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Debt Rattle April 16 2026

Apr 162026
 
 April 16, 2026  Posted by at 10:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  78 Responses »


Thomas Cole The Course of Empire – Desolation 1836


• Why Is Trump Making The Global Energy Crisis Worse? (RT)
• US Says Iranian Trade Through Strait Of Hormuz Fully Halted (RT)
• Trump’s Blockade Is Breaking Iran And European Elites Are Angry (Alt-M)
• 10,000 Troops: CENTCOM Update on US Blockade of the Strait of Hormuz (Salgado)
• Vance Says President Trump Wants To Make ‘Grand Bargain’ With Iran (JTN)
• Bessent Delivers Another Powerful Blow to Iran (Nick Arama)
• Why Netanyahu Won’t Let The Middle East Have Peace Any Time Soon (Sadygzade)
• The Chinese Try Pussyfooting at the Hormuz Strait (Helmer)
• Europe Drafts Plan To Free Up Hormuz Without ‘Belligerent’ Parties (ZH)
• Dershowitz: Trump Should Move to Expunge 2019 Impeachment (Salgado)
• The Two People DNI Gabbard Issued Criminal Referrals For (Matt Vespa)
• Gabbard Sends Criminal Referrals For 2019 Trump Impeachment Whistleblower (ZH)
• New Intel Watchdog Launches Review Of Past Whistleblower Complaints (JTN)
• Merz Wants Ukrainian Men In Germany Sent To The Front (RT)
• US Prosecutors Make Surprise Visit To Fed HQ Renovation Project (ZH)
• April 15 Reminds Us of How Unfree We Are (Paul Craig Roberts)

 


 

https://twitter.com/toxiccowboy1/status/2044207743020462437?s=20 https://twitter.com/Real_RobN/status/2044114932002967665?s=20

 


 

“Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith… were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.”

-Winston Churchill, 1899

 


 


The US hardly has a energy crisis.

• Why Is Trump Making The Global Energy Crisis Worse? (RT)

The US has tightened its grip on energy exports from the Persian Gulf with a new naval blockade on Iranian supplies, risking fresh shocks to already fragile global markets. The move appears intended to increase pressure on Tehran following unsuccessful efforts to secure a diplomatic off-ramp after the US-Israeli bombing campaign stalled. However, it has left American allies uncertain and drawn a pointed response from China, which has issued veiled warnings regarding US naval activity.


Why is the US blocking shipping from the Middle East?
US Central Command announced a blockade targeting vessels traveling to and from Iranian ports in both the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, effective Monday. The restrictions, it said, “will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations,” though further operational details remain unclear. President Donald Trump described the measure as an effort to stop “any and all ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz” — the vital corridor linking the two bodies of water and a cornerstone of global energy trade.


Iran had retaliated to the US-Israeli strikes in late February by effectively restricting transit through the strait, blocking shipments tied to what it considers “unfriendly” nations, imposing tolls on vessels from “neutral” countries, and allowing free passage for “friendly” ones. While US officials accused Tehran of violating freedom of navigation, Trump suggested Washington could impose its own tolling system. Earlier in the conflict, US sanctions on Iranian oil had been relaxed to cushion global markets. The new blockade reverses that approach, reinforcing economic warfare on Iran while further undercutting supply for import-dependent economies.

What does Iran seek by blocking the Strait of Hormuz?
Tehran’s broader war strategy combines resilience under bombing with escalating economic costs for the US and its allies. In addition to restricting maritime traffic, Iranian forces have targeted American military bases in Arab states and key energy infrastructure, including refineries, gas liquification facilities, and a Saudi pipeline enabling crude exports to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s payment system is designed to weaken US financial leverage, demanding settlement in yuan or cryptocurrencies. Iran, Russia, and other sanctioned states have been building infrastructure to circumvent Western-controlled financial channels for many years. Tehran views continued control of Hormuz as a way to compensate for damages inflicted on Iran.

The approach has had some impact. Last week, Trump announced a ceasefire and a willingness to pursue negotiations aligned with elements of Tehran’s proposed framework for ending the conflict. However, indirect talks hosted by Pakistan on the weekend did not produce a breakthrough. As US Vice President J.D. Vance put it: “What we have given here is a ceasefire. We stopped bombing the country. What we expect the Iranians to give up is a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.”

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“A blockade of Iranian ports has been fully implemented..”

• US Says Iranian Trade Through Strait Of Hormuz Fully Halted (RT)

American warships have effectively blocked Iranian trade through the Strait of Hormuz, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) has said. “A blockade of Iranian ports has been fully implemented as US forces maintain maritime superiority in the Middle East,” CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper said in a statement on Tuesday evening. “In less than 36 hours since the blockade was implemented, US forces have completely halted economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea,” Cooper added.


The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing two unnamed US officials, reported earlier that more than 20 commercial vessels, including tankers, had passed through the strait over the past 24 hours. According to AFP, at least two vessels sanctioned by the US sailed through Hormuz on Monday: the Iranian-flagged container carrier Kashan and the Comoros-flagged tanker Elpis. The WSJ also reported that the US has intercepted eight tankers since the start of the blockade on Monday morning.

US President Donald Trump announced the blockade of the vital waterway on Sunday after Pakistani-mediated talks failed to produce a peace deal with Iran. Trump had previously failed to rally European NATO members to help secure Hormuz, which Iran had closed to “enemy ships” in response to the US-Israeli bombing campaign launched on February 28. Iran has since demanded recognition of its “sovereignty” over the waterway and the right to impose tolls. On April 8, the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire, raising cautious optimism for an end to the conflict, which has disrupted global trade and driven up energy prices. However, both sides have since accused each other of putting forward unacceptable terms.

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(I think every action the Trump Administration has taken so far from Venezuela to Iran has largely been designed to contain China)

• Trump’s Blockade Is Breaking Iran And European Elites Are Angry (Alt-M)

In March I published an article titled “Global Energy Crisis Or Iranian Surrender In Five Weeks?” in which I outlined the “worst case” and “best case” scenarios for the war in Iran. In my best case scenario I argued in favor of a specific plan to end the conflict quickly: A US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, flipping the tables on Iran by blocking or seizing any oil tankers or gas tankers which exit Iranian ports. Two weeks later, the Trump Administration has implemented this exact strategy.


The effectiveness of the blockade is already apparent; the propaganda bots on social media are scrambling to find a narrative to counter it, but they are failing. Why? Because Iran already tried to lock down the strait (which is an international waterway), and any government cheering (or secretly cheering) for Iran’s actions is now unable to make a rational argument against the US doing the same thing to Iran. As I noted in March: “We constantly hear about international exposure to the Hormuz shutdown, but the media rarely mentions that Iran is the MOST exposed economy of all. For now, Iranian oil ships continue to pass through the strait and these vessels are Iran’s economic lifeline. Strategic estimates suggest that without the steady passage of these oil tankers, the Iranian economy would completely collapse within five weeks…”

I then summarized what I believed was the simplest solution to end the war: “Iranian cargo ships can be targeted for seizure by a US blockade of the Persian Gulf well away from the narrow waters of the Hormuz. The ships could be destroyed, but I suspect the Department of Defense will try to avoid oil spills and ecological disasters. Instead, the best option is to capture Iran’s tankers and then redirect the oil to countries in danger of shortages. Iran has the option of shutting off GPS tracking for their vessels (shadow fleet), but this would not help them maneuver past a comprehensive US blockade. In other words, I argue that the US could turn the tables on Iran and use their reliance on the Hormuz against them.

With Iran’s economy in shambles, they will no longer be able to purchase missiles or drones for resupply from Russia and China. They won’t be able to pay for logistic resources for their military and they won’t be able to contain public unrest. The Iranians would be forced to negotiate and the war would be over quickly with minimal risk to US troops.” For now, the US is not seizing Iran’s tankers and is merely sending them back to where they came from. However, it would seem that the Trump Administration and their military advisers have come to the same basic conclusions I did.

For years I have expressed my concerns about a potential conflict in Iran, largely because of the precarious global economic risks associated with mass energy shortages caused by a closure of the Hormuz, which transits around 25% of the world’s energy exports. That said, I do not care about “picking sides” when it comes to Israel or Iran. This debate is irrelevant and designed, I think, to divide US conservatives over ancient tribal vendettas that do not involve us. I don’t care about the Israeli government or “Zionism” and I certainly don’t care what happens to the theocratic and tyrannical Muslim regime in Iran. We have much more important things to think about.

What matters to me is how the US and the American people are affected by geopolitical events. There has been endless debate on what the war is really about, whether it be Iranian nukes, Israeli schemes, Saudi schemes, control of global oil markets, etc. (I think every action the Trump Administration has taken so far from Venezuela to Iran has largely been designed to contain China). In any case, a long term closure of the Hormuz will eventually result in market cascades and a stagflationary crisis. What matters now is ending the war as quickly and decisively as possible without leaving the Homuz and 25% of global energy exports under Iran’s control. After that, people can wrestle over the “moral and constitutional” quandary to their heart’s content.

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Iran says it’s not “blockadable”.

• 10,000 Troops: CENTCOM Update on US Blockade of the Strait of Hormuz (Salgado)

Over 10,000 American troops are involved in the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz as repeated Iranian ceasefire violations and the regime’s refusal to make a peace deal have brought the conflict to a hostile standoff. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) provided an update Tuesday morning that confirmed no vessels made it past the American blockade within the first 24 hours of its existence. During the failed ceasefire negotiations with the genocidal Iranian regime, the regime announced to the U.S. delegation that it had scattered so many mines in the strait that it didn’t know where they all were.


Furthermore, it wouldn’t or couldn’t disable them even if it could find them, and in conclusion, it would require tolls from any country that tried to send ships through. Donald Trump declared that unacceptable and immediately ordered a blockade of the strait, as Americans search for and disable the mines, and to prevent the Iranians from forcibly collecting any tolls or receiving imports.

CENTCOM’s update stated, “More than 10,000 U.S. Sailors, Marines, and Airmen along with over a dozen warships and dozens of aircraft are executing the mission to blockade ships entering and departing Iranian ports.” It proudly affirmed, “During the first 24 hours, no ships made it past the U.S. blockade and 6 merchant vessels complied with direction from U.S. forces to turn around to re-enter an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman.”

Nor is the United States providing special treatment to the ships of one country over another, CENTCOM clarified. “The blockade is being enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. U.S. forces are supporting freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports,” the statement ended.

Any Iranian ships that attempt to attack the blockade will find themselves facing deadly consequences. Trump posted on Truth Social Monday morning, “Iran’s Navy is laying at the bottom of the sea, completely obliterated – 158 ships. What we have not hit are their small number of, what they call, ‘fast attack ships,’ because we did not consider them much of a threat.”

Unfortunately, it appears that the attack ships could be more of a consideration than the Americans originally believed. “Warning: If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED, using the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers on boats at Sea,” Trump threatened. The types of American ships and aircraft involved in the blockade include an aircraft carrier, an amphibious assault ship, both land- and sea-based aircraft, unmanned aircraft, guided missile destroyers, and reconnaissance aircraft, according to the update from CENTCOM. Please pray for all Americans involved.

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“..if you guys commit to not having a nuclear weapon, we are going to make Iran thrive..”

• Vance Says President Trump Wants To Make ‘Grand Bargain’ With Iran (JTN)

Vice President JD Vance told Americans in Georgia Tuesday night that President Donald Trump wants to make a “grand bargain” with Iran that promises economic success to the Middle Eastern country. The vice president said a deal the United States offered Iran during peace negotiations in Pakistan over the weekend could normalize economic ties between the two countries if they commit to not having a nuclear weapon. “He doesn’t want to make, like, a small deal. He wants to make the grand bargain,” Vance said at a Turning Point USA event.


“The reason why the deal is not yet done is because the president wants a deal where Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon, Iran is not state-sponsoring terrorism, but also, the people of Iran can thrive, prosper and join the world economy.” “He’s saying if you guys commit to not having a nuclear weapon, we are going to make Iran thrive, we’re going to make it economically prosperous, and we’re going to invite the Iranian people into the world economy,” Vance continued. “That’s the kind of Trumpian grand bargain that the president has put on the table.”

Vance also urged young voters at the University of Georgia not to be disillusioned over American foreign policy because the administration has other successes under its belt, including securing the southern border. “I’m not saying you have to agree with me on every issue,” Vance said. “What I’m saying is, don’t get disengaged because you disagree with the ad ministration on one topic, get more involved, make your voice heard even more.”

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Freeze their funds.

• Bessent Delivers Another Powerful Blow to Iran (Nick Arama)

President Donald Trump is beginning to turn the screws on the Iranian regime. He’s blockaded any shipments coming in or out of their ports while letting other ships through. That’s going to put their economy, which was already heading into the dumper, on potential life support. It’s going to hit the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) right where they live. If they don’t find their way out of that situation, it’s not sustainable. It will either force them back to the table for a deal, or it’s going to put even more pressure on the regime.


Additionally, after Iran tried to create chaos and control the Strait of Hormuz, tankers coming to the U.S. Gulf coast oil then increased, making us more of an alternative. But if that wasn’t enough, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had another shoe to drop on them. Bessent announced that, in addition to what they had already done with their “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran since last year, the Trump administration was also launching “Operation Economic Fury,” and making use of what might prove to be a “fatal mistake” by the regime to bomb their Gulf neighbors.

Bessent explained that the neighbors were now being “much more transparent in terms of the funds” or willing to “do a deeper dive in investigating the funds that are held within their banking systems” from the Iranian regime. “So, we have pushed out to them the request that we want to freeze more funds of the leadership of the IRGC, and any members of Iranian leadership.” If Iran is expecting any money back from the oil sales they’ve made, they may be out of luck there as well. “The other thing that we have done is we have told companies, we have told countries that if you are buying Iranian oil, that if Iranian money is sitting in your banks, we are now willing to apply secondary sanctions, which is a very stern measure.”

“The Iranians should know that this is going to be the financial equivalent of what we saw in the kinetic activities.” Bessent said they would also be going after the funding of the terror proxies. Under @POTUS’ leadership, Treasury will continue to cut off Iran’s illicit smuggling and terror proxy networks. Financial institutions should be on notice that Treasury will leverage all tools and authorities, including secondary sanctions, against those that continue to support Tehran’s terrorist activities. Folks in Saudi Arabia, which is not keen on being bombed, appreciated what Bessent had to say.

https://twitter.com/majeed66224499/status/2044491186069504378

You have to think the Iranian leaders are tearing their hair out at this point, trying to figure out what to do.

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Territory.

• Why Netanyahu Won’t Let The Middle East Have Peace Any Time Soon (Sadygzade)

Israel’s war in Lebanon has entered a stage in which claims of supposedly precise strikes on military infrastructure can no longer be taken seriously. The scale of the operations, the depth of the advance in the south, the destruction of bridges and residential neighborhoods, the massive strikes on Beirut, and the steady expansion of the so-called buffer zone all show that this is not merely a tactical effort to contain Hezbollah. It is an attempt to reshape the military and political reality of southern Lebanon for years to come. Israel describes this as the creation of a security belt up to the Litani River. In the language of the region, however, it reads differently. It is a course toward long term control of territory, the depopulation of the border strip, and the creation of facts on the ground that will be extremely difficult to reverse.


Formally, the new phase of the war began on March 2, when Hezbollah opened fire on Israel after American and Israeli strikes on Iran and the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel responded with a broad air campaign against Lebanon and then expanded its ground operations in the south. At that point, the government of Nawaf Salam tried to distance itself from Hezbollah’s decision and took the unprecedented step of banning the movement’s military activity outside state institutions, demanding that its weapons be handed over to the state. This was an important sign of a shifting balance within Lebanon itself. Hezbollah can no longer act as though its armed autonomy is automatically accepted by the entire state. Yet the move also revealed the other side of the crisis. Beirut is exerting political pressure on Hezbollah, but it has neither the resources nor the internal consensus to disarm it quickly without risking a deeper internal fracture.

A land grab by any other name
From a military point of view, Israel rapidly moved far beyond the boundaries of retaliatory strikes. By late March, Defense Minister Israel Katz had openly declared the intention to hold southern Lebanon up to the Litani as a security zone, which means nearly a tenth of Lebanese territory. This was followed by strikes on bridges, the destruction of homes in border villages, and evacuation orders for residents south of the river. Soon afterward, Israel was already constructing new fortifications and destroying increasingly empty villages, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was openly speaking of expanding the security strip. The Israeli military machine was no longer concealing the long-term nature of the operation. This was no raid. It was a project of territorial transformation under the military pretext of combating Hezbollah.

This is where the central political question emerges. For the Israeli right, southern Lebanon is increasingly becoming an ideologically charged space. The bluntest statement came from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said in late March that Israel’s new border should run along the Litani – the clearest call yet by a senior Israeli official for the seizure of Lebanese territory. True, at the current moment there is no officially approved government program for the construction of Jewish settlements in southern Lebanon in a formal cabinet document. Yet when a senior minister speaks of changing the border, while the army simultaneously burns out the border zone, destroys homes, and prepares for prolonged control of the territory, the analytical conclusion is already clear. This is occupation, from which the idea of future settlement expansion follows almost naturally. For the far right in Israel, that appears to be a desired outcome. The stated pretext is the struggle against Hezbollah. The real content is the consolidation of a new coercive order on the ground.

Read more …

“‘So they’re not going to be able to get their oil. They can get oil. Not Iranian oil,’ Bessent said, adding that China had been buying more than 90% of Iranian oil and it constituted about 8% of their annual purchases.”

• The Chinese Try Pussyfooting at the Hormuz Strait (Helmer)

Between saying something if you are a Chinese admiral and Defense Minister and meaning something if you are a Politburo member and Foreign Minister, there is a pussyfooting difference. If you are the US Treasury Secretary and you tell the Chinese what you mean, that’s different. And then if you are the President of China, these differences of meaning might be interpreted as “the law of the jungle”. Might be is a conditional verb. Sometimes in grammar it connects the subject of sentences with the object. Sometimes in politics it doesn’t.


And so, on or about Monday, April 13, Dong Jun (lead image, 2nd left), China’s Minister of Defense, said: “We are committed for peace & stability in the world. We are monitoring the situation in the Middle East. Our ships are moving in and out of the waters of Strait of Hormuz. We have trade and energy agreements with Iran. We will respect and honour them and expect others not to meddle in our affairs. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz and it is open for us.”

Where Dong said this, when, and in front of whom, were unclear in the press reports which, unusually, were not official state Chinese media or commercial media like the South China Morning Post. China experts noticed that the style of the remarks in Chinese was “very different from the official Chinese language style.” This isn’t necessarily a disqualifier. In Russian practice, sensitive official thinking can often be leaked through unofficial, even obscure sources, in part to test what happens in response.

Dong’s first two sentences were official boilerplate and obvious. The third sentence refers to the fact that in the first month of the US-Israeli war against Iran, an estimated 18 Chinese vessels transited the Strait – with Iranian permission and following a territorial route dictated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). On Monday, if and when Dong was speaking, a Chinese-owned tanker moved through the Strait. This was the Rich Starry which had loaded 250,000 barrels of methanol at the Emirati port of Hamriyah. The tanker is owned by Shanghai Xuanrun Shipping Co Ltd. but sanctioned by the US because it has been used to transport Iranian crude.

Dong’s fourth sentence is also boilerplate. There are many trade and energy agreements between China and Iran; the most important of them is the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (2021–2046), signed in March 2021. It is the Defense Minister’s fifth and sixth sentences which have drawn immediate and serious attention, especially in Teheran and Moscow, where they are interpreted as the first explicit Chinese declaration of support for Iran’s military control of the Strait and the first explicit Chinese warning to reject President Donald Trump’s naval blockade of the Strait which had begun on Monday.

Combined with the exit of the Rich Starry and another tanker, the US-sanctioned Elpis, which had loaded a cargo of Iranian methanol at Bushehr, Dong’s sentences appeared to signal that Beijing had decided to run Trump’s gauntlet and challenge the US Navy blockade. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent replied that “the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would ensure that no Chinese ships or others would be allowed to pass. ‘So they’re not going to be able to get their oil. They can get oil. Not Iranian oil,’ Bessent said, adding that China had been buying more than 90% of Iranian oil and it constituted about 8% of their annual purchases.”

As Bessent spoke, several hours after Dong’s speech and the tanker movements, both the speech and the ship courses were reversed. The Chinese Defense Ministry tweeted an official claim that the reports were “fake news” and “entirely fabricated.” The maritime tracking media reported the Rich Starry had stopped in the Gulf of Oman and then made a U-turn towards the Strait. The Elpis was reported to have stopped off the Iranian oil terminal port of Kooh Mobarak, which is located outside and east of the Strait, in the Gulf of Oman.

So now, all things said, what have the Chinese done?

Read more …

Isn’t Iran one of the belligerent parties?

• Europe Drafts Plan To Free Up Hormuz Without ‘Belligerent’ Parties (ZH)

This is quite the ambitious headline revealing the latest ‘plan’ for Hormuz to come out of Europe, as it sits on the sidelines watching the US get potentially bogged down in the region following a month of heavy airstrikes on Iran: Europe drafts postwar plan to free up Strait of Hormuz without US, WSJ reports. This is apparently a plan for after the main crisis is over, amid the strait still being blockaded (with the each warring side insisting it is they in control of the strategic chokepoint waterway). It seems the main idea is to eventually take the United States out of the equation, allowing only for the ‘neutral’ countries to free up and clean the Hormuz Strait.


But the whole thing is very strange – on the one hand, it purports to keep one of the key belligerents, namely the United States, at bay – while on the other envisioning European/NATO military ships engaged in freedom navigation operations, including some mine-clearing. For example, there is this line from the Journal report: “French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday the plan is for an international defensive mission that doesn’t include the ‘belligerent’ parties, meaning the US, Israel and Iran. European diplomats familiar with the plan say European ships wouldn’t be under American command.”

to a Newsquawk summary of the WSJ main highlights:
—European countries are putting together a plan for a broad coalition of countries to help free up shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, including sending mine-clearing and other military vessels. But the plan would only come after the war and may exclude the US.
—Some differences must still be worked: French diplomats think that any US involvement in the operation would make it less palatable to Tehran, while British officials worry that not including the Americans will anger Trump and limit the operation’s scope.
—The plan has three broad aims:

1) put logistics in place to ensure the hundreds of ships currently stuck in the strait can leave.
2) Employ a major demining operation to clear the way for a far larger number of ships to use a broader part of the strait.
3) Removing Iranian mines in Hormuz is crucial to getting ships going again.

The reality is that this supposed plan brings things back full circle to problem #1… as it’s not as if either Iran, or the United States, will simply shrug and cede control so that a European military coalition can step in and take over. Which side will ever actually agree to this? The obvious answer, at least for the time being and foreseeable future is… nobody.= And then there’s the question of what leverage or force will Europe employ to assert its military presence in the strait in order to keep all parties in line… some mere harsh language and strong words?

Read more …

Never tried before.

• Dershowitz: Trump Should Move to Expunge 2019 Impeachment (Salgado)

After newly declassified documents showed that an inspector general wrongly pushed an unvetted accusation from a Democrat operative who lied to launch the first impeachment of Donald Trump, legal expert Alan Dershowitz said that the president has a strong case for moving to expunge that first impeachment from his record.


While Dershowitz was a Democrat himself, he defended Trump during the impeachment trial. Dershowitz went on the Just the News, No Noise TV show to suggest that Trump go straight to the U.S. Supreme Court and Chief Justice John Roberts to request a reversal of the impeachment. The defense team never got to confront the accuser with evidence that was exculpatory for the president, and now we have these new revelations to confirm how bogus the whole impeachment was.

Referring to an impeachment reversal, Dershowitz admitted, “It’s never been done. I don’t see any reason why it couldn’t be done. Impeachment is a quasi-judicial procedure, whether you have to go back to Congress and ask them to expunge it or go to the courts.”

Referring to the new exposure of the key source for the accusations, who met with top Democrat Adam Schiff before filing his complaint, Dershowitz added, “But I have to tell you one thing, history will expunge it already based on your work, because what you’ve done is you’ve created so much doubt about the credibility of the main accuser that it’s hard for anybody to sit back now and say that was a just, a just impeachment, but I don’t know that there’s going to be any remedy. Maybe we should try to create one.”

RealClearInvestigations named the “whistleblower” in question as intel analyst Eric Ciaramella. He was a registered Democrat, he met with Schiff before submitting his complaint, and he would not reveal any credible contacts, yet Inspector General Michael Atkinson didn’t even question, let alone rigorously assess, either the honesty or motivations of this “whistleblower.”

In fact, Atkinson did not even follow standard inspector general procedures, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard revealed. Atkinson conducted interviews with four individuals only: “the Whistleblower, the Whistleblower’s friend who was a co-author of the January 2017 Russia Hoax Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) and close colleague of disgraced former FBI Agent Peter Strzok, and two character references who had zero firsthand knowledge of the July 2019 phone call.” Yet Atkinson exceeded his statutory jurisdiction based just on all that blatantly biased hearsay.

Ciaramella later admitted that all of his accusations were based on second- and third-hand accounts rather than anything he himself knew, making the impeachment basis even more preposterous, Just the News reported. “I do not have direct knowledge of private comments or communications by the President,” the whistleblower confessed. Gabbard accused, “Deep state actors within the Intelligence Community concocted a false narrative that was used by Congress to usurp the will of the American people and impeach the duly-elected President of the United States.”

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Tulsi has turned out to be a force of nature.

• The Two People DNI Gabbard Issued Criminal Referrals For (Matt Vespa)

It was a major document release this week: the files that were not given to President Trump’s lawyers during the 2019 impeachment effort were revealed by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. One could argue that the documents, which were hidden until now, were textbook exculpatory evidence. The Ukraine whistleblower, who sparked the quid pro quo controversy, had no evidence to back his claims, admitted to working closely with then-Vice President Joe Biden, was a registered Democrat, and his allegations were based on poor spycraft.


Even his colleagues acknowledged this was a weak complaint, and one of them contributed to the similarly flawed, Obama-ordered 2017 Intelligence Community Estimate, which endorsed the collusion hoax. Gabbard sent criminal referrals for the whistleblower, Eric Ciaramella, and former intelligence community inspector general Michael Atkinson (via Fox News):

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence sent criminal referrals to the Justice Department for the whistleblower whose complaint helped trigger President Donald Trump’s 2019 impeachment and for the former intelligence community inspector general who notified Congress of the allegations, Fox News Digital has learned. “I want to refer information that may constitute possible criminal activity in violation of federal criminal law committed by one or more former employees of the intelligence community,” ODNI’s general counsel wrote in the referral to the Justice Department.Fox News Digital on Wednesday reviewed the referrals ODNI sent to the Justice Department. v”The possible criminal activity concerns the circumstances described in the following congressional briefings: Discussion with Intelligence Community Inspector General, House Permanent Select Comm. on Intel., 116th Cong. (2019); Briefing by the Intelligence Community Inspector General, House Permanent Select Comm. on Intel., 116th Cong. (2019),” it continued. The referrals come after DNI Tulsi Gabbard released documents earlier this week exposing what was described as a “coordinated effort” by elements within the intelligence community—including then-Inspector General Michael Atkinson, to “manufacture a conspiracy” that was used as the basis to impeach Trump in 2019.

Lock ‘em up. Someone must go to jail over this. This wasn’t some lost paperwork; it was a deliberate attempt to unseat a duly elected president. It was a coup. For all their smarts and resources, the Deep State has continuously failed to usurp Trump.

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When she took the job, I don’t think Tulsi was a Trump ally. Perhaps she is now.

• Gabbard Sends Criminal Referrals For 2019 Trump Impeachment Whistleblower (ZH)

On Monday, DNI Tulsi Gabbard and the House Intelligence Committee released declassified transcripts revealing that the whistleblower whose complaint about Trump and Zelensky’s ‘perfect call’ as an extreme parisan who had a “prior professional relationship with one of the Democratic Presidential candidates,” and despite those facts, former-Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) Michael Atkinson claimed “I did not find the complainant (whistleblower) was biased.”


Well, tonight they’re the recipients of two criminal referrals. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesady referred who is believed to be former CIA analyst Eric Ciaramella – along with the former intelligence community inspector general who fast-tracked it – for potential criminal investigation, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced Tuesday.

The referrals to the Justice Department, first reported by Fox News and confirmed by multiple officials familiar with the matter, come days after Gabbard’s office declassified more than seven-year-old transcripts and supporting documents that Democrats and the intelligence community had kept under wraps since the fall of 2019. The newly public records raise fresh questions about the origins and handling of the complaint that accused Trump of pressuring Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Ciaramella was a CIA analyst detailed to the National Security Council at the time. According to the declassified materials, he had no firsthand knowledge of Trump’s July 25, 2019, phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and instead relied on secondhand accounts from NSC colleagues. He was a registered Democrat who had previously worked on Ukraine policy under then-Vice President Biden – including traveling with him – and had pre-complaint contacts with Democratic staff on the House Intelligence Committee, including aides to then-Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the records show.

Former Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who received the complaint in August 2019, is accused in the declassified files of deviating from standard procedures. He allegedly changed the whistleblower complaint form to accommodate hearsay information, ignored Justice Department guidance that the complaint did not qualify as an “urgent concern,” did not review the actual call transcript, and relied on a narrow set of interviews – including one with a witness who had co-authored the controversial 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian election interference and had ties to former FBI official Peter Strzok.

Gabbard, a Trump ally installed as DNI earlier this year, framed the declassification and referrals as long-overdue accountability. “Deep state actors within the Intelligence Community concocted a false narrative that was used by Congress to usurp the will of the American people and impeach the duly-elected President of the United States,” Gabbard said in a statement accompanying the release. “Inspector General Atkinson failed to uphold his responsibility to the American people, putting political motivations over the truth.”

The ODNI general counsel’s referral letter, obtained by outlets covering the story, cited possible violations of federal criminal law by “one or more former employees of the intelligence community,” specifically referencing Atkinson’s 2019 congressional briefings. The declassified package – released by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence at the request of Chairman Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) following a March 24 committee vote – includes closed-door transcripts of Atkinson’s 2019 testimony before the panel. Those transcripts had been withheld from Trump’s defense team during the impeachment proceedings and from the broader public for more than seven years.

The move revives one of the most contentious chapters of Trump’s first term and comes as his second administration aggressively pursues investigations into perceived abuses by the intelligence community during the Russia investigation, the 2020 election challenges and both impeachments. Schiff, now a senator from California, and other Democrats involved in the original impeachment have not yet commented publicly on the latest developments. A spokesman for the House Intelligence Committee under Democratic control in 2019 called the declassification “a partisan stunt designed to rewrite history.”

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“..the former watchdog had “weaponized the whistle-blower process” and used his office to “manufacture a conspiracy that was used as the basis to impeach President Trump.”

• New Intel Watchdog Launches Review Of Past Whistleblower Complaints (JTN)

The new chief watchdog for U.S. spy agencies has opened a review of several “urgent concern” whistle-blower complaints fielded by his predecessor after bombshell documents revealed that intelligence officials kept exculpatory evidence from President Donald Trump’s 2019 impeachment proceedings and may have suppressed concerns about Chinese meddling in the 2020 election. Officials told Just the News that Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) Christopher Fox, who took over the job in October, ordered the review as part of a larger effort to reform and better resource his office to handle whistle-blower complaints that can range from abuse of civil liberties and fraud to unmitigated national security threats related to terrorism and espionage.


“It also relied more on the opinions of attorneys than the objective findings of investigators” ICIG says..””The past treatment of urgent concerns as more of a legal/document review than an investigative activity left important evidence on the table,” the ICIG office said in a statement. “It also relied more on the opinions of attorneys than the objective findings of investigators. Ultimately, this process did not serve the Intelligence Community or the American people well.”

Fox’s review comes after Just the News reported Sunday that documents recently declassified by the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) showed that the ICIG office under Fox’s predecessor, Michael Atkinson, flagged concerns about the CIA analyst who launched the 2019 impeachment proceedings against Trump with Ukraine policy-related allegations but those concerns were kept classified and never made public during the congressional proceedings.

The concerns included that the accuser had the “potential for bias,” had provided false information in his initial complaint and had animus toward conservatives inside Trump’s circles, according to documents declassified by DNI Tulsi Gabbard this week. Gabbard blasted Atkinson’s work on Monday, suggesting the former watchdog had “weaponized the whistle-blower process” and used his office to “manufacture a conspiracy that was used as the basis to impeach President Trump.”

Others, including former Trump defense lawyers, the FBI and members of Congress, also sharply criticized the withholding of such evidence for six years, with famed law professor Alan Dershowitz going so far as to suggest Trump might have grounds to expunge his 2019 impeachment in the House of Representatives.

China’s hacking of voter data kept hidden by Intelligence Community
Separately, Just the News reported that the National Intelligence Council had concluded in 2020 that China had hacked or gained access to several states’ voter registration databases, but that information was suppressed from the American public, state election officials and Congress despite a whistle-blower named Christopher Porter’s complaints trying to bring attention to it.

The intelligence community ombudsman even raised concerns that U.S. spy agencies may have exhibited bias in trying to suppress word of China’s election activities. Officials told Just the News that intelligence agencies were informed recently that Fox’s office will be reviewing anew the handling of Porter’s whistle-blower complaint. Fox’s office said it can “neither confirm nor deny whistle-blower identities or details that might reveal them, or whether any specific matter is under investigation.”But it did confirm to Just the News that Fox has launched a systemic review of “urgent concern” whistle-blower complaints handled during Atkinson’s tenure.

“IC IG Fox has also directed a comprehensive review of all past urgent concern complaints to identify lessons learned, improve internal policies, and determine whether previous matters warrant additional oversight activity,” the office said. Officials said under the old regime, “urgent concern” complaints from intelligence community whistle-blowers inside 18 separate agencies were handled by the Center for Protected Disclosures, operating separately from the Investigations Division and its trained investigators.

That meant most complaints just got a cursory review during a limited 14-day period that usually included:
• An intake interview;
• Limited witness interviews;
• An initial document examination.

“After the statutorily required 14-day review period, IC OIG did not historically continue any investigative activity. Instead, a memorandum reflecting the IC IG’s determination would be transmitted to the DNI and to Congress, and the case would be administratively closed (frozen in time), regardless of the national security implications,” Fox’s office said.

Congress received “only a preliminary assessment based on an incomplete evidentiary record” ICIG says
Fox’s office said the 2019 impeachment case revealed in the newly declassified documents that “Congress received only a preliminary assessment based on an incomplete evidentiary record.”In January, Fox launched what he called internally an “IC OIG 2.0” reorganization that consolidated six divisions into four offices, allowing a more robust and thorough “cross-disciplinary” to apply “consistent investigative rigor and objectivity to every complaint” that came in, officials said.

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Berlin will coordinate the repatriation of military-age males with Kiev, the German chancellor has said ..”

They fled there to escape that… More Merkel mayhem.

• Merz Wants Ukrainian Men In Germany Sent To The Front (RT)

Berlin and Kiev will coordinate efforts to return military-age Ukrainian men residing in Germany to their home country, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has announced following a meeting with Vladimir Zelensky. As Ukrainian forces suffer mounting losses in the conflict with Russia and the pool of willing recruits continues to shrink, draft enforcement squads have increasingly turned to violent methods to fill the ranks in recent months. Men are being snatched off the streets, from workplaces and residential areas, as evidenced by hundreds of videos circulating online.


The heavy-handed tactics employed by Ukrainian press gangs have led to a rise in violent confrontations with unwilling recruits, their families, and passersby, with multiple recruits and draft enforcement officers being injured or even killed. Speaking at a joint press conference with Zelensky in Berlin on Tuesday, Merz reiterated the German government’s “support for Ukraine’s efforts to reduce the number of Ukrainian men of military age leaving [their home] country.” According to the German chancellor, “this is essential to ensuring Ukraine’s defense capabilities, social cohesion, and reconstruction.”

“We need rapid, tangible progress here, also in the interest of both sides,” he stressed. Zelensky concurred that the issue “must be addressed,” adding that “of course, our armed forces would want these people to return to Ukraine.” In January, Merz similarly called on Ukraine to create conditions that would encourage its young men to remain in the country rather than flee to Western Europe. Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Germany became the top destination for Ukrainian migrants in the EU, taking in more than a million people, according to the Federal Statistical Office.

Some Ukrainian officials have acknowledged escalating public discontent with the forced mobilization campaign. According to Vadim Ivchenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament’s national security committee, only around 8-10% of new personnel entering the armed forces are willing recruits. Moscow has repeatedly accused Kiev’s Western backers of waging a proxy war against Russia “to the last Ukrainian.”

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“More recently, he said the lead contractor “is probably one of the richest men in the country right now.”

• US Prosecutors Make Surprise Visit To Fed HQ Renovation Project (ZH)

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday made a surprise visit to the Federal Reserve headquarters building that’s undergoing a $2.5 billion renovation, as they continue to investigate whether Fed Chair Jerome Powell lied to Congress about the cost and scope of the project. Construction workers told the prosecutors they couldn’t come on the site without prior authorization, the Wall Street Journal reported. Instead, they were referred to the Fed’s lawyers to coordinate a return visit.


The provocative move is the latest chapter in a months-long legal drama over the enormously expensive renovation of two Fed office buildings built in the 1930s, and whether Powell made false statements about the project in a congressional hearing last June. Specifically, Powell disputed media reports and accusations from administration officials and congressional Republicans that the project had extravagant design features, such as a VIP dining room, premium marble, water features and a rooftop terrace garden.

Last year, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought reported that the $2.5 billion cost was $700 million over budget. President Trump, who has repeatedly criticized Powell for not pushing interest even lower than they are, was quick to condemn the Fed director for the steep price of the project. “When you spend $2.5 billion on, really, a renovation, I think it’s really disgraceful,” he said last year. More recently, he said the lead contractor “is probably one of the richest men in the country right now.”

The ongoing drama had a moment of comic relief in July, when Trump joined Powell in touring the construction site with reporters tagging along: Last month, US District Judge James Boasberg threw out two subpoenas that federal prosecutors had issued to the Fed. “There is abundant evidence that the subpoenas’ dominant (if not sole) purpose is to harass and pressure Powell either to yield to the President or to resign and make way for a Fed Chair who will,” wrote Boasberg, an Obama appointee. Tuesday’s surprise visit to the construction zone signals the DOJ’s dedication to chasing the case.

“Any construction project that has cost overruns of almost 80 percent over the original construction budget deserves some serious review,” US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro told the Journal on Tuesday. “And these people are in charge of monetary policy in the United States?” Pirro, a long-time Trump ally, gave a green light to the investigation in November.

Powell’s term as chair will expire on May 15, though his underlying seat on the Fed’s Board of Governors doesn’t end until 2028. In January, Trump nominated Kevin Warsh to replace him, but his Senate confirmation is being held up by Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who said he won’t vote to advance Warsh’s nomination until the DOJ investigation of Powell and the Fed is complete. Powell has said he’ll stay on as chair until his successor is confirmed. Fed chairs usually give up their Board of Governors seat after leaving the top job, but Powell has said he will make a decision on that “based on what I think is best for our institution and the people we serve.”

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“Serfs received protection for their taxes. Slaves received housing, food, and medical care. Post 1913 Americans receive wars.”:

• April 15 Reminds Us of How Unfree We Are (Paul Craig Roberts)

Citizens of democracies think of themselves as free. This belief reflects their indoctrination, not the facts. Historically, the definition of a free person is a person who owns his own labor. A serf and a slave did not own their own labor, and neither does a citizen of a Western democracy today. Today, April 15, is a good reminder of that fact.


Once upon a time April 15 was the deadline for paying one’s taxes for the prior year. This imposed a burden on taxpayers not to spend all of the prior’s year income, but to set aside the share of their earnings that belonged to government, just as serfs had to set aside the proportion of their labor that belonged to feudal lords, the government of that time. Initially, only the federal government owned part of an American citizens income, but then states followed as did the city of New York. Americans who pay federal, state, and city income taxes are actually taxed higher than Medieval serfs and 19th century slaves on Southern cotton plantations, which means that Americans are less free than serfs and slaves.

Today April 15 is the deadline for filing your tax return, but for most Americans the taxes have already been paid by the withholding tax on wages and salaries and by quarterly estimated tax payments by those with income from investments that are unpredictable such as stocks and bonds. The withholding tax is paid by that part of your wage or salary that you never see. The quarterly estimate is paid by the person writing a check based an an accountant’s estimate. Many Americans might be unaware that the government claims the monetary value of 30-40% of their labor. They never see the money as employers pay it directly to the government. Many Americans are overwithheld. Instead of having to pay the IRS, they receive a check from the government.

As I remember from my study as a graduate student of the medieval economy in Europe under the direction of University of California, Berkeley, Professor of Economics Henry Rosovsky, later Dean of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, the highest tax rate that could be extracted from a serf was 30%. Generally, it was lower, but 30% was the maximum, the reason being that agricultural technology in those days was so low that if serfs lost more than 30% of their labor, they could not reproduce. On 19th century plantations, such as those in the Caribbean and southern United States, agricultural technology permitted 50% of a slave’s labor to be a return to the slave’s owner on the slave’s purchase price of $63,500 in 2025 dollars.

A plantation owner with 30 slaves as field hands, blacksmiths, and carpenters had $2,000,000 in today’s money invested in his labor force. How likely is he to demoralize and alienate his labor force and give them incentives to run away by beating them with whips, raping their wives, and working them to death in harsh conditions, thus destroying his investment? The slave owner was vastly outnumbered by his slaves, many of whom were warriors captured by the black King of Dahomey in slave wars. Good relations were in the slave owner’s interest.

Yet the propaganda “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” constitutes the education of generations of Americans and the content of university Black Studies programs. Perhaps we need another Harriet Beecher Stowe to chronicle the treatment of Americans today as human property, not the property of an individual but property of the state, just as was 30% (maximum) of the serf’s labor a property of the state of that time. Unlike taxation today, which serves little, if any, of the interests of those taxed, serfs gained protection in exchange for their labor. In Europe following the collapse of the Roman Empire free men farming for their existence were subject to raids from Vikings, Saracens, Magyars. The raiders came by boat, by horse. The isolated free farmers were helpless.

A would-be strongman appeared with a deal: Supply me with your labor and I will construct a fortress and employ men-at-arms to protect you against raids. You can come to our defended walls and be safe. These protectors became the aristocrats, and the free men became the serfs. But the feudal lords kept their promises as it was in their interest to defend the people. I remember reading historical accounts of how what became the aristocracy bred large war horses that could carry armored knights and were capable of overriding the smaller horses of the Magyars who attacked Europe for a century.

A serf was tied to the land and could not be bought and sold. Medieval serfs paid their taxes in kind–in their labor–initially for protection and then as an inherited obligation. Over time, some of the serfs’ labor obligation could be converted into delivery of products of the serfs’ labor. The 19th century slave paid his tax to his owner in his labor time as a return on his owner’s investment. The difference today is that a “free” American pays his slavery in the form of a monetary payment equivalent to government’s share of the monetary earnings of his labor–not in kind in direct labor service.

As Americans pay in money and not directly in labor, the illusion of a free people is created. A “free” American is like a serf. He cannot be bought and sold, but his failure to deliver the monetary value of government’s claim to his labor is harshly punished. Most would prefer whippings to imprisonment. Until the Reagan marginal tax rate reductions, high earner incomes were taxed at 50% on wages and salaries and 70% on investment income. This put them in the slave class. The rest of Americans are in the tax position of medieval serfs. The difference is that Americans today get nothing for it except wars they do not want and masses of immigrant-invaders to support. The United States government today stands in extremely poor comparison with the feudal lords of the Medieval Era. And so do the governments of every European democracy.

Today there are no Americans alive who were not born under the income tax. All Americans alive today were born into slavery. But when I was young, there were millions of Americans who had lived most of their lives as free people. These were the last free Americans. The US income tax came into being in 1913–a deception of the citizens like everything else the US government has done, such as the wars on Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Vietnam. The first income tax rate–1%–only applied to very high incomes. The top tax rate of 7% was only for tycoons. As hardly any Americans were subject to the income tax, the Constitutional amendment allowing an income tax easily passed.

The income tax became law on the eve of World War I, a war America had no business being involved in, and the income thresholds were quickly lowered and the tax rates quickly raised. The United States dating from the Declaration of Independence is 250 years old. The US income tax is 113 years old. The US has existed for more than twice as long as the income tax.

The US never needed an income tax and does not need one now. The liberals wanted an income tax so that they could redistribute income. An income tax is not needed for the normal functions of government such as roads, bridges, social infrastructure. Modern Monetary Theory has demonstrated that government can finance these operations by creating money as the productive investments raise GDP and pay for themselves in rising output.

Welfare was the province of churches and private charities like the Salvation Army.In place of a good society, the income tax has brought us endless wars and generations of a welfare class that exists on redistributed income confiscated from working people. Serfs received protection for their taxes. Slaves received housing, food, and medical care. Post 1913 Americans receive wars.

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https://twitter.com/UnearthedHQ/status/2044093959698559308?s=20 Lynch

 

 

 

 

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