The Automatic Earth

Adolphe Yvon Genius of America c1870

Confirmed data indicates Ukraine is losing far more troops to death or injury than Russia, at least ten times more, probably higher.

I discuss an academic paper by Alexander Grable @GAWL7014 presented at the Finnish Defence University @mpkkfi https://t.co/4NzxVPdGf4 pic.twitter.com/AixWc32URd

— Ian Proud (@proud_diplomat) October 24, 2026

“Trump Floats Another ‘Little Epic Fury’ As Intel Warns Of ‘Advanced’ Plots To Kill US Officials Abroad..”

• Trump Floats Another ‘Little Epic Fury’ (ZH)

President Trump declared during a campaign rally in Florida on Friday that “We may do another little Epic Fury, or they’ll agree” – asserting an ultimatum for the Iranians to either agree to a deal or else face a new intensified bombing campaign, possibly with Israeli help.

“If they’re smart, they’ll just say, let’s get down to business,” he added, while expressing that it’s currently unlikely that Tehran would agree to Washington’s demands. Instead, Iran has been reasserting its own seven conditions, which include the lifting of all sanctions, the removal of US forces from the region, and even war reparations.

Though the conflict has very obviously lingered, with a major flare-up in fighting over the summer centered on the Strait of Hormuz, the Pentagon had formally declared Operation Epic Fury over on May 5.

The US administration had repeatedly claimed the US strikes “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity while defeating the country “militarily, financially and otherwise” – though there was never any definitive ‘mission accomplished’ moment, and instead there’s been continued troop and military hardware movement to the region.

While the White House has signaled that a renewed bombing campaign on Iran wouldn’t happen until after the November midterm elections, there have been signs that it could come before, amid reports of heightened US troop movement patterns to the Mideast region.

Diplomats in the region continue to be placed on high alert, with an embassy evacuation underway in Riyadh connected with the Saudi-Houthi war and the ballistic missile attacks on the kingdom out of Yemen.

Meanwhile, Axios is reporting on a released US intelligence memo which alleges “advanced” Iranian plots to kill officials abroad.

“The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against US citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries,” Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton wrote in the document, which has curiously been leaked to the AP and Axios. The memo was sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and is dated Oct.23.

It’s highly unusual that a sensitive or else classified internal State Department intel memo would be made public or handed to the media, literally in real-time. Stoking public anxiety and fear through selective ‘leaks’?…

A U.S. intelligence memo dated October 23 warns that Iran has “substantially increased” efforts to assassinate American diplomats and officials in the Middle East and beyond, with some plots reaching “advanced stages.”

The threats, along with fears of Houthi attacks, have… pic.twitter.com/zt8KqxABbC

— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 24, 2026

And so it’s obvious the administration wanted this to be for public consumption, perhaps to create a heightened sense of fear among Americans heading in to the midterm elections. The intel memo also seems an ‘explainer’ of sorts for the ongoing embassy and consulate staff drawdowns from the region. Or it could indeed all be preparing the way for Trump to launch an other ‘little Epic Fury’. The Iranians, however, are promising ‘big’ and not small immediate retaliation.

“The warning comes as the Trump administration considers whether to resume military action against Iran.”

• Intelligence Official Warns Iranians Preparing Attacks On Americans (JTN)

U.S. intelligence officials are warning that Iran has intensified efforts to target American personnel and citizens abroad. There are also some alleged assassination plots reaching advanced stages, according to CBS News. In an unclassified memo shared with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton warned that Iranian efforts to carry out lethal attacks against Americans have progressed significantly in the Middle East and other parts of the world.

The warning comes as the Trump administration considers whether to resume military action against Iran. In the meantime, U.S. diplomatic and military officials are adjusting staffing levels at facilities throughout the Middle East in response to growing security concerns of attacks from Iran.

The memo does not identify the specific countries or individuals allegedly being targeted. Clayton said the intelligence community is working to make sensitive intelligence available to a wider group of State Department personnel so they can better assess potential threats.

By Professor Sergey Karaganov, honorary chairman of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and academic supervisor at the School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow

“Western Europe’s hostility should push Russia to rethink its identity, strengthen deterrence and develop its Eurasian roots..”

• The Great Divorce: Why Russia Must Turn Away From Europe (Karaganov)

In Russia, many people, driven by lingering Europhilia and habits formed during the second half of the 20th century, when Western Europe enjoyed a period of relative peace following its defeat, continue to look for signs of its ‘recovery’ and ways to restore relations.

There are forces within Russia that would advocate overcoming the current hostility and there are decent people in Western Europe, too, even if they are increasingly marginalized. But the causes of this outbreak of desperate Russophobia run deep and cannot easily be remedied and overcoming them may require the complete defeat and dismantling of much of the current European elite. But achieving that goal could come at too high a cost.

I shall attempt to analyze the causes of the almost unprecedented hostility towards Russia among the elites of most European countries and offer recommendations for Russian policy towards Western Europe.

I have written more than once that Peter the Great’s journey towards the rest of Europe, which initially brought many benefits, including helping to create some of the world’s greatest literature and music and modernizing the armed forces, continued for a century and a half longer than was necessary or beneficial. For many centuries, Europe was the principal source of evil in the world, offering endless wars, including two world wars within a single generation, repeated genocides, colonialism, racism and other calamities.

For Russians who grew up in the shadow of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, and who internalized a love of Europe, it’s not easy to acknowledge this simple truth and act accordingly.

Russian Europhilia was greatly reinforced when Western Europe, having been overwhelmed by the torrent of evil it had unleashed, became relatively peaceful for a time during the second half of the 20th century. In the USSR, Europhilia was fueled by the everyday hardships of Soviet socialism, contrasted with the far greater material prosperity of the western part of the half-continent.

There are many reasons for the current anti-Russian hysteria. The main one is the all-encompassing, multi-layered crisis that has gripped the western part of Europe and this crisis is particularly painful after decades of relative prosperity and, above all, the euphoria of victory that swept the West following the collapse of the USSR.

That euphoria temporarily obscured the mounting signs of crisis in European economies and societies, which had already become apparent by the end of the 1960s, when a mood of protest was beginning to take hold. And then a miracle happened as the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc provided hundreds of millions of eager new consumers and millions of cheap workers.

From the 2000s onwards, these problems resurfaced with renewed force. A decade later, most Western European countries had fallen into stagnation as inequality began to worsen once again. Living standards for much of the population began to decline, while competitors started pulling ahead, not only the US and China, but also many countries of the Global South. Euphoria gave way to a sense of failure and European elites are now trying to drown out that feeling by fueling hostility towards Russia.

At the same time, from the end of the 20th century, the consequences of the anti-colonial revolutions of the 1950s and 1960s began to make themselves felt. The flow of resources that Europe had extracted from the rest of the world since the 16th century, and upon which its prosperity and cultural, military, scientific and technological leadership had largely been built, began to dry up.

An unusually long period of relative peace and prosperity brought to the surface some of the worst traits of the European character and heritage as Western Europe began to turn its back on humanism and the desire to serve the common good.

Decades of development in a climate of peace and formal democracy have led to the degradation of the ruling elites because democratic political systems are anti-meritocratic. The majority elect those who resemble themselves, or even those who are worse, and in the best cases, they elect shrewd manipulators. One of the most significant causes of Western Europe’s current decline, and to a lesser extent, that of other parts of the collective West, is the rejection of faith.

This began with the Age of Enlightenment, which created the conditions for the decline of people who, consciously or unconsciously, set about rejecting the divine, the best within themselves. I finally realized that Western Europe had taken a sharp and irreversible downward turn in the early 2000s, when following lengthy debates over the European Union’s proposed constitution, it was decided not to mention Christianity as its spiritual foundation.

Losing its footing and falling behind in economic and spiritual competition, Western Europe is reverting to one of the worst traits of its civilization, which is militarism. The militarization of the economy is seen as one of the principal ways out of economic decline and militarization requires an enemy. As so often before, that enemy has been identified as Russia as the image of the enemy is being inflated practically out of thin air.

We must tell ourselves firmly, we are not Europeans, but an independent northern Eurasian civilization whose external spiritual roots lie in the south and east.

“.. and Using It to Guide Weapons into Russia..”

• Elon Musk Sets Record Straight, Ukraine Was Violating Starlink Terms (CTH)

Elon Musk has just delivered a clarifying statement on X platform, outlining what many suspected.

Ukraine was using Starlink to attack Russia, that was never allowed. Ukraine was authorized to use Starlink to defend itself inside Ukraine and communicate on the front lines of battle. However, Ukraine military leadership weaponized their access to Starlink and began using it as an offensive missile/drone guidance system. That was stopped.

ELON MUSK – “Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be.

Starshield, a different system, is controlled by the US government. What they decide to do is up to them. Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week.

Starlink remains critical to the defense of Ukraine, as it is the only system that cannot be jammed or blown up, at least for now. Were Starlink to be turned off, the Ukrainian front line would collapse immediately. This is NOT a threat, it is simply a statement of fact.

Starlink was also crucial to preventing Russia from overrunning Ukraine in the early days of the war, as all other means of communication were destroyed or jammed by Russia. SpaceX has done more to defend Ukraine than any private company on Earth BY FAR.

That said, I have nothing but UTTER CONTEMPT for the virtue-signaling evil warmongers who push for endless slaughter and offer no realistic solution to the conflict. May you burn in hell.

End of story.”

This is exactly what many suspected. For the past two weeks Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been obfuscating what Ukraine was doing, while U.S. members of Congress were conflating the difference between Starlink and Starshield. Ukraine was never permitted to use Starlink as an offensive weapon outside its borders. Zelenskyy and his military were purposefully violating the terms of use for Starlink systems by weaponizing it.

The U.S. government under Biden and Trump would not authorize the use of Starshield for Ukraine’s use because that would be akin to the United States military guiding missiles and drones into a nuclear armed power, Russia. It will be interesting to see how Zelenskyy and congress respond to this statement by Elon Musk.

“Working Americans will pay the price..”

“Senate threats over Russia sanctions waivers can scare companies off, hurting fuel supplies and driving up costs for everyone”

• Democrats Want To Kill Trump’s Diesel Deal (Romanenko)

With Americans struggling from soaring energy prices, and businesses across the country trying to keep their heads above water, the Democrats’ apparent priority is to threaten companies that might help ease the pressure.

According to an October 22 Washington Post report, Senate Democrats are preparing to investigate American companies involved in US President Donald Trump’s decision to ease sanctions on Russian diesel. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has reportedly asked businesses to preserve relevant documents ahead of possible congressional investigations, should Democrats regain control of Congress in the November midterms.

For a party that claims to champion working Americans, this is a peculiar way of demonstrating its concern. Diesel is the lifeblood of the American economy. It powers the trucks that carry food to supermarkets, the tractors that harvest crops, the machinery that builds homes and roads, and the locomotives that move freight across the vast country.

Yet the people who depend on it have too often been treated as an afterthought by the Washington establishment. They live and work in the industrial towns, farming communities and sprawling rural counties that coastal political elites dismiss as flyover country. Just recall Hillary Clinton’s infamous 2016 description of millions of Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables” – a perfect crystallization of the contempt that many ordinary Americans felt was directed at them by the Democrats.

A decade later, that perception is unlikely to be helped by the Democratic lawmakers’ threats to investigate businesses for participating in an arrangement intended to bring additional fuel to the market.

The timing makes those threats extra galling. America is facing an energy crunch aggravated by the Trump administration’s own military campaign against Iran. There is no reason to pretend otherwise. Yes, the president’s decisions helped disrupt global energy markets, and Americans are entitled to demand answers about their consequences.

But recognizing that responsibility does not mean opposing every subsequent attempt to alleviate the damage. Trump’s decision to temporarily ease restrictions on Russian diesel represents an effort to increase available supplies at a time when the market desperately needs relief. It is a pragmatic response to an immediate economic problem, whatever one thinks of the circumstances that created it.

And now Democrats are determined to make that response costly for the companies willing to participate. Congress has every right to examine whether the administration acted within its legal authority. But threatening private businesses with investigations for engaging in transactions authorized by the federal government is another matter entirely. If those companies comply with the law, why should they have to fear becoming targets of a future congressional majority?

The actual volume of Russian diesel involved is almost beside the point. Moscow initially pledged to release some 300,000 metric tons of diesel, with further shipments promised in the following months – a modest quantity compared to America’s enormous fuel consumption.

But that’s not what the markets will be reacting to. They react to expectations, regulatory certainty and the willingness of businesses to undertake transactions without fearing political retaliation. And now, even a lawful, government-authorized energy deal could expose companies to years of investigations simply because a different party took power. Just imagine the chilling effect.

Today, the dispute concerns a relatively small quantity of fuel from one supplier. Tomorrow, the same approach could be applied to other commodities, trading partners or commercial arrangements that fall afoul of Washington’s shifting ideological priorities. In effect, the Democrats want to hold American energy security hostage to domestic political warfare. And for what? The ostensible objective is to keep pressuring Russia.

For years, Moscow has faced sweeping Western sanctions, restrictions on financial transactions and efforts to shut its energy exports out of international markets. None of this has forced Russia to accept any of the West’s demands. Russia has shown it can adapt and endure economic pressure. While not entirely painless, sanctions have consistently failed to produce the political outcome their advocates have called and hoped for.

On a larger scale.

Also, a bit of math I was looking for:

Ian Proud says: “Ukraine is losing far more troops to death or injury than Russia, at least ten times more..”

• Ukraine Is Becoming Another Verdun (Victor Davis Hanson)

The war in Ukraine has gone on for four years – 4.7 years. Feb. 24 of next year, it’ll be five years. It’s longer than World War I. It’s longer than the American Civil War. It’s longer than the U.S. Pacific War. There are about 2.5 million combined Russian and Ukrainian casualties.

I mean by that, of course, dead, wounded, missing, and captured. Russia does not have the economy or the military to absorb all of Ukraine. And Ukraine, with one-fifth the population of Russia, one-tenth the GDP, and one-twentieth of the area, cannot force Vladimir Putin out of either Crimea or the occupied Donbas territory.

And that means the only way that this Verdun or this Somme can be solved is for one side or the other to win, and it doesn’t seem like either can, or for a new power to join one of the two sides, or for them to agree to a ceasefire.

There’s another issue. In World War II, Winston Churchill held an election right after the German surrender, but right at the height of the Pacific War, and he was voted out of office. FDR had an election in 1944, right during some of the worst of the island-hopping and Pacific campaigns.

So, I’d like to make two initial points. I think it would behoove Mr. [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and Ukraine in general, because they’re very angry that President Donald Trump said they need a new president. I don’t think that was the right articulation, but what I think he meant was that Israel has an election coming up. It’s basically in a state of war.

It has a mixed or wartime cabinet. It would help Zelenskyy to restore habeas corpus, a free press and opposition parties, and have an election. And then we’ll see to what degree new people or new ideas in a campaign agree with Zelenskyy, sort of agree or reject him, or maybe the other participants will have a new idea.

The second thing is everybody just says, “[Vladimir] Putin’s awful.” I agree. “Ukraine should win.” I agree. But they never tell us how they’re going to achieve that after four and a half years. They criticize everything that Trump has said, but there’s one constant. If you want to call all of his ideas crazy, whatever you want to do, there’s one common theme.

He doesn’t like all these people killing each other for no apparent purpose. There’s no change, really, in the momentum of the battlefield, and none of his critics and I’ve read a lot of them this week – say, “Donald Trump is wrong. This is what we must do to help Ukraine win the war and restore its territory.”

Nobody will take that leap. What’s the latest melodrama? The latest melodrama is that Trump is less than three weeks from the election. Diesel is higher than gas. Diesel is the blood that makes the American economy flow. It’s up to way over $4.22. The average gas price is averaging about $5 to $5.50.

Here in California, it’s almost $8 in some places. So, obviously, he wants calm in the Strait. He wants to resolve the Iran war. He wants more refineries, and he wants Russia to start selling diesel and refined fuel on the world market. Even though it’s a small percentage, it’s psychological, and the world went crazy.

He was blasted as Putin’s puppet. The Europeans said he sold them out. The Canadians say he’s on Putin’s side. Zelenskyy said he was disappointed. But let me just remind everybody: We have given $140 billion to Ukraine. We are the ultimate guarantor of the safety of all the European countries that are talking about more aggressive action.

They should take more aggressive action. But if they get in a jam with Russia, who are they going to call? Us.

Confirmed data indicates Ukraine is losing far more troops to death or injury than Russia, at least ten times more, probably higher.

I discuss an academic paper by Alexander Grable @GAWL7014 presented at the Finnish Defence University @mpkkfi https://t.co/4NzxVPdGf4 pic.twitter.com/AixWc32URd

— Ian Proud (@proud_diplomat) October 24, 2026

More importantly, what has Europe been doing in the last four and a half years? It’s the greatest purchaser of Russian natural gas.

In other words, they are criticizing Trump for trying to put more diesel fuel on the global market from Russia, which will help Russia at a time when it’s attacking Ukraine, unfortunately. But they’re saying to Ukraine, “Do not hit refineries,” and the world is angry.

But Mr. Zelenskyy and the Europeans are not talking about the greatest source of Russian income right now: Europe’s massive purchases of natural gas.

Europe says that Russia is an existential threat. OK, it may be. It’s got 6,000 nuclear weapons. But right now, it is an existential threat to Ukraine and to Europe. We believe that the Iranian regime is more unhinged than Putin and not subject to the same degree of deterrence as China or Russia.

It was on the verge of getting a nuclear weapon and had been supplying the Houthis, Hamas, and Hezbollah, which are the primary sources of tension in the entire Middle East. So, we were trying to tell the Europeans, “OK, we’re going to give $140 billion to help you stop Putin. But all we want in return, in our effort to denuclearize Iran, is just your airspace. Can we land at a base or two so we can save transportation costs and probably save lives?”

And what happened?

The UK said, “No. In fact, there was an Iranian-inspired terrorist threat here against your bombers. We caught the guys, but guess what? They’re out on bail. We can’t protect you.”

So, we went home. Italy can’t let us land at that base in Sicily that’s a dual-use NATO base. Spain said, “Don’t use our NATO base, and don’t fly in our airspace.”

France said, “Do not use any French airspace.” I could go on. Diego Garcia – the UK said, “Don’t use it.”

So, just stop a minute and take a breath. What are they saying to us? They are saying, basically, “We are going to be beneficiaries of a denuclearized Iran, but we don’t want to participate.”

“— and Lord Help ‘Em, They’re Doing It!”

• There Was Only One Way the Democrats Could Blow the Midterms (Scott Pinsker)

Forget about packing the Supreme Court, banning ICE, or impeaching the president (again): Should they win congress, the Democrats’ shrewdest move would be moving Election Day to September.

‘Cause if elections were held in September, the Democrats would be undefeated. They’d go from the donkeys to the ’72 Dolphins. The Democrats would run the whole country! But alas, they always peak too early. Fun fact: In the last FIVE presidential elections, during the month of September, the Democrats have led the “poll of polls” aggregate every flippin’ time.

It’s become a clear PR pattern: The Democrats build momentum, blitz the media, and peak in popularity before Election Day — and sometimes, they’re so far ahead that the Republicans can’t catch up. Sure, the race tightens down the stretch (uncomfortably so), but the Dems still win. But an awful lot of the time, the donkeys are gassed. There’s nothing left in the tank.

So their momentum stalls — and the Republicans soar ahead by the first Tuesday of November. The Dems are all out of ammo, all out of energy, and all out of ideas. Victory slips through their fingers hooves. And once again, the Republicans control the White House, Senate, and/or the House.

That’s psychologically unnerving for the Democrats, because they really, truly believe their own press clippings: Everyone hates Trump. Everyone thinks they ought to be in charge. Everything they see, hear, and read reinforces how wonderful they are. This election belongs to the Democrats!

Then, when they lose, resentment builds. They blame the voters, blame the consultants, blame the DNC, blame Elon Musk’s space lasers, blame Russia, blame social media — and blame everyone but themselves. Yet this pattern persists, because the Dems won’t address the root cause. (Which is the best possible news for the GOP.)

Because don’t look now, but the donkeys are doing it again: They’re making the exact same mistake — and this time, it could cost them the 2026 midterms.

Between the historic headwinds, President Donald Trump’s dismal approval rating, and sky-high gas prices, the Democrats should win the midterms by a landslide. Since 1934, the president’s party has lost an average of 27 House seats and 3.4 Senate seats in midterm elections. By each and every current metric and historic benchmark, the Democrats should be dominating.

So the 2026 midterms ought to be a big, beautiful, Blue Tsunami: They’re the ocean; congress is Atlantis. That’s the Democrats’ expectation — and the catalyst for their error. The danger in believing your own press clippings is that it distorts your perspective. You overestimate your own popularity, capabilities, and value, which leads to hubris and overreach.

And you also underestimate your opponent. In Hollywood, it’s why so many celebs crash and burn. On Wall Street, it’s why so many corporations botch acquisitions, misjudge verticals, and lose money on mergers. And in politics, it’s why the Democrats can’t resist scaring the [expletive] out of the voters.

Because it’s late October, and the Democrats are struggling yet again. They’re gassed. Even in bright blue states such as Michigan, Minnesota, Maine, and New Hampshire, the Republican Senate candidate is either winning outright or within the margin of error. There’s a very real risk the Dems could lose all four elections!

The Democrats had a glide path to victory: Don’t be controversial. Don’t interject divisive issues. No trans or wokeisms. Make the election a litmus test on Donald Trump.

The last one was the motherlode. The Democrats already had all the leftists, party loyalists, DSA acolytes, and Trump-haters in their pocket, but if they could position themselves as a vehicle to “send D.C. a message,” they’d gain all the dissatisfied independents, too. Including those who disagreed with the Democrats’ policies.

Hey, it’s how MAGA ran the table in 2024: Not everyone who voted for Trump supported his platform, either. Plenty voted Republican because Joe Biden’s senility, DNC corruption, and Kamala Harris’ weirdness repulsed them. The voters wanted a change; Trump was it. He was the “send D.C. a message” candidate.

The Democrats keep fading down the stretch because they really, truly believe their own press clippings. After all, their friends in the media keep telling them the same thing: Trump is awful, everyone hates him, the future belongs to the donkeys. Then they see the September polls: Why, they’re cruising to victory, winning in a cakewalk.

It’s not even close!(No wonder they trust the polls: Not only do they say really nice things about the Dems, but they actually PAID for a lot of ‘em!) nSo the candidates see the polls and are emboldened. That’s problematic, but a disciplined candidate should still be able to stick to a script. (Mostly.)

The bigger problem is that the activists are emboldened, too. They count their chickens before they’re hatched, demanding a wish-list of left-wing policies, revenge fantasies, and political grievances — i.e. packing the Supreme Court, impeaching the president, jailing Republicans, disbanding ICE, banning billionaires, and killing the AI industry.

Historically, left-wing activists have damaged the Democratic brand more than ANYTHING Donald Trump has EVER done. They’re the GOP’s best friends. .

“.. and to Give Lukewarm Support to El-Sayed..”

“.. if anyone is spending time in front of a mirror, and your choice is between Obama and Hegseth, who do you think is doing it?”

• Obama Stumps in Detroit to Promote … Obama (Tim O’Brien)

As the midterms enter the final stretch, the polls are starting to tighten up as predicted and as they always do. Most pollsters now are more worried about accuracy and their own reputations than they are about trying to propagandize for Democrats. They now try to get closer to reality so later they can say they were right, or at least not that far off.

The fact that the polls are starting to indicate that Michigan is a veritable toss-up in the Senate race between America’s Mike Rogers and Egypt’s Abdul El-Sayed tells me El-Sayed likely never had much of an advantage all along. More than likely, his bravado and downright aggressiveness toward interviewers is starting to look more like cover for a fact he knew – that he has been running from behind.

That’s why the former three-term president, if you count the Biden years, Barack Obama, jetted into Detroit from one of his lavish estates to lend a hand to the Democrat Party that he continues to lead, along with one of its new radical Islamic, socialist rising stars, El-Sayed.

Listening to Obama’s words, focusing just on those words and not the context for the event, you’d be hard-pressed to know who he was talking about.

In the end, Obama campaigned for Obama, as he always does. He said what’s-his-name will fight for change, and he’ll get all that dark money out of politics. That is, of course, right after he and his allies spend millions of that money to get him elected.

Obama said something to the effect that El-Sayed will put that money in your pocket. I’m paraphrasing, because Obama is still old-school. Unlike the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) candidates, Obama never tells you what he really means.

The rally, which surely included no small number of bused-in attendees, armed with their pre-printed signs, was held at Cass Technical High School in Detroit before a crowd of 2,000-3,000 people.

It wasn’t long before Obama was focusing mostly on himself. He promised that what’s-his-name would “finish the job we started with the Affordable Care Act and guarantee quality, affordable healthcare to every single American.” That was a reference to El-Sayed’s sputtering campaign promise to push for “Medicare for All,” which has already contracted a case of buyer’s remorse before election day. Most people already know or are starting to realize that Medicare by itself isn’t free, or all that great. And that you still have to buy supplemental insurance.

You can tell Obama, for all his wealth, isn’t much into paying for tier-one speechwriters these days. This was clear when he brought up the tired old trope that President Donald Trump is “enriching himself and his family.”

Even Trump’s detractors knew that message would never fly again after Trump stood up in Butler with a bloody face and implored attendees to “fight, fight, fight.” That was the moment Trump won the 2024 election precisely because everyone, including Obama, could tell Trump wasn’t doing this for personal gain. He never needed to be president to make money and take care of his family.

The only people who’ve enriched themselves from the presidency of late have been the Obamas and Bidens. While the Obama stump speech has been on the campaign’s schedule for a couple of weeks, the Detroit rally was the first time Obama actually demonstrated his support, such as it was, for what’s-his-name.

Rather than spend much time talking about whatever El-Sayed might do as senator, Obama decided to focus more on attacking Trump, who is not on the ballot in Michigan. While this is a common tactic during these midterms, watching Obama do it, it’s impossible not to pick up on his jealousy vibe.

Trump has done a lot with his time at the White House, and he promises to do more. He’s at center stage right now, and Obama doesn’t like that. The fact that Trump may someday be remembered as a more positively consequential president than he bothers Obama. To be sure, Obama was negatively consequential, and Trump and the rest of us are still working to undo all that damage.

Then came arguably the strangest part of Obama’s speech, which, while it was an indirect attack on Trump, was squarely aimed at Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Obama tried to mock Hegseth for being “laser-focused,” and then he asked the audience: “How much time do you think this man spends in front of the mirror every day?”

A psychologist could write a peer-reviewed paper on that quip alone. The very origin of the term “narcissist” comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, where a young man named Narcissus rejects all romantic advances. To punish him, the goddess Nemesis takes him to a still pool where he sees his own reflection and falls in love with it, not realizing at first that it is he himself. The rest of the story is a tragedy. It’s sort of mind-boggling that Obama would take his remarks sideways like that when he’s supposed to be there to compel Michiganders to vote for what’s-his-name.

Seriously, if anyone is spending time in front of a mirror, and your choice is between Obama and Hegseth, who do you think is doing it? Obama took a few more shots at Trump, and while they got the reaction you’d expect from the inorganic crowd of Democrat friendlies, they really didn’t come close to damaging Trump or the Republican candidates running during these midterms.

On the Trump White House upgrades, Obama said, “He should be on HGTV… He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.” What does that even mean? Most people in that crowd couldn’t tell you who Saddam Hussein was (remember, these are Democrat voters), and more than a few of them probably like the Cheesecake Factory. Does Obama realize that no small number of these people are lured to these leftist rallies with gift cards to McDonald’s and Taco Bell?

One of the better memes for Trump in which he’s always playing the role of Roadrunner to the Democrats’ Wile E. Coyote. No matter what plan of attack the Democrats concoct, it always ends up backfiring on them. Expect more of the same on Sunday as the president hops aboard Air Force One to travel to Michigan to stump for Rogers and other Republicans. This gives Trump a chance to pick apart everything Obama said on Saturday night and get the last laugh.

Trump doesn’t need speechwriters to be genuinely funny, and his jokes are always much more current and relevant than anything Obama said at his Detroit appearance. So, it’s pretty much a sure bet that everything Obama said will quickly fall flat and start to fade into the abyss by Monday morning, all while Trump retakes control of the news cycle.

“.. he predicts she will very likely lose her citizenship and face deportation to Somalia, the country of her birth.”

“.. search warrants, and usually they’re issued pretty easily, but not against a sitting congresswoman in her home in the District of Columbia. I think for this judge to have signed off on a search warrant to go to the house early in the morning to do all the things she said they did, there has to be very substantial evidence beyond just a mere probable cause claim..”

• Alan Dershowitz Says Ilhan Omar Is in Serious Trouble (Matt Margolis)

A longtime Harvard Law professor and liberal lawyer believes the FBI raid on Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) home has landed her in serious legal jeopardy, and he predicts she will very likely lose her citizenship and face deportation to Somalia, the country of her birth.

That lawyer is Alan Dershowitz, and he made his prediction on Newsmax’s The Record with Greta Van Susteren.

The whole case hinges on whether Omar became a U.S. citizen, and if so, how. She claims she became a citizen as a minor when her father was naturalized. The problem is that nobody has produced the paperwork to back that up, and Van Susteren zeroed in on that gap. “Assuming that that paperwork is never found, what happens? And what does Congress do about her?” Van Susteren asked.

Dershowitz walked through the legal bar the government has to clear. “Well, they have to prove — to have denaturalization, you have to prove fraud,” he said. That means prosecutors would need to show that Omar committed fraud herself, or that her father did with her participation.

“Now, she, when she made the statement recently, makes the strongest case for why she’s probably in deep trouble,” Dershowitz continued. “I have a lot of experience with search warrants, and usually they’re issued pretty easily, but not against a sitting congresswoman in her home in the District of Columbia. I think for this judge to have signed off on a search warrant to go to the house early in the morning to do all the things she said they did, there has to be very substantial evidence beyond just a mere probable cause claim that maybe a crime was committed. So, I think she’s in much, much deeper trouble than she is willing to admit.”

Then there’s the brother question. In fact, Omar herself essentially conceded she might have married her brother. During an interview on MS NOW, Chris Hayes asked Omar directly whether she had married her sibling, an allegation of fraud President Donald Trump has raised many times. She gave an answer that should have alarmed every Democrat watching.

“Not to my knowledge,” Omar said.Dershowitz pointed out that family relationships come with a simple yes or no. Either someone is your brother, or he isn’t.”‘Not to my knowledge’ seems like a cop out,” he told Van Susteren. From where I sit, that sounded like a carefully lawyered non-answer, which is what you reach for when a straight answer could come back to haunt you, and Omar picked her words very carefully.

Omar’s defenders might hope time will protect her. Dershowitz shot that down, too, explaining that the “statute of limitations that apply in criminal cases don’t apply in deportation and denaturalization cases.” He added that an ongoing offense, such as repeatedly listing a false birth date on official records, could extend the window even further.

And he doesn’t think the investigation has peaked. “So I think this is the beginning of a much deeper search,” Dershowitz said, adding that Omar is “probably in more serious trouble than she’d like us to believe.”

For years, Omar and her allies have treated every question about her past as an act of bigotry, and the media happily played along. Because that’s what they do. Well, a Democrat judge approved the raid, which was part of an investigation that started under a Democrat administration, and now a liberal legal giant who has spent decades defending the accused looks at the evidence and sees real danger.

That tells you everything you need to know.

“Is Ilhan Omar’s response to the investigation a threat to Trump and America?”

“Ostensibly, her tweet shows her shaking off the trouble she may be in; in fact, it’s one of the most ominous videos you’ll ever see from an American politician.”

• Is Ilhan Omar a Threat to Trump and America? (Andrea Widburg)

Image created using AI.

Ilhan Omar is in deep doo-doo. The Trump administration is currently investigating her for alleged immigration fraud, both her own and her involvement in getting her brother here, zillions of possibly false statements because of an alleged failure to use her legal name on legal documents, and allegations that she and her husband have engaged in financial fraud. The first charge could result in denaturalization and deportation to her beloved Somalia. The second and third charges could mean jail time. It’s not looking good for Omar.

Omar, however, remains defiant. To that end, showing her casual unconcern about the charges piled up against her—charges so serious that a Democrat D.C. District Court magistrate judge felt compelled to issue a search warrant against her—Omar released a video. Ostensibly, it is an homage to the state that sent her to the House of Representatives.

She and her third husband (who really isn’t her brother) are “Enjoying our beautiful Minnesota lakes.” It’s so pastoral. So American. So patriotic. To appreciate all those virtues, watch it the first time with the sound turned OFF. And no, that’s not a typo; for the first viewing, you must summon some all-American music in your imagination to play in the background.

https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/2113713743464890653?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2113713743464890653%7Ctwgr%5E3dc36b0e582b0e9367032370fa9964f2467c3557%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.americanthinker.com%2Fblog%2F2026%2F10%2Fis-ilhan-omar-s-response-to-the-investigation-a-threat-to-trump-and-america%2F

Oh, yes! This is a true Minnesota politician. You can practically hear that classic Minnesota accent. You betcha! Now that you’ve got that locked in, play the video again with the sound on. Kind of adds a different flavor, doesn’t it? It’s a modern update of those old-time Scandinavian Minnesotans, with their European-style music. This is an homage to the new Minnesotans, the ones who look to Somalia, not Sweden, as their ancestral home.

That’s okay, right? We’re a nation of immigrants, people who bring their own music to America and add to its rich tapestry. After all, how else did we get jazz? mBut then people started translating the song and discovered something interesting. This isn’t a sweet Somalian folk song, lauding the little mud hut set among Somalia’s beautiful arid plains, deserts, scrubland, and thornbushes. Instead, it’s kind of…well, for want of a better word, militant, threatening even:

Translation of lyrics according to grok:

If I confront you in the afternoon,
By evening, I will teach you a lesson.
Yes, you will suffer and cry in seething,
You will scream like a demon.
After all, you are not Arabs,
Let the enemies die of seething.
We are the ones who rule… https://t.co/qvCgx7m0BY

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) October 25, 2026

Continuing where the tweet leaves off:
“We are the ones who rule this land,
We do not wait for anyone else.
We gather in whichever part we want,
We will dance Dhaanto and Saar.
Let me make clear who I am.
We impose taxes on our enemies.
We punish them and fill them with resentment.
We subjugate and humiliate them.

The Free Beacon looked into the song’s backstory: The video was set to a violence-hued hip-hop diss track by a Somali musical duo who rap about how they will “subjugate and humiliate” their enemies, leaving them to “suffer and cry in seething,” according to a certified translation commissioned by the Washington Free Beacon.
[snip]
The song is titled “Nimaan Ciilayba Icaaya,” written and performed by U.S.-based Somali rapper Ilkacase Qays and featuring Somali female singer Hodan Abdirahman.

Omar shares close ties with Qays, and his tune appears to hold some personal significance for her. Omar’s video on Friday isn’t the first time she’s paired the vitriolic song with her own image. She was filmed dancing to and singing the song with Qays and Abdirahman at a party in May with around a dozen other Somalis, according to footage uploaded to YouTube. I don’t know about you, but when a sitting Muslim congresswoman tells her political enemies that…

..”you will suffer and cry in seething, You will scream like a demon…Let the enemies die of seething. We are the ones who will rule this land…We impose taxes on our enemies. We punish them and fill them with resentment. We subjugate and humiliate them…” ..

… my inclination is to believe she means it—and that she’s not just talking about her hatred for those in Somaliland. This is a threat to those who dare to oppose her and her fellow travelers in America.

Nor is she the only one making such threats. This undated video, which is probably from Kane County, Illinois, outside of Chicago, shows the same mindset (language warning):

Good grief.

I warn you. This will make your blood boil.

“You do not arrest an Arab woman”

“You are Islamophobic”

“I am a Muslim. Do not get in my p*ssy. Do not touch my private. I am a Muslim” pic.twitter.com/KKgBEFw3DQ

— Kosher (@koshercockney) October 25, 2026

These women are not humble immigrants, hoping to make a good life for their children in a free country. Instead, whether Ilhan Omar or this anonymous arrestee, they come as conquerors and are not shy about letting you know it. Of course, this does not apply to all Muslim immigrants. Still, Islam is an ideology built on violent conquest, and many Muslims across the West are not afraid to flex their muscles.

“The Outcome of the US Midterm Election Will Determine Whether the US Remains a Free Nation Under the Rule of Law..”

Henceforth in the Western World law resides not objectively in itself but in whoever controls power.

In other words, Western Civilization has been brought to its end. Americans have no concept of the horror that awaits them.

• Midterms Will Determine If the US Remains a Free Nation (Paul Craig Roberts)

Fox News Reports that CIA Whistleblower Tells Congress that Fauci and the CIA Intentionally Covered Up US Government Funding of gain-of-function research in order to make the Covid virus, also manufactured in a lab, more spreadable and dangerous to the world’s human population. The CIA whistleblower also testified to Congress that in 2019 Bill Gates, the CDC, and the CIA held a simulation of the pandemic that they were about to release and hype to the hilt.

For what purposes? The whistleblower does not say. Here are my suggestions: to make billions of dollars for Big Pharma in exchange for political campaign contributions by coerced vaccination of billions of people with a “vaccine” far more dangerous and deadly than the virus; to establish a precedent for a lockdown of entire nations; to reduce the world population with virus and vaccine deaths and to reduce human fertility of those vaccinated, thus programming into humanity a declining population.

The evidence is in. There is no doubt about it. The “Covid pandemic” was an orchestrated attack on humanity, covered up by the whore media’s insistence that any doubts of the official narrative is a tin hat right-wing conspiracy theory.

And nothing is being done about it. The Trump regime’s Justice (sic) Department is doing nothing about it. Senators Rand Paul and Ron Johnson have held Congressional hearing after hearing accumulating and making available the massive evidence, and nothing happens. The media is bought-and-paid for and only delivers narratives that are in line with the faltering media companies’ pockets. Americans can’t believe that “our own government” would do this “to its own people.” You see what I mean by insouciant, dumbshit Americans.

It looks like all responsible–Fauci, the federal regulatory agencies, Big Pharma, the corrupt medical associations, the despicable whore media, and everyone else involved–are going to walk away free from their calculated, intentional attack on humanity. As all the dumbshit foreign governments were taken in by the hoax, they all participate in the coverup.

The coverup works because evidence is of no consequence unless it can be spun to support the official narrative. No one wants to be revealed as a total fool who fell for a hoax. Not only the US and Europe but also the entire world now exists in a situation where agendas prevail over truth. Truth itself has been characterized as “conspiracy theory.” Only self-serving narratives are true.

Today in the United States what is the main concern of the government in power? You might think the concern is winning the midterm Congressional election in order to preserve the Trump presidency. But No, the concern of the Trump presidency is to ensure the success of Israel’s Zionist agenda of Greater Israel. And so Trump and the Republicans are preparing a renewed attack on Iran despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of American voters are opposed to the gratuitous war against Iran and its independence.

As an American, how does it strike you that your president puts the interests of Netanyahu’s Zionist Israel ahead of both his presidency, a Republican Congress, and the interest of the American People?

Netanyahu has led Trump into a situation in which Democrats are likely to prevail in the midterm elections. Fox News is reporting polls that the Democrats will take the Senate with a large majority. We don’t know that this is true. Polls are often designed and reported to achieve outcomes. As I have endeavored to bring out in interviews, the new Democrats who are ideologues are not seeking a comfortable position in the establishment to enjoy the winner’s share of the grift. Their target is the system itself.

They are dedicated to its overthrow, a natural response by those educated in the best American universities who are indoctrinated by their brainwashing in university that their country is a racist, misogynist, colonialist, imperialist, white supremacist terrorizer of women and people of color. Little wonder they are hostile to America. The US Constitution is not presented to them as an achievement that created accountable government and a rule of law. They are taught that it is a racist document that established the United States on slavery. The New York Times–“the newspaper of record”–supports this lie–the 1619 Project–as the truth about America.

The entirely of white liberal America lives in this false narrative. The only exempt people are the uneducated Americans who could not afford the cost or lost earnings of years being indoctrinated in university classrooms. These are not the people who rule America. Moreover, MAGA Americans, the true Americans, have been betrayed by their leader who has put Israel’s interests in front of America’s and abused traditional Americans’ idea of morality by supporting genocide in Palestine.

It is a difficult position for real Americans to be in. How do you rank their chances?

The future I see is the resurrection of law after 3.5 centuries as a weapon to be used for the agendas of those in power. Henceforth, law will only protect those in whose behalf it is wielded.

The achievements of the British people from Alfred the Great in the ninth century to the English Glorious Revolution of 1680, inherited by Britain’s far afield colonies and by Britain’s influence on Western Europe, of a rule of law decided by the people is being lost as law recovers its historical role as a weapon in the hands of government and those who control power.

Henceforth in the Western World law resides not objectively in itself but in whoever controls power. In other words, Western Civilization has been brought to its end.

Americans have no concept of the horror that awaits them.

Drain the last bit of sympathy he has left?

• Israel Has Its Pretext for Total War on West Bank (Joe Lauria)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his generals

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened a major military offensive against the West Bank four days before he stands for re-election after two Israeli soldiers were killed on Friday in Hebron.

Consortium News on Thursday predicted that Palestinians killing an Israeli on the West Bank could trigger an all-out war against the Palestinian Authority. It is still unclear what led to the Israeli soldiers being killed after a clash with what early reports call Palestinian “gunmen.” The men, identified by the Israelis as Firas and Hamouda al-Jaaba, did not appear to be members of the PA security forces.

Netanyahu rushed to Hebron, where in military gear, he announced that the entire city would be shut down as the IDF carried out house-to-house operations. He vowed a major military operation in the West Bank, “of a scale not seen since the Six-Day War,” when Israel began its occupation of the territory in 1967. “The IDF is ready to carry it out. We will determine the timing, but it is coming,” he said.

Before it was known that the Israeli soldiers had been killed, he issued this statement: “It appears that Hamas terrorists were planning a major attack aimed at murdering innocent civilians, as evidenced by the large quantities of weapons and ammunition discovered. … I have instructed the IDF and security forces to immediately cordon off the city of Hebron and take additional security measures to prevent terrorist attacks originating from Judea and Samaria.”

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s extreme right finance minister, also in Hebron, called for a major war against the occupied West Bank similar to Gaza. “There is no alternative to a comprehensive military operation in Judea and Samaria that will lead to the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, the confiscation of weapons and the elimination of terrorists. Just as in Gaza and Lebanon,” said Smotrich, who added he would push for the operation to be approved and implemented.

Consortium News reported yesterday: “Israel is threatening ‘total war’ against the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. With just days to go before the Israeli general election on Oct. 27, Israel’s prime minister and defense minister have threatened a full-scale attack if an Israel settler or soldier is killed by a member of the Palestinian security forces.”

The article said that both Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that Palestinians killing an Israeli soldier or settler on the West bank would trigger a major offensive. Katz said that the IDF was waiting for PA security personnel and associated groups to “turn their guns” against Israeli settlers and IDF troops in the West Bank. He said:

“In such a case, war will be declared against the Palestinian Authority, and the IDF will launch a comprehensive offensive in accordance with an organized plan that was formulated and approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by me, according to the principles outlined for the IDF.”

Katz added: “The campaign will be short and powerful, and will include the use of ground and air forces, and the use of special means, the targeting and expulsion of senior officials, the destruction of weapons and military equipment, and the extensive evacuation of residents and destruction of terrorist infrastructure inside the cities and in all refugee camps in Judea and Samaria[West Bank] , in accordance with the Gaza and Lebanon model, alongside reinforcing forces and defending the Israeli communities.”

During a visit to a West Bank security barrier on Oct.13, Netanyahu also warned of all out war against Ramallah. “Our enemies are thinking of testing us in these days leading up to the elections. I warn them that we are prepared for every scenario, including what is known as ‘turning the guns around,’” he said.Netanyahu said the IDF had given him and Katz “a powerful, robust plan. … In such a scenario, I wouldn’t advise our enemies to test us. You will encounter a level of force here that you never imagined.”

CN speculated that Israel could provoke such a killing just days before the election in order to give Netanyahu the casus belli. Polls indicate his party will not win a majority to form a new government, it could come in second place and that he might not be asked to form a new government. Netanyahu faces possible jail time on corruption charges if he is no longer the prime minister.