to join the North Atlantic alliance, while also touting some momentum on the battlefield as Russia comes under repeat long-range drone attacks. Zelensky thanked leaders “who have clearly stated Ukraine belongs in NATO, because NATO with Ukraine is the alliance for the future” – and then posed in Tuesday remarks, “I have a question for you. Do you really believe it? Do you really believe it would be right to leave outside NATO, a country and a people with this level of defensive capability?”


He argued further: “If we already have these capabilities, if Ukrainians already know how to fight like this, then it does make sense for these capabilities to become a part of the alliance’s collective defense that would make all of us stronger.” Ukraine has been boasting of its premier drone capabilities, which it says is now clearly proven on the battlefield, but has also admitted that Ukraine needs assistance matching Russia’s ballistic capabilities. Zelensky said “Europe urgently needs its own capability to produce anti-ballistic systems and the missiles they require.”

He added: “The one thing we still need to do here in Europe is build a strong defense against Russia’s ballistic missiles. It’s a big challenge… this is Russia’s last major advantage.” It’s interesting that Zelensky is arguing that his country should become a full-fledged NATO member based on already in effect being militarily integrated. This was one of the Kremlin’s very rationales for launching the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine in the first place. Also interesting is that Moscow is now referencing it as a ‘war’ on a much more official level…

Peskov via Russian state media sources:”Russia still has as a main front-and-center demand that Ukraine definitively and permanently reject aspirations to join NATO. Moscow also still requires full political recognition over the four eastern annexed oblasts, as well as Crimea. Western officials have still been reluctant to fully back some kind of rapid NATO membership track for Ukraine, knowing it would take the Ukraine crisis from more of a proxy war situation strait into WW3-style direct war between Russia and NATO.”

Read more …

“The factory floor” will change hugely, and soon. Through AI, etc. Will there be people left?

But I see little indication that this will make America’s factory floor fall behind.

I do see that in Europe.

• America’s Factory Floor Is Still Its Greatest Superpower (David Manney)

America’s enemies have never feared our committee hearings; they fear the sound of American factories waking up. A nation that builds its own medicine, chips, ships, steel, tools, trucks, and energy systems is harder to bully, starve, and much harder to beat. The latest manufacturing numbers offer a reminder the country needed: the factory floor is still one of America’s truest sources of power. U.S. manufacturing slightly cooled in June, but the bigger story still holds. The Institute for Supply Management said its Manufacturing PMI registered 53.3 in June after May hit 94.0, the highest reading since May 2022. Readings above 50 show expansion, and June marked the sixth straight month of growth. New orders also stayed in expansion at 56.0.


S&P Global’s June manufacturing PMI told a similar story, even after a downward revision. Its index registered 53.9, down from 55.1 in May, but still in expansion for the 11th straight month. Output growth slowed from May’s surge, while firms still reported better operating conditions. America isn’t out of the woods, and factory hiring remains uneven, but the direction is better than the defeatists want to admit. The Federal Reserve added a caution light: manufacturing output was unchanged in May after rising 0.7% in April, while overall industrial production edged up 0.1%. Capacity utilization sat at 76.2%, below its long-run average.

In other words, the machine is running, but it still has room to run even harder. America has seen this before. Isoruku Yamamoto, the Japanese admiral who planned the Pearl Harbor attack, understood the danger of waking American industry. The famous “sleeping giant” line is difficult to prove, but the underlying fear was real. Yamamoto knew Japan needed early victories because a long war against U.S. production would become a nightmare. American yards, plants, rail lines, and workers turned distance and raw material into a war-winning force. Manufacturing isn’t nostalgia; it’s sovereignty with grease under its nails. During COVID, Americans learned what happens when a great country depends on distant supply chains for masks, medicines, parts, and basic goods.

The lesson wasn’t complicated: a country that can’t build what it needs has to beg, borrow, or steal whenever it can. President Donald Trump has made domestic production a central part of his economic message, and companies are responding in areas that count. The piece in The Daily Torch points to investment promises in pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, electrical equipment, and other critical goods. U.S. manufacturing is rising across a multitude of critical industries including petroleum, computers and electronics, mineral products, electrical equipment, machinery, appliances, transportation equipment, printing, textile mills, and food and beverages.

The manufacturing boom is a result of President Donald Trump’s two-pronged economic approach to court companies with reduced corporate tax burdens signed into law with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act while making importing goods from foreign countries costly. Speaking at a campaign stop in a Mack Trucks facility in Macungie, Pa. on June 23, President Trump touted manufacturing’s impact on job creation, “[M]ore Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country. And we’ve created over… 32,000 new jobs just starting in Pennsylvania alone. David, you have to get ready for that. And in the last few months alone, we’ve added 2,600 Pennsylvania manufacturing jobs. And that number is going to go much, much higher as the factories start to open.”

The approach is working, with U.S. manufacturing reaching a four-year high in May. Companies are committing to expanding the creation of products like prescription drugs, semiconductors, safe electrical equipment, and many more products on American soil as a result of the strategy. Some of those pledges will take years to prove out. The test isn’t the press release; the test is whether concrete gets poured, machines get installed, and people get hired. Washington should remember its proper place. It can secure the border, protect trade rules, keep taxes sane, cut permitting delays, open energy, and stop smothering employers with paperwork.

America can’t bureaucrat itself into prosperity; the free market builds because owners, investors, engineers, machinists, welders, truckers, and buyers make millions of hard choices every day. The left often treats manufacturing like a museum exhibit or a union postcard. It’s neither. It’s the hard center of national independence. If America keeps rebuilding its industrial base, our allies will trust us more, our enemies will think twice, and our own people will have work that makes something real. The factory floor never stopped being America’s superpower. It only needed room to breathe.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/ns123abc/status/2074604203180208524?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Home › Forums › Debt Rattle July 9 2026

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  • July 9, 2026 at 10:04 am #244421
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

    Vincent van Gogh Vase with Daisies and Anemones 1887 • IIran Hits Back, Launching Missiles On Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar (ZH) • They’re Scum’—Furious Trum
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle July 9 2026]

    July 9, 2026 at 10:22 am #244446
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Russia’s Oil Windfall Vanishes As Urals Crashes To $42 A Barrel

    “Oil prices rise after report of Iranian attack on commercial ships in Strait of Hormuz” –CNBC

    So oil went both up and down. Thanks.

    Pepe: So was it $50 Million dollars a barrel for oil now? Or was it $50/bbl in Russian delivery price?

    A: No one cares. At all. What the Reality is. They’ll just make up any price, any facts, any words to win on the Internets.
    You DO know the Iran war is still going on, and they’re lobbing TNT in the Straits daily, right? So this is its highest POSSIBLE price.

    “Iran Hits Back, Launching Missiles On Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar – Ignoring Trump’s Warning Of “Much Worse” Bombing (After the previous)

    US Oil is $72. Way below 2012, a 2014 price. What else cost what it did in 2012? Cars? Rent? Hot dogs? We should inflation-adjust it and it would be $65/bbl comp.

    Apparently Mitch McConnell has been unconscious? How could anyone tell? Isn’t that the Resting state of the domestic wild Republican? His wife then consulted with China to get her new orders? Again, as any average Republican would.

    “International Olympic Committee Lifts Suspension, Russians To Compete At LA Games
    “We don’t want to hold athletes accountable for the actions of their government.”

    What a pleasant and amazing change. Whatever brought this on? We all know you’re the most political body on earth and always convict whole teams of innocents without even pretense of trial.

    “The NYT Sat On The Rape Allegations Against Platner Last Month: Always helping their own…

    NYT: never a rape they don’t like, or an innocent guy they won’t accuse of it. Who will it be this week? Do they keep a stack of photos and a dart board to help decide?

    “”I-Beams Bending Like Cigarettes”: Former Pfizer HQ Tower In Midtown At Risk Of Collapse

    Since apparently even Japan lies entirely about their steel and has no standards at all, I can only image what the other shops are like. This is a “Low Trust” society. Tired of it yet? Keep your promises, but to help you out, we’ll also sue the pants off you if you don’t. …And that means we need govt to be trust-able as well.

    “Meet The New Democratic Party: Socialists Say The Quiet Part Out Loud, Want To “Destroy America From Within”

    I think you should let them and see how they like it. Like let them take over a mid sized city and school board and have to contract to live it out for themselves and all of us for 12+ years. I say we have open season on them if anything goes wrong. Like those quarter machines at the carnival, crossed with a dunking booth? If they go in, it’s filled with alligators and electric eels. We the public get to add quarters according to how mad we are or how well they’re doing. Pay per View + Cage Match.

    ““The target is that Europe takes over the conventional defense of the European continent.”

    From whom? What if they were invaded with 20M military-age fighting men. What would they do? Give them free houses, extravagant monthly pay, and free health care? Would you build them that new airport back in Pakistan on the British tax bill? Can you imagine what they would do if the immigrants bothered to ask or had guns? Needless to say: I totally, totally trust you with this, the defense of Europe. I see no reason to doubt you so far. In fact, here’s the keys to the Five Eyes! Read all you want!

    “Spain: 70% Of Tested ‘Unaccompanied Minor’ Immigrants Are Actually Adults

    Bone testing from across Europe has revealed migrants are lying about their age in massive numbers, all due to specific advantages for “minors,”

    Yes, to go to school with 15 year old girls where 15 year old boys are no threat to them. And clearly the teachers aren’t if they let them in in the first place.

    “Trump Greenlights Patriot Missile Production In Ukraine, Praises Deep Strikes Into Russia
    “It’s an escalation but it’s also an escalation that can help lead to an end [of the war].”

    This is firmly contrary to my narrative. Yes, I see it.

    “Trump To Delist Syria From Terror Designation, Boasts Of Putting ‘Fantastic’ Sharaa In Power

    Do not understand this. Apparently no one does. It is Realpolitik tho. Syria is not a terrorist state but most nation states aren’t: they’re just acts of war. Israel is one of the few that could fall firmly in “Acting to cause terror alone” camp. Syria is not taking small violent actions outside their borders now, so good. But then, they never did. It was U.S. Bulls—t, but look who was running our policy then. “Then” being from 1963 or 1949 to almost yesterday.

    They lose their panties over this guy being an ISIS guy – which he is – But that means he isn’t real at all, works for “The West” (Who?), and is a better person than Mitch McConnell for example, among Americans. Don’t worry about the other guy: pay attention and fix yourself.

    “US Navy Backs 3,800 MPH-Speeding Blackbeard Hypersonic Missile With First Contract

    Has it ever flown? And is Mach 5 “Hypersonic”? I didn’t think so at all, maybe we should make a definition: planes go Mach 2, so 5 doesn’t seem very fast.

    “Canada Considered Suing Citizens Over “False And Misleading” Social Media Posts

    Europe is going to take all phones, all data, all speech ever, with total control and surveillance. If you hadn’t guessed. So Canada will do this about one day after.

    So if you want no normal nation to ever visit, and for no business to want to deal with that, travel there, interact with you because of very real and fatal liability, go ahead. The North Korea of Europe. I’m going to fly into a merger or project meeting in London or Belgium when I have a good chance of being arrested at the window? And they’re going to take all the corporate espionage data and hand it to Bosch and Santander? Yeah, no thanks. All business stops. Iron Curtain in months.
    …Which is how the original one was made: financially.

    And so thus with Canada. You think you can prosper with no trade with the U.S.? And you think this is not identical to the Ukraine-Russian relationship? With the same plan? To cut off your news and info then murder 2 Million of you throwing you at Minnesota? Don’t be a punk. This is the dumbest and least Canadian plan in the history of Canada.

    Break off, become a territory, then grab most of the Provinces so Ottawa doesn’t murder you. Then double-cross the United States, decline to become a state again, and become Canada 2.0 without the rapacious dips—ts in Ottawa and T’ronto. Not to say they’re gone, but the normal people of Ontario and historic Canadians take it back from a micro-minority of Liberal Progressives and start manufacturing, mining, and growing canola again.

    I’ll leave this for a second.

    Story, yesterday’s painting: so there’s a reason for VanGogh’s ear that makes a lot more sense. He was hanging around with Paul Gauguin for instance, and drinking a lot, let’s just say it’s him, If you know that kind of thing. So yes, they are ALL lunatics, not just Van Gogh and being drunk and rowdy all the time on absinthe or whatever they got into a fight that was actually a swordfight – again, just goofing around, being reckless again. And VanGogh’s ear was cut off.

    Okay, why? Why lie about it? Well geez, fellows, Gauguin would go to jail. And rightfully so! The fighting is probably illegal and frowned upon, but the injury definitely is! Even though VanGogh is equally responsible. Mostly. But it’s not like you can set up some kind of amazing master plan; somebody’s going to notice the ear missing like, by morning, when y’all sober up. So with that sort of drunken logic, they cook up the prostitute plan with a gal they know, who is probably in on it and doesn’t want Gauguin, a customer, going to jail either. Who does that serve? Like isn’t this penalty enough?

    Thus the story to us today.

    But you see what happened after. It all got dark. They edged away, moved away. Like too much meth, have a come-to Jesus moment here. …But that also did not serve Vince well, ultimately. He needed them, and perhaps a bit loopy to be on his level. Connecting. He didn’t manage the transition.

    Say no to drugs.

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