cipher Archives - The Automatic Earth

President Trump delivers one of the most heartfelt moments ever to take place in the White House Cabinet Room when he thanked outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard for her service.

The entire room ERUPTED into applause as Trump took nearly two minutes to praise her work.

TRUMP: “Before… pic.twitter.com/yQwvGRn8Sj
— Overton (@overton_news) May 27, 2026

🚨 HOLY SMOKES. Trump SBA chief Kelly Loeffler exposes in the Cabinet room she found $200 BILLION in FRAUDULENT PPP loans distributed by the Biden admin…

…and they tried COVERING IT UP. People are now going to jail 🔥

"Think about at the SBA, we found $200 billion in… pic.twitter.com/ZmiavmvcA0
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 27, 2026

Trump is asked about the uranium, and he brings up Barack HUSSEIN Obama and the Iran Deal, again.

Trump is spoon-feeding it to us. He is hammering home the point that Obama knowingly paved the way for Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.

Trump is preparing the public for TREASON! https://t.co/mXz7Nf4ltN
— Clandestine (@WarClandestine) May 27, 2026

Trump may have just pulled off the most important geopolitical move of the 21st century.

Most people still haven’t realized what’s happening in the Middle East.

This changes everything. pic.twitter.com/e3piXpaAoh
— Mike Steger (@stegerMG) May 27, 2026

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.

Reports Mojtaba Khamenei Did Not Approve Deal – i24 @AmichaiStein1 https://t.co/cUVMLI3YDy pic.twitter.com/K1PiYumQLU
— LiveSquawk (@LiveSquawk) May 28, 2026

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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):
E Jean Carroll being investigated for crimes, as likely are entities or charities tied to Reid Hoffmann given that the investigation is being run out of Chicago.

Hoffmann funded Carroll’s Lawfare suit against President Trump.

So I’ll say something similar to what I just said… pic.twitter.com/dK88wjG1HL
— Jeff Clark (@JeffClarkUS) May 28, 2026

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.

Rachel Maddow asks E. Jean Carroll what she's going to do with "Trump's money" to help "women's rights."

Carroll says she and Maddow will "go shopping, get completely new wardrobes, new shoes…Rachel, what do you want, penthouse?"

Her lawyer nervously says "that's a joke": pic.twitter.com/5LAx5xU5Uy
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) January 30, 2024

“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.

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?

“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.

Ironic, coming from regime stooge, Bruno Rodriguez, who was born in Mexico — not Cuba.
— Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) May 26, 2026

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.

.@SecRubio: "We want something good for the Cuban people…Having a failed state 90 miles from our shores is a threat to the national security of the United States." pic.twitter.com/hUz8crMN3g
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 27, 2026

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.

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.”

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.

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.”

Blackrock CEO Larry Fink to American workers: Give us your pensions to invest in AI or else the Chinese will win pic.twitter.com/MchXFpRwjE
— Ben Bartee (@BenBartee) May 28, 2026

(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.)

Larry Fink: Helpful, altruistic, non-sociopathic nerd

"You wouldn't hit a man with glasses" pic.twitter.com/SCfbsyqQYG
— Armageddon Prose (@ArmageddonProse) May 28, 2026

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.)

JOHN CLAUSER, 2022 PHYSICS NOBEL PRIZE WINNER:

"I can very confidently assert, there is no climate emergency.
As much as it may upset many people, my message is the planet is NOT in peril.

Atmospheric CO2 and methane have negligible effect on the climate.
The policies… pic.twitter.com/WsNaoeCByg
— Robin Monotti (@robinmonotti) May 27, 2026

Joe Rogan tells billionaire Marc Andreessen why Socialism is the ultimate scam that only benefits poor lazy people:

ROGAN: “It’s never worked ever.”

ANDREESSEN: “If I work twice as hard as you why should we both get an equal slice?”

ROGAN: “The beautiful thing about America is… pic.twitter.com/DzVENuXkPh
— Joe Rogan Recaps (@JoeRoganRecaps) May 27, 2026

Wow https://t.co/T6FlivYIiQ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 27, 2026

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