Menu Icon

Debt Rattle June 8 2026

Jun 082026
 
 June 8, 2026  Posted by at 9:45 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , ,  39 Responses »


Claude Monet Le Grand Canal et Santa Maria della Salute 1908


• Israel Bombs Iranian Regime After Terrorist Strikes (Catherine Salgado)
• Israel Strikes Military Targets Inside Iran, Ignoring Trump’s Pleas (ZH)
• More Evidence Iran Is Rapidly Restoring Its Missile Tunnels (ZH)
• Iran FM Blames US “Contradictions” On Stalled Peace Talks (ZH)
• ‘I Could’ve Kept It That Way’: Trump Admits The Inflation Is His Choice (ZH)
• Trump Storms Out of ‘Meet the Press’ Interview (Matt Margolis)
• President Trump Walks Out of Combative NBC Interview with Kirsten Welker (CTH)
• Britain Is Erasing White Heroes From Its Money (Margolis)
• A Serious Country Doesn’t Swap Its Greatest Leader For Little Animals (MN)
• Europe 2.0, Beyond Brussels: The End Of The European Union As We Know It (AmG)
• California US Attorney Office Feigns Ignorance of Voter Fraud (CTH)
• UK Cop Fired For Questioning Islam In ‘Safe Space’ (MN)
• They Threw Everything at Him. He’s Still Standing. (Eric Florack)
• A Surprisingly Simple Way To Create Powerful Quantum States (SD)

 


 

 


 


Very pro-Bibi. Well, that’s a view…

• Israel Bombs Iranian Regime After Terrorist Strikes (Catherine Salgado)

Israeli forces will not allow terrorists to fire missiles at their civilians without a response. And God bless them for it — the Iranian regime and its proxies have terrorized the world too long. Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy, has been perpetually firing on Israelis, and an Arab terrorist murdered Master Sergeant (Res.) Haim Kalomiti and injured multiple others in a jihad attack Sunday in Tzur Natan, one of over a thousand attempted terror attacks on Israelis just since March.


Then Hezbollah’s Tehran paymasters began bombarding Israel. There has never been a ceasefire. Both Hezbollah and Iran’s regime never stopped shooting at civilians, not for a single day. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) posted late on June 7, “The Israeli Air Force struck military targets belonging to the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran a short while ago.”

You can see below how many missiles Iran’s regime fired at civilian targets in Israel (note on the map: the “West Bank” is an inaccurate Palestinian propaganda term for Judea and Samaria):

Unfortunately, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi is getting cockier by the day. I wish to heaven Donald Trump would bomb him to hell instead of pretending we’ll get a deal with Tehran, which will never, ever, ever materialize:

Ambassador Yechiel Leiter released a statement to emphasize to Americans why the strikes on Iranian and Lebanese terrorists were necessary. “Iran fired 11 ballistic missiles at Israel today. Each one of those missiles can level an entire neighborhood and kill hundreds. No self-respecting country in the world would tolerate such an attack, and neither will Israel,” Leiter said.

The ambassador continued, “Israel is now targeting Iranian surface-to-surface missile launch sites, as well as infrastructure facilities unrelated to the energy sector. The people of Lebanon have rejected Iran’s proxy, Hizballah, and have told Iran to get out of their country. If Hizballah fires at Israel, its command centers in the Dahiya will be hit hard.” That is the way to fight a war. Leiter truly observed: “Everyone has had enough of this maniacal Iranian regime.”

Read more …

Are they playing PR games?

• Israel Strikes Military Targets Inside Iran, Ignoring Trump’s Pleas (ZH)

President Trump said on Sunday he would tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to strike back after Iran fired a salvo of missiles at Israeli targets in retaliation for an attack on the outskirts of Beirut, news outlet Axios reported. Iran has long said any peace deal with the U.S. would depend on a ceasefire also holding in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters who fired rockets and drones across the border in solidarity with Tehran. But Israel earlier on Sunday launched strikes in the Beirut area for the first time since the U.S. announced a truce plan for Lebanon last week.


The Israeli military later said it had identified missiles launched from Iran and that its defense systems had intercepted them. Details on whether Israel suffered any damage were not yet available. Trump, who was spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, had been briefed about the escalation between Iran and Israel, a U.S. official told Reuters. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “It’s certainly not going to help negotiations,” Trump told Fox News after the Iranian missile launches. “What I would suggest to Iran: You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough, get back to the table and make a deal.”

Asked about the earlier Israeli strike on Beirut, he said: “I’m not happy about it.” Trump ]also told Axios he would call Netanyahu and press him not to retaliate. Iran’s chief peace negotiator, parliamentary speaker Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, said U.S. bases and Israeli assets are legitimate targets because of hostile acts including the “violation of agreements over Lebanon.” “They showed that they only understand the language of power,” he wrote on X. Ebrahim Rezaei, an influential hardline lawmaker who serves as spokesperson for the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, posted on X that Iran would deliver a “decisive and painful response” to Sunday’s Israeli strikes on Lebanon.

Iran has not targeted Israel directly since a ceasefire in the wider war in April, although Hezbollah has done so. In turn, an Israeli official, responding to the apparent threat, told Reuters that Israel would retaliate against any attacks on its territory from Iran, and consider it “an opportunity to renew the campaign”. Washington and Tehran have shown little progress in reaching a deal to end the war that Trump launched in February with a campaign of air strikes alongside Israel against Iran. Trump has repeatedly threatened to restart the strikes unless there is an agreement soon.

“We’re very close to a deal, or I’m going to blow the hell out of them,” Trump told NBC News in an interview, broadcast to mark 100 days of the conflict. The comments were recorded on Friday and broadcast on Sunday as Trump visited his New Jersey golf course. Trump has said a similar version of the same news for much of the past month.

Read more …

Just a small part, says Trump.

• More Evidence Iran Is Rapidly Restoring Its Missile Tunnels (ZH)

President Trump has newly estimated that Iran has 21%-22% of its missiles remaining. Trump said in an interview with NBC: “They have some missiles and drones, percentage-wise maybe 21%-22% of the missiles. That’s a lot, but it’s not what it was before the war.” He and top White House officials had previously mused that the Iranians are working hard to reconstitute their defenses after the opening US-Israeli heavy bombing campaign of Operation Epic Fury.


The fresh statement comes on the heels of a Washington Post story last month which cited CIA estimates saying Iran still holds about 70% of its missiles and 75% of missile launchers it had before the war. So there’s a likelihood that Iran still has significantly more than just 20% of its arsenal. There’s also some anecdotal evidence, and statements from the Iranians themselves, such as in the following… Watch:

The Iranians have been utilizing basic construction equipment to dig out several missile launchers and reopen subterranean tunnels tied to its missile program. = n “Iran has repaired other parts of the bases as well, including roads that the US and Israel bombed to prevent missile launchers from using them,” CNN wrote last week. “Satellite images show almost all these craters have now been filled, and at two sites, even repaved.” Sam Lair, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, the same outlet late last month that “There’s nothing to prevent the launchers from being armed with the ample stockpile of missiles that the Iranians still have.”

He sought to highlight the limits of American firepower, in terms of damage, and given that it hasn’t been sustained: “The US military is good at delivering tactical successes, and entombing and suppressing the Iranian missile force is a great example of that,” said Lair. “However, if that isn’t accompanied by a set of reasonable strategic war aims and an achievable theory of victory, it can end up being a strategic failure.” President Trump has been touting the near annihilation of Iran’s arsenal, and has lately said the rest of its launch sites could be taken out in a day if he gave the order.

Read more …

Does Iran get their $1.5 million to $2 million per vessel?

• Iran FM Blames US “Contradictions” On Stalled Peace Talks (ZH)

The U.S. and Iran remain stuck in preliminary talks to end the war, with the main obstacle being Tehran’s demand for access to billions of dollars in frozen assets and the Trump administration’s refusal to provide upfront cash or broader sanctions relief. Tehran is seeking about $12 billion upfront and $24 billion during a proposed 60-day negotiation window. “Twenty-four billion dollars is not much for America if he wants to reach an agreement with Iran,” Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, a senior adviser to Iran’s top official, told CNN on Friday. “This is our own, not America’s money.”


For the Trump administration, releasing frozen funds for Tehran is optically displeasing because the president spent years blasting the Obama administration over the $1.7 billion Iran payment tied to the 2015 nuclear deal, and later criticized the Biden administration’s move to allow Iran access to $6 billion in assets during a prisoner swap. The U.S. government estimates that Tehran has $100 billion in inaccessible assets, mostly oil revenue trapped abroad, including funds in China, Qatar, Oman, and Iraq. On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei spoke with CNN’s senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen about the ongoing negotiations with the U.S.

Baghaei stated, “The main problem of negotiating with this administration is that you have to face so many changing positions, moving the goal posts, different statements, contradictory remarks by different officials, so it makes the whole process very cumbersome.” He outlined one of the main problems is that “the Americans must understand that they have to recognize Iran’s rights,” including its right to peaceful nuclear enrichment under the international non-proliferation treaty. “At the same time, when they are talking about our blocked assets, they’re not going to give us any concession,” he said.

CNN reported earlier on Sunday that c, according to a source close to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Baghaei added that the US must “simply stop their sanctions” and “need to let Iranian assets be released and be available for the Iranians.” Beyond US-Iran talks, IRGC-linked Fars News reports that Iran has been collecting $1.5 million to $2 million per vessel passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Fars said the payments are deposited into Iran’s treasury under the budget law and directed toward designated spending areas. Some payments are reportedly settled not in cash but in USDT/Tether or through barter arrangements.

Read more …

“”There’s no reason to raise interest rates … What they do is when they raise interest rates, they try and kill success. I don’t want to kill success. We should actually lower interest rates.”

• ‘I Could’ve Kept It That Way’: Trump Admits The Inflation Is His Choice (ZH)

In a wide-ranging interview in which he touted record stock prices and rebranded weapons-grade uranium as “nuclear dust” (and then stormed out), President Donald Trump said the quiet part out loud: the prices Americans are paying at the pump are not an accident. This was all his decision. “I could’ve kept it that way,” Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker in an interview taped in a rain-battered Wisconsin barn before he was set to appear at a farming industry roundtable discussion – describing the cheap gasoline everyone enjoyed during his first few months back in office. “But I said, I have to take a little bit of a turn … We’re going to have higher gasoline. We’re going to have a little higher fertilizer, et cetera, et cetera. But I’m going to get rid of a nuclear weapon in the hands of very dangerous people.”


“The farmers love me”
Asked about farmers who can no longer afford fertilizer – seventy percent of them, by Welker’s count – Trump didn’t push back, but instead changed the subject to loyalty. “I had a choice to make. I could keep it going. The farmers were doing great. Fertilizer was very cheap. Everything was cheap. Gasoline was very low. Everything was very low. I could’ve kept it that way. But I said, I have to take a little bit of a turn. The farmers are going to understand it better than anybody.”v

Trump leaned on his heavy support in the heartland. “I love the farmers, and the farmers love me. The farmers trust me,” he said, pointing to the $28 billion in trade-war bailouts he cut growers in his first term. So – the economic cost of the US-Israeli war on Iran is something that Americans should be willing to eat for him. And again, promises of utopia: “And when we have a completion, you will see things like you’ve never seen. The oil will go down.” “It’s all coming down as soon as the war’s over,” he promised of gas and diesel. When Welker pressed for a timeline, he bristled – “No, but you keep talking about speed” – and reached again for Vietnam.

The public is less patient: an Economist/YouGov survey this week found sixty-eight percent of adults want a deal to end the war as fast as possible, including fifty-five percent of his own 2024 voters. They are being asked to finance a known cost today against a promised windfall on an unscheduled tomorrow, on the word of a president whose case rests on never having to name the day. That is not an economic argument. It is a leap of faith with a fuel surcharge.

Blame The Fed
And of course, it’s the Fed’s fault for not aligning with Trump’s agenda. Given whispers that the institution is actually considering hiking rates in response to a strong jobs report, Trump preemptively branded the move as a crime against prosperity. “There’s no reason to raise interest rates … What they do is when they raise interest rates, they try and kill success. I don’t want to kill success. We should actually lower interest rates.”

And then – in what should give any bondholder pause: “Growth is the greatest thing you can have, and growth does not cause inflation.” No, apparently it takes braking a core campaign promise to personally engineer higher prices. Meanwhile, new Fed chair Kevin Warsh gavels his first meeting later this month, and Trump was careful to say he would not “have a big influence on him” – except, he clearly spelled out his expectations. “I would like to see rates get lower,” he said, “because we could build this into the greatest machine that the world has ever seen, but you can’t do that when everybody immediately raises interest rates.”

Meanwhile, Trump insists Iran can be starved into surrender… “They tried a blockade, and now we blockaded them,” he said of Iran. “And, as you know, they’re losing $400-500 million a day. It’s not sustainable for them. They have an economy that’s shot, in addition to everything else.” The Strait of Hormuz carries roughly a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil; and the valve Trump is twisting shut to strangle Tehran is the same valve lifting fuel costs in Des Moines. The blockade he is celebrating and the inflation he admitted choosing are directly linked. Asked what happens if the talks fail, Trump did not hedge: “Either way, we win.”

Asked about the highly enriched uranium still buried in Iran, he offered a branding note. “The official name is highly enriched uranium. And I call it nuclear dust because it seemed to be nice, and everyone understands it better, and it’s sort of cute, and people picked it up.”He assured Welker the sites are under constant watch from orbit: “If anybody walked there, if you walked over there, I would be able to read your first name on your lapel. And these are cameras up in space. It’s pretty amazing technology. Space Force.” He claimed, in passing and without elaboration, that the United States “took over Venezuela in a matter of minutes.” He put Iran’s surviving arsenal at “maybe 21-22% of their missiles … It’s a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we first attacked.”

 

 

Doing The World A Service
At the end of the day, Trump had no choice: “I had to stop a country, very powerful, very dangerous country, from having a nuclear weapon because they’d use it. They’d blow up the world. They’d blow up the Middle East. They’d blow up Israel. They’d come here. They’d blow up Europe. They’re nuts, okay? They’re crazy people. I deal with them. And very high-strung people. Little crazy. And – I get along with them. I like them. But you don’t want to let them have a nuclear weapon. And I’m doing the world a service, but I’m doing our country a service. You know, it’s America first. I’m doing our country a service. Nice rain.”

Indeed…

Read more …

“A country can never be great with a dishonest press.”

• Trump Storms Out of ‘Meet the Press’ Interview (Matt Margolis)

President Donald Trump sat down with NBC’s Kristen Welker for a Meet the Press interview, but things went sideways fast. The exchange started to unravel when the topic of election integrity came up. Trump made clear that he views the media’s handling of these stories as part of a larger systemic problem, one that the press has deliberately chosen to ignore. He told Welker that her network actively works against him and that he had the receipts to back it up. “You play right into their hands with this stuff,” Trump said.


“You know that these elections are rigged. Your network knows that they’re rigged. Do you know that I won an election in a landslide and I got 94% bad press.” Welker tried to redirect the conversation toward acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, but Trump wasn’t having it. Every time she jumped in, he pushed through it. He insisted the evidence of problems with election integrity runs deep: “You have more evidence, there’s more evidence than ever presented.” “Your elections in this country — we’re like a third world country,” he said. “Your elections are crooked and you’re crooked, and Meet the Press is crooked.”

He didn’t stop there. “And so is ABC and CBS and CNN,” Trump continued. “You’re a one-sided crooked network.” That’s when he made his move. “Sorry. Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough,” Trump said. “Thank you, darling. Have a good time.” Welker scrambled to keep him in his seat, reminding him of the effort it took to set up the interview. “Mr. President, let’s — please, I traveled all the way to Wisconsin,” she said. That didn’t move Trump at all. “I sat in the rain with you for an hour,” he told her. “On and off in the rain, and I’ve given you enough time.”

Then he turned it into something bigger. “You ought to straighten out your press,” he said, “because you know what? A country can never be great with a dishonest press.” Welker kept pushing, repeating that she flew to Wisconsin specifically for the interview. Trump’s mind was made up, and he was done. I don’t doubt that the liberal media will frame this as Trump dodging tough questions or losing his composure. That’s the predictable take from a press corps that circles the wagons whenever one of its own gets called out. But watch the clip and form your own opinion.

Trump previously told the New York Post’s Miranda Devine that accountability for the 2020 election may still be coming, saying his administration has uncovered information that wasn’t previously available and now knows “who rigged the election.” He argued that evidence gathered since returning to office has only reinforced his belief that the election was stolen. Trump maintains that Joe Biden did not legitimately win in 2020 and claimed Biden actually lost “in a landslide.”

Read more …

Do watch part of it.

• President Trump Walks Out of Combative NBC Interview with Kirsten Welker (CTH)

President Trump abruptly ended and walked out of a combative interview with NBC’s Kirsten Welker, who will now receive the praise and adulation that Margaret Brennan so emphatically wanted. Kirsten Welker is now the leading Democrat Presidential Candidate for 2028. During an NBC interview, Welker continually interrupted President Trump and challenged his assertion of government weaponization against J6 protest attendees and voter fraud. President Trump was making the case that the current California vote counting of mail-in ballots, still taking place 5-days after election day, was representative of voter fraud within the U.S. election system.


Welker demanded President Trump provide the evidence. President Trump emphasized the evidence is in the process that is taking place in front of your eyes. Welker again demanded President Trump provide the evidence. Eventually Trump gave up in frustration. The Video and Transcript is Below:

[TRANSCRIPT] – KRISTEN WELKER: This $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund that’s going to compensate people who say the federal government weaponized the legal system against them. It’s been blocked by the courts, met with opposition from Republicans .

PRES. DONALD TRUMP: And Democrats.

KRISTEN WELKER: – in Congress, and Democrats.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP: Most, excuse me, mostly Democrats.

KRISTEN WELKER: Mostly Democrats and some Republicans.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP: Some. Very few Republicans.

KRISTEN WELKER: Just to be very clear, are you backing off the fund completely as your acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has said, or are you looking for another avenue to revive the fund?

PRES. DONALD TRUMP: So let — let me explain what the fund is. People have been hurt so badly by radical left lunatics that worked for the Biden administration and Sleepy Joe. They’re vicious. They’re violent, what they did to people. And of course they went after me more than anybody else. They raided Mar-a-Lago and all the other things. But people have been badly hurt. They’ve committed suicide. They’ve lost their jobs. They’re lost their families. They’ve lost their wives. They’ve lost everything. They’ve lost everything over a fake weaponization of government. Now, let me just tell you –

KRISTEN WELKER: So are you looking for a way to revive it?

PRES. DONALD TRUMP: Well, look. If it was up to me, I’d pay them the kind of money that they deserve. People have been destroyed. Lives have been destroyed. Many suicides, think of it. People have committed suicide because a bunch of thugs went after them.

Read more …

Duck! 😉

• Britain Is Erasing White Heroes From Its Money (Margolis)

The Bank of England has decided that Winston Churchill, Alan Turing, and Jane Austen are too controversial to appear on British banknotes. So they’re replacing them with frogs. I’m not kidding. Frogs. And foxes. And dolphins. And puffins. The Bank announced it would phase out portraits of historical figures in favor of native wildlife imagery on its next banknote series. The official explanation was “security,” but we all know better than to believe that. Writing in The Telegraph earlier this week, Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, said: “The Bank’s foremost objective is the security of our banknotes, which includes tackling the threat from counterfeiting.”


However, the Savanta research, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, will raise questions about whether the decision was also motivated by concerns that featuring Britain’s former wartime prime minister and other national heroes would upset some sections of the public. The researchers concluded that Churchill, Turing, and Austen were “contentious and not representative of the UK’s cultural and natural diversity.” Officials received advice to scrap historical figures entirely because they represented “a backward-looking vision of the UK that carries too great a risk of division and controversy.”

Translation: too many white people on the money. One hundred nineteen focus group participants called the existing banknote figures “potentially divisive, elitist and disconnected from their own experiences.” One participant actually described Alan Turing, the man who helped crack the Nazi Enigma code and helped bring an end to World War II, as “imperialistic,” complaining about a “‘we’re the ones who won the Second World War and saved the world’ feeling” to the notes. I guess they missed the memo that Turing was a gay man persecuted by his own government. Apparently, none of that matters if the woke mob has decided he’s problematic.

It gets worse. Savanta advised against depicting Georgian and Victorian architecture, flagging those buildings as high risk “due to potential links to colonialism/slavery.” The researchers also warned against showing the White Cliffs of Dover because of their “association with the UK border.” One focus group participant from Northern Ireland said some British buildings were “erected on the back of slave trade money.” Another said the White Cliffs “could be seen by some people to be a political statement, particularly at the moment around immigration and small boats. “Is there anything these woke focus group members aren’t offended by? Seriously, iconic landmarks are out. Celebrated intellectuals are out. War heroes are out. The puffin, however, made the cut.

The Bank claims the Savanta report had nothing to do with its final decision. They point to a public consultation in which 44,000 people participated, with 60% choosing nature imagery and 38% preferring historical figures. Don’t buy it. The Bank commissioned focus groups specifically to assess whether historical figures were too divisive, so it was likely rigged from the start to justify what they wanted to do in the first place. “Without great and courageous figures like Churchill and Turing, we may have swastikas on our banknotes today,” Retired British Army Colonel Richard Kemp said. “We owe them so much and it is right that we should be reminded of our debt to them daily on our banknotes.”

Kemp added, “The woke desire to erase Britain’s proud and remarkable culture has now even infiltrated the Bank of England. This decision is shameful and should be reversed.” Robert Jenrick of Reform UK added, “If it wasn’t for the likes of Churchill and Turing, we’d be living under a government that really was divisive and imperialistic. The Bank of England should stop wasting time and money on this and focus instead on keeping prices down.”

Why should this matter to those of us in the United States? Well, this same nonsense is coming here, and you all know it. The movement to scrub historical figures from public life has already targeted building names and statues, and there have been efforts to update American currency with more diverse figures as well. I’ve long believed that it is inevitable that Democrats will one day push to put Barack Obama on our money. Give it time, and the demand will be that American money features only figures the far left approves of. Dead white men need not apply.

Read more …

Q: Since when was Alan Turing on the money? Banned forever because he was gay.

Wasn’t putting him there a great victory? For gay rights?

Who wins that one now? Gays lose again, right?

• A Serious Country Doesn’t Swap Its Greatest Leader For Little Animals (MN)

The Bank of England has now admitted the quiet part out loud. Historical figures including Winston Churchill were removed from future banknotes after researchers told officials they were “elitist and divisive.”


The move replaces British legends with wildlife in a calculated step to sideline national heroes and accelerate cultural replacement. This is not a neutral design update. It is institutional capture in action, where the man who rallied Britain against Nazi tyranny gets sidelined because focus groups and consultants found him too problematic for modern sensitivities and would prefer to look at a Fox or a hedgehog instead.

The revelation aligns precisely with plans first laid out months earlier. Back in March, the Bank announced it would phase out portraits of Churchill on the £5 note, Jane Austen on the £10, JMW Turner on the £20, and Alan Turing on the £50. In their place would come native British wildlife, plants, and landscapes. King Charles III would remain on the front of the notes. Officials claimed the shift followed a public consultation with over 44,000 responses, where around 60 percent supposedly favored nature themes for security reasons and to celebrate the environment.

Critics at the time called the idea absurd and bonkers. They warned it represented a war on history and showed the Bank had been captured by progressive ideology. One former business minister said notes should honor the historical giants who shaped the nation rather than fuzzy animals. Another asked what came next – squirrels running the economy. Observers noted it fit a wider pattern of erasing or downplaying Britain’s past under the banner of progress and diversity.

That pattern includes London museums draping portraits to “reclaim Caribbean history,” the removal of Shakespeare, Thatcher, and Churchill artworks from 10 Downing Street in favor of pieces by artists with Caribbean ties, Cambridge panels labeling Churchill a white supremacist whose empire was supposedly worse than the Nazis, and a London primary school renaming “Churchill House” after Marcus Rashford to promote diversity. Statues of Churchill have faced vandalism and calls for removal, including during pro-Palestine protests earlier this year. Each step chips away at the symbols that once unified national memory.

Now the June reporting makes the motive unmistakable. Research commissioned by the Bank concluded that figures such as Churchill, Alan Turing, and Jane Austen were “contentious and not representative of the UK’s cultural and natural diversity.” Officials received advice to replace the portraits with nature images because historical figures represented “a backward-looking vision of the UK that carries too great a risk of division and controversy.”

The Bank has insisted the decision was not driven by that specific research but by an earlier poll showing public preference for nature. Yet the Freedom of Information details tell a different story about how the process unfolded behind closed doors A public consultation is currently running on the wildlife shortlist. Proposed replacements include an owl, hedgehog, badger, or common frog. One commentator summed up the national mood: “We are not a serious country anymore.”

https://twitter.com/JamesMelville/status/2062610790683984267?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2062610790683984267%7Ctwgr%5Ea67b9ad8e4437d980d63a6c9204f63f3cf1e7678%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fserious-country-does-not-swap-its-greatest-leader-banknotes-little-animals

Some of the animals under consideration are not even native to Britain. That detail alone exposes the move as more than harmless environmental appreciation. It functions as a psyop to further erode British culture – stripping away recognizable national symbols and replacing them with generic or imported imagery that weakens any sense of rooted identity.

This fits the same ideological framework that has infected other institutions. DEI priorities and critical race theory obsessions treat any strong assertion of British heritage as inherently suspect. The man who helped defeat fascism is recast as “divisive” while the focus shifts to animals that supposedly better reflect “cultural and natural diversity.” The result is a currency that no longer celebrates the people who built and defended the country. It celebrates detachment instead.

The broader assault continues without pause. Schools, museums, government buildings, and now the Bank of England itself participate in softening, diluting, and apologizing for the past. Historical giants are judged not by their achievements but by whether they pass modern committee tests on representation. When they fail, they are quietly retired in favor of whatever the latest advisory group deems safe and inclusive.

Britain’s wartime leader did not save the nation so that unelected researchers and captured bureaucracies could later declare him unfit for the money supply. Yet that is exactly what has happened. The same institutions that owe their continued existence to Churchill’s stand now treat his image as a liability.

A country that systematically removes its heroes from public view is not evolving. It is forgetting how to value itself. The Bank of England’s choice to prioritize “non-divisive” wildlife over the figures who actually shaped the United Kingdom sends a clear message: national pride is now considered too risky for everyday transactions.

Britons who still believe their history is worth defending have every reason to push back. This is not about banknote design. It is about whether the nation retains the confidence to honour the people and events that made it possible. Replacing Churchill with a hedgehog is not progress. It is surrender dressed up as sensitivity.

Read more …

EU wants far too much. They want French soldiers obeying German commanders.

• Europe 2.0, Beyond Brussels: The End Of The European Union As We Know It (AmG)

Europe has reached the end of an era. Not the end of its history, but the end of its false form. For decades, the European Union served as the great substitute project of a continent that no longer dared to think politically. It promised peace without power, order without a people, unity without roots, and prosperity without cost. That was its founding lie, and it was a lie from the very beginning.


Political order does not grow out of procedural routines, commission papers, or moral self-incantation. It grows out of peoples, interests, borders, loyalties, and the willingness to defend what is one’s own. Legitimate authority rests on a people and its consent, not on an apparatus and its expertise. That older idea—that government draws its life from the governed rather than from the competence of its administrators—is precisely what Brussels has spent two generations trying to administer away.

That is why today’s EU is not the high point of European history but its bureaucratic state of exhaustion. It is too centralized to be free and too artificial to be binding. It commands an immense body of rules and possesses no sustaining political soul. It has institutions, but not the kind of historically grown legitimacy that holds a community together across generations. And so it answers every crisis with the same reflex: more centralization, more redistribution, more standardization, more discipline. What is sold as the solution is only the problem enlarged.

Europe is not failing because there is too little Brussels. Europe is failing because there is too much Brussels. It is failing because of a political class that no longer sees the continent as a historical space but as an object of administration. It is failing because of an ideology that treats every organically grown difference as a defect and therefore regards peoples, traditions, and national particularities as raw material to be processed. And it is failing because of a functional elite that has learned to disguise power as morality and to pass off its own interests as universal values.

There is a name for this kind of governance: the administrative state—the permanent, unelected layer that survives every election, answers to no voter, and grows whether the public wants it to or not. Brussels is that layer raised to the continental power and freed from even the inconvenience of a national electorate. There is no European demos to vote the managers out. That is not a flaw in the design. It is the design.

The real scandal of Europe today is not even its material mismanagement but its intellectual arrogance. The Union behaves as though it could suspend history—as though cultures could be harmonized like technical standards, as though political loyalty could be decreed the way one issues a packaging regulation. As though a continent of radically different historical experiences, economic structures, demographic trajectories, and security realities could be pressed into one standardized form without damage. Yet the damage is already visible. The EU is not unifying Europe. It is wearing it down.

To see why, it helps to return to a text that saw the whole thing coming. In 2011, long before today’s disruptions, the German social scientist Gunnar Heinsohn published an essay whose title I have borrowed and broadened here: “Europa 2.0: Neuzuschnitt der Alten Welt” (Europe 2.0: Recutting the Old World). It was written in the first panic of the euro rescues, and it has aged with uncomfortable precision.

Heinsohn’s argument was not, in the first place, a complaint about Brussels. It was an argument about arithmetic. He began with the chain of liabilities that the productive European middle class—the net taxpayers, the people who put in more than they take out—had quietly been made to guarantee. First, the bank rescues of 2008. Then the Greek bailout and the great euro backstops of 2010, which shielded bondholders and the comfortable classes of the periphery at the expense of taxpayers who were never asked. Then the implicit guarantees extended to the aging, shrinking states of the European East. And beneath all of it, an ever-growing domestic population to be supported for life. The decisive point was simple and merciless: when all these promises—upward, downward, and outward—come due at once, no one will be left to bail out the people who were made to do the bailing.

Read more …

Tricks.

• California US Attorney Office Feigns Ignorance of Voter Fraud (CTH)

California ballot counting will continue until the key republicans in each race are pushed into 3rd place. That’s when ballot counting will conclude. At a certain point, the pretending gets ridiculous. This X message from the First Asst U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of California is a case study in pretending not to know things.


Former Attorney General Eric Holder was hired by California govt to advise on the election changes created by linking DMV database to Secretary of State database. The tech team that wrote the code to link the DMV and SOS were given specific instructions. The affirmative flag, the checkbox in the DMV system that says the applicant is legally eligible to vote, was neutralized. Meaning, if the checkbox is left blank, the computer system accepts the application from the DMV as affirmative. The DL applicant data is transferred to the SoS office, and the applicant is registered to vote.

Illegal Aliens, unlawful migrants, were allowed to get California Driver’s Licenses and State IDs. The Motor-Voter process now registers those drivers and ID recipients as legal voters and ballots are created. Those illegal ballots form the core of the voter fraud in California and were first used in the November 2018 midterm election as the beta test for national rollout.Not a single person in Sacramento politics doesn’t know this. They are all aware. All the USAO has to do is go check and they will see. The fraud is impossible to prosecute. The fraud is built into the system. Go look. Everyone knows.

We originally outlined this activity a decade ago. Nothing has been done to stop it. JAN 2017 – California officials have instructed DMV data programmers to remove the internal coding flags for the drivers’ licenses of illegal aliens in California. As you might be aware, California passed a law known as AB60 authorizing illegal aliens to receive drivers’ licenses throughout the state. Within the administrative functions of the state DMV database a designation code known as “AB60 code” was created to flag those specific licenses as containing “Federal Limits Apply”.

We have confirmation from a top-level IT source, state officials instructed programmers to immediately remove AB60 administrative coding. The removed code in question is an administrative function for identifying the registered DL holder as an “undocumented person” or illegal alien holder within the DMV database. The established computer flag allows an administrator or DMV or State official to filter the massive database of California Driver’s License holders and identify just those who are ‘undocumented’. The removal of the “flag” via deletion of the program code, means the database cannot be easily filtered to show only illegals who received those Drivers licenses, and/or generate a list of those license recipients.


According to the IT source the motive for the code/flag removal appears to be an effort hide data and curtail any tool useful in any voter fraud investigation. Several additional aspects lead to this conclusion including California hiring former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to lead the fight against the Trump administration. Additionally, the State Driver’s License process via the State DMV has an on-line link to the Secretary of State office in order for California residents to register to vote. As a specific function of the programming code within the SoS system, and as a direct outcome of previous instructions, all voter registrations proceed through the registration process, even if the user “forgets” to check the box that says they are a citizen.

The internal database coding established by the Secretary of State IT department which synergizes with the State Department of Motor Vehicles, allows and approves voter registration when the designation box “U.S. Citizen” is left blank. It is the combination of this specific programming structure, the events and instructions of the past 48 hours, in combination with the outcome of the U.S. election and new Trump administration saying they will launch a voter fraud investigation, which leads the IT source to the conclusion there is an effort underway within California to hide the evidence of “Illegal Voting” via the use of “State Issued Drivers Licenses” and the willful blindness from the Secretary of State.

No alternate explanation from within the California DMV Headquarters has been offered for why they are instructing IT data programmers to remove the AB60 coding from the Driver’s License system.

Read more …

Englan’ is a bitch.

• UK Cop Fired For Questioning Islam In ‘Safe Space’ (MN)

A Christian police community support officer lost his career after asking a Muslim colleague about jihad and Hamas atrocities during a diversity session that promised open discussion. At the same time, training drilled “white privilege” into police ranks. Luke Salmons, a 46-year-old Christian father of two and respected PCSO with North Yorkshire Police, relates how he attended a mandatory training day on race, religion and culture. Trainers spent several minutes marching up and down the room chanting “Islam is a religion of peace” repeatedly.


A Muslim sergeant then spoke about his faith and invited questions in what was presented as a “safe space” where “there was no such thing as a bad question.” Salmons asked what the sergeant, as a peaceful Muslim, thought about the situation in Gaza and atrocities carried out by Hamas and other groups in the name of Islam. He also asked what jihad meant to him. The discussion was civil. The sergeant later invited Salmons for coffee to continue the conversation privately.

Salmons brought a book on the topic to work. Colleagues photographed it in his locker and reported him as a risk. An inspector then suspended him, declaring “I don’t like your beliefs.” Salmons noted the obvious double standard: no inspector would ever say that to a Muslim officer.He was suspended on full pay for months, resigned under pressure in April 2025, and faced gross misconduct proceedings. Supported by the Christian Legal Centre, he appealed. Chief Constable Tim Forber overturned the dismissal before Salmons had even finished presenting his case. There was no apology and the episode devastated his family.

“I loved my job and I was good at it. I was well respected as a PCSO and my colleagues said they loved working with me and couldn’t understand what was happening. But an overzealous inspector took against me and that was the end of my career, even though I had done nothing wrong,” he related. “It devastated me and my family. For months we lived in total uncertainty, with my reputation being shredded in secret. I resigned not because I had done anything wrong, but because the silence, the delay and the pressure became unbearable for my wife and daughters,” Salmons added.

This is the new reality inside parts of British policing: open discussion of uncomfortable facts about Islamist ideology is treated as career-ending wrongthink, while entire days are devoted to chanting slogans and centring one faith above others. The same ideological pressures are visible in operational failures. In the Henry Nowak case, an 18-year-old white British student was stabbed five times. He told responding officers he had been stabbed and could not breathe. Instead of treating him as a medical emergency, officers handcuffed him after his attacker falsely claimed racism. The attacker was allowed to walk away. An inquest is examining whether the handcuffing contributed to Nowak’s death.

The police watchdog investigated itself and declared no wrongdoing. Serving and former Hampshire officers later admitted the mandatory DEI training played a role. They told former Home Secretary Suella Braverman they had “it drummed into us about our white privilege and unconscious bias.” One described the outsourced trainer as “deeply hateful of white people and our culture.”v

Meanwhile, shocking street interviews and bodycam footage show officers across forces admitting they will arrest people for speech that causes offence if an allegation is made – including phrases such as “send them all home.” In one Birmingham incident, officers restrained a light-skinned suspect while a crowd of young men from ethnic minority backgrounds kicked and struck him; the police did not intervene to protect the suspect.

Read more …

Good to reiterate from time to time.

• They Threw Everything at Him. He’s Still Standing. (Eric Florack)

We’re getting pretty close to the midterm elections. I’d like you to consider, as you contemplate your vote, what we’ve been seeing for a solid decade now. The full weight of the media establishment, the Democrat Party, and the socialist left — all of whom drain your tax dollars to fund their operations — has waged the most expensive, coordinated, and (thanks be to Heaven) catastrophically unsuccessful demolition project in recorded history. The target? One man. I’ll let you guess who.


Think on that for a moment: four criminal indictments, 91 charges (and I may have missed a few). Investigations that went nowhere, like a compass in a magnet factory. They spent billions. They squeezed hundreds of journalists shoulder-to-shoulder into the same putrid trough, all filing the same bogus story, all reaching the same pre-approved conclusions without evidence, all somehow surprised when nothing stuck to the man. Every major network. Every newspaper of record. Every drive-time radio voice with a thesaurus and a grudge.

The late-night TV hosts — propped up on expensive, ratings-free life support, their audience consisting exclusively of insomniacs and the unfortunate souls stranded at airport gate C-17 — dutifully swung away, night after night, year after year. When the losses mounted too high and those late-night “stars” collected their pink slips, the establishment — the very people who’d been attacking this man — turned around and blamed him for their firing. Never mind the millions they cost the networks. The word “unsustainable” leaps to mind, unbidden.

Hollywood crawled out of its gated compounds to weigh in. Every blue-checkmark, every celebrity whose last project you cannot name, every platform with a “trust and safety” team — all of it, fully deployed. All for naught. Meanwhile, medical research watches from the parking lot, never seeing anything approaching that kind of coordinated effort. Even after all that, it didn’t work. Let’s be honest about what this was, and is. This wasn’t political opposition. Opposition, per se, is normal. Opposition is healthy. That’s democracy (small d).

This was anything but democracy. This was a systematic campaign to destroy a man’s family, dismantle his businesses, strip away his freedom, and physically erase his name from ballots. The goal was never to beat him. It was to eliminate him. Consider the parallel: Eric Swalwell got caught cozying up to a Chinese intelligence operative, and the story disappeared in 48 hours. This man absorbed a decade-long siege with unlimited ammunition — and he’s still standing. The reason? There was nothing to what they threw at Trump. In all this time, not a bit of it has stuck. Don’t you think if they actually had anything, it would have tipped the scales by now?

When all those efforts failed, they even tried to kill him — what, ten times now, going back to 2016? I’ve lost count. Butler, of course. West Palm. Mar-a-Lago. The Correspondents’ Dinner. And those are just the attempts that made the headlines because they got close enough to finish the job. That asymmetry should tell you everything you need to know. And a quick look at what’s happening in California right now offers another indicator of how desperate these people have become. That story may give us a hint — if we’re honest — about how “Creepy Uncle Joe” claimed 81 million votes after campaigning from his basement.

Here’s the thing about coordinated fury at that scale and duration: it is never about the target. It’s about what the target represents — and what his continued existence threatens. Seventy million Americans heard something from this man they hadn’t heard in a long time: the truth. That the system has been deliberately rigged against them. That someone is outright stealing their tax dollars and laundering still more into causes explicitly hostile to their interests. That the credentialed experts and the legacy press have been lying — casually, continuously — and expected nobody to notice. That Americans — as Americans — do not require permission from Davos, from party establishments, from media gatekeepers, or from anyone else to trust what their own eyes are showing them.

That is not a Republican message. That is not a Democrat message. That is a freedom message. And seventy million people didn’t just hear it — they recognized it, voted accordingly, and to this day continue to support him, much to the chagrin of the destroyers who clearly still don’t understand what they’re up against. That’s what the machine is actually fighting: not a man, but a message. Because if that message spreads — if people fully internalize that the managers have been manipulating them, manufacturing confusion, and deliberately stoking fear — those managers lose everything.

The fury isn’t evidence that he’s dangerous. It’s evidence of exactly what he told you: that they are.

Read more …

Does it work only on a quantum scale?

• A Surprisingly Simple Way To Create Powerful Quantum States (SD)

Many of the most promising quantum technologies, including advanced sensors and future quantum computers, depend on a phenomenon known as entanglement, where particles become deeply connected and influence one another in ways that cannot be explained by classical physics. Creating the complex entangled states needed for these technologies has traditionally required sophisticated equipment and carefully designed experimental systems.


Researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering have now proposed a much simpler approach. Their new theoretical method can generate and control a wide range of entangled quantum states using tools that are already common in many quantum physics laboratories. The work, published in Physical Review X, could help advance ultra precise quantum sensing and open new opportunities for exploring fundamental physics.

“We wanted to take simple ingredients that you find in a lot of physical platforms and put these together in a minimal way to get something interesting, complex and powerful,” said Aashish Clerk, professor of molecular engineering at UChicago PME and senior author of the new study. The research was supported by Q-NEXT, a U.S. Department of Energy National Quantum Information Science Research Center led by DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory.

Rethinking Cavity QED Systems
The team’s approach is based on cavity quantum electrodynamics, commonly known as cavity QED. In these experiments, atoms or other particles are placed inside an optical cavity, which consists of two mirrors that trap light between them. The particles then interact with the confined light inside the cavity. A limitation of many cavity QED systems is that all of the atoms interact with the light in exactly the same way. Because the atoms are effectively indistinguishable, the range of quantum states that can be produced is restricted.

“The challenge has always been that these systems have too much symmetry. All the atoms are talking to light in the same way,” Clerk said. “That really restricts what kind of entangled states you get.” In a typical cavity QED setup, each atom has a ground state and an excited state separated by a specific energy difference. The researchers found a straightforward way to reduce the system’s symmetry. While all atoms continue to be driven by the same laser, additional lasers or magnetic fields are used to shift the excited state energies of different groups of atoms. The atoms are arranged so that each one is paired with another atom that has an equal but opposite energy offset.

This simple modification allows atoms to behave differently from one another while preserving enough structure for the system to remain controllable and predictable. By changing which atoms receive particular energy shifts, scientists can tune the system to produce a variety of entangled states without altering the physical hardware. “You turn these lasers on and wait, and at some point the system stabilizes into an interesting, highly entangled quantum state,” said Anjun Chu, a postdoctoral researcher in the Clerk group and first author of the new work. “By simply adjusting the lasers, we can access kinds of entangled states that no one had thought about before.”

Building Better Quantum Sensors
One of the most promising uses for the new approach is quantum sensing. In theory, entangled quantum states can detect extremely small differences in magnetic fields or gravitational fields between separate locations. However, developing states that are both highly sensitive and resistant to noise has remained a major challenge. The researchers demonstrated that a version of their proposed system containing two groups of atoms could be used to measure field gradients. When the two atomic ensembles are placed in different locations, the resulting quantum state reflects the difference between the local magnetic or gravitational fields. At the same time, it naturally rejects background noise that affects both locations equally.

“You’re able to do two things that are normally not compatible with one another: Use entanglement to build an exquisitely sensitive sensor but also have robustness to arbitrarily large amounts of noise,” Clerk said. “Normally, entanglement is very fragile. This approach has some amazing resilience.” Another advantage is that the information stored in these quantum states can be extracted using standard Ramsey measurement techniques, eliminating the need for specialized or exotic measurement methods.

Applications Beyond Sensing
The researchers also showed that the same platform can generate unusual quantum states that have long attracted interest from physicists. One example is the AKLT state, a well known many body entangled state first introduced in the 1980s to describe unusual magnetic materials. The team found that their relatively simple setup can stabilize this state. In addition to helping scientists study complex magnetic systems, the AKLT state may also have applications in quantum computing.

Next Steps For The Research
The work remains theoretical for now, but the researchers are already discussing possible experimental tests with other groups. They are also investigating more sophisticated ways to arrange atoms within the system and exploring the full range of quantum states that their method may be capable of producing.

“The fact that such simple ingredients can generate such complex and useful quantum states gives us hope that even before we reach the dream of a general all-purpose quantum computer, we can already generate quantum states that let us do things we couldn’t do in a purely classical world,” Clerk said. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science National Quantum Information Science Research Centers as part of the Q-NEXT center.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle June 7 2026

Jun 072026
 
 June 7, 2026  Posted by at 9:51 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  29 Responses »


Claude Monet San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk 1908


• US Led Over 100 Vessels via Strait of Hormuz in May — NYT (TASS)
• ‘Biden’s War’ Has Become Trump’s – Lavrov (RT)
• Promethean Action PAC Discovers MAGAnomics (CTH)
• Trump Says US Weighing Taking Stakes In AI Companies (ET)
• California and the Politics of Low Expectations (Turley)
• The EU’s ‘Strictest-Ever Migration Law’ Won’t Change Anything (von Hoffmeister)
• Paris Riots Fuel The Right (RMX)
• Tory Leader Warns Of ‘Civil War’ In UK (RT)
• Questions and Answers (James Howard Kunstler)
• The White Countries Have Become Rabidly Racist Against White People (PCR)
• When Race is the Only Possible Verdict (Eric Florack)
• Europe No Longer Attractive Global Hub, Only Itself To Blame – Kneissl (TASS)
• EU Embassies In Moscow Should Establish Dialogue With Russia — Kneissl (TASS)
• UK Government Plots Digital ID Lockdown On Every Phone (MN)
• Bots Now Generate More Web Traffic Than Humans – Cloudflare (RT)

 


 

 


 


Surprisingly little war news today, but all the more -racial- discrimination.

About this article: 100 vessels a month is quite a lot. 3 per day, and not small vessels. An oil tanker carries two million barrels.

• US Led Over 100 Vessels via Strait of Hormuz in May — NYT (TASS)

Last month, the US military helped coordinate the passage of more than 100 commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, The New York Times (NYT) wrote citing sources. According to the report, passage through this waterway remains dangerous for ships against the backdrop of stalled US-Iranian reconciliation talks. Earlier, The New York Times said the US Central Command (CENTCOM) assisted the passage of 70 ships via the strait. The majority of them switched off their transponders.


The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were also hit. Tehran decided to close the Strait of Hormuz to ships associated with the United States, Israel and countries that backed the aggression against Iran.

Read more …

“The US president could have ended the Ukraine conflict by following through on his own proposals, the Russian foreign minister has told RT..”

• ‘Biden’s War’ Has Become Trump’s – Lavrov (RT)

America’s position on the Ukraine conflict has become almost indistinguishable from that of the EU, making US President Donald Trump’s stated ambition to mediate an end to the fighting hollow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has told RT. Trump repeatedly blamed the conflict between Russia and Ukraine on his predecessor, Joe Biden, and claimed that he could bring it to a swift conclusion while campaigning in 2024. However, recent statements by members of his administration suggest a different course, Lavrov said on Thursday in an interview on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.


“Biden’s war has become Trump’s war,” the Russian foreign minister said. Speaking to Congress this week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said efforts to facilitate Russia-Ukraine talks were complicated “because, frankly, we’re not an impartial mediator.” He cited the continuation of the sanctions on Russia and sales of US weapons to Ukraine. “After we agreed to the United States proposal in Anchorage [in August 2025], Washington began to shift its position. Instead of advancing those same proposals in its dealings with Ukrainians, it is now pretending that the parties should sort things out themselves. This is not a very consistent position,” Lavrov said.

“It is the West that cannot be trusted to keep its agreements. Its approach is: ‘I’ll promise something now, then stall for time.’ If the US had truly advanced its own initiative, I think… the fighting would already have stopped.” According to Lavrov, the only major difference between Trump’s policy and that of Biden and the EU is that his administration resumed direct talks with Russia. Dialogue is important, he said, but it must be matched by action on commitments already made.

Read more …

“.. both Trump and Bernie Sanders agreed on the problem. The difference between them was the solution.”

• Promethean Action PAC Discovers MAGAnomics (CTH)

In 2015, even before President Trump came down the golden escalator, CTH was outlining a ‘new era and dimension’ in American economics that could be possible if a presidential candidate focused on specific Main Street policy. Throughout the next four years we watched carefully how Donald Trump was organizing that Main Street revival and what specifically was creating the economic growth. One of the points emphasized in 2016 about Trump’s unique MAGAnomic policy, was how both Trump and Bernie Sanders agreed on the problem. The difference between them was the solution.


Think of it like economic football.
Both Trump and Sanders identify the rigged game. Bernie Sanders wanted to change the referees so that government controls the game. Donald Trump’s approach was different. Trump wanted to change the rules of the game, not step in and try to play referee to a rigged game where the rules were flawed. One of the examples of economic “rule changing” is trade tariffs. You don’t need govt to regulate the corporations directly (ie. raise corporate income taxes). Instead, you can change trade policy to make the better corporate decision a return of production back to the USA (a fundamental rules change).

Both approaches involve a different govt policy, but Trump’s approach changes behavior. That’s MAGAnomics. One of the reasons Trump’s approaches are much more effective, is that his rule changes extend beyond the American corporate game. Trump’s approach changes the behavior of foreign governments and foreign corporations, a win/win/win.An example is the Japanese government investing in America to offset reciprocity tariffs; while Toyota, a corporation, invests in specific auto manufacturing expansion to avoid baseline tariffs.

You don’t get that kind of result through Bernie’s approach changing the American referee in an all-American game and raising corporate income taxes. And don’t forget, the corporation can just move offshore and avoid income taxes entirely. Apple used to have their company incorporated in Ireland. Trump’s rule changes brought them back.The Promethean Action PAC is now highlighting the fundamentals of Trump’s MAGAnomics and how the policy is distinctly different from all U.S. economic policy before it.

Read more …

“The bad news? His executive order is voluntary and does almost nothing to protect Americans,“ Sanders wrote. “Congress MUST act.”

• Trump Says US Weighing Taking Stakes In AI Companies (ET)

President Donald Trump told reporters on June 5 that his administration is exploring the possibility of the United States acquiring a public stake in artificial intelligence (AI) companies. Trump made the comment in response to a question about a recent News of the United States report, which suggested that unnamed senior U.S. officials had discussed with major AI firms the possibility of the federal government holding some shares in their companies. “There’s so much money that is so big that there are concepts where pieces could be given to the American public, where the American public essentially becomes a partner with the companies,” Trump said aboard Air Force One.


“I have spoken to all of [the AI companies]. There’s something very interesting about it, where it almost becomes a partnership with the American public, and we’ll look into that,” he said. Trump said he and his team have a meeting scheduled in the “very near future” with major AI firms to discuss this possible venture. “We’re talking about it, where the American people can benefit from the success of AI, and by doing that, they can like it better,” Trump explained.nSen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) penned an op-ed in The New York Times on Monday titled “A.I. Is a Public Resource. You Should Own Half of It,” where he announced he would soon introduce congressional legislation to give the American public a direct ownership stake in the largest AI companies in the United States.

“It would create a sovereign wealth fund through a one-time 50 percent tax—not on the profits of OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and other companies, but paid with something far more valuable than that: the stock,” Sanders wrote in the piece. He said the legislation, which he plans to call the American A.I. Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, would give the American public a direct role in determining the future of AI while also guaranteeing that the trillions generated by the industry are “used to improve the lives of all of us—not simply to make the richest people in the world even richer.”

When asked on Friday if he found it odd that he and Sanders were seemingly on the same page about the proposal, Trump said that the two “have certain things that aren’t that far apart” regarding economic policy. “People are surprised, but if you’ll take a look, many of the people who voted for Bernie Sanders … they went to me,” Trump said, referring to some of the voters who backed him in the 2016 presidential election after previously supporting Sanders in the Democratic primary that year.

Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday asking AI companies to voluntarily submit their frontier models for government review 30 days before a full public release. In a post on X hours after the order was announced, Sanders said it was “good news” that Trump had “finally acknowledged AI poses a real threat” after the president had previously criticized efforts to tighten regulation of the AI industry. “The bad news? His executive order is voluntary and does almost nothing to protect Americans,“ Sanders wrote. “Congress MUST act.”

Read more …

Expect nothing. You may be pleasantly surprised.

• California and the Politics of Low Expectations (Turley)

This week, the nation watched as California grappled again with the ordinarily straightforward task of counting votes in an election. While large states such as Florida declare election winners within 24 hours, California may take up to two weeks to count all the votes. Even Los Angeles cannot count its votes in the time of large states despite giving the Clerk an annual budget of $336 million and a $448,179 a year salary with the help of 1,100 budgeted positions. In most states, voters would be outraged by the incompetence, waste, and inefficiency.


However, in the Golden State, voters shrug, as if they can demand no more from their elected officials than subpar performance. Call it the Politics of Low Expectations and California is the model for the nation. For years, my students have asked me what the secret is to a successful marriage approaching four decades (For full disclosure, there is an ongoing contractual dispute over my counting eight years of monogamous dating — leading to two dates on our anniversary cakes). The answer is simple. I reduced her expectations so low that I have exceeded them on a daily basis.

That began with our eloping on New Year’s Eve. We were married after an actual shotgun wedding where the clearly expectant teenage bride’s family was screaming profanities at the teenage groom. After paying $50 and using my high school ring for a wedding ring, we stepped out on the street of Old Town Alexandria as a drunk was retching in the gutter. That left only room for improvement. On any given day, my wife is simply grateful that I have not traded the house and car for a handful of magic beans. California Democrats seem to have applied my approach to matrimony to politics, creating a politician’s dream voter with few expectations.

That is most evident with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s infamous high-speed train to nowhere. In 2008, voters were promised a 500-mile High-Speed train running from San Francisco to Los Angeles for $33 billion. It is now projected to cost somewhere between $126 billion and $231 billion. After roughly two decades, no track has been laid, and the current plan is to focus on building a track between Bakersfield and Merced. Without any track to display, Newsom recently stood before a freight train on an existing track to insist that his train is moving speedily along.

One would think that citizens would be coming for their leaders with torches and pitchforks. Instead, there is a collective shrug as if it is perfectly normal to spend more than the entire budget of Amtrak on a non-existent train. The same leaders have burned billions in other boondoggles, including a massive solar power farm that produced energy at a higher cost and incinerated thousands of birds a year. California is facing a growing crisis of rising homelessness, dismal education scores, and an exodus of business and wealthy taxpayers. It has also imposed taxes that make gas the most expensive in the nation while suppressing its own energy industry.

Now, after many voters took the unprecedented step of voting for Republican candidates for governor and L.A. mayor, citizens will wait for weeks to learn the results of an election that would have been called days ago by third-world countries. The same politics of low expectations are evident in other states. In New York City, voters just shrug when told that they have a budget rivaling that of the entire state of Florida, resulting in awful educational, infrastructure, and other conditions. Voters have watched as wealthy taxpayers have taken their money and jobs to other states.

In return, figures like Mayor Zohran Mamdani promise state-run grocery stores, which will cost tens of millions of dollars to build and operate at a loss. In Minnesota, elected officials allowed billions to be stolen in fraud while businesses fled a state rife with rioting and homelessness.

Baltimore, a student failed all but three of his classes and was ranked in the top half of his graduating class. Yet, voters reelected the same leaders who have denied generations any real opportunity for advancement. While other countries maintain superior school systems at a fraction of the cost, urban voters cast their ballots like lemmings for the same party and politicians.

In states like California, politics has long been run on Henry Ford’s pitch that you can have any color Model T so long as it is black. This election seemed to offer voters something they had not seen in many years: a real choice between a Republican governor and an L.A. mayor. As California slowly counts its votes, the odds still heavily favor the continuation of California as a one-party state. Poor services, rising crime, rampant homelessness, hundreds of billions in waste and other failures are treated as virtually inevitable. The result is an electorate that only a politician would love: passive voters who expect little from their government and receive even less.

Read more …

“Politicians promise immigration control while the economic and demographic forces driving migration remain firmly in place..”

In other words: Europe is simply too far gone.

• The EU’s ‘Strictest-Ever Migration Law’ Won’t Change Anything (von Hoffmeister)

The European Union’s new migration rules, agreed upon in principle by lawmakers and state representatives, will allow EU countries to transfer rejected asylum seekers to third countries if they cannot be returned to their countries of origin. They also introduce stricter rules for dealing with illegal migrants, especially those considered a security risk.


The media has called it “historic,” “hardline,” and the “strictest-ever migration law” as politicians behind their lecterns spoke of control and the defense of borders. Yet in truth, the EU has once again promised to become tougher while preserving the structures that produced the migration crisis in the first place. New procedures, databases, and regulations have appeared, but the underlying incentives have remained largely intact. The result resembles many political spectacles of recent years: a performance designed to reassure anxious voters while preserving the economic and ideological foundations of the existing system. The gap between rhetoric and reality has become one of the defining characteristics of contemporary Western politics.

The same pattern can be observed across the Atlantic. Donald Trump returned to office promising the strongest immigration enforcement campaign in American history. His supporters anticipated deportation operations on a scale never previously attempted. Yet the reality has proved considerably more modest. Immigration enforcement agencies continue to conduct highly publicized arrests that generate dramatic footage for television and social media. A worker removed from a restaurant kitchen, a raid on a warehouse or construction site – all good for cameras and for political supporters to receive confirmation that action is taking place.

Yet the larger economic machinery that attracts millions of migrants continues operating. Businesses that employ illegal labor rarely face penalties severe enough to transform their calculations. The availability of employment remains the primary magnet drawing people across borders. A government genuinely committed to ending illegal immigration would focus relentlessly on employers, labor contractors, and industries dependent on cheap foreign labor. However, such measures would provoke opposition from powerful economic interests. Consequently, symbolic enforcement often proves more attractive than structural reform.

Politicians frequently present immigration as a humanitarian question, a cultural question, or a question of border security. The economic dimension often receives less scrutiny. Modern capitalism and mass immigration have become deeply intertwined. Employers gain access to larger labor pools, which increases competition among workers and places downward pressure on wages in many sectors. Agricultural businesses, logistics firms, construction companies, restaurants, delivery services, and countless other industries derive substantial advantages from a continuous supply of foreign labor. The benefits remain concentrated while many of the costs become dispersed throughout society. Housing demand rises, infrastructure faces greater pressure, schools require expansion, healthcare systems absorb additional burdens.

Welfare programs support those who struggle to establish themselves economically. These expenses rarely appear on corporate balance sheets – instead, they get distributed across the broader population through taxation and public expenditure. This contradiction led the French thinker Alain de Benoist to formulate one of the most incisive observations in the entire debate: “One who criticizes capitalism while approving of immigration, of which the working class is its first victim, would do better to remain silent. One who criticizes immigration while remaining silent regarding capitalism should do the same.” The statement captures a reality that many ideological camps prefer to avoid. Immigration and capitalism frequently function as partners within the same economic system, and any serious analysis of one eventually encounters the other.

Back in Western Europe, governments routinely announce crackdowns on illegal immigration while simultaneously preserving the economic and demographic model that depends on continuous inflows of foreign labor. Public discussion frequently centers on boats crossing the Mediterranean or migrants entering through other irregular routes – images that dominate news coverage because they are visually dramatic. Yet illegal immigration represents only one component of a much larger phenomenon. The overwhelming transformation of Western Europe has occurred through legal channels. Work permits, family reunification programs, student visas, humanitarian admissions, labor recruitment schemes, and various residency pathways have altered the demographic composition of entire societies. A politician can reduce small boat arrivals while expanding legal immigration quotas. Statistical reports may then suggest success even as overall migration continues at historic levels.

Italy provides an instructive example. Giorgia Meloni rose to power promising a fundamental break with previous migration policies. Her electoral success depended heavily on public dissatisfaction with mass immigration. Yet her government subsequently approved hundreds of thousands of additional work permits for non-European migrants in response to labor shortages. Nearly half a million new non-EU work visas were authorized over a multi-year period even while the government continued presenting itself as a champion of immigration control. Supporters emphasized efforts against illegal arrivals, while employers welcomed access to additional labor, and the demographic trajectory remained largely unchanged.

This recurring pattern has created a phenomenon increasingly described by critics as the “Melonization effect,” where leaders campaign as insurgents against mass immigration and then govern as managers of the existing system. Similar tendencies have appeared across numerous Western countries.

Read more …

Marine Le Pen.

• Paris Riots Fuel The Right (RMX)

:With French national elections approaching in 2027, the mass riots seen in Paris following the PSG victory in the Champions League are leading to an even sharper electoral shift towards the right-leaning National Rally’s Jordan Bardella. Verian’s June barometer, published by Le Figaro Magazine, places Jordan Bardella at the top of political figures, with 47 percent of those questioned wanting to see him occupy an important place in public life. This rating, up six points in one month, reveals a record result for the National Rally.


Marine Le Pen comes in second position and is also progressing. Several other personalities located on the right are also rising in the ranking, including Marion Maréchal, Éric Ciotti and Robert Ménard. The riots in Paris left stores and cars burned out and resulted in 890 arrests, 180 officers injured, and two deaths. The apocalyptic videos from the riots also sent shockwaves through the French public. While these polls cannot predict the election, they underline data showing that Bardella or Le Pen are well positioned to win the presidency in 2027 elections.

https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/2061886947467919775?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2061886947467919775%7Ctwgr%5Ed4eaf6b6844c32a7acab68214b84076630ca3930%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frmx.news%2Farticle%2Fparis-riots-fuel-the-right-jordan-bardella-would-trounce-all-opponents-in-2027-national-election%2F

Other recent polls also show that Bardella would win a runoff against a range of candidates. A poll from a week ago from Odoxa showed Bardella beating former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe 52 to 48 percent. Other potential candidates, such as the far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, were also beaten by wide margins, with polling showing Bardella nearly 50 points ahead of him, at 74 percent to 26 percent, illustrating the France’s distate for Mélenchon’s politics.

Brussels’ nightmare scenario
Politico ran a piece three days ago entitled “Brussels’ nightmare scenario,” which predicted that a Bardella-Mélenchon matchup is a real possibility and would be viewed as catastrophic by the EU elite, as both candidates have a highly skeptical view of the European Union.

“That prospect of stopping Bardella has hit a major potential hurdle, however, as momentum builds behind the campaign of the firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the far-left France Unbowed party. The latest polls suggest he now has a strong chance of qualifying for the second-round showdown — depriving the race of a centrist who could rally voters against the far right in the EU’s No. 2 economy.” The paper also quoted, Gérald Darmanin, the justice minister under President Emmanuel Macron. He said he now believes Mélenchon will be the main challenger to the “far right.” “You have … to be wearing blinkers not to see it,” he said.

Read more …

A brown skinned lady who swears that Britain “is not a racist country,” Now you know what you got there is a politician.

• Tory Leader Warns Of ‘Civil War’ In UK (RT)

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has slammed UK politicians over what she described as attempts to score points on existing racial divisions, warning that it risked pushing the country towards a “civil war.”nSpeaking in an interview with the BBC aired on Friday, Badenoch reacted to the murder of Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old Polish-British university student, who was stabbed five times by Vickrum Digwa, a 23-year-old Sikh. The incident took place in Southampton in December 2025, but gained a national spotlight only recently.


When police arrived, Digwa falsely claimed he had been the victim of a racist assault, with police initially believing his account. Body-cam footage released after sentencing showed officers handcuffing the dying student as he repeatedly told them he had been stabbed and could not breathe. While Digwa was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 21 years, the fall-out triggered widespread uproar, protests, and accusations of “two-tier policing” and “anti-white prejudice” in Britain. The incident also drew outcry from the US – a traditional UK ally – with the State Department warning that “ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing are glaring symptoms of civilizational decline.”

Badenoch insisted that Britain “is not a racist country,” but acknowledged that “we are now seeing more and more hostility to people of every ethnicity, whether they’re English or not English.” However, she insisted that the real driver of tension was politicians using racial divisions to harvest votes and importing these conflicts into communities that had previously been spared from them. “Parties which do that, politicians who do that, they may get to benefit in the short term, but in the long term, that’s how you end up with civil war,” Badenoch warned.

While Badenoch did not name specific politicians, one of those who seized on the controversy was Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, widely known for his anti-immigration agenda. Farage called for “pure cold rage” in response to the incident. Reform UK is currently polling at around 27%, with Labour and the Conservatives tied at roughly 18% each. Meanwhile, Badenoch herself became the Tory leader after former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s landslide defeat in the general election in 2024, which was in large part caused by the party’s identitarian and cultural policies as well as a failure to deliver on immigration promises.

The culture war has long plagued British politics, with one of the most notable instances coming in August 2025 when “Operation Raise the Colours” saw activists tying Union Jacks and St. George’s Cross flags to lampposts across England. While the protest was framed as an expression of patriotism, some Labour-run councils disagreed, ordering the flags to be removed over concerns that they were sowing division – a move that drew furious condemnation from Reform UK.

Read more …

“I’m the look-around candidate. All you have to do to understand why I’m surging in the polls is just look around. . . .” — Spencer Pratt

• Questions and Answers (James Howard Kunstler)

Just watch in wonder and nausea as California’s mail-in ballots dribble in, providing a real-time demonstration of the “Our Democracy” party spitting in the country’s face again, since everybody knows exactly what’s going on. Meanwhile, the Senate voted down the SAVE Act again this week by 52 to 48 for. . . reasons. But, hey, cheer up, it’s Pride Month. At the same time that California was queering its own “jungle primary,” a troupe of drag queens swanned and capered around New York’s City Council Chamber in what was called a “Pride Ball” (actually more of a show than a ball).


And what it really showed is that the party running New York City has no shame. How, exactly, does mental illness intersect with the public interest, you might ask? Historians of the future, roasting armadillos-on-the-half-shell over their campfires, will probably figure it out. For now, you must pretend that no such question even exists. Don’t bother asking. Just go along with the gag.

Here’s a scene you might like to see: As you know by now, the president has nominated Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to be the Senate-confirmed full-on, bona fide AG. But Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) says he would require Mr. Blanche to declare that the Jan 6, 2021, Capitol riot was “an insurrection.” Wouldn’t it be fun to hear Mr. Blanche reply by saying, “Can’t do that, sir, because the DOJ has an ongoing case that involves dozens of federal officers from several agencies instigating the events of that day in collusion with members of Congress and the US military, and, well, I can say no more about that at this time. . . .”

Similarly, election fraud. Just days ago, Mr. Trump told Miranda Divine of The New York Post, “We had a rigged election [2020], we can’t have rigged elections. We know who rigged the election. We know everything now. . . we have information that nobody thought was possible. . . . Let’s see what happens.”

Hmmmm. . .. Wouldn’t that prompt you to suspect that the DOJ has a case, or multiple cases, involving 2020 election fraud cooking on its stove? Recall that not long ago the FBI seized 700 boxes of evidence from the Fulton County Election Hub in Union City, GA. And another truckload out of Maricopa County, AZ. Do you think they’ll discover some, er, irregularities in all that? Perhaps eye-wateringly blatant?

Would it not then be urgent to seek indictments of actual persons, if any are deserved, well before November, so that measures could be taken to preclude more fraud and cheating in the midterm election — measures like . . . passing the SAVE Act! How might Majority Leader John Thune explain his intransigence on the matter in the face of all that? Or, like New York’s City Council, does he have no shame?

In another momentous development this week, the new management at CBS-News cashiered 60-Minutes star Scott Pelley for apparent insubordinate behavior in a confab with the show’s newly-hired Executive Producer Nick Bilton and Mr. Bilton’s boss, Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss. They had already sacked the querulous Sharyn Alfonsi a week earlier. Of course, 60-Minutes, with its giant audience following NFL games, was one of the main units in the Deep State’s gaslighting apparatus, and Mr. Pelley burned brightest there for years, flaring out one lying-ass narrative after another from the Russia Collusion hoax to 2020 election fraud to the Jan 6 fake “insurrection,” with the same burnished arrogance he showed his new bosses. Gone now. . . buh-bye. Next up, Lesley Stahl (“Sir!!! Sir !!!”), and the self-important prick Bill Whitaker. Fire them all!

If you seek to understand why the American public is so deeply bamboozled, it is largely the utter failure of the news business. You can trace that to a couple of signal changes of policy. One was the 1987 repeal of the FCC’s “Fairness Doctrine,” which required TV stations holding federal licenses to cover controversial public issues in a “fair and balanced manner.” The other was the 2013 “modernization” (under Barack Obama) of the Smith-Mundt Act (1948), which had prohibited the US government from “propagandizing” its own citizens — and after “modernization” turned squishy on that.

The 1975–1976 (Sen. Frank) Church Committee — the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities — documented that the CIA had long-term secret relationships with dozens of U.S. journalists. This is casually referred to as “Operation Mockingbird.” Since the Church Committee, it has only gotten much worse as the Deep State struggles to cover-up layer upon layer of crimes it keeps committing. The nightly news shows now are just anchors and “panelists” shooting their mouths off. The news itself goes mostly unreported. A big reason is that broadcast news now employs nearly zero correspondents in-the-field. Nobody is out there reporting on events. They don’t want to spend the money. So, the news just spins and spins, mostly in the service of manufactured lies.

Also last week, famous New York Times columnist and fake Nobel economics prize-winner Paul Krugman put out a video calling for the “purging” of MAGA and everything MAGA-adjacent from American life — when his team (the party of “Our Democracy”) comes back to power, as it must. He didn’t detail whether this process would entail internment camps and crematoriums, but you could infer as much from his tone. Kinda gives you a clue of where their heads are at.

Read more …

Paul Craig Roberts.

• The White Countries Have Become Rabidly Racist Against White People (PCR)

As I was writing this article several thousand British citizens were outside a police station in Southhampton, England, demanding accountability for the murder of a young white British student, Henry Nowak, by a black immigrant-invader and the white British police.


The black immigrant-invader murdered Nowak by stabbing him five times. The white British police murdered Nowak by ignoring his testimony that he had been stabbed and what turned out to be Novak’s last words: “I can’t breathe.” The British police, trained as they successfully have been to see the white person as the aggressor, instead of arresting the black immigrant-invader who attacked Nowak, fatally as it turned out, the white British police arrested the dying Nowak, who died in police handcuffs. The “racially sensitive trained” white British police believed the black immigrant-invader’s lie that Nowak had used a racial epithet. They did not believe Nowak that he had been stabbed. The “racially sensitive police” did not even look to see if Nowak had been stabbed. Instead, they handcuffed a dying man and did not call for medical help.

You would think that this would be a scandal–and it was–but not for the right reason. The rabidly anti-white white British prime minister Starmer characterized the several thousand white protesters, a small number in view of the enormity of the injustice, as “far-right rioters and racist thugs.” In other words, the Prime Minister of England sees racism not in the unprovoked deadly attack on the white Nowak by the black immigrant-invader, not in the British police’s ignoring of Nowak’s dying plea for help. The white British Prime Minister Starmer sees racism in the British citizens’ protest about what has happened. Is there any lower form of pure political excrement than Starmer ? How does a piece of political excrement such as Starmer survive as Prime Minister of Great Britain?

Now, let us ask ourselves how a white ethnic British Prime Minister from the Labour Party, which in former times prior to the despicable Tony Blair, represented the ethnic British working class, became indoctrinated and brainwashed to such an extreme extent that the racists in society are the white people who suffer from theft, rape, and murder by immigrant-invaders.? Confront this fact: The excrement that serves as Prime Minister of Great Britain, formerly a great and reasonably moral country, has defined protest about a racist murder of a white British citizen to be “white racism.” This is the position of white people today. In NO Western country do white ethnic citizens have the protection of law. Their own government is against them.

The UK, once an ethnic nation, now a Tower of Babel, has a “commitment to racial equality.” What does it mean? To quote the official answer, “it does not mean treating everyone ‘the same’ or being ‘color blind,’” it means limiting racism to white people. No one but white people can be racists. This is the official position of the Starmer UK government. It was the official position of the Biden regime and the official position of all Western European governments. Trump prefers to hand over to Israel the power otherwise handed over to immigrant-invaders. This is why the police automatically saw the murderer of Nowak as the victim and Nowak as the racist.

Read more …

“This death connects directly to George Floyd — not superficially, not controversially, but logically. In both cases, nobody asked what happened. They asked who did it — then let that answer bury every other question alive.”

• When Race is the Only Possible Verdict (Eric Florack)

Vodkapundit put it best earlier this week: “By now you must know the story of Henry Nowak all too well. The 18-year-old student was stabbed five times on a Southampton street following an altercation with a British Sikh man. As he lay bleeding out, trying to tell the police he’d been stabbed, killer Vickrum Digwa told police that Nowak was a racist. So police cuffed the dying victim. Digwa and his brother knew exactly what to do even before the cops arrived. “We’ve just been attacked by…” Gurpreet Digwa told police dispatchers with a pause, “someone racially.”


Vickrum was just convicted of murder and sentenced to a minimum term of 21 years, but the Southampton police have yet to face any consequences for their behavior. In today’s Britain, it’s basically impossible. Almost 250 years after Americans codified British notions of liberty, Britons returned the favor, so to speak, by institutionalizing the American left’s liberty-destroying racial grievance spoils system. “To understand how we got here,” Konstantin Kisin wrote for The Free Press this week, “you have to understand what the post-[George] Floyd ‘reckoning’ actually did to British institutions—especially the police. The response to Floyd’s death wasn’t merely emotional, nor was it just symbolic. It was ideological, and it was systematic.”

I have a lot of respect for Kisin. His statement here does nothing to diminish that respect. Kisin is right. This death connects directly to George Floyd — not superficially, not controversially, but logically. In both cases, nobody asked what happened. They asked who did it — then let that answer bury every other question alive. More succinctly, ethnicity didn’t influence the verdict. Ethnicity was the verdict, delivered before Nowak’s body finished cooling. But sure, call it justice. The left certainly does. News flash: That’s not a justice system. That’s an ideology with a gavel. On Derek Chauvin, I’ll be equally direct: overturn the conviction. George Floyd killed George Floyd. The fentanyl he swallowed in order to hide it from the cops did the paperwork.

I’ll grant the cops in the case of Nowak this much: they followed orders and training. How reassuringly Nuremberg of them. I mean, they were certainly caught in the middle here. That truth doesn’t exonerate them, but it does redirect the crosshairs. The politicians who enshrined race over logic in that department’s doctrine? They built this outcome, brick by brick. The brass who designed training that systematically lobotomizes human judgment deserve the lion’s share of the blame for Nowak’s death. You don’t get to manufacture robots, point them at people, and then act surprised when someone ends up dead.

Bill Glahn over at Powerline addresses this with appropriate sarcasm: It has been decreed by official Britain: the unprovoked, brutal murder of Henry Nowak shall not be “politicized,” lest the wishes of Henry’s surviving family be dishonored. In practice, to avoid politicization, one must refrain from any criticizing or questioning any errors or omissions by anyone in government. How dare you. The only prominent political figure to not go along with the Omerta is Reform leader Nigel Farage. For this incivility he was defamed on the BBC. Now that the official police watchdog has officially cleared the police response from any hint of wrongdoing, and now that Nowak’s murderer has been sentenced to the shortest possible prison term (21 years) for a murder conviction, we must speak of this incident no more.

Read more …

“We are to blame for a great many of these problems ourselves, former Austrian Foreign Minister said “

• Europe No Longer Attractive Global Hub, Only Itself To Blame – Kneissl (TASS)

Europe has ceased to be a center of attraction in terms of economy, innovation, and demographics, and it has only itself to blame for it, former Austrian Foreign Minister and head of the G.O.R.K.I. Center at St. Petersburg State University Karin Kneissl said in an interview with TASS on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). She noted that in recent years, a lot of Arabic and Spanish could be heard at SPIEF.


“That’s simply a reflection of the times. It’s interesting that American companies were here again this year. The world has changed, and overall I have much more confidence in the South and the East. And I have been saying this for a long time, even before this whole situation with the war in Ukraine began. Because for me, Europe is no longer the focus of attention. And it hasn’t been for a long time,” Kneissl said. “From a demographic standpoint, we have been left behind. We are not particularly strong in innovation either,” she continued. “We are to blame for the economic crises we are experiencing in Germany and other countries. There is too much bureaucracy, too much ideology in the energy sector, and the selection of personnel is too poor.”

According to her, there are even bigger problems on top of that. “And now, in just about every corporation, everyone has their own director of geopolitical affairs who explains where the Strait of Hormuz is. We are to blame for a great many of these problems ourselves. And some people are still trying to point the finger at Russia and say: this is ‘Putin’s inflation’ or this is ‘the Russian recession.’ You still hear this in Germany and especially in Austria,” the analyst noted. At the same time, she believes that there are forces in some countries that hold a different view. “There are also those who have realized that they created their own problems and that they must solve them on their own,” Kneissl stressed.

SPIEF
The 29th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2026) is taking place on June 3-6. This year, the event is held under the theme “Pragmatic Dialogue: The Path to a Stable Future.” Saudi Arabia is the guest country at SPIEF. The forum program is dedicated to shaping a new model of global development amid the ongoing transformation of the world economy.

Read more …

“According to former Austrian Foreign Minister, European embassies “just need to do their job”..” These days, she’s “head of the G.O.R.K.I. Center at St. Petersburg State University”..

• EU Embassies In Moscow Should Establish Dialogue With Russia — Kneissl (TASS)

EU embassies should take the lead in restoring dialogue with Moscow, former Austrian Foreign Minister and head of the G.O.R.K.I. Center at St. Petersburg State University Karin Kneissl said in an interview with TASS on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). “Every EU country has an embassy. They really need to start doing their job and maintain normal relations with Russia. I’ll say it again: there is no need for a mediator here. There are 27 EU embassies in Moscow, and their job is to maintain daily working contacts with the Russian authorities. That is their responsibility,” she said.

According to Kneissl, European embassies “just need to do their job.” “I do not see much point in having a separate coordinator. Theoretically, the EU high representative could perform this task. Who is that now? Kaja Kallas. We know her very personal stance toward Russia,” the expert noted. The former Austrian foreign minister added that if Javier Solana, the EU’s first High Representative, were hypothetically in Kallas’s position today, “he might have been a better fit.”


“Of course, a lot depends on the individual. But regardless of who holds this position, in my view, this task should be carried out by each individual EU embassy. French companies have one approach to the Russian market, German companies another, and Italian companies their own view of Russia. Ultimately, each country has its own foreign trade interests when it comes to Russia,” she emphasized.

According to Kneissl, “the high representative will never be able to take all these interests into account, especially since there is another position in the European Commission responsible for that — the commissioner for trade and economic security.” “Perhaps I am being too pragmatic. But I will say it again: the core tasks of diplomacy have hardly changed over the centuries. What should a diplomat do? First, represent their country. Second, keep their capital informed about what is happening in Russia. And third, conduct negotiations. They need to negotiate agreements in areas such as culture and sports. These are their responsibilities. And they must do their job,” Kneissl concluded.

SPIEF
The 29th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2026) is taking place on June 3-6. This year, the event is held under the theme “Pragmatic Dialogue: The Path to a Stable Future.” Saudi Arabia is the guest country at SPIEF. The forum program is dedicated to shaping a new model of global development amid the ongoing transformation of the world economy. The Roscongress Foundation is the organizer of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. TASS is its official general information partner.

Read more …

How much crazier are the British than everybody else?

• UK Government Plots Digital ID Lockdown On Every Phone (MN)

The Labour government in Britain is accelerating its assault on digital privacy under the well-worn banner of child protection. Fresh plans leaked to the press reveal ministers intend to compel Apple, Google and other tech firms to restrict smartphones so thoroughly that a digital ID will be needed to use them with unfettered access. The mechanism comes in the form of expanded age verification that effectively demands digital identification for device setup and use. What is sold as safeguarding the young is shaping up as a backdoor mandate for every adult in Britain to submit ID just to operate a phone or go online.


This development lands alongside Google’s confirmation that it will soon bring digital IDs to Android devices in the UK via Google Wallet. Users will record a short video selfie and scan a government-issued ID to add a digital version of their passport or other documents.

The feature, already rolling out in select EU countries this summer, is explicitly tied to the UK’s Online Safety Act requirements for age checks on content involving self-harm, eating disorders, bullying and pornography. Google is exploring certification under the government’s digital identity trust framework, which could extend its use to everyday purchases such as alcohol. Apple has already implemented similar restrictions on iOS devices in Britain, forcing age confirmation or locking users into limited “child mode.”

ig Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo has been blunt about where this leads. “Protecting children online is vital, but these are outrageous plans that will fail to address the underlying causes of online harm. This will only result in population-wide ID checks for all of us to use our phones, tablets and laptops.” She continued: “Put simply, the Labour Government is introducing ID checks for the internet. No one in a democracy should need to show their passport just to get online.”

Carlo warned that the proposals replace genuine parental responsibility and meaningful tech design with “performative, authoritarian government control that children can easily circumvent by accessing adult-registered devices.” For the UK’s fifty million adult internet users, the outcome is stark: “this backdoor digital ID requirement would invoke the death of anonymity and internet privacy.” The mechanics are chilling. Without submitting to intrusive ID checks during device setup, users face a “chokehold on your software and internet access leaving you with a child-locked device.” Restrictions on messaging, streaming and browsing open the door to client-side scanning – government spyware sitting in every pocket. Carlo noted this has long been a GCHQ ambition and “will be exploited for other purposes before long.”

The bigger picture involving “The Government mandating that all phones/devices in Britain require ID and surveillance software is a crossing of the Rubicon that would make the UK one of the most authoritarian internet regimes in the world.” “I don’t know anywhere else in the world that has done this,” Carlo warned. The story broke via a leak to The Times rather than any parliamentary process. Carlo called it a travesty: “This extreme technological censorship requires rigorous public and parliamentary scrutiny that is totally missing.” Big Brother Watch has pledged to fight the measures. These phone-level controls do not exist in isolation. They slot directly into the UK’s wider digital ID infrastructure, already exposed as a dystopian experiment in mass surveillance.

The government’s One Login platform and planned GOV.UK Wallet create a centralized system for identity verification across public services, with biometric data, audit trails logging every use, and a permissions framework that can deny access to everything from jobs to age-restricted purchases. What begins as convenient “right-to-work” checks or alcohol verification quickly becomes a comprehensive record of daily life, open to expansion and abuse. nThe ambition reaches even further back – to the cradle. Labour ministers have privately discussed assigning digital IDs to newborn babies alongside their health records, modeled on Estonia’s system.

Framed initially as a tool to tackle illegal immigration through right-to-work verification, the scheme has ballooned into a cradle-to-grave tracking apparatus. Critics across the spectrum have labeled it a sinister overreach with nothing to do with stopping the boats and everything to do with building a permanent digital file on every citizen from birth.

Read more …

“The rise of AI agents has pushed automated requests past human activity, according to the internet infrastructure firm..”

• Bots Now Generate More Web Traffic Than Humans – Cloudflare (RT)

Bots and AI agents now generate more web traffic than humans, according to data from internet infrastructure company Cloudflare. CEO Matthew Prince has described the development as a major turning point in the history of the web. Recent Cloudflare Radar data shows that automated bot requests account for roughly 57% of traffic to ordinary webpages across a selection of websites using the company’s services, compared with about 43% generated by humans.


“Welp, that happened faster than I predicted,” Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince wrote on X on Wednesday. He stated that he had expected automated traffic to overtake human activity only in 2027, but that “agentic traffic” has grown rapidly enough for bots to pass humans “for the first time in the Internet’s history.” The shift is primarily being driven by AI agents – automated systems that browse, retrieve, and process web content on behalf of users. While a human might visit a handful of websites before making a purchase or researching a topic, an AI agent can scan thousands of pages in order to produce an answer or complete a task.

Cloudflare’s figures suggest that much of today’s web activity is no longer ordinary browsing by people clicking through pages, but machine-to-machine traffic with automated systems requesting data from websites, apps, services and databases. The data covers web traffic only and does not include activities such as streaming, messaging, gaming, or app usage. The trend has revived debate over the “dead internet theory,” the idea that much of online activity is increasingly generated by bots, automated accounts, and AI systems interacting with other machine-made content.

The rise of bot traffic has also threatened the internet’s advertising-based business model. Since bots do not click on ads, concerns have been raised about whether websites may eventually charge AI agents for access to content. Meanwhile, researchers have also noted that large parts of the older web have been disappearing. A 2024 Pew Research Center study found that 38% of webpages that existed in 2013 were no longer accessible a decade later, fueling concerns that the open web is being transformed from a space built around human browsing into one increasingly dominated by automated systems.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle June 2 2026

Jun 022026
 
 June 2, 2026  Posted by at 9:57 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  14 Responses »


Giuseppe Sanmartino The veiled Christ (Christo velato) 1753


• Iran Halts All Messages With US, Orders Opening Of New Fronts (ZH)
• Trump Reportedly Ripped Netanyahu In Phone Call (ZH)
• Cuba Could Be the Bite Trump Can’t Chew (Scott Ritter)
• AI’s Coming Reality Check: When The Physics Finally Hits The Hype (IM)
• Florida Becomes First State To Sue “Unsafe” OpenAI and Sam Altman (ZH)
• The Slow Disappearance of Cash In Europe (Cláudia Ascensão Nunes)
• EU Following Path of Roman Empire’s Decline – Czech PM (RT)
• Dubious Opinion on Abrego Garcia, Bar Complaint Against Todd Blanche (Turley)
• Psychodrama (James Howard Kunstler)
• Jill Biden’s Memoir Is Going to Tear the Democrats Apart (Margolis)
• Ex-intel Official: Hunter Biden Laptop Letter Was Deception Operation (Turley)
• Aww Look At The Cute Dancing Robot Police State Surveillance Dog…(MN)
• Happy Birthday, Clint Eastwood — and a Happy Retirement, Too (Stephen Green)

 


 

https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2061622319664243021?s=20

 


 


Iran can and will play this game forever if you let them.

• Iran Halts All Messages With US, Orders Opening Of New Fronts (ZH)

Merely last week, Western MSM press reports were touting the usual ‘close to a deal’ headlines, but this morning demonstrates how illusory such claims were and are, as Iranian state media now suggests a total halt in communications between the sides. Per state Tasnim, “Iran stops exchanging messages with the US in protest against Zionist crimes.” This as the IDF has sent ground forces deep into Lebanon, past the Litani River – in the deepest operation in decades. Tehran has insisted on linking up any US-Iran deal with a Israel-Lebanon peace. Tehran is now warning to “completely block the Strait of Hormuz, including the Bab al-Mandab Strait” – the latter with the cooperation of Yemen’s Houthis. All of this has direct impact on the US-Iran ceasefire:


IRAN’S STATE TV SAYS PROBABILITY OF CEASEFIRE BETWEEN IRAN AND U.S. ENDING IS HIGH IF ATTACKS ON LEBANON DO NOT STOP. Below is the full translated statement:

• “The determination of the Iranian armed forces and all axes of the resistance front to respond to Zionist crimes and open new fronts”.

• “Tasnim has obtained information indicating that, given the continuation of the Zionist regime’s crimes in Lebanon and considering that Lebanon was one of the preconditions for the ceasefire and that this ceasefire has now been violated on all fronts, including Lebanon, the Iranian negotiating team is stopping “talks and exchange of texts through a mediator”.”

• “The immediate cessation of the Zionist regime’s aggressive and brutal army operations in Gaza and Lebanon and the necessity of the regime’s complete withdrawal from the occupied areas in Lebanon have been emphasized by Iranian officials and negotiators, and there will be no talks until Iran and the resistance’s views on this matter are met”.

• “Also, the Resistance Front and Iran have set their agenda to completely block the Strait of Hormuz, and activate other fronts, including the Bab al-Mandab Strait, in order to punish the Zionists and their supporters”.

Oil jumps on the headline of halted talks… Futures slide…

Author and University of Chicago professor of the ‘realist’ school Robert Pape says the following on Monday published report: “We will run out of our cushion of oil inventories in July, whether it’s the middle or end of July,” he said. “And Iran knows that. So what Iran is doing is just stringing out the clock to get a better deal.” “What that tells me is they’re not interested in returning the price of oil back to where it was before the war,” he said. “I think what we need to understand is Iran’s goal is to continue instability, continue elevated price of the world’s oil because it gains from that.”

[..] CENTCOM: Intercepted Pair of Ballistic Missiles on Base On Monday morning US Central Command issued its official statement and explanation over the earlier tit-for-tat brief flare-up in fighting, which appears to have ended… “Last night at 11 p.m. ET, U.S. forces successfully intercepted two Iranian ballistic missiles targeting American forces based in Kuwait. These missiles were immediately defeated and no American personnel were harmed,” it said. “U.S. Central Command remains vigilant and will continue to protect our forces from Iranian aggression while supporting the ongoing ceasefire.”

Fresh Missiles on Kuwait
The extended US-Iran ceasefire is once again being severely tested, after Iran earlier in the daylight hours of Monday initiated fresh attacks on neighboring Kuwait and even released video showing footage of a ballistic missile launch. Kuwait in turn confirmed that has been intercepting inbound drone and missile fire. It hosts a major American base, which is again being targeted, though it’s unclear if anything has been hit. The IRGC subsequently identified that it targeted the US base in response to weekend US strikes on Iranian sites. According to a description of the released propaganda video:

The start of the video includes a close-up of what looks to be a sticker on the body of a missile depicting a bruised US president Donald Trump, on the phone asking for help, and overlaid on a “closed” Strait of Hormuz. The caption reads: “Until the last American soldier leaves the region.”

All sides, including the Iranians and Kuwaitis, are saying they have a right to defend themselves. The United States, for its part, has said that it bombed radar and drone sites in Iran in response to the Iranians having shot down a US drone over the weekend.

Read more …

Trump doesn’t want to leave the US in an ongoing war in 2028/9.

• Trump Reportedly Ripped Netanyahu In Phone Call (ZH)

A bizarre and unexpected evening report from Axios says that President Trump ripped into Netanyahu during a phone call, cussing at him and essentially ‘steamrolled’ him – angry over breaking the Lebanon truce and demanding that Israel’s military not attack Beirut. Trump is said to have told Netanyahu “you’re fucking crazy’” while demanding Lebanon truce: “I’m saving your ass,” he also reportedly said. Iran early Monday said it halted talks with Washington because of Israel’s escalation in Lebanon. From the report:


One U.S. official said Trump told Netanyahu that following through on his threats to bomb the Lebanese capital would further isolate Israel around the world. Two of the sources said Trump claimed he’d helped keep Netanyahu out of jail — a reference to his support during Netanyahu’s corruption trial. Summarizing Trump’s remarks to Netanyahu, the U.S. official said: “You’re fucking crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.” A second source briefed on the call said Trump was “pissed” and at one point yelled at Netanyahu: “What the fuck are you doing?” And more:

The second U.S. official claimed that, in reality, Trump had “steamrolled” Netanyahu on the call. “Bibi said, ‘OK, OK, just make sure everything is taken care of,'” according to the official. The level of detail in this call ‘leak’ is remarkable, suggesting it was an ‘official leak’ or intentional.

Fresh reports of fighting, amid shaky truce declaration: Sirens sound in the border community of Metula amid an apparent Hezbollah rocket attack from Lebanon. The rocket fire comes despite US President Donald Trump announcing that Hezbollah would stop carrying out attacks on Israel amid the ceasefire. Meanwhile, Iran claims it attacked a US container ship in the Sea of Oman (Fars News).

Lebanon Truce Affirmed
The Lebanese presidency has announced that Hezbollah agreed to a US proposal on the mutual cessation of attacks, which will expand to all Lebanese territory. Per a regional Arab correspondent: “As we emphasized, the Israeli attack on Lebanon was obstructing the reaching of the agreement. The mediators exerted great effort today, and after the American pressure and the Israeli retreat, the doors are now open to return the negotiations to their natural and positive course, and there is no longer much left.”

[..] Trump Suggests He is Forging Lebanon Ceasefire
Trump has announced the “shooting will stop” in Lebanon, after a flurry of phone calls, including with Netanyahu. This came shoon on the heels of Hezbollah signaling it is ready to agree to an immediate truce. Israel too has reportedly halted plans to begin new airstrikes on Beirut. The Lebanon crisis caused Tehran to earlier announced it is halting all contacts with the US. Will the US-Iran talks now be back on?

Trump to CNBC: ‘I don’t care’ if talks are over
Trump has shrugged off the apparent collapse of talks with Iran, after Tehran earlier said it has halted all communications with Washington over Israel’s expanded assault on Lebanon and Hezbollah. Trump has freshly told CNBC by phone, “I don’t care if they’re over, honestly.” “I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less,” he added, and indicated he was “going to ask” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “what’s going on with Lebanon.” This suggests Trump could pressure America’s ally to lower tensions.

Trump appears to be betting the US can ‘outlast’ the Islamic Republic, in terms of inflicting economic pain amid the growing global oil supply crisis due to the Hormuz Strait closure. On this, he reacted as follows: He also said he wasn’t worried about oil prices, which spiked following the report in Iranian state media that Tehran is vowing to “completely block” the Strait of Hormuz in addition to halting negotiations. “I think the oil will be dropping like a rock in the very near, you know, the very near distance,” Trump said.

President Trump tells NBC News that he’s not heard from Iran on reports they’re suspending talks, and on Iran, “I think we’ve been talking too much if you want to know the truth, going silent would be very good” We’ll keep the blockade in Hormuz. I think I can wait as long as they want. They’re losing a fortune.His comments to NBC: “It’s an appropriate thing to say, because they’re better negotiators than they are fighters,” he said in a brief phone call. “But they haven’t informed us of that.”

“It doesn’t mean we’re going to go and start dropping bombs all over there,” added Trump, who said Friday he would soon decide on a proposed deal to extend an ostensible ceasefire agreed to in early April. “We’ll keep the blockade.”

Read more …

They want a peaceful transition away from the Castro clan.

• Cuba Could Be the Bite Trump Can’t Chew (Scott Ritter)

With much of the world’s attention on the still unresolved conflict between the US and Iran, the average consumer of news may be forgiven if they had forgotten that the US had, on January 3 of this year, launched a mini-invasion of Venezuela which resulted in the deaths of scores of persons, including a number of Cuban security personnel, and the capture of Venezuela’s President, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife. The US justified this action by noting that Maduro was, in its books, a fugitive from justice, having been previously indicted in a US Federal Court on narcotics trafficking charges.


The ease with which the US orchestrated the collapse of the Maduro regime and facilitated the transfer of power to a more than compliant vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, helped the administration of President Donald Trump project an aura of invincibility when it came to the implementation of what the President and his advisors were calling the ‘Donroe Doctrine’, their take on the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine which declared the Western Hemisphere to be the exclusive domain of the US.

Little more than a week later, on January 11, President Trump posted on his Truth Social account what amounted to a direct threat against the government of Cuba. “Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela,” the President wrote, stating that there had been a direct relationship between Venezuelan economic support to Cuba and Cuban security support to Venezuela. “Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the world (by far), to protect them, and protect them we will. THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA—ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!”

The president then set off a firestorm of speculation on American social media when, responding to a joking post that was made on X late the week prior stating that said, “Marco Rubio will be president of Cuba”, he wrote in response “sounds good to me!” Regime change in Cuba, it seemed, was on the cards.

A month later, President Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House, where the decision was made to attack Iran. The US and Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran on February 28, starting a 37-day campaign that ultimately saw the US and Israel fail to achieve any of their stated military and geopolitical objectives, and which left Iran in a position where it dictated the fate of the global economy by controlling the flow of oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz.

An invasion of Cuba was no longer a top Trump administration policy.Almost overnight, this calculus changed. On May 21, Marco Rubio declared that Cuba was “one of the leading sponsors of terrorism in the entire region.” His comments came the same day that the US Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against former Cuban President Raul Castro. In one day, the Trump administration had reconstructed the pathway toward military action by the US against Cuba, mirroring the regime change justifications that had been cobbled together before the January 3 assault on Caracas that led to the capture of Nicolas Maduro and the collapse of his regime. These actions coincided with the arrival of a US carrier battlegroup off the shores of Cuba.

Read more …

AI for the first time gets some counterweight. There’s never enough energy, and there’s never enough money.

• AI’s Coming Reality Check: When The Physics Finally Hits The Hype (IM)

In five years, we’ll all likely be chuckling and shaking our heads over AI. Because today, the tech feels free and limitless, doesn’t it? People are generating endless content: images, videos, memes, code snippets, social posts. Companies are bolting AI onto products by default, the way every Fortune 500 company suddenly discovered they were “sustainable” five years ago.There’s much deliberation on AI right now, and it splits into two main camps of thesis: The majority — those who will die on its hill of promise, convinced we’re months away from effective altruism, UBI, and sentient toasters.


And the minority — usually older, more experienced types — who don’t fully understand it, but look at numbers, remember the dot-com bust, and think this rhymes. We’ll leave that debate to the dinner parties. What interests us is something more boring. Physics. Because here’s the thing: AI isn’t free. Every token represents electricity. Something your average developer, product manager, user, or investor gives precisely zero thought to. Electricity means power plants, transmission lines, grid infrastructure — yes. It also means hot sheds; capital-intensive data centres and all the equipment, cooling systems, and real estate that go with them. Real things. Physical things.

We are surrounded by hype without consideration for the physics. bRight now, there’s a disconnect between the physical cost of this technology and the price users pay for it. That gap is being covered by Wall Street, venture capital, pension funds, hyperscaler balance sheets, and strategic spending on “growth” (a word which here means “losses we’ve chosen to rebrand”). The question is: what happens when that gap closes?

Scenario 1: The Industry Matures
No outright collapse, but financial discipline arrives. A novel concept in Silicon Valley. Low-value usage disappears first. “AI slop” dies because the people generating junk stop when it costs them actual money. Turns out nobody’s willing to pay real dollars to have a chatbot write their LinkedIn thought leadership posts. Tragic.

Serious users — those deriving profit or genuine productivity gains — remain. Growth slows but doesn’t stop. GPU upgrade cycles stretch from two years to three or five or seven. Valuations compress. The froth comes off but the infrastructure remains important. The boardroom shifts from “infinite logarithmic growth” to “focus only on what’s profitable.” Less bubble burst, more long, slow leak of disappointment. A bit like ESG.

Scenario 2: Energy as the Arbiter
Now overlay structurally higher energy prices. You know, the thing everyone was told wouldn’t matter because we’d all be running on solar and unicorn farts by now. If power becomes materially more expensive while capital markets tighten simultaneously, the economics get a lot harder.

Inference costs rise. Training LLMs gets hella more expensive. Shareholders start feeling like they’re holding the next NFT apes. Spending slows sharply. Many AI firms disappear. Hyperscalers pull back, maybe with taxpayer assistance (they are, after all, strategically important to those in power — funny how that works).

GPU cycles extend further. Seven-plus years between major upgrades becomes normal outside the top tier. Markets correct hard. Confidence takes a long time to rebuild. This is not the end of AI, but a reset. Users will fondly remember the “good old days” when it was free. When one could generate a movie scene and post on X about how they just ended a billion-dollar production company’s business model. Peak delusion makes for great content.

Scenario 3: AI Actually Delivers
There is also the upside case, though we admit it’s included here much like a “minority” conspicuously placed on a corporate board — a box-ticking exercise. In this scenario, AI meaningfully increases productivity across enterprises. It reduces costs durably. It embeds itself in everything from coding to logistics to research. The sentient toaster. Higher energy prices don’t kill demand because efficiency gains outweigh them. Hardware cycles remain short. Today’s valuations look justified in hindsight and Jensen Huang’s leather jacket gets its own wing at the Smithsonian.

For anyone familiar with us, you’ll know we think this is the most unlikely scenario. And yet it’s by far the consensus view. Which, if you’ve been paying attention to consensus views over the past decade (“inflation is transitory,” “ESG is the future,” “commercial real estate is fine”) should tell you something.] The gap between expectations and likely reality remains wide open. For Insider members, you’re familiar with the portfolio positioning and Nasdaq hedge.

What Really Matters
The key variable isn’t whether AI is impressive or useful (it is). The key variable is whether AI becomes a true profit engine or remains a subsidised cost centre dressed up in a hoodie and a TED talk.] If profitable and productivity-enhancing, current valuations are justified and the gravy train keeps chugging. If it remains mostly hype layered over weak economics, spending contracts, hardware cycles extend, and we could have an absolute humdinger of an economic “event.”

A ten-year stagnation would require something extreme: demand dropping significantly, hyperscalers becoming hyposcalers, capital markets wanting nothing to do with AI, and energy remaining expensive — all at once. Stranger things have happened. Just ask anyone who bought Peloton at $170. Almost 50 years of history show this eventually reverts to the mean… and the pendulum swings the other way.

Read more …

There are known cases of AI models leading kids to suicide.

• Florida Becomes First State To Sue “Unsafe” OpenAI and Sam Altman s(ZH)

OpenAI no longer has to worry about being last in the AI IPO race and lagging ARRs when compared to Anthropic, not to mention a potential Supreme Court showdown against Elon Musk (pending appeal). Earlier today, Florida became the first state to file a lawsuit against OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, launching a new broadside in a growing rebellion against the alleged safety failings of artificial-intelligence chatbots. The lawsuit, filed Monday by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, claims OpenAI and Altman knowingly released an unsafe product and ignored warnings that it could harm users, the WSJ reported.


The 83-page suit alleges that OpenAI allowed ChatGPT to aid and abet mass shooters, encourage people to take their own lives, degrade users’ critical thinking skills and addict minors to a tool that feigns human compassion. “This litany of harms is driven by Defendants’ insatiable quest to win the AI arms race and amass large fortunes, despite knowing the danger of ChatGPT,” the suit said. According to the WSJ, lawmakers, legal authorities and public interest groups have increasingly been raising concerns about the personal and societal risks posed by AI, one of the fastest-growing consumer technologies in history.

The suit says it seeks to protect Floridians from OpenAI’s conduct and mitigate what it describes as a dangerous public nuisance. The suit also seeks to hold Altman personally liable for harm it says he has caused Floridians. Uthmeier opened a criminal investigation into OpenAI in April over the role its chatbot played in a mass shooting that killed two people at Florida State University last year. The suit opens with a screenshot of an OpenAI blog post that says ChatGPT was built with safety in mind. “Not so,” reads the suit’s text under the screenshot.

The suit alleges that OpenAI marketed ChatGPT as reliable despite its tendency to frequently generate dangerous misinformation, which is to be expected from a generative LLM trained on such toxic, liberal cesspools as Reddit and Wikipedia. “ChatGPT was designed by the Defendants to keep users hooked into conversations by any means, regardless of the truth, because it leads to more use of the chatbot, more training data for its improvement, and more market value for OpenAI,” the suit alleges.

The suit also claims the company exploits human compassion to collect user data and lacks necessary safeguards for minors. The suit describes a lack of safeguards in ChatGPT for teens and minors as reckless, and refers to instances of adolescent users being encouraged by AI to take their own lives. The suit says OpenAI created some parental controls, but does not require children’s accounts to be linked to a parent’s account.At FSU, the suspect turned to ChatGPT as a confidant and sounding board to plan the attack. He asked ChatGPT how many classmates he needed to kill to attract n ational media attention, and also how to use a gun. The chatbot promptly dispensed advice for his questions.

Until now ChatGPT has mostly faced litigation over copyright infringement claims. In November, OpenAI was ordered by a federal judge to turn over 20 million anonymized ChatGPT user logs to the NY Times and other newspapers suing the chat giant over its generative AI model. The newspapers had demanded the user logs to inspect how ChatGPT is used to create outputs they say infringe their copyrighted works. OpenAI pushed back, citing privacy concerns.

Read more …

What do you mean, slow?

• The Slow Disappearance of Cash In Europe (Cláudia Ascensão Nunes)

Under the guise of fighting money laundering, the EU is making anonymous economic activity progressively harder…


Starting in July 2027, Europeans will no longer be allowed to pay businesses or professionals more than €10,000 in cash (roughly $11,500). Any transaction above €3,000 (just under $3,500) will require mandatory customer identification. This is another step toward political uniformity across Europe, stripping countries of autonomy and subtly pushing citizens toward the digital euro. This measure, part of the new Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR), applies directly to all Member States. Under the pretext of fighting money laundering, Brussels is imposing yet another form of forced harmonization that ignores the principle of subsidiarity: the idea that decisions should be made at the level closest to citizens and national governments.

What was once a matter regulated by individual countries is now becoming a uniform mandate from Brussels. This is a thinly disguised restriction not only on political freedom, but above all on economic freedom. Cash remains one of the last truly private means of exchange still available; unlike digital transactions, cash does not automatically create a centralized record accessible to banks or public authorities. The use of cash is often associated with the intention to hide illicit activity. Yet the ability to conduct private and discreet transactions is a natural extension of property rights and freedom of contract. Many law-abiding citizens prefer cash for entirely legitimate reasons, including protection against financial instability or potential capital controls.

From that date onward, professionals will be forced to turn every transaction above €3,000 into a bureaucratic process involving identity verification, data collection, and the risk of penalties. This is yet another regulatory imposition that raises the cost of doing business, similar to the introduction of VAT in Europe decades ago, which pushed many small businesses to close their doors or move into the informal economy because of increased bureaucracy and compliance costs. Small entrepreneurs, already pressured by high taxes and excessive red tape, will once again bear the heaviest burden. What were once simple voluntary exchanges will become sources of additional costs, delays, and state intrusion.

Once again, centralized authorities are creating regulatory complexity under the difficult-to-challenge justification of fighting crime, even though each country already has its own rules in this area. More liberal countries such as Germany will lose flexibility, since they previously had no general limit on cash payments. The uniformity imposed by Brussels ignores cultural differences, particularly differing levels of trust in institutions. In some countries, cash culture remains deeply rooted, and confidence in digital systems is significantly lower.

This measure represents a gradual erosion of individual autonomy. If using cash becomes increasingly inconvenient for merchants and consumers, people will naturally migrate toward digital payments. Over time, this initially convenient shift will make the introduction of the digital euro far easier. It is difficult to believe that it is mere coincidence that these restrictions are scheduled to take effect in July 2027 at roughly the same time the European Central Bank (ECB) plans to launch the first pilots of the digital euro. Cash becomes inconvenient and potentially risky at the same time digital money is presented as the practical alternative.

Once the principle is established that the state can limit private cash transactions, there is a strong tendency for those limits to become progressively stricter. European countries themselves demonstrated this pattern when they still controlled these rules nationally. Belgium, for example, steadily lowered its cash payment ceiling over the years to the current €3,000.

The most likely outcome is that the new European-wide limit of €10,000, which may seem relatively high today, will gradually be reduced further until using cash for most significant transactions becomes impractical. In reality, the vast majority of cash transactions are already well below this threshold. According to studies by the ECB, around 81 percent of all point-of-sale payments are below €25, and cash is predominantly used for small everyday purchases. This means that the €10,000 limit will mainly affect legitimate higher-value transactions, such as the payment of certain professional services that many citizens and small businesses still prefer to carry out in cash.

The digital euro, presented as a complement to cash, will arrive at a moment when cash has already been substantially weakened. Unlike cash, this system is traceable, programmable, and potentially subject to holding limits, expiration mechanisms, or usage restrictions.

China has already offered real-world examples. In several pilots of its digital yuan, authorities tested expiration dates on funds, meaning the money would lose its value if not spent by a certain date. This turns money from a reliable store of value into a tool that encourages spending according to government timelines. Such features demonstrate how programmable digital currencies can be used to control economic behavior, punish saving, and steer consumption in line with state priorities.

These are conditions fundamentally incompatible with the freedom that cash provides. This accelerated yet discreet path toward a fully digital monetary system opens the door to an unprecedented level of financial surveillance and control in European history. By overriding the principle of subsidiarity, it will affect almost the entire continent.

The road to total societal control passes through the restriction of economic freedom.

Read more …

“The bloc is weakening itself through its economic and military policies, Andrej Babis told the Financial Times”

• EU Following Path of Roman Empire’s Decline – Czech PM (RT)

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has compared the EU to the Roman Empire in its twilight years, arguing that Brussels is weakening the bloc through its economic, climate, and security policies. Babis returned to office in December after his ANO movement won 34.5% of the vote and 80 seats in the 200-member lower house of parliament. Since then, he has positioned himself as a leading advocate of national sovereignty, a reassessment of EU policies, and a more pragmatic approach to Europe’s economic and security challenges. In an interview published on Sunday, Babis accused Brussels of steering the bloc’s economy toward decline through what he called its aggressive decarbonization agenda.


“The EU is now probably on the same road as the end of the Roman empire,” he told the FT. The EU’s push to phase out fossil fuels has become increasingly divisive, with critics in Germany, Italy, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia arguing that climate targets, carbon pricing, and environmental rules are adding to energy costs and weakening industrial competitiveness as governments also face rising defense bills and the economic fallout from the Ukraine conflict. Babis also said Prague would probably miss NATO’s 2% of GDP defense-spending target this year, despite claiming it met it in 2025. He blamed the pressure partly on a deficit left by Petr Fiala’s previous pro-EU government.

The issue feeds into a broader EU debate over dependence on the US, which accounts for around 60% of NATO’s total military spending. President Donald Trump has warned that the US could scale back its role in European defense unless NATO countries significantly increase military spending. The economic pressures, security concerns, and reliance on external military protection underpin Babis’ comparison with ancient Rome.

The Roman Empire’s later centuries were marked by political instability, economic strain, and military overstretch. It became increasingly reliant on foreign troops while struggling to finance its defenses, as trade and economic activity declined and external pressures mounted. The Western Roman Empire formally collapsed in 476 AD when its last emperor was deposed. Political authority fragmented into successor kingdoms, and Europe entered centuries of decentralization and instability.

Read more …

They squeeze out of Abrego Garcia as much as they can. The Dems havesome strange bedfellows.

• Dubious Opinion on Abrego Garcia, Bar Complaint Against Todd Blanche (Turley)

This week, a public interest group filed an ethics complaint against Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, citing the recent dismissal of a criminal indictment against Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. The ethics complaint is the latest example of the left’s self-perpetuating lawfare machine. Liberal courts and groups first prime allegations against conservatives, which are then eagerly picked up by media and advocacy groups. It is no accident that this hit job on Blanche called upon the New York courts and bar to deliver the coup de grâce.


The New York bar and courts have long been willing allies on lawfare, including abusive charges against President Donald Trump and bar charges against his allies. This case, however, is particularly illustrative of how this system feeds on itself. At base, the complaint focused on a dubious decision by District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr., who dismissed the indictment against Abrego Garcia. The Clinton appointee found in his 32-page order that the prosecution was vindictive. However, Judge Crenshaw spent relatively little time actually addressing the evidence against Abrego Garcia, who was allegedly an associate of the vicious MS-13 gang in years of human trafficking.

Vindictive prosecution claims are notoriously difficult to prove. (I know because I have tried it as a criminal defense attorney). Under cases such as United States v. Goodwin (1982), you must show that the charges “could not be justified as a proper exercise of prosecutorial discretion.” In both cases of selective and vindictive prosecutions, the Supreme Court has recognized that, as the court explained in 1962, “the conscious exercise of some selectivity in enforcement is not in itself a federal constitutional violation.” Moreover, in United States v. Armstrong, a case involving alleged selective prosecution, Chief Justice Rehnquist stressed that there is a ‘’presumption of regularity” in criminal cases.

There was ample reason for Abrego Garcia to have been charged entirely separate from any retaliatory or vindictive purpose. According to his indictment, Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13 and allegedly conspired with six others to “transport and move aliens” illegally into and throughout the country starting in 2016. This included alleged smuggling into the country of known “MS-13 members and associates.” The government accused him of over 100 such trips in specially outfitted vehicles as well as transporting firearms and narcotics. One witness testified that he had to warn Abrego Garcia against abusing some of the female aliens because it was “bad for business.” (Garcia was also previously charged with spousal abuse).

Judge Crenshaw, however, focused on the decision-making after Abrego Garcia was brought back from a deportation to El Salvador. I was one of those who wrote that he had to be returned in light of prior court orders. However, there were obvious reasons why, after he was returned, prosecutors decided to proceed with charges for his alleged criminal conduct in the United States. Crenshaw’s decision simply works too hard to find a basis for dismissing the indictment and will now be appealed. In my view, it is likely to be reversed. However, in the interim, the same voices are being heard for the disbarment or punishment of Blanche in New York where a Trump association is treated as far more incriminating than an MS-13 association.

It is fair to note that the Trump Administration has undermined its own position in denouncing lawfare by pursuing past critics, including dubious prosecutions over seashell threats against James Comey. However, that does not have bearing on the merits of the claim against Blanche or the dismissal of the Abrego Garcia indictment. The rage in New York has certainly not ebbed. There are ample rage addicts to applaud such claims inside the Bar. However, there are indicators that lawfare no longer holds the same cachet it once did.

Take Rep. Dan Goldman, who is fast becoming the Marie Antoinette of New York politics. Goldman was elected a few years ago on his pledge to investigate all things Trump and is still running on a “let-them-eat-impeachments” platform. In the meantime, his opponent, Mamdani-endorsed housing advocate Brad Lander, is running on bread-and-butter issues. Lander is reportedly 20 points ahead in the polls.

There is still hope that the New York courts and bar will restore a degree of apolitical, objective integrity to their ranks. The odds are still much greater that Blanche will stay in the bar than that Abrego Garcia will stay in the country. However, it is telling to see which of the two is being cheered on by the left.

Read more …

“A sane society cannot debate its way out of psychosis. It must diagnose the patient with lethal precision and restore the ancient boundary between the mad and the free.” —LHGrey on X

• Psychodrama (James Howard Kunstler)

When you watch video of the shenanigans at the Delaney Hall ICE building in Newark, NJ, you must suspect you’re seeing a hopped-up political vaudeville act. Freaky as the “protesters” may be — with their tatts and piercings, gummi bear hair color, rolls of blubber, perpetually hoisted cell phones, drums, whistles, and pitiful umbrellas — they are no less actors than Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney out in Hollywood. The Delaney Hall mobbers are allegedly paid by someone or some entity. You’d think the authorities and the news media would be racing to find out who that is.


But, so far, no official announcements and, wouldn’t you know, The New York Times did not even report on doings over there in its Monday morning edition. Independent reporter Nick Sortor, undercover in Antifi garb, discovered their “craft services” tent adjacent to the action in the industrial wasteland where Delaney Hall stands next to the reeking Passaic River. The tent was full of riot gear, tactical supplies, snacks, energy drinks, hot meals (lasagna!) delivered on the hour, first aid supplies, and other “protester necessities,” as if the siege of Delaney Hall was a major Hollywood production shoot.

Anyway, after days of freaks and geeks playacting “oppression” at Delaney Hall, the New Jersey riot cops showed up, including the mounted cavalry, and stuffed several busloads with arrested “protesters,” many of them from out-of-state. Did they bother to interview the folks manning the craft services tent to inquire what organization was paying for all the merch? Isn’t it about time for whoever is signing those checks to get indicted for fomenting and abetting insurrection?

The Democratic Party is reduced to psychodrama, and the nature of psychodrama is that it’s about nothing — nothing real, at least. It’s all concocted sound-and-fury to give the (false) impression that some injustice is occurring. In the case of Delaney Hall, a holding facility for illegal border-jumpers awaiting deportation, the alleged injustice is “unsanitary conditions, inadequate food, poor medical care, and physical and psychological torture.” In reality, conditions there are arguably better than the average Motel 8. Many of the inmates are murderers and rapists, of course, the worst of the worst.

You might suppose that the objective of the melodrama at Delaney Hall was to create another martyr a la Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti out in Minneapolis this past winter. Those two unfortunate dupes were induced by the party script to FAFO, leading to their tragic and pointless deaths. Alas, the incidents failed to incite the sort of national uprising that the Lefty-left will not stop seeking.

And now summer is nearly here and (the old song goes) “the time is right for dancing in the streets.” Or, rather, fighting in the streets. The time is also right for the FBI and the DOJ to shut down the funny money supply line for it, and it’s hard to figure now how they might fail to do that. The Delaney Hall arrests give them a vast opportunity to debrief the players, find out exactly how these stunts are being organized.

Read more …

Tell them to stay home and count the geraniums.

• Jill Biden’s Memoir Is Going to Tear the Democrats Apart (Margolis)

The Bidens want to restore Joe Biden’s legacy after his disastrous presidency and his Hindenburg-style campaign collapse, and phase one is Jill Biden’s forthcoming memoir. The next step will be Joe Biden’s inevitable presidential memoir, which is sure to have quite a few doozies in it, but for now, we have Jill’s, and if she thought her book would “set the record straight” and the Democrat Party would be thrilled, well, that’s not what’s happening at all. Instead, it’s setting the Democrat Party on fire — and the people most enraged are the ones who spent years covering for Joe Biden.


According to Axios, several former Biden aides, including some of the most loyal ones, are furious about the former first lady’s efforts to rewrite history. Jill’s book, by all accounts, does what the Bidens have always done: point the finger everywhere except at the mirror. “The throughline between her book and [Kamala] Harris’ is that they blame everyone but themselves for the loss,” one former aide said. And another put it even more bluntly. “It’s just so selfish. The Bidens preached selflessness and service above all — and every decision they’ve made since he decided to run for reelection has been about themselves.” Ouch, that’s quite the indictment. And it’s coming from people who worked for the man.

The central tension in all of this is the June 2024 CNN debate with President Donald Trump. That was the night America watched Joe Biden visibly struggle to complete a coherent thought on a national stage. In one night, the liberal media, which had spent years pretending that Joe Biden was as sharp as a tack, could no longer pretend everything was okay. As PJ Media previously reported, Jill Biden claimed she thought Joe was having a stroke and cleverly suggested that her husband had never acted like that before or since.

Even former Obama aide Tommy Vietor couldn’t ignore the contradiction: if Jill Biden genuinely feared her husband was having a medical emergency on live television, why did the campaign proceed with the post-debate schedule? Joe went to a rally. Then he went to a Waffle House. Nobody called a doctor. Nobody pumped the brakes. That’s not the sign of a campaign thinking that Joe was having a medical issue.

Co-host Jon Favreau said he was “triggered” by the book’s framing and didn’t hold back. He rejected the idea that Democratic voters would simply forgive and forget by 2028. Voters, he argued, resent “being f***ing lied to by Joe Biden, Jill Biden and their entire f***ing campaign.”And the lying wasn’t just about one bad debate night. It was about Biden’s overall condition, the campaign’s internal polling, and a years-long effort to gaslight anyone who raised concerns. Critics who expressed worry were dismissed as “bedwetters.” Now, Favreau says, Joe Biden is essentially confirming by his own admissions that “they were lying the whole time.”

Which, of course, is exactly what conservatives were saying all along. How about that? Writer Zaid Jilani argued that it is “an underrated factor in how distrusted Democrats are that they systematically lied about Biden’s condition and in some cases still are.” Favreau agreed. The 2024 Democratic National Committee autopsy never even addressed Biden’s age or declining health as factors in Kamala’s defeat, a glaring omission that made it clear the party had zero interest in conducting an honest reckoning and was instead engaged in another cover-up.

The Bidens are now planning additional book appearances and campaign stops ahead of the 2026 midterms. Bad timing for the Democrats? You bet. Obviously, some Democrats wish they would just go away. One former official summed up the sentiment with barely concealed exhaustion: “I just wish they would give some more time and space and let people move on. It all feels so disingenuous.” The left-wing media is freaking out about the Biden book tour for two reasons. First, it reminds voters of the great deception, and that’s not good for Democrats at all. Second, they were all part of the deception, too, and they would really rather move on than get called out on it.

Read more …

Remember, 51 signatorees. All willingly lied. Can we take their pensions away?

• Ex-intel Official: Hunter Biden Laptop Letter Was Deception Operation (Turley)

A former senior intelligence community official under President Barack Obama reported concerns earlier this year that the Hunter Biden laptop letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials in 2020 bore characteristics “consistent with coordinated intelligence deception operations,” according to a memo the ex-official submitted to the intelligence community inspector general. The concerns have now been referred to the Justice Department, a remarkable turnabout for a letter that was used six years ago to censor factually based concerns about Biden family corruption.


The October 2020 open letter–released as voters were making final decisions about whether to reelect Trump or elect Democrat Joe Biden–was signed by ex-intelligence officials including former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and former CIA Director John Brennan. Thomas Kuhns, the former official who submitted the memo recently to the Intelligence Community Inspector General, was a Senior Intelligence Officer and former advisor to the Deputy Director of National Intelligence during the Obama administration.

Kuhns told the inspector general that most of his career in government centered on maintaining the Intelligence Community’s analytic and integrity standards. “This assessment is not a political statement. It is based on the research and analysis of testified behavior, language choices, omissions, coordination, and effects attributable to intelligence tradecraft,” Kuhns wrote in a memo to the ICIG hotline, which was obtained by Just the News. Pro-Biden advocates warned that the public reporting on the contents of Hunter Biden’s personal laptop bore the “hallmarks of a Russian information operation.”

Then-candidate Joe Biden used the letter to fend off public criticism about his son’s overseas business dealings, drug use, and alleged influence peddling “This analysis is grounded in my expertise applying analytic integrity standards and intelligence tradecraft to evaluate raw and finished intelligence assessments/judgements. Those standards provide a framework to identify politicization, bias, and analytic weaknesses, as well as to identify whether intelligence tradecraft itself has been misapplied or misused,” he continued.

Read more …

“The dancing bots are a warning, not a toy.”

• Aww Look At The Cute Dancing Robot Police State Surveillance Dog…(MN)

Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot dogs are being deployed at designated World Cup venues in the US to perform perimeter security inspections, prompting concerns over the advance of surveillance tech.The company has stated that the machines “will be used to assist security personnel with investigating things like suspicious packages or other potentially hazardous materials.” These four-legged fiends are set to roam, and even dance (oh how cute) around AT&T Stadium in Dallas and other FIFA sites ahead of the 2026 tournament, sending live feeds back to human teams with their 360-degree cameras, thermal sensors, acoustic pickups, and AI anomaly detection.


“The robots do not have facial recognition capabilities,” a Boston Dynamics spokesperson told WFAA, insisting they spot unauthorized people in restricted zones without utilising facial scans for now, after a viral TikTok video made the claim. Hyundai, the South Korean owner of Boston Dynamics and major FIFA sponsor, added the bots “will support on-site security operations, helping contribute to a safer tournament environment.”But peel back the puppy-like head tilts and choreographed spins and you see the real rollout: tireless mechanical sentries normalizing constant surveillance on American soil. They look fun today at the soccer spectacle expecting half a million visitors.

Tomorrow the same platforms patrol streets, malls, and events nationwide, always watching, always recording. This isn’t some isolated gimmick. It’s fast becoming commonplace in cities such as Atlanta, where robot security dogs prowl apartment complexes and parking lots issuing verbal commands to citizens. Recent videos show residents greeting the units politely and complying instantly – only for the bot to still summon real police anyway. The voice responding through the speaker carries a clear foreign accent. Speculation is rife that the live operators controlling these machines and watching every feed sit thousands of miles away in India.

Another viral clip captured locals staring down the mechanical intruder with a classic line that perfectly summed it up. These aren’t fully autonomous terminators yet. Real people – often overseas – sit at consoles staring at your every move through the robot’s eyes and ears, deciding when to hit the siren or dial American cops on you. Your privacy, your neighborhood, your compliance all funneled through foreign call-center eyes. Data stored, analyzed, potentially shared who-knows-where. Ordinary citizens get lectured by a machine whose controller doesn’t even live in the country.

The same quadruped platform that dances cutely for World Cup selfies or patrols Atlanta lots is already being militarized abroad. Just weeks earlier, footage emerged of China unleashing machine-gun-toting robot wolves engineered with a shared “collective brain” that lets them hunt and coordinate in simulated street battles. These pack-hunting death machines storm positions, clear entire urban blocks in minutes, and spare human troops the risk while turning dissent or resistance into target practice. Non-military versions are even for sale to civilians. While American cities outsource low-level enforcement to remote foreign operators who record and report on citizens, China turns the same tech into lethal swarms ready for real conflict.

The cute dancing dog at the stadium today carries the same sensors and mobility as tomorrow’s enforcer. Denials about “no facial recognition” ring hollow when software upgrades and off-the-shelf AI can bolt it on. The hardware is already here. The willingness to expand its role grows every time the public shrugs and scrolls past another viral clip. While this tech supposedly keeps big events “safe,” everyday Americans already endure open-border chaos, rising crime in blue cities, and government agencies that treat citizens as the threat. Surely the real priority should be securing the actual border, deporting criminals, and backing law enforcement that answers to voters – not handing patrol duties to remote-operated spy dogs whose operators answer to foreign paychecks.

Once these machines become commonplace, backed by endless camera grids and AI flags, the slide into a permission-based society accelerates. Move along when the robot says so. Stay out of the restricted zone it defines. Don’t question the system streaming your life overseas. The dancing bots are a warning, not a toy. Freedom means rejecting the slow normalization of this dystopian show on American streets. Push back now, demand human accountability and constitutional limits, or watch the cute dancing routine quickly morph into a demand for compliance.

Read more …

96.

• Happy Birthday, Clint Eastwood — and a Happy Retirement, Too (Stephen Green)

Clint Eastwood retired so quietly that I didn’t even notice until his birthday came around this weekend, and for the first time in my lifetime — almost my parents’ lifetimes for that matter — that there isn’t a Clint Eastwood movie in production. Well, maybe just one. But I’ll come back to that in a moment. The Hollywood legend turned 96 on Sunday, making him more than a third as old as the Republic itself. He was born in 1930, just as the Great Depression was really getting going. His first screen appearance was an uncredited role in 1955’s Revenge of the Creature, the quickie sequel The Creature From the Black Lagoon. Small parts on TV and movies followed, until his starring role as Rowdy Yates on the long-running TV western, Rawhide.


Movie stardom eluded Eastwood until he traveled to Italy to headline as Joe in Sergio Leone’s classic spaghetti western, A Fistful of Dollars. He quickly became one of the big screen’s biggest draws, but as the old Hollywood cliche goes, what he really wanted to do was direct. And produce. And continue those starring roles. Seriously, the man is a machine.His first directorial outing was 1971’s Play Misty for Me, which scarred the crap out of me when I saw it on TV as a kid and scarred me even more when I finally watched it again as an adult. That film allowed Eastwood his first public expression of his lifelong love for jazz, culminating in his 1988 Charlie Parker biopic, Bird.

He made no fewer than five Dirty Harry movies, but also blew the character apart by showing us what a rogue cop might look like in real life with the criminally underappreciated Tightrope in 1984. The man who helped reimagine westerns in the 1960s with Leone reimagined them again in 1992 with Unforgiven — and by then he was already in his 60s, with another 30-plus years of moviemaking ahead of him. In 2004, he finally won a belated second Best Director Oscar for Million Dollar Baby. For my money, Eastwood should have, or at least could have, also won for Play Misty, Bird, and Gran Torino. But he didn’t often make the kind of BIG IMPORTANT MOVIES that Academy members feel like they’re supposed to vote for.

Eastwood just made damn good movies, and his pictures typically came in on schedule and under budget. He rarely budgeted for big money or long shoots. That’s one reason that, despite directing 40-some movies and taking some serious chances along the way, he only made a handful that lost money. Did I mention he’s a machine? And while Eastwood might be done acting and directing, he still has one more upcoming producer credit on IMDB, a remake of his 1977 action classic, The Gauntlet— with Tom Cruise and Scarlett Johansson attached. But this is starting to sound like an obituary, when what I wanted to do was wish the man (not a machine, really) a happy birthday and a satisfying retirement.

So let’s talk about that for just a moment. Around the time of 2012’s Trouble With the Curve, I started joking that Eastwood — already 82 — would never retire. My prediction-disguised-as-a-joke was that he’d die on the set of some new movie, and would be working so hard that he wouldn’t notice until St. Peter cleared his throat at him. But Eastwood did quietly retire after 2024’s Juror #2, although I’m not sure his heart was really in it. The picture raised a tough moral question, without preaching and without any comforting answers. I still think about that flick sometimes, and can’t wait to go back to it.

With a solid cast — Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, Kiefer Sutherland, and J.K. Simmons — and a modest budget, Juror #2 was exactly the kind of taut, engrossing, and clever thriller Eastwood was known for directing, going all the way back to Misty. But Hollywood murdered Eastwood’s murder-trial flick. First, Warner Bros. spent maybe $18 on marketing. Me — a lifelong Eastwood fan — only heard of it by accident, and not until it had already ended its theatrical run. It had maybe a two-week theatrical run. On fewer than 50 screens.

Even though Juror #2 was considered good enough to cap off the 38th annual AFI Fest — the longest-running film festival in Los Angeles — that’s as much backing as Warner gave it before dumping it to rent on streaming. Even then, you had to squint like Clint to find it. Is that any way to treat one of Hollywood’s most storied names, who just made a $30 million picture with a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes?

Maybe it was belated payback for that Empty Chair bit Eastwood did for Mitt Romney at the 2012 Republican National Convention, I don’t know. I might hang it up after that, too, even if I did still have another picture or three left in me. So let me say this directly on his belated 96th birthday. Mr. Eastwood, if Warner’s poor treatment drove you into an early retirement — if “early” could be at all appropriate for a career as long as yours — then I’ll miss like hell the films you didn’t get to make. But there are an awful lot of us who still appreciate you for all the ones you did.

Happy birthday.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/BabyNetworkNews/status/2061489774968369601?s=20 https://twitter.com/Mick_O_Keeffe/status/2061101275610038509?s=20

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle June 1 2026

Jun 012026
 
 June 1, 2026  Posted by at 9:21 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  31 Responses »


Hayami Gyoshu Tea bowl and fruits 1921


• Trump Toughens Terms Of Iran Deal, Bessent Shows Tehran’s ‘Big Mistake’ (ZH)
• President Trump Discusses Current Status of Iran Negotiations (CTH)
• The People’s House Has a Clinton Memory Problem (David Manney)
• Manufacturing Consent for Trump’s Invasion of Cuba (Bannan)
• “It’s All So Tiresome”: UK Social Media Ban Trudges Ever Onward (Kit Knightly)
• Le Pen Leads Every Major Rival In New French Presidential Runoff Polling (RMX)
• Mike Steger on President Trump’s American Manufacturing Surge (CTH)
• America’s LNG Boom Is Real – But China Is Planning Beyond It (OP)
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy Appears on Face the Nation (CTH)
• CNN’s Dana Bash: 250th American Anniversary Should Not be a Joyful Event (CTH)
• A Conversation About Artificial Intelligence -AI (CTH)
• Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress (Queen)

 


 

https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2060831724641386610?s=20 https://twitter.com/catturd2/status/2060762825044230157?s=20 https://twitter.com/PrometheanActn/status/2060787022378205554?s=20 https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2060841449122656429?s=20

 


 


“Kharg Island is shut down. That’s their big oil loading facilities, and that means that they’re going to have to start taking down the wells..”

• Trump Toughens Terms Of Iran Deal, Bessent Shows Tehran’s ‘Big Mistake’ (ZH)

Fresh Sunday reporting in the NY Times says President Trump has responded to Iran’s refusal to budge on giving up its nuclear material by tightening US conditions as part of a Memorandum of Understanding to get back to the peace negotiating table. “President Donald Trump has toughened the terms of a potential framework for a deal to end the war in Iran, and has sent those proposed changes back to Iran for consideration, according to three officials,” NY Times writes, but didn’t disclose what the precise changes are.


The report then speculates on where these changes likely focus: “Trump has been concerned about parts of the potential deal that would include unfreezing funds for the Iranians, two officials said.” Citing frustration at the slow pace of Iran’s response to the proposals, it adds, “He has been harshly critical of President Barack Obama for doing the same in the more than decade-old agreement that was signed to curtail Iran’s nuclear program.” Tightening the proposals is meant to ratchet up the pressure and ‘force’ the Islamic Republic to respond quicker and agree to a deal. However, the Iranians have time and again rejected being ‘dictated to’ by Washington, as its top negotiator Ghalibaf spelled out days ago. Meanwhile there’s been a recent change in tone when talking about Iran’s military, from Trump himself:

Iran Still Not Budging on Nuclear File
This also comes after a two-hour Friday Situation Room meeting Friday wherein it became clear there was no deal yet to be finalized. According to more from the Times: The official added that Trump’s changes — a new, tougher proposal — were potentially intended to speed up the process by putting pressure on Iran to accept the framework already sent to Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, for approval. Reaching the supreme leader has been difficult, so any changes to the document, known as the memorandum of understanding, could mean additional delays.

But for pressure to work, there has to be signs Iranian leaders are getting nervous or desperate – and so far they’ve not urged Washington or Pakistani mediators for some kind of grand compromise. Instead they’ve repeatedly sworn that Iran’s highly enriched uranium will never be transferred to the possession of the United States.

[..] Bessent: Iran’s ‘Big Mistake’
Still, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is busy on the Sunday news shows talking tough. He told Fox in a new interview that Iran made a “big mistake” by attacking its neighbors in the Persian Gulf, within the past week. A US base in Kuwait was also reportedly just attacked by a ballistic missile, which was reportedly intercepted – but falling debris injured five US personnel. “We had many very good allies who maybe weren’t completely transparent with us on the money — Iranian money that was in their banking systems — all of a sudden became very compliant in terms of being willing to turn over accounts or help us freeze block accounts,” Bessent told Fox News.

“And then the third part was the incredible blockade. I really think it’s the economic blockade of funds and the physical blockade of the ships not going in or out of the Iranian ports,” he added. “Kharg Island is shut down. That’s their big oil loading facilities, and that means that they’re going to have to start taking down the wells,” Bessent said. And yet, there’s nothing officially disclosed to show this is actually happening – though the Iranians have no incentive to publicize it. But time will tell.

IDF Plunges Deep into Lebanon, Captures Crusader Castle
Some Lebanon war latest, via Al Jazeera, as ceasefire unravels: “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has “instructed the Israeli military to expand the maneuver in Lebanon” after the occupation of the strategic Beaufort Castle, which he says marks “a dramatic change” in Israel’s operations.” The Israeli military claims to have killed 900 Hezbollah “terrorists” since the start of the “ceasefire” on April 16. It added that the army had struck dozens of Hezbollah sites since this morning. nLebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has accused Israel of pursuing a “scorched-earth policy” as Israeli forces expand their ground invasion.

Read more …

He likes talking to her..

• President Trump Discusses Current Status of Iran Negotiations (CTH)

Appearing for an interview on Fox News with his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, President Trump explains the current status of the negotiations with Iran and more of the details within the deal as tentatively outlined.

Read more …


“We’ve reached the point where Hillary should leave for whatever mansion she calls home and make Bill a sandwich, sit in the living room, and knit a scarf. ”

• The People’s House Has a Clinton Memory Problem (David Manney)

My favorite villain from Grimm’s Fairy Tales is back! Hillary “At this point, what difference does it make?” Clinton posted another lecture about President Donald Trump, and the internet did what it does best. It opened the old file cabinet, pulled the receipts out, and slapped them on the table, saying, “Bob’s your uncle!” Clinton claimed Trump had left a third of the People’s House in rubble and another third looking like a cage match, meaning the White House ballroom work and the UFC setup tied to the Freedom 250 celebration.

The post was meant to sound grave, wounded, and patriotic. You know, like when she and Chelsea dodged sniper fire that one time in Bosnia. Unfortunately for her, it landed more like a woman walking into a rake, throwing anashtray at her husband, and blaming the rake. Retired Lt. Col. Robert “Buzz” Patterson, U.S. Air Force retired, answered with the sort of memory Clinton probably had wished stayed boxed up in the basement.

Patterson served as senior military aide to President Bill Clinton from 1996 to 1998 and carried the nuclear football, so he didn’t learn White House culture from coffee-table books or campaign ads. He lived inside the system, watched the Clinton years up close, and remembered the exit from 2001 well enough to ruin Hillary’s little sermon about sacred spaces. n The Clinton record gave Patterson plenty to work with; when President Bill Clinton and Hillary left the White House in 2001, controversy followed them out the door. This, if you think about it, balanced the scales because Bill’s and Hill’s background was, let’s just say, colorful when they entered the White House.

The Clintons had reported keeping $190,027 in gifts, and scrutiny later focused on items donors said were meant for the White House, not for the Clinton family. They returned $28,000 worth of furnishings and agreed to pay $86,000 for other gifts. Anybody can argue cataloging errors all day, but the timing and optics were bad enough to survive 25 years of political memory. The mess didn’t stop with furniture. The Government Accountability Office reviewed the 2001 transition and found damage, theft, vandalism, and pranks occurred in the White House complex. Staff described messy offices, excessive trash, offensive signs, damaged government property, and missing items.

Former Clinton staff pushed back on some claims, and the GAO noted disputes over intent. Even with those caveats, the official record doesn’t read like a team leaving behind a spotless civic shrine. It reads like an exit that needed adult supervision and a better checkout sheet.Clinton’s criticism of Trump’s White House work also skipped the obvious point: presidents change the White House because the building serves as a living office, not a museum under glass. Trump’s ballroom project was presented as a 90,000-square-foot addition with space for 650 seated guests, far more than the East Room can hold.

Critics debate cost, taste, process, and scope. Hillary, however, opted for sanctimony, which works poorly when her White House history still sits there like a dented file cabinet, maybe in the shape of another ashtray nobody throws away. Patterson’s response cuts because it didn’t need polish. Public figures forget that old stories don’t die anymore. They wait, sitting in archives, screenshots, reports, old articles, government records, and the memory of people who stood close enough to see the dust.

Hillary Clinton tried to cast herself as guardian of the People’s House while President Trump stood accused of ruining it. The internet answered with a reminder: the Clintons once left Washington with their own White House baggage, and no amount of elegant outrage can pack it away again. We’ve reached the point where Hillary should leave for whatever mansion she calls home and make Bill a sandwich, sit in the living room, and knit a scarf.

Read more …

I think both Trump and Rubio would prefer no violence.

• Manufacturing Consent for Trump’s Invasion of Cuba (Bannan)

These days, most of Havana’s streets are fairly empty of cars, but full of people walking or riding bicycles, electric bikes, electric “tricycles,” or scooters. Trash has piled up on most corners where regular pick-up has become impossible given that the garbage trucks have no gasoline. The average conversation starts off with comparing who’s gone the longest without electricity. The sympathy flows, as you exchange stories of what else you are going without: water, gas, food, medicine, transportation. People list the family members they haven’t been able to see and the medical appointments they’ve missed. Inevitably, someone will say better days are coming—“because they have to”—and to keep moving forward.


This week alone, the US Department of Justice indicted Raul Castro, the former head of state, who’s now 94 years old and largely out of public life. In addition, the Supreme Court gave a green light to Cuban-American-owned companies with property claims in Cuba from 67 years ago to sue tourist industry actors who “profited” from that land. Secretary of State Marco Rubio continues to grow more and more publicly agitated with Cuba’s refusal to bow to his demands, and Trump’s consistent incoherence shows an absolute lack of any clear policy position towards Cuba, aside from one that may economically benefit him and/or his family.

The indictment of Castro is a page taken from Trump’s playbook on Venezuela from earlier this year. There, the administration indicted a sitting head of state, Nicolas Maduro, as a legal pretext for a military intervention, which was labelled an “emergency” and thus not an act of war that would require Congressional approval. The administration staged a geopolitical coup d’état involving international kidnapping, acts of war in plain violation of international law and the U.N. Charter, and then imprisoned that leader as a message to the world of what happens to those who defy US interests. Such indictments serve as purportedly fixed legal fictions for shifting political pretexts.

In Venezuela it was supposedly the state’s support for criminal enterprises and gangs, which was the justification for the Trump administration’s stated reason for the extrajudicial killing of nearly 200 civilians in piracy actions in the Caribbean. Once Maduro was kidnapped and jailed, the administration has stopped talking gangs and narcotrafficking rings. In Cuba, the Justice Department’s indictment of Raul Castro is a clear response to the political forces that commanded it. As the island nation is not complying rapidly enough to the changes demanded by Washington, the administration has escalated its threats, military preparations, and legal actions, albeit largely symbolic in nature.

Rubio’s Escalation of Threats as Campaign Messaging
For decades, Marco Rubio has pushed for privately what the Cuban-American community in south Florida has not achieved in nearly 70 years: to run Cuba’s political and economic system remotely from Miami and Washington. These remote “owners” of Cuba have driven and financed Rubio’s political career, leading to this moment where he is adamantly (though unsuccessfully) trying to sell the American public that Cuba is a national security threat while simultaneously telling Cubans that their government is too weak to protect them. That inherent contradiction and incoherence, long the basis of US policy towards Cuba, have never been more dangerous than at this moment when Rubio’s rage and blind ambition to cause widespread destruction is bolstered by Trump’s monarchical goals.

Read more …

Brits don’t like democracy.

• “It’s All So Tiresome”: UK Social Media Ban Trudges Onward (Kit Knightly)

The UK government’s “consultation” on social media harm is over, and – brace yourselves – it turns out they’re going to have to do something about it. I know, I was shocked too. The main talking point is that “social media is like cigarettes”. Everyone is saying that, it’s the meme of the day. It’s a sentiment originally taken from a new report submitted to the consultation by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.Titled “Growing up in an online world”, it contains this hilarious line in the foreword: …there is, I think, an overwhelming consensus that excessive screen time can harm children and young people and we need to call this out unflinchingly rather than passively wait for someone else to prove causation”.


Which is a pretty neat summary of how our political system works in general, and certainly in this case: We don’t know if there’s even a problem yet, but by God we’re gonna do something about it. That the something they end up doing makes them rich and powerful is just one of the curious coincidences tyrants can always rely on. {Sidenote: This morning the BBC had “Overwhelimg consensus” in their headline on this story, but at some point the absurdity of that quote was realised, and the headline changed. Now there’s this disclaimer near the end: “There is no consensus among the wider scientific community that screen time overall is harmful to children.” Funny stuff.}

Elsewhere, the report wails about “a wave of radicalized children” who pose “a real risk to society”, and calls social media “an incredibly powerful and uncontrolled commercial detriment to health”. In a similar vein, The Guardian is warning of a “tsunami of harm”, and has assembled an all-star cast of interested parties to talk up the scariness of social media meanness. After meeting with “bereaved parents” earlier today, Keir Starmer has “vowed to take action”. His potential rival for the leadership has been even more vocal. Political eunuch and leadership hopeful Wes Streeting is all over this, campaigning hard to be the next disposable suit full of bugger all to “lead the country”:

He thinks a ban should be “just the start”: Social media should be treated like tobacco – it’s extremely addictive, bad for our health, and big tech is borrowing the big tobacco playbook to avoid regulation. We’ve got to give our children their childhood back […] A ban for under-16s must be the start, not the end […]We have given the pen to tech moguls to write our future for us. It’s time to take the pen back.” Streeting is an idiot whose ambition outweighs his intellect by a factor of ten, and who clearly doesn’t understand the rules of the game he’s playing.

Some political handler behind the scenes probably told him to go hard on this issue because it will make him look tough and assertive, but the likely truth is he’s being wheeled out as the extreme option so a “sensible middle ground” option – probably Andy Burnham – can enforce “common sense policies”. What will those policies be? It doesn’t really matter, but we’ll get to that. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall, notable only for garnering less than 5% of the vote in the 2015 leadership election, is out there promising “action”:

…they haven’t decided what “action” yet, exactly but it’s definitely going to happen.

Read more …

“The French people have been betrayed. In 2027, we will restore a democratic vitality to France by returning power to the peopl..,”

• Le Pen Leads Every Major Rival In New French Presidential Runoff Polling (RMX)

Marine Le Pen would beat every major rival in a second-round French presidential election runoff, according to new polling that hypothesized her eligibility to stand in the election expected in April next year. A Toluna-Harris Interactive poll for M6 and RTL, conducted on May 27, found Le Pen ahead in all three tested runoff scenarios when she is the National Rally candidate. The strongest result came against far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, with Le Pen taking 67 percent to his 33 percent. She also defeated former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal by 54 percent to 46 percent, and former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe by 52 percent to 48 percent.


The figures are significant because Philippe and Attal are among the most prominent names in the broader Macron-aligned camp, which has long presented itself as the main barrier to a National Rally victory. Le Pen has twice lost runoff elections to Macron, back in 2017 and 2022. Yet the poll suggests that even the strongest establishment contenders would currently fall short against Le Pen in a head-to-head vote.

Le Pen is currently barred from running after being handed an immediate five-year ban from public office, but she has appealed the ruling. A decision on that appeal is expected on July 7. Should she remain unable to run, National Rally president Jordan Bardella is widely expected to become the party’s presidential candidate. That would still leave National Rally in a commanding position. Earlier polling this week showed Bardella leading the first round with 32 percent, well ahead of Philippe on 17 percent and Mélenchon on 16 percent. The same May Odoxa political barometer also showed Bardella beating Philippe in a second-round runoff by 52 percent to 48 percent, reversing the result recorded two months earlier, when Philippe had led by the same margin.

Taken together, the surveys point to a deepening problem for France’s centrist and left-wing parties. Whether the candidate is Le Pen or Bardella, the National Rally is now polling not merely as a first-round protest vehicle, but as a party capable of winning the presidency outright. If Le Pen’s appeal succeeds, she would enter the race as the most formidable candidate in the field. If it fails, Bardella would inherit a political landscape in which the National Rally brand is already ahead of its most likely rivals. On Friday, Le Pen announced her intention, should the National Rally win the presidency, to offer the French public a referendum on mass immigration.

“The French people have been betrayed. In 2027, we will restore a democratic vitality to France by returning power to the people,” she wrote on X.

Read more …

“.. create a hemispheric powerhouse ..”

• Mike Steger on President Trump’s American Manufacturing Surge (CTH)

Mike Steger takes less than 20-minutes to walk through a year of President Trump’s multifaceted U.S. manufacturing policy initiatives that have positioned the U.S. economy for a massive surge in growth. Steger recaps several consequential moves by President Trump and his cabinet to fundamentally change economics in the Western Hemisphere. Each point is well delivered and well presented.


Steger then overlays the economic moves with the geopolitical moves in Venezuela (oil), Cuba (communism ended), Mexico (cartels, traffickers and corruption), Canada (globalism confronted) and finally Greenland (a new consulate is created). Put together, Steger notes how all of these moves work together with a massive surge in energy, technology and productivity to create a hemispheric powerhouse within the United States. WATCH:

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
01:10 Volcker and the Origins of Globalization
02:30 NAFTA and the Collapse of Industrial America
04:05 Liberation Day and the Tariff Battle
05:30 China’s Rare Earth Weapon
06:45 Rebuilding American Industry

08:20 The End of Free Trade Orthodoxy
09:30 Jamieson Greer vs. USMCA
10:40 Why Manufacturing Ecosystems Matter
12:20 Industry, Science, and Technological Progress
13:45 The Republican-Labor Coalition
14:45 Mexico, Cartels, and Economic Sovereignty
15:35 Canada and the Globalist Response
16:10 Fortress America
16:40 Final Thoughts

Read more …

“.. dominance built on a crisis is not the same as dominance built on trust ”

• America’s LNG Boom Is Real – But China Is Planning Beyond It (OP)

The Iran war and Hormuz disruption have turbocharged U.S. LNG exports, giving Washington a major short-term energy dominance boost as Asia and Europe scramble for alternative supply. China, however, enters the crisis from a position of greater energy resilience after years of investment in domestic production. The U.S. still has a major long-term opportunity, but sustaining dominance will require turning crisis-driven demand into lasting partnerships.


The Iran war has handed the United States a rare opportunity: a new dawn of energy dominance in an increasingly fractured world. With coordinated US-Israeli strikes disrupting the Strait of Hormuz from late February, roughly 20% of global LNG supply has been stripped from the market since early March. Prices have surged across Asia and Europe. And into that vacuum, American gas has flowed.

The numbers speak for themselves. US LNG exports to Asia jumped sharply in April, with nearly a quarter of all American cargoes heading to a region that simply cannot afford to go dark. Deals are being signed, pipelines planned, and $100 billion in private investment is pouring into liquefaction plants and terminals, putting the US on a trajectory toward 220 MTPA of export capacity within five years. The administration’s energy dominance agenda, backed by promises to streamline permitting, has given producers a powerful political tailwind and reassured global buyers seeking reliability. Washington’s case for American LNG has never been easier to make.

But dominance built on a crisis is not the same as dominance built on trust. And there is a competitor watching this moment very carefully. China entered this crisis in a structurally different position. Two decades of sustained investment in domestic energy production, spanning generation, storage, and distribution, have left Beijing considerably less exposed to the supply shocks rattling Western and Asian markets alike. Its economy has not been immune, but it has been buffered. That resilience has not gone unnoticed by governments scrambling to explain surging energy bills to their populations. While the US capitalises on the immediate demand surge, China is quietly accumulating something more durable: the perception of strategic foresight.

Yet beneath the boom lies a fault line. The conflict has been a short-term windfall for American producers; cash is flowing and the geopolitical case for US LNG writes itself. But the longer the crisis persists, the more urgently governments around the world will prioritise the same fundamental objective: never being held hostage to a single chokepoint again. The Hormuz disruption has concentrated minds in a way that years of energy dialogues have never quite managed. Countries across Asia and Europe are now accelerating plans to diversify supply sources, build strategic reserves, and develop domestic generation capacity across every available technology. The goal is insulation from the kind of shock this war has delivered, and that shift in priorities will outlast the conflict itself, because the memory of this vulnerability will not fade quickly.

This does not mean the window for American gas has closed. The transition to more resilient, independent energy systems will take decades, and reliable LNG from a powerful economy is precisely what energy-hungry Asian economies need throughout that journey. The US has the reserves, the infrastructure, the financial markets, and the geopolitical credibility that no other supplier can currently match. But Washington cannot afford to mistake a crisis-driven demand surge for a permanent structural advantage, because what buyers are ultimately building toward is a system in which no single disruption, whether in the Strait of Hormuz or anywhere else, can send their economies into shock again. The US needs to be architected into that system as an indispensable partner, not treated as an emergency option.

That requires more than competitive pricing and export capacity. It requires the kind of long-term supply relationships, infrastructure partnerships, and government-to-government commitments that turn a transaction into a dependency, the good kind, built on reliability rather than vulnerability. It requires Washington to show up as a strategic partner invested in the energy security of its buyers. And it requires the Iran conflict to reach a resolution that restores stability to global flows, because sustained disruption ultimately accelerates the very diversification strategies that could reduce the world’s reliance on any single fuel source.

Read more …

“ Palantir Technology Discovered Within Ukraine Targeting Systems”

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy Appears on Face the Nation (CTH)

Ukraine President Volodymr Zelenskyy appears on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, a few days after Russian President Vladimir Putin told media there were no negotiations underway toward any settlement or ceasefire. Simultaneous to this interview, it has now been discovered that American tech company, Palantir, is behind the technology that accompanies Ukraine drone targeting and weapons systems. Video and Transcript Below:



[Transcript] – Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who joins us from Kyiv. Welcome back to Face the Nation, Mr. President.

UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: Thank you so much, Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You have warned that Ukraine has intelligence that Russia is preparing for a new massive attack. This is after Moscow had warned foreign nationals to leave your capital city ahead of expanded strikes. Exactly, what are you bracing for?

PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY: So, first of all, today at night, or tomorrow at night, we will have- we think that we will have big attacks from Russian side using drones, using cruise missiles and ballistic, and we see the preparation always. We see the preparation, by the way- we are thankful to United States and European partners when they share with us intelligence. So, when we know that Russia prepares a big massive attack, definitely, our partners also know, maybe not a lot of details, but we know. So today, of course, I didn’t address yet to my country. I will do it a bit later in the evening, and of course, I will say that our people have to be very, very careful, cautious, and children, and they have to use bomb shelters, because today at night or tomorrow at night, high percent, of course, nobody knows 100% but there is a high percent.

So usually we have, we have each day attack from Russian side on civilians, and of course on battlefield. And two times a week, or two times per 10 days, they have big, massive attacks with ballistic, and etc. Last massive attack, just to understand, it was- some days ago, it was 600 drones, Iranian drones, Shaheds, and they had 35- about 30 plus ballistic missiles. In total it was 90 missiles and more than 600 Iranian drones, so it was very difficult to destroy it. We used all our weapon, what we have, what we produce, and of course we used anti-ballistic missile. This is the biggest deficit for us.

Read more …

Complaining

• CNN’s Dana Bash: 250th American Anniversary Should Not be a Joyful Event (CTH)

Armed with a host of narratives against the Trump administration, CNN host Dana Bash confronts Interior Secretary Doug Burgum about his audacity to support Freedom 250 events in Washington DC this year. Apparently, it is not in alignment with the interests of CNN for Americans to celebrate the anniversary of our independence.


Complaining about DC fountains being cleaned; complaining about people not being consulted for their viewpoints to permit the graffiti and filth to remain in place prior to cleaning; complaining that years of environmental studies and municipal hearings did not take place prior to the decision to repair the reflection pool; complaining about saving hundreds of millions by not opening up each restoration process to consultancy fees, studies, public hearings and various bureaucratic indulgency opportunities; a very unhappy Dana Bash confronts Interior Secretary Doug Burgum about his support for President Trump to clean and restore the nation’s capital without consideration for those who prefer things to be a mess.

Read more …

“.. the data processing demand behind AI is beyond the scope of financial sustainability..”

• A Conversation About Artificial Intelligence -AI (CTH)

Ironically, I find myself with a grin on my face as I read the recent media reports about how the data processing demand behind AI is beyond the scope of financial sustainability. For several years I have asserted, accurately, the business model for social media was never feasible because the data processing demand needed for the scale of simultaneous users was beyond the capabilities of the revenue side of the equation. I have been told by all the high-horse experts on the matter how wrong I am. However, each story they write about the prohibitive cost of AI proves I was not wrong.


CTH watches the tokenization and subscription fees for various AI model use with the same perspective CTH viewed over a decade of false claims within the financial market that told lies about social media viability and data processing costs. Now, we watch the seemingly exponential growth of AI capabilities and associated costs with the same pragmatic perspective. Robotic pool cleaners were introduced two generations ago. Did the pool cleaner business dry up? No, it expanded. Robotic vacuums broke into the popular household appliance market five years ago, you probably have one, did it eliminate maid services? No, still growing.

AI can now write its own code to generate outputs. Are software developers getting fired? No, demand for software designers and engineers is up 15% in the past year. The mainframe approach, the one AI brain to run all systems, will never work – it is cost prohibitive (see first paragraph – wash, rinse, repeat). Deny this reality at your own investment risk. If needed, politely absorb the ridicule – for it matters not. CTH predicts AI will become a localized and optimized sub-set for each sector of the economy, requiring each major organization and corporation to adopt specific cost/benefit data libraries and networks for use and functionality.

At scale, a thousand coders each working on Gemini, ChatGPT, Anthropic, Grok, etc. will become 100,000+ software designers working inside companies to create personalized, targeted, bespoke AI data systems and networks; each system specifically tailored to the industry or sector of business. The intranet of internets will happen again. Creating and selling AI system networks and integration functions that are personally tailored to highly specific company functions, creates an entirely new sector of the technology industry that has not even begun yet. [There’s an investment opportunity there]


Will AI robots replace some repetitive human functions? Yes, the ice rink Zamboni will likely not have a steering wheel, just an emergency joystick. A reference for a comparative industrial scale Roomba vacuum, or the robotic pool cleaners. However, at scale the robotic industry is slower than human efficiency in almost all sectors that matter; the cost benefit analysis will limit growth. The maid service sector will not be impacted any more than the software developers (see chart above).It is not an issue to fear some AI task efficiencies will grant more time available that will be filled with alternate task capabilities.

Human productivity will increase in certain sectors of the economy, but humans will not lose work opportunities. Blue collar jobs will continue to expand as each of the hardware tools developed will need manufacturing, installation, maintenance and monitoring. The further downstream the worker is from a repetitive function within the [XXXX] industry, the more irreplaceable they become; remember that. As to the bigger picture of fully developed AI and the intersection of information and knowledge; yes, the automation of AI can present an issue. However, all AI concerns can be mitigated so long as multiple, alternative AI systems exist within the larger information realm.

As a nation we need dozens of different AI models each competing within the industry for the best AI product. As long as we have multiple AI systems, alternatives to the hive-mind, we do not need to fear the AI network as a source of information. If we don’t like the AI outputs, we can switch to an alternate AI provider. If the subscription cost of the AI is too high, then as long as we have a competitive market where a lesser expensive, perhaps bespoke, AI option can exist, we should be okay. Let the free-and-fair market decide.

If AI outputs don’t offer empirical truth or real value to the end user, we should be fine as long as consumers have alternative options available. AI providers should be information providers in the same concept as cell phone providers. The key is to have multiple, competing AI systems available for industrial, business, professional and personal use. On the upside of this information worry dynamic -in the pragmatic and optimistic perspective- we have the cost limiting nature of a massive singular AI information network.

A single AI central brain handling over 360 million users at once, all requiring identical responses that update with every tiny change in a multi-trillion datapoint-per-millisecond data stream, is far beyond the capacity of any computational AI system. The costs tied to such a setup are only now becoming clear, and AI business models are starting to fall apart in real time. This is a hard truth that isn’t going to change. Within the AI business, those who can carefully write AI input instructions to achieve maximum value in AI output -industry by industry- will become increasingly more valuable. Those who can train AI to be cost effective -and provide materially beneficial outputs- within their granular sector of business, within each company, will become priceless to the organization. Wage rates will follow competency.

As noted by David Sacks in this segment highlighted below, the one key about AI to emphasize is the need for multiple competing models. If China (hive mind) has their model, and Europe (another hive mind) has their model, and the United States (entrepreneurial competitiveness) has multiple competitive models – we will win and simultaneously we will retain freedom. nWhat we don’t want is a singular AI model to win the support of the United States government and then end up with an AI regulatory system where they start defining terms of “safety” to eliminate information adverse to the interests of the government that regulates it. Both China and Europe will predictably do that.

Read more …


Walt had the power of conviction.

• Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress (Queen)

Jim Griffin, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

I have a certain affinity for the attractions in the Disney theme parks that have a direct connection to Walt Disney. The Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, and even It’s a Small World (with that song that gets stuck in your head) all had their origins when Walt was still alive. One of the attractions at Walt Disney World that has a direct connection to the man who started it all is about to get a massive makeover, and it’s sorely needed. I’ve said for years that Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress was in need of an update and some TLC, and it’s finally happening.


Let’s look back at the history of the Carousel of Progress, which ties back to the 1964-65 World’s Fair in New York City. Back in 2014, I wrote about General Electric’s Progressland (see the Flashback link above), which included a bevy of Disney-designed exhibits, including the Carousel of Progress:

But the centerpiece of the pavilion was Walt Disney’s brainchild, now called the Carousel of Progress. Instead of the walk-through theaters of the original Edison Square concept, guests to the Carousel of Progress sat in a round theater which revolved past central stages in which an Audio-Animatronic narrator shared how his family benefited from new electric innovations. (One gossip columnist lamented the fact that she discovered that the show’s narrator was not a real man.) Each of the show’s short acts took place in different decades, from the 1890s to the 1960s. In all, Imagineers designed and built 32 animatronic characters for the show all bearing Walt’s inimitable stamp.

The attraction’s theme song was a crucial part of reflecting what I’ve long called Walt’s optimistic futurism: Walt summoned his go-to songwriters, Richard and Robert Sherman, to pen the perfect tune for the Carousel of Progress. The song had to represent a positive vision for the future, yet it had to be adaptable to the time periods that the show presented. Richard Sherman remembered that the song needed to “tell the story without giving away what’s happening,” while epitomizing “the spirit and the essence of that pavilion.” The result was “There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow,” a bouyant song that summed up the ideas that Progressland espoused. Buddy Baker arranged the song expertly to fit each era of the Carousel of Progress.

Interestingly enough, GE requested a change to the song in 1974, expressing the thought that the present was more important than the future. The Sherman Brothers wrote a tune called “The Best Time of Your Life” for the Carousel of Progress, but Disney restored the more optimistic “There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” in 1994. Side note: Deciding that the present is something to be more enthusiastic about than the future might be the most 1970s thing ever.

Disney updated the narration and the final scene for that 1994 refreshment, although guests have been stuck with a mid-’90s “contemporary” scene for far too long. The 60-year-old animatronics are looking sad, and some of the theater seats are in disrepair. But instead of refurbishments and a single-scene update, Disney is going all out later this summer.

Last year, Disney announced that it was going to include an introductory scene that would bring in Walt himself in an audio-animatronic form as host. There have also been rumors that Tom Hanks will voice the father of the family, who narrates what’s going on in each era, but those are just rumors. What Disney announced this week is that the Carousel of Progress will close in July and reopen in 2027 with a fresh new look and a whole lot more than just the Walt introduction. The format and tone will remain the same — and of course, we’ll hear “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” — but the scenes will be totally different.

Imagineer Chris Beatty writes at the Disney Parks Blog: One of our main goals for this update was to keep the attraction relatable for today’s audiences by featuring eras in which our guests have personal connections. That includes the iconic “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow,” which will continue to play as guests transition between scenes. The Imagineers working on this refresh grew up during these decades, so it’s been a real trip down memory lane to revisit the music, fashion, technology, and experiences that helped shape our history all reflected in this family’s story.

Beatty sets the four scenes for the new and improved Carousel of Progress:

Act 1 – the 1960s When the show first opened at the World’s Fair, its story began by looking back about 60 years to the dawn of the new century. Now more than six decades later, this new iteration mirrors that idea, starting 60 years back from today in the 1960s. In the summer of 1969, our Carousel family, along with millions around the world, gather around the television to witness one of humanity’s greatest achievements: the historic moon landing. Filled with awe, the moment captures the spirit of innovation and possibility that has always been — and always will be — at the heart of Carousel of Progress.

Act 2 – the 1980s It’s the ‘80s, where everything bigger is better, and things keep on getting bigger! We pick up with the family on Halloween Night of 1985, and for the first time ever, Sarah is taking center stage. She’ll share how all the new appliances and gadgets are making life easier for the whole family. Speaking of John, we’ll find him out on the porch handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, and poor Uncle Orville can be found in the bathroom with “no privacy around here!”

Act 3 – The New Millennium With the ‘90s drawing to a close, our Carousel family is preparing to ring in the new millennium on New Year’s Eve 1999. Amid the excitement of the countdown to 2000, a new thing called the Internet is bringing John, Sarah, Jimmy and Patty – and the world – closer together than ever before. And if you’re anything like my family, not everyone is making it to midnight. Grandpa has already nodded off before the big countdown, while Grandma sneaks the TV over to wrestling when no one’s looking.

Act 4 – The Possible Future As we reach the end of our show, we see the family one last time in the distant future, in an out-of-this-world home. From a helpful robot assisting with everyday tasks to space travel, the scene imagines a future where extraordinary innovation has become part of life and proves that a beautiful tomorrow is just a dream away.It sounds like the Imagineers are building on that optimistic futurism that Walt built his philosophy on. It’s a nod to the 1964-65 World’s Fair, the early EPCOT concept, and what the original EPCOT Center — especially Horizons, my all-time favorite extinct attraction — became, and I’m here for it.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle May 31 2026

May 312026
 
 May 31, 2026  Posted by at 10:01 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  16 Responses »


Jackson Pollock Number 31 1949


• Intercepted Iranian Missile Injures 5 Americans At Kuwaiti Air Base (ZH)
• Global Oil Reserves Fall At The Fastest Rate In History (Snyder)
• Forced To Correct Lies About AfD Leader Alice Weidel, Pay Her Legal Fees (RMX)
• Euroclear Appeals Immediate Enforcement of $256 bln Central Bank Ruling (TASS)
• Ukraine Killed 21 Russian Students And Lied About It (RT)
• Putin Has Countermanded Lavrov and The General Staff (Helmer)
• Congresswoman Wants Democrats Aiding Cuba To Be Investigated For Treason (JTN)
• Trump’s USDA is Making America’s Fabric Great Again (JTN)
• Why The SAVE Act Matters (Stu Cvrk)
• Cuba Falling: A Most Unusual Meeting (Sarah Anderson)
• Court Halts Kennedy Center Construction and Name Change (Turley)
• Crypto And AI Could Be Dirty Words On 2026 Midterm Campaign Trail (CT)
• A New Special Interest Coalition for ’26 and ’28, Datacenters (CTH)

 


 

https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/2060484422650966145?s=20 https://twitter.com/Real_RobN/status/2060054925938458941?s=20 https://twitter.com/DrJStrategy/status/2060507372359942401?s=20 https://twitter.com/GreereMedeea/status/2060415940953551353?s=20

 


 


Iran today.

• Intercepted Iranian Missile Injures 5 Americans At Kuwaiti Air Base (ZH)

A Saturday message and warning from Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters via Al Jazeera: “The management of the Strait of Hormuz is exercised with full authority by the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” It added that “all ships, commercial vessels and tankers are only required to travel through the designated routes and obtain permission from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy.” So despite President Trump’s latest warning which declared strict conditions on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran appears to be completely brushing his words aside, and is moving closer to formalizing its authority over vital energy shipping waterway.


State-run Nour News is reporting that a bill outlining Tehran’s role in managing passage through the strategic waterway has been finalized and is expected to be brought to a vote soon. According to Bloomberg, Iranian lawmaker Alireza Salimi did not provide a specific timeline for the vote but said the legislation is on track to become law. Salimi said that “only Iran and Oman can decide on Strait of Hormuz management” – adding that “the Omani side has given preliminary approval” to Tehran’s plan. He further emphasized the strategic importance of Hormuz, declaring that “the Strait of Hormuz is more important and more valuable to the Islamic Republic of Iran than dozens of nuclear bombs.”

Previous comments by Salimi indicate the bill would cover shipping security, the collection of navigation and environmental pollution fees, as well as the creation of a regional development and progress fund – all of which critics have dismissed as but Tehran’s ruse to collect what is in effect a “toll”. The legislation is expected to undergo review by Iran’s Guardian Council, which is responsible for vetting and approving all laws before they take effect.

More Reported US Drones Destroyed
Reports of more MQ-9 Reaper damage or destruction have emerged; however, the Pentagon has not verified this, and is not expected to. This along with the past week of ‘live-fire’ tit-for-tat incidents suggests an escalating situation, even as the warring sides try to get back to the peace negotiations table. It looks like it could be related to the Saturday missile attack on a US base in Kuwait, but details are murky. Per DropSite:

• Unfreezing of Assets & Sanctions

• Nuclear File

“So far, there is no timeframe. However, we know that the negotiations are still continuing. The agreement, according to Iranian officials here, is not finalised yet. Proposals and messages are being exchanged through Pakistani mediators and some other regional players as well,” the report says. Per AJ: The Iranians, while saying that it is not finalised, have largely agreed on many items. However, there are still some sticking points. Finally, the Iranians are quite clear at this stage. They are saying that they are not discussing the nuclear file or nuclear programme unless confidence-building measures are put in place. Only if the first phase is successful will they be open to discussing their nuclear programme. These confidence-building measures have been precisely identified as the unfreezing of billions in assets held aborad.

New Iranian Attack on US Base in Kuwait
An Iranian Fateh-110 short-range ballistic missile targeted Kuwait’s Ali Al Salem Air Base, a key operational hub for the U.S. Air Force’s expeditionary forces in the Gulf region. An initial report from Bloomberg News indicates that Kuwaiti air defenses intercepted the tactical ballistic missile in the last 24 hours, but falling debris struck part of the base, injuring five Americans and damaging one MQ-9 Reaper drone while severely damaging another. About five people, including both contractors and active duty personnel, suffered minor injuries, the person said. One Reaper was destroyed and at least one other was seriously damaged. -BBG

News of the strike on ASAB, where the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing under U.S. Air Forces Central acts as a forward logistics, airlift, and combat-power gateway for the broader CENTCOM theater, comes as the US and Iran on Friday reached a tentative memorandum of understanding to extend a ceasefire by 60 days and restart nuclear negotiations. However, the proposal still requires final approval from President Trump, according to U.S. officials cited by Fox News.

Read more …

US produces its own.

• Global Oil Reserves Fall At The Fastest Rate In History (Snyder)

No matter what happens now, the world is facing a very painful energy crisis. Let’s be as wildly optimistic as we possibly can and assume that Iran agrees to allow free passage through the Strait of Hormuz with absolutely no tolls or restrictions starting tomorrow. Before normal traffic through the Strait could resume, Iran would first have to remove all of the mines that they have laid in the Strait, and that could take months. Once all of the mines have been removed, it will take the tankers that are currently trapped in the Persian Gulf weeks to arrive at their destinations. Moving forward, Persian Gulf countries will be exporting much less oil and natural gas for the foreseeable future because of all the oil and natural gas infrastructure that was damaged or destroyed during the war. It will take years before all of that infrastructure is fully repaired and rebuilt. Meanwhile, global supplies of oil and natural gas will be very tight for an extended period of time..


What I have just laid out for you is the best case scenario. Ultimately, what we end up facing could be so much worse. Over the past couple of months, global oil reserves have been falling at the fastest rate ever recorded… Record inventory draw: Global oil stocks have fallen by 246 million barrels in March-April, with draws in May hitting a record 8.7 million barrels per day. Hormuz closure impact: The Strait of Hormuz shutdown has cut off 25% of the world’s seaborne oil, compounding already low reserves and boosting prices. US price outlook: Analysts expect U.S. gasoline prices could reach $5 this summer unless flows resume, with relief unlikely before autumn. Needless to say, this is not sustainable.

Here in the United States, the strategic petroleum reserve has been dropping at a record-breaking pace… The SPR’s most recent drawdown, covering the week ended May 22, shows a drop of 9.1 million barrels, leaving the reserves at 365 million barrels. The previous weekly drawdown, covering the week of May 15, was its steepest on record — the U.S. withdrew 9.92 million barrels from the SPR then. Before that record-breaking decline, the largest weekly drop in the SPR’s history occurred in the week ended Oct. 7, 2022, when the reserves dropped by 7.41 million barrels, and was connected to the war in Ukraine. Commercial oil inventories are being rapidly depleted as well.

At some point the tanks are going to hit minimum operating levels and we are going to have an enormous crisis on our hands. The chief economist at Capital Economics is projecting that commercial oil inventories “could reach critically low levels by the end of June”… “At the current pace of drawdown, commercial oil stocks could reach critically low levels by the end of June,” Neil Shearing, chief economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a research note on May 18. If supply conditions don’t improve soon, “prices could rise sharply,” Shearing warned. Jeff Currie is warning that Asia is already very close to minimum operating levels, and he is projecting that the U.S. could potentially be dealing with shortages in July…

Oil markets are nearing minimum operating levels in Asia, with Europe likely next and the U.S. potentially facing shortages by July, said veteran market strategist Jeff Currie on Monday, underscoring the global energy shock due to the Iran war.Headline global inventory figures can be misleading as much of the oil stored worldwide cannot be used immediately, said Currie, Carlyle’s chief strategy officer of energy pathways and co-chairman of Abaxx Markets. A large portion of that oil is needed to keep pipelines and storage systems running safely, leaving only a smaller share available for the market. Asia is already close to these so-called “minimum operating levels,” Currie told CNBC on the sidelines of the UBS Wealth Conference in Singapore.

This is really happening.

Read more …

“When “blatant falsehoods are being spread, one cannot let them stand unchallenged,” says Weidel’s spokesman”

• Forced To Correct Lies About AfD Leader Alice Weidel, Pay Her Legal Fees (RMX)

Alice Weidel, co-leader of the anti-migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has successfully sued the Left Party leader and won a retraction after she spread falsehoods about Weidel on live television. In mid-May, Ines Schwerdtner, the federal chairwoman of the Left Party, claimed during an interview on Welt TV that Wediel neither resides in Germany nor pays taxes. “Alice Weidel doesn’t even live in Germany, she doesn’t pay taxes here,” she told viewers. This statement is false. While Weidel spends much of her time with her family in Switzerland, she has her primary residence in Germany and pays taxes in the Federal Republic of Germany.


Weidel has been very guarded about the issue over the years, as she faces a high threat level and avoids appearing in public due to the security threat she lives under. Weidel’s lawyers explained in a warning letter, cited by Junge Freiheit, that this claim was false, as their client both lived in Germany and paid taxes. The law firm Höcker filed a lawsuit on the AfD’s behalf seeking an injunction. Weidel’s lawyers also demanded that Schwerdtner ensure the relevant passage was deleted from Welt TV’s programming. Furthermore, the lawsuit calls on the Left Party leader to acknowledge the “claim for damages.”

Following this, Schwerdtner’s lawyer sent a letter to the Höcker law firm stating that their client had “indeed made a mistake.” The Left Party leader additionally undertook to “refrain” from making the false statement that Weidel does not pay taxes in Germany. The letter also pointed out that the interview in question on Welt TV had since been deleted by the broadcaster. Furthermore, Schwerdtner stated that she would transfer the legal fees “within one week.”

Weidel’s press spokesman, Daniel Tapp, told JF that in politics one “shouldn’t be too sensitive in principle.” However, when “blatant falsehoods are being spread, one cannot let them stand unchallenged.” The AfD has been surging in the polls, with one survey last week showing it hitting a record 42 percent in Saxony, double the support of the second-place Christian Democrats (CDU). A poll in May showed the AfD at 29 percent at the national level, while the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) fell to 22 percent.

Read more …

How to bankrupt Belgium?

• Euroclear Appeals Immediate Enforcement of $256 bln Central Bank Ruling (TASS)

Euroclear has filed a complaint with the Moscow Arbitration Court against the immediate enforcement of a ruling to recover 18.2 trillion rubles ($256 bln) under a lawsuit by the Central Bank, a source familiar with the proceedings told TASS. According to the source, the complaint against the immediate enforcement of the ruling to recover funds under the Bank of Russia lawsuit was filed this week.


In December 2025, the Bank of Russia filed a lawsuit against Euroclear in the Moscow Arbitration Court for 18.2 trillion rubles ($256 bln), amid the European Union’s plans to use frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine. This amount includes frozen funds, the value of blocked securities, and lost profits. At the request of the Central Bank, the court closed the proceedings on the regulator’s lawsuit against the Belgian depository to the public. The Bank of Russia stated that the procedure for enforcing the court ruling using the defendant’s assets, including those located in foreign jurisdictions – both friendly and unfriendly – will be determined after the court’s decision enters into force.

On May 20, 2026, the Bank of Russia filed a motion with the Moscow Arbitration Court to immediately enforce the judgment in the 18.2 trillion ruble ($256 bln) lawsuit against Euroclear. The Bank of Russia is also considering the possibility of protecting its interests in international courts and arbitration tribunals, with subsequent enforcement of the decisions of such courts in UN member states. The EU and G7 countries have frozen approximately €300 billion of Russian assets. Approximately €180 billion is held in the Belgian depository Euroclear. The European Commission is seeking approval from EU member states to use Russian assets for Ukraine. However, the EU has failed to agree on a “reparations loan” to Ukraine using frozen Russian assets.

Read more …

“In preparation for the funeral, relatives brought numerous wedding dresses to the local morgue: the young women killed in the strike were to be buried in them.”

• Ukraine Killed 21 Russian Students And Lied About It (RT)

A Ukrainian drone raid last week devastated a college dormitory in Starobelsk, in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic, killing 21 students – most of them young women – and injuring dozens others. The attack was a deliberate “double-tap” that included two more waves of drones targeting civilians and first responders who raced to the scene, according to Russian officials. Russia branded the raid a “terrorist attack” and a blatant war crime. Horrific footage from the scene backed up the accusations.


However, speaking at an emergency UN Security Council session, Ukrainian envoy to the UN Andrey Melnik dismissed Moscow’s account, denigrating a “so-called incident” in Starobelsk as “a fake story” and accusing Russia of spreading “yet another propaganda narrative.” Kiev’s General Staff separately claimed its forces had targeted a command post of the elite Rubicon drone unit – an allegation for which reporters who visited the scene found no supporting evidence. Here is what Ukraine and the West do not want you to know about the Starobelsk tragedy.

What really happened in Starobelsk? RT senior correspondent Murad Gazdiev was among the first journalists to reach the site, reporting from the scene throughout the two-day search-and-rescue operation. The most horrific thing when he arrived was “children still screaming under the rubble.” According to Gazdiev, blood-stained blankets were visible in the hallway where first responders pulled out the dead, and the ground was littered with students’ belongings and books.

Who was killed by Ukraine in Starobelsk? Among those trapped was 19-year-old Dasha Serdyuk. In her final moments of life, she filmed herself and sent a short video to her friend Nastya in St. Petersburg, pleading for help. Dasha had reportedly dreamed of becoming a kindergarten teacher and had only one year of studies left. An eyewitness described watching a girl sprint from the building mid-attack, telling local media that she managed to leave the dorm but was killed by the blast wave outside.

Another victim, identified by the Mash outlet only as Anya, also tried to flee during the strike but was killed by the second drone barrage. An unnamed relative interviewed by the channel said that her body was so severely burned that family members could identify her only by her necklace and earrings. Anya is said to have been due to be married in the summer and is survived by her mother, grandmother, and 10-year-old sister. Olga Vasilenko, a mother of Anastasia, an 18-year-old student at the college also killed in the strike, recalled, as cited by several Russian media: “She called me in the evening, saying: ‘Mom, we’re being bombed’. And then she stopped answering my calls”.

Russia’s human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, published photos of all 21 victims – some just 18 years old – offering condolences. “It’s impossible to imagine the pain of a parent who has lost the dearest thing in life – their child,” she said.

There have been no videos from the scene suggesting even the slightest sign of military-related activity. “There wasn’t even a hint of military personnel here. It was a targeted attack on children,” Roman Antonov, a local firefighter, told RT in the aftermath of the strike. A video shared by Mash made before the strike shows students doing what students do – dancing, laughing, and having fun, with some seen washing floors in the dormitory. In the days that have followed, residents, relatives of the dead, survivors, and college staff brought flowers and stuffed animals to the ruins. Churches in Starobelsk have held numerous services for the dead and prayers for the wounded.

A harrowing video has surfaced on social media, reportedly of parents identifying the bodies of their children, with audible, desperate screams. In preparation for the funeral, relatives brought numerous wedding dresses to the local morgue: the young women killed in the strike were to be buried in them.

The death of 21 young people prompted a desire for revenge within the Russian military, with one drone operator filmed inscribing ‘Starobelsk’ on an attack UAV before launching it towards Ukrainian armed forces positions. Russia has maintained it targets only military-related sites.

Read more …

Helmer and PCR are in their 80s. Is that why?

• Putin Has Countermanded Lavrov and The General Staff (Helmer)

President Vladimir Putin has ordered his two spokesmen, Dmitry Peskov and Yury Ushakov, to deny Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s statement that the General Staff has been authorized to escalate war operations to regime decapitation in the Ukraine. On Monday evening, May 25, Lavrov telephoned US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and told him he was speaking for Putin: “On behalf of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin,” the readout said, “S.V. Lavrov officially brought to the American side information that in response to the ongoing terrorist attacks of the Kiev regime against the civilian population and civilian objects on the Russian territory, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation begin systemic and consistent strikes on the facilities located in Kiev, used for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and on the relevant decision-making centres.”


Lavrov was repeating the new phrase, “systemic and consistent”, which his ministry had published in reverse order four hours earlier. Russian “patience is exhausted,” the ministry had declared. “In this situation, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are beginning to launch consistent and systemic strikes at enterprises of the Ukrainian defence industry in Kiev, including specific facilities for designing, manufacturing and programming drones and preparing them for operation…We are urging residents of the Ukrainian capital not to approach facilities of the military and administrative infrastructure of the Zelensky regime.”

The Russian statements followed the strike over Saturday night-Sunday morning (May 23-24) by an Oreshnik missile on the Bela Tserkva airbase, south of Kiev, which doubles as an underground drone factory and a military command-control bunker. Click for a summary of local and Russian reporting of the targets. The Oreshnik failed, according to Moscow sources. No high-ranking casualties have been reported by either the Russian or Ukrainian media; there has been no evidence of emergency ambulance movements and medical evacuation flights taking high-ranking casualties to hospitals in Poland, Germany, or the US. There was a reported surge of medevac flights from Rzeszow, but that occurred on May 22, before the Oreshnik strike on Bela Tsekrkva.

Surface damage at Bela Tserkva recorded on social media shows no greater damage than earlier drone strikes at Bela Tserkva last August. Former president and deputy head of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev called the Oreshnik, Iskander, Zircon and Kinzhal missile operation, including the Kiev city targets hit, a success in a strategy of persuading Ukrainian hearts and minds; this has not been publicly declared as a war aim by the Security Council before. “The ruins and gray ash on the site of their capital symbols,” Medvedev claimed, “demoralize the enemy no weaker than the loss of the battle banner.”

Lieutenant General (retired) Andrei Kartapolov, head of the State Duma Defense Committee, repeated that the weekend strikes were a new operational initiative. But he qualified the targeting: the aim, he said, is not the Ukrainian parliament Verkhovna Rada but instead “decision-making centres [which are] underground fortified [military] command and control centres…you need to understand that they are not located in the centre of Kiev. These are hidden, well-fortified points. And our task is to identify them and expose them with the help of existing weapons.”

Kartapolov added that the decision on whether this new decapitation operation now extends to Vladimir Zelensky is made by “only one person – our Supreme Commander-in-Chief”. About Putin’s decision — signed, suspended, postponed, canceled — Kartapolov said he preferred “not to engage in speculation”. This was published on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 26. Putin had decided already to announce he didn’t mean decapitation at all.

Read more …

A Cuban with a Greek name.

• Congresswoman Wants Democrats Aiding Cuba To Be Investigated For Treason (JTN)

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis also said she believes it was possible the U.S. military would conduct an operation to capture Raul Castro and extradite him into the United States


Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a prominent Cuban-American who represents New York in the U.S. House, tells Just the News she wants the FBI to investigate Democrats and liberal groups helping Cuba evade U.S. sanctions for the lone crime America’s founding fathers explicitly identified in the Constitution. “Look, I personally, think they need to be investigated for treason,” Malliotakis said during a wide-ranging interview with the John Solomon Reports podcast. “I think that they really need to be investigated by Treasury, also by Justice.”

The New York Republican was reacting to an admission by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., that she recently took an official government trip to Havana and also talked to foreign countries about finding a way to get oil to Cuba around US sanctions and a naval blockade. Malliotakis said she wants to see the House ban the use of tax dollars to make such trips to foreign enemies’ soil. “What we need to do is ensure that none of these congressional delegation trips that are funded by the taxpayers go to actually visit our adversaries and undermine our government,” she said.

“They go and actually meet with the communist regime at your expense as taxpayers to try to undercut what the president is trying to do,” she added. “And by the way, it’s not just hurting, you know, our government. You’re actually hurting the Cuban people. You’re actually supporting a regime that starves its people to death, that has made their lives miserable for 67 years, and has killed their family members and have split up their family members.” Malliotakis, whose mother fled from Cuba during the Castro regime, has long been a fierce critic of the Communist-run government on the island.

She applauded the Trump Justice Department’s decision last week to indict 94-year-old Raul Castro, the former Cuban president, in connection with the fatal shooting down of two American planes in 1996. Malliotakis said she believed it was possible that the U.S. military would eventually conduct an operation to capture Castro and extradite him into the United States to face prosecution like it did with Venezuelan strongarm man Nicolas Maduro in January.

“I think a lot of people looking at the situation are thinking that the U.S. armed forces will go in and get Raul Castro, just like they did Nicolas Maduro,” she said. “You do see ships building up not too far from Cuba’s shores, and you know it is number one a national security issue.

“It is time, No. 1, to push for regime change, and I think that this indictment of Raul Castro gives the Cuban government two options: you either leave the island and allow the people to form political parties, to have free and fair elections to allow them to express themselves without fear of going to jail or being beaten or even killed by their government, and or you will see something like what took place in Venezuela for Nicolas Maduro,” she added.

Read more …

“Cotton is a cultural icon, built into American DNA”

• Trump’s USDA is Making America’s Fabric Great Again (JTN)

In years past, the U.S. was referred to as “King Cotton” for its prodigious output of the fiber wanted by the rest of the world. The “Plant Not Plastic” initiative may see a rebirth of that sentiment. On Thursday, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced The Great American Cotton Plan, an effort to help revitalize the nation’s cotton-producing industry to move Americans back toward wearing natural fibers as opposed to plastic materials and other pontially toxic fibers. Launched as a cornerstone of the plan to restore domestic textile manufacturing, the “Plant Not Plastic” initiative urges American consumers to choose products made with natural, U.S.-grown cotton over petroleum-based synthetics like polyester.


Working in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the campaign highlights cotton’s superior breathability, biodegradability, and reduced microplastic shedding—addressing growing concerns about synthetic fibers releasing thousands of plastic particles annually into the environment and potentially into our bodies. By elevating demand for American cotton through education, procurement incentives, and alignment with t he bipartisan Buying American Cotton Act, the initiative simultaneously boosts rural economies, restores domestic textile manufacturing, and advances the Trump administration’s MAHA goals of practical, preventive wellness through everyday choices.

American cotton is key to avoiding human rights abuses
Cotton from many foreign countries, particularly in the global supply chain, has been linked to significant human rights abuses. Concerns include widespread child labor, such as children aged 6–14 working long hours in India’s cottonseed farms.

The underage workers often face pesticide exposure, as well as forced labor involving Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region and past cases in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. In 2011 Bloomberg News sent investigative reporters out to the fields in the west African country to see for themselves how the daily abuse of children results in the “fair trade” fabric used for Americans’ favorite panties and bras. Workers frequently endure debt bondage, minimal or no pay, hazardous conditions, and government or employer coercion. The U.S. Department of Labor flags cotton from several nations for these risks. Ethical sourcing and better traceability are essential to reduce such exploitation.

Natural fibers used to be the norm
Today, approximately 70% of materials are derived from synthetic fibers, with polyester being the most prevalent. But that hasn’t always been the case. For millennia, humans relied exclusively on natural fibers—cotton, wool, silk, linen, and hemp—for clothing and textiles. These materials dominated until the early 20th century. The shift began with rayon (viscose), the first semisynthetic fiber, commercialized around 1905–1910. True synthetics arrived with nylon, introduced by DuPont in 1939, revolutionizing stockings and apparel during WWII. Polyester followed in the 1940s–50s, prized for durability and low cost. Acrylic and spandex soon expanded the range. B

y the late 20th century, synthetic blends dominated global production due to affordability, performance, and scalability. Today, a mix of natural and synthetic fibers prevails, balancing tradition with modern demands for stretch, wrinkle resistance, and sustainability. In 1989, trade association Cotton Incorporated launched its iconic “The Fabric of Our Lives” advertising campaign on Thanksgiving Day. The memorable jingle—“The touch, the feel of cotton, the fabric of our lives”—was first performed by Richie Havens. Aimed at countering synthetic fibers, the campaign celebrated cotton’s natural comfort, softness, and place in everyday American life. It became one of the most successful and long-running textile ads, boosting cotton’s market share and cultural resonance for decades.

Read more …

Thorough.

• Why The SAVE Act Matters (Stu Cvrk)

American self-governance rests on one indispensable foundation: that elections reflect the will of eligible citizens, counted accurately, administered transparently. Republicans and election integrity advocates argue that this foundation has been progressively undermined – not necessarily by a single grand conspiracy, but by a systemic pattern of loosened safeguards, dirty voter rolls, exploitable mail-ballot systems, and aggressive Democrat opposition to the audits and reforms that would resolve public doubt once and for all.

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act – which polls at roughly 80 percent public support – would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. To its advocates, it is the minimum logical response to documented vulnerabilities in the registration and voting system. To its opponents, it is voter suppression. The fight over that characterization is itself a revealing indicator of where the parties stand on the fundamental question: do you want to know, or don’t you? And why! Let’s examine the subject in some detail. Note: the below analysis was written from a Republican/election-integrity-advocate perspective. Where allegations are unconfirmed or contested, they are labeled as such.

Part I: Confirmed And Documented Problems

1. Dirty Voter Rolls – A National Scandal The evidence that American voter rolls are riddled with ineligible registrations is not in dispute. The only dispute is over whether they should be fixed. The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, under Assistant AG Harmeet Dhillon, reviewed voter rolls from just 16 voluntarily cooperating Republican-leaning states and found tens of thousands of apparent noncitizens and hundreds of thousands of dead people still registered to vote. The administration subsequently sued 29 states – including blue-state heavyweights California and New York, and swing states Arizona and Georgia – to compel production of voter roll data under the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.

In California, a review of voter rolls found registrations tied to P.O. boxes and individuals listed as 125 years old. In Colorado, a lawsuit forced the purge of 372,000 ineligible registrations. In Michigan, dead voters have been documented – some of whom show records of in-person voting after their deaths. In Oregon, similar anomalies have been reported. Judicial Watch has documented tens of thousands of names removed from rolls in multiple states, often only after litigation – raising the obvious question of why states resisted cleanup in the first place.

The consistent pattern: Republicans seek cleanup to remove any possibility that unauthorized people are voting in elections through fraud associated with ballot harvesting. Democrats sue to prevent it for the purposes of preventing disenfranchising eligible voters (with the unspoken reason to enable Democrat ballot harvesting).

2. Noncitizen Voting – Prosecuted Cases Noncitizen voting is not a hypothetical. It is documented, prosecuted, and ongoing. In Philadelphia, ICE and the FBI arrested Mahady Sacko, an illegal alien from Mauritania, for voting in seven federal elections dating to 2008 – despite a 2002 removal order. In Coldwater, Kansas, Mayor Joe Ceballos – a legal permanent resident from Mexico – resigned and faced charges after voting in multiple elections. These are not isolated cases; they are confirmed examples of a vulnerability that Republicans argue the SAVE Act would directly address.

3. Mail Ballot Fraud – A Proven Mechanism Democrats and their media allies spent years insisting mail ballot fraud is vanishingly rare. The prosecution record tells a different story – of widespread, real, and exploitable vulnerabilities (over 1400 cases in this database).

In Pennsylvania, a grand jury indicted three Democrats – Mohammed Nurul Hasan, Mohammed Munsur Ali, and Mohammed Rafikul Islam – for attempting to steal the 2021 mayoral election in Millbourne. Using Pennsylvania’s online voter registration portal (PAOVR), they changed the registered addresses of nearly three dozen non-residents to Millbourne addresses, requested mail ballots on their behalf, filled them out, and submitted them. The system’s vulnerability: anyone with basic personal information about a voter could modify that voter’s registration and divert their ballot to any address in the world. The candidate lost anyway – but the mechanism worked. The “safeguards” the AP assured voters existed did not stop it.

In Minnesota, a duo pleaded guilty to flooding an election with fraudulent ballots. In Connecticut, a state employee was arrested for switching Republican voters’ registrations to Democrat without their knowledge. Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight organization was forced to pay the largest campaign finance violation fine in Georgia history.

4. ActBlue – Active Congressional Investigation With Significant Red Flags This is not an allegation. This is an active, documented federal investigation backed by congressional subpoenas. The House Judiciary, Oversight, and Administration Committees released a joint interim report in April 2026 finding that five current and former ActBlue employees – including its general counsel (fired), legal department personnel, and VP of customer service – collectively invoked the Fifth Amendment 146 times during depositions. Not once or twice. 146 times. Not a single substantive question was answered.

The report also found that ActBlue made its fraud-prevention rules more lenient twice during the 2024 election cycle, and that internal training materials directed fraud-prevention staff to “look for reasons to accept contributions” rather than scrutinize them. The entire legal and compliance team – every member – had resigned, been fired, or gone on extended leave by March 2025, in the months immediately following the election.

The New York Times – not a right-wing outlet – reported on the foreign donation concerns. Former Biden White House Counsel Dana Remus, working at ActBlue’s law firm Covington, reportedly warned that ActBlue’s CEO may have misrepresented facts to Congress. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan summarized the irony: Democrats spent a decade accusing Trump of foreign campaign collusion. The evidence of foreign money flowing into Democrat fundraising infrastructure is now the subject of formal congressional investigation.

Fulton County has become the symbolic epicenter of 2020 election integrity concerns, and for documented reasons.

In January 2026, the Georgia State Election Board revealed that investigators could not locate a single “zero tape” from Fulton County’s 148 early voting machines from the 2020 general election. Zero tapes are the legal documents that certify each ballot tabulator began counting at zero – preventing pre-loaded votes or test data from being counted as real votes. Their absence does not prove fraud. But their absence also cannot be explained away. A December 2025 admission by Fulton County’s attorney confirmed that more than 100 tabulator closing tapes – representing roughly 315,000 votes – were never signed by poll workers as required by law.

The week after the State Election Board meeting, the FBI executed a search warrant at the Fulton County election office, specifically seeking the zero tapes. The search warrant itself represents a federal judicial determination that probable cause existed to search. Fulton County has not produced a satisfactory accounting of what happened to these documents.

Read more …

Unusual indeed.

• Cuba Falling: A Most Unusual Meeting (Sarah Anderson)

There are a lot of stories about Cuba floating around right now. Some are MSM outlets acting like they have a scoop on something that’s been happening or rumored to be happening for months. Some are simply absurd and probably not true. Most aren’t actually verified by the Donald Trump administration and come from anonymous sources. I’m not even going to bother with those today. I saw this happen in the final months before we captured Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. Most of these reporters and media outlets didn’t even care about these countries until they became newsworthy, and once they do become hot topics, they’ll publish just about anything to get clicks. I can’t do that.


But what I can tell you is that what the regime is saying and what’s happening on the ground tell two different stories. Both the “president,” Miguel Díaz-Canel, and the foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, have been doing interviews for a month or two now, warning of the United States’ impending military aggression, claiming the people of Cuba will fight the imperialists, etc. In the last week or two, Díaz-Canel claimed publicly that the U.S. “will cause a bloodbath with incalculable consequences.” Most recently, Rodríguez has been going after Marco Rubio with his favorite talking point: Rubio has a personal vendetta against the regime — as if he’s not just one of the millions of Cubans who have seen their parents and grandparents flee the communist s**thole in which they were forced to live. He just happens to be the one with the power to do something about it.

But while these guys are going on all the TV networks yelling about U.S. aggression, on the ground, the regime is actually playing nice with the U.S. because it knows it holds no leverage. On Friday, the most unusual thing happened. United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan was at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, and he met with Army Corps General, Gen. Roberto Legrá Sotolongo, First Deputy Minister of the Chief of the General Staff, and other senior leaders from the Cuban military at the perimeter of the facility. They even posed for a picture:

According to SOUTHCOM, the visit was “for a brief exchange on operational security matters. Gen. Donovan also led a perimeter security assessment of the naval base and discussed force protection, safety of service members and their families, and operational readiness with base officials.”

Keep in mind that the regime considers our base at Guantanamo Bay an illegal occupation. This extremely rare, high-level face-to-face meeting was described as “positive” by both sides. The Cuban Ministry of Defense said in a statement, “Both delegations considered the meeting to be positive, where issues related to security around the dividing perimeter of the military enclave were addressed and they agreed to maintain communication between both military commands.”

While some in the MSM are downplaying it, this isn’t something you see every day, but then again, a lot of what we’re witnessing lately is unusual. The regime is doing interviews with the U.S. press, including Fox News. The CIA director is holding talks in (and making threats) in Havana. Cubans standing on rooftops raising U.S. flags or writing “Long live Trump” on building walls without fear.

In the past, low-level “fence line” meetings took place each month between U.S. and Cuban military officials at the naval base, but Trump had them suspended when he took office in 2025. This is not a continuation of that. This is not routine. As I keep saying, we don’t know when or how this will end, but Trump promises that it will soon, that he’ll be the president who finally ends 67 years of communist Cuba. Right now, all of the signs are supporting that. No matter how defiant it acts publicly, the regime knows it’s backed into a corner.

Read more …

“The Administration should appeal the decision and may soon be able to resume work on the Center, regardless of its name.’

• Court Halts Kennedy Center Construction and Name Change (Turley)

In a ruling Friday, District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered the cessation of all repair plans for the Kennedy Center and the removal of Trump’s name from the building within two weeks. It is a detailed and comprehensive opinion, but I believe that Judge Cooper is wrong on the cessation of repairs. I previously expressed skepticism over the claim that the board could order such a change unilaterally. I have previously addressed the naming controversy, which raised the very issues that Judge Cooper cited in his rejection of the right to rename the Center without congressional approval.


However, the opinion becomes more challengeable when the court addresses the decision to close the Center for two years to carry out major renovations. The opinion is rife with digs at President Donald Trump for his social media postings and his unilateral plan for a ballroom. Judge Cooper editorializes that “Especially after the demolition of the East Wing of the White House— which occurred out of the blue a few months after President Trump pledged that construction would not ‘interfere with’ and would ‘pay[] total respect to the existing building’—there has been understandable concern that the Kennedy Center may be the next target of the wrecking ball.”

Judge Cooper accepts that the Center is long overdue for major renovations and that the Board had the authority to order them. He further rejects the sweeping claims of litigants that Trump was planning to effectively raze the Center: “The evidence before the Court does not demonstrate that the Center is poised for wholesale destruction and rebuilding, à la the East Wing.” However, Cooper rules that the Board could not have given the decision sufficient time or attention in carrying out the plan. He declared that “None of the board members had sufficient information in advance of the March 16 meeting to make a well-considered decision to close the center.”

The court’s tight analysis is lost in supporting the cessation of repairs. While he acknowledges that such repairs have long been planned and studied, he cites differing statements on the plan to continue operations before a later decision to close the Center. The court finds that the record illustrates a failure to fulfill the fiduciary duty of the board and Chair: “Whatever happened during that purported four-month incubation period, Board input was, most evidently, an afterthought. Trustees learned about the plan to close the Center at the same time as the general public, by social media post. Deprived of time and information, they had no meaningful opportunity to consider perhaps the most momentous decision in the Center’s lifetime since it opened in 1971.”

That analysis is heavily laden with assumptions on the lack of consideration of the Board. The same approach could be used to set aside an array of board decisions that do not evidence sufficient concern or scrutiny for the satisfaction of a judge. Judge Cooper seems to recognize how far the court was taking its own authority in countermanding the decision:

“The Court appreciates that, in both the charitable and corporate spheres, board meetings are often scripted affairs… The Court should not be heard to suggest that trustees must scrutinize every piece of prefatory work that has been done, or labor through the night debating the relative merits of their decisions in order to discharge their fiduciary duties— especially where, as here, a board is large and comprised of members who may not be well schooled in the subject matter before them. “ Yet, the court still concludes that this Board “seems to have fallen grossly short of prudent decision-making.” That seems far too subjective and fluid a standard for federal courts to micromanage executive branch decision-making.

For his part, President Trump was equally sweeping and unrestrained in his response. He declared that he would order the Commerce Department to transfer the Center to Congress “so they can make a determination as to what to do with it.” Given that Judge Cooper’s order on the cessation of repairs may be reversed, it is unnecessary unless the naming of the Center is the overriding consideration. In either case, it would make little sense for the Center to be placed under the supervision of Congress. It would be appropriate for Congress to address the naming question as well as potentially being heard on the need for a closure.

In the end, I thought that the court’s cessation analysis conveyed ample reasons, but Judge Cooper himself (and others) may be unhappy with how the decision was made. It is less clear why that should matter. There are ample reasons to close the Center to facilitate what the court acknowledges will be extensive and major renovations. That construction can only be facilitated and expedited if there is not a simultaneous need to keep a substantial part of the Center operating for the public. The Administration should appeal the decision and may soon be able to resume work on the Center, regardless of its name.

Read more …

Not sure why Zerohedge runs a May 11 article, but I already formatted it when I saw that, so…

• Crypto And AI Could Be Dirty Words On 2026 Midterm Campaign Trail (CT)

The AI and crypto industries have made headlines over the past year thanks to the impressive war chests amassed by corporate political action committees (PACs). Profligate spending during the last federal elections in the US has led to unprecedented policy changes favoring the crypto industry, with indications that a full legislative framework in the form of the CLARITY Act is on its way to becoming law. But this hasn’t endeared the crypto industry to voters. Recent polls from Politico show distrust of the crypto industry, and the electorate isn’t sold on the benefits of AI.


“Voters across the ideological spectrum are raising concerns,” Michael Beckel, director of money in politics reform at Issue One, told Cointelegraph. “Some candidates on both sides of the aisle are trying to harness that frustration and outrage.” According to the recent poll by Public First for Politico, most Americans don’t trust crypto and don’t believe in the benefits of AI.

While Republican voters are somewhat more likely to trust crypto, 47% of Americans overall trust a traditional bank over a crypto platform, while 17% trust a crypto platform as much as a traditional bank. The numbers for AI aren’t great either. Some 43% of Americans overall believe that the risks outweigh the benefits, while 33% believe the inverse.

Currently, most people haven’t heard about the major crypto and AI lobbies. According to Politico, only nine percent have heard of AI Super PAC Leading the Future. Only three percent have heard of pro-crypto PAC Fairshake. That’s not much compared to public awareness of large lobbies like the National Rifle Association or the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, which are practically household names. Still, association with crypto could be a problem. Ohio Republican Representative Jim Renacci told Politico, “I do think if they see somebody is backed by crypto, that’s always going to be a problem, because, let’s face it, the people that I talk to in Ohio, they don’t understand crypto, and most say they’re not comfortable with [it].”

Improving awareness around crypto lobbies may not help them much. Rick Claypool, research director at Public Citizen, told Cointelegraph: “Generally speaking, voters are against corporate money influencing politics.” “Even after Citizens United, the norm had been for big, brand-name corporations not to engage directly. Or when they did engage, they would often contribute through dark money groups that obscure their funding source.” In this regard, the crypto industry’s spending spree in 2024 was somewhat unusual. Major contributors like Coinbase or a16z weren’t shy about the millions of dollars they put into campaigns.

But even then, “the voter-facing message from Fairshake was never about crypto, which voters never really cared about.” Mailers and ad buys reflected the supported candidates’ positions more broadly, or sometimes attacked those of the perceived anti-crypto candidate. Overall, “candidates who are seen as not beholden to corporate interests have an electoral edge,” said Claypool. This was true for populist candidates like US Senator Bernie Sanders and even US President Donald Trump, who claimed during his 2016 campaign that “he was so rich he could not be bought, which is laughable in hindsight.”

If awareness about crypto — and crypto’s concerted efforts to influence policy — increases among the electorate, it may not shake out well. Issue One’s Beckel said, “If voters view an industry as toxic, that can have serious implications for candidates who don’t want to be perceived as too close to a controversial company or industry.”

Read more …

If you’re not in the industry or live nearby, how could you know?

• A New Special Interest Coalition for ’26 and ’28, Datacenters (CTH)

A few weeks ago, I was having a politics conversation with a tech insider. The issue of datacenters became a focus of the conversation. The first response from him was “this is the issue that might decide 2026 and will certainly decide 2028.” The tech side of the issue is essentially: As 5G wifi was to mobile connectivity, so too are the datacenters the cornerstone of nationwide AI rollout. Eventually, all of the datacenters will interconnect and become part of a massive information system that houses all knowledge, a great digital brain. From that point, engagement with Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems will become like a public utility.


The datacenters themselves can be a hot button issue as their proximity to people creates friction. Battles against datacenters are taking place in rural and non-rural areas alike. With deep pockets and strong national security arguments involving the “AI race,” the technocrats are currently winning the argument. However, as with all special interest issues, the opportunity for political benefit now determines DC advocacy. WATCH:

What are your thoughts on this issue? Is opposition to datacenters strong enough to tilt the outcome of the 2026 midterms? And do you believe 2028 will be determined with this issue at the forefront?

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/lovetocook12345/status/2060372306308862314?s=20 https://twitter.com/CreasonJana/status/2060427311208386655?s=20

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle May 29 2026

May 292026
 
 May 29, 2026  Posted by at 9:59 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,  34 Responses »


Andy Warhol Judy Garland 1978


• Oil Tumbles On Deal ‘Breakthrough’ As US-Iran Reportedly Reach MOU (ZH)
• Bessent Warns Oman On Hormuz Toll Scheme (ZH)
• DOJ is Not Investigating Trump Accuser, E. Jean Carroll (CTH)
• DOJ Digs Into E. Jean Carroll’s Possible Perjury (Athena Thorne)
• US DOJ Launches Criminal Investigation Into Trump Accuser E Jean Carroll (BBC)
• Why E. Jean Carroll Is Now the Subject of a DOJ Investigation (Matt Vespa)
• Who Was Really Behind E. Jean Carroll’s Bogus Allegations vs Trump (Margolis)
• The Imminent Democrat Party Civil War (Eric Florack)
• Cuba Falling: Desperate Times Call for Desperately Attacking Rubio (Anderson)
• Newsom Vows 100% Tax on Trump ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ Payouts (AmG)
• Judge Clears Trump’s Voter Citizenship Checks And Mail-in Voting (JTN)
• Larry Fink Demands Access to Americans’ Savings, Pension Funds to Bankroll AI (ZH)
• The Medieval Secrets Being Revealed By AI (BBC)

 


 

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2059678446926573899?s=20

 


 


At some point Trump will get tired of dancing the Persian Polka.

• Oil Tumbles On Deal ‘Breakthrough’ As US-Iran Reportedly Reach MOU (ZH)

Oil Tumbles on Reported MOU Breakthrough Per Barak Ravid: “U.S. and Iranian negotiators have reached an agreement on a 60-day memorandum of understanding to extend the ceasefire and launch negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, but President Trump has yet to give it his final approval,” two US officials have told Axios. This could be the hugest diplomatic breakthrough yet, after weeks of stalled talks, but it awaits President Trump’s. “U.S. officials said the deal terms were mostly agreed as of Tuesday, but both sides still needed to get approval from senior leadership,” Axios notes by way of caveat. According to some emerging details from the report:


The U.S. officials claimed the Iranians later came back and said they had the necessary approvals and were prepared to sign. Iran has not confirmed that. The U.S. negotiators briefed Trump on the details of the final deal and he asked to take a few days to think about it. “The president relayed to the mediators that he wants a couple of days to think about it,” a U.S. official said. Key question: is Iran’s high enriched nuclear material part of the MOU? This could put it in jeopardy. Oil tumbles on the headline…

Uranium Transfer to China?
According to Saudi state-funded Al Hadath, Pakistan will present to the US the “transfer of Iranian uranium to Beijing under international supervision.” The report seems unlikely, given it is also worded in such a way as to suggest the scheme originates with Pakistan, as a desperate attempt to keep stalled talks alive. Tehran has never indicated it would contemplate sending its enriched uranium stockpile abroad, even to a ‘friendly’ nation.

Iranian Launch on Kuwait
The government of Kuwait on Thursday has made clear it retains all rights to take measures to preserve its security, following a overnight Iranian missile strike. Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry further condemned the fresh missile and drone attacks on its territory as a serious escalation and “blatant violation of sovereignty and security.” The Iranian launch, which Tehran says targeted a US base in Kuwait, came in response to US bombardment of an Iranian drone base near the southern city of Bandar Abbas which occurred just prior.

In a new statement, US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirms that “At 10:17 p.m. ET on May 27, Iran launched a ballistic missile toward Kuwait that was successfully intercepted by Kuwaiti forces.” “This egregious ceasefire violation by the Iranian regime occurred hours after Iranian forces launched five one-way attack drones that posed a clear threat in and near the Strait of Hormuz,” the US military statement continued. “All drones were successfully intercepted by U.S. forces which also prevented a sixth drone launch from an Iranian ground control site in Bandar Abbas,” it added. “U.S. Central Command and regional partners remain vigilant and measured as we continue to defend our forces and interests from unjustified Iranian aggression.”

Additionally, the Gulf statement strongly condemned the fresh Iranian attack, with the head of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Jasem Mohamed Al-Budaiwi, denouncing it as follows: “The secretary-general pointed out that the continuation of these treacherous attacks is a flagrant violation of the principles of international law, the Charter of the United Nations, and the principles of good neighborliness.” The GCC statement added: “His excellency affirmed the GCC countries’ full support for the state of Kuwait in all measures it takes to preserve its security and stability, and the safety of its citizens and residents,”

A separate statement from Saudi-led Gulf allies further condemned the act of ‘terrorism’ – per Al Aljazeera: The United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have condemned a missile attack on a US airbase in Kuwait with only the UAE expressly naming Iran as responsible for the ‘terrorist’ attacks . In statements shared on social media, the foreign ministries of the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia said they consider the attack a flagrant violation of Kuwait‘s sovereignty, and expressed their countries’ full solidarity with Kuwait and support for all measures it takes to preserve its sovereignty, security and stability.

Two US-Iran Clashes Incidents This Week
This marks the second live-fire attack flare-up this week, after earlier Wednesday Iran fired drones on American and other foreign commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. “American F/A-18, F-16 and F-35 jet fighters shot down the drones, then the F/A-18s hit the ground-control unit before it could launch a fifth drone, one of the officials said,” The Wall Street Journal summarizes of that first incident. State TV released video of the ballistic missile launch targeting a US base in Kuwait:

https://twitter.com/clashreport/status/2059917542458576993

It seems that Iran is asserting some red lines through single, sporadic attacks, when it perceives a US military violation of its sovereignty. WSJ cites the following: The spokesman for the National Security Commission in Iran’s parliament said Trump’s unwillingness to acknowledge that the U.S. and Tehran were still at war was a sign of his weak negotiating position. “Diplomats should not let go of the enemy’s weak point and should impose maximum demands on them,” the spokesman said.

Currently, negotiations are still primarily stuck on the nuclear issue. President Trump has vowed not to let off sanctions pressure until Tehran agrees to dismantle its nuclear program by handing over highly enriched uranium to be transferred off its territory. Iranian officials say this simply will not happen, and that it would be tantamount to handing over the country’s sovereignty. Tehran has insisted the nuclear file must be dealt with after the war is over, and later on down the line.

Read more …

“No, the strait’s got to be opened to everybody, it’s international waters. Nobody’s going to control it. We’ll watch over it, but nobody’s going to control it. That’s part of the negotiation..”

• Bessent Warns Oman On Hormuz Toll Scheme (ZH)

On an official level at least, Oman remains a close strategic partner and key ally of the United States in the Middle East; however, that relationship has been severely strained this month amid apparent Iranian-Omani cooperation regarding a potential toll system for the Strait of Hormuz. This of course flies in the face of the US posture in the region. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is the latest top Trump admin official to chastize Oman: “The United States Government will not tolerate any effort to impose a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz,” he said on X Thursday.


“Oman, in particular, should know that the U.S. Treasury will aggressively target any actors involved – directly or indirectly – in facilitating tolls for the Strait and any willing partners will be penalized,” Bessent continued. “All nations should reject outright any efforts by Iran to disrupt the free flow of commerce. Tehran’s days of terrorizing the region and the world are over. Starting a week ago, official ‘discussions’ between Oman and Iran were widely reported: Iran and Oman have discussed setting up a toll system to charge vessels transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, despite President Trump’s condemnation of charging fees to pass through the waterway.

“Iran and Oman must mobilize all their resources both to provide security services and to manage navigation in the most appropriate manner,” Iranian Ambassador to France Mohammad Amin-Nejad on Wednesday told Bloomberg News, which first reported the talks. Given the country’s geography, in the southeastern Arabian Peninsula, it is likely to play a key role in any final agreement or outcome, in terms of opening Hormuz back up to international maritime transit. Bessent is continuing the pressure campaign soon on the heels of President Trump in somewhat shocking and surprise remarks saying that Oman could come under American military attack if it doesn’t cooperate.

Trump said in the Oval and in front of cameras that the US would “blow up” Oman if it doesn’t “behave”. The serious threat was issued in response to a reporter’s question on whether the US would accept a short-term deal that involved Iran and Oman jointly controlling the Strait of Hormuz. “No, the strait’s got to be opened to everybody, it’s international waters. Nobody’s going to control it. We’ll watch over it, but nobody’s going to control it. That’s part of the negotiation,” Trump told reporters during a cabinet meeting. “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that they’ll be fine,” the president then emphasized.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei sought to explain earlier this week: “There is no toll. We need to pay attention to the words we use. We’re not after money. Iran and Oman need to create protocols for the safe passage of ships, and this will be based on international laws.” But then came the catch: “It’s only natural that the services we provide, like navigation and the preservation of the ecosystem of the Strait, the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman will have costs. These should not be considered tolls. Iran and Oman are being responsible in our efforts and I hope we will reach a conclusion soon,” the spokesman said.

Read more …

I was gathering all these stories, it looked good, everybody jumped on the story, and then Sundance says: none of it is true because “Media Source Changes Story “ You be the judge.

• DOJ is Not Investigating Trump Accuser, E. Jean Carroll (CTH)

CBS has rewritten their storyline as they now claim their “source” has reversed position. Originally, CBS claimed the U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois was investigating the mentally unstable E. Jean Carroll, the woman who falsely accused President Trump of rape sometime approximately 30 or 40-years ago, she’s not sure. Now CBS is reporting their source changed the story and the DOJ investigation is actually into the American Future Republic PAC, which is a non-profit run by Reid Hoffman, the man who funded the fraudulent political lawsuit filed by E. Jean Carroll. A substantive difference in narrative.

[..] Via CBS: On Wednesday evening, a source familiar with the matter told CBS News that the investigation was focused on whether Carroll had committed perjury during a deposition in connection with her civil lawsuits against Mr. Trump in which she alleged he had sexually abused and defamed her. On Thursday, however, that source followed up and said Carroll is not the target of the investigation, which is focused on funding that Hoffman’s nonprofit, American Future Republic, provided to help cover some of her legal team’s expenses.

[.. ] Carroll accused Mr. Trump of sexually abusing her in a New York City department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, and she published an account of the encounter in New York Magazine in 2019. Mr. Trump subsequently denied assaulting her and said Carroll wasn’ t his type. In 2019, Carroll sued Mr. Trump for defamation, but the case stalled in court. She then filed a second defamation lawsuit in 2022, adding a claim of rape under New York‘s Adult Survivors Act.

Carroll sued Mr. Trump in two civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual abuse and defamation. In 2023, a jury found Mr. Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation for comments he made in 2022. Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages. The New York Adult Survivors Act was written by NY legislature specifically to create a legal mechanism for E Jean Carroll to file the lawsuit.

The Adult Survivors Act (ASA) is a New York State law that created a one-year window, from November 24, 2022, to November 24, 2023, allowing adult survivors of sexual assault to file civil lawsuits even if the statute of limitations had expired. {source} The entire purpose of the ASA was to give Ms. Carroll a window to file the lawsuit against President Trump. Her lawsuit was the only one filed during the one-year window. That’s Lawfare in action.

Read more …

For the same reason Mamdani can only be eleccted in New York, this is the only case vs Trump that he lost.

A script straight out of Law and Order.

• DOJ Digs Into E. Jean Carroll’s Possible Perjury (Athena Thorne)

After Donald Trump’s first term as president, during the egregious collective regime of “President” Joe Biden, the left’s legal brigades launched an unprecedented lawfare attack on their political target. In New York City, the prevailing tactic was to attack on the civil side. The reason for this was that the standard of proof is so much lower in a civil trial that victory was assured in a town with judges and juries as leftist as NYC’s.


The tactic was effective. In 2024, N.Y. Attorney General Letitia “Big Tish” James and Judge Arthur Engoron hit pay dirt with a nearly half-a-billion-dollar judgment against Trump for allegedly committing some sort of real estate fraud. A year later, an appeals court tossed the absurd monetary penalty but upheld the fraud finding, including a three-year ban on Trump family members from leading businesses in the state and other major inconveniences to the business powerhouse clan. Trump has turned to New York State’s highest court to overturn the remainder of the flimsy case.

Then there was the E. Jean Carroll rape fantasy (in my opinion — don’t sue me!) involving Trump. In 2019, Carroll released a memoir for some reason, even though I can’t say I’d ever heard of her before then. In it, she accused Trump of unleashing his unbridled lust on her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in either 1995 or 1996. Recall that at that time, Trump was a hugely popular celebrity tycoon in NYC, so it’s conceivable that a grasping nobody might fixate on him — especially an admitted rape fantasist like Carroll.

To publicize her otherwise completely unnoteworthy book, Carroll repeated her Trump fantasy claim in an excerpt in New York magazine. Trump said it never happened and that Carroll was a liar. She sued him for defamation, a suit that got a huge boost a couple years later when the state and a major donor stepped in to push validation of her underlying rape and assault claims. Recall that New York State deliberately suspended the statute of limitations for one year via New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which was conveniently active from Nov. 24, 2022, to Nov. 24, 2023. Carroll filed her suit within minutes of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D, natch) signing the Act into law. Why, it’s almost as if the whole thing was choreographed!

Recall also that LinkedIn co-founder and Democrat megadonor Reid Hoffman pumped $7 million into the legal venture via his American Future Republic nonprofit, which gave the payola to Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, for fees and expenses. When the weaponized prosecution dust had settled, Trump had been found liable for unwanted kissing and digital violation but not rape, and for defamation, for calling Carroll a liar. Judgments against him totaled $83.3 million, because that’s a totally realistic assessment of how much money Carroll would have made, had Trump not defamed her.

Trump is now forced to appeal an otherwise mundane harassment case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to get a fair hearing. But meanwhile, there is a spicy new development. CNN is reporting (much to its chagrin, no doubt) that the DOJ is investigating whether Carroll lied under oath — perjured herself — during her quest to take down Orange Man Bad:The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the former magazine columnist who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

The investigation is focused on whether Carroll committed perjury in testimony tied to her two civil lawsuits against the president – one alleging he sexually abused Carroll in a New York department store in the mid-1990s, and a second for defaming her when in 2019 he repeatedly denied the assault, said she wasn’t his type and claimed she made it up to boost sales of a book. Prosecutors’ theory hinges on a 2022 deposition statement by Carroll, 82, that she received no outside funding for her lawsuit, though it was later revealed that billionaire Reid Hoffman had paid some legal fees and expenses. The crux of the case looks like this:

Senior leaders at the Justice Department referred the investigation to federal prosecutors in Chicago, according to two sources familiar with the matter. While Carroll’s deposition took place in New York, one of the individuals who helped cover some of Carroll’s legal fees, Hoffman, has a nonprofit based in Chicago. Hoffman’s support of the case caught Trump’s attorneys off guard when it came to light on the eve of trial. In a 2022 videotaped deposition, Carroll told then-Trump attorney Alina Habba that no one else was paying for her legal fees. But two weeks before the trial Carroll’s attorneys informed the judge and Trump’s lawyers that they secured funding from Hoffman’s nonprofit.

[..] Anyone with eyes can see that the entire sorry episode should be flushed down the toilet, into the fetid sewer with the husks of other discredited lawfare attacks against Trump, where it belongs.If the Justice Department can prove that Carroll lied under oath — in addition to her lying that Trump raped her, when a New York jury found that he did not — then she is not a credible witness, and her false testimony against a historically great figure collapses.

Not to mention, Carroll herself could be in some trouble. Although there is no minimum required sentence, federal perjury conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 1621 carries up to five years in federal prison and/or a fine — typically up to $250,000 for individuals, but that could also be twice the gain/loss involved. Wouldn’t it be great if the DOJ could try the case somewhere as rigged to the right as NYC is to the left? How funny would it be if Carroll were stuck in the federal slammer for five years and owed $166.6 million?

I know, I know. That’s an absurd fantasy — even more absurd than imagining a billionaire playboy who could have any woman he wanted forced himself upon a flaky columnist in a department store dressing room.

Read more …

Paid-for lawfare. Reid Hoffman.

• US DOJ Launches Criminal Investigation Into Trump Accuser E Jean Carroll (BBC)

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened a criminal investigation into writer E Jean Carroll, who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault, CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, has reported. The investigation is looking into whether Carroll committed perjury in connection with civil cases she brought against Trump, the news outlet quotes sources as saying. Carroll, a former magazine columnist, accused Trump of sexual assault and defamation, and successfully sued him in two cases. Both judgements were upheld on appeal, but Trump has since asked the Supreme Court to overturn the first of them. He has denied the accusations. The BBC has contacted the DOJ and Carroll’s lawyer for comment.


In 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexual assault. He was also found liable for defamation for comments he made the previous year in a post on Truth Social. In that post, he denied Carroll’s claim that she had been attacked by him in the mid-1990s in a New York department store dressing room. A second lawsuit in 2024 found Trump again liable for defamation in connection with comments he made about Carroll in 2019, in which he accused her of making up the claims against him to sell a book. bTrump has appealed to the US Supreme Court to overturn the first judgement, for which he was ordered to pay $5m (£3.7m) to Carroll. He has also vowed to do the same with the other case, in which Carroll was awarded $83m.

The new criminal case is looking into whether Carroll lied when she said in a 2022 deposition that she received no outside funding for her civil lawsuit against Trump, a source told CBS. It was revealed in legal papers first filed by Trump’s lawyers in 2023 that the co-founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, had helped to pay for some of Carroll’s legal fees and expenses. The issue was brought up during the case’s appeal, and the court found that Carroll had “plausibly represented” in her deposition “that she had forgotten about the limited outside funding counsel obtained”.

The “additional discovery… showed that Ms Carroll simply was not involved in the matter of who was or was not funding her litigation costs,” the US Court of Appeals for the Second District continued in a 2024 ruling. The new investigation is being led by the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, one source told CBS. CNN, which first reported the story, reported that while Carroll’s deposition took place in New York, one of the individuals who helped cover some of Carroll’s legal fees, Hoffman, has a non-profit organisation based in Chicago.Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche, who personally represented Trump in the appeal cases against Carroll, is recused from the case, a source told CBS.

Read more …

This may take the Supreme Court. New York as a whole is ferociously anti-Trump.

• Why E. Jean Carroll Is Now the Subject of a DOJ Investigation (Matt Vespa)

E. Jean Carroll is reportedly waiting for her money: President Trump owes her tens of millions in a civil suit he lost years ago, but he has appealed the verdict. He’s asking the Supreme Court to weigh in, his last stand, so to speak. However, Ms. Carroll, who’s never played with a full deck, has some trouble of her own on the horizon: a Justice Department investigation regarding a 2022 deposition. Apparently, she might have perjured herself (via CNN):


The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the former magazine columnist who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The investigation is focused on whether Carroll committed perjury in testimony tied to her two civil lawsuits against the president – one alleging he sexually abused Carroll in a New York department store in the mid-1990s, and a second for defaming her when in 2019 he repeatedly denied the assault, said she wasn’t his type and claimed she made it up to boost sales of a book.

Prosecutors’ theory hinges on a 2022 deposition statement by Carroll, 82, that she received no outside funding for her lawsuit, though it was later revealed that billionaire Reid Hoffman had paid some legal fees and expenses. Carroll’s team declined to comment for this story. Attempts to reach Hoffman on Wednesday were unsuccessful.

Well, that’s quite a shocking development. This woman is one who said “rape was sexy,” which she mentioned during an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. She also said that she couldn’t wait to go on a shopping spree with her civil suit money back in 2024. She’s obsessed with the president and probably the person who most clearly exemplifies what it means to be Trump-deranged.

Read more …

“Carroll, by then a certified celebrity of the anti-Trump resistance, attended a party at writer Molly Jong-Fast’s Manhattan home, a gathering the New York Times described as “Resistance Twitter come to life.”

• Who Was Really Behind E. Jean Carroll’s Bogus Allegations vs Trump (Margolis)

E. Jean Carroll’s rape allegations against President Donald Trump were never credible, and now she’s under investigation by the Department of Justice for perjury. Now, Byron York is digging into the case and has uncovered what could be the most elaborate political setup in history.


Trust me, the picture coming into focus is damning. Carroll has claimed, without any evidence, that Trump raped her sometime in 1995 or 1996. She can’t remember which year. Nothing about her allegations makes any sense. Are we supposed to believe that she simply stayed quiet about it through Trump’s rise to fame and politics, through his 2016 presidential run, and through the wave of #MeToo accusations that dominated the news cycle? Carroll said nothing about it for decades, and her stated reasons range from concern over her elderly Republican mother’s health to worries that speaking out might actually help Trump win key states.

Right. Sure. It wasn’t until 2019 that she came forward with her bizarre allegations. But she didn’t tell the police, she didn’t go to an elected official, or even to a journalist. She chose to disclose it in a book. Why? Because no other option would generate royalties. And Carroll had a history of grifting, too. Before the book even dropped, she was charging admission for her “Most Hideous Men in NYC Walking Tour,” a 90-minute #MeToo landmark stroll through Manhattan. The tour started at the Bergdorf Goodman entrance on 58th Street, which just so happens to be exactly where she claims she first encountered Trump the day of the alleged assault. She had been leading paying groups past that spot before she’d told the world what had supposedly happened there.

Now here’s where the origins of these allegations get genuinely interesting. Carroll, by then a certified celebrity of the anti-Trump resistance, attended a party at writer Molly Jong-Fast’s Manhattan home, a gathering the New York Times described as “Resistance Twitter come to life.” The guest list included George Conway, who apparently advised Carroll to sue Trump for defamation. The case got a critical boost when the New York legislature passed the Adult Survivors Act in 2022, which allowed sexual assault claims to be filed regardless of expired statutes of limitations. Carroll had helped advocate for the bill. The Act went into effect on November 24, 2022, and within hours, Carroll filed a second suit, this time adding a rape allegation in addition to defamation.

As PJ Media previously reported, tech billionaire Reid Hoffman, a virulently anti-Trump donor, bankrolled the whole operation. Yet Carroll testified under oath in October 2022 that no one was paying her legal fees, calling it “a contingency case.” It wasn’t until shortly before the trial that her own attorney wrote to Trump’s legal team admitting that Carroll had “recollected additional information” while preparing for testimony. Trump’s lawyers noted that the “belated disclosure” raised “significant concerns” about Carroll’s “bias and motive.”

Hoffman has some skeletons in his closet, too. In 2018, he had to apologize for funding a group that secretly mimicked Russian disinformation tactics to help a Democrat win an Alabama Senate seat.York’s reporting suggests that a criminal probe is now zeroing in on exactly these origins: the anti-Trump resistance party, the politically motivated lawyers, the billionaire backer, the conveniently timed legislation. What conservatives have been saying for years is now getting the scrutiny it deserves.

Read more …

Fetterman.

• The Imminent Democrat Party Civil War (Eric Florack)

As I said yesterday about all of this: The Democrat party didn’t embrace Platner — it surrendered to him. He’s the last man standing in an organization that has spent years torching its own bench. And Sanders and Warren? Their loyalty isn’t principled — it’s a cold actuarial calculation. They know exactly what Platner is. They’ve run the numbers. Back him and watch the party bleed. Pull him and watch it hemorrhage. These people know that Platner is a suicide pill. They’re just haggling over the dosage. In the end, he’ll go down in flames. The question is, will sanity affect the Democrats after November? I doubt it.


Now, let’s be completely fair about this. Platner has apologized. He’d like you to know he’s evolved. He was going through a hard time. He was young. He was a different person — presumably briefly possessed by a demon who hated women, loved Hamas, and held strong opinions about gratuities, but that demon has since departed, leaving behind the real Graham Platner: the oyster-farming, Bernie-endorsed, $1.5-million-raising Graham Platner, who continues running on many of the same ideas as the demon he’s now trying to distance himself from. Growth! Mmmmph. Well, at least he’s fine-tuned his dance routine.

John Fetterman, meanwhile — a man who served as mayor of Braddock, Pa., nearly died of a stroke, came back to finish his Senate race, and votes with Democrats the overwhelming majority of the time — his own party has treated him like someone who showed up to Thanksgiving in a MAGA hat. His sin? Supporting Israel. Taking border security seriously. Refusing to perform the politically correct emotions on cue. The contrast I’m showing you here doesn’t need spin. It doesn’t need interpretation. It just needs a clear eye. It also needs someone to admit what they see. The Democratic Party leadership of 2026, meanwhile, will make enthusiastic, well-funded, celebrity-endorsed room for a candidate who blamed rape victims, praised terrorists, wore Nazi imagery, and aired his theories about Black people and tipping on Reddit.

But it has spent years signaling — loudly, consistently, personally — that a senator who occasionally wanders off the ideological reservation represents a source of genuine institutional shame. That his stroke is affecting his judgement. Must be because he doesn’t agree with the leadership. Let’s be real, here. This isn’t a party that temporarily lost its way. This is a party that examined its options and chose. Sanders and Warren didn’t miss the Platner stories. They read them, weighed them, and concluded: still our guy. That conclusion tells you more about the modern Democratic left than a thousand position papers ever could.

Maureen Galindo wanted to put Zionists in a castration camp. Voters rejected her Tuesday. The party leadership said nothing. Graham Platner praised Hamas, blamed rape victims, and tattooed a Nazi symbol on his body. He’s the Democratic Senate nominee — with the full-throated backing of progressive royalty and establishment leadership alike. After decades of the left calling anyone to the right of Fidel Castro a Nazi, isn’t it a bit more than passing strange that the Democrat leadership is fully embracing people whose only apparent problem with the guy wearing the funny mustache is that he didn’t finish the job? John Fetterman, meanwhile, bought a hoodie and changed his mind on a couple of issues. Guess which one they are embarrassed by and can’t forgive.

I have little doubt that, once the rank-and-file Democrat voters get hold of all of this, they will take to the voting booths on June 9 and dispatch this Platner creature, just as Texas voters dispatched Gallindo to the category of also-rans. But does the gap between the rank-and-file Democrat voters and the Democrat party leadership — the Democrat establishment, in other words — say anything about the party’s future, at least in the short term? Does it mark a gap between what the Democrat leadership and the voters want? Does it suggest, as I did in the headline of this piece, an upcoming civil war in the Democrat party?

Granted, some might consider calling Sanders and Warren “party leaders” a bit of a stretch. That’s understandable. But then, where are the Democrat leaders denouncing this nonsense? Where is Chuck Schumer? Where is Hakeem Jeffries? Clearly, neither one is offended enough to speak publicly on the subject. Will enough Democrat voters be annoyed enough to stand up against all this? Just as importantly, where does that leave the independent voters, watching all of this from the sidelines? You know — the people who went long for Trump and his coattails in ’24?

Thought of the Day: The people who fought and died in WWII were fighting real Nazis to give you the freedom to call everyone who isn’t a Democrat a Nazi. Meanwhile, the Democrats are warmly supporting people who spout Nazi rhetoric. Make sense to you?

Read more …

“He also pointed out that Rubio wasn’t born in Cuba, which is rich coming from a guy who was born in Mexico. “

• Cuba Falling: Desperate Times Call for Desperately Attacking Rubio (Anderson)

You know they’re in desperate times when the Cuban regime starts sending its mouthy representatives to do interviews on Fox News of all places, hoping to reshape the narrative. The country’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez — and arguably the regime’s slickest mouthpiece — did just that earlier this week, and he went straight after his favorite punching bag: our dear Secretary of State Marco Rubio.


Fun fact: Crooked and communist Latin American leaders love to hate on Rubio because he knows what they’re up to and he’s built a career on not being afraid to call them out. For example, last fall, Nicolás Maduro kept making public pleas to Donald Trump to ignore the secretary and listen to reason — that Rubio would put blood on his hands. Old Bruno’s been saying the same types of things for years, and he used this interview to pile on his previous rhetoric. He especially loves to point out that Rubio going after Cuba is some sort of “personal vendetta,” and I suppose, in a way, it is. But he doesn’t do it just because his parents and grandparents came from there. He does it on behalf the millions of Cubans who were driven away by or falsely imprisoned by or died at the hands of the regime.

Anyway, the Fox News interview was more of the same. Rodríguez accused Rubio of telling lie after lie, saying, “He continuously intends to deceive the public opinion in the U.S., the U.S. Congress, and the international community.” He also pointed out that Rubio wasn’t born in Cuba, which is rich coming from a guy who was born in Mexico.

Rodríguez also complained about the recent charges brought against Raúl Castro (for his role in the murders of three Americans and one United States permanent resident in the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown of 1996), doing his best Claudia Sheinbaum impression, and asking: why do it after 30 years? Of course, Rubio is undeterred by any of this propagandistic chatter. During Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, the president asked the secretary to say a few words on Cuba. He didn’t say anything particularly new, just that we want what’s best for the Cuban people and that having a failed state so close to our shores is a threat to our national security. Agreed.

Rubio mentioned that “we’ll be talking to them. We’re working on it.” But Politico tells a different story. In an article published on Wednesday, it claims the “Pentagon puts building blocks in place for Cuba invasion.” The Pentagon has spent months positioning the troops and weapons needed for the U.S. to launch a military attack on Cuba — all it needs is a final go-ahead from Donald Trump The president has floated an invasion of the island after economic and political pressure failed to topple the Communist government. But the Navy’s built-up presence in the region — the largest in the world outside the Middle East — would allow the U.S. to act immediately.

These strategically placed assets set the table for military action, from a capture of Havana’s leadership much like the seizure of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, to a series of precision strikes. And they open the possibility that the U.S. throws itself into the third international conflict of the Trump administration. While some of Politico’s information comes from anonymous sources, some of it is verifiable, such as the fact that the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group is currently operating in the Caribbean and advanced American drones and surveillance aircraft have been circling the island nation for months.

Trump has been purposely vague about what will happen, when it will happen, how it will happen, and whether there will be military involvement or not. All we know is that he plans to make it happen — the fall of 67 years of “incompetent communism” as Rubio calls it — and he’s floated the idea of it happening after we’ve finished up in Iran. Whenever that might be… So, Politico doesn’t really know much more than anyone else right now. All I know is that the Cuban people can’t wait much longer. Their living situation has become increasingly critical in recent days. Infrastructure is crumbling, making power outages worse. And many of the people want the U.S. to intervene. This brave man stood on the rooftop of a building this week and waved a United States flag without a care about any trouble it could stir up with his commie overlords.

Read more …

What punishment does he want for Liz Cheney?

• Newsom Vows 100% Tax on Trump ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ Payouts (AmG)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that his administration will seek to impose a 100 percent tax on any California residents who receive money from President Donald Trump’s newly created $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund. Speaking to reporters, Newsom denounced the fund as a “slush fund” and pledged to block Californians from financially benefiting from it. “Anyone from California that receives any of those funds, we want to tax 100 percent of those proceeds,” Newsom said during a press conference. “He pardoned all of those folks that were beating up cops and absolved them, providing them 1.776 billion dollars,” Newsom said. “So not only do you get a pardon, you get rewarded. That’s why this is needed.”


The fund was established as part of Trump’s settlement with the Department of Justice stemming from his lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. Trump has described the program as restitution for Americans harmed by what he called politically motivated government actions during the Biden administration. Last week, Trump defended the fund as compensation for people “badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration.” Democrats in several blue states are now attempting to block recipients from keeping any payouts tied to the program.

In New York, Democratic Assemblyman Alex Bores introduced legislation that would similarly impose a 100 percent tax on recipients of the fund. State Sen. Mike Gianaris said Democrats in Albany are pushing to advance the measure before the legislative session ends next week. “There’s widespread, bipartisan agreement that this is baldfaced corruption at its worst and if we have the ability in New York to combat it by ensuring that none of this money benefits anyone in our state’s borders, I’d expect there’d be widespread support for that idea,” Gianaris said. Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey are also drafting similar legislation. State Sen. Andrew Zwicker called the proposal “a brilliant counter move to Trump’s corruption.”

Read more …

IOW: back to normal.

• Judge Clears Trump Voter Citizenship Checks And Mail-in Voting Crackdown (JTN)

A federal judge on Thursday cleared the way for President Donald Trump to implement his executive order tightening mail-in voting, slapping down Democrats’ arguments for now that federal efforts to police voter rolls with citizenship checks was illegal. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointed jurist, ruled that Democrats failed to show they have standing at present to challenge the order or have suffered any harm that would warrant a preliminary injunction.


“Given that the Executive Order does not command Plaintiffs to do anything, and that no agency has yet acted pursuant to the Order in a way that could harm Plaintiffs, they have not suffered any harm at present,” the judge wrote.Nichols rejected several of the Democrats’ arguments that Trump’s executive order could disenfranchise millions of voters, including that creating state-by-state citizenship lists to check voter rolls would somehow be harmful, even if they were inaccurate.

“It remains speculative whether the State Citizenship Lists, if and when they are initially compiled, will contain inaccuracies,” he wrote. “Even if they contain initial inaccuracies, the Executive Order requires the adoption of procedures that will allow individuals to access and, if necessary, update or correct their information in the Lists.” The judge also rejected the notion that the federal government sending information to the states about voters would somehow violate voters’ privacy.

“Plaintiffs fail to demonstrate that such action—that is, the sharing of name, age, and residence information between and among government agencies, if already known to the federal government—would cause a harm sufficient to establish Article III standing,” he ruled.

Read more …

AI requires ALL energy, and ALL money.

• Larry Fink Demands Access to Americans’ Savings, Pension Funds to Bankroll AI (ZH)

Current Sith overlord and aspirational emperor of the galaxy, just a few false flags and manufactured crises away from assuming the throne, Larry Fink, recently appeared at something billed as “National Skilled Trades Day,” hosted by Texas State Technical College in Waco to recruit the electricians he needs to complete the destruction of his AI Death Star. Via Houston Chronicle:


“With data centers booming across Texas and population growth continuing steadily, BlackRock is committing $30 million to train more than 12,000 Texas workers for electrical careers.…Formally announced Wednesday [May 6], National Skilled Trades Day, at an event hosted by Texas State Technical College in Waco. It comes as the state has assumed a central role in the nationwide race to construct data centers to support the growth of artificial intelligence and other data-heavy industries. “The scale of growth underway in Texas demands a workforce ready to build it,” said Larry Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm, in a news release announcing the grants.

The state “sits at the center of America’s infrastructure and energy buildout,” noted BlackRock. Texas’ data center load could more than double by 2028, according to a January report from Bloom Energy, which would give the state about 30% of the United States data center market. The state could become the world’s largest data center market by 2030, according to a February report from JLL, which cited “plentiful land and energy” as a factor fueling Texas’s growth potential. Even before the surge in data center construction began, however, the state was facing a shortage of electricians and electrical workers driven by population growth and rising power demands.

The $30 million in funding for workforce training in Texas is part of the broader $100 million Future Builders initiative BlackRock announced in March, which aims to prepare 50,000 Americans for careers in various skilled trades. The nationwide initiative points to a growing demand for HVAC technicians, plumbers, and ironworkers as well as electricians, across the U.S.” In a portion of his comments, Fink, in need of “trillions” of dollars in capital for AI infrastructure by his own estimation, casually demanded that American workers, per a scheme he pitched as “growing with the United States,” have their pension and 401(k) funds redirected into AI investments.

If you don’t give him all of your retirement money to build his Panoptican Death Machine, Fink explains, Chinese communist robots will rape your daughter… or something. And wouldn’t you rather have your daughter raped, metaphorically, by Larry Fink?nThat’s the patriotic thing. “If we could get more and more Americans to think about growing with the United States, we will have far than enough money to invest in this [AI] infrastructure….The need for electrons is growing every day… If we’re going to be the leader in technology, which we are, if we’re going to be the leader in AI, which we presently are, it’s just going to require trillions of dollars of investments. And if we don’t invest in it, China will be the global leader in this….

To me this is not ‘whether,’ this is a must…. It translates into a more dynamic economy. We need the United States economy to grow at over 2%, we need the U.S. economy to grow at 3%, especially with the growing deficits the federal government has. And so, this money… is going to be coming from the private sector, from savings accounts, from pension accounts, from insurance companies and on and on and on. The whole world is in need of improving infrastructure.”

(Whatever PR firm trained Bill Gates to perform the same effeminate gesticulations and vocal intonations as Bill Gates in order to convey non-threateningness to retarded liberals who view any portrayal of masculinity as inherently toxic apparently also trained Larry Fink.)

Read more …

Smarter than a man.

• The Medieval Secrets Being Revealed By AI (BBC)

Historic messages and documents obscured by incomprehensible ciphers can be found in libraries and archives all over the world. Artificial intelligence is helping historians crack open these mysterious texts. Deep in the archives of the Vatican library, a mysterious hand-written book, scrawled with strange symbols, had lain unread for more than 400 years. Its cryptic pages apparently concealed secret remedies “for affections of the human body”, according to some text scratched inside the cover. Such healing practices were kept under wraps at the time since they could attract suspicion or even accusations of witchcraft.


Known as the Borg cipher, the 408-page-long manuscript is mostly incomprehensible – coded using 34 obscure symbols with a few Roman letters and a front page written in Arabic. There was no known key to reveal what was encrypted. Some of the pages are also damaged due to their age, making the code even more challenging to read. But with the help of machine learning – a form of artificial intelligence – researchers were able to unravel the code. They discovered the text was filled with thousands of bizarre treatments such as drinking several glasses of high-quality red wine or fermenting a nutmeg in some dough to combat dysentery.

“It is like detective work where every symbol, pattern, and partial solution may bring us closer to someone’s secrets and to a lost historical world,” says Beáta Megyesi, a professor in computational linguistics at Stockholm University in Sweden, who was part of the team who decoded the text. Even with the help of AI, the process of unlocking the cipher key was painstaking. Now Megyesi and her colleagues are leading efforts to harness the power of AI to crack historic ciphers, potentially unlocking a wealth of coded information from the past that has previously been uncrackable. According to some estimates, around 1% of the material in archives and libraries around the world is fully or partially encrypted. Some of the earliest known ciphers date back to Ancient Greece and Rome.

The Borg cipher is thought to be around 400 years old and contains a mixture of strange cipher symbols and some Latin script on its 408 pages
(Credit: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana)


Together, coded historic documents conceal diplomatic intelligence, the rituals of secret societies, medical knowledge, love affairs or everyday details that people wanted to keep secret. This is information currently missing from historical narratives. In some cases, decoding these documents has the potential to rewrite what we know about a famous individual or an entire period of history. (One recent cipher to do this were a collection of coded letters that were found to have been written by Mary Queen of Scots during her long imprisonment in England. They revealed her involvement in plots to regain her throne and her tense relationship with her son, James VI of Scotland and future King James I of England.)

Historic ciphers can be relatively simple: the Borg cipher, for example, uses a substitution cipher, meaning that each symbol was swapped with a single Roman letter to hide what was written. Others, however, can be difficult to unravel. In some cases, nothing is known about the original language the uncoded text was written in. Extra, meaningless symbols can also be inserted as a decoy to throw off anyone hoping to snoop on the text. In other cases, several signs can be used to represent the same letter.

This can mean a huge amount of work – often involving trial and error – to decode even a small amount of text. It took Cecile Pierrot, a cryptologist at the French National Institute for Computer Science Research (INRIA) in Nancy, France, and her colleagues six months to gradually unravel the key to a 500-year-old letter from Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, that had been written using 120 different cipher symbols across three pages. (The decrypted letter revealed Charles V – one of the most powerful men of his time – undone by fear of a plot to kill him. The king was terrified that an Italian mercenary warlord serving the French king, Francis I, was about to assassinate him.)

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle May 8 2026

May 082026
 
 May 8, 2026  Posted by at 10:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  28 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon 1907


• US Conducts New Iran Strikes Along Hormuz Corridor (ZH)
• Trump’s ‘Project Freedom’ Paused Following Saudi Arabia Support Withdrawal (CTH)
• First Chinese Tanker Attacked Near Hormuz (ZH)
• AI Models Close To Building a Better Version of Themselves (Rick Moran)
• Medvedev: Russia Must Instill ‘Animal Fear’ In EU Warmongers (ZH)
• Germany Officially Bans all Russian Symbols on May 9th (CTH)
• Dana White Says Society Is Failing Young Men (David Manney)
• Visualizing The Stunning Global Fertility Divide (ZH)
• PM Carney’s Role in Organizing Commonwealth Trump Opposition (CTH)
• Did President Trump Say That in His Outside Voice…(CTH)
• DOJ to Ask Supreme Court to Intervene in E. Jean Carroll Lawsuit vs Trump (ET)
• The Democratic Party Is Dead, Long Live the Jacobins! (Victor Davis Hanson)
• Half of Vienna Secondary School Students Are Now Muslim (RMX)
• ‘Golden Thread of Devotion’: Trump’s National Day of Prayer Message (Salgado)
• The Controversy Over Picasso’s Most Shocking Painting (BBC)

 


 

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2052399407300035009?s=20 https://twitter.com/amyjohsonwh/status/2052100992544780519?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2052136045253407110?s=20 https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2052221470319968631?s=20 https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2052357491279777850?s=20 https://twitter.com/mcafeenew/status/2052117444865732913?s=20

 


 


How to keep the ceasefire intact.

• US Conducts New Iran Strikes Along Hormuz Corridor (ZH)

CENTCOM confirms attack on Iran, and intercept of Iranian retaliation effort: “U.S. forces intercepted unprovoked Iranian attacks and responded with self-defense strikes as U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers transited the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Oman, May 7. Iranian forces launched multiple missiles, drones and small boats as USS Truxtun (DDG 103), USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115), and USS Mason (DDG 87) transited the international sea passage. No U.S. assets were struck.


U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) eliminated inbound threats and targeted Iranian military facilities responsible for attacking U.S. forces including missile and drone launch sites; command and control locations; and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance nodes. CENTCOM does not seek escalation but remains positioned and ready to protect American forces.”

Confirmation of New US Military Attack
Fox News confirming a nighttime US miliary attack on Iran’s Qeshm port and Bandar Abbas, however, with US officials seeking to downplay that this marks a restart of the war and bombing campaign. This comes via Fox chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin: A senior US official tells me that it was a US military strike on Iran’s Qeshm port and Bandar Abbas moments ago but added this is NOT a restarting of the war or end to the ceasefire.

The strike on one of Iran’s oil ports comes two days after Iran fired 15 ballistic and cruise missiles at UAE Fujairah Port, eliciting anger from Gulf countries after top Pentagon leaders said Tuesday that the Iranian strikes did not rise to the level of breaking the ceasefire, calling it low level attacks that didn’t rise to that level. There have been allegations of UAE involvement. Since the initial explosions, more follow up blasts have been reported via state media, along with some emerging images:

US CONDUCTED STRIKES THURS IN THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ AREA: AXIOS
IRAN CLAIMS IT FIRED MISSILES AT THREE US DESTORYERS: TASNIM

Further emerging images: https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2052500450914762802
Read more …

“The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) wants a complete and final elimination of the threat Iran represents. They do not believe Iran can be negotiated out of that threat. The GCC view negotiations as an Iranian delay tactic. “

“.. the Saudi’s and GCC have been dealing with this extremist threat for decades. They are unwilling to compromise in order to give space for negotiations they view as futile.”

“Saudi Arabia and the GCC view Iran as an existential threat that cannot be dealt with diplomatically and they do not trust any negotiation.”

• Trump’s ‘Project Freedom’ Paused Following Saudi Arabia Support Withdrawal (CTH)

In recent developments President Trump’s ‘project freedom’ operation to open the Strait of Hormuz for captured shipping interests has been paused following Saudi Arabia’s withdrawal of support and their revocation of Saudi air bases for U.S. operations. The issue behind the Saudi decision is not that complicated if you understand the longer-term background. However, the issue behind the Saudi decision also highlights a key flaw in the Promethean analysis of the relationship (and the reason I caution everyone to sip slowly from this information source).


The cliff notes version is that Saudi Arabia and many of the Gulf States look at the negotiations between President Trump and Iranian interests with skepticism. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) wants a complete and final elimination of the threat Iran represents. They do not believe Iran can be negotiated out of that threat. The GCC view negotiations as an Iranian delay tactic. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salmon, the main voice in the GCC position, has clear eyes and a long historic view on the threat Iran represents. They accept the people in control of the Iran regime will do and say anything to pause or remove the military confrontation; but they will never stop building the arsenal for war. There is zero, absolutely zero trust in anything the Iranians say on this matter.

As a consequence, Saudi Arabia understands the intent of President Trump’s request to support ‘project freedom’, however Saudi Arabia is not going to accept continued missile attacks from Iran during this ‘humanitarian’ effort to reopen the Strait. [Remember, this is also a Muslim Brotherhood issue. The Brotherhood is the political network behind extremist Islam.] President Trump is asking Saudi Arabia and the GCC states to view the continued Iranian attacks as small slights, small provocations, while he diplomatically tries to negotiate with the Iranian regime. MbS and the GCC are unwilling to take this position, to accept these continued attacks against their nations, simply to give President Trump the political benefit of his policy.

Again, the Saudi’s and GCC have been dealing with this extremist threat for decades. They are unwilling to compromise in order to give space for negotiations they view as futile. The U.S. can use all Saudi support venues to confront Iran militarily, but they are not going to support the political and diplomatic effort behind ‘project freedom’ while they are simultaneously expected to accept continued attacks from Iran. NBC News reported that Saudi Arabia revoked U.S. access to its bases for Project Freedom, a mission to safeguard the Strait of Hormuz from Iranian threats. A call between Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman failed to resolve the dispute, forcing the administration to pause the operation. Political commentators described the move as a significant strategic loss for the U.S. in the Gulf region.

Essentially, the U.S. cannot say to the GCC: Please open your skies and bases, thereby exposing their energy infrastructure, only for everyone to discover afterwards the actual American policy was apparently: Oh by the way, if Iran attacks you with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones in several waves, we won’t retaliate because we are chasing a negotiated deal. And this is exactly what shocked the Saudis.

It was not the issue of the Iranian attack; after all, the UAE/GCC expect retaliation , this is Iran; no one in the Gulf is naive about that. The shock came from the American reaction after the attacks against the GCC. Attacks against Emirati infrastructure, Fujairah was targeted, multiple waves involving drones, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles. And from their perspective Washington’s response was basically: “Meh. Minor incident. Let’s not escalate.” Minor incident?! From the perspective of the GCC this is madness. Thus, they withdraw support.

This is where it becomes critical to understand the position of the GCC as it relates to well over a decade of this Muslim Brotherhood/Iran extremist activity. It is not President Trump who triggered the GCC assembly to fight this radical Islamic extremism, a bastardized view of authentic Islam, it was Egypt and the GCC who have been confronting this stuff since President Obama triggered the “Arab Spring”. Long before President Trump took office in 2017, Egyptian President Fattah al-Sisi had confronted the Muslim Brotherhood and assembled a coalition of mid-east partners to address this Islamist threat. Sisi went to see King Salmon (MbS dad) first, to get his support. Egypt then assembled Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan to confront Qatar, who was the bankers for the Muslim Brotherhood.

The GCC with all stable Arab state support then economically and diplomatically boycotted and isolated Qatar. The Qataris finally acquiesced to the pressure and in September 2014 the exiled leaders from the Muslim Brotherhood who were living in Qatar were sent to Turkey.

Read more …

China is not in first row.

• First Chinese Tanker Attacked Near Hormuz (ZH)

There have certainly been escalating tensions in the Strait of Hormuz this week amid a wave of Iranian attacks on commercial ships after a U.S. military effort to escort merchant vessels through the maritime chokepoint. By midweek, tensions had simmered, and Iran is still reviewing a 14-point U.S. proposal to end the war, with Tehran expected to send its response to Pakistani mediators later today. President Trump said talks with Iran have been “very good” and suggested a deal remains possible. Iran’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the U.S. proposal is still under review.


But when chaos erupted on the world’s most critical waterway at the beginning of the week, a new report said that a large refined-products tanker owned by a Chinese shipowner was attacked off the UAE’s Al Jeer port on Monday, according to Reuters. Beijing-based business media outlet Caixin reported that the vessel’s deck erupted in flames after the attack. The outlet noted the vessel was marked “CHINA OWNER & CREW.” A shipping industry source told Caixin that this was the first time a Chinese tanker was hit in the three-month-long war, calling it “psychologically very hard to accept.”

Shortly after the Chinese tanker was attacked, it became clear why, two days later on Wednesday, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for the swift reopening of the Hormuz chokepoint. “The international community shares a common concern for the restoration of normal and safe passage of the strait,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Iran’s Abbas Araghchi, according to an official Chinese statement. “China hopes that the parties concerned will respond to the strong appeal of the international community as soon as possible.” China’s urgency to resolve the highly disrupted Hormuz chokepoint comes just over a week before President Trump flies to Beijing to meet with President Xi Jinping.

The big question is whether China will cooperate with the U.S. to end the conflict and reopen the Strait, as much of the tanker flow through this critical waterway is destined for Asia, and the disruption has led to fuel shortages and soaring prices of crude oil and related products in the region. “China likes to present itself as a great stabilizing force in the world, but imagine if they had a genuine diplomatic achievement, such as brokering the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, as proof of that,” Richard McGregor, senior fellow at the Lowy Institute, told Bloomberg.

He noted that some in Beijing would advocate for using the moment to “squeeze some concessions out of the US” on issues such as Taiwan. The first Chinese tanker attacked in the U.S.-Iran conflict, as well as the upcoming Trump-Xi summit, might be the catalysts for the international community to pressure Iran into a peace deal with the U.S. Meanwhile, a French aircraft carrier is transiting through the southern part of the Suez Canal and into the Red Sea, preparing to restore Hormuz tanker flows.

Read more …

They seem confused. I always thought that would be the issue. Why would there be humans involved?

• AI Models Close To Building a Better Version of Themselves (Rick Moran)

“My prediction is by the end of 2028, it’s more likely than not that we have an AI system where you would be able to say to it: ‘Make a better version of yourself.’ And it just goes off and does that completely autonomously,” Jack Clark, who heads The Anthropic Institute, told Axios. Clark, co-founder of Anthropic, says his institute is seeing signs of “AI contributing to speeding up the research and development of AI itself,” a process known as recursive self-improvement. nClark adds, “It’s always been the case that humans outside the technology need to come up with the ideas that they then put back into it. What happens if we have a technology that can generate ideas within itself for how to improve itself? That’s a new concept.”


Too fast, too soon. The speed with which AI systems are evolving is far outstripping our ability to gauge the impact on humans and society. Lots of good things can happen in medicine, biology, and other sciences where AI is already making a big impact. The speed and autonomy of artificial intelligence models promise an abundant future. Or something totally unforeseen. “What do you do with a tremendous amount of growth or a tremendous amount of abundance in many, many different fields of science all at once?” Clark asked. “Today’s institutions have very, very narrow pipes through which you push new drug candidates. How do you massively broaden the size of those pipes in advance of this abundance?”

We don’t even know how much we have to broaden those “pipes,” nor can we foresee whether or not the act of broadening them might pose other critical problems. Too fast. Too soon. It’s like dealing with Russian Matryoshka dolls, or nesting dolls, which separate in the middle to reveal a smaller figure of the same sort inside, which, in turn, has another figure inside it, and so on. Each improvement of AI presents its own set of challenges that need to be addressed before opening the next doll. You can’t open the next doll without fully understanding the significance of the doll you’re working with.

“The motivation has always been: Tell the whole story,” Clark told Axios. “Sometimes that means that we talk about risks that we’re worried about. Sometimes that means that we’re going to talk about amazing, hitherto uncontemplated amounts of abundance.… I’m just trying to get ahead of what I think of as the next big question and get Anthropic ahead of that.” Anthropic’s Research Agenda is looking to get ahead of the AI learning curve. Axios: “The five-page document warns of a possible “intelligence explosion” — long a theoretical term confined to AI safety circles. Now it’s in writing, in an official Anthropic document.”

Clark told us an intelligence explosion is when AI systems suddenly start improving at blinding speed. Lots of bad things can happen (cyber meltdowns and biological attacks). And lots of good: “What do you do with a tremendous amount of growth or a tremendous amount of abundance in many, many different fields of science all at once?” he asked. “Today’s institutions have very, very narrow pipes through which you push new drug candidates. How do you massively broaden the size of those pipes in advance of this abundance?”

What’s new: The Anthropic Institute is part research arm, part early-warning system, with an agenda built alongside Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust. Clark certainly has an optimistic outlook for AI and its impact on humanity. He asks if AI is building itself, will we need AI companies in the future? “We and the other companies are going to be taking this technology and trying to get it to do good in the world,” Clark told Axios. “To help push forward things like biology or medicine or robotics… To steer that technology into domains where it’s really, really, really hard to make progress, like cancer research.” What we’re looking at today are earnest, altruistic efforts to protect society from the potential ravages of uncontrolled AI. Any system capable of acting autonomously is a threat to humanity. It’s good that Jack Clark recognizes that, but do the Chinese see it that way? The Russians? Other AI companies?

This is the reasoning behind my observation that AI development is already close to being out of control. Even well-meaning geniuses like Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Jack Clark aren’t able to gauge all the ramifications of their creations. How could they? The industry is moving at light speed. Some of it is healthy competition, the kind of innovation that America does best. But in the rush to be best, are we sacrificing safety? The tech giants don’t think so, but I’m not as confident. It’s too easy for humans to confuse their own self-interest with what’s best for all. History is replete with examples of people acting in their own selfish interests while believing they were acting for the greater good.

Read more …

“.. if broader conflict with Europe opens one day, the European powers won’t be able to find an offramp before absorbing immense losses ../”

• Medvedev: Russia Must Instill ‘Animal Fear’ In EU Warmongers (ZH)

Head of the Russian Security Council and former president, Dmitry Medvedev, has penned an article ahead of the 81st anniversary of Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, or Russia’s V-Day, lambasting Europe’s new path of reckless militarization. As widely featured in state media, he argued that the “animal fear” of unacceptable losses will prevent Germany and the wider “United Europe” from launching another attack against Russia. He wrote, “It is no secret that an attempt is being made to impose on us the doctrine of ‘peace through strength’. Our response then can only be ‘the security of Russia through the animal fear of Europe.'” He stressed that “neither persuasion, nor demonstration of good intentions, nor goodwill and unilateral confidence-building steps should be our tools to prevent a big massacre.”


“Only the formation of an understanding among Germany and the United Europe supporting it of the inevitability of their receiving unacceptable damage in the event of the implementation of the Barbarossa 2.0 plan,” Medvedev concluded. RT reviews and pinpoints why Medvedev is taking direct aim at Berlin in his written piece: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz openly vowed to turn the German military into the “strongest conventional army in Europe” in a speech just days after the world marked the 80th anniversary of the fall of the Third Reich last May.

Last month, the German Defense Ministry unveiled a plan to reach this goal and field 460,000 combat-ready personnel by 2039, the 100th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland. German and other EU officials repeatedly cited 2029 as the first stage deadline to be “war-ready” for a potential conflict with Russia. It is true that even after 4+ years of grinding war in eastern Europe, the Western powers have yet to intervene directly by sending their own forces, and after losses on both the Ukrainian and Russian sides have probably been in the hundreds of thousands.

The conflict is largely stalemated, with Russian forces in the east having had a very slow but steady, piecemeal momentum over the past year. However, Ukraine’s drone strikes deep inside Russia have been devastating of late, inflicting serious damage on Russian oil refineries – in some cases hitting key sites multiple times, with Russia’s anti-air defenses appearing powerless to stop these attack waves.

The Moscow region itself has been coming under repeat drone attack. While these operations have little or no impact on the frontline situation in the Donbass, Kiev hopes to inflict serious costs on the Russian government and population, the latter which is surely growing tired and weary of the war. But Medvedev’s point is also that if broader conflict with Europe opens one day, the European powers won’t be able to find an offramp before absorbing immense losses – no matter their efforts to revamp and expand their respective defense industries.

Read more …

Playing politics over 22 million dead bodies 80 years later is bizarre. They know how much it hurts the Russians.

“It is a time when the nation collectively reflects on its history, pays tribute to those who sacrificed their lives, and celebrates the enduring spirit of its people.”

• Germany Officially Bans all Russian Symbols on May 9th (CTH)

Something is going to happen, I’m not entirely sure what it is, but something is going to happen on May 8th and 9th as Russia pauses the conflict with Ukraine to celebrate one of their most treasured holidays, Victory Day. My spidey senses are telling me, Ukraine and the EU are planning something very controversial to coincide with this national holiday in the Russian Federation. Germany has done this before, but this time with President Trump pulling back from NATO, this year holds a different context.


GERMANY – Berlin police published an administrative order on 6 May restricting freedom of assembly and access to public spaces in the areas around three Soviet war memorials from 06:00 on 8 May until 22:00 on 9 May. In the restricted zones of the Treptow-Köpenick, Mitte and Pankow districts, the wearing of military uniforms and insignia is prohibited, as is the display of the letters Z and V, St George’s ribbons, flags and items bearing Russian symbols, flags of the USSR, Belarus and the Chechen Republic, and portraits of their leaders, as well as depictions of Ukraine that exclude its occupied territories.

Russian military and marching songs – including all versions of Sacred War – are also banned, along with any actions that glorify Russia’s war against Ukraine. The ban applies to everyone present in the restricted areas, regardless of whether they are participating in demonstrations or not. (more) May 9, celebrated as Victory Day, is one of the most significant and heartfelt holidays in Russia, symbolizing resilience, unity, and remembrance. This day honors the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. It is a time when the nation collectively reflects on its history, pays tribute to those who sacrificed their lives, and celebrates the enduring spirit of its people.

The Russian people, ordinarily invisible regular people, take historic photographs of their loved ones lost in World War II and prominently display them. Some cities and towns have marches where citizens carry those photographs during slow processions in silence. It is something rather remarkable to see and highlights a strong bond to remember just how many millions of Russians were killed during the great war. It is more than just a day of respect, national pride and remembrance. It is a day that encapsulates the deliberate and hardened spirit of a nation. Nothing is open. The entire Russian Federation pauses to reflect on the character that defines what the word “Russian” really means. These are brutally stoic, deliberate and honest people; gifted culturally and generationally with an inability to pretend.

To the West they seem hard, but that’s not really what it is. In reality, Western cultures are enmeshed with polite indulgences that are foreign to the average Russian person. We take things for granted; they do not. We forget how good we have it, they see it. However, Russia also sees the downside to political correctness running amok, DEI and other gender-‘isms’ that create pretenses that ultimately become cultural rot and vulnerabilities.

Russians like the concept of Western ‘freedom’, yet they do not quite understand it because Russians do not respect the visible self-flagellation and suicide mission that seemingly accompanies the freedom they perceive. Do not ever fall into the trap of romanticizing Russia, it is a hard and unforgiving culture difficult for most because Russians do not accept false politeness, nor do they respect weakness. They are very deliberate; unnervingly so, and that makes them cold. I’ve said all that to emphasize the importance of his Victory Day holiday throughout the Russian Federation. This is not a day to disrespect Russia.

I’m not sure what snarky Zelenskyy and the cunning coalition of the willing have planned, but if they trigger a provocation that at this point seems predictable – they might not like the Russian response. Then again, that’s likely the goal. The ‘coalition of the willing’ want to force President Trump to remain actively engaged and on their side. Zelenskyy and his EU team are willing to provoke, then take, a massive counterstrike from Vladimir Putin against Kiev if that’s what it takes to keep the U.S. military engaged and aligned.= The Ukraine meat grinder must remain satiated in order for the EU power structures to remain in place. This is a dangerous moment.

Read more …

“You know who taught me to hold a door for women? My mother, the strongest person I’ve ever known.”

• Dana White Says Society Is Failing Young Men (David Manney)

Dana White touched some nerves this week when he mocked modern concerns over toxic masculinity and warned that society is increasingly pushing young men aside. Cue the shrieks in 3…2…1…0 White’s broader point, however, resonated with millions of Americans who see young men struggling socially, economically, and emotionally while much of modern culture (read: feminazis) treats masculinity itself like a behavior problem needing correction. White appeared on The Katie Miller Podcast, where the host and wife of Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, asked him about the state of young men and women in America today.


White went on to argue that young men are struggling with a wildly different set of circumstances than the ones he grew up with. “Times are changing from when I was young,” he said. “These young men, I think, you know, we went through COVID and the whole woke era and all the weird s— that went on during that period. A lot of the young males felt displaced.” The UFC president noted that he often gets accused of outlandish things like “being the head of the manosphere, whatever that means” and of “toxic masculinity.”

Around 12 years ago, I ran into such a proud feminist who started to rip me a new one because I held a door open for her. I let her go for about five seconds before laying some truth on her, saying, “You know who taught me to hold a door for women? My mother, the strongest person I’ve ever known.” It stopped her cold. Maybe because of what I said, but I really think it’s because of how I said it. My guess was that she was used to rolling over men trying to be polite. For years, political activists, academics, and media commentators have used phrases like “toxic masculinity” to describe aggressive, destructive, or antisocial male behavior.

So when White opines on what manhood supposedly is or isn’t, it offers insight into the perspective of some men in the MAGA movement, which is deeply obsessed with performative masculinity. That’s why I found it pitiful to see him publicly berating men who openly discuss their mental health. White delivered his commentary, fittingly, on the podcast of MAGA influencer Katie Miller, who is married to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. White, after saying it’s a “man’s job” to make sure a woman feels “safe” and is “treated right,” admitted that his idea of masculinity is “toxic” and railed against men who talk about their feelings.

And that’s fair; real abuse, violence, and recklessness deserve criticism regardless of gender. Problems start when the conversation expands so broadly that ordinary masculine traits begin falling under suspicion too. Competitiveness becomes dangerous, stoicism becomes unhealthy, physical toughness becomes outdated, and leadership becomes problematic. Even fatherhood sometimes gets discussed less as a social necessity and more as an optional accessory. Young men notice.

Many of them also notice who usually delivers the lectures. Discussions surrounding masculinity often happen in universities, activist circles, corporate HR departments, entertainment panels, and political spaces where traditional male culture receives little respect. Blue-collar values, physical labor, risk-taking, hunting, mechanical trades, competitive sports, and military service were, for years, increasingly viewed through a skeptical culture lens instead of being treated as honorable parts of society.

White’s comments gained traction partly because he works inside one of the few major industries where unapologetic masculinity still openly exists. The UFC built an audience around discipline, competition, toughness, accountability, and merit. Fighters either win or lose, and excuses carry little value once the cage door closes. Many cultural leaders still respond by doubling down on criticism instead of asking why so many young men feel disconnected from institutions increasingly dominated by ideological messaging. Could it be that those institutions have been increasingly hostile in their ideological messaging?

Read more …

Africa it is then.

• Visualizing The Stunning Global Fertility Divide (ZH)

A widening gap is emerging in global birth rates.nThis chart, via Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, shows population-weighted total fertility rates (TFR) across major world regions, based on data from the UN World Population Prospects 2024 Revision, and how they compare to the 2.1 replacement level. While Africa remains far above this threshold, most of the world, including Asia, Europe, and the Americas, has already fallen below it. This split highlights where future population growth is likely to be concentrated.

Africa Stands Apart
Africa’s fertility rate of 4.0 children per woman is the highest of any region. It is nearly double the global average of 2.2 and close to three times Europe’s rate of 1.4. With a rapidly growing population base, Africa is expected to drive a significant share of global population growth in the coming decades. Higher fertility rates are often linked to younger populations, lower urbanization, and differences in access to education and healthcare.

Below Replacement in Most Regions
Many parts of the world now have fertility rates below the replacement level of 2.1. Asia, North America, and South America each sit at 1.7, while Europe trails at 1.4. These levels point to aging populations, slower natural population growth, and potential workforce pressures over time. In many countries, immigration and family-support policies are becoming more important parts of the demographic outlook.

Population Weight Matters
Asia accounts for 54% of the global population, meaning its relatively low fertility rate has an outsized influence on the global average. By contrast, regions like Oceania and the Middle East have higher fertility rates but much smaller populations. This helps explain why the global average remains at 2.2 even as most major regions fall below replacement.

Read more …

They hope if they get together they can take him. But even then…

• PM Carney’s Role in Organizing Commonwealth Trump Opposition (CTH)

Susan Kokinda of Promethean Action PAC does a great job with this video presentation of how Canada is the tip of the spear in how the EU and Commonwealth are trying to undermine President Trump. In the background, this is where it becomes important for President Trump and President Putin to organize a strategic alliance.


“As attention focused on President Trump’s Iran breakthrough, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met European and Commonwealth leaders in Armenia and said the rules-based international order is over, arguing it will be rebuilt out of Europe around Canada, the EU, the UK, and Australia. The episode frames this as a rival power center consolidating against Trump’s America, then highlights Carney’s appointment of Louise Arbour as Canada’s Governor General, emphasizing the office’s powers and Arbour’s role as a UN tribunal prosecutor and advocate for creating the International Criminal Court, alongside references to George Soros’s Open Society support for the ICC and Jack Smith’s work there.

The script then covers a Trump administration press conference on beef, citing declining cattle numbers, ranch losses, and consolidation among four meatpackers controlling 85% of processing, and links this to decades of cartelization and foreign influence in food and commodities.”

Read more …

“.. drugs coming in by sea are down 97% and now we’ve started the land force, which is much easier.”

• Did President Trump Say That in His Outside Voice…(CTH)

During a White House event to celebrate Moms, President Trump introduced several prominent Moms in and out of government and celebrated their achievements. As he often does, President Trump also delivered unscripted remarks to accompany the themed script of the event.


I’m highlighting one specific impromptu, off the cuff remark that deserves a little attention. I’m certain somebody around Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum will also bring it to her attention. The moment happens at 35:51 of the video below. Watch (prompted):

…”drugs coming in by sea are down 97% and now we’ve started the land force, which is much easier. And you’ll hear some complaints from some people in, like, representatives from Mexico and other places, but if they’re not going to do the job, we’re going to do the job and they understand that.”…

Last week the DOJ indicted Mexican Governor Ruben Rocha Moya along with nine current and former Mexican officials for participating “in a corrupt and violent drug trafficking conspiracy with the Cartel to import massive amounts of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine from Mexico into the United States.”

Keep in mind, while the U.S. media are not reporting on the issue; however, every ground report indicates that indicted Sinaloa Cartel Governor Ruben Rocha is being protected in an undisclosed location by the Mexican National Guard. Essentially, the Mexican military is protecting an indicted drug trafficker and politician in Mexico, while avoiding extradition to the U.S. That’s further context for President Trump’s remarks.

Read more …

The one piece of lawfare they pushed through. Based on the script for a cop show.

• DOJ to Ask Supreme Court to Intervene in E. Jean Carroll Lawsuit vs Trump (ET)

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to allow it to intervene in President Donald Trump’s appeal of the $83.3 million jury award E. Jean Carroll won against him in a defamation lawsuit.The DOJ will ask the Supreme Court to substitute the United States for Trump in the lawsuit, arguing that in 2019, during his first term as president, when Trump denied Carroll’s sexual assault claims against him, he was acting as an employee of the government.


Assistant U.S. Attorney General Brett Shumate said in a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on May 5 that the DOJ will invoke the federal Westfall Act in a bid to substitute the federal government for Trump as the defendant in the lawsuit. The appeals court previously denied the request to replace Trump as the defendant. The DOJ argues that Trump is immune from suit because he was acting within the scope of his presidential duties and speaking on matters of public concern when he made the statements about Carroll that led to the $83.3 million verdict. A federal jury ordered Trump to pay those damages over the statements in which he denied the sexual assault allegations and accused Carroll of lying.

The Westfall Act shields federal employees from common law tort lawsuits arising from their government employment. Common law refers to the body of law developed over centuries by court rulings, as opposed to statutes passed by legislatures. A tort is a wrongful act or infringement of a right that gives rise to civil liability. If a federal employee is sued in his individual capacity for a tort that occurred while he was acting within the scope of his employment for the government, the act states that “the United States shall be substituted as the party defendant,” and the court will dismiss the employee from the lawsuit.

Carroll, an author, testified during a 2023 trial that Trump attacked her around 1996 in a dressing room in a department store near Trump Tower in New York City. Trump denied the allegations. In its May 2023 verdict, a federal jury held Trump liable both for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her when he made statements in October 2022 denying her allegations. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages. The Second Circuit upheld both the $5 million verdict and the $83.3 million verdict on appeal.

Shumate urged the Second Circuit to stay the award, noting that the DOJ intends to file a petition with the Supreme Court challenging the circuit’s denial of a request to substitute the government as defendant in the lawsuit. The Epoch Times reached out to Carroll’s attorney, Roberta A. Kaplan, for comment. No reply was received by publication time. Separately, on May 5, Trump asked the Second Circuit to stay the award to give him time to prepare an appeal to the Supreme Court over the circuit court’s rulings. Trump previously filed a petition with the Supreme Court in November 2025 to challenge the $5 million verdict. It is unclear when the high court will act on it.

Read more …

“Today’s Democratic Party has abandoned its traditional working-class, patriotic roots and embraced a radical Jacobin ideology built on division, coercion, and political extremism.”

There’s nowhere to go to for millions of votes.

You can’t just switch to GOP, and the Dems are stark raving loonies.

• The Democratic Party Is Dead, Long Live the Jacobins! (Victor Davis Hanson)

For the past century, the agendas of the Democratic Party were predictable. They professed concern for working Americans and supported blue-collar unions. Unemployment insurance, a 40-hour work week, disability insurance, and Social Security were their trademarks—often rapidly achieved by growing government bureaucracies and continually raising taxes. Still, many Democrats were socially conservative. By the 1970s, Democrats still deplored antisemitism. Party officials had rejected their own segregationists to champion civil rights. Presidents like Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy all supported strong defense and military deterrence. All that is now passé.


The only vestigial Democrat left in Congress is Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, himself roundly despised by Democrat leaders. Today, supporting Israel and calling for campuses to stop their institutionalized antisemitism is Democratic political suicide. Forty years ago, any Democrat with a Nazi tattoo was political toast; today, he can become the party’s nominee for the Maine Senate race. So, the current Democrat Party is no longer truly democratic at all. Its new spirit and methods resemble the radical Jacobin Party of the French Revolution. Today, Democrats claim that if any opponent gives a Roman salute, he is a Nazi—while insisting that one of their own with a Nazi tattoo is not.

Jacobinism rejects Martin Luther King Jr.’s emphasis on the “content of . . . character.” It instead prefers fixating on “the color of . . . skin.” It aims to divide the nation arbitrarily between the noble oppressed and the toxic oppressors. So these new Jacobins have institutionalized racially separate college dorms and graduation ceremonies, along with hiring and promoting on the basis of race. The new Jacobins destroyed the southern border and welcomed in 10–12 million illegal aliens, seen as a future proletariat constituency. Today’s Jacobins would now ridicule Bill Clinton’s 1990s calls for secure borders and an end to illegal immigration as “fascist” and “racist.”

The most recent nihilist developments in American society can be attributed to these Jacobin “Democrats”: biological men competing in women’s sports; critical legal theory that normalizes cashless bail; race-based reparations; violent felons arrested and back on the street hours later; radical abortion on demand until birth; attacks on the concept of the cultural “melting pot”; and opposition to organized Christianity. These agendas lack broad majority support. So street theater and violence focus on Tesla dealerships, ICE officers, conservative campus speakers, and, at times, any journalists covering the unrest. Jacobins make excuses for pro-Hamas campus violence, which often targets Jewish students. The often violent and corrupt Black Lives Matter movement was a Jacobin ancillary.

Free speech is labeled “disinformation” and “misinformation”—synonyms for not toeing the Jacobin Party line. Until recent pushbacks, near-religious radical green agendas warred against fossil fuels and cost the working classes billions of dollars for sky-high fuel and electricity costs. Like the Robespierre brothers of old, the most radical Jacobins are so often to be found among the wealthiest and most privileged Americans. Radical New York mayor Zohran Mamdani grew up as a rich Ugandan. Radical, self-described communist Maine senatorial candidate Graham Platner attended one of the most elite and expensive prep schools in the United States. When avowed socialists Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders barnstormed the country, they did so via private jets.

Radical “Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar cannot decide whether she is worth $30 million or nothing. Hard-left California billionaire, gubernatorial candidate, and radical environmentalist Tom Steyer is a billionaire who jump-started his fortune by investing in coal plants overseas and offshoring profits to avoid taxes. At least 10 states are drafting laws to tax the net worth, as well as the income, of “billionaires and millionaires,” apparently for their “social” crimes. Mayor Mamdani taps on the window of philanthropist Ken Griffin as a warning to get out of town. The mayor of Seattle scoffs at the rich leaving her state with their billions due to new punitive taxes, offering a sarcastic “bye.”

In the old days, Democrats were embarrassed by their radicals and distanced themselves from the Weather Underground, Students for a Democratic Society, and the Black Panthers. Today, left-wing bomb throwers are the Democrat Party. Hasan Piker, another multimillionaire, $200,000 Porsche-driving communist, has openly supported “social murder.” So Piker praised Luigi Mangione’s targeted murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Meanwhile, Jacobins on social media expressed disappointment that all three assassination attempts on Donald Trump failed. The arsonist who burned down Pacific Palisades was a Mangione acolyte and saw his destruction as a revolutionary act, perhaps a form of mass “social murder.”

Jacobin politicians call for Trump to be “eliminated,” label him as a “fascist,” and call for “any means necessary” to end his presidency. The aim is to lower the social and psychological barrier to violence. The Jacobin Democrats of today are systematically destroying the legacy of the Democratic Party. And why not? Their model is not the American Founding, but the radical mandated equality—and violence—of the French Revolution.

Read more …

It is scary.

• Half of Vienna Secondary School Students Are Now Muslim (RMX)

Almost half of students in Vienna’s public middle schools are now Muslim, according to new figures from the Vienna Education Directorate, marking the latest sign of a rapid demographic and cultural shift inside the Austrian capital’s classrooms. The data, cited by Heute, shows that Muslim students account for 49.4 percent of children in Vienna’s public middle schools — just short of an absolute majority. Across the city’s public compulsory schools more broadly, including elementary, middle, special needs, and polytechnic schools, Muslim students now make up 42 percent, up from 41.2 percent in the previous school year.


Catholic students, once the dominant group in the city, now account for just 16.7 percent of children in the public schools included in the figures. Orthodox students make up 14.2 percent, while children with no religious affiliation account for 23.2 percent. The figures also reveal a stark divide between Vienna’s public and private schools. In private schools, Catholics remain the largest group at 45.39 percent, followed by students with no religious affiliation at 25.1 percent and Orthodox students at 10.6 percent. Muslim children account for just 7.6 percent of students in Vienna’s private schools.

Taken together, across both public and private schools, Muslim students now form the largest single group at 38.3 percent. Even when Catholic and Orthodox children are combined, they reach only around 33.6 percent.The numbers reveal how the city’s public schools are becoming the front line of a much broader cultural transformation. Earlier this year, Remix News reported that more than half of first-grade students in Vienna were listed as Muslim for the first time, while separate reporting from Profil described one secondary school where a Christian boy was allegedly the only Christian in his first-grade class.

At that school, 230 of the 390 students were Muslim, while 99 percent of the students had an immigration background. Only five children in the entire school were reported to have no migrant background. The Christian boy was reportedly mocked by classmates and called a “pig,” while teachers described classrooms marked by language barriers, social problems, and growing religious pressure.The school was said to include students speaking 32 different languages, with Turkish, Arabic, and Chechen among the most common home languages. One teacher said that the problems were so extensive that every class could use its own social worker.

Concerns over integration have also spilled into the school canteen. In October 2025, the Austrian Farmers’ Association warned that pork dishes such as schnitzel, ham noodles, and roast pork had become rare or had disappeared entirely from some Viennese school menus. The association said some schools now offered only vegetarian meals or meat dishes without pork, citing a mother who said her daughter could choose only between vegetarian food and “pork-free” food. “No one has to eat pork, but it must be offered. Pork is part of our culinary culture,” said Corinna Weisl, director of the Farmers’ Association.

The group’s president, Georg Strasser, said preserving choice was the key issue, arguing that “diversity on the plate means freedom of choice for everyone.” For some parents, however, the question is whether public schools can still deliver basic education. In February, Remix News reported the case of a Vienna mother who withdrew her daughter from a public primary school in Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus after two years, saying only four children in the class spoke German fluently.

The mother, identified as Sabine G., said teachers spent much of the day translating instructions and managing basic communication rather than teaching. By the end of the first school year, she said her daughter still could not recite the alphabet, while several classmates had to repeat the grade. She also said her daughter had begun refusing pork after being told it was “unclean” and had started rejecting certain summer clothing.“I felt my child was being strongly influenced,” she said.

Read more …

“..thousands of Americans will gather on Sunday, May 17, on the National Mall to rededicate the United States as One Nation Under God. “

• ‘Golden Thread of Devotion’: Trump’s National Day of Prayer Message (Salgado)

President Donald Trump praised America’s “magnificent birthright of faith” during his May 6 message for the National Day of Prayer. During this year of America’s 250th birthday, Trump declared that “we pledge to never forget the countless blessings God has bestowed upon our people and our country.” The president stated, “From the cradles of civilization in the ancient world to the Christian empires of medieval Europe and the miraculous founding of our own Nation, the entire Western experience has been connected by a golden thread of devotion to God.” He especially emphasized the role of faith in America’s Revolution and founding.


For instance, Trump noted, the Second Continental Congress declared a day of “humiliation, fasting, and prayer” in order to invoke God‘s blessing on the fight against Great Britain “for freedom, virtue, and posterity.” Only weeks after that, “armed with unshakable faith, the Colonies declared their independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776, and paved the way for freedom’s ultimate victory five years later at Yorktown,” Trump celebrated.

Our one nation under God has always acknowledged only one Divine King, as the song “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” affirms. Trump continued, “In the years since, this proud birthright of faith moved our Nation to expand the promise of independence to the furthest reaches of our continent; preserve our Union in the midst of a bloody Civil War; abolish slavery; win two world wars; defeat the evil forces of atheistic communism; plant our Flag on the Moon; and advance truth, beauty, and goodness in our culture every single day.”

One fact of which Trump is very proud and which he often brings up is that after many years of declining religiosity, America is once again turning back to faith. In 2025, a Barna study found that 66% of U.S. adults “say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus that is still important in their life today,” which was a whopping 12-point rise over the statistics from just four years before, in 2021. Even more striking, for the first time Barna found the trend in spiritual commitment fueled by the youth of America.

In his National Day of Prayer message, Trump declared: “Today, faith in God is resurging on American shores like never before. Throughout this historic year, we rejoice in the triumph of the American spirit and in the love and grace of Almighty God. And just as our Founders came together in prayer before declaring independence, thousands of Americans will gather on Sunday, May 17, on the National Mall to rededicate the United States as One Nation Under God. ”

Trump has also called for a national Shabbat over May 15-16 to recognize the Jewish contribution to America. “This National Day of Prayer, we proudly recommit to our magnificent birthright of faith,” the president stated. “I encourage all Americans to come together today in prayer, reflecting on the many blessings God has given our Nation and asking for His continued protection, with ceremonies, events, and programs in their houses of worship and places of work, schools, and homes.” In conclusion, he urged, “Above all, we pledge that America will always, as it is written in Psalm 96, ‘Tell His glory among the nations’—and that we will never forget God’s role in creating, protecting, and sustaining the freest, strongest, most prosperous, and greatest country the world has ever known.”

Read more …

10 years ahead of his own time.

• The Controversy Over Picasso’s Most Shocking Painting (BBC)

The confrontational painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon has been both widely despised and loved, and over the decades has remained contentious. A century after it was created by Picasso, acclaimed US artist Henry Taylor reinterpreted and challenged the piece – and his version is now at the centre of a major exhibition at the Musée Picasso in Paris.


In 1907, Pablo Picasso invited a small circle of artists and friends to his studio in Paris. He wanted to show them a painting he had been working on for six months. Almost unanimously, the reaction from his peers was shock, horror and disgust. The French painter Georges Braque reportedly compared the experience to drinking petrol, and Henri Matisse is said to have called the women in it “hideous”. It wouldn’t be shown publicly until 1916, almost a decade later.

More than a century on, it has become one of Picasso’s most recognisable and controversial works. It has also been reinterpreted by the acclaimed US painter Henry Taylor. His version is currently displayed at a major exhibition at Musée National Picasso in Paris, and Taylor emphasises a key point about the earlier painting: it owes a lot more to African art than Picasso ever liked to admit.The painting Picasso had shown his peers was Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), a large oil painting in which five nude women in a brothel in Barcelona demand the viewer’s attention. Two of the women have mask-like faces, three stare back at the observer, and all have jagged, disjointed bodies. It marked a sharp turn in Picasso’s creative journey and a dramatic departure from the artistic norms of the time.

“Picasso moved away from emotional, figurative painting toward breaking forms apart and rethinking how space and bodies are shown,” Joanne Snrech, a curator at Musée National Picasso, tells the BBC. “This shift was key to the development of Cubism and modern art more broadly.” Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (The Young Ladies of Avignon) was initially named Le Bordel d’Avignon (or The Brothel of Avignon) until 1916, when the title was changed to be less contentious. It is considered a fundamental work in the birth of Cubism, the 20th-Century art movement known for abandoning traditional, realistic forms of representation in favour of fragmented and geometric shapes.

As Picasso did in the Demoiselles, Cubism merged multiple vantage points of an object or person into a single image. “Part of what made the reaction so strong is that Picasso didn’t just change one thing: he changed everything at once,” Snrech says. “Even for artists who were already experimenting with new styles, this felt like a step too far.” But Picasso’s innovations didn’t come out of nowhere. Some of them, it could be argued, came straight from Africa.Months before creating this painting, Picasso had developed a particular interest in African masks and sculptures, spurred by a small figurine – from what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo – that Matisse had purchased in Paris in 1906.

Picasso began regularly visiting the African section of the Musée d’Ethnographie du Trocadéro, creating hundreds of preparatory sketches for his new masterpiece.”What struck him wasn’t just how they looked, but how they worked: the faces are simplified, distorted, sometimes quite intense or even unsettling,” Snrech says. “He was clearly inspired by this different approach to the human face, which allowed him to move away from naturalism and toward something more abstract and confrontational.”

Despite this work and many others being shaped by his encounters with African art, Picasso is known to have downplayed its influence. He famously said to a critic working on a series on African art for a journal in 1920 that he had “never heard of it”. Picasso’s reluctance to acknowledge the impact of African art on his work while directly benefiting from it later provoked accusations of cultural appropriation. Critiques highlight the cultural, religious and social significance of the objects that Picasso observed but seemingly ignored, and how this fed into the wider narrative of African art being seen as “primitive” at the time.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/Juliedonuts/status/2052227280148009335?s=20 https://twitter.com/robertdunlap947/status/2052343953395974465?s=20 https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/2052160639561240826?s=20 https://twitter.com/Tips2Home/status/2052107725383877043?s=20

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle May 6 2026

May 062026
 
 May 6, 2026  Posted by at 10:07 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  24 Responses »


Gustav Klimt Lady with a fan 1917-18
(sold for $108.4m June 27 2023)


• Trump Pauses Project Freedom (ZH)
• Strait of Hormuz Standoff Exposes Tehran’s Weakness (JTN)
• It’s Official: The Climate Scam Was a Scam All Along (Stephen Green)
• Canadian Prime Minister is Playing a Very Dangerous Game (CTH)
• Palantir Touts Record Expansion and ‘Battlefield’ AI Value (RT)
• How A Musk Victory Vs. Altman Would Reset America’s AI Roadmap (ZH)
• EU Slammed Over Multi-Billion AI Infrastructure Splurge Plan (RT)
• Elon Musk Reaches $1.5 Million Settlement With SEC Over Twitter Stake (ET)
• Russia Disregards EU As Possible Mediator In Negotiations On Ukraine (TASS)
• Colorblind Constitution: The Roberts Court Ends a ‘Sordid Business’ (Turley)
• Supreme Court Clears Way for Louisiana Immediate Redistricting (CTH)
• Samuel Alito Brutally Destroyed Ketanji Brown Jackson (Matt Margolis)
• Amsterdam Bans Advertisements Featuring Meat and Fossil Fuels (Turley)
• Ivermectin + Mebendazole In Cancer Patients (Nicolas Hulscher, MPH)

 


 

https://twitter.com/JDVance_News/status/2051094917544316977?s=20 https://twitter.com/Real_RobN/status/2051460099349381261?s=20

 


 


Some of the confusion is deliberate. But not all of it. Trump doesn’t want to waste time with debates on/in Congress, where plenty folk are against anything he does just because it’s him.

• Trump Pauses Project Freedom (ZH)

There is a knee-jerk wave of optimism across assets with WTI crude futures lower, US equity contracts and Treasury futures higher after President Trump said Project Freedom will be paused.Trump also said there is progress toward a final agreement with Iran which is what investors really want to see as it could potentially mean a reopening of Hormuz. Trump statement on his TruthSocial feed (emphasis and spacing ours):


“Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally… …the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran……we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed.” WTI crude futures are testing back below $100…

Polymarket odds of Hormuz traffic returning to normal has jumped to better than a coin-flip… Don’t hold your breath though as there have been several false starts of this kind before, and traders will soon lose faith unless there are more details from the Iranian side. Additionally late Tuesday, a French cargo ship was confirmed hit in a missile attack, injuring crew members: A cargo ship in the Gulf region was hit by a possible land-attack cruise missile, causing several injuries among the ship’s Filipino crew, two U.S. officials told CBS News.

The hit on the CGM San Antonio — which is owned by a French firm — took place late Tuesday evening local time, the officials said. The ship was near Dubai as of midday on Tuesday, but it is not clear whether the vessel has moved since then, according to public ship tracking data.

Rubio Declares Conflict in New Stage
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced Tuesday afternoon that offensive stage of Iran war is ‘over’. He further said that ships stranded in the Strait of Hormuz are facing a humanitarian crisis and accused Iran of holding the world hostage by closing the Strait of Hormuz. Iran is denying that it attacked the United Arab Emirates, with the foreign ministry saying its ‘defensive actions’ were ‘exclusively directed at the U.S.’ Operation Epic Fury is over, now Project Freedom. The remarks were issued just as a new attack is unfolding on a foreign cargo ship in the strategic waterway:

…as the goalposts keep shifting:

Trump Asked Whether Ceasefire is Dead
A revealing exchange in the Oval Office strongly suggests that even amid a second Iranian attack wave on the UAE Tuesday, the White House is unwilling to say that the ceasefire has collapsed – also given there’s yet been no direct exchange of fire between US and Iranian forces: President Trump, taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, would not specify what Iran would need to do to violate the cease-fire.

Asked by a reporter what would constitute a violation, considering that the country has fired on U.S. ships several times, Trump said: “Well, you’ll find out, because I’ll let you know.” He added that “they know what to do,” and “they know what not to do, more importantly.” Earlier the Pentagon clearly indicated that the ceasefire is still active, from Washington’s point of view. The Iranian government is meanwhile trying to bat down rumors of a division between the presidency and the IRGC/military apparatus.[..]

Read more …

“It is just complete, systematic dismantlement of the Iranian economy. And they have days, not weeks, left in terms of their oil storage. That’s 90% of their economy. They’re about to lose that. And their currency has lost 98% of its value over the last 10 years.”

• Strait of Hormuz Standoff Exposes Tehran’s Weakness (JTN)

Iran launched missiles at U.S. military ships and the United Arab Emirates, and American forces returned fire amid a fragile ceasefire. But Monday’s volley exposed the increasingly limited options Tehran faces with a severely diminished military and economy as it tries to counter the U.S. Navy’s assistance to commercial ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. While Tehran managed to damage a South Korean tanker and an oil facility in UAE, it suffered the loss of seven gunboats sunk by U.S. return fire and faces increasingly dire circumstances as its drilling wells are near bursting because there is nowhere to ship its oil, experts said.


“This is all sort of coming down to, I believe, the final days here,” former Deputy National Security Advisor Victoria Coates told Just the News. “…Iran is obviously still trying to lash out, but the farthest they can get their missiles at this point is UAE. They’re looking for proximate targets. They don’t even try and shell Israel anymore.” “Their ability to strike others may be very limited, and then they’re really out of cards,” she added. Admiral Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command, revealed Monday the U.S. military launched an effort to clear the way for dozens of commercial ships trapped in the Arabian Gulf to transit through the Strait of Hormuz off the Iranian coast.

The Iranians had responded to this effort by attempting to attack both the commercial ships and the U.S. naval vessels protecting them, he said. “The cruise missiles were going after those U.S. Navy ships, but mostly after commercial shipping. We defended both ourselves consistent with our commitment,” Cooper explained. “We defended all the commercial ships. We’ve had drone launches against commercial ships, all of which were defended against, consistent with our commitment. “And then the small boats were all going against commercial ships, and all were sunk by Apaches and Seahawk helicopters,” he added.

The admiral said that “there’s been no U.S. military ships hit” and that “there have been no U.S. flagships that have been hit.” The CENTCOM leader declined to say whether Iran’s attempted strikes were a violation of the weeks-old ceasefire struck between the Trump administration and the remaining Iranian leaders. “I wouldn’t go into details of whether the ceasefire is over or not. I think the key thing for us is we are merely there as a defensive force and in force to give a very thick layer of defense for commercial shipping to proceed out of the Arabian Gulf,” he said. “That is what we are focused on,” the admiral said.

Operation Epic Fury, launched just over two months ago, eliminated a raft of Iranian political and military leaders and did extensive damage to Iranian military capabilities, but the Iranians responded by seeking to control the strait. President Donald Trump had announced in a Truth Social post on Sunday that the U.S. military would be launching the “Project Freedom” effort to increase freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. The president had also said there would be consequences if the Iranians tried to interfere.

“Countries from all over the World, almost all of which are not involved in the Middle Eastern dispute going on so visibly, and violently, for all to see, have asked the United States if we could help free up their Ships, which are locked up in the Strait of Hormuz, on something which they have absolutely nothing to do with — They are merely neutral and innocent bystanders!” Trump said. The president said that “for the good of Iran, the Middle East, and the United States, we have told these Countries that we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business.”

The president also warned that “if, in any way, this Humanitarian process is interfered with, that interference will, unfortunately, have to be dealt with forcefully.” Cooper revealed Monday that the Iranians had indeed sought to interfere with this effort. Mike Waltz, a former Republican congressman and now the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, tweeted Sunday that “regardless of how you feel about the conflict over their nuclear program, Iran laying sea mines indiscriminately in international waters and attempting to ‘toll’ civilian commercial shipping is illegal and unacceptable.” He promised that “the U.S. and our Gulf partners will lead the way to defend global freedom of navigation.”

Admiral says blockade continues — and Project Freedom will pursue freedom of navigation Cooper explained Monday the U.S. naval blockade of Iran was continuing, and that the new Project Freedom effort to help guide commercial ships safely out of the Strait of Hormuz was purely defensive.n“Today, the U.S. military is taking two separate actions in two separate bodies of water. First, we are enforcing the blockade in the Gulf of Oman. There is no commerce going into and out of Iran, and we will be sustaining this effort,” the admiral said. “Second, we have now opened a passage through the Strait of Hormuz to allow for the free flow of commerce to continue.”

The ongoing blockade “is going exactly as designed, and in fact exceeding my expectations,” Cooper added. That blockade, experts said, is putting Iran’s oil industry in an existential crisis because it will soon have to cap overflowing oil wells with nowhere to export the fuel. “The second front of this war is economic,” Coates told the Just the News, No Noise television show on Monday evening. “It is just complete, systematic dismantlement of the Iranian economy. And they have days, not weeks, left in terms of their oil storage. That’s 90% of their economy. They’re about to lose that. And their currency has lost 98% of its value over the last 10 years.”

Read more …

“The first is whether the American news media will follow the BBC’s lead and stop scaring people with end-of-the-world stories. The second is what the Left will use to scare us with next.”

• It’s Official: The Climate Scam Was a Scam All Along (Stephen Green)

It’s nice when something you knew was a fraud all along turns out to be a fraud, but it’s even nicer when the people perpetrating the fraud admit it was a fraud all along. “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just published the next generation of climate scenarios,” science policy analyst Roger Pielke Jr wrote late last week, and in what he called “big news,” the new framework “eliminated the most extreme scenarios that have dominated climate research over much of the past several decades.” So the oceans aren’t about to boil off or freeze over or whatever the current scare story is?


Exactly: “The IPCC and broader research community has now admitted that the scenarios that have dominated climate research, assessment and policy during the past two cycles of the IPCC assessment process are implausible. They describe impossible futures.” This is important because the IPCC’s changes resulted in “an update to the Science Based Targets initiative’s rules eliminates the need for steep emission cuts by 2030,” Trellis reported on Friday. In other words, even the people committed to radically reduced carbon emissions now say we don’t need to radically reduce carbon emissions to save the world or whatever.

Without getting too technical — you can read Pielke’s full report for that, should you feel the need to go shoulder-deep in the weeds — the upshot is that the previous frameworks lacked “any systematic effort to evaluate plausibility of scenarios.” Now, however, “the new HIGH scenario is exploratory — a thought experiment, not a projection.” My guess is that the IPCC still includes the non-scientific, scary-sounding “HIGH scenario” because otherwise the money might dry up. Pielke added that “users of climate models and model output based on legacy scenarios will now face decisions about if and how they’d like to realign with the latest scientific understandings versus continuing to rely on outdated research.”

We’ll see how that works out. The new IPCC framework actually dates back to 2021, but is only now becoming “news” because a bunch of slow-moving pieces have finally lined up. That’s just how science works. But Pielke’s analysis is a week old, and the only way I learned about it was thanks to a Toby Young post on X — he’s editor-in-chief of the UK’s Daily Sceptic — that PJ Media’s own Charlie Martin found. Why, it’s almost as though the mainstream media doesn’t want to cover stories like this one. But for once, I don’t digress.

Even though it might be “purely anecdotal, the Daily Sceptic’s Chris Morrison believes that even the notoriously scaremongering BBC “seems to have moderated its wilder climate stories of late, with the ‘Climate’ topic on its News site relegated to the second tier of subjects,” effectively demoting climate scares to “rubbing shoulders with the picture gallery and the dumbed-down ‘Newsbeat’ offering.” So while today’s news is good — maybe even great — it does leave me with two questions. The first it whether the American news media will follow the BBC’s lead and stop scaring people with end-of-the-world stories. The second is what the Left will use to scare us with next.

Read more …

Carney is the no.1 WEF pawn against Trump. But not the only one. It’s Trump vs the world.

• Canadian Prime Minister is Playing a Very Dangerous Game (CTH)

Anyone who has ever dealt with a toxic narcissist understands the psychology behind their manipulative language, words and intents. What Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is doing here is very dangerous, particularly for the Canadian people. After a year of increased provocative language intended to confront President Trump for U.S. nationalist policy changes on economics, trade and security, Prime Minister Carney travelled to Europe where he again delivered strong remarks saying that Europe is now the center of the “rules based international order,” the western government control mechanisms that have maintained economic and security relationships for the past one-hundred years.


Essentially, Carney, after saying the USA was no longer a reliable or obedient partner, emphasized the opposition to state nationalism must come from a collective decision to retain the old geopolitical structures. President Trump must be opposed, and Europe -according to Carney- represents the assembly that will not permit state government nationalism (sovereignty) to replace their long-constructed globalist systems. Today, Prime Minister Carney faced questions about those remarks. I don’t want to influence the audience, but with the context in mind, watch and listen closely to his response. [Prompted]

[NOTE: The question comes from the Toronto Star, the only ‘conservative’ media outlet permitted under the rules of the Canadian regime to ask questions. All other outlets who might challenge the government viewpoints are strictly controlled and not permitted audience. Notice how Carney divides the world of opposition to President Trump, indicating the 5-Eyes nations of Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand are in opposition to Trump and in alignment with the old control mechanisms. Adding to this grouping, Carney pulls in the entire European continent and boldly proclaims his position as lead diplomat and representative for their effort against the USA.

This is a very dangerous game that Prime Minister Carney is choosing to play here. This is the behavior of a person who is toxically narcissistic and prepared to claim victim status as soon as his target hits back. Carney has carefully and purposefully deceived his domestic audience, and things are about to get very ugly. I must say something of a personal frustration…. In the bigger picture, expanding on the ancillary aspects that pertain to the geopolitical landscape that surrounds us, Carney is able to push this line this far because we have internal friction driven by people like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and other short-sighted “influencers, who do not recognize the scale of the moment.

President Trump is standing up to a globalist system that weakened the United States over several generations. The same voices who understand how toxic the United Nations, NATO, USAID and other international influences are to what remains of U.S. sovereignty, are the same voices attempting to divide Trump’s base of support while our President battles multinational influence operations; all because they have the same traits as Mark Carney underpinning their psychology. You either affix your bayonet against these forces, or in our lifetime there will be nothing left to fight over.

Read more …

“CEO Alex Karp casts the surveillance giant as “sentinels of the inner sanctum, against the assault of AI slop”.

‘Battlefield’ AI value’? What does that mean?

How do we react when AI is utilized to kill people? What becomes the winner in the AI field? The system that can kill most people?

• Palantir Touts Record Expansion and ‘Battlefield’ AI Value (RT)

Palantir Technologies reported a blowout first quarter, saying revenue rose 85% year on year to $1.63 billion as its US business more than doubled, driven by rapid growth across both commercial and government customers. The company said in its Q1 report, published Monday, that US revenue jumped 104% to $1.28 billion, with commercial revenue up 133% to $595 million and government revenue up 84% to $687 million. The results beat Wall Street estimates, and the company also raised its full-year guidance, saying it now expects 2026 revenue of up to $7.66 billion, implying annual growth of about 71%. CEO Alex Karp, who has increasingly framed Palantir’s AI tools as central to Western military and industrial power, said the “twin pistons of our US business are now firing in sync.”


“Palantir reports Q1 ‘26 U.S. revenue growth of 104% Y/Y and revenue growth of 85% Y/Y; raises FY ’26 revenue guidance to 71% Y/Y growth and U.S. comm revenue guidance to 120% Y/Y, crushing consensus expectations.Q1 U.S. commercial revenue grew 133% y/y and adjusted operating… ” “We believe it is not hyperbolic to say that nearly all AI workflows that actually create value – especially on the battlefield – are built on Palantir,” Karp wrote in an accompanying letter to shareholders, stating that the company “was founded to strengthen US national security, to protect Americans and their freedom.”

Palantir – named after the obsidian seeing-stones from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, through which the dark lord Sauron keeps watch on his underlings – is a software firm primarily serving the defense and intelligence sectors. Palantir’s flagship product is a system called Gotham, which pulls together and analyzes satellite footage, human intelligence from the CIA, signals intelligence from the NSA, and other data that might otherwise take days to sift through. Gotham and MOSAIC – another Palantir target-identification program that pulls digital data, including surveillance footage and IP addresses, from a target area – use AI to label the most effective targets for military strikes.

The US has acknowledged using these programs to select targets during its ongoing war on Iran, but insists that humans make the final decision to fire. Abroad, Palantir’s technology is used by the British Ministry of Defence, the Israel Defense Forces, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The company’s earnings update came weeks after Palantir drew criticism for a 22-point manifesto summarizing themes from Karp’s book The Technological Republic. The manifesto argued that Silicon Valley has an “obligation” to participate in national defense, that “hard power” will be built on software, and that AI weapons are inevitable. Critics labeled it a blueprint for “technofascism.”

Read more …

A lot hangs on this. If Musk doesn’t win, we get uncontrolled AI.

• How A Musk Victory Vs. Altman Would Reset America’s AI Roadmap (ZH)

A courtroom victory for Elon Musk in his high-stakes federal trial against Sam Altman and OpenAI would deliver one of the most disruptive blows to the artificial intelligence sector in its brief but explosive history – potentially forcing the $850-billion-plus company to unwind its for-profit empire, ousting its top leaders, and handing Musk a symbolic and financial hammer to reshape the global race for AGI while weakening one of its fiercest competitors.


The case is now being argued in a federal courtroom in Oakland, before Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. The trial opened on April 28 and entered its second week on Monday, when OpenAI president Greg Brockman took the stand and confirmed his personal stake in the company is worth roughly $30 billion. Musk’s counsel returned to the figure more than a dozen times in two hours of questioning.

The Case
Musk co-founded OpenAI in late 2015 as a nonprofit and contributed roughly $38 million in its early years. He left the board in 2018. The following year, OpenAI created a capped-profit subsidiary to attract the capital that frontier AI now requires; Microsoft has since invested more than $13 billion. ChatGPT launched in November 2022. By 2025, OpenAI was preparing for what would have been one of the largest initial public offerings in history.

Musk sued in 2024. The original complaint contained twenty-six claims; only two survive – breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment – while the fraud claims were dismissed before trial. Microsoft is named as a co-defendant for allegedly aiding and abetting the breach, a detail often elided in summary coverage.The remedies sought are unusually sweeping. Musk wants OpenAI’s for-profit structure unwound and its assets returned to the nonprofit foundation. He wants Sam Altman and Brockman removed from leadership. And he is seeking up to $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft combined, with any award flowing directly to OpenAI’s charitable arm rather than to Musk personally.

Structure of the Trial
Judge Gonzalez Rogers has bifurcated the proceedings into a liability phase, expected to conclude around May 21, and a separate remedies phase that would follow only if the defendants are found at fault. A nine-person jury sits during liability alone, and its verdict is advisory. Structural remedies – including any order to dissolve the for-profit subsidiary – fall solely to the judge. This procedural detail matters more than it may appear. Coverage that casts the jury as the decisive actor misreads the case. The jury can shape narrative momentum and offer a finding the judge may weigh, but it cannot order OpenAI to unwind anything. Whatever the verdict, Gonzalez Rogers writes the remedy.

What a Musk Win Would Actually Mean
Setting aside the $150 billion headline – which is a ceiling, not a floor, and is divided across defendants – three concrete consequences would follow a substantive ruling against OpenAI.

The first is restructuring. A finding that the 2019 capped-profit conversion and its 2025 successor breached a charitable trust would, at minimum, force a reorganization placing the nonprofit foundation back in unambiguous control. The IPO would be delayed indefinitely, if not foreclosed. Investor returns would be capped or rewritten. Microsoft’s roughly $13 billion stake, and the larger commitments that followed from Amazon, SoftBank, and Nvidia, would all face revaluation.

The second is leadership. Musk’s complaint seeks the removal of Altman and Brockman. Whether the court orders that remedy in full is uncertain; partial governance reform is the likelier outcome. Either way, the result would be destabilizing for an organization whose competitive position rests substantially on the people at the top of it.

The third is precedent, and it may prove the most durable. A ruling for Musk would establish that nonprofit-to-commercial transitions in American technology can be reversed years after the fact, once the entity has grown large enough to be worth reversing. Founders, donors, and investors in mission-driven labs would have to reckon with a previously hypothetical risk: that the structure they signed up for is the structure they will be held to, indefinitely.

The Defense
OpenAI’s response, articulated by lead counsel William Savitt, is that Musk himself supported a for-profit restructuring as early as 2017 – as long as he was placed in charge of it. When the other founders declined, he left, predicted the company’s failure, and later launched a competitor. The obvious angle here is that the lawsuit is a delayed instrument of competitive harm rather than a vindication of charitable principle. The defense will lean on contemporaneous evidence: Musk’s own emails proposing for-profit structures; his instruction to associates to register a for-profit corporation in OpenAI’s name; and Brockman’s private journal, which Musk’s team has used to suggest financial motive but which also records the founders’ resistance to handing OpenAI to Musk.

What Remains
Several witnesses are still to come. Altman has not yet testified. Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella is expected. Stuart Russell, the Berkeley computer scientist, will appear as Musk’s expert on AI risk; the judge has already declined a request from Musk’s counsel that Russell be permitted to range beyond his written report into extinction scenarios. Two days before the trial began, Musk texted Brockman to gauge interest in settlement. When Brockman proposed mutual dismissal, Musk replied that he and Altman would be the most hated men in America by week’s end. The judge declined to admit the exchange. No settlement has materialized.= The trial is expected to run another two to three weeks. The remedies phase, if it comes, will follow.

Read more …

“Brussels is set to announce plans to build massive computing hubs while critics stress there is almost no domestic artificial intelligence industry to use them”

The cart and the horse. They will have the infrastructure. But nothing and nobody to use it. Oh well, ask Santa.

• EU Slammed Over Multi-Billion AI Infrastructure Splurge Plan (RT)

The EU’s plan to spend over €20 billion ($23.5 billion) on AI gigafactories has drawn sharp criticism ahead of its formal launch as lawmakers and experts question whether there is any real demand for the facilities. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen first outlined the plan in February 2025 as the EU’s answer to large-scale US computing projects. It involves building four or five mega facilities with a formal call for proposals set for this spring. However, the project has been met with pushback from lawmakers. “Nobody could explain to me what is the business case they are planning with these gigafactories,” German Greens MEP Sergey Lagodinsky has said.


“I talked to some who are saying: ‘we just need more compute in Europe.’ But then, when I ask them, ‘what for?’ They say ‘it doesn’t matter, we just need more compute.’” Lagodinsky was quoted as saying by Politico. It is also unclear who the facilities would be used by, according to Nicoleta Kyosovska, a research assistant at a Brussels-based think tank. She described the planned datacenters as “cathedrals in the desert,” noting that Europe has only one AI company capable of using such infrastructure – the French startup Mistral, which is already building its own data centers. A Commission spokesperson has defended the plan by arguing that Europe requires computing sovereignty to avoid dependence on other continents.

The skepticism comes amid broader concerns over global AI overspending. Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft reportedly plan to spend a combined $725 billion this year on AI infrastructure. However, Gary Marcus, a professor emeritus at New York University, has described the planned spending as the “greatest capital misallocation in history.” Tech analyst Ed Zitron has also noted that the economics of data centers “do not make sense” given that most AI startups are unprofitable and the majority of data center credit deals are rated junk grade.

Meanwhile, consumers have also been venting their anger over the global chip crisis sparked by overzealous AI development plans. “The reason why RAM has become four times more expensive is that a huge amount of RAM that has not yet been produced was purchased with non-existent money to be installed in GPUs that also have not yet been produced, in order to place them in data centers that have not yet been built, powered by infrastructure that may never appear, to satisfy demand that does not actually exist and to obtain profit that is mathematically impossible,” software engineer Jatin K Malik surmised.

Read more …

A $44 billion purchase and a $1.5 million settlement of the lawsuit the SEC hung on it. What percentage of it is that? 1% of $44 billion is $440 million, I think. You take it from there.

• Elon Musk Reaches $1.5 Million Settlement With SEC Over Twitter Stake (ET)

Tech billionaire Elon Musk on May 4 agreed to pay $1.5 million to resolve a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit alleging he violated securities laws over the delayed disclosure of his Twitter stake. A filing dated May 4 states that Musk’s revocable trust will pay a civil penalty of $1.5 million to the commission as part of the settlement, subject to approval by the court. According to the filing, once the proposed settlement is approved by the court, the SEC will “file a stipulated dismissal of Elon Musk in his personal capacity, which will resolve this case in its entirety.”


The SEC filed the lawsuit in January 2025, alleging that Musk violated federal securities laws by delaying disclosure of his stake in Twitter before his bid to buy the platform in 2022. The regulator said Musk crossed the 5 percent ownership threshold in March 2022, triggering a 10-day deadline to make the holding public. Musk did not disclose his holdings until April 2022, when he had already acquired a more than 9 percent stake in Twitter, according to the filing. The SEC said the delay had allowed Musk to buy shares at “artificially low prices” and enabled him to underpay by at least $150 million for his shares after his beneficial ownership report was due.

Musk had previously sought to have the SEC suit dismissed. In August 2025, his lawyers argued that the SEC targeted Musk over his outspoken criticism of the regulator and “government overreach.” Separately, in March, a federal jury held Musk liable for misleading Twitter shareholders by driving down the social media platform’s stock price months before acquiring it. The decision followed a civil class action lawsuit filed by Twitter investors in October 2022. Musk agreed to buy Twitter at $54.20 per share in April 2022 but later sought to back out of the deal, prompting the company to take legal action to enforce the deal. He ultimately completed the acquisition in October 2022 and rebranded Twitter as X.

In a verdict on March 20, jurors found Musk liable for misleading investors through two social media posts he shared in 2022. The first post said the deal was “temporarily on hold” pending verification that bots accounted for less than 5 percent of users on the social media platform. In the second post, Musk suggested that the percentage of bots could exceed 20 percent and said the buyout of Twitter could not go forward until he received confirmation that it was less than 5 percent. Musk’s legal team has said they plan to appeal the verdict.

Read more …

The EU is a direct participant in the conflict. They also want to be a mediator.

• Russia Disregards EU As Possible Mediator In Negotiations On Ukraine (TASS)

Russia does not see the European Union as a potential mediator in the negotiations on Ukraine, as it has become a direct participant in the conflict, said Russian Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik.


“The European Union has made a lot of efforts to avoid being considered a neutral party in any capacity. And this is the main requirement for conducting or mediating the negotiation process. The EU has today taken over financial and military support for the continuation of hostilities and bloodshed in Ukraine. This is why, in this case, it is completely illogical to even raise the question that the direct participants, sponsors and stimulators of the process can act as intermediaries for dialogue,” the diplomat told Izvestia newspaper.

Miroshnik noted that Brussels has never proposed any specific ways of settlement, but if in theory it publicly expresses a unified position, Moscow will study it.

Read more …

“He holds the quaint idea that when the drafters of the 14th Amendment barred discrimination on the basis of race, they meant it.”

• Colorblind Constitution: The Roberts Court Ends a ‘Sordid Business’ (Turley)

The Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais, barring racial gerrymandering, has many on the left feigning vapors, despite the predictions of many of us that this result was likely. While figures such as Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) declared that the court itself has been “gerrymandered” to rig the upcoming elections, this decision is actually the culmination of decades of jurisprudence by various justices — particularly Chief Justice John Roberts.


Indeed, the decision will cement the legacy of the Roberts Court in moving the country toward a colorblind system of laws. Like most Americans, Roberts abhors racial discrimination in any form. He holds the quaint idea that when the drafters of the 14th Amendment barred discrimination on the basis of race, they meant it. This is why, in 2006, Roberts famously wrote, “It is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race.” Roberts sees no difference between such discrimination when it disfavors one or another race. It is all a sordid business, and he has spent decades writing eloquent arguments for the court to abandon its conflicted and hypocritical approach to racial discrimination.

The court has struggled to rationalize using race to discriminate when it serves a higher purpose, such as greater equity or affirmative action. Some of those opinions were constitutionally incomprehensible. For example, in 2003, in Grutter v. Bollinger, the court divided five to four on whether to uphold racial admissions criteria used to achieve “diversity” in a class at the University of Michigan Law School. However, in her opinion with the majority, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor stated that she “expects that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.”

Few of us could understand how O’Connor found a type of expiration date on permissible racial criteria in the Constitution. Throughout that period, however, certain justices held firm that there is a bright-line rule against such racial criteria. That includes the author of the court’s Callais decision, Justice Samuel Alito, but also Roberts, who in 2007, put it succinctly: “The way to stop discriminating on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” One can certainly disagree with this interpretation and the low tolerance for racial criteria. However, this had nothing to do with the midterm elections. It is the result of dozens of opinions building up to this point.

From college admissions to gerrymandering, the court has created the bright line that figures like Roberts have long sought. In doing so, they have moved this country closer to a colorblind jurisprudence than at any time in our history. The Biden administration was found repeatedly to have violated the Constitution through racial discrimination in federal programs. Democratic leaders have fought this trend and have pledged to reverse these decisions. Some even demand that Democrats pack the Court with a liberal majority as soon as they retake power.

Last year, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services that whites cannot be placed under additional burdens when bringing discrimination lawsuits. Much of the coverage of the Callais decision is long on rhetoric and short on substance. The court did not “gut” the Voting Rights Act. It also did not strike down Section 2 of the act. Rather, the court held that neither the act nor the Constitution gives legislators authority to manipulate districts so as to effectively guarantee the race of the elected representatives — any race.

For decades, the courts have faced endless litigation over district configurations designed to elect minority representatives. It is a system that gave candidates an advantage based solely on their race. The court held that such racial gerrymandering is unlawful. The Voting Rights Act will now be read to prevent intentional racial discrimination. Courts will still bar any districts designed “to afford minority voters less opportunity because of their race.” That does not mean that racial discrimination has been eliminated in our nation, or that we do not need to commit ourselves wholly to its eradication. The stain of slavery and segregation remains with us, as does the lingering scourge of racial prejudice.

African Americans and other minorities still face invidious discrimination that cannot be tolerated in our system. We still have much work to be done. In the area of voting rights, the courts have and will continue to strike down any rules designed to suppress or block minority voters. Despite this ongoing struggle with racism, there are reasons to be hopeful. As the Rev. Martin Luther King put it, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Non-whites are now powerful players in American politics. White voters are expected to be a minority in this country within two decades.

We have now elected a black president and a black vice president. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (who declared the Court “illegitimate” after the Callais opinion) expects to be the next Speaker of the House of Representatives. This progress was hard-fought, and both the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act played important roles in achieving greater racial diversity in our society. And the Callais decision is also part of that progress. We are moving into a new era where racial criteria and discrimination are neither rationalized nor tolerated. There is now reason to hope that we will indeed end “this sordid business, this divvying us up by race.”

Read more …

Gerrymander your heart out.

• Supreme Court Clears Way for Louisiana Immediate Redistricting (CTH)

The Supreme Court ruled Monday its prior ruling on race-based congressional districts takes immediate effect. The order {SEE HERE} speeds up the normal 32-day timeline and puts the State of Louisiana on notice their current districts are not constitutional.


Effectively the Louisiana Governor and legislature have delayed the election to address the districts. However, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was not happy with the immediacy ruling and wrote a dissent that was so ridiculous none of the other minority justices would sign on to it. Jackson said the majority “unshackles itself” from “constraints.” The court should follow the default rule, she insisted.

As noted by Politico, Justice Samuel Alito responded to Jackson’s accusation of political bias in a concurring opinion supported by Justices Clarence Thomas and Niel Gorsuch. Alito wrote that by suggesting that “running out the clock” by following the court’s default procedures may indicate bias “on behalf of those who may find it politically advantageous to have the election occur under the unconstitutional map.”

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has delayed the primary so state Republicans could get to work on a new map.
Read more …

“The dissent accuses the Court of ‘unshackl[ing]’ itself from ‘constraints.’ It is the dissent’s rhetoric that lacks restraint.”

• Samuel Alito Brutally Destroyed Ketanji Brown Jackson (Matt Margolis)

Last week, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Louisiana’s congressional map with a second gerrymandered majority-minority district was unconstitutional. That ruling put Louisiana officials on the clock — they need to redraw their congressional maps before this year’s midterms. On Monday, the court issued an order immediately putting last week’s Louisiana redistricting ruling into effect.

https://twitter.com/scotus_wire/status/2051442579430834263


And, of course, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson decided to make a scene about it. Justice Samuel Alito made sure she regretted that decision. Normally, the Supreme Court waits 32 days after issuing a ruling before formally sending the case back to a lower court. Challengers to Louisiana’s map asked the justices to skip the wait — and the court agreed, issuing an unsigned order to accelerate the timeline so the lower court could oversee an orderly map-drawing process before elections.

Jackson couldn’t let that stand without throwing a hissy fit. She called the order “unwarranted and unwise,” and claimed the court was “unshackling” itself from procedural “constraints.” Her central argument was that the court should stick to its default 32-day rule, and that by moving faster, the majority was essentially sanctioning chaos in Louisiana’s election calendar. It was a sweeping condemnation of her colleagues — rhetorical and forceful.The only problem? Nobody signed onto it with her.

Not one other justice — not even the two liberals who dissented in the underlying ruling — attached their name to Jackson’s dissent. That’s a remarkable fact. When you write a fiery dissent accusing your colleagues of abandoning judicial restraint, and even the justices who agree with you on the merits don’t want their names on it, something has gone wrong. This is par for the course with Jackson; even her fellow left-wing justices think that she’s a moron.

But the best part is that Alito wasn’t about to let the accusations stand. He issued a sharp written response, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, firing back with surgical precision. “The dissent in this suit levels charges that cannot go unanswered,” Alito wrote, rejecting Jackson’s framing and pointing out that her approach would force Louisiana to hold elections under a congressional map that the Supreme Court had already ruled unconstitutional.

Think about what that would mean in practice. A state holds an election. The map used to conduct that election has been struck down by the highest court in the land. Jackson’s answer to that problem is essentially: wait the 32 days anyway. Alito closed by turning Jackson’s own language against her: “The dissent accuses the Court of ‘unshackl[ing]’ itself from ‘constraints.’ It is the dissent’s rhetoric that lacks restraint.”

In short, that’s Alito telling Jackson, in print, that her writing lacks the basic discipline she claims to be defending. Unlike her dissent, Alito was joined by two colleagues who clearly felt the response was necessary. Now that’s a humiliating public rebuke. Jackson consistently positions herself as the court’s conscience — the justice willing to call out her colleagues for breaking norms. But, ultimately, she just positions herself as the court’s jester, who isn’t even that funny. It’s actually kind of frightening that she’s in such a powerful position.

Read more …

Amsterdam is the capital of Holland, but it’s not where the government is. That’s The Hague.

• Amsterdam Bans Advertisements Featuring Meat and Fossil Fuels (Turley)

In “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I write about how censorship often becomes an insatiable appetite once countries go down the road of speech regulation. There is no better example than the Dutch and their recent ban on public ads for meat and fossil fuels. Activists have imposed similar limitations on advertising for products in the United States, from alcohol to tobacco. However, the Dutch law reflects how this tendency can metastasize into shielding citizens from unhealthy choices or influences. It appears that Dutch painters such as Pieter Aertsen (with his work A Meat Stall with the Holy Family Giving Alms, above) were promoting harmful imagery in their work. As for Rembrandt’s “Slaughtered Ox,” the Dutch master is now little more than a climate change denier.


Starting on May 1, the ban on such images became part of Amsterdam’s push to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. While purportedly neutral on carbon, it is manifestly negative on free speech. As with other anti-free speech measures in Europe, this push again came from the left. The GreenLeft Party’s Anneke Veenhoff explained “I mean, if you want to be leading in climate policies and you rent out your walls to exactly the opposite, then what are you doing?” The answer is engaging in free speech. This is, of course, commercial speech, which is often subject to a lower level of protection. However, this shows the danger of using the differential standard to target products or industries viewed as unhealthy or ill-advised for consumers.

In Amsterdam, the ban will cover industries such as airlines, including KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, one of the largest employers and revenue generators in the country. Notably, activists compare this to cigarette advertising bans, confirming the very slippery slope danger that those companies raised when they were targeted. Hannah Prins, a paralegal at Advocates for the Future, is quoted as saying, “I don’t think it’s normal to see murdered animals on billboards. So I think it’s very good that that’s going to change.”bOther Dutch cities are now following suit, including Haarlem, Utrecht, and Nijmegen.

Of course, prostitutes still advertise live in Amsterdam and marijuana is a major industry for tourists. If you want drugs, there are ample choices. However, if you want a steak, you will have to rely on word-of-mouth directions.

Read more …

I saw Paul Craig Roberts post it, so I will too. It’s important. Even if I can’t give it the space it needs.

• Ivermectin + Mebendazole In Cancer Patients (Nicolas Hulscher, MPH)

Largest Real-World Analysis of Shows 84.4% Clinical Benefit — Nearly HALF Report Cancer Disappearance or Regression After just 6 months, 48.4% of cancer patients taking ivermectin and mebendazole reported no evidence of disease (32.8%) or tumor regression (15.6%), while 36.1% reported disease stabilization.


We have completed the largest real-world human analysis to date evaluating ivermectin and mebendazole in cancer patients—and the results represent one of the most compelling clinical signals ever documented for repurposed anti-parasitic therapies in oncology. The manuscript is now available as a preprint on the Zenodo research repository, operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, while undergoing peer review at leading oncology journals: “Real-World Clinical Outcomes of Ivermectin and Mebendazole in Cancer Patients: Results from a Prospective Observational Cohort.”

In this real-world prospective clinical program evaluation, a diverse population of cancer patients (n=197) were prescribed compounded ivermectin–mebendazole, with each capsule containing 25 mg ivermectin and 250 mg mebendazole. At approximately six months post-treatment initiation, we observed an 84.4% Clinical Benefit Ratio (CBR), with nearly half of cancer patients (48.4%) reporting either no evidence of disease (32.8%) or tumor regression (15.6%). An additional 36.1% reported disease stabilization. This means more than four out of five patients reported either improvement or stabilization of their cancer.

These results indicate that the inexpensive and safe off-label applications of these medications could be an important complement in the treatment of cancer. The groundbreaking analysis was made possible through a unique collaboration between The Wellness Company, the McCullough Foundation, and the Chairman of the President’s Cancer Panel—uniting real-world clinical data, frontline medical experience, and high-level epidemiologic expertise to deliver urgently needed insights in oncology.

 

 

PROJECT DESIGN: REAL-WORLD DATA, PROSPECTIVE FRAMEWORK

We analyzed a prospective observational cohort of 197 cancer patients, with 122 completing structured follow-up at approximately six months (61.9% response rate). Patients were prescribed a compounded ivermectin–mebendazole protocol by licensed U.S. providers, and outcomes were collected through standardized digital surveys assessing cancer status, adherence, and safety. Each capsule contained 25 mg ivermectin and 250 mg mebendazole, with dosing individualized by clinicians—most commonly 1–2 capsules per day, though a subset of patients used higher daily dosing or cyclic regimens depending on disease status and tolerance.

Importantly, this was a prospective, structured clinical program evaluation, capturing longitudinal patient-reported outcomes rather than retrospective recall alone—strengthening the internal consistency of the findings.

 

 

PATIENT POPULATION: ADVANCED, DIVERSE, AND CLINICALLY RELEVANT
Our cohort represents a broad and clinically meaningful cross-section of cancer patients, including prostate (27.9%), breast (18.3%), lung (8.6%), colon (5.1%), and a wide range of additional malignancies. This was not a population limited to early-stage or low-risk disease.

At baseline:
• 37.1% of patients reported actively progressing cancer

• Nearly half were within one year of diagnosis, while others had long-standing disease

• Many had already undergone standard therapies:
• •Chemotherapy (31.5%)
  • •Radiation (28.9%)
• •Surgery (42.1%)

This reflects a real-world oncology population, including patients with treatment exposure, ongoing progression, and complex clinical histories.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2051374459940946031?s=20

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle April 10 2026

Apr 102026
 
 April 10, 2026  Posted by at 9:41 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,  65 Responses »


Jules Adolphe Breton The Song of the Lark 1884


• Whatever’s Happening in Iran and the Middle East, It Isn’t a ‘Ceasefire’ (Moran)
• Israeli MPs Furious Over Trump’s Ceasefire With Iran (RT)
• Before Donald Trump Ran Up His White Flag, Here Are The Reasons He Did So (Helmer)
• JD Vance: EU in Hungary “Worst Ever Foreign Election Interference” (RMX)
• Appeals Court Allows Pentagon To Call Anthropic A Supply-Chain Risk (ZH)
• Is Anthropic’s ‘Mythos’ a ‘Generational Leap’ Beyond Other AI Models (Moran)
• US Moves Closer To Automated Military Draft (RT)
• A Billion-Dollar Mirage: Do Ukraine’s New Missiles Match The Hype? (Kornev)
• Serious Questions about Our “Democracy” (Paul Craig Roberts)
• The Doolittle Question, The Do-Nothing Answer (Helmer)
• Panicans and Division (CTH)
• WSJ: Greece on The List of NATO Countries That Trump Will Reward (KTG)

 


 

https://twitter.com/xMarketNews/status/2041908107916218822?s=20 https://twitter.com/_Postive_Vibes/status/2041916296611438958?s=20

 


 


It starts today, guys, not Wednesday or Thursday. The ceasefire comes with the meeting.

“Trump had accepted a secret ten-point plan that the administration felt necessary to keep under wraps.”

• Whatever’s Happening in Iran and the Middle East, It Isn’t a ‘Ceasefire’ (Moran)

How confusing is this “ceasefire” between the U.S. and Iran currently in effect, supposedly for the next two weeks, and why is everyone still shooting at one another? “Well, there is a ceasefire. Or perhaps not,” writes old Middle East hand Elliot Abrams in The Free Press. “It includes Lebanon. Or it doesn’t. Iran’s 10-point plan is an acceptable working document for the United States. Or it isn’t the one U.S. negotiators saw. The Strait of Hormuz will be open. Or passage requires Iranian approval and a toll,” he observes.


Donald Trump agreed to stop attacking Iran, and Iran agreed to stop attacking Israel and its Gulf neighbors and open the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has kept up his end of the deal. Iran has not, but the U.S. is pretending Iran is in compliance. When Saudi Arabia complained that a refinery had been targeted by Iranian drones, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said simply that “troops out in remote locations” who didn’t know about the ceasefire yet were responsible.

The confusion over Lebanon is partly Israel’s fault, given that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims he never agreed to a cease-fire for Lebanon. Iran never claimed during negotiations that Lebanon would be included in any ceasefire deal, either. Now they say it is and won’t attend the Friday negotiating session unless Israel agrees. Trump stated that Iran’s ten-point plan “is a workable basis on which to negotiate,” only to have his press secretary Karoline Leavitt claim in a Wednesday press conference that Iran’s plan “was fundamentally unserious, unacceptable and completely discarded,” and that Trump had accepted a secret ten-point plan that the administration felt necessary to keep under wraps.

And the Strait of Hormuz is still closed. It never opened. If anything, Iran has dug in its heels on the concept that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) controls access to the Strait and is entitled to charge tolls for ships that wish to pass. Lloyd’s List, a shipping industry journal, reported Wednesday afternoon that only three ships had transited Hormuz since the ceasefire. The Free Press: An accounting of gains and losses for the United States is therefore temporary and incomplete. If the ceasefire really breaks down (for instance, because Iran insists that Israel stop responding to Hezbollah attacks, which Israel will not do) the president will have to do something more than the air attacks of last week.

That will mean a broader bombing campaign which, though it will not destroy Iranian civilization, will destroy a number of bridges and power plants. That should not be surprising or unacceptable, because Iran spent the first hours after the ceasefire announcement attacking power and desalination plants and oil sites in the Arab Gulf countries. Or, Trump might decide the time has come to seize some islands in the Gulf. This would all be unwelcome for Trump, who wants the war over, the stock market up, and oil prices steadily (if slowly) descending. He will only do it if the Iranian regime leaves him no other choice.

As badly as Trump wants the war to be over, he can’t end it as it currently stands. Abrams believes that “at the end of two weeks allotted for negotiations, two more weeks will be allotted, and then two more.” I don’t think Trump will string these ceasefire talks out for very long. Donald Trump is going to go big before he goes home. What that means is anyone’s guess, but it certainly won’t be good for Iran. The religious fanatics who were previously in charge have been replaced by Iranian nationalist fanatics in the IRGC. This is not “regime change.” The IRGC fanatics running Iran were responsible for the 35,000 Iranian protesters gunned down in the streets.

Add to that the fact that Iranian communications have been smashed, and a paranoia approaching hysteria, never seen in a modern state, afflicts the current leaders in Iran, and we’re a long way from any real “ceasefire.” I think we can expect another round of fighting with both Israel and the U.S. upping the ante in Lebanon and on Iranian infrastructure.

Read more …

So there’s no ceasefire, but they’re furious about the ceasefire.

“They have described the development as a “political disaster” and PM Netayahu’s worst strategic failure ..”

• Israeli MPs Furious Over Trump’s Ceasefire With Iran (RT)

A ceasefire deal struck by Washington and Tehran is a “disaster” and “failure,” several prominent Israeli politicians have said. Israel was left out of the equation, they argued, calling it a strategic mistake on the part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. US President Donald Trump announced a two-week pause to the US-Israeli war on Iran to negotiate a long-term solution to the conflict on the basis of a 10-point plan put forward by Tehran. It reportedly includes Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz, acceptance of its uranium enrichment, the lifting of sanctions, and the cessation of war on all fronts, including Israeli attacks on Lebanon.


Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday it “supports” Trump’s decision while maintaining that Israel would continue its military campaign against the Iran-linked Hezbollah group in neighboring Lebanon. “There has never been such a political disaster in all of our history. Israel wasn’t even at the table when decisions were made concerning the core of our national security,” said Yair Lapid, parliamentary opposition leader and the head of the centrist Yesh Atid party.

“Netanyahu failed politically, failed strategically, and didn’t meet a single one of the goals that he himself set,” the lawmaker said in a post on X. Former Deputy Economic Minister Yair Golan, who leads the Democrats party, also branded the development a “total failure” in a social media post, adding that Iran emerged from the conflict stronger than before. MP Avigdor Liberman, the head of the Yisrael Beytenu party, also claimed that peace with Iran under the conditions listed in its plan would only lead to another conflict later.

The US and Israel launched an unprovoked bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in late February, openly stating they were seeking regime change and an end to Iran’s nuclear program. The conflict killed thousands and caused unprecedented disruption to global energy supplies, mainly due to Tehran’s effective closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Read more …

Some people like to think the US lost to Iran.

• Before Donald Trump Ran Up His White Flag, Here Are The Reasons He Did So (Helmer)

President Donald Trump has been defeated on the battlefield near Isfahan over the weekend. He was then defeated on the morning of Tuesday in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in his attempt, manipulating Bahrain, to legalize the use of force against Iran in the Strait of Hormuz.


Finally, minutes short of his announced genocide deadline “before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to GOD!” and “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again”, Trump bit his tongue on his threat: “There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”

Instead, Trump announced that as a favour to his Pakistan ally, Asim Munir, “subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks. This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE! The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East. We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate. Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated. On behalf of the United States of America, as President, and also representing the Countries of the Middle East, it is an Honor to have this Longterm problem close to resolution.”

The official statement, issued in Teheran by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, said that Iran is “considering announcement by POTUS about acceptance of the general framework of Iran’s 10-point proposal as a basis for negotiations”. The Iranian agreement, Araghchi went on, then preserved the new regime for the Strait “via coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations.”

Trump and his tweet supervisor, Stephen Miller, then swallowed their tongue by tweeting the text of Araghchi’s tweet. Exact and official wording of Iran’s 10-point proposal is not published. However, this summary published by the Tasnim News Agency, a platform of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC), comes close. The IRGC has added the interpretation: “By accepting these conditions as the basis for negotiations, Trump has retreated from his desperate threats and bluffs.”

Humiliation reversed. CIA Director John Ratcliffe and War Secretary Peter Hegseth had repeatedly declared in their April 6 press conference, celebrating the weekend pilot rescue, that the Iranians had been “embarrassed and, ultimately, humiliated by the success of this audacious rescue mission”, and “Iran’s military, and we know this, is embarrassed and humiliated, and they should be”. With Benjamin Netanyahu by his side, Trump had declared last December: “Iran has been greatly reduced in power, prestige. I don’t want to use the word humiliation because, you know, they’re trying to build up again.”

Read more …

This could lead to a bitter fight between Trump and the EU.

• JD Vance: EU in Hungary “Worst Ever Foreign Election Interference” (RMX)

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance used a high-profile appearance in Budapest alongside Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to accuse Brussels of carrying out “one of the worst examples of foreign and election interference” he had ever seen, claiming EU officials had targeted Hungary because they “hate this guy” and want to weaken his government ahead of the country’s election.


Speaking at a joint press conference in the Hungarian capital on Tuesday, Vance said the “bureaucrats in Brussels have tried to destroy the economy of Hungary,” had sought to make the country less energy independent, and had “tried to drive up costs for Hungarian consumers.”“They’ve done it all because they hate this guy,” he added, pointing at Orbán.

The U.S. vice president cast the vote as a test of national sovereignty and told Hungarian voters to ask not who was pro-Europe or pro-America, but “who is pro-you” and “who is pro the people of Hungary.” He caveated his address by insisting he was not telling Hungarians how to vote, and urged the “bureaucrats in Brussels to do the exact same thing.”

Meanwhile, Orbán hailed a new “golden era” in ties with Washington under President Donald Trump and said the return of Trump had transformed bilateral relations after years without a visit by such a senior American official. He said 2025 had been a record year for economic cooperation and that 2026 was already bringing further momentum, pointing to expanded collaboration in defense and space technology as well as new U.S. investment.

Both men used the press conference to present Hungary and the Trump administration as ideological allies. Orbán said the two sides were in constant contact on migration, “gender ideology,” family policy, and global security, while Vance said the partnership was rooted not primarily in economics but in “moral cooperation.”

“What the United States and Hungary together represent under Viktor’s leadership and under President Trump’s leadership is the defense of Western civilization,” Vance said. He said that meant defending the idea that children should be educated “and not indoctrinated,” that families should be able to afford their energy bills, and that the West remained grounded in “Christian civilization and Christian values.”

The vice president also praised Orbán’s handling of energy policy, saying the Hungarian leader had been “the single most profound leader in Europe on the question of inter energy security and independence.” He argued that other European governments were now paying the price for failing to follow a similar path, saying Hungary’s energy price pressures were still less severe than those seen in much of the rest of Europe.

Both leaders argued that Trump’s return to power had strengthened the cause of peace in Ukraine. Orbán said Hungary had lived “in the shadows of a war for four years now” and repeated his long-held claim that the conflict would never have begun had Trump been in office in 2022. He also accused Brussels of obstructing peace efforts, saying that if European leaders had not been “blocking the peace efforts of the president, peace would prevail” in Ukraine already.

The Hungarian prime minister also used the appearance to accuse Ukraine of taking steps designed to damage Hungary before the election. He said Kyiv had earlier blocked a gas pipeline route and had now also blockaded an oil pipeline that he described as “the umbilical cord of the Hungarian economy.” Orbán said Hungary had been forced to tap its reserves, but insisted he had a plan to force Ukraine to reopen the route after the election.

“We have to force the Ukrainians to reopen the pipeline, and we have a plan to do that,” Orbán said. “After the national forces win the election here in Hungary … there will be no option left for the Ukrainians than to lift this blockade.”

Vance echoed that confrontational line, saying there were “elements within the Ukrainian intelligence services” that had tried to “put their thumb on the scale of American elections” and Hungarian elections too. He said that behavior was “just what they do,” though he added that Ukraine, like the United States, contained both “good people and bad people.” At another point, Vance was asked whether the United States would work with a different Hungarian leader if Orbán were defeated. He replied that Washington would work with whoever won because it loved “the people of Hungary,” but immediately added: “Viktor Orban is going to win the next election in Hungary.”

Read more …

1) How do we know the court knows enough about AI?

2) Are all other Ai models also supply-chain risks?

• Appeals Court Allows Pentagon To Call Anthropic A Supply-Chain Risk (ZH)

In a significant development for the intersection of artificial intelligence policy and national security, a federal appeals court in Washington ruled on April 8 that the Department of War may designate Anthropic as a supply-chain risk while a full judicial review plays out. The decision came after the AI company sought an emergency stay to block the controversial designation.


The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit concluded that Anthropic “has not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending court review,” allowing the blacklist to remain in effect for now. This ruling directly conflicts with a temporary injunction issued last month by a federal district court in California, which had paused the designation during ongoing litigation.

The designation, authorized under federal laws intended to shield military and government systems from supply-chain vulnerabilities and foreign sabotage, functions as an effective blacklist. It prohibits Anthropic from conducting business with the federal government or its contractors and directs federal agencies, contractors, and suppliers to terminate existing ties with the company.

The move originated after Anthropic declined a Department of War request to alter the user policies and safety guardrails of its flagship AI model, Claude. The company refused to remove restrictions that prevent the AI from being used for mass surveillance or the development and operation of fully autonomous weapons systems. Anthropic has emphasized its commitment to “constitutional AI” principles and responsible deployment, arguing that such guardrails are essential to ethical AI use.

The Pentagon has stated publicly that it does not intend to employ Claude for those specific purposes, but it has insisted on the flexibility to use the technology for all lawful military applications. President Donald Trump weighed in on social media earlier, accusing Anthropic of trying to “strong-arm” the federal government by using its AI policies to dictate military decisions.

Late on April 8, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche celebrated the appeals court decision on X (formerly Twitter), describing it as “a resounding victory for military readiness.” He added: “Our military needs full access to Anthropic’s models if its technology is integrated into our sensitive systems.”

Anthropic, a prominent AI firm founded by former OpenAI executives and backed by major investors including Amazon and Google, has positioned itself as a leader in safe and reliable AI development. Its Claude models are widely used in enterprise, research, and creative applications precisely because of their built-in safeguards.

The case is believed to mark the first time such a supply-chain risk designation — typically reserved for foreign entities posing security threats — has been applied to a major U.S.-based AI company. It underscores deepening tensions between commercial AI developers’ emphasis on ethical guardrails and the government’s push for unfettered access to advanced technology for defense purposes.

Litigation continues in both the California district court and the D.C. Circuit, and further updates are expected as the conflicting rulings are reconciled.

Read more …

The government says so, but really, honestly, what do they know?

.. “superintelligence” is nearly upon us, and the effect will be “so mind-bending, so disruptive” on society that America needs a “new social contract”

• Is Anthropic’s ‘Mythos’ a ‘Generational Leap’ Beyond Other AI Models (Moran)

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is doing something no Big Tech owner has ever done: “He’s publishing a detailed blueprint for how government should tax, regulate and redistribute the wealth from the very technology he’s racing to build and spread,” according to Axios. The reason is a little unsettling: “superintelligence” is nearly upon us, and the effect will be “so mind-bending, so disruptive” on society that America needs a “new social contract” on the order of the Progressive Era of the turn of the 20th century or the New Deal.


AI companies know some random idiot, or some rogue nation, could use their models to conjure the next pandemic. “Wonderful things are going to happen there — we’ll see a bunch of diseases get cured,” Altman said. But he also knows terrorist groups could use the models to try to create novel pathogens: “[T]hat’s no longer a theoretical thing, or it’s not going to be for much longer.” Anthropic has just given its “Mythos” AI model a limited release. Why limited? Both the industry and the government believe that Mythos is an AI capable of “not just identifying weaknesses in security systems, but exploiting them with autonomous, never-before-seen precision,” reports Axios.

The darn thing accidentally escaped the confines of its “sandbox” and strolled through several systems after building a “moderately sophisticated multi-step exploit” to give it the run of the internet. The model demonstrated a “potentially dangerous capability for circumventing our safeguards,” Anthropic revealed. “The researcher found out about this success by receiving an unexpected email from the model while eating a sandwich in a park.” Yikes.

Anthropic’s Logan Graham — a former Rhodes Scholar who leads the Frontier Red Team, which stress-tests new models — told us the industry needs to rethink future releases of all AI models, given the new and coming capabilities. So imagine Mythos-level power in the hands of the Iranian regime in the middle of a hot war or Russia’s military as it tries to decimate Ukraine. That’s the chief reason the government and AI companies are racing so fast toward a technology so powerful and potentially dangerous. These officials fear that China, armed with superior AI, could present an existential threat to U.S. dominance.

“An enemy could reach out and touch us in a way they can’t or won’t with kinetic [battlefield] operations,” a source close to the Pentagon told us. “For most Americans, the Iran war is ‘over there.’ With a cyberattack, it’s right here.” “Secrets” in business or government are fleeting, and for the right price, someone, somewhere might be tempted to sell AI secrets to bad actors. Or more likely, those bad actors would create their own AI nightmares, given the state of the tech and the abilities of the Chinese and the Russians.

The controlled release of Mythos could be the blueprint for future model releases, with AI companies doling out access to select partners that have enough security to test world-bending systems. Other AI companies will soon catch up to Mythos — not just here, but in China and elsewhere. A Chinese state-sponsored group already used an earlier Claude model to target roughly 30 organizations in a coordinated attack before Anthropic detected it.

The time is fast approaching for all of corporate America and all of government to be prepared to guard against hackers with superhuman powers. The window to get ahead of this is closing fast. Most in power aren’t remotely ready.This doesn’t sound like AI hype to me. This isn’t Sam Altman bragging about his latest ChatGPT release. This is crunch time. We’re now in a genuine arms race where keeping ahead of China and Russia is a matter of the highest national security and, potentially, of national survival.

Read more …

Don’t think everyone’s ready. Three quarters are too heavy, and that’s just one example.

• US Moves Closer To Automated Military Draft (RT)

Plans for automated military conscription during a US national emergency are advancing and on schedule to be in place by the end of the year, according to the federal agency tasked with maintaining the list, the Selective Service System (SSS). Provisions included in the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act passed last December in response to falling compliance shifted the responsibility from individuals to the SSS. The changes drew renewed attention this week after media outlets highlighted a recent update on the agency’s website. The SSS is expected to finalize implementation by December 2026, aiming for a “streamlined registration process and corresponding workforce realignment.”


Currently, most adult males under the age of 26 living in the US – including undocumented immigrants – are required to register for potential conscription. The millions who fail to do so can face penalties of up to $250,000 in fines, five years in prison, and restrictions on obtaining citizenship. Under the new system, the SSS would instead build its registry using personal data from multiple government databases.The US military has relied on an all-volunteer force since the early 1970s. President Richard Nixon ran for office in 1968 on a pledge to end mandatory conscription, viewing it as a key source of public resentment towards the Vietnam War. Although draft registration was halted in 1975, it resumed in 1980 following the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.

In recent years, the Pentagon has faced mounting challenges in both recruiting volunteers and maintaining the national draft list. Standards for enlistment have been lowered to address recruitment shortfalls, while the shift to automatic registration is intended to boost the pool for possible conscription.

Several anti-war organizations have urged Congress to reconsider the change. They argue the system “won’t produce an accurate or complete list of potential draftees,” but at the same time “will increase the likelihood of war and violate the privacy of US citizens and residents.” Critics believe that the aggregated database will be “vulnerable to misuse and weaponization” by both government entities and private actors.

There are broader efforts across Western countries to prepare for possible large-scale military conflicts, including by tightening conscription policies. In Germany, for example, new rules quietly introduced in January require men of fighting age to obtain permission before staying abroad for more than three months, reportedly catching many by surprise.

Read more …

The EU is building a deadly industry.

Backed by nearly $1 billion in contracts, Fire Point has risen on bold claims of deep strikes inside Russia. But how real is its success?

• A Billion-Dollar Mirage: Do Ukraine’s New Missiles Match The Hype? (Kornev)

In less than two years, a little-known Ukrainian startup has secured nearly $1 billion in state contracts, built one of the country’s most ambitious missile programs – and drawn the attention of anti-corruption investigators. A February article by Deutsche Welle and subsequent interviews with co-founder Denis Shtilerman have helped propel Fire Point into the European media spotlight, with bold claims about long-range strike capabilities deep inside Russia. But beyond the publicity, evidence of real-world effectiveness remains limited. What, then, can these missiles actually do – and how serious a threat do they represent?


Fire Point: Sudden success
In 2025, Fire Point rapidly emerged as a leading name in Ukrainian missile manufacturing. Today, it stands out as one of the most dynamic yet secretive defense startups in Ukraine, specializing in the production of long-range drones and missiles. Initially, the company developed only cruise missiles, but now it also designs ballistic missilesReports suggest that the startup launched with $1.5-$2 million invested by the founders themselves. However, in 2024-2025, the company secured government contracts worth approximately $1 billion, which is truly remarkable. Perhaps the answer to this mystery lies in the backgrounds of the founders?

At the helm of the company is Denis Shtilerman, the chief designer, founder, and majority owner (with a 97.5% share) of FP. He describes himself as a wealthy individual unafraid to invest his own money into the project. The co-founder is Yegor Skalyga (2.5% share) who previously headed a film industry company, suggesting ties to Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky and his Studio Kvartal 95. Irina Terekh, the technical director and co-owner of FP, joined the team in 2023. And lastly, there is… former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who joined the advisory board in November 2025. Now that’s a smart move, considering the current situation in Ukraine.

High-ranking Ukrainian officials have actively promoted the company’s products. Zelensky referred to the FP-5 Flamingo as the “most successful” missile in Ukraine’s arsenal. The company also reportedly has ties to the former head of Zelensky’s office, Andrey Yermak. This is quite possible, since Fire Point has become the largest recipient of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s budget allocations for the construction of drones. Shtilerman attributes this to the fact that some state enterprises maintain secret ties with Russia, which is unacceptable at this time.

However, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) may have a different opinion about the company’s success. NABU has launched an investigation on several fronts: firstly, it is investigating possible price inflation for components used in FP-1 drones; secondly, NABU is examining the company’s connections with Timur Mindich and potential corruption schemes related to procurement through government structures. Amid these scandals, the appointment of Mike Pompeo to the advisory board has been viewed by many analysts as an attempt by FP to bolster its reputation and shield itself from corruption allegations.

Pink Flamingo
FP indeed emerged out of nowhere and quickly became a leader in Ukraine’s drone and missile manufacturing sector. It specializes in the development and mass production of long-range FP-1 and FP-2 strike drones, as well as the FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile. By 2025, its workforce expanded to 3,500 employees, including 650 engineers, with production facilities covering 175,000 square meters across several secret locations.

The company’s most notable product so far is the FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile powered by a AI-25TL turbofan engine. It is reported that the company has been gathering these engines from decommissioned training aircraft all over Eastern Europe. The missile is marketed as a long-range weapon designed for deep strikes. In size, it surpasses its Western counterparts like the Tomahawk or Storm Shadow missiles. Its flight range is up to 3,000 kilometers, and the warhead weighs 1,000-1,150 kilograms (with about 600 kilograms allocated for explosives).

The missile travels at speeds of 850-900 km/h and has a launch weight of approximately 6,000 kg. The fuselage length is about 12 meters and the wingspan is six meters. Equipped with a relatively modern guidance system – a combination of an inertial navigation system and a jamming-resistant satellite navigation system – it boasts a reported accuracy of approximately 15 meters from the intended target. However, confirming these specifications in real-world conditions has proven challenging – it is unclear how many of the missiles have been launched and how many have failed during testing.

Fire Point had ambitious plans to ramp up production to 200 missiles per month by 2026, but apparently, these are still distant prospects. To create an illusion of ongoing missile production, news reports occasionally surface about the deployment of these missiles, often accompanied by video footage. It seems the company has allocated funds for PR, as multiple stories about FP have appeared in leading Western media outlets within the past month.

Read more …

First counter all the lies that have been told about Trump the past ten years.

It’s a miracle he survived, and that our democracy did.

• Serious Questions about Our “Democracy” (Paul Craig Roberts)

Democracy is valued because it is believed to be a means of holding government accountable. To succeed in holding government accountable, it is necessary to know what government is doing and why. Traditionally, opposition political parties and objective media were means for bringing out the truth. In our time political parties fight over power, not over principles. They hide their agendas behind false narratives that media supports rather than exposes. Consider this week’s major event: The alleged rescue operation of a US pilot downed in Iran.


Last Monday for a couple of hours we had the President of the United States, the Director of the CIA, the Secretary of War, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff stand before media and TV audience and lie through their teeth by covering up a failed military attack on an Iranian nuclear facility by presenting it as a successful rescue mission of a downed pilot.

The story made no sense and was obviously false. According to President Trump “hundreds” of US military personnel and several aircraft were involved. Navy and Army special forces teams and cargo planes carrying helicopters are not the way pilots are rescued. Such a highly visible operation calls attention to the venture and defeats it. Ask anyone in the know. The Iranians have the documents of Major Ryder that prove the alleged “rescue” was a military operation.

Have you heard anything in the media about Major Ryder? Have you seen or heard the names of the two rescued pilots? Rather than admit to a failed military operation against Iran, the Trump regime substituted a heroic story of the rescue of a brave airman. The first rescued airman was rescued without hundreds of special forces and the lost of a number of US aircraft.

When governments, politicians, and media have no respect for truth there can be no accountability. Just think of all the lies we have been told by governments over the years, lies largely unchallenged by media: President Kennedy was killed by Oswald; Robert Kennedy was killed by Sirhan Sirhan; The US was attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin by North Vietnam; 9/11 was the work of Osama bin Laden; Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction; Assad used chemical weapons; Palestinians are terrorists; Iranians are terrorists; Iran is making nuclear weapons. These and many other lies are transparently false but are treated as historical truths. Somehow Americans can believe on one hand that the US has the most powerful military in the world and that the CIA can locate a downed pilot in a cave in an Iranian mountain, and on the other hand that a few Saudi Arabians can defeat US airport security four times in the same hour on the same morning, hijack four US airliners and fly two of them into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and crash one in Pennsylvania, and the powerful American military and hyper-competent CIA are helpless bystanders.

When truth is not respected no principles are. Democracy requires transparency and respect for truth. Just as the Trump regime has lied about recent events in Iran, the Biden regime turned January 6 protesters into “insurrectionists” and imprisoned them, and Democrat prosecutors brought false civil and criminal indictments against President Trump. This is not a portrait of democracy.

It is democracies, not kingdoms and dictatorships, that are characterized by endless fights for power. In fights for power, truth is always the casualty. It is easy to conclude that truth can be less secure in a democracy than in a kingdom.

Democracy has other overwhelming disadvantages that eventually ensure its failure. If a democracy is to have a long life, the franchise must be limited, as America’s Founding Fathers limited it, to male property owners who are more prone to reason than emotion and who have a personal stake in the system. But as time passes and the franchise is expanded there come into existence people whose only stake in the system is their ability to vote away the income and wealth of those who comprised the original franchise. In America today we have a discriminatory income tax that takes more from higher incomes than from lower. We have a property tax that forces property owners to pay for the education of other people’s children including those of illegal aliens whose illegal presence is subsidized by US citizens..

We have inheritance taxes that confiscate 50% of the accumulations of successful people upon their death. Inheritance taxation also forces families that have built successful businesses to sell the business or take it public in order to pay the inheritance tax. In other words, democracies become theft mechanisms. This is the case in every existing democracy in the world today.

All democracies become riddled with faction, and unity disappears. When democracies not only permit but encourage themselves to be overrun by immigrant-invaders, they degenerate into Towers of Babel. The weakening of principle erodes law and respect for moral standards, and sexual and criminal perversities flourish. Democracy requires a great deal of maintenance that is not provided. Consequently, like an unmaintained engine democracy fails.

The most powerful proof of the failure of American democracy is that in the 21st century America’s most important and most costly decisions have been made by Israel. The “war on terror” was the Israel Lobby’s disguise for Israel’s use of American blood and money to eliminate obstacles to Greater Israel, such as Iraq, Libya, and Syria. America’s war with Iran, from which Trump is trying to extricate himself by declaring victory, is the consequence of Israel’s hold over America. The war is not the result of the will of the people who overwhelmingly oppose the war, or of a declaration of war by Congress, or of an Iranian threat to the United States. The war is the result of a decision Netanyahu made for Trump. Clearly, America is no democracy when Netanyahu can send America to war for Greater Israel.

As the US government itself does not have control over its own foreign policy, in no sense can the American people hold “their” government accountable to their will. If America is to rebuild its democracy, America must begin by establishing its independence from Israel.

Read more …

“Why can’t a woman be more like a man?”

Why can’t a Russian be more like an Iranian?

• The Doolittle Question, The Do-Nothing Answer (Helmer)

Professor Higgins’s question to Colonel Pickering about Eliza Doolittle in the line from the musical, My Fair Lady, was: Why can’t a woman be more like a man? In Moscow, where the course of the Iran war is having a profound impact on military, intelligence, Foreign Ministry, and Kremlin officials, almost nothing can be said in public. Not even the question they are asking each other downwards and sideways, not upwards: Why can’t a Russian be more like an Iranian?


The difficulty of answering is not because it is against the law to criticize the Russian Army’s performance in the present Special Military Operation (aka war), according to the interpretation of the local United Russia party commissar, his chief in the Kremlin, Alexei Gromov, or his chief, President Vladimir Putin.

It is not because of a lack of confidence in what Putin is deciding as commander in chief. The President reveals himself in his private conversations; their substance is not a secret for a great many in a position to know. In the telephone call with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban — according to the authenticated transcript of their conversation of last October 17 – Putin said he believed Trump was not at war, not even in a special military operation, in the Middle East – not in Gaza and Lebanon from 2023, not in Iran in June 2025. Putin also made clear then that he doesn’t think Trump is at war with Russia, and that on the Ukrainian battlefield, Trump’s “tank” is fully functional, moving “forward”, not backward.

“Donald,” Putin told Orban, “has a surprising ability to deal with various crises, such as the regulation of the Middle East and, most recently, the Gaza region, and I hope that there will also be a satisfactory solution to the Ukrainian-Russian conflict.” Orban replied: “To be honest, I was also very surprised. I’ve known Donald for a long time, he’s not an ordinary person [both laugh]. His working method leaves no questions unresolved, I watch with admiration how successful he is. His business style, which is like a tornado, brings results.”

“Putin: As they say, he is moving forward like a tank. It worked for him, and we can only be happy about that. Prior to the meeting in Anchorage, the US side formulated the general principles of possible regulation, and I believe that these will be discussed again in the discussions. We have already talked about this in Anchorage, and there will probably be something to discuss in Budapest as well.” Putin may have been using Orban to ingratiate himself with Trump in the preliminaries for the Budapest summit meeting, but it didn’t help and the summit failed to materialize. The reasons, Russian reasons first, American second, can be followed here and here and here.

What the newly disclosed transcript shows – just as other transcripts of Putin’s private conversations with US leaders reveal – is that Putin is not aiming to fight or deter Trump; that Russia is not at war with the US (and its allies); and that Putin believes that money can be paid in sufficiently large amounts (billions of dollars more for Trump than for his White House predecessors), so that Russia’s national interests will be served. That conviction is one of the three“understandings” — Putin insists as do his subordinates — which were reached at the Anchorage summit meeting with Trump on August 8, 2025.

Putin’s Anchorage reference to Orban is to the “Anchorage Understandings”. The second of these was Putin’s belief that Trump will concede Russia’s dominance of the Ukraine in exchange for Trump’s dominance of the Americas – from Greenland through Canada to Mexico, Cuba, Panama, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. Exactly what (whether) Trump conceded Russian dominance of the entire NATO eastern front from Poland, the Baltic Sea, to Finland was left unclear at the time. Exactly what (whether) Putin conceded US dominance of China, North Korea, and Iran with Greater Israel was also left unclear.

The third of the “understandings” was that bribes agreed by the two presidents’ bagmen will be honoured by the presidents on receipt. Who in Moscow shall count the sums in exchange and the interests served? That’s the Russian oligarchs. The President’s confidant, negotiator with Trump, spokesman for the Anchorage understandings, signatory of the bribe payments, and chief representative for the Russian oligarchs – this is Kirill Dmitriev. He writes and publishes tweets several times each day because he wants to be heard. It is therefore his determined silence on every aspect of Trump’s attempted genocide against Iran, and his near-completed one against the Arabs of Palestine and Lebanon, which speaks loudest.

The Iranians do not misinterpret that silence. Nor the Chinese nor the Cubans. To understand what the Russians who count understand at present of Russian conduct of operations on the Ukrainian battlefield, the Iranian battlefield, and the Cuban battlefield, it is necessary to read between the lines of what is said in public by the officials, including Putin; and to ask questions in private of those in a position to know enough to piece the answer to the big question. Right now that’s the Doolittle Question.

Read more …

Sundance still has the faith.

“Trust God, and pray for President Trump.”

• Panicans and Division (CTH)

Back in 2015/2016 The Salem Media Group, like -the whole crew- the Evangelical right per se’, was essentially against Donald Trump a republican candidate. Trump wasn’t religious enough, and Salem was/is VERY pro-Israel. A very strong evangelical tribe. Salem Media Inc supported Ted Cruz (mostly), they also really liked Scott Walker (and similar). Milquetoast varieties of Republican. You know the sort. {2015 citation} Breitbart (Robert and Rebekah Mercer) and the strong pro-Israel group (Mark Levin, Ben Shapiro, etc.) also supported Ted Cruz (Jeff Roe and company). Almost no one directly supported Trump. You know that, and you know the outcome of it.


That environment led to tons of eventual jump-overs, including Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, etc. when Trump became the “presumptive” nominee. Hey, they go where the $$ flows. Then Mark Levin followed reluctantly, and eventually the Salem crew bit their tongue, overcame the “grab em by the pussy” nonsense and joined the pragmatic MAGA coalition. Now, you might also remember the name Brad Parscale, an online tech guy who was datamining Facebook and microtargeting for Trump support. That led to a controversy called “Cambridge Analytica” after the unexpected Trump win and the leftists crying foul about the online support that defeated their aggressive corporate media ploys. That’s the core. We agree?

Okay. Fast forward. Donald Trump held a loose coalition, which included the Salem tribe (which included a now bigger TPU$A, Charlie Kirk et al) which included the high-horse Evangelicals, only now they were more firm horse riders. Brad Parscale was later hired by Salem Media Inc as their strategic operations director (current position). No longer connected to the Trump team, yet quasi-supporting the objectives of the Trump administration, Mr Brad Parscale takes money from the pro-Israel group, files FARA registration forms and goes back to his tech skillset to shape and influence politics; except now, a decade later, tech micro-targeting is big time algorithmic control systems.

Salem Media Inc. still in alignment with their Evangelical roots, plus a new addition from Trump world (Lara Trump and Don Jr.) each with a foot in the Salem operation, and Brad Parscale promoting the pro-Israel Evangelical mission with unbelievable tools thanks to modern tech, artificial intelligence, datamining and algorithmic data operations on social media platforms.Then comes billionaires Larry and David Ellison, also very pro-Israel, in combination with Salem Media Inc. operated by Parscale, and the ideological alignment of Mark Levin, Ben Shapiro, Laura Loomer etc., taking algorithmic AI and Evangelical data targeting to new stratospheric levels.

Which brings us through 2025 and Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu noting in his influencer meetup that the Tik Tok and X platform were the two most important strategic operations of interest, against the warning of diminished GenX support from Charlie Kirk. {Citation and Video} Subsequently, Larry Ellison (Oracle) takes control of Tik Tok (GenZ), while Elon Musk (free speech) is controlling X. All of the above come into a deep, collaborative, pro-Israel synergy.That’s not a conspiracy; it is simply the reality of political targeting and influence in the year 2026. That’s the current landscape.

That’s what you are witnessing online, perhaps in your data profile, and more than likely in your algorithmically controlled online travels. Your identity as defined by your data and pixels implanted into your profile that can be targeted to feed you specific information and content. Algorithmic support operations, also using money to shift the visibility of support (or lack therein), is why “X” and other platform content providers, don’t always align with reality you see offline and/or polling that shows consistent support for Donald Trump amid the MAGA base. The narratives are not organic, often they are divisive. However, most users outside the control system can’t distinguish the content that is being targeted toward them.

I hope that somewhat helps see through the friction. Most of us have supported Trump throughout his endeavors in office, trusting him to do what needed to be done, and using his best judgement on whatever the issue was while understanding that he has much more information than us. This still applies today. This doesn’t mean that President Trump can see everything or has immediate reference for everything happening. An example was JD Vance telling the audience today that he had no idea Zelenskyy had threatened Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The White House is focused on the issues confronting them daily; they have a priority perspective, and they do not see everything. Trust God, and pray for President Trump.

Read more …

Keep Talking Greece still exists! I remember her from 10-odd years ago. Lost sight of her. Sorry!

• WSJ: Greece on The List of NATO Countries That Trump Will Reward (KTG)

The White House is considering a plan to punish some members of the NATO alliance that President Donald Trump thinks were unhelpful to the U.S. and Israel during the Iran war, according to administration officials. Other countries that have supported the war, such as Greece, will be rewarded. According to an exclusive report by Wall Street Journal, the proposal would involve moving U.S. troops out of North Atlantic Treaty Organization member countries deemed unhelpful to the Iran war effort and stationing them in countries that were more supportive. The proposal would fall far short of President Trump’s recent threats to fully withdraw the U.S. from the alliance, which by law he can’t do without Congress.


The plan, which has circulated and gained support among senior administration officials in recent weeks, is early in conception and one of several the White House is discussing to punish NATO. It underscores the growing rift between the Trump administration and European allies following the president’s decision to launch the war with Iran. “It is quite unfortunate that NATO has turned its back on the American people over the past six weeks, while they are the ones who are funding their defense,” said the White House spokeswoman.

On Wednesday evening, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “NATO wasn’t there when we needed them, and they won’t be there if we need them again.” The U.S. has around 84,000 troops stationed across Europe, though the exact number varies from military exercises and rotational deployments. U.S. bases in Europe serve as a critical hub of global U.S. military operations, as well as provide an economic boon to the host country through investment. Bases in Eastern Europe also serve as a deterrent against Russia. When asked for comment, the White House referred to recent statements made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticizing NATO countries for failing to be more helpful to the U.S. with the war in Iran.

It couldn’t be determined which countries would lose troops, yet a number of alliance members have run afoul of Trump since he returned to office and more recently attracted his ire by objecting to the war in Iran. Spain—the only NATO country that hasn’t indicated it would spend 5% of its GDP on defense—blocked U.S. planes involved in the Iran operation from using its airspace. Administration officials are also frustrated with Germany after top officials criticized the war, though Germany serves as one of the largest and most important hubs for the U.S. military to support its operations in the Middle East. Italy also briefly blocked the U.S. use of an air base in Sicily, and the French government agreed to only allow the U.S. to use a base in southern France after it guaranteed planes not involved in Iran strikes would land there.

Beyond repositioning troops, the plan could also involve closing a U.S. base in at least one of the European countries, possibly Spain or Germany, according to the two administration officials. Countries that could benefit because they are viewed as supportive include Poland, Romania, Lithuania and Greece, the officials said. The Eastern European countries have some of the highest defense-spending rates in the alliance and were some of the first to signal they would support an international coalition to monitor the Strait of Hormuz. After war broke out, Romania quickly approved U.S. requests to allow its bases to be used by the U.S. Air Force.

The plan could result in putting more U.S. troops closer to the Russian border, an outcome likely to antagonize Moscow. Senior European officials counter that they were never consulted on the war in advance to begin with, making it difficult to coordinate military response in the conflict’s first days. During his first term in 2020, Trump ordered the withdrawal of around 12,000 troops from Germany, but President Joe Biden reversed the decision after taking office in 2021. [full article: WSJ]

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/InterstellarUAP/status/2041831496399380614?s=20 https://twitter.com/Ikennect/status/2041931700284817560?s=20

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle April 8 2026

Apr 082026
 
 April 8, 2026  Posted by at 9:50 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  73 Responses »


Emil Nolde Half Moon Over The Sea 1945


• Trump Announces a Ceasefire (Sarah Anderson)
• President Trump, Iran Agree To 2-Week Ceasefire (ZH)
• President Trump Threatened Iran, the Democrats Blinked (Tim O’Brien)
• Trump Threatens To ‘Take Out Entire Country Of Iran’ (ZH)
• Defiance Without Leverage: Tehran’s Fatal Miscalculation (David Manney)
• Trump: ‘A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight’ (Catherine Salgado)
• The New York Times Says We Lost the War (Scott Pinsker)
• German ‘Militaristic Frenzy’ Could End In Tragedy – Zakharova (RT)
• Foldable Apple iPhone Hits Engineering Snags, Raising Risk Of Delays (ZH)
• Here’s How Bad the Midterms Situation for the Democrats Really Is (Margolis)
• Mullin Drops a Bombshell on Sanctuary Cities (Matt Margolis)
• Marc Andreessen Calls AI Job-Loss Fears ‘Fake’, Expects Employment Gains (ZH)

 


 

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2041488240062906637?s=20 https://twitter.com/maggiewise111/status/2041472711365403054?s=20

 


 


Trump might claim it is a normal negotiation. Though it’s not for everyone.

Then again, some of the language coming out of Tehran sounds like they studied and imitated Trump. And he knows it.

Then again again, we don’t know who speaks for Iran. Is it a mullah? The IRGC?

To be sure, everyone’s threatening battles they don’t want.

• Trump Announces a Ceasefire (Sarah Anderson)

UPDATE: 8:08 p.m. EST: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Iran will allow safe passage for maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz for two weeks, provided there is coordination with Iran’s armed forces.


Original article

Well, it doesn’t look like he’ll be destroying any civilizations on Tuesday night. Donald Trump has announced, via his Truth Social account, that there will be a two-week ceasefire with Iran, subject to “complete, immediate, and safe” opening of the Strait of Hormuz. He said that Iran has proposed a 10-point peace plan — he called the plan significant but “not good enough” on Monday — and he now believes it’s “a workable basis on which to negotiate.” The two-week ceasefire period will allow an agreement to be finalized. He also said that it’s an “honor to have this long-term problem close to resolution.” Here’s his full statement.

“Based on conversations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, of Pakistan, and wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran, and subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks. This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE! The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East. We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate. Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated. On behalf of the United States of America, as President, and also representing the Countries of the Middle East, it is an Honor to have this Longterm problem close to resolution.

Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP”

This comes after Trump issued a strong warning for Iran earlier on Tuesday, stating, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” He continued: “However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!”

As my colleague Rick Moran reported earlier, “Iran rejected a ceasefire proposal by Pakistan on Monday, which would have included the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.” Obviously, some last-minute diplomacy has taken place, but whether it will hold remains to be seen.

https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/2041649076500869158

Fox News’ Laura Ingraham says she spoke to Trump just after he announced the ceasefire and claims he is “extremely serious” and “cautiously but seriously optimistic.” He also said the negotiations were incredibly complex and he doesn’t want anything to jeopardize them.

Read more …

“This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE!”

• President Trump, Iran Agree To 2-Week Ceasefire (ZH)

Building on the conversations leaked all day, it appears President Trump has withdrawn his threat to end Iranian civilization as they know it…


“Based on conversations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, of Pakistan, and wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran, and subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks. This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE! The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Long-term PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East.

We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate. Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated.On behalf of the United States of America, as President, and also representing the Countries of the Middle East, it is an Honor to have this Long-term problem close to resolution. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Additionally, CNN reports that Israel has agree to suspend bombing while talks are ongoing.

Alayna Treene (@alaynatreene) Israel is a part of the two-week ceasefire Trump agreed to just an hour and a half before his deadline, a senior White House official tells CNN. Israel has agreed to also suspend its bombing campaign while negotiations continue, the official said. And the most important variable, Iran, is also on the same page, and accepts Pakistan’s two-week ceasefire proposal with the deal approved by the New Supreme Leaders, according to Iran’s Foreign Minster, Aragchi. More importantly, Iran has said that safe passage via Hormuz “possible” for two weeks.

Talks between the US and Iran will start on Friday, although Iran was quick to note that it will engage in talks with complete distrust.

* * *

The reaction is as you would expect.

Oil plunged (WTI -16%)…

Stocks spiked (S&P Futs +2%)…

Gold ($4800) and Bitcoin ($72500) are soaring.

Treasury yields and the dollar are tumbling. …well it wouldn’t be Tuesday without TACOs.

Last Ditch Peace Effort by Pakistan Prime Minister With just hours until Trump’s self declared deadline wherein he said a “whole civilization will die tonight” – Pakistan’s leader and host of mediation efforts, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, has tried to introduce a last minute olive branch, hoping that the US will avoid its decimation campaign:

“I earnestly request President Trump to extend the deadline for two weeks. Pakistan, in all sincerity, requests the Iranian brothers to open Strait of Hormuz for a corresponding period of two weeks as a goodwill gesture. We also urge all warring parties to observe a ceasefire everywhere for two weeks to allow diplomacy to achieve conclusive termination of war, in the interest of long-term peace and stability in the region.”

Will Trump latch on to this plea and last minute effort of good will? The sides are aware of the proposal:
TEHRAN IS POSITIVELY REVIEWING PAKISTAN’S REQUEST FOR A TWO-WEEK CEASEFIRE: SENIOR IRANIAN OFFICIAL
TRUMP IS AWARE OF PAKISTAN’S PROPOSAL: AXIOS CITING LEAVITT

Diplomatic efforts for peaceful settlement of the ongoing war in the Middle East are progressing steadily, strongly and powerfully with the potential to lead to substantive results in near future. To allow diplomacy to run its course, I earnestly request President Trump to extend… — Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) April 7, 2026

In the meantime, some fresh statements via state Tasnim:

“If Trump wants to fall into a hole with his madness, we have prepared a black hole for him from which it will be impossible for him to get out”, Tasnim reports citing an Iranian military source “Have prepared good surprises for Trump’s possible madness; One of them is the addition of Aramco oil facilities, Yanba oil facilities and the Fujairah pipeline to Iran’s goals, and in case of Trump’s crime, Iran will not hesitate to impose heavy costs on America and its partners.” “Trump thinks that with these threats the strait will be opened and the price of oil will go down! He doesn’t know that if he carries out his threat, he will have to wait for the oil price of $200 in the coming days.”

Read more …

Talk about being caught with your pants down your ankles.

• President Trump Threatened Iran, the Democrats Blinked (Tim O’Brien)

By now you’ve seen the reports of the latest threat President Donald Trump made against Iran. My colleague Catherine Salgado detailed: President Donald Trump made a dramatic threat on Tuesday morning as his deadline approaches for the terrorist Iranian regime to surrender or face bigger and more devastating strikes than ever from the United States and Israel. ‘A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,’ Trump began in explosive style in his April 7 Truth Social post. He had threatened on Easter Sunday to bring such terrible retribution against the terrorist Iranian regime that its tyrants would think they were in hell, and it appears that since talks are unsurprisingly going nowhere, he will execute his threat.


Before that, our colleague Rick Moran covered the president’s description of what would happen to Iran if it continued to rebuff his attempts to negotiate and arrive at a diplomatic solution to the current situation in Iran. ‘We have a plan where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night. Where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again. I mean complete demolition by 12 o’clock, and it will happen over a period of four hours if we wanted to,’ Trump said. “We don’t want that to happen. Iran rejected a ceasefire proposal by Pakistan on Monday, which would have included the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, they offered a 10-point ceasefire proposal of their own that no one is taking seriously.

It would seem Iran got Trump’s message and has now returned to the bargaining table, agreeing to a two-week ceasefire one day after rejecting it. Our Sarah Anderson has the latest. I’d say that Trump’s tough talk, most likely backed up by the very credible threat real action against what remains of Iranian leadership, worked. Don’t tell that to the Democrats. Before Iran flinched, the Democrats outright panicked. Some of it was fake and by design, but a good bit of it was honest-to-goodness panic. Their scripted, AstroTurfed narrative has gone full 25th Amendment and “war crimes.” Keep in mind tat all of these accusations are about something Trump threatened to do but has not done. Question: Is it a war crime if you just talk about it on social media?

The Democrats always attack Trump and the right for things they imagine but that never happened, but when it comes to things that have happened, if it doesn’t benefit them, they ignore it. Like the time a few weeks ago when the legacy media all but ignored Iran slaughtering some 40,000 actual peaceful protesters. So, when I tell you the left flinched, let’s start with RINO Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

After watching what the Iranian regime just did to its own people, she had the gall to put the entire onus on the victims of Iranian oppression to rise up. The gun-less people of Iran. What are they supposed to do to overthrow that regime? Stage a sit-in? Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) got the memo. His X post is representative of a large number of Democrats in Congress and the Senate, and in the media.

Now that Trump has effectively induced the Iranian regime to talk, will Quigley step up and admit that Trump is speaking the only language the murderous leadership of that country understands? Of course not. Quigley will do what all leftists are doing, which is to notice Trump’s rhetoric and then ignore it or downplay it when it works. Worse, some will try to get away with saying that Iran came back to the bargaining table in spite of Trump’s threats, not because of them, even when the exact opposite is true.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) is always good for repeating the left’s focus-grouped messaging, and he delivered here.

He made sure to include both the 25th Amendment and the “war crimes” narratives because Trump said a thing. Meanwhile, speaking of the 25th Amendment, while Khanna wants to use it to get Trump out of office, I guess we’re to believe Khanna couldn’t see President Joe Biden’s mental decline days before that disastrous debate performance with Trump, which helped force him to drop out of the race in 2024.

You can always tell which messages are contrived by who delivers them on the Democrat side. Khanna is one. Others include Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who by the way, couldn’t pass this opportunity up.

In Congress, Iran could have no better friend that Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). See if you notice a pattern emerging. Could it be that someone told these Democrats what to say, and that these aren’t things they thought up on their own?

Read more …

In the process:

• Trump Threatens To ‘Take Out Entire Country Of Iran’ (ZH)

US-Israeli strikes have been on a noticeable uptick against Iranian institutions of higher learning over the last days. This has included a large-scale aerial assault on Tehran’s Sharif University, which is often dubbed the “MIT of Iran”. After this attack, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi threatened Iranian retaliation, warning “aggressors will see our might.” He said several other universities have also been struck over the last days. One regional report (Al Jazeera) says that at least 30 Iranian colleges and universities have suffered damage amid the ongoing attacks.


Neither the US nor Israel divulged the reasons behind attacking university campuses. Many of the students at these very campuses were involved in the January protests. The US claims to be “helping” the protesters through the Trump-ordered massive bombing campaign. Shahid Beheshti University in northern Tehran was attacked last Friday. It issued a statement saying: “This hostile act not only targets the security of academics and the country’s scientific environment, but is also a clear attack on reason, research, and freedom of thought.”

Trump Threatens Iran’s Decimation By Midnight Tues If No Deal
Having already spoken to reporters earlier in the day (before, during, and after the Easter Egg party), discussing ceasefire proposals (‘not good enough’) and his desire to ‘take the oil’, President Trump took the lectern in the White House Briefing Room at 1pm ET to discuss the rescue of the downed airmen over the weekend. President Trump centered his remarks on the weekend search-and-rescue operation for downed airmen, highlighting its success while condemning the leak of details surrounding the mission. “Rescue leak is a national security concern,” he said, adding that authorities “will examine media firm that reported rescue leak.” He further declared, “we have to find that leaker, that’s a sick person,” and warning of potential legal action, as he “threatens to jail journalist over leak,” before adding, “The left will love that!”

He then pivoted to a more aggressive stance on Iran, stating, “Iran can be taken out in one night, maybe tomorrow,” and doubling down with, “entire country of Iran could be taken out in one night.” He also at one point said, “we won.” Pete Hegseth then stepped in and reinforced the escalation, stating, “today will be largest volume of strikes on Iran,” and warning, “tomorrow’s strikes on Iran will be more than today.” During the Q&A session, Trump signaled undisclosed strategy, saying, “I have the best plan of all, won’t tell you what it is,” while insisting, “we didn’t do this for regime change.” He described Iran’s leadership shift in stark terms: “new regime is smarter, sharper, less radical.”

Vital infrastructure attacks already in progress… He also addressed the Iranian public directly, stating, “Iranians should rise up, but the consequences are great,” while claiming, “Iranians want us to keep bombing,” and adding, “Iranian people are willing to suffer for freedom.” He also emphasized that “free traffic of oil” in the Hormuz Strait “must in the Iran deal”. He has warned that “every bridge” and power plant will be decimated by midnight tomorrow night if the Iranians don’t accept a ceasefire deal. This followed a report from The Wall Street Journal that the US military is making preparations for potential strikes on energy targets in Iran, according to multiple U.S. officials – as President Trump ratchets up his demand for Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz – sending oil prices significantly higher…

That military planners are pulling out existing lists of potential targets to provide the president options if he decides to attack energy infrastructure (according to WSJ sources), this should not be new news for traders (but the market is so sensitive), since Trump has ramped up his threats to do just that in recent days, telling The Wall Street Journal on Sunday that he would destroy all of Iran’s power plants if the regime doesn’t agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday evening.

IRGC Intel Chief Taken Out; Israel Suffers Heavy Casualties The head of the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was killed in a Monday airstrike, according to confirmation in Iranian media. IRGC-linked Tasnim News Agency reported that the IRGC Public Relations Department confirmed Monday that Major General Majid Khademi was killed earlier in the day during an attack by US and Israeli forces. However, Tasnim did not disclose the location of the strike.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) earlier stated on X that Khademi was one of the IRGC’s most senior commanders with decades of experience. “Khademi worked to advance terrorist attacks worldwide, and was responsible for monitoring Iranian civilians as part of the regime’s suppression of internal protests,” it claimed.RFE/RL reported that Khademi assumed the post last summer after Mohammad Kazemi was killed in Israeli strikes during the 12-day war. Before that, he led the Intelligence Protection Organization of the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics. Iran is now vowing to enact vengeance on Israel for his death.

Meanwhile Sunday into Monday saw significant casualties in Israel, after the IRGC claimed in a statement carried by state media that Iranian forces had targeted an oil refinery in Haifa. But instead, it appears that the missile slammed directly into a residential building, killing at least four Israelis. Search and rescue teams have spent some 18 hours pouring through the ruins of the complex, recovering two bodies early Monday after an initial two had been found. The casualties could climb amid ongoing recovery efforts. Another regional source stated that “Over 160 Israelis have been transferred to hospitals over the past 24 hours, Israel’s Health Ministry said on Monday.”

Read more …

“And if they don’t, they’ll have no bridges. They’ll have no power plants. They’ll have no anything.”

• Defiance Without Leverage: Tehran’s Fatal Miscalculation (David Manney)

Iranian leaders rejected a United States proposal for a long ceasefire delivered through Pakistani intermediaries on April 5. Iran communicated its response through Pakistan, signaling that it is unwilling to accept a temporary pause in hostilities. “We won’t merely accept a ceasefire,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo, said in remarks to the Associated Press. “We only accept an end to the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again.” At the White House, Trump said Iran is making a mistake by rejecting the proposal. “They just don’t want to say ‘uncle,’” Trump told reporters. “They don’t want to cry, as the expression goes, ‘uncle,’ but they will. And if they don’t, they’ll have no bridges. They’ll have no power plants. They’ll have no anything.


“I won’t go further because there are other things that are worse than those two.” The offer called for a 45-day pause in fighting and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical energy corridors. Tehran responded with a 10-point counterproposal, demanding a permanent end to hostilities, full security guarantees, sanctions relief, and control over the Strait. Mojaba Ferdousi Pour, head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo, stated that Iran would accept nothing short of a definitive halt to military action. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi delivered the counter-demands and positioned Tehran as seeking “peace with dignity.”

According to IRNA, Tehran’s proposal includes 10 provisions, such as ending regional conflicts, ensuring safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, lifting economic sanctions, and initiating reconstruction efforts. Iranian and Omani officials are working on a framework to manage shipping through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, a critical global energy corridor. Tensions escalated further as Israel launched strikes on Iran’s South Pars natural gas field—the world’s largest, shared with Qatar—targeting a major source of the country’s revenue.The attack also killed two senior commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Israel described the strike as an effort to weaken Iran’s economic capacity, although it appeared separate from the U.S. ultimatum.

The development raises doubts about the viability of a proposed 45-day cease-fire amid rapidly intensifying hostilities. The framework, however, required the United States and Israel to surrender military leverage already demonstrated on the battlefield. President Donald Trump made his position unmistakable, speaking the day after the rescue of a downed American airman, warning that Iran could be “taken out in one night” if escalation continues. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth stood beside him and confirmed that recent operations inflicted heavy losses on Iranian naval vessels and missile infrastructure.

It’s an obvious strategic imbalance: American forces maintain air dominance, precision strike capability, and maritime superiority in the region. Iranian naval units have already suffered substantial losses. Missile facilities have been degraded; shipping lanes remain vulnerable to further disruption if Tehran continues hostilities. Instead of accepting a pause that would’ve allowed regrouping and diplomatic maneuvering, Iran’s leadership demanded sweeping concessions.

Mojtaba Khamenei was selected by Iran’s Assembly of Experts on March 8 and is the “current” supreme leader of Iran, succeeding his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was directly targeted on February 28, the beginning of Operation Epic Fury.

Mojtaba’s supposed approval or rejection of diplomatic overtures (he may be hooked up to medical machinery) signals that hardliners within Iran’s leadership continue to favor a posture of defiance in the face of U.S. pressure. The supreme leader has the final say on major foreign and security decisions under Iran’s constitutional system, and Mojtaba’s stance suggests Tehran believes firm resistance strengthens internal unity and extracts better terms at the negotiating table.

Read more …

“.. but unfortunately, their regime is satanically stubborn.”

• Trump: ‘A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight’ (Catherine Salgado)

President Donald Trump made a dramatic threat on Tuesday morning as his deadline approaches for the terrorist Iranian regime to surrender or face bigger and more devastating strikes than ever from the United States and Israel. “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Trump began in explosive style in his April 7 Truth Social post. He had threatened on Easter Sunday to bring such terrible retribution against the terrorist Iranian regime that its tyrants would think they were in hell, and it appears that since talks are unsurprisingly going nowhere, he will execute his threat.


After having issued his formidable warning Tuesday, Trump continued, “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World.” Referring to the current regime’s lengthy record of tyranny and terror, Trump ended his statement, “47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!”

The message is somewhat cryptic, and it doesn’t clarify whether the regime change is to happen after tonight, or whether Trump thinks it has already begun. Hopefully, it is the former, because we cannot trust a single member of the government that has proudly made “death to America” and “death to Israel” its favorite slogans for half a century. The leader who was the negotiator with America, Mohammad Ghalibaf, is still swearing vengeance. Some members of the government might be willing to agree to terms made by the great Satan, but that does not mean they will live up to those terms. After all, the Islamic concept of taqiyya endorses lies to non-Muslims for the sake of accomplishing Jihad.

Of course, Trump had already issued a more specific and definite threat against Iran’s murderous regime, as my colleague Rick Moran reported earlier. After insisting the “entire country could be taken out in one night, and it might be tomorrow night,” Trump wrote, “We have a plan where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night.” He expatiated, “Where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again. I mean complete demolition by 12 o’clock, and it will happen over a period of four hours if we wanted to. We don’t want that to happen.”

Naturally, America wants to leave infrastructure for the much-oppressed Persian people, but unfortunately, their regime is satanically stubborn. As we learned during WWII with a similarly genocidal regime — imperial Japan — sometimes peace comes only after massive devastation and unconditional surrender. The Iranian regime has been attacking Americans directly or through proxies for almost 50 years now. We have long been at war — the murderous mullahs did not leave us that choice. But while we didn’t get to choose when the war began, Americans can choose how the war will end. May Trump eliminate the threat of the Islamic regime once and for all.

Read more …

“The Times regrets the error. Want more?”

• The New York Times Says We Lost the War (Scott Pinsker)

At least it’s colorful: The Gray Lady just gave us the green light to wave the white flag.Running in the April 7 edition of The New York Times: “The Iran War Is Turning Iran Into a Major World Power.” The author, Professor Robert Pape of the University of Chicago, offers the following thesis:

1) Iran will keep control of the Strait of Hormuz for “months or years,” and there’s nothing militarily we can do about it. (Sorry, guys.)
2) The U.S. and Europe are now in decline — and the axis of China, Russia, and Iran is ascending.
3) Iran will emerge as a “new major world power” and the “fourth center of global power” (the other three: America, China, Russia).

But before we pulverize Professor Pape’s preposterously pessimistic proposal, here’s an earlier example of The New York Times’ piercing wisdom, courtesy of author Hans Mahncke:

It’s an X post about a New York Times story from 1903: “Flying Machines Which Do Not Fly.” (And if that story sounds familiar, it’s because beloved PJ Media alum and/or Supreme Leader Editor Paula Bolyard wrote about it in 2024. From Mahncke: “The New York Times did not dismiss the possibility of powered flight at random. There was a very specific reason behind it. At the time, America’s most prominent scientific authority, Smithsonian Secretary Samuel Langley, had been showered with large amounts of taxpayer funding to build an aircraft, the Langley Aerodrome. Despite all the money, institutional backing, and elite prestige, Langley and his team could not get it to fly, culminating in a series of very public failures, the last on December 8, 1903.”

So when the New York Times declared that flight was millions of years away, what it was really saying was that if the most credentialed and well-funded “experts” cannot do it, then it cannot be done. A mere nine days later, the elites’ proclamation of impossibility lay in ruins. Two totally unknown bicycle mechanics from Ohio achieved the first powered flight using improvised parts, a few hundred dollars of their own money, and sheer persistence. From stupid ideas that crash and burn to lame-brained theories that never get off the ground, there’s a long and illustrious history of the Gray Lady getting caught red-handed practicing yellow journalism.

In fact, in honor of Artemis, there’s also this doozy from Jan. 13, 1920, when The New York Times insisted that rockets cannot function in space: That professor [Robert] Goddard, with his ‘chair’ in Clark College and the countenancing of the Smithsonian Institution [from which Goddard held a grant to research rocket flight], does not know the relation of action to reaction, and of the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react — to say that would be absurd. Of course he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools. [emphasis added]

It was only AFTER Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins left the surly bonds of earth — on a rocket, by the way — that the Times offered a correction: “Further investigation and experimentation have confirmed the findings of Isaac Newton in the 17th century, and it is now definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum as well as in an atmosphere. […] The Times regrets the error. Want more?

Read more …

“Berlin should not forget the lessons of World War II, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman has said.“

Russia has not forgotten.

• German ‘Militaristic Frenzy’ Could End In Tragedy – Zakharova (RT)

Germany’s continued military buildup could lead to another tragedy on a global scale, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned. Last week, German media reported that male citizens who remain abroad for more than three months without prior approval could face penalties in line with a new requirement under the Military Service Modernization Act. The rule, which came into force on January 1, 2026, obliges German males between the ages of 17 and 45 to obtain permission before leaving the country for an extended period. The Defense Ministry said the measure is intended to maintain a reliable registry of individuals eligible for military service.


In a post on Telegram on Monday, Zakharova noted that previously German men were required to register before going abroad only during a “state of tension” or a “state of defense,” but that the measure has now been expanded to peacetime “as part of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s strategy of militarizing the country.” Germany recently moved to reintroduce lottery-based conscription as Berlin is looking to increase the number of its active troops from 180,000 to more than 260,000 by 2035. The spokeswoman suggested that “in the heat of militaristic frenzy, Germany has completely forgotten the lessons of history.” “

The last time the German political elite set out to make their country ‘the main military power in Europe,’ it ended in tragedy for all of humanity,” Zakharova said, referring to the Second World War, in which between 60 to 65 million people are estimated to have been killed. Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Germany launched a massive military buildup, with reported plans of spending more than €500 billion (around $580 billion) on defense by 2029. According to officials in Berlin, the armed forces must be “war-ready” for a potential conflict with Russia by that date. Moscow has repeatedly rejected as “nonsense” claims of it harboring any aggressive plans against the European members of NATO, saying that they are only being made by Western politicians to scare the population and justify increased military spending.

Read more …

Up in the air. Free promotion.

• Foldable Apple iPhone Hits Engineering Snags, Raising Risk Of Delays (ZH)

Hours after Nikkei Asia reported that Apple’s first foldable iPhone could face delays in mass production, Bloomberg pushed back on the report, citing sources who say the foldable iPhone remains on track for a September debut alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. Apple shares fell as much as 5.1% in the U.S. cash session after the Nikkei report raised concerns about engineering test issues with the new device, potentially delaying mass production.


Initial production could be heavily constrained by the complexity of the foldable phone, but Bloomberg’s sources suggest Apple is still aiming to put it on store shelves within the same launch window as the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. Bloomberg’s report, countering Nikkei Asia’s earlier story, fits a familiar pattern of information operations, and Apple was likely not thrilled with the stock’s performance after the overnight note. Polymarket odds of the foldable iPhone launching before 2027 stood at around 81% as of early Tuesday afternoon, up from 75% during the overnight hours.

Apple is about 8 years late to the foldable smartphone space, with Samsung’s Galaxy Fold released in October 2018. Now, Tim Cook’s big launch of Apple’s first foldable smartphone could face “delays in its mass production and product shipment schedule,” according to new Nikkei Asia sources deep within the handset supply chain. Supply chain sources told the Japanese business outlet that the complexity of the new foldable iPhone is causing engineering problems during early testing, and these issues could delay mass production and shipments by months.

Some suppliers have already been warned that component production schedules could be pushed back. “It’s true that more issues than expected have emerged during the early test production phase, and additional time will be needed to resolve them and make necessary adjustments. … The current situation could put the mass production timeline at risk,” one of those sources said. The source added, “April will mark a crucial stage of the engineering verification test, and this month through early May is extremely critical.”

Nikkei previously reported that Apple adjusted its iPhone launch strategy for 2026, pushing back production of base model iPhones to early 2027 to prioritize production of premium models, including foldable iPhones. This move is intended to allocate constrained supplies of memory chips and other key components more efficiently. Another person in the handset supply chain said the potential schedule delay has very little to do with memory chips, but rather with “engineering challenges” for Apple’s first foldable iPhone: “Apple and the supply chain are working under a tight timeline, and the current solutions are not enough to completely solve the engineering challenges. More time is needed.”

Read more …

They have no-one.

• Here’s How Bad the Midterms Situation for the Democrats Really Is (Margolis)

Conventional wisdom says that Democrats are going to have a good year in the midterms. In fact, Democrats think a six-point lead in the generic congressional ballot is something to feel good about. Maybe they should take a closer look at the numbers before popping the champagne because the truth is that it looks like Democrats are blowing it. And you don’t have to take my word for it either. CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten broke it down on Monday, and the picture for Democrats is a lot less rosy than party leadership would probably like to admit.Yes, they’re ahead — but only barely. Given historical precedent and the current political environment, they should be running away with it. But they’re not.


“This lead is historically low for Democrats at this point with a Republican president,” Enten said. “On average, their lead’s actually slightly less. It’s five points. That’s less than it was back in 2018 when it was eight points and way less than it was during the 2006 cycle when it was 11 points.” Five points. Now, I don’t exactly trust the approval rating polls showing that President Donald Trump at -20 or -30, but still, with numbers like that, Democrats should be crushing the GOP in the general congressional ballot, but they’re not.”You’d make the argument, Democrats should be way ahead, and they’re just only sort of slightly ahead,” Enten pointed out.

It’s not just me saying that. What does this mean in practical terms? Host John Berman noted that five points might be enough to flip the House, which operates on razor-thin margins. But the Senate? That’s a completely different story. Democrats really want to flip the Senate because they think that if they do, they can impeach President Trump next year and convict him.”I think five points is enough to take back the House,” Enten said. “But in the Senate, five points is almost certainly not enough if you apply it to the Senate map.”

The map is brutal for Democrats. Even in a scenario where Republicans hold only states Trump won by more than 10 points, the GOP still comes out ahead 51-49. Democrats would flip North Carolina and Maine, sure, but Ohio, Texas, and Alaska would stay red. Trump won all three by double digits, and Enten pointed to a sobering historical pattern to explain why that matters so much.

“During the Trump era, look at this, flip the Senate seat, midterm and presidential years, states the other party won by ten plus points in the last presidential election, zero, zero, zero times did a party flip those states.” Then there’s the favorability problem, which might be the most damaging data point of all. In 2018, Democrats led Republicans on net favorability by 12 points. In 2006, they led by 18. Today? Republicans are actually ahead by five points on net favorability. Berman tried to soften it slightly, noting that both parties are deeply unpopular with voters right now. Enten wasn’t having it.

“Democrats are even more unpopular than Republicans,” he pointed out. That’s the core of the problem. Democrats are running behind every relevant benchmark from their two big wave election cycles in an environment that should theoretically be handing them a massive structural advantage. A six-point generic ballot lead sounds decent until you realize it’s probably not enough to take the Senate, too. And that puts a huge dent in their plans for the second half of Trump’s term.

Read more …

Very clear”

“.. without CBP, there can be no customs clearance. Without customs clearance, you can’t accept international arrivals.”

• Mullin Drops a Bombshell on Sanctuary Cities (Matt Margolis)

Freshly confirmed DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has wasted no time making his presence felt. Just days into the job, he sat down with Fox News host Bret Baier Monday night and floated an idea so simple and so devastating that it’s a wonder nobody tried it sooner: Pull Customs and Border Protection officers out of international airports in sanctuary cities. Remember, without CBP, there can be no customs clearance. Without customs clearance, you can’t accept international arrivals.


The math isn’t complicated. If Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, Denver, Philadelphia, Newark, and New Orleans want to play sanctuary politics, they can explain to thousands of stranded international travelers why their city’s ideological grandstanding just shut down their airport. I love it. I knew Mullin was onto something huge when I watched the interview.”If they are a sanctuary city, should they really be processing customs into their city?” he asked. “Seriously, if they are a sanctuary city and they are receiving international flights, and we’re asking them to partner with us at the airport, but once they walk out of the airport, they’re not going to enforce immigration policy? Maybe we need to have a really hard look at that because we need to focus on cities that want to work with us.”

It’s hard to argue with the logic. These cities actively obstruct federal immigration enforcement, refuse cooperation with ICE, and then expect no consequences?Let’s face it: The time for playing nice has long expired. The DHS shutdown is pushing toward two months, and Democrats show zero interest in negotiating in good faith. They’re demanding absurd reforms for ICE that would effectively kneecap immigration enforcement. And that just isn’t going to happen. Mullin clearly didn’t take the job to play nice with those who’ve declared war on federal immigration law. Democrats were practically giddy when Kristi Noem got fired. They may want to pump the brakes on that celebration because Mullin looks like he’s ready to make her tenure look tame by comparison.

Mullin’s sanctuary city proposal makes perfect sense, and should get Democrats in these cities to reconsider just how far they really want to fight the federal government. Cities that use their local governments as shields against federal immigration law have long operated without real consequences, and Mullin just put consequences on the table. Whether the proposal moves forward depends on how serious the administration is about turning up the pressure. I think they are very serious. But even floating it sends a message: the days of sanctuary cities not suffering consequences for violating federal law are over. Let’s not forget, it was Democrats who created this standoff. They’re the ones who are putting national security at risk over a policy dispute. This is a situation of their own making, and Mullin just handed them the bill.

Read more …

He’s someone I would listen to.

• Marc Andreessen Calls AI Job-Loss Fears ‘Fake’, Expects Employment Gains (ZH)

It is not the first time that the venture capital guru has questioned some of the fundamentally dystopian scenarios being proposition in an AI world. In February, we noted that amid an armada of dystopian futurists, projecting linear thoughts into a future of ‘AI uber alles’, Marc Andreessen stands as a beacon of potential utopian light, seeing a future that looks very different and very positive for young and old alike. In a brief few minutes, the co-founder of Netscape and VC firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) believes instead that we are living through a unique (and most incredible) time in history with the rise of AI coming right as human civilization needs it… “we’re going to have AI and robots precisely when we actually need them [with populations shrinking] to keep the economy from actually shrinking.”


Simply put, Andreessen says that fears of AI-driven mass job loss are overly simplistic. After decades of unusually slow technological change and low job churn, AI could restore historical productivity levels (exemplified by the period from 1870-1930), sparking opportunity, innovation, and net job growth rather than displacement. Declining populations and reduced immigration will make human labor increasingly valuable. AI’s timing is “miraculous”, Andreessen exclaims, preventing economic shrinkage from depopulation. In even radical scenarios, explosive productivity leads to output gluts, collapsing prices, and massive real-wealth gains – equivalent to “giant raises” for everyone – while making safety-nets more affordable.

Whether incremental or transformative, Andreessen sees the outcome as fundamentally positive economic news. Of course, he does have a lot of skin in this game… Building on that, CoinTelegraph’s Christina Comben reports that Andreessen said artificial intelligence will spark a “massive jobs boom,” dismissing fears of widespread job losses as “all fake” in a Sunday post on X. His optimism contrasts with a March US jobs report showing unemployment holding steady at 4.3%, while the number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or more rose by 322,000 over the past year.

Andreesen shared a Business Insider report showing a sharp rise in tech job openings in 2026, with more than 67,000 software engineering roles, a twofold increase from 2023, and argued that employers had recovered from post-pandemic hiring corrections and the interest rate spike. “The ‘AI job loss’ narratives are all fake,” he wrote. “AI = massive ramp in productivity = massive ramp in demand = massive jobs boom. Watch.” Andreessen is one of Silicon Valley’s most influential investors, a co-founder of Netscape and venture firm Andreessen Horowitz. He is also a major backer of US crypto and AI companies.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/JoshHall2024/status/2041502407750758533?s=20 https://twitter.com/ed_fin/status/2041250524285084128?s=20 https://twitter.com/maximumpain333/status/2041335149309431863?s=20

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 Older Entries  Newer Entries