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Debt Rattle July 12 2026

Jul 122026
 
 July 12, 2026  Posted by at 9:30 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  47 Responses »


Joan Miró Caballo, pipa y flor roja (Horse, Pipe and Red Flower) , 1920


• Iran Rejects US Talks As Mojtaba Calls For ‘Vengeance’ (ZH)
• US Orders Iran To Declare Hormuz Open, Toll-Free…Or Else (ZH)
• Trump Finds a New Way to Enrage Leftists and Jihad Enablers (Robert Spencer)
• Why Trump Is Right to Warn Americans About Communism (ET)
• The Return of Socialism and the GOP’s Golden Opportunity (Josh Hammer)
• From Musk to Truth Social: Critics Say Biden SEC Targeted Trump’s Allies (JTN)
• Why Patriot License Will Be Useless For Ukraine (RT)
• Muhammad Tops Baby Boys’ Names In England And Wales For Third Straight Year (ZH)
• Are the Walls Closing In On Gavin Newsom? (Matt Margolis)
• Who Made Zohran Mamdani Secretary of State? (Silvio Canto, Jr.)
• Mamdani Inadvertently Hands ICE a Target Map To Catch Illegals (ZH)
• Mamdani Vows To Update Immigrant Map After Backlash (JTN)
• Volkswagen Will Slash Half of Models After Losing Market Share to China (CTH)
• Citizen Kane at 85: Still Hiding in Plain Sight (Charlton Allen)

 


 

 


 


Why oh why does even Zero Hedge fall into the trap of putting words in Mojtaba’s mouth, when they can’t prove he actually said them? You’re creating a character while the real Mojtaba could well be dead ssince February. It’s sloppy.

NOTE: Lindsey Graham just died.

• Iran Rejects US Talks As Mojtaba Calls For ‘Vengeance’ (ZH)

Iran has thrown Trump’s ultimatum and Saturday deadline right back at Washington, saying that instead it is the United States that must first meet the agreed-upon conditions in order to normalize shipping and energy transit in the Strait of Hormuz.


Fars news agency reports Saturday that Iranian leadership is demanding that the US implement “agreed-upon understandings” before any talks take place. While the White House has declared the ceasefire to be ‘over’ – it has also indicated ongoing contacts and talks with Iran via mediators. But this appears to have been reduced to simple ultimatums being shuttled between capitals by Qatari mediators. There are no actual sit-down talks on the horizon after two rounds of fresh tit-for-tat attacks broke out this past week.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) itself is barely alive at this point, also with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir-Saeid Iravani, separately announcing that Tehran could stop honoring the MoU if US attacks continue. “Should the United States continue to violate its obligations under the MoU, Iran will no longer be bound to fulfil its obligations under the MoU,” Iravani told reporters at UN headquarters. But he did make clear that Iran is still committed to the agreement “provided that the United States fully and faithfully complies with its own obligations.”

President Trump has meanwhile continued to issue his own warnings and threats. He said Friday that the US military would “completely decimate” Iran if its leaders attempted or carried out his assassination. He took it a step further in an overnight Truth Social Post, saying he has 1,000 missiles “locked and loaded” – aimed at Iran – should he be targeted by Tehran’s agents. Strangely, the US President signed off with his puzzling “praise be to Allah!” reference – perhaps mockingly or sarcastically.

Meanwhile, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei still hasn’t been seen in public after the Feb.28 US-Israeli airstrikes took out his father, killed members of his family, and reportedly badly wounded him. Mojtaba is said to be observing a private memorial for his slain father, and made no known appearance at the week-long funeral processions and burial. But on Saturday he did call for revenge in a rare public message. “It is our certain and undeniable duty that this revenge be carried out,” he said.

“We pledge to avenge your pure blood and the blood of all the martyrs of these two [recent] wars by taking revenge against the criminal, disgraceful murderers,” the Ayatollah also stated. “This vengeance is what our nation is demanding, and this must definitely be done.” He issued a series of statements tinged with Shia Islamic references. His words contain repeat vows to enacting vengeance, including this not so veiled threat to kill Iran’s enemies:

As for the big picture of where things stand, University of Chicago political scientist Robert Pape, who authors “The Escalation Trap,” has pointed out that that the millions of Iranians who took to the streets last week to attend the late Ayatollah’s funeral demonstrate growing nationalist resolve. He explained that this only makes further escalation more likely later this summer, as public sentiment gets hardened against the US.

“The balance of military capabilities did not change over the weekend,” Pape said. “The balance of political will shifted.” Referencing the now unraveling ceasefire and negotiations process, Pape is predicting: “The pause appears to be another stage in the escalation process rather than the beginning of de-escalation.”

Read more …

Favorite words in Tehran: “US Orders Iran”.

• US Orders Iran To Declare Hormuz Open, Toll-Free…Or Else (ZH)

The US is back to setting deadlines, coupled with new military threats, apparently. Judging by this week, which marked a dangerous return to guns-a-blazing in the Persian Gulf, it seems Trump is ready to back these warnings with new bombing raids. The only question will be the extent to which the Islamic Republic escalates in return. So far it has shown willingness to ‘answer’ US attacks with its own missile and drone launches, against US and allied bases and facilities among the Arab Gulf states.


Axios newly reports (…just after market-closing on Friday, it should be noted), that if Tehran doesn’t declare the complete opening of the Strait of Hormuz and safe passage to all ships by close of Saturday, then the… or else! “The Trump administration is demanding that Iran publicly acknowledge that the Strait of Hormuz is open and pledge to stop firing on commercial ships,” the report says. The US has also renewed calls for Iran to immediately hand over its “nuclear dust” – amid the warnings. Axios reports the message was conveyed “directly” and “through regional mediators” – citing three officials.

Both sides have already accused the other of severely violating the terms of the MoU. And US Treasury issued fresh sanctions on Tehran Friday, which violates the ‘no new sanctions’ clause of the memorandum. So the MoU is clearly on life support as it is. Diplomacy is still moving on some fronts: “Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi are expected to meet Saturday in Muscat to discuss the Hormuz crisis,” Axios continues. But here’s the deadline:The U.S. officials said they expect Iran to issue a statement after Saturday’s meeting in Oman.

Iran has not appeared in the mood to ‘compromise’ or admit defeat on any level, and so the world might witness yet more waves of US attacks by Saturday night and into Sunday. A big question remains is whether Israel will continue sitting on the sidelines. Recent reports suggest Washington has been behind the scenes pressuring the Israelis not to act against Iran unilaterally. But the Netanyahu government remains a big wild card in all this.

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“Praise Be to Allah”

• Trump Finds a New Way to Enrage Leftists and Jihad Enablers (Robert Spencer)

If you go open up a window for a minute (assuming you’re running the air conditioner, fellow American), you’ll hear the leftists yet again howling with rage. As he has done so many times in the past, President Donald Trump has driven them up the wall, this time by mocking their favorite religion. He did it late on Friday night, at the end of a message threatening harsh retaliation of the Islamic Republic of Iran succeeded in assassinating him:


“1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat, pronounced in many corners of the Globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME! Orders have already been given, and the U.S. Military is ready, willing, and able, for a one year period of time, subject to extension, to completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran – PRAISE BE TO ALLAH! President DONALD J. TRUMP

This was the second time he said it. Back on April 5, Trump wrote: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F****n’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

This time, professional Trump-hater Aaron Rupar was ready to pull out the 25th Amendment playbook for yet another orgy of self-righteous partisanship dressed up as sober concern for our nation’s welfare: “This is total insanity. Words fail to explain how anyone let alone a plurality of voters thought giving an obviously demented person control of the most powerful government in the world was a good idea. We will be lucky to come out the other side of this alive.”

In its news roundup for Saturday, July 11, the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) huffed that “Trump, repeatedly during the war and its uneasy ceasefire, has invoked the name of God in Arabic, as well as threatened to destroy Iran’s very civilization.” Pompously referring to itself in the third person, the unsavory group continued: “The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a nationwide advocacy group, has in the past criticized Trump’s ‘deranged mocking of Islam.’”

Indeed it did. On April 5, the Hamas cheerleaders at CAIR issued a press release complaining not only about Trump’s alleged “deranged mocking of Islam,” but about his supposed “indifference to human life and contempt for religious beliefs.” They accused him of a “a long pattern of anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies that have dehumanized Muslims at home and abroad,” and added that “the casual use of ‘Praise be to Allah’ in the context of violent threats reflects a disturbing willingness to weaponize religious language while simultaneously denigrating Islam and its followers.”

Now, wait a minute. CAIR has never lacked for chutzpah, but this is really over the top. They’re knocking Trump for issuing violent threats in the context of saying “Praise be to Allah”? Do they expect their audience to be wholly ignorant of the fact that Muslims have screamed “Allahu akbar” (Allah is greater) while in the midst of committing literally hundreds, and possibly even thousands, of violent jihad attacks?

Those jihadis went Trump one better, as they were actually committing acts of violence while praising Allah, not just threatening to do so. CAIR, however, has never deigned to take any notice of that, much less to issue indignant press releases demanding that the jihadis stop “hijacking” their religion. (That’s because, of course, it isn’t hijacked at all, and the jihadis are acting in accord with its violent teachings.)

Instead, CAIR reserves its ire for Trump, and with good reason: the more Trump skewers the Islamic foundation of Iran’s belligerence and aggression, the more people will come to realize that all the hogwash they’ve been fed for twenty-five years about Islam being peaceful is actually false. The more they’ll realize that Islam is actually at the center of global conflicts, and that those conflicts will never be resolved as long as that fact is ignored.

In light of that, it’s clear that CAIR and its leftist comrades are enraged at Trump because with his gentle mockery, he is giving away their whole game. It’s hard to keep up a pose of aggrieved victimhood when everyone knows that the religion to which you loudly proclaim your devotion teaches endless war against those who are outside the fold. Trump has caught on. Others will follow.

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“Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world, only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America.”

• Why Trump Is Right to Warn Americans About Communism (ET)

Early this month, U.S. President Donald Trump delivered increasingly forceful warnings about what he sees as a growing communist threat within the United States. During what will be his final years in office, Trump appears more determined than ever to defend the principles of American liberty against the influence of Marxist ideas. Employing rhetoric reminiscent of the Cold War, he declared on July 3: “There is now a resurgence of the communist menace in our land.” On Independence Day, the president reinforced his message, stating: “The communist system is the opposite of the American system, and the communist system has never worked.”


“Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world, only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America. We’re not going to let it happen. It’s like a cancer—you’ve got to cut it out, you’ve got to cut it out fast.”

Predictably, Trump’s remarks were greeted with widespread cynicism by political opponents and media pundits. For decades, establishment intellectuals have dismissed concerns about communism as misguided rhetoric designed only to gin up a public reaction. Some implied that Trump was stoking ideological division and indiscriminately branding progressives, social democrats and advocates of government intervention as communists. Others argued that there is no significant communist movement in America and that the real threat to democracy is the president himself.

Yet dismissing Trump’s warnings would compel us to ignore some of the most important lessons in modern history.

First, communism has the worst human rights record of any political ideology in the world. From the Soviet Union to the Republic of China, Cambodia, North Korea, Cuba, and elsewhere, communist regimes have imprisoned, tortured, and executed millions of their own citizens. Repression of political opponents was not just an unfortunate side effect of the transition to communism; it became an essential feature of regimes that concentrated absolute power in a single party. Recent episodes of political violence in the United States should remind us that revolutionary transformation is not necessarily a peaceful process.

Second, socialist economic systems have consistently failed to produce prosperity. Karl Marx envisioned a society in which the abolition of private ownership would eliminate exploitation and create abundance.The historical record tells a very different story. Central planning repeatedly produced shortages, inefficiency, and stagnation. The Soviet Union eventually collapsed under the weight of its own economic contradictions. Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward contributed to one of history’s worst famines. Even today, North Korea remains among the poorest and most isolated countries on Earth.

Third, Marxist ideology is fundamentally incompatible with the liberties guaranteed by the American Constitution. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, private property, an independent judiciary, and a free press all place limits on state power. Classical communist theory, by contrast, envisions a society in which the state ultimately controls the major institutions of economic and social life. History demonstrates that governments seeking such control rarely tolerate independent churches, schools, universities, newsrooms, enterprises, or political opposition.

Fourth, failed communist ideas are constantly reintroduced wearing attractive new clothes. Few progressives openly advocate establishing a Soviet-style state. But fashionable concepts, such as capitalist exploitation, class struggle, revolutionary transformation, and the unfair division of society between oppressors and oppressed, have enormous influence in American schools and universities. Marxist critical theory should shape intellectual debates in ways that require careful examination rather than automatic assent.

Fifth, experience shows that free societies become most vulnerable when they forget history. As the generation that experienced the Cold War dies away, younger Americans have little knowledge of communist repression. To many students, communism appears to be an interesting philosophical theory rather than a tyranny that governed one-third of humanity throughout the twentieth century.

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“..42% of Democrats have a positive view of capitalism, while a whopping 66% hold a positive view of socialism.”

• The Return of Socialism and the GOP’s Golden Opportunity (Josh Hammer)

The Democratic Party has come a long way since Bill Clinton was president — and not in a good way.


In 1993, the first year of the Clinton presidency, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) introduced legislation to end automatic birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens; today, Democrats routinely call to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and advocate for illegal alien suffrage. Clinton famously called for abortion to be “safe and legal but rare”; today, Democrats prefer to “shout your abortion” as a perverse badge of honor. On marriage, Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act to define the union under federal law as one man and one woman; today, Democrats struggle to even tell us what a woman is, and polyamory now lurks as the next frontier in social experimentation.

But of all the issues where the Democratic Party has moved sharply to the left since the Clinton era, perhaps none is more notable than economic policy. During his 1996 State of the Union address, Clinton famously declared that “the era of big government is over.” And he acted on that impulse too: Clinton signed the most transformative welfare reform law in a generation, deregulated Wall Street, slashed taxes on capital gains, and ended his presidency by presiding over consecutive balanced federal budgets. Clinton was greatly assisted by the dot-com boom and a fiscally conservative Congress, but facts are still facts.

When it comes to economic policy, today’s Democratic Party looks absolutely nothing like its more moderate 1990s-era forebear.

What began as an incipient Barack Obama-era trend toward big government has now, during the post-Joe Biden era, emerged as a strong majority sentiment. A Gallup poll last September found that 42% of Democrats have a positive view of capitalism, while a whopping 66% hold a positive view of socialism. Leading kingmakers in today’s Democratic Party are (literal) Soviet Union-honeymooning communists, like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), or leaders of the Democratic Socialists of America, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). And the singular party top dog right now is New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is fond of quoting Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto,” speaks of the “warmth of collectivism,” and is now implementing city-owned grocery stores across the Big Apple.

That is some serious intellectual whiplash.

Hold aside that communism is the single deadliest ideology in the history of mankind — responsible, historians estimate, for nearly 100 million deaths. Hold aside, as well, that socialism and communism have resulted in horrific resource scarcity and immeasurable immiseration everywhere they have been attempted. At the most basic level, socialism is simply contrary to human nature. Men have a natural right to the fruits of their labor, provided those fruits do not undermine the common good. And it is natural, contrary to the basic tenets of socialism, to value the flourishing of one’s family and tribe over that of the polity — let alone the whole world. As Dennis Prager has often noted, socialism violates two of the 10 Commandments: do not steal, and do not covet.

Republicans are presently confused about what exactly they should run on, as they begin to make their case to the American people before this fall’s midterm elections. Inflation, while dramatically reduced from its catastrophic Biden-era peak, is still stubbornly higher than it ought to be. The Trump administration is, at least for now, unwilling to finish the campaign it launched against Iran. Republicans have a great story to tell on the issue of crime, but they seem uninterested in telling it. The administration has had tremendous success on stanching illegal immigration, but the GOP’s consultant class frets that a focus on immigration would hemorrhage the gains the party has made with Latino voters.

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“Musk himself warned this would happen after he announced he would no longer vote Democrat.

“Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold,” he said in May 2022.

• From Musk to Truth Social: Critics Say Biden SEC Targeted Trump’s Allies (JTN)

On January 14, 2025, just six days before President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second, non-consecutive term, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against billionaire Elon Musk, who was entering the administration with Trump as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).


The allegation? Musk violated securities laws when he purchased Twitter in 2022 because he allegedly filed paperwork about the purchase 11 days too late. The investigation into Musk’s purchase began almost as soon as he announced he was buying Twitter, now X, in 2022, which ended Democrats’ stranglehold on free speech on the platform. After the purchase, Musk’s other companies, SpaceX and Tesla, were also investigated by the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission. Musk himself warned this would happen after he announced he would no longer vote Democrat.

“Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold,” he said in May 2022. The SEC alleged that Musk failed to disclose his stake in Twitter when it surpassed 5% after he purchased stock in early 2022. He disclosed his stake once it reached 9% in April 2022, which the SEC argued allowed the billionaire to underpay for shares by $150 million. Musk eventually purchased Twitter for $44 billion and renamed it X. Earlier this month, it was revealed that a federal judge approved a settlement between Musk and the SEC for $1.5 million, to be paid for by a trust attached to the X owner.

Truth Social: “This inexcusable obstruction”
Musk is not the only political figure to face an SEC investigation. Trump himself has faced the SEC recently – also under the Biden administration – when his Truth Social media platform began a merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC). When the merger was announced, the SEC began investigating, and a federal grand jury in New York issued subpoenas for DWAC’s board of directors, arguably causing the company’s stock price to drop. The merger was slow-walked, alleges Truth Social. “The SEC has stalled its review of our planned merger with DWAC, having failed to act despite DWAC having filed its registration statement more than four months ago,” the company said in a statement in September 2022.

“This inexcusable obstruction, which directly contradicts the SEC’s stated mission, is damaging investors and many others who are simply following the rules and trying to expand a successful business. In light of the obvious conflicts of interest among SEC officials and clear indications of political bias, TMTG is now exploring legal action against the SEC. Despite the increasing weaponization and politicization of government agencies, Truth Social will continue its expansion plans, supported by the unprecedented levels of user engagement on the platform.”

Pattern of SEC hiring under former Clinton CFO raises questions
Republicans pointed to former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s hiring of former Democratic operatives to staff the agency, and his former work as CFO for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, where, according to congressional testimony, he had final approval authority for the campaign’s payments for the discredited Steele Dossier, as evidence the agency was biased against Republicans. Gensler is a former investment banker who served as the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 2021 to 2025.

“You seem to have a very troubling pattern of hiring, at an impartial regulatory agency, a lot of people who seem to have a vendetta against the former president, and I fear, and I worry that that has implicated itself and affected the policy of the SEC,” then-Sen. J.D. Vance told Gensler at a Senate hearing in 2023. “You can make a pretty good argument that the SEC was using its enforcement powers to silence the chief political rival of the current president,” Vance added. “It looks more and more like not an impartial regulatory body protecting investors and consumers but a regulatory body that is using its power to silence political rivals of the current President of the United States.”

The merger was eventually cleared by the SEC in February 2024, after members of DWAC were charged with insider trading and the company was fined $18 million for allegedly misleading investors. A year later, Trump’s media company merged with a fusion energy company.

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“The production rollout will likely face nearly impossible technological and security challenges, multiple experts argue..”

Permission from Trump is just one obstacle.

• Why Patriot License Will Be Useless For Ukraine (RT)

President Donald Trump has told Vladimir Zelensky that the US is willing to grant Ukraine a license to produce Patriot missile interceptors – one of the few weapons in Kiev’s foreign-sourced arsenal capable of shooting down state-of-the art Russian missiles. “We’ll give them the right to make Patriots,” Trump said, seated beside Zelensky at the NATO summit in Ankara, Türkiye, on Wednesday. “This way he can’t complain that we’re not giving him enough. I said, ‘Make them yourself,’” Trump added. He called the undertaking complex but voiced hope that Kiev would work it out quickly.


While significant on paper, the pledge sparked a lot of skepticism among defense analysts who pointed to numerous technical, legal, and security hurdles, while dismissing it as a mostly symbolic gesture or even a political trap for Zelensky. Here is why a Patriot license offer seems to be dead in the water.


What regulatory approvals does the license require?
While announcing the offer, Trump admitted he had not yet discussed the plan with Lockheed Martin or RTX – the two main companies that actually build the Patriot system. The defense firms haven’t commented on the issue either. However, even if the companies were wholeheartedly willing to help meet Trump’s pledge, any transfer of Patriot production technology falls under strict US export-control laws and congressional oversight. The Pentagon, State Department, and Ukraine would also have to agree on what exactly Kiev would be permitted to build, where, and under what kind of oversight.

US defense security rules further require any foreign facility handling classified missile technology to have vetted personnel and secure information-handling systems in place before production can begin at all. Ukraine would then need to test-run new lines and train technical crews from scratch – steps that typically stretch the process out over years, not months. According to the US-based magazine Responsible Statecraft, the licensing venture “would create substantial risks to US national security by making it easier for competitors to get access to sensitive information.”

What other countries have Patriot licenses?
Of all US allies and partners across the globe, only two – Germany and Japan – are licensed to produce Patriot missiles, and their example serves as a cautionary tale of the hurdles Ukraine faces.Japan, a highly technologically savvy country, was granted the license in 2005, and it took the country three years to test PAC-3 interceptors, which are produced in cooperation between Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin. Japan currently churns out an estimated 30 missiles a year – an amount widely deemed completely inadequate to meet the standards of full-scale war – and lacks a full production cycle of its own.

Germany’s example is even more telling: the US granted Berlin the Patriot license in 2022 after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. Four years later, it still has not built a single missile, while factory construction only started in late 2024.

What industrial issues does Patriot production face?
Even if every legal and political hurdle were cleared overnight, the production setup is incredibly difficult. In a post on Facebook, Ukrainian defense expert and economist Oleg Belinsky said that any plans to start production within a few months “crash into the laws of physics and mathematics.” While a license can be signed in a day, building a factory and procuring all of the equipment would take at least five years, billions of dollars in investment, and integration into the US military supply chain, which relies on hundreds of contractors, he said.

The hardest part of the missile, according to Belinsky, is not its electronics but its solid-fuel engine. Dozens of components have to be blended in exact proportions, then vacuum-treated to remove microscopic air bubbles, before being consolidated for weeks under strict temperature and humidity control. The finished charge is then X-rayed for the smallest internal cracks. mIf even a single parameter is off, the missile is scrapped because even a microscopic crack can make the fuel burn too fast and cause the engine to explode on launch. Producing components pure enough to meet that standard requires an entire chemical industry that Ukraine does not currently have, Belinsky said.

Russian military expert Vasily Dandykin echoed the assessment, telling news.ru that Ukraine does not have the necessary resources for production and that the only viable option is to set up production facilities abroad. While noting the difficulty of creating solid-fuel engines, Bloomberg also pointed to challenges linked to building small steering motors, which enable the Patriot interceptor to maneuver effectively in the thin upper atmosphere.

“Production is already constrained by existing supply-chain bottlenecks,” Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, told Bloomberg. “Even if Ukraine builds a production factory, it still needs to build the network of suppliers. That is a significant defense industrial base challenge.”

Is the Patriot license a political ploy by Trump?
The overture of the US president – who has been reluctant to finance Ukraine – to Zelensky looks like a “cruel offer” that “seems interesting, but is less interesting than it seems,” Tiago Andre Lopes, an assistant professor of International Relations at the Law Faculty at Lusiada University, told CNN Portugal. He argued that Trump’s real purpose was to shift blame onto Kiev: if Ukraine fails to produce missiles despite holding the license, Washington can say the Patriot shortfall is Kiev’s fault, not its own. “In six months or a year, when the Ukrainians say they don’t have Patriots, Trump will respond, ‘no, I gave you the license; why aren’t you producing them?’ Lopes said. “From the point of view of altering the status quo in the war in Ukraine, in the short and medium term, this doesn’t change a thing”: “It’s not money, it’s not defensive capacity, it’s not offensive capacity, it doesn’t change anything.” Agostinho Costa, a military expert at CNN Portugal, also noted that the offer in no way heralds a change in the Trump administration’s stance on the Ukraine conflict: “The European Union pays, the US supplies, Ukraine executes.”

How will Russia respond to a Patriot license?
Western military experts in unison argued that even if Ukraine were to somehow weather all technological challenges, any Patriot facility on Ukrainian soil would become a top priority target for Russian strikes the moment it broke ground. Russia has consistently targeted Ukraine’s defense facilities, including a plant producing elements of the Flamingo cruise missiles.

“If I were doing it, I would have the Ukrainians build the factory in Poland,” William Alberque, a senior fellow at the Pacific Forum, told Bloomberg. “Otherwise, it’s going to be a prime target. They’ll never be able to construct it.”.

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I don’t want to live in acountry where this is the case.

• Muhammad Tops Baby Boys’ Names In England And Wales For Third Straight Year (ZH)

Official Office for National Statistics (ONS) data released today shows Muhammad – including variant spellings – has once again claimed the top spot as the most popular name for newborn boys in England and Wales. This marks the third consecutive year Muhammad has led the boys’ chart, continuing a trend that has drawn significant public attention and debate about demographic changes. The ONS figures for 2025 births confirm Muhammad’s dominant position. In previous years, when spellings are combined, it has frequently outranked traditional English names like Oliver and Noah.


Commentators have linked the sustained popularity to the UK’s growing Muslim population, which now makes up a significant and increasing share of births in many areas. Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe responded strongly to the news, posting: “Muhammad has comfortably topped the list for the most popular boy name for the third year running. You can call me Islamophobic, I really don’t care… This is awful and demonstrates the rapidly changing demographics of our country.”

Lowe, who recently chaired an independent Rape Gang Inquiry Report, has highlighted concerns about integration, cultural shifts, and failures in addressing grooming gangs. His report estimates that at least 250,000 young, mostly white British girls have been victims of systematic abuse by predominantly Pakistani Muslim grooming networks over decades, with institutional cover-ups exacerbating the crisis. The report and Lowe’s comments tie into broader discussions about rapid demographic transformation, with critics arguing that names like Muhammad’s dominance reflect communities that have not fully integrated and, in some cases, parallel issues seen in grooming gang scandals where perpetrators often shared similar names and backgrounds.

While many celebrate Britain’s multiculturalism, others like Lowe warn of parallel societies and strain on social cohesion. The baby name data is often cited alongside grooming gang reports as evidence of deeper cultural challenges.Full ONS rankings for 2025 are expected to provide more context on rising and falling names across both genders.

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“Poor baby”.

• Are the Walls Closing In On Gavin Newsom? (Matt Margolis)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) wants you to believe he’s the victim. Last month, when Newsom announced that the U.S. Department of Justice had him and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, under criminal investigation, he insisted it was lawfare and that President Donald Trump was just going after him because he’s likely to run for president in 2028. And he’s really trying to play the victim here. He told reporters that “federal agents have knocked on the doors of family, friends, and former employees, not because they found a crime, because they’re simply trying to find one.” He claimed agents were “demanding records” and “abusing the grand jury process.” He did not name a single person involved or specify what records agents actually wanted.


Poor baby.

What he doesn’t want people to know is that the investigations originated in Sacramento and began during the Biden administration, with at least one thread reaching into Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s taxes and the nonprofits she runs. Investigators are reportedly digging into the finances and fundraising of those nonprofits and their ties to companies with business pending before the California government. And boy, does it look like the walls are closing in on him. According to Jessica Van Laar at our sister site RedState, Newsom has lawyered up, and despite claiming to be the victim of lawfare with nothing to hide, he’s been stonewalling the investigation.

His legal affairs secretary filed a sweeping Freedom of Information Act request against the DOJ, on the taxpayer’s dime, and Newsom told a Thursday press conference that he and his wife hired private counsel. However, he wouldn’t name the attorney.

Then there are the tax returns Newsom promised and never delivered. On June 19, his spokeswoman said his office was “working to prepare” his 2021 through 2025 returns “for transparency,” insisting “unlike Donald Trump, the Governor has nothing to hide.” When a reporter pressed him at the press conference, Newsom said, “I already have. I’ve given 20 years of my taxes, yes. I know you love taxes. Donald Trump… when’s he releasing his taxes?” Asked whether he was different from Trump, he answered, “I am, because that’s why I’ve released all my taxes for decades, and you will have all those new tax returns, because I have no reason why you haven’t gotten them already, so I have no problem…”

That’s not quite true.

Newsom has released full returns only for 2017 through 2020, and only because state law required them before he could appear on the 2022 primary ballot. He filed an extension on his 2021 taxes just to limit himself to four years of disclosure. California journalists have asked for more ever since and gotten nothing but the state-required Form 700, which has drawn him multiple fines over omissions. His returns from 2010 through 2016 remain largely undocumented.

Gee, I wonder why. It’s almost as if he’s hiding something. As for the “poor and innocent” people Newsom says agents are harassing, he won’t name them, either. Newsom’s office said in mid-June that he expected subpoenas, adding, “The Governor looks forward to it.” None have arrived yet. But the more Newsom postures for cameras instead of releasing his taxes, the more it looks like a man trying to get ahead of bad news, not one with nothing to hide. Has anyone ever told him that it’s not a good look to act guilty?

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“Mamdani gets way too big for his britches and sticks his nose into State Department business.”

• Who Made Zohran Mamdani Secretary of State? (Silvio Canto, Jr.)

A senior official in Communist New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration tried to hold an official meeting with the Iranian regime’s ambassador to the United Nations. Commissioner Ana María Archila, head of the Mayor’s Office for International Affairs, had scheduled the meeting for July 7 at 11 a.m. at 2 United Nations Plaza with Amir-Saeid Iravani, Iran’s permanent representative to the UN.Two other senior officials from the office were also set to attend, according to calendar invitation screenshots reviewed by City Journal and confirmed by multiple sources, including a State Department official.


The meeting was called off only after the U.S. State Department, which had not been informed in advance, stepped in and met with the Mamdani administration to “clarify acceptable conduct,” according to City Journal. Archila reportedly did not even tell Mamdani she had arranged the sit-down. She was later reprimanded and ordered to cancel it. A spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office for International Affairs issued the predictable damage-control statement: “This meeting did not and will not take place.”

Well, we are happy to hear that it will not take place. Nevertheless, how arrogant can the mayor’s staff be? Why try to arrange a meeting with Iran anyway? Is that where their loyalties lie? My guess is that we will see more incidents like this in the future, especially when running New York City proves more difficult on the job than during the campaign. The mayor’s policies are already controversial and it’s only a matter of time before people realize that his election was one giant mistake. There won’t be free buses or “bodegas”!

So the mayor needs to find another audience, especially given the anti-Israel sentiments in his party. Also, he will try to become the voice of the Third World, particularly given his views on illegal immigration. Don’t be surprised if he starts attending “migrant conferences” around the world looking for something to do after failing to do the job he was elected to do. Zohran, citizen of the world? Yes, that’s the goal.

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“.. and his band of far-left anti-American clowns..”

• Mamdani Inadvertently Hands ICE a Target Map To Catch Illegals (ZH)

Far-left New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has repeatedly denounced capitalism while promoting a socialist reconstruction of the metro area, sparked uproar this week after releasing a map highlighting 30 migrant enclaves while omitting historic Italian, Irish, and Jewish communities. The map includes areas such as Little Palestine, Little Pakistan, Little Yemen and Little Guyana, but leaves out Little Italy, Irish enclaves including Woodlawn and Sunnyside, and Brooklyn’s heavily Orthodox Jewish Borough Park.

But perhaps the Democratic Socialists of America mayor and his band of far-left anti-American clowns, who spend more time trying to erase and rewrite history in typical Marxist fashion, inadvertently created one of the greatest gifts for President Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ryan James Girdusky of the 1776 Project PAC wrote on X, “This is actually a map of where ICE needs to conduct raids.”

[..]Mamdani’s immigrant map appears less like a celebration of New York’s diversity and more like a Marxist ideology that divides residents into competing identity blocs. Before the socialist takeover of City Hall, there was a simpler civic identity: New Yorkers were New Yorkers.

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“The comment comes after the New York City Council’s Italian Caucus accused the Mamdani administration of “erasing” Italian-Americans..”

• Mamdani Vows To Update Immigrant Map After Backlash (JTN)

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Friday he will update a new immigrant community map that failed to include Jewish communities and the iconic Little Italy neighborhood, following backlash over the omission. Mamdani, a Muslin, attributed the omissions to the previous administration and defended the “New York City Immigrant Enclaves” map as not being a definitive list because it identified only 30 immigrant communities across the five boroughs.


“This map was originally created by the prior administration in 2023, and when we inherited it, we added a few additional neighborhoods,” Mamdani, also a democratic-socialist, said at an unrelated press conference. “It’s clearly not an exhaustive list of the more than 200 ethnic enclaves that call our city home,” he continued. “We’re going to be making additional changes in the future to reflect that … including Little Italy.” The comment comes after the New York City Council’s Italian Caucus accused the Mamdani administration of “erasing” Italian-Americans, calling the map “incomplete at best and insulting at worst,” according to the New York Post.

Mamdani’s claim that the map was created by former New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ administration was also inaccurate because it created detailed illustrations for the city’s annual Immigrant Heritage Week, not a map of communities. Criticism of the map also gained traction on social media for also failing to include Jewish and Irish communities, and is part of the city’s Neighborhood Passport campaign tied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, according to Fox News.

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“The only way to avoid this issue is to protect the domestic market.”

• Volkswagen Will Slash Half of Models After Losing Market Share to China (CTH)

The European auto industry is a case study on how short-sighted trade policy goals, results in consequences. Previously, German auto companies like Volkswagen entered into trade agreements with China and began manufacturing their vehicles with immediate financial success in the market. However, it did not take long for Chinese auto companies to reverse the engineering and begin to deliver the same quality vehicles at much lower prices.The Chinese then stop purchasing the Volkswagen vehicles and purchase the cheaper version, while simultaneously begin exporting those same vehicles into the home market from where the technology originated. Today, with a double-digit decline in production, Volkswagen announces they will cut almost half of their brands due to diminished sales.


BLOOMBERG – BERLIN — Volkswagen reported weak sales numbers on Friday, a day after the giant German automaker announced plans to slash the number of models by nearly half as sales plunged, particularly in China. The Wolfsburg, Germany-based company said group sales fell 8.6 per cent in the second quarter to just under 2.1 million vehicles, with sales in China alone plummeted by more than one-third. After a board meeting on Thursday, Volkswagen said its “fundamental realignment” over the last three years had reached its next phase, announcing plans to streamline the model lineup by up to half, without providing specifics.

CEO Oliver Blume laid out plans to make VW faster and more competitive through less complexity, focused technologies, better alignment across regional markets and reduction of overcapacities, among other things, citing an “increasingly demanding environment.” Among its main brands, the core Volkswagen unit saw deliveries of slightly over 1 million vehicles in the second quarter, a drop of 14 per cent from a year earlier. Deliveries at Audi declined 8 per cent and those at Porsche fell 18 per cent. (read more)

Maybe Canada will take note, likely they will not. The only way to avoid this issue is to protect the domestic market. As soon as you open your market to this claimed reciprocity (panda face), it will not take long until the mask drops, and you notice the dragon face behind it. https://twitter.com/ryangerritsen/status/2075009373466775732?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2075009373466775732%7Ctwgr%5Ea86f44a2cc6577d04947dce042b0029a16e38855%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2026%2F07%2F10%2Fvolkswagen-will-eliminate-almost-half-of-production-brands-after-losing-market-share-to-china%2F

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A Revolutionary Masterpiece.

“Orson Welles’s film may no longer shock us the way it shocked audiences in 1941—but only because so much of modern cinema learned to speak its language.”

• Citizen Kane at 85: Still Hiding in Plain Sight (Charlton Allen)

After the wildly inventive War of the Worlds broadcast took America by storm, Orson Welles and his merry band of theatrical and radio troubadours landed a movie contract. They came to film armed with the habits of another medium: sound, rhythm, atmosphere, narrative fragmentation, and a showman’s instinct for misdirection. A good friend of mine, who shares my love of classic cinema, recently observed that “Rosebud” is about as subtle as Chekhov’s gun. She is right, of course. It is not exactly hidden in the wallpaper.


But if “Rosebud” is obvious, it is also a little misleading. The mystery of Citizen Kane is not really the mystery of Rosebud. It is the mystery of Kane himself. Kane dies in the opening sequence, whispering that famous word. The film then pivots to a reporter trying to reconstruct him by speaking with the people he left behind. Each person provides a piece of the puzzle, but the pieces never quite fit together. And Citizen Kane is a political allegory as well—one that feels strikingly modern. Kane is a particular American archetype: the political liberal—“liberal” being the film’s own word for him—as media baron, the self-appointed tribune of the people who claims to speak for the common man while reserving to himself the right to tell the common man what to think.

Kane makes the point plainly enough: press barons can move from reporting events to shaping them, from shaping them to distorting them, and from distortion to outright fabrication. What begins as journalism can become manipulation with scarcely a pause in between. Charles Foster Kane’s “Declaration of Principles” is full of high-minded promises, almost ostentatiously altruistic in tone. Yet the tragedy of the film is that Kane spends the rest of his life, knowingly or not, eviscerating nearly every principle he once proclaimed. Voters, readers, friends, wives, and employees all become supporting players in the great production of Charles Foster Kane.

And then there is Welles himself. Yes, we know the trajectory did not continue upward in a straight line. Orson Welles never again quite stood on the same summit he reached with Citizen Kane.But then, what exactly should we expect from a man who had already conquered the two great mass-entertainment mediums of his age before, by today’s standards, he was even old enough to rent a car? Once a man has scaled Olympus twice by twenty-five, it seems a little unreasonable to fault him for never doing so again.

As a member of Generation X, my first sustained exposure to Welles was not as the boy wonder of the Mercury Theatre or the auteur of Kane, but as the older, heavier, and at times besotted figure hawking cheap California wine on television. It was difficult, seeing that version of Welles, to imagine that he had once been a singular titan of American entertainment—an artist of swaggering ambition and transformational confidence. But he was.

Perhaps the mistake is expecting a life to continue rising after such an ascent. Most people are fortunate to produce one work of lasting consequence. Welles produced several before many of his contemporaries had fully found their footing. What came afterward may have been uneven, unfinished, compromised, or misunderstood. None of it diminishes what he had already done. My taste in cinema and art has certainly evolved in the decades since I first saw Citizen Kane, especially since that winter of ’96, and perhaps that is one reason the film struck me differently this time.

It is one thing to encounter it young, when one is mostly aware of its reputation and perhaps dimly aware of its daring. It is another thing to see it again after years of watching more movies, reading more history, and thinking more seriously about politics, myth, memory, and ambition. Now Kane no longer appears merely as “the famous old movie everyone says is great.” It appears for what it is: a masterpiece of American art, and a work whose fingerprints are still all over the culture that followed it.

That, in the end, may be the surest measure of Welles’s achievement. He made a film so radical that later generations can watch it and fail, at first, to notice how radical it was—because the rest of the medium spent the next eighty-five years catching up to it. It is time to give the old film its due, along with the never fully resolved architect of the masterpiece. Cinema owes Orson Welles a debt that can never be repaid. American culture—yes, there is such a thing—does too.

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https://twitter.com/ns123abc/status/2075739020789760078?s=20 https://twitter.com/MorEdge_Insight/status/2075708670675923076?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle June 28 2026

Jun 282026
 
 June 28, 2026  Posted by at 9:56 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  25 Responses »


Rembrandt van Rijn Belshazzar’s feast 1635-38


• The Shooting in the Strait Ain’t over, But… (Larry Johnson)
• Iran Launches Drone Attack Targeting Bahrain (JTN)
• Why is The Ukraine War Hardest to End? (CTH)
• Zelensky Telegraphs 40-Day Pressure Offensive On Russia (ZH)
• Ukraine Closes Week Of Drone Attacks On Russia By Hitting Weapons Plant (ZH)
• Democratic Establishment Accuses Socialists of Exploiting Ballot Access (JTN)
• One Democrat — and Only One — Has Had Enough of the Commies (Robert Spencer)
• The Obama Halo Is Starting to Flicker. Finally! (David Manney)
• When Extremists Run the Government (J.B. Shurk)
• Culture of Grievance- When Victimhood Becomes Social Currency (Brooks)
• Bookmark and Reference Point – June 2026 (CTH)
• Volkswagen To Slash 100,000 Jobs (RT)

 


 

https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/2070611688009703759?s=20

 


 


Can Trump still avoid the war?

• The Shooting in the Strait Ain’t over, But… (Larry Johnson)

A little over a week since the US and Iran signed the MoU, some ships that had been trapped in the Persian rushed to travel through the corridor, with many trying to use an alternative route on the southern side of the Strait along the Omani coast. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) had coordinated this alternative routing with Oman – hugging the UAE and Musandam Peninsula coastline, avoiding the central passage that Iran had mined. This route was significant because it bypassed Iran’s designated corridor entirely, which ran closer to Iranian territorial waters.


However, Iran and Oman agreed on a new framework (joint working group) for the future administration of the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, June 24, 2026. The two countries agreed to establish a joint working group between their foreign ministries to discuss: Future navigation rules and administration of the strait. Services provided (e.g., safety, pilotage). Associated costs (in accordance with international standards). Both emphasized their sovereignty over their territorial waters in the strait.

The naval arm of the Revolutionary Guard issued a warning Thursday against using the new route. In a statement carried by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, naval officials said the route was established without notice or coordination with Iran, calling it “unacceptable and completely dangerous.” According to the IRGC: “The only authorized route for passing through the Strait of Hormuz is the one declared by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Vessel traffic outside these routes is extremely dangerous and prohibited. Violators will be dealt with.” The day before, the Guard had threatened one tanker over the radio, with a soldier warning “You are in range of my missiles and maybe (I) fire on you,” according to the private security firm Ambrey.

On Thursday the Ever Lovely, a Singapore-flagged ship operating in the fleet of Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine, attempted to transit the strait using a narrow channel near the coast of Oman in accordance with a route organized by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) security monitor. The Ever Lovely was struck by a drone belonging to Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran allegedly shot at least four drones at ships traveling through the Strait on Thursday. One of those hit the upper deck of the Ever Lovely. On Friday, the US attacked Iran in ‘response’ to strikes on the commercial vessel in Strait of Hormuz a day earlier:

Iran’s IRIB reported that an explosion was heard at 11:15 pm at the Taheroui pier in Sirik. A military source said the blasts were caused by a projectile hitting the pier area, adding that around five hours earlier, several warning shots had been fired from Sirik toward violating vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Reports also indicated that two warning missiles were fired earlier from around Karpan toward the strait. US Central Command said its forces carried out strikes against Iran on 26 June in response to Iran’s attack the previous day on the Singapore-flagged cargo ship M/V Ever Lovely as it exited the Strait of Hormuz along the Omani coast. CENTCOM said US aircraft targeted Iranian missile and drone storage sites and coastal radar positions after the vessel was hit by a one-way attack drone.

Although CENTCOM presented this as a powerful strike on Iran, and the US media trumpeted it as an act of major retaliation, the US response inflicted little damage and could reasonably be interpreted as a symbolic gesture rather than a punishing attack. The IRGC Public Relations department issued the following statement: Following the Israeli regime’s violation of the ceasefire in southern Lebanon, the treaty-breaking US regime also violated its commitments once again. Under various pretexts, including the transit of a vessel accused of navigating through an unauthorized route in the Strait of Hormuz, the US launched an airstrike against the coasts of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In response to this aggression, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy struck positions where the US terrorist military is stationed in the region. Under Article 5 of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, responsibility for regulating navigation through the Strait of Hormuz rests with the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, the United States sought to violate this commitment by encouraging various parties to defy it. It received the necessary response, and the same will apply in the future. If the aggression is repeated, Iran’s response will be broader than this.

Instead of marking a return to war, this exchange of fire can best be categorize as military political theater. I believe that Iran, thanks to intel from the Russians or the Chinese, has learned that the US has issued orders that will initiate the return to CONUS of the aircraft, vehicles and troops that had been deployed to the region in preparation for the February 28 attack. Because of the limited damage inflicted by the US attack, I believe that Iran chose to respond in a limited fashion rather than escalate and run the risk of the US cancelling the redeployment order.

For now, Iran remains in control of the Strait of Hormuz and ships wanting to transit the Strait are adhering to Iran’s new policy.

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Iran makes it a teritorial war in/on its own territory.

• Iran Launches Drone Attack Targeting Bahrain (JTN)

Iranian drones attacked Bahrain after overnight airstrikes by the United States. The U.S. strikes followed an Iranian attack on a cargo ship on Thursday. A tanker was hit by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, according to Britain’s maritime security agency. No one was injured and Iran hasn’t officially claimed responsibility for the attack. These attacks occurred despite Iran and the U.S. reaching an interim deal to end the war.
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Because the west can fight Russia in Ukraine. They don’t want it to stop.

• Why is The Ukraine War Hardest to End? (CTH)

Mike Steger from Promethean Action PAC argues the reason the Ukraine war is hardest to end is simply because Ukraine represents the proxy state of all the globalist stakeholders who need another large conflict in order to eliminate the problem of a moral-based Christian perspective within the ‘West.’ Essentially, without Russia as the enemy, the factional war they need to retain power is much harder to achieve. Promethean Action PAC YouTube: “Mike Steger explores the concept of “color revolutions” and argues that the same strategies used to influence governments abroad are now shaping politics across the West.


From Ukraine and the Arab Spring to Brazil, Europe, and the United States, Mike examines how non-governmental organizations, media networks, political activism, and government institutions have evolved into powerful geopolitical tools.The discussion also explores President Trump’s efforts to reshape U.S. foreign policy, dismantle longstanding government programs, push election reforms, and challenge what Mike describes as the political establishment ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.”

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Putin can’t let this go on forever.

• Zelensky Telegraphs 40-Day Pressure Offensive On Russia (ZH)

The Ukraine war is quite obviously escalating, especially regarding Ukrainian leaders seeking to “bring the war” to Russian soil, amid nightly drone attacks which have come in the hundreds and even thousands of late. President Volodymyr Zelensky is seeking to seize on the momentum of repeat drone hits on Russian refinery and energy infrastructure – a reality Russia has suffered over many months, leading to a current fuel crisis spanning dozens of cities and regions, and especially Crimea, which has temporarily halted fuel sales to common citizens altogether this week.


Ukrainian media is touting a new Zelensky plan to ramp up the pressure on Russia over the next 40 days, aimed at “pressuring Russia to end its war”. He has ordered Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU) to launch a new 40-day operation, which also includes “plan for long-range sanctions, medium-range sanctions, and the results achieved by the SBU,” Zelensky said on X. He’s further calling it an “influence operation.” “For several months in a row, the SBU has demonstrated the highest performance in defending Ukraine’s positions on the front lines through the use of various types of drones,” Zelensky said on Thursday evening. According to more of the statement:

I approved a 40-day influence operation for the Service against the aggressor state aimed at compelling it to end the war. Importantly, for several months in a row, the SSU has demonstrated the highest performance in defending Ukraine’s positions on the front lines through the use of various types of drones. The Center of Special Operations “Alpha” leads in terms of the occupier’s personnel and equipment neutralized. Earlier, in mid-June, Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov proclaimed “Hell is beginning,” for Russia and its military. “Logistics are being cut off. Crimea is being isolated,” he said at the time.

Ukraine’s asymmetric warfare against Russia’s much-larger and better armed military machine is in a significantly better position than the status of a year or so ago. Russian forces still have the upper-hand on the front line in the east, but the pain clearly being inflicted on Russia’s economy can’t be ignored at this point.This sets up a potential slide into tit-for-tat escalation which could unleash a WW3 scenario. In the meantime this is an interesting-timed warning from Latvia and Poland:

Western intelligence agencies are increasingly concerned that Russia may be preparing a limited hybrid operation targeting NATO’s eastern flank, potentially involving the Baltic states or Poland. Such a move, officials believe, could be an attempt to test the alliance’s unity as the war in Ukraine enters a new phase.According to reporting by The Guardian, intelligence officials from two NATO countries have warned that Moscow is considering a “provocation” rather than a full-scale military attack.

At the moment inside Russia, many regions of Russia seem powerless to stop Ukraine’s inbound drone waves, given also that conventional air defenses are set up to defend primarily against larger, faster-moving projectiles like missiles or jets. President Trump has lately suggested that Ukraine is doing well in the war, or at least much better than it once was. Kiev now feels the pressure to keep this narrative going, also so it can attract more and more weapons and intelligence help. But at some point Russia will feel it necessary to strongly reassert its red lines. This could come in the form of another massive escalation, and against ‘decision-making centers’.

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Escalation.

• Ukraine Closes Week Of Drone Attacks On Russia By Hitting Weapons Plant (ZH)

Ukraine announced Saturday that it used its Flamingo cruise missiles overnight to strike Russia’s Titan-Barrikady weapons plant, which reportedly manufactures parts for its powerful Oreshnik missile. The military plant is in Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, which is a major industrial city in southwest Russia. Writing on X, President Zelensky described it as a “major industrial complex” where Russia “produces artillery systems and specialized military equipment, including components for missile launch systems.” “Every Russian defense facility involved in the war against Ukraine is a legitimate target for our long-range strikes,” he wrote.


The Associated Press reports, “Volgograd Gov. Andrei Bocharov confirmed an attack on a business in the region’s Krasnooktyabrsky district, saying 10 people had been wounded and taken to a hospital. He said production facilities at the site were damaged but did not identify the company.” Additionally, “Ukraine’s state security service said Saturday morning that Ukrainian forces also struck an oil pumping facility in Russia’s Vladimir region that supplies fuel to Moscow, for the second time this month.” But on the other side of the border, Ukrainian media reports that Russia was also busy with now nightly airstrikes:

Russian forces targeted production facilities belonging to the Naftogaz Group, Ukraine’s largest national oil and gas company, in the Poltava and Kharkiv regions. The barrage of attacks included 129 drones, of which 113 were destroyed or jammed by Ukrainian forces, Ukrainian media reported. The Russian overnight attacks on Ukraine killed two people and injuring more than 20, according to state officials. At a moment much of the globe’s attention remains fixated on Iran and the fate of energy shipping through the largely blocked Strait of Hormuz, the Ukraine war is rapidly escalating.

Ukrainian leadership has issued some astounding stats on the escalation on its side of the border: Russia attacked Ukraine with 1,400 drones and 1,500 guided bombs President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on Saturday, June 27, that Russian forces deployed approximately 1,400 attack drones, 1,500 guided aerial bombs, and 19 missiles of various types, including ballistic missiles, against Ukraine over the past week. In a statement published on Telegram, Zelensky noted that 15 Ukrainian regions were subjected to Russian attacks during the seven-day period. He highlighted that the cities of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, and Sumy faced near-daily bombardment.

But it also over the past week has sent projectiles into Russia in the thousands. Ukraine’s asymmetric warfare strategy against Russia’s much-larger and better armed military machine has put Kiev in significantly better position – in terms of potential negotiating leverage – than the status of a year or so ago. Russian forces still have the upper-hand on the front line in the east, but the pain clearly being inflicted on Russia’s economy can’t be ignored at this point. There are reports of fuel shortages across dozens of regions and especially in Crimea over the past several days.

President Trump has lately suggested that Ukraine is doing well in the war, or at least much better than it once was. Kiev now feels the pressure to keep this narrative going, also so it can attract more and more weapons and intelligence help. But at some point Russia will feel it necessary to strongly reassert its red lines. This could come in the form of another massive escalation, and against ‘decision-making centers’.

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The party has been taken over.

• Democratic Establishment Accuses Socialists of Exploiting Ballot Access (JTN)

The Democratic Socialists of America have adopted a strategy to exploit the Democratic Party’s ballot access to boost their own candidates at the expense of incumbents, a plan which achieved remarkable success in New York City this week. The victory of two DSA-backed candidates and one former member delivered a shock to the Democratic Party establishment, which has begun to call for better policing of the party’s primaries against candidates who are only seeking to exploit it, not join it. “I say this with no ill will or animosity: if you hate the Democratic Party, then please don’t run for our nomination,” said Jaime Harrison, who served as the Democratic National Committee Chairman from 2021 to 2025.


“Don’t use our resources. Don’t rely on our volunteers. Don’t use our infrastructure. Don’t ask Democrats to invest their time, money, and energy in your campaign,” he added. “Focus on building the party you actually support.” The DSA – which calls for abandoning capitalism, defunding the police, and nationalizing key industrial sectors – has long publicly stated its intent to do just that. Ahead of the New York City primary elections on Tuesday, NYC DSA Co-Chair Gustavo Gordillo explained that his party is using the Democrats to access the ballot, but aims to achieve a fundamentally different agenda.

“We’re on the Democratic Party ballot line. We contest the primaries, and when they’re in the legislature, they’re part of the Democratic Party caucus, but we don’t agree with the way the Democratic Party establishment organizes or runs its party apparatus,” he told Spectrum News in an interview. Gordillo was rather open about taking advantage of Trump-hating Democrats. In a clip on X, he said:”We’re using the Democratic Party as a ballot-access vehicle, not because we share its goals […] We build our own organization, get elected under the Democratic label, caucus with Democrats when it’s useful, and push our own agenda from the inside.”

“I think in terms of the agenda, there’s a problem in the Democratic Party where they are funded by billionaire donors, and at the same time, they’re trying to represent the working class, and in our opinion, you have to choose between the billionaire class and the working class,” Gordillo said. “It’s just impossible to satisfy all of them.” The DSA is currently running a strategy known as the “dirty break”– “where DSA continues to run candidates on the Democratic Party’s ballot line, while building the infrastructure and base of supporters necessary to one day run our candidates independently,” as described by the party’s youth wing.

Various forms of the strategy have been referenced in party resolutions since 2019, when the party first defined it as a key goal: “to form an independent working-class party, but for now, this does not rule out DSA-endorsed candidates running tactically on the Democratic Party ballot line.” The party’s youth wing, the Young Democratic Socialists of America, identified the strategy by name in 2022, adopting a resolution at its convention that year. “Therefore, be it also resolved that YDSA is committed to, within DSA and on the left in general, a bold and transformative ‘dirty break’ approach to elections and electoralism,” according to convention documents.

The youth wing argues that the success of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who was elected as a Democrat in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District in 2018 (she now represents the 12th after redistricting), has proven that the “dirty break” strategy is a viable one. “Tlaib often acts as a tribune of the people, using her role in Congress to agitate around working-class issues rather than pass legislation,” reads one article on the YDSA’s website. Since Tlaib’s victory in 2018, the DSA’s power in Democratic strongholds appears to be growing.

Last year, DSA member Zohran Mamdani upset the Democratic political establishment and won election to the mayor’s office in New York City on a socialist platform. Earlier this week, he flexed his newfound political influence in the city to catapult three other socialist candidates to victory in Democratic primaries for the U.S. House of Representatives.

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The one true democrat is Fetterman.

• One Democrat — and Only One — Has Had Enough of the Commies (Robert Spencer)

The communist takeover of the Democrat Party is in full swing, and some might find that surprising, as the Democrats have looked like a communist party for many years now. But what was hidden ten or twenty years ago is all out in the open now, and as ever more avowed socialists are getting elected, one Democrat is sounding the alarm. But only one.


That’s telling. The Evil Party, as conservative pundit M. Stanton Evans indelibly dubbed the Democrats back in the 1970s (he called the Republicans the Stupid Party, which is just as apt) started on the path of socialism back in 1933 with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, and confirmed its commitment to the socialist path in the 1960s with Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. What’s happening now is simply the open avowal of the trajectory the party has been on for nearly a century. And so it’s less surprising that only one Democrat is speaking out than it is that there is still one Democrat who believes in freedom.

And yeah, you guessed it: it’s Sen. John Fetterman (D-Common Sense). On Wednesday, Fetterman commented on X on a story about the Democrat primary victory of a Marxist convert to Islam who hates the United States and Western civilization, but is now heading to Congress anyway, Darializa Avila Chavalier. “Anti-Israel. Anti-America. Anti-Western Civilization,” Fetterman wrote. “Why am I the only Democrat in the U.S. Senate that refuses to excuse this or defend any of those self-identified communists? Because your party comrades, senator, are communists themselves, and/or cowards and opportunists. Fetterman, however, is none of those things. He declared: “I said months ago, I said the Democratic Party is becoming an orgy of socialism. These recent elections vindicate my description.”

Fetterman zeroed in on Avila Chevalier, noting that she “described America as a f*****g disgrace. She posted ‘f**k Kamala Harris’ and posted that she forgot napkins and wiped her hands on the American flag. She wants to abolish the border, abolish prisons. That is a deeply disturbed individual.” No, she isn’t actually disturbed at all. She is just a committed and consistent Marxist internationalist. Those who are arguably disturbed are the Democrat Party bosses who got behind her candidacy, and the voters who sent to Washington yet another exponent of the most catastrophically failed political and social system in the history of mankind.

Avila Chevalier won’t be alone in the nation’s capital. Referring to another Marxist, Maine senate candidate Graham Platner, by his street nickname, Fetterman quipped: “P-Hustle and Chevalier: the dirtbag left’s new power couple.” And they’re not just that. They’re also the new face of the Democrat Party, along with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other Washington-bound socialists. Will Fetterman therefore finally leave the party, as has been rumored as often as he has denied the rumors? This time, he seemed to leave the door open to such a switch ever so slightly.

“Even if I changed my party,” Fetterman declared, “my votes or views wouldn’t change. I address this very directly. That’s the truth.” Whatever he does next, Fetterman is without any doubt one of the strangest political figures in American history. During his campaign for the Senate, he never gave any indication of being anything but a doctrinaire, down-the-line leftist, and attention focused less on his policy positions than on the fact that, after suffering a stroke, he seemed barely able to formulate a coherent sentence.

After being hospitalized for depression, however, he emerged not only able to speak clearly and lucidly, but he also began to take a number of common-sense stands, which inevitably led him away from the left. And his analysis of what has gone wrong with the Democrats is more accurate and convincing than almost all the other post-mortems. This doesn’t mean that Fetterman sees everything clearly now, and he certainly hasn’t made a full break with the left. But it’s as rare as it is refreshing to hear from an honest man.

Read more …

‘Well, damn. I thought this was the big bad boogeyman telling us this guy’s a threat to democracy, which I believe he is, but still..’

• The Obama Halo Is Starting to Flicker. Finally! (David Manney)

Charlamagne tha God didn’t sound like he was asking permission. The Breakfast Club co-host heard former President Barack Hussein Obama mock President Donald Trump as tougher from a distance than face to face, then pushed the charge back across the table. From Fox News:


“So I just didn’t understand what he meant unless he was talking about the kiki they had at the [Jimmy] Carter funeral. But to me, that goes both ways. You kikiing in his face too, ’cause by the way, Trump has been saying wild stuff about you, bro, been saying wild stuff about you and your wife, but you was just right there kikiing with him at the President Carter funeral. So I can say it goes both ways. Don’t neither one of y’all be having that energy in each other’s face. At least from what we saw,” the radio host said.

Kikiing is an informal slang term for relaxing or gossiping. Charlamagne referred to Obama and Trump speaking to one another at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral, at times smiling and laughing with each other. Former first lady Michelle Obama did not attend. “So when I heard President Obama say that, I’m like, ‘Well, the same thing can be said for you.’ Don’t none of y’all be having that same image. Like we saw President Biden say, ‘Welcome home to Donald Trump.’ Like, so, it’s just like what are y’all? I didn’t understand that part. Like that just sounds like something slick to say on the podcast,” Charlamagne said.

“It sounds good on a podcast, OK? It goes viral. But when you really take a step back and look at it, don’t none of y’all be having that same energy for each other when you see each other. That’s what be confusing us because we be like, ‘Well, damn. I thought this was the big bad boogeyman telling us this guy’s a threat to democracy, which I believe he is, but still,'” he said. Obama, he argued, has often sounded different depending on the room, the crowd, and the moment. From a host whose platform has shaped political talk among younger black listeners, the jab carried more weight than another cable panel gripe.

Obama has spent years being treated less like a politician and more like a civic mood. To his admirers, he represented calm, cool, firsts, and finish. The new Obama Presidential Center in Chicago’s Jackson Park leans hard into that story. The center opened a week ago with four floors devoted to the Obama presidency, the 2008 campaign, the Oval Office, and the promise of democracy. Museum tickets are already sold out, with another block scheduled for July 8.

Fox News’ Jesse Waters sent a reporter to the Obama Center, which, as we were lectured, was built on stolen land — and I’m not talking about land pulled out from the public at Jackson Park — who asked visitors some difficult questions. A shrine can draw crowds and still invite questions. Stephen A. Smith, ESPN host and executive producer of First Take and host of Straight Shooter, questioned how Obama and former President Bill Clinton built large fortunes after careers in public office.

Smith’s larger point hit a sore nerve: elected leaders should prosper only when Americans are prospering too. Coming from a black broadcaster with his own huge audience, the criticism wasn’t easy to wave away as stale right-wing noise. From Fox News: The sports commentator and host of the “Straight Shooter” podcast weighed in on any profits President Donald Trump is making while serving in the nation’s highest office. “I don’t give a damn what money politicians slide into their own pockets from time to time,” Smith said on Wednesday’s episode of his podcast. “If the American people are prospering, get yours. It’s a capitalistic society.”

Smith went on to cast doubt on how former President Bill Clinton obtained his multi-million dollar net worth. “I’ll confess something to ya’ll,” Smith continued. “Clinton was a lawyer in Arkansas. Grew up poor, relatively broke. How the hell him and the Clinton Foundation is worth hundreds of millions of dollars beat me.” Smith also pointed to former President Barack Obama’s similar high net worth. “Barack Obama was a community organizer who became the president of the United States and, last time I checked, that salary ain’t over $450,000, if I remember correctly,” Smith said. “I got to double check that,” he added. “How the hell you depart from office worth over $200 million?”

According to an investigation conducted by Forbes, both Bill and Hillary Clinton have netted approximately $240 million since leaving office in 2021. Bill Clinton is reportedly responsible for the majority of the couple’s earnings, raking in $189 million by authoring books and $106 million in paid speeches. Obama owns real history; he won two national elections, became America’s first black president, and signed a health law that remade a large part of American life — and not in a good way.A legacy with weight can still carry vanity, scolding, and blind spots. The growing irritation around Obama isn’t about denying his place in history; it’s about asking why the man who preached unity so often left half the country feeling accused, condescended to, or dismissed.

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2070307172634730759?s=20

The cracks didn’t appear only this week. Obama campaigned for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, including a pointed message to black men who weren’t sold on her candidacy. President Trump still won, and AP VoteCast found that he expanded his coalition with gains among younger voters and black and Hispanic men.

Democrats can pretend those voters misunderstood the assignment, but many voters may simply be tired of being assigned a role by a man with an ego larger than the sun.The left, who said the Obama years represented healing, sold us a bill of goods. Instead, the country got lectures on bitterness, guns, religion, race, police, and resentment. His defenders called it truth-telling, but many of us heard something colder: a gifted person who can read out loud quite well, who explained their very own country back to them with a raised eyebrow.

A man can have grace, talent, and historical importance while still leaving behind a politics that divided more than it inspired. Obama’s halo isn’t gone because too many institutions still polish it. The center in Chicago will attract crowds, glowing photos, and reverent tours. Yet the old automatic applause is much weaker.Charlamagne the God and Stephen A. Smith aren’t conservative backbenchers; they speak to audiences Obama once seemed able to reach by instinct. When voices like theirs start asking sharper questions, the problem is no longer Republican criticism.

The concern is that memory is catching up with the myth.

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“Two can certainly play the “extremist” game.”

• When Extremists Run the Government (J.B. Shurk)

Politicians, government bureaucrats, central bankers, spy agencies, and mainstream news outlets lie to us every day. For some people, the previous sentence is patently obvious. For others, that sentence represents “fringe” thinking. For certain law enforcement agencies in North America and Europe, that sentence reveals potentially dangerous “extremism.”


“Extremism” is such a morally squishy word. It means nothing. It suggests that the average beliefs of the average person in the average part of an average town are, on average, correct. Should a person’s beliefs move too far away from the “average,” then that person will eventually fall into the “extremist” abyss. Of course, the average person long believed that the sun and planets revolved around the Earth. The average person long believed that bloodletting cured disease. The average person long believed in magic. Relativity, microbiology, atomic physics, and quantum mechanics belonged to the “extremists.”

Defining “extremism” depends upon which populations are included when calculating an “average.” To the average American, Islamic terrorism is religious extremism. To the average jihadi in the Middle East, terrorism is part of the Islamic faith. One man’s “extremist” is another man’s “religious cleric.” Unsurprisingly, as more jihadists migrate to America, the more supportive of Islamic terrorism the Democrat Party becomes. We now have several Hamas-supporting members of Congress who define Americans opposed to Islamic conquest as “extremists.”

For a decade, Americans were told to be on the lookout for Islamic terrorism: “If you see something, say something.” Now, if you see something and say something, you will most likely be denounced as an “Islamophobic bigot.” If the definition of “extremism” can shift 180 degrees since the Islamic terror attacks on September 11, 2001, then “extremism” is a nebulous political label.

In the United States, citizens overwhelmingly support federal legislation that would require photo ID, proof of citizenship, and other safeguards to ensure that elections across the country are free, fair, lawful, constitutional, and secure. Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans in Congress prefer to maintain the current “on your honor” system that can be gamed to permit large-scale vote fraud and rigged elections. By any polling measure, Congress’s point of view is far from that of the average American. Members of Congress, in other words, are the extremists! If you listen to the extremists in Congress, however, our elections have never been more secure.

In fact, when you look at some of the most important policy issues today, it becomes quite clear that Congress is ground zero for extremism. Most Americans want Congress to stop spending more money than it receives in taxes; Congress has put us forty trillion dollars in debt. Most Americans want secure borders and an end to illegal immigration; Congress has enabled an evil human trafficking system to exist for over fifty years that rewards criminals and has flooded the country with somewhere between fifty and a hundred million (nobody knows for sure!) illegal aliens. Most Americans are concerned about lowering fuel and food prices;

Congress has wasted trillions of dollars on “Green New Deal” scams that raise the household costs for fuel and food. Most Americans believe that college admissions and job hiring should be based on a person’s merit, skill, character, knowledge, and hard work; Congress continues to divide Americans by the color of their skin and their sexual eccentricities. Most Americans believe that men and women are biologically distinct; Congress pretends that biological sex is an imaginary social construct. Most Americans believe that a dollar saved today should maintain the same value ten, fifty, or even a hundred years from now; Congress thinks printing and spending dollars, depreciating the U.S. currency, and artificially spiking the dollar-denominated valuation of stocks, homes, and other assets is the best way to fake a constantly “improving” economy.

Most Americans believe that we should refrain from military engagements overseas whenever possible; Congress can’t ever get enough of forever-wars. Most Americans want their representatives to work for American citizens; Congress believes it should work on behalf of non-Americans all over the world. Most Americans view their country as a nation; Congress views the United States as both a global empire and a home for every person on the planet. On the most important issues, Congress is filled to the brim with extremists. They should be put on official security lists and monitored whenever they travel more than fifty feet from their taxpayer-financed homes. Instead, in the United States and throughout the West, the extremists run things.

That would explain why Christians are targeted for their beliefs. That would explain why the governments of Europe and North America have flooded their countries with unassimilable malcontents from the third world. That would explain why men are allowed into women’s restrooms and why pedophiles are accorded more respect than heterosexual married couples. That would explain why Western governments have declared war on “climate change” when most people don’t care about elites’ obsession with the weather. That would explain why so many European and North American politicians are willing to risk a nuclear war with the Russian Federation, while ordinary citizens have never been less willing to fight for the defense of their respective countries.

Perhaps the more that ordinary Westerners realize that it is the people running their governments, universities, and bureaucratic institutions who are most extreme, the less willing they become to do what those extremists say. Six years ago, the extremists locked down the world because of COVID. They closed churches, bankrupted businesses, disrupted childhood education, prevented family members from being together, and killed a lot of people with fake “vaccines.” If public health extremists tried to pull another COVID today, would ordinary Westerners do what the politicians and bureaucrats say? Or would Western citizens conclude that extremist governments endanger both their lives and liberties?

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“The entrepreneur of outrage need not solve problems; indeed, solving problems may threaten his relevance.”

• Culture of Grievance- When Victimhood Becomes Social Currency (Brooks)

Every civilization develops a moral language—a set of virtues that it celebrates and vices that it condemns. For much of human history, societies lauded courage, resilience, self-sacrifice, duty, honor, and perseverance. The individual who overcame adversity was admired. The citizen who contributed more than he consumed was esteemed. To endure hardship without surrendering one’s dignity was considered noble. Increasingly, however, modern Western society appears to have inverted this hierarchy. Today, victimhood often functions as a form of social capital.


To claim injury is to acquire moral authority. To assert oppression is frequently to gain status. Public discourse, particularly within academia, media, politics, and social media, often rewards not those who demonstrate resilience, but those who can most persuasively locate themselves within narratives of historical or contemporary disadvantage. This is not to suggest that oppression does not exist. It plainly does. Human beings have always oppressed one another. History is replete with examples of slavery, discrimination, persecution, exploitation, and injustice. Serious societies acknowledge these realities honestly.

Yet acknowledging injustice and organizing one’s entire social order around grievance are two very different enterprises. The modern culture of grievance is distinguished not merely by its concern for injustice, but by its tendency to elevate grievance itself into an identity. In such a framework, suffering confers legitimacy. Personal agency is often deemphasized in favor of structural explanations. Individual responsibility, once considered indispensable to human flourishing, is increasingly treated as secondary to historical narratives of power and oppression. Why? Part of the answer lies in incentives.

Human beings respond to incentives whether they exist in economics, politics, or culture. If a society rewards certain forms of behavior with status, attention, influence, institutional support, or financial gain, those behaviors predictably proliferate. Social media has accelerated this process dramatically. Platforms built upon visibility and engagement naturally privilege outrage, conflict, and emotional intensity. Claims of victimization generate attention. Attention generates followers. Followers generate influence. Influence often generates money, prestige, and institutional power.= Grievance, in the digital age, has become monetizable.

The entrepreneur of outrage need not solve problems; indeed, solving problems may threaten his relevance. A permanent sense of crisis sustains audiences, donations, speaking engagements, media appearances, and political mobilization. The incentive, therefore, is often not reconciliation but perpetuation.= A grievance resolved is a constituency diminished. This dynamic extends beyond social media influencers. Entire political movements, activist organizations, and institutional bureaucracies can become dependent upon the continued existence—or perceived existence—of oppression. The maintenance of moral urgency becomes essential to organizational survival.

Consequently, there exists a temptation to expand definitions continually, to discover ever more subtle forms of harm, and to reinterpret ordinary human conflicts through increasingly elaborate frameworks of oppression.

Disagreement becomes violence.

Words become trauma.

Discomfort becomes harm.

Failure becomes victimization.

Ordinary interpersonal conflict becomes evidence of systemic injustice.

The danger is not merely conceptual confusion. The danger is cultural infantilization.

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In case 2027 and 2028 get confusing.

• Bookmark and Reference Point – June 2026 (CTH)

Events in 2027 and 2028 are likely to be very confusing. As a consequence, CTH needs to establish datapoints in real time that can later be referenced and reviewed to make sense of things when CTH starts to put the data into a very difficult to accept storyline. This process is similar to setting the 2012 election “splitter strategy” as a reference; that leads to the 2014 RNC winter meeting and rules changes; that led to the 2015 lineup of RNC candidates; that led to our ability to show how the ‘splitter strategy’ was being deployed for the 2016 GOP nomination. The defeat of Jeb didn’t happen in New Hampshire 2016; his defeat was an outcome of assembling years of previous datapoints which proved the illicit roadmap and made the RNC scheme very clear from the outset.


Elon Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion ($54.20/share) [April through October ’22]. He sold Tesla shares, leveraged more and assembled a $25 billion investment group to cover the remainder. When the financing dust settled Musk controlled Twitter and investors were in for around $25 billion. Musk later created the ancillary company xAI and when the deadline terms of the Twitter investment were due, he essentially repaid the $25 billion debt by transferring the investors into $25 billion worth of xAI holdings. [Key Point – the originating $25 billion investment was not repaid, just modified]

In 2026, Musk then did an IPO on SpaceX. This culminated in stock sales, valuations and generating $100 billion in cash on hand. A few weeks later Musk then sold 7 tranches of SpaceX bonds worth $25 billion to generate liquidity. He then used the $25 billion offering as the financial mechanism to repay the $25 billion remaining in investor debt. Summary: Twitter’s $25 billion debt transferred to $25 billion xAI stock, then transferred to $25 billion in payout or bond holdings; the option is for the original Twitter investment group to take (cash out or hold SpaceX bond paying 5% annually). [Key point – the originating $25 billion to purchase Twitter is now inside the SpaceX bonds]

This was a smart financial gameplay over the past roughly 5 years. This is how it developed and this is the reality in June of 2026. The originating $25 billion borrowed to purchase Twitter is now either: (a) fully repaid, or (b) sitting in long term SpaceX bonds (depending on investor choice). Musk and his investment friends purchased Twitter for $52 per share. Current valuation is $12 to $15. Twitter investors, Musk’s friends and Musk himself, essentially lost 76% on the purchase (total loss -$33 billion). A loss isn’t a loss until it is realized. There was strong incentive to take each of the various repayment shifts. Twitter => xAI => SpaceX bonds.

[SIDENOTE: What’s the smartest way to get rid of a $33 billion loss without hurting the investors? ANSWER: Transfer the loss to someone else. How do you transfer a $33 billion loss? You IPO a larger holding, putting the depreciated asset in the hands of retail. SpaceX investors are now unwittingly carrying the loss.] In the next few years people will argue with me about this. That’s why writing this now is important. What is outlined above is factual. Most of the money borrowed from investors to purchase Twitter is now resting inside SpaceX bonds. People will deny this, because people have a short-term financial memory for things.

The biggest Twitter investment holdings belonged to Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Larry Ellison, Marc Andreessen and a host of investment funds including the sovereign state fund of Qatar.mWhen Elon Musk bought Twitter, he initially permitted sunlight into the background operation of the company. That sunlight was known as “The Twitter Files“.The files showed how the social media platform coordinated with various intelligence agencies within government on the approved information allowed to exist within the platform. Three journalists were allowed to ask the Twitter legal counsel to run search terms and review the responses (if approved by the legal counsel). That’s how the research worked.

The three journalists were Bari Weiss, Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger. Thanks to the Twitter Files and the public interest around them, Bari Weiss launched/expanded her online media network The Free Press. Bari Weiss was a Ron DeSantis supporter. Elon Musk was a Ron DeSantis supporter. Ron DeSantis 2024 campaign was launched on Twitter. The Twitter File research group was shut down by Elon Musk with no immediate public statement as to why.

Billionaire Larry Ellison (Oracle) retained his Twitter holdings as well as his relationship with Musk. When Twitter was under attack from Democrats (’22, ’23, ’24) Ellison was the financial backstop and stabilizing force. Larry Ellison then purchased the TikTok platform with Marc Andreeson. Larry and David Ellison then purchased CBS-Paramount. David Ellison then installed Bari Weiss as CBS News Editor in Chief and bought her company The Free Press. David Ellison, the technology heir son to Larry Ellison who controls Paramount, the owner of CBS, is poised to complete a $111 billion purchase of CNN’s parent company Warner Bros/Discovery as soon as July 2026.

Billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison now directly or indirectly controls and influences: Twitter, TikTok, CBS and CNN. As noted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September of 2025, control and influence of TikTok and Twitter was the #1 and #2 most important strategic geopolitical interests of the government of Israel. These were Prime Minister Netanyahu’s own words. Billionaire Larry Ellison is a very strong supporter of the Netanyahu government.

PREDICTION: If Marco Rubio stays out of the 2028 race [big ‘if’], then all of the Larry Ellison holdings will be used to promote or position Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over Vice-President JD Vance. The Israel -vs- Qatar narrative is based on an anti-Vance operation. Prepositioned politics. [My ‘out there’ suspicion is political narrative control is the entire reason Twitter was purchased]

Read more …

Now the rest..

• Volkswagen To Slash 100,000 Jobs (RT)

Volkswagen is considering closing four German factories and cutting up to 100,000 jobs, Reuters has reported. Amid soaring energy costs and competition from China, the company’s profits have plummeted in recent years. Should the cuts go ahead, Volkswagen will close factories in Hanover, Zwickau, and Emden, as well as an Audi plant in Neckarsulm, Reuters reported on Friday, citing sources within the company. These closures would result in the loss of 45,000 jobs, on top of the 50,000 layoffs agreed upon with trade unions in 2024.


Volkswagen executives will discuss the cuts at a meeting next month. According to a separate report by Germany’s Manager Magazin, the company is also weighing a 15% cut in investment over the next five years. A spokesperson for the world’s second-largest carmaker said that they would not comment on “confidential documents,” but admitted that “the entire group, including its brands and subsidiaries, must undergo far-reaching change.”

Volkswagen employs more than 667,000 people worldwide, almost half of them in Germany. However, the company has been forced to scale back production at home since 2022, when Berlin’s decision to abandon Russian gas imports in favor of renewables and expensive American liquified natural gas (LNG) left the industry reeling from higher energy costs.

The German economy has experienced two years of contraction followed by two years of sub-1% growth. Volkswagen already closed one automobile assembly plant, in Dresden, last December – the first time it had closed a factory in Germany in its nine-decade history. BASF, Bosch, Continental, and more than a dozen other German manufacturers have closed one or more facilities over the last four years.

With energy costs eating into Volkswagen’s profits, the company’s electric vehicles are no longer able to compete with offerings from its Chinese rivals. Once the dominant automaker in China, Volkswagen now sells fewer vehicles there than domestic brands BYD and Geely. In Europe, BYD and fellow Chinese brands Chery, SAIC, and Leapmotor have all doubled their market share over the last year. Back in Germany, Volkswagen’s internal union and the IG Metall metalworkers’ union have vowed to resist the job cuts. “Should such plans go ahead, we would do everything in our power to prevent them,” the organizations said in a joint statement on Friday.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2070544213326823464?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle June 22 2026

Jun 222026
 
 June 22, 2026  Posted by at 9:45 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  31 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh Gypsy Camp near Arles 1888


• Trump Threatens US Will Charge Toll Fees In Strait of Hormuz (JTN)
• Trump Reminds Iran of ‘Harder’ Military Options On Table (ZH)
• Keir Starmer Moments Away from Resignation (CTH)
• Trump Says UK Prime Minister Starmer Is Resigning (Salgado)
• Starmer Accused Of Staging Russian Ship Raid To Boost Poll Numbers (Jung)
• Britain’s Greatest Betrayal: The Rape Gang Inquiry Report (AmG)
• Zelenskyy Wants To Develop U.S. Patriot Missiles in Ukraine (CTH)
• Poland’s ‘Pain Threshold’ Broke After Zelensky’s Tribute To Nazi Collaborators (RT)
• Zelensky ‘Acting Like Mr. Bean on Crack’ : Scott Bessent (RT)
• Trump Is Furious With Senate GOP, Puts Thune In His Crosshairs (ZH)
• Warsh’s First Fed Meeting Sends a Message (Martin Armstrong)
• Now We Know Why the Obama Center Is So Ugly (Margolis)
• This Is The Funniest Thing Ever… (MN)

 


 

https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/2068704022354067659?s=20 https://twitter.com/Tironianae/status/2068449809938194835?s=20 https://twitter.com/MrWhiplash_/status/2068647740922372484?s=20 https://twitter.com/juniorturner84/status/2068639874500960462?s=20

 


 


“..for services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East for purposes of both past, present, and future reimbursement of costs,..

• Trump Threatens US Will Charge Toll Fees In Strait of Hormuz (JTN)

President Donald Trump ratcheted up the pressure on Iran on Saturday, threatening that the United States could charge toll fees to ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz if Tehran doesn’t execute a peace deal within 60 days. “There will be NO TOLLS in the Hormuz Strait for 60 days during the Cease Fire Period, and there will be NO TOLLS after the 60 day period has expired, unless they are imposed by and for the United States of America, should the deal not be completed, for services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East for purposes of both past, present, and future reimbursement of costs,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.


Trump’s comments came as Vice President JD Vance departed the United States for direct and high-stakes talks with Iran in Switzerland. The Strait of Hormuz — one of the world’s most important transit points for oil cargo — has become a critical bargaining chip in the ceasefire negotiations as Iran’s tensions with the United States and Israel remain high.

Trump’s statement appeared to warn Tehran it won’t have the ability to charge ship tolls in any final deal with America. Iran and the United States have signed a memorandum of understanding that imposes a 60-day ceasefire to give more time to negotiate a formal peace treaty.

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They know he doesn’t want to.

• Trump Reminds Iran of ‘Harder’ Military Options On Table (ZH)

Update(10:00ET): With Vance and Witkoff in Switzerland, President Trump is still issuing some US redlines via Truth Social, and via apparent ‘official leaks’ – and quite quickly – through the press. Trump is warning the Iranians on the sticking points of Hormuz closure and the Lebanon crisis. He has newly threatened on Sunday to hit Iran again if it can’t constrain its proxies, namely Hezbollah, in Lebanon. In parallel, Tehran is demanding that Washington reign in Israel. A fresh Sunday Truth Social… brief but firm. And more on some fresh reported warnings and pressure coming from Trump.


As the American delegation continues the high-stakes negotiations in Switzerland aimed at de-escalating, the White House is projecting cautious optimism while simultaneously reminding Tehran that military options remain firmly on the table.

Speaking as talks entered a critical phase, Vice President JD Vance said Sunday from Switzerland Washington has “made great progress over the last few hours” and expects “additional progress in the coming hours,” describing the negotiations as an opportunity to “turn over a new leaf” in US-Iran relations. Vance emphasized that the administration’s preference is not to return to the cycle of confrontation, adding that the US is willing to fundamentally transform ties with Iran if Tehran permanently abandons its nuclear ambitions.

“The question is how much more we can achieve in the Middle East,” Vance said, while expressing confidence regarding the Lebanon front and signaling satisfaction with ongoing efforts to contain broader regional escalation.

Yet Trump has just delivered a stark reminder of the consequences should negotiations fail. According to Fox News, Trump warned Iranian officials that closing the Strait of Hormuz would be an existential mistake, reportedly telling Tehran that it “won’t have a country” if it attempts to choke off global energy flows, in the segment above. Trump also issued a personal warning to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, saying he “better watch his mouth,” while reports indicated the president used unusually blunt language during discussions with Iranian intermediaries over the strategic waterway

Perhaps most notably, Trump reiterated that he retains a “60-day option” and can “do whatever” he deems necessary after that period expires, a statement widely interpreted as preserving the possibility of renewed military action. The president also reportedly threatened additional strikes against Iran should Tehran’s regional proxies in Lebanon resume attacks or undermine the emerging diplomatic framework.

The result is a familiar carrot-and-stick approach as talks are unfolding under the shadow of explicit US military threats and a rapidly approaching deadline that could determine whether the region moves toward détente or another round of escalation. But Iran has also made known that it is ready of a long war, but will Trump be willing to risk enduring the political and economic fallout?.

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Spent his whole life dreaming of the job. and POOF!

• Keir Starmer Moments Away from Resignation (CTH)

Take more than a few thoughts to appreciate the moment. The gift within modern technology is our ability to witness and absorb inflection points as they arise – in real time. Europe has been collapsing. Slowly at first; then, suddenly all at once. Political capital has been depreciating at an unsustainable scale. Across Europe, President Trump has reset relationships, forcefully delivering an exacting pressure – not by forward influence, but more by creating an excruciating void they must fill themselves. The result: weak economic growth, rising defense expenditures, a collective state assembly that can no longer deliver positive individual outcomes.


European leaders are all facing the same pressures. Look around and witness history repeating. The British Empire in chaos, the U.K Prime Minister on the point of resignation. The German industrial economy now feeling the full weight of its own short-sighted energy policy, while being stripped slowly by Chinese parasites. As the body of the system begins to shrink rapidly, they look urgently toward Rome for moral support; they need to believe in their superiority. But Giorgia Meloni cannot get beyond her vanity. President Trump exploits it. It works.

At the exact moment when nationalistic defenses are needed most, the Spanish people find themselves facing the sunlight upon corruption within their socialist body politick. The timing is almost too perfect. A loving God then provides massive ironies for the world to witness. The biggest cultural sporting event in the EU; the distraction beloved by all Europeans as an expression of pride from village to metropolis, takes place in the United States. The EU tech devices are filled with fellow countrymen telling grand tales of this incredible American land. The timing is not something governmental policy could ever control. This is not strategy.

This is much bigger than a roadmap the hand or mind of man could draw or imagine. No, these specific moments are -like all historic reference points- being driven the one universal enterprise who controls all of it. This is amazing to witness. It does not stand invisible to those who watch prayerfully, to see the most Christian of the individual European states stand in the strongest position. The dark and foreboding landscape of corrupt Ukraine has sucked the physical and financial blood out of the European collective, and even now, at this moment of greatest weakness the malevolent destroyer of flesh and spirit demands even more.

It is all connected, yet the self-appointed elites cling to diminishing influence with bread and circuses; it is all they have. Europe is in a state of collapse. Rome is too morally and spiritually weak, fraught with the sin of pride, and into this incredible moment of consequence – where does Canada align? You cannot make this stuff up. The timing is too divinely inspired to ignore. Pretenses are dropping. Absorb it all folks, we are witnessing a righteous and historical reset unfolding in real time.

VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS – […] Business Secretary Peter Kyle said Sunday that Starmer is “making time to reflect on the political realities, challenges and opportunities that he finds himself in.” “I know he is a prime minister who always puts his country first,” Kyle told the BBC, though he said reports that Starmer will resign are “speculation.” Starmer is spending the weekend at Chequers, the country mansion used by British prime ministers, with his family. He gave no public hint about his decision, but sent a Father’s Day message on social media. “Being a dad is my greatest joy. Today, I’m thinking about my dad, and the father I am to my children because of him,” he wrote on X. If Starmer quits, he will be the sixth prime minister to leave office in the past 10 years, an extraordinary rate of churn for the United Kingdom.

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Trump knew first?

• Trump Says UK Prime Minister Starmer Is Resigning (Salgado)

President Donald Trump apparently confirmed the rumors that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is resigning, amid wide unpopularity in the UK and controversy within his own leftist Labour Party.mIt is important to note, however, that Downing Street has not confirmed Starmer’s resignation as of Sunday morning, indicating to the BBC that the prime minister might try to hold onto his office after all. Cabinet minister Peter Kyle also told the outlet that Starmer is currently assessing “political realities” and what that means for his future as head of the Labour Party and prime minister. It therefore appears that there is a high possibility that Starmer will resign, but that if he does so, it will be under intense pressure rather than out of his own voluntary choice.


The report about Starmer’s resignation also follows on the release of the rape gangs report detailing how overwhelmingly Muslim migrants sexually abused 250,000 young women and kids. Trump’s message seemed to indicate some inside knowledge on June 21, although he did not, in fact, say whether he received the information about the resignation from Starmer himself or from one of the outlets that posted rumors this week. “Keir Starmer will resign as Prime Minister of The United Kingdom. He failed badly on two very important subjects- IMMIGRATION AND ENERGY (OPEN NORTH SEA OIL!). I wish him well!” the president posted on TruthSocial.

Speculation has been rife for weeks over Starmer‘s possible resignation, but it would seem very irresponsible if Trump posted the speculation without having some confirmation of it from the UK government. Given the fact that Labour still has such clout in the government, Starmer’s resignation does not necessarily mean that a better and more patriotic prime minister opposed to mass migration would be taking over. Unfortunately, it will likely be someone who agrees with Starmer and disagrees with patriotic Brits on major issues. Member of Parliament Nigel Farage, who is also the leader of Reform UK, responded to Donald Trump‘s post about Starmer, and also expressed his own pessimism about the likely replacement for Starmer in the role of prime minister.

So long as Labour is in power, the mass migration will not stop:

Mass migration, particularly from predominantly Muslim countries, is in the UK spotlight once again after MP Rupert Lowe released the rape gangs inquiry results, which I referenced above. Below Lowe reads excerpts of testimonies and evidence from the report. Be warned, the stories are often extremely graphic:

https://twitter.com/TRobinsonNewEra/status/2067232174869279151?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2067232174869279151%7Ctwgr%5E63aa14687b738cb65c3da14e2338286a569a6504%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fcatherinesalgado%2F2026%2F06%2F21%2Ftrump-says-uk-prime-minister-starmer-is-resigning-n4954206

Starmer is complicit in denying and covering up the crime spikes due to Muslim migration.

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The sort of tricks British politicians play.

• Starmer Accused Of Staging Russian Ship Raid To Boost Poll Numbers (Jung)

The British government’s recent boarding of the tanker Smyrtos has sparked controversy, with critics accusing embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government of carefully staging a military operation to display strength for political gain, according to the UK’s The Daily Mail and The Spectator. Royal Marines, supported by British security and naval forces, boarded the vessel on June 14 after authorities linked it to Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet,” ships accused of helping Moscow evade sanctions and continue exporting oil. The government said officials had planned the raid over several weeks and launched it as part of Britain’s effort to enforce sanctions against Russia.


Critics, however, question the timing and presentation of the operation. The raid occurred shortly before the G7 summit and the arrival of President Donald Trump, when Starmer faced pressure to project a tougher international image. Opponents argue that officials turned the release of dramatic footage showing commandos boarding the vessel into a political spectacle designed to strengthen Starmer’s sinking reputation. Starmer’s government has been reeling from embarrassing political fallout following the resignation of Defense Secretary John Healey and a recent by-election loss.

Meanwhile, as Restore Britain’s leader Rupert Lowe read his final report on the rape gang inquiry in Parliament, the Starmer-aligned BBC ignored public outrage over the revelations and focused on Russia. The police did not even confirm the report. Defense commentators have also questioned how quickly cameras captured key moments of the operation. Tim Ripley, a defense analyst from the Defence Eye website, said the footage raised “a lot of eyebrows” and argued that the placement of camera operators suggested officials carefully planned the visuals.

A defense source quoted by The Daily Mail claimed Downing Street’s communications team “clearly orchestrated” the raid’s presentation, alleging that officials positioned cameras to capture commandos moving through the ship and created imagery intended to boost Starmer’s “strong man” image. British commandos faced no actual opposition when they first boarded the civilian vessel and there were never any Russian forces onboard. Defense sources told The Daily Mail that since March, when British forces were given permission to intercept the Russian shadow fleet passing through British waters, 184 UK sanctioned vessels have made 238 entries, but none were challenged or boarded until last week.

The government rejected claims that officials staged the operation, saying military planners conducted a legitimate enforcement mission based on intelligence and maritime security concerns and that the raid was planned weeks in advance. Officials said they released the footage to show transparency and deter vessels involved in sanctions violations. A government spokesman told The Daily Mail, “The PM set out in March that we would interdict shadow fleet vessels at a time and place of our choosing, and that is exactly what we have done, alongside our allies.” The prime minister’s critics argue the central issue involves not whether the raid happened, but how his government used the event afterward.

They point to the timing, the dramatic imagery, and the political circumstances surrounding the G7 summit as evidence that officials shaped the operation into a carefully managed public-relations campaign.The controversy shows how embattled governments increasingly combine security operations with media strategy. Military actions now often carry political messaging, and critics say that the Smyrtos raid demonstrates how leaders can use force, imagery, and timing to influence public perception. For Starmer’s opponents, the debate goes beyond the tanker itself. They argue the government transformed a real enforcement action into a carefully produced show of strength at a politically convenient moment.

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I find this very hard to believe. becuase of the level of absurdity.

[..] .. the first recorded case of a specifically Pakistani rape gang back to 1955 in Bradford

• Britain’s Greatest Betrayal: The Rape Gang Inquiry Report (AmG)

Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report opens with two quotations before a single piece of evidence is presented. The first is Albert Einstein’s observation: “The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”


Human history has always contained violent and predatory men, every society has had to confront them, punish them, and do its best to protect the innocent from them. That is a perennial feature of the human condition. Yet the significance of Einstein’s quote is that it shifts our attention away from the perpetrators alone and towards those who witnessed wrongdoing and failed to stop it. This report is so horrific because it illustrates how people who were supposed to protect vulnerable children failed to act. The report argues that those crimes became possible on such a scale because too many others looked away.

The second quotation is from Friedrich Nietzsche: “Man is the cruelest animal.” Nietzsche explains the existence of the perpetrators, Einstein explains the existence of the scandal. Throughout the report, readers encounter testimony describing acts so degrading and sadistic that they transcend ordinary criminality. This article will start with one such story.

At 12 years of age, a girl identified in official records only as Chloe was abducted by an adult male who drove her to a secluded, darkened graveyard. Once there, he supplied the child with an entire bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey. He then forced himself upon her, pinning her down in the darkness and raping her. Withdrawing just before ejaculation, the man picked up the emptied glass whiskey bottle and violently forced it up inside the 12-year-old child’s body until it shattered.

When Chloe eventually arrived at a local Accident and Emergency department, bleeding and in a state of unfathomable physical and psychological shock, the medical staff attended to the immediate anatomical emergency. They placed her on a table, removed the shards of shattered glass from deep inside her body, and then, according to the official records, they simply discharged her. No probing questions were asked, no police officers were summoned to the hospital ward to take a statement, no urgent safeguarding referrals were initiated to remove her from harm. A child had presented with injuries unmistakably consistent with extreme, sadistic sexual torture, and the institution specifically tasked with her care patched her up and sent her back out into the night.

Elsewhere in the country, a young victim named Michelle endured a reality of comparable horror. Michelle was subjected to an industrial scale of violence, repeatedly gang-raped in local bin sheds and threatened into terrified submission with a knife and forced into sex with multiple men waiting in cars. She was drugged, beaten, burned with cigarettes, locked in rooms, and passed between men. Of her abusers, she states: “98 percent of them were Pakistani Muslim. If not, they were Iraqi Muslim or Kurdish.” One of the most chilling details of Michelle’s ordeal occurred inside a police station. When the authorities finally became involved, the system failed her with such spectacular absurdity that police officers permitted one of the very men who had been violently abusing her to sit beside her during proceedings, officially accepting her rapist as her designated “appropriate adult,” a legal role exclusively designed to protect the welfare of vulnerable minors.

What Actually Happened
The history of group-based child sexual exploitation in the United Kingdom stretches back generations. While Alexis Jay, the independent chair of the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection, previously identified the 1970s as the era when immigrant rape gangs first began operating in Britain, the Inquiry traces the first recorded case of a specifically Pakistani rape gang back to 1955 in Bradford, shortly after the British Nationality Act of 1948 altered the nation’s demographic makeup. However, the report highlights that the scale of these crimes expanded exponentially from the late 1990s onward, mutating from isolated local incidents into an industrialized, nationwide criminal enterprise.

What emerges from the Inquiry’s findings is the standardization of the abuse. The report confirms that these networks operate, or have operated, in at least 149 local authority districts, representing nearly 40 percent of all such districts across the United Kingdom. Britain quite literally faced a single, cohesive national model of modern-day child sex slavery.

The Victims
Reading the Rape Gang Inquiry Report is to descend into an abyss of human suffering. The abstract statistics of 250,000 victims, 149 districts, decades of cover-ups cannot adequately convey the reality of the crimes. The emotional and moral heart of the report is truly in the testimonies of the survivors, who detailed the complete annihilation of their childhoods and the lifelong shadows cast by their exploitation.

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“Zelenskyy Demands President Trump Authorize Licenses for Ukraine to Begin Development of U.S. Patriot Missiles in Ukraine:

• Zelenskyy Wants To Develop U.S. Patriot Missiles in Ukraine (CTH)

This is the third step in what I believe is a transparent operation conducted by Ukraine and the U.K (NATO group).Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is now demanding the U.S. give license approval to military contractors in order to build U.S. Patriot Missile systems in Ukraine and throughout Europe. I am almost certain this was the intent of the previous operation carried out by Ukraine upon their own religious and cultural centers in Kiev. It fits a long-established pattern of operation which we have watched unfold in real time over the past few years. Again, for emphasis, I cannot prove this – but deeply suspect it is accurate.


Breaking down what Zelenskyy outlines below. This is what it looked like in real time as the events described below unfolded. (1) Following the pattern of visible and political diminishment of Christianity within Ukraine, the Nazi side of Ukraine carried out a false flag attack on their own cathedral and cultural sites as the set up to their plan. This was staged and timed to happen just before the G7 assembly in France. (2) Using #1 as the pretense and justification, Ukraine then pulled the trigger on 600 simultaneous drones targeting Moscow in Russia – the drones were pre-staged and set to attack during the G7. This was planned prior to the events in France.

(3) Using #1 and #2 as the central backdrop, internal G7 pressure was then directed toward the U.S. delegation, while holding home turf on the ground of the ‘coalition of the willing.’ Zelenskyy, Starmer and Macron had this set up in advance. That’s the outlook when you drop the pretenses. That’s the nature of this Ukraine. That’s also why we continue to call this operation World War Reddit! Here’s Zelenskyy’s demand:

Volodymyr Zelenskyy – “During the summit, all members of the G7 were aware of our operation in the Moscow region, had already seen the results, and supported Ukraine’s entirely just and appropriate responses. In my view, this was the first time the G7 had unanimously supported Ukraine and said that we needed to return to a stronger sanctions policy against Russia. This came after the massive attack on Kyiv, during which it was not only our Christian holy site that was damaged. I showed them photographs of the Lavra and other sites. Everyone saw the Dormition Cathedral burning. They knew about the casualties.

After the G7 meeting, the U.S. President, Secretary Rubio, and I stayed to discuss all the additional issues. Many things, from reimposing sanctions to licenses for air defense production. This time, it became quite public that the U.S. team had responded positively to the issue of licenses for the first time. Everyone agrees that we now have all the technical capabilities needed to begin producing missiles for Patriot systems. This requires licenses from the United States. What is needed now is President Trump’s personal approval. President Trump plans to ask U.S. defense companies to establish licensed production of air defense missiles in Europe and Ukraine.” (SOURCE Via X)

Keep in mind, all of the NATO ‘coalition of the willing’ met in London approximately 2 weeks before the G7 assembly. Starmer, Merz, Macron and Zelenskyy all met in London.During that trip Zelenskyy met with King Charles (pictured below) who pledged his support toward the renewed efforts to be highlighted from the meeting at #10 Downing Street. Overlay the state of the political situation in Great Britain, France, Germany and Europe overall. Then consider the visible weakness within the NATO alliance exactly at the moment when Trump is openly positioning a U.S. exit from the self-centered North American alliance.

Europe needs a crisis in order to recover from their current economic collapse. Brussels and London need a war against Russia.You cannot convince me the timing of the events described above is coincidental. I do not support the geopolitical end game of Russia; however, I also find it impossible to dispute Putin’s description of the Zelenskyy regime in Ukraine as “Nazis.” These people have some twisted control mechanisms in synapses wired by evil and sin.

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“The UPA brutally and savagely massacred at least 100,000 Polish civilians in what is now western Ukraine during World War II.. “

• Poland’s ‘Pain Threshold’ Broke After Zelensky’s Tribute To Nazi Collaborators (RT)

Vladimir Zelensky broke Poland’s “pain threshold” when he named a commando unit after a Ukrainian nationalist group implicated in the World War II killings of tens of thousands of Poles, Polish President Karol Nawrocki said on Saturday. The decision sparked outrage in Poland, where the massacres remain an open wound. Despite pressure from Warsaw to rename the unit, the Ukrainian leader has refused. “We are a proud Polish nation and we have our threshold of pain in matters that concern us and our allies. And that pain threshold has been crossed,” the Polish president said at a rally in northeastern Poland on Saturday. He added that this was why he stripped Zelensky of Poland’s highest state honor, the Order of the White Eagle, on Friday.


The revocation followed escalating tensions between Warsaw and Kiev after Zelensky in late May signed a decree granting a special operations unit the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA.” The name refers to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which have been lionized in Ukraine since the bloody 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev. The UPA brutally and savagely massacred at least 100,000 Polish civilians in what is now western Ukraine during World War II, with the crimes being recognized as genocide by Warsaw, Nawrocki recalled on Friday.

Zelensky has responded by posting a photograph of the award along with a completed mailing form for shipment to Warsaw. Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has renounced his own Order of the White Eagle, which he received in 1997, to protest Warsaw’s decision, his press secretary has announced. Russian presidential investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev reacted to Warsaw’s move with dark irony. “Poland finally discovers Nazi sympathizers in Ukraine,” he wrote on X on Friday. Moscow has long warned that Kiev’s glorification of Nazis and Nazi collaborators is an open secret and has cited denazification of the country as one of its key goals in the conflict.

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“I’ve dealt with this little fucker..” “He’s tricky. He’s like the special-needs child for the Europeans. And he’s acting like Mr. Bean on crack.”

• Zelensky ‘Acting Like Mr. Bean on Crack’ : Scott Bessent (RT)

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who had negotiated a much-touted rare earth minerals deal with Kiev, was reportedly worried that “little f**ker” Vladimir Zelensky would mess up the signing ceremony in the Oval Office, according to a new book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. The infamous confrontation last year took place as the Ukrainian leader sat down with President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance to finalize a deal granting the US access to Ukraine’s mineral resources.


The televised press conference took a nasty turn when Zelensky criticized Trump’s efforts to mediate a settlement with Moscow rather than increase military support for Kiev. “I’ve dealt with this little fucker,” Bessent, who was present in the room, told his associates, according to excerpts published by the Guardian. “He’s tricky. He’s like the special-needs child for the Europeans. And he’s acting like Mr. Bean on crack.”The Treasury secretary had spent weeks preparing the deal and had traveled to Kiev, where he allegedly engaged in his own shouting match with Zelensky over the “awful” Ukrainian draft, at one point telling him: “What the f**k do you want to do?”

Several other Trump aides had also been worried about a potential Oval Office scandal, with then-National Security Adviser Mike Waltz desperately urging Zelensky to at least “come wearing a suit.” Zelensky was eventually “asked to leave” the White House, while the deal was signed without much fanfare two months later. Zelensky, who has since held several meetings with Trump to mend ties and even started wearing a custom all-black, military-style suit jacket, remains “somewhat traumatized by his train crash” almost a year later, according to Politico.

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“On the Senate math itself, Kennedy was characteristically blunt with the Journal: “I mean, I want a Porsche for my birthday. I’m not going to get it.”

• Trump Is Furious With Senate GOP, Puts Thune In His Crosshairs (ZH)

Donald Trump does not like the word “no.” He likes it even less when it comes from John Thune, the Senate majority leader whose job description apparently does not include telling the president what he wants to hear. That dynamic has now spilled into public view, and the fallout says as much about the state of the Republican Party as it does about any single piece of legislation. The flashpoint is the SAVE America Act. The House passed it back in February, but it remains stalled in the Senate due to the Democrats’ filibuster. The SAVE America Act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, mandate voter ID at polling places, and sharply curtail mail-in voting.


For Trump and a sizable chunk of the conservative base, this is common-sense election integrity; polls show tremendous bipartisan support for it. Trump has grown tired of waiting. Last week, he tied the SAVE America Act to FISA Section 702 reauthorization, the surveillance authority that lets intelligence agencies monitor foreign nationals without a warrant. Congress let that authority lapse for the first time since 2008, and Trump made clear he intends to use it as leverage. “I will not approve FISA without THE SAVE AMERICA ACT going along with it,” he posted on Truth Social. That is not a man asking nicely.

Thune was unmoved. “The president has his own mind, makes his own decisions,” he said. “So do we.” Read that as you like, but it does not sound like a man rushing to fall in line. According to a person close to Trump who spoke with The Wall Street Journal, the president’s frustration stems from being told “no” rather than “no, let me try.” A Thune ally pushed back on the Journal’s reporting, arguing the majority leader is not the real obstacle here. Trump simply does not have the votes. That is a fair point, and it gets at something deeper than personal chemistry: the SAVE America Act faces a math problem before it faces a Thune problem.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told the Journal that Thune is “telling the president the truth” and that “the problem is the president doesn’t like hearing that when it frustrates what he wants to do.” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) offered a gentler diagnosis, describing the clash as one of temperament rather than substance. Trump’s “skill set is to vocalize everything,” she said, while Thune’s is “more quietly engaging.” She added, “I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive.” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) never one to pass up a colorful comparison, likened Trump to the ruthless sales trainer from Glengarry Glen Ross during a closed-door GOP lunch, according to Punchbowl News. On the Senate math itself, Kennedy was characteristically blunt with the Journal: “I mean, I want a Porsche for my birthday. I’m not going to get it.”

Trump has not limited himself to public jabs, either. He summoned House Speaker Mike Johnson to the White House to discuss personnel disputes and the lapsed FISA law, conspicuously leaving Thune out of the conversation. He has also been quietly polling Republican senators on their views of Thune’s leadership, a clear signal that his patience with the majority leader is running thin.

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Less Fed would be nice.

• Warsh’s First Fed Meeting Sends a Message (Martin Armstrong)

Everyone expected Kevin Warsh to come into his first Federal Reserve meeting and immediately begin cutting rates because Trump put him in the chair. That was never going to happen. Markets have once again demonstrated they do not understand how interest rates actually function. The Federal Reserve left rates unchanged at 3.50% to 3.75%, but what mattered was not the decision itself. What mattered was the complete shift in tone.


The Fed removed language suggesting future easing and, for the first time this year, officials openly moved toward discussing potential rate hikes rather than cuts. Inflation is moving higher again, energy prices have surged amid Middle East tensions, and the bond market immediately understood what many economists still refuse to accept. What I found far more interesting was Warsh’s attack on the institution itself. He announced five separate task forces to review how the Federal Reserve operates, how it communicates, how it measures inflation, how it uses economic data, how it manages its balance sheet, and how productivity and employment are evolving in a rapidly changing economy.

Warsh is openly signaling that he believes the Fed has become bloated, overly academic, and detached from reality. For years I have argued that governments and central banks are operating on outdated models that no longer reflect the world economy. Warsh appears to recognize the same problem. The irony is that Warsh was selected largely because many believed he would be more dovish than Powell. Instead, his first meeting produced one of the most hawkish shifts we have seen this year. Officials now see inflation remaining elevated and several policymakers are looking toward possible rate increases before year-end. Bond yields jumped, the dollar strengthened, and equities sold off because traders suddenly realized the era of guaranteed rate cuts may be over.

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Ugly? It’s just a 13 in a dozen building.

• Now We Know Why the Obama Center Is So Ugly (Margolis)

The Obama Presidential Center finally opened to the public on Friday (not that you care), and the verdict from the internet was swift and brutal. People are calling it a “monstrous insult to architecture,” a “concrete nightmare,” and simply a “monstrosity.” Social media has spent the week comparing the thing to a trash can and a dystopian movie set, which, having seen the photos, feels generous. It’s hideous.


Naturally, the man who helped design the building’s most mocked feature has a different take. Chris Bird, the Washington structural engineer who designed the upper portion of the center’s towering centerpiece, sat down with Fox News Digital just before the doors opened and insisted the design is not a monstrosity at all. It’s a “grand gesture.” A “bold statement.” Something with “no architectural precedent.”“The architects knew with the client that they wanted to do something bold at the top of the tower, and the vision of the speech came to life,” Bird told Fox News Digital. I’d blame Obama, too.

I was in architecture for years before I started writing for PJ Media. At no point in the design process, based on the publicly available renderings, did this ever look great. I like bold architecture myself. I can be somewhat of a traditionalist, but I’m also a fan of Frank Gehry. You don’t get much bolder than that. The Obama Center doesn’t come across as bold; it comes across as dystopian and authoritarian. Which, actually, is appropriate for anything connected to Obama, but not really what they wanted to project, I’m sure.

The tower features 91 words pulled from Obama’s speeches, wrapped around a corner of the building in 433 individual letters, each about five feet tall. Curiously, “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it” is not on there. Bird described the process of working with the architects and graphic designers to “shape and move a speech, splice it and put it on a building” as “really unprecedented.”

Bird insists the criticism is overblown. He claimed that the building “anchors” its South Side neighborhood, that it blends nicely with the surrounding 19.3-acre campus, and that visitors have had an emotional reaction to the place. “It’s nothing but smiles and some tears sometimes,” he said.

Can you hear my eyes rolling?

“I think everyone finds a bit of themselves that they knew or didn’t know they needed here, which is really special.” Hilariously, Fox News Digital spoke with more than a dozen attendees who used words like “phenomenal,” “breathtaking,” and “futuristic” to describe it. I’m guessing these are the same people who cheered when Obama blew his nose during a campaign rally in 2008. These aren’t serious people with an ability to be objective; they’ll praise anything with Obama’s name on it because that’s what they’re supposed to.

But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s ugly. In fact, last year, locals were blasting the “monstrosity” going up in their neighborhood and complaining that it caused rents and property taxes to skyrocket. Between that and how Obama made health care more expensive, I can’t help but wonder what all the Obama nostalgia is all about. Adding insult to injury, while locals are paying more in rent and taxes because of the project, the Obama Foundation acquired the property through a corrupt land deal that only costs $10 a year to lease from the city. Ten dollars. For 19 acres in one of the most valuable cities in the country.

The left’s devotion to Obama has never been about substance. It’s a cult of personality, and all these years later, it’s still going strong.

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Europe turns against globalism. But so much damage has already been done.

• This Is The Funniest Thing Ever… (MN)

Leftists in the EU who spent years blocking real border enforcement are now whining about a victory party after conservatives pushed through a motion to create powerful tools to remove illegal migrants. The chamber could not stop laughing. A ‘Renew Europe’ MEP aligned with French President Emmanuel Macron stood up and demanded punishment for conservative MEPs who gathered on the European Parliament roof, drank heavily, and celebrated the passage of the bloc’s toughest-ever deportation reforms. The presiding officer brushed it off and The room roared with amusement.


This outburst came days after the European Parliament voted 418 to 218, with 30 abstentions, to approve the new Return Regulation. Conservative and sovereignist MEPs from the EPP, ECR, Patriots for Europe, and Europe of Sovereign Nations groups supplied the decisive majority. The measure updates the hopelessly outdated 2008 rules and gives member states real power to enforce removals.

In our earlier video we highlighted the immediate leftist reaction inside the chamber: chants of ‘Shame on you’ from leftists with chants of ‘Send them back’ in response from conservatives.Now they are complaining about a rooftop toast. The contrast could not be clearer. One side delivers results for citizens who have endured years of unchecked arrivals, crime, and welfare strain. The other side throws procedural tantrums and pretends a private celebration violates parliamentary decorum.

https://twitter.com/EuropaAdAstra/status/2068023461809692934?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2068023461809692934%7Ctwgr%5Ea8a72085cf1e37abaf382a95b81936b4aae31798%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmodernity.news%2F2026%2F06%2F20%2Fthis-is-the-funniest-thing-ever%2F

The regulation makes deportation orders issued in one member state valid across the entire EU. It extends maximum detention periods for those who refuse to leave, removes automatic suspensive effect on appeals in many cases, doubles entry bans to ten years (lifetime for security threats), and allows member states to conclude agreements with third countries for ‘return hubs’ where rejected migrants can be processed and removed without remaining inside EU territory. Non-cooperating origin countries face visa restrictions, aid cuts, and trade measures – the same leverage the Trump administration successfully deployed.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni welcomed the outcome as validation of the model she pioneered with Albania. “We promised Italians we would change Europe, and we did it, with courage, patience, and determination,’ she said. Meloni added, ‘This innovative solution has been resisted at every turn by the Italian and European left, but thanks to this government, it has now become a tool available to the whole of Europe.’ MEP Marieke Ehlers of the Patriots for Europe group stated ‘This regulation puts the obligation exactly where it belongs: on the illegal migrant… The days of pampering are over. You have no right to stay, which means you have one simple obligation: pack your bags and leave our territory.’

She added that the text hands real power back to national capitals: ‘We are taking back control… Almost all provisions give Member States the freedom to go further.’French EPP negotiator François-Xavier Bellamy called it the end of decades of failure. ‘After decades of failure and years of deadlock, Europe is ending its powerlessness in the face of illegal immigration. No one can claim any longer that Europe has no tools to act. The rules are now in place. The responsibility lies with governments to use them.’

https://twitter.com/ScaryEurope/status/2068288272166769011?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2068288272166769011%7Ctwgr%5Ea8a72085cf1e37abaf382a95b81936b4aae31798%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmodernity.news%2F2026%2F06%2F20%2Fthis-is-the-funniest-thing-ever%2F

French President Emmanuel Macron quickly distanced himself at the EU summit in Brussels. He declared that France would neither participate in nor fund third-country return hubs, calling the approach ineffective and contrary to French principles.

The same Macron who lectures others on European values now refuses to use the very instruments his own parliament helped create. The gap between rhetoric and reality on migration has never been wider. Globalist pushback has already been initiated as the United Nations voiced concerns that the new return hubs could violate human rights standards. Critics on the left and in international organisations frame any effective removal policy as inherently cruel, even as European cities continue to absorb the costs of failed integration and repeated criminal acts by rejected or illegal migrants.

For years globalist voices insisted that mass low-skilled migration was inevitable, economically necessary, and morally superior.They dismantled internal borders, expanded asylum loopholes, and attacked any leader who tried to enforce existing law. Return rates stayed dismal. Criminal networks thrived. Public trust collapsed. Conservative MEPs simply used their growing numbers to force an update that reflects what citizens have demanded for a decade. The left’s response – procedural complaints, accusations of misconduct over a private celebration, and renewed warnings from the UN – reveals the same refusal to accept democratic outcomes that has defined the migration debate from the start.

The laughter in the chamber was not just amusement at a thin-skinned complaint. It was recognition that the excuses have run out. Europe now possesses the legal tools to remove those with no right to remain. Whether national governments use them remains to be seen, but the parliamentary majority has shifted decisively toward enforcement. The same forces that once sneered at ‘Send them back’ as fringe bigotry are watching their own colleagues chant it on the floor. The Overton window did not shift incidentally. It moved because voters across the continent grew tired of policies that prioritised arrivals over safety and sovereignty.

Europe’s conservative MEPs just proved that when they coordinate, they can deliver. The left can keep filing ethics complaints about rooftop drinks. The rest of the continent is focused on results.

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https://twitter.com/P0eMPieDinges/status/2068441460903391728?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle June 21 2026

Jun 212026
 
 June 21, 2026  Posted by at 10:14 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  31 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh Self portrait with pipe 1886


• Vance ‘Skeptical’ That Iran Closed Hormuz Strait Again (ZH)
• UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer Expected To Resign On Monday (ZH)
• New Air Force One Turns the Presidency Back Into a Statement (David Manney)
• Biden Admin Buried Whistleblower Report Alleging Fauci Lied To Congress (JTN)
• President Trump Notes Opposition Effort to Destroy DC Reflection Pool (CTH)
• The Left is Trying to Sabotage the Reflecting Pool (Margolis)
• Trump -v- Meloni (CTH)
• Moderate Expectations of Acting DNI Bill Pulte (CTH)
• Trump: Ukraine War Would Never Have Started If Russia Remained In G8 (ZH)
• Zelensky Threatens To Attack Belarus (RT)
• The Nord Stream Narrative Explosion: Why You’ve Only Read Half The Story (RT)
• Elon Musk vs. the Democrats: Outcomes vs. Process (Soukup)
• Is the iPhone Birth Control? (AmG)

 


 

https://twitter.com/TRUMP_ARMY_/status/2067995272538661070?s=20 https://twitter.com/GlobalDiss/status/2068228841101762741?s=20 https://twitter.com/LangmanVince/status/2068126070407102493?s=20 https://twitter.com/MrWhiplash_/status/2068012044117504192?s=20 https://twitter.com/QuantumGuard17/status/2068083408958599666?s=20

 


 


Merry solstice!

One way to deal with Iran: Just ignore their statemennts.

“Pentagon Declares Safe Passage Remains ‘Intact Today’

• Vance ‘Skeptical’ That Iran Closed Hormuz Strait Again (ZH)

Vice President JD Vance has newly told Fox News that he’s ‘skeptical’ of the morning reports and claims that the Iranians once again ‘closed’ the Strait of Hormuz.


US Central Command is also trying to portray that all is well. It issued this statement after the Iranians announced it closed the vital oil transit waterway: Commercial ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz increased June 20 as U.S. forces continued operating in the general area to support freedom of navigation. Safe passage through the international waterway remained intact today as 55 merchant ships transited, moving large amounts of cargo and more than 17 million barrels of oil to global markets.

The Joint Maritime Information Center issued an advisory this week affirming safe passage for all vessels along a designated route that is free of arbitrary requirement claims or impediments. The Pentagon says it is remaining vigilant with regional forces on high alert. Overall, it seems the White House is keep to at least see its delegation get in the same room with the Iranians in Switzerland. This will certainly be a real start in terms of face-to-face engagement, after the MoU was remotely signed by each side.

Iran says Hormuz Strait Closed Again
As has become the ‘norm’ after well over 100 days of war – which some pundits have been calling the “third Gulf war” – there are deeply conflicting headlines emerging Saturday. On the one hand, diplomacy based in Switzerland is said to be in motion, with a potential top level Trump delegation (led by Witkoff and to be joined later by Kushner reportedly/allegedly) – but fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in south Lebanon still rages, with the death toll climbing, and also with Hezbollah rockets still landing against IDF positions as well as in northern Israel.

Will the US and Iranian sides actually meet in Europe for the ‘technical’ side of further talks toward final peace? Saturday has seen reports of Iran having again ‘closed’ the Strait of Hormuz, citing Israeli aggression in Lebanon, after Tehran has insisted that the tenuous freshly signed MoU included a Lebanon ceasefire and peace. The latest newswires out of Iranian state media:

IRAN SAYS HORMUZ TO CLOSE, CITING CEASEFIRE VIOLATION: TASNIM
IRAN SAYS STRAIT OF HORMUZ HAS BEEN CLOSED: TASNIM
IRAN’S IRGC NAVY SAYS HORMUZ STRAIT CLOSED TO ALL VESSELS: FARS
*VESSELS WARNED TO AVOID STRAIT OF HORMUZ OVER SECURITY: FARS

VP Vance Expected in Switzerland, But He’s Ambiguous in FOX Appearance

https://twitter.com/BarakRavid/status/2068334966660837678?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2068334966660837678%7Ctwgr%5E27d3c3b6010ec53a8064cf4ef0e71d788bf1410d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fdiplomacy-back-motion-witkoff-kushner-en-route-switzerland-despite-overnight-rising

And yet, some of the same state sources have been saying that an Iranian delegation will travel to Switzerland where it will seek to hold Washington to its commitments. “In Switzerland, we intend to press for the fulfilment of the other side’s commitments and clarify how they plan to act on their obligations,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, according to Fars, also as cited in Al Jazeera. Per the same report Saturday mid-morning (US time): “The delegation will leave for Switzerland in a few minutes, Mehr news agency also reported. The spokesperson also said that if the US refuses to implement its commitments, Iran will respond with necessary measures.” Vance non-committal in Saturday FOX interview:

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The UK is very close to being ungovernable. These guys are all so unpopular. Just 2 years ago, Rishi Sunak had to go.

• UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer Expected To Resign On Monday (ZH)

Keir Starmer’s premiership appears to have entered its final act. Just over a week after Andy Burnham stormed back into Parliament with a crushing by-election win, the Prime Minister is – according to senior Labour figures cited by The Observer – preparing to set out a timetable for his own departure, with a “clear statement” possible as early as Monday. It would be a remarkable collapse. Starmer led Labour to a landslide less than two years ago. He now looks unable to command the confidence of his own benches for much longer, with cabinet ministers, union leaders and donors reportedly among those who have been involved in the conversations about his future.


Burnham, the outgoing Greater Manchester mayor, did not just win Makerfield – he buried it. Official figures show him taking 24,927 votes, 54.8% of the total, beating Reform UK’s Rob Kenyon by a 9,231-vote margin in a seat where Nigel Farage’s party had been threatening to turn Labour’s crisis into a rout. The result gives Burnham the Commons seat he needs, clears his path to a leadership challenge, and leaves Starmer’s position looking terminal.

Also, Starmer’s former Chief of Staff – Morgan McSweeney – was the sacrificial lamb in the Mandelson scandal (recall that Starmer appointed Jeffery Epstein pal Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the US). McSweeney also targeted Zerohedge, The Federalist and Breitbart in a clandestine campaign against alternative-media outlets. He resigned in February, two weeks before Mandelson was arrested on suspicion of passing insider info to Jeffrey Epstein in 2009, when he was serving as Business Secretary.

Markets Eye The Monday Open The political risk did not go unnoticed by bond traders. UK 10-year gilt yields climbed to 4.84% on Friday, up roughly 0.09 percentage points on the session, as markets weighed Burnham’s victory, domestic political uncertainty, and the possible fiscal implications of a future leadership bid. With markets shut over the weekend, the next read comes at Monday’s open, and any Starmer statement setting out an exit timetable will land straight into it.

Burnham is due to be sworn in as an MP on Monday and to meet Starmer early in the week, with a cabinet meeting scheduled for Tuesday. Senior Labour figures expect a “deliberate slow march in good order” – most likely a September handover timed to the party conference – rather than an immediate vacuum.

According to the report, Burnham’s supporters claim he has secured backing from more than 201 Labour MPs if Starmer refuses to step down voluntarily. The Observer framed that as a critical number because it would represent more than half the Parliamentary Labour party and would make it increasingly difficult for Starmer to argue that he still commands the confidence of his own side. A formal challenge requires far fewer names. Under Labour’s rules, any challenger needs nominations from 20% of Labour MPs – currently 81 – plus the required support from local parties and affiliates. On every count, the door is open.

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It turns Boeing into the past tense.

• New Air Force One Turns the Presidency Back Into a Statement (David Manney)

President Donald Trump stepped onto the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews and did what he often does best: he turned a government asset into a message. The new Air Force One, a converted Boeing 747-8 once owned by Qatar, is bigger, sharper, and painted in the red, white, and blue colors Trump has wanted for years. https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/2068049231911194715?s=20


It’s not just an airplane; for better or worse, it’s a flying argument about how Trump sees the presidency. The Air Force calls the jet a VC-25B Bridge aircraft that’s meant to serve while Boeing finishes the long-delayed replacement planes that were supposed to modernize presidential travel. From Newsmax: The new aircraft eschews the Kennedy-era robin’s egg blue exterior of the old plane for a bolder look, with the underbelly of the plane painted navy blue with a red stripe above it. The plane’s left side, where the president boards, features the presidential seal, while the tail of the aircraft has a massive American flag on it.

“The workmanship of this plane is, when you see it, you won’t believe it,” Trump said from inside the massive Andrews Air Force Base hangar, as a couple hundred assembled Air Force personnel looked on. He spoke after stepping off the new plane in a dramatic flourish, as his signature tune “God Bless the USA” played. The gift from Qatar is serving as a so-called “bridge” aircraft to carry the president until the new planes ordered directly from Boeing arrive. That is currently slated for 2028.

The administration formally accepted a luxury Boeing 747 jet from Qatar last year to be used as the presidential airplane, despite questions about the ethics and legality of accepting such an expensive gift from a foreign nation. Trump has insisted in the past that he would not fly around in the Qatari jet once he leaves office and said it would instead be donated to a future presidential library. The Air Force has said in the past that security modifications to the jet would cost less than $400 million.

Any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the president uses the call sign Air Force One, so the name belongs to the mission, not one specific plane. The old blue-and-white 747s remain part of the fleet, but the Qatari jet now gives Trump something Boeing hasn’t delivered on time: a visible upgrade. Also from Newsmax: Other government jets that carry other top administration officials will also use the similar red, white and navy color scheme, the Air Force said earlier this year.

An Air Force spokesperson, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive plans, told The Associated Press that the two current planes, known as VC-25As, will not be retiring. Instead, they will remain in the fleet until the new Boeing planes, referred to as VC-25Bs, come into service, the spokesperson said. It is unclear how the older jets will be used but the spokesperson said that both the Qatari jet as well as the VC-25As will be available for use and “the Presidential Airlift Group will select the appropriate aircraft for each mission based on operational requirements.”

The controversy was baked in from the start: the jet came from Qatar, and critics raised legal, ethical, and security questions as soon as the deal became public. A foreign government giving a luxury aircraft to the United States for presidential use is bound to draw fire. Trump’s answer has been typically blunt, framing the plane as a smart deal for taxpayers because America needed a bridge aircraft while Boeing dragged its feet. Security concerns deserve a real answer. Air Force One isn’t a campaign bus with wings; it’s a command post, a communications hub, and a symbol that must keep working during a crisis.

The Air Force says the aircraft completed modification and flight testing. The public doesn’t need every classified detail, but it does need confidence that a foreign-owned plane was scrubbed, rebuilt, and tested to the standard required for a president of the United States. Boeing’s failure hangs over the whole rollout. The company won the contract for the next presidential aircraft years ago, and the delivery date kept sliding. The Air Force now expects the first new VC-25B presidential aircraft around mid-2028. In normal Washington fashion, delay became background noise. Trump has a way of pulling that noise into the open and forcing everybody to look at it.

The new plane also breaks with a visual tradition older than many voters. The Kennedy-era blue had grace and carried history, but it also came from another age, when the presidency still tried to look above the fray. Trump has never believed that power should whisper; his Air Force One looks like a flag, a billboard, and a challenge all at once. Some will call it gaudy, others will call it overdue, but nobody will miss it in the sky. That’s the real political story. Trump understands that symbols work because people see them before they study them. A border wall, a Space Force uniform, a restored military parade, and a new presidential aircraft: all of it tells voters that national power should look like national power.

His critics recoil because they believe the performance cheapens the office. Those are the same people who also believed the Obama administration was the most scandal-free government in history, and that President Joe Biden was more energetic and sharper than people much younger working around him. Trump supporters cheer because they believe the old restraint often looked too much like surrender. Both sides have something to argue about here. The Qatar connection should be examined, the security work should be serious, and most importantly, Boeing should answer for years of delay.

But the larger point is simple enough: the presidency is never just paperwork, policy, and process. It’s also presence. Trump’s new Air Force One may be temporary, but the message isn’t. He wants America to look strong again, even when it’s sitting on a runway. After years of scolding, managed decline, and apologetic leadership, that message still lands with millions of people who want their country to stop acting embarrassed by its own power.

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Who’s going to go to jail?

• Biden Admin Buried Whistleblower Report Alleging Fauci Lied To Congress (JTN)

An intelligence community whistleblower formally accused Dr. Anthony Fauci of lying to Congress during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Biden administration took the unusual step of yanking the complaint from the government’s independent watchdogs and referring it instead to the political appointee overseeing the Health and Human Services Department, bombshell memos released by departing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard show.


The effort to divert the investigation of Fauci to then-HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra occurred shortly after the government’s top pandemic doctor engaged in a discussion with the CIA about evidence that workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China had been sickened in fall 2019, potentially explosive evidence that the virus emerged from a lab leak at the very facility where Fauci’s office was funding dangerous research on bat viruses, the memos show.

“On the 3 sick WIV researchers, Dr. Fauci said key gaps that need to be filled are 1) If they were sick, what does their medical records show; 2) Do we have blood culture of these sick researchers; and 3) Did we ask China about/for this information?” one summary of the June 2021 meeting at the CIA stated. Despite the evidence of a potential lab leak sickening workers, Fauci continued to double down on his claim that the COVID-19 virus had emerged naturally from a wet-market in the same areas as the lab. Fauci also continued to insist in congressional testimony that his office had not funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab, a claim that an intelligence official believed was false and potentially prosecutable, the memos show.

Shortly after the June 2021 CIA meeting, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence received a whistleblower complaint formally alleging that Fauci testified falsely to Congress. “The complaint alleges Dr. Fauci provided false testimony to Congress related to the conduct of gain of function research at the National Institutes of Health, thereby ‘misleading the American people and Congressional oversight,’” Acting Intelligenve Community Inspector General Tamara Johnson wrote Aug. 11, 2021, to then-DNI Avril Haines.

Rather than refer the alleged lie to the independent watchdog at HHS, which was responsible for probing misconduct in Fauci’s office, Haines referred the concerns instead to Becerra, a Biden political appointee who is now running to be California governor.] Johnson also made clear she didn’t want to send the complaint to her peer at HHS, the inspector general. “The general dispute about ‘gain-of-function’ research is already in the public domain making it highly probable that the HHS-OIG would already be aware of the allegation that the Dr. Fauci’s testimony was inaccurate (albeit from a different source, not our ICWPA submitter). Consequently, we determined there would be no merit in referring the matter to HHS OIG,” she wrote.

Gabbard said the documents she released late Thursday in her final hours as DNI demonstrate that government officials, including Fauci, engaged in a cover-up to mislead the public about how the COVID-19 pandemic started. “The tactics used to hide the truth are straight from the deep state playbook: politicized self-serving leaders like Dr. Fauci covered up their own wrongdoing and abuses of power, manipulated intelligence, lied to Congress, and undermined a duly elected President by restricting his access to vital facts needed to keep the country safe,” Gabbard said, “It’s time the American people learn the real story.”

Fauci, who retired before President Donald Trump returned to the White House, has repeatedly denied in engaginfg in wrongdoing or lying to Congress. But he did accept a pardon from President Joe Biden in late 2024. Beyond the intelligence community whistleblower’s allegations, Gabbard said she too believed Fauci lied to Congress on another matter in 2024 when he claimed he had not talked to intelligence agencies about virus research.

“The correspondence released today directly contradicts Fauci’s 2024 testimony to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic,” her statement said. “In that hearing, while under oath, Fauci was repeatedly asked whether he spoke to ‘FBI, CIA, DIA or any U.S. intelligence agency concerning viral research’ before, during, or after the pandemic. Fauci repeatedly dodged the questions, before falsely stating, ‘not to my knowledge about COVID.'” Two GOP senators — Rand Paul and Ron Johnson — told Just the News this week they believe the Trump DOJ should challenge the legality of Fauci’s pardon — which was signed by an autopen — and try to prosecutor Fauci.

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Is it Reflecting Pool or Reflection Pool?

• President Trump Notes Opposition Effort to Destroy DC Reflection Pool (CTH)

Team Algae and Filth has been busy at work, supported by CNN, ABC and various leftist media, in an attempt to grow algae back in the DC reflection pool, and cut out the newly installed lining. A few arrests have been made by DC park police. Yes, these folks are that unstable. Liberalism is a mental disorder.


President Trump responds to the effort via Truth Social:
“We’ve cleaned, renovated, and beautified over 45 Monuments and Memorials, 28 Statues, and 22 Fountains in Washington, D.C. Things are really looking good in our Nation’s Capital, and add to that the fact that when I became President, Crime was rampant, and now, Washington, D.C., is one of the Safest Cities anywhere in the United States. However, we’ve had some real problems with Vandalism at the beautiful Reflecting Pool, which sits between The Washington Monument and The Lincoln Memorial.

Just like three days ago, they destroyed the grass outside of the Pool, they’ve also done everything possible to hurt the inside surface that was just installed. No different than the chemicals that were used on the National Mall, they used something similar in the Reflecting Pool to try to destroy and demean our beautiful work. Lightweight ABC Reporter, Jonathan Karl, was seen sticking his hand into the Pool, and trying to rip the rubber off of the surface. The algae is 75% gone, and the condition will soon be completely remedied, and the area that was vandalized, fortunately, is just a small area of damage, and will be fixed early next week. It’s a shame that the Radical Left Lunatics, most likely Dumocats, who have spent their lives trying to ruin our Country, are free to do so. Law Enforcement is actively investigating this situation and will hopefully have it resolved soon. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

~ DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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Leave it alone!

• The Left is Trying to Sabotage the Reflecting Pool (Margolis)

The Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool has become the latest target in the left’s war on anything Donald Trump touches, and the radical left isn’t even trying to hide it anymore. According to reports circulating on social media, the National Guard and Park Police have ramped up patrols around the reflecting pool amid threats from leftists vowing to sabotage the recently renovated landmark. Independent journalist Nick Sortor sounded the alarm on the brazen plot. “American workers are pushing around the clock to finish the pool by July 4, but liberals have a vested interest in destroying it for some reason,” Sortor wrote.


We all know the reason: Trump Derangement Syndrome. It’s truly a shame how badly these people want to humiliate our country on the world stage, and they’re not even subtle about it anymore. President Trump confirmed on Friday in a Truth Social post that vandals damaged the newly renovated pool, and he didn’t hold back. Trump pointed out that his administration has cleaned, renovated, and beautified more than 45 monuments and memorials, 28 statues, and 22 fountains in the nation’s capital, and that Washington, D.C., has gone from a crime-ridden disaster to one of the safest cities in the country on his watch.

“We’ve had some real problems with vandalism at the beautiful reflecting pool,” Trump wrote. “Just like three days ago, they destroyed the grass outside of the pool; they’ve also done everything possible to hurt the inside surface that was just installed.”Days before Trump’s birthday on June 14 and the UFC event held at the White House, someone carved “86 47” into the grass on the National Mall itself. The U.S. Park Police are reportedly investigating that incident too. Trump said the vandals used chemicals similar to those deployed elsewhere on the National Mall in an apparent effort to destroy and demean the freshly completed work.

He also called out ABC’s Jonathan Karl by name, saying the reporter was caught on camera sticking his hand into the pool and trying to tear off the sealant on the surface. Trump said the algae plaguing the pool is now 75% gone and that the damaged section, which he described as small, will be repaired early next week. “It’s a shame that the radical left lunatics, most likely Dumocrats, who have spent their lives trying to ruin our country, are free to do so,” Trump wrote, adding that law enforcement is actively investigating the situation. On Thursday, a video surfaced showing the phrase “86 47” painted on the bottom of the pool. It’s the latest entry in a disturbing pattern.

Think about that for a second. These people are so consumed by hatred for one man that they’re willing to deface national monuments, vandalize sacred public spaces, and scrawl assassination-coded slogans into the grass just to make a point. They don’t care about the country. They don’t care about the symbols that belong to all Americans, regardless of party. They hate Trump so much that they’ll destroy anything out of spite. This is who the left has become. Not protesters with grievances, but vandals with grudges, willing to wreck a national treasure rather than let Trump’s D.C. cleanup succeed. The investigations are ongoing, but the message from radical leftists is already loud and clear: if Trump built it, they want it destroyed.

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That photo does it for me.

• Trump -v- Meloni (CTH)

On the heels of the G7 in France, U.S. President Trump and Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni have been engaged in a geopolitical spat. The core of the issue centers on Italy’s refusal to allow the U.S. military to conduct flight operations for the conflict against Iran from U.S. airbases in Italy. President Trump, Vice-President Vance, Secretary of State Rubio and Secretary Hegseth have all remarked on their disappointment with Italy and Spain that has led to a full review of U.S. NATO operations in Europe.


The issue became personal at the G7 when President Trump ignored Meloni’s repeated attempts to repair the friction. President Trump was no longer tolerating the two-faced approach. Actions speak louder than words.



Understanding, a very specific image sensitivity Prime Minister Meloni carries, President Trump stated, “Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni asked, over and over, for a picture with me during the G-7 meeting in France. She is doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity, possibly because she turned down the United States of America, a Country that truly loves and protects Italy, when it came to denying Iran from obtaining or developing a Nuclear Weapon (But so did NATO, for that matter!). She wouldn’t even let us use Italy’s landing strips or runways, a great logistical inconvenience, and this despite the fact the U.S. contributes hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year to protect Italy, and other “so-called” NATO Allies. Now, after the United States defeated Iran militarily, she wants to be friends again in order to get her “numbers up.” No thanks!!!
~ President DJT

Meloni then hit back with: “these constant, unprovoked attacks are senseless. As for my popularity, being your friend certainly has not helped it, nor does it depend on my relationship with you. My popularity depends on my ability to defend Italy’s national interest, and that is exactly what I have always done,” Meloni said in a post on Instagram. She added that “in any case, my popularity is none of your concern. I suggest you focus on yours.”

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“The entire DC system is fully aware of the corrupt nature of the FBI as it functions.”

• Moderate Expectations of Acting DNI Bill Pulte (CTH)

A lot might be said, but little of it will be grounded in reality. Here’s a general outline that may provide context for the next few weeks. > First, contrary to popular opinion, leaks from inside the IC related to activity within the ODNI will likely come as an outcome from bad actors in the FBI and the attached liaison office. {EXAMPLE HERE} As you may or may not be aware, every intelligence community silo has a liaison attached to the office of the Director of National Intelligence. What that means is that every IC agency has a person(s) inside the ODNI that can then be the source of information within the larger parent silo. The most frequent leaking child from within the parent agency is the FBI liaison. Understand this reality and you begin to understand frustration around Kash Patel’s inability to control his agency.


Second, contrary to popular opinion, CIA Director John Ratcliffe will not be able to partner with Acting DNI Pulte in the same direct manner he was with fully confirmed DNI Tulsi Gabbard. Despite the ODNI technically sitting atop the CIA within the construct of the overall Intelligence Community, there are rules about information flows to non-confirmed “acting” positions. Deputy DNI Aaron Lukas will have more intelligence capabilities than Pulte.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe will likely not be the source of conversation about this standard, the information to Pulte will likely come from the DNI Legal Counsel Jack Dever, and/or Deputy CIA Director Michael Ellis who also carries the role of General Counsel for the Central Intelligence Agency.

When SSCI Vice-Chair Mark Warner says he is in communication with IC leadership about isolating Acting DNI Bill Pulte from national security information, he is likely outlining contact with the general counsel of the DNI or CIA, or with the Intelligence Community Inspector General’s office. That said, the National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio, could mitigate some of that isolation by requesting IC information Pulte may desire to review.

Regarding ‘declassification’ authority. CTH is not sure what power an Acting position as DNI carries as it relates to independent cross-silo declassification authority. However, information presented to the President can be declassified by the President. The key is to get the silo stakeholder to approve the release, then take to the Office of the President for approved public release pending stakeholder redactions. That is the basic outline of limitations that could become pertinent. However, the Acting DNI can do something very valuable. The ADNI can ‘manage’ the office and how it operates. Pulte can make staffing decisions as well as curb the issues within the liaison offices.

I somewhat predict that Pulte could find the problem with FBI leaking; he could even do something about it – with presidential support. Unfortunately, this would put Pulte on a collision course with FBI Director Kash Patel. It’s an issue that needs to be dealt with, but the timing is not good considering the looming midterm election. A more likely scenario is Kash Patel’s unchecked deep state FBI analysts/agents will be managed without Patel’s direct involvement. Essentially, none of the ‘good guys’, and there ain’t that many ‘good guys’, have any trust in the FBI silo.

The entire DC system is fully aware of the corrupt nature of the FBI as it functions. The ‘establishment’, including Mark Warner and Tom Cotton, is favorable to the FBI. Meanwhile, the ‘reformers’, and I suspect that might include HPSCI Chairman Rick Crawford, are not. The larger IC elements will watch this play out, dropping their thumbs on the narrative (via selected leaking) as it pertains to their individual interests. There’s a reason why scrutiny against Patel has lessened from within the DC mechanisms.

Ironically, all the negative information against Pulte will almost certainly come from the FBI, it will just be positioned as if it comes from another silo. Watch carefully and we just might catch them in real time Ultimately, all of the bad actors within the IC (both branches of government) want “702” reauthorized, so this does create a subject that can be leveraged for actionable value to the office of the President. All of that said, Pulte remains an unknown entity within the larger IC system, and his motives and intentions are generally also unknown. It will be interesting to watch things unfold, and to see exactly who is willing to surface as an ally.

Yeah, that!

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He needs to address the nazi issue.

• Trump: Ukraine War Would Never Have Started If Russia Remained In G8 (ZH)

This isn’t the first time that President Trump has said something like this, but he’s newly explained in a wide-ranging fresh interview with Axios published Friday his view that the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine likely would likely have been averted if Russia had remained a member of the then-Group of Eight (G8). “You probably wouldn’t have the war with Russia and Ukraine if they did,” Trump told the publication, referring to the decision to expel Moscow, making the group the G7.


The forum “would have been much better” had it maintained its original structure, with Russia included. He laid ultimate blame in the fresh remarks on former President Barack Obama. It was during the Obama administration, in 2014, that Washington pushed allies to expel Russia from the group of leading economies over its takeover of Crimea through a ‘popular referendum’. Trump this week attended G7 Summit held in Evian-les-Bains, France. “They should have kept the G8. You probably wouldn’t have the war with Russia and Ukraine if they did, but Obama didn’t want Putin there,” Trump said.

“It used to be the G8. (It) would have been much better if they kept that that way,” he added. Again, this is not the first time he’s articulated this view: Trump has expressed this position before — in June 2025, he made a similar statement, blaming Obama and former Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau for Russia’s exclusion from the G8. He’s long attacked Biden and the Democrats for setting the conditions for the war to start. But beginning a year ago he also started basically blaming everyone – from Zelensky to Putin to Biden.

“That’s a war that should have never been allowed to start and Biden could have stopped it and Zelensky could have stopped it and Putin should have never started it,” Trump said last year. “Everybody is to blame.” nTrump added at the time: “If Biden were competent and if Zelensky were competent, and I don’t know that he is, we had a rough session with this guy — he just kept asking for more and more.” As for Putin, he has seemed to welcome this repeat rhetoric from Trump stating that Russia should belong to the G7/G8. Without doubt, Moscow would welcome an invitation back in.Among Russia’s conditions for final peace settlement in Ukraine, a prospect which still seems a long way off, would be the lifting of US and EU sanctions, and readmittance to the global economy.

Read more …

The ungovernable UK pushes war elsewhere.

• Zelensky Threatens To Attack Belarus (RT)

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has issued an ultimatum to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, threatening him with military action if Belarus fails to dismantle the air defense radar array along its southern border, just days after a deadly Ukrainian drone strike on a bus carrying a children’s soccer team from the country. Earlier this week, Lukashenko said that those seeking to drag his nation into the conflict “will have to pay dearly for that,” demanding answers from Kiev regarding the strike on the bus and other “provocations.” The attack in Russia’s Bryansk Region left six children injured and killed the wife of a Belarusian school soccer team coach who was accompanying the young athletes to a Russian seaside resort.


Kiev has denied responsibility, while Zelensky claimed that it was Lukashenko who must “be honest” and prove Minsk’s peaceful intentions by removing air defenses and relay transmitters along the border with Ukraine. “I think one week would be enough for him to accomplish this,” the Ukrainian leader stated at a press conference in Kiev on Friday. “If he does not do it, we will.” Lukashenko has repeatedly said that Belarus has no intention of engaging in a war against any nation and “is not threatening anyone.” Zelensky, however, stated that there was “no need for unnecessary words,” and issued another veiled threat against the Belarusian oil refining industry.

“Just like his, for example, oil refining industry,” Zelensky said, claiming that Minsk is one of Russia’s “main” suppliers of petroleum products. “Can this be stopped? I am sure that it is within his power.”Belarus, a close Russian ally, has largely stayed out of the conflict since 2022, while calling on Moscow and Kiev to engage in dialogue and expressing its readiness to contribute to a diplomatic resolution. In September 2025, Lukashenko stated that he was ready to meet Zelensky personally to discuss possible compromises, but the Ukrainian leader rejected the offer.

In November, Minsk released 31 Ukrainian citizens from detention in a “goodwill gesture” at the request of Kiev and US President Donald Trump, who was also seeking to mediate the conflict.Over the past few weeks, Zelensky has been ramping up his rhetoric about an allegedly growing threat posed by Belarus – and threatened it with a preemptive strike. Earlier this year, the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces warned that Kiev had already identified some 500 potential military and logistical targets across the country.

Read more …

Explains a bit better why Hersh’s story is the right one. It’s f**king difficult.

• The Nord Stream Narrative Explosion: Why You’ve Only Read Half The Story (RT)

The Nord Stream saga has taken a turn for the absurd, with a new book claiming that the star saboteur who blew up the gas pipelines was a Ukrainian erotic model-turned-deep sea diver. This detail is the latest addition to an ever-shifting story – while one key coincidence has completely flown under the radar. nPublished on June 19, ‘The Nord Stream Conspiracy: The Greatest Sabotage in History’ promises an inside look at the operation that destroyed the Nord Stream lines. Author Bojan Pancevski doesn’t quibble with the ‘official’ story circulated by the German media – that a Ukrainian commando unit carried out the attack, but adds some pulp-fiction flourish to the tale.


Pancevski claims that a former erotic model identified only as ‘Freya’ was “the bravest diver in the whole group,” without whose experience diving to depths of 100 meters the operation could not have been pulled off. Another of the divers was sick with Covid-19, but Pancevski nevertheless claims he carried out the kind of dive that has killed experienced military frogmen before. After the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022, ‘Freya’, a Ukrainian who posed naked for soft-porn magazines before turning to diving, apparently “contacted a dubious intelligence unit through her diving colleagues,” and volunteered her services. Asked if she would be willing to take part in the costliest act of industrial sabotage in history, ‘Freya’ supposedly replied “where do I sign.”

Most of Pancevski’s claims cite Ukrainian intelligence sources, with his imagination filling in the gaps (Pancevski insists that the alleged saboteurs inherited their appetite for risk from the Zaporozhian cossacks of the 15th century). Marketed by its publisher as “compelling as a spy thriller,” the book is, according to a New York Times review, pitched “a little too eagerly in the direction of Hollywood.”

Although the story plumbs the depths of 1960s spy-caper silliness, it is no more far-fetched than the official narrative to date. In the most recent retelling of the operation, Der Spiegel claimed in February that a “Ukrainian secret commando unit” approached the CIA in spring 2022 with plans to blow up the four individual gas pipelines that make up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 connectors. Der Spiegel’s Ukrainian sources told the outlet that the CIA “liked the plan,” shared technical data on the pipelines, and was even willing to finance the operation, until it abruptly withdrew its support in early summer.

The Ukrainians, or so the story goes, went ahead and blew up the pipelines without American permission, using a rented yacht to transport the explosives to the blast sites. The latest report is unlikely to raise any eyebrows in Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has dismissed the entire premise of a small team of Ukrainians pulling off an operation beyond the capability of most state militaries as “ridiculous.” To understand just how ridiculous the German story is, it’s necessary to jump back to 2022.

A junction in the story
On September 26, 2022, a seismometer on the Danish island of Bornholm detected two spikes consistent with underwater explosions – one just after 2am, and another just after 7pm. Danish and Swedish authorities then determined that both Nord Stream 1 lines had been destroyed and one Nord Stream 2 line damaged roughly 60 km northeast of Bornholm, while an explosion around 25 km southeast of the island had destroyed the other Nord Stream 2 line.

As images of bubbling gas leaks hit international media, a separate story went almost entirely unreported: less than 24 hours after the second round of blasts, Poland and Norway celebrated the opening of the Baltic Pipe, a gas pipeline transiting Norwegian gas to Poland via Denmark, passing over Nord Stream just south of Bornholm.

Built between 2020 and 2022, the Baltic Pipe joins the larger Norway-Netherlands Europipe II in the North Sea. It allows 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas to reach Poland every year – less than a tenth of Nord Stream’s capacity, but enough to cover two-thirds of Poland’s total imports in 2024. Poland sells some of this gas on to other EU countries, which after the destruction of Nord Stream were guaranteed to need a new source for the foreseeable future.

[..] Means:
The Nord Stream pipelines sat on the seabed at a depth of between 80 and 110 meters. At this depth, divers must breathe hypoxic Trimix gas, carry around 90 kg of equipment, and spend (very roughly) 90 minutes decompressing on the way up for every two minutes spent on the seabed. Furthermore, a single diver or pair of divers would rarely attempt more than one of these dives in a single day, meaning the crew of the yacht – described in one report as “not the vessel anyone would choose” for such a mission – would have had to remain at sea amid active military exercises for days on end.

RT spoke to a scuba diving expert who said it was “not impossible, but highly unlikely” that a small team of divers could pull off such an operation. Even 50-meter dives can kill the most experienced military divers, but the divers of the US Navy’s Diving and Salvage Center in Florida possess the equipment and the know-how to carry out engineering operations at this depth. The CIA recruited these divers, commandeered a Norwegian mine-hunting vessel, and planted shaped explosive charges on the pipelines in June 2022, Hersh’s source claimed.

{..] Opportunity:
Planting each charge was an hours-long endeavor, and the presence of military divers wouldn’t go unnoticed, unless they had an excuse to be in the area. NATO’s BALTOPS exercises gave the CIA the cover it needed. Running from June 5 to June 17, the BALTOPS drills involved 14 NATO states, and included US-led experiments with mine-hunting drones and deep-sea communications technology in the Baltic Sea.

Hersh predicted that American and German intelligence agencies would soon come up with an alternate story and feed it to friendly media outlets. In April 2023, The New York Times, Die Zeit, and Der Spiegel published the first versions of this tale.

Read more …

“Tesla was the nation’s largest EV auto seller at the time, and 100 percent of its vehicles were fully electric. Yet Musk and his company were left off the Biden team’s guest list.”:

• Elon Musk vs. the Democrats: Outcomes vs. Process (Soukup)

Years ago, when my oldest son was a Boy Scout, he was asked to write a report/make a presentation on a modern American “hero.” He chose Elon Musk, and I, of course, rolled my eyes so hard they nearly popped out of my head. I knew Musk was a successful businessman, but I also knew that he was both an advocate for and a seasoned manipulator of Big Government. Tesla, for example, received a $465 million Department of Energy loan in 2010 under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program, a Big Government scheme to encourage private companies to advance Big Government priorities (namely, fighting Climate Change by reducing carbon emissions).


Likewise, Tesla was, at least at the time, commercially viable only because of the more than $1 billion ($7,500/vehicle) in federal EV tax credits claimed by its buyers. Without government greasing the proverbial wheels a bit, Tesla would have struggled to get the literal wheels rolling out the sales floor doors. Moreover, Musk publicly acknowledged that he voted for Obama and presented himself as part of the “green” business revolution, men and women who could and would “do well by doing good.”

My, how things change.

Just a short decade later, Elon Musk is, indeed, regarded as a genuine hero by most on the American political Right—and by anyone who favors free enterprise—while he is loathed and actively derided by his former friends and allies on the Left. Especially this past week, after the SpaceX IPO made him the world’s first trillionaire, the Democrats and other leftists who once loved him, partnered with him, and sang his praises loudly have shown nothing but contempt for him and hatred for his inarguable business success. As the controversial Democratic Senate nominee from Maine, Graham Platner, ominously put it, “Elon Musk just became the world’s first trillionaire. Let’s make sure he’s also the last.”

How, exactly, did we get here? The biggest part of the story is Musk’s own political evolution, which proceeded slowly, in stages, but was accelerated at a handful of inflection points. Of these inflection points, two stand out among the others.

The first of these took place during President Biden’s first year in office. Biden and his administration were knee-deep in pushing a new, far more aggressive climate agenda. On his first day in office, Biden issued 17 executive orders, several of which addressed climate change and other environmental matters. Most notably, he signed an order to reinstate the nation’s participation in the Paris Accords, thereby placing a policy-making emphasis on electrification and decarbonization. A big part of that effort—as would be evinced in the “Inflation Reduction Act” passed the following year—was pushing the purchase of electric vehicles.

To that end, on August 4, 2021, Biden hosted an EV “summit” at the White House. He invited three EV makers—General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis—to watch him sign another executive order, this one mandating that half of all new vehicles sold in the United States by 2030 be EVs. Of the three, GM had the largest percentage of its sales derived from fully electric vehicles—1.5 percent. Ford sat at 1.3 percent, and Stellantis didn’t even have an electric vehicle for sale in the American market. Meanwhile, Tesla was the nation’s largest EV auto seller at the time, and 100 percent of its vehicles were fully electric. Yet Musk and his company were left off the Biden team’s guest list.

What GM, Ford, and Stellantis did have, of course, was the support of the United Auto Workers Union. In fact, the three also just happened to be the largest UAW employers. Tesla, by contrast, had long fought the unionization of its factories and had been embroiled in a rather ugly dispute with the UAW. In response to the snub, Musk vented a bit, tweeting: Biden held this EV summit. Didn’t invite Tesla. Invited GM, Ford, Chrysler, and UAW. EV summit at the White House, didn’t mention Tesla once and praised GM and Ford for leading the EV revolution. Doesn’t it sound a little bias? It’s not the friendliest of administrations. Seems to be controlled by the unions.

Just under a year later, Musk reached the second inflection point, which also turned out to be his breaking point. In May 2022, the S&P 500 ESG Index conducted its annual rebalancing. And when it did, it removed Tesla. ESG stands for “environmental, social, and governance” investing, a strategy that purports to push corporations to address issues beyond traditional profits and losses, focusing on the broader societal impacts of their operations. I wrote a whole book about ESG (The Dictatorship of Woke Capital) in which I made the case that its flaws are numerous and disqualifying. One of the most significant of these is that ESG has no set definition. It means whatever its practitioners decide it means in the moment, based on little more than preference and convenience. And this is precisely where the S&P’s index ran into problems with Tesla.

By any objective measure, Tesla should have been a mainstay of any investment strategy focused on environmental benefits. It was and is a pioneer in carbon reduction strategies in the personal transportation market. What could be more environmentally friendly than that? The S&P, however, objected to Tesla’s procedural strategies, or lack thereof. It argued that Tesla didn’t have a published “low-carbon strategy,” or verifiable “codes of conduct.” It noted that the automaker had been accused of racial discrimination and didn’t do a great job of handling a National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigation. In short, the ESG index tossed the innovator in “E” technology off its list of acceptable companies because it valued the process of the ESG strategy more than it did the outcomes.

Read more …

What?

• Is the iPhone Birth Control? (AmG)

When I call you up, your line’s engaged


have had enough, so act your age

We have lost the time that was so hard to find

And I will lose my mind

If you won’t see me . . .

Time after time

You refuse to even listen

I wouldn’t mind

If I knew what I was missing

—The Beatles, “You Won’t See Me”

As one heads into senescence, the milestones begin to fade in the rearview mirror. Yet every now and again, something jars the memory to refocus your recognition of such milestones and on how time has truly flown. Recently, I was reminded that nearly an entire generation of Americans has been born after the introduction of the iPhone in 2007. As a Gen Xer born before the introduction of the answering machine, I felt the weight of my sixty years, along with a gnawing anxiety about the future.

No, not because I won’t be around all that much longer. Despite the myths of the ubiquitous cult of youth promoted by our callow commercial culture, the increasing aches and pains accompanying my journey into old age are an insistent reminder that no one lives forever. Rather, my concern is how few Americans will be born to replace me and the other older members of our aging nation. As reported by Elise Winland in Zeale News, a new study suggests the 2007 introduction of the iPhone has played a significant role in the declining U.S. fertility rate.

Written by Caitlin K. Myers and Ezekiel Hooper and issued by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the title of the working paper says it all: “Is the iPhone Birth Control? Causal Evidence from AT&T’s 2007–2011 Carrier Monopoly.” The study’s methodology is straightforward, as are its implications for our nation. As succinctly explained by Ms. Winland: “The paper draws on a natural experiment created by Apple’s exclusive deal with AT&T. When the iPhone launched in June 2007, it was available only on AT&T’s network until February 2011, giving researchers a way to compare areas with different levels of early iPhone access.”

While this deal was fortuitous for the researchers, the consequences were disastrous for the nation’s birth rate. According to Myers and Hooper: The diffusion of the iPhone deepened the decline in births among women under 30 while suppressing the rise in births among older women. Overall, the diffusion of the iPhone explains 33–52% of the decline in the general fertility rate among women aged 15–44. National-survey evidence on time use and sexual behavior is consistent with the iPhone reducing in-person interactions, increasing pornography use, and reducing sexual frequency.

Importantly, Myers and Hooper are not asserting that the iPhone is the sole cause of the steep decline in America’s birth rate, which they cite as having dropped by 22 percent since 2007, again, the year of the iPhone’s introduction. For, as Winland notes, the researchers believe the nation’s record low birth rate of 53.1 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 “cannot be fully explained by the common explanations such as the Great Recession, increased access to contraception, rising housing and childcare costs, and delayed marriage.”

The researchers do argue that “studies imply that access to the iPhone reduced births by 4.5–8.0% at ages 15–19 and 3.2–6.6% at ages 20–24, with statistically significant but smaller declines among older cohorts.” (It is worth noting that the iPhone had a salubrious impact on reducing teen pregnancies; however, the enduring detrimental effects stemming from the loss of social interaction and its accompanying skills will be carried into the future by today’s teens.)

Anyone with a cursory acquaintance with Marshall McLuhan’s work will see his dictum, “the medium is the message,” at work here. Every new technology affects human beings, both in how they interact with that technology and in how they subsequently interact—or fail to interact—with other people by using it.

The math—specifically subtraction—is elementary: by spending more time in your virtual cocoon, you have less time for interacting with real human beings. One must therefore consider how much of the iPhone’s contribution to the birth dearth stems from the technology’s unconscious effects on its users. Indeed, unlike, say, birth control or a career choice, the iPhone is not being used deliberately to delay or prevent pregnancy. Rather, the birth dearth is exacerbated because the iPhone user is more rapt with the device and the stimulation it provides than by another person. After all, there are only so many hours in the day—and night.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/MrJohnJnr/status/2067995870952399138?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle June 17 2026

Jun 172026
 
 June 17, 2026  Posted by at 9:48 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  37 Responses »


Edward Hopper Chair Car 1965


• Hormuz Fears Ease As Trump, Ghalibaf Virtually Sign US-Iran Deal (ZH)
• Trump Calls on Putin to Reach Deal With Ukraine After Zelenskyy Meeting (ET)
• Hague Tribunal Rejects Ukraine’s Crimea Claims (RT)
• Grenell: DOJ Investigation of Newsom Began Under Biden Admin (Salgado)
• Senate Could Vote on Jay Clayton DNI Nomination Thursday (CTH)
• Scott Jennings, Ana Navarro, Robert De Niro and Michelle Obama (Warren Squire)
• UK Social Media Law ‘A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing’ – Musk (RT)
• Elon Musk To Sue German Broadcaster ZDF For ‘Outrageous Lies’ (RMX)
• Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Repeats a Warning Message (CTH)
• The Grievance Industry in America Has a World Cup Problem (CTH)
• 1000s Of Italian Protesters Demand Remigration In Rome (ZH)
• Where to Track (and Predict!) Your Congresscritter’s Insider Trades (Green)
• JD Vance Shuts Whoopi Goldberg DOWN (Sam J.)
• George Conway Is Back, and He’s Really, Really Gonna Get Trump (Spencer)

 


 

https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2066701232010362928?s=20 https://twitter.com/JesseBWatters/status/2066681754505683077?s=20

 


 


“.. But Energy Flows Remain Months From Normal”.

People can trust the flows will be restored, that’s all they need right now.

• Hormuz Fears Ease As Trump, Ghalibaf Virtually Sign US-Iran Deal (ZH)

President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf have virtually signed a peace deal to end the U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian ports, the general Gulf region, and begin 60 days of nuclear negotiations, according to CNN, citing US senior sources. The text of the so-called memorandum of understanding, a 14-point document that should lead to a two-month extension of the ceasefire and the start of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, has yet to be published.


But Trump stated overnight the deal terms will be released “pretty soon,” likely after the formal signing ceremony in Geneva on Friday. Trump, who is attending the G7 club summit in France, suggested that he would not attend the signing event at the end of the week. VP Vance is expected to lead the American delegation in Switzerland on Friday to formally sign an interim peace deal with Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. Trump pushed back on MSM reports that his administration is considering a $300 billion fund for Iran as part of an agreement to end the war.

“Iran has agreed to never have a Nuclear Weapon! Also, the story that the U.S. is paying Iran 300 million Dollars is Fake News, put out by the Dumocrats!!!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. Trump’s Truth Social comments came shortly after VP Vance the Iranians “could have access” to a $300 billion reconstruction fund. “That’s the sort of thing they could have access to, funded by the Gulf Coast coalition, so long as they honor their end of the obligation,” Vance told CBS News in an interview.

The interim peace deal signals a major diplomatic breakthrough, though Israel remains opposed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he and Trump “do not always see eye to eye.” Conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah continued Monday in southern Lebanon. With the Strait of Hormuz set to open on Friday, blockades and the clogged maritime chokepoint could soon be in the rearview mirror, but the effect on physical markets could last for months, if not longer.

Read more …

Trump understands Putin. And he’s not going to fight him.

• Trump Calls on Putin to Reach Deal With Ukraine After Zelenskyy Meeting (ET)

U.S. President Donald Trump kicked off his G7 summit meetings on June 16 in the French spa town of Évian-les-Bains, joining a roundtable discussion with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other G7 leaders. “We had a very good meeting,” Trump told reporters after the meeting. “Russia should make a deal. Russia has lost tremendous amounts of people and so has Ukraine.”Before the roundtable, Trump confirmed he also had a private discussion with Zelenskyy “I’m meeting with him again later on today,” he added. Trump made these comments during his bilateral meeting with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, on the sidelines of the G7 summit.


“I’m going to do whatever I can,” Trump said, to end the war in Ukraine. Trump said he wants to focus on Ukraine now, saying Iran will soon be “back in the rearview mirror.” When asked whether he would increase sanctions on Russia, Trump said the United States could reinstate sanctions now that the Strait of Hormuz is reopened. “Soon we’ll be able to do that, because the oil is now flowing,” Trump told reporters during a bilateral meeting with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on the sidelines of the G7 Summit.“We took sanctions off because obviously we’re not looking to impede the U.S, so we’re in a position to do that soon,” Trump added.

Washington eased sanctions on Russia in March, permitting purchases of Russian seaborne oil to address the energy supply shortage caused by the war in Iran. The Treasury Department later extended the sanctions waiver, which is set to expire on June 17. Leaders of the world’s seven largest advanced economies have gathered in Évian-les-Bains, a lakeside town in eastern France, from June 15 to June 17 for their annual summit. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Ukraine is stronger now than it was at last year’s G7 summit in Canada.

“Ukraine is in a different position,” von der Leyen said at a press conference in Evian on June 15. “Ukraine is holding the frontline and even partially regaining territory.” She also praised the speed at which Ukraine was becoming a top producer of advanced military equipment. “On the other hand, Russia is feeling the strain and pressure. Our sanctions are biting and cutting deep,” she added. In August 2025, Trump invited Putin to a meeting in Alaska to discuss a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. However, the meeting ended with no breakthrough. Before heading to France, Trump said he had spoken separately with both Putin and Zelenskyy on the phone on June 15.

“We had a very good conversation yesterday with President Zelenskiy and President Putin, and I think maybe we can do something there,” he said following his bilateral meeting with Macron on June 15. “I really do. I think they’re both open to it.” He said that now the Iran deal is finalized, “we’re going to be focusing on that.” On June 15, Ukraine officially began European Union membership negotiations, launching a process that will require its government to commit to years of political reforms even as it fights the Russian invasion. Ukraine sees EU membership as a security guarantee for a stable future once the war ends.

Read more …

“The ruling marks a “convincing victory” in a decade-long maritime dispute, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.”

• Hague Tribunal Rejects Ukraine’s Crimea Claims (RT)

A Hague-based arbitration tribunal has rejected Ukrainian maritime claims against Russia, including attempts to challenge Moscow’s sovereignty over Crimea and surrounding waters. Ukraine launched the case in 2016 before the Permanent Court of Arbitration under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Kiev argued that Crimea remained Ukrainian territory and claimed that the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait should be treated as international waters subject to UNCLOS rules. Crimea joined Russia following a 2014 referendum held after the Western-backed Maidan coup in Kiev.


In a statement on Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry described the tribunal’s final ruling, adopted unanimously by a panel of five arbitrators, as a “convincing victory” for Moscow. It said the tribunal rejected Ukraine’s demands for compensation and reparations related to natural resources around Crimea. According to the ministry, the tribunal also dismissed Kiev’s attempt to classify the Kerch Strait as an international waterway open to vessels of all states, including warships. Moscow said the ruling formally recognized the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov as Russia’s historic domestic waters.

The tribunal likewise rejected claims that Russia violated international law by asserting sovereignty over the Sea of Azov following the accession of the Donbass republics and the regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye. The largely Russian-speaking Donetsk and Lugansk republics, along with Kherson and Zaporozhye, joined Russia after referendums held in autumn 2022 amid the escalating Ukraine conflict. The ruling also dismissed Ukraine’s demand that the Crimean Bridge be dismantled. Kiev had argued that the crossing, built between 2016 and 2018 to link Crimea with mainland Russia, was illegal and hindered navigation through the Kerch Strait.

Moscow called the claim “absurd,” while the tribunal found Ukraine’s arguments unsubstantiated, according to the ministry.≥The bridge has repeatedly been targeted by Kiev using naval drones, explosives and Western-supplied long-range missiles, causing damage and civilian casualties. The ruling represents a significant “defeat” for Ukraine and its Western backers in the decade-long “legal war” against Russia, according to the ministry.

Read more …

This was even prominently featured in Dutch news; governor says Trumo chases him.

“The investigation of Gavin’s political money started in 2022.”

• Grenell: DOJ Investigation of Newsom Began Under Biden Admin (Salgado)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) made a series of sensational claims on Monday, accusing President Donald Trump‘s Department of Justice (DOJ) of personally targeting both him and his wife for no good reason. But according to a Trump administration official, the investigation involving the corrupt governor and his wife began under the Biden-Harris administration.


Special missions envoy Richard Grenell called Newsom’s bluff:

Newsom’s government is under a new investigation federal authorities launched into election fraud in California after evidence of bribery and ballot harvesting, along with stunning changes in state and city election results a week into “counting.” But when the Democrat governor griped on Monday about federal investigation into him and “First Partner” Jennifer Siebel Newsom, he was reportedly referring to investigations involving his staff and her taxes. And the Newsoms first came under investigation from the DOJ when the previous Democrat administration was in office.

As important context, Dana Williamson, Newsom’s former chief of staff and Democrat gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra’s former advisor, pleaded guilty in May to corruption-related charges. Grenell explained, “The investigation of Gavin’s political money started in 2022.”

Grenell also reposted the following information:

https://twitter.com/qc_cin/status/2066622313466921431?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2066622313466921431%7Ctwgr%5E8a738acde186e92ac44bedae551005b6901c1d93%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fcatherinesalgado%2F2026%2F06%2F15%2Fgrenell-doj-investigation-of-newsom-began-under-biden-administration-n4954009

But reality never inhibits Democrats. “Justice is for sale,” Newsom pontificated grandiosely in a video he posted June 15. He whined that the DOJ investigation of him now extends to his wife, who over the years has been involved in multiple scandals involving taxpayer money allocation and sexual grooming of children through school films. Newsom did not in the video describe any of the actual charges against him and his wife, which seems to support the criticism that he doesn’t have any good defense against them. Instead, Newsom rambled on with self-righteous assertions of integrity, emotional condemnations of the investigation into his wife, irrelevant facts about the Trump family’s net worth, and promotion of his own potential campaign for president.

Based on what Grenell said, however, there is nothing new about the investigations that Newsom finds so offensive. That begs the question: Why would he choose now to complain about them? Has the DOJ uncovered bombshell incriminating evidence involving his staff and wife?

Read more …

Sundance appears to suggest the IC (Deep State) did not approve of Bill Pulte for DNI.

• Senate Could Vote on Jay Clayton DNI Nomination Thursday (CTH)

To show a distinction between an approved IC candidate and an unapproved IC candidate, all you need to do is look at the contrast in the senate confirmation process, and the distinction between Bill Pulte and Jay Clayton. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), the entity that protects the interests of the DC Deep State, is going to hold a confirmation hearing for current USAO Jay Clayton on Wednesday afternoon. An SSCI vote is then likely within 12 hours, and a full Senate vote within 24 hours (Thursday). That’s the speed at which the Senate will move when they are in full control of the aperture.



Senate Majority Leader John Thune has already dispatched the request of President Trump to attach the Save America Act to the FISA (702) reauthorization vote that will likely happen as soon as Jay Clayton is confirmed. Again, this example outlines how the DC system moves when they -not the executive- control the functions of the Intelligence Community. If you watch the Thune statement above, please note the professional obfuscation. It is very important to understand and recognize the issues as they face our nation.

The government (DOJ/FBI) does not need any authorization from congress to conduct surveillance on foreign nationals. There is nothing needed to spy on, intercept, surveil, or track the activity of a foreign national. The foreign person does not have any constitutional protection at all. However, if an American is the target of secret surveillance, tracking, spying, etc., the DOJ/FBI need some method of authorization to violate the fourth amendment protection within the constitution. That’s where FISA (702) come into the picture.

FISA (702) only pertains to an American in the surveillance process. FISA (702) is the presumed legal method, never tested in court, that permits the DOJ and FBI to violate the 4th amendment protection of the American person. FISA (702) only pertains to a legislative construct that permits this secret surveillance of the American person. The Title-1 surveillance warrant that often comes with the 702-authorized review or investigation; is all encompassing and authorizes the government to secretly look at the private records of the targeted American.

If FISA (702) did not exist, all of the electronic record keeping, the stored metadata of Americans, would be worthless. FISA (702) is the key that allows the government to unlock the data (private records) and review it. Without the key, you cannot open the door – as a consequence, the U.S. government doesn’t need the vault. FISA (702) has never been tested in court by any targeted person, in part because the evidence against the accused person only exists for prosecutorial use if the person is factually guilty of the suspected allegation. This is the catch-22 that has permitted the 702 violations to continue without challenge.

It doesn’t matter how many times our politicians try to position the argument, there is nothing that stops the DOJ/FBI from looking at the activity of foreign actors. However, there are constitutional protections that stop the DOJ/FBI from looking at the activity of Americans. FISA (702) is designed specifically to work around those constitutional protections. It looks like Jay Clayton is on the fast-track to be confirmed on Thursday, and FISA (702) to be reauthorized immediately thereafter.

We are in an abusive relationship with our government.

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’Posters say this hatred that Democrats have for the country when they are out of power shows what they truly cherish. [Power]’

• Scott Jennings, Ana Navarro, Robert De Niro and Michelle Obama (Warren Squire)

Frequent CNN guest Ana Navarro joins the horde of Trump-haters who insist that calling Michelle Obama a man (aka transgender) is a slur. Why? You’ll have to ask these pro-transgenderism leftists to explain how something they view so positively can be applied as an insult to others. Shouldn’t it be a compliment if transgenderism is so wonderful and wholesome? Their so-called outrage makes no sense. Anyway, Navarro used the ‘controversy’ to drag Robert De Niro into her profanity-laced tirade on Monday’s CNN NewsNight.


Republican Scott Jennings represented all of us during Navarro’s ridiculous rant. (WATCH – LANGUAGE WARNING)

Questioning Michelle Obama’s sex pales into comparison to most things Democrats have called President Donald Trump and his supporters for more than ten years. Since Navarro brought up De Niro, Jennings criticized the actor for his ‘I can’t love this country’ speech at the Democrat Party’s lame resistance showcase on Sunday night.

Jennings explained: “I think you have to love your country, whether or not you lost the last election. I love America… According to some polling that came out this week, and most Republicans love America. Ninety percent are very proud to be Americans. They’re proud of living in this country. Unfortunately, I think Mr. De Niro’s comments are pretty indicative of a majority of Democrats who can’t seem to find that attitude inside them even though they lost the last election. And, you know, loving America, being a patriot for America, feeling good about America shouldn’t be dictated by whether you won or lost. When I hear De Niro, I hear him saying, “I can only love America if we win every election from here on out. That’s a rather fascist statement.”

We wouldn’t be surprised if his obituary reads like the one for the recently deceased ALF actress known for her ‘burning hatred for Trump.’Posters say this hatred that Democrats have for the country when they are out of power shows what they truly cherish.

Sadly, Democrats don’t seem to share your patriotic sentiment. According to that Gallup chart, they appear to mostly despise America even when they hold the reins of political power.

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“This censorship law is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The real goal is to enable the UK government to track everyone”. — Elon Musk

“We will become one of the first democracies in the world to require IDs to access the internet” – Big Brother Watch Director Silkie Carlo

• UK Social Media Law ‘A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing’ – Musk (RT)

The UK’s move to ban social media for under-16s is a ruse to implement digital surveillance of all internet users, X owner Elon Musk has declared, accusing the British government of building a “police state.” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the ban on Monday, promising that the measure would protect “the safety and happiness of our children.” Children under 16 will be barred from “user-to-user” platforms such as X, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, according to a statement from Starmer’s office. They will also be prohibited from livestreaming, messaging strangers through gaming apps, and using AI “romantic companion” chatbots. Meanwhile, 16- and 17-year-olds will be subject to nightly online curfews.


Messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Signal will be exempt from the ban, the statement added. The ban is expected to come into force next year. Shortly after Starmer’s announcement, Musk warned that “this censorship law is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” In a post on X, the billionaire claimed that its “real goal is to enable the UK government to track everyone.” In another post, Musk declared that “the UK is a police state.” In order to ban under-16s, the government must ensure that adults can verify their age before using social media platforms. Starmer’s office did not say how this would be implemented, instead stating that the government is exploring “different options for effective forms of age assurance.”

However, Starmer said that age verification would “use the same model for a social media ban as Australia.” Under the scheme, users must prove they are over 16 by submitting a government-issued ID or allowing a facial age check, with platforms responsible for carrying out the verification. The ban has been heavily criticized by digital rights activists. “Over 16s in the UK will have to hand over identity documents or biometric data to unregulated age verification companies,” the Open Rights Group warned, adding that “the government has completely failed to acknowledge the harms that could come from that.” “We will become one of the first democracies in the world to require IDs to access the internet,” Big Brother Watch Director Silkie Carlo told Talk TV on Monday. “We are sleepwalking towards a total surveillance state.”

Starmer has lobbied for the introduction of a mandatory digital ID system since last year, but was forced to drop the plan amid public backlash this January. His government, however, has plowed ahead with other digital surveillance and censorship measures, including the rollout of facial recognition cameras by multiple police departments at demonstrations, a request to tech companies to require adults to submit ID to use mobile phones, and legislation that will enable the government to remove content from social media “during times of crisis.”

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I hope they go bankrupt over it. They could and should have fired the people involved, and didn’t.

• Elon Musk To Sue German Broadcaster ZDF For ‘Outrageous Lies’ (RMX)

Elon Musk says he will sue German broadcaster ZDF for ‘outrageous lies’ after it claimed he had told Belfast rioters to ‘hunt migrants’ The German public broadcaster admitted its wording was “imprecise” and “misleading” Tech trillionaire Elon Musk has said he will take legal action against German public broadcaster ZDF after it linked him to unrest in Belfast and accused him of helping instigate a “hunt” against migrants.The dispute followed the attempted beheading of a man in Northern Ireland by a Sudanese migrant, which prompted British right-wing activist Tommy Robinson to call for nationwide protests.


Musk shared Robinson’s post on X and added, “Only through repeated and loud protests will anything change.” ZDF later used the incident in a segment on ZDFheute live, introducing it as part of a wider discussion about online agitation after violent crimes. Presenter Christina von Ungern-Sternberg said, A brutal attempted murder in broad daylight in Belfast. Someone films it. The video goes viral.

A racist mob then hunts down migrants. This was called for by a British far-right extremist and tech billionaire Elon Musk.”

She then asked, “What’s behind it? Which actors have an interest in using a violent crime to incite civil war?” The framing triggered criticism in Germany, including from journalists who said the broadcaster had gone beyond what Musk had actually written. Welt journalist Anna Schneider said, “ZDF is attributing a statement to Musk that he never made.”NDR editor Sebastian Eberle also criticized the segment, writing on X, “Dear colleagues in Mainz, with all due respect, this is unacceptable. We cannot and must not work like this. This is completely unacceptable.”

ZDF later acknowledged that the wording in the segment had been flawed. Asked by Nius about the controversy, a ZDF spokesperson said, “The presenter was supposed to succinctly summarize the complex situation of the violently escalating protests and the previous calls for protests on X at the beginning of the very comprehensive and nuanced 30-minute program. However, the chosen wording was imprecise and therefore misleading.”The broadcaster said Robinson had called for protests after the Belfast knife attack and that Musk had shared the post.

Musk responded on Monday by saying he would pursue legal action against the broadcaster. “Legal action is being taken against ZDF for their outrageous lies,” he wrote on X. This isn’t the first time this year the broadcaster has been enveloped in controversy for its reporting. Back in February, the same program was forced to issue an on-air apology after it was found to have broadcast a segment containing AI-generated footage depicting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arresting a migrant family. “We invest a great deal of effort to provide you with verified information. This time, we failed to do so,” it said at the time.

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5 Eyes Countries.

• Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Repeats a Warning Message (CTH)

Telegram founder Pavel Durov is one voice who has been consistent in his message about how western countries have become increasingly authoritarian in their efforts to retain power and control. Durov is the real deal; the John Galt within the mechanisms of digital communication. The principle under attack is freedom, and the recent examples of internet and social media control via age verification are steps within this process.


Durov notes these moments are like the early stages of the Titanic after hitting the iceberg, where people aboard the ship did not quite realize the scope of the danger around them. Take the time to listen to what Durov shares with specific examples and citations to back up his warning. Well worth the time. Pavel Durov shares how Telegram emerged from a commitment to free expression and why defending digital freedom is central to protecting human rights today.

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I love the way Sundance loves America. Find someone who loves your country that way.

As for his praise of American food, hey, as long as I don’t have to eat it…

• The Grievance Industry in America Has a World Cup Problem (CTH)

The professional grievance industry embedded within media, podcasting and punditry in America has a problem; a World Cup problem. Hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world are discovering just how amazing the United States is, and they can’t stop raving about it on social media. The grievance class are being forced to take a break as their normally loud, shrieking voices are being drowned out by happy sounds, songs of joy, jubilance even. Flags are waving, people are smiling and that pesky American exceptionalism is visible all over the place.


Yup, there’s visible patriotism everywhere and its being compounded by Freedom 250 events, celebrating 250 years of just being awesome America. Not only is the American flag being celebrated, but ironically European national flags are being waved everywhere in celebration of nationalism – and the people waving them don’t have to worry about being harassed by police or being arrested for it. This is a new experience for young Europeans and they are overwhelmed. The joy is evident and it’s more than a little awesome to see all of the videos capturing the thrill of it all. As one observer noted in a moment of contemplation, heck, this country didn’t even need to build anything to host the FIFA World Cup, they just changed the electronic displays on the modern billboards.

“Qatar built stadiums from scratch, constructed a complete metro system, redesigned roads, hotels, and entire neighborhoods—even after the event ended, they said they were going to give away a stadium because they had one to spare. South Africa had to erect new stadiums, parking lots, and massive infrastructure projects; it was a multi-billion-dollar investment that ate up part of its GDP. Brazil burned through billions on infrastructure and ended up with a president in jail for corruption (Lula); in the end, construction was still underway when the event kicked off. Russia remodeled half the country to measure up, and even then, the infrastructure deficiencies—from transportation to other areas—were still glaring.

And the United States? They just changed the grass in a few stadiums. Period. Nothing else. No megaprojects, no monumental works, no “reinventing” cities. And this happens because when you already have world-class infrastructure, the World Cup isn’t a problem—it’s just a formality.”

In American reality, the SEC football stadiums could have hosted the entire World Cup event all by themselves; easy peasy. Why? Because we are the greatest nation on the face of the earth, and all of those inhabitants are experiencing it in real life. This America thing is, actually, awesome. All of it. There are great American eagles flying around. Massive, thundering jets booming just above the audience. Rockets exploding with great fireworks and exhibitions of colorful explosions accompanied by music. Every sense is overwhelmed, and yet to an American, it’s just another Tuesday.

The great American podcast business is being drowned out by all this international optimism; it is very funny to witness. The voices of the American critics cannot begin to break through the noise and jubilation in the background, and the happy people just won’t shut up. How are these grievance-class podcasters supposed to make money, when their best level Mark Levin bitching and griping screeches are not loud enough? There’s a certain funny unfairness about it all. Making matters worse, the jubilation is not limited to soccer games. The happy people are starting to attend ordinary American activities like baseball games, rodeos, car and boat races and then the national parks and beaches. Jumpin’ ju-ju-bones, all of this is not what they expected.

https://twitter.com/lovetocook12345/status/2066477816657424715?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2066477816657424715%7Ctwgr%5Ef7a77ff6a984a9482dc4a45a3575f7ee7b2d8b32%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2026%2F06%2F15%2Fthe-grievance-industry-in-america-has-a-world-cup-problem%2F

At the same time, the happy people have realized America is a massive country. They are flying around and driving for hours only to realize they haven’t even left a few states yet…. and there’s 50 of them? OMG you cannot be serious. This is America. This is the America the great American grievance class have forgotten to appreciate. This is also the America their local media back home lied to them about. The happy people were told that everything over here was fraught with drugs, gangs and terrible dirty stuff. America was Gotham City. Except it isn’t. It is not any of that. America is clean, organized and fun. The American people are friendly, beyond generous and all-around awesome.

The Happy People are encountering everyday Americans. Middle American people who don’t need passports because there’s no reason to leave this amazing country – because all of the best stuff in the rest of the world is available right here without taking a trip. Keep in mind that for Europeans coming out of the COVID era, their entire life existence is constructed around keeping their global footprint as small as possible. America is not that, at all. The American food is big and tasty; the American stores are a hundred-fold larger than anything the Happy People have ever experienced. The roads are easy to travel. Everything is modern and the internet speed is way faster than anything at home. Technology exists at a scale that is far deeper than anything they expected.

This is America.We are Americans, and a new generation is gaining appreciation for why Lady Liberty can stroll along the Champs-Elysées with a swagger befitting Mae West; because without her arrival, they’d be speaking German in the Louvre. For the better part of the past few decades a group of intellectuals and influencers have been promoting an insufferable storyline that it’s better to be sitting around a campfire eating sustainable algae cakes and picking parasites off each other. Enough. We are Americans. When I hear Donald Trump say, “Let’s Make America Great Again”, I also hear the familiar echo “cowboy up” people.

It’s high time we stop being embarrassed about our exceptional nature, and start being proud of it again. Because when it matters most, when it really counts, when it’s really needed, there’s a whole bunch of people all around this world of ours that need to feel the type of optimism that walks with a swagger. And right now, there’s thousands of non-Americans experiencing and realizing why that swagger exists.

That my friends, is pretty darned cool.

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1000s is nothing. It would have to be hundreds of 1000s. It will be.

• 1000s Of Italian Protesters Demand Remigration In Rome (ZH)

A demonstration of several thousand people took place in Rome on Saturday to advocate for remigration and stricter controls on immigration. Coming from various regions across Italy, a crowd of roughly 3,000 individuals paraded through the nation’s capital behind a prominent sign declaring “Remigration and Recapture,“ a slogan used to call for the mandatory deportation of migrants back to their countries of origin.

https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/2066113895253647389?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2066113895253647389%7Ctwgr%5E3918d20914048eeeb1381e61905ee4648960972d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frmx.news%2Farticle%2Fitaly-thousands-of-protesters-demand-remigration-in-rome%2F


The march drew participation from various right-wing organizations, including Casapound. According to Luca Marsella, a spokesman for Casapound, their objective is clear. “We want to throw out the illegal immigrants because they shouldn’t be here.” He further noted that their demands extend beyond those without legal status, adding, “And because we are not politically correct, we also say that we want to send home the legal immigrants who have obviously not adapted or integrated.”

https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/2066125120565850455?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2066125120565850455%7Ctwgr%5E3918d20914048eeeb1381e61905ee4648960972d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frmx.news%2Farticle%2Fitaly-thousands-of-protesters-demand-remigration-in-rome%2F

Concurrently, Rome hosted the inaugural party congress for Futuro Nazionale (National Future), a newly established right-wing political group organized by Roberto Vannacci, a former general who now serves as an MEP. Speaking to reporters at a press conference, Vannacci expressed an uncompromising stance on border control, asserting, “If it were up to me, no one should be allowed to enter Italy.” Vannacci previously aligned with the anti-immigration League Party party led by Vice Prime Minister Matteo Salvini. His political emergence means that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, leader of the right-wing Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia), alongside her coalition allies, will contend with fresh rivals on the right.

Public opinion polls suggest that Futuro Nazionale could capture 4.5 percent of the electorate, drawing its strongest support from citizens who previously voted for League. Vannacci’s movement already possesses a foothold in the legislature, as eight sitting parliamentarians have already defected to join his ranks.The issue of migration is a contentious one, with migrants responsible for 43 percent of sexual crimes and 60 percent of robberies and thefts. Just days ago, two Pakistani men were arrested for allegedly burning alive four Pakistani nationals after the men demanded better wages for agricultural work.

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“56% of every stock purchase made by Congress in the last 16 months was on a stock directly affected by a bill the buyer later voted on.”

• Where to Track (and Predict!) Your Congresscritter’s Insider Trades (Green)

Want to find out how much money your congresscritter makes from insider trading? Ever been curious to see the correlation between bills, votes, big-money donations, and shockingly handsome investment returns? Would you be interested in an A.I. geared to predict lucrative congressional trades before they happen? There’s a website for that. It’s called GovGreed, and it’s an AI-powered search engine that “fuses [machine learning], deep learning, and 7 intelligence layers to predict which politicians will trade — and in which sectors — before the 45-day disclosure window even opens.”


Over on X, Ricardo dug into the “crazy” numbers and found that “56% of every stock purchase made by Congress in the last 16 months was on a stock directly affected by a bill the buyer later voted on.” Worse — or better, if you’re a member of America’s insider-trading nomenklatura — Ricardo also revealed that “343 of 540 Congress members actively trade stocks while holding access to nonpublic legislative information.” vBut wait, there’s more. bGovGreed’s AI identified 752 “triple signals” in the sitting Congress. A triple signal is when a congresscritter sits on the committee writing a bill, “they traded stock in a company affected by that bill, AND they received campaign contributions from that same industry.”

Triple signals trade at 5.4 times the normal rate of congressional trades, he found. In other words, Congress isn’t just trading on insider information. Congress generates the information, influenced by donations from the very companies whose futures are written by Congress. The result? While the S&P 500 so far is on track to generate a 10.8% return in 2026, Congressional traders earned 10.2% in the last 30 days, according to the site. You’ve probably long suspected all this, but GovGreed put it all in one AI-enhanced searchable database. There’s a subscription required to get to all the good stuff, and I’m debating right now whether to whip out my credit card.

Democrats like California’s dynamic trading duo, Nancy Pelosi and Ro Khanna, made some of the biggest returns, but plenty of Republicans are in on the game, too. The STOCK Act requires congresscritters to report their trades, but Ricardo found that Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), the fourth-ranking Republican in the House, “made 1,443 trades in three years, more than 98% of all politicians tracked,” and also “violated the STOCK Act twice in a single year, disclosing up to $900,000 in trades months after the legal deadline.” The penalty for violating the STOCK Act is a $200 fine, because Congress writes the rules that Congress has to live by. “The number of Congress members ever prosecuted under the STOCK Act since it passed in 2012? Zero,” notes Ricardo.

Probably the only real solution is to start electing a better class of people to Congress, which is more than a little like saying, “I bet instead of messing with those big dangerous rockets, we could just all wish a permanent moon base into existence.” When Mark Twain wrote in 1894 that “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress,” he was likely being uncharacteristically generous in his estimation for an elected office he also called “the trivialist distinction for a full grown man.” So if we ever do get that Article V Convention of States — which both fills me with hope and wakes me with night sweats — I have a modest proposal for the convention to consider.

It’s a rule of thumb that individual investors hope, over the long term, to earn a 7% return on their investments. I propose that instead of passing ethics laws that the most unethical people in the country will circumvent, we amend the Constitution to tax any congresscritter investment returns above 7% at 100%. And all revenues would go to deficit reduction. Nancy Pelosi alone could put a nice little dent in our national debt. Anyway, that’s my modest proposal. What’s yours?

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Crazy, crazier, Whoopi.

• JD Vance Shuts Whoopi Goldberg DOWN (Sam J.)

Vice President JD Vance pushed back forcefully during his Tuesday appearance on ‘The View,’ shutting down Whoopi Goldberg’s claims that the Trump administration is casting aside Black Americans and stigmatizing people of color. We all knew this would be a ‘hoot,’ but man, Whoopi went even crazier than we thought she would.


When the co-host tried to frame the administration’s focus on law and order as some kind of racial slight, Vance countered with a clear example: Washington, D.C.—one of the most Democratic cities in the country and among those with the highest share of Black residents—has seen a sharp drop in violent crime, sexual assaults, and murders. He stressed that serious efforts to make neighborhoods safer apply to everyone, regardless of race or background, and that the usual race-baiting script no longer lands with people who simply want results. This is so good – watch:

https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/2066913357777514961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2066913357777514961%7Ctwgr%5E6fb6a5d0a9133934e2732a39ea1ebb93bbd935ae%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fsamj%2F2026%2F06%2F16%2Fjd-vance-shuts-whoopi-goldberg-down-for-claiming-trump-is-casting-black-people-aside-watch-n2429310

Post continues:” … of the BLACKEST—by share of population—cities, has seen a RADICAL decrease in violent crime and sexual assault and murders. We have tried to take the crime issue seriously in part because we believe EVERYBODY, whether you are black or white or rich or poor, deserves to live in a safe neighborhood.” The race hustling is TOTAL BS. And it doesn’t work on reasonable people anymore.

Love to see it.

Unless, of course, you’re Whoopi.

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The oddest couple in the world divorced! Makes me sad.

• George Conway Is Back, and He’s Really, Really Gonna Get Trump (Spencer)

Remember George Conway? No, not Tim Conway. George Conway. Yeah, both short and pudgy, and both funny, but only Tim was intentionally funny. George Conway, whose sole claim to fame ever since his 2023 divorce from former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway has been his all-consuming hatred of President Donald Trump, now seems to think that Trump-hatred can propel him all the way to the Congress of the United States. Yes, one of the left’s most vicious and irrational Trump-haters wants the voters of New York to send him to Congress. And since they’re voters from New York, they just might do it.


Conway has made no secret of what he will do if he does get to the House. That’s right: Conway’s program from first to last is Get Trump. Fox News reported Monday that Conway “is pledging to pursue President Donald Trump’s third impeachment and put him ‘away for good’ if elected to Congress.”

Yeah, the third time will be the charm, eh, George? The mere fact that someone — anyone — is talking about a third impeachment of Trump is an indication of how deranged the Democrats have become. The republic was preparing to celebrate its bicentennial when we had our second president who was ever in danger of being impeached, and he (Richard Nixon) resigned before the House voted on the articles of impeachment. The third impeachment of a president came just under a quarter-century later, and now George Conway wants the nation to go through its third such proceeding in a decade, all of the same man.

It’s clear that for the staggeringly corrupt Democrat establishment, impeachment is no longer a tool of last resort to deal with a president who is accused of committing “high crimes and misdemeanors,” as the Constitution puts it, but an everyday tool to try to destroy the man whom they can’t defeat at the ballot box (unless they cheat, of course). If Conway gets his third impeachment and it fails yet again, but the Democrats control the House, they’ll try a fourth time, and a fifth, and on and on and on.

Conway may not get his chance to vote to impeach the man he loathes with such passionate intensity. He is running for the seat that Jerry Nadler is vacating, and it’s a crowded field. Paradoxically, his long-ago support for Trump could be the biggest obstacle to persuading the people who voted for Zohran Mamdani to send him to Congress.

Nevertheless, Conway is in there pitching, appealing to the Democrats with what he is sure is a winning formula: not talking about how he will work to improve the quality of life of his constituents, but about how he will get Orange Man Bad. In a campaign commercial, he even addressed Trump instead of the voters. “Hi, Donald,” Conway chirped. “It’s me, George Conway. I cost you 88 f*****g million dollars, and I’ve only just gotten started.”

Turning up the threats and braggadocio to 11, Conway added: “I know you like putting your name on everything from your plane to the Kennedy Center. But the only thing your name is going to be left on when I’m done with you is the orange jumpsuit you’re going to have to wear in prison.”

At this point, you might be wondering exactly what crime Conway thinks Trump has committed that is going to land him in prison, especially in light of the fact that none of the Democrats’ previous lawfare frame-ups of the man they love to hate succeeded in doing so. But Conway didn’t even bother to explain. The Democrats have moved so far beyond rationality at this point that they don’t even need to spend the time and energy fabricating a crime that they did with the Russia hoax. They’ll impeach Trump for whatever crime anyone can think of. The charge doesn’t matter; besmirching and destroying the president does.

Conway pointed to the Capitol as he continued: “And you see that building back there. That’s where we’re going to hold your third and final impeachment trial, the one that’s going to put you away for good, and I’m going to enjoy every minute of that.”

A White House spokesperson responded with a message that sounded as if it came from Trump himself: “Lightweight George Conway is a stupid person’s idea of a smart person. His severe and debilitating disease known as Trump Derangement syndrome has melted his brain and made him crazy in the head.”

The good news is that this lunatic is currently polling fourth in his congressional race, behind Assemblymen Micah Lasher and Alex Bores, D-N.Y., as well as Jack Schlossberg, who hates Trump as much as the next guy but has an altogether different claim to fame, as he is JFK’s grandson. Any of these guys will be a disaster in Congress, but none would be quite as spectacularly disastrous as George Conway.

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https://twitter.com/niccruzpatane/status/2066508591415140703?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle June 15 2026

Jun 152026
 
 June 15, 2026  Posted by at 10:15 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  36 Responses »


Robert Campin A man 1435


• Trump Announces Peace Deal with Iran Is Complete (Margolis)
• Trump: Hormuz To Reopen Friday After Signing Of “Great Peace Deal” (ZH)
• Iran Reveals Draft Of Trump-Touted MoU To Be Signed Sunday (ZH)
• Scott Jennings Hammers CNN Panel Over Elon Musk Trillionaire Status (Amy Curtis)
• Bakari Sellers Calls Elon Musk a White Supremacist (Margolis)
• Elon Musk and the Politics of Envy (Tim O’Brien)
• Carney: “Middle Powers” Can Collectively Counterbalance U.S. Global Power (CTH)
• Pompeo Unmasked (CTH)
• Buttigieg Joins the Calls to Take Over the Supreme Court (Turley)
• ‘Birth Tourism’ Networks Around the World Exploiting the U.S. (Salgado)
• Puffy Putin Peril: The West’s Latest Attempt To Scare Itself (Amar)
• Thinking for Oneself: Schopenhauer on Reflection vs. Regurgitation (Eskeldson)

 


 

https://twitter.com/Samdani4232/status/2065834962687873189?s=20 https://twitter.com/BarronTNews_/status/2065789421379572045?s=20 https://twitter.com/Real_RobN/status/2065854007722311794?s=20 https://twitter.com/FarmGirlCarrie/status/2065912335248826563?s=20

 


 


What a way to spend your 80th birthday! He did it! Hats off. So many people wanted him to fail even if it was against their own interests, just to spite him.

• Trump Announces Peace Deal with Iran Is Complete (Margolis)

On Sunday, President Donald Trump announced that a peace deal with Iran had been finalized, immediately lifting the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports and reopening the Strait of Hormuz to global shipping. The region that has defined American foreign policy anxiety for decades just changed dramatically — and it happened on Trump’s watch. “The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, offering “congratulations to all!” He followed that up by authorizing what he called the “toll-free opening of the Strait of Hormuz” alongside the simultaneous removal of the naval blockade. Then, in classic Trump fashion, he added, “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”


Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirmed the deal in a statement of his own. He announced that “the Peace Deal between the United States of America and Islamic Republic of Iran has been REACHED” after what he described as “intensive talks.” He continued, “We would like to thank the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran for their commitment to finding a diplomatic solution to the conflict. We would also like to extend our sincere appreciation to our brothers in this mediation effort, the great leadership of State of Qatar, for their support in reaching this agreement. I would also especially thank the visionary leadership of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Republic of Türkiye for their immense contributions in this regard.”

A formal signing ceremony is scheduled for June 19 in Switzerland, with mediators facilitating preliminary technical meetings this week to lay the groundwork.Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi confirmed the deal from Tehran’s side, saying an immediate and permanent halt to war and military operations — including in Lebanon — would begin Sunday. He also made clear that Iran would respond if the other side violates its commitments and that the next phase of negotiations hinges on Iranian assets being unfrozen. Make no mistake about it, Tehran is going to test the limits of this thing. That’s what Iran does. But the framework is there, and the verification mechanisms matter.

Vice President JD Vance laid out the significance on Sunday on Fox News. “Three things that I think are important for the American people just to appreciate about what this deal does for all of us as Americans,” Vance said. “Number one, this is the immediate opening of the Straits of Hormuz and, of course, the lifting of the naval blockade that we’ve had on Iran along with it. The number two thing that it means is that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, and not just pursue a nuclear weapon, but procure or try to buy a nuclear weapon as well that’s built into this agreement.”

The third element, Vance explained, depends on Iranian compliance. Still, the upside is enormous. “If the Iranians comply with this deal, it is going to fundamentally transform the Middle East for the next 50 years,” he said. “It’s going to end the war. It’s going to make the Middle East more investable. It’s going to mean a lot of prosperity, lower energy prices for the American people. This region of the world has been a basket case for my entire life and longer than that.”

Obviously, there’s still work ahead. And there’s reason to be skeptical of Iran because this is a regime with a long history of buying time while running out the clock. But, we aren’t sending them plane-loads of cash in the dark of night, or giving them a path to nuclear weapons, as Barack Obama did. And that’s the key here. Trump built in verification. Vance was explicit that the benefits flow only if Iran delivers. The approach is trust nothing, verify everything, and tie every concession to compliance. That’s exactly the kind of deal the Obama-era Iran agreement was never structured to be.

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“Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, also confirmed: “that the Peace Deal between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been REACHED.”

• Trump: Hormuz To Reopen Friday After Signing Of “Great Peace Deal” (ZH)

“This Great Deal will bring Peace and Security to the whole Region. Many presidents have tried to make Peace with Iran, and all have failed before me. The Leaders of the Region have, for the first time, found a President who can help them achieve real Peace. With the opening of the Strait upon the signing of the Deal on Friday, for purposes of mine removal, oil will flow on both ends again for the Region, and the World!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.


The timing of the peace deal is critical. The world was approaching a dangerous energy cliff, with strategic petroleum reserves being quickly drained to offset lost Gulf production and stabilize physical markets. Still, even with a deal in place, energy flows through the strategic maritime chokepoint will not normalize overnight. It will likely take several months, if not quarters, to clear the backlog, restore shipping confidence, de-risk insurance markets, and bring regional production and export flows back to pre-crisis levels. As for damaged energy assets such as those in Qatar, it’ll take years to get production back to pre-war levels.

Deal Confirmed By Trump, Pakistan PM, Just Ahead Of NY Futures Opening. Just 30 minutes before futures open in New York, President Trump announced on Truth Social that a “Deal” with Iran is now complete. “Congratulations to all! I hereby fully authorize the toll-free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” Trump said.

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, also confirmed: “that the Peace Deal between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been REACHED.”

Sharif said, “The official signing ceremony will be on Friday, 19 June in Switzerland.”

Israeli journalist and Iran affairs correspondent/analyst for Israel’s Channel 14 reports that hardliners in Iran, including IRGC forces, will not derail the peace deal.

Read more …

From the lead-up to the accord.

• Iran Reveals Draft Of Trump-Touted MoU To Be Signed Sunday (ZH)

Bloomberg and Reuters are reporting Sunday some fresh details on Iran’s version of what the MoU to be signed – which President Trump says will happen today (albeit remotely) will inlcude. “A draft of the US-Iran memorandum of understanding included diluting highly enriched uranium within Iran and the release of $25b of Iran’s frozen assets, Reuters reports citing a senior Iran official it didn’t identify,” writes Bloomberg in the latest. This includes:


• Final deal to be discussed in the 60 days following agreement by the two sides
• Also includes Iran immediately reopening Hormuz Strait to all commercial vessels and US lifting its naval blockade
• Tehran in draft agrees that will neither produce nor acquire nuclear weapons
• To maintain the nuclear status quo until final deal is reached, including by not enriching uranium and not expanding nuclear facilities

One potential major complication to the two sides actually signing is what’s happening in the Beirut suburbs, which the Israeli Air Force has just struck for the first time in about a week:

Provocative Israeli military actions previously effectively torpedoed prior Washington-Tehran attempts to get back to the negotiating table. Will the same hold-up happen again? Pro-Israel supporters and lobbyists in the US have been raging against what they see as a ‘failure’ of a deal, and ‘capitulation’ to Iran on kicking the can on the nuclear issue… not least among them is on display in the following:

The usual caveats which proved all prior ‘deal imminent’ headlines to be premature and wishful thinking still apply. Some latest from Iranian state media according to Al Jazeera: “Iran’s Fars news agency, citing a source close to the negotiating team, is reporting that Iranian officials were discussing the ceasefire points with the Qatari mediators in Tehran. The report added that the deal is yet to be finalised and “no agreement will definitely be signed at the time Trump announced”. The comments were made to the agency prior to Israel’s deadly attacks on Lebanon’s southern suburbs today.

Sunday Iran Deal (or rather: MoU Remote Signing) Expected Sunday, per Trump. President Trump said Saturday that an interim U.S.-Iran deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and wind down the four-month conflict could be signed as soon as Sunday. However, Tehran has pushed back on that timeline, signaling that no final decision has been made while Iranian officials continue to review the terms of a potential memorandum of understanding. “The Deal is scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Saturday, while claiming that Iran “no longer wants a Nuclear weapon.”

The president continued, “At the appropriate time, when all is calm, we will go in and get the Nuclear Dust, buried deep under the powerful sunken granite mountains, thanks to our beautiful B-2 Bombers and their brilliant pilots, and downblend and destroy it, whether in Iran, or the United States.” Pakistan and Qatar are mediating, with technical talks expected to follow any signing and last up to 60 days. The MOU is structured as a step-by-step framework, meaning the Hormuz maritime chokepoint will reopen first, followed by economic rewards for Iran as conditions are met.

Pakistan, which has served as one of the mediators, is preparing to sign the peace deal electronically, followed by technical-level talks next week, according to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. He said those talks would last two months and focus on Iran’s nuclear program. Meanwhile, the Iranian media outlet Fars News Agency reported earlier that Iran has not made a final call on a potential MOU with the U.S. Iranian authorities are still reviewing the political, legal, and technical details, with no final decision announced as of Sunday morning.

The urgency behind securing an MOU to reopen the Hormuz chokepoint is clear: the world is drifting dangerously close toward an energy cliff. Strategic petroleum reserves are being drawn down rapidly around the world to offset the loss of Gulf production, while China’s weakening fuel demand is helping to offset some of the broader supply shock. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi made clear Friday that Iran understands that terms related to its nuclear program will be finalized within 60 days of the initial agreement being signed. So in essence, this means Iran could get its wish of pushing nuclear negotiations back, only after the hot conflict has clearly ended. Iran has long sought to separate the issues of a final end to the war from consideration of its nuclear program.

Energy markets priced in de-escalation last week, with Brent crude futures sliding as much as 5.1% Friday and European gas dropped as much as 8.4% after Trump canceled planned new strikes on Iran. IG’s weekend markets are pricing in a 50 bps decline in Brent crude when futures open on Sunday evening. But throughput traffic through the Hormuz chokepoint remains far below pre-war levels, and a vessel was struck off Oman on Saturday. Normalization could take weeks, if not many months. Bloomberg noted, “Roughly 140 ships passed through the narrow chokepoint each day before the conflict erupted.”

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“If Elon Musk had never gotten involved in politics, and never supported Trump, he’d be getting ticker tape parades right now for building this amazing company and sending rockets into space..”

• Scott Jennings Hammers CNN Panel Over Elon Musk Trillionaire Status (Amy Curtis)

While Leftists melt down over Elon Musk becoming the world’s first trillionaire, they’ve demonstrated that they don’t understand how value works, or stocks, or how the economy works. Scott Jennings pointed out a very obvious truth: if Elon Musk were a Leftist, this wouldn’t be an issue.



“Are you saying because Elon Musk exists and is a wild success that that is somehow to the detriment of all the people you’re mentioning?” Jennings asked. “Elon is creating an environment where entrepreneurship, where success, where building is celebrated.” Then came the truth bomb. “The only reason anybody’s mad about this, let’s just be honest, is because he supported Donald Trump for President,” Jennings said.

“If Elon Musk had never gotten involved in politics, and never supported Trump, he’d be getting ticker tape parades right now for building this amazing company and sending rockets into space. It’s all political, and the people who should love Elon Musk hate him for that reason.” “But do you agree that one person should have control of American policy?” asked Gina Hinojosa. “That’s what money does.”

“It’s all about access to the United States,” she continued, “It’s not just about Donald Trump. There are races all across the country where he has access on policy.” “Call me when you’re made about Soros,” Jennings said.Do people with money have more influence in politics? Does CNN have a chyron for this? That’s how it’s always been. If money influenced policy, we’d have President Ross Perot. Hillary Clinton raised $770 million in 2016 and Kamala Harris raised $1.6 billion for her campaign.

https://twitter.com/wxmel/status/2066178897012490748?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2066178897012490748%7Ctwgr%5E8aab5d0d89583224ad4976df81987866feaa71be%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftownhall.com%2Ftipsheet%2Famy-curtis%2F2026%2F06%2F14%2Fscott-jennings-hammers-cnn-panel-over-elon-musk-trillionaire-status-n2677733

Clean vehicles, clean energy sources, space exploration, and Internet access via Starlink. Those are just some of his achievements and contributions. Bingo. If he funded Leftist causes and politicians, this wouldn’t be an issue.

https://twitter.com/Sinnersaint39/status/2066185825411273006?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2066185825411273006%7Ctwgr%5E8aab5d0d89583224ad4976df81987866feaa71be%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftownhall.com%2Ftipsheet%2Famy-curtis%2F2026%2F06%2F14%2Fscott-jennings-hammers-cnn-panel-over-elon-musk-trillionaire-status-n2677733

It doesn’t matter what the narrative is today, as long as the Democrats can scream and whine about the “oligarchy” and against Donald Trump, Republicans, and anyone who isn’t their political ally.

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Sure.

• Bakari Sellers Calls Elon Musk a White Supremacist (Margolis)

A CNN panel meant to discuss extraordinary wealth lurched far off the rails Friday night when one commentator went into full-on slander mode on Elon Musk, who became the world’s first trillionaire this week. He’s been getting attacked from the left for his success because that’s what the left does. Well, that and fantasize about spending other people’s money, which is exactly what CNN contributor Cari Champion started with. “If you spent a million dollars every single day, it would take you more than 2700 years to spend a trillion dollars,” Champion said.


“What you could effectively do with a trillion dollars is get rid of global poverty. You could end world hunger, you could cure major diseases like malaria, and you could completely transition the global energy sector to renewables. The fact that he has this type of money only tells me that his power will be more prevalent and that I could not — I cannot guarantee someone like this man would use his power for good.” Then Bakari Sellers took things further. After blaming Elon Musk’s influence for USAID cuts that he claimed killed thousands of women and children, Sellers leveled a charge that sent the panel into a frenzy: “Elon Musk is a white supremacist who believes in things like the —”

Criminal defense attorney Arthur Aidala jumped in. “Oh, boy,” Aidala said. “I wasn’t even finished a sentence,” Sellers shot back. Scott Jennings had a warning ready for Sellers. “You may need a lawyer when this is over,” he quipped. Sellers pressed on. Musk “believes in things like the Great Replacement Theory,” he said. But Aidala pushed back hard. “Considering we have about 12 defamation cases in my office right now,” he said, “before you start throwing things around like someone’s a white supremacist — I would win that case.”

He’s right. Democrats and the media often label mainstream conservative arguments about immigration and electoral incentives as “great replacement theory” and imply racism, but it’s not like Democrats haven’t made the very argument that, because of declining birth rates, the United States needed immigration to sustain population growth and the workforce. “We have a population that is not reproducing on its own with the same level that it used to. The only way we’re going to have a good future in America is if we welcome and embrace immigrants,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in 2022. But I digress.

In fact, Jennings cut through the whole exercise with a few pointed questions. “I’ve been listening to liberals count and spend Elon’s money for him,” Jennings said. “This envy, jealousy, hatred of success. Why is it immoral? Why is it wrong for somebody in our system — our capitalist system, in the greatest nation on earth, to go out and build a company — build companies, build technologies, go into space, aim to go put a colony on Mars, give internet to half the world. All the things he’s doing. Why is any of this wrong or bad? Why would we want to discourage entrepreneurship? Why would we want to discourage anybody building anything? That is the nature of it.”

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“Since the signs were pre-printed and funded by the usual funders of anything good for America …”

• Elon Musk and the Politics of Envy (Tim O’Brien)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know by now that with SpaceX’s Initial Public Offering (IPO), Elon Musk has become the world’s first trillionaire. The implications of this for all of us and our grandchildren are many and far-reaching. Of course, the left has found a way to narrow it all down to one simple idea: “His money is our money, or it should be.” That’s not the way they say it. What leftists actually are saying is he doesn’t pay enough in taxes. Why? For the sole reason that he’s rich. If you’re a leftist, rich people are never paying “their fair share.”


This is the politics of envy, and if you study the vast majority of leftist messaging at any time on any topic, envy is a critical component. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that if the Democrats, and the left at large, decided to quit being jealous of the right, the left would die as a movement in less than 24 hours. Envy is the lifeblood of leftist politics, and Musk is merely their latest, biggest, and most convenient target. But it’s worth being reminded that to the left, you are no different than Elon Musk. Let me explain. The left is miserable when you’re happy. It feels entitled to be the only source of your happiness, but it has no desire to make you happy. Rather, it simply wants to control how happy it will allow you to be.

You saw this during the COVD-19 pandemic when the left rationed aspects of your previous life to you in small portions. The desire to control you in this way came from a fear that you might find a way to be happy in spite of conditions, in this case a pandemic. The thoroughness with which arbitrary measures were taken to deny you the simplest of pleasures was rooted in envy. Around the same time and in the same environment, Black Lives Matter (BLM) and the whole entitlement movement accused you, if you were white, of having “white privilege” and and said that you don’t deserve to be happy. Instead, you should feel guilty because some on the left are unhappy.

The “white privilege” guilt trip was not only one of the purest forms of the politics of envy, but it worked to get leftist and otherwise weak white people to voluntarily surrender their happiness. At some point, almost all leftist politics comes back to envy. And so, when Musk took SpaceX public and the company’s value skyrocketed (sorry, I couldn’t help myself), the left fell back on its most core strategy – the politics of envy. Leftist billionaires and their pawns were well prepared to opportunistically try to capitalize on Musk’s good fortune with protest signs, messaging, and rent-a-mobs ready to go.

A union representing leftist college professors showed up alongside all the other envious union members, paid protestors, and disgruntled leftists, complete with their pre-printed signs. They were there to air their grievance that someone was having a good day and just might be happy. Their signs alone showed an extremely high level of financial illiteracy and ignorance regarding just about everything related to the SpaceX IPO. They read: “Billionaires are a scam”; “Elon is stealing your pension”; “Overthrow the oligarchs”; “This billionaire is stealing from you”; “Elon is stealing your 401K”; and, of course, “Stop Elon. No Trillionaires.”

Since the signs were pre-printed and funded by the usual funders of anything good for America, we can only assume that the evil strategists on the left conceived of these messages because they knew the phrases would appeal to their illiterate base. First off, how could Elon making money from willing investors represent him stealing your pension? There is no relationship at all, and there can’t be. The money Musk and everyone else made from the IPO came from the market, not from unwilling American citizens or taxpayers. It came from institutional investors through mutual and index funds, universities, large pension funds, and millions of willing individual investors. People invested because they hoped to make profits at some later point. The protestors either don’t understand that, or they pretend not to.

Another sign that actually sidesteps all rational thought is the one that says Elon is stealing your 401(k). The truth is, the SpaceX IPO very likely already helped your 401(k), and if it didn’t, it soon will. Many, if not most of the big mutual funds are riding on the fortunes of a handful of companies like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, maybe Tesla, and Alphabet. SpaceX just joined the club. That means if you have a 401(k), it’s in your best interest to want SpaceX to do well. That can only grow your retirement savings. And then there’s that argument the left makes when it has no argument: “Stop Elon. No Trillionaires.” Why? I mean, really, why? What’s the point? If someone else becomes rich and it has no effect on you, why should you even care? I mean, other than pure jealousy.

That post from Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) is rich, literally. She’s playing upon jealousy and envy to encourage more taxation, but only of the rich, so we’re told (for now). They play this “lower effective tax rate” game to try to pretend Elon doesn’t pay a ton of taxes, which he does. Also, like the financially illiterate protestors in New York, Jacobs is drawing no distinction between income, which is taxed, and assets like stock, which only convert into taxable money if you sell shares. What makes Jacobs’ post curious is that she is one of the richest people in Congress. She’s got an estimated net worth of $76 million, and she didn’t earn any of it. She was born into it.

If ever there is such a thing as privilege, she’s got it. Her father is billionaire Irwin Jacobs, who founded semiconductor company Qualcomm. So, when she demonizes Elon for being a billionaire, or now a trillionaire, she’s pretty much demonizing her own daddy, and she’s not doing herself any favors. She just wants you to think she’s one of the good kind of millionaires. What’s obvious is she wants you to feel like a “have not,” and she wants you to hate Elon simply because he’s a “have.” Something Jacobs did not do and would not do is acknowledge all those who have immediately benefited from the SpaceX IPO. A lot of leftists are making money here. The University of North Carolina, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Virginia bought in early and have huge stakes in the company.

According to Fortune, “In total, more than 4,400 current and former SpaceX employees are expected to become millionaires in the IPO.” My colleague, David Manney, reported on how some of Musk’s loyal employees at different levels of the company will be rewarded. SpaceX counts 22,000 employees at the moment, and all of them pay taxes. The average salary of SpaceX employees is $155,000-$176,000, according to the company. All of these people pay local, state and federal taxes. Many, if not most, pay property taxes. Those who just made millions each on the IPO will ultimately pay a collective billions more in federal taxes. That means more money headed into the local, state, and federal piggy banks.

Over time, millions of individual investors will make profits on their SpaceX stock at some point, and they will pay taxes on the profit. The point is, the government will see its share of cash from the IPO, and it didn’t have to do a thing except sit back and wait for the profits to roll in. Yet, Democrats like Jacobs and the rest of the left somehow want you to feel like only Musk is the beneficiary of the IPO. That’s not stopping the left from engaging in envy porn. Check out this post from millionaire Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), decrying the rich as she rides in the back of her limo. Or this common refrain that attempts to blame Musk for people putting themselves on government entitlement programs that you, the taxpayer, pay for anyway.

In other words, people getting free stuff are big mad that Musk is winning. Since he’s making more money, naturally, they want more free stuff…just because. That poster blamed Musk for just about every economic challenge anyone in America could face, but one thing he posted that deserves to be addressed is this notion that Musk is getting federal handouts to make his money at SpaceX. As though he’s running a non-profit that doesn’t reward the federal government. His rockets are the delivery system for satellites that protect our national security, among many other things. Oh, and remember the time NASA couldn’t rescue those astronauts, so Musk had to bail out the government?.

Read more …

I feel like I’m in the Shire (but of anti-heroes).

The Little People flock together

“Carney Affirms that “Middle Powers” with Same Ideological Construct Can Collectively Counterbalance U.S. Global Power..”

• Carney: “Middle Powers” Can Collectively Counterbalance U.S. Global Power (CTH)

Making his ninth trip to Europe since become prime minister 15 months ago, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney once again outlined his governing model to combat a U.S. administration that he claims has fractured the globalist norms. During his press conference with Micheal Martin, Ireland’s taoiseach (Prime Minister), Carney once again built upon the idea of “middle powers” uniting together in common ideology against U.S. dominance until such a time as the U.S. government can once again return to a leftist ideology.


The specific objectives become clear about halfway through the presser today as Carney notes the importance of grouping nations together who agree on climate change, energy controls and the green agenda. Canada’s alignment with Europe is seemingly centered on the net-zero carbon model. This perspective makes sense from Carney as it is the same priority he’s carried since his time as governor for the Bank of England. WATCH:

As the former Governor of the Bank of England and Bank of Canada, Carney used his platform to position climate change as a systemic financial risk. He then championed the view that private capital must be the primary tool to force an economic energy transition. [Post-COVID this was known as “Build Back Better.“] President Trump’s perspective and the majority American view on climate change and energy development is against the core professional effort of Carney and the banking interests he has always represented. This becomes very important to understand as the U.S-Canada conflict is about to hit an inflection point.

HISTORY: Through the “Net Zero” Banking Alliance (NZBA) Mark Carney pushed banks to agree with policies and protocols that forced them to set lower lending targets to high-carbon industries and clients. The goal was to force companies to ‘decarbonize’ or find themselves starved of capital. While working at the Bank of England and Canada Carney famously warned multinational interests and insurance companies, most of which were centered in London, that fossil fuel assets that did not fit the net-zero industrial model would become “stranded assets” worth nothing because they could not be capitalized or insured. This threat signaled to multinationals that any investment in a project that was against the “Paris Climate Treaty” was a bad financial risk.

This approach endeared Mark Carney to King Charles III, who is himself a major climate alarmist. Unfortunately, U.S. politicians -particularly during the Trump first term- accused the Carney banking/finance and insurance alliance of operating an illegal banking cartel to choke the larger American energy sector. Facing legal threats over antitrust violations, in combination with obvious violations of fiduciary duty, NZBA has to strip out its strict, mandatory lending restrictions. Slowly banks began retreating from the net-zero alliance.

Regional and national banks began citing the economic necessity of supporting traditional energy companies, and energy security became more important than adherence to voluntary restrictions on carbon emissions. This angered Carney as his life construct was under pressure. Carney then entered Canadian federal politics and sought to downplay his ideological climate agenda. However, all of his energy policies essentially come from the same mindset of opposition to fossil fuels.

The disparity in energy production is the core issue inside the details of the USMCA. The United States and Mexico are both aligned with low-cost fossil fuel use, which is particularly important for large scale industrial manufacturing (steel etc.). Whereas Canada doesn’t want the dirty jobs and wants only to focus on electricity production.

You can make electricity from windmills, solar farms and nuclear power. However, you cannot make iron, steel or aluminum without fossil fuels. In scientific fact, part of the largest global irony is because it’s impossible to make windmill components, solar panels or nuclear power equipment without using fossil fuels.

In the video below, while he was a banker you can see Mark Carney admitting on tape: When voters blocked his ESG plans, “We” (Central Bankers) shifted into the position of “Regulators” to work around the voters through the back door of finance and insurance. They manipulated fossil fuel production and prices by withholding lending and insurance.

https://twitter.com/vesperdigital/status/2064518878005174439?s=20

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“One month later we were in beginning of SARS-CoV-2, which we now accept in hindsight was a U.S. military and intelligence operation..”

• Pompeo Unmasked (CTH)

Many of you will likely remember December 29, 2019, when Secretary Pompeo, Joint Chief’s Mark Milley and Secretary Mark Esper flew to Mar-a-Lago to inform President Trump about military strikes they had just conducted in Northern Syria and Iraq. At the time of the strike, President Trump was negotiating the exit of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and even having direct talks with the Taliban which was proclaimed as controversial by the traditional war machine elements in DC. The action by Pompeo, Milley and Esper did not align with the moment based on Trump’s ongoing effort.


President Trump made no comments about the strike they carried out, nor did President Trump post anything about the events. In fact, President Trump made Pompeo, Milley and Esper stand at the podium and inform the media and public. CTH said at the time nothing about this made sense. Our suspicion was that Pompeo, Milley and Esper had acted unilaterally without approval. Events later on indicated our suspicion was accurate. One month later we were in beginning of SARS-CoV-2, which we now accept in hindsight was a U.S. military and intelligence operation utilizing a virus created in a Wuhan, China biological lab. The global response to the virus was a combined military and intelligence operation.

The most excessive ‘western’ reactions to the virus were carried out by New Zealand, Australia, the U.K and Canada, all five-eyes countries. The November 2020 election result was specifically an outcome of the virus and fraudulent mail-in ballots. It’s also worth remembering that in 2016 the Trump-Russia collusion material originated from the U.K via former intelligence operative Christopher Steele and the Fusion GPS network in the U.S. That’s the context for last week Mike Pompeo paying tribute to his old friend in British intelligence who worked with him as CIA Director following the 2016 election of President Trump.

Mike Pompeo – Within hours of being announced as the nominee to be the U.S. Director of the CIA, I received a hand-delivered message on MI6 stationery congratulating me on my nomination. It was signed simply “C” in green ink. Legendary. I shared it with my son and even he thought I was now cool! More than that, this note, from Sir Alex Younger, Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service of the United Kingdom, confirmed what I already believed: the work that the CIA and MI6 did together mattered, that the partnership was critical, and that two leaders focused on the mission could save lives and provide tools for our nations to deter our adversaries.

Alex’s passing this week brought back so many memories of our time in service together. He flew to Langley to see me the day I was confirmed. We brought our two senior teams together in the UK to plan and coordinate and build in the first several weeks of my time on duty: making clear to them all that this relationship was more than special – it was critical for the security of our two countries.”

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“Drinking the Court-Packing Kool-Aid..”

“This Nike School of Constitutional Law is catching on with a wide array of pundits and professors. Just do it.”

• Buttigieg Joins the Calls to Take Over the Supreme Court (Turley)

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg apparently got the message this week that he cannot hope to win the Democratic nomination without promising radical measures, including the packing of the Supreme Court. After denouncing the current Court as “rogue” for not ruling as the left has demanded, Buttigieg endorsed the plan of Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren to pack the Court to reverse adverse constitutional interpretations.


For years, the Supreme Court had a liberal majority that overturned dozens of long-standing cases. That was not viewed as the work of a rogue court. Yet, even as President Donald Trump attacks this Court for ruling repeatedly against him, liberals are now demanding court packing. As the party becomes more radicalized, any candidate expressing doubts over radical demands like court packing is unlikely to make it out of the primaries. Accordingly, “Mayor Pete” is reaching for Court-Packing Kool-Aid. In making his pitch to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition convention, Buttigieg knew that he had to offer some radical bona fides. He decided to offer up the Supreme Court:

“We have to do [something] with the Supreme Court, that is now a rogue Supreme Court. To see them eviscerate the Voting Rights Act is to see them reverse some of the most important progress this country ever made, wiping out Black political representation, but also wiping out part of what actually is great within the complex American story.” That description is part of a campaign of disinformation about the Court’s recent decision to end racial gerrymandering. The Court reaffirmed that the Voting Rights Act would be used to prevent any intentional racial discrimination. It banned states (almost entirely Democratic states) from engaging in racial discrimination to guarantee election results based on the race of the candidates.

He then thrilled the crowd by promising to pack the Court to guarantee the results that he and they are demanding. Declaring that it is “time to think big,” Buttigieg explained: “Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that there have to be nine Supreme Court justices. That one doesn’t even take a constitutional amendment. It just takes a readiness to set up a court that fits this country. We could have 13 seats matching the district structure of the federal judiciary, but also a process that makes it less partisan.” Buttigieg appears to be referring to the circuit system, not the district court system. What is most striking is that he promises to reverse decisions on issues like racial gerrymandering by packing the Court, but then says it will make the Court “less partisan.”

The whole point of adding four new justices selected by the Democrats is to create an instant majority to their liking and to reverse past rulings. Years ago, I wrote an academic piece on the possible expansion of the Supreme Court, but there is a world of difference between that and a court-packing plan. Under my proposal, the court’s expansion would take almost two decades to ensure that no president could pack the court. Various Democrats have been pledging to not only impeach Trump (and a long list of other figures), but to pack the Supreme Court as soon as they regain power.

James Carville declared, “If the Democrats win the presidency and both houses of Congress, I think on day one, they should expand the Supreme Court to 13. F— it. Eat our dust. Don’t run on it. Don’t talk about it. Just do it.” This Nike School of Constitutional Law is catching on with a wide array of pundits and professors. Just do it.

Years ago, Harvard professor Michael Klarman laid out a radical agenda to change the system to guarantee Republicans “will never win another election.” However, he warned that “the Supreme Court could strike down everything I just described.” Therefore, the court must be packed in advance to allow these changes to occur.Former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder has put packing the Supreme Court front and center, explaining, “[We’re] talking about the acquisition and the use of power if there is a Democratic trifecta in 2028.”

At base is a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the Court. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) not only renewed her previous call to pack the court but said the court was illegitimate for rendering decisions against “widely held public opinion.” Former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said the court “defies the will of the people.” Reporter John Haltiwanger insisted that “the court is clearly not representative of the U.S. public. It’s supposed to be the people’s court.”

In reality, the court was never meant to be that. It was meant to be the Constitution’s court, designed to stand against everyone and everything except the Constitution. In a system designed to protect the minority, the court (like the Constitution) is counter-majoritarian in much of what it does. With the Supreme Court removed as a barrier to the left’s radical agenda, Democrats could indeed fulfill the objectives laid out by figures like Klarman to ensure they never lose power again.

That will make the 2028 election the most consequential election for our constitutional history in decades. The outcome will most immediately decide the fate of an institution that has been a stabilizing force for centuries. Even though this Court has ruled against the Trump Administration on a variety of key issues, the left is still demanding that it either yield to all of their demands or face a hostile takeover. On our 250th anniversary, these reckless and radical voices remind us that (as Benjamin Franklin warned us) this is our Republic if we can keep it.

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” Incidentally, Western and Northern Africa are two areas where Islam dominates the countries.”

“And if the Supreme Court does not make the right decision on birthright citizenship, we might as well kiss our country goodbye.”

• ‘Birth Tourism’ Networks Around the World Exploiting the U.S. (Salgado)

The U.S. State Department has uncovered sophisticated and dangerous “birth tourism” networks from West Africa, Europe, and North Africa exploiting our current unconstitutional “birthright citizenship” system. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is one of the biggest abusers of our idiotic “birthright citizenship” system, but plenty of other bad actors around the world cash in as well. Contrary to the original understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment, America now says any child born on our soil is automatically a citizen, even if his parents just flew into or walked into the country. Unsurprisingly, this has for years encouraged abuses.


Besides the practice of “anchor babies,” where illegal aliens give birth in America and use their new citizen kids to keep the family here, there’s also “birth tourism.” From The Daily Wire: In West Africa, a U.S. embassy uncovered a “sophisticated birth tourism network” wherein more than 100 foreign nationals were using fraudulent documents to obtain visas and secure U.S. citizenship for their children. The State Department shut down this birth tourism network and revoked the foreign nationals’ visas. State is also coordinating with local authorities to “systematically identify and cut off any similar operations.” Incidentally, Western and Northern Africa are two areas where Islam dominates the countries.

“Under President Trump, the State Department is defending the integrity of U.S. citizenship by ending illegal birth tourism schemes,” The Daily Wire quoted the State Department. “No foreigner is permitted to obtain a visitor visa for the primary purpose of acquiring U.S. citizenship for a child by giving birth in the U.S.” This is why the upcoming Supreme Court decision on birthright citizenship is so important. The Daily Wire went on: A U.S. embassy in Europe found that more than 400 suspected birth tourism cases had occurred since 2024.

In this case, investigators traced the birth tourism to at least six companies that were coaching applicants on what to say in their visa interviews, arranging housing, and setting up delivery plans. State again shut down the process, revoked the visas, and permanently banned “several fraudsters from traveling to the United States ever again.” An embassy in North Africa revoked more than 100 visas for “birth tourist” parents who came to the United States specifically to give birth to children who would get U.S. citizenship. State Department consular officers worked with law enforcement and used data analytics to identify the networks abusing the visa system in this case.

“A U.S. visa is a privilege, not a right,” the federal department said. “The State Department is taking action around the world to stop this abuse, dismantle birth tourism networks, and hold accountable those who try to scam our system.” But even all these networks are small beans compared to the vast CCP apparatus for helping loyal party members come to the United States to give birth to kids who become automatic citizens of our country, even though many of them are then raised back in China. You can read more here. Up to a million Communist Chinese could be voting in United States elections by 2030, thanks to this huge “birth tourism” industry.

And if the Supreme Court does not make the right decision on birthright citizenship, we might as well kiss our country goodbye.

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“Headlines about the Russian president’s looks and ‘erratic’ behavior are a symptom of terminal Russophrenia..“

• Puffy Putin Peril: The West’s Latest Attempt To Scare Itself (Amar)

You can’t argue with a man observing the obvious: We are living in unusually perilous times. In the Middle East, for instance, the Israeli-American infernal duo have been on a rampage of war, state terror, all-purpose devastation, and genocide that, as a bonus, has also brought the world economy to the verge of cardiac arrest by clogging one of its vital fossil fuel arteries. Indeed, that particular risk is so obvious that even Germany’s less than brilliant Friedrich Merz has long spotted it.


In the Far East, Taiwan is currently ruled by a government so hell-bent on antagonizing their fellow Chinese on the mainland that Taipei’s political reflexes seem almost as perverse as those of Berlin. In the West, you have the German elite which can’t find enough billions to fork over to Ukraine when Kiev and friends blow up Germany’s vital pipelines and lethally cripple its already ailing economy. In the East, there is Taipei, getting really, really angry when the Philippines and Japan start negotiating away Taiwan’s maritime Exclusive Economic Zone. Angry, that is, at Beijing.

And in the EU, that “garden” of “values” that really is a swampy jungle of eternal confusion and corruption, the catastrophe that in its foreign policy is now obvious enough for several European bigwigs to gang up on the abysmally, ragingly incompetent Kaja Kallas. Her tenure as de facto EU foreign minister has been so breathtakingly blundering that her employers aren’t merely itching to kick her out but thinking about, in essence, abolishing her job.

Being so horrible at something that you won’t just get fired yourself but take it down with you – perhaps only the Baltic Girl Boss Wonder could pull that one off. But then, maybe it’s really all just another power grab by EU’s German queen (of the absolute kind) and US viceroy (of the submissive kind) Ursula von der Leyen. Either way, frightful insanity abides. We could add more scary and grotesque evidence, but things are clear enough: It’s a grim picture all around. So, fair enough if you feel like being a big sad downer and doom monger. Where it gets weird is when you get your scare priorities all upside down.

Granted, from a hapless NATO-EU European perspective, Russia may look a little unsettling: after all, once you have waged years of proxy war, sanctions, and propaganda war against it, who knows what the mood is really like in Moscow? As a good NATO-EU apparatchik, you certainly would not, because you have displayed the foresight of a gnat by proudly not talking – or listening – to the Russians. So, when you feel a little insecure, that might really be your bad conscience calling (in a merely professional, not moral sense, which you are likely to lack).

But, generally speaking, the worse the stupidities and mistakes you have produced but keep repressing, the higher the price. Old Sigmund Freud called it “affective debility.” In essence, it means that lying to yourself makes you dim. And once you are BS’ing yourself for years as if there’s no tomorrow, you’ll turn positively imbecilic.

That’s the only way to explain a fresh wave of transparently hysterical scare mongering about Russia in the West, in particular, this time, in Britain. Thus, on the occasion of the recent St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), centrist mainstream flagship The Independent came out with a fascinating piece of fiction masquerading as analysis. Under the clickbait title “‘Puffy-looking’ Putin is acting weirder than ever – and that should chill us to the bone,” readers were treated to a highly imaginative horror tale about, in essence, a terrible loose cannon in the Kremlin pondering staged incidents and nuclear terrorism and ready to blow up the world or at least Europe or perhaps just Britain because Russia is losing the war. Also, he looks “puffy”!

All of this backed up (not really) by yet another statement from a high British military officer that things are dire as never before in (his) living memory. He and his comrades in arms – plus a few tweedy spy gents and dames – produce these Cassandra screams at least twice a month; it seems to be a standing order.

Indeed, there is such an inflationary over-production of men and women in khaki and with stiff upper lips crying big bad Russian wolf that even Politico has already produced at least one ‘best of’ collection, gathering “The 5 doomiest Russia warnings from Britain’s military chiefs.” Perish the thought any of this may have anything to do with fattening defense budgets and driving up the obscene profits of His Majesty’s military industrial complex!

Generally speaking, The West has a rich tradition of declaring Russia vanquished, its president Vladimir Putin at death’s door or on the verge of being regime-changed away, and, of course, Ukraine (and, really, the West) on the cusp of winning the war. And, at the same time, of predicting that Russia will attack all of Europe, likely tomorrow. Notwithstanding occasional and intriguing anomalies, when a NATO commander (from Trump’s US, of course) lets slip a fragment of truth, such as that actually Moscow is not looking for conflict.

In short, we are speaking about the severe and very sad but also funny mental condition already well known as Russophrenia: the afflicted live with an imaginary Schrödinger’s Russia occupying their suffering minds, a Russia that is always simultaneously half-dead and yet so alive and kicking, it’s about to roll into their living room on a tank.

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Don’t learn from books, learn from life!

• Thinking for Oneself: Schopenhauer on Reflection vs. Regurgitation (Eskeldson)

Arthur Schopenhauer’s argument is that thinking for oneself is better than regurgitating information from books and that the two produce very different effects in a learner. In the beginning of his essay, he compares the difference between regurgitation and reflection (or critical thinking) to two different libraries. Regurgitation is represented by a disorganized library with books all over the floor, furniture, shelves, or wherever else they have been mislaid. Similarly, someone who exclusively regurgitates information may have jumbled facts in his mind and will not have a clear picture of anything specific, despite learning (allegedly) so much about that thing. In the public domain essay “On Thinking for Oneself,” Schopenhauer shows us some men who appear to know so much about specific countries from travel books, but they cannot form their ideas into a gestalt to describe those countries as a whole. They cannot see the bigger picture because they were habitually exposed to only small bits of information.


Billie Pritchett writes, “Wouldn’t it be better for someone to discipline his mind by being instructed in the fundamentals of a subject, and then begin thinking within that framework?” as he recognizes an objection that Schopenhauer’s readers likely had in his day. The framework of other people’s observations on a given subject appears to be useful and airtight, but Schopenhauer believes it is more rewarding to learn that framework after doing critical thinking of one’s own. As he puts it, “the mind is deprived of all its elasticity by much reading, as is a spring when a weight is continually applied to it,” and “the surest way not to have thoughts of our own is for us at once to take up a book when we have a moment to spare”; furthermore, “the truth acquired through our own thinking is like the natural limb; it alone really belongs to us.”

After being spoon-fed material from book after book, someone will lose the ability to creatively solve problems and will learn to rely on others’ mental pictures exclusively in the effort to comprehend a subject. That person will essentially forget how to figure things out for himself. All of humanity will benefit from spending time reflecting on their thoughts.

Schopenhauer anticipated another likely objection: “What if all you get from your own thinking is the same material that has already been discovered and published by another person, or several other people, many times?” If someone tries hard to solve a problem himself, but finds out later that his solution had already been a well-publicized discovery, Schopenhauer would still appreciate the mental effort the person used to come to that conclusion. He would call that “small volume” of experimentation “valuable.”

Schopenhauer’s broader philosophical point is that the human mind forms a sort of stabilizing structure to make sense of an irrational, crooked world of “vicious little men.” People are so entwined in their self-centered desires that they “commit atrocities” to get their way and generally only use reason to justify their actions. The human mind must form a force of good intellect and strong moral character as a guard against falling into these irrational ways, according to Schopenhauer. Critical thinking is a way to strengthen the mind and develop good character traits (i.e. diligence), so it should be encouraged by all means. Regurgitation may become fuel for selfish desires (i.e. laziness) because of how easy and mentally painless it is, so it must be discouraged.

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https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2065445696287703472?s=20 https://twitter.com/tslaming/status/2066131447992443060?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle June 7 2026

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


Claude Monet San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk 1908


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

 


 

 


 


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

• Promethean Action PAC Discovers MAGAnomics (CTH)

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


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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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Expect nothing. You may be pleasantly surprised.

• California and the Politics of Low Expectations (Turley)

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In other words: Europe is simply too far gone.

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Marine Le Pen.

• Paris Riots Fuel The Right (RMX)

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

• Questions and Answers (James Howard Kunstler)

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

Paul Craig Roberts.

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

Read more …

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

Read more …

How much crazier are the British than everybody else?

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

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

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

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


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

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

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

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Debt Rattle May 19 2026

May 192026
 
 May 19, 2026  Posted by at 10:09 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  22 Responses »


John Atkinson Grimshaw A moonlit lane 1874


• Trump: Holding Off ‘Planned’ Attack On Iran At Request Of Gulf Allies (ZH)
• Gulf States Negotiating with Iran (CTH)
• Iran Will ‘Under No Circumstances’ Give Up Nuclear Program To End War (ZH)
• Trump China Trip, Canada/EU Conflict and 2026 Midterm Positioning (CTH)
• Multiple 2020 Election Fraud Investigations in Georgia and Arizona (Margolis)
• ‘Smartest Guy’ In the Belatedly Realizes Trump’s Relevance (Morrissey)
• Democrats Face Midterm Disappointment (Daniel McCarthy)
• As Student Scores Plummet, Teachers’ Union Head Rants Against Trump (Salgado)
• We’ve Been Taking Down Some Really Bad Guys Lately (Anderson)
• Judge Dismisses Musk’s OpenAI Lawsuit After Jury Reaches Verdict (ZH)
• The Too-Long Goodbye (James Howard Kunstler)
• Germany Fears Next Migration Wave (ZH)
• Secretary Marco Rubio Delivers Message of National Faith (CTH)

 


 

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2056410099137073194?s=20 https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/2056111745282785295?s=20 https://twitter.com/mcucolo57/status/2056334846515925229?s=20 https://twitter.com/GOP_is_Gutless/status/2056121534993838325?s=20

 


 


There’s movement.

• Trump: Holding Off ‘Planned’ Attack On Iran At Request Of Gulf Allies (ZH)


Trump ‘Not Open’ to Any Concessions for Tehran: NYP Interview

Another repetition of the weeks-long stale-mated reality: …so Trump is ‘not open’ to any concessions, but Iran deal happening ‘soon’ – we are yet again told, as the Iranians themselves haven’t appeared to budge on anything. President Trump told The NY Post on Monday he is “not open” to any concessions for Tehran after receiving the latest disappointing Iranian response on peace deal talks. Highlights: And in an ominous foreshadowing, Trump said Iran knows “what’s going to be happening soon.”

In the brief phone interview The Post, Trump seemingly shut the door to Iran’s Sunday offer for a diplomatic talks. Asked about his Friday remark that he’d be willing to accept a 20-year moratorium on Iranian uranium enrichment, Trump interjected: “I’m not open to anything right now.”The president declined to get into any detail. “I can’t really talk to you about it. Too many things are happening,” he said. “I can tell you they want to make a deal more than ever, because they know we’re—what’s going to be happening soon,” Trump said.

Questioned about regional source claims that Iran is attempting to “wait out” Washington on both the nuclear issue and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said he “hadn’t heard that.”

US Denies Tasnim Report It Agreed to Lift Iran Oil Sanctions
And the denials keep rolling in. First via CNBC:

…as the US side does not seem very confidently in control of the situation – quite the opposite:

Just like that, back to square zero once again we go… and back to headline roulette.

US PLANS NEW RUSSIAN OIL WAIVER AS IRAN WAR CRUNCHES SUPPLIES

US DENIES REPORT IT AGREED TO LIFT IRAN OIL SANCTIONS: CNBC

Steady climb in oil continues on the denials…

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New moves.

• Gulf States Negotiating with Iran (CTH)

President Trump announced on Truth Social that he is delaying further strikes against Iran pending current negotiations with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. According to the announcement the Gulf States are negotiating a ‘zero nuclear’ position.


This is an interesting development as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) were previously the ones urging President Trump not to halt the military pressure campaign.

PRESIDENT TRUMP – “I have been asked by the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, and the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to hold off on our planned Military attack of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was scheduled for tomorrow, in that serious negotiations are now taking place, and that, in their opinion, as Great Leaders and Allies, a Deal will be made, which will be very acceptable to the United States of America, as well as all Countries in the Middle East, and beyond. This Deal will include, importantly, NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS FOR IRAN! Based on my respect for the above mentioned Leaders, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, The Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Daniel Caine, and The United States Military, that we will NOT be doing the scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow, but have further instructed them to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

~ President DONALD J. TRUMP

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“It also seems Russia’s offer to take and temporarily hold Iran’s enriched uranium is being taken seriously. ”

• Iran Will ‘Under No Circumstances’ Give Up Nuclear Program To End War (ZH)

In a far too familiar pattern, just before US market open on Monday, a slew of optimistic Iran headlines saw oil erase weekend gains, which mostly came through Saudi Arabia’s state-funded Al Arabiya, as well as Reuters… only to be followed by Iranian officials rejecting the substance of these reports, putting things firmly back at square one. nTasnim has newly cited Iranian government sources who seek to make clear that “Iran under no circumstances” will engage in new nuclear negotiations for an end to the war. Contradicting the earlier morning reports, it still sees negotiations to find peace in the war with the US as separate from the nuclear file. “Fundamental differences between the Iranian and American texts still remain”, Tasnim reports, citing a source.


“Despite some changes in the new American text, fundamental differences stemming from the Americans’ exaggeration and lack of realism remain,” Tasnim writes, citing the Iranian source. According to more of the statements per state media:

“Iran will not abandon its firm and principled positions on ending the war and realizing the rights of the Iranian people”.
“Iran’s frozen assets must be returned to the Iranian people in a transparent and definitive manner, and paper promises are of no use”.
“Despite some promises, there is disagreement about the return of the frozen funds”.
“Iran’s determination regarding the necessity of paying compensation by the Americans for the military aggression against Iran is very serious”.
“The Americans are far from Iran’s demands regarding its amount and some other issues.”
“the Americans are still trying to tie the negotiations to end the war to the nuclear issue, which is against logic and Iran will not agree to it. The Americans must understand that Iran will in no way agree to an end to the war in return for nuclear commitments”.
“Iran has not and does not have any intention of building nuclear weapons, and this claim is just an excuse and deception by the Americans. This issue has also been emphasized in the new text”.

Oil reacted as expected to this official ‘denial’ of the prior optimism – quickly rebounding, also as Trump is said to be “losing patience” with the progress of talks. A US source has told Al Jazeera Iran has “days not weeks” to show progress.

Tasnim: Another Iranian Ship Breaks Through US Blockade Line
Iranian state media is claiming that a Iranian oil tanker under US sanctions that was off the coast of India two weeks ago has now docked at Kharg Island, having broken through the US naval blockade. Tasnim reports that “the LPG tanker passed through the US blockade line undetected and entered Iranian waters.”

The Pentagon has been asserting an essentially airtight blockade on ‘illicit’ ships going to or from Iranian ports. CENTCOM has said it has turned around at least 75 vessels, while Iranian media has since the blockade’s start touted several ships making it through.

Long-Term Nuclear Freeze on Table
Saudi state-owned Al Arabiya early Monday has issued a bombshell if true (but still very much not officially confirmed), reporting that Iran has agreed to a long-term nuclear freeze instead of a complete dismantling. The outlet also reports that Iran has withdrawn its demand for compensation, instead demanding economic concessions. However, this could be highly dubious, given over the past several days Tehran has not shown willingness to back down from this demand of compensation.

It also seems Russia’s offer to take and temporarily hold Iran’s enriched uranium is being taken seriously. Here are the alleged “leaks” of the working draft peace document: “Working on a condition transfer of enriched uranium to Russia instead of the US.
Seeking multiple international guarantees for any agreement.
Wants Pakistan and Oman to have a ‘role’ in any ‘clash’ in the Strait of Hormuz.
Seeking a political formation that allows Iran to save face.
Separate the maritime route from nuclear issues.

Oil pushes lower on the additional headlines, following initial reports that the US would lift sanctions on Iranian oil during the negotiating period…

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”Barbara Boyd from Promethean Action PAC gives her take on the current situation.”

• Trump China Trip, Canada/EU Conflict and 2026 Midterm Positioning (CTH)

Barbara Boyd Recaps Trump China Trip, Canada/EU Conflict and 2026 Midterm Positioning


Barbara Boyd from Promethean Action PAC gives her take on the current situation.

“Barbara Boyd argues the key outcome of Trump’s China visit was the personal trust between Trump and Xi, symbolized by Xi’s “secret garden” tour previously reserved for Putin, and framed as establishing guardrails for U.S.–China strategic and tech competition amid the Iran war and energy geopolitics. She says London and Democrats are “screaming” because Trump is reshaping global economic relationships while Treasury Secretary Bessent lifts U.S. sanctions on Russian exports.

The episode targets Mark Carney and Keir Starmer as City of London figures who tried to capture China finance, advance BRICS as a dollar alternative, promote a synthetic reserve currency via CBDCs, and steer $130T through green finance—efforts Boyd says have failed as Trump reverses “Green New Deal” policies. She highlights DOJ election-rigging probes, renewed scrutiny of “Russiagate,” anti-fraud prosecutions, voter backlash, and insurgent politics in Los Angeles and London.”

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The machine has started,

• Multiple 2020 Election Fraud Investigations in Georgia and Arizona (Margolis)

In recent weeks, Trump officials have been promising that bombshell evidence regarding 2020 election fraud would be coming. Both FBI Director Kash Patel and Monica Crowley, the U.S. government’s chief of protocol, have said as much. On Sunday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche sat down with Maria Bartiromo and confirmed that the Department of Justice has multiple active investigations into election fraud, specifically targeting Arizona and Georgia’s Fulton County.


Blanche didn’t hedge. He didn’t offer the usual bureaucratic non-answer. He said it directly: “Well, there’s a ton of evidence that the election was rigged. That’s not something the DOJ needs to tell you about. There’s been evidence about that for many, many years. What I can tell you is that we have multiple investigations going on in Arizona, in Georgia, in Fulton County, Georgia.”

The questions driving those investigations are fundamental ones that, frankly, should have been asked and answered years ago. Why is it taking so long? Blanche addressed that head-on, too. “They’re very good at hiding misconduct and hiding — hiding what they’re doing,” he said. “And so that’s why we’re very focused on finding out whether the right people voted, whether people who were supposed to vote voted, whether there was one vote cast per voter.”

Blanche acknowledged the frustration building among Americans who’ve been waiting years for accountability. “People will say to me, how long has it taken? Why is it taking so long?” he said. “And the reality, the answer to that is because it takes a lot of work to uncover what happened in 2020.” This makes sense. Democrats put a lot of effort into perpetuating the myth that the 2020 election was “the most secure election in history,” and went to great lengths to silence those who dared even to question the official narrative.

Obviously, those responsible for the kind of shenanigans we saw take place in 2020 aren’t just going to leave the evidence lying around. It takes, as Blanche put it, “good old-fashioned law enforcement police work” to get the job done. And we all know that had President Donald Trump not won the 2024 election, there wouldn’t even be an investigation. The Biden DOJ spent four years telling Americans there was nothing to see here. The Trump DOJ is at least willing to look. Whether these investigations produce indictments, a public report, or something else entirely, but FBI Director Kash Patel did say last month that accountability was coming. “We are going to be making arrests, and it’s coming, and I promise you, it’s coming soon,” Patel said.

And Blanche made a promise. “I assure you, I assure the American people that as soon as we have something to say for it, whether it’s charges, whether it’s a report, whether it’s the results of an investigation, the American people will learn about what we’ve uncovered.” Trump promised us that he’d get answers about what really happened in 2020, and you can bet that is one of the main reasons they tried so hard to put him in prison before the election. The truth is coming out, and they can’t do a thing about it.

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The bitterest guy. Sore loser.

• ‘Smartest Guy’ In the Belatedly Realizes Trump’s Relevance (Morrissey)

True enough. But to be fair, Politico only realized it belatedly, too.


Donald Trump finally got his revenge on Bill Cassidy this weekend. The incumbent Senator tried to survive a primary challenge with Trump pushing voters to give him the boot over Cassidy’s impeachment removal vote in January 2021. Instead, Cassidy came in a distant third to Julia Letlow and John Fleming, not even breaking into six figures in vote totals: Sen. Bill Cassidy, who voted to convict President Donald Trump on impeachment charges in 2021, has lost his Republican primary in Louisiana, as two challengers who had aligned with Trump advanced to a runoff.

Rep. Julia Letlow, who had Trump’s endorsement in the race, will face state Treasurer John Fleming in a June 27 primary runoff, NBC News projects. Cassidy’s loss further cements Trump’s grip on the GOP as the president looks to exact revenge against Republicans who have crossed him in the past. And it also means another Republican who voted to convict Trump during his 2021 impeachment will not be returning to Congress next year. Cassidy offered a bitter valediction to his political career, and also complained about being “attacked on the internet”:

“Let me just set the record straight, our country is not about one individual,” Cassidy later added. “It is about the welfare of all Americans, and it is about our Constitution. And it is the welfare of my people and my state and my country and our Constitution, to which I am loyal. And if someone doesn’t understand that, and attempts to control others through using the levers of power, they are about serving themselves. They’re not about serving us. And that person is not qualified to be a leader.” Cassidy also noted that he has been “attacked on the internet.”

“Insults only bother me if they come from somebody of character and integrity, and I find that people of character and integrity don’t spend their time attacking people on the internet,” Cassidy said. Ahem. Being “attacked on the internet” comes with the territory, and not just for politicians in elections, either. If Cassidy is this sensitive, he should return to practicing medicine. Unsurprisingly, this did not dissuade Trump from sharing his joy at Cassidy’s failure:

Bill Cassidy, after falsely using his “relationship” with me during his political career, and winning Elections because of it, voted to impeach me on preposterous charges that were fake then, and now, are criminally insane! His disloyalty to the man who got him elected is now a part of legend, and it’s nice to see that his political career is OVER! I’d like to thank the Great People of the State of Louisiana, and this Big Victory will only make me work even harder for your success, and all that comes with it. I LOVE YOU ALL. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP.

Cassidy spent five years insisting that the vote was old news. Voters just reached the same conclusion about Cassidy. Once again, this demonstrates the pull that Trump has with Republican voters – not just a small subset of GOP voters, but the party’s mainstream. Not even Cassidy’s “massive war chest” immunized him from accountability, Politico noted, another belated recognition of that outlet of the same lesson Cassidy just learned:

It’s a massive warning sign for any Republicans who’ve provoked the president’s wrath: Trump’s revenge campaign has already mobilized voters in both Indiana, where he successfully ousted several state GOP senators over redistricting, and Saturday night in Louisiana. Tuesday’s primaries in Georgia and Kentucky, where Rep. Thomas Massie is up for reelection and he’s picked sides in the open Senate race, will be another test. Now, the president is entering those races with the wind at his back.

Cassidy’s distant third-place finish marks the end of his tenure in the Senate, one that was doomed by his vote to convict Trump on impeachment charges related to the Jan. 6 insurrection five years ago. That decision ostracized him from Louisiana’s rabidly conservative base and set up two strong primary challengers in Rep. Julia Letlow — the Trump-endorsed candidate — and MAGA-friendly state Treasurer John Fleming. Up until polls closed, Cassidy maintained that his massive war chest, his record in Congress and a high turnout of non-party voters would be enough to save him. I

n the end, it was not. “For a man with such a formidable intellect, his political strategy was breathtakingly dense,” said Lionel Rainey, a Louisiana GOP strategist, who is unaffiliated with any of the campaigns. “History will remember Bill Cassidy as the absolute smartest guy in the political morgue.”

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I can see the Dems losing bitterly. What are their strengths? Not being Trump?

• Democrats Face Midterm Disappointment (Daniel McCarthy)

As they look to the midterm elections, Republicans have reason to worry — but not despair. They’re going to be fighting uphill all the way to hold onto their majority in the House, which they currently control by the razor-thin margin of just six seats. That includes one member, California Rep. Kevin Kiley, who officially left the GOP but still caucuses with the party. “Fragile” hardly does justice to the state of the GOP’s House majority. Democrats look at President Donald Trump’s approval ratings and exult: As of early May, exactly six months before the midterms, Trump’s approval in the RealClearPolitics polling averages was an anemic 40.7%, and since then polls have shown him slipping further.


Democrats took more than 40 House seats from the GOP in the 2018 midterms, when Trump’s numbers were a little better: RealClear’s aggregate notched him at 43.6% approval the day before the election. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries is just counting down the days until he becomes speaker. What could go wrong? Two things might yet thwart Jeffries’ ambitions. One is the Supreme Court, which has overturned the race-based approach to drawing congressional districts that long served to protect Democratic incumbents and carve out blue seats in red states. The court also slapped down Democrats’ attempts to get the federal judiciary to toss out a Virginia Supreme Court decision that killed their dreams of gerrymandering away four Republican seats in that state.

As things stand, when all the mid-decade redistricting across the country is finished, Republicans stand to gain up to 10 House seats. Though they have to remember what they’re actually getting is more Republican-leaning district maps — they still have to close the deal with voters. But even if they do, 10 more seats won’t stop a wave like the one that swept away the Republican House majority Trump enjoyed at the start of his first term. Yet the second barrier Democrats will have to overcome is that voters just don’t behave the way they used to: For nearly a quarter of a century, the American public exhibited wild swings in party preference in House elections, creating midterm waves in 1994, 2006, 2010 and 2018.

But 2022 broke the pattern: Joe Biden’s aggregate approval in the polls was at 42.2%, and Republicans expected a massive swing in their direction — yet they didn’t get it, just as Democrats got no boost in the House two years earlier despite their success in the 2020 presidential election. Biden claimed record numbers of voters in his race, yet Democrats actually lost seats in the House that year. Trump’s victory in 2024 also didn’t bring about much change in the House; Republicans lost two seats.nnIn other words, the last three elections — in 2020, 2022 and 2024 — have told a tale of surprising stability, with only small adjustments to the numbers of Republicans and Democrats in the House, leading to nerve-rackingly narrow margins of control for each party.

Jeffries should be careful what he wishes for. He might wind up with only a slender majority, one that could be lost if too many geriatric Democrats die in office. As of a year ago, more than 50 House Democrats were over the age of 70. Three have since died. Republicans don’t have quite as many elderly members in the House, but so small is the GOP majority that even a single maverick member like Thomas Massie can threaten to derail major legislation or trigger new elections for speaker. Pain has forced Republicans to get serious, however, and Trump has been relentless about imposing discipline on the party. Massie can attest to that, as can the five Republican state senators who lost their primaries on May 5 after Trump condemned them for opposing a plan to redraw the state’s congressional districts to give the GOP a greater edge.

This is another reason to think Republicans have a fighting chance in November: Despite the headlines in hostile media, the Republican Party is remarkably unified behind Trump, who can end the careers of state senators in Indiana or a United States senator like Bill Cassidy in Louisiana. Trump can do that because — and only because — the voters are with him. If House elections have indeed reached a rough equilibrium since 2020, there will be no wave, and even a pickup of just eight to 10 seats through redistricting could save the Republican majority by the skin of its teeth.

Democrats are counting on this November being a replay of 2018, or George W. Bush’s disastrous second midterms in 2006. But look to the primaries so far for a clue: This is a very different Republican Party, and it’s well-adapted for the political landscape Trump has remade; in an era of close elections, it’s a party that can win.

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Time to spare.

• As Student Scores Plummet, Teachers’ Union Head Rants Against Trump (Salgado)

While student scores continued to hit horrifying lows across America’s public schools, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) union boss Randi Weingarten is prioritizing anti-Trump and pro-illegal alien propaganda.


Weingarten, who said she cried as she voted for Kamala Harris and who demanded huge amounts of taxpayer money to reopen schools during the COVID-19 lockdowns before not using that money on reopening, has a serious case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Her Bluesky account sounds like a full-time political activist’s, and she mostly seems to mention education as connected and secondary to her woke politics. For example, on May 15, she wrote, “In my new video, I talk about the big fights in front of us: making life more affordable and standing up to attacks on voting rights.” She’s not interested in raising test scores or improving literacy.

For example, here is just one message from May 16: “The Trump administration is now targeting people here legally through DACA, deporting them from the only country many have known as home, separating them from their families and forcing them out of their jobs. It’s cruel—Dreamers deserve a pathway to citizenship. Back on May 13, using a report from extremely biased NPR as “proof,” Weingarten ranted, “New evidence shows that Trump’s extreme immigration crackdown has hurt local economies and job growth. It’s time to rein in the chaos and violence ICE is causing in our communities.” This is why ICE agents face increased violence.

And the deranged union boss was outraged that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Democrats’ last-ditch efforts to gerrymander the state of Virginia and erase Republicans’ voice there altogether. Trying to frame Republicans’ efforts to reverse racial gerrymandering as either equivalent or inferior to one of the most egregious maps in American history, Weingarten griped, “So SCOTUS enables some states to move so quickly they suspend elections to gerrymander but refuses to allow a voter approved plan to go forward . What’s the difference? Which party is in power.”

Again complaining about the SCOTUS anti-racial gerrymandering decisions, she posted, “Retirees had questions about how we we have a democracy in light of of terrible court decisions like Callais and Citizens United. We talked, of course about voting. Energy like this gives me hope. We’re gearing up for an election cycle like no other and these activists are ready.” You might have noticed by now that she often has glaring grammatical and punctuation errors in her posts. She’s almost as illiterate as her students.

Speaking of which, on May 13, Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research admitted, “Compared with a decade earlier, reading scores were down last year in 83 percent of school districts where data was available. Math scores were down in 70 percent.” Last fall, the National Assessment of Educational Progress found “just 35% of high school seniors were proficient in reading” and the “math score for 12th-graders was even worse, with just 22% achieving proficiency.” Weingarten is so busy ranting against Trump that she is stultifying an entire generation.

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FYI.

• We’ve Been Taking Down Some Really Bad Guys Lately (Anderson)

Donald Trump’s plan to clean up the Western Hemisphere is going pretty well. If you need proof of that, just take a look at the list of bad guys we’ve rounded up and who are now in U.S. custody as of the past week or so.


Alex Saab (Nicolás Maduro’s Bagman)
I’ve written a great deal about Alex Saab in the past, so I don’t want to rehash all the details of who he is, but for those who don’t know, he’s Maduro’s bagman. He’s quite a powerful guy, and he’s been accused of things like money laundering, sanctions evasion, and corruption schemes benefiting the Maduro regime in the past. At one point, he was actually in U.S. custody. However, the Joe Bide administration sent him back to Venezuela in exchange for Maduro’s good behavior. Seriously. Maduro promised Biden that he’d hold free and fair 2024 elections if he’d release Saab and other related criminals back into Venezuelan custody.

Spoiler alert: There were no free and fair 2024 elections. And to be fair, Maduro also released some U.S. hostages as part of the deal, but if you’ll recall, last summer, Trump and Rubio, with some help from El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, had Maduro release all U.S. hostages in exchange for, well, nothing. But I digress. So, on Saturday, the Venezuelan regime still in place “deported” (they did not use the word “extradited,” even though that’s what it was) Saab — who is actually from Colombia — to the United States.

Venezuela’s Administrative Service of Identification, Migration, and Foreigners Affairs (SAIME) released a statement, saying it made the decision because of implications “in the commission of various crimes in the United States of America — a matter that is public, notorious, and widely reported.” Actually, it did so because Delcy Rodríguez does what the Trump administration tells her to do, like a good little pet. She’s also been scrubbing past praise of Saab from her X account. According to the Miami Herald, the U.S. views Saab as a “potentially crucial witness capable of providing detailed insight into the financial architecture that sustained Maduro’s inner circle for years.” He will now face renewed criminal proceedings.

Jose Enrique Martínez Flores (Senior Tren de Aragua Leader)
Jose Enrique Martínez Flores, aka “Chuqui,” may only be 24 years old, but according to U.S. officials, he’s the Tren de Aragua (TdA) leader that oversees criminal operations, including drug trafficking, extortion, prostitution, and murder in Colombia. In case you forgot, TdA is the Venezuelan prison gang that is now a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) with a presence in the United States. Maduro sent many of them here (and to other countries in the Western Hemisphere) to create chaos in our communities and was using them as his own little army of sorts, even though he denied that they existed.

Anyway, this guy had been arrested in Colombia in March and was extradited to the United States, landing in Houston on May 14. He’s apparently the highest-ranking TdA member ever brought to justice and the first charged with terrorism or related offenses due to the FTO designation. He made his first court appearance last week and pled “not guilty” to all charges.

Gerardo Mérida Sánchez and Enrique Díaz Vega (Sinaloa State Officials)
Last month, I reported that “a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York unsealed a 34-page indictment charging Rubén Rocha Moya and nine other current or former high-ranking Mexican officials with drug trafficking and weapons offenses.” They were accused of partnering with the “Los Chapitos” faction of the Sinaloa Cartel (the sons of El Chapo) to help smuggle massive quantities of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine into the U.S.

Rocha Moya was the big gun. He’s the governor of Sinaloa, one of the most dangerous and violent states in Mexico, and, of course, the home base for the Sinaloa cartel. While Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum basically responded to the indictments with “nothing to see here,” at least two of those officials are now in U.S. custody, after having turned themselves in, presumably in hopes of ratting everyone else out and getting off easy.

The first is Gerardo Mérida Sánchez, a retired military general and the former secretary of public security for Sinaloa state. On May 11, he crossed the border into Arizona, was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals, and flown to New York. He was the first to turn himself in and has pleaded “not guilty” to charges including narcotics importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices. He faces a minimum of 40 years in prison (he’s currently 66 years old).

The second is Enrique Díaz Vega, a former secretary of administration and finance for Sinaloa and a close ally of Rocha Moya. Reports say that he was in Europe when he decided to surrender and flew to New York, where he was taken into custody on May 15. The 50-year-old faces the same charges and sentencing. None of these guys are small fish. They’re men who have propped up the widespread organized crime that plagues the Americas, and, hopefully, they’re just a small sample of what’s to come. It’s nice having a president who actually punishes criminals.

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Cloe to: “A profit-maximizing demon from hell.”

To be continued.

• Judge Dismisses Musk’s OpenAI Lawsuit After Jury Reaches Verdict (ZH)

Update: Musk to appeal


***

A nine-person federal jury has sided with OpenAI, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Microsoft, determining that Elon Musk filed his high-profile lawsuit too late under the statute of limitations. The verdict effectively ends Musk’s claims that OpenAI abandoned its founding nonprofit mission to benefit humanity. The jury unanimously concluded that Musk knew or should have known about OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit model and major Microsoft partnerships years earlier – potentially as far back as 2019–2021, making his August 2024 filing untimely. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in turn accepted the advisory jury’s finding on this threshold issue and dismissed the case.

Musk, a co-founder who contributed roughly $38–44 million in OpenAI’s early days, alleged that the company betrayed its original charitable trust by pursuing massive profits and commercial deals, particularly with Microsoft. He sought up to $150 billion in damages or “ill-gotten gains,” the removal of Altman and Brockman from leadership, and a restructuring to restore the nonprofit focus on safe, humanity-benefiting AI. OpenAI countered that Musk was fully aware of the company’s evolving plans (including for-profit elements he himself had once advocated), waited until after launching his competing xAI venture in 2023, and was motivated by competitive rivalry rather than genuine concern for the mission. They described the suit as “sour grapes.”

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“. . . we are witnessing mass formation in real time, where the group delusion becomes the only permissible reality.” LH Grey on X

• The Too-Long Goodbye (James Howard Kunstler)

Last week, Stephen Colbert celebrated his May 21 departure from late-night TV by French-kissing his fellow late-night soul-mate hosts goodbye, perhaps to honor the French origins of the Woke political ideology that guided his rocket flight to fame — Michel Foucault (1926–1984), who argued that power was all that mattered and that you could talk any absurdity about sex, mental illness, and criminality into mass belief. . . Jacques Derrida (1930–2004), who argued that reality depends on how you feel about it. . . Jean-François Lyotard (1924–1998), who denounced truth per se in favor of your truth. . . and Gilles Deleuze, father of gender-fluidity.


So, bonne nuit and au revoir, Monsieur Colbert, and don’t let the CBS screen door bump your ass on the way out. Few public figures in our time have done as much damage to the collective mental health of our country than Colbert did in his late-night operations. For instance, the dance routine, broadcast circa April 2021, titled “The Vax-Scene,” when “Joe Biden” and Dr. Fauci rolled out the mRNA products that would eventually maim or kill hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Colbert did the shimmy in front of a chorus line costumed as syringes capering to a musical arrangement of the old Latin hit, Tequila (original, by The Champs, 1958). His ignorance about what actually was at stake was surpassed only by his Cheshire Cat caliber smugness. So, what you see in this video is the rectified essence of the demonic idiocy that still animates the Democratic Party. Save it and watch it often to remind yourself what the nation has been battling for so many years.

I was actually a guest on Colbert’s show years ago in its early evening incarnation when the running gag was Colbert pretending to be a right-winger. In the green room before the show, his handlers told me to “not try to be funny because that’s Stephen’s job.” I had just published a novel about what life in America might be like after the collapse of our techno-industrial economy (World Made by Hand). Colbert treated that as a joke, too, of course. He already had the remarkable ability for finding comedy in all the wrong places. By the time Covid came along, he was no longer a pretend conservative; he was an out-front Democratic Party / Deep State propaganda tool.

It remains to be seen how the party can possibly survive the revelations-to-come of its monumental criminality. Sunday morning, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche turned up on Maria Bartiromo’s public affairs show. Maria was in a testy mood, repeatedly telling Mr. Blanche that America has lost patience bigly over the complete lack of “accountability” for the various seditions and treasons launched against the public since 2016, in particular, the obvious treachery so many witnessed in the 2020 election.

Mr. Blanche replied, ““Well, there’s a ton of evidence that the election was rigged. That’s not something the DOJ needs to tell you about. There’s been evidence about that for many, many years. What I can tell you is that we have multiple investigations going on in Arizona, in Georgia — in Fulton County, Georgia. And that’s exactly what we’re looking at.”

Quite so: evidence for many years, by the truckload, and indeed it was only a month or so ago that the FBI turned up at the Fulton County, GA, election records depository building and seized a truckload of ballots and other material related to the Big Switcheroo that the election workers there pulled off overnight on Nov 3, 2020 —because “broken water mains [toilets, that is],” and all. Mr. Blanche might not need to tell the irascible Maria B about that, but eventually he will have to tell the whole country what happened in Fulton County, GA, and Maricopa County, AZ, and Antrim County, MI, and Milwaukee County, WI, and Philadelphia. . . .

It remains to be seen how the stolen 2020 election business might be rolled into the “grand conspiracy” case being pursued in the grand jury convened at Fort Pierce, Florida. It will probably be a major entrée in the smorgasbord of prosecutable turpitudes presently under consideration. Also remains to be seen how half the country that still calls itself “Left” or “Progressive” or “registered Democrat” will greet the news that “Joe Biden” did not win that crooked election, but rather, their bête noire, Donald Trump, won. And not by a slim margin, but by a ton.

Read more …

Germany started it.

• Germany Fears Next Migration Wave (ZH)

With Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez legalizing what could amount to as many as 1.6 million migrants, other EU member states are getting worried, and not just neighboring France. While the Socialist prime minister’s announcement originally aimed to naturalize some 500,000 migrants by handing them residency permits and work permits, German authorities estimate that there could be as many as 850,000 applicants in Spain, writes Bild. Leaked internal Spanish police documents have already put this estimated number even higher, at 1.6 million.


Since the announcement in mid-April, hordes of undocumented migrants have been overwhelming local offices across the country, with nearly 130,000 applications in the first week alone. Remix News posted videos of these crowds. French conservatives sounded the alarm early on, with National Rally leader Jordan Bardella slamming the ability for residence permits to freely move around the EU. “I believe that free movement within the Schengen Area should be reserved exclusively for nationals of European countries. Obtaining a residence permit in Spain, for example, should not allow free movement throughout all European Union countries,” he wrote.

Now, Germany’s Foreign Office in Berlin has stated: “We are closely monitoring the situation and are in contact with Spain.” A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry also sought to clarify that a Schengen residence permit does not, in principle, authorize employment in Germany. Having one allows you to enter Germany and stay for a maximum of three months at a time. The domestic policy spokesman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Alexander Throm (CDU), also expressed his concerns, according to Bild: “Such mass legalization sends a devastating signal to the world and creates an incalculable pull effect.”

Police union representative Manuel Ostermann has also warned of potential consequences given that many entering Europe are attracted to German jobs and benefits. “If the Spanish minority government fails, and a future government reduces payments or terminates residency permits, many of the migrants will continue their journey to Germany and remain here. Whether permitted or not,” he warned. Of course, jobs in Germany are already becoming scarce, including over 120,000 industrial jobs being shed last year, and after years of mass immigration, the German economy continues to go from weakness ot weakness.

Germany has already had problems with secondary migration from Greece for years. Last April, the country’s Federal Administrative Court authorized migrant deportations to Greece for the first time in years. Ostermann is now warning: “The migration crisis is not over. Germany must therefore consistently eliminate the remaining pull factors,” he says, adding that Germany should abolish “excessive financial incentives” and replace them with the principle of “bread and butter.”

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If you’re not Christian, you are Muslim. There is no third choice.

• Secretary Marco Rubio Delivers Message of National Faith (CTH)

Those of dark whispered voices are shrieking loudly today, directing their soulless vessels to shout opposition to the Christian rededication of our nation. They listen to the voices of betrayal telling them to shriek about “freedom of religion” as noted in the constitution, yet their arguments are twisted around the false premise that does not exist, “freedom from religion.” Our constitution does not block the expression of religion; it blocks the favoring of one expression over another. Freedom of religion is entirely different than freedom from religion, though both represent a moral choice.

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https://twitter.com/WR4NYGov/status/2056140342014115902?s=20 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2056105680294297797?s=20 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2056170982784602538?s=20 https://twitter.com/sulekhat95/status/2055986390564061634?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle May 15 2026

May 152026
 
 May 15, 2026  Posted by at 9:57 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  34 Responses »


Camille Pissarro Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain 1897


• President Trump Discusses China Visit and Discussion with Chairman Xi (CTH)
• “Fantastic Day” With Xi, 200-Jet Boeing Deal, China Offers Hormuz Help (ZH)
• Iran Proclaims Safe, Toll-Free Passage For 30 Chinese Tankers (ZH)
• The Secretary of State Is Cool (Sarah Anderson)
• US Secretary of State Calls Chinese Military Second Strongest In World (TASS)
• Europe’s Dependence On US LNG Set To Surge (Irina Slav)
• US Wants To Restore Nord Stream & Purchase, At Steep Discount: Lavrov (ZH)
• NATO Chief Wants To Triple Money Flows To Ukraine – Politico (RT)
• Spain Wants An Eu Army: What Would It Mean? (RT)
• Trump Administration Uncovers Massive Welfare, Citizenship Abuses (JTN)
• This Is the Democrats’ Achilles Heel and the Republicans’ Super Power (Moran)
• US Gov’t Settles With Former NYT Reporter in Vaccine Censorship Case (ET)
• Fauci Accused Of Intentionally Burying COVID Lab-Leak Evidence (MN)

 

 

https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2054756638155006263?s=20 https://twitter.com/CryptoNobler/status/2054841983630225712?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2054734278869602379?s=20

 


 


Let Trump explain himself. Works for Xi.

• President Trump Discusses China Visit and Discussion with Chairman Xi (CTH)

President Trump sits down with Fox News Sean Hannity for an interview immediately following the fast-paced visit in Beijing, China.Hannity asks President Trump for his sense of the greeting and pageantry put on by Chairman Xi at the formal greeting, as well as some general discussion on the topics of a very lengthy talk between Trump administration officials and their Chinese counterparts.


President Trump and Chairman Xi discussed Iran and the current conflict which has impacted the global supply of oil. It should be noted that closure of the Strait of Hormuz in combination with the U.S. control over Venezuela oil production has reversed the dependency dynamic between Russia and China. Prior to oil/gas shortages (skyrocketing prices), and due to Western U.S/EU sanctions, Russia was very dependent on China for supplies and component goods. After oil/gas shortages were triggered by the Iran conflict, China became dependent on Russia for their energy demands. A rather unusual dynamic sitting like an 800lb Gorilla in the corner of the meeting between President Trump and Chairman Xi.

(1) Upon reelection President Trump told all U.S. energy providers to “drill baby drill” and maximize energy production. Trump then deregulated the industry for maximum efficiency: Secretaries Burgum (Interior), Wright (Energy) and Zeldin (EPA).

(2) Trump then meets with Putin in Alaska Aug 15, 2025. Three days later, Aug 18, 2025, Putin restarts Russia’s flagship Arctic project, the LNG export facility via the Northern Route to Asia.

(3) President Trump then signs contracts with Finland for the urgent start of Arctic icebreaking ship manufacturing in the USA and emphasizes the prior conversation about taking over Greenland which infuriates the Danes and EU.

(4) President Trump then triggers the Venezuela operation, captures Nicholas Maduro and -in addition to other benefits- forms a new strategic oil development relationship with the interim Venezuela government. Russia stays silent.

(5) President Trump then triggers Operation Epic Fury against Iran; completely changing the geopolitical landscape that surrounds energy partnerships. Energy flows through the Gulf of Oman are impacted.

(6) President Trump then removes specific sanctions against Russia permitting Russian oil and LNG to be sold (in petrodollars) into the Asian market. Meanwhile, the European Union is forced to increase LNG purchases from the United States.

Sure, it could all be just coincidence… or not. One thing is certain, the FIVE-EYES opposition (Canada, EU, U.K and Australia) do not think all of this downstream benefit that flows to Russia and the USA is coincidental. The FIVE-EYES opposition clearly see all of this as a strategic realignment between the USA and Russia, and they are going to do everything in their power to stop it.

Last point. The next world leader to visit China will be…. wait for it… Vladimir Putin.

Read more …

“Trump and Xi agreed that the Strait of Hormuz should remain open to free navigation and that Tehran should not charge a fee to ships using the critical waterway.”<

• “Fantastic Day” With Xi, 200-Jet Boeing Deal, China Offers Hormuz Help (ZH)

Boeing-China Jet Deal
A highly anticipated Boeing jet deal appears to have materialized after the first day of President Trump’s summit with President Xi Jinping. Fox News reports that Trump said Boeing secured an order for 200 “big” jets from China. He said the order was initially for 150, but the final figure will be 200


Trump Says China Will Help On Reopening Hormuz
It is nearly midnight in Beijing, and President Trump is still speaking on the record with corporate media, offering additional insight on the first day of the summit and state banquet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. In comments to Fox News, Trump said Xi offered to help pressure Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, signaling that Beijing may be willing to use its leverage over Tehran.

This comes as energy insiders and traders warn that continued closure of the Strait through the end of the month could spark a worsening energy shock.

Trump also said Xi would not provide weapons to Tehran.

Trump, Xi Put Hormuz, Iran, Trade, Taiwan At Center Of Historic Beijing Summit
President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are currently seated at the main table at a state banquet. President Xi called the visit historic, and said U.S.-China ties are “stable” amid talks with Trump’s team.

According to a White House readout, Trump and Xi agreed that the Strait of Hormuz should remain open to free navigation and that Tehran should not charge a fee to ships using the critical waterway.

Beijing also signaled interest in buying more U.S. oil to reduce China’s reliance on crude and crude products transiting the Hormuz chokepoint. This signifies how the U.S.-Iran conflict is rewiring global energy flows.mTrump-Xi talks also covered fentanyl, securing market access for U.S. companies in the mainland market, and increasing Chinese investment in American industries and purchases of U.S. agricultural products. “American enterprises are deeply involved in China’s reform and opening up, a process from which both sides have benefited,” Xi told the leaders of U.S. companies accompanying Trump on the trip. Those CEOs include Tesla’s Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang.

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They have to give it to all

• Iran Proclaims Safe, Toll-Free Passage For 30 Chinese Tankers (ZH)

During President Trump’s ongoing state visit to China, he and President Xi Jinping agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must be open for the free flow of energy. They along with their senior officials have expressed agreement that no country can be allowed to exact shipping tolls in the Strait of Hormuz. Following this, Thursday saw Iranian state media proclaim that some 30 Chinese vessels are being allowed safe passage by Iran. Bloomberg also freshly reports, “The vessels were allowed to pass the Strait of Hormuz with the coordination of the Iranian authorities and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy, state TV reports, citing an IRGC naval official.


While it’s as yet unknown or unclear whether the US Navy side of the de facto blockade will also let them pass, Reuters has also reported the following: Iran has begun allowing some Chinese vessels to transit through the Strait of Hormuz following an understanding over Iranian management protocols for the waterway, the semi-official Fars news agency said on Thursday, citing an informed source. In particular the move also follows formal requests by China’s foreign minister as well as Beijing’s ambassador to Iran, with Tehran reportedly agreeing based on safeguarding the two allies’ strategic partnership.

Bloomberg cited the IRGC official as saying of the Iranian protocol for passage, “A new era in the Strait of Hormuz has started as many countries of the world and fleets have accepted that the best, quickest and simplest way for transiting this very important waterway is only though coordination with the IRGC’s naval forces.” This was after Wednesday saw the key milestone of a Chinese supertanker carrying 2 million barrels of Iraqi crude having successfully passed through the Strait of Hormuz, after previously being stranded for more than two months.

Also of note is that the Chinese Cosco Shipping tanker did not have to pay tolls. According to The Wall Street Journal: Lloyd’s List Intelligence data show the Yuan Hua Hu crossed the waterway through the corridor in the north controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Ship trackers said the vessel switched off its transponder while sailing from an anchorage in Dubai towards Larak, then came back online for a couple of hours before going dark again. Ships crossing through Larak pay an average of $2 million each, according to brokers.

The Yuan Hua Hu is the third Chinese state-owned tanker to leave the Gulf since the start of the war. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott emphasized earlier this week that Washington and Beining “agreed that no country or organization can be allowed to charge tolls to pass through international waterways like the Strait of Hormuz.” China imports the bulk of its energy from the Middle East, and while it has amassed substantial crude oil stockpiles that are helping it weather the worst of the crisis – anecdotally over 1.4 billion barrels – restoring normal flows from the Persian Gulf is important for one of the world’s top energy importers.

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Spittin’.

• The Secretary of State Is Cool (Sarah Anderson)

For years, we’ve had the media try to force the idea that certain Democrats were “cool” down our throats. Barack Obama is probably the best example. Turns out, he’s just a guy in mom jeans whose wife likes to go on podcasts and share enough marital gripes to make him sound overly henpecked. They tried with countless others. Eric Swalwell. We all know how that ended up. Turns out he’s less “cool” and more “pervy predator.” (Allegedly.) Gavin Newsom tries very hard himself to remind us he’s cool, but every time he does, he comes across as racist, ridiculous, or just plain out of touch.


For some, however, it’s effortless. I’m talking, of course, about our dear Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Most of y’all who read here regularly know I’m a fan and have been from the beginning of his career. I stuck with him, even when a lot of conservatives didn’t. I was thrilled when Donald Trump chose him as Secretary of State — it was the first breaking news story I got to write when I joined the team here at PJ Media. That’s who I learned so much of my Western Hemisphere foreign policy from over the years. bI say all this to admit that I’m biased. And I don’t know that Rubio is necessarily “cool.” He can actually be kind of dorky. But I’m not even sure that matters.

What does matter is that, while yes, he is a politician and proves that sometimes, he’s also human and relatable in a way that those guys I mentioned above will never be. Now that he’s arguably one of the most important men in the world, the MSM is catching on, and they don’t like it one bit. The biggest example of this is Rubio’s passion for rap music and the fact that he often injects lyrics into his speeches and appearances. He’s been doing this for a while, but the media has, apparently, just figured it out. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume a lot of you in our audience do not care for this kind of music.

Rubio has even joked himself in the past that it’s not really what a lot of conservatives listen to. Personally, I don’t mention it here often, but I’m a huge rap fan, and I think more conservative millennials like myself, who grew up on it in the 1990s, are too, and I think that adds to the secretary’s appeal to my generation. I’ve said before that one reason I always liked him is because I felt he spoke to my generation (even though he’s Gen X and a decade or two older than most of us). But this is not necessarily about his taste in the music. This is just one of many examples.

It’s about how he remains authentic and refuses to back away from his love for it, even if it may not be popular with all of his base. In his 2012 memoir An American Son, Rubio mentions that when he was in sixth grade, while his friends were listening to Van Halen and Ozzy Osbourne, he was discovering Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash. He called hip-hop his “guilty pleasure,” and claimed that when he was on the campaign trail, he’d sit with his earphones on and close his eyes and envision winning his initial campaign for the Senate. And apparently his young staff members were always surprised about his musical tastes. Here’s something from the book The Rise of Marco Rubio:

Rubio liked to blast hip-hop on the stereo. ‘He can spit!’ one young staffer marveled to a friend, invoking the slang term for singing rap lyrics. A love of rap wasn’t exactly what they expected from the up-and-coming voice of righteous conservatism. You know, I get in trouble when I talk about that a little bit, because maybe I shouldn’t listen to that anymore, but the music is good, Rubio would later say. ‘[You’ve] just got to sometimes ignore what their politics may be and just enjoy the music.’

Fast forward back to 2026. On January 3, shortly after we captured Nicolás Maduro, Rubio said of Trump always doing what he says he’s going to do, “If you don’t know, now you know.” It’s a line from The Notorious B.I.G.’s — aka Biggie Smalls — 1994 song “Juicy.” The White House actually used it in a social media video last night, featuring Rubio aboard Air Force One, wearing the same Nike jogging suit Maduro wore the night we got him — a total troll move and yet another reason why Rubio is “cooler” than your average Democrat. During a hearing earlier this year, he quoted Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” when talking about life in Venezuela under the Maduro regime. At a Cabinet meeting in March, he quoted a Public Enemy song, “Welcome to the Terrordome.”

When he filled in for Karoline Leavitt during the White House press briefing last week, he worked in lyrics from Cypress Hill — saying the Iranian regime is “insane in the brain” — and Ice Cube, suggesting the regime should “check themselves before they wreck themselves.” For what it’s worth, Rubio has also said he’s a big EDM (electronic dance music) fan, and we’ve seen proof of that too. Most recently, him DJing a wedding in Florida a couple of weekends ago. My point is that none of this is forced. It’s not for political gain. He is just being who he is. And that’s something very few Democrats are able to do these days.

You can tell it’s a threat to the left because the MSM is starting to speak negatively about it. They see this cool dude whose star is rising at a rapid pace because of relatable things he says and does, who is a strong potential 2028 contender, and who is having fun while doing it. They also see they’ve only got, well, Gavin Newsom in Atlanta telling a predominantly black audience that he’s as dumb as they are, while his wife alienates most of the country with her absurd ideas that boys are bad and Southern conservatives are all hateful bigots.

They know they can’t win elections with that, so they have to send out their barking dogs to try to make Rubio look bad. On The Daily Show last week, they began mocking his use of rap lyrics, saying they’re inappropriate when talking about war. They also declared that rap music is no longer cool. And just look how sad Jake Tapper appears to be over the whole “rap lyric” situation.

https://twitter.com/KarluskaP/status/2052503376638669290?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2052503376638669290%7Ctwgr%5E4d108a73701bc209eb84e584ad9138c3868f6e45%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fsarah-anderson%2F2026%2F05%2F13%2Fthe-secretary-of-state-is-cool-and-the-msm-is-having-a-meltdown-over-it-n4952802

The Atlantic also recently published an article called “Is Marco Rubio the Happiest Cabinet Member?” On the surface, it sounds like a feel-good puff piece, like something, I don’t know, maybe yours truly would write, but the subheading gives it away: “While his colleagues deal with war and controversy, he’s laughing and talking in rap lyrics.” Laughing? Talking in rap lyrics? It’s criminal! Let’s just lock him up right now. I didn’t read the entire article, but it goes on to list all the supposedly bad things going on in the country, the world, and the Trump administration and declares “In a more normal time, he would seem like just another glad-handing politician. But consider the moment.”

If that’s the worst these people can come up — he laughs, he uses lyrics to make points, he’s enjoying his life — I’d say Rubio is doing much better than most of the current politicians in the U.S. And I, for one, am here for it. As a matter of fact, I’d like to see more.

https://twitter.com/SarahDownSouth/status/2051774945521279461?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2051774945521279461%7Ctwgr%5E4d108a73701bc209eb84e584ad9138c3868f6e45%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fsarah-anderson%2F2026%2F05%2F13%2Fthe-secretary-of-state-is-cool-and-the-msm-is-having-a-meltdown-over-it-n4952802

Read more …

And Russia?

• US Secretary of State Calls Chinese Military Second Strongest In World (TASS)

China has been building up its military at an unprecedented pace over the past decade, making it the second strongest in the world today, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. “I mean, the pace of growth in the Chinese military over the last 10 years has no precedent. <...> It’s hard to ignore how fast and how big [it’s growing]. <...> They are, right now, the world’s second most powerful military without a doubt,” he said in an interview with NBC News. According to Rubio, Chinese authorities “have ambitions to ultimately be able to project power globally the way the US does now.”
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EU declares itself ready to be fleeced.

• Europe’s Dependence On US LNG Set To Surge (Irina Slav)

The European Union’s dependence on liquefied natural gas from the United States is set to rise significantly, reaching 80% of all LNG imports in two years, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis has warned. In a report cited by Reuters, IEEFA noted that the European Union already imports significant volumes of U.S. liquefied gas, creating a potentially risky dependence on a single supplier. LNG imports from the United States into the EU accounted for 58% of overall LNG imports. Yet this dependence is only going to increase in the coming years, the outlet said, recommending more wind, solar, and heat pumps as an alternative.


This year, the United States will become the European Union’s biggest supplier of liquefied gas, even as the bloc also gobbles up every ton of Russian LNG it can buy ahead of the 2027 ban on Russian energy imports.The motivation for that ban, in addition to punishment for the war in Ukraine, has been to avoid overwhelming dependence on a single energy supplier, which is what the EU is currently doing with the U.S. Energy commodities are a big part of the trade deal signed last year by President Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The deal featured a commitment on the part of the EU to buy $750 billion worth of U.S. energy commodities over a period of three years. The European Parliament earlier this year signaled it has problems with the deal, which angered the U.S. president, and he threatened to hike tariffs on EU goods unless the bloc signs the deal as is. The arrangement elevated American LNG, oil, and refined fuels in Europe’s energy supply mix. The actual supply of so many energy commodities, however, would be physically – and financially – challenging both for the suppliers and the buyers.

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Someone actually mentions Seymour Hersh.

• US Wants To Restore Nord Stream & Purchase, At Steep Discount: Lavrov (ZH)

The Nord Stream pipelines have long slipped from headlines, apart from the occasional whodunnit narratives, and they have remained damaged and offline. The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipeline bombings occurred on September 26, 2022 – but their future fate is still up in the air and being wrangled over, including by Washington. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has alleged that Washington now it wants to buy the part of the pipelines owned by European companies, in order to assert influence and control over European energy.


“Take a look at how the Americans are planning to restore Nord Stream. I am talking about two gas pipelines, and they were blown up,” he told RT in an interview this week. “The Americans under Biden said that these gas pipelines would not work, but now they accuse the Ukrainians of blowing up these two pipelines,” he continued, before noting: “Actually, four pipelines. Three out of four were blown up. The Americans want to buy out the part that was owned by European companies.” He further explained that the US “wants to strike the deal at a price that is 10 times lower than the initial European investments” – according to Russian state media.

He explained that this would be about US control, and the ability to dictate the price of gas – instead of what would have been a prior mutual agreement between Russia and Germany, before the pipelines were sabotaged. “They [the US] openly stated that they wanted to halt gas transit via pipelines from Russia to Europe through Ukraine in order to control these flows as well,” he alleged. Last year ZeroHedge asked Trump directly about who was behind the Nord Stream sabotage op. “If you can believe it they said Russia blew it up,” Trump initially responded at the time.

“Well probably if I asked certain people they would be able to tell you without having to waste a lot of money on an investigation,” the president said. “But I think a lot of people know who blew it up, but I was the one who blew it up originally because I wouldn’t let it be built, and then when Biden got in he allowed it to be built.”

President strongly suggested that based on classified intelligence he knows exactly who was behind the September 26, 2022 covert operation which ended in the Baltic Sea explosions and major leaks which took the vital Russia to Germany natural gas pipelines permanently offline. Of course, with no investigation whatsoever (a serious European inquiry didn’t even begin till the following year), Western mainstream press coalesced around the dubious “Russia bombed their own pipeline!” narrative.

In early 2023, famed journalist and Pulitzer price winner Seymour Hersh published a bombshell report which concluded that the United States blew up the Russia-to-Germany natural gas pipeline as part of a covert operation under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 NATO exercise. Hersh’s report has been subject to a lot of pushback since then, but he’s not backed off this initial reporting and investigation.

Read more …

NATO want war. It’s that ssimple.

• NATO Chief Wants To Triple Money Flows To Ukraine – Politico (RT)

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has urged member states to devote 0.25% of their GDP to aid for Ukraine, Politico Europe reported on Tuesday, citing diplomatic sources.Rutte reportedly raised the issue during a closed door meeting of NATO ambassadors late last month. If adopted, the proposal, first floated by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky last year, would effectively triple aid to Kiev to around $143 billion annually, according to NATO estimates of the allies’ combined GDP cited by Politico.


The proposal is said to be partly motivated by frustration among some countries that they are contributing more support to Ukraine than others. Several allies, including major NATO members France and Britain, reportedly oppose the initiative. The discussions on increasing support for cash-strapped Ukraine come as the country has been rocked by another major corruption scandal allegedly involving figures close to Zelensky.

On Thursday, Ukraine’s top anti-corruption court is expected to rule on whether to detain Zelensky’s former chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, who was named a suspect in a money laundering case involving kickbacks in the energy sector and elite real estate developments outside Kiev. According to the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), the suspects, including former Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Chernyshov, laundered around $9 million through investments in the construction of the Dinastia (Dynasty) residential complex.

Last year, investigators uncovered a $100 million kickback scheme allegedly orchestrated by Timur Mindich, Zelensky’s longtime former business partner, who has been described in the media as his “wallet.” Mindich fled the country to avoid arrest, while several senior officials, including two ministers, resigned.

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““If you are already part of NATO, then you can’t create a separate army. And if you have, like the European army, and then you have the NATO one, then, you know, the ball just falls between the chairs.”

• Spain Wants An Eu Army: What Would It Mean? (RT)

Spain has become the latest European nation to call for the EU to build its own army as opposed to relying on the NATO framework, citing a growing rift with the US. The idea itself, however, has split European NATO members, with many still viewing the US-led military bloc as a preferable defense mechanism. Whatever the outcome of those debates, most NATO nations are engaged in an accelerated militarization campaign costing hundreds of billions of dollars in the long run, citing an alleged Russian “threat.”


The idea of a joint European army harks back to the early days of the Cold War, when in the early 1950s, France pushed for the European Defense Community, which would have brought France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg into a common 100,000-strong European force. The plan received US backing. However, France later balked, fearful of a potential loss of sovereignty and West Germany gaining an oversized role while memories of World War II were still fresh. Still, under Charles de Gaulle, France was highly skeptical of NATO, seeing it as a tool for US dominance in Europe. In 1966, de Gaulle pulled France – which was struggling to cling to the remnants of its colonial empire and superpower status – out of the NATO command structure.

The idea of an EU army has since resurfaced several times, most notably during the Balkan wars and illegal bombing of the former Yugoslavia. While European leaders mostly backed the US-led strikes, the internal dissent was significant, and the campaign showed a humiliating reality for the EU: a security crisis in its own backyard was being handled mostly by the US. During the 2011 Libya intervention, it was much worse. Not only were EU powers dependent on the US doing all the heavy lifting, but the campaign also led to a European fracture. Only France and the UK coordinated the strikes with the US, while Italy was initially opposed to the intervention. Later, France and Italy worked at cross purposes, supporting different sides in the Libyan Civil War.

The EU army debate once again took center stage following the start of the Ukraine crisis in 2014. Amid tensions with Russia, bloc members ramped up military spending and drew joint procurement plans. In 2022, plans were announced to establish a EU Rapid Deployment Capacity – a force of up to 5,000 comprised of personnel from European states with a mandate for missions abroad. Some EU nations, however, have called for a standalone European army with wider authority, citing Washington’s growing unreliability and the need for strategic autonomy.

Who is in favor?
Spain has become the most recent proponent of the EU army idea. On Monday, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares made the case in an interview with Politico, saying, “We cannot be waking up every morning wondering what the US will do next … our citizens deserve better.” He added: “This is the moment of the sovereignty and independence of Europe. The Americans are inviting us to that.” In a thinly veiled allusion to US President Donald Trump, Albares stressed that the EU has to be “free of dependence,” as well as “free of coercion, whether it comes to tariffs or the use of military threat, [or] the consequences of someone else’s decisions.”

While his comments came amid a stark rift with the US over the Iran war, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called for “a real European army” already in February, stressing that the bloc needs it “not in ten years’ time, but now” and pledged Madrid would contribute all necessary resources. In France, an EU army has long been a personal project for President Emmanuel Macron, who began calling for a “true European army” as early as 2018, arguing the continent could not rely solely on the US. One year later, he famously proclaimed NATO “brain dead,” also citing failure to coordinate efforts with the US. In April, Macron also stressed that the EU’s “objective is not to be the vassals” of the US and China.

In Italy, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who leads the center-right Forza Italia party, has stressed that “if we want to be a peacekeeping force in the world, we need a European army,” describing it as a premise for “an effective European foreign policy.” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, however, has been more cautious, stating that the issue is not on the agenda, adding that the bloc’s defense should be based on the cooperation of national armies.

Who is against?
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has been among the most vocal critics of the concept. In February, she described the idea of a European army as “extremely dangerous,” saying that its proponents “maybe haven’t really thought this through practically.” “If you are already part of NATO, then you can’t create a separate army. And if you have, like the European army, and then you have the NATO one, then, you know, the ball just falls between the chairs.”

In Poland, the bloc’s most aggressive defense spender at 4.7% of GDP in 2025, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski called the idea “unrealistic because national armies will not merge.” However, he was more sympathetic to a brigade-sized “European legion” comprised of EU citizens or even candidate states, which could be involved in foreign operations short of a confrontation with a near-peer adversary. In Germany, Chancellor Friedrich Merz has pledged to build “Europe’s strongest conventional army,” but has been skeptical of a bloc-wide force due to legal hurdles, arguing that the EU should “focus on the tasks that we need to accomplish now.”

The Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – have historically been among the most skeptical of EU defense autonomy, fearing it could dilute US commitments. In this vein, outgoing Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds has called NATO “irreplaceable.” As for the US, in 2018, Trump strongly opposed the idea of an EU army, dismissing it as “very insulting.” “Perhaps Europe should first pay its fair share of NATO, which the US subsidizes greatly!” he said at the time.

What’s Spain’s beef with NATO?
Spain’s problem is not necessarily with NATO itself, but rather with the current US administration. Madrid has vehemently opposed the US-Israeli war on Iran, and refused to allow its bases to be used for attacks. Trump subsequently called Spain “a terrible ally” and threatened to cut off all trade. The US president encountered similar problems with the rest of NATO members, slamming the bloc as a “paper tiger” and accusing it of “turning their backs on the American people.” Another point of friction was Greenland, which Trump threatened to annex, meeting strong pushback from the EU.

Read more …

“Minnesota’s Somali community just the start ..”

• Trump Administration Uncovers Massive Welfare, Citizenship Abuses (JTN)

The Trump administration’s work to pare back waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government has reportedly exposed a vast network of taxpayer-fleecing scams, abuses of immigration, and of the citizenship process across all corners of the United States. The story involves resettled refugees soaking up federal paychecks to run home healthcare and childcare businesses, transnational criminal organizations exploiting food benefit programs, and scammers using fake student profiles to make off with millions in federal student loans. It also involves non-monetary forms of fraud, especially in immigration — legal and illegal alike.


Minnesota’s Somali community just the start
The Trump administration’s focus on fraud was originally sparked by new attention on a massive COVID-19-era fraud scheme in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Last year, the number of individuals charged by the Justice Department in the scheme surpassed 70. The defendants, the vast majority of whom are part of the state’s large Somali immigrant community, were accused of systematically defrauding a federally-funded state food program, instead using the proceeds to enrich themselves, as Just the News has extensively reported.

Recent public reports indicate that federally-funded state government programs beyond just Minnesota are ripe for exploitation and fraud. In a sweeping investigation, the Daily Wire and a researcher from the Capital Research Center found that Ohio spent billions of federal dollars on “personal services” payments to home healthcare companies with dubious credentials. These funds are frequently used to compensate individuals for performing non-medical tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and “companionship” for their own family members. Because these services are conducted inside private residences without supervision, it can be difficult to verify actual service delivery.

The investigation found a surge in dubious home health companies that appear to exist solely to bill the government. In Columbus, the reporters found a single windowless office building that houses 94 different companies that have collectively billed taxpayers $66 million over a few years. Many of the business owners lacked medical training or had criminal records, the outlet reported. There is evidence that this type of fraud is specifically encouraged by the way federal government programs are set up. For example, the Office of Refugee Resettlement runs a program that helps new immigrants develop “microenterprises,” like home healthcare companies, “to help generate an income and achieve self-sufficiency.”

Welfare fraud a top priority
The Trump administration has made hunting down this type of welfare fraud a top priority. President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this year establishing a national task force to combat such fraud and appointed Vice President JD Vance to lead it. The task force, with help from the Justice Department and other government agencies, has vigorously pursued states where potential fraud has been documented. Last month, it shut down 447 hospices and 23 home health agencies in California after Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director Dr. Mehmet Oz in January raised concerns about fraudulent hospices in Los Angeles, linking the issue to the Armenian mafia in the area.

California and Ohio were apparently only the tip of the iceberg. On Wednesday, the task force announced that it would be halting $1.4 billion in federal funding for home health and hospice providers across the entire United States. Vance also issued an ultimatum to all 50 states on Wednesday, demanding they show that they are adequately protecting against fraud in federally funded Medicaid programs, or risk losing that funding.

“Today, we are sending, across 50 Medicaid programs, letters that will require them to show that they are effectively and aggressively prosecuting Medicaid fraud in their states,” Vance said at a press conference. “These letters are the first step. The first effort to try to force these states to get serious about prosecuting fraud.” “We’re a generous country. We’re generous people. I love that about this country,” the vice president added. “But part of that generosity is that it extends to our fellow Americans. We cannot give Medicare and Medicaid benefits to everybody all over the world.”

Dr. Oz said this week that there are signs the Medicaid programs were also exploited by foreign governments. “We’ve got Russian government involvement, we believe, in Los Angeles. We’ve got the Chinese government involved in a big fraud ring in New York,” Oz said in an interview with Fox News. “In New York State, the number-one job in the entire state is not retail, it’s not folks working in shops, it’s personal care services. Why? It’s because it’s a jobs program for the state.”

Federal investigators have previously identified foreign exploitation of federal benefits programs. Last month, prosecutors charged five Romanian nationals for their roles in an alleged conspiracy to steal nearly $1 million worth of food assistance benefits in Ohio and California. Last year, another Romanian national was sentenced to ten years in prison for stealing more than 36,000 EBT card numbers in California and New York using skimming devices. He had connections to a Romanian criminal organization, according to prosecutors.

Read more …

Something to do with age.

• This Is the Democrats’ Achilles Heel and the Republicans’ Super Power (Moran)

Last month, 12-term Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) died at the age of 80. He was the fifth Democrat to die in office since Jan. 3, 2025, when the new Congress was seated. Someone is trying to tell the Democrats something (“Yes Lord, we’re listening”). We are, but what about the Democrats? The message is for them, and the “silver ceiling” they’ve placed on running for Congress is about to shatter into a thousand pieces.”In fact, scan the lists of congressional candidates this cycle, and you’ll find a record 80 Gen Z and millennial candidates challenging Democrats aged 65 and older — up from just 24 last cycle,” reports The Hill. “And those young challengers are increasingly outperforming older incumbents in both fundraising and polling, in some cases by double digits.”


These younger Democrats have lots of energy, lots of moxie, and a passel of bad ideas. And they’re coming to Congress in a revolutionary wave. Democratic leaders are holding back the change for reasons that, to them, seem sound. A change so drastic and radical would roil the party, setting off leadership fights and behind-the-scenes brawls for choice committee assignments. Also, while younger Democrats may win primaries in blue districts, how would they fare in the general election? Even some blue districts considered “safe” may end up being competitive.

“There’s a real rift in the ability of Democrats to reach young people and have an authentic message that they are fighting for them when it seems that [older lawmakers] are fighting just to hang on and have another term in Congress,” warned Brian Derrick, co-founder and CEO of a political fundraising platform. “There’s a silver ceiling on what Democrats can achieve while this generation refuses to pass the torch and step aside.” Republicans have their own problems with aging members, but they have taken steps to address that problem in the last two cycles. Speaker Mike Johnson is 54, while other leaders are in their 50s and early 60s.

The current leadership is younger than the previous era, particularly in the Senate, where the departure of leaders in their 80s has dropped the average age of the top brass by nearly a decade. The Massachusetts Democratic primary race is a good example of the Democrats’ problems. Rep. Seth Moulton, a veteran and experienced lawmaker, is running against 80-year-old Sen. Ed Markey. The current leadership is younger than the previous era, particularly in the Senate, where the departure of leaders in their 80s has dropped the average age of the top brass by nearly a decade.

Semafor: “At campaign stops in community town halls to backyard fundraiser barbecues, Moulton is dragging the Democratic Party’s quiet family conversation about age into the light of day, arguing to voters that the stakes of the race are bigger than ideology and speak to the future of the party itself.

“Why does this race matter, beyond Boston or Newburyport?” Moulton asked a crowd of about 200 at Newburyport’s City Hall. “Because it’s a referendum on the future of the Democratic Party. In fact, it’s the last Senate primary before the November midterms. So people are either going to look at the Democratic Party and say: Oh, there they go again, reelecting the same establishment gerontocracy that we just voted against two years ago; or they’re going to say, no, it looks like the Democratic Party is changing. It’s listening.”

Markey isn’t alone. Elderly incumbents across the country who’ve won endorsements from colleagues, labor unions, and progressive organizations are not scaring challengers away. Instead, they’re drawing them – in the form of younger Democrats willing to say the uncomfortable part out loud to voters, whose harsh memories of Joe Biden dooming their 2024 campaign – and of four Democrats dying in their House seats since that election – are still fresh.”

In Connecticut, 77-year-old incumbent Rep. John Larson of the 1st Congressional District lost the party endorsement to former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, 46. There’s going to be a primary, but the writing is on the wall for Larson. Bronin won by 10 points at the convention and has outraised the incumbent. “

There’s a reason that so many Americans are starting to support age limits, because it’s just good and healthy to get renewal every once in a while to get some new voices and new perspectives,” Bronin told Semafor. “I’m running because he’s been in elected office for almost half a century, and in Congress for almost 30 years, and he’s part of a Democratic establishment that keeps doing the same thing despite the fact that the world has changed.”

“Moulton and Bronin are seeing some of the same angst in their parts of New England – a non-ideological worry that their party has too many senior citizens in power, and that they should have retired after Donald Trump’s comeback,” says Semafor. The younger Democrats have ideas, but don’t possess the power to make those ideas into law. Many of them have no idea how to proceed. They don’t realize that while some of their ideas sound good and poll well, turning those ideas into law requires an entirely different skill set.

The Hill: Voters are increasingly supporting younger candidates over older incumbents; the only question is whether the party’s older voices want to be seen as a constructive part of the party’s evolution or as the biggest obstacles to its growth.

Voters are proving quick to punish the latter: 78-year-old Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) is trailing 37-year-old challenger Christian Menefee by at least 20 points in his runoff battle. Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D), at 78 years-old, had to suspend her Senate bid in April after voters flocked to the upstart campaign of 41-year-old Graham Platner (D). If older candidates are unwilling to recognize how the party is changing, voters will do the recognizing for them. These younger Democrats are more radical, angrier, and more willing to ditch the Constitution to get what they want. They’re a danger to the republic and a danger to the United States as we know it.

Read more …

Yeah yeah, NYT. Now do the Automatic Earth.

• US Gov’t Settles With Former NYT Reporter in Vaccine Censorship Case (ET)

The U.S. government has reached a settlement with a former New York Times reporter who was kicked off Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic for posts about vaccines Officials in a settlement agreement dated May 11 and obtained by The Epoch Times said that the government “did in fact violate the First Amendment by exerting substantial coercive pressure on social media companies such as Twitter to suppress disfavored speech like Plaintiff’s,” referring to former New York reporter Alex Berenson.


Officials said they were paying Berenson $150,000 to settle the case, which was filed in 2023 against then-President Joe Biden, Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb, and others. In exchange, Berenson moved to dismiss the case. “I’d like to thank the Trump administration for acknowledging the government’s unconstitutional actions against me in 2021 and standing for my First Amendment rights as a journalist and American,” Berenson told The Epoch Times in an email.

The government under President Donald Trump already settled a case raising similar issues and involving multiple states, agreeing not to take actions “to threaten Social-Media Companies with some form of punishment (i.e., an adverse legal, regulatory, or economic government sanction) unless they remove, delete, suppress, or reduce, including through altering their algorithms, posted social-media content containing protected free speech.”

Twitter banned Berenson in 2021 after he wrote in opposition to mandating COVID-19 vaccination because “it doesn’t stop infection or transmission.” Berenson and Twitter settled a different lawsuit arising from the same incidents, with Twitter acknowledging that it should not have banned the journalist. Emails disclosed in other litigation showed that U.S. officials during the Biden administration, as well as Gottlieb, who is also a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, communicated to Twitter executives their view that Berenson’s posts violated Twitter rules and that he should be punished. Berenson said in his lawsuit that the actions violated his First Amendment rights.

A federal judge in 2025 dismissed the suit against Gottlieb, a former White House adviser named Andrew Slavitt, and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, concluding that Berenson had not alleged “discriminatory animus” by the individuals. She later threw out the litigation against the government, finding that Berenson did not have standing to bring a First Amendment claim against federal officials. Berenson, in an appeal, said that Twitter’s permanent suspension violated company policy, which required leadership approval, noting internal emails that showed top Twitter executives did not approve the ban. He also said the case should not have been dismissed because he had adequately alleged discrimination.

“Defendants targeted Berenson’s speech by reason of his status as a representative speaking for and to unvaccinated Americans,” the appeal stated. Berenson told The Epoch Times, “I look forward to continuing to pursue Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb and chairman Dr. Albert Bourla for their role in the conspiracy to deplatform and silence me.” Lawyers for Gottlieb and Bourla said in a May 11 brief to the appeals court that Berenson’s claims fail in part because unvaccinated Americans do not constitute a recognizable class, undercutting the discrimination allegations. They also said Gottlieb’s communications with Twitter were “noncoercive expressions of opinion on matters of public concern,” and thus protected by the First Amendment.

Read more …

“Anthony Fauci is sitting sipping margaritas somewhere with his multi-million dollar financial success as a result of duping the American people into putting an experimental vaccine into their bodies..”

• Fauci Accused Of Intentionally Burying COVID Lab-Leak Evidence (MN)

A CIA operations officer provided explosive sworn testimony Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, accusing Dr. Anthony Fauci of directly intervening in the intelligence community’s review of COVID-19’s origins. James Erdman III, a veteran CIA special operations officer, told senators that in August 2021 the intelligence community was on the verge of concluding the virus most likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China. Days later, that position reversed with no clear explanation.


Erdman stated under oath: “Dr. Fauci’s role in the cover-up was intentional. Dr. Fauci influenced the analytical process and findings by leveraging his position to ensure the IC consulted with a conflicted list of curated subject matter experts, public health officials, and scientists.”

He added that intelligence leaders “purposefully downplayed the lab origin” and “knew the virus came from Wuhan but pushed the natural origin narrative anyway.” Erdman testified that CIA scientists had circulated papers noting “all the conditions were present for a lab leak,” yet senior analysts ultimately buried or softened those assessments.

Senator Rand Paul pressed Erdman on the timeline. Paul described the Biden administration’s final moves as a “clean-up operation,” noting: “Scientific analysts concluded multiple times between 2021 and 2023 that a lab leak was the most likely origin of COVID-19. Yet those conclusions never shaped the official narrative… It was not until after the 2024 election that the outgoing Biden administration directed the CIA to issue an assessment not because of new intelligence, but so officials could walk out of the door claiming there was nothing left to find.”

Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) demanded accountability. He told the witness: “All these hearings are important. What you said is super critical… But where is the accountability? This is what I hear from my constituents all over Ohio… they want to see the perp walks.” Moreno continued: “Anthony Fauci is sitting sipping margaritas somewhere with his multi-million dollar financial success as a result of duping the American people into putting an experimental vaccine into their bodies or risk losing their jobs. He’s not accountable to anybody.”

Senators Ron Johnson and Rand Paul pushed back after the CIA labeled the public hearing “political theater.” Johnson stated: “This committee needs an apology! This is not political theater. This is what the American people need to see.” Paul added: “Closed-door testimony doesn’t provide oversight. Public testimony provides oversight.”

Fox News reporter Bill Melugin noted the complete absence of Senate Democrats from the Homeland Security Committee hearing, despite several members serving on the panel. One Democrat, Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, walked past the media setup but did not enter the room. Erdman also raised separate concerns about oversight of declassification efforts. He claimed the CIA “took back 40 boxes of JFK and MK-Ultra files” that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was reviewing.

The whistleblower further alleged the agency “illegally monitored the computer and phone usage” of investigators working on the COVID-19 origins probe under presidential direction. He said: “These were Americans being spied on illegally while carrying out duties directed by the President and under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence.” The testimony aligns with earlier official reviews of the pandemic’s beginnings.

It builds on the White House’s comprehensive lab-leak assessment released in April 2025 and Department of Defense and Defense Intelligence Agency reports indicating the Biden Pentagon may have suppressed aspects of the origins investigation. It also connects to prior reporting on gain-of-function research and public statements downplaying alternative theories, including pieces examining the experiment that may have started the pandemic. The hearing underscores ongoing scrutiny of how federal agencies assessed and communicated the virus’s origins more than six years after the first cases emerged in Wuhan.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2054868440762978330?s=20 https://twitter.com/XFreeze/status/2054906460308672707?s=20 https://twitter.com/JoshHall2024/status/2054701571913453926?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle May 10 2026

May 102026
 
 May 10, 2026  Posted by at 9:32 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,  46 Responses »


Douglas Percy Bliss High Noon, Windley 1951


• US Reportedly Struck 4 Iranian Oil Tankers Entering The Strait (ZH)
• Qatari LNG Tanker Transits Hormuz As U.S. Awaits Iran’s Response (ZH)
• Iran Discloses Supreme Leader’s Status For First Time: Marginally Injured (ZH)
• World Must Hear Russia’s Warning To Zelensky, Understand Importance – MFA (TASS)
• Putin Rips NATO Aggression At Scaled-Down Victory Day Parade (ZH)
• Trump: Ceasefire Between Russia, Ukraine Could Be Extended (TASS)
• Starmer’s Labour Party ‘Wiped Out’ In UK Elections (RT)
• Germany’s AfD On Verge Of Absolute Majority In Eastern Saxony-Anhalt (ZH)
• From Market To Military: Germany’s Private Sector Is Imploding (RT)
• Trump Indicates US Could Move Troops From Germany to Poland (JTN)
• Federal Judge Sets Comey Criminal Trial For July 15 In North Carolina (JTN)
• Is Marco Rubio The New Heir Apparent To Trump? (ZH)
• John Fetterman: ‘I’d Be a Terrible Republican’ (Rick Moran)
• Gerrymander Debacle in Virginia Leaves Dems with a Dangerous Agenda (Turley)

 


 

https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/2052770921258143867?s=20 https://twitter.com/17QStorm/status/2053255626029961662?s=20

 


 


With my favorite photograph.

Key sentence:: “Iran Keeps US Waiting”.

• US Reportedly Struck 4 Iranian Oil Tankers Entering The Strait (ZH)

Multiple accounts across social media are reporting that four tankers were apparently struck or disabled by the U.S. forces near Iran’s Jask area. @EGYOSINT notes that satellite imagery shows one tanker on fire and extensive oil spills, including leaks from two tankers, with another spill detected about 7.4 kilometers from the anchorage site. @Merrux confirmed that US forces hit an Iranian oil tanker near the port city of Bandar Jask last night.


The vessel is currently on fire. It remains unclear if other tankers were also hit, though smoke is rising from them. The tanker is visibly ablaze, there has been no response from Iran. Presumably these are just more “love taps” and do not represent any threat to the so-called ‘ceasefire’.

Iran Keeps US Waiting On Formal Response To Peace Proposal
A state of relative calm prevailed around the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, after days of sporadic flareups, as the Trump administration continues to await a formal response from Tehran on a U.S. proposal aimed at ending the war and reopening the Hormuz chokepoint, following last week’s clashes between Iranian and U.S. naval forces in the world’s most critical waterway. As Times of Israel reports, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that Washington expected a response within hours and President Donald Trump later said it would likely be submitted “tonight.”

But a day later, there was no sign of movement from Iran on the proposal, which would formally end the war before talks on more contentious issues, including the Iranian nuclear program. With US President Donald Trump due to begin a long-awaited visit to China next week, there has been mounting pressure to draw a line under the conflict, which has thrown energy markets into turmoil and posed a growing threat to the world economy. As Tehran kept Washington waiting for its response after saying Friday it was not paying attention to “deadlines,” the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called into question the reliability of the US leadership in a call with his Turkish counterpart.

“The recent escalation of tensions by American forces in the Persian Gulf and their numerous actions in violating the ceasefire have added to suspicions about the motivation and seriousness of the American side in the path of diplomacy,” he said, according to an Iranian account of the call published by the ISNA news agency. While there were no official signs of a breakthrough in negotiations as of early Saturday morning, new ship data from the Hormuz area may suggest that positive developments are ahead.

Read more …

It’s getting busy.

• Qatari LNG Tanker Transits Hormuz As U.S. Awaits Iran’s Response (ZH)

The Trump administration continues to await a formal response from Tehran on a U.S. proposal aimed at ending the war and reopening the Hormuz chokepoint, following last week’s clashes between Iranian and U.S. naval forces in the world’s most critical waterway. While there were no official signs of a breakthrough in negotiations as of early Saturday morning, new ship data from the Hormuz area may suggest that positive developments are ahead. https://twitter.com/SStapczynski/status/2053100985346925013?s=20


The tanker is fully loaded with LNG and is currently transiting the Hormuz chokepoint. We must point out that the ship did not sail through the Hormuz Island route. There is no word on whether Iran charged the vessel a transit fee, but Tehran allows ships from “friendly” nations, primarily China, India, and the UAE, to pass. On Friday, UBS energy analyst Anna Kishmariya told clients that shipping flows through the Hormuz chokepoint remain very restricted and that the global oil market is getting tighter. There is certainly urgency among the Trump administration and other nations to unfreeze Hormuz, as oil market insiders see a roughly one-month countdown to global energy chaos if the waterway remains blocked through this month.

Latest overnight headlines, courtesy of Bloomberg:

Ceasefire and Diplomatic Efforts

• The US is waiting for Iran’s response to Trump’s latest proposal to end the war, which suggests Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz while the US ends its blockade of Iranian ports over the next month

• Tehran’s response to the US proposal is “under review,” according to Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei

• Trump has changed his approach to prioritize reopening the Strait of Hormuz at all costs while leaving nuclear and ballistic missile negotiations for later

Recent Military Clashes

• The US struck Iranian military targets on Thursday after Iran fired multiple missiles, drones and small boats at three US Navy destroyers in the Strait of Hormuz, with no US assets hit

• US forces targeted missile and drone launch sites and other military assets in Iran that were responsible for attacking the US warships

• The US “disabled” two unladen Iranian-flagged oil tankers, according to US officials

• Iran seized the tanker Ocean Koi in the Gulf of Oman, which appeared to be carrying Iranian oil

Hormuz

• The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed to commercial shipping since Tuesday following the US-Iran clashes

• A Qatari LNG tanker, Al Kharaitiyat, is attempting to transit the strait, which would mark Qatar’s first export from the region since the war began

• Saudi Aramco and UAE’s Adnoc have managed to move some crude cargoes through the strait despite Iran’s effective closure of the waterway

Impacts

• The world has burned through oil inventories at record speed as the Iran war throttles flows from the Persian Gulf, eating into buffers that protect against supply shocks

• Chinese energy imports fell sharply in April, with crude cargoes dropping about 20% year-on-year to 38.47 million tons and gas falling about 13% to 8.42 million tons

• Global food prices climbed to their highest level in more than three years as the Iran war disrupted supply chains, with the UN food-commodity index gaining 1.6% in April

• Iran’s record internet blackout is taking a heavy toll on private businesses, with warnings it could lead to mass layoffs and closures

International Response

• The US imposed sanctions on three Chinese firms for providing satellite imagery to Iran, enabling its military strikes on American forces in the Middle East

• The UK will deploy HMS Dragon warship to the Middle East as part of planning for a European-led mission to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz once there’s a stable ceasefire

• Iran is ramping up trade with China via rail to bypass the US blockade, with cargo trains from Xi’an to Tehran increasing from one per week to one every three or four days

Read more …

Just refuse to address him until he shows himself. Anyone can claim to be him in a letter.

• Iran Discloses Supreme Leader’s Status For First Time: Marginally Injured (ZH)

The Iranian government has for the first time officially weighed in on the health of new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who was injured in the opening strikes of Trump’s Operation Epic Fury, which killed the younger Khamenei’s father and wife. “A government official claimed Khamenei, who hasn’t been seen in public since that attack, is now in good health,” The Wall Street Journal writes Saturday. He hasn’t been seen in public since the war began, and even official statements have been read aloud on state media broadcasts. There have since been conflict reports. However, according to the latest:


Yet the chief of protocol for the supreme leader’s office, Mozaher Hosseini, said on Friday that Khamenei is in “complete health,” stressing that he has only been “marginally injured” on his foot and lower back and hit by “a small piece of shrapnel had hit him behind the ear.” “The enemy is spreading all kinds of rumors and false claims. They want to see him and find him, but people should be patient and not rush. He will speak to you when the time is right,” Hosseini told a crowd in Tehran.

Prior international reports suggested he was being treated for severe burns and that he could undergo surgery, and resorts to communicating commands to lower officials via low-tech means, including written and hand delivered messages, in order to avoid Israeli or US intelligence intercepting signals related to his whereabouts. Regional and Gulf media have also summarized of the latest official Iranian description of the Ayatollah’s health, that “there were no indications of a serious deterioration in his condition.”

And, “According to Iranian media reports, the official stated that medical examinations confirmed Mojtaba Khamenei’s condition was completely stable. He added that the injury did not require complex surgery. Furthermore, he is undergoing only routine medical monitoring to ensure his well-being.” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian revealed on Thursday that he for the first time recently held a meeting with Mojtaba Khamenei, at an undisclosed location, and that the encounter was a long and productive one. State media said it was two-and-a-half hours.

“What stood out more than any other topic in the meeting was the way of dealing, the type of outlook, and the humble and deeply friendly manner of conduct by the leader of the revolution,” Pezeshkian described. He characterized the new Ayatollah’s approach as “a model based on taking responsibility, being close to the people, and truly listening to issues and problems.” Western officials and intelligence have all the while been seeking to assess just who is ultimately in charge of running the country. There have been reports of a growing split between the IRGC military apparatus and the Islamic Republic’s civilian leadership. However, none of these reports are confirmable, but it’s largely only guesswork by those far outside the country.

Read more …

Zelensky represents nazis. Victory Day commemorates the last time Russia defeated Nazis.

• World Must Hear Russia’s Warning To Zelensky, Understand Importance – MFA (TASS)

The entire world must hear Russia’s warning to Zelensky, who is threatening the Victory Day parade, and recognize the importance of the moment, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview with TASS arranged to coincide with the 81st anniversary of Victory Day.


“This (warning – TASS) was done because we understood that the collective West, this collective Western minority, is doing everything possible to once again avoid seeing the misanthropic logic and not hear the absolutely extremist, terrorist threats from Zelensky, to once again provide him with political support, to put him on the front pages in terms of information and, of course, to provide him with weapons, money, and so on. And precisely so that they would wake up and understand the seriousness of the situation, a set of appropriate measures was taken, which then had this kind of information support: clear, understandable, and, I emphasize again, responsive,” she said.

The Russian Defense Ministry declared a ceasefire for May 8-9 in honor of celebrations of the 81st anniversary of the Soviet Union’s Victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War. The ministry stated that Russia expects the Ukrainian side to follow suit. However, if the Kiev regime attempts to attack Moscow on May 9 to disrupt the celebrations, Russian troops will launch a massive retaliatory strike against central Kiev. These are not mere statements, Zakharova noted. “This is a clear warning about retaliatory steps that will be taken if Zelensky’s monstrous threats, which he voiced in Yerevan, are carried out in practice. And all of this is not just relevant,” she said.

The Russian side has warned all states and international organizations through their embassies and missions in Moscow, as well as Russian diplomatic missions in foreign countries and at international organizations, that “this is not just a matter of urgency, but that they must take concrete steps in this direction,” the diplomat stressed. These measures are a response to “the aggression that Zelensky has declared as a threat,” she added.Zakharova said earlier that Russia views Zelensky’s threat to stage a drone attack on Moscow during the upcoming Victory Day celebrations as the Kiev regime’s intent to carry out a terrorist act.

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Many if not most Russians understand that their army cannot just go kill Ukrainians.p>

• Putin Rips NATO Aggression At Scaled-Down Victory Day Parade (ZH)

By many accounts Russia’s Saturday Victory Day parade and memorial observances in Moscow’s Red Square were once again muted and somewhat scaled down compared to the immense pageantry which marked the pre-Ukraine war years. President Putin used the occasion while speaking in front of thousands of military personnel and flanked by a handful of world leaders to take swipes at NATO and the West, saying he’s fighting “just” war and called Ukraine an “aggressive force” that is being “armed and supported by the whole bloc of NATO”.


“The great feat of the generation of victors inspires the soldiers carrying out the goals of the special military operation today,” Putin said. “They are confronting an aggressive force armed and supported by the entire NATO bloc. And despite this, our heroes move forward.” He added: “I firmly believe that our cause is just.” The three-day Ukraine ceasefire announced and backed by President Trump appears to be holding, as no drone attacks have been registered on Moscow or other parts of the country. Large-scale drone waves were coming on a daily basis throughout last week. Massive bombardment of Ukraine has also ceased. Ukraine’s Zelensky had reportedly ordered his armed forces to adhere to the short ceasefire:

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree on Friday (May 8) ordering the Ukrainian military not to attack the parade. He also confirmed that his government would adhere to the ceasefire and the prisoner swap of 1,000 detainees from each side. n”Red Square is less important to us than the lives of Ukrainian prisoners who can be returned home,” Zelensky said, referring to the historic site in Moscow where the annual event is held.

The Kremlin has over the past days repeatedly warned that Kiev would come under immense bombing if the parade did get attacked, and went so far as to tell foreign diplomats they should evacuate the Ukrainian capital in such a scenario. Among the foreign leaders that attended Saturday V-Day included Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith, Malaysia Supreme Leader Sultan Ibrahim, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev. The NY Times (and a lot of other Western media outlets) is reading all of this as a ‘loss’ and reputational hit for Putin, again given the scaled-down and lower key nature of everything.

“President Vladimir V. Putin has cultivated the annual Victory Day parade commemorating the Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany into a cornerstone of Russian patriotic ritual,” NYT wrote. “Tanks and nuclear launchers roll across Red Square in a showcase of military prowess and righteous pride that the Kremlin has used to justify the country’s great-power posture toward the West.”But then the report underscores that “Moscow is under a heavy security presence as Ukraine rattles Russia with long-range drone and missile strikes. The Russian authorities have appeared exposed as they acknowledged that the beefed-up security was intended to protect Mr. Putin.”

It further highlighted: “The parade on Saturday included none of the usual muscle-flexing missiles and armor. Personnel from Russian military academies and other servicemen made their way through Russia’s most famous square.”

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But Zelensky’s Kiev mob needs weapons payments to skim off of.

• Trump: Ceasefire Between Russia, Ukraine Could Be Extended (TASS)

The US leader Donald Trump admitted that the ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine could be extended. “I’d love to see that war end,” he told reporters on the South Lawn in front of the White House.Trump added that he “would like to see a big extension” of ceasefire. As has been decided by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Moscow declared a ceasefire from May 8 to 10 during the celebrations of the 81st anniversary of the Soviet Union’s Victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War.


On Friday, it was announced that telephone contacts between Russia and the United States, as well as Washington’s interactions with Kiev, had resulted in agreements on a ceasefire for May 9-11. The Russian Defense Ministry has reported a complete cessation of hostilities by Russian troops in the area of the special military operation as of midnight on May 8. The Ukrainian army continued to strike Russian military positions and civilian targets.

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“Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has hailed the results as “a complete reshaping of British politics”

• Starmer’s Labour Party ‘Wiped Out’ In UK Elections (RT)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has been decimated in parliamentary elections in Scotland and Wales, as well as local elections in England. However, Starmer is refusing calls to resign. Labour was the biggest loser in Thursday’s elections. As results came in on Friday, Starmer’s party had lost more than 1,300 local council seats in England, around five seats in the Scottish Parliament, and 21 seats in the Welsh Senedd, as of 11 PM local time.

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2052921709930365100?s=20


While full results are not expected until Saturday, Starmer has already admitted that “when voters send a message like this, we must reflect and we must respond.” However, although the PM has been urged to resign by some within his own party, including Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, he has dismissed the idea, stating that he is not “going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos.”Some 5,066 out of 16,000 local council seats in England and all 129 and 96 seats in the Scottish and Welsh legislatures were up for grabs on Thursday. Labour went into the election holding 5,873 local seats, but looks set to emerge with closer to 4,000.

For the first time this century, Labour will lose control of Wales, with First Minister Eluned Morgan losing her seat and the Plaid Cymru and Reform dominating the Senedd. Labour’s loss has not been the Conservative Party’s win. While power has typically swung back and forth between both parties for more than 100 years, the Tories are on track to lose 550 council seats, plus 16 seats in Scotland and 9 in Wales.

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK was the big winner in England, picking up more than 1,200 local council seats. In some constituencies, Reform’s gains have come almost entirely at the Conservatives’ expense. Reform picked up 37 seats in Suffolk, where the Tories lost 36. Farage has spent years hammering successive Tory governments over their failure to reduce immigration and lower the cost of living, and as such has drawn the votes of dissatisfied right-wingers who once backed the Tories.

“It’s a big, big day, not just for our party, but for a complete reshaping of British politics in every way,” Farage told reporters, adding that Labour had been “wiped out.”Zack Polanski’s Green Party has also drawn votes from former Labour supporters abandoning Starmer’s party over the prime minister’s austerity policies and support for Israel. “I said that the Green Party was going to replace Labour,” Polanski told reporters, “and we’re seeing that right across the country. The new politics is the Green Party vs. Reform.” As of Friday evening, Polanski’s Greens had picked up 363 seats in England, five in Scotland, and two in Wales.

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Can they still try to ban AfD? Do they?

• Germany’s AfD On Verge Of Absolute Majority In Eastern Saxony-Anhalt (ZH)

With just one more point on election day, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) is closing in on producing a political earthquake. According to a recent poll by Infratest dimap, the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt is pushing its lead even further, now at 41 percent. The poll also shows that for the CDU, establishing a government is becoming more difficult, especially since any realistic option besides the AfD appears to be a minority government. There are just four months until election day, and much could change until then, but the AfD appears to be only gaining momentum, not only in the state, but also nationwide, where it just hit a record of 28 percent in the latest Insa survey. In the “Sachsen-AnhaltTREND” survey, which was conducted by Infratest dimap on behalf of the Magdeburger Volksstimme, the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, and Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, the AfD hit 41 percent. Meanwhile, its closest rival, the CDU, lost 1 percentage point compared to the previous week and sits at 26 percent. Compared to an Infratest poll from last September, the AfD has increased its support by 2 percentage points. Following the CDU are Die Linke at 12 percent and the SPD at 7 percent. https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/1988598925142499805?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1988598925142499805%7Ctwgr%5Ec1c41d11f941f7151318f62f1c7c460144d4d515%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fgermanys-afd-verge-absolute-majority-eastern-saxony-anhalt-just-months-election Both the Greens and the BSW are polling at 4 percent. These two parties, along with the FDP, would currently fail to enter the state parliament. The FDP, a current member of the state government with the CDU and SPD, was not listed individually in the results because of its low figures. All other parties combined represent 6 percent of the total. If all the current values of the other parties held, then just one point more for the AfD would allow the party to rule with an absolute majority. However, if other parties, such as the Greens, were to pass the 5 percent threshold on election day, this would complicate the math for the AfD. In addition, a majority of respondents are unhappy with the state government, with 62 percent stating they are only slightly or not at all satisfied. Only 33 percent expressed that they are very satisfied or satisfied with the government’s performance. Furthermore, 82 percent of people have little to no confidence that the state is generally fulfilling its duties, and the same number, 82 percent, assess the current economic situation as “less than good” or “poor.” Only 14 percent rate the economy as “very good” or “good.”
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“Public spending is coming to the rescue for an economy that is facing severe structural problems..”

Merkel has destroyed the economy so badly it now looks like the East-German economy she comes from: all is State.

• From Market To Military: Germany’s Private Sector Is Imploding (RT)

After two years of recession, it seemed that Germany’s economy had stabilized in 2025 and was even inching in the direction of a return to growth. Sure, nobody was sounding the trumpets of a full-fledged recovery, but it seemed the worst had passed. That was, admittedly, before the US-Israeli war on Iran muddied those waters. But even apart from this black swan event, what has really been going on in the German economy deserves a closer look. After all, there are different ways of generating GDP growth and not all of them have the same deeper implications.


In Germany’s case, it turns out the nascent recovery was almost entirely fueled by state spending while the private sector is in virtual free-fall. This, incidentally, goes some way toward explaining the ongoing rearmament in Germany in response to the supposed threat from Russia – a threat that very conveniently is breathing new life into unsustainable industry. This is no less than military Keynesianism, a phenomenon few expected to see in Germany. And it is being tasked to address several major structural shifts at once.


2025 marked an inflection point
The German economy broke a two-year recession, growing by 0.2% in 2025, following a 0.5% contraction in 2024. However, the growth was driven in large part by government spending. There was a late-year pickup in industrial and construction output – also government-driven – while exports continued to lag.Public spending, however, rose 5.6% in 2025 and now represents more than 50% of GDP. This number itself isn’t particularly eye-popping in a European context. Several EU countries have higher ratios.

But Germany has historically been more fiscally conservative with an economy much more oriented toward private industry and exports. Helmut Kohl, German chancellor in the 1980s and ‘90s, once called a spending ratio above 50% socialism. This is a threshold beyond which Germany would be seen as having adopted a different economic model. That different economic model is now here. But think about it from this angle: What happens when you boost public spending by over 5% and still can only barely eke out any economic growth? It means the private sector is crumbling.

Digging into the data
A widening split has opened in Germany’s economy since 2022, dividing industries more exposed to market forces from those being backstopped by public spending. Traditional sectors – especially the automotive and chemical industries – have struggled with high energy costs and global competition. This has been reflected in the share prices, which have been very sluggish, with Porsche leading the way among the declines.

The weakness is also visible in underlying demand, with domestic orders broadly declining, although amid volatility, since 2022. Last year saw periodic spikes driven by large contracts – almost certainly state-driven – whereas underlying demand remained weak. Exports were weak, so was private investment. Capital goods orders, a key gauge of private-sector investment, have been falling, pointing to continued contraction in market-driven industrial activity.


At the same time, defense contractors and state-backed industrial firms have surged on the back of government spending. Rheinmetall shares have rocketed more than 1,000% since early 2022, with its market cap rising from about €4 billion to roughly €67 billion. Hensoldt and Renk have also posted strong gains, while even adjacent players such as Infineon have nearly doubled in value. Construction and industrial groups tied to public projects – including Hochtief, Heidelberg Materials, and Bilfinger – have also rallied sharply, in some cases climbing several-fold from 2022 lows.

This has all come while the economy has been in recession and the manufacturing sector has been hemorrhaging jobs. What this points to is that Germany’s headline market gains are masking a lack of real recovery. While the country’s stock market, the DAX, has risen strongly, most of the growth is concentrated in a narrow, state-backed segment.

The contrast reflects very different operating conditions. Automakers and chemical firms compete in open global markets, where rising energy and labor costs erode competitiveness and push production to cheaper regions. Consumers can choose from many options. Defense contractors, by contrast, operate largely outside these pressures, relying on government-funded demand. Arms deals are driven by political and strategic decisions rather than market pricing, meaning input costs such as energy matter far less.

Rising costs have made large parts of Germany’s traditional industrial base less competitive. The response of the German state to that has been to shift toward sectors insulated from the market. Industry is not recovering in a conventional sense, but being redirected to where demand is state-driven rather than market-driven. This shift is already reshaping Germany’s manufacturing base. According to the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), about 17% of industrial firms are now tied to the defense supply chain, with involvement particularly high in vehicle manufacturing at 36%. Some struggling auto plants are being repurposed for military production.

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Just bring ’em home. Russia will not attack unless we attack first.

• Trump Indicates US Could Move Troops From Germany to Poland (JTN)

President Donald Trump said Friday night that the United States military could decide to relocate the troops that are currently stationed in Germany and move them to Poland. The president touted his friendship with the country’s leader, President Karol Nawrocki, who assumed office last year. The Pentagon previously indicated that the U.S. would move 5,000 troops from Germany in the next six to 12 months. Well, Poland would like that,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We have a great relationship with Poland. I have a great relationship with the president. I endorsed him, and he won.


He came from way behind, and he won. He’s a great fighter, he’s a great guy. I like him a lot, so that’s possible. Germany is currently home to the largest U.S. military presence in Europe, with more than 35,000 troops currently stationed in the country, and is also viewed as crucial to the U.S.’s presence on the continent. The United Kingdom and Italy also host over 10,000 U.S. troops each. Poland currently hosts 369 permanently assigned active-duty service members and about 10,000 personnel of rotational force, according to Reuters.

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If his defence really is that he didn’t know what “86-47” means, he’s toast. But…

• Federal Judge Sets Comey Criminal Trial For July 15 In North Carolina (JTN)

A federal judge Friday scheduled former FBI Director James Comey’s upcoming criminal trial for July 15 at her court in North Carolina, after a grand jury in the state indicted him on two criminal charges. The decision comes a day after the same judge agreed to cancel Comey’s first court appearance in the state, because he had already surrendered himself to authorities and appeared in a Virginia court for the same case. His appearance was scheduled for Monday. Comey was indicted by a grand jury in North Carolina last month for posting a photo of shells on a beach last year with the inscription “86-47” that prosecutors alleged was a threat against the president.


U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan, who will oversee the trial, instructed Comey’s legal team to file all of its pretrial motions by June 5 and said Comey can make his first official appearance in her court to enter his plea on June 30. Comey’s team is expected to frame the case as a retribution campaign and will seek to toss the new indictment as selective and vindictive prosecution, according to The Hill. The former director has been officially charged with making a threat against the president and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

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2 years to go. Is the US ready for a Latino president?

• Is Marco Rubio The New Heir Apparent To Trump? (ZH)

For months, the conventional wisdom inside Republican circles has been settled and simple: JD Vance is next. The vice president has led 2028 Republican presidential nomination polling by a country mile, averaging nearly 45.5 points in the RealClearPolitics aggregate — more than 30 points ahead of Donald Trump Jr. at 14.8% and Marco Rubio at 14%. And yet, something shifted this week. One press briefing, and the betting markets started hedging.


Rubio stepped in as White House press secretary on Tuesday, covering for Karoline Leavitt while she’s on maternity leave, and delivered what even the skeptics had to acknowledge was a polished, commanding performance. He defended the war in Iran before a press corps not exactly known for its generosity toward administration officials — and walked away with his standing improved. The room, by most accounts, was notably less adversarial than it tends to be when Leavitt or Trump takes the podium. Rubio was fluid and measured, giving the journalists little to sharpen their teeth on. Washington noticed, and Kalshi, one of the leading prediction markets, noticed too.

By Tuesday, Rubio had leapfrogged Vance to become the overall favorite to win the 2028 presidential election, coming in at 18% to Vance’s 17%. Gov. Gavin Newsom sits just behind at 16% – a reminder that the Democrats haven’t entirely vacated the field in the markets’ eyes. For Rubio, the jump is particularly striking given that he was sitting in the single digits on Kalshi earlier this year. Polymarket still has Vance in front overall – 19.6% to Newsom’s 16.7% and Rubio’s 15%. On the GOP nomination question specifically, Vance retains a meaningful edge on Polymarket (though Rubio’s odds are rising). Primary voters and general-election bettors, it turns out, are pricing these things very differently.

None of this, of course, happens in a vacuum. Trump himself has been notably careful — or deliberately noncommittal — about who carries the MAGA torch after January 2029. Weeks into his second term, Trump sat down with Fox News’s Bret Baier and declined to designate Vance as his heir apparent, saying simply that it was too early for such an endorsement. For a president who has never been shy about anointing winners and losers, that hesitation was conspicuous to say the least. He left the door ajar, and markets being markets, traders are now watching to see who walks through it.

Vance remains the favorite by most conventional metrics. His polling advantage is enormous, and he’s been the heir apparent since joining the Trump ticket in 2024. But Rubio’s trajectory is definitely worth watching to see if his stock goes higher or merely plateaus. His rise from the low single digits to within striking distance of Vance on Kalshi over just a few months could be a one-off or the opening act of a longer repositioning. For now, Vance’s commanding polling lead offers the most grounded picture of where Republican voters actually stand. But, prediction markets have a knack for capturing things polls don’t. And it will likely take some time to determine if Rubio’s rise will stick.

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“I’m sure Fetterman will find a way to anger Republicans, if only to reestablish his bona fides as a blue-collar Democrat.”

• John Fetterman: ‘I’d Be a Terrible Republican’ (Rick Moran)

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman is the quintessential iconoclast. He’s a disruptor of the first order, a thorn in the side of Democrats, and the media’s go-to guy if it wants a juicy quote from a Democrat who’s likely to say something bad about his own party. But Fetterman is no Republican. He made that very clear in an op-ed he wrote for the Washington Post, published Thursday. Talking about his first race for political office in 2008, the mayor of his dying steel town of Braddock, Penn., Fetterman wrote that it “wasn’t about being a Democrat or Republican, but about making sure places such as Braddock received the benefits, focus, and investments they deserved for their contributions to this great country.”


Fetterman has sought to maintain that political identity ever since.I’d say he was an “old-fashioned” politician, looking to work with the other party to achieve mutually beneficial goals, but it wasn’t that long ago that the sort of bipartisanship Fetterman ascribes to was the dominant political identity of members of both parties.Today, the base of both parties sees that sort of bipartisanship as weak and even traitorous. This has made Fetterman a lonely figure, as much of his own party shuns him. Democrats in Pennsylvania give Fetterman a 22% approval rating, while Republicans embrace him, with 73% approving of the job he’s doing.

What Democrats object to most of all is that Fetterman doesn’t hate Donald Trump. He opposes Trump on most issues, but the visceral, hysterical hate that Democrats feel toward Trump is missing from Fetterman’s rhetoric.On some issues, he supports the president, which drives the radical left nuts. He has been a strong supporter of Trump’s policy toward Israel and Iran, and he has backed Trump’s border crackdown.My party cannot simply be the opposite of whatever President Donald Trump says. The president could come out for ice cream and lazy Sundays, and my party would suddenly hate them. Such pointless pile-ons and attacks are unproductive. The American people want us to work together to find solutions on issues they and our country face.

It wasn’t long ago when Democrats wanted a secure border. I voted on an immigration bill in 2024 to make sure an influx the size of Pittsburgh doesn’t come through the border like it did under the previous administration. I have co-sponsored legislation to stop the flow of fentanyl. I was the lead Democrat on the Laken Riley Act, and I strongly believe that someone who comes here illegally and commits a violent crime should be deported. Full stop. This support for some of Trump’s agenda has Republicans eying Fetterman for a party switch. It’s not going to happen.

Fetterman is not the vindictive type, and even if Democrats boot him off committees and support someone more radical in the primary (he’s up for reelection in 2028), he will remain a Democrat. “I remain strongly pro-choice, pro-weed, pro-LGBT, pro-SNAP, pro-labor and even pro-rib-eye over bio slop,” he wrote. None of that except preferring rib-eye sounds very “Republican” to me. Fetterman explains: “Being an independent voice that works with the other side to deliver for Pennsylvanians might put me at odds with the party that I have stayed committed to and have no plans to leave — but I will continue to put the commonwealth and the country first,” he said.

He added, “Plus, I’d be a terrible Republican who still votes overwhelmingly with Democrats.” Heritage Action, the political arm of the Heritage Foundation, gives Fetterman a 0% score for the 119th Congress, indicating that from a staunchly conservative perspective, his voting record is still overwhelmingly aligned with the Democratic caucus. Fetterman says he “has no plans to leave” the Democratic Party. Some commentators, such as Aaron Blake of Politico, point out that plans can change. The first thing to note is that while some have cast this as Fetterman rejecting a party switch, he didn’t fully rule it out.

Yes, it’s significant that he even felt pressured enough to write this op-ed downplaying the prospect, and Democrats should be heartened that he did. But “no plans” is not the same as “no chance,” and politicians often use the former phrasing to keep their options open. If things were to change, Fetterman — who’s not facing reelection until 2028 — could say he truthfully wasn’t planning on switching parties, but that his plans changed because of XYZ. I’m sure Fetterman will find a way to anger Republicans, if only to reestablish his bona fides as a blue-collar Democrat. But he remains one of the more colorful politicians in a city full of black, white, and gray.

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We’ll hear a lot about this, rest assured.

• Gerrymander Debacle in Virginia Leaves Dems with a Dangerous Agenda (Turley)

“Eff around and find out”: That taunt from Hakeem Jeffries celebrating Virginia’s gerrymander did not age well. On Friday, the House minority leader found out that Virginia’s Supreme Court was not quite as gleeful as he about Democrats’ attempt to virtually eliminate Republican representation in the purple state. The court just cooked the party’s infamous lobster, a district over 100 miles long that was designed to help devour the GOP’s slender majority in the House of Representatives.mIt also cooked the ambitions of Gov. Abigail Spanberger and the Democratic establishment, which tossed aside any pretense of principle in a raw political gambit.


The resulting faceplant is nothing short of legendary: Spanberger’s Democrats have succeeded in alienating half of the state. For the governor, the court’s decision was particularly embarrassing. Before assuming power, Spanberger denounced gerrymandering as “detrimental to our democracy and weakens the individual voices that form our electorates.”She ran as a moderate, but Spanberger immediately turned sharply left once in office and called for the most extreme gerrymander in the nation. The court found that effort was not only unconstitutional, but “wholly unprecedented in Virginia’s history.” It characterized the state’s position as “a story of the tail wagging the dog that has no tail.”

While some of us had previously expressed skepticism over the rushed effort to circumvent the state constitution, the media almost exclusively relied on liberal experts who predicted the new districts would be upheld. It was a calculated risk for Democrats, who have now burned their bridges with Virginia conservative and Republican voters. As Winston Churchill said, “Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.” Exhilarating and unforgettable: In a purple state where politicians often require crossover votes to prevail, the redistricting push was not just partisan but personal for voters. National Democrats will soon “find out” whether Jeffries was right to prematurely celebrate a victory that seemed to secure his anticipated elevation to Speaker of the House.

The party is facing a potentially catastrophic reversal of fortune. When Democrats declared a gerrymandering war, some of us warned that the party, with its already heavily gerrymandered blue states, had far more to lose than the GOP did. It was particularly comical when Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey pledged to join the redistricting fray, even though her state is so badly gerrymandered that it’s elected zero Republicans to the House since the 1990s. Virginia, a state long opposed to gerrymandering, has been considered the fairest state in the country, with a distribution of congressional seats that closely matches its partisan divide.

Once Spanberger sought to eradicate Republican representation, total war broke out — and now red states like Florida and Tennessee have moved forward with their own redistricting. On top of the fact that GOP states have more room for partisan gerrymandering, the Virginia Supreme Court decision comes on the heels of the US Supreme Court’s ban on racial gerrymandering. That means a dozen or more Democratic districts could now be deemed unconstitutional — and Louisiana and Mississippi are moving to redistrict in line with the Supreme Court’s decision. The result could be a dramatic shift in districts favoring the GOP.

To make matters worse for the Democratic Party, a new census in 2030 will correct the mistakes that erroneously awarded them multiple districts after the 2020 census. Those corrections, and the ongoing exodus from high-tax blue states to booming red ones, could translate into even more congressional gains for the GOP. That prospect of a political apocalypse has Democratic strategists pushing for radical changes in Washington before it’s too late. Top priority: packing the Supreme Court as soon as they retake power. As Virginia has shown, an independent court can unravel the best-laid plans.

Democratic politicians, pundits and professors have been openly pushing for expanding the high court to 13 members with four new liberal additions, in order to rubber-stamp the radical changes needed to keep the party in power. James Carville recently told Democratic politicians that they have no choice but to pack the court, declaring “F–k it . . . Just do it.” He suggested, however, that they might not want to tell the voters.

“Don’t run on it. Don’t talk about it,” he said. “Just do it.” Last week, Jeffries declared the Supreme Court “illegitimate” as he blasted its ban on racial gerrymandering. After the Virginia court’s ruling, the frustrated Democratic establishment is ever more likely to echo him — and to go beyond. Many Democrats are now “all in” with this radical agenda. With the courts declaring their redistricting efforts unconstitutional, it is the constitutional system itself that will now have to go.

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https://twitter.com/jackprandelli/status/2053052668529058006?s=20 https://twitter.com/MichaelARothman/status/2053114983098282460?s=20

 

 

 

 

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