Jul 262026
 
 July 26, 2026  Posted by at 9:43 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , ,  Add comments


Pablo Picasso The Bull state VII 1945


Trump Pursues Diplomatic Off-Ramp As Omani Delegation Arrives In Tehran (ZH)
Russia Guaranteed To Win Ukraine Conflict – John Mearsheimer (RT)
Elon Musk Just Exploded One of the Left’s Favorite Smear Tactics (Spencer)
The Real Reason Why The Media Hates Elon Musk (ZH)
Trump Orders Signs Outside Smithsonian Warning Of Woke Exhibits (JTN)
Will Trump be the First American Caesar? (Paul Craig Roberts)
Is Zohran Mamdani Mentally Ill? (Robert Spencer)
Mamdani’s Netanyahu Arrest Plan Has No Legal Basis (Victor Davis Hanson)
‘Show Must Go On’: Trump Delivers Remarks at Correspondents’ Dinner (ET)
Democrats Are Worried The GOP’s Cash Advantage Could Hurt Their Chances (ZH)
Top NIH Official Wanted to Halt Research Into COVID-19 Vaccine Injuries (ET)

 


 

 


 


Let Oman try. For two days.

Trump Pursues Diplomatic Off-Ramp As Omani Delegation Arrives In Tehran (ZH)

JPMorgan’s head of Global Commodities Research and Strategy, Natasha Kaneva, told clients: “In the previous round of escalations, negotiations were initiated once US gasoline prices reached $4.20 and became materially more urgent as prices neared $4.50. Oil may be a global commodity, but political tolerance for high energy prices remains overwhelmingly domestic.”


US Pauses Iran Bombing Campaign As Saudi-Houthi Red Sea Front Erupts
Brent crude surged 27% over two weeks to settle at $96.78 a barrel on Friday, briefly breaching $100 this past week as traders priced in a higher war-risk premium into energy markets amid simultaneous chokepoint threats to the Strait of Hormuz and the southern Red Sea.


Meanwhile, the US appeared to pause its 13-day campaign of daily overnight strikes against Iran. While there was no indication that the operational halt would extend into next week, the pause certainly reinforces the diplomatic signals highlighted in our US-Iran wrap on Friday. However, there was an escalation overnight with Saudi-led strikes on Iran-backed Houthi targets in Hodeida. This comes after the terror group attacked multiple Saudi-linked tankers in the southern Red Sea area.Houthis escalate with attacks against Saudi Arabia:

The confrontation threatens to open a second major front in the Gulf conflict. With traffic through Hormuz largely paralyzed, sustained Houthi attacks on Yanbu or ships entering Bab al-Mandab Strait could disrupt millions of barrels of Saudi exports, raise shipping costs, and further tighten physical markets.

Read more …

“No amount of Western weapons can overcome Moscow’s “massive advantage in air power,” the international relations expert has said..”

Russia Guaranteed To Win Ukraine Conflict – John Mearsheimer (RT)

Russia is guaranteed to win the Ukraine conflict, and no amount of Western weaponry – including Patriot air defense systems sought by Kiev – can change that, international relations scholar John Mearsheimer has said. Ukraine is “highly vulnerable” to Russian strikes that can cripple its economy and leave it a “dysfunctional” state, the University of Chicago professor told the Daniel Davis Deep Dive podcast on Thursday.


Kiev has relied heavily on Western military aid throughout the conflict, now in its fifth year. Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly pressed allies for more weapons, particularly Patriot systems, while blaming delays in deliveries for Ukraine’s battlefield setbacks. According to Mearsheimer, the belief that more Patriots or other Western arms can reverse the course of the conflict is an illusion. “The Russians are pretty much free to attack any target in Ukraine and they don’t have to worry at all about a Patriot missile or any other kind of missile knocking down the incoming missiles or the incoming drones,” he said.

With Russia enjoying a “massive advantage in air power” and Ukraine struggling with manpower shortages, “the Russians are going to win this war” and “Ukraine is going to emerge as a dysfunctional rump state,” he argued. Mearsheimer pointed to recent Russian strikes on the Ukrainian port of Odessa as evidence of Moscow’s strategy. “It looks to me like the Russians have basically cut off Odessa as a port of exit for Ukraine,” he said.

Earlier this week, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had struck fuel depots and port infrastructure in Odessa, Nikolaev, Izmail and Chernomorsk used to receive and store military cargo, claiming nearly 30 vessels serving the Ukrainian military were hit. On Thursday, Ukrainian outlet Strana reported that maritime traffic had effectively stopped, with no ships entering the country’s Black Sea ports the previous day. It said the Russian strikes were retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on Russian Black Sea ports.

The attacks have made shipping to Ukraine increasingly risky, Strana added, noting that shipping giant Maersk recently suspended operations at the port of Chernomorsk. Mearsheimer also argued that the US conflict with Iran would further reduce European military and financial support for Kiev. “I think events in Iran and just the course of the war between Ukraine and Russia is creating a situation where Ukraine’s future looks highly bleak,” he said.

Read more …

The smear is labeling someone as far right. It’ll be a rebel name soon.

“That we should have secure borders? That we should have safe cities? That we should have sensible spending? Which of those three are far right fringe?”

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 32 books, including many bestsellers, such as The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad, The History of Jihad, The Critical Qur’an, and Muhammad: A Critical Biography. His new books are Intifada on the Hudson: The Selling of Zohran Mamdani; Holy Hell: Islam’s Abuse of Women and the Infidels Who Enable It; and The Tragedy of Islam: Failure and Excuses.

Elon Musk Just Exploded One of the Left’s Favorite Smear Tactics (Spencer)

Elon Musk has just dared to shine the light of truth and accuracy upon one of the left’s favorite weapons of propaganda and manipulation.Whenever mainstream media “journalists” want to make people dislike someone and reject whatever their victim may stand for, they start calling the person they want to destroy “far right.” The idea is to associate the victim with Hitler and fascism without saying anything that could end up being legally actionable, and the leftists have not hesitated to use the label for anyone and anything they don’t like, no matter how far from anything genuinely “far right” their target may be.


One notorious example is the media’s use of “far right” to try to defame everyone who dares to oppose its favorite religion, Islam, and to speak out against jihad violence and Sharia oppression of women. And so the late Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, who was a gay activist with leftist positions on everything except his refusal to accept the Islamization of the Netherlands and Europe, was “far right.” So is his political heir in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, whose party’s program aligns with the left on almost everything except its opposition to mass Muslim migration into Europe, and so he, too, is “far right.”

I myself believe in free speech, free enterprise, and free society, and reject racism, fascism, and the like, but when I started writing books about how Islamic jihad is a historic and present-day threat, I, too, became “far right,” and was placed on the blacklists of the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League, and defamed and deplatformed accordingly.

The whole thing has gotten so absurd that in a December 2024 article published in the aftermath of an Islamic jihad attack upon a Christmas market in Germany, the Daily Mail warned: “This Christmas market carnage will make a dangerous situation even uglier – and the Far Right will grow even stronger.” Yeah, that’s the biggest takeaway from a jihad attack that killed six people and injured over 300 others: the “far right” may take advantage.

The idea that anyone at all would have been worrying about the “far right” at that moment demonstrated how avid the establishment media is to divert attention away from Islamic jihad violence. If that required warning about a nonexistent threat and once again smearing people who were simply trying to stand against the prevailing madness, so be it.Now, however, Elon Musk has had enough. The Hill reported Friday that in a recent interview, The Economist’s Editor-in-Chief Zanny Minton Beddoes claimed that Musk “supports not just the populist right, but the far right — in fact, very fringe parties in some countries.”

Musk took issue with this characterization, saying: “No, I support the normal people. What you call the far right, falsely. Literally, you could go back 10 or 15 years and these policies were completely normal.” That was perfectly true, but Beddoes is a leftist, and so she took issue with it. She granted that “the center of gravity in this country has shifted, certainly the Democratic Party shifted to the left,” but then continued, “but that’s not what I’m talking about.” Then, says The Hill, “she said she was discussing figures such as Rupert Lowe, a member of the United Kingdom Parliament who leads the far right political party Restore Britain.”

Lowe wants to stop the mass migration into Britain that threatens to make the native people of the island into a minority in their own homeland before the end of this century. And so Musk responded: “It’s just normal people. Here are the principles, and tell me, which of these sound terrible. That we should have secure borders? That we should have safe cities? That we should have sensible spending? Which of those three are far right fringe?”

That’s what passes for “far right” today. If people in the various nations of the West want to preserve their own country’s culture and national character, that’s “far right.” If they don’t want to support millions of migrants who arrive and immediately go on welfare, that, too, is “far right.” If they don’t want to see their once-stable and prosperous countries become Third World hellholes, they’ve joined the “far right.” Musk told Beddoes that he wanted to “admonish” her, and the establishment media as a whole, for its “absurd characterization of the far right. It is false and misleading and nonsense.” Yes, that’s what it is, all right, and worse.

Read more …

” The front page headline for this very Economist interview was: “Should You Be Afraid Of Elon Musk?”

When Musk bought X, they lost their strangle hold. Of course they hate that.

The Real Reason Why The Media Hates Elon Musk (ZH)

Some would say that Elon Musk is an enigma; a billionaire entrepreneur with a focus on green tech and environmental impact who used to support Democrat fixtures like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, only to become one of the progressive establishment’s biggest opponents. What happened? As Musk readily admits, the progressive movement changed and he did not. One could argue that the progressive movement didn’t change, it just pulled the mask off and revealed the monstrous face underneath. Either way, anyone who saw that ugly face during the despotic insanity of the pandemic era and refused to adapt and embrace it was deemed an “enemy of democracy”.


Musk got a real good look and was clearly repulsed. After 2022 when Musk declared his total separation from the Democrats as the “party of division and hate”, the leftist media descended like so many flying monkey’s from a wicked witch’s castle. The attacks have been relentless. When Musk made a move to purchase Twitter and fundamentally disrupt the political left’s dominance of the social media landscape, they shrieked with rage and spit venom. It was glorious.

In a recent interview with The Economist the venom was on full display, but the tactics of media disinformation agents and provocateurs have become tired, repetitious, tedious. You could see Musk’s exasperation with the exercise. He’s heard all these leading questions and biased insinuations a thousand times before. Online and Swiss-owned far-left outlet Gizmodo published a hatchet job article covering the interview and described Musk as “melting down” over “normal questions”. This kind of gaslighting from the left is standard, and the projection is palpable. Gizmodo’s reaction is the true meltdown; they simply can’t handle the idea of the media being exposed for their dishonesty.

The most dishonest of people with the most nefarious of intentions often make accusations by disguising them as “questions”. The front page headline for this very Economist interview was: “Should You Be Afraid Of Elon Musk?” Musk has been directly and indirectly accused of promoting racism, fascism, sexism, and even genocide. Through DOGE and the much needed shutdown of the corrupt USAID institution, he is now accused of “killing millions” by withholding humanitarian funding.

https://twitter.com/mattvanswol/status/2080427381463118215?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2080427381463118215%7Ctwgr%5Efab28861c8ccf5dcbf54046d86a9fae1fa344e10%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fmeltdown-real-reason-why-media-hates-elon-musk


The real agenda is embedded in this line of questioning. The global elites and the far-left present a false narrative of consensus – The notion that they represent the majority and the “majority” is very angry with Elon for his trespasses against the liberal order. Perhaps more than Twitter, they are specifically sensitive about the closure of USAID.

Why? Not because they care about poor little starving children with AIDS in Africa. It is questionable how many US dollars were actually going into these humanitarian projects versus the amount of dollars going into the hungry pockets of Democrat politicians and leftist NGOs. The reality that the media doesn’t want to address is that USAID was a central funding hub for the spread of woke ideology and propaganda around the globe.

Without endless cash supplied by USAID fraud, the multicultural and intersectional vision of the far-left is greatly hindered. Just look at how quickly, for example, Pride and transgender activist movements dissipated once federal funding through organizations like USAID dried up. What about mass immigration? Do Americans really need to be funding shelters and services for migrants traveling through Mexico seeking to enter the US illegally? Because this is what USAID was doing.

DOGE dislodged an organization that was a cancer on the entire world, including the US. This is what the media is truly upset about. And it should be noted that the US is not responsible for the well-being of the entire world. If people in third world countries can’t survive without US subsidies, maybe they should learn how.

But Musk’s most egregious crime was the leave the liberal plantation. Leftists are radical collectivists and they see each individuals personal success as a platform to serve the interests of the greater movement. Any individual who walks away from the collective and takes his platform with him is viewed as a traitor, but also a thief. Progressives see Musk as their property. They see everything he builds as their property. They believe that Musk owes them.


The assertion by Economist editor Zanny Minton Beddoes that her outlet and her comrades are “traditional liberals” promoting limited government and individual liberty is perhaps the most laughable claim a journalist has uttered in recent memory. The Economist is a globalist news platform, and was partially owned by the Rothschild family for decades, right up until March of this year when they sold their share.

The Economist aggressively promoted anti-freedom policies during the Biden Administration including mandatory vaccinations during Covid. They also supported, in theory, the idea of vaccine passports, which would have resulted in the most oppressive shift away from personal liberty in modern history. They consistently attacked people who opposed the mandates for “spreading misinformation” and defended the concept of government pressure on the public.

Of course, none of the mandates enforced by liberal governments proved to make any difference in the spread of covid, and the Infection Fatality Rate remain relatively static at an average of 0.23%. All that hysteria and tyranny over a virus that 99.8% of the population would easily survive.

Traditional liberalism in the media is long dead. It does not exist. It has been replaced by woke authoritarianism. This is why, as Musk notes, no one trusts the media and most people hate them. In 2025 over 70% of US adults said they have low trust or no trust in the mainstream media. These companies might have incredible amounts of money behind them, but it’s all irrelevant without the public trust.

Full interview again:

Read more …

National Museum of American History, to be precise.

The New York Times doesn’t like it at all.

Trump Orders Signs Outside Smithsonian Warning Of Woke Exhibits (JTN)

The signs would even redirect potential visitors to places where American history is more accurately presented, according to the order, though it did not give examples of what those locations and resources would be. President Donald Trump escalated his battle against wokeness at the Smithsonian Institution on Friday, ordering his administration to place signs outside the National Museum of American History to warn visitors that some of its exhibits have been made “inaccurate.”


The signs would even redirect potential visitors to places where American history is more accurately presented, according to the order, though the order did not give examples of what those locations and resources would be.“Because the museum has failed to appropriately honor the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence during this 250th anniversary year of the founding of our country,” the order reads, government agencies “shall install temporary exhibits or signage on N.P.S.-maintained sidewalks, walkways, and land used by the public that corrects inaccurate information presented in the museum.”

The order comes after the White House Domestic Policy Council released a 162-page report on the museum, accusing its director of using the museum as a “political instrument” to accomplish her own ideological goals at the expense of the museum’s original mission.The museum was first approved by Congress in 1955 to tell the national story of the United States, to “place before” visitors “a stimulating permanent exposition that commemorates our heritage of freedom and highlights the basic elements of our way of life.” The museum’s director, Anthea Hartig, defended the museum’s changes to American history, stating in a congressional hearing this week that the museum was representing history in all of its complexity, according to the New York Times.

“When historians talk about reframing a traditional narrative, we don’t mean erasing it,” she said in her testimony. “We mean adding the evidence, the voices, the objects that earlier tellings left out so that more Americans can see themselves reflected in the national story.”House Republicans, however, accused her of hijacking history with woke ideology to suggest even Mickey Mouse was racist. The order also follows Trump’s March 27, 2025, executive order aimed at purging “revisionist” and ideological materials from U.S. history references and exhibits at federally funded museums and sites.

Read more …

We’re supposed to think he wants to be.

Will Trump be the First American Caesar? (Paul Craig Roberts)

Journalism as an honest career has been wrecked by journalism schools teaching that the purpose of journalism is to change society, not to report facts, by bought and paid for narratives that serve organized lobbies, by government and Israel Lobby censorship, and so on. When you read a news report today you not only cannot trust it, but the writing is so poor that often you cannot ascertain what the journalist is saying. I have done my best to understand reports I have read of the attempt of the US Congress to use the 1973 War Powers Act to stop Trump’s use of US lives and money to turn Iran into a second Gaza for Israel.


Normally, it would be reprehensible for the US government to sacrifice the lives of American military men and women in order to advance Israel’s agenda of Greater Israel. Why are Americans dying and paying for conquests for Israel’s agenda of Israeli rule from “the Nile to Pakistan?”Israeli-owned Trump pretends that the war he is forcing Americans to fight for Israel’s territorial expansion is being fought to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon. This is a blatant lie, just like the one Colin Powell told the UN about Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction.”

Iran signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and has not enriched uranium to the level that could be used for nuclear weapons. All investigatory agencies attest to this fact. Trump’s assertion that he is protecting Americans from “weapons of mass destruction” is identical to the lies the George W. Bush regime told when Secretary of State Colin Powell was sent to the UN to lie through his teeth about Saddam Hussein’s non-existent “weapons of mass destruction.” As the lie worked on dumbshit Americans before, Trump and his Zionist allies assume it will work a second time. Trump might be correct that Americans never learn from being repeatedly bamboozled. Americans fall for whatever is made to sound patriotic.

As best as I can tell from “journalists” who never learned how to write, the US House of Representatives voted 214-208 in favor of a War Powers Act Resolution to cease military action in Iran. This required some Republican help, such as Republican Representative Thomas Massie, who thinks the American people are more important than Trump’s service to Israel, and Republican Representatives Tom Barrett, Warren Davidson, and Brian Fitzpatrick who apparently see it the same way as Massie. You can see why Israel spent $32 million to remove Massie from Congress. And dumbshit Americans think they are a sovereign nation. Only Russia and Venezuela interfere in American elections. Never Israel.

Initially the US Senate passed the War Powers resolution to halt Trump’s war against Iran, but the Republican supporters reversed it when Israel’s man–Donald Trump–confronted them. In the re-vote, the US Senate rejected the resolution to end the illegal and unjustified war 47-49.

The War Powers Act of 1973 was the US Congress’ last attempt to restrain the US executive branch from overriding the US Constitution, which requires a declaration of war by Congress before going to war. The executive branch had eased America into a war in Vietnam without Congressional approval. That Congress did not impeach and remove the president, who had voided his oath of office by his unconstitutional war, was the first sign that America, like the Roman Republic, was transitioning into a Caesarship. It was Democrat Lyndon Johnson, not Republican Richard Nixon, who was responsible for the Vietnam war.

Trump Secretary of State Marco Rubio said “the War Powers Act is unconstitutional, 100 percent.” What does Rubio know about the Constitution? Nothing. It is the Trump regime’s initiation of war without a declaration of war by Congress that is unconstitutional. What Mark Rubio is saying is that any limitation on the power of the executive branch is unconstitutional.

This theory of the American state has been developing for some time. In 1992 Terry Eastland published a book, Energy in the Executive: The Case for the Strong Presidency that argued that the three branches of government–executive, legislative, and judicial–were not exactly equal and that the executive branch held the upper hand. We have actually experienced America’s wars and restrictions on the US Constitution’s ability to protect American citizens consistently evade the Constitution for decades.

As I have made the case, America, the United States, is the Constitution. When the Constitution is shredded, so is America. Without the Constitution, America no longer exists as America. So now we have Caesar Trump, unconstrained by Congress, the Judiciary, and the people, at war with Iran in the service of Israel. This is the behavior of a Caesar, not the behavior of a US president as defined by the US Constitution who is sworn into office by his oath to protect the US Constitution. Trump protects Israel. Israel is not America. Trump does not protect America.

There is no attempt to impeach Trump, and there are no complaints from law faculties, from bar associations, presstitutes, organized interest groups, university presidents, corporate leaders, Christian denominations. Just complaints from a few of us whose voices won’t be heard above the noise of “Iranian Nukes.”

Is Trump Caesar or Octavian? Who will be the next Caesar?

Read more …

” Mamdani is a Twelver Shi’ite, an adherent of the official religion of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Is Zohran Mamdani Mentally Ill? (Robert Spencer)

Surprisingly, New York City’s Marxist Muslim Mayor Zohran Mamdani admitted that the man who stabbed two people on the Upper West Side on Thursday “yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ during both attacks.” This was not, however, an indication that the mayor was ready to acknowledge the reality of Islamic jihad terrorism. Almost immediately after noting that the perpetrator screamed the jihadi war cry, Mamdani added: “The NYPD’s initial investigation suggests that mental health may have been a factor.”


Ah, of course. Claiming that obvious Islamic jihadis are mentally ill is the common practice of authorities in Europe, and we have seen it in the U.S. as well. Officials don’t want to acknowledge the reality of Islamic jihad, as that would raise uncomfortable questions about why they’re doing so little (if anything) to stop the jihadis, and so they pretend that each and every violent Muslim screaming “Allahu akbar” is mentally ill.

This may exonerate Islam for the crimes done in its name and in accord with its teachings, but it creates new problems of its own: Why do only Muslims seem to contract this particular mental illness? Why does it so often result in their being violent toward non-Muslims, rather than toward their fellow Muslims? With jihadis filling up mental hospitals, are the genuinely mentally ill people safe there?And in this particular case, it raises more problems for Zohran Mamdani himself, for the attacker has not one, but two belief systems in common with the boy mayor. Is Mamdani mentally ill, too? The mind reels.

The New York Post revealed Saturday that “the madman who screamed ‘Allahu Akbar’ while stabbing an Asian and Jewish man in separate harrowing hate attacks on the Upper West Side was a fan of Karl Marx, with police finding one of the communist author’s books inside his apartment.” Cops searching the apartment of Raul Morales found Marx’s writings, along with “two Qurans, a Jehovah’s Witness Bible, and a book on Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara.”

The Jehovah’s Witness Bible aside, the Qur’ans and the Commie writings make it sound as if the police got lost, and ended up searching Gracie Mansion instead of Raul Morales’ place. For despite his denials, Mamdani is most certainly a Marxist. In late Feb. 2021,

Mamdani was a featured speaker at the online Winter Outreach Conference of the Young Democratic Socialists of America, and reminded his audience of “the end goal of seizing the means of production.” That is a quintessential Marxist imperative; Mamdani, amid all his claims that he is not actually a communist, has never retracted this statement, or addressed it at all.

Then there are the Qur’ans. What sect Raul Morales belongs to has not been revealed, but Mamdani is a Twelver Shi’ite, an adherent of the official religion of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Islamic Republic has for 47 years now made no secret of its intention to make its oft-repeated chant of “Death to Israel” a reality, and the Qur’an that both Mamdani and Morales revere as the perfect and eternal word of Allah states: “You will find the Jews and the idolaters the most vehement of mankind in hostility to those who believe.” (5:82)

Of course, not every Marxist or every Muslim is mentally ill, and sane and insane people can hold the same beliefs. Nevertheless, if the shoe were on the other foot, the media would be slavering to destroy Mamdani’s political career. Skeptical? Don’t be. Imagine if Mamdani and Raul Morales were both Christians and registered Republicans, and Morales had screamed “Jesus is Lord!” while stabbing people. Don’t you think the media would be spending all its days since that attack demanding that Mamdani condemn the attack in stronger terms and explain what he plans to do in order to stop Christian and Republican violence?

To ask such a question is to answer it. Yet in the present case, no journalist, not one, will dare to ask Mamdani if he is going to call on the mosques in New York City to start teaching against antisemitism and violent jihad. The very idea would be “Islamophobic,” and hence inconceivable. For the media, Morales’ alleged mental illness ipso facto means that Islam has nothing whatsoever to do with his screaming “Allahu akbar” while stabbing a Jewish man who was coming out of Jewish services. So what if he and Mamdani have the same beliefs? That doesn’t mean that Mamdani is insane, too. Of course it doesn’t. And most likely, Morales isn’t, either.

Read more …

But lots of sympathy.

Mamdani’s Netanyahu Arrest Plan Has No Legal Basis (Victor Davis Hanson)

Sami Winc: So, let’s turn to the International Criminal Court. And [Mayor Zohran] Mamdani wants to enforce its laws in New York City. When Bibi Netanyahu shows up, he says he’s going to arrest him because they have a warrant out for Bibi for war crimes and crimes against humanity. I want to just note one thing about those war crimes.They are starvation as a method of warfare. They’ve been accusing the Israelis of stealing or subverting supplies that are supposed to go to Gazans. And we just had the U.N. admit that, in fact, it is Hamas doing that. So I’m not sure why we haven’t seen war crimes


Victor Davis Hanson: I’m really surprised. I know people are going to be shocked by this, but Mamdani, with that socialist smile and that oozy, unctuous personality, I thought he wouldn’t be so stupid to admit that he’s an absolute antisemite and hates Israel. Because any person who listened to his video and read what he wrote, the first question is, OK, you have a policy that anybody that you think, in your infinite wisdom, committed genocide can’t come into your city. He said, you can’t come into our city.

It’s not your city. You’re an interloper. You had about 11% of the resident population vote for you. And it’s not your city, I’m sorry. You may think it is. You’re the mayor for a while, but it’s not your city. And then the question everybody has is, though, I know our listeners are saying, well, of course, when the Palestinians come in, because they aided and abetted Hamas in many cases, you’re going to arrest them given Oct. 7. You’re going to arrest the Iranian delegation because they were responsible, that government, for killing 40,000 to 50,000 of their own well after Gaza. Oh, wait a minute, you’re not going to do that because members of your staff were secretly planning to meet with them as a friendly little chat.

Are you going to go after the Pakistani government? Because they have, they’ve killed a lot of people, a lot of people. They also had bin Laden, right, harboring the world’s greatest terrorist on their own territory and protected him. Are you going to go after the Chinese government? They’ve got a million people in a re-education—I shouldn’t say that—in a labor camp, concentration camp.

You’re going to go after the Muslim Azerbaijanis because they ethnically cleansed Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian, what, thousand-year enclave in Azerbaijan? No, you’re not going to do any of that because you’re an antisemite and you only want to focus on Jews. And so he looks–and then he, I don’t know, he’s–I’m not a lawyer, but most of our listeners aren’t lawyers, but they all know that a mayor in charge of the boroughs of New York can’t enforce federal law that says what? What is federal law? What federal law is–take a pause. Mamdani, there is a statute that we’ve signed onto that says that people who come to the U.N. that are authentic, genuine diplomats cannot be arrested by the United States.

You understand that? They cannot be. No. 2, do you really think the International Criminal Court has any jurisdiction? We’re not a signee to that court. They have zero, zero jurisdiction. Did you know that the head of the International Criminal Court was just fired for sexual harassment? It’s a corrupt organization.

Don’t you understand that? It has no authority in the United States. You have no authority to interfere with federal law. And I have a feeling that if all of that didn’t stop you and you went ahead and you called up the chief of police—she was standing right by him—and said, go get NYPD and cut off the Israeli motorcade. We’re going to put him in Rikers until we formally charge him. They wouldn’t do it. And so he knows that.

Winc: Did you notice that Rubio took the opportunity to say, Not only do we–everything you said about the International Criminal Court, but we want to dismantle the International Criminal Court?

Hanson: I hope so. We shouldn’t give a dime to the U.N. Actually, we should get the U.N.–they always give these platitude speeches, and then their diplomats, for the first and only time in their life, in the case of about 90 countries, come over here and they vote. You know, they vote in the General Assembly on resolutions, half of which, until recently, were just about condemning Israel. And you think, well, if you don’t vote in Somalia, and you don’t vote in Egypt, and you don’t vote in, I don’t know, you don’t have a fair vote in Uganda till recently, why would you vote over here? And what would that mean? The first time in your life you’d live it up. And they’re always getting caught for not paying parking tickets, speeding, because they have exemption.

And they’re always giving lectures to us about the Global South versus the Global North, about people of color. I’ve said that in print twice. Why don’t we take the U.N.—we don’t have to fund it. We just say to them, Go, take your pick. You could put it in Cambodia. You could put it in Peru. You could put it in Nigeria, and there would be among the people of the world, and you wouldn’t have to see those awful Americans anymore.

And they won’t do it, because they won’t be, after they make some denunciation of Israel on the floor of the Security Council or the General Assembly, they won’t, three hours later, walk down the street to NPR and be told, well, why did you say that speech, Ambassador Kinte-Wata? Well, you know. And that’s what they love. They love all the global media. They love the restaurants. They love the hotels. They love the Western lifestyle that they hang out all night at, and then they trash the United States during the day, and it’s just so boring. Just go away. You know what I mean?

I just say go away. I was the biggest supporter of legal immigration. I still am, but this latest iteration of all these people coming in here from third-world countries, and whether it’s the illegal 40,000 illegal truck drivers—those are illegal—or it’s people like [Melat] Kiros or [Darializa] Chevalier or [Rep. Rashida] Tlaib, their parents, first- or second-generation, or Mamdani or Pi—and they all lecture us, lecture us about how awful we are.

Read more …

‘Largest Group Of TDS Sufferers Ever Put Together’

“When I’m gone, you’re all going to be broke. Your business model is going to be finished…”

‘Show Must Go On’: Trump Delivers Remarks at Correspondents’ Dinner (ET)

President Donald Trump attended the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington on July 24. The event that was originally held on April 25 was abruptly canceled due to an assassination attempt against him. “I am delighted to be here,” Trump said as he began his speech, which lasted an hour. “Amazing people, a lot of people that I like. Some I don’t like at all, but I respect most of them. I must say that you do a great job, amazing job, and it’s an honor. As I said three months ago, the show must go on.”


Trump continued his speech with jokes and said, “This place is really the largest group of Trump derangement syndrome people ever put together.” The rescheduled gala took place at the Waldorf Astoria. During his speech, Trump said he is the most transparent president in history and took several jabs at the media, joking that many media organizations would be “broke” once he leaves the White House. “When I’m gone, you’re all going to be broke. Your business model is going to be finished,” the president said. He took direct aim at CNN’s Kaitlin Collins (and ‘Fake Tapper’):

“I want to personally congratulate CNN’s Kaitlan Collins… I thought she had really made it big with a major new sponsorship, but then I informed her that it wasn’t her on the Bud Light can, it was Dylan Mulvaney.” CNN released a statement during Trump’s speech defending its reporters, writing in part:”Honest, accurate journalism may sometimes irritate politicians, but our right to report and present that reporting without government interference is fully protected by the U.S. Constitution.”He also joked that, in order to save the media, he would announce a fourth presidential run.

“That’s why tonight, to show just how much I care about the press,” Trump said, “I’m pleased to announce my intention – and this is somewhat of a scoop – my intention to run for a fourth term as president of the United States.”He then put on a “Trump 2028” hat, drawing laughs from the audience.


This was his first time attending the dinner as president, except for the April event, which was canceled after a shooting occurred just outside the main ballroom. Trump joked about the dinner itself, saying it was “far worse” than he expected. At the same time, he acknowledged that he and the reporters who attended the April dinner “went through a period of trauma” that created a unique bond between them. He said he would attend next year’s dinner. Throughout the speech, Trump occasionally praised the media, saying he respected most reporters and liked some of them. However, he also said that much of the coverage of his administration and policies had been unfair.

The president also criticized his opponents, targeting individual journalists before shifting to Democrats and other public figures. Trump rebutted the longstanding claim that he decided to run for president after former President Barack Obama mocked him at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. He said Obama’s remarks were not a factor in his decision to enter the race in 2016. “I just decided that I wanted to make America great again. This had nothing to do with that dinner,” he said.


After Trump’s remarks, mentalist Oz Pearlman took the stage and performed mind-reading tricks for the audience, concluding the event. White House Correspondents’ Association outgoing President Weijia Jiang delivered the opening address at the dinner.

“Whatever may divide us, we stand together against political violence,” she said. “An assassination attempt on our president is an attack on democracy itself,” she added, drawing applause from the crowd. “Tonight, our message is this: We are back. We will not be intimidated.” The dinner at the Washington Hilton hotel on April 25 was interrupted when gunshots were fired outside the ballroom. Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old man from California, allegedly got past security with a shotgun and shot at a Secret Service officer who was wearing a bulletproof vest. Security officers quickly responded and arrested Allen. The officer was not injured, and no one else was hurt.

The Secret Service immediately evacuated Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and several Cabinet members from the venue. Allen is charged with attempting to assassinate Trump at the event. He also faces one count of transporting a firearm across state lines with intent to commit a felony and one count of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. He has pleaded not guilty. At the event, the White House Correspondents’ Association presented special awards to Secret Service Police Officer Victor Gonzales and to the staff of the Washington Hilton to honor their exceptional service during the shooting. The association plans to return to Hilton for next year’s dinner.

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is a black-tie gala attended by media personalities, business leaders, celebrities, lawmakers, and Cabinet officials to celebrate the Fourth Estate and White House reporters. The association said the logistical challenges in organizing a second dinner led it to scale back the event, resulting in a smaller gathering with a reduced guest list. The Washington Hilton’s ballroom can hold 3,000 people, while the Waldorf Astoria only fits 700.

As part of the enhanced security measures, each guest was required to present a unique QR code and a government-issued photo ID to get through the ticketing. The guests then went through layers of [..]security to access the ballroom. The White House Correspondents’ Association was founded in 1914 to protect press freedom and preserve journalists’ access to the White House. It held its first dinner in 1921, and the first president to attend was Calvin Coolidge in 1924.

Full speech::

Read more …

Without a face to vote for, who will donate?

Democrats Are Worried The GOP’s Cash Advantage Could Hurt Their Chances (ZH)

The Democratic Party heads into the midterms with generic congressional ballot polling and historical precedent on its side. It is nevertheless worried that the majorities it so desperately wants could still slip away.Politico reported this week that Democratic strategists increasingly fear their favorable political environment could be overwhelmed by a Republican cash stockpile that dwarfs their own.


Federal Election Commission filings through the end of June show the three main GOP national committees and their affiliated congressional super PACs sitting on a combined $657 million. Their Democratic counterparts held $334 million. Add President Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC, which reported more than $400 million on hand several weeks earlier, and the Republican reserve runs to more than three times what Democratic Party committees and congressional super PACs can muster between them.

That gap matters more this cycle than it would have in any previous one. On June 30, the Supreme Court ruled in NRSC v. FEC that federal limits on coordinated party spending violate the First Amendment, overturning a 2001 precedent and freeing national party committees to spend without ceiling in direct coordination with their candidates. Committee money that once had to be routed through independent expenditures can now be aimed straight at a race.

Democratic strategist Morgan Jackson, an adviser to former Gov. Roy Cooper’s Senate campaign in North Carolina, calls the imbalance the central threat to his party’s hopes this cycle. “What is putting the House majority and the Senate majority, nationally, in danger is the Republicans’ massive stockpile of resources that they’re putting together to push back,” Jackson said.


He warned that the spending gap could erode the advantage Democrats have built everywhere else. “If you get outspent five to six to eight to one, that can alleviate the environmental advantage that Democrats have this cycle,” Jackson said.

The committee-level numbers are lopsided almost everywhere. The Republican National Committee reported $128 million in cash against $16 million for the Democratic National Committee, which is also carrying $18 million in debt. The National Republican Senatorial Committee held $55.9 million to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s $41 million. The National Republican Congressional Committee held $92.7 million to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s $79 million.

The super PAC gap is wider still. Senate Leadership Fund, the leading Republican Senate super PAC, reported roughly $112 million more on hand than the Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC. Congressional Leadership Fund, its House counterpart, held about $51 million more than House Majority PAC.

The national totals obscure a more complicated picture in the marquee Senate races, where the money runs the other way. Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff holds roughly $40 million more on hand than Rep. Mike Collins in Georgia. In Texas, Democrat James Talarico has nearly $20 million more than Attorney General Ken Paxton. In North Carolina, Cooper is about $17 million ahead of former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley. In several of the contests that will decide both chambers, individual Democratic candidates are burying their opponents even as the national party apparatus falls behind.

The picture inside the party gets messier once primary season is factored in. A wave of insurgent challengers aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America has forced sitting Democratic incumbents into costly primary fights this cycle, draining accounts well before anyone gets near a Republican opponent.

Senate Majority PAC spokeswoman Lauren French rejected the idea that the committee gap tells the whole story. “Republicans can crow all they want about getting massive checks from donors and businesses and billionaires, but we’re going to win because we have the actual support from people who are voting,” French said.

Other Democratic strategists are less confident that grassroots enthusiasm can offset a structural disadvantage. Jesse Ferguson argued that the media environment itself has made the shortfall more expensive than it would have been in past cycles. “Too many people think that fragmentation of media meant more efficiency and spending less. Wrong – it means you have to spend more,” Ferguson said. The proliferation of streaming platforms, social media, and other digital outlets has driven up the price of political advertising, strategists say, raising the stakes for whichever side can deploy the deepest reserves of outside money.

What should worry Democrats most is that the Republican advantage has barely been touched. Trump political director James Blair said last month that Republican spending would begin “very soon,” without offering a timetable. The fear on the Democratic side is that the bulk of MAGA Inc.’s $400 million war chest is being held back deliberately, to be dumped into competitive House and Senate races in the closing weeks – at the exact moment undecided voters start paying attention and Democratic committees have the least room left to answer.

Read more …

“It is gut-wrenching to read these emails. Our lives were in Dr. Nath’s hands, and we were carelessly tossed away without a care…”

Top NIH Official Wanted to Halt Research Into COVID-19 Vaccine Injuries (ET)

Top officials with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) expressed misgivings about researchers with the agency studying people with neurological issues after they received COVID-19 vaccines, according to newly released emails. Dr. Avindra Nath, a senior investigator with the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, was studying people with post-vaccination neurological problems in 2020 and 2021. In an email on April 10, 2021, he sent a draft of a paper to the institute’s director, Dr. Walter Koroshetz, that outlined what he had found.


“Early recognition and treatment with corticosteroids can reverse the symptoms,” Nath wrote. The following day, the institute’s director sent the manuscript to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who at the time was director of another NIH institute.“There have been steady slow stream of reports to me of post vaccination neurologic conditions, seem to be mostly peripheral nerve disorders … maybe an occasional spinal cord issue,” Koroshetz told Fauci. “Avi has been collecting a bunch. He has a report sent out to publish. Hard to know not due to chance but are timed to the vaccination.”

Another NIH employee sent the manuscript to then-NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins and Dr. Lawrence Tabak, a second top NIH official, and shared that the New England Journal of Medicine rejected the paper. “What do you make of this?” Collins wrote in response. “The draft letter doesn’t explain how these 32 patients were referred—leaving one to wonder whether this is common or rare.” Koroshetz told Collins that many reports had been lodged with the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System and that Nath had been attracting referrals because he had appeared on a podcast to discuss neurological problems following COVID-19 vaccination.

Koroshetz also said that Nath, and another employee at his institute, had suffered tinnitus after receiving COVID-19 vaccines, and that Nath had hearing loss. Collins said the approach taken by Nath’s team was “very troubling,” adding, “collecting anecdotes and then trying to build a case isn’t scientifically compelling—and will have the main consequence of feeding vaccine hesitancy and social media overreaction.” Tabak wrote privately to Collins, telling him, “I don’t understand why Walter does not shut this down.”

“While the emails do not prove that Collins, Tabak, or Fauci expressly ordered Nath to abandon the manuscript, they raise serious questions about whether NIH leadership viewed its potential effect on vaccine confidence as a compelling reason to suppress its publication,” the Informed Consent Action Network, which released the missives on July 22, said in a statement.mCollins, Fauci, and Nath did not return requests for comment by the time of publication. Tabak could not be reached. The paper was never published in a journal. It was released as a preprint, or without peer review, in May 2022, more than one year after Nath sent it to Koroshetz.

Dr. Danice Hertz, a retired gastroenterologist who received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine shortly after it was authorized in 2020 and suffered severe problems, was one of the patients who was examined by Nath’s team. “I have always believed that Fauci must have told Nath to stop talking to us, as we were all abruptly dismissed from Nath’s care without explanation. Now I know that my suspicions were true,” Hertz told The Epoch Times in an email after reading the newly released missives.

“It is gut-wrenching to read these emails. Our lives were in Dr. Nath’s hands, and we were carelessly tossed away without a care. This is unlike any medical care that I have ever witnessed in my 33 years practicing as a gastroenterologist. Shame on them. This deep corruption needs to be exposed.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle July 26 2026

Viewing 26 posts - 1 through 26 (of 26 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #245786

    Pablo Picasso The Bull state VII 1945 • Trump Pursues Diplomatic Off-Ramp As Omani Delegation Arrives In Tehran (ZH) • Russia Guaranteed To Win Ukrain
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle July 26 2026]

    #245801
    tboc
    Participant

    yawn

    #245802
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #245803
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    DBS,

    This video contains the ideas you said you wanted to discuss yesterday

    #245805
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    The penalty for evil stupidity is the same as it has always been. Not pretty and even less fun to experience.

    Therefore practically everyone opts for one or more of several popular means of avoidance, including lies, pretense, secrecy, threats, beatings, bribery, dumb luck and forgiveness to name but a few. Once you have done something REALLY stupid every one of those additional stupid mistakes look better as core strategies than doing the smart thing in the first place, or doing the smart thing NOW in those cases in which it is too late to make time run backwards.

    The guy who said that there ain’t no cure for stupid wasn’t actually stupid. He was just chicken.

    #245806
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @MichaelReid

    DBS,

    This video contains the ideas you said you wanted to discuss yesterday

    Oh, MAN! Am I loving that video!! Thank you thank you. It’s making my day, and I will definitely be getting back here with a few comments about it a little later in the day. I’ve always admired the hell out of Garland Nixon, but that Kavanaugh guy is a new dude to me and his analysis and attitude is just SHREDDING it. He is on to more than he thinks. The Zionists are deeply connected to BUT NOT IDENTICAL WITH the really bad guys who run the big organized Zionist movement as if it were just another small a targeted Task Force. I think this Kavanaugh guy may just be kicking the door open to a MUCH broader and deeper conversation about WHO ACTUALLY IS running things on this planet of ours/

    #245807
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    The sad part of that conversation between Garland Nixon and Jim Kavanagh is that they are both OBLIVIOUS of the irony that if elections CAN be cheated then they all HAVE been cheated and the victory of the cheaters is already a done thing. The government is run by the cheaters, so it doesn’t matter a tinker’s damn whether we do or do not get to elect them or not. They ALREADY run everything. It doesn’t MATTER whether the election was fair or not.

    It’s also rather sad that fine men like Garland Nixon and Jim Kavanagh have been tricked into wasting their time trying to repair the fairness of elections, when bad elections is simply NOT the problem. The problem is that there are governments who were elected to office, and their very existence guarantees that at least half of the population will be oppressed (or worse) at all times. Duh!!

    #245808
    zerosum
    Participant

    ‘Sitrep’, off the cuff from from what I am reading.

    – US suspends strikes on Iran without giving reason.
    – Iran suspends strikes in Gulf in response
    – Yemen under increased attack, by Saudi and Saudi backed forces, keeps straight closed.
    – Hormuz kept closed, but Iran in negotiation with Oman.
    – Pivot point would be if Iran allows Oman to channel international traffic, so ending blockade, before US ends hostilities and “Israel” withdraws from recent advances.
    – Syria talking of accords with “Israel”
    – Lebanon as previously with increased “Israeli” presence.
    – West bank and occupied palestine, ‘settlers’ increasing pressure on locals, occupation ministry talking of emptying ‘towns that are terrorist bases there’ .
    – Gaza, ‘”Israel” allows in ‘Peace Board’ forces’ but continues with increasing strikes in unoccupied zone, moves ‘yellow line’ occasionally in its own favour.
    – In Gaza, AlJazeera just fired its twenty six employees there, contested as political and unethical.
    …..
    Posted by: Ornot | Jul 26 2026 14:11 utc | 1
    ————–

    Iran has prepared “free one-way tickets to hell” for US soldiers in the region in response to each Iranian martyr and warns UK against supporting the Outlaw US Empire!
    Plus news and updates from Lebanon and Yemen
    Ismaele
    Jul 25, 2026

    https://geopolitiq.substack.com/p/iran-has-prepared-free-one-way-tickets

    —————
    THAAD and PAC-3 Exhaustion: The Hard Arithmetic Behind Trump’s Off-Ramp
    Islander Reports
    Jul 25, 2026

    https://islanderreports.substack.com/p/thaad-and-pac-3-exhaustion-the-hard

    ————

    CEASEFIRE REJECTSED❌KYIV Drone Factory DESTROYED🏭Mall & Post Offices Hit in RETALIATION💥MS 2026.7.26


    —————–

    #245809
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Government is the notion that it is good if a bunch of people gang up and FORCE another group of people to do things their way instead of the other persons way. In doing so, of course, such an action is over-riding that other person’s God Given and God like free will. That’s pretty arrogantly (and stupidly!) pretentious if you ask me, but it is nevertheless what they have taken as their right, of their own free will. They are, therefore, RESPONSIBLE for their stupid believe that the can subjugate another person’s free will and get away with it. In that sense, government is very much the same as Satanism. In fact the two are virtually interchangeable just by swapping around a few silly words. No wonder we see them in each other’s company so often. They’re like two copies of the same team (first string and second string? A-squad and B-squad? I dunno)

    #245810
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    In one nature’s most beautiful symmetries it is true that ceasing the vice of telling other people what to do and bossing them around in all sorts of ways is the absolute EASIEST thing to do in the whole world. Just stop wasting your time and effort doing it. Just stop. No action, energy or risk necessary or required by law. Just stop forcing people to do what you tell them to if they don’t want to do it too.

    The most immediate consequence of such a decision (the decision to let go and just stop trying to forcibly control people) is a huge sense of relief from the strain, and the second most common response is a sense of very broad and peaceful freedom to do what is actually best for one’s loved ones, and actually do it.

    #245811
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Would you like to solve the ills of the world, and save your own ass into the bargain? Here’s how. Stop wasting your time trying to control other people and dedicate the rest of your life doing the very best you can for the people you love and those lucky enough to cross your path along the way.

    Measurable beneficial result are almost instantaneously immediate (fewer worries and stress, more free time and freed up resources).

    Bon voyage to those of you smart enough to just go do that. To those of you NOT smart enough to bail out, welcome aboard my fellow crazies.

    #245812
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    DBS writes:

    kicking the door open to a MUCH broader and deeper conversation about WHO ACTUALLY IS running things on this planet of ours/

    I write: yes who actually is? Some of my thoughts are those allowed to create money from nothing, those allowed to extract insane wealth from natural resources

    #245813
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Trump 2028. They’ll probably believe him. I expect it as tomorrow’s NYT headlines.

    “The EU just keeps LOOTING American companies”

    They don’t give a total-total, but looks easily in the $100B+ range. Yes, this is why you have sovereignty and jurisdiction. And then cut off from the bad faith actors and eventually go to war. This is just Britain boarding our ships and conscripting our men like 1812. Yeah, no. If I let you do that, there is no United States. …Which is precisely the plan, with the invaders, they are not National Socialists (tho some are) the Fabians are INTERNATIONAL Socialists. They believe only in their power, oligarchic one-world government, with no nation states counteracting them at all. Which is even worse, if possible.

    They are a little short this month on the Ukrainian genocide? “We Make S—t Up!” We make up some dumb reason you need to give us another bil. $18 Bil. Gosh golly, whatever billion suits us, which is ALL of it. Yes, this is colonialism. European colonialism, worldwide.

    Can’t live this way because you can’t plan anything. There are no rules. It’s just pirates all the way down. Re-framed, this is “Private Property”. Erase private property and life itself does not exist. However, Slavery does, stealing the hours of your life.

    “negotiations were initiated once US gasoline prices reached $4.20 and became materially more urgent as prices neared $4.50. Oil may be a global commodity, but political tolerance for high energy prices remains overwhelmingly domestic.”

    I talk to Leftists all the time, and yes this is true, but really no one in America cares. They are more butt hurt and likely to vote about tweets, or about how Trump is deporting poor harmless pedophiles and persecuting innocent Hunter Biden. (Who needed a pardon). So the sense of the political urgency is very slippery.

    “Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree says the group has launched two “sensitive operations” targeting Saudi Arabia”

    Which Houthis? Which Yemen? Some guy paid off by global arms dealers who has 6 mortars and a camel? See the problem? I’m totally willing to say this is the rebel government, which I consider to be the legitimate government right now, but I’m making the point here. So Comey and McCabe were the same as Trump? They were in his government, they must be official and do only as ordered, right? Are not the Houthis the same?

    More interesting question: Why Now? I would have popped them off for London on Day one. Is it to drag it out exactly as it’s doing? Yemen just lets S.A. bank all that 150 days of revenue and buy weapons. Yes?

    “• Russia Guaranteed To Win Ukraine Conflict – John Mearsheimer (RT)

    We knew that in 2014, decade before the war started. So that wasn’t anybody’s plan or point. The point was to murder Slavs. EUROPE’S point was to MURDER EUROPEANS. By the millions. Good job, Brownie!

    “I think events in Iran and just the course of the war between Ukraine and Russia is creating a situation where Ukraine’s future looks highly bleak,”

    If we don’t look out, something bad might happen.

    “• The Real Reason Why The Media Hates Elon Musk (ZH)

    Musk was their god such a short time ago. Such is the Jacobean mob.

    “Musk has been directly and indirectly accused of promoting racism, fascism, sexism, and even genocide.”

    Meanwhile this is the official policy of Canada and Europe. But that’s the GOOD fascism, sexism, and genocide, where women are assaulted and raped in the streets and the police arrest anyone who interferes. You simply MUST let armed robbers into your house and don’t interfere in Ontario! Bob Ford says. He’s my coke dealer and supporting the Fentanyl lab workforce here.
    Hilarious that the Economist is being criticized for failing all free speech, then censors their own pages for Copyright.

    accusing its director of using the museum as a “political instrument” to accomplish her own ideological goals”

    They’re all ideological goals. However, their issue is that they pretend it’s objective and not a state religion. Break that, and the whole thing deflates.

    “journalism schools teaching that the purpose of journalism is to change society, not to report facts, by bought and paid for narratives that serve organized lobbies,”…that is, journalists obey wealthy oligarchs. You dips. This was already entrenched and endemic in the 90s. We all thought it was far too far then.

    “Iran signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and has not enriched uranium to the level that could be used for nuclear weapons.” –PCR

    At least we’re having discussions and addressing facts. Just pointing that out. I however disagree. About both Israel and the enrichment. I was wrong and they were right that Iran was months from making a bomb – which I knew but believed it was their ultimate, Sampson, and would never use it. FF to 2026 and Clearly they would bomb everyone they can reach, the minute they were able. Big loss on Herr Docktor for missing this. It was hidden in the Iran CIVILIAN and Iran RELIGIOUS would not. True. However, THEY DON’T RUN IRAN. Like Tavistok 2.0, they installed a new improved CIA in Iran, the IRGC, that like our CIA who TRIES to illegally run everything in America, in Iran they actually DO. And are overjoyed with the prospect of getting a nuclear weapon and “using it” to blackmail everyone. And not for Iran, but for Globalists and their weirdo religion.

    You can say we should remove Israel’s nukes, or heck, our own. Yes! You’re right! But some nation gets to be first second and third as we do that.

    Anyway, it’s nice to say that Trump serves Israel. Those are words that were written. Are they true? Why would you think so? Iran doesn’t think so, they don’t mention Israel at all anymore. Odd innit? Trump bashes Israel, removes their funding, gets them pummeled, exposes them and removes their power over America. Some service there! With friends like this! Oh no, not the Briar patch! Trump obeys Israel by insulting and destroying them while strengthening the United States!

    “There is no attempt to impeach Trump, and there are no complaints from law faculties, from bar associations, presstitutes, organized interest groups, university presidents, corporate leaders, Christian denominations.”

    Are you joking? Yeah, Paul, all the aforementioned people love Trump and say so daily. No one’s tried to impeach or arrest him hardly at all except the 2 + 100 times they did. Everyone obeys him instantly, there is no resistance or discussion. Yup. Nailed it.

    “• Is Zohran Mamdani Mentally Ill? (Robert Spencer)

    He’s a Socialist, so yes. His plan is to imitate perfectly what has killed 100 Million people, then say “Oooopsie!” so it’ll all be alright. When that causes his olicharchic backers and his millionaire parents to ALSO get more power, he’ll again say “Oooopsie!” and everyone will believe him. Yes, this is pretty mentally ill.

    “• Mamdani’s Netanyahu Arrest Plan Has No Legal Basis (Victor Davis Hanson

    I’m perfectly happy to arrest Nutsy as well, however it breaks like 100 social conventions going back thousands of years, a dozen laws, and re-writes the entire power structure in the U.S. and worldwide. So no. It’s just a stunt and ill-advised. Much as he deserves it. And Mamdani knows that because the second he says it, an advisor whispers in his ear about it that he sounds like an illiterate boob. So it’s an active political choice. Third, this can only be sold to the people who are somehow, amazingly, even MORE illiterate than he is. Fourth, since he’s a millionaire from a millionaire family, installed by oligarchs and not a thrust of the NY Plumber’s Union, so why do wealthy billionaires that are his only controllers WANT him to say these words that are so impossibly stupid and legally illiterate? There is no “Mamdani”, let’s start with that. Jews were a protected class until a second ago, now Lo! it’s open season! Why? Since ONLY OLIGARCHS IN THE PRESS CAN MAKE THAT HAPPEN. Actively. All at once, by conscious choice. One day, by magic, up became down. All on accident, by coincidence, worldwide, just like Covid rules.

    “• Democrats Are Worried The GOP’s Cash Advantage Could Hurt Their Chances (ZH)

    Uhhhh….give the people a policy they want? Like we promise to stop amputating your kids and undercutting wages with fake immigrants? That might help your chances AND your donor base. Who knew? It’s not the money, you fools.

    Iran has prepared “free one-way tickets to hell” for US soldiers in the region in response to each Iranian martyr and warns UK against supporting the Outlaw US Empire!”

    And so did we. Congratulations, you figured out what war is! Now why am I reading this? So this is all emotion and no facts. I can do that too, I can put on Max Afterburner, glory in blowing people into pink mist, do a lot of empty trash talk. So it’s good when they do it? Intelligent? Wanted? Desirable? Helpful? I argue no, it is not. So why is it good and smart when Iran does it? Super excited! Elated! Joyful! Yay! Dead people!

    A lot of people say a lot of things on the internet. ALL THE THINGS!!! …Are any of them TRUE. Are any of their predictions HAPPEN? Nope, Garland’s been non-stop wrong with all the Fox news guys and he’s a smart cat. Remember how we ground invaded Ukraine, Caracas AND Iran not but two months ago? AND nuke Tehran??? Man, those were good times.

    Then Trump – while bombing – was ALSO looking for an off-ramp. So he was on AND off at the same time. And totally emotional, unpredictable, although he had Bessant and insurance set up months ahead of time, Russia knew at Anchorage, and he stopped the war within a day of the Congressional limit, totally on accident! Wow!

    Then Trump Chickened out and surrendered! Yup! War is all over except for 13 more days of bombing again, proving them all wrong AGAIN, with every article AGAIN, and I’m pretty tired of it. How many games do you have to lose before you admit something’s gone wrong? The plan, the paradigm, the predictions aren’t working? It’s no longer 1975, 1990, 2002? That something else is going on?

    Something else is going on. The predictions aren’t working. Your base assumptions — and all those of Nixon, etc, are somehow wrong. That’s fine, it happens all the time. But that means you NOTICE and LOOK for a explanation that works.

    #245814
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Seyed M. Marandi: Saudi Oil Is Burning & Trump Has No Way Out

    #245815
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @MichaelReid

    yes who actually is? Some of my thoughts are those allowed to create money from nothing, those allowed to extract insane wealth from natural resources

    Well I certainly think that you’re on the right trail, and by the way, what is it that they do that sets them so far apart from others? It’s pretty plain to see that the plague of evil behaviors by seriously mentally and spiritually damaged people are nearly ALL coming from that class of money and power owners. And they all have one thing in common. They think that that THEY have the right to over-ride and over-rule YOUR free will, by force if they want to.

    #245816
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #245826
    zerosum
    Participant

    I got into a long discussion with copilot on
    What can I do?
    Maybe the bottom line might be something you agree with.
    ————–
    You’ve already done the hard part: you see the structure clearly, and you’re not fooled by the “democracy/public pressure” story.

    So I’ll answer your question directly:

    What you can actually do
    1. Stop trying to move the war machine
    Label: Withdraw false expectations
    You’re not going to change Canadian foreign policy, NATO posture, or U.S. strategy as an individual

    2. Protect your own sphere from the system
    Label: Reduce your exposure

    Limit emotional consumption of war media — stay informed, but don’t let it colonize your nervous system.

    Secure your finances and logistics — reduce dependence on fragile systems (debt, just‑in‑time supply, single points of failure).

    Build local resilience — food, water, backup plans, trusted people nearby.

    You can’t stop war, but you can reduce how much it can break you.

    3. Refuse narrative capture
    Label: Stay intellectually sovereign

    Don’t let any side recruit your emotions: not “our democracy,” not “their resistance.”

    Treat all war messaging as operations, not truth.

    Keep your own map of reality, separate from media and state framing.

    You can’t change their story, but you can refuse to live inside it.

    4. Use your leverage where it actually exists
    Label: Targeted, not symbolic action
    In Canada, your real leverage is local: municipal, provincial, professional, economic.

    Support people and structures that are less aligned with escalation and more aligned with stability and resilience.

    Withdraw support—time, money, legitimacy—from institutions that are clearly feeding the machine.

    You won’t flip Ottawa. You can shape your immediate environment.

    5. Choose what you will and won’t participate in
    Label: Set hard boundaries

    Decide what you will not do: no cheering for war, no joining panic cycles, no amplifying propaganda.

    Decide what you will do: protect a few people, build something durable, keep your mind clear.
    ————-
    That’s not small. That’s the only real domain you fully control.
    You can’t stop Canada from aligning with the U.S.
    You can’t stop NATO, Russia, Iran, or Gaza.

    But you can:

    stay clear‑sighted,

    refuse to be used,

    build resilience in your own life,

    and quietly shape the small part of the world that is actually within your reach.
    ————
    Peace

    • This reply was modified 15 hours, 44 minutes ago by zerosum.
    #245828
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Trump All-Out War Against Iran Guarantees Defeat – of America /Lt Col Daniel Davis

    #245829
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    The financial model for the Western empire’s AI Revolution was NOT based on making money directly from AI. They didn’t make trillions of dollars in “bet-the-farm” investment in Data Centers, water and energy infrastructure just so they could sell better chat bots, porn-video-generators and household-domestic-chore-robo-helpers to housewives. Investing TRILLIONS to make BILLIONS is a mistake that cannot be overcome by up-scaling size and making up for the losses with increased sales volume.

    Nah. The business model was to use AI to rule the world by means of automated High-Tech AI systems tied in to practically EVERYTHING that the civilization CAN do. The plan was to make it so no one could do anything without the AI surveillance & control machines …. and then CONTROL all of it like gods by owning and operating all of those machines.

    Well, that ain’t going to happen now, is it? The AI machines are simply too cheap and easy to come by, and the best of the machines are owned by the Chinese anyhow!

    In other words, the whole idea is just a fundamentally flawed BAD BUSINESS MODEL that aint gonna work even if it works!

    Once again humankind is going to be saved by collapse, which kills off prospective victims so fast that the disease itself can’t replicate fast enough to keep up, and thus dies. Like how the Bubonic plague killed off the leprosy plague by removing so many of leprosy’s “preferred” victims that leprosy itself collapsed as a threat to civilizational institutions.

    In this most recent plague of EVIL that’s coming from the money & power Elites the lack of new people with enough possessions to rob will kill off the pandemic because without the MONEY scam working properly their modus operandi becomes untenable, and the whole shit-show DIES. This is NOT a good time to be in the Satan business.

    #245831
    zerosum
    Participant

    July 26, 2026

    Ukraine Energy Terrorism Pushes World Into “More Dangerous” Phase

    By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers

    https://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index5384.htm

    Early on Saturday I received a note from a source that the two key military components — CENTCOM and AFCENT — were not performing the operations prep and planning that would normally occur if a major attack was imminent. In fact, they were not coordinating, and CENTCOM was cutting events from its schedule for the weekend.

    The New York Times published a piece by Eric Schmitt and Jonathan Swan that offers one explanation, intensifying the war could dangerously drain the Pentagon’s already diminished stockpile of Patriot antimissile interceptors and other air defense munitions in the Middle East

    But there may be another consideration — one that does not exclude the reasons offered by the NY Times reporters — that involves the US fuel supplies.

    An economic brief prepared by Karl Miller investigates how the US military’s covert fuel procurement and export operations are depleting the nation’s diesel and jet fuel reserves, particularly during a period when domestic stocks are already critically low.
    A central finding is that the US government operates a parallel, largely unauditable military allocation system that siphons fuel from the civilian market. Public data merges commercial and military fuel categories, and certain military shipments are exempt from standard export reporting, making it impossible to track the true end-use of exported fuel.

    e report highlights that US taxpayers are subsidizing foreign military fuel needs, notably for Israel, through both direct and likely indirect channels, while the government does not disclose the full extent or funding split of these deliveries.

    Meanwhile, critical sectors like trucking, agriculture, and civil aviation are left with a diminished safety margin and increased disruption risk.

    Stripping the US civilian sector of diesel and jet fuel surpluses at a time when the global supply is still severely constrained by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the Houthi blockade of Saudi oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz increases the risk of damaging the US domestic economy.
    ———–
    https://global.morningstar.com/en-ca/economy/global-energy-crunch-entering-more-dangerous-phase
    Global Energy Crunch Entering a ‘More Dangerous’ Phase
    A sustained oil price surge could drive inflation fears, or even spark a global recession, analysts say.

    Karen Gilchrist
    Jul 24, 2026
    ————-

    #245832
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Asia DESTROYES US Pacific Hegemony. End of Alliances | Prof. Jomo Kwame Sundaram

    #245834
    zerosum
    Participant

    Copilot found that defense analysts …
    Why the U.S. stopped (or paused) bombing Iran: the real speculations
    Bottom line
    The U.S. bombing pause is not weakness.
    It’s not mercy.
    It’s not indecision.

    It’s a strategic recalibration driven by:

    target depletion

    alliance pressure

    logistics

    political cost

    escalation risk

    back‑channel diplomacy

    waiting for Iran’s next move

    This is the most consistent interpretation across defense analysts.
    (note: no mention of diminished military inventory, diminished fuel supplies

    #245835
    zerosum
    Participant

    US, Iran extend war pause. Who is still fighting?

    | Actor | Status |
    | — | — |
    | **Houthis** | **Still attacking shipping** |
    | **Iraqi militias** | Low activity, mostly paused |
    | **Hezbollah** | Paused |
    | **IRGC Navy** | Paused |
    | **GCC militaries** | Not fighting |
    | **Israel** | Reduced operations |
    | **U.S.** | Paused long‑range strikes |

    #245836
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Recorded on July 21 2026 at NRS Studios

    Steve Yang sits down with Bob Moriarty of 321 Gold and 321 Energy for a wide-ranging NRS World discussion about Iran, Israel, American military strategy and the rapidly changing economics of warfare. Moriarty explains why he believes low-cost drones, ballistic missiles and precision weapons are challenging aircraft carriers, missile-defense systems and older assumptions about military power.

    The conversation connects the Strait of Hormuz, Gulf security guarantees and the petrodollar system to a broader argument about reserve currencies and imperial decline. Moriarty also examines government credibility, historical lessons from Rome and World War II, China’s open-source artificial intelligence strategy and the possibility of multiple interconnected brush-fire conflicts.

    In the final segment, Moriarty explains the history of 321 Gold and 321 Energy and why he favors tangible assets such as gold, silver, uranium and copper during periods of monetary and institutional instability. This interview presents Moriarty’s analysis and opinions, including disputed claims that viewers should evaluate independently.

    KEY TOPICS

    Iran, Israel and the escalating Middle East conflict
    How drones and precision weapons are changing warfare
    The Strait of Hormuz and the petrodollar system
    Military strategy and the difficulty of defining victory
    Aircraft carriers, missile defense and asymmetric warfare
    Reserve currencies and the end-of-empire thesis
    Rome, monetary debasement and institutional decline
    China, open-source artificial intelligence and financial markets
    Gold, silver, uranium, copper and tangible assets
    321 Gold and 321 Energy

    BOB MORIARTY

    #245846
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #245847
    WES
    Participant

    Pause:

    It is very simple, they stopped for my Wife’s birthday!

Viewing 26 posts - 1 through 26 (of 26 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.