Henri Cartier-Bresson Trafalgar Square on the Day of the Coronation of George VI 1937
Everything they've told you about the War in Ukraine is a lie.
— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) October 25, 2026
When Russia "Invaded Crimea" in 2014, why did 9,268 "Ukrainian" soldiers accept Russian citizenship and join the Russian Army?
When Russia "Invaded Ukraine" in 2022, why did 2.9 million Ukrainians flee into Russia? pic.twitter.com/myzfnLD2uq
How did Russia become the West’s eternal enemy? It started in Britain 1840 – Prof Jeffrey Sachs
— Alternative News (@AlternatNews) October 27, 2026
The Brits and Russians had been allies but all of a sudden the Brits decided that Russia was too big, and a potential threat to their Empire.
So they started the Crimean war.
Ever… pic.twitter.com/0ElRmFQTsU
The orange, green, and purple parts were annexed after WW2. Poland wants the orange part back. They were forced to give it up in exchange for German lands to the west.
— Alternative News (@AlternatNews) October 26, 2026
It has never been Ukrainian. pic.twitter.com/2SdtJJyLvg
🚨 JUST IN: Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent confirms Iran is HIDING the worth of the Iranian Rial — he estimates it's **3 MILLION** Rial to $1 USD
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 26, 2026
Total. Obliteration.
"I believe the regime leadership is now HIDING the true value of the Rial. I think it's through 3 MILLION — that's… pic.twitter.com/LbKqG2a2eO
DSA.
• The Real Reason There Won’t Be a Blue Wave in November (Margolis)
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has spent months warning his own party about socialism, and the left has refused to take him seriously. “Our party has a socialism problem,” Fetterman said. “I’ll be the one Democrat that calls it for what it is and not use the euphemism that it’s a big-tent situation.”Read more …
Conservatives have mocked the Democrat Party’s “big tent” rhetoric when it comes to DSA-aligned candidates, and for good reason. The phrase is supposed to signal a broad, welcoming coalition. In reality, it’s meant to justify welcoming radicals as more moderate voices get pushed out. Heck, Fetterman, who is no moderate, is being pushed out of the “big tent” because he only supports his party 95% of the time.Fetterman has also called out the company his party keeps, like Hasan Piker, the popular left-wing streamer who said “America deserved 9/11,” among other things. Now that he has become a liability for Democrats, he has tried to walk back his past comments. Fetterman isn’t buying it, but unfortunately for the Democrats, they haven’t heeded his warning, and the numbers now suggest the trouble has arrived.
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a libertarian-leaning advocacy group, has been tracking voters in the battleground states all cycle. Earlier this month, its organizers spoke with 81,673 voters in Alaska, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Between 9,000 and 10,200 of them answered questions about the DSA. It’s AFP’s final “Americans Unscripted” report before Election Day, and the New York Post got an early look.
Let’s start with the DSA itself.
In September, 50% of respondents viewed the group unfavorably. That number has climbed to 56%. Then consider the broader perception of the Democrat Party. In September, half of respondents said the far left controls it. Now nearly 60% say so. And when asked to choose between personal freedom and free markets on one hand and government control on the other, 82% picked freedom.
Put those together, and the picture is clear. Swing voters in the states that will decide the midterms are turning against the DSA and the far left, and they’re doing it in the final stretch. “Swing voters are souring on socialism — and fast,” AFP spokeswoman Katelyn Bledsoe told the Post. Democrats on the ground seem to sense it. In Michigan, House candidate William Lawrence recently dropped his DSA membership while facing a tough race. Of course, the same survey carries a warning for Republicans.
On cost of living, 45% of respondents trust Democrats more, compared with 36% for Republicans and 18% for neither. Back in August, the GOP led on that issue 44% to 39%. Top forecasters already see Republicans as underdogs for the House and, increasingly, the Senate. That matters because the cost of living keeps topping voter concern lists, from gas prices to inflation.
“Inflation and fuel costs are squeezing my business,” Nick, a contractor in New Hampshire, told AFP. So the opening is real, but it comes with conditions. Bledsoe said the souring on socialism gives Republicans an advantage, adding that “the candidates who show voters a credible plan to bring their costs down are in the strongest position on November 3.” Voters have rejected the far left’s answer. They’re still waiting to hear a convincing one from the right.
In the end, the Democrat Party isn’t rejecting socialism; it’s embracing it, and when the blue wave doesn’t materialize in November, that will be the reason why.
“.. when I’m on the ballot, exactly 49% more people show up..”
“The price of oil is lower than it was with [Joe] Biden and [Barack] Obama, and they didn’t do anything to do with destroying nuclear capability..”
• What I Saw on Trump’s Trip to Mississippi (Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell)
President Donald Trump urged a lively crowd of his Mississippi fans not to “stay home” for the midterm elections, as a Senate race once considered safely Republican has tightened.Read more …
Mississippi is typically among the most reliably red states, but the Cook Political Report last week moved its rating of the race between Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Scott Colom from solid Republican to likely Republican. Trump’s 32-day midterm blitz included a stop in Corinth, Mississippi, on Monday night, just eight days before Election Day.The president urged voters to pretend he’s on the ballot. “The reason is, when I’m on the ballot, exactly 49% more people show up,” he said. Trump’s midterm election tour has targeted states that he won by large margins in 2024 but where Republicans are currently embroiled in closer-than-expected races.
When asked about the race by the Daily Signal, Trump said Hyde-Smith was doing well, but he wanted to ensure she maintained her seat. “I want to make sure she wins,” he said. “She’s a great person, and she’s a great senator. She loves Mississippi. She loves her state.”
I asked @POTUS about Cook Report moving MS from solid R to likely R.
— Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell (@TheElizMitchell) October 26, 2026
"I want to make sure she wins. She's a great person, and she's a great senator. She loves Mississippi. She loves her stat,” he told @DailySignal. pic.twitter.com/XmKBPFT6W8
Trump asked an arena filled to the brim with Republican voters not to neglect voting for Hyde-Smith. “Sometimes when you think somebody’s doing so well, nobody votes,” Trump said. “They all stay home.”Amid rural voters’ discontentment with high prices, Trump defended high oil prices, saying he thought they would go even higher. “We had to do it,” he said of the war in Iran. “It should have been done 10 years ago.” “The price of oil is lower than it was with [Joe] Biden and [Barack] Obama, and they didn’t do anything to do with destroying nuclear capability,” he added.
President Trump spoke to a packed house of enthusiastic fans in MS.
— Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell (@TheElizMitchell) October 27, 2026
He threw hats to supporters as he took the stage. @DailySignal pic.twitter.com/eWoBgwhx3I
Trump continued his midterm tour trend of emphasizing investments in the local economy. “Right here in Mississippi, Toyota is investing $129 million to expand production at its Blue Springs plant,” he said. Trump concluded the rally by contrasting Hyde-Smith and her Democrat opponent, Colom. “He’s a disaster,” he said. “He wants to take your guns away. He wants to open your borders. You must reelect Cindy Hyde-Smith.”
.@POTUS is back in DC.
— Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell (@TheElizMitchell) October 27, 2026
He briefly spoke to the press and told @DailySignal he is not worried about the unrest in Europe escalating.
“That’s an immigration problem. It’s a huge problem. They should have stopped it a long time. And I told every one of them they should do that.” pic.twitter.com/DuoklJlrgv
Just yesterday I saw a Daily Show with Jon Stewart episode that was talking sbout this. And I don’t get it. Trump got into politics to make money? Far as I know he’s losing money he could have made in his line of business. Plus, he’s 80.
About Nancy Pelosi: “..In the 39 years that Granny Boxwine has been in Congress..”
• Shut the Hell Up About Trump ‘Profiting’ From Politics (Stephen Kruiser)
Carrying water for the Democratic Party — especially here in the Year of Our Lord 2026 — is no easy task. Over the years, the Dems’ flying monkeys in the mainstream media have amassed quite a playbook filled with go-to tricks to aid in their propaganda efforts. One of the favorites that I have noticed since my early days of writing about media bias is that the MSM hacks have a very specific list of things that they will only complain about when there is a Republican in the White House.Read more …
Take homelessness, for example. All coverage of the issue pretty much disappears from the pages of The New York Times and the story ideas for the Big Three news broadcasts. As soon as a Republican hits the Oval Office, a visitor from outer space might think that the United States is 95% “unhoused.”Not surprisingly, the level of unhinged Trump Derangement Syndrome hysteria at the MSM sites is worse than ever now that we’re in the final days leading up to the midterms. After not being able to defeat President Trump in 2024 despite the fact that they perverted justice whenever and wherever they could, the Democrats view this as their final chance to really, really have their “GOTCHA!” moment and rebuke him. Trump may not be on the ballot, but he is still in office, so the Dems have essentially been campaigning only against him. When I peruse the MSM digital insane asylum every weekday, it’s all caterwauling about Trump and almost no reporting on individual GOP candidates.
It won’t be a very big flex if the Dems do have a good election, it’ll just be following a historical pattern. Overperforming on expectations with huge gains would be more of a reflection on the Republican Party as a whole. Yes, Trump is the head of that party but, let’s face it, Congressional Republicans haven’t done a lot to help his ambitious agenda. An agenda that is good for the long-term health of the Republic, by the way.
Back to the MSM bag of tricks. Another thing that only gets discussed when the Republicans have the White House is the net worth of the president. One thing that I don’t ever recall getting a lot of ink (I’m old school), is how much money a president was making in addition to his government salary while in office. The Dems are obsessed with that when it comes to Trump. His High Holiness the Lightbringer Barack Momjeans Obama decided to talk about that last weekend while ostensibly stumping for Abdul El-Sayed (Tim covered that here).
For several months now, the nonsense about Trump using the presidency to make money has been high on the Dems’ list of garbage that doesn’t mean anything but can still be used to scare their low-info base. It’s one of their most pathetic reaches yet.
Then-private citizen Donald Trump entered the Oval Office with the highest net worth of any president in history. He was wildly successful in the private sector, which is something almost anathema to Democrats. The reality is that Trump could make a fortune off the interest on a passbook savings account (Are those still a thing?) if he wanted to. Of course his businesses are going to make money even while he’s president.
What the Dem media propagandists are never curious about is how people in Congress and the White House amass wealth just from their “public service.” For example, we’re supposed to believe that Barack Obama increased his net worth by almost $11 million in eight years from book royalties.
The most egregious example, as we all know, is former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who is the Warren Buffett of career politicians. There is an app called Autopilot which is an AI-driven investment platform. You just pick an AI curated portfolio, throw in your money, and let HAL 9000 be your financial guru. Autopilot’s most popular portfolio is called — I kid you not — the “Pelosi Tracker+.”
In the 39 years that Granny Boxwine has been in Congress, no MSM outlet did a deep dive into how she just happened to be just so darn lucky at picking stocks.
Sowing the seeds of class warfare by whining about rich people is boilerplate Dem stuff, especially now that they’re out of the commie closet. However, asserting that President Trump is focused on using his office is patently absurd for so many reasons, but I’ll wrap up with just two.
First, he doesn’t need any more money.
Second, President Trump is focused on what’s best for the United States of America and for ALL Americans. Democrats can’t admit that to themselves because they respond to an evil caricature of Trump that they made up a decade ago. To do what’s best for the country, he has to spend all of his time cleaning up messes that the Democrats have made, and continue to make.
The man doesn’t have any time for a presidential side hustle.
“Hand in hand, Germany and France are steering toward the abyss — with different domestic political goals, perhaps, but with the same fatal outcome.”
And the rest of Europe will follow.
• Hand In Hand Toward the Abyss (Thomas Kolbe)
With massive state demand, Berlin and Paris hoped to escape the debt spiral. But economic data show that, in the end, not even statistical pseudo-growth remains. The pillars of the EU are crumbling amid structural failure.Read more …
Fateful weeks on the bond markets: The rise in French bond yields continues unabated. At the same time, German yields are falling — the first wave of capital flight within the eurozone has begun. Investors are steering toward the supposedly safe harbor of Germany.France’s immense budget problem, the chaos on its streets, its fundamentally misguided economic policy, and the astonishing reform incapacity of the French classe politique are sinking ever deeper into the consciousness of the markets.
The femme fatale of the eurozone’s debt club is threatening the tectonics of the entire EU in these recent weeks. For now, Germany remains firmly embedded as the credit anchor of the common capital market, but France’s shockwaves bode ill: If the trend in French bonds does not reverse very soon, the ECB’s fire brigade will probably be called in to extinguish the blaze.
This is an important lesson for all those who still believe that government debt can solve social problems — or even generate prosperity: State consumption crowds out the private economy. France has made this dish its recurring daily menu.
France’s statism is legendary. With government spending at 57.2 percent of GDP and a tax-and-levy burden of 43.6 percent, the country has succumbed to the illusion that state control can secure prosperity permanently.
France’s economic situation in early autumn is dire, though hardly surprising. Construction is stuck deep in the valley of tears, with a Purchasing Managers’ Index of 39.8 points. In October, manufacturing slipped back into contraction territory, with a preliminary PMI of 49.3 points. Industrial production offers little reason for optimism either: In the third quarter, it was 1.9 percent below the previous quarter. France is being deindustrialized just like its eastern neighbor.
What is actually rising is new borrowing as well as prices: For 2026, the French government now expects a budget deficit of 5.4 percent of GDP; in September, the inflation rate stood at 3.1 percent. Anyone who still hopes that France can spend its way out of the crisis with its own debt hammer now stands as an economic-policy laughingstock. It would be the first time a socialist state transformed its own inefficiencies into an economic triumph.
This insight applies to Germany as well. Meanwhile, the widening divergence in bond markets makes clear that the interests of Berlin and France’s political leadership are drifting further apart.
This is visible in Ukraine policy, but also in joint defense policy, which is probably on ice for the time being. And this will likely remain the case even if Marine Le Pen is elected France’s next president. She has already announced that Germany would have to shoulder larger parts of the EU budget. Given France’s pressing budget problems, this is unlikely to meet with much enthusiasm in Berlin. So there will be no partnership-based overhaul of the EU.
What still binds the two pillars of the EU together, however, is their faith in the welfare state and interventionist economic policy.
The Bundesbank — something the German government will not like to hear — saw the German economy stagnate again in the third quarter after its brief recovery in the first half of the year. No matter how much debt money the central planners let rain down through their green pseudo-economics, the damage they have left in the engine room of the real economy can no longer be covered even statistically by the largest new borrowing in the history of the Federal Republic.
Friedrich Merz and his debt minister, Lars Klingbeil, let the credit pump run at full speed in the first half of the year: The deficits of public households totaled 98.8 billion euros. The political class is charging forward, taking children — and even grandchildren — into debt bondage for its own political failure.
Germany is giving the economically uninitiated a bitter lesson: Government debt does not create growth. It is an expression of an imbalance between the public and private sectors. It fosters a naive belief in technocratic feasibility and a dangerous political megalomania that ultimately makes political fraying into madness possible: We have seen the consequences in migration policy, in the green transformation madness, and in German energy policy. If necessary, monetary policy and its credit pump will fix it — or so the childish thinking goes.
Back on the ground of reality, away from the political cloud of illusion, things look bleak: Between 10,000 and 15,000 industrial jobs are being lost every month. The chemical industry is crumbling, with capacity utilization at a mere 73 percent. Overall, industry has lost more than 15 percent of its production volume since the pre-lockdown era. In this political mode, nothing will succeed anymore.
Hand in hand, Germany and France are steering toward the abyss — with different domestic political goals, perhaps, but with the same fatal outcome: People are fleeing into the superstition of collectivism. They trust the political class rather than summoning the courage to follow Argentina’s example and smash the bureaucracy. In Argentina, 50,000 public-administration employees were dismissed, and the budget was repaired with a primary surplus. And the economy, too, got back on its feet.
Europe — especially France and Germany — needs a free-market injection and, above all, the willingness to make an honest diagnosis of the situation. Only then can we discuss the therapy.
Before you know it, it’s real oil.
It’s 1-2 million barrels per ship. x1,000?!
• US Army Says It Has Helped 1.5 Billion Barrels of Oil Out of Hormuz (OP)
U.S. forces have helped Persian Gulf producers move more than 1.5 billion barrels out of the Strait of Hormuz since the Iran war began, Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), said during a visit to the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday. More than 3,000 commercial vessels have successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz with support from CENTCOM forces over the last six months, the U.S. military said.Read more …
“We continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with our Gulf partners and the shipping industry,” said Cooper. “This visit underscores our strong commitment to continued freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.” American forces have successfully cleared the Strait of Hormuz’s international shipping lanes of sea mines laid by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to the U.S. Central Command.The U.S. military said that the 95% success rate of ships navigating the Strait of Hormuz without incident in recent months is “clearly demonstrating that the United States and regional partners control the international waterway.” Oil flows out of the Strait of Hormuz, and the whole Middle East has recovered in the past two months, according to various tanker-tracking services. Some estimates put the flows at the Strait of Hormuz at already exceeding pre-war levels, excluding Iranian exports.
However, threats to shipping in the area have not subsided. On the contrary, the escalating Saudi-Houthi tensions could disrupt the recovering flows, while Iran has claimed dozens of hits on tankers in the Persian Gulf and in the Strait of Hormuz.
At any rate, the market continues to price in a prolonged disruption and continued inefficient oil shipments, which have hiked shipping costs to record highs, further raising the cost of crude oil for buyers and ultimately, for the end consumers.
Oil prices fell in Asian trade on Monday, but Brent Crude remained above $115 per barrel, and WTI was still above the $100 mark, as hostilities between Yemen’s Houthis and Saudi Arabia, as well as Iranian attacks on tankers in the Persian Gulf, continue.
“.. when the U.S., Russia and China all want the same thing at the U.N. Security Council, they usually get it.”
If the EU have their way, the UN will be led by a globalist.
The US may leave in that case. Seriously.
• Trump Admin Floats Viktor Orban For Secretary-General (ZH)
Viktor Orbán as Secretary-General of the United Nations?Read more …
The proposal was featured in an unexpected weekend Wall Street Journal headline. The publication reports that Trump administration officials are floating the former Hungarian prime minister as UN chief. The WSJ cites some degree of emerging support for this prospect, but it would certainly be met with immense pushback and controversy among many European and other countries. The EU was of course long at loggerheads with Orban frequently during his prior four consecutive terms in office as Hungary’s prime minister, which stretched all the way back to 2010. Most recently, it was a sole Hungarian veto that often held up more Ukraine funding.The WSJ Editorial Board on Sunday wrote in Viktor Orbán, U.N. Secretary-General?… “You read that correctly. Sources from three countries confirm that the Trump Administration has advocated Viktor Orbán for the role of United Nations Secretary-General. The U.S. has encouraged the former Hungarian Prime Minister to enter the race, even bringing him the initial idea. The plan awaits a final decision.” Further, the outlet revealed the following:
“A Trump State Department official concedes that it sounds crazy at first. But Russia and China are believed to be supportive, based on prior conversations with Washington, and the plan would be for Mr. Orbán to be their joint candidate. As officials from the U.S. and a second country told us, when the U.S., Russia and China all want the same thing at the U.N. Security Council, they usually get it.
The State Department official counted eight Security Council votes “comfortably” for Mr. Orbán, and 10 within reach from the 15 council members. Would Britain and France then stand in the majority’s way? Those two are typically cautious in their use of the veto power. Russia has had a lengthy good relationship with Orban, and he has been hosted in Moscow for one-on-one Putin meetings, even during the Ukraine war (the last time was Nov. 2025).
However, there are many countries – especially within the EU as well as among the Global South, which would harbor suspicions of any “Trump pick” as Secretary-General. They already perceive that Washington too often gets its way in term of Security Council vetoes and resolutions, particularly when it comes to protecting allies like Israel.
António Guterres concludes his second and final five-year term in the top UN office on December 31, 2026 – and so the scramble to put forth a replacement candidate is set to intensify in the coming months.
Are they pushing aside other Europeans?
• Finland Readout: Stubb and Støre Hold Telephone Call with Vladimir Putin (CTH)
It will be more interesting to review the official readout from Russia, because as you can see below the readout from Finland and Norway is full of generalized words with no substance about the issues discussed. Finland President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre had a telephone conversation with Russian Federation President, Vladimir Putin. Here is the readout from the Finland/Norway side:Read more …
[TRANSLATED, Via Finland]: “On Tuesday, 27 October 2026, President of the Republic Alexander Stubb and Prime Minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Støre held a telephone conversation with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. The call was a follow-up to the meeting held in Oslo on 20 October. Ukraine was consulted in the preparation of the call.President Stubb and Prime Minister Støre initiated the call to discuss Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine and diplomatic efforts to end the war and promote peace and stability in Europe. Finland and Norway are Russia’s neighbours, and both countries are staunch supporters of Ukraine. The aim of the call was to convey Ukraine’s messages about the upcoming peace talks in Abu Dhabi directly to President Putin.
President Stubb and Prime Minister Støre participated in the call as leaders of their countries, and they did not act as representatives of Europe.mFinland and Norway have always promoted peace and security in their regions. In the call, President Stubb and Prime Minister Støre emphasised that both countries operate in a stable and predictable manner in the Baltic Sea and the northern regions.
The President and Prime Minister emphasised that Finland and Norway will continue their long-term support for Ukraine. Stubb and Støre stressed that the war must end and the negotiations must continue.m “The discussion was direct and to the point. We are Russia’s neighbours. How the war ends will affect the security of Finland and Norway and, more broadly, the security of Europe as a whole. Ending the war requires direct discussions,” President Stubb said.
“War causes enormous human suffering and costs. War leaves its mark on several generations. In the call, we emphasized the importance of de-escalation,” Prime Minister Store said. President Stubb and Prime Minister Støre made a phone call from Helsinki.”
What do Stubb and Støre expect from Putin? He has very little room to move.
• Russian Readout: Vladimir Putin Holds Phone Call with Stubb and Störe (CTH)
We suspected there would be something slightly more substantive from the Russian readout of the phone call between Vladimir Putin, Alexander Stubb and Jonas Störe. You can read the Nordic readout here. Here’s the Russian version: “President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with President of the Republic of Finland Alexander Stubb and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Norway Jonas Gahr Störe at the request of the Finnish and Norwegian sides.”Read more …
“There was an exchange of views on settling the Ukraine crisis in light of Vladimir Putin’s talks with US Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg on October 21 as well as Alexander Stubb and Jonas Gahr Störe’s own recent contacts with Steve Witkoff and Vladimir Zelensky in Oslo. The parties welcomed the agreement to resume trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine, and the United States in Abu Dhabi in early to mid November, intended in particular to discuss ways to ensure the security of both Russia and Ukraine once a complete cessation of hostilities is reached.Vladimir Putin assessed the current situation in the Ukraine conflict zone, reiterating its root causes and emphasising that a just and lasting peace would be possible only if the interests of the Russian Federation are considered in full and without any conditions attached. In addition, he noted the EU and NATO’s confrontational policies which result in prolonging the hostilities. Ensuring security in the Baltic Sea and Northern Europe were discussed as well. In this regard, both the President of Finland and the Prime Minister of Norway reaffirmed the importance of upholding international maritime law and the freedom of navigation.
The President of Russia notified the Finnish and Norwegian parties of the fact that a US-mediated humanitarian operation was now underway in the vicinity of the Russian community of Alyoshki and that a temporary ceasefire was introduced in the Kherson sector of the frontline to make it possible. The three leaders agreed to maintain direct telephone contact in the future. Not everyone is happy about all this direct contact that could lead to the possibility of a permanent ceasefire and direct negotiations toward the ending of hostilities.
Mette and Ulf are not pleased. Apparently, the Danes and Swedes are not happy about all this, well, peaceful stuff being thrown about willy nilly. […] Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen criticized the call, saying it ‘was not coordinated with the rest of us.’ She stressed the importance of European unity in comments to reporters on Tuesday, adding ‘we should be very careful about giving Putin an opportunity that he did not have until a few hours ago.’
, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, speaking from an event in Helsinki, said he had been given no advance notice and held low expectations from the call. He emphasized that his country’s position remained that peace had to be reached on Ukraine’s terms.
All of this is happening after both Russia and Ukraine said a ceasefire in the city of, Oleshky brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump, had begun at 3am local time and was in effect through the morning. Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said it would last until 10.59pm on November 1.Oleshky in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region has been caught in the middle of the fighting since 2022, when it was overwhelmed by Russian forces at the start of the invasion. The population has dropped from about 24,000 to around 2,000 today. A spokesman for Ukraine’s Marine Corps, Pavlo Drogal, told reporters that ‘the enemy is observing the ceasefire’ as of 9am local time. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said there had been no reports of violations.
Peace is the prize!
As we speak, Bibi’s group has it with 57% of votes counted.
• Election Day in Israel (Rabbi Michael Barclay)
Tuesday is election day in Israel, and that is where the focus of the country rests. There are over 12,000 locations for Israelis to cast their votes, and although the votes will be counted quickly, it could possibly be weeks or even months before a coalition government is created.Read more …
But while Israelis vote, the rest of the Middle East is being active in preparing for more war. Reuters released information on Monday that Iran has been sending money to Hezbollah in order to rebuild — over $200 million — and Hezbollah has been redeveloping infrastructure and weapons.Iran continues to act with hubris. They have reiterated that any discussions about nuclear development are off the table until/if/when the United States agrees to their seven-point plan. At the same time, Trump keeps stating that while he seeks peaceful negotiations, he might just as easily choose to destroy Iran militarily, and that he could accomplish that easily.
And with all the different things going on around them, Israelis are demonstrating the path of democracy around the country as they exercise their right to vote. Surrounded by anti-democratic nations; abused by the world; under the constant threat of war, the Israelis again show their commitment to life and liberty. President Herzog phrased it well on Tuesday when he said that the elections are “a true holiday for democracy that no one should ruin,” and “even when we put different ballots in the box, in the end we have a shared destiny in this country.”
When I was in Israel this past summer, someone said, “We are one small country, but one large family.”
May the people of Israel always be protected, and may the world realize the beauty and unity of that family that is Israel.
Chazak u’Baruch
Rabbi Michael Barclay
October 27, 2026
16th of Cheshvan, 5787
The left won because the right was divided?
• If the Election Wasn’t Rigged, Why Is the Loser Fleeing the Country? (Anderson)
On Monday, I said the situation in Brazil — following an almost certainly rigged runoff election in which the little dictator Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pulled off a shocking “win” — was only going to get crazier, and, well, we’re watching that happen in real time.Read more …
To recap, the country held elections earlier this month, and it looked like it was going to be a decent win for the right. Lula, who was running for his fourth term, got fewer votes than his main opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro, and, down the ballot, there were many surprising wins for the right and even other members of the Bolsonaro family.But neither candidate reached the 50% of the vote needed to secure the position, so runoffs were held this past Sunday. Somehow, Lula managed to win with around 4.4 million more votes than Bolsonaro. The numbers themselves were fishy, but they came after a member of Brazil’s highly corrupt Supreme Court ordered voting stations to stay open an extra two hours, moments after some of them had already closed and couldn’t reopen. The particular member of the court who made this call was also Lula’s personal defense attorney back during his own corruption trial.
Bolsonaro refused to give up, but on Monday, while visiting his father, Jair (the former Brazilian president whom Lula accused of plotting a coup and who is currently under house arrest due to health issues), he said federal police stopped him and told him he had 24 hours to turn over his passports. The order came directly from Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the court’s most corrupt member, who has a habit of human rights abuses and jailing political opponents (see: why Jair Bolsonaro is under house arrest) and is currently sanctioned by the United States.
Moraes says it has to do with a money-laundering case, but everyone knows it’s more of the same old leftist corruption. Initially, Flávio said he would cooperate, but news broke on Tuesday afternoon that he (and possibly other members of his family) was on a plane headed to the United States to seek asylum.
If a country is holding free and fair elections, most of the time the loser doesn’t have to GTFO within 48 hours after the polls close. Just saying…
Flávio, who was initially going to challenge the election results and call for an annulment, had backed off from that kind of language by Monday evening and said he would fight other legal battles related to the results. His own party also formally recognized the results, though with some questions. Even so, once the 24-hour deadline came and went, Brazilian authorities canceled his passports. His whereabouts were, at that point, unknown.
According to Spanish reporter David Alandete, “The White House confirms to ABC that the United States will grant visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them to enter U.S. territory.” Here’s more: The State Department will issue visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family and has authorized their entry into the United States, a White House official spokesperson assures.
The statement constitutes an explicit confirmation that Washington has facilitated the entry of the son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his relatives. It does not specify when they entered, what type of visas they will receive, or how long they will be allowed to remain in the country.
While Donald Trump and Marco Rubio never formally endorsed the younger Bolsonaro during the Brazilian election cycle, it was quite clear who they supported. Flávio visited Trump earlier this year and asked Rubio to designate Brazil’s top criminal groups as terrorist organizations. Trump and Jair have also been good friends for years.
A judge quoting Dr. Seuss.
“Judge infuriates Trump by blocking plans to renovate historic DC golf course..”
• ‘I Am Not The Lorax. I Do Not Speak For The Trees.’ (Ryan King)
A DC federal judge extended her block Monday on President Trump’s cherished plans to renovate the East Potomac Golf Links near the White House, prompting a furious tirade from the commander in chief. US District Judge Ana Reyes, a Joe Biden appointee, barred the administration from taking down or otherwise harming additional trees on the 36-hole course and mandated a 10-day notice before pursuing any “irreparable modification.”Read more …
“Rarely, if ever, has the United States Department of Justice urged a federal court not to believe the sitting President,” Reyes wrote in a scathing, 70-page ruling. “This started as a case about golf. That good walk spoiled.“But it has become much more,” she went on. “It now forces the Court to reconcile assertions by President Donald J. Trump with the sworn testimony of multiple government employees and the argument of senior Department of Justice attorneys. This morass of different accounts.”Trump blasted the 10-day notice period as an “unconstitutional request” by Reyes and vowed to challenge her ruling. “To have to give advanced notices to a judge who has no expertise in Golf, Architecture, Landscaping, Construction, or anything else having to do with building such a World Class Project, is not fair, appropriate, or Constitutional,” he fumed on Truth Social as he flew back to Washington from a pre-midterm campaign rally in Mississippi.
“In its current form, the Course is extremely dangerous to play, in that the narrow and nondescript fairways are far too close together, leading to a constant barrage of people being hit with wayward shots.” The president, who has publicly crowed about winning multiple tournaments at his own golf clubs, further insisted that Reyes “has absolutely no right to hold up this very important and beautiful Project.”
On Oct. 18, Trump unveiled his favored design for East Potomac, which sits on a man-made peninsula south of the Jefferson Memorial, and declared that it would be shut down for 15 months beginning Nov. 15 to transform it into “one of the Best and Most Spectacular Golf Courses anywhere in the World.” The president’s preferred design, by noted golf course architect Tom Fazio, would create a single 18-hole championship layout.
Critically, the proposed changes appear to eliminate a network of trails through the property, which are frequented by runners and bikers and have been used as part of the course for the Marine Corps Marathon. The Fazio design has triggered litigation from the DC Preservation League, among other plaintiffs. In May, Reyes ordered the Trump administration to give notice of plans to cut down more than 10 trees. On Oct. 9, the White House notified the court of plans to cut “up to 529 trees.”
Following an emergency hearing, Reyes ordered work on the course to cease until Monday while she weighed next steps. “The Court earlier stated, ‘I am not the Lorax. I do not speak for the trees.’ The Court still does not speak for the trees. It speaks only for the rule of law,” Reyes added in her Monday order, referring to the classic character created by children’s author Dr. Seuss.
Longtime friend of TAE, John Rubino.
• Perfect Storm for Banks – And the World – John Rubino (USAW)
Analyst and financial writer John Rubino has a new warning about the financial health of the global economy, and it’s not good. Look no further than the most recent revelations of money problems at some of the biggest banks in the world. Rubino calls what we are facing is the “Perfect Storm” for banks. Rubino explains, “There are a lot of bad things happening in the banking sector right now kind of all at once. So, you do have the potential for a perfect storm. I’ll just go through a few of them. First of all, banks in the US own $4 trillion to $5 trillion in US government paper . . .. They use Treasury bonds as their safe asset.Read more …
When interest rates go up, the price (or value) of the bonds goes down. This means there are a lot of unreported losses on bank balance sheets. . .. If those things find their way into earnings reports, which they will, then you have to count the losses. That is scary for the banks because they will have to report losses, and that spooks the depositors and you get bank runs. That is just there waiting to happen. Then, there are the subprime auto loans that are going bust at an accelerating rate. . .. That’s $1.7 trillion or so the banks have to worry about.Then, there are office buildings, and it’s kind of the same thing. Office buildings are losing value. . .. So, banks are looking at more unreported losses there. . .. The really big one is the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. It needs massive amounts of new capital in order to build the new data centers. Private credit companies have financed this . . . and the big banks financed the private credit companies. So, if the AI bubble bursts, the big banks will be on the hook for a lot of that debt. Wherever you look, the banks have a lot of unreported losses sitting out there waiting for them to become reported.”
But it’s not just the banks facing a ‘perfect storm.’ It is countries like France, where communism and Islam have joined forces in the so-called “Islamo-Leftist Green-Red” movement. These Green-Red “protests” are in their second month. Do you think this destructive violence is good for the France banks or their economy? France has just had a credit downgrade, and if France fails, it could take down the Eurozone and maybe the global economy. Rubino says, “They are illustrating the validity of the saying ‘import the third world and become the third world.’ They are just not France anymore. Most of Europe has varying degrees of the same problems. Europe is not that far away from becoming a nuclear armed caliphate, which creates all kinds of problems for the US.”
Meanwhile, the problems in France have already spread to the rest of Europe, and Rubino points out, “Europe was a bigger economy than the US, or at least it was. When you have trouble in an entity that is that big, nobody escapes the fallout. The European crisis is a global crisis.”
Rubino contends, “The only way they can survive as a culture is to have a civil war and round up people who are never going to assimilate and deport them.” They want to do the same “Islamo-Leftist Green-Red” movement in the US after the midterm elections that is currently happening in France.
Rubino also does not worry about the recent sell off in gold and silver prices. He thinks this is just a price pullback in a much larger precious metals bull market. Nobody is going to be able to pay back any of the huge global debt accumulated by almost every country on the planet. Gold and silver cannot default, but bonds surely can.
Full title: “DOJ Unseals James Comey Criminal Information (Indictment) Surrounding Leaks to Media and Violation of Espionage Act..”
• DOJ Unseals James Comey Indictment (CTH)
The Justice Department has brought a third criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey, charging him with leaking classified information about government surveillance techniques to The New York Times in 2016.
The Dept of Justice has unsealed a superseding ‘information’ filing with the court that was originally sealed on October 5th when it was filed with the court. The criminal information was filed October 5th because the ten-year statute of limitations was close (event date October 5, 2016) and the DOJ wanted to toll the statute, permitting prosecution of James Comey. {SEE pdf HERE} Comey is notified about potential charges stemming from the information as filed.Former FBI Director James Comey and his attorneys were notified by the DOJ on October 9, 2016, that an information had been filed on October 5th. Lawyers representing James Comey then asked the court to dismiss the case; however, in the DOJ response to the Comey motion the details of the violation are laid out.
The Court records unsealed yesterday show federal prosecutors filed two felony charges against Comey October 5th in connection with a media leak. The charges stem from a Times article about Yahoo adapting its spam filter to accommodate surveillance requests from the FBI.nnWhether the indictment succeeds or not (dual-justice DC trial issue), former FBI Director James Comey is going to have to pay money to defend himself.
WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (Reuters) – The US Justice Department is attempting to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey for a third time, the latest case accusing him of sharing sensitive national security information in 2016, according to court documents made public on Monday.The case was revealed in a court document known as a “criminal information” that the Justice Department said it filed to stop the 10-year statute of limitations on the offense from expiring earlier this month. The document filed in Washington federal court charges Comey with transmitting and conspiring to transmit national defense information. It alleges he shared classified information with a reporter from the New York Times in October 2016.
Comey said in a video on Instagram that “they’re back again” and referenced the Justice Department, but did not provide further details. “I’m still innocent,” he added. Comey’s lawyers have already asked a judge to dismiss the case, arguing it is legally improper. “I think he’s a dirty cop,” President Donald Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, when asked about Comey. “I don’t know much about it,” he said.
The new case adds to the legal fights facing Comey, whom the Justice Department has already charged twice, accusing him of lying to Congress about media leaks and threatening Trump in a social media post. A judge dismissed the false statements case, while the threats case remains pending.
RFK: "There's five hundred million Arabs in the world. And yet they don't produce science. They don't win the Novel Prize. They don't win the Fields Prize. They don't win the Wolf Prize. They don't produce literature." pic.twitter.com/30hkHvfTuA
— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) October 27, 2026
The Bolshevik Revolution was the greatest human slaughter of all time. Through starvation, torture, executions and gulags, the Bolsheviks persecuted and exterminated nearly 66 million Christians.
— Ryan (@forbiddenmerch) October 27, 2026
The Bolsheviks were funded by jewish American bankers Jacob Schiff and Paul…
🚨 ELON MUSK: "This election coming up in Germany is incredibly important. It could decide the entire fate of Europe, maybe the fate of World.
— Alexs James (@Alexs_jame) October 26, 2026
It is very important to talk to your friends and family and convince them to consider voting for AfD." pic.twitter.com/iOA2qj7e5y
With the @SaveEuropeAct we succeeded in uniting and mobilizing patriots across Europe behind a common goal in an unprecedented way.
— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) October 26, 2026
Now we’re turning that into a permanent organization dedicated to the protection of our ethnocultural continuity.
We want to be the #1 NGO native… pic.twitter.com/j3YjxQvLJF
Here's somebody explaining how the economy works.
— Richard Werner (@scientificecon) October 26, 2026
Great journalist and broadcaster, by the way, Ross Ashcroft, RIP, interviewing me around 2015. https://t.co/68dgOWlOLN
Also, who still remembers that back in February, Anthropic refused to let the Pentagon use Claude for war—and the left cheered them as heroes?
— Skscartoon (@skscartoon) October 26, 2026
Now the same people are attacking Elon for doing the same thing, only this time people are actually dying.
The double standard clearly… https://t.co/ZvLkJksaQP pic.twitter.com/EoWAeJ3At2
Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.
Home › Forums › Debt Rattle October 28 2026