Ramón Casas Decadence 1899
https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/2085353511265460250?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2085114535837364373?s=20
This is the creepiest coincidence in history. pic.twitter.com/2c7KlzP2mE
— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) August 6, 2026
Iran does what it’s perfected over 47 years. One step up and two steps back.
• Iran Struck ‘Hostile Targets’ in Strait of Hormuz: Fars (ZH)
After explosions were heard on Qeshm island, near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state media is saying that Iranian forces attacked and struck ‘hostile targets’ – though the event still remains shrouded in mystery and few details were offered. The US side has also not confirmed anything, and this could also be the result of drone activity. Iran remains defiant, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian having newly asserted in an interview, “Our enemies expected the country to collapse due to the pressures they have exerted.” He added that these pressures have “reached their maximum”. Oil jumped again on the reports of attacks in the Hormuz Strait area.Read more …
MS Now continues to report on the ‘agreed upon’ Iran-Oman deal for Hormuz transit: Oman on Thursday agreed to the framework of a deal with Iran to temporarily reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the global crude oil export route that Washington and Tehran have been wrestling to control since the war began, two Middle East diplomats with knowledge of the negotiations told MS NOW.The diplomats declined to describe the details of the temporary agreement or what issues remain unresolved. But an Iranian government official linked to the deal told MS NOW on Thursday morning that it will establish new shipping routes by allowing commercial vessels to enter the Persian Gulf through an Iranian-controlled route and exit through a route controlled by Oman. This also as Iranian leaders continue to taunt Washington, with fresh messages such as the following from the country’s influential parliament speaker: “Massive attack coming… wait, never mind, they want to negotiate.” That’s theater diplomacy on loop.
“Massive attack coming… wait, never mind, they want to negotiate.”
— محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) August 6, 2026
That’s theater diplomacy on loop.
Using bullying + broken promises + fake news as leverage is a failed strategy.
Acknowledge the facts and fulfill your commitments. We don’t need more theater.[..] Deal Details: US-Israeli vessels Banned from Hormuz (Fars) Iranian state media (Fars) has issued details of the Iran-Omani draft plan for transit rules through the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf. The country’s parliament is said to currently be reviewing it, while Tehran still insists that the US has been sidelined, saying that the Oman-Iran contacts are bilateral.
As cited in Bloomberg from state media, key proposals include:
• Ban vessels linked to the U.S., Israel, and other hostile states
• Block military and civilian cargo tied to Israel
• Restrict ships linked to actions against the “Axis of Resistance”
• Deny passage to parties owing compensation to Iran
• Impose fines of up to 20% of cargo value for violations
The first note about banning US-linked vessels could alone serve to restart the war. The White House has appeared to genuinely be searching for an exit strategy, but this may be too hard a pill to swallow, if accurate. Fars has spelled out that “The passage of vessels belonging to the US, the Israelis, and other hostile countries through the Strait of Hormuz will be prohibited.” Below are is the fuller outline of the proposed plan as featured by Fars [machine translation]:
• The passage of vessels belonging to the United States, Israelis and other hostile countries through the Strait of Hormuz will be prohibited.
• Ships related to Israel, whether military or civilian, will not have the right to transit through this area.
• Vessels or cargoes that play a role in actions against the Resistance Front will also be subject to the ban.
• Countries and individuals that have caused damage to Iran will not receive permission to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf until compensation is paid.
• Heavy fines, including up to 20% of the value of the goods, will be imposed on violators. The cargo is anticipated.
• The government will be required, in cooperation with the armed forces, to assume responsibilities such as guiding navigation, monitoring vessel traffic, and protecting the security and environment of the Persian Gulf.
ª This plan is still in the expert review stage, and the parliament has asked experts to submit their suggestions for completing it.
“Large New Saudi-Backed Operation?”
• Yemeni ‘Blockade for Blockade’ Could Threaten Delicate Hormuz Negotiations (ZH)
Yesterday witnessed at least the eighth Saudi oil tanker attacked by the Houthis since the maritime blockade began on July 22, which is being followed by reports the Yemeni rebel group backed by Iran could be preparing for all-out war with Saudi Arabia.Read more …
The group struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea on Wednesday and coupled the action with a threat to intensify attacks in order to close “all access routes” to Saudi oil shipments. Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree confirmed that ballistic missiles were launched at a Saudi tanker called Wafa near the Saudi port city of Yanbu A second oil tanker identified as Daisy was subsequently hit in the Gulf of Aden with a ballistic missile and “forced to turn back” – the spokesman said in a social media post. The Houthis are dubbing it a “blockade for blockade” strategy.Large New Saudi-Backed Operation?
But it seems the Saudis aren’t ready to take this laying down, even if the ratcheting Red Sea region conflict threatens fragile Oman-sponsored talks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, as on Thursday its proxy the Yemeni Armed Forces – representing the official government whose seat is in Aden in the south – announced preparations for a large new military operation. This as Al Arabiya reports a fresh outbreak of ground fighting, in a renewal and intensification of the civil war that goes back to at least 2015 (and has an international proxy war aspect to it). The Arab publication says that a Houthi attack killed 45 government forces in Hadramawt and Marib in Yemen, areas which also happen to be home to the vast majority of the country’s oil and gas fields.Separately Al Jazeera describes of the same event: “The Yemeni Emergency Forces of the internationally-recognised government, have said that there have been material and human losses following attacks on its camps. Several causalities have been reported after a suspected Houthi rocket and drone attack targeted bases hosting the forces in Marib and Hadramaut.”
So now it seems that even if a grand Hormuz deal to reopen energy transit can be pulled off with some level of sticking power, there will have to be a separate ceasefire to contain the Yemen and Bab al-Mandab Strait crisis. To some degree, the Houthi closure of the Red Sea to Saudi shipping represents a good cop, bad cop approach to the United States and its Gulf allies. It is a way for Tehran to still maintain some serious tangential leverage over global energy, even as ships in Hormuz could finally get moving again.
The Houthis launched ballistic missile and drone strikes on Saudi-backed Yemeni forces in Marib Governorate, targeting several military sites.
— Conflict Radar (@Conflict_Radar) August 6, 2026
According to preliminary reports, at least 45 personnel were killed and dozens wounded, with Saudi-aligned media confirming the attacks… pic.twitter.com/uThIgebcfeHouthis Pivotal in Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’
As a reminder, the Houthis have been part of what Iran sees as the “axis of resistance” going back to when the Shia rebel group first seized power in September 2014: Saudi Arabia is now being squeezed from three directions in the widening U.S.-Iran war — Iraq to its northeast, Yemen to its southwest, and Iran to its east. (On July 18, Tehran struck Prince Sultan Air Base near Riyadh, its first direct hit on Saudi soil in nearly four months.) To understand why this matters beyond the price of oil, it helps to picture the crises as a set of nesting dolls.The innermost doll is Yemen’s own civil war: a decade-old fight between the Houthis (officially known as Ansar Allah), who rule the populous north from Sana’a, and Yemen’s internationally recognized government, formally led by a body called the Presidential Leadership Council. The roots of this war trace to the 2011 Arab Spring revolution, which toppled Yemen’s long-serving president and left a power vacuum the Houthis moved to fill, seizing Sana’a in 2014. Saudi Arabia and a coalition of partners intervened in 2015 with the explicit aim of reversing that takeover and restoring the internationally recognized government, and the war has continued in one form or another ever since.
The middle doll is Saudi Arabia’s broader rivalry with Iran, a contest for regional leadership that has run since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, when Tehran’s new theocratic government began exporting a revolutionary, Shia-inflected challenge to the Gulf’s Sunni monarchies.
https://twitter.com/DropSiteNews/status/2085243556491341977?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2085243556491341977%7Ctwgr%5Ee55a21d7fa8a27f50f4d4d9ab5eaec04a574b303%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fyemen-war-reignites-houthis-intensify-saudi-shipping-attacks-ground-assault-amid
[..] As for President Trump, he has freshly stated, “I’d rather make a deal because I don’t want to kill people. But Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
If one country is run by globalists, 27 countries pay.
• Spain’s Left Push To Replace Right-wingers, Racists With Migrants (Hanscom)
I called it at the time the most mask-drop moment by a leftist ever. That the radical admission came from the mouth of a petite Spanish woman only added to its shock value. The tirade of Irene Montero, the political secretary of Spain’s far-left Podemos party (unlike normal conservatives who are smeared with the “far-right” label, these people really are far-left), was so rage-filled that it prompted Elon Musk to say she was advocating genocide. Here’s what Montero said earlier this year:Read more …
“I want to ask migrant and racialized people that they please don’t leave us alone with so many retrograde right-wingers, and of course we do want them to vote, of course we do, we’ve achieved regularized-status legal papers, status regularization now already, and now we’re going either after full citizenship or after changing the law so that they can vote, of course. I hope for Great Replacement theory, I hope we manage to sweep this country of retrograde right-wingers and racists with migrant people, with working people, of course I want replacement to take place. Replacement of retrograde right-wingers. Replacement of racists.Replacement of scroungers, and that we manage to do it with the working people of this country, whatever skin color they may present, whether Chinese, black, brown, with all comrades the working people of this country. “
It was a political confession at its most revealing. There’s the reference to Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s plan to regularize more than 500,000 illegal migrants, with the admission that they’re seen as future leftist voters. There’s the shameless call for replacing naturalized citizens with illegal migrants. There’s the proud declaration that she views her political opponents as not merely wrong, but evil. And then there’s the standing ovation at the end to remind you how effective the left can be at rallying the mob.
It hits even harder in the aftermath of last month’s invasion of the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta by an estimated 70,000 illegal migrants from Morocco. Want to take a guess how Montero responded to the crisis? Hint: It wasn’t with compassion for the Spaniards in Ceuta.
https://twitter.com/Herqles_eng/status/2017667731227873507?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2017667731227873507%7Ctwgr%5Ed20d68ad562df53a7b5610c36b269eac41009dd5%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Faaron-hanscom%2F2026%2F08%2F05%2Fspanish-leftists-plan-to-replace-right-wingers-and-racists-with-migrants-full-speed-ahead-n4955844
No, as the world watched in awe as tens of thousands of military-age men poured into Spanish territory, Montero criticized Spain’s immigration policy for being too strict. The Objective reports (AI assistance with translation): Podemos MEP Irene Montero has defended the more than 50,000 migrants who arrived in Ceuta, causing the city to become overwhelmed, and has criticized the migration policies of the Spanish government and the European Union.In a message posted on social media, she called for those crossing the border to be treated “as people and not as cockroaches or as Amazon packages” and said that “no one risks their life and the life of their family unless they are in desperate need.” Montero argues that the current crisis is the result of a lack of legal and safe routes for migration. “This would not happen if there were legal and safe routes of entry for migrants,” the Podemos leader said. She believes European governments have responded by strengthening border controls rather than facilitating legal mechanisms for people to seek protection or migrate.
Some will argue Podemos is so far left (Wikipedia says it was “inspired by the populist leaders of Latin America’s pink tide, which included Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales”) that you can’t compare its leaders’ rhetoric to Sánchez’s comparatively more center-left Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE). And didn’t Sánchez travel to Ceuta to decisively deal with the crisis and make all the expected declarations, calling it a “violation of Spain’s territorial integrity”? A closer look at Sánchez’s actions reveals that while supposedly more “moderate” left-wing parties may speak less radically than those further to the left, their goals are often the same.
The Spanish newspaper ABC reported that the first riot police officers sent to Ceuta went to escort and protect Sánchez, not to assist with the border crisis. The National Police’s union, JUPOL, told ABC (again, AI assistance with translation) that the “deeply misguided” decision “shows the priorities of the Interior Ministry and the president of the government at the most critical moments. … While the officers deployed in Ceuta were facing a situation of maximum tension, with unprecedented migratory pressure and an obvious risk to the security of the border and the police themselves, the reinforcements should have been devoted exclusively to ensuring the operation’s effectiveness and protecting citizens.”
Santiago Abascal, the leader of the conservative Vox party, was harsher, posting on X that Sánchez “uses the state exclusively to protect himself. We have not had a more miserable ruler in history.” The dire border crisis did not prevent Sánchez from starting his vacation at the royal palace on Lanzarote the day after he left Ceuta even though jihadists were reportedly among the migrants who stormed the enclave. Although one might be inclined to forgive him for jetting off after seeing how angry Spaniards heckled him during his visit to the autonomous region, the international press was not forgiving.
Here is Sánchez enjoying a shirtless walk on the beach:
If a beach getaway while workers were cleaning the debris from a Ceuta beach wasn’t a bad enough look, the prime minister also decided to unveil his summer Spotify playlist on social media the same day he started his vacation.Perhaps Sánchez judged that the situation in Ceuta was under control after many of the migrants had been sent back to Morocco? The residents of Ceuta are the ones to ask about that. Their consensus in an OK Diario report and many others that I’ve seen is that the crisis is far from contained and that the prime minister’s trip is “shameless.”
It’s hard to watch these actions from the very prime minister who enacted a mass amnesty for half a million illegal immigrants and conclude that he’d disagree with a single word Irene Montero said in her infamous tirade.
It is not over.
• If This is Real, We Are COOKED (MN)
Footage circulating purporting to be from the North African desert shows what looks like an enormous column of sub-Saharan African men moving under escort. Some estimates put the number at a hundred thousand. Commentators claim Algerian military vehicles and personnel are shepherding them toward the coast. If the scale and direction prove accurate, Europe faces another deliberate pressure wave on top of the chaos already unfolding in Ceuta. Naomi Wolf amplified the footage, noting that these movements required state-level logistics.Read more …
I told you told you told you. Damn legacy media is incurious or blind. I said, these are sub-Saharan African militias and they can only be transported across 3-5 countries by nationstates or armies. This is an invasion of Europe via Iran and Russia, through Algeria and other… https://t.co/u0jztThav0
— Dr. Naomi Wolf. 8 NYT Bestsellers. DPhil, Poetry. (@naomirwolf) August 5, 2026
Additional clips from the same period show large groups being moved near the Moroccan frontier. One account framed the Algerian regime as collecting Africans from across the continent and directing them toward the border with Morocco, linking the timing to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s recent visit to Algiers. The caption reads “The Algerian system is gathering Africans from all African countries and deporting them to the border with Morocco. The visit of Pedro Sánchez to Algeria ain’t no coincidence, they wanna plot how to stir up crises between Morocco and Spain. The big shots are workin’ to wreck the relations between Morocco and Spain.”
I. TOLD. YOU. A transnational entity gathering militias from all over sub-Saharan Africa. Legacy media looked at these images and asked zero questions about how 1000s of sub-Saharan Africans traversed a continent to reach Morocco. https://t.co/p2zzVwhMXt
— Dr. Naomi Wolf. 8 NYT Bestsellers. DPhil, Poetry. (@naomirwolf) August 5, 2026These desert images land against the still-fresh reality of Ceuta. Late last week an estimated 72,000 people, predominantly young men, stormed the Spanish enclave from Morocco by swimming around the Tarajal breakwater and scaling fences. Despite the claims of Spanish officials that most have been returned, thousands of sub-Saharan Africans remain on the beaches and around reception centres.
The media has gone quiet about Ceuta but there are still thousands of sub Saharan Africans there.
— Miss Jo (@therealmissjo) August 5, 2026
Morocco won’t take them back.
Spain has said that they will take any who are “children” to Spain and has allocated €25 million to them.
These men are likely to end up in… pic.twitter.com/VhB1hhW6Y2
Next 5 years in court?
• Senate Panel Holds Fauci In Contempt For Refusing To Answer Questions (ZH)
Anthony Fauci has been held in contempt of Congress by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, after he repeatedly refused to answer lawmakers’ questions about funding risky research to genetically manipulate bat coronavirus in Wuhan China, and his role in the ensuing lockdown quagmire that cratered the economy after he was put in charge of leading the COVID-19 response. Oh, and they obtained a copy of his cell phone.Read more …
In an 8-5 vote brought by Committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), the contempt vote seeks to refer the case directly to the DOJ for prosecution – bypassing a full vote from the Senate. “Seeking the truth is not a witch hunt,” Paul said be fore the vote, per the WSJ. “Accountability is not vengeance. Accountability is what stands between the American people and a repeat of the mistakes and the very real consequences of the past.” The Committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Gary Peters, called the investigation “one-sided from the beginning,” claiming that “Information has been selectively released to support conclusions that the chairman reached years ago.”
The minority keeps trying to hijack the Fauci hearings with the lie that we haven’t shared the records from this investigation with them. This is a cop-out lie. This has been an intentionally open and transparent investigation. Not one Democrat on the committee cared enough to… pic.twitter.com/hHGtQDV5Ez
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) August 6, 2026Which of course is complete bullshit. Fauci funded the research, botched the response after COVID-19 broke out, lied about it under oath, and then pleaded the 5th when receipts came out.
WATCH: Democrats across the board vote to protect Dr. Anthony Fauci. pic.twitter.com/y9xm1mFDbc
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) August 6, 2026Or, as Paul wrote prior to the vote: “Dr. Fauci appeared under subpoena and invoked the Fifth Amendment to refuse answering questions. During the hearing, I ruled that the Fifth Amendment did not apply because of the pardon, and that Fauci had waived any remaining privilege by giving opening testimony. I ordered him to answer and warned him about contempt, yet he still refused. That is obstruction of a congressional investigation. The Committee will act accordingly.”
PASSED BY REPUBLICANS ON BEHALF OF THE MILLIONS OF AMERICANS AND THEIR FAMILIES STILL AFFECTED YEARS AFTER THE COVID PANDEMIC, THE RESOLUTION TO HOLD ANTHONY FAUCI IN CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS HAS PASSED OUT OF THE SENATE HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE BY A VOTE… https://t.co/9wgO1KeMd2
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) August 6, 2026Meanwhile, the WSJ reported last night that the panel obtained a copy of Fauci’s cell phone. A Senate panel investigating Dr. Anthony Fauci has obtained a copy of the doctor’s iPhone, potentially securing even more records related to the doctor’s actions during the Covid-19 pandemic. The copy of the phone was transferred by the Department of Health and Human Services to the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is chaired by Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.). This revelation comes just days after copies of Fauci’s journals were publicly released following their transfer from HHS to Congress.
Two Republican senators, Johnson and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have increased pressure on Fauci in recent days to answer questions related to pandemic health measures and the origins of Covid-19.The subpoena, issued in July, directed Fauci to testify on the committee’s investigation into “risky life sciences research and the origins of the COVID-19 virus,” according to the Epoch Times. The July 29 hearing itself was a prolonged exercise in refusal. Fauci opened by accusing Paul of an “unhinged obsession” with him and claiming the sole purpose of the session was to trap him into saying something that would land him “behind bars.”
From that point forward he answered nothing of consequence. Senators pressed him on gain-of-function research funding, the lab-leak evidence he had privately acknowledged while publicly promoting a natural-origin narrative, lockdown policies, school closures, personal financial awards solicited with federal employees on taxpayer time, and contradictions between his public statements and private diary entries. He declined them all.
“With Work-Visa Scheme..”
• Anti-Trump GOP Governors Plot To Undermine Immigration Crackdown (ZH)
Two Republican governors with a long history of clashing with Donald Trump are working with Democrats on a plan to hand migrant workers state-issued work permits instead of deportation notices, a direct challenge to the president’s immigration crackdown that the four laid out on camera. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt joined Democratic Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland and Matt Meyer of Delaware for a joint interview with Bloomberg, describing a shared position that has far more in common with the Democratic Party and the labor lobby than with the Trump administration’s approach to the border.Read more …
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Utah Governor Spencer Cox
The vehicle for that position is the National Governors Association’s Task Force on Immigration Policy, which Stitt built after noticing a pattern among his colleagues. “The reason I set this task force up is because I realized by talking to my colleagues that they’re having the same issues,” Stitt told Bloomberg reporter Christina Ruffini. “Let’s actually have the governors issue workforce permits.”That last line is the whole ballgame. The task force wants Congress to hand governors the discretion to issue migrant work permits at the state level, a proposal that treats illegal immigration less as a legal violation and more as a labor supply problem for agriculture, construction and hospitality. It resembles former President George W. Bush’s immigration reform approach, which sent the message to illegal immigrants, “If you’re doing a job an American won’t do, you’re welcome here, for a period of time, to do that job.”
Cox framed the alliance as a breakthrough four decades in the making. “For 40 years, we’ve been trying to do immigration reform and nobody’s ever been able to get it done,” he said. “But what’s different this time is that we have a secure border.” He credited that border security to the current administration while working, in the same breath, to carve states out from under its enforcement arm. “We all care – Republicans and Democrats – about a secure border,” Cox said, a sentiment that gets considerably murkier once the conversation turns to what happens to people already inside it.
Cox described a February meeting among the governors as almost startling in its unity. “We were together in February and having a conversation about immigration, and we were all shocked at the level of bipartisanship, cooperation, and agreement,” he said. “We were really stunned that everybody had kind of the same opinions on what needed to be done.” Bipartisan agreement among governors on loosening enforcement is not the reassurance Cox seems to think it is.
Ruffini asked the group for a show of hands on whether ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have been effective. Neither Cox nor Stitt raised one. Cox pointed to enforcement actions in Minnesota as a specific concern, citing “the violence and the deaths that we’ve seen” and calling the incidents “deeply problematic.” Stitt was even more blunt about his overall assessment. “We’re not using common sense right now,” he said.
Stitt’s example centered on a green card holder from Vietnam who has lived in Oklahoma City for 25 years. “We had a person from Vietnam that’s been in Oklahoma City for 25 years, legally in the United States, with a green card, working at Hobby Lobby,” he said. The man had self-deported after a marijuana arrest then returned to the country legally. “They’ve been a great citizen chasing the American dream, but they’ve been picked up for deportation now,” Stitt said. Gov. Moore added an economic gloss to the argument, saying a deportation agenda focused on criminals ought to travel alongside pro-growth policy rather than replace it.
Neither Republican governor has a great relationship with Trump, and both have clashed with him politically in recent years, which explains their break with him on immigration enforcement. The Trump administration clearly isn’t on board. Trump won a second term in 2024 in part by promising to close a border that sat wide open for four years under Biden. Immigration has generally been the strongest issue for him, outperforming his approval numbers on the economy and foreign policy.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin set the tone from inside the administration at the same NGA gathering, sitting beside Stitt and offering his own verdict on the odds of any of this actually happening. “Is immigration reform possible? No,” Mullin told the assembled governors. “Do you really need immigration reform? Yes, you do, but can we work with the system we have? Yes.”
“Dr. Fauci’s Contempt of Congress Can Be Challenged but his Contempt for the Public is Undeniable ”
The argument that Faucin had no right to remain silent is losing…
• Contempt of Congress or Contempt for the Public? (Turley)
“Today I am the most famous and talked-about person in the country.” Those words from the diary of Dr. Anthony Fauci will certainly be true today as the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs moves forward with holding him in contempt for refusing to answer over a hundred questions about his past conduct and statements as the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.Read more …The contempt vote will start a process that is fraught with political and legal challenges. Even putting aside the objections to the direct referral from the Committee to the Justice Department (rather than submit the matter to a full Senate vote), there remain serious questions about whether Fauci can be held in contempt after invoking his right to remain silent under the Fifth Amendment. As I have previously stated, this area is rather murky and Fauci likely has the advantage in any litigation.
At the outset, it is important to note that Fauci always faced a risk of perjury in his prior appearances. Even if immunized, a witness can always be prosecuted for false statements. Fauci is in a much stronger position today than he was in prior hearings due to the sweeping pardon he received from former President Joe Biden. Yet, he suddenly decided to remain silent when his own words came back to contradict him.
Now for the legal questions.
If a witness is immunized, they can be compelled to testify. If, for example, the Senate granted Fauci immunity, there would be little question about his answering these questions as well as the ability to charge him for any false statements.
The Senate Committee is arguing that the Biden pardon had the same impact. Since Fauci cannot be prosecuted for any acts during the extended period of the pardon (going back to 2014 when the government allegedly funded “gain-of-function research). Chairman Rand Paul did an excellent job in putting this issue into sharp relief in his final set of questions by framing his inquiry as confined to the period of his pardon.
The argument is credible and, for many, compelling: since Fauci cannot be prosecuted for any conduct during the pardon period, he has no legal exposure so long as he speaks truthfully. For Fauci, that is a question that could be highly subjective. He referred to the risk of a “perjury trap” in his opening statement. He declared, “The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something — anything — that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, ‘behind bars.’”
Even that statement could present a matter for litigation. Congress previously found in 2013 when high-ranking IRS leader Lois Lerner also pleaded the Fifth after giving an opening statement before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The Justice Department under the Obama Administration refused to prosecute. Fauci will argue that such a general statement does not waive the privilege and that, when asked a question, he promptly and consistently invoked it.
Of course, this is the Trump Administration, not the Obama Administration. Ironically, if the matter is litigated, the Administration will be in the position of defending the pardon, which it has long questioned, as the result of Joe Biden’s infamous autopen. The ability to hold Fauci in contempt becomes dependent on that pardon being valid. The Justice Department can argue that the Supreme Court has consistently held that the mere fear of a perjury charge is insufficient to compel witnesses who are immunized, dating back to 1896 in Brown v. Walker.
Moreover, the Supreme Court has held that “anticipatory perjury” is not a basis for such a refusal to testify in cases such as United States v. Apfelbaum. However, Fauci can cite new state investigations as unaffected by the federal pardon, as well as new questions arising outside the pardon that could theoretically pose ongoing risks of criminal prosecution. Courts have generally adopted broad interpretations to protect the right to remain silent, a touchstone of our legal system. That is why I believe Fauci likely has the edge in any challenge.
The fact is that it is uncertain. The cases in this area remain relatively sparse, and any pardon case is highly case-specific to the confines and scope of the specific pardon. If so, Fauci can remain silent, but that silence will remain deafening for many in this country. The right to do something does not make it the right thing to do. Fauci, in my view, was wrong to invoke the privilege against self-incrimination even if it was his right to do so. Millions of Americans lost loved ones during the pandemic, and the United States had one of the worst records in dealing with COVID-19 in terms of costs and deaths.
Fauci’s diaries exposed disturbing contradictions between what he previously stated publicly and what he actually believed. Americans have a right to know the truth, and Fauci was not saying a thing, invoking the privilege 111 times. He will say nothing to the families who lost loved ones or the business owners ruined by now-debunked pandemic measures. He will say nothing to the scientists who were canceled, blacklisted, and fired for opposing these policies. Those scientists did not get the bobbleheads and celebrity photos that Fauci celebrated in his diaries. As the mob hounded them, Fauci said nothing as he gushed about his own fame in his diary.
He will say nothing despite the protection of a presidential pardon. For that, he should be rightfully condemned. Fauci’s contempt of Congress is challengeable, but his contempt for the public is undeniable.
Only from RT. Playing CNN here. “The US president reportedly accused the secretary of war of providing misleading information about the state of the country’s munitions stockpiles “
• Trump Grills Hegseth – Media (RT)
US President Donald Trump has demanded answers from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth over depleted American weapons stockpiles, including air defense missiles, multiple media outlets reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the exchange. Hegseth did not reportedly dispute the shortages but denied misleading Trump. The reported rebuke came at last week’s Camp David meeting amid mounting concern over the state of US munition stocks after years of arms deliveries to Ukraine under former President Joe Biden and more than five months of heavy missile use in the ongoing US-led war against Iran.Read more …
Trump reportedly believed he had been misled about the state of US munitions stockpiles and complained that he had been under the impression the shortages had already been addressed. Hegseth is said to have blamed Deputy Secretary of War Stephen Feinberg for failing to keep Trump fully informed. The incident reportedly underscored Trump’s growing frustration with Hegseth, an early proponent of military action against Iran. The news outlets, including the Washington Post and NBC News, said shortages of long-range missiles and air defense interceptors were among the reasons Trump backed away from additional large-scale strikes.US forces reportedly used more than 1,300 tactical ballistic missiles in the opening weeks of the campaign, nearly depleting US stockpiles of Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), also sought by Ukraine for its conflict with Russia. Citing a US official, the media outlets said interceptor shortages have forced the military to prioritize which incoming threats to engage. Earlier this week, the Financial Times, citing people familiar with the discussions, reported that Trump had rejected a request by Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky for hundreds of additional Patriot interceptor missiles, citing depleted US stockpiles and the Pentagon’s own requirements amid the war with Iran. Trump has nevertheless publicly dismissed reports of munition shortfalls.
On Wednesday, CNN reported that the US had depleted nearly 80% of its THAAD interceptor missile inventory and about half of its Patriot missile stockpiles compared to prewar levels. The New York Times also reported that Trump’s advisers had warned him about dwindling stocks of Patriot interceptors and other air defense systems in the Middle East. The newspaper said the shortages were among the factors behind the president’s decision not to sharply escalate the military campaign against Iran.
Washington denied any confrontation between Trump and Hegseth. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “100% fake news,” while Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell denied that Hegseth had misled the president or blamed his deputy for depleted US munitions stockpiles.
Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
• Trump Expands Social Media Vetting for More Foreign Visas (ETM)
The State Department is expanding its social media vetting requirement to include applicants for more types of visas, according to an internal memo obtained by the Daily Signal.Read more …
Last June, the State Department said student visa applicants with private social media accounts will be required to make their accounts public for screening. Social media vetting is already required for diplomatic and official visas; temporary workers and trainees; exchange visitors; international cultural exchange participants; religious workers; and witnesses, informants, and victims. The new requirements will apply to foreign media representatives and qualified nationals from Mexico and Canada entering the United States for business as part of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, as well as their dependents.“The Department relies on every available source of information during visa screening and vetting to identify applicants who may be inadmissible to the United States, including those who pose a threat to national security or public safety,” the memo says. “We apply this rigorous vetting standard consistently across all visa applicants.” All applicants are instructed to change the settings of their social media to be “public” or “open.”
“Every visa adjudication is fundamentally a national security decision,” the memo says. “The United States remains vigilant throughout the visa issuance process to confirm that applicants do not intend to cause harm to Americans or threaten U.S. interests, and that each applicant can credibly demonstrate eligibility for the visa requested—including a genuine intent to abide by the terms of admission.” “Receiving a U.S. visa remains a privilege granted at the government’s discretion, not an entitlement,” the memo adds.
The corruption runs in the billions, tens and hundreds of them. And she has to go because of a few 100,000’s?!
• Charges Against Dismissed Ukrainian Ambassador To The US (ZH)
Another top level Ukrainian official has been booted from office over significant corruption allegations, which comes at a moment of a broad shake-up of military and cabinet leadership initiated by President Zelensky. Olha Stefanishyna was dismissed as Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States earlier this week, both local media as as Reuters have confirmed. Reuters writes that she is “suspected of illegal enrichment and failing to declare assets, authorities said on Thursday, the latest high-ranking official targeted in an anti-graft probe” – after she reportedly hid two apartments along with other assets worth about $310,000.Read more …
She had been a deputy prime minister prior to being appointed top diplomatic representative to Washington, and it’s believed that her concealed assets could not have been obtained with her official salary alone. She had also briefly served as Minister of Justice during the war with Russia. Much of her additional properties and other assets were registered under the names of Stefanishyna’s friends and family members. Kyiv Post reports Thursday: The High Anti-Corruption Court on Aug. 6 set Hr 6 million ($130,000) bail for Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s former ambassador to the U.S., in a corruption case.She has been charged with illicit enrichment amounting to Hr 13.9 million ($310,000) and lying in her asset declarations. An anti-corruption prosecutor earlier proposed setting bail for Stefanishyna at Hr 13 million ($290,000). Stefanishyna failed to declare two apartments, worth nearly Hr 11 million ($250,000), that were registered in the name of a friend, according to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU).She has in the meantime taken to social media to declare there’s been no wrongdoing that she doesn’t have anything to hide. But she voluntarily submitted her resignation earlier this week, upon which Zelensky dismissed her.
According to a newly published list of the undeclared assets, she tried to ‘hide’ the following:
• Two apartments in a residential complex in western Kiev, registered to a friend
• A luxury apartment in central Kiev, registered to her mother
• A parking space and several auxiliary premises at the same high-end property, registered to her father
• A Mercedes-Benz GLC 220 d, registered to a subordinate“Any procedural actions are part of the lawful work of the law enforcement system and do not amount to a finding of guilt,” she wrote on Facebook. “I take these developments calmly and without unnecessary emotion.”
‼️BREAKING Ukrainian court sets ₴6 million (~$130,000) bail for Olha Stefanishyna, former Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States.
— EMPR.media (@EuromaidanPR) August 6, 2026
She is suspected of illicit enrichment and false asset declarations. Prosecutors had requested more than twice that amount. pic.twitter.com/5cnwBsruUGStefanishyna had served as ambassador to the US for the past year, going back to August of 2025. Local media says the alleged concealing of assets took place during that stint, and reports additionally say she was in the process of buying another property – an apartment valued at the equivalent of $550,000 – but backed out of the deal.
Broadly, the Ukrainian population has suffered immensely amid the conflict with Russia, with frequent blackouts and amid a battered wartime economy – and so ordinary citizens get increasingly frustrated and outraged when they see government officials living lavish lifestyles which include luxury cars and multiple homes and properties.
Grisham.
• Justice Has Departed America (Paul Craig Roberts)
Twenty-six years ago in 2000 Prima Publishing published a book I wrote with my colleague, Lawrence M. Stratton. We had wanted to title the book, “How the Law Was Lost,” but we only managed to get our title on one chapter. The publisher thought that sales required a less intellectual sounding title and came up with The Tyranny of Good Intentions. I didn’t like the title, because it blamed on good intentions all the wrongs that were due to self-serving prosecutors, judges, police, and defense attorneys. Larry and I wanted to get our book published, and we decided against fighting with the publisher, who of course has to be concerned about sales and money.Read more …
The book received good reviews: Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz, Nobel prize-winner Milton Friedman, Massachusetts ACLU chairman Harvey Silverglate. But it failed to reform the totally corrupt American “justice system.” A Federal Appeals Court Judge in the 9th Circuit cited the book in a ruling, as did a federal district court judge, but that was about it.Crown Publishing, a division of Random House, acquired Prima Publishing, and in 2008 brought out a paperback edition. I think the book is still in print and sells a few copies each year. The last I heard, if memory serves, is that the book sold some 22,000 copies.
Years ago, again if memory serves, Lewis Lapham the brilliant former editor of Harper’s, a substantial person of letters, told me that if the book had sold 20,000 copies in the first year, it would be regarded as a best-seller in the serious works class, which speaks a lot to the insouciance of the American population.
I always wondered about the “serious class” as the book is written in everyday language that anyone can understand. No need for a law degree to read our book, and the stories of injustice are gripping. But, obviously, Americans did not read the book. Consequently, they remain in total ignorance of the many dangers they, their innocence be damned, face of incarceration every day. “This would never happen to me,” but it does to many every week.
Recently, having reread the British murder mysteries from the first half of the 20th century to the point of memorization, and also all of Louis L’Amour’s novels of the Western frontier, I visited the public library and checked out half a dozen of John Grisham’s novels about the criminal justice system. I had read several of them years ago, and they had made an impression.
My belief is that a law student can learn more from one of Grisham’s novels about how the “justice system” actually operates, its disappointments, the total unconcern with justice, than the student can learn from his law professors, who are mainly interested in producing an activist committed to use law to overthrow existing society. If you are a reader who gets involved with a novel’s characters, Grisham can be very intense. On occasion I have had to set aside one of Grisham’s novels and read something else for awhile.
Grisham himself was a lawyer before turning novelist. Thus, he knows the system from the inside. It is not a pretty system. Justice is the least of its concerns. Judges permit prosecutors to withhold exculpatory evidence, to pay jailhouse snitches with early release for false testimony with which to convict an innocent person, with intentionally misleading jurors who are seldom up to the demands of the situation, and to use the corrupt American media to convict the defendant in the eyes of the public, as in the case of Derek Chauvin, so that even a jury that knows the defendant is innocent is afraid to say so.
According to the Department of Justice 97% of felonies never go to trial. The reason is that neither the defendant nor his attorney can possibly trust the system. The first thing a defendant hears from his lawyer is that if he goes to trial the prosecutor will multiply the charges, and no jury will believe that a defendant with dozens or scores of charges isn’t guilty of at least one of them. A conviction at a jury trial always brings a more severe sentence than a negotiated plea.
If the defendant’s lawyer negotiates a plea bargain, often to a charge that is not in the original indictment, the defendant by self-incriminating himself, thereby saving judge and prosecutor from a time-consuming trial, will be thanked with a lesser sentence. Plea bargains keep a judge’s court docket from backing up due to time-consuming trials. Plea bargains permit prosecutors to boost their all-important conviction rate far above what is possible with time-consuming trials. Although the defendant might actually have committed a crime, his plea bargain crime may be a construct that never happened in order to provide the lesser sentence. In other words, the defendant goes to prison for a crime that did not happen instead of for one that did. This is why I say that most people in prison are wrongfully convicted.
The only people who care about the wrongfully convicted are rare and underfunded Innocence Projects, whose attorneys work for peanuts to undo wrongful convictions. The rich white liberal foundations lavish money on men-hating feminists and the likes of Black Lives Matter and Antifa. The law and order conservatives see the problem as liberal judges who refuse to punish criminals. The constituency for justice is tiny.To wind this down, here are a few quotes that actually describe the justice system from Grisham’s novel, The Guardians, which is about an innocence project that works to free wrongly convicted persons.
“His career as a snitch began with the trial of Quincey Miller. He was eighteen when he testified, and a month after the trial his drug charges were reduced and he walked. The deal worked so beautifully that he did it again and again. Every jail has a druggie facing more time and eager to avoid it. With the proper coaching from cops and prosecutors, a snitch can be quite effective with his perjury. Jurors simply cannot believe that a witness, any witness, will take the oath, swear to tell the truth, and tell them an outlandish story of pure fiction.” Jurors are so stupid that they do not realize that a lie that convicts an innocent person is a ticket out of jail for the liar.
As for the racket of “expert witnesses,” Grisham reports that payment for a one-week seminar suffices to produce a certificate declaring a person to be an expert witness who hires out to convict or exonerate a defendant on his “expert” standing. “Most appellate judges, state and federal, despise these [innocent] cases because they drag on for years. And once they decide that a defendant is guilty, they rarely change their minds, regardless of new evidence.”
In the United States of America today, there is not one public or private institution that is trustworthy. The lack of institutions with integrity means that there is no foundation for American society.
Elon Musk:
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) August 6, 2026
"Don't pursue money.
Make useful products, and money will come as a consequence."
A simple philosophy that has shaped some of the world's most ambitious companies. pic.twitter.com/Uk3QRKAq7g
Elon might be the only person building stuff in America at China speed/scale, despite the overwhelming US regulations and partisan politics…
— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) August 6, 2026
We need more Elon’s, not less. https://t.co/teav1tmbkD
Elon Musk timeline Tesla Moon factories – 20 years.
— Doge Tipping (@Dogetothemoon) August 6, 2026
"In 20 years, I’d say Tesla’s got factories on the Moon.
Actually, I see a very prosperous future for Tesla. It’s difficult to predict anything in 20 years, but if you say, in five years to ten years, I could say Tesla has an… https://t.co/aKlTLuq7yo pic.twitter.com/YgF92MSyB0
ELON MUSK REVEALED THE BRUTAL MATH BEHIND WHY A SINGLE HOUR OF HIS TIME IS WORTH $100,000,000.
— Vivek Sen (@Vivek4real_) August 6, 2026
"TESLA WILL DO OVER $100 BILLION IN REVENUE THIS YEAR.
THAT'S $2 BILLION A WEEK.
IF I MAKE SLIGHTLY BETTER DECISIONS, I CAN CHANGE THE OUTCOME BY A BILLION DOLLARS."
"THE MARGINAL… pic.twitter.com/qYVdax9FNX
https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2085199188640358889?s=20SpaceX President & COO Gwynne Shotwell on @Starlink Mobile and its impact on Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile:
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) August 4, 2026
"Roughly, between them, $600 billion a year. I anticipate us to be able to acquire quite a few of their customers. Our service will be better. We will eliminate dead zones… pic.twitter.com/UYZUkrGc0L
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