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Raúl Ilargi Meijer

Debt Rattle November 6 2026

Nov 062026
 
 November 6, 2026  Posted by at 9:27 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  31 Responses »


Edouard Manet Portrait of Emile Zola 1868


• Mission Accomplished – As Expected, Gas and Diesel Prices Begin Dropping (CTH)
• Gen. Flynn to Trump: The Time for Excuses Is Over (Maureen Steele)
• The Democratic ‘Civil War’ Is Over. The Crazies Won. (Rick Moran)
• “Lawyer Up”: Democrats Prepare to Unleash Political Rage in Congress (Turley)
• Harmeet Dhillon Resigns From DOJ (JTN)
• Ukraine Arrests Woman Who Exposed Azov Battalion’s ‘Torture Chamber’ (RT)
• Did Israel Lose The US Midterms? (RT)
• How Zionism Brought Trump to Ruin (Alexander Dugin)
• A New Yalta? Why the EU Fears a Putin-Trump-Xi summit (Ryumshin)
• The Pope of Rome Meets ‘The Poet Laureate of Rock and Roll’ (Robert Spencer)

 

 

https://twitter.com/AdamMoczar/status/2118098664421781530?a=_5vQpViYrklt0aU2aKw&s=20

 

 


“.. Democrats will now take credit for the stunning economic growth that President Trump has seeded for the past several years.”

• Mission Accomplished – As Expected, Gas and Diesel Prices Begin Dropping (CTH)

In addition to what we previously outlined in the post midterm prediction two months ago, the price of gasoline and diesel fuel has begun dropping quickly. {GO DEEP} This downward price pressure will continue through January, eventually highlighting just how much financial manipulation via speculative trading was behind the price.


You can actually watch/see the prices dropping via GAS BUDDY Here. Most of the price increase was driven by market manipulation designed to influence the U.S. political outcome.The western market ‘justification’ per se’ was the Iran war and the oil disruption from the Strait of Hormuz, but that’s not what drove up the price. The timing of the drop tells you the story that many deniers maintained for the past several months.

Additionally, we can now watch as Zelenskyy stops targeting Russian oil refineries, again removing one of the justifications that was being used by the “market speculators” who were intentionally driving up the price. Zelenskyy will justify the sudden shift in drone targeting by using the ever-present, and always Machiavellian, magnanimous explanation.

As the Ukraine and Russian teams meet with U.S. intermediaries in Abu Dhabi next week, Volodymyr Zelensky will claim his instruction to stop targeting oil refineries shows his commitment to a ceasefire and peace talks. However, if you have watched events closely and tracked the narrative and the assembly behind it, you will see the truth and timing behind events.

There is no longer a need to target refineries because the energy market speculators are going to dial back the upward pressure and allow prices to drop. Vladimir Putin was correct when he said, “How, in fact, is the price of gas formed on the European exchanges? It is not determined by producers, but by exchange traders.” {Go Deep}

People are only now just beginning to realize what folks like you and me have been outlining for months, this energy crisis was a justification for upward price pressure. There is no ‘free market’ factor in this system. The output never changed but the prices skyrocketed; the ‘speculators’ made billions from the manipulation, the energy companies banked the profits and the geopolitical stakeholders benefited from the political consequences.

Accepting this reality is why we were able to predict the exact moment when fuel prices would begin a precipitous drop. The reality is that ‘western market prices’ are not an outcome of supply, demand or even availability or production capacity. Western market prices are determined by speculators, traders and regional benchmarks created by “independent agencies.”

Remember those pesky housing loan bond rating agencies, Standard and Poor’s and/or Moody’s during the lead-in to the 2008 financial crisis. That type of rating ‘independence’ is akin to the benchmarks of these regional independent agencies within the energy markets; which is to say, they are not independent at all – they are part of the manipulated western financial system that determines ‘market pricing’.

Behind that curtain are the traders, speculators, ideological banks and financial systems who create the finance system for the energy market. Want to stop oil exploitation, change the lending requirements to favor windmills and solar panels etc. Not coincidentally changing these lending rules and regulations was Mark Carney’s former job. Does that sound like an open market approach?

Thus, when you really understand how this pricing is structured you begin to realize the price of diesel has nothing to do with the supply of it and the price is more controlled by those who wish to generate financial -or political- outcomes from it. (read more)

But wait, there’s more….

The sick and twisted part of what is coming. The part that is going to gnaw at your gut (and Trump’s), is that simply due to timing leftists and Democrats will now take credit for the stunning economic growth that President Trump has seeded for the past several years.

As the speed of the revitalized U.S economic system takes off in ’27, Democrats will take credit for it, pointing back to ’25 as terrible, reminding everyone about the “affordability crisis” now falsely attached to Trump, and taking advantage of an abundant economic landscape to take credit.

This will annoy the f**k out of Trump, and by extension the intellectually honest voters who well understand exactly how the MAGAnomic policy seeds were planted.

[SIDE NOTE – Remember, leftists never create anything. Their skillset is in exploiting the success created by others and tearing down the policies that make it possible. Democrats do not create value in anything. They are, by nature, opportunists to extract revenue from the value created by others.]

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“After Action Review, or AAR “

• Gen. Flynn to Trump: The Time for Excuses Is Over (Maureen Steele)

There is an old military truth that Washington would do well to remember: the battlefield does not care how convincing your excuses are.


You can blame the weather, the terrain, faulty intelligence, inadequate resources, or the incompetence of your subordinates. You can surround yourself with people who assure you the battle plan was brilliant and the enemy simply got lucky. But the casualties remain. The territory is lost. And no amount of explaining changes the outcome.

Following the November 3 elections, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, President Trump s former national security adviser, published an open letter urging the president to confront the political aftermath with something Washington has never been particularly good at: an honest assessment of its own failures.

Flynn invoked a military practice known as the After Action Review, or AAR. It’ s a disciplined examination of what was supposed to happen, what actually happened, why the two differed, and what must change before the next mission. It is not designed to preserve anyone s feelings. It is designed to prevent the same mistakes from happening twice.

Imagine applying that standard to Washington. Imagine the president, his cabinet, congressional leadership, and political advisers sitting around a table without cameras, publicists, or carefully rehearsed talking points. No one gets to blame the media. No one gets to hide behind party affiliation. No one gets to confuse good intentions with measurable results.’ Instead, everyone must answer four uncomfortable questions.

What did we promise? What did we deliver? What did we fail to deliver? And why? Flynn’s first recommendation was straightforward: acknowledge the failure and own it.There is a difference between explaining a defeat and explaining it away. The first requires evidence and introspection. The second requires only a convenient scapegoat.

Certainly, individual candidates, local issues, and campaign strategies matter. But when voters deliver a broad political rebuke, leadership must examine more than the shortcomings of everyone else. And that examination must begin with the promises that brought Trump back to the White House. Americans did not vote in 2024 merely to change the name on the Oval Office door.

They voted with expectations. Lower prices. Border security. Government accountability. Less Washington corruption. An end to unnecessary foreign entanglements. A government that remembered the people financing it. Some promises have been addressed. Others remain unfinished, disputed, or overtaken by events. The administration owes Americans a clear accounting of which is which.

Consider foreign policy. Trump campaigned on ending wars and avoiding unnecessary conflicts. Yet Americans are now confronting the consequences of another prolonged military engagement involving Iran. Supporters may argue that intervention was necessary. Critics question its objectives and costs. Those questions deserve answers, not slogans.

The same applies to affordability. Americans were promised economic relief, but families still measure prosperity at the grocery store, the gas pump, and the kitchen table. A favorable economic statistic means considerably less to someone who cannot afford the mortgage.A political promise is not fulfilled simply because a press release says it is.

Perhaps the most revealing portion of Flynn’s letter concerns the president’s inner circle. Flynn cautions that the very people Trump relies upon may themselves be part of the problem. Power has a peculiar way of changing the conversations people are willing to have with you.

The higher someone rises, the more carefully others choose their words. Disagreement becomes disloyalty. Criticism becomes betrayal. Uncomfortable truths are softened until they are barely recognizable. Psychologist Irving Janis explored this phenomenon in his work on groupthink` , examining how the desire for consensus can undermine sound decision-making.

A president needs advisers willing to tell him when a policy is failing, a strategy is unsustainable, or the public has stopped listening. Not because they oppose him, but because they take their responsibilities seriously. Abraham Lincoln repeatedly replaced military commanders during the Civil War. John F. Kennedy’s administration examined its disastrous Bay of Pigs operation and reconsidered how national security decisions were made.

Neither president was immune to mistakes. Neither could afford the luxury of pretending mistakes had not occurred. And neither can Donald Trump.

Read more …

“The Democratic Party Civil War is over. The war for America now begins in earnest.”

• The Democratic ‘Civil War’ Is Over. The Crazies Won. (Rick Moran)

“If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere,” goes the Frank Sinatra classic, “New York, New York.” For socialists, that adage came true on election day in a big way. Five House members who are either DSA or DSA-aligned will sit in the august halls of Congress next January.


Even if Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) candidates didn’t win, they didn’t embarrass themselves either.DSA endorsed 25 candidates for the House. And while he claims he’s not a DSA member, newly-minted Senator Abdul El-Sayed was able to win the demographically diverse state of Michigan with a decidedly pro-socialist agenda. What’s going on?

It’s tempting to read far too much into the results. Democrats are already proclaiming “realignment” is upon us. Not so fast. Let’s have a couple more elections, including a national election, before using the “R” word. Meanwhile, the radical Left, which has virtually taken over the Democratic Party, is claiming a mandate to govern. The leadership of the party doesn’t represent the heart and soul of Democrats, but they still run the show.

That’s the biggest problem facing Democrats. The civil war is over, but the old guard refuses to step aside. “Allies of the party’s leaders privately say that an insurgent left-wing has unnecessarily sucked time and money into races that should have been easier for Democrats, to the detriment of other candidates,” says The Wall Street Journal. “Progressives say the party’s establishment isn’t doing everything possible to help them win, according to people familiar with the conversations.”

If that argument sounds familiar, it’s exactly the same argument that MAGA is making about the GOP establishment. “Both factions want a Democratic Senate, and winning might soothe the acrimony,” adds the Journal. “But whatever the outcome, Tuesday’s results are poised to accelerate an internecine battle for the future of the party.”

Both parties are likely to make incorrect assumptions about their respective parties going forward. Republicans will assume they weren’t “MAGA enough” and believe a stronger dose in 2028 will win them back the House of Representatives. Democrats will look at several races and tell themselves they could have swept the table if only the leadership wasn’t going behind their back to the press and bad-mouthing them.

Both parties are trying to create a new math where you have addition by subtraction. “If only we could get rid of the squishes and put some real MAGA he-men in charge, we’d never lose another election.” The radical left, as is typical of leftists worldwide, wants to initiate a purge that would bring about a socialist paradise in America.

The recent bloodbath in Michigan, where former Democratic primary candidate for the Senate, Rep. Haley Stevens, endorsed Republican Mike Rogers for the office, sounded alarm bells for Democrats. But it didn’t hurt El-Sayed in the slightest. He won by 400,000 votes.

All the energy is coming from the hard left. Most of the cash is coming from the hard left. And most of the support among rank-and-file Democrats is with the hard left. The Democratic Party Civil War is over. The war for America now begins in earnest.

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“Pete Hegseth will likely be the initial target. I am told that there were working groups on the Hill on the expected agenda after taking power. Hegseth appears to be the favorite for impeachment.”

• “Lawyer Up”: Democrats Prepare to Unleash Political Rage in Congress (Turley)

Within minutes of the Democrats retaking power in the House of Representatives, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the expected chair of the House Oversight Committee, just posted a menacing two-word message: “Lawyer up.” Across the country, far-left politicians and pundits immediately demanded a spasm of investigations and impeachments as soon as they assume control of both houses.


Like a nation of Madame Defarges, activists are eagerly knitting the names of targets into the lists of the walking dead, starting with Haley Stevens, who decided to test the “big tent” claims by splitting her ticket to vote against Abdul El-Sayed. Various sites are running lists of targets as influencers such as Hasan Piker is posting on “WE’RE GONNA PUT YOUR ASS IN JAIL EVERYONE GET MORE WOKE RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The conditions on the Hill are only likely to make such rage politics more appealing with the new Congress. Despite the large margin secured in the House, it is not enough to overcome a veto requiring two-thirds of both houses. While impeachment also requires a two-thirds vote for conviction, investigations will be a delivery item to offer the base as proof of action in the deadlocked conditions that will unfold on the Hill.

The most immediate likely target will be Stevens, with many demanding her expulsion from the Democratic caucus. She will certainly be denied plum Committee appointments. She is now an object lesson to others not to stand in the way of the mob.

On impeachments, Pete Hegseth will likely be the initial target. I am told that there were working groups on the Hill on the expected agenda after taking power. Hegseth appears to be the favorite for impeachment. I am told there is some division on seeking a third impeachment of Trump, though the base is unlikely to be satisfied without such an effort. Chuck Schumer does not appear as eager to take on such a trial but does support “corruption investigations.”

The Democrats ran on fighting corruption and will now work to prove the point. They will have to fulfill the narrative and parade a line of targets before these Committees. Pundits like Jennifer Welch have even demanded calling in Barron and Tiffany Trump in this cathartic crackdown.

What is clear is that a tsunami of subpoenas will follow, and it will be a bonanza for lawyers in Washington. At the same time, the Justice Department’s investigations into the Alaskan decoy scandal and the Omar matter will also continue.

Of course, little grows on scorched Earth. The next few months are likely to see a sprawling investigation effort in the House Oversight and Judiciary committees. While there is room for compromise on some legislation, it is unlikely that such effort will satiate those with unrequited rage who will now have the power of both houses of Congress.

Read more …

The first of many. Impeached or replaced. Trump needs battle-hardened troops now.

• Harmeet Dhillon Resigns From DOJ (JTN)

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon resigned on Thursday.Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed her resignation in a social media post, saying “[t]he Department is grateful for her dedicated public service, and we wish her every success in her future endeavors.”


Her resignation follows major Republican defeats in the House and Senate and amid expected shake ups in personnel at the top levels of the Trump administration. During her tenure, she oversaw a litany of lawsuits, many of which targeted universities over their admissions practices and policies on antisemitism. Prior to serving in the DOJ, she mounted an unsuccessful bid in 2022-2023 to lead the Republican National Committee (RNC), but lost out to Ronna McDaniel.

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The notorious neo-Nazi-linked unit has admitted to holding at least 26 men inside a house outside of Kiev..”

• Ukraine Arrests Woman Who Exposed Azov Battalion’s ‘Torture Chamber’ (RT)

A Ukrainian court has ordered pretrial arrest without bail for the woman who raised allegations of torture at a facility in Kiev operated by the notorious neo-Nazi-linked Azov unit. The scandal erupted on Monday after allegations emerged that dozens of men were being beaten and held for ransom at a private house outside Kiev. Furious relatives and local residents gathered outside the property, leading to clashes with the authorities.


Valentina Molodaya arrived at the house in an ambulance and livestreamed herself pleading to be allowed inside to examine men she claimed were being held there in appalling conditions. At a pretrial hearing on Wednesday, Kiev’s Solomiansky District Court ordered Molodaya held for 60 days without bail. She is suspected of obstructing military activities, disclosing military locations and organizing mass unrest.

Molodaya denied accusations of organizing unrest and claimed that she is a medic who came to the house after being tipped off about a man who had allegedly been taken from hospital after surgery and beaten while held at the property. However, prosecutors are calling Molodaya’s qualifications and motivations into question, accusing her of being paid to stage a provocation.

She has also been added to the notorious Mirotvorets website – which publishes personal information on people it considers “enemies” of Ukraine – as an alleged “professional provocateur” and is accused of taking part in Russian “information campaigns.” Despite early claims by Ukrainian officials that only two men were being held inside the building, an Azov representative has since acknowledged that at least 26 “mobilized men” were staying there.

The building is a “temporary deployment site” for Azov’s 1st Corps, which admitted that at least four of the men held inside were injured. All four were “detained for going AWOL,” it claimed. Many more such facilities are scattered across Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky’s chief-of-staff, Kirill Budanov, admitted to enraged Ukrainians at the scene of the protest on Monday night.

Azov, which was formally incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard in November 2014, has previously faced allegations of operating torture sites in Mariupol and elsewhere in Donbass. Between 2014 and 2021, Ukrainian forces arbitrarily detained an estimated 2,300 people and subjected around 1,500 detainees to torture or ill-treatment, the UN human rights office reported in 2021. Ukraine’s SBU and nationalist “volunteer battalions” were among the most prevalent perpetrators, it said.

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“President Trump has paid a heavy price for joining Benjamin Netanyahu’s war on Iran ..”

• Did Israel Lose The US Midterms? (RT)

The view from Washington is clear: President Donald Trump’s decision to wage war on Iran cost the Republican Party the midterm elections. RT looks at how Benjamin Netanyahu’s war became Trump’s problem and whether Israel will bear any costs.


The Republican Party suffered an unequivocal wipeout in Tuesday’s midterm elections, handing Democrats their largest House majority since Bill Clinton entered the White House in 1993, along with a majority of at least ten seats in the Senate. Democrats flipped Senate seats in Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kansas, Iowa, Ohio, and Maine, while Trump-backed gubernatorial candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Greg Abbott lost in Ohio and Texas respectively – states Trump won comfortably in 2024.

All of this is a dramatic about-turn from 2024, when Trump and the GOP won a decisive mandate after promising to lower costs and keep the US out of foreign wars.

Did Israel cost Trump the elections?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House five times between Trump’s inauguration and the start of ‘Operation Epic Fury’ this February. The Israeli leader consulted Trump’s closest neoconservative allies, among them the late Senator Lindsey Graham, for advice on how to persuade Trump into war with Iran, and when the war began, an army of pro-Israel podcasters and influencers reassured Trump’s base that it would be easily won and would have no impact on the midterms.

“I think in the midterms this will be kind of a mild footnote,” conservative journalist Will Chamberlain predicted in April, two months into the war. “Whatever happens in the midterms, it doesn’t appear that Iran’s going to drive anything one way or another,” pro-Israel radio host Mark Levin told podcast host Ben Shapiro in September.mShapiro, who like Levin has spent years lobbying for war with Iran, claimed that Trump’s unpopularity in the runup to the elections was “not because of this stuff.”

Trump entered the war with no clear victory conditions or exit plan and, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, at the direct behest of Israel. Although the war is the least popular American military adventure since Vietnam, Pew Research ranked foreign policy the sixth-most important issue among midterm voters, with the economy in first place. Trump and the GOP could likely have survived an unpopular war had the closure of the Strait of Hormuz not driven gasoline prices to record highs, undermining his campaign trail promises to reverse the sky-high costs of the Biden years.

What’s the view on the right?
To many in Trump’s original MAGA base, the war was a catastrophic unforced error that directly cost the Republicans the elections. “Trump launched an unpopular and pointless war. Gas prices are too high. People can’t afford groceries. Trump abandoned the American First message. This is why Republicans are getting crushed. It’s very simple,” podcast host Matt Walsh wrote on X.

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“Betrayal at the heart of power..”

“Alexander Dugin examines how Trump’s surrender to neoconservatives and Zionist interests led to his political downfall and what Russia must learn from it.”

• How Zionism Brought Trump to Ruin (Alexander Dugin)

Trump was brought to complete ruin in the midterm elections by the sixth column within his own entourage. The sixth column is the most terrible thing that can happen to a country and a political regime. It exists in every society, although its orientation, structure, and subordination to external centers of decision-making differ from one country to another. In Trump’s case, that center was Netanyahu’s Israel. In other cases, the United States itself, NATO, or the EU plays this role. But the underlying mechanism remains the same.


Within the elites, there are always those who serve not the interests of their own people and state, but some external power. And the greatest danger of the sixth column is that its members conceal themselves behind a facade of complete loyalty and devotion to the ruler. The fifth column operates openly, making it easier to identify and, if the political will exists, suppress. Exposing the sixth column requires particular ideological expertise. Simply following orders and obeying the law is not enough. These are precisely the loopholes through which the sixth column infiltrates the system.

In the United States, the MAGA movement oscillated between the ideological core of right-wing populism and the neoconservatives allied with outright Zionists and “Christian” Zionists. The populists opposed foreign interventions (especially war with Iran), the Deep State, and the Epstein class. The neoconservatives and Zionists supported all three: foreign interventions, the whitewashing of Epstein, and the Deep State (which they themselves constitute). Initially, both camps were completely loyal to Trump. But the populists genuinely stood for America, while the neoconservatives regarded it merely as an instrument for pursuing an entirely different agenda.

Trump rejected the former and placed his trust in the latter. He suffered a crushing and resounding defeat, largely because he showed utter contempt for what the people wanted. The American people oppose war and foreign lobbying and want their domestic problems addressed—something Trump neglected, making matters worse instead.mThis was therefore no accident, but an inevitable consequence. Watching these developments, we must draw our own conclusions. The sixth column not only exists in Russia; its existence is inevitable. After decades of openly pro-Western and liberal influence, it is almost certainly widespread among Russia’s elites, where it is likely to be particularly entrenched.

There is something else: Russia is the target of a deliberate campaign of network warfare. This war has many fronts and employs numerous methods, but its principal weapon is precisely the sixth column. It is the enemy’s most effective instrument because it strikes from within, because the hostile element is embedded inside the structures of power, within the very machinery of government, rather than outside it, in the opposition (which may not even exist).

I am convinced that our counterintelligence services have mastered the principles of network warfare. Now is the time to apply these skills to their fullest extent. Following Trump’s catastrophic defeat in the midterm elections, events around the world will take on an especially ominous character. All hopes that the situation on the Ukrainian front will somehow resolve itself are irresponsible and futile. The Kiev regime will now be emboldened (Zelensky and the leaders of the EU were convinced that Trump was playing into Russia’s hands, which was not actually the case at all), and it is not difficult to imagine what this will lead to.

Zelensky had already been brazenly insulting Trump at every opportunity in recent weeks, convinced that the American president would emerge dramatically weakened from the midterm elections. We must recognize and carefully analyze everything that has happened in the United States, as well as what happened in the Israeli elections (Netanyahu’s defeat) and what is now unfolding in Europe (where everything is going up in flames).

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Europe sidelines itself. By picking, not electing, people like Ursula.

Shoudl she sit at a table with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and Xi Jinping?

You have to earn relevance.

Europe has relevance only in the past.

• A New Yalta? Why the EU Fears a Putin-Trump-Xi summit (Ryumshin)

When will the world end? Well, the Mayan calendar supposedly had it down for December 21, 2012 and more recently, a South African preacher picked October 13, 2026. Now, if one believes the more excitable voices in Europe, civilization as we know it faces another appointment with destiny, on November 18 or 19.


Those are the dates of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, where Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and Xi Jinping could meet together. Nothing has been formally agreed, yet the possibility alone has revived a familiar nightmare for Europe’s small and middle powers – that three great powers will sit down, divide the world between themselves and leave everyone else to discover which sphere of influence they inhabit.

The comparison already being made is with Yalta in 1945 and in this telling, Putin gets Ukraine, Xi gets Taiwan, and Trump gets whatever he wants in return, meanwhile Western Europe is expected to accept the outcome without having been invited into the room. It’s a dramatic scenario, but it’s also a considerable leap from the available facts.

We know that the three leaders may be in Shenzhen and that Moscow has discussed the possibility of a joint meeting and Trump has expressed an openness to the idea, but we don’t know whether the encounter will take place, much less what its agenda would be. To predict a wholesale redistribution of the international order at this stage requires more imagination than intelligence.

Nor is there an obvious common program for such a gathering, as while Russia, China, and the United States have considerable power, it doesn’t mean that they share an understanding of how the world should be governed and, indeed, the most interesting feature of a potential summit is how sharply their priorities differ.

For Trump, the obvious starting point is nuclear arms control because Washington has long resented an arrangement in which American and Russian arsenals were subject to bilateral limits while China remained outside the negotiating framework. The issue arose during Trump’s first term and American officials have repeatedly tried to draw Beijing into the discussion since.

China has resisted and its argument is simple, that the US and Russia still possess vastly larger nuclear stockpiles, therefore Beijing sees little reason to accept equivalent restraints while the disparity remains so great. Whether Trump can persuade Xi otherwise is an open question, but it’s a more plausible subject for negotiations than a secret map showing who gets which country.

Trade would be another, given Washington and Beijing have little appetite for another damaging tariff confrontation. However, the threat of further American sanctions connected to Russia, particularly measures affecting countries that trade with Moscow, complicates their relationship and Russia would have an obvious interest in how that dispute is handled.

Ukraine might also arise, as it would be strange if Putin and Trump met without discussing the conflict, and China has its own diplomatic and economic interests in its outcome. But discussing Ukraine isn’t the same as deciding its future and still less signing away the interests of every other country at the table.

The idea that the three leaders could simply write a new world order between them also misunderstands the world they inhabit because even these powerful states can’t dictate terms to everyone else. India, Brazil, and influential countries across Africa and the Middle East would have to be part of any durable international settlement.

The original Yalta conference, whatever one thinks of its consequences, took place in very different circumstances as the Second World War was nearing its end and the Allied leaders had a common enemy, armies occupying vast territories, and at least some notion of the postwar arrangements they sought.

Nothing comparable exists today. Moscow speaks of multipolarity, a world in which American primacy gives way to several centers of power, while Beijing uses similar language but has profited enormously from the existing economic system.

China may wish to revise the rules, but it has little reason to overturn the table on which so much of its prosperity rests. Washington is more difficult to read. Does Trump want to preserve American leadership, exercise it more ruthlessly, or retreat from commitments that previous administrations considered indispensable? Often, his administration appears attracted to all three ideas at once.

That’s hardly the foundation for a new Yalta, so why, then, so much anxiety in Western Europe?

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Part of the answer, I suspect, is wounded pride because for years, these Europeans imagined that any serious conversation about the future of the international system would necessarily include the European Union. With its immense economy and elaborate institutions, Brussels assumed it occupied a permanent seat at the world’s most important table.

Yet in the discussion of a possible meeting among Washington, Moscow, and Beijing, that seat is nowhere to be seen. Russia, which the EU has spent years trying to isolate, may find itself in the room, while Brussels, which has so faithfully aligned itself with Washington, may not.

There’s an irony here that Western European leaders seem reluctant to acknowledge, having sacrificed a good deal of independent foreign policy in the name of Atlantic solidarity, they’re now shocked to discover that American priorities don’t always coincide with their own.

Of course, an APEC summit isn’t a European summit, and its guest list tells us little by itself, but the political symbolism of a Putin–Trump–Xi meeting, if it happens, would be unmistakable. It would demonstrate that major powers can discuss major questions without asking Brussels to chair the proceedings. Eurocrats call this betrayal, but I would call it a reminder that influence cannot be secured through declarations of importance alone.

There’s a Russian saying, that nobody gets a seat at the table just for feeling left out. Perhaps Western European leaders would feel less anxious about Shenzhen if they spent less time mourning the world they thought they governed, and more time asking why nobody thinks to invite them when its future is discussed.

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“.. the “Never-Ending Tour” since 1988..”

Dylan pays homage to the ones who went before him by never quitting. As do the Rolling Stones.

• The Pope of Rome Meets ‘The Poet Laureate of Rock and Roll’ (Robert Spencer)

Bob Dylan dropped by the Vatican on Wednesday, wearing a black hoodie as if to conceal his identity; after all, as he sang in 1983, “you know it’s not even safe anymore / in the palace of the pope.”


Seriously, though, in one of the more surreal news items to cross the transom since Nancy Reagan sat on the lap of Mr. T (who was wearing a Santa Claus outfit), the Voice of a Generation, the man who was introduced at numerous concerts in the early 2000s as “the poet laureate of rock and roll,” shook hands with the supreme pontiff, and in a private audience, they reportedly exchanged gifts and pleasantries. The photos are intriguing. Two Americans, greeting each other in Rome: The pope is, of course, dressed all in white, Dylan mostly in black, and Dylan never pulls that hood down. Did either of them think, “Just like you, I’m wondrin’ what I’m doin’ here”?


Actually, it was not as strange a meeting as it might have initially appeared. Other Nobel laureates besides Bob Dylan have stopped by the Vatican to pay their respects. Dylan is 85 years old, but he has been on what is often called the “Never-Ending Tour” since 1988, interrupted only when COVID hysteria blanketed the country and the world. He was set to perform in Rome on Thursday evening; Wednesday was a day off, so why not visit the Vatican and say hello to Pope Leo XIV? Dylan played a brief concert for Pope John Paul II in 1997, so in a certain sense, he’s going through all these things twice.

Also, and most importantly, Dylan’s avid interest in spiritual matters, and Christianity in particular, is as well documented as it is widely ignored today. Back in 1979, when many people of his generation still revered him as the “Voice of a Generation” and the bard of Sixties leftism, Dylan surprised everyone by converting to Christianity.

In 1979, 1980, and 1981, Dylan released three Christian-themed albums (Slow Train Coming, Saved, and Shot of Love) that preached the Gospel in uncompromising terms, much to the chagrin of aging hippies who disdained Christianity. In 1980, speaking from the stage in Omaha, he addressed this directly, saying: “Years ago, they used to say I was a prophet. I’d say, ‘No, I’m not a prophet.’ They’d say, ‘Yes, you are a prophet.’ ‘No, it’s not me.’ They used to convince me I was a prophet. Now I come out and say, ‘Jesus is the answer.’ [And now] they say, ‘Bob Dylan? He’s no prophet.’ They just can’t handle that.”

The conventional wisdom has it that neither could Dylan himself. The standard media line on this period of Dylan’s career is that after 1981, he abandoned Christianity, returned to Judaism, and never looked back. Reality, as is so often the case, is more complicated. Yes, Dylan stopped conducting his concerts as if they were tent revivals. Yes, he stopped writing gospel songs and singing the ones he had written, although many of them continued appearing in his setlists, and his biggest Christian-era hit, “Gotta Serve Somebody,” he sang on stage as recently as Sept. 5, 2025. But there is actually no record of his ever explicitly renouncing Christianity, and much that indicates that he never really did so.

In 2022, Dylan told an interviewer: “I’m a religious person. I read the scriptures a lot, meditate and pray, light candles in church. I believe in damnation and salvation, as well as predestination. The Five Books of Moses, Pauline Epistles, Invocation of the Saints, all of it.” He didn’t say anything about what kind of Christian he was, but all that did seem to indicate that he was one. So why not shake hands with the pope and have a little chat with him? Of course, many non-Christians meet with the pope as well, but Dylan and Leo do seem to have a common faith.

Another indication of this came back in 2009, when Dylan gave the world Christmas in the Heart, a bizarre but charming album of Christmas songs. An interviewer praised the conviction with which he sang “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” and said to Dylan: “I don’t want to put you on the spot, but you sure deliver that song like a true believer.” Dylan replied readily: “Well, I am a true believer.”

References to Christian beliefs and practices also pepper Dylan’s recent songs. In “Goodbye, Jimmy Reed” from 2019’s Rough and Rowdy Ways, he sings “Thump on the Bible, proclaim the Creed.” In “False Prophet,” from the same album, we hear: “Oh you poor devil, look up if you will / the City of God is there on the hill.” And in “I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You,” there’s this: “If I had the wings of a snow-white dove / I’d preach the gospel, the gospel of love.”

Dylan has been doing this sort of thing for years. In “Duquesne Whistle” on the 2012 album Tempest, Dylan sings: “I can hear a sweet voice gently calling / Must be the Mother of our Lord.” “Thunder on the Mountain,” a song from the 2006 album Modern Times, contains this odd and thought-provoking statement: “I been to St. Herman’s church, I’ve said my religious vows.”

Old boomers have for seven decades now been assuming that every song Dylan sings is about his personal life and experiences. They are not. Yet there are Christian references throughout Dylan’s 21st-century songs that it is certainly reasonable to assume that when he met Pope Leo, he was doing so out of a shared fascination with, and even devotion to, the Christian Faith.

So as strange as the meeting might have seemed initially, it was really a commonplace thing: a couple of Christians from the American Midwest met up while they both happened to be in Europe, and had a chat. Maybe ol’ Bob reminded Leo: “You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome… But you’re still gonna have to serve somebody…”

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Debt Rattle November 5 2026

Nov 052026
 
 November 5, 2026  Posted by at 10:45 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , ,  36 Responses »


Edward Hopper Two on the Aisle 1927


• American Elegy (Eric Utter)
• The Media’s Propaganda Machine Is Malfunctioning (J.B. Shurk)
• Meh. 2008 Was Worse. (Athena Thorne)
• A Midterm Election Message from Vice President JD Vance (CTH)
• Vance’s 2028 Odds Tumble After Midterm Bloodbath (ZH)
• Erika Kirk’s Post-Election Reflection on Charlie’s Vision (Catherine Salgado)
• President Veto (Bas van Geffen)
• President Trump Talks to Fox News About Midterm Election Results (CTH)
• Poll: More Democrats Now Support Socialism Over Capitalism (Turley)
• America Wants G20 On A Leash (Kanwal Sibal)
• CIA Still Runs 12 Secret Bases In Ukraine: Aaron Maté(ZH)

 

 

 

 

As you can see, mostly people are still processing the election.

I’m thinking of how fast former leftist people like me, Jim Kunstler and ten million more turned conservative.

It’s because the left went totally berserk.

And now we’re here. And they won.

 

 


“The ramifications are staggering, tragic, and universal … and not just for the U.S.”

• American Elegy (Eric Utter)

Blue wave. Tsunami. Bloodbath. Armageddon. (If you trust the process and counting.)


I was never optimistic about the midterm results. And today we learned what many of us have long suspected: the bulk of the American citizenry, or non-citizenry, no longer possesses the morals or the knowledge required to keep a free, representative republic from collapsing into slothfulness, envy, chaos, and tyranny. The United States, once the lone supernova among nations, has now begun its transformation into a black dwarf.

The ramifications are staggering, tragic, and universal … and not just for the U.S. Those who celebrate this, whether at home or abroad, will soon realize that their glee was heinously misplaced.How? Why?

There are many factors, of course, including massive demographic change, an anti-American educational system and media, and the consequent collapse in Judeo-Christian values and respect for the values and beliefs upon which this country was founded. The idea of limited government, incepted specifically to protect the unalienable rights granted to us by our Creator has been replaced by a desire for a big government to give us “free” stuff. Meaning paid for by others. There’s the immorality. And, of course, there was much hatred of Trump.

But the proximate cause could be COVID-19 and the government’s response to the Wuhan flu. Suddenly, we had mail-in voting, ballot-harvesting, drop boxes, and vote counting for days after “Election Day.” People stopped meeting, discussing, debating, and took to “social” media to hurl obscenities at each other. Politics is the left’s religion. Government its one true God. Progressives/leftists/Marxists believe any individual’s rights are granted by government, meaning them.

Convenient if you are a power-hungry thug. They further believe that the rights they may bestow on you should be correlated to how “oppressed” you are, determined by your race, class, sexual preference, etc. And if your rights, or lack thereof, legitimately come from government and the government determines what is right or wrong, then you have the Holocaust. And the Killing Fields. And the purges. And the guillotines.

They have vowed, on numerous occasions, that they would come after their political opponents … and their political opponents’ supporters. Like me. Possibly you, as well. Ever purchased a MAGA hat? Be afraid. Be very afraid. This is not a joke. Ask Charlie Kirk. Many of these far-left politicians — and their supporters — are truly amoral. The New Jacobins are not substantively different from the old ones.

But, Eric, you’re exaggerating! And if these new radical Democrats make things worse, won’t it bode well for Republicans in 2028?

No, I’m not. And no, it won’t. They won’t let it. They will find a way to undo much of what Trump has done and manage to make it impossible for a conservative to ever win an important office again. Remember, we’re talking governors, representatives, and senators. And there’s always the judges. “Deep-red Texas” is now blue. Other states that used to be red just a couple of decades ago, like Colorado, are now “deep-blue.” Most of the nation’s big cities, where the majority of voters reside, haven’t had Republican leadership in many decades, even as they hemorrhage people, businesses, the tax base, and human decency.

When the majority of residents either work for government or receive benefits from it, the die is cast, there is no going back, no matter how bad things get. The people who work for government have money and power, those who are on the dole are addicted to it, like the addicts on the streets.

There is one unalterable truth that “good” people don’t want to acknowledge: if evil and tyranny are not aggressively confronted, they will prevail every time. They have to. If they are willing to — and are even excited by — lying, cheating, stealing, looting, harassing, assaulting, and killing, and “good” people aren’t willing to do what it takes to stop them, there is no other possible outcome. And, if a person is not willing to do whatever it takes to stop the evil, and is therefore willing to allow untold damage to their descendants and others in perpetuity, I do not consider them a “good” person.

But, gosh, Eric, aren’t you saying you’re O.K. with the very attitudes and behavior you decry in leftist tyrants?

Yes, but it couldn’t be for more different, you might say binary, reasons. We didn’t start this. Conservatives want everyone to have the right to free speech — and to be afforded the protections of the rest of the Bill of Rights. We believe in individual liberty for everyone … and the unalienable rights granted by God, not the whims of those obviously imperfect people in government. We don’t want to rule over others and be worshipped by them. We don’t wish to control every aspect of others’ lives or take ever more money from their pocketbooks.

But no one seems to be willing to take a stand anymore, which means they don’t believe there is anything more important than their own temporary convenience and comfort. We could not be more removed from our illustrious Founders, who risked their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor for their freedom, and subsequently fought the largest military on the face of the Earth … though they didn’t have one.

For some inexplicable reason, most Republicans appear utterly incapable of making a case for great ideas, timeless wisdom, and inarguable results. We sure could use a man like Rush Limbaugh or Charlie Kirk again. Instead, most essentially let Trump’s tariffs, the ongoing conflict with Iran, and the resulting gas prices define them, despite the facts that there have been so many other successes — and that gas prices were just as high under Biden at times. (Don’t seem to remember Democrats going ballistic then. Odd.)

So here many of us are, wondering How we look our kids in the eye — kids perhaps about to be married, with their whole lives in front of them — and tell them that this, today, is as prosperous and free as the United States will ever be. That everything will be downhill from here. Yet, if we don’t explain certain things to them, we would surely also be doing them a disservice.

This is where we stand. Feeling blue, but red in the face. James (“I hate Christianity”) Talarico is now a senator from Texas. Texas. And the diminutive, terrorist-friendly Marxist Muslim, Abdul El-Sayed, will be the new senator from increasingly Muslim Michigan.

What do we do now? That is one thing that is still up to us.

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“Your brain is the battlefield.”

• The Media’s Propaganda Machine Is Malfunctioning (J.B. Shurk)

It feels as if the march of history is accelerating now. The number of meaningful current events around the globe continues to grow.


We don’t have time to process the Islamic riots across France before turning our attention to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s attempted judicial coup d’état. While President Trump seeks peace between Russia and Ukraine, the United Kingdom prepares its citizens for WWIII and a Russian invasion. The United States has elections, but Democrat seditionists and subversive members of the American Intelligence Community push for a “color revolution” to topple the Trump administration.

Big events happen every day, and we have scant opportunity to understand what they mean before another comes across our screens. The issue of “screens” is important. If you’re reading this, you are not likely a hermit living self-sufficiently in the woods. Unless you limit your “screen time,” televisions, computers, tablets, and phones are pumping your brain full of information all day long. Even when we’re not consciously reading or watching something on our screens, our brains are picking up signals about the events playing out in the world.

If you are a fan of science fiction, it is not difficult to understand that we are now living in a version of the dystopian worlds that writers such as Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, and Philip K. Dick envisioned. People who possess power in this world have a strong incentive to shape our minds, and they use every available tool to condition our way of thinking.

Information is no longer confined to a book, catalogued in a quiet library. It is blaring at us from all directions. Different cable news hosts on competing cable news networks repeat the same words and phrases all day long until we find ourselves reaching for those words while having polite conversations in real life.

Songs from pop artists representing different genres push the same messages, and when those pop artists collect awards, they use their acceptance speeches to drive those messages further into the brains of their most loyal fans. Those fans magnify those messages on their social media platforms, and pretty soon, tens of millions of people are expressing the same thoughts.

Movies and television shows teach us to fear or detest “hate speech,” “global warming,” “white supremacy,” “Russian aggression,” “science deniers,” “right-wingers,” “fascists,” “European Union skeptics,” “fossil fuels,” “Islamophobia,” “transphobia,” Christianity, immigration enforcement, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump. Any Hollywood character who doesn’t condemn these things is depicted as a villain; any Hollywood character who denounces these things is a brilliant, beautiful hero.

This is information warfare in a nutshell, and it is all around us. If you look back in time, you will realize that some version of it has always existed. Twentieth-century newspapers gave us descriptions of the facts filtered through the worldviews of their writers, editors, and publishers.

Three broadcast news anchors delivered almost identical accounts of each day’s news. If you scrutinized those newsrooms, though, you realized that newspaper publishers came from the same prominent families that ran parts of the government and that federal licenses required television networks to abide by certain national security protocols. The same “journalists” who gave each other awards for their “integrity” and “independence” married members of the government. Twentieth-century “journalists” were never really part of a Fourth Estate; they acted as the public relations arm of the American government.

The most important aspect of “journalism” last century was its ability to seduce the reader or viewer into believing that “reporters” are impartial, just-the-facts clerics collecting important stories for the public’s benefit. So long as “journalists” were seen as ink-stained priests who cared nothing for money or fame, they received a certain amount of public respect. If people could be convinced that “journalists” would risk their lives to inform the public what is “true,” then some people might even consider those “journalists” heroes. Priestly heroes cultivate public trust, and public trust is its own kind of power.

In this sense, the government had no interest in telling Americans not to trust the news. All governments want the public to believe the news because it is through the news that governments disseminate their public messages. In true symbiotic form, newsrooms and governments do not have competing interests. They have a shared interest: to convince the public that what it reads or hears is the “truth.”

The entertainment industry has long played its role in this propaganda program. A small number of publishing houses controlled which books would be printed and sold. A small number of magazines controlled popular opinion. A small number of movie studios controlled what stories were told. When everybody worked in tandem, publishing houses printed books whose authors expressed ideas that the government wanted the public to read. Magazines recommended those books until they became “best sellers” on newspaper lists. Hollywood chose good-looking actors to play the characters in those best-selling books, and families sat in theaters to hear government-approved programming.

Sometimes, movie stars played hero journalists, so that the public remembered that The New York Times and The Washington Post could be trusted to report only the “truth.” When a propaganda system works well, you don’t notice how all the various agents have clear conflicts of interest. You don’t stop to ask why the deputy director at the FBI would be working with The Post to take down a sitting president (something that both Mark Felt and Andrew McCabe have in common). You don’t wonder whether it’s appropriate for “reporters” to depend entirely upon anonymous sources.

You don’t ask whether the billionaire moneymen who own newspapers might have ulterior motives that undermine the pursuit of truth. You don’t notice that the same families that own movie studios and publishing houses also own multinational chemical plants, pharmaceutical firms, shipping conglomerates, and banking empires. You don’t realize that these wealthy families include members of Congress and the heads of agencies. You don’t see how government officials receive awards from nonprofits and NGOs that are run by the same families handing out awards to authors, musicians, actors, and “journalists” for their professional achievements or contributions to “truth.”

See the problem? Over the last thirty years, the public started to see through this sophisticated network of information warfare and recognize it as the propaganda that it has always been. The expanding web of the Internet allowed people to learn information that had been hidden from them. Email allowed people to communicate with groups much more quickly than traditional phone calls or written correspondence. Social media platforms turned ordinary people into public broadcasters almost overnight.

Comedians lose their power over minds when ordinary people on YouTube are just as funny. Hollywood actors lose their star power when teenagers can become famous just for filming their lives. Publishing houses lose their gatekeeping power when writers publish online. “Journalists” lose their monopoly on objective “truth” when citizen reporters describe current events in real time.

When all these parts of the propaganda machine malfunction together, people finally see the puppet strings moving the various actors. And whether they work in Hollywood or for CNN, the narrative engineers are all actors — people paid to deliver messages that corporations and government officials wish to spread.

This is one of the reasons the march of history is speeding up! The people who have long controlled public opinion realize that they have lost their greatest weapon: legitimacy. Illegitimate systems are unsustainable. So the narrative engineers have been forced to flood the zone with so much information that it becomes ever more difficult to ascertain the truth. Global warming, Russian collusion, COVID, defending democracy, WWIII — the demand on your attention is huge and will get only worse!

As this happens, remember this: Your brain is the battlefield. If you prevent others from using it for you, they will lose.

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“.. this was actually a rather basic reactionary midterm election.”

• Meh. 2008 Was Worse. (Athena Thorne)

Last night certainly wasn’t the most fun I’ve ever had in a PJ Media liveblog. I went to bed feeling like that poor young pilot on the doomed Learjet in Florida, riding in a rudderless missile trapped in a fatal nosedive (the doomed jet being my country, in this analogy).


But this morning, the customary bleating and gloating of the Democrats just isn’t bothering me as much as I thought it would. First of all, I learned long ago to stay off social media when something upsetting happens, and this is a great time to do that. And second, the narrative from the left-media is actually kind of hilarious, when you look at how hard they’re puffing themselves up.

xios (one of my favorite punching bags, partly because I think those guys do a solid job when you look past their leftism) headlines its analysis “The Trump obliteration.” Subtle! “Make no mistake: Democrats won by epic, sometimes historic margins across red and blue states, up and down ballots, obliterating almost everything President Trump, and a Republican Party remade wholly in his image, built over the past decade in American politics,” brays Axios. And that’s just one example.

Oh noes!

You’d think the left had fulfilled its fantasy of packing all the Republicans and America-Firsters onto cattle cars and sending us away once and for all, tearing down the entire U.S. government, and replacing it with its Godless socialist utopia at last!n But in fact, this was actually a rather basic reactionary midterm election.

Whenever things look grim, it’s always instructive to zoom out and take in the historical perspective. In the case of last night’s election, we need to look back less than 20 years, to 2008. With the first-ever (half) black presidential candidate, the nation clamored to be a part of history in the making. Far too many people voted for a Marxist because of his skin color and smooth talk, and they took the rest of the ballot along for the ride.

The result? Both the U.S. House and the Senate went deep, dark blue. And believe me, it was a lot worse than what we woke up to today.

The Senate
On January 3, 2027, Democrats will kick off the 120th Congress with a Senate majority of at least 54.

As I write this, two Senate seats remain outstanding. Mississippi is tied between incumbent Democrat Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Republican challenger Scott Colom at exactly 48.9%-48.9%, with over 95% of the votes counted, so I’m sure that will take some time to sort. And Alaska looks like it will elect the repugnant Democrat Mary Peltola (currently at 48.2%) over incumbent Republican Dan S. Sullivan (47.9%), with almost three-quarters of the vote counted. If Democrats sweep both of these races, as they seem to be doing this icky year, they’ll top off at a 56-44 Senate majority.

That’s disgusting, but the 2008 election was worse. In January 2009, as the 111th Congress took the reins, Democrats ruled the Senate with a 59-41 majority. Technically, two of those 59 Senators were “Independents,” but one of them was Bernie Sanders, and they both caucused with the Democrats.

The House
This one will be tougher to call. As of now, according to our partners at Decision Desk HQ, Democrats have locked up 241 seats to the Republicans’ 149. By my math, that leaves 45 seats as yet undecided.

After the 2008 election, Democrats came away with 257 seats, while Republicans held 178. I expect the Dems may even top that majority by a seat or two this time around. Whatever — they have the majority either way, and they will use it to pump the lower chamber full of suck for as long as they can. The precise number of Islamo-Marxists in the House is but a detail.

The Presidency
Lest we forget, 2008 was a full general election — and well-meaning voters swept Barack Hussein Obama into the White House that year, too. (Yes, someone with a name like that won the White House just seven years after September 11.) He won the popular vote by a resounding 6 or 7 points, and he took two-thirds of the electoral vote. Horrifying.

And with that trifecta, leftists were able to pass damaging legislation that is still eroding the country to this day. Luckily, that ain’t gonna happen this time, with President Trump warming up his veto pen to the temperature of the Sun’s surface.

2008 was a much worse election than what we just had. But Democrats in power are the best argument for voting Republican, and a mere two years later — in the 2010 midterm elections — Republicans swung back hard. We gained 64 House seats and won back control of that chamber. And we took back six Senate seats, eventually winning back control in the 2014 midterm elections.

So yeah, whatever. Enjoy your moment, lefties. Trump is still president, Jesus is still king, and everyone will hate you again by 2028.

We’ll muddle through.

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Not overly strong. Can you see a President Vance? I find it hard. He needs to profile himself a lot more. I find Rubio more convincing, but he always defers to JD.

• A Midterm Election Message from Vice President JD Vance (CTH)

Vice President JD Vance gives his thoughts and impressions on the midterm election result.


JD VANCE (Via X) – “One of the things the data analysts on our side obsessed over was “composition”—whether the electorate looked close enough to 2024 for Republicans to win. And despite polls that showed a Democrat blowout, the data kept on telling us the same story: in some states turnout was merely OK, in other states it was downright amazing, and in no state was it catastrophic. There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up.

So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we’re going to shock the world? “No,” he told me. “We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys. Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us.”

Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026.

There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is. One of the pollsters I really respect told me that our economic messaging wasn’t sharp enough down the stretch. I’m sure that’s true.But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone.

Another pollster—one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday we’d lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats. He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team.

The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were:
1) End the war
2) Focus on cost of living/inflation
3) Put America First
4) Change our relationship to Israel

Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. While many spent Monday attacking Rachel Campos Duffy for calling for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, it turns out her political advice was sound. (She’s also a great person.)

In the next few months, there’s going to be a lot of gaslighting. Expect to hear any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty. I’m open to the idea that we should change enforcement—by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you.

The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night. If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest.But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.

I remain hopeful about our country. To the people who are pissed off and want to say, “I told you so”: you’re right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.” (link)

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“..And Rubio Isn’t The One Cashing In..”

Ron DeSantis. I can see why.

• Vance’s 2028 Odds Tumble After Midterm Bloodbath (ZH)

Vice President JD Vance’s odds of winning the 2028 Republican nomination tumbled overnight as Democrats absolutely torched Republicans in Tuesday’s midterms, flipping both the House and the Senate. On Polymarket, Vance slid from about 37% to 31.4%, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rocketed from around 3% to 15.5%, in a market that has drawn more than $726 million in bets.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vance’s closest rival in the polls, barely moved at 19.2%, roughly where he sat before polls closed. Kalshi shows the same shuffle: Vance at 32% and Rubio at 22%, both down slightly, while DeSantis is up 14 points to 19%.

The selloff hit Tuesday night as results rolled in, hours before Vance offered his own autopsy on X Wednesday morning. “The reason we lost is the war,” he wrote, as we reported earlier. “If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so.”

Before the war began, Vance was the White House official most opposed to a full-scale war with Iran, the New York Times reported in April. Distance or not, he’s the sitting vice president of an administration that just lost both chambers of Congress.

Florida was one of the GOP’s bright spots: Rep. Byron Donalds will succeed the term-limited DeSantis as governor, while Democrats flipped governor’s mansions in Georgia and Texas. Vance cited the state himself, writing that Florida’s electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, “just a couple points worse than 2024.”

Vance’s lead had already shrunk from the start of the year. A New York Times/Siena poll of 850 likely GOP primary voters, taken Oct. 12 to 19, had him at 33% to Rubio’s 23%, with 26% undecided or declining to answer. In February, Emerson had Vance crushing Rubio 52% to 20%; by May, the two were essentially tied at 36% to 35%.

Neither man has declared, and Rubio has said he would defer to Vance. Vance has said he would talk over a 2028 run with his wife after the midterms – which ended Tuesday.

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Charlie would have beeen a good candidate to follow after Trump. Better than any other.

• Erika Kirk’s Post-Election Reflection on Charlie’s Vision (Catherine Salgado)

Erika Kirk misses the unfailing optimism and energy of her assassinated husband, Charlie, but she knows that he would not give up no matter what the election results were. Erika reflected that Turning Point USA came out of the Obama era following the 2008 election, and that it was a movement born out of a bleak present and uncertain future. “I miss Charlie so much every single day, but especially on a day like today. He always said that when things are going well, we need to stay humble. And when things aren’t going the way we want, we need to stay positive, keep our faith, and get back to work,” she posted on X.


Author Dan Burmawi compared the current feeling to the day Charlie Kirk died, and I can understand why. One of the biggest bastions of Republicanism flipped totally blue. Democrats swept almost every major race. There was some fraud, a lot of lies, poor GOP decisions, high Democrat turnout, Republican apathy, and results that could put Congress and the White House temporarily out of reach. But we cannot give up, any more than we could after Charlie’s assassination, even though he was our best future presidential candidate. Democrats have often changed history in a tragic way, but it is then our job to decide how we will change history in a different way.

In her post, Erika did acknowledge that there is reason for people to feel depressed and discouraged, although she doesn’t want that feeling to last. “Last night, we saw races Republicans once won handily by double digits come down to the thinnest of margins, and in some cases, flip entirely. Democratic socialist candidates made the cost of gas, groceries, and housing the center of their campaigns. And voters responded at the ballot box,” she pointed out in a gentle rebuke of Republicans’ messaging. “A rising stock market doesn’t mean much when nearly half of Americans don’t have a 401(k) and just want to put gas in their trucks, put food on the table, and provide a good life for their families.”

She went on: “But every time socialism has tried it has failed, because socialism concentrates economic power in the hands of the government instead of trusting individuals to build prosperity for themselves and their families. That’s fundamentally at odds with the free enterprise, individual liberty, and opportunity at the heart of the American experiment. We can disagree with the solutions voters were offered while still recognizing why they were looking elsewhere for answers. Exit polls clearly showed that the American people are concerned about the state of the economy and the war in Iran…

We are going to listen, study the results, and spend the next two years making the case for how conservative, free market solutions, and a renewed focus on our country’s founding principles can address the problems the American people face. And we’re going to keep building the permanent infrastructure Charlie envisioned, strengthening our relationships in communities across the country, and preparing for 2028 and beyond.”

Erika argued that Americans aren’t interested in labels, which I think is not entirely true, because the fundamentalist Democrat base will always vote Democrat as if it were their cult or religion. But it is true that fewer people overall are interested in being officially Republican or voting exactly along party lines. That is part of why it is so difficult for the GOP going forward unless they truly start to listen to the ordinary voters and stop assuming that they can change major campaign promises without suffering the consequences.

“Americans … will support the candidates who can both speak to their concerns and deliver on what THEY need and dream about for their families,” Erika posited. “And those needs are the same as they have always been: an affordable home, safe communities, and the hope that the next generation will inherit a country with more opportunity than the last generation did. That is what the American dream has promised to all of us.”

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Bas van Geffen is senior macro strategist at Rabobank

• President Veto (Bas van Geffen)

Associated Press is calling the Congressional race in favour of the Democrats. The party wins both the House of Republicans and control of the Senate, changing the balance of power when the new Congress convenes at the start of 2027. However, President Trump still has the powers of veto and executive order, creating a divided government in the US.


The blue wave that swept through Congress will affect the policies that are proposed from next year, but Trump will probably veto any bill that he does not like. “I have the ultimate power – it’s called veto,” he said in an interview before voting closed, adding that “if we didn’t win, I veto everything. I’ll be vetoing, vetoing”. And, despite the Democrats’ big win, they will not have the required two-thirds majority in both chambers to overturn a veto. So, their policy proposals may not get far.

Trump added that his veto powers will eventually force the Democrats to make deals with him. But it may not be so easy to make concessions. Both parties share little common ground, so our US strategist believes that a legislative gridlock is the more likely result.

That’s particularly problematic for fiscal policy. Gridlock should limit additional spending or tax cuts, but the divided government also reduces the odds of a serious effort to shore up public finances. As a result, the term premium will probably remain a force keeping US long-term rates pinned at higher levels.

A first government shutdown approaches on December 11, and the debt limit may lead to more political brinkmanship in 2027. Aside from the uncertainty that this creates, the US economy should not expect any meaningful fiscal impulse. So, these results could weigh on US equities.

Meanwhile, President Trump may also test how far his other “tremendous power” reaches. Given an unsupportive Congress, the president will probably try to implement his policy agenda through executive orders. That particularly allows him to continue course on foreign policy, trade policy, and immigration.

That includes the decision on the way forward in the Middle East. The decision to attack Iran again, or not to, lies with the Commander in Chief. President Trump is showing restraint for now. He told the Financial Times that “We’re locked and loaded if we need to [strike Iran again], but there may be no reason for it.”

Oil futures fell sharply earlier in the week, after Trump indicated he wants to give diplomacy another chance, and front-dated futures have stayed lower since then. However, the recent rise in 2027 pricing suggests that markets may be shifting expectations to a scenario of tight supply and elevated transport costs into next year. To reiterate, we remain sceptical that there is enough common ground for a deal between the White House and Tehran, and believe that escalation in the coming weeks is likelier than not.

And, finally, by winning the Senate, Democrats can now also effectively block Trump’s appointments. That includes potential replacements for Fed Governors Cook, if she is forced out, and Powell, if he decides to resign from the central bank’s board.

Read more …

“Trump’s supporters represent a third party in a two-party system. This was always problematic. Professional Democrats, leftists writ large, hate Donald Trump. The Professionally Republican also dislike him immensely.”

• President Trump Talks to Fox News About Midterm Election Results (CTH)

As the election results continued unfolding, Democrats and DSA candidates took control of the House and the Senate. With the outcome still being tabulated, around midnight President Trump gave a lengthy interview to Brett Baeir and Fox News.


In the aggregate the MAGA movement, like the Tea Party that preceded it, was neither Democrat nor Republican. A person only needed to look at the issue(s) of borders, immigration, illegal aliens, H1B’s etc., to notice the outcome was the same with the D or R. The same was true for American jobs and the insufferable march to a ‘service driven economy.’ The movement that supports Donald Trump was never Democrat or Republican; it was/is a coalition of historically unrepresented voters, essentially a third party.

Trump’s supporters represent a third party in a two-party system. This was always problematic. Professional Democrats, leftists writ large, hate Donald Trump. The Professionally Republican also dislike him immensely.

The 3rd party coalition lost fulcrum stability on the issue of War and Peace (Israel, Iran). Democrats and Republicans then pounced on every subset of special interest within the coalition to emphasize friction and division. The dividers blamed Israel and the Iran conflict for every negative outcome in everything, some valid – most not. That was enough to maintain the instability while dividers drumbeat the issue of (put _ your _ topic _ here).

“It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.”
– Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

From my view; from my very personal view; from the perspective of a root cause; when you peel all the skin away from the onion and evaluate the problem from the central core, the underlying point where the atom splits, the problem is Susie Wiles.

Bad advice and counsel as a matter of elevated, aloof incompetence; or is it purposeful, controlling intent? Given the fact that we can track the ‘disconnect‘ to the transition period and earlier, and overlaying the Vanity Fair nonsense that was ego-driven and right in the middle, I lean toward the latter. Regardless of incompetence or intent, there’s a pattern of bad advice and counsel.

Donald Trump’s loyalty and grace is both a virtue and a vice.

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You gotta fight for your right to party.

• Poll: More Democrats Now Support Socialism Over Capitalism (Turley)

The divisions in this election are deep and widening across the country. When I called this “an age of rage” years ago, I noted that the rage historically tends to burn off in time. We are clearly still at the flow rather than the ebb stage as rage politics continues. However, the most worrisome elements of this period are fundamental changes being demanded to our constitutional and economic systems. A new poll by The Economist/YouGov is consistent with other polls showing rising support among Democrats for socialism. More Democrats (38%) prefer socialism to capitalism (25%). Other polls show 60% had a favorable view of socialism and only 32% had favorable views of capitalism.


Capitalism is still favored by 79% of Republicans in comparison to only 5% favoring socialism. The poll of independents showed 44% favored capitalism, with only 21% favoring socialism. As I wrote in Rage and the Republic, the success of this Republic was a mix of Enlightenment and free-market principles. It was the combination of economic and political liberty that produced the most successful republic in history. This is the 250th anniversary not just of our Revolution but of the release of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations.

The founders knew that true individual liberty could not be achieved without economic freedom. Smith’s idea of the “invisible hand” offered an idea of individual economic freedom where the individual tastes and choices of citizens drove whole economies. As I write in Rage and the Republic:

“While he never visited the United States, his theories seemed quintessentially American to many of his generation. For a revolution that was triggered by tariffs and fueled by events like the Boston Tea Party, Smith’s general principles read like an economic version of Common Sense. It was a type of declaration of independence not just from the British policy of mercantilism (emphasizing British exports over imports) but from economic controls over individual productivity and self-determination….

In summary, Smith was first and foremost viewed as a political theorist, and his economic theories were closely tied to his views on the natural liberties of humanity. He saw capitalism as a liberating system that gave individuals the wealth and resources to pursue their chosen paths. Conversely, he saw government controls and subsidies as forms of control and potentially forms of suppression of the human will. If people are to be truly free, they must have the resources to pursue that freedom. The government dole can become a type of servitude or at least a subterfuge for citizens. If they are dependent on the government, they are never truly free.”

I believe the key to our surviving and thriving in the 21st Century will be preserving what I call a “liberty-enhancing economy.”

The rise of the Democratic Socialist Party has fueled the trend away from capitalism with calls “to dismantle the capitalist state.”. Many of the rising candidates have spent years working the anti-capitalist movement. For example, Senate Democrat nominee James Talarico appeared intent on bringing a touch of Trotsky to Texas. In a video from a climate forum, Talarico is shown declaring capitalism an “oppressive system” linked with white supremacy and that it must be “dismantled” to achieve a better world. It is reminiscent of Leon Trotsky, who denounced the “fundamental evil of the capitalist system” and called on citizens to free themselves from its oppression.

As a state representative, Talarico addressed the 2020 climate conference with an attack on capitalism:

“I’m so thankful that you asked this question and also thankful that young activists have really drawn the link between climate change and White supremacy and capitalism in our country … And I think only ending the ways that all three of those oppressive systems work together are we gonna be able to begin the process of dismantling them.”

Talarico’s views closely parallel socialist and communist talking points online. Democratic Socialists of America has challenged people to “Imagine the end of capitalism.” Those words in the Democratic Socialists of America manifesto offer Americans a world without landlords, debt, mandatory work hours, and “food, education, energy, medicine, and transportation… are common goods and utilities.”

The DSA is premised on the same stated objective of Talarico, declaring that there has to be “a revolutionary transformation to replace the capitalist social order based on exploitation and oppression.”Other candidates have sought to pander to this radical mob. Recently, California Gov. Gavin Newsom thrilled the mob by declaring that “nostalgia is not working,” adding that “capitalism as we know it doesn’t work either.” He also recently said that the DSA is the future of the Democratic Party.

The Framers understood that political rights mean little without economic freedom. Capitalism offered citizens the ability to transcend class and social barriers, to advance as far as their skills and labor would take them. Together, those political and economic theories created the most prosperous and stable democratic system in the world. That system is now under attack on both sides.

“You know, when people’s voice start getting squeaky and really high pitched, usually they’re lying. And Ashley Moody knows that I’m not a socialist,” Nixon said, claiming to only join DSA because she aligns with them on “fighting for adequate public housing, as well as fighting for quality health care, as well as making sure that we are getting our veterans off the street, taking big money out of politics.”

The success of politicians like Zohran Mamdani in promising to introduce people to the “warmth of collectivism” has only worked due to a young generation with no memory of the failure of the socialist systems in the last century. As I explain in “Rage and the Republic,” the French economy collapsed, as the British economy had earlier during the “winter of discontent” under Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan. Britain was even forced to seek a loan from the International Monetary Fund.

Both France and Britain would later reintroduce capitalist policies and roll back socialist policies to stop the economic collapse. We also tried collectivist policies in cities across this country, including a commune on Long Island called Modern Times (now called Brentwood). It lasted about ten years before collapsing.Yet, candidates such as Colorado’s Democrat congressional candidate Melat Kiros recently declared that there is nothing more American than socialism.

In places like New York, that message has resonated more with young college-aged voters than with blue-collar voters. Indeed, the DSA admits it has not done well at attracting actual blue-collar workers. Indeed, almost one-third of DSA members earn over $100,000.

This election is being fueled by temporary economic fluctuations in gas prices and other conditions. Those are real issues that citizens must grapple with. However, a more fundamental debate is just beginning over the economic principles that will guide this country in the future.

Read more …

Sibal doesn’t understand too much. Trump’s America simply doesn’t want the globalists too close.

Here’s thinking Sibal is one of them.

“Washington is narrowing a once-broader forum into a tool for its own priorities, sidelining development, climate and the Global South..”

By Kanwal Sibal, retired Indian foreign secretary and former Ambassador to Russia between 2004 and 2007. He also held ambassadorial positions in Turkey, Egypt, France and was Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington DC.

• America Wants G20 On A Leash (Kanwal Sibal)

The US presidency has shrunk the G20 agenda, which had been broadened under the earlier four presidencies of Indonesia, India, Brazil and South Africa, to reflect the priorities not only of the G7 but also the developing world.


If the G7 nations had felt that they could on their own handle the global fall-out of the 2008 financial crisis they would have not felt the need to elevate the G20, which includes key emerging economies, from a routine meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors to a summit of heads of states and governments. From that perspective, these powers were compelled to include the interests and priorities of those emerging economies in the G20 agenda.

The G20 concept is thus rooted in a more cooperative multilateral approach to address multiple global challenges. The G20 agenda cannot be aligned with US priorities alone.

The US State Department had announced beforehand its intention to assert its priorities – limiting regulatory barriers to investment and encouraging transparent governance to foster global competitiveness, focusing on energy independence, reliable energy access, resilient supply chains, and safe navigation through critical international waterways (such as the Straits of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab), accelerating digital advancement and artificial intelligence (AI) policies while protecting security, privacy, and intellectual property, refocusing the G20 on its core economic mandate, addressing global supply chain resilience, trade consensus, critical minerals, and geopolitical disruptions affecting markets.

These are no doubt important issues to address collectively, but they are not the only ones. The contrast between the Chair’s statement on the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting issued by India in 2023 and the Chair’s statement issued under the US presidency is illuminating.

In 2023, the issues covered were insufficient progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, economic slowdown, debt distress, uneven pandemic recovery, growing poverty and inequality, food and energy insecurity, and global supply chain disruptions aggravated by geopolitical tensions and conflicts.

Strengthening multilateralism, making global governance more representative, counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, global health, global skill mapping, as well as gender equality and women’s empowerment were among the other issues covered. Importantly, there was an affirmation that the rules-based, non-discriminatory, multilateral trading system, with the WTO at its core, was indispensable to advancing shared objectives.

The steadfast commitments of the G20 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to tackle climate change though the full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement and its temperature goal, reflecting equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities was affirmed too. So was strengthening key aspects of global health architecture, with the leading and coordination role of the WHO. The Multilateral Development Banks were asked to mobilize and provide additional financing within their mandates to support the achievement of the SDGs.

The US Chair’s statement talks of taking the G20 “back to basics.” These “basics,” which the organization had ostensibly departed from, cannot be defined unilaterally by one member. The priorities of not only the developing countries but also of other G7 countries have been ignored.

The paragraph in the US statement referring to rising energy costs glosses over Washington’s own role in driving them higher. By sanctioning Russian oil and gas, and then worsening the situation through its attack on Iran, the US has contributed directly to disruptions in the flow of oil and LNG through the Strait of Hormuz. The threat to energy transit through the Bab al-Mandab is also a consequence of the instability created in West Asia.

The statement implicitly reflects Donald Trump’s “Drill baby drill” slogan, catering to the interests of the US oil lobby, his repudiation of climate change concerns and his scoffing at renewables. The phrase “far too often governments have placed barriers to energy production and punished their own people with higher costs” seems to be an indictment of the policies of some European countries such as Germany and the UK but does not apply to developing countries who have become hostage to Washington’s own policies of sanctions to exclude the flow of Russian and Iranian oil into the global market. If the US consumer is paying higher prices for gasoline and diesel, whose fault is it?

When the statement says that “it is also vital that countries build the infrastructure to develop and deploy the energy systems of the future,” the reference is to small modular reactors and micro reactors. This is a developing technology which does not address the current disruptions in the oil and gas market. The statement recognizes that, for some, nuclear energy may not be a desired option for their energy mix, no doubt referencing Germany’s position. With the worldwide move towards renewables and the US bent on increasing reliance on fossil fuels, by saying that every country is on its own energy path, the statement recognizes a lack of consensus on the issue.

If “energy is a foundational requirement for economic progress,” as the statement says, then why is the global energy market being disrupted by US and European actions? Why was the Nord Stream pipeline blown up? Why has India, a country highly dependent on energy imports, been pressured to cease buying Russian oil under threat of sanctions? The focus on supply chain resilience in the Chair’s statement no doubt reflects widespread concerns amongst G20 countries.

The reference to “weaponization of normal food supply chains” by a government taking “targeted actions to slow, stop, or block the trade of food in order to exert coercive pressure over another sovereign country on an unrelated geopolitical issue” is directed at Russia. To say that “it is important the global community agree that trade in food and agricultural products should not be used as a tool for economic or political coercion” ignores that the fact that oil and financial sanctions as well as slapping tariffs at will has been part of US economic and political coercion.

Regarding health, only the fight against Ebola figures in the Chair’s statement. The US has walked out of the WHO, the Paris Climate Change Agreement and has effectively gutted the WTO by imposing tariffs on countries arbitrarily. Its dismissive attitude towards the UN and ignoring its development agenda explains the absence of any reference to UN reforms, the raising of additional resources by MDBs, debt issues, SDGs, climate change issues, etc.

The G20 Foreign Ministers meeting at the end of October was marred by other arbitrary decisions and undiplomatic behavior. The US had no authority to exclude South Africa, a G20 member, from the meeting. South Africa in fact chaired the G20 in 2025. It had no authority to invite Poland to take South Africa’s place. The G20 can function only on the basis of consensus, and South Africa’s exclusion and Poland’s inclusion violated the consensus rule.

The refusal of some European foreign ministers to be photographed with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the traditional group photograph was not adult diplomacy. The European ministers had, however, no objection to being photographed in working sessions with Lavrov and even address him directly and aggressively. Some have questioned the propriety of inviting Russia at all to the G20 meeting. This kind of conduct casts doubt on whether a negotiated solution to the Ukraine conflict can be seriously explored unless fissures in the EU or the collapse of the Zelensky regime change the situation.

The UK will take over the presidency of the G20 in 2027. Unless something dramatic happens on the Ukraine front, Britain’s enmity towards Russia will become a huge problem for the consensual functioning of the group.

Read more …

Haven’t seen Aaron in ages.

• CIA Still Runs 12 Secret Bases In Ukraine: Aaron Maté (ZH)

Journalist Aaron Maté told Judge Andrew Napolitano on Tuesday that the CIA is still “running, if the New York Times is to be believed, 12 secret bases inside of Ukraine,” and still controlling Ukrainian intelligence agencies it “effectively rebuilt from scratch after Yanukovych was overthrown in 2014.” He made the claim in an interview for Napolitano’s Judging Freedom podcast, recorded on Election Day, Nov. 3, in an episode titled “CIA and MI6 vs Trump in Ukraine.”


Maté’s source for the bases is a February 2024 New York Times investigation, which as Ukrainska Pravda summarized it, described a CIA-supported network of spy bases built over about eight years, including 12 secret locations along the Russian border, with a partnership dating to 2014.

“How pervasive is the CIA in Ukraine today?” Napolitano asked. To which Maté replied: “Well, it’s so pervasive that it was the one that orchestrated this drone campaign against Russian energy facilities that Trump recently started opposing. It was Trump’s CIA that came up with that and was helping Ukraine do that. And Trump was on board with it until he needed something to sell voters on ahead of the midterms, whereas war on Iran was causing such a spike in energy prices.”

Maté said Trump has since pulled back and criticized Volodymyr Zelensky, “the CIA, as far as I know, is continuing its operations as normal,” and that it is “still helping out with targeting” and “still providing intelligence.”

The Billionaire Question
Napolitano then said that Alastair Crooke had told him the CIA has financial resources from outside the U.S. government, and asked whether the CIA in Ukraine is being funded by anyone other than the Treasury. Maté said that when an agency wants something done off the books, “you’ll get a friendly billionaire or, you know, or some or a friendly corporation to do the work for you,” calling it “intelligence tradecraft going back a very long time.”

He put George Soros “at the top of the list” of billionaires involved in Ukraine: “Already in 2015, Soros’ foundations were saying that they’d spent $181 million on Ukraine since the fall of the Soviet Union.” The figure checks out as a 2015 number. An Atlantic Council piece from Dec. 14, 2015 said Soros “has provided over $181 million in support of almost 17,000 civil society initiatives in Ukraine.” The Soros-founded International Renaissance Foundation, which dates to April 1990, now puts its total at about $380 million.

“Given that some of those dollars went to groups that were involved in the uprising that overthrew Yanukovych, you know, you have to wonder if some of that was linked to Western intelligence,” Maté said, adding, “It might be something like we’ll never know.” He raised eBay founder Pierre Omidyar as another example, tied to a report that named Maté a leading spreader of Syria disinformation and was funded by an Omidyar foundation. “Maybe, or maybe this was done at the behest of the intelligence agencies that I was exposing,” he said. “Who knows how this works?” It is speculation, offered as such.

CIA And MI6 Vs. The White House
Napolitano asked whether the CIA and MI6 are “working at cross-purposes to the White House,” given that the White House wants the war to end and the agencies want it to continue. Maté said it depends on what is meant by the White House, because “there’s not one coherent policy.” He pointed to JD Vance and Tulsi Gabbard on one side, and Marco Rubio, Mike Waltz and former envoy Keith Kellogg on the other, and said Rubio gutted the Kushner-Witkoff peace plan “after a brief freakout on Capitol Hill.” On Trump’s stated aims of a peace deal and a new Ukrainian leader, he said “absolutely the CIA and the MI6 are at cross purposes.”

Earlier, Maté said Zelensky’s refusal to compromise reflects a “small clique of ultra-extremists” inside Ukraine, and that Washington’s promised Patriot missiles are due, in his telling, in the fourth quarter of 2030. We could not confirm that date, and recent reports on Patriot deliveries describe delays, not a 2030 schedule.

Trump’s “99%” In Israel
Late in the interview Napolitano played a clip of Trump saying in May: “I’m at 99% approval rating in Israel. Can you believe it? In fact, if people ever got tired of me in the U.S., I’ll move to Israel and become prime minister.” The remark is not new: Maté’s reaction: “It might be true about his approval rating, and it’s irrelevant because he’s giving them so much cash and military equipment.” Napolitano noted Trump’s U.S. approval at 33% in the figures he cited.

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Debt Rattle November 4 2026

Nov 042026
 
 November 4, 2026  Posted by at 10:55 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  25 Responses »


Edward Hopper New York restaurant 1922


• Democrats Tear Up Trump’s Political Map On Historic Night (Anthony Zurcher)
• What The Midterm Elections Say About America (Scott Ritter)
• NATO Fears Trump Clampdown In Case Of Midterms Defeat – Politico (RT)
• Election Day in America (CTH)
• The Day After Tomorrow’s Midterm (Stephen Green)
• Alarming Abuse Identified in Secret Ukraine Azov Battalion Detainment (CTH)
• Russia Confirms New Round of Talks with Ukraine Mediated by US (CTH)
• The EU Met Its Waterloo In Warsaw (Clarice Feldman)
• Why Is Hillary Making Excuses for Democrats Losing the Midterms? (Margolis)
• Mamdani’s Massive Real Estate Swindle Just Took a Huge Step (Stephen Green)

 

 

Not final results

 

 

 

 


No kidding, I am disappointed. Less because Trump lost, more because the Dems won. Because I’m very wary of anything everything that smells like globalism, Soros, Ursula, Merkel, Obama, it’s a long list.

Globalism erases identities, national identities. You can be a world citizen, but you’re still born somewhere and you live somewhere.

You identify more with the people around you than those far away. And you need to identify, you need identity, or you don’t know who you are. That’s less important then it used to be, for sure, but it’s there.

Different identities gave us different cultures, different languages, a smorgasbord of luxuries. Globamism on the other hand would give the Soroses of the world much more control over people, and we need to ask ourselves if we want that, and why we would want it.

Trump loves America. Not everybody loves that, or loves the way he expresses it, but that should be secondary.

America has its first Muslim Brotherhood senator, and I think it should not, because it’s not a muslim nation.

We were put on notice last night that the fight to defend our identity is not decided yet.

Trump will be in a hurry now.

PS most of the below, I gathered before the election results were in.

 

 


Ain’t no denying..

• Democrats Tear Up Trump’s Political Map On Historic Night (Anthony Zurcher)

Democrats have torn up Donald Trump’s political map on a night that will send shockwaves through American politics for years to come. With a string of major Senate victories in states that have been reliably Republican for decades – and in Kansas’s case, nearly a century – a blue tidal wave crashed across the nation, sweeping Republicans out of power.


Halfway through President Donald Trump’s second term, the Democrats now have decisive control of the House of Representatives and have wrested a majority back in the Senate. They will be able to frustrate Trump’s agenda, and launch investigations into his administration. A historic third impeachment attempt could also be on the cards.

Few imagined such an outcome was possible in the months after Trump returned to the White House with unified Republican control of Congress in January 2025. As the public mood turned against him and his party, Democrats had hopes of retaking the House. But they contemplated a Senate map that appeared unfriendly, populated by states Trump had won comfortably just two years ago.

Instead, Democrats rewrote the political equations with victories in Texas, Maine, Kansas, Ohio, Iowa and North and South Carolina. In comments to the BBC’s US partner CBS, Trump pledged to strike deals with congressional Democrats, adding that he didn’t want to have to spend his final two years in office rejecting their legislation. He somewhat undermined that sentiment later, posting a picture to Truth Social of his trademark red baseball hat with the word “veto” emblazoned on it.

The president went on to note that his name wasn’t on the ballot this year, but if it had been Republicans would have won a decisive victory. Trump had helped elevate many of those Republican candidates, however, and had urged voters to pretend he was up for re-election. In the Senate, Democrats flipped at least six seats, comfortably securing a majority.

Adam Hamilton won in Kansas – a state that last elected a Democrat to the Senate almost 100 years ago during the Great Depression. James Talarico beat Republican Ken Paxton in Texas’ Senate race, ending a 38-year Democratic losing streak in statewide elections there. In South Carolina, Annie Andrews beat Darline Graham, who had been appointed to the seat after the death of her brother, Senator Lindsey Graham. Few analysts had that seat in play even a few months ago.

Five-term Republican Susan Collins conceded Maine’s Senate election to Democrat Troy Jackson. Paralympian Josh Turek flipped the Iowa Senate seat held by retiring Republican Senator Joni Ernst. Democrats also wrested from Republicans a Senate seat in Ohio, with Sherrod Brown’s comeback victory over Jon Husted. Meanwhile, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed looked on course to beat Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s bitterly fought Senate race.

Nor was that the end of the electoral carnage for Republicans. Ruby-red Texas witnessed another seismic result in the governor’s race. Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa ousted the incumbent Republican Greg Abbott, who was earlier this year seen as the prohibitive favourite. Democrats also took governors’ races in Iowa, Ohio and Georgia, which made history by electing the first black woman to such a post.

Meanwhile, the party has won a House majority for the first time since 2022. They are projected to win 245 House seats and the Republicans 166 seats. A look at the key races offers plenty of reasons why. Democrats flipped House seats in Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Kentucky and Colorado, among others. And they were poised to make gains in Virginia and Indiana.

Black Democrats in the southern states turned out in record number, helping to carry their party to victory. And Hispanic voters, whose support had helped secure Trump’s presidential victory in 2024, swung decisively back to the Democrats. Democrats won all three House races in the overwhelmingly Hispanic congressional districts along the Texas-Mexico border.

And Hispanic voters helped Democrats hold House seats in Florida that the state’s Republicans had sought to flip by redrawing the congressional district lines.In fact, the congressional redistricting battles that had dominated headlines for months last year ended up being a bust for the Republicans. In Texas, they had hoped their line-drawing would net five new seats for their party. But on Tuesday they may end up losing one seat.

If there is a silver lining for conservatives, Florida as a whole still appears to tilt to the right. Republican Senator Ashley Moody narrowly won re-election, as did congressman Byron Donalds, who was elected the Sunshine State’s first black governor. And embattled Republicans were able to hold governorships in Vermont and New Hampshire. But the bright spots were few and far between.

Just two years ago, Trump won the presidency with 48% of the vote. He claimed an electoral mandate. He then went about governing like it, pushing sometimes unpopular policies on trade and immigration, and launching an Iran war that is opposed by most of the American public. On Tuesday, voters gave him the kind of stinging rebuke that will not be easily forgotten.

Read more …

Written before the election.

““It’s the economy, stupid” is more than a political warning. It’s the epitaph of a nation.”

“The vote lays bare a people unwilling to cast off the shroud of consumerist excess and strive for conscience and national renewal..”

Scott Ritter is a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and author of ‘Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika: Arms Control and the End of the Soviet Union.’ He served in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty, in General Schwarzkopf’s staff during the Gulf War, and from 1991-1998 as a UN weapons inspector.

• What The Midterm Elections Say About America (Scott Ritter)

Tuesday’s mid-term elections hang over the heads of the American voters like an executioner’s sword – halfway through President Donald Trump’s second term in office, the elections are not simply a referendum on the state of the union, but perhaps more importantly, a hearing on the fate of the president himself.


The first two years of Donald Trump’s come back tour have not gone anything like the American people who voted him into office two years ago were led to believe. They were promised an end to the endless wars in the Middle East, yet the US finds itself embroiled in an endless war in the Middle East which clearly did not need to be fought, and perhaps worse from the perspective of the psyche of the American voter, is a war America is losing badly.

Failed military adventures in the Middle East and Southwest Asia have been a regular feature of the American experience for the past three decades, and elections – especially midterm elections where the president’s name is not on the ballot – do not normally hinge on foreign policy or national security issues, but rather local issues – the domestic agenda, so to speak. And there is no greater barometer for a consumer-driven society like the US of the success or failure of a domestic agenda than American economic health. The age-old question, “Are you better off today than you were two years ago?” is very much the talk of the town, and the answer should send shivers down the spine of every Trump loyalist scanning the polls as they would an EKG, desperately looking for evidence of viable political life: Americans most certainly are not.

“It’s the economy, stupid” is a famous American political aphorism attributed to James Carville, a Democratic strategist who helped manage Bill Clinton’s successful run for the US presidency in 1992. It is as valid a point today as it was 34 years ago, something Donald Trump and his supporters seem to have forgotten. “Short term pain for long term gain” has emerged as the Trump counter to Carville’s words of wisdom, a reflection on the price Americans are paying at the pump when putting gasoline into their cars or diesel into their trucks.

America is a land defined in large part by the automotive industry – when Bruce Springsteen belts out the opening lyrics to ‘Racing in the Streets’ (“I got a ‘69 Chevy with a three-ninety-six, Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor”), there isn’t a man among us who can’t close his eyes and envision the machine as described.

Whether singing along with Bobby Troupe about getting “our kicks on Route 66” (the iconic American highway that connected Chicago to Los Angeles), or nodding knowingly at the title of Bob Dylan’s classic album ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ (named after the stretch of concrete and asphalt connecting Minneapolis to New Orleans which gained fame as the ‘Blues Highway’ and gave perch to the Freedom Riders of the American Civil Rights movement), the American Highway system and the machines that traverse them have defined the hopes and dreams of successive generations of Americans.

But when rising gasoline prices eat into the slender margin of comfort most American paychecks provide at the end of a hard month of work, and spiking diesel prices raise the cost of transportation such that the price of the very things that defines American quality of life – food, electronics, clothes – rise as well, the American way of life becomes unsustainable, and the American people begin looking for someone to blame.

And that someone generally is the man whose desk once famously bore a sign reading “The Buck Stops Here.”

“It’s the economy, stupid” is a sad condemnation of what America, and Americans by extension, have become – a land of consumer-oriented individuals who long ago abandoned any notion of the kind of collective citizenship which once served as the bedrock of the nation known as the United States of America. This mantra reveals a harsh truth about the American people – as long as politicians keep them wrapped up in a cocoon of perceived comfort, where they are led to believe they can coast from one day to the next awash in a sea of consumer excessiveness, the American people will ignore just about anything, regardless of what it says about them as a people.

We ignore the fact that our lifestyle is built on the back of a colonial system disguised as a “rules-based international order,” which to provide the American consumer with the goods they crave, requires American industry to acquire resources at far below fair market value. This leads to the kind of exploitative economic relationships that produce child labor in Africa to harvest the rare-earth minerals that give us the smartphones our culture revolves around, or the sweat shops of Asia that make the clothes we drape around our bodies and the shoes we prance around in as if on parade.

We ignore the fact that our economy operates on a foundation of debt that would be unsustainable for any rational economic system, but which is kept alive by the printing of money whose only hope of viability is sustaining its status as a global reserve currency while the US government simultaneously seeks to leverage this reserve status to blackmail and bully nations into maintaining their status as American economic colonies.

In our greedy embrace of personal consumerism and the artifice of prosperity it creates, we turn a blind eye to the corporate greed that has seen the personal wealth of our nation gravitate exclusively toward the top 1%, while the rest of us wallow in a swamp we’ve convinced ourselves is paradise.

How strong is the narcotic of greed and avarice? Strong enough for Americans to ignore a president who sells access to his social media postings so that those who seek to profit from their manipulative effects (which have taken on the role of instruments of declaratory policy), or the empowerment of friends and family to conduct national diplomacy as little more than a front for the enrichment of the president’s inner circle.

Strong enough for Americans to turn a blind eye toward the facilitation of genocide of the Palestinian people by America’s “friend and ally” Israel. Strong enough to allow this very same “friend and ally” to lure us into a military disaster in the Middle East, where our leaders committed an act of perfidy as the opening act of an illegal war of aggression, which simply put should never have been considered, let alone fought.

Strong enough to ignore historical truths by supporting the hate-filled progeny of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi German regime, in the form of Ukrainian nationalists who embrace the odious ideology of Stepan Bandera, all in support of rampant Russophobia that has seen us turn our back on the ally who made the defeat of Nazi Germany possible.

As long as the American spirit is greased with the lubricant of perceived wealth and the fantasy of comfort it affords, then the American moral compass once guided by ideals and values enshrined in a constitution long since abandoned by those who govern, and those who empower them through their vote, can no longer stand in the face of evil.

We are collectively dead as human beings, economic zombies infected by greed and all that accompanies this affliction. Which is why “It’s the economy, stupid” is more than a political warning. It’s the epitaph of a nation. The American people will go to the polls tomorrow and vote. They will vote their pocketbooks.

Which means it will be a bad day for Donald Trump and those who have embraced and facilitated his failed policies. But they will not vote with their conscience. Which means that the executioner’s sword will not be stayed regardless of the outcome. Their votes will solve nothing, because their votes seek to solve a problem that has not been accurately defined.

The high price of fuel and the resultant rise in the cost of living for the average American has burst open the cocoon of comfort we have wrapped ourselves in for far too long. Tomorrow we should be voting to liberate ourselves from the narcotic of this cocoon. Instead, most Americans will be voting for putting the cocoon back in order. And this will be an indictment not of President Trump, but of us.

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“The US president “could be very pissed off” after the election, a diplomatic source has told the outlet ..”

• NATO Fears Trump Clampdown In Case Of Midterms Defeat – Politico (RT)

NATO is worried that Donald Trump could significantly reduce US involvement in the bloc if the Republican Party loses the midterms on November 3, Politico has reported, citing European officials and diplomats. Officials in the military bloc are “bracing for a worst-case scenario” as a result of the vote on Tuesday, the outlet said in an article on Sunday.


If a victory for the Democrats blocks Trump from legislating domestically, he may decide to go after NATO to rally his MAGA base, diplomats told the outlet. The US could withdraw thousands more troops from Europe, cut American funding for the bloc, or limit the NATO-backed PURL arms-buying scheme for Ukraine, they suggested. Trump “could be very pissed off” after the midterms, if so, “he’ll be very harsh,” one diplomat reportedly warned.

When addressed for comment by Politico, White House Assistant Press Secretary Olivia Wales insisted that “Trump has done more for NATO than anyone else,” including persuading member states to boost defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, increasing the US militarily presence in Greenland, and undertaking diplomatic efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict.

“The president will never settle for the West’s managed decline and will continue to unapologetically advance our interests at home and abroad,” she said. However, Wales stressed that Trump “remains firm that our NATO allies should have been there for the US” during the war with Iran.

After the bloc’s members in spring refused to join the US-Israeli campaign against the Islamic Republic and countries such as Spain and Italy barred the Pentagon from using bases on their territory for attacks, Trump said he was “never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger.” When asked if he could reconsider the American membership in the bloc, Trump said: “Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said previously that the US and the rest of NATO members were “engaged in an unhealthy, traumatic relationship,” which required the attention of a therapist.

In a separate comment, Zakharova noted that the Trump administration “has stopped hiding its disappointment” with the organization. “NATO strategists should take a break and reflect in order to avoid making irresponsible decisions that could lead to a disaster — not just for the bloc, but for the entire world,” he warned.

Around a half of the 2,000 US soldiers stationed in Romania left the country last year, with some 5,000 American servicemen currently being in the process of withdrawing from Germany. According to media reports, Trump wanted to order a pull-out of as many as 25,000 soldiers from Europe earlier this year, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio talked him out of it. American forces on the continent number around 80,000.

The NBC News average of national polls, published on Monday, suggested that 52% of Americans preferred a Democrat-controlled Congress as a result of the midterms, with 44% being in favor of a Republican one. Trump’s approval rating stands at 38% a day before the vote.

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I wanted to say I’ve grown to appreciate Sundance as a writer much more through 2026.

• Election Day in America (CTH)

–Today is election day in America. Depending on who you talk to, follow or review, opinions & predictions are all over the place. What really matters is what YOU DO and ultimately the scale of voter turnout.


After years of watching UniParty politics, back in 2015 I said it really didn’t matter to me what Donald Trump did in the first primary debate, he had my support. The reason was simple; all other candidates represented the status quo in one form or another. Two wings of the same bird that had been delivering the same economic policy outcomes that created the rustbelt, destroyed the American middle-class and usurped our constitutional intents for partisan purposes.

Professional Democrats organize to gain power; professional Republicans organize to gain money. The business model within Washington DC works both wings of the UniParty vulture this way. That’s why I said 11 years ago, it doesn’t matter to me if Donald Trump shows up to that first debate in five-inch stiletto heels and a Carmen Miranda hat to start twerking at the podium of Jeb Bush…. The only non-UniParty member has my full support.

The Tea Party assembly already knew the duplicity of the GOP, the entrenched dangers behind the ruse of the Obama coalition and the conniving manipulations inside the unelected federal administrative state. We had already been targeted by the DOJ and IRS long before the term “weaponization of government” became a catch phrase.

In 2012, we watched what is now labeled as the Democrat Socialists of America, assemble in Charlotte North Carolina at the DNC convention and THRICE they denied God!

When Obama/Biden weaponized the system to target the threat Donald Trump represented, which is to say his targeting was genuinely to take all the fire they could not easily deploy against our larger mass, we watched what we knew. Yes, “we been knew” and not much of it came as a surprise.

Fast forward a decade later and where are we? Still right here, fighting, scrapping and highlighting the same conniving, corrupt and manipulative interests who tried to tear us down in the decade before Trump’s arrival. They haven’t quit and neither will we. The difference now is THE GREAT AWAKENING.

Will enough people who are abhorred by the Democrat Socialists of America and the various Communist regional advocates vote to keep them out of elected office. Or will the DSA and Communists succeed in gaining power by any means necessary.

Today we will discover the answer to that question.

We will provide updates as the day progresses and issues and/or events surface. In the interim, if you are voting today or following specific races to gauge outcomes, feel free to share your perspectives and experiences on this day of consequence.

Always remember, while this is a day of action and activity created within the systems of man, ultimately there is a universal operation far beyond the realm of our influence. God Always Wins!

We are blessed.

Live your very best life, and go cast a happy vote!

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“..it’s a helluva thing when we’ve spent the last six years or so watching the left do everything in its power to delegitimize our elections to rely on hope that it won’t amount to much the day after tomorrow. ”

• The Day After Tomorrow’s Midterm (Stephen Green)

The Day After Tomorrow was “Master of Disaster” movie director Roland Emmerich’s take on climate change, in which a pretty much impossible series of events creates an instant ice age. I never saw the thing — I prefer my propaganda delivered with a gentler touch — but I couldn’t get the title out of my head this morning.


Nobody knows what will happen in the election tomorrow, but it’s the day after tomorrow I can’t stop thinking about. And while I’m hardly the paranoid type, there is cause for genuine concern.

I’ll get to the big names — Data Republican, Cynical Publius, Infantry Dort — in a moment, but the latest on the left’s post-election preparations comes courtesy of Amy Reichert. She posted to X on Sunday that “Far left Soros funded group Indivisible is preparing for mass mobilization following Tuesday’s election in San Diego.”

According to Reichert, an email circulated by the group outlined plans for:
• Up to 120,000 protesters mobilizing within hours
• Daily demonstrations at Waterfront Park from 4–8 p.m.
• A nationwide strike shutting down work, schools, and shopping
• Protesters bringing goggles and N95 masks in anticipation of possible tear gas
• Stockpiling two months of food and supplies and telling people to stock up on rice and beans

Indivisible has “spent 94 weeks preparing” for the day after tomorrow. Reichert has screencaps at the link of plans that amount to using strikes and other measures to convince the public that the midterms were illegitimate.

That last word is key.

Data Republican has spent weeks publishing (and I don’t know how many months researching) her Democracy Files series on X. While it’s impossible to excerpt properly here, DR has uncovered much — including audio and video recordings — about a loose collection of retired military, intel community, NGO types aiming to do a “color revolution” in this country. Organizations like Indivisible presumably would help supply the ground troops.

[..]

Cynical Publius chimed in around the same time with a 2,300-plus word essay titled The Color Revolution in Our Midst. While it sits squarely in Read the Whole Thing territory, here’s today’s most relevant section:

A big part of the dark money is used to deploy “independent” election monitors, create fake pre-election polling and fake exit polling, and rapidly publicize perceived “irregularities” to create a clear trigger for mass protests. NGO networks then convert the disputed vote into sustained mass street action. While the architects of color revolutions consistently highlight the “non-violent” nature of their protests, certain groups are designated to engage in covert (i.e., masked) violent action, and other groups are essentially sent to the slaughter in hopes that the government will violently crack down and create martyrs.

“These NGOs all have one thing in common—they are all vocally dedicated to ‘protecting democracy,'” CP also wrote. “However, when examining their track record of fomenting revolution, it’s arguable that many of the regimes they overthrew were, in fact, democratically elected (at least to standards no more corrupt than America’s 2020 Presidential election).”

Elon Musk, DOGE, and Data Republican went after the NGOs’ public funding last year, and now we see various DANGER signals all around this year’s election.

Finally, there’s the been-there/done-that Army officer, Infantry Dort with a chilling reminder to the men and women of the armed forces:

Events going on right now in Poland might very well have started with the American left.

Maybe there’s nothing to all this worry. Maybe what DataR uncovered is just a lot of big talk from lefties with nothing better to do than cosplay as revolutionaries.

That’s the hope, anyway. I’d like nothing better than to revisit this column in a few days, shaking my head at myself.

Regardless, it’s a helluva thing when we’ve spent the last six years or so watching the left do everything in its power to delegitimize our elections to rely on hope that it won’t amount to much the day after tomorrow.

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Azov = nazi. “We” support them.

• Alarming Abuse Identified in Secret Ukraine Azov Battalion Detainment (CTH)

War is hell. Forced war upon the innocents is even worse and this story is very disturbing.


Ukraine has forced conscription. Essentially a radical forced draft where the government pays private contractors to locate Ukrainian men, drag them off the streets, put them into military training and force them to fight in the war. Inside Ukraine this process has become more and more aggressive as the population of available fighting-age males has declined.

The process is also fraught with corruption. The private contractors, “draft enforcers” ie. “headhunters”, are paid to find the men who refuse to fight. Financial support given to Ukraine by Europe and the USA funds these headhunting operations. However, the headhunters also take bribes and payments by Ukraine families who want to keep their sons, brothers and husbands alive and away from the eastern Ukraine meat grinder.

The headhunters are paid a bounty by the government for every Ukraine conscript they produce. The headhunters will let the conscripts avoid service if a bribe is paid by the family. To say the headhunters are hated by the Ukrainian people would be an understatement. This has created a powder-keg of anger inside the population of Ukraine and is the #1 reason why President Zelenskyy will not permit an election. Zelenskyy would be crushed.

When the headhunters capture the conscript, they turn the man over to the Ukrainian Azov Battalion who are responsible for getting the unwilling soldiers prepared to fight and die. Azov uses physical and psychological pressure to break the resistance of the conscript and get him trained for the front lines. You can easily imagine what horrors happen in this process until the conscript finally breaks and agrees to go fight.

We have watched this unfold for several years. Everything about this forced military service is horrific. That horror is compounded when you realize the ideological mindset of the Nazi Azov Battalion and the unlimited brutality they are willing to execute to succeed in the objective.

There are no rules, laws or humanitarian limits within this process, and everything is subject to the overarching Ukraine corruption system that exists within this hellscape of a country supported by EU and U.S. elites.Last night one of the interim Azov detainment facilities was identified in the Kiev suburb of Petropavlivska Borshchahivka.

The Azov guards held between 20 and 40 men who were in the process of ‘transition’, where they are beaten, abused, subjected to controlled torture operations and psychological efforts needed to turn ordinary civilian men into combat ready soldiers. Some of the conscripts were being severely injured during their transition and training.

A paramedic was called who witnessed up to 40 men with substantial injuries in the basement of the house being used as one of the Azov transition facilities. Word soon spread throughout the neighborhood and people began assembling to confront the plain clothed armed guards who refused to let further medical assistance reach the men in the basement.

Hundreds of citizens began showing up. The Azov regular military came in to support their undercover comrades. Things quickly escalated as the Azov group have no respect for the civilian population; they are, after all, just sheep awaiting slaughter. The civilian population have no respect for the Azov military because they know exactly what tortures are happening in these transition houses.

KIEV – Residents gathered outside a facility in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka, attempting to force open its gates, lighting flares and throwing eggs. Forced detention allegations: Reports circulating on social media claimed that between 20 and 40 men were being held in a basement, with some allegedly injured. National Guard response: Spokesperson Ruslan Muzychuk identified the property as an Azov 1st National Guard Corps facility used to temporarily accommodate personnel before military training.

Four hospitalized: National Guard commander Oleksandr Pivnenko said four servicemen were taken to hospital following the confrontation. Official investigation: Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi ordered an internal investigation into conditions at the facility. Police denied allegations of illegal detention and reports of fatalities.

Ukraine’s wider conscription crisis: The incident comes amid growing scrutiny of military recruitment practices, draft evasion and unauthorized absence from military units. Ukraine faces mounting pressure to maintain military manpower as its war with Russia continues. Allegations of forced recruitment and controversial mobilization practices have intensified public scrutiny of the country’s conscription system. (source)

What also alarms me personally, is the way Ukraine media justify the brutality and torture that is being carried out and funded by the European and American government. The Senior Reporter at the Kyiv Independent attended the confrontation and writes a long thread on X justifying the behavior of the Azov enforcers.

https://twitter.com/aleksthgrt/status/2117349349919539264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2117349349919539264%7Ctwgr%5E194c216c4d0d961b1f81281377a9f3df582f0485%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2026%2F11%2F03%2Falarming-abuse-identified-in-secret-ukraine-azov-battalion-detainment-and-forced-conscript-transition-house%2F

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Get rid of the nazis.

• Russia Confirms New Round of Talks with Ukraine Mediated by US (CTH)

While Zelenskyy is in Berlin firming up support from Germany, France the U.K and EU allies around the concept of expanded conflict with Russia, while Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney shares his support from the sidelines of the Commonwealth in the Caribbean, the Kremlin has announced their representative for upcoming talks in Abu Dhabi. In a slight change from previous discussions, President Vladimir Putin’s primary aide Vladimir Medinsky will serve as Moscow’s chief negotiator at the organized talks in Abu Dhabi Nov. 10-11.


There is something different about this round of talks considering the successful 6-day ceasefire in Oleshky, Ukraine, which was led by the outreach of First Lady Melania Trump toward representatives of both Russia and Ukraine.

Additionally, and likely much to the annoyance of those European figures who control the Ukrainian narrative, Melania Trump has announced there will be a meeting at the White House between representatives of both Russia and Ukraine later this week. Mrs. Trump is going to make public remarks Thursday, November 5th.

WHITE HOUSE – First Lady Melania Trump will personally bring representatives of Russia and Ukraine, two nations actively at war, together at the White House. This event represents an extraordinary moment in American history. […] First Lady Melania Trump will deliver remarks on the ceasefire in Oleshky at 11:00 am ET on Thursday, November 5, 2026, at the White House.

In another interesting aspect to the Kremlin announcement:Peskov also said Tuesday the Kremlin hopes to finalize plans for a trilateral meeting between the leaders of Russia, the U.S., and China in the coming days. The comments follow earlier reports that these countries were planning to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, without Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the table.

A week after the Abu Dhabi negotiations, President Trump, Chairman Xi and President Putin will be together at the APEC Summit.

This is the trilateral hard-power meeting that infuriates the sensibilities of the middle soft-powers, Ukraine, Europe and Canada.

The APEC Summit is being held in Shenzhen China on November 17th and 18th.

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“EU-supported politicians attempted a coup d’etat in Poland and lost due to the bravery of the Polish president Karol Nawrocki and the thousands of Poles who support him. “

• The EU Met Its Waterloo In Warsaw (Clarice Feldman)

While the news is scattered and the incidents fresh, it appears the EU-supported politicians attempted a coup d’etat in Poland and lost due to the bravery of the Polish president Karol Nawrocki and the thousands of Poles who support him. The international press is largely silent as this significant setback for the EU unfolds, but thanks to Elon Musk, X is covering it well.


Hermann Tertsch , a member of the European Parliament for Spain, reports

“Without X, no one in Europe would have found out about what happened in Poland tonight. The head of government Donald Tusk carried out an attempted coup d’état, taking advantage of the state head Karol Nawrocky’s trip abroad. He stormed the Constitutional Tribunal with the police and tried to remove the president and vice president of the Constitutional with a loyal judge without competencies. But he hadn’t counted on the president, who, upon learning of it, ordered the plane to turn around while it was flying over Spain. ”

He returned to Warsaw, forced his way into the TC building ahead of his escorts despite Tusk’s police cordon, and summoned all the highest institutions of the Supreme and Constitutional to restore constitutional order. Although the crisis continues, it seems clear that Tusk’s government, the puppet of Von der Leyen who would never have carried out this assault without Brussels’ permission, has its days numbered. But remember, the public and private media across all of Europe have been complicit in the coup d’état by silencing the entire operation. Only social networks have alerted Poles and Europeans. That’s why they want to intervene in them.

The plotters managed the airport well enough to refuse Nawrocki’s return flight landing rights but the military pilots of his plane ignored the control tower and landed anyway. A little background on Polish government from Jeff Childers: “Poland has a Constitutional Tribunal, which works roughly like our Supreme Court. Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-EU government called the court illegitimate because the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) packed it with conservatives back in 2015. So his government simply stopped publishing the court’s rulings, even though Polish law requires it.

This year, parliament elected new leftwing judges. President Karol Nawrocki, a PiS ally who holds the veto, refused to swear five of them in. Without the president’s oath, Polish law says they aren’t judges yet.

Last night, while President Nawrocki was out of the country, Donald Tusk’s justice minister, Waldemar Zurek, moved to criminally charge the court’s conservative chief justice, Bogdan Swieczkowski, , by lifting his official immunity. Seven of the not-yet-sworn judges walked into the Tribunal under government security escort, and the court’s own guards were told to leave.

One of the new judges, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, declared herself the court’s most senior judge, by counting her years from 1995 in the ordinary courts, not from any time on the Tribunal. On that basis, she suspended the chief justice and his deputy for a month. Riot police ringed the building and the new judges took over the court’s website. The court’s X account, still run by the old leadership, posted that everyone involved was “committing the crime of a coup d’état.”

When it all went down, President Nawrocki was flying to Senegal. He posted, “At such a moment, the President must be in Poland. I’m interrupting my flight,” and flew back. Just after midnight, he went to the Tribunal with the head of the Supreme Court, cut a padlock on the Tribunal’s front fence with a power saw, pushed through the police at the door, and told the new judges, “You are not judges.” Before dawn, he called it a “forcible takeover of a constitutional organ of the state” and convened emergency security talks for today.[/quote]

The coup plotters timed this to occur when the president was to be out of town and when most of the capital city residents were likely to have traveled back to rural areas to celebrate All Saints Day with their families. The city’s residents seem to have returned en masse and surrounded the government buildings in support of Nawrocki.

How to commit political suicide: Donald Tusk managed to unite the entire fragmented Polish Right + the President against him. He sends the Police to expel the current President and Vice of the Constitutional Tribunal… on a Friday night, after the Stock Exchange closes, during an All Souls’ weekend and with the President away on an official trip. Why the importance of All Saints’ Day? Because the Polish opposition elite who live in Warsaw and most people all head to their hometowns, to light candles and clean the graves. The sly trick of wanting a city empty of opposition. Result: they all came back from their hometowns and even the President ordered the plane to turn around.

By Saturday it was reported that Prime Minister Donald Tusk had fled Warsaw and flown to the Baltic Sea city of Sopot. Another report has him hiding in the prime minister’s office. In any event he’s not been seen in public. I don’t think this is the action of a winner.

The U.S. Ambassador to Poland, Tom Rose, issued a diplomatically neutral statement: “The events unfolding tonight at Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal are very serious indeed. We appear to be witnessing an unprecedented confrontation over the government’s use of state power and the independence and authority of a constitutional institution. Both sides offer sharply different accounts of what happened and why. Whatever the facts ultimately establish, thousands gathering outside the Tribunal make an already dangerous situation more combustible. The last thing Poland needs is a confrontation that spirals into something far worse. America is on Poland’s side. It is not our place to judge or interfere in its internal affairs.

Our concern is for the stability, security, and democratic future of a country we are proud to call our friend and ally. I hope everyone involved — government officials, law enforcement, and demonstrators alike, to take a deep breath, and don’t take any action that could provoke violence or further escalation. Americans and U.S. President Donald Trump care deeply about this country, its democracy, and its future. But Poland’s strength ultimately must come from within — from its people, its institutions, and their shared commitment to the rule of law. Poland has come too far and accomplished too much to let political differences, no matter how strongly felt, put any of that at risk.”

Of course, it is impossible to predict the next step in this crisis, but the fact that Tusk has flown the coop (or has locked himself in his office) suggests to me he’s failed to overturn the government which had earned Ursula von der Leyen’s ire by refusing to give up its independence and open its borders.

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Will she run for President again now the Dems have won? She must be itching.

• Why Is Hillary Making Excuses for Democrats Losing the Midterms? (Margolis)

Do you remember how Democrats couldn’t lose an election without questioning the results, then declared questioning the results a crime the moment they won? Now they’re questioning the results of the midterms before a single vote gets counted, and naturally, the latest salvo comes from the queen of election denial herself, Hillary Clinton.


On Monday, Hillary sat down on ABC’s The View alongside her podcast co-host Kara Swisher and rolled out a litany of excuses for why Democrats might come up short Tuesday night. The pair floated one theory after another about how the midterms could be stolen, from voter intimidation to hacking to states refusing to certify the results.

Co-host Sunny Hostin set the table by asking whether President Donald Trump would try to “steal this election” if the votes didn’t go his way. Hillary took the bait immediately.

“Well, he certainly has been trying with all of his legal actions and his threats, trying to seize ballots, trying to bring litigation against states to, you know, tell them that they are not running the elections right and they have ineligible voters,” Hillary said. “So he’s been trying.”

She went on to describe running war room exercises with large groups of allies to prepare for “the craziest thing that somebody could try to do,” and said she had spoken with Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), who is leading the House Democrat response. Then she got to the excuse she clearly came to deliver.

“What I do think they are planning to do in some places is intimidation,” she told the hosts. “You know, having ICE or others show up and just be standing there, staring at people, you know, looking threatening to voters coming in to vote.” Hillary offered zero evidence for that claim.

Homeland Security officials have already pushed back on the idea, and federal law bars armed federal agents from polling places to begin with. This is a preemptive strike. If Democrats underperform what the polls show and lose some close races, they’ll be sending out their lawyers to challenge results.

Swisher then piled on with her own parade of nightmares. “They still control the Justice Department. They still control the Federal Marshal Service,” Swisher said. When Hostin asked about hacking, Swisher pivoted to DOGE and the data she believes Elon Musk’s team walked away with. “One of the areas worthy of investigation is what exactly happened during DOGE, and what numbers and data did they take, under the muskrats, which is what they call them,” she added.

Zero evidence for any of this, just baseless allegations designed to get their base to question the results of any election they lose. Of course, Hillary jumped right back in, and this is where the game plan came into focus.

think Kara is making a really important question, because there is going to be an effort to try to convince certain states not to certify election results, to hold the votes,” Hillary said. “There may well be efforts by an outgoing Congress under Republican leadership to try to launch investigations into certain elections.”

From there, she accused Musk’s people of stealing the Social Security information of every American, then promptly undercut her own charge. “I don’t know if that happened, but people from inside said that it was,” Hillary said.


She doesn’t know if it happened. She said it on national television anyway, the day before Americans head to the polls.

We’ve already watched the polls tighten in the final stretch, which looks a lot like pollsters covering their butts in case the blue wave they’ve been promising doesn’t materialize. But what makes Hillary’s rant so dangerous is that she’s building the case for Democrats to challenge the results of any election they lose. This is the same woman who called Trump “an illegitimate president” in 2019, three years after he beat her fair and square. She has spent a decade refusing to accept her own defeat, and now she’s teaching the rest of her party how to reject theirs before the ballots are even counted.

The Democrat Party treats election integrity as a principle it holds only when it wins. To Democrats, questioning election results is sedition when Republicans do it, but it’s civic vigilance when Democrats do. They’ve been laying the groundwork to challenge the midterm elections for over a year now, and it’s somehow so fitting that Hillary Clinton is the one pushing the conspiracy theories in the final days.

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“It’s funny what happens when you freeze rents on dwellings that were barely making any money to begin with..”

• Mamdani’s Massive Real Estate Swindle Just Took a Huge Step (Stephen Green)

New York City’s Commie-Islamie Mayor Zohran Mamdani imposed a rent freeze earlier this year, and now the nation’s two biggest mortgage backers just made it “impossible or extremely difficult for landlords to get financing.” If your first response isn’t to laugh at this news with a hearty “Gooder and harder, NYC!” you might not want to read the rest of this column — but we have some serious stuff to cover, too. So stick around.


City Reporter’s Greg David noted on Monday that “Government-backed Fannie Mae, which has become the lender of last resort for private rent-regulated buildings, has toughened its underwriting standards since the rent freeze passed in June. Freddie Mac, the other government-backed lender, has instituted a ‘pause’ on new loans while it assesses the impact of the freeze.”

David said the decision will result in “severe consequences” for two kinds of apartment buildings. They include “Older, almost entirely rent-regulated buildings that are already under severe financial distress,” and “Buildings composed of all affordable units built with city help whose finances are also deteriorating.”

Rafael Cestero, CEO of Community Preservation Corp., told David that CPC will make 50% fewer loans to all-affordable projects than it did just two years ago. “I don’t know of any one [who] is making loans on private rent-regulated buildings,” Cestero said.

It’s funny what happens when you freeze rents on dwellings that were barely making any money to begin with — if that — and now need repairs, upgrades, or refinancing. Maybe not laugh-out-loud funny, but still. All is proceeding exactly as I — and so very many others — have foreseen.

Maybe the city could step in with the financial backing that Fannie and Freddie no longer can, but that won’t be easy. Hizzallah used various one-time accounting tricks to hide this year’s budget shortfall, but future projections show the deficit rising from roughly $7 billion in 2028 to nearly $10 billion by 2030.

But don’t worry about the big scary numbers, because Mamdani certainly doesn’t care. He has something bigger in mind: seizing the means of production, or in this case, the places of dwelling.

AEI’s Howard Husock warned last summer that the “endgame” of Mamdani’s war on landlords “could well be what Mamdani promised in his campaign: housing socialism for thousands of apartments, which would move into city ownership or nonprofit ownership enabled by the city taking and disposing of apartments.”

“An estimated 50,000 apartments are being left vacant,” Husock added, “because renting them means operating at a loss, thanks to the costs of code compliance.” With owners of rent-controlled apartments losing an estimated $120 per unit per month, Mamdani’s rent freeze, basic maintenance costs, and inflation will likely force even more units off the market.

And Another Thing: The only thing government creates in abundance is shortages, and there ought to be a monument to that in D.C. It would consist of a massive pedestal with “THE ONLY THING GOVERNMENT CREATES IN ABUNDANCE IS SHORTAGES,” carved into it, and on top of which would be a statue of nothing.

There’s the affordability crisis — entirely man-made — that Mamdani will use to “transfer ownership of those properties to politically aligned cadres like tenant cooperatives and nonprofits,” Vickie Paladino wrote earlier this year. She also reminded Tablet readers that the effort is “backed by the mayor’s new taxpayer-funded $53 million Office of Mass Engagement.”

If Mamdani succeeds, it could prove to be one of the biggest real estate swindles of all time, paid for by taxpayers and ultimately shouldered by the city’s worst-off.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/rinalu_/status/2117466319885050280?a=v9ORvD8xhFxfDvNcPoM&s=20 https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2117333795980431739?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle November 3 2026

Nov 032026
 
 November 3, 2026  Posted by at 10:54 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , ,  25 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh Seine with Pont de Clichy 1887


• Forcing Function (James Howard Kunstler)
• Iran’s Supreme Leader Floats More US Talks In Rare Overture (ZH)
• 15 Sweeping Actions Trump Took To Tighten Election Security (John Solomon)
• Alaska’s Decoy Scandal Brings Back the Usual Suspects (Turley)
• Is Abdul El-Sayed’s Campaign Imploding? (Margolis)
• The Nail in the Coffin of El-Sayed’s Campaign (Matt Margolis)
• End the Democrats’ Horror Movie (J.B. Shurk)
• The Jungle Devours Europe (J.B. Shurk)
• Zelenskyy Outlines Clouded Threats to Trump (CTH)
• AI Reality Check Triggers $2 Trillion Tech Stock Rout (RT)
• The Erasure of Western Civilization Accelerates (Paul Craig Roberts)

 

 

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2117288774388351146?a=uJToeYnlWfnlQB-Ha9M&s=20 https://twitter.com/RippleXrpie/status/2117227276513296774?a=UhMQC2fEtVj6SN7g5jA&s=20

 

 

Today’s the midterms, the day everyone’s been working their way up to for ages. That means starting tomorrow we no longer have to talk about Al-Sayed, or Mary Peltola, two Dan Sullivans, Haley Stevens etc. At least, we can hope that. We can hope they fade back into the background where they belong.


And we should hope there still will be a United States worth saving. Which, I’ve said it before, should not have senators named Abdul nor Presidents named Mohamed. Names like that belong in muslim nations, and the USA is a Christian nation. It was founded as one and it always has been, ever since. And you can’t be both, as a country.

That one of the two main parties is turning its back on its own country is not a good sign. They let in some 15 miilion people through the southern border in the Biden years alone, looking to irrevocably change the country. But to do that a solid majority would have to agree it’s what they want. Instead nobody asked even the question. Because they know people wouldn’t agree.

The US is in danger. Not from outside forces, but from the inside. Europe kind of has the same problems. Where people like Marine Le Pen and Alice Weidel stand up against globalist forces there -luckily it’s the two biggest nations in Europe-, in America it’s Donald Trump. Who has dodged ten years of attacks, including with bullets..

What comes after Trump? The “democrats” will not cease atttacking. Can JD and Marco muster enough inner Trump to fight them off?

The US is in danger. The free world as a whole is.

 

 


Read this before you go vote.

“Where Enlightenment philosopher Descartes said, ‘I think, therefore I am,’ the Communist says, ‘I’m right, therefore I’m in charge.’ — Data Republican on X

• Forcing Function (James Howard Kunstler)


Credit: Kevin Sorbo

It was supposed to be an election, but the event we’re in is actually an attempt to overthrow the government. The coup is underway. It’s a turnstile into the next phase of this Fourth Turning. We know who the perps are. They have outed themselves. They have declared war on the republic on video. Is there any other remedy except to arrest the bums, take them off the game board, and stuff them into a courtroom?


And how might that happen? First of all, who are they? At the operational level, a gang of a thousand or so bureaucrats, retired bureaucrats, current and ex-military officers, politicians, lawfare artists and their accomplice judges, billionaire activists, and not a few non-citizen hostiles working through a constellation of well-funded NGOs and lesser groups, partnered-up with the Democratic Party to give them the aura of legitimacy.

Their plan is to cheat like hell in the election tomorrow, rendering the outcome inconclusive and contestable in order to foment enough civil unrest to force the president to declare an emergency — triggering a sequence of actions to, in turn, declare the president and his administration illegitimate and pass off authority to a select handful of state governors such as Newsom (CA), Pritzker (IL), Spanberger (VA), Whitmer (MI), Polis (CO), and Hochul (NY), and then hold a new constitutional convention to radically change the structure of the government to establish permanent one-party rule.

One big reason for staging the coup is that many of the plotters’ heroes and leaders have already committed many crimes against the nation and the people, and are afraid of finally being held accountable for them. They don’t want to lose their fortunes, their power, their status, and end up in prison. These would be former presidents Obama and Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John Brennan, James Comey and many many other familiar names. Some of these may still be active in the current shenanigans.

The lower level operational plotters only became known very recently: Danielle Reiff (former USAID, the Democracy Renewal Group); Paul Zeitz (Renew to Thrive); Rear Admiral (Ret.) Mike Smith (National Security Leaders for America); Erica Chenoweth (Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and the United Democracy Alliance); Julia Roig (The Horizon’s Project and Partners Global); her husband, Enrique Roig (former USAID / State Department official (Renew American Democracy, RAD); Ezra Levin, Leah Greenberg, and Matt Traldi (Indivisible).

Who elected them the bosses of our outfit? In fact, they are wannabe commissars, eager to push the rest of us around. They came up through a bureaucratic ecosystem of commissars. They are creatures of it. It’s all they know. We have seen their like before in the governments of the old Soviet Union and its spinoffs.

They are in company with another layer of better-known coup plotters outside and above the NGO orbit. Norm Eisen, head lawfare ninja who has been involved in every Deep State hoax of the past decade, including RussiaGate, the Ukraine Impeachment, the J-6 op and the House Committee that pretended to investigate it, the Mar-a-Lago raid, and most of the frivolous lawsuits engineered through the two years of Trump 2.0. Marc Elias is the election lawfare ninja who has engineered and organized much of the ballot fraud in at least four recent national elections. Mary McCord is a former FBI and DOJ executive officer, also involved in every hoax and attempted subversion since 2016. Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) are also active plotters.

Senator Elissa Slotkin, involved in the setup for Maidan coup in Ukraine, 2014, when she worked for Veep Joe Biden, happened to be in Poland about a month ago. You might have noticed over the weekend that an attempted coup was staged there by forces seeking to bring Poland under tighter EU control — to give up their currency (the Zloty) for the Euro, and to open up their border to “migrants.” The coup in Poland has apparently failed. But, at the same time that France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Belgium are exploding in riots starring their migrants. Is the coup in America an extension of what looks like an international effort to overthrow Western Civ? Kinda smells like it.

So, these birds are daring President Trump to exercise his maximum executive power. Seems to me that Mr. Trump has the will to take them on. Let them make their move. Let them attempt to foment riots here post-election. The president and his agency heads at the DOJ, FBI, and Homeland Security already have probable cause (reasonable, fact-based belief) that a crime is being committed, or is about to be committed, by certain persons in a particular place. The plotters have laid it all out in Zoom calls that they foolishly believed were not recorded and email memoranda that were not supposed to get loose.

And keep in mind that the President also happens to be Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, in case things get spicy. Arrest these plotters for seditious conspiracy (18 U.S.C. § 2384), insurrection (18 U.S.C. § 2383), advocating overthrow of the government (18 U.S.C. § 2385), and conspiracy to defraud the United States (18 U.S.C. § 2385). If they have done any of this plotting in concert with persons associated with foreign governments, charge them with treason (18 U.S.C. § 2381) and misprision of treason (knowing of it and failing to report it) (18 U.S.C. § 2382).

That ought to take the starch out of them. To this point, President Trump has been notably scrupulous in dealing with his political enemies, while they have employed every conceivable underhanded tactic, including attempted assassination. Their effrontery is monumental. The battlespace is prepared. Better believe the Gray Champion is moving to meet them there.

Read more …

Translation: Iran knows about the post-Nov. 3 deadline, so it suggests talks, thereby binding Trump’s hands.

Piece of advice: stop reacting to whoever claims to speak for the ayatollah.

Refuse to talk to a phantom. It’s been too long without any proof of life.

If that pisses off the IRGC, all the better.

• Iran’s Supreme Leader Floats More US Talks In Rare Overture (ZH)

Oil is tumbling in the wake of a somewhat rare headline out of Tehran Iranian President Pezeshkian says the Supreme Leader has granted the government some authority on dialogue, ISNA reports


OIL FALLS TO INTRADAY LOW, BRENT TRADES NEAR $106/BBL This marks some of the most significant confirmation yet that the Supreme Leader – who has been in hiding and not seen in public since the assassination of his father upon the opening of Operation Epic Fury – is still ‘open’ to a negotiated solution to the war. It has long been speculated that he and the more ‘hardline’ IRGC and affiliated officials are against talks and are preparing for war.

Presdient Trump too has signaled he wants to give diplomacy more time, amid reports that Israel’s Netanyahu is lobbying for more military action. Newsquawk notes of the immediate reaction in markets: Risk-on trade seen as reports Iran’s Pezeshkian said the Supreme Leader has granted the government some authority on dialogue got wider airing; downside in oil and the Dollar, with upside in US equity futures, Treasuries and spot gold.

Earlier in the morning a report in the NY Post included some of the details related to ongoing indirect dialogue:

• Earlier, sources said Iranian negotiators left the Doha talks on Sunday, but not due to difficulties in negotiations, with a draft proposal circulated for feedback and a follow-up meeting possible. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Baghaei also said the compression of Tehran’s seven-day proposal into two days is a sign of goodwill and that “America must make a decision”, which added modest pressure to the complex.

• It was also reported earlier today that Iran had reportedly conveyed seven conditions to Qatar for reaching an agreement with Washington, including lifting the US blockade of Iranian ports, according to Kyodo citing a senior Iranian official. Tehran is said to be willing to adopt a flexible position on nuclear issues if an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is reached, although significant differences remain as the US seeks simultaneous nuclear concessions.

Still, time is running out and Trump is threatening to “bring the hammer” on Iran; however, there’s still no articulated end game or what a ‘misson accomplished’ moment might look like, amid fears that Washington could be settling in for another ‘forever war’ – despite ‘assurances’ from admin officials like JD Vance.

* * *

Brent crude futures fell to $108.41 a barrel, while WTI slipped below $100 this morning, after Axios reported that President Trump favored giving diplomacy with Tehran more time before launching another round of “Epic Fury.” Separately, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Tehran could reopen the Strait of Hormuz within two days if the Trump administration accepts its demands.

“Oil prices eased on Monday, with Brent down 2.8% at about $110/bbl and WTI down 3.3% at $100.67/bbl, as hopes for diplomatic progress tempered the geopolitical premium embedded in crude following October’s rally. Iranian and Qatari officials have held three consecutive days of talks aimed at ending the conflict with the US and Israel,” UBS markets analyst Nana Antiedu wrote in a brief note earlier today.

Brent’s Friday gains have been erased ahead of the US session. There were other reports that Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he wanted diplomacy with Iran. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday that no decision had been made on new attacks on Iran and that Trump preferred a diplomatic resolution.

Read more …

“His opponents call him a threat to democracy, but his adherents point to thousands of illegal voters on rolls, missing or lost ballots, phony candidates propped up to confuse voters and say Trump’s actions actually improve the integrity of the election process.”

• 15 Sweeping Actions Trump Took To Tighten Election Security (John Solomon)

When President Donald Trump delivered a national address from the White House East Room in July, he promised sweeping actions to address long-standing election vulnerabilities that had been swept under the rug for years.


He revealed that U.S. spy agencies had known for years that American ballot counting machines had vulnerabilities that could be exploited by foreign powers. Similarly, the intelligence community has long been aware that China has vacuumed up 220 million American voter files and put itself in a position to meddle in future elections.

He also disclosed that the Homeland Security Department, by matching voter registrations with government databases, had identified tens of thousands of suspected foreigners who had improperly made it onto voter rolls. Some had even cast ballots.

The message: Election security is national security
Although Democrats in general have painted Trump as suppressing the vote of allegedly disenfranchised people, in the weeks that ensued, the Trump administration’s two-year effort to improve election integrity, grow the confidence of the American voting public and batten down the hatches on election security has come into clear focus. Here are the top 15 actions taken so far:

• The Justice Department and the Homeland Security Department have now prosecuted, arrested, or convicted more than 200 noncitizens or foreigners who illegally voted or illegally registered to vote in federal elections. It’s the largest in history, and it is a talking point that liberal activists often claim was a mere conspiracy theory. Results show near-daily arrests and court filings that show such fraud is more common than Democrats wanted to admit.

• War Secretary Pete Hegseth took steps to protect military voters by making it easier for military members and their families to vote. Hegseth ordered a one-day, military-wide voting stand-down day in October of each federal election year so that service members can register, request, and submit ballots in elections.

• The War Department also has closed loopholes in the absentee ballot application process that allowed purported U.S. citizens living overseas but have never lived in the United States to unlawfully get the same privileges reserved for service members abroad.

• The Department of Health and Human Services took steps to address numerous cases of nursing home residents who were taken advantage of by bad actors trying to steal their ballots or influence their votes. Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz issued nationwide guidance that made clear that vulnerable nursing home residents have the right to vote, to decline to vote, and to receive voting assistance from a trusted person. The goal was to keep activists inside such nursing facilities from interfering with or coercing nursing home residents to vote a certain way.

• U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon moved to keep private student data out of the hands of partisan NGOs that were using it to target students for voting. That included a “Dear Colleague” letter reminding all state and local education agencies that if they share private student data with partisan NGOs they are violating federal law and will lose their federal funding.

• The Department of Justice, under Attorney General Todd Blanche, recently opened an inquiry into Facebook billionaire founder Mark Zuckerberg having requested information from nonprofits he funded.

• DOJ is also seeking details about the use of state private motor vehicle data to allegedly help give Democrats an advantage in get-out-the-vote drives dating to 2020.

• The DOJ put state election officials on notice: if they violate federal election laws, they will be held accountable. That prompted an effort by some states and liberal activists to try to block such warning letters.

• Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s team at the Census Bureau is proposing a major overhaul for the 2030 Census to make sure that the number of US citizens are properly counted, avoiding repetition of mistakes from the 2020 Census. That mistake yielded least 5 erroneous Democratic House seats

• Homeland’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has gotten out of the business of censoring Americans’ political speech that it considered disinformation and returned the focus to ensuring state and local election officials have the tools that they need to keep our elections safe.

• CISA issued an historic report exposing the vulnerabilities in electronic voting systems and outlining commonsense mitigation strategies to ensure that election results are not impacted by manipulation or “glitches.”

• The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service has analyzed millions of publicly available voter files and identified tens of thousands of suspected foreigners who actually cast ballots. That has led to the enforcement crackdown by the DOJ, the FBI, and Homeland Security.

• FEMA has conditioned over a billion dollars of Homeland Security grant money on election security measures – like post-election manual audits of paper ballots and making sure the number of ballots cast does not surpass the number of voters in the election.

• Homeland Secretary Markwayne Mullin has made referrals to the DOJ regarding vulnerabilities in electronic voting systems that count votes on QR Codes and barcodes. DOJ is reviewing this information to determine if those systems comply with federal law or can be maliciously exploited.

• Trump has made the SAVE system at USCIS available at no cost to state and local election officials, enabling states to identify and scrub nearly 500,000 dead people from voter rolls.

Read more …

If this goes against ‘the real’ Dan Sullivan, how ugly will it get?

• Alaska’s Decoy Scandal Brings Back the Usual Suspects (Turley)

Marc Elias is back. The notorious Democratic lawyer who played a critical role in the 2016 Russia hoax is again in the news. His law firm has been identified by the New York Times as part of the expanding scandal involving Democratic effort to confuse voters in Alaska with a decoy candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan.


For those familiar with Elias’s checkered history, this is a case of rounding up the usual suspects.

The scandal involving Democratic candidate Mary Peltola has quickly snowballed this week. A New York Times blockbuster investigative report quotes former staff who claim she knew of a cynical effort by her own campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to confuse voters by recruiting and fielding a decoy “Dan Sullivan” candidate in the race against incumbent Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan (R-Alaska). State and federal investigations are now unfolding, with dozens of federal subpoenas raining down on Alaska.

The effort to get voters to cast mistaken ballots is grossly unethical and, even in these rage-filled times, a uniquely disgraceful scheme. Peltola and the Democratic Party had long denied any involvement in the other Sullivan’s candidacy. So when the Times produced evidence that she allegedly knew, and that Democratic staffers and lawyers had been deeply involved from the beginning, many of us were surprised — that is, until the name “Marc Elias” emerged. Then it made more sense.

The Elias Law Group was already in the news this election cycle for threatening reporters with defamation lawsuits if they kept asking questions about the health of former Gov. Roy Cooper, the Democratic nominee for Senate in North Carolina. Earlier, Elias caused a stir during an unsuccessful Democratic gerrymandering effort, raising the idea that Democratic leaders could abolish the entire Virginia government after courts blocked their attempted radical redistricting plan.

The fact that figures such as Peltola and Cooper wanted to be associated with any law firm headed by Elias is itself an indictment of their judgment and standards. Despite his losses in cases such as National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission, Elias is still a favorite of many on the left thanks to his aggression and partisan fervor. The controversies that make him notorious to many make him popular with others.

Elias was the general counsel to the Clinton presidential campaign when it secretly funded the infamous Steele Dossier and pushed the false Alfa Bank conspiracy theory. (His fellow Perkins Coie partner, Michael Sussmann, was later indicted but acquitted for making a false statement to the FBI.)

Clinton campaign officials lied to reporters during the 2016 campaign, denying any involvement in the Steele Dossier. Journalists discovered the truth after the election — that the Clinton campaign had hidden payments for the dossier as “legal fees” among the $5.6 million paid to Perkins Coie. New York Times reporter Ken Vogel said that when he tried to report the story, Elias “pushed back vigorously, saying ‘You (or your sources) are wrong.’”

Times reporter Maggie Haberman later observed that “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year.” The Federal Election Commission ultimately sanctioned the Clinton campaign for the subterfuge.

While raising money as the self-proclaimed defenders of democracy, Elias’s group has been involved in gerrymandering and efforts criticized as seeking to invalidate Republican votes, including unsuccessful efforts to challenge Democratic electoral losses.

In Maryland, Elias’s team supported another abusive gerrymandering scheme that a court found not only violated Maryland law but the state constitution’s equal protection, free speech and free elections clauses. The court found that the proposed map “subverts the will of those governed.” One media site accused Elias and his group of “making millions off gerrymandering efforts” while publicly denouncing Republican gerrymandering.

In 2024, Elias’s legal team was also accused of pushing “to bar third-party presidential candidates — including Cornel West — from swing state ballots where they might siphon votes” from Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Likewise, the New York Times reported that the Elias firm’s work “on behalf of a Soros-funded PAC in Texas … was opposed by a left-leaning election watchdog as undermining laws intended to limit the influence of major donors.”

His group’s work for New York’s redistricting effort was ridiculed as not only ignoring the express will of the voters and also effectively negating Republicans’ votes. In 2024, the Chief Judge of the Western District of Wisconsin criticized the Elias Law Group for one of its challenges. Judge James Peterson (an Obama appointee) said that the argument “simply does not make any sense.”

Now, Elias’s group is linked to the decoy scandal in Alaska, which allegedly aimed to make voters cast mistaken ballots. What distinguishes lawyers involved in this type of voter disruption is less their talent as their willingness. There are simply some things that most lawyers will not do.

There is also a difference in how lawyers are treated in such controversies. It often seems that election controversies involving Republican lawyers are more likely to end with bar charges and disbarments. Take John Eastman, the former Trump lawyer disbarred in California after a state bar panel found that he had pushed unfounded legal theories and conspired to obstruct the electoral vote count on Jan. 6, 2021.

Although I publicly disagreed with Eastman’s theories, I opposed the effort to disbar him as setting a dangerous precedent for lawyers seeking to advance novel or unpopular theories of recovery or liability. After all, lawyers on the left routinely advance dubious theories, including some that are more ideologically than legally driven. Such controversies rarely rise to the level of disbarment, especially when more appropriate sanctions are available, ranging from reprimands to fines.

Eastman is currently asking the Supreme Court to overturn his disbarment. It is unlikely that Elias Law Group or Peltola’s lawyers will face similar disbarment efforts — nor should they, in my view, unless they were involved in criminal conduct. But the disparate treatment afforded to counsel in this country by party remains a growing concern. What draws a shower of bar complaints for Republican lawyers brings a windfall of clients for Democratic lawyers.

The New York Times has produced sources alleging that lawyers for Peltola’s campaign were involved in this effort, even though they previously told a federal court that they “lack knowledge or information” and “deny any allegation about those purposes.” Such filings and statements could raise ethical or even criminal questions in investigations at both the state and federal levels.

Meanwhile, though, tens of thousands of voters in Alaska have already cast ballots that included the decoy Sullivan candidate. This could result in a nasty fight in Congress if Peltola prevails in the vote count. And when it happens, that is where we will find Marc Elias in his element.

Read more …

After today no more Abdul?

• Is Abdul El-Sayed’s Campaign Imploding? (Margolis)

Two days before Election Day, Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate campaign looks like it’s imploding. That’s a stunning development, because campaigns are typically heavily controlled operations.


“Every word. Every image. Every debate quip,” Spencer Pratt noted last month. “Everything, down to the color of the font you choose, is calculated to invoke a specific feeling, and most of the time, it’s easy to decipher what the campaign is trying to convey with these choices, and that is the goal.” Pratt added, “You don’t get to choose everything that happens in the campaign, but you do THINK about everything that happens in a campaign and choose your strategy for presenting it to the public or spinning it.”

What’s happening with El-Sayed’s campaign right now defies every bit of that. A Sunday unity event meant to make peace between El-Sayed and Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), the rival he narrowly beat in a bitter August primary, has collapsed into a public feud on the eve of the election. The cause? El-Sayed won’t denounce a blatantly antisemitic ad.

The New York Times laid out the mess on Saturday. “Ms. Stevens and Dr. [sic] El-Sayed, who have been publicly quarreling for days about Israel, were initially expected to attend the Sunday event together, part of an effort by Representatives Debbie Dingell of Michigan and James E. Clyburn of South Carolina to broker a peace between the two Democrats days before a critical election.

It was unclear if Ms. Stevens, who lost to Dr. [sic] El-Sayed by less than a percentage point in a bitter August primary, would abide by his request that she stay away from the event.But by Saturday night, it appeared that the late-hour push by Democratic leaders to bridge the rift between Dr. [sic] El-Sayed, a progressive, and Ms. Stevens, a moderate, may have badly backfired.

Democrats in Michigan were left to confront how little they had to show for a three-month push to coalesce after one of the state’s most bruising primary races in memory. And Democrats across the country were anxiously wondering if the bickering between Dr. [sic] El-Sayed and Ms. Stevens might sink his chances in a race that could determine control of the Senate.

When the Times starts openly fretting that Democrats could lose the Senate over a temper tantrum, you know things have gotten ugly. Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) organized Sunday’s event specifically to bring the two camps together. Stevens set one condition for showing up on Sunday. El-Sayed had to denounce a viral ad from Rebellion PAC that shows a couple who can’t afford groceries because of Israel. El-Sayed’s campaign didn’t make the ad, but prominent Democrats haven’t stopped calling on him to condemn it.

And yet he’s refused. Speaking to reporters after a rally in Sterling Heights, outside Detroit, El-Sayed made his feelings about Stevens’ attendance clear. “I don’t want any distractions,” he said. Pressed about the ad and his fight with Stevens, El-Sayed dug in deeper. “It seems as though other folks are more interested in making this race about things that it’s not about,” he insisted.

Sorry, but an ad blaming Jews for grocery prices isn’t a distraction. It’s the whole story. Even Clyburn’s camp isn’t playing along. Clyburn said Saturday he had “no idea” whether Stevens would show up, and his adviser Antjuan Seawright made it plain who was running the show. “This is not Abdul’s event. … The invitation still stands,” Seawright said.

A party that can’t get its own Senate nominee to condemn open Jew-hatred has a much bigger problem than one disastrous weekend in Michigan. But this stuff shouldn’t be happening this close to the election. It feels like an implosion.

Read more …

“The trouble started with a blatantly antisemitic ad from Rebellion PAC, a group supporting El-Sayed, that pins high grocery prices on American financial support for Israel.”

• The Nail in the Coffin of El-Sayed’s Campaign (Matt Margolis)

The feud between Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and Democrat Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed has been simmering for a while now, and this weekend it exploded in spectacular fashion.


Stevens lost to El-Sayed in a heated Democrat primary and, like a good party soldier, endorsed him afterward. But the two never stopped clashing over one particular issue. Stevens is staunchly pro-Israel. El-Sayed has thrown his support behind Gaza and regularly attacks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

The truce between them was fragile from the start, and Democrat leaders tried their hardest to hold it together. On Friday, Stevens announced she had accepted an invitation from Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) to join El-Sayed at a Detroit church service. Clyburn and Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) organized the Sunday event for one purpose: to get the two camps in the same room and patch things up before Election Day.

It didn’t last. The trouble started with a blatantly antisemitic ad from Rebellion PAC, a group supporting El-Sayed, that pins high grocery prices on American financial support for Israel. El-Sayed had an easy out. All he had to do was condemn the ad. Instead, he refused and brushed off the whole controversy as a distraction.

“It seems as though other folks are more interested in making this race about things that it’s not about,” he insisted. So the unity summit collapsed. Stevens still went to church in Detroit on Sunday alongside Mike Rogers, the Republican running against El-Sayed. For a Democrat who had endorsed El-Sayed just months earlier, that alone would have been a stunning rebuke.


Ahh, but there’s more… Soon after the service, Stevens posted a video to X endorsing Mike Rogers for the U.S. Senate. Hey, Michigan. As you may have seen, our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Abdul [El-Sayed], said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away,” Stevens said. “And he’s right. And that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today.”

Stevens clearly felt she couldn’t pretend to back the antisemitic El-Sayed anymore, and she aimed at the company he keeps. “I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign,” she continued. “I do not stand with Hasan Piker, who gets trafficked on our college campuses.”Piker, the far-left streamer, has built a huge following among young leftists with his relentless anti-Israel commentary. Citing a friend who reminded her that education is on the ballot, Stevens turned to what Michigan’s kids are watching.

“And what our students see, what our children see, and who we are as Michiganders is not hate and is not, what we are getting out from our Democratic nominee right now,” she said. She was careful to stress that she hasn’t switched teams. “I’m still a very proud Democrat,” Stevens added.


This is a huge sucker punch to the El-Sayed campaign, and it’s a devastating blow that was entirely self-inflicted. He could have ended the controversy with a single sentence. Instead, he doubled down on antisemitism. The fallout could be enormous. Stevens built real support across Michigan during her primary run, and plenty of those voters share her views on Israel. Michigan elections often hinge on crossover Democrats and independents, and Stevens just handed every one of them permission to vote for Rogers.

Bigotry against Jews is still bigotry, and thankfully, there are still some in the Democrat Party who get that. Their numbers have shrunk, and their party keeps testing their patience. But every time one of them puts conscience ahead of a party label, it proves that the line between right and wrong still means something, and that decent voters can still find each other across the aisle.

Read more …

Two excellent pieces by Shurk.

“The Democrat party is a monster that must be defeated.”

“The only impediment to the Democrats’ complete takeover of the Judiciary is the Supreme Court — or, more accurately, the stalwart defense of the Constitution coming from the jurisprudence of Justice Thomas and Justice Alito.”

• End the Democrats’ Horror Movie (J.B. Shurk)

It seems morbidly appropriate that America’s midterm elections come right after Halloween. What the Democrat Party offers voters this year is the culmination of many decades of cultural rot, psychopathy, and anti-Americanism. It feels as if we’re in the middle of a scary movie, doesn’t it? Are we hanging from the edge of a cliff? Yes. Are there evil monsters chasing us down? Yes. Does it seem as if every choice we make could be our last? Yes.


What the Democrat Party has become is truly horrific. Like Frankenstein’s monster, its political body is comprised of dead parts: Islamic supremacy, racial grievance, class warfare, cultural Marxism, cultish communism, child sacrifice, child mutilation, sexual deviance, and pagan gods. Everything the Democrats celebrate today is disgusting, gruesome, and deserving of an R-rating.

A lot of Americans have drifted from the Democrat to the Republican Party over the last few decades. It is apt that the two Republican presidents of the last century that Republican voters rate most highly — President Reagan and President Trump — both spent parts of their lives as members of the Democrat Party.

There was a time when Republicans and Democrats were not so different. President Kennedy’s low-tax, pro-manufacturing policies were very similar to Trump’s economic growth agenda today. Kennedy Democrats included anti-communist military veterans who would feel right at home in this century’s Republican Party.

Blue-collar workers who once identified as Democrats have realized that President Trump’s MAGA-fied Republican Party is the only party interested in supercharging the number of industrial and manufacturing jobs in the United States. Democrats (including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and communist darling Bernie Sanders) once campaigned for secure national borders and against illegal immigration — the very things that they demonize today.

What does it say about the Democrat Party that it has abandoned almost every salient belief that it once held dear? Democrats used to defend free speech, no matter how offensive the language. Now they censor dissenting points of view and justify the use of violence to stop “hate speech.”

Democrats used to believe that a person’s character is more important than the color of that person’s skin. Now they obsess over skin color and treat white people as second-class citizens. mDemocrats used to champion equality of opportunity for women. Now they punish high school girls who object to being forced to change in the same locker rooms as confused boys and ridicule girls who refuse to compete against boys in girls’ sports.

The Democrat Party used to include a huge number of hunters, military veterans, and other Americans who accepted the responsibility of self-defense. Now Democrats vilify gun owners as if they were domestic terrorists while protecting violent criminals who use weapons against innocent Americans.

The Democrat Party used to include a huge number of practicing Catholics, devout Protestants, and observant Jews. It included thoughtful scholars such as Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, whose report on black poverty recognized marriage as the lynchpin to social mobility. It included cultural groups, civic organizations, and clubs that promoted strong, healthy families.

Now Democrats dismiss marriage and the nuclear family as vestiges of “patriarchy” and “white supremacy.” They use their power over legal associations and medical boards to promote the castration and mutilation of children. Many Democrats promote promiscuity and sexual fetishization as “healthy” lifestyles and not-so-subtly endorse incest, bestiality, and pedophilia.

At what point does it not become obvious that the Democrat Party has become the “safe space” for grotesque evils? When an illegal alien rapes and/or murders an American girl, Democrats in public office and Democrats working as “journalists” show more compassion for the rapist/murderer than they do for the broken victim.

This is monstrous, abhorrent, anti-American behavior that I would not have thought possible thirty years ago. Most of us remember a time when Americans took care of and protected other Americans. We beat back those who threatened our peace, and we hunted monsters that hurt American children. Now Democrats describe the monsters among us as victims and ignore the dead American girls and their suffering American families altogether. What a ghoulish, soulless party the Democrats have become.

Last week, an illegal alien from Mexico used a sledgehammer to damage an Iwo Jima monument in Quantico, Virginia, and during his act of desecration, the foreigner beheaded one of the statues depicting American marines’ utmost sacrifice in the Pacific Theater during the Second World War. The Battle of Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest conflicts in American history, and three of the men depicted in that monument never came home. Decapitating a hero’s likeness is an act of hatred against America and disrespect for all American veterans.

Nevertheless, Democrat politicians and Democrat “journalists” ignored the story as much as possible, and when forced to acknowledge it, Democrats blamed the incident on a generic “Virginia man,” as if the crime were a minor act of vandalism of no significance.

This is how little respect Democrats have for American heroes, American history, and American sacrifice. Democrats in office and Democrats in newsrooms write glowing propaganda in defense of foreign nationals who have no business being in the United States, but they completely disregard the vile acts of destruction that monsters perpetrate against American citizens and their cherished symbols.

We also know that if Democrats regain Congress and the presidency, the worst is yet to come.

President Obama and President Biden are responsible for over two-thirds of the district court judges currently on the bench. This is why some federal judge is always inventing laws or parts of the Constitution that do not exist or usurping Article II powers that belong to President Trump. The only impediment to the Democrats’ complete takeover of the Judiciary is the Supreme Court — or, more accurately, the stalwart defense of the Constitution coming from the jurisprudence of Justice Thomas and Justice Alito.

Democrats have made no secret of their plans to get rid of the Senate filibuster should they achieve a simple governing majority. With fifty Democrat senators and a Democrat in the White House in January 2029, they will unleash a barrage of legislation and finish the “fundamental transformation” of the United States government that began in earnest during Obama’s presidency.

Democrats will recognize the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico as new states, adding four more Democrat senators to the upper chamber. Democrats will once again open America’s borders to foreign invasion and grant mass amnesty and citizenship to any foreigner in the world. By doing so, Democrats will greatly expand the number of Democrat voters and obtain an insurmountable supermajority in the House of Representatives.

As they have repeatedly promised, Democrats will add at least six new justices to the Supreme Court, ensuring complete ideological control over the federal judiciary. In three quick moves, the Democrat Party will successfully erect a one-party political system with permanent power over the federal government — indistinguishable from the monopoly power that the Chinese Communist Party has enjoyed since 1949.

That’s how fast Islamo-communism and the European Union’s brand of totalitarian globalism will take over the United States if Americans don’t fight back. We know what happens then. Democrat Senator Elissa Slotkin and her collaborators have promised to lock up Trump supporters. Democrat Senator Adam Schiff and Democrat Senator Chris Murphy promise to censor political dissent on social media — effectively killing the First Amendment.

The Democrat-controlled IRS, FBI, and DOJ will once again persecute us as “potential domestic terrorists.” Democrats will kill the Second Amendment and come for our firearms. Democrats will use taxpayer dollars to fund their Antifa paramilitary and NGO armies and direct them to burn down cities and attack Americans. Democrats will celebrate the assassination of Charlie Kirk and incite their followers to murder more of us.

Avoid this horror movie. Vote Republican on Tuesday.

Read more …

“Half a billion Europeans should be able to defend themselves.”

“Europe does not create new things; it steals (and taxes) America’s innovation and ingenuity. Europe does not build things; it depends on China for industrial output and manufacturing. Europe does not produce enough energy; even while declaring Russia its enemy, much of Europe depends upon Russian oil and gas to survive.”

• The Jungle Devours Europe (J.B. Shurk)

The European Union has over four-hundred-fifty million people. The non-E.U. nations of Europe — including the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Moldova, and Albania but excluding Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Turkey — have another hundred million people. Combined, Europe has over two hundred million more people than the United States and over four hundred million more people than the Russian Federation. As an “associate member” of the E.U., Canada would give Europe another forty million bodies.


There is no reason why Europe should struggle to defend itself with this kind of population advantage. In fact, it is downright embarrassing that it depends on Americans from the other side of the ocean to secure its borders when the United States (with its significantly smaller population) has military obligations throughout the world. It has been eighty years since the Second World War, and somehow the European Establishment still hasn’t figured out how to survive without American money and muscle.

Professors and pundits toss out all kinds of reasons why this is the case: The Europeans were saddled with debt and destruction after two continental wars within thirty years and had to rebuild much of their infrastructure and manufacturing capacity. As the Soviet Union and the U.S.-led allies carved up post-war Europe, the Cold War froze the continent in a state of transition for the next half-century. U.S. political leaders embraced America’s transformation into a global empire with global responsibilities. Peace in post-WWII Europe seemed fragile, and parts of Europe appeared broken; two generations had been lost to war and depression, and a sense of nihilism extinguished much of the early-twentieth-century exuberance that pervaded the continent before the First World War.

All of this is true. Still, there is no excuse for the continent to be struggling with the responsibilities of political sovereignty four generations after the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Josep Borrell, the E.U.’s former high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said in a speech four years ago, “Europe is a garden. We have built a garden.” After a heavy pause, he then observed, “The rest of the world…is not exactly a garden. Most of the rest of the world is a jungle. The jungle could invade the garden. The gardeners should take care of it.”

Political leaders from around the world took umbrage at Borrell’s condescending view of non-European nations and saw in his garden/jungle demarcation the residual bigotry of European colonialism.

Aside from his rather tone-deaf description of Europe, though, Borrell’s view of the continent seems anachronistic. European greatness hasn’t existed for more than a century. Most of the noble houses have fallen, while most of the extant aristocrats live in obscurity.

Europe does not create new things; it steals (and taxes) America’s innovation and ingenuity. Europe does not build things; it depends on China for industrial output and manufacturing. Europe does not produce enough energy; even while declaring Russia its enemy, much of Europe depends upon Russian oil and gas to survive. Europe does not mine anything; it depends upon child slaves in Africa to do its heavy lifting. Europe does not have babies; it depends upon mass immigration for population replacement.

Europe does not generate real economic growth; it depends upon central bank magic tricks, investment bank commissions, and government spending to conjure the illusion of a functioning economy. Finally, Europe does not defend itself; it depends upon NATO, which is to say that it depends upon the United States of America to protect its half a billion people from real and imagined enemies.

If Europe is a “garden,” it is because the rest of the planet allows it to exist as one. It would have no vegetation if the “jungle” did not supply it with imports; it would have no “gardeners” if America did not secure Europe’s lands and keep trespassers out.

The United States is the only reason that Europe is not part of the “jungle” today. Americans have subsidized Europe’s economy for eighty years by allowing Europe to enjoy the advantages of one-way tariffs against U.S. manufacturers and the security umbrella of America’s military might. Europe survives because of the kindness of strangers living in towns across America.

This one-sided relationship cannot continue as it has for most of the last century. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her Eurocentric friends in Brussels, Berlin, London, and Paris believe that their “garden” should remain the focus of the world. They believe that their “climate change” fanaticism should drive economic regulation around the globe. They believe that their International Criminal Court should be the planet’s chief arbiter of “justice.” They believe that their multicultural, cosmopolitan, Marxist-socialist brand of globalism should become a kind of secular religion for all nations. In essence, Europe wants to force the “jungle” to play by its rules.

But this is not how the “law of the jungle” operates.

The lions, elephants, hippos, and hyenas don’t have any use for Brussels bureaucracy. They see no need to bow down to unelected Queen Ursula or to respect her “European values.” They do not cripple their food supplies out of misplaced devotion to “global warming” gods. They do not outlaw oil and gas exploration, bankrupt refineries, or shutter nuclear power plants while depending upon adversaries and enemies to keep the lights on and the heat flowing. They do not outsource their security to jungle predators with the misguided expectation of not becoming prey.

The jungle doesn’t stop at the garden’s entrance just because the old empires from the last millennium like to pretend that they still matter.

In the capitals of Europe, incompetent gardeners continue to insist that everything will be fine just as soon as they can expel disruptive forces such as Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump. So long as they can censor social media platforms, Europe’s gardeners will be able to disseminate the “proper narratives” to the masses. So long as they can force “green energy” regulations on China, India, Russia, and the United States, Europe’s gardeners will be able to regulate markets and limit the jungle’s economic growth. So long as they can replace their own people with foreign immigrants, Europe’s gardeners will be able to sufficiently “divide and conquer” their own populations.

But you cannot invite the jungle into the garden and expect the garden to survive. The jungle grows fast, and the garden requires too much attention. Without the means to beat back the jungle, the garden is eventually overrun.

This is Europe’s last chance at survival. If it does not put down its ideological obsessions and pick up the tools needed for real economic growth, Europe will be impoverished. If it does not relinquish its love for bureaucratic regulation and free its workers so that they may prosper, Europe will become irrelevant. If it does not give up its “rules-based” delusions and build walls for its own defense, Europe will be devoured.

The jungle does not care that old cathedrals, monuments, and palaces exist all over Europe. The jungle does not care about Europe’s past glories. Europe is just another place for the jungle to conquer next.

Half a billion people should have a say about Europe’s future. They should not have to follow Queen Ursula, Chancellor Merz, President Macron, Prime Minister Burnham, or Prime Minister Carney down the path toward extinction. They should not have to watch their economies implode while the gardeners promise them nothing but “climate change” austerity and nuclear war with Russia. The people of Europe should not have to behave as statues for the gardeners while everything around them is destroyed.

For eighty years, Europe’s leaders have failed to bring peace and prosperity to the continent. For the garden to live, the gardeners must go.

Read more …

“Lukoil Remains a Target Until U.S. Gives Weapons..”

It’s not Ukraine vs Russia.

The “rest of NATO” is attacking the US.

Trump says he doesn’t want Zelensky (read: the West) to attack Russia’s energy. It happens anyway.

• Zelenskyy Outlines Clouded Threats to Trump (CTH)

Against the background of the Oleshky ceasefire, Fox News’ Trey Yingst sat down with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss the current situation in the ongoing NATO proxy conflict with the Russian Federation.


Zelenskyy’s recent attacks into Russia, or at least to the extent we can call them ‘Zelenskyy’s attacks’ when we really don’t know what interests are directing the targeting, have been hitting very specific Russian energy infrastructure. Ukraine targeted Novokuybyshevsk oil refinery, and another big refinery in the Samara oblast owned by the Russian state energy giant Rosneft.

Then came another major drone strike. According to ASTRA on November 1, a drone attack targeted the LUKOIL refinery, also known as NORSI, in the city of Kstovo. The facility is among Russia’s five largest oil refineries and has an annual processing capacity of approximately 15–17 million metric tons of crude oil. The NORSI refinery produces gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel, fuel oil, bitumen, and other petroleum products. It is Lukoil’s largest facility.

You can see from the insert (image above) the drone attacks into the city of Kstovo travelled a considerable distance to reach their LUKOIL target. It should also be noted that since the time of the Trump administration’s requests to stop targeting Russian oil refining capacity, Ukraine has actually expanded those attacks specifically targeting refining capacity.

The attacks against Russian oil refining in the Samara region happened at the same time western media attention was following the ceasefire in Oleshky, southern Ukraine. The full geopolitical context here needs to be considered.

Ukraine officials told the Kyiv Independent newspaper they never agreed to a request from President Trump, Emissary Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to pause refinery strikes for 30 days. The raids on Russia restarted during the ceasefire in Oleshky apparently as Zelenskyy sought to take advantage of the media distraction. As a consequence, Kremlin officials said, Kyiv was “simply ignoring” US wishes.

The strikes deep into Russia also restarted immediately following statements last week by Zelenskyy about the full restoration of their ability to use Starlink satellite guidance systems. The timing cannot be simply coincidental.

Last month President Trump lifted US sanctions on Russian diesel in an effort to lower the global impact of rising diesel fuel prices. What Zelenskyy is doing is not only counter to the request from the U.S. administration but is factually counter to the interests of everyone living in Europe including -in the longer term- Ukraine.

The continued strikes against oil refineries only benefit a narrow segment of western financial and banking interests. However, those stakeholders are the same interests attempting to use NATO to expand conflict with Russia and remove the roadblock that President Trump represents.

This sets the stage for Fox News’ Trey Yingst to ask Zelenskyy specifically about the targeting of Russian oil refining against the backdrop of President Trump requesting he stop. Zelenskyy never answers the question, instead he deflects and says if President Trump gives Ukraine patriot missiles, then Ukraine will consider stopping their attacks against Russian oil refineries. WATCH:

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The people behind Zelenskyy, essentially all these western financial interests who operate within NATO, ultimately do not want President Trump and President Putin to form a strategic partnership. Which circles back to the catch-22: Canada, the U.K and Europe are all facing the same problem…. MONEY! Where are they going to come up with the funds to pay for a military investment they have declined to make for the past 50+ years?

It’s not just an issue of finding funds for a standing military, hardware, ships, submarines, aircraft, tanks, heavy and light artillery, missiles and drones etc., they also have to fund the technological capabilities to use and deploy modern weapons. They need advanced manufacturing, steel works, technological guidance systems, large numbers of strategically placed satellites, a space program that includes rockets to put them into orbit, and much, much more.

At scale this is multiple trillions, and that doesn’t include the baseline manufacturing systems needed to create all this independent infrastructure. It’s one thing to say, ‘we will build out our military capacity’, and it’s another thing entirely to actually build it.

Does Canada or Europe even have the human resources (engineering) to create all this infrastructure? Think about it. Then overlay three decades of an energy ideology that expressly limits their capability to even follow through with such an endeavor.

When you really stand back and look at the required level of investment needed, in addition to the time it takes to build all of the ancillary processes that are required to meet such an expressed objective, it really puts the position of the Canadian, British and European opposition to President Trump into context.

What is more feasible? Doing what is required to build-out your own military defense systems; or is it simply easier to get rid of the person who stops you from using the USA as your standing army? 25+ years of Global Warming, Climate Change, Net Zero, Carbon Trading, Carbon Taxing, Build Back Better etc. advocacy, revolves around the singularity of one issue, energy production.

From that baseline the western nemesis of a multi-trillion investment and banking system, built around the destruction of the coal, oil and gas carbon-based energy sector is Russia. Additionally, over the past 10 years as western interests have stopped building oil refining capacity, Russia has expanded oil refining capacity. All ‘modern’ opposition to Russia in the last 25 years, is now culminating…. But the root is something everyone misses. The root commonality of interests is Energy Production and the carbon-trading schemes.

The advocates for the system of dependencies created by the “climate change/net zero” energy processes are the same advocates who have created carbon-trading exchanges. And those same advocates supporting Ukraine are specifically supporting the targeting of Russian energy production vis-a-vis Russian oil refineries.

The British, European and Canadian climate change group (ideology, banking and finance) – what Mark Carney called the “middle powers” – versus the USA, Russia, China, Mexico, South/Central America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. That’s an interesting geopolitical contest.


Russian President Vladimir Putin has inquired about the potential for the U.S. to remove sanctions against Lukoil, a quasi-private energy company based out of Russia. Before, getting too weedy about it, remind yourself of the statements that surfaced during the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, August, 2025.

You might remember that both the U.S and Russia spoke of strategic partnerships surrounding the energy sector. Obviously, this makes sense when we consider the “west” is actually fractured on the topic of energy. There are two competing interests that overlap in the financial side of the issue, the ‘trillions at stake’ aspect.

On one side you have the “climate change” team, those who are fully invested (literally) in the financial mechanisms of the climate change, green new deal, build back better talking points. The Green Energy team in the west. The Paris Climate Treaty and carbon-trading proponents et al.

On the other side you have the pragmatic energy team in the west. These are the Trump-minded and aligned western perspectives that look at oil, natural gas (LNG), clean coal and nuclear technology. These are the “all the above” aligned voices in the more pragmatic view of low-cost energy production and development.

In the middle, between both sides of the fracture, are the banking and finance systems. This is the BIG MONEY play, with the Climate Change team supported by banking ideology inside the city of London, while the Carbon Use team is constantly having to assemble finance and insurance from outside the banking control mechanisms.

The Climate Change team have support based on ideology within the finance system. However, the Carbon Use team have the advantage of low-price outputs, global dependency and actual profits as leverage. This is a fight essentially inside the larger energy sector, and we are all very familiar with it because it has been happening for decades.

Read more …

“Investors worry whether hundreds of billions put into AI development will bring the profits companies have promised..”

• AI Reality Check Triggers $2 Trillion Tech Stock Rout (RT)

An estimated $2 trillion in market value was wiped from the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 during October as investors grow increasingly skeptical that enormous spending on artificial intelligence will ever pay off.


On Friday, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.9% in its biggest one-day fall since June. Over the whole month, the Nasdaq shed about 5.2%, its worst showing since March 2025, while the S&P 500 slipped 1.2%, and the Dow – which includes many traditional businesses – still finished October up 1.5%.

Among the hardest-hit companies was Google owner Alphabet, whose shares plunged 12.6% on Thursday in its worst day on record. The slump was triggered by its earnings showing slower growth in search advertising, its core business.

While search advertising revenue still grew 12%, Google executive Philipp Schindler acknowledged that its AI Mode brings in less ad revenue per search than traditional results. At the same time, Alphabet is spending heavily on AI infrastructure, putting further pressure on its cash flow. The company’s net profit also slid 25% year-on-year, largely due to investment-related losses, while Thursday’s share plunge erased nearly $500 billion from its market value.

Amazon reported negative free cash flow of $42.4 billion over the preceding 12 months, largely due to AI investments, with its shares falling 1.4% on Friday. Chipmaker Intel came out worse, plunging 28.6%, its worst day since 1974, after forecasting weaker profits amid trouble in its PC and manufacturing businesses.

Nvidia – which produces powerful chips used to train and run AI systems – slipped 4.2%, becoming the biggest drag on the S&P 500, while rival AMD dropped 10.9%.

Commenting on the slump, Globalt Investments senior portfolio manager Keith Buchanan, described the current state of the market as “scrutinizing” and “discerning”. “Last year was hope. This year is: At the end of day, how does this all work in real-world terms, like how to finance [it] and who gets the economics. Those questions are much more difficult to answer,” he told CNBC.

Enormous spending on AI and data centers has become a staple of US tech giants in recent years. Together, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Alphabet are projected to spend more than $700 billion on data centers, computing equipment and other long-term investments in 2026 alone, and much of it is AI-related.

According to various estimates, global AI-related investment is valued at between $900 billion and $2.7 trillion dollars this year, depending on the methodology. Companies are also borrowing more to finance expansion, fueling concerns among investors.

Market analysts meanwhile warn of further near-term losses. Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett expects weakness until mid-November, while Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson says the S&P 500 could fall even further within weeks before recovering by year-end.

Other major tests for the US market are the midterm elections on Tuesday, which could reshape AI regulation, as well as quarterly results from Apple, Nvidia, AMD and Palantir, and Friday’s jobs report.

Read more …

“..the left’s march through the institutions is now undoing classical music..”

In 1999, on the verge of the new millenium, some org (Edge.org?) asked people to name the no. 1 invention/achievement in mankind’s history.

Most said penicillin, moon landing, etc, the obvious things.

One person said: the symphony orchestra.

• The Erasure of Western Civilization Accelerates (Paul Craig Roberts)

Heather Mac Donald is an outstanding reporter and analyst of America’s woke era, which might be America’s last era as wokism is a civilization-killer. Her article, “The Boston Symphony Surrenders,” in the Autumn 2026 issue of City Journal masterfully explains the defeat of Western civilization by DEI.


In previous issues, she lowered the boom on curators of two of America’s most important museums who regard the artistic treasures under their control as racist artifacts and use them as exhibits of white racism. I already knew that Western civilization was drawing its last breath, and her articles convinced me that destruction of the Western belief system was complete.

In her current article she explains that the left’s march through the institutions is now undoing classical music.

In his 12 years as conductor and artistic leader of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons revived the orchestra’s finances with rising ticket sales and earned the love and respect of the orchestra and public. The Boston Symphony had been impoverished by its management class. Mac Donald reports: “In 1965, the BSO had about half a dozen managerial staff serving 100 musicians–a ratio of roughly 14 instrumentalists to every administrator. By 2025, while the orchestra still consisted of about 100 musicians, the ratio of musicians to administrators was close to parity.”

The management class, of course, blamed difficulties on classical music’s lack of wide appeal and in an ill-considered decision hired DEI champion Chad Smith (not the famous rock drummer–he would have been better) as president and CEO of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the autumn of 2023. Less than two and one-half years later Andris Nelsons was removed for opposing subordination of standards to diversity.

Chad Smith’s position is that classical music does not “expansively and inclusively serve our communities.” He said that the orchestra was not serving young people who do not see themselves reflected in classical music. Smith’s enthusiasm was not for artistic merit and performance but for race- and gender-based programing and hiring. Artistic merit rang of white racism. The orchestra should be playing multicultural and multidisciplinary combinations of Arabic, Brazilian, and rap music, not isolating music by Mozart and Beethoven.

Nelsons had introduced some non-classical music into performances, but he was not prepared to sacrifice the core repertoire and artistic performance to “community values” of those with no appreciation for classical music. As for hearing “community voices,” Mac Donald asks the right question: “Isn’t classical music about hearing composers’ voices?”

Chad Smith’s intent of marching through the Boston Symphony is about transforming the orchestra from an artistic achievement into a babel of voices, and Chad Smith regarded Andris Nelsons as in the way of DEI’s war on merit.

The Boston Symphony paid a high price for the diversity that neither the musicians nor the audiences wanted. In 2025 the Leipzig Orchestra voted another 7 year extension of its contract with Nelsons as that orchestra’s chief conductor. Last June Nelsons was presented with Germany’s most prestigious musical award as Conductor of the Year.

Clearly, the board of the BSO consists of weak-minded and weak-willed non-entities who have betrayed a treasure entrusted to their care. DEI is taking another piece of civilization away from us. Hold on to your classical music records, tapes, and CDs as live performances of classical music are on their way out.

Ballet will be the next artistic performance to disappear from Western civilization. Ballet will probably continue to exist only in Russia as America advances down its path to becoming a Sodom & Gomorrah Tower of Babel.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2117216165718089862?a=Bm3gvxhl_cbkzEcaSWE&s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle November 2 2026

Nov 022026
 
 November 2, 2026  Posted by at 10:24 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  17 Responses »


Edward Hopper Hotel lobby 1943


• Qatar Signals Talks ‘Breakthrough’ As Khamenei Warns (ZH)
• Iran’s Araghchi Hopes For ‘Rationality’ From US (ZH)
• Polish PM Tusk Says He Won’t Back Down (ZH)
• Finland’s President Defends Calling Putin (RT)
• Macron’s Riot Problem Isn’t the Mystery He Says It Is (Eric Florack)
• Ukraine’s Public Debt Has Surged 130-Fold Since 2006 (RT)
• Millions Embezzled In Fraud Scheme At Ukrainian Defense Firm – Probe (RT)
• European Commission Begins Reevaluating Emissions Trading System (CTH)
• The Ilhan Omar Immigration Fraud Case Is Bigger Than We Thought (Margolis)
• Ilhan Omar’s Marriage Application To ‘Brother’ Surfaces With Bizarre Errors (ZH)
• Alina Habba Says Grenell Blocked $5.6M Of Billionaire Husband’s Donation (ZH)
• “The Pope Doesn’t Take Sides” (Turley)

 

 

https://twitter.com/IngrahamAngle/status/2116518848769974668?a=P5zgeJHc-hIYawJJs6o&s=20

 

 


Iran is still threatening the US:

“..Iran’s Retaliation Will Have ‘No Geographical Limits’ If Attacked..”

Tomorrow’s the US midterms. After that Trump is free to attack Iran. He doesn’t appear to have much choice.

The Iranians attempt to drag him along, as they can do like no other.

Iran puts itself on equal footing withe the US. Trump does not, and never will.

Trump wants to make sure they have no nukes, and no control over Hormuz.

They know this, but still haven’t given in on either point.

The IRGC has murdered at last 40,000 of its own people in the recent past.

They don’t care about thesee lives, onl;y about their own.

Bibi threatened to nuke Iran, and Trump said no, we will take care of this.

And now he has to. He didn’t want them to have nukes, anyway.

• Qatar Signals Talks ‘Breakthrough’ As Khamenei Warns (ZH)

Could this be the actual breakthrough coming after many months of prior claimed negotiation ‘breakthroughs’ and false starts? Just when the prospect of even getting back to the negotiating table seemed as remote as ever, Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed is reporting that planned direct talks are back on.


Regional sources are indeed calling this a “breakthrough” in hitherto indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran, with an American delegation soon expected to join Iranian officials for direct talks in Doha.The midterm election in the US is just a handful of days away, and President Trump has strongly signaled he might renew a major bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic.

Picking up on the Saturday Qatari report, Times of Israel writes, “Citing sources close to mediation efforts led by Qatar and Pakistan, the report says the sides have agreed on preliminary measures concerning Iran’s nuclear program, navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and financial incentives for Tehran, with China and Russia set to serve as guarantors of an agreement.”


“The reported progress follows what Axios describes as more than 12 hours of talks between Qatari mediators and Iranian officials in Tehran yesterday, aimed at averting renewed US strikes on Iran after the November 3 midterm elections,” it adds.

Al Arabiya English says it has obtained key points from the preliminary draft framework for restarting US-Iran negotiations and has published the following list:
• Iran could transfer its highly enriched uranium stockpile to an agreed third country or reduce its enrichment level
• The Strait of Hormuz could reopen to international maritime traffic within seven days of an initial understanding
• China could potentially serve as a guarantor of the implementation and sustainability of any agreement
• Direct US-Iran negotiations could be held in Doha instead of Istanbul
• Iranian measures on the nuclear file and maritime security would be matched by clearly defined US measures to ease sanctions, blockades and economic restrictions
• An independent verification mechanism would assess compliance before each subsequent phase of implementation
• Neither side would be required to make substantial concessions without receiving corresponding, independently verifiable commitments
• A dispute-resolution mechanism involving mediators and guarantor parties would address delays or violations to help prevent renewed military escalation

But none of this means that Iranian leadership is going to sit idly by and let the Trump administration dictate the terms, as it continues sticking by its seven conditions for ending the war. By now it should be clear that Tehran does not trust Trump or Netanyahu when it comes to efforts to achieve peace.


Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has on Saturday put his military on heightened alert, ordering military commanders to ensure an immediate and desvastating response to any threat, and notably without geographical limitation. “Any level or type of threat must be met with an immediate, impactful, and geographically unrestricted response,” the Ayatollah – who has not been seen in public since the war began – has stated.

This was reportedly the result of a meeting with senior military commanders – itself a very rare thing if indeed happened, again given that he’s not so much as been seen in public since the assassination of his father. Al Jazeera describes the significance further, writing that “Iranians have been emphasising that if a new wave of war comes, Iran is going to go beyond the locations that it has hit in the previous rounds.”


“Khamenei is also saying that if the war restarts, then it’s going to be up to Iran to determine when it’s going to end and on what terms,” the regional commentary adds. “This is quite a huge thing because it’s saying that the terms of diplomacy will be up to Iran now.” So these planned next Qatari talks could be the last big diplomatic effort at restarting a peace and dialogue track, or else it could be bombs away and runaway escalation.

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He’ll get his rationality.

• Iran’s Araghchi Hopes For ‘Rationality’ From US (ZH)

On Sunday Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi weighed in on current peace discussions which are being mediated via Qatar. He expressed that Tehran is ready to egage in serious diplomacy but hopes to see ‘rationality’ from the US side. We previously featured details of a draft framework being offered and examined.


“We are making our efforts in this direction and hope that there is rationality on the other side to prefer diplomacy to other paths,” Araghchi said. The statement comes amid widespread reports that the Trump White House could order a new major bombing campaign soon after Tuesday’s midterm elections.But he also alluded to the fresh orders that Iran’s supreme commander-in-chief, which is the Ayatollah, conveyed to senior military officials.

“Our armed forces also have a very clear mission and, drawing on the experiences of the past t

wo wars, are much stronger than before,” the FM stated. Iran says Hormuz could be reopened within two days if conditions met… Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had on Saturday put his military on heightened alert, ordering military commanders to ensure an immediate and desvastating response to any threat, and notably without geographical limitation.

“Any level or type of threat must be met with an immediate, impactful, and geographically unrestricted response,” the Ayatollah – who has not been seen in public since the war began – stated.


This was reportedly the result of a meeting with senior military commanders – itself a very rare thing, given that he’s not so much as been seen in public since the assassination of his father. Al Jazeera described the significance further, writing that “Iranians have been emphasising that if a new wave of war comes, Iran is going to go beyond the locations that it has hit in the previous rounds.” Meanwhile some alarming videos have surfaced over the weekend showing results of some of the latest Iranian attacks on tankers.

https://twitter.com/ATLAS_PULSEe/status/2116886463736651975?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2116886463736651975%7Ctwgr%5E9bcfb66ca012febfb97a1a9002a8db943d049390%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Firans-araghchi-hopes-rationality-us-amid-signs-renewed-war-could-erupt


As for the status of indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington, Araghchi also said, “Consultations are ongoing but we have not yet reached a definitive conclusion because this conclusion depends on the answers the other side gives to our questions. There was no plan to negotiate with the American side during this trip.” So the talks are still not yet ‘direct’ and it’s unclear on if there are plans to engage in such.

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Coup.

What I did notice is the people protesting in the street all seem to be pro-President.

• Polish PM Tusk Says He Won’t Back Down (ZH)

Pro-EU Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk defended his decision to suspend top court judges and accused the opposition of resorting to violence in an attempt to destroy the rule-of-law. As Bloomberg reports, Tusk said in a TV address on Saturday that the Constitutional Tribunal in its current form isn’t independent and his government’s attempts to fix it have been sabotaged by the Law & Justice party and President Karol Nawrocki.


“We have waited too long to be intimidated and to back down now,” Tusk said. “I’m confident that the Constitutional Tribunal will begin to function as it ought to – independently, autonomously, and in accordance with the Constitution.” Tusk went on to accuse conservative nationalist opposition leaders of wanting to “destroy democracy and rule of law” in a speech addressing the ongoing constitutional crisis.

“Let’s call things by their name,” he said. “For years in Poland there exist organisations and politicians who wish to destroy democracy and rule of law.” As a reminder, the pro-European government said the suspension is necessary to restore judicial independence, while critics from the opposition have likened it to a “coup d’etat.”

~~~~~

It is approaching 24 hours since Poland was dramatically plunged into a Constitutional crisis. Starting Friday night, Prime Minister Donald Tusk staged a forced takeover of one of the country’s top courts, prompting Polish President Karol Nawrocki to abrubtly turn back his plane which was en route to Africa for a scheduled state visit.

“At a moment like this, the President must be in Poland. I am cutting short my flight to Senegal. I am returning,” he wrote on X. The globe’s attention then turned to Warsaw and site of the Constitutional Tribunal, where police had surrounded it, and prevented the independent body’s leaders from entering its grounds.

Protesters also soon descended, after it was revealed that the court’s longest-serving judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska had suspended Bogdan Swieczkowski, the tribunal’s president. The country’s main anti-Tusk opposition decried the blatant judicial power-grab. President Nawrocki, an ally of the previous nationalist and Right-wing government is now in a desperate battle against Tusk’s pro-EU government for ultimate control of the judiciary.

Tusk’s ruling coalition has been trying for weeks to remove judges appointed under the previous PiS government, and now the trigger has been pulled in the most obvious of ways – with the clash literally spilling into the streets amid a stand off with police. After disembarking his plane upon his abrupt return to Warsaw Friday night, President Nawrocki physically attempted to gain entry amid unpredented displays of scuffles breaking out at the top court:


Outside the court the Associated Press observed clashes with police as the crowds grew and security blocked all entrances, even to top court officials:

“Hundreds of anti-government protesters rallied overnight around a top court in Poland to denounce the suspension of the tribunal’s president, for which they blame the country’s pro-European government. Police said they detained three protesters after some threw objects at the officers and tried to break through the security fence around the court.”

The primary responsibility of the tribunal is conducting judicial review to verify that Polish statutes adhere to constitutional standards. The Friday night chaos started when it was the Polish official agency PAP which was the first to report that court chief Bogdan Sierczkowski and his number two, Bartlomiej Sochanski, were suspended for a month by order of Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska.

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Putin is Satan. No talking to him.

“Alexander Stubb has said it was important for him and Norwegian PM Jonas Gahr Store to hear the Russian leader’s stance on Ukraine firsthand..”

• Finland’s President Defends Calling Putin (RT)


Finnish President Alexander Stubb.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb has defended the phone conversation he and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store had with Russian leader Vladimir Putin earlier this week following criticism from some Moscow hawks in Europe.


The two Nordic leaders made the rare phone call on Tuesday, with discussions focusing mainly on the Ukraine conflict, as well as security in Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea. The conversation followed US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s meeting with Putin in St. Petersburg last week and subsequent consultations in Oslo involving Stubb, Store, and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky.

Both Moscow and Kiev have since agreed to take part in a fourth round of US-mediated trilateral talks that is expected to take place in Abu Dhabi in November, with European countries excluded from the peace process, according to the Kremlin.

Appearing on Yle’s Ykkosaamu (Morning One) program on Saturday, Stubb noted that Tuesday’s call was the first time since becoming Finland’s president that he had spoken with Putin. Stubb emphasized the importance of hearing firsthand the Russian leader’s view of the root causes of the Ukraine conflict, describing the direct exchange of opinions as a “turning point.”

Stubb said he and Store reopened the “channel of communication” with Moscow at Kiev’s request and relayed Zelensky’s messages to Putin after consultations with US and Ukrainian representatives. He emphasized, however, that Helsinki was “not acting as any kind of peace mediator here.” Both Nordic leaders earlier specifically pointed out that they were not speaking on behalf of Europe.

The Finnish president clarified that aside from the Ukraine conflict, he and Store brought up the security of their respective countries, which both share an extensive border with Russia.Among other things, the two Nordic leaders used the opportunity to “clear up some misunderstandings” regarding the Baltic Sea, reaffirming their adherence to international maritime law and the principle of freedom of navigation.

Stubb defended what he described as the “first confidence-building measure” by noting that “Russia is our neighbor now and will remain our neighbor in the future,” with bilateral relations liable to resume at one point. In the wake of their call with Putin, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen accused the two Nordic leaders of breaking European ranks, claiming the conversation had “not been coordinated with the rest of us” – an objection echoed by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

Responding to these criticisms, Stubb stressed that he and Store extensively briefed Zelensky and multiple EU leaders afterward. Most Western European leaders shunned direct contact with Moscow after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 in an attempt to diplomatically isolate Russia. However, in recent weeks they have mounted an effort to secure a seat at the negotiation table as Moscow and Washington ramp up diplomatic work aimed at resolving the conflict.

Commenting on his phone conversation with the two Nordic leaders, Putin stated on Thursday that Russia supported “any steps aimed at restoring full-fledged and comprehensive relations” with European countries.“After all, there are people in Europe who, unlike some others, do not want to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia but instead want to establish some kind of constructive dialogue,” the Russian president explained.

He also reiterated that Moscow is not seeking a broader conflict with the EU or NATO.

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How Macron can say with a straight face that there are no invaders.

• Macron’s Riot Problem Isn’t the Mystery He Says It Is (Eric Florack)

The French republican tradition insists on one national identity, so the government largely refuses to sort its citizens by ethnicity, and INSEE, the French statistical agency, operates under real legal restrictions on the subject. A French citizen is French. No hyphens, no ethnic boxes. No worries about who you import and no worries, either, about those who decide they don’t want to be French at all, but foreign invaders.


As ideals go, it’s worthwhile, if you ignore reality. Declaring everyone part of the same national community doesn’t make them participate in it. You can decree national unity. You can’t manufacture social cohesion by pretending the question doesn’t exist. And refusing to count makes the hard questions harder, not easier.

The truly maddening part is that Macron knows this. In the very same speech, he blamed the violence on “far-left groups” that, along with plenty of ordinary criminals, unleashed violence without restraint. So he identified the arsonists by name and then pretended to be baffled about who lit the match. That isn’t leadership. That’s a man reading two different speeches at once.

And if you want to know what those groups stand for, look at what they set on fire tonight: American and Israeli flags. Not even French flags. Ask yourself what American and Israeli flags have to do with French school budgets, or the price of a liter of diesel. Not a blessed thing, of course. But it has everything to do with the worldview of the people throwing the Molotov cocktails. In their eyes, the Judeo-Christian West is the villain. America and Israel are the West at its most confident, so those flags burn first, and the cost-of-living grievances are just the costume.

There are real complaints underneath all this. No question of that. Energy prices in France were 21.3% higher in September than a year earlier, pushing overall inflation to 3.1%. A government that can’t keep schools staffed has earned some anger. But Macron’s answer has been a speech, a “crisis unit,” and a promise that lessons will be learned. He also had to answer for being spotted with his wife at a Céline Dion concert the night the riots broke out. Meanwhile, about 70,000 police and gendarmes had to be deployed nationwide to keep the lid on.

The French voters see it. Far-right presidential hopeful Jordan Bardella called Macron’s speech “lamentable” and “cowardly,” and said the government can no longer even protect its own people. Over on the left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon says the government alone is responsible for the destruction. When the far right and the far left agree you’ve failed, you’ve probably failed. France picks Macron’s successor in May, and from where I sit, the job is going to someone who isn’t confused about who is burning the place down. Assuming France exists as such by that point.

They’re not alone, though. Many countries have succumbed to the demands of Brussels on the matter of citizenship, with Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Belgium, among them. And in every single case, officials in those countries blame living costs, unemployment, extremists, or “inequality.” Immigration never makes the list. Nor does a lack of cultural assimilation. But there again, why would they admit that their own hands were a part of that mess?

Now, before anyone on this side of the Atlantic gets too comfortable sneering at the French, remember that we have our own versions of these people, and some of them are on the ballot Tuesday. (I’m looking at YOU, Michigan).

In last week’s column, I talked about the DSA’s slate of candidates and how far into the Democrat Party they’ve gotten. The ideology that burns American and Israeli flags in Paris is the same one that considers ICE a “rogue” agency and sees our own police as the enemy. The only difference is how far along each country is.

We still have time to do better. That starts Tuesday.

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“The IMF has warned that Kiev’s finances are unsustainable without restructuring and continued foreign assistance..”

Kiev is beyond broke, but Euope wants to fight Putin.

Kiev’s debt is Europe’s debt.

• Ukraine’s Public Debt Has Surged 130-Fold Since 2006 (RT)

Ukraine’s state and state-guaranteed debt has surged roughly 130-fold in national currency terms over the past two decades, according to figures from the country’s Finance Ministry. In recent months, Kiev has been struggling to plug multi-billion-dollar holes in its budget while pleading with its reluctant backers in the EU for more assistance.


The ministry released the updated figure on Tuesday, putting debt at 9.54 trillion hryvnias ($212.61 billion) as of late September, compared with 73.29 billion hryvnias ($14.51 billion) in September 2006.

The staggering increase is partly explained by the hryvnia’s depreciation, with the currency losing nearly 90% of its value against the US dollar over the same period. However, the increase remains substantial even in dollar terms, with the debt expanding 14.6-fold. It has also more than doubled from $97.95 billion at the end of 2021, just before the escalation of Kiev’s conflict with Russia in February 2022.

Foreign governments and international institutions now account for 66.4% of Ukraine’s debt portfolio, much of it on preferential terms, which helps to alleviate the financial burden. Kiev has a debt repayment schedule extending through 2061 and is obliged to pay almost $33 billion to global financial institutions in interest and servicing costs alone, on top of the principal of almost $107 billion. For comparison’s sake, Ukraine’s 2021 GDP was around $200 billion.

Ukraine’s dire financial strain did not escape the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which warned in July that Kiev’s debt “remains unsustainable” without restructuring and further preferential foreign assistance.

Kiev’s financial burden came into the spotlight in late summer when Vladimir Zelensky disclosed an unexpected $27 billion defense funding gap – which emerged after his 40-day PR ‘pressure campaign’ on Russia – and urged Brussels to frontload part of its €90 billion loan earmarked for 2027.

The EU, however, refused to validate the figure and approve further assistance, urging Ukraine to make progress on stalled governance and anti-corruption reforms to unlock funding that was already available. In early October, Kiev managed to plug the gap with austerity measures and by convincing the EU to defer some payments for weapons until the next year.

Still, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas acknowledged on Thursday that European leaders were finding it increasingly difficult to justify continued assistance to Kiev because “everyone is tired of this war,” while urging Western governments to continue supporting Ukraine.

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100 schemes just like it. Corruption like maybe some African nations have seen.

• Millions Embezzled In Fraud Scheme At Ukrainian Defense Firm – Probe (RT)

A former head of a state-owned Ukrainian defense company is suspected of embezzling millions of dollars through fake mediation deals, the country’s anti-corruption bodies have said. Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) announced in a statement on Friday that the scheme had cost the government 1.1 billion hryvnia (around $43 million).


The Western-backed agencies, which frequently target Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s inner-circle, didn’t name the suspect, only saying that he used to lead a subsidiary of Ukrspecexport, a state-run company with exclusive rights to export and import military hardware. According to the investigators, the former head of the state-run firm signed a deal with a foreign company in 2015 for it to provide mediation during the sales of Ukrainian military products abroad.

However, it had been established that the Ukrainian firm had conducted all of the negotiations with a customer from a Middle Eastern country on its own, and the foreign company wasn’t involved, they said. Despite this fact, the official signed falsified documents about mediation services being provided by the foreign company and transferred millions to it as payment, the statement read. The actions of the suspect are being qualified as large-scale embezzlement and forgery of government papers, it added.

Ukrainskaya Pravda reported later in the day that, according to its sources, the official in question is Taras Shiyko, who now holds the positions of the deputy director of Ukroboronprom, a state-run conglomerate comprised of Ukraine’s arms makers. The fraud scheme relates to his time as the head of Progress, a state-run export and import company. Shiyko became part of an anti-corruption case earlier this year, involving the suspected embezzlement of 32 million hryvnia (around $700,000).

Zelensky’s government has been rocked by a series of corruption scandals involving people close to him since November 2025, when NABU and SAPO accused Timur Mindich, a longtime associate of the Ukrainian leader, of masterminding a $100 million kickback scheme involving state contracts in the energy sector. Other investigations have implicated former Ukrainian ministers, diplomats, and senior officials.

NABU’s latest high-profile case targeted an alleged protection racket involving scam call centers and officials from the Prosecutor General’s Office. Although he was not personally named as a suspect, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko left Ukraine before being dismissed by parliament last month, according to Ukrainian media.

Critics accuse Zelensky of leading a sprawling corruption network which permeates his government, allegedly helping him maintain power and enriching those involved. A poll issued by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) last month suggested that the Ukrainians consider corruption to be a bigger problem for the country than the conflict with Russia.

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“.,.to Restore EU Oil Refining Capacity

They never replaced what they took away. They ignored they use energy at all.

• European Commission Begins Reevaluating Emissions Trading System (CTH)

,This is an interesting potential shift in energy position for the European Union. There has been zero investment by the EU nations in oil refining capacity. Simultaneously, Europe is now realizing they need diesel and jet fuel. Under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), refineries have an ever-diminishing cap on carbon emissions, and they receive fewer ‘free’ pollution allowances over time.


This means oil refining costs go up steadily, increasing the cost of operating the dirty carbon facilities, while these same refineries must adhere to stricter environmental rules and pollution limits under the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED). The entire regulatory system was created to eliminate gasoline, diesel and eventually jet fuel.

As the EU is now discovering, their climate change policies have been executed but the global and EU drop in demand has not occurred at the same pace. The EU is now in a position where the percentage of their own oil refining production is lower than their needs. More energy dependency has been created.

With the EU energy analysts now saying they don’t have the fuel capacity to support the political demands for a war with Russia, in combination with President Trump continually affirming the U.S. will not get involved in any expanded conflict, the European Union is now reevaluating how to increase domestic fuel production.

EUROPE – Over the past couple of decades, Europe has pursued some of the world’s most ambitious clean energy policies, aiming to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Hardly surprisingly, Europe is now further along the clean energy transition compared to its western peers, with renewables accounting for roughly half of the continent’s power mix compared to about 26% by the U.S. However, Europe is now being forced to reckon with its decision to ditch some of its fossil fuel assets as yet another global energy crisis unfolds just years after the 2022 energy crisis.

[…] the continent has been forced to rely more heavily on imported refined products, exposing it to geopolitical risks. The Iran and Ukraine wars have led to a spike in oil and gas prices, with EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen terming geopolitical instability and the prolonged diesel squeeze a “wake-up call” for the bloc.

[…] Central European nations like Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia have been pressuring the European Commission to establish a long-term protective strategy for Europe’s oil refineries. They have called for refineries to be protected from carbon leakage and given access to EU funds to upgrade.

[…] now, Brussels is looking to rethink its long-standing approach to the domestic oil-refining industry. On Wednesday, the European Commission launched the first High-Level Dialogue with the European oil refining sector. Co-chaired by Dan Jørgensen (Commissioner for Energy and Housing) and Andrius Kubilius (Commissioner for Defence and Space), the forum discussed Europe’s energy security, industrial competitiveness and defense readiness amid recurring geopolitical disruptions.

Participants mapped out short-term responses to supply disruptions stemming from ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, noting that EU refineries currently supply approximately 70% of jet fuel and 85% of diesel consumed across Europe. (read more)

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I keep asking myself: How did she become worth $25 million?

Did she bring that from Somalia?

• The Ilhan Omar Immigration Fraud Case Is Bigger Than We Thought (Margolis)

When DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin sat down with Fox News on Friday, he delivered some delicious news about the federal investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).


“This isn’t just a case that’s targeting one individual,” Mullin explained. “This is a large case that we have presented to the DOJ, and the DOJ is leading the investigations.” Mullin credited the Homeland Security Investigations agents who searched Omar’s Washington, D.C., home on October 12 and hauled out boxes of material. Those agents “did a lot of investigation to be able to present the case to them,” he said.

The probe dates back to 2009, when Somalia-born Omar married Ahmed Elmi. Investigators want to know whether that marriage was part of an immigration fraud conspiracy, and whether Omar lied on government paperwork to become a citizen. Elmi is a British citizen who, we recently learned, describes himself as gay, and the evidence points to him being her brother, with the marriage allowing him to remain in the country legally.

Investigators are also scrutinizing her House financial disclosures, which may have padded her net worth by tens of millions of dollars. The New York Post reported Friday that on Omar’s certified 2009 marriage license from Hennepin County, Minn., her surname was crossed out, swapped for “Elmi,” and then switched back to “Omar.” The rest of Omar’s personal history only adds to the mess. She reportedly had her staff change her birth year from 1981 to 1982 so she could appear to have obtained naturalization as a minor through her father in 2000.

The FBI and DHS examined the brother-marriage allegations back in 2016, while Omar was running for the Minnesota legislature. Now that the case is alive again, the usual suspects are crying foul. Former President Barack Obama publicly criticized the probe, apparently forgetting that the investigation first got rolling while he was still in the White House. “I’ve made this very, very, very, very clear: we’re enforcing our nation’s laws across the board equally, and we’re going to continue to do that,” Mullin said in response to Obama.

He added that political standing buys no one a pass. “I don’t care where you’re seated, and I don’t care how you’re registered to vote, I don’t care what your job title is,” he continued. “We use it equally.” Mullin also turned the weaponization charge back on the people making it, arguing that Democrats “came after their political enemies like President Trump, and they know they weaponized our DOJ and FBI.”

Earlier in the interview, he made the same point about the Omar probe specifically. “We’re enforcing our nation’s laws, and we’re going to do that. We’re not weaponizing. We’re not using political theater on this,” Mullin said. “We’re going to let the facts play out, we’re not playing politics with this — I said this from day one, we’re not playing politics with anybody’s lives.”

This is going to be fun.

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“If we’ve had a foreign nationalist occupying a seat in Congress, that’s a problem,” she said, adding that Congress would be “failing to do their job.”

• Ilhan Omar’s Marriage Application To ‘Brother’ Surfaces With Bizarre Errors (ZH)

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s 2009 Minnesota marriage license application to Ahmed Elmi, the man accused of being her brother, shows her surname written as Omar, crossed out and changed to Elmi, then changed back to Omar, according to a certified copy from Hennepin County obtained by the New York Post.


The name changes could matter because the Justice Department is investigating whether the Somalia-born Minnesota Democrat fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship in 2000 by failing to use her true legal name and birthdate. That case grew out of an earlier probe into whether Omar committed immigration fraud by marrying Elmi, a British citizen.

The document arrives weeks into an escalating federal effort. Homeland Security Investigations agents raided Omar’s Washington, D.C., home on Oct. 12 as part of the immigration fraud probe. In a court filing last week, the Justice Department referred to her as “Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.” A source familiar with the investigation told the Post that Omar is not her real name and that her birth surname is Elmi, the same as the man she married.

The application is dated Feb. 12, 2009. One question asks whether the bride and groom are related by blood or adoption, and the couple checked “no.” The first revision on the form reads “Ilhan Omar Elmi,” a version that differs from the name the Justice Department now uses in court. The document does not identify who filled it out, though all the entries appear to share one person’s handwriting.

An image of the application has circulated online for years. Alpha News, a Minnesota outlet, appears to have first published it in August 2016. Major news outlets gave it little attention until this month. Scott W. Johnson, a retired Minneapolis attorney and former Alpha News board member, has spent ten years investigating Omar’s alleged immigration fraud. “Questions should be asked. She’s never answered them,” Johnson said. “The whole thing was a joke. The marriage was a fraudulent marriage, brazenly fraudulent… It was entered into for a fraudulent purpose.”

A Christian minister married Omar and Elmi on Feb. 12, 2009, the same date the application bears. By then, Omar already had two children with Ahmed Hirsi, whom she had married in a 2002 Islamic ceremony that never became a legal marriage. In May 2009, Hirsi listed the address on the Omar-Elmi marriage license as his own home. Omar had a third child with Hirsi in June 2012 and finalized her divorce from Elmi in 2017. She legally married Hirsi in 2018, filed for divorce a year later, and married her current husband, Tim Mynett, in 2020.

The Justice Department first opened an investigation into Omar in 2016, under President Barack Obama, into whether Omar married her brother so he could get a green card. The Biden administration closed that probe in 2021 for two reasons. The five-year statute of limitations had run out, meaning prosecutors would have had to file charges by 2014, and the FBI could not interview Elmi, who had returned to the U.K.

Legal experts told the Post that federal investigators now appear focused on a possible conspiracy involving ongoing acts, such as misstating a birthdate, which the earlier statute of limitations may not bar. Civil denaturalization carries no statute of limitations and could lead to Omar’s deportation.

In an academic paper published in August, Elmi, a doctoral researcher at the University of Bristol, identified himself as a “gay man of the East African diaspora.” Omar has broadly dismissed the allegations as a racist conspiracy theory and a politically motivated smear. Last week, MS NOW anchor Chris Hayes asked her directly whether she married her brother. “Not to my knowledge,” Omar said.


AJ Kern, a former Minnesota congressional candidate who has examined Omar’s immigration records and birthdate discrepancies, told the Post she sees the record as clear. “I think it’s pretty clear she married her brother and committed immigration fraud,” Kern said. Kern said the larger issue is the possibility of a non-citizen holding federal office.

“If we’ve had a foreign nationalist occupying a seat in Congress, that’s a problem,” she said, adding that Congress would be “failing to do their job.”

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If I got this right,Trump’s personal lawyer Alina Habba is married to a 25-year-old Turkish billionnaire with business interests in Venezuela and Congo?! Do I believe that?

• Alina Habba Says Grenell Blocked $5.6M Of Billionaire Husband’s Donation (ZH)

Alina Habba told President Trump in the Oval Office that Richard Grenell, the Trump ally who ran the Kennedy Center, never delivered roughly $5.6 million of a $17.6 million payment her husband wired at his direction, and White House counsel Will Scharf has been told to look into it. Grenell denies it all. The dispute has since turned toward Habba’s husband, Turkish businessman Turhan Mildon, his Venezuelan and Congolese business ties, and whose money the wire really was.


Richard Grenell and Alina Habba Mildon had once been close friends.


According to the NY Times, Habba brought the accusation to the Oval Office on Oct. 9, after the Times sent Mildon questions about his Venezuela business. She said Mildon made the payment in May 2025 at Grenell’s direction, believing about $5.6 million would be set aside for the Kennedy Center, and that the money never reached it. The wire itself went to TX-AT, a Texas security and defense equipment company, not to the Kennedy Center. Trump called in Scharf to hear her out.

Her account has moved. People familiar with the discussion told the Times she described the sum first as a donation of about $17 million, then as roughly $6 million, and eventually said most of the payment was a business transaction whose details remain unclear, with the remainder meant for the Kennedy Center. The Times said it had not verified her accusations.

The Times then reported on Oct. 17 that the $17.6 million came from a bank account linked to the Congolese government, not from Mildon himself. AllAfrica’s account of that report says the commercial arrangement behind the payment “remains unclear,” and that TX-AT and Congolese officials did not respond to the Times. The first documents sent to the White House on the couple’s behalf blacked out the sender’s name, Rio Times reported.


Turhan Mildon at the iKinshasa Financial Center, December 2023


Mildon, through a spokesman, has acknowledged advising Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and holding a Congolese diplomatic passport. His company, Milvest, built the Kinshasa Financial Center. None of that establishes that Congolese state money paid for anything in the dispute, and nothing published shows Tshisekedi or his aides knew of the wire. The Justice Department’s foreign-agent registry lists no registration for Mildon, Milvest, TX-AT, Grenell or Habba, according to the Rio Times.

Grenell has told the Times and Axios that he never received any payment from Mildon. “I’ve never asked for one cent to be sent somewhere else pretending it was for the Kennedy Center, and I’ve never received any payment from him at all,” he told Axios. He called the allegations “absurd” and told the Daily Beast, “Make him give proof to what he is saying.” He acknowledged consulting for TX-AT in 2024 but said he had no connection to the company when the wire was sent, and denied soliciting payments for it.


The Kennedy Center’s own records are thin. Mildon pledged $270,000 after a gala concert and paid it only the week the Times asked why he had not. The center says it is examining the relevant pledges and funds and will report to its board. Mildon’s lawyers also gave Scharf a text that allegedly shows Grenell offering to make Mildon the “American face down in V,” a reference to Venezuela. Grenell told the Times he never sent that message or anything like it.

That Venezuela thread is where the scrutiny now falls on Mildon. He has extensive business interests there, and U.S. officials and intelligence officers have examined his relationship with Alex Saab, the Maduro confidant who awarded him a cement contract. Mildon says he is 29, but U.S. documents and British corporate records list him as 25; he declined to explain the difference to the Times. Grenell was at the time Trump’s special envoy for Venezuela.

Scharf is still gathering evidence, Axios reported, and has been slow to receive records from Habba and Mildon’s attorneys. A Trump insider told Axios it is the “ultimate MAGA blood feud.” What would settle it is the wire’s true sender, what the $17.6 million was for, and what Grenell actually said to Mildon. None of those questions has an answer on the public record.

Read more …

“Should a Foreign Head of State Be Able to Vote in United States Elections?”

• “The Pope Doesn’t Take Sides” (Turley)

“So, the Pope doesn’t take sides. Prevost has another opinion, but we won’t do that now.” That funny quip from Pope Leo XIV (born Robert Prevost) referred to the historic game in Rome when the Villanova and Notre Dame basketball teams play each other.


However, a story this week raised a different question of when the Pope, as opposed to Prevost, can “take sides.” This month, American-born Pope Leo XIV became the first pope ever to vote in a U.S. election.

A longtime Chicago native, the Pope mailed an absentee ballot to Will County, and the clerk’s office confirmed to Fox News Digital that “Robert Prevost is on the list of individuals who requested a Vote by Mail ballot.” There is no question that the Pope can vote in the Holy See. Indeed, he is the ultimate and final vote in the Vatican, but can he actually vote in Illinois races (including the governor’s race involving incumbent Democrat J.B. Pritzker)? The answer appears to be yes, but it raises some novel questions.

Now, as a threshold matter, I want to shed some bias. I was raised Catholic in Chicago. No, that is not the bias. There is that lingering conflict with the Pope coming out as a White Sox fan. Many of us on the North Side hoped for a conversion to restore our faith in papal infallibility. However, he has remained entrenched in his South Side allegiance.

This column rises above that historic rivalry and does not suggest that White Sox fans can be challenged at the polls. (Besides, I previously explained that the Pope is a Cubs fan without knowing it.) Rather, what surprised me was that the head of a foreign state could vote in U.S. elections. The Vatican is a distinct nation with a diplomatic corps, a court system, a local government, and even a military in the form of the legendary Swiss Guards.

The Holy See Press Office declared, “Pope Leo XIV has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen whenever he was eligible to do so. The Holy See Press Office confirms that, in keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, he has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago.”

The Holy See maintains that Pope Leo retains his status as a U.S. citizen while serving as the head of a foreign nation. There is support for this position. The State Department has maintained that dual citizens do not have to choose between their countries, though it does not expect them to serve as the head of another country.

“U.S. dual nationals owe allegiance to both the United States and the foreign country (or countries, if they are nationals of more than one). They are required to obey the laws of both countries, and either country has the right to enforce its laws. Claims of other countries upon U.S. dual-nationals may result in conflicting obligations under the laws of each country. U.S. dual nationals may also face restrictions in the U.S. consular protections available to U.S. nationals abroad, particularly in the country of their other nationality.”

Notably, the State Department requires dual citizens to use a U.S. passport to enter the country. Does that mean that, when traveling as head of state, Pope Leo has to use a U.S. passport? Unlikely, but intriguing. It strikes me as odd that a person can lead another country and still vote in U.S. elections. With all of those worried about Russian interference in elections, imagine if Putin could actually vote in U.S. elections. Obviously, Pope Leo is greatly loved and represents someone whose values are aligned with this country. Yet, he is also the head of state of a foreign nation.

Under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), military personnel and citizens abroad are allowed to vote in U.S. elections. It is no longer considered an absentee vote requiring an excuse but simply a mail-in ballot. The question is whether this right should be suspended when you assume a position in a foreign nation, let alone the head of such a nation.

Dual citizenship has long been debated over the difficult questions raised by nations with opposing values and interests. However, being the head of a foreign government with potentially opposing interests and actions to the United States creates a curious status. It turns out that when Gov. Pritzker met with the Pope last year, he was actually meeting with a constituent and voter.

I am most surprised that the Vatican does not have a policy against such voting, though this is admittedly unprecedented. I would think that the head of the Catholic faith and the head of a foreign government would have a single national citizenship running to the Holy See. All popes are selected from the global faithful by the College of Cardinals and thus have national citizenship with other countries.

In assuming their positions, the cardinals “pledge and swear, as individuals and as a group, to observe faithfully and scrupulously the prescriptions contained in the Apostolic Constitution.” They also reaffirm that they are not subject to countervailing allegiances or pressures from outside of the College: “And never to lend support or favour to any interference, opposition or any other form of intervention, whereby secular authorities of whatever order and degree or any group of people or individuals might wish to intervene in the election of the Roman Pontiff.”

However, it is fascinating that, once elected, Popes do not shed that status upon assuming the head of the Holy See.

It is an uncomfortable question since it also raises whether the head of a foreign government should have dual citizenship. Most people were legitimately thrilled (including myself) by the first American Pope and can view this as an unlikely “one-off.” However, it could just as easily happen with another nation and a dual citizen.

At the risk of my own excommunication, it seems a worthy question for discussion, even though I doubt any politicians would relish such a debate. For his part, Pope Leo stated before the Villanova-Notre Dame game that the Pope will not take sides in the U.S. elections, but Robert Prevost will.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2116616960842850761?a=98clxkGLnNWp-rslns8&s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle November 1 2026

Nov 012026
 
 November 1, 2026  Posted by at 9:48 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  34 Responses »


Edward Hopper Sunday 1926


• Final 2026 Midterm Prediction: It’s Time to Die With Your Boots On! (Pinsker)
• Europe’s Riots are the Bill Coming Due for Socialism and Globalism (Fleitz)
• Queen Ursula Comes To Canada With Velvet Handcuffs (Rachel Marsden)
• Europe Has Blown Its Chance To Mediate Ukraine Conflict – Lavrov (RT)
• Poland Leftist Prime Minister Donald Tusk Leads a Judicial Coup d’Etat (CTH)
• Chaos Erupts At Poland’s Top Court Amid ‘Coup’ Accusations (RT)
• Alarming Update on Coup Effort From Polish Media (CTH)
• Democratic Leaders Call Voter Confusion Tactics Harmless, Humorous (Turley)
• Keir Starmer Says U.S. Will No Longer “Bankroll Europe’s Defense” (CTH)
• Left Party Candidate For Berlin Mayor ‘Fears’ Islamists (RMX)

 

 

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2116285809825333262?a=xYspQmnVLTpOAKM_tWA&s=20 https://twitter.com/Mr_J_F_K_Jr/status/2116424226479411701?s=20

 

 


Pollsters need to call 140 people just to get one answer.

“.. if only one out of 140 people is willing to answer a poll, it’s unclear if the “science” of polling is even salvageable.”

• Final 2026 Midterm Prediction: It’s Time to Die With Your Boots On! (Pinsker)

[..] The midterm election is in just three days! And the universe of persuadable undecideds is rapidly dwindling. At this point, there ain’t a ton of ‘em left. Which is why the emphasis is now on turnout — and getting enough likeminded, sympathetic voters off their [BLEEP] and out to vote.


That’s a critical, ride-or-die variable, but notoriously difficult to assess beforehand. Some Get Out the Vote (GOTV) plans look great on paper (and cost a fortune), but collapse on Election Day. Others fly completely under the radar, yet hit a bullseye.I’ll just say this: The GOP has been sitting on a sky-high mountain of money for months now, so there’s simply no excuse for not having a winning GOTV plan.

If we botch this, heads should roll. As for the Democrats’ GOTV plan, who knows? There’s overlap between voter intensity and turnout (which seems to favor the Dems), but it’s also true that DSA candidates have badly underperformed in elections. That seems to indicate holes in their GOTV game.

Probable advantage: Republicans.

(Or, instead of a bad GOTV plan, it could just be bad polls: Maybe the DSA’s popularity is, was, and continues to be wildly overreported. Can’t rule it out, since DSA success has mostly been limited to bright-blue districts and college towns. But we’ll return to polling problems in a sec.)

If you want to terrify your Republican guests at tonight’s Halloween party, the two most under-discussed, under-publicized reasons for GOP pessimism are Fox News’ ratings plummeting, and the near-total absence of mainstream media stories about Democratic operatives throwing each other — and/or the voters — under the bus.

Fox News still dominates the news ratings, but it suffered its largest year-to-year ratings drop in the month before an election in a decade: FNC’s primetime ratings fell by 28%. Meanwhile, CNN and MS NOW both had double-digit gains. That’s partly a commentary on FNC’s current lineup of primetime hosts. It’s partly because of cord-cutting. And it at least partially reflects the Democrats’ edge in enthusiasm.

Probable advantage: Democrats.

The lack of Democratic operatives throwing each other under the bus is awfully revealing, too. Back in 2024, mainstream media outlets were writing about “misogyny” costing Kamala Harris the election, and how the media set her up to fail more than a week before Halloween (!) — because the writing was on the wall. So the Dems got ahead of the story by blaming the American people for being bigoted. They blamed the media, too. And then the campaign staff blamed each other for being unprepared and wasting money.

This article from the Guardian — “Harris Campaign’s Record $1B Funds Fail to Translate Into Swing State Advantage” — from Oct. 10, 2024 (!) is a good example: [T]here are fears that Harris’s fundraising success may lead to cash drying up when it matters most, by dampening the enthusiasm of donors to give the extra funds that strategists believe might be necessary to get her over the line in a tightening race.

“There have never been so many electoral college votes in play so late in the cycle, which means that our strong fundraising and volunteer enthusiasm are not guaranteed to be enough to fully reach voters everywhere they are,” the Washington Post quoted an unnamed Harris campaign staff member as saying. Obama’s appearance on the campaign trail follows evidence that Harris is failing to connect with key components of the Democrats’ constituency, including Black men.

Politico reported that Democratic operatives were worried about apathy among Black men in Detroit, Michigan’s biggest city, even as Harris’s campaign has dispatched several high-profile African American surrogates to the state, including the basketball legend Magic Johnson and the party elder James Clyburn.

“I am worried about turnout in Detroit,” Jamal Simmons, a former communications director for Harris, told the site. “Do they have the machine to turn people out?” “We continue to have this widening apathy in cities like Detroit … [Harris] hasn’t done anything to change that,” added Scott Holiday, executive director of Detroit Action, a voter mobilisation group. That’s five negative leaks in six paragraphs! The good ship Harris was leaking like a sieve!

Yet we’re not seeing these stories in the run-up to the 2026 midterms. (Except in Michigan, where Democratic dysfunction is a legitimate problem.) Instead, CNN is writing puff pieces about the Democrats’ ambitious plans after winning the midterms — and the telltale signs the Dems will win in a landslide. Far-left publications such as the Daily Beast are throwing about the “landslide” word, too.

This doesn’t mean a Republican defeat is inevitable. But it reveals the Democrats’ staggering level of confidence — which is lightyears ahead of where it was in 2024.

And a big reason for their confidence is the polls. Over and over again, the polls have projected a Democratic tsunami so ginormous, it will even swallow ruby-red strongholds such as Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, South Carolina, Texas, and Iowa. Which we see it in the predictive markets: According to Kalshi, there’s now a 94% chance the Dems will win the House; a 72% chance the Dems win the Senate.

Probable advantage: Democrats.

It’s “probable” because the polls have been wrong more than right. According to CNN’s Harry Enten, during the Trump era, polls in swing states have exaggerated Democratic support by an average of 4.1 points. If the polls are off by 4.1 points in 2026, the Republicans will keep the Senate, pick up a few blue seats, and the House will be close.

Of course, there’s a chance the polls have recalibrated, self-corrected, and won’t make the same mistake again. The pollsters, after all, claim they’ve reweighted their polls to ensure greater accuracy. If so, the GOP is in deep, deep doo-doo.

But there’s also a chance that the underlying mechanisms that produce these polling errors still haven’t been addressed — and if anything, they’ve probably accelerated. Hey, when pollsters must call 140 people to get a single response, they’re not getting a realistic snapshot of public sentiment.

Because they’re talking near-exclusively with lonely weirdos with nothing better to do than yak with pollsters. And even without the weirdo-factor, Democrats respond to polls at a much higher rate than Republicans anyway. Polls tell us what people who take polls think. Anything beyond that is a mystery. Furthermore, if only one out of 140 people is willing to answer a poll, it’s unclear if the “science” of polling is even salvageable.

Probable advantage: Republicans.

Read more …

“Europe is in deep trouble because socialist and globalist policies are destroying European civilization.”

• Europe’s Riots are the Bill Coming Due for Socialism and Globalism (Fleitz)

I recently spoke at Chatham House in London, one of Europe’s leading globalist think tanks – and hostile territory for American conservatives. While there, I heard firsthand some of the factors and the stark denialism behind the horrific riots that erupted in France and other European countries this month.


What began in late September as student blockades of overcrowded, understaffed high schools in the Paris suburbs exploded on October 17 and 18 into some of the worst violence France has seen in decades. More than half a million people marched against rising living costs and failing public services.

Rioters, many carrying Palestinian flags, torched cars and a town hall, damaged or looted at least 3,000 businesses, and injured about 1,000 police officers, gendarmes and firefighters, according to the interior ministry. Nearly 2,400 people were arrested, and the government imposed curfews in parts of Paris and other cities. Similar protests spread to Belgium and Italy.

Amid a steady stream of bashing on foreign policy, domestic security, and the president personally, a U.S. academic on one Chatham panel stunned me with her counter-reality view of President Trump’s border policies.

On border security, she claimed that the real goal of last year’s U.S. National Security Strategy and President Trump’s efforts to stop illegal immigration is to promote Christian white nationalism. I replied that this is false: President Trump has never called for any such thing, and it is nowhere in the National Security Strategy. When she insisted that this is what the document “really” means, I pointed out that she had just conceded it does not say this – she was reading her own views into it. I also noted that the Trump administration is fully supportive of immigration as long as immigrants come to our country legally.

She countered that talk by Trump officials of saving Western civilization from uncontrolled immigration amounts to a plan for a white Christian nation. It does not. The strategy warns that Europe faces “civilizational erasure” – a warning about uncontrolled migration and falling birth rates, not race. My final response was that this was a typical liberal distortion: equating conservative efforts to secure borders and protect our nation with racism.

I should add that the audience offered no pushback to the academic’s comments but plenty to mine. Video of the panel is available here.

A panelist made an equally absurd claim at a second closed Chatham House panel, held under the Chatham House Rule, asserting that Europe is far freer and offers a much higher quality of life than America, with far more opportunities for young people. I was dumbfounded, even more so because no one in the room pushed back. These claims are clearly contradicted by America’s lower taxes, greater economic opportunities, easier path to starting businesses, lower unemployment, and numerous other well-documented advantages.

As for freedom, it is Europe, not America, where citizens are arrested and prosecuted for social media posts. The panelist later explained that Europe is better because of all the “free stuff” – free health care, free college, generous social benefits, government pensions, and so on. This explanation wasn’t very convincing. These claims in fact reflect the global elite’s view of Europe as a paradise and of Trump’s America as a primitive backwater.

The reality is that nothing is free. Europeans pay for these benefits through some of the highest taxes in the developed world, and governments that cannot cover the bill borrow the rest. France’s public debt now exceeds 110 percent of GDP, and its borrowing costs have hit their highest level in more than two decades. The recent disastrous and violent demonstrations in France and other European nations made clear that Europe is neither superior to America nor a paradise for most young Europeans.

The core reason is that Europe’s massively expensive socialist welfare state does not work. The French riots began in high schools so overcrowded and understaffed that students blockaded them in protest. A state that spends lavishly on pensions and benefits cannot even keep its classrooms staffed. Meanwhile, European economies and security are under siege from a huge influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa, which has imposed enormous costs in government benefits while contributing to surges in crime and radical Islam.

The denialism I heard in London is everywhere. Consider a recent New York Times opinion writer who drew the implausible conclusion that the French riots were part of a student revolution to build a better France. Or the BBC calling the Paris riots “mostly peaceful.” Or a panelist on MS NOW who made the absurd claim that although we don’t know who is behind the riots or their motivations, we know Trump is responsible.

What these elites refuse to admit is that Europe is in deep trouble because socialist and globalist policies are destroying European civilization – and that radical change is needed to save it.

Read more …

“Trade, resources and digital ‘cooperation’ sound harmless – until you look at the fine print.”

• Queen Ursula Comes To Canada With Velvet Handcuffs (Rachel Marsden)

I’m trying to spend a few weeks back in Canada for some peace and quiet from the usual European drama. Just my luck that Queen Ursula would follow me here, circus and all.


She hadn’t even landed in Montreal for the EU-Canada Summit, and already everyone around me was saying that Canada’s “associate membership” had been canceled. They’d heard that countries like France and Germany objected to the idea, even as Von der Leyen was saddling up her broom for a trip across the Atlantic.

Someone even asked me if that meant that we’re now kicked out of Eurovision. I had to explain that the title never existed in the first place. EU treaties refer only to association agreements. It’s just the usual sort of branding that von der Leyen, the unelected EU chief executive, likes to roll out, much like her endless riffs about unity, as though dissent weren’t an actual virtue in a functioning democracy.

Or like the way she talks a good game about sticking it to Russia while simultaneously celebrating the €977 million spent this winter alone on gas purchases for Ukraine – much of which comes from Russia via Hungary and Slovakia. The EU writes cheques to Kiev. Kiev pays Hungary and Slovakia, who then pay Moscow.

Those middlemen exist mainly so that Queen Ursula can maintain a certain public image while engaging in more practical considerations behind the scenes, albeit at considerably greater expense to the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney got a taste of the spectacle when Ursula’s marketing campaign became the focus of the event. He was forced to acknowledge that he honestly didn’t give a damn what they called this new cooperation, so long as it was good for Canadians. Meanwhile, other EU leaders, like German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, had started referring to it instead as an “alliance for the future.”

But von der Leyen had already landed in Canada and continued promoting the “associate membership” label, smiling as Carney, sitting beside her, subsequently echoed the term. Of course, all that the mental midgets are going to take away from this whole event is the intrigue over whether or not Canada is joining the EU. Spoiler alert: it isn’t. And never will. It’s not even legally possible. But this idiotic intrigue is distracting from the details of what lurks underneath, which could amount to a whole lot of iron-fisting through velvet gloves.

Turns out someone had already leaked a draft statement on these future relations to Politico, dated September 22, 2026. Cut out the diplomatic fluff and here’s what you’re left with.

Both sides are clearly looking for new markets as they diversify trade away from the US. Great. But it seems rather stupid for the EU to be begging Canada for its natural resources – gas, metals and minerals – while simultaneously slapping on carbon tariffs that get downloaded onto European citizens and companies. What’s the point of trying to bring prices down by increasing supply if you’re just going to top up the cost anyway.

You jokers also killed off your own nuclear industries, only to realize (a bit late) that perhaps it was preferable to having to resort to coal, before subsequently reviving it as the future of clean energy. So maybe you’re not exactly the best people to be doing commie-style central planning.

Technology is already advancing in favor of the environment, with those improvements increasingly built into the conditions for funding and financing. Just let it breathe already. Not every industry needs a Brussels bureaucrat hovering over it.

It also sounds like they’ve roped Canada into their scheme to skim Russian cash from its Western-held assets to pimp themselves out under the pretext of Ukraine’s defence and their own, then just hope that Russia’s ultimately cool with that so they don’t have to stick their own taxpayers either the final bill.

Perhaps the most troubling part is the Orwellian digital cooperation section of the agreement, which aims to “advance cooperation on artificial intelligence security and sovereignty, trusted data flows and digital governance and to align emerging AI and digital regulatory frameworks through associated country status for Canada.”

Does this mean Canadians get to have Queen Ursula block their bank accounts now, too, since we’ll all be connected and harmonized inside one giant digital panopticon? Or worse, some AI bot? It’s hardly reassuring that Carney’s government has just appealed the federal court decision condemning his predecessor Justin Trudeau’s government for unconstitutionally invoking the Emergencies Act, which allowed it to block the bank accounts of Covid-era anti-mandate Freedom Convoy participants without a court order – all for the crime of honking too loudly.

Nor is it reassuring that Canada and the EU have already signed an agreement on digital “trust services” involving things like government-controlled digital identity wallets. One honk too many, one wrong opinion on some social media platform linked to the online ID system that they’re all ushering in – ostensibly under the pretext of adults needing to prove that they aren’t children requiring protection from online pedos – and there goes your whole life with the flip of a switch.

It’s not like Queen Ursula’s European Commission isn’t already doing that with sanctions and asset freezes, in the absence of due process, for those whose views it qualifies as “propaganda.” And if this is what they mean by an alliance for the future, then Canadians – the average citizens of this country – need full and open debate over the fine print before anyone signs us up.

Read more …

“The Russian foreign minister said European governments’ poor track record on previous peace agreements undermines their credibility as negotiators”..

• Europe Has Blown Its Chance To Mediate Ukraine Conflict – Lavrov (RT)


Ukrainian National Guard recruits undergo training near Kharkov

European countries have repeatedly failed to uphold agreements intended to resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, undermining their credibility as potential peace guarantors, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.


Moscow has previously stated that European officials would not participate in the upcoming US-brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi.Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Atlanta, US, on Friday, Lavrov said “the Europeans want to insert themselves into the negotiation process.” “What matters is not what the Europeans want, but what added value they can actually bring to the table,” he said.

Lavrov accused European governments of failing to uphold agreements intended to resolve the crisis, beginning with the February 2014 deal between then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and opposition leaders. France, Germany and Poland helped broker the agreement, which was intended to end months of protests and deadly clashes in Kiev. Yanukovich was ousted shortly afterward, an event Moscow maintains prompted Crimea to secede from Ukraine and join Russia, while also triggering a revolt in the largely Russian-speaking Donbass.

According to Lavrov, France and Germany also failed to ensure Ukraine implemented political reforms and granted special status to Donbass under the 2014–2015 Minsk agreements which they helped broker. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President Francois Hollande acknowledged in separate interviews in December 2022 that the agreements had given Ukraine time to strengthen its military. Moscow has cited their remarks as evidence that Western governments never intended to implement the accords in good faith.

Lavrov also cited the December 2019 summit in Paris, where the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany reaffirmed their commitment to implementing the Minsk agreements. The diplomatic process ultimately failed to produce a lasting settlement. “Over the past 12 years, they have had more than enough opportunities. Through their actions, they have demonstrated that their track record cannot be ignored the next time they seek to act as ‘guarantors,’” Lavrov stated.

His remarks followed a rare telephone conversation on Tuesday between Russian President Vladimir Putin, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store. The 90-minute call, which focused on the Ukraine conflict and upcoming peace negotiations, drew criticism from several European leaders. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the initiative had not been coordinated with other European countries, while Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said he had not been informed in advance.

Putin, however, welcomed the contact, describing the decision to call as a step towards establishing “some kind of constructive dialogue.” Lavrov attended the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta at the invitation of the US, despite objections from some European governments to Russia’s participation. President Donald Trump has also invited Putin to the G20 leaders’ summit scheduled for December in Miami.

European opposition to Russia’s participation was evident on Friday when the traditional G20 group photograph was canceled after several European diplomats objected to posing alongside Lavrov.

Read more …

Three entries for the same topic seems a lot. But this is a real Coup d’Etat in the heart of Europe.

The Polish President is a nationalist. Its PM is a globalist, heavily linked to the EU.

The President, Nawrocki, was in a plane on the way to Senegal when he turned around upon hearing what was going on in Warsaw (a coup). The plane could not get permission to land (with the President, in his own country). It landed regardless. Nawrocki went to the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw where he got involved in a physical tussle to keep him out. He managed to get in.

Where does that leave the PM? And the EU? Ursula?

• Poland Leftist Prime Minister Donald Tusk Leads a Judicial Coup d’Etat (CTH)

Things were simmering just below the surface due to pro-EU globalist Prime Minister Donald Tusk and a pro-nationalist President Karol Nawrocki both occupying leading roles in government, with a conflicted judiciary stuck between them making decisions about efforts to change the Polish constitution.


Tusk supports globalism, Nawrocki supports nationalism, the constitutional judiciary, a tribunal assembly essentially equivalent to the U.S. supreme court, held more nationalist judges than globalist judges – including the tribunal court president Bogdan Swieczkowski (essentially the Chief Justice).

LAST NIGHT – Prime Minister Tusk waited until President Nawrocki left the country, then together with aligned ideological judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, they declared the court President, Bogdan Swieczkowski, as null and void, while presenting herself as the replacement. Judge Korwin-Piotrowska attempted to become the self-appointed judicial president with the support of Tusk.

As best it can be determined, Prime Minister Tusk simultaneously ordered the police to surround the judicial court complex and block any attempts to stop what was happening inside the tribunal area. Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek, who is also the attorney general, told journalists he requested the lifting of legal immunity for Judicial President Swieczkowski and his deputy Bartlomiej Sochanski in order to carry out their replacement.

This was, by all reasonable interpretations, a stunning and planned judicial coup d’etat carried out by globalist Donald Tusk, an aligned judge Korwin-Piotrowska and an internal network of leftist government allies. However, President Karol Nawrocki, a close ally of Donald Trump, turned his plane around en route to Senegal and quickly returned to Warsaw so that he could intervene and stop the judicial overthrow.

Via Daily Mail – Riot police have been deployed to Poland‘s top court amid claims of a ‘coup’ after its chief judge was suspended in an escalating battle between Donald Tusk’s government and the nationalist right. Dozens of officers guarded the entrance to the Constitutional Court in Warsaw on Friday as protesters gathered outside, with some chanting ‘Tusk traitor’.

The extraordinary stand-off prompted President Karol Nawrocki to abandon an official trip to Senegal mid-flight and order his plane back to the Polish capital. Three people were arrested after trying to enter the court complex, police said, as supporters of the opposition Law and Justice party (PiS) protested the ousting of court president Bogdan Swieczkowski.

Some said prayers while holding Roman Catholic rosaries and religious images. The court’s official X account denounced the intervention as a ‘coup d’etat’ and insisted Swieczkowski remained in office.The confrontation marks a dramatic escalation in the struggle between Tusk’s centrist government and the nationalist opposition over control of Poland’s judiciary.

Swieczkowski’s suspension was announced by fellow judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, who said the move was needed to restore the rule of law. Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek, who is also the attorney general, told journalists he had requested the lifting of the legal immunity of Swieczkowski and his deputy Bartlomiej Sochanski. https://twitter.com/RyanAFournier/status/2116321111935709340?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2116321111935709340%7Ctwgr%5E0d78265c8de2004c7391c5d5ce6c9aeb2956e088%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2026%2F10%2F31%2Fpoland-leftist-prime-minister-donald-tusk-leads-a-judicial-coup-detat%2F https://twitter.com/d_foubert/status/2116348275519291670?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2116348275519291670%7Ctwgr%5E0d78265c8de2004c7391c5d5ce6c9aeb2956e088%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2026%2F10%2F31%2Fpoland-leftist-prime-minister-donald-tusk-leads-a-judicial-coup-detat%2F


Statement of the President of the Republic of Poland Karol Nawrocki

“This night, a violation of the constitutional order of the Republic of Poland occurred, along with the forcible takeover of a constitutional state organ. I have held consultations with the First President of the Supreme Court, Zbigniew Kapinski, who also does not recognize as legal the actions taken by individuals usurping power in the Constitutional Tribunal.

I call for the restoration of legal order and the departure from the Tribunal premises by the enforcement forces dispatched to the site by the government. To the Constitutional Tribunal, I have enabled the entry of the legally serving Vice-President of the Constitutional Tribunal, Judge Bartolomiej Sochanski.

In connection with the threat to the internal security of the Republic of Poland, I am convening urgent consultations today with the participation of representatives of parliamentary forces in order to achieve stabilization of the political situation and restoration of the constitutional order.

I thank all those who are at the Constitutional Tribunal, standing in defense of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. ”

Read more …

“The power struggle between the president and government escalated as riot police surrounded the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw..”

• Chaos Erupts At Poland’s Top Court Amid ‘Coup’ Accusations (RT)

The longstanding struggle between Poland’s right-wing president and centrist government over control of the country’s top court dramatically escalated on Friday night as riot police surrounded the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw.


Police were deployed as an announcement appeared on the court’s website stating that its president, Bogdan Swieczkowski, and vice-president, Bartlomiej Sochanski, had been suspended from their duties. Their profiles were reportedly removed from the website.

Shortly afterward, the tribunal’s official X account claimed that its website had been subjected to an “unlawful takeover” and insisted that both officials remained in their posts. “All persons participating in these actions are committing the crime of a coup d’état,” the account stated.

Protesters gathered outside the court building. According to the Polish Press Agency (PAP), Swieczkowski entered the tribunal’s grounds after his supporters cut through a gate lock with a circular saw. He subsequently left the grounds and called for calm, PAP reported.

Police said their deployment followed a warning from Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, whose status as a Constitutional Tribunal judge is disputed by the court’s existing leadership, about possible threats to judges and staff and the risk of public disorder. Officers denied entering the court building.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk defended what he described as efforts to restore the rule of law following the previous government led by the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party. “After years of lawlessness under PiS, this is a difficult, sometimes painful process that requires decisive action. There is no other way,” he wrote on X.

President Karol Nawrocki cut short a planned trip to Senegal and turned his plane around to return to Poland amid the escalating crisis.

Tusk has been locked in a prolonged battle with Nawrocki and the PiS over judicial appointments. Nawrocki has refused to administer the oath to five judges elected by parliament, while the tribunal’s existing leadership has challenged their authority to take up their posts.

Tusk’s liberal Civic Coalition leads Poland’s governing coalition, while Nawrocki holds the presidency. The Constitutional Tribunal remains dominated by judges appointed by PiS before Tusk took power in 2023. During PiS’s eight years in power, the EU repeatedly criticized the party’s judicial reforms, accusing it of undermining judicial independence.

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“..military pilots of the airplane carrying President Nawrocki refused to follow the orders from the air traffic controllers and landed the President back in Warsaw. ”

• Alarming Update on Coup Effort From Polish Media (CTH)

In the update to the attempted judicial coup d’etat carried out by globalist Prime Minister Donald Tusk last night, Polish media are now reporting the plane carrying Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki was denied landing permission as the President was urgently returning to deal with the leftist government effort.


The media are reporting that military pilots of the airplane carrying President Nawrocki refused to follow the orders from the air traffic controllers and landed the President back in Warsaw.

If these reports are accurate, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has no plausible deniability to distance himself from the grossly unconstitutional effort. Calls are now being made to cancel the Parliamentary assembly and hold new elections to restabilize the government.

Marcin Przydacz – “Poland is facing a serious constitutional crisis following events at the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw on Friday, 30 October, and during the following night.

For those unfamiliar with the Polish legal system, the Constitutional Tribunal is an independent constitutional body responsible for reviewing the constitutionality of legislation, but it also has other very important competences concerning the constitutional status of the President of the Republic and the President of the National Bank of Poland. Its independence and the legal status of its judges are protected by the Polish Constitution.

Since this spring, Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government has been taking steps aimed at gaining control over the Tribunal, most recently by attempting to install a former minister from his own cabinet as a new “judge” of the Tribunal. The government presents these actions as an effort to restore the rule of law. However, the methods employed raise fundamental questions about respect for the Constitution itself.

On Friday, 30 October, approximately 3,000 police officers were reportedly deployed in connection with the situation at the Constitutional Tribunal, following a notification from Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, who claimed the authority to assume the Tribunal’s leadership. Claiming that the President and Vice-President of the Tribunal were absent, she issued decisions announcing their suspension from official duties. The legal basis for these decisions is strongly disputed, including by the First President of Poland’s Supreme Court, Zbigniew Kapinski, and the Constitutional Tribunal’s President, Bogdan Swiegzkowski.

During the night, President Nawrocki travelled to the Constitutional Tribunal together with the First President of the Supreme Court. Despite the police presence and attempts by Anna Korwin-Piotrowska and other individuals at the entrance to physically prevent the President from entering the building, he entered the Tribunal and challenged the authority of those claiming to have assumed its leadership.

The confrontation at the entrance was physical, with individuals blocking the President’s passage. The Presidential Chancellery rejects allegations that the President was the aggressor. President Nawrocki subsequently stated that the constitutional order of the Republic of Poland had been violated and that a constitutional state institution had been taken over by force.

He called for the withdrawal of police forces from the Tribunal’s premises and the restoration of the legal order. He also enabled the Tribunal’s lawfully serving Vice-President, Judge Bartlomiej Sochanski, to enter the building and convened urgent consultations with representatives of parliamentary parties to stabilise the political situation and restore constitutional order.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk, meanwhile, defended the government’s decisive action as necessary to “restore the rule of law”. The President’s position is that restoring the rule of law cannot justify disregarding constitutional safeguards, bypassing statutory procedures or using police forces in a dispute over the leadership of an independent constitutional institution.

The European Commission, which was highly active in commenting on disputes concerning judicial independence under previous Polish governments, has so far not issued a comparable public assessment of these events. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has likewise remained silent.

The question is whether the same standards of constitutional legality, separation of powers and judicial independence will be applied to the current Polish government as were demanded of its predecessors. The rule of law cannot depend on which political party is in power. Nor can the independence of constitutional institutions be protected by disregarding the constitutional rules that guarantee it.”

https://twitter.com/EndangeredBrit/status/2116489810982342931?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2116489810982342931%7Ctwgr%5E606cf56871ec54ec24aeaf86f383e9bb9337bcb5%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2026%2F10%2F31%2Falarming-update-on-coup-effort-from-polish-media%2F

https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2116560468454051899?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2116560468454051899%7Ctwgr%5E606cf56871ec54ec24aeaf86f383e9bb9337bcb5%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2026%2F10%2F31%2Falarming-update-on-coup-effort-from-polish-media%2F

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“That’s Part of the Process”

“Notably, the decoy, when asked by the Division of Elections how his name should appear on the ballot, reportedly asked to use “S” as a middle initial (like the senator) as opposed to his own initial of “J.”

• Democratic Leaders Call Voter Confusion Tactics Harmless, Humorous (Turley)

In his work “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell explains that “In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.” If so, the news this week took a truly Orwellian turn as Democrats rationalized or even praised the effort in Alaska to put a decoy “Dan Sullivan” on the ballot to confuse Alaskans and cause mistaken votes.


Other Democratic politicians are entirely silent on the allegation that the campaign of Democratic candidate Mary Peltola engineered this grossly unethical tactic. The very same people running on “saving Democracy” are, once again, defending ballot manipulation designed to negate the votes of citizens. It is the ultimate expression of rage politics, excusing any act needed to achieve power.

On NewsNation Now, Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) went beyond many of his colleagues in saying that the Alaskan scandal shows precisely where all states, including Virginia, should go. When asked about the scandal, Subramanyam insisted that it showed how all states should embrace the widely criticized ranked-choice voting system. (Alaskans may finally reject the system this year). While asked about the use of a decoy candidate, Subramanyam bizarrely spun the question as third-party candidates — a bizarre claim since the fake Dan Sullivan has not campaigned, has never run for office, and is obviously on the ballot solely to confuse voters.

Nevertheless, Subramanyam insisted, while he would not run a decoy, “I also don’t have a ranked-choice voting system in Virginia. I wish I did, honestly. But, in Alaska, they have ranked-choice voting, and third-party candidates are very relevant. And so, if you recruited a third-party candidate who can take votes away from your opponent, that’s part of the process, and that’s just how it works in Alaska.” Previously, Subramanyam also supported the most radical gerrymandering effort in the nation (which was later struck down as unlawful).

Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) seemed to snowball as he tried to rationalize the move. He first attempted to blame it on one woman who was a “disgruntled former employee.” When CNN host Kaitlan Collins noted that The New York Times was relying on a large number of sources in the Peltola campaign, Murphy said it wouldn’t bother him at all to have decoys on his ballot because no one would be confused when voting. Of course, the entire reason you put another Dan Sullivan on the ballot is to confuse voters and cause citizens to throw away their votes on the wrong man. In a close election, that can easily make the difference in the outcome of the election.

Murphy also praised the Peltola campaign and said he “trusts” them, despite the New York Times saying they actively sought to cause such voting errors. In 2025, Murphy appeared on any cable show that would have him to declare that “those of us who believe that the threat to democracy is urgent” need to “act like it.” Most Democratic leaders refused to say anything at all in the face of an open effort to nullify votes through candidate confusion.

Pundits and party officials have dismissed the scandal as brass-knuckles politics or even as humorous. The head of Alaska’s Democratic Party, Eric Croft, insisted that the sole consideration is whether it is a crime, not whether it is unethical: “I reread all of Alaska’s statutes. I’m kind of a recovering attorney up here. And there is nothing, there’s no legal issue to it. On your, you know, sort of dirty tricks thing, I think Alaskans have a different take there too.” When pressed whether it is a good thing to try to confuse Alaskan voters and nullify their votes, Croft responded “No, I think it’s funny.”

That knee-slapper involves a politician and campaign that allegedly lied to the public about their involvement. It involves a decoy who is also accused of lying when he said he had no interaction with third parties and did not enter the race to confuse voters. (Notably, the decoy, when asked by the Division of Elections how his name should appear on the ballot, reportedly asked to use “S” as a middle initial (like the senator) as opposed to his own initial of “J.” ).

One would think that this would be an easy question for candidates who insist that they are defenders of democracy. However, in 2024, Democrats moved to remove Trump and other Republicans from ballots while claiming to be protecting voters by denying them the choice of candidates. The fact that the voters gave Trump the popular vote and swept every swing state only magnified the hypocrisy of these Democratic leaders. Yet, some of the same figures are back at it again with efforts to manipulate balloting to confuse or nullify votes in the name of protecting democracy.

Some of the same figures, such as Marc Elias, have reappeared in yet another election scandal. The Elias Law Group was named by the New York Times as involved in the controversy. Elias was a central figure in the Russian hoax as the campaign lawyer for Hillary Clinton. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) fined the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign for violating election rules in hiding the funding for the infamous Steele dossier. Before the election, Clinton officials denied any such involvement.

In an age of rage, consistency, like decency, is a stranger to politics. We are left again in that moment with lawyer Joseph Welch in the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954: “Have you no shame, sir, at long last? Have you no shame?” The answer today is clear: No, but I have the votes.

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UK and EU cannot afford their own defense. Whether Trump is in office or not.

“Where are they going to come up with the funds to pay for a military investment they have declined to make for the past 50+ years?”

• Keir Starmer Says U.S. Will No Longer “Bankroll Europe’s Defense” (CTH)

Remember when former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told President Trump the Canadian government could not continue its economic policy if the United States demanded they become self-sufficient.


One of the key reasons cited by Trudeau was the Canadian dependence on the USA for defense. Canada simply could not spend the amount of money needed to create their own military at a level required for independent defense and simultaneously follow their govt spending plan. Canada relied on the U.S. military as their defense strategy.

Yesterday, former British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the same thing; only this time Starmer was saying the United States is no longer willing to “bankroll” Europe’s defense and both the U.K and European Union were going to need to find money to build their own military.

(VIA BBC) – Sir Keir Starmer has said Europe should build a common security framework, warning the change in its defence relationship with the US is permanent rather than “an aberration of the Trump presidency”.The former prime minister was speaking at a British Irish Chamber of Commerce (BICC) dinner in Dublin on Friday evening. Sir Keir said a “common security framework” for Europe was needed as much as a common market, with the UK at its centre.

He warned that “things will not go back to the way they were,” adding that the US had made clear it will no longer “bankroll” its European allies. (read more) This public statement and admission by Keir Starmer follow remarks by current Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Politico on the heels of the Canadian-EU summit, also yesterday.

“If you’re connected to a satellite system that a billionaire, almost trillionaire, decides to turn off at one moment or not, that’s not a good idea,” Carney said. Think about this for a few moments. Canada, the U.K and Europe are all facing the same problem…. MONEY! Where are they going to come up with the funds to pay for a military investment they have declined to make for the past 50+ years?

It’s not just an issue of finding funds for a standing military, hardware, ships, submarines, aircraft, tanks, heavy and light artillery, missiles and drones etc., they also have to fund the technological capabilities to use and deploy modern weapons. They also need advanced manufacturing, steel works, technological guidance systems, large numbers of strategically placed satellites, a space program that includes rockets to put them into orbit, and much, much more.

At scale this is multiple trillions, and that doesn’t include the baseline manufacturing systems needed to create all this independent infrastructure. It’s one thing to say, ‘we will build out our military capacity‘, and it’s another thing entirely to actually build it. Does Canada or Europe even have the human resources within the engineering sector to create all this infrastructure? Think about it.

When you really stand back and look at the required level of investment needed, in addition to the time it takes to build all of the ancillary processes that are required to meet such an expressed objective, it really puts the context of the Canadian, British and European opposition to President Trump into context.

What is more feasible? Doing what is required to build-out your own military defense systems; or is it simply easier to get rid of the person who stops you from using the USA as your standing army?…

Read more …

Scandal after Left Party candidate for mayor admits she ‘fears’ Islamists and Hamas-linked milieu.

“If even a top politician no longer feels safe, what are ordinary Berliners supposed to say, who in an emergency have no personal protection standing by?”

• Left Party Candidate For Berlin Mayor ‘Fears’ Islamists (RMX)


Elif Eralp speaks at the Extraordinary party congress of The Left Party in Berlin.

Berlin’s Left Party lead candidate for governing mayor, Elif Eralp, privately expressed fear of Hamas-linked figures tied to her party’s orbit in internal notes accidentally returned to Der Spiegel, raising sharp questions about her ability to lead the capital’s security structure.


The notes, part of an authorized interview draft sent back with visible internal comments this week, show Eralp writing that she and her husband have “fear of these people.” She asked her team to strike a question and her own answer about the activist Ibrahim Ibrahim, explaining: “I cannot put myself and my family in danger for Der Spiegel. What do we do now? Can we cancel the whole interview?” She added that she “should never have agreed to this interview.”

Eralp cited past advice from Berlin’s State Criminal Police Office (LKA) not to name specific individuals, noting that earlier guidance concerned organized crime and “now it’s about people with contacts to Hamas.” Ibrahim, a longtime activist linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) — a group designated as a terrorist organization by the EU and United States — appeared at the Left Party’s election victory party in Berlin-Neukölln after the Sept. 20 state election.

He has been described as praising Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as a “martyr hero” and has roles in the United Palestinian National Committee, which Berlin’s domestic intelligence service has classified as extremist for supporting Hamas. Parts of the Left Party’s Neukölln base and some politicians have maintained contacts with this milieu; Ibrahim later traveled to Turkey for a gathering involving Hamas-linked figures.

The Left Party emerged as the strongest force with 25.7 percent of the vote in the latest Berlin election. Eralp has sought a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens. Her office has said she faces daily threats and insults, and security authorities advised against naming specific individuals in certain contexts.

Opposition parties seized on the disclosure. Kristin Brinker, chair of the AfD’s Berlin parliamentary group and the party’s lead candidate, said: “That Elif Eralp, albeit involuntarily, admits her fear of the criminal clans throws a glaring light on the state of internal security in our city. If even a top politician no longer feels safe, what are ordinary Berliners supposed to say, who in an emergency have no personal protection standing by?”

She added that the notes from Erlap illuminate the party’s condition, linking it to clan connections beyond known cases involving a Bundestag member and “rampant antisemitism.” Brinker concluded that the Left is “far from any governing capability.”

Brinker urged the Greens and SPD to end talks immediately with the Left to form a ruling government in Berlin. “This party and this woman must under no circumstances be entrusted with our city,” warned Brinker.

At a press appearance Thursday, Eralp declined to address the Spiegel notes directly, calling them private and internal. She stated she would not be intimidated and pledged to ensure both social and individual security for all Berliners, declaring she would act “with all means against organized crime, against terror, against everything,” including those who glorify violence.

In an interview with German newspaper Junge Freiheit, deputy chairman of the AfD parliamentary group, Sebastian Münzenmaier, said: “The revolution is devouring its children. For years, the left has defamed criticism of clan crime, mass migration, and Islamic glorification of terror as racist. Now, she is suddenly afraid of the ghosts she summoned.”

CDU Berlin leader Stefan Evers asked: “How is Elif Eralp supposed to ensure the security of millions of people as governing mayor if she herself is afraid of the Islamist environment of her party?”

He said the revelations heighten concern about a Left-led government and urged “the reasonable ones among the Greens and SPD” to “finally pull the emergency brake,” warning that fear of Islamists must not influence political decisions. Referring to clans and organized crime, outgoing Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) stated that a government “must never make its actions dependent on these structures — certainly it must not fear them.”

SPD figures also responded critically. Neukölln district mayor Martin Hikel said the episode shows “how strongly these terror-glorifying, antisemitic forces are anchored in the Left and want to come to power with the help of the Left.” SPD lead candidate Steffen Krach described the situation as shocking and stated there must be no Hamas sympathizers free to move in the city.

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https://twitter.com/AsFoundX/status/2116206046729424904?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle October 31 2026

Oct 312026
 
 October 31, 2026  Posted by at 10:16 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  35 Responses »


Salvador Dalí Mi esposa desnuda 1945


• November 3 Could Be the Day America Crosses the Rubicon (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Trump to ‘Electrify’ Voters in Two Rescheduled Rallies (ETM)
• Surface-to-Air Missile Systems Added to Protect Trump at Mar-a-Lago (ET)
• What A British Think Tank Gets Wrong About Russia’s Ultimate Weapons (Kornev)
• Pentagon Tells Baltic States to Tone it Down, Stop Antagonizing Russia (CTH)
• Trump Considers Lifting Sanctions On Putin’s ‘Slush Fund’ (RFE/RL)
• Von der Leyen’s Canada Power Play: Words Fail The EU Boss (RT)
• Canada GDP Slips as PM Carney Continues Chasing EU Membership (CTH)
• A Fine, Deliberately Engineered Mess (James Howard Kunstler)
• European Energy Giants Declare Record Profits (RT)
• Trump Tells Bukele “Do What You Have to Do” to Deal with Haitian Gangs (CTH)

 

 

https://twitter.com/Frontlineleaks/status/2115857343657238983?a=dCIZ16ZB-u63MnmYAFQ&s=20 https://twitter.com/SirFlyzalot/status/2115760559732003069?a=QTD8liXDnC0o9gkRfYI&s=20

 

 


Sounds imposing, but I wonder where his Rubicon is.

• November 3 Could Be the Day America Crosses the Rubicon (Paul Craig Roberts)

Here is how the NY Times Shapes the News in order to Protect Israel and Harm Trump: On October 29, David Halbfinger wrote in the NY Times that President Trump “has made clear he wants Israel to join the United States in another round of war against Iran.” Halbfinger blames the unprovoked aggression against Iran on Trump, with Trump wanting Israel to join America’s aggression. In other words, the war is Trump’s baby.


But this is how the US Department of State officially explains the war: “As the United States has explained in multiple letters to the U.N. Security Council, including most recently on March 10, the United States is engaged in this conflict at the request of and in the collective self-defense of its Israeli ally.”

When a country’s “newspaper of record” is Jewish and it shapes news to protect Israel at the expense of Americans, the picture is of a people being manipulated to serve the interest of a foreign nation. It seems to me that the Democrats tried to get Trump supporters in trouble for less significant manipulations than Halbfinger’s.

If the November 3 vote produces a Democrat Congress, we will witness with the seating of the new Congress the return of lawfare to punish Republicans. The practice will spread, and defeated US presidents will have to flee the country like defeated presidents in South America.

After the midterm elections I plan to assess the outlook for America. I suspect that the Democrats, if they win, will find war against traditional Americans more in line with their agenda than wars with Iran and Russia. Opposition could be weak as Trump’s subservience to Israel rather than to MAGA has demoralized many of those who thought America could be renewed on the basis of its traditional principals.

There are indications that Democrats are transitioning into America’s first ideological party as Democrats become the party of Abdul El-Sayed, Zohran Mamdani, Ilhan Omar, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Ideologues are in it for the cause, not for money, and the cause is transforming or overthrowing existing society and its institutions. Ideology is fiercer than money, and this gives the new Democrats an edge.

The American people have little, if any, sense of this, and are unaware that their votes on November 3 could be equivalent to Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon.

Where there is no vision the people perish.

Read more …

I hear and read too much about “lowest numbers” for Trump.

People who don’t like him can’t imagine other people do. The numbers haven’t changed after 10+ years.

• Trump to ‘Electrify’ Voters in Two Rescheduled Rallies (ETM)

President Donald Trump’s canceled rallies to Kansas and Iowa are back on. He will galvanize supporters in both states in back-to-back rallies on Sunday, a source familiar with the matter told the Daily Signal. Trump’s in-person rallies this weekend were canceled and replaced with tele-rallies in order to reach more voters. However, the rallies are now back on the schedule.


“President Trump loves his supporters, and in addition to nearly 20 tele-rallies, he will hold back-to-back rallies in Kansas and Iowa on Sunday,” the source familiar said. “No one works harder, fights harder, or loves the American people more than President Donald J. Trump. The rallies were rearranged for scheduling purposes to accommodate dozens of additional tele-rallies that were recently added to the president’s schedule.”

Republican National Convention Chairman Joe Gruters said a lot of decisions are being made on an ongoing basis about how to “maximize the president’s schedule.” “We need to do everything that we can get him to do within the 15 or 16 hours that he’s willing to be out there working on these things,” he told the Daily Signal. “He’s been an absolute machine. He’s crushing it. So it’s just about maximizing opportunities.”

Trump’s final message to supporters in these rallies will be “that the American people are going to reject extremism, and that’s what the Left is offering,” Gruters said.

“They want common sense, reasonableness, and they want that opportunity to achieve the American dream,” he said. “And these DSA candidates and these leftists who are representing the Democrats in a lot of these races, I think they fundamentally want to change the country, and I think that the path that this president’s put us on, the fact that he’s gone out there and gone to bat for the American worker when almost five decades of elected officials have sold out the American worker in exchange for cheap foreign goods, I think will make the difference.”

Gruters maintained that Republicans will “defy history” on Tuesday and turn out voters. Historically, the party in power loses the midterm elections. “All you got to do is turn on the TV and see what’s happening in Paris,” he said. “We can’t let that happen here in America. That’s why we got to continue to stay the course and focus on turnout to make sure that we get to defy history and give the president the support that he needs to be successful.”

Gruters said the president’s energy at his many midterm rallies has had an “electrifying” effect on the base. “We’ve seen upticks in voting. We’ve seen upticks in enthusiasm and voter intensity, and so we think it’s paying off big time,” he said. “That’s why the last couple of days we’re just trying to maximize everything.”

Read more …

“Ground-based air defense systems were added in and around West Palm Beach, officials said.” A president’s home. In his own country.

• Surface-to-Air Missile Systems Added to Protect Trump at Mar-a-Lago (ET)


A U.S. Secret Service security tower at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, after Secret Service and local police shot and killed a man armed with a shotgun after he breached a secure perimeter of the resort in Palm Beach, Fla., on Feb. 22, 2026.

The Secret Service ordered short-range surface-to-air missile systems and counter-drone technology to be positioned in and around President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, officials confirmed on Oct. 29. Military and presidential officials declined to provide details about the decision to increase security at the estate, where he is expected to return for the Halloween weekend.


U.S. Army Humvee-based Avenger Short-Range Air Defense (SHORAD) Systems have been positioned on a floating barge near Trump’s Palm Beach estate and at the Donald J. Trump International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, used by Air Force One, according to local media reports.

“At the request of the U.S. Secret Service … NORAD and USNORTHCOM recently deployed ground-based air defense assets and Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System capabilities in and around Mar-a-Lago, Florida,” a military spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

“These assets add a complementary layer of technology to enhance protection,” the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command Public Affairs spokesperson said. “Due to operational security, we are unable to provide additional details.”

No details were released about when the military equipment arrived in the Palm Beach area, or confirmation of a specific threat. The Avenger Air Defense System is a surface-to-air missile system used by the military as mobile defense protection against cruise missiles, drones, low-flying aircraft, and helicopters, according to the Army.

The Pentagon referred questions about the added security equipment to the White House press office. A White House spokesperson also declined to confirm if the president had received a specific threat. NORAD will enforce protected airspace above West Palm Beach again this weekend. The command issued temporary flight restrictions on Thursday over West Palm Beach, Palm Beach, and the greater area until Nov. 1.

Fighter jets were scrambled on Oct. 24 to intercept a general aviation aircraft over Palm Beach that had entered a no-fly zone. The fighter flew in front of the aircraft to get the pilot’s attention, and the airplane safely left the restricted zone, according to NORAD.

General aviators were advised to check Notices to Airmen before every flight, which is required by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA has issued two presidential-level flight restriction windows: from 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 30 to 10:45 a.m. Oct. 31; and 4:15 p.m. on Oct. 31 to 1:30 p.m. Nov. 1. Roads in Palm Beach County will also be temporarily closed this weekend in anticipation of the president’s visit.

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“A new RUSI report questions the future of Moscow’s strategic forces. Its conclusions leave crucial parts of the picture out.”

Dmitry Kornev, military expert, founder and author of the MilitaryRussia project

Britain et al provoked Russia into Ukraine. But war with Moscow is useless and/or worse.

Russia became unbeatable with nukes. 100 of them are aimed at London. So try.

• What A British Think Tank Gets Wrong About Russia’s Ultimate Weapons (Kornev)

A few days ago, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) released a report titled ‘Russia’s Nuclear Deterrent and Its Weapons Procurement’. The report examines the development of Russia’s nuclear triad amid stringent financial constraints and the rising threat of a potential US non-nuclear counterforce strike.


The author of the report, Sidharth Kaushal, makes conclusions based on the publications of Russian military experts in the journal ‘Voennaya Mysl’ (Military Thought), as well as established Western practices for analyzing Russia’s nuclear capabilities.

A British diagnosis of Russia’s nuclear future

Here are the key takeaways from the report:

• Paradigm shift: Russia is being compelled to shift its focus from a posture of “assured retaliation” (increasing the survivability of mobile missile systems and submarine-launched ballistic forces to effectively counter a first strike) to a Launch on Warning (LOW) posture (employing its arsenal early against an enemy attack).

• Vulnerability of mobile forces: Advancements in US space reconnaissance make the concealment of mobile ground-based systems increasingly ineffective.

• Greater reliance on silo-based launchers, which are viewed as more secure bases for strategic missiles. Silo-based systems will comprise a greater proportion of throw weight, particularly since RS-28 Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missiles are silo-launched to ensure instant readiness.

• Economic challenges: According to the report, modern Russia cannot pursue a large-scale quantitative increase in its missile arsenal due to the enormous costs associated with developing and maintaining the conventional armed forces amidst the ongoing military operation in Ukraine.

• Due to cost parity, the domestic production costs of strategic missile systems compete with conventional weaponry – for example, producing one Yars missile is equivalent to the cost of 15 T-72 tanks.

• A labor shortage in the nuclear and missile industries is unavoidable in the current conditions and necessitates a significant increase in wages.

The author also provides interesting assessments of specific weapons systems:

• RS-28 Sarmat: The report projects no quantitative increase in the deployment of these missiles. Emphasis is placed on a short boost phase and a high payload capacity for overcoming missile defense systems.

• The medium-range Oreshnik missile is seen as a priority in the European theater of operations and as a tool for preemptively neutralizing US Dark Eagle systems in Europe. Given manufacturing shortages, it is expected to be deployed primarily in its nuclear variant.

• The long-range KH-BD air-launched cruise missile (with a range up to 6,500 km) is designed to be carried by Tu-95 and Tu-160 bombers, in light of the lack of progress on the PAK DA next-generation stealth strategic bomber.

• Burevestnik and Poseidon programs are considered technically unfeasible by the author of the report; due to the high costs, they are perceived primarily as methods of psychological intimidation

• Space-based warfare: The report highlights the jamming of US missile defense systems as a major priority for Russia. It predicts the launch of nuclear electronic warfare satellites into orbit and the eventual deployment of full-scale space-based nuclear weapons to create massive plasma fields in the ionosphere.

How can we assess this report? Generally, the picture is more complex than described. Like in the Indian parable about the blind men and the elephant, the author of the report sees certain aspects of the ‘elephant’ but fails to see the general picture, which may be quite different. Let’s take a closer look.

The logic behind Russia’s nuclear shield
Regarding the structure of the strategic nuclear forces and the shifting balance between mobile and stationary systems, the distinctive feature of the Soviet, and now Russian, approach lies in balancing mobile and stationary strategic missile systems. Despite advances in satellite reconnaissance, mobile missile systems hold certain advantages: for example, hundreds of them are deployed over vast territories.

Moreover, several Peresvet laser weapon systems have already been deployed; these can blind potential adversaries’ optical reconnaissance systems at a critical moment. While reliance on space-based systems is understandable, it’s important to note that these technologies are also vulnerable to various factors, as we have seen recently.

Stationary missile systems come with a significant drawback: it’s relatively easy to spot their location. However, they offer a high level of protection against non-nuclear strikes and maintain relatively high (though not absolute) survivability in the event of a nuclear exchange. Russia’s strategy combines hard-to-detect mobile missile systems with stationary systems that can be employed in response to a nuclear attack.

This combination allows for greater flexibility and multiple operational scenarios. Considering this strategy, it’s likely that a large inventory of Sarmat missiles isn’t necessary – two regiments with 50+ missile silos might suffice. This doesn’t indicate a shift in priorities but rather reaffirms a conservative and justified traditional approach.

We must also note the naval component, which ensures reliable retaliatory capability. Both Russian and Western analysts have grown accustomed to the fact that the Bulava submarine-launched solid-fuel missile has been deployed and will eventually replace other ballistic missiles in the Russian Navy. However, that’s not entirely true. Project 667BDRM DELTA-IV submarines equipped with liquid-fueled R-29RM missiles remain on duty. These missiles are among the most effective strategic systems in terms of their energy-mass efficiency. Judging by statements from 2022, it seems that Russia may very well renew its interest in liquid-fueled sea-based missiles. Maintaining two centers for naval missile production is more expensive than having just one, but if it results in a higher number of warheads with fewer missiles, financial concerns could be overlooked.

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Ha Ha Ha!

• Pentagon Tells Baltic States to Tone it Down, Stop Antagonizing Russia (CTH)

What I find very interesting in this Reuters exclusive report are the specific Baltic states mentioned. From the article: “Among the nations that have received messages urging them to keep public statements in check are Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. ”


I would remind readers of the recent 1,000 drones supposedly deployed from Western Ukraine that flew through the airspace of this exact group of nations to attack St Petersburg, Russia. CTH said at the time that given the logistics involved it was far more likely the drones were delivered to, and launched from, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia before crossing into Russian territory.

…“if you accept the narrative, the 1,000+ drones took off from western Ukraine, flew north through Poland, crossed Lithuania (a few crashed there) and then Latvia, and finally turned east toward St Petersburg from Estonia at the very end; again, presumably, to avoid Russian air defenses.

This complicated 1,000+ drone operation happened at exactly the same time Zelenskyy was creating a very specific narrative about being allowed to use Starshield for these types of targeting operations.” ~CTH October 20th. Is it just a coincidence that a report surfaces saying the Pentagon has requested these same three specific EU nations to stop their antagonisms as President Trump tries to come to a diplomatic resolution to this conflict?

Oct 30 (Reuters) “Pentagon officials have in recent weeks asked several NATO countries to tone down their rhetoric regarding the threat posed by Russia, arguing that some statements by European leaders and officials have undermined continental security, four people familiar with the matter said.

Among the nations that have received messages urging them to keep public statements in check are Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. It was not clear if the messages, which were delivered in bilateral meetings, were conveyed to other European governments.

The US requests come as the Trump administration restarts an effort to press for a negotiated end to the full-scale war in Ukraine, now well into its fifth year. The latest push has blended incentives for Russia including sanctions relief with pressure on Ukraine to halt its attacks on Russian energy infrastructure.” Asked for comment, a Pentagon official said: Private conversations among allies are just that, so we will not comment on these allegations.

Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby, a key figure in an ongoing review of US troop levels in Europe, was one of the US officials delivering the message, the people said. Reuters could not determine what other officials were involved. None of the people, who include three European officials and a US official, suggested the advice was communicated in a confrontational manner. (read more)

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Putin and Trump, through Dmitriev and Witkoff, make business deals. No sentiment.

• Trump Considers Lifting Sanctions On Putin’s ‘Slush Fund’ (RFE/RL)

Four days after Russia launched its all-out effort to subjugate Ukraine, the US government and other Western allies fired a broadside of financial sanctions aimed at punishing the Kremlin’s wallet for the assault. The Russian Central Bank was prominent.


So was a multibillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund that the Kremlin calls the Russian Direct Investment Fund, or RDIF. The U.S. Treasury called it “a slush fund for President Vladimir Putin [that] is emblematic of Russia’s broader kleptocracy.”

After months of dormancy, US negotiators have ramped up efforts to find a negotiated settlement to end Russia’s war on Ukraine — as well as normalize frosty relations between Washington and Moscow. The peace proposals vary. Many tilt heavily in Russia favor, something that was echoed in Putin’s remarks to European leaders earlier this week.

They also include lifting sanctions on the RDIF, whose chief executive, Kirill Dmitriev, is the Kremlin’s point person for talks with the Americans.”This conversation is going on,” Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yury Ushakov told Russian reporters. “It’s been going on for some time, though I don’t know what the result will be.”

“Dmitriev is actively reaching out, in particular, and therefore the question has come up and is being discussed,” Ushakov said on October 28, confirming a New York Times report a day earlier. US sanctions experts were wary.

“Since its inception in the early 2010s, RDIF has served as a vehicle for channeling investments into companies and sectors that are strategically important to Putin,” said Peter Harell, who served as a senior director on the White House National Security Council from 2021 to 2022. “We should all be clear-eyed about what unsanctioning RDIF would mean: it would mean prioritizing American investment in Kremlin-aligned projects over supporting Ukraine,” he said.

What Is The RDIF Anyway?
The fund was established in 2011 during the interim period when Putin’s protege, Dmitry Medvedev, served as president, and Putin as prime minister. It came at a time when Russian coffers were brimming with revenues from high global oil prices and fiscal planners were moving to put the country onto a rock-solid financial footing.

Back then, Russia had one traditional sovereign wealth fund that was later split into two: the Stabilization Fund and the Reserve Fund. Both more or less helped to keep excess oil revenues from destabilizing the economy, as well as to help fill gaps in the budget; the pension system above all. In short, nothing controversial nor particularly political.

The RDIF, however, was a slightly different beast: aimed at making targeted investments in Russian companies: construction, telecoms, finance, health care, and dairy, among others. It says to date it has made 2.3 trillion rubles ($29 billion) in investments since its inception — with about 80 percent of that amount coming from “partner funds.”

[..]

Who is Kirill Dmitriev?
Born in Kyiv and educated at Stanford then Harvard, Dmitriev, 51, worked briefly on Wall Street, in the investment bank Goldman Sachs, and, also consulting giant McKinsey and Company. RDIF did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment from RFE/RL. His wife, Natalia Popova, is widely known as a close friend of Katerina Tikhonova, who is the younger of Putin’s two daughters. Dmitriev sits on the board of directors for an innovation fund called Innopraktia that is headed by Tikhonova.

He was appointed RDIF’s first executive when it was established. In an interview with the business newspaper Vedomosti, published in 2012, he described his philosophy toward investing. “We don’t want to rush. We’re very responsible with our money and take a conservative approach to investment decisions. We don’t want to invest and then see a second wave of the crisis hit and all assets, including ours, plummet in value,” Dmitriev was quoted as saying.

During the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election, which ultimately was won by Donald Trump, Dmitriev was one of several Russian officials who held back-channel meetings with Trump administration confidants. Dmitriev met with Erik Prince, founder of the private military company Blackwater and Trump campaign donor, in the Seychelles just weeks before Trump took office — a meeting that was documented by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated the Trump administration’s ties to Russian officials.

After Trump returned to the White House in 2025, Dmitriev was tapped by Putin to be the Kremlin’s special economic envoy. But he also cultivated a close relationship with the White House’s lead envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff. Dmitriev has since taken on the lead role in negotiations to rebuild business relations with US companies — and also end the Ukraine war.


He’s met repeatedly over the past 16 months with Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Moscow — including earlier this month amid the release of a retired American schoolteacher, Stephen Hubbard, from a Russian prison. RDIF and Dmitriev, were also instrumental in a deal, recently announced by the Trump administration, to allow Russian diesel fuel to be imported into the United States.

That deal has drawn scathing criticism from Democratic lawmakers — and even some Republicans — in Washington, who say it violates the spirit of a recently passed sanctions law, and several have threatened potential criminal liabilities for any American companies that import the Russian diesel.

“I think lifting sanctions without Russia giving anything in return is an example of really confused policy-making,” Korhonen said. Speaking at an energy conference in Moscow on October 16, Dmitriev criticized the US sanctions law as “misguided,” and he touted other business deals he said were in the works between Moscow and Washington.

“Naturally, progress is quite difficult; there is resistance, in fact, widespread resistance, from various quarters. Yet, as the example regarding diesel demonstrates, I believe we will soon be announcing several other significant initiatives,” he said. “The ice has, in fact, begun to break.”

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“Ursula goes rogue..”

The EU MUST dump her. But how could that happen? It’s not as if she was elected. No Kings anyone?!

How can this NOT lead to disaster?

She offers Canada associate membership of the EU. But there’s no such thing. She makes it up.

• Von der Leyen’s Canada Power Play: Words Fail The EU Boss (RT)

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is stirring up trouble at home during a controversial trip to Montreal, turning what should have been a straightforward trade mission into a petty argument over Canada’s fictional “membership” in the bloc.


The EU mandarin traveled to Montreal for the 21st annual EU-Canada summit on Thursday, with her tail between her legs. A month after unilaterally promising Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney “associate member” status of the bloc, she was reportedly forced to scrub all mentions of the term and downgrade her offer to one of an “ever closer association” between the EU and Canada.

When the summit closes on Friday, both sides will issue a revised joint statement that reads: “We will create an even closer association between Canada and the EU… and work to define by the 2027 EU-Canada Summit the concept of an ever closer association of Canada to the EU, short of full membership itself,” according to a draft seen by Policito.

Why was the text changed?
Von der Leyen reportedly gave neither the EU’s vast bureaucracy, nor its members’ wary leaders, any warning before she told Carney in front of the European Parliament that she “would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to being the first associate member of the European Union.”

Unilateral decisions and boundary-overstepping are von der Leyen’s calling cards, as her fellow Eurocrats have repeatedly complained to the press. “Nobody was consulted about associate membership apart from [von der Leyen’s] closest staff, it would seem,” an unnamed diplomat told The Guardian on Wednesday. The widespread anonymous briefing to various mainstream European media made it clear that France, Germany, Greece and Italy had forced von der Leyen to adopt the new, watered-down terminology.

In her first speech in Montreal on Thursday, von der Leyen refused to adopt the new, sanitized wording. After noting that “Canada cannot become a full-fledged member of the EU because of geography,” she insisted that “we are discussing the idea of Canada becoming the first associate member of the European Union. Our idea is simple: it is an ‘association without accession’.”

Whatever form Friday’s communique will take, von der Leyen has evidently chosen to disregard the concerns of the EU’s largest member states for the sake of her own personal project. However, the difference between both statements is purely rhetorical.

What does ‘associate member’ mean anyway?
Neither “Associate member” nor “ever closer association” are defined anywhere in EU law.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attempted to define “associate membership” in May when he suggested that it be granted to Ukraine. Under his proposal, Ukraine would participate in European Council meetings without voting rights, send representatives to the European Parliament, receive more EU funding, and become party to the EU’s mutual defense clause.

The proposal was rejected by Kiev, with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky arguing that this kind of ‘membership-lite’ would leave his country “present in the European Union, but voiceless.”

“Ever closer association” is an even more meaningless term, lifted straight from ‘Ever Closer Union’, a hagiography on EU integration by the bloc’s court historian, Desmond Dinan. Writing in 1994, Dinan argued that “European integration is a good thing,” and the phrases he used – “ever closer union” and “pooling sovereignty,” for example – have since become staples of EU speeches and press releases.

US President Donald Trump ridiculed von der Leyen’s word games last month, calling the concept of associate membership laughable, and threatening to put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe on many things if the EU-Canada proto-alliance ever harmed US interests.

Carney who plainly insisted last month that Canada is “not looking to become a member of the European Union”, responded diplomatically to the intra-EU squabbling. “:The good news is it doesn’t matter about specific names or nomenclature”, he said ahead of the summit. What matters is the difference it will make to the lives of Canadians.

However, Von der Leyen’s membership promise and the subsequent retraction has undermined Carney in front of his opponents. In a social media post on Thursday, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre described the concept of associate membership as theater, and dismissed the summit as yet another grand theatrical meeting to sign a bunch of meaningless declarations filled with big words (catalyze, anyone?) and promises to meet again to talk more.”

 

 


“How long will this theatre go on? While Canadians can’t afford food and homes, Mr. Carney has distracted for months with big talk about “Associate Membership” with Europe. Now, Europe has rejected it. For the next two days, we will be distracted again from the cost-of-living crisis with wall-to-wall media coverage on yet another grand theatrical meeting to sign a bunch of meaningless declarations filled with big words (catalyze, anyone?) and promises to meet again to talk more.

No one’s mortgage or grocery bill will come down. We already have a free trade deal with Europe, Mr. Carney. Get the 9 countries who have not ratified it to do so. And get EU countries to let our beef into the continent and cancel their planned carbon tariff on Canada. Otherwise stop wasting your time and our money. Both are running out.

— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) October 29, 2026

 

 


[..] The argument over the statement’s wording has overshadowed the summit, but the geopolitical reality remains unchanged: the EU needs Canada’s energy supplies to keep its economy afloat, Canada’s money to prop up its Ukraine project, and Canada’s geography to legitimize its Arctic expansion. For these, it doesn’t matter how the deal is dressed up.

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“Canada cannot have a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the EU that contains structural regulations on the flow of goods that substantively restricts Canadian products from entering the USA.

• Canada GDP Slips as PM Carney Continues Chasing EU Membership (CTH)

Canada is in a really weird place and I’ve all but given up trying to understand it. At a certain point you just have to accept that Prime Minister Mark Carney is operating on an agenda for that country that is disconnected from all traditional perspectives around national best interest.


For example, the Canadian trade relationship with the single state of Texas, USA, is larger than the total Canadian trade relationship with the European Union, yet Carney is spending an inordinate amount of time chasing a trade deal with the EU that is never going to amount to anything. Seriously, it’s a literal dead-end.

First, there’s not a scintilla of alignment between the USMCA (Canada says CUSMA) and the European Union. There’s two entirely different sets of economic baselines, standards, rules and regulations between trading with the United States and trading with the EU. If Canada wants a trade relationship with the USA, they have to give up trying to structure their economy to align with the EU; both systems are entirely different.

Canada cannot have a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the EU that contains structural regulations on the flow of goods that substantively restricts Canadian products from entering the USA. The same issue exists with China.


Now, if Canada wants to separate from the North American trade agreement, then by all means – go for the deal with the EU and/or China. However, as long as Canada wants to retain their USA dependencies and benefits, there’s no mechanism that permits an FTA of substance with Europe or China. Mark Carney cannot have it both ways.

Secondly, do you remember when CTH noted the second quarter GDP for Canada appeared to be entirely manipulated by the movement of Dutch Central Bank gold from Ottawa to London. People laughed at me for noticing the timing and the mysterious (completely unexplained) gain in economic output in the second quarter. Q4 2025 was flat, Q1 2026 was negative, then mysteriously Q2 had a bounce – and, well, now Q3 is showing a return to flatline or negative.

OTTAWA—Canada’s economy cooled in the latest quarter after activity unexpectedly stalled two months running and early data points to a slight contraction in September. Gross domestic product was essentially unchanged in August from the month before at 2.372 trillion Canadian dollars, the equivalent of US$1.695 trillion, Statistics Canada said on Friday. That was softer than the 0.2% expansion expected by economists following a similarly flat result in July. The national data agency’s advance data indicates output edged down 0.1% in September.

Based on the estimate, Canada’s economy expanded at an annualized pace of 1.3% in the third quarter after surging back to life the period before. August’s activity reflected a modest 0.1% expansion in activity by goods-producing industries, balancing a 0.1% dip by services producers.

The advance information for September points to decline in manufacturing and mining and oil and gas extraction, partially offset by increases in utilities and recovery in wholesale trade for the month. (read more)

Let me put this as plainly as I can. Carney is a former banker. Banks know how to manipulate economic outputs because banks can create the appearance of ‘sales’ within an economy. Mark Carney was getting blasted for having a recession economy (two quarters of contraction Q4 ’25 and Q1 ’26) in early spring ’26 at the exact moment he was delivering his now famous Davos speech presenting himself as the leader of the “middle powers strategy.”

Enter the Dutch Central Bank transferred $86 billion in gold out of Ottawa and New York but didn’t actually take custody of it. Instead, the Dutch financially transferred the Canadian gold to the City of London. The Dutch Bank and Bank of England can, I say did, record that 3-way transfer as a physical sale of a Canadian holding (asset). That created the Q2 Canadian anomaly.

So, in reality pull that Q2 result out of the equation and the Canadian economy has been flat or declining for almost a full year now with a negative -0.1% result in September. This makes the conversation about Canada’s desire to become more economically dependent on the European Union look even sillier.

The USA economy already at $32.5 trillion is growing substantially at a 3.4% rate; that’s more than a thousand billions’ in economic growth. The EU economy is barely bumping along at 1.3% growth and Canada is completely flat.


For the past two days, Prime Minister Mark Carney and EU Commission President Ursula Fond of Lyin’ have been conducting an oratory lovefest expressing a desire for Canada and the EU to embrace each other with passionate synergy. However, back in Europe the rest of the knuckleheads -led by Germany- have dispatched any notion of letting Canada be an “Associate Member” 3,000 miles away. {GO DEEP}

Into this hot mess of diplomatic duplicity intended to dupe the culturally clueless Snow Mexicans and First Nation sensibility enablers, comes a bucket of ice water to the face in the form of a report showing the EU would apply a carbon border adjustment tax to Canadian industrial products because Canada just isn’t progressive enough with their climate preservation regulations {SEE HERE} and the evidence is HERE.

Remember what I said about the North American USMCA being entirely incompatible with the EU regulations on trade? Well, the European Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism is one brutally obvious example therein. Canada already having created a carbon trading exchange system may be willing to align and regulate themselves even more with that nonsense, but the USA and Mexico are never going to participate in such self-defeating foolishness.

I know there are a substantial number of really solid, conservative and intellectually honest Canadians. They are in my prayers daily, because the scale of bizarro world frustration they live with is astonishing. God Bless the pragmatic conservative Canadians. Now, knowing how valuable time is, I would not recommend a video unless it was well documented, short on banter and hard on facts. This video is well worth your time.


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“Can’t we just be Mexico or Paraguay and have peace and quiet while things mostly go to hell?” — Matt Taibbi

• A Fine, Deliberately Engineered Mess (James Howard Kunstler)

The garish stunt pulled by the Democratic Party in Alaska’s US Senate race has been known for months — a florid, festering carbuncle on the election’s face — and The New York Times finally reported it this week, mainly to get ahead of an accelerating DOJ probe, spin the story, and soften its sharp edges for public consumption. And a day later, the newspaper is now straining to say that it’s just normal politics.


Here’s what happened: Rep. Mary Peltola is running against sitting US Senator Dan Sullivan (Dan S.). Somehow, a second Dan Sullivan (Dan J.), a retired nobody in a remote fishing village, was induced to jump on the ranked-choice ballot. (The ranked-choice method is another layer of trickery.) So, there are two Dan Sullivans on the ballot. Do you suppose this might confuse voters and siphon off votes from the real Sullivan to push a Peltola victory?

Peltola fired her campaign manager, Elisa Rios, in August, for reasons not yet disclosed. Rios then filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Peltola and sometime along in there Rios went to The Times with the story of how two Dan Sullivans ended up on the Alaska ballot. Turns out that the campaign ran a “ballot composition project.” Also involved were the national Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and the Marc Elias law firm, which represents both the DSCC and Rep. Peltola’s campaign.

Marc Elias was previously the Perkins Coie lawyer who represented the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign and helped arrange the Steele Dossier facet of the RussiaGate prank. Elias has since then been working tirelessly to engineer election procedures that favor Democrats, enable voting by non-citizens, block election reform, and file lawsuits to prevent states from turning over voter rolls to the DOJ, as they have demanded.

A pro-Peltola political action committee (49th State PAC) paid $87,000 to an Ohio consulting company run by one Jerid Kurtz (operating under the name “Zane”) to compile a list of all the Dan Sullivans in Alaska and recruit one to run for Dan S. Sullivan’s Senate seat. They succeeded, finding Dan J., age 69, a retired US Forest Service employee and schoolteacher, in Petersburg, AK, who had never run for anything before. In late May 2026, he filed as a Senate candidate without a party label, then received about 2.5% in the top-four primary, and advanced to the general election ballot.

The Alt Dan Sullivan was assisted with all the filing paperwork by one Amber Lee, an Anchorage-based political consultant. A super PAC, Right for Alaska (meaning good for, not right wing, and based in Hudson, Wisconsin, by the way), has spent $1.15 million on Alt Dan, with $990,000 of that funneled in from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a Washington DC-based Lefty-left pass-through operation — a 501(c)(4), not required to disclose its dark money donors — that has handled hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years. The org is associated with Arabella Advisors, which is funded by George Soros’s Open Society grants.

Former campaign manager Rios had told The Times that, “Ms. Peltola was not directly involved in the Two Dan Sullivans project, but she was ‘definitely aware.’” Two days ago, just before publication of The Times report, Rios attempted to retract her story, declaring to the newspaper, “As discussed on our call earlier today, I am confirming that I have retracted all statements made regarding the 2026 Alaska Senate Race in connection with any article you may or may not be writing. I am not willing to be a source for any story in any capacity.” Nice try. Explain that to a grand jury.

The DOJ opened criminal and civil investigations in the Two Dan Sullivans matter last summer but bumped up its activities with the publication of The Times report. A grand jury was convened in August. On the criminal side, prosecutors have now issued thirty to forty grand jury subpoenas targeting Democratic officials, the Peltola campaign, and others linked to the Alt Dan recruitment effort. No one has been charged yet. At issue is whether this was a conspiracy to mislead voters or interfere with a fair election. Potential charges could include 18 U.S.C. §§ 241 and 242, conspiracy against rights / deprivation of rights under color of law and wire fraud.

On the civil side, a DOJ lawsuit filed October 23, seeks to block certification of the vote if Senator Dan S. Sullivan happens to lose the election in a way that could be attributed to voter confusion.

Yesterday, Governor Mike Dunleavy directed the Alaska Bureau of Investigation to determine whether the prank violated Alaska law and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted. The governor said the state’s actions were based on “Alaskans’ right to vote for the candidate they actually intend to support” and described deliberately confusing voters as “striking at election integrity.” The Alaska Supreme Court previously ruled that Daniel J. Sullivan (Alt Dan) met the constitutional requirements to appear on the ballot and that officials could not exclude him based on alleged motives. How that happened remains a mystery.

From a public sentiment point of view, the Two Dan Sullivans case underscores how desperately filthy Democratic Party tactics are in the service of preserving their longstanding racketeering operations. As a practical matter, the outcome could affect which of the two parties gets control of the US Senate. A vote for Democratic Party candidates is a vote to wreck our country. Think hard on that when you go to the polls.

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“For consumers, heating and electricity costs have spiked as a consequence of the US-Israeli war on Iran..”

• European Energy Giants Declare Record Profits (RT)

As European households struggled to pay their energy bills, the continent’s oil companies more than doubled their profits over the last quarter, reaping the benefits of the US-Israeli war on Iran.


Eight months to the day since American and Israeli forces began bombarding Iran, Brent crude prices sat at $115 on Thursday, up from $72 pre-war. Dated Brent, the actual on-the-spot price that purchasers are paying for Brent cargoes in the North Sea, was even higher, at $120.

This price spike has driven the cost of petrol, diesel, and heating oil to record highs across Europe. However, it’s been a windfall for Europe’s largest oil companies, according to quarterly profit statements compiled by Germany’s Der Spiegel on Thursday.

British oil and gas giant Shell recorded a profit of $12.1 billion between July and September, a more than twofold increase on the previous quarter, and on the same quarter last year. Between July and September 2025, Shell made $5.43 billion in profit.

France’s TotalEnergies increased profits by 127% to $9.1 billion in the same period, while Spain’s Repsol recorded an almost fivefold increase, from $640.7 million to $3.1 billion. Austria’s OMV, meanwhile, increased profits by 68% to $2.36 billion.

German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil and his counterparts in Austria, Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, have called for an EU-wide windfall tax on the oil giants, similar to the “solidarity levy” imposed by Brussels after the escalation of the Russia/Ukraine conflict in 2022.

The Commission has been very reserved on this issue, although several member states have been calling for models to be presented for a long time, Klingbeil said after a meeting of EU finance ministers in Ireland last month. This must happen by the next [finance ministers] meeting in October at the latest, he added.

The European Commission shot down Klingbeils proposal, and October passed with no action from Brussels. It is in the hands of member states, EU Economic Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters. Member states can go ahead and take those decisions on the taxing of windfall profits.

Despite Gulf exports reportedly recovering to 80% of pre-war levels, Houthi attacks on Saudi energy facilities and shipping, the threat of naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz, and warnings of an “intense” new US military campaign against Iran have all played a role in keeping oil prices nearly twice as high as they were at the beginning of February.

Read more …

Bukele in Haiti.

• Trump Tells Bukele “Do What You Have to Do” to Deal with Haitian Gangs (CTH)

The nation of El Salvador has been part of a UN-established initiative called the Gang Suppression Force, or GSF, operating in Haiti’s capital city of Port-au-Prince. Four of El Salvador’s soldiers, aviation technicians, were ambushed and captured by Haitian gangs. El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has been positioning military assets to deliver retribution.


According to Axios, as Bukele pumps military assets into the collapsed nation he called President Trump who told him, “do what you need to do” to deal with the situation and return stability. Having dealt with this situation in his home country, President Bukele knows exactly how to deal with gangs who take control of government.

AXIOS – El Salvador’s strongman president, Nayib Bukele, is sending thousands of troops to Haiti to boost the island’s push to wipe out its gang problem — and find four of his military personnel who were captured in a recent ambush. Bukele called President Trump on Tuesday to make sure he had no problem with this major military escalation, to which Haiti’s government has agreed. “Do what you have to do,” Trump told him, according to sources briefed on the call.

Why it matters: If it works, Bukele’s troop surge could stabilize Haiti, a country 700 miles from Florida that has been devastated by deadly gang violence and has lacked a president since the last one, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated five years ago. President Bukele delivered the following statement via the X platform:


“Haitian people,

We have nearly finished deploying our soldiers and equipment on Haitian soil. This is not an operation against the Haitian people, nor an invasion of the country of Haiti. We are not a great power. We have no interest in coming to dominate the Haitian people, nor in laying hands on Haiti’s wealth.

We are a modest country that is developing. The only thing we want is for our four aviation technicians to return home. And we’re giving the gangs a lesson—these gangs that make the Haitian people suffer, that kill people the population loves, that prevent them from living a normal, free life, without fear.

It’s almost just us footing the bill for this operation. Even though we receive a bit of logistical help from a few other countries, it’s with our own modest funds that we’re covering 90% of the expenses.

It costs us dearly, but we’ve learned from our own suffering: justice and peace have no price. We went through the same suffering that Haiti is going through today. We lived through a nightmare that was even more horrific than what the Haitian people are enduring right now. We know what that means: living in fear, not trusting politicians, not believing anyone who promises to help you. Because no one came to help us, and those who did come didn’t have good intentions in their hearts.

But we managed to escape it. After 200 years of suffering, finally we’re living in peace, and today we are the safest country on the continent.

We didn’t come to Haiti to make money, because no one is paying us to do it. We came to Haiti to fight against the wicked.

But here’s what I’m asking of you: trust us, pray to the one true God, and ask Him to heal Haiti.

“If at that time my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, where I am, I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land.”

2 Chronicles 7:14

Help us help Haiti.

And when our mission is finished, we’ll return home. Perhaps the next generation of Haitians will remember us as friends who came to help one day.” {source}

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/SawyerMerritt/status/2116399240880480429?a=BkziCTRaUftCS4D9H8M&s=20 https://twitter.com/AsFoundX/status/2115815669581455750?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle October 30 2026

Oct 302026
 
 October 30, 2026  Posted by at 10:21 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  43 Responses »


Bernini The Vision of Constantine 1670


• The Opposition to Russia – An Interesting Exercise (CTH)
• Trump Faces Plot Twist In Ilhan Omar Warrant Fight As Old Foe Reemerges (ZH)
• NYT: Obama Admin Had Evidence of Omar’s Bro-Husband (Catherine Salgado)
• European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde Announces Early Departure (CTH)
• Canada-U.K Election Interference Activity (CTH)
• NYT: Peltola Conspired to Confuse Alaskan Voters With “Dan Sullivans” (Turley)
• Peltola Campaign Behind Two Sullivan Candidates (John Solomon)
• NYT: Alaska Dems, Mary Peltola Organized Fraudulent Dan Sullivan (CTH)
• Glenn Greenwald Unpacks Brazil’s Political Drama (ZH)
• Muslims In Europe Have More Than Doubled In The Last 25 Years (RMX)
• Is the Israeli-Trump War on Iran Producing Muslim Unity? (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Another Day, Another World-Changing Milestone From SpaceX (Stephen Green)

 

 

https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2115785495737155839?s=20 https://twitter.com/GOP_is_Gutless/status/2115760299412176964?a=obqUrgSmBpjaBaXLlag&s=20

 

 


Russia is the odd one out.

The people who advocate the global warming agenda are the same as those who support Ukraine.

They are the globalists. They devastate your world.

Trump fights them in the US. In Europe, there’s only Le Pen and the AfD.

• The Opposition to Russia – An Interesting Exercise (CTH)

For two weeks I have essentially locked myself away while trying to disprove a thesis I developed over the past few years. Perhaps you might be interested. Take out a pencil, draw a line down the center of the page and on the left hand-column write out every individual, nation, organization, institution and political movement that is aligned with, and advanced the global warming/climate change agenda.


Then, on the right-hand column, write out every individual, nation, organization, institution and political movement that is aligned with, advances the interests of, and support for Ukraine. Notice something in the commonality?

They are a perfect match.

25+ years of Global Warming, Climate Change, Net Zero, Carbon Trading, Carbon Taxing, Build Back Better etc. advocacy, revolves around the singularity of one issue, energy production. From that baseline the western nemesis of a multi-trillion investment and banking system, built around the destruction of the coal, oil and gas carbon-based energy sector is Russia.

Additionally, over the past 10 years as western interests have stopped building oil refining capacity, Russia has expanded oil refining capacity. All ‘modern’ opposition to Russia in the last 25 years, is now culminating…. But the root is something everyone misses. The root commonality of interests is Energy Production.

The advocates for the system of dependencies created by the “climate change/net zero” energy processes are the same advocates supporting Ukraine and specifically supporting the targeting of Russian energy production vis-a-vis Russian oil refineries. All of the advocates for Ukraine are also heavily invested advocates for the climate change agenda. A western system that has created multi-trillions of prior investments that need returns.

Russia’s interests are against that system.

Someone recently paused, thought about it and remarked back to me, “well, that is an interesting commonality of interests; however, if that were indeed the case, then why wouldn’t that same network confront the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) with the same ferocity of opposition?”I replied, “wait, did you forget the Arab Spring?”

Since 1999 every large institutional construct of finance, investment and banking has centered around the western premise of “climate change.” Entire industries, very lucrative returns on investment, have surfaced as a result of the collective WEF endeavor that specifically targeted the #1 sector for global economic power and ultimately control….

The Energy Sector.
Shortly before the recent spike in refined gasoline, diesel and jet fuel costs, there was a conversation about AI datacenters needing massive amounts of energy production and potentially all those financial interests would reverse their investment stance on ‘climate change’ because advanced AI was more lucrative.

The alignment of interests that advocates for climate change, is the same alignment of interests that advocate for Ukraine and is now -not coincidentally- the same alignment of interests that oppose data centers.

Or, maybe you think this is simply a global coincidence? I think not, but I am willing to listen to the opposite argument. All opposition to Russia in the last 25 years, is now culminating…. But the root is something everyone misses. The root is Energy Production.


There are trillions at stake.

Read more …

“And What Did Obama’s FBI Know?”

• Trump Faces Plot Twist In Ilhan Omar Warrant Fight As Old Foe Reemerges (ZH)

The same Obama-appointed judge that President Donald Trump once branded a “Radical Left Lunatic” and demanded be impeached is now tasked with deciding whether the public can see what federal agents were searching for when they raided Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home.


U.S. District Chief Judge James Boasberg is presiding over the legal battle to unseal the search warrant used in the October 12 federal raid on the far-left Minnesota Democrat’s Washington, D.C., residence, according to Fox News. Federal investigators are examining allegations involving Omar’s family immigration paperwork and discrepancies in her financial disclosures. The investigation includes questions about whether Omar’s father misstated her age in immigration paperwork filed in 2000, which could have allowed her to obtain citizenship through him while she was still a minor, the outlet also reported.

The New York Times, conservative watchdog Judicial Watch, and 14 other news organizations are seeking to make the warrant public, arguing that Americans have a right to scrutinize the investigation into the Minnesota congresswoman. However, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro is fighting to keep the documents sealed, warning that their release could jeopardize an ongoing federal investigation.

“This request sounds rash because it is rash,” Pirro argued in a court filing. Boasberg is no stranger to confrontations with the Trump administration. In March 2025, Boasberg temporarily blocked deportation flights carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members. Trump blasted Boasberg as a “Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator” and demanded his removal from the bench.

“HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING! I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do. This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!”

The battle even prompted Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to issue a rare public rebuke of Trump, declaring that impeachment was not an appropriate response to disagreements over judicial rulings. “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said at the time. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

What Did Obama’s FBI Know?
Meanwhile, the The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security investigated Rep. Ilhan Omar’s 2009 marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi during the Obama administration and found “some evidence that it was fraudulent,” the New York Times reported Thursday, in a story that rests on current and former officials. Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, has denied the allegation, and no one has been charged.

The Times said the agencies looked into the marriage in the summer of 2016 on suspicion that it was arranged to win Elmi immigration status, and that prosecutors then concluded the potential felony fell outside the five-year statute of limitations, so no case was brought. The paper’s account rests on unnamed officials; the evidence itself has not been made public.

The claim that Elmi is Omar’s brother has trailed her for years. She has called it a baseless conspiracy theory, but her answer to the question last week was less categorical. Asked on MS NOW by host Chris Hayes whether there was “some weird kernel of truth” to it, Omar said, “Not to my knowledge.”


The Times report lands in the middle of a live federal investigation. As noted above, Homeland Security agents searched Omar’s Washington home on October 12 under a court-authorized warrant, and the Trump Justice Department has an open criminal probe into her immigration and naturalization records. We noted at the time that investigators were using DNA and weighing a conspiracy charge, which would not be bound by the same clock; that account also came from unnamed sources.


If the Times account is right, the government had evidence of the allegation a decade ago and brought no case. The current investigation, which Omar has called political intimidation ahead of the midterms, is reportedly looking at her immigration paperwork rather than only the marriage itself.

The political fight is moving as fast. 175 House Democrats demanded a halt to the investigation on October 28. No criminal charges tied to the alleged marriage fraud have been announced.

Read more …

There are many stories a few days before an election.

Today the New York Times breaks two that are seemingly not in its lefty interest:

1) What Obama FBI knew about Ilhan Omar.

2) Alaska Dems conspired to get two Dan Sullivans on the ballot.

• NYT: Obama Admin Had Evidence of Omar’s Bro-Husband (Catherine Salgado)

When even a lefty propaganda rag like The New York Times suddenly develops a conscience and starts reporting scandals on a Democrat representative, you know she’s in a very unstable position and heading for a fall.


The Times vaguely cited “current and former officials” who confirmed that the Obama administration’s FBI and Department of Homeland Security investigated Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) fraudulent “marriage” to her brother in 2016. The officials stated that the Obama FBI and DHS did find evidence that Omar had committed immigration fraud by pretending to wed her own brother in 2009.

Omar’s marital history is extremely complicated and confusing, not just because she married her brother. Her latest husband is Tim Mynett, who is also potentially in trouble with the law for allegedly selling empty barrels to investors at his abruptly shuttered winery.

Above the paywall, the Times explained: “The reporting for this article is based on interviews with three current and former officials familiar with the present-day investigation and six current and former officials with knowledge of the 2016 investigation.

Now, the Times did not definitively say, as Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin did, for instance, that in fact Omar is guilty of immigration fraud and did truly marry her brother Ahmed Nur Said Elmi to help him get here. But the fact that the outlet is willing to do so much research into a corrupt Democrat representative is telling about how damning the case against her is.

Omar changed her real family name of Nur Said Elmi to Omar, which helped her deny his murderous father’s role in the Somaliland genocide. It also kept a thin veneer on the marriage to her brother with the last name Nur Said Elmi.

Don’t forget the Trump administration is investigating whether Omar’s father also lied about actually obtaining U.S. naturalization, which is important because she insisted she became a citizen through her father while she was still a minor. Then again, she also potentially altered her birth year to claim she was a minor when she wasn’t.

Here at PJ Media, I reported months ago on Omar’s fraud, using documentation from the Republic of Somaliland:

https://twitter.com/RepOfSomaliland/status/2034435436874170758?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2034435436874170758%7Ctwgr%5Eea9268039ce2aca33ef8136d371f15c4a3bc1d8f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fcatherinesalgado%2F2026%2F10%2F29%2Fnyt-obama-admin-had-evidence-of-omars-bro-husband-n4958807


I also covered the Nur Said Elmis’ connection to Somali war criminals, which is resurfacing.


Omar might not even be a U.S. citizen, and she certainly has a Somalia-first agenda.

Read more …

It’s all the climate agenda. Lagarde has trashed Europe beyond repair from the ECB. Now she moves on. To the WEF?!

• European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde Announces Early Departure (CTH)

European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde has announced her resignation from the ECB effective February 7, 2027. Her departure is nine months earlier than the natural conclusion of her term. Lagarde is a French national, and stated her decision was about leaving the ECB as President so that she could engage in political speech, which is an interesting justification considering the current state of Germany and France and the very consequential elections upcoming.


However, as a consequence of prior research, from my position I would note that she’s exiting the position of ECB President based on something else entirely. She intends to fail-up, very lucratively, and if our research is accurate, she will likely be the next Chair of the World Economic Forum.


As readers are well aware, Europe is on the cusp of an irreversible economic downward spiral. Low growth, high inflation, and the entire continent is crippled by short-sighted energy policy and subsequent deindustrialization that is creating significant debt burdens. In short, the EU is contracting.

The #1 issue that makes the downward spiral irreversible is their entrenched advocacy for the net zero ‘climate change’ agenda, which is now triggering carbon taxes and various carbon border adjustment mechanisms on trade. Their energy policy is killing their industrial capacity, and the overall European Union is in a self-fulfilling crisis. On top of the economic mess is the ever-worsening mass migration problem that will eventually topple several key European capitals.

Lagarde, looking every bit the part of a Bond villain, is bailing out of the central bank at the moment right before things begin escalating horribly. I am almost certain she will take up the position as Chair of the WEF in an effort to inoculate herself from the political chaos that is about to surface. The rise of the nationalists in the upcoming elections is a symptom of the problem Brussels has created.

Read more …

They seek to interfere in US elections.

“Promethean Action PAC’s Susan Kokinda gives her update and perspective on the Canada-U.K effort to interfere in the U.S. midterm election.”

• Canada-U.K Election Interference Activity (CTH)

Susan Kokinda opens with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney celebrating Brazil’s election, von der Leyen’s partnership “thriving” and Carney’s “flourishing”, set against Volkswagen’s plan to cut 100,000 jobs, Canada’s lost manufacturing jobs, and Audi’s first U.S. plant, announced with President Trump in Perry, Georgia, with Rep. Rich McCormick on what it means for Georgia and a look at GDP growth in the United States, the euro area and Canada.


The episode then turns to the U.S. Embassy in Canada’s October 21 fact sheet on Canadian activities in U.S. politics: Carney’s and Minister Mélanie Joly’s denials, Joly on meeting “so many governors and potential presidential candidates”, tariffs aimed at “political pressure”, and the anti-tariff billboards. It sets that beside Chatham House’s August 27 paper for Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government, which urges London to court members of Congress, state legislatures, potential presidential candidates and industry leaders, and looks at the British pedigree of Canada’s trade team and Chatham House director Bronwen Maddox on the members of Congress who came through Chatham House.

It closes with the voters: the Parti Québécois win in Quebec and the Conservative majority in British Columbia that President Trump congratulated, the AfD’s wins in two German states, and the President’s “France: Now and Then”.

Read more …

Well, the Peltola Campaign did. And she knew. That is one dirty trick. Buit who do you punish?

“Alaskan Voters Need to Know”: Times Alleges Peltola Campaign Conspired to Confuse Alaskan Voters With Decoy “Dan Sullivans”

“.. the Times reports an extensive effort to coordinate and communicate with decoys..”

• NYT: Peltola Conspired to Confuse Alaskan Voters With “Dan Sullivans” (Turley)


Mary Peltola

The New York Times on Wednesday published a blockbuster story claiming that multiple former staffers on the campaign of Alaska Democratic Senatorial nominee Mary Peltola implicated her and others in the effort to confuse voters with decoy “Dan Sullivan” candidates.


Peltola has long denied knowledge or involvement, but the Times reported that she was allegedly aware of the effort that also involved campaign officials, its lawyers and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Rounding out the array of “usual suspects” is the Marc Elias Group. Elias was involved in the Russian hoax and has been previously sanctioned in court. The Times reported that Peltola’s campaign manager told it that “Alaskan voters need to know.”

Democrats like Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) immediately ran out to do damage control and depict Rio as a “disgruntled former employee.” The problem is that it is not just Rio. The Times referenced multiple campaign workers and brought receipts.

The Times names Democratic operative Jerid Kurtz, who allegedly worked with and communicated with Rios and others on the campaign, including Anton McParland, who at the time was Ms. Peltola’s chief of staff. It also states that campaign lawyers were involved in this despicable dirty trick to get voters to cast mistaken ballots.

The Times reported that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, chaired by Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), was aware of and involved in the effort. The effort was allegedly called “a ballot composition” project and Kurtz was allegedly paid through a pro-Peltola fund.

The Times details the effort to conceal it. For example, the paper reports: “The Peltola aides worried at times that Mr. Kurtz’s efforts would be discovered, such as when he posted an image of the Anchorage airport on his Instagram account.” “I am hearing that our friend in the state is being noticed,” Mr. McParland wrote in a text message in January reviewed by The Times. Andrew Piatt, the D.S.C.C.’s director of campaigns, replied: “We will check in.”

Peltola refused to address specifics in response to the story. She attacked the liberal New York Times for just trying “to sell newspapers” and dismissed the story by saying that “Nobody’s waking up worried about ballot composition. Not even me. I’m worried about my bills. I’m worried about affordability in health care.”

Peltola is clearly hoping to ride this out for the last week. However, it could snowball legally. The staff was aware of past public denials and the likelihood of an investigation. Indeed, the Justice Department filed to try to address the confusion, but Peltola filed to block the effort and declared in court filings that the allegations were “baseless.”

There may be questions as to whether the lawyers and staff were forthcoming in such filings, It is not a crime to help engineer decoy candidates, even if it is viewed as the lowest form of dirty politics. Lying about your knowledge or involvement only magnifies the unethical conduct.

However, it is easy to trip a legal wire in such efforts. Campaign filings must be true and correct. Indeed, Elias and the Clinton campaign were later sanctioned for hiding the funding of the infamous Steele dossier as a legal expense. (The Clinton campaign denied such involvement until after the election). The Times refers to the Elias Group as opposed to Elias as an individual in the account of this effort to confuse voters.

There can be allegations of not only misrepresentations in filings but possible violations in the pressuring of potential witnesses, destruction of evidence, or false statements to federal investigators. The risk of such allegations should lead the Peltola lawyers to withdraw from further work, as they could become potential witnesses and targets in state or federal investigations. Reports indicate grand jury subpoenas are expected in the coming days.

There are also questions about the past interactions of the decoy Dan Sullivan, who insisted that the idea to run was his own idea and that he did not have communications with the Democrats on such an effort. He also has not responded to the story. Yet, the Times reports an extensive effort to coordinate and communicate with decoys:

The operation began in the summer of 2025 to lure potential spoiler candidates onto the state’s unusual four-person ballot, Ms. Rios said. …

Months later, in early 2026, Mr. Kurtz participated in a video call with members of the ballot composition team, Ms. Rios said. He told the group he had made contact with one of the Dan Sullivans. This Mr. Sullivan lived in the tiny village of Petersburg, and Mr. Kurtz described him as amenable to running if it would help Ms. Peltola, Ms. Rios said.

Mr. Kurtz “told us when he found him,” she said. He said Mr. Sullivan “said he hated Trump, and if it was going to help Mary, he liked Mary. He didn’t have any interest in being a politician, but if this could help.” Mr. Sullivan, who has maintained that he entered the race of his own volition, did not respond to repeated requests for comment over the past week.

With the reported investigations unfolding, this has the makings of a major scandal with possible criminal and civil elements. It would be wise for staffers to “lawyer up.” The likelihood of state and federal investigations is quite high and it is also likely that some of these same sources will cooperate with investigators. Lawyers tend to minimize the risk for their clients in such investigation. They do not want their client to be the target without a chair when the music stops.

In other words, this is likely to metastasize in the coming weeks. However, with the rapidly approaching election, the die is cast on the ballots. That may be good news for the Democrats for retaking power, but it may not be good news for the potential targets. It will only magnify the costs of this conspiracy if it moves from a political conspiracy to an actual criminal conspiracy.

Read more …

“Alaska governor orders ‘criminal’ probe ..”

• Peltola Campaign Behind Two Sullivan Candidates (John Solomon)

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has ordered an investigation into whether Senate Democratic nominee Mary Peltola’s campaign illegally tampered with the election by recruiting a candidate with the same name to draw votes from the state’s Republican incumbent. “Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections,” Dunleavy, a Republican, wrote on X late Wednesday. “Anyone or any organization found to have broken the law must be held accountable.”


The announcement came after The New York Times reported how the Peltola campaign helped recruit a retiree named Dan J. Sullivan to run against U.S. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan. Dunleavy cited the news article as a reason for launching the criminal probe.

“Today’s New York Times reporting reveals disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska’s elections by recruiting candidates—including one with the same name as an incumbent U.S. Senator—to deliberately confuse voters and misdirect their votes,” he wrote.

“The Alaska Division of Elections investigated these very concerns in June of this year. The new reporting substantially supports the Division’s findings,” he added. “I am therefore directing the Department of Public Safety to investigate whether this scheme violated Alaska’s laws and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted.” Hours earlier, Trump called for Peltola to be removed from the ballot and prosecuted.

“It was just determined that the Dumocrats in Alaska, despite their sworn statements to the contrary, put a man named Dan Sullivan on the Ballot in order to confuse the Public with respect to Highly Esteemed Senator Dan Sullivan,” he wrote on Truth Social. “This is Voter Fraud at the Highest Level, and the Dumocrat Candidate, who was involved in the scheme, Mary Peltola, should be removed from the Ballot and prosecuted.”

Read more …

“Find as many people named Dan Sullivan in Alaska as you can.”

• NYT: Alaska Dems, Mary Peltola Organized Fraudulent Dan Sullivan (CTH)

The New York Times is reporting on a months-long investigation into the Alaska senate race. Stunningly, the NYT is providing direct evidence that Democrat Senate Candidate Mary Peltola, in coordination with the DSCC and Marc Elias law firm, constructed the fraudulent Dan Sullivan candidate specifically to create confusion and help install a democrat in office.


“Text messages viewed by The Times show officials with the D.S.C.C. and the Peltola campaign communicating for months about the project.” Obviously, the NYT no longer believes Peltola would win the race – and that’s the reason for their sunlight on the entire operation to manufacture the fraudulent candidate.

NEW YORK TIMES – In the summer of 2025, a staffer for Mary Peltola, the Alaska Democrat who was eyeing a run for Senate, received unusual instructions from top campaign aides: Find as many people named Dan Sullivan in Alaska as you can. The staffer complied, combing through voter records to produce a list of Dan Sullivans from across the state.

This was no random request. Dan S. Sullivan is the name of the state’s Republican senator. And if the Peltola campaign or its allies could track down and persuade another Dan Sullivan to run for Senate, the confusion could cost the senator crucial votes on the state’s unusual, four-person ballot. The plan worked. This spring, a retired teacher from a tiny fishing village along the Alaska Panhandle, reachable only by air and sea, announced his candidacy for Senate. His name was Dan J. Sullivan.

The Peltola campaign has repeatedly denied any involvement in his candidacy. But The Times has found, based on interviews and text messages, along with documents prepared for a potential lawsuit against the campaign, that not only did Ms. Peltola’s team work with people trying to recruit Mr. Sullivan to run for Senate, but the effort was much broader. The group worked to coax other would-be spoilers into the race, to dilute the incumbent’s support and help catapult the Democrat to victory.

The endeavor, which was internally called the ballot composition project, involved secret trips to far-flung Alaskan communities and the appearance of a mysterious Midwestern operative, who traversed the state using a fake name and made his pitch to would-be candidates over beers at brew pubs.

It also involved the Peltola campaign’s lawyers, as well as senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which directs the party’s campaign strategy in Senate races across the country. From Washington to Anchorage, those advisers participated in regular conversations about the effort and even considered forming a new political party to draw conservatives onto the ballot. (read more)

Read more …

“As Bolsonaro Deletes “True President-Elect” Claim..”

• Glenn Greenwald Unpacks Brazil’s Political Drama (ZH)

Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro briefly declared himself “the true president-elect of Brazil” on Wednesday before deleting the statement. President Trump said the same day that he would not endorse Bolsonaro’s claim, suggesting the Trump administration would limit its support for Bolsonaro’s election challenge.


Bolsonaro arrived in Miami on Wednesday after leaving Brazil earlier in the week, citing the “politicization of the justice system in Brazil” under left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. His abrupt departure followed a Supreme Court order requiring him to surrender his passport immediately after the runoff election.

Argentina’s migration department said Bolsonaro and his family entered Misiones province through a border crossing late Tuesday night using valid travel documents. They immediately boarded a private jet bound for Guayaquil, Ecuador, then flew directly to Miami.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald added more color to Bolsonaro’s now-deleted statement:


Greenwald posted a clip of Trump that makes it clear he does not intend to back Bolsonaro’s now-deleted claim.


Greenwald continued: “Brazil’s Federal Police issues a statement that Flavio Bolsonaro is not considered a “fugitive” from justice because he has not been charged with any crimes and there was no order issued for his arrest when he left Brazil for the US.

Part of the motive here is to explain away the embarrassment that Brazilian authorities had no idea what was going on in their country all day, but it is also true that — contrary to many prevailing media and political narratives in the US — Flavio has not been charged with (let alone convicted of) crimes and no arrest order had yet been issued when he left.


To sum up: Bolsonaro has reached Miami to circumnavigate Lula’s totalitarian crackdown, but his political endgame remains unclear.


His claim to the presidency quickly disappeared off the internet yesterday, and Trump declined to endorse it. Meanwhile, Brazil’s own Federal Police undercut the whole fugitive narrative. The battle over legitimacy, judicial power, and Brazil’s political future is far from over, as Lula’s socialist regime will face immense headwinds in a Senate that has shifted right.

Read more …

“.. forecasts see more growth to come..”

“The demographic crisis for native European populations will only get worse as Muslim migrants continue to have far higher birthrates and those of local ethnicities plummet.”

• Muslims In Europe Have More Than Doubled In The Last 25 Years (RMX)

Conservative voices have long raised concerns over the demographic shift arising from high sustained migration from the Middle East and Africa, and new data confirms these fears.


According to data published by La Razón, cited by La Gaceta, the number of Muslims in Europe has jumped from roughly 15 million around the year 2000 to approximately 32.5 million today (excluding Russia and Turkey).

Statistics from the Pew Research Center aligns with this upward trajectory, reporting that Europe’s broader Muslim population—including Russia—climbed to 46 million in 2020, a 16 percent increase from 2010.

Spain has experienced a pronounced increase in its Muslim demographic. Data from the CEU-CEFAS Demographic Observatory shows that Spain’s Muslim population reached between 2.4 and 2.5 million by early 2025, accounting for roughly 5 percent of the total population. Within this group, an estimated 1.79 million are first-generation immigrants, while 680,000 were born in Spain to at least one Muslim parent.

But Spain is not alone. Italy’s Muslim population has reached about 2.7 million. In Sweden, Muslim residents doubled from roughly 4 percent to 8 percent between 2010 and 2020, while Germany saw this demographic hit 7 percent of its overall population by 2020. In the U.K., census data for England and Wales saw the number of Muslims increased from 2.7 million in 2011 to 3.9 million in 2021.

Even without any further migration, Muslims are expected to increase their share of populations across Europe simply because they have higher birth rates than native ethnicities.

Poland has been grappling with its own demographic crisis, while France recorded a negative natural population balance in 2025 for the first time since the end of the Second World War. Already back in 2020, over 21 percent of newborns in France were given Arab-Muslim first names.

Read more …

I am a bit surprised there’s not even half a billion muslims in the world.

There are some 2.5 billion Christians.

• Is the Israeli-Trump War on Iran Producing Muslim Unity? (Paul Craig Roberts)

News reports are no longer reliable. This makes it difficult for those of us who attempt to provide accurate accounts of unfolding events.


A very important meeting was held Tuesday in Iran at the request of the Mecca Alliance (Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan). Based on the information that I have, I think the meeting was a product of Saudi Arabia’s poor performance in its military conflict with Yemen. As is usual, Arabs waste their resources fighting one another instead of their enemies. Trump’s announcement that he is preparing a renewed attack on Iran after the US November 3 elections together with Iran’s statement that all countries involved in the attack will suffer substantially has the Saudis worried.

Turkey and Pakistan do not want to be drawn into the Israeli-American war against Iran as a consequence of their alliance with the Saudis. So they are trying to work something out with Iran. We do not know at this time the outcome of the meeting or what, if anything, was decided. There are no public statements or news reporting. It is as if there was no meeting.

I have it from an Iranian source that the four countries agreed that it was past time for the four countries to take charge of the problems introduced by Israel into the Muslim Middle East and to resolve them without any foreign interference, meaning Washington. There was, according to my source, discussion that instead of accepting more Israeli territorial expansion, Israel must be compelled to withdraw from Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the Palestinian West Bank.

Israeli-American domination of the Middle East has been achieved by Arab and Muslin disunity. The Arabs, Turks, Iranians, and Pakistanis have been too corrupt and stupid to comprehend the hegemonic threat that they face. Perhaps the silver lining in US President Trump’s subservience to Israel’s agenda of Greater Israel has brought realization of the threat home to Muslims.

If Tuesday’s meeting in Iran results in unity with, for example, Iran becoming a member of the Mecca Alliance, not only does Saudi Arabia’s war with Yemen halt, but also the four countries comprise a population of 477,000,000 million–essentially a half billion. There are only 7,000,000 Jews in Israel. Moreover the half billion peoples have Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, a standoff to Israel and Washington.

In other words, it would be the end of Washington’s bases in the Middle East and to the Zionist agenda of Greater Israel. A united Muslim world would be a power unto itself.

The information that my analysis is based on might be incorrect. If the meeting was unsuccessful in achieving unity, it would explain why there has been no announcement. Indeed, few people even know such an important meeting took place.

If unity was reached, it is a mistake to withhold the information. Such a unity would completely alter the correlation of forces in the Middle East. A resumption of the Israeli-American attack on Iran could result in the total eviction of all US presence in the Middle East and the complete destruction of Israel. Facing such consequences, not even crazy people like Netanyahu and Trump would renew the conflict.

Will Muslims again choose disunity, as they have done since the death of Mohammad in the 7th century and remain under the thumb of foreign powers? Or will they choose unity and partake of its rewards?

Read more …

And not just SpaceX! There’s also Cowboy Space.

• Another Day, Another World-Changing Milestone From SpaceX (Stephen Green)

Oops, they did it again.


So casually that even a launch industry nut like myself failed to notice until today, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) revealed Monday the results of its point-to-point rocket cargo delivery test, courtesy of SpaceX’s experimental Starfall capsule.

Remember when Domino’s used to promise to get a pizza to your door in 30 minutes? Starfall promises to deliver over a ton of cargo anywhere on Earth in about 90 minutes or less — no runway or landing strip required.

PJ Media’s own Charlie Martin covered Starfall’s initial flight test in June, but last week’s AFRL flight was a test of the capsule’s ability to safely deliver “representative mission equipment” for the Pentagon, while studying “the effects of temperature, shock, and vibration of the cargo environments during launch and reentry.”

The AFRL showed off some survival gear packed for the mission — water bottles, what looks like a milspec cellphone, first aid, MREs, and the like — but I like to think the kit included a couple M4A1 rifles and a couple cans of ammo. While each Starfall is fairly small, a single Falcon 9 (or eventually Starship) rocket could carry multiple capsules.

The first thing my mind went to was resupplying troops in a Great Pacific War with China. Our Navy just doesn’t have enough ships, particularly the non-sexy types that actually deliver stuff to the men who need it.

Where it gets really interesting is that Starfall can loiter “indefinitely” in orbit. It might behoove the services to preposition supplies in orbit — for even faster delivery when needed, but also to have stuff ready to go in quantities that not even SpaceX could deliver in time. SpaceX, of course, has more in mind than high-speed Pentagon deliveries.

As Starship and even more emergent technologies like Starfall mature — plus the inevitable competitors — we must stop thinking of space as the most expensive and difficult place to do things or send things. Particularly in pharmaceuticals and advanced materials, the microgravity of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is really the best place to do stuff.

Getting mass quantities of goods back to Earth quickly, safely, and cheaply, however, is a real problem. And it’s the problem Starfall is meant to solve. But before you think I’m doing the Elon Musk Fanboy thing again, SpaceX isn’t the only space company doing really cool stuff this week.

Cowboy Space (great name, eh?) this week unveiled its Big Iron rocket, the launch vehicle underpinning the company’s plans to put 20,000 AI data centers into LEO. Actually, Big Iron’s second stage is the data center. “It’s a fundamentally novel approach to rocketry in the modern era, in our opinion,” founder Baiju Bhatt said during Monday’s reveal. “The idea is that you have a two-stage rocket where the upper stage of the rocket itself transforms into the satellite.”

Bhatt is the billionaire cofounder of fintech firm Robinhood, and so now of course, he’s into rockets, too. He’s into really big rockets — Big Iron is 282 feet tall — that do a Transformer act into orbital data centers. He also claims that AI compute will be cheaper in LEO than on Earth by 2031, but I have to take issue with that. I think he’s a little pessimistic, and that the cost balance could shift as soon as 2030.

Cowboy Space (seriously, that name!) hopes to get Big Iron flying in 2028, and they’d better get 4K video of that transformer trick.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/CRRJA5/status/2115734108689125617?a=8k37JD5FasM-EaD5jos&s=20 https://twitter.com/rinalu_/status/2115749261237469448?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle October 29 2026

Oct 292026
 
 October 29, 2026  Posted by at 10:24 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  19 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh Self-Portrait with Straw Hat 1887


• Before You Vote, Remember That They Tried to Kill Trump for a Reason (Tim O’Brien)
• Special Master to Investigate DOJ/DHS Process to Identify Illegal Aliens (CTH)
• Trump Admin Says It Has ‘No Position’ On Orban For UN Chief (ET)
• Flávio Bolsonaro and Family Have Fled Brazil (CTH)
• World Peace (Molly Schwartz)
• No, CNN Did Not Defame Cenk Uygur by Trashing his Anti-Israel Ad (Turley)
• US Hints At Expanding Russian Diesel Deal (RT)
• France Planning New Riot Crackdown Law (RT)
• Hegseth Reinstates General Forced To Retire For Refusing Covid Vaccine (JTN)
• Grand Jury Refuses To Indict Cassidy Hutchinson Over Her Jan. 6 Testimony (ZH)

 

 

https://twitter.com/JfkPascalNajadX/status/2115262847064350825?a=JFA1ujfGXeOS1w3yfpw&s=20 https://twitter.com/aprajitanefes/status/2115119740696105044?a=ZMx2UeMylMw1tt-He1k&s=20

 

 


Where would we be with more Biden and all that? Shudder!

Obama, Hillary and Joe have scared off many many people.

I seriously wonder how much of that the polls catch.

• Before You Vote, Remember That They Tried to Kill Trump for a Reason (Tim O’Brien)

Kitchen-table issues will motivate a lot of voters next week on Election Day, but they shouldn’t be your primary concern. No doubt, the high costs of gas, food, and so much else are problems looking for someone to blame. As the sitting U.S. president, Donald Trump will likely get his share of that blame, justified or not.


But as we know, at some point, hostilities in Iran, Ukraine and Russia will fade, and the cost of living will fall back in line. You can try to tell your family members who will be voting against Republicans this, and they will likely blow you off. But there is one thing everyone needs to remember: the left tried to kill Trump for a reason. They did not want him to become president for a reason.

Yes, we know that the would-be assassin in Butler, Thomas Crooks, remains an enigma. Officially, he’s considered a lone actor in the story of Butler, where most of the blanks have yet to be filled, and our intelligence community doesn’t seem all that inclined to fill those blanks.

A second would-be assassin named Ryan Routh set up an armed sniper position in the tree line along the perimeter of the Trump International Golf Club just two months later. This was before Election Day in 2024 while Trump was playing a round of golf. Again, no proof of ties to any organized effort to kill the Republican candidate for president at the time.

But those two incidents, when viewed in larger context, followed two attempts to impeach Trump, numerous lawsuits and a criminal case against Trump, all designed to bankrupt him, kill his political ambitions, smear him, and provide distractions from campaigning. No leftist movement has ever tried this hard to destroy one candidate at every conceivable level.

We’ve well documented the left’s efforts to destroy Trump, and yet he survived. Two underlying questions remain: What did the left fear so much? And has Trump started to do the things the left feared most?

The Trump administration secured the southern border and commenced an aggressive deportation campaign focused mostly on violent illegal aliens, but also anyone who broke the law to come to this country. He’s done a lot of other things, too. But are they the sorts of things the left feared such that it would try to take him down by any means possible?

My sense is that most of Trump s accomplishments in his second term, while they are things the Democrats opposed, are not exactly what the left feared most. I think what they feared most is only now starting to come to fruition. But it is now happening. The Trump administration is investigating and arresting people who ve long flouted justice so brazenly that frustrated conservatives have been openly calling for action. We can only assume that it took this long so that the DOJ could put strong enough legal cases together so that they would hold up in court. We now know that’s happening.

On Monday, October 26, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) charged former FBI director James Comey with leaking national security information, and conspiring to leak such information, while directing the FBI in 2016. He was charged with violating the Espionage Act, 18 U.S.C. ß/ 793(d), which criminalizes improperly sharing any document that relat[es] to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation.

The next day, FBI agents raided a Beverly Hills mansion owned by Stephen Cloobeck, a billionaire resort developer and prominent Democrat donor. Reports are that the feds conducted this search as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation into former California Democrat Congressman Eric Swalwell.

The walls may finally be closing in on another very prominent Democrat who has been at the center of controversy ever since the first day she set foot on Capitol Hill. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). My colleague Matt Margolis summed up the latest in her saga quite nicely:

A longtime Harvard Law professor and liberal lawyer believes the FBI raid on Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) home has landed her in serious legal jeopardy, and he predicts she will very likely lose her citizenship and face deportation to Somalia, the country of her birth. That lawyer is Alan Dershowitz, and he made his prediction on Newsmax’s The Record with Greta Van Susteren.

The whole case hinges on whether Omar became a U.S. citizen, and if so, how. She claims she became a citizen as a minor when her father was naturalized. The problem is that nobody has produced the paperwork to back that up, and Van Susteren zeroed in on that gap.

Since 2025, the White House has announced a number of grand jury investigations, including one that focuses on former CIA director John Brennan and Comey. This investigation centers on the alleged weaponization of the “Russia, Russia, Russia” hoax that was built on rumors of 2016 Russian interference in U.S. elections.

And in 2026, a federal grand jury returned multiple indictments in a case centered on the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), leveling charges that include conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank, conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering, and alleged concealment money laundering.

Of course, all of this may still be too slow and too narrow for a lot of conservatives, who urgently want to see a parade of leftist tyrants perp-walked. That would be what we’re starting to see right now.

If you were to ask any conservative who they’d like to see prosecuted and locked up for what they did to this country, particularly under the Biden administration, the list would likely be long and readily top of mind. It’s not far-fetched to think that in just the cases we know about, investigators are casting a wide net and will use the upcoming proceedings to get some of the investigations’ targets to blow the whistle on other, perhaps bigger fish.

So, when you look at it all in this context, it’s easier to comprehend just why the left feared a second Trump administration so much.

That’s why, when you look ahead to Election Day, remember that some of the most important things Trump could do at the moment are only now in their infancy. When you, your friends and family vote, keep in mind that the left feared Trump for a reason, and if he’s permitted to keep his focus on governing, and not battling a Democrat Congress or Senate, we may start to see the wheels of justice turn on leftists who up until now have been untouchable.

Read more …

“Federal District Judge in California Will Appoint Special Master to Investigate DOJ/DHS Process Used to Identify Illegal Aliens on State Voter Rolls..”

• Special Master to Investigate DOJ/DHS Process to Identify Illegal Aliens (CTH)

Many have asked for my opinion and prediction on the upcoming midterm election. One of the reasons I have been hesitant to advance an opinion is simply because this election comes down to a fundamental question that is challenging to discuss with a wider audience. That issue surrounds “pretense” or “pretending.”


The Trump administration has been trying to advance election integrity issues that target the structural “pretending” that underpins all election fraud. The political left pretends not to know that elections are manipulated, yet for years they have advanced structural policy and lawfare to facilitate pretending. Make no mistake ‘pretending’ is a strategy -a purposeful strategy- that underpins all election manipulation.

Example using motor-voter registration systems: When the option on a DMV system contains a singular checkbox that says “I am eligible to vote in federal elections” with no option to say, “I am not eligible to vote in federal elections,” the singular affirmative check box if left blank can be then coded to transfer the physical ID to the state registrar’s office under the pretending guise of benefit of doubt. The pretense is the person just forgot to check the box – plausible deniability is constructed.

A singular checkbox is an indicator of plausible pretense that constructs the federal fraud intent. An identity system with two check boxes, one saying “yes, I am” the other saying “no, I am not” eliminates the plausible doubt (pretense). Every blue state who uses the ID or License system to generate ballots use the singular check box.

The Trump administration through DHS/ICE have been targeting illegal aliens who voted in elections for deportation proceedings. This is ultimately a warning spread by word of mouth within the illegal alien community. At the same time, there have been numerous examples of illegal aliens who swear it wasn’t them who filled out the ballot; however, the voting is a criminal act, the voter registration is unlawful, and the illegal alien is deported.

The blue states are protecting their voter registration files from federal review in part because they are protecting illegal aliens who have voted and/or registered to vote. Keep in mind from the above example, the illegal alien who went to get a state ID card my not have wanted to register to vote, but the officials who construct the system register them anyway because they want to generate the ballot opportunity (potentially filled out by others).

If states use the fraudulent registration to generate ballots, and then the ballots are used in the election by political harvesters, DHS/ICE have a federal law violation against the illegal alien to ‘further’ justify the deportation. Illegal aliens are aware of this issue as a consequence of removal proceedings discussed within their community over the past year+.

Illegal aliens who do not want to appear on the DHS/ICE radar, do not vote in elections. However, that doesn’t mean a ballot wasn’t purposefully created, transmitted and filled out -with their personage as the identity- without their knowledge.

With leftists increasingly desperate to influence the election outcomes, the illegal alien ballots turn the alien into cannon fodder. The leftists don’t care what happens to the alien after the purposeful exploit of their identity has been accomplished. Illegal aliens are also very aware of this issue.

That said, the non-pretending reality of this situation rises to the surface within the issue of the Trump administration notifying the State of California of a specific list of 20,000 register voters who are unlawfully on the voter rolls. The administration has warned the state they are on notice of the fraudulent registration and if any of those names vote in the election the state and/or county officials can be held liable for violating federal election law.

The issue ended up in court where California state officials are fighting the Trump administration. Within the arguments the state officials informed the court they have no process to curate and/or cull votes once the voter registration is submitted.

According to state officials, regardless of whether the voter registration is legally compliant or not, once the voter registration takes place the state has no process to stop the voter or sequester the voter ballot from the final tally. Obviously, when you understand how the motor-voter system has been manipulated, you can understand the next level of pretending needed by the state officials in order to avoid accountability.

Instead of addressing that issue, the activist judge said yesterday he was going to appoint a “special master” to review how the DOJ developed the list of 20,000 names. Instead of holding the state officials accountable for a system of fraudulent voters, the judge is going to target the DOJ officials who identified the issue.

CALIFORNIA – […] The federal district judge overseeing the Justice Department’s lawsuit asking California to segregate roughly 20,000 ballot belonging to individuals it claims are “likely” noncitizens appeared skeptical of the DOJ’s efforts to seek emergency action just a week from the state’s election.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter said in court Tuesday he intends to appoint a special master to probe DOJ’s process that led it to compile the list of alleged 20,000 likely non-citizens, dealing a setback to the Trump administration’s attempt to quickly intervene in the election.

Judge Carter did not rule by the conclusion of the hearing on the DOJ request for a temporary restraining order against the state, though he appeared skeptical of the department’s late-stage attempt to force what he described as a “monumental change” in California’s ongoing administration of its election. (more)

It is fair to say that given the demonstrable scale of illegal voting, if unlawful registrations and illegal alien voters were removed from their ability to influence the election outcome, roughly half of the current Democrats in congress would lose their seats. That’s the scale of illegal alien voting, direct or indirect, inside the system.

[New Jersey – Pennsylvania – California examples.]
So, the question is…. For this 2026 midterm election, which pressure mechanism is stronger: (1) the threat by President Trump, DHS and ICE to deport illegal voters which may stop a significant number of illegal ballots; or (2) the severity of desperation within the leftist democrat apparatus to push illegal ballots into the harvesting machinery.

All fraudulent election activity rests on a foundation of pretending. The democrats pretend not to know how the structural design of the system facilitates fraud; while the republican wing of the UniParty pretends they don’t know about the structural design of the system that facilitates fraud.

A non-pretending Trump administration has to battle both groups with the army of MAGA/INDY voters behind him.

…”a republic, if you can keep it!”
~Ben Franklin

Read more …

“We’re keeping our powder dry for now.

• Trump Admin Says It Has ‘No Position’ On Orban For UN Chief (ET)

The Trump administration has said it has no position on whether former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban should become the next U.N. chief, after The Wall Street Journal reported that Washington is backing him. “The United States has no position; we will continue to evaluate any and all candidates,” a senior U.S. official told The Epoch Times by email.


“We are looking for a [secretary-general] that will implement the aggressive reform agenda that we have very publicly laid out in NYC. The UN has wastefully strayed too far from its core missions for too long.” The comments follow an Oct. 25 Wall Street Journal op-ed, which cited anonymous sources in three countries, that Trump administration officials have encouraged Orban to enter the race to succeed António Guterres, whose second five-year term ends on Dec. 31.

Orban, who lost power in Hungary’s April parliamentary elections after 16 years as prime minister, has maintained close ties with U.S. President Donald Trump. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alimov told Russian news agency Interfax on Oct. 26 that Orban could still be nominated for the post, but neither the United States, China, nor Russia, as permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, can do so.

“Those who are behind this initiative should probably find a state that will assume this honorable responsibility,” he said.”As soon as this happens, we will explore the possibilities for discussion and consultation. Certainly, all candidates officially nominated for the post of secretary-general are being discussed.” He told the publication, however, that this time, the position should go to a representative of the Latin American region or the Caribbean. On Oct. 21, the think tank Council on Foreign Relations identified six candidates to succeed Guterres and take office on Jan. 1, 2027.

These included International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi, former Costa Rican Vice President Rebeca Grynspan, and former Ecuadorian Foreign Minister María Fernanda Espinosa.Orban was not among the six candidates listed.

Trump criticized the United Nations in remarks delivered at the U.N. General Assembly in New York City on Sept. 22, saying the United States had helped implement sweeping reforms at the international body, including a 15 percent cut to its 2026 budget and the elimination of more than 4,000 positions from U.N. bureaucracy.

“The United Nations has great potential, I’ve said that for many years, but it must stop imposing the far-left agenda of globalist bureaucrats who nobody ever elected,” he said. “It is equally unacceptable that with all the genuine atrocities in the world, the U.N.’s top human rights officials spend their time criticizing the United States for protecting our children from transgender mutilation and transgender insanity and enforcing our immigration laws.”

Trump spoke after Guterres delivered his final address, urging world leaders to establish international safeguards for artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Guterres, whose last term ends on Dec. 31, said AI development has moved so fast that it “has blindsided even those who created it.”

In January, Trump said that his Board of Peace, which he created as part of his Gaza peace process, could end up replacing the United Nations. “I wish the United Nations could do more. I wish we didn’t need a Board of Peace, but … with all the wars I settled, the United Nations never helped me on one war,” Trump said during a White House press briefing on Jan. 20.

When a reporter asked the president whether the Board of Peace could replace the United Nations, he replied, “It might.” “The U.N. just hasn’t been very helpful. I’m a big fan of the U.N. potential, but it has never lived up to its potential,” he said.

Read more …

“as President [Lula] da Silva Demands Arrest of All Political Opposition..”

• Flávio Bolsonaro and Family Have Fled Brazil (CTH)

Brazil has fallen. The 50/50 presidential election was decided by a relatively small number of votes. However, once the communist regime of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was declared the winner, 8-minutes later a notoriously corrupt Brazilian Supreme Court Justice, Alexandre de Moraes ordered Flavio Bolsonaro to turn in his passport.


The clenched fist of brutal authoritarian control is now in place. Bolsonaro is not the only target for President da Silva and Judge de Moraes as the pair are also going after any candidate who ran against the regime in the general election. Reports of regular Brazilian people’s reaction to the election are very sad. Most of the Bolsonaro supporters are now trying to stay off the radar of the openly weaponized govt regime.

Political conversations have turned to whispers only with those you know, quiet nods between friends, unspoken understandings amid family members and a general disposition to become as invisible as possible so you are not targeted. In the USA, the caviar communists in Washington DC and champagne socialists in Hollywood have been gleeful since the Brazil outcome was announced.

U.S. media are reporting that Flavio Bolsonaro and his family have left Brazil, escaping through Argentina to Ecuador and then potentially to the United States – though nothing is yet openly confirmed as diplomatic risks seem to be part of the public discussion. At 9:31am ET Bolsonaro arrived in Miami.

Wall Street Journal – Bolsonaro crossed into Argentina at 10:50 p.m. local time Tuesday accompanied by his wife, Fernanda, and daughters Carolina and Luiza, Argentine authorities said early Wednesday. The family crossed into Argentina via the Tancredo Neves International Bridge in Misiones province, a remote area where the borders of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil meet.

Argentine authorities said they presented valid travel documents and faced no legal restrictions on entering the country. At 11:30 p.m., just 40 minutes later, the family boarded a private aircraft operated by Baires Fly, with Guayaquil, Ecuador, listed as its destination on the flight plan.

Flight-tracking data showed that a private jet operated by Baires Fly, the Argentine charter company whose aircraft authorities had inspected earlier Tuesday, took off from Puerto Iguazú at 12:21 a.m. with Ecuador as its final destination. (source)

Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed that a plane fitting the description of Bolsonaro’s landed in Guayaquil at about 4 a.m. local time, before taking off minutes later for Miami-Opa locka Executive Airport. The plane carrying Bolsonaro and his family landed in Miami at around 9:30 a.m. EST.

(Via AP) — Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and his family landed in Miami on Wednesday after fleeing Brazil. The stunning move came after 48 hours in which Bolsonaro refused to concede to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and then threatened to attempt to annul the election result.

Bolsonaro’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, also fled to Florida after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula before returning to Brazil three months later. On Monday, the U.S. said that it would grant visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family. Bolsonaro, a Trump ally, visited the White House in May.

Bolsonaro first fled from Brazil to Argentina and then Ecuador alongside his wife and two daughters, Argentina’s migration authority said Wednesday — a day after the 45-year-old senator and his family were granted United States visas by the Trump administration.

Read more …

Pic: Peace in AI.

She is a cross-asset macro strategist at Rabobank

• World Peace (Molly Schwartz)

Wall Street traders walked into the office yesterday morning to see headlines that world peace was just beyond the horizon, as Turkish, Saudi, Qatari, and Pakistani officials wrapped up meetings in Tehran to try and bring an end to the war. And so, the headlines rocked that “Iran’s Supreme Leader Calls for Meeting Conditions to End War.” Markets priced in the likelihood of the war actually ending accordingly- given that conversations about nuclear never even made it to the table- with brent crude oil one-month futures down about $2 to $114/bbl.


Only a few blocks away, the Israeli elections were in full swing, with the voter turnout nearing the highest level since 1975, as reported by the FT. Turnout was especially strong among voters in Arab-Israeli towns who “by the late afternoon had already surpassed their full vote tally for the entire 2022 election cycle.” The results, at the time of writing, appear neck and neck, but the odds are skewed in Netanyahu’s favor. Even if the Likud party fails to win a majority, and Eisenkot’s Yashur party comes into power, the likelihood of Eisenkot to create a coalition to go against the right-wing is limited.

Therefore, should Eisenkot fail to achieve a coalition majority, Netanyahu remains in power until another round of elections are held in a few months. Meanwhile, Europe fails to stay unified in its dealings with Russia amidst the Russia-Ukraine war. Leaders from Finland and Norway spoke with Putin for the first time in over a year, with Finnish President Stubb calling the conversation “frank and substantive.” According to Bloomberg, a Kremlin read out of the call notes that Putin “emphasized that achieving a just and long-term peace is possible only if the legitimate interests of the Russian Federation are fully and unconditionally taken into account.”

But other countries were less-than-pleased with this unfolding of events, with leaders from Denmark and Italy criticizing the move. Frederiksen said that she “sees no signs that Russia desires peace with Europe- neither in the hybrid warfare taking place every single day, nor in Ukraine, where they are launching fierce and aggressive attacks on a daily basis.” Especially as the Danish Intelligence Agency recently published a report warning Europe about the acceleration of time and scope of Russian hybrid attacks. So, some headlines suggest world peace may be just beyond the horizon—but the view from here remains obstructed.

Talks in Tehran have produced conditions rather than an agreement, Israel’s election may reinforce the status quo, and Europe still can’t agree, even on a phone call. Are we on the verge of world peace, or a world in pieces?

Read more …

Details of the law.

• No, CNN Did Not Defame Cenk Uygur by Trashing his Anti-Israel Ad (Turley)

A new ad running to support Democrat senatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan has been widely denounced as anti-Semitic for suggesting that Jews are taking food from Americans. The ad is the work of Rebellion PAC, a political action committee co-founded by The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur. Uygur has now struck out at CNN over a panel discussion that trashed the segment and called it clearly defamatory. For a torts teacher, the claim popped this story to the top of my pile, and I thought it was worthy of addressing. The CNN segment is manifestly not defamatory. Whatever grievance that he may have with the network, it is not a legal one.


The ad shows a couple shopping for food when the husband grabs a dozen eggs.

Wife: “Honey, you’re going to have to put those eggs back.”

Husband: “They don’t like eggs anymore?”

Wife: “No, they like eggs. But we have to set that $7 aside for killing Palestinians.”

Husband: “What? Don’t we give Israel $4 billion a year anyway?”

Wife: “Yeah, and now we’re giving them another $26 billion. It’s like $161 per person. Apparently it’s costing us a lot of money to drop bombs on Gaza.”

Husband: “It’s terrible.”

Wife: “Yeah.”

Husband: “Don’t they get universal healthcare too?”

Wife: “Yeah, they do. We’re paying for that too, probably. Might as well put the bananas back.”

The 90-second advertisement ends with “Mike Rogers is for they/them. Abdul El-Sayed is for you.”

After host Michael Smerconish presented the ad, the CNN panel expressed revulsion to the ad as hateful and anti-Semitic, including using anti-Semitic tropes to enrage viewers.

Uygur defended the ad, solicited donations to keep the ad running in Michigan, and declared the segment defamatory.

The panelists do not appear to mention Uygur by name but the ad credit does refer to him. Ultimately, that is not critical anyway since you can have defamation per quod where the content is still defamatory in combination with reference to extrinsic information or evidence.

An actionable defamation case requires a false statement as to some fact that is published to a third party that causes reputational or other cognizable form of damage. This must be proven pursuant to the relevant standard of proof, discussed below.

As a threshold issue, Uygur is a public figure who must meet a higher standard for any defamation lawsuit. He has long been an influencer and commentator on national stories. In addition to being the host of the popular Young Turks program and a MSNBC regular, he is the uncle of Hasan Piker.

The standard for defamation for public figures and officials in the United States is the product of a decision decades ago in New York Times v. Sullivan. Ironically, this is precisely the environment in which the opinion was written and he is precisely the type of plaintiff that the opinion was meant to deter. The Supreme Court ruled that tort law could not be used to overcome First Amendment protections for free speech or the free press. The Court sought to create “breathing space” for the media by articulating that standard that now applies to both public officials and public figures. In order to prevail, Uygur must show either actual knowledge of its falsity or a reckless disregard of the truth.

However, the greatest problem for Uygur is that the panelists are expressing their own opinions on the value and the content of the ad. It is protected speech and an exception to defamation. Declaring that the ad is anti-Semitic is not a “fact” assertion that would qualify as the foundation for a libel action.

The Supreme Court has rejected the claim that there is a categorical defense for anything claimed to be defamation. See Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co., 497 U.S. 1 (1990). However, opinion is protected speech and routinely protected by the courts from defamation liability.

The CNN segment is armor-plated, unassailable opinon, in my view. Ironically, it is Uygur who has been criticized for misrepresenting the factual context for the ad.

Critics have objected that the $26 billion figure actually comes from a 2024 emergency spending package and not, as suggested, a new amount. That makes sense because the ad was recycled from Uygar’s 2024 presidential campaign.

The 2024 legislation included over $9 billion in humanitarian assistance, including relief for Palestinian civilians in Gaza and other populations. There was also roughly $7 billion set aside for American military operations in the Middle East the replenishment of American military stockpiles. There were payments of $3.5 billion in foreign military financing for Israel and $5.2 billion for missile defense systems.

The good news for Uygar is that the ad itself is also political speech and opinion. Moreover, while some countries or groups have filed for group libel, they are routinely rejected. That includes dubious libel lawsuits by Israel.

Whatever viable lawsuits come out of the Michigan election, the Uygur defamation action will not be one of them.

Read more …

“More Russian fuel could soon enter global markets despite the backlash in Ukraine..”

• US Hints At Expanding Russian Diesel Deal (RT)


Energy Secretary Chris Wright

More Russian diesel fuel could enter global markets as part of a trade agreement between Moscow and Washington struck earlier this month, Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said. He claimed the shipments could be a “carrot” for Moscow to scale back fighting in Ukraine.


US President Donald Trump announced the landmark diesel deal with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on October 9, saying Russia would release more than 300,000 metric tons of diesel immediately, 500,000 tons in November, another million afterward and potentially 3 million more, depending on refinery capacity.

Trump called lowering fuel prices for American consumers his “greatest priority” ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, where the Republicans are at risk of losing their congressional majority.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky condemned the surprise deal as a “weak decision,” prompting an angry response from Trump, who suggested that Ukraine replace Zelensky with someone willing to negotiate peace with Russia. Trump has also repeatedly pressed Zelensky to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries, something Kiev has refused to do.

Speaking to CNBC on Tuesday, Wright described the diesel deal as an “incentive” for Moscow to stop hostilities with Ukraine, adding that more Russian tankers could “quite possibly” depart under a six-month sanctions waiver. “It’s trying to put a carrot in front of Russia,” he said, arguing that reduced hostilities would allow Moscow to export more diesel and marginally ease global fuel shortages.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak said on Tuesday that three tankers carrying diesel are already en route to the US, with a fourth expected to depart Wednesday. On Sunday, he offered to supply as much as buyers wanted within Russia’s available export volumes, saying: “We can supply all of it.” He previously said Russian diesel exports could reach 3.5 million tons monthly by year-end.

During a meeting with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff last week in St. Petersburg, Putin noted that global diesel prices fell 5%-6% after the deal was announced. Earlier this week, Reuters reported that Russia’s daily diesel output rose from 160,000 tons in early October to 180,000 tons after the introduction of new export quotas.

The agreement has nevertheless met bipartisan resistance in Washington, with a group of senators calling it a “gift to our adversary” and a betrayal of Ukraine. Novak pushed back on Tuesday, singling out Democrats and wondering why US lawmakers were acting “not in the interests of the residents of the United States.”

Read more …

“The measure, which would force those involved in violence to pay up to €10,000 in damages, comes amid nationwide unrest ..

“France has more riot crackdown laws than anyone probably.

• France Planning New Riot Crackdown Law (RT)

France’s Senate has backed a sweeping “vandals pay” bill that could force people involved in violent gatherings to cover up to €10,000 ($11,100) in damage caused not only by them, but also by other members of the group. The vote follows weeks of nationwide protests which spiraled into looting, arson attacks, and clashes with police.


The bill was initially drafted by the government over the summer after violence following Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League victory, but it gained urgency after a new wave of mass public disorder. Demonstrations against soaring living costs and worsening quality of education turned violent in several cities this month, with rioters looting shops, torching vehicles, and destroying the 19th-century city hall in Limoges. Thousands of people were arrested during the unrest, with hundreds injured.

Senators passed the measure by 229 votes to 105 on Wednesday, backed by conservatives, centrists, and Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally despite fierce objections from the left.While presenting the legislation, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez argued that it seeks “to deter vandals and looters who burden taxpayers and demonstrators with their misdeeds, and… to better compensate the victims of this damage.”

He added that the bill is also “firmly based on fault; fault exists when one participates in a group formed with the intention of committing violence.” Meanwhile, centrist Senator Olivier Bitz reassured that “it should not be assumed that this text would allow for the prosecution of passersby or peaceful demonstrators.”

The bill – which included around 20 additional provisions compared to its original version – establishes joint civil liability for people who knowingly join a group formed to commit violence or vandalism, or remain in a crowd after police dispersal warnings while aware of ongoing attacks. Those found liable could owe up to €10,000 for destruction committed by others, although the final sum is to be determined in court, and peaceful participation alone would not trigger the measure.

To recover court-ordered compensation, the legislation would also allow deductions from social benefits, including family allowances, housing assistance, and minimum-income payments. The bill would also exempt people who remain in a gathering for legitimate reasons, potentially including journalists and medical volunteers.

While centrists and right-wing supporters portrayed the bill as a more just measure to extract damages from those involved in vandalism and protect law-abiding taxpayers, socialist Senator Marie-Pierre de La Gontrie warned that the welfare measures risk penalizing entire families.

Nathalie Godard, Director of the Action Department at Amnesty International France, also argued that the bill “threatens to further deter people from taking to the streets to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” adding that it comes on the heels of the government’s push to crack down on protests.

The Senate passed the bill ahead of the 2027 presidential race, with two key contenders taking contrasting positions over the unrest. Marine Le Pen, the frontrunner in recent polls, has championed the “vandals pay” principle, accusing President Emmanuel Macron’s government of failing to control the violence.

Her left-wing rival Jean-Luc Melenchon has backed the protests while condemning looting and vandalism and accusing the authorities of inflaming tensions through police brutality.

While the bill sailed through the right-dominated Senate, it now faces a much tougher test in the fractured National Assembly, where centrist and right-wing lawmakers together hold enough seats to outvote the left but remain divided over the proposed crackdown.

Read more …

“President Trump signed an executive order last year that allowed all military service members who were discharged for refusing the vaccine to be reinstated.”

• Hegseth Reinstates General Forced To Retire For Refusing Covid Vaccine (JTN)

The Pentagon said Tuesday that War Secretary Pete Hegseth has reinstated an Air Force general who was forced to retire early in 2022 after she refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine under the Biden administration. President Trump signed an executive order last year that allowed all military service members who were discharged for refusing the vaccine to be reinstated. Air Force Brig. Gen. Melissa S. Cunningham, a 26-year veteran, was sworn back onto active duty in a ceremony last week.


“What a wonderful thing it is to be standing here right now with you, with the stance that you’ve taken,” Hegseth told Cunningham. “Not only did you take a private stand in a very principled way as a warrior of conscience, but you led the way for others … and you stood courageously beside [your principles] on your faith, … which truly speaks to your character and is exactly, precisely, the kind of person we want to be bringing back.”

Hegseth admitted that bringing service members back has been a more difficult process than he expected, but that it has been worth it. The Pentagon said 608 service members have returned to active duty out of more than 8,000 who were forced to leave for refusing the vaccine.

“Those of you that have been here know [the reinstatement process] has not been an easy one, and it’s not been a smooth one,” Hegseth said. “I just know that, from Day 1, we said, ‘We will do this.’ And, from Day 2, we said, ‘The only way we lose is if we quit, if we stop trying to improve the process [and] if we stop trying to find the warriors.'”

Cunningham thanked the current administration for allowing and working to get the service members back and pleaded with service members who have not returned to “help repair the breach.” “We need leaders, those courageous warriors [of] moral conscience, to return. The threats that our nation faces require bold, critical thinkers, and we need them back in the ranks,” she said. “Your spiritual fortitude, your character and your courage are greatly needed in this hour, and our nation demands it. I am so fired up to be back.”

The Department of Homeland Security swore in 56 United States Coast Guard members earlier this year who were dismissed during the Biden administration for failing to get the COVID vaccine. The Coast Guard members received back pay effective from the date of their discharge and their service records were changed to reflect a period of continuous active service between the date of their discharge and their reinstatement.

Read more …

She was the girl who said he lunged at secret service detail in his car, right?

• Grand Jury Refuses To Indict Cassidy Hutchinson Over Her Jan. 6 Testimony (ZH)

A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., has declined to indict former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, ending – for now – a Justice Department effort to charge her with lying to the House Jan. 6 committee, according to two sources who spoke to Fox News. The attempt failed on Tuesday.


The outcome surfaced in court. In a brief appearance, a Justice Department attorney told a judge the grand jury had returned a “non-concurrence,” meaning the panel rejected the indictment prosecutors sought. The prosecutor did not name a defendant, but sources familiar with the matter confirmed he was referring to Hutchinson.

The case was brought by the department’s Civil Rights Division, and the grand jury, which typically has 16 to 23 members, “rejected the effort,” a source told the Washington Examiner.

Hutchinson, an aide to then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified to the committee on June 28, 2022. The charge would have rested on her televised account, which she attributed to another White House official, of Trump’s reaction after being told he could not travel to the Capitol, including an alleged confrontation inside the presidential vehicle. Others familiar with the events have disputed that account.

Grand juries almost never refuse an indictment, because prosecutors need only show probable cause. CNN reports some inside the department believed there was not enough evidence for a viable criminal case, and that her potential prosecution had become a point of friction between lawmakers and department employees.

The grand jury had been hearing evidence since early October. Fox reported on Oct. 8 that jurors were examining possible false statements to the committee, that more evidence could come the following week, and that no final decision had been made. The Justice Department and her attorney did not respond to that report’s requests for comment.

The decision settles nothing about whether her testimony was true. Fox notes the grand jury’s decision “does not establish whether her congressional testimony was truthful or false,” and that Hutchinson has previously said she stands by what she told the committee. No statement from Hutchinson, the Justice Department or the committee was reported in response to the decision.

It also remains unclear whether prosecutors will try again with the same grand jury or another, or let the matter drop. Fox said it asked the Justice Department and the offices of Reps. Barry Loudermilk and Bennie Thompson for comment and had no response.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/2115126247525408945?a=ZUEIvVmv0pbRVNnZHKs&s=20 https://twitter.com/ForbiddenLeaksQ/status/2115240920329146838?a=8Q-Cxpe0RK2lQEDJcXg&s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2115069118588080251?a=BhpN-pSuTP23T-IHXLE&s=20 https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2115244911167496654?a=oBYI9MWt3jr877P7nlc&s=20

 

 

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Debt Rattle October 28 2026

Oct 282026
 
 October 28, 2026  Posted by at 10:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  45 Responses »


Henri Cartier-Bresson Trafalgar Square on the Day of the Coronation of George VI 1937


• The Real Reason There Won’t Be a Blue Wave in November (Margolis)
• What I Saw on Trump’s Trip to Mississippi (Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell)
• Shut the Hell Up About Trump ‘Profiting’ From Politics (Stephen Kruiser)
• Hand In Hand Toward the Abyss (Thomas Kolbe)
• US Army Says It Has Helped 1.5 Billion Barrels of Oil Out of Hormuz (OP)
• Trump Admin Floats Viktor Orban For Secretary-General (ZH)
• Finland Readout: Stubb and Støre Hold Telephone Call with Vladimir Putin (CTH)
• Russian Readout: Vladimir Putin Holds Phone Call with Stubb and Störe (CTH)
• Election Day in Israel (Rabbi Michael Barclay)
• If the Election Wasn’t Rigged, Why Is the Loser Fleeing the Country? (Anderson)
• ‘I Am Not The Lorax. I Do Not Speak For The Trees.’ (Ryan King)
• Perfect Storm for Banks – And the World – John Rubino (USAW)
• DOJ Unseals James Comey Indictment (CTH)

 

 

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2114821403132280882?s=20

 

 


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.”


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.

Read more …

“.. 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.


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.”


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.


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.”

Read more …

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.


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.

Read more …

“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.


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.

Read more …

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.


“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.

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“.. 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?


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.
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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:


[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.”

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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.”


“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!

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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.


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

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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.


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.

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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.”


“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.

Read more …

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.


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.

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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.

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