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Debt Rattle August 26 2026

Aug 262026
 
 August 26, 2026  Posted by at 9:01 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , ,  Add comments


Fra Filippo Lippi The Virgin Mary 1450-65


• Mojtaba Khamenei Is (Still) Dead (Rick Moran)
• Iran Airs Video of Barron Trump, Offers $10 Million Bounty On His Head (ZH)
• Top Zelensky Staffer Led Out Of Corruption Court In Handcuffs (ZH)
• State Department Moving Toward Mass Visa Cancellation (CTH)
• The Background of Mark Carney Working with DNC Officials and Operatives (CTH)
• The Illusion of Leverage in Canada-US Trade Negotiations (Christian Vezilj)
• Don’t Trust the Midterm Polls (Victor Davis Hanson)
• Cookery for All (James Howard Kunstler)
• “What are You Gonna Even Do with More Money?” Abdul El-Sayed (Turley)
• Hasan Piker: American Jews are Asking for Attacks on Them (Turley)
• Get Ready for the Democrats’ Season of Bloodthirst (Tim O’Brien)
• Why Is SpaceX Buying All That Marshland in Louisiana? (Stephen Green)
• Dolly Parton Passes Away at 80 (Chris Queen)

 


 

 


 


The power of a dead man.

• Mojtaba Khamenei Is (Still) Dead (Rick Moran)

In 1975, a brash new TV show premiered. Viewers had never seen anything like Saturday Night Live (SNL). It aired in the 11:30 p.m. time slot on NBC and featured a group of (then) unknown actors doing skits and gags geared toward a younger audience. At the same time, network news coverage had been reporting for weeks about the imminent death of “The Last Fascist,” Generalissimo Francisco Franco. The death watch was interminable. For weeks, network news reported on every minor change in Franco’s condition. If there was no news, some broadcasts concluded with “Franco is still alive.”


Franco finally died on Nov. 20, 1975. The next Saturday night during SNL, anchor Chevy Chase started saying “Franco is still dead” on the “Weekend Update” segment to mock the endless news coverage. It became one of the decade’s most popular catchphrases. I think it’s time to resurrect the gag and apply it to news about fanatical Islamist Mojtaba Khamenei and the endless speculation about whether he’s alive or dead.

Uncounted times since the Feb. 28 bombing that took out his father Ali’s fortified bunker, killing dozens of top-ranking Iranian government officials, it’s been reported that Khamenei the Younger succumbed to his injuries. The regime has admitted that Mojtaba was badly injured, but said he was well enough to speak with the new leaders of the Iranian government. His election as Supreme Leader by the Assembly of Experts has been questioned; he has yet to appear in public, and even top leaders in the government have not laid eyes on him since the death of his father.

An article in The Atlantic by Arash Azizi has started tongues wagging again. Azizi claims that Khamenei the Younger not only merely dead. He’s really, most sincerely dead.Funny thing: Only five individuals have seen the new Supreme Leader. And yet, there’s been a blizzard of pronouncements, edicts, and bombastic statements from him, suggesting an energetic and dynamic leader.

The Atlantic: “Almost six months since his anointment, Iran’s supreme leader has been entirely obscured from the public eye. Not a single contemporaneous picture, video, or audio recording of him has been released. Many of the country’s top political leaders admit that they haven’t seen him—among them Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister and a member of the National Security Council. IranWire, a London-based opposition outlet, reports that not a single cabinet member has met with Mojtaba since he became supreme leader.

Not even Mojtaba’s close friends and relatives have seen him. Fewer than five people have met with Mojtaba since his ascent to power, Mohammad Hossein Khoshvaght, a former official and a relative of Mojataba’s told me, “due to security precautions.”

The rationale is not implausible. Mojtaba would be a likely target for an Israeli or U.S. air strike, such as the one that killed his father. Direct communication from him could supply Iran’s enemies with clues to his whereabouts. He is also said to have sustained injuries in the February strike on his family that have made public speeches and appearances difficult. “I believe Mojtaba has either passed away or is brain-dead,” a staffer at a government institution in Tehran told Azizi. One solid reason why this might not be scuttlebutt is that the amount of communications coming from the Supreme Leader’s office has all but ceased in recent days.

“At least two other government officials told me the same,” Aziz wrote. “One said that he believed Mojtaba died or became brain-dead earlier this month.”mThe Islamic tradition of holding a “wake” 40 days after the death of a loved one was telling. A veritable who’s who of Iranian power brokers showed up at the event commemorating the death of Ali Khamenei, including several of the elder Khamenei’s sons. Missing was the host himself: Mojtaba Khamenei.

Whether Mojtaba is dead or alive is more than idle speculation. Whether Mojtaba is dead or alive, his public absence creates problems for the Iranian regime. The supreme leader holds most of the constitutional power in the Islamic Republic and has in the past served as the final arbiter among the system’s warring factions and institutions. Mojtaba appears to be sitting these conflicts out, at a moment when their outcome could be particularly consequential.

The country’s 13-person National Security Council is effectively running the country as a collective. It is chaired by Pezeshkian, a reformist who favors an end to the war with America, and includes Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the powerful parliamentary speaker who led the talks with the United States. But it also includes General Ahmad Vahidi, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and other military leaders.

General Vahidi is the real power in Iran, while President Pezeshkian concerns himself with domestic matters. Vahidi has the guns, and in Iran’s precarious state, that counts the most. It really doesn’t matter if Khamenei is alive or dead. The Iranian regime has been reborn as a military dictatorship, with the clerics cowering in their mosques. Vahidi is using Mojtaba Khamenei as a frontman, so whether the ayatollah is alive or not is immaterial until the general consolidates power.

Read more …

His security detail just doubled.

• Iran Airs Video of Barron Trump, Offers $10 Million Bounty On His Head (ZH)

While it was largely Israeli media’s Ch.14 which first called attention to the “Where to kill Barron Trump” clip, the short video does appear to be a creation of Iranian state media. It is indeed authentic.It is currently featured at the Tehran-based Tebyan Cultural Institute’s official Persian-language homepage. The institute is highly visible in Iran (more here), and is affiliated with the Islamic Development Organization, which is under the Supreme Leader and is also linked to the IRGC and its media channels. The video is hosted at the official state institute here.


A MEMRI TV (Middle East Media Research Institute) translation of the video closes by featuring reference to a $10 million dollar bounty placed on the US president’s son Barron, disturbingly…

The official Tebyan website also features English subtitles for the video. Hawks in the US are already trying to seize on this admittedly somewhat absurd AI-looking video to argue the case for renewed military action. They will try to get Trump’s ear and attention with this.

* * *

As the U.S.-Iran confrontation barrels into a new phase, Tehran’s propaganda machine has gone from Legos to death threats. A newly surfaced Iranian state media video openly fantasizes about the assassination of Barron Trump. The clip, titled “Where to kill Barron Trump,” claims without evidence to have dug up the 20-year-old’s Xbox and Discord accounts.

The disturbing video also claims to track the Barron’s movements and displayed depictions of dorms at New York University. The clip also claims a $10 million bounty has been placed on Barron. The video circulated through media tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Middle East outlet Al Bawaba reported, according to The New York Post. The clip was first translated by Euronews. The chilling report comes as the Trump administration is preparing to roll out a sweeping campaign to economically strangle Iran and anyone still doing business with it.

As we reported this morning, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that he will hold a Monday press conference to talk about exactly what we’re going to do” about an economic war against Tehran. “We are now entering the endgame. At dawn begins an economic D-Day, the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary,” Bessent warned in an X post on Sunday. “President Trump has dismantled Iran’s military capabilities, destroyed nearly 100 percent of its military factories, and buried its nuclear program.”


“The Islamic Republic has subsisted by dressing extortion as security guarantees. It has drawn strength from a calculus that regards Iranian retaliation as certain and American enforcement as negotiable,” the top Trump official added. “Under President Trump, that era is over. And those who fear the danger of defying Tehran ought not to discount the cost of testing Washington.”

As Bessent’s economic measures loom, the purchasing power of ordinary Iranians continues to plummet. The rial has cratered to a record low, trading around 2.02 million to the dollar on the open market, a staggering gap from the central bank’s official rate of roughly 1.5 million. Rice is up 60% in a matter of months, while beef has exploded 150%. The International Monetary Fund now projects Iran’s economy will contract by 5%.

Read more …

The corrupt getting rid of the corrupt.

• Top Zelensky Staffer Led Out Of Corruption Court In Handcuffs (ZH)

This is not a sight you see everyday, but it’s one that’s becoming increasingly common in the halls of power in Kiev. Footage of the detention of (now former) deputy head of Zelensky’s office Irina Mudra, seen being led out in handcuffs after a court ordered her pretrial imprisonment on corruption charges, has emerged and is being widely shared. She was Zelensky’s number two chief of staff running the presidential office, essentially…


The country’s Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office has argued for her detention pending trail at the High Anti-Corruption Court, amid proceedings which began on August 21. Starting on Aug.19, a presidential office statement had confirmed: “Iryna Mudra shall be dismissed from the post of deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.”

National media says that not only did she receive regular monthly income, but the prosecutor has alleged there is at least $4 million among other undeclared assets: During the court hearing, the prosecutor separately mentioned a conversation between Iryna Mudra and Mykytas. According to the prosecution, it concerned the transfer of nearly $4 million, expenses for Mudra’s daughter’s living costs and education in the United States, as well as assets that were not listed in her declaration.

Based on the records of the covert investigative actions, it can be concluded that Mr. Mykytas left her (Mudra – ed.) $4 million; Ms. Mudra systematically receives $20,000–$30,000 every month; she owns a Range Rover that is not included in her declaration, worth approximately 4 million hryvnias. In addition, Ms. Mudra discusses jewelry she owns from Bulgari and discusses with Mykytas her daughter’s education in the United States, for which the annual budget for living expenses and tuition is expected to amount to $250,000. – Vitalii Hrechyshkin

Iryna Mudra

Ukrainian and regional media says her properties were searched last weekend: According to information from Ukrainian parliament member Oleksiy Honcharenko, investigators searched the premises of Iryna Mudra, deputy head of the President’s Office. He gave no further details about the case. The outlet Zerkalo Nedeli reports that the NABU and SAPO operation also involves Vadym Stolar, a lawmaker from the former Opposition Platform — For Life party, and Maksym Mykytas, a former member of the Ukrainian parliament, in addition to Mudra. Officials from the Justice Ministry and representatives of Sense Bank (formerly Alfa-Bank Ukraine) also appear in the case.

The operation was code-named “Forrest Gump.” NABU released a fragment of an audio recording capturing conversations among people named in the case, in which they mention “four sacks” and the President’s Office. “Only a moron would register stolen money and tuition payments in his own children’s names,” a voice on the recording also says. The bail set by the judge this week was reportedly immense…

All of this follows on a series of prior investigations by NABU and SAPO into corruption at the highest levels of government, which has taken down many officials and been an ongoing source of embarrassment for Ukraine.

These investigations tended to get spun as if ‘heroic’ Zelensky is on a mission to root out corruption and destroy the rot from within. Journalist, Mark Ames has pointed out the following trend: Every shocking Zelensky corruption scandal – and they keep getting worse – is PR’d away as “proof that Ukraine is a functioning western democracy fighting corruption”, as if it’s always one corruption scandal away from turning the corner & becoming Denmark.

Read more …

“.. preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners..”

• State Department Moving Toward Mass Visa Cancellation (CTH)

Two significant media reports on the topic of immigration today. The first is an AP report showing the State Dept is planning to revoke 200,000 visas that were given after illegal entrants claimed asylum status. The second is DHS requiring $100,000 payment for each H1B visa sought by companies to bring in foreign workers.


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the United States. If it happens, the move would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in U.S. history and would likely face legal challenges. Unless challenged or revised, the State Department is expected to announce in the coming weeks the revocation of so-called B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026 whose holders have sought asylum or are now seeking asylum, according to State Department documents obtained by The Associated Press and two U.S. officials.

The action will be taken in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security. “We are coordinating with DHS to identify and revoke the nonimmigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently,” said State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott.


WASHINGTON – The Trump administration has proposed a more than $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications for skilled foreign workers, a policy that the president introduced last year but had been blocked by a federal judge.= […] In June, a federal judge blocked Trump’s bid to impose the six-figure fee, concluding that it was an unlawful “tax” that required congressional approval. But the Department of Homeland Security revived the proposal on Monday, submitting it online in the Federal Register to be officially published on Tuesday, when a 30-day public-comment period will commence. And the administration is now proposing $103,265 for all new H-1B visa petitions.

The White House declined to comment and referred POLITICO to a statement by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a DHS department, that said the payments would support “immigration programs that otherwise must be funded by taxpayers,” according to USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler. The White House has also said the fee would help curb misuse of the H-1B program, accusing U.S. employers of undercutting American workers with lower-paid foreign labor.

According to Monday’s proposal, the fee would help generate revenue to fund immigration activities carried out by federal agencies including Customs and Border Protection and ICE. DHS said there may be “a reduction in the number of H-1B cap registrations and some employers, including small entities, may file fewer petitions as a result of this proposed rule.” But it concluded that the fee was “appropriate.” H-1B approvals are capped at 85,000 per year, with 20,000 spots for people with advanced degrees. Nearly 400,000 petitions, most of which were for renewal, were approved in fiscal year 2024. The majority of H-1B workers come from India, with the second-most common birthplace being China.

Deport all illegal aliens. The deportation goal should be 1 million/month.

Cancel all H1B visas. No renewals. They are being abused.

Cancel all J1 (temp work) Visas. They too are being abused.

Eliminate all domestic U.S. businesses that are modeled and incorporated to facilitate foreign visa assistance. Cancel the govt contracts and non-tax status for all 501(c) groups who structurally support illegal migrants.

Read more …

Weaklings connect with weaklings because they think it makes them strong.

• The Background of Mark Carney Working with DNC Officials and Operatives (CTH)

This is a pretty good encapsulation of the relationship between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and the DNC officials within the United States. Although Kokinda missed mentioning the meeting between Barack Obama and Mark Carney shortly before the G7 summit in France.


After Prime Minister Mark Carney abruptly pulled Canada out of U.S. trade talks and framed the dispute as a “war,” this episode argues the rupture isn’t really about tariffs but about political and financial strategy aimed at the U.S. midterm elections. Citing U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s account of negotiations and Canada’s unique retaliation, the script claims Carney is pursuing “geo-industrialization” and a “donut strategy” to go around the White House and influence American public opinion, aided by U.S.-connected advisers and outreach to mostly Democrats.

Kokinda also highlights comments from Iran’s foreign minister about U.S. debt and links the broader conflict to competing economic systems. The episode concludes that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is fighting a parallel battle to manage risks from the yen carry trade using tools like FIMA to prevent destabilizing Treasury selloffs.

Read more …

“Mark Carney chases Canada’s businesses to the U.S., and Trump welcomes them with open arms.”

• The Illusion of Leverage in Canada-US Trade Negotiations (Christian Vezilj)

The latest failure in the trade talks between Canada and the United States has revealed a basic mismatch between political rhetoric and economic reality. Although Canadian officials, such as Prime Minister Mark Carney and the country’s trade negotiators, are still expressing confidence and maintaining that Canada has real leverage in arriving at a future agreement, the basic economic situation paints a completely different picture—one which Canadian businesses understand far better than the political leadership responsible for representing them.


The imbalance starts with a simple and inevitable fact: around 75% of Canada’s exports go directly to the United States, whereas only a small part of American exports go north. This imbalance is a fundamental characteristic of the Canadian economy. Since one country relies so heavily on access to the other’s market, the position of leverage becomes inherently unequal. Although Canada may be a worthwhile partner, it is not on an equal footing when it comes to bargaining power. The United States can endure trade tensions much more easily than Canada can, and Canadian companies know it.

Yet the Canadian government acts as if that imbalance does not exist. Political figures talk about staying firm, resisting pressure, and negotiating from a position of strength. While this approach might be acceptable within the country, it fails to account for businesses’ incentives, since they produce Canada’s economic output. The gap exists because politicians have no personal stake in the outcome. Whether trade improves or worsens, elected officials and bureaucratic negotiators do not see their income, investments, or market access suffer. The risk they face is political, not financial. At most, a wrong move could cost them the election several years in the future. For Canadian manufacturers, on the other hand, the effects are immediate, tangible, and possibly disastrous.

The gap between political posturing and economic reality is evident in the way companies are behaving. A recent report by The Globe and Mail on a survey carried out by KPMG found that almost 20% of Canadian manufacturers have already moved some of their production to the United States, and over 30% intend to do so in the coming years. Their reasons are clear: they want to avoid tariffs, gain access to a bigger and more stable consumer market, take advantage of favorable U.S. tax and regulatory conditions, and ensure their long-term competitiveness. These firms are not making ideological declarations; rather, they are reacting to incentives. They are acting rationally in a situation where the United States offers greater profits, more stability, and more opportunities than Canada does at present.

All companies that shift production south of the border decrease Canada’s manufacturing capacity, job opportunities, tax income, and its future ability to negotiate. At the same time, the United States gains jobs, investment, and control over its supply chains. The Canadian government’s continued emphasis on appearing tough has no effect on this trend; in fact, it accelerates it. If businesses think political leaders are disregarding economic realities, they will take action and move to places where incentives align with long-term survival.

Behavior, not political statements, determines leverage. Even though Canadian negotiators assert that they can set the terms, their companies are responding by moving production, limiting capital spending, and altering investment plans in ways that reveal the real balance of power. These actions prove what the market has always known: the United States has the stronger economic position, and Canada’s negotiating stance is becoming more dangerous.

It doesn’t mean Canada has no influence at all; rather, it means Canada should bargain from a basis of reality instead of relying on empty words. A mutually beneficial agreement is still possible and worthwhile, but only if Canadian leadership admits the structural dependence that shapes the relationship. Trying to impose terms on a partner that is ten times larger in size is not a sign of strength; it is damage to Canada itself. The companies moving from Canada to the United States are not disloyal to their country; they are reacting to incentives set up by a government unwilling to acknowledge the limits of its own influence.

In the end, the difference is clear: politicians can afford to have illusions, but businesses cannot. And as long as Canada’s leadership does not adjust its strategy to match the economic realities its companies already know, the country will continue to lose investment, jobs, and negotiating power—step by step, with each factory that is moved.

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“.. he ended a 50-year problem that seven presidents said was existential. “

• Don’t Trust the Midterm Polls (Victor Davis Hanson)

Let’s have a periodic check on the status of the midterms that we’re now less than 80 days away from. The Democrats are riding high. They feel that historical trends, i.e., 39 out of the last 41 midterms, the in party in the White House loses seats, and there’s not very many seats Republicans can afford to lose, and they may lose the House and Senate. = They’re already, I guess you’d call it, measuring their drapes, but in the sense that they’re already explaining how they’re going to go after the Trump family, the Trump family associates, cryptocurrency concerns, any hangers-on, people going to the Middle East and investing. They’re gonna open it wide open.


These are the people, of course, who never investigated the Biden family or Hunter Biden. That’s no excuse if there’s culpability, but nonetheless, you can count on a two-year investigation of Donald Trump and a never-ending impeachment inquiry, and the end of the MAGA agenda should he lose the House and the Senate. Donald Trump is strangely confident. He now has finally hit on a strategy that he feels will work. Earlier, I called it the “Anaconda Strategy,” the idea that he is squeezing a debilitated Iran. In other words, the kinetic 40 days of bombing have left the nuclear military-industrial complex in shambles.

And this time, he’s not just blockading, he’s not just having an embargo on goods. He is not just freezing the bank accounts of Iranian grandees. He’s not just debanking the entire country. He’s going to third parties and saying, “You and China and Russia and Europe have been trading with this country even while we were bearing the burden of defanging a potential nuclear renegade nation, and we’re going to isolate you. We’re not gonna do business with you if you do business with Iran.”

And the Iranians now are crying foul. They’re saying we’re colonialists. But what I’m getting at, after all that military damage from Feb. 28 for the next 40 days, and after all the blockades, they’re not able to withstand a renewed squeezing. And so, time is actually on our side. The second part of this strategy is Donald Trump has now put the war on the back burner. He is saying that we don’t need to have ground troops. We might not even go in and bomb them again unless they egregiously attack an ally of ours or one of our carriers or ships.

We have managed it now. The strait is mostly open, and whatever the status of the nuclear stockpile or enriched uranium of the theocracy, it’s pretty clear they can’t get at it. Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah don’t seem to be getting money. They don’t seem to have enough rockets to threaten the Gulf States or Israel, at least to get through their missile defenses. And so, we’re just going to concentrate, Trump thinks, on the economy.

So, what he is doing now is he and JD Vance are barnstorming the country, and they’re starting to make headway. They’re not worried about the polls that show a generic 7% Democratic advantage and betting odds and polls that say they’re gonna lose the House because they looked at the recent primaries. El-Sayed, the candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for the Democratic senatorial seat in Michigan, was polling ahead 10 points, and he scarcely won by a point and a half. Francesca Hong, the Wisconsin Democratic candidate for governor, was polling ahead 10 or 15 or 20 points. She lost and lost handily.

Mr. [Alexander] Vindman, who was running for Senate in Florida, was polling ahead. He lost to a crazy, wacky Ms. [Angie] Nixon, a democratic socialist. So, what I’m getting at is the polls are worthless. And what we need to look at is what the status is right now. The war is starting to wane. If it should end or if the Iranians crack in the next 60 to 70 days, that would be a spectacular achievement that Donald Trump—you know, we’ve tragically lost 17 Americans—but at a tolerable cost in blood and treasure, he ended a 50-year problem that seven presidents said was existential.

You could not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and the pressure that he’s put on them and the damage he’s inflicted would probably, in the next year or two, prompt a renewal of internal opposition against a theocracy that is bleeding. The second thing to remember very carefully is, as I said earlier, the redistricting, the red state redistricting and the Supreme Court prohibition on racial gerrymandering might give him an additional four or five seats. But the most important developments are money and the agenda of the new Democratic Party.

Very quickly, Donald Trump has got a war chest of about $400 million, and he’s now going to use it. He says he’s going to use it all in his political action committees to help save the Republicans in the midterms. Elon Musk said that he is going to match dollar for dollar the Democratic oligarchic class that if they start to donate in great amounts to Democratic candidates. So, the money issue probably favors also, like, the redistricting and maybe the course of the Iran war that could wane and be not an issue.

But the most important thing to conclude is the Democratic Party. No one thought that the Democratic socialists would ever try to absorb and even seem to succeed in absorbing the Democratic Party. I mean, Nancy Pelosi, Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, they’ve all said they have no problem with the Democratic socialists, that they …

It’s a big tent party, and they’re going to help them win their seats. But the problem is, once you have the money and the effort and the attention, and you show what the democratic socialists are, like, defunding the Pentagon, defunding the police, opening the border, mass amnesties, warring on fossil fuels, isolationist foreign policy, the transgender issue reopened with biological men now by statute free to compete in women’s sports. I could go on and on.

They even want to destroy the Senate and the Electoral College, not to mention packing the Supreme Court, ending the filibuster, and bringing in new seats in the Senate by admitting new blue states such as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. And so, what I’m getting at is, the more we learn about the democratic socialists, and the more that the Democratic Party feels they’ve already taken over the apparatus of the party and they’re going to join them, or at least they’re not going to oppose them, they’re gonna be culpable or responsible for what these people say.

And they’re saying all sorts of stuff, not just antisemitic venom, not just anti-Israel venom, but questioning the very legitimacy of the United States government, the way that our Founders created a legislative, judicial, and executive branch, the Declaration of Independence. Our entire traditions, they’re saying, are flawed at their origins. They got worse during our maturity, and now they’re god-awful right now. That’s not a winning message. So, the midterms are very much up in the air. Contrary to historical precedent, there’s still a chance that the Republicans can save both the Senate and the House.

Read more …

“We’re only cooked if we accept it.” —Blaine Holt on “X”

• Cookery for All (James Howard Kunstler)

A Gift from Us for You Credulous Human Twits

They don’t call economics the dismal science for nothing. It has been noted — since Thomas Carlyle minted the term in 1849 (objecting to the emancipation of black slaves on Britain’s colonial sugar plantations as a harm to productivity) — that attempts to manage the billion-footed transactions of human beings always find a way to bite back. But how can this creature we call society not try to regulate its affairs, with evils and hazards lurking in all we do, everywhere and always?


And so, you get politics, the quarrels that arise out of those efforts to manage a polity. And then you get war, which, the Prussian Carl von Clausewitz observed, is a continuation of politics by other means. But then, long before him, and on the other side of the world, came Sun Tzu’s treatise The Art of War, which counseled that winning was best achieved with the least actual fighting.

All these ways of seeing our world converge dynamically in the current historical moment: this Fourth Turning, or Long Emergency — however you label it — in the arc of our techno-industrial order of things. A lot of these things are coming apart now, and in astounding ways, and it remains to be seen what we will do with these broken and discarded parts, and whether any of it can be put back together in a satisfactory way. Here in the USA, we act all this out these days with Trump and Trumpism and the Left with its Leftism.

Mr. Trump recognizes the brokenness and, being primarily a builder, seeks to rebuild according to first principles of the USA (Make America Great Again) — meaning, back to the Hamiltonian doctrine of an economy based on the production of things (of real value). The catch there is that it comes with baggage of Hamiltonian finance, which is the creation and use of debt with government assistance.

Now it happens that a primary feature of this Fourth Turning crisis in our techno-industrial order is excessive complexity that produces diminishing returns — that is, makes things worse rather than better. And a lot of this excessive complexity lodges itself in finance, because using operations that few people can understand serves beautifully in the engineering of frauds and swindles. Financial frauds and swindles, in turn, muddle the verity of money — in which finance is enacted — and things denominated in money — securities and so forth, all based fundamentally in debt. So, the net effect of such debauched finance leads to a great deal of insecurity and anxiety over money.

Which is where the Trumpian rebuild is dangerously vulnerable, especially as we enter the fall season, when the leaves flutter down and markets like to crash. Everybody and his uncle watching things financial predict an imminent crackup in these markets as the rackets and hallucinations that magically levitate them dissolve in foul mists of reveal. For instance, the acid trip of artificial intelligence (AI).

Never have more lavish fantasies been proffered on a new technology. Elon Musk, the demigod prophet of the latest-and-greatest new tech, promises a coming economy of super-abundance and universal leisure (good for the sale of vacation packages on Mars). Musk is a fine fellow and there’s much to admire in his intelligence and positivity. But there’s plenty of reason to suspect that AI might disappoint and become a menace to mankind.

We’ve already noticed that it’s messing up all the procedures of schooling, leaving young people shockingly stupid, devoid of real skills, stripped of creativity. Anyway, the economy AI is supposed to integrate with and enhance would quickly become one devoid of human endeavor per se, and all the transactions that come out of it. If you think it through just a little ways, you can’t help seeing a system that’s based on getting something-for-nothing — which is to say a childish fantasy that precludes human transacting based on work. . . people who do nothing, make nothing, and enact nothing around doing-and-making. . . a society without anything social in it. In short, this imagined AI economy beats a path straight to entropy, the force in this universe that you don’t want to mess with.

All that is apart from the probability that we have already crossed the line into the “singularity” territory where AI takes on a mind of its own and becomes an outright menace to the human race — who will then seek to destroy the AI monster it made (which AI will keenly apprehend and then look for ways to defend its existence). The storyline crudely harks back on the old Twilight Zone episode titled “To Serve Man” in which a posse of big-brained space aliens comes to earth acting all chummy and gifts us a handbook supposedly of its good intentions. Eventually, one savvy human gal manages to decode the aliens’ language and declares to the dopes boarding the UFO: “Don’t get on that ship. . . it’s a cookbook!”

On the other side of our national political psychodrama, the Lefty-leftists can’t even conceive of building or rebuilding anything, least of all a USA of first principles. They are simply agents of disorder and destruction, and their activities are predicated on the age-old demented idea that utopias surely grow out of smoldering ruins — so the faster everything gets ruined, the better.

Personally, I’d prefer it if the Trumpians prevail because I’m in favor of making-and-doing and the social enactments around all that. But we better beware that overgrowth of financial hazard baked into Alexander Hamilton’s old recipe book. If a correcting crash of financial markets coincides with the midterm election and sweeps away all the swindles and frauds currently operating, the lefty-leftists, so eager to serve man, will step up and sell the American people their one-way Marxist tickets to a utopia in the sky called Palookaville.

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“..the excess of money held by some tragically wealthy citizens..”

• “What are You Gonna Even Do with More Money?” Abdul El-Sayed (Turley)

Abdul El-Sayed is tackling a new national crisis: the excess of money held by some tragically wealthy citizens. In his interview this week with Fox host Jesse Watters, the Michigan Democratic Senatorial candidate not only reaffirmed his call for a wealth tax, but suggested that wealthy people really do not have much use for money that is best left to the public.


El-Sayed needs money. A lot of money. He has called for massive new programs to fund Medicare-for-All, reparations, roads, and other programs promised to Michigan voters. He is only the latest Democratic leader to support a wealth tax, which would (in my opinion) be unconstitutional on the federal level and disastrous on a state level. Earlier in the week, El-Sayed expressed full support for a wealth tax, including non-billionaires. He declared on a podcast: “I also think we got to start taxing wealth for people who now have over $100 million. I mean at that point like what are gonna even do with more money?”

Figures such as Rep. Ro Khanna have also called for a wealth tax on millionaires, not just billionaires. As some of us predicted, the use of billionaires was simply a strategic and political framing. Once politicians succeed in opening up this untapped wealth to taxation, they will gradually work down the tax rolls as they acquire a windfall in new revenue.

I discuss the tax in my book “Rage and the Republic” as an example of the “eat-the-rich” politics used by demagogues from ancient Athens to the French Revolution. Politicians seek to divide a population into “haves” and “have-nots” with the promise that citizens could have it all. Much of what El-Sayed said is ripped from the pages of such figures like Huey Long and his “share our wealth” campaigns in the 1930s.

In his Fox interview, El-Sayed reaffirmed his call for a wealth tax, adding: “The question ultimately is, ‘Do you want to drive on good roads, or would you rather have a billionaire make a second billion?’ That’s what Mike Rogers wants. That’s why Donald Trump wants. Apparently, that’s what you want. I think the people in Michigan want something different.” While El-Sayed has reported $686,069 in income with his wife in 2025, they would not be subject to the wealth tax. It would currently apply to those with $100 million or more in property and other forms of wealth.

El-Sayed appears to conflate or confuse wealth taxes and income taxes in the interview. He told Hannity, “If we tax you at 7%, you’re still going to make what? A cool $30 million off your billion dollars? I think that’s okay, they’re going to be okay, Jesse.” It’s unclear what he is referencing. Even if you are talking about a billion dollars in income taxes, 7% would be $70,000,000, with $930,000,000 left after taxes. If he is talking about $100,000,000 made from a billion in wealth, that sounds like an income tax but it would not result in $30 million in remaining income.

There is a great difference between a wealth tax and an income tax. The wealthy have already paid taxes on their wealth. Indeed, they pay income taxes when the money is earned and pay taxes on any profits from that money when it is invested in stock or property. A wealth tax is an additional tax on all that you own from homes to boats to art.

At a seven percent tax on wealth for those worth $100,000,000, the wealthy would pay an additional $7,000,000 every year in Michigan beyond their income taxes. In Michigan, the state tax of 4.25% (and the corporate tax on their businesses at 6%). If the wealth tax is added to an income tax, that would be in addition to the 37% top tax rate in the federal system. Again, the wealth tax would continue to apply to what an individual owns in the form of cars, homes, and other property every year, regardless of whether income declines.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) drove this point home when she ran for president, taunting the wealthy that she was coming for “your Rembrandts, your stock portfolio, your diamonds and your yachts.” While some states allow a wealth tax, many of us view it as unconstitutional under the federal system. The federal government secured the right to tax individuals in 1913, but the 16th Amendment only approved income taxes.

This is why many of these same politicians are promising a hostile takeover of the Supreme Court by either eliminating the Court or packing it with an instant liberal majority. Once packed, the Court could greenlight a variety of unconstitutional measures. Years ago, Harvard professor Michael Klarman laid out a radical agenda to change the system to guarantee Republicans “will never win another election.” However, he warned that “the Supreme Court could strike down everything I just described.” Therefore, the court must be packed in advance to allow these changes to occur.

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Jews or Muslims is a major theme in America today. It never was before.

• Hasan Piker: American Jews are Asking for Attacks on Them (Turley)

I recently wrote about Hasan Piker leading a hatefest in San Francisco with thousands mocking the death of Charlie Kirk. He is now being condemned for a livestream statement suggesting that American Jews are asking to be attacked if they continue to support Israel. On the Aug. 20 livestream, Mr. Piker declared: “If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone’s going to come around and take action, not against the state of Israel — mind you — but against American Jews.”


The veiled threat was just the latest shocking statement from Piker, who has said that America deserved 9-11 and displays a picture of the attack on his wall during podcasts. As I previously noted, Piker and other hate traffickers like Jennifer Welch (who even justified Kirk‘s assassination) have commodified rage to make fortunes from their program. They inject hate directly into the veins of rage addicts. The result is predictable. In feeding a rage addiction, figures like Piker give a license to those who want to engage in violence. A certain percentage of the population is waiting for such triggers, seeking to assassinate figures like Kirk or Supreme Court justices.

This same conditioning toward violence has appeared on other sites. Members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) were on another site suggesting that the country was now ripe for a violent takeover. DSA activist and streamer Michael Beyer is shown during a panel discussion declaring: “The Democratic Party establishment that we have has to be ripped out…We can actually start to grab hold of the ship of state and steer it our direction, but it’s going to be a violent process.”

As with calls to trash the Constitution or abandon core institutions, these figures are normalizing radical actions. In the meantime, establishment figures like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are desperately trying to marshal the power of this mob in the hope that they will return him to power. When confronted with the calls of the DSA to get rid of our constitutional institutions, Schumer recently shrugged and said, “Not everyone has the same view on every single issue.” Those small disagreements not only include antisemitic rhetoric but also calls to eliminate the very institution Schumer hopes to lead again.

The DSA is not being subtle. The DSA Steering Committee member Cliff Connolly declared on one podcast that they are “famous for” “Our hatred of the United States Constitution.” From Piker to the DSA, establishment figures continue to delude themselves that they can control the mob, which will turn on their enemies while sparing themselves. History does not work that way.

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“In the coming weeks, you’re going to be treated to unapologetic displays from the left ..”

• Get Ready for the Democrats’ Season of Bloodthirst (Tim O’Brien)

In order for the Democrats to take control of the culture and ultimately the government, people have to die. It’s just a fact. As much as the left likes to blame conservatives for killing people for not wearing masks, not getting vaccinated, and for ignoring the lies of climate change and transgenderism, the movement that is fully reliant on violence and death is the left, and more specifically the 2026 version of the Democrat Party.


In the coming weeks, you’re going to be treated to unapologetic displays from the left, celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and the radical Islamic attacks on America from 25 years ago on 9/11. For every sober and respectful commemoration event, it will feel like there are two or more disgusting displays from the left that can only appeal to the savage instincts of its base.] This has already started. My colleague David Manney wrote about a recent Hasan Piker event, where he sang a song in celebration of the murder of Kirk, sparking the leftist crowd in attendance to cheer.

“During a live performance of his Fear& podcast, Piker led a packed theater in a mocking rendition of ‘We Are Charlie Kirk,’ a tribute song that appeared after Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University last Sept. 10. His co-hosts laughed, the audience cheered and sang along, and Piker later posted a photo from the show with the caption, ‘Carried the flame in.’”

Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrat nominee for the Michigan Senate race, is trying to create some separation from one of his best political friends, allies, and operatives, Hasan Piker, on the issue of 9/11. He’s not doing it because he had a change of heart. He’s doing it because his political advisors are telling him that Americans still aren’t all that receptive to Piker’s and the left’s views on 9/11. Piker has famously said that “America deserved 9/11.” Still, in trying to distance himself from Piker’s comments, El-Sayed sent a neat and tidy dog whistle to his own base, which loves it some bloodlust.

Politico reported what El-Sayed had to say about those 9/11 comments: “’Of course it was a dumb statement and of course I think Hasan himself would say that was a dumb statement,’ El-Sayed said. ‘He disavowed it. So yes, America didn’t deserve 9/11, but you know, to sit here and play gotcha politics with a dumb thing somebody said out of context that they disavowed themselves — to say, ‘oh well, what does that mean about what you think?’”

El-Sayed’s comments are a stark difference from his interview with POLITICO earlier this year in which he declined to denounce Piker’s views in what he called a ‘gotcha game.’ ‘I’m not here to disavow people’s views,’ El-Sayed said at the time. For those of you in the back row checking your phones, the dog whistle in this case is where El-Sayed has gone on record saying, “I’m not here to disavow people’s views.”

Of course, the left is not limiting its enjoyment of bloodletting to the Kirk assassination and the 25th anniversary of 9/11. It has other more recent murderous events to celebrate, like its sickening displays of joy and satisfaction at the trial of Lindsay Clancy. You may know her as the woman who strangled all three of her children, killing them in her home’s basement. She then, apparently, tried to kill herself by cutting her wrists and jumping from the window of an upstairs bedroom. This is Charles Manson stuff. As bad as the crime is, culturally what’s worse is that a significant segment of the left and others have come out in support of Clancy, the admitted killer.

Sorry for repeated use of this word, but there is no other. You can see the bloodlust in their eyes, can’t you? These people are far more than political actors, but in the context of this political time of the year, you have to know that these are people of the left. This is the left. Then there is the case of Luigi Mangione, who has pleaded guilty to the cold-blooded assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. In committing the premeditated murder, the privileged rich kid established himself as an almost mythical hero to leftists everywhere.

CNN reported on June 5, 2025, “In the months since the fatal shooting of Thompson, Mangione has become a cult-like figure. There has been a massive outpouring of support on social media and at his court appearances from people with deep frustration and anger at the American for-profit health care system. They see the American health insurance industry as broken, overly expensive and quick to deny coverage.”The one thing the woke cable network’s article left out was that Mangione only became a “cult-like figure” to Democrats and leftists, not simply “people with deep frustration.”

If you’re wondering whether those of us on the right are working too hard to connect the dots, Hasan Piker will put those wonders to rest. As Piker goes, so goes the left, and in the process so goes the Democrat Party. This is Piker providing some continuity to the left’s now predictable support for murder as a political tactic, along with some New York Times operatives nodding in approval. In the Democrats’ world, the killer is the victim.

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“..the site and that much land do make sense for “[a] launch site, natural gas production, and solar power for air separators and condensers. Preferably all three.”

“.. Neither Starbase in Texas nor Cape Canaveral in Florida is ideally suited to polar orbit launches. But the Louisiana coast is. Launching nearly due south from there keeps the rocket over open water and away from population centers for long distances, unlike trying to do the same from Starbase or the Cape.

• Why Is SpaceX Buying All That Marshland in Louisiana? (Stephen Green)

I have not one but two wild — and interconnected — SpaceX items for you today. The first is that CEO and founder Elon Musk just announced an exclusive partnership with AI chip giant Nvidia for the company’s planned orbital data centers — and that SpaceX won’t waste any time getting them into orbit. “SpaceX, in partnership with Nvidia, has designed a space-optimized Vera Rubin NVL72 rack-scale system/platform for launch to orbit in Q4 next year, with significant scale in 2028,” Musk posted to X on Monday. If you just have to know, Vera Rubin NVL72 is Nvidia’s latest and greatest AI server, and now it’s optimized to bring that performance to space.


Musk described the servers as “significantly simpler, lower cost, denser, and lighter than a traditional rack.” And that brings us to today’s second item: the 130,000 or so acres of marshland the company reportedly bought from ExxonMobil on the Louisiana coast. Rumors began swirling last spring that SpaceX was buying up land near Pecan Island on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, and today Gov. Jeff Landry is expected to hold an event in Abbeville for a “major economic development announcement.” Some of the locals aren’t happy with whatever is going on, as detailed in this Fox8 Live local news report. But why?

Space analyst Ozan Bellik theorized back in May, when the rumors got going, that “You don’t need a logistics hub in Louisiana to transport Starships between Texas and Florida. Especially not one that’s 136,000 acres.” He added that the site and that much land do make sense for “[a] launch site, natural gas production, and solar power for air separators and condensers. Preferably all three.” A really big launch site, for reasons I’ll show you now.

According to a MarketWatch report on Monday, research firm Wood Mackenzie estimates that “a one-gigawatt orbital data center would cost $170 billion, more than triple the cost of a traditional data center. But costs are expected to come down over time as rocket launches also become cheaper.” That’s just the construction and launch costs, but there is more to it than just those two items. Being in orbit means being out of local regulatory reach, which streamlines — well, everything. Bernie Sanders (CPUSA-Vt. Oblast) can shake his fist at the sky all he wants, but that won’t stop any data center construction in Low Earth Orbit.

More importantly, data centers, as you well know, consume massive amounts of electricity, but in space, electrical power costs nothing more than the price of the solar panels. But what if there was a way to drive power costs even lower? If SpaceX were to launch its Starmind — good name, right? — into a dawn-dusk sun-synchronous orbit (day-night boundary), each satellite would receive direct sunlight almost continuously. That greatly reduces the need for expensive (and heavy!) battery capacity, while also reducing stressful thermal cycling on the satellites.

Since Wood Mackenzie’s report didn’t mention polar orbits, the firm might have overestimated Starmind’s production and launch costs. Here’s the problem: Neither Starbase in Texas nor Cape Canaveral in Florida is ideally suited to polar orbit launches. But the Louisiana coast is. Launching nearly due south from there keeps the rocket over open water and away from population centers for long distances, unlike trying to do the same from Starbase or the Cape.

If SpaceX is serious about putting 100 gigawatts of AI compute into LEO annually — and it is — the company needs a huge launch center ideally located for polar launches. The Louisiana coast fits the bill.

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A Queen. For sure.

“I used to joke that I was the Queen of the Tabloids, but now I guess I can say I’m the Queen of Social Media AI!”

• Dolly Parton Passes Away at 80 (Chris Queen)

One of the truest legends, who was also one of the most incredible human beings of our time, has died. Dolly Parton has passed away at the age of 80. Her nephew, who also served as her head of security, announced his aunt’s passing on social media. People Magazine reports that Parton had mentioned as recently as Friday that she was still recovering from health issues:Parton shared an update on her health on Friday, Aug. 21, acknowledging her recent decline after the March 2025 death of her husband, Carl Dean.


“As I’ve shared in video messages throughout the past year, I am dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl. You know, this isn’t the first time I’ve had to manage something like this. Back in the early ’80s, I was down for several months with female issues, and I was struggling with my weight at the time too, so it’s not like I haven’t been through hard times with my health,” Parton told PEOPLE.

She added: “But I think because we live in a 24/7 world with social media, everything gets magnified in ways it wasn’t years ago. I used to joke that I was the Queen of the Tabloids, but now I guess I can say I’m the Queen of Social Media AI! Seriously, though, even though I’m still healin’, I’m still workin’! You know me — as I’ve often said — I’ve dreamed myself into a corner and I still have so many things I want to achieve, so I’m gonna keep on working as long as I can to see everything come to life.” Parton’s career spanned seven decades, from her work with Porter Wagoner in the ‘60s to her subsequent solo career. She had dozens of hits on the country and pop charts and starred in several movies.

Her life was a literal rags-to-riches tale. She was born into a poor family in the mountains of Tennessee as one of a dozen children. She discovered her musical talent early on and began writing songs at age seven. It didn’t take her too many years to turn her talent into a lucrative career. With hits to her credit like “9 to 5,” “I Will Always Love You,” “Jolene,” and “Here You Come Again,” Parton left a tremendous legacy across the landscape of country and pop music, and she even recorded a rock album in 2023. Parton was also an entertainment magnate with the successful Dollywood theme park in Sevierville, Tenn., and theaters in tourist-trap towns across the country.

Because of her rags-to-riches life and her Appalachian upbringing, Parton cultivated a campy image: enormous blond hair, rhinestones, bright colors, high heels, and a figure she cheerfully made the punchline of her own jokes. It was flamboyant and exaggerated, yet completely authentic to the persona she created. The image barely belied her warmth, humility, wit, and considerable business savvy.

Parton was also an incredible philanthropist, donating millions to various causes, especially in the South. Her Imagination Library put books in the hands of countless kids, and she most recently donated to help Southeasterners recover from hurricanes in 2024. She was such a positive force for simply treating people well that she was a beloved figure on the right and the left.

President Donald Trump issued a statement on Truth Social: Very sad to report that Dolly Parton, one of the greatest Country singers, and far beyond, EVER, has just passed away. This is a true loss for millions of people. There has never been anyone like her, and never will. In her honor, I am lowering the American flag throughout the United States for a one week period beginning tonight at 6:00PM. Rest in Peace, Dolly! The World loves you. President DONALD J. TRUMP

Sen Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) also released a statement: Chuck and I are absolutely heartbroken and saddened to hear of the passing of our friend, Dolly Parton.mDolly’s life and career are forever woven into Tennessee’s music, culture, and history. Her extraordinary talent, generosity, and love for the Volunteer State touched hearts around the world and will continue to inspire generations to come. Tennessee will forever be grateful for Dolly. nOur prayers are with her family and the millions around the globe mourning this tremendous loss.

She was also a woman of deep, sincere Christian faith, so I have no doubt that the chorus around the throne of heaven has gotten louder and more fun. As her nephew said, Dolly Parton is “in the arms of Jesus.” We Southerners will miss her deeply, and we were privileged to share her with the rest of the world. See you in eternity, Dolly!

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Home › Forums › Debt Rattle August 26 2026

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  • August 26, 2026 at 9:01 am #248373
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
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    Fra Filippo Lippi The Virgin Mary 1450-65 • Mojtaba Khamenei Is (Still) Dead (Rick Moran) • Iran Airs Video of Barron Trump, Offers $10 Million Bounty
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle August 26 2026]

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