Menu Icon

Debt Rattle August 19 2026

Aug 192026
 
 August 19, 2026  Posted by at 9:49 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  Add comments


Pablo Picasso Self portrait 1965


• Trump Vows New Strategy To ‘Strangle’ Iran Over Time (ZH)
• Trump Drops Map Of Hormuz As “New US Territory” (ZH)
• Iran’s Not-So-Subtle War on US Morale and the Left’s Abetting of It (Moran)
• The Democrats’ ‘Big Tent’ With Socialists Is Doomed. Here’s Why (Margolis)
• Johnson Convinced GOP Will Grow House Majority In November Midterms (JTN)
• DOJ To Send Record 1,000 Observers To Watch Voting During Midterms (JTN)
• Sacked Ukrainian Defence Minister Calls For Presidential Election (BBC)
• The Fog is Lifting (Thomas Kolbe)
• FBI: Swalwell Did Admit to Sleeping with Alleged Chinese Spy (Turley)
• Trump ‘Not Surprised’ By Plans To Sue Him Before He Was Elected 2nd Time (CS)
• Carney Speaks With Trump As 50% Tariffs Set To Take Effect At Midnight (JTN)
• Woman Forced Out of Virginia Salon Over Her Support for Israel (Turley)

 


 

 


 


Call it the Bessent model…

“.. shifting their strategy — going from “hammer Iran ASAP” to “strangle them” over time.

Try to prevent a bloody war.

• Trump Vows New Strategy To ‘Strangle’ Iran Over Time (ZH)

The US administration has already said this many times and in many different ways. We suppose President Trump wants the world to know that talks with Iran are really really over this time, and the gloves are coming off (again): US President Trump told top administration envoys to halt their conversations with Iran, according to CNN citing a US official. “White House officials have recently communicated to political allies that they are shifting their strategy — going from “hammer Iran ASAP” to “strangle them” over time.


While there have been no new bombs away just yet, the statement comes after earlier in the day the UAE government reported a rare instance of a pair of alleged Iranian missiles inbound in its territory. Iran subsequently denied that it was behind any attack. Earlier in the summer Kuwait and Bahrain were targets of frequent attacks, but the UAE was largely spared in the most recent salvos.

Trump is now not pursuing to revive talks at all, it appears, and this is being dubbed as a new ‘disengagement’ strategy. According to more from CNN: “And instead of claiming talks were proceeding well, and that a new deal was just around the corner — as he’s asserted repeatedly since the ceasefire signed in June fell apart — Trump announced there was no diplomacy underway whatsoever.” So this could finally mark the end of the fake and premature ‘deal imminent’ headlines which not infrequently marked earlier phases of the war.

UAE Under Missile Alert
While initial details and the precise nature of the threat remain unclear, the UAE has said it detected a missile threat targeting the country. “UAE air defense systems detected a missile threat targeting the county,” the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority said in a post on X. This has included Dubai residents receiving a UAE missile threat alert. The country has not actually been targeted much by Iran throughout the war. The UAE has in follow-up said the situation is currently “safe” after the missile threat. Air-defenses detected two inbound:

UAE Defense Ministry said it detected two ballistic missiles launched from Iran, one missile fell outside territorial waters, second fell inside.


Read more …

The power of simplicity. That map.

• Trump Drops Map Of Hormuz As “New US Territory” (ZH)

Trump Confirms ‘No Talks’ – Says Hormuz ‘Open & Operating’


President Trump issued a new Truth Social post, within hours after posting a map depicting the Strait of Hormuz as a ‘new US territory’. He affirmed there are currently no talks or conversations happening with the Iranians – nor is there so much as anything scheduled. However, he claimed the strait is “open and operating” – with water minds having been “removed or detonated”.


Iranian Attack on Outbound Tanker in Hormuz
Yet another attack has occurred in the Strait of Hormuz, this time on a foreign tanker on an outbound transit route, which Iran and Oman claim to directly oversee and administer according to the terms of the Oman deal for managing the strait which is still being finalized. UK Maritime Trade Operations says Tuesday that the unknown projectile caused engine-room damage and a crew casualty, with the remaining crew being rescued and assisted by the Omani Coast Guard.

Such attacks which mark enforcement of Iran’s protocol and claim of control over the vital energy transit waterway have been steady, though not rapid, over the last several weeks. Oil prices have been on the rise this week, also as it continues to be clear that Washington and Tehran are digging in with their competing maximum demands.

Houthis Escalate in Red Sea
Hormuz isn’t the only chokepoint still witnessing active conflict. Waters off Yemen and the Red Sea also continue to heat up, with the Iranian-allied Houthi rebels still escalating. According to The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, the group is “shutting down operations at a strategic seaport and pushing closer to the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, an important global shipping chokepoint.” The report cites Yemeni authorities to describe, “The militant group’s recent missile and drone attacks forced the closure of the port of Mokha, a key logistics hub for civilian shipping and for anti-Houthi forces operating along the coast.”

According to more on the significance: “This is the most significant escalation in quite a few years, maybe since 2020,” said Adam Baron, a Yemen expert and fellow with New America, a policy institute in Washington. Baron called the port of Mokha the key logistics hub for anti-Houthi forces on the Red Sea. The Houthis control mountainous terrain inland from the Bab al-Mandeb but not the coast along the crucial waterway, which is held by opposing forces.

No Movement on Talks until After Oman Deal Signed: Qatar
On the question of finding a path toward broader US-Iran peace, there’s still no movements on talks. Qatar is even openly saying that its direct mediation efforts won’t resume until the Oman deal is finalized – which critics have complained gives Iran de facto control of operations in the Strait of Hormuz. “Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari says during a news conference that countries mediating between Iran and the US are waiting for Iran and Oman to announce an expected agreement on transit through the Strait of Hormuz, before pushing Washington and Tehran to resume negotiations aimed at ending their war,” Al Jazeera reports.

President Trump’s latest rhetoric and social media activity is not going to help the cause of peace, or the two sides getting back to the negotiating table. After verbalizing Monday that the US should declare the Hormuz Strait a US territory, he posted the following to Truth Social on Tuesday:


All of this comes on the heels of the 60-day diplomatic window set by the MoU inked in June has expired. Tehran said it was already effectively dead anyway, and thus “irrelevant” – blaming Washington for having violated its terms on multiple occasions.

Rough Road to November
Trump is meanwhile ultimately sticking to the following as an ultimate goal of the Iran conflict: “The number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” he earlier stated on Truth Social. The path to midterm elections in November continues to be a rough one for the US administration, and the pain is likely to continue for at least the time being…

Not only has Iran not backed down, but its military is newly claiming to take an “offensive” posture and has reshuffled its command accordingly. If there are new tit-for-tat attacks, Tehran is in essence saying the next salvo will go bigger.

Read more …

“Each year, we lose 470 to 525 uniformed service members to suicide; that number jumps more than tenfold when you include America’s 18 million veterans. (The total population of U.S. military veterans is around 18 million, in addition to somewhere over 2 million current service members.)”

• Iran’s Not-So-Subtle War on US Morale and the Left’s Abetting of It (Moran)

Earlier this month, a sailor on the USS Abraham Lincoln, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, deployed in the Persian Gulf, jumped overboard. Thankfully, he was rescued and helicoptered off the ship.


The sailor went overboard on August 3. On August 11, “Mehr News, a wire service of the Islamic Republic, reported a violent clash aboard USS Abraham Lincoln: seven dead, several wounded, an adviser to the CENTCOM commander booed and pelted with water bottles on the deck of America’s flagship in the Arabian Sea,” writes Gregg Roman, executive director of the Mideast Forum. The source of the story was Tasnim, an outlet tied to the Revolutionary Guard, which cited one anonymous “informed military source.”

The story ran for two days before CENTCOM denied it; one sailor had gone overboard and been rescued. The story was an outrageous lie. But mainstream Western media outlets began reporting accounts from military spouses and other sources regarding suicide attempts aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, including a spouse detailing her husband’s burnout and attempt to jump overboard. Stars and Stripes detailed interviews with military families expressing concerns about declining mental health and suicidal ideation among crew members during extended deployments, including a spouse relaying a message from a sailor expressing suicidal thoughts.

The Guardian reported on incidents involving sailors going overboard, conditions contributing to strain on service members, and responses from military officials regarding mental health reporting. Of course, it’s all Donald Trump’s fault. They must be dancing a jig in Tehran. As The Free Press’s Elliot Abrams notes, suicides, suicidal ideation, and mental health problems are endemic to both active-duty and retired military. And it’s strange that the “concern” of the media for the mental health of our military people has suddenly appeared when the story can be twisted into an attack on Trump and an unpopular war.

Abrams is a Navy veteran who experienced long deployments in 2006, when Israel invaded Lebanon in their war against Hezbollah. He’s fully aware of the almost unbearable grind of long deployments in combat zones and the toll it takes on service members. “Critics of President Donald Trump pointed to the incident as evidence of his mishandling of the war in Iran, a conflict he had said would last weeks but has extended into months with no clear end in sight,” Abrams writes. “Now, the criticism goes, that mismanagement is placing the troops under intolerable levels of strain.”

The Free Press:”This is a tidy argument against Trump, but ultimately a cynical one. Sadly, a service member trying to kill himself on deployment is an all too regular occurrence. Each year, we lose 470 to 525 uniformed service members to suicide; that number jumps more than tenfold when you include America’s 18 million veterans. (The total population of U.S. military veterans is around 18 million, in addition to somewhere over 2 million current service members.) Suicide in the ranks and the strain deployments place on service members and their families have proven endemic for decades, under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

This crisis has run straight through George W. Bush, Barack Obama, the first Trump term, and Joe Biden. It did not spike with this president, and the lawmakers now discovering their outrage have said very little about the 17 veterans lost to suicide per day when the pointing finger has had nowhere partisan to aim. According to MyNavy HR Data & Statistics, the overall rate of suicide deaths across the active-duty U.S. Navy typically ranges between 17 and 22 per 100,000 sailors annually. In recent calendar years, active-duty Navy deaths by suicide numbered 68 in 2023, 71 in 2022, and 59 in 2021.

In other words, if the media outlets weren’t so all-fired eager to blame Trump for the mental health problems aboard ships, they might have given some vital context to the story by giving background information and filling in the holes. The Lincoln had been in combat for 40 days straight, and the mental toll on sailors is an unfortunate by-product of that deployment. It wouldn’t matter who was president or which party was in power.

MEF’s Gregg Roman on the Iranian disinformation campaign:”No sailors died. That is not the point. The point is that a state at war with the United States manufactured their deaths, on a schedule, for an audience, and most of Washington still discusses it as a media story. It is not a media story. It is a military operation aimed at the one American system Tehran can actually reach: the will of the force, and the families behind it.The Navy denied an increase in serious mental health problems aboard the Lincoln.

We have not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship. We take every service member’s well-being seriously and have religious, medical and mental health professionals available to assess and address concerns as they arise. USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) has five Navy Chaplains, one clinical psychologist, one clinical social worker, three behavioral health technicians and an embedded integrated prevention coordination (EIPC) counselor. The ship also has an expeditionary facility dog, CAPT Fathom, to support crew morale and emotional welfare. These resources are available to Sailors and Marines throughout the Strike Group 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Roman explains the methodology of the disinformation. “The method takes the true kernel, tired crew, long deployment, worried families, and inflates it past recognition. “America’s floating prison at sea,” in the words of Iran’s embassy in Kenya, which decorated the phrase with an anonymous spouse’s quote lifted from Western press coverage and a graphic of a sailor behind bars. “Worse than a public toilet! … No wonder troops want to jump overboard!” from PressTV, over a shaky bathroom video that an IRGC-adjacent account recycled a day later, same footage, new caption, as proof that sailors were defying CENTCOM’s denial.

A Lego cartoon mocking the crew, captioned “Four Score! No Shore!” And beneath the mockery sit the hard fabrications: the seven dead, the invented mutiny, the claimed spike in suicidal ideation that the Navy says its data does not show. They knew who to target and how to hit us. That bespeaks a military frame of reference that our media and even our government appear to be ignoring.

Read more …

“Those people aren’t welcome in the tent; they’ll burn down the tent,” McEnany said.

• The Democrats’ ‘Big Tent’ With Socialists Is Doomed. Here’s Why (Margolis)

Democrats know socialism is a loser with most American voters. The polling on this isn’t close, isn’t new, and surely is not a secret inside the party’s own headquarters. And yet the socialist wing of the Democrat Party keeps getting louder and more organized, and it keeps winning primaries in districts that matter. That’s a problem heading into midterm elections that Democrats are supposed to win running away. Instead, they’re about to spend the rest of the year playing defense.


It doesn’t take a wave of socialist candidates to put a party on its heels. It just takes a few saying the quiet part out loud on camera. Every reporter covering a competitive House race this fall now has a built-in follow-up question for the Democrat running there: “Do you agree with your party’s socialist candidates, or don’t you?” There’s no good answer. Say yes, and swing voters flee. Say no, and the activists who now do a lot of the party’s field organizing stay home in November.

Add that to a Democrat Party already drowning in fundraising problems and sitting on a pile of committee debt, and you get something close to a five-alarm fire heading into election season. Democrat leaders have a stock answer for all of this. They call themselves a “big tent” party, one with room for every flavor of opinion from Wall Street donors to democratic socialists. If that were really the case, the party wouldn’t be talking about ousting Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.). His only crime is that he’s refused to march in lockstep with the far left on Israel, the border, and socialism, and now leftist activists inside his own party are recruiting a primary challenger to push him out.

Some tent. Fox News’ The Five co-host Kayleigh McEnany laid out exactly why that “big tent” talk falls apart the moment you look at who’s actually inside it, during Monday’s show. “You cannot have it both ways,” McEnany said. “You cannot have a broad caucus with communists that are very much at odds with the foundation of our governing system.” She pointed to the Democratic Socialists of America’s platform, which now calls for scrapping the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the presidency itself. “I’m not using hyperbole there. That’s the new platform,” McEnany said.

McEnany relayed a comment from House Speaker Mike Johnson. “The barbarians are in the gate,” he told her, meaning the far-left candidates now winning primaries nationwide.She rattled off the roster. Darializa Avila Chevalier, whom McEnany pointed out “used the American flag as a napkin.” Claire Valdez is on track to win her race; she celebrated her primary win by declaring, “Solidarity forever, abolish ICE, free Palestine, organize your union, join the DSA.” And Melat Kiros in Colorado, who, when asked whether 9/11 was inevitable, answered it was “inevitable in the sense that we destabilized a lot of the Middle East, which led people to believe that another act of violence was the only response.”

Compare that to the roster of “blue dog” Democrats, the more moderate members who were simply asked to sign onto capitalism, fiscal responsibility, and patriotism as a governing platform. Just over a dozen House Democrats signed on. “The blue dog Democrat is an extinct species,” McEnany said. So which of those two groups do you think is running the Democrat Party’s energy and enthusiasm right now? “Those people aren’t welcome in the tent; they’ll burn down the tent,” McEnany said. “Not welcome in the caucus; they’ll tear down the caucus.”

That’s the real problem Democrats are either ignoring or don’t realize is happening. Every socialist candidate who wins a primary this cycle doesn’t just win a nomination. Each one gives Republicans a talking point that will follow every other Democrat on the ballot through November. Combined with a party already short on cash and in debt, the socialism problem is far worse than a messaging headache. It’s the fight that decides whether Democrats spend the next two years in the majority or licking their wounds and explaining what went wrong.

Read more …

The Republican leader described November’s midterms as a choice between “common sense and crazy,” and claimed voters do not want to go down the “dark, dangerous, deadly road to communism.”

• Johnson Convinced GOP Will Grow House Majority In November Midterms (JTN)

House Speaker Mike Johnson declared Monday that he believes Republicans will grow their majority in Congress in November amid an increase in far-left democratic socialist candidates nationwide. The Republican leader described November’s midterms as a choice between “common sense and crazy,” and claimed voters do not want to go down the “dark, dangerous, deadly road to communism,” according to the Washington Times.


“In the next Congress, we will not be arguing over marginal tax rates or regulation,” Johnson told Virginia voters while campaigning for GOP Rep. Jen Kiggans. “We’ll be arguing over whether or not we’re going to maintain our republic in our 251st year as a nation … I’m absolutely convinced that we’re going to grow the House majority.” Johnson, who is on a “30-day nonstop tour,” touted Kiggans as one of the “most effective members of Congress,” as Republicans hope to keep the seat amid a tight reelection race.

“She’s among the most bipartisan members, one of the members that can walk into the middle of chaotic situations and get things done,” he said. Johnson is currently scheduled to campaign in 34 House districts this summer across 18 states as Republicans seek to maintain and increase their majority in both chambers of Congress this fall.

Read more …

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhilion said the plan is consistent with the department’s policies in previous elections, but this year’s deployment will have a record number of monitors.

• DOJ To Send Record 1,000 Observers To Watch Voting During Midterms (JTN)

The Justice Department plans to send 1,000 monitors to observe voting during the midterm elections in November, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said. In a story published Monday by Bloomberg, Dhillion said the plan is consistent with the department’s policies in previous elections, but this year’s deployment will have a record number of monitors. Dhillon said the monitors will observe and support any investigations, but they will not intervene on Election Day. They will have the same status as any other monitor who is observing elections under state law, she said.
Read more …

It’s way too late to fight corruption there. Close the money tap first.

• Sacked Ukrainian Defence Minister Calls For Presidential Election (BBC)

Former Ukrainian defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov has called for wartime elections, in what is widely seen as the biggest challenge to Volodymyr Zelensky’s presidency since Russia’s full-scale invasion four and a half years ago. “Democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia,” said Fedorov, 35, in a video posted to YouTube on Tuesday, adding that Ukraine is fighting “precisely because we want to remain a free European state”. Since the war broke out in 2022 Ukraine has been under martial law, which means elections are suspended.


Fedorov, who did not mention Zelensky by name in the video, was unexpectedly fired from his role as defence minister last month, just six months after his appointment. Zelensky is yet to respond to the video from Fedorov, whose dismissal sparked protests across the country. During his tenure as a highly popular defence minister, Fedorov was credited with energising the ministry, heading a drive against corruption and using data to analyse and try to improve performance on the front line. His dismissal is widely accepted to have been related to tensions between him and army commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi.

Within days Syrskyi was also replaced, as mounting protests calling for Fedorov’s reinstatement piled pressure on the Ukrainian president. Fedorov was offered other posts in the government, including deputy prime minister for military innovation, but the 35-year-old has said he would only return as defence minister. Hours before Fedorov posted his video, Zelensky confirmed he had nominated Yevhenii Khmara to parliament as defence minister, a career intelligence official with a low political profile. Fedorov gave no indication as to his own political plans in the YouTube video, instead focusing on the need for a “legal, safe, and realistic mechanism that will allow Ukraine to restore a full democratic process even amidst a prolonged war”.

He added that the country was facing a “systemic crisis of governance” and was “scared of change”, and pointed to corruption in Ukraine as one of the things hurting the country’s war effort. A former minister of digital transformation, Fedorov set up a volunteer “IT Army of Ukraine” to launch cyber-attacks against Russians in the early days after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.Later, he led a successful fundraising campaign called the Army of Drones and brought in elements of “gamification” to the war, designing a system that awarded Ukrainian military units with credits for hitting Russian targets.

As defence minister, his focus on drones, high-tech warfare and procurement continued, and saw him ask SpaceX founder Elon Musk to stop Russia from using Starlink satellites for drone attacks. The move has been credited with causing considerable disruption to Russia’s frontline operations and advance. In a Facebook post shortly after his dismissal, Fedorov listed his achievements and said he would “continue… to defeat the enemy through asymmetry, speed of innovation, and organisational strength”. Ukraine has stepped up long-range attacks across Russia in recent weeks, launching hundreds of drones to target oil refineries and the warehouses of its largest online retailer Wildberries.

Moscow suffered “one of the most massive drone attacks in recent memory” on Saturday night when about 600 drones were launched at it, according to the regional governor Andrey Vorobyov. During the most recent Ukrainian strikes across Russia nine people were killed and 23 injured, including a child, local officials said. Early on Tuesday in the latest Russian attacks on Ukraine 17 people were killed. UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has reaffirmed full support for Ukraine after Moscow warned of “consequences” following confirmation British-made drones were used in recent Ukrainian strikes in Russia.

Read more …

“Italy’s Giorgia Meloni is using the Ceuta disaster to strengthen the national-conservative front within the EU.”

• The Fog is Lifting (Thomas Kolbe)

Italy’s Meloni is using the Ceuta disaster to strengthen the national-conservative front within the EU. Returns, a tough border regime, and an end to socialist dominance are now on the table. Eleven years have passed since Angela Merkel opened the floodgates of migration to chaos. The European Union, already firmly in the grip of statists and numerous left-wing currents, has since become almost unrecognizable. The advance of Islamization and the dissolution of established urban milieus, traditions, and cultures are progressing and contributing to the disintegration of European societies.


What is particularly striking is the emergence of a kind of Islamo-Marxist movement, a fusion of radical socialist social ideals with a Sharia-based reinterpretation of society — as long as it is directed against the bourgeois West and the civilizational achievements of old Europe. Migration from North Africa and the Middle East is the united Left’s battering ram against the remnants of bourgeois European societies.

Against an increasingly tense backdrop came the Ceuta crisis: the invasion of more than seventy thousand mostly young men, tolerated as a triviality by the Spanish government — initially portrayed by the mainstream media, in a desperate attempt, as a kind of party invasion, later as a wave of poverty migration, and finally, with some reluctance, as an organized and aggressive political act. In the end, one sober conclusion remains: The European Union has no effective border protection whatsoever. Its organization Frontex is a band-aid, hastily stuck onto the gaping wound of a migration policy that, in reality, has made mass migration a goal of the left-wing consensus.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is one of the leading proponents of the EU’s political mainstream. The socialist, whose government only a few weeks ago registered 1.3 million applications to legalize immigrants residing illegally in the country — more than twice as many as originally expected – has also accepted a ruling by the Supreme Court that has effectively turned the sea route into a safe route to Spain: Only those who forcibly cross border fences may be sent back; anyone who lands by boat already enjoys state privileges. Sánchez has become a bridgehead for illegal migration into the EU — a Merkel multiplier, if you will.

At least we now have clarity: The Ceuta crisis exposes the dividing line between the socialists in the EU and the slowly but surely emerging national-conservative front. What happened? During the night of July 31, around 72,000 people, most of them young men, crossed the border from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. According to Spanish figures, around 70,000 of them left the territory again within a few days — officially “voluntarily.” Madrid described the situation as being under control; in reality, it was a capitulation to sheer numbers.

The Spanish government’s complete failure caused considerable anger, particularly in Rome. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reacted on the very day of the chaos and suspended the Schengen Agreement with regard to Spain. She spoke of shocking images from Ceuta and announced via X that Italy would not stand idly by and would, if necessary, take extraordinary measures to protect its own country from negative consequences. Her Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani ultimately implemented the closure of the Schengen area to Spain, citing the threat to national security.

Meloni seized the opportunity and, together with Denmark’s Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, initiated an open letter to the EU institutions, signed by 22 member states, calling for a coordinated response to illegal migration and stronger EU external borders. The message from the two politicians: They will not accept uncontrolled migration into Europe and are themselves now pursuing a stricter immigration policy.

The two politicians may thus be outlining the one viable option for the future of the European Union: A jointly financed and highly professional system for protecting the EU’s external border would be one of its pillars alongside a deregulated internal market — external security and free competition within. The EU could be placed on a new foundation if it concentrated on its core responsibilities and abandoned the moralizing path of ever-growing bureaucracy. For now, however, national law stands in the way.

The socialist Sánchez will do everything he can, much like the German government, to ensure that the flow of migration does not stop. Too much is at stake: new voter potential and the conviction of the united Left that, in a globalized world, no national cultural enclaves should be tolerated. It is the heartfelt concern of all those on the Left to whom, significantly, Angela Merkel — politically socialized in East Germany — gave voice and political expression.

The dispute over Ceuta describes the dividing line between the socialist forces within the EU and the emerging national conservatives, whose informal spokesperson appears to be Italy’s prime minister. Certainly, the electoral defeat of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was an important victory for supporters of open borders, mass migration, and globalism. His successor, Péter Magyar, has since been working under enormous pressure to dismantle Fortress Hungary and bring the country back into the migration flow.

This does not change the fact that national-conservative voices are making themselves heard in almost every country of the European Union, demanding a return to reason, to European values and, above all, to a border regime that is known to be the very foundation of statehood: A state without borders is not a state, but a settlement zone, a product of chaos — a volatile entity that sinks into the waves of poverty and crime faster than even the Left could imagine.

Read more …

“.. if intelligence officials are trying to weaponize someone’s cooperation, they are essentially seeking to do what this person was not able to do, which is to try and discredit someone.”

• FBI: Swalwell Did Admit to Sleeping with Alleged Chinese Spy (Turley)

We all recall Bill Clinton’s infamous declaration that “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.” One of his supporters, disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D., Cal.), now has his own “that person” moment. FBI material released this week shows that Swalwell admitted to what he refused to admit publicly: he did have sex with “that person.” Moreover, the material confirms that he not only enabled Fang Fang, an alleged Chinese spy, in pushing foreign interns for his office but may have received illegal foreign contributions.


What is most striking about this report is that Nancy Pelosi was briefed on this information and still refused to remove Swalwell from the House Intelligence Committee. After the scandal broke, Swalwell was repeatedly asked about his association. Still, he dismissed suggestions that he had a sexual relationship with an accused Chinese spy, a major allegation for a member with access to some of the most sensitive intelligence shared with Congress.

Swalwell declared: “What it appears though that this person — as the story reports — was unsuccessful in whatever they were trying to do. But if intelligence officials are trying to weaponize someone’s cooperation, they are essentially seeking to do what this person was not able to do, which is to try and discredit someone.” It turns out that Swalwell admitted to the FBI that the relationship was sexual in nature. The FBI also raised the possibility that Fang Fang was not only trying to get Swalwell to come to China, but that Swalwell may have received unlawful foreign donations.

We know now that the FBI believed Fang Fang may have been working with Chinese intelligence and in fact succeeded in establishing a sexual relationship with the rising politician. When the scandal broke, some of us expressed astonishment at Pelosi’s decision to brush off calls for his removal from the House Intelligence Committee. She said she had been fully briefed on the FBI’s findings.

So Pelosi was presumably aware that Swalwell had slept with an alleged spy and possibly received unlawful foreign contributions. The report suggests an effort to groom and advance a young politician. If so, the Chinese must have been astonished when he was put on the Intelligence Committee with access to highly sensitive secrets. Pelosi not only refused to remove Swalwell from the Committee but appointed him as an impeachment manager.

At the time, Pelosi dismissed the allegations and attacked those like Kevin McCarthy who called for his removal: “I don’t have any concern about Mr. Swalwell…I do think that it is unfortunate that Mr. McCarthy is trying to make an issue of this.” At the time, I said that Pelosi’s actions were reckless and put politics before national security. Swalwell was Pelosi’s man on the Committee. The question is whether the Chinese thought that he could also be their man on the Committee.

Pelosi continued to run interference for Swalwell despite allegations (starting before his entrance into Congress) of abusive treatment of women. The media also ignored these rumors and did not aggressively pursue his alleged affair with Fang Fang. After Swalwell’s implosion, Pelosi immediately feigned a total lack of knowledge—and, more importantly, responsibility—for his record. The fact is that Swalwell was the creation of Pelosi, her attack dog who was always straining at the leash to attack her enemies. He was a made man, sheltered by the political and media establishment in Washington.

Read more …

“State attorneys general have sued the Trump Administration approximately 100 times since January 2025.”

State AG’s have public jobs, and are paid with public -taxpayer’s- money.

How is it part of their job description to harass the President?

• Trump ‘Not Surprised’ By Plans To Sue Him Before He Was Elected 2nd Time (CS)

(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump said he was “not surprised” to hear of confidential documents obtained by The Center Square revealing plans to sue him nearly seven months before he was reelected. Trump made the comments at a press briefing on Monday, acknowledging investigative reporting by The Center Square. “I heard about that,” the president said. “I’m not surprised because they’ve weaponized this country like never before. The Democrats – or the Dummocrats, as I call them – they’ve weaponized the country. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.”


State attorneys general have sued the Trump Administration approximately 100 times since January 2025. Documents obtained by The Center Square show the coordinated effort appears to have a nickname: the “Project for Federal Accountability.” Not all of the lawsuits have been joined by each attorney general, and some offices take the lead on different cases. At last count, California Attorney General Rob Bonta has participated in at least 82 lawsuits. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has joined at least 76 lawsuits. Washington State Attorney General Brown has joined 72 lawsuits. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has joined 49 lawsuits.

Bonta characterized the lawsuits as “apolitical,” although a confidential document obtained by The Center Square shows only Democratic attorneys general plotted the litigation. “If (Trump) doesn’t want to get sued, all he has to do is follow the law,” Bonta said. “I don’t think our cases are likely to be dismissed… Trump shows no sign of slowing down, so we will continue to sue him.”The lawsuits have cost California taxpayers $19 million, according to Bonta. So far, 14 cases have been closed in favor of the plaintiff and four cases dismissed in favor of the federal government, according to Just Security — a nonpartisan digital law and policy journal at New York University.

Trump did not comment on any of the lawsuits specifically. He stated the documents are only being revealed now because he “won the election in a landslide.” “These are very dishonest people,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see that.” State attorneys general filed 122 multistate lawsuits against the Biden Administration during his four years in office, according to data previously collected in 2025 by Marquette University. Not all of them were launched by Republicans. Six of the lawsuits were launched by Democrats and two were bipartisan.

When attorneys general have sued prior administrations, it was typically after the administration took action — not before. For example, former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff pointed to a 2012 lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) after its passage in March 2010. He was one of 22 Republican attorneys general who signed onto the case, which ended with a partial victory and partial defeat before the United States Supreme Court.

Shurtleff, who now votes for Democrats, believes the sheer number of lawsuits on both sides are excessive. “It’s just horrible. It’s a big, huge waste of attorney general time and the good things that you could accomplish together,” he said. “It’s a shame. It’s way too much. I think it’s ridiculous.”

Read more …

Overnight, the tariffs were delayed.

• Carney Speaks With Trump As 50% Tariffs Set To Take Effect At Midnight (JTN)

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke with President Donald Trump on Monday, according to Carney’s office, as Canada seeks a trade agreement that would avert new 50% tariffs, which are set to take effect at midnight on Wednesday. Existing U.S. tariffs on automobiles are a stumbling block, according to Reuters, which cited unnamed sources. Negotiators on both sides have discussed cutting the tariffs on Canadian vehicles from 25% to 15%, with further reductions based on the amount of U.S.-manufactured parts in each vehicle.


How that content is calculated is a point of contention. Washington wants only American-made parts deducted from the calculation, while Canada wants to include all North American-made parts, which would include Canadian- and Mexican-manufactured parts. The new tariffs target about $20 billion worth of imports. These tariffs will be imposed even on products that qualify for preferential treatment under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, which has shielded much of Canadian industry from earlier U.S. tariffs.

Carney’s office said on Tuesday that Carney and Trump spoke by phone about ongoing trade negotiations, but no further details were provided.

Read more …

On the left, Muslims overpower Israel in American media. That is curious.

• Woman Forced Out of Virginia Salon Over Her Support for Israel (Turley)

There is a disturbing controversy in Northern Virginia where Jessica Watson alleges that she went to Karimi Salon in Alexandria to get her eyebrows trimmed, only to be pushed out of the salon after the owner, Fatana Karimi, learned that Watson is Israeli. The incident raises a prior issue discussed on this blog: the right of business owners to refuse service based on political or religious beliefs as a matter of free speech. Watson posted a full account and a video on social media. Karimi, however, may not have a constitutional claim to defend against a discrimination complaint.


In the video, the person identified as Karimi says that she declared on Instagram that she would not serve those who support Israel (She also adds that she got Watson to sign a release for the video): I have included Watson’s full account below. She said that she was “nauseated” after a pleasant conversation turned nasty when she alluded to be Israeli. She claims that Karimi immediately declared “I can’t provide service to an Israeli. It’s against my political beliefs.”We previously discussed businesses refusing to prepare cakes, websites, and other products over conflicting religious or political beliefs.

In prior columns, academic articles, and my book, “The Indispensable Right, I discussed the never-ending litigation targeting Jack Phillips, the Christian baker who declined to make cakes that violated his religious beliefs. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court in what many of us hoped would be a final resolution of this conflict. I had long criticized the framing of the case (and other cases) under the religious clauses rather than treating it as a matter of free speech. In the end, the Supreme Court punted in a maddening 2018 decision that technically ruled in favor of Phillips based on a finding that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission showed anti-religious bias against Phillips.

In 2023, the Supreme Court delivered a major victory for free speech in 303 Creative v. Elenis, when it ruled that Lorie Smith, a Christian website designer, could refuse to provide services for a same-sex marriage. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote, “the framers designed the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to protect the ‘freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think.’ … They did so because they saw the freedom of speech ‘both as an end and as a means.’” Notably, in cases like Masterpiece Cakeshop, Phillips insisted that he would always sell cakes to any couple, including same-sex couples.

He only refused to make cakes specifically celebrating same-sex marriages due to his religious views. In this case, Karimi is refusing to perform the same services for Watson due to her identity. Eyebrow trimming does not convey a political or religious viewpoint. The Virginia Human Rights Act is designed to: “Safeguard all individuals within the Commonwealth from unlawful discrimination in employment because of race, color, religion, ethnic or national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or military status.”

Karimi is likely to argue that she was not refusing service due to Watson’s religious or national origin but her support for Israel, a political position. That could be difficult to maintain since Watson merely noted that she is part Israeli. The case is reminiscent of the abusive treatment afforded to Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz at Martha’s Vineyard by a pierogi stand. He was also refused service over his political views.

The line between national origin and religious discrimination versus political discrimination can be tenuous and unclear. Watson would have the advantage in my view under the state law in asserting discrimination. In the video, the owner states it is her national identity that is causing the action: “Get out of my shop. I can’t provide service to an Israeli. It’s against my political beliefs. You need to leave immediately.” It is not clear if Watson will now move forward with a formal complaint.

Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”

N.B.: Here is part of Watson’s account:

I’m nauseated even having to write this, but I won’t be quiet about it. I want my friends—Jewish and non-Jewish—to know what I experienced at a salon in Alexandria, Virginia, because I refuse to let antisemitism become normalized in our country.

I went to the salon yesterday to get my eyebrows done. The esthetician turned out to be Afghan. I was delighted, since I just finished writing a novel based on true stories that is partly set in Afghanistan. I told her about the amazing Afghans I interviewed for the book. We talked warmly about our shared love of Afghan poetry and food. Then she asked me to tell her more about the premise of my novel.

My story is about a Muslim Afghan refugee and the son of Jewish immigrants who forge an unlikely friendship in post-9/11 Alabama, only to find that their shared gift for languages draws them into America’s shadow war in Afghanistan. I joked about how I went down a rabbit hole studying Islam and Sufism to create the Muslim character, but that I at least had an easier time sketching the Jewish half-Israeli character, since I’m Jewish and half-Israeli myself. The woman stopped short. Then, “Get out of my shop.” “Excuse me?”

“I can’t provide service to an Israeli. It’s against my political beliefs. You need to leave immediately. And there is no such thing as Israel. It’s Palestine. A bunch of Jews from New York showed up a few years ago and stole the land from the Arabs.”(A bunch of Jews from New York showed up and…what?! This would’ve been funny if it wasn’t so insane.)

Shocked, I began packing up my purse to leave. The woman took out her phone and began recording me while chanting, “Free, free Palestine!” I asked her to stop recording me. She said I had signed a photo / video waiver and she had every right to record me. She then demanded I apologize for the genocide.

I told her there is no genocide, I wasn’t apologizing for anything, and that she was totally out of line for subjecting a customer to blatantly racist harassment. (By the way, denying service to someone based on their nationality is illegal in this country.) I also told her she needed to give me a full refund, since I hadn’t received the service I’d booked. She told me she was keeping the money and that I should be ashamed of myself and my people.

I was wearing a T-shirt she had given me for the treatment, so I asked her to stop recording while I changed back into my own clothes. She didn’t. I turned my back to the camera and changed anyway while she continued chanting “Free Palestine!” I’m pretty sure whatever waiver I signed didn’t give her permission to record me while I was half-naked. I left the salon completely shaken. I cried all the way home. I cried for my kids and the uncertainty of their future as Jews in the United States. For all the lies we can’t possibly fight. For our people having to put up with this total bullsh*t.

We don’t deserve this. I’m not naïve about the fact that the majority of Afghans are Muslim and that relations between Jews and Muslims are highly tense right now. The irony of this situation is that we had spent the previous minutes bonding over the very culture I had spent years trying to understand and portray with empathy, only for that curiosity and goodwill to be stamped on the moment she learned I was Jewish.

In the meantime, I already contacted my bank. They immediately refunded the money and contacted the woman to let her know they would be withdrawing the funds based on the incident I reported. I would also like to report what happened to any appropriate authorities and organizations in the D.C. area. If anyone knows specifically where an incident like this should be reported, please let me know.

Likely not much legal action will come of it (unless she is dumb enough to post the video), but I want a record of what happened. I want to at least do my part to make sure this kind of discrimination isn’t quietly accepted as the new normal for Jews in the United States.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Home › Forums › Debt Rattle August 19 2026

Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • August 19, 2026 at 9:49 am #247718
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

    Pablo Picasso Self portrait 1965 • Trump Vows New Strategy To ‘Strangle’ Iran Over Time (ZH) • Trump Drops Map Of Hormuz As “New US Territory” (ZH) •
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle August 19 2026]

  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.