Pablo Picasso Self portrait 1972
https://twitter.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/2089163652033036680?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2089098406279131198?s=20 https://twitter.com/GrrrGraphics/status/2089031915185766822?s=20TRUMP: “For you to pay a tiny little bit more for your gasoline, just remember you're doing it so that a very evil country cannot have a nuclear weapon … You're at $4/gallon. It's okay. I'll never apologize. I did the right thing.” pic.twitter.com/RzysPLpGVt
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) August 17, 2026
— David L. Burkhead (@DavidLBurkhead) August 17, 2026
Until it’s no longer relevant. Pretty soon.
• Trump Doubles Down On Making Hormuz Strait A US Territory: “A Great Idea” (ZH)
President Trump repeated some of the same old talking points while addressing reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. He asserted that Iran wants to make a deal, but “they’re not going to make the kind of deal that I feel is necessary.” “Look, we’re in there for one reason: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he said. He also doubled down on a prior declaration that he wants to make the Strait of Hormuz a US territory. He said this is “a great idea” – which in effect dispels the notion that when he said it the first time it was mere hyperbole. This is also amid ongoing claims that the US military has “complete control” over the strait.Read more …https://twitter.com/Newsforce/status/2089417487049736536?s=20
Oil spiking amid a hodgepodge of more ‘bad news’ Hormuz headlines, as the Iranians have vowed to go on the ‘offensive’ amid demands that American forces clear out of the region. Fars is currently reporting Iranian forces have seized a UAE oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. US Energy Secretary Wright has meanwhile vowed that the US Navy will continue getting better at escorting approved maritime traffic across. He confirmed “we are not fully back to full oil flow in the Middle East,” according to the Monday comments.
Oman’s role is a little confusing.
• Trump Calls On Iran To Surrender, Threatens Oman Over Strait of Hormuz (AlJ)
United States President Donald Trump has demanded that Iran surrender and threatened to bomb Oman if it interfered with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, as a 60-day ceasefire deal between Washington and Tehran expired without an agreement to end the war. Speaking on Fox News on Monday, Trump said that Iran should “put up the white flag of surrender” in the five-month-long US-Israel war, confirming that his administration had opened a direct backchannel with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He described the IRGC as “good poker players” who are “dying”.Read more …
But he insisted that he was in no rush to end the conflict, which he has lost significant control of and which has hurt his political support ahead of US midterm elections in November, in which Democrats are seeking to retake Congress. “I have no time schedule,” he said. “I’m not in a hurry.” Rather, Trump once again sought to project strength, threatening that he could bomb US ally Oman if it “gets in the way” of a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global oil supplies that Iran has blockaded. “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s*** out of them,” he said during the interview.Strait of Hormuz
Iranian and Omani officials have spent weeks discussing arrangements for maritime navigation through the strait, with Tehran insisting on oversight of shipping in the waterway. Iranian officials say the two sides have reached an agreement on a new shipping route in the strait, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran said earlier on Monday that Iran and Oman were working on a joint declaration. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the proposed mechanism would seek to protect the interests of both Iran and Oman while maintaining commercial shipping.“This is the first time that a mechanism is being developed to simultaneously safeguard the sovereign rights of the two littoral states and ensure the safe passage of commercial vessels,” said Baghaei. Baghaei accused the US and Israel of working to undermine the talks, while adding that the deadlock between Tehran and Washington stemmed not from a shortage of mediators but from the Trump administration’s repeated reliance on approaches that have “failed hundreds of times”.
Baghaei also rejected the significance of the expired deadline, arguing that the memorandum of understanding – which had set 60 days for negotiations on sanctions relief and the nuclear file – had already been rendered void by earlier US violations, meaning talks never properly began. “Due to the gross and widespread violation of the memorandum by the United States just a few weeks after it was signed, no talks were initiated,” Baghaei said, adding that Iran would not be moved by proposed US sanctions, including a reported land blockade.
He linked the current standoff to a longer pattern of hostility dating to the 1953 coup in Iran, arguing that both the “crippling sanctions” imposed under US Democratic administrations and Trump’s first-term “maximum pressure” campaign had failed to alter Tehran’s position. Iran, he said, does not make decisions under pressure.
‘They’re not really negotiating at this point’
The comments are just the latest in the rhetorical tit-for-tat between the US and Iran as mediators continue to try to bring the parties back to the negotiating table. But despite the expiry of the memorandum, neither has signalled a willingness to extend it.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday that Tehran had “not yet made a decision to restart negotiations with the United States”. Trump, meanwhile, claimed on Friday that he would even declare the Strait of Hormuz part of US territory, while Iran retorted that the waterway “will remain Iranian”.Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, said both governments were now making “maximalist” claims with little practical backing. “They’re not really negotiating at this point. They are simply making assertions and hoping the other side backs down,” he said. Clark argued that the US has limited scope to intensify its blockade of Iranian ports without exposing US forces to significant risk, noting that air power alone has never decided a conflict.
He said Washington’s only remaining military option would be to “open the [Strait of Hormuz] and use force to basically protect shipping going through it”, which would require naval and air forces to actively defend commercial traffic, something Washington has so far avoided. Clark predicted that the standoff would ultimately resolve with “the Iranians and the Yemenis controlling the strait with some kind of fee arrangement”, leaving Washington needing “some kind of fig leaf that allows them to at least argue that they’ve resolved it in a way that’s not damaging to US interests”.
Who is who..
• Iran: Shifting from Defensive to ‘Fully Offensive’ (ZH)
This should come as no surprise after the much-publicized military command reshuffle of a week ago, but a top Iranian official has told Reuters that the country is shifting from a defense posture to a “fully offensive” one in its conflict with the United States:Read more …
• Iran has decided to shift its policy from defensive to a “fully offensive” one, a senior Iranian official tells Reuters
• Iran has set a deadline of a few weeks for the full implementation of the MoU by the US, the official says
• All Iranian entities will be prepared to escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and the region if diplomacy fails, the official warns
• Iran will not wait for the US to continue the naval blockade indefinitely, the official adds
While bonds and stocks moved on the headline, oil was left little impacted – again perhaps become Tehran had already for days been signaling this new ‘offensive’ messaging as a policy shift…Meanwhile, Iran is denying earlier Trump claims to have opened up backchannel communications with the IRGC…
Spokesperson for the Revolutionary Guard to Tasnim: Trump's claims about behind-the-scenes talks with the IRGC are delusions stemming from defeat. There are no talks between IRGC officials and Americans
— barry with the NED (@bonzerbarry) August 17, 2026
Based on our information and confirmation from foreign ministry officials,…And strangely, there was this development: “Iranian drones target Barzani’s Erbil office. Masrour Barzani stated: “my personal office and the home of the head of the Security and Intelligence Agency were targeted by Iranian drone attacks.” No casualties were reported.” This is after Axios reported that Nechirvan was the mediator link to the IRGC backchannel. Here’s what Axios said in a Sunday report on these prior, secretive diplomatic efforts:
In mid-May, U.S. negotiators trying to reach a deal with Iran to end the war ran into a problem: They couldn’t tell if the people across the table actually spoke for the country’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). So Trump administration officials did something unconventional — they went around Iran’s negotiators and reached out directly to IRGC leadership. The person they tapped for the backchannel was Nechirvan Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan region in Iraq, who had something very few others do: the trust of both U.S. and IRGC leaders.
Trump Threatens to Bomb Oman if it Gets in Way President Trump has issued some fresh Monday remarks on Iran, after a weekend where he was relatively quiet on the conflict he launched nearly six months ago, which has long been the central controversial decision made as Commander-in-Chief, threatening to define his whole second term. In a short interview with Fox News reporter Trey Yingst, who frequently reports from Jerusalem and the Middle East, Trump threatened to bomb Oman if the Gulf country “gets in the way” of US efforts to negotiate and strike a favorable peace deal with Iran.
“I asked the president about.. parallel talks that are taking place between Iran and Oman about control of the Strait of Hormuz,” Yingst introduced. Trump then responded: if Oman gets in the way [of US control in the Strait of Hormuz], we’ll bomb the s**t out of them.”But already, Oman and Iran have been hammering out a nearly finalized Hormuz Strait deal, which essentially cuts the United States out of negotiations and management of the vital energy transit waterway. The deal is widely seen as ceding to Tehran de facto control of the strait, and thus also giving the Iranians major continued leverage in the ongoing standoff and conflict with Washington.
The timing of Trump’s remarks are further interesting given that on the same day, 60-day window established in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) inked between the US and Iran in June has finally expired. Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Monday made clear its position that the deadline was “irrelevant” anyway given that talks never began as the US resumed hostilities. Spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said that under the MoU, the ceasefire window intended to give the two sides time to discuss “the nuclear issue” and “the lifting of sanctions”; however he charged the US with violating the terms and thus destroying the chance for talks.
They think they can beat Russia. Not Ukraine, the West think that.
• Former Defense Minister Fedorov Predicts Shift to Robotic War in a Year (CTH)
35-year-old Ukraine Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov was removed from his position about a month ago. Despite being heralded as the reason for Ukraine’s successful defense and strikes against Russia, there was internal friction about control of the war spending (ie ‘procurement). The old guard military leaders were unwilling to give up their ability to enrich themselves and their families, Fedorov was removed by President Zelenskyy. In this CBS interview with Fedorov the young outsider, who is still connected to the war effort and holds strong relationships with both Palantir (Alex Karp) and SpaceX (Elon Musk), outlines the current status of the conflict and gives his predictions on what comes next.Read more …
Fedorov states that Ukraine ballistic missiles should be online within three to six months. He also predicts the ground conflict will be fully autonomous within a year, with robots and drones engaged in most of the combat operations. As a consequence, Eastern Ukraine is now the real time proving ground for an entirely new type of technological warfare.The interview is interesting both from a narrative perspective, the Hollywood-lite construct which includes elements of the former ‘find Kony’ performances, the youthful drama – David vs Goliath, the handsome characters etc., and from a perspective of Fedorov’s contemplative responses.
At the end of all of this effort is the EU/NATO goal of a fully operational war against Russia. No reasonable person in the EU wants this outcome, no ordinary citizen in the U.K wants war with Russia and only a tiny percentage of Americans would support it. However, 80% of the British/EU political class and around 75% of the Washington DC political class would immediately welcome this outcome. Europe is burning through their spending of the confiscated €300 billion Russian sovereign wealth fund. The money will be completely gone within a year as it is the funding mechanism for almost all Ukraine support. When you think about this in very practical terms, this makes the EU war against Russia a foregone conclusion.
In my opinion, the decision to spend that confiscated Russian asset wealth is what changed in early June when Zelenskyy visited King Charles in London. What was once avoidable is now ultimately only a matter of time. Unless someone is willing to step into the finance side and repay Russia, a western conflict with the Russian Federation to avoid the issue seems to be the overwhelming likelihood. In the interim, Eastern Ukraine remains a meat grinder.
“The Democratic leaders from Harris to Buttigieg to Newsom believe that they can ride this rage wave into power by offering up core American institutions.”
• Almost 60 Percent of Democrats Have a Favorable View of Socialism (Turley)
Recent polls show steady growth in support for socialism among Democrats. A new CBS poll shows how popular it is, with 58 percent holding a positive view of socialism—26 points more than the 32 percent with a positive view of capitalism. This may explain why House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, while rejecting core parts of its platform, embraced Democratic Socialists this week as part of the Democratic Party.Read more …
In addition to a variety of anti-Semitic figures within its ranks, the DSA wants to get rid of the presidency, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and other institutions (as well as borders, immigration enforcement, and much of private property). Yet, Jeffries still believes they share values and wants them to be part of the Democratic party. In other words, there are many “fine people” in the DSA despite being committed to the destruction of our core institutions.The poll also found that 24 percent of Democrats have “no opinion” of socialism, while 18 percent have no opinion regarding capitalism. Other polling shows similar results. An Economist/YouGov survey recently found that 62 percent of Democrats said they would vote for a “Democratic Socialist” candidate. At the same time, Democratic Socialists have been spinning fables about the Framers not opposing those who acquire too much wealth. They also repeat the mythology that socialism has worked in other countries. It destroyed the economies in France and Great Britain.
Nevertheless, British prime minister, Andy Burnham declared that he wants to restore the policies of 40 years ago, before the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. In his own version of promising the “warmth of collectivism,” Burnham declared, “The country surrendered control of the essentials — housing, water, energy, transport — and left people exposed to higher costs.” Burnham’s account leaves out that the supposed golden age under Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan, which he was referencing, led in 1977 to the so-called “winter of discontent.” Those policies destroyed the British economy, and the nation was faced with the humiliation of being rescued by the International Monetary Fund as if it were some banana republic.
Ultimately, capitalist policies were restored by Margaret Thatcher and the economy rebounded. In “Rage and the Republic,” I discuss the economic philosophy of the Founders in exploring the history and future of this unique Republic. Notably, this is also the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. Smith’s free-market theory was an instant hit with the founding generation. These men had just created the first major Enlightenment Revolution based on a belief in natural rights that came from God, not governments.
Yet, they knew that true individual liberty could not be achieved without economic freedom. Smith’s economic theory was the perfect companion for their political theory. Rage and the Republic discusses the rise of socialism in the United States and around the world. It calls for a recommitment to what I call a “liberty-enhancing economy.”
The Democratic leaders from Harris to Buttigieg to Newsom believe that they can ride this rage wave into power by offering up core American institutions. They wrongly believe that the mob will destroy their enemies, but not themselves. History has proven them wrong time and time again. This election is shaping up to be arguably the most important in our history as we fight for the identity of this Republic on its 250th anniversary. We have come face to face with Benjamin Franklin’s warning that this is a Republic if we can keep it.
“Fetterman has been sounding this alarm for months, and he deserves credit for refusing to soften it.”:
• Fetterman Torches His Own Party On Socialism Problem (Margolis)
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) looked at a new CBS News poll on Sunday and did not like what he saw. Democrats, according to the numbers, now like socialism more than they like capitalism. Fetterman’s response was blunt, and it was glorious. On Aug. 16, Fetterman posted a screenshot of an article covering the poll on X and let his own party have it. He said:Read more …
The Democratic Party is becoming the party of socialism.
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) August 16, 2026
58% view socialism positively.
50% view capitalism negatively.
I’m a proud free market capitalist.
This is lunacy. pic.twitter.com/i88gX2VWXF
The CBS poll surveyed 648 Democrats about socialism, and 58% viewed it positively, 18% negatively, and 24% had no opinion. The same poll then asked 647 Democrats about capitalism, and the numbers flipped hard. Just 32% viewed it positively, while 50% viewed it negatively and 18% had no opinion.
These CBS numbers are deeply alarming.
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) August 17, 2026
Democrats overwhelmingly support socialism and overwhelmingly oppose capitalism.
Socialism results in misery and poverty every time it is tried.
We must never allow the socialists to take power. pic.twitter.com/AuIh3TG5MYA political party built on the fruits of the most successful economic system in human history now trusts socialism over the system that built it. CBS found that enthusiasm for socialism runs strongest among Democrats who are college-educated, younger, or white. That tells you a lot. Make no mistake about it, this is not a fringe phenomenon confined to a few loud voices on social media; this isn’t the Democrat Party’s big tent letting in a small number of socialists, either. This is, quite clearly, mainstream in the party.
The problem for Democrats is that the country as a whole still prefers capitalism. Across all voters, 35% viewed socialism positively, compared with 46% for capitalism, while 42% viewed socialism negatively and 43% viewed capitalism negatively. The rest had no opinion either way.Democrats are the outlier.
Fetterman has been sounding this alarm for months, and he deserves credit for refusing to soften it. Earlier this year, he described himself as a strongly pro-capitalist Democrat who rejects extreme anti-capitalist rhetoric. He credited capitalism with raising living standards around the globe throughout history. The problem is that Fetterman’s own party has been feeding this beast for years, and now it’s too big to ignore.
Fetterman’s clearest warning came last September, when he discussed Gallup polling with Forbes that found similar results. He recalled a trip to Croatia, a former communist nation, where he asked a local what they thought of Democrats flirting with socialism. “I literally was in a former communist nation, and I asked that, I said, ‘Some people in my party, some of the Lefties are talking about socialism now. What do you think?'” Fetterman said. The Croatian was “mystified.” “(The person I was speaking to was) like, ‘That’s the worst thing ever. … You’re going to need a reality check if you ever adopt any of those things, you know, like you are morons.'”
People who actually lived under socialism know exactly how the story ends. Democrats flirting with it might want to take notes.
“The future seems bright for the American socialists. After all, with just a little more failure, who knows what Mamdani and others can achieve in America.”
• For the American Left, Nothing Succeeds as Much as Failure (Turley)
Below is my column in The Hill on the familiar bust-and-boom cycle of socialism, where failure is used to call for even more radical changes. While House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries this week reaffirmed that Democratic Socialists are part of the Democratic Party, radical figures are demonstrating how extreme this agenda is for some. For example, Socialist State Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher has declared that stealing should be legal for those in need. If socialism takes hold in New York, many will indeed need five-finger discounts in the Big Apple.Read more …
From New York to California, the American left is proving that nothing succeeds like failure. In areas ranging from immigration to taxes to health care, politicians are playing to their past fiascos to push an even more radical agenda. Take immigration. Many, including the Democratic Socialists, have called for open borders or disbanding ICE. After the Biden administration chose to allow millions of undocumented people to enter the country, most Democrats are now calling for “pathways” to make them citizens. After all, they argue, there are too many to deport.We now know the open border was a choice. The Trump administration immediately stopped crossings using the same laws Biden had refused to enforce. As expected, Democrats are expressing horror at the thought that the government would try to deport the millions that they allowed and even encouraged to enter the country.
The same is true on public health policy. Remember when ObamaCare was going to reduce health care costs and improve health care options? While insisting that they did not want government-run single-payer healthcare, Democrats promised that ObamaCare would lower costs while allowing you to keep your own doctor and health care plan. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised his plan would “lower your premiums by up to $2,500 per family per year.”
By that measure, ObamCare, or the Affordable Care Act, is a colossal failure. Premiums have nearly tripled since the law took effect, and deductibles have more than doubled. “The cost of coverage for a family of four has increased by more than $10,000,” according to studies. In 2026 alone, median premiums increased by 20 percent, and that has already risen by another 15 percent in 2027. Meanwhile, enrollments continue to plummet across the country. Democratic leaders and advocates are now responding to that failure by calling for more regulations and “Medicare for all.”
As with immigration, the failure is the basis for doubling down on bad policy with even worse policy.The same is also true of public education, which has failed families in major cities for generations. The solution has been to increase budgets while lowering proficiency standards. The one thing teachers unions and school districts oppose is a market-based system that lets families choose between programs through voucher systems. The solution is, again, more staff, more funding and more control over families’ options. The system gets worse and more expensive, and the teachers unions get more powerful, including greater ability to block reforms.
No one has perfected the politics of failure more than Zohran Mamdani. In New York, chaos only undermines the status quo. For example, his demand for free buses has predictably led to thousands of commuters — including affluent citizens — skipping fares, costing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority tens of millions of dollars. After all, only a chump would pay a fare that is about to be eliminated. As the transit budget implodes, the calls for greater state subsidies will only increase — as will calls just to accept the reality and make public transportation free to the user (and expensive to the taxpayer).
Then there is rent reform. With Mamdani promising rent controls, landlords are predictably raising rents. Rent costs have reached their highest level ever under Mamdani, with the average apartment now costing $4,965 per month — and $6,655 per month in Manhattan. So Mamdani can now push for even more significant regulations and rent controls by pointing to the rise in housing costs in an endless loop. As rent control inevitably constrains supply and prices for market-rate apartments skyrocket, he can call for even greater controls.
Failure can also solve problems through attrition. Mamdani was recently booed off stage at a law enforcement event in New York. The officers and their families are clearly upset with his embrace of figures calling for the defunding of police and his long hostility toward law enforcement. The result, however, is precisely the downsizing that many on the left have wanted. The NYPD has been losing as many as 300 officers a month.
What is true for police officers is also true for wealthy taxpayers. Mamdani has taunted affluent citizens with his new taxes and attacked them as not “paying their fair share.” As a result, the wealthy are fleeing New York and taking tax revenues and jobs with them. Success through failure is especially evident in the housing policies. Mamdani has brought in socialists who called for “seizing the means of production” (as he has) and wiping out private ownership of housing.
Most recently, Mamdani has embraced figures such as Tracy Rosenthal, the privileged daughter of a well-known music industry figure who has refused to pay rent. Despite her family’s wealth, she has been effectively squatting on property. The co-founder of the Los Angeles Tenants Union and co-author of “Abolish Rent: How Tenants Can End the Housing Crisis,” Rosenthal is a darling of the far left. In New York, she declared that rent is “a ransom,” and “We pay rent at the peril of our need.”
Rosenthal portrays landlords as bloodsuckers and rallied the left to refuse to pay rent even though “if we don’t make this payment, our landlords can call on agents of state violence who can use physical force to throw us outdoors.” Rosenthal has perfected not only the squatter culture but also the use of regulations to take effective control of properties. In allegedly squatting in California, Rosenthal reportedly pushed to get her building placed under the Housing Preservation Department’s Alternative Enforcement Program. Under that, a landlord must fix problems or risk losing the property.
Mamdani is pursuing a similar model. He has ramped up tenant coordination to bring complaints to his advocacy offices. As landlords are hit with snowballing complaints and costs, they can be forced to surrender their properties or have them seized by the city. The Mamdani administration wants those failures to result in tenant or non-profit ownership of businesses. What it will do is ensure that fewer rental units come on the market, making the problem worse and creating new excuses to take further harmful action.
This pattern of success through failure has manifested itself on an even larger scale in history. Socialists often destroy economic conditions, resulting in greater unemployment and greater demand for government subsidies. That expansion of government power continues until conditions grow so severe that emergency actions are needed. In “Rage and the Republic” I discuss how this pattern played out in Great Britain and France in the last century, when socialist policies devastated those countries’ respective economies. Great Britain ultimately had to be rescued by the International Monetary Fund, as if it were a third-world nation.
This bust-and-boom cycle is now repeating itself. As these policies fuel decline in these areas, demand grows for expanding the policies and government controls. If McDonald’s were to offer ever-shrinking food items at ever-increasing prices, it would go out of business. Government is the only industry that grows with failure.For radicals, social and economic upheaval is not a tragedy but an opportunity. Lenin told the Bolsheviks to “utilize” crisis to “hasten the collapse of the rule of capital.”
The future seems bright for the American socialists. After all, with just a little more failure, who knows what Mamdani and others can achieve in America.
“A sane society cannot debate its way out of psychosis. It must diagnose the patient with lethal precision and restore the ancient boundary between the mad and the free.” —LHGrey on “X”
• Realignments (James Howard Kunstler)
Back in the days of sailing ships, a certain subtropical zone of the ocean became known as the “horse latitudes.” There, an eerie windless clam prevailed, sometimes for weeks, stalling the progress of ships in mid-crossing. In desperation to save water on-board, captains ordered the horses being transported to America to be cast overboard, and the animals’ bloated carcasses drifted in an ominous cortège of warning to other mariners entering the zone of stillness and death.Read more …
This stretch of weeks in late summer has become the horse latitudes of human affairs for American politics. The primaries are mostly over, at least the ones that mattered. Congress has departed the Potomac swamp for the lakes, seashores, and the county fairs out where the corn grows high. The heat in the Arabian Sea must turn the deck of an American aircraft carrier into a giant hot-plate sailors fear to tread. Even the country’s multitude of lawyers turn off their cell-phones and contemplate the blank, watery horizon with heads full of iced brown liquor.We civilians are stuck between that old rock and a hard place. . . two political parties whirling around the drain of extinction in a nation seeming to drift toward the edge of the known world. In the background, a massive realignment grinds away. The old parties of labor and of property have forgotten their reasons for existence. Labor vamoosed to Mexico, China, and obscure faraway lands decades ago. Property is still here, but it’s all been collateralized into grift and fraud.
In the absence of working people to defend, the Democrats became a party of racketeering race-and-gender hobgoblins, now marshaling into an insectile host of predatory Marxists, and altogether their antics present as a spectrum of mental illness. Voters who somehow managed to preserve some sense of mental decorum increasingly abandon that lunatic coalition — but where to go? This is exactly what is happening in the state of Michigan with the rise of Abdul el-Sayed, who adds a caboose of jihad to his choo-choo train of Bolshevik nuttery. Long-time Dems like Democratic attorney Julian Epstein are publicly jumping ship to support el-Sayed’s opponent, Mike Rogers.
The clueless old gorks in charge of the Democratic Party — the likes of Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Mark Warner, Liz Warren, Chris Murphy, Sheldon Whitehouse — are suddenly nowhere to be seen (or heard). They don’t dare denounce this latest onrush to new-and-improved insanities because, apparently, insanity is all the party has left — stealing other peoples’ property. . . pretending to change sexes. . . organizing giant frauds. . . demanding payoffs for hallucinated affronts. . . and feeding the vicious Leviathan they want government to be.
And don’t be too sure that coalescing around the figure of one AOC in 2028 is going to save this outfit. Sandy is trying to pretend she’s somewhere in the middle, between the feckless old official leadership and the outright commies, but she’s still a member of the odious “Squad” composed of Somali fraudster Ilhan Omar, jihadist Rashida Tlaib, and race-hustler Ayanna Pressley — meaning, its just the same brand of crazy the party has been cultivating for more than a decade. What remains for America to discover about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is that she’s a mere opportunist with nothing inside except some skill at middle-school girl games. . . Eva Peron without the savvy.
On the other end of the political transect stand the Republican phantoms of Congress busy getting nothing done for the past year and a half despite holding the majority in both houses. They’re personified perfectly by Senator Mitch McConnell, quite possibly dead for all that anyone really knows. In John Thune you have something like an anti-leader, doing everything possible to evade his duties, squashing election reform under arcane procedural bullshit, obstructing the confirmation of important agency nominees and federal judges, and “gaveling-in” ghost sessions of his chamber to prevent the president from making recess appointments. And why? Probably for no better reason than he just wants to dissociate himself and many of his fellows from the president because he’s seen as too gauche for their club.
Speaking of whom, you see Mr. Trump and his faction stand apart, but not alone, in this big game. He’s going through a rough patch in these horse latitudes of summer. But despite some appearances, and despite the bluster emanating from Tehran, he has already succeeded in neutralizing Iran while Secretary Bessent keeps the maniac IRGC in an ever-tightening economic squeeze. There’s reason to believe this well end well for the Middle East, actually in an epic realignment of actual interests, rather than obsolete tribal animosities.
Mr. Trump is also working hard to realign American interests at home into an economy based on making things of value instead of just taking profits on financial shell-games. It’s a gigantic task and one that will take time to get working because factories can’t be built overnight and the demoralized working class can’t be instantly realigned to opportunities that are months from materializing. In the meantime, have a little faith if you can, even though these have been notably faithless decades for our sore-beset nation, and we are too accustomed to bad faith.
Just power through these listless, torpid dog days of August and gird your loins for action in the fall because it’s coming. And that includes a long-awaited accounting for the many crimes against the people of this land by some of our own people. A new permission structure is building out there in the foggy gloaming: you will be set free to stop pretending about a lot of stuff that matters.
“.. manufacturing employment hits near 3-year high”
• US Manufacturing Activity Hits 4-Year High (JTN)
Growth was seen in fifteen manufacturing industries, including electrical equipment, appliances and components, primary metals, transportation equipment, machinery as well as computer and electronic products. Activity in the technology sector was driven by the artificial intelligence buildout.U.S. manufacturing activity increased to its highest level in more than four years in July driven by strong order growth, according to data from the Institute for Supply Management.Read more …
The Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index increased to 55.6 last month from 53.3 in June, which was the highest since May 2022. Economists polled by Reuters had projected PMI would grow to 54.Despite the strong growth data, responses to the ISM survey published on Monday were overwhelmingly negative. The war in Iran was mentioned often in the comments, as was price volatility. Some economists were confident the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates as soon as next month. Growth was seen in fifteen manufacturing industries, including electrical equipment, appliances and components, primary metals, transportation equipment, machinery as well as computer and electronic products. Activity in the technology sector was driven by the artificial intelligence buildout.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman says defensive briefing FBI gave him in 2020 portraying Biden allegations as Russian disinformation was “BS.”
• Jim Jordan Blasts FBI Round River As ‘Operation To Protect Joe Biden’ (JTN)
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan tells Just the News the recently revealed FBI operation known as Round River was an effort to obstruct congressional investigators from getting to the truth about Democrat corruption and to interfere in the 2020 election to help Joe Biden win. “It’s ridiculous what happened, and it’s just wrong,” he declared. “This wasn’t an investigation that was being run by the FBI and the intel community. This was an operation, an operation, I think, to protect Joe Biden as he was running for president,” Jordan said in a wide-ranging interview on the Just the News, No Noise television show.Read more …
The powerful committee chairman and Ohio Republican was reacting to news reported Thursday morning that newly declassified documents show the FBI had 14 confidential informants reporting derogatory evidence on Biden during the 2020 election but embarked on an effort to dismiss that evidence of a corrupt Ukrainian energy company enriching his family as “Russian disinformation.” One of the documents showed that Jordan was listed by the FBI and spy agencies as “a conduit” of Russian disinformation along with Attorney General Bill Barr, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, as well as other prominent conservatives.A 2025 U.S. intelligence community review of the Round River operation raised concerns that FBI analysts put politics over national security and didn’t even bother to determine if the Ukraine allegations were true before dismissing them as Russian propaganda. Jordan revealed he was given a defensive briefing in 2020 by the FBI suggesting the Biden allegations he was investigating were Russian disinformation and said he found it laughable. “That was BS. That’s what we were thinking,” he said.
The bigger scheme: “Get us to be quiet”
Asked if he thought the briefing and Round River operation were an effort to obstruct Congress in its investigation of the Biden family, Jordan answered: “I do. I think they were trying to get us to be quiet.”b”You can see it in the bigger scheme where it was the 51 former Intel officials who did that crazy letter saying the (Hunter Biden) laptop was Russian disinformation … when in fact they had it, and they knew it was already his laptop, and they knew it was authentic for goodness’ sake,” he noted.“It was an operation to, I believe, continue this effort that we saw from the Wray FBI, and before that the Comey FBI, and others in the intel community to hurt President Trump and, in this case, help presidential candidate and then, you know, future President Biden,” he added. Jordan recently referred former CIA Director John Brennan for possible prosecution for lying to Congress in connection with the alleged Russia collusion and said he is confident that newly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche will get to the bottom of wrongdoing and punish responsible people.
“I have been very impressed with Todd Blanche, the best Attorney General I’ve ever worked with,” Jordan said. “I do believe he is committed to getting to the truth and holding people accountable.”I do think it’s important to hold people accountable and to dig in all this, and I trust that Todd Blanche is going to,” he added. A spreadsheet that was recovered from U.S. intelligence agency files and made public Wednesday by the White House Government Transparency Task Force shows that spy agencies and the FBI created a list of more than six dozen prominent organizations, Americans or foreigners who became figures in the Biden family Ukraine scandal and the 2019 impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. “
Targets” and “Conduits”
The spreadsheet neatly divided figures along political lines, with Democrats like the Bidens, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama and George Soros listed as victimized “targets” of Russian disinformation and conservatives like Fox News, One America News, filmmaker Michael Caputo and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani as “conduits” for disinformation. The FBI also labeled two of President Donald Trump’s first-term Cabinet secretaries, Pompeo and Barr, as well as Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley, Ron Johnson and Lindsey Graham and House GOP committee chairmen Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan as “conduits” even while they all investigated whether the allegations of corruption against the Biden family were true.The designations were part of a secret counterintelligence operation codenamed “Round River” that was launched during the 2020 election by a task force of FBI analysts claiming to be fighting “malign foreign influence” in the 2020 election, according to an administration official. The Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), based in FBI headquarters, concurred with each of the assessments in the spreadsheet with a “no objection” designation, the documents state.
Many of the Americans were identified as potential candidates for defensive briefings, though the spreadsheets and documents found so far do not identify how many Americans ultimately were given such briefings. In some ways, the Round River operation is a mirror opposite of the Russia collusion probe known as Crossfire Hurricane in which the FBI pursued unsubstantiated allegations spread by Democrats that Trump and his allies conspired with Vladimir Putin to hijack the 2016 election. In Round River, FBI analysts sought to dismiss significant evidence in the bureau’s possession, including Hunter Biden’s own laptop, pointing to possible corruption by the Bidens.
Documents released by the White House earlier this month exposed an investigation in 2017 codenamed “Oxferd Comma” alleging the newly elected president Trump may have been acting as a Russian asset when he fired then-Director James Comey even though the bureau’s own evidence overwhelmingly showed at the time there was no collusion with the Kremlin.
Remarkably, the effort to portray the Bidens’ scandals as Russian disinformation came even though confidential human sources working for the FBI and other agencies began reporting a steady stream of concerns starting in 2015 that Ukraine was possibly targeting the future first family for influence, the memos show. The FBI has identified at least 14 informants who were providing derogatory information on the Bidens, according to an FBI letter made public Wednesday. In that letter to the White House Government Transparency Task Force, FBI Director Kash Patel said the Foreign Influence Task Force was terminated on his watch and its activities are now under investigation.
Operation Round River a political tool, not a national security issue
He said he shared concerns cited in a 2025 Director of National Intelligence memo declassified on Wednesday that Round River was used as a political tool to neutralize an alleged corruption narrative about Biden, the Democrats’ 2020 presidential nominee, rather than to address true national security threats. “While our internal review of the FITF is not yet complete, we are investigating whether the FITF used information learned from the Round River assessment to undermine or influence ongoing investigations by only focusing on the subset of CHS’s (Confidential Human Sources) involving the Bidens,” Patel wrote, according to the letter reviewed by Just the News.“We remain concerned that defensive briefings to Congress may have been overly focused on just Biden and Ukraine rather than the balanced picture of all foreign threats,” he added.Patel said the bureau is “firmly committed to identifying, investigating and holding accountable all abuses” that occurred during the Round River operation and to ensure “that future counterintelligence operations remain focused exclusively on legitimate foreign threats and are never used to advance political narratives.”
Editor’s Note: John Solomon is on leave as Editor-in-Chief of Just the News while working as the chairman of the White House Government Transparency Task Force as an unpaid special government employee. His name appeared in the spreadsheet released Wednesday as a potential “conduit” of Russian disinformation
The extremists come out for election time.
• Israel Careens Towards Elections (Turley)
As Israel careens toward one of the most impactful elections in its history, radical groups and voices are again using their oversized influence in what I have long argued is a flawed parliamentary system. The current elections and fragile coalitions, in my opinion, highlight the constitutional system’s inherent vulnerabilities. Some of my Israeli friends disagree with me on the parliamentary system and point to our own tensions. It is certainly true that both our major parties can be captive to the more extreme groups due to the need for candidates to win primaries. However, I believe structural problems remain in the Israeli system.Read more …
The results of this election will select 120 members of the 26th Knesset, which in term will have a critical influence in selecting the Prime Minister and leadership of the critical ministries. The Israeli constitutional system has many admirable qualities, but there remain concerns over the ability to address extreme factional interests. The news in the nation this week are deeply troubling. Extremists are attacking Muslims in unlawful actions that have alarmed both governments and human rights organizations.U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee condemned settlers as “terrorists” after they besieged Palestinian homes on the outskirts of the village of Qusra on Sunday.Huckabee’s condemnation is an important and needed voice after the alarming actions targeting Palestinians. The actions were reportedly carried out by individuals affiliated with the West Bank’s Tel Talpiot outpost. News reports detail how cables connecting the homes to the electricity grid and solar panels were cut, and water pipes were damaged, disrupting food and power.
Huckabee wrote on X on Thursday that these individuals were “Israeli terrorists.” He has insisted that the Israeli government has responded to the complaint and taken its own actions to counter these measures.In the meantime, Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir is under fire for a statement made on the podcast of former Gaza-held hostage, Rom Braslavski. He stated, “It’s no secret, I disagree with the prime minister. I think targeted assassinations should be carried out in Gaza, taking down 30 to 40 every night. Not just those who pose an immediate threat — there are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.”
These actions and statements are undermining U.S. efforts to disarm Hamas and restore governing systems in Gaza. Most Israelis oppose such groups and views. However, the election is again infusing radical groups with power that far exceeds their actual political support. I have long expressed criticism of the Israeli system, which requires endless and unstable coalitions for prime ministers to secure office.I admit that I have a bias in favor of the Madisonian system. However, Israel is a prime example of how these systems can be dysfunctional, requiring the maintenance of “confidence” in prime ministers through shifting coalitions.
The result is unwarranted power for small parties that dictate policy despite representing a small fraction of the population.Both Madison and Hamilton wrote about the inevitable role of factions in any democratic system. In Federalist No. 10, Madison warned about “the mischiefs of faction,” which he defined as “a number of citizens…united and actuated by some common impulse of passion.” In Federalist No. 9, Hamilton wrote that “A firm Union will be of the utmost moment to the peace and liberty of the States as a barrier against domestic faction and insurrection.”
The protection of minority groups and voices is a difficult balancing act for any system. We achieve that through a bicameral government and federalist system as well as constitutional protections in the Bill of Rights. The Electoral College and the Senate are structural elements designed to protect smaller states from being overwhelmed by high-population states such as California, Florida, and New York. The Israeli parliamentary system also uses a unicameral legislature that exacerbates those problems, as does a judicial system that engages in reviews that often seem more like legislative or policy judgments.
Israel remains the rare democratic system in the region, but the constitutional system itself renders the country most vulnerable to the most extreme elements of its society.
The creation of the EU was the cunning move by insiders, engineered by the CIA, to transfer all decision-making powers to unelected dictators in Brussels. These now step up their treason by handing controls to Israel. https://t.co/yttQdWQywW
— Richard Werner (@scientificecon) August 16, 2026
A 45-minute commute sounds a lot less annoying when you can literally sleep through it.
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) August 17, 2026
Cybercab’s seats recline surprisingly far, and with no steering wheel or pedals, there’s nothing inside pretending someone still needs to drive.
You get in, stretch out and let the car deal… https://t.co/IqecEwOwdU pic.twitter.com/C2ddqFio6v
In 2008, Elon Musk was 12 days from bankruptcy.
— Mahak Bhoria (@mehakbhoria) August 17, 2026
Standing in a Hollywood ballroom, he was trying to sell a $109,000 car to people who thought he was crazy.
His own Roadster was parked outside, as if it were just a simple bicycle.
He started by talking about money:… pic.twitter.com/3BVQ4iCgnB
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