René Magritte Personal values 1952
https://twitter.com/ConstitustionX/status/2090504429208494479?s=20 https://twitter.com/John_F_kJr/status/2090543513674961159?s=20 https://twitter.com/ivan_8848/status/2090481005987545449?s=20
Egyptian Coptic Christian who fled Islamic persecution explains:
— Dr. Maalouf (@realMaalouf) August 20, 2026
“There are no moderate Muslims. Either they are following the command of Allah to wage Jihad, or they are not Muslim.
It’s written in the Quran that Muslims have to force everyone else to become Muslim, and if… pic.twitter.com/49DcO8MXyd
But will China understand?
• China Rejects US Demand To Back Its Economic Operation Against Iran (ZH)
China has firmly rejected Washington’s call to join in implementing US sanctions to “squash” Iran’s economy, pushing back against Trump administration pressure to be part of the “toughest sanctions in history” which has marked a new phase of conflict focused on extended economic warfare, as a military solution is seen as increasingly unrealistic and unlikely.”Regarding the Iran issue, sanctions and pressure do not help resolve the problem,” Reuters quoted a representative of the Chinese Embassy in Washington as saying. The White House’s new plan is to include heavy reliance on international pressure on external countries to impose extreme isolation on the Islamic Republic.Read more …
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said the same to reporters Friday in a regular briefing. “China calls on all relevant parties to take responsible measures and resolve the problem through political and diplomatic means,” he said. Asked specifically about the latest comments of US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Lin emphasized the need for all parties to take “responsible measures” in resolving the war. “China opposes illegal unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law and are not authorized by the UN Security Council,” Lin said.Bessent had on Thursday told CNBC: “It is a one-two punch. We have the blockade (on Iran), and we are going to have the toughest sanctions in history.” He then vowed, “It is going to work in Iran and we are going to collapse this regime.” He further invoked some (infamous) words of President George W. Bush issued to allies in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. “You are either with us, or against us,” Bessent said in the interview. “This is going to be the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world.”
Such back-and-white rhetoric is very unlikely to sway the Chinese, given also that of course they know what happened next after that original proclamation by Bush – American forces got stuck in no less than two quagmires in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Iraq, in what came to be viewed cynically as ‘forever wars’. What’s more as the blowback in Baghdad was pretty immediate, as a key unintended consequence of the US regime change war was the ascendancy of pro-Iran Shia politicians ruling Iraq. Beijing is all too aware of the US score card in the region, even as Washington decision-makers continue ignoring the glaring lessons of recent history.
Bessent seemed perplexed at the reaction in oil prices on Thursday, while he also said that discussions with Beijing would be best done in private: “I think oil markets are misinterpreting what this economic pressure means,” Bessent said on Thursday. Oil prices climbed to more than three-week highs on Thursday. “We have asymmetric information, and I’m not sure why oil has popped up on this,” Bessent said. “If we are doing the maximum economic pressure, then that means that likely there will not be a large-scale kinetic restart.”
When asked if the U.S. could target China for doing business with Iran, Bessent said many conversations were best to have in private. “We are confident that everyone wants the Strait (of Hormuz) reopened, and for energy prices to come back down,” ` he continued. “Keep in mind that the Chinese get 50% (of their) energy from inside the Gulf. So it would do them a big service to get with the program.”Still, Bessent has been busy doubling-down on Trump’s message shift this week (opting for an economic siege warfare ‘solution’ as after military strategy hasn’t gone so well)…
Any remaining tie to Tehran will hasten a nation's economic oblivion, whether that tie be purposefully constructed or willfully ignored. pic.twitter.com/T3vticluAg
— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) August 20, 2026Tehran has been consistently saying that is is ready for a long war, whether that come in the form of more US-Israeli bombs, or else an economic siege. Even Reuters has acknowledged the obvious in its own coverage, saying “Iran has weathered punishing economic sanctions for nearly 50 years, since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.” “Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi called Trump’s comments an attempt to divert American public opinion from domestic financial problems, including record debt and rising interest rates,” the report added.
There’s an additional important factor. At this point there’s no way that the two key UN Security Council permanent members Russia and China will sign off on any big new anti-Iran sanctions regimen brought before the United Nations. Closer to home, the White House risks more China blowback, especially with President Xi Jinping slated to visit the US next month. Bloomberg poses the following in Friday analysis:“Is the White House willing to prioritize this new economic warfare campaign above its China relationship? And if it chooses to, there are serious ramifications,” said Chris Kennedy, an economic statecraft analyst at Bloomberg Economics. Kennedy said the new threats are also an “admission that the US is running out of options.”
Any decision to hit China would risk worsening tensions just weeks before Trump hosts Xi for the Chinese leader’s first visit to Washington in a decade. It also raises the threat of Chinese countermeasures that could inflict pain on the US economy ahead of November midterm elections that will hinge on pocketbook issues. Beijing has already demonstrated a willingness to push back against Trump, most notably by announcing export restrictions on rare earths that forced the White House into a climbdown from their tariff fight. Meanwhile, more pushback against this week’s Axios report saying that large quantities of oil are moving through the Strait of Hormuz via a US Navy established ‘stealth’ corridor:
https://twitter.com/borzou/status/2090576229900423280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2090576229900423280%7Ctwgr%5E0a80588e3499234b9a74d868adceed0299b51c1e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fchina-firmly-rejects-us-demand-back-its-most-crushing-economic-operation-against-iran
On Friday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Iran will “under no circumstances bow to bullying.” But he also struck somewhat of a conciliatory tone, perhaps signaling Iran is still open to dialogue so long as Washington is willing to compromise. “It would be better to end the war today, now that we are strong and have dignity, with the whole world acknowledging our victory,” the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency quoted him as saying.
If it were so bad, oil would be $200.
• The Strait of Hormuz Is Repricing the Entire World Economy (Martin Armstrong)
The politicians continue to speak about the Strait of Hormuz as though this were merely a regional dispute between Iran and its neighbors. That is complete nonsense. The strait is one of the most important arteries in the global economy, carrying roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas shipments. Brent crude has moved above $91, but the headline price of oil is only the beginning. The real economic damage appears in shipping rates, insurance premiums, refinery margins, diesel prices, electricity costs, and ultimately government borrowing. War does not remain confined to the battlefield. It enters every household through inflation.Read more …
Washington claims the strait is open while Iran insists it remains closed. Both statements are political propaganda because it is the shipowners, insurers, and commodity traders who determine whether a waterway is commercially open. A tanker can theoretically pass through Hormuz, but that means nothing if the insurance premium becomes prohibitive or the crew refuses to accept the risk. Most politicians have never operated a business and do not understand that commerce depends upon confidence—not government declarations. Once confidence collapses, trade will retreat regardless of how many officials stand before cameras insisting that everything remains under control.This is why the cost of the conflict cannot be measured solely by the number of barrels temporarily removed from the market. Every vessel delayed or redirected reduces available shipping capacity and increases freight rates elsewhere. Insurers must reprice the probability of a tanker being damaged, captured, or destroyed. Refineries must compete for alternative supplies, while countries dependent upon Gulf energy begin building precautionary inventories. Traders add a geopolitical premium because nobody knows whether the next missile will strike a ship, a refinery, a pipeline, or an export terminal. These costs compound through the entire system long before the average person notices the increase at the gasoline station.
The more serious warning is coming from refined products, particularly diesel. Politicians obsess over crude because that is the price quoted every evening on television. Yet modern civilization runs on diesel. Trucks transport food and consumer goods, farmers operate machinery, construction companies run heavy equipment, and emergency generators protect hospitals and critical infrastructure. When diesel rises, the cost of virtually everything rises with it.Governments will pretend that this inflation is temporary or caused by greedy corporations. They said the same thing after the monetary expansion of 2020. Inflation is never politically convenient because it exposes the true cost of government policy. A war financed through borrowing does not require politicians to present taxpayers with an immediate bill. The expense is transferred into sovereign debt, currency depreciation, and higher prices. The public pays through the destruction of purchasing power, while officials continue claiming that military operations can be conducted without domestic sacrifice.
Europe is particularly vulnerable. It has spent years undermining its own energy security while increasing sanctions, regulations, and military commitments. European governments are already struggling with weak growth, aging populations, expanding welfare obligations, and enormous debt. A sustained rise in energy prices will reduce industrial competitiveness and force governments to subsidize households once again. Those subsidies will require still more borrowing at precisely the moment bond yields are rising. This is the trap: war raises energy costs, energy raises inflation, inflation prevents central banks from reducing interest rates, and higher rates increase the cost of servicing government debt.
The bond market understands what politicians refuse to see. Long-term government yields are rising across Europe, the United States, and Japan because investors are beginning to question whether governments can continue borrowing without limit. The Middle East conflict is accelerating a sovereign-debt problem that already existed. Governments accumulated debt during the pandemic, borrowed again to subsidize energy after the war in Ukraine, and are now expected to finance another expanding conflict surrounding Iran. Each crisis is treated as temporary, but the debt is permanent.
This is how confidence collapses. The decline of an empire does not begin when it loses one battle. It begins when the cost of maintaining its military commitments exceeds the productive capacity of its economy. Rome debased its currency to pay the army and preserve the frontiers. Spain consumed the wealth of the New World financing wars across Europe. Britain emerged from two world wars victorious but financially exhausted, surrendering its position as the center of global capital to the United States. Military power is always dependent upon economic power, yet the warmongers imagine the relationship works in reverse.
Iran also understands that Hormuz is more valuable as a threat than as a permanently closed waterway. Completely stopping trade would damage Iran and alienate China, India, and other Asian customers dependent upon Gulf energy. Tehran does not need to seal the strait with an impenetrable naval blockade. It merely needs to create enough uncertainty that commercial traffic slows and the world pays a permanent risk premium. A missile landing near a tanker can accomplish economically what a fleet might fail to achieve militarily.
The United States may possess the naval power to escort ships, but it cannot force private capital to ignore risk. Nor can it guarantee that mines, drones, missiles, or small boats will never penetrate the security perimeter. Every escalation requires more ships, more aircraft, more personnel, and still more government spending. The attempt to protect the trade route therefore adds to the fiscal burden created by the disruption itself.
The Strait of Hormuz is becoming a tax imposed upon the entire world economy. It will appear in freight costs, food prices, utility bills, interest rates, government deficits, and eventually elections. Western leaders will blame Iran, corporations, speculators, or climate change before admitting that their endless wars carry an economic price.
“The US leader emphasized that Washington was successfully achieving its goals in the conflict with Iran”
• Deaths of ‘Iranian Leaders’ Hindering Deal With US — Trump (TASS)
The deaths of a significant portion of Iran’s leadership are among the factors complicating the conclusion of a deal between Washington and Tehran, US President Donald Trump stated. “Part of the problem is [that] so many of the leaders are gone. It’s not easy to make a deal. Nobody knows who’s leading [the country],” Trump said in an interview with WABC radio. At the same time, he emphasized that Washington is successfully achieving its goals in the conflict with Iran, particularly by preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.Read more …
Why exactly? Do we know? They seemed close to an agreement.
• U.S-Canada Trade War is Now a Reality (CTH)
Moments ago, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered the news via his X account. Discussions between the U.S and Canada have collapsed. All trade representatives are called back home. The 50% U.S. tariffs against Canada are now in effect. A trade war begins. First, read the statement from Prime Minister Mark Carney, with the understanding that Carney is making the first statement because the news is exceptionally bad for Canada. Worse than bad.Read more …
When the 3-day tariff pause was announced, CTH said to be cautious. When USTR Jamieson Greer and Canadian negotiator Dominic LeBlanc said the terms were “basically agreed”, again CTH said be careful.The reason for our notes of extreme caution is because the divide between the two economies and trade policy is just too big. There was no way for both sides to close the gap without major structural economic changes within Canada. The issues are not points of friction, they are just too big and embedded within the laws of Canada that would have to change.anking regulations would have to change. Intellectual property and media rules, regulations and laws would have to change. Industrial policy would have to change. The Canadian energy policy would have to change. The carbon trading scheme would have to change or be removed. All of this would fall upon Canada to carry out in order to position their economy in alignment with the USA. There’s literally no way for their government to accomplish this against the backdrop of their political ideology.
That was the structural argument and point made by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. This is also why the USMCA as a trilateral trade agreement is impossible to maintain. The only trade agreement construct possible is two clearly separate bilateral free trade agreements, one with Mexico and one with Canada.
The 50% tariffs begin tonight.
A trade war is underway.
UPDATE: USTR Response
“Tonight, Canada declined to finalize the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week. Despite the U.S. offer to Canada to receive the best treatment of any major exporter to our market, new demands and walk backs of other commitments by Canada have upended the careful balance reached in the past days. In addition, Canada is continuing to maintain its prolonged retaliation against the United States, including, among other things, flat-out prohibitions on certain American goods and services.
For decades, Canada has enjoyed the most favorable access to the U.S. market of any country. And from the beginning of President Trump’s trade program, Canada has continued to enjoy the best treatment in the world, even after – like China – retaliating against the United States. This week, the United States agreed to provide even better treatment to Canada, offering significant tariff reductions on steel, aluminum, autos, and lumber.
The U.S. offer was also forward looking, and included a historic economic and national security partnership to cooperate on export controls, combat transshipment, enhance digital trade, and align certain external tariffs. The offer would have led to supply chain coordination on aerospace, complementary actions to address unfair trade practices, critical minerals cooperation, increased enforcement against imports produced with forced labor, and the announcement of formal U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) negotiations.
This is a missed opportunity for Canada to partner with the United States, which is the fastest growing economy in the G7.”
~ U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer
Trump gives Marco free Latino reign.
• Cocaine Networks and Communists — Marco’s Been Busy Today (Sarah Anderson)
I was just getting ready to take the rest of the day off when the State Department flooded my inbox with emails. It seems that Marco Rubio has been pretty busy this week, and he’s largely focused on eradicating communism, crime, and drug trafficking from the Western Hemisphere, which is exactly where I like him. Let’s start with our old pal, Cuba, which Rubio has been sanctioning to death this summer. Or close to death. Unfortunately, the regime is still breathing, but it’s doing so with a massive statue of the secretary on its chest.Read more …
Today, the Department of State is designating nine entities and three individuals to further the Trump Administration’s comprehensive push to end the Cuban regime’s malign activities, both in Cuba and across our hemisphere. This action targets the leadership of the U.S.-designated Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) and designates nine Cuban entities supporting the regime.These designations build on the Department’s July 20 report Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism, which summarizes the Cuban regime’s decades-long use of brigades, such as the one coordinated by the designated ICAP earlier this month, to advance Cuban interests at the expense of the United States.ICAP is the organization Fidel Castro began in 1960 to build global “friendship” and “solidarity” and maintain relationships with foreign activist groups. In reality, it’s a way to spread communist propaganda. According to the State Department, “it claims to have more than 2,000 solidarity organizations across over 150 countries [and] serves as the main organizing hub of Cuba’s ideological network.” Think Code Pink and the like. Additionally, “it coordinates research, educational, and cultural exchanges between American and Cuban institutions, builds relationships between American political movements and Cuban officials, and harnesses its global reach to draw leftwing activists, intellectuals, students, influencers and politicians to Cuba from across the world.”
It’s also directly tied to Cuban intelligence, and 90% of its staff are affiliated with the Cuban spy agency. Anyway, on Thursday, Rubio sanctioned some of ICAP’s leadership, including: Fernando Gonzalez Llort, the president of ICAP and is one of the “Cuban Five” group of Cuban intelligence officers arrested in 1998. Llort was released from U.S. custody to Cuba in 2014. Noemi Ramona Rabaza Fernandez, who serves as the first vice president of ICAP. Leima Martinez Freire, who serves as the ICAP North America Director.
But he didn’t stop there. Rubio also sanctioned entities he accuses of exploiting Cuba’s metals and mining sector for the benefit of the regime. These include:
• Empresa de Níquel Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara, a state-owned enterprise dedicated to the extraction and processing of nickel and cobalt.
• Empresa Importadora Exportadora y Comercializadora de Metales or METALCUBA, a “Cuban state-owned enterprise that facilitates the import of heavy industrial products, including specialized fuel and metal components, on behalf of state and non-state actors.”
• Grupo Empresarial Geominero Salinero (Geominsal), a group that “develops and markets mineral resources and salt, and provides technical services associated with these industries.”
• Acinox Comercial, a state-owned enterprise that facilitates the import and export of metallurgical goods and industrial equipment.
In addition to those, he sanctioned several regime-controlled entities, including the Ministry of Construction of Cuba and Agencia de Contratacion a Representaciones Comerciales S.A. (Acorec S.A.), an organization that supplies Cubans to foreigners for labor inside Cuba and then garnishes 90% of the workers’ wages. That’s not all. He also designated: • Coratur S.A., the organization that “manages international trade, import-export operations, and foreign market partnerships.”
• Empresa Central de Abastecimiento y Ventas de Equipos de Transporte Pesado y Sus Piezas (Transimport), a group that has “imported over $5 million worth of vehicles, automotive parts, and industrial equipment in recent years.”
• Empresa Comercializadora de Articulos en General (Consumimport), a group that “imports and exports a wide variety of goods, including appliances and construction materials.” Meanwhile in Ecuador…
The State Department also announced on Thursday that it is sanctioning “an Ecuador-based network of 15 individuals and entities and identified 10 Ecuador-based fishing vessels as blocked property for their role in trafficking thousands of kilograms of cocaine each month from South America to Mexico, destined for distribution in our homeland.” It goes on to state that these groups in Ecuador are growing closer to Mexican cartels, particularly the two biggest and most dangerous, Sinaloa and Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), as well as Ecuadorian Foreign Terrorist Organizations, Los Choneros and Los Lobos.
“These trafficking operations generate billions of dollars annually for cartels responsible for a significant share of the deadly drugs flowing into our communities,” the State Department reports. “The United States will continue to use all our tools to dismantle the cartels profiting at the expense of American lives.” The network operated under the cover of legitimate fishing fleets out of Manta, using government-subsidized fuel to resupply go-fast boats hauling multi-ton loads across the Pacific.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leadership, the warrior ethos is coming back to America’s military.
“She’s palling around with Bernie Sanders and will likely inherit his very large, very sophisticated political movement.”
• AOC for President? It’s Time We Take That Proposition Seriously (Rick Moran)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) may be uninformed, poorly educated, and without scruples. But she’s the frontrunner in some polls for the Democratic Party’s 2028 presidential nomination and is well-positioned to ride the growing wave of radical-left energy now taking over the Democratic Party all the way to the top. Getting past superficial profiles of her, AOC has many gifts and a jungle savviness about politics that makes her a formidable opponent for any Democrat who’s been mentioned as a potential presidential candidate.Read more …
Her clownish social media gimmicks aside, this is a woman with a plan. And Republicans who underestimate her do so at the party’s peril.Mark Halperin, a veteran of several presidential campaigns, writes in The Free Press, “AOC boasts three indispensable factors for a successful presidential race: national name recognition, the capacity to raise tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, and insatiable media interest.”A Democrat Trump? Don’t laugh it off. She’s palling around with Bernie Sanders and will likely inherit his very large, very sophisticated political movement. In that, she’ll have a leg up on Trump, who didn’t have much of an organization when he started running for president in 2014.
AOC maintains one of the largest digital footprints of any politician in Congress, with a combined social media following exceeding 23 million across major platforms. It doesn’t matter if they’re all brain-dead millennials and Gen Zers. They don’t care about “issues” the same way that older voters might consider before deciding who to vote for. It’s all about “feelings” and “vibes.” And AOC knows how to tap into that zeitgeist.
The Free Press: “An iconic face of the zeitgeisty progressive movement, a fundraising dynamo on a first-name basis not just with cable news hosts but with producers, network executives, hair and makeup folks, and popular influencers as well, AOC showcases other en vogue traits. She is a young outsider railing against the establishment. She is a master of the attention economy, a social media wizard with a keen sense of timing. She is bracingly gruff and tart, unafraid of conflict and controversy, and comfortable in the eye of the storm. She is widely considered gorgeous, with a sharp fashion flair. She possesses ineffable magnetism that catches attention; when she appears on any television or tablet, she compels viewers to turn up the volume to find out what she is saying.”
AOC understands that modern politics is part ideology, part organization, and part show business, and she does not pretend to be offended by the performative superficialities of the profession. Most politicians say they hate the circus while making sure they are standing in the center ring. AOC genuinely enjoys the circus. She is soulful, sincere, winking, ironic, and a ham all at the same time. Many Republicans have a hatred for AOC that’s so rabid they can’t acknowledge her obvious political gifts and the threat she poses. This is suicidal. She will be a formidable opponent in 2028 if she doesn’t stumble over her own stupidity.
Her obvious weak spot is foreign policy. Her recent efforts to create a foreign policy résumé resulted in an embarrassing appearance at the Munich Security Conference in February. Halperin notes that “even an intensive course in national security and foreign policy might leave her vulnerable to a career-stalling gaffe.” That’s because talking about foreign policy with simple-minded talking points or stumbling over a “what I believe” question shows a shallowness voters will recognize immediately.
Foreign policy is not simply a matter of expressing the ideologically accepted values. Presidents have to know things. They have to understand NATO, China, deterrence, nuclear doctrine, intelligence, trade, alliances, sanctions, the Middle East, the history behind the current crisis, and the interests behind the public rhetoric. They have to know enough to tell when the generals, diplomats, and intelligence officials sitting around the table are right, and when they are protecting their own bureaucratic interests.
At Munich, AOC at times seemed like someone who had learned the broad strokes but was not particularly capable of comprehending or interested in the intricacies. A presidential campaign would ultimately unmask that weakness, and her opponents would run with it as far and fast as possible. Furthermore, her Munich stumble laid bare the broader question of gravitas. AOC has spent her entire national political life as an insurgent legislator. She has never been a governor. She has never run a large executive branch. She has never had to balance a state budget, manage a natural disaster, command a National Guard, negotiate a major bipartisan agreement, or make the kind of lonely executive decision for which there is no politically easy answer.
She’s got a little more than a year to change that impression. The frightening possibility is that it might not matter as much as it has in the past. The younger voters are far more impressionable and have less ability to recognize a lightweight like AOC. Her communication skills will only take her so far, as long as her voters don’t question the intellectual basis for her ideology. Personally, I believe 2032 will be her year. If she’s the nominee in 2028, she will lose and lose big.
“. . . it’s subversion and nothing about it is accidental. it’s a well worn playbook to use the democratic institutions of a high trust state to destroy a civilization.” —El Gato Malo on Substack
Jim has been in fine form for quite a while..
• Remember the Names (James Howard Kunstler)
An eerie quiet masks the panic rising among the many players in the long-running train of crimes carried out under color-of-law against the people of the this country that goes roughly under the clunky name of The Grand Conspiracy. What is Joe DiGenova up to, exactly, in the Southern District of Florida, with its several grand juries grinding away? Indictments will fly, for sure, but then who will flip on whom? It won’t take a whole lot of flippers to seal many fates in this skein of sedition and treason. The tension must be terrible for them.Read more …
The question has long been: how do you even begin to organize a set of coherent cases around this roaring avalanche of nefarious acts that got bigger with each successive attempt at cover-up? Let’s see if we can block out a panoramic picture of potential prosecutions. The gigantic mess must be separated into packets.It’s probably best to begin with the FBI’s “Midyear Exam” op of 2016 — the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. You can bet that the server contained evidence of HRC’s two seminal crimes that kicked things off: 1) the transfer of US military technology to Russia’s Skolkovo high-tech hub and payments from seventeen companies involved coincidentally received by the Clinton Foundation when she was Sec’y of State; and 2) the “Uranium One” deal transferring US-owned nuke material to Russia (via Canada) that required a State Dept signoff by HRC — coincident with husband Bill receiving a half-million dollar “lecture fee” from a Russian bank. Players involved in Midyear Exam: Comey, Strzok, McCabe, Page, then-AG Loretta Lynch.
That potential embarrassment of this sketchy business was simply squashed by Lynch and Comey, while HRC took care to physically destroy the server and devices linked to it. But it also prompted the creation of the Russian collusion prank against then-candidate Donald Trump, (“Crossfire Hurricane”) to distract attention from all that. . . which turned into the huge RussiaGate operation that marshaled the FBI, the CIA, the Senate Intel Committee, and offices deep in the Pentagon to put over a gigantic hoax. It was green-lighted by President Barack Obama and organized by CIA-Director John Brennan, with FBI Director Comey and DNI James Clapper.
Supporting players (potential defendants) include Susan Rice, Sally Yates, Veep Joe Biden (or “Joe Biden”), then White House aide Lisa Monaco, and CIA agent Eric Ciaramella (who wrote the actual Intel Community Assessment that jump-started the op). McCabe, Stzrok, Page, Ohr (and wife, Nellie), Rosenstein, and many FBI agents are potential defendants. Also Gina Haspel, CIA London station chief, who coordinated with the UK’s MI6 agent, Christopher Steele of the Steele Dossier. Throw in DOD-sponsored spook Stefan Halper and FBI liaison in London, Alan Kohler. After May, 2017, Christopher Wray was responsible for all FBI mischief and FISA Court irregularities (along with FISA Judge James Boasberg).
The Mueller Investigation was a subset of RussiaGate, but deserves its own case packet. It was an attempt to legitimize the RussiaGate hoax, and to keep the news media fed with innuendo. In effect it was a hoax unto itself, consumed $32-million, and ran nearly two years. It produced exactly nothing in evidence that President Trump had “colluded” with Russia about anything. Since Robert Mueller was mentally incapacitated, the investigation was run by subordinates, Aaron Zebley, Andrew Weissmann. Attorneys Jeanie Rhee, Elizabeth Prelogar, Brandon Van Grack and others. It was a fraud on the public and probably an obstruction of justice.
Impeachment No. 1 (the Ukraine phone call impeachment) was an entirely false operation cooked up by lawfare ninja Norm Eisen in collusion with Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Adam Schiff, with assistance from CIA agent (“whistleblower”) Eric Ciaramella and NSC member Lt. Col. Alex Vindman, with a boost from then-IC Inspector General Michael Atkinson. Eisen later admitted on a video that the aim of the impeachment was to “prebunk” Veep “Joe Biden’s” bribery and grift activities in Ukraine as the Democratic party prepared to run him for president in 2020. Ciaramella had accompanied Veep “Joe Biden” on several trips to Ukraine and knew what “JB” was up to there. Indict them all for sedition and treason.
The 2020 election op was pulled off in coordination with the Covid-1 scam that positioned the nation for massive mail-in ballot fraud, which was coordinated by lawfare ninja Marc Elias, then employed by the Democratic Party law firm Perkins Coie. Elias was assisted by Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook, now Meta), whose nonprofit, Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), distributed over $400-million to roughly 2500 election districts around the country, much of it used to pay select officials who would count and report mail-in ballots. The mail-in ballot fraud had been planned and gamed-out previously by the non-profit org Transition Integrity Project, run by Rosa Brooks and Nils Gilman.
In October 2020, fifty-one former intel officials signed a public letter denouncing the Hunter Biden laptop as having “the earmarks of Russian disinformation.” The letter was organized by Antony Blinken and former CIA-Director Michael Morrell. It was done in coordination with a social media campaign to suppress public knowledge of the laptop (and the Biden family record of international grift inside it) to influence the presidential election a month later. Potential fraud indictments.
The Jan 6 riot at the US Capitol has never been adequately investigated. FBI Director Wray was allowed to evade answering to Congress about the number of FBI agents and associated employees (including CIA personnel) that were mixed in with the crowd to provoke the intrusion inside the building and related violence. Speaker Nancy Pelosi engineered the situation so that the certification of electoral vote slates would not be challenged as procedure allowed. Sedition and Treason.
The Jan 6 Congressional Committee was a fraud on the American people put together by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to coverup her involvement in the crimes behind the Jan 6 Capitol riot. The members involved likely enjoy Congressional immunity for the spectacle itself, but perhaps not for destroying all the evidence that was collected in the course of the investigation. Chairman Bennie G. Thompson was responsible for that.
The Mar-a-Lago raid of August 2022 was authorized by Attorney General Merrick Garland and carried out by FBI Director Wray with Assistant Director Steven D’Antuono. Three months later, Garland appointed Jack Smith Special Counsel to oversee the Mar-a-Lago documents case, which he botched, resulting in its dismissal two years later. The raid itself arguably lacked probable cause and was based on an improper scope of evidence sought. Indict Merrick Garland under 18 U.S.C. § 241, conspiracy against rights.
The lawfare operations of 2023-2024 in several jurisdictions resulted in indictments against candidate Donald Trump and others in Fulton County, GA, and New York City. The Fulton County case under DA Fani Willis (later disqualified for “the appearance of impropriety”) was assisted by the “Joe Biden” White House, possibly by attorneys Richard Sauber and Beth Mueller in the WH Counsel’s Office, giving it the odor of a purely political prosecution.
In the the Stormy Daniels hush money case against Donald Trump brought by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, DOJ officer Matthew Colangelo left his cushy position as Principal Deputy Associate US Attorney General to take a job assisting DA Bragg in the NYC court. Colangelo delivered the opening statement at the 2024 trial and played a central role in the prosecution. The trial was presided over by political judge Juan Merchan. Just days ago, The New York Times reported that the Democratic Party fundraising company, Authentic Campaigns, previously owned by Judge Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, has been under investigation the past year. Anybody detect the odor of politics? Malicious prosecution, improper judicial conduct.
Many of the political celebrities mentioned above, and probably many not-so-well-known players, must be freaking out as the waves ominously pound the beach and the summer days tick down toward the ill winds of fall. I’m pretty sure that readers and commentors can add some candidates to the list of potential indictments, and perhaps some ops I might have overlooked. (The entire odious Covid-19 affair is partly a separate matter, but that has also commenced a new phase with the guilty plea deal announced days ago by Dr. Fauci’s chief advisor, Dr. David Morens.) Even former President Obama looks boxed-in. He enjoys immunity from actions he took as president, but that immunity prevents him from hiding behind the fifth amendment as a now-private citizen in a court of law. Things are livening up.
CNN finds it a juicy story. So they keep running with it.
• ‘My Guardian and Protector’: Natalie Harp’s Devotion to Trump (CNN)
President Donald Trump’s close aide Natalie Harp expressed her utmost loyalty to him in at least two letters addressed to the president, which were published by The Daily Beast on Thursday amid increased scrutiny of the close aide’s relationship to Trump. “I want things to always be right between us,” Harp wrote in one of the letters, which were printed out and signed. It began with “Dear Mr. President” and concluded with, “With all my heart, Natalie.” Excerpts of one of the letters had previously been published by the New York Times.Read more …
Harp’s constant and dedicated presence at Trump’s side has been in the spotlight this week after Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff mentioned her by name in a now-viral speech attacking Trump. The Georgia senator swiped at the president’s “travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar,” a reference to her joining the president — along with a very limited group of aides — when he secretly boarded a smaller aircraft to leave Turkey due to a threat from Iran in July.She added in the letter from 2023: “I never want to bring you anything but joy. I’m sorry I lost my focus. You are all that matters to me. I don’t want to ever let you down. Thank you for being my Guardian and Protector in this Life.” In another letter, Harp reminisced about their relationship when she was a host on the conservative One America News Network. “I miss the days when you used to call, during my Talkshow days, and we’d talk about everything and nothing,” Harp wrote. “I want to get back to that synergy. We shouldn’t have to talk about work all the time!!” In the same letter, Harp added: “And please, when I fail, will you tell me? You have the absolute right to cuss me out, if need be, when I deserve it, because no one knows or cares about me more.”
US President Donald Trump and aide Natalie Harp exit Marine One on the Ellipse near the White House on August 16, 2026.
CNN has not independently confirmed that Harp wrote or sent these letters to Trump in 2023. The Daily Beast said the writer Michael Wolff obtained them while he was writing a book about Trump’s 2024 campaign. White House spokesperson Davis Ingle defended Harp in a statement to CNN, saying she is “one of the most loyal and hardest working aides on President Trump’s team.” But White House officials have privately acknowledged in recent days that the sharper, widespread attacks have had the adverse effect of bringing more attention to Harp’s relationship with Trump.Harp is so close to Trump that she once rode in an SUV trunk to accompany him to a court appearance in New York City in October 2023, CNN reported on Tuesday. There wasn’t room for her in the vehicle, but she insisted that Trump had personally asked her to attend and was determined not to be left behind.
Harp is omnipresent in Trump’s orbit, officials familiar with her role have told CNN. But unlike past staff secretaries and aides to the president — like Trump’s former personal secretary Madeleine Westerhout, who similarly served as the president’s gatekeeper of information during his first term — she doesn’t sit outside the Oval Office, but in it. Harp is with Trump much of the day, sitting in on meetings and in constant communication with him.
She speaks with Trump late into the night about social media posts, the officials said. Harp is also a channel for foreign leaders to try to reach the president and is tasked with contacting people he sees on television. She is someone he will ask to send notes to others when he doesn’t want to reach out directly. Their working relationship is so effective, officials said, because of her total loyalty to the president.
But Harp’s methods have irked senior aides and at times prompted efforts to box her out of the president’s inner circle, according to multiple sources who described her dynamic with Trump. The former television host began working for Trump after crediting him with saving her life. Harp has become a main conduit between the president and the outside world, passing along messages from allies and setting up meetings, typing out Truth Social posts and toting printouts of laudatory articles, all while staying in close physical proximity at all hours of the day.
She is known as the “human printer” — a title she referenced in one of the letters, in which she said Trump “forced me to ‘unplug’” during a trip to Scotland and Ireland. “I didn’t have to be ‘Human Printer.’ I could take time to enjoy good conversation, and still get all my work done at the end of the day. In fact, I even had time to take long morning and evening walks to enjoy each Sunrise and Sunset (though I did forget to eat and sleep!),” she wrote.
“…During Investigation of Rape and Sexual Misconduct.”
• FBI Seizes Devices Belonging to Eric Swalwell (CTH)
Generally speaking, when the FBI seizes devices it’s usually to bury them and protect affected interests in/around Washington DC. Rarely, if ever, does the confiscation of electronic devices result in any public awareness of the contents – unless the release runs in alignment with the interests of those in Washington DC.Read more …
EX. If it was the confiscation of electronic devices deemed adverse to the interest of DC (Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Scott Perry, Mike Lindell, etc.) then the content of those devices is publicly exposed. However, most confiscations are to protect the guilty – therefore they are buried. SEE: Hunter Biden laptop, Huma Abedin laptop, Anthony Weiner cell phones, Hillary Clinton phone(s) and laptops; Awan Brothers laptops (4) and phones; Seth Rich phone and laptop; Jeffrey Epstein, phones, laptops, hard drives; Stephen Craig Paddock phones and laptops, Syed Rizwan Farook/Tashfeen Malik cell phones, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev phones and laptops; Senator Bob Menendez, phones and laptops etc.Therefore, accepting things as they are most likely – and not as we would prefer them to be – it is best to think of the recent story as one of protecting the downstream issues from Eric Swalwell, as they are associated during his tenure as a targeting conduit for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) and later as a Trump impeachment manager and J6 Committee official.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal agents seized electronic devices from former Rep. Eric Swalwell and searched his Washington home as part of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by the ex-Democratic congressman from California, according to a person familiar with the matter. Swalwell’s devices were seized at the San Francisco airport on Saturday and agents executed a search warrant at his home a day later, said the person, who was not authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
A message seeking comment was left Thursday with an attorney for Swalwell, who has denied allegations of sexual assault and misconduct. The Daily Mail first reported the seizure of Swalwell’s devices on Thursday. Swalwell announced his resignation from Congress in April following allegations that Swalwell had sexually assaulted a woman twice, including when she worked for him. The San Francisco Chronicle, followed by CNN, first reported the allegations. CNN also reported that three other women alleged various kinds of sexual misconduct by Swalwell, including sending them unsolicited explicit messages or nude photos.
[…] A lawyer representing Lonna Drewes, a California woman who in April said she had been raped in 2018 by Swalwell, said his team was cooperating with all law enforcement agencies investigating the former congressman. “We are encouraged to learn about the escalation of the FBI’s investigation into the allegations against Eric Swalwell,” attorney Arick Fudali said in a statement. (read more)
Sarah Anderson. “I’m gonna need a real man to represent my state, not this clown.”
• Mirror, Mirror on The Wall: Who Is the Prettiest Politician of Them All? (SA)
(I bet some of you regulars thought I was about to write about Marco Rubio. That’s not what this is about.) Somehow, this story slipped through the cracks a bit when the Free Beacon came out with it in July, but it’s making the rounds this week. I know our own Scott Pinsker mentioned it in passing a few days ago, but I felt it deserved its own standalone article.Read more …
Because, as a Georgia resident, I’ll do anything I can to ensure this person is not my senator anymore. So if you had to guess, which prominent political candidate (at the federal level) spends the most on hair and makeup? Maybe it’s Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)? She might not be the brightest bulb in the box, but she’s a pretty girl who looks put together most of the time. Or maybe it’s Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.)? Another lovely lady who obviously puts a lot of effort into her appearance.Well, if you guessed it was either of them, you’re wrong. If you guessed it was any woman at all, you’re wrong. The answer is Sen. Jon “Pee-wee Herman” Ossoff (D-Ga.). According to campaign finance records, Ossoff has paid “makeup artist Stephanie Ponder $2,887 for ‘makeup services'” since February. The Free Beacon reports that the most recent payment came in June to the tune of $900. Here’s more:
Ossoff’s four-figure makeup expenditures stand out among federal candidates. The Georgia senator who is running for reelection against Republican Rep. Mike Collins (Ga.), has reported spending more on makeup than any other candidate this year, beating out the likes of far-left Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.). Ocasio-Cortez has spent $1,837.93 on ‘campaign event hair & makeup services’ in 2026, while Tlaib has spent $320 on ‘hair and makeup services.’
The spending also comes as liberal media figures praise the 39-year-old Ossoff’s carefully managed on-camera presence and float him as a prospective 2028 presidential candidate. He’s not only paying big bucks for hair and makeup, but he’s also paying them to a high-profile artist. Ponder has a resume that includes working on The Notebook, Hunger Games, and Remember the Titans. The article also mentions that, “A recent Puck profile asserted that Ossoff ‘has seemingly reinvented himself’ in anticipation of a 2028 presidential bid, adding a ‘beefier physique to his studied, Obama-like cadence.'”
And the media is falling for it, of course. Ezra Klein of the New York Times has pointed out that Ossoff knows how to make himself appear imposing and powerful on TV (I invite Mr. Klein to come to Atlanta and watch these campaign commercials that are in my face constantly because that’s not what I see — I see a weasel). Vogue did an article on his “internet thirst” and called him “an attractive camp counselor.” Queerty reported that “Jon Ossoff & his slutty little glasses are already our summertime political crush” and called him “an attractive version of Atticus Finch.”
All I can say is gag me with a spoon. You can’t see me, but I’m trying not to throw up as I write this. The idea of a man who spends more on hair and makeup than I do — and I love expensive makeup, I must confess — is just gross. I’m gonna need a real man to represent my state, not this clown.
Two audio files. Not sure what the difference is.
• Wait, What? Trump Was on Michael Cohen’s Radio Show? (Matt Margolis)
Donald Trump spent part of Thursday swapping pleasantries with Michael Cohen, his former “fixer” who then became the left’s favorite anti-Trumper and even testified against the president in court and before Congress. It’s hard to say which is more bizarre: that this interview happened at all, or how warm it was. Part of the sit-down aired Thursday evening on Cohen’s radio show on 77 WABC-AM in New York, with the full interview set to air Sunday. It was an exceptionally friendly affair. Believe it or not, the whole segment played like a reunion special.Read more …
Cohen is currently filling in for Andrew Cuomo, who is taking a break from the show for the summer. Apparently, station owner John Catsimatidis, a Trump ally, ran it by the White House. The administration “had no objection,” Catsimatidis told the New York Post, adding that Trump had “expressed empathy” for Cohen. Empathy. For Michael Cohen. Sit with that for a moment.On the air, Trump told Cohen, “They weaponized you like nobody’s ever been weaponized, like few have been.” He went from empathy to esteem. “I respect the fact that you recanted everything you said,” Trump said. “That’s a big thing that you did.” In a separate interview before the radio segment aired, Cohen told CNN he’d resubmitted a pardon application to the White House after the Biden administration denied his original request, and he hadn’t heard back yet. “I took that same application with the same documentation, and I just rewrote the cover letter removing the name of President Joe Biden and inserting the name President Donald Trump … I do have a receipt,” Cohen said.
LIVE NOW: Michael and President Trump discuss 2016.
— TalkRadio 77 WABC (@77WABCradio) August 20, 2026
Listen Now: https://t.co/JYtLGcmjeq pic.twitter.com/sXCbatGRfH
Cohen is hardly the first Trump ally to blow up publicly and find his way back into the fold, following Elon Musk and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.). He once said he’d “take a bullet” for Trump, before his testimony in Trump’s 2024 trial, on charges of falsifying business records to illegally influence an election, helped secure a 34-count felony conviction that carried no punishment. It’s worth noting that Trump never said a warm word about Cohen before Thursday, though he’d linked to Cohen’s own comments this year about feeling pressured by prosecutors Cohen has spent the past year trashing.Cohen framed it all as forgiveness in his Substack. “Forgiveness does not mean amnesia,” he wrote. “It is about having the courage to decide that yesterday will no longer dictate tomorrow.” At one point, he even got sentimental. “Boss, remember when I was by your side?” he asked. Cohen now says he only turned on Trump because prosecutors squeezed him. “I felt pressured and coerced to only provide information and testimony that would satisfy the government’s desire to build the cases against and secure a judgment and convictions against President Trump,” he wrote on Substack in January.
That tracks. We know how desperate the Deep State was to stop Trump. Heck, the Biden administration didn’t even try to hide that it was weaponizing the government against Trump.
Retail doesn’t believe. Wall Street doesn’t believe.
— InvestAnswers (@Investanswers) August 20, 2026
JPMorgan walked the factory. They saw Optimus.
Let’s cook. $TSLA https://t.co/xAjVFOxurL
TESLA'S NEW OPTIMUS AD HAS A SLOGAN THAT SHOULD MAKE EVERY WORKER SIT UP: "NEVER SEND AN ORGANIC TO DO A MACHINE'S JOB"
— Axia (@0xAxia) August 20, 2026
Read that line again. "never send an organic to do a machine's job."
organic. that's you. that's the word for humans now, in a car company's ad.
Watch the… https://t.co/E0RozvR3w3 pic.twitter.com/oCkjk892rH
https://twitter.com/niccruzpatane/status/2089885020328505454?s=20Elon Musk predicts Optimus will become a better surgeon than the best humans within just next three years and at scale
— X Freeze (@XFreeze) August 20, 2026
Robots don’t get tired, they can scale everywhere and work surpassing human limitations
The world is currently facing a growing shortage of surgeons. Human… https://t.co/noVSSzD6uC
BREAKING: Elon Musk says SpaceX is aiming for 30+ Starship launches per day by 2030, roughly 10,000 launches annually. pic.twitter.com/lZxq0KXb72
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) August 21, 2026
Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.
Home › Forums › Debt Rattle August 22 2026